My personal guess is that Mr. Obama made his quota of unassisted three-pointers while with the troops overseas last week ...

Mr. Obama: You'll clearly need Hillary on your ticket to have even a sliver of a chance to beat the odds of running against The Keys to the White House--now that the economy is continuing to grow (albeit slowly!) this quarter, gas prices beginning to drop and the "Republican surge" in Iraq turning out to be a surprising winner.

Not to mention that you're running against a bona fide war hero--one of Mediawingnuts' favorites no less. As it stands now, no fewer than ten of the "Keys" are "True" and only seven were needed for Mr. McCain to win. They are Keys numbered 2, 4 (Nader is at 6% this week), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (the "surge" worked), 12 (the Hanoi Hilton) and 13,

Admittedly, you will have to feel comfortable with your choice of a running mate both before and after the voting in November--whether you win or lose--and I for one believe that you most assuredly will feel more comfortable with Hillary's name next to yours on the posters than with nearly any other possibility of which I am aware.

Al Gore hasn't even hinted that he was interested and Ronald Reagan and Franklyn Delano Roosevelt are ineligible.

Mr. Obama, you will have to swallow your pride--difficult for someone who sees himself as our "Dark Knight"--and just think about what the past year has largely been all about--both for yourself and for the Democrats who endured the longest primary season in their memories.

One poll showed as much as a 5% increase in your numbers--to between 53% and 55%--when you had her on the ticket versus without her on your ticket. Those eighteen million cracks in the glass ceiling had the initials "HRC" all over them.

Don't let your pride stand in the way of at least making this November another close race, Mr. O. (Of course, you'll probably lose anyway!)

And as regards Bill Clinton taking you off of your message of change: Take the time to make a couple of phone calls and decide for yourself if Hillary and Bill are really the stick-in-the-muds that your campaign folks seem to think.

My brother in Connecticut still thinks it's all a matter of the Keys to the White House and an election or two in the past that showed that each of the recent Presidential elections was a referendum on the former (or current at the time) administration.

But even on that score ... the keys are turning, Mr. O.--away from your being elected, not toward your being elected.

Give yourself at least a chance in November! Don't throw away your only chance--and for the rest of us, the fun of a close election.

As I see it, without HRC on the ticket, you will lose by upwards of 100 electoral votes. And while you're thinking, be sure to watch Dara Torres swimming during the Summer Olympics and determine for yourself if Hillary's "old age" will be a problem.

A "Dr. No" I Can Believe In!!!

Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R. Okla.)

When I hear laudatory commentary from both Fox Talk Radio and Air America about the same person on the same ride home from my day behind walls and barbed wire (another story for another time) ... it's worth my while to listen up, I think.

Basically, they were both heralding the courage and common sense of Dr. Tom Coburn (a US Senator in his off-time) who took notice of the fact that Of the 890 bills that have been passed in the 110th Congress, only 50 of them have been debated. For simply insisting that the Senate debate a bill before it is passed, Coburn has been labeled “Dr. No” by nearly all politicians and persons with a fork in the pork, so to speak.

Interestingly, neither Barack Obama and John McCain are among these sneaky legislators (liberals and conservatives) with selfish agendas. It speaks well of them both that they co-sponsored a bill with Senator Coburn back in 2006 that called for "transparency" in our spending. Coburn, at that time, introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which requires the full disclosure of all entities or organizations receiving federal funds. This was so that Americans could better hold government accountable for wasteful spending.

Problem is: What good is that bill today if the legislation passes through to law without even being debated? Data are simply data ... nothing more, unless the persons who vote on the bills have access to those data in the course of DEBATING!!

Count me among the "Dr. No's" in this great country.

Veepstakes has run out of gas, me thinks!

Now that the Dark Knight" has returned to earth from his lofty week in narcissism and adulation, the real business of picking a Vice-Presidential candidate seems to be on everyone's minds ... except the minds of the Presidential candidates.

But wait! The Olympics are upon us and we are all suddenly more aware of Dara's age than McCain's and Beijing is more in focus than either Denver or Minneapolis.

Still let me predict (yawn) that of the top tier (they call it the "short list" for each of the candidates), we'll see Hillary and Mitt duking it out in September and October. My thoughts are along the lines of, "When in doubt, go with a winner--particularly one who is outside your inner circle."

Hillary and Mitt fit that bill perfectly, although the betting today seems to be on Joe Biden and Tim Pawle. With Obama and his ego anything is possible, of course (whoever he chooses, he'll know in his heart he's right!), but with McCain the choice will narrow down to Mitt Romney and (surprise) Mike Huckabee who dragged him along in primary battles as long as he was able.

We'll see ...

