Do or Die

I'm looking forward to the vice presidential debate on Thursday between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I eagerly anticipated the showdown that recently took place between John McCain and Barack Obama, and McCain's "maybe I'll show up, maybe I won't" stance added to the intrigue, but when the smoke cleared it turned out basically to be what was expected. Two pros went out there and jabbed away, both landing a fair share of blows, neither managing a knock out. It reminded me of a Pay Per View boxing match, reasonably entertaining but ultimately failing to live up to the build up that causes me to shell out $50 that I always swear never to do again. But as the past couple weeks have shown, once the muzzle has been taken off there's just no way to accurately predict how Sarah Palin will perform. Give her a script and a partisan audience and she's almost certain to knock the ball out of the park. Throw legitimate non-true/false or multiple choice questions at her in front of people as willing to jeer as they are to cheer, and there's a reasonable chance she'll come off sounding even more ridiculous than those hysterical Tina Fey parodies on Saturday Night Live. If she can't deal with an underarm Katie Couric pitch, how will she deal with legitimate queries followed by cross examining from Biden? He certainly has some debating flaws of his own, but surely he can be coached to keep his answers brief and on point. Can Sarah Palin be trained by crash course to become knowledgeable and confident and coherent on a wide range of executive level subjects? We'll see soon enough. Since the republicans are so good at pulling surprises, I advise Joe Biden not to take his upcoming task lightly. It's probably against the rules for her to distract him by showing up for the debate in a bikini, but I expect at least one screwball in attempt to throw the loquacious senator off his game. Perhaps Palin will announce before the first question that she is pregnant with her sixth child. Try bullying her then, Biden! As the accompanying photos show, Sarah Palin is the most dangerous sort of animal, a political one. That means no holds barred. Biden needs to take a page out of the books of Joe Namath and Brett Favre. Leave nothing on the field. Screw the five yard completion when the sixty yard bomb is sort of open. There is one opponent who absolutely cannot be allowed to be the victor, and that is fear. Fear is precisely what will reign if Palin and McCain are voted into the White House. The thought of it stamps two words on my mind. Hell no.

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- Roy Pickering

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Quote of the day:
Katie Couric: Why isn't it better, Gov. Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

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Gov. Sarah Palin: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the -- it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

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Web Site of the day: http://mccainkeatingfive.com/

The Face of Change/Experience/Feminism/Family & Small Town Values/Hotness/Whatever else the Republican party can convince you of

