Letters: McCain's choice for VP Editorial Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:
"Democrats envious
The biggest problems the Democrats have with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are that she's cuter than Sen. Joe Biden and more of a man than Sen. Barack Obama. The fact that she exceeded the combined lifetime executive experiences of Obama and Biden when she finished her first day as mayor of Wasilla is just her backup advantage.
BRUCE ANDERSON
Houston"
Cut-and-paste from today's Chronicle. More proof of my assertion that the GOP depends for its survival on voters who, putting it charitably, are a few tacos short of a value meal. Pea, she of the big hair, will probably be delighted to know a dumbass like Bruce thinks she's more masculine than Obama. We already know Ace digs chicks, has ever since his POW days. I saw the YouTube video of Ace and Pea together on stage, and Ace seems to be giving her caboose a careful study, at least as much as he gave her list of qualifications.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
And they have voting rights, too...
TRAIL BLAZERS Blog The Dallas Morning News:
"Posted by Roadside @ 12:31 PM Fri, Aug 29, 2008
Well she is more qualified to be president than Obama who has 143 days of actual service in the Senate and no executive experience and no experience as an agent ot change. She would be a better pick straight up against Obama because she has executive experience and is a reformer. Obama just aquires offices to run for another office. He has not even chaired a committee meeting on his own Senate subcommittee. He has never done ANYTHIHG except run for office. Dems problem is they have their ticket reversed. "
Comment at Trail Blazers editorial blog, Dallas Morning News, by screen name Roadside. The subject, as you may have guessed, is Sarah Palin, who will probably be the next VP. When I read things like this, I wonder what it must be like to live in Roadside's world. Mrs. Pea's world, the town of Wasilla where she was mayor, is the pastoral scene below the title. This part of her qualifying executive experience is like saying Andy Taylor, the sheriff of Mayberry, has the law enforcement background to be FBI Director. Whatever.... And while I'm thinking about it, Mrs. P, what's with that hairdo ?
"Posted by Roadside @ 12:31 PM Fri, Aug 29, 2008
Well she is more qualified to be president than Obama who has 143 days of actual service in the Senate and no executive experience and no experience as an agent ot change. She would be a better pick straight up against Obama because she has executive experience and is a reformer. Obama just aquires offices to run for another office. He has not even chaired a committee meeting on his own Senate subcommittee. He has never done ANYTHIHG except run for office. Dems problem is they have their ticket reversed. "
Comment at Trail Blazers editorial blog, Dallas Morning News, by screen name Roadside. The subject, as you may have guessed, is Sarah Palin, who will probably be the next VP. When I read things like this, I wonder what it must be like to live in Roadside's world. Mrs. Pea's world, the town of Wasilla where she was mayor, is the pastoral scene below the title. This part of her qualifying executive experience is like saying Andy Taylor, the sheriff of Mayberry, has the law enforcement background to be FBI Director. Whatever.... And while I'm thinking about it, Mrs. P, what's with that hairdo ?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Dem Denver dog day afternoon
The Dem national convention finally gets underway this evening and I'm deciding if I should watch any of it. I think I might be able to stomach the coverage on PBS or C-SPAN, maybe MSNBC in small doses. Definitely can't tolerate CNN or FNC, though.
Speedo's campaign is running another of the anti-Obama ads that congealed like frozen snot since the Dem VP selection was announced. This one is called something like "Passed Over" and bemoans the fact Mrs. Clinton didn't get picked even though she won MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of primary votes. Why did Barry jack her around ? Because she spoke THE TROOF about him, of course.
Speedo is setting new records for total dickwaddery every single day, a real flaming asshole. The new ad is obviously intended to exploit the fact many so-called Democrats are pissed about Hillary's second-place finish to a N and are threatening to vote for Speedo, at least according to recent newspaper items. Not taking any chances, the Wild Rovers have chosen to spray fresh gasoline on the embers hoping the POW will really get the so-called PUMA vote. Fuck it, he's welcome to those pathetic losers.
