Washoe County schools failed to do worth a shit under NCLB guidelines, thanks primarily to the fact they have so many special ed students, the trustees don't like the rules requiring virtually all special ed students to take the regular tests. They don't pass anyway, even with accommodations. And because they can't do grade level work, they get labeled special ed. In other words, if the kids could do the work and pass the tests, they wouldn't be labeled as needing special ed in the first place.
Which only goes to show that Congress and the creators of this disaster of a law don't know shit about special ed.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Because So Many
Mitt
Oprah
may not be able to buy Obama's love, but she sure is going all out to buy him the Democratic nomination.
Thinking About the Late Director
MIchelangelo Antonioni, not all of his films were successes. He was known to make a turkey or two, at least they were regarded as such when originally released. Case in point is Zabriskie Point, his 1970 look at the 1960s. All Music Guide actually gives it a decent review, despite the fact it was included in the Medveds' 50 Worst Movies of All Time.
Because of the terrible reviews at the time, the film might be worth seeking out.
It was also notable for its star, Mark Frechette, who turned out to be a loser much like Tom Neal (of Detour fame). Frechette ended up in prison and died in 1975 in a freak accident involving weights.
Here's a bit from the article:
The story is that in 1968 a bearded, down-and-out Frechette was spotted standing at a bus stop, shouting "motherfucker." Antonioni's aides, searching for a star for the film that was to be the director's American epic, interviewed Frechette and selected him for the role on the spot. "He's 20 and he hates," was their ever quotable comment. The film was a critical and financial failure, but it did bring brief fame to Frechette.
Frechette then took his costar Daria Halprin and the $60,000 he earned from Zabriskie Point and a few obscure foreign films and returned to the commune. Halprin eventually fled the reputed severity of the Lyman cult (and married actor Dennis Hopper*) but Frechette stayed put, out of the public eye, until two years ago when he joined two other Lyman devotees in an impulsive bank robbery attempted within blocks of the commune. One of his accomplices was killed by police and Frechette dropped his own revolver (with, it turned out, no bullet in the chamber).
Both Halprin, now 59, and Antonioni fared much better.
*--They were divorced in 1976, according to the IMDB. Hopper went on to marry two more times and is currently married to his fifth wife.
Presidential Notes.
Some senators are proposing a regional primary system.
_____
Since John Edwards will NEVER get a fair chance in the mainstream media, he and his campaign are focusing on the internet instead.
Which of course makes his chances of overtaking the media darlings Clinton and Obama even more daunting.
Elizabeth Edwards said the campaign knows who has been peddling the haircut bullshit.
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As the World Turns.
A California doc is accused of hastening the death of a patient in order to harvest the patient's organs for transplant.
_____
A local deputy district attorney and reality show contest was found dead the other day.
_____
A few vegetarians have fallen off the turnip truck and are now eating the despised meat.
_____
Now it won't be just the WSJ editorial page that will be shit.
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Obits.
Yet another prominent foreign director has died: Michelangelo Antonioni, director of the noted films Blow Up and L'Avventura, was 94 when he passed away last night.
Antonioni died in Rome. Arrangements are being made to have his body lie in state.
NYT obit.
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A Two-Tiered Health Care
system for grocery workers is the subject of this article.
Our country remains in denial about what needs to be done with this broken system.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Chelsea Clinton
will be a first-time mother before she ever becomes a second-time First Daughter.
It just isn't going to happen. People will reject that dynasty nonsense, especially in light of our dictator's disastrous reign.
Everything
you never wanted to know about Michael Vick is here.
He is in deep, deep dogshit over this. As well he should be.
Presidential (Love) Notes.
Today after taking a hike to Keystone Canyon Trail, I went to the grocery store before heading to the scrapbooking store to get materials for an Italy scrapbook. When I was at the grocery store, I decided to pick up the latest issue of Globe. The cover had a picture of would-be political kingmaker Oprah Winfrey with the headline, "Oprah in Love with a Married Man!"
I didn't buy the tabloid to find out who she was in love with; instead, I wanted to read about the late Tammy Faye Messner. Still, I had to find out who is Oprah's alleged object of her affection. I got a kick out of the article, written by Pat Gregor, which may actually have a little grain of truth to it.
A snip for posterity:
The media mogul admitted she'd never before endorsed a political candidate "because I didn't know anybody well enough to be able to say: 'I believe in this person.'"
But Oprah's backing reportedly has to do more with her personal feelings for him than his views about the nation's future.
Which is anybody's guess, given his shifting political positions.
More:
"The truth is it's not about politics," the insider says. "It's about an attractive man she's got a huge crush on."(page 28)
As for Obama's wife, "Oprah has made a point of including her in their public meetings, but she has shown a few signs that she'd rather not have Michelle around," notes the source.
Anyway, it's clear Oprah made Obama the big hit he is today with the media. His keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention made waves, of course, although his oratory falls far short of a Barbara Jordan or a Mario Cuomo. Then he became the political version of American Idol thanks to Oprah. I for one never understood the appeal, and I still don't. The more he talks, the more he sounds like the Democrats' version of George W. Bush.
A billionaire like Oprah has clout, or thinks she does, and when she says to support her candidate, millions of suckers will do just that.
An older article mentions Oprah's influence re Barack. (Charlie Rex Arbogast / AP; Win McNamee / Getty via Time.com)
You Can Be Sure Robber Barons
in business are robber barons in every other endeavor, including so-called "philanthropy."
With "Democrats"
like California's George Miller, who the hell needs Republicans?
He's obviously on the take from testing companies and textbook publishers. No way does he care about education.
It appears I am right:
Contributors to the
George Miller Campaign:
Jerald Barnett
Education America / Owner
Thomas Bishop
University of Phoenix / VP
Deborah Blackwell
Touro University / Provost & Dean
Cynthia Braddon
McGraw-Hill Companies / VP
Eli Broad
Broad Foundation / Founder
Kathryn Costello
Pearson Education Publishing
Larry Diamond
Hoover Institute
William Etheridge
Pearson Education, CEO
Lawrence Goodman
School Link Technologies, President
Henry Howard
US Education Finance Corp., President
John Isley
Pearson Education / Publisher
Richard Jerue
Education Mgmt Corp / VP Govt. Relat.
William Jordan
McGraw-Hill Companies / Senior Director
Joseph Kakaty
Student Loan Consolidation Center
Hendrik Kranenburg
McGraw-Hill / President Higher
Bonnie Lieberman
John Wylie & Sons Publishing / SVP
Patricia McAllister
Educational Testing Service / Govern
Lowell Milken
Knowledge Universe Ltd. / Business
Arnold Mitchem
Council for Opportunity in Educ/PR
Jacqueline Pels
Hardscratch Press / Editor / Publisher
Richard Robinson
Scholastic Inc. / President & CEO
John Sargent
Holtzbrinck Publisher / CEO
Larry Snowhite
Houghton Mifflin Company / VP Govern
As the World Turns.
The Rise and Fall of American Justice: Chief Justice John Roberts fell in his home and was sent to the hospital as a precaution.
link
Apparently a seizure was the cause. He had a previous seizure in 1993.
_____
Alaska's Ted Stevens might be up shit crik.
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I Just
returned home from jury duty; thank God I wasn't selected to serve on the trial.
It is a short trial, not expected to last more than a couple of days maximum.
