There must be an analogy here, somewhere.

Sarah Palin, in probably one of her more pressing duties of the day, visited a turkey farm to "pardon" one lucky bird, then went on to brainlessly babble on in yet another interview. Honestly, I didn't really hear a regurgitated word she said. Once again, I was transfixed by the ongoing train wreck that is Sarah Palin.

People, you cannot make this stuff up.

Academic bias?

About a month ago, I wrote a post about how I didn't want my president to be "like me".This was in response to Sarah Palin ramming her idea down America's throats that she was "just like us". Just like the "Hockey Moms" and the "Joe Six-Packs", and whatever other labels she threw out like so much bread crumbs at a city park. I felt that the last person that should run for public office should be anything like me, or like the millions of average people in this country. I wanted someone extraordinary, which would imply someone who had a hell of a lot more education and experience than me, and I would like to think I was not alone in that opinion.

But, so many people want for President someone they can identify with, someone they could see themselves sitting across the table with, eating a piece of pie, or having a cuppa joe. They see a man clearing brush on his movie set ranch in Texas and fall head over heels in admiration...they see a man in a mortarboard and gown adorned with gold braids and they back away in a desperate need to avoid a lecture.

We've all probably have raked the leaves, but we all haven't walked through a college campus. It's a common denominator issue at play. Easily understandable, but at times, that thought process should be put on hold.

Here's an interview with Monty Python alumni, John Cleese, making some valid points on Americas' seemingly biased attitude towards academia. He touches on it around the one-minute mark.




If I need a doctor, a lawyer, or someone to advise me in financial affairs, I would want to seek out who I felt was the most qualified in their field, not someone I considered a friend. Do you ever hear, "I'm going to have an appendectomy by Dr. So-in-So because I had a beer with him the other night and we shot a few rounds of darts and I really had a good time"? No, hopefully most people would research and seek out a doctor who is deft with a scalpel...may not have the best bed side manner, but has a excellent success rate.

So, I say again, I don't want my President to be "like me". Think about it...how scary would that be? It's frightening enough that based on his fifteen minutes of fame, Joe the Plumber (who may or may not have a six-pack) is considering a run for Congress, and that the McCain/Palin ticket is using his pearls of "wisdom" as talking points in their floundering attempt at a campaign. And now, at a campaign stop Friday, McCain introduced Joe as his "mentor".

And I thought Halloween was over with.

Mocked effigy

In West Hollywood, a man has decked out his home for this "holiday", and for whatever reason cannot understand the hoopla that is surrounding said display.

John McCain poping out of his chimney as Satan. Sarah Palin hanging from a noose.

McCain aside, the effigy of Palin is the one that is creating the most outcry. And I couldn't agree more. We all know that if it were Obama in place of Palin, it would be considered a hate crime because of the color of Obama's skin.

The Feds eventually gave Chad Morrisette, the creator of the macabre tableau a visit yesterday and determined that no violent intentions were afoot. Morrisette declared that, "If it's a political statement, it's that (McCain's and Palin's) politics are scary to us."

Okay, make Palin a witch, then...don't hang her from a tree. Mock lynchings are not cool. I don't care who is at the receiving end.

Sarah goes shopping!

The RNC must not have taken well to Sarah Palin and family's cold-weather duds, so, they decked them out in new threads form Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue at the tune of $125,000, this according to Politico.com.

The down-to-earth hockey mom didn't insist on shopping at Kohl's? Wal-Mart? After all, she's just like us every-day Americans.

That's okay, may the new wardrobe be a nice parting gift November 6th.

From Disney to Hollywood

First, it had been pointed out in different blogs and mentioned by pundits that the meteoric (or is that mediocre? The words sound alike, I tend to get them mixed up) rise of Sarah Palin was something that could have come from a Disney screenplay. Hockey-mom becomes one "Oh, Shit" away from the big chair in the Oval Office.

Now we have a story that reeks of Hollywood..."Joe the Plumber".

Oh, sorry, Hollywood already did that. How one man gets thrust into the center of a Presidential election. The movie was "Swing Vote", starring Kevin Costner.



Gawd, I can't wait until after November...

Why so serious?

