Friday, January 22, 2010

"Going Rogue" Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue An American Life" is a light reading book. Sarah does not go into detail about boring things like where she stands on any major topics that are confronting the United States right now, or how to help the nation get back on its feet. No Sarah wrote a feel good book about her charmed life and how she has to overcome adversity from her own party, the left wing media the Democrats and anyone else who does not agree with her paranoid visions. Don't be afraid to pick up the book thinking that you will not understand it a fifth grader can understand it. The original transcript was probably written in crayon. "Going Rogue" is like reading "Legally Blond" a feel good story about a ditz that makes it to the top.

It only takes until page three for the whining to start. "I was pro-life enough for the grassroots RTL folks to adopt Piper as their poster child, but I wasn't politically connected enough for the state GOP machine to allow the organization to endorse me in early campaigns." Sarah these organizations have limited resources. They already had you in their pockets by putting your kid on their posters, they could better spend their money on a second candidate that if that candidate beat you they could then use. You were a long shot. You claim you always had an interest in politics from an early age and yet when you went to college you did not take Political Science courses, you graduated with a degree in Journalism.

Sarah tells heart warming stories of her brother pulling fake fire alarms and taking burning magazines out of a fireplace and almost burning down their house. She recalls her sisters doing dishes, ""I'm washing!"Heather would say. "I'm rinsing!" said Molly. "I'm singing!" I said. Then Heather washed the dishes and Molly rinsed, while I sat on the washing machine, which was squeezed up against the sink in our sunflower yellow kitchen, and sang until the dishes were dry." Isn't that wonderful, it is like a Doris Day movie from the sixties. In my house we bitched and moaned and fought with each other until the job was completed. 19 pages in and I already want to vomit.

Sarah who claims she was not a "girlie girl" explains how she entered into a beauty contest just to get money for college. "Linda also reminded me that the scholarship money was generous, especially if I won individual competitions within the pageant, in addition to the Miss Wassilla crown. I enlisted the advice of a former pageant winner, my friend Diane Minnick. Then I shocked my friends and family, put on a sequined Warrior-red gown, danced the opening numbers, gave the interview, and uncomfortably let my butt be compared to the cheerleaders' butts. I played my flute, and I won. In fact, I won every segment of the competition, even Miss Congeniality." Oh yeah, Sarah you are the greatest! OK lets break this down as simple as possible, she is a cute girl in Alaska showing off her butt and sucking, I mean playing a flute. She won on the sex ticket. Yes I hope my nieces look up to her, NOT! What a sell out on women's issues.

All right we are now on page 52 and Sarah is married to Todd and pregnant with their first child. Sarah must be about 23 years old and a college graduate. Remember this woman wants to be President of the United States some day. "Todd drove me to Valley Hospital. We saw the sign where we were supposed to go-deliveries-and followed the arrows...Since I thought I was dying, I didn't care that we were in the warehouse part of the hospital." She didn't go to Emergency or Admitting, she followed the signs to the back of the building and tried to go into deliveries. Even if I was that stupid to have done something that moronic I would not put it in writing for the whole world to see. Vote for me I am Sarah I am a dunce.

Sarah now captures a seat on city council and in order to keep big business out of Wasilla and keep taxes low she votes against local garbage pick up. Of course one of her foes owned the garbage truck company. She is very proud of the fact that even today much of Wasilla does not have garbage pick up and they drive, as she does, to the dump with their garbage themselves. So instead of one truck that could pick up a whole streets, lets say 100 houses, worth of garbage and drive to the dump for oh maybe $100.00 per week, $1.00 per house, Sarah figures it is better to have 100 people drive to the dump costing each person $3.00 per week in gas plus dump fees and the time to haul it. Yep, makes sense to me. A government employee for only a short time and she already has figured out how to waste constituents money and piss off her foes.

Stein is the Mayor of Wasilla and Sarah has her eye on his position. "Stein supported expanding land-use restrictions and building codes. I wanted to eliminate property taxes, slow down the rate of government growth, and build roads and water and sewer systems." How do you support road, water and sewer expansion while eliminating taxes? I hear this all of the time from Republicans, it does not make sense. I want smaller government but I support building roads and sewer and water plants. The government has to expand in order to maintain all of these amenities. It is double speak, talking with a forked tongue, talking out both sides of your mouth. Stein is old and been in politics a long time Sarah is young and cute and she wins another beauty competition, I mean Mayoral race.

