Grazing Rites

I used to think the threats to Democracy came from the right. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Rice, Novik, Coulter, Carlson; these were the evil agents of orthodoxy pushing us towards dictatorship. The Patriot Act, domestic spying, FEMA, meddling with the courts; these were their tools. But a new shadow looms over liberty.

And it’s wearing a pantsuit.

Hillary’s top 20 contributors wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi essentially telling her to instruct the Superdelegates to overturn the will of the people as expressed in votes, delegates, and states in favour of Hillary or else they’d pull their funding.

Nancy Pelosi is standing firm against these threats while Hillary Clinton is lending tacit support to this extortion scheme.

So in one corner we have Nancy Pelosi defending democracy and in the other we have Hillary Clinton saying money is more important.

But wait, it isn’t that much money comparatively. An independent watchdog group says these 20 donors collectively gave $24 million over 10 years. Obama raised more than twice that amount in a month. All from millions of small donors.

So who chooses a candidate? Millions of voters or 20 rich people? You don’t need a Political Science degree to see which is undemocratic.

The irony of a cabal in the democratic party trying to undermine the democratic process isn’t lost on me.

It’s not just the superdelegates either, she wants the pledged delegates to ignore the votes their sole purpose is to represent.

So Hillary is officially against democracy. Doesn’t that make her an enemy combatant or something?

Will the voters in Pennsylvania be wise enough to see that a vote for Hillary is a vote against democracy? A vote against democracy, such a thing should be unheard of. Only democracy allows it’s citizens to support it’s demise. As much as this election has already been historic and important it is now also pivotal. Voters in up to 10 states now have a chance to reaffirm their support of democracy.

I spoke to someone who served in Iraq and voted for Obama in a legal primary and Hillary is telling him despite his service his vote doesn’t count.

We did the math, if every Obama donor gave $13 they could raise $24 million. Who wouldn’t buy their party, their democracy, back for $13? What if you could end the control of the rich with $13 and a vote? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Personally I’d give a hell of a lot more if I could.

“All forms of weather known to exist within a few hours walk” -David Marcus

The first sign that the Genesis planet was unstable has become increasingly common. I call it Genesis Weather. The other day on my way home from work I encountered blue skies, overcast, high wind, hail, snow, and rain. This was all as I stood waiting 10 minutes for the bus.

I had a dream last night that we moved to Orlando. Since it is such a major tourist destination we actually got to see our friends fairly often. We bought a condo with an extra room cheaply care of the problems with the US Economy. Unfortunately our building had the same kind of elevators as the Hotel Berlin (two sets each stopping only at every other floor) so our friends kept getting lost.

An ex-girlfriend moved in 2 floors above us, suite #804, and somehow our visitors kept going there by mistake even though we told our friends our number was 604, like our old area code.

So what does it all mean? I figure I want to go to Orlando and/or write a sitcom.

At a young age I learned that the proper definition of the word ‘awesome’ was “fear and wonder”.

It is March 28th and there is a heavy snow falling. Some of the largest snowflakes I’ve ever seen in my life. It is both beautiful and terrifying. Mother Nature seems to be suffering a personality disorder and it’s clearly our faults.

For the love of God shut down your computer and go recycle something.

After doing that I plan to pray to the plant in my office to save us.

Poor Hillary. It occurs to me that her drive for the white house is all that she has. I think a deal was struck some time ago, when the Clinton’s marriage was in trouble, that Bill would do everything he could to get her a turn at the wheel when the time was right in exchange for her continued support. If (when!) she loses the nomination what will she have left?

A senate seat. Chelsea’s grown, I think it charitable to say her marriage isn’t what it once was. What other ambitions, goals, or interests does she have? Does she play golf?

Look at the flip side. Obama clearly has other passions, his recent vacation with his family a good example. He clearly loves his family very dearly and no doubt wishes he could spend more time with them.

I sincerely believe that everything Hillary’s done over the last 8 years was with the presidency in mind so if (when!) she loses the nomination do you think she’ll champion a cause like Al Gore? I don’t think so. The day she loses is the day she starts campaigning for her next shot at the big prize. That might involve joining Obama’s administration in some capacity or switching from the senate to the house or a governorship.

But make no mistake whatever she does will be resume building (padding!) with all roads leading to the same place.

If (in Hillary’s dreams!) Obama lost the nomination you know he’d have no trouble staying busy. Hell, we’d amend whatever rules we had to in order to make him as Prime Minister. Seriously, if the unthinkable happens he should get Canada as a runner up prize. We wouldn’t complain one bit.

But in reality he’d probably bust his butt helping democrats get elected across the US. He’d probably be offered an important post in either a Clinton or McCain administration. Is a governor spot available in Illinois? I know Michelle said if he lost he wouldn’t run again but once the kids are 4 to 8 years older they may reconsider and some executive experience could come in handy.

How does Ambassador to the UN sound? Sorry, did I say Ambassador? I meant Secretary General.

