Hamilton Jordan, Ted Kennedy, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars & Hillary

Once again this morning I was freshly reminded that I am old. I was surprised to learn Jimmy Carter's chief of staff and long time aide, Hamilton Jordan, was dead after a long battle against lymphoma and prostate cancer. He was 63.

When Hamilton Jordan was in the national spotlight he was a young guy, in his early 30s, which is how I still remembered him. The Carter years don't seem all that long ago. But they were.

And then we have Ted Kennedy's Saturday's hospitalization for a suspected stroke turn into him having the worst type of brain cancer, that being malignant glioma, with a very bleak prognosis and limited treatment options. Some are lamenting this being the latest case of the Kennedy curse. I think not. Teddy Kennedy has lived a long life. It is a sad thing though. I hope he bucks the odds.

Moving to the frivolous. Last night I managed to watch pretty much the entire hour of the American Idol semi-finale. I don't care who wins, either David, Archeletta or Cook. I don't think I can make it through the 2 hour finale tonight. I don't think I could make it through it even if I cared who won. Or if I thought it mattered.

Kristi Yamaguchi won Dancing with the Stars last night. I did not watch it, though I sort of like that show. I like watching people do something that I'm pretty sure I could not do, no matter how much training or practice I put in. But there was no way I was going to watch that show's inflated 2 hour finale.

Moving from the ridiculous to the semi-sublime. Hillary beat Obama badly in Kentucky. While Obama beat Hillary not so badly in Oregon. Obama is very near having enough delegates to win the nomination, needing about 77 more. Hillary vowed last night to continue til every possible voter, of the remaining few, has the chance to vote for her.

I wish Hillary as good a luck as she deserves. Same to Ted Kennedy. Lesser so to the 2 finalists on American Idol, I just don't care this year. Did I care other years? I don't remember.

Hillary in West Virginia Primary

I grow tired of so many Democrats saying it's time for Hillary to give up. Neither she nor Obama will likely have enough delegates to win the nomination by the time the final primary closes.

So, what is so wrong with having an old-fashioned convention where the choice is made at the actual convention?

When Ford had more delegates than Reagan heading into the, I think, 1976 Republican Convention, I don't recollect there being cries for Reagan to drop out for the good of the party.

It's only been in recent times that there's this notion that it's to be all wrapped up by the time of the convention. That may be one reason why the conventions have not been as interesting in recent times.

What if it takes a dozen votes before Obama is finally chosen? What would be so bad about that?

The News Goons and Talking Heads would have such a fun time tracking defections and speculating about deals being made.

It would seem the Democrats would come out of the thing stronger, not weaker.

But, I don't really care about that. I just want to see an old-fashioned convention like the good old days. No Chicago type riots though, that would be a bad thing.

Hell Freezes Over & the Democrats Debate

No. Hell Freezing Over is not a reference to last night's debate between Barack and Hillary. I'm referring to an amusing email Alma the Texas Songbird sent me yesterday. Apparently it's been all over the Internet, but I'd not seen it.

But, before I get to that I must say I thought Hillary came out on top in this debate. Barack seemed to stumble a bit regarding explaining his unfortunate choice of words describing many Pennsylvania voters as being bitter and finding refuge in religion, guns and other dubious interests. Barack also stumbled a bit explaining his choice of church and minister.

Hillary almost seemed honest when she addressed the coming under sniper fire in Bosnia issue again. She sort of admitted to being embarrassed at being caught in such a bald faced lie. She also made the point that she's better suited to go against John McCain because people have been rummaging through her baggage for decades while Barack is fresh meat for the Republicans to attack.

Enough of talking about last night's debate. Below is the amusing email from Alma the Texas Songbird about Hell Freezing Over.

HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

Texas Convention Chaos

Cowboy Barack Obama may have pulled ahead of Hillary in yesterday's District Conventions step in the convoluted Texas method of choosing delegates to the Democrat National Convention.

My 2 long time readers may remember earlier this month when the Texas Two-Step Primary/Caucus election ended in mayhem and chaos. In Texas, in an innovation called the Texas Two-Step, you get to vote twice, once in the Primary and then later that same day you get to go to a Caucus and vote again. Trouble was the Caucus step of the two-step was badly organized and overwhelmed by too many voters. Many, such as me, gave up and went home.

The same thing happened at Saturday's Statewide District Conventions. After hours of frustrations many of the delegates gave up and left the Conventions, which began in the morning, with some lasting well into the night. At District 10, in Fort Worth, thousands were stuck in Will Rogers Coliseum, trying to find food, having music blasted at them, listening to speakers drone on, waiting in lines to sign in and get credentials. More than half of those who showed up in the morning left before voting.

