The World According To Sarah Palin! Which Is Worse The N-Word Or The R-Word??

I’m pretty queasy whenever a topic related to censorship is brought up.  After all, this is America and the way I understand it unless you’re advocating for someone to get hurt, you’re allowed to say what you want.

That said, there are clearly a few words that are mostly better left unsaid.  Two of them are in the title of this post.

Read a great column from Alfred Doblin today where he takes on a certain former vice presidential candidates’ hypocrisy related to both words. 

Here it is:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/doblin_082010.html

Call me naive, but could Sarah Palin just be playing politics? 

Say it ain’t so, mama grizzly!

What Do Tupac Shakur, Kurt Cobain and the recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd All Have In Common?

Although they were from two different modern music genres, it’s clear that rapper Tupac Shakur and rocker Kurt Cobain have a bunch in common.  Both artists gained fame at roughly the same time period, both have been credited as being big influence on those that followed and both died way too young.

Senator Robert Byrd wasn’t a rapper or a rocker.  While he may have been influential, he certainly didn’t die too young.  He was 92 and by all accounts lived a full life.  Still, the senator does share music in common with Shakur and Cobain.   In Byrd’s case, he played traditional bluegrass. 

I didn’t know this till he passed, but in 1978, Byrd actually released a bluegrass album.  So, I think you can see where this is going.  Like with the death’s of Shakur and Cobain, record company executives saw the chance to make money and they’re not hesitating.

Byrd’s 1978 album is being reissued and so is following in the footsteps of Shakur and Cobain, the senator will soon have an album out despite the inconvenience of no longer being alive.

After all, life and music must go on!

Obama Tells Russian President To Go To Hell (For Burgers)!

Seems like cruel and unusual punishment that the translators don’t get burgers or even fries!

These Are The Fools Who Lead Us!

Boston Mayor gives Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek credit for football glory in this “ionic” clip…

Shocking that he wouldn’t know the difference between Vinatieri and Varitek since both probably did a lot of work in the community.  And more shocking that he doesn’t know the difference between “iconic” and “ionic”.

We get what we vote for…

Idiot Virginia Governor Learns A Lesson Too!

Bob McDonnell, idiot and the Governor of Virginia (nice combo!), learned a big lesson today.  In contrast to when he first proclaimed April as Confederate Month a few days ago, he’s now come around to acknowledging slavery’s role in the Civil War.

Earlier on, McDonnell’s logic seemed to be that there were many other (and I guess more important?) reasons for the Civil War.  You know, like Virginians liking NASCAR more than snooty Northerners.  So, in his proclamation announcing April as Confederate Month, he completely failed to mention the pesky little issue of slavery or for that matter the civil rights struggle that went on long after the war ended.

For the record, I’m no historian, NOT an expert on the Civil War or life in the South during the years leading up to the conflict.  So, I can completely see that there were other issues that lead this nation to an internal battle.  But…

How do you not mention slavery??

I’m guessing it just sounded like a downer when Confederate Month is designed to drive tourism.

Bummer when truth gets in the way of making money, isn’t it?

BONUS!  Here’s what an idiot looks like:

Obama Learns A Lesson! Never Say You’re A Fan Unless You Actually Can Name A Player On Your Favorite Team!

I love this video.  You get at least three things out of it.  First, the president may prove to be a better president than his predecessor, but clearly he’s NOT the better pitcher.

Second, President Obama learns a key lesson.  If you’re going to represent yourself as a “southside kid” and a Chicago White Sox fan, good to have your staff brief you on some names of actually Sox players first!

Finally, I like the president, but this video proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that he’s in fact a politician.  Look no further than him wearing a Nationals jacket, but putting on a White Sox hat.  You know, the team that’s his favorite, but he can’t remember any players…   Typical politician, trying to have it both ways.

Why Nuclear Weapons Prove Obama Is A Faithful Husband!

I’ll give the president this.  He does NOT like to take the easy way out. 

Case in point, today I read that he’s revamping US nuclear weapons strategy to make it less vague.  He’s going to move the US towards a policy of a more narrow use of nuclear weapons. 

According to this NY Times article online at MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36185431/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/

the president even has the US not using nuclear weapons in the case of certain biological attacks.

Now I’m no blood-loving hawk and I generally think the less we rely on nukes the better.  On the other hand, I’m not some hippy dippie tree hugger who doesn’t believe that we in fact have some enemies that look to hurt us.  9/11 taught us that much.

Mostly, I’m no expert on nuclear weapons as effective deterrents, but I kind of liked a vagueness to our policy.  Sure, it’s not the perfect moral policy. But, I do think it helps to keep our enemies a little unsure of what our exact policy is.  Why spell out when we wouldn’t use nukes?  Isn’t that just asking for trouble?

For all any of us know, this may in fact be the right policy decision.  I for, one, was none to comfortable with the last adminstration’s attitude of shooting first and asking questions later. 

But, if I’m asking questions then I can only begin to imagine what mileage the talk radio right will be getting out of this.

