So, I went trick or treating last night… me, 43 years old, went trick or treating. No, I did not take my daughter, at 15 she says she’s too old for it. I just grabbed a pillow case, put on my Renne Faire costume and went door to door to collect the sweet bounty. Did you know that other adults don’t like to see well clad, over weight, cane assisted, 43 year old males? Yep… it was a surprise to me too.

But it was not all for nothing… when I X-rayed the booty I did take in I found 8 brand new razor blades, enough pins and needles for a sewing kit, and I swear I think I found a plutonium nuclear power rod, just what I needed to run my old Mattel hand held football game. So the night wasn’t a total waste… a bunch of candy coated presents to enjoy.

Speaking of presents; can we really say there is a present. If time is granular at about 10^-44 second intervals, do we even have the means to perceive the present, even with all the best equipment in the world? Thus there is no present, just the immediate past and the immediate future. And without the present, birthdays and holidays are a real drag.

Just a thought for you as you read this and realize that 90^44 (that’s 9,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 units to you and me) time slices have passed you by and you can never get them back. When you put it that way, time is either very precious or very cheap, depending on your world view.

Also, according to the the department of health, the average white male Nevadan’s life span is 71.26 years. That means we only get:

2,248,794,576,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
(2.248^54)

time slices in life. Life is short, isn’t it. 

Did I call it or did I call it? The hard right wing of the Republican Party wants to change the Vice Presidential Nominee from Sarah Palin to… well… anyone other than Sarah Palin. Seriously, she is good at delivering a line and reading from a script, or even memorizing lines for a debate, but she is not at all who you want in a spin room talking to reporters who may ask a question like, oh say… “Do you know ANY other Supreme Court decisions?” How about we give you a clue, “The State of Alaska versus The Exxon Corporation” that you just commented about a few months ago.

It is bad enough the Republicans have gone from issues to mud, but she is just an embarrassment and she was the first decision of a possible Republican President. I think that alone should have every voter out there running to the Democratic side of the ballot, but what do I know. I just can’t believe there are so many people out there still buying the rhetoric that Mrs. Palin and Mr. McCain are slinging.

I think it really got scary for me to day when in the audience of a Republican Campaign stop, with Sarah doing her doom and gloom bit, someone called out that Obama was a terrorist. The absurdity and ferocity of the shout out and agreement from the crowd should scare the living shit out of people. What are they (the Republicans) after, a lynch mob? But it did not stop there. Elsewhere on the road in a McCain crowd, when McCain asked what we should do about Obama, someone else yelled out “Kill him”. Again there were cheers of agreement.

I am truly scared for this country right now.

Maybe it is the strain of the economy that is leading people to cheer such violent suggestions, but you got to know talk like this will stick in some sicko’s mind and he (or she) will take it upon him/herself to be the right hand of God and the Republican Party. Seriously, I can see it happening. (Maybe I am sick.)

Do John McCain and Sarah Palin not understand the incredible power of their positions and that from that lofty perch they can make things happen? No, they did not call Obama a terrorist, and no they did not suggest killing him, but they between the rhetoric and NOT condemning the sediments, some may see it as a tacit affirmation of terrible action. They (McCain/Palin) will not be held responsible, it will be the fault of the deluded perpetrator, but there will always be the question of if they (McCain/Palin) didn’t egg it on to some extent.

Now of course the Republican Campaign is nothing but lies and smear with John McCain himself saying he endorses every one of the ads. I have to wonder if he really believes all the crap he is putting on the airways and if he is proud of his behavior. After all if was just this past April that he said he abhorred this type of campaigning, but here he is doing it. I find myself turning down the sound every time I see one of those commercials come on.

The one thing I can say if that the Democratic Party is not as bad in regards to negative advertising. Sure, they still have their moments of taking things out of context, but it just is not as slimy as what the Republican are putting out. Oddly enough I think I know the reason… naïveté. Barack is still kinda new to big politics and campaigns. While he understands it all from a mental standpoint he is of the opinion that he can succeed with a campaign that is not just another campaign. Since he hasn’t been taught that it is not correct campaigning he does it anyways, and for me that is ok. Why should we expect our candidates to campaign in the same manner as all that preceded? How do we know that his new approach to campaigning is not more correct for the times or for his personality. Certainly he is being successful so far… and more power to him.

