Smart Counts Again

Congrats to Barack Obama.

Short On Trust

What on earth could happen next with this election. It must be a heck of a difficult time for the people in the media who sort the news and decide what should be covered and how much. I'm sure questions abound like how hard should we look into Rick Davis's recent involvement with his own lobbying firm. It calls so loudly to follow the money.
But with the shocking suspension of Sen. McCain's campaign and all? First and foremost, better not appear biased. Maverick McCain putting his country first does sound pretty good. Let's just see where this trail goes and we can always double back for the rest of that Rick Davis story. Then again he is Sen. McCain's campaign manager. Oh dear, who's idea was it to suspend the campaign?
Friday, 9/26: What Rick Davis story was that?
Some people get bailed out by luck and some people create their own luck.

Karl Rove Creationism

I know that this appears trivial but it is classic Rovean politics and since nobody else seems to have mentioned it, I will. Yesterday Sen. McCain, during a speech, said he heard that Sen. Obama's advisers were happy with the financial crisis and that it would help their candidates chances. This drew a big reaction from the crowd. And if true it should have. In my mind I tried to imagine what had taken place and frankly, how could a campaign be so foolish. I thought about Sen. McCain adviser Charlie Black, famously saying that a terrorist attack would help the McCain campaign. But Charlie Black is sort of a loose cannon and from him you never know what to expect.
The Obama people are much smarter than that. So I wondered who was it that said such a thing.
Well, I searched and searched and here is all that I could come up with. Breitbart reports,

McCain aides: Obama 'cheerleading' Market. Top aides to Republican John McCain are claiming Democrat Barrack Obama and his advisers are exploiting Wall Streets financial problems for political gain. Aide Steve Schmidt, who worked for the Bush-Cheney team in 2004, told reporters Thursday aboard McCain's plane that Obama is "cheerleading this crisis." He said McCain is seeking a bipartisan solution although Schmidt and aides Mark Salter and Nicolle Wallace also said Democratic congressional leaders should be condemned for considering adjourning without addressing the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the sale of Merril Lynch and the emergency government loan to insurer AIG. The aides say the Arizona Senator will make the same criticisms during his speeches.

Ok, first of all there is a connection between Breitbart and Matt Drudge of the right leaning Drudge Report where this story appeared. Breitbart looks far and wide to provide Drudge with what he is looking for. And although written by an AP writer, the story's incoherence and obvious lack of scrutiny is appalling.
But most important here is that Steve Schmidt is as close to Karl Rove as one can get. So the protege, borrowing from the masters playbook, creates a story out of thin air. Then Sen. McCain repeats it in a speech like it is true. But the bold face in the bold face lie belongs to Karl Rove.
So how many voters made up their mind yesterday because they heard something that sounds this revolting? Steve Schmidt knows and he'll keep doing it until it doesn't work anymore.

With Friends Like That...

I've been wanting to say something about Carly Fiorina since she became involved with the McCain campaign. I lived near Sacramento for several years and my next door neighbor worked for Hewlett Packard. I don't remember exactly what his title was but he was a mid-level manager in product development and he traveled to Denver frequently and occasionally to France. The period we were neighbors was from 1992 until 2001.
Our homes were on 3 acre parcels with distance between and I also traveled a lot so we didn't speak regularly but over the years we had many over the back fence type conversations.
I clearly remember that he had little use for Carly Fiorina. She became CEO of Hewlett Packard in July of 1999 and I left the area in April of 2001 but in that short period he shared his criticisms many times about what she had done to the company. Generally he blamed her for how bad things had become.
Of course to be fair, this is anecdotal information and it is entirely possible that he was on the wrong end of some reorganization or something. But from his vehemence I took away that there was something to his complaints.
There are other indications that she was not as skilled as she could have been. One thing is that the company stock was cut in half from the time she arrived until the time she left. Again to be fair the technology bubble burst during this time. But Hewlett Packard isn't exactly a risk prone dot-com company and Fiorina did not leave until 2005. She had the time necessary to affect a recovery.
But perhaps the strongest indication that stockholders were not pleased with her is that when she announced her resignation the stock jumped 7%.
In fact there is plenty of evidence that she was at minimum divisive and a highly controversial figure.
Fast forward to yesterday and we see that she still possesses some of those same characteristics. She said that Gov. Palin was unqualified to be CEO of a major corporation. No doubt this was a strange comment but then she tried to fix it by saying that none of the candidates for VP or President were qualified. Unbelievable. Who is she working for anyway?
She has said other odd things but this one might just take the cake. This goes directly to the 2008 election gaffe hall of fame. I'll put this on par with Gedaldine Ferraro saying that the only reason Sen. Obama is where he is today (around the time he became the presumptive democratic nominee) is because he is black. Or call it neck and neck with McCain economic adviser, Sen. Gramm saying, you've heard of mental depression, this is mental recession...we have sort of become a nation of whiners. Though for my money the real doozy award goes to another McCain adviser, Charles Black, who said about Gov. Palin's lack of foreign policy experience, "She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long.
So once again I have some questions. Why on earth would he pick Carly Fiorina and what does this say about Sen. McCain? What does this say about who he would select to fill his cabinet?
I got the feeling that had she continued her thought that it may of sounded something like, hell, I couldn't even run a major corporation, you think these bozo's can?

Getting To Know The Republican Base

I was talking to a home schooling Evangelical Christian fellow yesterday that I have become friendly with. He indicated that he was pleased with the selection of Gov. Palin for VP. We talked about a number of related issues and as I had previously been made aware, he said that abortion and gay marriage are by far the most important issues for him in this election. If it isn't clear yet, I am pro-choice because I'm old enough to remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade and about gay marriage, I couldn't care less.
I'm one that has never quite understood how an irrational willingness to wage war and an unwillingness to accept any form of gun control can co-exist with a pro-life opinion. But what do I know?
The more we talked the more I realized that he was exactly what the calculation to select Gov. Palin was all about.
Discussing the respective campaigns it was obvious that as long as his candidate is solidly pro-life and defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, nothing else really mattered that much. As I was to find out, the ethics involved in running a campaign was just simply not that important.
After I had given him plenty of time to talk, I was curious and seeing a limited opportunity I began to open up the possibility of a different perspective. I started by pointing out for example that Sen. McCain had not been truthful the day before when he said on the television show, The View, that Gov. Palin had not received earmark funding as Governor. I said, in fact, she will receive 256 million this year. I also pointed out that Gov. Palin told ABC's Charlie Gibson, touting her energy credentials, that Alaska provides 20% of the U.S. supply of energy when in fact the number is 3.5%. Then I told him that she had just told her son and fellow soldiers who were heading to Iraq, that they were being sent to protect us from the people who carried out the attacks on 9/11. I said, another falsehood.
He wasn't having any more of this and said, what's wrong with soliciting and receiving earmarks? To his surprise I said, nothing, I would expect my Governor to go after every penny available. Pork barrel rules do need to be changed but until they are it's fair game. He looked confused. I said, this is not about that, it's about lying to become President. Surely your religion teaches you that lying is wrong.
About Iraq, he said that it hadn't been proven that they weren't involved in 9/11. I said, yes it has. Then he went into this whole-all is fair in love and war-type of counter argument and says that both sides are as guilty as the other.
Well, I quickly realized that I was never going to convince him of what I do strongly believe, that the McCain campaign has run a much more deceptive and dirty campaign.
To change the subject I asked if he had seen Saturday Night Live. He said he hadn't but he did catch the Gov. Palin/Sen. Clinton bit on line and he thought it was very funny. Then he surprised me by saying that he couldn't believe that people in the McCain campaign thought it was disrespectful. Then adding that this was what satire is all about and what about that New Yorker cover with Barrack Obama and his wife as terrorists? Talk about disrespectful he said, did you know that there was even an American flag burning in the fireplace on that cover. I hadn't thought about it until then but it was an excellent point and I told him so. Then he said, you know, except for a few big issues I bet you and I don't see things all that differently. I said, I'm not so sure about that.

