I've been hitting the keys a lot lately regarding the presidential race down in the States. That's not good for me, because I like to switch it up now and then in case I get pigeonholed. Plus, most of my friends are hippy dippy left wingers, so I get a lot of angry emails, usually referring to me as conservative. I still take issue with that, but I'll leave it for another day.
In any case, this Youtube clip is worth highlighting. If a Republican came even close to yucking it up over the potential death and destruction caused by a hurricane, he'd be absolutely lambasted in the press.
So, to follow on the heels of Michael Moore saying that Hurricane Gustav shows there's a God in Heaven because it might hit during the Republican Convention, here's former Democratic Committee Chairman Don Fowler and current Democratic Congressman John Spratt. They were recorded while sitting beside each other on an airplane. Like Michael Moore, Fowler thinks the hurricane shows God is on "their side," because it's due to strike New Orleans on Monday, the same day the RNC begins.
Disgusting.
Here's more commentary from the guy who recording it.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Political Murmur
Watching Barack Obama's acceptance speech was a bit like watching an Obama speech from last week...or last month...or three months before that.
I've been waiting for Obama to lay down specifics about what he would do as president to effect the "change we can believe in." Tonight I thought I might get my wish, as he finally said he'd spell it out in no uncertain terms.
So he said he would cut taxes, and he said he would look into clean coal fuel, and he said he would solve global warming. Oh, and end dependence on foreign oil within 10 years, as if anyone seriously thinks a president can cause such things to happen.
And that was about it, though he did make one passing reference to Russia's invasion of Georgia. One would think that the threat of a new Cold War might be worth expanding upon when running for president, but who's got time? Besides, Democrats are used to holidays from history, as they enjoyed during Clinton's eight year run.
For Obama tonight, it was back to saying that 4 more years of Bush was too much, apparently forgetting that he isn't running against Dubya. Obama even said, "Eight is enough," and the crowd took up the call, chanting "Eight is enough," over and over again, making the Mile High stadium sound like it was full of old sit-com lovers.
John McCain's old, there's no doubt about that. But Obama's message is getting even older. It's all sunshine and roses, and no specifics. Even when he is specific, he makes me wonder which books he's reading. No more dependence on foreign oil? That might be a nice way of saying "Islamic terror" without saying it, but it won't do much to endear him to Canadians. Canada exports most of its oil across the border to the United States, and gives the US more oil than anyone in the Middle East ever has (Canada comes first, Saudi Arabia second, Mexico third; so should the Mexicans be nervous, too?). When a presidential candidate starts talking about ending dependency on foreign oil, Albertans would do well to take an interest.
When McCain and Obama meet in the debates, perhaps I will learn more about Obama's plan, but I doubt it. It's the same old message of ending the Bush era. Beyond that, it's nothing I haven't heard before. Kids in college, free health care, lots of jobs, and everyone with great pension plans. Tonight he unveiled a new timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq: 16 months. And as I watched him say it, I thought, "Where'd he get that number?" Why not two? Why not twenty? He didn't bother to say.
As for where he'll get the money to pay for his health-care-mucho-jobs-et-cetera platform, Obama said that he would go through the Federal budget line by line and scratch out the money wasting items. He didn't say this as an exaggeration. He actually seemed to mean it. Which tells me that he thinks he'll have a hell of a lot of time on his hands in the Oval Office, seeing as the Federal budget is over 50, 000 pages long.
One thing you don't hear much about these days is the good job Bush has done. I know that sounds in bad taste these days, but I was amused to read an article by a Democratic university professor. He said he hated Bush but...no terror attacks in the US since 9/11, and an economy that has only begun to go soft in the past 8 months. As the professor said, "Am I missing something?" He thought Bush had done exactly what he'd set out to do, and had done it fairly well. Though the professor hated the bumbling Bush, he had to admit that things had been going pretty well since Bush got elected and re-elected. With Iraq calming down to the point where you don't see it in the news anymore, and the price of jeans at Wal-Mart still sitting at 12 dollars, you have to wonder if the professor might be right (though let's face it, in the end it was the gas prices, and not war, that turned Bush into a whipping boy; if it had been war, he'd have been out of a job back in 2004).
I wonder if Obama's message is good enough: "No more Bush." Okay...but then what? And can you do better? If so, you'd better be quick about it, or you'll find yourself a very lonely man. Wouldn't that be a change?
I've been waiting for Obama to lay down specifics about what he would do as president to effect the "change we can believe in." Tonight I thought I might get my wish, as he finally said he'd spell it out in no uncertain terms.
