This Just In...

Views of the news and other stuff

From....Republican Woes..

As you know, I am not a fan of the Republican party. My hope is that they get whitewashed in the next election. But that said, I have always admired Tom Davis, the Republican congressman from Northern Virginia. He was my Congressman up until redistricting a few years back. He is a moderate and basically a really good guy. He has never let the idealogues of his party get to him..I always thought he did what he thought was best for the country and his district. He has been one of the few legislators who stood up for the rights of the District of Columbia when most in his party wanted to send it to hell in a handbasket.

The common belief was that he would be the one who would succeed John Warner as the Senator from Virginia. That was up until Mark Warner (D)- and no relation to John, the very popular former Governor announced that he would seek the seat. Warner is currently ahead in the polls by a wide margin to be elected. I myself will vote for Warner, but while doing so would regret that Davis would no longer be in Congress...he would be missed.

Well today, Davis announced that he would not run  for the seat. His reasons were very telling, and may foretell the problems that the Republican party are facing and the difficulties they will have in the 2008 election--for all seats. According to Davis, " he will not make a run for the U.S. Senate next year, in part because of what he sees as the Republican Party's increasingly narrow focus on candidates who pass conservative litmus tests on taxes and abortion."  These are pretty strong words coming from a man who was the Reps main fund raiser a couple of years ago.

It now appears that Jim Gilmore, also a former VA Governor,will be Warner's opponent.....and Gilmore better be prepared for a blowout. He (Gilmore) literally ran the state into debt, made a fool of himself at the national level, and doesn't stand a prayer......wait a minute, I better not say that. There are too many right wing idealogue rednecks in the southern part of the state who think he is fantastic.....good god, I perish the thought if he gets in....

posted by: JustMe63 at 20:29 | link | comments (1) |

From...Tears...

I usually have CNN on in my office...I know, I am a news junkie. But I just turned it off. I could not watch a family with young kids just seeing their burned out house in Southern California for the first time,  a victim of the wildfires. I cannot imagine what it would be like to loose my home....escaping with just the clothes on my back.

Well, yes I can imagine. My parents house burned after I had graduated from college. I got a call from my folks neighbor telling me of the news, and I arrived home around 3am to see a shell of a house. Fortunately, it was the basement that got the worst of it, the rest of the house suffered severe smoke damage. But the basement is where the family photos, the old 8mm movie reels, those momentos which you can never replace were stored.  Thank goodness nobody was hurt, but emotionally it took its toll.

But to loose everything, the entire house burned to the ground. Nothing left....I just can't imagine. And my heart and my tears and my prayers went out to that California family...what a tragedy.

posted by: JustMe63 at 20:14 | link | comments (4) |

From...America Seen from Afar...

Over the past couple of years I have talked with a number of folks from other countries- from Europe, South America, and our neighbors in Canada and Mexico. Invariably the conversation gets to the point of what is going on in the good ole US of A?  Distain for Bush is paramount, but more than that, they wonder what the hell are we doing, especially when it comes to security. Many of these folks, who were visiting the US, had the wonderful experience of going through the security mess at our airports. On tours of DC, they see the concrete barricades up at almost every building. One friend even remarked that he wouldn’t be surprised on his next visit if every church in the country had some sort of security barrier.

I have felt for some time now that our whole security mess, brought out by the feeling that everyone is against us, is a pile of nonsense. Yes 9/11 was an absolutely horrible event, but we have really allowed the “security experts” in our country to overtake even our most basic sensibilities. So much of what is done in the name of security is illogical, unreasonable, and a knee jerk reaction. And the cost is horrendous.

So I found this article by Alan Webber in USA Today the other day to be most revealing…and very much in line with my own thinking. Alan is a frequent contributor to USA Today and is a founding editor of Fast Company magazine. He wrote the article after touring Europe, and came away with some very distinct impressions on how we are being viewed by the rest of the world. The title of the article “From Afar, America Resembles a 2^nd Rate Power” should tell you what he found. This one section from the article was most revealing….

What has become of America …”it's more than a fair question, and one that you can appreciate only when you are outside the bubble that passes for media and public discourse in the USA today. Because when you're outside the bubble, only then do you realize how far the United States has drifted from its promise, how large the gap is between what we profess and what we do. What is important is how far short we are falling and, in some important ways, falling apart. From afar, you see how closed our once-open society has become; how diminished our economic superiority has become; and how worn our once impeccable image has become.

We're becoming 'home blind'

The Danish have a saying that translates into "home blind," which is a malady that appears to be striking Americans.

Paranoia. To read newspapers, to listen to the radio or tune into TV, to scan the Web from afar, is to accept, almost unquestioningly, the overarching theme of the American Conversation: What do we do to make America safe? The sense that emanates from our country, almost like a bad smell, is a feeling of urgent defensiveness: They're all out to get us! Yet, this America-under-siege mentality seems unreal. Yes, there are bad people in the world who would seek to do harm to us, but there are still many more people who regard America as an ideal more than as the great Satan.

Yet we have come to see everyone as a threat. Try to come to the USA and you'll feel it, the people at the Waldzell meeting said. Just try to make it through the security screening. Yes, they say, you might thwart your enemy from attacking you, but you'll also prevent friends from supporting you."

