Friday, August 11, 2006

evening

Fantasy Football Anyone?

Are any of you out there interested in playing in a fantasy football league?  It’s fun.  It is.  I thought it was dumb, until I played for the first time a couple of years ago.  Leigh-Ann too.  We were pulled in kicking and screaming, but now we LOVE it.  LOVE.  If you want to play, speak up and I’ll finish setting up the league and send out invitations.  C’mon, you know you want to trash talk!

evening

Idiot of the Day - PakTribune.com:  “Taliban Democrats”?  Seriously, W…T…F!?

Taliban democrats are voting to ’kill’ their own from www.PakTribune.com

WASHINGTON: The narrow primary defeat of veteran senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s Democratic primary is more than a loss for one man. It is a loss for his party and for the country. It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing.

They used to be “San Francisco Democrats,” a phrase coined by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick to describe the party’s 1984 convention. But they have now morphed into Taliban Democrats because they are willing to “kill” one of their own, if he does not conform to the narrow and rigid agenda of the party’s kook fringe.

Lieberman’s one “sin,” in the eyes of the Taliban Democrats, was that he supported the effort to defeat the insurgent-terrorists in Iraq. As a Jew, Lieberman is particularly sensitive to those who have targeted the Jewish people for extinction. But even if he weren’t Jewish, he would still “get it,” because he understands what’s at stake in the region and has correctly concluded that consequences of U.S. failure in Iraq would be catastrophic.

His detractors, who brought him down in the primary with a one-issue, inexperienced and unqualified candidate, Ned Lamont, hate President Bush so much that their judgment has been distorted. Former Bill Clinton aide Lanny Davis, in a recent column for The Wall Street Journal titled “Liberal McCarthyism,” printed a sample of the incendiary rhetoric directed toward Lieberman. There is thinly-veiled anti-Semitism ("As everybody knows, Jews ONLY care about the welfare of other Jews...” posted on Daily Kos); irrationality ("Joe Lieberman is a racist and a religious bigot.” Daily Kos) and personal attack ("Lieberman cannot escape the religious bond he represents. Hell, his wife’s name is Haggadah or Muffeletta or Diaspora or something you eat at Passover.” Posted on the Huffington Post blog).

It didn’t matter that Lieberman, whose wife’s name, by the way, is Hadassah, ran as the vice presidential candidate with Al Gore in 2000, or that he has voted against most of President Bush’s domestic agenda. The Taliban wing of the Democratic Party cannot countenance any “heretics” who do not toe their line.

Though Lieberman says he will run as an independent, the damage has been done. It will be difficult for any Democrat to seek consensus with any Republican without being targeted as an infidel worthy of electoral death. Our already-poisoned political dialogue has not only been made more toxic, but contagious. Taliban Democrats have effectively issued a political “fatwah” that warns all Democrats not to deviate from their narrow line, or else face the end of their careers through a political jihad. Perhaps the few remaining rational Democrats should put on their burkas now and submit to the will of the party mullahs.

What is wrong with Democrats? Can’t they see that when the face of their party belongs to ultra-leftists like George McGovern, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, they lose? For those who still believe not only in a strong two-party system, but also in compromise and conciliation in order to promote the general welfare and seek the common good, the Lieberman defeat strikes an especially harmful blow.

At the height of social conservative power in the Republican Party, pro-choicers and pro gay rights officials like Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were featured speakers at GOP conventions. Republican officials described their party as a “big tent” with room for everybody.

Lieberman’s loss reduces the size of the Democrats’ tent to that of a pup tent. The message it sends is that only those who conform to the left-wing fundamentalist worldview will be allowed in. Is that a message Democrats want to take into future campaigns? Do they wish to pervert John F. Kennedy’s vision and instead say that the United States will pay no price, bear no burden and go nowhere in the defense of liberty?

If that is the message the Taliban Democrats want to send to the nation, they have all but guaranteed a Republican presidential victory in 2008 and GOP losses, if any, might not be as bad as predicted this November. Karl Rove could not have devised a more brilliant plan. But Joe Lieberman deserves better.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

late evening

Birth Week Update

So far, this has been one of my best birthdays in recent memory.  Leigh-Ann and I went to Todai in Desert Passage for their sushi buffet dinner.  Not only was the food fabulous, but they give out free birthday dinners, which saved us about $26.  The food was great - we had an amazing variety of stuff.  I only took a picture of one plate with my phone, but you can get an idea of the variety.

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Since we saved so much on dinner, I went on a small spending spree.  I bought this sushi t-shirt, we each got a pair of earrings (a huge total of $7.60), some cucumber melon hand sanitizer (we’re wild, we are), an anti-gravity chair that was on sale at Sharper Image (not much to look at, but it makes your back feel great!), and a fan for my desk that was 50% at Sharper Image.  Then we just wandered in and out of the stores in Desert Passage.  It was fun and relaxing.  I’d really thought I was done with birthdays that felt just perfect, but Monday was one of those days.  And, birth week isn’t even over yet.  We still have the family get together for my b-day and Ilona’s b-day.

So far, I’ve gotten some really cool gifties - a Stewart/Colbert 2008 t-shirt, two cool Japanese t-shirts (J-List.com has neat stuff), an Amazon g/c, and a bitchin’ Felix the Cat watch.  42 has been beddy beddy good to me.

You know how you have a big crush on a kid in elementary school and then you go your separate ways and never see each other again?  Well, I got an e-card from my sixth grade “boyfriend” (when you’re that age, you don’t even have to date to have a “boyfriend") on my birthday.  He moved away to Washington after sixth grade and I never knew what happened to him.  31 years later, he’s back in California and has a cute nine month old little girl.  At the very least, I hope she grows up to be as nice and sweet as her dad was at 11.  He was the kid that every parent wants their kid to have as a friend.

By the way, I still have some Vox invites available! 

Monday, August 07, 2006

late at night

Vox Blog Invites - Want One?

I have five new Vox.com invitations to give away.  If you’d like to start a blog (TwoNz, Kimberly, NurseAnn, et al) or get a new blog with more privacy features or just want another one, let me know.  Post a reply or send me an email.  Unless I can’t give them away, please be someone Leigh-Ann or I know.

early morning

Today’s Banner?  I’m SIX in dog years, like Cricket & Dante

Made for me as a surprise by Leigh-Ann, right before we went to bed.  She also made me a frozen hot chocolate with a little malt.  Mmmm, delicious.

So far, my birthday has gone like this:  Phoenix woke us up by scratching at the baby gate.  Took her out.  Had to go to the bathroom.  Apparently as soon as I shut the bathroom door, my mother and one of my brothers called.  I really wasn’t in there that long, but alas I missed both birthday calls because nature called first.