Sarah Palin is the republican selection for vice presidential candidate. I say the republican selection rather than John McCain's choice because I doubt he had very much to do with it, which says a great deal about how much of his own man the so called maverick actually is nowadays. Joe Lieberman did a wonderful impersonation of Benedict Arnold the other night but never had a snowball's chance in hell of being the VP nominee no matter how tight he and McCain are. Clearly John's handlers and professional political spin doctors were growing increasingly worried that "The Celebrity" was going to clean "The Straight Talker's" clock, so they had to come up with something big to shake up the polls, and they needed to do so ASAP. It's easy to picture them saying behind closed doors - "How about a shocking choice for VP, someone practically no one will have heard of much less expected to be selected? Sounds like a plan." Next thing you know the world is being introduced to Sarah Palin, governor of the state of Alaska which is about half the size of the borough of Brooklyn but probably has more oil, though not nearly as many West Indians. Before becoming governor of our late arriving state she was mayor of some town that has a population smaller than the occupancy of my office building. I have not actually checked to confirm if this statement is factual, but anyone reading this feel free to find out approximately how many people work in the New York Life Building and let me know if it's more than 8000. Such an unlikely candidate certainly meets the SURPRISE criteria. Did I mention that Sarah is a woman? That means all disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters can move on over to the other party because they have the most ovaries on the ticket by far. Mrs. Palin is a mother of five which I suppose makes her five times the woman that Hillary is, so no need to let little things like her anti woman's right to choose abortion even in the most extreme situations; anti-birth control education (abstinence or bust); let's teach Creationism in the classrooms while making sure every student has the right to own a gun stances get in the way of voting for her and John McCain. At 44 years old she's about half a century (okay, that's a slight exaggeration) younger than her ticket mate, another item to check off. Youthful vigor and minority status are no longer the sole domains of Barack Obama in this year's presidential race, but McCain continues to be the only resident former POW, which as we know is the most necessary qualification a presidential candidate can possess. For those who like White House occupants to be folksy like that good old boy George Dubya Bush rather than eloquent like Obama or stiff as a board like McCain, Sarah has that going on too. She sounds just like Frances McDormand in Fargo. As for who she physically resembles, I'll let the photographs above speak for themselves. This is rather ironic since the whole selection process (apparently Sarah met with the man who "picked" her once for all of 15 minutes) seems like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. Mrs. Palin came out with all guns (fortunately not literally) blazing when she spoke at the republican convention and was officially introduced to her newfound rabid fan club. They gave her a long standing ovation before she spoke a single word simply for not tripping on her way to the podium. Talk about setting a low bar for success. She proceeded to do a fine job of reading the speech that was written for her off the space age teleprompter, causing ovation after ovation after ovation to erupt, yet never managing to wake her newborn baby son in the audience. I on the other hand can't belch without accidentally waking my daughter in her sound proof room. Republican politicians by definition are masters at going on the senseless attack. Sarah Palin did not disappoint in this department. After spending about 4 hours introducing everyone to the members of her immediate family awake or otherwise, she went on to chastise the media for daring to make any remarks about anyone in her family. The former beauty pageant contestant stood there as if receiving an award for mother of the year rather than accepting the VP nomination, then ripped into the media for daring to suggest that her parenting skills fall a little shy of the standard set by June Cleaver. No one is supposed to comment on her 17 year old daughter being pregnant and unmarried because men who run for public office are never asked if they will be able to be both a good politician and a good father. Fair enough. No one is supposed to ridicule the vetting process that enabled her to be picked ahead of so many other far more qualified candidates because that isn't very nice. Okay. No one is supposed to question the brevity and lameness of her resume because she doesn't like it when people say mean things unless she's the one saying them about Barack Obama. All right, I guess. No one is supposed to check on or care about the allegations of improper behavior as governor, allegedly using her influence to get a former in-law fired from his job, because this would get in the way of believing she is Wonder Woman, Joan of Arc, Mia Farrow, Oprah, Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, Rosa Parks, and the Statue of Liberty lady all rolled into one Ronald Reagan approved package. Really? That seems to be asking a bit much. Gimmicks and trick plays do work from time to time on a football field, and can even end up being the margin of victory. But since McCain and the republican party pulled their wild card with several months of campaigning left to go, the evil empire of the media (except when they're fawing about republicans, then they're just fine and dandy) and the democratic party has plenty of time to point out the little man behind the curtain operating the Wizard of Oz, and there is ample opportunity for the truth (rather than slickly produced propoganda) to reveal itself. Once the smoke from the fireworks has cleared everyone will be able to see that the choice before us is the same as it has been from the start. If you want to continue in the war mongering, economy destroying direction George Bush has been taking this country for the last eight years, or if you believe that like Justin Timberlake the role of Vice President is to bring sexy back, vote McCain-Palin. If you have something else in mind, forget all the partisan fact distorting ads and catchy slogans and simply listen. This should allow you to determine who is speaking with the calm yet passionate voice of reason, and who is merely full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

- Roy Pickering (Author of Feeding the Squirrels: A Novella)

http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_feedingthesquirrels.html

All is fair in love and war and football

Chad Pennington has signed with the Miami Dolphins. Say it isn't so, Chad. Such is life in the NFL, I suppose. Rule # 1 - You can't trust Bill Parcells any further than you can throw him. But since it's impossibe to dislike Chad I wish him luck with the rest of his career so long as his new team continues to be awful and keeps losing to the Jets. I guess that isn't wishing him very much luck, so instead I'll hope he gets traded to the NFC soon. That probably won't happen prior to week # 1 when the Jets former QB (no doubt feeling vengeful) and their new icon face off against each other. This should be a very interesting NFL season, shaping up to either provide redemption for long suffering Jets fans or else ultimate humiliation.

