Just do what I say

Have I EVER led you astray?
"President Bush urged Congress on Monday to act fast."

And then in the package is this statement,

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

I don't think so.

You just know somebody is getting screwed and it is likely you and me. PRM

Living in a swing state

This is the first time since we moved here that NC has been considered a swing state in a national election. And what a difference it makes.

Michelle Obama was in Greensboro yesterday. I did not go but if the teens had been available to go with me, I would have gone.

I hope Obama will come sometime before the election.

Last Saturday, I canvassed for Kay Hagan, the Democratic candidate running against Liddy Dole, our worthless Republican senator. This Saturday I will spend a few hours registering voters. Shoshie is going with me. PRM

**I must have been receiving my email subliminally because there was a message at 7:15am that Barak Obama would be in Charlotte on Sunday.

Look, a chicken

If you don't have any good ideas, don't want to take responsibility for your actions, then yell fire, or in this case, sexism.

John McCain is a man who calls his wife a c**t in public, thinks it's okay to tell an ugly joke about the then teenaged Chelsea Clinton and NOW he has the chutzpah to cry sexism.

Give me a break! PRM

Homer Sexuals

That's what Jesse Helms called homosexuals.

I am not sad to see another vestige of the Old South pass away. I think he was a mean SOB, frankly.

JP and I went to parent's night at the Boy Scout camp last night. One of the fathers was wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt with the saying, "If you're offended by this flag, you need to study history."

So I guess the death of Jesse will not purify the South. There will still be stupid SOBs.

What we need is a black man in the White House. That's the ticket. I can hope, especially since there are no homERsexuals running. PRM

Educating the New Voter, Pt. 2

This is our Congressman, Howard Coble. Congressman Coble was a very early critic, for a Republican, of the war in Iraq. "The conservative North Carolina Republican recently said it was time to start pondering a phased U.S. withdrawal from Iraq." This is from the San Francisco Chronicle, January 2005. Since his initial criticism, he has not failed in his willingness to cast his vote right along with the war proponents. He said one thing but has consistently voted the opposite. I naively expected him to be true to his words but I was disappointed.

So now, as every 2 years in the 10 years that we have lived here, it is time for someone to replace the old codger in the Congress.

In following our ongoing Educate the New Voter curriculum, Yakov, Shoshie and I wandered over to Guilford College to hear a debate between the 3 Democratic candidates Tuesday night. There were only about 40 people who showed up. A political sciences professor moderated and 2 local reporters asked questions.

Johnny Carter was, from our viewpoint, an unlikely choice. But he made a good impression. He presented himself as a strict constitutionalist. He seemed to have rational opinions about immigration and healthcare. He was strongly against the war.

At the end of the debate, Yakov had a chance to ask him an important question that only our family heard the answer. Having followed the candidates weekly as we have been doing, looking at the candidate's website for example, Yakov knew that Mr. Carter held some beliefs that would not appeal to us and yet, he had been so appealing. So Yakov asked him his opinion on prayer in the schools. He seemed to look us over before answering. He said he was a believer and could pray any time he wanted, as could schoolchildren. (good so far) If prayer is led in the school, then who would decide what kind of prayer would be led?(Ok) Before you know it there will be Christian prayers and Jewish prayers and Islamic prayers. And we don't want those people to take over and then they will have everyone down on a prayer rug.(Oops)

Yakov likes this guy, Jay Ovittore, a young man who has been very active for a number of years in local Democratic politics. He's a musician, so is Yakov. He has that facial hair thing, so do all of Yakov's friends who can grow it.

I was put off by his manner which seemed strident. And combative. I felt like he was trying too hard to look and sound like a grownup. He repeatedly referred to our soldiers as "our boys and girls." I thought that was demeaning. And I'm sure he doesn't intend to demean them.

I liked most of his policies. He was a bit too moderate for me but I guess I will have to deal with it.

This is Teresa Sue Bratton. I went to the debate prepared to like her the most. Like me she is a physician from Tennessee. In fact I have wondered if we went to the same high school. See, I am evaluating these candidates from a very enlightened viewpoint. Did I know her younger sister in high school?

I agreed with most of her policies, except for her healthcare reform. I think we need to get rid of the big insurance companies. They are not patients and they don't deliver care. They stand between and try to figure out how to take the patient's money and keep the doctor's. Why do we need stockholders in healthcare?

The kids were put off by her manner, like a teacher, figuratively wagging a finger at everyone.

Also on Wednesday, Obama was in Greensboro. I had a previous obligation to stay at the hospital with a friend whose son was having surgery. And frankly, I doubt we could have gotten tickets. I would like to hear him.

Hilary is in Winston-Salem today and Bill is going to be in High Point, Salisbury and many other locations tomorrow. But I'm not sure I want to see them.

This is so confusing. The only consolation is that I feel very confident that it will be better in January, no matter who wins.PRM

I love the smell of snark in the morning

"The President carries the greatest burden, obviously."

