A Conservative Finds McCain is just too much to Take

Andrew Sullivan | McCain's Integrity
Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic: "For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so." See whole article.http://www.truthout.org/article/mccains-integrity

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is Still a Wolf!

There are hundreds of sayings that speak to the fact that you cannot camoflage old ideas with a new coat of paint and call them new. No matter how you dress it up Bush/McCain still means pain.

Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign, chastised Mr. Obama for trying to blame the media for reporting the lipstick remark, rather than taking responsibility himself.

“Barack Obama can’t campaign with schoolyard insults and then try to claim outrage at the tone of the campaign,” Mr. Rogers said in a statement. “His talk of new politics is as empty as his campaign trail promises.”

Employing an animal reference of his own, he added: “Apparently, the buck never stops with Barack Obama.”

If Obama were into trying to make out of context hay, the last sentence by Mr. Rogers could certainly be used to show how the McCain campaign is deviously playing the "race card." Far fetched! Sure! But then so was the interpretation of the "lipstick on a pig" line.

A Heartbeat too Close

I am inclined to call myself an independent when it comes to political issues. Though most of my choices in the last four years have had Democrat on their party label, a sign for a Republican Candidate for Regional School Superintendent is displayed proudly in our front yard at the moment. The Democratic governor of Illinois is one of my least favorite politicos and if the Republicans put up a decent candidate for his job next time, I would be more than willing to vote for him or her.

My magnanimity ends, however, with the current Republican ticket for President and VP. The addition of Palin to an already suspect self described "maverick" makes me surer than ever that we stand a better chance of getting intelligent, considered governance from the Obama/Biden ticket. I have no desire to fight with ultra right wing conservatives as long as they are happy to confine their beliefs to their own converts. I don't even mind if they attempt to persuade me to support their positions on reproductive choice, sex education, off-shore drilling, gay rights, etc. But when they begin to sound like folks who believe that their God's voice speaks for me and all other citizens, I begin to get uneasy. I get even more unahppy when they then start trying to legislate their values and impose them on others.

It is also hard to understand why the folks who rightly made an issue of Obama's pastor and church membership history should cry fowl when someone else makes an issue of their candidate's religious affiliations. I offer below a view that makes this point as well as a few others.

t r u t h o u t | 09.09

Steve Weissman | Sarah Palin: "A Gidget for God's Truth"
http://www.truthout.org/article/sarah-palin-a-gidget-gods-truth

OFTA Hosts storyteller SUE BLACK

NOTE OFTA TIME CHANGE THIS MONTH: We will still meet on the 2nd Wednesday, September 10th but at 3:00 pm in the afternoon.

OFTA honors the AAUW Art Presenter Program’s 35th anniversary and features its exhibition (“House and Home” and “Masks”) this month.

Our Speaker is Ms. Susan Black, an award winning storyteller from Naperville, IL.
She will address OFTA and the general public from 3-4 pm on Wed. Sept. 10th as a part of her two day residency in Monmouth. During her stay on Sept. 9th and 10th, she will be doing storytelling presentations to hundreds of elementary school students from throughout Warren County.

You will also be thrilled by the extraordinary exhibit of international children’s art from twenty-nine countries around the world that the ART PRESENTER program has secured from the World Awareness Children’s Museum in Glens Falls, NY. Ms. Black will be highlighting these works in her presentations. The entire exhibit will be on open public display from September 6th-October 11th at the Buchanan Center.

Please join us to welcome Susan Black to our community and to hear how storytelling can “explore our cultural diversity while celebrating the common bonds we share with our brothers and sisters throughout the world.”

More Things One Might Like to hear a Politician Say

On Flipflops. "In order to have a compromise some folks have to change their positions a bit. I have done it in the past and I will do it in the future; it is not a mortal sin."

On Political Advertising Instead of "I am Joe Blow and I support this message" shouldn't it really be "I am Joe Blow and remember that past performance is no guarantee of future performance."

On Health Care "I hereby renounce my government paid health plan benefits until all of my constituents have health insurance."

"Yes, I have just played the race card and I'm proud of it."

"It's the economy stupid, and I can't control it any more than you can."

