It's morning somewhere

Hil book an insult to conservatives
Richard Cohen starts by talking about Ed Klein and his recent book that bashes Hilary Clinton. Cohen maintains that the book is so outrageous, that the high book sales (most are probably bought by the anti-Clinton group)
leads me to conclude - Ed, you sly devil you - that Klein set out to expose the right wing for the gullible nincompoops they are.

He goes on to say that Rove did the same thing in his speech when he was bashing liberals about 9/11. In this sentence, Cohen's talking about Rove:
So I attribute it, possibly, to his deep, subconscious shame over never having served in the military or, more likely, a cynical appreciation for the fact that this state's conservatives would rather hate than think.

Oh, my... Another fine article!

This morning..... 

Eminent Domain

Tuesday, in this post, I mentioned Alicia's Eminent Domain - Christmas In June For Developers! article.

Darkow must have read my blog!........or maybe hers:)

Remember how, in this post, I shared a priest joke? Well, as of 11:39 am, today, there are three more jokes in the comment section. Funny stuff. Thank you to T (of 'mandt'), {{{♠Dark Wraith♠}}}, and G. D. Frogsdong.

Another thought...
Stupid co-workers... you get them trained to appreciate cat pictures and then they move to other areas.
The young fella, who sits across from me, is leaving me. His last day in our area is today. He starts his new job duties tomorrow. Not only does he have a great personality, is fun to work with, but he's also a quick learner.
As mentioned sometime back, we draw smiley faces on the calendar in the lead's cube if we're all here for the day. (Lead's leaving us, soon, too, since the company decided to make all sorts of changes.)
We were all here, yesterday, but the smiley did not get drawn. I took it upon myself to, quickly, draw a dinosaur head. One of my other co-workers decided to draw the guy's corpse in between the dino's teeth. She added the comment bubble, "Did you say dessert or deserter?"
Yes, this was all done at lunch and/or break-time. Why?
Ha - I was just told the Dino is a "Traitorsaurus Rex".

Here comes the sun......Going to work, yesterday morning. 

The Blog is Dead
Long Live the Online Magazine.
-Atrios 10:20 PM
Eschaton - An Online Magazine of News, Commentary, and Editorial

Funniest comment, IOHOs:

Cotton says: *Meow!* Since mom has to sleep, we thought we would check out some more of those cool bloggy goodness links. We stopped at Eschaton which we remembered was once a blog. We find it's now a magazine. It's still funny, though. Looks like Atrios is keeping the comments. *Purr*...our favorite commenter is ¡El Gato Negro!.

Oh kitten, he has an article about the New Format, too.

Exposed!
Recidivist points out that if you want to be a presidential speechwriter, this is a must!
You too can write your own cringe inducing presidential addresses to your fellow people for only $19.95...
Recidivist Journals found the link at Vestal Vespa's blog.

Here's the product link: America Kit
Words include: eagle, together, diverse, dream and America.

Too bad it doesn't also include, "evil-doers, insurgents, nucular, and Saddam."
Well, heck, it might include them. It has over 400 magnetic word tiles. When it says over 400, I'm guessing it has 401.

Speaking of presidential speeches, The CultureGhost has a post dissecting the speech.

I missed the president's speech last night.
I forgot to turn the radio on in the car this morning.
We don't have radio at work.

Does anyone want to tell me about it?

I missed the speech last night, so I'm going to post this joke. It may be in poor taste, but it's pretty funny.

Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose woman.

The priest asks, "Is that you, little Timmy Shaughnessy?

Yes, Father, it is.

And, who was the woman you were with?

I can't be tellin' you, Father. I don't want to ruin her reputation.

Well, Timmy, I'm sure to find out sooner or later, so you may as well
tell me now. Was it Brenda O'Malley?

I cannot say.

Was it Patricia Kelly?

I'll never tell.

Was it Sheilah O'Brien?

I'm sorry, but I cannot name her.

Was it Kathleen Morgan?

My lips are sealed.

Was it Fiona Grogan, then?

Please, Father, I cannot tell you.

The priest sighs in frustration. You're a steadfast lad, Timmy
Shaughnessy, and I admire that. But you've sinned, and you must atone.
You cannot attend church mass for three months. Be off with you now.

Timmy walks back to his pew. His friend Sean slides over and whispers,
What'd you get?

Three month's vacation and five good leads.

No, my little punkin, you don't have to go outside unless in a cat carrier, ever again. 

After searching up and down the lanes, around here, early morning, I finally decided he will probably be back when it gets light out. I got up when the alarm rang, ran to the door, and guess who was there, wanting in? Whew! What a relief!

Update: Maybe, he just wanted his belly brushed. As shown in the picture above, he had leaf parts in his fur. What a mess.

U.S. Military Helicopter Crashes in Afghanistan; Fate of Passengers Unknown - By Daniel Cooney Associated Press Writer.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, which a military official said may have been carrying 15 to 20 people, crashed Tuesday while ferrying reinforcements to fight insurgents in a mountainous region in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft.
The fate of those on board the helicopter, which crashed near Asadabad in Kunar province, was not immediately known, the U.S. military said. A statement said the cause of the crash was unclear...

I hope the passengers are ok. I thought Afghanistan was won, already. Didn't Cheney say so?

Cheney: Iraq will be 'enormous success story'
"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan.

