Life Is What Happens When You Are Making Other Plans

 

This is what one of my readers wrote to me today, whilst gently reminding me that he hopes all is well with me: "There must be many things that press upon your time, but please know that many people look forward to your writing and your blog. I'm certain that you are in the thoughts and prayers of many, most certainly in mine."

Kind and thoughtful as all my readers are, he reminds me that I have been truly blessed with the most incredible people who read my blog and genuinely care about what I write.

Life right now is what is happening and it's most inconvenient, as my fingers are itching to hit the keyboard again and bring you some of that ATB magic you have all said you have been missing so much....

Whilst I am on the subject of ATB, and unbeknown to me, TypePad in their infinite wisdom and fight against spam, have prevented us from having full HTML in the comment sections, hence all your links will have to be in the raw format, without our dinkey little <a href=.... symbols that we have all grown to love and which make the text so much neater. You can still use the usual HTML for blockquotes and italics and bold symbols etc. [correction, Francis Porretto in the comments below seems to have posted a normal HTML link, so I give up trying to understand TypePad] However I have to warn you, I have spent the last two days trying different permutations to post a comment from one of my commenters who has been labeled as spam by TypePad and I have failed to post it for him, despite trying every single way. If you have problems let me know, but make sure you save your comments before posting.

And so on an entirely different note, with 6 days to go, we're set for the sprint to the finishing line to begin: All eyes are of course on Missouri Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who is still slightly ahead (1-2% according to latest Zogby Interactive polling - comprehensive analysis here) of Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill; and then there is of course the cliffhanger in Tennessee: Republican Bob Corker leads by a hairbreadth over Democrat Harold Ford Jr. "in the race for the seat that will be vacated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist".

Ohio's Senat race remains hotly contested. Incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine pulled to just two percentage point behind Democrat Sherrod Brown. In the prior three polls, DeWine was about four points behind. Pollster John Zogby says DeWine is seeing growing support from the state's Republican base, with about 90% of Republicans in the most recent poll saying they will vote for him, up significantly from earlier polling rounds. Brown leads DeWine 59%-33% among independents.

And what's up in Pennsylvania, guys? Democrat Bob Casey Jr. is racing ahead of Sen. Rick Santorum (nearly 10% according to latest polls) - we need a reversal here and whilst we are at it, bring back a lead for incumbent Sen. George Allen over in Virginia; Democrat Sen. James Webb is leading currently, cashing in on his pedigree earned during the Reagan era as secretary of the Navy. Could it really be, that Allen's absolutely normal instincts to protect his mother and her haunting insecurity, which has remained so tragically alive in her own mind over so many years, is costing him votes...

Well, according to Salon, Kerry's "botched joke" (h/t Rick Salant) has interrupted the Democrat's hegemony over the MSM -- it's refreshing to have such an unabashed admission from the horse's mouth:

It's not that what Kerry said will, in and of itself, change the course of the election. But after weeks in which the Democrats have won news cycle after news cycle, weeks in which the Republicans have been stuck talking about George W. Bush and defending or distancing themselves from his war on Iraq, Kerry gave the Republicans the break they couldn't buy for themselves. For the last 24 hours, cable news and talk radio has been filled with talk of Kerry's words rather than Bush's woes. For the last 24 hours, Democrats have been denied the chance to build on the wave that might sweep them to victory next week

Good! More interruptions please. Let's interrupt the bloody MSM and their unprecedented bias and hold on to the house shall we?

Comments

[Sandy P]

A decade and a half of pubbie hegemony?

Could have fooled me.

I'm still waiting.

[brian]

The Democrats could have looked forward with the hindsight we all have now. I don't think so. By the way Saddam is found guilty by his own people, sentenced to death by hanging. Iraqis are Ghost Dansing in the streets because they are free of their tyrant, but screw them right Ghost? The American Democrats know what's best for Iraq and everyone else. They would have been exactly right by virtue of not being Republicans. How can you lose a fight if you've quit before it started? Ask a Democrat. They know everything about modern warfare there is to know, I guess. I'm gonna be happy for the Iraqis for awhile, and not let liberals throw cold water on this moment for our troops like every other victory that's come along in Iraq. There is real joy from the people today, so there must be some joy among our troops as well. They deserve it.