Dawn of a bright new day (for NY Jets fans)

Last NFL season was a tough one to be a Jets fan. Any long time Jets fan is depressingly familiar with suffering through tough seasons, but last year was particularly brutal following the promise of the preceding year when a new young coach that we snatched from the evil empire in New England strode into town and got far better than expected results for Gang Green. The Eric Mangini era got off to such a great start that he was dubbed Mangenius and made a cameo performance on the hottest show on TV. As everybody familiar with The Sopranos should realize, no matter how much you possess it can all be taken away in the amount of time it takes a bullet to travel through one's skull. The Jets stood poised on the brink of greatness long enough for even their most cynical supporters (and Jets fans by definition and necessity are a cynical lot) to get a little spoiled. Only one thing could stand in the way of glory - the next season. The fragile, oft injured Chad Pennington proceeded to play terribly and was replaced by a healthy but not particularly good Kellen Clemens. Combined they led the team to four victories in the regular season, twelve less than the perfect Patriots managed. Unbelievably New England did not win yet another Super Bowl because somehow they were beaten by their NFC opponent who somehow managed to be none other than the Jets roommates. It's painful enough to root for a 4 - 12 team without them happening to share a stadium with the champions of the league. Never has a competition for bragging rights been more lopsided. Try countering "the Giants are world beaters" with "the Jets had Namath during the Jurassic era". It is simply not an effective argument.

All that changed today. The Giants may have a Manning brother at the helm who has won just as many Super Bowl rings as the one in all those commercials, but the Jets no longer need to feel blue because they don't have too shabby a player manning the quarterback position themselves. Once again the mean green mediocrity machine is turning to a strong armed 38-year old to steer the franchise, but this time around it appears to be a significant upgrade from when they gave Vinnie Testaverde permission to get off his couch and suit up. Today the fabled Brett Favre is officially on board with the program. It may only be a one year experiment. It may be doomed to failure. It may be a pathetic display of desperation, more marketing ploy than effective gameday strategizing. Or it just may be the single greatest thing to happen in Jetsdom since the invention of sliced bread (assuming you're a sliced bread fan, that is.) Argentina no longer needs to cry for me, and neither do any Patriots or Giants backers. Jets fans finally have something to chant with more dignity to it than "At least we're not the Dolphins!".

Favre's résumé is the stuff of dreams, him being the NFL's only three-time Associated Press MVP, the NFL's career record holder in touchdown passes (442), completions (5,377), attempts (8,758), yards (61,655) and victories by a starting quarterback (160). I think I'll conveniently leave out that he also leads the league in interceptions because how can he not when he barely ever sits out a play, much less a game? Instead I'll provide additional stats taken from his most recent season - 4,155 passing yards, 28 touchdown passes, career-highs in both completion percentage (66.5 percent) and yards per attempt (7.8). Not too shabby for an old fogey who merely finished second in the league's MVP voting and got his team to within one unfortunate pass from the Super Bowl. The Jets nearly selected Favre in the second round of the 1991 NFL draft, only to have Atlanta pluck him away one pick ahead of them and eventually trade him to Green Bay. The Jets instead drafted Browning Nagle and everyone is forgiven for refusing to recall how well that worked out. The Jets were painfully close to getting a guy who puts Cal Ripken to shame, the true ironman not just of football but of sports in general (which is a nice change of pace from Chad "Body of Glass - Arm of Wet Noodle" Pennington), but it was not to be until 17 years later. Mr. Favre (I don't feel I know the man well enough to address him yet as just Brett) has nine Pro Bowl berths to his name and a Super Bowl XXXI ring for his finger. Chad Pennington has a nice personality, which when added to two dollars will get you a ride on the New York City subway until the next fare hike comes along. I don't want to rag on Chad too much because I sincerely like the guy and know he gave his all for the team. But being an NFL quarterback who can't take a hit or throw very hard is like being an Olympic swimmer with a pesky habit of sinking to the bottom of the pool and needing to be rescued by a lifeguard. On its own the addition of Brett Favre to New York's roster does not transform them from pretender to contender. When considered along with their other offseason acquisitions however, the path of the Jets does indeed appear cleared for take off.

