It Is A Chilly Windows Open 75 Degree Tuesday Morning In Texas

The morning view from my computer room window seems to have become a repeating theme. This morning you can see a small patch of blue sky peeking through the clouds.

I have no idea what the forecast is for today. I suspect HOT. But, right now, I have my windows open. I do not recollect opening the windows in mid June in Texas, previously.

It is currently only 75, about 7 degrees below what I have the air conditioner set at. So, I'm being naturally air conditioned right now.

I ended my non-aerobicizing sabbatical early this morning with a highly aerobic totally salubrious bout of swimming.

I got up well before the sun did this morning. By noon, or thereabouts, I see some further aerobicizing in my future, with a long-awaited return to the Tandy Hills.

I'm not certain, but I think this evening Elsie Hotpepper wants me to go to downtown Fort Worth with her. If that is the case, Elsie will need to provide chauffeur service and come pick me up.

Tonight Barack Obama gives a speech from the Oval Office for the first time. Oval Office speeches are usually only for the most dire of messages. Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis speech. Nixon's resignation speech. George W. Bush's 9/11/2001 speech. President Obama's first Oval Office speech will be about the BP Gulf of Mexico spill.

I don't know if I will be home to hear it. I'm sure I'll hear about it later.

Adolf Hitler Comes Back To Life To Attack Obama For Encouraging School Kids

I saw this Hitler YouTube video on Texas Sharon's blog and felt compelled to share. It is quite amusing. Well, amusing if you've been thinking the right wingers have gone into nutjob land with their bizarre over reaction to President Obama's TV speech to school kids where he had the audacity to suggest that kids work hard to do well in school.

I first heard the nutjobbers acting all wacky doodle over this earlier in the week on the Mark Davis' WBAP radio talk show. He was acting all livid. I could not figure out what Obama was going to do in schools that had Davis so outraged. I had to wait til I got back here and look at Fox News online and eventually deduced that it was the seemingly innocuous TV talk to kids that had Davis foaming at the mouth.

Anyway, the above YouTube video nails the absurdity of making so much ado about something so minor.

President Obama Throws A Baseball Better Than I

I have not listened to Rush Limbaugh much of late. His gloomy doomy, over the top, anti-Obama stuff really seems a bit over done. Not that I'm not among those a bit non-plussed with how things are going Obama-wise.

But today's grist for the mill was really ridiculous. The issue was that at some baseball all-star game, Obama threw a baseball like a girl. Which really is insulting to girls, I would think. I mean, I've got 3 sisters who can throw a baseball way better than me. For me it would be a compliment to tell me I throw like a girl. But, it would be an insult to my sisters to tell them they throw like their brother.

It's all over the Internet, today, the issue of Obama's baseball throwing skills. Some drop the politically incorrect "throws like a girl" verbiage and change it to he throws a baseball in a dainty way.

Like me, President Obama is left-handed. Like me, President Obama is not adept at throwing a baseball. Like me, I suspect, President Obama probably grew up thinking that developing the skill of throwing a baseball is nothing but a pointless, boring waste of time.

Now, me, knowing that I could not hit the proverbial side of a barn, if I were president, I would not let anyone get me out on a baseball mound. I likely would, by the time I became president, taken the great political risk of letting it be known that I am not a fan of baseball, never have been, never will be, and that I ain't throwing no stinking baseballs. Even more than football, I've never understood what could possibly hold anyone's attention watching a baseball game for hours. I can see watching a pro sports game every once in awhile, like once a year watching the Super Bowl and paying attention to the commercials, but to watch multiple games a week of grown men playing with each other, just seems perverse to me.

And don't get me started on how bizarre it is that our economic system is so screwed up that millions of bucks are paid to ostensibly grown men to play these children's games, while millions of other pay millions, make that billions to watch the grown men play the children's games. And somehow muster caring, whether or not, the grown men playing children's games, win or not, acting as if these are important matters.

It's vexed and perplexed me for decades now. Below is a YouTube video of Obama throwing like me....

Barack Hussein Obama & Osama

I was talking to one of my dullard friends this afternoon and he made the observation that has been made by millions, that similarity between our new President's last name and the last name of America's Public Enemy #1 Osama Bin Laden.

