No really.  What is it?  This turned out to be much more difficult to answer then you would think.   Of course, I’m not talking about boiling someone’s feet, or taking a blowtorch to the eyeballs.  Those acts seem to be rather uncontroversially designated as torture.  No, I’m talking about that crown prince of enhanced interrogation; waterboarding.   

 On a philosophical and personal level, I feel waterboarding is torture.  Its purpose is to cause mental anguish enough to cause the subject to spill their guts on plans and operations.  Still, unlike a blow torch to the eyeball or boiling feet, people are lining up to have themselves waterboarded, either for a bet, charity, or publicity.   One wonders why Jackass star Steve-O didn’t think of it.  Vanity Fair journalist Christopher Hitchens did think of it.  As well as Chicago radio personality Mancow (allegedly) and Central Florida radio listener Evil Eye.  Sean Hannity made the offer to do it, but as yet hasn’t made good on his offer.  In a battle of the ratings can Chris Matthews and Glenn Beck be far behind?

On a legal level however, I have grave doubts on if waterboarding meets the standard.   Torture is against Federal law, specifically, Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 113C of the US Code.  However what does it actually say?  The law defines torture this way:

(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;

(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—

(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;

(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;

(C) the threat of imminent death; or

(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and

 It would be difficult to argue in court that waterboarding results in severe mental or physical pain.  No marks or physical damage after all, and no reported mental issues from waterboarding.  Or at least I have not heard of anyone suffering from Post traumatic Stress Syndrome or other long term issue from the interrogation method.

This was the gist of the “Torture Memos” which I had discussed a few weeks ago.  The former Justice Department attorney’s, whom President Obama has decided to give the Kangaroo Court go ahead to the Attorney General, made a fairly good case that waterboarding doesn’t violate US law as torture.  That’s not an argument that waterboarding is a harmless prank, or around the level of good cop/ bad cop when it comes to interrogations, but it does give good evidence that the high bar to define it legally as torture was not met.

And who should confirm that conclusion? None other than Attorney General Eric Holder.  Holder gave away the store a few weeks ago during a Congressional hearing on closing the detainee facility at Gitmo. Holder was being questioned specifically about torture and confirmed again (as he did during his confirmation hearing) that he regarded waterboarding as torture.  Then he was asked if he regarded the waterboarding that Navy Seals received during their training as torture.

Holder:  No, it’s not torture in the legal sense because you’re not doing it with the intention of harming these people physically or mentally, all we’re trying to do is train them —

 Rep. Dan Lungren:  So it’s the question of intent?

Holder:  Intent is a huge part.

Lungren:  So if the intent was to solicit information but not do permanent harm, how is that torture?

 Holder:  Well, it… uh… it… one has to look at… ah… it comes out to question of fact as one is determining the intention of the person who is administering the waterboarding.  When the Communist Chinese did it, when the Japanese did it, when they did it in the Spanish Inquisition we knew then that was not a training exercise they were engaging in. They were doing it in a way that was violative of all of the statutes recognizing what torture is. What we are doing to our own troops to equip them to deal with any illegal act — that is not torture.

 Rep. Louie Gohmert:  Whether waterboarding is torture you say is an issue of intent.  If our officers when waterboarding have no intent and in fact knew absolutely they would do no permanent harm to the person being waterboarded, and the only intent was to get information to save people in this country then they would not have tortured under your definition, isn’t that correct? 

Holder:  No, not at all.  Intent is a fact question, it’s a fact specific question.

 Gohmert:  So what kind of intent were you talking about?

 Holder:  Well, what is the intention of the person doing the act?  Was it logical that the result of doing the act would have been to physically or mentally harm the person?

 Gohmert:  I said that in my question.  The intent was not to physically harm them because they knew there would be no permanent harm — there would be discomfort but there would be no permanent harm — knew that for sure.  So, is the intent, are you saying it’s in the mind of the one being water-boarded, whether they felt they had been tortured.  Or is the intent in the mind of the actor who knows beyond any question that he is doing no permanent harm, that he is only making them think he’s doing harm.

 Holder:  The intent is in the person who would be charged with the offense, the actor, as determined by a trier of fact looking at all of the circumstances.  That is ultimately how one decides whether or not that person has the requisite intent.  

