TROUBLE: STUPID CAN'T BE CURED

Joshua Holland wrote another provocative article. This time he writes:
You Can’t Have Bipartisanship if the GOP Base is Psychotic After defining psychosis, he justifies his diagnosis by the following statistics:

• “Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?” Yes 42%, No 36%, Not Sure 22%.

• “Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win?” Yes 24%, No 43%, Not Sure 33%.

• “Do you believe ACORN stole the 2008 election?” Yes 21%, No 24%, Not Sure 55%.

• “Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?” Yes 31%, No 36%, Not Sure 33%.

• “Do you believe your state should secede from the United States?” The answer here is Yes 23%, No 58%, Not Sure 19%. On this basis, Kos declares: “42 percent of Republicans aren’t really patriotic.” Among Republicans in the South, secessionism is stronger at Yes 33%, No 52% Not Sure 15%.

He qualifies his observations by saying, "But only on its face. They’re not actually psychotic, because the reality they hold was carefully crafted for them not only by extremists on the wingnut blogs, but by the mainstream leaders of their party and by Fox News, a major cable outlet." For the entire article, click here. If only the Republicans could have a magic mirror that shows them things as they really are!
Rather than assuming these people are psychotic, they seem to resemble sheep who will follow a wolf in sheep's clothing, misleading them all the way to their own losses for which they take no self-responsibility.

GAFFES?

Apparently McCain gaffed yesterday and said, "My fellow prisoners" when he meant to say something like , "My fellow Americans" or whatever. The man has to be tired but, he will be tired as President, as well, if he were to win. We all make Freudian slips but is that what we can assume that was? Knowing how melanoma has a fondness for traveling to the brain, among other places, I would still like to see his medical records shown.

In February, McCain announced he was a 'proud Conservative, Liberal Republican', forced to correct himself quickly.

"You know that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran? Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." (Watch video clip) , another McCain special.

Even Barack has a few such as: "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." --at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon (Watch video clip)

Palen: "There ya go, Joe...lookin' back instead of forward." Does she read or care? " Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." --George Santayana ...

Many people who know him and have observed McCain's loss of control and temper are deeply concerned about what might happen if he were President. He has been witnessed as striking a woman, using despicable profanity to his wife, and some have come forward to speak about it. Would these be called gaffes, as well? They sure aren't planned for great P.R., I would say!

LOTS OF NEW BEGINNINGS

O.J. Simpson was found guilty of several felony counts and will face a jail sentence soon.

Sarah Palin accuses Barack Obama of palling around with terrorists. She cited a New York Times report that Mr Obama had had links with a former member of a 1960s militant group. Since Palin has no real ideas about running the country, she has taken up the usual Republican style of character assassination. That Obama was too young too talk when the militant group was in action seems insignificant to her. Mr Obama, who served on a charity board several years ago with Mr Ayers - now a professor at the University of Illinois - has denounced his radical activities. Does Governor Palin assume this 60's activist was able to stifle all his urges for almost 50 years and is just waiting for his 'friend' to get into office to begin them again, though the war he protested against is over?

How sad to see John McCain, the Maverick who is a 'straight talker' allow his Vice Presidential nominee to stoop to such pig sty politics. Is that why he appointed the 'barracuda'...so he could try to stay as removed from her as he does Bush? Does that short distance explains his bragging so loudly about how great she did in the Biden/Palin debate?

Tonight, for nearly two hours, I had the distinct pleasure of being away from my TV and the political wrestling. I was always told, 'never wrestle a pig in sh...er, mud. The pig will love it and you will only get filthy.' Personally, I hope that Sarah Barracuda will show her lack of judgment, paucity of readiness for the Presidency, and wake up to find herself the only 'pig' in this fight with the stench of it coloring her future career in politics. Winning by character assassination of your opponents and nothing else to recommend you will get a reincarnated George W. Bush back, in her. I hope our country folk are smarter than that.

My two hours away from the TV were spent at Boston Symphony Hall listening to Andre Previn, Maestro, with a new piece by him, commissioned by the BSO, called OWLS. It was lovely and far preferable to the Carter commissions in the past few years, to my ears. Next was a stunning rendition of Violin Concerto in D by Stravinsky, played by violin virtuoso Gil Shaham. It is a beautiful piece played with breathtaking musicianship by Shaham. After Intermission, we heard Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. Now if only the concert could have lasted until after the elections, life would be considerably improved.

