PSoTD

Wow. If there was ever a case that the Republican Party is now devoid of any future meaning in politics, here it is:

Their interpretation of John Kerry's speech - a man not even running for office - is the issue they are coalescing around for the election.

Good luck on riding that until next Tuesday!

I'm sure the marching orders to promote the "Bush Economy" as a last gasp are out. Of course, the big story here is the increase in the cost of benefits. Hello, healthcare...

Guess I'm eventually going to have to lose the Oktoberfest attitude...

You Are Samuel Adams

You're fairly easy to please when it comes to beer - as long as it's not too cheap. You tend to change favorite beers frequently, and you're the type most likely to take a "beers of the world" tour. When you get drunk, you're fearless. You lose all your inhibitions. You're just as likely to party with a group of strangers as you are to wake up in a very foreign place.

I think the scariest thing about the White House Web Site today is that they think that taxpayer money should be spent on building and distributing such things as:

Carve Your Own Pumpkin
Spooky Word Search
Barney Jigsaw Puzzle
Halloween Coloring Pages

It is pretty obvious that the White House folks have lost track of what the White House web site should be. A place for parents to find online Halloween activities for their kids? NO. What a bunch of hollow weiners they have making the web site content decisions.

In Kenova, West Virginia. 3,030 pumpkins? Maybe next year we'll check it out.

Yes, it's Halloween, and yes, kids play pranks, but throwing pumpkins from overpasses onto moving vehicles below is stupid and can kill.

Bad News for Major League Baseball...

A World Series to remember for the St. Louis Cardinals was one to forget when it came to television ratings.

The Cardinals' five-game victory over the Detroit Tigers averaged a record-low 10.1 television rating and 17 share, Fox said Sunday. This year's rating dropped 9 percent from the previous bottom, an 11.1 for a four-game sweep by the Chicago White Sox over the Houston Astros last year.

What made the low rating more remarkable was that this year's Series went five games and was not a sweep. St. Louis' 4-2 victory in Friday night's finale got a 10.3/18 in figures compiled by Nielsen Media Research, just above the record low for a Game 5, a 10.0/17 for the San Francisco Giants' 16-4 rout of the Anaheim Angels in 2002.

Well... I found 2006's baseball finish to be a horribly boring World Series. In fact, the entire playoffs were, also. There were several reasons for that:

Nobody to root for. C'mon, I'm sick of the "genius" of Jim Leyland, and even more sick of the "genius" of Tony LaRussa. There were no real compelling players, no personalities that stood out.

Nobody to root against. No Steinbrenner to boo. No horribly attituded players to be annoyed with. No Yankees.

Fox's broadcast teams. We need a "No Fan Left Behind" program so we can test sportscasters for the ability to interest viewers. Fox would not be getting any federal money if such a program existed. Thank GOD Lou Piniella went back into managing. Chicago's loss is the rest of the country's gain. Let's just hope Fox doesn't try to bring Brent Musburger into the booth.

Saturation of playoff games. I'm almost of the opinion that Major League Baseball should go back to two divisions in each league, to cut back on the playoffs. Almost. There's too much MLB playoff action now, it has reduced the stakes of playoff games, and I think it adds to the burnout of watching playoff games eventually, too. Didn't you hear someone ask "Are the playoffs STILL going on" this year?

At least not Don Sherwood.

Inspired by the photo below: What fast food restaurant do you see most commonly out of business, with building abandoned?

It is a beautiful day in Central Pennsylvania.

It's amazing how if the Democrats get even a small majority in just one house of the Congress, how easily the Republicans are expected to roll over, including George W. Bush. Apparently, Republicans believe Bush will sign just about anything sent to him.

Under Speaker Pelosi and/or Majority Leader Reid, we will see tax cuts rolled back and government spending increased (a GOP-controlled Congress would also increase spending, but that's a separate issue). Economic policy under a Democrat-controlled Congress will certainly not favor the continuation of the current robust economy. In two years, this will be evident.

What a public betraying of the secret lack of confidence in Bush by various Republican writers...

Jim Wallis was standing in front of about 200 people at a Harry Schwartz bookstore in Milwaukee this week snapping his fingers.

He had just mentioned that every day in the world, about 30,000 children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases. That's one every 3 seconds.

He snapped his fingers. Waited 3 seconds. Snapped them again. Waited 3 seconds. Snapped them again.

The buzz in the bookstore stopped. Then Wallis continued.

"I find it hard to believe that with that going on, a same-sex marriage amendment in Wisconsin would be Jesus' top priority," he said to affirmative nods.

Wallis was in Milwaukee as part of a tour for the paperback release of his 2005 best seller, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." It is a book credited with helping moderates and progressives in religious communities feel they could have a place in a political arena dominated by the religious right.

We went to the last Oktoberfest of the season yesterday at Stoudt's Brewing Company. If I had been smart or prepared I would have pictures, but being neither I forgot my digital camera. But, I have to say, it was fun and we'll go again.

I tried three beers at the Oktoberfest: Stoudt's Triple, Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout, and Stoudt's American Pale Ale. All were great, but I'll highly recommend the Fat Dog Stout- if you like your brew thick and deep and dark, which I do.

The band was fun. My wife and I danced, our friends danced, we ended up doing the chicken dance, we had dinner at the Black Angus, and we laughed almost the whole time. In short - we'll return, we had a lot of fun.

Any public official caught stealing campaign lawn signs ought to be fired - that's an abuse of trust.

Add Dick Armey to the growing number of Republican voices that claim the Republicans are likely to lose the November election because they... turned into Democrats!

Armey fails to see the problem. It isn't that they turned into Democrats, it is that they turned into power-hungry money machines, which is how the system in Washington is set up to work when one party remains in power. Armey's complaint is with the system, but he's certainly adverse to changing that, because he's a product of it.

But as I remember it, pretty funny.

Goodnight, Red Auerbach.

I don't have anything really to say about O'Reilly's comments, it was just more misleading spin.

But Letterman, I believe, was on to something. I think he really illuminated the average American's thoughts about the War. A la Gauche has the transcript, and here's what I think is valuable going forward.

Well, you know in the beginning, here is my position in the beginning and I, I think I - I sort of felt the way everybody did, we felt like we wanted to do something, because something terrible had been done to us. We did not understand exactly why, all we knew was something terrible, something heinous, something obscene had been done to us. So while it didn't necessarily make sense to go into Iraq as it did perhaps to go into Afghanistan, I like most everybody else felt like yes, we needed to do something. And as the weeks turned into months, years and one death became a dozen deaths and hundred deaths and a thousand deaths - then we began to realize you know what? Maybe we're causing more trouble over there than the whole effort has been worth.

O'Reilly: Possible, but do you right now? Do you want the Untied States to win in Iraq?

Letterman: First of all, I don't -

O'Reilly: It's an easy question, If you don't want the United States to win -

Letterman: It's not easy for me because I'm thoughtful.

[applause]

Letterman: How 'bout that? That was a good one.

O'Reilly: That was great, Dave. You get paid for those.

Letterman: No, but uh - I, uh, What I would like would be uh, for uh, uh Americans to stop dying. And for there to be stability in that part of the world. Now if that means an American victory, ok. But I'm not sure that you can have stability in that part of the world with or without an American presence now, uh, so I would do whatever it would take to stop Americans dying.

Letterman's reasoning appears to be:

After we were attacked we needed to do something to respond. The President said we needed to do this. So we agreed. The President turned out to be wrong. Americans are dying. We haven't made things better. There doesn't seem to be much chance to improve things while there. We made a big mistake. So why are we continuing with this mistake?

And then he hits the final note:

O'Reilly: The show's not gonna be on the air - Alright look, do you actually think we're a bad country for doing what we did? And Bush is an evil man? Is that what you're putting forth here?

Letterman: I, I, I don't know that I think he's evil. I think he's misguided. I, I, I think that in the beginning, like I said, we needed to do something. People wanted to feel like we were doing something, people wanted to feel like the attack was going to be accounted for. Well, to my way of thinking, the attack hasn't really been accounted for. And beyond that,

O'Reilly: It hasn't been accounted for in the sense that we - Look everybody says -

Letterman says that justice for the original attack has been lost in the shuffle, and that he feels it has been neglected. And O'Reilly agrees!

