Random Thoughts…

Today is the first day this month I have not started the day with some kind of painkiller, so my thinking is relatively lucid albeit remarkably unfocused…so just a few thoughts.

First, SenKen needs to buy new shirts.  See the photoblogging from the Fifth District GOP convention. My time in retail taught me that men with longer necks need to wear a higher shirt collar than others to camouflage the neck length-otherwise you get the weather vane look.

Cooch, trust me on this-you need a higher collar.

Item next, Jason Cook performed on “American Idol” last night, and made a marvelous statement about the dangers of self-indulgent behavior. It is a lesson that is of benefit to anyone who makes or hopes to make their livelihood through communication of ideas.

There comes a time-and Jason has been in the middle of it for several weeks-where one has to decide if they want to focus on what they want to focus on or if perhaps they should focus on what their audience wants to focus on. Jason refuses to leave the comfort of his goofy rasta coffee house vibe. If it were a planned decision to take advantage of a perceived fan base, well…that’s one thing. More likely it is a simple unwillingness to try other styles or techniques that some viewers/voters might be interested in. The interest in staying in your comfort zone and doing only what you want or like despite the need to stretch is indulgent behavior.

We see this every day…the salesman who tries to sell you something because they like it-even though the customer clearly is not thrilled; the restauranteur who insists on putting certain favorite items on the menu even though they don’t sell and lose him money; the politician who regularly drives off message because he has an urge to touch on a particular topic, and in doing so diminishes his overall message.

We are surrounded by the indulgence, but Jason Castro is a most telling example…Starbucks Coffee is another one. As the campaigns stretch forth this fall, it will be interesting to see which candidates indulge their indulgences…

As much as Ben Tribbett and others may hate to hear it, I do believe the pant suited lady is singing for Hillary Clinton. She is about out of runway, about out of money, and running short on time. So let me suggest the model for her to follow now-Ted Kennedy 1980. Kennedy finished strong against an incumbent president. He translated this into a primo speaking slot at the convention, gave a memorable speech (often called his “Defense of Liberalism” speech), and moved from the role of presidential aspirant to Senate player and then powerhouse.

Senator Clinton can at this point fight it out to the convention or sulk in her tent, either of which helps the GOP…or she can begin to unify the demo’s and stake out her position as a major party player and capitol hill powerhouse. Maybe it isn’t head of the executive branch, but as can be seen in bios of the great legislators the ability to effectively move legislation to passage is a rare gift. Those that have it have power and influene beyond the title of their office.  Hillary, give it some thought…

Finally-if you are making chili and have the choice between Giant ground beef or Giant Chili Meat, use the latter…the thicker cut beef seems to hold moisture and spices better!

And it is now 1000 hours, and still no pain killers today…let’s hope it keeps up!

The Cane, Obama, and Rev Wright

I head back to the office today,and the cane usage is pretty solid. Rehab starts on friday, stitches out tuesday week, so I reckon life will sort of return to normal this week.

So, let me turn to something that has constantly bothered me despite the occasional Percocet haze.

What is the fuss over Reverend Wright?  More specifically, what is the fuss over Obama not dumping the man at the first sign of trouble.

Now I understand the political tactics involved. I undestand it will influence some votes.

What I don’t understand is why.

The suggestion is that Obama has absorbed the Reverend Wright’s more outrageous beliefs, and will act on them if elected president…and if not, why did it take him so long to write off Wright?

Maybe I am engaging in my own little bit of myopia here, but this seems like a very basic case of hate the sin, love the sinner.

We are regularly exposed to folks with whom we don’t agree, but in whom we find some value. Life is not typically an exercise in black and white. By the same token, I have not found that exposure to bad behavior guarantees replication or abosorption of the behavior (at least not in adults). 

In my life I have known men and women who have cheated on their spouses, embezzled, committed murder, engaged in drug abuse…yet I have not committed any of those acts…so apparently mere exposure is not enough. 

Has Reverend Wright said a number of things I find objectionable?  Absolutely. However, this same person built a ministry in Chicago that has benefitted thousands in both the physical and spiritual sense. I can understand how Obama, a person who has been part of and exposed to that ministry, was slow to condemn Rev. Wright.

