bogdownedness, Harold Ford is making it up

Senator Harold Ford Jr., in a debate with Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, actually used the "word" bogdownedness to describe the situation the US finds itself enmeshed in in Iraq. Pretending for a moment that it's a real word, I guess it is not inaccurate, but there's the whole not real part. I also know that I myself sometimes misuse prepositions, but if you'll pardon me, "in which" can go straight to hell and die.

I've got the debate playing in a little window down at the bottom of my screen, and I'm listening to Bob discuss his way out of wanting to raise the minimum wage. Apparently only young people just getting started are making minimum wage, and for them it's okay because they don't need the money anyway, and too little pay is incentive for people to get better jobs. He doesn't seem to understand how low minimum wage is when compared to what people need to earn. He also doesn't seem to understand the relationship between what the minimum wage is and what you can expect to make in some jobs. If the minimum is $5.25, and you make $7, then you are making 25% more than minimum wage. Perhaps that sounds like crap to you, and perhaps it sounds like even more crap to people who could stand to make more money regardless of the job they are doing. At some point, out of respect for the person and what they need, out of respect for hard work at any level, people should be able to make a reasonable living.

Bob is also really good at jumping back in time to questions that he should have already answered. Harold Ford is getting annoying jumping back to some question of illegal aliens working for Corker and dumbass Corker keeps taking the bait. He really ought to have just let it go. I don't like what either of them have to say about immigration. I really dislike the phrase "illegal aliens." This is one of my dishonesty issues that I have with politicians because the fact of the matter is that this phrase is hiding the fact that these are real people with real lives and real families. Corker described being in Arizona and looking into the desert at the path that had been worn in the sand by the illegal aliens. How many thousands of human feet have trod the desert to wear a path in the sand, and why aren't we seeing their faces instead of their status?

Ford supports drilling in Alaska. I'd like to believe that we are approaching a sensible view of energy, because I want to believe that we are finally reaching a point where we can no longer ignore it. Maybe the current regime is helping push the issue, which I'd prefer, hoping we approach it now while we have time. He didn't elaborate at all on this stand as he didn't answer the question as it was asked but merely said that yes he does support the drilling.

This is the closest I've gotten in years to really looking at candidates, and this debate pretty much explains my stance. I don't really like what either of these guys said. Bob Corker, the republican, seemed like an ass speaking to his people. His answers seemed really ignorant, as if he just said what he was supposed to say, and he spouted the party line for the most part. Harold Ford Jr. our democrat, seemed to be trying to give the right answers. It was as if he knew the audience and what this particular group wanted to hear. It all had a sort of Clintonality to it. (I too can make up words.) But he was a lot more on top of things than Corker. He seemed like a decent guy, likable, knowledgeable, desiring to be honest even if he is a politician.

I don't generally watch political commercials, but having heard some things about Ford, I almost started to watch one which begins with a shot of him sitting on the arm of an airplane seat, tie loosened, sleeves rolled up. He was riding the "terrorists out to get us" theme which immediately turned me off. I didn't even bother watching the rest of the commercial. And I really hate that we are being sold candidacy based on protection. I want liberty, not protection. I'm not a child, and I don't want a government that treats us as children. Ford was no different in this respect than any number of people running for office this year. The sad fact of it is though that he's still the best choice in this race.

There is my opinion. I'm feeling the bogdownedness of modern day civic duty. I'm once again offered the vote, my right as a human, not just an American, and my choice is whether I'd rather the cat merely shit on the bed or shit AND piss on the bed. Hmmmmmmmmmm . . . can you give me a minute?

It just makes it hard to want to even bother voting sometimes. I'd rather there be some other sort of apparatus for determining our political representatives. I need to keep that thought in mind, because here again we have another post for another day.