LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE, UP OR DOWN.

In my dictionary the word liberal means "Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values." I like that word "open." Open, to me, means alive. Open to new ideas, new feelings, new knowledge. Open means you're not stuck, you're free-flowing, if something new looks better than what you've been doing, you're willing to try it out. You're open. Openess leads to evolution. Yeah, Mother Nature's a liberal. How do you think we crawled out of the ocean, over the land, and into the present. Openess. Openess leads to learning, which leads to advancement, which leads to things moving forward. Mistakes are made, that's part of any learning, but being open you learn from those mistakes, and that gives you knowledge. Someone who's liberal becomes wiser, more experienced, more open. What's wrong with that?

Conservative on the other hand, according to my dictonary, means "Holding to traditional values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion."
Holding. Not letting go. Stuck in the same place and locking all the doors. Suffocating. Repeating the same things over and over again because it's what you've always done and, if it's up to you, what you'll always do. Cautious about change. Boring. Scaredy cats. Change makes them nervous they may discover something that contradicts their precious traditional values. Conservative thinking is a coffin where the only innovation is the amazing amount of dust it collects. If nature was conservative we'd still be breathing water.

So, how did liberal become a dirty word, while the word conservative is allowed to be waved like a flag of honor? Why have the dust-gatherers been allowed to intimidate those in tune with true evolution? Why are the zombies ruling the living?

George Bush declared himself a 'compassionate conservative.' He is an arrogant, ignorant, boor, who has led this country into a series of disasters from which we may never recover. And now there's McCain, a prisoner once again, this time by the Conservative branch of his party. He's stifled his personal values, has gone from fighter to backbiter, and has run a shameful campaign. The conservatives have ruled this country through Bush, have ruined it, and still they insist their way is better. That's because they don't see anything except their way.

They have a shackled McCain to do their bidding. He sounds like McCain, looks like McCain, but he's become just another pod in conservative politics. Maverick, my ass. He's a conservative, and that means he can't move forward because he's always looking backward. The conservatives are taking America into the grave, we have to get out of that grave, get out into the open. Yeah, I like that word, 'open.' Let's open every window, every door, let's explore the new, push out the stale air of conservatism, and breath in fresh air, before it's too late.

Yeah, that's right, what I'm saying is, Vote for Obama.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

While the economy flounders, Barack and McCain engage in a contest of endurance rather than intelligence. What a shame. They might as well be having a daily food fight. I've learned nothing from either candidate. They are shadows waving the flag and spouting the message of the day, each message a strand in what they hope will be a big enough net to capture the most votes. They'll tell you what you want to hear, like a man trying to get a woman to go to bed with him. Oh yeah, and like the woman being wooed, we believe they love us, and we hope as we succumb, we won't get screwed, not in a bad way. But their eyes are on the mirror, and we're just another notch on their belt. Still although we're bedding with a stranger, there's still hope. Everything they tell us can't be bullshit. Can it?

RAGGEDY PALIN

Today Sarah Palin spoke out in defense of the $250,000 wardrobe the Republican Party had so generously bestowed on her. She stood at the microphone, feisty as hell, and told the adoring crowd how she was glad to be able to clear the air concerning this ridiculous news story. Palin then preceded to let everyone know that the clothes she was wearing were from a small thrift shop in Alaska, then started a lovely soliloquy about her wedding ring, which her husband had in his pocket because it sometimes hurt when she was shaking hands with her admirers. It cost her $35 and she bought it herself. She figured it wasn't the ring but the love it symbolized that mattered. It was a three hanky performance if I ever heard one. But that story, as touching and lovely as it was, never explained the $250,000 worth of stuff the Republican Party gave her and her family.

Everyone who's asked about Palin's expensive new wardrobe acts annoyed, and says, "It's all going to charity." That's not an explanation. Why was the stuff given to her in the first place? And if Palin preferred her respectable Republican cloth coat why didn't she say so when they were delivering all those boxes to her hotel room, or when the hair stylist and professional makeup people came knocking? And who did the shopping? I was intrigued when a top McCain aide said a third of the items were already returned because they were the wrong size. Palin isn't that ignorant. She knows her own dress size. Who was sifting through the racks on her behalf? It wasn't McCain, he's dressed for monotony. Could it be that standing beside Cindy McCain, who's always stylishly, and expensively dressed and coiffed, made Palin look a little like, well, Joe The Plumber? Perhaps Cindy McCain tried to help Raggedy Palin out by shopping for her? Ugrade her style? Palin should feel insulted. This should make her realize that the party she belongs to isn't interested in Joe The Plumbers, they just need their votes. The Republican Party looks down on common people, they despise the Democrats for actally caring about them. Republicans think they're aristocrats, and Palin will shrug off the insult, because they've made her feel she's been adopted by royalty. She's their little princess now, and there's no doubt in anybody's mind that she means to be Queen.

