After Final Debate Spencer Jack's Thumb Points Donald Trump Down Hillary Clinton Up

Spencer Jack has been intensely following the presidential election process for well over a year now.

Spencer Jack began the election undecided as to who he would vote for, if he could.

Last summer Spencer Jack attended a Donald Trump rally at the fairgrounds in Lynden, a  few miles south of the Canadian border.

Last week Spencer Jack attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Seattle, which is a few miles further south of the Canadian border.

By the time Spencer Jack met Hillary he had figured out something was not quite right with Donald Trump. Even so, as you can see above, Spencer Jack watched the final presidential debate whilst wearing the MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN cap he got at the Lynden Trump rally.

As you can see, the debate was making Spencer Jack feel a bit nauseated.

Spencer was shocked at Trump's claim that Hillary wanted to rip a baby from a mom when it was time to be born. Spencer Jack's dad then had to try and explain that Donald Trump was talking total idiotic nonsense.

By the end of the final debate Spencer Jack visually indicated who he thought won.

Trump spewed a lot of inarticulate nonsense during the course of the debate. At one point Trump caused giggling when he claimed, yet again, that no one has more respect for women than Trump. Later in the debate the respecter of women said of Hillary, "Such a nasty woman."

This morning I came across someone who went to the bother of transcribing Trump's answer to the Chris Wallace question about Aleppo. Reading the mixed up gibberish is just as confusing and stupid sounding as hearing it come out  of Trump's mouth.

In its entirety, Trump's answer to the Aleppo question...

Well, Aleppo is a disaster. It's a humanitarian nightmare. But it has fallen from any standpoint. I mean, what do you need, a signed document? Take a look at Aleppo. It is so sad when you see what's happened. And a lot of this is because of Hillary Clinton. Because what has happened is by fighting Assad, who turned out to be a lot tougher than she thought, and now she is going to say, “Oh, he loves Assad.” He's just much tougher and much smarter than her and Obama. And everyone thought he was gone two years ago, three years ago. He aligned with Russia. He now also aligned with Iran, who we made very powerful. We gave them $150 billion back. We give them $1.7 billion in cash. I mean cash, bundles of cash as big as this stage. We gave them $1.7 billion.

Now they have aligned, he has aligned with Russia and with Iran. They don't want ISIS. But they have other things because we're backing, we're backing rebels. We don't know who the rebels are. We're giving them lots of money, lots of everything. We don't know who the rebels are. And when and if, and it's not going to happen because you have Russia and you have Iran now. But if they ever did overthrow Assad, you might end up as bad as Assad is, and he is a bad guy.

But you may very well end up with worse than Assad. If she did nothing, we'd be in much better shape. And this is what has caused the great migration where she has taken in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who probably in many cases, not probably, who are definitely in many cases ISIS-aligned. And we now have them in our country and wait until you see this is going to be the great Trojan horse.

And wait until you see what happens in the coming years. Lots of luck, Hillary. Thanks a lot for doing a great job.

_________________________

How many bits of disinformation did Trump spew during the debate that scared children and child-like adults?

On bit of disinformation was Trump's Aleppo answer claim that thousands of bad ISIS-aligned Syrians are in America, constituting a Syrian Trojan Horse. This and the scary abortion rhetoric were among multiple other bits of alarmist, paranoid nonsense frightening children whose parents made the mistake of letting them listen to Trump's vile verbiage.

Verbiage frightening children and those aforementioned child-like adults.

Anyway, I hope Spencer Jack was eventually able to get to sleep last night and his nightmares of being chased by a creepy orange monster with a haystack on his head weren't too upsetting...

Washington Wind Storm Reports From Linda & Jason Including Hillary & Batman

Yesterday afternoon, with yesterday being Friday, Little Miss Linda called me from my old home zone of Mount Vernon in the Windy State of Washington.

When I saw an incoming call from Little Miss Linda I figured she was calling to tell me about the Big Blow blowing in from the Pacific.

I figured correctly.

Yesterday's high wind and rain was a prelude to what is expected to happen today.

Forecasters have been comparing the potential of this current storm with the infamous Columbus Day Storm of 1962. That storm was one of the most powerful measured since the days of measuring storms began.

Anemometers, the wind speed detectors, were wiped out in northwestern Oregon and southwest Washington, the location of the strongest wind.

Wiped out before the wind reached maximum velocity.

While I was talking to Little Miss Linda the incoming call indicator indicated an incoming call from Little Miss Linda's neighbor, two blocks distant, with that neighbor being Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

I assumed Jason was also calling to tell me about the storm. I am technically challenged, phone-wise, so I don't know how to switch from one call to another without losing both. I figured Jason would leave a Voice Mail. But he didn't.

But, later in the day I received an email from Jason with the above photo and the only text telling me "Sent from my iPhone".