This Ain't Top Dead Center

Senator Obama listen up. You may not think they're in your head so let's try and explain it in a different way. Let's just say that the Rovean approach is to get under the hood of your car.
There is something under there called ignition timing and it has to do with an exact moment when gasoline vapor is compressed and spark plugs fire. If it occurs at the right moment your car runs great. This moment can be adjusted to either side of what is called, top dead center, or TDC. Depending on how much your timing is set away from TDC your car runs more and more poorly or even not at all. Karl Rove has taught his disciples to do whatever it takes to keep your car adjusted off of TDC. And if I may say so, they're doing a pretty good job of it right now. In Simpler terms-they are driving the debate or how about starting a lot of fires they know you'll try to put out.
Surely you have someone on your staff to remind you that under the circumstances you shouldn't try colloquialisms that have anything to do with pigs right now. Remember when Sen. Clinton, refusing to back out of the race and explaining why, mentioned one too many times that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the month of June. People were appalled because she uttered the assassination word. She needed that same person on her staff to.
I know you have plenty of people around you who could take on a little more responsibility. That same person could have given you a much better line like, do you know what the difference is between President Bush or Vice President Cheney and Gov. Palin? Lipstick. Now, that one may have worked. Maybe even to fix the lipstick on a pig comment.
I realize that you are terrified of swift-boating but your situation is much different. Unless I'm mistaken there doesn't seem to be a lot of people in your past that are going to come forward to attack you. I know a guy who went to school with you in Hawaii and says nothing but nice things about you and this seems to be the general impression of everyone. Besides, you would know by now if there were any such people in the wings.
Remember, it is not dirty politics to discuss your opponents shortcomings. For example most people realize that "drill baby drill" is not a long term energy policy. And many agree with the Alaska Wildlife Alliance who said that Sen. Palin's philosophy is "cut,kill,dig and drill." In fact I think that you need to dust off, re-assert and be proud of a few principles of the democrat party and the environment might be a safe place to start.
Also, please stop explaining things in such detail. The crowd your trying to win over at this point has a limited attention span and thinks they're hearing re-distribution of wealth every time you go near economic fixes. You need quick pulses like, you'll bring tax relief to 95% of Americans. While we are here, please drop the neighborly talk, you already have the vote of the people with heart strings. And on the ethics front, another pulse might be, Sen. McCain has 159 lobbyist working on his campaign and you have none. At some point you may want to point out that your Vice Presidential nominee is not under investigation for abuse of power and that Alaska's Department of Public Safety Administrator, Dan Spencer said, that ebay thing didn't work out very well.
To combat McCain's veteran status how about contrasting your work on veterans legislation with his.
Finally, you can marvel at how dirty they are or you can marvel at how well they play the game, It's up to you.
One more point on energy. You need to make people realize that this isn't some gift that Alaskans are willing to bestow on the lower 48. This week every man woman and child in Alaska will receive 3269.00 dollars just for living there. This goes a long way to explain Gov. Palins approval rating but more so explains that they won't bite the hand that feeds them. Alaska's a red state with 3 electoral votes, you can afford to piss them off a little. The bloom on Gov. Palin's rose will begin to wilt soon and you should be ready to pounce because it's your turn to get them off of top dead center.

Gov. Palin's Speech

Nice job reading a speech. Sen.Obama wrote his, there's a big difference. They even tried to say her tele-prompter wasn't working properly to leverage it's remarkableness (which has been proven false by people who could see it).
Madison avenue could learn a thing or two from this event. It was like watching a good TV commercial. Unfortunately it wasn't subject to truth in advertising laws. In fact it had nothing to do with the truth.
But most disturbing was that it was completely unhitched from the heavy load of the issues. Sen. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis said it, the campaign has become one of personality over issues.
So there you have it, the McCain campaigns final act; people vote from their gut and not from their brain. Among the faithful, the truth being a nuisance, scores will resort to their comfort level and vote unwittingly for more of the same.
Fortunately the faithful is perhaps 35 percent of voters in this country so now the Obama campaign has to remind those who will listen that issues are how this contest should be decided and then they should work toward bringing Gov. Palin down to size. You may not be able to attack John McCain's risk taking behavior because his war record shields him from such criticism but the sexism or gender shield shouldn't hold for her. It's hard for a moose hunting moose eating woman to have it both ways.
They must shoot holes in her claims about what she has accomplished. It simply is not what she claims. There is solid stuff like Alaska has the lowest high school graduation rate in the nation. Or her 80 percent approval rating may have something to do with the 1200 dollars she gave each Alaskan due to the increased share of oil profits. And this is on top of the over 2000 dollars each Alaskan (children included) receives each year from oil profits from the permanent fund. Now you see why she's so hell bent on exploiting every drop of Alaskan oil.
Of course there's trooper gate and the bridge to nowhere flip flop where she managed to still receive the money. Or her beginning as mayor of Wassilla when it had no debt then leaving it 22 million in debt. She was on the receiving end of plenty of pork-barrel funds and had a relationship with the federally indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. They need to expose the good fortune of her being governor when the spike in oil prices flooded the State coffers with cash. Her veto pen wielding fiscal conservative reputation is also not at all what it seems.
There is plenty more that needs to be researched but what can't remain to stand is that somehow her life experience is in any way more preparatory than Sen. Obama. The whole band wagon now calls her government positions executive experience and somehow superior to Sen. Obama.
To start with, practically speaking, I have always found that when you come up through the ranks you work harder and learn more than the people who through good fortune manage to miss the thankless and tedious part of the career path. Once you do get to the top, under normal circumstances by earning it, it's a relief and an easier job because you now have the power to make a decision without having to convince the world first. But you can get there in other ways, like in an election.
The idea that her charmed life in Wassila Alaska with a good family that resulted in a B.A degree, beauty pageants, working in her husbands business, a stint as a sports announcer , a PTA member, City Councilwoman, Mayor and Governor, voted in by 114,000 voters, somehow constitutes more experience than Sen.Obama, is beyond ridiculous. Senator Obama lived off food stamps and without a father, he was schooled in Indonesia, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Columbia University and Harvard Law School where he received his J.D. and where he was the first black President of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a civil rights lawyer at a Law Firm and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law school. He served 7 years as a State Senator then was elected in 2006 to the U.S Senate.
But what did Gov.Palin mention repeatedly? His role as a community organizer which she mocked as being less important than her mayorial role. Sen. Palin might want to take a trip to Chicago's south side for some perspective before comparing her sun-kissed life to his. He volunteered for this work in poorer economic times. Her volunteer work was at the PTA.
But it's not surprising that she wouldn't know what a community organizer did when a month ago she said to Larry Kudlow of CNBC, "as for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you I still can't answer that question until somebody answer's for me what exactly a VP does every day..."

Is She Enough?

I think enough time has passed for me to comment on John McCain's V.P choice. When I have strong feelings about something I tend to allow a waiting period to send emotions packing while I call all thoughts back to the brain for a little meeting before I speak. But to my surprise I don't see it any differently now than I did when I first heard it. I'll reach up high on the shelves of over used and worn out transitive verbs for this one and go with flabbergasted.
Initially, I thought Sen. McCain must know a lot that I don't. But since all I knew was that she was the pretty Governor from Alaska who was attempting to clean up some wrongdoing by politicians in her state, I figured of course he would. Unfortunately, relative to qualifications for her new job, the answer was nope, that's about it.
Instead, what has rushed into the information void are things like she has completed less than half a term as Governor, an investigation into abuse of power, a for-before I was against, flip-flop about the bridge to nowhere touted in her V.P. acceptance speech, a mother-in-law who is undecided whether or not she will vote for a McCain/Palin ticket who adds, "I don't know what she brings to the ticket other than being a woman and a conservative." There are bruising appraisals of her V.P. potential from the Alaska press and among others, a line from the Alaska State Speaker of the House who, when asked about her qualification, replied, "She's old enough- she's a U.S citizen." To be fair this may be sour grapes resulting from her house cleaning efforts but it is surprisingly difficult to find positive appraisals at the local level.
Of course from the McCain camp there is no shortage of glowing commendations but listen to what McCain top adviser Charles Black said, "She's going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years and most doctors think that he'll be around at least that long." What can you say to that?
In fairness to Gov. Palin there is no disputing that she has accomplished a great deal in her life. She has much to be proud of. But she has now climbed onto an entirely different stage with an audience that's gone from 700,000 to over 300 million, and I happen to be one of the latter.
Call me cynical but I just don't get all that assured by looking at her early life, her education, her success in beauty pageantry or sports reporting. Her service in city government may be qualifying if the city was Los Angeles or even Anchorage but I've been to Wassila and like all rural politics, becoming the big fish in a small pond is not all that remarkable. In fact all politics in Alaska can be called small town and Gov. Palins service in Wassila may have prepared her adequately for the governorship but the real question is does she posses the skills necessary to be the Vice President of the United States?
I think it's worth mentioning here that Alaska, with a population of 700,000, is physically larger than the next three largest states of California, Texas and Montana which have a combined population of 62 million.
I have experienced the largeness of Alaska with trips out of Fairbanks in bush planes and on the Yukon traveling to distant remote villages. Why is this important? Because it is one way, without going into great detail, to help explain what defines Alaskans and it contributes to how they view the world. Alaska just feels limitless and unrestricted and I see a lot of this manifested in Gov. Palin. It is reflected in her confidence about her positions on the issues of our time. It has served her quite well but has she been shaped by a place that matches up well with the lower 48?
Take issues like immigration? Smart young people leaving state is a greater concern to Alaskans. Pollution? Too much land, not enough people. Taxes? They receive far more money from lower 48 tax payers than they pay. They even receive over 2000 dollars each per year (including children) from oil revenue. Energy? There is a lot of it and finding and selling as much as possible is a self-serving economic goal. Terrorism? About as safe as it gets. Crime and drugs? Alcohol and drug abuse is a scourge and per capita crime statistics rival the rest of the country. There is even gang violence in Anchorage but still a stretch to compare it with major cities of the lower 48. Gun control? not on your life. Ethics in government? She maybe the cleanest, but from a very dirty house. The Iraq war? It's God's will so more of the same. Foreign policy? Sen. Palin has absolutely None. The Economy? Apples and oranges. Alaska lives in a distorted reality, awash in oil profits.
So is this just a pro-Obama/Biden rant about anyone that McCain selected? I like to think it is more objective than that. In fact among the people mentioned on the "short list" I could have easily been silenced. They got the gender right but It should have been the one with gravitas like Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Finally, I do worry that Gov. Palin would be out of touch with what this country really needs at this time. An Anchorage Dailey News reporter called her career "sun-kissed," which doesn't seem to be the right credentials for dealing with the problems which will face the next administration.

