don't let the home fires burn out of control
NYTimes : Bush Policies Are Weakening National Guard, Governors Saywe are, apparently, now fighting them over there because we can't fight them over here, anymore.
...
it's not like he raped anyone
nothing makes me feel quite so superior as the realization of just how unextraordinary I am. Why, you wonder, should this make me feel superior? well, it's the certain knowledge of how rare an american i am that i KNOW how unimportant i am. Bode Miller seems to understand this, too. he seems perfectly comfortable with the fact that he took advantage of the american obssession with WINNING to ensure that he could totally enjoy the fun of the Olympics even without winning a single thing. Ya gotta love a guy who refuses to apologize for losing, who doesn't even regret losing. Even as he is lambasted by the corporate media (who were counting on him become a BRAND), he manages to personify all of the qualities i (and, i suspect, his parents) still hold to be the only american dream worth pursuing... happiness derived from a thoughtful ability to keep "success" in perspective. It may be unpatriotic but I meant it when I told my son that i'd love him just as much for striking out as hitting a home run back in Little League.
i don't mean to insult those atheletes who went out there to win and focused totally on that goal. but i do mean to say that the only athelete-parents with whom i can imagine having anything in common (y'know, people with whom i could share a joint or pitcher of margaritas) are the millers. i'm sure they're very happy when the kid wins, but they didn't spend their lives schlepping him to training sessions & lessons - he learned to ski down the mountain he lived on - and they didn't invest their lives in him (like the Turkish parents who gave up everything for their daughter's skating career), so he doesn't HAVE TO WIN to repay them. If he doesn't seem to feel a sense of indebtedness to his family, my guess is that he'd be damned before he'd feel guilty for having "disappointed" NBC (even if it's Tom Brokaw trying to get him to do so) or Wheaties or whoever.
Mettle over medals, everytime.
.....
new slogan for the democrats:
They broke it,
We'll fix it
W's alternate reality explains everything
(AP) Weeks before one of its companies sought U.S. approval for its ports deal, the United Arab Emirates contributed $100 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, officials confirmed Thursday.
and that contribution to Katrina victims has been spent transporting thousands of mobile homes from Hope, Arkansas to the Gulf Coast where they were so desperately needed. Thousands of families are grateful to the generous people of the UAE for their selfless philanthropy and eager to repay them. But how? Perhaps they can turn over management of some terminals in the ports of New Orleans, Galveston and Corpus Christie? Yeah! That's a great idea! And why don't we close that ports deal right away and get to the victim-helping some other time?
separated at the wrap party?
has everyone else already noted that ever since Ron Silver played Dershowitz (defending that - hmmmm - great dane, Klaus von Bulow), you can't really tell them apart?
Just give shieks a chance
The administration will give Congress more time in which to be convinced to support the UAE ports deal, but the decision will stand. I guess it's because there is no other terminal management company in the whole wide world, let alone the US, which can perform the job of handling the 21 (not the originally-reported six) terminals on the Atlantic & Gulf coasts.
Reminds me of when someone I know wrote an eloquent letter to INS in behalf of the lovely young Polish (or Thai?) woman who cleaned her house. She exaggerated a teeny bit and made it sound as if the young woman was the only person available who could prepare the special diet she required... since i know the "special diet" consisted, pretty much, of edibles in the category of "food," I'm guessing there might've been someone else equipped to prepare the meals, but she was a nice young woman and everyone liked her and she really wanted that green card. So no one thought anything of it, because otherwise she was going to have to leave the country.
W. thinks the united arab emirs are really nice guys (for brown guys) and that they're entitled to have the chance that running 21 US terminals will give 'em for their shot at the American Dream. I guess.
NRO has tips for network development folks
so i followed a link to the
National Review Online "corner" and browsed a bit until i got to this:
HEROES OF WAR AWOL [Warren Bell]
Scott Galupo in the Washington Times dissects the disturbing absence of Hollywood movies and TV shows depicting the heroism of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why, for instance, has the amazing and tragic story of Pat Tillman not merited, at least, a cable TV biopic?
Interesting question. Assuming, of course, that he means that we not only celebrate Tillman's unquestionable sense of honor in quitting his NFL job to join the fight against the Taliban, but also our government's attempt to misrepresent the circumstances of his death (by friendly fire) for public relations purposes AND to stonewall his parenets when they tried to get accurate information. That's a movie-of-the-week I'd tune in to watch!
So, Hillary supports the "defense of marriage act"
Hmmm. Is this one of those dictionary entries to exemplify the definition of the word "ironic"? Those Clintons really do have nerve... sometimes.
I just remembered when it was that Bill 'lost me' - I was wavering after the cowardice displayed over Lani Guinier's nomination for AG, but the real pisser was "don't ask, don't tell." Clinton had the chance to take the moral high ground and put Congress in the position of having to do their own dirty work (even forcing them to override a veto if it came to that), but, no... rather than let politics/government work its way through a process in front of the citizenry, he handled the accomodating all on his own.