   So Holder, seems to be saying, without outright admitting it, that in a legal sense, under Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 113C, the waterboarding that was done by the CIA was not torture.  It’s all about the intent.  And Holder practices what he preaches.  That is the exact position the Justice Department is taking in another case, Demjanjuk v. Holder.  In that case, John Demjanuk, a former Nazi camp guard was fighting deportation to Germany to stand trial on the grounds that considering his age, poor health, and expected bad treatment at the hands of German jailors (ohh irony!),  would be the equivalent of torture due to the “severe Pain and suffering” that he would be expected to endure.  Demjanjuk lost, since the court found there was no established intent (there is that word again!) by German authorities to torture him.

And yet, law is apparently not going to stand in the way of political opportunism both for the Obama administration and the Holder Justice Department.  A leaked DOJ ethics report on John Yoo and Jay Bybee, two of the authors of the infamous torture memos, will recommend disciplinary action.  All because they devised the legal strategy that Holder is using in another case, and has basically admitted in hearings is correct.

Frankly, this is bullshit.  I know it and Attorney General Holder knows it, but with such a friendly press, there is never going to be a gotcha moment in a press conference; at least not one that will receive wide coverage.  Did you catch Holder’s admission on intent in those hearings leading the nightly news?  Neither did I, even though it exposes the hypocrisy of deriding a legal theory in public that the Obama administration is accepting as it’s own on the down low.

Was it worth it?  The waterboarding I mean.  The former Bush administration took a political risk in adopting that technique, and competing camps have battled on cable shows on whether waterboarding was effective or saved American lives.  However the opinion of the intelligence community seems to be yes, it did.  A Washington Post piece describes the “second wave” attack that had been planned for Los Angeles.  A hijacked airliner would have been used to crash into the Library tower in LA.  Thanks to information collected through waterboarding, we were able to stop the plot before it ever got off the ground (pun is mine).

You can have a philosophical argument on if any sort of enhanced interrogation is ever justified, regardless of the lives saved.  Some people, incredibly, would rather see such plots go forward rather than sully their hands at the dirty work of intelligence collection.  But that’s different from the legal argument on whether the three Al Qaeda terrorists that were waterboarded were legally tortured.  I would have to say, based on the preponderance of evidence that they were not.  As I said at the beginning of this piece, I do personally regard waterboarding as torture, however there are several other techniques I may feel personally are torture that just don’t meet the legal standard.  Letting me drink a couple of beers and then not letting me pee for instance.  President Obama has already banned the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique by executive order, but don’t look for the Congress to try bring up another bill to outlaw the technique, like they did during the Bush administration.  I imagine if there is another 9/11 style attack, that executive order will quietly be rescinded, in a closing the barn door after the horses are out kind of way.

So we now live in a world in which we can waterboard Mancow, or any other publicity whore, but not Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or if we ever catch him Osama Bin Ladin.  I’m not sure we could even force KSM to listen to Mancow. Maybe if KSM would agree to be waterboarded  for charity…

I drove by our ‘tea-party’ the other day  and 4 out of 5 signs said things like “Hannity we love you” , “Hannity 2012″, “Hannity is right”.  Hannity- Hannity- Hannity… these people were not protesting against  President Obama or taxes, they were cheering for Hannity. The best and scariest one I saw read, “Hannity/Limbaugh 2012″. .. The Horror!

There were signs screaming about “Obama’s” Bailout”.. What the hell? That wasn’t President Obama’s bailout, it was George W Bush’s Bailout, but since these lovers of  ‘fair and balance”
were out to cheer for Sean Hannity, they didn’t know that..and having tried to tell them before, I just tried to ignore it.

They did not know it because Sean Hannity would rather keep their anger and hatred focused away from the man he spent  8 years defending and re-direct it at President Obama instead. Any kind of hatred will do, truthful or not.

A friend summed-up the situation the other day..

…I’ve come to the consensus that these tea partys are where people who are *still* in shock or disgruntled (or both) that Obama is in office come together.They take comfort, coming together, rallying around any number of outrages…that aren’t really outrage worthy and doesn’t seem to have any merit in the substance they insist brings them together.  I think many there know this as well…but the rallies, forums, and group meet and greets make available an assemblage that encompasses a feel good zone, where they feel safe.

These people that FNC (Fox News Channel) showed were carrying signs that say “Obama=Socialist” . Where the hell were they when Bush created the largest entitlement of all fucking time? Where were the signs when Bush was proving that

‘government can always get bigger on every level and every way.’

