Comedy and Tragedy

I haven't had time to really digest tonight's State of the Union Address, but at times, didn't Vice President Biden and Speaker of the House Boehner kind of mimic the ancient comedy and tragedy masks?

And maybe that division is appropriate? We're going to build railroads, we're going to cut spending, we're going to invest in education, we're going to cut spending, it's our generation's Sputnik moment, but we're going to cut spending.

I don't know how we can talk about cutting spending without talking about cutting the defense budget, but that topic never seems to come up. Well, President Obama did mention it -- "The Secretary of Defense has also agreed to cut tens of billions of dollars in spending that he and his generals believe our military can do without" -- but I dread the fear-mongering that will ultimately prevent that move.

The energy independence thing is a really cool idea though. Of course, it was cool when Jimmy Carter talked about it... and every president since then.

I know President Obama's speech was supposed to be a bit of a pep talk for our nation, but for whatever reason, I'm feeling overly cynical tonight. At times I felt like Obama was groveling to the teabaggers. At times I thought he was trying to make John Boehner cry.

Looking Forward

"It's easy to make your voice heard," proclaims Change.gov, Barack Obama's web site. The president-elect is taking questions, and after this recent round, the people's concern is clear. The highest ranked question asks, "Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

The response was disappointing with both Biden and Obama reiterating the need to look forward above all else:

Vice President-elect Biden, 12/21/08: “[T]he questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is—is something the Justice Department decides. Barack Obama and I are—President-elect Obama and I are not sitting thinking about the past. We’re focusing on the future… I’m not ruling [prosecution] in and not ruling it out. I just think we should look forward. I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”

Barack Obama, 01/11/09: We’re still evaluating how we’re going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we’re going to be looking at past practices and I don’t believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that for example at the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering [up].

Of course we need to look forward, but I, for one, was looking forward to seeing Dick Cheney behind bars!

Well, let me put it another way. Investigating crimes and prosecuting offenders is forward looking! We are a nation of laws, and if we do not prosecute, then those laws are meaningless. If we do not prosecute, we are not protecting our very purpose as a nation: liberty and justice for all. If we do not prosecute, then evil triumphs.

Our government's corruption, lies and crimes have been egregious and gone unchecked for too long. We yawn when Cheney admits to war crimes in primetime. We turn the page when we learn that banking regulators didn't enforce regulations. We hardly notice when the Bush Administration refuses to bring charges of perjury against a former head of the Justice Department. Maybe people think that this is all normal?

Don't accept these transgressions as normal! House judiciary committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and nine other lawmakers aim to establish a Blue Ribbon Commission comprised of experts outside government service to investigate the broad range of policies of the Bush administration. A great idea, but if our new President feels he can't look backwards, then maybe the evidence should be turned over to the World Court.

See that picture I posted of the rear-view mirror? It is possible to look forward and backward at the same time. In fact, it is necessary.

Surreal

I don't like to overuse this word, but today is a day I can describe as surreal. When I watch these recent videos at GOP rallies where audience members are shouting "treason" and "kill him" whenever the name Barack Obama is mentioned... when I see McCain's supporters laughing at Joe Biden's tragic story of losing his wife and daughter... when McCain and Palin encourage threats by not discouraging them... what other word can I use?

I've never seen a presidential candidate act so purely anti-American. Nine months ago I never dreamed I'd be so horrified with McCain. I admit I never loved him, but I expected to see a fair and honorable campaign not this desperate shit.

And what will happen if McCain and Palin win? It's bad enough we're fearful over our economy and national security, but now McCain is determined to divide us? I'm disgusted.

McCain is not a man who can lead the world or this country. Sure he can play to his rally audience. That's what he's doing. Working the converted into a mob mentality. I fear the result will be a repeat of last summer's Valley Unitarian Universalist Church shooting. McCain and Palin only need to trigger one mentally-unstable bigot...

McCain and Palin inspire hatred and praise Jesus all in the same breath.

The Secret Service are now investigating the threat made at the McCain-Palin event. What will it take before they investigate Sarah Palin?

Can I Call You Joe?

