Friday Grandbaby Blogging

This is me on my second birthday, in my party dress. It is also the dress I will wear to testify before the Senate if they need me to talk about what a naughty man Alberto Gonzales is. He's a liar, and my Baba says that lying is a bad thing. Baba also gives me butterfly kisses when she visits, and I miss her.

But Alberto is so bad that even his ex-Chief of Staff is telling on him. D. Kyle Sampson told the Senate "Mr. Gonzales’s statements about the prosecutors’ dismissals were inaccurate and that the attorney general had been repeatedly advised of the planning for them." That's a long way of saying "Liar Liar, pants on fire."

Sometimes I'm naughty. Like if I want to do something I'm not supposed to do, I will walk backwards out of my room, and stare at my Mommy in the eyes, so she doesn't see me walking backwards. But I think my Mommy has super powers because she always catches me, unless she's laughing too hard. My Baba doesn't have super powers, because when I try this with her, she just laughs and grabs her camera. The Senate seems to have grabbed their cameras too, and I think that Alberto Gonzales is a lot more naughty than I ever am.

I bet he even told the President, who is a really big fat liar, and he can't even hold a book in the right direction. I can hold a book the right way. I saw a picture of him reading a book about a goat, and it was upside down. My uncle asked me to show him my favorite book so I got "Good Night Moon" and opened it to the page about the yellow balloon, and got one of my birthday balloons, and turned the book in the right direction so he could see, and gave him my book and the balloon. The President can't do that. Those bad men are going to get in lots of trouble now.

Bye bye.

Hacking McCain

Hat tip to Donnie McDaniel. Apparently, John McCain's MySpace was hacked. At any rate, I took a look, and found this cartoon that sort of sums it all up. If you click on the image, it will get large enough to view:

Changing minds

One day, about a year ago, a friend said to me "Will you teach me how to be a Democrat?" My friend, mostly a-political, was a Republican because her parents (long dead) had been Republicans. She never thought much one way or another about voting, she just went where her parents (long dead) had pointed her.

When our nation was attacked on September 11, 2001, the first thing she said to me in reference to George W. Bush was "We have the right man for the job in office, don't you think?" I was horrified, in shock, and mourning the murder of a good friend who'd sat in the first class section of American flight 11, the first plane to hit the WTC. And I said to her "Absolutely NOT. Bush is the absolute WRONG man for the job."

So, when we were at dinner about a year ago, and she said "Teach me to be a Democrat," I said, "Of course, but I want to know why you have changed your thinking." Her reasons were simple, clean and clear. She said that this administration lies when the truth would be easier. She said their lies have caused the needless deaths of US soldiers, and have made us reviled internationally. We are not safer, we are in more danger because this administration has used lying as a weapon against us. And she said "I don't think that the Democrats lie quite so easily." Well, maybe they just don't lie so criminally.

Last night, watching Keith Olbermann, I noticed that his common theme was the death of integrity. Leading off with Gonzo Gate, Chief Counsel to Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, refused to testify in the Senate about her involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Already on an indefinate leave of absence, Ms. Goodling has now cast a definate light of criminality on the firing of 8 US Attorneys when previously people were just muttering about incompetence and cronyism.

The cover-up of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire has his family asking for an investigation. The army has determined there was no criminal wrongdoing in this cover-up (can you say cronyism?) But lying about how Tillman died diminishes his courage and his real dedication to America. Tillman went to Afghanistan to find Osama Bin Laden. He opposed the invasion of Iraq, and he loved America. Once again, an example of how this Republican administration would rather lie when the truth would serve it better, and the truth would be easier.

Tom Delay compares Democrats to that "scoundral" Hitler.

Rudi Giuliani paves potholes in New York with rubble (including human remains) from 9/11.

Rush Limbaugh says John and Elizabeth Edwards are using her cancer to make political hay.

And so my friend, the ex-Republican, cites a lack of integrity among the Republicans causing her change of heart.

What has been your experience? Will this lead us to peace?

Friday Grandbaby Blogging

Hi Everybody. Gramma hasn't had a lot of new pictures but she is taking lots now while she visits me for my birthday. I'm two. I'm not a baby at all. I like butterfly kisses and eskimo kisses and blueberry pancakes and Doggie. I love Elmo and mommy and daddy and gramma. I miss you, but now there are lots of new pictures. It is going to rain today. We have to go for a walk now. Bye-bye.

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Pekka, I have to promise you that I am a pro at using the word no. Also, I can pitch a really loud tantrum, the kind where my back arches and I look like I am posessed. Also, I hear what I want to hear and ignore the rest. And sometimes, when I am doing these things, my mommy and daddy just have to bite their tongues because they know that laughing is probably not such a good idea.

