Thursday, September 30, 2004

Take That!

Gay Marriage Ban Defeated yes, 186 of the GOPs highest ranking closet queens shimmied out of their closets and away from Bruce, their cute "executive assistant" to validate their deep self hatred - only to fail. HA.
Dayum

I just looked at my email. I have 17 messages in my email inbox - 15 are from the Democrats, If they could just communicate The Message with that much vigor to the rest of the world...
George Bush is going to raise your taxes

When Shrub was a frat boy he was taught, like many frat boys, that when someone says "No!" what they really means is "Yes!". He started out screwing coeds and now he's screwing the American people. In his mind "No" always means "Yes", they sound exactly the same to him. I also think the GOP put ruffees in the water.

So when you hear him say "No, I won't raise your taxes", what he really means is Yes, I will raise your taxes".

I don't know about ya'll but as someone struggling to achieve "middleclass" I really need the tax break on my mortgage. I need that money. If he takes it away, I'm screwed.

link from Yellow Dog Blog
Question

Are ya'll going to watch The Debate? I'm , um, debating about it. I have a deep hate of Shrub and listening to his voice makes me stressful. I don't like to be stressful so close to bedtime. I tried watching Ralph Reed on John Stewart and couldn't even get through that - so I'm doubting I'll be able to deal with Shrub himself. And why does Daily Show keep having all the presidents mouth pieces on? ew.

I have this stuff I taped and I kind of would like to watch sooner rather than later and I'm sure Atrios and The Daily Show show will watch the debate for me anyway. So, should I watch it? I all ready know that Shrub is a lying, dim witted, two faced, mean spirited asshole - so whatever the outcome, it isn't going to change my vote. Is it worth my blood pressure going up? or will it help the cause to have me shrieking at my TV screen?
Hard Driving

Whew. That was hard. A whole eight hours with out internet connection, at work! I mean, Oh My Gawd! I had to spend the entire day working!

Man, I'm glad that's over. I mean it. I was getting kind of stressed about it. The other day I got his new message on my computer and I found our computer person and showed it to her and she read it and said "Your Hard Drive Is Dying" and I said "Okay, get me a new one" and she said "No" and I said "Well, what do I do now? I mean, isn't that new message kind of telling me to make funeral arrangements and you know, like notify the speakers and monitor that they may need to like prepare themselves or something?" and she said "I'm going to mention at the next management meeting that you need a drug test".

What she really said was that yes, I was going to keep seeing that message and I should ignore it and not to worry about it.

Me - Is it going to blow up?
CP - No.
Me - Is it going to start smoking?
CP - Not if you don’t introduce it to cigarettes.
Me - When am I going to get a new one?
CP - No.
Me - How about...?
CP - No.
Me - But what about...?
CP - No.
Me - What it...?
CP - No.

Well. The computer was being a huge bitch. It didn't want to alphabetize my book marks and it took forever to do anything. But it still worked. I could live with it. I'm not supposed to spend the day playing with the computer anyway. I'm supposed to work at work. If the computer doesn't work, well, it's not that big a deal. I don't write that many letters.

Bull Shit.

The computer was dying. I was not happy. And then...

And then. I went to the wrong site. I should have known. I followed a link to a site that I thought was safe. I mean, The Guardian? A nice, staid British paper. Turns out its not a nice staid British paper. It's a Trainsporting kind of British paper, not at all a Masterpeice Theatre kind of paper. I followed a link promising to tell me all about how Shrubs grandfather was a big Nazi and.... it was ugly. I didn't even get a chance to read the story before the damn site unleashed a flurry of pop ups and programs that the world has never seen. It was awful.

I thought all this time that the work computer had some sort of very hardcore, take no prisoners sort of virus blocking pop up killer thing running. It didn't. I ended up with a thousand new and exciting dating, horoscope and poker sites plus many, many , many new icons on my desk top that just would not go away no matter how many times I deleted them! And a new search engine! . I also scored pop ups by the tanker full. I tried, I really tried to get rid of them. I didn't do a very good job. I did a sucky job.

So, this went on all day. I spent the better part of two days struggling with the damn thing and trying to swat these buggers down and delete these new programs as they popped up and it just wasn't working.

Remember my broken hard drive? This was not what it needed.

I finally gave up and found the CP and she agreed that I had made a huge mess of it and sped up the death of my hardrive. Because CP is my friend, she got me a new hard drive and monitor. Okay, not new, but working. She's going to keep it to her self that I killed the machine.

edited to add - Fahrenheit 911 is out on DVD next week, you can go here and buy it and donate to the cause! all at once!

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

The Voting Rights Act is alive and well in Ohio

The people spoke and The Man listened!

from Atrios
Arrgggg

A virus killed my work computer! No one told me those little buggers were fatal.
State Workers Rawk!

sorry this is so tardy, I am having computer issues


EXCELLENCE IN STATE GOVERNMENT WEEK AND EXCELLENCE IN STATE GOVERNMENT DAY 2004

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, North Carolina is served by loyal government employees in many essential areas who dedicate their lives to serving the State; and

(because you can serve God, you can serve man and you can also serve the state. although to serve man entails some skills in the kitchen and there may be dietary issues that come into play and you can't always find a registered dietitian when you need one and if you were really serving God you would be doing this same work for a nice non-profit where you might not actually get paid, but you would be doing Gods Work, but we work for The State and The States Work is not necessarily the same as Gods Work and don't you forget it!)

WHEREAS, there are numerous employees who represent North Carolina by going out of their way to strive for excellence in every aspect of their work; and

(yeah, sure. We would be more numerous if we didn't have to go out of our way to crawl around on the floor searching for discarded paperclips to re-use and there is nothing like spending valuable state time tying broken rubber bands together to really make us feel like striving for excellence )

WHEREAS, these employees are an outstanding model of a commitment to excellence at all levels of State Government, whether it be as protectors of our environment, creators of innovative ways to care for our youngest and oldest citizens, or developers of initiatives for improving our state; and

(I really love the development that made me go out in the rain and drive across town to go and pick up a request from our archives because some brilliant individual came up with "innovative" idea that we should not mail things to each other in state government, we should drive over and that is so much more efficient! and yeah, we don't like it when kids or old people get beat up… )

WHEREAS, these employees are on duty every day ready to render assistance with willingness and courage to their fellow North Carolinians in critical times of need;

(We got the email, buddy! lay off with the begging. We can't do anything about the antiquated phone system in the West. Talk to Ma Bell about why the western part of the state won't have telephone service until October 25! )

NOW, THEREFORE, I, MICHAEL F. EASLEY, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October 18-22, 2004, ( mark your calenders!!as “EXCELLENCE IN STATE GOVERNMENT WEEK and Wednesday, October 20, 2004, as “EXCELLENCE IN STATE GOVERNMENT DAY” (Whooooo!) in North Carolina. I urge our citizens to take this opportunity to join me in expressing to all state employees our appreciation for their commendable service.

(Oh, yeah, Don't Do Drugs At Work! )

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Talk To Me

So, um, yeah. Does anyone out there know how to clean Ramon noodles out of a cheap area rug?
The Spin Cycle

Kerry was right when he said that Bush "lives in a world of spin". The current president doesn't have any grasp of what is actually happening either in Iraq or on the Domestic Front. He sees only what he wants it to be, and if he wants Iraq to transform into Mayberry, it shall and we shall as well. In his mind he sees Iraq as Mayberry pre- Andy Griffith, possibly a little street crime, some minor vandalism and a few, isolated hooligans.

In Bushes World of Spin, sheriff Andy (or Shrub) takes over and the whole town (or Country) voluntarily, picks itself up, shakes itself off, sends the hooligans to Andy (or Gitmo) for a firm talking to and gets back to business.

George Bush needs to believe in this version of Iraq. To believe elsewise would be to admit defeat. He can't let himself understand in how much trouble he and his little proto-Mayberry are in. His callus disregard for our fallen troops is just a symptom of his denial - no one is getting hurt (17,000 U.S. troops!) no one is dyeing (over a 1000 U.S Troops!) we are wanted there and we are doing good works ( thousands of dead Iraqi) No amount of facts or increased death toll will convince him that Iraq hasn't achieved Mayberry and isn't going to. He wants it to, so it shall and it must be Mayberrying it up at this very moment. If Iraq and Bushco are lucky, Iraq may one day achieve Detroit.

Iraq will never be Mayberry. But Bush understands Mayberry. He likes it there. Everything is clean, there are no black people, women know their place and a big affable popular guy is in charge.