McCAIN: ECONOMIXED UP.

McCain admitted he needed to be educated on economics. He said it to the Wall Street Journal, and repeated it to the Boston Globe. Do we, with our struggling economy, really want a president-in-training when it comes to the economy?

THE McCain-LIEBERMAN TICKET

There's an article by Jane Mayer in the Oct. 27th New Yorker magazine called THE INSIDERS that explains how Sarah Palin became McCain's choice for vice president. It turns out she wasn't his first choice, he wanted Joseph Lieberman. But just the fact that he's known to be pro-choice knocked Lieberman out of the running. Romney was suggested, but McCain actually hates him.
A blogger named Adam Brickley, inspired by the Hillary Clinton campaign, thought, having a Republican woman as a candidate was the way to go. He searched Wikipedia and election sites for Republican women but rejected them one by one until he came upon Sarah Palin. Why Palin? Brickley is quoted as saying, "I hate to use the words 'cult of personality' but she reminded me of Obama." OK, so now we have Hillary Clinton inspiring a Republican to settle on a candidate who reminds him of Obama. Hence, Copy-Cat-Politics is born! Go, mavericks.
The article details how interest in Palin grew and how McCain was eventually cajoled by his conservative cronies to put aside his personal choices, (Country first!), and choose the candidate they preferred instead. Sort of like an arranged marriage. It's a sad story. He (McCain) loved Joe (not the plumber) Lieberman, but had to marry the bride (Palin) that his conservative parents chose for him. Damn, I'm tearing up again.
So, we have a candidate for president whose most important decision prior to campaigning was made by others, and a vice presidential candidate who can't dress herself. Yes, I know the $150, 000 included makeup and hair styling. All that money just to make her look like Tina Fey? Go mavericks!

PALIN THE BARBIE DOLL GETS PANACHE

Sarah Palin has finally been outed as McCain's Barbie. When you buy a doll, first you play act with her, give her dialogue, maybe even a speech or two, but eventually you want to dress her up. And that's what the Republican Party has done with Our Sarah. They bought her $150,000 worth of clothes. $150,000 worth of clothes so she could look like, you know, the average gal, like Joe the Plumbers girlfriend, maybe. I'm sure Joe's girlfriend would buy $150,000 of clothes in two months in a McCain blinking minute.

Was Sarah Palin's wardrobe too small town? Small towns are the 'real America' according to Palin herself. Her fans liked Palin because she looked like a real person, but the Republican Party thought perhaps Palin looked too real. It made them nervous, because let's face it, few of them are from small towns. So,they had to tone down her small town Soccer Mom style with a little urban panache. $150,000 worth. That's panache and then some.
This worries me. We have a potential presidential candidate (hey, he is 72)who can't be trusted to dress herself. And McCain thinks Obama's unprepared.

Actually McCain explained that the clothes, when Palin's finished with them, will go to charity. Our Sarah is just breaking them in for those poor unfortunates, like Joe the Plumber's girlfriend
who don't have the Republican Party buying them a wardrobe. Excuse me, I think I'm gonna cry.

AL-QAEDA SAYS, "VOTE McCAIN!

It was reported today that Al-Qaeda wants McCain to win the election. They must be confused. Isn't Obama the terrorist? It seems that while McCain's thinning hair stands straight up at the thought of Obama becoming president, the real terrorists are rooting for McCain, because they think he'll continue Bush's unpopular wars ad infinitum, which helps them recruit more terrorists. What they don't realize is that McCain, unlike Obama, is already tested, and what he's planning is to protect, or invade, (he's not telegraphing his moves), the Iraq-Pakistan border. Now no president has ever thought of doing that before. What a maverick.

PLUMMING THE DEPTHS OF POLITICS

First we'll let Joe The Plumber, McCains newest Weapon of Mass Misdirection, speak for himself.
"You know I've always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question for once," he said, "instead of tap dancing around it and unfortunately I asked the question, but I still got a tap dance. Almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr."

Obama actually spent five minutes tap dancing for this fraud. He received a real answer, he just never asked a real question. He pretended he wanted to buy a business for $250,ooo to $280,000. This wasn't the "American dream" he spoke of, this was, and is, a pipe dream. Joe owed back taxes, wasn't really a plumber-just worked illegally as one for over a decade-and would actually benefit from the tax plan that Baraca very patiently laid out for him. These five minutes would've quickly faded if Obama hadn't in the course of those five minutes stated he wanted to "spread the wealth." Starting with the third debate McCain has used that sound bit-it's too small to be called a bite-to tie Obama to socialism. Smear campaigns are used by those without the intellectual heft to actually compete . Smear campaigns worked for Bush, hopefully they won't work for McCain.