Back in the olden days when Brett Favre still played for the Green Bay Packers, my wife remarked that John Madden seemed excessively fond of him. Complimenting a player for making a nice throw while under great pressure from a hard charging linebacker is one thing. Continuously proclaiming that he symbolizes all that is great about western civilization may be a bit much. But that was then, this is officially the new golden age of NY Jets history. Favre has changed shades of green, exchanged Cheese Heads and Lambeau leaps for performing his legendary heroics in front of a rightfully angry mob. We do so long to be happy though, and # 4 just may be the guy to turn our frowns upside down and our warranted pessimism into legitimate hope. If so, move over John Madden because you now have some serious competition at being Brett Favre's # 1 fan.

Why I love the game

I don't have too much to say about the championship match at Wimbledon between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Some sights I am fortunate enough to behold are simply beyond my power to adequately describe with words. I'll simply state that this match demonstrated all the reasons why I love tennis, love sports in general, and why I am in awe of those rarest of champions who actually deserve to be described by the most overused term in sports - WARRIOR. And let me not forget to bow down to those inspirational Williams sisters who prove the many naysayers (I won't get into my theory on why their continued prowess is doubted. Only the color blind should have any trouble figuring it out) so very wrong time and time again. They do it their way and will eventually leave the sport with no regrets and a whole bunch of trophies. Kudos to four incredible athletes with plenty of spectacular tennis left to display.

The view from the mountaintop

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once famously stated that he'd had a dream about reaching the mountaintop and seeing a brand new day from that lofty vantage point. He predicted he would probably not be allowed to get there with us, but urged us to strive on without him. Has that day finally arrived? Well no, not quite. But it certainly does seem to be in spitting distance.

It was a fairly big deal when America's first handicapped president was elected. The selection of the first Catholic to rule from the oval office was a major leap of faith. A non-Christian U.S. president would signal the dawn of a new day far surpassing our current willingness to support Israel. Perhaps we'll never have a president who was not born an American citizen, so Arnie will have to settle for governing California and being a Kennedy-in-law. Eventually a woman will become commander in chief, an event that will be both transcendant and transformative. I know it pains many that it will not be happening this year. But as I see it, no greater leap can be taken by this country than the one from kidnapping Africans from the cradle of civilization and forcing them into bondage and servitude to the day when the first African American takes the oath of the highest office in the land. That occassion will be beyond epic, beyond description until seen with our scarcely believing eyes, yet it may only be months away from becoming reality.

Senator Barack Obama's work is not yet done of course. There's still the pesky general election to compete in. The Republican party will throw everything they can at him. Will more Reverend Wright-like stories emerge after extensive digging into his past and present? Will a smear campaign be effectively waged that appeals to the darker nature of people who fear difference and reject legitimate integration of our society? When the votes of democrats, republicans and independents are all added together will there be enough Americans willing to hand over the role of commander in chief to a black man? No matter how inept President George W. Bush has been and how closely the democrats manage to tie Senator John McCain to his failed policies and stubbornly wrong mindset, will racial bias (never mind that he is biracial, aka half white) or an idiotic insistence that nobody with a name like his can really be a Christian(religion probably being the only disqualifier even more potent than race) cause this country to elect more of the same old same old over the potential for legitimate change?

