The blogiverse managed to survive October without much input from me. I’ve been hashing, and what little I’ve written lately’s over at the other blog. But I feel I owe this blog something, even if only a summary of events and a couple of cheap shots at our betters.
So far this month I’ve set two hash trails, one the traditional way and the other by bicycle. Donna and I took a county-sponsored bicycle safety class, and I bought a new road bike for my birthday. Tomorrow I’m going to a hash set, for a change, by someone else; Sunday a few friends and I are riding up to Phoenix for a motorcycle trade show. My actual birthday is next Wednesday – Hallowe’en – and I can finally start riding that new bicycle.
And then there’s been work, but enough said about that. One more year, baby, and (barring unforeseen events of a cataclysmic nature) Donna and I can both retire!
Arrgh, politics . . . another driver uses my work van sometimes, so we share the radio presets. FM1 is mine. He owns FM2 and AM, which he’s programmed with right-wing hate talk. Sometimes, when NPR gets boring, I listen to his stuff. I can’t take it for very long: about five minutes each of Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Dennis Miller; less than 30 seconds of Sean Hannity.
I seem to recall Dick Durbin apologizing, on national TV and with tears in his eyes, for saying that what we were doing to prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo made him think of how prisoners were once treated in Germany, Russia, and Cambodia. But every time his name comes up, the haters reflexively condemn him for comparing our troops to Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. I thought I remembered Democrats in the House and Senate passing a resolution condemning MoveOn.org’s “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” ad. My memory must be playing tricks on me, because right-wing radio hosts now routinely call members of my party “MoveOn.org Democrats.” God only knows what they’ll call us now that Representative Pete Stark has backed down and apologized for his crack about troops dying for George W. Bush’s amusement.
MoveOn.org-They-Compare-Our-Troops-to-Hitler-PeteStarkocrats?
When the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton I vowed never to vote for a Republican again. If anything, my resolve is stronger today. People worry about whether Hillary Clinton is electable. You know what? I don’t care. She or he – whoever the Democratic candidate turns out to be – has already got my vote. And Hillary, I happily note, is not one to cravenly apologize to appease assholes who’ll just go on hating her anyway.
Which doesn’t mean I’m wholly enamored with Democrats. Democratic Congressional leadership sucks. Is there a stronger word than “sucks”? Because if there is, that still wouldn’t begin to describe how bad Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are. If there were the slightest possibility that a third party could succeed in this country, I’d jump over in a minute.
I know the House and Senate have strict rules governing seniority and party position, but, like, isn’t Ted Kennedy way senior to Harry Reid? Hasn’t Henry Waxman been a congressman far longer than Nancy Pelosi? So why isn’t Ted Kennedy majority leader of the Senate, and why isn’t Henry Waxman Speaker of the House? Now that would make a difference.
And God knows, we need for someone to start making a difference.