Mono A Mono

Now we've got a fight. Senator Obama clearly gave a terrific nomination acceptance speech. For heaven's sake, Chris Wallace, Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer even said so. If this isn't confirmation, what is?
It was beautiful and complete and most important he convinced me that in fact he is a formidable force who could throw a punch if the time came.. It must feel like some surreal out of body journey for him but last night, being finally able show himself to the world, he stepped up and scored big.
Remember that each of us is dealt a hand of cards in life. If you think that being black in this country doesn't amount to a few low cards then your kidding yourself. Add the interracial aspect, no father and no money and your ready to fold before you begin. Sen. Obama though, was dealt a few kings, maybe even an ace by having a good external image, a good mother and grandparents and a head on his shoulders. He stayed in the game but to do so he had to play his cards just right. The little intro film before he spoke may have given a clue about the source of a part of him--his reticence.
He said the only time his mother got mad was when she observed cruelty to others. And to her son she said, when people are mistreated, imagine standing in their shoes. This, working together with the don't be too uppity pledge that many African-Americans must take to succeed, could well of suppressed Obama's desire to engage. But it wasn't born from an emotional fear, it was a tried-and-true intellectual one.
Many instances along the way served to reinforce the relative safety of his reticence place. Recall his early "your likable enough Hillary" comment to Senator Clinton. Hardly a serious attack but success in Iowa came to a screeching halt in New Hampshire, reportedly due to this comment.
Maybe the campaign has finally adjusted to running against a man. A standard that sports served to normalize, where man on man rules nearly ignore black man on white man rules of yesteryear.
Well, to say the least Senator Obama did play his cards right and now has raked in about half the chips. The other half, ironically, may only be won if the full and genuine man emerges and that's what I hope we saw last night.

Well Done Convention But Get Ready

No thoughtful and objective person could believe that the speeches we heard from Michelle Obama, Brian Schweitzer, Senator Clinton, Senator Kerry, President Clinton and Senator Biden were not superb. As usual the hours of analysis, produced commentary that lost it's moorings. But the few remaining unaffected and unbiased media people scattered across the network and cable outlets did get it right and found that the speeches did all they could politically for the Democratic party.
So, even as the Republican party worked hard through ads, surrogates and party friendly media to interfere, it seems that the democrats will come out of their convention in fairly good shape. Senator Obama should dazzle the crowd as usual tonight and in the process have put together a nifty little organization in Colorado and beyond in the critical west.
So why don't I feel as excited as I possibly should? Simply because the Obama juggernaut was stalled by the efforts of the McCain campaign over the last month or so and they are working very hard to do it again.
The addition of Senator Biden will help to deliver whatever strategy they intend to use but the campaign itself must provide that strategy.
The problem is that this campaign has put it's bet down on the high road approach. Please don't think that I believe that they should wallow in the mud with McCain's Rovean warriors but there is a mile between the respective campaigns tactics. There is plenty of room to be aggressive or on offense or proactive if that feels better, without being dirty. The Republicans will continue to drive the debate unless the Obama campaign gets some surrogates out there willing to win at a cost greater than what their willing to afford right now.

Be On Offense And Drive The Debate

This is the Republican mantra. Make no mistake about it.
All the cogs are beginning to turn and don't forget they are very good at what they do. They have been at this for a very long time and they do this for what in their minds are principled reasons but, the soldiers also know that there are millions to be made and vast new avenues for networking for future deals. Add it all up and there are plenty of reason for the McCain team to start unbolting the kitchen sink.
One sure sign that the time has come is that Harold Simmons, the Texas billionaire and McCain campaign fund raiser, has started a non-profit group called American Issues Project to finance ads against Obama. Yep, same guy who funded ads attacking John Kerry's military service in 2004.
With this kind of horsepower it's no wonder that they can put the Democrats in a defensive posture which for all intents and purposes is them "driving the debate." The Obama camp takes the logical step by looking at what the Kerry campaign did wrong, then launches counter attacks and guess what--they look defensive. This is why the Carville's and Gergan's and Buchanan's of the world keep begging for red meat. The Obama camp needs to take it to the enemy. They need to abandon the "above the fray" mentality that the American people object to dirty politics. The bottom line is that the America People don't somehow live outside of the boundaries of human nature. And if your losing, human nature says bring out the biggest guns you got.

Dear Sen. Obama

Your first momentous decision, the selection of Sen. Biden for your running mate is for me enormously fulfilling. Shamelessly I must mention that I made this hopeful prediction on June 12, 2008. I gave my reasons at that time. How you exactly came to this decision, we may never know for sure but if you can keep up the good decisions, I'll make another prediction, you just might become the next President of the United States. Btw, the best line of the event in Springfield was Senator Biden saying, "These times require more than a goor soldier, they require a wise leader." All the pieces are in place, now make it reality.

You Never Stop Earning Trust

There are a lot of addictions out there and not too many people would argue that one of them is an addiction to trust, but I'm going to risk the wrath of God himself and stick my neck way out there and ask, why are we going to give Rev. Rick Warren a pass on what happened at his "Saddleback Civil Forum?" To start, it was rather confusingly billed as an encounter of some kind between Sen. Obama and Sen McCain.
If you don't know, to save me a lengthy explanation please Google "Cone of silence."
Warren, with his squeaky clean persona promised fairness in the design of this event and in his failure furthered the idea that extending unlimited trust even to his group comes with peril.
Warren has spent most of the day defending himself and in my opinion not very well. In each interview, when asked why Sen. McCain was in fact not in the sound proof room (cone of silence) for all of Sen.Obama's questioning period, he gave answers which were purposefully evasive.
He quickly, and with Warren style charm redirected the questioners by saying these were bogus charges because the secret service was with McCain in the motorcade and when he did arrive he entered a sound proof room, with Saddleback security staff present.
Then he incredulously discounted an examples of a rumor about a monitor in the green room by saying it was disconnected two days earlier by his staff. These are clever responses that in my opinion are crafted. They dodge the issues and redirect the conversation in a hospitable direction. These are classic examples of verbal dances that are designed to make petty the accusation and simultaneously damage the credibility of the accusers.
Then he worked to place the idea that if anything, Sen.Obama had the advantage because by McCain being late Obama received a tip off on a question about relief for orphans he had planned to give both of them. This attempt appears to try to compensate which only continues to incite suspicion. It's also like not having to cook tonight because your house just burned down.
When asked if McCain could have heard anything in the car, Warren responded, not a chance because the secret service would have reported it, and in a beyond everything else manner, Warren places high value on McCain giving his word on the issue. Maybe civil but not a luxury one should blindly extend to a politician especially during an election.
I don't believe that much if anything was answered about the fundamental questions here and I know this because I still have them. Why was McCain late? Warren said that there was an agreement reached between all parties. Considering the event design, wasn't this an important part of the agreement? How late was McCain? Why would one believe that the secret service is responsible to monitor such things? With today's technology shouldn't it be acknowledged that McCain was at least able to receive improper information? Instead impropriety was simply represented as preposterous. I realize that the imagination can run wild here but the lack of rules creates suspicion about everything including the coin toss that determined who would go first. A smart caller asked the question on CNN's Larry King show and amazingly Warren answers that it was done a month ago with his staff without the candidates present. I realize that we are talking about a church here but I'm sorry, I don't like going for this ride without the assurance of a little proof.
With mixed feelings I expect Warren will escape further scrutiny because everyone seems to love this man and by all accounts he has done more for his fellow human beings than any thousand others. And it is hard for me to suspect that this was planned. But his answers were given like a politician instead of a pastor and if nothing else it exemplifies the importance of the separation of church and state.
The politics of the state is a contaminant that if allowed to seep into faith based organizations, will destroy them as it has in many other examples around the world. Unfortunately the same can hold true in the reverse. The founding fathers were well aware of this and took appropriate measures.
Warren says he believes in this separation but re-entwines the two with talk of individual world views that are part and parcel in the equation. It's like just wanting a little protectionism from world market capitalism. In simpler terms, it's flirting with disaster.
In my last post I spoke about the exact players in the McCain campaign staff who were front and center during this controversy. I think you know whether or not I believe this crew is capable of carrying out something this devious. But because of what appeared to be loose rules I can't know the truth and likely will never know it so I hold nothing against McCain for this.
But I do know that if Rev. Warren is going to continue to play a role in the election of my president he had better get his act together because this was harmful and an early sign of the hubris that has spelled doom for many of his kind before him.