That, I believe, is what the majority of America thinks about the Iraq War and Bush's administration of it. And in the end - O'Reilly actually agrees, although he quickly retreats from that point.

The potential for so many more attempts at repeating the Joe Scarborough post-Congress media career. The horror, the horror...

Several large blog sites provide public access to their Sitemeter stats - Atrios, Instapundit, Kos, Malkin... I wish The Daou Report would do so also. I'm just curious as to the traffic since Peter Daou left for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

But, no. Bush is a conservative and a Republican and there's no fucking way any liberal would want ANYTHING to do with him. You dry-humped him for three elections, he's yours.

Poor David Safavian. His 18 months will be over before Bush starts handing out pardons to all the rest of the members of his administration.

City to sell the Senators
Mayor doesn't want to do it but believes it's now a must

Mayor Stephen R. Reed joked 11 years ago that owning and operating a Class AA minor league baseball franchise wasn't exactly part of every city's daily routine.

But that didn't stop Harrisburg in early 1996 from purchasing the Eastern League's Senators back from private ownership in a successful effort to keep the team in town.

Today, with the city locked in a crippling budget crisis, Reed believes selling the franchise has become necessary.

...

However, Reed insisted he will not sell to prospective owners who might want to move the Senators. The fact that he'll demand the team remains in Harrisburg does reduce the price, as it limits the freedom of the purchaser.

The team does add a lot to Harrisburg, and it'll be interesting to see how Harrisburg can require the team to stay. I hope they stay, we enjoy going to a few games each season, it's a great ballpark for kids, and very much a dose of Americana.

I have another suggestion, for any buyer - change the team name.

I appreciate tradition in baseball as well as anyone. Still, I've never understood the choice of team name of "Senators". Here's why:

It's not a team name that really describes Harrisburg. Yes, Harrisburg is a government town, but so are 51 other cities in this country. It's like calling a team in a university town the Professors. The General Assembly is a part of Harrisburg, but hardly its most distinctive (or proud) part.

About that pride thing - I don't know of any teams named the Governors, or the Representatives, or the Mayors, or the Judges, etc. Why Senators? Why name your team after a partisan employee position that suffers from as many public image problems as Senators do? Most sports teams have a team name that promotes some sort of team and player attribute - ferocity, or speed, or tenacity, or strength, or something. What does the name "Senators" promote? That they work a couple of days a week in Harrisburg? That they get great benefits? That they gerrymander the league so they can keep their positions? That they will do their job at 4 AM on the last day of the season?

And please, don't get me started on the proud history of the Washington Senators - a history, that if anything, promotes the name "Senators" as a baseball synonym for "doormat".

I say - look to the river. Something about the Susquehanna should be the source of the team name. Hell, the team plays their home games in the middle of the river - could it be more obvious?

If and when the team is sold, I hope new ownership considers such a change. Some traditions are made to be broken.

There are truly stories all around us.

The process of drafting eminent domain legislation:

A new draft bill aimed at avoiding significant reformation of the state's eminent domain laws is already drawing criticism from some quarters.

Rather than compose its own draft legislation, an interim legislative committee on Thursday accepted a bill drawn up by leaders of several energy and agriculture groups.

The substitute bill was drawn up over the course of two meetings among leaders of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, the Wyoming Wool Growers Association and the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, among others.

Not involved in that process was the Landowners Association of Wyoming, which has collaborated with those groups and others on eminent domain reform.

Leaders of the energy and agriculture groups said theirs was the true collaborative effort that represented compromise and a much more palatable work-in-progress, specifically excluding several key provisions that the interim committee had left on the table. Those included early notification to landowners of intent to develop, compensation triggers and a certification process as a prerequisite to exercising eminent domain.

We're tied with them!

This week, Reporters Without Borders released its annual ranking of freedom of the press around the world, covering 168 countries. The United States, which ranked 17th when the study began in 2002, fell from 44 last year to 53 in 2006. We're now tied with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. Other Western countries also slipped, including Japan, Denmark and France. The reasons are clearly defined on the Web site linked above.

From ADN:

Should Alaskans judge a politician by the company he keeps?

Rep. Don Young probably hopes not.

He stood by three corrupt, disgraced fellow Republican congressmen -- even after their troubles were well-known.

Using funds he raised through his own political action committee, Rep. Young sent thousands of dollars to help three colleagues who already were under criminal investigation. All resigned this year. As reported in Tuesday's Juneau Empire, Rep. Young gave a total of $12,500 to help Reps. Tom DeLay of Texas, "Duke" Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio.

Former House Republican Majority Leader DeLay is under indictment for money laundering. He's charged with hiding the source of money he used to achieve the Republican takeover of the Texas Legislature and then gerrymander Texas congressional districts to elect more Republicans. Cunningham went to jail for taking bribes from defense contractors. Ney was the congressman who lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted bribing.

This wasn't a case where Rep. Young helped fellow Republicans who later got into trouble. Rep. Young sent them the money after their legal problems were widely known.

And it looks like the Democratic Party challenger to Young, Diane Benson, has made some considerable progress in the polls over the past week. Bad timing for Young to be seen with his pals in Alaska's newspapers.

I suspect you're actually detracting from your popularity by having autodialing Hillary Rodham Clinton phone calls made on your behalf. Aren't you more popular in Pennsylvania than she is?

Honestly, I can't think of anyone so hard up that they need (or should want) a Hooters MasterCard. Can you?

Maybe there's a good 2006 election reason for this. But if this is true, and if a good reason isn't provided (I haven't heard one), there's no way I'll ever donate money to somebody who indulges in such wasteful, dumbass overkill when others could use funding. Coattails? Not gonna cut it.

Krazy George is cool, krazy cool. He's also efficient. Check this out...

Krazy George Henderson has spent the last quarter-century trying to persuade everyone that he debuted the "Wave" during an Oakland Athletics' playoff game against the Yankees — not those Washington football fans who claim the Huskies first performed the now famous cheer.

Debate aside, the Wave is 25 years old and still going strong.

...

A former high school shop teacher, Krazy George's lone job the last 30 years has been as a for-hire cheerleader — working all of about three hours a week. Yes, that's it. He averages one game every seven days.

Whee!

It's so great we have to pay taxpayer money for this.

Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The Appeal messages will be delivered to members of Congress at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007.

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Courageous of them, courage to them.

Selma, 2006:

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. gave an impassioned plea during Monday's City Council meeting for the citizenry to obey police and not to resist arrests.

Such a request would seem peculiar; however, Selma residents are operating with more knowledge and precedence set when three former police officers were found guilty several weeks ago of wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Perkins said it has to stop “before someone gets seriously injured.”

A Dallas County jury awarded three men a total of $310,000 in damages after an incident six years ago outside a Selma night club, when jurors said police overreacted to a distress call sent out by two inexperienced officers. During the trial their attorney, Faya Rose Toure, brought to the attention of the court an individual's right “to use reasonable force to resist what they know to be an unlawful arrest.”

Perkins said the police department has since reported an abnormally high number of charges for resisting arrest and officers have been attacked. He urged citizens to comply with the law, and not try to determine what's unlawful while in the streets.

When we lived in Indiana, milk was delivered to our house. In the early 1970s, however, when we moved to California, that service was not available in our area. Which brings me to this little tidbit about Livermore, California:

More than 40 years ago and until the early 1980s, a water tower graced the property. It usually was painted with an "LHS" for Livermore High School, except when pranksters from that upstart school, Granada High, would change the "L" to a "G." Another thing that Hexcell did was let us know the time. Every weekday at precisely noon, a whistle would blow. You could set your watch by that whistle.

This reminiscing also got me to thinking about other things around town that once were but are no longer. Some of the things no longer with us are the Snow White Drive-in on South L Street; the A&W drive-in on First Street that had real carhops and great burgers; Mally's Restaurant on First Street; and the Livermore Sky Ranch, the city's original airport that was open from 1929 to 1966.

