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~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL
Here in NM-CD2 Bill Richardson worked his magic and Harry Teague, the oil guy was elected. The seat usually goes Republican, but Teague is chummy with Republicans like Steve Pearce, who lost the Senate race. Teague and Pearce are in the same line of business and from the same locale. Teague headed a board of some sort in Lea County and was beloved by Republican members. Enough said. Money came into this race this time, whereas last time, the ex-pastor Al Kissling was not part of the club and he got nothing…except well over 30% of the vote against Pearce. This time around, he was shut out of the primary.
I wrote extensively about Teague earlier so do a Search of the blog for the gory details…
Tom Udall never set foot down here in Southern NM, except for a closed fundraiser with the money people. Thank you, Tom Udall!
I did not vote for either of these people because of, in the case of Teague, his past history and close money connections to Richardson and because, in the case of Udall, his slighting of this part of the state.
Locally, the Democrats pretty much took it all except a couple of offices. My local incumbent state rep returns to Santa Fe and will be joined by a another newly elected Democrat.
I haven’t check the NM political blogs, so I don’t know what the scuttlebutt is on Richardson as a potential Secretary of State. Let him go. He pulled a few “Obama” tricks down here and I won’t miss him if he goes. Maybe he’ll get lost somewhere in the Middle East and will never be heard from again…
By the way, the problems with absentee ballots not arriving has been forgotten. The local rag reported that voting went smoothly, no problems…Down the memory hole…
***
I have to say I really enjoyed Edge of Forever’s (Not Your Sweetie) take on the election and the indications that she hasn’t dropped the mantle of the PUMA. The little graphic which says “Don’t Follow the Crowd, Stay True to Yourself” at the link captures my feeling completely. I believe in keeping my INTEGRITY, which means we’re going to keep eyeing everything hurled at us from DC with great suspicion. Edge is one my FAVORITES–maybe because I’m a Jersey girl who grew up about 10 minutes from Midtown Manhattan. I think we share a common attitude…
***
Question of the day: How far down do the expectations get “dialed down,” Pelosi?? As far down as when you “took impeachment off the table” when you took the House in 2006? When you didn’t lift a finger to change Medicare Part D as Kennedy had vowed from the Senate side? When you let Karl Rove get off without answering the subpoenas the Judiciary Committee had voted to issue? Reality is going to bite a lot of Obamacrats in the butt…
***
I happened to visit the LA Times opinion page (Nov. 5) and saw all sorts of those unnerving poster-like renditions of Obama all over the place along with lines about “Post-Racial Promise” and the start of an article which proclaimed that one “had never seen such exhilaration.” Well, there would have been just as much joy if a woman had won the presidency and I would have been thrilled over the vice-presidency as well. Of course, all Obama could offer was a line in his speech about how his “first” is all he needs to see. It’s always about HIM….women, nada, all sorts of other ethnic groups, nada. As a person with a 100% Italian background, I’m still waiting, too. Mario Cuomo would have been a wonderful leader, but he never ran and I think it was because of a bias against his name and his background. OK, so now we’re “Post-Racial” …really? Let’s see when Obama stops bringing up race when it’s convenient to do so. And, when the gloves come off against this guy, THEN we will be “Post-Racial.”
Yoko Ono once observed that “Woman is the nigger of the world.” So, I guess if we’re supposed to be “Post-Racial” then we’re “Post-Misogyny,” too? All that “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” crap? Well, tell that to Sarah Palin. She was an INSULT, remember…Frankly, my overall feeling about this whole business is that I’VE BEEN INSULTED! And apparently, will continue to be so…
Under the mandatory editorial about the great “mandate for change” there was this sub-title:
The nation’s choice for president is a historic opportunity to restore American principles and return to greatness.
Really?? Is that why the LA Times refused to release that Khalidi tape?? What utter bilge. What principles will Obama restore and how the hell is he going to return us to greatness? UGH!!!
***
Finally, I have to admit that I could not bear to watch John McCain’s concession speech. I’m not a Republican (nor a Democrat anymore), but I respected him. He ran a decent, dignified campaign and treated Sarah Palin with utmost respect and honor. It was refreshing. It made me angry to see Obama give him the “street finger,” again showing NO RESPECT to a rival. Actions speak louder than words, as they say, and McCain came out the winner in the “class department.” It pains me to think that a lying, thuggish, arrogant, and cold person like Obama was enabled by the media and Democrats. It is a lowering of our standards to have him installed in the Presidency.
