Dog with a Bone

Not my dog and not my bone. But I have dogs. Two. One that wants to be alpha. And I always give them three bones. It avoids the fights. And lets me take one away anytime I want to let everyone know I am the alpha fur kid.

Obama threw Senator Clinton a really nice bone: Secretary of State. But Hillary Clinton is already fighting over the other bones in the cabinet and nobody has even been confirmed by the Congress.

It seems Hillary is not satisfied with being Secretary of State. She wants pieces of the pie from Treasury and Commerce. She is leaking to the press her plans to expand the role of the State Department to deal with economic issues. And to nominate special envoys. That particular honor may be Obama's bone.

I may have seriously misjudged Senator Clinton. I thought her only problem would be her husband. Wrong. She ran for president and she clearly wants to be president. Or at least Secretary of State, Commerce and Treasury. Not unlike the old office of Health, Education and Welfare. Maybe she wants that too.

I am anxious to see if Obama asserts his place as leader of the pack. If not than Hillary with her Alpha dog genetics will always have the bones in her corner.

BTW I have only fur kids to referee on bone issues so I have time to read the OpEd pieces and blog about them here even though Christmas is but two days away. Does Hillary think with Obama in Hawaii for Christmas she can claim dominance of all the bones before he returns? I bet he finds time to keep up with her issues.

Who was that masked man?

As Senator John McCain sashshays to the left to distance himself from Bush and Obama sidles up to the religious right to emphasis that he has the right moral values it is getting more and more difficult to tell the cat from the raccoons. Or this election from any other.

Wasn't this one suppose to be about change? Didn't us Democrats vote for Obama over Hillary because he was for change and she seemed a bit like the old guard? Wasn't this year the Democratic party was at last going to give us some hope?

Well, I'm not feeling it. In fact I have not blogged here for several days because I was just too stunned at what I was watching happen to all that hope for change. Now McCain is talking about change. But then he was so wonderfully positioned in Columbia when at last the hostages were rescued. Not unlike Bush reading to a kindergarten group during 9/11?

OK, I am a cynic. Seems like I have seen this same song and dance before. But now it seems this may well be our last dance. Because if something does not change one of two things may well happen: 1) we get taken over by another country after we crumble or 2) we finally wake up and riot in the streets.

Any opinions out there on that? Or are we all suddenly silent because we cannot believe what is happening yet again. Well, if it gets down to only a choice between age and beauty I am going for beauty. Got to feel good about something.

Just a Horse Race

My father always said it was the difference of opinion which made horse racing possible. I would think how boring it would be without horses. And horse races. Or contests of any kind. It only seems in politics that I am inclined to think, "How stupid are you to think your candidate is better than mine?"

I believe this thinking first was evident during the campaign of Richard M. Nixon. I recognized in him a certain insanity that seemed reflected in the people that fell into what I have come to think of as "mad dog" supporters. Those individuals who will absolutely no listen to reason or hear a single bad think about their candidate. It was shortly after he resigned from office and was pardoned that I fell into voting for the lessor of two evils. I have always voted. But I will admit I seem to vote for losers. Even with horses I might add.

I voted for Gore and for Kerry. I worked on McGovern's staff. Was clean for Gene. Frequently the candidate I most like is eliminated in the primaries like Biden or Richardson. Since I liked him I just knew Obama was going to lose the fight with Hillary. I was rather shocked that he didn't. So having learned something with age I didn't break up marriages or relationships or kiss off friendships over this primary. I have a few friends that are Hillary supporters. Fewer that believe in McCain. I admit I fall back to the, "How can you be so stupid?" gut reaction with avid McCainites.

A Hillary supporter friend of mine was half apologetic following Hillary's non-concession speech on June 3rd. I think she thought I would rub her nose in it. No, that was one horse race. Now we are on to the second horse race. Who do you like in his field? I am finding this rather refreshing actually. Because during the ten year campaign of G. W. Bush it was hostile and all about make wrong. After 9/11 you were either for the dictator or a traitor. We started whispering in corners. And by his second stolen election we were sure we were going to be burned at the stake or hung from the yardarm. I had anti-war friends during the Nixon years that vanished from the face of the earth. I fully expected it again.

So we have run a long and difficult horse race and we are all still here. Nobody has died or vanished yet. When you live through JFK, RFK and Martin Luther assassinations you start expecting the worst routinely. So far it is just a horse race. And that is good. Now on to the second horse race. Wouldn't it be nice if there was no bloodshed, no cheating, no name calling, nobody dying? Just a race for President of the free world. Wouldn't it be nice if the world was really free.

