HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

Edwards Rally, October 29, 2004, Raleigh NC

Here are some images of the rally.

The line to get into the Edwards Rally.


The crowd inside the rally. 



Four More Days! Four More Days! 


The Rock Star. 


The other Rock Star. 


The next Vice President of the United States! 

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

"Hope is on the way!!!

Just back from the rally! what fun! I was on the floor close to the stage again, but not in much of a position to get decent pictures. It was however, way kewl. Jon Bon Jovie rocks even close up. Dude, it was cool. Yay Us! the arena was packed to the rafters, great turn out. Tomorrow, hopefully I'll have pixs to post.

FYI Edwards Rally Info

John Edwards Rally

WHEN: Friday, October 29
Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: J.S. Dorton Arena, North Carolina State Fairgrounds
Hillsborough Street at Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, North Carolina
DETAILS: Due to security, please do not bring any umbrellas, bags, or signs. Please limit personal items as well. Parking will be limited so carpooling is suggested.


John Kerry and John Edwards will stand up for the values that have always made America great: faith and family; strength and service; responsibility and opportunity for all. Join us at the rally and show that you share the Kerry-Edwards vision for an America stronger at home and respected in the world.

http://www.johnkerry.com/tickets

See you at the rally



reposting this as I checked my search phrase dealy through my hit counter and the top 100 phrases were all about rally info! Dayum.

Try, Try, Again

I tried to go vote. I left with every intention of voting. I even thought I knew where I was supposed to go. It stands to reason that something called “Pullin Arts Center” would be in Pullin Park, where everything else called “Pullin” is located. So I went to Pullin Park. I wasn’t the only one either. It wasn’t there. I went into a building, the Pullin Aqua Center, and a woman gave me instructions. None of it made sense to me, but I figured if I could find Pullin Road, I should be okay. I couldn’t find Pullin Road.

Part of the instructions I kind of got included reference to the Bell Tower on campus. This should have alerted me gave up and just vote on Tuesday. But No, I kept on. I had left early for lunch and I was going to carry through on my mission. It’s a really good thing there was an Arbys along the way to the Mission or I wouldn’t haven eaten lunch either. Anyway. Stopped, had lunch, read my book. I took a deep breath and pulled the car out into traffic and went back towards campus.

It’s a freaking rabbit warren. Why do they suggest non-students even go there? No one can find there way around a foreign campus and the people on the campus can’t give directions because they know where everything is and can’t understand why you don’t. Students give lousy directions

Me – How do I get to X place?

Student – Um.

Me – X Place?

Student – Go through the Poli-Sci building –

Me – How do I get there in my car?

Student – Oh, wow. Um. Okay. You know where the Blah Hall is?

Me – No.

Student – Oh. I guess just go down there (pointing) and turn, probably.

Well. All about the helpful.

I finally find a sign, finally and it actually seems to be pointing in a direction I can get to in my car. I see a parking lot! Hurrah! I might get to vote today after all. I have heard that this polling place is slightly less busy then some of the others. Some one at work said she and her husband got out lucky where they went. She said they were back to their car after “only” two hours. Damn. But she had heard that Pullin was not as busy. Anyway. Yeah, it’s busy. I knew I found the right building when I saw the line.

Time passes. I left work at four so I could skip the rush at five. I thought an hour earlier then everyone else I would just walk in…

4:12 - Arrive at site.
Get in end of a very long line number 1.
Get back into the new end of the line number 1 after remembering that I left coke and cookies for long wait in car. (Helpful election worker cheerfully announces it’s a 2 hour wait from here)
Wait in line
Read book
Listen to cell phone calls around me
Wait in line
Read more of book
Wait in line
Finish book.
In building!
Read list of classes offered at “arts center”.
Wonder why this is called “arts center” when it is really a rec center
Wish had worn sneakers.
Arrive at front of line number 2.
Arrive at front of line number 3
I am voter number 4758!
5:45 – Back to car.

Did you know that there are other races being voted on this year? Like bond issues and Governors?

Proof, Damn it

The 380 Tons of Explosives were still there

link via Atrios, from KSTP News.

What is pissing Diana off today?

Thus far? Blogspot is pissing me off. I can’t post, the page won’t load and it’s doing something weird to my hit counter. Pissing me off. The rest of you don’t obsessively watch the hits, because you have lives, but I do obsessively watch the hits and I have no life so it’s important to me. It’s over 10,000 now and I am very excited. Blogspot however does not care about my self esteem issues and is trying very hard to make sure that no on can read the site and then hit counter is doing its damndist to not keep track of the few people who can get through.

I go to the Blogger help site on yahoo and its post after post of “Blogger is fucked up, is it just me?” posts, obviously it is not just me, or them, but still. One poster was wringing her hands because she couldn’t read Atrios. I feel her pain, but I’m more concerned with not being able to read me. It’s causing me stress. I had six hits all morning and I think that three of those were me and the hit counter is supposed to ignore me. Arrrgghhh.

What else is pissing me off? My new ergonomic keyboard is pissing me off. I can’t find anything and it makes typing slower – and I don’t really type. It’s a fast version of hunt and peck. The only thing I can type with out looking is my name and the sites addy. I am so next wave. I mistype something and go back to try to fix it but the right letter isn’t where its supposed to be and I end up trying three or four times to correct it and by that time I’ve lost my train of thought. Arrrrgggggg.

I also hate the printer. It won’t talk to the computer and won’t print anything I’ve asked it to. It remembers whatever it is, in the Job List regardless of how not work related the print orders may be, so they hang out there being all obviously not work related. Hateful. Arrrggggg.

My favorite used DVD store still does not have F911 in stock. Those discount liars. It was supposed to be in by the end of the first week it hit the shelves, but it is still not there. I don’t think Michael Moore wants me to buy his movie from Blockbuster. Moore wants me to buy it from some whole grain free range, free trade, union positive, lesbian bookstore - video co-op, but since they charge too much – Why I always wonder. They certainly don’t put money into keeping those places clean and everyone is volunteer labor, why do they feel comfortable charging so damn much for so damn little? That bugs. I’ll shop more frequently at those places when they stop being so damn precious about themselves and get over the whole “Shopping Here is a Political Statement” nonsense,. Okay, if its statement and my purchases are essentially donations, I want a tax break for spending money there. Shave your pits, ladies and while you’re at it, buy a new Indigo Girls cd. Arrrgggghhhh.

I go to Lunch Buddy’s office to vent at her about my huge, deeply important, emotionally draining computer issues and she tells me that our friend across the hall had to leave suddenly because her doctor called and wants her to have a biopsy, like now. Yeah. Arrrrgghhhh.

They said if I wanted to contact them...


Dear Pro-life Voters Guide,

Thank you for making it so easy for me to know who NOT to vote for."Pro-Life, Pro-Life,Pro-Life". Pro War!, Pro death to Iraqi babies!, Pro-Death to Iraqi children! Pro-Death to Our Troops!, some of them but children.

The slate you promote is Pro-War, Pro-Poverty!, Pro-injustice!, Pro-Death Penality Pro-Bigotry!, and Pro-Ignorance! . This Administrations' war is the ultimate affront to our Catholic faith and Christian teaching in general and I am horrified that you would in any way support it, and would go on to suggest others do as well! Knowing that this corrupt administration and its followers in Washington are the greatest threat to life as we know it.

I am shocked that you would give your support to these monsters and their rein of terror and violence. They are criminals and they don't support the Church they don't even really like Catholics. All they support is their own power and greed and all they are interested in is keeping it and getting more.

How dare you suggest that these "people" and I use that term with difficulty should be our voices. You disgust me. The bishops have made it clear that we are to vote for justice and equality and peace and the "suggested" candidates do not support any of these ideals or anything else that Jesus taught us. Pull your head out of the sand and vote like you respect life, cherish freedom and love our country. I pray for you. Never, and I mean NEVER send me filth like this again. God gave you a mind, use it! I pray for you.

Diana - I vote Pro-Life Too.

So, ya think they're going to pray for me too?

I can't turn down a quiz

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

except for the whole not I'm not a male or pundit - y in nature and I think that just about everyone surpasses me and while I appreciate the hell out of myself, I don't think the "many" part is right either. Oh well, I love a good quiz.

stolen from Blown Fuse

Call Designer's Challange stat!