McCain, A Campaign Reformer?

I've purposefully steered clear of politics for a while to clear my head before the final stretch. While the Democratic primary got a bit surly toward the end with it's Democrat style pillow fights, what's coming will make these skirmishes look like Haight/Ashbury before the summer of love.
The "Brittany/Paris" add gave a glimpse at where it's headed.
Whether or not you think a President McCain administration will be an extension of the Bush administration, we can be sure of one thing, the guys who are trying to put him there are from a Pedigree that stretches back to the Nixon Administration.
All you have to do is look at Senator McCains top people to realize that from the beginning of his campaign he has utilized the same kind of players that Republicans seeking the presidency have gone to since Donald Segretti was hired to conduct his "dirty tricks" campaign against Democrats in 1972. Segretti was convicted of distributing forged campaign literature and other types of "ratfucking" as he crudely referred to his duties.
Astonishingly in 2000 he served as co-chair of Senator McCain's presidential campaign in Orange County, California.
Guess who is commonly considered a protege of Segretti ? None other than Karl Rove.
McCain has shuffled the deck to assuage periodic rises in criticism but he continues to return to the tried and true dirty pool solutions to his political problems.
His latest addition and likely responsible for the Brittany/Paris add is Karl Rove protege Steve Schmidt. He was along for the ride with Rove as he ran President Bush's Re-election campaign in 2004. He was an exclusive member of the "Breakfast Club" as it was known.
He was also a White House strategist in charge of the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts and worked on the Schwarzenegger campaign in 2004 and was a top aide to Vice President Cheney.
Then there is Charles R. Black Jr. who most recently and quite famously said that a terrorist attack would help his candidate, Senator McCain.
His relationship with Karl Rove started with a dust-up over leadership of the College Republicans way back in 1972. None other than RNC chairman George H.W. Bush had to step in and ruled in favor of Rove. Black also met the notorious Republican attack dog and Karl Rove associate Lee Atwater at that time and later hired him for the Reagan campaign. Black worked on the George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush campaigns as well.
Who is he? He's a lobbyist extraordinaire who's done work for a long list of unsavory clients including dictators and other regimes around the world. He has a reputation for being a tough guy as colleague Roger Ailes said, " Charlie's the kind of guy who if he came home and found somebody making out with his wife on a rainy day, he'd break his umbrella and ask him to leave, then have him killed a year later. Lee Atwater would blow the house up."
How he was able to stay on after McCains recent campaign lobbyist purge is a mystery but it highlights just how inadequate election rules really are.
His relationship with Ahmed Chalabi, a champion of the Iraq war, is laced with controversy. He received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S for consulting with Chalabi. One can only wonder what that money bought.
Next there is Richard "Rick" Davis. Again a puzzle as to why McCain allows this super lobbyist to continue. Davis watched first hand in 2000 as his candidate, Senator McCain, was smeared by the the Bush Campaign in South Carolina. He knows the game well although seemingly less inclined to go dirty, which may explain the acquisition of Schmidt.
But his hands are are not much cleaner. Though it's said he is on leave from his lobbying firm and doesn't currently receive a salary, he has made plenty off his relationship with McCain and if he can put him in the White House he'll make plenty more.
Another recruit from the Bush Administration, Greg Jenkins, was recently sued by the ACLU for removing peaceful protesters from a McCain appearance in Denver, Colorado. Finally the lovely and talented Nicolle Wallace who also worked closely with Rove as President Bush's communication director and before that Jeb Bush's press secretary. Wallace can be summed up with her primary goal which is to be aggressive and drive the debate in the campaign. Unfortunately anything goes in that pursuit.
This is just a sample of the people who survived the shake-up of the McCain election staff. Imagine the conflict of interest for those who were let go.
The bottom line is that the McCain election crew is a who's who of lobbyists and operatives who thrive in a sham world where perception is reality and in the end having all to do with getting their hands on your tax dollars. They do it the only way humanly possible, without conscience.
It's an especially awkward duplicity when you consider Senator McCains projected image as an election reformer.

Some Thoughts On Hope

Slow but sure our paths wear deep. The more traveled the more appealing until new paths, we no longer seek. Narrow becomes the trough that shadows dim the way. Once aimless, those who follow trade tomorrow for today. Few step up to take a stance. Treasure brinks existence until courage breaks the trance.

Examine This

As someone who favors the "examined life" approach to dealing with their time here on earth, I must say that deciphering the raw data can sometimes be a real chore. Here is a sample of the things that are rattling around upstairs from the week gone by.
I was doing some work in a sort of generic middle class neighborhood (in California this means your likely broke because it cost so much to buy your house) when I met Tom. He's a friendly and folksy 70 year old fellow, an Illinois transplant back 47 years . He's a chipper early riser, sans coffee; you know the type.
We were sort of talking about his pleasant demeanor in a round-about way when he offered an example of the alternatives. His neighbor, a nasty curmudgeon, who still harbors ill feelings toward Japanese people due to his participation in WWll, got his comeuppance recently.
It seems his neighbors feelings were a little deeper than perhaps normal for so many years after the fact considering all that has transpired. Tom said that over time he actually ran off his Japanese neighbor with his nastiness, "yeah, they just finally moved because they couldn't take it any longer and it was a shame because they were good neighbors, and they kept there place up real nice."
Well the nasty guy swelled with pride for his deed until last week. It seems that the four young men who bought the house quickly started doing what young men do like party around the clock, play loud music, take up all the parking spaces and not water or mow the lawn. It took a little while but this week Tom said nasty guy came over to complain to Tom about the new neighbors and said, "jeez, I wish the Japs hadn't moved now."
There are a lot of thoughts that come to mind, like maybe a Karmic boomerang coming back around and hitting old nasty one square in the chops. But Tom, being a real decent sort of guy, reduced it to a nice and basic moral level and said he thinks maybe old McNasty might stop hating Japanese, but at least he learned that things could always be worse.
Over the period of a few days it became clear that Tom lived his life by a set of moral guidelines. Right down to making sure that the construction debris was properly disposed of. He said, "this old planet of ours can't take much more abuse."
Now this comes in contrast to another debris disposal situation that came up with another customer. This one is a well off guy (seriously well off) who suggested I drive somewhere and dump his old doors down some street somewhere in effort to avoid the 65 dollar transfer station fee. This is the same guy who earlier said, "the way they fix the tax problem in this country is to figure out how to make guys like me pay their fair share." He is full of self serving ideas and doesn't appear to follow any particular moral code except for his Christan beliefs which seem to dwell on the Book of Revelations and the coming end of the world. Let's just say his strike zone is a lot wider than Toms.
Later on in the week in another well-to-do neighborhood passing temporary signs to a horse show and stuck in a Mercedes and BMW traffic jamb, I was listening to a NPR radio story about a man in Newfoundland who, because the fisheries are so depleted, now catches small ice bergs. (They call them bergie bits!) He then melts them and sells the water to someone in Texas who sells it again for it's purported health benefits for a ridiculous amount of money.
I drove on noticing that the folk in this neighborhood don't own non-purebred dogs and they hire people to walk them. When looking to park I noticed that the trees on side of the street each had a little sign on them that said, "caution trees dripping sap." Taking my lesson from Tom I looked for the good in it and will only say, I guess it doesn't get anymore civilized than that.
Then there was a grand old lady who I do work for who told me more stories about her friendship with Anna Mahler and how she once gave a Judy Collins album to Julio Cortazar who visited her at her (rather unique) home. She also told me about the mother of a woman she knows who scolded Albert Einstein for bringing a lit pipe into her house. She says, "he then childishly snuffed the pipe out in his coat pocket, can you imagine?" with a big laugh.
Back to NPR and a story about a couple who decided to have sex for one hundred and one days in a row and write a book about it. And politics? I didn't even get there. It is an odd life we live isn't it.

How about a Poem

It seems the worst thing you can do when drawing a blank is to amble through the thoughts of those who don't seem to be as stuck as you. In fact it is so corrupting that like television, sometimes I must swear off the internet for a period of time. How long? Until I can see clearly again. For now I'm trying some poetry.

I stayed in
for a pounding rain,
timed flash to thunder
in a hurricane.

Doors ajar
struck with fear,
fury and darkness
move far to near.

Beneath a dinosaur,
path unaligned,
will it touch down
is now the time.

Brilliant light,
fraction of time,
clapping resound,
a foot hit the ground.

Now wait,
and wait more?
Where is
the dinosaur?

But no closer comes
peril this day,
relieved so
that fate had it's way.

The journey over,
pleased how all fared,
I step through the door,
breath the sweet sweet air.