[Ghost Dansing]

Democrats would have made the right choices in the first place. The emphasis was correctly on Afghanistan, al qaeda and the taliban after 9/11...

If, perchance, Democrats had bought the neocon argument that somehow intervention in Iraq was going to accomplish anything, they would have proceeded with a much more massive (also known as "conservative") force structure, as the military leadership originally advised... and also in alignment with the Powell approach, by the way.

The Republicans overestimated the threat from Iraq, and underestimated the requirements to invade Iraq, and really achieved the opposite of their goals in Iraq.

So, in this case, "doing nothing" would have actually been a superior choice.

[brian]

Oh and by the way, the New York Times, in their zeal to tar the President's national security credentials, have just admitted in their own pages that in 2002 Saddam Hussien had the infrastructure and know-how in place to have an atomic bomb in as little as a year. Iraqi WMD programs were in place and active up until the invasion, thank you NYT. Dance around that Ghost.

[brian]

Why does anyone think that a war could be competantly handled by the House Democrats? They got behind Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) and his "plan", which is so unrealistic and silly that it isn't even worth time on the House floor. They've got nothing but empty re-phrasings of QUIT. "Strategic Redeployment of Forces", "Phased Redeployment" and such, like a "Quick Reaction Force" staged on offshore Amphib ships and OKINAWA! Quick reaction to problems in Iraq from a Japanese Pacific Island 5,000 miles away! Pelosi supported that as the Democrat Plan. Nowhere in these plans is the word "VICTORY" used, because that is not their goal.

The Democrats social agenda is centered around their sacrament, abortion. This fits their foreign policy goals to a tee, they want the right to abort a Democracy in Iraq in the womb, without input from the father, because they contend this birth would be from rape. I disagree. The rapist is on trial now, and with any justice he'll be hung by his neck at dawn.
They want to charge the saviour of the rape victim, not the rapist.

[Ghost Dansing]

I don't see why I should believe the GOP will make good things happen in Iraq when they've been wrong so much... If you have someone that is continually making bad choices, why follow?

I'm afraid the GOP has done as much "good" as it can for Iraq, and the American People really can't afford too much more "goodness".

[weekenderman]

Every nation makes mistakes in every war, Ghost. The important thing is that they tweak their strategy accordingly (adjusting tactics while "staying the course" in terms of seeking eventual victory), and not bail out before the job's done.

The new Iraqi government has a good chance of eventually providing security for their citizens, but if we desert them they'll be up s*** creek without a paddle. That's why it's imperative that the GOP retains majority numbers in both houses of Congress this year.

[Ghost Dansing]

Wow... I suddenly find myself on the side of an arch neoconservative!

"Richard Perle, a leading conservative proponent of the invasion of Iraq, now says dysfunction in the Bush administration turned U.S. policy there into a disaster. Vanity Fair published criticism by Perle and other former war backers as growing numbers of Republicans have faulted President Bush's policies on Iraq ahead of next week's elections."

"Other prominent conservatives criticized the administration's conduct of the war in the article, including Kenneth Adelman, who also served on the Defense Policy Board that informally advised President Bush. Adelman said he was "crushed" by the performance of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld."

"Adelman also said that neoconservatism, "the idea of using our power for moral good in the world," has been discredited with the public. After Iraq, he told Vanity Fair, "it's not going to sell."

"Perle said "you have to hold the president responsible" because he didn't recognize "disloyalty" by some in the administration. He said the White House's National Security Council, then run by now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not serve Bush properly."

"A year before the war, Adelman predicted demolishing Saddam's military power and liberating Iraq would be a "cakewalk." But he told the magazine he was mistaken in his high opinion of Bush's national security."

"They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the postwar era," he said. "Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/03/iraq.critics.ap/index.html

[Olaf]

Alexandra,

Good post as always... I'm sure you've come across this already, but just in case you haven't, check out this documentary. I thought you may be interested. Even the clip on the site is stirring.

[Tom]

Wonderful blog. God bless you. Here's to more apologies from Dems.

