The Republicans have become America’s Circus this year while the Democrats continue to try and get everyone Bread.
They ought to put down straw for their convention, set up three rings and pass out the peanuts. They’ve already got the elephants!
Ringmaster Rove can put on his top hat and amuse us all with his rap routine.
photo by Courtney Woodka
My very talented niece Courtney won first prize at the Colorado State Fair for her stunning photo of her friends’ preemie son with his dad’s hand. I’m so proud of her! Here’s my not nearly as wonderful photo of her and her son Evan with her photo and award.
I loved visiting with you all and miss you already!!!
August 28th, 2008 Pueblo, Colorado
I’m back from Colorado! Fired up and ready to go!
No, I wasn’t actually in Denver — I was visiting my brother’s family in Pueblo, but we did watch the speech. And my brother’s step-daughter called in the afternoon, and had gotten tickets to the show, so we did have family representation there. ;^)
Anyway, to kick off the general election in my typical satirical fashion, some Palin humor!!!
Let’s have a fun campaign, kids!
www.borowitzreport.com
August 29, 2008McCain: Obama Lacks Experience Running 5,000-Person Town in Alaska
Extolls Veep Pick’s QualificationsSen. John McCain (R-Ariz) used the announcement of his vice-presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to blast the experience of his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill), arguing that Sen. Obama has never been the mayor of a 5,000-person town.
“The Presidency of the United States of America is the toughest job on the planet,” Sen. McCain said. “And my friends, the best testing ground for that job is being the mayor of a 5,000-person town in Alaska.”
Sen. McCain unleashed a savage attack on Sen. Obama, claiming that his Democratic opponent would be “at a loss” when faced with the challenges of running a 5000-person municipality in Alaska.
“Let’s say a constituent calls you and says that a caribou has wandered onto his front lawn,” he said. “My friends, Barack Obama wouldn’t know what to do.”
He used the hypothetical situation to draw a sharp contrast with his vice-presidential choice: “Sarah Palin would take out her gun and shoot the caribou.”
Mr. McCain said that an understanding of foreign affairs, Congress, and other issues that a president has to deal with is “overrated,” adding, “That’s what ‘Presidency for Dummies’ is for.”
While saying that her “vast experience” was the main reason he selected Gov. Palin, Sen. McCain said that she also had the other three qualifications he was looking for in a vice president: “She is pro-life, pro-drilling, and willing to housesit.”
Andy Borowitz – Winner Of The First-Ever National Press Club Award For Humor – is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and at his award-winning humor site, www.borowitzreport.com
In Colorado this week at my brother’s house — here’s a link to a video of my niece Courtney and her son at the Colorado State Fair.
In the morning! In August! In San Diego! Weird… and it won’t last long…but nice.
Ah. Apparently this is partly the influence of tropical storm Julio drawing in moisture. Things could get interesting later in the week as this gets closer…
Wunder Blog : Weather Underground
Tropical Storm Fay continues its trek over the Florida Panhandle, and it now centered over land just north of Apalachicola, after making its record 4th landfall on the state this morning. Radar and satellite loops show no major changes to Fay. The storm still has a large circulation with plenty of rain bands sprawling over much of northern Florida and southern Georgia. The center of Fay should emerge over the Gulf of Mexico just west of Panama City this afternoon, and we can expect a modest increase in strength as it feeds off the warm Gulf waters. Yesterday, Fay intensified from 45 mph to 50 mph when its center emerged over the water for 12 or so hours, and I expect a 5-15 mph increase in the winds by Sunday evening, before the center moves back over land again.
Fay’s rains
Fay’s rains continue to pile up over northern Florida, but have mostly ended over the Melbourne region, which endured it’s greatest single-storm rainfall on record. Fay dumped an official 22.83″ of rain on Cape Canaveral. According to the latest public information statement from the NWS office in Melbourne, we have an unofficial public observation at Melbourne/Windover Farms (through 6 am 8/22/08) of 26.65″. The previous rainfall record for a tropical cyclone in the region was set in 1950, when Hurricane King dumped 15.44″ of rain on Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral. Hurricane Wilma of 2005 holds third place–it dumped 13.26″ on Kennedy Space Center.
