A Hodge-Podge of Political Stuff

(Please scroll down for wordzzles.)

What ever side of the fence you are on (but especially if you are for Obama), please register and please VOTE! Your vote really DOES matter.

Among the things - besides the Presidential vote - that you'll find on your ballot is Proposition 2, which deals deals with the issue of animal cruelty. Something to think about.

And although, I'll try to avoid a rant about the VP debate, I will say that although Palin (as I expected) didn't make a fool of herself in this format (unless you count all the winking), I (biased I confess) felt it was further evidence of how shallow/non-existent her credentials are for such high office. I may like the folks who live next door to me - male or female - but being personable doesn't qualify you for world leadership unless it also comes with substantive knowledge of the law and the Constitution. Being personable, isn't a substitute for being capable of reasoned thinking. Nor is being slick. All politicians stretch and bend the truth. I think that's unfortunate. Palin, much like George Bush, is much too comfortable for my taste, with out and out lies. Her repeated mantra about "thanks but no thanks," is patently false. She campaigned actively for the bridge to nowhere and only changed her tune when it became a national scandal. And although it didn't go to building the bridge, the Mrs. Palin took that earmark money and spent it. Yet she has comfortably repeated this falsity over and over as though it is gospel.

Then there's the question of taxes. Mrs Palin - and the McCain campaign - continue to harp on the totally false claim that Obama will raise our taxes. Here's a comparative assessment of the actual truth of who will ease the tax burden of most of us. It isn't John McCain. Obama does raise taxes on those at the very top of the heap. About time.

Living here on the border of PA, where the airwaves are literally bombarded with McCain commersials, I continue to be disturbed and troubled by both the dishonest and the ugly tone of the ads. Seems like the old repeat a lie long enough and loud enough method of persuasion... Many of you know where that came from. Interestingly, I think that ugliness may have been backfiring on them. I've noticed in the past few days that the tone of ads has shifted.

I don't think Obama and the Democrats are perfect. I don't think they never stretch the truth. They do. They are politicians an unfortunately that seems to be par for the course. Still the nature and tone of Obama's ads is much different from McCains.

I think what upsets me most - almost more than the candidates - is the failure of our media to do its job. Some study in the Midwest rated the negativity of the two campaigns and declared that Obama was more negative. This has been reported widely. But what was the criteria on which they determined negativity? Content? Nope. It was mentioning the other guy's name. This seems like an insane measure of negativity. In fact it makes no sense, but it has been cited repeatedly without qualification. The media's almost complete abnegation of responsiblity for doing their job is criminal and tragic. One Sunday talking head show in an effort at so-called "balance," talked about the dishonesty of one of McCain's ads and then invited Rudy Guliani to close the discussion with a convoluted lie-filled rationalization for it. That's balance?

Even the debates have turned into exercises in extended soundbite exchanges. Is pertness really what we are looking for in someone whose decisions may change our lives for good or ill? I think one of the reasons the Republicans are keeping Sarah Palin farily low on the radar scope - besides her penchant for stumbing on the answers to relatively simple questions - is because winky perky cheerleader wears thin pretty quickly. I just wish the media would do a better job on confronting the lies rather than simply reporting them.

I got interrupted half way through this for about three hours. Probably a good thing. It might have been even longer and more rambling than it already is.

One last thing... Apparently the McCain campaign - the media reports is "going to go negative." Living where I do, it's hard to imagine how much more negative they can go. Maybe they will mention Obama's name more in their ads. Bizarre.