Fun with Dick and Jane.......Let me see if I have this straight: Gas prices are so high that economists are concerned about its affect on other spending; there is an unpopular war in Iraq that no one but George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfield want; we are being assailed with dire warnings about the approach of avian flu which will supposedly kill most of us; and a particularly lethal hurricane season is being forecast (possibly due to the non-existent global warming?).

So what did the Republicans talk about at their convention in San Antonio this past week? The three top topics were same-sex marriage, burning the flag, and building a wall between us and Mexico. Whatsa matter? Don’t these guys (and girls) get it? Do they not read the newspaper or listen to their neighbors? Do they not know what the average Joe is concerned about?

I decided to go home Monday and call both Senators from Texas, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and just chew them out for wasting their time and our time in debating those silly topics.

I thought I should probably call my congressman also. No, wait, I don’t have a congressman! He’s leaving Friday and there are no plans to replace him anytime soon.

I honestly don’t know how the Republican Party can have such a majority and then piss it away with the constitutional amendments they plan on taking up our time with in the next few weeks.

I guess they don’t want to mention any real problems because it might remind us that the real problems have been caused by the current Republican administration.

If you build it, they will come.....I had the following conversation with several elected officials about that wall they are claiming they will build between us and Mexico:

Me: “Who is going to build the wall?”

Them: “The government.’

Me: “Who in the government will build it?”

Them: “(Giggle) Probably contract it out to Halliburton.”

Me: “No, seriously. Who are we, or Halliburton, going to get to build the wall?”

Them: “Labor Unions?”

Me: “Yeah, I have a life-size picture of some union guy digging post holes in Yuma, Arizona.”

Them: “I guess we’ll have to get immigrant labor to build it and offer them a citizenship in addition to their $5.50 per hour.”

Me: “How many people will it take to guard those building this fence? And don’t you think we’d better also have a night shift so when the sun goes down someone won’t tear everything down built that day?.”

Most elected officials walked away when it dawned on them that the only way we could get that fence built was by illegal labor, except Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. Now I had sorta liked her. I thought she might be a good compromise candidate.

But when that women gets something between her teeth, she is like a dog with a bone. She is the Houston City Councilwoman who is raising so much Cain about the day labor sites after she started running in DeLay’s conservative district. Before that, she voted for them. She claimed that she thought we could find legal labor to build the fence--prisoners (judges say we can’t make ‘em work); army-no way; laborers like her dad and brothers who would have gladly dug post holes for a decent wage.

Give it up Shelley. Ain’t gonna work.

Random thoughts on the Republican Convention......I was an alternate at the Republican Convention in San Antonio this past week. I told my family that I would have to come home and shower at night. They asked if being that close to so much politics made me feel slimy. No, I told them, I probably would be covered with spit!

Since I am a moderate Republican (social liberal, fiscal conservative) I was not actually spit upon, but I was the very last alternate seated after all the other delegates left early. I didn’t care. I sat on the back row of seats, and since Teresa Raia had made brownies and put them on each seat (along with her political sticker), I gathered up all the extras from the empty seats and sat in the back happily munching on brownies. I must have eaten about a half dozen.

For one thing, I wasn’t dressed correctly. Many of the delegates wore red, white, and blue (men too) with stars all over the place and elephants in profusion. They were walking flags. Back during the 60s (yes, I’m that old), all those hippies wearing facsimiles of flags were summarily arrested and beaten.

I think I’ve figured out why Republicans yell and holler so much at political conventions. They can’t go to rock concerts so this is the only time they get to raise hell.

I kid you not....Andy Meyers who is running for Tom DeLay’s seat issued a “position paper” at the convention entitled, “Different Administrations Treated Differently.”

In his treatise, Andy tried to prove that (his words) the terrible things done by “The dominant media, which continues to castigate the Bush Administrative over Abu Ghriab and will make even louder noises over Haditha, gave the Clinton Administration an almost complete pass on the torture and slaughter of those innocents in Waco. Different Administrations really do made a difference to the media.” The paper is accompanied with very graphic language about the events at Waco.

You Are There: SD 17 attendees at the Republican Convention.