okay, i have to sloooow dowwwwn...

i find i'm hyperventilating with the knowledge that we could actually have this person as our president...and i thought America would wake up after bushco...jeeeeeezzzzz

Gidget Does Washington...

Ebert on Palin

Movie critic Roger Ebert turns political critic in this column noting Sarah Palin's appeal as an American Idol version of a political candidate. He'd rather have the real thing.

I trust the American people will see through Palin, and save the Republic in November. The most damning indictment against her is that she considered herself a good choice to be a heartbeat away. That shows bad judgment.

TalkLeft

god, this is good...

The GOP Loves the Heartland To Death

It tells us something about Sarah Palin's homage to small-town America, delivered to an enthusiastic GOP convention last week, that she chose to fire it up with an unsourced quotation from the all-time champion of fake populism, the belligerent right-wing columnist Westbrook Pegler...read the rest...

I bet it's the victim's fault too...

USA Today, in a story about how, while Sarah Palin was mayor of the town, Wasilla billed rape victims for needed evidence-gathering medical examinations.

Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said in an e-mail that the governor "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test."

"Gov. Palin's position could not be more clear," she said. "To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice."

Of course, the problem is that whether she "believed" in it or not, the Wasilla policy when she was mayor was to bill rape victims between $500 and $1200 for the needed exams. Some members of the Alaska state legislature were appropriately mortified, and the state passed a law forbidding it -- and they had Wasilla directly in mind when the law was proposed. There's been absolutely no question about any of that. Given that it gained the attention of the state legislature, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that Mayor Sarah Palin didn't know about the policy that even her own state government was decrying. (Especially considering that it seems the policy was instituted on her watch.)

Compare and Contrast....hmmmmm...

What's wrong with this picture?
(Double click for larger image to be sick on. Sorry.)

Go figure...

War doesn’t pay, nor does imperial ambition. This proposition should be evident to anyone who has paid attention to the fivefold increase in the price of oil since George W. Bush took office.

Robert Scheer, Truthdig

If they weren't so true, I'd be able to laugh...

There are no words for this kind of beauty...

Audrey, bun adopted by Kelly W. from our fuzzbutts at Rabbit Match.

www.rabbitmatch.org

Oh, the friggin' irony...

Okay, so what do you do with a really good thing from a really bad person...?

*

As a Real Surprise, I was notified this week that I had been nominated and had been chosen to receive the President's Volunteer Service Award. Wow! Great! Wow! Uh, oh wait...

It'll be signed by George W. Bush, worst preznit** we've ever had in our nation's history.

So. What kind of karma would cause something like this...hmmmmm???

*The President's Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) is an award given by the President of the United States to recognize the valuable contributions made by volunteers across the nation.

**War Criminal Idiot

Say hello to Giselle.

I figure I can write about this in 1000 ways, but it makes sense to introduce you directly.

No. 393952, Type: Rabbit, Intake Date: 8/13/07, Reason: Owner Surrender, Weight: 7.3 lbs, Est Birthdate: 4/1/07, Breed: Himalayan x, Status: Active

Giselle.

That's my girl. One of 15 (at the moment) and one of the most beautiful creatures on this earth.

Rabbits are different than cats or dogs. Oh, I don't just mean how they are predators or prey. It's more than that. It's a way of seeing the world and how they interact with it. They are pastoral.

Main Entry:

¹pas·to·ral

Pronunciation:

\ˈpas-t(ə-)rəl\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Middle English, from Latin pastoralis, from pastor herdsman

Date:

15th century

1 a (1): of, relating to, or composed of shepherds or herdsmen (2): devoted to or based on livestock raising b: of or relating to the countryside : not urban c: portraying or expressive of the life of shepherds or country people especially in an idealized and conventionalized manner <pastoral poetry> d: pleasingly peaceful and innocent : idyllic

That's not to say they don't fight. They do. But their experience of life is grazing. No feral hunt, no killing, no ripping a being apart or 'just practicing' how to kill it.

It's such a difference.

These guys literally saved my butt.

I realized just yesterday how much I've kept silent about them on this blog. I fear people roll their eyes. But hey, if this blog is about life--my life--then it's about these guys too.

As it should be...

June 17, 1922. Iola Swinnerton and Anna Neibel, winners of a beauty contest at Washington's Tidal Bathing Beach. Miss Swinnerton resides at 3125 Mount Pleasant Street NW. View full size. National Photo Company Collection.

The faces...

August 1908. "Noon hour in an Indianapolis cotton mill. Witness, E.N. Clopper." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

From Seed Back To Earth

One of the most beautiful posts I've ever read...

I am practically holding my breath. This whole dying thing is much quieter, more private, and full of anticipation than I really knew. I suppose it must be tenfold worse when it's a person and not just a cat. Yet, I have to say, I really don't know if the death part is all that different. Sure, you will miss some people more acutely than you would a loved cat, but, the dying isn't really different. I find myself wondering about my own death. I can't tell you how many times I plotted and planned for it when I was much younger. Now that I don't really want it, it has a different taste in my thoughts...

http://dustpanalley.blogspot.com/2008/01/from-seed-to-back-to-earth-or-so-story.html

John Edwards Plan to Build One America

Fascinating story...

Annie Card, 1909
North Pownal Manufacturing Company
cotton mill, Pownal, VT

http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/addiesearch1.html

The small of it and the large of it...

Mom and her fledgling...



Nevada Mountains, Peru

Women

October 1942. Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft plant in Fort Worth, Texas. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information.


Nov. 10, 1916. Vicinity of Bowling Green, Kentucky. "Hazel family (very poorly educated). Children have not been to school this year although living within 1½ miles of school." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Falling Fast

The US dropped 9 places in the 2006 Index of Press Freedom by Reporters Without Borders issued last month...

One particularly egregious US case cited is the jailing of Josh Wolf, a freelance journalist and blogger, who has been imprisoned more than four months for refusing to hand over video tapes he filmed in San Francisco of a protest against the G8 Summit last year...

Other cases of US press intimidation include Sudanese cameraman Same al-Hajj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazzeera, who has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo; and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April. The AP has been trying to secure his release for seven months...

During the first year of the index, in 2002, the US was ranked 17th. The US has fallen...36 places since 2002.

Full Article

During Clinton's presidency, the Republican majority in Congress spent 140 hours hearing testimony over whether Clinton had misused the White House Christmas card list to seek out potential Democratic donors. By contrast, there have been only twelve hours of testimony so far on the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

Georg Mascolo in Washington

What’s the Best Reasonably Realistic Scenario for the Next Six Years?

Steve Says:
October 14th, 2006 at 10:55 am

I look for an end to poverty in the entire U.S. I look for the most refined and efficacious healthcare system in the world. I hope for a candidate in office who has the boldness and conviction of vision to embrace a true wed of the Socialist and Capitalist model. I hope… and dream, for November 7, 2006.

1. Andrew Bard Schmookler of The Blinding of America