PIT BULL WITH LIPSTICK SMEARED ON

PIT BULL WITH LIPSTICK SMEARED ON by Justyna Ball (2008)

My cousins in Poland have asked me if I went to go see "Mamma Mia" yet. No, I haven't, and I don't intend to. It's not the music, which I actually love - I even named my dog ABBA. It's the image of Pierce Brosnan singing "S.O.S." that turns me off. And the whole script idea with the girl who plays Meryl Streep's daughter being on a mission chasing down three men. All three had entered her mother's life at same point. One lingered around a little longer and gave her a little more than just a second look, he gave her a daughter. And now that daughter wants to know who her dad is … dah.
I don't know about you, but I spent the last week watching the Democratic Convention and this week, the GOP's.
I was very pleased with remarks by both Sen. Obama and his wife Michelle, "Uncle Teddy's" as well as Joe Biden's. I was pleasantly surprised by both Clintons' speeches. Since the beginning of the election, I was never a Clinton fan, and to tell you the truth I expected something rather dry and nothing beyond the standard talk by an ex- president – just something for the sake of keeping the Democratic Party together.
I was moved. The Clintons pulled off quite impressive (No Way, No How, No McCain) speeches and pledged 100% support for Sen. Obama. Obama's long emancipated presentation (for 84 000 at the stadium and 38 millions at home) did not disappoint either. Our being fed up with Bush's politics was clearly spelled out...ENOUGH! And along with the other speakers, as the convention's agenda obliged, the plan for the next several years was put out, a connection between Exxon John and Bush established, Michelle re-introduced and the party stayed united. A job well done.
And then came the GOP convention, which took over all the attention and the Republican Party introduced the unknown (even to McCain!) governor, a mother of 5, their Alaskan "pit bull," Sarah Palin with her lipstick freshly applied. She entered the stage, the hockey mom, and began "checking" from the start.
Somehow all the arguments previously used against Sen. Obama, now attributed to Gov. Palin are actually her … assets. How's that for hypocrisy?
Her being inexperienced? Are you kidding? The official statement is that she is a fresh face and a reformer.
(Well, Mrs. Palin was educated in journalism and Barack Obama in ...constitutional law wich means he knows US constitution inside out.)
The Super Mom is hard not to notice as her Alaskan brood follows her around everywhere. Of course, she can handle it all - she can juggle her VP career, five kids (one with special needs), her Blackberry and even throw a baby shower for her pregnant teenage daughter…all at the same time. But I can't get this out of my mind: Why, why would McCain do this to her?
My impression on Day 1 was that he put her out there without thinking about the responsibilities that the VP position demands. I believe that Sen. McCain should ask his running mates and work on stronger case for one of them rather that put such a bargain on this poor woman who has a lot to handle now. Maybe Track, Bristol, Willow and Piper need no constant supervision… but wait at least until Trig goes to kindergarten.
I saw a woman who jumped at the opportunity (who wouldn't in her position?) but did not think through it.
For some reason, to many Republicans, she appears as someone well prepared or (second option) someone who can learn … along the way.
Let's just pray that the learning process ends before McCain (if elected, he would be the oldest president in first term) passes, as she would be next in line to run the country! Oh well, she can always send her husband Todd – the snow machine racer, dog sled pusher, and caribou hunter after Ahmadinajad. Todd can also play the role of the First House-Husband in the White House flipping moose burgers for the visitors on the big lawn while "Miss Congeniality" holds some executive meetings.
Since when does being a mother of a pregnant teenage daughter prepare you to run the country? Oh I get it, Bush has twins so he deserved a second term.
The attention given by the media to that fact of teenage pregnancy was upsetting Gov. Palin the day before her speech, but it somehow did not bother Palin to expose her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend at the convention where in a flash of tens of cameras, she held her five month old brother, Trig (is Trig short for Trigger? I know the mother loves guns…).
Actually, everybody had a turn to hold the baby, Cindy McCain did too…
Probably to hide it from the cameras.
The lowest point of the convention was when the Republican speakers laughed at the community organizers. That was an attack on ordinary people in urban areas who deserve better lives and want to do something about their situation. And I hope that people in those poverty-stricken communities were watching and came to the right conclusions. The lowest point for Gov. Palin was to address hockey moms and mothers of children with special needs. Then I realized why that poor five month old with Down syndrome was there the whole time.
And that's when I stopped feeling sorry for her as that woman is an opportunist.
Moments later, she accused Sen. Obama of using "change" to promote his career.
The best strategy to cover up your own "aspirations" is to point them out in the opponent.
