Best thing - in fact, the only thing - that McCain can do now, is a little true confession. Hold a press conference, and say, "My friends (sorry, but it's gotta start with that), I let you down. I betrayed your trust. It's clear now that Sarah Palin, as wonderful a person and politician as she is, is not quite ready for the awesome responsibility of the Executive Branch....." and so on. The "my friends" bit is necessary so that America doesn' t think he lied about everything. and this has to be preceded by Palin bowing out gracefully, though neither one can truly afford to say "What was I thinking???"

But it has to happen. AND - McCain has also to explicitly come down on Tush - a switch from the implicitness of his recent stumping.

Right now Americans don't trust McCain's veracity or his political judgment. I'm guessing this is why he was so peeved on Friday night: that he found himself talked into supporting a VP candidate and policy decisions that went against the grain, and now he's losing against a young upstart that this Red, White and Blue military man considers a wet-behind-the-ears whippersnapper.

He's got to come clean. With himself, with his party and with the American public. Or the rest of his days on the planet are going to be filled with a lot of that same directionless rage we saw last night. And that's not a nice way to live.

Posted by notmoving at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'd like to print this in its entirety.

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/29785734.html

 

Christine M. Flowers: Patrick McDonald: It's time to bury the excuses

By Christine M. Flowers
Philadelphia Daily News

WE SHOULD be used to this.

I'm not talking about the murder of heroes. Or the grieving loved ones, faces contorted in pain. The flag-draped coffins. Or the phalanx of blue sending brother and sister officers home with a final, heartbreaking salute.

God help us if that ever starts feeling familiar. Each new police killing has to convey the same sense of futility and horror as the one before it. It's a necessary part of being human.

But there is something we've become accustomed to, something that causes us to shake with anger and wonder how people lose their moral compasses.

After Officer Patrick McDonald was assassinated by Daniel Giddings on Tuesday, neighbors came out of the woodwork and did what neighbors often do.

They made excuses. Worse, they eulogized Giddings, who was also killed.

Here were people who could justify the murder of a police officer by playing the race card, forgetting that so many of their own black brothers and sisters are soldiers in the battle between good and evil that takes place every day on Philadelphia's streets.

One onlooker named Kelly White had the audacity to say, "That is someone's son that is lying dead there. We aren't ever told anything. All we know is that another young black man is dead and another cop is dead, too. They want us to give the cops respect, but the cops don't respect us."

That's what White sees. That another young black man is dead. That another young black man "wasn't respected."

And, apparently, a lot of people have the same pair of glasses.

I'm blind to that type of reasoning. I want to know why we owe respect to a person who has a record of robbery, aggravated assault and extortion. Who orchestrated an assault on a prison guard, who had 25 misconducts lodged against him. What is there to respect in any of that?

And who cares what color he was? Evil comes in every shade of the rainbow.

But you have to give Kelly White some credit. He, or she, had the guts not to be anonymous. According to a report in the Daily News, one such person stated, "He was a Muslim . . . they killed him."

Another lamented that jobs were scarce in that part of town, implying that unemployment gives you an excuse for killing, or at least to blame society for being a failed human being.

Let's say this once and for all, without mincing any words:

Daniel Giddings was a worthless piece of trash whose exit from this world can only make it a better place. The horror is that, in leaving, he took with him a man like Patrick McDonald.

But still there are people who lament his passing, who see in him a symbol of the toll that racism and poverty have taken on a community. They are prisoners of the past, victims of a mind-set that looks everywhere but inward to find the cause for their misfortune.

One bystander said, "It's just going to get worse before it gets better. . . . If there were more jobs and more opportunity, people would be less hostile."

And we're left to wonder: Does having a job give you a conscience? Do you need to pull down a paycheck to know the difference between right and wrong, to understand that the thug mentality is poison in the veins?

Reflexively playing the race or poverty card is a legacy of the welfare state where people stand with their hands out and their eyes closed. To believe that Giddings would have turned out differently if he'd had a job and wasn't the object of a racist society absolves him and everyone defending him from taking responsibility for their own mistakes.

Fortunately, there are people who do get it. Tragically, though, they are often victims of the same brutality practiced by the Giddingses of this world. Miles Mack was one of them. He fought the odds with a tremendous heart and a belief in the redemptive power of achievement.

