“Hey, mister, what kind of dog is that?”

“A two-legged dog.

Maybe you’ve already seen this story about a two-legged Chow mix named Faith, her owner Jude Stringfellow. But the story got me teary-eyed and the video is something you don’t believe until you see it.

Some messages require very little text.

Enjoy,

Rationalpsychic

Image below in its original context on the page: www.flickr.com/photos/82822788@N00/442278366/

I am sick at heart that the leadership of the Democratic Party has not ended this fiasco earlier. Yes, we are all having fun playing politics and watching Hillary fight the tough fight she has advertised she can fight. But, the fun ends when we see how deeply this contest is dividing the Democratic Party.

I believe that we, as Democrats, believed at the beginning of the nomination race that we would offer the uniting choice for the country. However, I believe that Hillary and Bill Clinton’s political strategy has sought only to achieve a short-term victory and ignored the consequences of her strategy and his/her tactics.

The statements and actions taken by the Clinton campaign, even if she were to win, would only weaken the possibility of a mandate by the Democrats and weaken her standing as our country’s Chief Executive after the Presidential race was over. And I’m not willing to contemplate the possibility of a Republican win even though I have such grave misgivings about a Clinton presidency.

I haven’t been shy about my preference for Barack Obama as a candidate. Nor have I tried to play nice and say that I felt Hillary Clinton was a grand lady. No. So why am I even more angry and alarmed today about the continuation of Hillary Clinton’s cynical campaign? It started with a simple link to a WHYY interview with President Clinton (that’s how we are still supposed to refer to Bill out of respect for the office) in which the President says that he believes the Obama campaign “played the race card on [him]“.

Next, on YouTube.com, I found a video clip in which the President then claims he never said (on WHYY, no less) that he believed the race card had been played against him.

I can hear the Clinton supporters saying, “Why are you talking about Bill, when Hillary is the one running?” The answer to that should be obvious. If Obama had to spend a week answering for the statements of a man he saw as little as once a week, how much time should Hillary spend answering for the statements and actions of a man she chose to marry in 1975? And whom she promoted so actively that she claims the majority of her public experience lies in her partnership with him?

Other telling bits to look at are listed below. Most shocking is the demonstrated and substantive racist actions taken by our former President. The first, a backhanded kind of compliment of the former president is just an appetizer. This video shows former Ambassador Andrew Young on Bill Clinton’s ‘blackness’ and Hillary Clinton’s willingness to create a “defense committee” related to Bill’s alleged affairs before he began his first presidential run.

I thought this was a great Obama device: video of Bill Clinton on his perception of the importance of “courage to change” versus the “wrong” type of experience (in a 1992 debate with GHW Bush) and the obvious comparison with Obama. I didn’t even realize that Bill was 46 when he ran for President in 1992. He was just a pup! Who would trust a guy that young to run the country!? Oh…wait, we did.

Sources that indicate a level of institutional racism that I am ashamed to say I didn’t know of when I voted for Bill Clinton in ‘92 and ‘96. These include a news article and an appeal to the US Supreme Court from October, 1990. My reading may be inexact, but the gist appears to be that under Bill Clinton’s governorship, state legislative voting districts were not apportioned in a way which was in legal conformity with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Finally, a documentary from the BBC that I never saw before but which has plenty of nastiness and maneuvering by both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Revealing statements by friends and former allies regarding how Hillary managed President Clinton’s contacts with women during his 1982 race for the Arkansas governorship.

Oh, yes, and a very interesting statement that Hillary Clinton was into teacher testing long before the No Child Left Behind legislation was proposed by the present Administration.

All in a life’s work, I say.

Some posts have to be followed up on. I think when you have the foolishness (ignorance + misplaced courage = a great potential for “it ain’t pretty, folks”) to say that you’re giving up self-pity and it’s no longer Lent: well, this just can’t be left to lie like a bloated raccoon along the shoulder of a two-lane highway.

To be more honest, I’ve always found self-pity to be an excellent defense mechanism. The real problem is, it’s been worn a bit thin through overuse.

