Friday, September 19, 2008

RETURNING TO MILDER INSANITY?

Sufficient time has passed since the conventions for the “bubble” of emotional support to have passed with it. Polls yesterday showed the Obama has regained the lead in the presidential race, so Palin has paled and McLame is appropriately suffering from his own earlier statements about his incompetence in economic matters. So maybe the country is beginning to turn away from the radically rabid right approach to politics and getting back to asking what the country really needs. America has been a neurotic place for a long time, but for the last forty years it has been sliding into psychosis. Maybe the latest polls indicate a return to less dangerous frames of mind.

We all tire of the political mud slinging in today’s long campaigns, but one good aspect of that length is that there is time in a campaign to see and hear the candidates’ responses to tough situations that arise during the time span. Thanks to the incompetence of the current administration there have been plenty of issues for the candidates to address and plenty of opportunities for us to assess the quality of those responses.

McLame’s response to the tumbling walls of Wall Street was particularly revealing. He wants to fire the head of the Security Exchange Commission and create a new government agency for oversight. The party that always runs on “small government” and accuses the Democrats of favoring big government always grows government instead, and that is McLame’s first reaction.

Obama, on the other hand, advocates firing the whole bunch in charge through the upcoming election – that’s a good idea if I ever heard one – and instead of adding another layer of government, he wants to reinstate the regulations that used to prevent Wall Street’s free wheeling ways before BushCo (thanks to Phil Gramm) removed them immediately after taking office. When Republicans call for smaller government they always only mean less regulation, but regulation is definitely needed, and Obama has put his finger on the pulse of the problem.

You may have already seen the widely distributed email message titled “I’m a Little Confused”, but in case you haven’t I’m copying it here. I think it says about everything anybody needs to know to decide how to vote in November.


Subject: Fwd: I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick. (Palin)

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges (Palin) before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you (Obama) spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people wh ile sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you (Obama) have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife (McCain) with a rich heiress (Cindy), and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor (Palin), you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife (Michelle) is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

If you're (Palin) husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA , your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now. Share the clarity...pass it on!


“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi


The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

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