Sigh

Here is comes again...the forwarded email that says "Andy Rooney said" followed by the standard bigoted pseudo quotes that have all the closet racists and homophobes nodding their heads, rubbing their guns and waving their American flags.

A quick check at Snopes.com easily proves that Andy Rooney didn't say any of that...It's fake. But time and time again, people buy into it without checking and hit the forward button. People who are, for the most part, good and kind folks, who get sucked into the not so subtle hatred mongering engendered by fear.

Here is my response to Friend who sent it to me:


Sigh...Friend, Friend, Friend....

Why do you let yourself be used? This stuff is below you. The folks who put this garbage out are trying to justify their own mean spirited bigotries against blacks, gays, liberals, whatever, and by forwarding it to me, you are putting your good name on it.

I don't think that's what you want. I know you and you aren't that kind of person.

Isn't it time you quit letting these pitiful people use you?

Neither Andy Rooney, George Carlin, nor even the low life Ted Nugent said this stuff.

Peace,

Steve

More often than not, I get a response that goes something like, "I am not...You just don't have a sense of humor."

Sigh...

A Living Crucifiction

I was watching the news about an American hero who suffered mightily for doing the right thing.

He risked his life to save others and was crucified by Law enforcement agencies and the American Media. This is not the only case where the media has jumped all over "A person of interest" and made their life hell, only to discover that they were innocent all along. Without so much as a "sorry 'bout that" they move on to the next victim while we watch the disembowelment of a person's life on tv, riveted as the sharks feed on living flesh.

We as a society have less shame than conscience. Would that it were the other way around.

Sharon Cobb tells this story.

Peace,

Steve

Shorter Fred

Analyzing Fred Thompson:

"I simply believe that on the present course that we're going to be a weaker, less prosperous, more divided nation than what we have been." (That Bush crowd is driving this bus off a cliff)

"Our country's in danger" (From Bush Republicans, who else?)

"We are doing steady damage to our economy" (There's only so much we can steal before it tanks)

"...our people follow, but they don't have any confidence in what's being said or who's saying it." (They think it's crazy but they're still marching off a cliff)

And the synopsis: (If I don't step up and read these speeches, no matter how lame they are, We're not going to elect a republican to fix this mess.)

and also....(Red Pickup Truck).

By the Light of the Rove Moon

As the reign of the American "Il Duce" wannabe comes to an end we are all suffering under the last viscious ravages of the rabid dog that has become this presidency.

The maddening exercise of power in the face of dwindling support, makes it seem like administration officials are observing that beatings aren't improving morale, and with that in mind we shall double the daily ration of lashes until morale improves.

"We will destroy your mountains and take your resources so that we can make you pay us while we put poisons in your air and tell you it's for your own good."

Even ousted chief of staff Karl Rove looks to punish those who dared to doubt his god-hood. Rove ordered the Secret Service to arrest Washington protesters who dared to show their dissent by mooning Rove at an April speech on a university campus.

How dare anyone show the world how much they don't love Karl Rove?

The protesters had already been arrested by the local authorities, in and of itself a Constitutionally questionable abuse of power, and ordered to serve 40 hours of community service. Being unable to accept that the mooning offense was punished on the level of a minor felony. Rove has demanded that the Secret Service arrest these people....

And they did!

"On Friday, Gardner and the rest of the group were notified by AU’s Dean of Students that the Secret Service has issued warrants for their arrest."

Rove was speaking to a group called the Campus Republicans at the time, which was last April, and now seeks, apparently, to demonstrate that he can mold them into his version of the Hitler Youth.

"See how much power you can have if you follow me?" Rove seems to be saying..."I've resigned in disgrace and I can still have the Secret Service arrest college students for not showing me their love."

A thoughtful person can only ask...

"What the F--- is going on in my country?"


Peace,

Steve

Girl's Soccer...Gotta love it!

Toon of the Day

Toon of the Day Tomorrow

Quote of the Day

I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority
think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

Senator Larry Craig R-Idaho.... recently arrested in an airport men's room for lewd condict, one month after appearing at a press conference with his wife and declaring he's not gay.