So he said he would cut taxes, and he said he would look into clean coal fuel, and he said he would solve global warming. Oh, and end dependence on foreign oil within 10 years, as if anyone seriously thinks a president can cause such things to happen.
And that was about it, though he did make one passing reference to Russia's invasion of Georgia. One would think that the threat of a new Cold War might be worth expanding upon when running for president, but who's got time? Besides, Democrats are used to holidays from history, as they enjoyed during Clinton's eight year run.
For Obama tonight, it was back to saying that 4 more years of Bush was too much, apparently forgetting that he isn't running against Dubya. Obama even said, "Eight is enough," and the crowd took up the call, chanting "Eight is enough," over and over again, making the Mile High stadium sound like it was full of old sit-com lovers.
John McCain's old, there's no doubt about that. But Obama's message is getting even older. It's all sunshine and roses, and no specifics. Even when he is specific, he makes me wonder which books he's reading. No more dependence on foreign oil? That might be a nice way of saying "Islamic terror" without saying it, but it won't do much to endear him to Canadians. Canada exports most of its oil across the border to the United States, and gives the US more oil than anyone in the Middle East ever has (Canada comes first, Saudi Arabia second, Mexico third; so should the Mexicans be nervous, too?). When a presidential candidate starts talking about ending dependency on foreign oil, Albertans would do well to take an interest.
When McCain and Obama meet in the debates, perhaps I will learn more about Obama's plan, but I doubt it. It's the same old message of ending the Bush era. Beyond that, it's nothing I haven't heard before. Kids in college, free health care, lots of jobs, and everyone with great pension plans. Tonight he unveiled a new timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq: 16 months. And as I watched him say it, I thought, "Where'd he get that number?" Why not two? Why not twenty? He didn't bother to say.
As for where he'll get the money to pay for his health-care-mucho-jobs-et-cetera platform, Obama said that he would go through the Federal budget line by line and scratch out the money wasting items. He didn't say this as an exaggeration. He actually seemed to mean it. Which tells me that he thinks he'll have a hell of a lot of time on his hands in the Oval Office, seeing as the Federal budget is over 50, 000 pages long.
One thing you don't hear much about these days is the good job Bush has done. I know that sounds in bad taste these days, but I was amused to read an article by a Democratic university professor. He said he hated Bush but...no terror attacks in the US since 9/11, and an economy that has only begun to go soft in the past 8 months. As the professor said, "Am I missing something?" He thought Bush had done exactly what he'd set out to do, and had done it fairly well. Though the professor hated the bumbling Bush, he had to admit that things had been going pretty well since Bush got elected and re-elected. With Iraq calming down to the point where you don't see it in the news anymore, and the price of jeans at Wal-Mart still sitting at 12 dollars, you have to wonder if the professor might be right (though let's face it, in the end it was the gas prices, and not war, that turned Bush into a whipping boy; if it had been war, he'd have been out of a job back in 2004).
I wonder if Obama's message is good enough: "No more Bush." Okay...but then what? And can you do better? If so, you'd better be quick about it, or you'll find yourself a very lonely man. Wouldn't that be a change?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A Few Thoughts From On The Road
I've been busy lately...all right, that's a lie. Not the busy part, but the rest of the lie I was going to tell. Which was, "I've been busy lately, which is why I haven't written in a while..."
I've used that one already this summer, and though it was mostly true before, it's mostly BS now. Fact is, though busy, I have discovered that writing is becoming more and more of a September-through-May sport. Summer just seems to drive the writing bug away.
In any event, I've been on the road in the States for a couple of weeks. A lot's been going on. Olympics. Democratic Conventions. Florida floods. Tampa Bay Rays still leading the AL East.
A few thoughts:
I was watching Fox News, and Wyclef, a guy from the Fugees, told Greta that the Obama ticket shows we're living in "historic times." Obviously it sounded like a big deal to Greta, as she bobbed her head in agreement. My question: when are any times not historic? If a girl's pet gerbil dies, it's a historic time. If an old man farts on a lawn chair, it's a historic time. If an ex-lawyer interviews a rapper and asks for political insight, it's a historic time. All time is historic time.
Why is there no outrage about the Florida floods? And why was there no outrage about the Mississippi floods earlier this year? Thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands of people homeless. I thought storms and floods were all the President's fault, but it turns out it only matters if a state has a city named New Orleans.