“Well Obama’s a socialist and he wants me to pay for everyone’s healthcare” is the canned answer I get when I bring that tidbit up..

In a way that was inconceivable when he took office, Mr. Bush — the advance man for the “ownership society,” smaller and more trustworthy government, and a humble foreign policy — increased the size and scope of the federal government to unprecedented levels. At the same time, he constantly flashed signs of secrecy, duplicity, ineffectiveness and outright incompetence.

There were “NO BIG Government” signs  all over the place.. What the hell? Where were these when I was screaming about the abuse that would happen with those wire-taps and no knock warrants. Where were the signs then?

Hello? Patriot Act??  Where were the screams and cries of “Revolution” from the Right then?

“Oh it’s different when the government intrudes on each of us to make us safer”

Yes, yes it was different then because it was worse! You lost the right to privacy, the right to an attorney, the right to confront your accusers, the right to a speedy trial, the right to be treated humanely. You lost Habeas Corpus

But the biggest hypocrisy of all? Signs and slogans and chants in Hannity’s Atlanta crowd screaming
Bailouts=Communism… Bailouts=Socialism..Tell Obama NO Bailouts..  But wait? What the hell  John Rich song were these people dancing,screaming and going crazy over?

Now, Shuttin‘ Detroit Down is a great song. The problem is, it’s a song about New York big wig bankers getting a bailout, while Detroit gets nothing and slowly dies and those people were loving this song and it’s meaning. . Are you kidding me? The Bush administrations bailout isn’t Socialism until President Obama’s in office-then it’s totally Socialism… but asking you and me to bailout the automakers ISN’T Socialism because it’s just patriotic?

No, these people are only going against whatever Obama is for

and that’s fine. Protest, get out the word, start your grass-roots. I’m liberal.. I’m all for that kind of stuff for Christ’s sake. But protesting just to the breed hate and spread ignorance? What is that all about.

Another friend said something I believe sums everything up..

A girl I know at work was talking to me the other day about these tea party’s. I don’t know if I like the idea of calling these rally’s tea party’s. I think of the Boston Tea Party and I think it should be left there, but anyway. She said, ‘now the Liberals know how it feels to have people talking shit about THEIR President the way they talked shit about ours and damned us for 8 years just for being Republicans.’

And the thing is I’m getting the feeling some people are doing this, coming together if you will, for that reason.

No, we don’t know or understand because  you are protesting things that you were quiet on under ‘your’ president. Not only were you quiet, you were against the Liberals who were protesting. Had the destruction of your constitution actually bothered you, then why didn’t you say anything when Dick Cheney decided the Vice President office wasn’t a part of any branch of government and thus not answerable to anyone. No,  you are protesting to ’see how we like it!’. You came into this match with that chip on your shoulder, a chip that said “ok, lets see how you like it when we disagree with you” and  when you can’t disagree with the truth,you are make it up as you go along.

“Obama is cutting the pentagon’s budget!” WTF? It’s 8% more than it was last year. The Republican appointed Secretary of Defense is adding 8%  more this year to his budget, a number that is what President Bush recommended but somehow that equals “OBama’s hates America and cuts pentagon budget”?

Chorus of Protest Grows Over Report Warning of Right Wing Radicalization

Conservative groups are up in arms following a recent Department of Homeland Security report that warns of the possible radicalization of right-wing extremists.

That’s right, they are ok with extremism of any kind be labeled dangerous.. well except when it’s their extremists, then they are so pissed that this was incorporated into the ‘tea-parties’ last week. Oh but where was their anger, their signs, their protest when 8 youths were arrested and charged with terrorism for talking about protesting the RNC convention?

This crap is pathological at this point, the Right and FNC are brewing anger and promoting anarchy and it’s not because they disagree with the spending- that didn’t bother them the last 8 years. It’s not because  of higher taxes because Reagan is the Conservative’s God and he raised them higher. It’s not about that whole  2% of pork in the budget either. It’s because they wanted Bush to be better than what he was, but he wasn’t. Then they were pinned into a corner of support because he fucked up so bad and our side was nailing him right and left for it. That’s when they got angry and not at the man who screwed up but at the people who were pointing out that the emperor had no clothes…And now,  like my friends co-worker said.. “Lets see how you like it”

The difference is.. When we screamed about Libby and leaks… were we lying? Or wrong?

