Call from the Voting Booth

 My younger son just called to ask for help deciding how to vote on three amendments to the state constitution.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"In the voting booth", he replied, rather nonchalantly.

"I don't think you're allowed to do this!"  I suddenly felt uneasy.

His response, "I don't care."

He proceeded to read each amendment to me twice. Why?  Because these friggin amendments, propositions etc are written and meant to be hard to understand.  I realized, while straining as he read sotto voce, how ridiculous it is to deal with this crap.  For years, voters have struggled to understand the purposely convoluted amendments and propositions that are barely understandable, let alone clearly defined.  Hell, I voted on them 3 weeks ago and did not recognize two out of the three.  

My sons drove their 85 year old grandma to the polls so she could vote.  They voted.  They took an interest, albeit at their father's and my strong influence.  But, so what?  My manicurist is in her mid thirties and she says she never votes because it "won't make any difference" and neither party cares about her.  How sad is that?

Former Governor Howard Dean is on MSNBC talking about voter harassment and suppression at certain polls in PA.  His cousin was pressured to show his I.D. to people acting as part of the polling process who had been previously legally enjoined by the court from doing this very thing.   I can't imagine what I'd say or do if someone were to confront me about my identification.

Then there's the 6,000,000 electronic voting machines in use around the country, some of which are owned by Tagg Romney.  No conflict of interest there!

Scary stuff.

Blacker Than Black?

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OMG, Stewart doesn't even need writers any more.  People like Trump & Coulter are writing it for him.

Things to Come

First 2012 Republican Presidential Debate
June 13th 2010 New Hampshire
(AP photo)

You didn't think I'd let the very first Presidential debate go by without some kind of commentary, didya?

Held in our very own little "First in the Nation State" of New Hampshire last night at St. Anselm's College, the debate was moderated by John King who is excellent at keeping the talky talkers on point.  He did not allow diarrhea of the mouth or refusal to answer the question asked.  He was awesome!

Mitt did a good job.  He didn't talk too much and looked the part which is what everyone says about him anyway.  The big surprise to me was Michelle Bachmann.  I heard Joe Scarborough repeat someone else's comment along the lines of "...someone got her off the crazy juice" because she sounded reasonable.

Newt is toast.  Not sure why he showed up.  SNL did a great spoof of him leaving the debate a few weekends back after the moderator asked him, "You don't really want to be here do you?"

No reason to comment on the rest of the herd.  They stayed away from criticizing one another and stuck to a repititve onslaught of  Obama bashing.  It became just so much rhetoric.  

I lasted 45 minutes then turned to a much more interesting HBO movie called "A Matter of Taste" about Chef Paul Liebrandt.

Now that was theatre!   

 

Metaphor for the Economy

Jon Stewart's writers produced an illustrative metaphor about the economy and ways to fix it.

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This goes well with my previous post.

MediScare Goes Viral

Joe Scarborough calls it "Mediscare". The Repubs say it's being "demagogued". The Agenda Project has a response.




While I'm not crazy about the extreme approach, it certainly is attention getting; kinda like those "death panel" rants Sarah Palin was giving a while back. 

Jimmy Fallon, on "Morning Joe" this morning has a different take. 

"Any time you get to throw a dummy off a cliff, that's good stuff."



Did Jon Stewart Move Zadroga Act Passage through Media Pressure?

My Dec 18th post referred to Jon Stewart's last show of the year, 12/16/10 when he invited  9/11 First Responders on as guests, conferring with them about their fatal illnesses brought on by exposure to  the hazardous materials they handled and air they breathed during the long aftermath. 

Stewart admonished the Republican side of the Senate for filibustering additional health care coverage to First Responders.  He was extremely critical of mass media for failing to cover it.  The next day, everybody was suddenly talking about the health care defeat for these brave men & women.  A week later, before adjourning for the holidays, the Senate passed the bill with a reduced cap, from $7 billion to $4 billion. 

Was Stewart the critical game changer?  I think so. 

For more insight to the role he played, go here.