This is the third time in about 30 years I have been in a jury pool. The first time was in Oregon, I believe for a burglary case, and of course I was dismissed following questioning.
The second time was in 1995, and it just so happened it was a major federal case, major enough even the NYT notes it. It was on the level of Darren Mack or Chaz Higgs. I wasn't on the jury pool for the Finkel case, but I was on the Collins case. It took two entire days for the jury selection to be done. I was questioned by the attorneys and judge, but I figured since I worked at the county law library at the time, I knew I wouldn't be selected.
I wasn't. As I recall it, Collins didn't even present a defense, and he was convicted and sentenced to what amounted his spending the rest of his life in prison though not technically "life imprisonment."
I found more about it here.
Obits.
Famed director Ingmar Bergman 89, who directed some of the most critically acclaimed movies in motion picture history, has died.
He still was active directing stage productions and television shows in recent years.
Bergman said he seldom looked at his own films:
"I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry ... and miserable. I think it's awful," Bergman said.
NYT link
_____
Talk show host Tom Snyder, only 71, which isn't that old anymore, has reportedly died.
Snyder hosted NBC's The Tomorrow Show for a number of years. Though he had been a heavy smoker, he actually died of leukemia.
_____
Football coaching great Bill Walsh, 75, has died of leukemia.
_____
But. But. But.
If you take the dopers and other cheaters out of the Tour de France, it and other cycling events will become boring spectacles.
Then maybe pro cycling should go the way of the dodo.
The More
our dictator is cornered, the more dangerous he is likely to become:
George W. Bush seems also to be without shame. He expresses no regret or embarrassment about his failure to help Katrina victims, or to tell the truth. He says whatever he thinks people want to hear, whether it be “stay the course” or “I’ve never been about ‘stay the course.’” He does whatever he wants.
He lies—not just to us, but to himself as well. What makes lying so easy for Bush is his contempt—for language, for law, and for anybody who dares question him.
That he could say so baldly that he’d never been about “stay the course” is bone chilling. So his words mean nothing. That is very important for people to understand.
Would impeachment be the answer? Well, it might be asking too much to do it in order to pressure Republicans in the Senate to do the right thing.
They aren't going to do it. It's that simple. The party is nothing like it was when Nixon was president.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
As the World Turns.
A catfight is brewing between the USDA and supporters of the Hemingway felines.
_____
I Spent This Morning
driving near Truckee to go out on a hike to Sagehen Creek Trail. It is about a five-mile (out and back) easy hike. A lot of people take their dogs out there, for it looked to me like there were more dogs than people today.
According to the link, there are spectacular wildflowers there, and if I had hiked perhaps a month earlier, I would have come across thousands and thousands of mule ear plants in bloom. As it was, there were tiny asters everywhere, as well as some tiny yellow flowers. I took a few pictures of the area before returning a couple of hours ago.
Just As She Did
in her accurate assessment of the late Steve Irwin,Germaine Greer has once again provoked controversy, this time regarding Diana, Princess of Wales.
Probably not a smart move on her part. While one could convincingly write that Irwin got what was coming to him (and, after watching a handful of episodes of his Crocodile Hunter series or whatever it's called, I believe he did, for he treated animals like crap), Diana is a whole different matter.
Apparently, the article isn't available online; I haven't been able to find it. All we have are news summaries, which aren't satisfactory.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
As the World Turns.
Britney Spears continues to make a fool out of herself, at least according to this tabloid.
_____
What the Fuck?
This has probably been all over the news:
THE call letters KUNT have landed at a yet-unbuilt low-power digital television station in Wailuku, Maui.
Alarmingly similar to a word the dictionary says is obscene, the call letters were among a 15-page list of new call letters issued by the Federal Communications Commission and released this week.
The same station owner also received KWTF for a station in Arizona.
From Skokie, Ill., comes a sincere apology "to anyone that was offended," said Kevin Bae, vice president of KM Communications Inc., who requested and received KUNT and KWTF. It is "extremely embarrassing for me and my company and we will file to change those call letters immediately."
Certainly the United States
could expand Medicare to include everybody and thus we would have a universal health care system, but our politicians simply don't have the will to stand up to the private insurance industry.
Presidential Notes.
Thanks to Mitt Romney's Mormonism, a candidate's religious beliefs will likely play a larger role in 2008.
_____
The WSWS finds Barack Obama's foreign policy doesn't differ all that much from our dictator's.
Obama's not a progressive or a liberal anyway. I don't trust the guy as far as I can throw him.
_____
Friday, July 27, 2007
Presidential Notes.
Barack Obama is about to crash and burn quicker than Mouthzilla ever did.
Obama can't seem to close the gap between he and Clinton in the polls despite raising a shitload of cash.
I have said I would be surprised if he made it to the primaries.
This is good news for Edwards, and I expect Biden of all people to make inroads as long as he can raise just enough money to compete.
Gonzalesgate.
I am beginning to wonder if impeachment is in the cards now that it is clear beyond all doubt Fredo lied in front of Congress.
I mean he's cooked.
Yesterday
I picked up--with difficulty, as it is a 1,600-page book with a CD--Vincent Bugliosi's new book about the JFK assassination, a book that took him twenty years to write, Reclaiming History. As he notes in this interview of a couple of months ago, it took a tremendous toll on him, not least because he wrote THE ENTIRE BOOK IN LONGHAND (and had a secretary type it up for him).
The book, as he mentions, was not intended to be read from end to end, though it could be. It's intended to be a reference book, with sections on virtually every conceivable part of the assassination, including a major section on virtually every conspiracy theory out there. Bugliosi, just as he did in the 1987 docu-trial, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, demolishes the conspiracy theories with the greatest of ease.
The Kennedy/Tippit killings were routine murder cases. Thc cases would have been a prosecutor's dream. If it weren't for the prominence of Kennedy, it would have been a simple cut-and-dried murder conviction. But thanks to nutjob Jack Ruby, the American people were denied the opportunity to see Oswald tried, convicted, and probably executed in the most slam-dunk murder case in the history of the country. Instead, Ruby's murder of Oswald helped spring about the cottage industry of conspiracy theories of every stripe. The rebels without a cause looked at perceived holes in the Warren Commission investigation and report, and came up with their own explaination of "what really happened" that afternoon in Dallas. This despite the fact we already knew within 48 hours of the killing EVERYTHING there ever was to know about the case. As a result of the cottage industry, the American people have fallen sucker to this nonsense.
Hopefully, Bugliosi's book will set the record straight once and for all.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Jake, the Labrador Retriever
who made headlines for his rescues during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, was euthanized because he suffered from cancer. He was 12 years old, which is a typical life expectancy for that breed of dog.
Cancer is also common in dogs that age, so any exposure to chemicals and other pollutants during 9/11 may not have caused it.
Republicans
may not be happy with their candidates, or at least many of them aren't, but there is certainly no evidence many of them are going to jump over to the Democratic Party.
ESPECIALLY if Hillary Clinton, or, God forbid, Barack Obama, becomes the party's standardbearer.
It ain't gonna happen.
The weak Republican field helps explain the belief by yours truly and many others as to why Clinton and Obama are being pushed so hard on Democratic primary voters.
John Conyers
gets a pantload of character assassination by idiots like this guy who think wacko Cindy Sheehan is some kind of saint.
She's not. Her 15 minutes of fame passed a LONG time ago. All she does is hurt the antiwar cause.
