I do not fully understand the animosity toward John McCain, as exemplified by conservative talk radio hosts’ animosity.  It is not so much policy differences that I can’t understand, as how it is one can guage the politicians and deem Mitt Romney more to their liking.

Moreso their former embrace of Rudy Giuliani, frequent guest to Sean Hannity

I listened yesterday to Mark Levine, and heard Levine dare you to name what Huckabee or McCain have done to battle Civil Unions against the embrace of Activist Judges… Romney having gone to the mat against that court decision.

Never mind, Romney’s campaign against Ted Kennedyand his declaration of being more gay-friendly than Kennedy.

One year ago I’m pretty sure Levine would have easily used the words “flipper” to describe Romney.

Splitting this apart, I think one can splice together priorities.  A couple months ago, I heard a James Dobsonconervative Christian type bash McCain on Campaign Finance grounds — What would Jesus Do, indeed? Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Giuliani suggests that those social issues, at bottom, aren’t even terribly important.  (And McCain has a more consistent track record for these things than Mitt Romney.)

So it boils down to what?  Torture and Water-boarding, which McCain does not glom, and apparently the 100 year old promise is not even enough to cover their difference of opinion on this matter.  (What Would Jesus Do?)  And… Immigration.  Interesting, as I suppose McCain went to bat for that more so than the others.

History swerves a bit awkwardly.  Mitt Romney is now tightly winding himself ever more with the Republican talk radio crowd, and he is welcome to it.  The interviews will add more to the list of flips and flops, by their very nature, unless he can step into the realm of platitudes — which is too his wheel-house.

All of which is meaningless except in the realm of comedic gist, as McCain is more than the Presumptive Nominee.

Apparently the Patriots were all set to trade-mark the phrase “19-0”.  Interesting, as skimming through Sports Commentary, the plight of the Patriots is being compared with the undefeated UNLV basketball team who lost to Duke in the Final Four, and I believe that means that team would have been 19 and 0 at some point.  Meaning, that team would not have been allowed to start game #20 by yelling “Your 19 – 0 UNLV” whatever their mascot is… much as you cannot shout out “Let’s Get Ready to…” at a public event.

I am tempted to suggest that the Patriots should now be forced to trademark “18-1”, but it seems that the New York Post has done so — or is goofing around with that possibility.  Ah well.

During the 2000 election, Ralph Nader ran into some legal brohauhau when Mastercard charged that they had trademarked the word “Priceless”, which was being used in his parody campaign ads.  It was a jarring declaration.  Any number of items have been patented which should not be allowed to be patented with corporations wanting to keep ott market and control technology, what turns of phrase have been trademarked we cannot quite know in full.

I suggest that the Seattle Seahawks should go ahead and trademark “8-8”, the most common record an NFL team gets.  This way, every team that finishes at 8-8 will have to pay them.  Or… something.

Two people on the bus talking in that somewhat incoherent griping about the government, and the neo-cons (“They’re not Conservatives; they’re Globalists!”), and the way the Man Is Putting Us Down.

“Something should be done about them.”

“I think they should be tried and prisoned.”

“I think they should be hung for Treason.”

“And that Mortgage Crisis?  The Bilderburg Group orchestrated it in 2005 at their meeting!”

… To line their coffer from Us Down here, I suppose.

“I hope Ron Paul will get in, but he will be shot.”

Ron Paul.  Bingo!

“Is he an old White Man?”  (Here I might as well point out that one of these two are black.)

“Yes.”

“Hm.”

“But he’s against the Corporate Agenda.”
“They don’t like him?”

“Hm.  Marginalize him.  You have to lick their boots in order to get into any power position.   Why he would be shot if he got anywhere.”

I am thinking about pointing out the nature of the old Ron Paul newsletters, but think better of it.  Best not to rock the boat.

According to the National Journal, Barack Obama is the most liberal Senator in the United States Senate.  Quite the coincidence, as four years ago that honor went to John Kerry.

A better examination revealed that John Kerry was actually the number Eleven Liberal in the United States Senate.  Even so, George Bush got off that line about Kerry being “the Liberal Senator from Massachusetts”, as opposed to Teddy Kennedy — the, um, Conservative Senator from Massachusetts.  Hardy Har Har.

Parsing out the votes, the difference between the voting records between Hillary Clinton — Number 16 — is… two votes.  Parse these votes out on the left-right meter as you would like.  Also of some modest interest, the Paul Krugman diagnosis in examining domestic proposals — chief among them Health Care, and I note that one because it is the easiest one to get a grip on in terms of proposals — has Obama ever so slightly to the right of Clinton.  Ever so slightly key operative phrase.

I think we need some new criteria.  Perhaps what we could do is give the following Senators a 100 rating in terms of “Liberalism”, ergo defining that term as them: Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, and Ted Kennedy.  From them, you rank them by percentages.  This also allows arenas of disagreement of the word, meaning that if Sanders is against, say, the Kitten Extermination Act and Kennedy is for it — meaning who can tell which is the “Liberal” or “Conservative” position for this bi-partisan bill — no alignment comes up.

But then again, Obama ends up nowhere, what with a slew of “Present” votes and a presidential run started before he really slid into the Senate.

Anyway, words change meaning.  I should dredge up a chart I never saved which I found interesting but only flicked past me and show how bizarre these things can get — ie: everyone considered themselves a Liberal in the 1950s, and we all know how Liberal society was in the 1950s.

And, whatever you do, define yourself as one of these two groups and never allow a deviant thought to enter your cranium.

I got a bad feeling yesterday when I learned that KGW was going to take over the old Powell’s Travel books room at Pioneer Square.  The concept was that they would have in their morning show a version of NBC’s Today Rockefeller Center, where the local news cast looks out at “Portland’s Living Room”.

The problem is this means that “Portland’s Living Room” would, necessarily, have to become, during the duration of KGW’s filming, pristine.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Pioneer Square on that score as a general rule, but I am imagining stray bums being uncermeoniously shoved out of the line of vision, for the benefit of KGW.  (Also undesirable, a ranting street preacher, and the like, who would normally be standing — over a ways anyway, but won’t be allowed in front of this camera — even though he’d probably like to be in sight of the camera)…

Actually they’ll probably create their own faulty ambiance.  For example, this is a rather chilling vision of the immediate future.

Outdoor television monitors will also broadcast the news for passersby to watch.

Bah on KGW.

Seemingly related to this ethos, as it appears Pioneer Square is being turned over to corporate interest, I hear this bit of news regarding the weekly Friday peace marches from “Portland Peaceful Response” — weekly gatherings which tend on the very low side in terms of people, but gather moss every so often.

In recent weeks, PPRC has been approached by employees of Portland Patrol, Incorporated (PPI) objecting to our use of a battery-operated megaphone and to the use of drums. On December 21st, the City of Portland Noise Control Officer, accompanied by a representative of Pioneer Courthouse Square, Inc., and by a member of the Portland Patrol, informed us that, if we use either the megaphone or drums, individuals will be cited.

Drums?  Really?  Understand, drums are staple for this type of thing — drum-lines somewhat easily mocked and sterotyped.

The re-entrenchment for discouraging this seems uneasily tied to the presence of that there television broadcasting.  It is an essential attitude on what the heck that spot is — seen by something with the word “incorporated” at the end of its name as a bit of an unorderly nuisance.