Saturday, July 31, 2004

Yard For Sale Posted by Hello
HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!!!

Friday, July 30, 2004

The Vaterland Strikes Back

"Honestly, we did it for airport signage... It's nothing like when we helped round up the Japs-er, Americans of Japanese descent in the 1940s, we were just following orders!"
Even More Reasons To Not Vote For Bush

86 Reasons to Vote Kerry/Edwards in November
What Kind of parent still lets their kid spend time with Michael Jackson?

15-year-old boy hurt in ATV accident at Neverland Ranch


Liberal media my ass, pt. 2

Atrios found this NPR had it,WSJ had it - where is the rest of the pack? hate, hate, hate the GOP!

stolen from Atrios
Shrub's "New" Issues

Go Here

Short answer "We're gonna change! Things have changed! We've Changing!!"

from cnn.com
Transcripts getcha Transcripts

What you might have missed if you watched one of the nets or didn't watch at all - Shame!!. or watched PBS or CSPAN and missed the speech. Go print journalism!

stolen from South Knox Bubba
And the Nominee is...

Shockingly, John Kerry has the nomination for the Democratic party! Wooo!!! there was a minute there around two in the morning where... not really and I wasn’t awake anyway. I stayed up long enough for North Carolina to do there thing and I shut it off. It was late and it’s not like there was much of a chance that the Dean people where going to stage an uprising or that Ku-whatevers handful of delegates where going to pull some kind of sneak attack. Poor Ku-whatever, he didn’t even get to speak during prime time and he was the last to pull out. He may have had good things to say. Not that views of the networks got to hear most of the really good speeches anyway. God forbid NBC pre-empt a Fear Factor so that the American people could hear Barack Obamas’ brilliant speech Tuesday night or any of the other really terrific moments that PBS let us watch. My favorite moment was when one of the pundits lay a smack down on one of the other pundits when he said something nasty about Jimmy Carters speech and then let Carter bitch slap the little punk. It was a beautiful moment. The Punk pundit has held his tongue since. Good.

I was very moved by Al Sharpton. I think Al is crazy. I remember Tawanda Brawly and I’m not ready to forgive him for that, but Damn! That was a great speech! He went up there and told it like it was. In the transcripts they had that you could make out two of the words, he spoke the names Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney I understood what he said, why couldn’t they?

There hasn’t been a minute of doubt who the nominee would be since Dean lost his first primary and his second and third and so on. And sure there were other candidates, but other then Screamin'Dean and that little guy, who else even registered? they trotted the also rans out for the convention but other then Sharpton, weren’t they all the same guy? and yeah, blah,blah Progressives!!! whatever, the "Democratic arm of the democratic party!!!", The unelectable arm of Democratic Party. Go away Howard Dean and stop sending me emails. I mean it, I’m blocking your ISP, Dean.

I mean I liked the guy well enough. I actually read the first fifty or sixty of the emails he sent. I thought he seemed like a lock. And he was a great speaker and he drew big crowds and he seemed to excite a lot of young people. He excited a lot of young non-voters who got so excited about forming flash mobs they forgot to form a flash mob to vote. If they could have voted via text message hew would have gone all the way.

Enter Kerry.

Kerry also sent me emails. Lots and Lots of emails. I didn’t read them. He was the bad guy. The Anti-Dean. I thought I got more from Dean but later when I went and counted there were more from Kerry over all. It was a sign.

Did ya’ll known that Kerry was in Vietnam? Yeah. And that he was in Vietnam? Or that he was in Vietnam? And that he loves the troops. All the democrats love the troops. We all love the troops.

As for Kerrys speech, it hasn’t started yet. It will be all about Who John Kerry Is, What John Kerry Stands For He only needs to say six words. He says those six words and everyone can go home early. All he has to say is

I
Am
Not
George
W.
Bush


John Kerry, Not George W. Bush Posted by Hello


Thursday, July 29, 2004

Even the GOP doesn't trust the Touch Screens

Gov. Jeb not amused
CNN taking a page out of FAUXs playbook?

The The Daily Kos reports 3000 at the Crawford showing of F911, while CNN only reported on the GOP brownshirts. It is interesting to note, that this story is not the same story that ran on the front page of the site earlier in the day.This one was hidden on the "More Entertainment" page. It didn't mention how many people showed up to view the movie, only concentrated on how many GOP protestors made the trip. Interesting.
Could be BS , could be Bushit

Capital Hill Blue is claiming that Shrub might be chemically enhanced of late.
un-Happy Meal

I went to lunch today with the purpose of getting another Garfeild happy meal toy, or kids meal toy or lil'folks eaten's or whatever Wendy's calls its Happy Meals. Those bastards ran out of Garfeild Toys. I ended up with some lame-o cloth Frisbee thing. I hate that. I so far had collected the clock, the weird TV thing, and a way cool magnet. I want the sunglasses and the other thing that I wasn't sure what it was, but I wanted it anyway. Stupid clothe Frisbee thingy.

I wanted my Garfeild toy! The movie, I heard, sucked ass - but in my experience, cartoons - and I'm not going to get all prissy and call it "Animation" because it’s a cartoon is was and always shall be. "Oh, it's animated! It's not just a mere cartoon!…" blah, blah get over it. Animation snobs .The only people who call cartoons animation are people who are ashamed of what other people think about people who watch cartoons. Like if you "come out" as a cartoon fan that people will hide their dogs from you and tell their kids you eat children. Get over it.

If you watch that anime crap you are watching pornographic cartoons. Suck it up and deal with it - you enjoy watching drawings of huge busted women round eyes and big blond hair shoot big guns. Embrace your kink. Cartoon, Cartoon, Cartoon. Anyway, in my experience the cartoons that are aimed at adults or the PTB think more adults then children are interested in, always have the best toys, cartoons solely aimed at kids have sucky "educational" toys that tend to be about the ecology or the evils of drug use or the importance of education. Dull, dry, and not really fun to play with. Much like the cartoons themselves. If they chose not to go for the high fiber variety of kids toys they are product placement toys and about as much fun to play with as ad copy.

I really can't imagine that children went to go see Garfeild the toys aren't really "play with me" toys. They are more of the "sit me on your desk" toys. Like most if not all of The Simpson's kids meal toys I've collected. You really can't play with them. You can put them on your desk but they really don't lend themselves to playing. They lend themselves to being picked up when you are on the phone.

My favorite toys so far are from Finding Nemo. They have nice flat bases that lend themselves to the top of my computer monitor and they look fairly realistic as toy fish go. They all either light up or spit water. I like a toy that does something, bonus points if the toy talks. The Nemo toy laughs - so it is extra special cool.

Convention tangent

I think they need to come out with DNC happy meal toys. I think that would be way cool. I think a little Jimmy Carter magic eight ball would be nice. You ask it a question and it gives you a well thought out answer taking into account all sides of the issue and coming up with a fair and moral answer. And then it probably hugs you, but I haven't worked that part out yet.

I got annoyed with the pundits last night after Dean's speech. "What did he mean by finally feeling free to be democrats" or whatever. Don't they know about the atmosphere of fear the GOP has been nurturing? I don't disclose my political affiliation until I really know someone, wanna know my SAT score? Okay! What size shoes do I wear? super! Wanna know who I voted for? I'm not sure I'm ready to share that yet. Democrats have been demonized by the GOPs brown shirts for years. In the past I would cop to voting Democrat about as fast as I would hand out holy cards and rosaries at a Klan rally. Call someone a "Liberal" and you would have insulted them. Feeling secure enough to come out of the Democratic closet is a big deal. Now, if I only felt secure enough to put my Kerry/Edwards sign out in my yard instead of inside in my window…

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Preach On Brother

I hope you all either got a chance to hear Rev. Sharptons' speech or can find a transcript of it in it's entirety ( not the little 6 minute version, the full 20 minute sermon). Damn. When the man gets his preach on, you will be saved.  I felt the energy sitting in my room, the power of it in the hall must have been awesome.

Poor Bob Graham had to follow a Pentecostal Tent Revival with a book report.

More or less Sharptons speech as read can be found Here



PSA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

And yet again Copygodd goes out and does the research and the leg work and all the heavy lifting and I just pluck it from his site and put it here. Go Here to read the whole thing.
Much ado about something



Big drag, I actually have to work at work today. Stupid filing. So, I'm just going to post links and little factoids. Fun huh? you bet!

Later

Okay. I'm feeling very conflicted. I have a Young Women Democrats meeting tonight. I have the Democratic Convention tonight. I pulled up the directions to the YWDs meeting place du jour and when the directions went on to the second page I decided that maybe this might be a good day to play hookee. I know, I know, act locally, think globally. What-ever. I could go to the meeting and sit around and sit in little group and make little group lists and talk about what ever the Leader tells us to and ultimately decided nothing and do nothing except sign something saying I Was There. Why? is it going on my permanent record? I did want to show off my Rally pictures, but I could do that when I possibly go to hear Edwards speech downtown - if I go to hear the speech downtown. The parking in my driveway is so convenient and free the drinks are so much freer in my kitchen too.

