Ready on Day One?

All along, Sen. McCain has been insisting that he is the candidate with the experience to be President of this country, that he's the one that will be "ready on Day One."

Oh, really?

Then why is he avoiding the scheduled debate this Friday with Sen. Obama? He claims it is so he can hurry back to Washington to help with solving the economic crisis. Never mind that he hasn't been back to Washington for a single vote in more than 5 months. Or that Congressional leaders have publicly stated that they don't need (or want) either Senator to come back off the campaign trail.

Looks to me like he's just scared that he won't look good in a debate where he has to admit to the American people that he would just continue the policies of the last administration. Especially since the topic of this debate is foreign policy, where he might have to defend his suggestion that we might be in Iraq for another 100 years.

And now the McCain campaign wants to delay Gov. Palin's debate with Sen. Biden, as well. Since there's no plausible connection between Palin and the proposed bailout being debated in Washington, this delay looks even more suspicious.

Coupled with her refusal to answer a single question from reporters, more than three weeks after she was named as the candidate for VP, it simply looks like she's not capable of handling the responsibilities of that office.

Looks more and more like neither of these two are, or would be, "ready on Day One."

Maybe this year?

Congrats to the Cubs on winning the NL Central and securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs! Maybe this year will finally be "next year"...

Go Cubs Go!

Timing

In good comedy, timing is everything...

We get a lot of mail solicitations, especially (I think) because we are both members of the bar. On Friday, I received one that made me laugh out loud when I opened it.

The ad was from AIG's Private Client Group, and the opening text reads:

"Some Insurance Companies Respond to the Financial Consequences of a Disaster. We Help You Avoid Disaster Altogether."

I get the impression that their own marketing department doesn't read the news, let alone talk to the other branches of the company...

Talk to the animals....

When my parents were here a few weeks ago, we visited the Lincoln Park Zoo. I really like the Zoo, and am always amazed that such a nice, large park/zoo is (1) free and (2) right in the middle of Chicago! It was a cooler day and had rained in the morning, so the animals were fairly active. (A nice change from their usual mid-summer sloth.)



The lions were debating who got to have the high points in their exhibit. I think this is the first we'd seen the male active since he reached adulthood.



The new(ish) gorilla and other primate exhibit is always neat to see. There are a couple of glassed-in areas (not shown) where the question always seems to be who is watching who: the apes, or the zoo visitors?




Even the herd animals were up and about!

You can't make this stuff up

On the "she did what?" front today: Gov. Palin was mayor of Wasilla - a job which, she reminds us, had many responsibilities - from 1996 until 2002. Surely one of those responsibilities involves ultimate oversight of the police department?

Until they were prohibited from doing so by state law (signed by Gov. Knowles - D), the Wasilla police charged rape victims for the expense of and processing of a rape kit. Up to $1,200.

Ah, the champion of women's rights and family values strikes again...

O.M.G.

I am watching Sarah Palin's acceptance speech. I believe, and I hope that all of my friends, cousins, relatives, and especially my niece, also believe, that I (or they) do not need to be uneducated, redneck, wingnuts to be successful women (or men, for that matter), whether in politics or otherwise.

The unmitigated gall of this woman is unbelievable, and I, for one, will be doing what I can to make sure she never resides in a larger city than Wasilla, AK.

I strongly encourage you to do the same. Support Barack Obama for our next President.

Schadenfreude

Sometimes the Germans come up with exactly the right word.
Say, Schadenfreude.