Great Video from You Tube!

Gotta love the Aussie's!

The Swimsuit competition: Shattering the Glass Ceiling

Offered without further comment.

Not In Kansas Any More.

So, imagine my surprise when I go out this afternoon to take the recycling to the dumpster in the alley behind our new apartment building. Across the street I notice a few police cars. Nothing special. I decide to buy a paper. I see the headlines "Police Suspect Homicide". I look at the picture in the paper.

The alley in which the murdered body was found looks oddly familiar. I look again. I look at the map. Yup, sure enough. They found a murdered body last night...right across the street from my apartment. Well now...

So I snap a picture of the police cars from across the street.

Welcome to Rochester everybody!

Leave it at the Door? Fat Chance- I'd Rather Fix Some Blame.

Ever since the financial crises exploded onto the national consciousness last week, we've been hearing calls (mostly from the Republicans) to "tone down" the "partisan" rhetoric.

In Iowa, John McCain declared that: "Our leaders are expected to leave partisanship at the door and come to the table to solve our problems..."

[Let us completely ignore the hypocrisy in this statement. After "Super John McSame" Suspended His Campaign last week and FLEW to Washington to lead his colleagues out of the mire of negotiations- is there any one left in the room who does not think that was a partisan stunt?

And let us pause to consider that- after seizing the high ground for himself in this speech by decrying partisanship- Super McSame immediately launched into a partisan polemic about how OBAMA and other dirty Democrats had sullied the process by injecting partisanship into the process. Somebody had better tell McSame that you can't take the low road and the high road at the same time...that's what you need a running mate for...oh, oops! We don't want her to Meet the Press again, though, do we?]

Immediately after his partisan call to stop the petty partisanship, McSame said:" Now is not the time to fix the blame. It's time to fix the problem."

This has become THE Republican Line of the 21st Century. Every time something is broken by the folks in charge (who, I will partisanly point out, all seem to have little "R"s behind their names)- the folks who did the breaking rush forward and say: NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO FIX THE BLAME...now is...etc. etc.

What a load of Elephant S#*t!

I only wish I could have behaved this way as a child. Imagine: my mom comes into the kitchen at 2:00am. I'm six, standing in my pajamas, with a broken cookie jar at my feet. As my mom's face begins to cloud with fury, I pull myself up to my full two foot hight and declare, more in sorrow than in anger: "Mother. Now is not the time to fix the blame. Now is the time to fix the cookie jar."

If I had done that, I would have wound up with a very warm behind, and THEN my mom would have fixed the cookie jar.

And it's for damn sure I wouldn't have tried to break it again for a while, either.

So, as Democrats, let's feel free to acknowledge that we choose to be Democrats for a REASON! WE THINK WE'VE got BETTER ANSWERS! And while we're at it, let's fix some blame!

Wow! What a Week.

I've been in and out of e-contact this week, so my glimpses of the national scene have been as if viewed by strobe light.

However, here are a few of the more interesting things I read this week.

First, my Friend Elsie of True Green Studios, sent me the following commentary from Garrison Kellior.

It was your money they were messing with. And that's why you need government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say, "This is a scam and a hustle and either you cease and desist or you spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing backgammon."

The Republican Party used to specialize in gimlet-eyed, steel-rim, crepe-soled common sense and then it was taken over by crooked preachers who demand we trust them because they're packing a Bible and God sent them on a mission to enact lower taxes, less government. Except when things crash, and then government has to pick up the pieces.

Also, when I saw that Katie Couric would be the one handling the Palin interview, I thought, oh god: The Blond leading the Bland....but as Nation points out, only Nixon could go to China, and only Katie could have dragged Palin out where Tina Fey could masticate her (in some cases, by simply quoting the Alaska governor word for word.)

Meanwhile, I tend to support the idea of a bailout (and the hiring of a lot of new financial cops) but here is an interesting read from the Christian Science Monitor that says the opposite. Certainly food for thought.

The premise is that doing nothing will hasten recession. And recession is unacceptable.

But that kind of thinking is a big reason we're now on the verge of a financial meltdown. By taking a zero-tolerance policy toward recession, Washington has dangerously juiced the economy with monetary steroids for more than a decade.

