WAR MADE EASY

A peace and honesty driven friend of mine had this clip on her site and I had to pinch it for mine. She has blessed me with the compliment of sharing my photos, movies and writings on her site and today I return the favor.

The government and the media have colluded to take this country to war.

War Made Easy - I need to rent the DVD.

CONTRIBUTE TO HILLARY

The ISM emailed me yesterday and told me he made a contribution to Hillary's campaign for President. I did so last year but his email prompted me to give again. This is a very crucial time for her campaign and the future of the United States of America.

Barack Obama may be a good man but is he qualified to run the most powerful nation on the planet? I haven't made up my mind yet, but I can tell you as time goes by I have less confidence in him.

I have yet to hear substance. I see all the crowds being whipped into a frenzy with talk of change but I haven't heard anything to back it up.

CHANGE FOR CHANGE SAKE IS NOT WISE.

We need a leader in the White House who can work with congress and other world leaders on the tough problems we face at home and abroad. I feel with all my heart Hillary is the answer.

Hillary needs your support now more than ever and that is why I am encouraging everyone to contribute what they can.

WE NEED STRENGTH AND SUBSTANCE NOT SLOGANS.

Below is the email response I received after making my donation. I could not agree more.

I just made a contribution to Hillary Clinton, and I hope you'll join me in supporting her campaign.

America is ready for a president who brings our voice, our values, and our dreams to the White House. After seven years of George W. Bush, Americans want real change and solutions for the problems we face every day. Hillary will be ready to take on America's challenges from day one.

I contributed, and you should too! Visit Hillary's website today to give:

www.hillaryclinton.com/joinme

GO BACK TO THE FUTURE - ELECT HILLARY

My friend Scott at www.Scott-o-rama.com asked me to write a guest article for his site explaining why I support Hillary. I thought I would post it here as well even though it will be seen by many more people on his site than mine....

I have been a supporter, vocally and financially, of Hillary Clinton’s since the day I first saw her with her husband, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Prior to the 1992 election I had never heard of either of then, but once I heard them speak, together and separately, I knew I was listening to a new generation of politicians.

In 1992, after having grown-up in the 1960s and having experienced all that goes with that, both Bill and Hillary brought something new to the political arena. Their passion and belief that government could change, and change for the better, was rooted in the ideals of the 1960s.

When the country elected Bill Clinton President of the United States in 1992, we were unconsciously voting for Hillary as well.

It was instantly acknowledged that Hillary Clinton’s intellect was equal or superior to that of her husband’s. She was already an accomplished lawyer, business woman and community activist. She was smart, strong and had a complete sense of herself – an identity outside that of her husband’s.

She was a new genre of First Lady. She wasn’t a classic beauty with an arm-length long pedigree like Jacqueline Kennedy, nor was she the grandmotherly Bess Truman and she certainly wasn’t matronly Barbara Bush. Accomplished and outspoken, she was a partner in the presidency.

Since that time my support for Hillary has never wavered. For me, she is without peer. It excites me that she is the first serious female candidate (no offense Shirley C) with a shot at winning the presidency, but more importantly that she is one of the smartest, most experienced, and fair-minded candidates ever.

Fashions and seasons may change, but the conscripts who authored our constitution were purposeful in our government’s design. They, unlike our current president, understood that negotiation and concession were essential and key to our form of government and so does Hillary Clinton. She is a practical politician who realizes the need to stand firm for what she believes, but pairs it with the understanding that sometimes there is a need for compromise.

Hillary also understands, unlike the current president, the importance of relationship building, both abroad and at home. She is well respected and admired by the leaders of countries around the globe, and has many admirers among her Republican counterparts.

Today while contemplating writing this I remembered that several Republican senators have given Hillary high praise over the past few years. One such Republican was none other than Arizona’s war-hero Senator John McCain, who very well may be her opposition in the November election.

During an appearance on “Meet the Press” on February 20, 2005, John McCain was asked his thoughts on a Hillary presidency and he said, “I am sure that Senator Clinton would make a good president.” Although he made it clear he would be supporting the Republican candidate, he reiterated, “I have no doubt that Senator Clinton would make a good candidate.”