I'm not feeling snarky enough for this, right now. Saddie got out somehow, and I didn't realize until I got home about an hour ago. I've got to find the cat.

Sgt Mango and his T.V. He spent a lot of time watching that rabbit. I don't know if he wanted to chase it, or just thought it was entertaining. Probably, the latter. He's really not that hungry, anymore, since he's gotten used to having a home.

Wow - I was visiting Adgita Diaries and read this post by MandT: Proud To Be A Neo-Con Patriotic American Because:
Out of a list of 42, here are numbers 13 & 14:
(13.) We are proud of our boys and girls over there, who are mostly poor, white and people of color who need a step up in life. We don't give them enough body armor, supplies, or proper vehicles to do their jobs, but what the hey---it's a different kind of war and that's why the President and big brass never go to their funerals when they come home in body bags. Heck it's unpatriotic to show their flag drapped coffins. And besides its a volunteer army and my kids won't be drafted.

(14.) Like President Bush, Vice president Cheney, and Karl Rove many of us managed to avoid real military service, but can see how patriotic everything is by watching FOX News.
The rest are just as good!

Over at Last Left Turn Before Hooterville, Alicia has a post Eminent Domain - Christmas In June For Developers regarding the recent decision by the Supreme Court, allowing Eminent Domain to be used beyond the reaches it already had:
...'Eminent Domain' has long been used to build public roads, schools, railways, and utilities. But now it has been expanded to the private sector! Which means that if a developer can prove that your home would be better used as a site for a business that would increase the tax base 'for the community'.

Of course, I did have a chance to stop over at my favorite blog of all,Dark Wraith Forums and Dark Wraith has written an article about taxes. Analysis:
A Bad Idea for Tax Reform. ♠Dark Wraith♠ explains that there will be a "report of recommendations released some time in the near future" by the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, though, it looks as though they're getting the deadline extended. In his analysis, ♠Dark Wraith♠ looks at different taxes and how they are composed. He has some very interesting and helpful information.

Saddie is kind of disgusted, in this picture. I think it had something to do with only getting one treat. He's such a spoiled boy.

My co-workers and I came to the conclusion that the reason it took so long to catch him is that people weren't looking at his face, so couldn't give a good enough description.
We also figured they had a difficult time finding someone to stand in line-up as we think the police ask the folks in the line-up to do the same as the perp.
walk forward...
turn sideways...
say something...
whip it out...

Police make arrest of ‘flasher’ suspect

Ok, I agree.. It really isn't that funny because:
1) the guy is sick and definitely needs professional help.
2) as the police say, he may have been working up to something worse.
3) It would have been scary for women to see this sicko exposing himself.

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey," died peacefully at age 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in.

And then the trouble started.

Shut up. You know it's funny.

I was using Technorati to search for something I had posted. When the results came up, I found that a name, I didn't want to see, was showing up. I was pissed. How did that happen? I skimmed their help section. I found this: How do I change my user name?
For security purposes, changing a user's name is not an option. If you wish to change your user name you must cancel your current Technorati membership and create a new account with your desired user name. [TOP] . I went to the delete link and I sent an E-mail to their support section telling them I wanted my name changed to oldwhitelady. I went back and found that I could change my "profile". I did so. Oh, good. names are now what I don't mind showing. I went back and sent them another E-mail "Never mind".
I remembered that Wordlackey had a post The Freak in Me Speaks about privacy on the Internet. I went on a hunt...

In searching his blog, I read some posts, made some comments, read some other comments. I found a helpful comment by Dark Wraith, containing this hint Second, use the "target=_blank" attribute when you put a link in one of your articles. This causes the linked page to open in a new window so you don't lose your visitor in the comment section of Obsessive Blog Stat Track.
Thanks to Wordlackey and Dark Wraith! I learn something new every day!

Remember, when I decided I could read Richard Cohen, again? Well, he keeps getting better and better. This column appeared in my local paper, this morning:
The Other Guy's Sacrifice
...Still, Hussein is gone. "Was it not worth at least some sacrifice to remove such a man from power?"...
...The quote is from a June 19 Post op-ed by Robert Kagan, one of the most thoughtful and influential of the pro-war foreign policy intellectuals. I read that sentence with the eyes of my late friend. I know Dunne would have pounced on it, clipped it from the paper and called someone to ask precisely who or what Kagan was willing to "sacrifice."...

Charley Reese was on fire, too, with his column:
The Democratic Party has a simple problem: Its leaders lack the courage and vision to come up with defensible alternatives to the policies of the Bush administration.
...What is the Democrats' position on the war, which most of them voted for? Well, now that we are there, we have to stay. A young GI sweltering in the heat of Iraq would be justified in saying, "What is this 'we' business?"...

Of course, Molly Ivins is always a must read:
Don't Dismiss Downing Street
...Here are some aggravating factors. Thomas Friedman, columnist for the New York Times, recently wrote that "liberals" no longer want to talk about the war because we were against it to start with and probably hope it ends in disaster. Good Lord, who does he think we are? Does this man actually think we are out here cheering every time another American is killed?
Mr. Friedman, real, actual, honest-to-God American liberals are out here in the heartland, and we know the kids who are dying in Iraq. They are from our hometowns. We know their parents. That's why we hate this war. That's why we tried to tell everybody else it was a ghastly idea.
We are not sitting here gloating because it is the horrible mess we said it would be. We're in agony. There is nothing pleasurable about being a Cassandra...
...The second aggravation is that the very prestigious papers that are now dismissing the Downing Street Memos have already themselves admitted that their pre-war coverage was -- I don't know, you pick the adjective. Slack? Inadequate? Less than rigorous? Wrong? And now they're saying, oh hell, this isn't news, we knew it all along...

