A quick review of recent news

I have a headline mind. I first noticed this in college when I would sneak off from the dorm with faked parental permission and then imagine disaster: College Coed found in Juarez Jail: Mother said she thought daughter was safe at college.

There does not seem much in my life that I can not reduce to a banner headline with caption.  And it appears that our busy lives means that even the news media is following my example.

• Dems start countdown toward health care vote
• Stevens considers retiring from Supreme Court
• Sandbags delivered ahead of expected Fargo flood
• Woman, son missing after van found on Wash. beach
• 2 wolves blamed in Alaska teacher's death killed
• Army drops bayonets, busts abs in training revamp
• Toyota dismisses Calif. man's runaway Prius report

I really have only a few questions I would like answered on these headlines: Is ex-governor, Sarah Palin, the one that shot the two wolves? And can spring be far behind if Fargo is already ordering sandbags? I already know that John Paul Stevens is the associate justice of the Supremes believed to be the leader of the liberal wing of the court. So retiring with a liberal president in office is a good move. And of course health care will be a fight to the wire because all people voting yea or nay have it already.

I am not interested enough in the missing woman and son on the Washington beach to follow the story further. They probably did something incredibly stupid. If further abandoned vans on beaches prove a serial killer in the area I may backtrack to this on Google. And of course, Toyota dismisses the California man's runaway Prius report. They are into denial, denial, denial. One of the amazing things about the disaster in Kansas City in the early 1980's when the Hyatt walkways fell and killed and maimed hundreds is that Hallmark, owner of the hotel, admitted guilt immediately. I guess those days are over. On to the Exxon Valdiz manner of handling things: Oil, what oil.

And the days of bayonets are gone too with the cavalry sword and horse. I suppose the Kevlar vest made them rather inefficient. And they don't mount well on the standard issue AK47's these days. Still a sad moment. But what is this about bust abs? Poorly written headline in my opinion. Probably just trying to lure in the entertainment news crowd with thoughts of Madonna.

 And that my friends is an in depth look at the news of the day. Go back to Facebook and enjoy yourself with who just planted potatoes in Farmtown.

One Bright Spot of Sanity

I noticed this morning that it had been a while since I had done a new post for Travels with Charley. So I went searching for something newsworthy that the talking heads had not masticated to death. And finally found myself totally out of the political realm.

Richard Wright, a 49 year old painter and muralist, has been awarded the Turner Prize. The Turner Prize is awarded annually to a body of work by an artist under 50, and born, living or working in Britain. I find it very hopeful that in an age of multiple wars, continuing threat of global nuclear anniliation, global warming, governors using jets to visit mistresses in a foreign country, wives taking after their mates with golf clubs, Barbie and Ken sneaking into the White House to get a reality tv show, and car bombs in Iraq that art is still being created and awards for it continue.

Why save the human race if there isn't art, music, literature, scientific discovery, higher callings, and thinking outside the box? If we are just squabbles on the Senate floor over health care, vain seeking of attention with potentially hazardous pranks, acquisition of wealth for the sake of acquisition only, murderous actions over differences in religion, power for the sake of seduction, and midnight fights over our mates indiscretions then set off the bombs. We are a waste of air.

I applaud Richard Wright. And the foundation that awards the Turner prize yearly. Let's follow their example and praise art and not war.

That said I think I am going to change the primary focus of this blog. No politics for the sake of politics. I will instead focus on news and issues that crave attention while the media runs endless retakes of Tiger Woods' predawn motor accident and Sarah Palin's electability in 2012. That isn't saying that I will not from time to time have something to say about Sarah (especially if she has an affair with Tiger) but I want to focus more on the positive in the news in 2010 and I might as well begin now.

What I Heard?

I watched President Obama's address to the joint session of congress last night on health care reform. Today all the talking heads and bloggers are taking apart his speech line by line. I read a few before tackling this blog. Yahoo News has one: What he said, what he meant. As if they know what he meant.

I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of his speech here. Nor am I again going to address the various health care plans. Been there and done that.

