“They’re Navy SEALS”

Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech this weekend on a US Navy ship. Fortunately the “Mission Accomplished” banner was nowhere to be seen, however in his comments he told a story about something that Admiral Mullen, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a secret, hush hush meeting with the President. “I can’t tell you the event because it’s classified, but I can tell you what happened,” the V.P. said.

You can’t tell us that it was about the recent pirate hostage rescue, Joe? How come?

 

Why Is David Plouffe Still Asking Me For Money?

I got another one this morning, an email from David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, asking for a donation. Plouffe’s email says that it is to help overcome the negative messages of those defenders of the status quo who are calling for Obama to fail. I guess he means Rush.

Excuse me, but I was under the impression that President Obama had the resources of the entire executive branch of the U.S. government at his disposal. Why does he need another $25 from me? Come 2011, 2012 I will be ready to donate to his reelection campaign, assuming he continues to have policies that I approve of. I’m not donating to operating budget of the White House.

I see, according to the omniscient Wikipedia, that Plouffe does not even have a job with the Obama White Hose. He’s writing a book about the campaign. Do I get a copy of the book for my $25?

 

Blogroll Amnesty Day Is Coming

Feb. 3rd is the traditional Blogroll Amnesty Day, a day when obscure  blogs all over the world link to other obscure blogs in a vain attempt to lift each other by their collective bootstraps. Blue Gal, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Jon Swift have launched the amnesty early, so I’m joining in. This year Skippy has made some new rules, making B.A.D. a kind of voluntary meme, which relieves the real problem of bloated blogrolls, which the original B.A.D, the really bad B.A.D, which Jon Swift will tell you about, happen in the first place.

the basic rule for blogroll amnesty day weekend is simply this: take a moment to write a post linking to (and pointing out to your readers) 5 blogs w/traffic smaller than yours. this inclusive and magnanimous yet easy-to-do gesture will not only expose your readers to new voices and those voices to new readers, it will foster a sense of community, support and all-around kumbaya amongst the progressive infrastructure.

I am trying very hard to follow Skippy’s rule about not making that joke about this blog’s relative level of readership. Meanwhile I am going to introduce you to these five, which may or may not be galactically famous, what do I know?

Siberian Light, The Russian Blog, came to my attention last year, through a post in Windows to Russia. Andy Young lives in Irkutsk, which I always thought was just a spot on the RISK board, and writes about Russia in a fair and balanced way, although I don’t think he ever worked for Fox news.

Idiot’s Guide to Blogging is written by Raivyn who, even though she spells her name funny and is not an Edgar Allen Poe fan to my knowledge, has a lot of good advice for aspiring blog stars. She is also a musician, which is a nice thing to be.

Your Neighborhood Reverend is an impostor! Surely no real man of the cloth would brag about squiring a “traveling bra” around Memphis, showing her the sites.

Linus’s Blanket is not a comic strip. It’s a thoughtful blog filled with book reviews, however the author apparently feels a strange kinship with Linus Van Pelt.

Whitehouse.gov, is a brand new blog, written by some guy named Macon Phillips, which will never get much of a readership until the author adds some LOLcats or something to relieve the dryness, but I’m willing to lend a hand to a beginner. Macon should give that old guy in the sidebar a haircut and a new set of dentures, too, IMHO.

If you would like to join in Blogroll Amnesty Day, just follow the instructions above and drop Jon or Skippy an email at the appropriate address (shown on their blogs.)

 

Joe the Pl . . . War Correspondent

Samuel J. “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is going to war. He will report for conservative website Pajamas TV during a ten day visit to Isreal. Wurzelbacherwants to give Isreal’s “average Joe” a chance to speak out on the war against Hamas.

Well, at least he isn’t going to be a political consultant.  Joe had his 15 minutes of fame. I don’t think he deserves any more.

Editors note: thank you to Brent for the spell check.

 

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Carnival

Zero Mostel

I asked people to submit more book reviews and so they did. The seventh edition of the Book Review Blog Carnival is posted at Maw Books Blog. Natasha deserves special recognition for working like a dog all day to organize this carnival, which has more than 80 posts listed. There is something for everyone, as Zero Mostel would say.

Get your best book review post polished up and submit it for the next edition, which will appear at Bloody-kisses.org on January 4th. Your post can be submitted at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_5161.html. Don’t wait until the last minute. I think mine was the very last one in this time, shame shame.

 

Kratovil takes first district seat in Congress

Frank Kratovil

The first district Congressional race has been an interesting one and a cliff hanger this year. Republican State Senator Andy Harris defeated eight term Congressman Wayne Gilchrest in the primary, running as a more conservative candidate. This opened the race to a serious challenge from the Democrats who nominated Queen Anne’s County prosecutor Frank Kratovil to run for the seat.