Guess What, Another Obama Smear

Thanks, Jake Tapper of ABC news for getting to the bottom of the latest Obama's a Muslim smear. This is especially noble because you don't strike me as an Obama supporter. You could have ignored this story but instead you did your journalistic duty and set the record straight.
Quickly, the story goes like this. The Jerusalem Post reported, Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background. As you can imagine it soon showed up on conservative and other blogs who ran with the Muslim background aspect of the report and then it found it's way to Fox news on June 16th. Brit Hume said, "Barack Obama is a practicing Christian, married in a Christian church, whose children were also baptized in that church. His campaign has emphasized his faith in part to dispel what the campaign calls an online smear campaign which contends among other things that Obama was raised a Muslim. There is even a statement on his official campaign website reading quote, Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. But Obama's half brother is not so sure. Malik Obama tells the Jerusalem Post that, if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background."
The problem is that Malik Obama never said that. ABC news got a hold of the audio interview and there was no such thing said. The Jerusalem Post has removed the story from it's website.
I'm not exactly sure why I feel so compelled to stick up for Barrack Obama, especially when I see him smeared. I think that part of it is that in the past it seemed that if one politician didn't come through then the next one probably possessed a similar set of skills and all the other attributes, that in my eyes, this country stands for. But now so much has changed and the stakes are much higher. At the same time the probability has never seemed lower that someone could rise through the ranks with the important qualities necessary to improve things.
I view Jon McCain as a good man but I am not sure he comprehends the degree of the problem. Regardless of which patriotic coat you wear most would agree that the U.S does not hold the same place of power it previously did. World wide envy has resulted in the closing of the gap. After all haven't we been in the business of spreading our secrets to success like democracy, human rights and capitalism so the world could catch up? Well it's happening and I don't think the old guard likes it much.
In these marketplaces things are far more efficient these days and the smart guys are the ones who know that strength means something different than it once did.

Missing Tim Russert

I'm crushed. I'm not sure there is anyone beyond who I know and love whose death could rattle me more than Tim Russert's. I adore him, and having tea with him every Sunday morning was pure pleasure.
There is no replacement. The bull pen is empty. The TV journalism reservoir is nearly dry.
I do get the vast majority of my news from the print guy's. The Warren Strobel's or Jonathan Landay's of the world keep me informed, but Sunday morning the television is king. It's a mindless sort of intravenous way to be royally fed the news.
So, looking forward, who will those people of interest meet with each weekend? There is Andrea Mitchell, whom I deeply respect, yet still insufficient for the role. Chris Mathews? His looming threat of running for political office turns me off. Who's left? Who has the footwork to dazzle a guest into parting with information that reveals more than their projected self? I can't come up with a single name. The extra sleep will do me some good.

Mr. Russert, may you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows your dead.

Obama-Biden Ticket

Just going to rattle off some stuff here because I don't have much time. Senator Obama, I predict, will convince Senator Joe Biden to become his running mate. How's that for a prediction. Maybe wishful thinking but there is a radiating simpatico there that I can't ignore. There is a no-nonsense directness they share that appeals to me. I may be repeating myself but there is an old Italian saying that goes something like, "between to say and to do is half an ocean." I see them, shirt sleeves rolled up, filling and placing the sand bags trying to save the town rather than working hard to avoid work like so many do. That's my dream ticket anyway.
Next, Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame who I admire, endorsed Senator Obama. Great news.
And finally a little joke. Funny to me anyway. I was in a local plant nursery yesterday and was waited on by my favorite Brooklyn, New York born clerk. One of those guy's who just puts a smile on your face when you see him. We were talking about this and that when I spotted some containers with some live snails inside that were for sale. I asked him about them and he said, " yeah, ya put dee's in da god'n and day eat da bad snail eggs, and da debris and udder stuff." He seemed a little strained having to explain this to me which green-lighted me to bust him a little bit so I said, wow you know a lot about these, you have some at home? They eat debris? and he says, yeah, da bree cheese. He claimed it with a high five and we laughed.

My Kind Of Endorsement

Another interview and another attempt to reveal Bob Dylan as an alien life form took place in Denmark recently. I guess for some people ridiculing a smart guy is an easy way to feel smarter. Why Bob Dylan can't simply be accepted for what he chooses to reveal of himself will always be a mystery to me.
But why I really bring this up is that he said some nice things about Senator Obama in the interview. He Said, "Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval, poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the same virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there right now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up... Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is , so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to."This is according to the UK's Times Online.
I think I've mentioned before that I value Bob Dylan's opinion. Not as worship as many others have over the years but for his intelligence which can't be ignored. He doesn't seem to "tilt the windmill" so to speak, indicating that his thoughts are directed from within. This reliance is preferable to dependence on external forces for ideas. One only has to listen to him or read his lyrics to understand this.

Presidential Test Failure

Did she say what I think she said? Apparently it was at least the second time Senator Clinton, making the point that she hadn't stuck around too long, publicly recollected that Sen. Robert Kennedy was killed in the month of June. The last time was in a Time Magazine article in March.
Here's what she said to The Sioux Falls Argus Leader about her political future. "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? we all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California." Now here is part of her apology later in the day. "The Kennedy's have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy," referring to Sen. Kennedy's recent illness. She added, "And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive."
Now back to the Time Magazine article. She said, "Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June Is nothing particularly unusual."
For this exercise let's forget that her husbands last opponent dropped out in March of 1992 and the more sinister inferences one might make out of her statement. Do you notice anything else here? She is wading through enormously sensitive waters and it would appear she is unable to locate the dry land. To be generous, it is these moments of apparent confusion about the truth that sunk her campaign.
Whether it be fables about Bosnian sniper fire, anecdotes about hospitals turning away life threateningly ill patients, planted debate questioners or irritating details, of which there were many, like anti-Obama adds featuring voters who later reveal not being registered in the state the adds were tailored to, it's this steady flow of controverting information that ultimately determined her fate.
One could argue that much of the blame lies with her staff. Surely someone noticed that the Bobby Kennedy comment was in bad taste when it was first used and should not be repeated. And on down the list there was in each case someone who dropped the ball.
If Senator Clinton was already wearing President Bush's shoes these matters could have been dealt with like, well, President Bush does. But she didn't get that far because people realized that they were actually looking at what a Hillary Clinton Presidency would look like and didn't like what they saw. Unlike most of the time, during an election we the people wield the power and we have done our job. Congratulations.

A Story In A Story

There is an old Japanese man who owns a store that I shop in once in a while. His father owned the store before him.
The area is built up now but it wasn't that long ago that it was a farming community. Many Japanese settled here and started their own small farms.
His father started the business by supplying fertilizer and other farm products to farmers. He did well and as the farms disappeared he switched to supplying small growers and gardeners and homeowners with those type products. It's an old fashioned store, a step back in time and, it is one of a few stores of it's type to survive the new era of the mega store.
I was there last week and struck up a conversation about how things have changed over the years when he told me an interesting story about his life. He told me how hard his father had been on him and his brothers and sisters. "All I did was work all the time, from dawn to dusk every single day, year after year." he said.
In 1942, when the war came he and his family were rounded up like all the Japanese people in the area and taken to internment camps. His family went to one called Gila River, south of Phoenix Arizona. He said, "you know it may sound funny but at the time I liked it in the camp. I didn't have to work so hard and it was the first time I got to play baseball and meet girls and go to dances." Laughing he said, "I had to go to prison to have fun." He was 19 years old and said he'll never forget that a few older guys escaped and later on they found their bones somewhere out in the desert. He said he couldn't understand why they would want to leave.
I obviously don't bring this up to take away from what America did to Japanese Americans during that time. It was wrong and even after understanding why these wartime calculations were made it doesn't change the fact that these were rash decisions that were racial in nature and reached in part due to hysteria which at minimum calls into question the judgment of those responsible. It was an indignity officially recognized by the U.S and finally apologized for in 1988.
My point is that the story is an example of how opinions can be buried in and seemingly untethered to the wider view that depicts a situation most accurately. In other words there is always going to be someone who will say with all honesty something that someone else can use to advance their case on some issue.
In this case a 19 year old detainee is obviously not where one should look for the truth and youthful obliviousness easily explains away his comments but in similar situations people routinely reach the wrong conclusion using bad information.
Thoughtful people check the validity of their opinions with various detachment tools in effort to shed light on underlying biases. In this case by simply asking oneself how fair it would have been if they themselves were subjected the same treatment might yield a clearer perspective.
Fortunately for now politicians seemed to have stopped offering us currently active American soldiers opinions on such questions as whether or not we should be in Iraq. But not long ago when the primary season was in full swing references to discussions with soldiers was a popular way to make political points. Senator McCain did this on occasion.
I've always felt that under the circumstances of war, that random discussions by politicians with soldiers about larger issues such as the validity of war should be disallowed. I hope we never hear this tactic again but it needs to be monitored.
I like Senator McCain but there always seems to be a lingering question about his judgment that never has been resolved for me. I know that politicians don't always tell the truth but that doesn't erase the fact that when they don't, they're lying.
Here are two examples that make it hard for me to trust him. First, no matter how much he pretends, he'll never convince me he really likes or agrees with President Bush, especially after what the Bush campaign did to him in South Carolina when they faced off in 2000. Second, I think he is acting much more hawkish about this war than he actually is. Like his opposition to torture, I think his war time experience would have rendered him equally adverse to the rationale for this war. Now that it is underway, being a soldier beyond anything else, he will support our troops like no one else can. But had he been in the White House on 9/11/2001, I don't think we would have invaded Iraq. Also the retaliation against Osama Bin Laden would have been waged effectively and would have been far more productive. His Viet Nam experience and subsequent knowledge would have assured this.
I only wish that Senator McCain had separated himself from President Bush and proposed some kind of winding down of the war so he could have been a much more relevant candidate. I'm interested in seeing how he makes up for these shortcoming. I think he has a difficult time ahead of him.
And finally, a happy ending to the store keeper story. When they left for the camp, a non-Japanese neighbor told his father not to worry, he would watch over things while they were gone. After 3 years in the internment camp they returned to find everything just as they left it, just a thick layer of dust covering things. In no time they were back in business, working harder than ever. His father remained grateful to his neighbor for the rest of his life.

