I’m in the South now…
Sitting in the airport lounge in Charlotte, I’m watching CNN which seems to be the de facto standard for airport media. I’m not sure if it’s by contract or by some notion that they are “better” than MSNBC or FOX though I think CNN’s reputation might be more centralist, vs. MSNBC which is as far to the Left as FOX is to the Right.
You can download Jack-O’Lantern templates from the Better Homes and Garden website of McCain, Palin, Obama, Biden; their editors say that they are able to predict with near certainly the outcome of the election based on how many of each are downloaded.
Speaking of Pumpkins, I left mine it a squirrel-addled pile on my front porch which I’m sure will make me decidedly unpopular with my neighbors. I’m out of town until at least the 17th- maybe longer if Bug has her kid and I’m able to divert my return trip through Nashville. I tried to get the trash out before I left but it didn’t happen.
Pork Barrel Spending doesn’t bother me. I read that tolerating earmarks is indicative of being a democrat. I’m a career sales person who understands that when you’re in deep negotiations where each party has something that the other one wants, attaching dollars or votes to those initiatives may not be popular as much as it is inevitable. I was against the bailout and so that the pot had to be “sweetened” for it to pass, I’m mostly ambivalent. Even if the spending is for some seemingly frivolous activities which include the following:
- $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children. I’m not sure if we should be arming our children with wooden arrows but I suppose it’s better than giving them a semi-automatic weapon.
- $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners. I think auto-racing is about the dumbest un-sport out there second only perhaps to synchronized swimming but I realize that the Joe-12 Packs have to have something to do on the weekends.
- $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for the Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum industry which If you’ve ever been to St. Thomas you know that Cruzan Rum is a staple. It’s especially good on your morning cereal.
- $148 million in tax relief for U.S. wool fabric producers. I guess they really pulled the wool over our eyes, Yuk-Yuk.
- $49 million tax benefit for fishermen and other plaintiffs who sued over the 1989 tanker Exxon Valdez spill.
- Allows certain corporations to reduce their tax liability on income earned in American Samoa, at a cost of $33 million over two years.
So back in the airport lounge, the men around me keep talking about how attractive they think Sarah Palin is but that they wouldn’t want to try to talk to her. That prompted one particularly crass comment, “heh-heh, what I want to do to her, she’d have her mouth too full to talk”. It’s gross, but makes me smile.
Sarah Palin is in Nebraska today. Nebraska. This state’s motto is ‘Go Big Red’ and yeah- they may be talking about football most of the time- but for real- this is a red state. That the republicans are sending Sarah Palin to Nebraska is indicative of how close it must be there- I’m guessing- in Lincoln.
If you didn’t catch Tina Fey on SNL last night, you’ve GOT to see it today. When she started with “Can I call you Joe, Joe? Because I’ve got some real zingers where I call you Joe” was hilarious. And when she busted out the flute for the “talent” portion of the debate, I damn near rolled out of my bed.
Which would be the most activity my bed has seen in months.
At some point, beyond the election when the passion and partisanship have hopefully ebbed, I think it would be healthy for people on the Left to examine the ugliness they’ve displayed towards Sarah Palin. I don’t mean some huge public mea culpa, because that isn’t going to happen, but something of a more introspective nature, to understand why such hatred and vitriol and contempt is expressed towards her. And I don’t mean superficial fluffy reasons like you hate her because of her views on abortion or because she’s a Christian or a governor of a state with a small population, because all that stuff is bogus rationalization. There’s clearly something else going on there deeper down, and I wonder if the Left has the courage to face it and own up to it. Someone on this blog, I forget who now, even admitted as much that she hated Palin first and then went back afterwards to find reasons to support it, and my guess is that cause-effect-in-reverse pattern is probably common. No candidate in my lifetime has been as brutalized and demonized and lampooned like Palin has over the past 6wks, and it’s not just partisanship, there’s more to it than that, there’s a different standard applied to her where all hyperbole is fair game. You don’t just oppose her positions on the issues, you want to annihilate her and ridicule her and destroy her, you’re even willing to complicitly abide by the disgusting joke you would never tolerate about another woman. Honestly, I’m ashamed of you and so disappointed in you for smiling about that. You’re not a feminist when it comes to Republicans, you only support women who are Democrats, and that’s not really feminism at all, that’s just partisanship. One could call it “Palin Derangment Syndrome” as that pattern of hatred which is expressed at a level so completely out of proportion to anything she’s done or deserves. Ironically, Bill and Hillary Clinton have been what I would call ‘high road’ about her candidacy, saying we should leave the personal stuff out and just talk about the issues. Very few others, certainly not ‘feminists’, have been willing to hear her out. Unfortunately, the Clinton’s call for political class is drowned out in a sea of bitter hatred. Why can’t you oppose her on the issues without demonizing her?