I have also attended more than one joint session of congress. As a spectator in the gallery when I lived in Washington, DC and worked for a US Senator. And quite frankly I was abhorred when Rep. Wilson (Republican of South Carolina) yelled out, "You Lie" in the middle of the President's speech. Bad manners. Democrats sat through eight years of GW Bush without once doing that. Admittedly his speaking style was so boring the opposition may have fallen asleep but nobody snored let alone heckled. For Shame!

I had fully intended to watch the Republican response but that little episode and the scowling faces of a handful of Republicans put quit to my interest to be bipartisan. Ram it through, Obama, I don't give a damn if they like it.

And would everyone please just grow up. Sarah Palin, GW Bush, and Cheney lowered the level in politics and nobody among the Republicans has been able to rise above it since. But please can't we at least have good manners?

Republicans Split?

Found the following interesting article this morning while browsing the web for political news:

The New York Post's Page Six reports that at a recent gathering of Republicans in mid-town Manhattan the other night, opinions were running almost universally against Sarah Palin:

NEW York Republicans are not too thrilled at the idea of Sarah Palin as their vice presidential candidate. The other night, private equity firm New Mountain Capital held a debate between James Carville and Karl Rove at Stone Rose in the Time Warner Center. When the moderator asked the 200 Republicans in the room how many were comfortable with Palin becoming president if something were to happen to John McCain, "only one man raised his hand," an attendee reports.

But here's the thing: If you convened a similar meeting of Republicans in Manhattan, Kansas, chances are they'd be in favor of Palin by a similar margin.

I believe Mike Murphy was the first to point out that Sarah Palin would be a "polarizing" choice, though he was talking about her impact on the general electorate.

But Palin has obviously ignited a split within a portion of the GOP as well. There are some Republicans - generally speaking, the upper class elites who live in the DC-NYC corridor - who are simply aghast at Palin and see her as a "fatal cancer" on the party.

But it's clear that the rank and file of the Republican party - generally speaking, the middle class folks who live in red states and don't have a problem shopping at Wal Mart - are smitten with Palin (judging by how they've been flocking to the rallies) in part because they see her as one of their own.

It has me wondering with McCain's age and iffy health issues and now Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama if there will not be other Republican defections in the voting booth.

There has been a lot of talk about the Bradley effect and whether people that publicly say they are voting for Obama will will let their secret racism carry the day inside the privacy of the voting booth. But now we have the possible Palin effect. Will a lot of Republicans in the west and east be unable to face putting Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Let's hope so.

Sticks and Stones

I grew up in an era where kids in my neighborhood were not so much bullied physically as verbally abused. We called it teased in those days. For reasons I have never fully understood I was teased mercilessly. I can remember any number of after school chats with one or both parents after coming home in tears. They tried to assure me that kids only teased me because they liked me. Yah!?

But it was a friend that taught me the rhyme, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," that helped the most. But words can hurt and do hurt as G.W. Bush proved in his last presidential election with the Swift boating ads, and his constantly calling Kerry a Flip-flopper. It certainly left a very bad taste in my mouth and put me back in those school yards with the verbal bullies. I am firmly convinced they did not like me.

Senator John McCain, perhaps to set himself apart from the Republican administration promised a civil campaign on the issues and then, sorry about this, Flip-flopped. He called in the big guns (Palin has killed moose and advocates killing wolves from airplanes) and went the route of schoolyard bullies everywhere. Even worse is that his nasty and underhanded rhetoric was inciting violence among his followers. He and Sarah were stirring up racial hatreds we all thought long buried. And was a lesson for me. Today if I had used that sticks and stones rhyme I would say it silently so people would not consider it a mandate to check it out.

To McCain's credit he did on at least once occasion try to nullify the hatred he was stirring up. Too little? Too late? Where will these stirred up radicals go or do if McCain loses? And it is beginning to look like he just might. Seems I am not the only independent thinker that was teased as a child. Polls show that the electorate is responding quite negatively to the nasty campaigning of Sarah Palin and John McCain. And they are in increasing numbers disparaged by McCain's choice of Sarah as attack dog.

These are serious times it seems. And the voters, especially those still sitting on the fence, want to hear some serious answers from the presidential candidates. They are abhorred by McCain's about face regarding his campaign, and no other single decision has more aligned him with the president we all love to hate, GW Bush. We don't want more of the same as we have endured the last eight years. And that goes for policies, campaign style, and lack of looking presidential. God, but I am sick of him leaning drunkenly on the podium!

