Saturday, October 04, 2008
the waiver
ok, so....our daughter's switch from the city school to the county school has been complicated by her sports eligibility: she competed in cross country as a freshman, and according to the rules she must sit out an entire year from all sports unless she qualifies for this rule to be waived. The most widely used qualification is bonafide change of address. We live in the county school's district- and have no need to change address. We switched our daughter to a school that provides coursework unavailable in the city school, like agriculture, equine science, small animal science as well as clubs like the FFA.....yeah, well, that and the fact that she did so very poorly as a freshman and the d-ville school counselors seemed disinterested in helping her.....to make a long story short, we were turned down on our request for a waiver, a decision that we appealed. The hearing was thursday in lexington.....imagine our surprise when the d-ville football coach showed up to argue against the waiver.....like our child was some sort of star runner that would give her new school an unfair advantage......we have to wait another 10 business days to get the transcript of the hearing, and then another couple of days to hear what the athletic association board decided. we understand fully that this has more to do with football and basketball players and the recruitment that goes on....it makes no sense that our child has changed to the school across town but cannot run in a few races.
Friday, October 03, 2008
ok, so...this was the most poignant moment of the debate for the c-dubs....and we were in awe that ms plain responded to this man baring his soul to america with the assertion that mccain is a maverick....
new respect for the whole state of michigan
ok, so.....i am so very proud of michigan for basically rebuffing j. mccain to the point that he is pulling his campaign staff out and on to other battlefields.....
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
can't think of a single supreme court case except roe v. wade
ok, so.....it pains me to share this piece from palin....
all palin, all the time...
ok, so in the most recent mouth-dropper moment from katie couric's series of interviews with ms. palin is this....when asked about what news sources she reads to get her 'world view', palin remarked that she reads a vast variety of news sources.....but when pressed to name one....palin chose to ramble on about how alaska is not out of the media mainstream and how they get the news up there and on and on.....yet she could not come up with a single news source......i'd have been satisfied if she'd said fox news.....given that fox is so very pro-palin.....but she couldn't even come up with that....
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
alaskans for truth rally
ok, so i enjoyed the sign that read 'sarah- from my house i can see the end of your political career'
Saturday, September 27, 2008
the debate
ok, so i liked this part especially
OBAMA: But understand, that was a tactic designed to contain the damage of the previous four years of mismanagement of this war. And so John likes…John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge, the war started in 2003. And at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, you were wrong. You said that we would be greeted as liberators, you were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni and you were wrong. And so the question is the judgment of whether or not…
MCCAIN: Senator Obama…Senator Obama…Senator Obama doesn’t….
OBAMA: …whether or not the question is who is best equipped as the next president to make good decisions about how we use our military, how we make sure that we are prepared and ready for the next conflict and I think we can take a look at our judgment.
OBAMA: But understand, that was a tactic designed to contain the damage of the previous four years of mismanagement of this war. And so John likes…John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge, the war started in 2003. And at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, you were wrong. You said that we would be greeted as liberators, you were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni and you were wrong. And so the question is the judgment of whether or not…
MCCAIN: Senator Obama…Senator Obama…Senator Obama doesn’t….
OBAMA: …whether or not the question is who is best equipped as the next president to make good decisions about how we use our military, how we make sure that we are prepared and ready for the next conflict and I think we can take a look at our judgment.
conservative columnist urges palin to drop out...
ok, so this is an excerpt from kathleen parker, who writes for a conservative blog...at the end of the full piece she urges palin to drop out, as a patriotic gesture to the land she loves.....ouch!
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”
When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
Friday, September 26, 2008
ok, so this from the huffington post.....Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
ok, so this from gawker....AP: Sorry, Sarah Palin, That's Just Wack
The Associated Press took the prize today for the most dryly contemptuous lead sentence I've read in a political news story in a while:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire.
In the Poynter Institute's online media forum, Jay Rosen asked, "At what point does an extreme attempt to de-legitimate the press actually de-legitimate the candidate ... in the eyes of the press?" Perhaps this is that point.
The Associated Press took the prize today for the most dryly contemptuous lead sentence I've read in a political news story in a while:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire.
In the Poynter Institute's online media forum, Jay Rosen asked, "At what point does an extreme attempt to de-legitimate the press actually de-legitimate the candidate ... in the eyes of the press?" Perhaps this is that point.
75 books every woman should read
ok, so this from jezebel after an open-internet call....for the record, i have read 35 out of the 75...must get busy with the rest...
* The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson
* To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
* The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
* White Teeth, Zadie Smith
* The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
* Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
* Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
* The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
* Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
* The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
* Beloved, Toni Morrison
* Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
* Like Life, Lorrie Moore
* Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
* Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
* The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
* A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
* A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor
* The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
* You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker
* Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
* To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
* Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
* Earthly Paradise, Colette
* Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
* Property, Valerie Martin
* Middlemarch, George Eliot
* Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
* The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
* Runaway, Alice Munro
* The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
* The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
* Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
* You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates
* Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
* Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
* The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
* I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
* A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
* And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
* Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
* The Secret History, Donna Tartt
* The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
* The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
* The Group, Mary McCarthy
* Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
* The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
* The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
* Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
* Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
* In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
* The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
* Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
* Three Junes, Julia Glass
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
* Sophie's Choice, William Styron
* Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
* Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
* Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
* The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
* The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
* The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
* The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn
* My Antonia, Willa Cather
* Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
* The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West
* Spending, Mary Gordon
* The Lover, Marguerite Duras
* The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
* Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen
* Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
* Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
* Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
* I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
* Possession, A.S. Byatt
* The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson
* To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
* The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
* White Teeth, Zadie Smith
* The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
* Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
* Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
* The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
* Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
* The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
* Beloved, Toni Morrison
* Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
* Like Life, Lorrie Moore
* Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
* Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
* The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
* A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
* A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor
* The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
* You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker
* Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
* To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
* Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
* Earthly Paradise, Colette
* Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
* Property, Valerie Martin
* Middlemarch, George Eliot
* Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
* The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
* Runaway, Alice Munro
* The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
* The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
* Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
* You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates
* Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
* Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
* The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
* I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
* A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
* And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
* Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
* The Secret History, Donna Tartt
* The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
* The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
* The Group, Mary McCarthy
* Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
* The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
* The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
* Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
* Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
* In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
* The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
* Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
* Three Junes, Julia Glass
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
* Sophie's Choice, William Styron
* Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
* Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
* Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
* The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
* The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
* The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
* The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn
* My Antonia, Willa Cather
* Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
* The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West
* Spending, Mary Gordon
* The Lover, Marguerite Duras
* The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
* Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen
* Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
* Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
* Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
* I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
* Possession, A.S. Byatt
george will turns on mccain
ok, so this from wonkette....Jesus, a weekend or two ago George Will was on one of them Sunday talk shows defending McCain’s “Obama wants to teach your babies how to have sex” ad. He was possibly the one American pundit who actually thought it was a good, true ad. And now even that guy wonders if John McCain is fit for office, because of his “temperament.”
It seems that the last week of utter financial fuckery has really brought out the worst in McCain. Why is this? Because he finds the economy endlessly dull, so he throws a tantrum every couple of days just to look like he’s sort of interested. This novel approach to domestic policy has, to his credit, gotten him through 26 years in the Senate or whatever! But what’s our point? Oh yes GEORGE WILL SAID THESE NASTY THINGS ABOUT JOHN McCAIN:
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated.
[...] Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
Now John McCain will call an angry press conference and demand that George Will be replaced by, let’s see, Andrew Cuomo or whoever.
It seems that the last week of utter financial fuckery has really brought out the worst in McCain. Why is this? Because he finds the economy endlessly dull, so he throws a tantrum every couple of days just to look like he’s sort of interested. This novel approach to domestic policy has, to his credit, gotten him through 26 years in the Senate or whatever! But what’s our point? Oh yes GEORGE WILL SAID THESE NASTY THINGS ABOUT JOHN McCAIN:
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated.
[...] Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
Now John McCain will call an angry press conference and demand that George Will be replaced by, let’s see, Andrew Cuomo or whoever.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
fancy fork...
ok, so those few of you who have followed this blog over the years know of my digging fork story.....the short version is this: i have successfully worn out 3 cheaply made digging forks....with each poorly designed replacement justified by poverty during times when it seemed like such an expense was frivolous......realistically, had i gone ahead and bought a good fork to replace the first dud....i'd still be using it today...i have spent more on the replacements than a single good fork would have cost.....the latest fork died yesterday as i planted my pinky-winky hydrangeas....and just moments ago i ordered this fine fork.....i am so very excited to know this finely-crafted english digging tool is on its way to my garden......
abdication by palin?
ok so this from the anchorage daily news...When did the McCain campaign take over the governor's office?