I doubt the bar or where ever the dems are meeting would be as happy as I’d be to have me sitting on the floor with Dogger either. Dogger is free to be in my livingroom. I can also put on my nightgown and take my makeup off freely too. And not suck my stomach in, But... group things can be fun! hearing a speech in a partisan crowd is fun. Its like going to a movie on opening night. It’s exciting! It makes you feel involved and together and part of something. It’s great.

My living room, my dog, my driveway... And to make it even more fun. I had to reschedule my mug shot for the church year book. I had to reschedule it for Thursday. Thursday is the big night at the convention. I wasn't even thinking. I just said "sure, Thursday? 9:15pm? why not". Damn. But that is why they invented the VCR.. But, that means I will be downtown. Away from my house. Dressed somewhat Up.

Speeches Tuesday. So far we’ve had Ted Kennedy and Dick Gephardt. They both seem a little pissed that they are bridesmaids. Gephardt seems especially as though he wishes he was the bride. He wore a white dress even. Kennedy seems to have let the dream go. Next up is Tom Daschle.

Tom is all about the price of living. So far, not the barn burner that some of the other speeches have been . Tax Code and anything pertaining to South Dakota, is just not sexy. Next up, good God! I just checked the schedule, there are 10 more to go! Shit. Carol Mosely -Brown, Howard Dean - at least that is guaranteed to be interesting,The First Lady of Iowa?,then Richard Durbin intros The Key Note Speaker, Barake Obana, and some guy from Road Island, Ron Reagan speaking about Stem Cell research... then Theresa Heinz introduce by her son. 10. Damn.

A good speech by a good guy, Tuesdays Key Note address can be found Here The pundits loved this guy.


Links to Monday Speeches: These were very, very good speeches. Very hardcore. Suck it up Shrub.

Jimmy Carter

Bill Clinton

Al Gore



Complete schedule of Wednesday speakers can be found
Here

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

In Case you missed it

The Reverend David Alstons' speech to the convention

snagged from PRnewswire






The More you know....

Copygodd brings us our PSA for the day Democrats v. The Republicans

All The Other Bloggers got to go!!

Who does a blogger got to back to get invited to the convention? I mean. I have political content, I link to the DNC! I mean, what's the deal?

What would I do there anyway? I'm sure they wouldn't let me bring Dogger with me and about half my content is Dogger specific and I know that Kitty would be considered a WMD and he certainly wouldn't be allowed past security and with out Dogger and Kitty what could I possibly fill the time with? I guess I could post endless reports of the condition of the ladies rooms or pieces comparing and contrasting the various delegations choice of funny hats or I could interview the official democratic donkey.

A couple of phone calls later, I still wasn't invited but - it turned out they did need some one to interview the   Official Democratic Donkey and no blogger alive has interviewed as many domestic animals as I have. They caved! They fedexed me my credentials, which turned out to be a map of the Zoo and told me where he was staying - all the delegates should have it so well. All those other bloggers may have the juice to get invited to the floor, only I was invited to the zoo.

Me - So, Swifty. May I call you Swifty?

Swifty- Whatever. Misquote me and I'll kick you hard.

Me - Verbatim buddy. It's all about you. Have you seen Shrek

Swifty - The first one or the second? I liked Murphy's portrayal, but I think it made it a little broad. I think it also would have been nice to see the character as more then just the donkey side kick.

Me - you thought he made too much of an ass of himself? 

Swifty - Ha. Yeah, a little. I mean there are so few portrayals of Donkeys in the media, as much as we all love Eddie Murphy, it would have served the community better to have the character voiced by Denzel, or Billy Murray

Me - Bill Murray did Garfeild.

Swifty - Really?

Me - So what brings you to the convention?

Swifty - A Horse Trailer? What do you think brings me here?

Me - Artists rendition of a Donkey, I'd say. You look great.

Swifty - I was on Atkins but I missed my chow too much. I lost the weight by will power.

Me - Wow.

Swifty - The last thing I wanted to give the partisan press was a Fat Ass to laugh at.

Me - Aw.

Swifty - After we got here, I thought I was going to have to kick the door down. I can do that, you know. Kick down doors.

Me - I read the story, it was very moving.

Swifty - Moved me right into a Zoo.

Me - It's nice here. You should see where the press is staying.

Swifty - I bet the press isn't inhaling monkey shit.

Me - Ya wanna bet?

Swifty - I can't get enough of the lions roaring. Makes me want to flee. I've never wanted to flee before.

Me - But think of the stories you can tell the grandkids!

Swifty - I'm sterile.

Me - Anyway! Have you got to meet any interesting people?

Swifty - I talked to a zebra. That was exciting.

Me - Wow. Did you have a lot in common?

Swifty - They aren't really horses either.

Me - I didn't know that. Hey, you live in Arkansas? Was it cool when Paris Hilton came through?

Swifty - I didn't meet her but I heard that the live stock where they were spent a lot of time tranqed.

Me - I thought that was just the girls.

Swifty - Look, I have a date with a gazelle. I'm going to have to end this.

We ended the interview and I came back home. It was very exciting. I'll be blogging the rest of the convention from the comfort of my couch.

Speaking of the convention. Wasn't Jimmy Carters speech terriffic? Carter is one of the few pols who doesn't have to ask WWJD? he all ready knows.  He knows that God would house the the homeless, feed the hungry and minister to the sick. He also knows that after he had house, fed and ministered to the people he would set his sights on the protecting the people from explotation and torment. Shrub wouldn't even ask much less do it.

Monday, July 26, 2004

  Leading by Leadership

I just finished listening to Jimmy Carters speech to the Democratic convention. What a great man! George W. Bush isn't fit to polish the pew this man sits on. Anyway. Jimmy Carter was president while I was in the second grade. My  teacher that year bound a book of our weekly writing assignments. Two of those was writing to or about the new president.

About the president

Election Day
 
The People of the United States chose a new president yesturday. He is Governer Jimmy Carter, he will be our 39th president.
 
This is illustrated by a drawing of Jimmy Carter or a pilgram, the  Capital Building and a bright sun.

To the president. 

 
Dear President Carter,
 
I think you can make America very good so good that no one fights and no one has any wars and if there are wars no one gets killed. You can help us from having wars if you have peace with all the other countries.
 
Your Friend,
 
Diana

 
This is illustrated by a drawing of the Carter family, their dog and many, many birds bearing peanuts.
 
Keep in mind this was written in 1976 -1977. Vietnam had not been over for long.  I just want to point out, my anti- war creds go way, way back!
 


As If we need more reasons

81  reasons not to vote for Bush
Bittsey-er and Piece-r

I was going to walk Dogger the other day while I was doing laundry , I multi-task. Anyway, all the clothes I normally wear were unavailable and the only clean things left I had were in the closet. There is nothing that says "I am Walking My Dog" like "Bridesmaids Dress". So I had to keep looking. I finally found a pair of capri pants. I put them on, added a tee shirt and sneakers and thought I was on my way. No. I really can’t wear capris. Everyone else does. They sell them at Sams(tm)! Everybody wears these. I think they make capris for men now. Everyone looks good in them. I thought that I was part of the "everybody", so I once upon a time I bought a pair.

"Looks Good On Everybody" is really false advertising. I was like the capri pants picture in the attic. I looked like a street person. I looked at me and went to go find some change to give myself.

Okay. So I went back to the closet and I found a cute top and then I found a cute pair of sandals and I looked in the mirror and I was so cute I can’t walk the dog like that. I can’t walk around my neighborhood looking like some tourist I would end up on some barbeque, the other white meat.

I don’t leave on vacation for weeks but my clothes and my dog are going on vacation soon and I have to get my and her things together. Packing for me is one thing. Packing for my pets is another. I’ve been putting things in a box for Dogger for weeks. My stuff I throw in a bag, I find a paper back and I’m good to go in ten minutes, I spend three weeks thinking about what I need to bring with me, but I can get it done in 10 minutes. I just bring everything I own and sort it out later. There is the chance I might need that bridesmaids dress while I’m vacationing in the forest and if I don’t bring it, I’m going to need it and I just want to avoid walking down the isle in my capri pants.

The dog takes weeks to get ready. I have to think about all of her things. Her tennis balls, her chuckit! toy we haven’t played with since last winter. I went to throw a ball for her in the backyard last week and she had forgotten the concept playing catch. She ran after it but after that she looked at me like "What am I supposed to do with this? You want this? Back? What?".

It’s going to take work. So I have her toys and her mood leashes - the really short one, the regular one, the extendo leash, the longer extendo-leash her pretty collar, her pinch collar, her sweater, her nail clippers, brush, comb, shampoo. This amazing array of things. She needs to be ready for any eventuality. She could be asked to be the flower girl in a wedding and I want her to be ready.

