Virtual Postcard from Florida...(even though I'm not really there)

Though we are not in Florida, and certainly not at the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, which is 38 miles from Weekie Wachee where these real-life mermaids are from. Weekie Wachee Springs, which I visited as a teenager in 1984, was in danger of being closed, but it has become a state park in recent years.

I am cutting this tonight to hopefully watch some of Current-TV's coverage of the GOP convention with Cenk Uyugr, a fellow progressive Turkish-American, and former vice president Al Gore.

Michael Moore delivered a shocker today as the very left-of-century documentary filmmaker predicted that his fellow Michigan native Mitt Romney would win the election; hmmmmmmmmmm........At least, Moore is not in my home state of Virginia as we desperately need Democratic candidate and former Tim Kaine to win that now vacant U.S. Senate. I dislike his opponent so much that I refuse to mention him by name:)


We were actually hoping to see the Black Mormon Republican congressional candidate Mia Love, who is currently, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, speak, as she seems to be quite a novelty on the political scene, but we missed it. Though the likes of Bill O have made it seem like newspaper aside from "The Wall Street Journal" and "The Washington Times" are as far to the left as Radio Havana, the truth is that most newspapers in Utah appear to be giving Love very subjective love indeed.

Lastly, we heard today that Aly Raisman, the recent three-time medal winning Olympic gymnast, received an unwanted marriage proposal from some autograph seeker she didn't know; Raisman is only 18 years old!

And, finally we want to thank her teammate Gabby Douglas, who won all-around gold in London, and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn)., who will hopefully make Sean Hannity's head blow up live on Fox News one day, as they are now both following me on Twitter... so can you at:

http://www.twitter.com/Tilly70

http://www.visitflorida.com

http://www.weekiewachee.com

 http://www.current.com

Quote of the Day/Week- John McCain

It seems that politics both here in the United States in Turkey, my late father's country, is always filled with irony.

Since I was very apprehensive about the possibility of a George W. Bush presidency in 2000 and I had sincere admiration for Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), even though I am a Democrat, I crossed party lines and voted for McCain who did in fact lost to Bush and (forgive the partisan commentary) my worst fears were fully realized.

I did actually end up voting for Al Gore in the general election of 2000.

Eight years later, I voted for Hillary Clinton in the North Carolina Democratic Party and later Barack Obama in the general election. Thus, I am perhaps one of the very few people who have voted for McCain, Obama and Hillary Clinton (I voted for her husband twice as well).

Though he has become more conservative and less rebellious in recent years, I still admire McCain personally, especially since he had the courage to go after Rush Limbaugh in light of the far-right talk show host's sexist comments controversy.

Today, McCain was in the news for publicly slamming the media for going overboard in regards to the 'Etch-A-Sketch' gaffe made by Mitt Romney aide Eric Fehrstorm on CNN yesterday.

Here is the quote from McCain, 75, whose daughter Meghan McCain sent waves when admitted that she liked sex; we expect that would even make Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who is believed to be one of the most liberal U.S. Senate members, blush:

"I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they shouldn't doubt ours."

SIDEBAR: While the nation is abuzz with the Sweet 16 games underway tonight in Division One men's college basketball, over the weekend, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (29-4) beat Cabrini College (31-2) from Radnor Township, Pa., 63-60 for the Division Three basketball title in my hometown of Salem,Va., last weekend. The other two teams in that Final Four were MIT and Illinois Wesleyan. Chris Davis lead the winning Warhawks with 12 points; John Boyd scored 18 points for the losing Cavaliers.

DC Diary- The Map Art of Guillermo Kuitca

Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca, 49, took up much of our attention on the fourth day of our family excursion to Washington, DC, which was Thursday. His works, which include two striking paintings of airport baggage merry-go-rounds, are on display at the Smithsonian Hirshorn Museum of Art until Jan. 16.