Could you imagine if a Barack Obama teamed up with an Al Gore? All you’d need is a mildly supportive Clinton administration and they could turn this global warming thing around.

Oh well, bittersweetly fun as it is to speculate I’m confident it won’t come to that.

But if you want to speculate imagine what an Obama State Of The Union would sound like. Manned mission to Mars by the end of his second term? Investment in alternate energy sources? Giant wind farms, solar panels on all government buildings? Rebirth of the electric car? Peace with Al Qaida? An end to the embargo on Cuba? Russia joining NATO? A North American currency? What surprises might come.

The night Bush won I asked myself what wars might come. From the darkness emerges a new hope. We stepped up to the abyss of self destruction and thankfully at the last moment said “nah, this isn’t for us“.

A Clinton State Of The Union would probably be full of identifying ‘challenges’ otherwise known as making excuses for why things aren’t getting done. It’s not that I doubt her ability to get things done I just don’t think her coattails will get both the house and the senate for her party so her attempts at legislative movement would likely be blocked.

The point is, in the white house or not I see Obama being very productive.

A crazy guy on the bus felt the need to announce “a black officer falls everyday“.

I very tempted to say “then he should watch where he’s going“.

Define the word ‘lie’. Think about it for a minute. I’ll wait.

Okay, what did you come up with? Something that is not true perhaps? Passing something that did not happen off as the truth? Stating fiction as fact? Do any one of these 3 definitions work for you? Okay, pick your favorite and we’ll move on.

How is Hillary Clinton saying she took sniper fire in Bosnia not a lie under any of those definitions?

After the truth was first revealed she said she ‘misspoke’. Funny thing, she was reading from a prepared statement that was made available to the press beforehand. A slip of the tongue, this wasn’t.

Then today she came out and said it was a ‘mistake’. Perhaps she was misinformed as to what sniper fire was? I can see how an 8 year old girl reading a poem in 2 languages could easily be confused with deadly high velocity metallic projectiles.

So either she can’t tell the difference between a rifle and poetry or she lied.

Neither is a good quality for a president.

Maybe she was confused with a different incident. But the Secret Service, whom Chelsea calls “trained pigs“, insist Hillary never took sniper fire. I think they’d remember and perhaps document such a thing if it actually happened. I daresay it might have even been newsworthy at the time.

So either the secret service is involved in a cover up to no one’s benefit or she lied.

The only other alternative I can think of is that she imagined it and cannot distinguish reality from her imagination.

Either she is grossly incompetent as a functional adult human being or she knowingly lied.

Now let’s say there’s a red phone moment in which a president Hillary Clinton has to decide to start a war or not - do we want someone responding to reality or fiction? I suppose our only hope then would be Bill Clinton but what are the odds he’ll even be there?

So in conclusion, Hillary lied; vote Obama/Anyone.

What’s the worst Obama could do? Accidentally paraphrase someone else while saving the world?

So Bill Richardson came out to support Obama on Friday, a full-on endorsement with a nice speech thrown in.

Some Hillary supporters are upset because he’s a superdelegate and Hillary won his state. What they fail to mention is that she won the state by such a narrow margin, 1%, it took days to figure out. What’s more, Edwards who had long since dropped out got more votes than how many separated Obama and Clinton.

So I say way to go Bill!

As I said when I left the theatre, “I like any movie that has Hayden Christiansen getting beat down like a little girl“.

I think the plot was a little unfocused. The jumper/paladin conflict was a little too simple, handled a little too casually. There’s a group of people who want to kill us? Okay. My mom’s one of them? Okay. The only reason is religion, it seems a painfully simplistic allegory for world conflict. Need a reason to kill each other? Just throw religion in. This resulted in a sadly one-dimensional character and performance from the otherwise great (and prolific!) Samuel L. Jackson.

Bonus points for use of The Tragically Hip, specifically Ahead By A Century.

Here’s how I would have done it…

Jackson’s character is NSA and has been trying to recruit a jumper for years. They always say no. When they do he kills them, regretfully, because they’re a security threat he can’t protect against. He tries to recruit Hayden’s character and he asks for some time to think it over. Jackson gives him time because it’s the first time he got to a jumper before he realized he wasn’t alone.

Hayden thinks about it and decides he’d like to be a superhero and agrees to work with Jackson. His first assignment is to kill a terrorist. He argues in favour of capturing rather than killing but Jackson says it’s too much of a risk. The ‘terrorist’ turns out to be the other jumper, we’ll keep him the same because he was pretty cool. The other jumper explains Jackson’s normal recruitment tactics.

Near the end of their conversation, after Hayden gives up Jackson’s current location to the other jumper, some crisis breaks out. Hayden decides to save the innocent while the other jumper and Jackson fight to a stalemate. After the incident Hayden decides to join neither side in the conflict as Jackson’s methods are too violent and the other jumper was so focused on his grudge with Jackson he was content to let innocents die.

Drop hints that his mom is NSA so you can follow up on that plot line in the sequel.

Bam, there you go. Better movie and potential franchise.

Jon agrees.

