Another 9/11 Would Perk The Republicans Up

We know the Republicans won't be happy with anything good that happens for America while Barack Obama is president.

They're against any positive legislation, against the Olympics, against the Nobel Peace Prize. We'll surely be hearing from them soon that Thanksgiving and Christmas should be canceled.

So what's it going to take to bring a rosy hue back to their cheeks? I think it would take something massive. Perhaps a terrorist strike. I'm sure they'd love that! The worse the better.

Then we'd be able to see Dick Cheney make one of his glorious appearances. Saying in his best Penguin voice, "Wah, wah, I told you so."

Another full blown, all out 9/11 attack would definitely pluck their heart strings -- we have to think -- and put a bounce back in their step.

Anything that is bad for America, that's what the Republicans want. You know they're rooting for worse unemployment numbers. They really are.

They'd love to see the stock market crash. The Black Plague would be good.

If somehow butterflies might be killed off just before spring and the swallows didn't return to Capistrano, that would be a plus.

What's This? The Generals And Sarah Palin

What's this? I'm hearing something about active duty generals in Afghanistan brewing up some dissension from President Obama's policies. Agitating for certain a certain level of troop increase, etc.

What happened to the unquestioned commander-in-chief concept we had in the Bush years? Which I would agree with, actually, when it comes to the soldiers. You got something to say against the commander-in-chief, shut up. Or wait till you retire, then spill your guts.

And what's this? I'm hearing that Sarah Palin went to Hong Kong and was badmouthing President Obama to a bunch of communists. Can this be right? Do we not have a policy that "politics stops at the water's edge" and that you don't badmouth our government overseas?

I seem to remember something about the Dixie Chicks -- who aren't even government (or ex-government) officials -- saying some little thing about President Bush while overseas and getting a lot of lumps for it.

So what? Palin can just get away with it. Why is that? Is it the airhead discount she's entitled to?

Disapproval Of Wilson Passes By Comfortable Margin

The public scorn of Rep. Joe Wilson for his egregious outburst at a recent joint session of Congress came to a head in a vote of disapproval by the House of Representatives. The motion passed by a comfortable margin: 240 yes, 179 no, and 5 saying present.

We can assume the 179 who voted no will each make a similar outburst next time the president gives a speech, since they don't disapprove of Joe Wilson's practice. If they approve, doesn't it stand to reason that they also ought to be waving pitchforks and shouting bloody murder?

My personal opinion is that Joe ought to get help, some kind of therapy for his rage. And having done that, speak with the House chaplain any time he feels it coming back and threatening to get the best of him. And just for everyone's good, it would be good if there were a fence between him and the president anytime the president is in the area.

Other than that, I'm willing to forgive and forget. I'm not turning a blind eye to this outrage, like it may sound. But I'm willing to give Joe another chance. A great nation like ours is overflowing with mercy. At least that goes for the Democrats and any other rational people there might be.

Republicans Hunting Obama

Just imagine the outrage if anyone had said anything like this about President Bush. But it's getting more and more common, these terrible things people are saying about President Obama. And made no mistake. These people are not patriots. They're anti-patriotic. They're scum of the earth.

First, a gubernatorial candidate in Idaho. Rex Rammell said he would buy a license to hunt President Obama if such a thing were offered. As it is he needs to stick with a $11.50 wolf tag. I say let's get out some of the anti-terrorist laws we had when Mr. Bush was president and put a guy like Rammell away for a while. This is outrageous. This guy is not a loyal American. And he's running for governor of one of our states? Crazy.

Second, a pastor (!), although no pastor I'd want to have anything to do with, Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, had a sermon titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama." Wow, nice pastor. Good grief, if this is the "Faithful Word," please steer me toward something else. This sounds like the devil.

Anyway, "Pastor" Steven Anderson said, "I don't obey Barack Obama. And I'd like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight." And he also said, "Nope. I'm not gonna pray for his good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell."