Bush in Denial

link from Atrios
Coming and Going


We had another Going Away luncheon yesterday. We have these lot now. People come in, get trained, draw a few checks and then figure out it is not going to get any better and they will never get an office with a door. They either flee back to the private sector where they won't get a door either but will get a better check and less paperwork and probably better quality office supplies or they leave one state job for another state job hoping for at least a better maintained building to work in and maybe a computer running Windows 98. It's very sad.

They also retire, for a while no one left and no one came and it was kind of nice, I got to know names and put names to faces, which is hard for me. I really am not going to recognize you or remember your name unless I see you everyday and you have a reason to keep repeating your name to me. It takes a while but I can learn who you are. The smart people are leaving and we're hiring dumb people. The dumb people who are all ready here, never leave. They know they are dumb and kind of grasp that chances are, no one else will hire them. They're dumb, they aren't stuiped. Okay, a couple of them are stupid. The scary thing is these people once worked with actual patients. Lives were in their hands. These are people I don't trust to put paper into the copy machine correctly and once upon a time they gave injections and passed meds. I am reasonably sure that if they where not required to wear nametags, that they wouldn't know their own names. These are people with degrees!.

It took me a long time of working in healthcare to let go of the All Nurses Are Florence Nightingale idea. Most of them aren't even Flo from Alice. Kind of sad. But really, that's not very many of them. They work really hard, they get all the worst jobs to do and people treat them as little better then maids in scrubs. But for every ten that are brilliant and amazing and the light of goodness flows through them there is at least one that will get confused by her shoe laces and ends up tying herself to her chair. She works here.

What else. I saw an announcement in the church bulletin that said they would be holding a blessing of the animals next week in the church parking lot. I'm so there. I might even come early and camp out to make sure I get Mr. Kitty in there. I'm not all that worried about Dogger. Dogger is a happy well-adjusted, reasonably well behaved dog. She's going to be okay. She's a good dog, but she could be a better dog, a little holy water might keep her on the straight and narrow, Kitty on the other hand, Kitty needs help. He can't go through life only having one person he does not hate. I think he may need more then a blessing, I think he needs to be fully immersed.

Speaking of immersion, We're still waiting on Jeanne.

edited to add - Still waiting, but there as an email this morning asking for managers to give names of people who they would let volunteer for recovery efforts.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Tom Tom hearing the The Tom Toms

Tom Delay and his merry band of double dealing thugs are in trouble again. It looks like the GOPs second favorite Texan is fixing to be getting in trouble again. The money trail is heading back to the mothership. This is about even more soft money and "fees" in place of donations snaking its way back to GOP coffers. The tribe hooked up with the lobbyists, the tribe's donations to the GOP went up 500 percent. Once again Washington screwed the Indians. I heard the story on NPR, it sounded familiar because it is. Lobbyists, huge sums of money, money laundering...

from The Washington Post
One Nation Over All

Start looking for features on FAUX detailing shocking human rights abuses in Syria and stories in women's mags on how badly the women in Syria are treated and then wait for something or someone in Syria to get blown up.

Iran on the other hand, I'm really surprised we haven't all ready invaded. Even I do not care for Iran. But... the rethugs all ready owe Iran a favor for letting the hostages go under St. Reagan, so maybe they'll just get a stern warning. I mean, geeze, we all ready got Iraq, we want Syria and Iran. Bush wants the world to be a Khristan world, We could conceivably turn the entire middle east into Arkansas by 2007.

link from The Raw Story
Red States get hush money from the feds

Red States voted Bushco in and get much money from the feds. Blue States voted Gore and get dick from the feds.

So, Feds bribe Red States to stay Red I'm so shocked, because I thought all Rethuglicans prided themselves on being self made and not needing any help from anyone? Odd. In real life they are on welfare and need Unca Sams help. Poor little Welfare Kings.

from Tax Proof
See, if Shrub had just been a little curious

Who is Ayad Allawi? He's the ventriloquist dummy with the Bushits installed to head up the puppet govenment! Oh yeah, this is going to end well. I hope they wear protective clothing and gloves while the have him sitting on their knee. I have a feeling this little fella' bites.

thanks to Ken Layne.com and This Modern World
Not at all Curious George


Good op-ed piece in Newsday about Shrub

This is the moron who holds the presidency and is the de-facto leader of the free world:


It was, however, Bush's towering lack of intellect that defined him. "That (Bush) coasted on his family name was understandable," said Yale frat brother Tom Wilner. "Lots of guys do that. But Georgie, as we called him then, has absolutely no intellectual curiosity about anything. He wasn't interested in ideas or books or causes. He didn't travel; he didn't read the newspapers; he didn't watch the news ... How he got out of Yale without developing some interest in the world besides booze and sports stuns me."


He didn't want to know about those other places or those other people! If they weren't going to show up at The Club or as part of another foursome, who cares! He wasn't going to have to deal with those people. Shrub spent four years interested in getting drunk and doing cheerleaders, the newspaper used too many big words and the TV news didn't talk about anything he was interested in anyway. No wonder a nation of Reality TV fans think he's great! He doesn't know or care any more about the world then they do and probably has less of a world view then they have - they after all watched years of Survivor . Shrub lives his own version of a reality show, allegedly running without a script but with the "right" out come written in stone.


link found on Talk Left


A Blank Canvass


After weeks of emails to the PTB, I finally got my chance to Do The Right Thing, To Make A Difference. I went door to door for the Democrats and learned that there was no one at home.

Once I got to the office and finally found some one willing to tell me what to do, I get a brief How To lessen and a partner. I thought we would go door to door together, so that later on we could present an aligned front, so that I wouldn’t get stuck discussing the candidates religion and their church going schedule with little old ladies.

I thought that residential properties had to have their address out where they could be clearly visible - No, they do not. You don’t have to, not in the suburb I spent the day in. You don’t have to have it on your house, or on your curb or even on your mail box. I know why postal employees go postal - they can’t find the damn address’s of the homes they are supposed to deliver mail to and it makes them crazy. I was very crazy by the end of the day.

I learned that many, many, many people may not realize that they are actually registered as Democrats. I came to this conclusion after asking people “If The General Election Was Held Today, Would You Support The Kerry/Edwards Ticket or the Bush/Cheney Ticket? and having these registered Democrats tell me to my face they would vote Bush/Cheney.

We took the lists to our assigned neighborhoods and did our thing. My partner had done this before and didn’t have a problem standing at the door while the people tried to make him go away, I did have a problem with that. He got more complete data then I did but nobody told me to go to hell, so I think I won.

Moving on. At every door we were supposed to ask the following questions

Who are you going to vote for?
Do you really like him?
Kind of like him?
Sorta like him?
Really kind of not like him?
Hate him?
Would not piss on him if he were on fire.


At every door the same set questions for the candidates for senator and governor. It didn’t take many doors before I edited the questions down to “Who are you voting for?” if they answered Bush/Cheney I took off immediately and if they answered Kerry/Edwards I thanked them and took off immediately. I was there for the big election , I wasn’t fooling around with local issues. I decided they could extrapolate, Kerry = Democrat= Support for Dem candidates, Bush= Rethuglican=Support for Evil . I wasn’t going to try to throw holy water on those people.

We had about eighteen sheets of paper and a form to fill out on every person we talked to. The forms were designed for telephone canvassing and were not even trying to be what some one who was door to door canvassing might find in the least useful. I didn’t need a clip board I needed a desk and a couple of chairs.

Every door was another set of data points.

Home
Not at home
Call Back Later
Not Interested
Unavailable
Ordered off property
Set dogs on
Fired weapon

And if you couldn’t or wouldn’t answer your door

Moved
Out Of Town
Dead
Radio playing, no answer
Hiding behind drapes
Fallen and can’t get up

Raw Data

70 no answer
19 Kerry Voters
18 Bush Voters
1 Nader Voter
1 argument over heard where family members threatened to call "The Law" on each other over the custody of a computer
1 teary announcement of a newly deceased brother in law


Oldest voter on list - 90
Youngest voter on list - 38
Average age of voter on lists - 64

Amount of material on hand to give to senior voters on topic of interest to their demographic? None.

Amount of time spent out in heat , walking on pavement - 6 hours

As we were driving back to the office I asked if someone else was going back to talk to the many, many, many people we were not able to reach - my partner answered that he didn’t think so. We reached so few of them, why if we don’t really care? What is the point?

Interest in plodding around another distant neighborhood? None.
Interest in doing canvass in own neighborhood? Some

Sunday, September 26, 2004

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

Saturday, September 25, 2004

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

Friday, September 24, 2004

Liars!


WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee acknowledged this week that it distributed campaign literature in West Virginia and Arkansas warning voters that liberals want to ban the Bible.