All I know is that there are 27 days left until it is all over and we can all take a deep breath and relax until it starts again on January 21, 2009.

Something has to change though, the only people being kept in coin for all this are the pundits and spin doctors. Maybe we should pass a few laws…

So, what would I do to make the next campaign better? Well, let’s see…

First off I would force spin doctors only to talk about their candidate. Now if they want to slam their own candidate that is fine by me, it will be the last time we see the witless fool, but no talking about the other guy. Seriously, when you ask these guys anything about their guy, they can’t answer or change the subject. I truly love it when Chris Mathews corners one these guys till he has to answer and in the end he simply can’t because he hasn’t a clue… that’s fun but I would give it up in a heartbeat for straight forward spin that doesn’t stink of mud and slime.

Second would be to do something about campaign advertising. Once again we come into the territory of spin so the same rules apply. Ads should only highlight the virtues and accomplishments and plans and visions of the candidate. That should remove a lot of the stink from the campaigns.

Three: smear and trash talk can be limited to the stump speeches. Why? Will if you want to rile your base, go ahead, but we as viewers are not generally your base and for our sakes you can keep that talk to a live venue. The stuff that does make it on the news we can deal with, but if the spin doctors are tamed, and the ads are pacified I would bet the stump speeches will not be as bad either because then the speeches will be out of context with the rest of the message. Sure it may go over well in the Convention Speeches, but then again, those speeches are meant to be different anyway.

Four… Want to sling mud, fine, do it in press releases. However (and you knoew there had to be a however) all claims must be accompanied by the triple veried sources that can in turn be veried by independent journalist. If a press release does not conform or the information is deemed to be wrong or unverifiable there should be a fine… say $1000. For each success inaccuracy the fine is doubled. The fine can go to a charity of the opposing candidate’s choice. In the case of multiple candidates, it is split and funds distributed. Fines come from the candidate’s general fund.

Five: No government sponsored campaigning. All candidates must raise their own funds. I know that sounds unfair to the third party candidates, but if you are serious as a third party candidate you would have to eat into their (the Dems and Reps) base anyway, thus garnering their funds. See, it is fair after all. Basically I do not want to pay for supporting failed candidates and campaigns. I don’t want to pay for any of these leaches dinners, much less their beach houses. If they want the job, they need to do it on their own without my help. Personally I think these campaigns are a huge waste of time. I would love to see several televised debates, articles in the paper and web, and of course the old whistle stop tours would be good. As long as we are not spending money on something that does not pay for itself. I do not see the value gained by having huge campaigns, not in a land that has information so freely available.

So there you have it… 5 suggestions to make our lives less stressful and more successful. You think they will do any of them?

I am stunned, truly. Until it happened and I realized that he was gone, I never thought of a world with without him. In my life, one in which the movies are an important aspect being the way that my grandfather an I explored the world, I have never known a time where Paul Newman was not a part. His roles and personality were greatly admired my myself and my grandfather. I am truly stunned.

Joanne, my thought and condolences are with you and all the fans that have lost a friend today, even if we were never blessed to meet him in person.

I am warning anyone reading this right now, this could be a long post. I am watching MSNBC (I know, that’s a mistake right there) and I am watching all the political spin amidst the Wall Street Meltdown reports, and there are things and people and all sorts of crap getting under my skin… time to scratch it.

Spin Doctors
I want to see the spin mavens come on and talk about their candidates, and only their candidates. I would love to hear them extol the virtues of their guys and ignore the crap about the other guy. How refreshing it would be if you could go even one conversation without hearing “but that son of a bitch other guy,” add whatever topic you want in the most horrid light you can think of. I will say that the Obama people seem to not be playing the game as much as the McCain surrogates, but they both play this game and it is annoying.

Worst of all is when the moderator locks in on a Spin Man (or Woman) and they simply do not know the answer to a question and just go on to spew talking points and vitriol at their appointed opponent. It can get humorous when, say, Chris Mathews is the interviewer and he gets into bulldog mode and refuses to continue on till the campaign rep answers his questions. I love that. I just wish more moderators would grow a couple and not allow the negative spin on their shows.