Other places that once graced our town were Holdner's Dairy on Stanley Boulevard, now the Peppertree Shopping Plaza; the Livermore Beverage Company that was housed on Sixth Street in a residential area but provided great service for many years; and finally, for this list at least, the Village Canteen and the shoeshine stand that graced the front. They sold sodas, candy, cigarettes and risqué magazines that would be tame by today's standards.

I remember this Livermore. I never quite understood the draw of Mally's, the times we went there were lots of flies buzzing around, and really diminished my appreciation of the food.

But Holdener's Dairy... that brings back memories. (Here's the history of the dairy) I remember, when I first got my driver's license, volunteering to go get two gallons of milk and a couple loaves of bread at Holdener's. I'd drive my Mom's Ford Chateau van, and love every second of it. A year later, I still had to do it, but it was a chore, and with three growing boys in our family, a chore I had to do close to every other day.

It had a long loop driveway, and the folks that worked there would come sprinting out to your car to get your order. They'd run back to the covered area of the drive-thru store, then run back out with your order and take your money and give you your change. There were huge eucalyptus trees all over the property. It was old-fashioned and quaint and actually kind of cool.

Livermore had a "no growth" development policy in the 1970s which probably forced Holdener's to stick around a bit longer than many other dairies in other towns. The no growth policy eventually was overturned, because cities like Pleasanton were growing into Livermore anyways and not really keeping overpopulation down, and Holdner's property value became too great to remain a dairy business. I think it closed while I was in college at Sac State.

It's odd, the things we remember as symbols of growing up.

How long until airlines add a "salesperson class" that works the coach class for the duration of the flight?

Thanks, Chris Bowers.

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
--AZ-01: Rick Renzi
--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
--CA-04: John Doolittle
--CA-11: Richard Pombo
--CA-50: Brian Bilbray
--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
--CO-05: Doug Lamborn
--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
--CT-04: Christopher Shays
--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
--FL-16: Joe Negron
--FL-22: Clay Shaw
--ID-01: Bill Sali
--IL-06: Peter Roskam
--IL-10: Mark Kirk
--IL-14: Dennis Hastert
--IN-02: Chris Chocola
--IN-08: John Hostettler
--IA-01: Mike Whalen
--KS-02: Jim Ryun
--KY-03: Anne Northup
--KY-04: Geoff Davis
--MD-Sen: Michael Steele
--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
--MN-06: Michele Bachmann
--MO-Sen: Jim Talent
--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
--NV-03: Jon Porter
--NH-02: Charlie Bass
--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
--NM-01: Heather Wilson
--NY-03: Peter King
--NY-20: John Sweeney
--NY-26: Tom Reynolds
--NY-29: Randy Kuhl
--NC-08: Robin Hayes
--NC-11: Charles Taylor
--OH-01: Steve Chabot
--OH-02: Jean Schmidt
--OH-15: Deborah Pryce
--OH-18: Joy Padgett
--PA-04: Melissa Hart
--PA-07: Curt Weldon
--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
--PA-10: Don Sherwood
--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
--TN-Sen: Bob Corker
--VA-Sen: George Allen
--VA-10: Frank Wolf
--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Who is the closest person to you that is a Republican?

I see the odds of the return on this project to be approximately such:

50% chance that the Federal Government is completely wasting money on something that will never be utilized.

50% chance that the Federal Government is spending money on something that will be abused against political opponents of those in power.

I'm sure all of our blog archives will be priority subjects of scrutiny for Natural Language Processing Research.

Harrisburg is pretty interesting with shadows...

It seems that the closer we get to the election, the less eyeballs visit political blogs. Check out the views and visitor graphs for the following blogs:

Eschaton

Daily Kos

Instapundit

Michelle Malkin

Let's Play the Dick Morris campaign advertisement game.

Here's one possible ad: We see and hear a wiretapped conversation, with a famous political consultant now columnist revealing his worst plans to a hooker - and, inadvertently, to government eavesdroppers, too. Then, when he's about to spill the beans on when and where the next party is going to be, the line should go crackly, with a man's voice saying "Get this address, we should get some photos for future reference."

The announcer can then say, "If the Republicans win, the National Security Agency can still find out about your little dirty secrets."

Wow, the Democrats could play the "silly scary game" too!

What was your favorite halloween costume that you actually wore?

Jim Matthews is the Republican candidate for Lt. Governor in the 2006 election in Pennsylvania. The Lt. Governor here really doesn't do that much, as far as statewide elected positions go - and they don't get much acclaim in the campaign as well, since the election occurs in the same years as the Gubernatorial race, and in the case this year, a U.S. Senate race.

The current Lt. Governor is Catherine Baker Knoll. If you want to see how important the Lt. Governor's office is, check out the official site for the office, where you'll find the exciting message of...

E:\Sites\LtGovernor\LtGovernor\z_cache_2068\
dsfx-wwwltgovernorstatepausltgovernorcwpviewaspa1146amp;
q441017~~1.dsf

I wonder if I'm the first to notice this error, or if it's been here a while and people just don't care.

Regardless, the office of Lt. Governor is not really a launching pad to higher office in PA. It does make me wonder why Matthews really wanted this office, instead of a State Senate or Congressional seat. It's a placeholder, but traditionally the end of the line for political aspirations.

Matthews' election performance isn't likely to present many new opportunities at the state level in the future, because he's hampered by two less-than-stellar political performances on the top of the Republican ticket - Lynn Swann and Rick Santorum, both slumping miserably in the polls. It's not necessarily Matthews' fault, but it does make you wonder about his timing.

These days, free or low-cost WiFi is almost a given at a coffee shop as are double-tall, half-decaf moccachinos with hazelnut syrup (hold the foam). WiFi is great for attracting customers... and spammers, as The Green Bean in Greensboro, NC found out last week. The coffee shop had its Internet connection shut off after its ISP noticed a gigantic volume of spam originating from its IP address.

I'm old-school coffee shop, I guess. The place I go to doesn't have WiFi and I hope they don't get it. I stop in almost every day as part of my work routine to get a coffee, talk to the owners and whatever regulars are there. There's a roundtable of men - retired, primarily - who make up a bit of a "roundtable" at lunch. There are three or four regular ladies there I see in the morning if I stop in then. There's Mike, the sports fanatic, who seems to have refereed every sport at some time and gives his insight on how a game should have progressed. The owner and staff are all open and friendly, and there's very rarely a computer visible in the shop.

The owner has talked about WiFi, but I doubt she'll ever get it, since the store isn't really big enough to support having too many people hanging around using the wireless connection - there's just not enough tables and chairs to go around. And I hope she doesn't. I get a great dose of local news almost everytime I go in - stuff I wouldn't get on local television or radio, stuff about business coming in or going out on the Carlisle Pike, or just goofy stuff. This is a low-tech respite, and it's good to stop in on a regular basis before returning.

You know what isn't often talked about in "our" coffee shop? Politics. I think it's out of respect for the ownership of the shop - the few political discussions that have occurred at the shop have gotten heated, and angry customers - even if they aren't angry at the business, but at another customer - are much less likely to return. The coffee shop is meant to be a connection point of neighbors, not a convincing point for politics, and there aren't many people who can accomplish both in a friendly way. So the topic is generally avoided.

After attending Coaches Meeting last night...

Jeff Jacoby really struggles to miss the major point of his own commentary.

WAS IT a mistake to go to war in Iraq? The latest voice to say so is that of conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online's shrewd editor-at-large and, until last week, a supporter of the war.

Goldberg hasn't become a John Murtha clone; he still believes that a precipitous American withdrawal would hand the jihadis a victory, and that finishing the job is preferable to bugging out and leaving Iraq a shambles.

But he has concluded that invading Iraq was the wrong choice, however well-intentioned. ``The Iraq war was a mistake," he writes, ``by the most obvious criteria: If we had known then what we know now, we would never have gone to war with Iraq in 2003."

Is that really how this war — or any war — should be judged?

Jacoby then goes on to make comparisons to the War of 1812, and World War II, and at the end throws the Civil War into it as well...

The point isn't that the violent mess in Iraq today is analogous to the Civil War in 1863, or to the Ardennes in 1944, or to the burning of Washington in 1814. The point is that we don't know.

Lessee...

War of 1812 - America was under siege by Great Britain.
World War II - Germany declared War on the United States.
Civil War - The Confederate Army attacked Fort Sumter.