When reporters asked about the mailings on Sept. 17, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie said he wasn't aware of the material and did not confirm that it was distributed by the GOP. However, Gillespie said it "could be the work" of the party.

Contacted Friday by The Associated Press, party spokeswoman Christine Iverson said the GOP had already acknowledged it was the source of the mass mailings.

The literature claims that "the liberal agenda includes removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance" and shows a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it. It also shows a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word "ALLOWED," a reference to same-sex marriage.

The mailing tells people to "vote Republican to protect our families" and defeat
the "liberal agenda."


the same spokesman would not confirm or deny that if elected, the republicans plan to outlaw the Bill of Rights and reinstitution slavery. When questioned about reputed extra marital affairs that Dick Cheney was believed to have had, the spokesman refused to confirm or deny that Dick Cheney did have an affair with a standard poodle named CoCo and that he has performed sex acts on an unneutered tom cat named Patriot.
Touche'

I got one of those forwarded emails the other day from a Well Meaning Friend. The email was all about how bad those commie liberal types are and how good the God fearing republicans are. Okay, my friend is well meaning, but the email was hateful and it annoyed me. I didn't have anything to send back in reponse until today. I found this and I all ready sent it to my Well Meaning Friend.

"A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."


from South Knox Bubba
Chill out for the Gipper, er, Michael Moore

link stolen from from Head and Heart

Michael Moore says Do Not Freak Out

A good message to get. It sounds so bad out in the media, the world is coming to and end and Shrubs minons are sharpening their few teeth and are slobbering for a chance to get up close and personal with our "pretty little mouths".

Moore is right when he says we have to be like them - sharklike in our pursuit of victory. We need it, we want and it will be ours. We must keep moving, we must keep working, we must not let them stop us. We can't let their media and their mind games fool us into defeat. They aren't going to beat us here, we are the only ones who are going to beat us.

We must not, can not, let them and their lap dogs in the conservative media lead us down the garden path with their right wing drum beat of dispair to fool us into depression and defeatism. We are Right and They are Wrong and don't ever forget it.
The type of person who would vote for Bush

This is who Bush wants to keep happy this is his "Base"

Thanks to Blast Off! and Atrios
I Love My Job, vol. 2

I was hiding in my office allegedly waiting for the !@#$% brand new @#$%^ copy machine to cool down so I could make more copies - but really I was in my office because my feet hurt from standing too long and I also kind of wanted to check my email. But anyway, I was at my desk (my first mistake). I should have been hiding in the ladies room - anyway, my phone rang - (my second mistake) I should have let the machine pick it up - but, I picked it up.

Me - Hi, this is Diana, how may I help you? (I am all about phone courtesy)

Member of the public - I need to find a nursing home for my husband within X miles of X County.

Me - Do you have Internet service? (Because If you want me to send you a list, frankly, your husband may not have that long)

MOTP - No, but my son in law does.

Me - Okay! (ex-cellent) Here's the addy Nursing Home Compare (I'm about ready to hang up now)

MOTP - Okay; now here is my problem.

Me - ( ohGodOhGodOhGod) Okay! damndamndamn - when ever they want to tell me anything, its' always something I don't want to hear. I always end up regretting I answered the phone. Sometimes they end up crying about why Mama or Grandma needs to go to a home that is not theirs and they feel so bad about the whole thing and they are starting to mourn this person all ready and they feel bad and I feel like dying because all I can do is send them to the site. I am going to go to hell for not telling people the facility they are interested in because its close to them - is a snake pit. Sometimes they give me a choice

1.) Snake Pit
2) Chamber of Horrors
3) Not Fit for a Dog

And all I can say is "All Nursing Homes Are Different" if I get lucky I can find really good complaint allegations to read to them, the really shitty homes have a lot, they aren't all substantiated so that leaves the few allegations we could prove and to the people on the phone as long as they don't hear "Facility Failed to Prevent Resident to Resident Murder" or "Facility Failed to Prevent Staff to Resident Sexual Abuse" , as far as they are concerned it sounds like a good place. So, I'm totally going to hell.

She went on to tell me that the reason she needs nursing home placement for her husband who has Alzheimer's and is now in a psyche ward because one day a few weeks ago, he grabbed her by the throat, slammed her into a wall and told her he was going to "break her fucking neck". She needs placement for him because she can't have him at home anymore.

She went on to add that she quit her job a couple of years ago to care for him and now gets only a small portion of her pension and she's raising her teen age granddaughter and she only gets X amount of money each month to live on and how is she going to pay for a nursing home? And who is going to hire a fifty-something year old woman?…

It was pretty much at this point that I wanted to throw myself down whatever flight of stairs I could find. The only thing I could do for this woman was make sympathetic noises and send her to the site. Because ya know, the site is going to solve all her problems.

My feet? still hurt, my head? now pounding. I .Love.My.Job.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

W stands for...

Well, it doesn't stand for women, that's for damn sure unless it stands for Standing By while our reproductive rights get stripped from us, but here is what W really stands for.


lifted from CopyGodd
Insert Title Here


The TV season has finally gotten started. I haven't watched this much network TV since, well, the season ended. I've spent the summer watching a lot of HGTV, BBC America and Comedy Central. Lately I've gotten hooked on The History Channel. I never knew there was so much programming on about WW2. I watched an interesting show on the child soldiers of Nazi Germany. Very sad. It didn't go into enough what became of these children after the war. They did interview several former child soldiers, but they didn't ask them how they went from being brain washed bazooka toting wack jobs to being useful members of post war society. They didn't seem to be wearing prison uniforms, so I guess the three or four they talked to must have figured out a way to carry on. It was really sad though. The child soldiers did make excellent little gun toting proto-psychos though, they fought to the death - their own mostly, but they managed to gave the Red Army and US Troops hell too - it was however, always a bad idea for the BWBTWJs to give hell to the guys in the tanks though. The show said the Nazi's kept the adult soldiers, the "real" soldiers away from the BWBTWJs because the adults were smart enough to get away from the tanks and they didn't want the BWBTWJs to know that the "real" soldiers didn't want to die.

So far I have watched all the nets. Well, not the netlets because now that Joss Wheadon has left the building I don't have to watch UPN or WB ever, ever, ever again, thank gawd! And if I could I would block them along with FAUX News - which I can't, I just have to ignore them. It's not hard. I don't fit into their demographics so they don't program for me anyway. Yay!

I did watch CBS for the first time in months. I still hate Les Moonves but I love Dan Rather, anyway, CSI Miami started back on Monday and since I didn't have anything better to do, I watched it. They killed off one of the guys. I read a yahoo group and they were all a twitter and wringing their hankies about how sad they were now. Now? I said to myself, you are sad now? Those people are sad all the time; they don't need much excuse. They all reported crying their little eyes out over the "death". Yeah. The guy got shot because he didn't clean his gun and it misfired. I think it is an analogy to what is going to happen to his career. You would think with the Bad Career Choice posterboy on the set that he might have been a little more circumspect about his "movie career". Actors can be very dumb sometimes. Anyway, I didn't cry and neither did the actual characters on the show. Not a wet eye in the house. The funeral scene was, um, less then funereal. Whatever.

I'm going to do a little VCR hokey-pokey tonight so I can tape CSI-NY while I'm watching Law and Order on at the same time. There is also Rescue me, a far better show then either of the others on at the same time, but it repeats at 11pm, so I can tape it then. I also want to watch Reno 911 at 10:30, but that also repeats later so I can tape it too. Wednesdays are a busy TV night all of a sudden. Reno 911 ends tonight so after this week, I'll have less to tape. I'm also going to try to remember to watch That 70s Show at 8pm. Wow. Good thing I don't have homework anymore.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Rain,Rain Go away!...please? go away! way the hell out to sea? okay?

Hurricane Jeanne graphic
Hot Stuff!

You may have heard about Tom Delay having a little trouble? Here it is. And its a big'un. The Texas Indictments taken from The First Draft.

Okay, most of those on the surface are jist good ol' boys doin' bidness but along with those GOB are eight companies. One of those companies is Westar. Follow the link below to a smoking gun.

Ow! It's hot! And the smoke is hurting my eyes! - Weststar memo with instructions on who to pay off and how much for what. Its a PDF file, but call it up and read it. You want to know how to make the government work for you? Write a republican a check. Link taken from Public Citizen

Along with those GOB are eight companies. The biggest Good Ol' Boy in the line up is the GOP itself -

The Republican National Committee - the money laundering charges stem from TRM-PAC's efforts to avoid the law. Corporate checks were bundled together and transferred to the Republican Party, who then cut checks for TRM-PAC for the exact same amount as the corporate donations. Both Ellis and Colyandro were indicted for this practice, but someone at the national level will have to take the fall as well. from The First Draft

Where is Woodward and Bernstein when you really, really, really need
them?

