The American Media Is Pathetic

The following video report on CNN about Britney Spears going out partying with Paris Hilton is just pathetic. CNN! This isn't the checkout line at the Safeway, this is the front page of the CNN website.

Britney has figured out that camera's follow that vapid, talentless, privilegded tart Paris, and she is using that to get her "assets" in the media before her new album comes out.

Shame on you CNN, shame.

Don't click this link and if you do and it doesn't work, then I'm glad. I just put it up for the truth factor: Britney Flashes Flesh With New Party Pal Paris

Memorial Service

I am just back from my grandfather's memorial service and I'm still in catch-up mode, but I will post in the next day or so. I was struck by a couple of things that I saw at the service and wanted to share them. See you soon.

Hungover After The Football Game

Elections are very much like football games. You alternate between being on offense and defense. You have special teams of people with specialized assignments. You are always playing against the clock in a ground acquisition contest where you want to spend as much time on the other side of the 50 yard/percent line as possible. And the people who follow election year politics often act in a similar manner as football fans. They hoot and holler at every gaffe and every successful play. They show fanatical team loyalty by wearing their teams colors on the bodies, cars, and homes. And they gloat or cry with emotional honesty when their party or candidate wins or loses.

Of course, elections aren't football games and something more than pride and perhaps a wager with the local bookie are at stake. Lives are affected and even lost depending on the outcomes of elections. The people deciding the issues that impact us every day are being given a nearly sacred responsibility when they are elected, and it is in the best interest of all us football fans to remember that. Winning the election is step one of thousands on the road to change and going home drunk after the game is not an option when it comes to politics.

When the last vote is counted, the time to celebrate or mourn is short because the true game is now afoot. These political athletes will now be forced to live up to our expectations. But the only way to know that they are in fact doing the things that they said they would during the campaign is to remain vigilant.

Just like first-round draft picks, some will succeed and some will fail. Some will prove themselves worthy of our trust and others will disappoint, but as voters, we have an obligation to hold them accountable for their leadership. Personally, I will watching my elected officials to see if they address the poverty wage that the law currently mandates. I will be watching to see if the rich continue to get richer while the middle class struggles just to get by. I will be watching to see if we as a country can return to a foreign policy that emphasizes coalition building over strong arming and unilateral action. And finally, I will be watching to see if our representatives are willing to hold each other to the standards that the rest of us try to abide.

The election is over. The attack ads and campaign rhetoric are just echoes ringing in an empty stadium. Now it is the job of the spectators to be vigilant so that the players understand that they are accountable. Remember, they are playing with our money, our livelihoods, and our lives. Now is not the time to pack up and go home to wait for the next football game.

Sorry

I know I promised to post, but I got some sad news today. My grandfather passed away this morning after suffering a massive heart attack. I'll post in the next day or so, but frankly, today, I'm just not that motivated. Thanks for your patience.

Rumsfeld is stepping down

I'll post on the election after the hangover subsides...my predictions apparently weren't that bad...but this is the breaking news from CNN. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld is reportedly stepping down. I'll post an update when I know more.

CNN: GOP officials: Rumsfeld stepping down

And So It Begins...

They are already reporting problems with voting machines. This is going to be an ugly election day. The lawyers are really going to make out when this is said and done.

CNN: Technical glitches reported in early voting

Predictions Sure To Go Wrong

There is nothing more fickle than a voter. I'm not talking about your hard-core voter, I'm talking about your average voter, and they can do just about anything. I give you my wife as an example. She's a...how to put this....well....a Republican.

There I said it. I'm sure that's some step in some 12 step program. I hope I get credit.

She is voting almost completely Democratic this cycle. She's put off by the war and she looks at her aging, sick father and wonders why anyone would put restrictions on stem cell research. That's about all it took. Not the economy, not gas prices, not illegal immigration ... a war she doesn't think is working and a ban on stem cell research and she's chucking years of loyalty out the window.

God, how I love her.

It seems she's not the only one having a crisis of faith in the Republicans, races across the country are showing a sea change in the power structure of Washington. Democrats are poised to win races in districts and states that just a few short years ago would never have even been in play. It is going to be a wild election night and here are a few predictions from a guy who knows just a bit more than the average bear...but not much more than the crazy guy on the corner who keeps talking to his imaginary dog.

SENATE

The Democrats take the Senate, but just by one seat. Harold Ford is going to lose in Tennessee but so is Conrad Burns in Montana. If you believe as I do that McCaskill and Webb are going to win in Missouri and Virginia, then the Dems get the Senate, barely.

With such a slim majority in the Senate, not a lot of bills are going to make it to the President. But, the Democrats will have the power of the subpoena to finally try and get to the truth about the war. Progress? Not much. Entertaining? Absolutely.

HOUSE

If Heather Wilson in New Mexico is in trouble and Duckworth is likely to win Henry Hyde's old seat in Illinois then the Republicans are screwed. These are seats that the Republicans should own, and they don't. Therefore I say the Democrats pick up 26 seats and own the House.

VOTING MACHINES

We won't know who owns the Senate when the sun comes up on Wednesday. The voting machines that have already shown themselves to be less than reliable in Florida and elsewhere will result in challenges and fights that will prevent extra tight races like the one in Missouri from being decided without a lot of fighting and legal threats.

So go out and buy some No Doze and prepare to be in limbo on Wednesday morning. Personally, I'm going to set a 1 am deadline for myself. Life most go on.

Photo from USAToday.