So it seems that John McCain has seen the handwriting on the wall (national polls) and is trying to clean up his act. Tonight he has the opportunity to act like an adult in the debate unlike the little finger pointing brat of the last debate (boy, but it reminded me of my brother and that isn't good). The question is whether it is too little, too late. I hope so.

But I am most concerned about the damage his rhetoric has already done to race issues here in the United States. Once you set the dogs loose it is not that easy to call them back. Will we see a rise in hate crimes here in the US because of those things a schoolyard bully with national coverage said? I certainly hope not. Shame on you John McCain.

Less Than a Heartbeat?

A lot of doctors and interested parties have been calling for a complete release of Senator John McCain's medical records. He claims full disclosure. And sometime back he did hope some 400 or more pages of his medical history to a group of reporters for 45 minutes or less. Of the 22 reporters only two had medical degrees. Would you know where to turn in a medical file to find relevant information?

Or know at a glance what is relevant?

I have a sister who is a nurse and speaks in that medical jargon that at times leaves me dazed. And due to a very serious accident I got to spend a lot of time review a lot of my own medical records. Doctors speak in codes. You need to know the language to understand what you are reading. I spent hours on the Internet looking through sites such as Med Line trying to decode my own records.

Dr. S. Gupta of CNN was one of the doctor/reporters that was present during this "full-disclosure." At the time he said he saw nothing to be of concern but the medical records did not address McCain's mental health. He has since spoken of worrying signs that all is not okay with this aspect of the Republican candidate's health. Dr. Gupta is a neurosurgeon. McCain has crashed five airplanes and been beaten in a POW camp. He has suffered brain trauma.

So maybe the four melanomas coupled with his age is not the only thing to be concerned about. Those two factors put him with a 1 in 6 chance of dying within the next five years on the actuary charts that insurance companies use. This alone puts Sarah Palin uncomfortably close to being president of the United States. She already thinks it is the Palin/McCain ticket.

But perhaps even more worrying is McCain's erratic behavior and mental slips. He has some classics that I am frightfully aware of because of my closed brain trauma (CBT) six years ago. His repeating of a tag line or information multiple times in a speech and not for effect, bad temper when being question, not finishing sentences and substitution of any word that begins with the same letter, and not being able to remember the make of his car or how many homes he owns are not just "senior moments." As posted on Firedog: A McCain Brain Watch site they are indications of failing short term memory and memory of memorized or frequently accessed memory.

Deficits in these two areas impair your ability to make decisions or to access all the information necessary to make an informed decision especially when stressed or tired. This is critical with that 3 a.m. call on the redphone at the White House.

I can fully relate. For the first few years after my head injury I could come up for appropriate plans to go away for another MRI only by putting each necessary task on a 3 x 5 card and then spreading those cards around my dining room table and trying to put them in the proper order. My CBT has gotten better. And obviously for a period of time so did John McCain's. But I would never subject myself to the stress of running for high office or presume I could be President of the United States. I am fully aware of my limitations. And the prognosis for the future.

CBT puts you at greater risk of stroke, cerebral bleeds, Alzheimers, dementia, and inability to function when stressed or exhausted. It makes you quick tempered when you cannot perform to your expectations of yourself. Coupled with melanoma and his age it is not a pretty picture. But that is assuming the lapses in McCain's memory are due to the CBT and not cancer which has spread into his brain as in the instance of Senator Ted Kennedy.

So maybe it is really a Palin/McCain ticket. It has me worried enough that I have been doing research on what happens if McCain dies before the election, after the election but before the Electorial College vote, after the EC vote but before the confirmation of the vote by the House of Representatives, after that and before the inaugration. Even if I was a Republican (and I have even worked for a Republican Senator in my past) I would be totally unwilling to take the risk of voting for this ticket.

The Non-Answer Answer

I watched the debate last night. After the CBS interview with Palin that went so horribly wrong how could you not? And as circumstances happened I was pet sitting for a neighbor and went there to watch it on a real television.

And this morning I have been up reading the early media comments and blogs on the subject. Most put Senator Joe Biden as winner but some say Palin won in that she did not fall flat on her face.