Sarah tends to have a bad judge of character when it comes to people. She first backs them, then realizes that they are dishonest, then she tries to separate herself from them and can't understand how she gets caught in the crossfire. Throughout the book she tells different stories of how her bad judgement affects her. She doesn't see it as bad judgement but it keeps coming up throughout the book. She sidled up next to Mayor Stein when he first asked her to run then once her aspirations became bigger she tried to separate herself from him. She marries Todd. Todd's stepmother decides to run for Mayor after Sarah vacates the seat and Sarah backs the competition rather than her own extended family. She pairs herself up with Governor Frank Murkowski to be his lieutenant governor. Governor Murkowski is in bed with big oil companies and later is indicted for taking bribes. She writes a letter of recommendation for Mike Wooten to become an Alaska State Trooper. Mike Wooten is a drunk, poacher, wife beater, who cheated on Sarah's sister while they were married. Her first legislative director turns out to be an idiot with no political connections or savvy. Sarah has to fire the guy. On John McCains campaign one of the first people she meets is Steve Schmidt veteran campaign manager. "Schmidt AKA "the Bullet" told me he managed Arnold Schwartzenegger's campaign handled press relations for Dick Cheney, and worked on George W. Bush's 2004 reelection." "He was very good at setting traps for his opponents." Sarah loves the guy immediately. Later on in the book Sarah begins to hate Schmidt and thinks he in part silenced her. Sarah gives answers to us on how she was misled and that she isn't to blame.

She tells of the Catie Couric interviews and how Catie mistreated her and misrepresented what she said. How Joe the Plumber was an inspiration. How she tried to rewrite the Saturday Night Live skits to make them funny. She tells how the clothes that were purchased for her were not her idea, and that McCains people used the clothes to show how Sarah wasn't playing along. Sarah was being set up to take the fall. "It is unheard of for campaign staffers to brazenly throw a candidate under the media bus with sleazy anonymous comments." Poor Sarah.

"I don't like to hear people complain; I am the first to say "Buck up or stay in the truck." You have a choice on how to react to circumstances. But I will state this complaint for the record: what used to be called "mainstream" national media are, in many respects worthless as a source of factual information anymore." Yet Sarah later goes on to acknowledge respectable reporters. "To some media professionals whom I admire because you don't let anyone tell you to sit down and shut up, please keep making the idiot's heads spin...Amanda, Andrew, Ann, Bill(s), Bob, Cal, Dennis, Dick, Eddie, Fred, Glenn, Gretta, Hugh, Joey, John, Jonah, Larry, Laura, Lou, Mark, Mary, Michael, Michelle, R. A. M., Rich, Rush, S. E., Sean, Tammy, Walter." Yep no unbiased reporting out of any of these people.

After reading this book it is amazing how she takes no responsibility for losing the election or any thing else that goes bad in her life, it is always someone elses fault. She thinks running government should be done by her baking brownies, smiling and deals get done. I get a sense she hates men. She will turn on anyone who can't help her. She pretty much describes herself as an egocentric, right wing, opportunist that regards politics like a high school election where you win on looks and popularity not knowledge of the issues. Get the book from the library, read it, and look for someone else to vote for in 2012.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Sherlock Holmes and Avatar

Sherlock Holmes and Avatar are two good movies that I recommend all to see. Avatar is a must see on the big screen in 3D.

Avatar is a story about a wheelchair bound veteran Jake Scully, who gets a chance to become an Avatar. Science has figured out a way to merge a human with an alien body to form an Avatar. Even though Jake Scully has lost the use of his legs in his human form he can run and jump in his Avatar form. As an Avatar Jake befriends an alien life form that is very connected with nature. As an ex Marine he reports back to the commander on the humans base. Of course the humans are after minerals that are below the aliens home and want to move them by negotiations or by force. Jake Scully is caught in the cross fire. You must see the 3D animation and the vivid colors in this alien world, fantastic. I kept wanting to swat at the mosquito like creatures that fly around you throughout the movie.

