Conservative Corner (my brother, Dan)
Unashamed
(my brother, Scott)
Crazy Aunt Purl
(my friend Laurie)
There's Pie In the Lunchroom
(my friend Chuck)
Too Fat For Ponies
(my friend Sam)
Nashville Junk
(a Tennessean insider)
Recent posts:
2006
April 10-14, 2006
March 27-April 7, 2006
March 6-10, 2006
Feb. 27 - March 3, 2006
Feb. 20-24, 2006
Feb. 13-17, 2006
Feb. 6-9, 2006
Jan 30-Feb 2, 2006
Jan 23-27, 2006
Jan 16-20, 2006
Jan 3-11, 2006
2005
Dec 27-30, 2005
Dec 19-22, 2005
Dec 8-16, 2005
Dec 1-7, 2005
April 28, 2006
It's prom night for Dollie's school, so I'm going to attend my sixth prom tonight (I think, it may be more, you lose count after a while). I actually look forward to prom because it's the one activity where there are always plenty of security and everyone dresses up and has a good time.
I'm no longer under pressure to get a date and I don't have to be hip. I'm a grown up and it's not my night. No one will care if I don't participate in the Electric Slide.
Other than that, it's just like prom for me. We dress up, get our photo taken, have some punch and leave early. There's also the added benefit of not having to find some out-of-the-way place to park and grope. Heh.
The GOP in congress want to give every taxpayer $100 to help pay for their gas. The Dems want to give $500. Bush wants unilateral power to affect CAFE standards for passenger vehicles. The GOP are blocking legislation to end $50 billion subsidies for oil companies. Bush wants to suspend environmental regulations for petroleum production. The Dems want to invest in alternative fuels.
Then you've got Hastert and other GOP congressment holding a press conference at a gas station. They arrived in hybrid-fueled cars and drove off in them, but a few blocks away, they switched back into SUVs for the short ride back to the Capitol.
Everyone is in a rush to seem like they're doing something about the high gas prices. Where have they been for the last five years?
Duke Cunningham, the disgraced Republican congressman who is going to jail over his bribery scandal, has another one bubbling up. It seems the lobbyists who were giving him cash, were also lining up prostitutes, limos and hotel suites for him.
Not only that, but Harpers is reporting that there may be as many as six other congressmen involved in the prostitution scandal.
"I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees—including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post."
That's a pretty apt description of Porter Goss -- former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and current director of the CIA.
This will be interesting. If Goss turns out to be involved, we have not only another black eye for the CIA, but for the White House's vetting techniques.
The Congressional Research Service says that we've lost $4 billion in Iraq due to "untraceable spending." Also, our spending has increased by 50 percent since the last report. We're shoveling money down a rat hole in this war and those bills are going to come home to roost.
The report details how operations, maintenance and procurement costs have surged from $50 billion in 2004 to $88 billion this year, citing rising expenditures for body armor, oil and gasoline; equipment maintenance; and training and equipping Afghan and Iraqi security forces.
"These factors, however, are not enough to explain a 50-percent increase of over $20 billion in operating costs," the report states.
War-related investment costs have more than tripled since 2003, from $7 billion to $24 billion, as money has been spent on armored vehicles, radios, sensors and night-vision goggles, as well as on equipment for reorganized Army and Marine Corps units.
"These reasons are not sufficient, however, to explain the level of increases," the report states again.
This is killing us both physically and financially and we're not any safer because of it.
April 26, 2006
I haven't had the time nor felt much like writing lately. A lot of stuff is going on, both good and bad. It's taking up a lot of my time and thoughts. Ultimately, that's when the blog suffers.
As some of you may have read on my brothers' blogs, my grandmother was moved to a nursing home recenlty. The dementia has gotten to the point where she's not making sentences any more, just saying random words. She didn't recognize me over Easter. It's sad, but she has a loving family and can get the care she needs.
I don't know if this is where she will ultimately end up or if there are plans to move her, but I think about her all the time these days. I can't imagine a better grandmother to grow up with. I hope my grandkids look to me with half the love that her grandkids and greatgrandkids show her.
I also have a cat in the hospital. Katrina was bitten by something on her back. The vet seems to think it was another cat. Whatever it was, the wound became septic and she lost the use of her back legs. One day she was fine, the next she was dragging her hind quarters around. The doc has put her on massive doses of antibiotics and gives her about a 1 in 4 chance of surviving. Even then, she may have nerve damage, which means we'll have to put her down.
In happier news, Max is doing better in school. He received a report of "excellent" last week, which triggered a deal his mother made with him.
[Ring]
"Mike Reed"
"Papa?"
"Yeah?"
"I got an excellent for the week."
"Great job, son."
"Mama said that if I got an excellent, I can force you to go to Chuck E. Cheese."
"Ah. . . oh . . . well . . . I guess a deal's a deal."
"hee hee hee hee hee."