The Kitty on the other hand. I’m just going to zip him into his bag with his lovey and his rabies vac tag and be done with it. Cats don’t have wardrobe issues, they don’t have mood leashes, and they aren’t going to be bathed. If this mythical wedding falls out of the sky and they want Kitty to be the ring bearer, I hope the ring isn’t worth much cause Kitty will have it appraised before he hands it over. Dogger might swallow the ring, Kitty would pawn it.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

HAPPY SUNDAY!!!!!

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Kitty Says Hi!! Posted by Hello
HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!


Friday, July 23, 2004

"Church Leaders Worried Over GOP Roster Use"


Republican efforts to obtain church rosters from Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics who support President Bush have alienated some of the very people the GOP campaign is trying to court, as religious leaders worry the outreach could violate limits on politics in church.

Church Leaders are worried? I'm just a church goer and I find this appalling I am going to call my diocese to make sure they turned this request down but fast. That's right, we don't vote as a block any more but Shrubby this Catholic is not voting for you.


from the A.P

Grrrrrrarrrgggg

For those of you keeping track, we are at  dead rat number nine .
Puppy Paradise, Kitty Nirvana

Paradise and Nirvana are not the words usually associated with animal shelters. Snake Pit?, Hell? Those are animal shelter words. Paradise is the word we should be using. I had been hearing about the new shelter that one of the suburbs had built, but I hadn't had a chance to go out and see it. I remembered too well what the suburbs old shelter looked like and I really didn't need to go back there. Ever.

 The new place is beautiful! Enter new and improved shelter. It's the nicest place built to house animals I have even been in. This includes my house. It's huge, airy, and well appointed and all the animals were happy! Happy in a shelter! The place most reminds me of a very high-end daycare. Ages and weights separate the animals, the grown cats are housed together and the kittens were in a "nursery". There are no cages. The animals live four or five to a room a nice room. There are even screened porches where the cats can go to so they can press their little noses against the screen and look at the birds eating at the conveniently located bird feeders
I went into half a dozen rooms and there was no odor. When I think of shelters I think of that odor. This place smelled better then your average Petsmart™. Each kitty had it's own litter box, located in lovely privacy cubby so they could feel comfortable.

They could play with toys or each other on blankets on the floor or they could go rest in individual sleeping cubbies if they were feeling like a nap. Not one single cat was sleeping in its litter box, something I've seen in every shelter situation I've ever visited. I saw it with disturbing frequency at the old shelter. It's not a good thing when they do that, it' means they are feeling anxious. An anxious kitty is not a happy kitty is not a kitty that gets adopted. These kitties are always moving on out of the shelter. No one stays for long. After I swooned over the kitties, all of them for some reason lighter then Kitty. These kitties all felt oddly hollow. I only picked up one that felt solid. Poor hollow kitties. You can make the sows ear into a silk purse but you can't fill out a kitty properly at a shelter. Anyway. After kitty swooning I visited the dogs.

There were very few dogs and no puppies. This was wonderful news. Wonderful because the last time I went to the old shelter the dogs and puppies were stacked up like cord wood and because if there are no puppies I can not bring any puppies home.

There were a few dogs, and they looked like happy dogs. They were housed two to a room and, to be honest, those dogs have a better gig then Dogger. Dogger spends her days in a crate, alone. These dogs wander around their rooms (about the size of an average bedroom) and have volunteers whose single responsibility is to play with them. All. Day.

The dogs section was also odor free and sparkling. The dog rooms were locked, unlike the cats rooms because the dogs learned to open the doors and had taken to touring the facility at will. So now they get locked in. But don't worry about the dogs, they get locked in with plenty of food, fresh water and all the Kong ™ toys they can stand. They also have plenty of visitors and lots of time in the yard to play. The dogs also are adopted much faster then they did at the old gulag, um, shelter. They all looked so happy and at ease so much more adoptable them before.

Now folks don't have to feel like they must, rescue the animalright now, regardless of whether it is the right pet for them. These animals go home because someone loves them, not just because someone feels sorry for them.

Go here to see the shelter. It looks exactly like the picture in the banner.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Workers Comp! Workers Comp!

My job doesn't even suck this much

 
from cnn.com
Falling apart
 
I think I've found out how long my warranty was for. Last week my back hurt for no reason whatsoever and now my collar bone has decided that I need to think about it more too. The good thing about having all these nurses around, while none of them can work a copy machine, they can all tell me that the reason my shoulder hurts when I inhale is that I've done something to my collar bone.

I haven't done anything to my collarbone! I have all my range of motion and it's not deformed in anyway, so I didn't break it somehow. It just sporadically hurts. A lot. Like at lunch, it really hurt. I didn't lift anything or pull anything or do anything lately that would leave a pissed off collarbone as a byproduct. Last night I did take a shower… who knew washing my hair could be so dangerous. No wonder Johnny Depp always looks like ass, he doesn't want to hurt himself washing his hair.

The only thing I did yesterday that differed from any other day was to go to a book signing. This one turned out much better then my last foray into literatureland, in that I got there with out first getting lost, didn't have to drive all over creation to find a parking place and I actually got to go into the store I drove there, I bought a book, I found a seat and I listened to the auther speak, and that was fun. Then I got up, stood in line got my book signed and left.

The place was full of people, most normal readers but a handful of hardcore fans and groupies. One man came decked out in a tee shirt he had covered with the names of her books - in felt, the front was plastered with some saying from her web site on it. Total fanboy. Ew. He had all ready seen her speak at a luncheon event earlier in the day and had her sign seven copies of her book, now he was back with even more books. He was embarrassing. I'm sure he was a nice person, but he as too old to be a fanboy. He thought he was hot shit because he knew the name of the guy who designed her site.

Oh, and I did not need to hear a 45 year old woman, like the one that sat next to me say at the top of her voice to her cell phone "Dude! " and "I was like! And he was like! And I was like No way! " for a half an hour before the program started. She just went on and on and on. I was like "You're 45 years old! Have some self respect, step away from the WB!"

As I was standing in line to get my book signed I realized I didn't have anything to say to the author, it was a little embarrassing once I got up there, I could have gone with - "I like your books a lot, but I try not to read them back to back to back because they can get a little formlamatic, but I still like them. Are you sure you don't write the V.I Washowhatver books too?" Prolly better I stuck with the nodding and smiling.

What else? I finally scored an elusive Dead Bird! It was a baby bird that fell out of a nest, but now if I find another I can say, "This is the second dead bird I've found. I don't know, could be SARS could be avian flu? Awfully contagious those… I see the birds at my bird feeder and all look a little peaked to me and there are the dead rats I keep finding…I don't know."

Dead birds are such a hot button issue, that maybe the city will finally stop putting me on terminal hold or forcing me into voice mail hell or just laying the phone down on the desk and waiting for me to hang up like they did last week.


Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Support the Troops! or don't. Bush Admin flip flops on the subject of our troops safety


U.S. Newswire - Another Failure to Keep Faith With America's Military: Why Won't Jeb Bush Pressure the President to Deliver Bulletproof Vests to Soldiers in Iraq?

stolen from Blondsense

Real News about FAUX News

The job of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is to protect consumers from deceptive advertising on the part of big media companies. We believe Fox News Channel ('Fox News') has violated FTC rules and that FNC programming is intentionally and unapologetically one-sided as evidenced by the Outfoxed film and recent studies by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). We cannot allow the broadcasting of partisan propaganda to be represented as 'fair and balanced' news. That is why we believe:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and United States Congress must act to initiate an enforcement proceeding against Fox News from using the deceptive and misleading slogan and trademark 'Fair and Balanced.' Make sure your voice is heard!
sign the petition here

from Common Cause


What the Right does not like is wronged

Yet again, the Right is wrong
Bits and Pieces, Vol. 2
 
I leaned something about Dogger yesterday. Dogger does not like getting her ears cleaned out. She really feels like this is an unwelcome violation of her personal space and she feels that her ears are quite clean enough, thank you very much!

Too bad Dogger does not come equipped with Inner Ear Vision, because as much as I hated to upset her, her ears were funky. Actually, in interest of total disclosure, one ear was funky and the other year was light jazz. But, the funky ear needed to be tended to. The last time I took Dogger to the vet she mentioned that the war was not pretty and needed to be cleaned out, she then asked me just how often I clean out my dogs ears? When I didn't have an answer she hummphed at me and said the next time Dogger was in the office if her ears were in the same condition they were at present? She was going to have to charge me some huge amount of money to clean them out herself, or actually, some technician was going to clean them out for me and then charge me a huge amount of money.

I don't have an extra huge amount of money sitting around to pay off the vets school loans. I had to do it myself.
It wasn't as gross as I thought it was going to be. A nice soapy sponge, a little clean water and wa-la, clean ear! Now both years are nice and pink and clean. Huuummph, yourself, Ms. Vet.