… in the first sweeping rethink of the Lincoln Bedroom in at least three decades, the timid lemon walls, celery-green curtains and pale floral carpet are being banished in favor of a blast of Victorian bliss.
Heady hues of emerald green, golden yellow and deep purple will carpet the floor, drape the windows and envelop the massive, six-foot-tall carved headboard. Walls will be papered in a restrained palette of cream tones -- a nod to contemporary tastes -- but the pattern has been derived from the Victorian Age. Two elaborate cornices such as might have topped windows in Lincoln's day have been carved and sent to the gilders. An opulent white marble mantel was commissioned to better complement a rococo-style mirror installed last summer. The pièce de résistance, both decoratively and symbolically, will be a carved bed canopy in the shape of a crown. It too has been sent for gilding. When affixed to the ceiling, the crown will support yards of regal purple satin over white lace, both trailing to the floor

Gilding?! Laura Bush, no soul or taste.

From The Washington Post

I have but one vote to give for my country

U.S Gave U.K invasion dates 5 months prior to start of war diplomacy was never an option.

from The Raw Story

Deep Breaths

It’s getting very close now. I think I’m going to go vote today. I have my voter’s registration and I’m good to go. Am I the only one who carries their voter’s reg with them all the time? It’s always in my wallet. I was talking to Lunch Buddy today about going and early voting while we still can and she said she doesn’t even know where her registration is. I was open mouthed at this. “What do you mean you don’t know where it is? how do you vote?” She answered that they never ask for it. Where has she been voting? I’m always asked for it when I vote.

Lunch Buddy also said that long lines at the poll would deter her from voting. A she votes for the wrong team, I didn’t work too hard to talk her out of that idea. She also reads Drudge, so she isn’t really a part of the Reality Based Community. I was going to say nasty things about Drudge but she may only read there for his occasional entertainment news. I read Drudge for that, years ago, before he drank the Kool Aid and lost his mind. Whatever. She probably reads it for his political content. Deep Breaths.

Another one of the people I work with came out of the Dem closet to me. She saw the magnet on my car and pulled me aside to whisper her encouragement. The other Dem here found me in the hall on Monday and reported he had voted on Friday and it “Felt Sooooo Goood!” this is a guy who ordered the neato keen KE04 magnets for his whole family and then had to order a few more when those got either stolen or defaced by Rove-ing GOP brownshirts. Little by little we won’t have to talk in whispers about who we back.

Have you noticed that the 380 tons of missing ammo has been spun out to the outer reaches in just one day? “It was gone when we got here”. Okay. No It wasn’t, that’s not true, but the “liberal media” only speaks to conservatives so they can you know, appear more “neutral”. Damage is all ready done though, the original story made such a huge splash that even the admins whirling dervishes can’t spin it away entirely. Last night on my dog walk with three or four of my neighbors called me over – they wanted to see who this white girl was and look at the Dogger up close. They were really, really nice. Great guys. We talked about the missing explosives – hugely outraged on that, they also had all seen F911 and could quote from it. The news of the 47 dead soldiers made them mad too, but I can’t say for sure they knew they were Iraqi and not U.S troops. Regardless, they are angry black men and they are tired of Bush and his war and the shitty economy and they are taking their anger to the polls.

We also talked about the neighborhood clean up, the problem with asshats using our neighborhood streets for drag strips and whether or not The Drug Dealer “respects” me or not. They were glad he did respect me, they know The Drug Dealer and they wish he lived in another neighborhood. I said something about not paying a lot of attention to him and his business, a way to maintain my plausible deniability if the cops ever come to my door. They told me not to deny anything to the cops, if I see something or know something, to tell the cops! ASAP. They want Drug Dealer out of their airspace, they don’t want to live in “da hood”, they want their neighborhood back. I told them I would be the first to call if I saw anything really objectionable. The first gun I see over there is the last gun I see over there. I have Tom Ridge on speed dial and I know Liddy Doles phone number. I take no prisoners.

We all agreed, Kerry is the Man, Bush Sucks and this is a nice place to live and we don’t care who lives here – as long as they mow their damn yard, don’t deal drugs and don’t drive like a crazy person.

I'm There!

John Edwards Rally

WHEN: Friday, October 29
Gates open at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: J.S. Dorton Arena, North Carolina State Fairgrounds
Hillsborough Street at Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, North Carolina
DETAILS: Due to security, please do not bring any umbrellas, bags, or signs. Please limit personal items as well. Parking will be limited so carpooling is suggested.


John Kerry and John Edwards will stand up for the values that have always made America great: faith and family; strength and service; responsibility and opportunity for all. Join us at the rally and show that you share the Kerry-Edwards vision for an America stronger at home and respected in the world.

http://www.johnkerry.com/tickets

See you at the rally,

What?

I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for this but

Network Maintenance for
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Has Been Delayed
The State Board of Elections had requested and received permission to postpone the Secure Server Farm firewall upgrade because of the upcoming elections. This maintenance will be rescheduled at a later date.

If you have questions please contact the ITS Customer Support Center.

I would think that with the upcoming election that the Board of Elections would want to have their firewalls upgraded. We don't have electronic voting here, but still...

Bush Flip Flops On Gay marriage

Says he "disagrees" with GOP platform on gay unions Flip Flopper! Flip. Flop. Gee, George, you were all hot to sign that amendment banning the whole idea and now, what? not so much? do you need Andrew Sullivan that much? Flip Flop Flip Flopper! Flip. Flop Flip Flop Flip Flopper! Flip. Flop



from The Raw Story

Fair and Balanced

Remember back in the day on TV if you had a speaker with one point of view that you also had to a speaker with the other point of view? It was called the Fairness doctrine and Ronald Reagan didn't like fairness, it was too fair and balanced ( see ?! there is that phrase again!) and it allowed alternate points of view to find a home on the airwaves and Raygun didn't like that. So, more or less, kind of, if you squint your eyes, if we had The Fairness Doctrine today we would not have FAUX News. Go here and sign a petition to get it back.

from Blondesense

“Hmm. That’s kind of scary; did she give a toddler a knife?”


I totally need a vacation. I was at lunch today enjoying my book, The Provincial Lady in London suck it! Bridget Jones! The provincial lady was whining about how hard it is to be rich and British decades before you did and she did it without bashing the reader about the head and neck with the phrase “mini-break” eleven thousand times or obsessing about her weight or using the very, very annoying “v”.

Anyway. I was at lunch enjoying myself. I started to think that maybe I had been enjoying myself for a long time – way past my lunch hour. I jumped up, refilled my drink and dumped my trash. I rushed out to my car and looked at my clock. I had only been gone for half an hour. My lunch was history and I would feel really stupid slinking back into the restaurant.

So.

Over the weekend I saw some really interesting pumpkins and I started to think that I wanted to do that to. Keeping in mind I have no fine motor skills and the last time I tried to carve a pumpkin we both ended up with jagged holes and spilled guts. It wasn’t pretty. I all ready have some pumpkins but they weren’t selected for there carvability, they were selected for their over all prettiness and display quality. Besides, I like those and I don’t want to hurt them by cutting into them – I spent hours poking through the pumpkin stands for those babies and I’m not going to brutalize them. I had to get some less lovely and more cutty pumpkins, I had to find some pumpkins I had not all ready named.

So. I had a half an hour and a $10 in cash. It was pumpkins or The Democrats and there didn’t seem to be any Democrats tabling at the Farmers Market so it was onward to the pumpkin bins. My first carver had to be house shaped. Not square but being wide enough and tall enough and having enough body to it that I can carve windows and a door into it and not end up with it collapsing, the other carver needed only a cool stem is going to be a more traditional scary face design but with a really cool stem nose. I thought that I was going to experiment with stencils for the scary face – that was before I went looking online for pumpkin stencils and came up with a big goose egg. There are plenty of them, but none that really turned me on. A lot of them are of scenes and I’m not looking for scenes, and then if they weren’t some complicated design they were the old stand bys and even I don’t need a template for eyes and mouth. I started looking at some more and these all thought I had a dremmel tool and that assuming I actually have one, which I don’t that I would use my expensive toy to carve pumpkins.

If I don’t have one or don’t want to ruin it carving pumpkins, I could they suggest, buy my very own Electric Pumpkin Carving Knife! Yeah, sadly no.

But, If I did purchase the fancy electric knife guaranteed to kill me in my sleep, I could carve my pumpkin into the image of my favorite Friend. I know that I can’t live another day with out Chandler Bings head on my front porch. Ew that says I’m scarier then the pumpkin... Moving on.

The pumpkin that is going to be the scary face all ready had a built in scary nose, I looked for a pumpkin with a suitably scary stem and found one that should look really cool, I think I found a design that I like that doesn’t look too difficult but, it will be me welding the knife, so it could turn out to be a lot lamer then the template indicates. I

Hee!