Additionally, Tom Cole was the (Republican) House Majority Whip in April 2005 when he told the National Journal that “She (Hillary) projects strength and the capacity to run the country, to pick smart people, to know when to compromise. Those are things that the last few years have proven to me she can do. I don’t see any of our guys who could beat her…..”

That gives me hope that other Republicans can see the promise of a Hillary presidency. As a person who rarely votes for my personal interests, I have to hope there are others who vote for what is best for the country.

As trite as it may sound, I vote for people.

I vote for those who don’t understand, or were never shown, their significance in the process. I vote so the uneducated may someday learn their potential. I vote so no child goes to bed hungry. I vote so senior citizens do not have to choose between medical prescriptions and food.

I vote for the factory worker who works for 30 years and then loses his pension as the company relocates overseas. I vote for the veteran whose life was torn apart by the separation from his family as he served his country in an ill-conceived war and then returned home with a mutilated body and splintered soul. I vote so that in 25 years my great-grandchildren will be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

During the past eight years we have endured a moral and spiritual depression where opportunity and serenity were overthrown by a furtive, omnipotent, hypocritical, greedy dictatorship and due to that greed we have the largest division of wealth this country has ever experienced. Few people could handle the challenges that face our country but I believe Hillary can, and will, put us back of track economically.

I trust she will restore our place in the world community. She is uniquely qualified as she has known many of the world leaders for upwards of 16 years. She understands the complexity of these relationships and she has the maturity to know we cannot accomplish anything globally without the support of other countries.

Although Hillary stands on her own merits and will be the ultimate decision maker, I believe in the extension of the Clinton legacy, and I look forward to celebrating the repudiation of the mega-wealthy and returning this country to the middle class, and giving every American the opportunity of reaching their full potential.

I genuinely hope people listen to Hillary’s position on the issues, instead of listening to the pundits, and if they do they will discover what I have known all along…Hillary is the smartest and most qualified for the job.

I say we need to GO BACK TO THE FUTURE AND ELECT HILLARY!

Hillary Clinton Introduction by Barbra Streisand

What follows is Barbra Streisand's introduction of Hillary Clinton at Beverly Wilshire Hotel on January 31, 2008. I pinched it from barbrastreisand.com.

Aren’t we fortunate? We have wonderful, accomplished candidates vying for the democratic nomination. But, for the first time in our country’s history, we not only have a woman, but a woman who is the most experienced candidate. Hillary Clinton dares to penetrate the powerful world of men, to challenge their policies and debate their ideas with her keen knowledge and qualifications. Throughout her many years as a public servant, Hillary has utilized every opportunity to make this country strong, safe and just. And, thankfully, we have now entered a time when people discuss the content of her ideas and not just the style of her hair. Today, young women throughout our country look at Hillary Clinton and realize that their potential has no limits. As the first First Lady to become a United States Senator, Hillary has already cracked the glass ceiling, and in November, she will shatter it.

Some people question the idea of a woman president. Perhaps that’s because our country is still young and we haven’t caught up to other places around the world where women are currently serving as Presidents or Prime Ministers…Argentina, Chile, Germany, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia, The Philippines, New Zealand, Mozambique and the Ukraine.

With our nation in turmoil and so much at stake in this election, we need a leader who has been in the trenches for over 35 years advocating for the young, the old, the poor and the disenfranchised. As a woman and as a lawyer, Hillary played a pioneering role in raising awareness of issues like sexual harassment and equal pay. As the First Lady of Arkansas, she directed a task force to improve education. In the White House, Hillary led the fight to expand quality health care. She advocated globally for women's rights. She fought to increase funding for breast cancer research and to help our veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome. As a Senator, she authored legislation to make prescription drugs more affordable and to increase America's commitment in fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis.

With grace and dignity, Hillary Clinton has proven she has the inner strength to persevere and withstand the grueling attacks that have been and will be heaped upon her. She will take us into the future with her dynamic leadership. Once again, America will experience a time of economic stability and fiscal responsibility…a time when America will again lead in technology and innovation…a time when Americans will be able to afford to buy a house and pay their mortgage... a time when millions of Americans will have new jobs working in green technology and alternative energy…a time when every man, woman and child in America will have health care coverage…and yes, a time when our country will once again be respected around the world.

