Obama Stood UP!

Yesterday morning dawned gray and cold. Weather far too raw for what should ostensibly be spring. Hunkered down in my office in layers of clothes, door mostly shut to let the space heater do its optimal job, blinds closed to avoid the wind-whipped trees. Precision point concentration on Power Points.

I had a 2:30 conference call, and about 10 minutes before that, I decided to take a break and check the news for the first time since about 6 in the morning. Drudge had it, and then MSNBC, the text being blogged out live as it happened. I looked to the blinds to my left and realized that the sun was somehow magically shining bright. Like it should. Obama was divorcing Wright at that very minute.
I read the words, and later watched the speech. Often with Obama, the words themselves carry power. Perfect articulations of nuanced thought. This was not that, not at all. He was so very angry that he spoke quietly, haltingly, the specific words in this case secondary to the emotion.
While some will doubtless contend that this was political posturing, and too little, too late, I think not.

We all know people who have divorced after 20 years -- after having built together a life of children, property, shared decisions and memories. They say “I don’t know what happened to that person I married.” The pain is palpable.

Divorced or not, each of us knows what it is to be terribly, irrevocably angered, hurt, disappointed and sometimes even blindsided, by someone we love. If you don’t know this feeling, just wait, it will happen. Often it is actually revocable, but not always. The pain is unbearable.
Obama stood up and said enough is enough.

And in other news:

• 
  Governor Easley of North Carolina, in endorsing Hillary Clinton, said she was so tough she “made Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.” Both gay organizations (who called and complained) and flowers, take offense. But the fun part here is if you can find the video somewhere, check out Hillary’s face as he says it. Priceless…..
• Albert Hofmann died yesterday at the age of 102. You may not know the name, but if you lived through the 60’s, you know his product line.
• From the Correspondent’s Dinner last Saturday night: Dick Cheyney is starting to pack up the Vice Presidents’ residence. “You have no idea,” he said, “how long it takes to dismantle a dungeon.”
• John and Hillary want a summer cut of the gas tax. This is an idiot idea. First, the gas tax is a USE tax. Use taxes are good. In this case, the tax pays for rebuilding roads, and construction workers lose work and jobs with no gas taxes, roads degenerate further, it’s another hit to a struggling economy. Further, it doesn’t make an appreciable difference. Assume you have a 20 gallon tank, and gas is $4.00/gallon. Therefore, a fill-up costs you $80. And yes, that sucks. Cutting the gas tax to zero saves you $3.64 off the $80. P-A-N-D-E-R, P-A-N-D-E-R, P-A-N-D-E-R. And on top of everything else, we need to use less oil, not find encouragement to use more. But to continue the math -- if you REALLY want to save money, do this instead. Car 1 -- 20 mpg, $4/gallon, and you’ll need to spend $80 to go 400 miles. Trade that car in for one that gets 35 mpg, and it will cost you $45.71 to go the same 400 miles. THAT is a significant difference.
  
• McCain is out with a “new” health care plan. He’s talking about putting power “back in the hands of family”. This is as good as his gas tax deal. Under the plan, insurance companies make money, pharmaceutical companies make money, employers no longer need to offer health insurance, and you are screwed. http://mccainsource.com/mccain_fact_check?id=0006
  
• Hillary challenged Obama to a “Lincoln-Douglas-style” debate. On Olbermann last night, they had the photo Fox News used: if any of you have an in over there at Fox, please tell them NOT Frederick Douglas, STEPHEN Douglas. And personally, I think Obama should agree to two REAL Lincoln-Douglas debates. So each could go first. The actual format was that the first person spoke for an hour, the second person spoke for an hour and a half, and the first person had a half hour at the end to follow up. And oh, NO interruptions while the other was speaking. Real different from the Hillary idea of getting up on flat-bed trucks and yelling at one another.
  West Virginia is using the California plan to disenfranchise Independent voters. I don’t know anyone in West Virginia, but if you do, please let them know there’s a problem with the ballots. If you need more specific information, please let me know.