Oh, and btw, she’s in the swing state of Florida today, drawing huge crowds as she’s done everywhere she’s gone.
Ms Palin HAS no positions on the issues other than it is best to follow her Maverick down a path of bashing the crap out of Obama. Let’s establish that I don’t like him either.
Name for us an ACTUAL position, a REAL what-we-plan-to do-about-it which is not related to abortion, killing wolves, or some other odd unformed thought process, and you would go a long way towards convincing me that we are being too hard on this person.
Ms Palin draws crowds because she is quirky, attractive, has an accent that is not either out of the deep South or the Northeast (we’ve already picked on those accents and this is something new, grist for the mill ) and because she has a LOT of personal baggage. The person most responsible for this shark attack on Ms Palin is Mr McCain who put her in this position in the first place. Bet you my mortgage that he had absolutely NO IDEA she would be this controversial or he would have nixed the choice before the name ever left the mouth of whoever uttered the suggestion.
I agree that crude humor which is gender related is something we should try to avoid. But on some base level, Ms Palin sets herself up for crude humor. What kind of person says that a young girl who has been raped by her father and is now pregnant should “CHOOSE LIFE.” And who is she to tell ANYONE what they should choose to do with their own body? Nobody should have that right, and as a feminist who is old enough to be YOUR mother too, I resent your failure to recognize feminists as being able to be bipartisan.
People love to laugh, and sometimes that laughter is at another’s expense. I think you should listen to the soundtrack from AVENUE Q.
So, let’s review:
1)the reason that record crowds flock to see Gov Palin is because she’s attractive and has a funny accent. So legions of people are taking time out of their day to physically go see a pretty face that talks funny, one that they could see on TV much more easily. The VP debate outdrew the Prez debate on TV and was the 2nd most-watched debate ever, and that’s probably because everyone wanted to see Joe Biden.
2) It’s ok to criticize her as a mother, to viciously attack her children and lay all the blame for their freely chosen actions on her, to set her up with trick questions having nothing to do with the election in order to ‘get’ her, and to treat her, a sitting Governor with an 80% approval rating, as a stupid simpleton. And because you disagree with her on abortion, she has somehow set herself up the be the butt of vulgar humor. And that’s just politics and it’s fair. Btw, saying anything bad about Obama is racism, and his wife is totally off limits.
3) To give the one example you asked for, she has laid out her position quite clearly in regard to energy policy, even though a VP choice is not really about laying new groundwork in terms of the platform. She has courageously and openly admitted to having differences of opinion with her presidential candidate in regard to policy. By contrast, Biden has merely marched in Obama’s footsteps (except when he’s stepped in it by contradicting The One, and then gone back to correct himself when he gets scolded) and suggested no new original policy of his own. Blowhard Biden says he still eats at restaurants that closed 20yrs ago, watched Roosevelt on TV before the medium was invented, and can’t remember saying things he himself criticized Obama for. But that’s just “Joe being Joe”. Palin misspeaks and that makes her an idiot, and that’s not a double standard.
4) McCain was falling off the radar when the time for the VP announcement came out. Even though McCain got a huge surge in the polls when he picked her, he probably regrets choosing her now because the whole world’s talking about her every day, and she’s inspiring huge crowds both in person and on TV. Right, what a bad decision.