As I sort of dozed off to my own thoughts, as the dullard droned on, my thoughts went back to 2001, the days after 9/11.

If back in those days, that really do not seem all that long ago, if back then, someone had told me that George W. Bush would be President til 2009, that America would occupy both Afghanistan and Iraq in 2009, that America would help bring about the execution of Saddam Hussein, that in 2009 the new American President would be named Barack Hussein Obama and that the new President would be African-American, this would have struck me as being an unlikely scenario.

Well, I don't think many of us Americans, back in 2001, would have been able to imagine a scenario that would have us having a new President, a man few of us had heard of in 2001, last named Obama, middle named Hussein, African-American, a scenario that has the vast majority of us quite excited to have Barack Hussein Obama becoming our new President. With most of the World also on board, looking forward with positive anticipation to the New America that is about to reach out to the World in a way much different than the past 8 pitiful years.

I'm looking forward to Tuesday. I watched neither of the Bush inauguration festivities. Previous to Bush I watched every inauguration day in my living memory. Bush is the first President, in my memory, who I don't believe I watched a single news conference. I did watch his State of the Unions. In pain.

The Reddest State in the Union

Slightly edited incoming from Don Young....

Which is the REDDEST state in the U.S.A.? (red from embarrassment?)

Is it Texas? Nope.

Is it Alaska? Nope.

Is it Alabama? Nope.

Is it Arizona? Nope.

Is it Utah? Nope.

Is it Arkansas? Nope.

Is it Wyoming? Nope.

The winner of the honor of being the REDDEST state in the nation goes to Oklahoma! Home of Chesapeake Energy and Aubrey McClendon. And likely Snidely Whiplash, but I'm just speculating on that.

There is not a single county in Oklahoma that went BLUE. Oklahoma voted 65.5% for McCain to 34.4% for our new President, Barack Obama. A larger McCain margin of victory than any of the other 49 states.

Obviously, this is a strictly non-partisan message. That goes without saying, so why did I say it, I can't help but wonder....

Barack Obama the Terrorist

In a this could only happen in Texas type thing a member of the Texas State Board of Education, Cynthia Dunbar, in a column published in something called the Christian Worldview Network, said that Barack Obama, likely to be our next President by the end of today, is plotting with terrorists to attack the United States.

Ms. Dunbar has been asked to retract her bizarre assertions. She says "I don't have anything in there that would be retractable. Those are my personal opinions and I don't think the language is questionable."

In her column Dunbar said that there will be a terrorist attack on America during the first 6 months of Obama's administration. And that this attack "will be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is a threat to tyranny."

Dunbar also asserts that Obama will use the terrorist attack as an excuse to declare martial law.

In response to those who are appalled and disgusted by this woman's idiocy Dunbar said, "Right now, we're still in America and we still have freedom of speech. And unless that's changed I'm not aware of it."

That freedom of speech thing includes the freedom to suggest that whoever has firing power over people on the State of Texas Board of Education should immediately remove this idiotic woman from a position where she has any say regarding the education of Texas children. Then maybe there needs to be an investigation as to how such an idiot could have been placed in such a position.

Obama the Socialist Communist Dictator Wannabe

The right wing wackos are starting to get scary in their desperate fear that they are about to lose the Presidential election. After the Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed Obama the paper been printing a lot of really scary letters to the editor from those convinced Obama is a Socialist, Communist, Muslim Terrorist.

I tell you, this is what our inept education system produces. A lot of erroneous thinking. I'd willingly wager the vast majority of the wackos could not coherently tell you what socialism is. Or communism.

I printed some of the scary Star-Telegram letters yesterday. There were quite a few more today. Plus a few reasonable sounding ones. One of the letter writers blamed this oddball opinion flood, that borders on hate speak, on the propaganda job being spewed on talk radio and Fox News. I can see why one might think that, because I thought the same thing, in that many of the letters seem to reflect the type overwrought nonsense I've been hearing on Rush Limbaugh.

It's riling up the nutcases, as witnessed by the letters and by an incident like the pair of Neo-Nazis being arrested due to their plot to kill dozens of blacks and assassinate Obama. The right wing media is engaging in the most shamefully irresponsible disservice to our country I've yet witnessed by those who should know and behave better.