Georgia Republican says Gore not allowed on House floor

Georgia Republican Lynn Westmoreland says that former Vice President Al Gore was violating recently enacted ethics rules rescinding floor privileges for former congressmen working as agents of a foreign government.

Mr. Gore is an advisor to Great Britain on Global Warming.

You may remember Mr. Westmoreland from his June 14, 2006 visit to The Colbert Report on the segment known as "Better Know a District." I think he speaks for himself.

David and Goliath?

So one of today's headlines in the LA Times is News Corp., NBC pull together to challenge YouTube. All I can do is sit back and wonder why? What's the point of this? Over the last few years, Barney the Purple Dinosaur attempted to sue Dr. Stuart Frankel, and lost. What is the point of coming down on any independent use of media?

Well, it's simple. Greed. And in this current climate, any independent thought is deemed dangerous.

I've had dinner with my brother, and with some politically inclined friends the last few nights while in Chicago, and we've come to some conclusions. Bush will not withdraw from Iraq; he will probably invade Iran; he will stay the course because each day leads us closer to the Rapture, in his twisted thinking. We've acknowledged that rather than making the US safer, Bush has created what will become a 500 year holy war against us from Islamic fanatics. We have acknowledged that films like An Inconvenient Truth don't solve the problem, they simply soothe our conscience and make us feel like we're doing something. Yet somehow we remain powerless in this twisted world, and through our lack of power we can actually do something positive.

Once we recognize we are powerless over people, places and things, we can become quite powerful in affecting what we really can change: ourselves, our thinking, our actions. And it starts with actions. Media giants are taking on YouTube, a haven for independent creative minds to post some amazing stuff. Blogs are "monitored" - some of us have gotten tired, and silent, for a brief while, but not completely silent - we just need to refresh.

Our strength will come not from anger, but from being the path to peace and freedom of speech. Our strength comes from not giving in to fear, or unfounded threats. We can make change. We can make peace.

Four Year Anniversary

Today, via Peace Chick Mary, I joined One Million Blogs for Peace.


I joined today on the four year anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq by US Troops. It was advertised as a day of "Shock and Awe", and that alone made me ill: that this administration had the gall, the chutzpah to advertise this invasion, to put a media spin on it at all.

But Mary's post was about forgiveness, and letting go of anger. I've been somewhat silent of late for a number of reasons: work, health, health, work. But there has been an underlying thought which is this. Anger exhausts me. Anger drains me of all resources. How can I change my approach from anger at this administration's lies to being at peace, and FOR peace? Because I cannot change facts, I have to accept facts, this means that the only thing I can change is my attitude and methods of achieving my goals. My goals are to attain peace, to withdraw our troops and bring them home, and to restore our Constitution and personal freedoms.

Is it semantics? I think not. We get back what we put out into the world.

The topics suggested today by One Million Blogs for Peace are these:

Think back four years ago, to when you first heard that the Iraq War had started.
Were you for or against the war at the time?
If you were for it, what has changed your mind over the last four years?
If you were against it, why were you against it?

The room is open. Discuss!

Okay, it's back up, with apologies

First, I posted an endorsement too early, before it was officially announced, so I took it down same day.

Next, I got slammed with work, which is a good thing, really, because it pays my bills.

Then I got Zoloft withdrawal, which really made me insanely dizzy, and that kept me from posting.

Then I got my perscription refilled, and I was still really busy at work.

Now I am visiting my grand toddler, who turned two yesterday, and working remotely because I can, and, working remotely, can actually find the time to blog a bit.

Apologies to one and all.

But the endorsement: Kelley Wenzlaff is running for the State House in Ohio's 2nd District as a Democrat. In a district that has been virtually written off by the party, Ms. Wenzlaff is stepping forward with an eye toward being the change she wants to see in her state.

A Democrat has not been elected in this district in about 60 years. Ms. Wenzlaff is currently building a grass roots organization, which takes support. It takes a lot of support and help, even from people outside her district like myself. She and I don't agree on all issues; while she is not a conservative, she is not as liberal as I am, yet I believe that she is focused on real, positive change. So I support her. You can, too, by by making a contribution to her campaign to help wrest control from the Republicans. Visit her site, and give it some real thought.

Roll back the rock

I don't know what all the furor is about. I mean, James Cameron produces a movie about Mr. & Mrs. Christ and their son, Judah that asserts Jesus and Mary Magdalene were hitched, with a kid, and buried in a conventional tomb, and the religious right gets bent out of shape.

They would really have had a fit over what my old friend, Joe O' use to do when he was in seminary. Joe, who was a Jesuit Priest, would get drunk with his fellow seminarians and they would have a "roll back the rock" party at Easter. Wish I'd have been there to see THAT!