Via the photo I could tell Jason was in Seattle. I could tell this because through the wind and rain I could see the marquee of the Paramount Theater behind him. I knew Jason was planning to attend the Hillary Clinton Rally in Seattle. I am assuming this took place in the Paramount.

Above is a screen cap gleaned from the Seattle Times of Hillary's Seattle Rally. I do not see either Spencer Jack or Jason in the picture.

Even though Hillary was in the midst of a potentially historically powerful storm I hope she took some comfort in being in extremely friendly territory, a territory with way fewer Deplorables than my current location.

However, I do know some of the muy estupido ilk in Western Washington who are voting for the Orange Menace. I am embarrassed for them and have no understanding how we could have attended the same schools.

Then again, I do remember all those Washingtom Trumpettes, who I know, as being, well, not top tier students, maybe not even middle tier.

D Students for Donald.

That should be a slogan.

Another screen cap from the Seattle Times.

I do not know where in Puget Sound the above wave is crashing. The caption underneath the photo says "Spray flies over Beach Drive Southwest and douses storm watchers Friday". I do not know where Beach Drive Southwest is.

And then the below, seen yesterday via Skagit Breaking News, on Facebook. I thought this was mildly amusing.

Actually, Robin is asking Batman a perfectly sensible question. Umbrellas are of use in a normal Washington rain. However, to speak Washingtonian Robin should have asked if he should bring a Bumbershoot.

What Batman should have said to Robin, rather than abusing Robin with a slap, would be to tell Robin that Bumbershoots are of no use in hurricane level winds, Unless one is hoping to be able to hold on and be airborne....

Looking Northwest At A Flat Hill Thinking About Seeing Trump & Hillary With A Chile Relleno & Cancer

This last Wednesday of 2016's version of February, from my perch about twenty feet above ground level, looking northwest over the Woodhaven Hills, feeling pensive.

I don't remember how I verbalized it, but in some form my New Years Resolution for 2016 was to end my exile in Texas and return to the Pacific Northwest.

Looking at the Woodhaven Hills is a good representative of the lack of scenic scenery at my current location on the planet. To call the slight rises to the west of my location "hills" seems to be some sort of insult to all the actual hills that elevate other locations on the planet.

Two months in to 2016 and I have made zero progress towards actualizing my New Years Resolution.

The other thing that has me feeling morose is all the people I know who are at various stages of battling cancer. One just started the fight, one is at the terminal end of the fight, two are in the middle of the fight.

I learned this morning via esteemed Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist and connoisseur of good food, Bud Kennedy, that Donald Trump will be holding one of his Nuremberg Rally type events around noon on Friday at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I am thinking that this might be amusing to attend.

It is hard to believe it was so long ago, but around this time, eight years ago, I went to the Fort Worth Stockyards for My Date With Hillary. I successfully got past the gauntlet of security, due to security not realizing the old stockyard pens, and the boardwalk above them, gave direct access to the front of the line of the thousands waiting the see Mrs. Clinton.

That was a memorable day. I think that was the last time I had myself a chile relleno at Esperanza's. I will miss chile rellenos at Esperanza's when I move back to Washington. But, apparently not too much, if it has been eight years since I have enjoyed that delicacy.....

The 2034 Fort Worth World's Fair Trinity River Vision Product Nightmare

Last night I had a nightmare, a cinematic nightmare, a possibly prophetic cinematic nightmare.

The nightmare began back in the late 1950s in Seattle, where a pair of Seattle businessmen were discussing the idea of bringing a World's Fair to Seattle. One of the pair drew a tower on a napkin, suggesting this be the centerpiece of Seattle's World's Fair. A couple years later, on April 21, 1962, Seattle's Century 21 World Fair opened.

A few years later people in Spokane got the idea they wanted to have a World's Fair. Soon thereafter Expo '74 opened. Less than a decade later Vancouver decided to have a World's Fair. A few years later Expo 86 opened.

All three of these Pacific Northwest World's Fairs were much bigger projects than Fort Worth's relatively puny Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project, with the Pacific Northwest's projects coming to fruition in just a few years, while Fort Worth's Boondoggle has been boondoggling for well over a decade, currently with three simple bridges under construction, slated to take four years to build, as in longer to build than it took Seattle to build the Space Needle and the World's Fair the needle hovered over.

My nightmare became a bit muddled when the plot got to Fort Worth and its ineptly executed public works project known as The Boondoggle Product.

When my nightmare got to the present moment is when the nightmare really started getting scary.

Fast forward four years from 2014.

In my prophetic nightmare vision of the future, those Three Bridge Over Nothing do get completed, in four years. And then sit there, with no ditch being dug under them, with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle stalled, due to lack of funding.

By the time the Three Bridges Over Nothing are finished, in 2018, we are in year two of the Hillary Clinton presidency.

Kay Granger is unable to get her baby boy any pork barrel earmarks for the TRVB ditch or any other aspect of The Boondoggle, no un-needed flood diversion channel, no imaginary island, no promenade, no parks, no more beer parties.