I'm sure you have either seen or have heard about BC04s newest attack ad? the one with wolves? "Elect us or your chillren will be set upon and eaten by wolves!" here is The Wolves rebuttle.

from Wonkette

George Bush, making the world a safer place ( for terrorists!)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."Administration officials said yesterday that the Iraq Survey Group, the C.I.A. task force that searched for unconventional weapons, has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the explosives. American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people.The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it. But the other components of an atom bomb - the design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk," one senior Bush administration official said.

I feel so much better now. I'm sure the people of Spain are glad to learn that we did such a good job at preventing the distruction and lose of life there. 380 tons of explosives is missing under George W. Bushs' watch. 380 tons of explosives that were under guard while NATO was there. We're not going to get rid of those wolves while Shrub keeps putting food out for them.

from The New York Times

link from Atrios

The grass is blue-er on the other side of the map

I drove to see my parents this weekend. By the time I got there I had repetitive motion disorder in my flipping finger. I’ve made it a habit to flip off any BC04 signage I run across in my travels. I’m very brave when it comes to expressing displeasure when it comes to expressing at things that can not express displeasure back.

Here, in my county, despite its ingrained redneckery, there are more KE04 signs then BC04 signs. Most cars you see with political stickers on them are KE04 stickers. There are BC04 things around, but not as many. I have not seen a single giant BC04 sign in this county. On the way down east I saw many, many “Ignert Redneck County is BC04 Country!” signs. It made me sad, it also led to a finger cramp.

I did see a few KE04 signs in my parents town. A few, there are a lot of transplants there and they brought some of their sense with them. But that doesn’t make up for the horror of all those signs. I don’t understand why you would want to support a Mussolini/Stalin ticket.

How is this going to help the poor Shlub with the sign in his yard?

The trains will run on time but the Shlub won’t be able to afford to ride them. Two years ago Mussolini/Stalin made it okay for his boss’s boss boss to move Shlubs job to Tijuana - but that’s okay with Shlub because Mussolini/Stalin are Khristins, and as such, Mussolini/Stalin can get away with a lot of things that would make Shlub mad if Mussolini/Stalin wern’t such a good Khristin and trying so hard to make all those Libruls come back to the Lord and turn their back on all that Baby Killing and Homosexual Agenda-ing that is causing all the boys to turn gay and want to marry each other and Mussolini/Stalin has told him that this is making Shlubs marriage somehow less valuable on the open market. What if his neighbor starts lookin’ at him that way? What if Shlub is gay? Shlub thinks that Mussolini/Stalin has said if they let the gays marry it will make Shlub gay too and Slub doesn’t want that.


Mussolini/Stalin also thinks that those edumacated people are bad and that edumacation is not something that Shlub needs or that his children should have. Mussolini/Stalin makes it okay for Shlubs kids to be just as ignert as their Daddy because you don’t want the young’ins to get all smart and grow up with thoughts of a different life and maybe not even wanting! to be like Shlub. He just wanted to be just like his Daddy and he is! and being just like him and just like his Daddy should be good enough for Shlubs kids.

Mussolini/Stalin agrees with Shlub that learn’n makes you ask questions and makes you think too much about things you don’t need to be thinking about. And that thinking leads to questions and that might lead to questioning the bible! and no good Khristin questions the bible. Learn’in leads to devil worship and Librulism and Democrats in office and thats really bad, Mussolini/Stalin told him so.


Anyway. I’m driving home and my flipping finger all recramped again and its making me depressed and I drive into my block : a veritale thicket of “Dump Bush, Vote Nov. 2" signs greeted me. I’ve never been so happy to be home in my life.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

We Shall Overcome.

the Republicans are evil

Election officials said they had never seen so large a drive to prepare for Election Day challenges. They said they were scrambling yesterday to be ready for disruptions in the voting process as well as alarm and complaints among voters. Some officials said they worried that the challenges could discourage or even frighten others waiting to vote.

Ohio Democrats were struggling to match the Republicans' move, which had been rumored for weeks. Both parties had until 4 p.m. to register people they had recruited to monitor the election. Republicans said they had enlisted 3,600 by the deadline, many in heavily Democratic urban neighborhoods of Cleveland, Dayton and other cities. Each recruit was to be paid $100. (Paid Thugs!)

The Democrats, who tend to benefit more than Republicans from large turnouts, said they had registered more than 2,000 recruits to try to protect legitimate voters rather than weed out ineligible ones.

Republican officials said they had no intention of disrupting voting but were concerned about the possibility of fraud involving thousands of newly registered Democrats.

"The organized left's efforts to, quote unquote, register voters - I call them ringers - have created these problems," said James P. Trakas, a Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County. (How dare they register blacks! )

Ohio election officials said that by state law, the parties' challengers would have to show "reasonable" justification for doubting the qualifications of a voter before asking a poll worker to question that person. And, the officials said, challenges could be made on four main grounds: whether the voter is a citizen, is at least 18, is a resident of the county and has lived in Ohio for the previous 30 days.

Elections officials in Ohio said they hoped the criteria would minimize the potential for disruption. But Democrats worry that the challenges will inevitably delay the process and frustrate the voters.

"Our concern is Republicans will be challenging in large numbers for the purpose of slowing down voting, because challenging takes a long time,'' said David Sullivan, the voter protection coordinator for the national Democratic Party in Ohio. "And creating long lines causes our people to leave without voting.''

The Republican challenges in Ohio have already begun. Yesterday, party officials submitted a list of about 35,000 registered voters whose mailing addresses, the Republicans said, were questionable. After registering, they said, each of the voters was mailed a notice, and in each case the notice was returned to election officials as undeliverable.

In Cuyahoga County alone, which includes the heavily Democratic neighborhoods of Cleveland, the Republican Party submitted more than 14,000 names of voters for county election officials to scrutinize for possible irregularities. The party said it had registered more than 1,400 people to challenge voters in that county.

Among the main swing states, only Ohio, Florida and Missouri require the parties to register poll watchers before Election Day; elsewhere, party observers can register on the day itself. In several states officials have alerted poll workers to expect a heightened interest by the parties in challenging voters. In some cases, poll workers, many of them elderly, have been given training to deal with any abusive challenging.

Mr. Trakas, the Republican co-chairman in Cuyahoga County, said the recruits would be equipped with lists of voters who the party suspects are not county residents or otherwise qualified to vote.

or are black...

from The New York Times

Do not let anybody scare you away from the polls. Not some moron with a clipboard, not some asshole in a tie, no asshole moron with a tie holding a clipboard. If anybody tries to stop you from voteing, start screaming and don't stop until you cast your vote.

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

FYI

Jon Stewart will be on 60 Minutes this weekend. Check local listings.

I’m all official now. I went and got my picture taken and when I came back from lunch my I.D tag was waiting on my desk. Yay.

It doesn’t even do anything. It’s not a pass key and it’s not scannable. They could have saved the money and just issued us all our own packet of “Hi My Name Is” stickers. The badge sports a lovely red stripe down one side that reads EMPLOYEE. I hope now that we all have to wear badges that maybe they will start making the inmates/residents/clients wear them too. It may make it easier to catch them when they try to run away. It would at least be a start – Hey, keep a look out for a guy with badge with a yellow stripe on it!

Now that I am officially have proof that I work here, I can try to use it to score the many, many benefits that made me join the State Employee Something, something when I got hired. For a mere $4 a month I am eligible for all kinds of freebies. So far, I am pretty sure I can ride the city busses for free. If they went anywhere that I wanted to go.

I did actually get some stuff done around the house yesterday. I hung up about thirty seven jackets I managed to wear over the last week. It hasn’t felt jacket-y but maybe I have taken to Sleep Jacket-ing. I also replaced a burnt out bulb in an entry way and dealt with the clean dishes, for my big finish I replaced the blanket in the duvet cover with an actual comforter. That was a bitch. I’m going to have to move upstairs soon I think. Kitty will be happy. There is no end to how much he wants to cuddle while I’m on the bed watching TV up there. He’ll even let me touch him! But downstairs, he sleeps at the bottom of the bed as far away from me as he can get – unless he thinks he needs to sleep on my face.

This morning he really made me mad. I was asleep. He was not, he was knocking things over I couldn’t identify and he was somewhere I couldn’t picture. He made me wake up. I got up, found him and prepared to put him in his box. The little monster got away and I went back to bed. I had just found the one true place to sleep on the mattress. I could feel my chakras relaxing, I think one of my legs got longer, my spine was glowing, and it was beautiful. I was laying there thinking “I could just stay right here. I could live here just like this forever. I’m kind of glad I’m awake enough to appreciate this”. So of course Kitty has to decide that this would be an ideal time to sleep on my face.