And that's the big difference between the Iraq War and the rest of these wars, which makes his comparisons invalid. Iraq was a choice, not a response to an attack or declaration of War. Oh, and it was an attack on their sovereignty, not on ours. Jacoby compares three wars in which choice was relatively limited by the enemy to a war where choice was completely limited by the thinking capacity of the American President.

Comparing the thinking process behind the decision to go ahead with the Iraq War to the processes involved with these three other wars is an insult to American history and our predecessors who had shaped this nation. This is twitcraft, and a shame that it wastes paper.

It's October 22nd, and the snow shovels are for sale. SNOW SHOVELS!!!!

There's some sort of deeper message when Katie Couric is on the cover of Good Housekeeping, and the first thing you notice is how much airbrushing must have been done. If the purported goal of news is the search for the truth, what does it say when the goal of promoting those who read the news is to falsely enhance their image?

Again mocking their own conservative base:

If you suspect there are forces eager to suppress Republican turnout, you are right. Rarely has the press echoed Democratic themes as relentlessly as it has in the closing weeks of the 2006 campaign. And the main theme is that Republicans are about to be blown away. The question now is whether this message will persuade Republican voters to stay home on Election Day. It shouldn't, so long as Republicans--and especially conservative Republicans--act like adults, not like petulant children angry over one thing or another that didn't go their way.

You have to wonder if people like Barnes and Limbaugh are transferring traits they see in conservative bloggers to their own voting bloc...

It couldn't possibly be a right...

The number of businesses allowing employees to download the Firefox Web browser soared this year, and at least one analyst believes the recently released Internet Explorer 7 could boost use of Firefox in companies.

Fully, 44 percent of businesses with 250 employees or more allow workers to download Mozilla Corp.'s open-source browser at the office, according to a survey conducted this year by JupiterResearch. Last year, only 26 percent of such businesses were willing to do the same.

"That's a huge jump," Joe Wilcox, analyst for JupiterResearch said Friday. "It's an enormous embrace of Firefox in a very short period of time."

100 voters. Help bring real change to southeastern PA and the country. eRobin has the details.

Stop being a blogger.

From the Evening Standard:

Most British pensioners would have more sex if they could turn the clock back, according to a poll.

Seven out of 10 people aged 65 and over said they would make more time to make love if they could have their days again.

It's kinda funny - some of the other things listed for these pensioners are considered rather conventional wisdom or a sign of stature:

Apparently, bloggalicious is on its way to becoming a real term.

Bush says Lieberman was purged from the Democratic Party.

This summer, we saw what happens when a Democrat rejects his party's doctrine of cut and run. Senator Joe Lieberman, a three-term Democrat from Connecticut, supports completing the mission in Iraq, supports victory in Iraq. And for taking this stand, he was purged from his party. Think about what that means. Six years ago, the Democrats thought Joe Lieberman was good enough to run for Vice President of the United States. Now, because he supports victory in Iraq, they don't think he's fit to be in their party. There's only position in the Democrat Party that everybody seems to agree on: If you want to be a Democrat these days, you can be for almost anything, but victory in Iraq is not an option.

I'm all for purging Lieberman, not because of his position in Iraq, but because of his refusal to play by the election rules as he understood them from the get-go simply because he lost. But it's time for Lieberman to either say Bush is right, or full of shit. The press needs to ask.

Just caught about a half an hour of Limbaugh on the car radio. It seems he has decided that the best way to deal with a deflated Republican base is to mock them. He's put together a fake radio ad that cheers on the "cut and run" Republicans who won't be at the voting booth this year if there's even just one thing the Republicans did that they don't like, and of course, throws George Soros' name as the sponsor of the ad.

I've wondered what the "wuss percentage" of Rush Limbaugh's audience might be - those susceptible to AM bullying - but apparently Limbaugh feels it is high enough to make it worth spending air time to hector his own listeners.

Clueless.

They know who you are, what you do, how many people are in your family and where you live.

They are political operatives and as more and more voters are turned off by politics with each passing year, they have been exploring new technologies and techniques to win them back.

Borrowing from private-sector marketing techniques, political operatives are increasingly relying on sophisticated databases, whiz-bang Internet sites and blogs to supplement their traditional big-media campaigns.

"Things have changed from the old days," said Sam Rodriguez, political director for the California Democratic Party. "Technology has provided us new tools to pinpoint the voter in the household that would be supportive to our Democratic ticket and just talk to that voter."

Political analysts say such techniques are critical to counteract voters' growing disenchantment.

Technology and techniques are NOT the answers to recover disinterested voters. Anything that the hierarchy of the Republican or Democratic Party might say could be an answer to disinterest or disaffection is to be taken at face value: the viewpoint of one of the two major brands that clog a "marketplace" with a variety of two flavors, and the mixing of those two flavors, to their own advantage.

Imagine going to a Friendly's Ice Cream store, and being told the ice cream choices were vanilla and chocolate. Oh, and vanilla chocolate, and vanilla vanilla chocolate, and chocolate chocolate vanilla, and vanilla vanilla vanilla, and chocolate chocolate chocolate, etc. Unless you REALLY liked vanilla and/or chocolate to the exception of any other potential flavor, would you keep going back?

The secret to interesting voters back to the election process is to provide more options. I don't think there's any way a two-party political process is going to do much better than we do today as far as drawing back the disinterested.

The rules need to change to allow other political parties to do more than provide token participation in elections. This relates to the access to money and the access to process. For example, on process, redistricting is always looked at as benefitting either Republicans or Democrats. That clearly is to the deficit of any possible third or fourth party. This is just one example of how the two party system uses the process to blunt the opportunity for additional parties - and also how it creates "safe districts" which promote disinterest in campaigns and voting in even the two party marketplace.

So... when somebody tells you that technology and technique by a party will re-interest disaffected voters into voting, I say bullshit. Horrible mistakes, such as most of the Bush Administration, will re-interest voters to correct a problem, and exciting opportunities will do so also. If it turns out that voting numbers increase in 2006 over 2002, you will undoubtedly hear both technology and technique discussed for increasing the numbers. Me, I'll believe it's pretty much about the disaster of Iraq.

And because of that disaster, I'll be surprised if voting numbers increase, because as motivated as those horrified by our situation in Iraq are to vote, that motivation is considerably diminished by those who generally would support a Republican but find the past four years repugnant.

Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this funeral without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited.

Clogging fax machines of domains throughout the nation like turds after a Hot Dog Eating contest.

In a reversal, Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed said yesterday that he plans to sell "a majority" of the approximately $7 million in Western artifacts he acquired using nontax city funds since 2000.

Reed said he is abandoning his concept for a National Museum of the Old West in Harrisburg, a facility he said would have chronicled the country's westward expansion and would have helped fuel the city's growth.

Yes, that's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Good to see Mayor Reed drop this idea, as the public really didn't support it.

Do you think it's a good thing that it is still three weeks away, do you wish it was further away, or do you wish it was today already?

Bush was confused. I'm sure he was thinking that it was more commonplace that he signed items that costs lives. But he was wrong yesterday, per usual:

THE PRESIDENT: Welcome to the White House on an historic day. It is a rare occasion when a President can sign a bill he knows will save American lives. I have that privilege this morning.

I guess I might expect someone who had never been President to say that. But Bush should be signing legislation that he knows will save American lives several times a year, which hardly makes it rare. Does the Coast Guard portion of the Homeland Security budget save lives? How about the defense spending bill? The SAFE Port Act? What about this emergency funding bill?

The fact is, he does sign such legislation, pretty regularly. He just doesn't realize the impact.

Probably too cute of a commercial to spend against Santorum.

I think my head would have exploded.

DeLay, Ney, Foley, Cunningham, Weldon, etc., etc...

Maybe Gerrymander ought to consider a Republican Corruption Advent Calendar.

There's an updated story from the Associated Press on the Curt Weldon investigation that says the feds actually raided six sites today — not just the home of the Delaware County Republican's lobbyist daughter and Delco GOP powerhouse Charlie Sexton but also two other sites in the Philly area and two in Jacksonville, Fla.

