So why are you a blog reader?  What the hell are you looking for here that you can not get from the mainstream media?  Hullabaloo and The Carpetbagger commented recently on the pundits of Sunday morning talk shows and reflected on how out of touch they have become.  I suspect that may be one reason you read blogs.  A recent political cartoon sent to me by Red Hog reader Mike quipped, “I don’t see anything wrong with the media selling advertising for their news entertainment divisions.  You never read or hear anything bad about those advertisers.”  And politicians themselves are so finely scripted and handled by campaign managers that the words from their mouths are dubious at best.  Ironic then, that the medium most often criticized for lacking journalistic integrity would become such a huge force to be reckoned with for the limited number of minutes you afford for information. 

            The talking heads of the news networks have evolved (devolved) to be the equivalent of perpetual motion machines.  The theoretical miracle that produces as much energy as it consumes is analogous to the Pundit, who when reviewing the days events, creates news for ad-nauseam regurgitation until the context of the original news reported is long gone from our memory.  What is almost diabolical in this reporting scheme is that the pundits seem to be more interested in their own agendas than the stories they spin which is what Hullabaloo and The Carpetbagger addressed in their posts.  The danger of pundits would be if our political leaders listen to them.  The message to Washington has been made pretty clear in both election results and polling by any number of credible institutions and yet the mainstream media continues to discount the reality of the data. 

            It is no secret that I believe many of our politicians have lost touch with the people and nothing short of comprehensive campaign finance and ethics reform will repair that.  Barack Obama was in Cedar Rapids yesterday.  I had a dental appointment at the time he was to appear and for reasons unexplainable by me my Harley found its way to the Obama event and I am sure my Dentist is wondering what happened to me.  As Obama entered the gymnasium at the appropriately named Roosevelt school gym a genuine warm tingly feeling washed over me.  Obama addressed ethics reforms where he acknowledged that many politicians are for reform before they get in office but pointed to his life’s work as testimony that his message is sincere.  He pointed out that his message resonates with the people and that the public is willing to lift up a candidate who refuses PAC money and corporate donations.  He has been somewhat successful at raising campaign money.  When Obama is president there will be no question of who he is beholding to.  He will represent the people because it is the people who are financing his campaign.

            So why are people reading blogs?  Perhaps it is because it is one of the few places where we are allowed to have a voice.  You can post comments to most any page you read without an obnoxious and overbearing talk show host cutting you off or taking your message out of context.  It seems that now, more than ever our government is unresponsive to us.  Little did we know that our First Amendment right to free speech had qualifiers that some peoples rights would be “more guaranteed” than others.  It all depends on how much you can afford.  The diversity of bloggers should provide about anybody a home-site they can identify with.  Perhaps the talking heads of the mainstream media and the hopeful candidates of 08 needs to recognize the voice coming from the grass roots because we may just decide we can get along nicely with out them.

            How about you?  Why are you here and why do you read blogs?

 

            The New York Times reported Saturday that President Bush has “decided” he wants to sell $20 billion worth of advanced weapons to Sunni sect Saudi Arabia.  I’m not quite sure how this is a good idea as we purportedly seek to stabilize the Shia dominant coalition government in Iraq.  To make this palatable to Congress Bush proposed providing Israel $30.4 billion in military aid over the next decade.  This is what you call win-win capitalism.  We sell advanced weapons systems to an unstable Middle East and perpetuate an arms race amongst hated neighbors and have tax payers infuse $30 billion so defense contractors can reap huge profits.  Icing on the cake will be when everyone annihilates each other over there and American oil companies can step in and suck them dry of their oil resources.  How does it work that we continually repeat the same mistakes over and over.  At one time we provided advanced weapons to Iraq.  It was Saudi nationals who attacked us on 9/11 and we just keep feeding the fire. 

            In Iraq tensions in the coalition government remain strained as they prepare to take off the month of August.  The Washington Post reported, The largest block of Sunni’s, a group called the Accordance Front, has been accused of blackmail and obstruction by Shia leaders and the Iraq President Jalal Talabani suggested the Front harbors insurgent sympathizers.  Sunni’s are demanding a greater say in security matters and have walked out of the legislature and are threatening to resign.  Things are not looking good for September when the top U.S. Military commander and the U.S. Ambassador are due to report to Congress on the Bush war strategy.  And yet we are going to wait another couple months to confirm the surge is not working before Bush loyalists will stop their obstructionist political blocking of a redeployment of our troops.  We just keep feeding the fire. 