[Andy]

Compete.com's blog today has a posting about web traffic to a few popular political blogs on both the right and the left. There are some pretty interesting trends in there.

http://blog.compete.com/index.php/2006/11/03/moonbats-wingnuts-dailykos-michellemalkin-huffingtonpost-littlegreenfootball/

[Jerub-Baal]

I have to admit, Alexandra, that I have not been following the details of the races around the country. Here in Massachusetts, we have a governor's race between the current Lt. Governor Kerry Healey and the democratic party challenger Deval Patrick. To me, it looks as if Mr. Patrick is "Dukakis Redux," and I don't trust his negativism on the economy, or his promises over taxes. This is one of the most entrenched Democratic stronghoods in the Nation, and having a majority Democratic state-government and a Democratic governer will be a further drain on the state.

Even though I have always been conservative (even when studying theatre in college, go figure) I have enjoyed living in this very liberal state. It is a wonderful place, with great people, amazing museums and culture, and is very amenable to home-schoolers like my family. However, the tax situation (especially property taxes) is untenable. I can't see them getting any better without at least some party balance at the state level.

[igout]

If the country lasts long enough, I think we'll see a change your partner and dosey-doe in politics. One party will get the internationalist elites, both the Wall Street kind and the leftish kind. The other will get us common folk, and will be conservative-nationalist in leanings. Maybe Webb is the first sign of this, but I don't know enough about him to say. As for here and now, on Tuesday I'll hold my nose and vote GOP. The alternative is both laughable and disasterous. Beneath spit.

[Ghost Dansing]

Thanks RR,

As you know, "...if Democrats manage to take control of one or both houses of Congress on Tuesday, the reason will be that voters were not adequately roused into a state of heart-pounding, knee-knocking, teeth-chattering fear.

Not that Republicans haven't been trying. George W. Bush used to claim he was "a uniter, not a divider," but that was a long time ago. These days, he'd probably try to deny the quote the same way he tried to disown "stay the course." The Karl Rove formula for political victory has been to draw a bright line between "us" and "them" and then paint those on the other side not as opponents but as monsters.

Thus Bush openly accused those who disagree with his policy in Iraq of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. "The Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses," he said the other day.

Call me naive, but I never thought a president of the United States would stoop so low as to accuse current and prospective members of Congress -- a number of whom, by the way, are decorated war veterans, unlike Bush or anyone in his inner circle -- of being pro-terrorist. But this administration has so lowered the bar on political discourse in this country that it's now more of a limbo stick: How low can you go?"

"...None of this is pretty, and all of it demeans American politics. But claiming that "the terrorists win" if Democrats are elected to Congress -- a statement whose only conceivable purpose is to make Americans afraid -- is something entirely different. The president knows, and at times has acknowledged, that there are people of good will in both parties who differ with him on Iraq. He also knows, or should know, that fear diminishes us as a nation -- that fear appeals to our baser instincts, not our best ideals; that it makes us smaller, meaner, less noble."

"How Low Will Bush Go?"
President's Scare Tactics Demean Politics and Voters
By Eugene Robinson
WAPO, Friday, November 3, 2006; Page A21

You see RR, the fact that Republicans can win elections doesn't impress me... that is what they do best... they have raised the art of political manipulation to an art form never before seen.

Modern Republicanism isn't true to ANYTHING... not traditional conservative values, nor the Liberal values that actually form the basis for, and structure of our government.

It is a Political Party all about Corporate Plutocracy... greed is its driving "value", and it strings along a particularly Theologically light-weight cluster of christian sectarians, for whom the practice of religion is equated with the practice of politics... and the Party does that disingenously... milking them for their votes.

We won't even get into the fact that after a decade and a half of Republican hegemony in American politics, we see ineffective, failed government practicing irresponsible ideologically based policies in all matters foreign and domestic; culminating in miltary fiasco, poor national security, and a dubious economy.

It doesn't matter whether the Republicans hold the line on 7 November or not... it is a Party in decay that will eventually either tranform itself, hopefully back into something respectable, like in the days of IKE, or it will implode under its own hubris and dry rot.

Please excuse me now. I'm going to read about how the we're doing with the moat around Baghdad.

Warm Regards,

GD

[RunningRoach]

Ghost,

I don't know what to say except...Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Just like the flaming poodle, you are a gift that just keeps on giving and giving. I'm very much involved in a "get out the vote" campaign here. As a matter of fact, I've taken the rest of this week and the early part of next week off just to concentrate on this effort. My role is focused on creating and sending out e-mails to likely right way voters. To make a long story short, I’ve quoted you "liberally" (As an unnamed reasonably well researched but misguided Lib.)along with some of the nut roots at DU, Kos, and a few other commenters on several other "respectable" blogs...just to be fair and balanced in the variety of wall to wall unbalanced nonsense out there. The response has been overwhelming! Can't keep up with it! Well, if this small effort results in sending Menendez back to the docks, I will forever be in your debt.