I'm glad it was Dogger with the war issue, because all I had to do was wait for her to be in her box and then corner her. I bribed her with some cookies and did the dirty dead while she was slurping them down. Dogger did exhibit more control over her ears then I thought she could. She did a good job of closing them up pretty tightly when it because clear that the sponge and soap weren't there to spot clean her carpet. She gave me a very gloomy look as I finished up. I gave her a handful of cookies and think she was well on the way to forgiving me for my rudeness.

I got lucky really, she could have been a huge pain in the butt about it, she could have fled her box or kept me from gaining access to her ears or she could have bit me. Mr. Kitty is also surprisingly good about getting doctored. I can pill him with no trouble at all. That's good because he's going on a plane in a couple of weeks and the vet gave me the okay to give him some Benadryl to chill him out while we're traveling. I just hope our lay over's aren't too long, having to carry his bulk and his crate is going to be a real challenge. I'm going to have to get into shape. I wonder if Kitty would like to go jogging with me? Can't you see me running down the street carrying a cat crate over one shoulder? I don't know who would hate that more. Maybe if I can put his crate on wheels? Would it be very disrespectful to use an airport wheel chair to ferry him around? I will have to look into it. 

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Why, yes, it is indeed a bad idea
 
 
House says No to rescheduled election day
Getting my vote on
 
Well I feel better now. All voted and accounted for. I was voter number 84 from my precinct.  The polls opened at 6:30 am and I voted at 11:30, so that means they were getting, oh, about 16 voters per hour on average coming in. Not terriffic. Better then nothing, but not terriffic. The paper this morning trumpeted that no one was going to show up. Thanks Paper! that's they way to drum up voter interest!  It's a fairly important vote for the GOP in the area, there has been infighting between the more moderate, lets-all-get-along arm and the everyone-who-is-not-us-is-going-to-hell-and-why-do-they-hate-'murca?-arm. We shall see which arm gets broken.


Yard-Art
 
I think I need a 12 foot concrete Giraffe in my back yard, actually I think I need two giraffes in my back yard. The mama giraffe and the baby giraffe. I think I need them because having two large grazing creatures in my back yard might explain why the yard is in such bad shape. How nice could it be with giraffes living in it?

I am not completely out of my mind, I have stepped away from my "I need a concrete hippo" idea I had before I saw the giraffes. I thought I needed the hippo but then I remembered I no longer drive a truck and I don't think the hippo would fit in my back seat. I don't think the giraffe family would either, but Broskey still has a truck and I think the giraffe's weight less. I am trying to keep things in perspective.

The giraffe family would make a lovely tableau for the yard as well. I think the neighbors would really like to see them peaking over the fence at them while they go about their daily business. I am also planning to some how attach casters to the family so I could move them around. I think that by moving them may also cause the neighborhood children to start exercising, it would make them come outdoors and run around. Everyday they could play hide and seek with the giraffes instead of playing Grand Theft Auto 8 or whatever. Maybe they could right little papers on giraffes too. The older folks could have place little wagers on where the giraffes would be next. I would bring the neighborhood together; I could be a point of light.

Something needs to be done about the back yard. I mowed it, clipped the hedges and cut down the suckers around the tree and the yard is still ugly. I think a flock of concrete something's would be nice and would be prettier to look at, as well as less hard to maintain then an actual plants or lawn. Concrete animals don't need to be watered and they won't play host to Dogger biting beasties. No animal has ever gotten a rash from spending too much time stretched out on a concrete toadstool.

Right now the yard is muddy, smells of dead rat and is home to several million mosquitoes. It is not a nice place to be - enter Giraffes! They wouldn't mind a little mud or the mosquitoes. I see great promise in the giraffes. Concrete animals don't melt in the sun, run in the rain or freeze in the cold, they don't need to come inside or go outside to relieve themselves. Where were all these charming concrete animals when I was in the market for a pet?

There are also the crocodiles. I think a crocodile might be a nice touch and could conceivably help my wetlands designation project.

There is also a startling array of concrete bunnies. I could get a squadron of them out there. I could also get a division of lawn gnomes and battalion of Snow White's and the Seven Dwarfs's to keep guard. I could go and get almost anything in concrete. The yard art opportunities are limitless. I could have a couple of happy big-eyed aliens to great visitors! Or I could get larger then life sized Doberman Pinschers or German Shepherds to watch my back, if those weren't quite enough, I could get almost life sized concrete policeman to hang out in my yard. I could have the biggest concrete fountain this side of Trafalgar Square!

I just have to figure out how to get my new friends back to my house. I don't think Minnie has enough seating for them all. It would take many trips, it might get expensive with the gas, and my back all ready hurts. Maybe I could get an ark?! I bet if I looked hard enough I could find one, a concrete ark to hold all of my concrete animals! Yard Art menagerie here I come!

Monday, July 19, 2004

Where's Bin Laden? Could he be in Iran?
 
 
In an attempt to make up reasons to invade all the countries with oil, that aren't actually Saudi Arabia  Iran is now our newest 9/11 target.









Dear Answer Dogs
 
Dear Answer Dogs,

My people told me we are moving. Moving? They seem to be moving around a lot! They go from room to room and they change the rooms! Things are disappearing! Have they moved? What about my toys! What about my food! What if I can’t find them? Am I going to disappear too? They don’t seem to care that the things are not in the room any more, and even more confusing, there are these big things that are appearing in the rooms as things are disappearing are these new pets? Don’t they love me anymore? What does this all mean?
 
Sincerely,
Confuzzeled

 
Dear Confuzzeled,

It is a scary time. Your people are going to take you from your house to another house. It could be another dogs house! The other dog might still be there, Their people might have forgotten to put them in one of those big things. The other dog might not have been as careful to keep his person in his sight! He might have looked away! It is very important that you find the other dog right away! The best way to do this is to pee in every room and bark as loudly as possible to scare the other dog away, but first, run all over the new house place and look for the other dog! You should also make sure the new house place smells like you as quickly as possible! You don’t want the other dog to be able to find the new house place anymore. It is your new house place and you should make it your own by marking it inside and out!.

The people are going to make everything disappear and make those big things grow all over the house. They may also take you on fewer walks and not feed you when they are supposed to feed you! The Answer Dog’s feel bad for you. You should make sure they remember that you need to go to this moving to place just like the big things, you might try to sleep in one of the big things just so that they don’t go to this moving place without you.
 
 If you are an especially small dog, you should worry even more as you might get thrown away on accident! The Answer Dogs have heard of very small dogs getting thrown away when their people are moving! You might should want to sleep on their pillows, right next to their heads on their beds so that they can see you right away and not forget you or if they don’t like you to use their pillows, crawl into their shoes! This is an excellent way to make sure you know where they are! If they step on you, you know they are right there! You might also want to pee on the big things, so that they smell like you so if you have to, you’ll be able to track them! It is important to make sure they do not forget to take you with them and that if they do forget to take you with them, you can find them!

The Answer Dogs suggest never letting them leave your sight! Follow them everywhere, make sure they don’t take all the big things and go to this moving and leave you. This can best be accomplished by healing very close all the time everywhere they go - even to the bathroom or just another part of the same room. Proximity is safety!
 
Good luck!
The Answer Dogs. 
  
  
  
  
 

Sunday, July 18, 2004

HAPPY SUNDAY!!!!!

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Dogger says Hello! Posted by Hello
HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!

Friday, July 16, 2004

We Sure can pick 'em 
  
  Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government...
 
  full story here
 
picked up from  Eschaton 
Martha Stewart sentenced to five months in prison and two years probation.
 
 
Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com for the latest news.More Americans watch CNN. More Americans trust CNN.
Test
 
Because I Can!!!!!  Pretty, Pretty,Colors!!!!!
 
 
'cause ya know,  colors!!
Emmy Nominations and me.
 
Drama Series
CSI - Hate William Peterson, don't watch
Joan of Arcadia - CBS, can't watch.
The Sopranos - HBO. I don't get HBO and I don't think cable shows need to compete against network efforts. It's not fair.
24 - Sorry, FAUX. Can't watch
The West Wing - Is on at the same time as something else I watch.

So, no horse in this race.

Comedy Series:
Arrested Development - I tried to watch this but I couldn’t follow it. also, FAUX. So I didn't try very hard.
Curb Your Enthusiasm - I don't get HBO, and again with the uneven playing field.
Everybody Loves Raymond - CBS; so really can't and not everybody loves Raymond.
Sex and the City - HBO, again with the cable. I think there needs to be a new category and the cable shows can compete against each other.
Will & Grace -NBC. - I am NBC's bitch, so I'll have to go with W&G. Despite last seasons lack of funny.

Will and Grace out of habit.

