My New Pal Palin - Not!

Hey look Rudy Giuliani just left little smoochies on Governor Palin's Facebook Page!

Monday evening, as I listened to Jerry Lewis wrap up Labor Day with "You Will Never Walk Alone".... I looked back at last weeks baseball column, and it occured to me that despite my sentimental pick of the Mets going all the way, it is very possible that we could see a Chicago Cubs - Chicago White Sox World Series. If Chicago ends up being the hotbed of sports action this October, isn't it ironic that Windy City media personality Jay Mariotti decided to suddenly quit his Chicago Sun Times newspaper gig. Jay announced that newspapers are becoming extinct, even though he had recently signed a new contract, and then took an all expenses trip to the Beijing Olympics. Roger Ebert who is unable to speak due to a bout with cancer, is still writing for The Sun Times and he was quite displeased with Mariotti's departure. Ebert wrote a recent column about his now former colleague and wrapped it up with a little love note to Jay stating: 'On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass."

Football season starts tonight.... you can see all the scores right here on NWOW on the CBS Sports widget on the left. Today, Pumpstradamus will start his 3rd season of NFL picks... The game is actually starting early tonight - 7pm so it can be over in time for NBC to broadcast the John McCain speech from the Republican Convention.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been amused by the goings on with both political conventions... although I haven't watched too much of them... As was the case during the Olympics.. I watch the Met game first and after the last out I have been flipping between the US Open and the Convention. Last Tuesday's Met game went extra innings so I never had the chance to see Hillary Clinton's speech but I have been staying up into the wee hour watching CNN's late night replay which kicks off after Larry King's live midnight show... a nightly exhibition of watching poor Larry try to stay awake!

Last week during the Democratic convention, Larry King pulled a Fox News on us with a gaggle of GOPers kvetching about the Democrats. Monday he had a Rush Limbaugh wannabe named Lars Larson who was offering his take on Senator Ted Kennedy's speech. I'm not a fan of Senator Kennedy but I give him credit for delivering a rousing speech against doctor's orders while he fights with brain cancer. Larson seemed to find it interesting that Kennedy made a comment that Health Care is a right not a privelege. "Not so" said Larson who hopefully was not speaking for the rest of the Republican Evil Empire. Health care along with food are privileges and NOT rights were the words that poured out of his ugly mouth.

Oddly enough, Larson is actually right. In 1991 Magic Johnson announced he had HIV and 17 years later he is alive and apprarently well. Yet back in '91 the average person diagnosed with HIV was lucky to remain healthy 17 months much less 17 years. But in the world of Republicans where health care is a privelege not a right, isn't it ironic that a multi millionaire like Johnson has done so well for so long? I recently heard that a guy who I briefly worked with in the mid 90s was diagnosed last year with an extremely rare form of cancer. Now, one year later I hear that this fellow has racked up 2 million dollars in medical bills, 250,000 dollars out of pocket and incredibly..... the lender foreclosed on his house. What kind of craziness is this? How do we vote for people who just sit there not giving a crap if a guy loses his house due to a medical condition, while at the same time spending millions of dollars helping Iraqis build new homes after they were displaced by a war that President Bush had no business getting involved in in the first place! But that is the Republican party folks. The party of rights vs. privelege where only the priveleged seem to have the rights... where the almighty tax cut is created to help the rich at the expense of school boards where members clamor to design drastically cut budgets because state aid is being cut out of their districts!

There were other highlights from the CNN coverage. Tuesday, Larry King had a big Hillary fan as a guest who was upset that she was shunned by her fellow Democrats at the convention. She claimed the Obama contigency mocked her in the hotel lobby because she was wearing her not too popular Hillary For President accessories. After a few minutes it was obvious that this woman was obviously mentally disturbed and that interview should not have gone on as long as it did.

CNN also had a Governor join them at their Democratic Convention... I don't recall who it was... and he was asked point blank by Geography Expert John King if certain all white counties of his state that oridinarily vote Democrat would support Obama because he is black. That politician replied that civil rights violations and prejudice have never been a problem in those districts.. but then again there are NO blacks living in those districts either so there has never been much of a chance to fill the police blotter with anti black crimes. Is the whiteness of the community the reason people live there? And will some people vote for a person they would not want as a neighbor?

Also John King has his amazing little election map that he smacks with his hand..... you almost wish he would yell Big Bucks, No Whammies and Stop beforehand,.... to show how each area has voted. It was cool to see him at his map talking to Governors who might have lost a Geography Bee to King about regions of their own state. He even let some Governors touch the map....which they seemed to find very exciting. I wonder if he takes that map home at night.. throws fellow CNN colleague/fiance Dana Bash on top of it and does the ol' Hoochy McScoochy right on top of it. If Dana positions herself correctly on the midwest.. one could see Ebert making more wisecracks about being banged on the ass....

As for those people we call The Republicans...

So far this week, the big story has been Governor Palin.... John McCain's odd choice to be #2 on his ticket bypassing the more popular Rudy Giuliani... But Giuliani's pro choice stance knocks him out of contention amongst the right wing nutjobs running the GOP. I thought Minnesota Governor Pawlenty was going to be on the ticket and I had reams of material about his shortcomings as Governor. Nonetheless, I hear that Governor Palin is against abortion in all cases including cases of rape and incest.... She also is part of the lunatic fringe that wants to teach the kids about abstention as an integral part of their school education.

