Ooops!

Presidential John McCain says he slipped up when he said in an economic policy speech that he was going to lessen our dependence on foreign oil when elected so "...we do not have to send our sons to war."

Many of us have been saying for some time that this war was about oil and the Bush administration has denied that ad nausea. It was about Saddam and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam is dead and the WMD never existed.

The other argument about going to war was to make the Iraqis free and democratic and beyond an initial election or two that has not happened while the democracy in this country takes a major nose dive because of the war on terror and our need to water board and spy upon our own citizens.

And Iraq was going to pay for this war with its oil reserves. A little seen news story reported that they have a large stockpile now and could pay for the war to give them their freedom. Or rebuild what the insurgency has destroyed. But they don't.

But I think the largest ooops in this whole McCain sound byte is that it was not given much air time. Not the kind of air time we gave the Obama elitist statement and not nearly the air time given to Reverend Wright. Whether it is the truth (and many of us think it is) or a senior moment (another) by an aging candidate it is important that the American people hear this and any prolonged analysis of it. But the media remains largely mum.

If it is a misspeak it is probably no big deal unless you lump it together with all his other misspeaks and the fact that he gets irate when called on them. It looks like we are running for the highest office a senile old man with a bad temper. Just as if we lump together all the slips of the tongue and "remembered it wrong" of Hillary's which make her look like a person always going for the convenient lie. Or all the times GW has leaned on the podium and slurred that it is the fault of Congress that his stubborn, egotistical cowboy diplomacy isn't working.

So CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS how about some honest analysis out there and don't just sweep the next "ooops, you caught me" under the table. And make no mistake: It is a war for oil which we don't seem to be getting.

Just Unplug

As of April 15th I will have disconnected from my satellite server. I have blogged about my feelings on this before but without a definite resolution until just recently.

I am one of the disadvantaged rural people that cannot get the television channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS with just a standard antenna. And while a lot has been touted about how great digital broadcasting will be nobody has said that it will make areas without television reception more able to receive local channels without paying a satellite or cable service for this privilege enjoyed by most citizens of this country. I cannot even get a daily local paper where I live but I can get Internet with a satellite which I also pay for.

It bothers me that I have to pay to find out what is happening in the world around me. But it brothers me even more that I do not get choices of what I pay for. The satellite and cable providers (pimps) claim they package channels to save me money but I argue with this. They want me to pay for 250 channels (235 of which I will not watch) to be able to get the 15 I will. And while single senior women are a large and growing segment of our society there is no package that does not include Disney, ESPN and an ample sprinkling of religious channels of faiths I resent supporting. I have e-mailed AARP on this issue and they are supposedly in talks with the satellite services (fear dealers) to develop a package aimed at us. Frankly, I believe as long as they can sell us 250 channels so we can get CNN, TNT and local news they will not change.

My response to this is to just say NO. NO television. NO satellite television service. I will get my news from Internet Websites. Weather that way too. I will watch DVD's for entertainment (without commercials trying to sell me something). I will read. And I will think. And one of the things I have been thinking about is where has the FCC been in all this? When did broadcast television cease to be a way to keep our population informed and start being a way of blackmailing them into compliance.

Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day

New Mexico, my state of residence in the United States, is a closed primary state. During the primary I can only vote for candidates in the party in which I am registered.

I have usually registered Democrat because this makes the primary process on a state level far more valuable: I actually get a choice. The Republicans and the Green party, also active in this area, only manage to put one candidate on the ballot if that. On the national level I often want to vote in the Republican primary. This year I am not sure I want to vote in either. The wide open race seems to have shut down really fast.

But that aside I do get the opportunity to vote on Super Tuesday for my choices among those running for state and national office among the Democratic party. Then I will go and change my party affiliation to Independent.

I thought about changing to Independent earlier in this broken political process but it essentially disenfranchises me because New Mexico is a closed primary state. I would definitely like to change that to one which allows me to declare the party for which I want to participate as I prepare to vote: An Open Primary System. Until that happens I think I will just keep careful note of all the deadlines for changing my voter registration and go back and forth. Keeping up with a number of people doing this would definitely tax the state offices.

Lou Dobbs of CNN talks frequently about sending a message by changing to Independent. And there definitely does seem to be a growing number of people doing this. The political pundits even gave discussion time to how the Independents in Iowa and New Hampshire changed the nature of the caucus and primary there. But here we sit with only a small fraction of the primaries held and their delegates awarded and the news media are already declaring the winners.

Let me mention that if the vote in the general election in November 2008 comes down to a choice between McCain and Clinton I am leaning toward sending a real message by not voting for President. Since there is no None of the Above choice. I am so tired of voting for the least offensive of the candidates! I can only hope that somehow, someway, the country gets another choice. Or that the message out there is so strong that someone will actually run for office as an Independent. At this point I frankly don't care who. I just might vote for them solely to send a message.

I do hope our country has gotten the message that this time it better be an honest election. No computerized tinkering with the outcome. No hanging chads. If once again there is no paper trail or the electoral college vote runs counter to the popular vote than whether we are registered Democrats, Republicans, or Independents may well be a mute point.