When I introduced Hillary at the Aids Project LA Gala back in 1994, she had just finished her first year as First Lady. I had acknowledged during that speech the likelihood that someday Hillary Clinton would be sitting in the oval office. Now almost 15 years later, we no longer need to imagine it…that moment is here.

So it is with great pride that I introduce a friend and the next President of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON'S 1969 WELLESLEY GRADUATION COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

Hillary Clinton was the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College. Her speech follows a brief introduction by the college president:

Ruth M. Adams, ninth president of Wellesley College, introduced Hillary D. Rodham, '69, at the 91st commencement exercises, as follows:

In addition to inviting Senator Brooke to speak to them this morning, the Class of '69 has expressed a desire to speak to them and for them at this morning's commencement. There was no debate so far as I could ascertain as to who their spokesman was to be -- Miss Hillary Rodham. Member of this graduating class, she is a major in political science and a candidate for the degree with honors. In four years she has combined academic ability with active service to the College, her junior year having served as a Vil Junior, and then as a member of Senate and during the past year as President of College Government and presiding officer of College Senate. She is also cheerful, good humored, good company, and a good friend to all of us and it is a great pleasure to present to this audience Miss Hillary Rodham.



Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of the Wellesley College Government Association and member of the Class of 1969, on the occasion of Wellesley's 91st Commencement, May 31, 1969:

I am very glad that Miss Adams made it clear that what I am speaking for today is all of us -- the 400 of us -- and I find myself in a familiar position, that of reacting, something that our generation has been doing for quite a while now. We're not in the positions yet of leadership and power, but we do have that indispensable task of criticizing and constructive protest and I find myself reacting just briefly to some of the things that Senator Brooke said. This has to be brief because I do have a little speech to give. Part of the problem with empathy with professed goals is that empathy doesn't do us anything. We've had lots of empathy; we've had lots of sympathy, but we feel that for too long our leaders have used politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible. What does it mean to hear that 13.3% of the people in this country are below the poverty line? That's a percentage. We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction. How can we talk about percentages and trends? The complexities are not lost in our analyses, but perhaps they're just put into what we consider a more human and eventually a more progressive perspective. The question about possible and impossible was one that we brought with us to Wellesley four years ago. We arrived not yet knowing what was not possible. Consequently, we expected a lot. Our attitudes are easily understood having grown up, having come to consciousness in the first five years of this decade -- years dominated by men with dreams, men in the civil rights movement, the Peace Corps, the space program -- so we arrived at Wellesley and we found, as all of us have found, that there was a gap between expectation and realities. But it wasn't a discouraging gap and it didn't turn us into cynical, bitter old women at the age of 18. It just inspired us to do something about that gap. What we did is often difficult for some people to understand. They ask us quite often: "Why, if you're dissatisfied, do you stay in a place?" Well, if you didn't care a lot about it you wouldn't stay. It's almost as though my mother used to say, "I'll always love you but there are times when I certainly won't like you." Our love for this place, this particular place, Wellesley College, coupled with our freedom from the burden of an inauthentic reality allowed us to question basic assumptions underlying our education. Before the days of the media orchestrated demonstrations, we had our own gathering over in Founder's parking lot. We protested against the rigid academic distribution requirement. We worked for a pass-fail system. We worked for a say in some of the process of academic decision making. And luckily we were in a place where, when we questioned the meaning of a liberal arts education there were people with enough imagination to respond to that questioning. So we have made progress. We have achieved some of the things that initially saw as lacking in that gap between expectation and reality. Our concerns were not, of course, solely academic as all of us know. We worried about inside Wellesley questions of admissions, the kind of people that should be coming to Wellesley, the process for getting them here. We questioned about what responsibility we should have both for our lives as individuals and for our lives as members of a collective group.

