Veterans Days 2008 and beyond

Posted by on Nov 11, 2008 in Los Angeles, Personal, Politics | No Comments

This week our family is observing Veterans day twice – both Monday and Tuesday.  We do have a veteran of World War II in our family, but that wasn’t our reason for taking off forty percent of our work week for the holiday.  My son’s preschool is off on Tuesday, and my daughter’s elementary school […]

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Politics is the new black

Posted by on Nov 8, 2008 in Los Angeles, Media, Politics | No Comments

It can’t be just my imagination or the circles I travel in.  I think that the 2008 election has actually made politics cool again.  Maybe politics was never cool, or only in the 1960s.  The presidential candidates were more than just “historic” – they made the election worth watching.  We followed their stories and felt […]

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Poll working

Posted by on Nov 5, 2008 in Personal, Politics | No Comments

In an earlier post (Mama Needs Obama – October 17, 2008) I noted that my mother is an aging woman with no health insurance, a lifelong Republican who has always voted a straight Republican ticket and always will.  I wrote about her newest health issue, sciatica, which joins diabetes and a cluster of other related […]

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Diversity and bumper stickers

Posted by on Nov 5, 2008 in Los Angeles, Politics | No Comments

The other night on MSNBC Keith Olbermann (interviewing Frank Rich) made a comment about the lack of diversity at televised McCain-Palin rallies.  Other than the few outspoken African American Republicans who appear at rallies or who make their living as a pundit on political shows, the Republican candidates are in a sea of white faces. […]

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This amazing moment

Posted by on Nov 5, 2008 in Politics | No Comments

It’s only 10:15 p.m. West Coast time, and I already have an election hangover.  A storybook half moon, blurred by clouds and tilted, like a partly closed eye, hangs outside in the West.  Just looking at the moon on it’s side like that reminds me how tired I am.  Speaking with nervous Democratic friends this […]

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I am not my bumper sticker

Posted by on Oct 28, 2008 in Los Angeles, Personal, Politics | No Comments

My car displays two bumper stickers, one plain blue one showing my support for the Obama-Biden ticket and the other the iconic “Hope” image of Obama’s face in red, white, and blue.  I had hoped to find one that said “Progress” because I’ve always found “hope” to be either hokey or just too heart-on-the-sleeve to […]

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Who wears the cloth coat in this election?

Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 in Politics | One Comment

The big, trivial news today on the presidential election was that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on clothing for the vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.  The money was spent in the last two months at upscale department stores like Neiman Marcus.  I am reminded of what Nixon considered a salient point in his family’s qualifications […]

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Making a fortune on adultery

Posted by on Oct 21, 2008 in Media, Politics | 3 Comments

It takes a lot of money to advertise on CNN.  I’ve been watching Anderson Cooper off and on, interspersing his show with Matthews, Olberman, and Maddow on MSNBC.  The ads that run between segments on CNN are usually paid for by energy companies, claiming that they are investing in alternative energy sources while slipping in […]

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America’s ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ Moment

Posted by on Oct 21, 2008 in Personal, Politics | No Comments

The Academy Award-winning movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress), starring Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton, came out in 1967, causing a stir because of its theme of interracial marriage between an African American man and a Caucasian woman.  It’s a great movie but one that […]

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Mama needs Obama

Posted by on Oct 17, 2008 in Personal, Politics | No Comments

My 60-year-old mother is complaining about the excruciating pain in her leg.  She’s been in mounting pain for months, and on and off for years.  A woman loathe to take pain medication on top of her daily prescriptions to control hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol, she recently took over a week’s supply of Vicodin.  She […]

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