Toonage

I love political cartoons. The tooners can say things nobody else can get away with and therein lies great truths:


Charlie does Gonzales

By way of Lisa at http://www.allhatnocattle.com/ when a Republican Governor vetoes tax increases that were going to fix infrastructure there comes this jewel

Then there was the absurdity of Bush invoking Viet Nam, of all things. (Ben Sargent by way of Susan)

Time to save the World

Some of its fish anyway.


Ok...I know Gonezales is almost as big a topic as Justin Wilson's attempt to check out early, but this is important.

My totally favorite nonprofit is trying to save the fish world (and doing a danged fine job of it, too) and they need more room in the ark. All you have to do is become a member and you too can bask in the glow of being a super hero saving the world.

And you get a cool e-newsletter with pictures of baby fish..Awwwww!

We'll name one after you, honest!

Seriously, Now's the time to help some folks who do great work, and you get to feel really good about yourself in the process.

Do it for the fishies!

At least go read the newsletter so you'll feel guilty if you don't show them some love.

Walk this Way

So Gonzales resigns...

Poor guy...Bush says Alberto is a victim of a partisan witch hunt. Actually that would be partisan Democrats AND Republicans calling for his resignation.

And anyway...Just because the highest Justice Department official in the whole country commits perjury is no reason for anybody to think he's done anything wrong.

I mean the only people who claim Alberto lied under oath were folks with absolutely no credibility, like, you know...

the FBI.

And so he gets off easy with no impeachment.

Dammit!

We deserve his head on a stick for what he's done to our Constitution.

Any bets on Gonzales being listed in Bush's blanket pardons when he walks out the door in January 2009?

The Smell of Outrage in the Morning

I don't know which is worse...that a conservative entertainer would say something as vile as this:

"I was in Chicago last week I said, "Hey Obama, you might want to suck on
one of these, you punk?" Obama, he’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on
one of my machine guns. Let’s hear it for them. I was in New York and I said,
"Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset you worthless
bitch." Since I’m in California, I’m gonna find Barbara Boxer she might wanna
suck on my machine guns. Hey, Dianne Feinstein, ride one of these you worthless
whore."

Or that a crowd of people paid to see Ted Nugent threaten the lives of Democratic Presidential candidates while waving a machine gun on stage...And cheered him on.

My Country has a sickness.

And tell me what the Dixie Chicks did again? I mean they caught all sorts of outraged abuse from conservatives for actually saying what? ...They were ashamed George Bush was from Texas?

Ten Nugent...another symptom. of Conservatism. (and yep, there's video)

Randy Made Me Do It...

I've had another project to occupy my time lately, but before I give you the link, I want to share my latest outrage.

Forbes is not exactly a liberal bastion. It appears that even Forbes has had enough.

"Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8
billion of it has disappeared, according to a government reconstruction
audit."

"After I voiced my concerns about what I believed to be accounting
fraud, Halliburton placed me under guard and kept me in seclusion," she told the
committee. "My property was searched, and I was specifically told that I was not
allowed to speak to any member of the U.S. military. I remained under guard
until I was flown out of the country..."

You can skip the intro if you look around for the button, but even if you have to watch it, this story should make you angry...

Americans are torturing Americans who try to blow the whistle...And our government knows it, and lets it happen!

Forbes

And now here's RoaneViews

Randy made me do it!

Bush personally resposible for Miner's deaths

More on Coal:

These are guys who got killed because they worked for companies that
routinely broke the rules put in pace to keep their employees alive.

And there's more. It turns out that the guy in charge of mine safety
for the federal government, Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler, couldn't
even get approved by the Senate back when it was under Republican control
because his own record on safety issues was so questionable. President Bush had
to put him in with a recess appointment.

Josh Marshall

We're after the wrong Guy!

So what if I told you that we could stop more people from being killed each year in the United States of America if we quit trying to stop this guy from doing business....

And concentrated on stopping this guy from doing business...

That nice looking gentleman is Daniel Roling, and he is the CEO of National Coal. His employment contract is on file in Knoxville, TN and lists a very nice compensation package for Dan.

In addition to money and stock and a killer severance package, Dan and his family get health insurance...Good health insurance.

Now here is a map for you to think about. Dan and his company have a lot to do with this map. It is the power plant distribution of nasty little bits of coal ash that can go in your lungs and the lungs of your children and never come back out.

