OK, first off, “bimbo” doesn’t have to be a sexist term. There are male bimbos as well as female bimbo. Bimbodom knows no gender (at least in this context). When Sarah Palin firm burst onto the national scene (you know, the day before she was nominated to be the Republican candidate for Vice President), the right-wing bloviators immediately piled onto the allegedly “liberal media” (that would be what? The Washington Post and The New York Times?) for supposedly piling on to poor Sarah. I mean, really, the nerve of journalists to actually try to report on someone that no one knows anything about, who’s running for the second highest office in the land. Continue reading →

As I write this, they’re dancing in Grant Park in Chicago. Barack Obama has just been declared the winner of the Presidential election. But the real winner is the United States of America. Looking at the faces in the crowd, you see the face of America, every conceivable range of ages, races, ethnicities, orientations, styles of dress — you name it. The other thing you see if joy; pure, unrelieved joy. Cheers and smiles and dancing in the park, the same park where in 1968, it was mostly young students being beaten senseless by mostly-white policemen. Times have changed in deed. And, I am reminded, this is in marked contrast to the television screens filled with undisguised hatred that we saw at the Republican convention. I’m sure you will not be hearing Democrats saying that all Republicans should leave the country, as we frequently have heard from some (though certainly not all) Republicans.

Hope is a strange thing, fragile like the peace in Iraq; easily destroyed. Still, it’s a welcome feeling among the uncertainty of our times. Perhaps it really is possible to remain optimistic in the face of enormous problems. This will be one of the challenges facing President Obama. And I hope that the old John McCain finds his way back:  the decent, thoughtful man who isn’t afraid to stand up for noble causes. We are, after all, going to need all the good minds, and John McCain has been among those before, and I hope will be in the future.

During this campaign, the country seems to have turned many corners. The idea of a woman, or a person of color running for President will never be an issue again (though some of the Muslim faith probably still has a problem). The use of personal smears and invoking God to get elected is probably (hopefully) dead and buried.

But right now, let’s take a moment to enjoy the great fortune of the country and remember the words of John Adams:  united we stand. And tomorrow we can start working on the problems. I’m usually the cynic, but tonight, hey — ain’t it great to be an American?

In the last desperate gasp as the wave prepares to sweep over his campaign, John McCain has been running around the so-called battleground states claiming, “Barack Obama wants to spread the wealth; I want to create wealth.”

Has anyone else noticed that word wealth in there. Yeah, the operative term is spread the wealth. This is a concept quite different from “taking your money and giving it to someone else (meaning, you know, people who are worse off than you). That is, unless you happen to be Bill Gates or Mike Bloomberg or Ted Kennedy or, um…. Barack and Michelle Obama. Yep, Barack is proposing to tax himself and spread some of his wealth around. He realizes that part of the reason that his family has done so well is the support, infrastructure, etc. provided by tax dollars. He thinks that now that he’s doing so well, it wouldn’t hurt him to pay just a teeny bit more in taxes.

McCain, of course, is espousing policies to create wealth, though mostly for those who have, say, seven houses, and perhaps those who are already making multi-million dollar salaries. I don’t know about you, but if my income should suddenly jump over $250,000 (unlikely), I’ll gladly pay that extra 2% or 3% of the amount over $250,000.

And all this bullshit — and that’s what it is — about “raising taxes taking away the incentive to make money” is just that. True, there are some economic idiots who think that way. But what rational person would say, “Gee, if I expand my business and my income goes up another $100,000 this year, I’ll only get to keep $78,000, instead of the $81,000 I would keep now. No thanks — please don’t let me have that $78,000, because I don’t want to pay  few more bucks in taxes.” Similarly, capital gains taxes are taxes on profits. You only pay them when you make money — lots of it. You still keep most of it. You’re way ahead.

Barack Obama may want to spread some of the wealth around. McCain, proving his knowledge of economics is pretty weak, just keeps spreading the bullshit instead. This time, at least, it seems not to be working.