[click]
So we went. I bought ten bucks worth of tokens and turned him loose. He was vibrating the entire time. Rozzy moved from the free toddler slide to the machine that looks like a clock face and lets your ride in a circle, back to the free slide.
Max vibrated. He literally shook from the time we entered until I drug him away from the toy counter.
I don't even feel like bashing Bush today. He's too easy a target. I was bashing Bush before it was cool.
Dollie says I have a thing about not wanting to jump on the bandwagon. At the Easter gathering, my brother Dan was wearing Crocs. He said they were the most comfortable shoes he'd ever worn.
Dollie said "Mike will never wear them because they're too popular."
She's right. It's the same reason I don't read Harry Potter books or watch "American Idol." If so many people like it, it can't be that good. Twisted logic, I'm sure, but it serves me well.
April 20, 2006
Work has me hopping this week, so my postings have been light. Sue me.
I spent most of yesterday afternoon walking around four different college campuses hanging posters for a client looking to hire some kids. I was the BMOC -- bald man on campus. And while the scenery was nice (it is, after all, tank top weather). I was in long-sleeves, tie and trousers, sweating my way past ivy-covered buildings trying to figure out where the students will most likely see the posters.
Ugh.
McClellen's out. Rove has been demoted and none of it will make a difference until Bush decides to change the direction we're going. Which he won't do because that would mean admitting he'd made mistakes.
He can't. He's the decider. He also talks like a three-year-old. I know because I have one. At least she knows that saying "I'm the decider" sounds dumb.
Wow. I've written a lot of letters to congressmen and senators over the years. I've received my share of form responses. But never have I heard of a congressional form letter ending like this.
I love my TiVo because, among other things, I can skip over the commercials. It's liberating to not have to wait between acts on my favorite shows. Now I read where Phillips Electronics has developed a device that will lock your TV during the commercials so you cannot change channels without paying an extra fee.
I just know America is going to line up for that feature.
April 17, 2006
It was a long weekend full of activity. Max's 8th birthday fell on Easter this year and we celebrated the day before with a birthday party at the local bowling alley. That was a hoot. We rented a couple of lanes with the bumpers up and let the kiddies have at.
I don't bowl as a rule, so it wasn't entirely suprising that I was beaten by a three-year-old. Rozzy really took to the game. She rolled a 104 (we tied that round).
The photo would have been better, but the bowling alley had the black lights on and none of the kids were sitting still long enough to be captured on a camera phone.
Still it was a great party and ten times better than having to sit through a Chuck E. Cheese celebration.
I also picked up another bald-guy name to add to the list. Sammy called me "Ming" as in Ming the Merciless. Heh.
Max had a great time and the bowling alley gave him a pin for all of his friends to sign. He said he'd never forget this birthday because he'll always have the bowling pin to remind him. He can be a very sweet kid when he wants to be.
Earlier that day, we took him birthday shopping. We had a limited budget in mind, but Max had his heart set on a Nintendo DS. After pricing them around town, we ended up at the local Rhino store looking for a used model. They had one for about $20 off retail.
"Okay," Dollie said. "We'll buy this for you, but you have to give me all your birthday cash."
"Deal!" Max said without really thinking about it.
So, when the cash started coming in at the party, Max got all excited. Then Dollie put the money in her purse. When Max protested, Dollie just said "Remember the deal?"
"Oh, yeah..." Heh.
He got to keep the Wal-Mart gift card and use that money to buy a game for his DS. I took him back to Rhino so he could trade his Gameboy Advance (which he got for Christmas last year) for another game. He put the GBA on the counter and I told the guy that Max was looking for some store credit.
"It was made by Santa's elves," he said, I assume he was hoping that would kick up the price.
Max bought Nintendogs at Rhino and Ice Age 2 at Wal-Mart.
"Why did you buy Ice Age 2?" I asked. "You don't know anything about that game. It might suck."
"No way," he said. "I saw a commercial for the movie and I looked at the box. This game is cool."
He played it for about a minute and a half.
"You're right, papa," he said. "This game sucks."
"You should listen to me," I explained. "I know video games."
Sunday afternoon we all went to my grandparent's house for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was bigger than ever. I can no longer identify all the kids in my own family. This was the first opportunity for many of my family to see my new do. My grandmother, who is suffering from dementia, didn't recognize me. She's fading, but can take comfort in the fact that she has so many family members around her.
We hid about 10,000 tiny plastic eggs, if by "hid" you mean throwing them in the yard willy nilly because there are only so many trees and shrubs to hide them in. It was a scene. This year we divided the yard up so that the smaller children could have their own area and the big kids could fight over the rest.
I will always remember being a little kid about six or so and attending a church Easter Egg hunt hosted by the Forestdale Free Will Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. They bussed us to the location and turned us loose in a park. The kids scattered and I didn't get a single egg. Every time I saw one, it was picked up by a faster kid or poached by a parent helping a smaller one.