Robert Scheer had a goodie, too:
Bush's GOP Allies Finally Breaking Ranks on Iraq How best to support our troops in Iraq? By sacrificing more of them in a war that should never have been launched and has no end in sight, or by bringing them home?...
...Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, was even more blunt: "Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse," he told U.S. News and World Report, as the latest suicide bombings claimed the lives of dozens of Iraqis. "The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."..

This was my Sunday morning reading. I enjoyed all four columns. They all raised the same type of thoughts I have had about the whole "war" situation. They, of course, put their thoughts into great words.

Oh, yeah, remember, how back in May, I was talking about one of the "Opus" cartoons by Berkeley Breathed? I found the cartoon: Opus at the coffee shop.

From Mandate, My Ass, here is Filkertom's rant I'm Mad As Hell, And I'm Not Going To Take This Anymore

Good stuff. Filkertom proves that evil exists. No, I don't mean that he's evil.

Rose Moss  

and since I've noticed many bloggers like to leave the visitor with a question or two, here's mine.
Why haven't I won the powerball, yet? Dammit!

My(oldwhitelady) Your "Mega Hardcore Son-of-a-Bitch Punk-Ass "Don't give a Fuck 'bout Nuthin" name is Fuck Polititians Shithead,(CottonSaddieMango) name is You Gonna Die for ur Government Die for ur Country, and (trailertrash) name is Rock against Bush Thats Shit.
Take The Mega Hardcore Son-of-a-Bitch Punk-Ass "Don't give a Fuck 'bout Nuthin Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

and look at what was hiding under the tomato plants. 

Since I'm up, I had my camera ready to snap a shot of sunrise. Since the sun decided not to make a spectacle of itself, I decided to take some pictures in my yard. Wow! A Cosmo bloomed. 

Librarians Applaud Obama's Stand Against Patriot Act

It's so hot, here, I'm ready for some rain! 

Trucker Bob is doing his part, in alerting us to this horrible virus, with this post on his blog "Over The Road"
Subject: FW: Virus Info:
There is a dangerous virus being passed electronically, orally and by hand. This virus is called Worm-Overload-Recreational-Killer (WORK).

In this post, Badtux, that snarky penguin, had a link to this porn site in one of his comment sections. One of the top site descriptions follows: The ErotiCat Gallery - Brought to you by the same folks who wrote "Sickos who Sleep with their Cats."...

Being a sicko, myself, I can't help but excuse myself by pointing out that there are many of the same type of sickos, in this world. We can't help it. Maybe, we need professional help.

Do you see a cat in this picture? 

Cheney: Iraq will be 'enormous success story'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday defended his recent comment that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes," insisting that progress being made in setting up a new Iraqi government and establishing democracy there will indeed end the violence -- eventually...
..."We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan. We will stand up a new government under an Iraqi-drafted constitution. We will defeat that insurgency, and, in fact, it will be an enormous success story..."

Doesn't he sound a lot like Rumsfeld?
By the way, is Afghanistan a success? I guess if you like having great poppy crops, it's a success. I guess the "war on drugs" is in California, warring against medical marijuana.

Here's an interesting blog post Define Success...

Global Eye Child Abuse - By Chris Floyd
When the public liars sat down together -- in Crawford, in the Pentagon, in the Oval Office, at 10 Downing Street -- and very deliberately, very guilefully and very knowingly devised their act of mass murder in Iraq, it is unlikely they gave any thought to the most vulnerable targets of their war crime: the children. So in considering this aspect of the bloodbath, we should give the liars the benefit of the doubt. Let's not make them more monstrous than they are. Let's stick to the facts.

Let us say -- as the incontrovertible facts compel us to say -- that they were willing to kill tens of thousands of innocent people in an action they knew to be illegal, reckless, ill-planned and unsupported by evidence; that they knew their public statements about the plans for war were lies; that they started the war with a vicious bombing campaign months before obtaining even a fig leaf of approval from their respective legislatures, a clear and treasonous violation of their own national laws; that long before their blitzkrieg rolled across the border, they were already divvying up the loot of conquest: the oil rights, the "privatizations," the crony contracts...
...Let's not imagine George W. Bush nudging Tony Blair in the ribs as they masticated their pork together, saying, "Cholera, eh? Typhoid fever. Malnutrition! By God, we can grind these Iraqi children lower than the slum rats of Haiti!" Let's not picture Dick Cheney chiding Donald Rumsfeld over the steak tartare: "Damn it, Don, if there's a single pregnant Iraqi woman left without hepatitis before we're through, heads are going to roll! I want the wombs of those Arab cows swimming in lethal viruses. Lethal, do you hear me?"...
...And yes, it's true that Iraq -- once a modern and prosperous nation -- has suffered "one of the most dramatic declines in human welfare in recent history" during the occupation, as the UN says. But again, this was not part of the liars' deliberate design. The torment of children was outside the parameters of their "metrics of success." It was not a factor one way or the other...

