'That's So Not Toast' (Like, Yeah!..)

 Sarah Palin was a blithering idiot until she became a devious genius.

Or, maybe, she was always a devious genius to blithering idiots?!.

The Lyndon Johnson Moment?..

"...I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president..."

President Lyndon Johnson, March 31, 1968

Take a look at the White House's "Economic Assumptions" (Page 13) from its Economic and Budget Analyses accompanying the new budget presentation to Capitol Hill earlier today. The forecast civilian unemployment rate falls only to 8.2% in 2012. Lest you miss my point, 2012 is a presidential election year!

When we un-elected Jimmy Carter in 1980, his highest unemployment rate had been 7.6%, with a 6.7% average for his entire term. Even Ronald Reagan's was higher, though we also saw the greatest decrease ever during his term of office. Even George W. Bush -- the so-called 'failed' president, according to the current administration -- oversaw an average unemployment rate under 6%.

I can't, for the life of me, figure out how or even why the Obamans can try to lay the blame for 4 years of the highest Post-WWII unemployment ever on a previous administration which suffered a rate barely half of their their own.

So, will Barack Obama see the handwriting on the wall predicted by his own White House staff (frankly, he doesn't seem like much of a wall-reader, to me) and not seek re-election, or will he go down disclaiming the historically lousy economy he oversaw? Because, really, I very much doubt Americans will volunteer for a second round.

Like a Death In the Family...

...when I read today that mystery novelist Robert B. Parker had died almost 10 days ago. I discovered Parker in the late-1980s -- after his books were adapted into the Spenser For Hire television series with Robert Urich and Avery Brooks, but before even half of what eventually became an almost 40-book series was realized. In the process, fictional Paradise police chief Jesse Stone -- of Tom Selleck, TV-movie fame -- and Helen Hunt-inspired, cop's-daughter Sunny Randall also became near-annual regulars. And, have you seen the movie Appaloosa?!

Using paragraphs often less than a line long, Parker wove intricate descriptions around morally-wound (and -wounded) leading men (and a woman or two), retailing quick, precise, allusive, and amusing dialog within a fast-paced plot which often seemed to move faster than its characters, who caught up with it at the end and set things right. There was never any doubt about the outcome of a Parker novel (the good guys win!), but the story was about the journey and the participants, so who cared?

The maddening thing about Parker was that his crisp dialog could make a 325-page book into a 3-hour read -- thoroughly delightful, but unsatisfying in the realization that it would be another year until the next title in the series. So, the advent of the Stone and Randall characters, and the throw-in Westerns, added the subliminal promise that the wait between publications would be lessened, as it was. I read Sandford, Connelly, maybe Patterson, and sometimes Baldacci or others, to pass the time till the next Parker issue.

He reputedly wrote five pages a day, five days a week, 50 weeks of the year. You do the math -- that's 3-4 books annually. In fact, reports are that two more Spenser novels reside with the publisher for future release, as does another western, and a Jesse Stone novel slated for next month. Needless to say, they will become first-edition reads here, but the unrealized handful of rarer texts may blaze beyond my pecuniary circumstances with his death -- an early magazine serialization which became a self-published, limited booklet featuring an early Spenser character, and a hard-to-find early novel with which he shared a byline with his beloved, 50+-year bride, Joan. Otherwise, I own every Parker title, and have a scattershot, correlative collection of signed copies and Advance Read proofs. While I have all of Connelly's Harry Bosch titles, and Sandford's complete Prey series, for no other author than Parker have I made a concerted effort to document the entire compendium. But, even with failure to net the missing pieces, I can't imagine parting with any of the books themselves.

Much more likely, I will start back at the beginning, and read them all again (not for the first time!). Which makes me believe that, while yesterday and today Robert B. Parker was a work-a-day, popular fictionalist, tomorrow he will become a piece of the American literary culture: the novelist who bridged Marlowe's film noir stories with today's modern culture and society -- without losing the beneficial assets of either one.

Robert Parker died at his writing desk, suddenly and without anticipation; which means that Spenser, Stone, Virgil and Everett, Hawk, and others will live forever. If you've not met them yet, be thankful that the meeting will be so long and entertaining.

Aw, Shiittt!!! (Pardon My French!)...

...but, according to President Obama, we are so, damned mad about George W. Bush's presidency, that we're electing Republicans in Massachusetts!..

...you see: "...The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office.

People are angry, and they're frustrated. Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years..."

As ever, Mark Steyn has the takedown: "...Presumably, the president isn’t stupid enough actually to believe what he said. But it’s dispiriting to discover he’s stupid enough to think we’re stupid enough to believe it..."

The horrifiying thought in all this is that, a la Bill Clinton, it is happening early enough in the Obama presidency that he might still have a chance at re-election -- IF he recognizes his own weakness and responds appropriately to it.

Granted, a BIG IF...

The Devil or the Witch?

Are You Surprised John Edwards Dropped His Denial and Admitted to Fathering a Child with Rielle Hunter?

Well, I DID figure he'd wait until his wife, Elizabeth, died from her cancer. I'm assuming, thus, she must be doing better than expected, health-wise (and good for her, on that count!)

That said, Elizabeth -- from whom it's reported the former VP and presidential candidate has separated -- doesn't seem to be that much of a prize, either:

Book reveals secrets about Edwards campaign

This, folks, is what's wrong with the American political process: the sensible folks make their millions in business, and we're left with the hucksters playing us for suckers! It almost makes you want to support President Obama's effort to limit executive pay! Without the 'Golden Parachute', they may as well run for office and make their millions on graft, like Dodd and Murtha!

Yeah, right! Like THAT'S why he proposed it!

Mid-Life Something (Boredom, Perhaps?..)

Well, the whiskey has petered out. Now, mind you, I still enjoy it (there is some mixed in cola sitting next to me as I type), but there really isn't anything hard-to-find around here anymore because, well, I already bought it during my last obsessionary period. While I continue to cherish the friends I've made while enthusing over the bibulous lubricant, the hunt has ended because the herd is depleted.

Plus, I'm almost a year already in-house! There is no longer the goosebump-raising thrill when I turn into MY driveway.

Soooooo, I'm bored. What's the next 'thing'? Well, I bought a motorcycle last weekend. Like me, it's an 'oldie-but-goodie': a 1982 Honda 900C Custom. 'Thing' is, I haven't been on one for almost (okay, maybe "more than") 40 years. My last motorized, 2-wheel jaunt, best as I remember, was on my brother's 50cc Benelli down the farm path while growing up -- c. 1968! This one is capable of, well, more than 145mph! (Being from the immediate, post-Carter era, however, the speedometer only goes up to 85, thankfully! lol)

Frankly, it's a great bike, and I paid cash! No monthly payment, no high-cost insurance indemnifying a lienholder. And, I'm registered for a Motorcyle Safety Foundation course (which will substitute for state written and driving-course exam) next month. Despite the fact that the machine scares me right now, I WILL master it! And, then, I will have a ball! 

If only I can ever get it home from the dealer...?

He's No Lincoln

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Abraham Lincoln, (attributed), 16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

It strikes me that the Obama Administration is pretty much invested in "all of the people all of the time". It's a losing investment.