McCain loves Club Hunts and bush. Loves me some Keith.

Okay, so you've all heard this by now:
Book: McCain temper boiled over in '92 tirade, called wife a 'cunt'

But methinks the word is too "on the tip of his tongue" for my taste. (Um, please excuse any double entendre as I am quite sure he doesn't think of it "that way.")



And then there's this:

To which Keith adds a second great dimension.

Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint, it's delicious.

A little wee tiny bit of politics. Just a little.

McCain is a "Card 56 douchebag." Again.




Well, this card-carrying, hairy-legged, socialist feminist will be proud to counter the "counter" of Palin with a vote for Obama.

By now you've probably heard that Palin thinks some of us in the (AHEM!) blue states ain't so patriotic. Card 56 douchebag (and my pal) Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn) was kind enough to have Palin's back on that one. Can't wait for the all-girl version of the HUAC. HOT!

More racist bullshite if you can stand it:

1. Snohomish County GOP pulls "$3 bills" smearing Obama from fair booth


2. Incendiary sign in McCain office links Obama to dictators


3. Obama effigy found hanging at George Fox University

Sarah Palin is an unethical thief, part 2.
Alaska funded Palin kids' travel
(Ya gotta read this one, goshdarnit. Sarah SixPack sounds so goldang down to earth. Just like me. Especially the part about spendin' $21K of someone elses money on plane tickets and thousands of someone elses money on separate luxury hotel rooms for the kiddos over the course of 23 months, you betcha, goshdarnit.)

Horrible people exploit their own children so "the gays" don't get married and somehow...exploit...their children? Hmmm...wait, that can't be right...

This is seriously effed up. What the hell is going on in today's Army? Seriously?

Army to probe 5 slayings linked to Colo. brigade
By P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press Writer P. Solomon Banda, Associated Press Writer – Sat Oct 18, 10:12 am ET
DENVER – Fort Carson soldiers returning from deployment in Iraq are suspects in at least five slayings, and officials want to know why.Commander Maj. Gen. Mark Graham announced Friday a task force will examine any commonalities in the five killings, all allegedly committed by soldiers from the post's 4th Brigade Combat Team in the past 14 months. A sixth BCT soldier faces an attempted murder charge. "We have many great young Americans in our Army who have volunteered to serve during a time of war, almost all of whom are great citizens," Graham said in a statement. "However, we too are very concerned about these horrible acts." Fort Carson also plans to re-screen about 1,200 soldiers from the brigade for potential physical or mental health problems. Earlier Friday, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to investigate the slayings. Officials learned of the latest on Monday, when Spc. Robert Hull Marko, 21, led investigators to the body of 19-year-old Judilianna "Judi" Lawrence, whom he met on the social networking Web site MySpace, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday. The affidavit said Marko told investigators he had violent sex with Lawrence before slitting her throat and leaving her to die in the foothills west of Colorado Springs. His next court appearance is Monday. The issue of homicides by combat-stressed veterans gained national prominence in January, after The New York Times reported that at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans had committed a killing in the United States or been charged in one. Karen Linne, a spokeswoman for Fort Carson, said commanders two months ago ordered squad leaders and team leaders to reevaluate soldiers to see if they need additional help following concerns raised after another soldier from the unit was linked to a double slaying. Pfc. Jomar Dionisio Falu-Vives, 24, and
Spc. Rodolfo Torres-Gandarilla, 20, face attempted murder charges in the May 26 wounding of Capt. Zachary Zsody, who was shot twice while standing at an intersection. An arrest affidavit released in August said an AK-47 used in the Zsody case was found in Falu-Vives' apartment and it was also used in the June 6 deaths of two people gunned down on the street while putting up signs for a garage sale. Killed were Cesar Ramirez Ibanez, 21, and Amairany Cervantes, 28. Prosecutors filed murder charges against Falu-Vives on Sept. 15. Three other members of the unit were accused in the slayings of two soldiers. Bruce Bastien Jr. was sentenced last month to 60 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in the December shooting death of Kevin Shields, and conspiracy to commit murder in the August 2007 death of Robert James.
Bastien, and co-defendant Kenneth Eastridge, both agreed to testify against fellow Iraq war veteran Louis Bressler, the alleged triggerman. Eastridge pleaded guilty July 11 to accessory to murder in Shields' death and will be sentenced Nov. 3. Bressler is scheduled to go on trial in the Shield slaying Nov. 3, while his trial in the James homicide is scheduled for Dec. 1. "Those who committed these violent crimes should be brought to justice," said Salazar. "But these tragedies also raise a number of questions from the backgrounds and service records of these soldiers, to whether they received waivers to enter the service, to the adequacy of mental health screening and treatment within the Army." Falu-Vives and Torres-Gandarilla, accused together in one case and Bastien, Bressler and Eastridge, accused in the two slayings, served in Iraq last year with the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Brigade Combat Team. There weren't any immediate indications that both sets of men knew each other. Marko was a mortarman with Charlie Company, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, of the 4th BCT and served from February 2007 until February of this year.

