Heart and Soul

The Democratic National Convention has begun in Denver and the Republicans are appearing on all the news shows giving their opinion about what the DNC is doing wrong. People that live in glass houses should not throw stones. Next week the places will be reversed.

But in fairness to all parties I watched videos this morning of the highlights and lowlights of the night. And one thing seems clear: if it is said by a Democrat it is for the Republicans a cliche but if it is said by the Republicans it is a rallying cry or effective sound byte (i.e. flip flopper).

We are sure to hear a lot of cliche's and sound bytes and rallying cries and lies in the next couple of weeks. It is our place as responsible voters to weigh the evidence and do our homework. We have stayed away from the voting booths in record numbers, we have allowed the Republicans to cheat their way into office twice, we seem to think it is acceptable to pick our president in the same way we choose laundry detergent (by the ad and the package) and that has gotten us to the place in this country were it is do or die. After almost eight years of G.W.Bush we are hated by the world, no longer a champion of the oppressed but the oppressor, our dropout rate for our young is as high as 40% in some states, and our middle class can no longer afford to drive to work.

There was a joke when I was in college about Republican's and Democrats; if you were a Republican when you were young you had no soul and if you were a Democrat when you were middle aged you had no money. Well, there are currently a lot more people with no money these days and so the Republicans had to say you were not against terrorism if you were a Democrat. I think you have no heart or soul if you are a Republican. And the Republican pundits on the news this morning with their snipping at Senator Kennedy, President Clinton, and Michelle Obama I think proves that.

Yes, Senator Kennedy made some mistakes in his youth. So did Richard Nixon as President my friends. And when Bill lied nobody died like when GW lied to the free world about Iraq. I think it is not so much about the mistakes we make as how we live our lives after that. The amends we make. And you don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. The twenty-four hour coverage of every aspect of our lives and especially our public lives makes it imperitive that we not merely behave intelligently but with heart and soul and compassion.

It would be a far better world if those that have the bumper stickers: What would Jesus Do? actually do it.

Dream Ticket Really A Nightmare?

Barack Obama acquired the necessary delegates to be the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. But Hillary has not conceded the race. Sour grapes? Certainly bad sportsmanship.

She has let it be know that she will consider vice-president. Will she only admit Barack won if she is begged to be on the ticket? Who knows, but there is something about the whole thing that just smells bad.

Several of her supporters are on air today saying what a great idea the dream ticket would be. I think it would be a nightmare for Obama and for the nation. And I think it would be an open invitation for some rabid supporter of Hillary to assassinate the President once they are elected. John F. Kennedy was urged to take Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate and look what happened to him when he visited Johnson's home state? And Hillary has already brought up the thought in references to RFK.

But that aside can you imagine establishing a working relationship with her? One of the many reasons she failed in the bid were staffing problems. And she showed on numerous occasions during the campaign her inability to compromise to admit error. She was also totally unable to reign in her husband, so any campaign for President with her as second would have Bill to deal with. And clearly she does not lose gracefully.

I can think of several other possible running mates that would be a far better ticket than Obama/Hillary. I personally like Obama/Richardson though it makes for a bit longer bumper sticker. You could go with Barack and Bill. Has a nice ring. But whomever he chooses should be his decision. He certainly should not be forced into adopting the failed Clinton political machine when he is professing to be the candidate of change.

I saw his speech last night and loved it. I believe choosing Hillary as VP would put much of that speech in doubt. Yes, he needs a VP with experience but he does not need Hillary. That is like trying to swim the English Channel with the mooring lines still tied to the pier.

And Hillary needs to bow out gracefully and concentrate on being a really great Senator. We are going to need another icon like Ted Kennedy in the future.

Bad States, Bad

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has at last spoken and the states of Michigan and Florida have had their hands slapped for breaking the rules. But what about Hillary? She broke them too.

All the other candidates when the DNC decided to censure these two states from jumping ahead in the primary slate removed their names from the ballots. But not Hillary. She even campaigned in Florida knowing it would not count. Sorry, folks but this reminds me a lot of G.W. Bush who feels the rules are not for him.

Well, she whined enough that the DNC decided to hold a meeting and see if the could come up with a compromise that would satisfy all parties. I think it did rather the reverse but such is the nature of compromises at times. And it is not like Michigan has not tried this before. Or that the Clintons have shown a tendency to follow the rules if it does not benefit them. But as a trainer of dogs I know if you don't make them sit when you say sit the first time they will take it as meaning they can sit when they damn well want to sit. I see that rather too much in our politicians as it is.

