Sean Penn - A Great American

This post on Huffington by Sean Penn is a bit long but well worth the reading. Here are a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite:

If John McCain, in reflection, offers no support for those that served beside him, nor those who serve today, what has experience provided him? And when a man regarded so highly in heroic terms of military service, confides personal glory as a common motivation to the young Americans who risk their lives, at what point would he acknowledge patriotism as something more considered than the glib hawkishness exulted by the Republican Convention? His choice of Palin is, once again, McCain's vainglorious head rising. It's about "winning," not serving. As Senator Joe Biden said this week, "Don't tell me your values, show me your budget and I'll tell you your values."

And, at the end, in recognizing that Obama's tax plan would whack him, Sean says:

This November, vote American. Vote imagination. Vote hope. Vote your conscience. Vote for the troops. Vote to make me pay higher taxes. (I owe it to your children and my own.) Vote to put your country first.

~ Tom

Charlie, ask about this!

I can think of a million things that Charlie Gibson should ask Palin in the upcoming interview, but here is one he should ask for sure:

"Do you believe in equal pay for equal work for women?" For that matter, someone should ask McSame about it too. As I understand it, both are against it.

Here are the facts from the AFL-CIO web site:

In 2007, women were paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Economist Evelyn Murphy, president and founder of The WAGE Project, estimates the wage gap costs the average full-time U.S. woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her work life.

Those working class white women who are gravitating toward Palin in the latest poll are not going to like her answer at all. How would she squirm around this?

~ Tom

A required read...

Here is a terrific article by Gloria Steinem from yesterday's LA Times. It's so refreshing to read a reasoned presentation these days. I especially agree with her statement that:

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom.

~ Tom

Days of big glasses

I had to buy a new scanner. The technology has improved vastly since I purchased the old one.

Here is a test scan of an old photo of Michael Lally and me in April 1992 at his place in Santa Monica. Those cool glasses I'm wearing sure look dopey now!

An historic moment

I just watched the roll-call vote wherein Hillary called for nomination by acclimation of Obama. That was cool enough but watching the audience reaction (guess Fox could find no sad faces) really brought it home to me. The majority of African Americans openly weeping, joined by no small number of others gave wordless testament to the long, hard struggle that brought the moment to fruition. Then hearing some of the old-timers like John Lewis interviewed, made me see just how important, (no, "monumental") this was for them

I immediately experienced a feeling, which I'm certain was felt millions of times at that moment by an aggregation of Americans from all walks and of all races:

"I never thought I would live to see this day."

Right now I'm proud to be an American, and I intend to increase the instances of feeling this pride by doing everything I can to elect Barak Obama.

~ Tom

A new drinking game?

I'm listening to Thom Hartman right now, who just made one of those points where you say, "Dang, I knew something not quite right was happening but I couldn't put my finger on it." Thom noted that for some years now the networks and Dems/Repubs have had a pool agreement whereby there is a single feed for the convention coverage. This is a rotating assignment, which this year falls to Fox! Thom noted that in 90 percent of the "cut-away" shots the people chosen were either looking entirely bored, talking to one another rather than listening to the speaker, or outright frowning. As soon as he said that I knew EXACTLY what he was talking about, and realized that it had bothered me without surfacing to my reality nodes. Thom's callers and guests who were actually there, said that 90 percent of the crowd were wildly cheering Kennedy, and that men and women, white and black, were opening weeping during Michelle's speech. You sure would have never know that from the Fox cut-away shots. Where were the smiling white faces?!

So, one of his callers suggested a new drinking game for the duration of the convention: every time a cut-away depicts a bored person, a yakking person, or a frowning person you take a slug of your drink. If you aren't drinking these days, use another beverage, or set up your own point system.

But, as one of Thom's guests noted, "Why are you surprised?"

~ Tom

Alice Smith & Mellencamp

I may have mentioned this before, but the Rhapsody music service is the best! Especially when you pay $15 per month and get a Sansa Rhapsody MP3 player. This allows you to download ANYTHING to the player for no extra charge. Now, whenever I read a favorable review, I just go to Rhapsody and download it to my player. Then, when I'm taking my hour-long walk each day with my dog, I fire up the player and put it on shuffle and hear all sorts of great new music that I would not have otherwise heard. Yesterday, I heard a couple of cuts from Alice Smith, which were really great. She only has one album out now, but check it out.

Also, I have been enjoying Mellencamps new release. On some of the tracks he really sounds like Dylan. In fact, as I was walking along the other day and one of his cuts came up on shuffle, I thought it was Dylan because I have a lot of Bob on the MP3 player. Then, as the song progressed I knew I have never heard it before, so I deduced that it was Mellencamp.

You should also check out the article on Mellencamp in the latest Rolling Stone (Downey Jr. on the cover). A representative paragraph:

With its rich, gothic-Americana sound, shaped by the impeccable tasteful roots-music producer T Bone Burnett, Life, Death, Love and Freedom is an "adult record," as Mellencamp sees it, marking the end of his hitmaking days and the beginning of something new. "I'm trying to live up to, you know, what a guy my age should be doing," he says. "I'm trying not to look silly. You know, it's like people say, 'Hey you're a rock star man.' And I don't see myself that way anymore. I'm just, like, a journeyman electrician or something."

And later:

Mellencamp is a lifelong Democrat. ... But his music has broad appeal in areas of the country that haven't voted Democratic in decades. "I have known for a long time that I was at odds politically with my surroundings," Mellencamp says. "I never wrote to my base. Nobody who is a Republican in Bloomington, Indiana is going to buy Neil Young's latest record, not even going to entertain the idea. But they might buy mine."

~ Tom