Published: September 20th, 2008 12:53 AM
Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability.
Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?
A press conference Thursday showed how skewed Alaska's relationship with its own governor has become.
McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced that Todd Palin will not comply with a subpoena to testify about his role in Troopergate, the Legislature's investigation into whether Palin abused her power in forcing out former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan.
O'Callaghan also announced that Alaska's governor is "unlikely" to cooperate with the investigation by the Alaska Legislature about questionable conduct by Alaska's chief executive.
Monday, he and campaign sidekick Meg Stapleton stood before Alaskans and defended the official personnel decision by Alaska's governor to fire Alaska's public safety commissioner. ABC News reported that Gov. Palin's official press secretary, Bill McAllister, paid by the state of Alaska, didn't even know the McCain staffers were meeting the press to defend his boss.
Is the McCain campaign telling Alaskans that Alaska's governor can't handle her own defense in front of her own Alaska constituents?
Published: September 20th, 2008 12:53 AM
Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability.
Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?
A press conference Thursday showed how skewed Alaska's relationship with its own governor has become.
McCain-Palin campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced that Todd Palin will not comply with a subpoena to testify about his role in Troopergate, the Legislature's investigation into whether Palin abused her power in forcing out former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan.
O'Callaghan also announced that Alaska's governor is "unlikely" to cooperate with the investigation by the Alaska Legislature about questionable conduct by Alaska's chief executive.
Monday, he and campaign sidekick Meg Stapleton stood before Alaskans and defended the official personnel decision by Alaska's governor to fire Alaska's public safety commissioner. ABC News reported that Gov. Palin's official press secretary, Bill McAllister, paid by the state of Alaska, didn't even know the McCain staffers were meeting the press to defend his boss.
Is the McCain campaign telling Alaskans that Alaska's governor can't handle her own defense in front of her own Alaska constituents?
from the dailykos....
ok, so this from steven katz.... John McCain has put himself and the nation on a strict diet of political junk food by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
While the national media and Internet are freely dispensing all the political junk food about Sarah Palin as fast as they can, many voters including those who were considering voting for John McCain can't stomach it. Can you?
Here it is in one large spoonful.
Small-town white-female mayor who bullies librarians and museum directors, lobbies Washington to obtain federal funds and claims that she is against "pork barrel politics," is elected governor of the state with one of the smallest populations in the country, so small that she can afford to work from home for most of the year and charge the taxpayers for working from home as a "duty-station," lives closer to the melting Arctic ice caps than any other governor in the country but does not believe in global warming, cracks the whip in dog-sled races and in retaliation towards state officials who she thinks have wronged her family, and turns otherwise right-wing fundamentalist social vices into Republican political virtues.
While the national media and Internet are freely dispensing all the political junk food about Sarah Palin as fast as they can, many voters including those who were considering voting for John McCain can't stomach it. Can you?
Here it is in one large spoonful.
Small-town white-female mayor who bullies librarians and museum directors, lobbies Washington to obtain federal funds and claims that she is against "pork barrel politics," is elected governor of the state with one of the smallest populations in the country, so small that she can afford to work from home for most of the year and charge the taxpayers for working from home as a "duty-station," lives closer to the melting Arctic ice caps than any other governor in the country but does not believe in global warming, cracks the whip in dog-sled races and in retaliation towards state officials who she thinks have wronged her family, and turns otherwise right-wing fundamentalist social vices into Republican political virtues.
robert f. kennedy, jr
ok, so r.f. kennedy, jr. response to governor palin's book banning notions is currently on the huffington post....
Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."
It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.
Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."
It might be worth asking Governor Palin for a tally of the other favorites from her reading list.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
woo-worthy
ok, so....i drove up to the horsepark with my daughter, arriving at 1:00 for a 1:30 speech....yeah, right....at 3:00 we were still packed inside an enclosed tent suitable for a wedding reception....but without the nice chairs and tables a bride would have requested......we were about 4 people back from the stage....behind several tall men.....happily, the trio from manchester who drove 2 hours to see hillary were amusing enough to make the time go quickly.....hard to say how many were there....easily 500....including the governor, bruce lunsford the candidate who will 'ditch mitch'....and even john y brown and his wife the ex-miss america whose name escapes me.....hillary is as amazing in person as she is on the television screen...ro she was yesterday in her nytimes op-ed piece about the proposed hhs rule that will restrict men and women from many services.....my daughter was humiliated that i chose to shriek....woo.....which i thought was much more appropriate than amen....woo works for me.....
Friday, September 19, 2008
public comment...
ok, so.....i took the time to make my position known on an issue that coincidentally hillary clinton took up in a nytimes opinion piece....a hhs proposed rule that would allow any person working in a setting that accepted federal funding, to refuse to give any service that conflicted with that person's morals or ethics....the intent appears to be birth control, emergency contraception, or abortions...but this line is vague enough that i, as a nutrition/diabetes educator could refuse to serve someone i found morally offensive- we could have rampant discrimination cloaked as provider conscience.....here is the link
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
45 CFR Part 88
RIN 0991–AB48
Ensuring That Department of Health
and Human Services Funds Do Not
Support Coercive or Discriminatory
Policies or Practices In Violation of
Federal Law
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
SUMMARY: The Department of Health and
Human Services proposes to promulgate
regulations to ensure that Department
funds do not support morally coercive
or discriminatory practices or policies
in violation of federal law, pursuant to
the Church Amendments (42 U.S.C.
300a–7), Public Health Service (PHS)
Act § 245 (42 U.S.C. 238n), and the
Weldon Amendment (Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2008, Pub. L. 110–
161, § 508(d), 121 Stat. 1844, 2209). This
notice of proposed rulemaking proposes
to define certain key terms.
Furthermore, in order to ensure that
recipients of Department funds know
about their legal obligations under these
nondiscrimination provisions, the
Department proposes to require written
certification by certain recipients that
they will comply with all three statutes,
as applicable.
DATES: Submit written or electronic
comment on the regulations proposed
by this document by September 25,
2008.
ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer
to ‘‘Provider Conscience Regulation’’.
Electronically. You may submit
electronic comments on this regulation
to http://www.Regulations.gov or via email
to consciencecomment@hhs.gov.
To submit electronic comments to
http://www.Regulations.gov, go to the
Web site and click on the link
‘‘Comment or Submission’’ and enter
the keywords ‘‘provider conscience’’.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
45 CFR Part 88
RIN 0991–AB48
Ensuring That Department of Health
and Human Services Funds Do Not
Support Coercive or Discriminatory
Policies or Practices In Violation of
Federal Law
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
SUMMARY: The Department of Health and
Human Services proposes to promulgate
regulations to ensure that Department
funds do not support morally coercive
or discriminatory practices or policies
in violation of federal law, pursuant to
the Church Amendments (42 U.S.C.
300a–7), Public Health Service (PHS)
Act § 245 (42 U.S.C. 238n), and the
Weldon Amendment (Consolidated
Appropriations Act, 2008, Pub. L. 110–
161, § 508(d), 121 Stat. 1844, 2209). This
notice of proposed rulemaking proposes
to define certain key terms.
Furthermore, in order to ensure that
recipients of Department funds know
about their legal obligations under these
nondiscrimination provisions, the
Department proposes to require written
certification by certain recipients that
they will comply with all three statutes,
as applicable.
DATES: Submit written or electronic
comment on the regulations proposed
by this document by September 25,
2008.
ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer
to ‘‘Provider Conscience Regulation’’.
Electronically. You may submit
electronic comments on this regulation
to http://www.Regulations.gov or via email
to consciencecomment@hhs.gov.
To submit electronic comments to
http://www.Regulations.gov, go to the
Web site and click on the link
‘‘Comment or Submission’’ and enter
the keywords ‘‘provider conscience’’.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
hacked email.....
ok, so....i am so very amused by the hacked yahoo account....mostly because i once wasted an entire afternoon on the phone with my insurance carrier.....i had forgotten my login password...and i could not remember the secret question/answer.... my original hometown street address.....i had the first part correct....but i could not remember if it were a street, a drive, an avenue, a boulevard....you get my drift.....and the patient lady on the line would not divulge this critical information until i guessed it.....and all for no good reason...the urgent message on my insurance account was to inform me that one of my covered folks had recently used their covered benefits....i knew that tidbit of information because i had driven her to the appointment......but i feel no sorrow for sarah palin, who clearly invented neither the internet nor the blackberry....thinking that her personal email was untouchable....and that she was clever to use a free public service email carrier rather than a public-record system.....but then, she can see russia from her living room.....and we are to give her special leeway because of that spectacular view......
hillary
ok, so i am driving up to the horsepark to see hillary on saturday....she is campaigning for bruce lunsford in his bid to unseat the vile mitch mcconnel.....a wrothy cause.....so worthy i got out my checkbook.....and while i was at it i gave a chunk to obama.....
