Quote of the Week

And that's the beauty of Obama. It might be a generational thing, because the difference between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson was that Jesse Jackson never actually ran for president. He ran to disrupt the presidency. If he actually ran for president, he probably could have been president. Jesse Jackson won a bunch of primaries in Southern states, but not for five seconds did he think he could be president, whereas Obama was like, "Yeah, I could be president," and nobody stopped him. Literally, nobody stopped him.
-- Chris Rock, "Chris Rock Pens Blistering Essay on Hollywood's Race Problem: 'It's a White Industry'", Hollywood Reporter, December 3, 2014

Overheard at My Mother's House at Easter Dinner

"Kennedy did more in the first three years of his presidency than Obama did in his whole Presidency."

Random Thoughts

I have seen more people carrying umbrellas on sunny days during the last three years than I have ever seen carry umbrellas on sunny days during the ten years prior to that. In fact, it seems like I see more people carry umbrellas on sunny days nowadays than on rainy days.

The problem with speaking truth to power is that you actually have to speak the truth.

You can tell a computer is old when it shuts off every time you expect it to stay on automatically and stays on every time you expect it to shut off automatically.

I can't help but wonder how many of the people questioning Obama's citizenship would welcome a Schwarzenegger presidency.

Should I find it ironic that the most honest stuff I write is usually written under a pen name?

History's chief purpose is not to let us know what good people we have been.

It is not a kindness to encourage the poor to spend money they don't have on stuff they don't really need just because someone other than them thinks it to be fashionable.

The past ain't what it used to be and neither is the future.

I, tú, am America.

I never realized how American I was until I went to Mexico. I never realized how Mexican I was until I came back.

How realistic is it to expect an intelligent response to global warming when local politicians are still being constantly surprised by the fact that it often snows during the winter and gets hot during the summer?

People rarely pay back money with the same urgency that they borrow it. Even when the people from which they borrow it are themselves poor.

Whenever a riot occurs, people rarely go after the most deserving targets. Instead they go after the most vulnerable.

Pop Song of the Week: "Puttin' on the Ritz"

This is obviously not a Mitt Romney campaign video. And I doubt Barack Obama would approve of it either -- though I did find it ironic that the blackface sequences were censored by the same MTV which refused to play black music videos until David Bowie shamed them into it.

Quote of the Week

I've got to be honest. I met President Obama and he was a nice fellow, but I'm not going to vote for him, and I'm not going to vote for Romney. So, that leaves me without many options. I don't see much that I like in either of them. It's a tough world and I don't think either of them is capable of representing this country right now.
--Merle Haggard, The Dallas Observer, June 28, 2012

We Got Him!

At least that's what President Obama has been saying about Osama bin Laden. That doesn't necessarily mean that our long national nightmare is over but I would like to think it means that at least one of our bad dreams of the past decade is ending.

In the meantime, I salute the brave men and women who put themselves in harm's way to bring about this event. At last we can truly say "Mission Accomplished!"

Lauren Valle Almost Died for Their Sins

Oh, geez. I guess I should not be surprised by anything done by people who consider chair-throwing a legitimate form of political protest but the incident this past week in which protester Lauren Valle got thrown to the ground by Rand Paul supporters and then stomped in the head by one particularly loathsome individual kinda takes the cake.

Did they really believe the woman deserved that kind of treatment? Granted, I am old enough to remember Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the woman who tried to kill President Gerald Ford back in the 1970s, but then I see no comparisons between a would-be political assassin like Ms. Fromme and a legitimate political protester like Ms. Valle any more than there should be any connection between the Oklahoma City bombing and the original Boston Tea Party. And should not the woman just have been held till the cops arrived if Paul's supporters truly believed she was that much of a legitimate threat? As it stands, it seems like the only thing Ms Valle had in mind was a political stunt that would embarrass Mr. Paul -- and last time I checked, that was not an act deserving of a citizen's arrest, much less a beating.

Ironically, I was just discussing the modern-day Tea party just a few weeks ago with my mother, a former Reagan Democrat who recently admitted to me that she did not care for either the Tea party or Sarah Palin. Of course, my mother's biggest concern back then was not seeing some protester get the stuffing knocked out of her but rather the potential for splitting the conservative vote in the 2012 elections. And indeed, if I were a more cynical person, I would be tempted to argue that the main reason Democratic politicos like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have not come down harder against the Tea party was their hopes for just such a split. After all, the more people who vote for Rand Paul or Sarah Palin as a way of getting back at Obama, the less people left to vote for whoever the GOP picks as their presidential candidate -- and the less likely a victory for anyone running against Obama.