Clintons seem to be cowards when it comes to fighting for the tough issues in which they sometimes profess beliefs. Or else, they don't actually have any beliefs beyond an amazingly high faith in their own abilities to decide (on behalf of those of us who've had no better choices than they when faced with any ballot on which their names appear) just when to give up a fight.
Sure, I'd love to vote for a woman to be president, but my primary criterion is not a candidate's sex.
As my elderly mother keeps reminding me, there's no way this country will ever nominate/elect a Jew as president. Nevertheless, unless someone else (Gore is the only real alternative) steps up as a comparable man of honor, is there really anyone other than Russ Feingold who deserves to represent those of us who still believe in the potentials of honour and decency in an American, democratic republic?
Gimme, gimme... i want it!!
"After meeting with his Cabinet today, Bush insist[ed] 'the Iraqi people want to live in a democracy.'"
Well, people of Iraq and President Bush, lots of poeple 'want' to live in a democracy, but those among us who have matured/evolved to adulthood know that wishing doesn't make something true. For instance, I, as an American, want to live in a democracy, but I've learned, in the past five years, that you don't always get what you want. I've also learned to appreciate the grown-ups who truly understand the meaning of "public service" and, therefore, am grateful for men like Representative Murtha and Senator Feingold who are, at least, fighting the really important war these days.
Nevermind
A better way for dems to criticize the UAE-gets-the-ports-in-exchange-for-god-knows-what deal going down is NOT to mention the president's/administration's failure in cutting this deal - that doesn't do any damage to the republicans who are jumping on the bandwagon. The better tact to take is that this is proof positive that they have been vastly overstating the "threats" if this is ok and, clearly, their relentless hysteria since 9/11 was simply useful cover under which to dismantle the federal government at the cost of liberty. All this, just in order to better position their investments. But, now that the bottom line would be best served by doing business with the enemy (funders of terror, suporters of the Taliban, etc), apparently the enemy is now our ally. All that other stuff we said before... nevermind.
If the administration and Republicans who blindly supported it can be portrayed as the money-/power-grubbing hypocrites they are, as more and more people become increasingly pissed off by their actions (like the ports deal - which virtually no one considers to be good, for a multitude of reasons), the democrats would be able to demonstrate that they are, in fact different. and, for a platform, they could even endorse the resurrection of all the programs and regulatory policies which have been destroyed in the past five years.
Physician, heal thy technology... PLEASE
This
article in the NYTimes struck me...
With all the tools available to modern medicine — the blood tests and M.R.I.'s and endoscopes — you might think that misdiagnosis has become a rare thing. But you would be wrong. Studies of autopsies have shown that doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20 percent of the time. So millions of patients are being treated for the wrong disease.
As shocking as that is, the more astonishing fact may be that the rate has not really changed since the 1930's. "No improvement!" was how an article in the normally exclamation-free Journal of the American Medical Association summarized the situation.
And it goes on to discuss a British company which offers a database analysis that can pull up a list of ailments/causes to consider when dealing with a list of symptoms (the point being that it will include esoteric problems with which doctors/hospitals might not be intimately familiar).
So, here's my question.... why are Hillary and others introducing legislation to collect everyone's personal medical data (to facilitate care) instead of funding access to an existing, effective diagnostic tool like this? Everyone's so fuckin' in love with "technology" that they can't wait to spend kazillions of dollars on massive projects which will take years to implement and which probably won't work once online. As a small business owner, I tried for four years to work the kinks out of a relatively simple web-connected database (MYSQL), but it wasn't nearly as easy to build as several programmers had assured me it would be (and they never stopped billing even when they couldn't quite work things out). On the other hand, while they were building and building (but never finishing), I was able to keep the business running using much less "sophisticated" methodology which meant less automation and more personal involvement by me & my co-workers. Funny thing... once the programmers were finished and we made the massive transition, no one ever knew what was going on nearly so well nor could we actually deal with problems nearly as easily.
And we know that the government doesn't have the best record developing technology (the FBI, CIA, etc have spent millions on haf-assed systems they've opted to scrap for being insufficient to serve anyone's purpose, but for the programmers, i guess).
Sometimes, less IS more. Some Democrat ought to propose financing access to this diagnostic tool for every medical professional in the country so that the dollars spent on procedures, tests and treatments might be more efficient (not to mention better likely to help patients without torturing them physically and financially).
Even the Olympic opening ceremony was a dig at US regime
God, the rest of the world hates us.
Of all the American women to invite to carry the flag, Susan Sarandon?! And Isabelle Allende, niece of a man murrdered by a Nixon-Kissinger arranged junta?! And the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a woman environmentalist from Kenya! And Yoko and Peter Gabrielle exhorting for PEACE! Wow, some good, ol' fashioned Italian Commie produced this extravaganza. And the acrobats were pretty cool, too. The only politically incorrect thing was, hands down, the sexiest, though... loved the red Ferarri doing donuts in the stadium.
Getting Started
First things first. Meet Freddie and Toby.