I guess I'm kinda wondering about the timing of all this, and in an optimistic way. I'm assuming the FBI could time the public release of the Weldon investigation after the election. But for whatever reason, they chose to do this now, at a point when it could most greatly effect the Congressional election - not only of Weldon, but other Republicans as well - another log on the corrupt Republican fire. Could there be a desire by some in the FBI to bring back executive branch oversight by the Congress? Wouldn't getting rid of rubber stamp Republicans - particularly the corrupt ones - be a means to that end? Is it possible the timing is political as well as prosecutorial?

I do wonder. And it strangely makes me optimistic.

There is such a thing.

If you're looking for something...

And then I won't talk about them again, at least for a couple of weeks. I promise.

I think the Bears magic in this NFL season, up until last night, had to do mostly about the surprise of having a downfield passing offense. Last year's Bears were all dink passes and runs, and the defenses this year had been prepped mostly for that. That's why the field was so open for Grossman the first five games. Defenses weren't focusing on downfield pass plays, they were stacking 8 or 9 men within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage.

Arizona showed that they don't believe the Bears can run, and won't throw short passes, and they were right, at least last night. 34 yards rushing is a good number for a quarter but a horrible number for a game. It's not like the Bears tried that much, either, with just 13 real attempts, compared to 39 pass plays.

The Bears would be well put to try to spend the next two weeks getting the rushing game going again, and feature it heavily against the 49ers in two weeks, a team that has already given up 9 rushing TDs this season. I really don't even care if they lose the game, I just want to see the rest of the league realize that the Bears will devote a whole game to running the ball if they decide that's how they should try to win the game. I think defenses are going to focus on stopping Grossman's first deep target, and if Grossman continues to go haywire under that scenario, it will not be good for the Bears. So change the defensive focus of the opponents. And force Grossman to be patient!

On second thought, the 21-year-old Ross lets the fighting words fly. "Firefox brought Microsoft back to the table, but they make no guarantees how long they'll stick around," he says. "I can't imagine why any individual--let alone an IT department--would bet on a company with a proven track record of gross abandonment."

Yeah, I'm skeptical of IE 7, too.

I don't know what Rex Grossman thought he was doing against Arizona, but that'll be the last game the Bears win this year if he continues to play like that.

... a Saddam verdict on the Sunday before U.S. mid-term elections!

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi court trying Saddam Hussein for the killing of Shi'ite villagers in the 1980s could deliver a verdict on November 5, officials said, a ruling which could send the ousted leader to the gallows.

The U.S.-backed court was due to announce on Monday a final date for verdicts on Saddam and seven of his former top lieutenants for crimes against humanity, a charge which carries a maximum penalty of death by hanging.

But the court said it needed more time to review testimony. Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said the Iraqi High Tribunal could announce a verdict when it reconvenes on November 5.

"Right now they are checking some testimonies and details. If they finish by then, then they will definitely announce the verdict on November 5," he told Reuters.

If you had to move to a different state in the U.S., what state would you prefer to move to?

Written in American blood.

WASHINGTON - President Bush personally assured Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Monday that he has no plans to pull troops out and told him to ignore rumors the United States would enforce a timeline against Baghdad.

...

Snow said he wasn't clear where the rumors were coming from. He said that in his talk with al-Maliki, Bush did not express any sense of urgency. Casualties have been increasing amid almost daily violence that has eroded support for the war in the United States.

No timelines. No sense of urgency. Be assured that Bush will continue to let soldiers die regardless of any facts on the ground.

More details at Uncle Horn Head.

Never heard of this description before, but I thought it was funny...

Other top turnoffs include "muffin tops" (too-tight pants that leave the mid-section looking like a muffin top).

Our six-year-old received the flu nasal mist last Friday, which is supposed to be better than the shot. On the upside, he liked that better than getting the shot.

On the downside: he's had a low-grade fever since Saturday evening.

When I was in college, I had a course on non-verbal communication, and I did a video project on how institutions use clocks (or did not use clocks) to non-verbally communicate time-involved goals. Some day I'll post about it, I found it pretty interesting.

Institutions can use the calendar in a similar way. The Advent Calendar is just an example of how to use the calendar to enhance messages by an institution.

It seems to me, as we get closer to election day, that the Democratic Party needs to be focusing some more message focus on the calendar.

The national web site has on a secondary page - but not on the front page - the following image:

I think the 100 Actions site, and the countdown graphic, are great, but the countdown needs to be more promoted. For most folks, the ONLY action they will be taking is to vote. I'd like to see some ten second spots, or even 30 second spots, on television that reinforce how many days until election day and the opportunity to vote for change. The goal isn't to remind people so much when election day is as to build expectation and readiness to act when that day comes. I'd like to see more of this.

How low-tech beats high-tech.

I'm really not sure being known as the Keystone State does all these things for Pennsylvania, but I kinda like the idea of putting it back on the license plate.

Please don't create an update of this.

That would be the worldwide clothing-optional resort market.

You just know it. Something's got to give.

From a conservative blogger:

The WashTimes hightlights several GOP campaigns that are flogging the tax issue hard, and I think this has a pretty good chance of making a dent in the polls.

That's not the point of this post. One of the comments is:

They already get enough of my money, thank you very much.

Honestly, if that was the case for all of us, would this be the case? Who has the responsibility of paying this down beyond rhetorical number games?

Conservatives have the wrong focus. Their problem is with spenders, not with taxers. Republicans have proven that we don't have to have pro-tax policies to have out-of-control spending. If conservatives don't vote out the Congress that has been so actively increasing the debt the past 4 years, they should shut up about taxes, because they're being irresponsible about spending. It's time to put the ballot where their mouths are.

Comparing the official state trips and public speaking opportunities for candidates taken by one President George W. Bush during the last mid-term election in October, and what he has done to date this month (listed at the White House web site):

October 2002:

October 4, 2002 - Massachusetts Victory 2002 Reception
October 5, 2002 - Manchester, New Hampshire Welcome; John Sununu for Senate Reception
October 8, 2002 - Van Hilleary for Governor Luncheon (TN); Tennessee Welcome
October 14, 2002 - Thaddeus McCotter for Congress Dinner (MI); Michigan Welcome
October 18, 2002 - Rochester, Minnesota; Springfield, Missouri
October 22, 2002 - Pennsylvania Welcome; Bangor, Maine Welcome
October 24, 2002 - Alabama Welcome; Charlotte, North Carolina Welcome; Columbia, South Carolina Welcome
October 28, 2002 - Colorado Welcome; New Mexico Welcome
October 31, 2002 - West Virginia Welcome; Indiana Welcome; South Dakota Welcome

October 2006:

October 4, 2006 - Bob Beauprez for Governor and Colorado Republican Party Reception; Rick Renzi for Congress Breakfast

Tsk, tsk, nobody's invitin' the President anywhere these days.

Apparently, you're better off with orange juice than PSoTD juice.

It must be a tough life, particularly for a woman, in Egypt.

Visit more Republicans. C'mon. Do it. Make America's Day.

Time has an article entitled: Why Did Mark Warner Quit?

Warner claims he wants to spend more time with family. Why isn't that good enough a reason - for anyone? American should be trumpeting this - at a time where politicians are doing anything they can in DC to hold onto power, here's one that claims he'd rather pursue happiness.

I'm not sorry that Warner dropped out of the race, and I think America should support his reasons, wholeheartedly. In fact, I think America should force those reasons on most incumbents up for re-election in Congress next month. Congressional incumbents have earned a retirement with their families. Voters could do far worse than to send them home.

Interesting post:

Paul Scrivens beats down ten Web 2.0ish companies he feels have either failed to grow, failed to catch on at all, or have simply fallen on their face in his Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers list:

Now many of these sites might not be considered Web 2.0 with regards to the technology they use, but this list was made to show the losers (and winners) in this era of the web regardless of the technologies they are using.

Two on the list that I find interesting are Technorati and Bloglines. Personally, I'm a big fan of both applications.

I have to admit, my usage of Technorati is down considerably over the past year. Part of it is the amount of autoblogger junk I find when I do a search, part of it is how clogged it is with MySpace stuff. Part of it is that I am not nearly as proactive in finding new blogs to read anymore - I have a set list that I read, and new blog finds usually come from references from the regular reads.