My dad has been in St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, MN, for the past week. I have been feeling sorry for myself over this situation because his condition was related to a hematoma on his brain that made him decidedly confused and, for one of the few times I can ever remember, weak in his BODY. This guy is the grandson of a blacksmith and inherited the barrel-chested physique of his grandfather. Seeing him in a helpless state is just a reminder that I’m headed in the same direction. Mortality.

Oh, yes, to engage in self-pity is to be self-absorbed, self-centered and, especially, selfish. I’m telling you that seeing my father in such distress distresses me rather than telling you my empathic feelings for his suffering and the trap that his mind and body have been for him over the past week. I know that and still the empathic impulse is all but dead within me while self-pity plays the monarch.

For tonight, however, I’m spending time with someone I care about a great deal. Someone who I think is lovely, caring and who, self-pityingly, I know I may not deserve. She’s invited me to go along to Rep. Tim Walz’s birthday party tonight. Two of his supporters are holding it at their home in the country. Fittingly, it was the County Poor Farm at one time but the husband is a painter and he and his wife have transformed the place into a real home.

So we’ll see if self-pity can take the backseat to joy, society, and spending time with someone gorgeous. This requires a list of skills that is too lengthy to list and too boring to go into at this time. Thank God and the strange expression of evolutionary progress in the physical world. Why does love make us forget that we have trouble?

It’s a matter of perspective: the large and important overshadow the small and less significant.

Today’s the day I start to quit feeling sorry for myself.

What do you think about that?

I have been trying to get myself moving in terms of writing poems again. It’s funny how thinking in terms of prose can really dull the faculty you use to write poems.

I’ve been reading In the Palm of Your Hand, by Steve Kowit in an attempt to spark some thoughts and poetic impulses. It’s a good book with tons of ideas that I haven’t even touched yet.

I thought I’d try to involve you in a little participatory nonsense–merely for the sake of fun and the spirit of competition I hope it will ignite.

There are rules–guidelines, if you’d rather–to this bloodless exercise. Here they are:

1. Poem must be at least seven lines long. Otherwise, its form is up to you.
2. You must use at least seven of the ‘nouns, verbs, etc.’ listed below. One per line is a suggestion only, not a requirement.
3. Use two of the prepositional phrases provided.
4. Points are scored for: writing at least seven lines (7 pts.); using at least seven of the ‘nouns, verbs, etc.’ (7 pts., 3 additional for use of the word “quash”); using at least two of the prepositional phrases (2 pts.). Finally, one point each for any extra of the words or phrases provided. This gives a potential total of 20 points.
5. Snappy titles are not required and do not earn points. However, they do garner respect and admiration from the crowd.

Enjoy the power of creation.

Nouns, verbs, etc.

blemish, wheel, accordion, pill, tame,

vanilla, fling, Bill, hand, four,

post, cinnamon, squat, Althea, quash (triple word score)

Prepositional phrases

on the shore, near the city, above your head, next to,

from this, under my, inside this, around his/her

I’ve read the strongest call yet for Clinton to stop her campaign for the Democratic nomination. The Democratic Party leaders are starting to calculate the amount of damage all of this infighting is doing to the chances for a Democratic win in November’s presidential election.

Speaking of myself as a part of the Democratic grassroots, this fact has been obvious for about a month. Friends I know have also been looking for this. A survey by the Pew Research Center, published March 27, 2008, shows that Democratic voters favor Obama over Clinton by a margin of 49%–39%. Senator Leahy’s call on Clinton to step down seems to offer some sane advice for the Democratic Party as a whole:

“Leahy told Vermont Public Radio in an interview that aired Thursday: “There is no way that Sen. Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination.”

In a statement issued Friday, he said Casey’s endorsement was the latest sign.

“Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out. But as I have said before, that is a decision that only she can make,” Leahy said.

*******

And if the serious stuff doesn’t get you, dig the truth of the Clinton candidacy in this nugget of comic video. Caution: Naughty f-word present. Not good for the workplace or the kids.

I’d be one of the devil’s minions but lack some of the skillset.

You won’t need a leap of faith when the devil comes to call.

You’ve got the promise of low-hung fruit

and a dowry for the widow. Stained hands

hang the butcher’s apron at the altar.

The purchase price of 144,000 will get you

in with the great crowd floating on a balloon,

the backend pinned to your immortal sheet.

