Right Matters? not really.

For the past few months I have been noticing really stupid headlines in the mid left corner of the Washington Posts internet front page. They say things like "Obama's Osama Problem" and, today for example, "Grow Up, Move On."

Today's is particularly annoying. I don't know if you have seen the MoveOn ad to which they are referring, but to sum it up: it's a direct address of a young mother with a 3 to 6 month old baby, she talks about the joy of discovering what he can do and how he makes her feel. At the end she asks John McCain if he really wants to be in Iraq for 100 years, and if so he can't have her son for that purpose.

It's a powerful ad, and I don't have children. So the "Grow Up, Move On" link has below it, "do you agree." I want to disagree with the sentiment of this stupid headline, in hopes of doing some small thing to at least make the morons who think these things up work a bit harder. It just takes me to a message board full of dimwits who feel they have to point out that even if Move On was selling more war they would disagree with them because they are a liberal PAC.

I have found the haven for right wingers on the Post website. I wish that I hadn't. Mostly because they just lie and spin, which is just a nice way of saying...lie. The ad is not childish, the ad is thoughtful, emotional, and accurate. One of the lead arguments is that the president 18 years from now will not be "taking" the child, but the child will be choosing to go to Iraq. Well, I hate to break to these dimwits, but there is no tell what the military situation 20 years from now will be. Most estimates say that to continue to execute BOTH 21st Century conflicts an increase in the size of the military will be necessary. The military has not met it's recruiting goals since 2002. The military is essentially, shrinking. When I shoot on military bases, NCO's and PAO's try to recruit the young actors, why? Because there is a CASH reward for getting a recruit. It's that dire.

The reason for childishly belittling the ad is simple, it's effective - as effective as the "bear" ad was for Reagan and the "wolves" ad was for Bush fils. This ad scares the right, and instead of making a cogent argument for why we need to be in Iraq, they wine and complain like children. I mean come on, your suppose to be the "daddy" party, not the "pity" party.

The fact of the matter is, John McCain is not going to win - and to quote Bob Dole "I know it, you know it, the American people know it." Partly because a lot of Americans think Barack Obama is already president. This may not be a good thing, but I'll take it.

Mostly it pisses me off because now is the time that the GOP should be getting their comeuppance. They deserve to be trashed and belittled by the public and the media. I am sorry that John McCain will have to get the brunt of it, he actually might deserve better. But as I say to republicans all the time, "you had a chance 8 years ago to do the right thing - but you went with a idiot, you deserve to lose. Now quit your bitching."

And can you believe this drilling for more oil bull shit? Doesn't anyone know that oil is traded on a world market? We don't have enough to change the price more than 25 to 35 cents...20 years from now!

Always in threes...

It is like this is becoming an obituary blog as of late, but one of my heroes has died. George Carlin had a profound influence on my life. Not as an actor or performer, but the way that I think - and in that way, for me, he will live for ever.

I first heard George Carlin in church, of all places. It seems odd that I would be exposed to that in such a conservative place. It must have been 1987 or so and one of the older kids had a tape of one of his shows. He played it in Sunday school - I think the "teacher" was off doing something else. It was not one of his "blue" routines; however "blue" was the subject. It was the observation that there was no "blue" food - "and don't say blueberry's because they are purple!"

The next year I acquired a new best friend, who had HBO and my Carlin Education began in full. My parents are pretty conservative people and wouldn't expose me or my brother to that kind of thing, thats what subversive friends are for. I have a collection of VHS tapes in my room and would break them out when my parents went out on weekends.

At first I guess I just thought he was funny - I mean, what teenage boy doesn't appreciate dick and fart jokes, right? But as Carlin developed his voice, I began to see his logic, and I began to agree - even expand it into my own way of thinking.

More than anyone, I think I would credit him with making me a liberal - though as I have stated before, I did not know it at the time. I found myself at odds with accepted behavior, rules, and the boundaries of taste within my own world, and I was emboldened by his courage to challenge them.

I can remember listening to one of his albums while on tour, and my Christian Right Girl-Friend (don't ask) initially balked at his diatribe on the Rights attitude toward abortion and homosexuals ("Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers." and "...who has fewer abortions than homosexuals?") But as she listened to the reasoning she began to see the hypocrisies. It never changed her opinion mind you, but it did open her eyes to the hypocrisies of her allies.

A very thoughtful girlfriend bought me tickets to see George in 1998 at the Warner Theater. It was not until the Borat movie that I laughed so hard. I feel privileged to have seen his act in person - especially in the digital age we no live in, where more people are content to just watch rather than experience. I will treasure my Carlin experience, and always carry a bit of him with me.

Tears for Tim

I cried for the first time in a while this weekend. Usually this is reserved for really bad things that happen to me personally, or someone I know very well who has had something horrible befall them. This weekend however, I was forced to say goodbye (along with the rest of the nation) to a friend who I have only known through my television. My constant Sunday morning companion, Tim Russert.

For secular humanist's like myself, Meet the Press is a sort of church (the irony being Russert's deep and authentic catholicism.) And ever since I got TIVO, I have not missed a single installment of MTP. Though some of them I have turned off early.

Even when I did not think he was going far enough, when I thought he might be letting some "I like you" bias creep into his questioning, or when I though he was just being too civil - I have always respected Tim Russert. He did help me understand politics, government, and civil discourse - the civil part being a weakness of mine. though I have at times questioned his questioning, the number of truly inspired interviews and great questions far outnumber the few quibbles I have had with his work; indeed, in retrospect I think I might have been yelling at his guests more so than yell at him when I thought bullshit should have been called - I could just never get mad at Tim.

Having sat through several hours of the NBC "mourn-fest" I was reminded of the man, his family, his Buffalo obsession, all the good things; and I began to realize that one of the truly good men in the world had just passed away, at 58. That could be the saddest thing. His father out lived him, and he will never get to see his own son become a father - seems unfair for a man who had done nothing but good to be denied the things he wanted.

Watching Tim's friend mourn on the air, I got caught off guard. One of the montages, not one of him doing his job (they are great, but not tear jerker's,) but a simple photo montage that represented his whole being - it came after a discussion of how Tim always had a little boy inside of him, and the montage displayed the proof. Every shot of him, you could see right into his soul - you could just see the joy he had, for his work, his family, and for life.

Like many, I will miss Tim Russert. I will consider him on of my greatest teachers. My regret, I never got to meet him. But I can be certain that I will think of him every Sunday. Rest in Peace.