Whack Job

Yeah, my job is whack. An effluvium wafts from my cubicle. It’s the rotting carcass of my once promising career. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

An unnamed staffer in the McCain campaign called Sarah Palin a “whack job”. I’ve always liked that term. I’ve used it here before. Prior to that, they referred to her as a “diva”. I’m OK as long as we don’t call her Mrs. Vice President. With the superannuated senior senator from Alaska now a convicted felon, we may be calling her Senator Palin sooner rather than later.

Last night Letterman called McCain’s brother Joe a “whack job” for calling 911 because he was stuck in traffic. When they pointed out that that is not what 911 was intended for, he cursed them out. He sounds like a sweetheart. My buddy #1, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, called 911 to whine about the fact that that I hadn’t posted for a couple weeks. Fortunately he didn’t use any course language.

I gotta split. It appears that Wolf Blitzer has a situation in the situation room.

Chicken Sushi, Anyone?

There was an accident on 101 in Burlingame today. 12,000 pounds of frozen chicken was spilled on the highway. Fortunately, no one was injured. But has anyone taken into account the possibility of a salmonella outbreak? That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/14/BA4513H2RA.DTL&tsp=1

Clinging to Chardonnay and Snobbery

On the McCain campaign trail, the low information voter has given way to the no information voter. A woman at a rally last week stated that Obama is “an Arab”. At least she didn’t say Ay Rab. McCain gently took back the microphone and explained that she was incorrect. I’m not a constitutional scholar - I just play one on TV - but both McCain and Obama meet the age and citizenship requirements laid out in Article II, Section 1.

Another Middle American stalwart said he was scared of raising his unborn child in a country run by Obama. Apparently he’s AOK with how W has kicked off the millennium. So where are you going to go pal? Sweden? You and your truck, which probably requires a ladder to get into, will fit right in there. Am I being too condescending? Perhaps. This guy needs to get a grip. I don’t want McCain to be president but I won’t be “scared” if he ends up in the White House. He’s a good man who’s stooped to some lousy Rovian tactics because he’s fallen behind in the polls.

DJ in the Dark

I got a call from college boy the other day. It was good to hear from him. Alas, I discovered he had ulterior motives. He had not been cleared by the NCAA for his crew meet Sunday so he thought that perhaps good old Dad could step in. I called. The person who answered made a distinction between registered and cleared. I pressed forward. What might that be? Registered means he registered. I asked what else needed to take place for him to be cleared. Nothing, except my call it seems. They had all the paperwork. She said she would put an expedite on it and that he should be cleared in 24-48 hours. Since I’ve expedited a few things in my time, I was not convinced that would do the trick. So I told my son to get back to me Thursday if he was not cleared. When I didn’t hear, I sent an email to see if there was any news. No word back. A follow up email yesterday was ignored. Now I’m hurt. My wife goes to France for 10 days, my daughter is off to another volleyball tournament, and my elder son won’t respond to me.

Gosh, I wonder if he’s racing tomorrow. I really do.

Double Deuce

Well my friends, John McCain said “my friends” 22 times in the last debate. That, my friends, is a lot. Fortunately, it appears he’ll fail in his quest to replace the idiot son of Bush 41.

Can I Call You Joe Six Pack?

You betcha!

Now I find Sarah Palin as physically attractive as the next middle-aged chucklehead, but that doesn’t mean I want her, in the most overused phrase of the campaign, “a heartbeat away from the presidency”. Here’s a good clip about the governor causing a conservative to shake hands with the mayor.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#27015683

I have to admit that she did surprise me by not falling on her face Thursday. In retrospect however, she did not say a hell of a lot. It doesn’t look like they’ll be letting her do any more interviews so I think we’ve seen the last of Sarah unscripted. As far as her Reagan reference to freedom, here’s what that was about:

Here’s your homework for the weekend:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/opinion/04herbert.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/looking_for_joe_six_pack;_ylt=ArHwIZJny2JtDI7FCQPWuqHCw5R4

Nobody Reads Me

The UK sent me the following link about blogs. I realize I stand out from the 60 million but I think I now have a better understanding of why The Exec hasn’t posted for seven months. But don’t despair Exec. It’s not only the on-line community that considers you insignificant. Your friends feel the same way.

http://www.smartmoney.com/10things/index.cfm?story=march2007&pgnum=1

And I have news for you Upgrade King. If you were Sarah Palin’s kid, your name would be Gamebird Kelp. I like UK better. I guess we can use it as a code name for the Vegas trip.

http://www.politsk.blogspot.com/

Speaking of Sarah, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s debate. I won’t be able to join the hot tub party at #2’s house. I could probably swing it but all these guys will be blubbering because their wives are heading to Paris tomorrow. You won’t see me crying in my beer. My place will be party central until wifey returns.

In addition to seeing Sarah’s revelation, on last night’s news, that she reads all kinds of newspapers she couldn’t name, there was a talking head stating that they should call the bailout plan a rescue. So that’s the freakin’ problem, terminology. The government to the rescue! I like it. That reminds me of the old George Carlin skit about baseball and football. “You play baseball in a park, (voice deepening) you play football in a stadium”. I just hope they fix this mess. I do feel bad for all those execs (small e Exec, don’t get testy) that might get their pay limited because they ran their institutions into the ground. I hear the guy from WaMu may clear about $13M for a month’s work. Not bad. By the way, if you made an investment in WaMu based on my 8/25 post, gosh I’m really sorry. I was able to get out with only losing about a third of my money. Next time you invest based on what DJ says, keep this in mind. I’m a hack, not an investment advisor.

On the home front things are going well, except my wife abandoning me for ten days in France. Son #1 is enjoying his college experience so far. I call him twice a day but can’t seem to reach him very often. The girl is playing volleyball for school and keeping up with her studies, I think. We went to a tournament in Los Gatos a few weeks ago. I don’t recall having been there before but I don’t belong. It’s the type of town I’d call big bucks deluxe. Downtown they have a cute beading and quilting shop. So that’s what they do while the rest of us are allegedly working. Next door is the local Napa Style store. They have a superfluous accent in the shape of a leaf over the N. Now that’s panache! I hate panache.

I took my younger son to Safeway the other day. He did a good job helping me wheel the cart around. We had a minor snafu by the dairy aisle. We took the corner a little tight and caught the bottom of a cardboard display. This resulted in several hundred orange and black plastic cookie cutters being scattered all over the floor. I gingerly kicked a few aside, grabbed four gallons of milk, and headed for the checkout line. I was kind enough to inform them of this mishap when I got there. I’m a solid citizen.

That’s all I got. My mind has been pretty cluttered lately. I’m still trying to get the lousy memories of that Tahoe trip out of my head.