High stakes game

Thousand pound woman arrested
for killing two-year-old child
can’t be moved from home

High stakes poker. Obama criticizes McCain for not knowing how many houses he owns. McCain strikes back with the (already disproven) Rezko situation. Obama says I’ll call your Rezko and raise you a Keating Five. McCain folds ‘em (you have to know when to fold ‘em). It turns out that not only does McCain not know how many houses he owns, he doesn’t even know what kind of car he drives. Apparently so caught up with military strategy he just doesn’t pay attention to such mundane details. He is apparently going to pick Romney as his running mate (although it is said he really dislikes him). As Romney is twice as filthy rich as McCain I don’t think this will help him much with the peasants. No doubt when questioned about his choice he will say he was a POW, which nowadays seems to be used to explain everything.

It is still not known who Obama has picked for his running mate although it is not going to be either Kaine or Bayh. Presumably it is not going to be Hillary either (although I still think she might be a good bet). Hillary seems to be ruled out because she wasn’t vetted, but why would she, of all people, even have to be vetted? The smart money seems to be on Biden (but I am still skeptical). Maybe he will name someone who up until now has been kept a secret? Anyway, we’ll know soon enough as he is supposed to send the message (to Garcia?) early tomorrow (Saturday) morning. You have to give Obama and his staff credit for keeping a secret (is it truly because only Obama himself knows?).

Allow me to digress for a moment for something that has puzzled me for some time. Why should anyone pay either their taxes or their credit card bills? If what I see on television is true, if you don’t pay on time, there are companies that will allow you to settle your debts for pennies on the dollar. There are testimonials from people who claim to have saved thousands upon thousands of dollars by enlisting the help of these companies. If this is so, why pay the full amount when you can just wait and save a lot of money? There has to be a catch. Please advise.

Similarly, I see ads for buying furniture for no money down and no interest for two or three years. How can that work? What happens if you keep the stuff for two or three years and then refuse to pay? Do you go to jail? Or does someone settle for you, saving you big bucks? Do they just repossess the used furniture? I am terribly naïve about these matters, partly because I have had the good fortune to never find myself in these situations. I would appreciate someone’s explanations as to how this actually works (there has to be some kind of catch).

Anyway, back to grim reality. If there is still a problem with the Kurds who keep insisting on keeping Kirkuk and all the oil there, as well as their independence, and the Sunnis and Shiites don’t want them to, and if it is true that the Shiites now in control are trying to destroy the Sunnis who were armed by us because they are afraid of them, and if al Sadr has been holding his militia in check to see what al Maliki works out with us, and if no deal has been worked out as yet about troop withdrawal and accountability, how can it be said repeatedly that the surge has worked? It wouldn’t seem to me that it has worked at all, other than reducing violence for a while. Thus it seems to me that if we don’t leave, eventually all hell will break loose, and if we do leave all hell will break loose. So take your pick, would you rather have the Iraqis fighting our troops or would you rather they would fight each other? Good job, Bush/Cheney! There is a solution to this problem along with the Iranian problem, the Pakistani problem, the Palestinian problem, the Russian problem, the North Korean problem, and all of our other problems. All we would have to do is reinstate a draft, mobilize an army of two or three or more million, equip them with the finest weapons and stuff, and go to war with the world permanently. You have to admit, it would be good for business, might even solve the problem of recession. I
think I’ll recommend this to Calamity John if I can figure out which house he’s in at the moment. I wonder how many houses Mitt Romney has. Sorry, there I go being cynical again. A few people keep telling me things are going to be fine. I don’t believe them.

Obama has picked Joe Biden as his VP. So much for my gut feelings about Hillary. I am used to being wrong. I have mixed feelings about the Biden choice. But things could be a lot worse.

Life is a journey
forever towards the west
and the setting sun

Morialekafa