WHAT THE HELL??

I am freaking out.  I am so disappointed in President Obama and his team - this passive approach, allowing Romney to lie, lie,lie and claim to care so much about the poor and downtrodden with that smirky face. 

I have such a stomach ache from watching that damned debate.  What the hell are the Dems thinking?  Are they so afraid that Obama might bring out the racists by ratcheting up his cool demeanor to angry black man?  Hello?  The racists are already in full force, no reason to try to avoid riling them up. Get in there and point out the lies, point out the disdain for the 47%, point out the cuts from Medicare, privitization of medicare and Social Security, turning over education to profit making private companies and the fact that his plan will push the middle class further down the tubes.

I am not sure I can take any more of this.  I am going to step away from the pundits now and take a nice hot shower.

CONVENTIONAL POLITICS

This morning one of the discussions on the radio was whether people tuned in to the Democratic convention or to the first football game of the season.  One of the on air people said that she didn't watch "infomercials for politicians".  OK, I guess that could be what the conventions have become.  I do miss the old days when there was some degree of suspense.  I loved the roll calls through the states when they offered up their little speech and then pledged their delegates.

I am just enough of a political junkie that I always watch both conventions.  I like to see who will speak and what they have to say - even if it makes me yell at the TV in frustration.  And maybe they have become more cookie cutter - but having the pleasure of watching Bill Clinton speak last night is worth sitting through some canned speeches.  And the dynamism of Michelle Obama compared to the fluffy false notes of Ann Romney underscores the difference between the two families up for election.

Does what happens at the conventions change any minds?  I don't know.  I do know that they get me excited.  The "real people" chosen to speak can have the most enlightening stories. I like seeing the up and coming politicians speaking that I wouldn't otherwise know about - (and on that score the Dems beat the GOP hands down.)

I also know that my 3 children, all of voting age, were not likely to be watching either convention, and that's too bad.  Being tuned into the political process as a whole, not just the ads and soundbites, makes us better informed voters and maybe a little less cynical about politics.

THE PROBLEM WITH PROTESTING

My son was home this weekend. Done with finals, a break before his summer job starts. He needs a haircut and apparently he plans to keep the beard...sigh. I grilled his favorite lamb chops and forgot to leave the nuts out of the broccoli salad (he doesn't like nuts.) While I did the dishes he was checking out the website he likes called Digg.

He found an article with lots of "Diggs" - approvals- about boycotting BP and it's companies. I was surprised to hear that the gas station I use is one of them: ARCO. My immediate reaction was, well, I'll have to get gas somewhere else. BP also supplies gas to Safeway.

I already don't buy gas from Shell due to their ongoing human rights issues beginning with their local ( I lived near Martinez CA) workers on the 1970's and moving on into Nigeria where they continued by supporting the military rulers who tortured and executed citizens who protested against the taking of tribal lands for oil production; and then added environmental crimes to their record by killing 100 people and despoiling the Niger Delta, wells and farm lands with a ruptured pipeline.

Or how about buying gas from Exxon? We all know they never fully cleaned up the mess they made in Alaska, much less compensated all those who lost their livelihoods form that disaster. They are one of the biggest financial supporters of the "there is no scientific evidence of global warming" camp. (Funny how these corporations have all kinds of money for political lobbying, but can't afford to clean -up the environmental problems they cause.)

Texaco owns Chevron - and is being sued by Ecuador for 20 years of dumping of oil production waste into open, unlined pits which caused ground water contamination and the subsequent fatal cancers and environmental issues.

Bottom line? We are all complicit in the abuses of these companies. We are all dependent on the products they are drilling for and we want them for as little money as we can spend. We are not changing our lifestyles and reducing our use sufficiently to reduce the demand. Until that happens, these companies feel they have a green light to do what it takes to go get the oil where ever it is how ever they have to get it at what ever cost there is to those they have to step on to get it and keep the profits high and the stock holders happy.

We can be mad at BP. We can be feel sorry for the oil soaked pelicans and the ruined beaches. We can blame "the government" for not doing enough. Our President said he takes responsibility, some people think it may be a defining issue for his presidency. What a crock.

This is a defining issue for this country. When are we going to wake up and see that we can no longer consume as we do and expect no consequences? It is time for us to grow up. Reduce our consumption or pay the price. The rest of the world has already been paying it for years.

WHAT ARE YOU PRAYING FOR?

I was reminded that today, November 22, is the 46th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination. I was in 4th grade when it happened, I remember the shock and fear. But when President Johnson took office we supported him, he was now our President.

Things have changes in our country in so many ways. We have lost a sense of respect fr the office of the President and our government. I admit I didn't like President Bush, but I never said he "wasn't my President." As an American, he was my President.

I was shopping on a website I have always liked. I will not link to it, because I was so offended by the direction of the products there. It is a site that allows people to "design their own" t-shirts, etc. and then sell them. The domination of the site by anti-Obama bumper stickers, t-shirts, and more was surprising to me. I even e-mailed the company to inquire if it was their desire to change the site content to be so overwhelmingly full of hateful, right wing rhetoric. I got some boiler plate answer about the content being driven by those who sign in to sell their goods.

Okay - free speech. They are a business, though, and they have some responsibility for the content, the amount of it and the source of it. I will not buy from them this year.

Now I hear there is another right wing craze to "Pray for Obama". The prayer is Psalm 109:8 which reads: "Let his days be few; and let another take his office." And they are selling fluffy little bears, t-shirts and bumper stickers with the "prayer."

If someone said "let your days be few" I would take that as a threat. If it was directed at President Bush, it would have been considered treason, a death threat or at the very least, unpatriotic.

Diana Butler Bass at Beliefnet explains that Psalm 109 is “a lament in the form of petition to destroy one’s enemies.” While perhaps intended to be a joke, she notes that the psalm actually “entreats God to destroy the president."

Of course, now as 46 years ago, people take these things into their own hands.