On the other hand, I am not at all upset about when a candidate rep lies about their own candidate. These fun gaffs make the elections fun in a sort of “what kind of stupid are you?” sort of way. I think it is great that John McCain invented the Blackberry. At least now Al Gore can die knowing someone said a bigger boner than him.

Lies, More Lies, and Damned Lies
Is it possible to have an interview or such without someone saying a lie about something? I mean really, how stupid do these people think the viewers of these continuous talk shows are? If the lies were subtle, if they were based on some sort of reality, or if they only had a shred of truth embedded in them maybe I could buy it… sort of. Really, you all insult my intelligence and the intelligence of most of the people watching you. And you how that make you look? STUPID.

Exaggerations are lies. Sure, they are lies like the last fish I caught was a 120 pound guppy, but they are lies. Want an example? McCain saying Obama is going to raise taxes on the middle class. How often are we hearing that one? I don’t know, but yesterday I hear it a grand total of 17 times. I know because every time I heard it I put a hash mark in a little note book I carry. And since when is the middle class 250k a year? I though it was like $20k to about $100k. Maybe I am wrong, maybe the numbers are EXAGERATED.

The worst of the lot (this is like the third worst or something, but truly the baddest of the bad) are the outright lies. For the last time… Obama was born in Hawaii, he is Christian, and yes he did father two black children, by his wife and your point is???, and NO he is not coming after white women except in wanting their vote. This scurrilous type of reporting and spin is disgusting. Everyone, leave it alone.

On the other hand, ok, so McCain was a soldier, so he was a POW, but he never commanded troops, so really why does this make him more ready to be President? And why is that fact that he was a POW make him better at anything? Why is this an excuse for anything, other than maybe he was a screw up and got caught? Personally, if I were a POW and I were give the opportunity to leave because daddy was someone important, I would. Why? Simply because who the hell knows what will happen in the future and that may be my last chance of escape. There is nothing honorable about dying for a principle, contrary to popular belief; certainly the one who died will not know any better. Besides, better to assure you live to fight another day.

On the third hand, there is stuff about Obama we still do not know. We are still sketchy about his finances, we know almost nothing about his medical history, and to be honest, we know only about his family what he has let become public. Not that any of this has much if any bearing on the race for President, it is just curiosity about the man we are about to appoint to the most powerful position in the country (if not the world.)

“Do the DC Filp”
This one is mostly the purview of McCain… If you don’t get support from the public on your current point of view, flip flop on the issue and tell the big lie that you were for it the whole time. Hilary Clinton showed us the way on this tactic, and it almost worked against Obama, but in the end, the public has a memory. Also, THE PUBLIC IS NOT STUPID! Lie to us if you want, but we remember what you were in favor of or not in favor of, flip flop (or Floip) at your own risk.

McCain, Mr, Deregulator; Now FLOIP!
Obama, No Surge; FLOIP!

You get the point? I am sure you can name another 20 FLOIPs but it is 6am for me right now and my memory is not running right now for lack of coffee. Reminds me of some lyrics…

Undecided

You say it’s yes, and then it’s no;
You say you’ll stay, and then you go -
You’re undecided now, so what are you gonna do?

(Song repeats…)

So here we are in the land of the undecided candidates and we are all just waiting to figure out where everyone will really stand. The thing is, even after we elect and put into office one of these guys, we still will not know where they stand until they actually do something. I wonder how many of their promises they will live up to? I wonder if it really matters at all who we elect and if the Washington machine will just keep chugging along “same as it ever was, same as it ever was.”

Golden Parachutes
OK guys… here is a truism for you… Government cannot control the upper limits of salaries for any company. People are free to negotiate any deal they can make with a company and it is all kosher as long as that is the normal practice for that company. That is the American way, the dream of all Americans. If the government could regulate salaries in this way it would not be a Democracy, if would be a Fascist State. Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for a good Fascist Dictator as long as it doesn’t go to his head, but hey, what are the chances of that? (That last line was sarcasm folks, I use a lot of it.)

Got Cash?
With Wall Street getting ready to collapse and in need of a transfusion, there are a few things that we can do immediately to help out. In no particular order:

• Pull our troop from Iraq and free up Billions and Billions of dollars for use in other sectors of the U.S. economy.

