Caroline has been withdrawn and then Caroline is back in play for the New York Senate seat. Well, that is no surprise in the media of our time. But what is surprising is that the New York Times accepted a single unconfirmed source as the foundation for the story. What kind of medicinal Marijuana are those people smoking over there? CNN came out hours late to debunk the story. Now, limp wristed Anderson Cooper flim flams all over the place by saying that you must stay tuned for 'developments' on this story until they can finish showing us the re-administered Oath of Office. The Oath of Office being ceremonial in the first place, but no matter. We have to continue to illustrate that Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, screwed up. Roberts must look forward to a rougher run than he has had up to now, with the new administration in place. But this is all the kind of deliberate stupidity of media we are being exposed to today. Like, the Chief Justice must apologize for that little mistake. That they must repeat the oath. That George Bush, president of these United States for eight years, never mis-spoke!!!! We had had a clown who could not speak English mis-stating just about everything. The oath is and was irrelevant. The conversations swirling around the coming appointment in New York are irrelevant. When will we get some intelligent reporting? Now that little turd Cooper is intimating that they must somehow repeat all the rule changes Obama effected since taking the original oath!!! Is this garbage, all manufactured for drooling citizens to be glued to their television sets, going to ever change? Stupidity still prevails. Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, and Charlie the Tuna on ABC. All need to get the axe. But then, most of America is watching Lost and loving it. Or American idol. What can I say. America has regressed to about the age and attitude (mentally) of a pre-schooler.
There is no news. The fact that Obama is already repealing much of the departure damage of Bush is not great news. It is good news. They do not want good news. They want crap and doom. They want dissonance so that they can draw attention. Even if it is an audience holding it's hands over it's ears. The audience is still watching. Where the hell is Bill Bennett? That fat slob of a Rush Limbaugh clone needs to come back and say some stuff about all this. This is fresh meat for him. We need to hate him some more. But there is no news. No bad news. They have to make some.
I have 36 Twitter followers. I am following over 100. I must be careful. The Twitter authorities apparently do not want you to follow too many people. Not too many more than follow you, that is. You see, you might be following them just to get them to follow you. And then where would we be? On the up and up, you are supposed to get people to follow you because you write well. Say what? You get a hundred and forty characters to say what you are doing, or whatever you want. That is not a lot. So I am being careful so that I do not get 'banned' from Twitter. I am not even sure, at all, why that is important to me. If I get banned then I will take it as an affirmation that I am old. I am not old. Not young, certainly. I could not write these blogs if I was young. Go ahead, read most young people's blogs. Then watch American idol and follow it up with Lost. You will have arrived at mental nirvana...for you. But the future is not going to be built upon your shoulders. You will be along for the ride, if you have the right last name, the right fortune, the best of serendipity. Instead, take you brain and go travel. Go by freight or student fare. Get out there and learn. Then come back and reflect. Then write about it and it will be good. You do not have to be a genius to contribute out here. But you have to be a roady if you are not a gifted genius. You have to work at it. You have to want it. And you have to observe, experience and protest through life.
I am home but not done traveling. I am 'atwitter' with energy infused into me by the denizens of Washington D.C., and the whole Obama influence. I am afire with enthusiasm. I hope you are like me, even if you are going in a wrong direction. At least you are going to get somewhere. Welcome Barack, to my world, and I to yours.
from-the-chateau-dif.blogspot.com
Earlier, I hooked up a new 30" monitor to my Apple Miracle Machine. And it showed me a new miracle. It quit. It would not restart. Just one fading gray screen after another, as I endlessly pushed the start button and waited. I wonder if anyone has ever catalogued the time that can be involved doing such repetitive and mentally exhaustive behaviors. Probably not. It is like the time you can be on the telephone trying to get through the nonsensical voicemail of AT&T. Then, when you get through all that, without having to start over again, you have to give ridiculous language lessons to some really nice, and constantly apologizing, person from Samoa. I do not like the timing meter on my phone. It actually tells me how long I have been on the line. I get mad when it approaches half an hour, especially if I have to go to the bathroom but am afraid to. I worry what the sounds coming from such an act would do to global detente. Then later, after I am off the line, I am sorry I did not do it, just for the recording they are supposedly making of the entire miserable affair. "Here, listen to this...." kind of thinking. But I don't do stuff like that.
I am not bad with computers. In fact, pretty damned good with Apple equipment and software. So what was it that took me out for hours and hours, and had (eventually) the guts of the computer strewn about my office floor? It was the battery. Yes, there is a battery in your computer. I have been told that it has something to do with the constant time your computer must be kept up to, or on, or something. That was the clue that led me to the battery problem. What little I could get on the screen told me that I was back in November of 1969, which would have been bad, as I was in a hospital bed in Japan and not expected to live, just then! I finally found the sucker, got it out, tested it in my Frankenstein equipped basement shop, and raced off to Radio Shack. Without a laptop, which does not like sending or receiving email (and I do not know why that is, being I am so good with computers), I would have been really stuck. I was able to use the internet to investigate the problems (like what do you do once you get your computer's insides out?) and then go back and forth and fix it. Harvey, meanwhile, decided that he was a member of the 'Geek Squad,' without the black and white Volkswagen. He went right into the case and laid down upon the motherboard. It was warm I guess. He stayed in there until I got back from Radio Shack. Now there is fur and stuff on the mother board. But I did not try to clean it. I just put the battery in and threw it all back together. The back of my brain was already feeling the warning signals coming up from my cerebellum. The whole rig was about to go out of the second story window if it did not work. And I like this computer. No, I do not have post traumatic stress! No way!!! But it started, and life is good. How long it will run...I do not know. But it is never ever getting turned off again. Ever.
Back in New Mexico I bought my first real computer in the eighties (I never counted the Commodore 64 as a computer). I put it together and it worked. I found out about the early internet. The University of Michigan was the outfit pushing things back then. Metacrawler was the only search engine in those dinosaur years, that I can remember, anyway. The thing (computer) worked for about three months and then seized up. I called everyone. Hewlit Packard, Norton and such. Nobody could help get the thing unstuck. By the way, my own employees of the time thought I was real cool to have purchased a whole rig on my own and set it up in my home. I was proud of the fact that they thought I was cool. I have never been 'cool.' I have always been the 'no, it's not him,' kinda guy. Mr. Peepers. A light Dom DeLuise. Red Skelton. Not Paul Newman, in any role he ever played. But I digress. When the computer failed, I was younger and PTSD was closer to the surface of my life. I put the entire bunch of parts in my trunk, drove twenty miles out into the desert in my Rover, and dumped it all in a pile. It may still be out there, for all I know. Then I went home, got on the phone and ordered a whole new computer. That one I got going, then left it alone. It was only there for when any of my people might come by. I wanted to be cool that bad. And I allowed that fearsome cerebellum to take over much too quickly.
Today was not a totally bad day, however. The roads got cleared here for the big snow coming tomorrow. Harvey now believes he fixed the problem that was bothering me and is expecting a lot of attention in return. Which he is getting. I met with my friend, the professor, today, as well. He is always great good fun, and also so sharp that I must pay full attention...or he looks skyward and gives God one of those looks that only someone raised in the Catholic Church environment can give. We argued arrogance again. He was gentler today. He had read my blog and probably felt that I was a bit too harsh on myself. Or I believe he felt that way. He does not lie as much as I do. I believe that too. But he does not believe that he lies at all, which I find vastly entertaining.