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.

From the Bottom Up

Obama won in North Carolina last night and won by a big margin. And in Indiana he came within 2% points of carrying that state. Just when some of us were counting him out.

And not just him. We were also counting any chance of real change in this country. I personally was counting out the United States because if we don't change I personally think we are done. What the last seven years has done to our economy, our respect in the world, our military, our freedoms, our democracy and most importantly the hope of the citizens of our country was frankly looking like a death blow. Too many people had tuned out of the process that once made this country great. And for me the most hopeful sign of the two primaries last night was the record number of voters that turned out to vote.

Joan Baez toward the end of the long and difficult fight against the war in Vietnam decided to step out of the public eye. Our ballad singer for peace was leaving us. And she said in one interview that she had come to believe that it was not the surfer on the crest of the wave that could change the direction the wave was taking but the molecules of water within the base of the wave. And they are doing just that in this election.

The least of us is contributing to Barack's campaign for change. And the little voters that once said they did not matter (with lots of evidence to back that up given the last two presidential election debacles) came out to cast a vote.

And the polls are saying they do not like the sound bytes that had become the way to win an election. The ratings on the various presidential debates which CNN, ABC, Facebook and others mounted was significant. The American people care about the issues, not the terms like Flip Flopper and Up or Down Vote. They are tired of a dictatorship for idiots and want to change the direction the wave is going.

We want a country where the least of us count. Hillary says she has proved she can will the big states. As a citizen of a small state I find that offensive. We are electing someone to be a president of all the states. California, New York, Ohio and Florida have stolen our voice too many times. There are fifty states and we deserve to be counted. If we cannot change this process through the primaries that are being run this year then we need a movement for a constitutional convention to change the election process.

And only the people can call for a constitutional convention. It takes petitions to get it on the ballot of as many of the states as possible. And then we have to vote for it. If our elected officials will not address issues like shortening the election process, setting some real limits on the money so someone cannot buy a presidency, and take a long hard look at the electoral college then we the people. Those little molecules of water need to take control of the direction this country is heading.

Let this be the last election where we are fighting so hard not just for a candidate we can believe in but for the very idea of democracy and one person, one vote that counts. Not to the highest bidder goes the highest office.

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.

Balance and Hope

The powers that be say they do not use the "R" word because it will generate a recession. And once they admit we are in a Recession than there will be the "D" word to worry us: Depression. So our avenue of escape from this financial mess is to think positive and spend, spend, spend.

I want to remain hopeful and I want to remain in some sort of financial balance. At the moment those two concepts seem to be in direct opposition to each other. I feel a bit like a frog perched on a lily pad in a turbulent pond.

A year ago April 7th I began a home improvement project of adding 336 sf to my house. It is a studio/gallery which will hopefully at some time in the near future generate income without having to travel to as many art fairs. The state is even supporting this endeavor obliquely by beginning a art studio tour loop for tourism through this part of the state. So I am rather stuck in having to continue to do some spending over and above food and gas. I am sure my local economy loves it, because I cannot afford to run to the big city every time I need to purchase tile, or grout, or lumber for the deck, paving stones for the walkway, etc. I admit to doing this all a lot slower than the original schedule, however. I guess that supports those words of "economic slow down" Bush likes to use.

I guess this is all why Obama's message of hope resonates with me so much. I don't care if it is irrational but I need hope. We all need some hope. There are too many dashers of hope out there: McCain because he thinks we ought to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, Bush because he refuses to admit we are in the deep shit here, Hillary that wants to continue to play the same old dirty trick politics I have come to hate and darken my dream of hope.

How about we all go to a hilltop and meditate on achieving balance in our lives? And actually I do find some of what is happening economically hopeful. I am shopping local far more and finding that I enjoy that even when it costs me a bit more. If I have problems with the mix of paint or a broken tile they are far more likely to make it right for me than Lowe's. And I can feel good about helping my local economy.

I had picked this image of a frog on a lily pad this morning. It reminded me of how tricky it must be to balance on a small pad in the middle of a pond especially if their is turbulence. But it also reminded me that global economy or no it is the health of my little pond that matters. Shop local but shop I suppose is the message. And match your outgo to your income. Balance. And Hope. Let us not forget hope. It gets us through the worst of times.