Thank you! Atrios
Thank you! The First Draft
Thank You! Public Citizen

These are the people standing between us and a totalitarian state.

All of the above all together in the same place easier to understand. Lifted from Off the Kuff

Doggers dogs are barking

I noticed the other day that Dogger was trying to pretend she wasn't limping. She kept slipping up on the whole "I'm really not limping" thing and kind of listing to one side.

When we got home I trapped her in a corner and tried to look at her feet. She got away. I tried again to get her in a position where I could study her paws and she got away again. I was beginning to understand the wisdom behind hospital gowns and its not just having your behind on display - where are you going to go, dressed like that? I finally tricked her into her box and followed her in. This she was not expecting. She couldn't get away but she looked as though she was studying the floor of the crate as if to see if she might be able to dig her way past me. Sadly, No.

After being pretty sure I got to look at most of her paws, she was making it hard -she kept taking them away from me and changing positions like she was playing some kind of doggy shell game. It took a while but I finally found the offending paw and noted that she had a patch about the size of a dime missing. Ow. I went to go find my Handy Dandy Doggy first aid kit but I couldn't find it. I ended up trying to wash the area with soap and water and failed. She did not want her foot doctored. She wanted to lick it. A Lot. I remembered Brosky and Alphagal are storing a dog halo thingy at my house and I went to go get it. They look so easy to put on, Ha! What is easy about them is getting them off. I put it on and Dogger had it off before I was out of the room. I took it away and made a note to keep an eye on her foot and go to the store if she kept up the limping.

We finally went on a walk and by the time we came back she was limping on both sides, after another round of hide the paw I found a spot about the size of a pea on one of her front paws. She really objected to soap and water this time. Tough, I'm still taller and she still hasn't found a way to telaport herself out of her crate.

I finally made it to the pet store to pick up more bitter apple and restock my Handy Dandy Doggy first aid kit. So, now I'm heavily armed in my fight against infection! I have peroxide, I have triple antibiotic cream and I have bitter apple! I even bought a fresh bag of cotton balls. I was ready to doctor!

Dogger was also ready. She was in her box making herself as small as possible while managing to hide all four of her feet, she was moving around by standing on her toes and thinking of Swan Lake. That was good, but not good enough. After a lot of bitching and whining on her part I got both paws doctored I decided she was going on the IR list for at least another week.

I think between the peroxide and the antibiotic stuff I can get those paws healed up sooner rather then later. I'm also going to brush her teeth twice a week and get her bathed. Dogger will be so excited! Teeth brushing wound cleaning, soapy bath and no walks! If I'm lucky she won't contract The Kitty to kill me in my sleep.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

How low can you go

Nixon had Segretti and Bush has Stone? And to think, Shrub wasn't much of a student at school. Some one was paying attention, too bad they were fans of the wrong team. Pay attention to this children, history has a dirty habit of repeating itself. Don't let this generations dirty republican get elected. Vote the bastard out before he brings the presidency down.

thanks to Atrios
Things are getting So. Much. Better. In. Iraq.

Islamist Web site reports beheading of second U.S. hostage held by group loyal to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

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

So where is this Iraq where "freedom" is so near? is their another Iraq the Bushits have in mind? an Iraq, MS or and Iraq, FA or maybe in Upstate New York somewhere? where is the good news about Iraq in Iraq?
Groan

Today at lunch a van passed by with ISLAM KILLS printed in big block letters on the back door. I would bet the driver totally identifies as a "Christian", I mean I suppose the driver could be Jewish, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you see Jewish people doing, or Buddhist people or Hindu people.

I think the driver and people like him should have their own religion, Khristian. They could bypass the commandments they find unworkable like the one about loving each other... And save the rest of the actual Christians the black eye those people give to the religion and it's followers.

Why or why couldn't I have a found a nice Blue State to move to?
Dumbness uber alles

Flight canceled because passenger found evil middle eastern language in on-flight mag!

from CNN.com
Not all races are neck and neck

Obama leads Keys by 45 percent! take that! evil GOP brownshirts! HA!!!

thanks to The Raw Story
The Emmys

Old news you say? We know what happened? Well, whatever.

Notes from the couch

Garry Shandling is so bad. So very bad, was there no one else available? Is this a rerun and its really 1999? Who picked him? Why? I mean, if you are going retro enough to go for Shandling, what about Dana Carvey or somebody?

Okay, first presenters. SJP and Chris Noth. He asks her to "marry" him. Why? Who wrote this? Ew. Just read the names. We have a winna! David Hyde Pierce for Fraiser, his fourth in 11 noms. He does have a great quote though "They say comedy is changing, call me when it changes back".

An ad for LAX, NOPE.

Next trophy goes to some guy from the Sopranos first of about 11,000 HBO wins. I took Kitty downs stairs when his speech started. I came back and he was still talking. The orchestra got better at playing them off as the night progressed. They got down right snippy as the night went on.

Back from commercials. Oh, more Shandling. Damn. Why yes, Reality TV does take jobs from professional actors. We. Get. It.

Next trophy. Actress from Sex and the City. Can’t watch, don’t care. Blah. HBO.

Okay, the kid from The Hogan Family now in Arrested Development, gay? Terri Hatcher looks like a dressed corpse. She looks awful.

Little skit with writing staffs of nominated shows. I had no idea there were women on the Sex and the City writing team, I thought it was all done by gay men. Color me shocked. Also? Bored.

Arrested Development is doing well, maybe I should watch it. Amber Tamberlyns dress is awful!

Oh, another HBO win. Drea Dematteo wins. Another show I can’t watch and don’t care about. Yawn.

Now, we have three kids from Dawsons Creek West. Blah. Many, many wins for Angels in America it totally deserves it. Yay for the good guys.

Now we have Real People to award the Reality TV shows. The people look shocked. Its not a nice thing to do to someone. It was a interesting idea but not a good one.

Yay John Stewart!! Go The Daily Show!! I forgive them for beating SNL .

Sharon Stone looks like ass, speaking of looking , is Marisa Haggerty wearing an old dress of her late mothers? Kinda creepy.

Matt Lablanc is so not interesting. He is a very big, well dressed, wet blanket. Go away Matt! I like Joey, I find you dull.

Dennis Franz! Yay! I lurve Dennis Franz. I think we should just give him an Emmy every year just because.

More wins for HBO.


Edie Falcos dress made her look H U G E. A win for SJP. Whatever. Why do they introduce her by name checking her husband? they didn’t do that with the men. HBO.

Okay. Kelsey Grammar, Yay! NBC.

James Spader?! Dayum. Andrew McCarthy and Judd Nelson must just want to kill themselves. This has been a very Brat Pack evening. Spader wins, Sutherland nominated, Ducky and Charlie Sheen present... man. Poor Blaine.

Meryl Streep! Yay, More Angels! HBO.

Arrested Development wins for best comedy. FOX. Glen Close either won or presented for Angels, she looks like she had work done but I like her dress.

Sopranos wins, orchestra plays of the lead .

11pm - Over. Wow. An awards show that ended on time. It’s kind of out of the ordinary. Was this show directed by Mussolini?

Monday, September 20, 2004

We Don't Do these sorts of things

Why do we even have to say that internment is bad?

We all know it. We feel bad for being fearful during the war.We knew we did a bad thing ... but Oblviously, things change.

What a difference a few years under a corrupt administration can make, the same man wrote both those peices.

We don't do those things because We Are Americans and we stand up for people who are interned, we rescue people in that situation. We do not put them in that situation. Who is going to rescue us?

thanks to Atrios and Is That Legal?




Freedom is marching in Iraq, marching in jack boots

An Islamist Web site shows video of an American hostage being beheaded in Iraq.

Watch CNN or log on to CNN.com for the latest news.
Speaking of voters registration...

If you aren't registered, Go here keep in mind this election will come down to your vote. If you don't vote or you vote for a write in or you really throw your vote away and cast a vote for Nader - you are voting for George W. Bush. Every vote not cast is a vote for George W. Bush. If he wins we all lose.
Admin closes oversease voter registration site 'cause of fear of terr'sts

PARIS In a decision that could affect Americans abroad who are not yet registered to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Pentagon has begun restricting international access to the official Web site intended to help overseas absentee voters cast ballots.