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
mean mamma waits by the phone...
ok, so....in searching for cartoons to enhance my lecture powerpoint presentation, i came across this old ny cover.......it speaks to me.....
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
couldn't run a major corporation.....
ok, so this from crooks and liars....
Carla Fiorina is a big John McCain supporter and adviser who was forced out of her office heading HP. (They just lost over 25,000 jobs by the way)
Earlier today she said this about Palin:
Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.
“Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?” asked the host.
“No, I don’t,” responded Fiorina. “But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.”
I was watching MSNBC when Carly tried to clean that one up by saying McCain wasn’t qualified either. She lumped in Obama and Biden with this statement also which is off the wall. Saying a person could run the country, but not a corporation is ridiculous.
Obama’s statement on John McCain’s top economic adviser Carly Fiorina:
“If John McCain’s top economic advisor doesn’t think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn’t understand as well as he should,” said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Carla Fiorina is a big John McCain supporter and adviser who was forced out of her office heading HP. (They just lost over 25,000 jobs by the way)
Earlier today she said this about Palin:
Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.
“Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?” asked the host.
“No, I don’t,” responded Fiorina. “But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.”
I was watching MSNBC when Carly tried to clean that one up by saying McCain wasn’t qualified either. She lumped in Obama and Biden with this statement also which is off the wall. Saying a person could run the country, but not a corporation is ridiculous.
Obama’s statement on John McCain’s top economic adviser Carly Fiorina:
“If John McCain’s top economic advisor doesn’t think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn’t understand as well as he should,” said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
anne lamott weighs in
ok, so this from salon by way of jezebel...Writer Anne Lamott hates Sarah Palin so much she's not using her real name anymore. Instead she's calling her "Claw Washout," which is what you get when you type "Sarah" into the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator (if you type in "Sarah Palin," you get "Flack Gobbler," which calls up the image of our favorite lipsticked pit bull devouring publicists). As much fun as the ol' SPBNG is to play around with (try typing in the names of Frank Zappa's kids for a weird-name match made in Heaven), it may not be a great idea to lift Sarah Palin to the status of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
As always, Anne Lamott has some good ideas. Go out and work for Obama, she advises, and talk about his strengths rather than Palin's (or McCain's) weaknesses. Drink a lot of water. Donate your old clothes to charity. But these are things we should be doing anyway, not because we're so poleaxed by the McCain-Palin ticket that we need some kind of coping strategy.
Lamott says Palin fills her with "such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it." And that the Alaskan governor's ignorance "makes anyone of decency feel nauseated — spiritually, emotionally and physically ill." This seems like a classic case of what my mom would call "letting them get to you," which is exactly what you weren't supposed to do to playground bullies, younger siblings, or anyone you hoped to defeat. Or — and perhaps this is more important — anyone you hoped to get along with.
Thing is, Alaskans seem to love Sarah Palin — one poll put her approval rating at 80%. And one poll today has McCain getting 48% of the vote, while Obama gets only 47%. This means there are plenty of people — and plenty of decent people, too — who are thinking of voting McCain-Palin. If we want to change their minds, we can't act like their candidates are Lord Voldemort and the Wicked Witch of the West. We need to combat them as people, and to do that we need to call them by their names — even if Flack Gobbler and Claw Washout are funnier.
A Call To Arms[Salon]
As always, Anne Lamott has some good ideas. Go out and work for Obama, she advises, and talk about his strengths rather than Palin's (or McCain's) weaknesses. Drink a lot of water. Donate your old clothes to charity. But these are things we should be doing anyway, not because we're so poleaxed by the McCain-Palin ticket that we need some kind of coping strategy.
Lamott says Palin fills her with "such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it." And that the Alaskan governor's ignorance "makes anyone of decency feel nauseated — spiritually, emotionally and physically ill." This seems like a classic case of what my mom would call "letting them get to you," which is exactly what you weren't supposed to do to playground bullies, younger siblings, or anyone you hoped to defeat. Or — and perhaps this is more important — anyone you hoped to get along with.
Thing is, Alaskans seem to love Sarah Palin — one poll put her approval rating at 80%. And one poll today has McCain getting 48% of the vote, while Obama gets only 47%. This means there are plenty of people — and plenty of decent people, too — who are thinking of voting McCain-Palin. If we want to change their minds, we can't act like their candidates are Lord Voldemort and the Wicked Witch of the West. We need to combat them as people, and to do that we need to call them by their names — even if Flack Gobbler and Claw Washout are funnier.
A Call To Arms[Salon]
Monday, September 15, 2008
fundamentals.....?
ok, so this from wonkette....John McCain said, today, that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.” He doesn’t even know what this is supposed to mean, of course, because all he knows about the economy is that the Navy gives you money and benefits and the Senate gives you money and benefits and Social Security gives you money and benefits and your Beer Heiress wife buys your seven castles and private jet. But what did the markets have to say? Uh, how about a 504-point drop in the Dow and a 4.7% plunge in the S&P?
another circle of hell
ok, so in my dreams i was trying to organize my mother's craft areas....which essentially means her whole house......i can clearly remember trying to sort knitting needles and throw away parts of patterns.....sadly, my mother can get stuff out of storage faster than one can put stuff away.....this must be the daughter-ly equivalent to pushing the rock back up the hill over and over.....
Sunday, September 14, 2008
distractions
ok, so...i a considering planting 6 of hydrangea pinky-winky inside the oval of boxwoods on the left side of my front yard.....a mass of pinks, reds, and creams inside a green perimeter.....while it may be trivial to focus on one's garden during such dismal times.....it may also be the one thing that sustains my soul....
ok, so more on the lying-twofaced ms. palin....
GIBSON: But it's now pretty clearly documented. You supported that bridge before you opposed it. You were wearing a T-shirt in the 2006 campaign, showed your support for the bridge to nowhere.
PALIN: I was wearing a T-shirt with the Zip code of the community that was asking for that bridge.
So, it was just a t-shirt with a zip code and it had nothing to do with supporting the "bridge to nowhere"? Really?
Saturday, September 13, 2008
a slave to fashion?
ok, so i laughed aloud when i saw these bondage shoes in the nytimes......what a hoot!
Friday, September 12, 2008
the anti-kathy
ok, so....book club this evening was certainly energized by the palin nomination....with most of my dear friends voicing their abhor to the notion of her as commander-in-chief......except for the fellow who sat down next to me after the book discussion had wound down, and asked me confidentially if i was as excited about her nomination as he was......and it was all i could do to react to him calmly and with my horror subdued.....this is a person i have known for 25+ years.....and for this person to be surprised when i said softly that ms palin is the anti-kathy...that she stands against everything i hold dear..how could someone who has known me for so long not know that.....?....there was some new blood at this first book club of the year- a new couple and a semi-recently widowed woman....both added a lot to the milieu....the book was beach music by pat conroy....not to be on my top 10 list by any means.....the next book is rumored to be much shorter and less contrived.....
insensitive to victims of sexual assault......
ok, so this from the huffingtonpost...Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.
Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.
Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.
Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.
Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
the best pet ad.....
ok, so the caption: "Oh god. I just spent three quarters of my day licking myself. I just sit here, with a bowl of water, some toys and my urges – lonely one minute and satisfied the next. Such a wicked paradox. I need to get out. I need to meet people. But I’m happy this way. It feels good. So good. But my crotch shouldn’t define me. Was it the way I was raised? Did my dad bury his face in his crotch for hours on end? Not dad. I never smelt it on his breath. Well maybe once, but I can’t be sure that was crotch. The guy ate garbage like it was going out of style. But really, some pages are better left unturned. Am I the only one? I doubt it. That Rottweiler probably treats his nether regions like a buffet. Look at me. I’m justifying my lack of discipline by making up stories about other dogs I don’t even know. I need a drink. Then I need to lick my crotch. More like want. Is that selfish? Self-pleasuring myself for half a day? Screw it. I’m going in. If my owner could do it, he would. So it’s perfectly natural. Isn’t it? I need a distraction. That ball looks okay. Oh crap. I need something new. Something that doesn’t involve my crotch. It’s all I’ve got. My walker’s cool, but I can’t lick his crotch. It’s gonna take everything I’ve got to make it through the night. Just one night. Advertising Agency: DDB, Toronto, Canada
Monday, September 08, 2008
banned books?
ok so...from wonkette, the list of books that ms palin wanted banned from wasilia's library....