Hillary Clinton is a walking contradiction. Oh, who am I kidding? She’s a baldfaced effing liar.

When running for the senate she said it was “deeply concerning” that her opponent wouldn’t release his tax return promptly. You know, what she’s currently refusing to do.

She’s upset with companies that have poor business and labour standards. Like WalMart where she served on the board. But did they improve things during her tenure? No, they broke and denegrated unions and created a ‘Made In The USA’ label for imports.

She’s anti-NAFTA yet held pro-NAFTA meetings.

She claimed Obama said one thing and did another when a staffer spoke to the Canadian embassy without his knowledge but it turns out the Clinton campaign did it first.

She denegrates the value of words and speeches yet cites a speech she gave in China as advancing women’s rights.

She’s supposedly a democrat yet she thinks McCain would be a better Commander-in-chief than Obama.

She had no problem with following DNC rules regarding Michigan and Florida until she started losing.

She asked Obama to reject and denounce Farrakhan but she can get away with only ‘disagreeing’ with Ferraro.

The list goes on. Sadly it’ll be at least a month until we make any progress narrowing the field.

I can understand the Huckabee position, I’ve even argued in favour of it but Huckabee didn’t attack anyone and stayed true to himself and his word.

So last night I finally sat down to watch An Inconvenient Truth. I’d been putting it off for years because every time I go to watch it I know it will be depressing and it just seemed a little masochistic somehow. So why now? Well for one thing I didn’t have anything pressing in the queue to watch (sorry Jon, Heroes can wait) but I think also because for the first time in, oh, a little over 7 years I feel a sense of greater hope regarding our chances.

Sure fixing the ozone was big, felt a weight off my shoulders when I heard that but more so my new hope comes from the Obama campaign as well as the renewed focus on the environment in mainstream politics and beyond. PC World magazine rates power consumption on desktops now. In a recent by-election the Green Party trailed the NDP by about 1%. Now the NDP’s no slouch on the environment either.

If the Greens and NDP combined they’d have been a stone’s throw from winning that seat. Just drop the anti-Afghanistan thing and strengthen their environmental policy and they’d be on their way.

It started a couple years ago, I remember watching the first Conservative cabinet shuffle on Newsworld or CPAC and they kept talking about who the new Minister of the Environment would be. That’s kind of like speculating over the head of the navy of a land-locked country. A Conservative environment minister who doesn’t just deregulate (read: hasten our destruction), that’ll be the day.

The newscast kept citing polls that the environment was the number one issue among Canadians. I was shocked, albeit pleasantly. Wasn’t the country trying to separate or the economy in the tank or some scandal afoot? I can’t say exactly what did it, it was awhile since An Inconvenient Truth came out, Katrina before that…did David Suzuki set himself on fire or something?

Well whatever the cause, a Conservative federal government was putting the environment at the top of their agenda. Was this a sign of the apocalypse or it’s prevention? I had no illusions the Conservatives would actually do anything about it but the fact that they were even talking about it seriously, much less putting it at the top of their agenda, was a huge step forward in terms of political consciousness and years if not decades before I predicted.

So what did the Conservatives do? Well they blew off Kyoto and flipped the international environmental community the bird. They became more obnoxious than Bush at international summits; lecturing others but refusing to do anything themselves, including meeting prior commitments.

You know what the only substantive things did they did?

1) Set a timetable for phasing out incandescent light bulbs so some future administration will have to find a way to implement it. I’m not even convinced that this is a net gain for the environment when you factor in the harmful chemicals contained in the alternatives.

2) Tax Cuts! You guessed it, they proved they were true small-c conservatives by solving every problem with a tax cut. In this case a deduction for buying a hybrid, but only certain hybrids and only a small tax break. Given the cost of hybrids it wasn’t enough to make even these specially ordained hybrids competitively priced versus traditional cars. It didn’t so much provide an incentive as marginally reduce one disincentive.

3) Okay I have to give the Conservatives props for this one, they made bus passes tax deductible. That helps the environment, the working poor, students, as well as municipal and provincial transit programs. Not to mention me.

So where does that leave us? With a motivated and concerned electorate and a government that is either incompetent on this issue or uncaring, perhaps both. So, and it’s not easy to say this, we need to look to our neighbours to the south for leadership. I believe Barack Obama has the environment in the appropriate high priority and has the intelligence, principals, philosophy, and ability to turn this thing around.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve been watching the primaries so closely; our long term survival may depend on their outcome.

On the whole this was a pretty good flick. Maybe not quite as good as the trailers make it out the be but close. It could have been a little shorter, tighten the story up a little but it’s not like you get bored or anything. They also could have established certain elements and relationships better, like what day of the week they get into the vault. The performances were all pretty genuine, maybe not Oscar worthy but I have no complaints.

Since it’s based on a true story there’s no sense critiquing the plot except to say it’s sufficiently complicated to keep you interested.

One thing I don’t understand is it’s poor box office performance and limited showings. Is this a failure of marketing or business planning? It pulled in only 5 million it’s first weekend while that piece of crap 10,000 BC pulled in 40 million. If you have a choice between these two films for God’s sake see The Bank Job.