Coupled with our concerns for the Wellesley inside here in the community were our concerns for what happened beyond Hathaway House. We wanted to know what relationship Wellesley was going to have to the outer world. We were lucky in that one of the first things Miss Adams did was to set up a cross-registration with MIT because everyone knows that education just can't have any parochial bounds any more. One of the other things that we did was the Upward Bound program. There are so many other things that we could talk about; so many attempts, at least the way we saw it, to pull ourselves into the world outside. And I think we've succeeded. There will be an Upward Bound program, just for one example, on the campus this summer.

Many of the issues that I've mentioned -- those of sharing power and responsibility, those of assuming power and responsibility have been general concerns on campuses throughout the world. But underlying those concerns there is a theme, a theme which is so trite and so old because the words are so familiar. It talks about integrity and trust and respect. Words have a funny way of trapping our minds on the way to our tongues but there are necessary means even in this multi-media age for attempting to come to grasps with some of the inarticulate maybe even inarticulable things that we're feeling. We are, all of us, exploring a world that none of us even understands and attempting to create within that uncertainty. But there are some things we feel, feelings that our prevailing, acquisitive, and competitive corporate life, including tragically the universities, is not the way of life for us. We're searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating mode of living. And so our questions, our questions about our institutions, about our colleges, about our churches, about our government continue. The questions about those institutions are familiar to all of us. We have seen heralded across the newspapers. Senator Brooke has suggested some of them this morning. But along with using these words -- integrity, trust, and respect -- in regard to institutions and leaders we're perhaps harshest with them in regard to ourselves.

Every protest, every dissent, whether it's an individual academic paper, Founder's parking lot demonstration, is unabashedly an attempt to forge an identity in this particular age. That attempt at forging for many of us over the past four years has meant coming to terms with our humanness. Within the context of a society that we perceive -- now we can talk about reality, and I would like to talk about reality sometime, authentic reality, inauthentic reality, and what we have to accept of what we see -- but our perception of it is that it hovers often between the possibility of disaster and the potentiality for imaginatively responding to men's needs. There's a very strange conservative strain that goes through a lot of New Left, collegiate protests that I find very intriguing because it harkens back to a lot of the old virtues, to the fulfillment of original ideas. And it's also a very unique American experience. It's such a great adventure. If the experiment in human living doesn't work in this country, in this age, it's not going to work anywhere.

But we also know that to be educated, the goal of it must be human liberation. A liberation enabling each of us to fulfill our capacity so as to be free to create within and around ourselves. To be educated to freedom must be evidenced in action, and here again is where we ask ourselves, as we have asked our parents and our teachers, questions about integrity, trust, and respect. Those three words mean different things to all of us. Some of the things they can mean, for instance: Integrity, the courage to be whole, to try to mold an entire person in this particular context, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. If the only tool we have ultimately to use is our lives, so we use it in the way we can by choosing a way to live that will demonstrate the way we feel and the way we know. Integrity -- a man like Paul Santmire. Trust. This is one word that when I asked the class at our rehearsal what it was they wanted me to say for them, everyone came up to me and said "Talk about trust, talk about the lack of trust both for us and the way we feel about others. Talk about the trust bust." What can you say about it? What can you say about a feeling that permeates a generation and that perhaps is not even understood by those who are distrusted? All they can do is keep trying again and again and again. There's that wonderful line in East Coker by Eliot about there's only the trying, again and again and again; to win again what we've lost before.

And then respect. There's that mutuality of respect between people where you don't see people as percentage points. Where you don't manipulate people. Where you're not interested in social engineering for people. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. And the word "consequences" of course catapults us into the future. One of the most tragic things that happened yesterday, a beautiful day, was that I was talking to woman who said that she wouldn't want to be me for anything in the world. She wouldn't want to live today and look ahead to what it is she sees because she's afraid. Fear is always with us but we just don't have time for it. Not now.