Simply Unbelievable

Well that didn't take long. In a shameless display of ignorance and arrogance President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Knesset to compare Hitler's Nazi Germany rolling into Poland in 1939 to today's Iran and clearly put Senator Obama in the same category as those who failed to prevent much of the horror of WW ll.
Here is his statement: "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939 an American Senator declared: Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided. We have an obligation to call this what it is-the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history,"
Even if this comparison had a shred of truth to it, since when did it become acceptable to conduct partisan politics on foreign soil. Using this forum to attack Senator Obama on the 60th anniversary of Israel's statehood is insulting to Israelis' and should be appalling to Americans.
It's so beyond belief I don't know where to begin. I think that an American President dredging up an undefended isolationist American Senator from 1939 and laying him at his feet of those who lost the most at the hands of a madman amounts to treason.
I in no way dispute that President Bush has the right to reinforce to Israel what his position toward Iran is nor to his providing the comfort of knowing that the U.S is behind them. But instead, like an adolescent unable to resist the urge to scuffle with a classmate in the broom closet on graduation day he trivialized the event and disrespected the world in the process.
He continues to cheapen the U.S image and I suspect this will serve to further disadvantage Republicans in November.

Important Stuff

Arguably the most important bit of information I stumbled on this week was a May 7th operational update out of Bagdad from Maj. Gen Bergner. It seems that one more bit of evidence that Iran is supporting militants in Iraq is fading away. Any mention of Iraq appears to have been suspended and a plan to show journalist some Iranian supplied explosives last week was canceled after realizing none of them were from Iran.
Just to be clear I'm not somebody who frequents the Multi National Force web site. The fact that I want to make that clear probably helps to explain why this kind of information is all but forgotten most of the time.
This stuff is as dry as it gets and most people it seems are tired of hearing it. In fact if it was not for a blog from Tina Susman, who works for the L.A. Times in Bagdad, no one in this country would likely of heard it. That scares me.
This administration has spent the last year trying to convince us that we may need to invade Iran in part because of their meddling in Iraq. Back in December the U.S Intelligence Estimate dampened the administrations claims that Iran has a nuclear weaponization program. So what will they come up with next. I can't believe this is my Government.

Anatomy Of A Smear

There is no doubt that Senator Joseph Lieberman has that believable favorite uncle thing going for him. I listen to him because he presents his case with an apparent degree of intelligence yet in a no nonsense and practical manner that is surprisingly rare in politicians. In my opinion they should be smart but not inclined to aspire to the level of philosopher or other pursuit of brilliance that inevitably becomes overkill given the job at hand. Give me a smart straight-shooter that I can trust any day.
There are others that share similar qualities like Senator Joe Biden who I have always liked and think would be Senator Obama's perfect choice for vice president.
But there are also politicians who project those same qualities but use them to exert agendas that I'm anything but in favor of. Vice President Cheney comes to mind.
Unfortunately Senator Lieberman's political role in the McCain campaign is to defeat his opponents at any cost with an apparent low regard for the truth. In a recent interview, Wolf Blitzer points out in response to a Hamas spokesman who apparently would like Senator Obama to become president, that Senator Obama also labels Hamas a terrorist organization making his position the same as Senator McCain's. Lieberman says, "That's true, he clearly doesn't support any of the values and goals of Hamas." But then adds, "But the fact that the spokesperson for Hamas would say that he would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question why? And it suggests the difference between the two candidates."
It raises the question why in the same pointless and unproductive way that anyone wonders how someone thinks and won't say. And it says absolutely nothing about the differences between Senator McCain and Senator Obama. This was a cleverly calculated smear that Senator Lieberman's skills are now being used for. I predict that in the end Senator Lieberman will do more harm than good in attempting to put Senator McCain in the White House.

Boot Camp Is Over

Congratulations to Senator Obama. In my humble opinion, what sealed Senator Clintons fate was the gas tax holiday idea. Whoever came up with this idea completely misjudged the minds of the voters in this election. This dose of pandering was just too big to swallow and the phrase itself should live in infamy in the political blunder hall of fame. The idea of it will be scarier than the act of spelling the word potato or a picture having anything to do with a tank. A real Mission Accomplished or "Brownie, your doing a heck of a job," moment.
More than anything else, her campaign has shown what a Hillary Clinton presidency could have looked like and I'm happy to say that the voters weren't fooled.
Are we certain what a Barrack Obama presidency will look like? Absolutely not but using the election campaign gauge in this case provides a far more optimistic outlook.
So what is it that I wish most out of an Obama presidency? I, like many Americans, do worry about the threat of terrorism. An enemy has struck once and it's fair to say, wishes to do it again. A basic emotional level response is to lash out at such an enemy and we did that. Unfortunately we did it wrong and in a very big way.
Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are wise to the ways of Washington which means they owe too much to too many people to ever really significantly change anything. This is what is behind Senator Obama's claim that he will only attempt this once. He knows that certainly in eight years and probably in four he will no longer have the ability to achieve the level of change possible as a newcomer. I just want to try a new approach to foreign policy and Senator Obama has gained my trust.
This is not to say that Senator Clinton or McCain are not skilled at what they do nor to to say they are not committed to the people of this country. But combined with their successes and commitment are deficiencies and it's the duty of the American people to seek to remedy those shortcomings when possible. It is that time and we must recognize it and take the steps necessary to fulfill our responsibilities to ourselves and future generations. Just my opinion.
And back to politics, we thankfully won't have to suffer through what seemed like an endless stream of political errors committed by the Clinton campaign. Let's see what the general election brings. If Senator McCains wifes recent statement about her husband not running a negative campaign holds true we may be spared what we just witnessed. But I suspect he must think he's pretty far ahead and will stay that way because that would be the only way he could keep that promise.
One more thing, I know someone who went to the Punahou School in Hawaii where Senator Obama attended. I was speaking to him the other day and jokingly asked if he knew Barrack Obama? To my surprise he said yes he did. He said he was one year older than Barry but knew him from playing sports. That's how he knew him, as Barry. He said that when he digs out his year book he'll show me what he wrote. He said it says something like have good summer then it's signed Barry O with a little afro on the O. So 70's.

JoePa Primary

I remember from the last Presidential election that the view gets pretty hazy about now. There is just way too much information to sort through. Even if it was all true, the average person cannot dedicate the time necessary to understand it all. The opinions fly and some have merit but most don't because most of the political pundits are anything but unbiased. More like it, call it a personal mission to be as influential as possible for egotistical reasons along with getting their prices up. Of course many strongly believe that their direction for the country is altruistic. They think their work to convince the little people of the need to become complicit in their plan is noble. But lets face it, at this point, as far as the Democratic nominee goes the rest of the population including yours truly have pretty much made up our minds and barring some extraordinary news are pretty darn sure who we will be voting for.
I need to go back to Pennsylvania because it was such a reminder of what Senator Obama is up against. In one telling move the Obama campaign refused to dole out street money in Pennsylvania. That's the precinct level money passed around to motivate workers. It should be illegal but it is part of the political tradition in Pennsylvania so it has become untouchable. This of course only bolsters my opinion of Senator Obama and I'm not suggesting he should have complied but in the politics of Philadelphia this was a blunder. This is an example of the dilemma that faces this campaign.
I know a bit about Pennsylvania because I worked with many people from there. They were new and different characters in my life. There was one real peach of a guy who grew up on Duck Shit Alley in Pringle Hill which is part of Wilkes-Barre. He was born without much but I never heard him say a bad thing about anybody and he had a heart of gold.
The Crown Royal drinking Hillary Clinton may or may not be surprised to know that today there are clubs in Wilkes Barre/Scranton that women can drink in but can't be members of. That's not to say that the women who attend these clubs want to be members, according to a friend from Wilkes-Barre. She said she reminds the members regularly, "if a woman ran this stupid club maybe it wouldn't be so deep in the hole." She told me that there are members who keep paying dues years after they move away just to have the card. "Can you imagine that, of course it's only five dollar a year," she said.
I went to a Ball Game in San Diego once with another guy from Wilkes-Barre who was so drunk he fell over a railing and down ten feet to a lower deck and laughed that he held onto his cup.
I was introduced to the shots and beer thing in Pennsylvania in the dead of winter as what seemed a practical matter. I've spent time in Pennsylvania basements talking about great floods that reached levels twenty feet above where I was standing and have been to small town hockey games and listened to stories about town populations that in 1935 were triple what they are today. I've heard the stories of the once thriving steel mills and the struggle to survive cold winters in poorly insulated houses and scrounging for coal.To this day good jobs are hard to come by and they often go to the people who "know somebody" or thought to anyway. The fact is that the people I've known from Pennsylvania are a little tougher and not so bothered by the same things as me. I am glad to have know them for this alone.
Things change slowly there and I think that it is fair to say that life has been a little harder in much of the state than in much of the rest of the country. It's a big state east to west especially and I've never been to Philadelphia but I know that where I have been change is viewed skeptically because it's track record is so bad. The odds that change will be for the better are viewed as even at best.
The more I think about Pennsylvania the more I think it is remarkable that Senator Obama was able to get the votes he did there.