I say potential because who knows how much Obama would actually be able to change and accomplish as president. In four years he'd certainly get some important things done, such as getting us out of an unnecessary war for starters. Given eight years he might be able to significantly alter the way the business of politics is conducted in our nation's capital. Then again, his noble intentions may simply run into roadblocks he'll be unable to hurdle. Or worst case scenario, his strongest detractors could prove to be right and it will turn out that Obama is basically a self serving smooth talker no different than the typical politician, merely having a better tan.



From what I've been able to glean from his words, stated in debates and interviews and speeches as well as written in his books, Obama is a fine man who I believe can be a great president. What I also understand is that the day an African American holds the highest position in this land is the day that monumental metamorphosis will begin to take place in inner cities throughout this great and greatly improving land. No longer will a little black boy or girl say that at best they may be able to someday become a basketball player, or a singer/actor/strip club dancer, or a nurse, or a drug dealer, or a teacher, or a preacher, or a soldier, or a high school graduate, or a baby's mama or a missing in action baby's daddy. They will say they're not quite sure what they'll become because all of a sudden there no longer seems to be strict limits imposed on their future. They will express gratitude for the efforts of countless others before them that brought us to this long deferred place, proclaim that at last our past history of legally sanctioned racism and dehumanization has been overcome, and gladly lay out plans to be whatever it is they most want to be because why should they settle for anything less. They will dance with joy for awhile on top of that mountain and then head down to reap rewards only to be found in the valley of true equality.
- Roy Pickering (author of Feeding the Squirrels) http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_feedingthesquirrels.html

Link of the day: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

**It's quite depressing that a web site like this had to be created in the first place, but one major negative of living in the internet era is that misinformation can be spread in very little time with the greatest of ease to all corners of the earth. For some reason the truth seems to travel much more slowly and not nearly as far.**

Hillary Clinton in her own words

“There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me… I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.”

And now for my words on the subject. It doesn't take a linguistics expert to spot that Mrs. Clinton is equating "hard working Americans" with "white Americans". Apparently she has conceded the shiftless negro vote. Desperate times do indeed call for pathetic pleas for support, but Hillary should be smart enough to realize that making statements to guarantee an endorsement from the head of the KKK is not what it takes in this day and age to secure a national political nomination. Call Barack Obama an elitist all you want (Such an absurd claim. Simply look at the backgrounds of Barack and Hillary and then decide which one is actually more concerned about and at ease among people making less than 10 million dollars a year), but there is nothing wrong with being educated, cultured, healthy (last I checked, eating arugula was not one of the Seven Deadly Sins) and open minded, and certainly nothing noble about scraping the bottom of the barrell for people who enter a voting booth with little information to base their decision on beyond the race of the respective candidates. Yet I'll give Hill a pass. Perhaps she had, as her husband of all people would put it, another "senior moment" during an exhausting and increasingly frustrating campaign. Maybe she was under the duress of sniper fire while being interviewed. I won't implore Fox "News" (aka Blatantly Republican Network) and CNN to dedicate the same amount and degree of coverage to Clinton's bold statement as they did to Obama's "bittergate" or "pastorgate", or even as much air time as was given to such critical issues as flag lapels and bowling scores. The reason I'm being so magnaminous is because I don't believe people should vote against the candidate who they have been most effectively scared away from. I feel reasonably comfortable saying this because none of the candidates has the last name Bush. Everyone should support the nominee who inspires the most confidence that their own interests and strongest held beliefs will be supported by the upcoming presidency. If that person in your opinion happens to be Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Ralph Nader (Ralph is a candidate too, right?), then so be it. If it happens to be Barack Obama, congratulations on your display of common sense regardless of how hard working you are or what your melanin count happens to be.

- Roy Pickering (Author of FEEDING THE SQUIRRELS: A Novella)
http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_feedingthesquirrels.html