So, what can I say except thank you. Keep the good stuff coming.

Regards,

JCC

[rich]

Hope all is well with you. We readers and lurkers appreciate you and your blog very much!

People have to remember what is at stake this Tuesday. They also have to remember how hard it is for an administration to hold both houses in the mid term election of a second Presidential term. Everyone should make an extra effort to get out the vote.

[Ghost Dansing]

"Kerry is inarticulate and dripping with condescension, arrogance,and callousness."

Now RV, not so fast... Kerry is just a little ahead of his time. It won't be long when everybody will be using the term "Iraq" as a metaphor for all bad things that happen due to Republican incompetence.

It's only a matter of time

[karen]

Oh, Alexandra- so glad to see a new post from you. I was worried and anxious for you. I'll ~sigh~ a relief and keep you in my thoughts and prayers that life gets less hectic.

Hey, who's the ~hick~ under the hat? Jean Francois?!! i look better in Carhartts than he does and i know this for a fact!!

Red Violin- thank you for the link- i will share. Hopefully we will all do our part to keep our troops feeling appreciated.

[Red Violin]

Kerry is inarticulate and dripping with condescension, arrogance,and callousness.

Please do what you can to send some holiday cheer to our men & women serving in harm's way this holiday season! :)

[gringoman]

(Alexandra, I'm glad, like everyone else, to see you posting. Andale!)

For those who find the Virginia Sleazefest and the anti-war Dems' clever use of warrior Webb as a 'Trojan Horse' rather interesting, here is recent gringoPerspective..........

Over at Fox News their seasoned military analyst apparently induced a bit of pre-electoral shock syndrome in conservative icon Sean Hannity. Colonel David Hunt endorsed maverick Jim Webb over the Republican hope,George Allen. This contest, of course, has degenerated, thanks to the "pros," i.e. the consultants, handlers and slime artists. I suspect that both Webb and Allen secretly cringe at what's being done " in their behalf." George Allen is portrayed as a 'macocka racist, fixated on Confederate memorabilia' and Webb as a writer devoted to subjects of 'misogyny, filth, incest and sodomizing children.'....While endorsing neither candidate, gringoVision concedes that Jim Webb is so un-politician- like as to be interesting, even intriguing. The one or two times I delved into his writing I found it brutally realistic, but not in a really interesting way. The best writers can do the real ugly and yet somehow transcend it. I found Jim Webb stuck in it. However, that was long ago, his earlier work, and you have to assume that an older man, now with ex-wives and four grown children (one a soldier in Iraq, Anbar Province) must have developed beyond bang-bang and bar floozies. As for the 'vile' images that philistine opportunists are extracting from his books, well, hey, you could detail images from Nobel Prize winning novelist, William Faulkner, if you needed to slime Faulkner. How about the one with the snake slithering up leg of naked bound woman? Do you want to go there? You know what Southern writers are like. (Faulkner never ran for office, happy man.) Face it, ex-Marine Jim Webb, as a highly decorated Vietnam vet against the war in Iraq, is a godsend to the Soros-funded, Mother Sheehan-cheering and MSM-petted who see surrender or defeat as a higher form of patriotism. He's authentic. They don't have to make embarrassing excuses for a Vietnam vet like Senator John Kerry, who (after having himself filmed promotionally) left Vietnam after four months, receiving Purple Hearts for joke "wounds" he himself wrote up. Webb still has shrapnel in a kidney and the base of his skull. Webb is essentially a social conservative who speaks (and writes) his mind. He is actually one of a vanishing breed, the Scot-Irish warrior, which liberals sometimes try to demean as "angry white man." He even dared to raise the issue of women in war, the kind of boldness that can strangle a Washington career. Like gringoPerspectives, which supported the invasion--and Colonel David Hunt---Jim Webb has had grave doubts about the ensuing Bush strategy in Iraq. Unlike us, he opposed the war right from the get-go. (For a "solution" you won't hear from Dems who excel at slickly-worded polls, carping, 90% voting blocs and "Bush Lied," see Colonel Hunt's plan on How to Win in Iraq)....Webb, like or dislike him, ( I can do either or both) is something that's almost vanished from public life in today's Republic of Entitlement: a real warrior. He understands things that civilians can't, and often can't imagine either. (As a civilian who spent five years in the 'Nam, I don't mind saying that, and you may trust me or not.) Is Webb right for the U.S. Senate? I don't know, and would bet that he wonders himself. What most interests me about him is the fact that he's interesting. However, the Washington Post has done an insightful and intriguing feature on Webb and, on this recent anniversary of the 1983 Marine slaughter in Beirut (an event he covered for the MacNeil-Lehrer report), he's been very mum about the Washington Post's late Katherine Graham and her stunning revelation of media guilt.) How 'Semper Fi' is such silence to the memory of those Marines? Maybe Jim Webb, often known as a loose cannon, is now more of a real politician---more than anybody thought?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102601891_pf.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,222858,00.html