President Obama’s decision on nuclear policy is debatable.  What’s not debatable is that short-term it’s awful politics.  It plays right into the hands of the stereotypes the right-wing media loves to dole out. 

It wasn’t the easy road.  That would have been doing 800 other smaller and non-controversial things.  In the president’s mind though, I’m guessing it was the right road.

And so here’s the point.   Long wait!  I know. 

But, if this president is so willing to take on the tough tasks, not take the easy way out, and stay committed to doing what’s right, than I’ve got one last guess about him. 

This is probably a man who is faithful to his wife. 

Either that or he’s addicted to taking huge risks.   Wait, that would be another of my favorite presidents, Bill Clinton.

The Lighter Side of Health Care Reform!

Truth is often funny…

Maybe Democrats Aren’t Stupid After All!

With tonight’s historic votes, Democrats may have finally pushed healthcare reform across. In the process, they might have also proven that they’re not completely stupid after all.

On this blog, I’ve argued that Democrats had no choice but to vote yes and get healthcare reform done.  After all, this November they’ll be facing Republicans reminding all of America about the Democrats’ push for healthcare win or lose.

The fact is that history is written by the winners.  So, as I see it Democrats had a choice, they could either run in November as the majority party who failed to pass healthcare reform, which the Republicans would have spun as a failure to impose socialism or worse on America thanks to the kindly GOP.

OR… They could go into November’s elections as the majority party who actually got something done.  Sure, half the country is pissed right now.  But, that won’t last.  Already on the local news, I saw a woman interviewed on the street who opposed healthcare reform but now that it passed said “she hoped it would be good for the country.”  That sentiment will be more and more the case as time goes by.

What people are REALLY mad at is incumbents on both sides who seem to be less and less able to get anything of real substance done.  Well, wake up America.  The Democrats just got substantial.  They’ll now go to the polls as the party that opened up health care to 30 million people AND got rid of the whole “pre-existing conditions” thing.   Not too shabby.

So, yes, there will still be people angry about this so-called “power grab” and expansion of government intrusion into our lives come November.  My guess is that that group is the fringe.  A very very large fringe, but a fringe none the less.  And remember, you don’t have to win elections by anything more than one vote. 

Now, the president needs to focus even more on jobs and the economy.  Then, the Democrats can claim true momentum come  November.

And the GOP?  Oh yeah, they’re the ones who are fine with the government requiring us to buy auto insurance, but feel that requiring that everyone has health care coverage is a nake power grab.  Nevermind that that naked power grab just opened up health care to millions and made it illegal for your insurance company to deny you coverage due to “pre-existing conditions” also known as “you might cost us too much money so we’d rather than you die as soon as possible”.

I think we’ll be talking more about that fractured logic come November.

Hey Idiot Democrats! Don’t Let Abortion Kill Health Care For All!

I believe that abortion should be legal.  I also believe everyone should have access to decent health care.   But now, there are some abortion rights supporters in the House of Representatives who are willing to see health care reform go down the tubes if the reform legislation bans federal dollars from paying for abortions.  Not making it illegal just not paying for it, mind you.

These are people who are willing to keep 30 or so million people shut out of access to healthcare unless it covers abortions.

Is abortion really the issue to get stuck on?

As I said, I believe in the right of a woman to abort her pregnancy and don’t want to see women have to resort to back alley abortionists.  But, honestly why should 30 million people suffer if the federal government isn’t willing to cover what was ultimately a personal mistake made by two people that they after the fact want to undo.

I’m not judging here.  Mistakes happen.  I get it and I’m no saint.  But, for the 30 million not covered by health insurance right now, the mistake isn’t theirs so much as a function of our broken health care system and values.

What we’ve lost both between our two major parties and EVEN WORSE within each party itself, is the art of compromise.  This will never be a perfect bill.  No one is going to be 100% happy with it.  That’s just the fact if it stands any chance of being passed.

So, for the idiot House Democrats threatening to vote no over abortion coverage I suggest this or a lobotomy. 

Why not pass the bill which benefits all of us ultimately by giving 30 million access and getting rid of pre-existing condition bans now and continue the debate of abortion coverage after health care reform is enacted? 

After all, something is better than nothing here and it’s always easier to tweak something once it’s law than starting all over.  Anyone for another year of health care debate?  Nah?  Didn’t think so.

A lot of Democrats are nervous about their election prospects in November should health care reform become law.  The political truth is that it’s a lot easier to go before the voters as a winner versus a “politician who tried to engineer a government takeover of healthcare but lost“, which will be the Republican spin.

If on the other hand Democrats go to the polls as winners in the health care battle, the Republicans will have to take a moment to explain how they fought against eliminating pre-existing condition bans.   Good luck on that one, GOP!

When Barak Obama was elected he talked a lot about bringing people together.   We assumed he was talking about Democrats & Republicans. 

The reality now is that he must unite Democrats.  He must turn them into winner even if the victory isn’t perfect.  And even the ones who are idiots and are willing to squander the opportunity to achieve something of historic benefit in the name of a objections based on a narrow interest group.

Let common sense  and compromise prevail!