 

Barbara Bush on Sarah Palin: Meow!

Now you've done it Sarah Palin!  You've pissed off the Old Guard.  Barbara Bush is on the warpath and you do NOT want that!  I'd rather face Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove than Barbara.  She is one scary broad and she has alot of conventional Republican women in her corner.  I know.  My mom was one of them.

Wonder if George H.W. encouraged her?

Why Am I Not Surprised?

artwork from LAist

Newt Gingrich's second wife, Marianne, has some provacative insights into a man I can only describe as "icky".

Her broadsides on their marriage land in the pages of the August issue of  Esquire and  confirm his extra-marital relationship with this now third wife was going on while he denounced Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair.  At the same time he was giving speeches extolling the virtues of "family values" and the like, he was wooing his third wife, a woman he asked to marry him before he'd  asked his second wife for a divorce.

She says she should have seen the red flags. "He asked me to marry him way too early. And he wasn't divorced yet. I should have known there was a problem."...

"I know. I asked him. He'd already asked her to marry him before he asked me for a divorce. Before he even asked."

What a guy.  When asked if he'll ever be president, she says "There's no way."  She goes on to say

"He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected," she says. "If you believe that, then yeah, you can run for president."

She wanted to save the marriage. 

She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. "'I can't handle a Jaguar right now.' He said that many times. 'All I want is a Chevrolet.'"

(Please God, make me a Jaguar)

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"


"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Did I say "icky"?  I think "HYPOCRITE", "NARCISSISTIC" AND "LYING SACK OF *!#!" are more appropos.

Back from Obscurity

photo credit: AP/Rex Features

After eight years of relative silence while acting as the presidential puppet master, Dick Cheney is suddenly front and center in attacks on the new administration. His topic is national security, using the closing of Guantanamo Bay as the focal point. Why?

For once I think the talking heads have it right: he's rallying the GOP. The GOP is a failed party...for now. They have lost the Executive and Legislative branches of the government. They'll probably lose dominance in the Judicial branch once new Supreme Court justices are chosen. They are fighting for their lives and nobody does it better or meaner than Dick Cheney. Who better to represent the arch conservative core? But don't let it fool you.

This is the guy who refused interviews for years. This is the guy who, when he did grant interviews, gave short answers that were typically in-your-face. He refuses to debate his actions. He is always right. His administration made the tough choices. They didn't break any laws. They didn't torture people. They only water boarded when it was absolutely necessary.

Well, you know the old saying:

"Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself." James A. Froude

The public needs to separate fact from fiction and take this for what it is, the first leg of a long road back from obscurity for the Republican party, led by the conservative right. Let's make sure it's a dead end.

The First 100 Days

Interesting set of events to mark the first 100 days of the Obama administration. This Arlen Specter defection to the Democratic party is something else. The pundits are all over it. I mean, when conservative talk show host, Joe Scarborough says he can't credit his party with much of anything for the past eight years except out of control spending and the deficit etc.,(Morning Joe 4/29/09) where are the Republicans going to turn?

Recent surveys show President Obama's likability quotient at 81%; his approval rating at 61%. This means whether or not people agree with his policies, they like the guy. Pundits say they haven't seen this kind of swing since Reagan. This gives President Obama an incredible leg up when it comes to making policy. Even more dramatic is the announcement by Republican Senator Arlen Specter that he is switching parties. He's gonna be a Democrat because the Republican party can no longer help him win in Pennsylvania. As former statistician turned political commentator Chuck Todd ruminated, the Republican party is about to become sequestered in the southeastern states. They have lost the Northeast, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic states. They would have lost Arizona during the presidential election except McCain is still standing. Once Al Franken is confirmed as the official winner of the Minnesota senate race, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate.

It's impossible to judge anyone the first 100 days. As for the Democratic party, now is when the real work begins. No more excuses about the Republicans holding them back. Dems have the obligation to make things happen. We need health care reform, financial reform, you name it, we need it.

Time to roll up our sleeves and "git 'er done" before the donkey party figures out a way to come back.