One of my previous posts talks about pricks. There are two or three to choose from so let me bring your focus to the one about Mr. Obama. Plenty of agreement that the pricks were coming but plenty of surprise as to where the pricks are coming from. So many from within the bubble.

To date the situation seems to be that Mrs. Clinton screws-up in the present tense while Mr. Obama screwed-up in the past tense. Mrs. Clinton: running out of money, Mr. Obama: running out of words.

Since the South Carolina primary we in Oregon have been made to understand that our opinions do not matter. The calls for Mrs. Clinton to resign have left us politically impotent.

(reprehensible that ANY candidate be asked to leave. The calls for Mr. Huckabee to get out were equally pathetic)

Believe me; before next primary season there will be a stampede of states wanting to push up their dates to Jan 2, or Jan 1, or maybe Dec. 31! In 2012 the last shall be first and the first shall be the last.

Of course if the Mayans were correct it will all be for naught as the world will be ending on December 21, 2012.

Even though Oregon doesn’t matter, Mr. Obama lost my support today. I had been struggling the past couple weeks sifting through Reverend Wright and Bosnia and all the other foolishness.

Mr. Obama’s association with and/or endorsements from a variety of ne’er-do-wells hasn’t bothered me. The majority of politicians are hooked-up with those sorts. Some are more socially acceptable, but all are part and parcel of the greed fueled underbelly that has become Washington politics.

The very same poisonous underbelly that Mr. Obama will have tied to the whipping post as soon as he rides into town.

Reverend Wright has had no direct influence. Heck, I can drive ten hours into the Idaho panhandle and hear the same rants directed at black folks or America by the Aryan Nation. That crap will never go away.

What did have an impact vis-a-vis Reverend Wright was that Mr. Obama threw him under the bus for nothing more than political gain.

Twenty years. Was Mr. Obama in the pews? Who the hell really cares? If he was in the pews then shame on him for lending endorsement to such talk. If he wasn’t in the pews then shame on him for not going to church more often.

What matters is that Mr. Obama presents himself as something other than the same old same old. But he isn’t. Listen to what they say but watch what they do; a tried and true axiom.

I would wager that I am the only beer drinkin’, church goin’, gun totin’, anti-tradin', xenophobin', frustrated, typical white guy in the country to feel sympathy for the Reverend. He and his wife must be brokenhearted. Twenty years.

But a handful of Reverend Wrights’ words have stuck with me. He said what a minister had to say and Mr. Obama said what a politician had to say. Just Words? Reverend Wright was on the mark and Mr. Obamas' abandonment speech came a day later, right on cue.

Twenty years, publicly thrown away in the blink of an eye. Between the Philadelphia speech and the abandonment speech by Mr. Obama, Reverend Wright said nothing different, he merely reiterated what he had said previously. Mr. Obama understood and justified his friend and mentor @Philadelphia. Twenty years. Publicly. Votes trumped.

Two weeks later and the finger to the wind suggested Mr. Obama save his political life.

Just another politician dreaming the impossible dream without question from those who believe stump speeches without question. Just another politician saying little and meaning it even less.

But the final straw for me was today and had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Obama, nor Mrs. Clinton, nor Mr. McCain. The decider was Shepard Smith.

In my retired old man routine I manage to listen to his program at noon (PDT). I don’t watch as I’m doing dishes or perhaps something even more pleasurable, but I listen.

He was interviewing some plasmanated head about the Democrats and, in particular, Mrs. Clintons’ insistence upon remaining in the race. The p-head said that the only way to stop Mrs. Clinton would be to shoot her!

Mr. Smith did not challenge such an inappropriate and seedy remark. In my mind it begged the most obvious question: If the p-head had said that about Mr. Obama how would Mr. Smith have reacted?

How would Al Sharpton have reacted? One thing certain they would have reacted with much the same zeal that will be seen in Denver if Mr.Obama does not exit riding that Democratic donkey along a path of fronds.

