Buddies and pals

Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that McCain says that he and his campaign never met or talked with Joe (so-called) the Plumber (so-called), but yet in his debate with Obama McCain referred to Joe as “my buddy”?

I guess his “buddy” was someone he had never met and only seen on a television clip ….

Guess that explains why Palin would use the word “pal around” to describe a remote relationship between Obama and Ayers.

And, considering the amount of vetting McCain gave this man whose last name he couldn’t even get right on national television, this man who is not a licensed plumber, this man who owes back taxes, and who, I’d lay good money down to bet, this man who was a plant at that Obama swing-through …. yeah, considering all that, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that McCain plucked Palin out of nowhere to be his running mate, and that he says, still, that she’d be an excellent President if he kicks the bucket while in office.

Awake at the wheel

For much of my life, if doctors had analyzed my brain waves, I’m pretty sure they would have determined I was asleep. My body may have been going through the motions of being awake, but for an embarrassingly long number of years, my brain was slumbering.

I snoozed my way through jobs, vacations, opportunities, even love affairs. Wandering around in a somnambulistic daze, just letting life happen and just reacting, rarely acting.

And while I don’t regret my life, I do regret the minimalist approach I had to living it. (more…)

Tolerating Discrimination

In last Thursday night’s Vice Presidential debate, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin clarified their joint opposition to gay marriage.

Biden said it’s “only fair”to support the civil rights of same-sex couples, and Palen said she’s “tolerant” of gay couples; but neither one of them wants to see same-sex couples getting married in any traditional sense.

It sounded to me as if our country was back in the 1960s – debating whether it should be legal or illegal to deny marriage simply on the basis of race. (more…)

My paradox with Palin

Sarah Palin’s not exactly the kind of woman I see myself hangin’ with. Oh, I’m not deaf, dumb, and blind to the appeal Palin has for some people; I get that she’s attractive, accomplished, and, up until recently, quite ballsy.

It’s just that I can’t relate to a woman who seems to have so little compassion for others. (more…)

Got guts?

Basically, I think the world boils down to two kinds of people: the kind who have guts and the kind who don’t.

I’m talking the visceral down and dirty kind of guts it takes to look down the barrel of life and choose to say what you mean and live what you say. It’s a hard road to live that way. And most of us don’t. (more…)

MC hits the Sarasota Herald-Trib!

Yowza, the local Sarasota Herald Tribune picked up an opinion piece I wrote and they’re running it in today’s paper — on newstands now!

You can read it in print (page A11) or view it online.

And, if you want to let the editors know you loved … or hated the piece, you can either leave a comment on the H-T site (see the option directly below the story), or you can drop them a Letter to the Editor via their online letter to the editor box.

Could a Sarasota mayor catapult to VEEP nominee?

Hey everyone, I’ve got a reporting piece (not opinion!) in this week’s Creative Loafing newspaper. This is the first time a local Sarasota newspaper has run my writing since I left the Pelican Press, so I’m psyched!

If you’re local to Sarasota, you can pick up a copy of CL on newstands today. Or, you can read it online at the Creative Loafing website.

There’s a place below the article to post a comment at their site or feel free to come back here and comment away!

McCain Blinks

John McCain wants to suspend his campaign and delay his first debate with Barack Obama. Why?

He says it’s because he wants to run along to Washington and solve the problem he apparently thinks the rest of the government can’t do without his extraordinarily astute, 24/7, economic insight.

Um, this is the same guy who about a week ago said “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.” (more…)

Absolutely … nuts

When asked tonight on 60 Minutes if Sarah Palin was really ready to be President — not Vice President — but President — McCain said, “Absolutely.” Then he added for emphasis, “Absolutely, absolutely.”

So, what is she, triply ready, there, Mac? Palin’s not even half ready. McCain knows that. The American people know that. Palin probably knows it. (more…)

Decency at the doorstop

It’s getting awfully hard to slog through the daily slop of so-called news surrounding Palin, McCain, and Obama and Biden. Today’s the first day I’ve felt campaign fatigue.

Maybe that’s the cause of this dour column where today I ask the essential question of our country’s existence: At long last, America, have we no sense of decency? (more…)