Similar problems occurred all across Texas. By morning it was believed that Barack Obama had won the most delegates with the AP reporting Obama with 59% to Hillary's 41%. Hillary won the Primary vote 51% to Obama's 47%, giving Hillary 65 delegates and Obama 61. There are 67 delegates to be split between Hillary and Obama from yesterday's Conventions. Obama likely will now be able to claim he won Texas.

But who really knows? Texas elections are really confusing.

Hillary and Harding

I grow tired of the ongoing calls for Hillary to concede to Obama and drop out of the race for the sake of party unity because, apparently, she can not win the nomination unless she wins all remaining primaries by huge margins and gets the votes of a majority of super delegates.

If Hillary stays in it is likely that neither she or Obama will have enough votes to win the nomination.

Now, to me, this would be a good thing, if only for the entertainment value. I'm not at all thinking of it as a good thing in the way Rush Limbaugh and his Operation Chaos does, in that this will tear apart the Democrats and give McCain the presidency.

In my lifetime I've never gotten to watch a brokered/deadlocked convention. There have been a few close ones, like the year of Reagan and Ford, but I've never seen a convention where the nomination did not occur on the first vote count.

In elections before I was born deadlocked conventions happened frequently. With very dubious results. That may have been part of what brought about the current way of trying to nominate a President, so that it is a done deal before the convention.

I'm pretty sure the last brokered, deadlocked convention was the Republican convention of 1920. General Leonard Wood and Governor Frank Lowden were deadlocked, neither with enough votes to win. Warren Harding had run in the race, but had only won the primary in his home state of Ohio.

The night of the deadlock a long meeting lasted til morning in a Chicago hotel. By the time dawn broke it was decided to swing support to Harding and give him the nomination, knocking off the Hillary and Obama of that era. This did not tear apart the Republican party.

Harding was brought to the hotel room and, before telling him the nomination was his, he was asked if he had any skeletons in his closet which might cause a problem. Harding answered "No". Neglecting to mention that he'd had little education, that he had a longstanding affair with the wife of one of his close friends and that he was a heavy boozer in the time of Prohibition.

Harding got the nomination and won the election and went on to being a very popular president who died in office before it was learned he led one of the most corrupt administrations in U.S. history, right up there on the corruption scale with Clinton and Nixon. Had he not died Harding would likely have been removed from office by impeachment or take the Nixon resignation route.

Like Clinton, Harding was also married to a domineering wife who ruled the roost and wore the pants in the family, but turned a blind eye to a lot of his shenanigans, like the drinking, gambling and womanizing.

Harding was the first Senator elected President. This year unless something goes seriously awry we will also be electing a Senator to the Presidency.

So, if Harding could come to the nomination from a deadlocked convention, without tearing apart the party, and then win the Presidency, I don't see why a brokered, deadlocked Democrat convention might not have the same result.

And be a highly entertaining spectacle to watch.

Alma and Obama

This morning I got email from one of the South's Best Songbirds, she being Alma Squillante, currently performing at various venues on the Texas Gulf Coast. Before I make mention of what Alma's email was about I must mention her MySpace page where you can listen to her sing and learn where you can go hear her in person.

My two long term readers may remember me making mention in a couple Bloggings, I think one was called The Soviet State of Texas, of how a person in Texas can get thrown in the Texas Gulag for something as minor as a 6 year old $20 bounced check. Alma would be the person I know who had that happen to her. She writes about it in her MySpace Blog.

Anyway, in this morning's email Alma pointed me to a website where all I had to do was answer 15 questions to learn who I should choose for president. My answers were then analyzed and then the presidential candidates were listed in order of what level of agreement I shared with them regarding the various issues raised in the 15 questions.

Apparently I made a mistake (I sort of already knew that) when I voted for Hillary in the Texas Primary. Apparently I am in more agreement with Barack Obama than I am Hillary. I'm pretty sure I can't change my vote.

Hillary's Brave Combat in Bosnia

Am I the only one shocked to learn that President Bill Clinton sent his wife and daughter and the comedian known as Sinbad into the Bosnian War Zone where Hillary and Company had to duck and dodge bullets from snipers?

What sort of man would send his wife and daughter into such a dangerous situation? Shocking. And where was the Secret Service during this?

Just a couple weeks ago I saw Hillary at the Fort Worth Stockyards with the Secret Service all over the place. She's not even First Lady anymore, but way back in 1996, when she was only half way through her First Lady Days, the Secret Service let the First Lady do a corkscrew defensive landing in a combat zone and then ordered her to duck and run for cover? Were they trying to get her killed? What was Bill thinking? Sending his wife on such a mission. Along with his only child. Shocking. Was this during the time period when Bill was pre-occupied with Monica, one can't help but wonder?