Mrs. Clinton could carry every state from this point forward by 100% to 0% and it wouldn’t matter. I have had Mr. Obama shoved a little too far down my throat. I see the Democratic party as being held hostage.

(A party about which I am also having serious doubts since Sean Penn and Rosie O’Donnell and the Daily KOS and the Huffington Post don’t speak for me.

Neither do Michael Moore, nor Al Franken, nor all the others who think endless criticism is some sort of panacea within which to wallow rather than a non-productive waste of time. Negativity and hate? No thanks.

The performance of the crowd elected to Congress in 2006 has been nothing short of dismal. The only bipartisan efforts I see is their willingness to upstage each other and the occasional "mother earth" commercial currently making the rounds.)

Two or three days ago Mr. Obama was speaking somewhere or other and said, paraphrasing here, that to those who have health insurance he was going to enact legislation to give them a $2500 reduction in their annual premium.

!!!! as if. Which insurance company will be the first to agree to that? ... and that if you don’t have/can’t afford health insurance: we’re going to give it to you.

I’ve been wondering about those estimated 15 million that seem to remain uninsured. They are the difference between the two candidates health plans as best I can tell. The only thing I could imagine was another entitlement.

Lo and behold he said just that. Sweet Jesus! Another entitlement and, no doubt, to the inclusion of illegal immigrants. After all, we are the liberals and oh yeh, we need that Hispanic vote. No wonder the southern border is overrun.

Another contributor to my voting decision is the disgusting and never ending behavior of the media. Leading the way, hands down, Keith Olberman. When MSNBC sent out the memo about wanting it’s commentators to be in bed with Mr. Obama, it was meant figuratively, not literally.

Nobody told Mr. Olberman. And that Chris Mathews fellow? Good Lord! Not to worry as FOX has it’s own Obapologist. Some horned-rim bespeckled fellow who can excuse, justify and explain away anything and everything.

Mrs. Clinton will never win the good judgement/good character trophy but in fairness she never laid claim to it. Mr. Obama did. I will support Mr. Obama in the general election but the Democrats and the Democratic Party have become a crowd I no longer recognize.

Their drive to out-liberal each other has resulted in a fractured constituency hellbent on losing an election that was damn near a given.
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"Chess", Broadway production, Andrew Lloyd Webber

“What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term, it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its’ national borders in every way...Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?” (1)

Nikita Kruschev at the United Nations? No. That’s Mr. Putin at the Munich Security Conference in February of 2007. Is that the heart Mr. Bush saw as he gazed into Mr. Putins’ eyes?

No, because Mr. Bush never learned much about the heart of a Russian. Not asked was the corollary, what did Mr. Putin see when he looked Mr. Bush in the eye?

He apparently saw the heart of a person to whom the idea of democracy had made the long, strange trip from ideology to idolatry. When Mr. Reagan talked of tearing down the Berlin wall what, do you suspect, was the vision of the United States?

My guess is a vision which included the disintegration of Mother Russia and it’s empire, the USSR. Little countries would then rise up from the ashes and form ten or twelve happy little democracies, running around with smiling faces, voting all the time, flourishing newspapers, tolerance of dissent, and the like.

Overwhelmed with gratitude to the United States for loosening their chains and showing them the Way. A virtual shatterbelt of democracy nearly encircling Russia and buffering eastern Europe.

Democracy would rule the day and eventually the world. All peoples wanted the perks of liberty and freedom. The Ipods and Cinnabons and blue jeans. Democracy, long heralded as the truth and the light, was becoming the Way as well.

It works, arguably, for the United States and look at the overwhelming success story the United States is. Of course it also worked for Aristotle’s Athens.

Mr. Bush is of an Evangelical mind set. Nothing wrong with that. It is, however, a glance into his tendency to evangelize ideology. After 9/11, he did.

Countries not particularly interested in democracy were gradually characterized as evil. It has since come to pass and has been endorsed by each of the current candidates for the American Presidency.