Final note: I inadvertently got something wrong yesterday when I wrote that no one on this list knew what it was to be hungry, unless they were in Europe during WW2. One of the list readers is Bulgarian, and lived there under Communist rule. He has lived through coupons and rationing, and will hopefully be sending me something to post so we can all understand what it’s like. He gently chided me under the “you Americans” catch-all, and he was right. He knows what it is to be a hungry child. Apologies, you DO know.

Pick One

Today's topic is honour. Or lack thereof.

But before we get there -- thanks to all of you who called and wrote with your blood types....

And -- tomorrow is the next stage of the Iowa caucuses -- DCW says that John Edwards may do better than expected.

So now, on to honour, and our first contestant is John McCain.

McCain released his tax returns last week, but I didn't have time to read them. Well, now I've found the time. First, as everyone probably knows, John and Cindy file separately. Therefore, we don't know anything about the $100 MILLION Cindy is sitting on. I can let that pass. No, I can't: she claimed she kept her numbers quiet "to protect her children's privacy." And then it turns out that the largest part of their joint charitable contributions went to the private schools the McCain children attend.

We're going to skip the stolen recipes Cindy McCain posted as her own on the McCain campaign website (actually courtesy of the Food Network) and move on to John McCain's Disability Pension. I did not make this up.

John received $58,358 from the Navy as a disability pension for injuries sustained in the Vietnam War. This money is 100% tax free because of the 'severity' of the injuries. Data from the McCain Senate staff, reported here.

Now, if he is truly disabled, he deserves the pension. But if he is truly disabled, how does he claim to be in excellent health? In general, one gets a disability pension NOT as an honorarium, but because one is unfit to undertake their job. GOVERNMENT pensions are for people who cannot do ANY job. At least, that's how it works for the SSA pensions. I recently read the rules, and you lose the pension if you can go back to work. There might be something different about military pensions -- but I guess my follow-up question would be: How come John McCain gets one which is triple what SSA pays, and while 25% of the Iraq War vets are homeless? 60 grand is a lot of money when you remember that median income in America is in the 40's depending on whose count you believe -- although they are all in the $40's.

Does anyone else think McCain should pick one? Either -- "My wife is worth $100 million dollars, and I make decent money as a Senator, and therefore I'll return my Social Security pension, and my Navy disability pay, since I don't need it." (You know, like dollar-a-year men, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jon Corzine). Or perhaps: "I'm qualified to be Commander in Chief because I'm in great shape, and therefore, I don't need a disability pension."

I could overlook it all if McCain was not opposed to increasing the GI Bill for current vets, and in favour of waterboarding. (Yes, I have the source: look at his vote list from the current Congress).

Our second contestant is Hillary Clinton.

Today, in North Carolina, the State GOP is going to start running Jesse Helms-style TV ads. (If you don't know who Jesse Helms was, look at the pictures in the dictionary next to the word "racist"). Source: North Carolina state GOP http://www.ncgop.org/home/index.asp (It's the story called "Extreme").

They are running the ad for downticket pull -- and they have a long history of ugliness like this. Here is the 1990 Jesse Helms ad: http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/timeline/years/1990.html

And I understand this -- fear sells, and this is hardball politics.

BUT -- people of conscience need to condemn things like this. Which John McCain did. The Clinton camp was asked to do so also, and they have remained uncharacteristically silent. The Big Tent -- the Democratic Party -- we do NOT condone this sort of ugliness. Wait, I’m sorry, I forgot, the Clinton camp has demoted Mark Penn and is now using the Karl Rove playbook.....sorry, really, I forgot.

And our final contestant today is sort of amorphous. Back in 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed. (For details, Google “1993 WTC bombing" and then skip Wikipedia because it is NOT a real source). Back in 1993, I spent a fair amount of time listening to people say that if the Clinton administration did nothing, this would happen again. They said that this was just the start, that the Arab extremists were coming for America and we needed to prepare. NO ONE listened.