Lou Penetta is getting ready to be inducted into the CIA. He has no clue. Not one. He thinks he is ready for those aged and weathered, but by no means dull, razor blades over there. Ha. Meanwhile, they are all over at Langley smiling and patting each other on the back. They are thanking Christ that Obama did not appoint someone who would really know what they are doing. It will take Penetta years, which he will not have, to figure that mess out. He must fire all the sub-directors and replace them immediately, and not with their assisstants. It is his only hope. But he won't do that. Nobody ever has. I like him. I like his looks too. He really looks like a nice guy. And we need some nice guys in government these days. Caroline Kennedy is nice too. In her damaged way. So I won't mind seeing her beat out that prig Cuomo. Another of the nepotistically derived creeps.
Another snowy day. Yes, this is a repeat of last winter, except with even more frigid debauchery on the part of mother nature. Snow tomorrow. Ten snows in December. Ten. I can deal with it better in that month, because Christmas is coming then, with New Years to follow. Now, I am just hunkered down, enduring and wondering how to entertain myself instead of simply writing all the time. And suffering under the imperial and arrogant whip of my guardian, Harvey. He went out in the blowing 'white ash,' as I termed the falling stuff earlier today. He sniffed, stopped, licked his front paws, turned, looked at me and I understood. I apologized, and let him back in. It is all my fault, you see. That is what it is like to be held in a chattel relationship like this.
i was at the North Chicago Base today. There was a ton of discussion going on, this day, about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It seems that DSM V (the bible of psychological disorders), which will be coming out later this year, and it is supposedly going to get the bottom of this disorder. Who knows? It is being written 'in secret.' Dick Cheney is, no doubt, somehow involved, which would make sense as he has given more people traumatic stress than any other living human in recent history. In listening to the 'experts,' none of whom suffer from the disorder, I have come to the conclusion that there is something to be said about it that they are missing. Here is my treatise on PTSD
Post traumatic stress is that condition, typified by terrible dreams (even night terrors), lack of quality sleep capability, drug and alcohol addiction, broken families, arrest records, and a certain paranoia and hyper-vigilance. It is created by exposure to extreme trauma. Since I have enjoyed this condition since returning from the fields of combat in Vietnam, I have the following classifications to make, with respect to the levels of trauma which generate the disorder. So far, I have only ever heard of PTSD being considered as a single similar effective condition. I believe otherwise. I think this mental condition is a group of swirling tornado's hidden inside the big overall twister, if you will allow the analogy.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
I. Direct - The person who suffers at this level, does so because of direct physical and psychological trauma. Penetration of the body by bullets and shrapnel, the killing of troops and civilians, the torture of combatants and non combatants, and, of course, the tortured as well. The 'stressor' for this condition is direct and experienced by the body as well as the mind. These sufferer's are typified by the wounded actors who survive the combat or disaster, such as the actual surviving passengers on an airplane which has crashed, wherein most other's were lost.
2. SR-!. This stands for Steps Removed, One. The 'one step removed' sufferer has not experienced the trauma directly, at least not upon his or her body, or visited violence upon the body of another. Instead, they have witnessed the carnage. They have flown over it and dropped bombs. They have counted and taken care of the bodies of the dead. They have ministered to the wounded, and dead, as well. They are are there, on the scene of the disaster but not an active player in the violence. Those sufferers might best be typified as the immediate rescue crews who show up at the airplane crash scene and administer aid to the survivors, count and care for the dead, etc. They were there but not actors in the 'play.' They were, more or less, the 'stage crew.'
3. SR-2. This stands for Steps Removed, Two. The 'two steps removed' sufferer was not there, where the stressor of actual physical disaster or combat occurred. They might have been there later or in the general area. But they witnessed either the carnage or were involved with the people who were directly involved. They may also have experienced the loss of some of those people who were co-workers or friends. Those sufferers might be typified as the relatives gathered after being informed of the disaster, and gathered together at the airport or some hotel to await news and survivors.
4. SR-3. This stands for Steps Removed, Three. The 'three steps removed sufferer was not on the scene either. But they were impacted by the stories or representations of others, including those that were delivered by the media. Using the air crash analogy again, those are the sufferers who see the event on television, or are at the airport for other reasons and hear and gather over the grieving relatives of the survivors and the dead.
Now that we have developed a classification system, the application of psychological assistance becomes truly complex and labyrinthian. You see, the counselor must deal with prevarication. There is a natural human tendency for the sufferers of post traumatic stress to want to be in some other classification than the one they find themselves in. The direct survivors and sufferers want to be in a more removed classification and it becomes very very difficult to get those people to tell the truth about what they really experienced. They minimize, or lie. Conversely, the people who suffer further down in the classifications have some unaccountable urge to make their own experiences more graphic and more direct. They maximize or invent.
in other words, everyone is lying almost all the time about whatever it was that happened or did not happen to them! However, once adopting the classification system, a counselor can begin to attempt to place sufferers into certain areas. The effects of post traumatic stress are different for each classification, you see! The direct sufferers, who were involved with penetrating deep trauma, become less violent, more docile and even tend toward self-conclusion on a regular basis. Unless they encounter very dominant authority, in which case they can become extremely violent in an instant. Road rage is a typical by-product of the direct sufferer. On the other end of the spectrum, the 'third step removed' sufferer is given to threats and posturing. Real violence or self destruction (suicide) are not as likely because the effects of the stressor cause the sufferer to embellish and then wait, hyper-vigilant, to see if the data they have imparted is going to be accepted. The only real violence from the low end of this classification spectrum may come from such direct uncovering of lies or embellishments. This is, of course, to be avoided by counselors. These sufferers may be typified as people who get in bar room fights on a regular basis, wear semi-military outfits, etc.
There you have it. This is my take on probably the key psychological imbalance of my life. One I live with and accommodate as best I can. One that I blame for my 'arrogance.' Well, not really. I have written this on the blog, not to entertain or interest you, as I probably did not. I have written it to memorialize it for the future. I have nowhere else to take it.
John Stewart was maligning Caroline Kennedy on his show this evening (it is actually the re-run of his show last night). I did not like it. Caroline is mine. Ours. She is of the fabric of this nation, so stamped and cut back during those days of 1963. She also has to have post traumatic stress, so she is a 'sister' to me. I hope she does not become a Senator, however. I do not think she has the two-faced capability given to the people who sit in those chairs. I wish her bliss. I wish her quietude and peace. And great good fun. I see no fun at all on the senate floor. And it is okay that she says 'you know?' all the time. You see, she is an SR-2.
In spite of my writing yesterday, in which I went into some detail about arrogance and the potential of it's strong presence in my life, I cannot but help to pursue a certain feeling of 'superior to inferior' when I read my early morning op-eds. Harvey actually went out there in the fresh snow with me to get those papers. It is well past Christmas, and the effect of my magnanimous tip to the delivery person (whom I still have not ever seen) appears to be wearing thin...as the papers drift ever farther down the driveway, day by day. Harvey meowed and trilled as we went through the white puffery, the stuff so damn cold that it was more like icy ash than the snow we knew it to be. I walked back, after retrieving the plastic covered items, and waited patiently at the door, trying to get rid of the snow which had somehow gotten up and over the edges of my Ugg slippers. This is always a ticklish time. If Harv does not come back, after one of these 'step and fetch it' routines, then I am forced to get dressed and get out into the weather with him. But today was a good day, and, after one brief downward scamper, in order to force me fully awake, he flipped around and raced back inside. Life is good, except for the fact that this new Apple keyboard (the flat one with slightly raised keys) has made it easier for Harvey to get his opinion expressed herein. I don't like it, but what can I do? Push him away? Yell at him? I don't think so. Too early and, anyway, he carefully avoids my half-emptied coffee cup as a sort of return gesture. Yes, we are both strange.
