I apologize in advance and I know this won’t make me popular, but  I have never thought John Edwards was much of an asset to the Democratic Party and his most recent action of appearing on ABC News to announce his affair was a very stupid thing to do.

I confess my discomfort with him goes back a long ways. He was elected once, didn’t win his state for John Kerry, disappeared during the 2004 election, was eaten alive by Dick Cheney in the Vice Presidential debate (I know, reasonable minds may differ on this), and made a dismal showing in the most recent primary. I do think he did surprising well in the Democratic primary debates, but I think his oratorical skills are overrated.

I’ll be brief here. No one saw the "historic" speech that Barack Obama  gave today that has this site swooning, and collapsing on the fainting couch. I went to work today. I came home. I watched the news and saw a talking head jabbering OVER Obama’s speech. They finished the segment with the infamous segment of Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright , saying "God Damn America". Most Americans are like me. They weren’t glued to YouTube, or C-Span or MSNBC. They didn’t excitedly google the text of the speech. They aren’t willfully ignorant. They just didn’t go out and get it the way his adherents have.

My poor old Mother and I have been in Iowa, campaigning for our Democratic candidate. Our candidate is running a really positive campaign and we find him or her to be an inspiration (we are not taking reports on our candidate’s gender at face value), and so, even though we are from Southern California and really don’t have proper clothes for Iowa in deep dark December, here we are!  

I managed to pick up a nice cloth coat for my Mother at the Goodwill, before we set out, but I could tell from her pursed blue lips that she wasn’t as comfortable as she might have been back home on the patio back home in California drinking mai tais and doing internet-based research to see if she can help Dennic Kucinich identify that previously unidentified flying object. Right now, Mom thinks it was just a paper plate on a string. But who was holding the string? Who was holding the damn string? Set up?  That’s the question.

I lived in New Orleans for several years and know it well. It is part of me, and I left a few pieces of myself there. It’s a ghostly city and when I die, if I have a moveable spirit, I will get on the Mystery Train and go haunt New Orleans. Look for me in the gaslit flame at Café Lafitte in Exile. Don’t get too close. Fire on the bayou. Be that as it may, I watched in horror as Katrina engulfed the Gulf in bright orange on satellite photos, and I thought about my little condo at ground level, and the framed reverse glass paintings inside on the wall. I thought about it as I watched television here in my home in unhaunted  San Diego County where I reside.

A politically powerful person, who has some authority over me has been peppering me with those corny viral e-mails deriding the French for their lack of military skills, their effete ways, and their refusal to hop on a C-130 and sacrifice themselves for Halliburton on the Streets of Baghdad. Although he is a second generation American (fatherland=Italy), he thinks we need a 900 foot wall on the borders and is constantly sneering about the French. I usually just shrug it off.

I guess he thought he had offended me and so he sent me an e-mail and asked me if I was offended by the French jokes. It think he thought that I was of French ancestry because I speak French.  And for some reason, I just snapped. Below is my response. I haven't fact checked everything I said below but, you know what: I'm not going to spend my life fact checking while Thugs just keep picking up the sharpest rock they can find and flinging. Today, I flung back.

There has been a lot of consternation, most of it pretty rude, about the shuffling going on over at Air America. Here's my take: Someone over at Air America has finally realized that their greatest talent is one they had on before anyone was really awake to listen to her: Rachel Maddow. Although her audience at the crack of dawn has to be pretty miniscule, every day she produces the show as if she were broadcasting live from Madison Square Garden to waiting millions. She doesn't merely get on the radio and rant. Instead, like Diana the Hunter, she sharpens the arrows in her quiver and takes aim at the right wing propaganda machine and the people whose evil works it obscures, hitting the target with alarming regularity.

"So don't say good night...tomorrow was made for some, tomorrow may never come for all we know". Abbie Lincoln sang those words so beautifully at one of the first Katrina relief concerts last year. It is becoming increasingly clear that for New Orleans, tomorrow may never come. That's why Orleanians have always done their level best to live as if each night may be their last.   I met my first Orleanian in San Francisco, of all places. I was quite youthful and adventurous.  It was love at first sight. He had atypically blue eyes and bright red hair, Bukowski in his back pocket and thought that San Francisco was a sterile and uncultured place. Are you insane, I asked? Where are you from that you could say such a thing? New Orleans, he answered very slowly, and very languidly. [more on flip]

UPDATE: Mary Ann is alive and so are her cats and dogs. I spoke with my friend who lives on Clouet Street in the Bywater are of New Orleans on Saturday. She has six cats and two dogs (which she tries to keep separate). She refused to evacuate like thousands of Orleanians because she didn't think a hotel would take 8 animals.  I asked her what she would do if the water came in and she said she would go to the attic. She has a very large attic --almost like another house. It has a gigantic pull-down ladder. Did she make it to the ladder with six unruly cats and 2 dogs who have never been in the same room as the cats? Was she able to reach the cord to pull down the ladder?[more on flip]

We have been reaching for a way to we can make our voices heard and it has been suggested that we boycott Red States economically. I disfavor that approach and instead suggest that we target not states (such as Ohio), but corporations (such as Diebold). This is because we may be harming the wrong people. Case in point: Today I called Lexis-Nexis (online legal database) customer service based in Dayton, Ohio. While I was chatting with the rep, I jokingly told her "Thanks a lot for what you did to us, Ohio". She asked for an explanation, I said, "You know, the election." Her reply cut me to the quick.

The San Diego Union Tribune reports that a San Diego area Kerry supporter wanted to show his enthusiasm for the ticket by putting a nylon sign on his garage. He had had political signs stolen before and so set up a "Republican trap" with a motion-activated alarm, a floodlight and a video near the sign. Midnight: the suspect triggers the alarm and tries to rip the sign from the garage, but realizes it is tethered. He drops the sign and jumps a fence and tries to jog a way. Neighbors call the Sheriff's department as the victim pursues, and then takes down the would-be thief. He sits on the suspect until the police get there. When the police arrive, the suspect says the victim "had jumped him and tried to rape him". But victim has a video tape. After reviewing the tape, the suspect is taken to the station and cited for attempted petty theft. Full story here: Sign Stealer Cries "Rape!"