It's a Bucko Birthday, plus a little Huckabee

Today is Ken's birthday, so go over and show him some love!

The other day, he said, "Remember when I posted about your birthday? Don't do that!" Yeah, right. Being the uppity woman that I am, and since I don't know my place, I am being willfully disobedient and indeed, I am FLAUNTING my disobedience! Hahaha! [hands on hips, triumphant laugh] I'll make up for being a liberal feminist by making one of his favorite dinners, enchiladas. I can't make them as good as his Mom, but they're still pretty tasty. And some refried beans, too. It will be a Mexican fiesta here at Casa Nutwood! Olé!

Sometimes I can be serious, and I'll just say what I've said to a few people. I've been in relationships with guys who brought out the absolute worst in me. Ken does just the opposite. Seeing the way he treats people, and the way he loves my Mom and Dad and my family, his work ethic, and of course the way he treats me...it all brings out the best in me, and he makes ME want to be a better person. I hope he has a wonderful day, although it will be a long one...but I hope that he continues to enjoy coming home to me. LUWAMHHP! (Yeah, it's a code, and no, I'm not telling!)

Happy Birthday, Ken! Huzzah!

Now for the Mike Huckabee speech we attended. It was as big a crowd as for Karl Rove, but we found a couple of seats together pretty easily. There were a couple more empty spots to Ken's left, and a few minutes after we got there, the Chief Nuclear Officer for Ken's plant came in, and sat by Ken. I had seen Mike at the Habitat house dedication, but never got to meet him. He seems like a really decent guy, pretty low-key. He wasn't eating, because it turns out he had just had dinner with a few others, including...Huckabee. He sort of downplayed it and said he must have gotten lucky or something, but the truth is, he's the CNO of one of the biggest employers in the area. He said Huckabee seemed like a really nice guy, but obviously he didn't go into details about what they talked about.

Oh, and Mike mentioned that at the last election, he was working at AEP headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. You all know that Ohio was a major swing state in 2004, as it is this year. He said that the weekend before election day, the phone rang NONSTOP the entire weekend. Indiana is supposed to be a battleground state this year...I told Ken we might have to go out of town! I guess turning off the phone would work, too, for that matter!

As for the dinner...remember that last time it was really barfy? They must have gotten some feedback, because this time, it was totally NON-barfy! In fact, it was prime rib! It was a little more done than I like prime rib, but it wasn't dry at all. They also had some steamed veggies with it, including some of those cute little pattypan squashes. Yum! I didn't have one of the little zucchinis, but the guy across from me held up one and said, "Does anyone know what this is?" Ken said, "It's a baby zucchini!" I told Ken on the way home that I felt like saying, "Dude, you need to eat more veggies!" The people around us seemed a little more lively and talkative than last time, and there was a little bit of political discussion, but nothing major. One thing that was brought up was Obama's fundraising abilities. A couple of people felt that there's so much money there that there has to be some foreign countries or corporations contributing. Ken said no, they can't contribute to his campaign fund--there's a dollar limit (we think it's $5000) that an individual can contribute to a campaign, and I don't believe that foreign countries and foreign corporations can contribute to their campaigns at all. On the way home, we talked about how that's a matter of public record...anything above $200 is reported and out there for people to look up.

Back to the speech. We turned our chairs around to face the stage, and I got out my pen and notebook. Yes, I really took them! Huckabee seems genial and generally affable. He started out with some joking remarks...some were fairly funny, some I thought were pretty lame. His speech was mostly a reiteration of his primary campaign platform. He said that there are a lot of bad things being said about America right now, but there's still no place he'd rather live, because of our freedoms, etc. I agree, but I think that ignores the serious problems we've got, and while I think most of us are still very happy to live here (I know I am), it's small consolation for those that are struggling. I'm quite certain they are also happy to live here and have an abiding love for our country, but I have a feeling that they want a few more answers than, "No matter how hard it is for you to make it, you can be proud to be an American!" Yeah...we all know that. So how does that help those who are barely keeping their heads above water?

He went into this weird shtick about a fictional place he called "Hucktown," where there was only one law: Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Because of this law, Hucktown had no economic woes, no need for a large police force, no drug problem, no crime, blah blah blah...basically, all of our problems are due to the loss of our "sense of decency" and our lack of "ethical behavior."