It may have been only a matter of time before this became an issue in the campaign but who would have predicted it would be the only woman ever to run for Vice President? From the same party no less?

She claims the only reason Obama has been successful is because of his race. This is the very definition of racism.

Some people, very few mind you, suggest she meant because it’s an historic campaign but if you look back she used to say the exact same thing about Jesse Jackson. This establishes a pattern of marginalizing black candidates based on their race.

Hillary’s response? “We disagree” in a brief statement issued by someone in her campaign. What happened to rejecting and denouncing such comments? When she called on Barack to do so it wasn’t even regarding someone involved with his campaign but when someone on her team does it different rules apply?

Haven’t African Americans suffered as much as the Jews at the hands of racism in the United States?

I guess for Hillary Clinton racism is only serious when it happens to people who look like her.

Hillary says she won Michigan fairly despite it being against the rules, no one campaigned there, and her only competition being Dennis Kucinich and those stripped delegates should be awarded and seated at the convention.

By her logic, I am the fastest man on earth.

You see, I almost missed the bus this morning. I hate missing the bus so I ran for it. There was another guy next to me and he ran for the bus too. I beat him to the bus. I am therefore the fastest man on earth because I beat the only competition that happened to show up despite everyone thinking we weren’t really racing and there was nothing on the line.

If Hillary becomes the nominee I should get a freaking gold metal for my pointless victory over lackluster limited competition that had no reason to believe we were competing.

One good thing about taking the kid on a trip, decent motivation to get an early start on the day. It was funny, we kinda heard him moving around in the playpen thing we brought so we both looked over at the same time and this smiling head popped out. By the look on his face you’d think we were going to Disneyland or something. We got a pretty early start on the day.

After grabbing some drive thru we went straight to Seattle. The kid wasn’t very happy and it wasn’t until we got good and lost that he finally took a nap. Now in my defense I didn’t get much sleep, couldn’t find my map, didn’t prepare as well as I should have, and wasn’t used to juggling an upset baby and semi-frantic requests for direction every few minutes while trying to plot a route.

What it really boiled down to was a misleading sign that simply said “Westlake” with an arrow. Was the sign pointing towards Westlake Mall the central mall downtown and one of only 2 monorail stops? No, it was pointing to a road that takes you far away from everything over a bridge into residential hell.

So if it was my fault it was a mistake of poor planning and preparedness.

But I pulled it together at the end, I found us reasonably priced parking within walking distance of the needle and the monorail which took us to Westlake Mall and within walking distance of the market and The Cheesecake Factory. Speaking of the market I picked up a sweet Doctor Who key chain - I could feel Jon’s jealousy growing as I bought it.

After picking up the cheesecake we got the hell out of dodge. Along the way back we stopped for some Jack in the Box But I fell for that Ultimate Cheeseburger thing again. Mindi saw a sign for a state park and decided it might help calm the kid. A good idea except she neglected to notice it was several miles away…on an island. After a bit of driving I pointed this out and we settled on a small park we stumbled upon.

I took the kid on the swings and he had a good time but soon as he got back in the car his mood soured again. We decided to run for the border only stopping for Krispy Kreme. Once we got to the border we discovered a 30 minute wait. Or rather that’s what it would have been had countless scores of jerks not taken the Nexus lane and then tried to wedge into the front of the regular line at the last minute.

These jerks, we call them ‘wedgers’, added at least 15 minutes to our misery and made such misery more stressful as some of them seemed more than willing to risk a collision in their mad quest not to follow the rules. No one got immediately in front of us though.

We got through the border without further difficulty and I relaxed knowing home and an end to the kid’s torture would soon be at hand. Or so I thought. Once we got home Mindi’s parents, whose generous loan of the car had made the whole trip possible, wanted all of us to come by for a visit. We could hardly refuse but the kid was so upset I came very close to putting my foot down on his behalf.

Thankfully the visit was mercifully short and we got a ride back home afterwords. All told it was a good trip but I do feel bad about the demands it put on the kid.

We started out reasonably early in the day, stopping at McDonald’s before hitting the border shortly after 11am. We took the truck crossing and filled up just past the border. I may not agree with government subsidies for the oil industry but I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it. We traveled along back roads until joining the I-5 at Bellis Fair, although we didn’t know it was Bellis Fair at the time but that was fine as it was never a destination for us in the first place.

Not long after we hit that area where the radio is fuzzy for both Vancouver and Seattle stations so I began to play music directly on my PDA and the volume and sound quality were surprisingly serviceable.

We saw lots of inflatable gorillas and duckies along the way and I waved at a guy in a funny outfit promoting a furniture store of all things. No man in a chicken suit unfortunately.

We stopped at the premium outlet which was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. I got a spring jacket from Gap for $40 and a $10 shirt for the kid while Mindi dropped $70 on kid’s clothes in one store. That took quite awhile so I b-lined to the Kenneth Cole store and picked up a nice golf shirt for $20.