Bloglines is a different story - it's HOW I read most of my regular reads anymore, other that Eschaton and Suburban Guerrilla and a few others. If someone comes up with a better application - for example, for each feed in my, show every headline I have marked as unread - in one big page, so that I don't have to click on each feed to see the specifics - I'd like that, as long as adding the feed remained as easy as it is in Bloglines.

Can you get Pringles in Argentina or India or Thailand? This map appears to indicate no. I don't know why, but I'm surprised, I thought they were ubiquitous.

The pride of Republican political thinking.

It would be useful to see some of the underdog House Democratic Party candidates use this question the next few weeks. Because the Administration is planning for it, and a Republican Congress will enable it.

Look at all the political fundraisers in the Harrisburg area on Tuesday, October 17th:

17-Oct-06 Friends to Elect Christine M. Tartaglione PO Box 11449, HBG, PA 17108 500 - Breakfast Hilton/Golden Sheaf, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8-10:30AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of Edward P. Wojnaroski, Sr. PO Box 82, Johnstown, PA 15907 250 - Breakfast McGrath's, 202 Locust Street, HBG 7:30-9 AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of John Siptroth 414 Airport Rd, E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301 250 - Breakfast Scott's Grille, 212 Locust St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Citizens for Saylor 122 N. Franklin St., Red Lion, PA 17356 250 - An Evening w/Rep Saylor Angelina's, 449 S. Front St., Lemoyne 5-7 PM

17-Oct-06 Friends of Dave Reed PO Box 1440, Indiana, PA 15701 250 - Breakfast Scott's Grille, 212 Locust St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of John Perzel Committee PO box 386, Conshohocken, PA 19428 500 - Reception The Firehouse Restaurant, 606 North Second St., HBG 6:30-8 PM

17-Oct-06 Citizens to Elect Dwight Evans PO Box 19097, Phila, PA 19138 500 - Breakfast Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Citizens to Elect Payne PO Box 651, Hershey, PA 17033 200 - Cocktails Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Cocoa Suites 3,4,5, Hershey 6-8 PM

17-Oct-06 Comm. To Elect Ronald G. Waters 108 S. 61st St., Phila, PA 19139 300 - Breakfast Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8-9:30AM

17-Oct-06 Folmer For State Senate PO Box 804, Jonestown, PA 17038 250 - Breakfast Harrisburg Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8:30-10:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of Mike Gerber PO Box 208, Ambler, PA 19002 250 - Breakfast Hilton, 1 N 2nd St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Brubaker for Senate PO Box 792, HBG, PA 17108 300 - Reception Max's Italian Restaurant, 17 North Second St., HBG 5-6:30 PM

17-Oct-06 Citizens for Greenleaf Committee PO Box 792, HBG, PA 17108 500 - Breakfast Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8-9:30AM

17-Oct-06 Killion Victory Committee PO Box 545, HBG., PA 17108 250 - Reception Haydn's on Pine, 215 Pine St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of McGill PO Box 3332, Maple Glen, PA 19002 250 - Breakfast Hilton, 1 N. 2nd St., HBG 8-9:30 AM

17-Oct-06 Friends of Chuck McIlhinney PO Box 792, HBG., PA 17108 300 - Luncheon Firehouse Restaurant, 606 N. 2nd St., HBG Noon - 1:30 PM

17-Oct-06 Committee to Re-Elect Peter J. Daley 217 Chestnut St., Coal Center, PA 15423 500 - Reception The Antique Auto Museum, 161 Museum Dr., Hershey 6 PM

Looks like restaurant business around the rest of Harrisburg might be a bit slow that day...

What's the best reason you can think of for keeping the Dime as part of U.S. Currency?

Or his "entertainment subjects"...

I tend to agree, good news for John Edwards. Another interesting point:

As for HIllary, this is a double-edged sword. She loses the one candidate who probably could've gone toe to toe with her on the money front, and the one who had easily built up the most innovative, competent campaign team. But, Hillary will do best if the field remains cluttered with a ton of men. That way, she can win primaries with 30 percent of the vote. If the field narrows quickly, she'd be in trouble. (Of course, I'm still not convinced Hillary is running...)

What an entertaining series the A's - Tigers on Fox is! Not so much because of the actual baseball, but because the Fox Sports "team" of Thom Brennaman, Steve Lyons and Lou Piniella is almost breathtakingly dull. Lou Piniella, on almost any broadcasting team, would stand out for delivering numbing obviousities. Tuesday night I actually heard him say of a Tiger hitter, "He likes the ball out over the plate."

Well, wow, I suppose most viewers might not have considered that possibility. But as bad as Piniella is, and it's "bad omelette" bad, Steve Lyons is worse. It's painful to watch the three in the booth talking, because you can tell that as Piniella spins out Little League coach level commentary with stumbling fortitude, Lyons looks like he's ready to spit the bit at any moment and blurt something out - and once Piniella finishes and Lyons does say something, you realize that the whole time he was waiting, he only planned far enough to say the first thing he could think of. I guess it isn't surprising, coming from a guy who once pulled his pants down at first base during a game and then acted like he "forgot" he was in front of fans.

Thom Brennaman, what can you say, he has the voice only a crime drama opening credits voice-over man could appreciate. Has he been practicing for the Law and Order gig? The rest of us can practice our Dr. Smith from Lost in Space: Oh, the pain. The pain! Of course, maybe Thom can throw in a couple more Bob Brenly barbs, I suspect most of the viewing public enjoys saying "who?" I like to say mine in a Great Gildersleeves tone and volume. Thom makes it all fun.

The worst thing about this trio is that as a team, they bring out the worst in each other. It's like a double play, and Brennaman is the shortstop and he throws it over Piniella's head at second. Piniella kicks it several times while chasing it down, but just as he's about to throw the ball home to get SOMEBODY, Steve Lyons crashed into him, yelling "I got it!" The groans are louder than the cheers. The producer of the broadcast gets special credit for putting together their formula of presentation: First Brennaman speaks, then Piniella, then Lyons. Then Brennaman. Then Piniella. Then Lyons. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, until eventually America mutes.

I don't disagree with Walters' viewpoint that the absentee vote campaign is a big deal, but honestly, journalists, editors and columnists have to quit cheapening the term "war". It's really a moral responsibility.

Dan Walters: Mailbox is today's war zone

Technically, Election Day is still nearly four weeks away, but voting begins this week as millions of absentee ballots are mailed out to Californians who prefer, for whatever reason, to do their voting at home. Within a few days, those ballots will start pouring into county election offices -- a phenomenon that has transformed the dynamics of campaigning ever since Republican George Deukmejian won the governorship in 1982 with the state's first large-scale absentee vote campaign while losing among voters who cast ballots on Election Day.

Politicians now know -- or should know -- that they can no longer wait until the last minute to make their big pitches, because by Election Day, it's entirely possible that half of the ballots will already have been cast. It's not a coincidence that the candidates for governor and hundreds of other offices, not to mention pro and con sides on ballot measures, are ramping up their media ad buys this week, or that the "slate mailers" that recommend votes on candidates and measures are beginning to show up in voters' mailboxes.

Since the holiday is almost here...

Do you plan on carving a pumpkin for this Halloween? What do you do with the pumpkin guts?

Some information on how to avoid picking a rotting one.

And here are some of the scariest jack-o-lanterns I've seen in quite a while...

Yesterday I spotted a conservative blog posting about his fear of Republicans staying home on election day, and giving Democrats the Congress.

What about Republicans planning to vote for Democrats, though? Is there a benefit now for the Democrats to find prominent Republicans who are willing to state that they plan to support a Democrats for Congressional races? Is it that hard to find a Republican that is willing to say they plan to vote for Casey over Santorum in Pennsylvania, or Tester over Burns in Montana, or any other Democrat over a Republican anywhere in the U.S.? If the election rout is on (and that's a big if, one that I don't believe at this point), shouldn't the Democrats find ways to encourage Republican Party pre-election introspection?

I'm sure there are lots of conservative bloggers that would appreciate that.