• Time for a little isolationism. Up all import tariffs to historic high levels, especially cars, appliances and other durable goods. Eliminate most export tariffs.

• Forget drilling for oil. Create jobs and business in high tech, especially green tech. Shoot for 4 years to have 10% of all cars on the road be either electric, CNG or hydrogen fuel cell. This will start the trend to better and cleaner cars and we get to keep the cash we are sending to the Arabs who are terrorizing us anyway.

• Raise Taxes: (Personal taxes x1 earnings, Corporate taxes x10 earnings)
  
  • $0 - $11,999 up 1%
  • $12,000 - $47,999 up 2%
  • $48,000 – $119,999 up 3%
  • $120,000 - $249,999 up 4%
  • $250,000 - $999,999 up 5%
  • $1,000,000 + up 7%

• We got to bite the bullet and do it. This may not be the best solution nor the only one, and it may not be permanent, just until the book look balanced. I know inflation will be a problem, but we can cross that road when we get to it.

• Socialized Medical Insurance: This will cost to start up, but in the long run after the initial cost and restructuring fall into place, the costs will be lower and the cost to business will be lower and productivity will rise. Good all the way around.

• Cap foreign investment in our country. I know we may loose some income, but we are loosing our identity by selling it off a bit at a time. Create ways to re-buy our holdings at a discount. In short, invest in US.

So I am going to wrap this up now, I have gotten several pet peeves off my chest and feel better, especially since the coffee is good this morning.

Today the market lost 500 point and half a TRILLION dollars. Who ya gonna vote for?

The McCain spin doctors say that you can’t vote for Obama because you can’t put a community organizer in charge of an economy like this. Oh yeah? Who ya gonna vote for?

Then again McCain has admitted that he doesn’t know much about the economy. So, who ya gonna vote for?

The price of gas was $1.50 a gallon 8 years ago; unemployment was below 4%. Today you are lucky to get a gallon of petrol for under $3.90 and unemployment is over 6%. Bush didn’t know much about the economy either, so he listened to a lot of experts and relied on Greenspan to hold it all together. Greenspan went and the economy sort of drifted… so who ya gonna vote for?

If McCain wins, who do you think he is going to listen to for his admittedly lack of knowledge of the economy? Why, the same people who are giving Bush his advice on the economy, of course. So, who ya gonna vote for?

If it comes down to a choice between McCain and more of the same advice on the economy, I think I got to vote for Obama, if for only to change the people supplying the bad economic advice. Maybe, just maybe someone else at the helm of the economy will implement enough change to correct the economy before it really does go into a free fall.

So, who ya gonna vote for?

OK, I registered as an Independent, but I used to identify as a Republican. Why, the philosophy really.

For me Democrats are all about giving a man a fish, whereas Republican are all for providing a fishing rod. I know it is hat, that old saying “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and he is fed for life”, but notice my view here. Republican provide a “rod” in this analogy, but it is the man himself that must have the motivation to learn how to use it. Of course providing a man with a fish does not provide motivation to learn nor does it equip him to be successful.

I really use the above analogy to help guide me in the world of political attribution, but to be honest I am having a hard time applying this to anyone. I am a pretty sharp guy, but from all the rhetoric from both sides I cannot say who is a Republican or who is a Democrat. Therefore, I am forced to look at who is making sense or at least who is being the less vile choice of the two main candidates.

So what do I see? I see a Democratic team that is currently bewildered by a curve ball candidate for Republican VP. On the other side I see a pair of Republicans who can not form any coherent strategy better than “So’s your mother!” At least on the Democratic side the attack ads are substantive and really do attack issues, whereas the republican ads are all personal smears which I have a hard time stomaching.

It’s this lack of a real message and the personal attacks that are making me regretting ever identifying as a Republican. McCain seems unable to stay on topic for anything nor explain any actions he would take if he were to become President. The worst statement he makes is that he knows how to get Bin Ladin and when he is President he will go get him. Does anyone else have a problem with that statement other than me? If he knows how to get him, he should tell everyone, NOW! In fact he should have told everyone years ago if he knew. In fact, as a senator, he has an obligation to tell us how to get him. If he knew years ago, maybe we would not have the problems overseas we are having (Iraq) and our troops could have come home. He is now playing with the lives of our soldiers, our fighting men and women for his own good. THIS IS CRIMINAL.