My non-political political analysis

The political pundits and talking heads are out in full force giving us their analysis of that the barely two-digit win by Hillary in Pennsylvania means. And blogland is full of finely tuned views too. This is not one of those. This is an artist's view of that this means, so it is very subjective.

One, clearly American Flag lapel pins do not matter (see previous blog), because Hillary has never worn one to my knowledge. Nor does dress for success. Throw that book out because I think she has horrid taste in pant suits. And a woman is suppose to wear a skirt for a job interview.

Two, there was a wide variance between the pre-primary polls which showed the gap being only 5% and the actual vote with 10%. (note: this was way down from the 30% Hillary started with.) But this difference seems to show that once we pull that curtain there are a huge group of white Democrats that are closet racists.

Three, the Hillary camp is probably going to use this little racial blip to say she is the one to go head to head with McCain. But don't buy that, because if the very White Male Democrat is closet racist he is probably also closet sexist (ask his wife and it probably is not that closeted). So when it is Hillary against McCain the white man with the military record will win every time. Just ask the KKK.

Four, and for me this is the really bad news, the old time dirty politics wins. That means the style of campaigns brought to you by Carl Rowe will be up and running in 2008. The Clintons are past masters. So this is the end of substance as we know it. It has been nice to debate some real issues for a change but the last debate proved in conjunction with the outcome of this primary that we are back to such clarifying terms as Flip Flopper.

Nothing is going to change. Hope is dead. Time to start meeting in back rooms and cellars and plan the revolution. Democracy was a nice experiment but it did not work. It can be purchased.

This all comes down to a lapel pin?

I watched the Hillary and Obama debate last night and personally think Obama won because he politely tried to get the debate focused back on the issues. It seemed to be all about US flag lapel pins. And why Obama does not wear one.

Was I the only one to notice that Hillary did not have one on her jacket lapel. Nor was she wearing one of the acceptable "I am an American" colors. Bush can always be predicted to wear a blue suit, white shirt and red tie when he is trying to sell us on staying in Iraq.

Hillary was wearing green which does not score really high on the dress for success scales and no American Flag lapel pin. So this morning I got up and Googled Lapel Pins. And was surprised to find that there are any host of US leaders that have been caught without one.

President Reagan seems to be one of the first. But his presidency predated 9/11 and I am not sure if there were different rules for then. I was working for the Village Court during this pivotal point in our US history and I know that suddenly you were at risk of being hung as a traitor or at the least fired if you did not adorn every outfit and every ball cap with at least one depiction of Old Glory. As an ex-hippy that was constantly put down for sewing American Flag decals on jackets and pockets of jeans I found myself rather divided by this sudden emergence patriotic display. Were these often not righteous depictions of a symbol of the United States really disgracing it? There is never room for enough stars or stripes. And do we get into a snobbery of my lapel pin is real gold with enamel not paint debate.

They are all Made in China. So how very American is that?

But while surfing along through Google I was surprised to find the above photo of Senator John McCain without his requisite lapel pin. Probably there are a whole group of political photographers frantically searching their digital image files this morning to see if they can find GW without one. Does he wear one while chainsawing dead wood on his ranch?

He is a Texan and it has been my experience that all Texans wear the Texas state Lone Star on everything. And it is the major decoration for all cabins owned by Texans here in New Mexico. Do you wear the Lone Star Lapel pin above or below the US Flag lapel pin?

Ask me if I care? Frankly if the issues facing us Americans do not get some serious attention in the very near future then I will cease to be proud of this country. I already have to apologize for our president (lapel pin or no) to all foreign friends and visitors. So let's stop playing this picky, picky game of make wrong and try to address the real issues that concern us.

Bitter? Who isn't?

Hillary has been condemning Barack's comment about voters being bitter. Yes, we are. And the numbers seem to prove it. In a recent CNN poll 81% of Americans said our government is on the wrong track. This is the highest level of disconnect with politics and Washington in almost two decades!

And a full 78% say things have gotten worse in the last five years. But what is the most frustrating is that nobody in Washington seems to be listening. While all the economic and political pundits are searching for words to survive this "slow down" in our economy two thirds of Americans polled thing it is a recession and think it has been going on for a while already. The world bank recently revealed a study which showed that food prices around the world have risen 83% in the last three years and that now some 33 countries are facing a crisis with food prices. But GW Bush, the leader of a free and democratic world by his own titling, doesn't even know that gas will soon be at $4.00 a gallon or better here in the states while Iraq sits on huge stockpiles of oil that it won't even use to rebuild its own country.

