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.

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...

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.

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.

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.....

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.

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?

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.

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....

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.....

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....

ok, so this from crooks and liars....

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....

ok, so my boy is no longer in venice, but this photo just arrived in my in-box.....ah, to be young and footloose....

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....