Overlooking Faults
For those who loved Bill Clinton, it was easy to overlook his sleazier side. For those who love George Bush, it's easy to overlook the way he's spending money like a drunken sailor. And so it goes.

I write this because someone I know got sent to jail this week for at least three years. He was guilty and I guess he deserved what he got. Still, that doesn't matter to me. I don't like the thought of him going to jail. It kills me. But there's nothing I can do about it. That's human nature.

Holy 38th!
I turned 38 years old yesterday. It's a strange age that doesn't mean too much. You're not really on top of 40 yet, but you're close. I don't know if I feel a whole lot different than I did when I was 30. I don't drink anymore so of course, I feel different in that way, but I mean in my attitudes.

I still get pissed off about indifference and ignorance. I still hate to see people in positions of power do nothing but grab more power and help out those who are already well-off. I still like movies from the seventies and I like baseball more than ever.

Now, I've got a six month old and a wife. That's a major change and it's for the best. There's no feeling like knowing you married the exact right person. I did and we had a son who's an unbelievable joy.

Happy birthday to me!

Thought you'd like to know...
You probably haven't heard about this story, but it's a little mini-Watergate for the information age. A staffer for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch improperly obtained memos from the secure computer networks of Democratic senators Kennedy and Durbin. The memos, concerning political strategy on blocking confirmation of several of President Bush's judicial nominations, were obtained and reported on by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and Sean Hannity. Of course, this is no big deal. Hatch is only one of the most powerful men in politics. The fact that one of his staffers hacked into the computers of Democratic senators and distributed information to right-wing news sources is no cause for alarm.

And because of that damn liberal media, I'm sure you'll be hearing about this story ad nauseum. What? You haven't heard anything about it. Don't worry. You probably won't.

Also, to everyone who screamed about Clinton, Somalia and Black Hawk Down: here's your chance to speak up again since the soldiers who had their throats slit in Iraq were also dragged through the streets. Please substitute Bush's name for Clinton's and repeat everything you said during Black Hawk Down. Funny how no one mentions Somalia once similiar stuff happens to Bush. Also a memo to the same people: Were you as upset by the more than 200 Marines who were killed in Lebanon when their unprotected barracks was blown up by terrorists? Or were you really mad when Reagan turned tail and pulled them out of Beirut because of the attack? Just wondering.

Bad luck jinx
As a post-Thanksgiving favor to my friend John Daley, I will now tell the story about the time I was fired from a Chinese restaurant. While at URI, John and I got jobs working as waiters at a Chinese restaurant in Newport, owned by the family of a guy in our fraternity. We worked there for a while until one Sunday when the owner's wife Penny pulled me aside at the end of the shift. Penny Pincher (as we called her) told me not to come into work anymore. I had to push her for an answer and she finally gave it: I was bad luck and had brought a jinx on her restaurant. Before this could even sink in, she told me there has been a previous jinx at the restaurant and when they fired him, business immediately got better. I told John not to tell anyone, but of course, he did and people started calling me Jinxy. The funny part is, within a week of getting the jinx tag,an Italian restaurant that I also worked at, had a fire in the kitchen and had to close for a week. Aaaah! The bad luck jinx!

Free money and sex
Loved how the Medicare bill got rammed through. It's an awesome bill! Just terrific! You'll see... in 2006 when it's supposed to be enacted. Why is it going to take so long? Because when the public sees that the bill was created by the drug and insurance companies and the Republicans basically are throwing away taxpayers' money, people are going to get pissed off. But what do the politicians care? It's not their money and by then, GW will be halfway through another term.

By the way, whatever happened to fiscal conservatism? Here's a huge entitlement that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars -- where's the money coming from? I've always felt it was a mistake to put a former cokehead in charge of the country's credit card, but what do I know.

Oh, one more thing: how about those family values on Neil Bush? People used to rag on Roger Clinton but he looks like Ghandi compared to this Bush brother. Not only was Neil taking huge consulting fees from all these overseas interests for doing nothing (that's how you define success if you're a Bush), he also slept with a bunch of women while he was in Asia. He said he didn't think they were prostitutes; they just knocked on his hotel room door late at night and the women had sex with him. That happens all the time -- on late night Cinemax!