Sheehan proved to me fairly early on she was in over her head about everything. What sympathy I had for her over her son got overshadowed by her stupid antics.
Her talked-about challenge to unseat Nancy Pelosi proved beyond all doubt she's not all there in the head.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Presidential Notes.
If organizers can get the so-called "top" Democratic candidates for president interested, the University of Nevada may end up hosting a presidential forum after all.
I'd like to see Biden and Dodd invited. Forget Kucinich and Gravel; they are just a waste of time.
_____
Barack Obama plans to visit Elko next month as part of his rural "listening tour."
_____
John Edwards tried like hell to keep up with Lance Armstrong.
_____
After All
of the bad publicity in recent years of drug doping, including last year's scandal, you'd think riders of the Tour de France would know better than to flout the rules.
But no. They have to continue wrecking the sport of cycling.
As the World Turns.
Naturally
the WSWS finds still more things to trash the Democrats over, this time over Iraq and Monday's debate.
I
finally returned to Reno early this afternoon after spending three weeks in Oregon and out of the country. I will be here for a few days before I head back to Medford.
I wanted to avoid the construction, so instead of taking Interstate 5 south to McCloud, then highways 89 and 44 to U.S. 395 in Susanville, I went on Oregon 140 to Klamath Falls, south to Alturas, and caught U.S. 395 near Honey Lake. Well, I still ran into a little bit of construction, and I even had to get out and walk the dogs for a little bit at one spot out in the middle of nowhere.
This route is 40 miles longer than the McCloud route. I haven't taken it since 1997.
I am thinking about visiting Lava Beds National Monument near Tulelake, California, when I return back to Medford. I might make a day of it going there and going to Crater Lake, which isn't that far from there.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Gonzalesgate.
There are still more hearings going on today with Fredo being under oath, I guess, but he continues to try and get around telling the truth as much as he can.
As the World Turns.
As I've said before, all of these studies about diet and disease are turning out to be nothing but a steaming pile of shit.
Medicine and outright diet quackery have been too closely connected for too long.
_____
Speaking of health, Albert Ellis, 93, didn't seem to have so much of it, for he has died.
For many of us out here, we thought he'd already died.
As I remember it, Ellis was really into sex for some damned reason. He was big on people living together and all, and, as was noted in his obit, he shacked up with somebody for some 37 years before marrying for a third time to somebody else. I think I had one of his books.
Yep. I did have one of his books, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Dating and Mating. It didn't do me one damned bit of good.
_____
The gay community isn't too pleased with the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, mayor.
_____
It
was a crappy debate, but the gimmickry gave bored reporters something to write about.
This over-the-top website purportedly supports Hillary Clinton, and makes the claim she won last night's debate when she didn't, but it reads like a Republican oppo actually created the site in order to discourage and demoralize Democratic supporters of other candidates.
This site actually hurts Hillary Clinton more than it helps her.
No Matter How Tired She Looked,
and she looked exhausted, pundits are still claiming Hillary Clinton "won" last night's gimmicky debate. In truth, she was a bit off her game because she was so tired.
You wonder what in the hell is the matter with people when they prop up people with no real shot at getting elected.
The WSWS
always finds more fault with Democrats than it does with Republicans.
This is about Senator Russ Feingold's censure resolution against our dictator.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Next Thing You Know,
the food fascists will want warning labels put on soft drinks.
I call bullshit on all of these studies.
Is There
any doubt I am right about Obama?
No sane person who has paid attention regards Obama as a liberal, much less one that has any sense at all, common or otherwise.
After
sleeping on it for a couple of hours, I continue to believe CNN fucked up with its "grand experiment" of using You Tube and flopped big time.
Gimmicks are no replacement for substance, not that any of the debates so far (with the exception of the Fox News Republican debate) have had them. But this was simply ridiculous.
I put up with listening to the likes of Jeffrey Toobin, who knows nothing whatsoever about politics, keep talking about Hillary and Obama, when in fact Hillary, looking more tired than usual, was off her game, and Obama never answered ONE GODDAMNED QUESTION TONIGHT. He skirted around everything that was asked, especially galling when one considers Anderson Cooper, Gloria Vanderbilt's son, gave him abundant time in order to skirt the questions:
Gravel, who is simply a goddamned nutcase, got more time than he deserved. Kucinich fared a little bit better. Dodd seemed to have a lot of time to answer in the beginning of the debate, perhaps because CNN realized his campaign was keeping track of the time, but predictably let Dodd fall by the wayside. Richardson was ignored in the early going but somehow had almost as much time as Edwards. Biden made good use of what little time he had.
What was funny was Richardson, who was a big supporter of NCLB, has decided it belonged to the shitter. I expected Biden to give the answer he did, but his remarks about Ted Kennedy were surprising, to say the least.
As I said, Anderson Cooper got his marching orders from Time-Warner, and, by God, he was going to try and set up John Edwards for a fall. Despite the obvious set-up with the bogus gay marriage "issue," Edwards did fine, certainly better than most of his opponents.
But it is clear they, meaning the media, are building up Obama, so as to take him down later. Was it Fox News that I heard in my brother's room, where some goddamned fool claimed Obama just "has" to be on the ticket, so Joseph Biden, perhaps the sharpest debater of the bunch (including Edwards), has to be pushed aside. I have felt Obama is tainted in some way, and the Republicans can't wait to tear him to pieces, assuming Democrats are really that goddamned stupid and actually vote for him. The guy is no progressive or liberal; he's another Harold Ford, Jr. but much less honest.
Bringing on That North Carolina Reverend
was nothing but a fucking set-up by CNN to trip Edwards on a nonissue like gay marriage.
It was despicable, but too many people are going to fall for this obvious attempt to derail his campaign.
I thoroughly despise Anderson Cooper, by the way.
Now it's over, thank God. The YouTube debate was a flop, in my opinion. Obama had too much time, Biden and Richardson not enough, and now Wolf Blitzer is on "analyzing" the debate, focusing of course only on Clinton and Obama, neither of whom "won" it, by the way.
John Edwards
might as well be a goddamned potted plant for all the good it does. The You-Tube CNN debate is on, and here it is, fifteen minutes into it, and he hasn't had ONE GODDAMNED BIT OF TIME thus far.
They are deliberately sabotaging his campaign, the media motherfuckers.
Obama has had THREE responses so far...
Oh, NOW they bring him on.
It's now 23 minutes into the debate, and the phony Obama has had FIVE CHANCES for responses. Even Hillary Clinton is getting the shaft. Richardson just answered a question about Katrina.
This is beyond despicable.
Apparently
Jessica Hahn has a few words to say about Tammy Faye Messner in an upcoming television interview.
As anybody who has been owned by a Chihuahua will tell you, these tiny dogs are absolutely fearless, with no concept at all of their size. Little Zoey (right) proved the point rather dramatically. (Reporter-Herald/Christopher Stark)
As the World Turns.
A white supremacist group is more dangerous behind bars than out in the general population.
_____
Do
Hillary Clinton's relatives promise to embarrass the hell out of her and her campaign?
Speaking of embarrassments, it appears I will be delayed from leaving Medford until tomorrow. My car is acting up, and I am having somebody come out here and do a house call.
I am sick of it not starting like it's supposed to.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
When I Return
to Reno, I will have to obtain a copy of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I found this clip while surfing the net telling about the "honorable" Jerry Falwell's "helpfulness" to the Bakkers when he took over PTL following the Hahn scandal.