I hope Kitty remembers how nice it was for him to smother me. He’s going to be all by his Kitty self this weekend. Dogger won’t even be there. I think at first he’s going to find his bowl is really, really full of food and he’ll get all excited and bust out his kitty smoking jacket and listen to his special Cat Stevens/Stray Cats mix tape. Then he’s going to want to look out the window and he might notice there is no one there to lift him up to the window sill and he will get sad. Then he’ll do a little kitty dance of joy when he figures out again that his is alone on the house and he’ll be all “She’s gone! The dog is gone! Woo-hoo!!!” and he’ll jump around and he’ll start to think that his food has been there for a while and he really wants to go to the basement to play with his bugs but he can’t open the door himself and he’ll get sad and then he’ll find his lovey and do whatever he does to it when I’m not there to watch and by that time I’ll be back and Dogger will be back and Kitty will get all sad again.

Insert pun here


Did you see that Wal-Mart banned America – The Book? Because there are Nakid People in it! A whole page of naked elderly people. I’m shocked. They will continue to sell it online though, “different” customers they said. “Smarter Customers”, I say. People who want to pretend they are boycotting Wal-Mart if they don’t actually walk through the doors, people.

I think Wal-Mart what spooked them is that they are afraid that one of their many nonreading customers are going to pick up the book because it has a flag on it – because about half the books and almost everything else up to and including boxes of tampons that Wal-Mart sells, have some version of the flag displayed prominently on it - and some hapless nonreading Wal-Marter is going to innocently open the book and after flipping through it looking for naked people is going to see the naked body of an elderly nakid person and suddenly lose their mind! or start to question God or vote Democratic or start to shop at Whole Foods or some commie co-op instead, it might even turn them gay! And not like Mary Cheney gay, like Richard Simmons gay! You never know what might turn and impressionable young mind to liberalism and secular humanism and against neo-conservatism and bigotry. You can’t get the humor of the paper doll aspect of the naked people if you can’t read - so the books had to go.

I think that is something Wal-Mart should highlight about itself, “YouDon’t Have to Be Able to Read to Shop Here”. Most of the people I see at Wal-Mart don’t really look like readers anyway. There always seems to be a lot of people standing around looking at shiny things and being all impressed by table lamps – show them a clapper and those people will clap for hours. Show them a lamp with NSACAR and a clapper on it and they’ll haul over some sleeping bags from Sporting Goods and just clap at it all night long. Later on they’ll tell stories about how Junior got tricked by the librul media into cussing on the air and how some Communist Democrat infiltrator at NASCAR took his points away as a result. But they wouldn’t use “result” they would smack some rocks together and make guttural noises, but it would mean the same thing.

I wonder how Bill O’Reillys children’s book is doing at Wal-Mart? It would be nice to see more lefty titles on the shelves there though, as I reported a while ago they have just a handful of non-picture, non-Opra, non-Thomas Kincaid, non- rightwing books there at all and it would be nice to see ATB at Wal-mart. I did not see the title at Sam’s Club when I was there last. Michael Moore for some reason is all over both stores, I thought the right hated Michael Moore and yet I saw titles of his I didn’t know about. In the interest of total disclosure, I didn’t care for Stupid White Men and haven’t read any of his subsequent work. He doesn’t seem as preachy in his movies then he does in his books, most likely because he has a supporting cast around to blunt his screeds. In his books, it’s all him, all the time. His books come off more like tracts then a works of literature – but most lefty lit is preachy because its working so hard to preach to the choir it can hardly contain itself. PJ O’Rourke is a conservative but I have always enjoyed the majority of his stuff. He does what Moore so far has not been able to do believably, he hates everyone equally.

Don’t you think that maybe the whole celebrity children’s book thing is kind of jumped the shark now? I mean, Bill O’Reilly? Come on! Comparatively Madonna’s next Kabballah looks a whole lot less self serving now doesn’t it? Maybe Marilyn Manson should come put with a title about some freak in eyeliner with breast implants and a band and a dream...

Well!

Karen Hughes said that Pat Robertson is out of his dayum mind and is a great big old liar to quote Dear Leader like he did! that will go over real well with The Base. You think The Libruls didn't take to Rather getting besmirtched... you don't call the host of The 700 a liar! Gawd speaks to Pat Robertson! are you saying Gawd is a liar?

link from Atrios

Education is good

Did your representive in DC take money from Tom Delay? find out if you are represented by Republicans, they sure did. Check the list and put their feet to the fire.

Getting Schooled

Blondesense brings us today's lesson on fascism I especially recommend following the link to the 14 signs of fascism or 14 GOP talking points, whatever. It's a long post, but a great read.

Preach On Preacher

Who would have ever thought that Pat Robertson wasn't a total moron? Even he thought the war in Iraq was not a good idea! He even knew that there would be casualties, Bush told him there would be no casualties. Is that why Shrub won't honor them?

Because in his mind they don't exist? or is it because they cause him to waiver? he said they were not going to die and then they did die, does he cause him to doubt? Is he angry at them? Does it make him think he may have been wrong? That perhaps what he did was a mistake?

Does he think that if he hides them from the cameras he won't have to see them and neither will we. He makes them invisible, hides them, shunts them away. who does he think he is hiding them from?

We Shall Overcome...

We won this battle, to a point. Its time to win the war.

Work, work, work

I actually spent the whole weekend enjoying myself and now have a laundry list of things I should have been doing but have so far put off. I’m very lazy.

This weekend I should have mowed the yard, cleaned off the dining room table, put my clean laundry away, properly segregated the dirty laundry from the various articles of still clean yet worn but not yet really dirty clothing to save them from becoming the dirty laundry, done something about the state of the office, brought out the winter comforter for the bedroom and put it into the existing comforter cover downstairs, started to think about the bedding for the bedroom upstairs and replanted the bedding plants I bought two weeks ago, walked the dog more, cleaned up the back yard, swept the basement and replaced the burned out bulb in the entry way. I could also have cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed a flat surface, pick a flat surface, any flat surface – they all need it. But I didn’t. I suck.

What I did get done. Canvassed, emptied and filled the dishwasher, washed everything I wore to work on Friday – I take back everything I ever said about Dogger and the Nephdogs – they don’t stink. Compared to the dog I spent time with Friday, Dogger and the Nephdogs are large, fur covered roses. The dog I hung around with was so odoriferous and nasty; I had to wash the clothes I wore to work as soon as I walked in the door. I couldn’t stand being in the same room with myself. I wonder if I offered the stinky dog owner a Free Dog Wash coupon if that would be considered offensive? Stinky, stinky, stinky. Maybe if I gave them some dog biscuits with one hand and the coupon in the other? The animal was rank.

I also went over the Broskey and Alphagals and watched them work. In my downtime not spent canvassing or watching other people work I found time to fret over the new garbage silo the city delivered; along with the new garbage silo comes a new trash and recycleing schedule and its upsetting. Instead of Sunday night being when all that gets taken care of, I’m going to have to remember to do all that Thursday night! That is totally going to mess up my schedule. And now I’m going to have to find a place for the garbage silo. It’s huge and the place I think its’going to live is currently home to the hose and I’m still using the hose and I don’t want to have to unhook it and move it and now I’m all obsessing on the trash and when to take it out and the recycling and how the change is totally messing me up. I got nothing done over the weekend because the stress of the garbage silo made me too tired to tidy.

I fell asleep in front of the television again. Thus far, television drama has been falling behind. I should not be sleeping; I should be in rapt attention! The excitement should be keeping me awake! I should be totally involved with the plots not falling asleep to them. Maybe the networks should turn the sound up toward the end of the episodes? Its’ supposed to get all dramatic and noisy the last fifteen minutes or so and lately the last fifteen minutes is what’s been putting me to sleep. I can understand CSI Miami because, CBS? Hello? But Law and Order – CI? It usually involves at least some door slamming if not actual perp slamming. Very sad. It’s not me, its them - Mystery Mondays on BBCAmerica doesn’t put me to sleep, if only because I can’t always understand what they are saying. The networks should invest in a John Hannah or someone else with a nice, impenetrable accent to keep me challenged or at least awake past the third commercial break.

Shocking.

Surprise...


link from LA Times registration required.

Point of story

According to the intelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, release of the report, which represents an exhaustive 17-month investigation by an 11-member team within the agency, has been "stalled." First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was appointed CIA chief by President Bush.

The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than the earlier bipartisan reports produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. 11 commission and Congress.

"What all the other reports on 9/11 did not do is point the finger at individuals, and give the how and what of their responsibility. This report does that," said the intelligence official. "The report found very senior-level officials responsible."