If national opinion polls prove anything, it's that at least 50 percent of the people in this country are so damned dumb, they shouldn't be allowed to move freely among the rest of us. Most Repubs are in that category, and now we can add the PUMAs. Based on the news articles, the PUMAs are apparently old, uneducated, and low-income. Sounds like the demographic once known as "po' white trash."
If you want to be a serious candidate for public office in the US, you're supposed to identify with and relate to these dipsticks and their numerous problems. If you can't, you get stuck with the elitist tag. Personally, I want to be in the elitist group. Every day I try hard to avoid being mistaken for one of those god-fearing hard-workin' Americans that call themselves PUMAs now.
Added 11:11 pm Monday 25 August:
Mrs. bee wanted to see Mrs. Obama's speech so we watched bits and pieces of the Dem convention until her arrival at the podium. I tried a little CNN but it just didn't work for me. Finally we realized that C-SPAN was the only place to get the experience with nothing reflected and distorted through the prism of cable news talking head bullshit.
I hadn't seen Mrs. Obama give a speech, but from what I've been reading on the internet, she's a scary radical communist black militant. Turns out she's apparently none of those things. Her speech was beautifully written and delivered with an enviable degree of eloquence. Mrs. bee summed it up accurately when she declared that Mrs. O was an asset to her husband.
Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided to see if I could zigzag my way through a quick sampling of the cable news channels, see how the speech was being critiqued, and move on without getting shit on my shoes. I almost made it too, until I landed at Fox News where Karl Rove was describing a different speech than the one I watched. I listened to that sick fuck about one minute then called it a night.
Speedo's campaign is running another of the anti-Obama ads that congealed like frozen snot since the Dem VP selection was announced. This one is called something like "Passed Over" and bemoans the fact Mrs. Clinton didn't get picked even though she won MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of primary votes. Why did Barry jack her around ? Because she spoke THE TROOF about him, of course.
Speedo is setting new records for total dickwaddery every single day, a real flaming asshole. The new ad is obviously intended to exploit the fact many so-called Democrats are pissed about Hillary's second-place finish to a N and are threatening to vote for Speedo, at least according to recent newspaper items. Not taking any chances, the Wild Rovers have chosen to spray fresh gasoline on the embers hoping the POW will really get the so-called PUMA vote. Fuck it, he's welcome to those pathetic losers.
If national opinion polls prove anything, it's that at least 50 percent of the people in this country are so damned dumb, they shouldn't be allowed to move freely among the rest of us. Most Repubs are in that category, and now we can add the PUMAs. Based on the news articles, the PUMAs are apparently old, uneducated, and low-income. Sounds like the demographic once known as "po' white trash."
If you want to be a serious candidate for public office in the US, you're supposed to identify with and relate to these dipsticks and their numerous problems. If you can't, you get stuck with the elitist tag. Personally, I want to be in the elitist group. Every day I try hard to avoid being mistaken for one of those god-fearing hard-workin' Americans that call themselves PUMAs now.
Added 11:11 pm Monday 25 August:
Mrs. bee wanted to see Mrs. Obama's speech so we watched bits and pieces of the Dem convention until her arrival at the podium. I tried a little CNN but it just didn't work for me. Finally we realized that C-SPAN was the only place to get the experience with nothing reflected and distorted through the prism of cable news talking head bullshit.
I hadn't seen Mrs. Obama give a speech, but from what I've been reading on the internet, she's a scary radical communist black militant. Turns out she's apparently none of those things. Her speech was beautifully written and delivered with an enviable degree of eloquence. Mrs. bee summed it up accurately when she declared that Mrs. O was an asset to her husband.
Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided to see if I could zigzag my way through a quick sampling of the cable news channels, see how the speech was being critiqued, and move on without getting shit on my shoes. I almost made it too, until I landed at Fox News where Karl Rove was describing a different speech than the one I watched. I listened to that sick fuck about one minute then called it a night.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Simple ideas for the simple-minded
I'm not particularly intellectual, and there are many things about which I'm uneducated. I try not to pretend that I know more about certain subjects than I really do, economics for example. One thing I do know is that the world is a complicated place, and it's getting more complex by the minute. I realize that, and I want government leaders who do as well.
Recognizing complexity in the modern world is not my unique gift but in the USA in general, and Texas in particular, it definitely puts me in the minority. It seems like the majority of Americans see the world in lowest-common-denominator terms, where everything is either good or bad, black or white, right or wrong. They want simple answers to every question, and apparently lack an interest in or capability for hashing out the pros and cons on difficult issues. High gas prices ? Let's drill offshore. Simple, short, and to the point.
People who bloviate about politics as paid professionals are universally praising Ace McCain's performance at Saddleup last Saturday evening, and "performance" is the correct description. Did he say anything he hasn't said a hundred times before in prepared speeches ? I doubt it. Did he say anything that wasn't a carefully-crafted sound bite ? Not much.
As long as simple-minded people insist on voting for scumbags they believe to be as dumb as themselves, we'll continue to have leadership problems in this country and I might as well learn to live with it.
Recognizing complexity in the modern world is not my unique gift but in the USA in general, and Texas in particular, it definitely puts me in the minority. It seems like the majority of Americans see the world in lowest-common-denominator terms, where everything is either good or bad, black or white, right or wrong. They want simple answers to every question, and apparently lack an interest in or capability for hashing out the pros and cons on difficult issues. High gas prices ? Let's drill offshore. Simple, short, and to the point.
People who bloviate about politics as paid professionals are universally praising Ace McCain's performance at Saddleup last Saturday evening, and "performance" is the correct description. Did he say anything he hasn't said a hundred times before in prepared speeches ? I doubt it. Did he say anything that wasn't a carefully-crafted sound bite ? Not much.
As long as simple-minded people insist on voting for scumbags they believe to be as dumb as themselves, we'll continue to have leadership problems in this country and I might as well learn to live with it.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Scorekeeping: Wexler and Hayes
I started listening to music on AM radio when I was a little boy, and began collecting records in the mid-1960s. The first LP record I recall buying was Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds in summer 1965.
I still consider 1964-1976 the Golden Age of Popular Music, and much of my collection is made up of music recorded during that fertile period. I keep telling myself that someday, I'll write a long article on my home blog, Hot Water Sandwich, about my love affair with music in general and record collecting in particular. I consider 1964 the onset of the Golden Age since that's when the Beatles and the British Invasion really became popular in the United States, and 1976 was the year before disco, punk rock and new wave became dominant forms.
During The Golden Age (1964-76), one of my favorite musical genres was the one broadly referred to then as soul music, which actually encompassed several styles. We had the Motown sound, the Philadelphia sound, the Memphis sound, etc. Someone buying soul music in those days owned records on the Atlantic and Stax labels, and was seeing the names Jerry Wexler and Isaac Hayes regularly.
Jerry Wexler was most famous as a producer at Atlantic, and was responsible for some outstanding records by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and other roster artists. Isaac Hayes was a renaissance man of sorts, writing and performing, even acting later on. To this day, "Theme from Shaft" is one of my favorite songs, and Hot Buttered Soul one of my favorite albums.
Wexler and Hayes both passed away recently, and The Golden Age of Popular Music continues to move gradually toward becoming a distant memory.
I still consider 1964-1976 the Golden Age of Popular Music, and much of my collection is made up of music recorded during that fertile period. I keep telling myself that someday, I'll write a long article on my home blog, Hot Water Sandwich, about my love affair with music in general and record collecting in particular. I consider 1964 the onset of the Golden Age since that's when the Beatles and the British Invasion really became popular in the United States, and 1976 was the year before disco, punk rock and new wave became dominant forms.