Obviously "Pastor" Anderson has issues, number one being he has no idea about God whatsoever. Loser.

The thing is, though, remember the uproar over the pastor from Chicago during the campaign? Pastor Wright? Supposedly he was so unpatriotic and the Republicans had their underpants in a knot over him. Wright doesn't hold a candle to these idiots.

Good Idea -- Boycott Arizona

I'm not much on boycotting. I said I was going to boycott American Idol when Adam Lambert lost. But who knows? Maybe I'll sneak a few two hour peeks every week!

I was amazed that a boycott -- or I guess it was more calling advertisers -- affected the Glenn Beck show as much as it did. The advertisers were dropping a half dozen a day. I was stunned.

Now we have these clowns in Arizona packing heat whenever President Obama is around, parading around with their guns threatening him, racist intimidation in action.

I like what I glanced at in this guy's article. Arthur Frommer, a travel guide person:

For myself, without yet suggesting that others follow me in an open boycott, I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more. And I will begin thinking about whether tourists should safeguard themselves by avoiding stays in Arizona.

Personally, I've never been to Arizona. And based on the crazy laws they have there, that it's perfectly acceptable to be stalking the president with guns, it's not a place I'm planning to visit any time soon.

Another Guy With A Gun?

There another guy with a gun at one of these meetings where President Obama is, this time an assault rifle.

How in the world can this be legal? So you're telling me Lee Harvey Oswald was well within his rights to show up at Dealey Plaza with a gun? That he could've brought a cannon and set up on the street if he wanted?

When I've gone to see presidents and presidential candidates, the Secret Service (or someone) has been downright thorough about checking everyone's possessions, down to cameras and cellphones. I can only imagine what they would've said had I shown up with my hunting guns.

"Uh, sir, may we help you?"

"Yes, please help me up, now that you've wrestled me to the pavement and broken both arms."

Is there something, though, about having a Democratic president where we have to put up with this? I remember there was a deal in Denver during Bush's years where someone was hustled out for having an anti-Bush BUMPER STICKER on their car out in the parking lot. C'mon!

So a bumper sticker is a no-no, but a guy brings an assault rifle, that's OK?!

Republican Prattling

I see Republicans very much up in arms -- literally in some cases! -- over health care reform and everything else.

They "don't see how it will do any good, blah blah blah." Socialism, lines in England, death panels. And endless such prattling.

I'm all in favor of citizens voicing their opinions. But we just had an election. And President Obama promised health care reform. That's what the country voted for. That's what we should get. That is democracy in action.

The Republicans lost the election big time. They had their time in office, and someday they probably will again. When they were in power, they did not give one iota of concern for what the Democrats' opinions were. They ramrodded through whatever they wanted. Whether by hook, crook, lying propaganda, or all three. They told us to sit down and shut up. That we were unpatriotic for thinking anything different.

Now of course they're making a big stink, because that's what they do. (It turns out that true patriots are supposed to speak up. How convenient!) It's weird they were willing to support any criminal activity that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney engaged in. But they blink at anything decent that President Obama wants to do. Literally choking over him! I'm not seeing principles here, just partisan opportunism.

If the Republicans wanted the same kind of disastrous government we had in the Bush years, they should've worked harder for Senator McCain. As it is now, we don't want to hear from you. That's the same treatment you gave us, you will recall.

Thoughts Bubbles At The Beer Summit

"Hmm, two black guys and Biden. At least we're not outnumbered."

Beer Diplomacy

This is a strange thing, President Obama and Vice President Biden sitting down for "beer diplomacy" with Professor Gates and the cop, Granger, Potter, whatever his name is, oh yeah, uhh, I forgot it again, oh, Crowley!

Imagine that. You arrest a guy in his own home and you end up going to the White House to meet the president. In that case I too need to do something totally lame. Pee on a fire hydrant or something. Then the president calls me "a stupid dog" on TV. Other people who pee on fire hydrants are outraged. So I end up having a beer with Obama on the White House lawn. It could happen. It's no stupider than this incident.

