Alas, Babble On

So the most anticipated meeting of rivals since Ali and Foreman is now behind us, and what have we learned? Not much more than we knew at 7:59 CST last night. Other than a whole lot of intense coaching can pay off. Missus Palin did quite well last night, if your standards are "not embarrassing herself or her party" -- the apparent yardstick of the yakking heads on the tube, anyway. I have to wonder how you would embarrass a party that's brought us the last eight wonderful years, but I digress.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not hearing anyone talk about the truly stunning moment of the debate when Palin suggested that the Constitution actually should be interpreted to give the Vice President more authority in the Senate. And we thought that the gun-happy thing was what she had most in common with Cheney. Oh, yeah, and the non-GOP base-perfect daughter, but once again I digress. Call me old-fashioned, but that old document our entire form of government is based upon doesn't seem at all ambiguous on the duties and powers of the Veep. Thank you Joe for pointing that out, as our watchdogs in the media seem to have become so accustomed with the current regime's abject disregard of the Constitution it's all just business as usual to them. Then there was Palin's oft-repeated refrain of tackling the corruption on Wall Street; I'm still waiting to hear what her or McCain propose to actually do about it. Honestly, I'm not sure anything short of Palin rolling on the floor or foaming at the mouth would have gotten anything other than a "better than expected" reaction from the press, because the hour and a half I watched last night showed me Palin once again wandering way off topic on every question she was asked, albeit with a bit more poise than we've become accustomed to, and a prom-queen wink-wink cheekiness the GOP is hoping will sway the public to ignore her sad lack of familiarity with any of the issues the next executive team will have to tackle Day One.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, after much ballyhoo on his hoof-and-mouth disease, and while not handing in an absolutely picture-perfect performance, certainly displayed a firm understanding of the issues and many more concrete examples of what his team plans to do if elected. I do think Joe's performance is getting seriously short-sheeted, if for nothing else than he persisted in delivering very coherent rebuttals to Palin's many untruths and weasels* directed at him and the top of the ticket. I caught a couple of time I personally would have liked for him to go even further, but you know that he'd have been jumped on for being so mean. All in all, a solid performance from a man admirable in his own right. Why there is any discussion of who won is beyond me.

Meanwhile back at the House, enough Reps reversed their vote from earlier in the week to pass the god-awful Wall Street Giveaway, yet another expensive gift from the Bush administration for future generations to pay off -- and for. Yeah, I know they stuck in a boost to the FDIC insured amount, mostly to keep me and you from heading down to our bank with a grocery sack to demand our cash. They also added in another hundred billion dollars more of PORK, enough to make Harper Lee sorry she dressed Scout up in that ham for the Halloween carnival. I don't know about you, but I'm so furious I almost can't see straight. We got to hold some feet to the fire, folks. If we got that kind of chump-change hanging around to give away, we need to start prosecuting the bastids who created the mess, regulating the markets properly, and through fines and restitution repaying every penny to the taxpayers. $700,000,000,000 for the rich? This country should be ashamed to have even one child going to bed tonight without health care.

*weasel n. Not the truth, not a lie, but the truth told in a way intended to mislead, as per Al Franken.