            A British newspaper has reported that tensions have grown so dire between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and General Davie Petraeus, director of American military operations in Iraq, that Maliki has asked President Bush to remove Petraeus.  Bush denies the claim as does a senior Maliki spokesman.  Wouldn’t it be nice we could have faith that our government would tell us the truth about matters of such grave importance?  The patterns of secrecy and deception are so entrenched in the present administration that it is difficult to trust anything they tell us when it comes to the war in Iraq.  So for now, the fire keeps burning.

 

            I hope you all had a great weekend.  Sunday, after church, Carter, my seven year old and I took the Harley for a ride to Suttliffe, IA for one of their world famous gut-bomb cheeseburgers.  Suttliffe is a notorious local Harley, boat and bicyclist destination and sits snuggly in a wooded area along the Cedar River.  As we sat eating our burgers Carter leaned back in his chair and said, “Dad, I’m gonna have my own restaurant some day.  It’s gonna be a biker restaurant.”  I love that kid.

 

            Hazleton, Pennsylvania grew weary of waiting for the federal government to enact immigration reforms that would allow them to discriminate against “undesirable” Mexicans so they took the law into their own hands.  The battle cry of people opposed to allowing Mexicans to move to the United States in large numbers has always been the rule of law.  Cleverly disguising their intolerance for our neighbors to the south the most vocal of those demanding a toughening of immigration policies have always claimed their opposition to immigrants hinged on the fact that they arrived here illegally.  They would have you believe it has nothing to do with the fact that the immigrants have different customs, speak a different language or that their skin is darker than theirs. 

            On Thursday US federal Judge James Munley ruled that Hazleton could not enact their ordinance that punished businesses or landlords for hiring or leasing to illegals.  Those who hid behind the rule of law failed to recognize that the Constitution guarantees certain rights to all people in the United States regardless of whether they are here legally or otherwise.  Perhaps the ugliest aspect of the call for immigration reform in this country is the duping of the masses by the bigots at the forefront of the movement.  You need look no further than your email inbox to see the failed logic of the hysteria surrounding immigration reform.  On a weekly basis it is no doubt that you receive one of those FWD> FWD> FWD> emails reporting the galling atrocities of Mexicans getting free healthcare, education, or meals – tax free - while you the ever hard working tax payer foot the bill. 

            I received one such email Saturday morning.  It spoke of turn of the century Europeans who once immigrated to this country and adopted English as their only language, many with the foresight to Americanize their names so as to be better Americans.  The letter said, “Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.”  Oh for the good old days when we could have Mexicans sneak across the border, do the hard work we don’t want to do and remain invisible.  It is such a burden that we would have to look at them or afford them protection from predatory employers and such. 

I promptly replied to this email “to all” with:  That letter applies some pretty broad generalizations about what was in the hearts of those who immigrated through Ellis Island and by contrast those who might cross our Southern borders.  I wonder if we moved the Statue of Liberty to the Rio Grande and all of the Mexicans who sought economic refuge here came through a historical portal in Texas if people would fondly welcome them as they do lighter skinned Europeans from across the Atlantic.  I doubt it.  But that is not the reason for my reply.

The crux of the immigration battle is mostly between the corporations that hire them and the rest of us who believe our country has a need to know who crosses our borders.  Ironic that our policies, NAFTA, gave our neighbors to the south a taste of American prosperity and when China outbid Latin America for cheap labor, the corporations who benefited most from the policy shipped their jobs across the Pacific.  And now we want to blame the Mexicans for clinging to the American dream they tasted as a result of our corporate greed.

Wake UP!  Every minute you spend being enraged about immigration is wasted time.  The free things you are supposedly providing illegal immigrants; compared with the corporations who bought your Congressman via campaign contributions are insignificant.  American business caused this problem in the first place and receives an exponentially larger slice of corporate welfare and tax cuts than all of the Mexicans in the world ever received from your government. 