We'll come back to this, but first, a little semantic sideline: when I was in practice, I had a patient who had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, BAD cardiac arteries, and a few other things. I told him that he needed to cut back on the 2 packs a day he was smoking, cut out the after-dinner stogie, quit drinking, and modify the diet he was on, which consisted of meat, pasta, wine, coffee, and not much else. He refused things like fruit and veggies, with the exception of tomato gravy. He told me that life wouldn't be worth living without all that stuff. I sat by his hospital bed the night he died. My semantic question: is it his fault that he died of a heart attack? Should he be blamed? I don't have an answer although I believe we make the choices we make, and we pay the consequences. But there are some who would say it was his fault.

Back to the WTC. The alarmists were right. Arab extremists (the same Kuwaitis and Saudis and NOT the Iraqis) came back in 2001 and killed 3,000 Americans. Is this the fault of the American government? Should they be blamed? If you think the government is culpable, then PLEASE quit blaming Jeremiah Wright for saying that 9/11 was the fault of the government, that they brought this upon us. You can keep at him for the "G-ddamn America" comment, but let this one go.

And before we leave the religious zealots: Hagee, Hagee, Hagee. He has called Catholicism "the great whore", he has said Katrina was because of a gay pride parade, has choice comments on women (sample, "What's the difference between a snarling Doberman and a woman with PMS? Lipstick")

and is an all-around bigot. I don't blame McCain for soliciting Hagee's endorsement, but why does anyone put up with thinking what Hagee says is okay? Gotta ask -- is it because John Hagee is white, and white racism is okay, while anything from a black is anti-American? Does the MSM ignore him because it is not divisive ENOUGH?

Metrics, Numbers, Lies --oops-- I mean SPIN

You might have heard yesterday, as everyone was spinning the PA primary, that Hillary Clinton has won more popular votes than any other candidate.
This amuses me in too many ways to list.

If you want to see the report -- it's here http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=7265

Now, and I speak as the daughter of a mathematician who taught me all sorts of things you can do with math, let's look at what you have to assume to believe that Hillary Clinton won more popular votes than Barack Obama. It is the ultimate lesson in spin.

First, in reality, Obama is up by about 500,000 votes. That's actual truth. BUT you can play with the numbers to make them come out differently (the master of counts is General Westmoreland with the Vietnam death counts, followed by most governments in how they explain spending.)

To get things to look like Hillary won the popular vote, you first count Florida, which is somewhat legitimate, except for the people who did NOT vote since it was billed as a beauty contest, so the results are suspect. Still, they ARE results, and this would cut Obama's lead by about 200,000. Then, you need to count Michigan and make the assumption that NOT ONE HUMAN BEING in the state of Michigan voted for Barack Obama. That way, you can include all the votes Hillary won under her name (left on the ballot after signing a pledge that the primary wouldn't count, and saying she WOULD pull her name). You must assume that NOT ONE person voting "uncommitted" was in favour of Barack.

Then, you pull all the caucus votes. A little civics here --> most caucus results do not include the actual popular vote. So, when 150 people, or 1,000 people, vote in a precinct, the vote is "ONE" for the precinct. It's not that hard to make a range guess at the attendance, since there are sign-in sheets, but that data doesn't get released. Still, for the Clinton count to work, you need to discount the "ONE" counts.

Therefore, if you cut out a bunch of states, Hillary does win the popular vote.

In the light of day, though, it's no more than spin.

Next -- prior to the PA primary, the line was that Hillary needed a double digit win in PA to stay in the race. She didn't get that because 9.38% does NOT round to 10. If you think it does, you failed math in grade school. The pundits did not fail math in grade school, Chuck Todd certainly didn't fail math in grade school -- but it is to the benefit of the news media that the internecine fight marches forward.