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
ok, so...i have read 38 of these works.....and i doubt that ms palin has read any......thankfully, the librarian declined to take any of these books off the shelves....
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
ok, so...i have read 38 of these works.....and i doubt that ms palin has read any......thankfully, the librarian declined to take any of these books off the shelves....
Sunday, September 07, 2008
soon to be three...well...four
ok, so...i am doing my best to rally the troops....must get the youngest to sunday school, and drive the middle child to louisville to catch to plane back east...the full-house summer has gone by far to quickly....though the emptying out has been buffered somewhat by the acquisition of the puppy.....every part of one's day must include a 'what to do with the puppy' question.....outside?...in his crate?.....safe with someone int he backroom watching television while i make a quick trip to the grocery?......put the baby-gate up between the front room and the kitchen or leave it down?.....so far he has destroyed an older pair of my walking shoes, and 3 pairs of my leather sandals....and has touched nothing belonging to anyone else.....go figure......so either he likes me best, or has issues with me and takes them out on my stuff.....ah well......i am digressing from my emptying nest.....my eldest should be in braunau-am-inn as we speak...though we have not had confirmation.....that is what one's children tend to do less and less of as they grow up and apart.....one of these days i will get used to this notion....
Saturday, September 06, 2008
walk-in closet?
ok, so turns out the closetful of palin skeletons is larger than we thought...this from perezhilton....As we mentioned earlier this week, The National Enquirer is reporting that potential future VP Sarah Palin has some major skeletons in her closet.
Apparently, she had an affair with her husband's former business partner - according to the mag.
Slutty habits are hard to get rid of it seems.
So, of course, John McCain's camp has threatened legal action for the Enquirer meddling. That was a STUPID move. It just makes her look guilty.
And, not that the Enquirer is the most reliable news source, but…. they were correct when exposing John Edwards and his affair and illegitimate lovechild. But this next piece of information will surely draw more attention to the Palin scandal.
Turns out that the guy Sarah Palin is accused of having an affair with, has just filed an EMERGENCY motion to have his divorce records sealed!!!! Well, it seems the Enquirer might not be so wrong after all. Wonder what he's trying to hide?????
Apparently, she had an affair with her husband's former business partner - according to the mag.
Slutty habits are hard to get rid of it seems.
So, of course, John McCain's camp has threatened legal action for the Enquirer meddling. That was a STUPID move. It just makes her look guilty.
And, not that the Enquirer is the most reliable news source, but…. they were correct when exposing John Edwards and his affair and illegitimate lovechild. But this next piece of information will surely draw more attention to the Palin scandal.
Turns out that the guy Sarah Palin is accused of having an affair with, has just filed an EMERGENCY motion to have his divorce records sealed!!!! Well, it seems the Enquirer might not be so wrong after all. Wonder what he's trying to hide?????
Friday, September 05, 2008
walter reed?
ok, so this from wonkette...America laughed again last night as a terrible “green screen” once again appeared behind John McCain, during his big speech at the RNC. Well, the “green” was actually the lawn of a school in North Hollywood, California. And the school is called “Walter Reed Middle School.” And the random idiot assigned the task of picking John McCain’s video background during the biggest speech of his career was apparently told to put a picture of Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the screen, and ineptly googled this utterly random California school picture, instead. And nobody knows what Walter Reed Hospital looks like, anyways, so everybody just assumed it was another one of his mansions. The school is about to release “a statement” damning McCain for inappropriately using the picture of this innocent school. All of this, as Josh Marshall notes, is exactly what happened in the movie Spinal Tap.
why the press misses laura bush already...
ok, so this from jezebel.com
Some critics are calling this characterization of Laura a "liberal fantasy." But why do we cling to the fantasy even when Real First Lady Laura Bush totally hung out with Sarah Palin just the other day? Because she actually has very little in common with Sarah Palin, which is why we're all pondering working on our painkiller addictions right about now! The evidence.
1. Laura Bush is a librarian and Sarah Palin bans books.(Sort of in the way Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor!) Which brings me to the funniest thing about the story of how Sarah Palin, upon becoming mayor of Wasilla, called up the local librarian to inquire about banning books: the idea never went anywhere because she didn't seem to know what books she'd ban. Sarah Palin doesn't read! Duh. Neither, probably, does Cindy McCain. Laura Bush's favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov, a fact that I still find sort of mindblowing, but anyway, that is what makes this sort of shit so funny.
2. Laura Bush is pro-choice. When Cindy McCain found herself in that messy conundrum over whether Roe v. Wade ought to be overturned earlier this week, who did she turn to for guidance? According to Katie Couric, Cindy's spokespeople said that she, like Laura Bush, did not want Roe overturned. Who knows why Laura Bush is pro-choice; maybe she read American Tragedy, maybe it's just because she killed someone herself and the law had gone easy on her; maybe she's just a rational person, but whatever the case, women like Laura Bush — not Northeastern Marxists like me or "I Choose Life For My Daughter And Everyone Else In America" Alaskan prophets like Sarah Palin— are ones who live in those crazy states that are always trying to add little "abortion banning" amendments to transportation bills and such, the ones who actually live in states where this stuff comes up on the ballot every November. And as such, women like Laura Bush are the only reason Roe has yet to go back before the Supreme Court.
3. Laura Bush raised Jenna Bush. Laura Bush's other vocation besides library science was being a mother, and even that Communist organ Us Weekly agrees that Jenna Bush turned out pretty good. Laura Bush raised a fun underage-drinking socially-conscious charter school teacher who spent months in the ghettos of that little country her granddaddy invaded learning about the tragic life of a teenage mom with AIDS for the purpose of writing a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't use condoms. Sarah Palin raised a fun underage-drinking cautionary tale of what happens when you don't use condoms.
4. Laura Bush is a walking living and in some ways tragic symbol of the emotional core of liberalism, which is to say, our bottomless capacity to forgive. She had a tragedy in her early life and for that reason alone most of us will forgive her unwillingness to try and make herself into some sort of internal dissident in the Cheney White House. She reads Russian lit, she knows how it goes for dissidents. She forgives her ignorant husband the way we all forgive our ignorant racist grandmas. She accepts his differences and we preach acceptance. She is from a Red State and married to a red meat Republican but she defies all the usual pithy pollster cartoonology; she has never had big hair even though she's from Texas, she has never been blonde even though that is a major rule for Republicans in DC; she has never seemed Stepfordy, she smokes cigarettes. And like with Laura, said sentimentality can lead us to be forgiving to a fault! Remember how we hated Clinton for his triangulation and his beholdenness to Wall Street and his generalized moral turpitude? Ha ha ha, yeah. Don't let's let this become the election that gets us all misty-eyed for the Bush years in a couple years time, Laura Bushes of the world! (God did you ever think that would even be a possibility? Christ.)
Some critics are calling this characterization of Laura a "liberal fantasy." But why do we cling to the fantasy even when Real First Lady Laura Bush totally hung out with Sarah Palin just the other day? Because she actually has very little in common with Sarah Palin, which is why we're all pondering working on our painkiller addictions right about now! The evidence.
1. Laura Bush is a librarian and Sarah Palin bans books.(Sort of in the way Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor!) Which brings me to the funniest thing about the story of how Sarah Palin, upon becoming mayor of Wasilla, called up the local librarian to inquire about banning books: the idea never went anywhere because she didn't seem to know what books she'd ban. Sarah Palin doesn't read! Duh. Neither, probably, does Cindy McCain. Laura Bush's favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov, a fact that I still find sort of mindblowing, but anyway, that is what makes this sort of shit so funny.
2. Laura Bush is pro-choice. When Cindy McCain found herself in that messy conundrum over whether Roe v. Wade ought to be overturned earlier this week, who did she turn to for guidance? According to Katie Couric, Cindy's spokespeople said that she, like Laura Bush, did not want Roe overturned. Who knows why Laura Bush is pro-choice; maybe she read American Tragedy, maybe it's just because she killed someone herself and the law had gone easy on her; maybe she's just a rational person, but whatever the case, women like Laura Bush — not Northeastern Marxists like me or "I Choose Life For My Daughter And Everyone Else In America" Alaskan prophets like Sarah Palin— are ones who live in those crazy states that are always trying to add little "abortion banning" amendments to transportation bills and such, the ones who actually live in states where this stuff comes up on the ballot every November. And as such, women like Laura Bush are the only reason Roe has yet to go back before the Supreme Court.