The papers were lousy. Friedman was acting the idiot I have discovered him to be. His piece was about the Middle East. He is done with the 'flat earth' endorsement stupidity so he has switched from being a would-be economist to a political scientist. His first sally in that direction had to do with how the Middle East is going to be dominated in the future; by Saudi Arabia, by Egypt or by Iran. There is supposedly only one nuclear power in the Middle East (I personally think Iran has the bomb, which is why even Cheney will not aim his shotgun in that direction), and that is Israel. Even without the nukes, will you just look at that wild bunch of Sabra Jews over there? They have some great equipment, having invented and built some hot stuff of their own, as well as stealing anybody else's left lying about! Nobody in the Middle East is a match for them. Not even all together. You might think that the Saudi's would give them a run, what with all the state-of-the-art stuff we have sold them. But the problem there is, well, the Saudis. They are a bunch of creepy Arab dabblers. Light weights. Newly rich kids who are certainly not going to go off and fight a war, much less against those rabid crazy Israeli vets. Think George Bush Jr. So, Friedman is at it again. The rest of the article is just as silly. Friedman needs a cooking show. He and Emeril would do great.
And then there was Garrison Keiller. Usually I just love Garrison. Right behind Maureen Dowd. Garrison decided this day, however, that he would write sonnets about some guy he saw peeing into a bush while he himself was reflecting, and listening to music in the park, or some such. Friedman is contagious today. Poor Garrison fell down with that same flu. Slobering Dopiness. I know, I know, I am sounding just a tad arrogant. What can I do? Maureen Dowd was better. She wrote all about Caroline and why Caroline is better than a leper, or some right wing whacko, or even, and she said this without saying it, that sweet and sour dill pickle named Cuomo. I don't think Maureen likes him. So i don't either. Maureen Dowd is good enough for me. And I like Caroline, even when i am not writing the most complimentary things about her. Sort of how I run on about the Jews. I like Israel. I like the Jews. What a gutsy bunch of people who take care of their own, and refuse to be poked and prodded by anyone. I just don't like to see them killing all those people. Eventually they will feel bad about that. I do not wish post traumatic stress on anyone, especially not those tough bright people. And I pity those poor Palestinians without much of anything at all.
I am not over my arrogance confrontation. The confrontation I am having with myself. A woman of quite some intellect and personality (who no longer speaks to me, by the way, thereby showing a modicum of wisdom, as well) said to me once, in my coffee shop, right after I had skewered her with respect to a mispronunciation she had blurted out earlier; "you can be right.....and you can be alone." That did not stop me at the time. I made believe I had not heard her (maybe one of the reasons she does not have any truck with me anymore!), but I filed the expression away. Damn straight. She was right on. Her expression goes right to the heart of what I am tossing and turning over. I do not want to be alone. Does anyone? Not anyone that I want to know. Hmmmm...that is kind of an oxymoronic thing to say, as well. But is it arrogant?
So I am reflecting again, about all of this, as my coffee cools, Harvey slides one paw down to punch the 'Q' key (and I have to erase, once I decide that, although Q is an excellent letter and name...recall the character on Star Trek...it does not fit into what I am writing), and I lean back to give this whole thing a very cursory edit. This damn new key board (take note Mr. Steve, super-thin, I-do-not-have-cancer, Jobs!)keeps making little 'i's' when I want big one's. I don't always catch those. My readers are so few, and so laconic, that they do not seem to ever comment about such things, however. Or maybe my readers are just too arrogant to even bother.
Yes, I do have Dvorak playing. I have always loved the 'New World Symphony,' and this is a good day in which to play it through. What is going on out there, just beyond the thin, but well insulated, walls of my Wisconsin residence? My tree is gone, as are all the decorations, except for the 'Advent Trees,' which still burn, up atop my back hill. Winter has set in for it's long gray run, with ice crystals and snow being blown all about. One winter storm advisory follows another, scrolling across the bottom of my television screen. I note that CNN has dropped this obnoxious feature (the bottom scroll) while ABC has picked it up to run in spades. Somebody is going to design a television set that allows the operator (that would be me) to control what happens on the screen. I don't want any of those little ads in the corner anymore, or appearing mid-way through a movie almost anywhere on the screen. And I don't want any scrolling anywhere at any time. If it is that important, then just break into the programming. They used to do that all the time, and it was okay. Life's little bothersome nettles (unless you have ever been stung by a nettle bush, in which case the experience was anything but merely 'bothersome').
The Chicago Tribune. They are back at their whacked-out neocon conservative presentation. They took a break for awhile, once they read the Obama writing on the wall. Now, they have regrouped. They will try to find a new leader, as Cheney finally begins to fade from the radar screen and his big mouthed, drug-addled 'voice of America' Rush Limbaugh fades, as well. This morning they editorialized about how General Motors has really had much success under this new leadership they have. They have busted the unions. They have pioneered new ion battery technology. Oh please. Once again we get the mantra. The American auto worker. That grasping, selfish, self-absorbed and lazy beer-drinking auto worker needs to be quashed back into serfdom. Then the cost of cars will plummet nearly five thousand dollars a car! That is actually the figure that they used. Where did that come from? Their evil imagination. Two thousand dollars a car has been the highly touted figure of the industry, but now we have gone up a bit. And General Motors has done exactly squat when it comes to battery technology. They are using the new ion batteries. They are not inventing them. Welcome aboard to the new millenium GM! Tesla, the new auto company out in Silicone Valley is using the new batteries, as well, and to much more effect. As usual, the Tribune has everything upside down. The guys who need to go are the leaders of the GM. Out, every one. If the Trib thinks that Toyota is doing so great, and they do, in spite of the fact that Toyota is losing it's collective butt right now too, then fine, hire away the leaders of Toyota. Those guys are all for sale. And note that there are no women. Just aging, fat white guys who all have, amazingly, Republican hair cuts.
Writing of women. Caroline got the nod. What a shock. Was there even one other candidate considered? Not on my television. Never even saw another candidate's name scrolled across the bottom of my screen. And neither did you. As I wrote earlier, the system we have set in place is responsive only to 'star' power. If you have it, you are in. If you don't, you are not. And you are not getting in, either. It is a very small fraternity/sorority and it is kept that way on purpose. It is sociobiology. It is about the care, keeping and survival of progeny. Yes, nepotism. Look at Anderson Cooper. He is the perfect example, and I love to pick on the little gay blade anyway. His Mom is a Vanderbuilt! How did he get his anchor job? Why don't you just sit there and think about it. That he is rotten as an anchor is beyond question, but he just keeps on trucking. Like Conan on that late night show. And Caroline. I do not like picking on her, however. She can sit in that Senate seat. Who cares. I like her. She still looks hurt, after all these years. She has never had any tough life-experience with which to combat what happened to her as a child. She did not pray for strength, and have God answer those prayers (God gives you gobs of trouble when you say those prayers, so that you will grow strong in solving them). So she can retire to the Senate. They don't do anything anymore anyway, other than parcel out money to people back home they like, or who are somehow attached to their families.