I'm going to skip the description of how Hillary won PA, unless people ask me to explain it. It primarily comes down to demographics (mostly age). What I want you to know is that despite the poll numbers which say that Hillary supporters will stay home in November if Obama gets the nomination -- it just isn't true. I myself have days when I say to myself that I will stay home in November if Hillary steals the nomination (which is all that is left since the process depends on DELEGATE counts, and she cannot win that) -- but I **AM** a structural Democrat. Hillary's base is comprised of structural Democrats -- old people voting Democratic their WHOLE lives, party regulars who work the polls and the elections, people who vote Democratic out of muscle memory. We're not staying home. None of us.

But you know who WILL stay home? The people for whom this is their first election. VASTLY underrepresented in polls since they have cell phones and no land lines, and because the call lists for pollsters and the Parties are a year behind, they won't vote in November if they feel that the nomination was stolen from their candidate.

Who says your vote doesn't matter?

From Wednesday Morning ->

Well, it's now 4:30 and I've had that all important 6 hour nap.

I've lived in my house for more than 20 years. When I moved in, Republican registration was overwhelming, and the Democrats were not only few and far between, but they hid. The County was so Republican that it had NEVER elected a Democrat to a state office that anyone could remember. Last year, we elected a Democratic State Senator for the very first time.

The official totals out of my precinct are: 1067 registered Democrats, 754 voted (76.32%) 374 Obama, 378 Clinton, 1 write-in, and on one ballot -- no choice for President. For Chester County (part of CD 6) the official county tallies are 113,278 Democrats, 73,572 votes (66.26%) Obama 40,411 (55.06%), Clinton 32,814 (44.71%). For me, in my little area -- not bad, not bad at all.

Over in Montco, which is where I always told you the worm would turn -- Of the 247,387 voters, 150,055 (60.66%) cast ballots: 75,682 (49.28%) voted for Obama, and 77,886 (50.72%) voted for Clinton. (As an aside, all numbers are from the official county sites).

The pundits will spin today, the money will pour in, and we will march on to Guam et. al.

But as Tip O'Neill said "All politics is local" and I don't feel so bad today. I'm hoarse, exhausted, disappointed in those 3 local voters who could have made a difference (and in all honestly -- I KNOW WHO YOU ARE ) -- but actually PROUD of the work we did here.

In turnout alone, we won a county the Republicans thought they could never lose.

In terms of the delegate count -- we should have something later today -- remember that our votes go in by precinct, are counted by County, but the Congressional Districts (from which the delegates are accorded) span multiple counties in the southeast, east, and southwest, but span multiple counties in the center. To get the delegate counts, the precincts will need to be combined and the delegates accorded. The actual delegate count will not, mathematically, make a difference.

And so -- on to build the party, on to Guam, et. al., two weeks to North Carolina and Indiana.

Happiness

A few days ago, I went to the hairdresser, as I have every 6 weeks for the decades. It is always fun -- he's a great guy, our conversation is lively, and it is the only time that my hair is "big" for about an hour. Also, he runs perpetually late, so I have the opportunity to read his incredible magazine collection. The first mag I picked up had an article titled "Let the Joy Shine Through" -- based on the book Happy for No Reason by Marci Shimoff and Carol Kline.

I could dissect the whole article, but the bottom line, shown anecdotally and via neuroscience research, is that people can choose to be happy, or they can choose to be unhappy. In the exact same way that you can choose coffee or tea, exercise or television, every single simple choice we each make daily -- each and every one of us can choose to be happy.

There are certainly ways to learn to be happy -- some attitudinal, some action-oriented, and some both. The last "tip" they give in the article is to find things with passion and purpose. That is, of course, both attitudinal AND action-oriented. That doesn't mean you have to dedicate your life to things which intrinsically have purpose, it means putting passion and purpose into everything you do. Like most everybody else, I work for a living, and have had a bunch of jobs and careers over my working life. I can choose (as can you all) to go through the motions, doing task "A" followed by task "B", -OR- I can choose to endeavor to be the very best I can be at whatever I do, putting as much energy into it as possible, and using my work to help affect positive change by what I undertake. And it doesn't matter whether you are a short-order cook committed to the best tasting pancakes possible, a doctor choosing to treat a whole patient instead of the symptom set with which the patient presents, a seamstress sewing pockets on jeans (do it with passion and whoever wears them feels wonderful all day), or a politician committed to message over "regular" politics.