When we bitched about torture.. Were we lying? Or wrong?

When we said the new warrant-less wiretapping was going to be corrupted, were we lying or wrong?

That’s the difference here. WE didn’t screw the pooch, we just pointed and screamed “Get off my dog!” and because the “Right” is pissed that we dared…now they are protesting?

Too little too late my friends,  your money was already taken and abused, your liberties have already been taken.. your protests can now be monitored and you can be labeled terrorist for them and you didn’t care a flip until they came for you.

Well….Now we’ll see how you like it…

Conservative talk show  hosts out for ratings do..

Guns shouldn’t be taken from the people and banned.

Obama is a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties.

Gun-clubs with their own agenda should be banned.

The 2nd amendment is alive and well.

Gunmen Kills Three Pittsburgh Police Officers

A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.

Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Three officers were killed.

Those who wrap themselves in the protection of the 1st amendment, while spreading unfounded rumors with headlines reading

URGENT ALERT – IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

ANTI GUN BILLS ON THE MOVE – YOU MUST ACT NOW

or who twists the truth of the reemergence of sensible gun-control measure that has been around for over a decade and was only recently allowed to expire, which they described by saying

Obama was lying, and now gun rights may be dying.

instead of explaining the true measure…

The Assault Weapons Ban signed into law by President Clinton in 1994 banned 19 types of semi-automatic military-style guns and ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds.

will ignore their parts in any of this, the same way Nancy Grace ignores her part in the death of  mother.

I don’t know the reasons for spreading this kind of fear with this type of dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric, but as of today… I know the consequences of it.

Guns aren’t the problem here they never are, the people using them to commit crimes or pump up their ratings, thus increasing their paychecks or donor-rolls are the problem. Ignorance isn’t criminal, but spreading ignorance based on rumors and your own fears and bias should be. The 1st amendment doesn’t protect a person in crowded space yelling “FIRE!” but it’s a good thing for some of these liars that it does protect their rights to infect people with their money and ratings driven fear mongering.

In the above clip, at 6:33,  AG Holders assurances that there is no ban, no ban coming, no ban plan, no ban plan being discussed, that no one in the administration has any plans to interferer  with the 2nd amendment is answered with, “Agenda’s could change”.. Yes  and a frog could fly out of your ass tomorrow.

Guns are not a problem, but the 24 hour news cycle that has to fill their time with something… anything.. whether true,false or otherwise is a problem since they don’t care what they say as long as people are listening. Today, we mourn 3 officers killed in the line to duty by a deranged man who believed these talk show hosts when they told him President Obama was going to steal his guns. Today these commentators and  gun-clubs have blood on their hands, tomorrow it is up to us to decide if we want to make them accountable for it.

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Do you feel it?

Is it just me, or can everyone feel it. It’s like everyone is holding their breath and waiting.  I don’t just mean on the economy, but that is pushing this ‘tenseness’. That is allowing  this fuel to be dripped all over the spectrum I see and feel everywhere around me. There is a panic out there and because of that panic the political lines are getting forged even deeper into the earth.

I see it everyday, people are hoping that President Obama succeeds but more vocally, hoping that he will fail.  For the most part people on both sides of that argument want only whats good for the United States, but there are some who only want what is good for them and their party. For those people, if President Obama succeeds, one side will be proven right! Right in their choice to go a different direction, right in the choice of an man without much experience and right in their choice of picking a minority, but they want him to fail so that they can be right. Right that the masses should have listened and stayed with the same policies we’ve had, right that those policies were correct, right that today’s mess isn’t their fault.

There is nothing wrong with that. The ones who would rather the United States fail than to succeed under a Democrat are a little warped, but it’s America  and that’s their right. What isn’t right, what isn’t fair, what isn’t OK is the need to push out and out lies or passive/aggressively incite hate,fear,treason,murder and revolution.

It’s been said that “You guys bashed Bush for 8 years, so get used to us bashing Obama”. Ok, I can live with that. But there is a difference in criticizing or bashing someone on a truth and just out and out lying about them.