In fact there is in this country a growing tendency to not make people, organizations, businesses, Presidents, states, kids or even dogs suffer the consequences of their actions. We are so afraid of how it will look, or the potential for lawsuits that we tip toe around and just mumble under our breath how bad this or that was. We never even tried to impeach G.W.Bush for lying about Iraq and its WMD. But we impeached Bill Clinton for lying about sex with Monica. Our rules and the degree to which we want to enforce them seems all to flexible.

There seem to be different sets of rules. In the court system there is clearly a set of rules for the rich (O.J.Simpson among others) and another set for the poor which are nameless and numerous. Politics seems to also have different sets of rules for those that whine and for those that try to play fair. And Florida and Michigan clearly backed the DNC into the corner by threatening to go Republican. And Hillary won some of the illegally obtained delegates by whining (something I find particularly reprehensible in women because we get accused of it unfairly at times). But she did not get them all. And it did not put her ahead of Obama that played by the rules set by the DNC.

So just let me add: Bad States, Bad; Bad DNC, Bad; Bad Hillary, Bad. Go to your crates until you can behave like good dogs. Nobody report me to the SPCA please.

Those are the house rules

When I was a kid we played a lot of board games: Scrabble, Clue, Sorry, and Monopoly. Monopoly was probably are all time favorite at that time. And you quickly learned that everyone had a slightly different take on the game. So you played by the house rules - the rules of the house you were at.

The board would be brought out and the money divided up and the owner of the game would declare the house rules: All Chance and Community Chest money goes in the middle and anyone landing on free parking gets it, if a player lands on a property and does not want it the bank can hold an auction, etc.

The listing of the house rules (these changes to the official rules on the Parker Bros. box) could be lengthy and quite complex and you listened carefully because you had to play by those rules. No changing in mid stream. It was a long game and you stuck by the rules. It was not like poker where the rules and what was wild could change with every hand dealt. Or like George W. Bush where he thinks he can make a signing statement (over 1100 currently) that exempt him and the government from the law he just signed.

Or Hillary Clinton who did not play by the Democrat Party house rules on primaries set out this year. Michigan and Florida did not play by them either. Hillary took advantage of that by not (as all other candidates did) removing her name from the primary ballots for those two states. Now those states that broke the rules want a do-over (only acceptable in kids sandlot baseball or marbles in my opinion). Hillary just wants the results of the illegal primaries admitted to the record. She also wants extra time to produce her banking records (sanitation process?). In other words folks: She does not want to play by the house rules.

I don't know why this should surprise us. Her husband, President Bill Clinton, wanted to re-define the word sex in his impeachment trial. Don't get me wrong, I personally hated that whole process. Sure he lied but so has GW and when Bill lied nobody died. But we are trying to change the horrid political process here in the United States. The Democrats are trying to restore the public faith in the process. We are trying to restore the image of the United States in the world. So do we really want to elect another individual who fails to play by the rules? That thinks they are above the law, human decency, compassion, and inclusion in the world and its problems?

I don't.

I thought this looked familiar

At one point yesterday, deep in the throes of cabin fever, I found myself staring at CNN's coverage of the political campaign and asking myself what was so familiar about all this.

Yes, it is another presidential campaign and despite all the promises to the contrary by various horses in the race they have not changed it. There is I thought, thankfully, more debate and more airing of views then there has been in the last two of these fiascoes. But when a candidate feels behind they still start slinging the mud. And enough of it seemed to be flying through the air yesterday that I just wanted to duck under the table and hide.

That is when it hit me about what was so familiar about the whole presidential primary theater. I whipped out my copy of Alice in Wonderland and felt immediately comforted. After all that isn't real is it? Poor Alice. All she is trying to do is get back to solid ground where they rules of her childhood . . . well, ruled. There are no Cheshire cats with silly grins remaking themselves every state, or paths to the convention that are erased by some new pundit with a clean sweep of the situation. And there is definitely not a Mad Hatter's tea party right?

As I watched the Mad Hatter pour tea I was reminded for some reason of former President Bill Clinton. And Hillary came to mind when the dormouse pops up out of the teapot. The March Hare just has to be John McCain. And I am of course Alice. We are all Alice. Trying to make sense of this strange musical chairs type party with riddles that have no answers and no opportunity to actually sip our tea and make our own decisions.

And from here on in the movie and the book it gets worse. There is the Queen of Hearts with off with their heads. Hmmm. Maybe Hillary is her. Sometimes. And Bill is the apologetic little king. Then in the scene in the rose garden Obama has to be Alice. Off with his head because he has defied the queen. I am probably the flamingo in this part.

Well, to make a long and silly blog shorter I recommend you re-watch Disney's classic film of Alice in Wonderland. It does make the whole political landscape a great deal clearer. I am just not sure that is a good thing.