Strangely, in photos taken during this incident, such as the one you see above, Hillary took time from running for cover to greet a little Bosnian girl. Now, one might think that Hillary's maternal instincts might have kicked in, with her picking up the little girl and carrying her to safety from the incoming sniper fire. It must not have occurred to Hillary, at the time, how well such a rescue would have played for us folks back home. But, then again, you do have to sort of wonder what sort of mother would stop to talk to a stranger, even a little girl stranger, when her own daughter is standing right by her, with bullets incoming from who knows how many snipers from who knows how many directions.

Well, obviously Hillary is a very brave girl (Bill has been referring to Hillary as a girl in speeches the past couple days), who has the courage to face any danger, any obstacle. Be it combat fire or climbing mountains. Which is why it is so appropriate that Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who became internationally known years after Hillary was born. But somehow her mom and dad knew a man named Hillary was going to climb Mount Everest in 1953 and so they named their only daughter Hillary when she was born in 1947, 6 years prior to Sir Edmund making the Hillary name famous. Hillary has frequently said how proud she is to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary. Just like she is rightly proud to have dodged all those bullets in Bosnia.

The Clinton Pathology

I just finished Barbara Olson's "The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House." This book covers in great detail the final weeks the Clintons were in the White House.

Like, Details about Hillary's gift registry that went out to who knows how many people, soliciting gifts, like furniture and china, for the Clinton's 2 new homes. Hillary even solicited for, and got, an expensive cashmere sweater. All this begging at the same time Hillary had received a controversial $8 million book advance.

In addition to the loot the Clintons acquired via the begging route they also hauled off, in the words of permanent White House staff, anything that was not nailed down. Much of what was taken was put in warehouses in Little Rock. When the Clintons were told that much of what they took was government property and should have remained in the White House some of the loot was returned. But, there has never been an accounting of what was taken and what was returned. The Clintons also offered cash for some of what they took. But there has never been a record of that money being paid to anyone.

The biggest scandal in the Clintons final days were the dozens upon dozens of dubious pardons. Clinton wasn't pardoning people who'd somehow gotten a raw deal, like a kid thrown in jail for 10 years for being caught with a marijuana cigarette. No, Clinton pardoned serious criminals. He even pardoned a long sought after fugitive, Marc Rich. The Rich pardon caused the most outrage, first off due to the nature of his crimes and second off due to the fact that his ex-wife, Denise, paid the Clinton's well over a million bucks for their Presidental Library, huge donations to Hillary's senate campaign, huge donations to the DNC, and, of course, she bought Hillary some of the items that were on Hillary's gift registry.

Hillary's brother, Hugh, sold several pardons for $400,000. When Hillary found out she was horrified and insisted her brother return the money. It is not known if he did return the money, or if Hillary scolded Bill for facilitating her brother's pardon for hire scheme. Bill's brother, Roger, who got one of the last minute pardons, was so sure he could get his big brother to do some pardoning for him, pre-sold 7 or 8 pardons to fellow drug crime convicts who Roger had met in jail. Unfortunately for Roger, this turned into one of the rare occasions where Bill did the right thing, leaving Roger in hot water with the cons who'd given him money.

Clinton pardoned several drug kingpins who the DEA had worked years to convict and put away. Bill had no explanation as to why he would pardon drug kingpins. The pardons outraged leaders in South America who had cooperated with the U.S. in fighting the Drug Lords with the president of, I think it was Columbia, saying that if it had been he who had issued such a pardon on his last day in office, the United States would have been outraged and extremely critical and accusatory.

In the words of the Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt the Clinton Pardon Scandal "leaves a stain that is bigger than anything during impeachment which, despite the effort of Clinton haters, really was about awful personal behavior. I think the damage (to Clinton's legacy) is severe. I think it's lasting. It's on Bill Clinton's legacy. It's on Hillary Clinton."

Go to Wikipedia for a short article with more detail about the Clinton Pardon Scandal. Go to this Blog for a list of who was pardoned and what their crimes were. You'll see why Jimmy Carter called this scandalous and Al Gore said he was shocked.

Hillary and Whitewater Falls

I'd intended to Blog about Hillary today regarding some surprising details I read in a book I just finished, that being Barbara Olson's "The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House." Barbara Olson died on 9/11 in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

It is very strange reading all these books about the Clintons. Each of them cover the same ground, tell the same story, be it Dick Morris, Gail Sheehy or now, Barbara Olson.

Each seems to focus on some different aspect, with all sorts of detail I'd not learned before. I remember all the Clinton scandals during the White House years, be it Travelgate, Filegate, Vince Foster suicide, Monicagate and Pardongate. But the main media coverage of Clinton's deluge of dubious pardons during his last few days in office, well, I had no idea how scandalous this was, how much of it was tied to Hillary's run for the New York Senate and just how sordid it all was.