Is that going to be McCain’s response when world leaders call the White House? We don’t need another empty headed president who can’t even remember the simplest things like how many houses he owns. Good grief.
The Democrats are going after John McCain over some choice quotes he gave in a Politico interview on the subject of wealth — lines that could seriously undermine his attempts to cast Barack Obama as the man living a “grand” lifestyle.
The DNC is already blasting out to reporters two key comments. First, McCain was asked how many houses he owns. “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain said. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”
Then there’s McCain’s ideas on the subject of what it means to be rich — following up on his $5 million threshold from the Rick Warren interview and the arguments over what constitutes taxation of the wealthy.
“I define rich in other ways besides income,” he said. “Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”
From the DNC’s release: “John McCain’s Message to Working Families: Money — Don’t Worry About It — You’re Rich in Other Ways.”
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a top Obama surrogate and potential Veep, is already blasting away at McCain: “He couldn’t count high enough apparently to even know how many houses he owns.”
Surely these McCain quotes will get every bit as much attention as John Edwards’ $400 haircut, right?
UPDATE: McCain has SO many houses, he can’t live in them all! Yeah, right investment houses. Sure, LOTS of us middle class Americans have THOSE!!!
Yeah, Obama lives in a mansion, sure. And McCain has SEVEN of them — and a PLANE!
Oh wait, they’re his wive’s huh?
Guess Obama should’ve married richer, then he wouldn’t be “elitist”, right?
And I think we ALL know what that is code for, especially in the South.
But, but — McCain was a POW! That makes up for EVERYTHING! — shafting his first wife, marrying a rich woman who launched his political career with her friend’s money, all of it. Doesn’t it?
Geez, I can just see Putin calling and the staff “getting back” to him with, “McCain was a POW! Leave McCain ALONE!”
McCain Spokesman’s Retort: Obama Lives in “a Frickin’ Mansion”
By Michael D. Shear
SEDONA, Ariz. — A spokesman for Sen. John McCain vowed to retaliate against today’s story about how many houses the GOP candidate owns with a renewed focus on Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to a Chicago developer and charges that Obama is an elitist.“We’re delighted to have a real estate debate with Barack Obama,” said spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the press should focus on Obama’s house. “It’s a frickin’ mansion. He doesn’t tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon.”
The felon reference was to Tony Rezko, a former Obama friend and financial backer who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges this year. Rogers vowed to intensify efforts to link Obama to Rezko in the coming days.
“That’s fair game now,” he said. “You are going to see more of that now that this issue has been joined. You’ll see more of the Rezko matter from us.”
The McCain campaign was in full damage-control mode as the housing story took off today. Rogers tried to play down the story, saying that reports of the many McCain houses were overstated.
“The reality is they have some investment properties and stuff. It’s not as if he lives in ten houses. That’s just not the case,” Rogers said. “The reality is they have four that actually could be considered houses they could use.”
Those four include an apartment in Arlington, a ranch in Sedona, and two condos, in California and Phoenix, he said. The others include “some investment properties and things like that.”
He also added: “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.
Rogers called the house story “by far the most personal attack” of the campaign, and said “it comes from a candidate who said he was against this kind of thing.”
He predicted that the story would not “stick” with the American people.
“In terms of who’s an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story.”
Oh, really? You really want to bring on this argument that John Sidney McCain III is not an elitist? Well, wait, there’s more:
In terms of net worth, John McCain is the 8th richest member of Congress, while Barack Obama is the 67th richest.
Hawaii, contrary to the shrieking of the panic-stricken McCain flack this morning, does not have any private beaches – by law.
State law requires all beaches remain accessible to the public, and counties must make sure the public can reach the beach in areas where private property dominates.
But the Iroquois Point Island Club, which rents homes to the public, can refuse access to its beach because it is on land belonging to the Navy. Military property is exempt from the state and county beach access rules.
According to Huffington Post, McCain owns 10 homes, with a combined worth of nearly $14 million.