There are two people that I would like to thank before concluding. That's Ellie Acheson, who is the spearhead for this, and also Nancy Scheibner who wrote this poem which is the last thing that I would like to read:

My entrance into the world of so-called "social problems"
Must be with quiet laughter, or not at all.
The hollow men of anger and bitterness
The bountiful ladies of righteous degradation
All must be left to a bygone age.
And the purpose of history is to provide a receptacle
For all those myths and oddments
Which oddly we have acquired
And from which we would become unburdened
To create a newer world
To transform the future into the present.
We have no need of false revolutions
In a world where categories tend to tyrannize our minds
And hang our wills up on narrow pegs.
It is well at every given moment to seek the limits in our lives.
And once those limits are understood
To understand that limitations no longer exist.
Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
But to practice with all the skill of our being
The art of making possible.

Introducing JACK

I've had Edna Bitely nearly 8 years and I thought it was time to add to our family so yesterday Noelle, Rich and I drove north of town about 40 miles and found...

JACK

A new addition to the family, and like Edna, she is an English Springer Spaniel. She is liver and white and has a mask just like Ed's. She is only 5 weeks old (which I didn't realize when I got her) but Jack is now drinking goats milk and eating water softened puppy food.

For the past 36 hours we've been trying to come up with a name.

We were looking for something that fit with Edna's name, a female name that can be shortened to a male name like Edna (Eddie/Ed.) We almost chose Esther but tonight Fettit came up with Jacqueline (Jackie/Jack.)

As a welcome to the family present, Steven, of the Wiley-Conforti's gifted Jackie tonight with an animal print buddy (Noelle's term for blanket).

Welcome Jack to our family!

ELECTION EMAIL AND THOUGHTS

I received the following email yesterday from a stranger-friend who reads this blog. She and I correspond as time allows.

What follows is her take on the current state of the election. I hope she doesn't mind me posting it. The email is in it's entirety and I have only edited misspellings and things of that sort, not her content:

...I'm sending the last blurb I had to write in response to more Hillary bashing online:

I have heard speech after speech, and I think Hillary is the real deal. The accusations of lusting for power are ludicrous, and, by the way, never applied to her male counterparts. Anyone aspiring to the thankless position of President of the United States, is driven toward power=influence. What you have to determine is WHY any of them want to influence?

Huckabee wants to create a theocracy; Romney wants to produce the United Corporation of America, Guiliani wants to create a police state, McCain--did you hear his warmongering speech?--is going to WIN at all costs--not on my taxpayer dollars, thank you, while simpering about curbing spending (in between the jokes your weird old uncle tells at Thanksgiving dinner.) Until we are out of Iraq don't talk to me about pork barrel. Thompson is as dumb as a post. And Obama?--I'm sorry but I don't see the wonder of his speech making. He is full of platitudes and empty rhetoric.

Hillary has taken the trouble and the personal risk to talk about the issues in detail. She cares about women and children, and the reputation of our country, and the poor and middle class. She has thought about what it is really going to take to confront the incredible obstacles this country faces. " I'm so for Hillary."

I have liked Richardson's candor, and wish he had not backed Obama. A Hillary/Richardson ticket would be the most experienced for this country. And I am sad Biden and Dodd and Richardson are out and Kucinich is disregarded. Not sure why Edwards can't get traction.

We need all their voices. Seems to me people think getting along is better than fighting. I don't think we can get along with extreme right wingers. I think we need a strong progressive leader with well considered ideas, the background to make it happen, with a truly supportive marriage partner, truly a model marriage for our time, together through it all, I say, Go Hillary.

Chris, I want to let you know that your pro-Hillary bent has really influenced me. Yes, I wish she were even lefter of Kucinich, hell, I think government sponsored housecleaning and massage would greatly benefit humanity. I'd run on that platform alone...

I think Kim is spot-on.

John McCain has become the creepy uncle at Thanksgiving, Fred Thompson is a snoozefest, Mitt Romney is a talking Ken doll, Huckabee scares me, and although Guiliani is for gay marriage and a woman's right to choose, he completely misses the mark on everything else.

Last night I watched to results from yesterday's elections in South Carolina and Nevada and couldn't help but wonder what in the hell happened to Rudy? He rates lower than Thompson - sad given his front-runner status in the beginning.

The Republicans are a mess this year - I just don't see them gaining any traction.