And somehow, as is the norm with Hillary and Bill, the Pardon Scandal did them no lasting damage.

Anyway, I'm in too good a mood to have fun detailing the Clinton Pardon Scandal right now. It's a beautiful day. I went on a good hike at Tandy Hills Park. It's starting to get green. Today I took a picture of the Tandy Hills Park Waterfall, which is what you see above.

Caucus Chaos

My experience at last night's Texas caucus was not an isolated one of a kind fluke. Even though the Caucus Chaos that I witnessed was not mentioned in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram similar scenarios played out at voting locations all over Texas to varying degrees of chaos, confusion, disorder, turmoil, discord, pandemonium and borderline anarchy.

At some polling places in Tarrant County (location of Fort Worth) the primary voting ran over an hour late, causing the caucusing to begin over an hour late.

In many locations, when the caucusing finally began, more chaos followed with no one knowing what to do and then, when the process finally got under way, running out of sign in sheets and ballots. As a Hillary supporter, Michelle Coomer put it, "I was so appalled at how it was run. It was a terrible mess. It was a fiasco. There was no organization."

Approximately 500 people were left out in the cold at Fort Worth's Southwest Subcourthouse waiting for the voting to end. Some people had been directed to the wrong voting place leaving them not enough time to get to the correct location.

Various locations reported people showing up to vote in the primary who had early voted, taking literally those campaign slogans telling them to vote twice. Other voters somehow thought they had to participate in the caucus or their primary vote would not count.

It is not yet known who won the caucuses. It is known Hillary won the primary. Like I said before, it is likely Obama will end up with more Texas delegates because it is likely he won the caucuses.

So far I've not heard any noises, beyond my own, regarding declaring the caucus results fraudulent due to all the problems and the large number of people who were unable to participate due to all the ineptitude.

Miserable Drip & Election Mayhem

Today's blog is a weather report. When you've got nothing else to say the weather becomes the conversation topic. North Texas weather can be such a trial, but the lead up to Spring is the worst. Or the funnest if you like rock and roll storms full of sound and fury and a chance of a tornado or grapefruit size hail. That was our entertainment here in the wee hours this morning. A lot of noisy rain and big booms with bright light effects. No tornado in my immediate zone though. I've yet to hear the tornado sirens go off this year.

The past few days had been in the 80s with one day almost breaking the record at 91. I'd spent one afternoon reading by the pool. I thought the cold misery was done for the year. But last night's storm from the south brought in fresh hell from the north and after the 2 fronts got done fighting the north won, just like it always does. So the temps have been falling all day. It's been dripping all day, a winter in the northwest type drippy winter day. And that dripping is predicted to turn into some form of ice as daylight leaves. It could be snow, hail or an ice storm. Of the 3 the one I truly dislike is an ice storm. I've had falling down issues during an ice storm.

I forgot to mention, my current dreary view of the world is what I'm looking at right now in the photo above. Looking out the window to the right of my computer desk.

Earlier today I braved the cold when it was still in the 40s and returned that Gail Sheehy book about Hillary called Hillary's Choice. I checked out a couple new books and asked the librarian if the library was tomorrow's caucus place for this precinct. She did not know. So much for libraries being a good source of information.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about tomorrow's voting. I do know that the library is my voting location tomorrow, that is Step One in the Texas Two Step. Step Two starts when the polls close, Step Two being the caucus. The location of which I do not know.

That wonder of useless information, that I may have complained about before, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had an article this morning which was ostensibly about all the confusion over tomorrow, but somehow did not answer the key question, as in where are the damn caucuses? Instead they had a cutesy dumb Myth and Fact list that was particularly insipid. Like "Myth: Voting twice means voting early and then voting again during the day Tuesday." Or "Myth: Voting twice means I can vote in both the Democratic and Republican primaries." Or "Myth: I can vote Tuesday without having registered."

Apparently this Texas Two Step method has been in play for 20 years but this is the first election where people are actually interested. I'm thinking Texas will get rid of this, well, idiotic, method by the next election cycle because by the end of tomorrow night it likely will be nationally controversial because no one will be able to understand how it was Hillary won the Texas popular vote while Obama won the most delegates. That's my prediction and I'm sticking to it.

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TEXAS TWO STEP UPDATE: Upon consulting an election expert I have learned the Texas caucuses take place at wherever your polling place is. The Star-Telegram actually said this, but I, dense reader that I am, was not able to parse their verbiage and accurately extract its meaning. I also think when I read that the caucus starts when the voting ends that they couldn't possibly mean in the same location. But how would one get quickly from the voting location to the caucus location, I wondered? It never crossing my mind that they could be one and the same.

