Wednesday, August 22, 07

Mitch McConnell, yeah the one that is minority leader of the U.S. Senate was in Paducah today speaking at the Rotary club, which meets every Wednesday in Paducah at the Hotel Irwin Cobb. You can always tell cause there's a lot of suits around the Irwin Cobb on Wednesday around noon.

From what i gather, McConnell stated that there isn't any wind in Kentucky, so no need for wind power. He apparently said, not only is there no good place for wind power in Kentucky, he said that they are ugly to boot! So Kentuckians don't have to worry about those nasty ol' wind generators in their state!
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The media is sure trying to create a fight between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. Just recently, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, the wife of former Federal Reserve "guru" Alan Greenspan, (just to put it all in context), who only does what appears to be her pick of the crop of stories for NBC anymore, had a spot about whether or not some statements that Michelle Obama was making was actually an attack on Hillary.

Notwithstanding the fact that I would think that Ms. Mitchell would have better stories to do, it is interesting that NBC would use one of it's "big hitters" to stir this up, when really, there isn't that much to stir. At least Mitchell did, at the end of her spot, play enough of Michelle Obama's speech to put it in context of being a self critique and not an attack on Hillary Clinton. I guess the media is obsessed with conflict.

Newt Gingrich has predicted that the Dems will nominate a Clinton/Obama ticket. I've already, on the Stumps email list, predicted that Obama will get the nomination, although I stated then and now that this isn't an endorsement of Obama. It's just that I watched how he ran a campaign in Illinois against really good candidates and came out of nowhere to blow away the opposition. A few months ago, I saw the same things falling into place for Obama, but it seems to have been more difficult for him to move things on a national level. I guess that shouldn't be surprising.

I still think that it is way too early to tell, especially based on national polls. Most of the talking heads agree with that assessment. But, there is no doubt that Hillary is running a good campaign. But even though it appears that media has crowned the Clinton/Obama campaigns as he ultimate election conflict, and is doing it's best to push things toward a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket, I'm not sure that this is what will come to pass. I think it is possible, but honestly, I think that each of the candidates will want to have their person as a running mate, and after running so hard against each other, I'm just not sure that their first picks would be each other. But, I am never disappointed by the truth of the old axiom that politics makes strange bedfellows. Isn't it going to be fun to watch?
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Can you believe that Illinois still doesn't have a budget? Now this is a textbook case of "with friends like this, who needs enemies?" The Dems had a long time without Republican interference to come up with a budget and couldn't do it. Now that the Reps are in the process, things haven't gotten any better. We have Madigan and Blago, both of the same party, both from the Chicago area, and neither able to work with the other. One thing that we can be pretty sure of and that is, when a budget is agreed on, it will be piss poor.
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It is so hot and dry here, it's very extreme. While it's been this dry a few times in the 27 years we have lived here, I think this is the driest it's been in mid August. I mean, you just walk on grass anywhere, and it just crunches, it's so dry. It's been 100 degrees or close for almost 3 weeks now, and we haven't had a good rain for much longer than that. We're having to water our garden, or at least what is left of it, just to keep it going on the hopes of some fall rains. It's very serious. So send us some rain!