His VP nominee is a no one from Alaska that they have to shield from the media. She goes stumping with the same speech over and over again filled with the same lies. It’s like no one wants to write her new material. When she did do an interview, the answers were canned (obviously) and she was reaching for answers to questions that for her should have been dead bang simple. You would expect a Republican Nominee would have no problem at all with the question “Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?” She did not know what the Bush Doctrine was. Sad. When the republican spin doctors got to it though it was if she did great, in fact she was incredibly eloquent. Were we watching the same interview? They (the spin doctors) then went on to extol her for knowing who Putin was and where Georgia sorta was. To her credit she knew it was not the Georgia State of the US. But then again, she did kinda commit our troops to go fight Russia. Ouch, I hope not.

How sad is it that in order for McCain to draw any crowds a all he has to have Palin with him. The Republican are in for a hard road and the former Beauty Queen VP Nominee is going to have to walk a lot of runways to rally the votes.

You will know the republican are really desperate when they start releasing the Bikini photos of Palin or if she shows up at a rally in a Bikini. I guess she really is the lipstick McCain needs to wear.

I must say, being a blogger I like the comments I get on some of my posts. Particularly if the comments are relevant and not just “Me Too” posts. But over the last week or so I am seeing more activity on my blog by a very few people out there who write like five comments at a time, but they all seem to be of the “Me Too” type. This is not really helpful and it looks like it is time for me to crack down on this simply because THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR YOU TO ADVERTIZE ON.

I do not mind legitimate comments, really I do, and in fact I respond to them. But with each comment is the ability to add a link for the poster and they are supposed to be email addresses, instead people are using the link to add a URL to a site. I really do not mind this either if it were not for the fact that it is coming blatantly clear that the posts are just to get the links to the sites.

What kinda get me is that the times of the posts are so consistent. First off, you can’t read my posts in about a minute, I write long posts and not at a first grade level. Second, the titles are sometimes not related to the post in the ways that may be obvious. Someone responding to the title will not post a comment that is correct. Case in point… my last post was “Anti-Condom”, which was only about condoms in so far as it referred to Sarah Palins’ seeming lack of ability to inform her daughter of contraception usage. It was a political post, yet people are posting about condom use and such. They did not read the post.

So here it: I have the ability to massively delete comments… I know how to do this because I wrote the module and database query that will do it. So, first you are going to see most of the posts of that last week disappear except those that are on topic. Next, if I find you coming back and trying it again, you will find your access via IP blocked. If that does not work I will mark the blog to “Comment Approval Mode” and not allow any posts to be viewed until I have reviewed them.

Please, I like reading actual comments and interacting with people, but if you are posting just to get your link on my site, why not write me and ask me to include you in my blog roll. I post these links for friends of the site or sites that I like.

Be kind; don’t make me be a tyrant on my own blog.

So here I was, watching the morning political returns on Obama’s speech on last Thursday when McCain announces that he had picked Sarah Palin, a literal no one from Alaska to be his VP pick. Talk about shooting Craps, McCain has rolled the dice looking for a hard double 4’s on a center bet.

Now, McCain has pandered in the past, but here is the mother of all panders… he is pandering to women, pro life, pro gun, religious right, fiscal conservatives, and the confused all at once. Now mind you the pro life and pro gun stance always kind of struck me as a funny combo, but what the hey. But the stance that I find interesting is that even her being pro life, can’t she also be pro condom?

OK, in today’s world having five kids is out of the norm. According to the 2000 census, the US averages 1.86 kids per family. Alaska averages 1.97 kids per family. Now, I know she is pro life, but does she have to populate the state herself? Five kids is not family planning, it is wishful thinking and bad timing. What is she teaching the female children of Alaska anyway… go have sex and pray you don’t get pregnant? That seems to be her method. She falls into the old joke… what you call a girl on the rhythm method? A mother.

Worst of all she is imprinting this on her eldest daughter who is 5 months along and unmarried. I don’t have a problem with the unmarried part, it is rather that I am for contraception for people too young and too stupid to realize that results of fornicating before being in a steady and stable relationship. Again, I do not care if they get married, that is for then to deal with, but if this girl is going to get married just because she got pregnant, we got a morals problem and to be honest, an intelligence issue.