The painful truth is that recession may be precisely what's needed to restore economic health. Yet the bailout attempts to avoid this crucial reckoning – which may make things worse.

Show Up, Shorty!

I'm sitting in a San Diego Hotel getting ready to venture out into the world and listening to CNN drone in the background. "Two Big Questions this morning: Will there Be a Bailout? Will there be a Debate?"

John McCain has said he probably will NOT attend the first Debate with Barak Obama- because the Financial Crisis is too important to waste time on Politics.

The really sad thing, to me, is that the whole I idea of "politics" has become so alien to much of the American public, that John McCain thinks he can get away with this.

The reason that we are in this mess is that we, as a people, have spent recent years believing that politics is not important, or that our participation is of no value.

It is in Politics that we, the people, get to have our voices heard. It is during the political process that the navigators of our public policy have to answer to us.

Yet, John McCain has followed the line that "politics" is not important- and so he may NOT come before the American People tonight- even as he auditions for the most important job in the nation.

We, the people, have a RIGHT to see these debates. The last 8 years are probably the clearest example of what damage the WRONG MAN in the WRONG PLACE at the WRONG TIME can do...we have a right, and an obligation, to take a close look this time.

So, to John McCain- show up! We the people deserve and demand it!

No Superpowers!

My brother sent me the following clip from Colbert.



Makes sense to me.


Bobbi and I are now safe and sound in Minnesota....we had a great trip out and I'll try to do a post or two over the next few days.

Short And SweetLeahy's Speech

He was good in Batman, but he's even better in the U.S. Senate. Here is a short and sweet speach by Vermont's own Patrick Leahy...watch the crowd shots of the Vermont Delegation for Philip Baruth and other Vermonters you may know.

Short And SweetPalin and her FRIENDS!

Here's a link - sent to me by my friend Elsie in Florida- in which, not knowing that the mike was still on- a couple of Republican prognosticators say what they REALLY think....what was that Sarah Palin was saying last night about "Democrats" who say one thing to one crowd and something else to themselves....I think we see here that REPUBLICANS are pretty good at hypocrisy!

Check it out!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/03/peggy-noonan-and-mike-murphys-off-air-attack-of-palin-for-vp-pick-whos-telling-the-truth/

Joe Lieberman- Damn Him with Faint Praise

I've just been listening to Joe Lieberman's speech to the Republican National Convention. It is maddening to watch a one-time Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee pandering to the Republicans. (On the other hand, if it hadn't been for a certain type of "Democrat" - hell bent on Revolution, and ignoring the wide spectrum of opinion in our party- we would still have Joe Lieberman on the INSIDE of the tent pissing OUT than OUTSIDE the tent pissing IN- so, I suppose he deserves a little bit of revenge. Still, I won't be buying him any drinks in the near future, that's for sure.)

But there is a silver lining in the cloud. Lieberman, in his praise of what makes McCain different from others of his party, inadvertently exposed and underlined what makes the Republicans repugnant and resistant to the change America needs. For example, Lieberman said:

Let me, as John would say, give you some straight talk here. If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have taken on corrupt Republican lobbyists, or big corporations that were cheating the American people, or powerful colleagues in Congress who were wasting taxpayer money. But he did.

If John McCain was another go-along partisan politician, he never would have led the fight to fix our broken immigration system or actually do something about global warming. But he did.

As a matter of fact, friends...

And this is where it got interesting. After Lieberman praised these qualities of McCain and his willingness to tackle "immigration" and "global warming" - there was a nice long pregnant pause in the auditorium...until, perhaps, some technician finally turned on the "Applause" sign to remind these Neanderthals that they were supposed to clap.

Left to their own, the right wing would have sat on their hands to be sure.

Also, Joe Lieberman actually got the GOP to applaud some of the great things accomplished by Bill Clinton.

In actuality, a lot of Lieberman's speech is pretty good...except that he reaches the wrong conclusions. John McCain may, or may not, be a decent guy, but it is the party he belongs to, in the end, which will set the agenda- and you can tell by the places where the Republicans sit on their hands where they will, and will not, let John McCain take the country (even if he wants to go there).

Check out the New York Times for a video and transcript of Judas's oooops, Joe's speech