Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Perspective?

2008 is going to be a big news year. I can feel it. Maybe not Fabio Brawls with Cloondog big...but big, nonetheless.

Because this year...this one here...this year is an election year. This year we are 100% GUARANTEED not to have George W. Bush as an ineffective buffoon...errr...president beyond this year. Though I won't get my wish to have him prosecuted as a war criminal...I need to be thankful for small favors, you know?


And as Iowa and New Hampshire gear up to decide who will be my options as candidates, as is their traditional and wholly unfair right...I reflect on how much worse the situation could be when I see stories like this one:

Mob torches Kenyan church, 30 die inside


This is what they're calling "post-election violence" in Kenya. Some "youths" of the opposition didn't like who was re-elected...so they protested by burning women and children alive. Happy New year.

Alas. Some perspective.

Even if my nightmares do come true and someone like Mitt Romney ends up in our White House...at least I know I can go to church and come out again fairly untouched. That is...if I ever went to church. However, even the bright side of the above scenario is grim.

I guess my best bet is to have faith that Iowans and New Hampshirites aren't assholes and that they - in the words of that title of that really old movie by Spike Lee - do the right thing. And now...Rosie Perez will dance for you.

10 keep(s) me blogging:

Gorilla Bananas said...

Hmm. It's been a while since I read the US Constitution, but I had the impression Mr Bush would hold the office until January 2009. As for Kenya, our own dear Lost White Kenyan Chick can give you an on location report. May God keep her safe.

http://lostwhitekenyan.blogspot.com/

kara said...

goranas - past the beginning of november...he's just a ghost in an office without corners. yaaaaay!

Jahooni said...

I can so count on you Kara to tell it like it is! you go girl...

Rachel said...

Rosie Perez frightens me.

Let us pray* for our country.





*note: I use the word 'pray' loosely, to denote any form of hopeful reflection directed either inward or outward for some personal purpose. "God(s)" is(are) immaterial under this definition.

Rachel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I'm hoping for a Huckabee win on the Republican side. Not that I think Huckabee has any kind of a useful role to play in 21st century politics, but, with any luck, Romney will lose his momentum despite outspending H. 20 to 1 and beat a swift retreat.

Huckabee seems to me to be such a kook as to be unelectable on the national level, and hence eminently beatable by Obama, Edwards or Clinton. Romney, on the other hand, seems to me to be the epitome of the slick, cynical, unctuous politician that we routinely say we need rid of. But he is a bit of an oily shapeshifter with that game-show host smile and the moving sand he calls his bedrock principles. And he is in favour of torture when necessary. Conversation over. I wouldn't like to see the country waste any more time in considering him.

Or Giuliani. Also for "coerced interrogation". Thinks water-boarding is not torture. Is a nincompoop.

The only Republican I'd consider is John McCain. But I've become really disillusioned at how much ground he has given to court the religious right - who want nothing to do with him anyway. I really thought he was a thoughtful, reasonable, brave and principled man for the longest time until he started talking out of the other side of his mouth to the likes of Bob Jones University. He listened to his campaign managers, just as Kerry did, transformed himself into this weird, overly-grinning travesty of what he once was and now I can't see leader in the Republican pack.

Who knows which way the Democrats are going to go. I kind of like what Edwards has to say - same game-show-host vibe with him as with Romney, but at least he can argue his point, and do it well, when he's challenged on something. He seems to have integrity. I like Obama too but worry he has so little experience. Hilary has that but she is such a consummate politician it's hard to see what she stands for these days, except Not Bush.

Maybe we need integrity and change over experience.

It makes for an interesting early January though to couteract the post Christmas blues.

Hark at me. I'll shut up now.

Anonymous said...

What... Fabio being attacked yet AGAIN??!

First it was that bird hitting him in the face while he was on the roller coaster, now "Gorgeous George" attacks him??!!

Poor Fab... Let's focus on what is important, here, kid!

Sarah said...

Rosie Perez makes me uncomfortable. I have a vivid memory of watching "White Men Can't Jump" in a hotel room in San Luis Obispo, CA when I was a kid. My parents got it on pay per view and we all settled in to watch a flick. Then she got nekked and started humping what's his name. It embarrassed my dad beyond belief and he turned it off. We ended up watching Wayne's World.
Oh yeah, it was Woody Harrelson. Creep.

Mary Witzl said...

I depend on blogging for my dose of American culture and exhilerating hits of nostalgia. So help me, I have never heard of Fabio or Rosie Perez. But Sarah's mention of a hotel room in San Luis Obispo sure brings back memories...

Okay, I'm off to google those two people. Thank the powers that I know who George Clooney is.

Mary Witzl said...

Oops -- I forgot to say that I too favor a Huckabee Republican win, for the very reasons Sam lists. Then I get scared and think that if a fool can get elected once if slickly packaged, it can certainly happen again.

I heard an interview done with John McCain and was favorably impressed and surprised by his pro-choice stance. He then started listening to his keepers and spouting the party line, withholding just enough and saying dopey things like every other politician does. Oh, for a leader with integrity.

And while I'm at it, I'd like world peace, a pony, and my own kayak.