Yes, we need to secure our borders and yes we need to enforce the law of the land.  Sending stuff like this around the Internet will never help with that mission.  You need to pay attention to what your Congressman is doing and tell them to stop taking money from corporations so that they will represent you ahead of the companies that hire illegal aliens. You need to demand that your Congressman stop subsidizing Fortune 500 companies with tax incentives, abatement's and grants.  Until you do that the bought-and-paid-for Congress will never crack down on immigration because American industry loves the cheap labor.  Look at the candidates for 08.  Those talking toughest about immigration are most likely the biggest recipients of corporate donations.  Who do you think they are going to represent when elected?  What are they trying to hide?  Could it be possible they love it when you get all worked up and send stuff like this around the Internet when you could be looking closely at what they are likely to do if elected?

 

            On Friday President Bush called the U.S. economy strong citing a Gross Domestic Product jump of 3.4 percent in the second quarter.  We all know that this must be great news and that we can count on the great “Decider” to lay the facts out straight for us.  "The world economy is strong and I happen to believe one of the main reasons why is because we remain strong," “The U.S. economy is large, flexible and resilient.” said the always honest Bush who is on record for his tremendous ability to match his beliefs with reality in the world.

            I have a different opinion of the Bush economy.  I don’t have the luxury of basing my evaluation of the economy on a presidential “gut feeling” as it were.  All I can do is read about it and maybe share with you a little of what I find.  Most Americans disagree with the Decider when it comes to the economy.  In fact only 23% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy while 73% disapprove.  Then again, I don’t know why anyone who actually lives and works in an economy should be trusted to evaluate how they think it is doing.  Such noble considerations should be left to our fearless leader.  AP news reported that Thursday's 300-point market plummet and Friday’s 200-point drop resulted in the Dow and S&P having the worst week in 5 years.  The 3.4 percent growth in domestic GDP pales in comparison to a global growth rate of 5 percent.  The problems in the stock market here in America are fueled by rising oil prices, rising prices for Wall Street credit prices and expected losses from foreclosures in the housing market.  Suddenly investment has taken on a risk aversion aspect and credit grantors are preparing for an onslaught.

            Nationally, the child poverty rate went up by 12 percent between 2000 and 2005, after a 30 percent decline between 1996 and 2000.  But we all know Clinton was a scourge on the American presidency and deserved his impeachment.  From 1980 to 2002, the latest year of available data, the share of total income earned by the top 0.1 percent of earners more than doubled, while the share earned by everyone else in the top 10 percent rose far less. The share of the bottom 90 percent declined. (um, we would be in that 90 percent group)  Here is another thing about the Bush economy; the underlying lie sold to the American public about the Bush economy is that tax cuts for the wealthy will lead to a stronger America.  If Bush’s tax cuts are made permanent by 2015, those making between $80,000 and $400,000 will pay nearly 14% more of their income in federal taxes than those making more than $400,000.  Those making less than $80,000 will see their share of tax revenues rise slightly or stay the same.  So the rich keep getting richer and you pay a higher percentage of your income in taxes than they do.  How is that fair?

            Most Americans care more about class mobility than about income distribution or wealth division.  We all harbor that American dream of; if we just work hard enough we can rise above the muddled middle class.  Yet this remains increasingly difficult to do under Bush’s anti-labor policies where outsourcing is the norm and wages for most working class people failing to keep pace with inflation.  (And inflation is not even high!)  And all the while we buy into the Bush rhetoric about our economy being strong he fails to point out that nearly all of the growth in GDP went towards corporate profits (at a historically high percentage) which eventually flow to stock and bondholders who are concentrated at the highest levels of the income scale.

            Many people who bought into the Bush vision of a strong economy dumped their hopes into real estate.  Sales of existing US homes fell to their lowest level in June in more than four ½ years.  I find it disgusting that George Bush would smugly stand before the nation and tell us how good things are when he has single-handedly done more damage to this great nation than any president in our history.  According to USDA, 35.1 million people - including 12.4 million children - live in households that frequently experience hunger or risk hunger. This means 11 percent of all U.S. households fall into this category.  Under Bush almost 11 million people - including 606,000 children-live in U.S. households that frequently skip meals, consume an inadequate supply of food or don't eat for an entire day.  I wonder how Bush’s words of our strong economy resonate in the minds of those who go to bed hungry in America.

            We can do better my friends.  Choosing a new president in 08 who is about reform in government can turn this country back to being “of the people, by the people and for the people.”  I don’t see any candidates in the Republican Party who portend to be anything different than what we have under Bush.  Consider your choices wisely.

 

OUCH!  You better watch this.