So now the good people who support Rand Paul have given me yet another reason to vote against their party apart from family loyalty. Here's hoping that I do not get kicked in the head as well.

Thoughts on the New Administration

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Please don't screw up!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

It's MLK Day again and while it's always tempting to wax cynical about how far we Americans still are from Dr. King's original vision of a society in which people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, it's hard for me to deny that a lot of progress has been made since 1968.

For many years, even liberal Democrats used to consider the idea of a black President as something that was unlikely to occur in real life within our lifetimes. But now it has.

That's not to say that there still aren't other problems that face us. Indeed, one could argue that merely electing a black President was a relatively simple task compared to what lies ahead. Nor do I care for the fact that it's becoming more and more fashionable to judge one by one's class. The more we Americans seem to embrace classlessness, the more obsessed we seem to be with class. And it doesn't help matters that the same Internet that has been frequently touted as a medium to inspire unity has just as often inspired division.

But I like to believe that we have more potential to solve these problems than any other country. Indeed, it's worth noting that many of the ideals we take for granted in this country aren't always shared by the rest of the world. (A fact that I learned myself when I traveled outside the country back in 1987.)

Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic. But sometimes optimism seems like a more realistic attitude than pessimism for no other reason that it's all too easy to think of reasons why such and such will never be accomplished. Accomplishing such and such anyway, of course, is a lot more harder.

Things That I Have to Say

I don't normally comment a lot on political matters but I can't resist noting the following observations that seem astonishingly obvious to me but not -- alas -- to most people.

1. The U.S. Treasury is neither a bottomless piggy bank nor a magic coin purse. One can't perpetually take money out of it without eventually having to put something back in.

2. No matter what Obama does next year, a lot of people is going to be unhappy. And things aren't exactly helped by the way everyone seems to be clamoring for their share of the public purse. One female friend of mine is already discussing the size of the tax rebate she'll receive next year -- it apparently having not occurred to her that tax rebates aren't likely to be -- nor deserve to be -- a top priority of the Obama Administration.

3. As neat as it is to have a black president here in the US, I really doubt Obama is going to put an end to racism anymore than the fall of the Berlin Wall put an end to class issues. Indeed, the notion that most black Americans will shut up about racial issues after January 20 seems rather insulting.

4. One should have the decency to wait until the president-elect has taken office before criticizing his actions. Especially if said criticisms are going to be so painfully trivial. This doesn't mean that we should pretend Obama is perfect just because he won the last election. But such criticism tends to be taken more seriously when it addresses something a person has actually done and not something he's likely to do. And if you waste all your time criticizing Obama at a time when few of his actions have significant impact, you're not likely to be taken all that seriously when it comes time for you to make a serious accusation against the guy.

All Politics Is Loco, Parte IX

I voted here in Dallas Tuesday afternoon and it took me a whole five minutes but then as I said, I went in the afternoon and not when most people were going to or from work.

I did see lines last week at some of the early voting stations which surprised me. But then I was equally surprised to note that I spent more time Tuesday conversing with a friend about the respective virtues of McCain and Obama than I did at the actual polls.

For that matter, I was surprised to note the return of paper ballots. At least for this past election.

There was a special electronic pad set up for handicapped voters at the voting station where I went and one of the people there told me that early voters got the electronic option as well. Apart from that, everything else was done the old-fashioned way.

Anyway, Barack Obama won and John McCain lost. And I would like to think that those who have been less than gracious about the results could learn a lot from the friend I mentioned above who could have said a lot of nasty comments but instead chose to look on the bright side of things and wish the winner well. I was surprised to hear McCain described by said friend as an underdog -- after all, he was endorsed by most of the conservative establishment. But then I have been surprised by a lot of things this election.

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

I can't help but agree with the various Internet wags who have compared this election season to the inevitable Christmas season. After all, both seem to start earlier and earlier each time and, of course, both involve promises that almost seem inevitably apt to end up broken. But I would like to believe that Obama is a good man and time will show me how right or wrong that belief is. Of course, I also had high hopes for Bush in 2000 but I'd rather not think about that right now.