Kim mentioned the Clinton marriage as the "Model Marriage for our times." I couldn't agree more.

I have never doubted the love Bill and Hillary share - although it isn't any of my business. She has loved this man practically from the moment he blew into her life and I think the same is true for him, but like all marriages there have been problems - just like 99% of all marriages.

Only in "The Provincial States of America" do we not forgive a cheating spouse. It is easier to throw away a lifetime, give money to lawyers and hand out scarlet letters. In Europe, and other parts of the world, having a mistress and a wife is commonplace. In America we call a lawyer the second we get a whiff of another woman's perfume.

Infidelity should be viewed as a weakness, not a crime, and standing by your man for the sake of your marriage and family should be seen as commendable.

Hillary Clinton was humiliated by the public airing of her husband's dirty laundry and yet she chose to forgive and recommit herself to the man she married, and in doing so she rediscovered herself and her voice - a voice for women and children and for low and middle income families. She has become the voice of reason in a time where there has been nothing but chaos and confusion.

Isn't it time we had a fresh voice in the White House? Someone who, with the help of a congress controlled by democrats, can finally put an end to the decline of our country and its reputation as a dictatorship. I believe Hillary will restore our place in the world as a country that believes in people and democratic ideals more than it does power, greed and war.

Thanks Kim for your thoughts and provoking me to write!

STAY

I just told the RBloggers about this singer (Katie Thompson) I discovered in New York while attending Mostly Sondheim this past year and then I found her on itunes and purchased her CD. Tonight I stumbled upon her on Youtube... and this is one of my favorite songs she sings. She also does a very unique "Stayin Alive" which is better than the original.

It is so appropriate on so many levels after the chaos and hysteria.

It will all be okay... if you just STAY!

BACKSTAGE AT A FALLEN STAR PRODUCTION

Have you ever been backstage at a theater production? The facade is never as it appears and behind the stage it is always messy. There are people running around making sure that what appears on stage is perfect and no audience member sees the strings being pulled.

The theater goer never sees the backstage happenings - The magic and the smoke and mirrors…. The curtain fell about 33 hours ago……

If you live backstage this is normal - not so if you live in the real world - you see it all! Living in the live world requires you to see the smudged makeup and the dusty wigs, the ill prepared actor and actress, and the paint peeling from the scenery walls.

My friends, each of you, are players in someone’s game. This is not Deal or No Deal. Truth or Consequences is more like it.

I have stewed and stirred because at my core I believe in loyalty and truth.

The slap in the face was easy! What happened afterwards was more difficult to take. I am an adult! I never expected to be abused by one of my caretakers.

Thankfully reality intervened and for a few hours I was able to put aside the chaos that has become my past time.

Something went a rye and those I thought I knew have become strangers. My questions are many but I know the answers will never be forthcoming.

In a place of truth, acceptance and love, lives reality, but reality can be embraced without repercussion and if not it can fester for no reason at all.

I guess in this case the truth doesn’t matter and illusion takes it's place.

Acceptance and love do not excuse foul behavior.. I let you in, and I think I need an explanation.

The truth could easily have been accepted.

Whatever the reason - I feel betrayed!

I am Sorry for Love!

HIlLARY - BEING REAL

The ISM (my big bro) brought this to my attention and I think it shows the real Hillary. I have always beliwved she is a great woman who cares. Unlike so many others, she truly wants to make a difference in the lives of the average American.

Judge for yourself!

WRITE IT DOWN

For those who wonder why I am a member of this cult..... this is my answer.....

BOOZIN BUDDIES

I AM A FORTUNATE MAN

The holidays are history – halleluiah.

Michele and Liz are getting today to do a talky. Michele’s twin will be there also. I have badgered them to talk about nothing but me. HAHA

My goal is to be the most annoying celebrity of 2008. Oh wait – I’m not a celebrity other than in my mind.

Thoughts of friends – Matt, Debbie, CW, Tova, Ronda, even Steve - those far away but never far from me – and the new ones - RBloggers!

It was a fantastic week at work, more like three days, but I am back doing what I enjoy the most…. for work!