Some of you reading this have known me all my life. Some of you are friends of friends, and we have never met. For those that don't "know" me -- I have lived a life that "works" and at times, one that does not. I choose the former because it's just better. It's better to live a life of purpose, and gratitude, and commitment, one dedicated to healing the world, and making it better, even if some days that only means making someone smile who would not have otherwise. That is your choice, too, every day. (If you want to be happy and don't know how, buy the book -- it functions as an owner's manual...)

After I started working on this piece, knowing it would be saved for the day before the PA primary, "bittergate" erupted. Olivia and I did the park at sunrise the day after the tape was released - watching the sun go from pink to orange over the pond. Watching a pair of geese interact on the shoreline. Smelling the coming of spring, feeling the air in our faces as one of us ran the path, and the other chased deer. And while I’m sure Olivia's prime thought was "DEER!!!!" mine thoughts ran to how many people in our country really ARE bitter. How they chose to blame whoever they can for their misfortunes, how they grab onto what "was" but will never be again.

The PA primary contest tomorrow is actually a pitched battle between happiness and bitterness.

"Happiness" does not mean that everything works perfectly for someone on every day of his/her life. It means that whatever happens, good or bad, your ATTITUDE makes you appreciate the good, revel in joy, and work to overcome sadness and defeat when they occur. It means, in a political context, that you fix problems instead of complaining about them. You find solutions to difficult issues by working together in lieu of inciting further divisions. It means you HONESTLY address what is wrong with domestic and foreign situations and forge solutions based on the best possible outcome.

If instead you choose bitterness, you cling tenaciously to non-workable policies, gutter politics, "solutions" which have failed in the past (remembering that the definition of "stupidity" is "doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different outcome") AND ABOVE ALL ELSE you attack the person instead of staying on the issues. Bitter politics are the politics of desperation.

Today, as you go about your day, choose to be happy. Choose to put energy in all you do, take pride in your undertakings. Life can be a tapestry, it need not be a flat print.

And tomorrow, if you live in Pennsylvania, choose to vote for hope, and change, and happiness. Choose to vote for the promise of a better world, one based on smart responses, innovative solutions, and thinking outside the known box. When you go to mark that ballot -- remember Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, Vince Foster, NAFTA, China, ignoring the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the closed discussions and then choose to remember that "winning" need not be a zero sum game. Choose Obama, because it matters, and because one vote really can change world for the better.

I was wrong...

...And I'll get to that.

In fact, two flats of flowers will potentially die since I'm writing and losing the time I need to get them in the ground -- but I think admitting one is wrong is actually far more important than being wrong -- so I needed to get this out --- but first ...

If you have an opportunity to pick up a copy of the Philadelphia City Paper (I get my copy at Whole Foods, I don't know who else has them outside the city) -- you'll see two side-by-side articles by embeds in the Clinton and Obama campaigns in Philadelphia. People who went in undercover with fake names (the philosophy is discussed in their Editor's Column) and spent a month with each campaign. If you want to see the difference between the Obama campaign and every other campaign in history -- this would be a great read.

Last night two polls came out -- Gallup says Obama has lost his 11 point national lead to Clinton -- down to a 3 point lead. Newsweek has his lead at 18. If you read the Pennsylvania polls, even after you throw out ARG (which for some reason I can't find specifics on, everyone seems to do) you're looking at polls that put Hillary's lead to between plus 19 and negative one. HHHMMM....(as an aside, the best place to see poll data is http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/latestpolls/index.html and then look for the analysis at www.pollster.com)

So the question is "Huh?"