America's own "Dark Knight" wows everyone at Bed, Bath and Beyond our borders to Europe and the Middle East ... for starters ...

Why bother to watch Christian Bale dressing like a super-hero when we have what appears to be an authentic super-hero in Barack Obama?

To say the very least, Barack Obama has been getting rock star treatment from hundreds of thousands of adoring expatriate Americans, Arabs, Jews, Germans (200,000 there alone!) and French this past week--with Britain on tap for this weekend. People actually climbed lamp posts in Berlin to get a fleeting glimpse of our Democratic Presidential candidate--whom they would like to vote for but--for most--can't.

Some call it Barackomania (or Obamamania, depending upon the Cable Channel you happen to be watching); then again, some of us see the apparent worldwide adulation as dangerous ... possibly feeding an already narcissistic ego that could possibly have long-lasting consequences. Don't we already have a president who "knows" he's right 100% of the time?

Admittedly, as an American, I am as proud of his undeniable charm. intellect, charisma and worldwide popularity as the next guy, but I also have a nagging fear about all of this. The scene in Berlin, in particular, took me back seventy-five or so years ...

The scene at Mile High Stadium in Denver one month from now gives me goose bumps--uncomfortable goose bumps!

I had been thinking that we might take the grandchildren to see "Dark Knight" sometime during our August family reunion in York, Maine.

Is the "Dark Knight" even too dark for an elderly (generally dark) blogger?

Maybe ... maybe not!

After reading about scenes of torture and pencils being poked into a victim's head (through the eye?), I'm not even sure that I'll go and see it during the first day when many of the others will be sleeping in or just plain bushed from driving all the way up to Maine. Then again, knowing me, I will probably bite the bullet and endure the intensity and gore ... after all, the movie is rated PG-13 and I'm 73.

I guess Heath Ledger is the "hit" of the movie and largely the reason for the new box office records

An even greater challenge than making it to the moon in ten years ... (Thank you, Al Gore!)

Al Gore: "To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in 10 years."

Al Gore is 100% right! We have to break the umbilical cord to fossil fuels (especially oil!) within ten years. On Thursday, Gore called on Americans to completely abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within 10 years, and replace them with carbon-free renewables like solar, wind and geothermal.

Although this might sound like folly to some, the alternatives (if we don't do something QUICK) would be the ugly face of folly. Let's listen to the man ... NOW!

Global warming is real. The polar ice caps are melting as you read this. Maybe we've already run out of time, and we just don't know it.

It ain't just the polar bears, friends!

Hey ... every other blogger is posting this today ... why not Mediawingnuts?

My brother Richard in Connecticut has told me time and again that my postings lack taste. Maybe this will redeem his often unfair attacks.

IndyMac?? I had just gotten used to saying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Or was it Fannie Mac and Freddie Mae?)

IndyMac becomes roadkill and FDIC is picking away at the carrion
Holy Christmas!! Now, I hear on Sunday night TV that the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has suspended service at IndyMac Bank, one of the largest U.S. mortgage originators, after a bank run from depositors. I wasn't watching the news that carefully this past week although I was aware that the stock prices of two leading mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were dropping every day through Friday.

with banking service at IndyMac now suspended after the bank ran out of cash due to mass withdrawals by scared customers, IndyMac is the third-largest U.S. bank to ever fail.

As I sang woefully in my last posting ...

"Yesterday ... all our troubles seemed so far away ..."

Yesterday ... all our troubles seemed so far away ...

Yesterday ... all our troubles seemed so far away ...

And oh yes, about six months ago, I didn't even know what in hell or who in hell Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are or were! I would have guessed that Fannie Mae was a brand of chocolate candies, but Freddie Mac??? Maybe a hamburger ...

To get that detail out of the way, the nation's two largest mortgage finance lenders are the Federal National Mortgage Association, nicknamed Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation, nicknamed Freddie Mac. Now be honest, how many of you knew even that much? Brother Richard in Connecticut, how about you?

Anyway, they have operated since 1968 as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Slick, huh? These "companies" are ours. Actually Fannie Mae was originally a Franklin D. Roosevelt invention to permit Americans to get back into home ownership and it wasn't privatized until Lyndon B. Johnson pulled that off in 1968.

The federal government, which in March rescued investment bank Bear Stearns to avert a collapse that threatened global financial markets, now faces a similar dilemma at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee almost half the nation's mortgages.

To make matters more interesting, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the only two Fortune 500 companies that are not required to inform the public about any financial difficulties that they may be having. In the event that there was some sort of financial collapse within either of these companies, U.S. taxpayers could be held responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in outstanding debts.

