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.

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.