The Iowa Caucus is tomorrow. I hope for all of our sakes that this year echoes times past when no candidate is a front-runner and each primary or caucus is meaningful. Yes, I have seen our media and no, I don't really think that is going to happen.
Dr. Zaius needs to take down that Pelosi 2007 ad in his sidebar. That didn't come to fruition did it? You know, power is meaningless unless you know how to use it. Personally, I thought she was quite crafty when she said 'impeachment is off the table'. I naively hoped that she said that to calm the opposition but privately would yield the specter whilst holding the president by the short hairs. Oh she held his short hairs all right. And she sort of massaged them and jostled them and got naughty with her perfectly manicured nails. Thanks, Nancy.
I see that Dennis Kucinich is going to throw his weight behind Obama if he doesn't pass a 15% threshold in the Iowa caucuses. What? Sorry, buddy but you just totally lost the fight right there. Truly, though I have not been one of his supporters I absolutely feel for the people who have been. That one move showed an almost Pelosi-like inability to show unwavering presidential-like strength. Yes, flexibility is nice in a candidate. Our current administration shows us the joke of "Stay the Course". But "Abandon Ship"?
Since I flew into and out of Phoenix' Sky Harbor Airport twice last month, I guess my name is not on any lists. That's a good thing. While I was in Phoenix I saw the headline of an article in the local rag that said that Sky Harbor has a social worker who is employed to help distraught passengers. People there are just dying to see her. Very gruesome humor indeed.
I have internalized all the same New Year's resolutions that I always do: walk every day. finally start my business. lose the baby fat now that the eldest is 7. It's only day two of the New Year but I can tell you this: rather than walking, I need to hurry up and get ready to go out to breakfast with a friend.
Last year I don't think I'd have guessed that I'd be blogging by now. (I cannot come to think of myself as a blogger). So I guess anything is possible, ain'a? Of my New Year's resolutions, I really do think this is the year to start my own business. The biggest reason is that I don't think anyone would hire me, so I'll have to start my own. I promise to keep y'all up to date on how that goes. Maybe we can all start it together. Would you like to buy some shares? Imagine if Bill Gates had asked you that in the seventies.
Oh, I kid.It's good to be back.
Remember, life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.
16 comments:
MAME! God I love that movie.
Good to have you back, Jess--your scattershooting was dead-on.
So glad you are back! Happy new year!
I think that you are right about the Pelosi '07 ad in my sidebar. I've replaced it with this one!
I can't say that I agree with you about Nancy Pelosi, but as a Democrat I realize that most memebers of our big tent don't really agree about anything, at least not in the details. The flip side of this is the Republican "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" lockstep mentality. I think that it's better for us all to argue for a good reason than than all agree for a bad one.
There is a meme that is put forth by the media and others that overcoming the Republican's votes in congress is simply a matter of will or discipline, like some climatic scene in action adventure movie. It's my understanding that it doesn't quite work that way. This, more than anything else, has been the problem.
Most of the problems are not in the house, they are in the senate. The House of Representatives [ 2 ] has done quite well, especially when compared to the 109th Congress [ 2 ]. On December 18, 2007, the Republican minority in the Senate set a new record for requiring more cloture votes than any other Senate in history. The Republicans filabustered 62 separate pieces of legislation in the last year, a record.
"The Democrats' poor batting average in the year since retaking control of Congress is caused primarily by their narrow majority status, which has left them unable to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate, let alone override a presidential veto. On Iraq in particular, Congress this year voted repeatedly to set a timetable for troop withdrawals. Each time, the anti-war measure would scrape by in the House only to sink in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Democrats caucus with a narrow 51-49 majority." AP
And that whole "just stop the funding" meme was tried during the Vietnam war, and it didn't work then either, and the Democrats had a better margin in those days I believe, and even more public support than they have now. Chuck Colson (of all people!) talked about this at length a while back on CSPAN in relation to the struggles of the present congress. It took the President's resignation to end that war, and you can't impeach the present president for these reasons, and especially this one.
But if the media wants to continue to echo Chris Mathews and that crowd, then I guess that they can do so if they like. I'll just keep pushing against these MSM memes. There is no rule that says that I have to agree with the emotionally argued rhetoric of the MSM's lapdogs if it does not square with the facts. That's why I let Sandra Lou handle those Bozos.
BTW, What sort of self-employed business did you have in mind? That sounds great! I'm sorry, but I think that Dr. Monkerstein and I have already cornered the market in Monkey Business.
Welcome back, Jess (not that you were ever gone)!
It's nice to have you around.
If I could also note to Dr Z, that the number on his sidebar counting down the years to his supreme reign have yet to be decremented -- not that I want to be reminded we are getting closer to it.
dguzman & splotchy thanks!
Dr. Z I agree with you completely on the obstructionist nature of the republicans in congress. I didn't tie my vote in '06 to ending the Iraq War. You can't have congress end a war that the executive wants to have. Bushco would simply botch it more and blame the dems.
Nancy still garners a favorable rating from me, it is just that she should have squeezed those nuts a little harder than she has in the past.
