Where's Primetime?

Politics

I still find it rather astounding that the primetime channels (ABC, NBC,FOX,CBS) didn't carry the convention live each night. You had to turn to cable or satellite to listen. No wonder people never vote in this country - they're being sent the message that the Simpsons are more important than an election. The only channels worth watching were CSPAN and PBS. Too many of the others had too many commentators butting in, offering their opinions. Most disagreeable was Chris Matthews going bonkers (he's always bonkers, but now more so.) and playing Mr. Republican, when in reality, he isn't. He was downright rude to Al Sharpton and fortunately Al didn't back down a bit and gave it right back.

I thought the speakers for the Dems were outstanding. 5 stars to Barak Obama (we will have really come far in this country when we elect a guy with a name like that to be president - and that might not be that far off). Thought the Kerry kids did great, as did Theresa Heinz Kerry and in particular John Kerry, who gave the best speech I've heard him give. Will it make a diff? Maybe. How many undecided voters watched? And how many, who never vote, watched? Probably not a whole lot.

Health Care

Compare the Kerry-Edwards Health Care Plan to the Bush-Cheney Plan

Krugman's Views

Krugman makes some good points in his opinion piece today . Worth Reading. Thought this final comment was interesting, "Three weeks ago, The New Republic reported that the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistan to announce a major terrorist capture during the Democratic convention. Hours before Mr. Kerry's acceptance speech, Pakistan announced, several days after the fact, that it had apprehended an important Al Qaeda operative."

Computers

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Word of the Day

incarnadine \in-KAR-nuh-dyn\, adjective:
1. Having a fleshy pink color.
2. Red; blood-red.

transitive verb:
To make red or crimson.

Usage: The more he scrubbed it, the more it bled.
It made the seas incarnadine, he said.
and....
In a night of rain, the ruddy reflections of their lights incarnadine the clouds till the entire city appears to be the prey of a monster conflagration.

(from Italian incarnatino, which came from the Latin incarnato, something incarnate, made flesh, from in + caro, carn-, "flesh." It is related to carnation, etymologically the flesh-colored flower; incarnate, "in the flesh; made flesh"; and carnal, "pertaining to the body or its appetites.")

Quote of the Day

"Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done."
Aaron Burr

How can this be?

"In recent polls, Americans said they had more confidence in Mr. Bush to make the right decisions to protect the country compared with Mr. Kerry." Hello? Are more Americans having a brain aneurism or what???? George Bush - who led us into an unjustified war? George Bush - who was dodging out on his National Guard duty? This makes him better qualified to protect our country? Give me a BREAK! I am amazed at how people can even compare the two - here's a guy who's trying to dodge out on his military duty and then here's Kerry, jumping out of a swift boat and chasing guys through the jungle and he's even volunteering for this duty! And then there's the other fact - what makes George Bush so special just because he got pissed off that terrorists attacked our country on 9/11? Because he acted like a tough guy? Hell, who amongst you, if you were leading the country, wouldn't have acted pissed off? That has to be one of the dumbest arguments I"ve heard in a long time. Don't Americans realize that our stature abroad has sunk to an all-time low and that the reason is the world considers our President dangerous and incapable and just plain ignorant about the issues? Why else do you think they hate us? Sure, we have sex, TV, too much food and the inclination to think that we are some sort of missionaries out to save the world, but it takes a George Bush to push these countries over the edge into actually hating us, versus just being jealous. Do us all a favor America - drive these Neo-cons out of office and in so doing, you will really be protecting the country.

Still Time!
You still have time to contribute at www.johnkerry.com After tomorrow, no more contributions, while George Bush has another month to keep sucking up money. Don't let the Dems fall victim!

Mountain Blogger has returned!

Had to take a week off for a family reunion on the mountain. Think it was actually successful, so perhaps we might even try this again. No family members killed each other, so should be considered booming success! LOL

Sports

Ready for the Olympics and the World's best women's softball pitcher? The men will be tuning in to watch Jenny Finch pitch, that's for sure. :) Pitching some 70 mph from a shorter distance than the regular 60' of baseball, her fastball is equivalent to a 92 mph fastball in baseball. She has already struck out 4 major leaguers. During her college career she won 60 consecutive games. To read more about this amazing young woman, check out her bio here . You can watch her and Team USA today at 1 p.m Eastern on ESPN or August 1st at 1 p.m on ESPN. I'm getting psyched for the Olympics!


Lance Armstrong

Watched Lance crush the competition on the next to last day in the Tour de France during a blistering time trial. He smoked the 2nd place guy by a full minute - the guy is damn near inhuman!



Politics

Heading for a house party on the night of the Democrat's convention to hear John Kerry give his speech (better be a good one! - the speech that is.... Of course, would be nice if there were some good munchies as well. ). Should be interesting to meet some like-minded folks. The Dems are enthusiastic, but will that be enough?... If you want to bone up on some of the issues and Kerry's take on them, go to his web site and read Kerry-Edwards Policy Documents . You may not agree with every single one of them, but remember, you are not the only fish in the pond and sometimes things have to be done that may be for the greater good of all, even if in that particular instance, that doesn't mean you.

There are a lot of volunteer opportunities at the Kerry site, some easy to do and right from your computer. So take a few minutes and make sure all your email friends will be reminded to get to the polls on 11/2 and vote. Check the Kerry site to sign up as a volunteer- takes only seconds.

Theresa Heinz Kerry
From Arianna's column , "when it comes to spicing up the political dessert tray, Teresa Heinz Kerry is one of the most flavorful and compelling public figures to hit the national stage in decades." On the media and their attacks on Theresa, "You gotta love this about our media mavens: They are constantly bemoaning the lack of forthrightness in our public figures — the vast majority of whom wouldn’t know a straight answer if it bit them in the butt. But when they are finally presented with someone who doesn’t (pardon the expression) beat around the bush, they start sharpening the long knives.

They’re like a bunch of little kids who have gotten so used to being fed nothing but vanilla ice cream for dessert that a serving of Rocky Road with some sprinkles on top leaves them sputtering and crying, “Yuck!”"

And the real problem? "Thirty-eight million women didn’t vote in 2000, many of them because they were so disgusted with our inauthentic politics-as-usual. If even a small percentage of them turn out this November, they could very well end up deciding the election and the direction of the country.

So I propose that we turn on its ear the traditional good-old-boy political litmus test — which candidate would you rather have a beer with? Instead, let’s ask the women of America: which candidate’s wife would you rather have a cup of coffee with?"

Interactive Election Guide
For a constantly updated election Guide and some neat graphics, head to this page .

Quote of the Day
"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind."
Aristotle

Word of the Day
jeremiad \jair-uh-MY-uhd\, noun:
A tale of sorrow, disappointment, or complaint; a doleful story; also, a dolorous or angry tirade. Johnson's jeremiad against what he sees as American imperialism and militarism exhaustively catalogs decades of U.S. military misdeeds ....... Economics ministers in general were taken aback when a recent World Bank report -- after a year of jeremiads -- suggested the crisis was being exaggerated