So, tomorrow we have a set up here in Texas for one gigantic Cluster Muckup. Early voting has already broken all records. Tomorrow's turnout, despite the cold weather, is expected to break all records. So, how in the world are they going to clear out the voting equipment and set up a caucus meeting in the small meeting room that acts as the polling place in the library I visited earlier today?

I was going to just vote in the primary and ignore the caucus and stay home and watch American Idol. But now I'm thinking I can try and figure out my VCR and watch American Idol later. This should be at least as entertaining a mess as Saturday's security incompetence at Hillary's Stockyards rally.

Secret Service Lapses?

Yesterday's bizarre experience with the lackadaisical security at Hillary's Fort Worth Stockyards rally continues to perplex me. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning reported that it was the Secret Service which ordered the security checks to stop about 3 minutes into Hillary's speech.

That is not how I remember it. Hillary had been on the stage basking in the cheering for several minutes before she started to speak. It seemed to me that it was more like 10 minutes into the speech that the flood-like rush of people running towards her caught my eye.

If you look at the above photo you can see the 3 electronic screeners which were used to try and screen thousands of people. Why go to all this bother of slowly checking relatively few people and then suddenly have no security checks? It makes no sense.

Rather than attempt to take care of security like they do at an airport why not instead randomly check people in the line? Security was so lax, like I told you yesterday, I was able to avoid the line very easily.

Had the security people gone up and down the line, randomly checking people, any bad guy would likely have bolted. A random check would have been much better than what they did do, that being stopping thousands from even getting into the event, many bailing due to the ultra-slow moving line, then suddenly letting those who remained rush in with no security check.

If one of those people in that mass of humanity that rushed in after the Secret Service stopped the security checks had a gun and managed to get a shot off at Hillary it is not too hard to figure out that someone would be in big trouble for the ceasing of the security checks.

Seems to me there is a serious problem in this security situation that is in need of a quick solution. Obviously airport type screening does not work with huge crowds. And ceasing all checking seems absurd, going from one extreme to another.

My Date With Hillary

Seeing Hillary today at the Fort Worth Stockyards did not go the way I thought it would. I got to the location about 11am to see a long long long line snaking way out the east end of the Stockyards. The free parking zone was blocked off. Parking over by the world's biggest honky tonk, Billy Bob's, cost 5 bucks. I drove to a nearby park and parked for free.

I'd decided I had no interest in waiting in a line, but I knew of a couple alternative ways to get in the cordoned off zone. My first attempt was via the route along Marine Creek where a trail goes through a tunnel and comes out inside the Stockyards. But a couple cops yelled that we couldn't go that way. The cops directed us to that long line I'd already decided I was not going to wait in.

But I joined the crowd walking towards the line. Except I split off to go to another backway in, that being over the actual Stockyard pens. There is a boardwalk above the actual Stockyards. And the gate to it was open! I was surprised. When I exited, at the end of the boardwalk, I was inside the secondary security zone. A pair of cops told us to stick to the side of the road because the Fort Worth Herd was on the move.

A short distance later I was where that long line ended, extending the entire length of the Stockyards main drag. I'd managed to, accidentally, cut to the front of the line. And upon my arrival that line had been told to get off the street to let the Herd through. I did not realize what had happened and so I got in the line on the right, not realizing I was about 10 people from going through the airport like security thing, which of course I set off and had to get hand wanded. Right before I got wanded I got asked for some type of paper. I said I didn't have it. The guy said that's okay. I was sure the paper question meant the gig was up.

So, I got through the security check barely keeping my baggy pants from falling due to the removing of my belt.

There was plenty of room in the grandstands, so I got a good seat with a good view of the stage. And a good view of that long long line of people slowing going through security.

I got my video camera out and learned the battery was dead. Then I got my digital camera out and found I'd forgotten to put in the memory card. I was not happy. And then I remembered my cell phone can take pics and then I saw the battery on the phone was about dead. A few minutes went by and I remembered I had a second memory card, the original that came with the camera. It can only hold 18 pics, but that's better than none.

The pre-rally atmosphere reminded me of a high school pep rally. A lot of yelling and sign waving. Speaking of signs, while waiting to get through security, ahead of me was this cute little old lady. She had a hand made sign. This Hillary campaign person told the cute little old lady that they did not allow hand made signs! Can you imagine telling that to a cute little old lady who had gone to the bother of making the sign and coming to the rally? I was appalled. And even more so when I saw a lot of handmade signs once I got to my seat and looked around.

A mariachi band in native garb sang to us while we waited, songs like The Eyes of Texas are Upon You. A funny lady got up on the stage and did some sort of rapping chant. I saw her later when I was at Esperanzas for a chili relleno and told her she was very amusing.