During The Golden Age (1964-76), one of my favorite musical genres was the one broadly referred to then as soul music, which actually encompassed several styles. We had the Motown sound, the Philadelphia sound, the Memphis sound, etc. Someone buying soul music in those days owned records on the Atlantic and Stax labels, and was seeing the names Jerry Wexler and Isaac Hayes regularly.
Jerry Wexler was most famous as a producer at Atlantic, and was responsible for some outstanding records by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and other roster artists. Isaac Hayes was a renaissance man of sorts, writing and performing, even acting later on. To this day, "Theme from Shaft" is one of my favorite songs, and Hot Buttered Soul one of my favorite albums.
Wexler and Hayes both passed away recently, and The Golden Age of Popular Music continues to move gradually toward becoming a distant memory.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
How things work out
While we were looking at family photograph albums last night, it occurred to me. It's fortunate that getting to my age was a gradual process. If it had happened overnight, the shock and the horror would've killed me.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Paul Newman
It's the cliche to end all cliches, but life goes on. It goes on, and sometimes it's painful. Tonight I was blog-hopping and came across the news that Paul Newman, now 83, is apparently in the terminal stages of cancer and may be down to his final weeks among us. People the age of my children (and younger) won't understand why I'm disturbed by this information, but I am. Through his movie roles, Paul Newman is connected with some of the best memories of my lifetime. He and Steve McQueen were the definition of cool when I was easing from adolescence into young manhood, the kind of guys I always wanted to be. More than once, I tried to handle situations the way I imagined Paul Newman would handle them. It didn't seem silly at the time.
Paul Newman was a star of such magnitude that it felt like he was an integral part of American life and always would be. It's hard to realize he might not be around. I've seen some of his movies over and over and will watch 'em a few more times before I'm through, and in that sense he'll be immortal as far as I'm personally concerned.
Paul Newman was a star of such magnitude that it felt like he was an integral part of American life and always would be. It's hard to realize he might not be around. I've seen some of his movies over and over and will watch 'em a few more times before I'm through, and in that sense he'll be immortal as far as I'm personally concerned.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Same old, same old
Books have been written about Karl Rove and his design for political campaigns. There are two elements that always stick out in my mind. First, anything and everything the other guy is doing is ALWAYS wrong. Second, if you tell the same lie often enough, it will eventually carry the weight of truth.
These two elements are starting to emerge in Ace's tactics against Obama, and they still work. It's the misfortune of the Dems they don't have anybody comparable to Rove on their side. If they did, someone with Jorge's inherent deficiencies could never have made the final cut.
These two elements are starting to emerge in Ace's tactics against Obama, and they still work. It's the misfortune of the Dems they don't have anybody comparable to Rove on their side. If they did, someone with Jorge's inherent deficiencies could never have made the final cut.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Four birds of a feather, flocking together
NewsRadio 740 - KTRH
Rush Limbaugh, the stain in America's underwear, has been doing his show for 20 years and has spent part of this week's broadcasts in spasms of anniversary self-congratulation. Today, things hit a new low. Jorge, his old man, and Jebby called in to grease Rush up with happy talk, and throw in a few plugs for the Repub political agenda. There's some kind of transcript at the link; I couldn't bear to read the whole mess. It all ties in with the themes of the jailbee blog family, however. I particularly like the part where one Bush, probably W, talks about passing the GOP offshore drilling bill, and the resulting drop in gasoline prices being like a "massive tax cut." These guys have one-track minds.
Rush Limbaugh, the stain in America's underwear, has been doing his show for 20 years and has spent part of this week's broadcasts in spasms of anniversary self-congratulation. Today, things hit a new low. Jorge, his old man, and Jebby called in to grease Rush up with happy talk, and throw in a few plugs for the Repub political agenda. There's some kind of transcript at the link; I couldn't bear to read the whole mess. It all ties in with the themes of the jailbee blog family, however. I particularly like the part where one Bush, probably W, talks about passing the GOP offshore drilling bill, and the resulting drop in gasoline prices being like a "massive tax cut." These guys have one-track minds.
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