Just take a look at today's Rush In A Hurray email newsletter that came in minutes ago....

On Today’s Show...

Obama's infomercial painted the image of an America so horrible, large people have to cut back on...snacks for their children. People actually get arthritis, too! This is not the real America. It's just people with tough times.

The Obama crowds seek a redeemer in a time of turmoil. It's not what he says, it's how he says it.

Pearl of Wisdom: "This Obama infomercial was a parade of victims. I feel sorry for these people waiting around for him to save them. This wasn't inspiring. There wasn't one example of Obama's leadership. He's a cold, angry, charismatic demagogue. It was like watching 30 minutes of one-minute campaign ads. Would you do that?"

Obama calls America selfish, and thinks "charity" is government taking your money to "be our brother's keeper." Hey, you have a brother subsisting in a hut, and your beloved aunt living in a Boston slum!

Obama's media manipulation tactics exposed in a pro-Hillary blog post? Could be.

Pearl of Wisdom: "Jack Welch was on CNBC with Larry Kudlow and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. He was on fire about the truth of economics and the Barack plan."

Rush's Gut, Daily Tracking: It's hard to know what to call, when the press is so bias.

Pearl of Wisdom: "When you have an Obama advisor saying that Obama is not a black guy -- he's half white, and that's why Americans will vote for him -- and you have Obama making a joke about it on TV, it's all strategic. It's not just a joke, at all."

A Democrat caller for McCain. He's one of many.

Focus, you people. Step #1: Drag McCain over the finish line. Step #2: Rebuild the conservative movement. If you have to, tell yourself you're voting for Sarah Palin.

Pearl of Wisdom: "We've had over 3-1/2 times the polls this October as in October of 2004. It's information overload! We're being swamped with this tainted stuff."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Obama Endorsement Reaction

I guess it was to be expected, but it's still a bit disturbing, that being the reaction by some readers, as evidenced in Letters to the Editor in this morning's Star-Telegram, to the Star-Telegram's full page Sunday endorsement of Barack Obama for President.

There were several letters in support of the Star-Telegram's Obama endorsement. But those seemed reasonable and non-nutcase, so not as interesting. Below are a few of the Anti-Obama Endorsement letters....

I am so mad I could spit. I can’t believe the Star-Telegram would recommend a socialist/communist for president. Just give him a year and he will control the paper. The head honcho of the Star-Telegram should leave America because he is anti-American. Anyone who votes for the socialist/communist does not have America’s best interests at heart.

I will be laughing when he becomes the dictator and you will not have the freedom to print what you want to. It will come to pass and it will serve you right, you Obama-loving, anti-American socialists/communists (anyone who votes for Obama fits this description). You want redistribution of wealth, which is Marxist, not American.

America is dead as we know it. Four years of the socialist/communist Obama and we will be like Iran, Cuba, Russia (any country that is a dictatorship, we will be also).

— Pat Spencer, Fort Worth

*******************

The Star-Telegram recommended Barack Hussein Obama for president? By doing so, it also endorses the Democrat-controlled Congress. Just how ignorant is that?

So what’s the surprise? Another dog-and-pony show in an attempt to justify a factually unjustifiable endorsement? But it doesn’t work, at least not for those who will vote from the facts that have cast history from true cause and effect.

Obama will remain not only a far-left socialist, but one cultured in the belief of another more dangerous and inequitable dogma. Anyone of any insight at all knows what it is. It need not be rewritten, for the Obama voter not only denies it, but also by immoral compassion embraces it as their own. It is so ignorant that it defies its own recognition.

Many have hoped that this veil of ignorance will somehow be lifted between now and the Nov. 4 election. But the evidence is yet to be revealed.

For America’s sake, the “hope” remains that the majority of each state’s “citizen” voters will recognize the Obama facade and vote from reality rather than poor fiction.

— Richard M. Holbrook, Weatherford

******************

Horrors! How could you recommend Barack Obama for president? The man has less than one term as a senator and you think he can run this country? Surely this is a Halloween joke!

I can take comfort in the fact that hardly anyone reads your newspaper anymore and even fewer take to heart what you endorse.