Nothing.

The mess just sits there as an embarrassing monument to corrupt hubris.

The years pass, those Three Bridges Over Nothing become an iconic international symbol of a Boondoggle  run amok.

And then the nightmare turns into a horror movie.

In the presidential election of 2024, Kay Granger is elected president, shocking much of America even more than when George W. Bush somehow became president after getting a couple million fewer votes than Al Gore.

In my nightmare, Kay Granger, already the oldest, and worst,  president in American history, then wins re-election in 2028.

As the nightmare continues it is as if America has sunk to being like the era of the bad Roman emperors, with Empress Kay basically fiddling while America burns in frustration over what a low voter turnout has wrought.

After year after year of promising to finally secure federal money, President Granger is somehow able to  get the  Republican majority in both houses to pour dollars in to Fort Worth to her then semi-retired son, J.D.'s, long stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Product, from which he continued to draw a hefty salary, during all the decades the project sat stalled.

Stalled, except for the continuing Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the increasingly polluted Trinity River.

With it having been years since J.D.'s dream of building an imaginary island died, J.D., in 2029, has a brainstorm of the sort that brought about rockin' the polluted river, drive-in movie theaters, the world's premiere wakeboard facility, breweries, ice rinks and more, all of which had long ceased operating, except for those aforementioned Rockin' the River Inner Tube events.

J.D. Granger decides it would be a great idea to use that money his mama, the president, is sending him, to bring about something much bigger than the long dead Trinity River Vision, J.D. decides that if other towns could bring about a World's Fair in just a few short years, well, so could Fort Worth, despite no historical record of anything but boondoggles being the result when it comes to Fort Worth trying to do anything BIG, in any sort of timely fashion.

And so, in my nightmare, the proposed 2034 Fort Worth World's Fair became yet one more Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Product.

Likely destined to fail.

However, we must admit to being impressed with the propaganda slogan J.D., or someone came up with in my nightmare, a 21st century adjustment to Fort Worth's "Where The West Begins" claim, changed to "Where The Best Begins".

After over 30 years one would think J.D. Granger would have figured out that making bogus claims based on nonsense was not a good idea, but apparently not, hence "Where The Best Begins", with zero awareness of the irony.....

Clinton & Palin In 2012

Expert prognostiator that I am, always with an opinion, seldom correct, I am now going to make my prediction as to the outcome of the upcoming Presidential election. And the election of 2012.

I believe, come election day in November, the Obama-Biden ticket is going to lose to McCain-Palin.

McCain, being an old man, is only going to serve one term. The McCain presidency will be fairly popular with the people, much more so than the disgraced Bush presidency.

Sarah Palin will win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Hillary Clinton will win the Democrat presidential nomination in 2012.

Hillary Clinton will beat Sarah Palin, to finally win the presidency, in the election of 2012. Making Hillary the first woman to be elected president.

One week before Hillary's inauguration John McCain will resign as President.

Making Sarah Palin, for one week, the first woman President of the United States.

Thus robbing Hillary of being the first female President, but still basking in the glory of being the first woman to be elected President of the United States.

Bill will take a cue from Sarah Palin's husband Todd and suggest that he be referred to as the First Dude.

Soon after they move into the White House, again, Hillary will announce she no longer needs the First Dude and is divorcing him.

Hillary's popularity ratings soar.

I forgot to mention, Hillary will pick Barack Obama as her Vice-President in 2012.

I doubt Hillary will re-marry.

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?

Gennifer Flowers & Paula Jones

That's a pair of names that belong in the last century. Unfortunately they resurfaced this morning. The pair of Bill Clinton's ex's have teamed up in a business venture.

They are offering Internet users graphic details of their Bill Clinton encounters for a mere $1.99 per viewing of one of their videos describing their rollicking times with Hillary's first hub.

Speaking of Hillary. Yesterday I came upon some YouTubery about Hillary. It is so easy to forget the many Clinton scandals. This YouTube video is about that long ago scandal regarding Hillary and Hollywood and a massive fundraiser whilst she was still First Lady and running for Senator from New York.

The video is in 2 parts. You have to get a couple minutes in for it to get interesting. It starts off sort of goofy. This video sort of relates to the most recent Clinton dust-up, that being a week or so ago when Bill got all huffy over an article in Vanity Fair.

Puerto Rico Primary

I know a Puerto Rican. She moved from the island to the states over 20 years ago. She talks to her mom, back on the island, at least once a day. That is every single day for more than 20 years.

The Puerto Rican pays attention to beauty pageants. Miss Puerto Rico won Miss Universe awhile back. This caused much celebration on the island and a late night extra call to the mom on the island.

Puerto Rico is now all atwitter due to the first time ever being the focus of the American presidential race, with visits by all the Clintons, including Chelsea, and by Obama. The Clintons have spent more time on the island than Obama. Apparently Puerto Ricans like Hillary more than Barack.

