TheLastManInAmerica

It takes eight minutes for light to travel from the star at the center of our solar system to our planet. For the star called GOP2 (aka Sarah Palin), it took a matter of seconds for her light to engulf the planet, a light so bright that it has since blinded and dumbfounded the masses from  the day she were announced as John McCain’s running mate for this year’s failed GOP ticket for president.

In the three weeks since losing their bid, Sarah Palin has seen an amplified interest from the media. And, oh, how happy those in her corner are!

“Tomorrow, Governor Palin could do an interview with any news media in the world,” said her spokesman Bill McAllister. “Tomorrow she could sign any one of a dozen book deals. She could start talking to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That’s the level we’re at here.”

From Oprah and George Stephanopoulos to Letterman, Leno and the Daily Show are, media sources everywhere are  clamoring to get Palin on their programs with the possibility of her own talk show not too far out of reach. I, personally, am sickened that we live in a society where someone like Sarah Palin, who rose to infamy as an inept politician, can ride ride that wave to international celebrity. While doctors are growing windpipes from stemcells and astrophysicists prove the validity of the Big Bang Theory, it’s people like Sarah Palin, who didn’t know Africa was a continent as opposed to a country, that become famous. Need I say more?     

They look like they belong on the Death Star, imposing steel doors that slide open when they sense someone outside. And when they open up they reveal a restroom that is somewhere between a Four Seasons’ commode and a prison crapper; nice tile floors and steel toilet with no seat. And when you finish “draining the lizard” or “dropping the kids at the pool,” the high-tech lavatory cleans itself as soon as you walk out.

The City of Atlanta has dropped $1.5 million on these toilets to help the homeless and others who can’t find a restroom, a move some are questioning in the middle of an economic crisis. The city defends the purchase however, saying the money was a grant and completely seperate from the general funds for Atlanta.

I laugh because I know exactly where this is going to lead. Here in Seattle a few years ago, the city bought five of these toilets at a staggering $500,000 apiece while costing $700,000 a year to maintain. But when the toilets became havens for prostitues and junkies, the city decided to do away with them, putting them up for auction on eBay. In all the city spent $5 million on the crappers and sold them for roughly $12,000.

So yeah, way-to-go Atlanta! You pretty much just used that grant money as toilet paper.      

They flew in to D.C. on their private jets on a mission to beg for OUR money. Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York said, “It’s kind of like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo.” No Mr. Ackerman, it’s like having a bum come to you, reeking of malt liquor and crack smoke and telling you he needs the money because he’s hungry. It’s a pathetic sight to be certain.

Many people prophosized that with the financial bailout, others, including the auto industry, would follow with their hats in their hands, begging for money. It’s much the same as that junkie coming up to you and asking for a cigarette, you give one to him then all of the sudden more start popping out of nowhere, from behind dumpsters and inside storm drains and manholes, all of them trying to get a piece of your charity. Before you know it, you’re out of smokes but every vagrant in the city is puffing away. It has to stop somewhere.

But it cannot stop here. No matter how mismanaged any -or all- of the Big Three may be, there’s too much at stake here. Namely, the jobs of millions of Americans…the Middle Class that everyone likes to say they support nowadays. They don’t design the cars, it’s not their fault that they’re inefficient and dangerous. These people just work for a living. If any companies ever derserved a bailout, which most do not, it’s the auto industry, strictly for the sake of saving American jobs. So many have said we need a bailout of the Middle Class, not corporate fat cats looking to keep their pockets padded; well here’s the chance.

We need strict oversight on this job, the auto industry canot be allowed to operate the way they have anymore. With our money going into their companies, they need to start making cars that benefit us, long-lasting, fuel efficent automobiles. 

Maybe this is the change that needed to happen. Our oil is drying up and our planet is heating up. And now we have a chance to get in on a key source of these problems. If we jump in, perhaps we can make a change not only in the world of transportation, but the world at large. 

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra announced Tuesday that a Texas Grand Jury indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on seperate charges related to alleged prisoner abuse in federal detention centers. The AP reported that the indictment stems from Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group-an investment mangement group that reportedly has interests in the prison companies running the detention centers. It also charges that Gonzales halted an investigation into abuse at the detention centers while he was  attorney general.

But Democratic Senator Eddie Lucio, another named in the charges has a different story.Michael Cowen, the senator’s attorney issued a statement calling Guerra a “one man circus.”

“In the March 2008 Democratic primary,” the statement said, “70% of voters elected to remove Juan Guerra as Willacy County District Attorney. Now, with only a few weeks left in his term, Mr.Guerra has again chosen to misuse his position in an attempt to seek revenge on those who he sees as political enemies.

Cheney spokeswoman, Megan Mitchell said, “The vice president has not received an indictment.”

Alaska’s Senate race is close to being decided and it’s possible that, in the end, a convicted felon could be elected to represent the state. Senator Ted Stevens, who has held his seat in the senate for forty years, was convicted in October of seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter million dollars in gifts. In the days following the election, Stevens held a slight lead, one he has since relinquished to his challenger, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage.

Now senators, including fellow Republican Jim DeMint of South Carolina want to vote Stevens out. But some want to wait. Until all the votes are counted up there, Stevens remains the sitting senator there and until the vote is decided some want to hold off voting the felon out of office.

