It's not even election year yet and I'm already thinking,
POLITICS, SCHMOLOTICS!!! (Bah, humbug)

I suppose all of this political debating between the various Prezzidential-wannabees is a good thing, because after all, the more we hear, the more we know, right? Wait, this is politics, where the more ya hear just confuses ya more. Well, that's what it does to me. And there are so many televised mass-candidate debates lately, that from debate to debate, the whole thing comes off as a political version of "American Idol", where talking heads judge the candidates in the manner that Simon Cowhead judges the musical wannabees on "Idol". Last night, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough was talking about Fred Thompson, the actor who's been involved in politics for a while. It was Thompson's first debate of the year. Scarborough basically said that Thompson, in this campaign, looked ill-at-ease, and didn't appear as strong as he had in the past. I have a theory about all of this, however...

It's easy to spot physical changes in someone when you don't see them often. Well, Joe Scarborough is in a position where he probably sees almost everyone in politics several times a year. Therefore, he may not have noticed any 'cosmetic' changes Mr. Thompson has undergone, only that Thompson didn't seem to 'perform' as well in this debate as in debates past. Scarborough then showed a clip of Thompson's debate performance, and I saw a change right away. He's getting OLD, and with age comes feebleness and infirmity, or at least the perception thereof, and Mr. Thompson sure seemed to have really physically aged since the last time I'd seen him on TV, which was probably 3 or 4 years ago. Of course a person is gonna change, given that much time! And who knows, maybe in the next debate, Thompson will do just fine and level all of his opponents with scathing remarks and ponderous philosophies. Or not. And will it matter? I honestly don't know...

The talking heads on the all-night-news-channels have to always be analyzing, comparing, evaluating, prognosticating, gesticulating and all kindsa-mean-&-nasty-ugly-things...and they try to make a story out of every tiny little thing, because, face it, it's their job to be newsworthy. Who said this? Who said that? Who was weakest? Who was strongest? Who had the best hairstyle, and so forth. And you know, it just goes on and on and on. Yak, yak, yak. I find that nightly, there comes a point where I can't TAKE it anymore, and OFF goes the TV! And I'm finding it more difficult all the time to try and endure Dan Abrams, Chris Mathews, Tucker Carlson, Keith Olberman, and don't even get me started on the other pundits on the other networks. As nice as Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" might be, I'm sorry, that program makes me tune out as well. Maybe that's why I miss Don Imus so much. I personally think Imus oughta come back and absolutely call Al Sharpton every name in the book for being a racemongering pseudo-evangelical demagogue.

I think what blows me away the most about all of this political stuff is that THE ELECTION AIN'T UNTIL NOVEMBER OF NEXT YEAR! And, when this insane political madness which results from multitudinous candidates jockeying for position is over with, and the field gets whittled down a little bit, yes, I'll start trying to make up my mind about the candidates. But isn't this overkill, presenting these all-of-em-are-basically-the-same debates this far ahead of election time? I think it would be uproarious if every single American got so totally burned out on all the way-ahead-of-time politicking going on, that NO ONE VOTES when election time comes. I've asked it before: "What if they gave an election and no one came?" After all, the next Prezzident is probably the guy (or gal) that appears to be the most camera-ready, and not necessarily the one who's the smartest. And between now and November 2008, they'll have plenty of time to rehearse their various individual political diatribes.

Personally, I am looking for someone who will get us out of Iraq, and channel some of that mighty military money towards solving problems within our nation's borders. There are plenty of issues here to deal with; joblessness, inflation, gas prices, immigration reform, destitution, homelessness, dependence on foreign manufacturing and outsourcing, and equity in the tax system. I would firmly back a flat-tax that is fair for EVERYONE. Those would be some good issues for any candidate to chew upon whilst preparing for the next dog-and-pony-show-debate.
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So what am I watching right now? The HISTORY channel. The subject is the "death road" high up in the Andes Mountains of South America. A one lane road high waaay up there, with thousands-of-feet dropoffs and no guardrails. So I guess, somewhere in the world, lurk more dangerous roads than hiway 101 here on the coast...or hiway 95 in North Idaho. Or any other twisty, winding 2-lanes that ensure you'll be grabbin' the steering wheel with white knuckles.