Maybe These Vacations Aren't All That Bad!

Summer isn't my favorite time to travel, being basically an unsociable type.  I much prefer late spring or fall.  In the summer it's nice to just chill at home.  While everyone else is on vacation!

Bloggers blog less frequently.  Facebook updates are more about travel and family than politics.  Other than the occasional earthquake or hurricane, things just sort of drift along. The living is easy.

I've concluded that both the President and Congress are exactly where they should be this idyllic time of year.  Out of Washington D.C.  Where they can do no harm.   Hopefully.

If you stay away from the O'Reillys and Gretas and Hannitys and Cooper and Blitzer and probably the MSNBC group which I no longer watch its pretty nice.  If you do watch any of them it's like a soap opera where the same story line progresses at a snail's pace for months.  It's hard to get behind.  What the 'conservative' mouthpieces are doing is continuing to blame Obama for everything.  The liberals continue to blame Bush.  Ho hum.

If you listen very carefully, though, you'll find that guests that are always in agreement with the hosts are also in short supply.  If you really listen carefully you'll hear those guests lay blame where it really belongs.  Congress.  After all, they are the ones who have passed the legislation that has gotten us into this mess.  Both parties over quite a long time.  And of course the Presidents who have signed it.  All the Presidents for quite a long time.  Republican and Democrat.  But not just the Presidents.

So vacation is good.  It gives us a break from it.  It gives Congress a break from it and it gives the President a break from it.

As fall approaches with it's brilliant blue skies and refreshing nip in the air, we can only hope Congress will come back refreshed too.  And the President.  And that somewhere along the way they actually interacted with their constituents and listened to them.  Listened to them. That the needs of the nation will suddenly become more important than partisan politics and re-election.

Ahhh, dream on woman, dream on.  Enjoy it while you can.  I feel the heat of the campaign isn't akin to Indian Summer as much as a precursor of the deep freeze that comes with winter.   Will it be the weather or politics that chill us to the bone? I'll hope for the weather but bet on politics.

Not The Best Week For The President

Sometimes I actually feel sorry for the guy.  When even the Black Caucus states they're tired of making excuses for him, you know things aren't going well.

He's being criticized for his shiny big new black bus.  Never mind it and it's companion have been in the works for years.  Do mind, however, it was made in Canada.  It's a rolling fortress.  Strange, for a country supposedly ruled by laws, not men.

It's tough when one of your secret service men gets picked up for a DUI in Iowa!  He obviously wasn't in Ames unless the Ames Purity League that ruled the roost when I was in college has eased up.  At the time you could only get 3.2 beer.  But then maybe the Secret Service has more sophisticated tastes. College kids' beverages of choice was either the 3.2 beer or sloe gin and coke.  Makes my stomach churn just thinking about it! But then college kids were poor in those days not to mention mostly underage.

Then too, there's the criticism that the President has no clue as to how to create jobs except continue what has already failed.  Pour more money into the government. Do you get the feeling that he just doesn't get it?

Maybe he needs a vacation.  Oh, yeah, he's going to Martha's Vineyards to hob nob with all those rich folks.  You know, the private jet set he so wants to tax.  If he hadn't been there before I'd wonder how he'll be received.  The only one that will be put out will be the folks like you and  me who will lose hotel rooms, beach space and restaurant tables.  Oh well.  Go some place else.

We are.  Another mini vacation for the remainder of the week.  There's a western art show in Helena and The Bair Family Museum outside Martinsdale is having it's grand re-opening after a make over to protect its art treasures.  Montana.  No beaches, that's for sure. No secret service.  Maybe some security personnel but nothing obtrusive.  Just big sky and fresh air and georgeous scenery.

I wouldn't trade him my week nor my vacation!

Speaking Of Compromise

With Rick Perry now in the race for the Republican nomination and Tim Pawlenty gone, I'm wondering just what it is we want in our next President, assuming we don't want to re-elect Obama, and what are we are willing to compromise on to get him or her.

So far I've heard mostly negatives on everyone.  So what is it?  Do we want another empty suit?  Someone who so stuns us with personality that we look no further?  I don't.

Someone who espouses social issues above all else?  Like gay marriage and abortion?  No.  Abortion at the moment is the law of the land and I have no problem with gay marriage though civil unions seem sensible  in states willing to accept it as an alternative to something labeled 'marriage'.

Someone who has business experience and no governmental experience?  Someone who has governmental experience yet no foreign policy experience?  I could go on and on with likely combinations depending on the candidate.  Somewhere along the line we're going to have to decide among ourselves just which issues are the most important to us and look for who is strongest in those area.  None of the candidates can be all things to all people.