I was at a minor league baseball game tonight and I was struck by two things. 1) the difference between a minor leaguer and a major leaguer is about .10 seconds, or a little shorter than the time it takes to say the word "seconds." It takes that much longer for a minor league third baseman to get a grounder over to first base. A tenth of a second is all that separates him from the major leagues, but he will probably never cut down that microsecond. That must be frustrating as hell. 2) When a minor league batter hits a ball into the outfield, you still hold your breath thinking the outfielder might drop it, no matter how easy the flyball. When watching the majors, a pop fly means it's time to go to the john. You don't even bother watching the fielder make the catch, because he almost always does. In a funny way, this makes minor league ball the better game to watch.
Everyone wants to know if Vancouver's Opening Ceremonies will be just as good as China's. Meanwhile, the Chinese political prisoner just wants to know if he can go home.
I saw that another kid went missing, and the news shows are having a field day. I think her name is Caylee, but I can't be bothered looking it up. With all of the kids that go missing every month, how do the media pick that one kid? I'm sure more than a few kids wind up dead or missing while people are on vacation, but why was that missing-in-Portugal kid the only one in the news? I feel bad for the parents of a missing kid that call the news stations and say their kid is gone, only to hear a news producer say, "Sorry. We've got our overseas-dead-kid story for the year. Try back in January."
I've used that one already this summer, and though it was mostly true before, it's mostly BS now. Fact is, though busy, I have discovered that writing is becoming more and more of a September-through-May sport. Summer just seems to drive the writing bug away.
In any event, I've been on the road in the States for a couple of weeks. A lot's been going on. Olympics. Democratic Conventions. Florida floods. Tampa Bay Rays still leading the AL East.
A few thoughts:
I was watching Fox News, and Wyclef, a guy from the Fugees, told Greta that the Obama ticket shows we're living in "historic times." Obviously it sounded like a big deal to Greta, as she bobbed her head in agreement. My question: when are any times not historic? If a girl's pet gerbil dies, it's a historic time. If an old man farts on a lawn chair, it's a historic time. If an ex-lawyer interviews a rapper and asks for political insight, it's a historic time. All time is historic time.
Why is there no outrage about the Florida floods? And why was there no outrage about the Mississippi floods earlier this year? Thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands of people homeless. I thought storms and floods were all the President's fault, but it turns out it only matters if a state has a city named New Orleans.
I was at a minor league baseball game tonight and I was struck by two things. 1) the difference between a minor leaguer and a major leaguer is about .10 seconds, or a little shorter than the time it takes to say the word "seconds." It takes that much longer for a minor league third baseman to get a grounder over to first base. A tenth of a second is all that separates him from the major leagues, but he will probably never cut down that microsecond. That must be frustrating as hell. 2) When a minor league batter hits a ball into the outfield, you still hold your breath thinking the outfielder might drop it, no matter how easy the flyball. When watching the majors, a pop fly means it's time to go to the john. You don't even bother watching the fielder make the catch, because he almost always does. In a funny way, this makes minor league ball the better game to watch.
Everyone wants to know if Vancouver's Opening Ceremonies will be just as good as China's. Meanwhile, the Chinese political prisoner just wants to know if he can go home.
I saw that another kid went missing, and the news shows are having a field day. I think her name is Caylee, but I can't be bothered looking it up. With all of the kids that go missing every month, how do the media pick that one kid? I'm sure more than a few kids wind up dead or missing while people are on vacation, but why was that missing-in-Portugal kid the only one in the news? I feel bad for the parents of a missing kid that call the news stations and say their kid is gone, only to hear a news producer say, "Sorry. We've got our overseas-dead-kid story for the year. Try back in January."
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Lying Scores Another Perfect 10
And the beat of the lying drum goes on. The AP reports that they've found evidence that at least one member of the Chinese gymnastics team isn't yet 16 years old.
16 is the age of eligibility for a gymnast to compete in the Olympic games. But as with all things Olympic, we are asked to avert our eyes at anything that might taint our view of this sham of international harmony.
Says the AP:
So that makes at least three lies to come out of the Beijing Olympics so far. First was the phony fireworks during the Opening Ceremonies. Then there was the poor child that was pushed backstage in favour of a pretty face, at the request of a Chinese Politburo member. The politician thought the little girl was bucktoothed, and told the event organizers to bring out the hook. The bucktoothed child sang the Olympic anthem, all right, but the pretty face lip-synched the tune. And now you have a gymnast who has aged three years in nine months.
A miracle? No, just another expected car crash in this insipid display of media hypocrisy colliding with a totalitarian regime.