By law, the only legitimate reason the CIA director has for holding back such a report is national security. Yet neither Goss nor McLaughlin has invoked national security as an explanation for not delivering the report to Congress.

from The Daily Kos

Dick Cheney is out of his mind

Apparently, Dick Cheney and the "armies of compassion" are going to drop nukes on us if we elect Kerry.

link from Atrios

Whatever

"While a few low-level troops involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal are being prosecuted, the military is praising and rewarding generals and corporations in charge of people directly implicated in the heinous crimes"

go here for the whole story.

"Okay, this very bad thing happened on your watch and since you were such a bad supervisor, and showed a total lack of discipline, exercised extremely poor decision making and subpar leadership skills we're going to make an example of you by viciously promoting you!"



link from The Raw Story

A Ha!

The Right has had the outrage franchise for too long! its about time the left finds its voice and does more then whine to the choir after each new rethug outrage. Go here to see the Left finally waking up and roaring. I'm so proud of us for not letting Sinclair get away scot free.

link from Atrios

Change of Plan

The canvas went much better this weekend. My partner and I actually talked to people, and those people were uniformly voting our way. It was such a relive. It gets very demoralizing to get up on Saturday morning and get myself together to go out and do it when there isn’t anyone there. I am beginning to see why in catastrophes they will hide live “victims” in the rubble so the rescue dogs can find a live one once in a while.

You hit door after door after door and there is either no one there or they just don’t bother to answer the door. The TV is going, the dog is barking and they just don’t answer the door. If you don’t think the person on the other side of the door can’t tell that you crept up to look out the peep hole and then crept away? They can, believe me. You aren’t fooling anybody. I’m beginning to see why some people can’t catch a break. Opportunity knocks and they won’t come to the door.

I’ve dreamed of standing in front of those doors and saying We’re not cops, or social workers or a Mormons, we’re not here to sell you anything, or hand you a summons. We’re Democrats and we come in peace, damn it! ANSWER YOUR DAMN DOOR!

My partner broke from tradition by speaking to every person he saw. Men included. This is not part of our instructions. Our instructions are clear. We are there to speak to female lackadaisical voters only, the female lackadaisical voter on our list specifically, only. Not her husband or her Mother or her roommate’s boyfriend or her 18 year old kid. We want Joan Blow and just Joan Blow. If you are of voting age and you are in her house, you don’t count. This makes for depressing visits. If there is a random person of voting age wandering about, we do not approach them. We have a list! We have codes! We have 40 doors to knock on!

Partner said to hell with this and spoke to everyone. It was so freeing! It actually felt like we were doing something. We also found people at home. This doesn’t happen. These same people had been canvassed by phone and had been told about the ballot but didn’t know what it looked like. They were happy! to see us. They wanted to talk to us.

No one is ever at home and if they are at home they aren’t happy to see us and they don’t want talk to us. This was my fourth weekend out knocking on doors and I think I’ve talked to maybe, 18 actual voter’s total. Out of probably a hounded and seventy doors. It was getting very depressing.

Now that I know that the sky isn’t going to fall if I talk to some one off the list, it may not be as depressing as it has been. It also helped that everyone we talked to were democrats. They were all democrats because shock and amazement we were in an actual black neighborhood, with actual black voters. Black voters that had been paid attention to and made to feel wanted! Black votes who are going to vote. I noticed that in my black neighborhood that there was no literature dropped off. The only “literature” that I can see around is stuck to the light poles and advertises a “Voters Rights March” and registration (registration ended October 8!) on October 22, brought to you by VOTE OUT THE ENEMIES, but written like a crossword puzzel, hard to read until you look at it for a while. Wow. How. "Street".

I think the democrats have decided to let P.Diddy handle the canvassing chores in my neighborhood. I am assuming that he will go with an “urban” style canvass for my neighborhood. It will consist of guys standing on the corners flashing Kerry/Edwards gang signs at the traffic and keeping track of how many cars shoot at them , i.e. “not voting KE04” at them verses honk at them, i.e. “Yes, voting KE04”. Maybe they’ll have some hootchies out there with the ballot photo copied on to their thongs to show passersby the locations of the races and who the dem candidates are.

Sinclair drops like a rock

Go here to see it in all its chart-y goodness. A letter here, a letter there, a phone call here a phone call there and everywhere an email! - that is what made that fall possible.

Something pisses you off? Complain, complain, complain!

Arrggghhh!

Quick, go correct this poll!

Why does the Government hate returned vets?

...Because for them the phrase Support The Troops is just something on a bumpersticker. The neocons and Bushit say "We only support the troops still in the desert, its about the active duty troops. We only support them that make for good photo ops. After they serve, they just go away right?..." Shrub hates our troops. I think the next time he plays dress up with the troops he should wear scrubs and hang out at Walter Reed. He could drive himself there in an ambulance! He could stand in front of a banner that reads "Mission Amputated".

from ABCnews.com

Well, finally

Supremes know why the caged Democrat sings

from CNN.Com

The Worlds Largest County Fair

I went to the fair again. I know better. It’s a sorry State Fair. I looked for the farm animals and only found rabbits, a single goat and a handful of depressed cows. I looked for farm implements and found only a couple of scrawny old fashioned plows. I looked for the Automobile show and they don’t have one. I looked for the crafts and they were crap, I looked for free stuff and all I found were Bush/Cheney stickers - you couldn’t find a decent squeegee! or a new and improved orange juicer , or miracle pots And no one was handing out free fudge. No animals, no cars, no crafts, no free stuff and they don’t even have a decent Ferris wheel.

There isn’t even a decent freak show, unless you count the freaks in line for the fried twinkies and even they aren’t all that freaky. Here, wearing a mullet isn’t the I’m A Freak Give Away that it might be elsewhere. I want to see people cashing in what they have. I want little people in giant chairs! I want Thyroid cases in small suits! Showing me an average sized South American Forrest beasty and passing it off as a Giant Rat... although, this year they won points for displaying the “giant rat” in a dumpster - is still not good enough. I want to see a rat that would scare a New Yorker.

But it’s the State Fair and I can’t help it! The fair starts and I have to go be with it. I need to go be in the crowd, I need to hear it and be a part of it. I want to be a part of them.

But I’m not. I’m not one of them. I don’t ride the rides, eat the food or play the games. I bring nothing with me and I take nothing back. My life is complete with out a stuffed fish or a life sized blow up Spiderman. I do not need to shoot air guns at balloons to feel free. But I have to go. I need to be part of the swirl.

I said there are no freaks at this fair. There are, sort of. I saw signs for the World Biggest Alligator and the Worlds Biggest Rat. I saw signs for the Worlds Smallest Horse and the Worlds Smallest Woman. There was also a Snake Woman who they said had an “amazing” story - the amazing story of thalidomide, I suspect.


There was a lot of food at the fair. Fried food. Nothing smelled good, there wasn’t anything that smelled Fair enough o make me stand in line. I didn’t have to eat any of it to smell of it, I’m not going to be able to wash it out of my clothes and my hair reeks of fried smoke.

No one tried to sell me an Emu or an Emu farm or attempt to convert me to eating a diet rich in Emu. There wasn’t a soul there trying to talk me into become deeply involved in farming sponges either. What kind of State Fair do we have here?

I miss the State Fair of Texas.

The only good thing about this bloated county fair is that I can go at night. I love the fair at night. The 1/12 carrot diamel transforms into genuine jewel when the sun goes down and the lights turn on. Its like Las Vegas with out the expense or the travel or the show girls. Its what it must be like to be inside a Christmas tree. Everything becomes real, the music makes sense, the carnys become exotic, there are treasures in the trash. Its bright, its shiny and even the least interesting , least attractive duck race is transformed into NASCAR by the lights. I bet even the depressed cows are less sad at night.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

Did you catch Jon Stewart on Cross Fire? yeah, I didn't either, but through the miracle of modern linkage, you can watch him eviscerate the hosts at your leisure.

link from Ifilm.com

If you are having a hard time with the link to the video, here is a link to the written transcript

link from cnn.com

Don't be afraid, be very afraid

Lock up your boy children stow your daughters in the cubbard we may have found another country to hate on. Try to think how many ways you can say " Starting The Draft" with out useing the word "Draft". Leave them in the comments and we can all play. I love word games. And before you say "but they just voted that they won't do that!" ask yourself how many times and in how many ways the GOP has lied to you.

link from America Blog

Fellowship of Conservative Cronies

FCC to let Sinclair stump for Bush

from CNN.com

TGIF

Yay! It’s Friday. I’m exhausted and I think I’m getting sick! Yay for being sick on the weekend. I can’t wait. I’m hoping I’m just really susceptible to suggestion. There are people at work who are out sick and I think I’ve got sympathy flu. I did get a shot and I would hate to be one of the few people to actually get one and have it not work. That would be sad and ironic and not on purpose either like FAUX news.

