No Clemency For Huckabee

It must be awful, having your presidential hopes riding on the behavior of outlaws and murderers. If one of them acts up, it sinks you. That would be tough.

But that's the situation for Mike Huckabee, whose record as Arkansas governor of releasing dangerous criminals is notorious -- it was strictly an open door policy. It's a good thing he's a religious man, because he has to pray every single night, "Please God, don't let one of these idiots screw up."

Well, they haven't found the guy guilty yet -- they haven't even caught him -- but it's sounding like a guy named Maurice Clemmons might have something to do with the killing of the four police officers this weekend in Washington state. Coincidentally the same Maurice Clemmons that Huckabee gave clemency to close to 10 years ago.

Everyone who's old enough remembers the 1988 campaign, where Dukakis was hammered for signing off on Willie Horton's release. If that was a disqualifier back then, this looks like it ought to be one too.

Huckabee, a nice guy ... but since he's a Republican, a dangerous guy ... maybe a little more neutralized now as to his danger.

Tiger Woods In Accident

I didn't read the details, but there's something in the news about Tiger Woods being in an accident that wasn't really an accident. I don't know what it is.

It sounds like he and his wife got into some kind of fight. Next thing they knew, he was injured, then they wrecked, then she had to bash out the back window with a golf club. I saw a headline a while ago that said he was "embarrassed" by it, so, without looking at the details, that tells you right there it wasn't a normal wreck.

Definitely it's times like this it doesn't pay to be famous!

Palin Quits 5K Run

Sarah Palin was running a 5K in Washington, the state, but dropped out before finishing.

Are we seeing a pattern yet?

The Uninvited Met Obama

There's something strange going on at the White House. The apparently uninvited pair who reportedly crashed the state dinner say they were invited. They have a lawyer who said that.

It would be better for the Secret Service if they can get it clarified that indeed they were invited. Because then it wouldn't look like such a terrible breach of security.

Now there's a picture of them meeting with President Obama!

I hope things like this don't happen again.

My Knees Going Bad?

I have some play in my knees these days. I notice if I sit with my legs pulled in for too long, I stretch them out and my knees both pop.

I don't like this because it's something fairly new. It might mean something is seriously going wrong with my legs. I hope not.

Maybe I should exercise more. Maybe I should exercise less.

Someone Crashed The Dinner

I forget their names. I hadn't heard of them. But it was reported on CNN as a breaking story.

They had the big state dinner with the head of India, of course including many dignitaries from politics and whatever. I wasn't invited, so it can't have been too big a deal.

In the midst of it -- and it wasn't known that they weren't invited -- a couple (having something to do with a reality show) came strolling in, all dressed up, looking like celebrities being received on the red carpet.

They posed for a number of pictures, which CNN showed from Facebook, as they were with Joe Biden and Rahm Emanuel.

That would take guts. But also luck, that there's someone stupid enough at White House security to be passing people through who aren't on the list.

Someone on CNN suggested this could be a felony and these people could be in real trouble.

R. Crumb's "The Book Of Genesis"

I saw this mentioned somewhere one day and immediately ordered it at Amazon. They said there it wouldn't be shipped for maybe two months. But then I got a note that it would be available earlier. So it came yesterday.

It's R. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis," a beautiful big book of cartoon illustrations of all 50 chapters of the first book of the Bible.

I have to say I love it. This is the way the Bible needs to be illustrated, with all the grittiness of real life right there before you. I think reading through it slowly is a devotional experience and I say that truly.

Maybe the most famous thing about the book, which has to be mentioned, is that the sex stuff of Genesis is illustrated. And even then it's not so much in your face, but just shows what the text says. It's before you but even then it's still nicely reserved. Anyway, to see Adam and Eve, Abraham, Lot, etc., in the buff is a good thing, illustrating these holy stories in a great way.

I think Crumb did a masterful job and was very reverent about the whole thing. I'd love to see what he could do with Ezekiel, but that one might be not quite as popular. I'm sure he could do some stunning esoteric things with it though!

I read through the story of Judah and Tamar last night. How beautiful it is. Tamar pretended to be a cult harlot in order to raise up seed for her dead husband. She wasn't just horny and wanting to get it on with Judah. It's great to see her resolve illustrated there and the way she takes Judah's things which she later uses to identify him as the person she had sex with. She's about to be killed for having played the whore, but suddenly it's obvious to Judah what she had done and how honorable she was.

Today I started at the beginning and read about the Creation. I love seeing God as this radiant, beard-flowing wild-eyed mystic deity. When He's searching for Adam in the garden, it's very powerful. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

I looked at other things too and got the same impression. It's stunning and a great book.