What I will be watching closely, something I didn't do enough of with Obama,  are the positions on the issues and the strategy for solving them.

I do know one thing.  To be against our present President, his policies, his leadership, the direction in which the country is going,  it seems to me to be a cop out to say we'd not vote for any of the opposing candidates.  To think the present is the better choice negates everything the other candidates have to offer.

In a rare show of optimism,  I'm positive that if  I compromise on the qualifications for the perfect candidate I will find one who is more than acceptable.  Congress is being asked to compromise in order to get the country moving.  If part of that equation is to include new leadership, we too are going to have to compromise.  We just need to be seriously well informed on who we choose.

Palin's Fadin' While Bachmann's Rockin'

The Iowa Straw Poll 2011 is history.  I find it amusing and annoying at the same time.  Amusing that the media pays so much attention to what is fund raiser for the Iowa Republican Party and annoying they put so much truck into a circus that has Bachmann the winner by 200 +/- votes over Ron Paul who I feel has no chance to win the nomination.  What is, however, is what is.

I will admit that I have to go to Bachmann's web site to see if she has begun articulating how she is going to achieve all of about which she rants.  Especially if the House and Senate go Democratic or at least the balance goes against her.  That seems to be the question always left out.  How?  And too, she isn't alone.  No one is asked and no one volunteers.  Except Herman Cain, but this isn't about him.

That aside, Sarah Palin is still skulking around the sidelines seeking attention.  It is neither the time nor the place for a tease, but then that's Palin.  I thought it time to compare these two women just in case of a worst case scenario!

I watched Bachmann with Chris Wallace this morning and saw an attractive, articulate candidate, one who dresses and conducts herself  in a professional manner.  No cutesy poo expressions, no wink wink.

I haven't seen much substance from either.  As I said, I need to do my homework on Bachmann.  Palin has hijacked the limelight since McCain lost in 2008 and I've seen no growth in substance other than being able to ad lib from pre-received talking points when swapping intellectualisms with Sean Hannity.

Bachmann is out there on the front lines.  Fielding the jabs, espousing her stands and doing rather well at it.  Palin?  She seems to drop in like an uninvited guest.  If she enters the race I do believe she'll do it to deny Bachmann, but if so she may have underestimated how tired people have become of her.  She's been replaced by a Congresswoman who actually has a record even if not sterling and a real Governor, Rick Perry, who would, I expect, make mince meat of her in a debate.

Whether or not I change my opinion of Michele Bachmann remains to be seen.  However, if I had to choose between these two women there is no contest.  Bachmann seems to genuinely care about the country.  Palin seems to genuinely care about herself. Rock on Michele!

Good Bye Old Friend

No, not Bacchus.  He left us two years ago this month.  It seems like yesterday and we still miss him terribly.  It's the couch.  His couch, really. He played on it, ate on it, we snuggled on it but mostly he slept on it.

We've had it for better than 20 years.  It was a purchase we made from the model house we bought in Simi Valley.  That was back in the eighties!  It has been recovered only once - when it moved from living room into family room.  Then we let our guard down and allowed the dogs on it.  Most came only when invited.  Bacchus owned it.

Recently I've had two good friends lose their dogs.  One unabashedly declared not only did he love his dog, but he was in love with his dog. Then wondered if we understood the depth of his feeling.  Of course we did.

The other, being a Buddist, is hoping her dog will return to her via reincarnation. Not being Buddist, I'm not sure how that works, but again, the depth of feeling.  Being widowed and totally alone she feels lost without him.  I worry about a degree of obsession with her but I understand the grief.

In time I hope the zest for life without their beloved pets returns.  Ours has though it has been  a slow process.  Mainly I think because we haven't and don't plan to get another dog.  There are a slew of reasons.

Reminders remain around the house though.  There are still some cans of food in the laundry room pantry.  His Mutt Lucks and grooming tools.  A couple of water dishes.  I still find tufts of fur stuck under a piece of furniture seldom moved.  And the couch.

We decided when he first got sick, when we knew the couch was due for replacement, that we wouldn't get rid of it as long as we had him.  And so we kept it, and kept it and kept it.  It was comfortable, well broken in and pretty thread bare.  Yet we were reluctant to make that move.

But it's time now.  New recliners suitable for old couch potatoes have taken it's place.  I'm happy with them for they too are comfortable.  I'll miss that old couch though.  It was a part of what made the house our home.  I miss the old dog too, who was even more so.