She has obviously been heavily coached in the last couple of weeks and spent a lot of time reading from her notes on the podium. She also fell back on the non-answer answer that politicians have so mastered. When she did not have an answer to the question posed by the moderator she substituted an answer to a question not asked. In a college debate forum she would have lost points. Seriously lost points.

As it was she did lose points with CNN's panel of likely voters for her colloquialisms. I frankly would have slammed her for the winks and those cutesy little wiggles of her head that teenage girls do when trying to curry favor with the boys. But she is not a laughing stock of YouTube like she was after the Katie Coric interview. But she also did not provoke Biden into attacking her even when toward the end she resorted to giggles while he was answering the questions. I frankly would have slapped her and said, "Grow Up. This is serious business." I hate women that want to play on a level playing field with men and then resort to female tricks that should be beneath us even when dating.

But what was really interesting in the analysis afterwards is that most people thought she hurt McCain. Not satisfied with the Mayor-Governor-Vice President accession she was trying to position herself for a 2012 run for President. God Save the Queen. We may need to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Brits again. "Sorry, your majesty, we apologize for that tea party thing a couple centuries back. Just take control again, please."

But Joe Biden made me proud. He gave answers to the moderator's questions and stayed on subject. But I was especially for his closing statement. While Palin fell on canned campaign rhetoric (much stolen from the Obama campaign) the Senator spoke from the heart. I almost stood up from the couch and waved the flag.

Please Excuse Johnny from School

I, and all the late night comedians, cannot believe that John McCain has canceled his campaign because of the economic crisis. He asked for the meeting with Bush. He also only caused havoc with the bailout plan once he got involved. Currently it looks as if he is willing to deep six a bipartisan agreement in both houses just to prove he is not GW Bush. Or to take credit for the bill that is finally passed?

Or could Johnny just be totally unprepared for the debate? It was suppose to be on foreign policy his strong suit but when he canceled Obama maintained that this was the time Americans needed to see their future leaders. And any future leader ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. So why not change the topic of the debate to economics? Something McCain knows little about per his statement but enough he has to run home to Washington to shape the discussion. Or protect his fat cat friends like he did Keating in the Savings and Loan debacle of the previous Bush?

He said he was canceling all campaigning because of this crisis but all his negative smear ads are still running. He canceled Letterman but did an interview with Katy Curic. He wanted Obama and him to make a joint announcement about the suspension and then jumped the gun and did one on his own without waiting for a reply. In that he said he would continue the debate if an agreement was in place by Friday and it could have been. It looked like it yesterday afternoon. McCain screwed the pooch.

If this whole thing is a campaign ploy or trick because of falling poll numbers it is ill conceived and even the Republicans don't understand what he is doing. And risking the world's financial stability because of a few points in the polls sounds very GW Bush. Very egotistic.

But could there be another explanation. Is Johnny sick? Walter Reed Hospital is in the DC area. I imagine his doctors are either there or in Arizona. Going back home during a crisis plays even less well then going to Washington where until he had Bush call the meeting he was not needed and not even wanted.

Given the concerns about his age and health he cannot call the campaign and the debate off just to stay home sick for a couple days. And while Obama can go to DC to meet with he President and leave Biden to his campaign appearances, John cannot let Palin off on her own. So he obviously does not have confidence in her stepping into his shoes on the campaign trail. How can we believe in her to step into the presidency?

And how is Johnny's health? I think not good.

Derailments

Derailments seem to be in the news lately. Like the commuter train in Los Angeles that hit the freight train. They are now looking at engineer inattention due to text messaging.

And the pick of Senator McCain for his VP of Sarah Palin seems to have derailed the campaigns of both him and Obama. McCain said he was going to run an honest and serious campaign with no lies and swift-boating but that has changed. Obama seems to be walking the thin rail between defending himself against those lies and not taking advantage of a woman that is dissing him every chance she gets.

Meanwhile us voters, who are facing financial crisis after financial crisis, would like some discussion of the issues of the economy. And definitely no more Bush policies on any level. We are paying billions monthly for our efforts in Iraq and now that country is making a deal to sell its oil to China instead of paying us back. Yeah, GW lied and this war was about oil and not WMD but seems he gets derailed on that too.