Neil emphasizes that he never paid the the women. Of course, his hosts might have. And he was married at the time. I'm sure Rush will say it was Clinton's fault because he lowered the bar of morality so much that Neil figured why not. Maybe this is what GW was talking about earlier this year in his big speech about the scourge that is the international sex trade.

Is that throw-up on your shoulder?
When you don't have kids, you really don't care much about people who do. Not that you don't wish them well or want to see their baby pictures, but in reality, you rarely ever think of parents and their travails. I know I didn't.

Now that I have a five month old son, no one cares about the fact that my son is teething. I don't blame them. When my friends who are new parents used to tell me (a) they didn't get any sleep the night before, (b) their kid was sick, or (c) their newborn threw up on everything, I secretly chuckled. 'Sucker!' I thought. Like I said, I didn't care.

Now I care. I'm up with my son early, even though it's my wife who does most of the work. God bless her. I bet Anthony Quinn didn't get up early with his kids when he was a new father in his 80's. Not that I'm that old, but sometimes I feel it. Did I tell you my kid was teething?

Rocking with the oldies
I took a bus to New Hampshire yesterday for a Democratic presidential candidate forum sponsored by the AARP. The bus I was on was filled with seniors from Rhode Island, most of whom it seemed were undecided about which candidate to vote for. It was a fun drive and I got to meet some very nice older folks. When we got there, we tried to look around in the lobby, but this retired dude who was one of the ushers got extremely nervous and ushered us into the auditorium, sternly warning us that there was no walking around. Holy elementary school! Maybe if I get a hall pass from Howard Dean I can walk around.

Most of the candidate's lit into the AARP for supporting the Medicare prescription drug plan currently under consideration. (It's a big giveaway to HMO's and pharmaceutical companies.) When the candidates criticized AARP, the crowd -- made up of AARP members -- cheered them for their remarks. By the way, the guy who is currently head of the AARP once wrote a forward to a book by Newt Gingrich. Oh, that explains it.

Near the end of the forum, this lady came and sat in our row. Dressed all in red, she croaked like a bullfrog each time one of the candidates started to talk. Then she would tsk-tsk whatever they said. Finally, another lady in our row asked her which candidate she supported and she said, "President Bush." On the way out, we tried to figure out what she was doing there. I figure she was there for the free bag lunch.

Hot dog horrors
Since my friend Melanie was grossed out by the Fig Newton story from last week, I thought I would share another gross food story. After church yesterday, my wife and I got hot weiners for lunch. If you're not from New England, hot weiners are covered with onions, mustard, and a mystery meat sauce I believe to be hamburger. I got three "all the way" and an order of fries. First, let me give you some background. Today, I will eat virtually anything, but when I was a kid, I had a terrible appetite. For a while, I would only eat mustard sandwiches, sardines, and grape juice. But now, I'll eat anything.

After I ate the first dog, I started to get a queasy feeling. Sometimes when you get hot weiners, there is a certain rubbery texture to the skin of the dog that makes it kind of snap back when you bite it. I started to eat the second one. Snap! Snap! Burp! Snap! Retch! That's when I wrapped up the rest of the dogs and threw them away. I think if I had eaten the rest of them, I would have barfed. And if you think three hot weiners "all the way" are gross going down, you should see them when they're coming from the other direction.

Can we be honest?
I saw Michael Moore on C-Span last night being interviewed about his new book. He gave some very interesting and honest answers to the interviewer Brian Lamb. It prompted me to ask my wife if she thought it was possible for a politician to give multi-layered, thought provoking answers like those Moore gave. She doubted it was and even commented that giving answers that were less than black-and-white was one of the problems Wesley Clark was having. How simple are we as a society that we refuse to listen to answers that are beyond the standard good guy-bad guy rhetoric?

I thought Clark did very well on "Meet The Press" on Sunday. His answers were right on and I still feel he has the best chance to unseat Bush in the general election. I don't know if he can win the primaries but he's still my guy.

Newton's Law
My wife made American Chop Suey last night, but with ground turkey. I ate a couple heaping plates of it with four pieces of bread. Later, that night I had an upset stomach and spent a substantial amount of time in the bathroom. Damn that chop suey! Later, I remembered that I ate about 20 Fig Newtons through the course of the night. Maybe that had something to do with the little attack I had. My apologies to the Chop Suey. Damn you, Fig Newtons!