***
Finally, I fired up Vista Media Center last evening to record “Waterloo Bridge” on TCM. If there’s one thing I love about Vista, it’s the ability to record TV easily. “Waterloo Bridge” features Viven Leigh and Robert Taylor. I am a huge fan of Laurence Olivier and whenever I see anything with him or Leigh in it, I make sure to watch. It transports me back to a different time and a romance that was all fire. Wonderful. And, without Turner Classic Movies, I would go nuts. It got me through Bush and it will get me through Barack and Michelle. The film was part of a celebration of Vivien Leigh’s 95th birthday…It included “Anna Karenina” and “Fire Over England” the movie that marked the start of the Olivier-Leigh romance. SIGH…
You may have noticed that once in awhile I make a comment based on a movie. Well, I guess that’s why classic movies are classic…they are relevant long after they were first made. Before “Waterloo Bridge” I caught the end of “Rope” directed by Alfred Hitchcock and featuring Jimmy Stewart and Farley Granger. I had seen the film before, but this time, the ending meant so much more to me. Here are excerpts from a couple of synopses at IMDb:
Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley and as a consequence decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David’s father, his fiancée Janet and their old schoolteacher Rupert from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect….Rupert Cadell , the murderers’ former teacher whose flippant repartee regarding social caste festered into the pathological short circuit that led to Brandon’s and Phillip’s crime. Brandon’s sense of intellectual superiority swells to reckless levels throughout the evening as he makes a nail-biting game out of cleverly dropping his guests hints at nasty goings on. Meanwhile, Phillip grows increasingly frightful and guilt-ridden as Rupert inches ever closer to discovering why David hasn’t yet arrived at the party.
Rupert is completely horrified that his words about intellectual superiority, construed to the extent that Brandon believes intellectually inferior human beings have no right to even exist, have been taken so literally. Rupert is shocked into realizing that he has created monsters who have actually murdered.
Superiority, coldness, lack of empathy…we’ve seen it all from the Democratic candidate. And his friend Bill Ayers, who still, apparently, embraces violence and has displayed an indifference to injury caused by his past actions.
Chilling.
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: Al Kissling, Anna Karenina (1948), Bill Richardson, Fire Over England (1937), Harry Teague, impeachment, John McCain, Karl Rove, L, LA Times, Laurence Olivier, Mario Cuomo, Medicare Part D, misogyny, Nancy Pelosi, New Mexico, Not Your Sweetie, post-racial promise, PUMA, Rashid Khalidi, Sarah Palin, Steve Pearce, Ted Kennedy, The Rope (1948), The Scanner-Politics, Tom Udall, Vista Media Center, Vivien Leigh, Waterloo Bridge (1940), Yoko Ono |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
Hey, thanks IA! I am an avid reader of your blog too!
And in these personality cult times ahead, our writing is bound to become more not less relevant, so, let’s keep at it!
GRL,
Having lived more than a decade under Mario Cuomo, I can tell you that he was not all goodness and light. He was an incredibly creative tax hog (but I must admit was subsequently outdone by Republican George Pataki) but a great orator. Not exactly qualities that make me comfortable right now. I think it’s time to look for a truly qualified candidate for a change, rather than settling for someone who’s merely better than the rest.
I am also a voracious classic movie fan, mostly for the reasons you mention (plus the fact that today’s actors just can’t make you feel true emotion like the greats did). Funny – I watched Mr. Smith goes to Washington after being entirely unable to sleep in the wee hours following the “election”. I have loved that movie for years, but this time through the ending had a different meaning for me, too. I realized at the end of Smith’s filibuster that while Senator Paine admits his guilt and complicity, nothing has really changed. Smith is still technically going to be expelled from the Senate (the committee had already voted to do so), the dam was still going to be built in his state where the bot’s camp was supposed to be, and children had still been hurt while trying to spread the word about the political machine. For years I have assumed that the dramatic climax meant that all would be right with the world, but I guess it just goes to show you that we see what we want to see.
Grail,
Oh, I know Cuomo wasn’t perfect…,just riffing on the pre-occupation with all this “racial” stuff…He sure was a great orator and did show great leadership on ONE issue…his brilliant talk at St. John’s U on choice, religion and politics.!
As for the nitty gritty of being the governor…he was there a long time, so people liked him…compared to what the GOP was throwing at them!!! But, eventually, NYers got tired of him…They all stay TOO LONG!!! Everything is relative, of course…
Post-racial my ass! All racial, all the time! The media is obsessed with President Asshat’s Race! I have always cared nothing for the color of some-one’s skin. I care about the color of their character. And so Obama, along with the media have nothing to offer me. Nothing of value anyway.
Sorry Greta, I didn’t mean you. Once honest voice and wouldn’t ya know it would be a female! Is my gender bias showing?
A Dishonest/Biased Media Is A Crime Against Democracy!
Hmmmm…Interesting article IA. I enjoy your reading your blog. I think Politics in the SouthWest are going to be mighty interesting…I reside in the mildly fascist state of Texas…chuckle…It’s a fascism I understand…chuckle…Called doin business….
Yep! we live in interesting times. I was watching Meet John Doe…Mostly cause I like Gary Cooper and it’s a great commentary on the press even with the sappy ending…Nobody does sappy better…imho
Ooooh! Meet John Doe! Excellent pic for showing the depravity of the media and the machine.
Guess this crap has been going on for a long time, huh?
Marge –
Can’t say as I’ve been overwhelmed with Greta. She wasn’t too bad, but she also wasn’t screaming. Guess I have a higher standard these days…Time will tell with Greta, too,
Hi all,
If it wasn’t enough that we were called racists nearly every single day we campaigned this season, I had the whopper of an experience this morning.