Earlier we had passed by a very busy (line out the door) pretzel place but despite being busy they were handing out samples which were very tasty. On the way back to the car we noticed it was no longer busy and decided to get a snack but the bastards didn’t make a Parmesan variety. Trying to look past this crime against God and man I got an original with cheese sauce only to discover the ’sauce’ was Cheese Whiz.

Pretzel Maker they weren’t.

By this point the kid’s patience had run out so we went straight to the hotel. Upon arrival I went to check in. There was an older man ahead of me being helped by a girl in a white hoodie (with the hood up) behind the desk.

“This is really upsetting” he kept saying.

“I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do” the clerk kept replying. After awhile he left and as the clerk helped me I tried to commiserate with her.

“So how long was he bothering you?” I asked, “he seemed to like repeating himself”

“Half an hour at least” she said.

“Wow,” I said “what was his problem?”

“He has some kind of disease” she responded calmly.

“Ooookay” I said and waited for her to elaborate but she didn’t so I prompted her, looking at my hands resting on the counter “so, um, do I need to Purell?”

“Good idea!” she said and shared some she had behind the counter with me. She never did explain any further.

We went to the room and after I checked it out and took some pictures for TripAdvisor the kid was very happy to crawl all over the place. It was a little after 4pm so I turned on the TV expecting either a countdown to the Wyoming results or perhaps the first few precincts reporting only to discover 96% of the vote was already in. So I missed the fun but Obama won so I didn’t mind overly much.

We both took showers as we tried to convince the kid to take a nap but he won that battle. While Mindi was in the shower I checked my e-mail because the talking heads weren’t even mentioning the day’s vote.

We headed to Izzy’s for dinner and it was busier than I’ve ever seen it, we even had to wait but they brought us snacks and we fed the kid which drastically improved his mood. Once we were seated a good time, and food, was had by all. Afterwords we went to Ross and had to choose from lots of neat stuff at crazy low prices. I started with 8 shirts which became 6, 4, and eventually 2: a CK and a Kenneth Cole each for $20.

Then it was back to the hotel and an early night. Unfortunately I made a rookie road trip mistake and forgot to pack earplugs so I didn’t get much sleep. This would have consequences the next day.

My last shift at GM was an odd one. My last hockey game 2 weeks prior had been downright ideal with a 4-1 victory over Detroit of which I got to see every goal and everyone was nice. This shift however was something different.

First off I nearly didn’t go, my friend Sam offered to take me to the states but I was going the next day anyway, I had to return my uniform, and I had promised my partner’s sister I would be there for her first concert.

Secondly, as the shift began I started to feel a little bit like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 3: a day from retirement and a giant bullseye on my back. Or worse the McBane spoof from The Simpsons. Would I be cursing Mendoza by the end of the night?

And of course there was an unusually high number of evictions that night and right out the gate I was at.

I was able to get my partner’s sister access to the floor after much running around.

One pleasant surprise was that I’d been assigned to Patti’s briefing which meant she would Be my supervisor for my last day. We both found it very appropriate. She gave me a hug at the end of the shift “because we probably won’t see each other again” which I told her was nonsense.

The night seemed to drag on forever, 40 minutes after the concert people still wouldn’t leave. Finally we cleared the building and at the debrief Patti told everyone that it was my last day. Everyone seemed disappointed to see me go, I didn’t even know half of their names! Turns out they sure knew mine. Several people tried to change my mind saying it wouldn’t be the same without me.

And here I thought I barely showed up on their radar. It was like every shift was a perpetual first day of school. The people who didn’t try talking me out of it acted like I’d won the lottery - congratulations and handshakes all around. Frankly it was the nicest this group had ever been to me.

I didn’t think for a second that I was making a mistake.

Her campaign is all about experience and late night phone calls during her husband’s administration – both are a lie. Let’s break this down…

Knowledge of the Military
She did NOT have a security clearance.

So how then does she know the military? Either she’s lying or she committed espionage.

Red Phone
“Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue - not at 3 AM or at any other time of day.” -Greg Craig, former director, Policy Planning Office, U.S. State Department

Could not have said it better myself.

Northern Ireland
Hillary has said “I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland” but the AP has already reported “she was not directly involved in negotiating the Good Friday peace accord”. She also claimed to have attended an important meeting at Belfast City Hall, but “her only appearance at the Belfast City Hall was to see Christmas lights turned on” according to Greg Craig. Brian Feeney, an Irish author and politician said “the road to peace was carefully documented, and she wasn’t on it.”

By this logic I help bring peace to my home every year. In fact I do more than Hillary as I’m often the one who turns on the lights rather than just watching.

Bosnia
She claims a trip in March 1996 was a life-risking mission into a war zone but the New York Times had this to say “Hillary Rodham Clinton charmed American troops at a U.S.O. show here, but it didn’t hurt that the singer Sheryl Crow and the comedian Sinbad were also on the stage.”

By this logic Bob Hope should have been president. Perhaps Hillary would have Sheryl Crow and Sinbad in her cabinet?

