Sarah Palin & the GOP
G’day, mate!
I saw something tonight that was entirely and thoroughly creepy. Got off of the Blue Line to transfer to the Yellow Line. It was a dark and stormy night (For real this time. It really was.) Lightning flaring, thunder cracking. I was on the last car so I was standing under the roofed area at the northern side of the station. I’ve been feeling kind of spacey and for some reason I looked up at the lights. Along the roof of the sheltered area there are lights — somewhere between 10 and 20 on each side I’m going to guess — inside big, white ball-like covers. Beneath every single one of the lights is a spider web and in the center of each web is a spider.
Big, dark, bulbous abdomens with wicked sharp looking legs. All the same kind. I couldn’t stop looking. The more I looked the more I saw. Above the lights where the wall of the shelter meets the slanted roof there are more webs and more spiders. They make the ones that like to build webs outside my doorway look congenial in comparison. They were the Shelobs to my Charlottes and Anansis.
I named the big one Bitey.
[the next day]
so. many. spiders. I tried taking a picture but couldn’t get a good shot. they’re too high up. and they’re only under the shelter at the north end of the stop. weird.
FOR THE PARTY
Okay. So. The Vice Presidential Candidates’ debate is on Thursday night. I’ve heard expressions of eagerness, anxiety and an assortment of other emotions. I don’t understand this whole Sarah Palin thing. I mean, if you’re socially conservative then you’re probably thrilled (in a socially conservative context) that she’s on the ticket — that your views are represented. And of course, I recognize (as Sheila pointed out) that the Republican Party represents a set of values. Or the party platform does. And many people are loyal to the party and the platform.
So where I would say, the Republican Party hasn’t behaved very conservatively for the past 8 to 20 years or so, it still has iconic tenets: small government, free enterprise, unfettered capitalism, pro-life/anti-abortion, pro-death penalty(?), pro-gun, traditional marriage (i.e. no to the g-a-y).
But aside from the social facets of the platform, man. Heck, I’m still thoroughly perplexed by the fact that Bush was elected. Twice! How the hell… And how did he “win” any debate. That’s the thing about Palin. If she survives the debates with a shred of dignity intact, which I’m sure she will, the spin will be in saying that she’s the greatest VP pick ever. Right now, expectations are low so she doesn’t have to do much to maintain a level of support and she’s a charismatic woman.
So. The last eight years?
FAIL!
Two wars. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Bin Laden is still free. The Taliban is resurging in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda is still around and virulent, as an organization comprised of semi-autonomous cells will be. The Surge seems to have curbed violence along with other factors but now that it’s over there are still more troops in Iraq than before the surge. The way the Bush
Administration used fear to manipulate the public. Remember the color coded terror threats?
We’re now a debtor nation. If I have my facts straight, there was a surplus when Bush took office. What are our deficits now? The corruption and scandal.
Are the fundamentals of our economy strong? Deregulated industries do crazy things. In my philosophy, the government’s job is to protect and defend its citizens. That includes protecting its citizens, not only from physical attack, but from the exploitation of corporate interests. That’s why regulations are put in place to begin with. That’s why we used to have anti-monopoly and anti-trust laws (that were enforced). It is not coincidence that an administration chock full of oil industry shills has “coincidentally” led to record profits for oil companies. Record profits for oil companies when the country’s economy is tanking. Dick Cheney’s secret energy meetings. Remember those? His former company gets no bid contracts. American soldiers dying from that company’s shoddy workmanship.
John McCain may be a war hero, but that has not a thing to do with being qualified for the presidency. The way he’s using his being captured and imprisoned is dishonorable, imo.
“We have to help Main St. America so that people won’t lose their homes…”
“I know what it’s like to not have a house. When I was being tortured by the Vietnamese.”
WTF.
SARAH
And that brings me to Mrs. Palin. To my Republican friends, do you feel that she’s qualified to be Vice President and very possibly President? Or does that really matter. I mean (and I’m not being sarcastic or snarky here) is it more important to have the party in the Executive Branch? You know. Get your party in the White House, which will lead to a conservative Supreme Court and then you’re in a position to bring to fruition some of those Republican tenets.
Palin has been kept under wraps for nearly a month now. The press hasn’t been allowed anywhere near her other than the prime time interviews. The interviews with Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt don’t count. No off the cuff questions or statements allowed. And very little if anything unsupervised. Does that sound like someone who’s ready to be VP? I mean, if you can’t be expected to handle yourself in public, then how….
It is monumental that we may have a female Vice President. But there’s no reason to celebrate if the candidate isn’t top notch. Like when Larry King asked Chris Rock about Obama, a black man, possibly being president, Chris Rock said, “Well, this black man. If it were Flava Flav, that would be different.”
Or like I said in a previous blog, Alan Keyes is a black man but he’s a bit of a loon. And I’m not saying that any black person in the public eye needs to be liberal or a Democrat or card carrying member of the NAACP. Really, though, Keyes is a nut.
You get my point. Two snippets from Ellen Goodman’s blog:
- There are the readers in my inbox who echoed this sentiment: “Frankly I think the Republicans have found themselves a good ol’ boy and she happens to wear a skirt.”
- After all, Sarah Palin may yet be the fulfillment of an old feminist prophecy that Texan Sissy Farenthold once described with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek. We will have achieved equality the day mediocre women take their place beside mediocre men. Check that one off the to-do list.
Mediocre? For this national scene, I think so. Then again, Bush was/is mediocre as well. And somehow, that played.
BAIL OUT
Is there anyone who can explain to me what this financial mess is all about? And can you dumb it down? The simplest I’ve heard is that we’re suffering a severe credit deficit. Is that just a way of saying that it’s really hard to get loans? Or that financial institutions don’t have the money to loan? Would we feel better if we joined Chinese banks? Hmmm.
What would it mean if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went under? Or the large companies mentioned in the news.
I don’t even know what a Depression would look like these days. Mass unemployment? 25% or so. What would that look like. Sky high gas and food prices? Food lines?? Man, imagine the crime rate in our society if 25% of the population were unemployed for months on end. Not that it’s going to happen. I’m just wondering because I really don’t understand all of this stuff. Recessions and what not.
If it’s critical enough to bail out with $700 billion dollars … is it because of how the value of our currency abroad would be affected? Would that trigger inflation or do other factors trigger inflation?
Do any of these experts really know what they’re talking about? Aren’t they the ones who got us in this mess?
Filed under: Nature & Science, News & Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: election, john mccain, nature, political, sarah palin, spiders
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