Whale Wise

I'm back and refreshed. I visited Maui for the first time and on a Humpback Whale watching trip, among many other interesting whale facts, I learned that you can hear whales with the naked ear just by being under water.
I remember being mesmerized by these recordings when I first heard them years ago but I had always thought that these sounds were detected with some type of elaborate device maybe only available to scientists. When I got back to shore I couldn't wait to try it out so I donned my snorkeling gear and swam out past the other sound makers nearer to shore and sure enough I heard them loud and clear and it was magical.
The best I can do to describe it is to say that it truly sounded like conversations, not unlike listening to someone speaking a foreign language. It was eerie and needed a little cognitive work to erase the Moby Dick thoughts but it was wonderful and just what the doctor ordered, some order of things that put my absurd little life into perspective.
I listened and imagined conversations about their long haul back to Alaska. There were debates over the merits of leaving sooner over later including some concerns over the juniors who hadn't quite mastered those all important deep diving maneuvers yet. There were Orca worriers and disgruntled young males who had failed to mate. There was talk of hundred pound servings of krill that awaited them. There were the more casual songster pod members belting out tunes and the no nonsense traditional leaders barking orders. Some met pod expectations and some didn't and some wanted respect and some wouldn't give it and some got plenty of it but couldn't care less. Somehow when it came time they all fell in and began their long journey to their summer home.
I guess I've taken a little humanization liberty here but I was surprised at how little is really known about these incredible creatures and what is known is being constantly revised.
Part of this is because they are protected and research is primarily done by observation. Other than the Japanese who still harvest 50 per year for what they say is research, Humpback Whales are pretty much left alone. So unless they start swallowing boats or ramming submarines I guess we'll have to wait to know a whole lot more about them and that's perfectly all right by me.
Too bad we can't take this approach more often.

Break Time

There seems to be a new sport out there. Have you noticed? It involves scheduling too much stuff and then telling people how crazy your life is. After fitting way too much into a day someone I know sits down like she just conquered China. Frazzled, she starts pretending that it wasn't exactly what she planned. When I start noticing things like this I know it's time for a break.

Obamas Epic Speech

Reading the opposing commentary to Senator Obamas speech reminded me of why I chose the title of this blog. Actually I wanted In Simple Terms but that was already taken.
The analysis sounded like Christopher Hitchens discussing a Fellini movie with Camile Paglia! It made my head hurt. Senator Obamas opponents likely burnt far more midnight oil attempting to find fault with his speech than Senator Obama burnt writing it.
This is because only a lesser intellect with a mission in mind would take on such a speech. They came at it from every angle, reverse engineering it, then representing it as some sort of evil doctrine.
The lengths they went to neutralize this speech could only have come from people who seriously fear more than just the influence that Reverend Wright has had on Senator Obama. This is politics, designed to capture and sway each and every remaining malleable voter. There was something for everybody, a dispute de jour. It was a side campaign that clearly showed that their most determined intentions will be a formidable obstacle for Senator Obama.
About the speech? In Simpler Terms, the best I've ever heard. No reasonable human being would deny that it was brilliant.

You'd Think Reverend Wright Was Leroy Brown

Do people really think that if your pastor or priest or rabbi says something you disagree with that you should get up and leave forever. I disagree with plenty of what I hear in church but I stay put. I'm sure they don't consider me an agent for them nor do I consider them agents for me. We coexist because I accept that on balance they mean well and do more good than bad. Remember, it's about God, we're the the imperfect ones.
And isn't respect for individual thinking what should really trump here. If not, then why isn't every loony family member, friend, professor, staff member or supporter paid more attention to. What about Billy Carter's influence on Jimmy Carter or Roger Clinton on Bill Clinton. What about Geraldine Ferraro's influence on Senator Clinton? I find her words about Senator Obama more cleverly chosen but no less disturbing. In case you didn't hear, let me repeat it here for you. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position, and if he was a woman of any color he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is."
Senator Clinton's response was, "Well, I don't believe in that, and I think it's important that we try and stay focused on issues that matter to the American people." Senator Clinton, this issue does matter to a lot of people and it's why Reverend Wrights audiences like to hear about it occasionally, if for nothing else than to let them know that they are not alone in their struggles.
Isn't that what every church provides. Some just do it differently than others.
Reverend Wright shouldn't have dropped the n-bomb or used profanity of any kind and should have used his brain a little more but he did not invalidate the fact that for the most part white Americans enjoy the advantage of being first judged for their deeds-a luxury not yet afforded all African Americans.
Fire and brimstone style prophetic oratory was not invented by African American preachers and in fact early evangelical preachers like Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were allowed to draw and quarter America for it's sins and their deeds went unpunished. They even had actual victims-perceived threats like Jews, gays and pro-choice supporters and so on.
Beyond that remember that religion is a business because without donations it doesn't exist. For lack of a better word, entertainment brings people into church and that is why Reverend Wright was there. He built the membership up by giving patrons what they wanted. And like it or not that is how mortal humans behave even when given divine responsibilities.
Sure I'd like to see them all stick to matters of religion and faith but that genie was never in the bottle.
So with their newly found fodder we'll have to endure all those who wouldn't have ever voted for a black man named Barrack Obama in the first place. They will seize vigorously every opportunity to destroy his chances.
I know one thing for sure; the loudest of them I will listen to least.

Enjoy It While It Lasts

I got lucky and scored some good tickets to a Laker game the other night. They played Sacramento who I am a fan of because I lived in that area for several years. If you haven't tried it, suffice to say that it's not a comfortable thing to sit amongst a bunch of enthusiastic home team fans and want the other team to win. Making matters worse, Sacramento lead most of the game and in a dramatic ending won by a single point. I had to choose the middle ground and didn't root for either team because I didn't want to subject my family members to a fracas. It took a lot of self restraint and took a little of the fun out of it but it was a great game with mediocre defense which provided for a lot of made plays which is my favorite thing to watch.
What is so remarkable is that no matter how breathtakingly good the visiting teams plays were, it was met with dead silence.
To me the game of basketball can take on a near performance art quality when played well and viewed up close. But their is no mistaking that, all being equal, your favorite teams well executed plays are the best.
Being the political season and me being glued to it, you had to expect that I would transform this into something to do with politics, right? Well sure enough, my point is that like basketball fans the media and everyone else on the planet is biased about their picks in this Presidential election. I find that only when this is really taken to heart and accepted as fact can I step back and see this thing for what it really is.
For example, and it is hard to say this as an Obama supporter but, Saturday Night Live had it right in their season opener suggesting that the media was biased against Senator Clinton. To me it was very obvious. There were many excuses but I don't think any reasonable person could deny it. SNL being a New York City product and treasure consciously or unconsciously came to their Senators aid in pointing out the obvious. There has now been a call of foul from Obama supporters that SNL is biased against Senator Obama.
With a little introspection many in the media have now rushed to the starboard side of the S.S. Neutral. She'll likely list there for a while until a bigger story comes along.
One thing you can be sure of is that the power brokers, the ones who are compelled to put their opinions out there in an effort to convince others, be it the media or through the media, have already made up their minds. One fortunate byproduct is that this is as close to egalitarianism as we ever get around here because the common folk have something they need very badly and that is our vote. It's usually the other way around so being unaccustomed to this role and unsure how to convince us they make plenty mistakes. These stumbles and blunders tell us a lot about them and their real intent and makes watching that much more fun. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Time to re-group

When it comes to political speeches, if it starts sounding like a different way to say the same thing, then chances are it's stopped working. Senator Obama tried to use the same stump speeches perhaps a week longer than he should have. In states where his message needed to be as fresh as possible it wasn't and the Clinton and McCain campaigns assertion of empty words was able to take root.
It's probably due to fatigue but when your strategy includes, if it ain't broke don't fix it, you had better be sure of it.
Re-invention can be risky but not as risky as what just happened in Texas and Ohio. Never underestimate our tendency to cut people down to size when they get ahead and remember who he's running against, a prominent political figure who not too long ago was the presumed heir to the throne.
Time to dig deep and find some more of what you are before any more people start to question it.

