Yeah, it's been awhile

I think the aliens must have abducted me after all. I don't know where the time went. Of course, being unemployed, except for a temporary, part-time job which a good friend landed me, I have to put a lot of time into free-lancing and my job search. On line. In the old days I would go around pathetically with my resumes and clipboard and pen. Don't forget the paperclips. If you have one handy to put your application and resume together it will look good and help you get a job.
Rriiight.
Where'd I see that? In "What color is your parachute?" Maybe. Parachute indeed. The parachute was actually invented by a Slovak (little known but true fact), but this Slovak never had a company parachute. Last place I worked had about a month and half worth of severance and vacation pay for me, sort of a parachute, didn't leave that deep a hole in the ground when I landed.
Didn't bounce tho.
Anyway. So I'd go around and fill out applications, had my whole job history memorized, and never hear from any of those places again. It was a waste of time but it kept me out of bars. The unemployment service people liked that I did that. Showed I was sincere in my desire to be a contributing member of society.
Now I can sit at home with my computer and a cup of coffee, in my underwear (you really didn't need that visual, did you?) and fill out applications on line. Now I can not hear from people without having to leave the house. And the unemployment people are satisfied that I still want to be a productive and useful to my community and country.
If they only knew. But only the shadow knows.
Actually, considering the ease of e-mail, I am a little ticked off at how few responses I have gotten from the emails I sent out. Either I write a crappy letter and have a crappy resume or people are just rude. I prefer to think that they are just rude.
In the meantime—
The Obamarama has gone international to great acclaim from most if not all foreign countries. If the French and Germans could vote, Barack would be a shoo-in. Didn't make much of a difference here tho. But given McCain's lackluster performance so far it's a wonder why. Seems like he can just about stay awake for his appearances. All the blue-collar people are wondering if "elite" Barack can do anything for the working man. They don't remember (or given the level of education in this country never knew) that Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was about as elite as you canget, did more for the common man during his presidency than any other president. He certainly did more than George W. Bush has done.
That's enough free-association writing for the evening. I have to work back up to my previous level of literary annoyance.

Man. It's been a while. Surprising how busy one can be when one is unemployed.
I've been trying to avoid the news because i have enough stuff to think about without that. But…the Obamarama has embraced Hillary and is trying to help her pay off campaign debts. Probably so the Billster doesn't cause trouble at the convention. And that nasty old conservative Supreme Court has slapped George B. up side the head about the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Seems like they actually want his administration to act lawfully. Imagine.
Well, it would be a first, wouldn't it?
In the meantime, if you read Hirsh's article in the New Yorker, seems like the Cheney/Bush team are preparing for war with Iran.
They didn't make a big enough mess in Iraq, they have to go after another country? Oy.

Well, they probably will have enough troops now that Maliki has said HE wants a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Pretty bad when your own puppets start making demands. Heh.
My big fear is the Bushman starts a war with Iran and then declares martial law and nullifies the election until he gets the war won. Which would take a while. Or maybe some "convenient" crazy takes out Obama after he wins. Ooops. martial law again.

Of course if Johnny Mac wins it'll be easier. Good chance of that if a lot of states use those Diebold voting machines ("Nah, you don't need no stinking paper ballots"). Cheney won't even have to give up his office. he'll just transfer the little radio receiver from George's ear to John's. It can be the "McCain" war.

Our John is looking a lot like the proverbial deer in the headlights lately. It's like he can't believe he actually beat out Mitt the Haircut. Seems like he had a lot more personality when he was just fighting for the presumptive position. He wasn't thinking of how he'd act if he actually got it.

Obama has brushed off the public financing thing for his presidential run, now that he sees how easily he can make those wallets open. Was there a promise? Or at least a statement that he'd use the public financing monies for his run? He doesn't remember, maybe. He's actually (gasp!) acting like a politician. Who woulda thunk it?

People get so upset at this stuff. Hey folks, your guy is going to do what he/she has to do to win. That's the story. There ain't no more. If your candidate at least has shown enough correspondence with your own views, then hold your nose and make that vote. You'll like your own flawed candidate in office a lot better than that (seemingly, but not really) more ethical guy from the other side.

Think of the Supreme Court. You want more Scalias and Thomases? Or do you want a really balanced court. Figure it out. As far as our liberties are concerned, the make-up of the Supreme Court is more important than war with Iran.

Gotta go.

Ahh, Unity

So, I see that Hillary and Barack have symbolically and actually appeared in Unity, NH to promote his presidential run.
Gotta give Hillary credit. She's up there smiling and asking for everyone to support Barack. You know she wishes it were the other way around, but she's a trooper. So's the hubby, but I bet he supports Obama thru clenched teeth. Metaphorically. He's a professional, so you won't see it but it's there.
I just hope that Obama doesn't offer Clinton the VP position, and if he does, she turns it down. For her own sake, she will be in a better position to run again if she stays out of the VP position. That's a notoriously unhelpful spot for presidential candidates.
It took Nixon eight years to get the presidency and he was helped by a war that was disastrously entered into by a Democratic President.
Also, I have grave misgivings about a former president who's used to getting his own way being lodged in the VP residence. I know Hillary Clinton is no pushover, but it's got to be hard to live with Bill sometimes and maintain independence.

