Both of Us .org
News and views from two charming fellows in Northeast Minneapolis.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Burr in Chilly Minneapolis
By JSP
This morning was a chilly -14 degrees as we made our way to our respective work places. We hoped spring might appear, or even a few days above freezing. Mother Nature has other plans. March approaches and I certainly feel spring fever. Tulip and crocus bulbs that I planted two weeks ago grow quickly, each rises several inches out of the potting soil. I scanned the seed mailers and look forward to planting heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peas and other vegetables. I should order seeds soon, so I can start some flats growing sometime mid March.
In this cold weather we have been hunkering down in the house the last week or so. Our last weekend was quiet, the first weekend in a while with no visitors and no visits. I did my taxes, JayBee played with is new tiny computer (see previous post) and we watched a the movie Curse of the Golden Flower and several episodes of the Venture Brothers.
The week continues and our home remains quiet. Tomorrow JayBee goes back to the doctor to have the stitches removed from all the the incisions that were made the week before. I believe this weekend we will be more active. Sunday we have plans to attend our first roller derby. The RollerGirls League presents two matches, the Atomic Bombshells vs. the Rockits and the Dagger Dolls vs. the Garda Belts. I have heard about how fun it is to watch roller derby from our good friends Morgon Mae and Pat. I am excited to see it for myself.
We are looking forward to visiting JayBee's sister in Denver. The trip is scheduled for the first weekend in April. This is a continuation of an annual ski trip that has its origins years ago when many of our friends in Washington DC met in the Pennsylvanian Pokonos. Many of these same people have relocated to the Rockies, and the skiing has moved to better mountains. I have yet to ski during any of the last four years I have made the trip. Will this year be my first time? I am a scardy cat when it comes to skiing. I am overly worried I will blow out a knee or ankle (both of which are rather fragile). JayBee will likely try to convince me to give the mountain a try.
We were both excited that our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin supported Barack Obama. He has ten wins in a row and has captured our support over the last few months. Democrats have two very qualified candidates to choose from. Last night we watched Obama speak at a rally in Houston TX to over 20,000 cheering folks. It is refreshing to listen to him, compared to the bumbling speaches from Bush these last seven years. Clinton speaks well too in comparison. The people at the Obama rally were diverse in all respects; race, age, gender. McCain on the other hand is surrounded primarily by old white men. McCain clearly represents a completely different crowd. The election is still many months away, but I feel excited about electing a president (either Obama or Clinton) who I respect and can be proud of.
In this cold weather we have been hunkering down in the house the last week or so. Our last weekend was quiet, the first weekend in a while with no visitors and no visits. I did my taxes, JayBee played with is new tiny computer (see previous post) and we watched a the movie Curse of the Golden Flower and several episodes of the Venture Brothers.
The week continues and our home remains quiet. Tomorrow JayBee goes back to the doctor to have the stitches removed from all the the incisions that were made the week before. I believe this weekend we will be more active. Sunday we have plans to attend our first roller derby. The RollerGirls League presents two matches, the Atomic Bombshells vs. the Rockits and the Dagger Dolls vs. the Garda Belts. I have heard about how fun it is to watch roller derby from our good friends Morgon Mae and Pat. I am excited to see it for myself.
We are looking forward to visiting JayBee's sister in Denver. The trip is scheduled for the first weekend in April. This is a continuation of an annual ski trip that has its origins years ago when many of our friends in Washington DC met in the Pennsylvanian Pokonos. Many of these same people have relocated to the Rockies, and the skiing has moved to better mountains. I have yet to ski during any of the last four years I have made the trip. Will this year be my first time? I am a scardy cat when it comes to skiing. I am overly worried I will blow out a knee or ankle (both of which are rather fragile). JayBee will likely try to convince me to give the mountain a try.
We were both excited that our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin supported Barack Obama. He has ten wins in a row and has captured our support over the last few months. Democrats have two very qualified candidates to choose from. Last night we watched Obama speak at a rally in Houston TX to over 20,000 cheering folks. It is refreshing to listen to him, compared to the bumbling speaches from Bush these last seven years. Clinton speaks well too in comparison. The people at the Obama rally were diverse in all respects; race, age, gender. McCain on the other hand is surrounded primarily by old white men. McCain clearly represents a completely different crowd. The election is still many months away, but I feel excited about electing a president (either Obama or Clinton) who I respect and can be proud of.
Labels: Bush, cold weather, Melanoma, perspective, politics, winter
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Sunday, April 15, 2007
Our Never Ending National Shame
By JSP
If you read some of the political posts written on our blog, you undoubtedly know that I am not fond of the current President and his administration. In my last post I described another example of deceit and corruption the Bush clan. I do not want America run in this way; I do not want further examples of Bush incompetence or wrong doing plastered over the front pages of newspapers across the world.
Sadly another example has come out late this week. The current scandal involves one of the shining stars of the neo-conservative movement, Paul Wolfowitz. As you may or may not be aware, Mr. Wolfowitz, as deputy to Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentegon (deputy Secretary of Defense), was one of the leading architects of the Iraq war.
In 2005, President Bush nominated Wolfowitz to head the World Bank (an organization which loans money to developing nations). I am not certain if this was an assignment to get Wolfowitz away from a failing war in Iraq, or if it was designed to push the neo-conservative influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. The nomination smacks of Bush cronyism.
