Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Liar, liar, pants on fire!! What a wonderful descriptive taunt.

I have a theory that all of human behavior and interaction was experienced and described on the school playground in elementary school. We saw it all. We knew what to call it. It was clear, cogent and unvarnished. As time passed that clarity was obfuscated with layers of nuance and social convention.

Sometimes kids would fib in class. Fibs happen when kids want to seem more important than they really are. Kids would fib about something they did or fib about how important their Dad was. The fib was for the purpose of gaining status. Fib is not as harsh as the word, lie. But, a fib is a lie just the same. Hillary wanted to be more important. She wanted people to think she was battle tested. She had dodged sniper fire and worn a flak jacket. By implication, she was then ready on Day One to lead the class into battle. But, it was a fib. It was a lie.

During recess, we would all chase Hillary around the school yard yelling "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" We would chase her until we all ran out of breath. We would chase her until she cowered at the side of teacher for protection or fell in a lump and pleaded for us to stop. We would chase her relentlessly, yelling and laughing, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Dementia: McCain’s Most Difficult Medical Question

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for the Presidency has been on a taxpayer funded fact finding trip to the Middle East, with photo-op side trips to London and Paris. Four times during this trip Senator McCain has confused the Shia and Sunni. He has claimed that Shia Iran was supporting, training and arming Sunni Al Qaeda operating in Iraq. Fortunately he was accompanied by Senator Joe Lieberman who quickly corrected him on the nuances of tribal politics in the Middle East.

In London, where McCain stopped for a fund raiser on his way home, Lieberman had to repeat a question from a reporter that McCain had forgotten.

In a March 8, 2008, article the New York Times reported that few mentions had been made during the primary season regarding McCain’s health. Continuing the Times said that his complete medical records had not been released nor had his physicians been made available for questioning. Concern surrounding McCain’s health has centered on his bout with melanoma. While it is believed he has received a clean bill of health, there has been, logically, interest and concern regarding the status of his cancer, which is presumed to be in remission.

That, however, should not be our greatest concern. While ailments which cause physical impairments are important for voters to know about and understand, they are not of a type that typically impairs an ability to fully function as President. Roosevelt’s paralysis and Kennedy’s Addison’s disease are two examples. In those two cases, the men where not fully disclosing, but there is no suggestion that their decision-making abilities were impaired by their physical infirmities.

When the ailment is one that can affect judgment the bar is raised much higher and our right as voters to know is profound. We now know that Reagan may have been suffering the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease before he left the White House. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are on the rise. The rate of incidence is increasing and there is much more awareness of their debilitating impact. Many of us, aging baby boomers, have recently lived through our parents’ demented decline. Consequently, we are alert to the early signs and symptoms.

When Senator John McCain made the same mistake four times, our intuitive antenna were alerted. I have mentioned the issue to four friends and they have all confirmed that they noticed the mistake and wondered whether Senator McCain had a larger problem than jet lag.

When will we see McCain's medical records? Does McCain suffer dementia? What confirmation can we have that John McCain is not suffering the early stages of dementia? Is it a fair concern? It is a fair question? Of course it is.

Unfortunately, it is similar to the classic question, “Are you still beating your wife?” Once you ask the dementia question, you have raised doubt. But, the public has an absolute right to know.

Bored

This happens during an interminable campaign. I go through moments of incredible boredom. I get to a point where I can't stand to hear one more pundit or bloviator (gawd do I like that term) make an idiotic statement about something that doesn't matter.

There have been so many events over the past few days that have been worthy of bloviating on. Yes, it is a word with many perambulations. I think bloviating is a little like spewing. Bloviators spew.

Perhaps the debacle occurring in the Democratic Party has just become numbing. Actually, the debacle is really the story of implosion of the Clintonistas and the relegation of Bill and Hillary Clinton to the dustbin of history.

There are now so many examples of Hillary prevaricating on the campaign trail that the Washington Post has awarded her "four Pinocchio's." If she was really so experienced and ready on Day One, why would she have to lie about her role in Northern Ireland and dodging bullets in Bosnia? With the publication of her calendar as First Lady, I guess we now know why. She did not have a security clearance that gave her permission to learn about National Security matters and she wouldn't have had the time, in any event, given her ribbon cutting responsibilities at senior centers.