Keepin An Eye On Kinky

Sometimes being considered a little nuts provides a lot of cover from criticism. But because I don't consider Kinky Friedman to be all that nuts I want to get his comments recorded here the best I can so at least the next time he spouts off there will be another example of a pattern that shouldn't be ignored. First if you don't know already Kinky is a country singer who once ran for Governor in the State of Texas. He's a flamboyant Texas size character who has a history of making edgy remarks and gets away with it because, well, it's just that ole Kinky at it again. Believe me, if his comments were not of the offensive variety I'd probably be a big fan. He has all those iconoclastic qualities I like to see in a man. After all he's a personal friend of Bob Dylan who I admire to such an extent that just meeting him would pretty much make my life but only if I got to ask him a bunch of questions.
Anyway back to Kinky. On Joe Scarboroughs show on MSNBC he recently talked to Kinky Friedman about Senator Obama. Well it's obvious that Kinky's no fan of Senator Obama which is all right by me. What I object to is the means by which he expressed his objections. Kinky's got a clever way of saying things and this thing went pretty fast and I'm doing this from memory but I'm seeing an unsavory little performance here. He said things like, I don't know enough about Obama, I don't know if he's a JFK or Jimmy Carter or the Anti-Christ? He made a comparative point about being let down by realizing that the OJ Simpson jurors were never going to vote to convict and went on to say he once believed in in Fidel Castro only to be let down. He also used his crips and bloods line in place of Democrats and Republicans but you had to know it in advance and I still don't quite understand his point..
So what do I take from all this? I'm not going to go into his past but there is enough there to think that a reasonable person would steer way clear of new cow pies. But not Kinky, he keeps living dangerously and fortunately moving himself closer to complete irrelevancy. Of course Joe Scarborough just laughed and let Kinky slide.

Senator Obama Has A Good Start

It was one year ago today that I first wrote about Senator Obama. I wrote about how I thought he may become President or the possibility of it anyway. I feel the same way today and much more but as it happens before my eyes, it's hard to believe. I think that had I really known what he was up against I would have given him less of a chance. Lesson learned but by any measure, what he has accomplished is remarkable and I see this as an extraordinary triumph and it thrills me to no end. I often wonder if a year ago Senator Obama could have really seen it coming.
I'm grateful for this little web log to because it gives me the ability to know what I was thinking a year ago which is in itself revealing. I consider it a form of detached perspective which I believe is good for personal growth.
For the first half of my life (maybe a bit optimistic) I didn't keep any written record of how I perceived what occurred. I have some pictures and some college papers and accumulated stuff to remind me of what went on but I'm not so sure I really have a strong sense of how I thought.
I think about this a lot lately because having children demands it. I keep telling myself that if I could only remember how I saw things at that age that maybe I would understand them a little bit better.
Looking back I do remember looking out and away from family fairly early. In fact, at that time I must have been oblivious to what my parents wanted of me because my memory is filled with anything but their wishes. I also remember thinking how wrong they were and how right I was. My opinions were obviously being created in a vacuum because I didn't really consider others opinions very much. This is where I have always found the most entwined roots of idealism. I didn't even consider the role of a consensus. Of course it's importance over time would prove to be even greater than that of being right when it came to matters involving people, groups and projects.
Hard medicine to take when your young but without fully accepting that this is how things really get done your talking ''wind pudding and fried snowballs." (an old New England saying)
Above anything else this is what the next president will need to succeed. This is the rarest of abilities that one can possess. I have a less than one hand count of people I've met in my life that were able to win over people to their side without the heavy use of the carrot-and-stick approach. This only works so far and the deeper inside the building you go the harder it gets.

The Right To Vote

Well, Super Tuesday came and went and my candidate is still in the hunt so I'm happy. Voting was a breeze except for the carefully crafted term limits extension proposition called "Limits on Legislators term in office," here in California. The wording tries everything possible to get you to vote yes. For example, "voting yes limits the time a legislator can serve..." when in actuality it increases the time they can serve to 12 years effective immediately. When 34 legislators are looking to extend their stay you can always count on some trickery. Fortunately voters weren't fooled, although I suspect the margin was closer due to the intended confusion.
It evidently wasn't such smooth sailing for the "decline to state" folks as they are called in California, otherwise known as independents or non-partisans. It seems that many were confused by a complicated procedure that likely led to some unknown number not having their vote counted.
I listened to the explanations from all the bureaucrats in charge and it was clear that they consider this all part of doing business and probably will do nothing to fix the problem. It's not often you get to hear the "steady drone of bureaucracy" that came out of this bunch. They wonder why there is such apathy.
You couldn't help but hear about how many more people voted in this primary compared to the last, although as I see it, only about 24 million people voted out of 22 states. By my calculations the population of the Super Tuesday states is approximately 95 million of which about 68 million are of voting age. So one third turned out to vote. I'd think that this alone would be enough to make voting officials do whatever possible to clear up any confusion about the process.

Latino Vote

I only have a few minutes here but can anyone tell me why, with 38% of the population here in California, that Sen. Obamas campaign has not pointed out that Latino leaders were not exactly enamored with President Bill Clintons policies on immigration during the period of his administration. I remember speaking to a very high level Hispanic member of the Catholic clergy who, in his support for President G.W Bush, explained in great detail how President Clinton's legislation during that time did a lot to hurt immigrants and their families.
This kind of information would seem to counter-balance what is being portrayed as a given that Latino voters will vote for Sen. Clinton.
I can't argue with the Obama campaign strategy though. All you have to do is read this mornings (Sunday) L A Times political section to realize that whether consciously or not you can't help but think their coverage is biased against Sen. Obama. The LA Times editorial board did endorse Senator Obama and Senator McCain in the Opinion section in the same edition but the editorial board operates independently of the news operation. It was more about omission and it was subtle unless like me you look forward to reading about Senator Obama. There's just not much there compared to the other candidates. They did suspiciously place an article about the nuclear industry contributing more to Sen. Obama than all the other candidates. They also excluded something in the condensed columnar "Where the candidates stand," area. On the immigration column Sen. Obama's position on the issuance of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants is missing. Why is this important? Because those who thought they heard it in the last debate or were told by someone who did can't confirm it before the Primary.

The Race Is On

Remember just a short time ago, before the Iowa democratic caucus, when the word race was used only as a sports metaphor to describe the competition between candidates. Well, that's all changed. What had given a sense of reprieve from those insidious calculations we as humans often near mindlessly make has been replaced with a feeling of naivety. The thought that a predominantly white State like Iowa would largely ignore race in selecting a candidate was indeed inspiring. And while obviously beneficial to people who have been treated unfairly, through no fault of their own, this also represented a distinct advancement or transformation that bodes well in real ways for all Americans. In other words it was a sign that we are wising up as a civilization.
So why did it all end so quickly? I don't think there is any real question that the fire was stoked by statements made by Clinton surrogates like Former Senator Bob Kerrey, (I included his complete statement in an earlier entry on 12/18/07) William Shaheen, ( Obama's drug use and mocked up drug sales) Rep. Charles Rangel, (Martin Luther Kings role in civil rights legislation) and Robert Johnson. (reference to what Obama was "doing in the neighborhood") Why do we know that their statements were out of line? The fact that each of them apologized directly to Senator Obama is a good indication. The one that was on the payroll resigned.
Former President Clinton attributed his wife's loss to an implied inevitability in black voter preference. Astoundingly he casually asserted Jesse Jacksons success in South Carolina in 1984 and 1988 to make his case.
Why was all this necessary? The absence of race from this contest was not to be because the Clinton political machinery is missing one critical piece. That being a candidate who has equal or better skills than Senator Obama and can win head to head with him. Without this their only hope is to abandon ethics in the pursuit of their goal.
Now that the Hispanic vote has become critical, what will happen next? Well, to some degree there already exists an assumption that Hispanic voters are not inclined to vote for a black candidate. How do I know this? Because the people I acquaint with have told me so. Since these are not Hispanics I was curious where this opinion comes from so I asked the question. In my small sampling of white males the most substantive opinions seemed to be based on such dubious sources as a friend of a friend or prison life television shows or news accounts usually involving criminality. In reports about Prison riots and gang activity they do seem to depict ethnic groups as mortal enemies but isn't that really about protection and safety in numbers and the vilifying of the other side for power and group viability and all that stuff. And anyway, are these the Hispanics who are voting? So I'm left without a source of accurate information but the matter-of-fact imput I did receive makes me believe that the seeds are sown on this issue.
There also seems to be a logic that by including minority groups as racists you defuses charges seen as unfairly levied against the majority. Maybe a different form of safety in numbers.
So for these and other reasons you have people who are predisposed to notions about Hispanic voter preferences. Now all you need is a catalyst. The news media will happily oblige their services if you can give them something to run with. Guess what, it turns out a few weeks ago a Clinton pollster and so-called Latino expert carried out his orders and launched the assault by saying, "the Hispanic voter-and I want to say this very carefully-has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates." Now you know why he wanted to say it so carefully.