According to the Boston Globe website, on Fox News "Hannity and Colmes" show tonight, there was a joint interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, and one of the subjects that came up was the debates. Here is what Senator McCain had to say about how he and Governor Palin "advise" each other before an upcoming debate:

“Well, the only advice we give each other is to have fun -- two words. And we talk before the debates and just -- have fun. And it was obvious that certainly Sarah was having fun at her debate, and I was trying to have fun at mine. And I think we did.”

Is the McCain camp even taking this election seriously? Maybe they think they are so certain of victory they feel they can have a laissez-faire attitude about a very serious process. McCain asks a relative unknown to be his running mate, and she admittedly doesn't even blink before she said "Ya betcha!" (or something to that effect), and this is okay with the Senator? I put more time and effort into deciding what flavor toothpaste I want. But, hey, that's just me.

Maybe it's a "Maverick/Pitbull" thing. Last time I checked, though, mavericks were loose and reckless and pitbulls were unpredictable and dangerous.

I understand that the whole debate process has turned into another form of entertainment, like survival shows and celebrity dance competitions. Maybe that's the reason for the "fun" attitude of McCain/Palin. But when you add that to McCain's hasty pick of a VP, one who winks when debating the issues, his announcement of his sudden "suspension"of his campaign so he could rush back to Washington and deal with the financial crisis that left many shaking their heads in one big massive "what?"...it's a pattern of short-sighted planning and highly questionable moves.

But, hey, it's all in fun. At who's expense? I just hope it isn't at the expense of the American people in the end.

Two cents, for what it's worth

Just a few points about last night's debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin:

Sarah Palin did exactly what I expected her to do last night. I did not expect her to "crash and burn", and honestly, I didn't feel like watching another train wreck. After the Katie Couric debacle, I am sure Palin went through a crash course in VP 101. So, her ability to auto-pilot her way through the debate was no surprise.

I've read that she is a "good" debater, albeit a snarky one, in my opinion. In the 2006 Alaska Gubernatorial debates when asked rhetorically what positions in her administration would there be for her opponents if she were to offer, Palin suggested that former Governor Tony Knowles would make a good chef.

Her ability to toss zingers at her opponents to me isn't a sign of a "good debater". It's like faling back on curse words when one has a limited vocabulary. Yes, I know all politicians have and use quips and barbs. They make for good sound-bites. It seems though when Palin quips, she comes off as being catty. Even when she is trying to inject personal sincerity, like when she mentioned Biden's wife who was killed in a auto accident, adding, "Her reward's in Heaven, right?" it comes off like a non sequitor. Or at least an oddly placed thumb.

Maybe Palin thought she was bringing light-hearted banter to the table when asking Senator Biden at the start of last night's debate, "Hey, can I call you Joe?" (like, what else would she call him, yeah, don't ask, I can imagine). But the chummy, cutesy banter falls flat for me. When she "talks" to the American public, denoting them as "Hockey Moms and Joe Six-Packs", it shows that she really is insular to the rest of the country, and I don't mean location-wise. Does she really feel a need to slap on some stupid label on the people she is trying to reach, as if that makes them more tangible for her? It's ingratiating and patronizing.

Obviously, I have a problem with Sarah Palin that goes beyond politics. It's visceral, guttural and most likely not logical. When she keeps on harping, "I'm just like you!", all I can think is how much she isn't like me. Or anyone else I know, for that matter. I don't know who "Joe Six-Pack" is, whether he's a beer drinker or likes to hang out at the gym a lot...either way, that isn't my husband, or my dad, or my neighbor. Hockey isn't a practiced sport in my area, but if "Hockey Moms" are anything like "Little League Moms", that even distances me further from feeling any connection.

Oh, was that me waxing stereotypically? Just going with Palin's line of thinking, that's all.

In all honesty, I don't want a President or his Second in Command to be like me at all. The only connection I want to feel is one of security knowing that the persons that were elected by the people, work for the people, and that once elected, know what the hell they are doing.

Shark-infested Waters

In an article in the NY News and World Report, Sarah Palin had this to say about Joe Biden, her VP opponent, at a rally in Ohio:

"I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in second grade."

Where exactly was Palin going with this? She could have been commenting about the man's verbosity. But, when one has been a Senator since 1972, I would like to think the person has racked up a lot of words in that time.