This was just so good, I had to cut and paste a lot of it. Floyd is correct in that when the invasion of Iraq was planned, the children were not thought about... at all. I've often wondered why these people are so against abortion, when they were so gung-ho to rush in and "shock and awe" the Iraqi people. Pregnant women, children, teens, women, and men, are all at risk during war. The "smart" bombs are not smart. They don't pick and choose who gets to die. Whoever is in the vacinity gets a piece of the blast.

 

I had a ring similar to this when I was quite young. It was lost when the house burned down. I had forgotten to put it on when heading out to catch the school bus. My mother stopped the school bus to get the kids off at the neighbor's house. For some reason, I missed the bus and someone gave me a ride home. We had a lane to walk down, and when I got to the end, I found that the house was gone. Everyone else was gone, too. Luckily, I can't recall the horror I felt, until my mother drove up to get me.
I was at a friend's shop and saw these rings. I remembered the fondness I felt for that favored ring I had in my youth, so bought one. I wore it, now and again, and after awhile, lost track of it. I looked all over, but could not remember what I had done with it. It's a relatively cheap ring, so I finally went back to the store and picked up another.
About a month ago, I found the original purchase. It was in a coin purse sitting under the computer keyboard. I wore both, one day, then decided I really didn't need two.
My mother's wedding ring finally gave up a couple years ago, and she had bought a cute red stoned ring to wear. I figured she might like to have another ring to wear on days she didn't want to wear the red stone.
I gave it to her and told her that if it fit, she could have it. It fit. She said she had wanted one with a turquoise stone in it. She was happy. That made me happy. Good times:)

Don't you hate it when someone calls about a program defect, and you try to get to the screen, but your fingers hit the wrong keys, causing a message saying, "enter your correct user ID & password" (which, for this screen. you don't know, because you never use it -and you can tell that it uses different ones than what you use for your everyday work) and besides that, you don't have time to read the whole thing because you want to find out what the original problem is, so you take down the whole session and reopen to get where you want to go?

You do? It's never happened to me.

Last night, I worked until about 11:45pm. There were the three of us after 10:30pm. To make time go faster, I offered to tell the three stories I posted this week on The Practical Press . The other two ladies were happy to listen, however; by their reactions, you would think they never read or watched fictional horror!

Oh, yeah, this morning (due to the broken water main, yesterday) we broke down and bought Culligan water to make coffee since water would not be available until after 12:00 noon.

Friday Cat Blogging - Saddie 

Rumsfeld under fire from Congress for action in Iraq
Legislators worry that war is losing its public support here
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld spent about eight hours testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday, a lot of it being roughly questioned - and lectured - about his conduct of the Iraq war...
...Rumsfeld was told anew that he should resign. He said that President Bush wouldn't let him...

I do believe he's right, in that Bush doesn't want him to resign. Bush wants plenty of scapegoats to take the blame, should the people finally get angry enough.

Rumsfeld Will Not Set Timetable for Iraq Withdrawal
By Daniela Deane - Washington Post Staff Writer.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today rejected calls to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, saying that would be a "mistake" because it would send a "lifeline to terrorists."..
..."Any who say we are losing this war are wrong," Rumsfeld told congressional Democrats...

Keep saying it, Donald. Say it louder and louder. Maybe, it will help your plight, but perhaps not.

Oh please

Flag burning - thoughtful post!

.....and that everything America has stood for in the past is being flushed down the toilet with patriotic fervor.

Flag burning? WTF?

Restrooms have been closed in half the building, all morning.
We just got the advisory: Until the water systems are back up and functioning at normal capacity, do not use water until it has been boiled for five minutes.

Mmmmmm...microbes ..
Sure wish I had known this before I drank that 52 oz cup of tap water.

Feds Target Marijuana Dispensaries in Northern California - By Don Thompson Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Federal drug agents launched a crackdown on medical marijuana providers in California Wednesday, raiding more than 20 dispensaries and charging two people.

Now, this really sucks! Don't they have more important things to do? If they are medical marijuana providers, they are helping people in pain. I guess the Drug companies probably had a hand in talking the Feds into making, even medical marijuana, outlawed. People in pain need painkillers. If people are using pot to deaden the pain, they're not using those prescription meds. If those prescription meds aren't being used, the drug companies lose trade. Damn!

Yahoo Closes Chat Rooms After Some Used to Promote Sex With Minors By Greg Sandoval - The Associated Press - Reacting to angry protests from several of its top sponsors, Yahoo Inc. has pulled the plug on perhaps hundreds of chat rooms operating on its site after a media report revealed that some of the rooms were used to promote sex with minors...
...stopped advertising on Yahoo after they were informed that adults were attempting to lure children into sexual encounters within some of Yahoo's user-created chat rooms, according to a report by KPRC-TV in Houston...
...How long the chat rooms that allegedly promoted sex with minors have operated is unclear. Yahoo does not monitor the content in the chat rooms, but will close a room if it receives complaints, Osako said...

Geez! Years ago, I used to chat a bit in some of the AOL chat rooms, but it was all just normal chat. If chatters cursed, they would be reminded of the TOS. If they wasted the thread by putting the computer generated characters to make pictures, they were also reminded of the TOS. It looks like in the Yahoo problem, there were no monitors because the rooms were made by customers, instead of the Yahoo-created rooms. I'm glad Yahoo closed the rooms. What is really bizarre, though, is that they didn't close them until the advertisers became angry!