Kosovo
Hillary has said “I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo”. How can this be if she went there on May 14, 1999 but the borders were opened May 13, 1999? The negotiations were completed by diplomats, President Clinton’s top envoy to the Balkans, former Ambassador Robert Gelbard said, “I cannot recall any involvement by Senator Clinton in this issue.” Ivo Daalder worked on the Clinton Administration’s National Security Council and wrote a definitive history of the Kosovo conflict. He recalls that “she had absolutely no role”

Perhaps by ‘negotiated’ she meant ‘walked through’. Otherwise this would seem to be a smoking gun to me.

No wonder she’s putting down the value of words, hers have no value.

Not the best Travelodge I’ve stayed at but not as bad as some reviews make it out to be either.

It was clean but the bathroom had a strong odor when we arrived, perhaps an industrial strength cleaning product. The shower had good water pressure but the toilet wouldn’t flush even the smallest amount of toilet paper.

There were burn marks in the quilt in our non-smoking room.

The room was poorly stocked with only 1 towel, one floor-mat for the bathroom, and 2 facecloths - this was the worst-stocked place I’ve ever stayed at particularly when you consider our reservation was for 2 adults and one infant. Are 3 people really supposed to share a single towel? My partner went to the front to get extra towels and was informed that we could only get a limited number of extra towels, one per adult.

The front desk staff were casually dressed and not very professional but they were efficient and we had no problems.

The remote for the TV would only work at a very specific angle but channel selection was decent.

The name is a bit of a misnomer as while it is close to the mall it’s on the other side of the highway and therefore not that accessible.

Overall it was alright for a single night but I don’t think I’ll be back.

Oh she’s a sly one, that Hillary - or at least the people pulling her strings. Her pointless attacks on Obama effectively distracted us from serious problems on her side.

For example today I was reading about how she attacked the credibility of a 12 year old rape victim when defending a rapist. Now I freely admit I have not fact checked this story but given the totally untrue Obama-is-Muslim story I think it’s more than fair to take this at face value.

How about her failure to disclose her tax return? I wouldn’t care if she hadn’t loaned her campaign 5 million dollars. If she just happened to get 5 million dollars as, say, a gift from neo-nazis, insurance companies, or kitten killers PETA I daresay that’s relevant. It’s also called money laundering and circumventing election law. She says she’ll release it on April 15th. Why then? I could show you my return in a matter of hours were I so inclined.

Maybe she can’t do math. She obviously can’t see that she needs to win every remaining primary with at least 62% to win the pledged (read: democratic) delegate count. It’s possible she can’t do math, a strong case has been made that Bush could be a functional illiterate after all.

What about the numerous lawsuits she’s been involved in from Whitewater to files going missing from an office the FBI was searching only to turn up at the White House when she was First Lady? Whitewater alone makes Obama’s incidental association with Rezko make him look like a saint by comparison.

And don’t even get me started on SNL’s shell game of an opening segment last week. At least Jon Stewart balanced her appearance on his show by preceding it with critical observations. SNL just had a partisan love fest.

I don’t want to see Obama go negative, but I wouldn’t mind a surrogate going on the attack. Someone who could get serious media attention. Play devil’s advocate regarding what the republicans are likely to do.

I have officially retired my personal cell phone and number.

The phone itself, my 4th for this line, served over 3 years and handled nearly 1,700 calls. It went to Europe, unused, in my luggage. It went to Orlando, Las Vegas, and Edmonton. It texted from stockrooms at Sears and called from the hospital where my son was born.

My number was active from Dec 98 to March 08, nearly a decade over which my plan barely and rarely changed. I wasn’t late for a single bill payment and Telus treated me like a VIP. My number was a reliable constant, like it’s owner. It meant I could always be found, always be accountable.

None of that will change now that I’ve pragmatically moved to my new number but I thought it worthy of note.

I was watching a rally the other day where Obama was taking questions from the crowd. The last question was from a teenager, on the verge of tears, asking what he would do about hope. He asked her to clarify and she mentioned people not caring, not knowing what’s going on, and destructive music lyrics. So, tough AND vague. But I had faith, my guy would save her and cheer her up.

But the knock out punch never came. He talked about his like of Jay-Z, mistakes of his youth, the power of youth referencing anti war groups during Vietnam, mentioned the important role of parents, lectured  young men who sire children and leave, and closed recommending community involvement. A good answer but did it really address her concerns vague though they were?

Could I have answered better? I think the key would have been more probing questions but given her agitated state and inarticulate responses that probably wouldn’t have been wise.

Hillary couldn’t have answered as well, let alone better.

When asked “what are you going to do for me, Mr. President?” by a vandal David Palmer lectured them about always expecting others to do all the work and that they’d be dead in 10 years if they continued their behaviour. They broke his back window in response so I daresay Obama did better than that.

Thinking about it, the best politician to answer that question, real or fictional, would probably Bill I-Feel-Your-Pain Clinton.