That is certainly true of my local Puerto Rican. She gets down right nasty talking about Obama. Apparently Puerto Rican's are born with really bad tempers. Or so I've been told. My local Rican can get worked up almost over just about anything. One time she was screaming about something Arnold, the California governor, said along the lines of "Puerto Rican's are hot-blooded, violent people who are quick to anger." I said, "You are hot-blooded, violent people who are quick to anger."

"That may be true, but he shouldn't have said it," she said in anger mode without any sense of the irony.

My local Puerto Rican is very politically opinionated. But she has never voted. The United States came to possess Puerto Rico upon winning the Spanish-American War. We also took over Cuba and the Philippines. Cuba got its independence in 1902, the Philippines got theirs after WWII. But Puerto Rico remains a U.S. possession with a sort of Commonwealth arrangement. Puerto Ricans pay no federal taxes, yet get social security and food stamps.

In 1974 the Democratic National Committee decided it was a good idea to hold democrat presidential primaries on the island. But Puerto Ricans can not vote in the November election. With 63 voting delegates they will send more delegates to Denver than half the states. The reason the Democrats decided to let Puerto Ricans vote in a primary was to curry favor with the Puerto Ricans who were living in the states.

I don't know how this was supposed to work. The Puerto Rican's I've met are pretty independent thinking. Like my local Rican is the only person I know who likes George W. and she says she'd vote for Hillary or John McCain, but not for Barack.

People who talk about who they'd vote for and then don't vote somehow annoy me.

Hillary & the RFK Assassination

A brouhaha erupted on Friday over some unfortunate Hillary words. Campaigning in South Dakota Hillary was meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader when she was questioned about why she was staying in the race.

Hillary: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know, I just, I don't understand it," she said in regards to abandoning the race.

Well, I sort of understand the reason for the brouhaha, what with raising the spectre of Barack Obama possibly being assassinated and thus, with her still in the race, I guess that would mean she would get the nomination by default. Or so her thinking goes.

I'd figured that Hillary was gonna keep plugging away gambling on the hope that gaffe prone Obama would commit a Super Gaffe between now and August, something that the supportive media would not be able to ignore, unlike when Obama said multiple times, with no sense of the obvious wrongness, that over 10,000 people had died in a tornado that struck a small Kansas town. Or recently when Obama let it be known he did not know how many states were in America when he said he'd been to all 57 states during his campaign. Does he think some of the Canadian provinces are states? Has anyone asked him.

Now, with Hillary's, to me, minor gaffe, this was not the first time she said the RFK thing. Back in March, in an interview in TIME magazine, she said pretty much the exact same thing. No brouhaha erupted that time though. Why? I can't help but wonder.

Hillary Clinton Physically Assaults Barack Obama

Yesterday I checked in on Fort Worth's best blogger and found myself amused by a YouTube video in which Hillary battles Barack with a light saber in a futile effort to get him to come over to the Dark Side. The Force continues to be with Barack, though, with a lot of support, including Abraham Lincoln.

Hillary's My Girl

I'm tired, worn out and starting to grow tired of this blog thing. Like what is the point? And then I got an email from my #1 Blog Fan a few minutes ago. I've not heard from my other Blog Fan. But #1 asked why I'd not Blogged today, particularly after last night's debate in Austin.

Well, like I've already said, I'm tired, worn out and starting to grow weary of this blog thing. But, you know, one really should not disappoint ones fans, even if there are only two.

Yesterday, while listening to Rush Limbaugh on WBAP Dallas on my cheapie radio headphones while hiking in Tandy Hills Park , Rush annoyed me to the point that I decided I'd blog about that today. But then that sick and tired thing kicked in and I really didn't care. Though I was slightly aroused to slightly caring this morning when reading a column by George Will saying pretty much the same thing nonsense that Rush was spewing.

I've decided there actually is a vast right wing conspiracy. Mrs. Clinton was ahead of her time on that one. It now seems to be a talking point amongst the right wingers that it wears on their last nerve hearing Hillary tout her 35 years of working on children and women's issues. The boom boom boom of the anti-Hillary drumbeat pops way too loud making the bogus claim that she supposedly has never done anything on her own.

Just forget about her working as a lawyer for years, all the way back to working for the Watergate Committee, the woman has traversed the country doing good things, well before Bill. Like, she made it all the way to Alaska where she got a job gutting salmon that lasted one day, with Hillary fired and the plant shut down overnight due to Hillary bitching so effectively regarding the unhealthy conditions. When she says she has been out there working hard to help people for 35 years it turns out to be true. I mean, how many of you have made it to Alaska and caused a salmon factory to shut down? I worked in the salmon industry for less than a week in Alaska in my early 20s. I too was appalled. But unlike Hillary I just scurried home without shutting down a single thing.

