you don't love me enough

We all know that Barack Obama loves his grandmother. But does he love this country? Enough? Sure, he's sacrificed the last 20 months of his life, working 16 hours a day so that he could get his message out, living in hotels, eating bad food, kissing babies with smelly diapers, giving up cigarettes, but this doesn't prove that he isn't a terrorist. And vying for the highest office in the land also doesn't prove he loves America. And loving his grandmother doesn't prove he loves this country. Hell, even wearing a flag lapel pin doesn't prove that he always puts country first. In Russia, a socialist state if there ever was one, they also love grandparents, but they don't necessarily love America. Enough.

You may love your grandparents, but I bet you don't wear a flag lapel pin to the office. Do you love this country? Enough? Find out now.

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designers design campaign posters
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pumkin carvers for obama
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30 days of campaign posters

john mccain is a commie-pinko-fag

and a t errorist.

















Here's some FAST TALK on voter fraud.


And a list of clothes purchased for Sarah Palin (reported in the NYTimes Caucus Blog, Oct. 22, 2008). If you can't play the part, then the least you can do is to try and LOOK the part. Sarach America - she's natty AND nutty.

• $75,062.63 spent at Neiman Marcus on Sept. 10.

• $41,850.72 to Saks Fifth Avenue in New York on Sept. 10.

• $7,575.02 to Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis on Sept. 10.

• $5,102.71 to Bloomingdale’s in New York on Sept. 10.

• $789.72 to Barney’s New York on Sept. 10.

• Charges of $4,396.94 and $512.92 at Macy’s in Minneapolis on Sept. 10.

• $4,537.85 to Macy’s in Minneapolis on Sept. 22.

• $349.50 to Lord & Taylor in New York on Sept. 25.

• $4,902.08 to Atelier New York, a men’s clothing boutique, on Sept. 10.

• Two separate charges of $98 to Pacifier, a high-end baby store in Minneapolis, on Sept. 10 and Sept. 25.

• $98.50 to Steinlauf & Stoller, a sewing supply store, in New York on Sept. 25.

• $133 to the Gap in Minneapolis on Sept. 25.

• $75,062.63 spent at Neiman Marcus on Sept. 10.

• $41,850.72 to Saks Fifth Avenue in New York on Sept. 10.

• $7,575.02 to Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis on Sept. 10.

• $5,102.71 to Bloomingdale’s in New York on Sept. 10.

• $789.72 to Barney’s New York on Sept. 10.

• Charges of $4,396.94 and $512.92 at Macy’s in Minneapolis on Sept. 10.

• $4,537.85 to Macy’s in Minneapolis on Sept. 22.

• $349.50 to Lord & Taylor in New York on Sept. 25.

• $4,902.08 to Atelier New York, a men’s clothing boutique, on Sept. 10.

• Two separate charges of $98 to Pacifier, a high-end baby store in Minneapolis, on Sept. 10 and Sept. 25.

• $98.50 to Steinlauf & Stoller, a sewing supply store, in New York on Sept. 25.

• $133 to the Gap in Minneapolis on Sept. 25.

Errorist poster by rdebris.

mayday mayday

You can bet that by Friday, once he's certain that Black Obama is safely out of the lower 48 and at his dying grandmother's bedside, John McCain will be resorting to anything, anything, to make some headlines. With less than 2 weeks left in the campaign, McGruff's ship is listing heavily starboard and in danger of breaking up completely.

If something big doesn't happen by Friday evening, McGruff will start choking chickens, plucking and eviscerating them with his bare hands, and dropping them whole in a deep fat fryer somewhere in the outskirts Philadelphia to convince unemployed day laborers that he (McCain) has the right stuff. Given his campaign agility, Senator McCain will likely call such an event, "out of the deep fat and into the fryer". Governor Palin's role? Smile and say, "Hush puppy! Hush!"

fools gold

I'm half expecting that McGruff the Crime Dog will just go ahead and concede the election this week. During the weekend, Obama dominated the news cycles with an announcement by Republican heavyweight Colin Powell that he's endorsing a Democrat for President and chastising, on national television, the Republican base for being out-of-touch with core American Values. On top of that we had news that the Obama fund-raising juggernaut set another monthly record (3 times the old record) and attracted nearly 650,000 new members. In the month of September alone! Then Obama held rallies in St. Louis in KC that purportedly saw a combined attendance of 175,000 people.

What did the McCain campaign offer to counter this tidal wave of national enthusiasm? McCain held rallies on both sides of the state on Monday and drew less than 1/10 of the crowds that Obama drew. McCain, searching for a new low in a campaign of marked by lows, charged that a terrorist will soon drive the country into socialism.