My favorite son, Governor Rod, is at it again. Following my instructions to him on this blogsite, he is not giving up. He understands that his fight for survival is vital to keeping all of our attention away from this awful economy. He is our new Paris Hilton, without the legs or sex tapes. Where was this man's mind prior to his current problems? He conducted himself like a Bush-clone ninny during most of his serving years, but now he has arisen...making one brilliant move after another. He began with his 'Checkers' speech a few weeks back, then moved to ignore Fitzgerald and his Federal Gestapo Force. He then appoints this Senator. A wonderful man from the projects, and black, as well! The Senate does not want to seat the guy, of course, but what can they do? The governor is legally entitled and that is it! Go ahead, read the documents. There is nothing in any of them that says anything about indicted governors. Madigan can twist and turn all she wants (the attorney general in Illinois) but there is not one whit of legal paper to support her in stopping the appointment. And isn't it funny. All the people who want to stop this appointment are candidates for the job themselves, in one way or another! Pay attention people. Governor Rod is entertaining the hell out of us and making some brilliant moves. Let us study those moves, like Sunday afternoon football tactics. Brett Favre may have tanked, but we have Governor Rod.
it is a good day, in this awakening new world....as the music plays on....
In 1968, Canada (a province of Great Britian) changed their flag from the old "Union Jack" to the beautiful Maple Leaf of today.
The design was wonderful, it pleased the British (the red end stripes) plus it gave the French and others who wanted to rid their history and start anew a new symbol - one that the world has come to know and associate with that great Nation: the maple leaf.
Even school children or sports fans know of the "Roots" maple leaf logo. Hockey fans see the flag lowered along with the US flag before each game that involves a US/Canada game.
I apologize if my facts are not totally correct, as this was not researched prior and I am going strictly by memory and decided to write this as a 'whim'. I am not a writer, let alone one who writes a 'blog' - I've only read one or two blogs. I am way too busy with volunteering, charity work, working on Native American rights, etc. to read or write blogs.
However, when I tried to log onto the Obama/Biden website, I was almost 'forced' to creat a blog, so here goes:
I have a wonderful idea for a new US flag - one that I am sure will take a long time to become considered, accepted and come to fruition, if at all.
The idea occurred to me on election night as the returns came in. It was such an exciting day and I was so inspired.
I am prompted by my amazement at being able to see the first African-American US President in history in my lifetime - never did I ever imagine to see the first woman or black president before I became elderly! Now I know that so much more is still possible.
What an exciting time and an inspiration for females and/or children of minority, etc. to know that, YES, they too can become what they want and to see their dreams come true.
I am very much devoted to the creation of a Department of Peace (as opposed to the Dept. of War/Defense) and also to the possible selection of a wonderful choice for the NY State Senate seat: Ms. Caroline Kennedy - a wonderful, fresh choice. I can't see how anyone could possibly see a downside to her being selected.
More next time on the flag design . . .
Regards,
Kateri
Stephen Views the News 12/26/08
http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/
If I were Santa Claus I would have delivered the following stocking stuffers:
* A brain for Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. While appearing on Face the Nation he said of the economic meltdown: "Unfortunately, it was allowed to be portrayed that this was a result of deregulation, when in fact it was a result of overregulation."
* A jar of jalapeño Vaseline for the SEC employees who watched porn rather than "protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets," as is their mission. * A rasher of humility for Stephen Views the News to embrace reader comments such as, “You sir are masterfully demonstrating your own ignorance.”
* An imported deluxe kerosene heater for Wal-Mart’s heart. On Tuesday the company said it would pay between $352 million and $640 million to settle lawsuits across the country claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock.
* The 2009 Sarah Palin Calendar for John McCain, even though he is setting land speed records running from his former running mate.
* A shiny house-arrest ankle bracelet for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for auctioning the senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
* A bar of mouth soap and truck driver’s license for Mrs. Blagojevich for her picante comments recorded during a federal wiretap investigation of her husband the governor.
* A yuletide apology to truck drivers for associating them with the First Lady of Illinois.
* A basket of experience for Caroline Kennedy seeking to inherit Hillary Clinton’s senate seat in New York.
* A ride on Santa’s sleigh for the auto executives embarrassed into abandoning their private jets.
* A sleigh full of Pepcid for president-elect Barack Obama as he embarks on the journey of leading a country beset with a multitude of serious challenges.
* A duly elected Senator for the citizens of Minnesota and preferably not the candidate under federal investigation.
* A time-out for the Obama administration before deciding to commit tens of thousands of U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The complexity of that country’s politics and the corruption of its leadership demand extreme caution.
* Harvey the imaginary rabbit for Malia and Sasha Obama as they seek solitude from the harsh world of celebrity they will encounter over at least the next four years.
* Fifty billion days of homelessness on the streets of New York City for Bernard “Bernie” Madoff. He is one of the all-time goniffs (crooks) of the investment world. His soulless greed wreaked economic havoc and, in some cases destruction, on schools, charities, pension funds and so much more.
* A punch bowl of common sense for Madoff’s Ponzied investors who believed that Madoff was Santa Claus.
* A wake up call for the inhabitants of planet Earth to not be misled by low gasoline prices. Santa cannot reverse limited oil reserves or a debilitated environment that is ignored.
* A revised mission statement for the IRS whose audits of large companies declined for the third year in a row. Santa’s trust of business and government also declined for the third year in a row.
* A slightly used and toxic post-Katrina mobile home to transport departing Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff to a lucrative book signing deal. In America incompetence has its rewards.
* A mega-warehouse for the U.S. Department of the Navy to store $7.5 billion in UNNEEDED parts. One of the factors contributing to the unnecessary purchases was “inefficiency in the Navy's inventory management.” No surprise to Santa who understands “overstocked” with a North Pole laden with unsafe toys outsourced from Asia.
* Light-blocking window drapes for American banks accepting billions of dollars of bailout money sans accountability. Santa does not blame the banks – at least on this account. He does have queries for the little elves on Ritalin running the Bush administration and running around the halls of Congress.
* A cruise on the Titanic for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). This conservative “think” tank spawned much of the neocon nonsense and “free” market malarkey that dominated Bush administration strategy.
* A set of barbells to put more muscle into credit card reform regulations scheduled to go into effect in 2010.
* A chapel for the gay citizens that Pastor Rick Warren suddenly “loves” but is not likely to welcome to his church.
* Public financing of elections legislation to improve an electoral process that has become the antithesis of democratic principles.
* A frontal lobotomy for Rush Limbaugh for positing his conspiracy theory that the economic crisis was created by Democrats to generate a financial panic and ensure the election of Obama.
* Thorazine prescriptions for Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove. They have suggested the conspiracy theory that journalists deliberately manufactured the financial crisis so that Obama would be elected.
* A lump of coal for the energy interests spending millions of dollars to convince the American public that there is such a thing as “clean coal.” Perhaps they can donate some of this money to residents in Tennessee to recover from the flood of sludge that broke through a dike at TVA's Kingston coal-fired plant Monday. This could prove to be an environmental disaster of very significant proportions. Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection and the “Reality” coalition have a new ad about the myth of “clean coal.”
* For those that can, websites to help those in need:
~ Feeding America is a network of over 200 food banks covering all 50 states.
~ Operation USO Care Package provides care packages of needed and requested items for our troops overseas
These websites are noted in Michelle Obama’s Holiday Greetings.
* Peace, goodwill and wisdom for a world on multiple brinks.
* 2009 hugs and best wishes for the New Year to readers of Stephen Views the News.
* “I don't make jokes... I just watch the government and report the facts.”
Will Rogers (1879 – 1935) Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor.