Could it be they don't want every American to vote? could This Administration (or it's paid lackys) be standing in the way of every American's right to vote? does This Administration have a desire to shat on the Constitution and piss on the the Bill Of Rights? Damn Straight - because The Propagation of Fear is a cornerstone of the GOP Platform and if we are not afraid we might not vote them back into office and all of this is to protect This Administration.

from The International Herald Tribune

and thanks to The America Blog
Getting Brushed Off

I was supposed to spend Saturday out canvassing. I was ready too. My rain suit arrived, I remembered to wake myself up and get ready early and all I was waiting for was what I went to bed waiting for - Where and When. I needed to know where they wanted me to go and when they wanted me to get there. We went zero for two on that one. This is the second time they wussed on me. I’m sure when I finally get in touch with them, they will say “Oh, it was raining and we thought we would do it another day”. The last time I checked I was not water soluble and neither are they. They also make this things called rain coats. Amazing, this modern technology . They could have called me and told me that and said we would do it say, Sunday, when it was gorgeous. A beautiful day and because it was the first day in a long time it was pretty, a lot of people were at home and out in the yard. It would have been nice. But No. I don’t know if the local dems are just stupid or they think the candidates can get themselves elected. Newsflash, They Can’t.

Since I was up and around early on Saturday I took Dogger for a ride in Minnie and went to fill the tank. On the way back I passed the new Wal-Mart and thought I might need something.

What I found there was a health check table. My inner tinhat had the idea it was a way for The Government to check and see if all the noise about weight gain and it’s related evils were having any affect ( looking at the folks at the Wal-Mart? Not much) on the masses. My outer bargain hunter had the idea that blood pressure check, cholesterol screening and glucose testing for FREE was too good a deal to pass up. Good news, I’m with in normal limits on all counts. Yay me!

Before I want to the screening, I went looking for something to put on Doggers sore foot to keep her for licking it. I need some bitter apple and I thought Wal-Mart would carry it. No, no they don’t. They do carry doggy toothbrushes and tooth paste. I remembered the last time we went to the vet she threatened me with a tooth cleaning for Dogger and that would cost a fortune. A toothbrush and toothpaste only set me back $2.

But before her teeth look better they have to be brushed. The instructions suggested putting a dab of the paste on the toothbrush and letting her eat it off. After she (presumably) got very excited by the nummy beef flavored paste, I was instructed to get with the brushing.
How it actually worked.

Me - Mmmmm! Yummy eat, eat Dogger! Num!

Dogger - Yuck. Ew, Ew, ew! Get this nasty taste out of my mouth. Yuck. I want to some water now. Good thing I’m never going to taste that again.

Me - Open your mouth.

Dogger - Nooooooo!

Me - Mmm! Good stuff! ( forcing open Doggers jaws) brush, brush, brush)

Dogger - Why do you hate me? Get out of my mouth! Those are my teeth! Have you checked your breath lately? Get away from me!

Me - Are these all your teeth? Don’t you have more? Let me get to those! (brush, brush, brush)

Dogger - Gaw! Get that thing out of my mouth!

Me - Finished! Twice a week for fresher breath and healthy teeth!

Dogger - I’ll learn to gum my food.

List of Emmy winners

from cnn.com

Sunday, September 19, 2004

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

Saturday, September 18, 2004

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!

Friday, September 17, 2004

Another rethuglican lie

The GOP has no shame now the Dems are going to have to say "No, we won't ban the Bible! because you know there are people who will hear about those letters from their preachers and believe that if Brother George Bush says it, it's true. If the protostalinists in the White House can make up crap like that, I can too.

If the GOP is sent back to the White House they are planning to open "re-education camps" to house those critical of the administrations' policies
Rain, rain go away

Ivan is here! Yay...

edited to add - it got really ugly and rained like a bastard and then it stopped and got bright-er and then it got really, really dark and windy and kind of spit at us for a little while and now its back to being bright gray, okay out one window it's "bright gray" through another window it's midnight. It looks like I'll get a chance to try out my whiz-bang new rain suit sooner then I had thought, Dogger will be thrilled, not.
Ah HA!

That nasty little dweeb who kicked that woman at the RNC may have been IDed. There was some throught he may be the son of a noted right wing gas bag radio "personality", but as it turns out it there is a better chance that it is This guy and, he very well might blog here.


with thanks to Jesus General and even bigger thanks to Reason.com
Dear Answer Dogs


Answer Dogs,

Hi. What is it with you dogs and things that smell bad? Why does stink make you so happy, and why do you have to roll in it? Stop licking my dirty socks!



Signed,
Ick



Dear Ick,

Bandit is our first respondent to your question -

We lick our own butts; "stink" is not really a problem for us. It's not "stink" anyway. Its complicated world of minor differences to texture and layers of odor. We dogs have noses that have approximately 215 million more scent receptors in our nose's then you in your puny human nose. You are a human, you don't know about smells. You can hardly smell your own smells much less other humans smells and then you wear something that smells really odd to cover up your smell - It doesn't work very well, okay? Give it up. To you all sofa cushions smell the same. You more or less smell a dead then and to you it is just a dead thing! We smell its time of death, who has been there and how much longer the dead thing is going to keep out the welcome mat. How do you get through the day? You can't smell fear; you have to look at the moon to see what phase it's in. Nature means nothing to you. Why haven't you died out yet? You're pathetic. So, if someone is licking your dirty sock… chill out! Maybe you should share your day better, all the dog animal is doing is trying to find out what you have been doing with out the dog animal, where you went with out the dog animal and who else you met with out the dog animal. If you were more open with your dog animal or would take your dog animal with you when you went places, and then let your dog animal fully explore the place where you are - I would be willing to bet your socks would be less licked.

As to rolling. You don't get it; you don't want to get it. I'm not going to tell you but I can share that it has a lot to do with hunting skills and our capacity to take care of ourselves in the wild. Unlike you, who would just die.


Dogger is next up

I don't lick foot bags. Those are to chew and destroy. The best foot bag is a chewed foot bag. I want foot bag flavored cookies. Mmmmmm. Cookies. Humans can't smell things, they can't find things. Mommy was trying to find a dead thing in the yard one time and she couldn't find it. I knew where it was, it was right there how could she miss it? She made an ugly face and scared me. I thought that I made her mad! I tried to tell her where the dead thing was but she put me inside. Mommy searched all over. I could have told her where it was. Mommy is dumb sometimes. Dead thing flavored cookies! Mmmmmm! . When we go on walks Mommy walks too fast, Mommy doesn't smell things. I'm sad for Mommy. Mommy won't let me coat myself with the entrails of my dead enemies. She says I don't live in the forest and I'm not a hunter, I have no enemies and I do not need to smell like my dead enemies in order to find my own thing to make into a dead thing. Mommy gives me peanut flavored cookies. I love Mommy!


Next we have Winston

Socks taste good! Okay? They taste good! They taste like you and it allows us to be with you, to be closer to you. We lick because we love.


Love,

The Answer Dogs

"Winston" and "Bandit" (which are really their nom de "Ask The Answer Dogs"), have started their own blog! you can keep up with them all at - The Dog Blog

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Truth in Bloggertizing?


I was skimming Wonkette today and saw this story which was really about this story. The whole CBS memo meme came from Bloggers? The GOP checked out some war bloggers webring and took whatever the 101st Fighting Keyboarders had to say and took it as gospel.

I’m a Blogger, chances are you’re a Blogger. I don’t know about you but I don’t have a supervisor to check my work. You may have a crack team of paid fact checkers to cover your ass but the only one standing up for my veracity is me and I’ll post just about anything. If it comes from a good source, I’m all over it. If that source gets screwed, or if that source is like Drudge and is so gullible he posted that “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary well, ya know its just a blog and its’ not like bloggers have any sworn duty to the reading public. We’re not the actual media. We’re better then the media, we don’t have the specter of “Journalistic Credibility” hanging over our heads. We also don’t have, most of us, the administrations hand down our pants either, ya know like the rest of the “Credible Journalists”.

But apparently, some Bloggers are now journalists. Some bloggers are all about facts and figures and intimate knowledge of archaic typewriters. Okay. Now if they can create news, I can too.

Here is my news.

I have heard some people talking ( well, I was talking to myself, but there is an echo).

People are saying that back a few years ago Dick Cheney had an affair with a standard poodle named CoCo - Even more shocking, just last year he had a sex thing with an tom cat named Patriot. I guess I shouldn't go into the acts he performed on Patriot?


The hand that rocks the keyboard rules the world.
How to torpedo morale The Army Way

Supporting the troops?
from Atrios

Soldiers' choice at Fort Carson

WHAT THE FORM SAID

"Elect not to extend or re-enlist and understand that the soldier will be reassigned IAW (in accordance with) the needs of the Army by Department of the Army HRC (Human Resources Command) . . . or Fort Carson G1 (Personnel Office)."