Falwell was totally despicable.
You Wouldn't Know It,
but tomorrow night's Democratic debate is actually the first "official" debate of the 2008 campaign season.
I will be returning to Reno tomorrow, so I will probably catch the debate when I return halfway early.
I will be in Reno a few days before returning to Medford, and in turn I will return to Reno with my sister to attend Hot August Nights for a couple of days, then in turn return to Medford for a few days before heading back to Reno.
We know the media coverage will be all Obama and Clinton, and to hell with Edwards or anybody else.
Oh, Shit.
I don't want to hear about this:
Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner Rags to Riches was pulled up Sunday morning shortly after beginning a five-furlong workout at Belmont Park. According to Daily Racing Form, the 3-year-old filly did not display any immediate signs of injury.
Exercise rider Lauren Robson thought something felt wrong after galloping Rags to Riches into the work and breaking off slowly at the five-furlong pole. According to DRF, Robson pulled Rags to Riches up after going a sixteenth of a mile.
I just hate this stuff, although if she's injured it doesn't appear to be serious.
As I Was
surfing over the net about the late Tammy Faye, I found this blog post, which is actually pretty good.
The Bakkers WERE different, and, as somebody who watched them religiously during the glory years of the late 1970s up until the 1987 scandal, the blogger's assessment is accurate.
I was rather hard on them when the scandal first broke, but it soon became clear to me the Bakkers were simply in over their heads running an empire that was growing too rapidly.
I would watch the show and hear Jim talking about the next project he had going for Heritage U.S.A., and I wondered how in the world he could possibly keep his head above the water. Well, it turned out he couldn't, and the empire came crashing down.
S.O.B.s like Falwell stabbed the Bakkers behind their backs, although at the time when they were talking about a "hostile takeover," I don't think the media took them very seriously. Looking back on it, their charges were accurate.
Jim Bakker has adopted a far more low-key profile in recent years than during the PTL days. He has a television show with his second wife, Lori Graham Bakker (with whom he adopted five children), based in Branson, Missouri. I haven't watched this program because I cannot get it on my satellite dish. I have seen interviews with him where he said in effect he didn't want to have the high profile program he did when he had PTL.
With regard to PTL, I think it was Tammy Faye who was the big draw on that show. She sang and she cried--oh, how she cried!--but she had real charisma, and it was no surprise after she left Bakker she would gain considerable celebrity on her own.
Tammy Faye was loved by millions, both in and out of the religious world, perhaps because underneath the makeup she was no fake at all.
Jim Bakker
has a statement on his website regarding the death of his ex-wife, Tammy Faye Messner:
Our family is deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Tammy Faye. She lived her life like the song she sang, “If Life Hands You a Lemon, Make Lemonade.”
My heart aches for my two children, Jamie Charles and Tammy Sue, who loved their Mother dearly. They both told me their Mom was so full of life that it is hard to believe she is gone.
Tammy Sue stayed by her Mother’s side, caring for her 24 hours a day for the last year, and Jamie Charles spent as many days with his Mother as possible, taking her out to eat or shop until her death.
Tammy Faye’s deep faith in God has kept her throughout her life as well as during these last days of her life. In her last 48 hours she shared her faith in Jesus Christ on worldwide television with millions of people.
She is now in Heaven with her Mother and Grandmother and Jesus Christ, the one who she loves and has served from childhood. That is the comfort I can give to all who loved her.
God’s Word declares of heaven; “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because all the old ways are gone," Revelation 21:4.
This is the hope of our family.
Presidential Notes.
Somehow the New York Times finds it in them to write about a genuine political crackpot.
Ron Paul is a waste of space.
_____
The L.A. Times
remembers Tammy Faye Messner.
Snip:
As prone to giggling as she was to crying mascara-stained tears on camera, Tammy Faye Bakker proved to be irresistible fodder for late-night comedians.
"She was the most laughed-at woman in the Western world," Fenton Bailey, codirector of "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," a largely sympathetic documentary on Messner's life, told the Los Angeles Times in 2000.
"I don't know of any woman in our time who has been so ridiculed, put down, maligned," singer Pat Boone said in the 2000 film. "Really, I equate her with Hillary Clinton, because these two women have both suffered tremendously by the things that their husbands may have done, and yet she just keeps going."
Readers can sign her guestbook here.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Associated Press
also has an obituary.
And I can't leave out the Charlotte Observer's take on her death. The Observer was a thorn in Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's side during the PTL scandal.
Apparently a funeral service was already held today.
This is what her ex-husband had to say:
In a statement issued Saturday night, her former husband, Jim Bakker, the evangelist with whom she founded a religious empire in Fort Mill, S.C., said Tammy Faye “lived her life like the song she sang, ‘If Life Hands You a Lemon, Make Lemonade.’ ”
“She is now in Heaven with her mother and grandmother and Jesus Christ, the one who she loves and has served from childbirth,” Bakker said. “That is the comfort I can give to all who loved her.”
Just
a couple of days after her appearance on Larry King Live, Tammy Faye Messner, 65, has died.
She died yesterday at her home near Kansas City, Missouri, of cancer, which she battled for years.
More:
Messner, weighing just 65 pounds, appeared on CNN’s Larry King show this month to say that she was relying on her faith in God to get her through the final stages of her life.
She is survived by her husband, and her two children with Bakker. Both followed their parents into the evangelism business: Tammy Sue Chapman is a Christian singer, and son Jamie Charles — known as Jay — branded his body with Jesus tattoos, created the Revolution Church and starred in a documentary series on the Sundance Channel called “One Punk Under God.”
Through the years, Messner called on her sunny Christianity to get through one crisis after another: Bakker’s imprisonment and the breakup of their 30-year marriage in 1992; her own addiction to tranquilizers; the 1996 conviction and jailing of her husband, Roe, for federal bankruptcy fraud; his battle with prostate cancer; and her own health problems, which began with colon cancer surgery in 1996.
Elizabeth Edwards
makes the case for her husband, the only major Democratic candidate who has a chance winning the general election.
What people forget about Edwards' IWR vote is that he was voting as a representative of the people of North Carolina and had to reflect their wishes. North Carolina is a red state, and no doubt during the fall of 2002 they, like most people who didn't know better, supported our dictator's efforts to plunge us into an unwinnable war.
Now that Edwards isn't saddled with having to please constituents, he can afford to speak out.
Elizabeth speaks out on John's health care proposal:
Conniff: On universal health care, I know your husband has a comprehensive plan. But why not single payer?
Edwards: Well, it has a single-payer component -- Medicare Plus. John thinks that he can get this bill passed immediately. This is one of those first 100 days bills. The insurance companies still have a market on this. We saw before if we move straight to single payer they will do everything in their power to block it. What happens with this, though, because there is a single-payer option people can take, and because they have so much less overhead, maybe they are providing better services for your money. We expect over time there will be a general move toward Medicare Plus. They can fight Congress, but it's really hard to fight every consumer's individual choice. And the competition from the private insurers might drive Medicare Plus to become more innovative, too.
The ultimate goal in any workable health care policy is to get the profit motive out of health care. The current system simply doesn't work anymore.
The Answer,
Eric, lies in the corporate silencing of Edwards's message, just as was done in 2003.
Why ignore the obvious?
As the World Turns II.