I watched Fred Thompson, "Democrat " Joe Lieberman , Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani speak. Giuliani accused Obama of flip-flopping, as a day after the nomination, the Senator from Illinois favored an undivided Jerusalem ("Like I do and Sen. McCain does," Giuliani said) and he later changed his mind!
I won't comment.
We heard the Sen. McCain war story over and over and how his being shot down somehow predestines him for the president's office.
The speakers stated what the gum-chewing and triple-chinned crowd fanning themselves occasionally, wanted to hear which was that the country is fine, the economy is fine, Washington is all liberal, and Iraq is a success. All they needed was Miss Alaska to tell them, "Drill baby drill" (referring to the drilling of oil reserves, which Gov. Palin promotes). Did I mention that she also wanted to ban some books from her local library? Ok, let her ban books, but polar bears are off limits. She wanted them off the threatened species list because she does not believe in global warming.
Not all Republicans are so blindfolded.
Susan Eisenhower, Dwight's granddaughter, one of the speakers at the Democratic Convention, also an expert on international security, explained that "Deep in America's heart, I believe, is the nagging fear that our best years as a nation may be over. We are disliked overseas and feel insecure at home. We watch as our federal budget hemorrhages red ink and our civil liberties are eroded. Crises in energy, health care and education threaten our way of life and our ability to compete internationally. There are also the issues of a costly, unpopular war; a long-neglected infrastructure; and an aging and increasingly needy population. " And she believes that Sen. Obama and not Sen. McCain is the right man who understands those needs and will lead the country back on the right track.
How can you try to fix something (like the economy) if you don't believe it's broken? The stubborn position on Iraq only costs us more lives, for what? For Bush's "mistake." Do you ever think about the lives of Iraqis? Laura Bush in her speech stated that because of her husband, 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan have freedom. Are you kidding me? Where is Osama? I mean, c'mon…we send robots to Mars and we can't find a guy who is running around with a walkie-talkie wearing Converse sneakers? And if he does not live in a cave in a country the size of Texas, and I believe he does not, but comfortably somewhere in, let's say Pakistan, what does it say about us, our intelligence and our ability to capture terrorists? Unless we are not really trying, and we just pretend that we are to keep this war going and the public satisfied.
In Laura's footsteps, tiptoes Cindy, portrayed as a Republican Mother Teresa who was beautified alive for bringing a little girl from Bangladesh 17 years ago.
And that was probably the only diversity at GOP's convention.
Cindy is so good at providing medical assistance to orphans overseas, but why not our own backyard?
It is odd, since in Massachusetts alone, we have 2,400 children eligible for adoption.
Not cool enough? You say they are crack babies? Why not pick one? Or we should rather sweep the problem of poverty under the rug? Cindy shone in the flash of cameras, but I would love to see a politician's wife setting an example by adopting one of our own American unprivileged ones.
Once I had an argument with a waitress who claimed that American orphans have a much better life that those in Bangladesh. Please tell that to our orphan children the next time you see them if you see them. I guess they don't realize how lucky they are.
Or at least allow people from other countries, like let's say, rich Somalis, to adopt them.
Cindy's half sister, Jim Hensley's other daughter, Kathleen Portalski, wife of Stanley (son Nicholas is a firefighter) cheers for Obama. But that may be, because she was left penniless by her wealthy father.
I don't think Cindy has a political view. As much as John needed her fortune, she needed him for celebrity status. A good politician needs a wife, a socialite and if she is a NASCAR fan and the heir to a beer fortune, it's even better.
But that pit bull, Sarah may cry "victimhood" (that's where the lipstick comment comes handy, Sarah wants you to remember that although she is tough she is still a woman!) if Joe Biden presses too hard during the debate. So should we either see her as a woman or we go beyond the gender factor? And we'll wrestle like equals?
She may not be impressed with Sen. Obama's resume, but at some point in her life she too found Hawaii attractive. Back when she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College in Honolulu as one of the five colleges she attended in six years.
At the end, no matter how you see her: "As a restless reformer" as Joe Lieberman does, a hockey mom, an anti-abortion advocate, pro-war, for drilling, she is a pawn in McBush's politics.
Make people fear and later tell them that you are the only one who can keep them safe. Safe from the Axis of Evil, Islamic radicals, and most importantly… safe from liberals. The message remains the same, but this time it's delivered by woman.
Sarah Palin, underneath all the Maybelline lipstick and waterproof mascara is just more of the same.
And those hockey moms better take their helmets and cages off to see clearer, before they say, "Mamma Mia! What have we done?"