Golly, ain't she folksy? Yet worldly enough to know a homosexual or two. Yet arrogant enough to say she may not answer the questions tonight. Yet stupid enough to criticize the MSM (wow, is she pissed at Couric or what?). And dangerous enough to want to expand the powers of the vice presidency. Yikes!

IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.

IFILL: Vice President Cheney's interpretation of the vice presidency?

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

Wow, Sarah Palin's reply to that question was the most disturbing moment tonight. I started to have one of those panic moments reminiscent of when Bush was reelected. I'm seeing a grim future for our country in one sudden flash.

Joe Biden, however, was impressive tonight. He has command of the issues. His answers were clear and crisp, and he defended Senator Obama when necessary. His best quip was "past is prologue" when Palin complained Democrats were constantly looking backwards. Well, the world is still suffering for the crimes of the Bush administration! Palin, in here folksy twang, brushed off these crimes as "huge blunders." Yeah, let's not hold any high-level officials accountable. Let's not look at what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again. Let's not look back because we might realize McCain-Palin would be as disastrous as Bush-Cheney.

Oh, Palin tried to push the myth that they would somehow be different than Bush-Cheney, but she couldn't offer one single example how. Neither did she offer to "get back to ya on that one."

She also pushed the other myth that our enemies hate us for our freedom. Can we get over this childish explanation offered by... BUSH? (I thought they wanted to distance themselves from Bush?) Let me just make it clear. Our enemies hate us for our foreign policies and they hate us for our airstrikes.

I suppose you can say Sarah Palin exceeded expectations tonight if you were expecting her to cry or pass out. She did neither of those. Instead she met my expectations. I fully anticipated the fake folksy cartoonish personality. I expected the awkward nonanswers mechanically sticking to talking points and attack lines. I expected that she could not explain anything in detail. But I never would have expected Palin's indifferent response to a very personal story from Biden (if video doesn't show, click here):



Where was Palin's folksy hometown response to that? Nowhere. You can read the debate transcript here, and a few more of my own comments on Twitter.

Biden won. Doggone it, that's the unvarnished truth.

Change is Coming?

Overall, McCain's speech wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't as awkward and painful as that one in June, but when "the maverick" starts railing against big government, corruption, and policy failures, my first thought is that he has amnesia. He's forgotten about the last 8 years and thinks he still has to vehemently fight the evil Democrat in the White House. Then I realize he's subtly trying to divorce himself from the Bush administration:

"I'm grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack in American history."

That was his only mention of George W. Bush. That's a good sign. However, it doesn't mean I trust McCain. Because when McCain talks about fighting lobbyists, I worry that few voters understand that his principal foreign policy adviser is Randy Scheunemann -- a man who Pat Buchanan describes as "a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man." In other words, McCain's foreign policy adviser is a lobbyist! Regardless of what you might think of Buchanan, that linked article is an informative one and worthy of a read.

Regarding corruption, McCain said, "I've fought corruption, and it didn't matter if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. They violated their public trust, and they had to be held accountable." I wonder if that means he'll be seriously considering prosecuting anybody from the Bush administration? Joe Biden, on the other hand, recently said that criminal violations will be pursued.

The remainder of McCain's speech was unremarkable and humorless. He said the usual stuff about taxes -- Democrats are "tax and spend" -- but personally I've come to prefer that to the Republican policy of "borrow and bomb" which I firmly believe McCain will be sticking to.

McCain also took the standard Republican call to drill here and drill now:

We'll attack -- we'll attack the problem on every front. We'll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells off-shore, and we'll drill them now. We'll drill them now.

We'll -- we'll -- my friends, we'll build more nuclear power plants. We'll develop clean-coal technology. We'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We'll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.

I won't pretend to be a body language expert, but I have a good intuition about expressions. Did anybody else notice the little eye twitch when McCain said "electric automobiles"? It was more like an eye roll that showed disregard and said to me "yeah! right!"