Kristol, that William fellow who writes for the New York Times. You know the one. William Kristol. Saliva runs from the side of the mouth Kristol. Maybe, if he keeps writing and getting read, one day people will say "Oh, what a load of Kristol," when they are talking about a pile of the steamy stuff. This morning both of my papers, thrown literally to my doorstep (I still have not sent that envelope with the cash in it), were just filled with garbage. Kristol's drivel stood out, however. His column was both a compliment to Cheney and and insult to Caroline Kennedy. He compliments Cheney on the man's using the "F" word on Leahy one day. Kristol thinks that, when Cheney was asked about whether he had really said that to the Representative, he said that he had and that it was called for. Cheney. The fat white slob of a moronic brutal coward that he is. Yes, the same man who was appointed head of the committee to find a real Vice President for Nucular Bush. What did he do? What clowns like him always do. He made sure that he took apart every real candidate that was evaluated, then declared himself the only viable alternative. This is the man who, under the influence of too much booze, and saliva dripping from his craven down-slanted lips, shot his friend in the face with a shotgun, then forced the friend to say that he actually needed that birdshot treatment for clearing his lifelong case of acne. The torture king Cheney. The war criminal. The same creep who says that the President can do anything, during faux wartimes, and it is legal. The Goodbye and good riddance Vice President of all time. And then Caroline. I too railed recently about the nepotistic trends in both our political and our art communities. I don't like it. I think that we went deep into democracy to get away from this kind of inherited passage of importance and power. Inheritance means that you are going to get some real stupid and crummy leaders in large amounts (the average I.Q. really is 100, don't forget, which is not bad but do we want them running our lives?). But Caroline is okay. You know why? Yes, you do. Me too. She stood there while her father was carted by in front of all of us. She has stood well against the rage of outrageous fortune which has bruised and battered her pampered existence for all of her life. She is our's more surely than anyone I can think of, except her brother John Jr. And he is dead. And I still miss him. So, I think that Caroline has a good heart. And I do not require much more. Cheney has a black heart, which he received in a secret transplant operation from the cadaver of Joseph Mengele. He has been very very successful at continuing those medical experiments, begun years ago by his donor. Please, Mr. Lowlife Kristol, do not ever mention those two people in the same column again. We know which of the two you most resemble.
And then there is the Torturous Tribune. Yes, they came out for torture again this morning. In time for Christmas. There little editorial piece explains it all away as being due to fear. The poor, weak and phoney- macho leaders of this country, so stunned and frightened by the events of 911, turned to torturing suspects in order to defend our country. Suspects. That is the key throw-away word in the article. Suspects. Who the hell was a suspect? Who is? And that word is one of the biggest problems with torture, and all that goes with it. The suspect can be anyone. People turn in people all the time, given an enormity of motivation. In Iraq we were giving out hundred thousand dollar rewards for anyone who would accuse and turn in a suspected terrorist. No questions. A hundred grand. The lottery over there. Equivalent to millions over here (well, it used to be. Now it is worth about $312.00, or soon will be). And you could get rid of your worst enemy quite anonymously. Wow. What a bonanza that was! The victim you turned in was instantly taken out of the country and then slowly roasted over charcoal fires ten thousand miles away (the heat occasionally quenched with water from the water-board pool), never to be returned to your country or village. Torture is absolutely terrible, to the people tortured (go figure) and the people forced to torture them. Even to the people that happily torture them (take a close look at the miserable facial features and expressions of Dick Cheney). Shame on you, the editorial staff of the disappearing Tribune. Do you know why you are going away, slowly but surely? Because you have no heart,and your 'thinkers' have no life experience. You have not lived hard, ever. You have not traveled the world, really. You have not lived in poverty or fear or without hope. I celebrate that for you. But you should not be in control of what we read, any more than Caroline should be handed the reigns of decision-making for an entire state in the Senate. You are probably nice people. But you are simpering fakes when it comes to understanding the human condition, then allowing us to be informed about it. Like the executives of the auto companies, as with the executives of all of our financial houses, you need to pass on. And you will, but you are going to take The Tribune with you. It is your right. And I understand that. But I will miss that Tribune of old, which your fathers and their fathers built. But twaddle takes its toll.
Hey, even that smarmy slob Krauthammer is taking my stuff. Okay, go ahead Charles. If it is good enough for Maureen Dowd than I guess it is good enough for you. He writes on the heels of my blog, with respect to Caroline's probably appointment to the Senate in New York, wherein I ran on and on about this 'transfer of royalty thing,' this nepotism and concentration (brought about by our media) of fame meaning everything about everything. Kraut is just an aging neocon without a cause right now. So go ahead and pick on Caroline. She has set herself up to be a target out here. I am sorry about that. For me, when I look at her face, I still see the fragility and pain of those terrible days in the early sixties. Piss off Krauthammer. Go pick on somebody your own size, like Bill Bennet (the slimy silent edifice of corpulent fat) or that radio rat (Rush "these are not oxycontin" Limbaugh).
Finally, there was a funny article. It was the reverse of "I confess, he did it," kind of a thing. There is this writer who is a supposed historian. He was fixated on, for most of his life, about a guy named B. Virdot who took out an ad in an Eastern Paper to solicit stories about hardship during the first depression (1933, or so). Then he sent checks, this Virdot guy, to the best stories. Well, it seems that our writer looked into this matter, which had perplexed and impressed him for his whole life. For years he could not find out who Virdot really was. It seems that the guy had used a fictional name. He investigated and then investigated some more, until finally his mother handed him a proverbial 'old black valise.' Inside were all the letters written to Mr.Stone, the real benefactor (Virdot). It turns out to be the writer's grandfather. His mother had never said a word. So now we have it. The great hero of those dark days turns out to be the grandfather of our investigator and writer. Now, is that a load of Holiday crap, or what? His mother never said a word for all those years. It reminds me of the 'silent warrior' veterans at the Naval Hospital. There are silent warriors, you know. They are the one's that did not do anything when they served. By being silent they protect that simple fact. You are left to assume, as they want you to, that they were in such bad stuff that they can't talk about it. Another load of brown stuff. Just like the Virdot story. The investigator and author works in fiction not history. And he is selling much more in that genre. The sale of drivel is going well.
Back to my cards. I am almost done. Really. Really! Shut up Harvey.
Bernard Madoff is at home in his seven million dollar penthouse. He is wearing some sort of GPS anklet or bracelet so the authorities will know that he is in residence from nine p.m. until nine a.m., when he gets to go out for the day. He was supposed to qualify for this privilege (of not sitting in a dank crummy holding cell downtown) by putting up the penthouse (which he bought with stolen money) and getting four friends or family to sign responsibility for him. It is extremely denigrating to go to friends and family for this kind of favor, by the way. So he didn't do it. He put up the penthouse and then the court decided to let him out of getting the four people to sign. Outrageous? Of course. The Federal Prosecutors are about ninety percent successful at getting their intended victims held without bail (or getting the terms of the bail so onerous that it cannot be met) for 'flight risk' potential. They get this through normally, even for people who have no passport, and have never been out of the country (you gotta leave the country to evade the Feds, and that will only serve you for a short time, unless you are Marc Rich), and have no assets to use to support any kind of successful fugitive evasion. But, what do we have here? Madoff, if convicted, would serve the rest of his life in prison, easily, according to the mandatory sentence guidelines. He has a chateau in France. He has two huge offshore yachts, staffed and waiting. He has tons of cash in all kinds of foreign accounts. He does not need no stinking passport! Oh, and they took his wife's passport. Now that was meaningful. More crap. We are being handed more crap. Like Caroline getting that Senate seat (forgone conclusion there). Just crap, repackaged with a brown wrapper and shiny brown ribbon. Merry Christmas America. And you think Governor Rod is going to prison? Think again. Picture Madoff up there in his penthouse, overlooking all of New York, while you sit down there in your one room flat you can't even make the payment on. I encourage you 'normal' New Yorkers to begin looking skyward. Madoff is up there, enjoying the Argentinian wines I write about, and laughing. What are you doing? Sit there and think. Playing with matches is not always something you should be punished for.
