I...uh...wow

This is why he is The General and we are mere footsoldiers.

Dazed and Confused '08

First we had Sarah Palin's deer-in-the-headlights response to Charlie Gibson's questions about the Bush Doctrine, now we get Grandpa Simpson John McCain's befuddlement over Spain, though to be fair, it may be that McCain's memory is longer than most of us thought. The interesting thing is that his staff are more willing to cause a diplomatic incident and alienate a NATO ally than admit their candidate might have had a "senior moment" or just plain didn't listen to the question. They could have come up with all kinds of excuses that would have played to base -- anything from "He couldn't understand the crazy foreign reporter's crazy foreign accent" to "Who care about Spain? they aren't even as important France and everyone knows the French are a bunch of cheese-eating surrender-monkeys beloved by the Democrats! John Kerry lived in France!" -- but no, they've decide that won't do. There can be no excuses for John McCain's straight talk on Spain -- they are a potential enemy!

From the link:

Randy Scheunemann, McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, writes in an e-mail to me that McCain knew precisely what the questioner meant, and that, indeed, "Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview."

But in April, McCain strongly hinted that he'd let bygones be bygones and expected
to invite Zapatero to the White House.

Why, I asked by way of follow up, did McCain seem to change his mind?

Here's what Scheunemann e-mailed back:

"In this week's interview, Senator McCain did not rule in or rule out a White House meeting with President Zapatero, a NATO ally. If elected, he will meet with a wide range of allies in a wide variety of venues but is not going to spell out scheduling and
meeting location specifics in advance. He also is not going to make reckless promises to meet America's adversaries. "

Things I never thought I'd say
1. I won't be voting in this election. Not because I'm following the old adages "No matter who you vote for, the government still gets in" or "don't vote, it just encourages them," but because I can't. As an expatriate Canuck, you are allowed to vote in federal elections in your previous home riding or in the riding where your "permanent address" is located, but only for the first five years you live overseas. I've lived in Japan for 11 years now, so I'm no longer eligible to vote in Canadian elections. Sometimes it sucks to be me.

2. I love Joe Biden. I know, I know, I'm shocked too. He voted for the Iraq war and the horrible bankruptcy bill and I always thought he was way too centerist and about as exciting as cold oatmeal, but check out the speech he gave this week.

"...a culture in Washington where the very few wealthy and powerful have a
seat at the table and everybody else is on the menu."

3. Can we stop talking about Sarah Palin? Yes, she is the greatest thing to happen to political comedy since Vice President J. Danforth Qualye. Yes, she is a total nightmare, completely unqualified to hold high office, a hypocrite and quite probably crazy (the feral glint in those unblinking eyes is just plain scary, it's like she's going to start speaking in tongues any second or try to bite you or something) but the more abuse we heap on Caribou Barbie, the more it energizes the Republican base of ignorant dumbasses who think "If'n yer so smart, howcum you ain't rich?" is deep philosophy to get out of their double-wide and vote to protect one of their own from us fancy-pants, liberal, book-reading elites.

Life imitates art

If only...

Sometimes I miss my old job

At least the raises were regular and no one really cared what you did in class.