Sadly another example has come out late this week. The current scandal involves one of the shining stars of the neo-conservative movement, Paul Wolfowitz. As you may or may not be aware, Mr. Wolfowitz, as deputy to Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentegon (deputy Secretary of Defense), was one of the leading architects of the Iraq war.
In 2005, President Bush nominated Wolfowitz to head the World Bank (an organization which loans money to developing nations). I am not certain if this was an assignment to get Wolfowitz away from a failing war in Iraq, or if it was designed to push the neo-conservative influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. The nomination smacks of Bush cronyism.
The current problem Mr. Wolfowitz is involved with, is a result of the promotion and salary increase that he gave to Ms. Shaha Riza. Ms. Riza turns out to be his girlfriend. This has turned into a fiasco at the World Bank, as members of the organization hissed and cat-called Mr. Wolfowitz at a recent gathering. The news is also another major embarrassment to the Bush Administration witnessed around the Globe. A typical example of the reaction of world press is given by Rupert Cornwall of the Independent.
Does America not realize that we are getting clubbed over the head with all these incidents? Stories involving corruption, incompetence, cronyism, and lies by the Bush Presidency have almost made me numb. Maybe this is exactly their plan. Behave so badly for a long enough time, and with little to no consequence, and eventually everyone in the USA will give up listening or caring about how terrible they are. The plan may be working as it seems there is little hope of impeachment.
Consider the issue of personal accountability, a long time mantra of the Republican party. If everyone was personally accountable for their actions, we could do without "evil" things such as welfare, social security and other so called liberal pillars. However, the very people charged with running this nation have been accountable for none of their failures so far. The list of deeds unpunished or even acknowledged is terribly long (9-11, Katrina, Iraq, Valerie Plame, Florida/Ohio election, conditions at Walter Reed Hospital, Attorney General scandal - to name a few). Those Americans who voted for and support President Bush and his administration have not identified the disconnect between his words and his actions. Where can we find a huge bottle of smelling salts to wake American deep sleepers to this national nightmare?
Does America not realize that we are getting clubbed over the head with all these incidents? Stories involving corruption, incompetence, cronyism, and lies by the Bush Presidency have almost made me numb. Maybe this is exactly their plan. Behave so badly for a long enough time, and with little to no consequence, and eventually everyone in the USA will give up listening or caring about how terrible they are. The plan may be working as it seems there is little hope of impeachment.
Consider the issue of personal accountability, a long time mantra of the Republican party. If everyone was personally accountable for their actions, we could do without "evil" things such as welfare, social security and other so called liberal pillars. However, the very people charged with running this nation have been accountable for none of their failures so far. The list of deeds unpunished or even acknowledged is terribly long (9-11, Katrina, Iraq, Valerie Plame, Florida/Ohio election, conditions at Walter Reed Hospital, Attorney General scandal - to name a few). Those Americans who voted for and support President Bush and his administration have not identified the disconnect between his words and his actions. Where can we find a huge bottle of smelling salts to wake American deep sleepers to this national nightmare?
Labels: Bush, failure, Paul Wolfowitz, politics, Republicans, scandal
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
How Does Anyone Believe the President?
By JSP
I am amazed with the total contempt that the Bush Administration has towards everything that is not Republican. The long list of failures, corruption and bad governing goes on and on, and there are still upwards of 40% of our country who view our president in a positive light.
I have just finished reading about how upwards of 5 million e-mail of dozens of Bush Administration members have seemingly vanished into the ether. Normally all official Whitehouse business communications, be they transcripts, letters or e-mails, must be preserved for accountability. Instead of using only official Whitehouse e-mail accounts, many members of the Bush team have been using off site e-mail. Their claim is they do not want to waste taxpayer resources to do non-Whitehouse business (i.e. Republican party fund raising). However there is evidence these off site e-mail accounts were indeed also being used for official Whitehouse business and thus doing an end-around the accountability protocols. Now it turns out that millions of these e-mails no longer exist.
Of course we are suppose to believe this massive data purge is nothing to concern our pretty minds about (maybe it was all SPAM). The honorable Bush crew would never use these off-site e-mail systems to do unscrupulous business.
I simply have no more trust left. There are a Thousand Reasons why this Administration is a failure. These people have lied and lied and lied over the last 6 years. It blows my mind that anyone could look at this news and think there is not something they are hiding. Five million e-mail messages vanish; it is amazing.
I have just finished reading about how upwards of 5 million e-mail of dozens of Bush Administration members have seemingly vanished into the ether. Normally all official Whitehouse business communications, be they transcripts, letters or e-mails, must be preserved for accountability. Instead of using only official Whitehouse e-mail accounts, many members of the Bush team have been using off site e-mail. Their claim is they do not want to waste taxpayer resources to do non-Whitehouse business (i.e. Republican party fund raising). However there is evidence these off site e-mail accounts were indeed also being used for official Whitehouse business and thus doing an end-around the accountability protocols. Now it turns out that millions of these e-mails no longer exist.
Of course we are suppose to believe this massive data purge is nothing to concern our pretty minds about (maybe it was all SPAM). The honorable Bush crew would never use these off-site e-mail systems to do unscrupulous business.
I simply have no more trust left. There are a Thousand Reasons why this Administration is a failure. These people have lied and lied and lied over the last 6 years. It blows my mind that anyone could look at this news and think there is not something they are hiding. Five million e-mail messages vanish; it is amazing.
Labels: Bush, corruption, email, failure, politics
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