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 17-28, 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
May 5, 2006
We have to have Katrina put down. That poor, pathetic kitten has been dragging her back legs around the house for a week now and she's not getting any better. We've been feeding her antibiotics, helping her go to the bathroom and putting her in the tub for physical therapy, but it's not working. If anything, wound is looking worse.
When Dollie told Max that it didn't look like Katrina was going to make it, he cried a little. Then he got down on his knees and prayed.
This morning, I took him aside and told him that we were going to have to put her down and he should say his goodbyes before going to school.
"The doctor is going to kill her?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "She's suffering and this is the best thing for her now."
"I prayed for her to feel better and God didn't listen," he said.
"No," I responded. "That's not true. When I was a little boy, I was taught that God always answers prayers. It's just that sometimes the answer is no. For whatever reason, this is what He wants."
He cried some more and I tried to reassure him that he'd been a good friend to Katrina and that she had some very good months that she wouldn't have had if we hadn't rescued her on that stormy day.
"I hope that whatever it was that bit her dies," he said.
"Everything dies," I reminded him.
"I hope it dies early," he said.
"Look," I said. "It's okay to be angry. That's a natural part of grief. But you can't let that anger turn you into a bitter person. You were very good to that cat and she knows that. It's a sad thing that she can't take care of herself any more, but you've seen how she drags herself around now. It isn't good."
He said he understood and asked if Katrina would get to see Stewy in heaven. I said she would.
When I dropped him off at school, he was finished crying. I told him to try and have a good day. I will to.
AP headline this morning:
Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down. He's at 33 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll, which is a new low for that poll.
• Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.
• Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.
• A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That's the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.
• The souring of the nation's mood has accelerated the past three months, with the percentage of people describing the nation on the wrong track rising 12 points to a new high of 73 percent. Six of 10 conservatives say America is headed in the wrong direction.
Come on, November.
On that note, Liddy Dole, who is head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a fundraising email yesterday which was more telling that she probably would have liked:
"If Democrats take control of the Senate in '06, they will cancel the Bush tax cuts, allow liberal activist judges to run our courts and undermine all Republican efforts to win the War on Terror. Even worse, they will call for endless congressional investigations and possibly call for the impeachment of President Bush!"
Heh. Read that again. She lists off the terrible things that will happen if Dems take back the senate:
Cancel Bush's tax cuts
Allow liberal activist judges on the bench
Undermine the Republican war on terror
But that's not all. What's even worse is that Democrats will want to investigate Bush's wrongdoings and possibly even impeach him. So there we see the Republican priorities layed bare. Holding Bush accountable would be worse than undermining national security, getting rid of the upper class tax cuts or packing the courts with liberal judges. Stunning.
What is it about car crashes and members of the Kennedy family?
Frist is getting hammered over this $100 rebate idea. It's like the GOP just doesn't get it. $100 might buy a tank or two of gas, but this is going to be a long summer and sending out checks doesn't solve the problem.
Wasn't it the Republicans who said you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it? Of course, they were talking about education and not the oil companies. The oil companies are still getting billions in subsidies on my tax-payer dime.
Bush wants to sell off our national forests to raise money for rural schools. He flat-out refuses to drop the tax cuts which will fund them several times over, so instead, we're reversing a policy that has been in place more than 100 years. I'm telling you, this man is dangerous for our country.
In 1960, Clyde Kennard was convicted in Mississippi of buying $25 worth of chicken feed he knew was stolen. This was the segregationist south and Kennard, a black man, was sentenced to seven years in prison. He died in 1963 after being released early because he had intestinal cancer.
His real crime was that he repeatedly attempted to enroll in an all-white college in Mississippi.
Kennard was a veteran of the Korean War. The only witness in the case later recanted his testimony. The governor of Mississippi (and former head of the RNC), Haley Barbour has said that Kennard was wronged.
Kennard's family has asked that the governor grant a posthumous pardon and clear his name. Barbour refuses.
