I am thinking about John Kerry

#DNC2012 “Ask Osama bin Laden if he’s better off now than he was four years ago!”

— Senator John Kerry

This was one of the more memorable quotes that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry made during his speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. He gave a speech that called out the former Massachusetts Governor and current Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney on his policies and lack of a clear position and plan for the country. He went as far as to suggest that Romney took his foreign cues from watching the Rocky IV movie.
You know you're in trouble when the person who was charged with being a flip-flopper when he ran for president in 2004, calls you out as being an even worse flip-flopper.
The recurring thought that I had (as I'm sure everyone else had) as I watched Kerry speak was "Where the hell was this guy in 2004?" This guy could have gotten elected to the White House instead of being a bigger punchline than the punchline that got reelected.

Check-in to John Kerry on GetGlue.com

Sarah Palin, motherhood and Alaskan women

[Below is an exchange that I entered into regarding an article about Sarah Palin on Facebook.]

They Raise Children, Pray and Support Palin - NYTimes.com
Source: www.nytimes.com
Gov. Sarah Palin has a following of Alaska women as dedicated to her as others were to a very different politician, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"These are women who dip in and out of the work force, believe in prayer and spend their days trying to keep the crayon off the walls. They feel they have been looked down on by Clinton feminists and ignored by the power structure in the Republican Party. The fact that Ms. Palin has five children, including Trig, a newborn with Down syndrome, only makes her that much more part of the sisterhood.“I’m not that into politics,” said Delores Field, an Alaska Inupiat from Eagle River, near Anchorage, who does not consider herself a Democrat or a Republican.

“I’m just going to vote for Trig Van Palin’s mom.”

Add a comment1 comment


Tara at 10:11am Sep 5
"I’m not that into politics; I’m just going to vote for Trig Van Palin’s mom."Oh god. What a great reason to cast your vote...

Kitlat at 1:33pm Sep 5

It actually is a valid reason. We vote for who we think can represent and do the most for us. Some people vote for the President that you feel you can have a beer with vs. the other guy who knew the job better than anyone, but had a hard time connecting with people and inspiring them until he did a little film called "An Inconvenient Truth."

Kitlat at 1:34pm Sep 5

Some people vote for the little Midwestern haberdasher who was never rich or privileged, who had experienced more failure than success, who was left in the dark by the predecessor who overshadowed him and didn't think much of him, but who was around to cleanup the end of a long war and who believed in something as unfashionable as giving everyone a "fair deal" and having the buck stop with him-qualities that those voters felt represented their idea of what America is supposed to be. People follow, endorse and vote for people that they feel connect wth them, whether it is a connection based on being one of them, understanding their needs or because they represent an ideal they connect with.

Kitlat at 1:35pm Sep 5

Policy is important. Issues are important, but they mean little if the people that they affect feel that you will not represent their interests because you cannot connect with them, cannot understand them-again, as a certain VP learned during his campaign for president and during his subsequent campaign against global warming.

Kitlat at 1:35pm Sep 5

I respect a lot about Sarah Palin's background-I don't agree with many of her positions and many of the decisions she made on behalf of Alaska and I will not vote for the ticket in November, but I connect with many things in her experience-including mothers who dip in and out of the work force and try to keep crayons off the walls and food on the table and who find enjoyment in soaps and may occasionally play the lottery and who have to balance childcare and work-especially without the help of a partner. I also feel there is some truth to the idea that some of the women who fit the profile of a Clinton feminist do look down upon such women and belittle them and well, women's groups and other groups have paid for it at the ballot box ever since

Opinions of...politics - Part 2

Obama and Rev. Wright's comments:Please...unfortunately many people will not see this for what it is-someone's way of planting the seed that Barack Obama if elected, will not meet the needs of ALL Americans and that he is one of those "evil" Black Nationalists left over from the 60s and early 70s.

Opinions of...politics - Part 1

'Onpoint' Radio has a weekly Friday roundtable discussion about issues in the news. They touched upon a few that I should make plain where my positions are.