Writing of Argentinian wine, I have found another. Now, you know I am not a connoisseur, since I don't drink at all (I do consume huge quantities of Alterra coffee) and, when I was drinking, way back there, I downed Barcardi rum with coca cola. So, take all wine stuff with a grain of salt. It snowed over a foot last night and the stuff is still coming down. Jeff, the guy who plows me out, because i am not a John Deere kind of a guy, has had to come three times because his plow is not all that big. On the last trip I gave him my last bottle of Don David. You know, the good stuff that my guests have been raving about. Jeff frowned and smiled at the same time. The Don David is going to go down the hatch, for sure, but Jeff is more a Blatz kind of guy himself (I know, I know, they don't make that old beer anymore). I served this new stuff last night, which I found at a butcher shop in Port Washington on this recent trip. I was actually in there buying head cheese, a German delicacy which you, being assumed to be normal, will not eat. It was for my mother. She is not normal. Anyway, I spotted this dust covered bottle of Argentinian wine. It was priced at $7.99, an 06, and a Malbec from my favorite valley (the Mendoza). So I took it to the counter and asked the meat-remnant-covered butcher about it. "I don't know nuthin' about the wine. Its been here since I bought the place last year. That one's old though. You can have it for five bucks." So I bought it along with the head cheese.
It is called Trapiche. The company putting it out in the Mendoza valley is quite aptly named the Bodega Trapiche Company. Bodega being the key word here. My guest's drank it last night, but not the whole bottle. They just could not get that far. One of my connoisseur friends stated "it has the approach of fuel starved single-engined Cessna, the attack of a studded wet leather whip, and the finish of a greenish brown troll, like the one who lives behind the slats under your back porch." They drank almost all of it anyway, because I was saving the Don David for Jeff, and my supply is low. One neat thing, however. I poured the remainder of the bottle onto a clear white place in the snow this morning. It was beautiful! The snow has since tried to accumulate over it, but the intensity of color and the acidity of the brew has continued to overwhelm the tremendous building efforts of even this blizzard. If I order five cases, open the bottles and apply liberally up and down my driveway, I will not only add an amazing new color element to my home, but I will probably not have to pay Jeff for the rest of the winter. These 'Bodega' guys and gals have happened upon something they, as yet, have no clue about. This may be as good a product as synthetic rubber!
My Advent trees (you know, the five I have lit sequentially, making believe that I have some understanding of the Christian tradition in this area) have struck me down. The breaker blew last night around midnight. So the outside circuit is dead, unless I disconnect some of the lines to the trees. The breaker just keeps clicking off if I try to reset or keep them plugged in. The scene where Clark Griswald blows his own electricity out in the movie 'Christmas Vacation' is reminiscent. I plunged into the basement and figured all of everything I had to figure out to get back online. To no avail. So I am ruminating. Night will come and my unknown, but well known, and expectant, admirer's will be driving by and looking. Without the Advent trees all they will see is right into the back of my house, and I have been told that I keep too many lights on (true) and that people can vaguely see movement in the house at all hours (I have discussed this with Harvey). They never comment that it might be a violation of some sort to look in, or that it might be bad manners to tell me after they do look in. But I am not violated. I am just acting like I might be a bit violated. I don't know what kind of a guy I am but, whatever I am, I can handle the interest of friends and even those who don't quite measure up to that moniker.
Gifts. I am at the end of the Christmas rope here near Christmas. Things are so very far away from here. I mean 'real' stores. I wonder how much of America is in my situation with this. What can you buy locallly from a Home Depot or a Wall Mart? And these are Home Depots and Wall Marts that are stocked for country living. Just how many Toro snow blowers, Stanley levels or DeWalt drills can one give out as presents? And to whom? Women do not like gifts of tools (like a vacuum cleaner, which was portrayed as a gift that got a guy into a long term dog house in an ad I saw on television recently....a great ad, I might add). And many men do not like that either. So industrial strength gifts are out. That leaves me with a long drive to the shopping centers of Milwaukee or Illinois. I hate crossing the state line. I always feel like I am wanted by some shadowy authority when I go down there. The fact that nobody ever notices that I have entered the state, well, that is bothersome from a different, and more solitary, perspective altogether! And Milwaukee! What do I say about that place? Worse roads, from a directional standpoint, than Washington D.C. But I must get ready and get out there. A foot of snow today, they say, with more on Saturday. I better get out there and get under the lip of the coming white mantle. Hawaii beckons but I have miles to go before I sleep. Whitman. If you don't recognize the quote, I mean. I'll bet he was a great guy. But you never know about artists. We are a bit whacked around the edges, here and there.
Caroline Kennedy is not selected to fill Hilary's seat. Not yet, anyway. So there is a sliver of hope. We need some raucous junior legislator on his or her way up. Full of brimstone and testy brine. Ready to pull a Mr. Smith or Ms. Smith goes to Washington kind of thing. We don't need the faux royalty of this country doing more of their paltry do-nothing showboating. And then there is torture. Finally, the outrages committed in our name are receiving some notice. Mainstream media is hopeful that nothing will come of it, however. They want Obama to drop such 'rear-looking' investigations. But this is one that needs to be brought right up to the top of the table. We need to know. We need to consider and then judge. We need to make absolutely certain that this bottle, with the genie inside, gets corked and buried deep under some New York landfill. The only way to do that is to know, and then reflect, and then be sorry as hell that we allowed this current serving slime to represent us like that. And don't compare this to what was done by the idiots who flew into those buildings on 911. That is them. Screw them. We can't change them. But we can change us and assure that we do not ever resemble them. Let's do it.
I've got it! I can run another extension cord from one of the sockets on the other side of the house to run half the lights! Those sockets are on a different circuit, according to the weird scrolling written next to the breaker switches on the panel, so they should be able to distribute the load. Merry Christmas, from the Lake Geneva Griswalds!
It looks like we will just continue the "aristocratic movie star" kind of crap that has been going on in this country since right after television became common to most households. Fame is everything. If you are not known, or do not have a 'linked' last name, then you are a peasant, and you will not be allowed to rise above your status. Caroline Kennedy, without complaint and without any credentials at all...except great fame, looks to be the next Senator from New York. The woman who preceded her, and is now about to be our Secretary of State, lived in New York about three months before starting her run for that seat. And her husband was the former President. So there is plenty of precedent in New York and around this country. Arnold is governor in California. Dumb as a post. About as educated and life-experienced as a troll, but there he is. Nero is fiddling while Rome is slowly but surely beginning to burn. You can see the smoke. You can almost smell it, but not quite yet. I was up in Northern Wisconsin again, over the past few days, and several people asked me about the nation's anger. As in, where the hell is it. I did not have an answer for that question. I don't know. Maybe all this has to really come home to everyone's front door. Maybe the appointment and election of such dolts, and the disaster they leave strewn in their path, will only sink in when it is up close, personal and in everyone's face. Caroline will stroll into her new Senate office and set up shop, with the usual trail of servants, security, pomp and circumstance. We are giving away all of our country to this kind of deliberate stupidity. Without any anger at all. She will sit there and be honored and fretted over, while auto workers are laid off and dumped into the social and physical sewers of this land.