"The governor hasn't pardoned anyone, whether they be alive or deceased," Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said Thursday. "The governor seems to think Kennard's rights would have been restored prior to him being governor, if he was still alive."
Now I've never liked Barbour. He's always struck me as a pudgy little conservative in the pockets of the special interest groups and lobbyists. During his time as chair of the RNC, he was caught up in a money laundering scandal involving Hong Kong and shady bank deals.
Most recenlty, he's been implicated as the financier and owner of the company implicated in the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal.
Barbour is not a good guy. So I'm not surprised that he's a cold-hearted jerk who won't give Kennard's family any peace on this issue. I just figured he'd have a better excuse than "I don't pardon dead guys."
I'm glad that the jury in the Zacarias Moussaoui voted not to execute him. Firstly, I'm against the death penalty as a rule. Secondly, giving him the death penalty triggers a series of lengthy and expensive appeals, protests against state-sanctioned murder, calls for clemency and posturing by politicians and activists. Lastly, it's what he wants. He wants to die at the hands of the American devils so he can get his martyrdom.
The fact is that Zacarias Moussaoui wasn't a trusted al Queda agent. He's a crazy radical terrorist who managed to screw up the one thing he was supposed to do (learn to fly a plane into a building). During his trial he constantly provoked the court in hopes of drawing the death penalty. By not giving it to him, by putting him in a deep dark hole somewhere, he will experience hell on earth.
Good. Let that be a lesson for any terrorist out there harboring visions of virgins and paradise. If we catch you, we won't kill you. We'll stick you in a dank cell for 23 hours a day with no contact with anyone. During that 24th hour, you get to move into a slightly larger room by yourself.
No appeals. No visits with lawyers. No daylight. You get fed. You get a cot. You get to experience the slow deterioriation of your own mind. You are forgotten.
The NY Daily News ran an editorial calling the decision not to kill him "an abomination." That's just stupid. He's a terrorist, yes. But he was in custody on 9/11. He didn't kill anyone and killing him because he intended to kill is not justice.
Goss is out at the CIA. That's big. The speculation amongst the punditry is that this is part of the Josh Bolton White House shakeup, but that doesn't fit because the head of the CIA doesn't go to the White House and resign "effective immediately" unless something big is up.
It could be that, as I speculated about before in this blog, that Goss is caught up in the Duke Cunningham prostitution/bribery scandal.
May 3, 2006
I'm avoiding my family like the plague right now. Over the weekend, Dollie and I shipped the kids off to grandma's house. We got a call the morning we were due to pick them up. Rozzy had vomited during the night. Twice. She was feeling better, but she wanted to let us know.
She wanted to let everyone know. That's Rozzy. If there is a way to draw attention to herself, especially sympathy, then she'll take it.
Yesterday afternoon I get a call from Dollie about five minutes before time to leave work.
"Are you on the road yet?"
"Uh . . . no."
"Oh . . . "
"What's up?"
"I feel like I'm going to throw up and I guess I was hoping you'd be here soon."
She had to work last night and wanted me to pick up the kids from her school sooner, rather than later. It wasn't like whe wanted me to hurry up and watch her toss her cookies. When she did get home she said "I'm going to throw up. I don't know when, but it's going to happen."
Last night at bed time, Max complained about his stomach.
"Does it feel like you're going to vomit?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"Yeah."
"Get to the bathroom." He came back in just a few seconds.
"On a scale of one to ten, my stomach was a nine," he said. "But now it's a four." This was quickly followed by "Okay, we're at zero." False alarm.
Then at 11:30 last night, he woke up in pain. I ushered him to the bathroom where he lifted the lid on the toilet just in time for the vomit to come exploding out of him. It came out his mouth, nose, eyes, ears and the pores of his skin. Once it was all done, he felt much better.
Dollie still hasn't . . . completed that transaction, so I'm still on alert.
So far, I feel fine.
My senator, Lamar Alexander, has demonstrated for the entire nation just how intolerant Tennessee can be. He has introduced legislation to ban the singing of the national anthem in any language but English. This ticks me off for any number of legitimate reasons, starting with the fact that it flies in the face of the First Freaking Ammendment to the Constitution.