I need to take my dog out in the morning. Heh heh, so this is what I'll do. I know that our local version of Crowley comes by about 8:17 every morning. So I'll be stationed at the hydrant, my hand at the zipper. My dog will be watching me, also posed and ready, because she'd like to meet Bo the president's dog and share a bowl of water with him. As soon as we spot Officer Crowley... you get the idea. It'll be public urination! Guilty as charged! Man and dog, hydrant action!

There's only one intsy little problem. There's no news conferences with Obama scheduled insofar as I know. So for me to time it just right so that the president calls me "a stupid dog" on national TV is going to very tricky.

But sue me, I've always been an optimist. This is going to happen! I'm going to have beer with the president on the White House lawn! So I shall see you in the morning. And just to make double sure I'm ready for this, I'm going to drink an entire pot of coffee right before bed!

Postscript: After President Obama and I have our beers, guess what we're going to do? There must be plenty of hydrants near the White House.

Flies And PETA

I feel like posting this in the "You Gotta Be Kidding Me" file, but I actually knew something like this would happen. Or let me rephrase that, I was kidding around saying someone would object to President Obama killing a fly. But I was thinking it would be the Republicans, coming out for more flies and better conditions for them.

It didn't occur to me that PETA's compassion extends to flies. It makes me wonder if they take antibiotics for bacterial infections, since, after all, bacteria are living creatures as well. Why not just die so bacteria aren't disturbed?

But as it turns out:

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

I do believe in trapping various bugs and releasing them outside, whether they want to go or not. And flies even ... not exactly trapping them for release. But if they fly out when the door or window's open, so much the better. Not that I feel anything for them especially, but it saves me the nuisance of them being around and the inconvenience of wasting time tracking them to kill them.

I was just taking the garbage out yesterday and at least one fly went out when I held the door open. I shut it quickly lest he change his mind. But look at it from his point of view -- which he should've thought of before being inside my house -- there's more garbage and roadkill outside than there is in people's houses. Certainly more roadkill, if your house is anything like mine.

But when push comes to shove, I will not only kill a fly, I will try to do it with "The Force" from Star Wars, meaning it's in some sense divinely directed that they die. I swatted at one yesterday without benefit of "The Force" and of course I missed.

We have regular Secret Service guys there for the president to wrestle to the ground anyone who tries to get the president. We also need really really small ones to be on the lookout for flies, birds, and anything small that poses a danger to his safety. I would even support a bug zapper zone around the president, just because we don't want him endangered or nagged by these little nuisances.

The Bo Book

I was at a pet store last night and saw a display of books, obviously dashed off a computer press of some sort quite recently, about President Obama's dog Bo.

I glanced through one. They were $14.95 and published by a place called Mascot Books. Just going by the description in there of Mascot as a publisher, it looks like if you have an idea for a book, they'll work it up somehow, and if it's commercial enough they obviously can produce books and get them distributed pretty fast.

The book was probably 8" x 10", approximately, and maybe 40 pages, and told about Bo, his breed, his activities in the White House, as well as some filler on the activities of presidential pets from years gone by. It covered some recent stuff, so this was fresh. Like the Easter egg hunt and the Jonas Brothers performing for the Obama daughters.

They didn't actually say the Jonas Brothers, though, and I don't think it mentioned the daughters precisely, but there was a trio pictured who looked a lot like the Jonas Brothers and I didn't see Ringo at the drums.

I didn't really take the time to read it, just snippets. It was obviously just a way to cash in, that's the idea, and we're not talking about great literature here. But it was color throughout, with several pieces of artwork of Obama himself, and nicely done. Although they have a weird way of doing the artwork, where parts of the artwork is fuzzed out, out of focus, bringing into focus only part of the picture. I didn't care for that.