All Politics Is Loco, Parte VIII

According to some elderly guys at one of the local restaurants, Obama already has the Presidental race all sewn up. Personally I won't believe that till next Wednesday but when even people who aren't Obama fans start talking as if his victory was a sure thing, I can't help but wonder.

Anyway, I'll be glad when this Presidential race is over. This post made me rather proud to be an American. This post about the recent booing of John McCain by his own supporters didn't make me feel so proud (I keep thinking Americans should be better than that and unfortunately, many of my fellow Americans are not) and this post -- which argued that people who merely vote for the wrong political candidate are much worse than a Russian dictator who murdered millions -- is just ridiculous.

I guess if I was smart, I would have taken advantage of early voting but I didn't. I guess I like to live dangerously.

Anyway, I discovered at a recent family gathering that I'm one of the few people left in my family who will be voting Democratic this November. Since my mother is a former Kennedy Democrat who once voted for McGovern and since my favorite cousin once described the Democratic Party in the late 1980s as "our" party -- implying that voting Democratic was a tradition for both my family and hers -- this makes me sad. But it doesn't surprise me. My mother has talked for years of her disillusionment with the Democratic Party and since she once admitted that she voted against Clinton in the 1990s because he supported defense cuts -- and because her employer was dependent on defense contracts -- I really didn't think it was too realistic to expect her to change her mind.

I was surprised by my one sibling's enthusiasm for Sarah Palin -- apparently he thinks she's a hottie -- and even more by one out-of-state cousin's antipathy toward Ms. Palin. I haven't had the chance to discuss with my cousin her reasons for hating Ms. Palin but my sibling assured me that she was most vocal about it in their online correspondence.

Anyway, I don't expect Obama to solve all our problems if he gets elected and indeed, I suspect the election will be a lot closer than most people are predicting. I don't really see McCain pulling an upset but then there was a time back in January when he didn't seem likely to even get the nomination. So who knows?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed either way.

All Politics Is Loco, Parte VI

I should have said this last week but I didn't. So I'm saying it now.

When I think about fighting liberals, I think about the type of muckrakers who courageously stand up to corrupt politicos and abusive lawmen. What I don't associate with the term is the type of back fence gossip defined by this post.

The funny thing about that post is that I usually admire Jill and Melina and the political stances they take. I just don't agree with their approach. After all there are a lot of more important issues involved with the candidacy of Governor Sarah Palin than whether or not she gives her kids strange names. (What? Democratic voters don't ever give their kids strange names? Or get ridiculed for it?) Or worse yet, whether she's actually the grandmother of her own child. (What? Democratic voters wouldn't mind the implication that one of their children isn't really their child? And have no problem with self-appointed muckrakers butting into their personal life?) I'd expect such tactics from the likes of Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh but from a liberal blogger? Shesh.

Aren't liberals supposed to be better than that? I realize Sarah Palin is hardly the ideal candidate as far as the average liberal is concerned -- understatement of the year -- but I used to have the notion that certain things just weren't done if you were a liberal. Apparently I was wrong.

And apparently I'm not the only one who's having issues with the way Sarah Palin has been treated. (I'm just the only one who has issues with that Brilliant at Breakfast post.)

Granted, Sarah Palin is a hard person to feel sorry for. But I had the impression that the mentality that said it was okay to do such things because the cause we're fighting for is so important was the very mentality we're fighting against. Apparently not.

I thought the various rumors spread about Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama -- he's not black enough, he's too black, he's a Muslim, he hangs out with terrorists -- were bad enough. But to hear similar garbage coming from the liberal side is just too depressing.

It's going to be a long time until Election Day.

All Politics Is Loco, Parte V

Oh, rats! I missed seeing the Democratic National Convention on TV. I wonder who this year's Presidental candidate turned to be. I'm betting it was Obama. Call it a hunch...

All Politics Is Loco, Parte II

Last night, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Primary and John McCain won the Republican primary.

Time will tell whether or not these victories were good things.

Suffice to say I'm not really a big fan of either candidate, nor am I a big fan of Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee.

It looks like another one of those "lesser of two evils" elections this year...