Monica & Stefi & Hillary & Barack - Assassination Chat

Mr. Rogers Taught Me To Say, "I'm Angry. I'm Very Angry."

Remember when Monica Seles was the number 1 ranked woman tennis player in the world? It was 1990 to 1992. She had displaced Stefi Graf, the German woman who had revolutionized the game with a much higher, faster, and more muscular level of play. Then, at a match in Hamburg, Germany, a fan of Graf's ran onto the court during a match and stabbed Monica in the back, right between the shoulder blades. Gunter Parche said he did it so that Graf, his fellow German, could become the number 1 player in the world again. Stefi Graf, indeed, became the number 1 player in the world again, just as the hit man planned. He was not sentenced to any time in prison, and was released.

Monica Seles was never the same. The damage was done.

So, today we have Hillary Clinton, hero of the uneducated white folks of Appalachia, who has been "hanging in there" in the Democratic nomination process, because "anything can happen" between now and the Democratic Convention. I've always been more than a little sceptical of exactly what this "anything" meant. In the business world, we'll flatly tell a key person that we need to know everything that they know and are doing "in case they get run over by a bus." It's both repugnant in it's frankness and frank in it's practicality. Of course, what we really want to do is decrease any individual's leverage in becoming a unique and invaluable commodity in the business. Was Hillary in fact simply maintaining her place as second in line in case Barack got run over by a bus? Or the equivalent?

Well, that's not what she would say. She would say that she's trying to convince the remaining delegates that she is the stronger candidate. Of course, her being decisively beaten in the primary process makes this a curious assertion to those of us who are fond of logic and reason. Nevertheless, one could reasonably view the primary season as not over til it's over, and so everyone is entitled to run all the way to the finish line. Personally, I occasionally run a 5K or 10K road race. But the idea of actually winning never enters my mind. I consider it a moral victory if I can finish while running the entire distance. So, in my mind, I'm happy to let candidates run the entire race, even if it seems obvious that they don't have any real chance. And so it was with Hillary, for many of us I think.

But . . . there were moments when something seemed wrong. Now, those moments seem ominous.

Perhaps looking at Hillary's exact words on why she's hanging in there will enlighten us.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it. "

Well, now we know that it would indeed be a bad idea for Hillary to be negotiating directly with our nation's antagonists. She is unable to control, and won't take reponsibility for, the words that come out of her mouth.

So, what exactly is Hillary thinking "can happen?" A James Earl Ray moment? Maybe she's feeling lucky?

Political Assassin of MLK

Of course, Hillary immediately clarified that she didn't mean to suggest any harm upon Obama. And she issued a statement that, "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive."

That's not an apology. That's a load of crap that says, "I'm sorry is you are so over-sensitive that you get upset by my plain speaking of the truth." That's insulting to the people that you just offended, it is offensive by any completely objective standard, and it blames her verbal victims for being so mentally weak as to be offended.

"If" it was offensive? Is she so obtuse that she doesn't even realize what she's talking about when she talks about the Kennedy assassinations? It's not some theoretical occurrence that happened somewhere far away. And she should be smart enough to realize that what it can lead to, in this election, is one of her nutty white supremacist supporters figuring out that he just got the signal to proceed. It has happened before and it can happen again.

There is no "if" about this. It is real. I was 3 years old when this happened. As an Irish-Catholic kid growing up in Massachusetts, Jack and Bobby Kennedy were like Gods to me. And it still makes me want to cry to think about them now, forty years after Bobby was murdered.

This is the last straw for me. She must not be on the ticket. She must not be a part of the Obama Presidency.

If anything like this happens this time, Hillary will have blood on her hands.

Friday's Random Thoughts

Funny Pictures

Is it just me, or does McCain's nose look like a penis in this photo?

Dickface?

Told You So

SAN ANGELO, Texas - In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's compound last month. The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, issued a statement defending the raid, saying it removed the children "after finding a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse that puts every child at the ranch at risk." Of course, they have not actually charged anybody with abusing a child yet.

US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Screw the Veterans - and Obama too!

No new GI Bill for you, GWOT vets! Suckers! You guys didn't really buy all that "support the troops" bullshit, did you! You are sooo punked. And what about Obama and Jim Webb trying to boost the GI education benefits so they would actually cover tuition at a state university? Hah! Did you see how silly old John McCain made Obama look for taking it all so seriously? Old McNasty basically called Barry a pussy-ass for never enlisting himself. What an old hoot he is!

Veterans with Bush

So, really, do you know why the Pentagon doesn't want to give vets more education benefits? It's because they think that if the soldiers really can afford to get out of the Army and go to college, they will! And then where would we get fresh meat for cannon fodder in Iraq? Kids these days are getting too smart to enlist. Better to keep the ones we have poor and dependent, and on the rotation until they're worn out. The fact that John McCain is opposing better veteran's benefits is shameful.

Of course, John McCain had his entire college education paid for by the US Navy, before he had ever served a day. And he didn't get in on merit. He got in because his Dad was an admiral. This hypocrisy reeks.

McCain's Alma Mater - Courtesy of You and Me

Gas Price Updates

Filled my car tank up for $91.91. Filled my boat tank up for $185.00. Something more than supply and demand is occurring here. I don't know what, but I definitely smell something fishy about the whole thing. Yes, I know the world's demand for oil is increasing. But not this rapidly.