The McCain camp also offered VP candidate Sarah Palin up to SNL where she mostly stood aside and watched Tina Fey, Alex Baldwin, and Amy Pollar repeatedly skewer Palin's lack of intellectual curiostity. It's one thing to be a court jester and quite another to be the campaign fool.

strangled

Recent forays into online television took us back to MCMLXIII (1963). For years, the copyright date for movies and television shows was mysteriously listed in roman, rather than algebraic, numerals. Perhaps this fact was the reason we had to study this outdated numerology in school.

We traveled back to MCMLXIII in order to watch online episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. NBC has moved ahead of its competition by posting many of its shows online. They supplement the current fare with classic shows. Hitchcock lent his name and co-produced the series but only directed one episode. It's worthy to note that NBC also considers The A-team and Miami Vice to be a classics. We took in an episode of the A-team and it was just as bad today as it was yesterday. Wooden characters? These are store-bought scarecrows guarding jack-ó-lanterns.

Episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock hour seem pretty uneven; this show is different than the earlier Alfred Hitchcock Presents of which he was more involved. Some of the scripts (Hitchcock calls them plays) aren't bad, and it's interesting to see actors like Peter Faulk and Robert Redford in some of their early acting jobs, but in half the episodes I watched, the victim is killed by strangulation. Guns are sometimes pulled, but usually the action is done to move people around the room, as the victims are rarely shot. When it comes time to do away with them for good, it's done bare-handed, a grimace, and a gasp.

Although episodes of the A-team usually come with multiple rounds of automatic weapon fire and car explosions, no one ever seems to die through gun play or violent wrecks. In the last minute, the bad guys, wearing sheepish looks, are always handed over to local law enforcement, who are so grateful to the band of ex-Green Berets they never seem to realize the A-team are still wanted for murder.

room with a plywood view

We were in Houston not long ago, a city we've always had a hard time grasping exactly what it's about. Banking and oil seem big here, but since we rarely see anything but the advertised face of these conglomerates we have little idea what they really stand for except profits.

Perhaps it's the size of Houston that makes it seem ungainly. Houston has the skyscrapers to prove it to be the 4th largest city in the US, but the spaces between the buildings makes the city feel smaller. The sidewalks aren't crowded, nor are the streets packed with commuters rushing to get into, or leave the city. We were a bit perplexed as to how those buildings were filled each day. During the evening, and especially on the weekend, the downtown was a virtual ghostown inhabited largely by out-of-towners, small gaggles of loft-dwellers, and the homeless. There must be pockets of buzzing action in Houston, we just didn't see it happening downtown.

We did see something that pretty much sums up the Bush II Years. The JP Morgan Chase Bank building in Houston suffered some minor damage from Hurricane Ike. Many of the windows on the lower floors were blown out, only to be replaced by sheets of plywood. Somehow, the windows in the upper floors still remain intact. Until we really change things in this country, the minions will remain locked in a plywood closet staring at a computer screen while the echelon controls the view of the surrounding landscape.

looking presidential

Pundits are saying that with 16 days left before the election that this thing is over. There's no way that McCain can win. Not after Palin, the financial collapse, and McCain's inability to coalesce the party. Remember when he returned to Washington to help solve the financial crisis? And it fell apart. Then Congress passed a huge bailout and that didn't work and now we've started to nationalize the banking industry. Nationalizing the banking industry could be a good thing, but this form of nationalization comes without the oversight of the investors - you the taxpayer.

Obama, who has shown all along that he knows how to organize a campaign, has been drawing enormous crowds. It's as though the closer we get to the election, more and more folks are starting to let themselves believe that this might actually happen. I say believe in miracles - but not so fast. Remember you still have to vote, and so do lots and lots of young people, because without them, this election can still turn ugly.

The Obama campaign keeps making smart decisions. Today they held 2 rallies on opposite ends of the state. The first was beneath the iconic Gateway Arch and the second in the shadow of the only World War I Memorial in the country. Both are National Monuments and the symbolism of holding them at these venues with the intent of gathering huge crowds should not be overlooked. By holding rallies in St.Louis and KC, the campaign gets face time in the two largest media markets in the state. They do this while looking very Presidential. Plus the size of the crowd in St. Louis (100,000 people) was so large that it will garner national media play.