He didn't need a job to show him how to live a life of value. He didn't embrace race as an excuse.

And he would have been repulsed by the lame excuses offered by those at 18th and Dauphin, where Giddings died.

Another police officer is dead. Grieving parents and other loved ones will fill another church, and prayers will be prayed that this, finally, is the last time.

But it won't be. Not as long as we absolve the Giddingses of this world of the evil they've brought into it. *

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer. See her on Channel 6's "Inside Story" Sunday at 11:30 a.m. E-mail cflowers1961@yahoo.com.

 

Posted by notmoving at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been hard to have anything relevant to say lately (boy, I left myself open with that modifier), since the events of the last week have left me reeling with confusion. I don't really feel qualified to say anything about the economy... at least I didn't feel qualified, but that's changed now.

But let's start with the debate.

Verdict: tie. I would have given it to McCain, if only he had the common decency to look his opponent in the eye, or address him by name. He didn't even do it when they shook hands at the end. (By the way, insolence does not delineate down party or cultural lines. Anyone who argues different is once again trying to distract us with minatue, and gets my vote for King or Queen of Fools.)

Obama scores points, as always, for simply having a plan. McCain justifiably refers to his honorable career in the Congress. That they have differences and that they both made mistakes, we all know this. They sounded like a couple of school kids arguing over bragging rights to the courtship of Lady America. The brainy band kid with the scholarship to Yale and the football hero still basking in the glow of fan adulation. Geeze!!

But did either one of them gives us a clear feel for their future administration? No. Fixing the economy? No. "Talking the talk and walking the walk?" No. Whom to bomb first, Iraq or Pakistan? No. How to viably engage Russia, China or North Korea? No.

Maybe because neither of them really know. What this debate did give us was a feel for their personalities. And here it's Obama all the way. Wotta guy. I'd love to have him over for dinner, actually.

My wife scoffed when the candidates mentioned their solidarity for Poland. I know what she means. She's Polish, and I lived there for five years. McCain, she says - the "soldier boy" (it's weird how when I closed my eyes during his answers, I could perfectly hear my Retired Air Force Dad talking) - understands Europe better than Obama, but the idea that America or the European Union would do anything if Putin grabbed that Caucasian pipeline or attacked Ukraine or Poland.... well, it made her laugh.

Poland finds Russia's aggression alarming, to say the least. Many of my friends and contacts in my old adopted country are all in favor of the planned American missile silos on Poland's eastern border, for no other reason than to deter a Russian attack. I give McCain full props for talking tough about the Bear's evil eye on Ukraine. (Though he still didn't say anything of substance, other than "watch out!") Me, I still see my America manipulating my Poland into another game of "Stump the Russkies!"

We Americans still tend to see this world through our not-quite-rose-but maybe-magenta-colored-glasses and don't understand the caution and mixed emotions the rest of this world views us with. I'm not talking about those from the opposite extreme who view America as the Evil Empire; I'm talking about the America who's fat and lazy and much too cocksure of itself.

Even in our posturing over how bad America has been run into the ground by the current administration and poetical party, we're still so god damned certain that it's up to us to regain our moral footing and lead the way for the rest of the globe. We're still so blessed with the inevitability of our own Manifest Destiny. I mean, it's nice to feel that you're always right, you know? C'mon, I know you know!

Which is why much of the world tuned in for the debate, and will be reading and talking about it tomorrow (or is that today?) in Warsaw and Moscow and Beijing and Tokyo and all the rest. Because Americas believe we're the best - even when we're downright condemning ourselves.  We believe we're the best, we act like we're the best, and that makes us dangerous to the rest of the world. Or annoying. Or both.

But did it ever occur to you that we should just shut up for awhile?

Anyway.... Health plan talks? Point to Obama on this one. Any corporate entity that says we have to shell out large sums of our earnings each month into a structure that we largely won't use, and when we do use it we are at the capricious mercy of health care providers who overschedule in the grand rush to stuff their waiting rooms and soak up all the cost benefits they can, keeping us hacking and feverish while surrounded by others who are somehow always reliably worse off than us, spreading the germs in a big old fashioned love fest. And God forbid if we don't start our benefits "on time" or buy into the right plan or have the temerity to contract a pre-existing condition.