WHAT IT MEANS

- Soldiers who sign the letter are bound to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team until Dec. 31, 2007.
-Soldiers who do not sign the letter might be transferred out of the brigade and possibly to Iraq.


Yeah, the GOP doesn't want to draft newbies because that would really suck on the domestic front. They are showing their support for the troops by letting them stay troops indefinitely! - you know, when you lurve someone so much you can't stand to have them leave? That's how they feel about the men and women in our armed services. They just can't stand the thought of losing any of them...*


*unless they die or get injured and then they show their love and support by lovingly ignoring them.
Dick Cheney, Terrorist Sympathizer?


On a couple of occasions, Dick Cheny, more or less called America a "Big Ol' Mean Poopyhead" And said terrorist nations were really just "Misunderstood fluffy bunnies".*

Full story here

thanks to Atrios




Vwerry Interestink


More bad news for shrub

from The Raw Story
The Offical State Instructions on How To Go To Sleep (on your own time)



Sleep Hygiene: Helpful Hints to Help You Sleep

Poor sleep habits (referred to as hygiene) are a very common problem. Paying attention to good sleep hygiene is the most important thing you can do to maintain good sleep. See below for some sleep hygiene measures that may help promote sleep.

? Get up and go to bed the same time every day.

? Discontinue caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, sodas, etc.) intake four to six hours before bedtime and minimize total daily use. Caffeine is a stimulant and may disrupt sleep.

? Avoid nicotine, especially near bedtime and on night awakenings. It is also a stimulant.

? Avoid the use of alcohol in the late evening to facilitate sleep onset. Alcohol can cause awakening later in the night.

? Avoid heavy meals too close to bedtime, since this may interfere with sleep. A light snack may be sleep inducing.

? Regular exercise in the late afternoon may deepen sleep. Vigorous exercise within three to four hours of bedtime may interfere with sleep.

? Minimize noise, light, and excessive temperatures during the sleep period.

? Avoid napping during the day.

? Get regular exposure to outdoor or bright lights, especially in the late afternoon.

? Use a relaxation exercise just before going to sleep (muscle relaxation, massage, warm bath, etc.).

? If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and participate in a quiet activity until you feel sleepy.


And if that doesn't work try:

AMBIEN, DALMANE, RESTORIL,
DORAL, SONATA,
HALCION! - isn't this tied to all kinds of bad behaiver by users? they want to give State Employees Halcion?



I think you should have a life vest on before diving into Ebay

I was driving into work this morning when I thought I could have worn a jacket, first time this fall I've thought that. It bodes badly. I don't want to be cold again. I'm not ready. Just because I have flannel shirts and long johns does not mean I want to have to wear them. I should have known even before it was chilly this morning that it was getting closer to winter. I was browsing on Ebay, more on that later, but there I was and I started thinking about walking the dog when its winter and how cold I always was, or really how cold everything below my waist inevitably was and I started to think that what I really needed was a longer winter coat. The more of me that is not cold the better and the longer I am not cold the longer a walk Dogger would end up getting and it is all about the Dogger. I also thought it might be nice for the coat I wear to work to not be covered in paw prints and dried dog spit.

So I started searching. There weren't many that filled my request. I thought the world was full of full-length women's coats. Sadly, no. The world is full of parkas that go to the waist and various blazers-jackets that aren't but want you to think they are actually coats. I finally found The One, it was cute, it was pink , came with a hood and it was cheap. I put a bid on it and waited. No one wanted that jacket until the last 14 seconds. Some bitch stole my coat. Action Sniping, Stealing. Tomato Tamato. Some bitch stole my coat.

So I had to keep looking. I found another one, light blue, hood but after the snipping incident the bloom was off the full-length women's coat bloom. I put a little bitty bid on it … and nobody wanted it! good thing I did, cause now it's mine! .

It's dangerous in the Ebay. It's deep water and the currents will kill you. I think there should be lifeguards stationed.

On yet another dip in the bay I found a very nice sheet set, it, I will make excellent curtain material for Camp Knottypine. It has the right colors; the right pattern and should have enough fabric. The pillowcases have lovely moose that look just like the moose on my wallpaper border.

Those wins made me go back into the water with renewed purpose. I started to think a while back that what I would like and actually, need is rain gear. I mean, walking the dog is a 365-day job. She has to go regardless of how hard its raining and if I had a proper suit I could go out with out thinking nasty thoughts about her. Which is nice. I found a suit for $2.99, $5 to my door. Not bad.

And so that it doesn't seem like I'm drowning in the Bay. I ordered two books from a used book site with Amazon, together to my door, $9. My Ebaying thus far, total, $25 - for a set of king sized sheets and a rain suit. Not bad . Total out of pocket? $35 to my door! .

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

I am so proud

While I was at work today Dogger and The Kitty started their own blogs. Page down for the entries.
22 Million single women did not vote in 2000

WAKE UP! What are you waiting for? for some man to tell you how to vote? wondering who Bridget Jones would vote for while you sit on your ass knitting cat cozies with your chick lit book club isn't the same as voting yourself. Get out there and count.
Vote like you care about your rights



To: EnviroMate Insulation
13855 Court Street
Moulton, Alabama 35650
Phone: 800.339.3531
Email Address: service@alcosystems.com

Dear Sirs,

Pursuant with the Freedom of Information Act I request the following documents be made available to me as quickly as possible.

I was shocked to read a story in the press, which said in so many words that your business is a communists controlled company and are in league with other Stalinists.

Repblican Employer pisses on Bill Of Rights

In the interest of getting the full and complete story, would you please respond with the following details? I am on an online columnist and I intend to fully cover this outbreak of communism on our shores. As a devoted American, I do feel that it is important to give both sides of an issue, even if one of the sides is the side of communism and Stalin.

To that end, I request the following:

1) A formal statement regarding your version of events leading to the termination of this employee.

2) A formal statement regarding your company's policy on the expression of political speech on the premises of this business (both by the employer and employees, if different) and whether or not this policy is available for view by all employees.

3) A copy of your written termination policies.

4) A statement that you thoroughly investigated and documented the reasons for termination, and a copy of that documentation.

5) A list of options to termination which were presented to the employee (Such as removing her bumper sticker)

6) A written statement of opportunities given the employee for corrective action.

7) A copy of any minutes or records of the termination meeting with the employee

8) A copy of your last evaluation of termination procedures

9) A statement as to whether the employee was ever warned prior to the event which led to her termination that any viewpoints not shared by her employer would not be tolerated, whether such viewpoints were expressed orally or in writing (as in the case of a bumpersticker).

4) A written statement detailing other expressions of speech which are not allowed orally or in writing on the premises (for example, bumper stickers of a religious nature, advocating or expressing pride in a particular sexual orientation, etc.?

I'd appreciate your filling this request as quickly as is possible. I do respect your right to do business, even though you are a communist.


Yours,

Diana, Online Columnist
http://www thedianaverse.blogspot.com


snail mailed 9-14-04


most of the text and all of the idea from:
This is what I think snagged with permission. You too can write your own letter or take the text from this one. Cut and paste! add your own ideas! You have the address, do it.


Edited to add - Happy News! , still? write or email EnviroMate Insulation, because they can't be told enough times by enough people that they were WRONG.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Black is the new black

I’m going through my closet. I’m trying to find something to wear tomorrow and because I live by myself, I have have this conversation with myself.

How about this?

Too Black

”Too Black?” Its to wear to a funeral!

Where the hell did I get widows weeds?

How about this?

Yeah. That’ll put the “fun” back in funeral. Next!

What do you want to wear?

How about this blouse and my black sweater vest and a pair of black slacks or I could wear my black skirt?

No, the jacket is too suit -y to wear like that. It would need to be a different style

The slacks then.

Where is my black sweater vest? I could swear I just wore it.

In the summer? Why did I wear a black sweater vest?

It worked, okay?

Where is it? Damn. This was going to be a good outfit.

How about the black blazer?

Kind of black on black and, hot.

Take it off

“Would you like the see the wine list?”

I have scarfs! I have a very tasteful black and white scarf! Or I have that other one, I really like the other one

It doesn’t work with the theme.

Okay. White blouse, black slacks, black blazer, white and black scarf. Good.

All day they’ re going to be asking why you’re all dressed up.


All day I’ll tell them why.



My cousin June died on Thursday and today we are burying her. I wasn’t able to make it to the funeral - death just doesn’t take other peoples schedules into account at all . So, since I can not actually go, I can at least be there in spirit. I can dress for it.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Law and Order?