Well I’ll take a stab at answering, speaking as Obama…

Hope is about acknowledging your own power and making your own choices. There’s music out there that makes violence and money important but there’s also a message of hope out there. Just one example is the music Will.I.Am is creating at dipdive.com. Listen to that, not the songs that say women have no power. This movement is all about people discovering and expressing and choosing the hope inside themselves.

You’re not alone. This message of hope isn’t just from me, it’s from over a million people, many of whom support it with just $5 and look what we’ve already accomplished. When I was young I felt like you did and I got involved in the community and little by little it all didn’t seem so hopeless. I found others who felt like I did and discovered that together we can do great things, and that feels pretty damn good.

Now I’m not saying you need to join my campaign or donate to it. Look inside yourself, see your power and figure out what you really care about. Then get involved, and I promise you you’ll be surprised how many people feel the same. And if I’m elected president you’ll have $4,000 a year towards college tuition for getting involved.

Fantastic film. The trailer reminded me of Snake Eyes, the movie itself surpassed it; and that’s saying something because Snake Eyes was pretty damn good. Like Snake Eyes, it essentially replays the same event from numerous perspectives and eventually the full story is discovered. I won’t get into too much detail lest I ruin it for you but there are 2 gags and 2 issues I’d like to point out.

Gags: 1. When the story resets turn to someone and ask the time, hilarity will ensue. 2. When Forrest Whitaker looks out of breath during a chase say “run Forrest, run!” - make sure no one in your immediate area is eating or drinking lest they die, or worse spit on you.

Issues: 1. The president doesn’t have a transponder or panic button of some kind on his person? 2. When control goes down not a single agent steps up to fill the void? I’ve done that and I’m
a civilian. Wouldn’t an E3 Hawkeye take over? The president in Spain you’d think they’d have one in range, not to mention a com-sat thrown over that area like a tuna net catching Flipper.

I found all the performances to be superb. My partner took issue with Dennis Quaid’s acting and Matthew Fox’s accent. Personally I think Quaid played the shaky agent on his first day back on the job very well. I took my partner straight home and made her watch Frequency to gain an appreciation for Quaid’s subtly and range. I believe she has since retracted her disparaging comments.

Overall it was a great film. I was concerned over it’s 90 minute run time but it turned out to be just right.

Background: “It’s interesting when you consider that Obama hasn’t brought up any of the past Clinton scandals during the campaign… you know, all of the stuff that’s part of Clinton’s experience like: Whitewater, Travelgate, Monica Lewinsky and impeachment, renting out the Lincoln bedroom, the loss of the Rose Law Firm billing records for nearly 2 years until they were miraculously found in the White House living quarters, removing files from Vince Foster’s office following his suicide and before investigators could get there.”

Question: “How much will Barack Obama’s relationship with Tony Rezko and his adviser’s meeting with a Canadian official about NAFTA hurt his chances today?”

Answer: “I think the question is will the number of people convinced by Hillary’s attempts to make a big deal out of a non-issue outweigh the number of people her tactics push away from her?”

As for Obama not going after the scandals you mentioned it’s because he’s running a campaign of honour and is loyal to the party in that he doesn’t want to attack a possible nominee on non-substantive issues. Unfortunately Hillary isn’t holding herself to as high a standard. She seems to be valuing herself over the party and the quality of the discourse. That kind of behavior is just as likely to cost her more votes than any smear campaign is likely to garner her.

The other day, while sick and taking medication, I took a self-administered blood pressure test and it came back high. My girlfriend was concerned. I resolved to learn more but put it off until I was stuck at a bus stop for 40 minutes within range of an insecure wireless network.

First off, cold medication apparently drastically throws off readings such that they should be ignored. So any of you worrying as you read this, knock it off.

Unfortunately that little tidbit was near the end of the article so I ended up learning quite a bit about high blood pressure.

There’s the common knowledge stuff like too much salt, sugar, fat, and alcohol as causes. Counter agents include calcium, potassium, exercise, fruits, and vegetables. Now that that’s out of the way let’s get to the interesting and surprising stuff.

Getting more sleep can help. Sign me up! It’s for my health.

Too much Advil is a cause. Guess I’m getting Tylenol when we run out.

Caffeine is NOT a factor. It can throw off test results but is not a cause. So, take that caffeine haters.

Apparently two other factors are noise and light, in which case less of each is preferred. My surround sound goes to 10, I never have it above 2. My TV goes to 100, I max out at 25. My PDA goes to 5, I keep it at 2 and then further control the volume on the ear buds. So it’s safe to say I’m not that into loud, except of course at concerts. I also like a dark room, just enough light to see what I’m doing.

These last two points of sound and light also favour energy efficiency and therefore sustainability and conservation. There is one counter indication in that one of the only known treatments for SAD is light exposure.

Anyway, interesting stuff, no?

The last week has been pretty crappy on the whole.

Friday I had to call in sick at my day job.

Saturday I woke up to a migraine but I pulled it together sufficiently to go to one of my last GM shifts that night which I’m actually glad for. We won 4-1 over the Wings and I got to see every goal, not bad for my last ever hockey shift.

