Cocktail Hour: Indiana Pale Moon and Stardust

Only two more days until the Indiana primary.  Hillary and Bill have been running a marathon. No, make that an Iron Man trialthlon to reach as many voters as they can and bypass the media filter that remains steadfastly in Obama’s court.  It’s hard to believe our sticker still has this much of an uphill fight after all of the “must win” states she’s added to her column.  But she’s not giving up and neither are we.  We’re here til the very end, climbing that mountain with her.

Welcome to the Clinton Cocktail Hour.  This is the time the day when we beat our pens into swizzle sticks and relax with friends.  Our bar is to the left of the door.  Our bartender, as always, is Rico.  Watch his flair.  Tonight he is featuring the Indy Melonade as his special cocktail, but you can order anything you like.

Indiana was home to the composer of the music we are listening to tonight.  Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael, Bloomington, Indiana’s native son, wrote the American standard Stardust.  It’s melody meanders, swooping up and down on tinkling piano to a sweet resolution.  It’s lovely.  And so is this song, The Nearness of You, sung by our brown-eyed beauty, Norah Jones.

We welcome Obamaphiles to stay and celecrate but everyone should know that it isn’t polite to use your trigger words at a cocktail party.  So please check them with our lovely checkroom attendent, Florence.  The waiters will be circulating with and assortment of fine popcorns, plain, buttered and seasoned.   Please dring responsibly and tip your wait staff generously.

MAD Ads for McCain

My friend and colleague, jerseygirl5555 emailed me a couple of links on Friday to these faux campaign ads that showed up recently on Mad TV and they’re pretty funny.  Which just goes to show you that even Republicans can have a sense of humor and there is hope for them yet.  Just wait, Jerseygirl, I’m going to have you voting for Hillary in the General Election, see if I don’t.  😉

Here they are.  The politically correct may want to avert their eyes.

My Hillary T-Shirt Design

Hey, it’s a work in progress. The Sistine Chapel wasn’t painted in a day.

You can design one too.

Alert! We are probably going to hit 400,000 hits sometime today.  Yeah!!

Did he really say that?

I just got finished watching Hillary with George Stephanopolis and it was no cakewalk. George is as tough as O’Reilly but a whole lot smarter. Still, she did pretty well, I thought. She was relentlessly positive and even said it’s time to move on past Reverend Wright. I agree. The problem is not with the black church. The problem is with this one preacher who said some stupid and imprudent things. Barack should have said something to him but I digress.

I haven’t seen Obama;s appearance on Meet the Press but some commenters at MyDD have started to document the atrocities. Before I interrupt my cleaning to go watch it on the DVR, can someone confirm whether he actually said the following things? No one is this cocky, arrogant and narcissistic.

“My father is from Africa. It’s in my DNA to bring people together.”

“It’s one of my faults, being concerned with others’ feelings.” *

“I don’t think the race is over until Sen. Clinton decides she is getting out”

*This is the a variation on the standard answer to the “flaws” question from job interviews and is often cancelled out by the reference letter that says, “You will be lucky to get Obama to work for you”.

Sunday: Didja hear? Obama won Guam!

He won by seven votes. I think that’s the maximum number of riders in a teacup on the Mad Hatter’s ride in DisneyWorld in Florida and one more player than the Detroit Red Wings take to the ice in a regulation hockey game. I’d say that’s pretty definitive. Clinton can pack it in now.

In other news:

Hillary has her own preacher dude on her campaign staff. His name is Burns Strider and he’s not really an ordained minister but he was a Southern Baptist missionary in Hong Kong. His current mission is to talk to evangelical types who might have voted for Republicans and convince them that Hillary’s a fine, upstanding, moral person. Should be a piece of cake. All he has to do is decline any invitations to speak at the National Press Club and she’s good to go.

Speaking of religion, there’s an Islamic scholar in Turkey who could be the Martin Luther we’ve been waiting for in the Muslim world. The NYTimes has an article on Fethullah Gulen, a US based exiled Turk who is setting up new forms of Muslim schools, called PakTurk, all over the middle east and central asia. Mr. Gulen is a member of the Sufi sect of Islam, so it should come as no surprise that he’s more moderate and flexible in his approach to Islam. Here’s a bit of his philosophy:

“Private schools can’t make our sons good Muslims,” Mr. Niazi said, sitting on the floor in a Quetta house. “Religious schools can’t give them modern education. PakTurk does both.”

The model is the brainchild of a Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. A preacher with millions of followers in Turkey, Mr. Gulen, 69, comes from a tradition of Sufism, an introspective, mystical strain of Islam. He has lived in exile in the United States since 2000, after getting in trouble with secular Turkish officials.

Mr. Gulen’s idea, Mr. Aytav said, is that “without science, religion turns to radicalism, and without religion, science is blind and brings the world to danger.” …

They prescribe a strong Western curriculum, with courses, taught in English, from math and science to English literature and Shakespeare. They do not teach religion beyond the one class in Islamic studies that is required by the state. Unlike British-style private schools, however, they encourage Islam in their dormitories, where teachers set examples in lifestyle and prayer.

“Whatever the West has of science, let our kids have it,” said Erkam Aytav, a Turk who works in the new schools. “But let our kids have their religion as well.”

Jeez, get this man a foundation. This is one cause worth funding.

Anglachel describes the crazy obsession that the other half of our party has for the Clinton’s in The Whiteness of the Whale. Apparently, we Clinton supporters don’t have the right pedigree because we refuse to turn our backs on white trash working class and sourtherners. They’re either Bubbas or Bunkers and we are now associated with them. You can dress us up but you can’t take us out. I can see where she’s going with this but I think she is overlooking the powerful effect of marketing and group mentality. Not everyone in Obama’s camp are Ivy League grads. A lot of them are just wannabees. And who wouldn’t want to be a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model with a PhD in Architecture? If that’s the class you aspire to belong to, you’ve got to be properly taught to hate all the people your peer group hates. Many of the Obamaphiles have no idea why they hate the Clintons.

The top ten most influential political pundits in the US according to the UK’s Telegraph are:
10. Mark Halperin
9. David Broder
8. Jon Stewart
7. Tim Russert
6. Matt Drudge
5. John Harris and Jim Vandehei
4. Rush Limbaugh
3. Sean Hannity
2. Chris “Tweety” Matthews
1. Karl Rove

That’s a pretty scary list right there. Betcha Tweety is having a good day though. Notice anything special about this list, I mean other than the fact that only one is a liberal? Yep, no women. I intend to be the first. Just wait until next year’s top ten list. I’ll be right up there with Frog March himself. Hey, a girl can dream.

One final note: It’s never too late to volunteer to help out in Indiana and North Carolina. We still have three days of hard work ahead of us. And if Hillary doesn’t shave Obama’s margin in NC, those of you armchair election jockeys are going to wonder if you did enough. Hey, I put in my time in NJ and PA. I did my part. (guilt trip, guilt trip, guilt trip) See here or here for details. And if you can’t, a yuppie food stamp is always greatly appreciated.