Interstate Love Song

So I’m a little late this week. So what. It’s not like you were perched on the edge of your seats waiting with baited breath for my weekly words of wisdom. Were you? Seriously?

The latest polls seem to indicate that Senator Clinton’s lead over Senator Obama in Pennsylvania has shrunk to between 4 and 7 points from the 20+ points it had been earlier in the campaign. Pennsylvania seems to be following the trend of previous states in that the longer Obama campaigns in a state, the better he does. If the tend continues, Obama should pull to at least within the margin of error, then give up a couple points to Clinton the day or two before the election. Clinton needs to win every state she is expected to win in order to make her case to the super delegates to overturn the will of the electorate and hand her the nomination. But if Obama should take Pennsylvania, this race could be over.

Senator Clinton’s primary campaign strategist “resigned” this past week over an embarrassing situation regarding a free trade deal. Mark Penn and his public relations firm had been employed by the Columbian government to lobby congress on behalf of a proposed free trade deal with the United States. Unfortunately for Penn, a significant portion of Senator Clinton’s support - especially in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania - is due to her stated opposition to free trade deals. This whole scenario sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be better if we just lined up all the political candidates behind a one-way mirror and picked out the one we thought looked least like a crook? Giving them millions of dollars, a staff of hundreds and eighteen months to campaign, and expect them not to put their feet in their mouths is simply asking too much.

State police and the FBI raided the Texas compound of imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs last Thursday after receiving a local shelter received a phone call from a sixteen year-old girl claiming she had ben raped by her 50 year-old husband. Since that time, 555 women and children have either left or been removed from the ranch for questioning. Officials have so far been unable to locate the girl that made the phone call, but have placed the 416 children they did find under the protection of the state while they try to sort the matter out. I guess what I don’t understand is why this raid didn’t take place a long time ago. The FBI has known about this compound for years. They’ve been aware that underaged girls are married off to older men with multiple wives, both of which are illegal Texas. Yet up until now, nothing has been done. It seems as though law enforcement is still too scarred by the events of Waco, Ruby Ridge and Elian Gonzalez to confront anything of this nature head-on without something like a call from and alleged victim. At least they managed to get through this one without the ranch burning down, shooting anyone, or returning anyone to a communist country at gunpoint.

Oil company executives took the stand on Capitol Hill last week to face questioning regarding their record profits in the face of the country’s economic downturn. During the discussion, one or more of them made the remark that while their profits were large, they really were in line with the profits of many other companies. Reeeally. Companies like Bear-Stearns perhaps? Americans may be dumb enough to pay to $4.00 a gallon for gasoline, but they certainly aren’t stupid enough to buy that. For Exxon and others in their industry to claim that their profits are in line with those of other companies is akin to Ferrari claiming that their prices are in line with those of other compact car makers. Please. Show me another company making $40.6 billion a year in profits. Do these people even live on the same planet as the rest of us?

The Olympic torch arrived in San Francisco yesterday for its only North American stop. Even before it landed, the protests had started. Only days earlier In London and Paris, protesters had attacked torch bearers (including a teenaged girl) in an attempt to extinguish the Olympic flame. Pro-Tibet activists in Frisco scaled the Golden Gate Bridge with climbing equipment hidden in baby-carriages to hang banners protesting the presence of the flame in the city. Today, police changed the route the torch was to take through the city in order to avoid confrontations like those in Europe. The International Olympic Committee will soon vote on whether or not to cancel all the remaining international legs of the relay in light of the uproar. But doesn’t it seem as though this is something the IOC should have expected when they awarded the games to the Chinese eight years ago? Even though they are very adept at making money hand over fist in the capitalist marketplace, they remain a communist country, repressing individual rights and freedoms. It going to be that way at least until a new generation of leaders who care more about economic prominence than military dominance replace the old guard of the ruling party. How China handles these games will provide some indication as to where they are on the scale of progress.

American Airlines cancelled over a thousand flights today to perform FAA required inspections on some of the wiring on-board their MD-80 planes. This follows the cancellation of over five hundred flights yesterday and precedes who knows how many cancellations tomorrow. The demand for inspections is a bit of a CYA of behalf of the FAA after being caught allowing Southwest Airlines to slide on many of their inspections last year. All this chaos comes at a time when fares are increasing, on-time flights have declined dramatically, passenger complaint are up 40-60%, and a different airline goes bankrupt every week. If the next president wants a guaranteed winning issue, fix the air travel system in this country. Monkeys in pants could run a transportation system better than the airlines and the FAA.

There are reports that Michael Vick is playing pick-up football in prison. No word on whether he’s playing quarterback or tight end. Sorry. Couldn’t resist that one.

Finally, two items which may interest only me. The Stone Temple Pilots have launched a 65-date reunion tour which kicked off last night in Los Angeles. Let’s see how long it takes before Scott Weiland screws this tour up with a three day heroin binge. And, the NHL playoffs begin this week. Unfortunately, only three of the six Canadian teams survived the season, but three is at least three times better than zero. So here’s to Montreal, Ottawa or Calgary making the finals and not choking on the sweet taste of victory for the fourth straight season. Get that cup back where it belongs!