OK, I get the Pottery Barn rule. We broke it so we pay for it. But GW went into this ill-advised and illegal war saying that Iraq's oil would fund it. We have now spent enough in that tiny country to totally fix Social Security or secure Medicare into the next half of this century or fund a universal health care system or repair and replace our aging infrastructure or research and develop alternate energy resources . . . the list goes on and grows by the minute . . . or's get replaced by and's.

Yes, we are bitter. What happened to Democracy begins at home? Not to mention charity? A recent report on a local TV channel said that the US government has promised our National Guard to replace all the equipment shipped to Iraq by 2013. That's five years! This equipment and our National Guard is used to fight wild fires on the grasslands and forest fires in the mountains. This year they had to go and rescue a community buried in record snows without an operating snowplow. They spent two days preparing to rescue people without food because the antiquated equipment GW did not want for Iraq needed tires, and mechanical fixes to make the trip.

Yes, we are bitter. And quite frankly I think that is the only sane way to be right about now. We have not only spent all the money that could fix this country but we have spent all the future money that could fix this country. Russia went bankrupt fighting the war in Afghanistan. We are so deeply in debt to China on the war in Iraq we have to make nice to a communist country that plans to change the weather for the Olympics. Don't they care that it might have climatic repercussions down jet stream? No. They don't care about Tibet, or our poisoned pets, or the lead paint in toys either. But GW will go to the opening ceremonies and honor them because we owe them money for a war we should never have gotten into.

I think Obama was spot on. We are bitter and we want something done about it. Until then we have our guns, and some their religion. And we just don't want anything given away to anyone else until we get our fair share. Obama's one mistake is he limited his comment to the blue collar workers. Doesn't matter what your collar color is we are all bitter.

Open Letter to the Democratic Party

That's it I am out of here. I am going down to my county office and re-registering as an Independent. The opening forays of the primary process was very encouraging but things have degenerated to the same awful political slime campaigns I hate. And I know where to place the blame.

And if you think the Democratic party is going to come together behind this candidate you have another think coming. I frankly am very closely watching who John McCain picks for his Vice Presidential running mate. And if I like him I am going there. Frankly there seems to be only one really wrong choice he can make; Secretary of State Rice. And not because she is a woman or black but because of her worship of GW Bush.

I think Hillary and her husband have played every single dirty trick in politics that is possible to play. And like GW she seems to have absolutely no conscious. She wants what she wants and she does not care a damn who she hurts. Reminds me a lot of Richard Nixon which historians now agree was a sociopath. Maybe President Clinton was like that too but he hid it better. Maybe all people that claw their way to positions of power are willing to do anything to get there. But what does that say of our leadership?

The more dirty tricks Hillary plays the more I would never vote for her, the more I would vote for anyone but, and the better Obama looks. Maybe this smear campaign she is on will betray her. Women love to rescue underdogs, especially the beaten and abused ones. Hillary is not a nice person.

And where has 12 years of Bush dynasty gotten us? Why would we want 16 years of a Clinton dynasty? I frankly think if Obama does not get the Democratic nod here we should launch him as an Independent candidate. It is about time this sick two party system comes to an end. It does not serve this country well. I don't know if it serves the people of this country AT ALL.

Are we racist and sexist? Yes.

I listened to parts of Obama's speech or racism yesterday and thought what I heard was well put together. I have no doubt, however, that there are people that think he is wrong. I don't.

After years of living in the south I moved back to my beloved New Mexico because of the cultural mix here. I remembered that the native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos got along great. I also immediately noted I hated the word Anglo. Research into my roots shows an ample amount of black Irish (Moors). And it bothered me that the Indians and the Hispanics get to make such a big deal about what they want to be called but I don't get a choice. I even hate those little boxes on census forms and applications. Went through a period of checking Other.

I moved to Questa where my husband and I were at the time only one of three "white" families and I got to experience "reverse racism." When Marc and I came to a splitting of the ways, in part because of the difficulty of living in that community, I moved to a largely "Anglo" community. Not because of the racism but because of the sexism.

