Puffin’s Place

There was a time when I admired John McCain. Trusted him. Would have voted for him.
Today I despise him. Find him beneath contempt.
Along with those who would follow his irrelevant, unpleasant, frantic campaign.
He appears to lack the guts and brains to deal with issues. I wonder, did he ever have them or did I misread [...]

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It often seems that the issues that most galvanize Americans are those that involve legislating someone else’s behavior. My state of North Carolina has ruled that all state school system locations will be entirely smoke-free. Most states tell cyclists what they must wear on their heads. Some states still outlaw anal sex. The current Feds [...]

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63% – How many votes in the Senate McCain has skipped during the 110th Congress (since January 2007).
96 – The number of Senate votes McCain has missed since his last recorded vote on April 8.
111 – The number of days since McCain last attended a committee hearing (of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on April [...]

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John McCain and i are about the same age. I am a supporter of Barack Obama.
That being said, I want to talk “senior” to “senior.”
Although when you have seen one 71-year old you have seen one 71-year old, I want to note some things that I have noticed that may be useful for those considering [...]

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All of the hullabaloo about Michele and Barack Obama might remind us that being among the elite is no bad thing to be. Especially when the label is applied by others.
For reasons transparently envious, the Obamas are constant targets of the unfunny (cf Joel Stein’s strained efforts to write standup in a recent LA Times [...]

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Well, I may as well join the blogfrey about the current New Yorker cover…why else would they do such an unfunny, stoopid cover save to have people talk.
Driving today I listened to past and present cartoonists, some for the New Yorker, pose and pontificate and preen themselves because they “get it.” Good for them. Most [...]

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While Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and many others are doing—apparently—the CYA dance with the FISA bill, a North Carolinian state employee was reminding many of us that integrity and guts can still be found in this country.
“I don’t see how anybody could celebrate his career,” the 51-year-old said in an interview, noting Helms’ opposition [...]

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) joined Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and 25 other Democrats in voting against the bill. (Today’s Washington Post.)
Obama voted for the amendment and then, when the amendment failed, for the bill.
Go figger.

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Well, after reading a plethora of comments on Obama and FISA on the my Obama site, posting some there, and tunneling through more of Dreams from My Father, I know what to do.
Stay with Obama.
I do not know why he is waffling, and his book reminds me that I will probably never ever understand most [...]

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If Obama’s retreat on the FISA bill has you in a twist, you can go to this page of his campaign site and read blog comments by hundreds of us who feel the scarey sounds of politicians footsteps in some of what’s happened since the primaries. Apparently he now finds Bush’s hammering of the Constitution [...]

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