HOW WILL THIS STORY END?

For some time I have occasionally written about trying to live a stress-free life. Reading 'feel good' books and watching 'feel-good' movies has been helpful. However, as I note their template, these often run to hero meets heroine, they dislike each other and spend most of their time misunderstanding one another. At the tale end of the book/movie, the writers give us a few paragraphs of their finally seeing the light, the truth, and their amazing love for one another. They leave us in the last sentence with the impression that they will live happily ever after though they have certainly not managed much happiness until now. The reader often struggles to understand what happened between them that will allow that prediction to happen but is often too pleased by the resolution to take it further in speculation.

The McCain/Palin campaign reminds me of these stories. There is a broad assumption that, if we vote the two of them in, they will live and reign happily ever after. But Prince Charming likely had the same distasteful odors when relieving himself as McCain does when he makes his promises of change. If he was capable of effecting the kind of change we have needed for the past 8 years, why hasn't he mentioned it, instead of voting with Bush 90% of the time. His promises, even now, give no indication as to what will become of the country other than the same degradation of the lives of America's citizen's, with a continuation of all the failed policies of the past two terms of this Administration.

A second assumption is that McCain will live to serve out a four year term. I'm not sure where he, as a 72 year old having suffered four bouts with cancer, appears on the insurance actuarial tables but I do know that a third of VPs have gone on to be President while serving their own term as Vice President. Governor Palin, who governs fewer than people in the state of Rhode Island, and who was mayor of a town of slightly over 5000 when she was in office, seems to be as unsure of herself as one might believe Cinderella may have been when suddenly finding herself a Princess after knowing little other than being servant to her wicked step-sisters. One might think that Cinderella might have been shrewd enough to listen and learn before she jumped into all the demands of royal court as the Princess before she became Queen. Governor Palin seems to think she needs no tutelage for the move to the top responsibility, call for experience in governing globally, and with a finger on the red button. She has the effrontery to believe that she will win over Senator Clinton's voters. Such colossal hubris simply bears to mind the saying, "Ignorance is bliss." No wonder she can smile and seem to sincerely believe they are somehow equals. Instead of Hillary Clinton, Palin comes across as Caribou Barbie with John McCain as her Ken (or is it G.I. Joe?) They are playing at living in the real world and seem not to notice that people are not as easily fooled as they are insulted when they are the recipients of so many untruths and promises that do not fit their ideologies.

Like the books, we wait until the last paragraph to find out just what will happen to Prince Charming and Cinderella, who unfortunately will not leave our land for a distant one. If it is McCain and Palin, they will remain in the USA and practice their governing on a country already dying. Their political medicine is totally inadequate to save it. However, if Obama and Biden, who have already finished their residency and have a great deal of experience behind them for 'fixing' sick systems prevail, the USA might survive. It will feel like spooning the ocean with a teaspoon, but will take Herculean skill. As with Hercules, it will take thinking out of the box. Hercules rerouted rivers to clean out the Augean stables in a day. (Augeus reneged on his promise to give him one tenth of the cattle if he succeeded, so Hercules killed him and put in Augeas's son as king. There the metaphor slips away from the current Administrative task but matches its challenge.)

SARAH PALIN SPEAKS TO AMERCA

If there are those of you around old enough to remember when Bill Clinton anticipated the worst was over for him when he won the election, only to find he hadn't counted on next test, being accepted by the media. I particularly remember Cokie Roberts mouthing off about what would be taught him when he got to Washington, since he dared to think he could come into Washington and take over (not a direct quote), but the meaning was made clear. It was insinuated that he would learn who really runs Washington.

With condescension, Sarah Palin said in her speech, 9/3/08, "I'm not going to Washington seeking the media's good opinion, I'm going to serve the American people."
Having thrown the gauntlet to the media, she should not be surprised when they ask her to choose her weapon and meet her at dawn. Their weapon, you can be assured will be the written word. If she is impressed with herself for firing up her audience, she should be aware that theirs is continuously on the air for people to be influenced.

She got rid of the governor's personal chef, she let us know (which cannot be a significant saving for the state), adding "I can assure you five kids certainly miss her at times." (Can it be that it might be an unhappy chef trying to please the taste of all those teenagers?) She accused Obama of being worried someone won't read us our rights, causing me to wonder if the culture of ignoring the Constitution will be carried on were she to be in Washington. She goes on to say, "He wants to grow the government. Taxes are too high...he wants to raise them." She gave no indication she is even aware of the budget, what programs are essential, and from where the money will come.