Geraldine Ferraro: Oddly enough, I got what she was trying to say. I do honestly have to say that there have been times where I wonder about whether or not Obama would have been subjected to some of the awful things that have been said about HRC. No one's seen fit to make a nutcracker of Obama. There was a better way of saying it and I wonder what the race would have been like if Barack had been Michelle Obama instead.

MONDAY

Poor Monday-it gets such a bad rap as a day. This has to be a recent thing because I can't imagine that people in the past felt the same way.

Soaps:
A lot of "WTF" from me lately. Some people will blame the directions the storylines have taken on the scabs that wrote during the Writer's Strike. I don't let the regular writers off that easy. Many, except for The Young and the Restless, were going south for a long time now-most notably The Bold and the Beautiful.

Whenever I watch Guiding Light (GL), I find myself saying "Genug already!"
-I am happy that they finally wrapped up the Sarah/Jonathan/Lizzie storyline, but I hate how they ended it. I'll allow that Alan Spaulding is powerful, but I still can't see Lizzie and Jonathan not being about to find a legal remedy to keep him out of their lives, like a restraining order or something. The courts recognize very few grandparents' rights and honestly their wacky plan to get married would not have really stopped him.

-I wish they would end the Marina/Harley/Cyrus thing. I wish Marina would just bring both Harley and Cyrus into the same room and go,
"I know you guys are knocking each other and since you both couldn't grow a pair and tell me, I am telling you that I know. I am also taking myself out of this equation. Have fun together and go with god."
If wishes could come true that a soap heroine would just do that and strike a blow for intelligent women everywhere. Granted, never crazy about Marina or Cyrus, but I would love Marina to show that she has some pride rather than these silly "I Know What you Did" games she's been playing with Harley and Cyrus.
On a related note: I know that Rick Bauer needs to leave Harley alone. Rick "I'm in love with my wife until another damsel in distress comes along" has no right to threaten Harley, although he's right to call her by her right name.

-I also wish they would knock off the "Will they? Won't they" thing with Josh and Reva. Definitely a "genug" situation. I say just put Reva and Josh back together and call it a day. The Cassie/Josh thing never really jelled for me and honestly, while we are on the topic of self-respect: you would think that Cassie would invest in a clue in that she has honestly been sleeping with 3-4 people in the same marital bed (the fourth being Tammy or Will depending upon the moment) and that's not a marriage. Cassie too should cut her losses and find a life somewhere else.

-The OMEN/BAD SEED '08
Clearly in addition to returning to some of the visual elements that made up GL's, they are returning to plot elements of the past. The bad seed idea was explored way back in the 50s and 60s with Meta Bauer's stepdaughter Kathy and her daughter Robin (admittedly Kathy was more of a rebel and felt unloved a la Lizzie Spaulding a few years ago vs. Robin whose actions were completely more bad seed). At times it's been amusing and at times ludicrous (Friday's episode where Will pays a guy to give him a ride was ... well, gee I wonder what that says about adults in general.) I honestly now don't understand why this kid has just not been put away. Yeah, Cassie stands in the way of such things but O'Neill as DA could take care of that. Court mandated mediation....I know there was a hearing and I can't fathom that a good judge in the face of the evidence would look the other way. I almost wish Beth would press charges against Will for what he did to James. (Granted all this is soaps so logic does not apply). This one needs to be laid to rest, even if it ends with Cassie riding off into the sunset with him to whatever special school he gets committed to (thus clearing the way for a Josh and Reva reunion). It was interesting at first but now it's becomes a lot of "are you kidding me?" Rafe gets busted for breathing and Will sits back and enjoys his life of making people miserable.

Except for the fact that I hated hearing that down the pike Phyllis and Nick are supposed to have marital problems because of Adam on young and the Restless, I've got nothing else except that while I was not pleased that Patrick is the father of Robin's baby, I am glad that she told him and that she is not looking to take him back. Of course GH will insist on not putting Robin and Jason back together...


Politics:
Another "genug already" situation. Granted last week's SNL take off on the "3am" ad was great, but honestly I feel that Lord Howard Dean should have the election "do-over," which includes placing Obama et. al on the ballot this time. A move that brings risks to either candidate, but I feel that both can stand up to it.

Other Stuff:
Still working on organizing meetups. I will sort this out by the end of the week.