3. Laura Bush raised Jenna Bush. Laura Bush's other vocation besides library science was being a mother, and even that Communist organ Us Weekly agrees that Jenna Bush turned out pretty good. Laura Bush raised a fun underage-drinking socially-conscious charter school teacher who spent months in the ghettos of that little country her granddaddy invaded learning about the tragic life of a teenage mom with AIDS for the purpose of writing a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't use condoms. Sarah Palin raised a fun underage-drinking cautionary tale of what happens when you don't use condoms.
4. Laura Bush is a walking living and in some ways tragic symbol of the emotional core of liberalism, which is to say, our bottomless capacity to forgive. She had a tragedy in her early life and for that reason alone most of us will forgive her unwillingness to try and make herself into some sort of internal dissident in the Cheney White House. She reads Russian lit, she knows how it goes for dissidents. She forgives her ignorant husband the way we all forgive our ignorant racist grandmas. She accepts his differences and we preach acceptance. She is from a Red State and married to a red meat Republican but she defies all the usual pithy pollster cartoonology; she has never had big hair even though she's from Texas, she has never been blonde even though that is a major rule for Republicans in DC; she has never seemed Stepfordy, she smokes cigarettes. And like with Laura, said sentimentality can lead us to be forgiving to a fault! Remember how we hated Clinton for his triangulation and his beholdenness to Wall Street and his generalized moral turpitude? Ha ha ha, yeah. Don't let's let this become the election that gets us all misty-eyed for the Bush years in a couple years time, Laura Bushes of the world! (God did you ever think that would even be a possibility? Christ.)
vanity fair
ok, this from crooks and liars....
Cindy McCain(’s first night of Republican National Convention outfit)
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
Wow. That’s about 60 times the health care credit McCain proposes to give families for a year
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
horrified
ok, so....the mm had a momentary lapse in composure today, and found herself tearful ever so briefly in explaining why she must follow federal and state guidelines for providing all forms of birth control methods, including emergency methods to clients...we accept their money (lots of money) so they expect us to abide by certain standards....go figure.....there is no option of picking and choosing which we will provide and which we will refuse...and under what circumstances we will provide these methods....a client desires to control her fertility, and we comply....i refused to entertain the request to cease and desist..gentle readers.....in this election cycle do not lose sight of those who believe that all family planning methods are morally wrong....i freely admit that i have used multiple forms of birth control to keep my family size affordable and manageable.....and no mother of 5 has the right to tell me that having 2 of my own and 1 bonus daughter is any less righteous in the eyes of any god than her brood.....
budget cutting in the far north.....
ok, so this from the www......Earlier this year, John McCain's Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin, slashed funding for programs that help support teen mothers in her state of Alaska.
Just sayin'!
Just sayin'!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
a european opinion...
ok, so this by way of wonkette.com...In 2006, the Alaska state branch of the right-wing Eagle Forum asked gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin if she was offended by the inclusion of the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance:
Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its [sic] good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in the late 19th century by a fellow named Bellamy (a Christian socialist no less!) as part of an effort to improve the circulation of the magazine he was with at the time and generally improve the condition of American boyhood, about which a certain amount of fretting was then underway about their collective constitution and resolve (widespread at the time; this was roughly around the same time Baden Powell started the scouting movement on your side of the pond).
So that's 100-plus years after the founding fathers were doing their thing. And even then, the words "under God" weren't inserted until the cold war, the better to highlight the difference between America and the Godless Russkies.
This is widely known in the US. There's been a controversial legal battle here over the last few years, and every news-following American has a pretty good idea of most of the above facts. This woman is an idiot.
Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its [sic] good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in the late 19th century by a fellow named Bellamy (a Christian socialist no less!) as part of an effort to improve the circulation of the magazine he was with at the time and generally improve the condition of American boyhood, about which a certain amount of fretting was then underway about their collective constitution and resolve (widespread at the time; this was roughly around the same time Baden Powell started the scouting movement on your side of the pond).
So that's 100-plus years after the founding fathers were doing their thing. And even then, the words "under God" weren't inserted until the cold war, the better to highlight the difference between America and the Godless Russkies.
This is widely known in the US. There's been a controversial legal battle here over the last few years, and every news-following American has a pretty good idea of most of the above facts. This woman is an idiot.
no words
ok, so this from jezebel.com
well, just a few words...what's with the guy in the background smoking...don't these people keep up with the health alerts up there in alaska?
secesh?
ok, so this from the www......
Country first
According to a new report, Palin has supported the Alaska Independence Party AND experts say that might be the most politically detrimental of anything that's been unearthed.
The Alaska Independence Party has called for Alaska's secession from the union!! They no longer want to be part of the United States.
It's been pointed out that it is practically impossible for McCain to make a "country first" argument when his running mate is affiliated with a political party that puts country second.
Country first
According to a new report, Palin has supported the Alaska Independence Party AND experts say that might be the most politically detrimental of anything that's been unearthed.
The Alaska Independence Party has called for Alaska's secession from the union!! They no longer want to be part of the United States.
It's been pointed out that it is practically impossible for McCain to make a "country first" argument when his running mate is affiliated with a political party that puts country second.
Monday, September 01, 2008
the anti-poster child
ok, so....it would seem that the abstinence-only education folks will have to look further for a poster child than the gop vp candidates eldest daughter....yeah- this is not the first time that women have been forced by such circumstances to marry really young.....but this episode is a clear sign that john mccain is clueless.....so if he kicks the bucket the day after the (perish-the-thought) election, we will have an inexperienced president caring for her youngest children, presumably caring for her grandbaby while the poor daughter goes to college to try to overcome this episode.....let us not forget that this woman does not believe in birth control- so the vp could be expecting again by the time the inauguration rolls around....and could pop a few more before the voters kick out her socially/ecologically sorry ass.....if elected we the taxpayers would be footing the bill for her numerous offspring for a longtime to come.......
procrastination.....
ok, so having finished the insipid bookclub selection- that shall go nameless for the purposes of this blog.....i have moved on to library books while i should be studying for my next lecture.....a trio from as series of cozy mysteries set on martha's vineyard....i like ex-cop who gets to spend his days fishing and cooking while his wife is at work as a nurse while he is not solving island murders/theft/kidnapping/mayhem.....the author likes to include recipes in the back in case one happens to have a bluefish or two ready to fix for supper......i did not take the time to read them 'in order' since this series like many others are standalone rather than sequential.....and i came upon the last one....i knew it had to be the last one because the last page was an obit- seems the author phillip r. craig passed away not long after finishing it.....i must admit that i had not taken the time to read this guy's credentials.....i am not looking for perfect prose when i read my cozy crime novels with the omnipresent sleuth who manages to solve the mystery within 5-6 pages of the end.... turns out this guy got his masters at the u of iowa writer's workshop- the most notable writing program in america.....wow....makes me want to start with the series at the beginning, and savor them anew.....i am also very sorry that there will be no more....
Sunday, August 31, 2008
more of cindy's little white lies
ok, so this from crooks and liars about cindy mccain....
You know what we find 'offensive'?
Cindy's propensity to lie!
In addition to lying about her recipes and her sister, looks like she also likes to lie about the circumstances that surrounded the adoption of her daughter from Bangladesh.
Cindy and her people changed the story just in time for the presidential campaign.
How convenient!
Apparently, she's been telling people that Mother Teresa herself urged her to adopt during a trip to Bangladesh.
Turns out Stepford McCain never met or even spoke with Mother Teresa on that trip.
You know what we find 'offensive'?
Cindy's propensity to lie!
In addition to lying about her recipes and her sister, looks like she also likes to lie about the circumstances that surrounded the adoption of her daughter from Bangladesh.
Cindy and her people changed the story just in time for the presidential campaign.
How convenient!
Apparently, she's been telling people that Mother Teresa herself urged her to adopt during a trip to Bangladesh.
Turns out Stepford McCain never met or even spoke with Mother Teresa on that trip.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
more scary stuff about the wing-nut from alaska
ok so this from moveon.org....Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.
* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.
* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.
* She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.
* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.
* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.
The last bullet-piint distresses me most- that McCain may only have met this woman once face-to-face before choosing her.....omg...
* She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.
* Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.
* She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.
* Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.
* She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.
* She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.
* How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.