More importantly, the nasty little bits of coal ash kill about 30,000 people a year...slowly, as they suck on a little plastic tube connected to an oxygen bottle, if they are older...Or if they are younger, they carry a steroid inhaler around with them every day so that, when the airways in their lungs close up in the bodies defense mechanism that tries to keep us from breahing those nasty little bits of coal ash, the steroid inhaler will enable them to breathe again and not feel like they are suffocating.

So who is it that says Dan and his friends are killing 30,000 Americans a year?

Osama can only dream of such an accomplishment.

A company called Abt Associates. They must do research for ultra left wing enviro-nazis, right?

Yeah...Here's a list:

Georgia Power Company, Kansai Electric Power Company, NorthEast Utilities, Select Energy, Shell, Virginia Power Company

So as we watch the news of the coal miners trapped below the surface of the earth...As our hearts go out to their wives and children...As we think of them possibly trapped in a room where the air they must breathe to stay alive turns to poison...Think about the fact that right here in east Tennessee, not only is coal mining killing those miners and the people who are trying to rescue them...

Coal is killing you and your children, too.

Thank you, Dan.

I hope your children die rich.

Steve

Note:

Mining coal is about the stupidest thing humans can do. Here we are worrying about climate change caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide, and we're digging the stuff up out of the ground and burning it straight into our air.

Coal IS sequestered carbon.

Karl's Middle Name?

Karl Rove's middle name is Christian.

Karl Christian Rove was born on Christmas day 1950.

He claims to have lost his first political battle in 1959 when, having chosen to support Richard Nixon, he was beaten up in elementary school by a Catholic girl who supported John Kennedy.

Running away from Congressional subpoenas, Karl Rove got a big hug from George W. Bush as he announced his resignation. Of he things Rove covered in his remarks, there was no mention of why he just bought a very expensive new house in Washington D.C. with a mortgage term of a remarkable 3 months. Can you say "short term profit" boys and girls? The obscene resale price of the home is a traditional Republican bigwig method of paying for service to the party.

We'll miss him like a toothache but I bet he winds up stinking rich.

SNARK:

The president's advisor, Karl Rove, announced he's resigning. I was surprised. I didn't think anyone in the White House had an exit strategy.

Karl Rove has been called "Bush's brain." I don't really know if that's a compliment.
It's like being called "Paris Hilton's talent" or "Trump's hair." ..Fergusen

In other late breaking snark:

"The brand new president of the Young Republican National Federation, 33-year-old Glenn Murphy, has resigned after one month in office, after police say he is being investigated for performing an unwanted sex act on a sleeping man. Murphy defended himself by saying the act was consensual and he may have had just too much to drink at the time. Well, what guy hasn't done that after a couple of beers? ... See, there you go. The Democrats may talk a good game at the gay rights forum last night, but the Republicans are actually out there doing gay things." --Jay Leno

"Last night, during a debate sponsored by a gay group, Senator Hillary Clinton was criticized because of her husband's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. In response, Hillary said, 'Sorry, but our entire marriage is based on me not asking and him not telling'" --Conan O'Brien

"In a recent interview, President Bush's father said he gets upset when people tell him his son is doing a bad job. Bush's dad went on to say, 'You'd think after 60 years I'd be used to it.'" --Jay Leno



.
"Across the aisle, on Sunday, all nine Republican candidates skipped church to take part in a forum on ABC's 'This Week.' The highlight? When George Stephanopoulos asked each contender this question [on screen: Stephanopoulos asking, 'What is a defining mistake of your life and why?'] ... At least one candidate managed to be both honest and evasive [on screen: Rudy Giuliani saying, 'To have a description of my mistakes in 30 seconds?' and then shaking his head no]. I mean, here's a hint. It starts with annulling my first marriage to my second cousin and it ends with my kids from my second marriage supporting Barack Obama because they hate my third wife." --Jon Stewart

And the best and most tragic late night joke:

It was this week in 1974 that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency after getting caught lying and violating the Constitution. Remember when that kind of thing used to get you kicked out of office?...Leno

Calling Fred's Campaign

The world reacts to Karl Rove's impending resignation with expressions of love and thanks for his service to America:

Washington, DC - Following the resignation of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Ambassador Joseph Wilson issued the following statement:

"Karl Rove's resignation signals the final chapter in the Bush administration's
betrayal of the identity of a covert CIA officer. When this breach of national
security occurred, the President promised the American people that anybody in
his administration responsible for the leak would be removed. Rove, identified
by the prosecutors as one of the leakers, not only was not summarily dismissed,
but has been allowed to leave on his own terms, to praise from the President.
This sordid tale of compromising national security to cover-up and distract from
the false rationale for the invasion of Iraq will forever remain in history a
black mark on the Bush presidency"

And then there's Josh Marshall:

With the recent news of cutbacks on funding of human intelligence in the intel
budget, there's the possibility that there were no more CIA agents whose cover
could be blown and he decided to move on to greener pastures.

Doug Feaver at the Washington Post:

His announcement came in the Wall Street Journal this morning and has generated a surge (if I may that use that word in this context) of comments, many of them expressing jubilation at the departure of one they see as evil, many more stating a firm conviction that Rove's statement to the Journal that "I've got to do this for the sake of my family" is a cover story at best and that the real reason has to be to defend himself from some yet unspecified scandal or legal hassle.

And Susan was right there for us with her brand of Big Blue Snark:

August 13 - Oh great, he screws up the entire world and then leaves to spend more time with his family. He's coming back to Texas, dammit. Can't we move that giant wall from the south border to north, east, and west borders real quick?

As breaking news streams in to our crack broken news team, we'll send it on to you guys.

Stay awake.

Peace

Home Again

You meet some interesting people traveling...Particularly standing in the security check line.

I was chatting with a well dressed lady in front of me who said she worked with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I told her I was a member of several stations and appreciated her work. We made small talk and moved along in the line until she waved over my head at someone to come up to join her. A very distinguished looking gentlman stepped ahead of me and they started chatting about public broadcasting and I faded back and admired the big photos of music stars all over the walls and wondered what the Gibson display would have in it when I returned.

At the baggage claim there is a glass display that usually has at least one beauty of a guitar in it and I figured I 'd check it out when I got back.

So the distinguished gentleman was paying all his attention to the nice lady from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting when it came time to put his shoes back on after the Xray machine rolled all our possessions out, and he hopped in his very expensive looking shoes and scurried after her. I figured him for late seventies but he was trim and active and wore his suit quite well. I hope I look that good in a suit when I'm his age.

I reached to gather my laptop and other things and noticed the black brief case. I also noticed the name on it. I looked for the gentleman and saw him wandering away, so I grabbed the briefcase and rushed to catch him.

"Mr. Seigenthaler!" I said. "Excuse me, sir. I believe this is yours." He didn't hear me.

The lady turned and saw me. "Yes it is. It's his." And the gentleman turned and saw the briefcase.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I was going to leave it. Thank you so much." And he looked me in the eye with a most genuine and thankful face.

We chatted, introduced ourselves, and wished each other a safe trip.

John Seigenthaler was Bobby Kennedy's assistant when Bobby was Attorney General to John F. Kennedy... and he was one of Bobby's pall bearers. He was the victim of a rightwing smear that bounced back and totally discredited his smearers when they tried to falsify Seigenthaler's Wikipedia entry.

Seigenthaler is 80 years old and a genuinely nice human being. Oh, and he also founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.

On my trip back to Tennessee, I sat with a young man who had quit his job in Oregon and gone to New Orleans as a volunteer to help them recover from the Katrina disaster. He stayed and took a post graduate position at the University of New Orleans and is writing a paper on the consequences of natural disaster in an urban environment.

As I waited for my bag to come out of the little door that fed the conveyor belt of happiness for airline travelers awaiting their baggage, I admired the solid body electric Gibson guitar in the glass case.

Life is a song, played in the key of the moment...A wondrous thing to listen to.

Peace,

Steve

Salt Lake City

The closest most folks get to an international experience might be a cab ride.

My Egyptian cabbie had just gotten back into the country and told me he was broke. I laughed and he said he had enough to get by but that he had no extra. I asked him where his home in Egypt was and he said Alexandria. So happens I have a soccer Dad from Egypt who rates middle eastern restaurants for me I mentioned food and we were off to the races to compare likes dislikes and "you must try's" before the ride ended.

For $20 I got a great recipe for okra and lamb, and also a ride from the airport into town.

