I’m taking the week off

I’m taking the week off to go back to the lake. I’ll be watching the convention and season one of The Wire -- not to mention the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. I hope they have more fake children.

My Olympic hero so far is David Nevill of the US who dove at the finish line of the 400 meter final, doing a swan dive onto the track in a successful, desperation effort to win the Bronze medal. I could hear inside his head: “Man, four years of work to get to the Olympics – I’m leaving nothing in the tank!”

What is the big deal about the Chinese women gymnasts? Is the idea that if only we could have brought our 12-year-olds we’d have won more gold?

See you in September. Joe Biden should have said several things worth comment by then.

Polish Missiles

Can someone please tell me why we are putting missiles in Poland? Isn't this needlessly provocative? Wouldn't we consider it an unfriendly gesture if the Russians decided to put their missiles in Mexico? And why does Georgia need to be in NATO? It's a hell of a long way from the Atlantic, and just another provacation. If you are going to poke the bear with a sharp stick you'd better be prepared to have him take a swipe at you if he gets the chance. Don't we have enough problems without stirring up extras?

More on us and them

Since John Edwards is preoccupied with other issues at the moment, I’ll pick up the populist battle flag and run with it.

This post is for anyone who believes there is an “us and them” in America, that the “them” are the Wal-Mart people and we’re the “us.” You are drawing the line in the wrong place. We’re on the same side of the line with the Wal-Mart tribe. To be on the other side of that line one needs to have a net worth of at least $10 million and an annual income in seven figures, or you must be one of their many lackeys.

“Them” are the people who are fighting to keep our present health care system. They also like the current farm subsidy program. They aren’t interested in gun control or abortion. They are willing to send troops, and spend unlimited amounts of money, to protect our economic interests in the Middle East.

They are the ones who advised Dick Chaney on our energy policy, and who lobbied Congress to prohibit the government from negotiating for quantity discounts from drug companies.
They aren’t very concerned about the state of our education system because they can easily afford the best private education that money can buy for their own children.

They donate the maximum amount to a broad range of political candidates; they often coerce the people who work for them to do the same, thus insuring access and influence regardless of who wins. They own the lawyers and the legal system, too.

Illegal immigration is fine with them – without it who would raise their children, tend their lawns, and work in their sweatshops for low wages and no benefits?

They invented no-down-payment mortgages, golden parachutes, LBOs, CDOs, off-balance-sheet debt instruments, outsourcing, and lots of other things “us” will be paying for until we die.
But they are tricky.

They often show up at fund-raisers for liberal politicians, work for good causes, and espouse enlightened ideas. They may even believe they are on the side of good, but don’t believe them. They care about only themselves and maintaining their position relative to us.

More than anything they believe in the righteousness of them being one of them, and us being one of us – no matter how badly one of us has it.

Don’t blame the Wal-Mart crowd because we have failed to convince them to vote for the guys we like. They are the smart ones; they know better than anyone that it’s a contest between two of them and no one really cares about us.

Just another poor boy....

Rich Man's War
Steve Earle (The Revolution Starts Now)

Jimmy joined the army 'cause he had no place to go
There ain't nobody hirin' round here since all the jobs went Down to Mexico
Reckoned that he'd learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now 's got a rifle in his hand
Rollin' into Baghdad wonderin' how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he's still there
Chasin' ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin' ourselves we're free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain't nothin' else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin' bout livin' in fear all your life makes you hard that way
He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

Miscellaneous

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was undoubtedly the greatest spectacle ever staged by human beings. It was both artistically breathtaking, and a technological marvel. My favorite part was the people dancing on the globe. David Brooks has a very interesting take on how they did it.

The Russians are getting pretty scary. The move into Georgia is frighteningly reminiscent of 1930s German behavior. Putin hasn’t gotten over the breakup of the USSR and now he seems intent on putting it back together country-by-country. I’d be very nervous if I were a Ukrainian.

Bill & Hill are going to give it one more shot in Denver. You have to give them some credit; for unrelenting, self-serving, self-promotion it would be hard to find any human being to match either of them. What were the odds that they’d find one another 40 years ago and still be hanging on to their piece of the center stage?

Are you as sick of hearing about Brett Farve as I am?

“The Innocent Man,” is John Grisham's nonfiction book about "murder and injustice in a small town.” All I can say is you don’t want to be charged with a serious crime in this country unless you are rich. This is not a fair justice system. George Clooney just optioned the book.

I’m headed to Miami to visit the Seminole Tribe of Florida Gaming Authority, and my mother. Argue amongst yourselves for a few days.

Geography is not destiny

For those of you who feel certain you can predict the political beliefs of a person by knowing where he or she lives, I offer the following in opposition to that notion:

• More New Yorkers voted for Bush than Georgians, North Carolinians, Tennesseans, or the combined Bush votes in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Mississippi.
• More people in Massachusetts voted for Bush than did people in Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina or Mississippi, or the combined Bush total for Nevada and Idaho.
• More Californians voted for Bush than the total for any other state. His vote there was greater than his combined votes in Mississippi, Utah, Arkansas, Nebraska, Idaho, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
• Kerry got more votes in Ohio than in Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.
• Kerry got more votes in Georgia than in Oregon; more in North Carolina than in Minnesota, and more votes in Alabama than in Maine and Rhode Island combined.

Somebody say something

This campaign has gotten dull, dull, dull. McCain and Obama are both playing the four-corner offence so as to give none. It comes naturally to Barack who can say “change” in 47 languages but can’t explain what that means in even one. The McCain “Straight Talk Express” has become the Rovemobile. Paris Hilton has a clearer energy policy than either of them.

Each is waiting for the other to commit the big screw-up, so even as people are deserting the Republican party in droves and swelling the ranks of Democrats, Obama can’t pull away because nobody knows what the guy believes in. And even though he’s a war hero running against a black man with a Muslim-sounding name, McCain can’t either, because he’s stopped saying what he believes. I hope it’s just the dog-day doldrums and things will pick up after the conventions, but this has been a really disappointing month.

New movie: This could be interesting: IOUSA.

Hello again

Hello again. That was a little longer break than I’d planned, but this pesky job thing got it the way when I returned from Ohio and before I knew it a week had slipped by me. In truth, I came back with little to say. I thought the week in Ohio might reveal some new, deep truths, but alas, that was not the case. I discovered (or in one case, rediscovered) two things that might be of modest interest.

First, if you think the current Presidential campaign has been going on for a long time, pity the poor people of Ohio – “a key battleground state” – as Brian Williams would say. As such, the candidates are in full tilt battle, with fairly hard-hitting TV commercials on at seemingly every break. Obama promising change, and McCain blaming Obama for high oil prices were the main themes I saw in late July.

My rediscovery was the simple beauty of the Ohio countryside. I drove the 177 miles from Columbus to Warren without entering the interstate highway system. This route was beautiful all the way, but especially as it traversed through Holmes County, which is Amish country. The world may be going to hell in a hand basket (I also drove by the Longaberger Building in Newark, OH) but the Amish are holding their part of it together with grace and beauty – not to mention a very small carbon footprint. It’s hard not to wonder what the meaning of progress really is when you see how these people live. They work hard, they produce everything they need, they take care of their own, they don’t pick fights with anyone, and they leave the planet relatively unscathed. If only Kelly McGillis were really Amish…