One of the most interesting pictures I saw, and remember, Bo was a gift to the Obamas by Teddy Kennedy, was Teddy Kennedy showing up with the dog. It's interesting that such a detail wasn't overlooked. Did Kennedy actually show up and give them the dog?

I'd like to have a Mascot book about my own dogs. I remember my Grandpa showing up and giving my family a dog. It'd bring back lots of great memories to see it in a homemade book. The weird thing about that is that Grandpa rescued this dog from a culvert where he was stuck. And that dog never forgave my Grandpa, because he thought he was attacking him or something. So anytime over the years when Grandpa came by, that dog acted like he wanted to kill him. And we're like, "This is the guy who saved your life, you stupid dog!" (That'd make an interesting two pages right there.)

Anyway, it was a great idea for the book, whoever came up with it. I wonder how many will be sold. As for myself, I wouldn't buy one. But there has to be lots of people who would.

Another Press Conference

Wow, one thing you can say for President Obama is that he's out there a lot. It's nice to have a guy who seems engaged in the job and trying to do something constructive for a change.

Now we have another press conference to watch. Personally I don't like watching press conferences all that much, but, hey, he's our guy.

It'll be interesting to see who he calls on.

And to hear what he has to say about the so-called swine flu virus. This isn't the fault of pigs!

Obama In Iraq

President Obama is overseas and he made a "surprise visit" to Iraq. I wish I would've predicted that the other day. I didn't think of it, to be honest, but just a little thought would have suggested the likelihood.

Anytime you have a president overseas, the chances that he's going to drop in on the soldiers in Iraq should be a given.

Remember that time that Obama was overseas and he didn't go visit the troops because the Defense department said he shouldn't? He was reamed out royally by that by McCain, who also, by the way, reportedly had a companion ad to ream him out royally if he did go visit them. It's kind of one of those selective outrage things that liars like to do.

Well, suck on this, McCain. Now he's president and he can visit or not visit any old way he sees fit. It's nice to have power, huh? To have the Bush criminals out of the way who were using the Defense department in a political way in those terrible years.

Bush started this "surprise visit" stuff to Iraq. But every time he did it, it was for Bush's advantage. The guy didn't care a bit about the troops. It's nice to see Obama over there though. Finally someone we can trust.

Big Difference

Remember the big trouble that was reported when Clinton passed the presidency to Bush. That someone broke a few typewriter keys, namely the W on a few typewriters. This slowed down Bush's ability to step in and get his presidency off to a successful start. The Republicans were up in arms.

But what about when Bush left the presidency to Obama. He left the entire country in shambles, the economy, the military, everything in dire straits, a total mess.

Pretty big difference between the two!

Republicans

I see that Michael Steele said something about how he's trying to get an elephant out that's stuck in its own mire. That's a pretty good image. They're definitely stuck.

In addition, there's hopeful signs -- if you think having a "loyal opposition" is a good thing, instead of just having an opposition, destructive and unhelpful. Two other Republicans or guys on that side somewhere, David Frum and Newt Gingrich, are standing up to Rush. Frum in a Newsweek column, of which I've only read a few lines. Just going by memory, it seems like he had some negative things to say about the R's chances in 2008 and glimpsed realism at that time somewhere. Newt in a TV interview. Newt's of course all over the place. Not usually in a good place, but this sounds more positive. He thinks it's "irrational" to want the president to fail, and that's true.

I presume the Republicans want to reclaim power at some point, and that they want there to be something left for them to reclaim, that they're not looking for an apocalyptic field somewhere that's nothing but dead limbs and bodies. If that's what they want to have authority over, then they have every reason to want misery. If they want to take power and start from a position other than the bottom rung of the ladder, then they need to hope and act for the best. Since Obama is the actual president now, and will be for the next few years at least, if things are going to happen anyway they should have a positive outcome.