Now.... for the economy. McCain may have been on point when he suspended the campaign to engage in Congressional talks. It's always bothered me, these longish campaign seasons. I mean, don't these people have jobs? Stop talking and let me see you in action!

Blame is spread both ways. Golden parachutes? Oh yeah, baby.... just evil how many of the wealthiest will stay wealthy no matter how badly they mismanage things for the rest of us. But there also has been a big push for loans to traditionally heavy-risk clients..... it was called racist and classist when banks did not loan to these demographics, and now it's being called racist and classist again that these loans defaulted. Seems to me it was just a lack of common sense in the guise of politics to secure these loans in the first place.

So, my .... ahem.... bipartisan solution? Have plans for people to receive their Constitution guarantees: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Points to Obama. But don't under any circumstances give them money in hand. Cut spending. Points to McCain.

And leave more money in their pockets by cutting taxes. Points to both.

That was THE problem with this "he said/ he said" debate. Hell, with all debates! Stop talking about how you're going to lead, damn it! Just do it!

Well, as they say in Polish....Na razie.

PS Tine to retire "maverick," "miss congeniality," and "wall street/main street" comparisons. Please!

Posted by notmoving at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think the best thing about the John McCain campaign is John McCain. The people around him, though, are coming off as thin-skinned and surreptitious. Wife Cindy lashes out at the hosts of "The View" for asking tough questions?? Come on! - at this late date, shame on her for expecting softball Q&A from anybody. Although both she and her husband handled themselves well on the show, it's clear that Cindy really got her wittle feelings hurt.

Palin's supporters are suing to stop an investigation into her firing of her former public service commissioner. (Er, the "Troopergate" mishmash…. And are most idjuts who insist on affixing the "-gate" suffix to any hint of a scandal up enough on their history to know what the "gate" refers to? And even if they do, I decry their lack of imagination!!) As for Palin, woman up!!!!! You need to come clean and you need to be honest - honesty can win this election. And right now, you're winning the prize for downright criminal elusiveness.

And John McCain just smiles and acts like none of these people whom he's hired and hand-selected and married are speaking for him?

But you know where the biggest idiots are, don'cha?? Wall Street. While the IAG bailout probably will avert a global depression (for now), it is beyond criminal that we even got to this point. Obama has a plan of attack – to his lasting credit, Obama has a plan of attack for every talking-point on the ballot - while McCain seems content to rest on his record.

Newsflash: this ain’t the Republicans fault. This cannot be attributed to any party. It can be attributed to the ilk of avaricious, unrestrained muttonheads that this society of free-wheeling, freedom-chasing sinners have issued from their blood-stained loins. Freedom today in America has been interpreted to allow the worst kinds of excesses from the glistening steel towers of Wall Street to the litter-strewn streets of the ‘Hood.

But I guess that’s another rant.

Still, neither side has offered any concrete solutions to the economic crisis. Both are willing to investigate the problems, but nobody - and I do mean nobody - has the answer. So for McCain and Obama to trade barbs at each other, while they are both treading water..... how uncool is that?? (Okay, maybe I’m wrong. Check this out.) Or even though this next jerk is the spawn of the devil himself, Vladmir Putin might be able to give us some tips on turning around our economy, huh?

I have to add criminal defense lawyer/singer Lauren Lake to the list today. She says any points the McCains may have scored on "The View" were rendered moot by McCain's number of houses. Yeah, Lauren, like there are no filthy rich Democrats out there with more than one palatial estate to their name. She actually said McCain can't have all these houses while there are economically struggling Americans. I completely forgot that all Democrats are poor. My bad.

As as long as I broadened the scope of this list, how about China and its poisoned toys in the USA and its poisoned baby milk formula in China? Yeah, the Chinese government and China’s own ilk of avaricious, unrestrained muttonheads that their society of free-wheeling, freedom-chasing sinners have issued (if I may quote myself) are the major criminals here. But Bush, Sr, Bill Clinton and Dubya all pussy-footed around the issue of China’s egregious human-rights abuses while courting its friendship. It’s McCain who’s talking tough on China, not Obama. And neither one is talking tough on Israel. When the Berlin Wall came down, America had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to demonstrate authentic global leadership. We didn’t do it. We allowed the Middle East to fester, ignored the long-range ramifications of military bases in Saudi Arabia, courted China like an acne-scarred smitten dweeb, and totally ignored Africa.