Actor, Drama Series:
James Spader, The PracticeABC; Was he on this? Wow. I didn't know TP was still on the air, it’s not anymore right?
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos HBO - See above.
Kiefer Sutherland 24,Fox - Tried this season to watch, never caught up. And, FAUX.
Martin Sheen, The West Wing, NBC - I really like him, but…
Anthony LaPaglia, Without a Trace CBS. - Remember him from Betseys' Wedding? He was so cute. But now he's on CBS. So.

Actress, Drama Series:
Jennifer Garner, Alias, ABC - I don’t think she or her show are worth watching.
Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia CBS; - I watched Wonder Falls instead.
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit NBC; - I didn't like her when she guested on ER, and I still don't.
Edie Falco The Sopranos HBO - See above.
Allison Janney The West Wing, NBC. - She's won before and she's the only one I don't have any real issue with.

Supporting Actor, Drama Series:
Victor Garber, Alias ABC - No.
Brad Dourif, Deadwood HBO - See above.
Michael Imperioli The Sopranos HBO; - See Above
Steve Buscemi, The Sopranos, HBO - I .really like him, but See Above.
John Spencer, The West Wing, NBC. - Wasn't he on LA Law?

Supporting Actress, Drama Series
Robin Something, Deadwood HBO - See above.
Tyne Daly, Judging Amy CBS; - Is this still on the air?
Drea de Matteo The Sopranos HBO - Really over her. See above.
Janel Moloney, The West Wing, NBC - No thoughts
Stockard Channing, The West Wing NBC. - Rizzo!

Actor, Comedy Series:
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO - A show even less useful then Seinfeild. Also, See above.
John Ritter, 8 Simple Rules, ABC - Would he be nominated if he was alive?
Kelsey Grammer, Frasier, NBC - I used to like this show.
Matt LeBlanc, Friends, NBC; - That's so sweet, he doesn't have a chance, but that's so sweet.
Tony Shalhoub, Monk, USA. - I don't think so.

Actress, Comedy Series
Patricia Heaton, Everybody Loves RaymondCBS - I don't just dislike Raymond, I hate her, also CBS.
Jennifer Aniston, Friends NBC - I could live with her winning.
Bonnie Hunt, "Life With BonnieABC - Always such a good guest star.
Jane Kaczmarek, Malcolm in the Middle Fox - Sorry, FAUX.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City, HBO. - See above.

Supporting Actor, Comedy Series:
Jeffrey Tambor, Arrested Development, Fox; - This actor has always grated on me. Also, FAUX.
Brad Garrett, Everybody Loves RaymondCBS - Too bad, big guy, also CBS.
Peter Boyle, Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS - Always love him for Young Frankenstein and X-Files, not loving him for this, also CBS.
David Hyde Pierce, Frasier, NBC; - Yay?
Sean Hayes, Will & Grace NBC. - A little of this guy goes a loooonnnnggg way.

Supporting Actress, Comedy Series:
Doris Roberts, Everybody Loves Raymond CBS - Remember when she was on Remington Steele? I liked her then, also CBS.
Kim Cattrall, Sex and the City, HBO; - See above
Kristin Davis, Sex and the City HBO - ibid.
Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City, HBO - ibid.
Megan Mullally, Will & Grace NBC. - I'll go with her. If I have to choose between sluts in the city, I'll go with the one on a network I get.

Hey. Wait, where is NYPD Blue, E.R, Angel? Where is Marna Tierny?, Dennis Franz? Alex Desinof? Amy Ackerman? The hell!

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Something to do

For my bloggy buddies out there Here is a blogging survey for you to take.

snagged from Blondsense
One Hundred Million Dollars

Ridge said security leaders have all but scrapped plans for the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II. The program was never officially begun, even though the government has spent more than $100 million on its planning

from USA Today 100 million dollars. Couldn't the troops have used that? or the schools or medicare? or medical research? 100 Million Dollars.
Bites and Pieces


How many of you can say you came to work and got bit by your bosses pig? It started out very innocently. I saw the pig outside grazing and I asked Lunch Buddy if we could go pet it. LB said she had all ready gone and been intimate with the hem of its garments, but that I could feel free to go out there and kiss its ring when ever I wanted to.

So. I hoofed it out there and went to pay my respects. Piggy wasn't as big as I remembered Piggy being, the last time I saw piggy I didn't have Dogger and I think that shaped my perception of Piggys' size. Piggy at that time seemed very big. Piggy now, is just piggy-wider then he is tall. "Hi, piggy, piggy, piggy" pet, pet "How are you, piggy, piggy, piggy?" pet pet. "what nice fur you have" pet, pet .

Then it sniffed me. Odd sensation being sniffed by a pig. It has a very flat nose. Then it bit me. Fortunately for Piggy it only wanted to chew on my shoe, but still. It had its piggy teeth too near my exposed and no doubt tasty ankle and I had to leave piggy by itself. I think for dinner I will have hotdogs in Piggys honor.

Bush was in Marquette, MI this week. He complained that those mean old Hollywood people called him a thug and a liar. Gosh, I feel left out. I've been saying he was a thug and a liar for months, and I get no love from him? Who is mean now Mr. Bush? He must not be a daily reader. I wonder what he told all those ore miners about the future of the American steel industry? How about all the steel we buy from other places? The last time we were at war the steel industry was doing booming business and ore mills were running over time, the ore docks were hopping all the time. I wonder how many ore boats came through while Shrub was there? How about those steel tariffs he was so proud of? Must have been other mean people. A sitting president hasn't visited Marquette since Warren G. Harding came through there eons ago. Shrub didn't come by the last time he was running, wonder why he came through this time?

My back still hurts. It was doing better but then it remembered it was supposed to be hurting and it got back on topic. I've been trying to remember what little tests the doctor did on the girls to see if their backs were okay back when I was matron-ing the physicals at the Home. I know it was simple things like grabbing his hands and pulling or pushing him away. They were very effective tests, low tech but telling.

I emailed my county democrats yesterday to let them know I had reasonably good pictures from the rally, but I haven't heard back. I'm sure they had professional photogs there and aren't interested in some amateurs pictures of the rally. The truth is, I really just want my damn tee- shirt and I don't know how to go about getting one from them.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

You dirty rat!

Another damn dead rat in my yard!

I would like to amend the whole feathering thing of the next dead rat in one small but vital way - I will put feathers on the next fresh dead rat. When I tried to remove the dead rat it became apparent that it had been dead for um, a while and had had time to transform itself from "just a" dead rat into a damn Deadratville! and I thought in the interest of that community, and my appetite, I would not continue in my removal efforts. It was gross! ewwwww! . Its about to rain like hell and with any luck Deadratville will get washed away in a flood.

This is dead rat number 8 for anyone else keeping track.
Thank Gawd


So far, sky not falling an attempt to legislate hate and fear fails, just barely, but fails nontheless.

from The Washington Post
UnFox-ing believable

it's not called FAUX News for nothing

lifted from Wonkette

edited to add, Hmmm. Interesting

lifted from Cablenewser.com
Things you can do that could piss off Gawd

In honor of the big Gay Marriage debacle that is happening to today in DC, here are some other parts of the Bible that could be open for discussion as well.

Abomination? I'll show you abomination!

taken from Blondsense.

Ow


I did something to piss off my back. I don't know what I did, but if there was a memo I missed it. Out of nowhere a yellow sticky note wafted down from the sky with a terse see me! scribbled on it. Damn. Nothing good ever comes from a message like that. See me! usually means "run!"

Sure enough when I went to go see my back it waved me into the room and motioned me to shut the door. Yeah. , Good News does not come with an invitation to close the door. A closed door usually means they are going to make you cry, or at the very least they are going to yell at you and make you want to cry.

My back was on the phone and let me sit there while it finished up its conversation, with, I think my left knee.


Back - "Yeah, I know. I know. I think we can pull a couple of extra folks in to help fix it, yeah, yeah, I know. If it's not one thing - I know! Again! I'm going to - yes? Okay…"

to me - It'll just be a minute. My back opens a file on its desk and starts to look through it -"Em, Yes! Still here. Okay, okay, okay. Well. Yeah, of course. Okay. Talk to later, Okay."

And so I'm sitting there trying to think what I did wrong. I mean, there are so many opportunities to do something wrong to your back and sometimes you do something that doesn't seem bad, and you do it over and over again and nothing happens, so it can't be all that bad. And sometimes I've done things in concert with other things that are probably not great for it, but all in all. I try. Okay, when I remember to lift with my legs, I do. I think…

My back is still on the phone now they seem to be talking about something not even work related. Something to do with inner tubes? Or floatation devises or something. Finally it gets off the phone.

My Back - Okay. We have a lot of work to do so I don't want to waste a lot of time here. Do you remember yesterday afternoon when you moved those boxes?

Me - Um -

MB - You messed it up. You didn't lift correctly and now we have problems. I've been getting phone calls from various muscles you offended all day. What happened?

Me - I don't know. I just -

MB - You don't know? You don't know. This is a problem and I know we've talked about this before (flips through file on desk) and everytime you say it's not going to happen again.