I watched Palin Friday and the first thing that came to mind was she was wearing Amy Winehouse's hair. (If you were born before 1970... she was wearing Ruth Buzzi's hair). Now she has let her hair down and looks pretty hot. That 18 year old boy who impregnated her jailbait daughter probably had a few "Stiffler's Mom" shrieks during his evenings of passion with the first daughter.

I was a little bothered watching the shots of the little baby on that daughter's lap.... this baby had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome a few months into the pregnancy and Palin opted to not abort but keep the child instead. If God Forbid John McCain is elected and God Forbid he dies in office, I can't wait to see Palin question potential Judges abortion stances by marching out her Down Syndrome child and bellowing how she knew from prenatal testing that the child had Down... but she kept her baby! And how can you as a judge vote otherwise?

Now on Labor Day we heard that the older 17 year old daughter is pregnant by an 18 year old boyfriend whose hockey abilities obviously include being able to slip one past the goalie. The Republicans who think that pregnant teens only exist on The Maury Povich Show quickly announced that this girl's pregnancy has no relevance.

So I guess I should end the column here, and get to the football picks.

But I'm not.

What kind of a mother is Sara Palin? It's nice that she is ambitious and wants to be a heartbeat from the Presidency, but she knew how the media would react to the news of her daughter's pregnancy and she still agreed to jump on the McCain ticket even though she knew that this kid's pregnancy would become a huge national news story. It's hard enough for a 17 yr old high school girl to go through a pregnancy but how much harder will it be because her mother decided to drag her name through the headlines just because she has a chance to be VP? Maybe if Sara was a better mom she would have said no to McCain to spare her daughter from all this attention... Some bloggers already were speculating that the daughter was the mother of the Down Syndrome baby too. Obviously these people have been getting too many conspiracy theories from Desperate Housewives. Is Palin supposed to be Bree?

I was speaking to a Republican co-worker.. just to see how the other side lives... and he feels that the media should take a hands off approach to this story. But then I asked him if the child should also be shielded from media commentary if she had chosen to have an abortion. He felt that if she had had an abortion... then she was fair game amongst the media and the bloggers and the facebook status wisecrackers. Imagine that... the wacko right wingers would have had a field day if the daughter of a VP candidate had a legal procedure performed on herself, but because she kept the baby, she is entitled to a hands off policy.

By the way, I have no issue with this kid. She's a kid and she made a mistake and deserves to not be thrown into the limelight. I think its nice that this girl has a financially supportive family who will embrace her and support her and her baby. But emotional support? Can you imagine the conversations in that house when she told Mom and Dad that she was preggers? How soon did they tell the kid she MUST marry the baby's daddy... to avoid embarassing the Governor? And aren't 17 and 18 year olds a little too young to get married? And look at this poor guy... last week he was hoping to get overtime at the local WalMart to support his baby... now one week later he's parading around the stage at the Republican Convention. And if McCain wins... doesnt that mean that Mom moves to Washington? Will Dad stay in Alaska? Will this pregnant high school girl have to switch schools to go to DC to be with her mom? Will the parents live seperately? And will that daughter move to DC in the middle of the school year? Do you think the other kids are going to pick on this girl who will be a new mother by the time the inauguration rolls around?

In reality, as "lucky" as young Miss Palin is to have this family, the Republicans should realize that this situation is the exception rather than the rule. A lot of young pregnant girls dont have homes to go back to... no money from Mom and Dad to help them out.. and they really have nothing... except the choice to decide if terminating the pregancy is the route to take. Of course, it would be nice if these girls would keep their babies and/or arrange for another family to adopt their babies. ..Unfortunately. a lot of these girls deliver sick babies due to poor prenatal care because as the Republicans have pointed out that contrary to what Senator Kennedy says,...in America, health care is a privilege and not a right.

The party could have chosen the more experienced Rudy for the ticket... but he is pro choice.. and Palin is not. And as long as Republicans continue to embrace candidates who are anti choice, I will continue to choose to vote against them.



Pumpstradamus Pick of the Week...

He's back! Pumpy resumes his weekly picks today. Last year his brilliant start foshnizzled into losses in each of the last 5 weeks to finish at 10-7. This week we go to New Orleans just like Hadassah will next summer for the annual convention. The reason I mention Hadassah is because this Sunday... as the NFL opens its season....Trophy Wife's Young Women's Group will sign an official Hadassah Charter and will officially become part of this wonderful organization. Trophy Wife started this group from scratch a little more than 2 years ago, but she and the other terrific women have done an incredible job and I am proud of all of them. Last year they wrapped gifts for hospitalized children on the same dining room table where my mother used to peck away the Linden Hadassah newsletter on her electric typewriter back in the 1970's. This week the New Orleans Saints host the Tampa Bay Bucs and The Saints are 3 and a half point favorites. Sayeth The Pump:

I'm going with the Saints, in honor of all the sanctimonious pricks in attendance at the RNC this week.



Unbiased Giants Fan Picks of the Week: (Last Year - 26-23-2) Home Teams are in Caps.

GIANTS 4 points faves over Washington - The Super Bowl Champs will pick up right where they left off.
CLEVELAND 5 1/2 doggies to Dallas. - The Maid of Honor at my wedding now lives in Cleveland and Friday is my wedding anniversary - so Go Browns!!
COLTS 9 1/2 faves over The Bears - Could be a big weekend for both Manning Brothers, as the Colts will probably bang the Bears right on their Chicago asses. Personally.. I think Roger Ebert and Pumpstradamus should clean up their language!



CLIP OF THE WEEK

Here is the classic clip taped right after last year's Fantastic Super Bowl where my buddy continues to hold his stance that the Giants did not make a good trade when they got Eli Manning!