Read the Wikipedia article about Hillary, and you will learn she has been doing some significant things that have helped kids and women for decades. Read Gail Sheehy's 'Hillary's Choice' book and you'll read in detail not only all the things Hillary not only worked on, but worked hard on, including rescuing her husband from his foibles on many an occasion. Read how she battled and won against Reagan when the Republicans tried to ruin the Legal Services Corporation she'd help turn into a success.

What that woman did to bring Bill back to life after he was booted out of the Arkansas governor's mansion is amazing. I mean, she was relentless. Bill was in hiding, would not meet the press for months, got increasingly erratic, wandering the aisles of Wal-Mart asking random people what he'd done wrong. While Bill spent his time whining and despondent Hillary relentlessly fixed all that had gone wrong that had turned the Arkansas people off. Including letting it be known she would now be known as Mrs. Bill Clinton, she got contacts (eyeglass replacements, not people contacts), went clothes shopping, had her hair styled and colored for the first time, and, egads, started using makeup, including lipstick for the first time in her life. Bill was re-elected governor. And this time Hillary ruled the mansion with an iron fist. The problems of his first administration were not allowed to re-occur.

Which brings me to last night's debate in Austin. I listened to Hillary with a new respect. I actually liked her. I am putting off doing my early Texas voting til the 29th, lest I change my mind again. But currently I am going to vote for Hillary.

Sadly, this is bad news for Hillary. The person I vote for never wins. Now, Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Will, I know you are reading this, devote readers of my Blog that you are, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. Now, go do some research on Mrs. Clinton. And then apologize you rude men.

The Tragi-Comic Presidency of George W. Bush

My very very best email source of good stuff is Alma the Night Club Singer, currently performing down in Corpus Christi, Texas. Alma was appalled by Hillary's campaign's circus that played out in Nueces County. That is where Corpus Christi is. Alma felt it exploited poor Mexicans for a cheap photo op. Apparently Obama is next, and Alma holds no great liking for Obama either. She's more excited that Justin Timberlake is in the Corpus zone filming a movie. Alma is both a woman and of Mexican-American descent, so she has highly qualified bonafides when passing judgement on either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama.

So, from Alma, "The tragicomic presidency of George W. Bush, in his own words..... "

50. "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." -at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

49. "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." -Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

47. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." --Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

46. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004

45. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." --at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

44. "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." --interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006

43. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th." --Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007

42. "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." --as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War

41. "F*ck Saddam. We're taking him out." --to three U.S. senators in March 2002, one year before the Iraq invasion, as quoted by Time magazine

40. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." --discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson in 2003, as quoted by Robertson

39. "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." --talking to key Republicans about Iraq, as quoted by Bob Woodward

38. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." --presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

37. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." --Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

36. "Do you have blacks, too?" --to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001

35. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." --as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

34. "My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." --radio address, Feb. 24, 2001

33. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." --on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

32. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." --Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

31. "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake." --on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006

30. "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

29. "Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled." --explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005
28. "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." --Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001

27. "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base." --at the 2000 Al Smith dinner

26. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

25. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right." --Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

24. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

23. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

22. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it...I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet...I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." --after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

21. "You forgot Poland." --to Sen. John Kerry during the first presidential debate, after Kerry failed to mention Poland's contributions to the Iraq war coalition, Miami, Fla., Sept. 30, 2004

20. "We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter) --touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

19. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." --State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

18. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

17. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." --Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

16. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it." --after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

15. "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." --Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

14. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." --to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

13. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

12. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories ... And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." --Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

11. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" --joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

10. "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000

9. "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." --on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

8. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." --Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

7. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense." --Washington, D.C. April 18, 2006

6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

5. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

4. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

3. "You work three jobs? ... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." --to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

2. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

1. "My answer is bring them on." --on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

Hillary, Dick, Gail & Bill

Last month I read Dick Morris's rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's Living History. The Morris book is called Rewriting History. Basically he goes through Hillary's book bit by bit setting the record straight. Hillary does leave out some significant pieces of her history which Mr. Morris seemingly gleefully details. Things like all the Hillary scandals, everything from Travelgate to how she bungled the Paula Jones problem. And how she hauled off a fortune in gifts just prior to being booted from the White House. Hillary returned some of the loot and paid for some of what she kept.

So when reading the Morris book about Hillary he frequently refers to Gail Sheehy's Hillary's Choice book. So, now I'm reading that one. I'm about 100 pages in. Miss Sheehy so far is causing me to like Hillary more than Mr. Morris did. She is painting quite an interesting picture of Hillary's formative years. The taskmaster dad, the constant drive to be the best she could be, the Republican upbringing that the early 60s and a meeting with Martin Luther King slowly started Hillary on her evolution to becoming a liberal democrat. Her first boyfriend. No, it wasn't Bill.

And speaking of Bill, I had no idea he was such a chunky little butterball when he was a kid.

And The Oscar Goes To...