Instead of protecting our streets and making sure we're safe here is what congress is doing tomorrow. Proving once again that keeping the gun lobby happy is more important to your elected official then the safety of you and your family.Contact your rep and let them know the gun lobby can't vote for them and with this kind of nonsense, you won't vote for him or her either .

from Jay Inslee site

lifted from Carl-Ballard.com

GOP says "oops"


Bushites didn't turn Glorious Leaders paperwork in on time?

"Democrats say the president may have missed Florida's filing deadline, but say they don't plan a challenge."

Gawd!!! mince, mince, mince. It's crap like this that keep us out of office. We, as Dems can be so namby-pamby and afraid of a fight, so afraid of growing a backbone, so afraid of, oh! my! gawd! Insulting somebody or even worse the voters getting the wrong impression of us? What, that we have a backbone? That we care enough to stand up for ourselves? Jeebus! What happened to our outrage?!

from The St.Petersberg Times

lifted from South Knox Bubba


GOP Talking points sent to talk radio?

GOP wetworks? it sounds like something they should not be doing, but why aren't the dems doing this? Its a great idea! Shifty, underhanded and wrong, but a great idea. Being rewarded in heaven for being good is nice and all, but Dayum! The Repukes will eventually go to hell, they will all be holding office before they go.

from Mydd.com
Because there is nothing like hunting humans

Weapon ban folds today Two groups celebrate by shooting into the air.

1. Shrub and the NRA go hand in hand to their favorite Gun N' Knife show to stock up on new ways to kill, um, terrorists* and those sneaky deer, faster!

2. And Gang Bangers weary of only killing a couple of people at a time and having to work so hard to do so! Now can leave the nightmare of carpal tunnel behind them and now plain to kill many more people much more efficiently!

* - as long as they aren't right wing domestic terrorists! Must not annoy the Base!
Why can’t weekends always be three day?


I found a good project I’m going to do once it starts raining. It’s good to stock pile up a lot of tasks that need to be done once you can’t go outside. I think my first rainy day task is going to be my linen closet or my shed or the entry ways or finding out what the cat chews on under the bed at night. It's good to keep busy. Not right now, but at some point in the future.

All I was looking for in the linen closet was the pillow cases that went with the sheets I had all ready pulled out and it ended up being kind of like an episode of National Geographic Presents only with fewer Peruvian mummies and no under water shots of the Titanic. Its kind of a mess. But again, a good project for when its too cold/rainy to go outside unless its cold and rainy and Christmas shopping season and then it will have to wait for me to have nothing else to do. I always have something else to do. For instance, I can make dog cookies at the drop of a hat and I have a lot of magazine subscriptions - I could possibly have missed a breaking story about the love live or eating habits of the Olsin Twits. I might just decide that the linen closet is something I’ll try not to think about. Its all about priorities.

It was also too pretty this weekend to vacuum my living room. I was going to but then it ended up being pretty and sunny and not hot. A book I have been waiting for finally arrived and I really needed to read it out on porch so that I could keep an eye on the new renters. Yes, we have new contestants! The point of the game is to see how long they last, how much damage they do and how long it takes to re-rent the place after they get kicked out. It’s fun.

With this set of renters I decided to get them registered. I didn’t have any registration forms around the house and I was afraid I was going to forget I wanted to do it. But, Gawd wanted these people registered. He made the church run a voters drive after the masses and that allowed me to pick up the form and give it to them. I’m not sure I gave it to the right person. There seems to be a mix of generations over there and I gave the form to the oldest person I could see hanging around in the yard. I even stamped it for her and wrote in the address of the election board. Maybe she will fill it out, I would have waited for her to do it in front of me but they were all going somewhere and she took it with her. I remembered to wear my YDNC women’s caucus tee shirt when I handed it to her. Go Me!

Speaking of the YDNC. We had a BBQ-Get Out The Vote event this weekend. There wasn’t much BBQ and we didn’t get anyone to vote. I’m not sure we fulfilled our goals. We did have the worlds most depressing lefty band play though, and nothing gets people fired up to vote and gets them excited like down tempo agitprop. Sample Lyrics


Its about the economy!
It’s about the economy!
It’s all about the economy!
.
.
.
.

Pussy!


Yeah. I wanna go vote now.






Sunday, September 12, 2004

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Today is September 11, 2004

CONFIRMED DEAD: 2948 REPORTED DEAD: 24 REPORTED MISSING: 24 TOTAL: 2996

The 2996 I wanted to list all the names, that was my plan. I tried it, I copied, I pasted... I only had the victims of the WTC and it ran for eight pages. I started to think a little blog wasn't really the best place for this idea. I figured that someone somewhere had all ready done it and done it better then I could hope to. I found several sites that had the lists made in the days and weeks that followed, incomplete or incorrect and ultimately heatbreaking. Some sites dedicated to bitching about passenger lists on the planes, sites dedicated to how the CIA had "something" to do with the whole thing and very few that just recorded who was there. I didn't want editorial, I just wanted to see their names.

thanks to
September 11 victims.com


Now that you are familure with those who did not live through that day, learn about one who did For Thou Art With Us by Sarah Bunting.

with thanks to Tomato Nation




Friday, September 10, 2004

Hee!

If Shrub were running againts Christ from Mad Magazine by way of Atrios.
Friday



It's Friday again. Have you ever noticed that short weeks seem to take longer? I don't want to step on Seinfeilds thing here but, I mean, last Friday got here so fast I thought it could possibly be Wednesday and there it was Friday, while this Friday seems like it should have arrived yesterday. Today should be Saturday.

I think its because I started thinking about what I wanted to do this weekend too early. I normally don't have a whole lot of choices for the weekend, I kind of play it by ear - if something comes up I'm all over it but if nothing is happening I just watch HGTV until I have the urge to turn the Kitty into a cute Halloween themed fireplace screen.

This weekend is starting early. Last night was Alphagals birthday party and I'm not used to doing stuff on school nights. So it seemed like it was a weekend night, but it really was a Thursday night. I am so reckless.

Brosky and Alphagal going to spend the weekend being all selfless - they are riding their butts off in an MS bikeathon thing. I think I'm going to go sit on my butt at a Get Out The Vote BBQ thing on Saturday. I might go Sunday to a candidate fundraiser thing but I might not. It depends it all depends on the weather. Rain does not make me feel like going to a BBQ or put me into a fundraiser place. It makes me want to make more dog biscuits.

Speaking of rain, if you didn't light a candle for the people of Florida last weekend during the Hurricane, this week you get another chance. I think The Weather channel finally saw the beauty of rerunning a hit as often as possible. Kind of like the 12 weekly showing of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on Bravo. Poor Florida. Too bad they all have to suffer for Katharine Harris' bad deed. I'm sure they would sacrifice and just throw her into a wind tunnel and get it over with. Gawd is not amused by election tampering

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people hadn't just got their power back from Charley when Frances came through, that's a couple of weeks now and now Ivan is knocking on the door. Last winter I went four days and I was about to go all Lord of the Flies on my power company if they couldn't get it back on soon. Silly thought - I wonder if the winds blow the cockroaches away?

Florida hasn't had a chance to clean up from the last two storms and here comes another. Maybe the wind will come from a different direction and blow all the trash and crap from the first two away. Maybe God is working on a new way to deal with the pollution problem.

Kitty, bless his little furry butt, let me sleep all night! No 4:10am wake up calls! I was actually woken up by my alarm clock this morning instead of the sounds of crackling paper! It was beautiful. Kitty was sleeping at the foot of the bed just like he's supposed to. He can be so cute when he wants to be. I think he was happy with me because I let him go outside last night so he got to be all night hunter for a while in the back yard. I thought it was too muddy out there and he wouldn't like it but he was stretched out in the mud like a furry hippo, so I guess it was okay with him.

Have a good weekend! Say a prayer for Florida.

Thursday, September 9, 2004

4:10am

I hear something moving papers around on the dresser. It is either an industrious bug of epic proportions - in which case I would pull the sheet over my head and whimper until my alarm went off or it was Mr. Kitty and he wanted to eat. I decided to go with the Mr. Kitty angle because the huge bug idea was too awful. It was the Kitty and he did want food.

I go and feed Mr. Kitty. Remember is 4:10 am. I go to the kitchen and heft his food jug up and then look into his bowl - it was half full of food. Kitty came scampering into feast on his new food and I said No. I picked up his furry butt and locked him in his crate. I would feel really bad about this but, it was 4:10am and I had been asleep. Kitty woke me up on purpose just to get even more food in his bowl.

If Dogger annoys me, she goes to her crate. If the kitty annoys me, I feed him? That's not right and Kitty can be very annoying. No wonder he has a weight problem. Dogger has never woken me up with the express reason that I should feed her more. She wakes me up so that I will take her out to pee. I do not begrudge her wanting to pee somewhere that I do not have to clean it up. She gets a Wake Me Up to Go Out to Pee free card.