A recent investigation by the Justice Department and the SEC into the accounting practices at Freddie Mac revealed accounting errors in the amount of 4.5 to 4.7 billion dollars and resulted in the termination of three of the company's top executives. Ongoing investigations by Congress, particular the House Finance Services subcommittee that oversees the activity of GSEs, will determine the future role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market that they dominate.


Thank God for those crazy Iranians and Israelis! This would be earth-shattering news were it not for my previous posting.

Ref my previous posting I think the word is "Tribulation."

The news seems to be escalating in frequency, intensity and power ... yet the one constant (Iran vs. Israel) just might remain the world's #1 story!

From 2004 until 2008 the Israelis play games (aerial wargames) and the Iranians test (possibly future nuclear) missiles

And even as we mourn Tony Snow's passing and the heat of the domestic political rhetoric, pressure for an Israeli (surely not an American, right?) military strike against Iran appears to be growing exponentially--as just about everything else also seems to be growing exponentially (pollution, global warming, worldwide famine and violence, etc.).

But alas, the possibility of violence in the Middle East overshadows all of the other actual and potential catastrophic events, inasmuch as it, more than all of the others, could easily precipitate a nuclear Holocaust.

I think it's about time for both John McCain and Barack Obama to suggest to President Bush that we use our economic and diplomatic energies to put the kabash on both Israel and Iran before all Hades breaks loose over Tehran and Tel Aviv ... and then Baghdad ... Beirut ... Dubai ... (and oh yes) Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing and (uh huh) New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago ...

What did the Book of Revelation call it?

Maybe now is the time for Mr. Bush to sit down with the Israeli and Iranian leadership and take the lead in deescalating all of this foolishness. Left to their own devices, the Jews and Persians would play "chicken" till we are all barbecued.

Not just the biggest wind farm ever ... the biggest whatever ever!

T. Boone Pickens, oilman or windbag?

Whatever else "it" might be, "it" will at least be the largest public policy ad campaign ever--bigger than "Just say no!" and "Ban the bomb!" together.

To be honest, I had never even heard much about T. Boone Pickens' wind farm or anything else he has done in recent years until my brother Richard in Connecticut sent me a couple of his YouTube and Pickens-website videos and the address to Pickens' website's homepage promoting renewable energy sources, primarily wind.

He refers to the US as the "Saudi Arabia of wind"--a phrase that bears some looking into inasmuch as a national wind resource inventory taken by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1991 (while I was lolling in the Saudi sand enjoying the oil money in Saudi Arabia, as it just so happens) shocked the world when it reported that the three most wind-rich states-—North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas—-had enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy all of America's electricity needs.

Now a new study by a team of engineers at Stanford reports that the harnessable wind energy there and elsewhere in America is far, far more enormous than first believed.

I'll let you listen to Pickens himself presenting a 10-minute white-board talk that clearly shows the possibilities of the new energy revolution just ahead. Grab a beer, click on this paragraph and then just sit back and be prepared to be seriously stunned.

Whatcha think?

Hey ... what gives? Is the Dream Ticket of Obama-Clinton back on the front burner?

Obama and Hillary aboard plane traveling to New York today--would you say that the coy twinkle in Barack's eyes says something?

"What gives?" is right! Why in the world would Prince Obama meet with first one veep vetter (during an unannounced stop in his busy schedule) and then ride with a second vetter (Caroline Kennedy, no less) and yes, Hillary Clinton herself on the way to not one, but two fundraisers and rallies in New York?

If those actions didn't stoke speculation among the junkies (like me!) then I don't know of anything short of an "Obama-Clinton" pin on the vest of his jacket that would.

Stay tuned!

"Veep Vetter" is political junkie lingo for a person hired by Barack Obama (or John McCain, of course) to assist in the decision as to who should be the Vice-Presidential candidate.

Just when I was beginning to think that the "narcissism" moniker wasn't befitting Prince Obama ...

Just when I was beginning to think that the "Narcissism" moniker wasn't befitting Prince Obama, he ups and decides that he will "accept" the bequeathing of the Democratic Presidential Nomination (a.k.a. "the coronation") at the Denver Broncos' Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.

Yeesh ... just what we need ... 85,000 to 100,000 adoring Democrats wetting their pants in excitement over the "Prince" himself putting his arms out in feigned humility and accepting their adulation.

I was right the first time. Once a narcissist, always a narcissist!

I only hope that al-Qaeda isn't resetting some horrid GPS-guided assassination device--and that the Secret Service is honing theirs!! (Most experts believe that we can provide adequate security, but I am always a little nervous since those awful days in the 1960s.)

Maybe I misjudged the man ... maybe he's not as narcissistic as I had believed ...

