Feeling a little better

This is a great piece, all around. I'm already feeling better. But dare I believe?

"If there’s an upside to Katrina, it’s that the Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security privatization and slashing government programs is over."

And I think I'm going to love the Saturdays that I have to work at the reference desk for 8 hours, letting me wander the internet, blogging to my heart's content.

Freedom....

My ASS!! {rant on} The people who run this country are growing more asinine by the day. The America Supports You Freedom Walk is an occasion and an event meant to honor not only the thousands of Americans who gave their lives on 9/11, but also the people who had to put their lives back together again after losing a loved one, the people who risked their lives that day to save others - and are still risking their lives through their chosen professions. In a way, I believe this honors all Americans - or tries to - by reassuring us that this IS still our country and that we WILL defend our rights. Trust george's gang to mess up a day that should be dedicated to honoring freedom - after all, if they weren't protecting us from being on our National Mall at an event meant to honor all Americans while demonstrating a few of our freedoms - well, who knows what would happen? So here's what they're going to do. They're going to keep people off of the Mall - they'd probably be there for the wrong reason anyway, and we'll have enough people sign up to get a good photo-op. Oh, and as for the signing up thing - you'd better plan a few days in advance. You had to sign up by 4:30 yesterday if you wanted to participate. And you could only sign up online. So if you lost your home due to a national catastrophe - say a terrorist attack or a hurricane - and you have no way to access the internet (there are a surprising number of people that still don't have regular web access), then you're just out of luck. And don't even try to show up the day of the walk and think they'll let you join in. You might just get arrested. Of course, we all know what's really happening with this. george will find a way - in fact, he probably has an entire payroll's worth of people looking for the way - to turn this into a "stay-the-course-in-Iraq-for-national-security-reasons" speech. oh wait...I think it's already happened... {rant off}

Yahoo

I don't even know what to say about this. Or I do, but I don't feel like writing that much right now.

A Piece of Good News

But now for a little good news.... Part of the PATRIOT Act (regarding librarians and a gag order when they receive a National Security Letter) has been ruled unconstitutional. Can we all start to breathe a sigh of relief, or will our government find a way to take away this victory, too?

Dick and Disappointment

What I would buy if I were rich enough....just to give me the pleasure of watching and listening over and over again. and then I'd want to get a video of the same situation starring george instead of Dick. That'd be better than getting my hands on Park Place and Boardwalk simultaneously. This has been a rare light-hearted moment in a week full of disappointment. I've been surprised that among all of the emotions I've felt over the Katrina disaster - anger, helplessness, rage, bitterness - there has been a measure of disappointment. I've asked myself why. How can they still have the power to disappoint me? Disappointment implies expectations. By now, I thought I was past expecting much goodness and decency out of the Bush administration. At every turn they've made decisions that seem contrary to everything that we hold dear as a country - or, for that matter, everything we hold dear simply as human beings. So how is it that after almost five years of their meaningless posturing and back-slapping I can still be optimistic enough to hope that when it really counts, when thousands of people are on the line and there is actually some good that they could accomplish if they just lifted their hands and made a few phone calls (don't get me started again on the ones who were in New York living it up with...{deep breath}...), when people are - again- looking to george for guidance...how can I still hope that he'll step up to the task and act.....well, presidential? And I think the disappointment stems from my feelings of anger and helplessness. I've done all that I, personally, can do. I've given time, food, money, etc. , and when I ran out of resources I called a few people and asked for some of theirs. I know that the government can do more - they could have done more at almost any point along the way. Even while the hurricane was pummelling the coast, there were actions that could have been taken. This is a big country, folks. I've felt helpless at my lack of abilities, and anger at those who have the abilities and yet aren't using them to anything near the fullness of their potential. I say "they" because all though george is their Master of the Dark Rights, there are people who could have made a difference. The head of FEMA for instance - whose sole purpose in life should be to anticipate disasters of this magnitude in order to be able to more fully take charge when they occur. The people around Bush who could have said "maybe you could end your vacation a little early - since you've already set the record, and all - and try to help people out." And doesn't dear ol' Dick ever do anything?