You know the one, senator, it says we have the right to freedom of speech. What in the world could possibly be wrong with singing the national anthem in Spanish? As far as I'm concerned, anyone who wants to sing praises of America can do it in any language they like. We are a nation of immigrants.
"I worry, Mr. President, that translating our national anthem will actually have the effect of dividing us. It adds to the celebration of multiculturalism in our society, which has eroded our understanding of our common American culture," Alexander said.
In his press release, Alexander said that the anthem has never before been rendered in another language. Horse hockey!
In 1919 the U.S. Bureau of Education commissioned the translation of the Star Spangled Banner into Spanish. The web site for the U.S. Department of State has four different Spanish translations of the Star Spangled Banner
Then there is Bush. Last Friday he chimed in on the ginned-up controversy:
"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," President Bush told reporters Friday, "and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English," he said.
But back in 2001, during his first inaugural celebration, he had Jon Secada, a Latino pop star, sing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish in the White House. Also, according to Kevin Phillip's book American Dynasty:
When visiting cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia, in pivotal states, he would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parties, sometimes joining in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Spanish, sometimes partying with a “Viva Bush” mariachi band flown in from Texas.
This whole controversy is a tempest in a teapot. It is uncanny how the Republicans can seize on a fake issue and leverage it into a series of TV appearances. I don't care if someone wants to sing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish, Farsi or Klingon. How about fixing health care? How about making sure Social Security isn't a distant memory by the time I retire?
Tennessee has two of the most embarrasing senators in government.
Yesterday was primary day in my county. A new General Sessions Judge slot was created (part III) to help with case loads and two Dems in the county were vying for it. Both were well financed and both kept the race clean. I really wanted one to win over the other for somewhat selfish reasons.
The guy I didn't like was student government president my senior year in college. I got a first-hand look at how he abused his position. I was writing for the school paper during that time and was very critical of both the government and him in particular. He fought back by stacking the committee that chose the editor with allies who picked an unqualified politico over me. Years later, the editor who was chosen gave an interview to the paper and admitted he had no business being there and that he was basically chosen by the SGA president.
Upon graduation, he ran for city council and was elected. The photo of him in the paper the next day, showed him celebrating in a polo shirt, backwards baseball cap and pumping his fist in the air -- ad a dip in his mouth and you'd have had the typical southern frat boy pose.
When I saw that he was running for general sessions judge, I lost it. I'm an upright citizen with little chance of ever facing him in court, but I couldn't stomach the idea of him having that much power.
So, I've been encouraging people to vote against him in the primary. I told them, I don't care who you vote for, so long as it is against him. It seemed like a lost cause, though, because he had billboards, more mailers and a slicker pitch. He had the support of the Tennessee Bar Association. Last night, I was resigned.
Today I find that he lost by just over 1,100 votes.
Thank you, Rutherford County.
He did make national news once, when he spearheaded a city council effort to force city workers to smell nice when they report for work.
I've picked up another baldy nickname. At a client meeting yesterday morning one of the bankers asked if anyone told me I look like Oddjob. What's odd about that is that Oddjob wasn't bald, just big and Asian.
Arlen Specter is turning out to be a vertebrate after all. He has announced that he will hold hearings on President Bush's ''very blatant encroachment" on congressional authority. Good for him. Hopefully, he's figured out what I've been screaming for weeks -- that Specter and his ilk will be in the congress long after Bush is gone and if they let him get away with stripping their authority, they will regret it when Hillary is president.
Pamela Rogers, the blonde gym teacher turned sexual predator, turned parolee, turned recidivist is back in jail because she couldn't resist contacting the 13-year-old boy she seduced. Now a cameraphone video she sent him of her dancing around in her underwear has surfaced with the promise of more to come.
We do make them freaky here in Tennessee.
May 2, 2006
Prom was interesting. Fewer limos this year, probably due to the increased fuel costs. I don't know, maybe more showed up after we left. We had the early shift -- filling the punch fountain, cookie trays and water pitchers.