WTF? I wrote down on my little pad of paper "Simplistic." As we were walking out, I told Ken, "That place doesn't exist. It never existed!" To me, that is a fundamental problem with the recent Republican agenda...they want to return to a time that never existed. He painted a pretty picture, but you know what, Mike? There will always be liars, cheaters, and thieves. There will always be those who are motivated by nothing more than sheer greed. It's laudable to hope for better, and to believe the best of mankind, and you all know that for the most part, I try to be that way. I'm also a realist, and I know that there is no changing human nature, and that's why there must be regulatory agencies in place. Wow, he totally sounded like a Pollyanna on that one. "Everyone is wonderful, trust that they'll do unto you the way they would want you to do unto them!" Riiight, Mike. I bet they'd do unto me, all right.

He also talked about his big thing, the consumption tax. I.e., instead of paying income tax, there would be a consumption tax on everything we buy. While it has a certain appeal, and I'll have to do more research on it, I just don't see it happening. He says that everything has a 22% built-in tax, and if that was taken out, we'd pay less in taxes. Hmmm. Do you really think manufacturers would drop all their prices by 22% if this were enacted? I doubt it!

Then it was time for Q&A, which Huckabee said wasn't questions and answers, but questions and avoidance. He said if he ever wants to run for public office again, he needs to do the latter. (There is some speculation that he may run again in 2012. Ken said he'll have to go through Palin. I said, "Nah. She's toast.") Someone asked about term limits for Congress. He said he's all for that, they enacted that in Arkansas, and even in the military, general officers are required to retire at the age of 64. (More about that in a moment.)

Another question was from a pharmacy student, and it was about health care. I actually liked Huckabee's answer to this one: he said that we have a procedure-based system, rather than an all-around care system based on prevention and healthier living. His phrase was that we're treating snakebites instead of killing snakes. A pretty good analogy.

One guy stood up and said that he's a lifelong Republican, but he thinks it's going to be a total slaughter in a couple of weeks. Huckabee said, "I hope you're wrong, but I think you might be right." A-haaaa! He went on to say that Republicans need to figure out why that is. One of the problems he referenced was the handling of Hurricane Katrina. He said that while a lot of Republicans want to blame it on Louisiana's governor at the time, he was Arkansas's governor then and that state saw a huge influx of displaced people. He said there was mismanagement on many levels, including on the part of the federal government. (There's a news flash.) He said that he remembers, as we all do, people stranded on top of their houses for 5 or 6 days, and that "We are better than that." There was the sound of one person clapping in the audience, and oops! It was me! A few others finally joined in, thank goodness.

So that was all the pertinent stuff I wrote down. As Ken and I were talking about it afterwards, we said we were both tempted to ask a question (I actually had two I thought about asking), and Ken's question was kind of related to mine. I suppose if I'd had another glass of wine, I might have had the guts to ask it, but one glass wasn't enough! In Huckabee's little dream sequence about "Hucktown," he mentioned "morals" a few times, as well as a "sense of decency" and "ethical behavior." Ken said he would have asked how Huckabee defines the difference between "morals" and "values." (I think that's right--correct me if I'm wrong, Ken.) My question would have been, "You mentioned a sense of decency and ethical behavior. Do you feel that the recent negativity of Senator McCain's campaign is ethical or decent?"

My other question would have referenced his comments that general officers must retire at the age of 64. "If general officers in the military have to retire at 64, do you feel that Senator McCain, at the age of 72, is too old to serve as President?"

Yeah...in retrospect, it's probably good I didn't have enough in vino veritas to ask those questions. Remember, we were sitting right by Ken's head honcho! Oddly enough, I found Karl Rove more interesting *gasp*, probably because he gave more of an analysis of the presidential race. Although I suppose that Huckabee saying that he thought it might be a "Republican slaughter" in a couple of weeks was worth hearing!

So there you go! I find that I enjoy hearing these speakers, no matter if I agree with them or not. Politics is FUN! [said in a Barbie voice]

It's almost 2 o'clock, and poor Ken has to get up at 3, because the forced outage starts tomorrow. I've been trying to do well with getting to bed earlier, but I'm afraid I'll disturb his sleep if I go to bed now, so I'll stay up a while and catch up on blogs. I'm sure I'll be crashing hard at 3 or so!