I was most awe-struck by Kuitca's paintings of maps, one of which was for the entire state of North Dakota (the image is a standard map of the state). Like the baggage carousel, one would think such a subject might be way too mundane to make an elaborate painting out of, but Kuitca managed to pull it off by illustrating how arbitrary lines that divide states, counties and even international borders can be.

Kuitca did something similar with a grander map painting that made Fargo seem close to Chicago and Philadelphia seem close to Kansas City, which made one realize that our lives are indeed shaped by these lines and they can be rearranged without any logical sense of geography, especially in a world where we can now get emails from Karachi, Pakistan, as well as our friend who might live in the next town over from us in a place like Welch, W. Va.

According to Wikipedia, Kuitca has said that he believes our notions of place are always evolving.

As for North Dakota, which is quite far from Washington, DC, it is the 19th largest state in size, but it also has the third lowest population. North Dakota also has the highest density per capita of any state for churches, which makes it all the more amazing that Barack Obama almost captured the vote for the state against the McCain-Palin ticket (or should we say the Palin-McCain ticket).

There were 920 Muslims and 730 Jews in North Dakota according to the 2000 Census (as stated in Wikipedia) and assuredly those numbers might well have radically changed. Interestingly enough, there are many famous Jews from neighboring Minnesota, including Sen. Al Franken and Bob Dylan.

Perhaps, the famous person ever from North Dakota was the late band leader Lawrence Welk, born in the hamlet of Strasburg, N.Dak. His tv specials still air on PBS stations around the country.

SIDEBAR: A great tweet that we read tonight from The Kansan, who we presume is a progressive college student in Lawrence, Kan., was the following: "That doesn't make sense. Where does the bible say you're free to let your neighbor die so the super rich profit?"

Quote of the Week- Fidel Castro

My dear mom who resides in the cola-mining hamlet of War, West Virginia (ok, she doesn't really live there) thinks that there is probably already an FBI file on me since my late father was a Muslim from Turkey and I once had a subscription to the very liberal publication "Mother Jones" for a short while after George W. Bush became our el presidente.

(I checked out the "MJ" web site- they have an interesting article by David Corn on Afghan president Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington, DC, in which allegedly President Barack Obama grilled him like Mike Wallace).

So my idea of devoting Quotes of the Week to radical left-wingers during the month of May will probably not change anything, though I should point out that I'm a moderate Democrat.

Having said that, I may want to take a cue from the Oklahoma City Tea Party, and start a radical far-left revolution only to remove myself from the movement if I should run for Congress one day! One has to wonder why there are Tea Parties in places like Oklahoma City since the only elected Democrat in the state is probably a water and sewer commissioner for the City of Tulsa.

Of course, we should add that this does not mean we favor Fidel Castro's policies even though we are quoting him. In fact, we will give you the link to a Cuban-American blog (cubalibre.org) even though they may be to the right of Bill O'Reilly. Though there could well be a Cuban-American Democrat in the Miami metro area--and, he probably has an unlisted phone number.

Here is our quote:

"I began a revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 men and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action."

UPDATE: I should point out that I am aware that the governor of Oklahoma and several members of Congress from the state are in fact Democrats. But, somehow I doubt they are as liberal as Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)

Know Your Congress Reps and Senators (Entry 20 of 21)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is the second U.S. Senator we're profiling who is also a published novelist. Our very first entry featured Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va) who also like Boxer has a journalism background. Boxer's two novels include "A Time to Run" (2005) and her most current work "Blind Trust" (2009).

Boxer, 69, is one of several senators from both parties that I'm following on Twitter along with the likes of Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Boxer is one of two female Jewish senators.

In one of her recent tweets, Boxer said she is determined to prove Karl Rove wrong as the former George W. Bush aid wrote in the conservative-leaning "Wall Street Journal" that Boxer's seat is one of six that Republicans could pickup in the 2010 mid-term elections. Rove predicted that the seat could be grabbed by former Hewitt-Packard chair Carly Fiorina, even though she has no political experience.

On her personal blog, Boxer said that each time GOP insiders predict her demise she pulls through because California residents support her stands on job creation, health care and the environment.

