Friday, September 12, 2008

Of storms and politicans

As promised, I wrote Sen Clinton. Here is the spiffy reply I got the next day:
----------------
Dear Friend:

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with me
via e-mail. I hope you will understand that, because of the volume of
e-mails I receive from residents of New York State, I cannot at this time
respond to messages received from residents of other states. I encourage
you to contact your U.S. senators if you have an issue or concern that
needs immediate attention. You can access your senators electronically by
visiting http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm for a listing
of their contact information. If you are still interested in learning
more about the work I am doing on behalf of New York State, I hope you
will continue to monitor my work through my website at
http://clinton.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
New York State

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Well, not quite the response I was hoping for. Next will be to write to Obama.

So I watched the second night of the Sarah Palin interview with Charles Gibson. Not as bad as I was anticipating overall. She sounded very rehearsed most of the time but not as flustered as last night's response on the Bush Doctrine. She danced around the question tonight regarding how she and McCain will "change" Bush's economic policy, forcing Gibson, much like he did on the Bush Doctrine, to repeat the question multiple times and force a coherent answer. Many of her answers were never quite on topic but the worst example came near the end. Gibson asked about her experience and did she believe it to be adequate to the job. She latched onto the first part of Gibson's question to defend her belief on the necessity of reform and then began to hold forth on her experience in the energy sector and how important energy is to our security. ABC did cut the final part of this dialog but posted the excerpt transcript minus the edits on their website. She added that as governor she hosted trade delegations and that many other vice presidents had no more experience than she. But isn't the Republican Party and McCain comparing her experience to Obama's, not Biden's? Shouldn't she be defending the idea that she has more experience than Obama with some sort of concrete evidence? More than she's hosted trade delegations and oh look Russia is just a few hundred miles away?
I think the best answer she gave all night was in response to the stem cell question. She stated clearly what her personal opinion was and that it might not be the official party line (she disagrees with McCain). An honest response at last.

And now for Ike. As we speak Ike is pounding the hell out of the coast. Galveston's famous seawall is being topped by enormous waves and may not withstand the surge. The island is flooded, power is out and one can only hope that this direct hit doesn't destroy the city. The surge is progressing into Galveston Bay and flooding low-lying areas. Houston is already (12:29 AM) seeing hurricane force winds. As always I am amazed at the live coverage from CNN. These guys are amazing. Crazy, but amazing. Having grown up in Houston, and with relatives still in the area, I'm watching this one closely.

Updates to follow.

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