And now you've given me a bunch more reading to do-aaaarrrrghhh - I'm having a hard enough time catching up with the bloggers.
In a nutshell, I want to start a business that sells everything in bulk. No Packaging. It will start as a delivery business selling mostly cleaning products and personal care stuff (shampoo, soap etc.) You keep the bottle, I'll come over and refill it.
Chemical companies and packaging companies-meet your own personal Batgirl!!!! Well, that's the dream anyway.
Welcome back you. I missed you terribly.
Hey, Jess. Welcome back to a real Wisconsin winter! A friend just reminded me that 2 1/2 months ago we went swimming at Gov. Dodge State Park. I shiver just thinking about it!
Willy St. Co-op is selling cleaning products that are made up in the Twin Cities. I wonder if they have a refill deal like that going up there ...
On a different note, I just signed on with Blue Marble Dairy to have dairy products and meat from grass-fed cows (or maybe guinea pigs, who knows) delivered to my house once a week. I'm psyched.
Suzy I know of that company. Some of the products are very good and she has invented a refill machine that is supposed to go into Whole Foods stores etc. It is really pretty cool.
I will have to look into the Blue Marble Dairy - that sounds really interesting.
The weather in Arizona was not unlike weather here in mid-November. 30 degrees overnight and highs in the mid-50's during the day. I don't know about you but it would need to be alot warmer in the winter than that to get me to move there. Particularly when you have to deal with the brutal summers.
jess --- welcome back, kotter, no jess.... have you visited every bathroom at sky harbor airport by now --- any wide stances?
oh that would be in the men's rooms
dg--
MAME! God I love that movie.
i hope not the Lucy version!
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
DCap--oh my GOD, no--the Lucy version (which I saw and hated as a child) was an afront to filmmaking, to Roz Russell, to Hollywood, to Broadway, and to the universe in general! No, baby--Rosalind Russell is the ONLY Auntie Mame in my book.
Welcome back. I wish Dennis would've backed Edwards, but since a Republican will have the White House, it's a moot point.
I think all the Dems suck giant, large, colossal, hairy smelly ass anyway. I don't care about procedure and no votes and blah diddy blah. What I DO care about is their utter lack of spinlessness and not getting on the teevee to make their point EVERY SINGLE DAY. They're afraid of being seen as angry. I'm so sick of the excuses peddled by them, but talking hairpieces, by partisans, you name it.
Whatever you've been doing IS NOT WORKING. Sure, some good stuff has been passed, but the fact that the Republican candidates will be successful - and you're a fool if you think otherwise - in distancing themselves enough from Bush only proves how ineffective the Dems have been.
I think the welcome back got lost in my rant. Sorry. ;-)
Welcome back, Jess. It's good to think about Roz Russell every now and then.
Thinking about the news... not so much.
I actually agree with both Jess and Randal in the sense that I am incredibly frustrated with the situation. I with Pelosi would speak out against the president more. On the other hand, I have heard her use some strong language in press conferences that never reaches the MSM. Also, as the Speaker of the House, Maybe she wants to be deferential to the position. Remember that Gingritch spoke out a lot, and he just looked like a grandstanding idiot.
Still, I agree. I would like her to speak out more. It is so frustrating that even though Democrats are the majority that we can't do more.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that all Democrats "suck giant, large, colossal, hairy smelly ass", as Randal did, but I understand his position. Also, the Democrats in congress do speak out quite a bit, you can see them on CSPAN or watch video clips on The Gavel. They never reach the mainstream news though, unless the Republicans are pissing about something that they say sounds like a slur against religion or Christmas or the troops or something. Instead the mainstream news just gives us an endless parade of stories about Britney Spears and her "high-powered custody attorneys" or the imaculate conception of her sister, Lynn Spears.
Jess, I take one stinking day off from checking your blog and DAMN you are back and I have missed the party.
Jess Jess Jess! Well let this be the year. I too want to start a business and have even blown some dough to put up a website. I will email it for your perusal.
And you know that I totally LOVE the Mame thing.
Welcome back! I really missed you and your sense of humor, irony and your insights.
Dr. Z, you're right, I should channel some of that anger against the utterly useless media, because I too have seen Dems actually bare some teeth on C-Span. I just wish they'd do it more often and call the wingnuts out more. Don't say obfuscate or mislead or other bullshit euphemisms. Call them goddamn LIARS. Bush lied. Cheney lied. Say it, over and over and over.
Bah, the whole system is fucking broken. The proof? That a dude who's closer to the Taliban in thinking than Saint Ronnie could become president. Kent Brockman may be proven right after all: democracy simply doesn't work.
Democracy is a terrible form of government, Randal. The problem is that it's better than any of the other form humans have come up with yet.
We actually live in a Republic. Parliamentary procedure is starting to look pretty good compared to our own little flea circus right now. At least it's easier to remove the head flea if he is causing problems.
What this country needs is a benevolent, orangutan-led theocracy like we have in Ape City. All hail the Lawgiver!
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