— Marian Ramsey, Fort Worth

*******************

It was with little surprise that I opened the Opinion section Sunday to see a full-page, fawning recommendation of Sen. Barack Obama. You’ve been telegraphing this at least since the end of the Democratic primaries, and for a paper whose internal editorial policy is to “Get Bush” (see, the folks you laid off talked), it brings little shock.

Being old enough to remember the first Obama, er, Carter administration, I believe that we are headed down the same old road, only this time the Iranians will have nukes. I also believe that the 13.5 percent home loan I first had as a result of that administration’s policies is just a start with this tax-and-spend bunch.

So, go ahead and continue using the low-angle Obama head shots to make him look heroic (see, I know how this works) and keep up the fawning. Maybe it will anger the moderate electorate to drive the election to Sen. John McCain.

I certainly hope so, for our sake.

— Gerry Nichols, Lakeside

******************

I was astounded to see a whole page spread in your paper openly recommending Barack Obama for president. What everyone thinks about their choice for president is their own opinion. However, when a news outlet puts an editorial out that says the Star-Telegram recommends Barack Obama for president, I think that is overstepping the bounds of objective journalism.

Now, I know that you are trying to get away with this by putting this article in the Opinion section. I find it very hard to believe that every single person employed at your paper agrees with that statement that you printed. I would quit if I worked for a company that made blanket statements like that.

It is not about whether the article supported Obama. It is about the fact that your readers cannot count on objective journalism off the editorial page when you make blanket statements like that. This is yellow journalism in its finest.

— Jill Harper, Keller

**********************

I was so disappointed when I opened my paper Sunday and saw the huge picture and editorial recommendation for Barack Obama. I knew my hometown paper was liberal, but this is ridiculous!

Gov. Sarah Palin has much more experience in government than Obama, and Sen. John McCain has more experience than Obama and Sen. Joe Biden put together. Just because Obama is an elegant speaker doesn’t make him ready to lead and protect us! And that huge picture of him was overkill! I’m just disappointed in my paper!

— Carlye Arnold, Arlington

**********************

After seeing your recommendation of Barack Obama for president, the only reason I don’t cancel my subscription is that my wife uses the ads and coupons. Your paper will merely be a propaganda arm for the new “We will control everything” government under Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Obama. Never in my lifetime — 13 presidential races — have I seen a serious candidate so unqualified under the normal meaning of the word.

— J Morris Johnston, Mansfield

**********************

I never thought I would see the day that the Star-Telegram would support the most unqualified presidential candidate ever to run. He has no military or leadership experience to be commander-in-chief.

He has very little government experience. He has no respect for the flag or national anthem. He is supported by the Islamic leaders of the world and has vowed to negotiate with them. He is obviously a socialist because of his medical and wealth redistribution policy. I suspect the founders of the Star-Telegram are turning over in their graves!

— Robert Rainey, Arlington

And now for a final letter, one of the letters in support of the Star-Telegram's decision to endorse Barack Obama.....

I’m sure you were getting a ton of nasty mail Monday morning thanks to your principled decision to endorse our next president, Sen. Barack Obama. As a Star-Telegram subscriber, I just want to say thank you! Your reasoning was logical and well-stated, and I sincerely hope it sways the few folks who are undecided. It is really gratifying to see my hometown paper make the right choice. I’ll be renewing my subscription to offset at least one of the cancellations I’m sure you’ve received.

— Anna Brosovic, Arlington

Today's Rush Limbaugh Obama Bashing

I listened to Rush Limbaugh for a short while this morning whilst doing yoga prior to going to Tandy Hills Park where it was so windy and cold that I ended up running up and down the hills trying to get warm. A month ago this would have killed me due to overheating. But not today. Mr. Limbaugh seems to be getting increasingly into Bad Boy Territory with his Obama bashing. Mr. Obama is highly likely going to be our next President. The Obama bashing at this late date annoys me. Below is today's "Rush in a Hurry." That's an email newsletter summation of today's Rush Limbaugh Show. You get a good flavor from it as to what I mean by Bad Boy Bashing....

On Today’s Show...