I don’t feel bad enough not to go canvassing this weekend but I would rather do my own neighborhood instead of where ever they’ll send me this time. It’s not like my actual precinct has gotten touch with me or anything, you know, like I asked them to. I even tattled on my precinct chair to another precinct chair and had that guy shake my precinct guys cage for me . Still nothing. It’s not like my neighborhood isn’t overwhelmingly democrat, and its not like they vote or anything. They need to have a little attention paid to them and they will go to the polls.

Failing anyone from KE04 visiting the neighborhood, I walked Dogger twice so far in my KE04 shirt. I hope that people see it and remember to vote, I mean if they’re looking at my chest, it could at least be for the betterment of mankind. I don’t mind. I’ll sacrifice my dignity.

I watched the last debate. I knew who I was going to vote for for about the last eighteen months or so – so the debates weren’t really going to affect my choice. I mean if Kerry had walked out dressed as the Grand Dragon, I would assume a Karl Rove trick and still voted for him. I think he would probably have to tear the heads off toddlers and make bon fires of puppies before I would change my vote and then I would vote for my dog before I voted for Shrub. Why were they dressed in a uniform last night? Was it some Skull and Bones thing? It looked funny on TV.

Dogger didn’t get her bath last night. It was raining. I know that isn’t a reason not to bath my dog, but I just couldn’t do it. I thought about it, I even thought about taking her bedding up and washing those, but then I got into trying to keep track of who advertises on my local Sinclair stations and having to watch Smallville even on mute – really sucked the desire to do anything right out of me. Is that show always that dumb? I feel sorry fort the actors on WB and UPN. Its not like people watch those shows, I know there are fans out there, but not enough. Those actors have to start all over again after they leave those shows. No one knows who they are – except for a handful of teenage girls and they are a notoriously fickle lot. Once the handsome boys stop looking like boys and start to look like men the little girls have moved on and all they have on their resume’ is Beverly Hills Superman Slayer.

Have you heard from any of the BTVS or ATS people? Not a whole lot. They have popped up here and there - on other WB shows, but that’s hardly working really. I guess its better then doing tampex commercials or Infomercials but really, not by much. I would think that playing an “evil” version of your old character isn’t really a step in the right direction career wise. Playing that same character “evil” on Charmed? Might as well give up and shill for Tampax.

Sucks to be a federal employee

Sure they get more days off then the rest of us, but at least Shrub isn't molesting our pension funds . I hope his hand gets stuck in the cookie jar. Do you have any idea how high the ceiling is on the deficit? How much we owe?

The Congressional Budget Office said last week the deficit likely was $415 billion in fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30. That exceeded last year's $374 billion shortfall, the previous record in dollar terms.

Great. Lets see we've got out of control debt, religious zealots in charge... What else? Now all we need is one good epidemic and we'll be one step closer to achieving Third World County status. Thanks Shrub!

link from Atrios

At last!


Whew. I’ve been working like a puppy for the past couple of days and I really don’t like the precedent its setting. I mean, dayum. Working at work? that’s just wrong. As much as I have liked getting so much done, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I even cleaned the top of my desk and changed the month on my desk calendar – for the first time since last February. This is an improvement over last year when I never bothered with a new calendar at all, the calendar spent the year wrapped up next to my desk gathering dust and warping. I also tidied up and rearranged my Happy Meal Toys.

I’m glad they finally remembered I’m back here. I had to go and whimper at them before they finally “came all the way back here” to fix my computer. It had only been sitting here for two days, broken. While the guy was here I got a phone call from some woman who called me yesterday when I had no computer – I told her then I would call her when I got my machine back and here she was calling again. Now that I have my machine back, I think I’ll call her tomorrow. Beware the wraith of the burocrat.

The new machines are very groovy. I have a flat panel screen and a whiz bang new mouse – I’ll never have to clean out little dusty mouse turds again! Its so nice being in the 21st century! The old computers were barely 20th century - the operating “system” was consisted of two Amish guys and a thirty year old copy of The Farmers Almanac.- the computer didn’t work real well, but I did score some lovely wooden office furniture.

We have all these new screen savers and wallpapers and games! I’ve changed my wallpaper three times today alone. I hadn’t changed the wallpaper on the other machine in three years. The new screensavers are cool too. It has a setting where it will scroll through all the pictures you have downloaded. That was interesting. Then I had a beach scene and now I have tulips.

I also had to “get comfortable” with the new and improved browser, in real life I had to recreate my bookmarks. I think I have most of them back and the few I can’t remember what they were, I probably don’t need anyway. The bookmark situation was getting a little out of hand. It was kind of embarrassing, so now I have only three files and hardly any bookmarks, comparatively speaking.

I think I’m going to bathe Dogger tonight. She played Dogball with the nephdogs back in the dustbowl nee’wetlands all weekend and now when I pet her I wind up with gritty hands. I can use this as an excuse to wash her bedding and vacuum her crate. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.

Kitty has forgiven me for the fall session of Camp Knotty Pine. He went back to sleeping on my bed last night. He had been sleeping on the couch for the past few nights. I could tell he had forgiven me when I went to bed as a person and woke up as a deluxe cat bed.

GOP telling its minions to cheat?

I didn't realize that repthuglicans waited to be told. I thought it just came naturally. However, it seems that they are being told to cheat by The Party. I'm not sure if ya'll saw this story out of Las Vegas about GOP workers destroying democrats voter registrations, clearly, something illegal.

I don't understand how they get people, as many people as they have, to cheat, to do wrong, and to behave in what they must know is an immoral manner and to keep doing it. Those signs in North Dallas that got set on fire? that is a wrong act - yet some rethugs did it. Isn't the GOP the party of God? Aren’t they all supposed to be Christian or at least Khristian. I don't get it. How do you get that many people to do wrong things? I'm pretty sure that Jesus wasn't into cheating, or vanadlaism or meaness. Granted the GOP is evil, but that doesn't explainw why Joe Volunteer is doing evil for them, And why do so many of them do it?

If the dems told me to do something I wasn't comfortable doing, or that was illigal - I wouldn't do it and they would never see me again either.Why don't more rethugs see what they are doing? WWJD? indeed. He wouldn't burn yard signs or destroy registrations.

links from The Daily Kos

Susie Homemaker

Monday morning I walked into my kitchen and right into a roach from the Jurassic period. If it wasn’t for that twelve pack of coke on the kitchen floor and my suddenly preternaturally good aim - I’m pretty sure it would have dragged me back to its lair and stored me for the winter. I get squicked finding big roaches in the living room, but I can tell myself they just took a wrong turn... when I find a huge roach in the kitchen... I know he’s making a roach guide and all his huge nasty friends are on the way.

This puts me in the mind of cleaning the kitchen. Really cleaning the kitchen. Not just spraying the surfaces with windex and hoping for the best - I needed to mop. I would have done it Monday night after work but I was kept after work by a surveyor who, could have come and asked me to help her at like 2 p.m or so, but didn’t, so came to my office at 4:25 and needed to find paperwork for some complaint she had work on - “great” I said “What date is it and I’ll find it for you”, she didn’t know. She wasn’t even really sure what year it had been investigated, but she was pretty sure it was 2001 or 2002 and when she thought about it she wasn’t really sure what facility it was. I said “Go research it and I’ll help you first thing”, no, she couldn’t so that. She had court and she needed it now. She had been told to do it by another surveyor and that surveyor had the info. I told her “Go ask her for more information and then I can help you”. NO, she wanted to play with my computer some more. She was just flipping through random investigations to see if she had worked on them while I was flipping through two years worth of paper work looking for her name and cursing it. She asked me what time I go home, “fifteen minutes ago” I said.

She finally broke down and talked to her supervisor who gave her the investigation number and the date of the visit - 2004! I found the paperwork and sent her off the make her copies. I’m not allowed to let the surveyors just keep the paperwork because they have a bad habit of not bringing it back and then we need it and I have a stroke because its not there and neither is the surveyor. I hate leaving work almost as much as I hate those work related strokes but I’d rather leave late then die of a stroke. She brought me my paperwork back and I finally went home.

I didn’t clean because I was too tired when I came home. I did a load of dishes instead.