I was at the rally in KC and don't know the size of the crowd but it was easily 20-25,000 {note: NPR later reported this number to be 75,000). From my vantage point the only thing I could see was the CHANGE banner and some dude in a white shirt addressing the crowd. A friend remarked that, unlike a McCain rally, no one boos at an Obama rally. They just cheer. Loudly and with great abandon.

pal joey

We've been taking a break to re-examine some cultural phenomena - purportedly our purpose but too frequently of late tied to the never-ending war. Not the one in Iraq but the one on TV. Remember when war was televised and politics was a visceral experience?

We took a pass on the last 2 debates, which more resemble Bud Bowl II, than a measured dialogue on the future of our country. Joe the Plumber showed up in our stead. Joe, who watches his carbs and visits the local gym 3 times a week, drinks Bud Lite - for the taste. He's about as Republican as it gets which isn't very these days, believing in deregulation (practicing plumbing without the proper license) and reducing taxes (even if that means cheating).

Even if Joe the wanna-be-plumber isn't properly registered to vote, YouTube is where the tastemakers reside these days. Now he has more drinking buddies than booze; thank goodness there's a couch still on the porch for the overflow. Like previous White House plumbers, safety lies at the shadow's edge and Joe seems to have lost some of his in the klieg lights.

kids these days!

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, in an attempt to deflect attention from her mother's increasingly ridiculous and scandalous attempt at becoming Vice-President, recently pulled down her pants to paparazzi and revealed her latest tattoo. Seizing upon the biblical tone of the artwork, one bedazzled reporter, reportedly then asked Gov. Palin if the rumors that she had "Fly Boy Landing Strip" tattooed along her ass crack were true. The reporter was quickly seized by Secret Service agents and subsequently handed over to Palin family members. After brief questioning, the reporter was strapped face-down to the front of a Zamboni machine piloted by husband Todd who then slowly circled the hockey rink until the rude boy cried "wolf, wolf, wolf".

there's a new sheriff in town

Recently, while traveling, we encountered a new breed of the TSA posse decked out in flashy, bright blue uniforms. The uniforms have been re-designed to more closely resemble those of traditional law enforcement officers and rumor is that some traditional officers view the possibility of being confused with TSA officials as an insult. Apparently most Americans viewed the old TSA uniforms and those wearing them as frumpy twits who were bent on abusing such powers as forcing you to disrobe in public, making you discard that tube of toothpaste you bought yesterday to cover for the one you forgot two days ago, and confiscating the souvenir Swiss Army knife that was given to you for working 70-hours a week at your 9-to-5.

The new uniforms, a cross between a soothing robin's egg blue and the seriousness of the Royal Navy, now lend an air of authenticity to all your airline travels. And this new breed of TSA doesn't miss anything. An elderly woman in front of me was caught trying to sneak several jars of pickles through the Houston security checkpoint. First she told them that she was carrying souvenir martini glasses in her purse and these might be broken if stored in her carry-on luggage. The TSA agent nodded politely and then proceeded to unwrap the objects, revealing several jars of home-grown pickles, lovingly canned by her daughter-in-law and given to granny during a visit to see her first-born grandchild. The lady was informed that these would be considered 'a liquid'. Granny was not arrested for lying, but was forced to leave them with the agent; Once she departed the area, the agent disposed of them the trash.

One other major change is that badges will no longer be sewn on the uniforms. Instead agents will wear pin-on badges, but only if they have completed a 2-day course that, we kid you not, helps them deal with customers more effectively and in a calming manner. We assume this includes convincing Granny that pickles can be part of a terrorist plot.

the impropriety and culture of miscreants

Hey! Today's the day we get to hear more about those small town values that Vice-Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, loves to yak about. The state of Alaska is set to release it's findings on how Gov. Palin did, or did not, use her office in a vindictive, vendetta against her former brother-in-law. Seems as though that when she couldn't get the head of the Alaska troopers to fire her brother, Gov. Palin fired the head of the troopers. I'm only surprised that Palin didn't have him stuffed, mounted, and displayed in her office as a warning to other detractors. Come to think of it, this might her plan for McCain after the election. Poor guy, he's getting ready to find out how Bob Dole felt being a sacrificial lamb for the Republican Party. And my friends, McCain is either too senile, too dumb, or too in love to even see it coming. But since he's such an American hero, he'll likely get his own wall!

Pity those folks back home who publicly denounced Palin during her brief walk down the red carpet of Disney's Main Street. They'll be plenty of blame to go around and certainly the Palins will be ready to bring it's full weight to bear against those who choose to stand against them.

cheater shot in the arm

The recent revelation that at least 3 Tour de France cyclists tested positive for a new kind of blood enhancer threatens to further harm the sport. Stefan Schumacher, who won both time trials during this year's tour, was one of the riders. The others were Richardo Ricco, who won 2 stages, and Leonardo Piepoli, who won one. That's 5 of 21 stages that were won by blood-doping riders and that makes the sport look stupid.