            Okay, that was fun but let me back up a little bit.  I had carefully scripted what I thought would be my hilarious stand up comedy debut.  I wrote most of the material about a month ago and then abandoned it until a couple of nights ago.  Eventually I figured if I was going to actually do this I had better try to learn it.  Once I started imagining memorizing my shtick I wasn’t quite so sure this was all going to be a good idea and it seemed a daunting task with so little time.  I decided to bale on the event and then SWMBO came home and announced that she had told friends in her office that I was going to perform.  Worse yet, they said they would be there.  Damn it!  There was no backing out now and I can honestly say that the thought to blow it off never occurred to me again until about three hours before the show. 

            I had read and read and read my script until it wasn’t funny.  No really.  I had read it so many times there was nothing funny about it.  I had also made a little crimp sheet that I could palm to keep me moving in case I had a brain fart once I got on stage but I hadn’t tried it out yet.  So when I got home from work I asked my son if I could try it out while only using my cheat sheet and he agreed.  I sucked.  It didn’t work.  I had never transitioned from the fully written script and my notes were almost useless.  Thoughts of I can’t do this raced through my head.  I had to go out to the deck for some fresh air and collect my thoughts.  Eventually I felt may I could do it but I had to work my notes with my script until I got used to referencing the keywords with the script and I would be good to go.  Two hours until show time. 

            Clayton gave me a few pointers and then pointed out that it would be a good idea if maybe I didn’t do this on an empty stomach so he volunteered to run into town and grab some grub while I continued to practice.  About the time he left SWMBO arrived at home and after we caught up on our days I tried my act out on her.  OH MAN!  It seemed her laughter was courteous if not obligatory and I had been through the crap so many times I had no idea at all if I was going to bomb and in fact I was pretty sure I would.  One hour until show time. 

             Clayton arrived home with some take out; we wolfed it down and then made our way to Penguins, the local comedy club that offers Amateur Night the last Thursday of every month.  Once we got to the club we joined Kandi’s office friends who were already there and I struggled with the need to go over my material and welcome those who gave up an evening in the hopes that I would be funny.  There were 17 comedians and I drew number 12.  That was difficult because I wouldn’t be able to go over my stuff and I wouldn’t have the benefit of getting my humiliation over with early.  And then it happened.  It was during the 9^th comedian when I suddenly realized that I couldn’t remember even the first word of my act!  (It was hello by the way) I freaked.  I waited until the 9^th guy finished and then during the transition to the 10^th I bolted for the bathroom, splashed some water on my face and ripped out my notes.  The 10^th guy was quick and I heard my name called as “on deck” when they called up the comedian before me.  I found a corner of the club with just enough light to go through my material one more time while the guy before me did his thing.

            The next thing I knew I was making my way to the stage.  Once I actually got the mike in my hands things calmed down considerably.  It was almost eerie that as soon as I grabbed the mike a calmness washed over me.  I blurted out my first line and… laughter!  Lots of laughter.  In fact, I had to break up my next lines to make room for more laughter.  From there on I felt as if I could control things to a small degree.  I could feel the crowd start to drift away and then I was able to reel them back in when I delivered the punch line.  It was an amazing feeling and now I know what Clayton is getting out of stand up comedy.  And then Clayton took the stage right after me.  It was perfect.  I gave him a kiss on the cheek as I passed him in the aisle between the staging area and the stage and he proceeded to rock the house.  I can’t remember ever having such a fun 10 minutes in my life.  Yeah, that’s right.  With 17 comics they don’t give you a lot of time to appear on stage.  But that’s okay.  It all worked out in the end.  I don’t subscribe to any thinking that this was anything but beginners luck but that mantra I was repeating before I took the stage is no longer applicable.  I was questioning how in the hell I had ever thought I could do stand up and had been saying, “I will never do this again, I will never do this again, I will…”  At least until next month that is!

 

It was a big day for the lovers of Democracy on Capital Hill yesterday, for a moment.  The House Judiciary Committee found White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for their failure to testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.  Shortly after the vote Tony Snow was quick to run to the White House briefing room and acknowledge, “This is something that …has very little chance of going anywhere," And he would be right, the Justice Department said it would block the citation from prosecution because information Congress is demanding is protected by executive privilege.  The Justice Department said that because, as a division of the Executive Office, they have to do what the president tells them to do.  And so it goes.