Last night was an early night out with Josh and Steven – never a let down. I enjoy them so.

Did my “word project” video this morning under a gray sky wearing a gray sweater. Fitting!!!

The movies with Joann today - we are seeing “The Kite Runner.” She forced me to read the book and my heart broke as I read it. Christy got us free tickets as usual.

After the movies it is Noelle time - important time - treasured time - simple yet complete time.

A new life grows inside Michelle - another gift!

I am a fortunate man!

Oh.... Must not forget the ISM

ROSIE AND DAVE

This morning I awoke to a barrage of overnight blog hits searching a "Rosie O'Donnell and David Letterman" connection.

Between the hours of 10pm (mountain time) last night and 6:30 this morning I received 20 separate hits from people searching a combination of Rosie O'Donnell and David Letterman on Google. Each was a unique search, meaning there were no duplicates, and they came from all over North America - from Regina, St. Paul, Richmond, Houston, Denver, Edmonton, Broomfield, Needham, Alexandria, and Estero, Nashua, Herndon, Quebec and Melbourne and some I cannot identify.

These cities are from one end of the country to the other. What was on the news last night (or this morning) to drive so many people to my site for something as random as this? Lately Hillary Clinton, Peyton Manning and ocular penetration lead the Goggle searches.

Did I miss something overnight?

Yesterday the was a question on Rosie.com, "who do you prefer leno or letterman?" She answered Ferguson.

Could that one tiny question and answer steer 20 people overnight to this place?

TODAY'S RESULTS FROM THE IOWA CAUCUSES-WHO CARES?

So the results of the Iowa caucuses are in and the winners are Obama and Huckabee.

My sentiments are - who cares?

In 1950 it may have made a difference but in the wi-fi world of instant information that is 2008 do the results from a tiny fly over state matter at all? Do the people living in Philadelphia or Boston, or even Chicago, care what the people of Iowa think? In 2008 are we going to elect a president based on the interests of a small, rural state whose major exports are corn and hogs?

I think not.

This is not to malign the good people of Iowa, but I am not swayed by the decisions they make. I don’t hold dear the same things the good people of the Hawkeye state do and their decision to vote for Barack Obama and what’s his name Huckabee do not make me believe either will be their respective party’s nominee.

The same holds true for New Hampshire.

New Hampshire is a beautiful New England state that contains half as many people as Phoenix, Arizona. What they think is not relevant in 2008 – and their place as an early bell-weather just doesn’t hold true today.

The prized caucuses in Iowa and New Hampshire are relics like the Model T, 8-track tapes and dial up internet. They just don’t play in 2008 and both parties need to take a long look at the process and make some changes.

States like Michigan and Florida have been penalized by their parties for moving up their primary elections – and for what? Tradition? Who cares?

It's time to modernize the electoral process, including the Electoral College (but I won’t go into that). After a year long campaigning process isn’t it time we get to the meat of it and start with states that make a difference?

Tonight’s results have nothing to do with the overall nomination outcome. I’ve said all along that Iowa and New Hampshire do not matter. I like Barack Obama, and if he is the candidate that is chosen to be the democratic nominee, I will certainly vote for him - although I think in two months the outcome will be different from todays. That goes for both sides.

In 2000 at least George Bush was at least likable to some. The same can’t be said of Huckabee. His chances of becoming the Republican nominee are about as good as me winning the Power Ball.

It is time to weed out the lesser candidates early on so we have an opportunity to hear what those with a chance at winning their party’s primaries have to say. I’m tired of watching 10 blowhards stand uncomfortably at a dais and attempt to debate when in the end all we want to hear from is 3 or 4 from each party.

On the republican side I may be interested in hearing what Guiliani, McCain, and Romney have to say. Notice I said may - I'm being polite.

On the democrat side let’s get down to Clinton, Obama and Edwards - even though I don't think Edwards has a chance either.

In the end they are the only ones with a snow balls chance in hell of gaining any real interest. After tonight I’m sure many members of the Ron Paul Revolution are becoming Benedict Arnolds.

Today’s results just aren’t relevant in 2008!