ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.

BROKAW: No, I don't, either.

ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.

BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.

ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?

BROKAW: Yeah, it's an interesting question.

ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.

BROKAW: Two of them! I don't know what books he's read.

ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?

BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.

[Transcript from RushLimbaugh.com.]

iTunes is currently playing: Who Am I from the album Ultimate Petula Clark by Petula Clark.

Newsweek has a lengthy (7 chapter) piece on the recent presidential election called Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. The article includes the following paragraph that totally sums up the phenomenon of Obamamania:

Obama understood that he had become a giant screen upon which Americans projected their hopes and fears, dreams and frustrations. Maybe such a person never really existed, couldn't exist, but people wanted a savior nonetheless. As a bestselling memoirist he had created a mythic figure [emphasis mine], a man named Barack Obama who had searched and quested and overcome travails, who had found an identity and a calling in public service. Obama recalled that he often joked with his team, "This Barack Obama sounds like a great guy. Now I'm not sure that I am Barack Obama, right?" He added, pointedly, "It wasn't entirely a joke."

If this information had been released prior to the election, do you think the headlines would have read "OBAMA ADMITS TO BEING A FRAUD"? Nah, I don't think so, either.



iTunes is currently playing: BEHIND THE MASK from the album Faker Holic - YMO World Tour Live by Yellow Magic Orchestra.

... who is in for a rude awakening when she has to pay her own mortgage in January.

iTunes is currently playing: Outta Mind from the album Angels In The Crowd by Wendy Woo.

iTunes is currently playing: Go Where You Wanna Go from the album Up-Up And Away by The 5th Dimension.

... and if the trailer is any indication, it was worth the wait!

iTunes is currently playing: Stand And Fight from the album Dad Loves His Work by James Taylor.

Political satirist Paul Shanklin explains "redistribution of wealth" on The Rush Limbaugh Show:

[audio:ObamaHalloween.mp3]

iTunes is currently playing: They Can't Take That Away From Me from the album Portrait: Past Perfect (Disc 3) by Billie Holiday.

Thanks for putting up the Halloween decorations. [Aunt Ann? Nancy?] You guys rock.

iTunes is currently playing: Lost Child (String Quartet Remix) from the album Moto.Tronic by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

... by hanging Sarah Palin in effigy.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) ― A Halloween decoration showing a mannequin dressed as vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin hanging by a noose from the roof of a West Hollywood home is drawing giggles from some passers-by and gasps of outrage from others. The mannequin is dressed in brunet wig, glasses and a red business suit. Another mannequin dressed as John McCain emerges from a flaming chimney.

Chad Michael Morisette, who lives in the house, told CBS 2 News that drivers and bus passengers have been stopping to snap pictures of the macabre scene. Morisette says the effigy would be out of bounds at any other time of year, but it's within the spirit of Halloween.

He says "it should be seen as art [emphasis mine], and as within the month of October. It's Halloween, it's time to be scary it's time to be spooky."

If I were to "celebrate" Halloween by hanging Obama in effigy in my front yard, I believe I would be arrested for a hate crime. I guess those laws don't apply when the hate is directed toward a white woman instead of a black man.

I'm waiting for Senator Obama to express his outrage ... and waiting ... and waiting ...

iTunes is currently playing: Gone Too Far from the album Windows and Walls by Dan Fogelberg.

Okay, so they are not really pets. I know that. But they are so tame they are almost like pets.

iTunes is currently playing: From My Window from the album A Drop Of Water by Keiko Matsui.

Today's L.A.Times has a[nother] story about how the "downturn" in the economy is hurting average Americans. In this piece they focus on a few families who live on Candlewood Street in Lakewood, California. A week after Congress promises $700 billion to banks and mortgage companies in a misguided attempt at fixing the mess they created over the last 30 years, the Times tells me about Barbara Booth and how worried she is about her retirement.

Barbara Booth is right to be worried. She is 57 years old and she is deeply in debt. But what jumps out at me as I read this story is not simply the fact that she is struggling financially but that the situation is, to a great extent, of her own making.

Booth inherited her house from her parents, but she took out a loan to fix it up, put on a new roof and add a room. Every month, she pays about $2,000 on that loan, in addition to credit card bills and payments toward a $42,000 balance on the Minnie Winnie Winnebago the family bought in 2003. It's parked in the driveway now, with only 13,000 miles on it. A "For sale" sign is taped to the window.

It took me about two minutes of Internet searching to find her exact address and pull up the real estate records for her home. Her parents purchased the house when it was built in the 50's, when new homes in the area were going for $12,000 to $15,000. Ms. Booth apparently inherited the house free and clear.

It is currently assessed at $86,000 and her property taxes are less than $100 per month. Homeowners insurance is probably, at most, $50 a month. Had Ms. Booth not decided to mortgage her house to the hilt in order to "fix it up" and "add a room" (and, probably, to put money down on a motorhome), she would have a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath home that she could live in for about $150 per month plus utilities. Instead, she is paying on a mortgage that consumes almost 50% of her current gross income and she is upside-down on a 5 year old Winnebago. And both of our presidential candidates want the taxpayers to save her financial ass so she doesn't lose her house.

What the hell are they thinking??

iTunes is currently playing: House Of Cards from the album Stones In The Road by Mary Chapin Carpenter.