Show Highlight: The real Barack Obama revealed himself in a 2001 radio interview. The audio reveals an angry man with disdain for the United States Constitution and the limits it places on government power in our lives.

Democrats say that talk about Obama's plans to redistribute wealth is a "distraction." No, it's the very core of this man's being! He wants to take wealth from those who work and spread it to those who don't.

Pearl of Wisdom: "Speculation about Obama's birth certificate isn't going to sway independents or change minds. With eight days to go, we need to focus on Obama, not the Woods Foundation or Ayers. Tie Barack Obama to Obama, and after we tie Obama to Obama, then tie him to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, and what will happen to America if they get unchecked power."

An Orlando interviewer dares to question Biden on Obama's apparent Marxism and ACORN. Biden responds with rage and lies.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Our Founders put LIFE first, and guaranteed it. If you don't have life, you don't have a chance for anything else. The Supreme Court eliminated the right to life in Roe v. Wade, yet Obama says the courts aren't radical enough for him. What could be more radical than that?

Pearl of Wisdom: "Obama says the Constitution charters 'negative liberties.' He wants government to do things to people, and he's mad that the 'flawed' Constitution limits its role in our lives. He doesn't like the idea of liberty, and wants to change it!"

Who's adding reverb to Obama's voice so he sounds like God? (Remember his speech in Berlin?) The Messiah now says he's going to restore economic prosperity and a higher purpose to an embattled nation. The audacity! The American people don't look to a Castro or a Chavez to give them purpose.

People keep asking, "Rush, what're you going to do?" What he's been doing for 20 years! What are YOU going to do, folks, besides calling on Rush to do something?

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Endorses Obama

That's right. Sunday's Star-Telegram devoted one full page of its puny 2 page Editorial Section to explaining their rationale for endorsing Barack Obama to be our next President.

The Star-Telegram's line of reasoning seemed pretty reasonable to me. But their endorsement of Obama had no impact on my vote because I've already voted.

I don't remember if the Star-Telegram endorsed John Kerry or George W. in 2004. I wasn't here at the time. I was up in ultra-liberal Washington where it seemed a foregone conclusion that Kerry would win and where I saw many protests against George W., including in my old hometown of Mount Vernon where dozens stood on the street corners by the county courthouse, waving memorable signs. Let me go see if I can find a photo I took that day.

In Washington there is a sub-cult of phonetic spellers. I guess that explains "shud."

Ron Howard Takes His Shirt Off To Endorse Obama

Ron Howard has used a YouTube video to let the world know he wants Barack Obama to be our next President.

In the video Ron Howard takes his hat and his shirt off and becomes Opie Taylor talking to his Pa, Andy Griffith, asking Andy why people are so stubbornly resistant to change and wishing he was old enough to vote for Obama.

After that Ron Howard becomes Richie Cunningham and has a talk with the Fonz where the Fonz has trouble admitting he was wrong to have voted for Bush/Cheney twice as they've led us down a wrong path.

Then Richie becomes Ron Howard again who then expands on his endorsement of Barack Obama. None of this had any influence on my vote. Because I've already voted.

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama for President

If only Obama had picked Colin Powell as his running mate I'd be 100% happy to vote for him. With Joe Biden, not so much. Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press yesterday was a prime example of why Colin Powell would make a great President. Colin Powell is relatively young, it could happen. In the meantime I think I'll go early vote tomorrow. And it won't be for McCain and that Alaska dame, even with my Joe Biden aversion.

Dow Jones, Debates & Icy Water

It is now the Ides of October, as in October 16. I continue to go swimming early in the morning. At midnight it was 59 degrees here. When I went swimming this morning it was 56. I continue to be amazed that this is doable, to swim when the water is so cold.

I've gotten so many problems fixed this week that I'm feeling sort of relieved. And then I opened the morning paper to see that the Stock Market crashed again. Just when I thought things were starting to look up.

I tried to watch last night's debate, really I did. I am truly perplexed as to what has gone wrong with me. I used to watch all things political religiously. Conventions beginning to end. All the debates. I made it through several of the primary debates. But I've only made it through one of the current string of debates, that being the Palin/Biden debate.

