Bipartisanship: An endagered species on the brink

I'm a Republican, but I'm no partisan hack that just wants to say "hooray for my team" versus promoting things that are beneficial to the country. Bipartisanship vs. more gridlock. Compromise vs. petty sniping. That's why I have problems with people as disparate as Nancy Pelosi and Ann Coulter. They bicker and crack wise when they should be offering sound policy and thoughtful commentary (respectively). Neither party is the "enemy". Neither party wants to destroy America. If either party had a 100% majority, it would only hurt the nation. So no, I'm not rooting for larger Democratic or Republican gains this November. I'm rooting for the true underdog, the spirit of cooperation.

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I got the old British TV series “The Prisoner” from the library. I’ve been reading rave reviews for decades now, so it was about time I checked it out. The set up is essentially that some secret agent resigns, but then his secret agency kidnaps him and sticks him in a weird island resort called “The Village” and keep calling him “Number Six”. They want “information”. They never phrase it in the form of a question, so he never answers. I don’t know what information they want, as they reveal that they have been secretly observing this guy since he was a child.
Number 2 (threateningly): We want INFORMATION.
Number 6: So? Dial 4-1-1.

In the very first minutes of the show, Number Six quits his agency and packs bags to get out of town. We see a very brief glimpse of a picture of a tropical island that he stashes into his briefcase. We presume that is where he was headed until he is kidnapped and put on – a tropical island. Free of charge he gets a nice furnished apartment and a personal maid. What’s the problem, Six, no tiki bar?

No one escapes The Village due to the least threatening villain ever put on film. It’s a flabby white balloon about three feet across – sorry, this is British – one meter across. It slowly bounces towards you in a threatening manner. Scary! If you stand still long enough like a deer in the headlights, it will land on you and engulf you! Look out! Punching it doesn’t work. I can’t figure out what else to do to defeat the bubble menace. It’s invulnerable! However, Number Six hid in some bushes once, and the orb thing gave up and left. Scary!
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I saw Dracula 2000. Nothing says “timeless classic” like a movie with the year in the title. It was pretty crappy and unscary until the final 10 minutes. Then it was only unscary. This Dracula couldn’t be killed with a stake through his heart, he had to be hung. Anyway, he’s dying on the noose and he says to the girl (there’s always a girl that he’s trying to vampirize) “I release you.” What? He can do that? Un-vampirize someone?

I found it pretty odd that he could say anything while choking to death, too.
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So the Republican media machine is gearing up to attack this health care thing one last time. I can imagine a back room planning strategy session where they argue which cliché would resonate more with their base.
“This plan is nuclear Armageddon for the American people!”
“Nah, that sounds too cold-war-ish.”
“A perfect storm of health care.”
“That George Clooney movie? He polls too high with the female demographic.”
“If this bill is not repealed, the terrorists have already won!”
“I like that, but we’re using that slogan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts.”
“Obamacare is a perfect tsunami of Armageddeathpanel the terrorists won at the holocaust!”
“Great! We go with that.”
“Plus draw some funny pictures of Nancy Pelosi. Look. Haw haw. I drew her with a big mouth and crazy hair! Haw haw!”
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I was listening to the latest stuff from U2 and the latest from the Eagles. It’s not that the Eagles sounded bad. They were good. But they were boring, old, no energy. U2, on the other hand, proves why they are still on their game after nearly three decades. They’re like the Rolling Stones, without the drug overdoses. And the Stones had a 22 year head start.

True, there will only be one Joshua Tree and one Achtung! Baby, but U2 hasn’t forgotten what made them famous. So belt it out, Bono! Rock on, Edge! And you two other guys with regular names, yeah, you’re pretty good, too.