The United States will continue down the path, not of Republic, but of empire. The ideology of democracy has become, in The Capitol, the golden calf of the Israelites at Sinai. The United States will enforce the conversions of every country to the dogma of democracy.

Napoleon and the pigs were right all along. Every country will come to accept democracy as the Way. Washington, DC, as Mr. Putin suspects, the lead guiding light.

So what happened?

Well, those little cultures, now free of the Soviet grip, did emerge as little countries. Little Muslim countries. Little countries devoid of any commonality except Islam. Fill-in-the-blank-istans all over places where the United States thought democroworld would be embraced, by the populous, as the end all. And when times get tough (and when aren’t they in Muslim countries?) to whom do these little fiefdoms turn?

Mr. Putins’ successor, old what’s his name, is a much more westernized edition of Mr. Putin. More Pizzazz, less KGB. Mr. What’s his name will cobble together a newer, leaner, meaner and much more threatening Soviet Union. And who’s to blame them? Disrespected since 1989 and now threatened by democratic ideology run amuck.

The United States is continuing to install 15 missile bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. The assertion being they are to protect that part of the world from an increasingly fanatical Middle East.

Which is true so long as the missiles are pointed south. That’s not what Mr. Putin saw in Mr. Bushs’ eyes. Mr. Putin saw those missiles pointed east.

Irony. The situation with The United States and Russia is the same as during the Cuban Missile Crisis except the roles are reversed. The United States justified its’ position then but cannot see the Russian position now; which is the same.

If you missed the First Cold War get ready to enjoy the second one. Not to worry, though, the weapons are bigger and rockets are faster but the threat of complete annihilation is a tremendous deterrent, even to fanatics. Everybodys’ gun will be loaded but no one will pull the trigger. Another day in Blusterville.

One good thing about a cold war is that everyone sort of stands down. Only two countries on this earth could ever hope to threaten the power and strength of The United States; China and Russia.

A confrontation with either is but a Taiwan or Kosovo away. The approaching cold war can’t get here soon enough. A cold war might save us from ourselves.



(1)“Ratcheting Up Rhetoric”,” Special Report: Reprochment With Russia?” Washington Times, 6/10/07

Once upon a time, in the West, there was this really scary guy. I was about 12-13 when I first saw him and he sure put the fear of God in me and all us kids. He could have killed us whenever he wanted to. Worse yet, he always looked as though he wanted to.

One evening, after dinner, my folks retired to the living room to watch the evening news. We had that TV for two or three years. It was pretty neat. None of us kids cared about the news but the rest of TV was fun to watch. Mom liked the TV too, and my Dad? Well, I never saw my Dad again.

So I was in my room playing with some toy, or homework, or myself, whichever, when my parents called me to come look at the news. The scariest man in the world was on and they wanted me to take a good look at him.

They told me that guy, or his ilk, would be the scourge of my generation. He who was to be feared. He can blow you up whenever he feels like it.

The TV was showing pictures from the United Nations and Mr. Nikita Kruschev was busily pounding his shoe on the desk. If it had been a color TV his face was probably beet red because even in black & white you could see the blood pounding through his neck.

He was scary and threatening and now he was mad.

He was angry because the Cold War was deepening and the US, among others, was concerned about his country building so many nuclear arms (of course the US wouldn’t have been doing anything like that)

Anyway, what I remembered even more than his cartoon-like antics was his words.

He kept insisting that the United States should not concern itself with a fear of being destroyed by Russian bombs from without.

He said the United States would be destroyed from within.

One big, scary Russian, that Nikita Kruschev, and perhaps wise.

The current menu of Presidential selections have two common bonds. First of those, they are politicians. Secondly, they all see some sort of bringing together of the country. To unite this country around whatever issue suits your fancy. Haven’t you heard each of them say that this country’s best days are ahead of it?

Do you believe that? Do you think it’s even possible?

It seems this country last came together during World War Two. Those people were just coming out of the Depression, only to have goods rationed. Everyone did without and everyone sacrificed.