Interesting post and request by Thivai at Dialogic:

I would like to extend an invitation to bloggers to join in on a collective blogging section of our upcoming winter issue of Reconstruction. The issue is the “Theories/Practices of Blogging.” In addition to the special section of posts on blogging there will be about a dozen essays on blogging.

The deadline is October 27th.

Our intent in this section of the issue will be to collect a wide range of bloggers and link up to their statements in regards to why they blog (something many of us are asked) and any statement they have on the theories/practices of blogging.

If you already have a post on this you can feel free to use it, or, if you are interested, you can submit a new one.

I will have to think about this a bit.

Ray Liotta's series has been cancelled. I was trying to get into it. Way to pull the plug, CBS.

How many times do you usually hit snooze on your alarm clock before you finally get out of bed?

From an actual conservative blog:

The fate of this country lies in the conservatives. Too many are planning to sit home because they don’t have the fortitude to try anymore. If they cannot have their way the plan to punish those who stood by them all this time and allow the Democrats the opportunity to repeal all of Bush’s tax cuts, surrender Iraq to Al Qaeda and Iran, and close down the monitoring of terrorists communications to their contacts here in the US (while we work to get FISA warrants to cover ALL the communications of the people here in the US, not just the overseas ones to known terrorists). And to top it all off, the Democrats will have their investigations into everything Bush did, and will no doubt find surprising results that they cannot ignore, as they promised, and they will push for impeachment. All this because conservatives collapsed and quit on the movement.

The "Vote Republican, We Ignore Criminal Action" campaign has begun.

With gas prices down almost a dollar a gallon since August, it's enough to make Americans want Republican incumbents to be at risk of losing re-election all year long.

The Polar Invasion!

I guess the Pennsylvania limit for scandal-ridden members of Congress in attendance at a political fundraiser is one.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and another Republican leader criticized for his role in the congressional page scandal will not be appearing at fundraisers on behalf of a Pennsylvania congressman who has admitted to an extramarital affair.

Democrats have accused Hastert, R-Ill., and Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., of doing too little to protect teenage male pages from Rep. Mark Foley. The Florida Republican resigned Sept. 29 after the disclosure of inappropriate electronic messages to a former congressional page.

Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., had been considered to have a safe seat for re-election until a woman filed suit against him and alleged that he had choked her during an altercation at his Capitol Hill apartment. Sherwood admitted to having an affair with the woman but denied hurting her. They settled the case out of court.

Jake O'Donnell, a spokesman for Sherwood, said Monday that an Oct. 18 event with Hastert was only tentatively scheduled and was canceled mostly because Sherwood had another major event the next day.

Pressure from Sherwood's Democratic opponent was a factor in the decision by Reynolds, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, not to appear at an event Thursday with Sherwood, O'Donnell said. A Republican campaign spokesman disputed that assertion and cited other events as the reason.

C'mon, don't we have better looking equipment to use for calling the President of China?

In honor of Columbus Day, a question that has nothing to do with it:

What is your favorite TV detective show of all time?

Not surprising. Still depressing.

North Korea's test could also unleash a nuclear arms race in Asia, with Japan and South Korea feeling pressure to build nuclear weapons for defensive reasons.

Yet a number of senior U.S. officials have said privately that they would welcome a North Korean test, regarding it as a clarifying event that would forever end the debate within the Bush administration about whether to solve the problem through diplomacy or through tough actions designed to destabilize North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's grip on power.

Typical. This administration prefers NO OPTIONS. This administration prefers HARD LINE REQUIREMENTS.

This seems like a pretty useful set of guidelines for Homeowners Associations...

Did a bit of fall pruning yesterday. The subject: two butterfly bushes. The new siding will be going on sometime soon and it had grown all over the side of the house. Of course, after I did that, I read this, which says I should wait until spring. I'll try to remember that.

The more they decide to get rid of you. It's not a good time to run for re-election as part of Republican Congressional Leadership...

The time has come.

I did not see that coming.

And for Yankee fans, prepare for the Wrath of George.

This conservative blogger isn't one of them, but I'm wondering how many Republicans might be considering voting their Republican Congressional incumbent(s) out of office so they can get representation from the GOP that they feel actual enthusiasm for...

Mark Foley is eventually going to be coming out of "rehab" and will have to face the cameras and the phone calls and the constant pressure of the press to find "things" out, whether that be truth or lies.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership is attempting to construct a new reality covering up a coverup. They're having some major problems with that, starting with a general lack of credibility for Republican Congressman and greatly enhanced by the publicly laughable bureaucratic stature of men like Denny Hastert and Thomas Reynolds.

Mark Foley, being on the loose, presents considerable problems for the Republicans, particularly if Foley gets out after 30 days, which would be right before election day.

So... what are the Republicans planning to promise Foley, to either stay in rehab past election day, or to support their Winchester Mystery House-style constructed scenario? There's obviously interest in a deal from both sides. The news media ought to be investigating communications that occur now - in real time - between Republicans and House Leadership and Foley and his family.

I'm old and out of it, I had not heard this term before.

I'm a Chicago Bears fan. Have been since the late 1960s. I've seen some great teams, some good teams, some mediocre teams and some horrible teams during that time. I will admit, that last Sunday's whooping of the Seattle Seahawks was one of the best performances I've seen by the Bears during the whole time I've been a fan.

But...

It's a long season, and the Bears are only going as far as a balanced offense and defense will take them. Can they consistently deliver, particularly on the offense? I'm hopeful but it remains to be seen. The press for the Bears has been as giddy in the past week as it has been since the Ditka era, and this Sunday will be a big test for this team - can they play anywhere close to their peak level with everyone singing their praises? Or will ego get the better of them?

If there's one team catching the Bears at a good time so far this season, it's the Buffalo Bills.

We have a new meaning for the term.

An aide to top White House political adviser Karl Rove resigned in the fallout over a congressional report showing many White House contacts with ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

Last week's report by the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee said Rove aide Susan Ralston had passed inside White House information to Abramoff while she was also accepting his tickets to as many as nine sports and entertainment events.

...

Ralston submitted a letter of resignation to Bush on Thursday in which she said after "almost six years (at the White House) the time has come for me to pursue other opportunities."

I wonder if that means "testifying".

We have some Pita pockets in the refrigerator.

What sounds delicious to fill them up with? Suggestions appreciated for dinner sometime this weekend.

Don't name your son Robert.

Why the voters of the IL-14 Congressional District wouldn't find John Laesch a lot more impressive than Denny Hastert. Besides, just looking at Hastert's picture regularly has to increase your cholesterol, he's so unhealthy looking. Hastert clearly has a SABBLIR body condition*.

*Schmoozed and Boozed By Lobbying Interests Relentlessly.

Why does this make sense to the Catholic Church?

I kid you not.

To try and curb school violence, a state law maker is proposing arming school staff.

At the beginning of next year Lasee plans to introduce a bill that will allow school staff to carry weapons.

Yes, let's teach the kids that everyone needs to bring a gun to work, regardless of the risk. That's brilliant.

Perhaps there is a scientific explanation for the political party in power in this country.

We're about to see House Republicans do their imitation of billiard balls on a break as the polling news about Denny Hastert sinks in.

I want to follow up on Rox's post for today's question:

What blogger(s) would you like to meet for lunch talk, and what would you like to talk about?*

*besides me. :^)

I mean, he's really avoiding an opportunity to be a responsible Republican here. The odds are, this is going to get even uglier, and he's clearly determined to paint the rotting Hastert firewall.

This looks fun one of these upcoming Sundays...

Missed this one: Thou Shalt Be Conservative.

So, what is your least favorite financial institution, and why?

How can anyone possibly know if they have the facts, when new details come out each day?

CBS News with Katie Couric.

The First Baptist Church of Central Florida will soon have a 199-foot-tall cross at its west Orange County campus.

Orange County commissioners on Tuesday approved construction of the cross — which is 51/2 times higher than zoning allows in that area — by a 6-1 vote.

The Rev. Clayton Cloer made the same pitch Tuesday.

"The cross is not a sign; it is a symbol. A sign identifies; a symbol expresses," Cloer said. "To compare the cross to a Wal-Mart sign or a McDonald's sign . . . is what we believe would be an incorrect comparison."