Hey, short post tonight.  That’s because I need to get ready to follow my sons (Clayton) footsteps when I make my stand up comedy debut tomorrow evening.  I kind of figured it might be a lot of fun and how hard could it be?  Clayton seems to be thriving at it and I’ve seen all his report cards.  They are only marginally better than mine were.  Actually I’m not anticipating becoming the next John Candy or anything but I have always loved being in front of a crowd with a microphone.  Sometimes that has caused me problems.  Like at office holiday parties and such.  Besides Clayton, another blogger is serving as inspiration for me.  Way back in February of 06 when I first started this blogging endeavor the very first blog I got hooked on, besides sister blogger Lori Hahn’s Hahn at Home, was Charlie Hatton’s Where the Hell Was I? 

You see, Charlie works with a computer all day pulling TPS reports of one sort or another much as I do.  And Charlie blogs, although to a much larger audience than I and Charlie does stand up comedy.  Charlie says things on his blog like, “Kids, please don't try this driving attitude at home. I'm what you call 'jaded'”, and “she doesn't need a greeting card from me with the word 'assbaggery' involved in any way.” or “Life is like milking your cat.”  So you see, Charlie and I really have little in common.  But if you take the 30,000 foot over view, no, that doesn’t work either.  Charlie gets paid for standup.  I’m doing one amateur night.  Okay, I gotta run.  Go visit Charlie and Lori today and I’ll report back tomorrow how things went!

 

OH MAN!  The right wing nut pundits are having a hay day with what they thought was an opportunity to jump on Barack Obama’s debate performance Monday evening.  In the YouTube debate from Charleston, S.C., Obama was asked if he would be willing to meet — without precondition — in the first year of his presidency with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.  "I would," he responded.  Oh the horror!  Even Hillary Clinton took the opportunity to jump on the reform candidate officially stating, "I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naïve.”  And that response killed in me any further consideration of Hillary Clinton when it comes time to caucus in Iowa next January 14^th.  Now let me tell you why.  President Bush has refused to meet with these leaders and I don’t believe we have seen much success in dealing with these nations.  Obama did not guarantee a meeting with these people; he said he would be willing to meet.  To be sure he would evaluate the situation and determine if it was in our country’s best interests to have such meetings.  To rule out opportunities to establish lines of communication is just more of the same and it is pretty clear that most of America wants change.
            Now, for the right wing nut pundits; I love it when Republicans fly off on the handle and start condemning Democrats before thinking about their own history.  Two modern Republican presidents met with “rogue” leaders in their first year in office.  Richard Nixon went to China in his first year in office and Ronald Reagan went to the Soviet Union during his first year.  I don’t know, I think that worked out rather nicely in both previous examples.  I suppose there is some great hidden reason of why that is different but I’m just going to enjoy notching another example of hypocrisy by the GOP. 

Oh, and you don’t have to take my word for it that Obama has what it takes to be Commander in Chief.  The following letter was released Tuesday by leading national security experts including former Senior State Department Official Greg Craig, former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, Major General Scott Gration (ret.), former Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Tony McPeak (ret.) and former Senior State Department Official Susan E. Rice in support of Senator Barack Obama and his preparedness to serve as Commander in Chief:

 

To Whom It May Concern,

 

During last night's debate, Barack Obama demonstrated that he has the best judgment to be Commander-in-Chief and turn the page on the kind of diplomacy that has marked the last 7 years.  It was clear from last night that Barack Obama has the best understanding of how to deal with the complex challenges that America faces in the world.  It is time America had a President who will use all the instruments of our power against our toughest adversaries.

 

First and foremost, Senator Obama's opposition to the Iraq war from the beginning and his warning of a "U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences" demonstrate the sound judgment we look for in a Commander in Chief.    He is right that the right time to consider how to end a war is before it begins, and we were especially pleased to hear him say, "When I am President of the United States, when I send our troops into battle, I am going to be absolutely sure that it is based on sound intelligence, and I'm going to tell the truth to the American people, as well as the families who are being asked to sacrifice."

 

At the same time, Senator Obama also showed he understands all the instruments of power available to the President, including tough minded diplomacy.   As Senator Obama pointed out, John F. Kennedy stood up to the Soviets; he also said, "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."  Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire, but he also personally negotiated arms agreements with Mikhail Gorbachev.

 

The American people are tired of a war in Iraq that has cost us dearly.  They want real change and strong leadership; last night, Senator Obama showed that he is the candidate who is ready to lead.

 

Signed,

Gregory Craig

            Richard J. Danzig

            Major General Scott Gration (ret.)