I can understand people feeling passionate about politics and religion and where I live now…NASCAR. I am not one of those who feel as passionately about politics so the only comment I have to make is that freedom of speach is a beautiful thing when it is respected. Seeing that this IS Jennifer’s blog, she can write what ever she wants, and should be able to do so without being ridiculed.
I only have control over me, so I can say no matter what she types in to her laptop, I enjoy reading it and feel a little closer to her from this far away south.
Briefly,
I want to thank both the mom, the bug and the dude for thier thoughtful comments. I’m watching the debate from Kentucky and home to give their remarks more attention tomorrow evening.
With Love,
JavaJennifer
Republican Dude: Just a few corrections on your rebutt: At no point in my comment did I say or imply that I am pro abortion. I think abortion is not a good thing. I think CHOICE is my right and my responsibility. I think CHOICE is what being an American is about. I try not to presume to choose for others even though in my line of work (health care) I see daily people making choices to prolong the lives of suffering family members in clear defiance of that family member’s Advance Directive/Living Will. I cannot impose my choices, freely made, on anyone else. I will NOT have that right to choose jeopardized by some religious zealots who think they know better than I what is right for ME.
You, RD, are not a mother. I hope yours is a good one by your standards and that she is alive and thriving. I actually do have some observer “feelings” about SP and her mothering skills. But I agree that those feelings are not appropriate reasons to dislike the woman or even to use as standards of her potential to lead this country. Because I was not perhaps the best mother myself when Jen was young, I have FEELINGS about SP’s younger children and about SP’s ability to be the kind of parent her kids deserve VS the kind of parent she might have to be should she end up President. It is something to consider.
And on a more sarcastic note, crowds gather to see the bearded lady in the circus side show, too. That does not mean they want her to be vice president. Actually, if you could just guarantee me that all she would ever be is a benign VP, I wouldn’t care quite so much.
Bug – no one’s saying Jen shouldn’t write what she does, of course she can write what she wants, as can I. And I certainly don’t feel I ridiculed her. I may disagree with her passionately on occasion, but that’s because I care about her. If I didn’t care about her, I wouldn’t read this blog, I read it because she’s a dear friend and it allows me a window into her soul. And she’s stronger than she lets on and can take constructive criticism probably better than I can.
Mom – - first of all, as Jen’s Mom, I certainly only disagree with your politics, I don’t repudiate you personally, and I hope that you wouldn’t take my opinions as disrespect, because they’re not meant that way. I know Jen as someone who welcomes challenges to her opinions and I’m assuming she’s cut from your cloth. But I do disagree that since I’m a man, I can’t hold a valid position on the subject of abortion, I am a father of three after all. And I’m not going to re-hash the pro-life vs pro-choice arguments here, I just was trying to say that the fact that Gov Palin disagrees with you on that point does not invite mean-spirited disrespect from the Left. Many people, not just religious zealots, oppose abortion and have done so for years without any change to the law, so the idea that Palin is single-handedly some kind of threat to Roe vs Wade is unrealistic. After all, she’s a simpleton, right? Changing decades of legal precedent does not typically begin in the executive branch, and is extremely unlikely to happen in the next administration or the ones after that. Anyway, 7 of the 9 justices on the court right now were appointed by Republicans and yet Roe v Wade is still firmly the law of the land, so whether Palin is elected VP or not is not likely to change anything in that regard.
RD-Not offended. And I don’t think SP is a simpleton. I think she is easily overwhelmed by many things that would overwhelm most of us: Large numbers of strange faces throwing questions our way, many of whom are trying to get the better of her and ask things for which they suspect she has no answers. But many of the questions she is asked should have had answers that came quickly and decisively.
No individual will reverse RoeVWade, but I do believe there are many people in this country who are sheep easily led to believe that the President and Jesus are blood relatives, that He or
She who is elected is elected by the will of God, not the will of the people. Those of us who REALLY want a separation of church and state, want that particular concept to continue.
There are preachers out there right now challenging this separation by voicing support for political candidates. SP’s stand on abortion is John McCain’s position and both have said that they believe this to be God’s will. And McCain out and out lies about his position stating that what he believes is that the federal gov should not be making decisions better made by the individual states. If RvW were overturned, he would without a doubt be mounting an effort to influence individual states to his conservative beliefs. And if 7 out of 9 isn’t enough, is 8 or 9 out of 9 enough?