The riders tested positive for a new generation of drugs that are typically given to people with chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease (and many cancer treatments) often inhibits the body's ability to produce red bloods cells. The pharmaceutical company Roche developed a drug, Mircera®, that works by activating a bone marrow receptor which then triggers the production of new red blood cells. More red blood cells in the body means more oxygen - a great benefit to dialysis patients and competitive cyclists alike.

In an even weirder twist to the story, one that wasn't reported in the sports journals, is that Roche is being sued by another pharmaceutical maker, Amgen, for patent infringement. So the cheaters have been using a drug that was obtained by cheating!

Fans and sponsors are getting sick of all the doping scandals and here's a crazy twist to next year's Le Tour. Corporate sponsors have been dropping right and left. New teams to the table, such as Garmin/Chilpolte and Team Columbia, are stepping up only after branding themselves as cleaner than clean, meaning they use even more advanced techniques to test riders than the World Anti-Doping Authority. Riders also have to sign contracts that allow the sponsors to sue them for back-wages and fraud should the riders ever test positive for banned substances.

Just as the sport seems in danger of imploding, Lance Armstrong (long accused, but never proven, of being dirty) comes out of retirement to save the day, bring back the fans, and restore the integrity to the sport. As part of his comeback, Armstrong will be subjecting himself to rigorous testing to prove to the world just how 'clean' he is. If he wins, he'll be able to hold himself up as the very model of the clean cyclist.

saddam hussein linked to global financial crisis

Isn't there some way we can blame the world-wide economic collapse on Saddam Hussein? or the terrorists? Things have pretty much gone down the crapper once we pulled his sorry ass from the spider hole but let the terrorists escape. Just imagine how bad this mess would be if he would have been able to use all those WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION he was hiding!

a lump of clean-burning coal

There's plenty about the $700 billion dollar rescue bill that finally - after failing on Monday - sailed through Congress on Friday that should concern people. A lot. Not the least of which is the money. Five percent of our gross domestic product is no small change. Sure we'll get something in exchange for the money but it remains to be seen just how much of the investment we can expect to recover from a bunch of risky high-interest loans. The good loans, the one's that people will surely repay, we left with the banks. We, the people, are now saddled with the risk.

Think about it. All loans are risky, some more so than others. Now the government is going to own a bunch of the riskiest loans on Main Street. Face it; most folks on Main Street mean well but some of them have about as much business buying a home as Bush does running the country. Hell, how do you think Bush got elected? Twice, mind you. Main Street. You betcha. Sure some of the good people have been victims of bad luck or poor circumstances, but some of them have been victims of greed and stupidity. Some of the bad loans the government has acquired will turn around, but some will won't and will end up in default. The ones that default will result in more homes being dumped on the market at low rates further depressing home values for at least the next couple of years. This isn't the worst of the deal though.

Unlike the Great Depression when the government spent huge amounts of money to bring our economy back, they used it to make things the country desperately needed, to build up our country, our democracy. They used it to put people to work, writers, artists, laborers - you know - those folks on Main Street everyone loves to talk about.

In Kansas City, the City Hall, the Jackson County Courthouse, and Municipal Auditorium were built with depression-era dollars. I guess it just a coincidence they just a block off Main Street. These are monumental, architecturally significant buildings, full of beautiful, intricate stone and metal work, that have stood the test of time. There are thousands of roads, walls, bridges, parks, lodges, built all across this country during the Depression by the Works Progress Administration and many of them stand today as important, significant, and enduring works.

The current economic rescue plan is different. The whole approach is different. There is only a small amount of money in the bill to rebuild America's aging infrastructure. And we have a lot of it. The nation has something like 3 trillion in back-logged infrastructure projects that need to be addressed. Kansas City alone has 3-5 billion dollars worth of backlogged infrastructure projects waiting for the money to make them happen. Citizens alone can't come up with this amount. Out sales tax rates are already near 10 percent in parts of the city. While we piddle money away in Iraq, our nation crumbles.

There are other things about this bill that should scare people and one of them is Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. In April, 2004, Paulson, then CEO of Goldman Sacs, was instrumental in lobbying for the Security and Exchange Commission to change it's rules to allow investment banks to take on much more credit than before. Up to 30 times more. Two years later Paulson is Treasury Secretary. Two years after that, he tells everyone that Wall is good! and 2 months after that, the sky is falling and he needs $7 billion and no oversight.

