September, 2004 Week 5
|
September, 2004 Week 5
|
Monday September 27 , 2004 I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice. EASTWOOD, CLINT (1930-Present, Actor, director) "B" and Monica seem to be sick today, I kept them home, Monica appears to have the worst of it. Monica also has an Optometrist appointment today. She seemed to be a little apprehensive about going in so the Dr. asked me to go in too... he insisted actually. He got Monica positioned and started the same old drill every one knows, "... and read the lower most line that you can read easily"... she missed three of the letters but she was close. He started having her do it with one eye then the other and then he said... "How long has it been since she was examined", I had no idea, he looked it up... six years... shit... I knew I was in trouble, he went back to covering one eye then the other with a thing that looked like a white lollypop on a stick. I asked "What's Wrong." He said "Ill show you in a minute." He showed me that when Monica is staring at a point on the wall and he uncovered her right eye and covered her left the right eye didn't flicker a bit, it remained in one spot but when he did the opposite the left eye jumped down and in about a 16th of an inch. He did it over and over... he says she needs to see the specialist... her range and depth of vision needs to be analyzed and corrected. I feel worse than I did yesterday... damn... When I talked to Christy she said Blaine [her sister Karen's husband] probably needs carotid surgery for blockage. That's what caused the blockage in the artery in his retina... He will go in for a consultation with the cardiologist on the 29th Orville, my friend in Iowa, is getting hip replaced... on the 29th too.... also, Mike is getting his crown put on and Christy is having her last day at the Wellness Center. Tuesday September 28 , 2004 You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me. Scott Adams I was going to keep all the kids except Mike home today because they were all complaining of sore throats last night, even Autumn, but when I woke them up Calie and Autumn seemed fine, "B" and Monica were still feeling crappy though so I kept them home. I am still not feeling well... Last night I heard a horn alarm going off in the driveway on the other side of the house. I could hear a woman yelling, I thought it was mike friend Mark's mom... but it wasn't. It was S's mom L. She is under the impression that Mike is a bad influence on her son. A shame, I thought S would be a good influence on Mike but apparently I had it back asswards... She told me that she's sorry but she is going to tell S that he can't associate with Mike... I told her in no uncertain terms... "I don't blame you at all, in your case I would do the same thing if I could. I told Mike to stay the hell away from S... When I went out I found a can of Budweiser in the driveway... it was from Mike or one of his friends but I can't prove it... Wednesday September 29 , 2004 We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68), I have high hopes and low expectations as usual, my innate cynicism and skepticism has taught me that the most probable outcome will be that the fella who with the best quaffed hair or some other superficial attribute will win. I read a great article by Al Gore spelling out what it's going to take to beat GW... I wish Al had been as clear and focused when he was running 4 years ago... It's apparently hard for folks to comprehend that we are going to vote for a President not a replacement for Jay Leno. Humbling thought for the day...Lech Walesa is 61 today. He was just a regular guy a Polish union organizer he stood up to the Kremlin and dealt the Eastern bloc a fatal blow. Just some guy with integrity and an unwillingness to be pushed around any more. I wonder how many people my age would be willing to toe the line in a similar situation. The right guy in the right place at the right time... Thursday September 30 , 200 The reason that democracies always defeat dictatorships is because they're open to debate. We should never allow Washington to say, 'Shut up, get in line and wave the flag.' Ralph Nader Debate tonight! "B" was still sick and Mike was pretending to be... they both stayed home... Mike refused to go to school. He has no clue what he is setting himself up for. More on the never ending saga of: The Trip From Hell: Grandma and Grandpa drove down to pick up Christy and Cindy. They arrived a few hours late and scared us all to the point of calling Pat and her daughters. They drove back up to Pennsylvania so that Christy could visit with her sister... Her mother has been having nosebleeds all day. Christy thinks her blood pressure is up again, I told her to go to the nearest WallMart and buy a blood pressure machine... she said "Good idea!" She called back about an hour and a half later and said she was taking Grandma to the Emergency Room... her Blood Pressure was through the roof! This is turning out to be a real trial for Christy... she is handling everything well though... It's 2200 (0100 in PA) and Christy just called from the hospital. She said that the Dr came in and asked what the matter was, and Christy said "My mother is having nosebleeds and ther BP is 220 over 118. He said "How bad are the nose bleeds and Grandmas nose started gushing out blood right on cue... they had to cauterize and pack grandma's nose it was bleeding so bad, her blood pressure is still way to high but they gave her some medication and are sending her home anyway... Christy is not happy about that, if the low number is above 100 [it's 103] they are supposed to keep her under