You fine and long suffering folks will get some reprieve from my ramblings for the next few days. I'm still stunned by the $6.75 I paid for a beer while waiting for my plane to depart in Nashville, and now I'm dealing with alcoholic beverages that are heavy on the beverage and light on the important ingredients.

A religion that doesn't drink coffee or alcohol ought to at least stay out of the recipes. One of our marketing folks asked the question, "So if we're in a desert and water is such a problem, why is there so much of it in the beer?"

Now if only I can get my room reservation straightened out so I don't have to sleep on a floor tonight.

Cheers,

Steve

Visiting the Friends and neighbors

If you don't make regular visits to Susan's place you're missing some of the best snark anywhere. She started mainly pointing out that we ought to be laughing our big blue butts off at Tom DeLay but she's branched out. She still shows us how local shenanigans ought to be covered.


Susan get's into Tennessee politics because, well, Texas owes us...Tennessee sent Texas Sam Houston and then a bunch of suicidal misfits with rifles so they could have this cute little monument of a mission right in the middle of San Antonio and get tourons to pay perfectly good money to go in and see the Mexican bullet holes where about 12 Tennesseans were killed. One of them was Davy Crockett, who had just been "Un" elected to Congress by the fine people of Tennessee. Another was Micajah Autry, a Jackson, TN lawyer, businessman, and rifle marksman. (Autry is an interesting character who failed at business, wasn't much of a lawyer, and missed General Sanna Anna when he had the shot that could have changed everything.

But enough about the Texas origins of the NRA...


Anyway Susan has a great take on Fred and his lovely current wife. The money quote:

"I consider this project technically vague and stunningly overpriced"

(Fred's staff tried to tell him, but would he listen?)

Paul Wolfiwitz obviously appreciates Jeri Thompson's assets.

And from our "If only it were True" Department..

Tom Tomorrow


I'm headed out to Salt Lake City this afternoon, where I intend to resume my research project on the connection between 3.2 beer and bloated stomachs.

Peace,

Steve

Nobody can replace Molly Ivins, but...

Our beloved Molly passed away and now we look to find someone to carry on. Here is what she wrote for us before she died:

As I occasionally survey the pack of sycophantic shih tzus* in the
Washington press corps, wriggling on their bellies to kiss the feet of those in
power, I feel plumb discouraged about the future of journalism.

It's like a cross between Versailles under Louis XIV and high school:
obsequious courtiers flattering their way to favor, plus the silly cliques of
the "in crowd" and "out crowd." On the other hand, I am greatly cheered by the
young journalists in the blogosphere who have now whelped a perfect litter of
books worth paying attention to.

For my marbles and chalk, the pick is David Sirota's "Hostile Takeover:
How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government -- and How We Take It Back." Sirota is a new-generation populist who instinctively understands that
the only real questions are "Who's getting screwed" and "Who's doing the
screwing?"

Creators Syndicate published Molly Ivins and has picked David Sirota to write a column to take her place. While nobody can replace Molly's ascerbic Texas wit, Sirota knows the drill and has the courage to tell it like it is. Now all we have to do is get his column picked up by our local media. He asks for our help in doing this.

Here's a sample of what you get with Sirota:

http://davidsirota.dailykos.com/

Our Only Hope?

One of my Science magazines has an ad on the back cover asking if Religion, Ethics, and Science will collide? I look at it differently...They MUST collide.

It is not that there is never any let up in the religion versus science battle, but that the loser never acknowledges defeat. Not defeat in the entire war, mind you, but in the small ethical battles in which truth is determined. Our inability to face the truth is the stuff of legends, both biblical and otherwise, as the concepts of a round earth, that it orbits the sun not the other way around, that individuals of a species with the greatest abilities survive to reproduce, and that President Bush is NOT a "uniter", prove beyond any shadow of doubt.

The religions that battle science, and any number of them do not, do so because of false tenets to which they cannot release themselves. I do not know or even claim to know if there is any supernatural basis for any of the tens of thousands of religions that have sprung over the few millennia of mankind's supposed civilized emergence, but I can say with confidence that there have been at times tenets of almost all of them that are demonstrably false. The most logical of religions roll with the punch of new knowledge, add to their body of works and charge ahead.