And it hits me yesterday that even this blog has been derailed. On an immediate level it has been turned from its focus on politics to becoming a forum on religious bias. But I derailed it when I opened my blogs to politics at all. It was suppose to be about my art and my poetry and link to my business website. And my first blogs are that. Then I decided to post some blogs about the primary process which is confusing.

For a while I considered hijacking my blog back but I began to enjoy myself here discussing the politics of the season and can see in the future that I might want to continue in a like vein on issues and bills and the actions of politicians (i.e. I don't think they are public service oriented anymore but professionals after money and glory). So I found myself missing the blog that this one used to be before it was derailed by me. Yeah, I was probably text messaging when the red light flashed and I passed the point of no return.

So I have opened a new blog here: Creative Journey. It will definitely be about art and poetry and the creative process. I am going to make every effort to avoid derailment even though it is fair to say artists hardly have a one track mind. But I have three blogs now (my first was Yahoo! 360 ) and that should allow enough diversity for any eccentric thinker.

Okay, that's it!

For those of you that have not read my Y!360 blog I am reposting this.

I ran across this little tidbit about Governor Palin of Alaska while surfing the net for the latest news. And in my opinion this one issue over-rides all other considerations that might arise. This entirely puts quit to the issue of who I will vote for this election. I confess to being a bleeding heart liberal when it comes to the treatment of our animal friends.

I am not against humane hunting. But I also believe in a natural balance. This is not natural. Besides it is just not wolves. I think she has stated that she does not believe Polar Bears are endangered. So what's next? She approves aerial shooting of baby bears? If she is elected vice-president she gets to set national policy about this sort of thing.




Oh, by the way other states in the past have put bounties on animals. It never works. A neighboring state of New Mexico did it with coyotes once back before animal rights organizations could check ranchers on issues. And it was a pair of ears you brought in to some state official to receive your check for $15. They were so successful at eliminating this "hunter of baby lambs" for the ranchers that there really weren't any. In the next couple of years the population of rabbits bloomed as it were. And their grazing eliminated the grass the sheep eat.

State officials contacted New Mexico to see if we would give them some coyotes. We sold them some which at the time was for about $150 each. It was a costly program for the state and ranchers but especially for coyotes and sheep.

What state you ask? Why McCain's state. Given his age he may have even been senator then.

Would you trust this Woman?

To be the coach of your child's soccer team? Never mind President of the United States. And if you elect John McCain that is what she could be in a heart beat.

The even more pivotal question here is do you trust the man that picked her? Do you trust him to pick other really key players in the running of our government like Secretary of State. Maybe Brittney Spears? Madonna for Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare? Paris Hilton for Homeland Security?

I definitely don't trust McCain's vetting staff. They missed a pregnant and unmarried 17 year old family member. And they are suppose to be the party of family values. Remember they want to eliminate most forms of birth control, all abortions, and have kids be celibate until married. Well, Bristol Palin failed that one. An Mummy clearly cannot manage five kids. She is going to keep our country safe from terrorists?

And how compassionate is she to accept this nomination that has thrust her 17 year old daughter, 5 mouths pregnant and unmarried, into the national spotlight. Or leaving the care of a 4 1/2 month old child to a pregnant teenager while on the campaign trail.

So do we really want this woman as Vice-President of the United States: A heart beat away from leader of the free world? John McCain in 72 years old and with a history of health issues. And let us not forget he was a prisoner of war. Yes, he has a distinguished service history, but on the whole prisoners of war don't live as long as people that were never imprisoned, starved, tortured, deprived of exercise. And there is the melanoma. But I don't think he is thinking straight.

This is what I would expect of Groucho Marx not someone that is running for president of the United States. Maybe he is just grooming his third wife? But the really, really, really scary part of this whole Palin business is nobody in his staff could talk him out of it. Richard Nixon was a loose cannon that did what he wanted even when it smacked of the Third Reich. And GW Bush has invaded any country he has wanted to (though in all fairness I think some of his key staff wanted that too - did they think they were playing a war game). Are we going from cowboy diplomacy to playboy diplomacy?

Should the worst happen and we lose a president to assassination or natural causes I would much rather Joe Biden than Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin. You?