McCain/Obama Debate

I was watching the debate this evening but it finally became more than I could stand. What a lot of hot air about nothing. McCain for the most part looks lost and confused, rather like Grandpa Simpson. His answers ramble on and seem to not be related to the question asked. Obama is even more a big bag of hot air. He is just repeating lines from his stump speeches. You could just put up a picture of him and play back a speech of his and it would be the same effect. Jim Lerher is trying to keep them on issue but he is not really all that effective. Instead of trying to get them to engage each other the format should be more like a college debate, question, answer and rebuttal.

McCain at least seems to be somewhat dignified in his responses and overall demeanor. Obama is trying, a little too hard, to look and act like an average guy. He keeps using first names and such but he is coming off as a little disrespectful. I did notice that the flag pin was back in his lapel, for what ever that is worth. Who picked out McCain's tie, it is not bad just a little too loud for TV.

The biggest disappointment is the total lack of substance. I know the first debate was to be on foreign policy but with the financial news this last week a change of topic was surely called for. Even so neither candidate is doing a bang up job or even relating a position that they haven't already stated 100 times before. We do understand that Obama believes that the Iraq war was a mistake, so lets hear how we get out of it. How do we regain our lost status as a world leader for right and good. Obama is rather silent on those issues. McCain has nothing to say about Afghanistan, but that is where the war against terror started. What about bin Laden? Again neither candidate has talked about him or finding him. What about Pakistan? For a debate on foreign policy there has been very little said about it.

The problem is using members of the news media as moderators. They are throwing them softballs just like they always do. I would rather there be questions from the public in a free form manner. Then there would be questions with some meat on them. There also needs to be a way to make them answer and not just give their stump speech or the party line. We have been being feed platitudes and double talk for the last year. We want and need to hear some real answers and plans to the real issues we are facing.

Bailout Debates

So the economy is in trouble and McCain wants to do his job as an elected official and Obama just wants to talk. Obama feels that the debate is more important than doing the job he was elected to do. McCain has suspended his campaign and returned to Washington to work on the bailout plan. This means that Friday's debate would have to be postponed. I agree that the debates are important but so is the economy and the financial markets. Bush wants a blank check right now with no questions asked and surprisingly both Republicans and Democrats think that is a bad idea. After the rush to Iraq that is probably not an unreasonable position to take. Bush has no credibility so Congress for once is doing the right thing.
At the start of this campaign I had high hopes that Obama would be the guy and that he would really be different. I was wrong. He is so wrapped up in being elected President that he has forgotten that he is a Senator. If he doesn't think that being a Senator is important why should I believe that he will take the Presidency any more seriously. Obama is just a a talker. So far he has done nothing but talk about hope and change but with no real details and we all know that the devil is in the details. Obama believes that we really want to hear him talk rather than see him act in the best interests of the country.
McCain is no angel either. His campaign is in trouble and he is frantically looking for an issue to get his poll numbers up. I had thought that his choice of Palin as his running mate was a game changer but that really isn't working out for him. So much of what she has said is just wrong. If you are going to bend the truth you should at least say something that isn't so easy to disprove with just a simple Google search. But at least McCain understands that he has a job as a Senator and he understands his duty to that job and the people that elected him.

Excitement Close to Home

We had lots of excitement just across the street from us this morning. Around 0330 I heard several loud pops and bangs so I got up to see what was going on. As I got into the living room I could see that the house across from us was on fire. There was flames and smoke coming from the garage and the Chevy SUV in the driveway was on fire. I called 911 but someone else had already called. I woke up Caroline and went out to make sure the occupants had gotten out. They were just coming out coughing but otherwise not hurt. Their pit bull was also there so I had them put him in one of the cars parked away from the house.

The firemen arrived very quickly and got a pretty good stop on the fire. The attached garage is a total loss but I don't think that the living areas of the house are that badly damaged. There is a fire recovery company there right now boarding up the open garage. I believe that the garage area will have to come down and be rebuilt but the rest of the house, unless there is damage I'm not seeing should be okay.

I did go out and take pictures of the firemen doing their thing and of the trucks. I talked with Chief Bruce Rankin and had fun looking. I didn't miss the excitement at all. It was fun calling in a real call instead of taking them though.