You know who needs to take responsibility for America and for our lives and our neighbors’ lives? All of us, dammit!! Stop pointing the finger and waiting for someone else in Washington to take control. Because all that does is reveal us as weak-willed and clueless. Step up and firm up.

Ciao.

PS….. Major kudos to anyone who can tell me what very important day this is in American history!!!! For all of you who are celebrating it, God bless!!

Posted by notmoving at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About that ad..... you have to understand that McCain and the Republicans don't think they're stretching the truth. Obama has repeatedly said he is for "age-appropriate sex education" for kindergartners.  (Replete with a poor Alan Keyes impersonation, but I guess I couldn't have done much better myself.) So McCain is not lying. I do say, however, he isn't telling the whole story about Obama's position.

But isn't that politics? Obama himself said the same thing about McCain just lately with this golden nugget: "It would have been nice if over the last 26 years that he's been in Washington that he (McCain) actually stood up for them (the American worker) once in a while."

In a word, balderdash! And Obama and his supporters calling McCain sleazy, dishonorable, sleaziest campaign ever, etc.  Boy, do Obamaphiles have a short, short memory for national politics. Enough with the hyperbole, already. That also is lying.

As a father of a 5 year old who just entered kindergarten - I don't want him to know a thing about sex education from schools. Biology? Sure, I tell him where he's from. There is a portrait I took of him at 1-second old hanging on his bedroom wall. It's titled "Infinite Possibility." Should the schools tell him to stay away from potential predators? Absolutely! But that is not sex education, that's common sense survival skills. And if the predator happens to be white, Hindu, or Latino, are we then speaking of cultural education? Come on!

Barack's latest attack ad quoting the media as dismissing John McCain with rough pejoratives, is actually quoting the stories within the media that in turn quotes the Obama campaign. Barack is quoting himself and passing it off as media confirmation.

Uh....?

Now on to the economy. We're in big trouble. You know that. While I respect McCain for trying to boost our national confidence, public statements of denial are counter-productive. Man up, McCain!

By the way, does Obama dissing Keyes count as racism?

And finally, McCain is still an ABBA fan!!!!! Oh, the horror.

I suppose I could waste my breath here and exhort everyone out there to stop acting as if you're above the fray, and trash your holier-than-attitudes. But.... hey... wait a minute! I just did waste my breath.

'Till next time......

Posted by notmoving at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nothing like fixing the blame early on, huh?

Racism exists as a powerful force in this country because of simple-minded, head-in-the-sand fools who give power to people and notions that should be stripped of all power! I can recall back when I was in university, and the KKK was planning a rally at a nearby site. "What should we do?" was the question. "Ignore them" was one oft-repeated suggestion. No media coverage, no attending just to check it out or stage a counter-protest, no anything. Just ignore the pig-heads. Unfortunately, cooler heads did not prevail, and it all got blown up into a bigger issue. The Klan got the attention they wanted.

The Democrat party thrives on this. Their lifeblood is painting all of society's members as victims. They preen, they pose, they marginalize and speak down to us all... especially the non-white. The party makes it quite clear: without us white people who care for your poor, unfortunate souls, all your suffering minorities would get nowhere. Gee, thanks a lot whitey!!

Does that mean that the Republican party is better? Hell, no! In principle, I'd say yes. But I haven't seen very many Republicans follow their principles lately. And they do tend to be class-ists. For anybody who hasn't been paying attention, economic and social class is the issue in America, not race.

All these whiners ready to throw in the towel and blame The Man.... Already rallying the troops so you all can have someone to blame if you loose. Oh, yeah - real inspiring!!!

.....

On the other side of the hall, I just learned that John McCain is a big (shudder) ABBA fan! Now I've never been a single-issue voter type of guy, but this debacle could change everything......

