Friday, October 03, 2008

Sarah Palin promises to win Iraq, cut taxes -&- build infrastructure, and create jobs. I think she's a "maverick" she and McCain, whatever that means.

All those promises. In debate. All those things and a chicken in every pot.

Easy street for Main Street, if you only would vote McCain.

This is Palin the Republican. Bush the Republican mired the country for years in the unwinable invasion of Iraq, cut taxes and lost jobs, and infrastructure continued to be ignored - no different really than the Clinton years. Better for rich people, otherwise no different. And if you cut taxes and build infrastructure the balance sheet fails to balance - a GOP problem Reagan ignored as did both Bushes. One that is promised to be ignored were McCain to be elected, that is clear, cut and spend. Borrow and spend.

Palin also denounced Bush the Republican as a failure. In doing so, she repeatedly touted McCain as a maverick, i.e., in code, a non-Bush. A non-Cheney.

Sure. Don't doubt. Believe. This woman from Alaska with no experience is telling you so. Neglecting to say how the ongoing war, until won, would be financed with taxes cut, suggests yet more GOP problematic arithmetic at play.

Top dog on the ticked, McCain, was repeatedly characterized as "maverick" John McCain.

Does that mean anything or nothing?

One observation, everyone is a maverick.

My question, what good is a maverick? Is it an accolade, the equivalent of saying, "having good judgment" or "being honest?" I've not heard the word used that way.

Jails are full of mavericks, often also called sociopaths, frauds, dangerous. But, hey, I can call them mavericks - and in doing so I can suggest a better place for John McCain and his fraudulent campaign than the presidency.

Palin, the Wal-Mart mom on an ego trip. It failed to sell to me.

Beauty queen debated hair transplant. What a world. I expect the accidental loss of a close spouse and child, and single parenting for a while, are factors that leavened Biden in ways Palin has not experienced skinning moose and shouting drill, drill, drill.

Plus Senate experience and seniority is a bigger stage than Wasilla and the Alaska state house, the latter won in a contest against the mayor of Anchorage.

Both Palin and Biden wish to appeal to the "middle" class.

NOT to mavericks.

Probably there are too few votes in the maverick bloc.

Lower class people - are those unable to live on the earnings of their capital - unlike the Bush family or McCain [by marriage, after crudely dumping his first wife], and unlike nine-figure multimillionaire Paulson, the Treasury's bailout answer man.

Besides such fortunate people, there are us. The less fortunate - the lower class, with wealth being the measure and there being, below the wealthy, called the upper class, the remainder of people, as the lower class. It hangs together. It is as it is. Those not liking the label, "lower class," invented something false but to them reassuring. Others in the lower class don't get uppity and feel no denial needs.

You are one or the other, and middle class is nothing but a linguistic invention of those who dislike the reality of where finance places them relative to the wealthy (relative to those who unlike the lower class prosper from Republicans in the White House).

Back to "maverick" John McCain; Wikipedia has a disambiguation page, yielding the following opening line: "A maverick is an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf; it can also mean a person who thinks independently; a lone dissenter; a non-conformist or rebel." I like that motherless calf thing. Try to imagine John McCain, Clapton-like guitar and all, singing Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Calf. Using Motherless Child for a tune. Palin doing backup vocals. Same Wikipedia entry links over, "Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803–1870), Texas cattleman from whom the term maverick originated."

In exploring Wikipedia disambiguation their link-over structure is ignored below, if you care to you can hit their web pages and follow links. Here are insights, perhaps, to Maverick John McCain, starting with THE ORIGINAL.

Samuel Augustus Maverick (July 23, 1803–September 2, 1870) was a Texas lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. From his name comes the term "maverick", first cited in 1867, which means independent minded. Maverick was considered independent minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle. In fact, Maverick's failure to brand his cattle had little to do with independent mindedness, but reflected his lack of interest in ranching. He is the grandfather of U.S. Congressman Maury Maverick, who coined the term gobbledygook (1944).


That might be the one, McCain, the "gobbledygook maverick." It fits. Then there's the fictional Top Gun movie "Maverick" the Naval pilot that flamed out once losing "Goose" in the process, but unlike "maverick" John McCain, did NOT ever get shot down and romanced a Top Gun instructor instead of a Beer Baron's daughter.

The film follows LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Naval aviator who aspires to be a top fighter pilot in the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, which trains the top 1% of all Naval aviators. Maverick gets his chance to attend the school after one pilot drops out, allowing him and his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer, the "back seater" in the two-man F-14) LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw to train with the best. The film opened in America on May 16, 1986 to good reviews, the aerial scenes being most notably praised. Similar praise followed soon afterwards when the film broke records at the box office, becoming a mega hit. The film accumulated over $350 million world-wide, and broke home-video sales records.


There's the fictional Marvel comic hero, perhaps the "maverick" McCain has in mind.


David North (born Christoph Nord) is a mutant comic book character in the fictional Marvel Universe. He was originally known as Maverick, and more recently as Agent Zero. North first appeared in X-Men (vol. 2) #5 and was created by Jim Lee.

Nord has appeared in a self titled one-shot, Maverick as well as a self-titled short-lived ongoing series called Maverick. Later, as Agent Zero, he became a regular in the second series of Weapon X.

Christoph Nord was born in East Germany. His early history is clouded in mystery, though there are whispers that his parents were scientists for the Nazi regime. He also had an older brother, Andreas. A mutant, Christoph possessed the ability to absorb kinetic energy through impact with little to no harm.


Probably not the "maverick" McCain identifies with, no superhuman thing, no East German birth, etc. Finally, back to getting shot down during Vietnam - by missile - there's "Maverick," the missile. This one is explosive, and close enough to a loose cannon that it probably is the best "maverick" John McCain analog in the bunch. However, the Top Gun "maverick" and the aka Agent Zero "maverick" are each fictional, and well, isn't John McCain's entire maverick shtick nothing really, but a fiction?

The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground tactical missile (AGM) designed for close air support. It is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation, and fuel storage facilities.

The AGM-65F (infrared targeting) used by the U.S. Navy has an infrared guidance system optimized for ship tracking and a larger penetrating warhead than the shaped charge used by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force (300 pounds (136 kg) vs. 125 pounds (57 kg)). The infrared TV camera enables the pilot to lock onto targets through light fog where the conventional TV seeker's view would be just as limited as the pilot's. The AGM-65 has two types of warheads; one has a contact fuze in the nose, and the other has a heavyweight warhead with a delayed fuze, which penetrates the target with its kinetic energy before detonating. The latter is most effective against large, hard targets.


So, I don't know about you, but I hesitate to vote for a motherless calf, Top Gun, loose cannon missile who absorbs impact kinetic energy without mishap while too lazy to brand his cattle. It sounds too artificial, unlike a child of a mixed racial marriage from Hawaii doing community work in Chicago, then going to law school at Harvard and because of his skill and intelligence becoming editor of the Harvard Law Review. Not that I believe change with Obama will be easy, or something he can deliver as promised, given how seniority in both houses of Congress allows much room to impede progressive change.

But McCain for change? Go away. No way. Get real.

_______UPDATE_________
Fair and balanced online opinion of the Palin performance, yesterday's old fish, newswise, given the bailout vote in the House today.