Touchdown

I had the misfortune of getting home during the start of yesterday's storm. Luckily, I was only blasted by wind and rain. I saw the marble-sized hail outside a few minutes later. I didn't see the tornado that apparently rouched down in the city.

This seeems to be an ass-kicking year for storms, pretty much around the country. Constant snow and cold this winter. Rain for weeks in April. I assume the summer will be muggy punctuated by rain storms. Good times.

I'm Cooking Up a Groundhog

The last week of February 2010 marked the end of snow last year. We are now well into month number four of this winter and have already made it into the top ten for snowfall in local recorded history. I think the prediction of an "early spring" by the groundhog is not to be. I doubt this will even be done by the six weeks of winter after Feb. 2.

Retirement

Due to the apparent lack of readership and Google's Orwellian practices of evil, I'm done with blogger and this blog. It's up for now. I may keep it active or take it down. I'm starting a new blog at Wordpress, but not as Romehater.

Breaking News : Alaska Democrats Incompetent

So, the verdict has come down on Tazergate. An investigation launched by Sarah Palin's Democrat political enemies and Republican political opponents before her selection as John McCain's running mate has reached a conclusion. Governor Palin did nothing wrong. Now, you may be confused. If she did nothing wrong, why was there a news headline that said she abused her power as Governor? Basically, this panel can make any determination they want. However, they have nothing they could legally sanction her for.

What happened? Well, the conspiracy theory is that Palin pressured her Commissioner of Public Safety to fire her tazer-happy ex-brother in law. That would be bad. The other possibility is that his public disagreements with Palin's attempts to curb the state budget made him a distraction. Given that she has the complete right to let him go, either one is acceptable. The second one, however makes her a reformer. The first one makes her the status quo. The investigation itself makes her a maverick because it was a bipartisan attack.

SNL Post Mortem

I decided to turn off MadTV's "So You Think You Can Dance" parody with Bobby Lee playing John McCain pretty badly and switch to Saturday Night Live. The story had been out all day. Barack Obama bowed out of his scheduled appearance and Tina Fey was "likely" to come on. And if Sarah Palin lookalike Fey was on, she was likely to play the governor of Alaska.

In fact she was and she did. In a joint appearance on sexism, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler played the governor and Hillary Clinton. It quickly became apparent that they had seen Bill Maher and were playing Palin as a stewardess. In other words, they liked Hillary, and Sarah was no Hillary.

Tina Fey had originally sung the praises of Hillary being a "bitch," stating that bitches get things done. She even went to far as to say, "bitch is the new black." Palin apparently wasn't quite bitchy enough. This pretty much reveals the point. Hillary was liberal and a woman, a two-fer that was "catnip" for gender ground breakers like Tina Fey.

The irony is that Tina Fey does look like Sarah Palin. They're both attractive and a show like SNL was looking for a writer who could occasionally fill in during scenes that needed more cast. Would Fey have been hired if she looked like Hillary? Who knows. I do know that Fey's impression tended to amplify the differences. She's a little heavier than Palin. Her accent was too Wisconsin by half. Plus, she played her as dumb and oblivious. Who's the one keeping women down now?

Weekend Update continued the abuse with some awful character named "Alaska Pete." Basically, the show defended media bashing (NBC being one of the worst offenders. Funny how that turned out.) They also took it upon themselves to portray the Palin family as white trash with extremely crude allusions to Palin's children and faith.

I'll admit I missed most of SNL. It's really awful. Michael Phelps' wooden performance was almost unnoticeable among the mediocre cast. But I saw the end, and Tina Fey wearing a Cafe-pressed "Leia in '08" shirt. You go ahead and write Princess Leia in, Tina. Don't let reality interfere with your choices.

Google Your Class

On a whim, I decided to google some of the people I knew in my senior class. That is quite a depressing exercise. Obviously, most have moved out of the area. some of them are doing pretty well and have bios all over the place. But the important thing thing is that they are doing better than I am. And I thought I was doing pretty well.

Damn.

The Crying Game

What do you do in a presidential campaign where mean spirited attacks are booed by members of your own party. How do you defend yourself when an opponent has no specific message to pick apart. If you're Hillary Clinton, you cry.

I'm not talking about the break down in your hotel room kind of cry either. No, you pull a "Why are they picking on me?" public, Edmund Muskie type voice breaking, message laden cry. However, unlike Muskie, the first major female American candidate did it and it just might have worked.

Do I doubt the spontaneity of that moment? Obviously. Bill Clinton was the king of the quivering lipped, lily livered, watery-eyed moment. I still remember the time Bill Clinton was leaving a funeral and was captured whipping up tears when he saw a camera pointed at him. But where that emotionality made him look like a big gooey mess, crying merely makes Hillary human.

This is where the Obama machine may run out of steam. Hope is a powerful message, but hope tempered with misery is a Democratic message. Hillary is ready. Ready to take money from people she doesn't like and give it to people who support her.

Sometimes

Sometimes, I miss the ability to let loose with random thoughts on a semi-regular basis here. I also miss being motivated enough to expound on the half victory in the School District Election or the cowardice of a Democratic Party that hates the killing in Iraq but still plans to fund it for 3 more months. And don't get me started on CBS and Jericho.

I notice my profile pic has gone missing. I'll take that down until I find a new place to host it.

Man, I Hate Google

So, Google's absorbtion of Blogger has forced me to join their collective. In any case, I guess I can start posting again.