Month: January 2008

Giuliani out, John Edwards out.

Giuliani wasn’t ever going to get it — he’s not all that popular even here in New York. Despite Fox News’ hammering us day after day with the phrase “America’s Mayor,” he was never suited for the White House. He’ll become CEO of some corporation, and make more millions, and we’ll all be better off.

Still fighting on the GOP side: McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Ron Paul.

Still fighting on the Democrat side: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I wish the Ron Paul camp well. I will always believe that everybody has a right to equal access to the White House, and to equal publicity and consideration if they’re a serious candidate.

I will always disagree, for instance, with those people who say Ralph Nader shouldn’t have run, or that he “helped” George W. Bush get elected. The White House is not some prize that’s intended to go only to the mainstream candidates.

Continue reading “Two More Down”

Time Magazine takes Bush’s State of the Union address and details the word frequency.

He used the word “terror” 23 times, but the word “future” only 13, and “hope” only 11.

He used “security” 13 times, but “freedom” only 9.

“Nation” got 24 mentions, but “citizen” only 10.

He spoke of “Iraq” 39 times, but “Afghanistan” only 8.

“Enemy” was important enough to mention 12 times, but “peace” only 8.

“Education” got 4 mentions, but “faith-based” and “holy” each got 3.

The word “science” did not appear.

 …

Followup: A commenter at Pharyngula, Brian W., has pointed out an error in this post:  

Um, Bush DID use the word science.

“On matters of life and science, we must trust in the innovative spirit of medical researchers and empower them to discover new treatments while respecting moral boundaries. ”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html

He also used the words “sciences” and “scientists”.

As I said over there: My bad, Brian. I’m another of those Americans who can no longer bear to hear Bush speak. I used the word list from the Time Magazine site, trusting that it would be complete.

If it’s you, that is. Clinton could still take the marbles, and other than having to sit through four years worth of the Republican Hate Machine, I’m okay with that.

But … there will come a time early on in your administration when you’re tempted to say “Let’s move on. Let’s put this whole sordid business behind us and get on with the nation’s important business.”

I hope you won’t do that. Because the nation’s important business, after 8 years of Bush and Friends doing just about everything they could to screw up America and suck billions of dollars out of it for themselves and their thief buddies, never mind anything else, IS the current mess, and the people who caused it.

I realize you have to work with Republicans, and that will be a good thing — they’re Americans, too, after all — but there are some people who should definitely not be able to just walk away free.

Continue reading “Dear President Obama”

Just thinking about the talking heads on TV. You’ve got the sniggering, smirking auto-back-patters who are in love with their own political brilliance, and then the freakish ultracon ragers like Bill O’Reilly and his recent clones. Plus a news media that leaps into the fray only to blindly go along and parrot the words of both.

I was thinking about it, as I often do, in a visual metaphor.

Say you’ve got this nice, safe beach, a place you’ve been a thousand times before, and you know it’s completely safe. Ten-year-old you and your friends enter the water how? In a screaming, laughing, splashing blind rush.

But then say there’s this rocky thicket, a place you’ve never been before, with irregular jagged rocks sticking up out of the ground, thorny brambles scattered here and there, visible pits in the ground and musky, beastly whiffs on the breeze.

How do you go in there?

Continue reading “Nation of Screams”