The last bullet-piint distresses me most- that McCain may only have met this woman once face-to-face before choosing her.....omg...
scandals in alaska
ok, so this from wonkette....Wonkette’s favorite GILF has now graduated to a losing ticket for vice president. Hooray for Sarah Palin, the new fake Hillary Clinton! And like the Clintons, Palin and her husband, “Todd,” are involved in a horrible scandal in their corrupt nothing state, and it’s about troopers. So let’s offer a brief background about this epic scandal which has ruined her reputation in Alaska, where she used to have 90% approval ratings. And then you will realize exactly how creepy Alaska is where they would care about such a thing.
The basic idea of the scandal is that she and her husband pressured the commissioner of the state Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper named Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, who has been in a nasty custody battle with Palin’s sister. Then when the commissioner refused, Palin fired him and replaced him with an idiot who then left a couple of weeks later.
In other words, it was any day in Alaskan politics, where doing something corrupt is like eating a can of beans. Just think about all the cans of beans you eat all the time, and yes, it’s that frequent.
The basic idea of the scandal is that she and her husband pressured the commissioner of the state Public Safety Department to fire a state trooper named Mike Wooten, Palin’s former brother-in-law, who has been in a nasty custody battle with Palin’s sister. Then when the commissioner refused, Palin fired him and replaced him with an idiot who then left a couple of weeks later.
In other words, it was any day in Alaskan politics, where doing something corrupt is like eating a can of beans. Just think about all the cans of beans you eat all the time, and yes, it’s that frequent.
political word twist....
ok, so this from wonkette....Wonkette linguistics operative “Shih Tzu” sends us a variety of hilarious anagrams for “Sarah Palin” and “Sarah Heath Palin.” (She is named after the dead joker, Heath Ledger, which is offensive.) “Sarah Palin gets you Sharia Plan — Palin is clearly a stealth Muslim radical. Sarah Heath Palin gets you Ha Ha, Alpine Trash, which is kind of mean. It also gets you Ahh Shit, Anal Rape.” Well my stars, this Sarah Palin is no role model for our daughters.
gop vp choice unsure what vp does....
ok, so this from crooks and liars..... Ms. Palin was quoted in july: “As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does everyday?”
Do we really need someone like this a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Especially given that McCain turned 72 today? Especially someone under investigation for abuse of power less than two years into office? That really is more of the same.
One dKos commenter answers Sarah’s question:
1. Leaves undisclosed location for the White House.
2. Tells the President what to do.
3. Orders Chief of Staff to obstruct a series of investigations.
4. Snarls a few times.
5. Returns to undisclosed location.
Heh.
Do we really need someone like this a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Especially given that McCain turned 72 today? Especially someone under investigation for abuse of power less than two years into office? That really is more of the same.
One dKos commenter answers Sarah’s question:
1. Leaves undisclosed location for the White House.
2. Tells the President what to do.
3. Orders Chief of Staff to obstruct a series of investigations.
4. Snarls a few times.
5. Returns to undisclosed location.
Heh.
Friday, August 29, 2008
more about sarah palin
ok ,so...this from the www.......Sarah Palin had political experience only as a small town mayor until less than two years ago. What we don't know about her could fill a book. Here are a few things we're learning about Palin.
Sarah Palin left the finances of her town Wasilla in tatters when she moved on in 2002. She wanted a legacy as mayor, it seems, and pushed hard for the town to build a hyper-expensive sports complex. But Palin screwed the process up badly. Instead of buying the land for the complex when it was offered, her administration allowed a developer named Gary Lundgren to snap it up. Then Wasilla tried to seize the land from Lundgren through eminent domain. In the end, what with court costs Wasilla paid at least $ 1.7 million for land it could have bought for less than one tenth that sum - if the purchase had been handled properly. For this incompetence, Wasilla is still paying a steep price: higher taxes and cutbacks in services. In other words Palin is about as efficient as Michael Brown, onetime head of FEMA.
yeah...sounds like the perfect GOP candidate to me.....
Sarah Palin left the finances of her town Wasilla in tatters when she moved on in 2002. She wanted a legacy as mayor, it seems, and pushed hard for the town to build a hyper-expensive sports complex. But Palin screwed the process up badly. Instead of buying the land for the complex when it was offered, her administration allowed a developer named Gary Lundgren to snap it up. Then Wasilla tried to seize the land from Lundgren through eminent domain. In the end, what with court costs Wasilla paid at least $ 1.7 million for land it could have bought for less than one tenth that sum - if the purchase had been handled properly. For this incompetence, Wasilla is still paying a steep price: higher taxes and cutbacks in services. In other words Palin is about as efficient as Michael Brown, onetime head of FEMA.
yeah...sounds like the perfect GOP candidate to me.....
dedicated to eliminating reproductive choice
ok, so....the republicans have offered up a wolf in sheep's clothing....a woman who neither believes in a woman's right to choose, or a woman's right to control the spacing of her children through legal birth control methods.....which is why she not only has 5 children but has a child with a birth defect that she was surely told of long before delivery.....a child no doubt using up govt funded benefits that she likely opposes as a fiscal conservative......and this is the point that really gets my blood pressure arising......fiscal conservatives hate the notion of deeming anybody disabled....my sister-in-law, while going through chemotherapy for her third brain tumor, had to prove to a panel of 'experts' that she was too disabled to work.... .but i assure you, gentle reader, that the child of this vp candidate will have no problem maintaining disability until death....and all her barbie smiles and passive-aggressive comments will not sway my opinion otherwise....
only child cindy mccains's sister won't be voting for her spouse...
ok, so this from us magazine....Cindy McCain's half sister is planning on voting for Barack Obama, she tells Usmagazine.com.
"I'm not voting for McCain," Kathleen Hensley Portalski tells Us. "I have a different political standpoint.
"I'm voting for Obama," the Phoenix resident says. "I think his proposals to improve the country are more positive and I'm not a big war believer."
Portalski, 65, and the potential first lady, 54, have the same father: Jim Hensley, the founder of the beer distributor Hensley and Co. that Cindy McCain now chairs.
In an interview with NPR News' All Things Considered last week, Portalski said she felt "like a non-person" after Cindy McCain described herself as an "only child."
Portalski's mother is Hensley's first wife; Cindy McCain's mother, Marguerite Hensley, also had another daughter from her first marriage.
"She's kinda cool, standoffish," Portalski tells Us of her half sister.
Portalski also doesn't expect Cindy McCain to make an effort to reconcile their relationship.
"She never has, and I doubt that she ever will," she tells Us.
Portalski's son Nathan, a 45-year-old aerospace machinist, is also backing Obama.
"I wouldn't vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat," he tells Us. "I would not vote at all before I'd vote for him.
"I question whether Cindy is someone I'd want to see in the White House as first lady," he adds.
"I'm not voting for McCain," Kathleen Hensley Portalski tells Us. "I have a different political standpoint.
"I'm voting for Obama," the Phoenix resident says. "I think his proposals to improve the country are more positive and I'm not a big war believer."
Portalski, 65, and the potential first lady, 54, have the same father: Jim Hensley, the founder of the beer distributor Hensley and Co. that Cindy McCain now chairs.
In an interview with NPR News' All Things Considered last week, Portalski said she felt "like a non-person" after Cindy McCain described herself as an "only child."
Portalski's mother is Hensley's first wife; Cindy McCain's mother, Marguerite Hensley, also had another daughter from her first marriage.
"She's kinda cool, standoffish," Portalski tells Us of her half sister.
Portalski also doesn't expect Cindy McCain to make an effort to reconcile their relationship.
"She never has, and I doubt that she ever will," she tells Us.
Portalski's son Nathan, a 45-year-old aerospace machinist, is also backing Obama.
"I wouldn't vote for John McCain if he was a Democrat," he tells Us. "I would not vote at all before I'd vote for him.