He made it look so simple

My sister has already noted this story in her blog, but it definately bears repeating. Gore, the man who rightfully won the election in 2000, used his personal money to charter flights for people out of Chattanooga. He may not have inspired the nation a few years ago, but I bet he sure inspired some people when he put them on that plane. This article describes what Gore did:

"On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon learned that Dr. David Kline ... was trying to get in touch with Gore.

Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. "The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute -- food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of water surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside," Simon wrote. Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights ..."

"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them" ...

About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Saturday. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chattanooga."

I think that, just as with george, the man's actions speak for themselves.

Update: CNN finally got ahold of this story too, read it here. Let's hope that more people take note of what he's done and give him the credit he deserves.

Celebrate a Birthday

"World's Unlikeliest Bestseller" I love the Guinness Book of World Records. It's a book that contains more wonders than just about any other book on earth. I love bits of information that really have no value in and of themselves - besides being the winning Q&A in trivia games. So, celebrate a birthday, and take the Guinness Quiz.

Uh-Oh....

It started out as a perfectly normal Saturday morning in Domesticity Central. It was one of the weekends that the StepSon stays with us, so we were up late the night before watching all kinds of movies that only teenagers love (e.g., Dodgeball for the 199th time) or want to watch immediatly before going to bed (Carrie, followed by some movie so horribly gruesome I don't think the producers even bothered to name it). Satruday morning, it was breakfast followed by yardwork, which is where the uh-oh moment came in. StepSon didn't want to mow the yard. I have to admit, I'm with him - there is absolutely nothing fun about cutting the grass, only to find that you've become so sweaty that half of the grass is now stuck to your body. My husband, luckily, had the foresight to have a son so that we would not have to do such horrible manual labor ourselves. StepSon frequently disagrees with this view of the world. As his arguments escalated in pitch and volume, I found myself saying something that I swore would never cross my lips. "watch your tone...." Uh-oh. For most people, that means nothing. However, at one point in my life (I think it spanned about 5 years), my mother said those three words to me on at least a daily basis -probably because I, like many people in that age vacuum between the ages of 12 and 18, could inflect a mere two or three words - fewer, if the situation called for it - with enough sarcasm, disrespect and hostility to make a saint want to shake me. I came to hate those words. They reminded me that I wasn't quite at the point in my life where I could express myself as angrily as I wanted. I was old enough to have very definite ideas of how my life should be, and young enough to have no idea how to get there or make other people agree with me. I'm not one of those people who mind the fact that I'm saying things that my parents once said - after all, I haven't gotten to the point where I'm telling him to turn down his music. Still, it is a little disconcerting, to hear your mother's voice come out of your mouth for the first time. Maybe this weekend I'll try her famous "life isn't fair" response.....

Loss for Words....

I have resisted, so far, the urge to write down all of the wonderfully creative names for Bush that I have come up with over the past few days. Which is a pity, really, because some of them were quite good, and I'd like to remember them and possibly use them again. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure my mother reads this blog, and I'd hate for her to be shocked at her baby girl's language. I may be on the verge of losing my control, because of this. Unbelievably, our president has decided that we don't really need to get help from other countries for help with the effects of Katrina. All of these countries from around the world (including CUBA for the love....) have offered help. How does he respond? "Thanks, when can you get here?" Nah. Here's what he says: “I’m not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn’t asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country’s going to rise up and take care of it.” To be fair, it's not just Bush that's acting like an idiot. Cheney's AWOL (for national security reasons, I'm sure...), we're all admiring Condi's new shoes, and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi both had some dumbass...um, I mean... riveting comments for Anderson Cooper . Thank goodness the government has everything under control.

Pirate Day

Something happened to my husband a couple of years ago when we saw the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. It really affected his brain. His son was similarly affected, and - I found out later - so were many more men. They all left the movie talking like a pirate. I'm not sure what part of the male psyche makes them want to drink like crazy, kidnap beautiful women and sail away into the sunset with canon blasts ringing in their ears. In fact, I really don't want to think about it for prolonged periods of time, considering I did marry him after he went through the pirate phase. I'm pretty sure it's the same part of their brain that makes them talk like cowboys after seeing a John Wayne movie, though. And I'm kind of grateful that I was born without whatever gene makes them lapse into loony bits of arcane dialects. So what brought on the Pirate thoughts? the fact that I discovered an entire day devoted to being a pirate: Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th. And for the truly hardcore (or desperate) there are the pirate Pickup Lines available for use.