John and Cindy McCain own a plethora of houses spread throughout the United States, including: two beachfront condos in Coronado, California, condo in La Jolla, California, a two-unit condominium complex in Phoenix, Arizona, three ranch houses located outside of Sedona, Arizona, a high-rise condo in Arlington, Virginia, a rental loft, and, according to GQ, a loft they bought for their daughter, Meghan.
That’s it for today’s Fun Facts. Now, all you poor people worth less that $5 million, get your asses back to work!
Oh, and speaking of “the staff”:
A McCain campaign aide who did not want to be identified discussing the McCain’s personal finances, told Politico this summer that — other than the primary Phoenix residence — the new condos were “purchased for investment and are available for personal use by the McCain family.”
The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns.
The additional cash supports an “increase in the number of employees,” the McCain aide told Politico. The aide did not answer a question about whether the growing staff stemmed from addition of new properties to the family’s real estate portfolio.
I guess paying your staff of household maintenance people MORE THAN 97% of Americans make is not “elitist” at all!
Mark Kleiman says “If you had made last year as much money as John McCain spent on household help alone $273,000 — you’d be richer than 95% of American families.”
As I’ve said before, I’m not sure percentiles are the best way of expressing this kind of information. Rather, I think the main fact is that the median household income in the United States is $48,201 per year, meaning that McCain spent over five times as much on servants as the typical household earns in an entire year. On the other hand, McCain’s relatively lavish household staff expenditures probably explains why he sees tax cuts for high-income individuals as a sound job-creation strategy — perhaps he wouldn’t be able to afford nearly as many if he had to groan under the oppressive yoke of Clinton-era top income tax rates.
Oh, but it gets better. They’re not his houses; they’re CINDY’S! Yeah, and she bought and paid for your Senate career too, John, with her friends’ money. I guess CINDY should be the Senator, huh?
Though McCain is widely perceived to to drawn first blood by attacking Obama’s character, the official said that the difference between Obama’s mocking McCain for his wealth and his shaky answer on the number of homes he owns was that McCain’s charge “reflects an existential reality,” where Obama’s charges “attack Cindy. She owns the homes. I thought he said the wives were off-limits.”
Oh, and John? You really want to bring up shady housing deals? Really?! Cause I’m still a bit pissed about the whole 80s S&L thing, and that you got off scott free…
The McCain campaign thinks that it has an opportunity to turn their candidate’s stupendous gaffe — failing to recall how many houses his family owns — into a positive by running an advertisement linking Barack Obama to Tony Rezko. Obama, claims the McCain campaign, got help buying his house from Rezko, a Chicagoan who has since gone to jail but received some $14 million in taxpayer money.
The problem with this attack? Aside from being thoroughly misleading — Obama has not been seriously alleged to have done anything unethical in his interactions with Rezko — this ad is a serious strategic blunder by the McCain campaign. Why? It blows wide open the door to talk about McCain’s all-too-close relationship with Charles Keating and well reported on though somewhat forgotten charter membership in the so-called “Keating Five.”
The Keating Five is an old story, so many reporters have shied away from saying much about it because it isn’t new — there aren’t a whole lot of new developments in the story. But with McCain talking about allegedly shady relationships, the opportunity is there to go back over McCain’s ties to Keating — whose nefarious activities, which were at least in part aided by his relationship with McCain, ended up costing the American taxpayer $3.4 billion (a whole lot more than the $14 million Rezko was alleged to have received).
Just how close was McCain to Keating? Take a look at this rundown I posted back in January:
Though McCain might try to downplay his involvement, his campaigns received $124,000 from Keating and his associates during the 1980s (AP, 3/2/91), and McCain was described as being personally closer to Keating than any of the other members of the Keating Five (Roll Call, 1/20/92). What’s more, McCain accepted more than $15,000 in free trips from Keating, including vacations to Keating’s resort in the Bahamas — trips that McCain failed to disclose at the time (New York Times, 2/28/91; San Francisco Chronicle, 12/3/90).
In the end, the crash of Keating’s savings and loan — which had been shielded by some of his best friends in the United States Senate — cost billions to the American taxpayer, as mentioned above, and all told the federal government ended up on the hook for close to $125 billion in the fallout of the crisis that befell the underregulated industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Does McCain really want to have to talk about all of this? About the Bahaman vacations he took paid for by Keating? Probably not. But he may soon have to as a result of the shortsightedness of his campaign advisors. Nice move team McCain!