"I question whether Cindy is someone I'd want to see in the White House as first lady," he adds.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
from jezebel.com
ok, so this from jezebel.com.....Remember that Wisconsin woman arrested for overdue books? Well Mainer JoAn Karkos is also in trouble for keeping her library books, but she held onto two copies of It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health for reasons other than forgetfulness. You see, Karkos didn't return the books because she thought they were obscene. According to BoingBoing, "In September, Karkos sent letters to the libraries, including checks to pay for the cost of the books. The letters said, in part, 'I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents. I will not be returning the books.'" A judge has ordered Karkos to return the books by tomorrow at 4 and pay a $100 fine, or she'll be arrested.
stealing books so nobody else can read them?
stealing books so nobody else can read them?
sorry i went to bed a bit too early
ok, so i watched Biden's speech, then got up and went to bed...and missed Obama's surprise appearance....
extra-large magnums....
ok, so this from the nypost about the democratic national convention...HERE'S something you won't see at the Republican convention - dueling condom giveaways. Trojan has a large tent inside the DNC's official Pepsi Center perimeter where volunteers hand out extra-large, Magnum condoms. Meanwhile, in the streets of Denver, comely Planned Parenthood volunteers are handing out anti-John McCain condom packets. They include a pamphlet titled "Ten Reasons to Protect Yourself From John McCain," detailing his votes against women's reproductive rights. "People are lovin' it," said one condom-wielding cutie.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
on 1-94 on the way into town from airport
ok, so....this from crooks and liars..the daily show billboard welcoming republican conventioneers in minnesota....
Monday, August 25, 2008
michelle
ok, so...the mm says wow to michelle obama, who gave a moving tribute to her roots and to her family's values at tonight's opening of the democratic convention.....i am saddened that protesters for the war bothered to show up in denver...they need to fastforward to the republican convention and stir thing sup there instead..... anti-war protests with the current crowd is like preaching to the choir.....i was also moved by caroline kennedy's introduction to her uncle teddy...and i will admit to feeling smug at noticing that she borrowed many elements of her intro from her nytimes endorsement of obama.....that is ok, because her nytimes piece was brilliant and still makes me cry so many months later.....
Saturday, August 23, 2008
fans of good grammer fined....
ok, so this from cnn.... PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson corrected the grammar in the first paragraph of this sign.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson corrected the grammar in the first paragraph of this sign.
Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year.
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty August 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park's Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks.
Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring, wiping out errors on government and private signs. They were interviewed by NPR and the Chicago Tribune, which called them "a pair of Kerouacs armed with Sharpies and erasers and righteous indignation."
An affidavit by National Park Service agent Christopher A. Smith said investigators learned of the vandalism from an Internet site operated by Deck on behalf of the Typo Eradication Advancement League.
Authorities said a diary written by Deck reported that while visiting the watchtower, he and Herson "discovered a hand-rendered sign inside that, I regret to report, contained a few errors."
The fiberboard sign has yellow lettering with a black background. Deck wrote that they used a marker to cover an erroneous apostrophe, put the apostrophe in its proper place with correction fluid and added a comma.
The misspelled word "emense" was not fixed, Deck wrote, because "I was reluctant to disfigure the sign any further. ... Still, I think I shall be haunted by that perversity, emense, in my train-whistle-blighted dreams tonight."
Deck and Herson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property.
They were sentenced to a year's probation, during which they cannot enter any national park or modify any public signs. They were also ordered to pay $3,035 to repair the watchtower sign.
more mulch
ok, so.....i unloaded another truckload of mulch today.....over a 6 hour period due to the intense heat......i had illusions that this would be the last load.....but now that it is spread i could really use another truckload.....ah well.....if i had no intentions of flying to austria sometime soon i would invest in some shade-tolerant shrubberies and re-think the planting areas along the fence and along the hedge......these are vast wastelands when the daylilies die back.....sometime today i scratched the heck out of my chin and cheeks.....i must have been miserable enough as to not notice..must have been one of the rose bushes i tried to tie-back......go figure...i'd hate to miss church over a face-full of scratches, but i really do look like a victim of abuse...i located a pair of slide sandals in the gardening shoe basket.....hopefully these will not be as tempting to the pup as the leather sandals seem to have been.....the dog did manage to chew up my rick steves paris guide that was on the porch on a chair.....it was old enough to list francs rather than euros....but it the notion that this dog seeks to chew up my favorite things that is the issue.....ah well.....my eldest is fixing to leave paris tomorrow for amsterdam.....he took the train to chartres today....and happened upon a wedding in the cathedral....he said that he sat down and took it all in- the nuptials, the stained glass, the majesty that is chartres.....and considered it a good day.....now that i am showered and hydrated and the truck has been put up (put up means back in grandma's garage...) i feel the urge to check out plane fares to munich (the closest airport to branau-am-inn).....i'd like to go over the veteran's day weekend.....and then again over spring break.....thankfully my eku class starts on thursday so my cash-flow will seem more conducive to multiple european excursions.....i went to an annual staff meeting for the health class just this past week...and was reminded that they really do mean for class to last over 2 hours....go figure.....some lessons just do not last that long.....ah well...must find videos to make up the time....as i do not want to lose this teaching gig....that so nicely funds my travels....so...a blog about mulch ends up with a dissertation about the funding of travel.....and so it goes....
Thursday, August 21, 2008
7 houses....
ok, so this from wonkette.....The DNC has sent us this lovely map of John McCain’s houses and airplanes and gnome slaves. Since they’ve made it terribly unreadable, you may view it full size in right here. But to the point: this is devastating you see! Because most of his properties are “condominiums,” a fancy rich word that the well-to-do use when referring to what common folks call “apartments.” And can you even believe this Fun Fact that one of McCain’s “condos” — that is rich slang for “condominiums” — has a concierge, a French word meaning, “house slave who shows rich people the least congested route to the airport during rush hour.”
my friend gail
ok, so i heard early on today that my friend gail had an aneurysm was wasn't expected to survive, but it wasn't until after lunch that my friend joni called to tell me that gail's family had opted to pull life support....so gail passed on at age 43.....she had already several close kin to death......her father died suddenly at their place of work, which prompted her to seek employment elsewhere....and she lost a sister to sudden death earlier this year.....thankfully my memories of gail from our restaurant days are upbeat and hopeful.....she loved her daughters, and she was optimistic about their futures....she was a good woman....
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
puppy
ok, so....i was philosophical when the puppy chewed up 2 pairs of sandals in so many days.....because they were cast-offs brought home from the store- sandals that were returned for whatever reason, and were worn because they were available...but this last pair of black merrills ...and i do mean my last pair....were near and dear to my heart- they fit perfectly, and were in great shape despite their age....danged dog.....somehow sneaked back upstairs last night while he was supposed to be chilling out while my spouse read the newspaper....i must have been asleep while he fished them out from just under the bed, as i never heard a thing....
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
running on empty
ok, so this from the latimes...Jackson Browne is suing John McCain for using the song “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad — and the veteran rocker is also calling the candidate a great pretender when it comes to standing up for constitutional rights.
Browne, one of rock music’s most famous activists for liberal causes, is “incensed” that the presumptive Republican candidate for president has been using Browne’s signature 1977 song “Running on Empty” in campaign commercials, according to the singer-songwriter’s attorney. Browne filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against both McCain and the Republican National Committee on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the forlorn arena anthem or any other Browne compositions, as well as damages.
Browne, one of rock music’s most famous activists for liberal causes, is “incensed” that the presumptive Republican candidate for president has been using Browne’s signature 1977 song “Running on Empty” in campaign commercials, according to the singer-songwriter’s attorney. Browne filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against both McCain and the Republican National Committee on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the forlorn arena anthem or any other Browne compositions, as well as damages.
another vote for obama...
ok, so this from crooks and liars....The pastor who presided over the Texas-trash nuptials between Jenna Bush and her husband is a long-time friend of George W. Bush, but man oh man, he hates the crap out of John McCain. This pastor — a Reverend Kirbyjon(!) Caldwell — supports Barack Obama, weird, and told a bunch of reporters yesterday that John McCain is the worst person in the world — mostly because of that time he suggested his wife join the Miss Bison Shit contest before a crowd of gangbanging bikers, as well as all the crippled wives he’s cheated on in his life.
Friday, August 15, 2008
all-around....
ok, so i stayed up til 1:30 am watching the americans go 1-2 in the women's gymnastic competition.....the performances were stellar....just lovely.....and even in my sleep-deprived stupor i recall the effort to stay awake worth my time.....especially given that i have watched women's gymnastics faithfully since 1972 when olga korbut dazzled the world with her backflip from the uneven bars.....wow......still gives me pause to consider just how much skill and nerve these tricks require.....
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
fatigue
ok, so.....i have stayed up late too many days in a row.....mostly watching gymnastics...there is something compelling about seeing an event that is happening tomorrow rather than today.....well....something compelling about watching miraculous physical stunts.....with uncommon gracefulness.......mostly we amble about from here to there....gymnasts manage to get from point a to point b in a much more interesting manner.....the men's all-around competition is late this evening......i may just forego this event so i can rest-up for the women's all-round.....i say women's event loosely, as i have a hard time believing that the chinese women are women in the developmental sense......as opposed to little girls.....