So, Sarah, future grandmother… did you never talk to your daughter about condoms? Did you never talk to your daughter about contraception of any type? Did you trust the schools to teach your daughter what she needed to know about pregnancy? Or did you just leave it all in God’s hands and close your mind to the upbringing of your daughter Bristol? Really, I think you got to answer this one because it shows your level of responsibility, because let’s face it, Alaska is not that difficult to govern.

As for the tragic rumor about your youngest son Trig, if it is true that he is your daughters child, you have some issues to deal with and where to you get off trying to be VP? If they are false, maybe you need to learn more about pregnancy and change your stance on abortion a bit. If you knew in advance that your child was to be born with Downs Syndrome, don’t you think it is unkind to bring a life into this world that will know little joy and too much grief? There are times abortion is worth considering.

Believe it or not, one more of my talents is singing. I am not sure I have ever really talked about it in this blog or not, but if not, here it is…

I started singing at Temple Beth Ami in Reseda California at about the age of 8. I then carried on through high school, playing trombone and singing scat for an ensemble called “Grey Smoke”. The highlight of that stint was the late night jam session with Dizzy Gillespie one hot summer Tuesday night at Dante’s in Burbank. I did 6 months with the LA Metropolitan Opera (Wagner’s Ring Cycle, oy) understudying Donald and Fafner. In 1999, I hooked up with The San Fernando Valley Valleyaires, a Barbershop Chorus, and eventually created a Barbershop Quartet call SOAP. That all ended a few years ago and now I am back on the singing scene looking for a new quartet, but not just any quartet…

So here I am in Vegas looking for a place to sing (thank god Nancy enjoys Barbershop too) and I find the Gambleaires. Ok, they are not the best around, but they are very non-political, and that is exactly what I wanted to hear. So you can imagine my consternation when others tell me I am too good for them and ought to be somewhere else. Really, all I want is to sing and here is everyone else trying to make me political within the group.

Well, to make a long story short (yeah, yeah… too late) another group tries to recruit me to sing the tenor part for their quartet. One of the other members of the quartet is a known name to me, but I thought I made it clear that I wanted to sing lead and tenor was out of the question. I guess that message did not make it through because I get an email with tenor dominate part for their repertoire. I politely turned them down, after all there is a tenor out there for them, but it is not me. (Besides, any good lead can sing tenor, I just don’t like the range.)

But there were other reasons for turning down the role, and maybe they were more to the point than me just not wanting to sing tenor. The current lead sings very covered and they are shooting for a “swing” feel for their group. Swing requires a very clear lead singer, the other parts can be covered a bit, but the lead needs a clarion voice. In swing the lead is a soloist despite the idea that Barbershop is a quartet. So what is it, a swing or barbershop group? Mixed messages, not good. Also, one of the members is very knowledgeable about music and barbershop, but his coaching seems to take precedence over the learning and singing of the music. Seems to me that getting the notes and words sung correctly first is foremost when learning new material; craft comes after the group is singing the song with familiarity. Lastly, to be honest, they were not at my level of singing even with my voice being out of shape (although that will change quickly enough), not that that would have stopped me had they at least let me sing the part I wanted. At that point I would have hoped to shape the group a bit and get them to understand what jazz and swing is.

I will give them this, for the most part they were organized with a repertoire and learning tracks. But they were lacking decent communicates and that is hard to deal with too.

But for now I live with this truism; there is a quartet out there for me; one that will be able to keep up. There are three other singers who are relaxed enough to be able to enjoy the experience that I want to have (any they too hopefully). And when it comes right down to it all, maybe that is the real reason I turned this last group down, it would not be fun when push came to shove with one other extremely opinionated person in the group.

I wonder if the other guys in that group have figured it out… they are not going to get rich singing so it had better be a lot of fun to do, otherwise the effort is not worth the meager returns it may offer.

You know me; if you read my blog it should be quite obvious that I am a middle of the road Republican; I certainly am not a Democrat, and I register as an Independent. So you can imagine that I am following this presidential campaign pretty closely, being a bit of a politics wonk. So when the John McCain campaign put out an ad trying to scare white fathers and mothers away from Barack Obama, McCain made up my mind for me.