How's Our Confidence Level?

How's our confidence level going into the health care debate on the Senate side? I've been away most of the day today and haven't been hearing the news. But just glancing at it after getting home, it sounds like there's some confidence that the Democratic traitors who've threatened to filibuster might not prevail.

That would be positive. O! if we could only replace them with more dependable Democrats! That would be great! It sucks to have the majority, then to have our own people become the sticks in the mud. You'd think we'd be so stoved up after Republican misrule all those years that we'd be itching to get something positive done in this country. But some of them like the spotlight, it seems.

Who knows what we're going to get? But it sounds like it will at least be something. A free Band-Aid for every child or something. A red lollipop after every physical.

One thing is for sure, the health care system in this country is seriously broken. And it's incredible that anyone (the Republican scoundrels, for example) want to keep it. Let's let them keep it for themselves. And let's get a decent health care system for us! Then see how long it takes the Republicans to come sneaking over for something decent.

No Filibuster Tonight

The Dems managed to hold together 60 votes to stave off a filibuster and now can proceed to debate health care. (Wow, I hate the Republicans!)

Of course this doesn't mean anything for actually getting the bill passed in any decent way or time. Already Senators Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Lieberman, Lincoln, and Benedict Arnold are on record as opposing some aspect of the proposal. Some even saying they will filibuster later on.

Leading me to ask the age-old question, If we can't trust Democratic senators to support the Democratic agenda, why again do we need them?

Sarah Palin Stiffs Her Supporters

The Quitter strikes again, this time quitting her round of autograph-giving a little prematurely at a Borders bookstore somewhere.

It made for lovely footage with Sarah Palin inside the big tour bus and a crowd outside shouting "Sign our books" and "Booo!!!!"

At this point, why would you want her signature? If she hasn't got time to follow through on an apparent commitment to sign your book, just use it to line your bird cage.

Real nice lady. On to the next town!

Would Alaska Really Want Palin Back?

I was walking through a hallway today and heard one of those snippets of random conversation that you sometimes hear.

The conversation was about politics, obviously, because a guy was saying he had a friend or relative who lives in Alaska, who told him that people in Alaska really like Sarah Palin and would gladly elect her governor again if she wanted to return to the office.

I kept going. I don't like hearing conversations like that. But I wonder. Are Alaskans really generally that clueless? I hope not.

Health Care Moving Along

The Senate has come out with something that the various senators seem to like, more or less. So we can hope that they will get it moving along, so it's not dragged out forever.

But who knows? We have this crumb, Ben Nelson. He's out there saying he would be willing to be the lone Democrat who'd sink the whole thing. So he's obviously a Bad News Bear.

Other than that ... we may or may not get something done. But so far so good, apparently.

Cheney, Bah!

President Obama is taking flak from the Republicans for showing respect for foreign leaders, such as a commonplace gesture in Japan, bowing to the Japanese emperor.

This is no big surprise, since of course he'd be taking flak from the Republicans if he didn't show respect for foreign leaders. If we've learned anything about the Republicans by now, it's that they're mad if the sun comes up and they're mad if it goes down.

Now the biggest, rottenest, sleaziest Republican of them all -- one of the biggest, rottenest, and sleaziest anyway -- Dick Cheney says it shows "weakness." You see where this is going, I hope? If Dick Cheney is criticizing you, you must be doing something right. I wouldn't take advice from Dick Cheney on any subject if he handed out free lollipops.

They're talking about a new prison for terrorists. Can we get a cell strong enough to hold Dick Cheney? The man's a world menace. And that goes for his brain-addled family as well.

Palinmania

When it comes to political books, for the most part I'll pass. I don't want to waste my money on all this, people's memoirs.

In the heat of a campaign I do think how interesting it'll be "next year" or the year after to learn how things were really going behind the scenes. But by the next year I've already moved on in my interest. So I'm no longer that interested. And this is true every time, not just this year.

Plus, it's Sarah Palin. She's a train wreck. I didn't like her even a tiny bit last year, so there's no way I'm going to give a dime for a book she (or someone else for her) wrote. I wouldn't actually want it if they were passing them out free. This is true for lots of books, but Republican books deserve a special place in hell as far as I'm concerned.

I don't understand why most people would want to give her the time of day. Is anything more obvious that she's a crumb? To think anyone would turn over a job with the responsibility of the presidency to her is beyond my ability to understand. Like that job out of all the others is something that can adequately be done well by just any idiot. George W. Bush proved it's not true.