The first district was designed to be a Republican district in the redistricting after the 2000 census. Areas of Baltimore city were removed from the district, so that it included the Republican leaning Eastern Shore counties and some more Republican suburbs in Ann Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties. This was done, by the State Legislature, to insure the easy reelection of incumbent Democrats in the surrounding districts.

The campaign was marked by negative ads from both sides. Kratovil was portrayed as a tax and spend liberal by the Harris camp, although, as a prosecutor, it was hard to find his voting record on budget issues, while, to listen to the Kratovil ads, you would think that Andy Harris was opposed to motherhood, apple pie and the forty hour work week.

Andy Harris

The vote was too close to call on election night with Kratovil holding a lead of less than 1,000 votes when all polling places were counted, leaving the election to be decided by absentee and provisional ballots. It was expected that Harris would be able to close that lead, on the conventional wisdom that absentee ballots tend to lean more Republican. At last report Kratovil’s lead had grown to more than 2,000  in the absentee count.

The Associated Press has called the first district race in Maryland for Frank Kratovil. There are some provisional ballots yet to count and neither Kratovil of Republican Andy Harris has yet claimed victory or conceded defeat.

Frank Kratovil can thank Barack Obama for giving him a ride on his coat tails this year. The first district is still the Republican district it was designed to be and he will be facing a strong challenge in 2010.

 

McCain, Put You Scandal Where The Sun Don’t Shine

Senator McCain, today has suggested that the record breaking fund raising number from the Obama campaign for September, of $150,000,000, will lead to “scandal.” Senator, you have finally made me mad enough to go online and make a donation of my own to the Obama campaign. The fact is that ordinary Americans are donating small amounts out of their own pockets to support the campaign of a candidate that they believe in. This is nothing, if not good news for democracy. This is grass roots support. This is not special interest money, lobbyist money or corporation money. This should make the co-sponsor of McCain Feingold glad.

I am heartily sick of your campaigning by innuendo.

 

In case you were in doubt

I am supporting Barack Obamafor President. Here is why.

Since the Reagan years I have seen the Republican party veer further and further off track. In order to get elected, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush made an alliance with an anti-democratic coalition of social “conservatives” who wish to establish a theocracy in this country. Each election cycle the dependence of Republican candidates on these theocrats becomes stronger.

I find them no less frightening than the Taliban. I do not want to disrespect anyone’s religious faith but I will resist anyone’s attempt to impose the dogma of their religious faith on me, my family and my country. The ideology of these American Taliban has had an impact on scientific research, school curriculum, medicine, law enforcement, Supreme Court appointments, and of course, Supreme Court decisions. Even the decision to go to war in Iraq was skewed by a religion centered ideological thought process. This nation can not afford to continue in this direction. John McCain had resisted this trend in the past. This year he has embraced it. His choice of a running mate illustrates this fact.

I respect John McCain. In 2000 I voted for him in the Maryland Republican primary. That was the year that the Republicans experimented with allowing independents to vote in their primary here. They never did that again.

John McCain is just too old to be president. If he were to serve two full terms he would be 80 years old when he left office. I have seen the way that the presidency has aged every president I have seen throughout my life. The strain of that job is not to be taken lightly. His choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate makes his age much more important in my opinion. I don’t care how you spin it. Sarah Palin has no business being in the White House, not this year, not ever. Not only her age and relative inexperience, but her ideological bent is unacceptable.

Barack Obama offers this country the chance to get back to it’s better self. He has a plan to invest in the infrastructure of the 21st century, renewable energy, conservation and new opportunity. He believes in a progrssive tax structure and not taxing the poor to reward the rich. His vision of foreign policy is one of leadership within the world community and not of go it alone recalcitrance. Obama posesses the intellect, the curiosity, the dedication that is needed to move this country forward. He chooses the best and brightest to serve on his team, not the most loyal. He is able to reach out to those with whom he disagrees and find common ground.

If you have any doubt about my political position, although I don’t know why any regular reader of this blog woud, this should clear things up.

 

Michelle’s Speech

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC convention was not about whether Barack picks up his dirty socks, as one talking head said. What Michelle needed to do and did so successfully, is to counter the image on the cover of the New Yorker magazine.

It’s OK that Barack has a funny name. I’m not an angry black woman. I love America and believe in the American dream. We are a normal American family, with two normal children. These are the themes that ran through Michelle’s speech. Through her speech we got a reassuring view of the candidate as a human being.

Now wait for the screed that will come out of the McCain camp. What twists of logic will they apply to Michelle’’s words?

 

Wow, I have a WordPress catagory all my own!

wordpress.com/tag/white-male-voters/ See how unappreciated we are.