As I waited for Hillary I kept being appalled at how ineptly slow the security check was, as in only a few people were getting in per minute. I'm sure a lot of people just gave up. What happened later regarding security rose to an entire new level of being appalling. You'll have to keep reading to find out what was appalling.

After what seemed an hour or so of waiting, suddenly attention diverted behind me. I turned to see that Hillary's motorcade had arrived. It was very interesting how the dynamic of the crowd changed when they could tell we were being able to see something. Shouts of is she here? And some of us would turn around and nod yes. Hillary slowly made her way along a construction fence.

A short intro by Henry Cisneros and then Hillary climbed on the stage and basked in the adoring screams of her fans. It was loud. I was amazed at how good-looking Hillary is in person. Those debate TV lights do not do her justice. And her speech was really good. No notes. And funny at times. She came across, to me, way different than she had before, as in she didn't seem at all cold or wooden. Or shrill. She looked so young. I can't believe she is 60. And it isn't like I didn't get a good look. And she was in pointy high heels. I thought that was brave, I mean those are not even walking surfaces in the Stockyards, and they had her walking through a construction zone.

And now back to the security. So, they put all these people through that long line hell, many of them giving up, slowly letting people into the sealed off zone, one by one. This went on for hours before Hillary arrived.

Just a week or so prior there was a controversy in Dallas when they stopped the security checks for an Obama rally because they needed to get the people in the building.

So, Hillary was part way into her speech. And then suddenly the security checks stopped and they let the people flood in. Now, if the logic was that no evil doer could get close to the stage at that point, well, they were wrong. I saw many people get quite close during the surge.

So, what was the point of doing the security checks, if, at some point after the person being protected is actually there, you lift the security? Now, if you wanted to do a bad deed would you not, I dunno, wait til they stop doing security checks and then proceed in with your homemade nuclear device?

It was like going from one extreme to another, going from airport like security checking to no security checking.

There were policemen on roofs, helicopters in the air, dozens upon dozens of Fort Worth Police. And the Secret Service was quite noticeable. It would seem that a secure situation could be attained without using the extreme measure of electronic screening. That is too slow in this type situation. It doesn't even work all that well in airports where you have a lot of security check throughs. Here at the Stockyards they had 3 electronic walk through screeners. For an estimated 10,000 people. Any of you who have suffered an airport intuitively know how brain dead doing this was. And wanding a jewelry laden old lady. Can't some common sense be used? How many old lady assassins have there been? Their numbers are few. I really can't think of a single one.

Hillary did have a fainter today! I thought only Obama had the fainters. All in all, a fun day.

Hillary on a Longhorn?

I'm outta here and heading to the Fort Worth Stockyards this morning. Miss Hillary is in Cowtown and down at the Stockyards sometime around noon. I'm hoping to get video of the Fort Worth Herd and Hillary. The herd will be on the move despite Hillary's event. I hope Hillary gets on one of the Longhorns for a photo op. For a slight fee a faux cowboy will let you sit on his cow. The cowboys used to not make it clear money was expected after the cow was mounted and photos taken. This practice caused an incident with a New Jersey tourist who refused to hand over any money. The cowboy then chased the tourist and penned him against a wall with his Longhorn. When it was realized this was not exactly good publicity for the Stockyards new rules were put in place regarding the fees charged for sitting on a Longhorn. I hope if Hillary gets on a Longhorn that she pays up, even though her campaign has run out of money. It would not be a good thing, publicity-wise, for Hillary to get chased by a mad cowboy and penned up against a wall by his Longhorn.

To Blog

Or not to Blog. The novelty begins to wear thin. I thought this blog thing might be a fun venue to spew my particular brand of unique perspective. But when you have only one person reading your particular brand of unique perspective it starts to seem just a tad self indulgent. That and sort of a sad waste of time. Sure, it is fun to make fun of that sad excuse for a local paper that I continue to buy, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And even that is a sad indicator of the sad state of my mind, as in today there was yet one more ripe to make fun of thing in that paper and I just could not muster the energy to say a word about it. And now, these few hours later, I've already forgotten what it was that somehow provoked my umbrage instinct.

It doesn't help the sad state of my deteriorated imagination that we are again suffering from balmy, open the windows, temperatures here in Texas. It makes me want to take a nap. If only I could. I've not been able to take a nap in decades. I'm so jealous of those who can. Or those who can sleep on an airplane. How can they manage that? I have trouble sleeping even at the normal go to bed time of the night, sleeping on an airplane is not even remotely possible. I know this one overweight lazy Goober who takes a minimum of 2 naps a day. He has a morning nap and an afternoon nap. And if the day has been especially tiring he adds a 3 nap in the early evening. This sad fool gets up around 5am so that he can manage to get something constructive done and have plenty of time to nap.