Sherlock Holmes, I was glad kept to its roots. Unlike the Basil Rathbone movies this Sherlock Holmes is portrayed as a drug addled genius. They kept the inventions as plausible to the 1800's as possible much like the old "Wild Wild West" show. There is even a mention of Dr. Moriarty Sherlock Holmes nemesis. A funny, quirky movie that I recommend all to see. It is not necessary to see on the big screen but worth viewing at some point. Some of the dialogue I could not understand because of the brogue accents but you can still figure out the plots.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

2009 Moral Compass In Review

Well 2009 did not go out with a bang and 2010 has come in with a whimper. 2009 was a year of trying to hold on until the economy can pick up. A President just getting his feet wet. A year of few accomplishments in Cleveland sports. And some good and bad music that I reviewed. The Moral Compass has completed one year of publication and I have not been sued for slander or defamation of character. I have pissed off some friends with my views but not enough to get them to write in on the comment sections at the end of each article. I will have to try harder this year. I have heard comments on the street that lets me know that I am being read and that I do get people to think.

I wrote six articles on the Browns, none of them were very complimentary. Manidiot will stay, The autistic son of Buddy Ryan should go and Duhboll is probably out of a job. Quinn and Anderson both proved to be mediocre at best. The Browns finished the season at 5 and 11. The five teams the Browns beat have a combined record of 31 and 49 with Pittspuke being the only team with a winning record at 9 and 7. None of the teams that we beat made it to the playoffs. The highlights for the year are the Browns beat Pittspuke. My one nephew got to see the fourth longest field goal in NFL history being made by, unfortunately, Janikowski from Oakland, 61 yards. My other nephew Brett gets to brag that his first tail gate party was in snowy weather, 12 degrees outside with a wind chill of minus two. Cribbs sets record with the most kick off returns ever. Harrison breaks Jim Browns single game rushing yardage record.

I did not write about the Indians because there was nothing to write. The Indians traded away two Cy young winners and got nothing in return. The Cavs bowed out of the play offs in the finals without giving Miami much of a struggle. Congratulations to Gary Waters and the Cleveland State Vikings. CSU went to the NCAA tournament and beat Wake Forest in the first round then got crushed by Arizona. I think a NIT berth is waiting for CSU this year 2010 with a return to the NCAA tournament next year 2011.

I wrote 16 articles connected to music. Reviews of The Dead with Warren Haynes, Farm Aid, The Rock and Roll Induction Ceremonies, Jeff Beck and Dave Matthews were some of the highlights. Todd Rundgren was one of the disappointments. George Taylor Morris the DJ from Deep Tracks passed away along with Amy Farris a talented fiddle player. I did not write about the tribute to Janice Joplin which was quite good except for Lucinda Williams she sucked. Susan Tedeschi, Nona Hendrix, Carolyn Wonderland and two of the members of Santana stole the show. Remember RAP ain't Rock and either is ABBA. I hope to keep up with the music reviews people do not get as mad with a bad music review as they do with politics.

I gave my comment 11 times on political issues. I must admit that I was hoping for a little more from Obama but he has three more years to finish out strong. The economy is showing signs of picking up even though I am still unemployed. There is a health care bill being worked on that could reform the way we think of health care in the United States. People have been talking about health care reform since the Eisenhower administration, it is about time something got done. We are pulling out of Iraq and escalating in Afghanistan. I thought my Christmas wish was going to come true but alas Rush Limpdick is still alive.

Michael Steele tried to separate the Republican Party from the rantings of Rush Limbaugh but had to back down because Rush controls too many GOP votes. The NFL owners made sure that a lout like Rush would not be associated with them. Even though the rich and powerful GOP's like the way Rush lies, cheats and steels to get votes for the Republicans, no one wants to be associated with him because he lies, cheats and steels to get votes for the Republicans. Poor Rushie baby has not figured out that his personality keeps him out of the inner circle where he wants to be. Maybe this will be the year that the drug addled, bufoon will go to rot in hell.

"Going Rogue" has come out and I will be doing a book review on it early this year. Rah, rah rah, I LOVE YOU SARAH!

I still feel "Slum Dog Millionaire" is over rated and that "Gran Torino" should have been picture of the year. Looking forward to seeing "Sherlock Holmes".

Two of my friends from High School lost their fathers this year. When I went to the wakes I realized how much we had drifted apart. At some point in time I was almost like family to them as they were to me. I feel terrible for their loss and am not looking forward to the day that I lose a parent. I can not even imagine the pain. Bobby Perko lost his wife to cancer. Bob I feel for you. Again I can not even imagine what he is going through. I really can not even think of going on without my Honey Bunny, I would be lost. My prayers go out to the Focaretto, Makowski and Perko families.

Hopefully 2010 can pick up momentum and go out with a bang so that the first decade in the new millennium can close on a positive note. Here is wishing you all a prosperous, healthy New Year and may God bless us all and keep us safe.