One more picture - My Roses of Sharon are blooming. The bumblebee noticed, too. 

Doesn't this picture look bucolic? 

I saw this on someone else's blog, recently... like in the past month, but can't think who had it.

Anyway, Desi has a link up over at Great Scat.

Facts EVERY war supporter should have known BEFORE the US attacked Iraq

Van crash kills five, injures 15
Migrants were looking for jobs on East Coast.
By JOSH FLORY and Katie Fretland of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, June 20, 2005
An accident involving a van full of migrants without identification left bodies strewn across Interstate 70 early yesterday, killing five people and injuring 15.

This dog is huge! If he stood on his hind feet, only, I think he would be as tall as I am. 

So, I was supposed to be writing on a story I've been posting over at The Practical Press. I had some ideas I was going to improve on, but... I got sucked into the blogworld, once again. I wondered what An Angry Old Broad was writing about, so stopped over for a visit. Well, that gal had smoke coming out of her ears and lightning coming out of her fingers. She has a list of rules that it would be well to implement.
An Angry Old Broad's list of new rules And now it's time for,yes,another installment of New Rules...

So, after reading AOB's rules, I remembered that Dark Wraith had some fantastic pledges on his site.
Dark Wraith's list of five pledges in his post 'The Written Peace: Open Forum of June 17, 2005' Here are the Five Great Pledges of a Good and Worthy Candidate.

Of course, I then remembered that I had read another terrific list on the Dharma Bums site.
Here are our top 10 questions we think need to be answered: Hearing Afterthoughts.

These lists are terrific!

I'm not going to work on a list right now. I really AM going to go and work on that story line.

Take me home, country roads. 

Since today is father's day, I'm planning on visiting the folks. We were going to have a Bar-B-Q at my sister's today, but other things came up. It's my task to stop at the Kwikee Chicken place and get chicken parts. Sure, they have chicken on the farm, but my parents, very seldom, get the mass produced, deep-fried chicken and sides. There are 3 different places here, but my father likes KFC the best, so that's what I'm picking up.

He's 87 years old. He had some health problems last winter and was ready to die. He told us he didn't think he would make it through. The doctors had other ideas, though.

We've always called him Pa. He's a major influence on making us the people we are, today. He has definite ideas on the roles of men and women. "A woman can do anything a man can."

Growing up, we had a stay-at-home mother. Pa went off to work (construction) every day and my mother stayed home with the kids. Since they have some acreage and there are several kids, we had huge gardens during the summer. Pa would get up to go to work, my mother would fix his lunch, and right before he left, he got us all up to give us our tasks for the day - one of the main ones was to weed the gardens.

There was also wood to chop or stack for the wood stoves. Pa had a problem with idle hands. When he was home, he was always working hard around the place. He had to cut down trees for the winter wood. He would saw it in pieces and have us load the truck. He would drive it back to the house and we would empty the truck and stack the wood. One of the many chores during the winter was to fill a wheelbarrow with wood, push it to the house, then carry the wood in.

We had several cows to milk, too. Pa always had a small herd of cattle. Usually, between 20-30 head. Funny, Pa's cattle were always tame. Maybe it was because of the smallness of the herd, but I also think it had something to do with him talking and patting the cattle when he fed them.

Pa didn't see us as girls or boys, he saw us as cogs in the wheel of the family unit. If it needed doing, whichever kid didn't have anything to do, got to do it. We had to change tires, drive tractors, milk cattle, carry wood, chop ice, weed gardens, kill chickens, help butcher cattle, etc. (I think my younger brother had to wash dishes, but I don't recall my older brother ever doing so. Of course, he was such an irritating kid, maybe they didn't trust him with the dishes.)

We didn't get to spend hours on the phone, either. My parents didn't get a phone until we all left home.

When voting, my family has a practice that, if they don't know the contenders on the ballot, or don't have a particular favorite, the woman gets the vote.

Heh! One of Pa's ideas is that any female should be, automatically, issued a gun and taught to use it, as soon as she is old enough to safely handle it.

Pa is one of 13 children. He is one of the younger siblings. He claims to have a third grade education. My mother said it was probably sixth grade. He left home when he was a youngster, signing up with the military. He learned a lot during his various military stints. He said he liked Germany, but didn't like being in Hawaii.

He has (still living) three children by a former wife and four children by my mother. He told me one time, he would have been happy with more children, but my mother decided they had enough.

TO FATHERS EVERYWHERE, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

On June 13, 2005, Dark Wraith had posted an article entitled: Analysis: Stone, Sand, and the Writ of History, where he discusses Karen Kwiatkowski:
Karen Kwiatkowski, more than two years ago, described not just the lie that was being created to lead America to war, but exactly how and by whom it was being created as a monolithic, indisputable, compelling call to war. She named names. She cited documents. She detailed events. She did all of that.

I was over at The Dark Wraith Forums and reading through the comments on the dark one's last post. PeterofLoneTree had posted a tinyurl address to "Unleashing the Resistance" by Karen Kwiatkowski.
In this article, she discusses the Downing Street Memo and explains why impeachment would not be a reality.
...Yet, as Robert Shetterly and others have pointed out, accountability for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the war gamers is not likely. At this time, impeachment for Bush and Cheney is politically impossible. A successful impeachment, or any accountability for the executive branch requires a certain balance of political power...
...The Congress won’t impeach – to impeach its heart, its hands, or its head is to commit suicide...
...We might take a lesson from the growing Iraqi insurgency and the response of that nation nearly destroyed by our pretext-laden invasion and the American neo-Jacobin possession of that country...
...How do the Iraqi insurgents do it? How are they defending themselves from the oppressive U.S. managed state in Baghdad? How are they killing it?...