Me -I didn't -

MB - No. Lets just try to correct this as quickly as possible, okay?

Me - Okay.

MB - Just don't let this happen again.

Me - I won't!

MB - Right.

There is no "fix', I didn't do anything and it hurts like I tried to pick up a pool table or Kitty or something. All I know is that I walked Dogger and everything was fine and then my back hurt. I can't think of any one thing that would have caused me to wrench it or sprain it or whatever it is we do to our backs when we piss them off. It isn't debilitating or anything, it just tender and needy. It doesn't want to sit down it doesn't want to stand up, it doesn't seem to mind me lifting heavy things, but it has complained about files. Whatever. I'm going to hit with aspir-cream when I get home and hope it doesn't want anything more complicated then a hot bath.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Another Monday

My pictures from the rally turned out well! I'm so pleased. I spent most of the time juggling a water bottle, little flag, a sign and my camera not to mention wanting to fall over and die from the heat and I was afraid everything was going to turn out grainy or fuzzy or covered with sweat. Another issue was, I'm not used to taking pictures of people and when I do take pictures of people they tend to run out badly. People don't behave the same way your average tree or stream does, people will mess up photos by talking or moving or making funny faces. Trees don't get weird expressions on their faces and their eyes are always open. Nature is always looking right into your lens.

I got a great deal at Wal-Mart ™ too. I took in five rolls of film and got CDs and proof sheets along with them and the whole thing came out to under thirty dollars. The young woman who developed my shots said she was voting for the first time and she was going to vote for Kerry. She said the last four years had been rough and the sacrifices too great, and too few of the people were having to carry the burden. She was ready for a change. So in the spirit of good will she gave me a good deal.

Because I am such a good little democrat, I brought all the pix to work today, and quite a few people looked through them too, they all are Kerry people; at least they are now. Yay. Doing my part.

I found another dead rat Saturday morning. Sigh. I can't remember what the count is up to know. "Too damn many" is the closest figure I could come up with. I got a very good idea from Lunch Buddy today though. She suggested that I go to a craft store and buy a bag of feathers and some glue. The next time I find a dead rat I should glue some feathers to it and call the city to report a dead bird. Vermin doesn't excite them but how about dead vermin with feathers? Dead birds are much higher on the Dead Animal list and will provoke a much better response then just a dead rat. Dead Birds require action! Dead birds, especially if I tell them how many dead "birds" I've dealt with, certainly meansWest Nile Virus! or some highly contagious Avian Flu! and that could lead to quarantines and bad publicity especially after I tell newspaper east of the Mississippi that the city could have avoided all this but they initially turned up their nose at my cry of Dead "Bird" that will get their little heads spinning! and their butts in gear and if the disease process have cause the bird to grow a fur -like rash and a tail like growth that, well, that bird has some sort of new and terrible fungal infection or some sort of rapidly spreading feather rot and Something Must Be Done!

I think if they still won't come down for my grossly diseased dead "birds" I could threaten to get the state involved and no one wants to get them involved! If that doesn't work I could go over their heads and alert the feds and claim it's terra! And that would mean informing Homeland Security and I know that the city doesn't want them poking around their dead vermin.

Does anyone dare me to glue feathers to my next dead rat? Cause I so will.

Monday, July 12, 2004

"Doomsday" or behind in the polls?

officials discuss delaying election day see the problem with this is, there are thousands of polling places across the country, why should your vote be "rescheduled" just because my polling place took a hit? How is this fair? or right? or even legal. September 11, 2001 was an election day in many parts of the country including NYC. The vote went on everywhere except NYC where it was rescheduled for the end of the month. The Bushits don't want Spain happening to them. "Worst case scenario" isn't the threat of you and yours or me and mine or any member of the public losing their lives, these SOBs define "Worst case Scenioro" as the threat of them losing their jobs.

from cnn.com
Rally ‘Round the Candidates


What can I say. I had an eventful weekend. It started Friday when I barely made it to the volunteer meeting, I would have gotten there earlier, but it was time for Doggers’ semi-annual heart worm preventive vaccination. I got there at about ten after five, I didn’t leave until a quarter to seven. The meeting started at seven.

I wish they would have put in the directions that “headquarters is immediately next door to where Diana goes to church”. That would have cleared up any confusion I had and I would have gotten their earlier, I wouldn’t have ended up where I ended up on Saturday, so it really was a fair exchange, I think.

So I park Minnie and find my way to the fringes of a large group of people hanging around outside the headquarters. I missed the welcome speeches, but no loss there. You hear one “So Glad To See You! Thank You For Showing Up” speech, you’ve pretty much heard them all.

The people standing around where I am standing around get placed into “Group 1" and told to go “over there”. We went “over there” and met our Leader, who explained what we were going to be doing on Saturday. We were to be Counter Protester Protesters. If we saw a sign for say, a republican candidate we were to go and stand in front of it and hoist our signs to camouflage it. We were not to touch them or speak divisively of them, because after all we believe in the first amendment. If there was a problem we were to call our Leader and he would send cops or somebody to “deal” with it. We were expressly told that we were not to speak to the press at anytime for any reason. We also would not be issued the neato credentials the other volunteers would get, because we were some what undercover and it wouldn’t look good to have credentialed volunteers bullying Bushites in front of the press. We would get tee shirts ( No. We. Did. Not! ). They said to go home, eat well and get a lot of rest. Be at the event grounds 10:45 Saturday morning.

Saturday Morning

10:45 am and It was all ready hot. We gather and get put into even smaller groups. I am in Red Group. I am handed a couple of big hand painted poster board signs. The people in the regular audience showing up with signs like these taken away from them, no unapproved signs, ya know, we must stay on message. The truth was, they didn’t want any “Fuck Bush” signs showing up on FAUX news.

Those big paper signs later make for great sunshades. We were to be in the White Zone, as it turned out, far from any protesters. We sit around trying to stay in what shade there was while the secret service finished up there security sweep of the area. God, it was hot. A woman brought water back from somewhere and says it cost $2.50 a bottle. If she had waited ten minutes she would have been awash in free water. Anyway. We get cleared to go to our section. We got through a metal detector and are showed to where we will be staying for the afternoon. No shade. But. We are in the front row! We had been bitching that due to our role that we would be stuck in the back and not see anything! Wow. No neato credentials and we never got the shirts, but Front Row! it was worth the six hours in the sun.

We heard two bands, one really good and one really loud. We all wanted to die, but for the promise of Tee-Shirts, we kept going. They kept telling us about the shirts and how we were guaranteed shirts. We were guaranteed to see the shirts as they were flung past us from the stage.

And suddenly, they were here. They wern't just a chant or names on a thousand signs, they were real and they were here! it didn't matter that I and thousands of others had been baking like turkeys in the heat all day; they were hereFinally. The candidates arrived and the speeches started. It was awesome. There they were, just like on TV but right there right in front of us! I got to shake their hands!




Sunday, July 11, 2004

John Kerry and John Edwards, July 10, 2004 Raleigh NC Posted by Hello
John Edwards, July 10, 2004 Raleigh NC Posted by Hello
John Kerry, July 10, 2004 Raleigh, NC Posted by Hello
HAPPY SUNDAY!!!!!!

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Gee Whiz!

Not only did I have a front row view, I got shake both their hands! OMG ya'll! I took zillions of pix and when I get them devloped tomorrow I'll post the best ones! I shook John Kerrys hand! Front Row!!

edited to add - There were 25,000 people there! they expected between 5-10 thousand and got 25,000!
Off To See The Wizard..."

In a effort to not relive the book signing trauma, I decided to best way to get into the Kerry/Edwards thing was to volunteer at it. We shall see if this was a good idea or yet another trauma.


HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!

Friday, July 9, 2004

Mission Accomplished


Coalition records its 1000th death in Iraq. does the admin get a free oil change now? an upgrade to super size? when is this going to end?

Honor Roll
Ewwww. So wrong in so many ways

UPN says "Lets make fun of the Amish!"
Good Morning!

You know that your day started off badly when going to work only improves your day so far.

The other day I was being a big baby about having to deal with a rat. What a whiner! One rat! One rat I can deal with in my sleep! One rat is nothing! And that rat was a freshly dead rat. That rat didn't smell, it wasn't nourishing a thriving colony of anything and it was easy to pluck from where it was lying in state. Easy.

Yeah. Those were the days! The good old days. Sigh.

This morning. This morning I picked up no fewer then Three dead rats! Two of mine and one of my neighbors. One of my rats had been there for a while. I was smelling this rat yesterday afternoon but couldn't find the source. One of the cats must have dragged it from where ever it was and brought it for a cat covered dish dinner or something.