I recall a baseball coach of mine from years ago, from a time when coaching youth sports was not always a kinder and gentler experience. I learned more in one summer from him about baseball than from anyone else (with the exception of my ex-second baseman father). The way he explained the game made me see the game as an organic combine, and not a collection of separate and disparate acts. By the time the summer was over, what I once had to think about doing. He never raised his voice in anger, although once in a while in frustration he let out “Sweet Mother of Mary Magadelene”.

When I got older I learned that said coach had a drinking problem and was not a reliable father. But we never saw that side of him. When I think of him, I remember one of the best coaches I ever had…and not the struggling human he apparently was.

I think Obama’s hesitancy to dump Rev Wright is something of the same. His first thought is of the sermons, the community activism, the church activities…and not the questionable and hurtful rhetoric.

Obama’s reaction is based in his sense of humanity and not in his sense of political necessity…and I don’t know that is a bad thing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t see myself voting for Obama. That being said, I can think of worse things to have in a leader than a person who has not surrendered their humanity in favor of expediency.

Quick Hits from the Cane, er, the Crutch, Day 2

Well, the numbing stuff wore off and we are back on the crutch for now.  Wraps come off for now.

All I can say is that my doc made the right call on doing one knee at a time.

I am curious-are the folks who created Percocet the same folks who created metamucil?  Because if not, they should have been. 

Trust me when I say strong drugs need good fiber.

I hope all GOP types in the 11th district are watching the NLS Gerry sucks series…looks like a great foundation for potential oppo research!

Quick Hits from the Cane

There’s got to be a morning after…and so it is.

Left knee got scoped yesterday, and have not yet required any heavy meds.  I am now on a cane which, although metal, looks quite sporty and can be customized so that it splits into two parts and can be used a nunchuck.

While my inclincation was to go with both knees, my physician raised An Uncomfortable Truth…my weight is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay north of where it should be, and he had great concerns about me carrying this weight on two recovering knees.  So, one it was.

A Knee on wednesday, start something like WW next week, and sometime this summer get the right knee done.

First, a word to RK fans-the use of the word “cane” in my posts is to be used only during the current mobility crisis and will not pose a copyright risk.

Second, It is interesting to see how the Dem blogs are united in refusing to attribute anything postitive to Frank Wolf for the approval of the Dulles Rail Project…not surprising, just interesting.

Third, you may find it interesting that Bwana, who has not had any real surgery done since his tonsils got yanked 43 years ago, had a very interesting reaction to anethesia.  According to SWMBO, after I got the first boost of knock out stuff,  the following happened:

a) I took on a look as if I was drunk; then
b) I started telling jokes to the nurses; then
c) Finally, I broke into “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line for the benefit of the Pre-Op crowd, for which I received rousing applause.

Of course, this is all second hand-I remember none of it.  However, to paraphrase the editor of the Shinbone Star, “when legend overwhelms fact, print the legend.”

Later, friend and neighbors…

UPDATE: At 0800, the big throb kicked in…and the heavy meds came into play.  More to come…

Quick Hits from the Crutch, Part 2

Double the pleasure, double the fun!

Looks like torn meniscus on the right…and on the left, also!  So the only questions left are:

a) Do I get the knees cut one at a time or both at the same time, and

b) Will all the bloggers be sending me flowers?

Quick Hits from the Crutch

Well, I am crutching it these days…I got the left knee MRI’d this AM, and the right knee is set for surgery next wednesday.  It is not that I need the crutches all the time…but OMG when one of these knees rares up is like Calhoun’s bar on Saturday night and the Charge of the Light Bridgade all wrapped up into one…so I keep them near me all the time.

Since the jolts of pain seem to prohibit me from any really deeeeeep thoughts, I wanted to offer some quick hits and thoughts:

• Hillary wins Pennsylvania, but I am really having trouble seeing my way to how she wins the nod without tearing up the democratic party.  She says she has won the states that a democrat has to win in order to take the White House, but does she really think that Obama will lose PA, NY, NJ, MA, etc., to McCain?  Hillary beat Obama in TX, but I somehow don’t think she will beat McCain there in November.
• Folks keep talking about the Dream Ticket, but there is only a dream ticket if Hillary wins the nod.  She will not take on the #2 slot on an Obama ticket.  This is her year for good or ill, and she will ride the wave as long as it swells…and if it dies, go back to the Senate.
• As long as we take count of the Democratic tussle, I just saw an Obama ad over at NLS where Obama’s minister, among other comments, takes the USA to task for using the atomic bomb in WW2.  I do not get why Obama doesn’t distance himself from this guy.  If you don’t want to leave his church, don’t use his words in your campaign ad.  I  understand this is a subject that won’t go away, and that some say the Japanese were about to surrender, but the military planning suggested losses in an invasion of the Japanese home islands that would have pound for pound exceeded Iwo Jima or Okinawa.  The Army ordered so many Purple Heart medals-in anticipation of the landing casualties, and that were then not needed due to the Bomb Drop-that medals from that order were still being used twenty years later in Vietnam.
• I have a hunch that Jim Gilmore would have cleaned out Bob Marshall in a primary…but of course, Jim wanted a convention.  Ironic, ain’t it?
• Keith Femian might want to spend some of the bank he has accumulated to get Leslie Byrne nominated.  A recent conversation with a Fairfax business type laid it all out for me…if Leslie gets the Dem nod, the Fairfax Chamber folks will go with Femian.  If Connolly gets the nod, they will go with Gerry as they are familiar with him and will have access.  So, if Keith knows what is good for him…
• Last I heard, life seems to continue apace in Va-10…Congressman Wolf and Feder raise about equal amounts, and she gets the vast majority of it from out of state.  One interesting new fact is that while the DCCC claims this is a targeted race, Congressional Quarterly ranks Va-10 as a safe GOP seat.
• “The Cooch, the Cooch, the Cooch is on fire…He don’t need no water let the…” yeah, I know, I just felt like typing it.
• One thing to get off my chest, something of cosmic significance-The Food Network (TFN) and their horribly tacky “THROWDOWN” series with Bobby Flay.  Bad enough that they send Flay out in these quasi-ambush settings to go head to head with talented local chefs cooking the cook’s specialty…don’t they have something more constructive for Flay to be doing?  However, TFN has this really shady tactic where they tell someone ( in recent episodes I have seen this done to Diana Barrios-Trevino and Mark Bove) that they are being auditioned by TFN for a new show, and suddenly-BA-DA-BING!…here’s Bobby!…and suddenly you are on TFN, but you do not have any real hope of a new show.  I guess it is consistent with the new focus on entertainment on TFN…but if that is the case, bring back the West Virginia Road Kill Festival!
• If you want to read about a master legislator, pick up Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, and carefully read how LBj put through the Civil Rights Act of 1957…

 

Well, I have to go have a talk with Dr. Advil about now (my last until after my kneed gets scoped)…so take care!  I will see you around the campus!

Forecast: Bad knees and light blogging

The knee saga has evolved into the knees saga…hence the light blogging…

You may recall my noting a little while back that I have a torn meniscus in my right knee that needs surgery.  The decision was to put it off until some personal matters, like a church players production of South Pacific, was over with.

However, a week ago-almost to the minute-I put a foot wrong on my stairs and had a lightening pain on the inside of my knee…my left knee!

So, I am hobbled, much of the time on crutches.  One day the pain was such that I got to dance with Doctor Vicodin for the first time.

As you can imagine, blogging has not had first dibs on the to-do list…so bear with me and hopefully soon I will be back in the game at a more consistent, insistent, persistent, and productive rate!

Martin Luther King-Forty years ago Today…

Forty years ago today Martin Luther King was shot down outside his Memphis motel room.  He knew he lived in a society that was far from perfect, but was driven to make that society not only free for his people but free for all people.

As we remember his life, let us also remember his final public speech, one that for me speaks more to hope and drive than even the “I Have a Dream Speech”:

It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

…and so shall we all, some day.  May we all have the faith that moves mountains, and a willingness to work to reach our own Mountain Tops

Dem Central offers this account of the event.

Martin Luther King, January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968

Done Wrong by Coochian Technology

Virginia state Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37), a/k/a “The Cooch” and “SenKen” invited me to participate in a blogger conference call today.

I had hoped to report the ins and outs and happenings of what promised to be a prelude to an announcement of his candidacy for Attorney General of Virginia.

Instead, I can only offer a very different report.

