younger, beautiful and let us not forget, rich

john mc cain and his supporters want to present him as such an example of "american values" but closer examination of his past reveils some things that they obviously don't want to talk about. oh, the right wing, wants to make big TALK about a militant black preacher in chicago but do not want to have any talk about homophobic, sexist preachers who claim that such things as 9-11 attacks and hurricane katrina were imposed on america because we tolerate gay "lifestyles". the right wing would like to take michelle obama's words and make much ado about the shakespearian nothing. (and for those of you who say in her words of "first time...proud..being american; let me say this about you: first you are white. second your friends, your wife, your neighbors are white. you never have experienced racism directed against you just because of the color of your skin. you have never been pulled over by the police because of the color of your skin. you have never seen your people clubbed, hanged, beaten, tortured and killed strictly because of the color of their skin. neither you nor your relatives had to sit in the back of a bus, not be allowed in eating places, not being allowed to check into certain hotels nor go to certain clubs nor be allowed to apply for certain jobs all because of the color of their skin. and this is not "ancient" history, it is in my lifetime and yours too unless you are under 50.....and you probably didn't cry when dr. martin luther king, jr. died. that black people are sometimes a little bitter is not amazing; that black people are not really bitter all of the time is.) a person should be judged by the whole of themselves; by what they have done with their life, by what kind of parent they are, what kind of husband/wife they are, by what kind of citizen they are, by what their priorities in life are; these are the things that should be taken into account when evaluating someone, not judging but evaluating. when we are comparing two people who are running for the highest office in the land, good for gander must also be good for the goose. in that frame of mind let us look at john mc cain and his WIVES.

you see, john mc cain has been married TWICE. odd, they hardly ever mention that...family values and all. john divorced his first wife. his first wife was a beautiful model. a tall, lovely willow of a woman. while senator mc cain was in prison in hanoi, his wife had a car wreck in which she was severly and permenantly injured. parts of her legs had to be removed making her shorter, she to this day lives in pain. she was no longer the tall beautiful wife when mc cain returned to the usa in 1973. he admits he had a series of affairs and eventually met the present mrs. mc cain who just so happened to be younger, beautiful and rich. so long first mrs. mc cain.

in fairness, john mc cain promised to take care of her medical bills for life and he has. she still speaks very highly of him and supports his bid for presidency. also in fairness, many of his friends and past supporters do not his bid and think his treatment of her was cold at best. some had very unkind things to say about senator mc cain.

this could be spun any way. in the newspaper (a british one at that) story there were many quotes that reflected badly on senator mc cain; i choose not write them here; they are of no consequence. but if the republicans plan on making this personal, then it is up to the press and the bloggers to give both sides.

the point being: we are not electing michelle nor are we electing cindy; we are electing either senator mc cain or senator obama to the presidency. policy not politics should be our focus. positions not preachers should be argued. war and peace are too important of subjects to be demeaned by side show attacks. we have many problems here in america from the economy to the occupation of iraq and the continuing war in afghanastan. we have millions out of work and millions in risk of losing their homes. the dollars shrinks weekly and oil goes up seemingly daily. draught is wrecking the farm economy in several parts of the country and new orleans is neither rebuilt nor have the levees been properly repaired. our roads and bridges are in dire need of work and upkeep and the national debt is staggering. social security has been looted and our kids are being left behind the rest of the world. we spend more on health care than any other country and almost 50 million of us have no insurance. we have millions of illegals in our country and our ports are not safe. airlines are going broke and those that aren't are raising prices through the ceiling. industy is shrinking and government is growing. food prices are soaring and the stock market is sinking. these are the major things that a president and congress must address. so let us talk about these things. the things that should matter to any concerned citizen from either the left or the right or the giant middle in between.

ron
in houstonbydamntexas
on a thursday afternoon
thinking about my country