You've gotta hand it to the Chinese for chutzpah. When they submitted He's passport to the corrupt IOC, they listed her birthdate as January 1, 1992. As is done in horse racing, they made sure her birthdate fell on the first day of the year, to ensure the IOC could do some easy math and give her a free ride. Which, of course, they dutifully did, though past records had He's age listed as January 1, 1994.
Lying about a gymnast's age is nothing new to China. At the 2000 games in Sydney, the Chinese entered a 14-year-old into the mix. She won a bronze medal, and later admitted that she and her coaches lied about her age. The fact that the IOC knew this, and did not investigate He's age for this year's games in Beijing, only proves how complicit they are in the host country's lies. The IOC's mantra is, "Shhh. Don't ruin it. The Olympics are perfect, and always will be."
Nothing will be allowed to disturb this Chinese Moment. No Chinese athlete will be found guilty of doping, and no Chinese gymnast will be stripped of a medal for any infraction. This is the Olympics, get it? Lie after lie will rain down upon you, and you will do your duty: like it, and ignore it. And by the way, how are you enjoying all of that 'mist' you're seeing in China right now? The only gold medal awarded in this Olympic farce should go to the longest lasting fog bank in history.
We're all a great big happy family. While a Chinese political prisoner sits in jail for surfing the internet, the little Chinese girl receives a gold medal for doing handstands on a piece of playground equipment. While the Russian athlete hugs the Georgian athlete for swimming in a pool, the Russian president invades the Georgian countryside and bombs people to death. But hey, don't rock the boat. Michael Phelps might win another medal, wouldn't that be fantastic?
The only good thing to come out of these Olympic Games will be the closing ceremonies.
16 is the age of eligibility for a gymnast to compete in the Olympic games. But as with all things Olympic, we are asked to avert our eyes at anything that might taint our view of this sham of international harmony.
Says the AP:
In its report Nov. 3, Xinhua identified He as one of "10 big new stars" who made a splash at China's Cities Games. It gave her age as 13 and reported that she beat Yang Yilin on the uneven bars at those games. In the final, "this little girl" pulled off a difficult release move on the bars known as the Li Na, named for another Chinese gymnast, Xinhua said in the report, which appeared on one of its Web sites, http://www.hb.xinhuanet.com.Sent backstage
The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.
So that makes at least three lies to come out of the Beijing Olympics so far. First was the phony fireworks during the Opening Ceremonies. Then there was the poor child that was pushed backstage in favour of a pretty face, at the request of a Chinese Politburo member. The politician thought the little girl was bucktoothed, and told the event organizers to bring out the hook. The bucktoothed child sang the Olympic anthem, all right, but the pretty face lip-synched the tune. And now you have a gymnast who has aged three years in nine months.A miracle? No, just another expected car crash in this insipid display of media hypocrisy colliding with a totalitarian regime.
You've gotta hand it to the Chinese for chutzpah. When they submitted He's passport to the corrupt IOC, they listed her birthdate as January 1, 1992. As is done in horse racing, they made sure her birthdate fell on the first day of the year, to ensure the IOC could do some easy math and give her a free ride. Which, of course, they dutifully did, though past records had He's age listed as January 1, 1994.
Lying about a gymnast's age is nothing new to China. At the 2000 games in Sydney, the Chinese entered a 14-year-old into the mix. She won a bronze medal, and later admitted that she and her coaches lied about her age. The fact that the IOC knew this, and did not investigate He's age for this year's games in Beijing, only proves how complicit they are in the host country's lies. The IOC's mantra is, "Shhh. Don't ruin it. The Olympics are perfect, and always will be."
Nothing will be allowed to disturb this Chinese Moment. No Chinese athlete will be found guilty of doping, and no Chinese gymnast will be stripped of a medal for any infraction. This is the Olympics, get it? Lie after lie will rain down upon you, and you will do your duty: like it, and ignore it. And by the way, how are you enjoying all of that 'mist' you're seeing in China right now? The only gold medal awarded in this Olympic farce should go to the longest lasting fog bank in history.
We're all a great big happy family. While a Chinese political prisoner sits in jail for surfing the internet, the little Chinese girl receives a gold medal for doing handstands on a piece of playground equipment. While the Russian athlete hugs the Georgian athlete for swimming in a pool, the Russian president invades the Georgian countryside and bombs people to death. But hey, don't rock the boat. Michael Phelps might win another medal, wouldn't that be fantastic?
The only good thing to come out of these Olympic Games will be the closing ceremonies.
Some Change You Can Believe In
I wrote a few days ago that sometimes it's good to be the President. There was Bush, chatting up the ladies from the women's beach volleyball team. And there was Putin, getting ready to invade Georgia and make all of the John Edwards news look like the meaningless garbage that it is.