The other two issues he saw were the declining value of the American dollar compared to other currencies and the resulting decline in our economic might; and the rapid decline of our infrastructure, such as the airports which is the first sight that many visitors have when they come to our country. His conclusion:

In America, it's business as usual. We've simply learned to accept this way of life, rather than confronting the reality of our decline. Maybe that's what happens to once-rich, once-powerful superpowers as they gradually decline: They lose track of their own standards. Perhaps, seen from the outside, the USA is easier to see as it is. Perhaps we are wasting this moment in time, and risking squandering the future, by giving in to our paranoia, by accepting our devalued dollar, and by looking past our eroding public facilities and deteriorating infrastructure.

We are asking the wrong questions about our country's role in the world, and so we are getting the wrong answers about how to create the future we want. And in the bargain, we are settling for a devalued national currency, in every sense of the word.

Something worth thinking about isn’t it?

 

 

posted by: JustMe63 at 14:03 | link | comments |

From....Come On Rain!!!

I said my prayers this morning, and last night, and every morning and evening before for that for days....praying for rain! If we get no rain today, it will set a record of 34 days without any. I have already lost 3 oak trees, and about to lose 2 more, including my favorite oak tree in my back yard, because of the lack of rain....and yes, I have watered and watered, but nothing beats a good slow rain that goes on for hours..... so join me you guys in the Carolinas and Georgia, let's all get down on our knees and pray to the rain gods and promise them all sorts of sexual favors if they will only let the rains come down (I think there is a song by that name isn't there?)

posted by: JustMe63 at 14:06 | link | comments (2) |

From....Kevin Drum

One of the blogs I read quite regularly is Kevin Drum's "Political Animal" which is part of the Washington Monthly. Go read this post and you will see why I think most Republicans and right wing idealogues are irrelevant and getting more so....

posted by: JustMe63 at 14:01 | link | comments |

From....Yeah right!

And Dubya believes he is "still relevant." Uhmmmmmmm, he really is living on another planet isn't he?

posted by: JustMe63 at 13:43 | link | comments (1) |

From..An American Fortress In Baghdad...

I am having a hard time figuring this one out.

The US is currently building a new embassy in Iraq. It is costing us almost a billion dollars to build, will house 5,500 employees and the list of what will be included in this heavily fortified compound is mind boggling.

Now, the population of Iraq is around 27.5 million people. Yes, we are now in the midst of a useless war, but it will be over soon (and by “soon” I am not talking next month, hell it may go on perhaps even 10 years). It is not a war that will go on for another 50 years. Why such a massive structure in such a small country?  There isn’t another American embassy in the world that comes anywhere close to this monstrosity.

So why in the hell are we building a monument that is costing us an arm and a leg to hold thousands of Americans, with enough amenities to service a small city? I don’t understand the logic. Is it that the conquerors always built monuments to their victories? Is this what the embassy represents? It really must be ticking off the Iraqis big time. And when the war is over, what then? Will we still need it? Will we still need 5,500 employees to hand out foreign aid and process visas?

Hmmmmm---but maybe it is our beachhead towards future involvement in the mideast…..could it be that we really are after the oil? Maybe it has nothing to do with diplomacy and an American presence in Iraq. Rather, it may be the ideologues’/neo-conservatives’ dream of US domination in that part of the world. If so, god help us.

posted by: JustMe63 at 19:54 | link | comments (2) |

From...Sisters

I talked to my sister last night. First time we have chatted in over a year. And we talked for over 2 hours.

I have always been close to K. And even though we don't talk all that much, I find she has been on my mind a lot lately. She is 10 years younger than me, 4 years younger than my oldest sister. Yet K and I are much closer than R and I. Growing up, she says I was her hero. She was a very sick baby--had thrush--- and now fully grown she is probably no more than 5 ft tall. So I kind of protected her.

She is divorced now. But she recently became a grandma. Her kids are close by. Her son is brilliant and is applying to medical school.

I do wish she was closer. 3,000 miles away is a long way. She lives on the edge of a beautiful lake in a really cool house that she just finished building,doing a lot of the work herself. Has a beautiful garden, with enough veggies to feed an army.

And I really miss her...an awful lot. I still want to protect her. I still want me to be her hero.....and I sat down and bawled after we talked.

posted by: JustMe63 at 19:55 | link | comments (5) |

From....Poor Me...

Don't you just wish??????

posted by: JustMe63 at 18:19 | link | comments (1) |

From...1/20/2009 Can't Come Fast Enough!

OR REASON #1,523,435 FOR IMPEACHING THE BASTARD....

Ya know, Dubya really is an immoral bastard. He just vetoed a bill to provide health care insurance for CHILDREN that would cost $7 billion a year for 5 more years, yet requests another $190 billion for the Iraq War for one year--which he lied about to get us involved (and for which we currently spend over $12 billion PER MONTH.) Compare the data!!!! Where are HIS values; where are OUR values???

My god, what was wrong with us in  2000 and 2004---- how in the hell did we have the audacity to elect a bugger like him? And shame on any Motimers who voted for him!

posted by: JustMe63 at 17:00 | link | comments (3) |

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