Wednesday's mulligan stew

According to the definitions I looked up, a person is being presumptuous when he causes offense by doing something he has no right to do. The term "presumptuous" is being used to describe Barry Obama following his overseas tour and events last week. Some people using the word can't even spell it and may not know its meaning as defined in the dictionary. At any rate, in the part of the country where I was born and raised the expression Uppity N- was once used openly, and is still used privately in certain quarters. I have a feeling the older expression is probably on the minds of the critics calling Obama presumptuous this week. The man just doesn't know his place. I bought my first computer, an Apple iMac, in November 2001. Before then, I got virtually all my political news from the daily paper, magazines like Time, and CNN. I learned to access the internet and was amazed at the amount of information that was available. During the 2004 presidential election campaign, one of my favorite websites was Polling Report and I still visit it from time to time. Unlike 2004, I no longer care enough about Jorge's job approval ratings to check on them daily, but I did take a quick look at them this morning. Apparently he continues to hover in the 28-30 percent range. I assume the 30 percent who still think W's doing a fine job are the ultimate hardcore, kool aid-drinking, conservative deadenders in the Republican Party, the ones who are totally beyond any sort of redemption. Three out of ten Americans seem to fit into that category, which is a fairly small minority. What's amazing is the degree of influence that small number of people is able to exert on the society we live in. Because they make up the so-called GOP base, every Repub running for office has to crawl around, hat in hand, trying to placate them and keep them happy. Thus the pathetic spectacle of Top Gun pissing away what's left of his dignity. For some reason even Dems are scared of the 30-percenters and treat them like hornets, trying not to stir them up too much. Bringing about this particular train of thought was an item in today's local fishwrap about the VP selection process in both parties. Barry's choice is a moot point, but Ace's is critical. Listed as possibilities were the usual suspects like Willard and Crist, plus a name I hadn't seen on previous lists: Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary. The list of Repubs I can tolerate in small doses is a short one, but Ridge is on it. By Repub standards, he's fairly moderate, meaning he doesn't appeal much to the 30 percenters. If Ridge delivered his home turf (Pennsylvania) in November, that would essentially seal Obama's defeat. Ace could choose Ridge and make a real statement; he'd be telling the base he was a free agent. It would calm me down considerably, but he's too chickenshit to do it. Jim David Adkisson is a name that's been getting a little free publicity lately. Adkisson is the Knoxville, Tennessee shooter who killed two and wounded several more because he was pissed off at what he called The Liberal Movement, aka homosexuals. As a rule I don't spend much time keeping up with stories about lunatics on shooting sprees, and this one's no exception. Two points did catch my attention though. First, one of Adkisson's motives was his anger over the reduction in his food stamp allotment. Second, among the books he owned were volumes by Fox News personalities Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. As a former state employee in the welfare bureaucracy, I loved the part about the food stamps. Over many years I observed that conservatives were the ones bitching loudest about public assistance programs, especially when they couldn't personally qualify for benefits. Jim David's reading material indicates he's probably a 30-percenter, as does his resentment over the queers getting all the good jobs. Total looooooo-ser. Listing everything wrong with American government would take awhile, but this is a good microcosm: Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Age 84. Under indictment. Seeking re-election in 2008.