The official pollsters (including Mark Blumenthal over at Pollster for whom I have a lot of respect) say that the difference has to do with how much a poll pushes "leaners", whether they allow for answers like "other", the choice of "registered voters" "likely voters" "registered Democrats" "registered Democrats and Independents" etc.

I have a slightly different take (as usual) -- First, I think it's the lists they use to determine "registered voters" and the rest of the list choices. I've worked off those lists -- they come from the states, and voter services. Lists are culled infrequently. People move. People change positions. In a household with two voters, one Democrat, one Republican -- you don't know who is going to answer the phone. Second, there is an issue of IF people answer the phone. Do YOU answer calls from 800 numbers? I don't. Then, remember that cell phones aren't called -- therefore people who have no land line (who are overwhelmingly young) are never called. Neither are people living "somewhere else" -- college students, people who are living in someone else's house, people constantly on the road effectually living in hotels, etc.

Therefore, while the pollsters may actually be going after a certain demographic set, "WHO" they talk to may be vastly different.

Six Blind Men and the Elephant. (A great story, if you've never read it -- it explains a lot).

And finally, there is the "people are stupid" argument. I caught a televised clip of a reporter (I don't know where the clip was from, but I saw it on MSNBC, and I know it's from somewhere else). During the debate, they had UNDECIDED voters watching to debate so they could gauge reaction. The question was "If your candidate doesn't win the primary, raise your hand if you'll vote for John McCain in November". About half the audience raised their hands. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are undecided, you don't HAVE a candidate.

Next topic -- tomorrow George Stephanopoulos will interview John McCain on "This Week". So -- will he ask the same kind of questions he asked on Wednesday night, or, as suspected, will he play softball or actually ask issue questions? The answer actually will define how ABC/Disney will report the election season, and will show the world how biased they are or are not. Cliff Schecter wrote the marvelous book The Real McCain (which I have read and highly recommend) and he has some questions he thinks George should ask. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cliff-schecter/important-questions-for-g_b_97421.html Read it, you won't be sorry.

That link is from the Huffington Post, and there is something else there, too. Hillary Clinton bashing MoveOn. I'm sure you've heard of MoveOn, but you might have forgotten that they were formed to DEFEND Bill Clinton during the impeachment hearings. If you cringed at "bittergate" you'll love this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celeste-fremon/clinton-slams-democratic_b_97484.html

And now -- about being wrong. I thought I might have had Likud wrong, and as many of you told me -- Likud is more Republican than Democratic. Sorry, I was wrong. There are some things I have a high probability of being wrong about -- and the top one on the list is the time change --- I run about 99% wrong on knowing what time it is in another time zone. It's like a mental block.

But what I really want to respond to is the email from a college student who asked why it mattered. Israel is not the United States, she wrote, why do people make such a big deal about it? And why, she continued, does it matter that Bibi said 9/11 was good for Israel?

When I was a kid, I knew adults who had numbers. For those of you too young to remember, that means they had numbers on their forearms put there by the Nazis when they were taken to the concentration camps. Like branded cows -- identified as Jews, as numbers not names. Horror unthinkable. But there, 20 years later, was the scar. The youngest were taken as children. Carted off on trains, separated from families -- and many more than wore those with numbers were killed in gas chambers, were operated on in obscene medical experiments, horrors on horrors.

And some of them would say, with eyes permanently saddened by that which they had survived, that while the Holocaust was unimaginably bad, the ONLY good thing that came out of it was that world shame led to the founding of Israel, the Promised Land. I was too young then to understand what they meant, but I know now that living through extreme horror and tragedy gives one a perspective the rest of us cannot have, and living through something as bad as the Holocaust gives one the right to seek some good coming out of it. Bibi Netanyahu spent most of his childhood in Cheltenham (about 20 miles from where I sit) -- he has no right to seek "something good" in tragedy.