Last night's Super Tuesday Debate on CNN was pretty much the most, well, theatrical debate I've yet seen. First off there was the setting. In Los Angeles' Kodak Theater, where the Academy Awards take place. There seemed to be almost an Academy Awards number of celebs in the audience, from Pierce Brosnan to Quentin Tarantino to Leonardo DiCaprio to Christina Applegate.

Up on the stage Hillary and Barack didn't look quite like they were ready to accept an Oscar but both did seem to put in a real good performance.

At the start CNN's Wolf Blitzer told the audience that this would be a no-holds, anything goes debate, just like the previous Democrat debate that he hosted. So there was a lot of cheering and clapping and laughing.

I'd say Hillary got the biggest candidate laugh and applause of the night, even if overall her acting was not quite up to Barack's polished delivery. Hillary's big reaction of the night came in response to a question posted to co-sponsor Politico.com from a 38 year old woman who said it bothered her that at 38 years old she's only had the chance to vote for either a Bush or a Clinton since casting her first presidential ballot at age 18. The questioner wondered how a Clinton could promote change after decades of a Clinton or Bush in power.

Hillary responded that she understood the questioner's concern, "However, it did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush".

It sounded funnier when she delivered the line and I likely didn't get the quote 100% accurate due to my memory having serious lapses at times. But she made the line work with her Academy Award level performance of the night.

The biggest eruption of applause of the debate came when Wolf Blitzer asked, "Are we looking at the dream Democrat ticket on the stage right now?"

When the debate ended Hillary and Barack engaged in a rather warm embrace and lengthy whispering in each other's ear. Their mics did not pick up what was being said. My limited lip reading seemed to indicate Barack was asking Hillary out for coffee, with Hillary replying she'd prefer to go to McDonald's because she was starving. I think they'd agreed to meet at the McDonald's at Hollywood and Vine in an hour.

And then the pair worked the stage signing autographs for their fans, just like one would expect from major stars after a big night in the Academy Awards building where almost a year ago Hillary's first husband's Vice President, Al Gore, actually did win an Oscar. Not for acting though. He'd make a really bad actor. Too stiff.

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I forgot to mention, regarding last night's debate. I did find a couple Hillary things a tad jarring. One is she over and over uses verbiage regarding her plans that sounds odd to me, as in she'll say "I'm offering", or "my plan offers", or "I'd like to offer". It makes her sound like Santa Claus giving out gifts. It'd be much better if she'd say "My plan provides" type verbiage. I don't believe I remember hearing a candidate making offers like this before. It sounds very used car salesmanish.

And then there was this quote from last night regarding giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses in which Hillary said, "I do not think that it is either appropriate to give a driver's license to someone who is here undocumented, putting them, frankly, at risk, because that is clear evidence that they are not here legally."

Huh? I thought as I heard that last night and again when I read the quote in the morning paper. She used the word "either" but there is no "or" in the sentence. It's either appropriate or what? And how does giving them a license put them at risk? At risk for being caught here illegally?

Another Hillary "offer" that perplexes me is she offers over and over again her plan for a 90 moratorium on home foreclosures. Followed by a 5 year interest rate freeze. First off, if she does become president it won't be for another year. If the foreclosure problem is still bad by then I don't know how much good her 90 day offer is going to do. And, while I'm not an economist, though I did take an economics class or two in college. Hated it. But regarding freezing interest rates. Is that something the government can mandate lenders to do? Isn't the government only able to control the Federal Reserve rate?

The State of Hillary's Union

Time flies way too fast. Seems like only yesterday millions of Americans were shocked we had a new president who won with a couple million votes less than the popular vote winner. And now tonight we get to watch the last State of the Union address of Bush II.

Speaking of ruling dynasties. Each day seems to bring more bad news for Hillary. Over the weekend Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama. Saying all her life people had told her how they'd been inspired by her father, but til now she'd never felt inspired by a presidential candidate. (go here to go to Dallas 40 years after Caroline's dad's assassination)

And then, as if that was not bad enough news for Hillary, over the weekend her first husband Bill got a rather heated call from Caroline's Uncle Teddy. Apparently Uncle Ted objected to Bill's ever more strident attacks and misrepresentations.

Ted told the Clintons he was going to also endorse Obama. This means America's top 2 Democrat family dynasties, the Clintons and the Kennedys, are now at odds with one another and Hillary has lost another key piece of support.

It sort of seems things have begun to spin out of control for Hillary. It was also in the news this morning that meetings were held with Hillary advisers this weekend in which it was decided they needed to reign Bill in, that he was doing more harm than good.

Mitt Romney had an amusing line at the last Republican debate, something along the lines of "Do we really want Bill Clinton back in the White House, with no job and too much time on his hands?"

I hope Mr. Bush doesn't come up with anything scary tonight. No 2008 version of "Axis of Evil". No new threats of imaginary weapons. Maybe he'll just tell is about his retirement plans, part of which became known this weekend with the news that he plans to buy a house in Dallas. That can't be good for property values in whatever neighborhood he lands in. I hope it isn't mine.