Oh, fine fine, one is up for sale, indeed:
Former home of Sen John & Cindy McCain. Situated on over 2.5 acres. Totally remodeled in Old World style complete w/7 bedrooms in main house & 6 bedrooms in guest houses. Hardwood & travertine floors throughout. Master suite has huge walk-in w/private cantera stone patio w/spa and fplc. Gourmet kitchen has travertine floors, granite counters, comercial SS apliances w/large catering room/butlers pantry off kitchen. 2 guest houses. His/her dressing cabana. Finest entertaining backyard in the Valley – 3 ramadas (2 w/full bar set-up), BBQ, play house, cantera stone decking, pavillion, spa and large lap/play pool. 7 car detached garage…
Then again, maybe McCain just can’t understand that some people have to work to get where they are. That must be an elitist thing to do, I suppose. The common folk just inherit their wealth or marry it, after all.
McCain, who has portrayed Obama as an elitist, is the son and grandson of admirals. The Associated Press estimates his wife, a beer heiress, is worth $100 million. Obama was raised by a single mother who relied at times on food stamps, and went to top schools on scholarships and loans. His income has increased from book sales since he spoke at the 2004 Democratic convention.
Happy birthday to younger son, Gregory, today!
Oh, and btw, this boy is one of the BIG reasons I’m voting for Obama:
McCain Agrees That We Will Not Capture Bin Laden Without a Draft
by BarbinMD
Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 04:33:13 PM PDT
Leaving aside the idea that illegal immigrants are enjoying the best medical care that this country can offer, this is a shocking admission from John McCain…from a town hall meeting earlier today:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Senator McCain I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase Bin Laden right to the gates of hell and push him in as you stated on your forum. I do have a question though. Disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions [...] My son is an officer in the Air Force, and I am a vet and I was raised in a military family. I think it is a sad state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist top physicians, the best of medical and our vets can’t even get to a doctor. These are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don’t reenact the draft I don’t think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.
JOHN MCCAIN: Ma’am let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.
McCain’s going to draft your kids. Tell your friends THAT and let’s see how much the poll numbers change…
On our way to Tucson again, to move eldest child off to his aunt and uncle’s house where he’ll be staying while attending the University of Arizona. Assuming I can get him out of bed to go….
It says so much…. via Neatorama
McCain and Obama as a Pile of Words
John Schwenkler wrote an interesting short piece for the Boston Globe by putting together profiles of the US presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, drawn from the most-used words from their respective blogs:
It’s nothing major: just a use of Wordle to pull out the most prominent words from the official McCain and Obama campaign blogs, and then some brief analysis of a few of the most interesting ones. But it is sort of fun, and I do think it’s genuinely revealing of at least some important aspects of the state of the debate.
It’s interesting to note that in both McCain’s, and naturally, Obama’s, blogs the most often used word is “Obama,” but the tone of McCain’s blog is decided more negative.
Remember…
Been there, done that…. scattered my parents’ ashes off Kauai four years ago….
ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports: On his last day of vacation, Senator Barack Obama paid tribute to his mother, who passed away in 1995 from ovarian cancer.
Along the scenic overlook on the South Shore of Oahu – Obama visited the exact spot where he scattered his mother’s ashes after her death.
Obama stood quietly for a moment, then sprinkled the flowers from a lei a few times into the ocean, as some rough surf crashed up to where he was standing. The Senator was accompanied by his childhood friend, Bobby Titcomb who he grew up with on the island.
Obama has said that his most cherished possession is a photograph of the spot where her ashes were scattered.
On his week long vacation to the island – Obama also visited his grandfather’s grave in Punchbowl Cemetery – a WW II veteran who fought in Patton’s Army. Obama brought his wife, Michelle and his two daughters Malia and Sasha to lay a flower lei at his grave.
Thought for the day~
Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can’t eat it or play with it,
Just pee on it and walk away.