            General Merrill Anthony "Tony" McPeak (ret.)

            Susan Rice

 

           WOW!  My daughter is enjoying experiences that I will likely never realize in my lifetime.  She spent Monday visiting the Great Wall in China.  The Wall, all 3300 miles of it passes within aproximately a one hour drive from Courtney's intern site at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.  The variety of pictures Courtney has made available to us capture the incredible vastness of this unbelievable feat of man's determination and hard work.  I'm kind of thinking we need one of these walls on our Northern border to keep those crazy Canadians away from our wonderful health care system here in the United States.  Okay, I just made that part up.  In reality the dominate thought that kept coming back to me was that visiting that wall looks like it was a whole lot of work! 

           Courtney is working hard and enjoying her trip as much as she can.  When chatting with her online last night it rather surprised me that she will be flying home a week from this coming Sunday.  When I look back to the warm memories of her high school graduation in May it seems as if she has been gone an eternity.  On the other hand I can't believe how quickly these past seven weeks have gone.  The picture at the bottom has a special message for Courtney's youngest cousins. 

            How does a guy with aspirations to be president of the United States of America allow himself to be caught in a SNAFU as big as Mitt Romney was when he held up a poster suggesting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are affiliated with Osama Bin Laden?  The Romney team has been quick to flip flop saying it was a joke and that he never even read the sign.  While I have no doubt this guy is a good father and family man it has become quite apparent that his blind ambition knows no boundaries.  Mr. Romney appears to be Bush-Light at this stage of the campaign.  He has been caught in numerous flip-flops and projects his new, more electable positions as if they were entrenched values.  Can you say, dishonest?

            TMZ.com caught Mr. Romney grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he posed with a nearly illiterate South Carolina supporter who held up a hand made poster that read, No to Obama Osama and Chelsea’s Moma.”   I hope this woman is not reflective of the intelligence of all Romney supporters.  The lady couldn’t even spell mama correctly!  Come on!  And Republicans wonder why Democrats laugh when they come up with things like the tongue in cheek map that correlated higher IQ with blue states.  Of course, nobody has provided scientific proof that that map was not, in fact, accurate! 

            On July 20th Romney attacked Barack Obama saying, “Senator Obama is wrong if he thinks science-based sex education has any place in kindergarten," after Obama had advocated age appropriate sex education as the right thing to do.  Romney took Obama’s comments completely out of context.  Speaking in front of a rabid conservative audience who were eager for some heated smear tactics that put the current fiasco in office Romney was all to willing to paint Obama with a shadow of pedophilia.  In fact the education Obama supports is to give children age appropriate skills to protect them from the scourge of pedophilia.

I think Romney did protest too much.  Obama retorted, "All I said was that I support the same laws that exist in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in which local communities and parents can make decisions to provide children with the information they need to deal with sexual predators,” It was appropriate that Obama mentioned Massachusetts where the sex education policies in that state were put in place by Romney.  Romney, in 2002, checked "yes" in a Planned Parenthood questionnaire that asked: "Do you support the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, factually accurate health and sexuality education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools?"  Doh!  Can you say flip flop?

And then there was the great hunter episode where Romney tried to paint himself the great white hunter.  “I've been a hunter pretty much all my life.” said Romney only to later admit that he actually had been hunting twice.  Once as a 15-year-old, when he hunted rabbits with his cousins on a ranch in Idaho, and in 2006, when he shot quail on a fenced game preserve in Georgia.  His brand new NRA card was needed because it was the right thing to do for a man seeking the GOP presidential nomination.  If the Bush administration has taught us nothing else it has taught us that we need a president who says what he means and means what he says and that he took time to research his position before he spoke.  Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

            The president has fallen back on painting a grim picture of what he believes failure would mean in Iraq in an attempt to cling to the few people on the planet gullible enough to support his policy.  Recently he said, “It would mean an ascendant radicalism, among both Shia and Sunni Muslims, and it would embolden sponsors of terrorism such as Iran. Al-Qaeda would be emboldened and would be able to recruit forces."  Um, Mr. President, I believe it is too late to be worried about all of that now.  That is exactly what has happened already and it is a direct result of your decision to invade and occupy Iraq!  Bush has plenty of blame to go around.  Recently he has blamed the Congress, public opinion, the media and Saddam Hussein for either dragging us into this war or for the progress that hasn’t been made there.  In the end, Osama bin Laden is still free and no doubt doing Allah’s work in making plans to slay the infidels and Bush is back here staying the course because he believes God wants him to bring Democracy to the world.  It kind of makes you wonder what God these guys are listening to, doesn’t it?