I notice that Gates, of the CIA, is apologizing for black permanent magic marker being used to 'highlight' secret documents that are now being declassified and given out under Freedom of Information Requests. It seems that black highlighters were used in order to, well, highlight the important sensitive parts of many documents. And this is told to us, the public, straight-faced. And the press just rolls over and eats it up. What a crock!!! They use black highlighters to redact. They use it on the original documents because the original document can still be read after highlighting (just hold it up to the light and the letters will be visible no matter whether they were typed, written with ballpoint or even pencil), but they are totally black to photocopiers. Get it yet? All Freedom of Information Request Responses are copied. You even pay for each copy they make for you. But the black 'highlighter' leaves you completely in the dark about whatever they want to keep you in the dark about. And now they lie about it. And get believed by the supportive donkey mainstream media. Actually the media is simply paid well to do just that.
I also heard some anger, while I was up there in the North, about the missing money. It is becoming apparent, with the toppling of the Ponzi guy in New York (for 50 billion, or so) that the whole derivative and hedge fund thing is nothing more than a series of Ponzi schemes (wherein the people who invest early are paid with the money coming in the door later, to keep them appeased and quiet) which were used to allow the schemers to take almost all of the money themselves. That money is offshore and tied up in many many luxury homes, boats and planes. As I explained about this fine mess, the real problem is that the very people charged with going after these people are all part of it! Yes, the Paulson people, and so on, have their own offshore accounts. Paulson is a multi-billionaire. Hell, almost all the people at the top now are. Have you not noticed? So what can we expect? What we can expect is that these thieving people are going to continue to divest themselves of dollars while they print money hand over fist from the Federal Reserve. You see, if you do not hold dollars (instead you have hard commodities like gold and silver and platinum) then you do not have to care that the printing of trillions of dollars of more money will dilute the rest of it out here. Stand by for some real inflation. Like twenty or thirty percent per year or more. But it will not apply to those people.
Oh, you will be mad about it. But you are not yet. You are still believing that Obama and the dream team are going to pull this thing out in the last reel. Well, they are not. They are not hear to pull us out. They are here to make us all feel better as we go through this terribly tough purge. We are at the end of the beginning. The winter will now grow colder and colder, and then colder still. Be as ready as you can. Where the hell is Bill Bennet hiding when I need somebody to take this out on?
The last 'advent tree' is lit. Christmas is days away. It is a wonderful time of coming change and challenge, of anger and deeper emotions. It is going to be a time of love and care, for those close to us. It has been quite some time since that kind of thing has been a part of this cold existential culture. Merry Christmas, and thank you God for giving us more problems so that we may grow stronger as we solve them.
My previous blogs have VANISHED (apparently into thin "web" air)!! Oh well, I am not going to spend anytime crying about that. I am also not going backwards (i.e., trying to repost items lost) because the election is less than 60 days away! That being said, I have few exceptions: highlight speeches of the historical 2008 DNC, Obama's acceptance speech, Fact Checking Gov. Sarah Palin and Republican Pres. Nominee John McCain's RNC Acceptance Speeches. With respect to the highlights of the 2008 DNC, I have compiled a list of my favorite speeches with links to the video. The list is in reverse chronological order. If, for some reason, a link is broken, you can always Google the speech or search for it on YouTube.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
Denver, CO (August 25-28, 2008)
Pres. Nominee Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZCrIeRkMhA
Sen. Joe Biden’s VP Acceptance Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVH58DeUThg
Beau Biden Introducing his father, Sen. Joe Biden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFNdA6fxKpo
Sen. John Kerry’s Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO2PAm4iCtE
Fmr. President Bill Clinton’s Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3r6xvwPGcY
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=268ncnoitEc
Congressman Dennis Kucinich “Wake-up America” Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE_eKhUC9rI
Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass) Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAwKHriAj5Q
Michelle Obama’s Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFsB09KhqI
Ted & Caroline Kennedy’s Speech
I sure like Michael Moore's idea of Caroline Kennedy running as Obama's Vice President, and tomorrow, Howard Dean III, M.D., is coming to Santa Fe, and I will have a chance to ask him about my deepest concern, overhauling the FDA with a true consumer protectionist as Commissioner, not the corporate-serving lackey we have right now.
I decided to join 112 Obama groups, some at the official website, and some interesting sounding Obama Yahoo! and one Google group located in Colorado. I get 1200-2000 emails a day, and it is an amazing flow of information. Recently, the news about Musharraf “resigning”appeared on the Net at least 36 hours before it came out in the New Mexican, the "oldest paper in the West."
On the other hand, my wise friend who graduated from St. John’s College believes the “cool” or “cold” media, in which he included newspaper, magazines, and books, ultimately had a much greater effect on the recipient than the jillions of bits of information pouring in off the Internet.
At times, with 112 groups’ membership, including some strange ones (LasVegasAgnosticsAtheistsforObama), Secular Humanist (my favorite), some funny ones (PoliticallyNCorrectisOK), and the high-powered Action Teams in all of the key states, the flow of information at times resembles looking up at Niagara Falls, from that little boat below, the Maid of the Mist. At other times, I notice a real self-congratulatory narcissistic attitude in the groups, as if to say, “Aren’t we cool?” and not nearly enough of the real mechanics of politics, the door to door, the articles to hang from the door, getting the people to the Polls, etc., all of which may be boring to many, but is the pulse of not only who is in the White House for the next 4 to 8 years, but whether the Senate has a filibuster-proof 60 Democrats. The people who like that and are good at that are out doing just that, not yakking it up on the Internet, basking in the ill-founded Kaffee Klatch milieu that seems to be the result of useless Liberal Arts Degrees from many years ago.
It will be a very tight election, because of that supposed 16% of American voters who are outright or secret BIGOTS, who will vote against Obama above all, even with all of the bloggers, the right TV ads, the Unions, the traditional Democrat alliance between Jews, Negroes, Minorities, Intellectuals, Indians, etc., the victorious debates, as so on. Some say it is always decided in the last 4 days anyway, which I don’t think is true with this election. Such a large percentage of Americans recognize the absolutely calamitous disastrous economic effects of 8 years of Bushies/Neocons/Cheney/Blackwater/Kellogg Brown and Root/the Pentagon and the Industrialists, etc.: I don’t see how any thinking American could not vote for Obama, but, have I been wrong before? Yes. The bloggers will get out in due course and eventually Pound the Pavement; at least, I know for sure that Obama's Campaign Manager, a few others, and me, will ask them to do that, and I will be sending at least 400,000 people emails with encouragement to get strategic and cut the yakking till after the Election.
But the observations about the effects of the Internet on Society (more than Politics) are very compelling and very interesting. Marshall McLuhan posited many years ago that all of this electronic communication and related advances would eventually create The Global Village, but obviously, the cohesion is very thin, if it there at all, eh?
Rather than any advanced form of communication, some see serious Blogging as a new form of Insanity, recognized by the Medical Profession as a brand new syndrome, and others see it as just plain old Lemming-like behavior, especially in the political context. I have a keener perception of how the Internet has requited at least 50% of the compulsion to read several daily newspapers, and let me tell you in conclusion: there sure are a lot of really smart people Blogging for Obama, and I am sure we are going to win.
Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News
Yeah, Michael Moore! You tell them.
Caroline Kennedy would make a great VP!
So would Michael Bloomberg, Andrew Bacevich, and a host of other independent-leaning candidates. I think Obama needs an independent to balance his ticket! Someone who is smart, and cares more about the country than partisan politics!
We've never met, so I hope you don't find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public's business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would've had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.
Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.
The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They're all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don't invade countries that pose no threat to us.
Senators Biden and Bayh voted for that invasion and that war, the war Barack ran against, the war Barack reminded us was the big difference between him and Senator Clinton because she voted for the war and he spoke out against it while running for Senate (a brave and bold thing to do back in 2002).