So much for "good to be the President." I can't think of too many worse photo opportunities than standing beside bikini-clad babes while the "good friend" leader of Russia decides to rip Georgia in half.
In a flash, Putin put paid to how irrelevant are so many things that the so-called international community takes as sacred: the United Nations, the Security Council, the Olympics, the European Union.
Once again we find ourselves with Europe in trouble, and all eyes looking to the US for answers. It's only natural. When confronted by a tyrant, soft power fetishists go looking to men that fight to solve their problems.
Europe is the source of most of history's troubles, and they gave us the majority of the 20th century's tyrants and basket cases. Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, Milosevic, Lenin, Stalin, Putin.
I include the Russkies in that list because for all intent and purpose, they might as well have been born "European." Lenin ran around Europe quite often while formulating his plans to liquidate undesirable people back home, and Stalin had his ass kissed so many times by Europeans that he probably thought he had an eclair stuck to his ass.
Putin, too, has been let off the hook time and again by the leaders of all Western countries, including those from Europe. He looked Western leaders in the eye, and he saw just what Hitler did so many years ago: appeasement.
Putin had to know they wouldn't do a thing when he invaded Georgia. He also had to know that it was going to take a while for the US to heat up and rise to the moment...if they ever would.
Putin's gambit is nothing new. According to him, there are people in Georgia sympathetic to Russia, and the Georgians are persecuting them. In order to protect these "friends of Russia," then Russia must hurry to their rescue.
If that sounds familiar, it is. Hitler pulled the same stunt regarding the Sudenten Germans in Czechoslovakia, and his plan worked. Hitler knew he could cut out a chunk of Czech simply by implying that he would invade in order to "liberate" the "Germans" living there. He didn't need to send in the tanks. Europe caved, and the Sudentenland was folded into the Reich. This was another example of European diplomacy, as they breathed a sigh of relief, feeling they'd averted a war. Of course, Poland and World War II were right around the corner.
There's a very real possibility of this scenario happening in Georgia. Now that the Russian tanks are there, how long do you think it will be before Europe caves yet again, and asks Georgia to grant Russia some concessions, including territory? If that happens, there's going to be interesting times ahead. If the US continues to back Georgia, they may send them cash and weapons, and pretty soon you have Afghanistan/Russia II. Europe, of course, will sit on the sidelines, content to criticize every move the United States makes while not getting their own hands dirty.
The UN is helpless to change any of this, of course. Even if the Security Council gets together and condemns Russia every day for the rest of the year, it won't matter in the least. Russia has veto power on the Security Council, so any resolutions passed would be quashed. Besides, to paraphrase Stalin, how many battalions does the UN have? Exactly zero.
It's up to Bush and the US to decide how much pressure they want to exert on the Russkies, and to see if the Russians will fold. That's an interesting problem. Putin is surely going to say that he can't negotiate with the current Georgian president, in which case Europeans will say that the Georgian president must step down for the good of peace.
That would be a grave mistake. Even if Russia were to leave Georgia, they would only do so after a puppet president was put into power there. Victory Russia. This would embolden them to take a look at the Ukraine, and decide if that democracy is also worth bullying into submission.
Look at it from Putin's point of view: what's to stop him? Only the Americans, who are busy fighting all over the world, and are caught up in a ridiculous presidential campaign that hinges on what the candidates voted for years ago.
The past is the past. The present has now arrived to give us some change you can really believe in.
So, is it sometimes good to be the president of the USA? Sure. As long as you like grey hair and long nights.
So much for "good to be the President." I can't think of too many worse photo opportunities than standing beside bikini-clad babes while the "good friend" leader of Russia decides to rip Georgia in half.
In a flash, Putin put paid to how irrelevant are so many things that the so-called international community takes as sacred: the United Nations, the Security Council, the Olympics, the European Union.
Once again we find ourselves with Europe in trouble, and all eyes looking to the US for answers. It's only natural. When confronted by a tyrant, soft power fetishists go looking to men that fight to solve their problems.
Europe is the source of most of history's troubles, and they gave us the majority of the 20th century's tyrants and basket cases. Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, Milosevic, Lenin, Stalin, Putin.
I include the Russkies in that list because for all intent and purpose, they might as well have been born "European." Lenin ran around Europe quite often while formulating his plans to liquidate undesirable people back home, and Stalin had his ass kissed so many times by Europeans that he probably thought he had an eclair stuck to his ass.