We have today religions that are static and inflexible, basing themselves on some compendium written at some point in time in which the worldwide body of facts is less than it is today. If a new fact reveals itself to us...and it contradicts a tenet of our religion...Is the fact to be discarded, or is our religion to be adjusted?

I believe a very few things with certainty, but one of them is that critical thinking, which is the scientific method of determining fact from fiction from that which we cannot determine at this point in time, is our best hope of making rational decisions as a species.

Critical Thinking is the enemy of political parties, some religions, fascism and tyranny.

It is the higher calling of our minds and requires thought and training. An even greater calling is for us to have the courage to face up to the contradictions in our personal religions and Science. Science can be mistaken but it can not lie. The same is not true of religion.

Peace,

Steve

Update: Science, Ethics, and the Progressive Movement

Something Science shows us:

E. O. Wilson

Lazy Monday

What a muggy weekend. I think the dogs are suffering from a bad case of mildew.

I sit here this fine Monday morning making my list of things that absolutely have to be done today. Most of today's list is made up of things that absolutely had to be yesterday. I also sit here drinking my coffee.

Coffee is one of my drugs of choice, my others being aspirin and red wine. There's always a debate about caffein but I like the buzz and now there's more juice added to the debate with coffee being labelled a good source of soluble fiber. Even better news is that red wine is also a good source of soluble fiber. Aspirin is apparently not.

Mirko Bunzel in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry:

"The most important message of this paper," he says, "is that coffee's dietary fiber is really a good [food] for gut microflora." In terms of health, he concludes, ingesting coffee's fiber is "a good thing."

But what about tea?

"...will tea drinkers like me derive a similar benefit from our favorite beverage? That's unlikely, Bunzel says, because brewed tea doesn't seem to have fiber. However, he points to a paper that the Spanish group published last year in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture that might offer an alternative to both tea and coffee: wine."

Allright! Coffee and red wine...I figure my gut microflora ought to be damned healthy after this last weekend. Throw in some aspirin to keep my arteries clear, with the side effect of lessening the pains in my knees, and assorted other joints and body parts, and I'm doing ok. This comes up after the weekend because last Saturday was the celebration of one woman putting up with me for the last 23 years, officially, and unofficially, a few years longer than that.

Red wine and aspirin may help with her situation, too.

Cheers,

Steve

Here's the official report for those of you who like to read such things.

Hank

I saw Hank Aaron play baseball way back when in Atlanta. They announced his name, he walked up to the plate and hit a home run.

It was Nurses Day at Atlanta Stadium, and no, I'm not nor never have I been a nurse, but I've been fond of a few of them. I was sitting with a few of them on this particular day, about halfway up in the left field bleachers where they put nurses when they want to show them how much they are appreciated. We were in a group of about 20 people who I assumed were nurses or friends of nurses and we had, of course smuggled in several beverages to help make the day more pleasant. Outside of our group of twenty, there was nobody else around us, except for a group of what I would call bleacher rats down below us next to the fence.

So here was this baseball flying way above us and headed our way, and we were cheering, mostly because everybody else was and we wanted to have the spirit too. The bleacher rats were running all over the place, pushing each other around, trying to get where they could catch the ball. The kid with the best chance reached out as a genuine Hank Aaron home run screamed down upon us, and the kid royally busted his ass and disappeared down between the rows of seats, as did the baseball.

The kid stayed down but the ball didn't. It flew back up into the air right toward us, bounced again, and for some reason I decided to catch it. I leaned down over the row of seats just below me and the ball bounced nicely into range and I had it.

I looked at my still outstretched arm and there at the end of my very own arm was my very own hand with a baseball in it. Then I learned something about baseballs and their rightful owners and the cheap seats of a major league baseball stadium...Catching a baseball is merely the first step in determining the chain of possession and ultimate ownership of said baseball.

My arm disappeared into a seething mass of snarling yelling kids, some of whom had military tattoos, as I held on the ball momentarily. I remember that as I caught the ball there were several other hands reaching for it, even though I had been victorious. It was a momentary victory as several hands closed about mine, clawing away, and the ball popped out of the mass, bounced around for a split second until it was grabbed by a kid with a few minor scars on his face. He held the ball curled up against this chest, like a football of all things, and held his other arm back, fist balled up ready to punch anyone who got close.