 Truth be told, I almost was not invited even though I am a blogger and a constituent…apparently the staff thought I was a Democrat.  That idea was dispelled, I was sent the number and the access code, and at 1158 I dialed in…and was greeted by the Cooch himself!

In a spirit of good fellowship, I said “Is this Ken Cuccinelli, the next Attorney General of Virginia?”  Response, “Yep”.

Since it was just the two of us, he decided to try the “mute” feature for the conference call  to see if it worked…and if “working means” it was to cut me off from speaking to him.  He muted, I heard a message that I was muted, he came back on, and he could not hear me.

I can only think my wife will be ordering one of these soon.

He announced he was calling back in, and somehow I got cut off.  I called back in, got access, heard some voices-none of whom could hear me-and was again cut off.

This time the redial attempt(s) on the land line were not successful.  Each attempt led, after a long silent pause, to the
“fast busy” tone that typically means the system is loaded down or some technical difficulty is being enjoyed.

I attempted to reconnect using my cell phone, and was told that all circuits were engaged.

So, it appears that I have reclaimed the time intended to be on the conference call to post a blog piece about how I was excluded from the conference call due to Coochian selected technology.

It has been quite a few days…Judy Feder wants money to respond to GOP attacks but cannot tell us what the attacks were, Cooch’s staff somehow thinks I am a Democrat (Lowell still is amazed by this), and then SenKen’s tinkering  allows him to cut me off from a conference call he invited me to be part of…normally it takes me several hours, bad singing, and lots of grain products to get me evicted from an event… 

…This is all before I get to talking about the upcoming arthroscopic surgery.

As they used to say on Hee Haw:

Doom, despair, and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Doom, despair, and agony on me!

Had I been allowed to participate, I would have asked about geographic balance and what the GOP  must do to get better numbers in Northern Virginia (among other questions)…now, I will simply sit and think on what might have been.

Whatever happens on the conference call, a good luck from here to my state senator on his apparent and tentatice upcoming candidacy!

Cheeky Talk in Va-10

I have on occasion mentioned an idea as coming out of the Federian Spin Zone. A recent check of my email suggests that Judy Feder has sent out a message that has to be recognized for both creativity and cheek.

I sign up for emails from about every candidate out there, and got one last week from the Feder campaign claiming she was the victim of “negative attacks” by GOP surrogates, it will only make her stronger, etc.

H’mmm…so far this is nothing unusual here…candidate A claims they are under attack, here is what they are saying and it so, so untrue…and they desperately need more money to show they won’t falter, won’t fade, etc…

In that sense Ms. Feder’s email blast is only to be expected.  Move along folks, nothing to see here…

What is so cheeky is that she doesn’t say what the attack is.

You can see the text here. Ms. Feder doesn’t say what was said. She doesn’t say who said it, or when, but assures us she will soldier on in the face of these nameless, content-less assaults she alleges are happening.

Perhaps this is in regard to the recent WaPo article that stated that almost three quarters of her listed donors are not residents of Virginia. While this is not a new fact, and was noted early in 2006, it is the first time that the MSM has caught up to the idea that Ms. Feder is not receiving huge financial support from within the jurisdiction or even the state she wants to represent in Congress. I just did not realize until now that the WaPo is considered to be a Republican ally of anyone.

There is also a degree of cheekiness found in the fact that Ms. Feder has been attacking Congressman Wolf everyday since she announced in late Spring 2006 in the prelude to her election day whooping six months later. Ever since then it is quite alright for Ms. Feder and her staff to attack Mr. Wolf but if anything is said that is not laudatory of her she goes from battle tested policy champion to meek, beset flower of womanhood being unjustly hounded in about a nanosecond.

What is that saying about “sauce for the goose…” ?

Well, I imagine this is not the last of such charges by Ms. Feder.  After all, this is the campaign that has alternately flayed Congressman Wolf for allegedly not taking her candidacy seriously and later flayed him for allegedly taking her campaign seriously.

Either way, letters like this must provide some degree of comfort for the Wolf campaign.  They were already on notice that anything they did, not matter how mundane, will be interpreted as an attack.  Now they know that things they don’t do will also be interpreted-or at least reported-as an attack.

And in case you didn’t notice, there is a word for that.

Yep, it’s all quite cheeky.