Putin, too, has been let off the hook time and again by the leaders of all Western countries, including those from Europe. He looked Western leaders in the eye, and he saw just what Hitler did so many years ago: appeasement.
Putin had to know they wouldn't do a thing when he invaded Georgia. He also had to know that it was going to take a while for the US to heat up and rise to the moment...if they ever would.
Putin's gambit is nothing new. According to him, there are people in Georgia sympathetic to Russia, and the Georgians are persecuting them. In order to protect these "friends of Russia," then Russia must hurry to their rescue.
If that sounds familiar, it is. Hitler pulled the same stunt regarding the Sudenten Germans in Czechoslovakia, and his plan worked. Hitler knew he could cut out a chunk of Czech simply by implying that he would invade in order to "liberate" the "Germans" living there. He didn't need to send in the tanks. Europe caved, and the Sudentenland was folded into the Reich. This was another example of European diplomacy, as they breathed a sigh of relief, feeling they'd averted a war. Of course, Poland and World War II were right around the corner.
There's a very real possibility of this scenario happening in Georgia. Now that the Russian tanks are there, how long do you think it will be before Europe caves yet again, and asks Georgia to grant Russia some concessions, including territory? If that happens, there's going to be interesting times ahead. If the US continues to back Georgia, they may send them cash and weapons, and pretty soon you have Afghanistan/Russia II. Europe, of course, will sit on the sidelines, content to criticize every move the United States makes while not getting their own hands dirty.
The UN is helpless to change any of this, of course. Even if the Security Council gets together and condemns Russia every day for the rest of the year, it won't matter in the least. Russia has veto power on the Security Council, so any resolutions passed would be quashed. Besides, to paraphrase Stalin, how many battalions does the UN have? Exactly zero.
It's up to Bush and the US to decide how much pressure they want to exert on the Russkies, and to see if the Russians will fold. That's an interesting problem. Putin is surely going to say that he can't negotiate with the current Georgian president, in which case Europeans will say that the Georgian president must step down for the good of peace.
That would be a grave mistake. Even if Russia were to leave Georgia, they would only do so after a puppet president was put into power there. Victory Russia. This would embolden them to take a look at the Ukraine, and decide if that democracy is also worth bullying into submission.
Look at it from Putin's point of view: what's to stop him? Only the Americans, who are busy fighting all over the world, and are caught up in a ridiculous presidential campaign that hinges on what the candidates voted for years ago.
The past is the past. The present has now arrived to give us some change you can really believe in.
So, is it sometimes good to be the president of the USA? Sure. As long as you like grey hair and long nights.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Sometimes, It's Good To Be The President
Bush with the US Olympic beach volleyball team.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Dipping Your Pen In Political Ink
From ABC News:
"The Edwards family indicated that they probably wouldn't be attending the convention," Obama said, "I understand that," he said, "look this is a difficult and painful time for them and I think they need to work through that process of healing."
And:
"I am profoundly disappointed and devastated," said Chris Kofinis, who was Edwards' communications director during his 2008 campaign. "We believed in him, and it's heartbreaking, and I send my thoughts and prayers to Elizabeth, the senator and his family as they deal with this personal tragedy."
Wow. John Edwards struck down by disease? Big car accident? Bad news from the kids?
Nope, just another politician caught banging somebody. In this case, the politician is John Edwards, and there's rumours swirling that his mistress gave birth to a love child. Edwards admits to the affair, but denies being the child's pop. Now the woman's family is asking him to take a DNA test to prove it. Oh, and Edwards' former finance chairman admits to paying the mistress some hush money to shut her up.
In politics, that's what you call a pretty bad news week.
So the charade has begun. Edwards apologizing on TV for his mistakes. Edwards' wife standing by her man, saying the family needs time to get over this tragedy. Politicians and supporters declaring how shocked they are at these tragic events.
It's an old line but a true one: strangers are criminals, our friends make mistakes. It works with affairs, too: if your sister's husband cheats on her, you think he's a scumbag that deserves to lose all of his money. But if your sister cheats on him, well, she just made a terrible mistake. Tragic.
I'm not one way or the other when it comes to affair stories. Guy cheats, gets caught, gets thrown out, fine by me. Guy cheats, gets caught, works it out with his wife, fine by me, too.
But tragedy? Please. Tragedy is when a church roof caves in and kills a bunch of kids. Tragedy is not a politician taking off his suit to bang a babysitter.