Joe The Plumber is McCains new war cry. You can see his face light up with glee when he says it. This guy is a McCain-Rove invention.He's not Joe, He's Samuel Joseph Wurzelberger-but Sam The Plumber doesn't doesn't have that everyman ring to it. and besides this has nothing to do with Joe or Sam, it has to do with McCain unable to climb out of the mudhole that's become his Campaign Headquarters.

I smell a rat. This Joe The Plumber who voted for McCain in the primary, confronts Obama with a total fabrication of his situation-for what reason? He obviously wasn't looking for an honest answer, the answer was immaterial to him. And McCain has invited Joe (or Sam) to attend the coming rallies. Was it a setup? Is McCain using volunteer constituents to ask Obama leading questions in the hope that in the course of answering Obama will honestly say something that McCain can regurgitate as duplicitous misdirection. McCain is not Bush. McCain is turning into Nixon.

McCain SEEING RED.

John McCain is now calling Obama's "spreading the wealth" comment, socialism. You can spell that c-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-m if you like. John McCain's initials are the same as Senator Joseph McCarthy, the chief red-baiter of the 50's. Coincidence? I'd rather not indulge in mcCainism.

IGNORANCE ATTRACTS IGNORANCE

Sarah Palin's paucity of knowledge would be amusing if she weren't running for vice president of the United States. She has taken political double talk to a new low. She doesn't know what she's talking about and it shows. When reporters expose this fact McCain calls it "gotcha journalism," a catchy phrase to cover up the fact that she keeps tripping over her own ignorance. During her debate with Joe Biden she was an amusing cartoon, while he spoke like he actually knew something. But the next day Sara Palin's fans were delighted because her ignorance hadn't revealed outright stupidity. They felt relieved, and could now whole heartedly support her run for vice president. With smiles and winks and down home chumminess she won them over. Is that all it takes? Shouldn't there be some semblance of knowing how to connect the dots with some intelligence? It was like seeing someone at the Olympic Trials arriving at the finish line smiling and waving, and though not really qualifying, allowed to go on to the actual Olympics because she didn't fall on her face. She knows how to rally the troops. But ignorance attracts ignorance, and her fans are becoming a mob. You can hear them shouting "terrorist", "kill him", and other ugly things, that belie all culture and civilization in a primitive cry for blood. It isn't Sarah Palin's fault that she inspires the prehistoric at her rallies. She isn't aware of anything except her own ambition. If she hears anything at all, it's her name coming to her like kisses on the breeze. The rest sounds like Power. The guttural shouts, the snarling invectives, the punchlines of prejudice: it all sounds like POWER. But you can't blame Sarah Palin. She's ignorant. She's totally, and frightfully, ignorant.

OLD DOG, OLD TRICKS

McCain, during the last debate, reminded me of an old bulldog who looks domesticated but is tied up because you never know when he'll come after you. It's that temper thing you keep reading about. That tight smile, isn't friendly, not to me, even when his lips are saying "My friends." over and over and over again, there's a tension crouched behind that smile that knows, without even looking, where your jugular vein is located.
Continuing my dog metaphor, Obama was like a sleek greyhound, confident that even if the old bulldog broke his tether he could easily outrun him. Which is exactly what he's doing.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

The third non-debate has taken place. Most pundits rated Obama the winner, yet McCain was out the next day toadying to the faithful in order to maintain some kind of momentum. McCain came out fighting during the last debate, but he's punchy with ambition, and he's using methods he would denounce if he wasn't the one using them. Karl Rove while pushing Bush for president in 2000, maligned McCain, who was also running, in the most despicable way. He claimed McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh was actually an illegitimate black child. McCain is now using Karl Rove disciples to hack his way to the presidency using the same unscrupulous methods against Obama . He has gone from victim to bully, trashing Obama with whatever mud his managers can find. You don't climb to the top on a ladder of mud. Bush did it, and we suffer the result; McCain should know that path is dead, as will be his run for the presidency if he doesn't regain his integrity. He talks integrity, but actions speak louder than words.

Why is everybody so upset by Sarah Palin? She's exactly what she says she is--a "soccer mom."Whenever she speaks you can picture her leading a PTA meeting and feel perfectly comfortable; it's only when you try to picture her leading the country that you find yourself sweating and squirming. Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin is funny, Sarah Palin leading this country is frightening. For months McCain slammed Obama for being a celebrity and not having enough experience. So, he countered that by getting his own celebrity, with even less experience. Perhaps, countradicting his own objections to Obama made sense to a maverick. But, it seems to me, there's less maverick and more political posturing in his decision. If it was a dog trick we'd be seeing McCain biting his own ass.