Tonight (or earlier in other parts of the world -- that time change thing) Jews around the world will gather to mark Passover -- to say "Next Year in Jerusalem" and remember centuries Jews were kept by the Egyptians as slaves, building the tombs called pyramids. Walking 40 years in the dessert looking for the Promised Land. Eating ritualistic foods to remind us of bitterness, of the mortar used in the pyramids, of the wholeness of the world, and unleavened bread to remind us of having to leave NOW, with no time for the bread to rise.

This time of year I am always reminded of something my mother told me back in the '80's. Back then 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted out, first to Rome, and then on to Israel. They were fundamentalist Jews who still observed as people had 5000 years earlier. While they knew about Egyptian slavery, they didn't know about the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, the Crusades -- none of it. My mother tells the story of being in Rome when they arrived (she worked then for one of the organizations involved in the resettlement).

These people had never seen electric lights, nor indoor bathrooms, even the silverware was new to them. They sat at tables and were offered soup. I have the sense that no matter what had been said to them, nor what they said back, even knowing that they had been taken (IN A CAN IN THE SKY!!!) from a desolate land of famine, from a war zone, they were still terribly frightened to the depths of their souls. My mother said they would look around, reach into their robes, and pull out bites of matzoh (unleavened bread).

And it is crystallized in the story of the Ethiopian airlift why Israel matters. While I don't even pretend to be a religious Jew, I cling tenaciously to the fundamentals of charity, education, leaving the world a better place when I die than how it was when I was born, to the teachings of Moses Cordovero of Safed. Still, to me, Israel is not "the issue" as it is for many Jews.

Israel stands as the ultimate testament to survival. Through 5000 years of burned temples, genocide, murder, torture, expulsion and everything else horrific that can happen to a people, Jews come together once a year to say "Next Year in Jerusalem". If you don't understand, take the number 6 bus line south from Jerusalem to the last stop, walk up the hill to Kiriyat Moriah, walk north to the end of the flat at dusk, and sit and watch. See darkness fall over the valley to the right, the lights come on in the new part of the city to the left, and a couple hours later, watch the tourist fireworks erupt over the Old City. Then you'll understand.

Even Baby Bush (for whom I have nary a decent word) understands that Israel stands, must stand. It's why in the ABC debate both Clinton and Obama swore its protection (as John McCain does, too). It is why I don't worry -- the greatest country in the world would never let Israel be pushed into the sea as many would like to see happen.

The ramifications of Israel falling break down the entire world. And that's not an exaggeration, although the explanation would take pages on pages. Israel matters, my little freshman friend, because as small as it is, it is in ways that matter, a giant lynchpin.

The Twilight Zone

One of the credos that I live by is "always beware of things out of character". As in --> "Jessica, do you trust so-and-so?" "Yes, I trust him to always do the wrong thing."

As a structural Democrat, I usually have good things to say about the blues and bad things to say about the reds (and red **IS** such an angry colour) but not today.....EEK!

It begins like any Twilight Zone episode, with a normal event. Olivia had to go to the vet, and since I correctly knew that his office would be decked out as the core Ron Paul supporter he is, I wore my cute little Obama hat. Luckily, although there for something else, it turned out that what I thought was a tick scar was actually a little cyst, now removed, and Olivia is back to fine. My vet is a brilliant holist, a great guy, and couldn't have more divergent political views than I on fundamental issues if we played the Dan Akroyd-Jane Curtain pair on the 1970's SNL. Still, in our political discussion yesterday, we have SOME common ground, which gives me some hope that America can, with the right leadership, get back to working together towards greatness.