In any event, it looks like Edwards' political career is done, at least in the near term. Obama, like any politician, is a very good liar. When he says that Edwards needs time to go through the "healing process," what he means is that Edwards has a snowball's chance in hell of speaking at the Democratic convention or being part of an Obama cabinet. "Sit at home and heal up, John. These trying times will make it too hard for you to be anywhere near me."
Of all the things to come out of this mess, the most entertaining has got to be the press quoting the National Enquirer. The Enquirer broke the story first and did all of the legwork on it, forcing Big Media to pay them lip service.
It's been a bummer week for the Beltway press bigshots. A liberal senator's career goes up in smoke, and they have to mention the Enquirer's name? Tragic.
Cartoon: John Cole
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
That's The Spirit
The Olympics bore me to tears. The only event I can even come close to caring about is the hundred metre dash, but they don't show the thing until the second last night of the Olympics (proving that millions of other people only care about the hundred metre dash, too). So I have a choice: I can sit through two weeks of boring sports people you only see every 4 years, or I can skip the whole thing altogether.My disinterest in the Olympics isn't about cynicism, though I have plenty of that. Do I believe that the Olympic Games are a fraud, with doped up athletes and a front office run by crooks? Absolutely. Do I believe that the Olympic "spirit" is a laugh when the Games can be sent to China, a country whose citizens are not allowed to get on a plane and go anywhere they choose? Sure.
But really, the reason I don't like the Olympics is that it's boring. It's right up there with the vegetarian chick at the end of the table, the one that won't shut up about how right she is. There may be some people that enjoy watching an athlete's "my dog died" stories before being treated to a 3-hour session of pole vault. I'm just not one of them.
Someone on the Olympics committee must have recognized this, because they gave us women's beach volleyball. Finally, an event for the regular guy. I enjoy watching talented people work hard to realize their dreams of glory. I especially like that they can only realize their dreams in the skimpiest bikinis they can get their hands on.
I was flipping through the papers this morning and saw that the US Olympic cycling team showed up in Beijing wearing masks to protect themselves from air pollution. The media was appalled by their lack of sensitivity.
I laughed. First at the cyclists. Those masks aren't going to do squat. Then I laughed at the media, who haven't a clue. When I was in China, I saw all kinds of local people wearing masks...they're just not allowed to wear them during the Games.
Beautiful China
The pollution in China is unbelievable. I once took a bus ride from Tianjian to the Great Wall, four hours away. There was a stiff wind blowing the whole time, but the smog didn't budge an inch. I mean an inch. It just sat there like a big, fat blanket. The visibility was maybe two hundred yards in any direction, and it wasn't until we made the steep climb to the wall that it began to let up. Even at the Great Wall the pollution was so bad that I had to run all of my photos and videos through a color correction filter to get rid of it.You've probably seen beautiful nighttime photos of Hong Kong and Shanghai. The reason they're beautiful is because of the pollution. The heavy smog makes the streetlights and neon sign glow like the gates of Heaven. During the day it's a different story. That's when the cities look like they're sitting in a nuclear winter, lifeless, ugly, and grey.
But they're a "developing country," bless them. No Kyoto for them.
The Olympics has always been a joke, and this year's installment merely ups the ante. Rich kids and spoiled brats will be running around in circles, jumping over sand pits, rolling around on floors, diving into pools, sailing expensive yachts, and bouncing up and down on trampolines. Meanwhile, down the road, there will be hundreds of political prisoners, waiting for the brats to get lost so the prisoners can return to their families. If the government lets them.
I don't want to ruin your fun Olympic experience. Watch it all you want. Just remember that the sooner these Games are over, the sooner some poor guy can stop eating gruel and maybe, just maybe, find some happiness at home.
Photos: Delaware Online & Sean Berry
Sunday, August 03, 2008
For Everyone's Safety
Can someone tell me exactly what the RCMP are for?I don't mean the guys in their pretty red jackets. We know what they're for: parades, handing out sports trophies, and posing for pictures.
I'm talking about the guys that show up brandishing weapons and acting like the best thing to hit law enforcement since Walker Texas Ranger. They're loud, they're proud. They carry big guns and wear black SWAT outfits that make the ladies swoon and macho men cream in their pants. They are...drum roll...the Mounties. Protectors of the innocent and smiters of evil.
What hogwash.
Last week, a 22-year-old man was sitting on a Greyhound bus travelling through Manitoba. He was apparently minding his own business when his seatmate stood up and stabbed him to death. According to witnesses, the murderer was very calm. No rage, no screaming lunacy. He stabbed the victim anywhere from 40 to fifty times. One witness described the murderer as "robotic."