Okay. Once I got to work on Monday I saw a weird thing on that floor too, but it turned out to be a CPU and assorted computer things. Later on my friend the computer person asked me if I would unhook my computer and hook up the new one. I said, sure, I’ll do it tomorrow first thing. And I did. I should have waited.

I got little monster all hooked up. New CPU, new flat screen monitor, new fancy mouse. All very cool. My friend came in , waved her hands over it and announced it was ready to go after it downloaded some needed updates. That took days. Then it was ready! Yay! I can check my email. I was getting the shakes. I rebooted it and got an error message about Images. I didn’t have any images. I found my friend and told her about this Image error, she told me to reboot. I did. Same message. She finally came and looked at the machine and said it needed to be “reimaged” and I needed a new CPU.

The machine isn’t working yet. I did manage to get my kitchen cleaned and the floor mopped. I wouldn’t suggest eating off the floor, but at least now there isn’t anything on the floor to eat.

The Great Pumpkin

I was out and about this weekend and while I was out and about and not also out and about with the dogs, I decided I need to go shopping. Christmas Shopping. There was a Tuesday Morning and I wanted to do something non-dog related. There was a no dogs allowed sign on the door, and like my checkbook, they were open and ready for business.

I was trying to think ahead. I was thinking of Christmas, which wasn’t hard since as I walked in the door and right into a life sized NutCracker figure, everything went down hill on a sled after that. I was humming carols before I finish picking NutCracker out of my teeth.

I kept finding things I wanted and after I slapped myself, I kept find things people at work wanted. These are the people that rate above the Card and Candy Cane crowd but below Actual Gift crowd. I needed stuff one step above stocking stuffer and one step below getting them something they might really like - and I found it – on the 50 percent off shelf! And I didn’t want to just to give people some box of bath beads or another decorative potpourri thing that no one uses or wants and that says loudly “I didn’t really buy this for you, I bought this for Some One at The Office. Merry Christmas! And while I did wander around the store for a fairly long time, it doesn’t count as a Intentional Trip To The Store To Find Something For crowd gifts, which I haven’t found yet.

You know what I have also found I really appreciate knowing about a person? Gift Themes. Those people who really like horses or collect fish things or are really into pigs or penguins or whatever. They make gift giving a much less stressful thing. I think that should be on work IDs, name, department and favorite animal.

I hate Tuesday Morning. Everything is so pretty and 75 percent off – big change from Poverty Barn where it is also 75 percent off. The major difference being 75 percent off $125 and 75 percent off $1.25. I was so thoroughly into the Christmas spirit by the time I left the store I was seriously thinking about putting up my tree.

Okay, while I was still in a holiday mood, the wrong holiday but still, I stopped by the Farmers Market to look for a pumpkin. I figured they should have some by this time. Some? Some? They had houndreds all of them different. The last few years I’ve just gone to the supermarket the day before Halloween and pawed through whatever pumpkins were still there and grabbed whatever wasn’t too misshapen or green. I’m not used to choice.

I wandered around there for a good hour. I had to look at every pumpkin, I had to compare and contrast, I had to interview the pumpkins. I then had to make some hard choices about size - it does matter, too small and it’s a toy, too big and how am I going to carry it back to the car? And what do you do with those massive things? If I do get one of those monsters, do I have to buy friends for it? Color – too orange, kind of reddish, too yellow, is that pink? And finally the correct shade of pumpkin orange - shapes, too round, too tall, too short, too bulbous, too weird and finally, right color, right shape, right size, right price. When I paid for it, I told the woman I had to make sure I had the right one. She said “It is very important to be sure”.

I call him Herbert. I got home, arranged Herbert by the door and stood back, Herbert was lonely. Later on I went to Kmart and found him a couple of friends. It took two minutes. Wrong color, wrong size, wrong shape– but, for $2.99 a pop, right price. Herbert has a family.

I'm doing it

I'm going to challenge the license for the local Sinclair owned stations, there are two, the UPN and the WB affiliates. They come up on November 1, 2004 . If you want to make life hard for your Sinclair stations, go here , come on, I don't want to do this alone.

link from Sinclair Watch

Big Business

Republicans help out poor, liddle big business again the rest of us? we can suck socks.

Stop Sinclair Broadcasting!

You remember Sinclair Broadcasting as the anti-troop organization that refused to air a Nightline episode that featured the names and faces of our troops killed in the line of duty in Iraq - because they claimed that recognizing their sacrifice was "anti-war". Now they are airing a piece of agit-prop that attacks the heroism of a serviceman during wartime. STOP THEM.

The conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose television outlets reach nearly a quarter of the nation's homes with TV, is ordering its stations to preempt regular programming just days before the Nov. 2 election to air a film that attacks Sen. John F. Kerry's activism against the Vietnam War, network and station executives familiar with the plan said Friday.

FCC Regulations
BROADCAST PROGRAMMING:
LAW AND POLICY ON SPECIFIC KINDS OF PROGRAMMING

Broadcast Journalism. Under the First Amendment and the Communications Act, the FCC cannot tell stations how to select material for news programs, and we cannot prohibit the broadcasting of an opinion on any subject. We also do not review anyone's qualifications to gather, edit, announce, or comment on the news; these decisions are the stations responsibility.

Political Broadcasting.

• Broadcasts by Candidates for Public Office. When a qualified candidate for public office has been permitted to use a station, the Communications Act requires the station to "afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office." The Act also states that the station "shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast" by the candidate. We do not consider either of the following two categories as a "use" that is covered by this rule:

* An appearance by a legally qualified candidate on a bona fide newscast, interview or documentary (if the appearance of the candidate is incidental to the presentation of the subject covered by the documentary); or

* on-the-spot coverage of a bona fide news event (including political conventions and related incidental activities).

• Political Editorials. Within 24 hours of airing an editorial where the station itself either supports or opposes a candidate for public office, it must transmit the following three things to the other qualified candidate(s) for the same office or to the candidate who was opposed in the editorial: (1) notification of the date and the time of the editorial; (2) a script or tape of the editorial; and (3) an offer of a reasonable opportunity for the candidate or a spokesperson for the candidate to respond on the air.


List of Companies that advertise with Sinclair Broadcasting
(courtesy nutmeg/Dailykos.com)

Halls Fruit Breezers
Sylvan Learning Centers
Kentucky Fried Chicken
ITT Tech *
Ford Motor Company
Yahoo DSL
Isuzu
Hardees
Taco Bell
Toyota
Warner Brothers *
Century 21
Prudential
Zigzagzone.com *
Cnn.com *
General Motors
Geico
Pepsi
Mountain Dew
Titan TV *
Iams
Miller Lite
Ringling Brothers
Oak Express
ABC Solutions
Kentucky Lottery
Florida Lottery
NFL
Lincoln Mercury
H&R Block
Pontiac


Find Your Local Sinclair stations and let them know what you think of this programming choice. then File a complaint with the FCC I did and I feel much better. Complain, complain, complain - to anyone and every one, Make these anti-troop lowlifes pay for their choice. This group a big GOP donor.

thanks to Boycott Sinclair Broadcasting and Tom Tomorrow

Not Fair.

Actor Christopher Reeve has died at the age of 52, a day after lapsing into a coma, his publicist tells CNN.

Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com for the latest news.

Weekend

The traffic had been a bitch Saturday morning, they had blocked off all my streets headed where I was going and sent me around Robin Hoods barn to go downtown. I was at red light number fourteen when the mini van in front of me took it upon herself to park. I didn’t see anywhere to park, I guess she was planning to run her van up a street light. I looked behind me to see if I could back up and the whole rear window was full of the grill of the truck behind me. There was no where for me to go and the other van really wanted to run her van up the street light. The car in front kept backing up and I kept creeping back, but the grill was still there and was not disappearing so I really got annoyed and stopped creeping. The backer-upper called over a rent a cop who had been standing there with her thumb up her ass, and had the rental cop ask me snottily, “Ma’am I know you have a lot planned for the day, but take a little bit out of your day to do something for someone else. Back Up”. I told her I couldn’t and at that moment the truck behind me woke up and inched back. The light finally turned green and I escaped.

Another weekend another canvass. 30 more address’ , four more responses. This canvass stands out because the houses in the largest part looked like Easter eggs. Blues, pinks, yellows, greens. Every other house identical. I could pick out seven different available styles but only three or four seemed popular. I half way expected to see My Little Pony’s(tm) ambling about. It was pretty but kind of like living in What Dreams May Come, but without Robin Williams. Without anybody, come to think of it. Several hounded houses in the sub-division but we only saw a handful of people outside and none else seemed to be at home.