Now -- enter the zone:

Wednesday night was the annual correspondents' dinner in DC. Dick Cheyney and Mitt Romney were FUNNY. Dick said that he asked Lynne if it bothered her that people called him Darth Vader. "No," she said, "It humanizes you." He also said that Hillary's comment on sniper fire wasn't really misspeaking -- she was just confusing it with when he took her hunting. (Come on, it's funny)

And on to Mitt. He gave his 'Top 10 Reasons for Dropping Out of the Race':

10. There weren't as many Osmonds as I thought.
9. I got tired of corkscrew landings under sniper fire.
8. As a lifelong hunter, I didn't want to miss the start of the varmint season.
7. There wasn't room for two Christian leaders.
6. I was upset that no one had bothered to search my passport files.
5. I needed an excuse to get fat, grow a beard and win the Nobel prize.
4. I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.
3. I wanted to finally take off that dark suit and tie, and kick back in a light-colored suit and tie.
2. Once my wife Ann realized I couldn't win, my fundraising dried up.
1. There was a miscalculation in our theory: 'As Utah goes, so goes the nation.'

Thus ends the good things I have to say about the Republicans.

And now on to the Democrats: our target today is Howard Dean. Last night, he came out and said that the SuperDelegates should endorse "starting now." I have a message for Howard Dean: LEAD BY EXAMPLE. Because my mother reads this list, I cannot spew forth the lead-up curses to the ad hominem attack I'd like to. But gently -- if you are IN CHARGE and you want your people to DO SOMETHING -- you should do it first. Howard could set the tone of either "we know where the math is going, and I endorse Barack" -OR- "I think we should overturn the will of the people and I endorse Hillary". This is worse than the scream. Bad, bad, bad.

And then we have Bibi Netanyahu. Not a Democrat, but I'm pretty sure that Likud is more Democratic than Republican in party-type affiliation. (And I'm sure someone will correct me if I got that wrong.) Bibi said that the 9/11 attacks were good for Israel. See the quote at:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975574.html When Ahmadinejad comes out and says that the Holocaust didn't happen, 9/11 didn't happen, I can say -- this guy is a nut job and I can launch a cursing ad hominem attack my mother would conceivably approve of.

Over the years, I've heard non-Jews confuse "Judaism" as being a "race" (which it is not) with being a religion (which it is). I always correct that misconception when I hear it. Being Jewish is different, though, than most religions -- and while not a "race", we are a "people". And Bibi, it's bad enough that Americans were killed at the Twin Towers, and in the Pennsylvania field, and at the Pentagon -- but also Jews -- YOUR PEOPLE died that day. You shouldn't look for a benefit from that tragedy. Note to MIT -- rescind this guy's diploma. SHAME ON YOU BIBI.

I'm returning now from the Twilight Zone ------

On scouring the net for tidbits and goodies, I found the following:

John McCain, that economic genius, wants to lower the gas tax for the summer. Now, I'm opposed to that on the fundamental belief that conservation is GOOD and I'm actually a fan of raising the gas tax to encourage people to buy little, gas efficient cars. But that's a latte liberal left wing position. HOWEVER I'm joined in thinking that it's a bad idea by that bastion of Republicanism, the Wall Street Journal, which reports that John's little idea could cost a bunch of jobs, and let our highways fall into even greater disrepair. (Remember, the gas tax is a USE tax). http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/04/15/mccains-gas-tax-plan-may-be-a-clunker/?mod=WSJBlog

Yesterday, I wrote about my disgust with George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson in handling the Republican attack they called a debate. From what I saw yesterday, mine was not an isolated response. It used to be that you watched Walter or Chet and David, and you thought you could trust the news. (For you youngsters -- look up Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley). I'm proud that, thanks to the internet, the MSM cannot get away with nonsense anymore. Note to Disney (owner of ABC) -- did you REALLY THINK that no one would notice?

Final logistic note -- tomorrow night is Passover, and I'll be tied up all weekend. So, for those of you that worry I've left the planet when I don't publish for a few days -- don't worry -- Monday's piece is called "Happiness" -- it's in the bag, and good to go. If you live in Pennsylvania, Barack will be at the Paoli train station tomorrow -- be there by noon for a good spot. In just 92.5 hours, the polls open in Pennsylvania.