I was truly looking forward to a straight forward, clean campaign promised by both candidates, but what did I get? I got the Republican smear three months out from the election… hell; the candidates are not yet even “rat”ified by the party conventions yet and the mud is piling up. To Barack’s benefit he does not sling it as well as McCain, but he is getting more politically savvy at the backhanded putdown that is more his style.

So what prompted this entry? The Spears/Paris McCain ad that say as subtext that Barack Obama is coming to get your daughters and have sex with them. It is “Birth of a Nation” all over again with darkies waiting in the shadows. The implication is that Barack is dating (or as a radio talk show host say “dating equals porking”) young, vapid white celebrity girls (your daughters; also implying your daughters are not too bright), and having sex with them using his really big black tool (the images of the “Leaning Tower of Pisa”, and the “Washington Monument”). This ad has no other value other than it is meant to scare the hell out of white folk.

So, who played the race card? Well, to be honest, both of them, but at least Barack’s use of the racial issue is fairly self deprecating. Barack has been using the line that he does not look like the past Presidents on the money we use. This is true, and what it gets Barack is that he is new and different for a new and different country, now. Where as McCain use of the race issue is “By the way… he’s black” attitude has no redeeming value other than to scare white people away from Barack using latent racism.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the Republican tactics, they have been doing the same thing for a hundred years. What I am upset about I guess is that the candidate made a pledge to no go negative, was haranguing the other candidates not to go negative, and at the first opportunity flip-flopped on that pledge and went negative. But again, why should I be surprised, McCain has been flip-flopping on issues since the start of the campaign run to appeal to the current constituents he needed to win primary races. Now he is flipping both to the conservative left and trying to roll the center into one campaign and not being effective. Barack, by virtue of his stubborn nature is not really flipping so much as tacking his message to the center. He ran on a more centrist message anyway, now he is correcting course to include moderate and middle of the road republicans, as expected.

So, at this point I can make up a small list of the things that I do not agree with in the McCain campaign. They are:

1. McCain’s gas tax holiday is bunk. I would rather spend the $14 dollars I am going to save and let 300,000 people remain working. This does not help the long term problem; it is just a band-aid and not a very good one.
2. Drilling offshore and in ANWAR is not an answer both because it will take years to gear up and even then will not provide a significant saving to an oil hungry nation.
3. Yeah, the surge worked, but then again, it surely should have for what we are spending.

   (Let me state that at the time I was for going into Iraq and kicking out Saddam Hussein. Once we did that though we really needed to be out of there. And now that the Iraqi government that we installed wants us out too, we should be preparing with all haste to make a victorious retreat from there. Why victorious? Because we not only did what we came to do, we have even set up a government that thinks it is ready to stand on its own. It’s not, but we should not let that minor fact prevent us from getting out of a situation that is more and more looking like “revenge for daddy”. Honestly we should have been out of there six months after “Mission Accomplished”.)

4. Health care? What health care plan?
5. Education? What education plan?
6. Really, I am not sure where McCain is standing on anything lately, he changes positions so often it is hard to keep track.

That is not to say that Barack has articulated his cases any better. He does not have an Energy plan that is of any worth, there is some movement there on education, but not as much as I would like to see, and he dodges the health care issues with quick aplomb. He is on the right side of the war, he is an inspirational speaker, and maybe that is what the country needs right now.

So, here is my Ballot…

[     ]  Charles O. ‘Chuck’ Baldwin
(Constitution)

[     ]  Robert Laurence ‘Bob’ Barr
(Libertarian)

[     ]  John Sidney McCain
(Republican)

[     ]  Cynthia Ann McKinney
(Peace and Freedom, Green)

[     ]  Ralph Nader
(Independent)

[ X ]  Barack Hussein Obama
(Democratic)

I highly recommend you look at the bios for Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney and of course Ralph Nader (my vote in 2004) and make some decisions for yourself. Each has some interesting views that should be considered.

Remember, no one is ready to be president from day one, the amount of experience in the role of President is always zero on day one, so don’t let experience be a your road map. It may be that person with no experience that brings the greatest change and creativity to the office because they lack experience and thus have no preconceived ideas how it is all supposed to work.