Political Ramblings

My mind is everywhere today.  Running riot in my brain are thoughts of

• John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30th and how I can justify the expense of flying out to meet and talk with like minded non-insane people.  My favorite cousin-in-law will be attending, and Brother and his girls have been urged to be The Burrow's on-the-scene-correspondents, but I am feeling an immense tug of my own.

• Gabrielle Giffords and Jesse Kelly facing off with she's lying NO he's lying television ads as they vie for her seat in Congress.

• Elizabeth Warren getting her dream job, only not really getting it. Obstructionist politics imposing a glass ceiling of its own right there above her head.  I can't imagine how she's feeling as she carries the baby to term and then hands it over to the real parents.

• The private company that wants to build a landfill in the desert, near the homes of desert dwellers who live far from the hustle and bustle of city life (if such a thing exists in the neighboring metropolises of Tucson and Marana) and who are not that interested in having other people's trash leaching toxic liquids into a rising aquifer.  As a letter to the editor pointed out today, they are not trying to put this dump next to the million dollar houses in the Foothills. Of course, there's not a lot of empty flat land there anymore, but I got her point anyway.

• John Huppenthal, running for Superintendent of Public Education here in Arizona, has posters everywhere announcing that he's in favor of the English language and discipline in the public schools.  I'm fine with English, but is it his plan to reinstitute flogging?  I found this little snippet on youtube today:  

          It gets interesting at about minute 1:40.  One wonders, is leaving the room when faced with tough
          questions really the behavior we want in our schools' chief?

• Larry Summers is leaving the Obama administration and former Xerox Corporation chief executive Anne Mulcahy is the leading candidate to replace him.  Out with the educators, in with the business types.  Perhaps it will help our President find his voice when it comes to explaining our economic woes.  The Town Hall meeting was just so sad.  Questioners wanting to know when it will be their turn at the bailout trough.... not recognizing that most of those too big to fail (OK, not GM yet, but still....) institutions have repaid the money, with interest, and that the economy is no longer in free fall.  After 22 months he's staunched the bleeding left from the uncauterized wounds of 8 years of Republican leadership.  Are we really that short-sighted that we can't notice the facts?

• I'm surprising myself every time I think of the Clintons these days.  Loved Bill on The Daily Show (click here for the whole interview) especially his rueful remarks about paying for Chelsea's wedding - "I can't believe there were any unemployed people in that area after we got done".  He's a policy wonk at heart, and without having to appease the electorate he seems to be doing a world of good.  Hilary, the woman I would not could not never would ever vote for seems to have come into her own now that she has a job description that does not rely on Bill.  She's traveling the world, kicking butt and doing it with a smile.  Obama was lucky to get her, even if he was following the later West Wing story arc.

Everything is in a muddle.  It's raining in the fall in Tucson.  A Jewish girl married to an astronaut is competing against a marine with a good conduct medal to be my Congressional representative.  Our schools are underfunded and the superintendent candidates are bickering over minutiae.  The recession is over but no one is making any money or spending any money and the job market is a scary scene to contemplate when your two children are in graduate school.  We have an articulate, intelligent President who can't seem to get his message across.

G'ma says there have always been times like these.  I can't believe THAT is something she can remember.