Alton Brown, a man who owes his living to those who love food, is a fattist. Gross.

Food Star Alton Brown Talks Sustainability
[EXCERPT:]”I’ve
struggled with weight all my life, and probably always will. But I was on my most recent book tour I was shocked by the number of overweight families,” he says. “People would come up to me and say, ‘Oh, we love the Food Network.’ Well,
no (expletive); did you eat the TV? There’s only four of you and you can’t ride
in an elevator together. I’ll probably make fat people angry, but we need, as a
culture, to be ashamed. It’s not “… healthy.”[whole article at link]

Finally, a personal note:

Ugh, it was a long day. I left the house at 9:45 a.m. and returned at 8:30 p.m. and still had a bunch of admin stuff to do. At least I'm getting hours in, right?
So..."the incident" i mentioned the other day? Well, a respondent met me at my car with a gun and told me to get off of the property. I quickly obliged. Went back to work yesterday, finally, and got another freakazoid flipping out in their own paranoid, government-hating, inbred hillbilly way. Thus proving that the jokes regarding that particular county's ignorance (in every sense of the word) are based in a modicum of sad, sad truth. I won't name the county, as I would violate confidentiality laws, but if you're from around here, you probably know which county I mean. (Yesterday was not traumatizing, just annoying as all hell.) I'm doing okay now, just dreading the next few months "up there." Nate handled the news admirably, although he is still fighting the urge, he says, to go up there himself. Probably doesn't hurt his odds at not getting shot that I would never tell him the address. ;-)
And I know I haven't talked about my mental state in a while and that is one at least a couple of people ended up here.
So...
It's fall. I'm blue.
But, don't panic!! I'm not what I qualify (for me, at least) as depressed. At lot this has to do with the shorter days. A little has to do with my boys separating more and more from me as they self-actualize more and more. The past few days there is a bit of anger at humans who threaten other humans merely for existing thrown into the mix. And a LOT of it has to do with the exhaustion I have been experiencing lately in conjunction with neauropathy, both of which are, still, as yet unexplained. Sigh. But I know what the causes are, so I am able to deal with the various aspects in effective ways. Today I read that the brain stimulating magnet which I've following closely for years now has been approved by the government for use. This heartens me a lot, and it is something I will try to pursue before more ECT if it ever comes to that. But I am still a hearty proponent of ECT for those who can get no relief otherwise for whatever reason (drug resistance, pregnancy, old age, etc.). Some people might question how I can take such chances with my most important organ. My answer is, if you had ever experienced my brain, you, too, would probably do whatever you needed to do to try to make your way back from hell for yourself, your children, your husband, your parents, whatever or whoever it is that anchors you to this Earth. There was no other answer left for me and I made the decision as fully informed as one can be without actually training to perform the prodcedure. The magnet? Well, I think if I get to that point again, why not try something less invasive? If it doesn't work? Back to the ECT again. And if it does work, but later we find out there was some horrible after effect? Well, I will have had the time that it gave me back, and perhaps my having participated in the treatment will have helped to discover or confirm whatever the problems were. I have no problem with being a guinea pig. As long as I am as fully informed as I can be and I feel comfortable with what is knowable, I feel like maybe my willingness to pioneer (or whatever) could help others who aren't willing to be ealry adapters or guinea pigs or whatever you may want to label it. Some people play(ed) "chemistry class" with their bodies in other ways, I choose to do it in potentially helpful ways, either for me or for others or both.