For Obama to place either of these senators on the ticket would be a huge blow to the millions that chose him in the primaries over Hillary. He will undercut one of the strongest advantages he has over the Hundred-Year War senator, Mr. McCain. By anointing a VP who did what McCain did in throwing us into this war, Mr. Obama will lose the moral high ground in the debates.
As for Governor Kaine of Virginia, his big problem is, well, Obama's big problem -- who is he? The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome -- and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle -- is that too many of the voters simply don't know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback. Too many Americans, who on the surface seem to like Barack Obama, just don't feel comfortable voting for someone who hasn't been on the national scene very long. It's a comfort level thing, and it may be just what keeps Obama from winning in November ("I'd rather vote for the devil I know than the devil I don't know").
What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we've known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.
That person, Caroline, is you.
I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: "OBAMA-KENNEDY."
Caroline, I know that nominating yourself is the furthest idea from your mind and not consistent with who you are, but there would be some poetic justice to such an action. Just think, eight years after the last head of a vice presidential search team looked far and wide for a VP -- and then picked himself (a move topped only by his hubris to then lead the country to near ruin while in office) -- along comes Caroline Kennedy to return the favor with far different results, a vice president who helps restore America to its goodness and greatness.
Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl.
The nation has, remarkably (considering our fascination with celebrity), left you alone and let you live your life in peace. (It's like, long ago, we all collectively agreed that, with her father tragically gone, a man who died because he wanted to serve his country, we would look out for her, we would wish for her to be happy and well, and we would have her back. But we would let her be.)
Now, I am breaking this unwritten code and asking you to come forward and help us in our hour of need. So many families are hurting, losing their homes, going bankrupt with health care bills, seeing their public schools in shambles and living with this war without end. This is a historic year for women, from Hillary's candidacy to the numerous women running for the House and Senate. This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!).
This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it! And Barack, if you're reading this, you probably know that she is far too humble and decent to nominate herself. So step up and surprise us again. Step up and be different than every politician we have witnessed in our lifetime. Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Do it for all those reasons. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. "Obama-Kennedy." Wow, does that sound so cool.
Caroline, thanks for letting me intrude on your life. How wonderful it will be to have a vice president who will respect the Constitution, who will support (instead of control) her president, who will never let her staff out a CIA agent, and who will never tell her country that she is "currently residing in an undisclosed location."
Say it one more time: "OBAMA-KENNEDY." A move like that might send a message to the country that the Democrats would actually like to win an election for once.
Yours,Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.comMichaelMoore.com
Here's my latest Huffington Post article on the race, posted on Wednesday, August 13:
I don't imagine that Senator Barack Obama's veep vetting team is paying much attention to what I have to say, but I want to make the case for who I think the Land of Lincolner should pick for his running mate.
Since Obama became my party's presumptive nominee on June 3, names like Joe Biden, Tim Kaine, Evan Bayh, and Kathleen Sebelius have dominated the headlines. Jim Webb and Mark Warner took themselves out of consideration earlier this summer, and there's been speculation this week that Hillary Clinton has been asked to deliver the keynote speech at Tuesday night's convention, which pundits say rules out any chance that the junior New York Senator might speak as a Vice Presidential candidate in Denver (never mind that Tuesday, except in 2004, has traditionally been the Vice Presidential nominee's night anyway, which the talking heads seem to overlook).
In this May 21, 2007 file photo, Caroline Kennedy is seen during the JFK Profile in Courage Award presentations at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Caroline Kennedy lives a very private life with a very public profile, the perfect skill set for her newest assignment as part of Barack Obama's vice presidential search team.
The question bounced around the Internet and tumbled from the lips of Washington insiders: Why would Barack Obama choose Caroline Kennedy, a reluctant public figure with little affection for modern politics, to vet the next Democratic vice presidential candidate?
A month into the search, as one of two remaining members of the search team, Kennedy is emerging as an active participant, slipping largely unnoticed around Capitol Hill for private meetings and exercising the kind of discretion that made her an appealing choice in the first place. Despite initial skepticism in some quarters that her appointment was window dressing, associates and at least one member of Congress who met with Kennedy describe her as an engaged and savvy operative.
Consider these scenes last month at Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Shortly after Obama finished his meeting two weeks ago with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Kennedy slipped out the back door of the office and moved unseen past a knot of TV camera crews loading equipment on their trucks. Wearing sensible silver flats and clutching a folder in one hand, Kennedy escaped onto Independence Avenue to hail a cab with Eric Holder, the other half of the search team.
A week later, as dozens of reporters filtered into a first floor DNC meeting room for a briefing from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Kennedy once again eluded most of the gathering media mob.
“One of the great assets and gifts that Caroline brings to the process is confidentiality and discretion,” said Paul G. Kirk Jr., board chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a former Democratic National Committee chairman. “She wouldn’t be sharing what she did with anyone other than her team and her candidate.”
Indeed, when Obama clinched the nomination, he told reporters to expect to hear nothing from him or his campaign until he introduces his vice presidential pick. It didn’t quite start out that way, as Holder and James A. Johnson, who was picked to lead the team but later resigned amid questions about his business dealings, attracted a crush of media coverage when they visited the Capitol several days later to consult with members of Congress. (Kennedy did not participate in those meetings.)
Since then, the process has drawn considerably less attention.
When Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) huddled with the team at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters on June 17, even one of the senator’s top communications aides was not clued in on key details. “They were discreet meetings,” the aide said.
Kennedy tapped Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Michigan Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, for advice. She did the same with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Rep. Joe Baca, a California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said that when he met with the search team two weeks ago, he found Kennedy doing more of the talking than Holder.
With a soft voice and an unassuming demeanor, Kennedy peppered Baca with questions, asking for opinions on specific candidates and pulling ideas from him about who Obama should choose.
“I felt connected with her,” Baca said. “You felt like you wanted to have a conversation with her.”
They asked whether there were any Republicans who Obama should consider, Baca said, suggesting that “they were open to looking at both sides.”
“She is definitely deeply involved,” Baca said. “Her assessment and evaluation and recommendations are going to be considered highly.”
Kennedy offered her phone number to Baca at the close of the meeting, he said.
The vice presidential search post rounded a months-long conversion from observer to full-bore participant in what Kennedy, 50, has described on the campaign trail as the most important election since she was a child.
“She is quite selective about what she chooses to be involved in,” said John Seigenthaler Sr., a member of the Profile in Courage award committee at the Kennedy library. “For the most part, it is fair to say those interests have focused on the work of the JFK library, but there are other areas where she has not hesitated. People who haven’t observed her in those roles might be surprised that she was willing to accept it.”
“People who have watched her participate in the Kennedy library understand that for her, it is a commitment and it was not something she would take lightly,” Seigenthaler added.
For years, her public profile was as private as the process she is now helping to administer.
While her late younger brother, John Jr., entered the media world and occasionally basked in the spotlight, Caroline Kennedy has sought to avoid publicity altogether. She has raised money for the New York public schools, written and edited several books, and earned a law degree from Columbia University.
But when Kennedy stepped to the microphone at American University in January to publicly endorse Obama, she looked slightly out of her element. “Hi, everyone,” she said shyly to the crowd of thousands. When they chanted Obama’s slogan, “yes we can,” Kennedy peered down at the podium, setting up a stark contrast with the voice-straining speech from her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, that followed.
Five months later, though, Caroline Kennedy would find herself at the center of what Obama has said would be his most important decision before Election Day.
“I wouldn’t be surprised that she is taking this on as virtually a full-time assignment, because that is just her way,” Seigenthaler said. “Once she decides that this is something that is important, her commitment will be absolute.”
