Category Archives: Politics

A beer with the Prez

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I don’t drink beer.  After four years of smelling mung beer in fraternity basements in college, the mere suggestion of beer makes my nose hair curl.

Have a beer with the President? You bet.  What, my strong aversion to beer?  Nah, dude.  If that is my ticket to have a sit down with the most powerful man in the nation (who happens to have the cutest ears in the nation), then, what me, an anti-beerist?  I’d even drink a rusty can of Rheingold circa 1969 if it gets me on the patio in the Rose Garden.

So, as I see it, here is how I need to orchestrate my 45 minutes with the Big Guy.  I have to do something outrageous that actually sparks outrage.  (I do outrageous stuff all the time, but no one seems to care.)  It has to threaten the kumbaya veneer of society in a menacing, yet ultimately not physically harmful, way.  Then it has to be on the 24-hour news RE-cycle, just in time for a Presidential press conference where the President is tired and talking about really important things critical to the nation’s future. Then, with seconds to go before he gets to leave the press room, have his make-up washed off and kick back with Michelle, a friend with press credentials has to ask about my incident.  Hopefully, he will be annoyed and the incident will touch a chord in him and he will have an authentic, I-am-human-and-I-have-unscripted-opinions moment.  POUNCE!!  I got my beer.

So, here is my checklist to close this deal:

  1. outrageous behavior: easy
  2. outrageous behavior that is offensive but does not involve weapons: hmmmmm.  Watch celebrity TV shows for ideas.
  3. get attention for outrageous behavior: Get a walk-on spot on “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!!”
  4. get on 24 hour news RE-cycle: [Do I have to say nice things about CNN?] Start by being an iReporter.
  5. time it with an important press conference:  after August recess when Congress is fighting over the health care bill.
  6. have a friend with a press pass to the White House:  We need to break this agenda item into 3 subparts:  (a) Find a friend, (b) find a friend with press pass and (c) find a friend with press pass to White House.
  7. have friend ask a question on my outrageous behavior (which I learned from the celebrity TV shows or the coverage on the Michael Jackson family circus):  do you think tickets to the US Open Tennis men’s and women’s finals will do it?
  8. Get Obama ticked off:  easy, just ask my partner.
  9. BEER TIME!!!!
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I am still outraged at Sen. Graham’s behavior

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but I am glad he voted for Judge Sotomayor in committee so she could stand for a full senate vote on confirmation.

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Thought for today, July 30, 2009

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Of course Obama’s ratings are going down.  The real issues facing our nation are complicated and the choices are hard.  And good compromise means no person or constituency gets everything he or it wanted.   Including the President and the Republicans.

The debate should be about facts.  Not scare tactics.  Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist.  Why, because he had a visceral reaction to an incident involving Professor Gates?  Glenn Beck had a visceral reaction to President Obama’s statement.  Let’s look at this:  Obama’s reaction caused him to say that police acted “stupidly”.  Glenn Beck’s reaction is to call Obama a racist. Who over-reacted?  Hmmmmm.

But all this did was divert attention from the issues. We don’t have time for this nonsense.  But at least Glenn Beck’s reaction shows that the right can’t counter President Obama’s plans and policies on the facts.

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Did anyone understand what she said?

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On Sunday, Sarah Palin gave another speech, this time, REALLY stepping down.  As a parting gesture of kindness, I will assume that her unintelligible press conferences of last month were the result of a hastily-made decision to quit.  (Because we she says she is not a quitter and yet she is quitting in the middle of her term, there she goes again speaking English words strung together in a most fascinating way.  Maybe it is Palinese.)

She had over a month to prepare her REAL good-bye speech and calibrate her parting impression on her former constituency and the nation.  Hmmm.  She did not put that time to good use.  I wonder what her high school English teachers think?  Are they cowering in a corner?  Is this the product of a public school education in one of the richest countries in the world?  If so, G-d help us.

Sarah, dear, get a speech writer and stick to the teleprompters.

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Obama’s comment

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I, for one, cannot imagine what it is to be racially-profiled or black in America.  So when No Drama Obama says something out of character, it may come from a place that I have never been and can never understand.  And I am grateful never to have been “there”.  So, I don’t judge the comment.

At his news conference, President Obama spoke almost entirely about health care until the last question.  The 24-hour news recycle only focused on his answer to that last question, the one about Professor Gates.