 

All the fun is now out of Harry Potter in our house.  I never caught the Harry Potter bug and it remains a family joke about the fact that I have slept thorough various portions of all of the movies to date.  We went to see “The Order of the Phoenix” a few days after its release and I honestly think I was able to fight off the heavy eyelids through most of the movie.  It was a little darker and had more action than the previous 4 movies.  As testimony to my lackluster enthusiasm for the series I had to Google the series to see if “The Order of the Phoenix” was the third, or fourth, or fifth movie and I have seen them all.  I suppose the Harry Potter movies are more meaningful to the fans of the books where they get to compare the screenplays authenticity to their beloved novels.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-Harry or anything like that, it’s just that the movies have a marginal appeal to my tastes.

            But back to the “fun” of Harry Potter being gone from our house; the release of the final saga, “The Deathly Hallows,” was a highly anticipated event in our home.  Not feeling included in the manic anticipation of the book’s release I took it upon myself to web-search a spoiler and learn the ultimate fate of the wizard boy-student so I could hold my family hostage with the final outcome of the series.  For the days leading up to the book’s release I took great joy in asking anyone who would listen if they wanted to know the ending.  “NO!”  Or, “Don’t you dare!”  Or, “Stop it!  It isn’t funny anymore!” were the rapid responses to my diabolical queries.  I did not and will not here, spoil the book for those who eagerly anticipated the intimate joy of perusing the written word.  I did, however, relish my Severus Snape-esque role where the entire family was not certain if I could, ultimately, be trusted. 

            But, alas, the days of my mean-spirited threats to spoil the outcome for the fans in my family are over.  The book was purchased late Saturday afternoon and SWMBO devoured it before I awoke on Sunday morning.  My eldest son will take his time about reading the book and was none too alarmed by my threats of spoiling the ending.  Carter, my seven year old, is a ways away from devouring such formidable chapter books.  What is a diabolical interloper into the world of Harry Potter fans to do now that the series is over and Harry’s ultimate fate is known?  I suppose the fans themselves have a similar question of their beloved series.  Hey, wait a minute.  My daughter Courtney, who is in China, has most likely not had a chance to pick up the book… Excuse me.  I have an email to write!

 

Today is my baby sisters Birthday!  She claims to be 39 but I remember her being around our home... well never mind.  I was warned early on in this blog life of mine that you better be careful what you disclose about the family.  I'm not going to say any more but hey Cats, remember how happy we were when Johnson was elected president and Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize?

            There is no stopping George W Bush and his diabolical schemes to amass power and impose intimidation all who would question his competence.  I want to thank Red Hog reader Mike for alerting me to the Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq"  This executive order grants the man who can not be trusted the authority to confiscate all properties and interest in properties of pretty much anybody who criticizes the war in Iraq.  You think I’m kidding?  Here is the link to the actual executive order. 

            The office of the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of the Treasury may confiscate your assets if you are suspected “to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of: Threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq.”  Immediately the thought came to me of Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman attacking Hillary Clinton last Monday when he wrote, "Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," in response to questions Senator Clinton raised over two months ago urging the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

            I swear George Bush has less of an understanding of the Constitution of the United States than any junior high social studies student I have ever met!  Hello George!  It is called the Fifth Amendment!  “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury!”  Not that there is much of a difference these days between the Justice Department and the White House but the Constitution of the United States does not grant the Executive Branch the authority to do these things without due process. 

The language in the Executive Order also spells out that the Executive Branch can also seize the assets of anyone who is suspected of helping terrorists.  This is where things get really scary!  With all of this power being wielded outside of the Justice Department who is to say who is a terrorist and who decides who is helping terrorists?  Mike asked, in his email pointing out this absurd order, if attending a peace rally could be deemed supporting the terrorists.  On top of that Mike brought up the idea that under this particular administration it would not seem too unrealistic to expect a peace activist to be declared an enemy combatant and held forever and never see the light of a trial.  I know Mike was being somewhat facetious but his point was not missed. 