observation. The Doctor said she can't travel till the packing comes out AND her BP is stabilized the earliest they can leave Pennsylvania is Sunday... I watched the debate, well, I guess I managed to see about 80% of it anyway... Watching the kids, making dinner, (No big deal, grilled cheese and Campbell's Tomato Soup). I think Kerry did an excellent job and I think Bush looked apoplectic most of the night, his face was so red I thought he was going to explode. He looked unprepared and had a hard time fitting his 'talking points' into the answers, you could almost hear the little gears stripping when he stammered out an answer... Kerry looked calm and in control... of course by tomorrow the spin doctors will have Bush ahead because Kerry didn't look at the camera as often as Bush or his tie was three weeks passé.... I hope people listened to what was said and that they pay no attention to the Monday Morning Quarterbacks in the media. The article below says it better than I could... I am one of those thinking that the fate of civilization hangs in the balance... I think that four more years of Bush will be catastrophic for the country and the world... Waiting for Kerry's Big Finish to StartBy Tina Brown On the eve of the debates people are so on edge in New York that every gathering has become like a visit to the dentist. In this town of Democrats, Karl Rove's real or imagined brilliance has got people dangerously psyched out. Someone in a group always produces some new vulnerability of Kerry's to drill down on, some fresh tactical error to palpitate about. An expectation reversal has been going on that's strange to find among a candidate's own supporters. Even without the goring Bush has given him all summer, Kerry has lowered opinions of his campaigning skills so far that he now has to make a comeback tonight just to keep his own side happy. With George Stephanopoulos on ABC last Sunday, the usually fierce congressman and former Clinton switchblade Rahm Emanuel looked so distracted and unhappy defending Kerry's war positions against Republican mouth Stuart Stevens that I half expected him to excuse himself in the middle of the show and catch a flight back to Chicago. With all the mythology about Kerry's gift of coming from behind, New Yorkers are watching and hoping like fundamentalists awaiting the rapture. "What will it be like?" they ask one another. A mysterious subtle transformation of will that suffuses Kerry with winner's luck? A defining moment when he soothes his wounded honor with a shaft of killing wit that at last unmasks Bush? If so, could it please happen in prime time tonight? (Maybe, just in case, Kerry should wear cowboy boots to reduce the president still further to the size of Dr. Ruth.) Among the big-donor crowd, the good-closer cliche has worn out its welcome. They have had it with reading in the New York Times that the past two months of flubs were part of some weird subliminal strategy. Who does Kerry think he is? Bob Dylan? Enough already with the near-death experiences. Mr. Closer, give us closure. For CEOs who dug deep this time, the contender bears not just their fragile hopes but their robust checks. Electability was supposed to be Kerry's thing. That's why they ran from their kids' loony choice, Howard Dean, who this week on the "Today" show suddenly sounded so sane and smart. While Dean's antiwar position now looks as prescient as Richard Clarke before 9/11, Kerry has morphed into Dukakis on stilts. The past weeks have gotten Democratic wallets so rattled, billionaire philanthropist George Soros is hitting the road himself on his own tour of 12 cities in swing states. He may not exactly be Springsteen, but maybe he can warm up the crowds by pulling an Oprah stunt: Vote for Kerry, drive home a new Pontiac! Part of the weird mood of frustration and self-directed anger is that it's already clear that whatever brilliance Kerry pulls out of the hat, the post-debate spin from the Bush campaign and the cable news hunger for the political version of the Janet Jackson moment fuse perfectly with the likelihood of some emblematic sound bite or visual moment that purportedly buries Kerry. The Rorschach test of what constitutes a "win" has always been so unpredictable anyway. Former Jimmy Carter speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg tells me that right after Ronald Reagan's famous "There you go again!" put-away, the Carter team were all high-fiving at their candidate's lucky break. Reagan had just blatantly misrepresented his position on Social Security -- and Carter had pointed it out so deftly that the Gipper was left only with this lame exhalation of pretended tedium. The watchdog press would take care of the rest . . . Exit Carter. And that was in 1980, long before the Fox News/talk radio echo chamber. When Democrats say they hope their guy does well, what they really mean is they hope Bush does something definitively, theatrically awful. Lately the president has been scarily good for someone uttering statements almost entirely detached from reality. On the stump, with his sleeves rolled up and his hand-held mike, he's been grooving to the music of the polls. The big hope for Democrats is a moment that will reveal his inner dread. How long will it be till the news in Iraq gets so bad that even the most inattentive member of the voting public will start to wonder if our war president is not Winston Churchill, but Captain Ahab? If it takes more than five weeks, he just might be home free. On Bill O'Reilly's show Tuesday the president showed encouraging signs. At one point he suddenly addressed the host as "Factor." ("Did he call me Factor?" O'Reilly