Bus my kid to a McCain rally!!!!!

A couple of days ago there was an item widely reported that in order to achieve a body-count barely exceeding embarrassment, the McCain campaign bussed in about 4,000 kids from local schools. Initially, I only focused on the obvious import, which was that McCain can't generate a legitimate crowd of supporters.

But then, I heard another pro-proposition 8 blurb here in California that really got me thinking at a different level. Some background: Several months ago, the California Supreme Court held that gay and lesbian marriages were legal and must be recognized by law here in California. This sparked the homophobes to scramble to get proposition 8 on the ballot here for the November election. The upshot is that a yes vote on 8 is for an amendment to our State Constitution declaring that the only recognizable marriage in California must be between a man and a woman.

In support of the proposition, the proponents have mounted this totally bogus campaign in which they claim that if Prop 8 does not pass, it will be mandatory that all school kids in California be taught that gay/lesbian marriages are just peachy. Along with that they feature a segment where a school class went the the lesbian marriage of their popular teacher.

I'm not up on the details of the class's attendance at their teacher's wedding. Was it totally voluntary with parental consent, or was the class "bussed" to the wedding without parental consent? If it was the former, I'm totally down with it as parent of now-grown kids; but if it was the latter, I would be offended and pissed off, EVEN IF I WAS THE BIGGEST SUPPORTER OF GAY MARRIAGE IN TOWN!

So, you see what I'm getting at, right! How can my kid get bussed to a McCain rally without my permission? Maybe they did get parental permission, and if they did, I'll back off. But if they didn't it is an egregious situation, and if I was one of those non-consenting parents, I would be raising holy hell. I'd rather send my child to a wedding between two loving people of the same sex than a rally of bigots and haters.

~ Tom

Lally-Obama-Powell mashup

As most of you know, the great poet Michael Lally is my long-time and dear friend. I have spent many hours in the last few days using my home recording studio to put together a mashup of Michael's poetry with speeches from Barak Obama and comments from Colin Powell. I took Michael's clips from his CD "What You Find There."

I hope you dig with I have done. Click on the link below which will take you to the MP3 file which you can download and play with any MP3 player.

I'd love to read your comments and/or answer any questions you might have.

Here is the link to the MP3 file.

Sayin' my prayers

I've never been a praying man, but in the last couple of weeks I've been saying a prayer for some very important people: Barak's Secret Service Detail. Ladies and gentlemen, may God bless you and keep you strong, vigilant, and most of all, lucky.

~ tom

Donna Brazile - A Great American

I've always loved Donna Brazile. Aside from being intelligent and articulate, with a razor-sharp wit, she is one of the most physically beautiful women around these days.

Anyway, I was surfing around and someone on a HuffPo blog comment steered me to this link pleading with me to take the time to watch it. I did, and boy did I mist up, and then got fired up. It's less than five minutes. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

~ tom

Wise words from The Boss

"They [the Bush administration] will, however, be leaving office, dropping the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis in our laps. Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama's understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back."

~ Bruce Springsteen
(From the stage at a 10/04 Vote for Change Rally in Philly)

Kudos for Joe

Today, all the talk, and all the blogs, center on Palin's "performance" last night. As a truly life-long Democrat (when I was a young boy my Dad taught me about Hubert Humphrey's stand at the 1948 convention) I just want to say how proud I was of Joe Biden. He handled himself perfectly, and when he almost broke down in speaking of the travails of single father's I misted up big time because, unlike Palin's rehearsed, non responsive diatribe, I knew there was no way Joe was faking his true feelings. I'm so grateful that he is on the ticket, and I will be proud to call him my Vice President when he and Barack are elected.

For those of you who only remember Hubert Humphrey for his dubious stint as LBJ's VP, here is why he was my Dad's hero:

Despite aggressive pressure by Truman's aides to avoid forcing the issue on the Convention floor, Humphrey chose to speak on behalf of the minority plank. In a renowned speech, Humphrey passionately told the Convention, "To those who say, my friends, to those who say, that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years too late! To those who say, this civil rights program is an infringement on states' rights, I say this: the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights!" Humphrey and his allies succeeded; the pro-civil-rights plank was narrowly adopted. [From this Wikipedia entry]

Joe reminds me a lot of that Hubert Humphrey, which in turn reminds me of my late father, which is always good thing.