But where do they get the right? We live in a Democracy and in a Democracy the people vote for who they want and could happen that Alaska wants a criminal representing them. A few people, including my favorite, Hunter Thompson, have said, “In a Democracy, the People get the Government they deserve.” And if the People of Alaska are so simple-minded that they end up electing a CONVICTED FELON to the United States Senate, then so be it. We’re not talking about the president here, who can only ousted by Congress. This wouldn’t be the Senate’s place to override the People’s volition. Wait! CNN has just announced he lost so this piece is now null and void.

Thank You  

They both spoke of changing the direction of our country during the campaign and both expressed a desire to “reach across the aisle” if elected. Now they both have a chance to make good on that promise as President-elect Barack Obama will meet with his former opponent, Arizona senator John McCain, on Monday. This will be the first time the two have met since Obama routed McCain in the general election on November 4th.

Hopefully this proves a fruitful meeting that will see the two men make good on their promises of bipartisanship. Time is running out for McCain and, after a pretty nasty campaign in which spent the homestretch lambasting Obama at every turn, now would be a great chance, if not his last, to secure his legacy as one who was intent on uniting and not dividing. For Obama the stakes are a little different; he does not have much experience and his short time in the senate has him labeled as one of the most liberal politicians around.

Perhaps they are both looking to make good on their campaign promises; maybe they were both serious about bringing change to American politics. Only time will tell but unless this meeting ends with McCain unleashing a torrent of racial expletives, calling Obama a homo-loving baby-killer, or with Barack locking McCain up in a bamboo cell, submerged to his chin in a dirty, rat-filled river, while waiting on his turn to play a forced game of Russian Roulette, this is a pretty good start.  

President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on the promise that he would bring the Iraq War to an end in 16 months, a promise that gained credibility when Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki agreed with it. With his election to the highest office in the country, one question was if he would make good on his promise and remove troops from the country.

It now appears that the Iraqi Cabinet will help President Obama bring that promise to life. The Cabinet today approved a security pact that would set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. The 40-member council approved the pact, 27 to 13, that will set the withdrawal of U.S. troops from all Iraqi cities and towns by June 30, 2009 and a full withdrawal by December 31, 2011. The terms are”set and fixed” and “not subject to conditions on the ground.”

The measure must still pass the Council of Representatives, Iraq’s 275-seat parliament but there is “great optimism that they will pass it,” says Industry Minister Fawzi Hariri.  

Following the defeat of the Republican party on November 4th some in the party have been looking to point the blame. Some have turned to Sarah Palin as the one at fault, others, obviously, look to George Bush. Now, for the first time that I can think of, a Republican is blaming John McCain.

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, speaking to a group of GOP officials in Myrtle Beach said that McCain, along with Bush and Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, is partly responsible for the downfall of the Republican party, saying the party strayed from their own “brand” when choosing the Arizona senator to lead their presidential ticket this year. DeMint believes the party should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

I have said I believe McCain screwed himself in this election but with the way DeMint put it, I am reconsidering. We all know where the Republican party stands, we found that out with great clarity over the past eight years. True, John McCain isn’t you pedigree Republican, maybe they did stray when choosing him but who’s to say a “Real” Republican would’ve done better. Bush has the lowest approval rating in the history of approval ratings, Republicans have lost seats in congress all over the country. People are tired of them, that much is clear. But who’s to blame? To me, the answer seems just as apparent: Republicans.

Why do we, as Americans, tend to worship people who deserve nothing more than our derision. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie and Jesus Christ  do nothing for their fame yet are ubiquitous in American culture. It’s a sad thing, really that so many are so unhappy with their own lives that they must absorb another person’s world into their own to make them feel better.

I see now that Sarah Palin is becoming one of these caricatures of the American Culture. The Republican Governor’s meeting in Miami this week was less about a political party attempting to pull itself back from the brink of extinction than it was about her and I’m confused as to why that is.  Aside from her ultra-conservative views that have made her a star with zealots, she has become a star with the major media for her every faux pas, for the train wreck she is. She is not famous for being a great, or even qualified, politician. She is famous for being, with good reason, an unknown governor who was the desperate and ill-advised vice presidential pick of John McCain.

You might say, “But she is Governor of Alaska, she must have some qualifications.” I hate to be the one to break it to you, son but Alaska is a nose hair away from electing a convicted felon to the senate so her ascendancy to the highest office in the state means less to me than the voting for the Cy Young Award (at least that’s based on stats). She is famous, like so many others, for no good reason, other than they give us something to talk about. For that I thank her, but I’d rather have nothing to talk about than a world with Sarah Palin and Paris Hilton.

Earlier this week, we saw Barack Obama tour the White House with outgoing president, George W. Bush, who was a major target of the president-elect during the campaign. Now it’s Joe Biden’s turn.

The vice president-elect and his wife, Jill, will tour the Naval Observsatory today as they prepare to call it home come January. Current vice president, Dick Cheney will be leading the tour.

While Barack Obama often attacked Bush’s policies, Joe Biden went even farther when speaking of Cheney, calling him, “the most dangerous vice president probably in American history.”

Ouch! No imagine what conversation over tea might be like between those two today. “So….really? Was I that bad?” Aside from the resounding YES, I like to think of this as a real tribute to our country. How many other country’s do you see two camps, so bitterly in opposition to the other, sit down and peacefully hand off power to the other?Even if their placcid exchange is only superficialit is still light years beyond how many countries deal with a transition of power. Now if we could only use those diplomacy skills with foreign countries, or in Congress.