As the World Turns.
Mirthala Salinas' career appears to be fucked up thanks to her extracurricular activities.
Since They Know
the Democrats in both houses of Congress are powerless to do anything about it, the administration is openly defying them by claiming "executive privilege" in the Gonzalesgate scandal.
The WSWS whines and moans about this state of affairs, but nothing can be done about it. The voters fucked up back in 1994 by ever letting Republicans have control of Congress. Currently, there aren't enough Democrats to able to get rid of Bush and Cheney, and Republicans are all in lockstep in favor of the administration.
For Some Reason
I came across this site about vegetarianism and found it interesting.
My belief is people can do whatever they want, but vegetarianism at bottom is a cult not unlike Scientology and the like. I believe it's another form of diet quackery, and many people fall prey to the many bogus claims on its behalf.
Not to mention there is no evidence at all it improves one's health (especially when it isn't natural anyway) by preventing disease or extends the lifespan, improves the environment, makes one more moral because of alleged concern for animals, and all of that other nonsense.
If vegetarians were honest, they would admit they are in the throes of a cult.
I have a nephew who has practiced more or less a vegetarian diet for over a decade. He has his wife doing it as well, but neither of them is a strict vegetarian. His brother has sworn off meat for some reason, and HIS wife is struggling to try and eat like he does. It won't work, of course, because restricting one's diet in this manner makes one crave the "forbidden" all the more.
Finally, the self-righteous tone of many vegetarians, especially of the PETA stripe, is no different than the religious fundies.
If there is anything worse than religious fascists, it's food fascists.
Friday, July 20, 2007
This
is one of the most disgusting sites on the web, euphemistically calling pit bulls "sporting dogs."
Of course this is a dogfighting publication.
I am going to upload a few photos I took on my Southwest trip early in June. I don't know where the hell this was taken.
I
returned from Ashland, Oregon, today after taking the bus. I ate out and then I watched Sicko at the Varsity Theater with about ten other people. Frankly, I liked this movie better than I did Fahrenheit 9/11. There was a lot of truth in the movie about how shitty our profit-driven health care system is.
Before
Tammy Faye Messner appeared on the Larry King program last night, she posted this on her website.
Of course she looked awful during her television appearance. She did state, however, she gained five pounds and now was up to 65 pounds. She's in pain all of the time but tries to keep a positive outlook:
It has been such a long time since I've written and I am so sorry for the long delay. I have been in bed for almost a year now. I have times when I feel good and times when I feel really bad. But, I have learned one thing about feelings. They have NOTHING TO DO WITH FAITH IN GOD!! He is the SAME yesterday, today and forever. He NEVER changes. That is what the Bible says and God's word does not lie EVER!
There have been many days when I felt so terrible with my back and stomach, that I have hardly been able to breath. I cry out to the Lord knowing that many of you are praying for me. In spite of it all, I get dressed and go out to eat. I may only be able to eat one bite, or sometimes ten bites, but I swallow each bite in "faith believing". There are MANY times it doesn't stay with me long at all, but I keep trying and HE helps me.
As I mentioned on this blog previously, I've always had a soft spot for her, even when her ex-husband was embroiled in scandal. Their son seems to be a colorful character as well.
More is here.
Sports Illustrated
has a couple of articles on the Vick dogfighting case.
Kathy Strouse will long remember the pit bulls she helped remove from Moonlight Road. Most were short, stocky and ferocious looking, but when she approached them and gave them treats, they were gentle and loving. "Those dogs were so happy, so delighted to have human contact," Strouse says. The animals were split up and sent to shelters around Virginia, the locations undisclosed for fear dogfighters might try to steal them. Eventually the animals will be euthanized. "These dogs can't be adopted," says Strouse. "You don't want dogs like these living next door. The only thought that gives me some comfort is, I would rather have them die while being held by someone who cares about them than in a fighting pit."
A Person
going undercover for the HSUS gives a detailed account of the sordid "sport" of dogfighting:
The referee then calls for the dogs to get ready, calls, "Let go!" and the dog that committed the turn is released first. Depending on the rules being used, the dog has 10 to 20 seconds to "scratch to" his opponent – to charge across the pit. If he does, the fight resumes. If the dog fails to do that, the match is over. Generally fighting continues until they're out of holds (they quit biting).
Fights average about 45 minutes. But they can be over fairly quickly, five to 10 minutes, if one dog is not wanting to fight. The longest recorded is 5 hours, 33 minutes. The longest I ever saw was about an hour.
I have not seen a dog killed in the arena, but certainly afterward. Bites are strong enough to break bone. [Dogs] suffer from dehydration, blood loss, shock. The dead are taken off to the side, some are thrown in pits — some guys have burn pits — some are thrown in the back of a pickup. More often you see owners, if the dog is in shock, set up an IV kit, getting fluids into the dog.
Presidential Notes.
Women in general tend to have a more favorable view of Hillary Clinton than men, but they remain skeptical.
There simply isn't any evidence whatsoever she could carry any states John Kerry could or had stolen from him. None.
It makes one wonder why so many Democrats, especially Democratic officials, are so delusional.
Unless, of course, they want continued Republican rule.
_____
Thursday, July 19, 2007
USA Today
has a cover story about the sick, sick, sick world of dogfighting.
It just makes me so angry.
Presidential Notes II.
John Edwards embarks on the populist trail, you know, the one the mainstream media by and large ignores or else attempts to trash him as a hypocrite.
Last Pictures for Tonight.
By the time we were returning from Florence Sunday night, my nephew was completely wiped out.
I liked this picture of a flower from a bush nearby the apartment where we were staying.
More.
The Pantheon, which is something else, let me tell you. The dome inside is unreal.
Here are a few pictures from Pompeii. The statue in the foreground from Mt. Vesuvius is a replica; the original is in the archaelogical museum in Naples. We didn't have enough time to visit it.
More.
The Spanish Steps.
The Fontana di Trivi. It's big, and I wasn't able to get all of it in a single shot.
Another shot of the fountain.
My sister attempts to toss a coin into the fountain without tossing herself along with it.
More Pictures.
Above is the grave of Julius Caesar. People still lay flowers on the site, especially during the Ides of March.
These pictures are from the Palatine:
Here are a few of my pictures from Italy earlier this month. St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican City.
This is a statue from inside the basilica sculpted by somebody I have never heard of in my life:
My nephew and his wife decided to stick their hands in the Mouth of Truth.
The NFL
may piddle around and wait until Michael Vick's dogfighting case resolves itself, but the public is going to keep dogging him:
But reaction to Vick's indictment, and the graphic allegations of how the animals were treated, has been swift and severe — from inside and outside pro football.
"This is going to be a significant blemish on the NFL, no matter what," David Cornwell, a former assistant general counsel for the league, said Wednesday.
The Atlanta-based attorney added that there was nothing the league's new boss "can say or do that's going to make this go away from an image perspective. I just don't believe in degrees of bad — when it's bad it's bad. And this is bad."
Vick's career is probably finished.
Life's the Pits.
It's taken the Michael Vick case to finally bring to the forefront the moral depravity of dogfighting:
"If he is indeed found guilty, the conviction would send the sort of message that needs to be sent,'' said Allison Lindquist, executive director of the East Bay SPCA. Dogfighting is a common, largely hidden blight almost everywhere in the country, she said, including the Bay Area. "This is an unbelievably sadistic, barbaric practice, and a lot of people try to glamorize it. It's not glamorous at all.''
