kirktastic

Do I know my way to San Jose? Yes, I was in California for a few days earlier in the week for a business conference thingy. Instead of having to stay at a chain hotel near my company’s offices out there, I got to stay on Santana Row this time. Which was nice since being within walking distance of something to do was nice. Starbucks coffee and Wahoos too. Nice people watching. I do indeed wish they all could be California girls.

It meant I had to fly in American fucking Airlines. So the plane was 90 minutes late leaving Austin. Not due to poor weather anywhere in the US, but just because American Airlines sucks and there was something wrong with the 27 year old plane they chose for this route. Beer was $6 in coach! You can get a 12-pack of of Old Style for that! The flight back left on time, but when we landed in Austin and I turned on the my phone I got a tweet from the newspaper that the power was out in the terminal. This explained the longer than normal time rolling around on the ground. We were parked out in the middle of BFE when the captain came on to tell us that the power was indeed out at the airport terminal and we had to wait for them to restore it and open the airport. I went online to learn that part of the fuckup was when the power went off and it set the fire alarms off. So of course, the TSA freaked out and emptied the terminal even though there are backup generators. We ended up waiting about an hour. Since there is a noise ordinance there are no departures that late, but the last few planes that come in (including mine) are met with a skeleton crew of ground staff. So when all of the planes that had landed in the past hour or so all got the OK to come into the terminal, the place was packed. In the baggage claim it was a zoo with all the people that had come to meet the incoming planes and only about 2 guys in the back to unload the planes and put them on the baggage carousel. I think if I had checked a bag, I would still be there waiting for it. The van to the parking lot was full and it has valet and all these special services so I jumped off when we got there instead of waiting for them to get to my car. The time I saved doing that was sucked up when I get to the cashier. One dude that seemed to be a complete moron working the gate. God I was pissed. I mean it is nice they hire special needs people there, but fuck I just want to be home. Turns out a snake caused something to fuck up at a substation near the airport. Damn snakes.

Speaking of snakes… the drama that is the John McCain campaign continues. I’ve spent way too much time hitting reload on websites since this all came to pass. Sarah Palin’s interviews with Katie Couric were telling. She got all her talking points messed up and came across as a babbling idiot that didn’t even manage to really actually answer Katie’s questions. And this person is who John McCain thinks is ready to lead the country on day one if something happens to him? There are tons of conservatives calling on her to bow out of the election. Last week they were blaming the “liberal” media for “attacking” her, now they see that even if handed softball questions, she can’t answer. Palin is way out of her league.

When he “suspended” his campaign and asked to delay the debates until the economic crisis was over on Wednesday I was stunned. What does that mean? It turned out he didn’t stop campaigning or running ads. He ended up pissing off David Letterman who showed him instead of rushing to the airport to get to DC, he was in makeup prepping for an interview with Katie Couric. Dave’s rant was great. Obama’s response to the suspension was great. A president should be able to handle more than one situation at once. With the “suspension” stunt McCain lost a lot of cred with the conservative media. It was a stunt. Just like Palin.

It then turns out that part of the last-minute revolt by House republicans was so that McCain could inject himself into the process (even though he’s not on any of the relevant committees and he himself admits doesn’t know shit about economics). The meeting at the White House was telling: Obama showed up with his Senate aide since this was a legislative matter; McCain showed up with his campaign aide since he was there for politics.

McCain ended up “blinking” which according to his running mate is not something the president should ever do and showed up at the debate. I really think McCain would think that Obama would roll over and agree to delay the debate. It shows that McCain’s people have no idea what Obama is all about. Had McCain not shown up at the debate, it was to be a town hall meeting that the networks had already blocked time for. Of course that crazy old bastard had to show up.

I started to watch the debate but after a while I just got angry. McCain was there bullshitting and using his trademarked platitudes and not really debating anything. Obama was measured and thoughtful, but I wanted him to be more on the offensive. On the “Montana Bear DNA” line he could have jabbed back with “but you’re OK with the Seal DNA earmarks your running mate asked for?”. He could have hit back of how expensive the fucking war is. He could have been better about the fact that if McCain’s health care plan passes, we have to pay taxes on our health care (not just the part you pay, but the part your employer pays… it comes to thousands more a year. For rich people it is a small part of their income and offset by other tax cuts, for the rest of us, it means we have to pay more in taxes).

I’m sure Obama was not going on the attack so as not to appear to some as an “uppity negro” beating up the old man. The fact is most of the racist wouldn’t going to vote for him anyway. But McCain needs to be beaten up. His answers were only about 10% more lucid and 0% more meaningful as what Palin said about the economy.

What bothers me is no matter how many stunts McCain/Palin pull, the race will be too close to call. Which means it will be too easy to steal. The single issue voters will stick with Palin. The racists will never vote for a black guy. The warmongers will vote for McCain since it means more war. And there are still many weeks for McCain to be all mavericky and pull more surprises out. One thing is certain, he will do anything to be president. Risk the nation by picking someone incompetent for the job as VP. Ask for a time out. Anything. McCain is dangerous. I don’t believe a word coming out of his mouth. I didn’t think it would be possible that anyone could be worse than Bush. But I didn’t have the imagination to dream up Johnny McCain and Sarah Palin.