Hillary Hillary Hillary

Remember when Bill Clinton began to be taken seriously in his first run for president? Remember how the press kept finding things in his past to hound him about? Things like how he managed to not get drafted during the Viet Nam War. Things like the degree to which he inhaled marijuana. Things like extra-marital affairs. Now, except for the extra-marital affairs, most of what Clinton was being hounded about had happened, or hadn't happened, a long time prior to the hounding.

Now, one might wonder what might be lingering in Hillary's past that will be trotted out to cause her embarrassment. I think we can rule out extra-marital affairs. That just seems unlikely.

But, Hillary does have some rather interesting history. Little of which she admits to in her auto-biography, "Living History". Like her involvement with the Black Panthers and her work with a communist lawyer. Now, hitting someone with the antiquated 'commie' smear really likely won't fly these days. But then again, it would seem Hillary has some explaining to do about some things she left out of "Living History".

For instance, Hillary attended Yale Law School in 1969, which was a large area of activity on behalf of the violently racist Black Panther organization. In "Living History" Hillary writes,

"The world and its realities came crashing down on Yale in April 1970, when eight Black Panthers, including party leader Bobby Seale, were put on trial for murder in New Haven. Thousands of angry protesters, convinced the Panthers had been set up by the FBI and white government prosecutors, swarmed into the city. Protests broke out in and around campus. The campus was bracing for a huge May Day rally to support the Panthers when I learned, late on the night of April 27, that the International Law Library, which was in the basement of the law school, was on fire. Horrified, I rushed to join a bucket brigade of faculty, staff and students to put out the fire and to rescue books damaged by flames and water."

According to the records Hillary did quite a bit more than lift water in a bucket brigade. Both Hillary and Bill Lann Lee, (who later became President Clinton's head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division), helped organize the pro-Panther demonstrations at Yale. Hillary also served on the Board of Editors for the Yale Review of Law and Social Action, a socialist alternative to the school's traditional review. Its fall 1970 issue was devoted to the trial and glorifying the Black Panthers.

During the summer of 1971, Hillary moved to the west coast to become a law clerk at the Oakland firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Bernstein. The public record shows that Clinton worked for Robert Treuhaft, a member of the Communist Party USA and Harvard-trained lawyer for the party.

Citing public sources, Peter Flaherty's book, "The First Lady" says that "Hillary was recommended to Treuhaft by some of her professors at Yale. She was looking for a 'movement' law firm to work at for the summer. As it turns out, Hillary would continue her association and support of the Black Panther cause while working as a law clerk for Treuhaft." Flaherty also states that Treuhaft told Herb Caen of the San Francisco Examiner, "That was the time we were representing the Black Panthers, and she worked on that case." Mrs. Clinton's involvement with Treuhaft is a known occurrence.

Hillary continues to do her best to deny this, even though a New York Times obituary of Treuhaft (who died in 2001), said that he had "accepted a young Yale lawyer named Hillary Rodham (now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton) as an intern." A British newspaper, the London Times, said that "generations of liberal lawyers were groomed under his [Treuhaft's] tutelage, including a young Yale law student named Hillary Rodham." The Harvard Law Bulletin said about Treuhaft, "He belonged to and served as attorney to the Communist Party of the United States for many years and defended the civil rights of groups such as the Black Panther Party, Vietnam War draft resisters, and members of Berkeley's free speech movement."

The way things seem to be going for Hillary, what with her big loss to Obama in yesterday's South Carolina primary, somehow losing a huge lead, according to last month's polls, but ending up yesterday with half the number of votes as the winner. So, maybe Hillary's time is coming to an end. Maybe. But if Hillary does well on Super Tuesday I think we can expect those debating her to fling some of her past in her face. It would seem only fair, since it was she who started the fight in last Monday's debate when she made the bizarre accusation that Obama was somehow a Reaganite due to a perfectly innocent remark he made.

I am Woman Hear Me Roar

After a long cold tiring day, I decided to succumb once again to my cathode ray addiction and sit down for some TV viewing, intending to watch my favorite nonsensical show, Prison Break, and then catch the last half the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary Debate.

But, before I get to the debate, and what a debate it was, I must mention Prison Break. For the most part the show is filmed here in the D/FW zone of Texas. Currently most of the show takes place in a prison in Panama. I discovered after going for Tex-Mex for lunch at Esperanza's in the Stockyards that a part of Fort Worth's history was being used as a prison. I was surprised I had not read mention of this in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram because that paper never misses a chance to brag about anything remotely brag-worthy. Like if at any point in their life a person somehow touched Fort Worth or its environs that newspaper will say something like "Fort Worth Native, Bill Paxton", or like yesterday the Seattle band Foo Fighters was in town. One of the band members lived in Fort Worth for a short time when he was a toddler. The article labeled the guy (I can't remember his name) a Fort Worth native. They actually interviewed him and asked what he remembered of Fort Worth. "Nothing" was his reply.