"Hey!" said the nurse sitting next to me, "That's his ball," she said pointing to me.

"Come get it," said the scar faced kid with his fist still balled up, and several of the other kids, who had scars of their own, turned and looked at us like they, too, were saying, "Yeah...Come get it."

Well I figure that one was about number 600 and something and Hank Aaron had hit lots of them and would hit lots more so I decided not to "Come get it," and watched the pack move off back to where they had been before Hank had stepped up to the plate. I guess they took a bit of my self esteem with them, and they danged sure took my baseball. It would have been special, even though Hank Aaron never actually touched it except with a three foot pole.

Hank Aaron was very active in the Atlanta community then and he still is today. I saw him in person a couple of times and he looked like a very strong normal man, speaking and smiling to everyone. Yesterday, Barry Bonds tied Aaron's home run record in numbers only. Bonds doesn't look like a very strong normal man...he looks like a muscled up freak, and for all I know, it's because he works out really hard and takes good care of himself. But I do know one thing for sure...Barry Bonds has a long way to go to tie Hank Aaron.

Peace,

Steve

Is It Time, Yet?

Lots of us have driven over that bridge.

I worry about my friends and have looked at the pictures with relief. I haven't made any phone calls because I figure the folks I know in Minneapolis are making lots of calls to each other right now and don't need me cluttering up the lines.

The ramifications of this particular bridge collapse are far far greater than the tragedy we watched on CNN last night.

(I can't watch HLN anymore even though it covered the event also...Glen Beck is an American tragedy all by himself)

In the last 6 1/2 years we as a nation have borrowed 3.5 trillion dollars and thrown it down a rat hole. Not one thing about our nation is better. Not one. We see news clips of sorrowful faces on sorry politicians sharing our sorrow, but nobody thinks this administration has even a wisp of a clue of what to do. These are the same CEO's and corporate masters that take over a perfectly good company and cut maintenance and training to save cost and make the bottom line look good, while they enrich themselves. These are the same people who order cuts in workforces, send jobs overseas, and then head out to the golf course with smug satisfaction...The same people who order our fighting troops back into Iraq with no armor, and no helmet liner, and no plan, and then go out with the secret service for a bike ride.

These are the same people who stand before the cameras and swear to defeat our enemies who have harmed us and them send somebody else's son or daughter over the cliff which is Iraq, while at the same time they stand before the podium in Congress and filibuster tobacco legislation that would save at least some of the 400,000 people who die each year of tobacco related illnesses.

These people have not been doing their jobs. When someone can't handle their job and the company suffers, it is time to let them go. We can call it by whatever name we wish and simply say the usual things like, "Left to spend more time with his family."

Or we can call it what it is...Impeachment.

The enemies of America are not outside the borders of this country. They are here in high positions. They are incompetent.

Is it time, yet, to fire them and get on with fixing this country?

Peace,

Steve


Minneapolis Speaks For Us

Just now in the Garden

Cafe vote delayed until September

Congressman Ed Markey has withdrawn the Cafe mileage bill for this term of Congress. It's not dead, they just ran out of time.

I figure they were spending way too much time on other things to pass the CAFE standards...Spending time on things like...

Not Impeaching Gonzales, Cheney, or Bush.

Pelosi said she supports the Senate-passed mileage measure and that the
issue would be addressed when the House and Senate bills are merged, probably in
September.

"The American people in every region of the country overwhelmingly
support stronger fuel efficiency standards" for motor vehicles, Pelosi
said.

Markey said he also was confident that "our strength in both the House
and Senate" in support of raising the auto fuel economy requirements for the
first time since 1975 is sufficient to assure the measure will be included in
the final bill sent to the president.

Businessweek

Congressman Steve Cohen says it's Time

Looks like Tennessee got itself a hard working, brave, and cheerful Congressman to replace Harold Ford Jr.

Steve Cohen has risen to the top in record time and doesn't seem to be scared of anybody, unlike some other Tennessee Congressmen I could name.

At any rate, Congressman Cohen has added his name where it counts.

Nice Hair!

Congressman Jimmy Duncan announces that Global Warming is for darn sure a real and serious problem that he isn't going to do anything about.

Peace,

Steve