Moving on...


My plants are all doing amazingly well, even the pothos which I almost (somehow) killed. 9ddon't laugh!) When I divided it into three smaller sections instead of one HUGE section it plumped right back up. YAY!



Just watched Law & Order: SVU and, by gosh, by golly, my honey Chris Eliot played an astronaut stalking weirdo. Straight. It was awesome!

And right after that I watched last night's Countdown, on which he told a cool story:







Keith always has little tidbits like this, and they always make me wonder if there isn't some kind of Six Degrees game we couldn't make up for him. He's connected to EVERYTHING, man!



(And p.s.: His Special Comment was great, too. He hates Bachmann as much as he should.)

And lastly I watched Craig Ferguson (Cleg Feh-guson) who had Leanne Marshall on and went on and about Project Runway. He is actually, apparently, a HUGE fan. Which cemented it: he had made THE LIST!

So the new list is:

1. Jon Stewart
2. Christian Bale
3. Keith Olberman
4. Daniel Craig
5. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt--but only as a team!! ;-)

But most of all my wonderful, loving husband who does sexy-ass-motherfucking things like cook me chocolate pudding, put it in a HUGE measuring cup with a comfortable handle and letting me eat spoon by spoon and not sharing it because I had a tough week and my period on top of that. That's (as Paris would say) HOT!

Someday soon, I'll get my verbosity under control. But there is so much going on in the world right now!!! TTFN, sweeties! (Sleepy....YAWN!)

To be clear and a footnote to my comments last night:

Yes, to be clear: I am not using "retarded" as a disparaging word but in the literal sense, here.
Reportedly, but without substantial proof, Palin's IQ is 83.

According to the Weschler Scale (the scale being used in this supposed transcript):
Gifted 130 and above
Superior 120-129
High Average 110-119
Average 90-109
Low Average 80-89
Borderline Mental Retardation 70-79
Mild mental retardation 50–69

And last night I said, "A momentary lapse of the normal idiocy (of course, I won't mention that McCain thinks the opposite of Muslim is a decent man, but hey, he was trying, sort of)[...]"
Tonight I watched last night's Countdown and Keith bascially said the same thing. What can I say? Great minds... ;-)

Another Flower and More Lazy Blogging

Usually Canna Lillies bloom in the heat of summer around here, but we didn't plant any of ours (received from a Freecycler) until the heat of summer. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw thiss out my window today. Isn't it pretty? These are Canna lily 'tropicanna.'





I have a few more things from the election front which I was too tired to post last night.



Here we go:



Altough he left Countdown under weird circumstances, I still read Dana Milbank occassionally. The other week he wrote this:

Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame
By Dana Milbank Tuesday, October 7, 2008; Page A03
FORT MYERS, Fla., Oct. 6 John McCain is collapsing in the polls in Florida and other swing states, but Sarah Palin, God bless her, has a solution. [continued at above link]

If your mortgage is in default with Fannie Mae: Try to kill yourself! It works!

Fannie Mae forgives loan for woman who shot herself
(CNN) -- Fannie Mae said it will set aside the loan of a woman who shot herself as sheriff's deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed home. [continued at above link]

The fact that anti-choice terrorism in this country has always been mostly ignored dumbfounds me. And now that the whole "Ayers thing" is being beaten to death, I'm glad someone pointed out McCain's implicit condoning of such acts.

John McCain's Domestic Terrorism Problem (new video)

Gail Collins usually hits the nail on the head and makes me laugh all at once without being as snarky as Maureen Dowd.

Dear Old Golden Dog Days
By GAIL COLLINS Published: October 10, 2008 I miss the good old days. Remember when the presidential campaign was all about oil drilling? That sure was fun.

Interesting stuff on the "I was a P.O.W." front:

McCain and the POW Cover-up

The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. This is an expanded version, with primary documents attached, of a story that appears in the October 6, 2008 issue of The Nation. By Sydney H. SchanbergSeptember 18, 2008 John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero who people would logically imagine as a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence and closing the books. [continued at above link]

Good for them!