"The problem is my friend that you are not really hurting if you can't afford the gas for the SUV to haul your boat to your summer home."

"Are there any services that you are willing to pay taxes for?"

What a Week for Monmouth College Theatre Alums!

First there was a delightful article by Barry McNamara on alum Jeff Day, who has just completed an MFA in theatre at Western Illinois University and is heading off to Texas Tech Univeristy to start on his PHD. You can follow up with alum Matt Fotis (MFA in Playwritng from Illinois State University) who will be beginning his PhD at the University of Missouri this fall.

You can then run up Hwy 67 to Rock Island where alum Melissa Anderson Clark has been appearing in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and garnered a review any actress would kill for. (Pun definitely acknowledged.) The critical paragraph goes: “But the most real of any peformance in this production is Melissa Anderson Clark’s Squeaky Fromme. She was so good, I couldn’t believe it. I actually watched her closely to spot the moment she dropped character, the moment she’d drop Fromme’s conviction and motivation. To my delight, she didn’t. Her portrayal of Fromme is breathtaking and perhaps the best performance I’ve yet to see on a Quad Cities stage. Ever.” The full review is at http://sharedwww.localtvllc.com/wqad/blogs/thomwhite/ My wife and I saw the show Sunday afternoon and it is worthy of all the accolades from the reviewers. Another tidbit is that Lou Hare, who played John Wilkes Booth in the show, has an MFA from Western Illinois in theatre and is the son of our local congressman Phil Hare.

Pop over to Chicago from the Quad Cities for an article in the Sunday Chicago Tribune in which Chris Jones, the drama critic, was talking about the rehabilitation of the old Studebaker Theatre on Michigan Avenue. Set to occupy the smaller theatre in the complex is the off-loop Prop Theatre whose enthusiastic artistic director is Monmouth alum Scott Vehill. Vehill is quoted in the story and says: "If you are an off-Loop theater and you strike lightning, this would become the place where you take your show." You can read the whole story at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-studebaker-0810aug10,0,6219198.story

From Chicago take a ride even further north to Minneapolis. I got this from my son David last night. Mike Fotis, (gee another alum) has been nominated for a “Fringie” in this year’s Minneapolis Fringe Festival for his show called An Intimate Evening with Mike Fotis—Part II. You can see some of his reviews at http://mikefotis.com/

And all this does not even include that Doug Rankin, another pretty well known Monmouth alum, (He is a local product of Monmouth High School and has been the resident Designer and Professor in the Monmouth College Theatre Department for a number of years now) was the scene and lighting designer for last weekend’s world premiere of the new Carl Sandburg musical Dust and Dreams at Galesburg’s Orpheum Theatre.

It was a long tough pull at the Little Red Barn and the Wells Theatre, but thanks to the extraordinary effors and service of Mike Lincoln, Bill McCarthy, Bil Pfuderer, Amy Williams, Bill Wallace, and Doug Rankin, it has been a most fulfilling one.

Things I Would Like to hear from a Politician!

"I made a mistake."
"I have actually changed my mind or my behavior since 1965 or 75 or 85 or 95 and that is a good thing not a bad thing--it's called learning."
"That's a good idea even if it comes from my opponent."
"Not all earmarks are bad. Legislators do actually campaign on providing services for constituents."
"You (not the other guy) are going to have to make some sacrifices or adjustments in your behavior or life style."
"It seems logical that those who make more money should pay more taxes."
"All families should be given the same opportunity to spend their way out of deficits as the government has taken. Each one of your creditors should give you an immediate rebate of 20% of your total debt"

When asked any of the following questions to respond with "I will make no comment as by answering your question, I will simply continue to fuel a discussion about an issue that is not relevent to the real issues in the campaign?"

Are you a racist?
Have you played the race card?
Has your opponent played the race card?
Does your experience or lack thereof make you any better than your opponent?
Are you too young to govern effectively?
Are you too old to govern effectively?
Are you a Muslim?
Is your last commercial negative?
Do you accept responsibility for and agree with everything any human being who has commented about you, has ever said or done?
Have you stopped beating your wife?


Phrases to be eliminated from use in political campaigns.
"I am outraged."
"My opponent should know better."