Then Sunday I woke up to another migraine but this one was worse, I had to call in sick to GM that day.

Monday I felt a bit better and managed to drag myself to work. As the day progressed I felt worse and worse until near the end of the day it became unbearable so I resolved to see a doctor that night. It seems I have a rather severe nasal infection.

The first piece of bad news was that it would take 2-3 days before the medicine would have any effect. It was Monday night and I had a special project on Wednesday, would I be well enough? The second bit of bad news were the pills; they are huge and cost $70, twice the highest amount I’ve ever paid. And because I’m in the time between quitting GM and qualifying for Mindi’s plan I’m pretty much screwed on that score.

Tuesday I had off and had planned to rest but that plan gang agly. My partner and son started developing symptoms themselves, although my son to a much lesser degree. I figured they’d go to see the doctor and I’d catch a much needed nap. Unfortunately my partner wasn’t feeling well enough to go on her own. Fair enough, I don’t like going to the doctor alone either.

I had planned to wait until she had rested sufficiently but she only seemed to get worse. While making food an unpacked TV stand fell on her foot. She was going to get a modification done to it before I could set it up and there wasn’t really room to store it. I felt bad because if I had really tried to clean rather than letting excuses keep me lazy I could have stored it properly.

I was mad, mostly at myself for hiding behind excuses. So, I started to clean while Mindi hopefully recovered. I didn’t get very far before she called me to take care of the kid as he was being too much for her. Alright I figured, I’d put him in his chair in the kitchen with some finger food and keep an eye on him while I clean.

That lasted about 4 minutes.

He was so miserable from being sick he wanted to be held. So I picked him up and took him back to the bedroom. He started struggling and got away from me for a second and lightly bumped his head on a toy. I calmed him down but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Things were getting worse because we weren’t solving problems we knew full well about and would get worse with inattention.

I asked Mindi if she could walk, she said yes so I ordered her to get ready to go to the doctor. I wasn’t going to take it anymore and not just because it was all falling on my very sick shoulders but because it was all so stupid. We’re better than this, we’re smarter than this.

As we all began getting ready an odd thought occurred to me: What would Obama do?

How can I hold my heroes and role models to a higher standard than I hold myself?

Would Obama ignore a problem he observed, identified, and it was within his power to solve? I don’t think so, so why the hell should I?

It became a mantra in my mind. What would Obama do?

Dragging my family to the doctor and cleaning the house afterwords it played in my head whenever I saw a problem or potential problem. The answer was always the same: Solve it, now. When I encountered a roadblock like a populated spider web, item I didn’t know how to clean or where to store, or thing that wasn’t mine I compared that to the rigorous challenges Obama would face passing legislation and they all seemed trivial.

And to be honest there was a voice in the back of my head saying “if you get it wrong it’s not your fault. Others had ample opportunity to deal with it and chose not to and thus lost the right of control over it“.

That seemed a little vengeful to me but another voice rose up in defense of my actions, I believe it was John Locke, who said “property is earned through labour” or something to that effect. The classical political philosopher was talking about unclaimed or ignored land, stating that planting crops on otherwise unused land made that land yours as prior to your labour it wasn’t productive. A simplistic argument in the modern world but serviceable in it’s day.

It was enough for me. I figured “why did you throw out my dirty shoelaces from under the washing machine?” wouldn’t stand up to “Barack Obama and John Locke told me too“. Political philosophy had my back.

I may have been running a severe fever at this point.

Either way problems ignored for months were being solved. Perhaps the ends would justify the means - although I hope to never find myself in that unenviable position again.

The next day, Wednesday, the day of my special project, I was the sickest yet. I debated long and hard about soldiering through it but when I went to pick up the kid I couldn’t hold him for more than a minute without putting him down due to dizziness. A clear sign that I had no choice but a day of rest. Well, as restful as one can be when you’re that sick.

It wasn’t until Thursday morning that I began to feel any better. By this point the bottom of my nose was so raw it was peeling.

Here we go again…

Question: “John McCain was born outside the U.S. Should that affect his ability to be president?”

Answer: “Lindsey Graham is completely correct, ruling John McCain ineligible would disenfranchise all those who serve outside the 50 states. If an embassy is considered US soil if someone where born to embassy staff serving overseas would they be considered not a “natural born citizen”? The letter of the law may not back that approach up but the spirit and reasoning behind it should. You could also interpret “natural” very strictly to say if they were delivered via C-section or with the aid of painkillers they would be ineligible.”

I would wonder about the motivations of the people asking and supporting this question. Are they democrats who for some reason fear they may lose the election? Are they Huckabee, Paul, Romney, or Nader supporters? Are they the conservatives upset with some of McCain’s policies? I think since Florida in 2000 there’s been a little too much attention on the role of the judiciary branch in resolving election issues. It’s like if your candidate didn’t win you can always go to court and try again. This question is foolishness that I hope gets vetted and forgotten long before the general election as it’s not relevant.