Comedian/actor/talk show host Dennis Miller, who became a Republican after Sept. 11th, told politico.com that he was actually recruited by then Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), who was unseated by Webb, to run against Boxer. Another former stand-up comedian/actor/talk show Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), whom we've also written about in this series, later wound up getting a senate seat himself.

Boxer's official senate web site advocates her work helping small businesses and working to prevent violence against women in conflict zones. Boxer, who was previously a member of Congress, replaced Sen. Alan Cranston (R) (who retired from the senate) in 1993. Boxer beat conservative commentator Bruce Herschensohn by five points in part because of her opponent's revelation that he had gone to a strip club. Recently, Boxer became the first female chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee replacing Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). She also chairs the Select Committe on Ethics, and Boxer is the only senator chairing two committees.

Boxer became known as a member of congress when she insisted that Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas (now the most conservative justice on the court) be taken seriously.

According to wikipedia.org, her current approval ratings are hovering in the mid-forties. And, she is a target of right-wing activists for her stances on a woman's right to choose abortion, carbon emissions caps, stem cell research and gun control. Boxer also supports a moratorium on the death penalty.

Boxer is also known as an advocate for health care and education, and she has worked aggressively in addressing the rise in autism rates among children.

Besides being a novelist, Boxer has made cameo appearances in tv shows ("Curb your Enthusiasm" and "Gilmore Girls) and films ("Traffic"). She was also featured in a 2007 documentary about female senators from both parties called "14 Women." The film may actually seem a bit dated now since two of the featured senators, Hillary Clinton (D) and Elizabeth Dole (R) are no longer in the Senate. Dole was defeated by Kay Hagan (D) in the 2008 elections, and Clinton stepped down to become Secretary of State.

UPDATE- The California Republican Party is now following me on Twitter. I wonder if that was the result of this entry!

Special Quote of the Day- Bela Lugosi

Halloween maybe behind us, but we are quoting Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi, best known for his starring role in "Dracula" (1931), because (according to Wikipedia) he was inspiration for the "Sesame Street" character Count von Count.

The PBS children's series is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but The Count first appeared in 1972. He is still voiced by Jerry Nelson, who first provided the voice for Count von Count.

He is perhaps my favorite "Sesame Street" character.

Last year, the minor league baseball team The St. Paul Saints in St. Paul, Minn., offered Count von Recount dolls with Al Franken and Norm Coleman's heads on them as the state was determining who would hold its senate seat.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), the winner of that much-contested race, was profiled in our "Know Your Congressman and Senators" series earlier this summer.

It should be pointed out that the subject of our previous entry, Klaus Kinski also played a vampire in Werner Herzog's 1978 remake of "Nosferatu."

Here is the quote from Lugosi, which we initially forgot to post here!:

"Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman."

Know Your Congress Reps and Senators (Entry 14 of 21)

This is the first entry in this series since May! For today's piece, we choose the new U.S. Senator from Minnesota Al Franken (D) a former stand-up comedian and "Saturday Night Live" writer who now joins Sen. James Webb (D-Va)*, the co-screenwriter for "Rules of Engagement" as the only members of Congress with a screenwriting credit though I'm not sure Franken wants to fess up for "Stuart Saves His Family" (1995).

*- a presumption on our part

Here are some other fun facts about Franken:

_Born May 21, 1951, in New York

_Beat his opponent Norm Coleman by a mere 215 votes (out of 2.8 million votes cast)

_Author of #1 best-seller "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot."

_Appeared as actor in the 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate."

_Hosted radio program "The Al Franken Show" (2004-05)

_Cousin of MSNBC's Bob Franken

_Wrote for "SNL" with partner Tom Davis from 1975-80 and again from 85-95.

_Created Sturat Smalley and interviewed Al Gore as Smalley for 2002 "SNL" show.

_Left "SNL" after losing Weekend Update segment to Norm MacDonald.

_Is first member of Congress who was a stand-up comedian, though amazingly enough Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct) has performed stand-up as well!