Having survived the first six years of the Republican Senate, I was appalled to hear her say, "Harry Reed, head of the do-nothing Senate." She must have been too busy having babies to have been aware of how little the Senate did other than rubber stamp Bush prior to Harry Reed.

Sarah Palin seemed, in her speech, to be totally oblivious to the issues of the 48 states down below her. She offered nothing but a pipeline and mentioned helping Ohio with raising employment there and another key State in the election. Her speech, though delivered emotionally and touching the fervor of the ramped up audience, had little to indicate that she could withstand a debate on world crises with Hillary Clinton (as a woman) or Barack Obama as the Democratic choice to be presidential candidate for 2008. It always saddens me when the bar to Office of the Presidency is lowered to the ridiculous. It is as disheartening as it was to hear of the Catholic Church's failure to protect its young people from predator priests by lowering its standards for priestly behavior.

Will we next find Internet colleges giving online courses on how to prepare yourself to be the next President? Indeed, that is what she is quite likely to be if she is now voted in as VP with a record of 1 out of three US VP's becoming President before the elected President's term of office has expired.

WHITE OR BLACK

Is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes was the inspiration of a great joke (but a bit too politically incorrect to post here). Barack Obama is half white and half black by parentage but, for reasons of still evident racial bias, he is seen as black. Does the fact that he fell in love with a black woman make him, more black? Had he been all white with a black wife, would it make him as black? Does Clarence Thomas's white wife make him less black in other than his own self-image, or is it only his face that is brown from kissing he has done? How backward our society still is in these matters.

There is no question that the color of skin should not be the deciding factor on what a person may or not be or believe. It is the person within that skin to whom we should be looking. Racists are too ready to assume that if Obama becomes President, blacks will take over the country. Laws are passed on equality rights which, for all practical purposes, mean nothing. If laws changed people's biases, there would be no more Confederate flag flying in our country. Yet we see that 140 years has done little to dissipate the schism between the North and the South. 50 years ago, black people in most of the north spoke the same English as the whites. Today one may need an Ebonics translator to understand. Was this an influence with which side he identified or were the doors slammed in his face when he tried to identify with his white half?

Only in the USA does having a white mother and a black father seem to make one 100% black. It is not the math I was taught, but apparently the math being used is as unintelligible to me as Einstein's theory.

DO NOT LISTEN TO PREDICTIONS

For as many years as I believed my parents knew better than I. I believed that TV political pundits also knew more than I. Indeed they do have more information. However, they are mostly unable to use that information to predict the entire political system. Beyond that, they are hampered by their own wish to appear ‘pundit-like’, to please their bosses, and like the legislature, to assure their continued employment.

To that end, also like the legislators, they pretend to speak for the average American with whom they long ago lost any contact they may have once had before they became victims of the Peter Principle. (“In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.") from Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in a humorous book which also introduced the "salutary science of Hierarchiology" "inadvertently founded" by Peter, their book in 1968 The Peter Principle, the principle has real validity.

The Audacity of Hope could better have been written about the predictions made publicly on the McLaughlin Hour for years, few of which came to pass. Those made by the self-described 'experts' for all major media outlets on newspaper, air or TV fare no better. There was a time when they could say anything and get away with it, but no more. Today there is a visual and audio recording of everything uttered. McCain has tried to lie his way out of things denying he has said what the media can play back, almost instantaneously, that which they accurately claim he said, leaving his denial a mere flap of his lips. So far, that fact has not quite sunk into the brains of some of the politicians and pundits. Cheney seems to be one of the worst at maintaining he never said what he did say, with abounding proof on archived TV files to the contrary. For those schooled in never admitting they lied and never taking responsibility for their actions, technology seems to be catching up to them.

If we assume that McCain actually has forgotten what he has predicted, promised or said, we enter another sphere of confusion. McCain's brain is 72 years of age while Obama's is 46 or so. In either case, whether he is fabricating that he never said something or indeed has actually forgotten, it is not a positive sign for the brain functioning of the President of the most powerful nation in the world.

So I am left with a real question. Will the pundits be as anxious to make a prediction with such vehemence in face of the likelihood that it may not come to pass if they know it will be played over and over to the country at large, win or lose?