The bus driver pulled over to the side of the highway, and he and the other passengers exited the vehicle. Witnesses tell us that the murderer stayed aboard the bus, cut off the man's head, and held it aloft for all to see. The witnesses know this, because three of them went back aboard the bus to check on the victim. That is when they saw the murderer cutting up the young man. At that point, the murderer ran towards them, knife in hand. The witnesses, bus driver included, ran back off the bus and slammed the door shut, locking the murderer inside.
They kept a vigil at the door, making sure the killer couldn't get out. It was then that the killer showed them the man's severed head and dropped it to the floor in front of them. Yet they kept their vigil, not running off to the nearest farmhouse and hiding behind the barn.
The cops eventually showed up and a standoff ensued. You know the type: brave cops surround a vehicle or building, and wait for the killer to do whatever it is he's going to do, until he gets tired and quits. All the while, a "crisis negotiator" is there, talking to the man in soothing tones, promising he won't come to any harm.
Cops, you see, don't like confronting people carrying weapons. It's safer outside. Safer, they tell us, for "everyone involved, including the suspect." Sure. We honestly believe you when you say you're worried about the suspect's safety.
Only in the surreal world of today's police will you find a crisis negotiator attempting to negotiate with a man that has just decapitated someone.
Oh, but the story from Manitoba gets worse. During the several hour standoff, the murderer kept himself busy. Here's an RCMP transmission, recorded and posted on YouTube: ""Badger is armed with a knife and a pair of scissors and he is defiling the body at the front of the bus as we speak."
"Badger" was the codeword for the murderer. Macho types always come up with such great nicknames, don't they? Makes them feel like they're doing something cool.
Another transmission: "Okay, Badger's at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces and eating it."
After the standoff, the RCMP immediately told the press that the transmissions needed to be removed from the internet because they were not for "public consumption." Setting aside the unfortunate choice of words in that statement, it's no surprise the Mounties didn't want this stuff on the airwaves. The Mounties wouldn't want people to know that these brave men in uniform had ringside seats for the evening's cannibalism show, and did absolutely nothing to bring it to an end except sit on their macho asses and play sportscaster (neverminding the fact that, as Canadians, no one on that bus thought to do anything about the guy while he was stabbing the victim 50 times; we'll save that argument for another day).
The scene eventually ended the way it usually does: on the murderer's terms. He tried to jump from a window and the police arrested him. But not before the bastard had done such awful things to the victim that his parents will be having nightmares for the rest of their lives, and the chances of an open casket funeral are remote.
Speaking of the parents, the RCMP weren't done with their latest laughfest. Too busy playing CSI Miami, the cops forgot to tell the victim's family about the whole thing. The victim's father didn't find out about his son's demise for 24 hours, and it wasn't anyone official that broke the news. Rather, it was a news reporter at his front door, seeking a reaction piece.
The good old days
Those brave Mounties. Last year, a man from Europe was sitting in the Vancouver airport, waiting in the baggage room. He couldn't speak English, had never been on an airplane, and couldn't understand why his mother wasn't coming to pick him up. He was a big, simple, innocent guy. He sat there for almost a complete day, and nobody helped him. Finally he wigged out and started throwing things around in frustration. The RCMP showed up, Tasered him, sat on his back with his face to the floor, and within twenty seconds the man was dead. No negotiator for him. Just high voltage, and brave cops pinning him to the ground.Or how about this one: earlier this year, the Mounties showed up in the hospital room of a man suffering from pneumonia. He was lying in bed. The man was delirious, and he had a knife in his hand. Time to call the negotiator? Nah. They zapped the man with the good ol' Taser. The man, by the way, was 82 years old. In their defence, a Mountie spokesman said, "Whether the person is 80 or 20, we are dealing with a person who had a deadly weapon in their hand." Like, say, a man in a bus carving someone into little pieces?
Yeah, they're brave all right. Some guy without a weapon goes into airport rage, or an old timer goes nutty in bed, and the Mounties have no problem - what's the phrase? - "taking them down." But a murderer with a knife carves up a mother's son for hours on end, and they do nothing except give a play-by-play on their cute walkie-talkies. Guess they forgot to charge their Tasers back at the office.
The lack of bravery among cops in nothing new, nor is it only lacking in Canada. In the US, when a gun nut goes whacko, it's usually a gunpacking witness that solves the problem, or the murderer just gets bored of the whole thing and shoots himself in the head. The police, you see, are outside "securing the area" for "everyone's safety."
Keep up the mantra, guys, I'm sure it will help you sleep better at night. Too bad the victims won't be.
Photos: BC Rugby News & Yarns
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