To learn more about Karen Kwiatkowski, you can go to dread pirate roberts' post containing various links and background information:
she describes herself as conservative. she offers yet further confirmation that the administration of dear leader "fixed" the intelligence information about iraq to present a false picture.
and a little from her bio at Militaryweek.com Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
Karen Kwiatkowski recently retired from the active duty USAF as a Lieutenant Colonel. Her final assignment was as a political-military affairs officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Under Secretary for Policy, in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Near East South Asia (NESA) Policy directorates.
What an inspiring lady!

mango 

Sgt Mango didn't want to get in the pet taxi. When I finally got him locked in, he fought with the door of the taxi. He yowled all the way there. He yowled in the office. We got there a little early. His appointment was for 11:15, but we were back home by 11:07. The doc said he probably has allergies and a mild case of conjunctivitis (inflammation of the eye). The doc asked if I minded giving him pills. I told him we would PREFER pills! He gets to have 1 pill, twice a day, for 10 days, and salve to the eye, 3 times a day. Getting the first pill down his throat, was no picnic!

Busy busy  
Hi there, I'm Sgt Mango. I think Cotton wrote that post, below. He's a sneaky little rat! I'm getting ready to go to the vet. While watching the clock, I also stopped over at Eschaton. WoodyGuthriesGuitar (aka...) linked to this page in the comments of an open thread. It's an interview with Chalmers Johnson, author of the book "The Sorrows of Empire".
...Bush and Cheney once listed between fifty and sixty countries where they wanted regime change through military means. It may turn out that Iraq will slow them down, because they're now so deeply in trouble in Iraq that they probably can't stay and can't leave. That is, if they stay, the casualties mount for the American side; it becomes politically unacceptable. If they leave, it would probably produce civil war among the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, with consequences even beyond Iraq that we can't fully calculate...
...So I put it to you this way: the United States is having very real problems very rapidly. We are failing in Iraq. We have not produced a friendly regime in Afghanistan. Instead, it's looking much more like it was before 9/11, the world's largest producer of opium and a major source of terrorists...

Meowza!

So you don't think we're just cute balls of fluff, we were out cruising the Net and found this article from a link at whatreallyhappened.com. It's about the Downing Street Memo hearing. Conyers’ Hearing on The Memo: This evidence is so compelling, it must be investigated- period.
Apparently, the hearing was held in a very small basement room. Because it was so small, about 10 people could be in the room at one time, so they went in shifts.
...Democratic Congressmembers had to take turns shuffling back and forth between the House Floor and the basement all afternoon. In other words, Republican leaders:

• refused to call a full hearing themselves


• refused to give Democrats a room to hold their hearing in


• scheduled a bunch of votes timed to intentionally disrupt the Conyers’ Hearings.

One has to ask, what are the Republican leaders afraid of? The same goes for the national news networks... what are the executives so afraid of?

NPR weighed in with a ludicrous story on All Things Considered, shamelessly pimping the Bush line. This was the most lopsided, pro-bush propaganda piece I’ve heard on NPR- and that’s saying something! They played one 40 sec clip from Cindy Sheehan, then the ’journalist’ downplayed the minutes of a top secret meeting as meaningless. Every twist to the story was bent to favor Bush, it was comical when she said there were four panelists, but listed only three- she ’forgot’ to mention 27yr CIA vet Ray McGovern.

Joe Reinhart, who wrote the article, has several interesting links. One is an audio clip containing Ray McGovern's opening speech. Another is the NPR clip. He also wrote that the media - 4 of the 5 national networks that carried something about the hearings, failed to mention Ray McGovern, at all.

Oh, and lookie here... Behind the Downing Street Memos Lurks the specter of treason, by Justin Raimondo. It's a great article, also, about the Downing Street Memos, with links to just about everything. Good golly! That man has a way with words!
The date – July 23, 2002 – is significant: if you'll remember, at that time our lying president was telling us that war with Iraq would be a "last resort." Yeah, sure. Not that anybody really believed him, but it's significant that he still felt it necessary to make the effort to deceive.

Clouds, baby! 

I just had a rum and coke and it was fantastic! However, my typing is pretty crappy just about now!

A joke:
Tommy's birthday was coming up and his parents asked him what he wanted.

"I wanna watch," he said.

So they let him.

Ha ha ha - hic...

Remember the picture of my co-worker showing us why Capri pants are not allowed? We just received a clarification because people were still wearing them: Clarification on ankle pants. Ankle pants MUST touch your ankle bone when you are standing. Anything shorter than that is not acceptable attire for...

Why is this one so expensive? Amazon.com does have the 1992 movie, "Folks!" (Tom Sellek, Don Ameche).
Granted, it's a fantastic movie. The price is, used and new, starting from $22.99.

Adoption of foster children declines in Missouri
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A recent boom in Missouri adoption of foster children appears to be over, with the number of children adopted from the state's foster care system dropping to its lowest level in five years.