So the contest goes on. my prayers for alien abduction have failed (is there no merciful God?) so it looks like I'll be here for the duration. Four more months of this.

I got an email from moveon.org. "Fox smears Obama." Well, that's a surprise. There will be a lot of smearing going on. The Republican election strategy is not to highlight your candidate's virtues but to point out the opponent's faults. It's a lousy strategy and I think it will finally show it's decrepit age this year. I hope so.
It's a strategy which assumes that voters are easily swayed by rumor and innuendo, that they are unlettered and of low estate. That's a fancy way of saying they think their voters are all trailer-living high school drop outs. Republicans do have a certain contempt for most of their supporters. Else they wouldn't do that "Swift-boating thing."

Well, Johnny Mac is going to need all the help he can get. I predicted he would be the candidate (see my post Jan. 9, 2008) and I worry about his being able to ride the five years of imprisonment in Hanoi (or thereabouts) to the presidency. I don't really think he'll be Bush redux but I don't think he'll be any better.

Get ready folks. The barrage is about to begin. About mid-August you'll all be curmudgeons where the presidential election is concerned.
g'nite.

I've been remiss…

…not posting much lately.
Either things aren't annoying me as much lately or I've been cutting back on the booze too much, I dunno which.
Actually a lot of things are annoying me. John McCain is annoying me. He's been kissing up all over the place. Lately it's the oil people. "Hey, let's allow off-shore drilling!" Ignoring the fact that it would be 10 years to any benefit from that and by then it won't make a difference anyway.
I already dumped on him for dumping (too late) the Rev (so-called) Hagge because of his wackiness, but it seems he is just flailing around trying to differentiate himself from Obama and the Bushman at the same time, while still trying to keep all the Bush loyalists (these people are a strong argument for the non-existence of a benevolent God) in his camp.
Where is the real John McCain? And do we really want to know?

This just in: an email from the South Africa Bushman United Brotherhood objecting to my associating them with George W. Bush.

My apologies. It won't happen again.

In the meantime, the Obamarama had better get serious about the road ahead and the consequences of winning. Getting there, after all, is only the beginning. We're gonna wanna see results, dammit.
You, know, I don't have a problem with conservatives, or with liberals. But whoever is in power, I want to see in them a real and intelligent exercise of their beliefs. Political beliefs.
Not religious beliefs.
To be concerned about our military strenght (remember i am a conscientious objector) is proper for a President. Trying to load the Supreme Court with anti-abortion justices is not proper. The job, for President and Justice and Congressman is to take care of ALL the people, ALL Americans, and this means going past and even ignoring regional and personal and social and religious concerns. It's the WHOLE COUNTRY that's important, and those who are elected "leaders" should be thinking of that. Sure, they need to think about whether their states need more bridges or national guardsmen or whatever, but they have to remember we are all a country, and particularly to remember we are a country which has laws about detention and international agreements about the handling of prisoners and how much the gov't should know about us.
The last few congresses have been a grave disappointment.
I get a great deal of pleasure out of the fact that a Supreme Court which has been created mostly by conservatives has been telling the Cheney Presidency (see how I lost the "Bushman" thing?) that it is blowing smoke out of it's collective ass.
In our country, if someone is suspected to be guilty of something, they get a day in court. So it has been, and so it will be again after Mr G.W. Bush is out of office.

WHY isn't there more agitation about this? A president who would impose upon your freedoms, torture, hold in cells people not charged with any crime, snoop on your communications—why aren't we impeaching this violator of all American ideals?

We're too busy watching American Hero maybe?
Wake up, America!
Okay, that's it for tonight.

Now that the election process is moving on to the next stage, I may have more complaints. Stay tuned.
Warning: if the past is any indication, there may be a lot of negativity in future reporting. C'mon Barack, prove me wrong!

g'nite.

Class Act

I haven't actually heard Hillary's concession speech but I read the transcript on the NYTimes website.
From what I see, it was a Class Act, a very gracious and politically savvy acceptance of defeat.
I had some problems with her campaign of late, I have a sneaky suspicion that Bill was more involved than he should have been. He did make an ass out of himself a couple times. It's hard for someone who was the most powerful man in the world to let other people take swipes at his wife. Even when he's familiar with the territory.
But I think Hillary had her own voice tonight, and she did good. She really has made a difference in perception for women, perception of their abilities and aspirations, and also a change for men. Hey she can take it and dish it out.

Yes, there was a lot of sexist bullsh*t going on every time someone reported about her, and yes somehow her mistakes, being a woman, were writ larger than the male Obama's mistakes (amazingly ignoring his Afro-american heritage), but still, she went the distance, and isn't that what we all admire, guys?

Grace in Hillary. She's got the goods.