Here is a man who is handling crises at home and on every continent every day and who is juggling numerous policy initiatives toward a stronger country (many may disagree with his approaches, but not his commitment to this country).

Whether or not he needed to apologize, he did apologize.  SO, LET IT GO and get back to hitting him hard on the issues that matter — economy, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, healthcare and where Michelle and he are going for their next date night.

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Birther conspiracy theorists and Obama’s Mama

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I miss the Jon and Kate plus 8 drama.  I never watched them, never cared about their marriage issues, her diva episodes or his new girlfriend.  Now I am sad that they don’t even hit the summary page on Yahoo anymore.

Why? Because now we read about the birthers, the ones — including GOP congressmen — who think that President Obama was actually foreign born and uses a fake Hawaiian birth certificate.  To be fair, on The Chris Matthews’ show, a congressman said that if John McCain had been elected, we would be talking about him in this way, as well.

So these birther conspiracy theorist would have had a field day over a white male Vietnam War hero born to a Navy admiral living on an American base in the Panama Canal Zone?  Let’s ponder this.  Hmmm.  I think not.

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a mother who was a US CITIZEN.  So, what these people are really talking about is President Obama’s MAMA.  Now, if you talk about someone’s mother, be prepared for yours to be dragged into the fray.

If we all go back far enough, one or more of our grandparents or great grandparents were born somewhere outside the United States.  I am not an immigration scholar, but if my mother who was born in, and a citizen of, the United States gave birth to me in Toronto, Canada, while on vacation, wouldn’t I still be eligible to be a sitting president?

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Thought for Today, July 23, 2009: Unpatriotic Fox News

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For eight long years, I was one of those “unpatriotic” Americans because I loved this country and disagreed with the Bush administration and its policies.  But I still watched the president’s press conferences and respected the presidency while I had trouble with the man in that office (don’t get me started on Cheney).

Fox News thinks it is ok not to show a presidential press conference because it is opposed to President Obama’s politics.  In the prior administration, the talking heads would be challenging the patriotism of any news outlet that didn’t carry a press conference.  Are those at Fox News selectively patriotic, as in only when a conservative is president?

I loved this country and respected the government even when I personally hated the policies.  What is Fox News’s excuse?

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The Hypocritic Oath

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Senator McConnell says Judge Sotomayor lacks the objectivity he wants in a justice. He says he is worried that her opinions would shape rulings from the bench.  Senator McConnell lacked objectivity by bashing her record before she got to the hearings. 

How does he get away with hypocrisy.  Do GOP lawmakers need to take the Hypocritic Oath in order to serve?

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Thoughts for today, July 17, 2009

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Lindsay Graham said at the start of the Sotomayor hearing that unless she had a meltdown, she was getting confirmed.  And, further, he didn’t think she was going to have a meltdown.  So why did we have to waste all that time?  Just to allow us to showcase to the world the endemic and virulent prejudice that pulses below the surface of our society, and worse, at the highest levels of government? 

Gee, Senator Graham, thanks for the reminder.

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JUDGE Sotomayor

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Sen. Sessions looks at Judge Sotomayor and he thinks only “Puerto Rican” (or worse) because he incessantly brings up some GWB judicial nominee with a last name Estrada. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, Mr. Estrada was among many Bush II nominees rejected by the Senate. So, why the emphasis on Mr. Estrada? Why not any other right-wing, neo-con nominee who was rejected? Because prejudice boils under the surface of our the hallowed traditions of our democracy.

Sen. Sessions, please, please, attack her on her decisions, if you must. Question her application of the law in various decisions. Really, go nuts. But, don’t infect a basic Constitutional mechanism with prejudice. This land was founded as haven from intolerance and prejudice. A beacon to the world. Sen. Sessions, you have sullied the process and our national principles by your comments.

The bigger question is: why don’t you look at Judge Sotomayor and see an accomplished jurist? A person (not a woman and not a latina) who, through hard work and determination, sits before you seeking confirmation to the highest court in the land. I wish you could read her decisions without seeing her ethnic last name or knowing that she is a woman. I wish you could just take issue with her decisions. Her decisions speak louder than any sound bite on a lecture circuit and are the important matters at hand.

Chances are she will be confirmed. But the stain you have placed on this process will never come out.

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