Well…I could do the easy one here and just make jokes about sister Sarah….since Alaska, that last bastion of individuality, and independence (if you don’t count that it is the biggest welfare state in the union) is in the middle of another attempt by the righties to steal an election. If you liked Bush v. Gore, you’ll love what ole Joe Miller has in mind for Alaska. Where did he go to law school anyway…Bob Jones University? As you know, ole Joe is irritated that since about 20 thousand people voted for him in the primary, he wasn’t just anointed as the new senator….earlier, when it looked like he may win the election..he was all about counting all the votes to make sure no one is disenfranchised. But, as with all of these pseudo patriots, when the system and the people reject them, there must be something wrong and they call in all the lawyers. They have even gone so far to cite Bush v. Gore as the precedent for the challenges…did they even read the decision? It is stated in Bush v. Gore that it can NEVER be used as precedent in any other case…and it only applies to the one-off of the 2000 election.
But this doesn’t matter to the righties…they hate frivolous lawsuits unless they can gain political advantage from them…all I can say to ole Joe is “man up” and admit that your crazy beliefs and only passing familiarity with the truth is what is costing you this election…not any conspiracy that you dream up in that addled brain of yours…
Well…a thought has been coming to me over the past couple of days…yep, just one…so it must be a big one, huh? I think it is…and I know I’ve been pushing reasonableness in politics, that there is always room for compromise…but I think I may have been wrong. When I see the chicanery that the repubs have been doing since the election, with the instant rejection of anything Obama, with no mention of the people that are hurting in this country…but just payback and investigations of the normal workings of any government…where were these guys when Cheney was letting the oil companies write energy legislation? But that is not the point, the point to me is that even though the election was a setback, we progressives need to say stop, that we have already moved way too far to the right..just for the look of compromise that the repubs never really cared about. So, we need to use the power that is left to us, frame the consequences of the repubs agenda better…so they want to repeal the healthcare law? So they want a tax increase on small businesses by eliminating the subsidies that are included in the law? Let’s shout it from the rooftops. So, they want to allow insurance companies to cancel your insurance when you get sick? Let’s take out billboards that shout that fact. So they want to allow big banks to bet the economy on their obscene profits again? Let’s make sure that everyone knows that is what they want to do. I know, I know…that’s not reasonableness but I think the term needs to be redefined…is it reasonable to let the extreme right-wing agenda ruin this country in the name of compromise…not in my world it’s not….
Well…I did get out on the bike and got to 2K today….but that’s not really the subject of this one…when I got to the top of the first climb and my water stop, there was a glimpse of the happiness that I’ve been missing…but it was like when your car is wet and you are trying to start it…it wants to start; it almost starts, then it sputters for a few seconds while you work the gas pedal trying to get it to catch, then no matter what you do it just sputters and sputters and then quits with a strange wheezing sound. The next time you try the battery starts to go dead and you feel in your stomach that it’s not going to start. That was my bike ride today…and it is so damn frustrating when you can start to feel the happiness a little but then, when you try to understand and keep it going, it’s just gone and you’re back where you were….and it seems like such a damn fine line that you just can’t get across…
Oh, well…at least I could see across the river for a few seconds….maybe it will come back later….
Well…today’s the day…I’ll get to 2,000 miles this afternoon and I don’t know if that really means anything…it does to me since what other goals do I have? It was nice to get the wreck cleaned up yesterday…oh, that was a goal, too I guess. Does everyone’s life get small as they get older? Not going to deal with that today…or maybe I will later…who knows? Up early again this morning and feel like I’m walking in concrete…and that’s not good when I have the grocery shopping to do and maybe out for a couple with K or G but that’s about it. I do need to get into the bag o books that I got from T but the Hulu thing has been taking up that time…the novelty is wearing off, though, and if the weather goes bad as it is supposed to do, I’ll have lots of time to read. Hmmm….I will have topics for later…not sure what yet but there has to be something in the 4 newspapers that I read…if not, what’s the point?
Well…I’m really glad the election is over but there was one thing (there was more than one thing but this is what I want to deal with right now) that disappointed me so much about the media and it’s reporting on the people and ideas that were part of it. It seems to me that this election was one of “narratives” that took on a life of their own and were aided by a lazy media that was all too eager to use this shorthand in lieu of real reporting. The greatest example of this lack of rigor was the theme that this was a change election and the people were revolting against the Obama Administration’s policies when that was only true on the right…the real reason for the change that happened was that we progressives were lazy getting out to vote and somewhat smug in the fact that we believed our message was the best one and needed no explanation. This, along with the shortcuts of the media, allowed the right to dominate the story of the election that continues even after the data is available to refute this bundle of lies and wishful thinking.