An addict to motion, you follow the arrows

painted on the street. Your clock hands spin,

appearing still and showing your progress.

Your childhood rubs against your signatures

filed and sent to an office glowing with

fluorescents, informed by the ventilation system.

Mephisto won’t bother with you. He’s likes a challenge

and the lender already has your life bundled and baled.

Hell has a special ring set aside for those of us who tried.

Copyright © Barrie Evans 2008

Sometimes I publish a poem like this–unfinished–just to spur me on to dealing with it further. Otherwise, I often leave them sitting in my journal and don’t bother with them.

When I reread this statement I realize that all I’m saying is that I’m often impatient.

For years now, well, maybe just months, I’ve wanted to earn some cash from writing my humble opinions on the internet. I’ve been told repeatedly by those with more common sense than me that this feat is nearly impossible. The wisest of these have said that, like Icarus flying too close to the sun, even attempting such foolishness may bring on such dire consequences that one shouldn’t even attempt it.

I’m not doubting the good intentions of these folks who would warn me away from a disastrous fall. I have reminded them, however, that I really don’t have that high of a height to fall from.

In spite of all the good advice and warnings I’ve gotten from these folks I still want to see how this can work. The only way I can justify this to myself, however, is if I let you in on the process.

As I move along with this experiment I’ll let you in on the results of my decisions and give you some ideas on how profitable or how useless this effort is.

My first attempt to earn money will be to go with Google AdSense. My impression is that this is the most common and perhaps the easiest way to get going with the process of making money from a blog

I’ll keep you informed.

As a pretty good president who I didn’t care for once said: “Well, there he [she] goes again.” Ronald Reagan used that one to great effect during some of his debates (1984?).

In the following video we get to see Hillary Clinton at her high school declam best and high school theatrical worst as she mocks Obama, claiming that an Obama candidacy somehow depends on the kindness of angels along with a miracle or two. She follows it up with points targeted to the debate but shows us her, rather threadbare, I think, notion of what is entertaining and funny. Like when you were in second grade and that kid, Joey, would pick his scabs and use them in his art projects–that kind of entertaining and funny.

Here’s a link to the video of her at a recent campaign stop in Providence, RI.

Are you calling me stupid?

Two things that are going on in this video that I don’t like. This general lecturing style has been her hallmark all along. I think it stinks. Why? Because I’m a big boy and I don’t need a leader to “tell me how it is” as much as I need a leader who will say, “I’ve got some great ideas on how to get where you want to be going and if you walk with me a bit, I can share them with you.”

Does this black and yellow outfit make me look…?

Secondly, and this is a touchy subject, but her fashion sense is appalling. Am I the only one here who ever learned to enjoy “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” or that catty makeover duo from NYC who say stuff like, “Those pants make you look like a schlub. Throw them out now or I’ll do it for you?” You’ve seen these, right? Granted, I don’t expect Mrs. Clinton to have as much free-time as you or I. But would you look at the bumblebee outfit she’s wearing in this video, for God’s sake!? She looks like a high school vice principal who is lucky to get out to TJ Maxx or Lane Bryant twice a year. This is the kind of woman who says, “I never throw ANYthing out!”

Frugal, but misinformed. Her match in the area of bad officewear would, of course, be John McCain. His stuff looks a little stale and frumpy to me, too (Social Studies teacher at same high school). But then, this is part of what will make him beatable in the Fall: he IS a bit stale and frumpy. And I don’t think I have much for the male Democratic contender except he should find suits and shirts that make him look less rail-thin. Remember John Edwards? Now that guy had great taste in clothes and knew how they were supposed to fit. I guess you could argue he looked a bit too good to be true.

And, therefore…

OK, I went on a bit of a tear with the fashion comments. But you know what? If I had a tenth of these folks’ cash and half as many places to wear the stuff–I would be tailored suits all the way, baby. Savile Row for the daytime and Armani for the evening. You’re considering sending me to meet with Vladimir Putin? Outdress him, dammit. That’s the way detente is achieved and how global foes should be vanquished. If you’ve got a great and inspiring message won’t a swell wardrobe just put that exclamation point on what you have to say?

Ask Henry Kissinger if you don’t believe me.