“We’re not sending any negative message in our campaign,” said McCain. “We’re drawing differences in positions between myself and Senator Obama, which are significant.”
So, what, the difference is that hot white women don’t like you anymore, John?
Way to go, Dara!! You’re a great inspiration for all of us older women!
Torres, 41, Becomes Oldest Swimming Medalist – NYTimes.com
Twenty-four years after Dara Torres first dived into an Olympic pool for a freestyle relay, she took the plunge again.
There would be no gold medal Sunday morning to match the one she won with the American team as a teenager, but Torres, now 41, would have no problem keeping up with most of the younger set.
Her much-anticipated anchor leg kept the United States in second place behind the Netherlands, whose team set the world record in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay in March and who won the Olympic gold comfortably in a time of 3 minutes 33.76 seconds.
Torres and the Americans took silver in 3:34.33 and the Australians the bronze in 3:35.05. But for all but the delighted Dutch, Torres’s remarkable comeback was the keepsake from the event that concluded the morning session. The morning also featured the first South Korean gold medal in swimming, by Park Tae Hwan in the men’s 400-meter freestyle, and world records in each 400 individual medley, by Michael Phelps of the United States and Stephanie Rice of Australia.
Torres was already the oldest Olympic female swimming medalist in history, after taking gold in the medley relay in Sydney in 2000. But she is now the oldest swimming medalist of either gender, breaking the century-old standard of Britain’s William Robinson, who was 38 when he won the silver in the 200 breaststroke in the 1908 Games.
So, as usual, NBC destroys the Olympics coverage by interrupting it continuously with commercials and talking over everything.
I miss when ABC had the games….
Update:
And now delaying the events that they are showing live on the east coast so they can charge prime time for ads on the west coast. Fuckers.
I HATE NBC!!!!
I may write a cookbook — “Cooking for Self Defense”.
And oh yes, it is spicy, and it is good…..
One thing I learn from my garden is you can get massively productive gardens organically. There’s absolutely no need for all the pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers used in industrial farming. If all of us focus more on buying and using organic produce, and demanding organically farmed foods, it will make us healthier and help the environment.
Big Agriculture is just as destructive as Big Oil.
“Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production. It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient.” — Dr. Vandana Shiva, scientist, world-renowned author, and grassroots leader in India. Member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Organic Consumers
Association.
PLUNDER OF THE WEEK:
SIX TIMES MORE FISH FED TO LIVESTOCK THAN TO HUMANS
According to the UBS Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C., despite rampant over-fishing and depletion of world fish populations, globally, we are now feeding 14 million tons of edible wild-caught fish to factory farm animals, like pigs and chickens, each year. That amounts to over six times the amount of fish the entire U.S. population eats annually. Wild fish fed to animals on a massive scale include perfectly edible anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring, which are ground into a cheap fishmeal and sold for animal feed. In other words a protein source is being fed to animals on corporate farms with a 90% energy loss. Given the global food crisis and the over-harvesting of many of the ocean’s commercial fish varieties, careful analysis of resource use by the global industrial food complex is becoming a life or death imperative.
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13294.cfm
SUSTAINABILITY TIPS OF THE WEEK:
MICRO-GENERATION AND MICRO-FARMING
As energy and food prices continue to rise, global experts predict that micro-generation and micro-farming will boom over the next few years. New trends in urban farming, like vertical gardening and backyard chickens, can help feed households in an economical and earth friendly way. New technologies in micro-generation, powering your home with a wind turbine or solar paneling, for example, are making off-the-grid living more financially feasible than ever. In fact, priorities in Silicon Valley are already shifting from developing better microchips towards focusing on thin-film solar cells. Meanwhile, programs like ‘Solar City’ are offering 20% savings in solar paneling installations for neighborhoods who buy in bulk.
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13636.cfm
Changing Places is about the process of creating and opening up to change. The focus changes with my interests. My current interests include spiritual change, business change management, cultural change, artistic change, Tao Te Ching (The Way of Change), interpersonal and relationship change, and lifestyle change. It is also my personal blog, so my own life changes get top billing. I am an Internet archaeologist, so I am constantly digging things up.
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