But wait there's more. The US lost 159,000 jobs in August. That's 9 straight months of job losses. And more. California wants a $7 billion dollar loan from the government to save itself. The City of Albany, New York is 1.7 billion in debt.

If the Democrats can't win this election then they should join the Green Party.

an apple far from the tree

"Nice to meet you. Can I call you Joe?"

Thus the manipulation began. Sarah Palin would have you believe that she is just like the rest of America. She would have you believe that she's never met a sitting US Senator before (Sen. McGruff excepted) and she just wants to treat everyone like a dear friend spotted in the checkout line at Walmart. Wink! Wink!

Sarah Palin has 5 children. I'm glad the Palins are involved in their children's upbringing; they need to be. But that's probably where the similarities between the Palins and the most of America ends. The Palin family, with 7 members is more than double the size of the average American family (3.14).

Sarah Palin is the Governor of a state. Her husband is a commercial fisherman when he's not working for an oil company or racing a snowmobile through prisine wilderness. Between them they have a combined income of approximately $230,000 a year (Concord Monitor 10/2/2008). The median income for a 7-person family in Alaska (2006 data) is $71,250.

Governor Palin is also under investigation for improper use of her office in the firing of her former brother-in-law. Having a former brother-in-law makes her like most of America, being investigated makes her like many in the Bush Administration.

Palin would have you believe that she's apple pie when really she's tarte tatin.

low sparks

The percentage you're paying is too high-priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams
--Steve Winwood, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

I guess all you need to do anymore to try and convince folks that you've "won" a debate is to not sound like a blathering idiot for the full 90 minutes. Expectations couldn't have been lower and the Republicans sure worked hard over the last week to lower them. By not sounding like a simpleton for once, the pundits are rushing to assume Sarah America must stand for something important; anything that isn't a complete failure is seen as a win.

We've had 8 years of the C-student, maybe it's time to move up at least one letter grade.

all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over the years, i read them

As much as you'd like to believe that the Republicans are entirely responsible for the verging collapse of the U.S. economy and our sinking reputations abroad, they are not. They can take credit for much of the mess, but there's plenty blame to share with colleagues across the aisle. But Republicans do deserve most of the credit for dumbing down the election to the intellectual level of eighth graders.

Even the pundits are saying that Sarah Palin is so simple that Joe Biden has to be careful so as not to appear too intellectual least he alienate voters. The same advice was given to Barack Obama which is what lead to the whole pig-on-a-lipstick shtick that played for a week.

Can anyone imagine Sarah Palin reading anything much beyond People? There was a picture of John McCain catching up on the news aboard his campaign plane the other day. McCain's paper of choice? USA today. No Washington Post, NY Times, or Wall Street Journal for this fly-jockey. Gimme the sports section please. What do you think of those Bills?

Ready to serve, God willing. Or God forbid.

a view from main street

Here's how some main-streeters reacted to the news of another bailout rescue vote for Wall Main Street.

See how just tweaking the language changed your view of the events? Politicians these days are very quick to learn how to manipulate public opinion with language.

Photo by: Tim Vireo Keating for the Rainforest Action Network

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big mud, big clean-up, big muddy

From your pals @ MO River Relief.
Missouri River Cleanup. On the river!
Saturday, October 4 at 9:00 a.m., La Benite Park, Sugar Creek, MO

Come join us on a beautiful fall weekend to clean-up our beloved Big Muddy at our sixth annual KC area Missouri River Relief Clean-up.

This year's event will be headquartered at gorgeous La Benite Park in Sugar Creek, MO, just east of Kansas City, MO. Click here for more info and directions. This is the stretch of river downstream of the Blue River. With all the high water this year, there's tons of trash washed up on shore to get out there! We need your help! Register online by clicking here.

The clean-up starts at 9:00, with registration opening at 8:30. You'll be shuttled by boat out onto the banks of the Missouri, where you'll be dropped off to pick up all the trash you can possibly bag up. You'll be brought back to the park for lunch.

All volunteers receive work gloves, trash bags, an event t-shirt, a water bottle and lunch.

This event is rain or shine, so dress weather appropriately. Mud boots and long pants are recommended. No flip-flops are allowed on boats. Sunscreen, sunglasses, bug spray and a reusable water container are recommended. If you have young kids, please bring lifejackets that fit. We have a limited supply of child sizes. Adult supervision is required for kids under 14.

Thanks, and we'll see you on the river!

Missouri River Relief
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