Richard Shelby, Alabama Senator, Questions Obama’s Citizenship“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”

It’s lies like that one, that force people to do things like Lt. Scott Easterling did last week when he filed  a lawsuit saying that he would not, would not comply with the president’s military command. He wrote that

“I will consider him neither my Commander-in-Chief nor my President, but rather, a usurper to the Office – an imposter,”

he will not follow the Presidents orders until, as he says “he saw irrefutable evidence Obama was born on American soil”

There is a panic going on across this country, it’s not just the economic world but that is spurring the other ‘hidden’ panic.

SPLC’s Intelligence Report: Hate Group Numbers Rise AgainThe key finding was that the number of hate groups operating in the United States…an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and the successful campaign of Barack Obama.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than 4% from the 888 groups in 2007. There is a hidden tension growing and I don’t like what the conservative voices in media are doing to inflame it.

Yes, there are conservative voices in the media. Voices that are with people in their drive to work, to school, on their home from picking up the kids from basketball practice, on their radios for 9 hours while they work. Yes there is a conservative media that spends more time talking to people than the 30mins to an hour a day they get from the TV media, that is if they don’t go home and flip their channels to Fox News. There is a conservative media and the agenda they are pushing in normal times is a dangerous one, but  in the extremely tentative times that we are in now, is so egregious that I am stunned more people aren’t coming out against it.

There was a comic last week that had people picking sides.

What do you think the hate groups thought when they saw this, what about this comic that Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose emailed as a joke

and then claimed that he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

I’ve been told that I am the racist for seeing ‘race’ in either of those two comics, I disagree of course. I believe these people are lying to themselves because they don’t want to admit there is a racial problem out there because if they admit that, then they fear they would have to admit other ‘liberal’ idea’s.

Were there things said about George Bush? Yes, and I said a lot of them. Was he attacked and criticized for everything he did? Yes, I was the one standing in the front of the line. But there is a difference, I was one of the 1st and one of the most vocal to vent my extreme displeasure at the man who threw a shoe at President Bush.  I took a personal offense at the disrespect that was being shown to MY President by a civilian of another country. When the time came to speak up and show where my loyalties really lie, I was one of  only a few who identified the line.  Will Mayor Grose? Will any of the SLPC’s hate groups?  Sadly we know Lt. Scott Easterling will not.

When I criticized and bashed President Bush, I did it on a truth. There was a leak from the inner rooms of the White house, there was a jumping of the gun on the Mission Accomplished banner, there was a failure in intelligence that lead up to the Iraqi war, there was $12 billion in cash lost in Iraq that no one has since cared about or looked for. What we are seeing now are not criticisms of truthful actions or words, but out and out lies and an inciting of the mob to overturn the establishment in a time where people are more scared than they have been in generations.

There is a fear in this country and speakers that are respected and adored by their party member are advocating treasonous acts against our Government..

Some are advocating shooting members of Congress.  There are others, with loud voices dreaming and encouraging with a wink and a nod

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Watching Hillary Clinton bring an end to the roll call vote during the Democratic convention had several thoughts go through my mind.  First off, it looked like the Obama team wanted to make sure Hillary knew she was beaten by rubbing her nose in it.  Bad doggie!  I also thought of an executioner who tells the condemned, “Yeah, go ahead and you put the noose around your neck.”   Amusing?  Sure.  A little sad?  Yeah, that too.  When she stopped the roll call vote, Hillary probably knew she was well and truly fucked, but I didn’t get how fucked until today.

I was taking a shower after working out and was thinking about Hillary (believe me, this had to have been the first time I thought of her while I was naked) when it suddenly struck me like a bolt of lightning, “I’m out of conditioner!”  But after that, another thought occurred to me, Hillary lost her one good shot at being President.  That is something that she was no doubt aware of as she called off the roll call vote. 

Consider:  If Obama/Biden wins in November, and has a fairly successful Presidency, he’s in for 8 years, and Hillary doesn’t get a shot until 2016.  However, she is going to have competition: Joe Biden.  Biden is a man who has lusted for the Presidency for decades, and has made no bones about his ambition.  Biden is 65 now, and will be 73 in 2016.  Age is not quite the issue it used to be.  McCain is 72 today and still in the running.  Biden has a 90 year old mother, so maybe long lived genes run in his family.