The second phase of the canvas was through a very different neighborhood. Every house was different and looked like something out of a seventies Architectural Digest. We found two of our four responses here. One was all Kerry all the way the other an annoyed undecided.

Anyway. I went to see what had been the jam this morning. Well, they had ben something, a run or a walk or something. By the time I was back there it was long over and all that was left of what had been Oktoberfest was handful of men in lederhosen and a few women in dirndls.

I went home and rescued the dogs. Then I made three batches of dog cookies. This took a long time. I learned from trial and error that the cookies aren’t adequately crunchy and too damp when they initially come out of the oven. I have to put them back into the heat for an hour or so on low heat to really dry them out. So for every batch there was an hour of sitting around time. The carrot cookies were not a huge hit. I tried to get the dogs excited by this new taste by feeding them the left over carrot pieces... they weren’t interested . They don’t seem to hate the resulting cookies, but they like the peanut butter and the cheese cookies better.

A back up for the back up?

Please, for the Love of God vote in the right precinct.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

What's the delay with Delay?

Off The Kuff has more Delay news. Why is the sum'bitch still allowed to roam free? I've seen IOIYAR - It's Okay If You Are a Republican , but come on! the man trails slime like a slug, is he going to have to kill a drifter just to see him die, to really get into trouble?

link from Atrios

Friday Funny

Electronic voting, the Florida way...

The Bulging Bush?

This Modern World has interesting data about the square shape under shrubs suit jacket at the last debate. I have seen other references to it, most recently at Wonkette.Com and earlier some rethug blog was talking about cables or wires under shrubs collar and if he was wearing an ear piece or not - but not as well or as fully investigated as by Tom Tomorrow. It explains Shrubs bad posture, speaking out of turn and general crappy performance. Watch for any odd shapes under his jacket tonight. If the dems are smart they will be working to jam every signal in that area code.

Why The Dems are going to lose

"As you know, you are in a heavily AA, heavily Democratic precinct with a history of low voter turnout. These are targeted by the Kerry/Edwards campaign folks and they do not share their activity with us county folks, or even the precinct chair".

Do you know why it has a low voter turn out? The Dems don't have ANY ACTIVITY in the area! They aren't "sharing" beause there is nothing to share. It is up to the county dems to do something and they aren't here either, oh, wait, they are having a "literature drop" two weeks before the election! That'll do it. Not!

Elections are won by hitting more doors then the other guy, by driving more elderly people to the polls then the other guy, having more people VOTE for you then the other guy. Every door the Dems fail to knock on, is one more door for the Rethugs to knock on. That is how you win an election. One door at a time, one street at a time, one neighborhood at a time.

Gawd. Are they losing this on purpose? Does every vote not count? Doesn't KE04 not need every damn vote they can get?! Who is (not) running this show? Gawd. Is it okay because if they don't vote they are also not voting for Bush? Every vote not cast is a vote for Bush.

Sleeping Briefly


a figure is seen asleep in bed. It is 5:30 a.m. and all is quite, save the padding of tiny feet pacing across the floor

Kitty – I smell Dogs. New Dogs. Dogs are in the air. Hateful, stinky dogs. Cat eaters! Mama!

Sleeping Briefly - ZzzzzzzzzZZzzzzzzz

Kitty – Poke, Poke, Poke.

Sleeping Briefly – Humph.

Kitty – head butt, head butt

SB – Zzzzzzznicekittygoawayzzzzzzz

Kitty - jumps from bed to top of dresser, chews electric bill Shred, tear –

SB - Sits up in bed What! No! Are you hungry? lurches from bed Okay. You wanna eat? (thinks to self – Into your box Kitty.)

Kitty – I am hungry! But … No. Okay, are you going to feed me? No!No! not the box hides under bed.

SB – Where is he? Suddenly, I don’t care. goes back to bed ZzzzzZzzz.

Kitty – No! No back to sleep. I wanna talk.

SB – NozzZZZzzzzz.

Kitty - jumps on bed, pounces on SBs chest They’re here!

SB – Wha? Who is here?

Kitty – sworry! Dogs! head butt, head butt There are dogs upstairs. Make them go away. Blinks.

SB – Pretend they aren’t there. Go away now.

Kitty – There are dogs upstairs! In my house! And not Dogger! Alien dogs! They are upstairs on my bed!

SB – They were here before. You know these dogs. They are not Bed dogs. They are Carpet dogs. Mama’s tired. Go away now. rolls over

Kitty – Nooooooo! The house smells funny now!

SB – The little dog peed on my coat. Think happy thoughts.

Kitty – Bad dog smells!

SB – Dogger peed on the floor. Talk to her about it. Go away now. puts head under pillow

Kitty – I hear them!

SB – And they hear you too! I bet they smell you as well. You know where you can feel safe? Go to the basement and play with your bugs! It won’t be for long looks at clock, I’ll be awake in thirty-five minutes.

Kitty - whinning Noooo! There are dogs upstairs!

SB – Go lick yourself!

Kitty – Dogs! There are Dogs!

SB – So don’t go upstairs! Leave me alone!

Kitty – Dogs!Dogs!Dogs!

Dogger – from down the hall Dogs?

SB – Good. You woke up Dogger!

Dogger - Where are the Dogs! Can I play with them? Dogs!Dogs!Dogs!

Alarm goes off.

Later

SB – Kitty? Come see me! Come see Mama!

Kitty – No.

SB - picks up Kitty and makes him see Mama Hows my itty bitty kitty?huh? hows my baby!.

Kitty – You smell like them! Let me go.

SB – No chance. Mama’s little snuggly wuggly! Ohhhhhhh, what a sweet baby! You are so cuuttteee!

Kitty – Unhand me.

SB – No. Aww the squishy kitty baby….

Kitty – Let. Me. Go.

SB – Ow! Damn it! Kitty jumps away I’m bleeding now. Owwww!

Kitty – You still smell like them.

Later

SB – I’m trying to read the paper. Go away.

Kitty - sniffing you smell like them! sniffing

SB – I’m reading go away.

Kitty – Must. Sniff. Everything.

Lather, rinse, repeat

Michigan GOP prefer new voters that “go commando”


"Although we are a small prosecutor's office, we are extremely busy prosecuting serious criminal activity," Burdick said in a letter addressed to Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state Republican Party. "...I choose to devote our resources to prosecuting those who are delivering cocaine to our young people rather than underwear."

Burdick was responding to the Michigan Republican Party's request that he be prosecuted for offering underwear and food to college students in exchange for their promise to vote.

Moore is touring the country and imploring "slackers" who usually don't vote to head to the polls this year, saying they could make the difference in the presidential race. During each program, habitual nonvoters are invited on stage to pledge to vote. First-time student voters are offered gag prizes such as clean underwear.

Full story Here

I mean, that Michael Moore. He is so much worse then Delay! Offering underwear for votes! Doesn't he know that the best way to buy votes is with influence peddling and money laundering? What an amateur! It's not that the Rethugs have a problem with vote buying, they just don't want Moore around lowering the property values. Rethugs have to make a living you know. Funding for illegal, politically motivated Gerrymandering doesn't grow on trees like it did once.

Fun with the Security Guard

Me - I'm here to return a video.

SG - Are you a state employee?

Me - Yes.

SG - Where is your Work ID?

Me - In my building we don't have to wear them.

SG - You left yours at your office?

Me - No.

SG - Were you issued one?

Me - No.

SG - So, you don't have an ID?

Me - Yes.

SG - Well...clip this numbered tag on, Fill this form out, print your name, sign your name, write the badge ID number and note the time, put where you are going, when you get back put the time you return. Ya know, the funny thing is, I'm here because the other guy is out getting his ID. We just took over this building 1 October.

Me - Okay.

FYI

Dear New Guy,

Re: The "men's" room

It has come to my attention that you have not been properly inserviced as to proper bathroom etiquette. In this office, when we enter the bathroom we lock the door, both girls and boys. We have found that this makes for a much more pleasant experience as well as keeping unexpected guests at bay. Along those same lines, we knock on the door before we try to enter, then we try to knob, if the door is open it means the room is not occupied! If the bathroom is occupied, the door will be locked and the knockee waits his or her turn, thus far this has worked out very well for us.

You may have also noticed that we have approximately four men in the building and sixty-seven women. The concept of "men's" room is a fluid one, if you are in the bathroom it is considered a "men's room", if I am in the bathroom it is a "ladies room". Just because it says "Men" on the door it does not mean it is always a "men's room".

So to review:

We always knock first before entering the bathroom, both genders,yes, even the guys!
We always lock the bathroom when it is in use, both genders - yes! Even the guys!


Sincerely,

File Girl.