Men seem to forget that women still do not have equal rights. The Equal Rights Amendment for women was never passed. The constitution of the US declares blacks as equal but not women. Sorry, Hillary. We still earn less, have to fight harder for better jobs, and are the following spouse where relocations are concerned. But that is just with the white male majority of this country. Make that fundamental Christian and women are suppose to wear skirts, follow their husband's dictates in all things, and home school the children. But any women into the Hispanic culture of say Questa and you will find she is considered owned by her husband to do with as he sees fit. Fine if he is a benign dictator. Not so fine if he considers discipline corporal.

I was considered a witch in Questa because I carried a gun into the forest on walks, and had the nerve to actually irrigate our fields. A single white woman that was my friend was considered a whore (punta) because no other woman would live alone without a man. On the Navajo Reservation the men ride in the cab of the pickup and the women in the back regardless of weather. No camping cover either. Even the dogs get front seat. In short, to this day, a woman's status in the United States defers to the status of her husband and the sub-culture to which he belongs. Would Hillary have gotten as far if Bill were a garbage collector? I don't think so.

We (the educated middle class and above) are all making noises about how wonderful it is to have a black man (hey, at least half white) and a woman run for the office of President of the United States. But come election day it will be the white males that will walk into the booth, and their wives voting as they have been told, and McCain will be our President. The third term of the Bush Presidency. We will still be in Iraq, the economy will still be in the pits, New Orleans will still not be rebuilt and Sexism, and Racism will be even more rampant because our dream of a New America was not realized.

If we are lucky there will be no rioting in the streets, women will not move out on their husbands, and we will be bought out by a benign country. Or we could try getting our shit together before that happens. You can only fix what it is you admit is broken. It probably is time for some honesty among the citizens of this country. We are here because we tried to pretend we were all equal before the law and each other. We aren't. Or that racism only goes one way. It doesn't.

I have to applaud Barack Obama for finally speaking out on this issue. We have swept it under the rug for entirely too long. We need to cast aside our differences and unite not only to end the repression of this current administration but to battle those problems facing the United States and the world that have no race or sex or religious boundaries. We are humans and we live on this planet together.

What are they thinking?

Obama made it clear last week that he was not open to taking the Vice-President slot. Why should the second place candidate offer the second place spot for the front runner as he put it. It is probably the only logical thing that happened in the political race this week. Geraldine Ferraro proved again that a woman in high office is maybe not a good idea. I'm a woman so do not shout sexism here. At this stage in our history women that fight to he top can be Barracudas, so maybe it not our time yet.

Course I think we have also seen evidence why self-proclaimed men of God should not run for higher office. And maybe with both him and Geraldine we have seen that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is heady times for both women and blacks. They are being taken seriously and unfortunately they are opening mouths and speaking before they think, and giving fodder to the white males supremacy folks.

People are accusing Obama for not shooting back at Hillary attacks, but I find I like that. It invalidates her remarks in a way that repudiating them does not. I don't know about Barack but I find myself in shock at some of the things that come out of the Hillary camp. "What in hell is she thinking?" Or is she thinking. I don't think Geraldine thought before engaging mouth. Or did Obama's former spiritual leader.

Still the candidates are not their friends and associates. And should they be painted to the same broad brush. But is it worse to have a campaign employee speak without direction or with direction? Is it worse that Geraldine ignored Hillary's directive about public remarks or that she followed Hillary's desires - direct or otherwise.

If you saw the movie Becket with Peter O'Toole as King Henry and Richard Burton as the Archbishop you will remember the scene where the King launches his lords off on a mission to kill his old friend. History is divided as to his intent. Did he just say the wrong thing at the wrong time or did he know what his words would create.

We have had too many years of open month and insert foot. And I frankly am in favor of a thoughtful individual that considers his power and his words and takes neither for granted. The more I see Obama under fire the better he looks. And I am inclined to take a negative view of those firing negative and mean-spirited salvos in his direction.

Those running for our top office in the United States are suppose to be our best and brightest. And they should show that they can surround themselves with a staff that reflects that same criteria. So let us get with it folks. Think.

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.

It just isn't funny anymore

GW has announced it plans to veto the congressional bill making water boarding illegal. He is fond of saying we are a nation of laws but he does not appear to like any of them or feel that he is bound to follow them. That he cheated himself into the highest office of the United States twice should have been our first clue.

I am so embarrassed. The positive feelings about the United States around the world have fallen to below 25%. And in a recent survey it seems that only Obama has any chance of restoring our favorable standing in the world. McCain and Hillary are seen by everyone including those in the United States as just more of the same.