I have a rat plague on my hands! I am plagued by dead rats! They are falling from the sky. Dead rat here, dead rat there, even deader rat over there! I don't know where they are coming from or for how much longer to expect this to be going on. I'm going through little rat-sized body bags like it's going out of style. On the cop shows make dealing with and bagging up the dead seems so… romantic. I think if those shows were done in Smello-Vison, that whole genre would pretty much fade away... yeah, watching them deal with a body that has been locked in a trunk out at the airport for three weeks might look all interesting, but having to smell that three weeks dead in a trunk body? I think shows about florists and GAP stores would suddenly become very popular.

And you know what's really pissing me off? These are poisoned rats. Someone has a rat problem and instead of having to deal with the dead rat problem they are sending them out for other people to deal with. I am dealing with their dead rat problem. This should not be my issue. It's not the good neighbors rat problem, and they aren't coming from the drug dealers' side of my yard. They seem to be coming from one of the houses behind us. I wonder how mad they would get if I just started to drop the bagged up dead rats on their porch?

Me - Oh, Hi! I'm just dropping this off. I found this in my yard and I think it belongs to you!

Neighbor - BANG

Somehow I don't think they want their rats back.

Another fun thing that happened this morning, prior even to the Great Rat Bag Up. Dogger thought that she really, really, really needed to go chase one of the feral cats that live around us. Dogger and I, had been experimenting with not using her metal pinch collar as her default collar. We were trying to use her cute collar most of the time. The cute collar much like lounging pajamas turns out to be an inside outfit. I had to chase her butt all up and down the street and in and out of back yards. I'm sure the neighborhood loved that. She didn't come back to me until she went into the wrong back yard and got chased out by the dog that lives there. Suddenly, Dogger can't wait to get back to me! she was all "Where have youbeen, I've been running around looking for you all this time." Bitch.

So yeah. If you have to go to work to see a marked improvement in your morning? Go back to bed.

Thursday, July 8, 2004

Bow Wow! Hey Ho Bush and Cheney Got To Go!!! Posted by Hello
Bush Declines NAACP Invitation

from cnn.com

"White House spokesman Jim Morrell said Wednesday that the president has spoken about "equal opportunity and equal rights for all Americans" in many public places".

"Bush joins Herbert Hoover as the only president since Herbert Hoover to not attend the NAACP convention".

"John Kerry will be speaking to the group next Thursday, the final day of the convention".





George W Bush Retirement Party a HUGE Success


RALEIGH, N.C. -- Hundreds showed up yesterday at the NC Capitol building to march in opposition of George Bush's trip to North Carolina. People poured into Moore Square Park to hear stirring speeches by former legislator Bob Hensley, AFL-CIO President, James Andrews and NC Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall. Afterwards, the Retirement Party began, with nearly the entire throng of Democrats, Independents & dissatisfied Republicians packing into ________ afterwards.


And not one damn word about it in the newspaper this morning! I'll have pictures tomorrow afternoon to post. Proof that, Damn it that we were there. I guess all the press trucks that showed up were there on their own time.


This they can not ignore.

SATURDAY July 10th -- See John Kerry and John Edwards in Raleigh

Gates open at 1:00 P.M. at the Court of North Carolina on the NC State Campus, near the Bell Tower at Hillsborough Street and Pullen Road/Watauga Club Drive. Parking will be available at area lots and garages on the NCSU campus.

Get Your FREE tickets at locations throughout the Wake County and the rest of North Carolina on Thursday afternoon and Friday. You will also be able to get tickets online beginning Thursday afternoon. In Wake County, tickets will be available beginning at 3:00 P.M. Thursday and all day Friday at the Goodwin House, NC Democratic HQ's
.





Change is Good

I did something kind of scary this morning. Something I haven't done in a long time… I changed my route into work! . I was fine with my old route. It was direct, there weren't any school zones to get in my way and I could go 40 all the way. Those were the days. One day last week I left at my normal time I made the normal trip down my street to my turn and made the turn. Everything was fine. Then… Then I hit the signal. This has been my friend, this signal. It seems to know that I am on my way and it has done it's best to always be green and in the case where it could not control itself and it was red, it didn't stay that way.

Well.

All of a sudden that damn light was red all the time. I pull up expect to be going through soon and wound up cooling my heels and then my calves then my whole leg! Once it does finally turn green, if the front car wasn't ready to put the pedal to the metal and scoot through imdeatly and if the car behind him wasn't completely focused on getting through the light, we would all miss the light. At best 2 cars could get through the intersection before it changed again. This sucked.

If I couldn't make it past that light it made me late to the next light and so on. I had my trip timed very carefully. If I was having a very good morning, I had green lights all the way.

Had being the operative word.

Something had to change and it wasn't going to be that damn light. It was up to me. I could have called the city or the streets people and let myself be put through voice message hell or or I could just find another way to work. This is easier said than done. I hate changing my routine. I have to do the same things at the same time every morning. I have to get my little tasks done by the time I leave or my day could turn out really bad, or the whole world will come to an end - I haven't rigorously tested this theory and I don't plan to; yes, that smacks of OCD. Change is not easy. I can add something to the routine, but not without some difficulty. But change in my routine was looming.

I figured out that if I went straight through my usual turn, I could still intersect with the same streets, with fewer signals. I got into to work about 5 minutes earlier then normal. This was very exciting. I had been avoiding the route because the street is much more residential then the other way and the speed is lower, but because I am required to stop fewer times for less time, it comes out to a faster trip!

Yay me!

Change. Change is good. I am also mulling over changing the template. I really like it and it has served me well… but it's old and there are all these new toys that come with the more recent templates and when I tried to add these new toys to my old template, it wasn't pretty and it highlighted my lack of HTML skilz. I found one that is close to this one, but I don’t know. My template isn't even available any more and I kind of like that, because it says "I've been here awhile", But… and of course I've read all these "How To Blog" things and they all say to never, ever, ever change your template, Ever!, because it will cause it will scar your readers psyche…. But… I read other blogs and they change their templates and it doesn't cause me psyche scaring. So I don't know?

Okay, poll time. Should I change my template or will that make scars on your psyche?

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Kerry-Edwards In The Triangle


If there are any RTP folks in the audience (Waves to Tiffany!!) Kerry and presumably, Edwards will be location TBA July 10 in the afternoon. Free Tickets available at local Demo offices. More information as it becomes available.
Liberal Media Bias my ass

I found This, at Sadly!... no . This is not pretty really, really not at all.

snagged from Atrios
The Day After


I think that there should be a mandatory step down day off after a long weekend. On the "step down" day off, you would have to spend the day at home. You would have to get up at a reasonable time, but for most of the day you would just have to be still. A long weekend takes a lot out of you! I think we need an additional day off just to recover, take naps, rest. But not too many naps or any prolonged resting, because you will have to go to bed at the regular time and be prepared to get up early.

I just do not feeling like working today. I feel like dozing off under my desk for a few hours and then maybe, starting on that next task. I also need to leave early so I can mow my lawn. I mowed it before I left and it looked all nice and mowed, but apparently over the weekend while I was away, the lawn grew! It's all shaggy again. Beastly Yard.

I had to reschedule Doggers vet appointment so I called and broke the news to the office. I can't go Wednesday because I'm going to go harass the POTUS while he's here in town raising millions from the "Have More's" at a $25,000 a plate dinner, the vets office can't do it Thursday because the vet won't be there, so it's going to be Friday.

Speaking of Dogger. The weekend just wore her out. I put her in her crate when I got home Monday evening so I could finish unloading Minnie. I went to get her out when I was finished and she was sound asleep. She slept through me checking my email and didn't wake up until 9:30 when I had to get her up to go pee and eat dinner. After dinner she went right back to bed and was asleep before I had the crate latched. This morning though, she was bright eyed and bushy tailed all ready to go. Too bad she was all bright eyed and bushy tailed and going back to her crate. I think she wanted to go watched bunny rabbits and passing boats. Poor baby.

Kitty didn't change his schedule at all. He was back to waking me at 4:22 am to let me know that the food left in his bowl was a bit on the stale side and he would like fresh kibble right now. He's lucky he's so cute and that at that hour of the morning I'm in no position to do anything that might wake me up more then I absolutely have to. I can feed him in my sleep.

Oh, and while its old news now, Kerry picked Edwards to be his veep. I kind of would have liked to see how Edwards was going to be as a senator, he certainly has proved what a good little candidate he is. I didn't vote for him so he could use it as a stepping stone to run for something else. I mean I figured he would use it as a stepping stone, eventually but did he have to do it so soon? couldn't he do something for me first? I mean, anything? this leaves us with Liddy Dole! But if it helps get shrub out of office…

Tuesday, July 6, 2004

And how was your weekend? Posted by Hello
New Toy Alert!

You can now search thedianaverse! Yay! go down to the little gray box, brought to you by FREE FIND and search to your little hearts content! or maybe just I'll do that. Anyway, New Toy!!
And the winner of the veepstakes is...

Sen. John Kerry chooses Sen. John Edwards as his Democratic running mate for the 2004 presidential election.

Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com for the latest news.
More Americans watch CNN. More Americans trust CNN.
Just Another Manic Tuesday?

Beached Blanket

Can I go back to the beach? Not for ever, cause I would run out of SPF 100 eventually and might end up with a tan, but really, I think I should get another couple of days off. I could tela-commute. I could tell other people how to alphabetize instead of showing them the wonder of the alphabet! I could also tell them what they could do with their files once they were finished with them - From the beach! I think the crashing surf in the back ground would really be a nice touch as well as a relaxation device.

I think that more time at the beach could also cure my body image problems, because compared to most of the other women I saw there, I am a super model. This, from a woman who couldn’t find any style of bathing suit flattering to my, um, "figure", I have to wear shorts to the beach and compared to 9 out of 10 women who walked past me, I am a super model.

When I cavort in the water, I do not have to use a buoy as a floatation device, if I am wearing horizontal stripes I do not get confused with a beach ball, if I am out doing the back stroke the shore patrol does not attempt to come aboard. There are some big girls out there and men aren’t the only gender group that needs to step away from the Speedo. I mean, Good God! Ladies it’s called a cover up! They say I care about others! They say I have some modesty . True, they also say I have leg jowls, but they say it they don’t show it.

Sitting in the rain for hours

I love fire works! Love them, love them, love them. I sat in the rain to watch them. I really love fireworks. While I was sitting in the rain and waiting to get my fireworks love on, I saw many things, many scary things. Most scary of all? Tubby teenage girls in crop tops and low rise jeans.

I don’t know who told these girls they looked all right like this. I suspect their parents, as a way of making sure that there is no way their daughter is going to wind up on a teenage pregnancy statistic chart. “Sure Honey! You look great in that crop top! Your tummy is so cute in that! No! Your butt doesn’t look big in those low rise capris!.

Two year olds have “tummies”. If you have a “tummy”, what you really have is A Gut. A Beer Belly. An Extra Tire, or in some cases you are five months pregnant and you don’t need to be wearing a crop top either. Sometimes you just have to settle for playing dress up with your BriTITny Spears dolls instead. Or, of you really want to wear the cute little tops and low rise pants you need to:

1. Step away from the Live Journal. They don’t see you in real life so they really don’t know what they are saying when they tell you look cute in that top or they did see you in that top and they laughed at you for it, they want you to wear it again so they can take your picture with their camera phone and post it to the web so even more people can laugh at you, like the “Star Wars Kid”. Instead of sitting on your ass in front of Total Request Live, jog in place.

2. You are not Hillary Duff, either Olsin twin or anyone who has ever appeared on Total Request Live put down the cell phone and pick up a bar bell.

3.They are called crunches or sit ups. Do about a five hundred a day. If you want to dress like BriTITney, you have to work out like BriTITney .

Monday, July 5, 2004

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!!!!

Sunday, July 4, 2004

Technical Difficulties

Blogspot has been suffering intermittent problems over the weekend, please stand by.
Don't Piss Off The Truckers

They may be hauling more then bunk beds
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!
HAPPY SUNDAY!!!!

Saturday, July 3, 2004

HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!

Friday, July 2, 2004

Tech Support?, I don't need no stinkin' Tech Support

Who solved the mystery of the vanishing archive code? I solved the mystery of the vanishing archive code. Where did the code go? only The Shadow knows.

Legendary actor Marlon Brando has died in a Los Angeles hospital, his attorney tells the AP. CNN working to confirm.

How odd, "working to confirm", I saw this on Fark this morning and they couldn't find confirmation either, "Working to Confirm".
Red, White and not blue


Reasons to feel patriotic
There is no time to waste! (Like mine)


I'm going out of town today and my plan is to leave work early. On Monday, early was going to be Noon. I was going to be out the door at noon. By Wednesday it was 1:30, today it's looking like 2ish. It's a holiday weekend. Not only am I going to be on the road on the Friday of a holiday weekend, I am heading towards the beach on a Friday of a holiday weekend. I need to leave early. I am trying to leave early. I have a lot of work that I had said to myself that I was going to have done before I left. My plan was to get it all filed and start the week on a new set of chores. Not going to happen.

Yesturday, we had a two hour mandatory telephone courtesy inservice. I do not need a two hour mandatory telephone courtesy inservice. I am very courteous on the telephone. My less courteous co-workers make fun of me because I am so uniformly courteous. So I spent two hours learning about telephone courtesy. Two whole hours being told that it is not nice to yell at callers, that we always give our names to callers and we do not shout at callers, or at our co-workers over the paging system. We needed a two-hour inservice to be told to be polite to callers and not yelling at coworkers.

A brief outline of the inservice.

9:00am - Class starts
9:05am - Inservice instructor takes personal call on cell phone, leaves room. 9:10am - Class begins to point fingers as to "whose fault this is"
9:15am - Class has head of faultee on post and begins to experiment with body paints.
9:20am - Her personal call over, Inservice instructor returns room, asks if anybody has anything they want to talk about before we start.
9:45am - Police leave.
10:00am - Potty Break
10:15am - "The right way to answer the phone", "what do you want" is not the right way.
10:am - "The right way to deal with a unhappy caller", asking the caller which mental hospital they are calling from is never the right way.
10:25am -Potty Break
10:35 - I stopped paying attention at this point as it had nothing to do with my day to day job functions at all. When I asked if I could leave, as this had nothing to do with my day to day job functions at all, I was told that in an emergent situation I might need this information. In a true emergent situation I would not be answering calls!

I spent most of the inservice trying to schedule my outside errands. I have to take Dogger to the vet to get her heartworm shot, I need to remember to talk to the vet about kitty Prozac for Kitty, I need to go to Sams to get Doggers food, I need to mow the front yard, empty the dishwasher, vacuum the house, get the animals things together for the weekend, and get my stuff together for the weekend. I thought I might be able to get the food over lunch but then I remembered it was The Mouth That Roars birthday lunch so that cut my lunch hour errand running out.

And I still have all this crap in my office that isn't getting done because its so much more important that I learn to be courteous then for me to actually do my job.

Have a great Fourth of July! and a safe and happy weekend! No new updates until Tuesday!

Thursday, July 1, 2004

The Nixon Whitehouse would be so proud...


GOP Henchman Guilty of Dirty Tricks

snagged from Eschaton
Summer Lovin' for scripted shows


Summer is a bummer for Reality Shows
Play Ball?



Fellow Young Democrats


“On behalf of the County Young Democrats, I hereby challenge the Young Republicans to a game of kickball for charity.”


Wow. Kickball. I played kickball, when I was eleven and faster and in better shape and not as easily distracted by - myself . I could have cared less about how I looked while I was playing then, I didn’t care if my shorts rode up while I was reaching for that ball.Today, that's just not with in the realm of the possible - I’m too self-conscience to be competitive.

I can’t stand out in a field and not worry about my sun screen is working or if my sun screen is working too well and I’m going to be out in this heat and have nothing to show for it except for the bruises and I don’t want to have to keep pulling my pant legs up all day to say “Hey!, see right there? this one? I ran into the fence! And this one? This one I got when the someone kicked the ball right at me and I ducked and the ball still kind of bounced off me”.. Yeah, I think I’d rather get a nice sunburn instead. Less embarrassing.

I don't know. Do I really want to put myself in the position of having hostile post Fahrenheit 911 neocons kick things at me? I think it could get ugly. I think even with a couple of rounds of Kum By YA before the game started couldn't cool this thing out. Young, healthy, politically involved young people? I see injured people.

You can't go wrong using wounded veterans as bait though. Who in their right minds is going to say "Oh that's all right? We aren't interested in the Veterans or their transportation". Yeah. They are Republicans, so that kind of answer is not out of the range of the possible but still, and the real issue, if they have the game? Do I actually have to play? I wasn't good at kick ball in the sixth grade. I think the position I played the best was Water Getter. Very little prestige, that position. I did like Dodge Ball and I think I was into Bombardment. But that was twenty years ago. I was younger and I moved faster.

The last team I played on was the church league youth group softball "team", using that word as loosely as possible because the "team" was made up of different people every week and we didn't play as much as occasionally stop gossiping long enough to walk back to the feild. I "played" because they took us to get ice cream after the game.

We did have one winning season and it left us confused, we didn't know how to act! We were great losers, winning took the fun right out of it.

Winners have to have regular "positions" not just you stand over there, and you stand by that thing and have "plays" beyound you have to try to swing the bat thing at the ball thing and then try not to hit the ball to the 6 foot tall guy and "strategies" more advanced then see if we can sit under the tree, they have to be able to field a "team" every week. Man, that's a lot of work for a summer league. What was wrong with the other teams? I mean, if we were winning? We didn't even know how to play. Occasionally a parent would try to coach but that never ended well. Good coaches were the coaches that knew it was all about the post game ice cream, the Bad Coaches wanted us to turn off the jam box and talk strategy. Phhht.