Finally, I was noticing the handmade signs in the audience. Here were a few of my favorites:

You Can't Win An Occupation
McCain Votes Against Vets
The Mavrick

(That was the actual spelling on the last one.) Anyway, this concludes my coverage of the conventions, but I'll keep on blogging about the world as I see it.

Welcoming Committee

Last week ended with such a great feeling. This week, those great feelings are fading.

Last week I watched the Democratic National Convention. I got some unusual history lessons. I heard Joe Biden, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and others deliver remarkable speeches that were right on target. I watched Barack Obama make history accepting his party's nomination.

This week seems like a media circus and it's only Monday. I can barely keep up.

Hurricane Gustav has interrupted the Republican National Convention, and McCain's VP choice has a pregnant unwed teenage daughter. Some are referring to this as Hurricane Bristol. Ha!

And then there are these violent anti-war protests in St. Paul that aren't getting much attention, or at least not getting the type of attention they deserve. Glenn Greenwald has been reporting on the government raids on protesters:

As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Today's Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

So our government has time to infiltrate vegan groups but seems to be shrugging off the Obama assassination plot?

This is turning into a bad week. I try to look on the bright side. If Sarah Palin can be VP, then I guess anybody can. Wait. That's not a good thing. Never mind.

The Candidates

"Enough!" That's what Barack Obama said last night to eight years of Republican rule. He said what needed to be said and accepted the nomination with gratitude and humiliation. I'm happy, proud, and relieved that's he's the Democratic candidate.

Of course, as you know, Obama has picked Joe Biden as his VP. Biden's electoral history goes back 38 years. Obama made a wise choice based on experience and governance.

Then today we get the news of John McCain's VP choice: Sarah Palin. What I've learned about her so far is that she is the governor of Alaska (elected a mere 20 months ago), a "hockey mom," a social conservative, has almost no foreign policy experience, and doesn't even know what the Vice President does. I haven't even written a punchline, and I'm laughing already.

Of course everybody will be contrasting these two VP choices, but I only have a few comments.

McCain did not make a wise choice. He made a very cynical and political choice. He's fishing for the angry PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass). Those are the bitter Clinton supporters who refuse to back Barack Obama and will instead, for some stupid reason, back McCain who is ideologically opposite of Hillary Clinton.

But I truly believe this group is a fraud. They are a handful of angry Clinton supporters being lead around by a bunch of Republicans. So if McCain wants to gamble on winning over a group of Democratic voters that are actually Republicans pretending to be Democrats, then he is sadly gullible.

And furthermore, wasn't McCain calling Obama inexperienced? Obama has served 8 years in the Illinois State Senate and 4 years in the U.S. Senate. Palin has been governor of Alaska for less than 2 years. These facts undermine the inexperienced argument. And remember the last time a governor became President? Bush!

Oh that brings me to Palin's innocent question about what the VP does. Traditionally, the VP is supposed to sit around and be prepared to be the most powerful leader on earth! You know, in case McCain keels over.

Anyway, the candidates are all lined up now. We know who's running for President and who they've picked for Vice President. We'll hear many debates of change versus experience, but in the end I always vote for whoever believes what I believe.

More Convention Coverage

Dennis Kucinich gets credit for the greatest line never spoken at a Democratic National Convention. Apparently Obama's campaign objected to this line addressing the Republicans: “They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”

Kucinich has balls for pushing the case for impeachment, but maybe the convention is not the proper time or place. This convention is for focusing on Barack Obama's message. Joe Biden did just that. He passionately pointed out that McCain has been wrong and Obama has been right on issues of national security:



That's the message the Obama campaign really needs to loudly proclaim.

Of course Hillary and Bill also gave good speeches, but I think the most remarkable speech you probably missed came from John Kerry. He spoke of a mission to restore America's influence and position in the world... using our values. He was also bold and brutal in his assertion that the Republicans have not made us safer. Where was this John Kerry in 2004?

I haven't really been following the Republican analysis of the Democratic National Convention, but I heard that their panties are in a bunch over the elaborate stage where Obama will deliver his Thursday night acceptance speech. I think maybe the neocons are taking the debate over the party platform a little too literally. Next they'll complain about the carpet and the feng shui.