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Showing posts from October 13, 2004

Bob Schrum: Arf!

Whoa! Out of the dog house? Schrum sighting on MSNBC for spin. As the Internationalist said, "Who took the sock out of your mouth, Bob?" For those outside the Beltway, Bob Schrum was the the big wheel on the Kerry campaign before he got kicked aside by the Clinton crew when Kerry was lookin' like toast.

Faith

The the question that led to the candidates' stating their personal theologies escaped your Webwench's ears, overridden as they were by the Internationalist's exclamations of joy as the Yankees extended their lead over the Red Sox. The answers were, nonetheless, fascinating. Here's the president at his most eloquent: "I received calmness in the storms of the presidency [from prayer]." But then he went on to say that he had "unleashed the armies of compassion," heedless of the hackles once raised elsewhere in the world when he delcared a "crusade" against America's enemies. (Onward Christian soldiers...) "That's part of my foreign policy," the president said of his faith. "I believe that the freedom [in Afghanistan] is a gift from the Almighty." From the peanut gallery came an alarming cry of, "Yes!" The Yankees had just scored. In a poignant rejoinder, Kerry replied,"I believe

Standing tall against the hierarchy

When asked about the unconscionable cadre of Roman Catholic bishops who are all but instructing their flocks not to vote for Kerry, the Massachusetts took no bait but brooked no bitterness, with the simple response that he did not agree with the bishops' position. What a change in perception from even the last presidential election. It seems that someone seems to have gotten the message--unlike much of the media--that there is no "Catholic vote ," nor has there been one for some time. For at least 15 years, Catholic voters have split about the same as the general population on the subject of abortion, and most other subjects, for that matter. It's all about class and geography--not the ethno-religio thang.

Calling all blimps

The Internationalist got all excited--alas, not by your blogstress's fetching attire, but by the president's mention of unmanned vehicles tracking illegal immigrants. So that's where the blimp (item: "Big Peep") went, he said. On a more serious note, the administration is starving the Border Patrol for human resources (the entire Department of Homeland Security is under a hiring freeze) while spending big bucks on unmanned surveillance drones. But, as one sage told your blogstress, "A drone never made an arrest."

The tie that binds

Our dear friend, the Internationalist, who is wandering between your your blogstress's oppo factory and another television (torn 'twixt the Yankees' contest against the reviled Red Sox and the Arizona presidential slugfest) ambles to his laptop, wine glass in hand, to e-mail your blogstress from the next room: What's so damn great about marriage? Being a single, straight man, he appears flummoxed by Shieffer's question about gay marriage. To this, your ambisexual cybertrix knows not the answer. But she does know the correct answer to Shieffer's main question: Do you think homosexuality is a choice? It doesn't matter, Bob, whether or not it is. What consenting adults do in their own bedrooms matters not to me. As Thomas Jefferson said about those whose religious practice differed from his, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

What's with the matching suits?

Must be a Skull 'n' Bones thing...

Exaggeration? You decide

From the President's press conference of March 13, 2002 President Bush: So I don't know where [Osama bin Laden] is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly [Kelly Wallace, Cable News Network], to be honest with you... Q: But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive? The President: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And again, I don't know where he is. I--I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban...

Ex-ag-ger-a-tions

Will our children live in as safe a world as we did? The opening gambit, that. (Your blogstress, who admires Mr. Shieffer, regrets to remind him that people in, say, Cambodia or Angola or Bangladesh weren't living in a very safe world when your cybertrix was but a young Selectric-vixen.) Kerry's answer was good: question is not whether we're safer than we were, but "Are we as safe as we ought to be?" He then reminded viewers that Bush once said he wasn't terribly worried about Osama bin Laden; that he didn't think about him much. To which the president, replied, "That's one of those ex-ag-ger-a-tions." Oh, you mean like Saddam's awesome weapons of mass destruction?

Tune in, dammit!

While watching tonight's big finale in the presidential debate, be sure to keep AddieStan.com up on your screen for drole and pithy real-time analysis of the candidates' on-screen antics. As usual, your bustiered blogstress will be cranking out the commentary from her Capitol Hill oppo factory. In the meantime, contemplate this: If the Bush family has its way, it won't matter who won tonight's debate, or anything else, for that matter. Check out this Washington Post report on brother Jeb tossing out the voter registration forms of African-Americans.