So I had very split feelings when an Obama staffer called Hillary a monster. Yes, she should not have said it. It is not the politic thing to do even though I believe she s right and that Hillary has said worse about Obama. Only Obama and McCain seem to want to raise the bottom feeder level of politicians and politics in general. McCain will be four more years of Bush policies and yes, that means more torture, more suspension of our privacy and civil liberties. And we can count on Hillary to continue in the Senate being a monster. You can't fire me from any staff. And right at th moment I am considering resigning from the citizens of the United States. We used to be something to look up to. Now we are war mongering, torturing monsters.

I will again vote this election year. And if it is Hillary against McCain it will likely be Nader or some other third party candidate I vote for. Sorry Dean, but I do not like both Democratic candidates equally. I don't like one at all any more after she as lowered herself to play in the muck with the boys. If not voting for her puts McCain in office I will not feel guilty but I will start looking seriously for another country to move to.

Don't look at me. I'm lost.

I did not have a lot of time to devote to this yesterday but I did try and watch some of the political pundits make sense out of the March 4th primaries. You remember, those were the ones that Hillary had to win by large margins to stay in the race?

That seems to have changed. She got Ohio which once again had a voting irregularity. I am thrilled about that because Ohio and it's constant voting irregularities has taken a lot of attention off my state of New Mexico and the graveyard vote. She barely squeaked by in Texas primaries and if they ever finish the count (here again I am thrilled with this glitch because no one is looking at New Mexico and how long it took us to count after our super Tuesday caucus) Obama may well have won that one. They split Rhode Island and Vermont. But Hillary seems to be declaring that this all showed buyers remorse and she is the horse to back.

I think it merely shows that when she and the Clinton political machine (Remember Chicago and Mayor Daley? He was good because while he ran things New Mexico was only number two on dirty politics) get rolling on fear mongering they can do it better than the Republicans. I had such hope but clearly that counts for nothing. The Clinton's will snatch the election from Obama and I will be forced to back Hillary if I do not want a third term of George Bush with his stand in, John McCain.

All of which leaves only one question: Where did we go wrong? I wish it was as simple as a wrong turn in Albuquerque. But I greatly fear it was in having hope and once again trying to trust in the process of Democracy. I know it is not a democracy. I know the political system is broken. I know that relief organizations founded to help the poor and uninsured in the Amazon are now doing relief work outside Cleveland. But for just a tiny little minute there I had hope. Damn, I was doing so well without it. I wonder if the Iraqis feel the same?

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.

Is this our last chance for a woman president?

Now that my tax preparation is over I can get back to paying attention to the political races. We seem to have sunk from the silly season to the dirty season in the few days it has taken me to gather up my expenditure records and order them for my CPA.

Strange things have been happening. McCain says he had no idea who was introducing him. Or what the loose cannon was going to say. That would not be the politic thing to do. It is my understanding that everyone that speaks for a candidate is thoroughly vetted and told expliciatly what they can and cannot say. So he said what they told him to say so John could look grand with his apology? Maybe.

And frankly how involved is a candidate with his middle name? He didn't have an option at the time. Here here are a lot of Jesus's and even a few Jesus Cristo's but I am not about to assume they are willing to die on the cross. And New Mexico was the land of hippy communes so we have a plethora of Stars, Moons, Crystals. Have their parents ruined any chance they have of running for president in the future? My middle name is Marie. Would I be associated with the French Marie Antonette should I chose to run for public office?

But the one slimy campaign tactic which upsets me the most of late is that this is our one and only chance to elect a woman as president. And if we do not vote Hillary in now we will never get another chance to vote for a woman. This seems to be forwarded through many Hillary supporters as why all us women should support her and not Obama. Sorry but I just don't buy that. Not voting for Hillary does not mean I am against having a woman as president. Just this woman at this time.

I don't like that we are getting two for one. I think the world has changed a great deal since Bill held the office. And I believe too much of her energy would be taken up by shooing Bill out of the room. Hillary also has a few of the negatives I don't like to see in a woman in power - be it CEO or President. She can be shrill and domineering. There are times the derogative word Fishwife springs to mind.

And I wanted a woman as president because I thought they would bring a greater sense of humanity and compromise to the office. I do not see either of those qualities in Hillary. Especially since she is willing to let her campaign play the sex card. And she let Bill play the race card. She just does not reflect my values. Or the values I would like to see in a President of this country.