I was listening to a story about this on the radio as I drove to work. The announcer said there were 3000 children eligible for adoption in Missouri.

Different reasons for dropping adoption rates, of foster children, are given by different people. One is that there are fewer adoption-eligible children. Another is that the federal regulations had caused a rash of adoptions and now they are back down to normal levels. There is another, my favorite: Due to the budget cuts, subsidy checks that adoptive parents formerly received are being stopped or amounts lessened.

With the above in mind, I'd like to suggest that, until all the adoptable children are adopted (both foster and non-foster), the abortion opponents should shut their pieholes!

Friday cat blogging. Taking it easy. 

I've worked at the same place for the last eight years. During that time, I've carpooled with several people. I started out riding with Lady1. I've known her for a great many years. We worked at the same place (she, 23 years, and I, 17 years)before this job. I rode with her for several months before Guy1 decided he wanted to carpool. The three of us rode together until Lady1 changed jobs. Then Guy1 and I rode together for several months when Guy2 started riding. He doesn't work at the same place, just the same town. He was born in another country but has lived in the USA for the last 20-30 years.
Guy3, one of my co-workers at the time, asked if he could ride, too. He's a devout Republican. I didn't realize how much toll it takes on a person, having to listen to the Republican mind-set, thirty minutes, twice a day. Guy1 had his hours changed and quit the carpool.
Lady2 came on board. She and Guy3 talked a lot of Republican crap. One time, Guy3 got in the car and complained about "those damn Democrats." I pointed out that all the representatives had a hand in whatever fool issue he was bitching about. He also complained about going to his brother's house and what a mess it was. "His brother's wife was a bad housekeeper and she really needed to clean the place up." She works, brother works - I asked why it was the S-I-L's fault their house was a mess? If they were so inclined, the two of them could clean it up. Otherwise, who's business is it? This guy really bothered me! He seemed to feel he was above everyone else. He pointed at a car, driving along, that had a different color hood and door. He asked, "how would you like to ride in thatcar?" I told him that as long as it drove, I had no problem with it. He also has a problem with women bosses.
Guy1's hours changed back and he asked if he could ride, again. Guy2 and I, both, like Guy1 and wanted him to ride. After a couple weeks, Guy2 informed us that he and Guy1 were going to carpool from the neighborhood they lived in. Since I live in that area, too, I asked if I could ride with them. Sure, it was ok. We left Guy3 and Lady2 riding together. So, it was back to Guy1 and Guy2. Just recently, Guy1 had to change hours again. The carpool was now just Guy2 and me. I told him there was no way I wanted to ride with Guy3, again. He said we could take our time getting another carpooler.
A couple weeks ago, he found another that works with him. Guy4 was also born in another country. He and his family have been in the USA at least 20 years. Both guys are pretty decent.
Tonight, when they picked me up, I told them I was going to take a nap. Guy2 asked, "Do you mind if we speak Arabic?"
My answer was, "No, go ahead, I'm taking a nap, anyway."
I thought it was really thoughtful, that he would even ask, when I had already declared my quest for a nap.
Throughout the trip home, I took my nap and they talked in Arabic. I really like my current carpool.

Sgt Mango's eye is running again. I think I'll see if the vet can see him, Saturday. Doesn't he look like a little ocelot? His spots are so cute. 

So, after reading Mrs. Kissfan's startling post about Kissfan and softball, I felt bad about laughing at Kissfan for his pains. I went back over to browse his blog, again. Maybe, I would apologize for laughing. Instead, after reading his latest post Well, Whaddya' Know?, I went back and re-read a couple of his earlier posts.

Starting with Another Piece of the Puzzle..., Kissfan discusses the connection of the Kyoto Treaty withdrawal by the Bush administration, to the groups that seem to have a hand in Bush administration's environmental policy But Wait...There's More to the latest newsworthy item of the
Well, Whaddya' Know? connection between Phillip Cooney and ExxonMobil....Cooney then went on to alter subsequent governmental climate change documents to downplay the significance of global warming. Everybody get that? No global warming equals no mandatory emissions controls which equals no extra financial burdens for the oil industry which equals bigger revenues...
...A former White House official and one-time oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil company said Tuesday....

So many people insist that we are not in Iraq because of the oil. I disagree. I look at the data Kissfan dug up. I look at the lies the administration put forward as reasons to go to war. Iraq has oil. We are driven by the need for gas/oil for our automobiles and remember, our president has a penchant for oil companies.

I know there are more important things to bring up, but that takes energy and effort I don't have right now. Hopefully, I will, later, tonight - after a nap.
So I'll tell about what happened at my day job.
My department is in a holding pattern just now, waiting to see what changes will be put forth from higher management. Because we don't even know if we will still be in the same group, we had a little pizza party, today. We did the "Christmas in June", during lunch. Everyone in our current group brought in a present costing between $5.00 and $10.00 and wrapped it with whatever was at hand. However, some did wrap theirs in X-mas paper.
The letter I had to get was "J". My co-worker said she would pick up a talking Jeff Foxworthy doll at Walmart since they were on sale for 9.xx. That was good, because I had forgotten all about it.
So, one person got to pick a present and open it. The next person got to decide whether they wanted the present already opened, or open a different one, etc. There were some fine gifts. One of my closer co-workers' turn was almost at the end. There were about 4 presents left. Instead of picking one that had already been opened, he went over and shook the remaining presents. The Jeff Foxworthy doll started talking. He didn't want that, so he picked another present that (I am sure it was the same weight as JF doll) turned out to be a talking Bill Engvall doll (it's hands had been tied together so it didn't talk shaken). Ah, we had such a good laugh at his expense. Poor guy. Anyway, when the party was over, we were at our desks and still poking fun at him, someone took one of the bottles of margarita mix that I ended up with and put it with his doll. He told me he would trade the doll for that bottle. I told him he couldn't have the other two bottles of mix (one margarita, one pina colada) I had gotten. So now, I have the doll + a bottle of margarita mix and a bottle of pina colada mix.