Maybe it has something to do with I already know who I'm voting for. But that hasn't stopped me from watching a debate previously. Maybe I'm turning into a cranky old man. Just way too easily annoyed. I think I made it past maybe 4 instances of rolling my eyes and thinking I was hearing pure idiocy and then turned off the TV and went to bed.

McCain was embarrassing. Obama seemed like the grown-up in the room. We live in scary times.

First Presidential Debate Down, Two More To Go

I surprised myself last night. Even though I found it pretty much a boring snorefest I made it through last night's debate. The debate had none of those memorable type moments that so many previous Presidential debates have had.

Like Gerald Ford saying Eastern Europe was not under Soviet control. For those of you born post the 1970s, up til the collapse of the communism, Eastern Europe was behind what was called the Iron Curtain. Basically the countries that the Soviet Union occupied after World War II the Soviets turned into communist states. If one of the Soviet's communist "allies" got frisky, like Czechoslavakia did in 1968, the Soviets would invade and squash the rebellion.

This type thing was why it was a laugh producing gaffe when Gerald Ford made his unfortunate assertion. He really never recovered from that one incident.

The first President Bush had a memorable debate moment that hurt him when he looked at his watch, as if he was bored and anxious for the torture to end. But he was on a stage that included Clinton and Ross Perot. I really didn't think it all that odd that he'd check the time. But it bothered others.

Michael Dukakis had a bad debate moment when he coldly and robotically responded to a question regarding the death penalty and what his position on that issue would be if his wife, Kitty, were raped and murdered. That was one odd debate moment.

Al Gore had some bad debate moments when he'd do a heavy sigh in response to something coming out of George W.'s mouth. Now that almost the entire country has done similar sighing it now just seems like Al Gore was ahead of his time.

The first debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan gave most of the country their first good look at Reagan. And he surprised a lot of people. He didn't come across as some sort of hardline right winger. Instead he came across as really likable, funny, and, well, presidential. While Jimmy Carter looked and sounded really weak, at one point Reagan zinging some Carter nonsense with his famous line, "There you go again." At the time it was a great debate moment.

So, last night, to my eyes and ears there were no memorable moments. John McCain seemed toned down. No flashes of crankiness. Barack Obama seemed less long-winded than usual, with fewer moments of speaking haltingly, like he has in previous debates. Obama seemed more forceful than he has before. Very measured.

McCain rarely looked at Obama, instead directing his attention to the moderator, Jim Lehrer. It made it look like McCain was ignoring Obama.

McCain repeated himself a few times. Whether this was due to him thinking he had to hammer in a point, or he forgot he'd already said it, who knows. I'm guessing an early sign of senility. Like twice he said he has not been awarded the Miss Congeniality title while in Washington.

All in all, I guess I'd call the debate a tie.

Tonight's Uncertain Debate

The only convention speech I listened to in its entirety was Sarah Palin's. In all the years that there have been Presidential Debates I have only missed one, that being a debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. I'd gone picking apples in Eastern Washington with my mom and dad and we didn't make it back to the west side of the mountains in time for the debate.

So, even with my ability to watch much TV in serious decline I'm almost certain I'll muster the energy and focus to watch the debate if it happens tonight.

I'm guessing John McCain will let this play out all day long til it's time for him to hop on a plane bound for Mississippi with him telling reporters that enough progress had been made today that he felt okay about wasting his precious time debating Barack Obama.

Speaking of Barack Obama, why has Rush Limbaugh taken to calling him Barry? I've heard no one else call him Barry.

UPDATE: As usual, my prediction about tonight's debate was wrong. McCain did not wait til the last minute to announce he'd show up. Instead he let it be known this morning that he'd be in Mississippi tonight and head back to Washington immediately after to continue to try and prevent the Financial Pearl Harbor from happening.

Yikes! Barack Obama Senior Moment

I'm an equal opportunity fairness doctrine gaffe sharer. At least John McCain has that senior citizen excuse going for him. I don't know what Barack Obama's excuse might be.

Obama and Clinton Unity

In a display of unity, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama met in Unity, New Hampshire today. Hillary urged her supporters to support Obama.