I went back to bed and didn't hear another peep out of Kitty. I did this a couple of times while Dogger was out of town and her crate was available. Kitty was really surprised the first time that happened. He just stood in the crate and looked at me like "The Hell?" I didn't even comment to him about it. I don't want to be woken up by the sounds of bits and pieces of my life being hefted from heights to be broken. I don't like it. I think its' time that one of us learn our place and it’s a small, furry place. I don't think its being mean to Kitty to make it clear that one of us the people and one of us is the cat. I let him get away with a lot and I think its time that he knows there is an actual line that he doesn't need to cross. He's smart enough to know that. The Dogger knows there are rules, why can't the Kitty also have to respect them? Just because he's short doesn't mean he rides the short bus. Kitty is sharp.

I know that this might make him hate his crate, but he has never been in love with it in the first place so I'm not seeing a big change in his lifestyle. I just want to not be awake at 4:10 in the morning because he thinks his kibble could be a little fresher.

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Do for our troops what the President won't

Honor the fallen
Oops! Our bad we were just kidding that Iraq was the root of all evil.

Money from Iran Fuels Iraq Insurgency -Rumsfeld

"They have put people in there. They have put money in there," Rumsfeld said in an interview with The Washington Times. "By 'they,' I'm not going to say which element of the government or whether it's even known to the government. But money has come in from Iran. People have come in from Iran."

from Reuters

We just can't wait to go to war with someone else! Where are we going to get the manpower to do this? who is going to fight this war? Was it just a typo? we said Iraq but we really meant Iran? just a crazy mix up on our part.
Some Terrorists are more equal then other terrorists?


Russia offers big bucks for Chechen terrorists

while we:

A few weeks ago the United States granted asylum to Ilias Akhmadov, the "foreign minister" of the Chechen separatist movement.

Yeah, we hate terrorists and we fight terra. Fun guys these Chechen seperatists. Fun, child killing guys so much like terrorists and yet granted asylum. Thats how we join the world in fighting terrorism - By Granting Them Asylum.

from Cnn.com

Surprise. Surprise. Surprise



The Bush administration illegally withheld data from Congress on the cost of the new Medicare law, and as a penalty, the former head of the Medicare agency, Thomas A. Scully, should repay seven months of his salary to the government, federal investigators said Tuesday.Mr. Scully's salary in 2003 was $145,600, the department said. He would owe the government $84,933 under the legal opinion issued on Tuesday.

Yeah, that's going to happen...




stolen from AmericaBlog

Cheney Warns of Terror Risk if Kerry Wins

Vice President Dick Cheney said that the country would be
at risk of a terror attack if it made "the wrong choice" in
November.

because the terrorists have shown Bushit so much respect and are so totally afraid of him

from The New York Times

Dogs and Cats


Having lived alone with Kitty for a while, I really noticed how not like a dog Mr. Kitty is. Dogger wants my attention all the time. Really, all the time. She wants me to be dealing with her at all times and she doesn't care if the attention she's getting is bad attention. It doesn't matter. If I'm yelling myself horse at her, it doesn't matter! , I'm yelling at her and that seems to be all she cares about. If it is about her, it's good. Every night when I'm watching TV Dogger and I have the same conversation

Me - Okay! That's a good girl! Sit there. I will pet your head.

Pet
Pet
Pet
Pet
Pet
Pet


My arm hurts now. Go play with your toy.

Dogger - No! pet Dogger! pet Dogger! Dogger must be pet!

Me - All right! dayum.

Pet
Pet
Pet
Pet
Pet


Ow! arm cramp! Can't you go over to the other side of the chair? I have a perfectly good arm over there too. Move. Move Dogger! over here! over here! No! That's the TV Guide!

Dogger - I'll put down the paper if you give me a cookie.

Me - Drop it!

Dogger - Give me a cookie.

Me - Drop it!

Dogger - Give me a cookie.

Me - Drop it NOW!

Dogger - Give me a cookie!

Me - Stop Running Around! Wanna cookie? Give me the TV Guide and I'll give you a cookie!

Dogger drops TV Guide. I obediently give her a cookie

Me - Ya know what? I think you're tired. Are you Tired?

Dogger - Nope.

Me - You look tired.

Dogger - Not really. Give me a cookie.

Now, with Mr. Kitty, evenings are completely different. He doesn't want any attention and would be just as happy if I didn't bother him at all. He certainly does not want to be pet.

Me - Mr. Kitty? Come see me! come on baby. come see me!

Kitty - in other roomYawn.

Me - Come on Kitty! come see me!

Kitty - walks through room goes to kitchen to check out bowl It's time for you to feed me.

Me - Hi baby! Do you want to watch TV with me? Come here, come here, and come here.

Kitty - whoreing himself Hi mama! heeellllloooooooo! I lurve yew! Feed me!

Me - Listen to that kitty purr! What a sweet baby! awwwwww! Let me pet you


Pet
Pet


Kitty - Get Off me!
Me - Ow!
Kitty - runs off to kitchen and knocks over knife rack, phone books and recycle cansFeed me!

Me - Is it time to feed you?

Kitty - I don't have any idea how those knives got on the floor.

I feed Mr. Kitty.

Kitty goes back to other room.



My animals don't love me for my capacity to understand them; they love me for my capacity to feed them.

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

And August wasn't a great month either or What Liberal Media Bias? part 4

The US military says that almost 1,100 soldiers were wounded during the month of August in Iraq, the highest total since the invasion of the country 18 months ago. Attacks on US troops averaged more than 100 a day in August

from The Christian Science Monitor

Did you hear about any of that? I didn't hear about that. 1,100! liberal media my ass.
We had a long weekend, the troops have all ready had a very long week...

12 troops killed since Monday

edited to add : Thirteen U.S. troops killed in latest Iraq fighting

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq since Monday, U.S. military officials said, bringing the number of American deaths in the war to 999.


from CNN.com
Long Weekends Journey into Tuesday


Three days of freedom! Woo-Hoo, 72 hours of joy!!! Lost Weekend here I Come!

or...

Did you know that the Biography Channel can run Night Court for hours with out stopping? Or that I sat there and watched it for hours and hours and hours? It’s only a half hour show! I really wanted to go out and sit in the sun and be all outside and stuff but every time I got ready to get up and go outside, it would start raining and getting windy and then I had to stay inside and that only led to more Night Court.

It was on the air for nine years. It didn’t go off the air until 1992. Damn. It had like almost 200 episodes. I also found time to look it up on the internet to see if it had any websites or episode guides still out there, because once I sat on my ass for three hours paralyzed by the theme music, I was hooked

I had forgotten how many Public Defenders they ran through, three or that Dan wasn’t always a scuzbucket. I did kind of remember that he ended up with Christine but I didn’t realize it was in the last episode.

And, Data! I had forgotten he was on! He was so young and pathetic and flesh toned. Not at all android-y. Gawd, this show went on and on and on! And then it when on some more. I had no idea. Nine years!. I watched it in repeats at school. It aired at 6:30 and I watched it after dinner every night. Dinner at five, Night Court at 6:30. Everyday. Sigh. Dinner in the college cafeteria. Memories... And it was still on the air for real. I’m not sure I knew it was still running or that if it was just somewthing I watched in reruns.

What else did I spend the long weekend doing? I took Dogger on many walks, one to the forest and to swim in the creek, and I gave her a bath. I also made her home made dog biscuits.

Three kinds.

I looked at a lot of recipes. One had 15 different ingredient. 15 for dog food! All natural dog food. I couldn’t do that. My food doesn’t have 15 ingredient, I’m certainly not going to make her food better then mine. I’m nice but not that nice.

One of them is made of liver. Real, live liver. Ewww. I had to scrape liver off my arms. Do you know what happens to liver in the blender? Have you ever kneaded anything with raw liver as an ingredients?

Have I mentioned that I love my dog?

The rest of you probably spent the weekend lolling around in the sun or building homes for Habitat or coloring your hair. I made dog biscuits A lot of dog biscuits. Peanut butter, cheese and the afermentioned liver. Dogger likes them. She also likes my socks.

I did spend some time reading the Hurricane Frances threads at Fark.com. I was addicted. I had been reading them since Friday when most of the posters were just finishing getting their homes protected and searching for beer. Then they got tired of waiting and you could just see them rocking back and forth in their chairs whimpering because the storm wasn’t getting there and the waiting was killing them.

And the then storm was there and they were hoping the it wouldn't kill them.

The threads went on forever. They finally had to start new ones because they were getting so unwieldy. Fascinating though, you should go and read them if they are still there.