This lack of rigor on the part of the media was evident in the vetting of the candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle whose lack of qualifications were glossed over by the media who were only interested in being right in projecting the Republican “tidal wave” even though their job is to do the hard work and provide the unbiased information that the people need to make informed decisions. What happened to the story on O’Donnell’s reported income of only $9,000 for the past two years? I know it’s hard for me to live on significantly more than $4,500 a year and I have no expenses. But, this story would make people think and the media have the wrongheaded idea that people won’t understand or think…that everything has to be a soundbite. I, for one, want the various forms of media to go back to the era where the facts are just reported without the thoughts of what the impact of the facts are. These days, it’s all too common that people don’t have the guts to have “the chips fall where they may” and shed some light on the dark corners of politics that money and ideology don’t want known. I hope the media do better in the next one…or they can start today…that would be a good way to return them to the importance that the founders knew…geez…
Well…another night out in Ada, another win at pool and I don’t feel too bad today…and that’s good because I do have things to do today…yay! I need to get the car ready for winter with a complete cleaning from top to bottom…it has been bugging me to no end that I’ve let it go to as dirty as it is. I may have to take a week or so off going out since I’m running out of cash and I don’t want to use the credit card…so I’m glad I have Netflix and the bag o books that I got from T that I have been ignoring, it will help me see if I can go through a whole week without spending anything…I may have to buy groceries, though, to make that happen…we’ll see. Other than that, not much to do today..but I am going to try to get the last 20 miles in this aft after I get the car done…then everything over that will just be a bonus…might even get to 2200 or so…more later…
Well…have been feeling out of sorts lately, even more than normal which is a lot for me. The peace that I had found a few weeks back has eluded me and I don’t know what to do about it…because I don’t know how it happened in the first place. Oh, well…I am glad to not have the filth in the political ads bombarding me anymore…damn…I don’t know if this is writers block or not but I can’t seem to get going…there were weird dreams last night…but all I can remember is giving all my stuff away…okay, this one is crap…need to take a break and try, try, again…
Well…another Monday and another time that G blew me off…so I guess Mondays out are now going to be by myself..I did go out to watch part of the wings game to Peppino’s and they how have Keno so that made it a lot better…when the game went to OT though, I came home…and Hank won it on a deflection so that was cool. Last night was probably the crappiest night of sleep I’ve had in quite a while..up at 3:30 and then back up at 5…ugh….feel like crap today but since I never have anything to do..I can just take a nap later…and not a lot to do today..out to Ada later for pool…but that is about it…more later…
Okay, it’s later and I’m in the middle of watching “Dexter” but thought I’d come back for a minute and put down a couple of thoughts..or maybe just one, nope, the thoughts just left me…this is getting really frustrating…but I do have one about Boehner and the healthcare debate…but I don’t know if I want to go there today…I think today is more about musings than rantings…and there have been some things happen that I am still working out…the weather is nice, though and i may want to do the last thirty miles today…after Dexter, that is because it needs to go back in the mail today…more later…
Well…there is a new narrative coming out of the repubs that the reason that the dems lost the house in the mid-terms was that they didn’t compromise enough on their agenda, that they jammed the healthcare bill down the throats of America without talking to their repub counterparts. Okay, is anyone laughing as much as I am? Especially when related to healthcare, the dems went from their proposal for a single-payer system to the bastardized one that was passed…and the majority of the bill were things that the repubs had proposed just a few years earlier…so, the repubs get everything they want and then still run against the bill? But, you know their idea of compromise is that they get everything they want and then still bitch about it. They are so spineless that they won’t even support financial regulation of the guys that screwed up the economy if their idiot fringe (who doesn’t understand any of it…just listen to Michelle Bachmann) starts to howl. How can you, or why should you compromise when the only thing these guys want is a return to the robberbaron times of the early 1900′s? They’ve shown they have no good ideas and to give their stupid ones like tax cuts for the rich validity by compromising on them is the height of folly that the dems will have to get over…geez…
Well…a day of watching the Lions lose again and the Napcar race yesterday and I think it’s time to go out and do anything versus just sitting here…but I’m trying to save cash so that puts me in kind of a bind…oh, well…it was a nice day and I did get out on the bike for a long one and hope to do another one today since it’s going to be near 60…not bad for November. And, I only have 40 miles left to get to 2K..yay! I’m also creeping up on 500 posts since I started this and that is some kind of a milestone but I don’t know what kind…I wonder if putting them all together would make a new book..after all, Keith did it with excerpts from his show. Not much to do today…I think I’m going to start getting the car cleaned and ready for winter…have to do the glass inside and out since dirty windows bug the hell out of me and it’s better to do it when it’s relatively warm….that’s about it for now…more later…