Maybe not so obvious. I suspect that 4000 families feel burdened. Children burdened by the loss of a mom or dad. Parents burdened by the memory of burying a child.

Speaking of the all-volunteer force, he said, "I am struck by the caliber of the people who do what they do...how much they are committed to the cause to defend the nation."

Unspoken, "You didn't see George and me volunteering. We aren't that noble*." PRM

*I say noble but I suspect that Cheney and Bush feel superior to these soldiers. They were too smart to volunteer. In fact they were just too privileged and didn't need to join. And Bush got a National Guard post that was, at that time, a cushy way to stay out of danger.

Educating a new voter

Yakov will be 18 before the election in November so he is eligible to vote in our May primary. He registered yesterday through Rock the Vote.

So we have taken on the job of educating him on the local and statewide races. I split up the work between the 3 kids. Every Wednesday at lunch, we sit down and talk about what's happening in the assigned races. Yesterday they were showing me the relevant attack ads and we were discussing their effectiveness. Also we are noting the web presence of the candidates.

Yakov is covering the Senate race in which we are hoping to replace our female Bush-clone, Elizabeth Dole, with someone good. There are 2 main Democratic contestants and a few interesting, if somewhat scary, outliers. I like Jim Neal who strikes me as a good progressive candidate and I am all over progress. The other likely contender is Kay Hagan who is not so progressive. She lost me when she said she would have voted for telecom immunity. Not me. Somebody has to stand up to these people and I want a Senator who will do just that. Since presidential power has been expanded so, I want someone who is willing to stand up to a Democratic president as well. I don't want to elect an Obama-clone or Hillary-clone either. And certainly not a McCain-clone.

I am hoping we will get the opportunity to see these 2 soon. Neal has a major electability problem, he is gay. This is North Carolina, after all. It was only a few years ago that we were listening to Jesse Helms warn us about the "homer sexuals".

Shoshie is following the gubernatorial race. There are a number of candidates and it has been difficult to narrow our focus so far. Yesterday we were comparing attack ads in this race. Each has a website to debunk the other's positions and claims. The funniest was a poem embedded in a blog on Fact Check Perdue. This was posted December 21st and was written in the style of T'was the Night Before Christmas.

More rapid than eagles the attacks, they came,
Trumped up and untrue, they tried to name names;
"He did it, he did it, It’s all Moore’s fault!
.....

And the smoke coming from Bev’s ears looked like a wreath;
For the facts from Roanoke Rapids might have been a little smelly
But they seemed to be pointing to the Perdue campaign’s belly.

This is about Bev Perdue who has been saying bad things about Richard Moore, one of her opponents. Her website is Know Moore. It's not as poetic.

Noach is following the Lt. Governor's race. This one is not very exciting and Noach is, of course, the most enthusiastic political student of the lot. I need to re-assign him before he loses interest. PRM

Eating in the state dining room

This was Shoshie's poetry choice yesterday.

I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

This is the picture that came to my mind when she was reading it. Langston Hughes died in 1967. It took 40 more years for this. I know black candidates have had primary success in the past, from Shirley Chisholm to, most successfully, Jesse Jackson. But this time, there just may be a black first family.

While I have some reservations about Obama politically, I would not be unhappy with our breaking the color barrier to the White House. I wouldn't mind our breaking the gender barrier, either, and I am no Hilary fan. In fact it feels a little weird to be supporting a white male candidate in these times. But I think he is the most progressive and that is where I am. PRM

Be careful talking down to kids.

From the NY Times
“Who is your favorite author?” Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa moments.

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

“My favorite author is C. S. Lewis,” she said.

Daryl Cobranchi says that Aleya is a home-educated kid. PRM

A little bit of politics

I enjoy politics, read political books, magazines and blogs, but really don't want to blog much about it. It just makes me sad right now.

The Homeschoolers for Huckabee thing irritates me mostly because I don't want the public to think that HSLDA speaks for all of us. I don't know if it speaks for the majority but there are plenty of us out here who do not follow its lead.

With this country in the sad, embarrassing place it is in now, I think there are larger and far more important issues to concern ourselves with than a politician's position on homeschooling. Like war. Poverty. So much. PRM

Worth the overdue fine

I waited 3 weeks on the hold list and began it the day it was due, when I had finally finished reading everything else I had started. I wanted to give it undivided attention, thinking it would be a hard read. It was, instead, fascinating. A nonfiction page-turner. I read late into the night and sat at the kitchen table in the afternoon with my kids yelling my name in increasing volume.

I loved The Nine by Jeffery Toobin. Just enough inside gossip. The legal concepts were explained well for the novice like myself. His thesis is that the court is, and has always been, a political entity. The neutrality of the court system is a long held myth but a myth nonetheless.

To me, O'Connor's retirement and the changes that the court is currently undergoing are scary. I think the expansion of executive privilege is the scariest part. But I suspect that when a Democrat is president, the executive privilege supporters will begin to reconsider. I hope so.