The former rivals spent hours together today. Their motorcades arrived at the same time at the airport in Washington. When they met up, they kissed each other, and then boarded a chartered plane. On the plane they sat next to each other, chatting all the way to New Hampshire, where they shared an hour long bus ride to Unity.

Hillary is in oodles of campaign debt, owing all sorts of money to all sorts of people. Everything from catereers to plane charterers.

Obama has offered to help Hillary pay down her debt. He has asked his big money supporters to send some money her way. At the same time Hillary is asking her money machine to give money to Obama. Obama even went so far as to write Hillary a personal check for $2,300.

Somehow this doesn't quite make sense to me.

On another note, regarding this newfound unity in Unity. Hillary and Barack color coordinated their outfits today. Hillary wore a light blue pant suit. Barack's tie matched the color of Hillary's pant suit. How did they manage that?

Obama's Baby Mama

Starting yesterday a brouhaha erupted over FOX News and Michelle Malkin's use of the phrase "Obama's Baby Mama." The Obama's took extreme umbrage to this.

Apparently it is current slang amongst youngsters to use the phrase "My Baby Daddy" to refer to the father of your baby, to whom you are not married.

I like the Obama's. But it seems a tad disingenuous to get all upset over someone using this phrase, because, well, Michelle Obama has used it herself.

Michelle introduced Barack to the crowd at his Senate victory celebration in November of 2004, saying something like, "I am proud to introduce the new Senator from the state of Illinois, my husband, my honey, my baby's daddy, Barack Obama!"

I guess it's offensive if you say "Baby Mama," but it's okay if you say "Baby Daddy?"

I've always had difficulty with proper etiquette.

Obama Smoking Again

This morning I was peacefully pedaling my bike on the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail, listening to Rush Limbaugh til my batteries wore out. But before that happened I learned that Barack Obama is back smoking again. Cigarettes.

Apparently people have been noticing him smelling of the nasty weed on the campaign trail. Today Obama told reporters in St. Louis that he's fallen off the wagon and smoked in the past months.

Obama had become a Nicorette chewer when he gave up the coffin nails after promising his wife he would do so if he ran for President. What with needing to set a good example, among other reasons.

Apparently, prior to quitting Obama had been a very heavy smoker. It is hard giving up an addiction. I'm addicted to coffee in the morning. I've tried to give it up. But then I get coffee withdrawals. So, I remain an addict. There is no Nicorette type thing for coffee addicts, as far as I know. Just de-caf.

Obama's Memorial Day Gaffe

We've had a very stormy day today in North Texas. Around noon I was walking in Veteran's Park in Arlington. It was hot, with very dark clouds moving south. And then suddenly extreme wind and a huge temperature drop. I went from hot to chilly in seconds.

While walking I was listening to Rush Limbaugh. No, I am not a right wing nut job. I find him very amusing. And my cheap radio headphones only get one station clear, that being WBAP out of Dallas. And Limbaugh happens to be on the air when I walk or ride my bike.

So, today this woman calls up yammering about Barack Obama seeing dead people. It took awhile for Rush to sort out what she was talking about. Seems at the start of a Memorial Day speech in Las Cruces, New Mexico Obama gaffed when he said--

"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong."

Obama's official website quickly removed the unfortunate verbiage.

There seems to be a sort of cottage industry tracking Obama's Gaffes. He's repeated several times that his uncle helped liberate Treblinka and Auschwitz. Trouble is, the Russians liberated both those death camps. American troops did not enter Poland, which is where those death camps were located.

Maybe his uncle told Barack this and Barack never thought to question the story. Just like he didn't question his assertion that over 10,000 had died in a tornado in a small Kansas town.

And there's what I thought was a gaffe during a debate with Hillary, which I never read anyone questioning. It was about the administration's poor planning in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barack claimed that the U.S. army was stretched so thin by the Iraq deployment, with not enough guns, that our soldiers in Afghanistan at one point had to use guns they'd taken from dead Taliban. When he said that it just seemed ridiculous to me. I really can't see those in command not making sure their men have good ol' American guns, let alone having them use Taliban guns.

Maybe it wasn't a gaffe. But I sure don't recollect reading about any incidents like this. And one would think one would.

Below you can hear Obama make his Memorial Day Sixth Sense Gaffe at the start of his speech.