It is coming up on 7pm here in the Central Time Zone of the United States. That means I am about 2 hours from my minimum bedtime. Not that I sleep then. I just go to bed and read. I'm still trying to get through Gail Sheehy's book about Hillary called Hillary's Choice. It's exhausting. I don't know how that woman continues to put up with Bill.

Barack's Wardrobe Malfunction

With the tone getting a bit nasty, tonight's Democrat Primary Debate in Cleveland should be interesting. Nasty may be minimizing. Ugly is likely a better description. I don't quite know what to make of Hillary's Team giving the Drudge Report a photo of Obama wearing native garb. When he was in Africa. Of course, the Hillary side denies giving Drudge the photo and is saying the same thing many others are saying, as in what was this supposed to prove? And a Hillary spokesperson said that Hillary has often donned native garb when in a foreign land.

It's another photo that has been around awhile, that seems much more scandalous to me, living as we do in the post Janice Jackson nipplegate wardrobe malfunction Super Bowl scandal era that brought about the end of civilization as we had known it.

The photo I am referring to is a photo of Barack Obama carousing on a beach. Topless. Totally without upper body garb. In our current era of equal rights between men and women why is it okay for a man to bare his breasts for all the world to see, but if a women does this for just a fraction of a second all hell breaks loose?

But, did this shocking photo end Barack's political aspirations? No, not in the least. But what if it had been Hillary who the paparazzi had shot topless, carousing on a beach? (what a shudder provoking thought) I think it's pretty obvious that such behavior would have ended Hillary's political career.

So, how is that fair? It's okay for Barack Obama to splash about, for all to see, virtually naked, but if Hillary did the same she'd be pilloried? And how is the photo of Barack in native garb controversial, where one of him mostly naked raises nary an eyebrow? In the native garb photo Barack is pretty much covered from head to toe, very little flesh exposed. And he is showing sensitivity to the culture he was visiting.

What twisted mind would make a big deal out of that African garb photo? Likely not the same twisted mind that would make a big deal out of Barack's topless photos. And on a totally unrelated note he looks to be in pretty good shape for a guy who smokes. But he should keep his shirt on.

Hillary in Dowtown Fort Worth

Downtown Fort Worth's Tarrant County Courthouse had about 2000 people standing in front of it yesterday about 11am, waiting for Hillary to show up. There were people chanting things like "Hill Yes!" and "Vote for Mama, not Obama". Others waved signs saying things like "I'm Counting on Clinton" and "Hillary, I will Faint for You" and "Bill for First Lady".

Hillary had been at a rally in Dallas where about 1000 people showed up and shivered in the early morning cold.

On the drive from Dallas to Fort Worth a Dallas motorcycle cop, Victor Lozada-Tirado, one month into his motorcycle cop career and assigned yesterday to Hillary's motorcade, crashed against a curb and died. (Lulu please have your first husband read this, maybe it will be the wakeup call he so desperately needs, which may bring him out of his mid-life-Harley-riding-at breakneck-speeds crisis)

So, when Hillary showed up for the Fort Worth rally she told the crowd what had happened and that it wouldn't feel right to hold the rally, that she was cutting it short so she could return to Dallas to express her condolences to the family of the fallen cop. Hillary promised to return to Fort Worth before the March 4 Texas Primary.

After the news the crowd quickly dispersed, leaving downtown Fort Worth in its usual less populated state that you see in the above photo. That is the Tarrant County Court House you see in the photo, looking north up Main Street.

I think the last time I saw a Presidential candidate campaigning was Jimmy Carter in an airplane hangar at Boeing Field in Seattle. That would have been the year he lost to Reagan. That was kind of cool with Air Force One pulling up and the President getting out of the plane. No, just remembered, Jimmy was not the last one I've seen, years after that I went down to UPS in Tacoma, where my baby sister was going to school, to see another loser, Michael Dukakis. I honestly don't remember if we saw him or not. This was not a memorable guy. He seems to have disappeared. Last I heard he was delivering packages for UPS. It seems like the fieldhouse/basketall arena venue was full and so we waited outside with all the others who had been denied entrance. During the 1976 election I saw another losing candidate, Gerald Ford. That was a cool one. The rally was held at a waterfront park in downtown Seattle and Ford came in by hovercraft.

The latest poll in Texas has Hillary and Obama virtually tied. Early voting here is breaking records. In Texas we have what we call the Texas Two Step. You vote once in the primary and then go vote again in a caucus. I've no idea how this works in the assigning delegates part of it.

Fort Worth Native UFO, Eclipsed, Hillary, Missile

The moon puts on a show tonight. And the U.S. military might be putting on an extra-terrestrial show as well. The moon will be eclipsed for all of North America to see tonight. If you have clear skies. In the Central Time Zone the eclipse will start about 8:43pm and end at 9 minutes past midnight on Thursday. The moon should look very red.