The cold brutality described in the indictment hardly props up any fashionably roguish images. The 52 pit bulls found on Vick's estate were mostly emaciated, authorities said, kept ravenously hungry so that they would eagerly assail the flesh of the dogs they met in the ring. The losing animals, the indictment said, were sometimes executed if they didn't die in the fight. One dog, the grand jury reported, was hosed down after a loss and then electrocuted.
"I think it's the gratuitous cruelty that has really gotten to people,'' Pacelle said. "This isn't medical research. You can't argue that sacrificing these animals could save people's lives someday.''
I hope the bastard gets what's coming to him.
Presidential Notes.
JFK's speechwriter tries too hard to make comparisons between his old boss and Barack Obama.
Obama doesn't have a chance in hell of ever being elected president. He won't get the nomination, not by a long shot.
_____
As the World Turns.
Builder is suspected in the start of the Hawken Fire in the Reno area.
Nevada has been under siege in recent days on account of the fires.
_____
Leave it to the media to glorify a fugitive from justice.
Disgusting.
_____
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Jonathan Chait
shows that the right has to find "ideological" reasons to split with our dictator over Iraq rather than the fact that it has been a failure because of reports that it is a mess.
You Can
always count on the WSWS to bash Democrats far more than Republicans, even on the issue of impeachment.
Given the fact the election is only one year away, what would the point be in impeaching Bush and/or Cheney? Moreover, having the two where they are helps Democrats' chances in 2008 because they would still be a big issue on the campaign. Finally, the votes in the Senate aren't there to remove the two anyhow; Republicans will NOT do it, and there must be a two-thirds vote for removal.
So the whole idea of impeachment is stupid given the political reality.
As the World Turns.
As I was flying back from Italy yesterday, Brazil had its worst plane crash ever, less than a year after its previous worst crash.
There is plenty of blame to go around.
I am feeling the effects of having traveled through nine time zones yesterday. My sister wanted to leave her son's apartment at 5:30 in Portland, which we did, and we got at my brother's place at 11. The dogs were not at the window to greet me, as I had expected, but when I came through the door, they were glad to see me. They haven't let me out of their sight since.
Yesterday I left the Rome apartment at just before 6 a.m. and took the train to the airport. The plane left Rome at 10:15 and we made it to Frankfurt by about noon. There was hardly no time for a layover, and so I got on the long flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco (about 11 hours, 22 minutes). From Germany the plane went north of the UK and Iceland; across the southern part of Greenland (I took a couple of pictures of it from the plane); north over Hudson Bay in Canada; through Nunavut (which I had never even heard of until I looked it up a little bit ago) and the Northwest Territories; past the northwestern tip of Saskatchewan; through Edmonton, Alberta, and down the rest of the province; then into the U.S. through the northwestern part of Montana and the extreme north of Idaho; then through Spokane, Washington, and down the eastern part of Oregon past Klamath Falls (and a bit to the east of it); over Lassen National Park and through the Sacramento Valley into San Francisco. Four movies played during the trip, but I don't remember much about any of them. The food was very good; in fact, the airline tended to give us too much food.
After landing in San Francisco, we had to go through the Customs Office and reclaim our baggage, which was a pain in the ass, and later we boarded the plane to Portland. The ride was okay, but there were a couple of screaming little kids sitting behind us. It was bad enough they were screaming and crying, but they kept kicking my seat. After we landed, everybody in the back of the plane seemed to be interested in the little kids. The kids, both of them under three years of age, were cute as hell, so I wasn't really mad at them. It was their first plane trip. The parents probably should have provided them with toys to keep them occupied. The good news was they weren't on the Frankfurt-to-San Francisco flight.
_____
Presidential Notes.
Elizabeth Edwards gave an interview.
This is interesting:
Are you saying some other Democrat pushed the poverty speech story to the media?
I don't know about that one, but I do know that some of these stories are being pushed by other Democrats. Come on, we talk to the same people. But it's not like we have completely clean hands; our research people will share things with reporters -- not this kind of nonsense, this is irrelevant. But John has a lot of loyal supporters who know poverty is not a sexy issue and who respect him for caring about it. How do you unseat those people? You suggest that his interest is disingenuous, that he has taken money for a poverty speech, he paid too much for a haircut, he has a big house.
Life's the Pits.
I hope this s.o.b. gets the book thrown at him and he does hard time in prison.
Sure, "innocent until proven guilty," but they've got enough evidence to nail his worthless butt.
_____
Monday, July 16, 2007
This
is going to be it until Wednesday. We have to leave by about 5:30 a.m. to catch the plane tomorrow. It will be a long, long, long, long ride from Frankfurt to San Francisco, then up to Portland on Tuesday. On Wednesday, my sister and I will return to Medford, where I will be for a few days before heading back to Reno.
We were going to eat out tonight, but nothing in the neighborhood was open, so we ended up eating here at the apartment. It was just as well, for my nephew cooked a good meal of pasta and green beans.
Funny Cide's Connections
have decided to retire the 7-year-old classic winner while he was still sound:
Tagg said that Funny Cide was out on the track Friday morning with Smullen aboard and looked great. “He was dappled from head to toe and looks like a million dollars,” he said. “If anyone came to see him they would be elated with the way he looks. But you have to stop on them sometime, and we’ve received a lot of critical mail for not retiring him. We just felt this was a good time; he doesn’t need to run anymore. If you try to get another stakes or two out of him and he couldn’t do it, then you’d wish you retired him now.
“He just won a stakes at 7, and everyone had so much fun and excitement out there; the people were wild, according to Robin. We all talked about it at dinner last night, and we felt this was the best time to retire him. I don’t want to wait until he gets hurt or something like that.”
Tagg said Funny Cide is so happy being at the track, they’re just going to keep riding him like a stable pony and let him go out with the sets each morning.
A Journalist
appeared to be wasting a ton of money on a cruise for neocons, but this person was in for quite a surprise.
One gets a feel for what this bunch is really about.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
As the World Turns.
Infidelity has hit the bin Laden family.
Adult filmmaker Jim Mitchell, 63, who helped make the sordid business of porno somewhat more respectable with flicks such as Behind the Green Door, but made himself less respectable by killing his younger brother Artie, has died. No cause of death has been made public.
Lady Bird Johnson was laid to rest.
Women who can't bear to spend their lives without going through the birth process are attempting to use donor eggs.
Presidential Notes.
While I was in Florence, Italy, enjoying all of the sites, Elizabeth Edwards was speaking in Reno in front of a group of about 200 promoting her husband's candidacy.
She spelled out one of the reasons why he is our best bet in 2008:
“After he gets the nomination, he is going to come back to Nevada,” she said. “And he’s going to be in Louisiana, and he’s going to be in Missouri, and he’s going to be in Kentucky. We can win these states. You just have to have the right candidate, and we have to be willing to compete.
“John promises you that he is going to be everywhere. He’s not going to concede anywhere. It’s his style to fight.”
Economic issues should benefit Edwards, but the media will make sure his message gets buried.
You can find how much money the candidates raked in here.