Women handled the factory stuff so the men could go to war. Sports stars, movie stars joining the services in the prime of their careers. The citizenry of every hamlet financing the war through buying bonds, The list is endless. The United States was absolutely united.

But this is not that country. In the sixty odd years since, the United States has eroded. Is there a common bond left to be found? Is there one thread that would ignite the flame of unity? Is there even ONE issue which would garner bipartisan support nationwide?

I believe there is. But in a twist of astonishing irony no politician will completely address the issue. The issue has been labeled as ‘political suicide’!

“In 1960, 18 million black Americans, 10% of the nation, were not fully integrated into society, but they had been assimilated into our culture. They worshiped the same God, spoke the same language, had endured the same depression and wars, watched the same four TV shows on the same four channels, laughed at the same comedians, went to the same movies, ate the same foods, read the same newspapers, and went to schools where, even when segregated, we learned the same history and literature and shared the same holidays.

Segregation existed, but black folks were as American as apple pie, having lived in this land longer than almost any other group save the Native Americans. That cultural unity, that sense that we were one people, is gone.” (1)

Would one of you Presidential selections please be so kind as to close down our southern border?

We mean really close it.

Seal it up.

We don’t care what the country of Mexico thinks or feels. We don’t care if the world sees us as isolationist. We don’t care if we are seen as racists. We don’t care what Amendments get stepped on. We don’t care about politically correct. We don’t care about republicans or democrats.

We care about the preservation of our culture. Why don’t you?

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(1) Buchanan, Patrick, “State of Emergency”, St. Martin’s Press, NY, NY. pp. 176-177.

Dear Reader,
If you have made it this far may I ask for three minutes of your time to do a little test?

PLEASE???

Thanks! Please look at the clock on your toolbar and, for two minutes, conjure up the negatives you know, or have heard, about Senator Obama.

5...4...3...2...1. So. How did you do? Anything? Anything at all? Need more time?

In the previous post I referred to Mr. Obama as the boy in the bubble. A reader suggested to me the comment was racially charged.
I was raised in the deep south and lived through the turmoil of the 60's. I know the inferences of the word boy.

You see, my young friend, there actually was a boy that lived in a bubble. I know nothing of his circumstance but I imagine he lacked any sort of immunity to anything. He wasn’t the problem, the entire world was.

Through the years the boy in the bubble has become a metaphor (at least to me) for a person who is well insulated. Well protected from the slings and arrows. I hope the little test above would bear that out. Here, in Oregons' winter, I wish I were in the house in the bubble.

The politicians, the candidates and even the plasmanated heads are either enamored by Mr. Obama or lack the will/courage to be the prick. Regardless of the reason the bubble is there. The aforementioned know that just one prick will open a Pandoras’ Box of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton types.

I like both those guys although I wish they did a little less rabble-rousing. Reverend Sharpton I find particularly entertaining and he often makes biting and intelligent observations. Reverend Jackson can always be relied upon for a clever and insightful rhyme-time. But my moral compass?

Let me give you an example of a prick. There’s a Congressman I like very much. He should be a Senator by now and would make every bit as good a presidential candidate as Mr. Obama himself. I would wager that Mr. Obama would wholeheartedly agree with that observation.

Congressman Harold Ford, a Tennessee Democrat, was on his way to being elected to the Senate. Just days before the election a commercial appeared in Tennessee that inferred a physical connection between Congressman Ford and female Caucasians.

Congressman Ford lost. One prick burst the bubble because that sentiment awakened the emotions of thousands within Tennessee. A not so subtle reminder of...well, let me leave it at that; a reminder.

Senator Obama knows about the Ford episode. I would imagine he also knows there are millions of pricks within these United States. Once he becomes the candidate (anyone think he won’t) and this becomes a red/blue, elephant/donkey, left/right or conservative/liberal affair; those millions of pricks will be pointed at him. Those millions of pricks couldn’t care less about red/blue, elephant/donkey, left/right or conservative/liberal.

You know how those millions of pricks see things, don’t you?