Posted by notmoving at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Though we pay lip service to the notion that we, as a nation, are dismayed with the idea of "business as usual," we surely only mean this as practiced by the other fellow. We continue to play our partisan games, easily herding others into divergent camps, rushing ourselves to declare our loyalties to our own camps. Our passionate rhetoric is always great for our side, horrible for the other. Both the Pubs and the Dems, both the liberals and conservatives, both us and them. But enough of the intro here; let's get down to brass tacks:

First, anybody who cries racism or sexism in this election is simply a putz. Or haven't they been watching? Obama and Clinton have disproved the notion that white racism rules this country. Yes, there are racists in this country, but no, they don't have the numbers to make any sort of real difference. Except of course when the legion of Chicken Littles, point-the-finger-at-the-other guy drones make it a difference. I even had a Bulgarian tourist tell me that America would never elect a black guy! Geeze, how did our candidates make it this far?? For those of you with no imagination, I'll tell you: it was with a great deal of input from the white vote. Perhaps Americans are voting based on the content of the candidate's character. Wow! What a concept!

Next, I have made it very clear that when Obama dissed rural Americans as being "bitter" and "clinging to their religion and guns," he lost a hitherto unabashed supporter in me. It was compounded when he refused to explain or apologize. It was made a thousand times worse in my feeble mind when I was attacked on various blogs for daring to empathize with rural Americans. I've also read political cartoons and opinions since then that have ridiculed rural Americans as loutish, uneducated, intolerant and... get this... poor cooks!

But when speakers at the Republican National Convention lambasted community organizers..... well, that was despicable. Giuliani is the prince of idiots, and an obnoxious jerk to boot. Thompson is more eloquent (who couldn't be?) but he was shamefully wrong about Obama's lack of leadership experience. Palin was sensational, but she too decried community organizers. I've lived in Alaska, and I can tell you.... it's a state filled with community organizers.

Which brings me to my next rant: now Alaskans are being attacked as loutish, backwoodish, and uneducated. Watching the lumberjack parody on the SNL news segment last night, I was offended. Alaska, by the way, is also a land of ethnic tolerance. I've read reports that criticized Alaska as being... you guessed, it... racist.... because there aren't many blacks or Latinos there. Well, residents reside there because of their individual choice. Alaskans all have one thing in common: they're there because they genuinely want to live in this isolated, cold, dark and exorbitantly priced state. That's the common leveler, and that's why equality exists in Alaska: respect for each other's decision to simply be there to make a living.

Next. Hey, media gurus, stop with the biased proselytizing! I'm talking to Fox News, Rolling Stone Magazine, The Daily Show. Whatever happened to the ideals of democracy you all proport to care so much about? You look like a bunch of snotty nosed brats whining away.

Next, who cares about McCain's 7 houses? It is not an issue. There are plenty of movie and music celebrities who may not have 7 houses, but certainly have more than one or two. Plenty whose 1 mansion adds up to more property and value than McCain's 7. There are celebrities who own homes both domestically and abroad! Does that reflect on patriotism or being out-of-touch? And no, don't ask me for their names. Look it up yourself.

The same celebrities make much more money than McCain, then throw fund-raisers and charity concerts in the hopes of getting all of us to raise enough money for whatever cause they support at the moment. They could just as easily reach into their own pockets and pull out more money than could ever hope to be raised by these fund-raisers.

Next, Palin seems to be playing fast and loose with the facts of her own career. Honesty would help here. And McCain, who has repeatedly said in recent interviews that he respects another person's right to choose and that he respects community organizers, has got to stop playing the above-it-all untouchable who disagrees with what the provocateurs in his party are saying. Does he really think we're that obtuse?

Next: McCain, who cares if Obama said "pigs with lipstick"? Stop the distracting spinning!

And Democrats? McCain can't type, you knee-jerk reactionaries! He can't even tie his shoes. He's physically unable. My neighbor Phil doesn't use the Internet either - but he's still one of the most intellectually sharp, compassionate persons I know. And a natural leader.
 
And last (for now) the hell with this partisan posturing! I've easily asked hundreds of people about their presidential preference. Nobody I've spoken to, not one, has made up their mind yet. Both McCain and Obama are men of substance, both with tremendous assets and liabilities. So spare me the rah-rah bit, OK? This is too important an election to be wasted on party-line demagoguery.

See you next time.....

Posted by notmoving at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)