Movie Update

Oliver Stone has cast Richard Dreyfus as Cheney in the upcoming movie, W. Interesting choice. I'm a little doubtful that Dreyfus can convey the level of evil that Cheney exudes. We'll see. Frankly I think he's looking more like John McCain these days. But with a less phallic nose.

The guy from Jaws.

Offbeat Election News

Apparently there is a contentious political convention going on in Denver right now! The Libertarians have as many as 15 Presidential contenders, including Georgia's own Bob Barr and, possibly, former tv personality Tucker Carlson. I'm not sure whether the Tucker Carlson thing is just a big practical joke, but it's a rumor with legs so far. Bob Barr is a former Clinton impeacher who has become a big privacy rights advocate. (My wife and I always thought he might be black.) For a good story on Barr's candidacy, check out Bloomberg for Lorraine Woellert's story.

Tucker with signature bow tie.

White Man Bob Barr

Vacation

The worldview family will be in Orlando, every parent's dream, next week. Just doing our patriotic duty to keep the economy moving.

Raiding the Treasury & Other Wrong Things

Most Boring Sounding Crime Ever - The Farm Bill

Oh boy! A post about the Farm Bill! When Gail Collins wrote that she was following it, I assumed she was joking.

If you're like me, hearing the words "farm bill" results in

1. Dozing off
2. Changing the channel
3. Turning the page
4. Squashing any secret, vague political ambitions
5. All of the above.

But apparently it's really important! Really! Who knew? Not me. One reason why it's so important is that they only do one every five years. So it affects policy for a fairly long stretch.

The U.S. Treasury - Where the money used to be.

Word that I'm hearing is that The Farm Bill (of 2007 - it's a year late, natch) is a $307,000,000,000 (that's billions) vote buying scam. Most of it goes to farming companies in the form of subsidies. But a significant piece also funds food stamps and does some good things, too. But this Farm Bill is almost universally being called a shameful example of pork barrel vote buying in an election year. But hey, it's a farm bill. That means it must be about growing food! Doesn't that just sound like the government is doing something to make us all healthier? Apparently that's not the case.

What galls me is that the sugar industry get subsidies, tariff protection, and price supports. Why? To benefit "farmers" like the Fanjul Family, Palm Beach billionaires who not so vaguely remind a lot of people of The Godfather. Sugar? Didn't we all pretty much decide that sugar was bad for us? Why are we subsidizing sugar?

Sorry kid, no prom date for you.

Subsidizing sugar reminds me of the tobacco growers who were looking for government handouts when all of the "no smoking" rules were being passed. They tried calling themselves "family farmers" being forced out of business by oppressive government regulation. I don't know how that story ended, but everyone I knew pretty much equated tobacco farmers with crack dealers. Except that today we know that they would all vote for Hillary over Obama, cause she's white, even though Barry is the one who smokes.

Mr. Cool

But I digress . . .

Weirdly, at least for me, George Bush and John McCain are this bill's 2 most vocal opponents. So, good on them. Credit where credit is due, and all that. Still, I suspect that they have an angle here somehow.

$307 Billion is a good chunk of change. For that kind of money, we stay at war in Iraq for a whole nother year. Of course, we'll do that, too, whether we can afford it or not. You know, because it's patriotic and supports the troops, etc.

Obama basically said that the changes that the bill did accomplish were the best that we could hope for this time around. "This bill is far from perfect. I believe in tighter payment limits and a ban on packer ownership of livestock. As president, I will continue to fight for the interests of America's family farmers and ranchers and ensure that assistance is geared towards those producers who truly need them, instead of large agribusinesses. But with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good."

Eeeeew! He's so articulate! Having vented, that's probably the last I'll think about the Farm Bill for another 4 or 5 years.


War Crimes - Gitmo

Sorry about that!

This hairy German is Murat Kurnaz, and he spent nearly 5 years in the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He didn't look like this when he was "arrested" or "captured" or "kidnapped" or whatever it is that they call it these days.

He looked like this:

Taliban?

5 years can be a long time. Mr. Kurnaz was arrested by Pakistani police during a security stop of a bus, and turned over to the American Army for a $3,000 bounty in October 2001. Then he was sent to a prison in Afghanistan for 3 months, then to Gitmo in February 2002. But the real hoot here is that by late 2002, the Americans had already determined that Mr. Kurnaz was NOT a terrorist, and offered to return him to Germany, but Germany declined to take him. At this point in the timeline, officials have successfully fuzzed up the facts so that responsibility will probably be impossible to assign, which of course is the goal. But Mr. Kurnaz was finally released on August 24, 2006. When he got home to Germany, his own government did not want to admit it's own guilt, and so investigated him again. The press there dubbed him the "Taliban of Bremen." But he was ultimately cleared officially. Now he has been busy testifying to government committees in the US and Germany. So it's a happy ending. Except that his wife divorced him while he was in prison.

Internet Notes

So I'm looking at Craig's List and I notice that under the "For Sale" section there's a category called "Baby & Kids." Sounds like a cheap and lazy man's way to start a family.

My kids now like to download pictures of cartoon characters and play games on the Nickelodeon site. So I'm starting to worry about what else they might run into on the web. Is there a "safe" (meaning porn-free) internet service out there that anyone knows about?

Related quote (possible folklore alert) - "If you want to stop people from becoming like me, don't burn Catcher in the Rye . . . burn Hustler." - Ted Bundy, sadistic serial killer of women.

I'm currently the high bidder on e-bay for something I didn't tell my wife about. Talk about anxiety.