Coal miners in West Virginia stay home in protest of anti-Obama NRA tactics
Posted by Kate Sheppard at 12:47 PM on 07 Oct 2008 Coal production at the Blacksville No. 2 Mine in Monongalia County, W.Va., came to a halt for one day last week when all the miners stayed home in protest after a National Rifle Association camera crew tried to get them to bad-mouth Barack Obama on film. [continud at above link]

Disgusting stuff:

Obama & A Noose: They're Not Even Trying to Hide It Anymore
by: Maryscott O'Connor Sun Oct 12, 2008 at 18:33:21 PM PDT [check out link so I don't have to print it here]

You gotta love Philly!

Palin hears plenty of boos
But it wasn't all bad for the VP candidate, who made 2 stops in Phila.
By Mari A. Schaefer and Amy S. Rosenberg Inquirer Staff Writers
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came to town yesterday fully expecting to be booed by Philadelphia hockey fans.

And ya gotta love Donna:

October 6, 2008
Donna Brazile: “If I Were Running This Campaign”
On Saturday, October 4th, Jeffrey Toobin hosted a panel discussion with Donna Brazile, Alex Castellanos, Edward J. Rollins, and Joe Trippi. As reported earlier, Brazile stole the show. Watch Brazile’s impassioned closing remarks below. [video at above link]

General, we hard knew ya:

Petraeus Talk Bolsters Obama While McCain Backs Petraeus, General Sounds Notes That Harmonize With Democratic Nominee. By Spencer Ackerman 10/8/08 4:16 PM [article at link]

Finaly, sometimes actuaries have something interesting to say:

1 in 4 chance McCain may not survive 2nd term
An actuarial company has run the numbers for McCain and Obama
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR updated 3:28 p.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 30, 2008 WASHINGTON - If John McCain is elected and goes on to win a second term, there's as much as a one-in-four chance America could see its first woman president —Sarah Palin. [continued at link]

So, okay, you betcha! Yah, I'll get back to ya!

Ketchup.

Oh...where to start?

Family:
Holden started his drum lessons. So far he is liking them and practicing. We told him he couldn't buy his drum kit until he has stuck with the lessons for a month or two.

Both boys are back in school now. Holden is enjoying school and doing very well, despite his last minute jitters right before he started about going to SciTech. Ethan's school hired a new teacher, so he doesn't have the teacher he thought he'd have and is quite relieved and happy with the new teacher so far.

I got tickets for The View in the mail today. I don't remember requesting them and presume I did it around the time I had ECT. Ma vaguely remembers me asking her about going sometime around the ECT. So my grandma, Ma, and BFF Vicki are going to see The View and, hopefully, get some good free shit. But at the very least BFF and I will get to boo H-ASS-elbeck. Ma and Grandma and I will go up to Manhattan the night before for a "night on the town" since we have to be there early for the taping.

Health:
I finished my antibiotics for the possible Lyme disease last Friday, so if I don't feel better by appx. the 26th, then back to the drawing board regarding the neuropathy and exhaustion. So far all is pretty much the same. Hence the lack of posts lately, because if I am not working, I'm resting. Plus my allergies are out-of-fucking-control right now. I've decided to go ahead with immunotherapy for my allergies, despite the huge time commitment the damn shots will be. But I don't see my immunotherapist until around Thanksgiving. Eh, I'll muddle through, like I always do, I guess.

I've decided to try acupuncture for my pain, but the appt. has not been made yet. (Other things I have not set up yet: 1. Tuning of the piano for Ethan as he wants to take lessons. 2. Lessons for Ethan. 3. Taking my computer in to have the wireless fixed. [Out since my vacation in July...] 4. Setting up a pedicure date with my girlfriend Tahnee as promised. Okay, hold on, I'm going to make some phone calls...)

Politics:

1. Sarah Palin. 'Nuf said. Anything else and my blood pressure rises. But feel free to Google "Palin's lies" or "fact check Palin." Or for the latest gossip on the Palin family, check this out. Plus The Daily Show has been an excellent source for pointing out the McCain-Palin hypocrisies.
2. Love Olberman's "McCain in the Membrane" feature.
3. I'm "eh" so far on Maddow's new show, so far, although I, too, am "Gay for Rachel Maddow."