Love sparring with you. Mom
One last thing: at least McCain/Palin didn’t take the easy way out with “that’s above my pay grade”. I can’t imagine a more feckless, disingenuous response than that for a president.
RD- I can appreciate your love to argue politics. I feel just as strongly about my friendships and relationships as you seem to about your party lines. So in saying that, Jennifer is one of the strongest women I know, she is brave and out going and sweet to the world that continues to challenge her and test her strength. I know she is also VERY good at making you think her exterior is made of rock. I prefer to treat her as a gift, a beautful spring flower. Not a dart board, (waiting to see when she will fall off the wall) She is most brave for allowing us all this window in to her soul, mind you I will not be one that attacks her openness. In closing I wanted to say, if you knew Jennifer that well, you would know when she says things like she did about Sarah Palin, she is using her sarcastic humor to get a point across. Inside the real Jen is more caring and thoughtful than any one I have ever known.
But you knew that right?
Wow – a lot of posts here -
What I will say is the following:
What has been described by both the media and many countless others in the $700B bailout as pork barrel spending is, in fact, NOT.
As a point of clarification – the added line items are simply extensions of existing legislation, for the most part, and where that is not the case, they are, in fact, wise tax inclusions/extensions that make pretty good sense.
Pork is adding a line item for a pet project or something completely not related to the actual legislation at had in which $$ is doled out.
Also, for the record, I hate the bailout – of any kind. But we have been through that discussion already. Even without such bailout legislation, other legislation would have had to be drafted for the line items mentioned above since they were coming due for extension. Otherwise, we would have had the same nasty last minute tax issue we had last year due to congress dragging its feet.
OK everyone, thanks for the PSA opportunity, you can all commence with the Palin debate
If Obama had a child with special needs, would his parenting be called into question, or would we simply look to Michelle to take care of that child? We seem to forget that these children also have a father.
I decided that I would experiment with responding to comments in the comment section vs. authoring a new blog in response to Ashley’s comment which I started composing in my head yesterday morning. I want to thank her for removing the writer’s block that seems, again, to be visiting me and for taking time to comment. I value that.
One of the best things about having the blog is that I get say whatever the hell I want.
And when I get challenged on an idea that I’ve expressed it makes me re-think what I said and then I have to make a choice: either I stand by what I wrote in the heat of the moment or I don’t. I suppose there is a third choice which is to come up somewhere in the middle.
In one of them many diatribes I’ve had against Sarah Palin, I suggested that her children clearly needed her more than our country did especially in the context of having a child with down syndrome and another one with a baby on the way.
Ashley’s comment, and I’m paraphrasing is that were Barak to have children with special needs would I automatically dismiss him as a candidate for office or would I naturally expect that his wife Michelle would do most of the parental heavy lifting.
I’m embarrassed to admit sexism here in the same way that I thought Elizabeth Hasselback’s comment were spot on regarding Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe. We don’t discuss the $2000 Armani suits worn by Obama, do we?
Yes, in my experience, children can live without a father but they need their mothers in a way that eclipses any other natural needs.
Ideally no candidate would have young children while in office simply because of the measures associated with keeping them safe.
My attitude, though clearly sexist, is based less on some antiquated views on the ideal woman resembling a 1940’s housewife then it is on the personal experience of having been raised by 3 women after too many men went through the revolving door of my life.
Where Barak and Michelle Obama are concerned, I’m sure he’s a terrible father. He’s never around to know the day-to-day things that his young girls experience that shape who they are and the young women they will become. I’m also sure that Michelle functions largely as a single parent, pulling double duty in both roles.
For my 2 male readers a note, I’m not disrespectin’ your parenting skills.
But back to Sarah. Obviously I don’t have a clear window into their home life but there is something about the way women love and nurture their babies that seems primitive to me… primitive, irreplaceable.
And sexist.
I would love to know your thoughts on SNL tonight…Seems like a lot of your threads are on this…. And next time you are in FL you better call… the grapefruits and avocados are almost ready…