So in 2016, Biden will have been the long serving Vice President, the establishment, standard bearer for his party. That would be an uphill battle for Hillary.  So barring some crazy political upheaval, Hillary’s only chance of being President is if Obama loses in November so she can hit it in 2012 with a big fat I told you so.  I suppose she could be content with being a New York Senator and fighting the good fight from the senate, but I’ve always thought the senate was a stepping stone, not a destination for her.  As a PUMA representative said on O’Reilly tonight (and I’m paraphrasing here), if Hillary had the top spot and Obama had the number two spot, that would guarantee 16 years of Democratic control of the Presidency.  Now it’s guaranteeing 16 more years of Republican control of the Presidency.

Well, at least there is a bright side.

I think Obama’s chances for winning the top spot are a bit better than the downcast PUMA rep gives him credit for.  But for some of these women, they have no one to vote for in November.

This brings me to the workout that led to the shower that led to the Hillary epiphany.  Yes, I’m telling the story in reverse order.  Pretend it’s that too clever by half Seinfeld episode when the gang went to India. Or if you want to get pseudo highbrow, pretend its Slaughterhouse-Five.

I was at the gym on the treadmill when McCain introduced Gov. Palin at Dayton.  At our gym we have a bank of TV’s across the wall for all of the treadmill and elliptical machine users to stare mindlessly at, just as if we were all at home on the couch.  Normally, I’m listening to my podcasts on my mp3 player, but watching the action on some of the TV’s I decided to unplug from that and plug into the jack on my treadmill to get the audio from one of the TV’s carrying the Palin speech..

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but the first thing I thought of was, “Damn, she’s hot.” Not something I ever thought I would say about a potential VP choice, particularly after 7 plus years of Cheney.  I had never heard of Palin until today, but I had to say, she gave a good speech.  That’s important.  In politics it doesn’t matter how bright, knowledgeable or witty you are if you can’t communicate it. 

It became clear, at least to me, that McCain was seriously going after the Hillary supporters.  Particularly with this line from Palin’s speech:

I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.

It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

 So thanks, Hillary, for ramming your head again and again into that glass ceiling.  It should be loose enough now for Sarah Palin to push through.  But that’s always the way isn’t it?  Moses didn’t cross the river Jordan, and Jesse Jackson, who has been the go to guy for every racial grievance for the past few decades, is never going to be President.  Other’s get the rewards for sacrifices that the pioneers make.  I guess that’s why it’s called sacrifice.

Hillary supporters are not monolithic.  Most of them, after the bruising primary battle, dusted them selves off and like good soldiers supported their party’s nominee.  Some, like the downcast PUMA rep on FOX tonight, couldn’t.  Others will grudgingly vote for their party in November, and some won’t be able to bring themselves to.  And some, for the first time in their lives, are finding their party’s candidate so unacceptable they are thinking of voting Republican.

Crazy election times we are living in.

Earlier this morning…

I was at home at work when I heard on the radio that Palin was McCains VP pick.   Sarah who?   I clicked on the TV and channel surfed the news channels to try to get some info on her.  I didn’t really know what to think.  I knew that for Republicans, who McCain selected for VP was important, and if it wasn’t the right type of person, it was a deal breaker.  McCain was on iffy terms with many of his party as it was.  Trail balloons of him selecting Lieberman or Tom Ridge had enraged the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s of the Republican pocket universe.  McCain had a multitude of bad choices and only a very few good choices.  I myself thought he would go with Romney, a man he personally despised but who might settle down the right wing of the party (paradoxically, since Romney as Governor had been more liberal that any other Republican running, but that’s another story).

What I quickly gathered about her: governor, mayor, NRA member, hunter, blunt, son in the Army, all made me think it was a good pick.  Not one I saw coming, but clearly one to shake things up.

Of course she could turn out to be friends with a terrorist, or have some sort of crazy preacher, and that could sour the deal.  But at first blush, she looks like a good VP pick, and one I wouldn’t mind seeing in Maxim.

So now the two tickets are, in a weird way, balanced.  They are both “historic” in the sense that no matter who wins, it’s going to be the first something.  And you have inexperience but great ability straddled with experience, just flipped on each of the tickets.  Biden, as the adult, is sitting in the backseat and letting the kid drive, and wizened McCain is driving Miss Sarah in his model T. 

Just a thought, but I think I might plan to take the day after election day off so I can sit up all night, eat my finely buttered popcorn, drink my beer, and blog away as the returns come in. 

This is going to be the best election ever!