SHAME!!!

Has Senator Clinton lost her bloody mind?

Yesterday, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Senator Clinton did something that I thought only despicable and cynical Republicans did. She suggested that this country would be somehow more likely to be attacked by Islamic terrorists if Barrack Obama were elected President.

Senator Clinton, after having a weepy moment at an earlier campaign stop, took a stab at Senator Obama, who is the apparent front-runner, by suggesting that "I don't think it was an accident that Al Qaeda decided to test the new Prime Minister, immediately. They watch our elections... you are hiring a President to be there when the chips are down"

Pretty sad, Senator. It's only the second state and you are down to this. I'm not sure if you will win in New Hampshire or not, but I'll tell you this: You have given me another reason not to vote for you. I won't vote for you because you can't take pressure. There are 301 days left until the Presidential election, and you are cracking up already?

Great. I'm sure that you will be the scourge of evildoers everywhere. I am equally sure that they will all take you seriously as you issue dire threats with a quavering voice, wringing your hands.

I thought you said that you would be "ready on day one"... I'm not seeing it.

On the upside, your attack must really feel good for Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, whose playbook you must have stolen this attack from.

Shame on you. It isn't bad enough that you voted for the war. It isn't bad enough that you thought the "Patriot" Act was a good thing. You actually have the nerve to invoke the fear card.

You are despicable, ma'am. .. and you don't deserve ANY votes, let alone the nomination.

As I have said before, I have been and continue to be active in Democratic politics where I live, but I wouldn't vote for your for any reason. We already have had enough of Republicans.

Guilty Pleasures II

Do any of you remember that irritating song from about fifteen years ago, "Shiny Happy People"?

You do?

Well I do, too. I love that song.

I have no idea what it is about, I really don't, and I don't even know all of the words, but I love it.

If you don't remember it, look to your right and click the player at mt the top of the sidebar.

It's infectious, I'm telling you.

Oh, and am I the only person on the planet that thinks that Michael Stipe looks like John Malkovich?



I made soup last night... I'll post about it later once I get my pictures loaded.

GF

Last Night In Iowa

Late night, the people of Iowa did an amazing thing. They began the first step in the peaceful, democratic, transition of power from one chief executive to the next.

In case you haven't already heard about it, the Iowa caucuses were held last night, and Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, was the clear winner for the Democrats.

I won't go into the specifics of the demographic percentages of who voted for whom and why, other than to say that, interestingly enough, in Iowa, Barack Obama gave Senator Clinton a bit of a thumping, even when it came to the votes coming from women. Apparently Obama garnered 5 percentage points of votes from women than Senator Clinton did.

Anyone who pays attention to Presidential politics are aware that winning... even decisively winning the Iowa caucus doesn't give a candidate a lock on the nomination of their party, but it sure gives the winner a big boost going into the New Hampshire primaries, which will be held next Tuesday, January eighth... with Michigan following on the fifteenth.

Together, Senator Obama and the people of Iowa have done another amazing thing in this caucus. They have shown America that at least from the Democratic perspective that this election will be about change, and they have shown that, not only by voting for a man that has said that he wants to be an agent of change in Washington (and God knows that we need it in this town!), but by signaling a dramatic change in the way young Americans think about race. Picture it... can any of you that are over 50 have ever imagined, when you were twenty five, that a Midwestern state, with a 94 percent white population, would have given a presidential primary victory to a black candidate?

Last night was one for the record books, friends.

This is a big country folks, and some states will be holding primaries as late as June, but I believe that this nominating process, at least for the Democrats will be locked up much earlier than that. I am certain that we will know who the party's nominee will be much sooner that. Who that nominee will be is still anyone's guess.

Another result of the Iowa caucuses is the ending of the campaigns of Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Mike Gravell. The herd must be thinned.

Stay tuned.

What Do You Mean "Undecided"?

Shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, Mrs Gunfighter and I happened upon a speech being given by Michelle Obama, Esq. to a group of Iowans, regarding the upcoming Iowa caucuses. The content of the speech isn't important here, but the aftermath of the speech goes right to the heart of this post.

After the speech, Mrs. Obama spent some time pressing the flesh, which she was quite good at, by the way, and like a good politician she made eye contact with the people and asked if they were planning to caucus for the Obama campaign. Many of the people that she spoke to said that they would, and then there were these people: The people that actually said that they still hadn't made up their minds.