[In gestation. Tentative title: JOHN KERRY: COMEDY, OR AMERICAN
TRAGEDY?]

[David]

"All eyes are of course on Missouri Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who is still slightly ahead... "

Well, yes, until the cheating by Democraps that WILL take place in St. Louis is taken into account.

*sigh*

As to Jean Fraud sKerry. What a gift to Republican't campaigners! With the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind in full campaign mode for its chosen partners in crime (the Democraps), the Stupid Party (as party faithful have long sighingly referred to it) needed this manna.

First, Jean Fraud's statement sounding to any normal person exactly as a slam against the military personnel serving in Iraq, then his fauxapology essentially claiming anyone who understood his plain speech for what it was is an idiot ("...I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform..."). What a gift!

Lying slanderous weasel that he is, Jean Fraud probably sees his "apology" as adequate response to the little people he offended. Oh, how I hope he makes a good run for the presidency in '08! He's the true face of the Democrappic Party.

[Ghost Dansing]

I got a real kick out of that banner John... the troops have a great sense of humor and a thick skin. They probably got a good laugh from Kerry's foot-in-mouth disease. :)

Somebody should teach those guys to spell! "Lazy and uneducated photo of the day!"

I saw a clip on "You Tube" where these two troops in Iraq got a running start and then tipped their buddy over while he was sitting in a portalette... there was some off-color language when the guy emerged pulling up his trousers. :)

[Jeremayakovka]

John Kerry: an Improvised Implosive Device.

All best to you, Alexandra.

[John Werntz]

On the Difficulty of Embedding Links into Comments

Alexandra,

You mentioned that TypePad no longer accepts HTML tags around links entered into your comments section.  This is a dry run to see if the old technique still works.  The gimmick is this: readers who have TypePad accounts can prepare the comment there, as if for a blog post.  Once the Preview looks good, save it as a draft, just in case.  Then hit "Edit HTML."  Do Ctrl + A to select the entire text, then Ctrl + C to copy the HTML onto the clipboard.  Return to ATB, sign in to the TypePad acct, enter personal info and hit Ctrl + V to copy the HTML onto the comment field.  If the Preview looks good, go ahead and post the comment.  If it needs work, go back to Type Pad, THIMK!, hit re-edit and jigger the HTML. Wash, rinse, and repeat. This rigamarole--invented by Bill Faith of OWD--has always worked for me in the past. One more try:

A mild suggestion to GD--he might venture to go here to learn how those poor dum iggerant sojers on active duty in Iraq respond to Kerry's concern for their well-being, not to mention their future career paths.

If the two links above still work, the method is still good.  If not, I apologize for wasting people's time. Anyway, I meant well.

[olivia clemens]

Wishing that your life circumstances resolve to your favor Alex.

I also don't think Kerry meant that to be an insult to the troops but he should know better than to ad-lib. He works well from script but anytime he has to wing it, his (and the left's) condescension and arrogance are revealed.

[LilMissIndie]

Alexandra, my thoughts are with you as you deal with life's happenings. I read your blog religiously and would love it if you posted twice a day, but I'll muddle through somehow. :)

God bless.

[LilMissIndie]

But I forgive him, and it was a bungled attempt at humor... really was directed at Dubya and neocons... he'd have tot include himself if it was directed at "the troops"... he were one 'ya know.