I work at a college and while waiting for a city bus in front of the union, a school bus was parked a bit down the street. An AA older man who was on his phone and holding a briefcase walking down the street (a professor I believe) was ran into and literally bumped off the sidewalk though not in the street, by a bunch of middle school kids (mixed races, the one kid who ran into the guy was AA). When he glared at them, the kid looked back and said “Excuse you!”. More kids walked by from same school but they acted fine. The AA older man just stood there looking at the bus for a few secs shaking his head, and contemplated whether he should do anything, then walked away. Another group of students along with a teacher walked by, and I made the comment that some of the students were acting rude. She replied, “Yes, some of these kids ARE rude”. Situation over, or so I thought. A white male teacher came off the bus, got in my face, and said “so you said some kids are being rude”. I replied, “not to me” and retold the incident as I pointed to the spot where it happened. Then the guy shouted that “RACE has nothing to do with it, obviously it only matters to you”. Then stormed back to the bus. My jaw dropped. I had said nothing about the kid being AA just the older man. I didn’t even say anything about the kid’s race to the other teacher. I was upset and went to the bus and plainly said, “Excuse me, the only reason I mentioned the man’s race was so you would have a better description when the kids tried to deny it.” Then he shouted while in front of ALL the kids and other teachers “Don’t be a crazy racist lady” and then the bus driver closed the bus door on me. Then as the bus drove away the kids in the back of the bus, including the AA kid who had showed no respect to a man of his own race, flipped me off!
None of the other people at the bus stop who were all white college students did anything! So I said angrily thanks for backing me everyone, I was just trying to stick up for the old man who obviously had been upset by a bunch of kids who crowded him off the sidewalk. One girl said she had just gone inside and didn’t see it. This happened right in front of a bus shelter where the man could have fallen into. These kids are here as a privilege to get acquainted with the univ experience. And they often act rude to people. To me this was just an issue of rudeness and lack of respect to one’s elders.
To add insult to injury, a car of a group of acquaintances of mine of mixed race, including a Kenyan and an Iranian had stopped and I had gotten up said hello and was waving at them right before this incident happened. Before the hostile white male teacher got in my face, the Iranian gentleman walked past me and said hello again.
I am very deeply upset by this. It was one thing to call me racist when I was campaigning, fine, but to do it after the election and in front of a whole group of kids was just unbelievable and inappropriate. I’m sure they closed the doors on me, because I was ready to find what middle school the teacher taught at and make an official complaint.
I was just hoping that the teachers would say something about not being rude to people. The one female teacher seemed to know which kids were acting rude.
I am an eternal optimist, and I was really just starting to feel hopeful about the era of Obama today after I finally got some sleep. Now I really see no reason to feel hope. And WI is heavily Democratic and won big for Obama. What the hell is the problem?
Incidentally, the AA teachers didn’t say anything to me either, just the white male one.
I can’t believe this and am deeply distressed by it!!!!
But one thing is for sure, I will not say anything again, will keep my comments and complaints to myself, and not try to justify why my motives are not racist.
FEMBOTS…God, I can’t believe what is going on!!!
It will get worse, I think, much worse….
You’re in WI?? SO is Marge…and I lived in Milwaukee in the early 80’s for a year….
It worked for an major insurance co. at the Marine Plaza building downtown. I was asked by another underwriter if they should underwrite a particular trucking company…since I was from NJ, was Italian and knew about the Mafia and this sort of thing…Needless to say, I got out of there after a year…
Talk about bias!!!~
Now, we’re all RACISTS…
Progress?????
IA– TCM has kept me sane during Bush and this election season too. Did you see “The Mortal Storm” on Sunday?
So glad I found you through NQ these past months. Keep writing. I love reading your posts.
IA — thanks for your support.
Yeah, it’s a joke in my family among my half-siblings with Italian background that they are the “northern” italian mafiosos. I always get to hear the French jokes from my own colleagues and friends, since my family is French-Canadian descendants (heard of the Vieuxs?) we are also part Native American (the level right below qualifying for fed aid though).
Have you been to Festa Italiana? Went a couple of years ago with Italian half-brother and it was awesome! You would have loved it especially because it had this whole feature on Italians in FILM! That’s where I also learned that Bon Jovi is Italian, my sister-in-law was ecstatic but we had missed his concert.
I always thought there was some secret agreement with Karl Rove during this election. Rove looked just too happy on election night.
Thank you, bayareavoter!
Since rudeness and disrespect was a major part of this election cycle, why should we expect anything different now? The leader set the pace and the country is going straight to h— in a handbasket.
Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff. Great !! He has his home set up as a charitable foundation so that he pays no property taxes, yet he will be guiding the hand that taxes the rest of us.
Is this change we can believe in?
nope
Not only are we going to be called racists, but we’re going to be mown down because we’re “old” (remember never trust anyone over 30?). It’s not good, and it will get much worse before it’s better.
Fembots – sorry you had to go through it, but thanks for sharing.
Rahm Emanuel – the only person on Earth that’s scarier looking than Michelle. The man just looks evil.
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