marveled to the camera with a quizzical smile.) Also, it may be my imagination, but the Bush laugh, which has always been a rusty, staccato "heh heh heh," now sounds increasingly sandpapery from suppressed tension. We fixate on such things. They may be superficial, but they're all the media have left us with. After Kerry's powerful Iraq speech on Sept. 20, the clip CNN chose to keep recycling was of the candidate advancing to the lectern, adjusting his mike and reaching for a glass of water. At that climactic moment his face disappeared from the screen and four windows of blathering talking heads replaced him with their version of Iraq. That's why tonight is the political equivalent of the Thrilla in Manila. Even though James Baker has done his damnedest in pre-debate negotiations to drain the juice from something that might have been genuinely gladiatorial, we still have a chance at last to get to the heart of two of the campaign's lingering mysteries: whether John Kerry is more than the Man Who Wasn't There, and whether George Bush is the man who isn't anywhere, at least nowhere in the vicinity of Planet Earth. The Baker rules forbid the candidates to pose questions to each other. So Kerry can't ask, "Mr. President, c'mon. Do you truly, seriously believe -- honest, now -- that things are going well and getting better in Iraq?" But maybe somebody else can. © 2004, Tina Brown
 October
You Know It's Time To Diet When . . . You are
diagnosed with the flesh eating virus, and the doctor gives you 22 more years to
live. How to Debate George BushBy AL GORE
This year, as usual, the dominance of attack advertisements on television has made it hard to get a clear picture of where the candidates stand. But the same media revolution that brought us the 30-second commercial also brought us televised presidential debates - and ever since the first of them 44 years ago, they have played a crucial role in shaping voters' opinions of the candidates. America has long been devoted to the clash between opposing advocates as the best way to evaluate information. In this era of media clutter, it is all the more important for voters to have this moment of simple clarity when the candidates appear before them stripped of advisers, sound bites and media spin. My advice to John Kerry is simple: be prepared for the toughest debates of your career. While George Bush's campaign has made "lowering expectations" into a high art form, the record is clear - he's a skilled debater who uses the format to his advantage. There is no reason to expect any less this time around. And if anyone truly has "low expectations" for an incumbent president, that in itself is an issue. But more important than his record as a debater is Mr. Bush's record as a president. And therein lies the true opportunity for John Kerry - because notwithstanding the president's political skills, his performance in office amounts to a catastrophic failure. And the debates represent a time to hold him to account. For the voters, these debates represent an opportunity to explore four relevant questions: Is America on the right course today, or are we off track? If we are headed in the wrong direction, what happened and who is responsible? How do we get back on the right path to a safer, more secure, more prosperous America? And, finally, who is best able to lead us to that path? A clear majority of Americans believe that we are heading in the wrong direction. The reasons are obvious. The situation in Iraq is getting worse. Osama bin Laden is alive and plotting against us. About 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. Forty-five million Americans are living without health insurance. Medicare premiums are the highest they've ever been. Environmental protections have been eviscerated. In the coming debates, Senator Kerry has an opportunity to show voters that today American troops and American taxpayers are shouldering a huge burden with no end in sight because Mr. Bush took us to war on false premises and with no plan to win the peace. Mr. Kerry has an opportunity to demonstrate the connection between job losses and Mr. Bush's colossal tax break for the wealthy. And he can remind voters that Mr. Bush has broken his pledge to expand access to health care. Senator Kerry can also use these debates to speak directly to voters and lay out a hopeful vision for our future. If voters walk away from the debates with a better understanding of where our country is, how we got here and where each candidate will lead us if elected, then America will be the better for it. The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.'' The debates aren't a time for rhetorical tricks. It's a time for an honest contest of ideas. Mr. Bush's unwillingness to admit any mistakes may score him style points. But it makes hiring him for four more years too dangerous a risk. Stubbornness is not strength; and Mr. Kerry must show voters that there is a distinction between the two. If Mr. Bush is not willing to concede that things are going from bad to worse in Iraq, can he be trusted to make the decisions necessary to change the situation? If he insists on continuing to pretend it is "mission accomplished," can he accomplish the mission? And if the Bush administration has been so thoroughly wrong on absolutely everything it predicted about Iraq, with the horrible consequences that have followed, should it be trusted with another four years? The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined." Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh. Al Gore, vice president from 1993 to 2001, was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000. |