Not at the Reed's, though. Every kid got a basket full. Easter Egg hunts aren't a competition. They're not free market forces at work. They are a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon with the kids. Nothing ruins one faster than an empty basket.
While the kids scrambled to find the eggs, I caught up with my brothers and cousins.
My brother Dan added another new name to the list: "Cue Ball." Cousin Jeremy told me to say hello to Jean Grey for him. That was a pretty good one.
As is often the case when we get together, Jeremy and I discussed politics. And while I cannot claim to have converted him to the left, he has becomed disillusioned with President Bush.
"Mike, you'll be proud of me," he said. "I wrote Frist and told him to impeach Bush."
"Well good on you," I said. "And you're right, I'm proud of you, for all the good it will do, you expressed your opinion."
"Well, that Dubai thing was it for me," he said. "My boss is a real right-wing conservative and he got mad about that Dubai Port deal. He said 'Well, if we'd voted for Kerry, we wouldn't have had much, but at least we would have known what we had'."
Heh.
On the way home, Dollie told Max that, since it was his birthday, he could decide what we were having for dinner.
"Can it be a restaurant?" he asked.
"Sure," she said.
"McDonald's!" he yelled. "They have toys from that new movie."
Great. With all of Murfreesboro as his oyster, Max picks the "restaurant" with the new toys. Ironically, when he got his Happy Meal, the toy he got was a disappointment. In fact, according to Max, it "suh-ucked."
"Well, that's what you get for picking a restaurant based on the toys they offer and not the food," I said. "Learn from your old man."
This morning, as I was driving to work, I got behind a truck that is used for sucking waste from port-o-johns and septic tanks. It was a big yellow tank with lots of nozzles and hoses. But what got to me was that there was a red pointer that kept moving back and forth. When I got a little closer, I could see that it was pointing about halfway between E and F. As the truck moved, the pointer waved back and forth with the sloshing of the . . . uh . . . material inside.
I backed away from the truck. Although I know there is very little chance of it leaking liquid sewage on me as I follow, that pointer moving back and forth and the stuff sloshed around inside creeped me out a little.
You can see the little red pointer in the photo. What you can't make out is that currently, the arrow is pointing right up to a tiny black square at the top of the tank.
If I had a better camera, you could make out what that is. It's a sticker that says "W: The President." Heh.
Sen. Bill Frist is officially a jerk. That's the best thing I can say about him after the stunt he pulled on the immigration bill. The House bill established felony charges for illegal immigrants still in the country. Democrats opposed this. They wanted no criminal penalties.
So the House revised the bill reducing the felony charges to misdemeanors. The Dems voted against this change because they didn't want any criminal penalties. So, negotiations fell apart and the House passed the original bill with the felony charges intact along a party line vote.
Then Frist comes out with this statement:
Democrats to Blame for Felony Provision
by Sen. Bill Frist
The following statement was issued to clarify the felony provision in H.R. 4437.
America is a nation with borders and borders matter. We are a nation of citizens and citizenship matters. We are also a nation of laws and laws matter. We have an important immigrant heritage and honoring that heritage matters.
In December, the House of Representatives passed a strong border security bill aimed at securing our borders and preventing illegal immigration.
However, on December 16, 2005, there were 191 House Democrats who voted to oppose House Republican efforts to reduce the crime of unlawful presence in the United States from a felony to a misdemeanor. Instead, they voted to make felons out of all of those who remain in our country illegally.
While we are disappointed with the House Democrats’ lack of compassion and the continued efforts by Senator Reid to block action on immigration legislation so that Congress can proceed to conference, it remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony.
Did you see that? The Republicans created the felony charges. The Dems opposed them. The Republicans created the misdemeanor charges. The Dems opposed them. The Republicans voted for the felony charges. The Dems voted against them. Yet somehow Frist wants to blame the Democrats because there are felony charges in the immigration bill? He said he's "disappointed with the House Democrat's lack of compassion."
How can anyone listen to this garbage and still vote Republican? The next thing you know, he'll be blaming Democrats for "politicizing" the issue.
Face it, Republicans, the immigration issue is a loser for you. Bush worked so hard to get the Hispanics to vote Republican and you've managed to destroy those years of effort in one fell swoop. Trying to pin this on the Dems is also a loser for you because everyone knows the GOP controls government. The minority party is virtually powerless to pass bills or control the agenda.
Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn told a political gathering that he expects six congressmen and one senator will go to jail over the Abramoff scandal.
Gail Norton, Bush's Sec. of Interior, announced recently that America is no longer losing wetlands. Nope, in fact we're gaining wetlands. No more danger to the delicate habitats of waterfowl, fish and other critters because America has acted.
Of course the study she cites counts water hazards on golf courses and farm impoundments as wetlands, but ours is not to get bogged down in details. Ours is to listen to what we're told and shut up about it.
Another step closer to Trek: NASA is looking at antimatter-powered engines.