What a ridiculous distinction. I look forward to the first adult entertainment location asking Orange County Commissioners to allow them to build 199 foot male and female gender symbols.

Put down the beat for Rappin' Father Stan Fortuna.

This is how rap is destroyed.

If you were going to go camping this weekend, where would you want to go?

We're putting on an addition and remodeling some of our house. It's a pretty interesting process (although trying) and now that we're in the actual construction and deconstruction part of the process, here's a tidbit I've learned:

You Never Remodel Alone.

No, I'm not talking about contractors. I'm talking about neighbors! People you know, and people you don't know, notice the trucks and dumpsters and deliveries and noise and work going on at your house, and everyone wants to know - what are you doing?

It's actually pretty cool. We all take our neighbors' homes for granted unless there's change or problems. And yes, our neighbors' have the right to make change, but we have a vested interest as well - after all, we're going to view the house for the foreseeable future. And so neighbors want to know - who's doing the work, what's being done, what's the vision, etc. And of course, we enjoy talking about it, since it's the biggest new thing going on in our lives at the time being, and it's something we live with everyday, and we're pretty much the only ones who know what the end result will be. So, it's a big plus added to the minuses of dirt and disorder and no kitchen and the other temporary hassles of remodeling.

Three times in the past week America has been sickened by attacks on schools. The Amish school attack may have been the most disturbing, if only because it proves that any school in America could be the site of such a horror. There's no immunity in rurality, there's no protection via space. Anyone that is a parent with kids in school has been reminded of that several times in the past week.

So how does society stop these rampages of people like Charles Carl Roberts IV? What can we do, as a national community and as local communities, to keep this from happening? These are incredibly cowardly acts. How do we protect our kids from the angry violent cowards in our midst?

I don't know, but I sure think it's worth the national conversation on prevention. Perhaps there's too much attention to the actual crimes in the news media, and not enough attention to what we can do to prevent them. And at some point, we, as a nation, have to decide that anger management is a required skill that all citizens have to master.

Thanks to the following fine bloggers for adding PSoTD to their blogrolls...

Dr. Forbush Thinks
Declaration of Pride

Thanks!

Today's question:

What language would you like to be able to speak fluently, that you cannot speak fluently today?

Today's waste of newsprint:

Sebastian Mallaby. End of column basically says Democrats are no better than Republicans, although headlining it as "A Party Without Principles". It would be nice if the Washington Post would hire writers that might investigate WHY the two major political parties are without principles, if they actually believe that to be the case, instead of hacking on the party OUT OF POWER for 95% of an article, only to end with:

I'm not saying that Republicans are at all better, and of course elections breed some policy timidity.

Mahablog is right. Mallaby is softheaded, not so much on his point but his approach. It's the entire Congressional culture that is a problem, and the two party system culture. If Mallaby has a problem with that, fine, tackle them in even fashion. Unfortunately, there's a bigger problem right now - one party rule. Attacking Democrats for secondary issues doesn't help the nation's opportunity to fix a more dangerous problem, particularly when they are really not in position to deal with those secondary issues.

Top contributors to Mark Foley for 05-06 period, courtesy of OpenSecrets.org:

MARK FOLEY (R-FL) Top Contributors

1 Florida Turbine Technologies $13,400
2 Oxford Management Services $11,500
3 AFLAC Inc $10,000
3 Carpenters & Joiners Union $10,000
3 Every Republican is Crucial PAC $10,000
3 FPL Group $10,000
3 Sheet Metal/AC Contractors Assn $10,000
3 United Parcel Service $10,000
9 Mortgage Bankers Assn of America $8,500
10 Gruss & Co $8,400
10 Prescription Plus $8,400
10 Royal Wolff Ventures $8,400
13 American Resort Development Assn $8,330
14 DEG Capital Partners $8,200
14 Gold Coast Beverage $8,200
16 Charles Stewart Mott Foundation $8,000
16 Flo-Sun Inc $8,000
16 Huizenga Holdings $8,000
16 Thunderhead Productions $8,000
20 Morgan Stanley $7,750

Personal note: I'm agnostic.

I know a man who is seeking an annulment from a previous marriage. They were married over 15 years, and had kids. The divorce was over 20 years ago, and since then he's been married again, although not a Catholic ceremony, and his wife from that marriage died. He is now remarried again, in a civil ceremony. The annulment sounds like it is more paperwork than anything else.

I can't even possibly understand why the man wants to put his kids through an annulment. Sure, they're grown, but why revisit an old divorce and bring up the wounds from that when you've already accepted two civil marriages since then?

Is it so important to have the Catholic Church recognize a third marriage that it is worth seeking a way to invalidate the standing of a previous Catholic wedding? And why would the Church think that way?

Of course, the real villain here - and they are the villain in my eyes - is the Catholic Church. They're trying to play it both ways - divorce is wrong but if you can somehow invalidate the previous Catholic wedding, it doesn't count no matter how many years you were together and how many offspring you have. Hypocritical. And the Church will probably get what they deserve, a big F.O. from the kids of this man and the end of the line of Catholicism as the family religion as far as their offspring go.

I found the following definition from a Catholic Church website on annulment:

What is a Church annulment?

Unlike a divorce, which states that a marriage that once existed no longer does, an annulment is a declaration by the Catholic Church that the prior union never had the binding force that characterizes marriage. An annulment does not deny the reality of the wedding or the experience of the spouses during married life, but rather says that because something was seriously defective when the bride and groom spoke their wedding vows, the marriage lacked the binding force that Jesus taught.

There's something defective in this whole process, but it's the rules the Church claims to go by, not the institution of marriage.

I wonder how many annulments the Catholic Church approved in the United States last year?

3 transactions this candidate made to all other committees.

BOB NEY FOR CONGRESS
06/28/05 $1,000.00

FRIENDS OF GEORGE ALLEN
06/29/05 $2,000.00

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
07/27/06 $100,000.00

Interesting to see George Allen's name on this short list.

More on the Foley case:

Foley's supporters, struggling to put their dismay into words, said the scandal hints at not just a human failure but a systematic letdown.

"It's a failure to uphold the standards to which we profess our government to be all about," said Tom DeRita, a Palm Beach Gardens Republican who said he has raised millions in campaign cash for Foley.

Here's a thought for those in Florida that may want to donate to Republicans - avoid giving to those who raised money for Foley. If someone was out pitching you for money for a startup business - a startup business that went along for a while but eventually was discovered to be an utter fraud - for example, saying it made money selling Christmas cards but was really a front for selling porn - would you continue to invest with that frontman who pitched the business?

Or would you do much better diligence next time?

I keep reading these conservative blogs that talk about the Mark Foley scandal, and they like to bring up the name of Gerry Studds, but they never bring up Daniel Crane, Republican of Illinois, who was censured at the same time as Studds for having sex with an underage Congressional page. Isn't that odd?

Gleason, it is believed, is the only baseball player with prior major league experience who served in the Vietnam War.

I find this to be rather disappointing news.

Brazil's Civil Aviation Authority, or Anac, will restart the process of redistributing domestic and international air routes formerly run by embattled flagship airline Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense (VAGV4.BR), or Varig, after overturning a bankruptcy court ruling blocking the operation, said a regulator spokeswoman Friday.

I flew Varig quite a bit for about a month of my life, in November and December, 1990. I flew Varig from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and back, during which I spent about a month kicking around Brazil by myself, although I did meet up with a few Americans and Brits in the process, and Germans kept thinking they recognized me from their country (apparently I look quite German somehow).

Varig had/has an Airpass program for visitors from other countries - similar to the European rail pass and other such programs. At the time, for about $440, you were allowed five different destinations in Brazil. You could call up and generally make arrangements to fly the same day or the next day. I went from Rio to Belo Horizonte to Bahia to Foz do Iguacu and back to Rio over the course of the month. (I didn't plan to really revisit Rio when I left for Brazil, but I had so much fun there the first time, and met some fun folks in Iguacu and decided to spend my last four days there instead of Belem.

Varig was great. Great planes, easy to travel on, and I had no delays that I can remember. Some day I hope to take my family back to Brazil and the Pantanal area, and I had always expected we would fly Varig when that happened. I'm sorry to see that part is unlikely to happen.