Now, I live and work in the Washington, DC area, and politics is a constant part of my life... I just don't understand how anyone in the state of Iowa hasn't figured out whom they wish to support.

I don't get it. I really don't. The Republican and Democratic candidates have been pounding through that state like nobody's business, and they can't make up their minds? Or is it just a privacy thing. That I get, but to tell you the truth, if Mike Huckabee, just for instance, asked me if I could count on his vote, I would tell him no, and I'd tell him why not... and then I would politely thank him for taking the time to talk to me anyway.

Are any of you really not sure of whom you plan to support in the coming election?

How can you not know?

GF

Advent

It's Advent, folks!

Well, Advent started a few days ago, but you knew that, right?

What's that? You are unfamiliar with the Advent season? Been a awhile since Sunday School for some of you, perhaps?. Well, good ol' Mr. Gunfighter is here with a wee reminder.

The Advent season marks the preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ. Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, it happens at the same time of what most people refer to as the Christmas season.

In different faith traditions, the season of Advent begins on varying dates, but in the Lutheran tradition, Advent starts on the first of December... just a scant few days before my birthday... not that I am hinting at any of you.

I'd never do that.

Right... Advent.

From Wikipedia (which explains this so much better than me):

Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure as they await the second coming of Christ.

This is a particularly important time in the church year, and during Sunday services in many churches (and certainly in Lutheran churches) a favorite Advent hynm is sung... that's the one you can hear now, if your volume is up and I embedded properly.

It is called "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!"

It's a big favorite of mine.

The Don Imus Thing (pt. 2)

So, Don Imus has returned to the airwaves.

I have to tell you this, his return leaves me cold.

I know, I know, he said bad things. I know. I know he is an ass. I know that I would never invite him to my home for dinner because I think he is a boor.

I get it. You already know how I feel about the subject of his comments if you read part one.

Listening to the callers on C-Span's Washington Journal, yesterday, I get the feeling that a lot of people understand WHY Imus is back on the air.

If you are one of them (and I am sure you are not... all of you are much smarter than me), I am going to explain it in very simple terms. Are you ready?

Here it is:








It's because he makes lots, and LOTS of these for his employers.

It really is a matter of simple math. The majority of the people who would call themselves fans of that assclown are people that wouldn't stop listening to his program because of those stupid comments vis a vis the Rutgers women's basketball team. Advertisers? They like controversial people... as long as their controversies don't reflect negatively on them.

So... what, then?

Imus makes money for those who would pimp him out. Isn't that the American way? Imus is popular, and some people want to listen to him spew... so what? Let them listen.

Let's not get too worked up over it, ok?

Starship Troopers

When I was a kid of thirteen, I read a book that had a great, and lasting, impact on me. It was a book called "Starship Troopers" by the late Robert A. Heinlein.

You might be familir with that title as the reult of the REALLY awful movie of the same title that came out several years ago.

Well, this book was initially written as a serial for a science fiction magazine, and was otiginally published in 1959. The novel, set in the not-so-far-off future was about a war between earth and an alien species called the Arachnids... or "Bugs".

In this future, in which there was a planet-wide government, only veterans could vote. The rest of the citizenry enjoyed all o f the blessings of a free society, but the franchise was only extended to those who had actually laid their asses on the line to defend the planet.

An important thing to note in this novel was that while only veterans could vote, active duty soldiers could NOT vote.

The book was really a treatise on the realtionship between government and the goverened, as well a a moral philosphy play.

You can read a much more detailed description of the book and the politics behind it, here.

In any event, as a boy, the book had a large impact on me.

When I was growing up, I was already predisposed to military service because my dad was a career military man, and my brother joined the Air force when I was 13, but this book went deeper than just some sort of literary recruiting pitch formilitary service.



In chapter ten (I think it's ten), a drill instructor gave the young soldiers in his charge a class on tactics when a recruit asked him why they were being trained in tactics of a bygone era, when they (and the enemy) had all sorts of more dangerous weapons. The sergeant replied:

"you've got it all wrong, son. There ARE no dangerous weapons. Only dangerous people. That's what we are trying to teach you here, to be dangerous... to the enemy. So dangerous that if you only have one foot left, you'll still be able to kill the enemy if he gets too close" (I may have some of those words wrong, but that is the gist)

This passage and others, set me on my way. They were the beginnings of my indoctrination in the warrior culture.

I first read that book in 1976.

I have had three copies of that book in my life, all regularly re-read.

It's still important to me.