I know that the work MODOT is doing on the bridges and roads are a must, but it sure causes the traffic to back up behind this spot. There are so many merge areas onto the highway, that it takes an extra 10-20 minutes to get where we (carpool) want to go. 

I will be happy when all the work is finished. It's funny (well, maybe not that amusing), the alternate routes are usually backed up, too.

I was just having a bit of amusement when I said I wouldn't update the blog unless I got comments. I'm sorry if I irritated anyone. I did get to do a bit of trolling on my comment thread, though. That was fun:)

Unless I get some comments, I'm not updating this blog. I know there are some people that stop by now and again. I can hear you breathing!

:) ** I post a lot of stuff for my own amusement.

I have a vict... ahem, volunteer to do the book meme. Pattygal at managoagogo has completed (and what a good job she made of it! Fantastic!) the book meme which I completed in this post, right here, here, I tell you. Four more volunteers needed.
Update: The Fixer from Alternate Brain has completed the book meme in the comment section of my original meme post. Yay! Thanks The Fixer! Three more volunteers needed.

HE/HIM - (as referred to at The Practical Press:) 

At Eschaton, Atrios poses the question, "Why did we invade Iraq?"
Of course, the normal reasons were suggested, but my favorite was the list of seven reasons from why not.

While reading and posting about this second memo, I've added small sections of each article to whet the appetite. British memo faulted US postwar plan - Report to Blair concluded 'little thought' given - By Walter Pincus, Washington Post - June 13, 2005
The eight-page memo provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable and realized more clearly than their US counterparts the potential for the postinvasion instability that continues to plague Iraq.
In its introduction, the memo, ''Iraq: Conditions for Military Action," says US ''military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace," but adds that ''little thought" has been given to ''the aftermath and how to shape it."

The White House took exception yesterday to the characterization of the British memo. ''There was significant postwar planning," said spokesman David Almacy. ''More importantly, the memo in question was written eight months before the war began; there was significant postwar planning in the time that elapsed."..
(I found this Boston News article at GoogleNews. The first time I read it, I was able to get right to the article. The second time, they made me register!)

It looks like there's a lot of information out there about the second leak. My thanks to Shakespeare's Sister. She sent an E-mail containing the following information:
The big news is that there has been another leaked British document, confirming that it was "necessary to create the conditions" for the legality of the Iraq War.

Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action - ...The paper, produced by the Cabinet Office on July 21, 2002, is incomplete because the last page is missing. The following is a transcript rather than the original document in order to protect the source.

The Times' coverage of it can be read here: Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’ - Michael Smith - MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

Shakespeare's Sister's post...Who, I wonder, is our friendly British Deep Throat? Whoever it is, I’m fucking glad they care more about holding our president accountable for his actions more than most of the members of our own government...
The Heretik has a round-up of those already writing about the issue....Journalist citizens and blogger patriots must do their part to point out what is now clear. The dark vision of this Bush Administration reveals an amoral clarity. By any means possible it has sought the amoral end of absolute power by amoral means. Let us not forget that the Bush administration ran on this lie of a war to secure power in the midterm elections of 2002. Now discredited talk of nuclear clouds and smoking clouds were used to secure power then and similar lies were used in the Presidential election of 2004. And what do we see now?...
Freiheit und Wissen's round-up...In the new memo, leaked from the British Cabinet Office and dated July 21, 2002, we learn that three months earlier while on a visit to Bush’s ranch in Texas, Blair had agreed to help Bush invade Iraq and that “it is necessary to create the conditions in which we could legally support military action”....
St. Petersburg Times The American people have been had - By PHILIP GAILEY - The war has taken a dangerous turn - not in Iraq but here at home. It has lost the support of a majority of Americans...
...Bush may not realize it, but Amnesty International may have done him a big favor. The controversy the human rights group ignited over the treatment of Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has deflected the attention of journalists and war critics from an even more disturbing story - how all the president's talk about going to war as a last resort was just a ruse...
And Billmon has good advise regarding actions to take in tandem with contacting the media ....Prodding the media into revisiting a story it has collectively decided to ignore isn't impossible, but it's extremely hard. Once the journalistic herd has made up its collective mind (think of a pile of slime mold growing in your refrigerator) the overwhelming tendency is to move on to the next story. Even more than most people, reporters and editors live in a fog of sensory overload. New stories break every day, every hour, and decisions about whether to cover them are made on the fly, usually by people (i.e. editors) who are barely competent to unroll their socks in the morning...
As always, there are some very interesting posts at After Downing Street and one can go also visit the The Big Brass Alliance.
440 Blogs have joined the Big Brass Alliance
89 Congressional Leaders have signed John Conyers' Letter
450,978+ Citizens have demanded an investigation

Sun peeking through the trees.