GD, whether it was a joke directed toward Bush and other conservatives or not isn't the point, and Kerry's fellow Democrats' scrambling to distance themselves from him is a sign that they don't think it is either. A week before voters decide tight races isn't the time for him to put his sarcasm about anything concerning the war on display, especially when he isn't even running. It showed poor judgement in the least harmful scenario and the highest level of hubris in the worst. I truly think he is smarter than to have intentionally insulted the troops, but I suppose not smart enough to have avoided any attempt at "humor" when discussing men and women who are constantly in harm's way.

[RunningRoach]

F.W.P.

Well said! Keep the Ghost in his closet too. I've visited your blog. Very insightfull and interesting reading. Wish I had the time.

Later,

JCC

[Francis W. Porretto]

Ghost, the election is five days away. We'll see how "big a deal" it is...and how the voting public, as distinguished from liberal Democrat office seekers, their diehard partisans, and their Old Media annex, really feel about the GOP's performance these past twelve years, and whether you've convinced them that a Democrat interregnum would be preferable. If you can keep Kerry, Casey, Menendez, Ford, and Dean in the closet that long, you might still have a chance. Until then!

[RunningRoach]

Hi Alexandra,

I’ve been a little under the weather these last few days, and as a result I have been a quiet guest on your site. This comment by the “flamer” Kerry, no matter what the spin, is a perfect reflection of the sentiments and values that the far left places on our military. This was no slip upon a joke gone south, it was a statement expressing his “truth” about our heroes, a status he could never achieve, and can never get over. Never! I listened to him in ’72 and was enraged over his bull s**t. In my humble opinion this turd is no more than a snot nosed, punk, s.o.b. who had a very special patron. His comment was also reinforced by his premature confidence that the Dem’s will recapture the House and Senate, so nothing is at risk, no matter what he says……or so he thinks.

Ghost,

If nothing more, you remain, along with being non-linear in your defense of this flamer, a bit entertaining. My guess is that you have nothing at risk either. I pray that you are right.

Regards,

JCC

[Ghost Dansing]

Gimme a break Francis... talk about wishful thinking. No doubt about it... Kerry screwed up... but it's not that big a deal, and he was obviously trying to take a pot-shot at Dubya and the Iraq mess. What possible political (or other) gain would there be for deliberately poking fun at the troops?

Doesn't pass the common sense test.

Whatever happens on November 7, it ain't gonna be 'cause of Kerry. Only a Republican would think such a silly thing, because they believe EVERYTHING is about and reducable to political manipulation and spin. That's really all they're good at...certainly ain't governing.

On the other hand, the Republicans have had their way with deliberate and calculated policy on Iraq and other domestic things... they achieved fiasco and demonstrated incompetence.

[Francis W. Porretto]

There's a real chance that Kerry's "botched joke" will upend all the other dynamics of the election season...because he's created a situation in which neither silence nor any statement is safe for the Democrats. Nor can they easily back away from their 2004 Presidential nominee.

[nofate]

Alexandra: Thank you. Obviously, several of us have been itching to comment on Mr Banality, i.e. the totally off topic last few comments of your last post. He is the gift that keeps on giving. You are right, the Repubs couldn't have bought or even have thought of anything this effective. This has me so seethingly angry that I can't effectively state my thoughts, and I'm not military nor have anyone there. But I know, and I'm sure millions of others of us know who are the guard dogs of this country and who are among the flock they care for. These men and women are among the most educated among us, and many of them could have a much more financially beneficial career in the civilian sector, yet they choose to protect their country. Kerry has stepped in a big pile that is going to be hard to clean off.
"The best laid plans..." still in operation. For a one woman operation, you are turning out an amazing, high quality product. Just glad you are out there, life's little intrusions just keeps us panting for more. God bless.
GD: Right. Keep believing what you say. Can't wait to hear the next Spin v3.11.
v 1.0 - I'm not apologizing to any doughnut eater, yada, yada. v2.0 - it was a joke. v2.1 - Kerry was in Viet Nam you know. Really??!! I hadn't heard that! v3.0 - in process.

[Ghost Dansing]

I don't think the "news cycle" is the Republican's problem, other than the fact that new is broadcast... more like demonstrable incompetence over the long term.

I can see why the Kerry thing would be a "relief". But I forgive him, and it was a bungled attempt at humor... really was directed at Dubya and neocons... he'd have tot include himself if it was directed at "the troops"... he were one 'ya know.