Sasha (6) and her dad, Barack Obama, at a Fourth of July event

Mr. Obama would do well to ponder the words of David Hilbert (1868-1943)

David Hilbert (1868-1943) ... arguably, the Greatest Mathematician of the Twentieth Century

"Before beginning I should put in three years of intensive study, and I haven't that much time to squander on a probable failure." ... D. Hilbert

Please, Mr. Obama--stay firm on pulling our boys and girls out of Iraq and homeward bound within sixteen months! You may have time to squander, but they don't.

After the last couple of postings ...

If I have happened to think of a point of view or even a “point-of-viewer” that ticked me off during the past couple of years, there’s a good chance that I have used a worthless blog-posting as a venue to share my feelings with the world.

I promise you that, before redirecting my anger--or ego--to the keyboard, (I hope that) I will at least try to think twice before typing and posting.

A good question for me to ask myself is, “Do I want this posting to represent me on the Almighty Blogosphere—or anywhere else in this, God’s great universe--or His grand scheme of things?”

Borrowed from "OnTheIssues.org" ... just to clear things up a little ...

After my most recent posting it behooves me to clear the matter up as regards where the two principal candidates stand on the issue of abortion ("pro-life" versus "pro-choice") straight from OnTheIssues.org:

John McCain:

• Pro-life and an advocate for the Rights of Man everywhere. (Feb 2008)
• GovWatch: 1999: Don't force women to have illegal operations. (Feb 2008)
• Abortion issue shows what kind of country we are. (Aug 2007)
• Concerned if women undergo illegal dangerous operations. (May 2007)
• Supports federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. (May 2007)
• Prosecute abortion doctors, not women who get them. (Jan 2000)
• “Family Conference” if daughter wanted an abortion. (Jan 2000)
• Abortion OK if raped; and no testing for rape. (Jan 2000)
• Supports fetal tissue research; against over-intensity. (Jan 2000)
• Overturn Roe v. Wade, but keep incest & rape exceptions. (Jan 2000)
• Support adoption & foster care; work together on abortion. (Oct 1999)
• Wants Roe vs. Wade made irrelevant, but would not repeal it. (Aug 1999)
• Opposes partial-birth abortions & public financing. (Aug 1999)
• Nominate justices based on experience, and values. (Jun 1999)
• Restrict abortions; no partial-birth; no public funding. (Jul 1998)

… and his voting record …

• Supports repealing Roe v. Wade. (May 2007)
• Voted YES on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
• Voted YES on barring HHS grants to organizations that perform abortions. (Oct 2007)
• Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
• Voted YES on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
• Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
• Voted YES on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
• Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
• Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
• Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
• Voted YES on banning human cloning. (Feb 1998)
• Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
• Expand embryonic stem cell research. (Jun 2004)
• Rated 75% by the NRLC, indicating a mixed record on abortion. (Dec 2006)

Barack Obama:

• Ok for state to restrict late-term partial birth abortion. (Apr 2008)
• We can find common ground between pro-choice and pro-life. (Apr 2008)
• Undecided on whether life begins at conception. (Apr 2008)
• Teach teens about abstinence and also about contraception. (Apr 2008)
• GovWatch: Obama's "present" votes were a requested strategy. (Feb 2008)
• Expand access to contraception; reduce unintended pregnancy. (Feb 2008)
• Rated 100% by NARAL on pro-choice votes in 2005, 2006 & 2007. (Jan 2008)
• Voted against banning partial birth abortion. (Oct 2007)
• Stem cells hold promise to cure 70 major diseases. (Aug 2007)
• Trust women to make own decisions on partial-birth abortion. (Apr 2007)
• Extend presumption of good faith to abortion protesters. (Oct 2006)
• Constitution is a living document; no strict constructionism. (Oct 2006)
• Moral accusations from pro-lifers are counterproductive. (Oct 2004)

Need more be said?

What do these four prominent black "Republicans" have in common?

What do these four prominent black "Republicans" have in common?

J. C. Watts
Alan Keyes
Colin Powell
Armstrong Williams

Well, for starters, my brother in Connecticut suggested to me on the phone that he believes that, push come to shove, they will back Barack Obama, the most left-leaning Democrat that the Democrats could have selected.

Hmm ... I wonder why ...

It's really very scary that prominent black pro-life conservatives might show such hypocrisy as to support a fellow black ... on the basis (seemingly) of the color of his skin.

And just what will they say when they stand before the LORD in that great day? How will they feel as they confess, "LORD I voted to kill millions of babies and support homosexual marriage because of the skin color of the Democrat candidate for President!"

Watch out, John McCain! Obama is coming down and out of his narcissistic image ...

New and friendlier Barack Obama emerges after his handlers became worried about the "narcissism" label