Hail Colin!

I'm encouraged this week to see that at least a few intelligent leaders from the other side can see past all the socially-damaging innuendo and falsehood being generated by McCain/Palin and their narrow-minded minions...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/opinion/22dowd.html

Huzzah!

Now, isn't this rich?

I don't have an ounce of respect left for McCain...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9408VO01&show_article=1

Trust

Here we go again - someone restarted the Spin Cycle.

I've been seeing an awful lot of angry feedback about the ABC interview focusing on how the Media can't be trusted, they are so "liberal," "slanted," and using a "double-standard"; they "always get it wrong," and "nobody trusts the Media anyway." One comment I read obnoxiously stated that "...she could have bombed it and nobody would care either way..."

I just want to say this: aren't we focusing on the wrong issue?

We already know (or should know) the weaknesses and limitations of the Media. Yet the question in point remains: Can you trust the Candidate?

Tension Breaker

And now for something a little lighter...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3aMDJP4VxY4&feature=related

Let's Bomb the Russians Too

If you were not frightened earlier, you should be after the Charlie Gibson interview....which could have aired on primetime as "Dancing with Sarah Palin."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNPGnZurs1k

I encourage everyone to watch Part 1 of the recent ABC interview. Candidate Palin just showed the entire viewing public that she really hasn't a clue about foreign affairs, let alone our current administration's policies.

At one point, Charlie asks her what her interpretation of the Bush Doctrine is.

"His world view?" she responds, testily.

Well...not exactly. Charlie proceeds to spoon feed her. At that point I am squirming with utter discomfort - not for her mind you - but for the rest of us. A cold shiver ran down my spine. You could almost see her saying to herself "Oh...you mean that pre-emptive strike thing."

She not only made hardline statements about how we should conduct foreign policy, but just about threatened conflict with Russia. In the meantime, she really never answered any of the national security questions, instead dancing around and deflecting to "energy independence."

Yes Sarah, we ALL know you recognize what OIL is. Now it's time to find out what DIPLOMACY is.

Well done, Candidate Palin.

p.s. My condolences to the team that coached her before this interview. They probably just lost their jobs.

The Final Sense

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

I recently heard a reading of his "Chance for Peace" speech, part of which I quoted above. I was really moved by some of the forward-looking commentary, considering the context within which it was delivered.

Election Frustration, Part II

Here's Part 2 of a recent rant:

Actually {name withheld}, that is one thing we can both agree on - it's what I was trying to say in my initial wrap up below - Americans do get the government they deserve - there is no doubt there. But when 51% determines the fate of the other 49%, it's a scary precipice to be teetering over. It is now time to change this fate.

In the current scenario, if we're going to be this blind, this distracted, then we truly deserve Sarah Palin (we know who everyone's coming out to rallies to see - it's not McCain). I repeat - Americans love a good hanging. I just wish they would instead start hanging the establishment and abolish the 2-Party deadlock.

To me, and to many hopeful Americans, Obama represents the most forward-looking candidate we've had in decades. I'm as cynical as they come, so I don't realistically think he's going to get all his promises accomplished. No President EVER has (FDR perhaps coming closest). But he will try, and he has a Democratic-majority in Congress to support his policies. It's our absolute best chance at changing the face of America, and domestic and foreign policy over the next 4-8 years. And perhaps we can show the ever growing minority segment of our population that there is hope for making a difference in an otherwise scared white establishment.

Indeed government control of health care scares me to some degree, but frankly not as much as the system we currently live with. The state of health care in this country may look rosy to the privileged few, but to most citizens it seems utterly unsustainable. Insurance costs increasing at double digit percentages each year. Millions of uninsured citizens, including a generation of otherwise healthy 20-somethings that is forgoing health insurance because it costs too much (a potentially catastrophic future problem). Insurance companies making record profits while doctors are financially punished, and are fleeing malpractice lawsuits left and right. Assembly line treatment at your physician's office, where the proper tests may not be ordered because they cost too much. Small businesses that can't afford to cover their workforce, or pass a large percentage of that cost onto them. It's an insane mess. Government has sat back and accepted special interest money and let it grow into a totally out-of-control situation.

Clearly there is no simple solution to this. I don't believe that Obama is necessarily proposing, for the long term, an entirely government-controlled health care system. We certainly need to look to other countries' examples, and realize that collective health care CAN work, and work well. We need to stop being so scared of change, stop paying insurance companies to jerk us around, stop conceeding to corrupt corporations, and reform this system. There needs to be accountability, if nothing else. If you compare some of USA health care stats to countries with "socialized" medicine, you'll note that we are beat out time and time again.

Why? FOR PROFIT INDUSTRY. Our system is completely at odds with the Hippocratic Oath.

So I just don't see how the GOP is looking forward at this issue. Abating the scare of "socialized medicine" does not solve a looming crisis.

Just because they have nominated a woman (and let's consider how many years it took the GOP to do that after the Dems nominated G. Ferraro) does not mean they are looking to change anything. They've picked someone who has a background and position that resonates with the far-right (who IMHO must be the most narrow-minded voting block there is). The fact that she is a woman is merely a sensational trump card in a truly historic campaign, where very real boundaries have already been broken by Senator Clinton. Let's also not forget that Palin never had to campaign for the VP nomination - she was plucked out of her remote Alaskan village and seated at the right hand of the father.

Most of what Palin represents really scares the bejesus out of me. I can't actually speak for modern women in this Nation, but I know that if I traded my Y for an X, I'd be feeling pretty uneasy right now about this person representing me. In fact, I think I'd be insulted.

Palin does not reflect change when her positions suggest such antiquated ideals. Overturn Roe v. Wade? Rape the environment to drill all the crude we can squeeze out of the ground? Teach Creationism? Restrict Choice? Shield children from proper sex-education? Teach Abstinence to teenagers instead of contraception - in 2008? You might as well ask rabbits to politely refrain from reproducing. She needs to seriously wake up. Let's solve social problems by educating people, not burying our heads in sand and pretending we're not human! These are not conservative policies, they're ludicrous policies. Bristol Palin seems to me a poster child for why such policies don't work. (Sarah was perhaps so busy lobbying for that Bridge to Nowhere that she forgot to give Bristol the abstinence policy notes).

As far as I'm concerned, "moral" hypocrisy IS an issue in this campaign. If you live by that moral sword, you should be prepared to die by it too (figuratively speaking, of course). By this I mean that if the same shoe was on Hillary's foot, the Right would NOT be making such excuses for Hillary. They'd be making political hay. They would pillory her from their "family values" pulpit from here to Sunday. It is hypocrisy at it's extreme, and I just can't stomach the bull any longer. Obama came right out and tried to re-direct attention away from this issue. But the Dems could have made this a much bigger stink. I'm partly glad they took the high ground here, but considering the cheap shots and hostile tactics being used against them regularly, they could very well loose the election for being the "nice guys".

So I may represent part of what the Right likes to call the "intellectual elite," but frankly in this day and age I'd rather be accused of having thought through a policy decision using logic, than be seen as praying for supernatural intervention to inspire the right course of action. I see the very same strain of misguided hubris in Palin that we saw in Bush...perhaps even more so. Can America really afford for her to be a heartbeat away from the Highest Office in the Land?

Heaven indeed help us.