Her surrogates are unbelieveable. Carville, the "ragin Cajun," has gone completely off the reservation with his Judas comment on Richardson. Carville looks like Yoda. He has to be the most butt ugly commentator on television. Again, as previously posted, just look at his seven page spread in Architectural Digest. These are people who, like their candidate, have a sense of entitlement. For a exposition of that, read David Brooks in the New York Times today (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/opinion/25brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin)

As everyone who passed 3rd grade arithmetic knows, there is no way that Hillary can win the nomination if the rules are adhered to. She cannot win the nomination by counting delegates either regular delegates, committed delegates or super delegates. (It has been interesting to watch the Clintonistas play with the delegate language in an effort to find a winning strategy. Nice Orwellian work, Clintonistas!) Florida and Michigan are off the table. She is behind in delegates. She is behind in total popular vote (now 700,00 behind).

So the Clintonistas hope is that Obama commits a major gaff and somehow goes down in flames and she wins the day. Whoopee! At least Romney had the grace to withdraw in the face of the inevitable. With The Clintonistas there is utter denial. They have been stuck in the denial mode for some time now. Unfortunately, I fear they will stay stuck there for awhile longer.

By the way, I am going to post a longer, more thoughtful bit on McCain's dementia. When Brit Hume of Fox News claims it was just a "senior moment," then we truly have something to worry about. At some point, the mainstream media will begin to talk about this big elephant in the living room.

Her Thighness

Hillary Clinton, her Royal Thighness, lied to the voters of Ohio! She claimed that she had always been opposed to NAFTA. What lying bullshit!

The recently released 11,000 pages of records of her White House schedule contain evidence of her presence in and active participation in activities focused on the passage of NAFTA. While those of us who know the history of the passage of NAFTA knew she was lying, there was little direct evidence of what went on behind closed doors. Now we have the evidence and it completely undermines Her Thighness.

It will be wonderful great fun these next few days to watch her and her staff spin the facts and attempt to convince us that, taking a page from the John Kerry playbook, she was against NAFTA before she was for it but she was always against it.

Dementia

Four times in the past few days McCain, while on a taxpayer funded fact finding trip to the Middle East, has confused the Shia and Sunni. He has claimed that Shia Iraq was supporting Sunni Al Qaeda. Fortunately he was accompanied by his toady Joe Lieberman who quickly corrected him on and the nuances of tribal politics in the Middle East.

In London, where McCain stopped for a fund raiser on his way home, Lieberman had to repeat a question from a reporter that McCain had forgotten.

When will we see McCain's medical records? [They will probably be forthcoming a day or two after Hillary's tax returns.] We now know that Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer's before he left the White House. What confirmation can we have that McCain is not suffering the early stages of dementia before he enters the White House?

Does McCain suffer dementia? Is it a fair concern? It is a fair question?

Praise the Lord

Barack Obama is President! Barack Obama is my President!

His speech in Philadelphia is so authentic and from the heart. I have been in transit and while awaiting a flight have just had the opportunity to read the entirety of the speech. I finished reading the speech with tears in my eyes.

If you haven't seen or read the speech. Please do. Here is the link:
http://my.barackobama.com/hisownwords

I will soon return to irreverence, sarcasm and irony, but for the moment, I want to bathe in the majesty of this historic speech.

Socialism for the Rich

I travel in a circle that includes a couple of people who worship at the altar of comedian Rush Limbaugh. They read the gospel according to Reagan and ascribe to a right of center orthodox view of the role of government.

They have voiced grave concerns about the health care plans of Clinton and Obama. They call them socialist. We will be just like Europe and Canada they proclaim. We will be a socialist country. There is little opportunity for a give and take dialog which delves into the nuances of the broken health care system in America. When I try to describe the travesty of the Medicare Drug plan passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Bush, their eyes glaze over. Don't confuse them with the details. Regardless of the importance of a health care safety net for the most vulnerable in our society, they reflexively fall back to their socialist rant.

It is ironic, that people can be opposed to health care for children and the poorest members of our society, when at the same time we provide egregious support for the rich. Today, the government, in the form of Federal guarantees behind the JP Morgan bailout of Bear Stearns, has provided a safety net to the fifth largest bank in America. There is no safety net for the poorest of the poor, but there is a safety net for Bear Stearns which will allow its employees and management to continue to employed and continue to earn salaries that well exceed the national average.

Why is it okay or appropriate for us to bail out the big guys, but not the little guys. Socialism for the rich is okay, but health care of the poor is a red flag for the red meat right wing.

Lets call it what it is. This country works very well for the wealthiest. Remember the old line, "You never want to owe the bank a little bit of money. If you do, you're screwed. You want to owe the bank a lot of money. It not your problem then, it's the banks."

Bear Stearns has always been a high risk operation. It took big risks. It lost. Too bad. To bail them out is disgusting. But, in America, it is okay, because we support socialism for the rich.