Remembering 9/11

I was listening to talk radio this morning and of course all the talk is about 9/11/01. It is important that we remember those that lost their lives on that tragic horrible day. On that morning I was in my car on my way to have breakfast before going to work. The announcer on the classic rock station was saying that he was glad that his father hadn't lived to see this day. That really confused me so I listened more closely as he explained his father had been a Marine in WWII and he had not fought for our freedom so that something like this could happen and then the news guy broke in to say that a second plane had hit the other tower of the World Trade Center. I switched to one of the all news stations and listened numbly as they explained about the attacks on New York and Washington and that there were reports of a plane crashing in Pennsylvania. At the restaurant we all listened to the news on radio and ate food that tasted like ashes in my mouth.

At work, in the Ada County 911 Center, we all just looked at each other and wondered how the dispatchers in New York could deal with something like that. And then the towers collapsed. We had a TV set up in dispatch that was by my work station and we all watched with a collective groan. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried. The rest of my 10 hour shift was taken up with the unfolding news and the calls for help that always come regardless of how you feel or what is happening in the larger world. Some of the things on TV were of course played over and over again. The towers collapsing and the shots of the plane hitting the second tower, which for me is the worst. I believe that I saw that at least 20 times that day. Now whenever that comes on I change the channel, I just can't see that without emotionally being taken back to that day.

I was a fire fighter for 7 1/2 years. I was a volunteer fireman and was also a crash rescue fire fighter in the USAF. I watched the men going into the towers and I wanted to be there myself. Then as the towers came down I realized that those brave heroes were losing their lives and something in me died with them. That has affected me more than anything else these last 7 years. I can't think about that day and those men without tears filling my eyes.

This morning the callers were talking about their emotions and feelings. Some wanted the news clips played over and over again so that we would not forget. Believe me we will never forget. This was our generation's Pearl Harbor, sinking of the Maine and Alamo and unlike with those events we saw them as they happened. The nation didn't really learn how bad Pearl Harbor was until after the war. We saw the tragedy play out in real time and without any censorship. We will never forget and yes, we will always remember. We don't need to see those images over and over, for the vast majority they are indelibly etched into our minds eye.

Many callers talked about how we were safer now with Homeland Security and TSA and President Bush watching out for us. There were those that thought it could happen again and weren't so sure that we were safer. I believe we are safer now but no thanks to Bush and Homeland Security. People now pay more attention to what is going on around them and report those things that seem wrong or out of place. TSA can frisk as many grandmothers that shuffle through the security checkpoints at the airports without shoes on as they want but that doesn't make us more secure. Taking a pen knife from Senator John Glenn or strip searching an elderly male with a hip replacement that set off the metal detectors is no replacement for security measures that look for known terrorists or people that fit the understood profile of a terrorist. Hassling people at the airport doesn't help when you realize that the ocean ports are mostly wide open. Less than 10% of the containerized cargo that comes into this country is ever checked or inspected. We can talk all we want about the border with Mexico but the 9/11 terrorists came into this country from Canada. If we are going to secure our borders it had better be both of them.

Remembering 9/11/01 should be the first step in a long journey to making our world safer not the only step. So as we think about those that lost their lives on that day give some thought to how to make this country safer. Ask questions of our elected officials about preparedness and what we can do. Call the police if you see something that you know is wrong or out of place. Demand from Obama and McCain real answers about our foreign policy and security and don't settle for the same old platitudes and answers that they have been giving us for the last 2 years. Demand that both our borders be secured and that security at our ocean ports be increased. Ask why shuffling through airports with no shoes, rings , belts and hair clips makes us safer. As long as we ask these questions and more 9/11/01 will be remembered.

I'm Sick of Election Coverage

After listening to both the Democratic and Republican Conventions I'm sick of the news media and their coverage. I've had it with Chris Matthews, David Gregory, Wolf Blitzer, Andrea Mitchell and all the rest. The endless speculation and false concern about experience, vetting, the Religious Right and all the endless polls have made me realize just how pointless and hopeless it is to base any decision on media coverage of the candidates. This evening while watching "Washington Week in Review", one of the panelists when talking about if the questions about Sarah Palin were fair or sexist said that there was only 60 days till the election and the media didn't have the time to be nice while digging up the truth for the public. God I will sleep better tonight knowing that the media is in charge of the truth. 

I know that we need a free media to be informed about the workings of our government but they also need to be impartial. The media is anything but impartial these days. Fox and to a lesser extent CNN are pro Republican and MSNBC and NPR are very pro Democratic Party. So it is hard to get an unbiased and impartial story from any of these organizations. In fact ever since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein took down Nixon most reporters are looking to do the same. "Gotta you" reporting is about all there is anymore, but gotta you reporting is not fair or unbiased or impartial.  I will make my decision from reading blogs, official web sites and maybe the debates and Chris Matthews can take his hardball and play in some other sandlot.