THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† A Lie No One Should Be Repeating: Another liberal columnist – this time, The Boston Globe’s James Carroll - gets the vapors at the thought of Barack Obama getting assassinated by one of John McCain’s supporters days after a Secret Service investigation concluded that the “Kill him!” incident never happened:
When friends have confided their fears for Barack Obama's physical safety, I have winced and wanted to shush them. It may be a neurosis peculiar to me, but I have felt that even to speak of the possibility of such a thing - you see, I cannot say it - invites the heinous act to happen. If the prospect of Obama's being attacked has been a shadow on his run for president, last week's debate between the candidates brought light into the shadow, offering yet another revelation of why Obama is special. …
That is the background for the shudders felt when last week's presidential debate turned to the ugliness of what this campaign has surfaced. John McCain complained about “unfair” criticisms by Georgia Congressman John Lewis of slurs shouted at some McCain-Palin rallies. Obama replied that he had distanced himself from Lewis's comments. But he explained that Lewis was expressing concern at McCain supporters shouting, as Obama put it, referring to himself as the target, "things like ‘Terrorist!’ and ‘Kill him!
Carroll admits that this irrational fear is peculiar to a voter of “a certain age,” by which he means AARP-card carrying ex-Flower Children of the '60s who lived through the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK.
The Stiletto can only extrapolate from the trauma she experienced at the near-assassination of Ronald Reagan a scant two months after he took office in 1981, and is starting to fear that should Obama lose, one of his crazed supporters will assassinate John McCain or Sarah Palin. Considering that some columnists have been warning of “race and class war” if McCain wins, the the more she thinks about it, the more she starts to feel all weak and trembly. Woozy, even. Whoa. Gotta lie down. Fetal position. Sucking thumb.
Editorial Note: Seriously, with videos like this circulating, perhaps we all should be concerned about Sarah Palin’s well-being. That means you, too, DNC and NOW. Why the hell won’t you say something already?
† What’s A Nice Democratic Girl Like Me Doing At A Convention Like This?: Politico.com’s Michael Calderone reports that Time magazine columnist Joe Klein has been having trouble finding a seat on the McCain and Palin campaign planes for four months now: In June, Klein was kept from boarding the McCain plane over what they said had been a security issue. More recently, when trying to fly on the Palin plane last week, Klein told Politico over e-mail that the campaign's response was he “couldn’t be accommodated at this time.” … [O]ther Time magazine staffers, including Washington bureau chief Jay Carney, " reporter Michael Scherer, and Mark Halperin (The Page), have not had a problem with access. … Here's how Cynthia Ruccia - a Hillary Clinton supporter who is now backing the McCain-Palin ticket - described her encounter with Klein at the RNC convention, which she and other like-minded Dems attended as guests of Carly Fiorina: [E]veryone treated us really well – with one notable exception: Time magazine columnist Joe Klein. Nice guy. Well, I believe in second chances so when I spotted him on the convention floor I thought it was my big chance to get right with him. ... [H]e seemed pleased to be recognized - and he even remembered (or so he said) our conversation from so long ago. But when we told him we were Hillary supporters voting for McCain, he got an ugly look on his face and screamed, “You people are out of your friggin’ minds!,” and stormed off. Given the increasingly violent imagery being used to denigrate Sarah Palin, is it that far-fetched that the McCain-Palin security detail would want to act with an abundance of caution as regards the dyspeptic Klein? † Why We Need Gitmo (second item): After the Supreme Court’s June 12th ruling that foreign terrorism suspects held at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba have the Constitutional right to challenge their detention US courts, President Bush met with his top advisors to consider their options and concluded that closing the facility “would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon,” according to an editorial in The New York Times, but that the administration insists that the prison will be shuttered “when conditions permit.” The editorial cites unnamed “senior administration officials” who claim that Bush “never considered” proposals floated by the State Department and the Pentagon “that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere” The Times notes that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama - both of whom favor closing the military prison – have offered concrete proposals on what to do with the hardened terrorists incarcerated at Gitmo – particularly those whose own countries don’t want them back.
One thing seems clear about not getting on the Palin plane: space wasn't an issue. According to a reporter traveling with the campaign, there had been a few empty seats last week.
You remember him – he wrote that hatchet job, “Primary Colors,” about Bill Clinton. Well, he and I go way back. When I was a Congressional candidate in Ohio's 12th district Klein had written a puff piece about my opponent, John Kasich, for The New Yorker. It was in the middle of the race, and he hadn't even bothered to contact my campaign for our side of the story. So, I called him up to chat about it and he screamed at me and hung up the phone.
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: The Lebanon County (PA) sheriff revoked Meleanie Hain’s concealed carry permit her after she openly wore her pistol to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game and other parents complained, reports The Associated Press. Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby – himself a gun owner with a CCP – reinstated Hain’s permit after she testified that it wasn’t easy to conceal the gun while wearing summery attire. Hain plans to continue to carry her gun to soccer games, explaining, “People have the right to voice their opinion ... and I have a right to my Second Amendment right. A gun-free zone says to a criminal: ‘Easy target.’”
Here’s what Hain is talking about:
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Another Cockamamie Lib Idea Fails The Real World Test): After weeks of having children as old as 17 years abandoned by their parents at hospitals, NE Gov. Dave Heineman, legislators and hospitals agreed to change to the state's defective safe haven law so it applies only to neonates up to 72 hours old, reports The Associated Press. Heineman remains loathe to call a special session to adopt the reworked law, so the change won’t be made until the legislature reconvenes in January. Until then, the state is trying to put the kibosh on abandonments with a $100K effort to promote a United Way help line for parents and guardians.
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