It's
10:00 p.m. Rome time. We just returned home about twenty minutes ago from Florence. Florence was something else, let me tell you, and it was almost too much for my sister, her son, and her daughter-in-law to handle. We went to the Uffizi Museum yesterday, and there was so much walking and climbing, both my nephew's wife and Pat, who is my sister, had had it. We actually walked past the room where the famous The Birth of Venus as well as a couple of Da Vinci paintings were. The reason was because the nephew's wife said there were too many "religious" paintings there, which I found hilarious because, after all it is Italy, and in Florence, the art museums tend to have work that has come from churches around the region.
So by the time we ended the tour around Room 50 or 55, the two were ready to go home. My nephew, who like myself likes to go to museums, was ready to leave, but I nudged him back because I wanted to see The Birth of Venus myself. We retraced our steps back to Rooms 10-14, which at that point we realized those were the rooms we skipped. We saw that painting as well as some other works by Botticelli, if I have his name right at this time of night. I was glad we did it.
However, this morning, even my nephew was too pooped to visit the museums around the giant cathedral including the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno, which houses the legendary David statue. Well, it was decided among the four of us that I would go to the museums while the rest of them went shopping. So for six hours I did it. The Accademia was just a couple of blocks from the hotel we were staying, and I got there when it opened at 8:30. Instead of having a bunch of stairs to climb, as in the Uffizi, almost all of the important works of art were on the bottom floor. I went to the room where the statue of David was, and I just couldn't believe it. Goliath was more like it, for the statue must be at least thirty feet high including the pedestal. It is huge. I was at this particular museum for about two hours going through all of the rooms, but I'll bet I stared at that statue for at least a half hour. What a sight to behold.
After going through the museum and buying stuff at the bookstore, I headed to Museo dell'Opera and managed even to photograph another famous Michelangelo sculpture, Pietà , not to be confused with the one over at the Vatican. I also went to a couple of churches and the archaeological museum there, but I didn't go into the giant cathedral, which is so huge one cannot photograph the entire thing in a single picture.
I bought a few more books that I will have to somehow lug to the airport early Tuesday, but I enjoyed the day tremendously.
Tomorrow is supposed to be an easy day, so I might be able to blog more then.
Friday, July 13, 2007
It
will soon be time to hit the road again. I just woke up a little bit ago, and we are going to soon be taking the train to Florence. We won't be back until sometime tomorrow night.
As the World Turns.
Did Paris Hilton get any special treatment while she was in jail, and, if so, is anybody surprised?
It's About
the end of another day. We went over to downtown Rome to take in the souvenir shops; climb a bit on the Spanish Steps; go to the John Keats Museum, where the poet lived out his last months before croaking of t.b. in 1821 at the tender age of 25; head over to the Fontana di Trevi I believe it is, where visitors can throw coins over their shoulders in hopes that means they will return to Rome provided they have the money, which they won't if they toss it all in the fountain; and finally we saw the Pantheon, which is one hell of a work of architecture.
We also ate at a Chinese restaurant before hiking over to the Pantheon, but my nephew and his wife decided to have an argument over what to do. She wanted to go shopping, while he wanted to go over to the Pantheon. They decided to go their separate ways and do what they wanted to do, but what was funny was both of them met up back at the train station. The three of us assumed his wife would go on a separate train, but we all ended up returning to the apartment together.
Speaking of Pompeii the other day, it was very sad to see several dogs that had apparently been abandoned and rely on tourist handouts. It's disgraceful people can have so little regard for them. I was tempted to take them home with me.
There is this I found about the dogs, which live inside Pompeii, which in turn is part of Vesuvius National Park:
Nero was inspired by one of the many dogs that ingratiate themselves with the tourists of Pompeii. The notes at the end of the book explain that the many stray dogs in Pompeii are protected because they are believed to be descended from the dogs who escaped the eruption of Vesuvius around 2000 years ago.
There appear to be a few stray dogs hanging around Rome near where I am staying as well.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Media
have tried too hard to distinguish recent cases where so-called "PVS" patients have actually come to consciousness from the Terri Schiavo case.
The media will never admit it fucked up big time in their attempt to repeat crackpot attorney George Felos' talking points.
I still can't believe so-called liberals think "choice" and "freedom" includes greedy guardians' "right" to kill their disabled wards.
Unbelievable.
It's Time
to put television viewers out of their misery and sack BOTH Katie Couric and CBS head Leslie Moonvies.
Couric is ill-suited for a news anchor job while Moonvies is totally incompetent.
Presidential Notes.
Can this campaign be saved?
In more bad news for McCain, a co-chair of his Florida campaign — state Rep. Bob Allen — was arrested Wednesday after offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer, authorities said. Allen, 48, was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times at a park in Titusville, Fla., said police Lt. Todd Hutchinson. He then approached an undercover officer and was arrested.
Allen has been charged with solicitation for prostitution, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail. Brevard County jail officials said Allen posted a $500 bond.
It's plainly obvious for anybody old enough to remember that Edwards is patterning his campaign much on RFK.
As the World Turns.
Darren Mack's lawyers are unhappy with the D.A., meaning district attorney, not their dumbass client.
I was gone to Naples when the news came out on Lady Bird Johnson's death.
She was one of the longest lived first ladies at the age of 94.
I
just returned by train from Naples. It is 9:30 p.m. here, so I am about ready to hit the sack.
We saw Mount Vesuvius and toured Pompeii yesterday, which is really something to see. We spent the night at a four-star hotel, and we just messed around Naples dodging the traffic and enduring the rotten driving of the taxi drivers.
There was garbage in the streets, but it didn't stink as much as expected.
I will probably post more about the trip in the coming days, if I am still alive.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Today
we are supposed to go to garbage-laden Naples and visit Pompeii, and I think I will have internet access at the hotel we are staying. But just in case I don't, I will be returning tomorrow sometime.
It's still difficult to get used to the time change.
It Sounds Like
Bush or rather Cheney is hellbent on continuing the Iraq mess to eternity.
Obituaries.
Actor Charles Lane, 102, who was in many movies and television shows including the 1934 film classic Twentieth Century and the television show Green Acres, died Monday.
If I recall correctly, he was the oldest member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Cartoonist Doug Marlette, 57, died in an auto crash.
Of Course
everything is political with this admimistration, even regarding health concerns.
Presidential Notes.
People have more reason to do a death watch on Senator McCain's presidential campaign.
He has just $2 million on hand.
More Gossip.
Mayor V. decides to show his disgraced face in public after it was revealed he was carrying on with a much-younger news reporter.
Unfortunately, nobody cared about his positions on the issues, but reporters cared about his ongoing affair with Mirthala Salinas.
In other news, the pope has done it again.
While
I was taking off to parts unknown, the New Seven Wonders list of winners came out, which included the Colosseum.
At
least Naples cares about its garbage problem.
Here in Rome, especially outside of the tourist areas of Vatican City and the ancient ruins around the Colosseum, people don't give a shit if there is garbage or graffiti all over the place.
And if the garbage doesn't kill you, it's likely the drivers will, although my nephew, who has traveled many places around the world, says Saigon and Thailand have worse drivers than those in Rome.
I had a good time today going to the Colosseum and the surrounding areas despite losing 70 Euros when I dropped them on the ground. That kind of pissed me off.
We are supposed to go to Naples and Pompeii tomorrow, so I may not be able to blog for a day or two.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Senator David Vitter's
political career is probably shot to shit:
As Martin reportedly revealed her phone records on a web site Monday, Vitter released a statement of apology.
"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."
Channeling God won't bail him out.
As the World Turns II.