If one were to look at this at an age angle, Sarah is forty-four, which would have made second grade thirty-seven years ago, basing that Palin was seven at the time.

How old was her running mate when Sarah was in second grade?

Just saying...is it wise to make a crack (or a loosely-veiled dig) at your opponent's age while you are standing next to your seventy-two year old running mate? Hell, who knows what Palin meant to point out with that comment. Anyway, regardless on what the comment meant, I sure hope Palin remembers to use that zinger at Thursday's debate.

McCain has been crying "Gotcha Journalism" in regards to Palin's past interviews. But, for the love of Mike, tell the woman to leave the fishing lures at home. The waters are well full of chum as it is.

Sarah's Next Door Neighbors

Sarah Palin knows International Politics because she lives next door to Russia. Well, she certainly does. Vladimir Putin probably flies right over her house, you betcha, when he's "rearing his head", as she explained to Katie Couric in the infamous interview that left most people totally gob-smacked.



This is what is "next door" to Alaska. Big Diomede Island, next to Little Diomede Island (U.S. has claim to that one). Big D is inhabited mostly by Innuit, more precisely, the Chukchi people. It's roughly eleven square miles in area. Most likely these people have never even heard of Sarah Palin.

Sarah, who?

If Sarah Palin believes her proximity to Russia makes her knowledgeable in international affairs, then the fact that I live a block away from a hospital I believe qualifies me to run an MRI machine.

Scary thought? It should be.

A man hears what he wants to hear...

In a stop in Virgina, Barack Obama, obviously not listening to the little voices in his head screaming "SHUT UP!!!!", spoke (mis-, or otherwise) on the McCain/Palin ticket...

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

Most people heard this metaphor, loose as it was, and depending what side of the fence they were on, ran with it. Or not.

Did he call Sarah Palin a "pig"? Did he say Sarah Palin wears lipstick? Did she call John McCain a pig, if Palin were to give McCain a kiss?

Better yet, did Obama just say something stupid in the heat of the moment? Most likely.

Since Obama was so metaphorically inclined, he should have said something along the lines of "making a silk purse from a sow's ear". I mean, I think that is where Obama was heading, or least trying to, with his lipsticked pig metaphor.

Other words, Obama was most likely pointing out that the "Oh, wow, gee-whiz!!!" that is Sarah Palin is an attempt to cover the fact that, hey, this is still John McCain, this is still the possibility of four more years of the past eight years, this is still business as usual, but with a new player...who I point out (and hopefully most people) is not a pig, may wear lipstick, may own silk purses, and is not a sow's ear.

I am reminded of my favorite of all metaphors, pointing out how easily manipulated we, the masses are:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances--Wm. Shakespeare

On a Mission from God?

Well, that's what Sarah Palin's opinion seems to be regarding sending troops to Iraq, if her speech to a graduating class at the Walsila Assembly of God church is any indication.

I understand that for those of belief find comfort in praying to a Higher Power asking he/she/it to watch over our Military, or our loved ones, or the elderly woman who lives alone down the street. But to loftily label an ill-entered war as "a task that is from God", well, gee, I guess that makes it just hunky-dory.

Weren't the hijackers on 9/11 supposedly on "a mission from God (Allah)", too? How about The Spanish Inquisition? The Salem Witch Trials? Were these atrocities sanctioned by God?

I am in NO way comparing our military to a terrorist entity or a raving mob. Or a power hungry church hierarchy. I am just pointing out that I really doubt God approves of these kinds of messages. At least I hope the God of my knowledge wouldn't put his stamp of approval on these actions of men.

But then, I could be just one more person speaking for God, and I think there is enough of those already.

A woman for woman's sake?

Today, John McCain picked Alaskan governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate for the GOP.

The Democrats couldn't offer you a woman, but the Republicans can...so there!

That's the feeling I get. Or maybe that's just me.

Yes, I'm most likely seeing this through a cynic's eye. Obama could have easily done the same, pick a woman VP to calm the feelings of those felt let down by the party when Clinton didn't win the nomination. But, he didn't. If he did, I would call 'pandering' just as I am with McCain.

Then, I could be wrong. I'm sure it's a very savvy move, politically.*

*In desperate need of a sarcasm icon.