So, it was surprising to me that the Star-Telegram did not have a big article talking about Fort Worth becoming a mecca for major Hollywood productions, with cities far and wide Green with Envy. Ironically, the one and only reference to the Stockyard Ruins being used as a TV set was a little blurb that said something like "The Fox TV Show, Prison Break, is using an abandoned Dallas area meat processing plant as a prison." Now if you knew how obsessed many Fort Worthers are over Dallas, referring to something taking place in Fort Worth as being in the "Dallas area" is pretty much a misdemeanor here, maybe a felony.

I remember reading the reference to the show using a Dallas area abandoned meat processing plant and wondering where it was. So, I was quite surprised to be driving in the Stockyards zone, driving by the old Swift-Armor meat plant that I call the Stockyard Ruins and seeing a guard tower where none existed before. And then it dawned on me what it might be. I Parked and made my way to a viewing point through a gate and was looking right at the Sona Prison in Panama, complete with palm trees that died in our first freeze here of the year.

Speaking of dying in a big freeze, back to last night's debate. So, I was watching Prison Break, came to the first commercial, switched over to CNN to see if the debate was being interesting. I never went back to Prison Break. I got to the debate right when Hillary and Barack started their now infamous verbal battle. I believe this was the wildest debate I've ever seen and I pretty much watch them all. Usually the crowd is told to be quiet, not to applaud, not to boo, warned that violators of this policy might be removed.

Well, last night apparently there was no such warning, that, or the moderator, Wolf Blitzer, realized that what started as a debate had turned into a World Federation of Wrestling Match and crowd participation only helped with the spectacle. So we had loud cheering, clapping, booing, hissing. And a lot of laughing.

There has been sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps for a couple weeks now. Last night was the first time the pair directly shot barbs at each other, rather than through their surrogates, like Mr. Bill. The best zingers where when Barack accused Hillary of being a lackey for Wal-Mart to which Hillary accused Barack of working for Chicago slumlords.

All in all, I think John Edwards won this debate. Obama seemed a bit shell-shocked, like he was being hen-pecked. Hillary once more seemed to be the toughest of the three. And not in a good way.

This morning I finished Dick Morris's book "Because He Could" where he pretty much shreds Bill and Hillary. One part of the book details the Clinton's epic fights that many witnessed over the years. Another part pretty much made a real good case that it was Hillary who caused the worst of the Clinton scandals, the worse being refusing to let Bill settle the Paula Jones case out of court, which then led to Bill committing perjury, which then led to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Hillary was completely the cause of Travelgate, as well, despite the Clinton denials. Anyway, it is a good book. I recommend it.

Update: I liked the Morris book I finished this morning so much that this afternoon I got his latest book, the one where he counters Hillary's "Living History" book. His is called "Rewriting History". So far I'm only a few pages in and there's some good stuff. Like a section of Hillary's more bizarre bouts of getting caught in really weird lies. Like when she claimed to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary, he being the recently deceased first climber of Mount Everest. Trouble is Sir Edmund became a known name well after Hillary Clinton was born. And then there was the incident where Hillary made up a bizarre story on the Today Show, telling Katie Couric that Chelsea had been jogging around the Twin Towers when they were struck on 9/11. Trouble is Chelsea said later that she was miles away on the other side of Manhattan watching the nightmare unfold on TV, just like most of us experienced it.

Stephenville UFO

I was peacefully minding my own business sipping on some salubrious Tension Tamer tea, watching the remaining 3 Democrats debate in Las Vegas when my peace was rudely shattered by my cell phone's annoying ring. I then had to hunt down the phone and saw it was Lulu. All day long I had been plagued by incoming calls with the caller not I.D'd, saying only "private number". These calls came in about once an hour. I don't answer calls when I don't know who is on the other end. The 8th time this happened the caller left a voice mail. It was Lulu. I called her back. She'd somehow messed up her cell phone settings again.

Anyway, so Lulu called disrupting the undivided attention I had been paying to what had been a somewhat entertaining debate. Hillary was acting sort of macho tonight, while John Edwards almost had a teary moment to two. Barack Obama is very articulate.

Oh, back to the Lulu call. Her first husband had told her that UFOs were invading the Texas town of Stephenville. Lulu wanted to know if I was close to there and if I'd seen any UFOs. This was the first I'd heard of the UFO invasion. I told Lulu I would keep an eye on the sky. And then I tried to once more concentrate on the debate. But I couldn't. Those trivial issues those candidates were yammering about paled in comparison to the UFO invasion spectre Lulu had raised.

So, off went the TV and to the Internet I went, Googling "Stephenville UFO". And what to my surprised eyes did appear but link after link about the Stephenville UFOs. Stephenville is down in the Dinosaur Valley/Creationism Museum area. UFOs don't seem much of a stretch.

I'd put some links to the articles in this post but that's a lot of bother and you can just Google it for yourself. It's my bedtime.