I am warning you readers, you had better pay close attention in this next presidential election.  If a man is elected who would be willing to carry on in the footsteps of the C Student from Yale we may not recognize this nation by the end of the next decade.  The liberties we take for granted are facing a very real threat from President Bush and his neo-con agenda.  They keep telling you they are doing these things to make you safe but we all know we are not safer now than before they were put in office.  They tell you that if you don’t do anything wrong you don’t have anything to worry about.  The problem with all of that is WHO is deciding what is wrong and what is right? 

 

            The boys and I spent the day at the Great Jones County Fair in Montecello, Iowa.  Jones County has been able to maintain a lot of the feel of yesterday's County Fairs.  The beer tent is a huge draw that I don't remember from my childhood and I think I could do without it.  Conveniently located right next to the midway the addition seems in some way to tarnish a wholesome family environment.  On the left Carter prepares to ride the Rockin' Tug Boat and on the left Carter is doing his best bad-assed biker pose as he takes a wild ride on his HOG.  The Fair was always such an eagerly anticipated event when I was a kid.  Watching the look on Carters face I was able to reclaim a little of that feeling yesterday.  I tried to take some action shots on some of the "wilder" rides that Carter and Clayton enjoyed but there is that delay on a digital camera where it sizes up the scene and does its focus thing.  If anybody is interested I have a couple of exellent shots of the back of the Tilt-O-Whirl where it spun around before my shutter snapped.  Wish you could have been there!

 

 

       Faith seems to be a big topic in the 08 presidential campaigns.  This should not be surprising news when recent polls show seventy percent of Americans say that they want their president to be a person of faith.  In 2004, 62 percent of weekly churchgoers voted for President Bush.  Democrats seem to finally have gotten the message.  The message is not complete; however, unless we ask the question, in what are we placing our faith?  In the eighties; upstarts named Rove and Gingrich and a legion of similar characters had the foresight package fire and brimstone into the platform of the GOP and suddenly they found a previously untapped political juggernaut, molded the message and branded their new found powerbase the "Christian Right."  Democrats were myopic in the concern brought on by John F Kennedy’s Catholicism in the 1960 presidential race and totally failed to grasp the theft of faith and its prominance in American voting considerations.  

            Jimmy Carter is a devout Christian but the most likely way you would know it is by what he does and not so much from sound-bites and even Bill Clinton was a regular attendant of Sunday services.  And yet the Democratic handlers and strategists continually warned their candidates to steer clear of expressing their faith on the campaign trail.  Thank God liberals have finally found comfort in sharing their religious character.  Obama, Edwards and Clinton have thus far seemed very comfortable talking about their faith in campaign speeches.  The dilemma for Christian voters in 2008 will be choosing between candidates who endorse a woman’s ability to get an abortion and candidates who pretty much get every other Christian principle wrong. 

            I’m pretty sure God doesn’t hate Gays, Muslims or Mexicans and I don’t think He maybe approves much of our war in Iraq.  God isn’t for or against tax cuts, I am quite certain he would want us to take better care of our planet in spite of what that might mean to CEO bonuses and the equity position of Fortune 500 companies and I bet if you asked Him he would tell you paying for your less fortunate neighbors health care is the right thing to do.  Perhaps what is most ironic to me in the entire faith and politics conundrum is that a basic tenet of Conservative philosophy is personal accountability.  And yet when faith enters the discussion the politics of the GOP are deeply rooted in social accountability as they try to impose their values about abortion and gay marriage on the masses.  One would think a party that believes individuals are capable of finding employment, housing, disaster recovery, health care, food and tuition would also think adults could be responsible for their own decisions about their bodies and whom they wish to spend the rest of their lives with.

              The tenets of Christianity are rooted in meeting the needs of your neighbor, loving one another as one does themselves, fighting poverty, and disease and being stewards of the land.  You know, helping the least of our brothers?  I guess what it comes down to is this; When you look at the candidates this year you should look for a president who will help you grow in your own morality and not worry so much about what he says about somebody else’s morality.  As a matter of fact if we all operated that way in our daily lives we might not have much need for the safeguards against evil that the GOP is constantly bragging about.  If we helped people rise above dire circumstance, if we treated other nations with the sovereign dignity we expect from them and if we individually took steps to protect our planet we might not see violent crime in inner cities, fewer terrorists wanting to kill us and an end to sky rocketing prices at the pump because our lust for fuel is outpacing the capacities of our refineries.  Hmm, sounds like liberals are the champions of small government!