The big dilemma for them, of course, is if things are too good, then Obama and the Democrats sail through again. I suppose every opposition wants a varying level of success on the other side, or to be in a position to claim half or more of the credit. If I were a Republican (which won't happen), I would be coming up with policies that sounded credible, trying to do things in a partnership of sorts, and keeping track of what credit was due us. It sounds rational.

I don't like the current brand of politics. It's too destructive. I want Obama to succeed for many reasons. One, I like him. Two, it's for our common good, so people aren't suffering as much. How hard's that?

No Last Minute Pardons

One thing that amazed me was that Bush didn't do a whole bunch of last minute pardons.

I was kind of figuring he'd do what his supporters (however small that group is) wanted, which was to pardon Scooter Libby. But it didn't happen. And I was figuring he'd pardon Ted Stevens, but he didn't.

I actually would favor pardoning Stevens. He's an old guy, 85 or something, isn't really much of a danger to society, not as much, let's say, as younger Republicans. If he accepted a few gifts and didn't write it down or claim them, it sounds like small potatoes stuff now that he's out of office. Just slap his wrist and give him a pardon and let him spend his life in Alaska, punishment enough. No, really, I suppose Alaska is a nice place.

Maybe Obama will pardon Stevens. That'd be a nice way to start off. Don't wait till the last minute, just get it out of the way.

Counting Down The Days

Today I was thinking Inauguration Day was a week from today. But it turned out even better. It is a week from yesterday. We're counting down the days. And if I had more idle time to kill, I could keep better track of it.

Get through Thursday, Friday, then the weekend, and Monday will be Inauguration Eve. Or Kick Bush to the Curb Eve. Then Tuesday we're there!

Tomorrow is Bush's farewell address. I'm hoping he has a big "Mission Screwed Up" sign behind him, but that might be a bit too much to hope.

Am hoping all the best for Obama, that he'll succeed and we'll all love him forever.

Collectable Obama Crap

Who are the pitiful morons who are buying all this "collectable" junk advertised on TV? I just saw one that featured typical American families sitting on their couch, so privileged to give The Historic Plate Company their money for some stupid plate with Obama's picture on it. They have the phrase "Historic Victory" trademarked, so don't anyone say that.

It's all a limited edition, you know, only firing it for 65 days or something. Such garbage.

Then there's the collectable coins, going back and forth so you can see them gleam. Foolish stuff.

I got an entire mailing, like several pages long, the other day, full of this kind of churned out rubbish, and they also had some phrases describing the Obama victory that was given their own copyright. I'm not above collecting, don't get me wrong. In fact, I stuck the literature for this last one in a drawer, hoping someday it'll be worth something.

10 Days Left

10. The number of fingers on the normal pair of hands. That's how many days we have to tick off till we get rid of the nastiest President of the United States within anyone's living memory.

You could put up 10 pieces of toilet paper and it wouldn't stretch very far. That's a short amount.

10 days can be long, like if you're suffering severe pain that long. And I guess we are. But, like they say on Seinfeld, you're sleeping a third of it, today's about over with, and Obama will be inaugurated at noon. So it's practically over with, four days or so to go.

Even Cheney today (or yesterday) said he was excited to see Obama come into office.

The biggest downer is that we still have the obstructionist Republicans in Congress. Two or three of those monkeys can diminish a good thing fast. They're already cranked up to thwart Obama's desires for good government and economic progress. It's funny, they bent over backwards for Bush to perpetrate crime after crime, but they're already lockstep against Obama doing anything positive. Creeps.

Remember just a few years ago it was unpatriotic to even criticize the President. But how things change when it's someone from the opposite party!

Who's the Elitist?

Good quote from Ed Rollins on McCain's attempt to paint Obama as some kind of elitist:

"It's a nice try, but he's not an elitist. That's not a sustained campaign tactic. Here was someone who grew up with nothing versus the son of four-star admirals. It's a nice try and a good diversion in the first part of August, but painting him as an elitist is not a winning strategy going into the fall."

Someone who grew up with nothing ... versus ... the son of four-star admirals.