It was much like all the other proms with the exception of more cock-eyed baseball caps and cellphones. I'm hoping that these kids look back on these photos and are embarrased. I know I will. I managed to snap a few photos while in line with Dollie to get our photo taken. I have no idea who any of these kids are.
As you can tell, everyone was thrilled. Actually, some of the kids were very excited to be there. In the entrance, there were gaggles of squealing girls admiring each other's dresses. Speaking of which, the "Belle" from Beauty in the Beast look was in this year. The gathered and puckered skirts were in full effect.
I actually saw someone I knew from the comic book store. Like most teenagers who see a grownup out of context, he didn't know how to respond to me. I got the same treatment when I ran into him at his job. The next day at the comic book store, he asked me if I had fun at prom.
"No," I said. "It's not my prom."
Like I said, we tend to take the early shift and avoid the late-night crush. What I find funny is the number of kids all dolled up and waiting for the doors to open. Who does that?
A final note, Dollie tells me that the next school day, someone found a pair of Victoria Secret panties (size M) in the school's courtyard.
There are rumors that Ben Affleck will play a lead role in the new Star Trek film under development. From what I can gather, the new film will feature Kirk and Spock as cadets or newly commissioned officers. I'm wary.
I watched Stephen Colbert's presentation at the White House Correspondant Association Dinner. I thought it was hillarious. Colbert has a way of speaking truth to power that is devastating because it is hidden in so many layers of irony and sarcasm that you don't realize you're being insulted until it's far too late. I read that Bush was pretty PO'd by the whole thing. Heh.
My favorite line:
"Sure, 68 percent of the American people do not approve of the job he's doing as president. But doesn't that logically mean that 68 percent approve of the job he's not doing?"
Rush Limbaugh was arrested in Florida on charges of doctor shopping. He's spinning like crazy that he wasn't actually arrested because he turned himself in, but that's just not true. He was booked, fingerprinted and released on bond. You don't do that unless you were arrested first.
What kills me about this is that Rush is essentially getting away with the same crime he railed against for years. There are countless examples of Rush condeming drug addicts as criminals who deserve jail time. But Rush is getting his charges dismissed. He has to submit to random drug tests for 18 months, give up ownership of any guns and continue drug rehab.
So, the question is, why can't someone who isn't a nationally syndicated radio personality get the same treatment? Why not offer all drug addicts rehab and drug testing instead of jail time?
I don't think drug addicts, including Limbaugh, should be locked up. But I don't think Limbaugh should be getting any special treatment by the courts because of his celebrity status, either.
I'm no football fan, so the NFL draft is a huge snoozefest for me. Badger tried to explain how the strategizing worked and how cool all of it was, but I pass. One thing I do like, though, is how they treat the last guy picked.
He's nicknamed "Mr. Irrelevant" and he gets a trip to Newport Beach, Calf. to be the guest of honor for "Irrelevant Week." There are parades, parties, a golf tourney, a regatta and the presenation of the "Lowsman Trophy."
This year, Mr. Irrelevant is Kevin McMahan from the University of Maine. He was pick number 255 and the Oakland Raiders got him. Congratulations, Kevin.
The Supreme Court ruled that Anna Nicole Smith can keep trying to get a portion of her late husband's estate.
Remember Valerie Wilson? She's the covert CIA agent that was exposed by the Bush administration to punish her husband for writing an op-ed in the NYT about Bush's lies regarding Iraq's nuclear ambitions. You may recall that conservative pundits fell over themselves to say that Valerie Wilson (nee Plame) wasn't a covert agent, so no harm done. George Will, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Brit Hume, Ben Stein, Morton Kondrake, Charles Krauthammer and dozens of others all chimed in.
Now we find out that not only was she covert, but she was assigned to the task of tracking nuclear materials going into Iran.
Here we are, with an administration that cares more about political revenge than national security, amping up a confrontation with Iran over nuclear materials and they outed a CIA operative who was keeping track. What a bunch of idiots. I weep for the future.