Unrelated to the moon, there is a Navy ship out at sea that is going to try and shoot down an out of control satellite that is loaded with a ton of very toxic liquid that could survive if allowed to crash to earth. So, one of the Star Wars missiles is hoping to slam into the satellite at a very high speed. This missile was designed to shoot down ICBMs traveling at a slower speed than the satelite. The Navy has 3 missiles that have been re-programmed to make this hit.

Speaking of taking a hit. Hillary has now lost 10 states in a row. There are 2 upcoming debates prior to the Texas primary on March 4. I read today that Hillary's advisors are arguing about what to do, whether to go into aggressive attack mode or not. I think she should try the Tears Strategy again, only this time get in some real good sobbing and produce at least one really big tear running down at least one of her cheeks.

I got a real good photo of the Fort Worth UFO yesterday. With the beautiful skyline of downtown Fort Worth in the background. This view is looking west down the I-30 freeway. The photo makes it appear that the UFO is taller than the tallest Fort Worth skyscraper. I believe this is an illusion.

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On another note, yesterday I mentioned my petty little issue regarding particular peculiar verbiage I read over and over again in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Today there were some fresh examples. I decided it might be fun to chronicle these. I wish I'd kept every instance of the "Green with Envy" verbiage when I first made note of it. Several years went by before I started keeping a collection. You may remember that yesterday we all learned that the reason the Star-Telegram repeats over and over again if a person has some remote connection to Fort Worth is because this gives the reader a local connection to the story. No matter how tenuous. So, in today's Star-Telegram, once more regarding American Idol, we learn that tonight among the 12 women singing that "Kristy Lee Cook lists Oregon as home but used to sing at Cowboys Arlington; Kady Malloy is from Houston."

Houston does not seem all that local to me, but what do I know? And then in another section, this, "Fort Worth native and CBS newsman Bob Schieffer...", in a blurb about Fort Worth native Bob Schieffer quitting news to play in a band. I have never seen Fort Worth native Bob Schieffer mentioned in the Star-Telegram without "Fort Worth native" preceding the name. Well, that's not totally accurate, later in the same article the last name may be repeated without the first name or the "Fort Worth native" modifier.

Disenfranchised in Texas

I've been trying for months to get my voter's registration changed so that I can vote at my new address. At the last election I went down to my local polling place and I was not allowed to vote. On the actual election day you have to vote at the place you are registered. For me that was/is way north of my current location. Previous to the last botched election I'd done early voting. With early voting you can vote anywhere that there is an early voting poll place.

I've had a long history of trouble dealing with various Texas bureaucracies ever since my exile here way back in 1999. First thing I encountered was they insist on seeing your social security card to do just about anything. Now, up in Washington we'd always been told to keep this a secret, even before the problem with identify theft came into being. So, I had to get a social security card. This involved finding my birth certificate which involved asking my mom if she had any proof that I'd been born. She had none so I had to contact my place of birth in Oregon to generate a birth certificate so I could get a social security card so I could get a Texas driver's license and register to vote.

So, after many months of trying to go through all the hoops I finally was able to apply for a Texas driver's license. The DMV, or whatever they call it here, was a zoo. The computers that you took the written test on were so dilapidated that you could not make out colors. With the test asking you some questions based on colors. But, despite all the obstacles I managed to pass both the written and the driving test.

A couple weeks went by. My new Texas license finally arrived. On a Friday. I was planning to drive up to Washington for Christmas, leaving the next day. So, I was glad to finally have my Texas license. Til I looked at it more closely. As you can see by looking closely at the photo of my license, above, there is a rather glaring mistake.

So, yes, I headed north using a Texas driver's license that said I was a Female. Because of having this I did get one odd benefit. My sister let me attend her all girl Christmas party. But I had to be the greeter and show the girls my I.D. to establish my bonafides as being one of their gender.

When I got back to Texas I went down to the DMV, or whatever they call it here, waited in line, again, showed the lady my new license, asked her if she saw anything wrong. She said ooops. And then she checked the record. She had me lean forward and she whispered to me, "the records out of Austin say you are also African-American. You aren't are you?" I told her as far as I knew I was not either African-American or female, but how can anyone be absolutely 100% certain about such things?

So, now I guess I am in Texas Voter's Limbo. I'm fairly certain I can still do the early voting thing. Unless that has somehow gotten mucked up by me trying to change my polling place. I don't know why they don't have the permanent absentee ballot method that Washington and other states use. That would make it all so much simpler.

Now, if I do get to vote in the March 4 primary, who should I vote for? Barack or Hillary?

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?