Some people are upset with a proposed bill in California that would require pets to be fixed.
A Hearst mansion goes on the auction block for a mere 165 million.
Presidential Notes.
Good for Chris Dodd.
Obama will NEVER get my vote based on his ignorant stance on "merit pay."
This would reverse decades of civil service and tenure law. Of course, Obama doesn't know shit about education or much else.
Gonzalesgate.
Our dictator once again thinks he is above the law by claiming he doesn't have to turn over documents to Congress.
As the World Turns.
Chaz Higgs' lawyer tries to make many excuses for his guilty client.
A Brookings, Oregon, family finds it necessary to run for deer life.
Norma Desmond isn't the only one who has made a comeback in Los Angeles.
Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness winner War Emblem has had another poor year at stud.
Let's hope his Japanese connections don't decide to send him to the slaughterhouse if it continues.
While
whatever news is going on in the U.S., it's about time for me to go to bed here. I will say that the Vatican is something to see. Literally thousands of people were there today taking in St. Peter's Basilca and the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum complex.
We didn't see Pope Benedict, though; he must be hiding out after the latest controversy.
We spent several hours there, literally all day, and we still did not get to see everything there was to see. We did see the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, which has all of those frescoes Michelangelo did in something like four years, but people cannot take pictures of. Let me tell you, the pictures do not do the places justice.
Tomorrow we are going to see the Coloseum in Rome before heading off to Florence on Thursday.
Personal stuff.
I may have lied a bit. I am able to blog a little bit from Italy. I will see how much time I have between now and the 18th.
I got in about 12 hours of sleep after a long, long, long, long plane ride. I do not think there was much if anything of night. We started out in the daytime in Portland, Oregon, and we ended up in Rome during the daylight. It was weird.
I slept 12 hours straight. Today we are supposed to go to the Vatican.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Hiatus Time.
I will not be blogging until around July 18. I am sure I am going to miss a lot of important things that are going on in the world.
Presidential Notes.
Depending on how much on the take presidential candidates from both parties are to the health care and pharmaceutical companies, they promise a big overhaul of our disastrous health care system.
_____
The Booming Economy for 6/28-7/6.
Allegedly, the economy is doing better than expected, which means the unemployed are doing worse than expected.
_____
It Hit
over the century mark here in Medford, Oregon, but back in Reno, temperatures soared to 108 degrees, which is very unusual.
Needless to say, there have been fires near that part of the country, though nothing as yet on the scale of the Angora Fire, which has been contained, by the way.
At around 12:30, I will be hitting the road for the next 11 or 12 days, so I seriously doubt I will be able to access the internet at all during that time. I don't look forward to flying pretty much all day tomorrow to get to Italy, and I'll probably be squeamish as hell over the turbulence, but I do want to visit that country.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Joe Biden is an Underdog
right now, but I sure as hell wouldn't count him out.
He actually says what he thinks, and he has a detailed plan on how to deal with the Iraq mess.
People like what they hear, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if--yes--he pulls it off and becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
And here is an interview he gave for Salon:
Do you think in the era of YouTube and video cellphones, you can get away with being Joe Biden? I mean being a guy who in the space of two minutes in Cedar Rapids started to tell a joke about Al Gore and the Internet and made a reference to George Wallace in a discussion of healthcare plans.
The answer is probably not. But I'll tell you what -- one of the things I'm not going to do. I'm not going to let that system alter who I am. For example, one of the things that happens is that the public is coming to grips with how to deal with this instant, unfiltered information that may be deliberately mis-edited.
But I think -- and this is naive maybe -- I have confidence that the American people will put this in perspective. Like when one of the bloggers said, "We're going to take back the Democratic Party."
They don't own the Democratic Party. What are they talking about? So, for example, my pointing out George Wallace from 1968 and quoting what he said, somebody could take that out of context and say "Biden quoted Wallace," making it sound like Biden is being favorable about Wallace.
At the end of the day, I think what happens is that people basically take a motion picture of their candidate and not a snapshot of their candidate. It's a little bit like the Barack comment. [Just as he was launching his presidential campaign in late January, Biden gave an interview in which he maladroitly referred to Obama as "articulate and bright and clean."]
Not a serious person in the press thought that I meant anything other than being complimentary. The good news is that I have a 34-year record on civil rights. Nobody, nobody could suggest that I was being prejudiced. But initially on the blogosphere, this was taken in a different context.
The answer is that there are two sides to my being straightforward and candid. And that is, I'm going to get myself in trouble. But the only thing I decided to do -- I can't start trying to calibrate all this stuff. I really believe that at the end of the day, the public in the primaries, as well as the general election, are going to judge me for all of who I am.
Let me squeeze in a money question, since you only raised $2.4 million in the second quarter. Is that because people aren't coming to your fundraisers, or you're not making the calls, or when you call people, instead of giving you $2,300, they write you a check for $500?
I think it is all of the above. But mostly what I think it is is that I have never focused on fundraising. We are in the process of trying to put together a first-rate fundraising operation. A lot of it has to do with organizational structure because where we go, people are responding. I realize that part of it is me, since I haven't from the outset made this a priority.
I haven't done anything political in 20 years. You know what I mean by that?
Easy Senate reelections, no need to raise a large amount of money until now?
I haven't gone out and put together a national fundraising organization. I haven't put together any of this stuff. And the other piece of it is that -- I may be wrong -- I continue to believe that the money is not going to be the difference.
It is what it is. I think it's Iowa and New Hampshire and we'll have enough money to compete there. I think we're going to do fine.
I Wasn't
going to vote for Obama anyway, and this just solidifies my opposition to his candidacy. He supports a "merit pay" system of paying teachers similar to what is being done in Minnesota.
"Merit pay" is a right-wing crock of shit. You cannot run schools like businesses, for kids are going to vary in ability year after year. Besides, so much that affects kids happens outside of the school day. Teachers have no control over this.
Not to mention "merit" cannot be defined.
"Merit pay" is just another idea to destroy teachers unions and subvert the civil service system.
Obama is a tool.
More Presidential Notes.
John Edwards will return to Las Vegas on the 11th:
When: Noon, July 11, 2007
Where: Sheet Metal Workers Local #88
2560 Marco St
Las Vegas, NV
RSVP (702) 434-3978
And Chris Dodd will be in Carson City, but I will be out of the country during this time:
CARSON CITY: Dodd will be in Carson City on Friday, July 13th for a picnic lunch. Please save the date and plan to come meet one of our outstanding Democratic candidates.
When: 12:15 p.m. Friday, July 13th
Where: Fuji Park located on Clear Creek Road across from Costco.
He, too, will be in Vegas:
LAS VEGAS: Join Chris Dodd for the grand opening of his Nevada Campaign Headquarters!
When: Thursday, July 12th, 5:45 p.m.
Where: 2801 South Valley View Boulevard, #3 (one block South of Sahara on Valley View)
RSVP: 702-256-DODD (3633)
It sounds like he's not bowing out anytime soon.
Mirthala Salinas
has been placed on leave while an investigation probes (no pun intended) whether she was ethical in covering somebody she was covering in real life.
Republicans
were banking on increasing home ownership as a way to guarantee the party's own future (besides rigging elections, of course).
Unfortunately, that dream went awry.
Masherama.
Arnold profits from nonprofit subsidies for travel expenses.
And "they" talk about John Edwards living large.
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