Dumb-Ass Crap you probably don't care about (even more so than usual, lol.):

I updated my "Books I've Read" list.----------> then scroll down

Some chick I work "with" (remember: it's all relative...) got fired and might get prosecuted. The details will bore you, especially if I already told them to you, lol. But the gossip was juicy to me, anyway.

New shows on the regular DVR-timer list:

1. True Blood
2. Privileged

Sad the season is over/almost over:

1. Swingtown
2. Weeds

Treasured old friends I'm glad to welcome back:

1. Bones
2. House
3. The New Adventures of Old Christine
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. The Office

Okay, this is FUNNY! (Edited 15 minutes later)

It's 9 minutes long, but it is so fun to watch right-wing pundits go DOWN! Especially when they have no concept of basic history.

"Why are you screaming?" ROTFLMAO! The good stuff starts at 4:19, but the whole thing is good.

For those of you who don't know what "Neville Chamberlain did," a quick look at not "the Google" but "the wikipedia" might help.

I'm not normally a Matthews fan, but Rachel Maddow played the clip when she subbed for Olbermann the other night.

Also love this clip from BarelyPolitical.

Random list: Things I've learned this year

These are a few things I have learned this past year:

• No matter how long the darkness is, there IS light again at the end.
• My boys are soon adults. (!!!!!!!)
• My boys are more funny, intelligent and independent than I ever realized, and I like to think I have almost everything to do with that.
• Keith Olbermann is the most entertaining and wonderful newsman on TV. Who knew I'd love someone from ESPN so much??
• The face--the literal face--of politics is changing. A woman and a man of mixed race running for POTUS is amazing!!
• The figurative face of politics can change--witness Obama's campaign full of dignity, truth and actual hope. It's not just a slogan.
• When one is cruising through all of the CSI episodes ever made on Spike TV and CBS and has almost run out, ECT will make them all new and fresh to watch again. Not that I recommend this method of re-loving your shows.
• Surprises can come in small and large packages, sometimes at the exact same time.
• Life can throw crap at you for a few years and seemingly devestate your world, but it is more than likely not a lifetime of bad luck and life will bless you again at some point.
• I am ready to try to keep houseplants alive again. (Wish me and my black thumb luck!)
• Costco's filet mignon is about the best thing ever meat-wise.
• Frank's Red Hot--a longtime favorite--can fix more foods than previously thought.
• Good coffee and red wine (long consumed, but never before fully appreciated) are indispensible little bits of heaven in my everyday routine.
• All that loud music as a kid really does effect your hearing. Sigh... (As a connected "thing I've learned": Closed Captioning is a wonderful invention.)
• You can grow older and grow more liberal contrary to popular belief. (Right, my socialist little hubby? MWAH!)
• You can absolutely retain "cool-ness" as you grow older. Sometimes you can even increase it.

Maybe more later.

I told you I was old!!!

My baby...MY BABY!!!...SHAVED for the first time tonight!!! SHAVED!!!!!!

It was a family event with Daddy teaching and Mommy sitting and watching and making jokey heart rending wails--much like those above, plus, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why?!?!?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!"

Then Daddy fell asleep and the boys and I looked at google images and yahoo images for "teratoma." Ethan has been going around saying, "My teratoma's on fire!" for no reason, so we read about them on wikipedia and then checked out the images as we've all been fascinated with them for a long time. Other than some sad baby pictures--which made even Holden say, "Oh, poor baby!"--fo some reason we found most of it funny. I know, I know, we're sick. Further proof: we've decided to write a pilot for a sitcom about conjoined twins called "That's No Teratoma, That's My Sister!" We think it will be a bigger hit than "Two and a Half Men."

And, in other news, I've started DVR-ing Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Monday he covered Dyngus Day AND the White House Easter egg roll. Hil-fucking-larious.



I'm officially a huge fan of his now. Now I'm off to play "Blowing a Whistle and Hugging the Bunny."