The Afro-American thing for Obama will be raising it's ugly head this fall.
We'll have the die-hard Aryans (what the hell are Aryans anyway, besides a bunch of migrant sheepherders like everyone else?), the born again types who think they'd vote for him if he only accepted Jesus (on their terms), the "Confederacy Never Died" types who still think that blacks should be slaves.
This is going to be an interesting year, as in that old Chinese curse, "May you have an interesting life." i.e., expect a lot of pain.

Hillary better live up to her word and support this guy or Johnny Mac will be sitting in the oval office, or orifice, depending on how you look at it, come next January.

But for now, she is exhibiting a lot of class.
And I have run out of brandy and venom.
Good night, sleep tight.

Obamarama

Well, I'm back. I've been busy enjoying Memorial Day with my offspring, dealing with unemployment and a temporary job (provided by my friend Mark) and writing a sermon for a lay Sunday at the church. They don't know what they're in for.

Anyhoo, on the political scene, I see the Obamarama is rolling to the top and Billary has to weigh her options. I don't really have a problem with Hillary. I think she could be a good president. I do worry about her hubby. I like Bill, I thought he was a good if not great Pres., but how are you going to keep him down on the farm after he's seen Washington? Hillary would have a battle on two fronts, with the rest of the world, and with her husband who may not entirely share her views. He did some of the foot-in-mouth thing during the last few months. Significant others should be silent during these contests. That includes Michele Obama, lovely as she is. We need to concentrate on her husband's ideas, not hers in this political race. And I don't mean to demean her ideas. It's just that they should remain in the background for now, as Bill's should also remain in the background for now.
As a nation we all need to know how the candidates will think and act, and we don't want to know they will be swayed by their spouses ideas. Whether they are good or bad ideas. I think Obama is okay with Michele, but I worry about Bill.
He's a big guy in a lot of ways, and like the earth, generates his own climate. I want to know that Hillary, whether Pres, or VP or Senator, is out of his gravitational field. Not that he's bad (I do, tho, have my areas of disagreement), but I already saw him, now I want to see Her.
The last few months have made me feel like it will be hard for her to keep him in the chicken coop, if she is President, or if she is vice-president. And i say that realizing that, in the end, I may not like her all that much. Or I might.

But it seems to be Obama's show now. That sucker better be thinking about his circle of advisors. We see what Bush's circle of advisors has wrought. So this is important. Even if Obama had years of experience he would need good advisors. It's all the more important now. He got the golden ring. Whoa! Now what?

Back when this all started, I wished Obama had stayed out of it, spent his time in the senate, let Hillary go on to the Presidency in peace. Lately, I have been disenchanted by the way the Billary team has acted and I'm inclined to Obama (and my fervent prayer is "Oh Lord, help him pick good people to advise him). And I think that Obama can arouse emotions and devotion in a way that Hillary, with her hubby and all the other stuff in their combined backgrounds, cannot.
Either one of them is a better choice than McCain.
Still, because of the "Bill" problem, I think Obama would be better off choosing someone else as VP. Let Hillary stay in the senate and be a potential threat in 2012 (she will be anyway!)
It'll keep Obama "honest" to have the Billary team monitoring his every move.

That's all the wisdom I have for tonight. At my age I have to ration it.

Memorial Day

I had a good Memorial Day, spent it with the offspring. I'm finding it a bit confusing to talk about my children now that all of them are older than my ex and I when we had the first child. It seems wrong to call them "my kids" or "my children" as they are certainly not "kids" anymore. They are a lot more than that now. They are not really "mine" anymore. But they'll always be mine, anyway.
We did some family things—one daughter and my son and I went to see "Indiana Jones" on Sunday and enjoyed it (while recognizing it's not high art) and my eldest daughter joined us for a picnic in Prospect Park in Brooklyn on Memorial day. My three "kids" and the dog and me. It was lovely.
We didn't talk about the departed. We were into being together, alive. But I thought of those who were gone later on. Mom, Dad, my brothers who were in WWII and my older sister. Also a close friend. I don't feel a desire to make a special commemoration on one day of the year because I remember these people at least once every day throughout the year. But I do understand why people feel that a day like this is important, especially if there is a loved one lost in war. I don't have one of those, thank God, so it's just not that important to me. I'm far away from the burial grounds of my deceased family. I don't think I could find some of those graves without help. I'm not proud of this, but not embarrassed either. Mortal remains don't mean much to me. I respect the shells we leave behind because it is a way to respect the persons who filled those shells. But that's it. A bit of flesh in a box in the ground is not important. The actions the results of those actions and the memories and feelings one leaves behind are.

Still there are rows and rows of graves in Arlington and France and Belgium for those who fought and died in two world wars. There is a poignance in seeing or thinking of these because so many died young and often so needlessly. There are empty spaces in the world for those who lost loved ones in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. And other places. And I'm just talking about Americans here. Grief is universal. It's one of the givens of life, along with birth, death and yes, joy. I hope everyone who remembers a lost loved one on Memorial Day remembers some joy from the presence of that one in her/his life.
And, while doing that, remembers to enjoy the presence of the loved living in his or her own life.