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
soundtrack.....
ok, so....my daughter purchased the soundtrack of the movie musical mamma mia......with her own money....and i have grown tired of listening to abba songs over and over......not that we have heard the entire soundtrack yet.....no...she mostly plays the same 2 songs over and over.....oy....it all reminds me of my college roommate, who played the soundtrack for saturday night fever over and over for weeks and maybe months..over the span of an especially emotional summer.so much so that i have not been able to actually watch the movie...i kinda know what happens, but i do not think i could survive the deju evoked by the musical numbers at this late date.....i suppose this is why one so prefers mixes.....a little of this and a little of that...and no repeats.....
Sunday, August 10, 2008
seep hoses.....
ok, so.....i finally engaged my spouse in the seep-hose problem.....the problem being that they did not seem to seep......he was able to repair several large gashes, and ultimately discovered that water did not flow well due to small blue disks inside the ends of each segment that narrowed the available circumference from 1 inch down to less than 1/8th inch.....no wonder the water wouldn't flow past the first hose....we have been able to get decent water flow all the way to the end of the hose....and now it is clear that i need to dig up all of the hose and lay the hose in concentric circles to maximize the coverage......luckily i have a few extra rolls of the hose in the garage....
ok, so...i have kept my tongue about the whole edwards infidelity thing...but this excerpt from maureen dowd in the nytimes was too witty to pass up..... The stunning admission Edwards made to ABC’s Bob Woodruff, and in a written statement from Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon, was that he’s a narcissist.
He admitted that wallowing in “self-focus” out on the trail and thinking you’re “special” can result in a solipsism that “leads you to believe you can do whatever you want, you’re invincible and there’ll be no consequences.”
Auto-psychoanalysis by the perp. That’s really rich. When Bill Clinton acknowledged an affair, after equally adamant denials, he simply went into an old-fashioned spiral of penitence, his allegedly long, dark night of his alleged soul.
Even in confessing to preening, Edwards was preening. His diagnosis of narcissism was weirdly narcissistic, or was it self-narcissistic? Given his diagnosis, I’m sure his H.M.O. would pay.
The creepiest part of his creepy confession was when he stressed to Woodruff that he cheated on Elizabeth in 2006 when her cancer was in remission. His infidelity was oncologically correct.
i especially like the part about his HMO paying for treatment for his self-absorption.....wasn't health care one of his signature issues.....?.......predictably his wife is standing behind him on this one.....it is worth one's time to go back and read the rest of what maureen had to say......
He admitted that wallowing in “self-focus” out on the trail and thinking you’re “special” can result in a solipsism that “leads you to believe you can do whatever you want, you’re invincible and there’ll be no consequences.”
Auto-psychoanalysis by the perp. That’s really rich. When Bill Clinton acknowledged an affair, after equally adamant denials, he simply went into an old-fashioned spiral of penitence, his allegedly long, dark night of his alleged soul.
Even in confessing to preening, Edwards was preening. His diagnosis of narcissism was weirdly narcissistic, or was it self-narcissistic? Given his diagnosis, I’m sure his H.M.O. would pay.
The creepiest part of his creepy confession was when he stressed to Woodruff that he cheated on Elizabeth in 2006 when her cancer was in remission. His infidelity was oncologically correct.
i especially like the part about his HMO paying for treatment for his self-absorption.....wasn't health care one of his signature issues.....?.......predictably his wife is standing behind him on this one.....it is worth one's time to go back and read the rest of what maureen had to say......
Saturday, August 09, 2008
worth the wait.....
ok, so...i am and some special family and friends stayed up long past out bedtime to watch the opening ceremonies.....i will freely admit that watching the chinese delegation march was moving, headed up by 7.5 foot yao minh (sp) walking beside a 9-year old fellow who not only survived the earthquake but rescued 2 of his classmates from the rubble simply because he was hall monitor for the week and saw that as his job.....wow....and the torch lap paired with the spectacular torch-lighting sequence was also special.....and worth the staying awake.....
Friday, August 08, 2008
young man
ok, so.....with some family members, our new pup's name has morphed from buddy into young man....not sure where the young man came from, but i am certain it was not from anger over puppy behavior.....so far about all the pup has done in a destructive manner is to rip up the new yorker cover because i left it on the porch after grilling supper......my bad.....he is inching closer to making peace with the cat...they have yet to be int he same room together, and when i carried the cat past him to her new haven in the guest room window for her supper, she hissed at him and he cowered.....maybe she will ease up when she figures out that she holds the upper paw in this relationship.....our middle child has been quite tender with her during these changin' times....coddling her and whispering sweet cat sentiments to her while she eats.....
Thursday, August 07, 2008
heels...
ok, so...i went to a training in frankfort yesterday (and will go again today) and was amazed at how many women in the massive 'dph' building were wearing uncomfortable-looking footwear.....especially given that one must park fairly far away unless one arrives for work at the crack of dawn.....i wore a pair of kitten-heeled pumps...the heel being no higher than 1.5 inches....on monday to a meeting, and i now have a blister from where my smaller foot rubbed the side.....and so i am torn at this moment that precedes my getting up and getting dressed...on what sort of shoes to wear today.....my comfy merril sandals or dressier but less comfortable shoes.....sandals may look too casual for the appearance of competence i am working toward.....but heels may make me look shallow and foolish.....quite the conundrum.....
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
127 yardsale...
ok, so....the long north-south connector that bisects much of these parts is hosting an annual even this week...the 127 yard sale.....i was amused this morning driving to frankfort for a training just how many impromptu car-lots had sprung up in front yards...i counted 29 vehicles for sale on my commute...mostly monster trucks and r.v.'s......go figure.....numerous other sites are ready to sell stuff dragged out of closets and storage bins.....and i have no need of any of that these days....folks saving to visit small Austrian towns have no business perusing yardsales....
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
walking the dog....
ok, so....i walked the dog directly after doing the dishes this evening.....1/2 mile around the circle.....i usually do not get the opportunity, but the usual dog-walker was having a drama-queen moment...not a full-fledged award-winning moment...but enough to divert her attentions to privacy in her room and away from the dog.....we learned today that she must meet her bus at 7:10 am at the place where the circle meets up with the main road.....which means she will have to get up at 6:30 am....well before her preferred time-frame.....ah well.....this should be an interesting school year.....
not for the squeamish....
ok, so.....i had bouts of both boiling over heat and chills last evening as i tossed and turned......which either means i in still hormonally fragile, or i have some dread disease like histoplasmosis or tuberculosis that feature night sweats as part of their destructive process.......somehow menopause doesn't sound so bad as compared to the alternative.....sadly, when i wake up either too hot or too cold, i have difficulty falling back to sleep as i run through all of the worries that i could worry about further rather than fall back asleep.....i have taken to chanting....in my head.....a mantra about how it will all be ok.......
Saturday, August 02, 2008
3 loads, before 2010
ok, so.....i hung three loads of laundry out to dry in the afternoon heat......in between bursts of trimming out dead stems and weeds from the planting beds..... and when it dawned on me that i would be late for the library...i quickly cleaned up and drove into town.....it was just before i turned into the interim library that i saw the van......with religious graffiti all over it...mostly about jesus coming very soon.....on top of the van was the three-sided placard that assured me that he would return before 2010.....that is less than 2 years from now.....which could either mean that i have wasted my time weeding my planting beds.....or worse.....washing my sheets and towels.....if the world were really coming to an end i suppose i would find better things to do with my time....alas....the world has been coming to an end for since the year 32 AD.....paul's letters are mostly about trying to roust the faithful to do more than lay about waiting for jesus to return.....just in case...i'll put it on my calendar.....luckily my phone calendar can be accessed to infinity....
lacking consistency....
ok, so...it has come to my attention that my avatars are now decidedly random across my many medias......this blog still has the rose stanwell perpetual, while my facebook picture has been updated to buddy, and my original cat-in-a-cape remains on our computer menu.....to be fair, none of the rest of my family members have changed their menu avatar........our flickr account has yellow's picture, which i shall leave untouched lest i hurt his feelings.....all well.....meanmamma's persona these days is all over the place.....
Friday, August 01, 2008
confirmation
ok, so....our eldest has emailed that he is safely in berlin, and that he can ship his large suitcase directly to his house-sitting location by dhl......this is good news.....as he really didn't want to drag a large case on a train journey....or take a detour to branau-am-inn to drop it off....for this mm.....these confirmations reduce my list if things to worry about....
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