Category Archives: News & Politics

It was nice to do things a little more slowly today.  I’ve been doing a bit of running around while trying to get things done and it is exhausting.  Today, the only place I went was tanning.  Which gave me time to get things done around the house and some work caught up.Luckly I got nearly all of our packing done, just have to top it off and get the laptop bag packed.  It is the best I have felt in a long time about packing and not rushing around to do it.

Yesterday I had to return somethings to the store, pick up a few more things and get my nails done.  Tomorrow after the gym I have to stop by for a color touch up (part of the service) and get my waxing.  Then I have to get all my work done that I can.

I was able to get out and do a walk today.  It was nice, didn’t get a chance last weekend and I didn’t care for it.  Unfortunately it looks like it is going to start getting hot when we are gone.  =(  It concerns me about our cats.  We will keep the fans going on high and have the windows opened on the top floor for some air.  It isn’t going to be as hot as it had gotten but still….I don’t like to leave them without air.

Driveway dispute pits neighbor against neighbor

Last Wednesday, his neighbor of six years cut large square holes in the middle of Conroy’s driveway.

Conroy, 83, told KATU News that “I’ve had this driveway since I lived here, which is almost 35 years now. There was no warning. He never said anything. He never threatened anything.”

**Just a local news story that has caught my attention……that Wilkerson must have a winning personality, because this part about his wife sums it up  :

Wilkerson’s soon-to-be ex-wife says she, too, was shocked when the fence started going up, but is not surprised at her husbands actions.

“There’s a reason we’re getting divorced,” she said.

Feds’ closed-door deal could ease development

MISSOULA, Mont. – The Bush administration is preparing to ease the way for the nation’s largest private landowner to convert hundreds of thousands of acres of mountain forestland to residential subdivisions.

The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Plum Creek Timber Co., a former logging company turned real estate investment trust that is building homes. Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 1.2 million acres in the mountains of western Montana, where local officials were stunned and outraged at the deal.

“We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months,” said Pat O’Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter.

**I so can’t wait for Bush to get out of office.  He is destroying so much that piece of shit……gggrrrr

82-Year-Old American Woman Frees Child Slaves In Nepal

This 82-year-old retired lawyer from California now spends half of her time living in Katmandu, Nepal, where she works to free child slaves.

“It’s very difficult to think that in the 21st century, this is a practice,” said Murray. But, she argued, “it’s happening all over the world, and a lot of people don’t know about it.”

 **Sadly this still happens, yet we will start a war over oil, but yet won’t do a damn thing about slavery…..don’t you think those are some messed up priorities?

We are taking easy today.  We did do some light running to pick up a few things for our trip next week, but we did forgo the gym.    I feel guilty about it, but happy on what I got done in the way packing.  So I stayed active regardless.  And we spent the day watching the John Adams Miniseries on HBO again as they ran them back to back.

People are setting off fireworks.  I love fireworks that sparkle.  I hate ones that do nothing but noise….annoying.  I really don’t carry for neighbors setting them off.  I prefer seeing a pro display….I’m a snob.  I wonder if the people setting them off have any idea or reflection of why they are part of the 4th.  Here is a little history lesson, it is replicate the sound of battle during the Revolutionary War.

When I was little, I lived on an Army Post in Maryland and every 4th they would do an reenactment of the a battle between the British and the Continental Army.  That was 4th of July to me….not the parades and all the stuff that small town America does.  It also gave me my love and appreciation for our Founding History.  I know I’m a sap about it, heck I have a carry a copy of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence in my purse.

Here is some interesting articles on Patriotism that Time ran :

The War Over Patriotism

**This really explains the difference in how the Dems & GOP see it differently and it is sad that it makes such a division.  It really is a combination of both….loving your country regardless, but knowing our faults and dirty and always strive to improve and attain what we should be ideally.  To me, if you do not question and challenge your government, then you are not much of an American….not what the GOP believes, who they label traitors.  Our country is founded on speaking out and taking our government to task.

McCain and Obama on Patriotism

**From the candidates themselves.

The Declaration of Independence: The History

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Some of my muscles are feeling a little better.  My ass and thigh muscles still hurt, then my trainer worked out my arms today…..so I bet I’ll be feeling them tomorrow.  That is ok, my trainer spent most of the time laughing at me as I winced to move around…..lol

It was cool this morning, but you could feel it warming up.  My browser weather add on is saying it is 87 degrees…suppose to hit 100 tomorrow, the record for this date is 95…not fun, without air.  =(

I got some work done today, not as much as I needed to do.  I may do some tonight, not sure.  I have a bunch of pictures that I want to edit from the park we went to the other day.   Either way, I do have to get some work taken care of this weekend since payroll will need to be ordered Monday night.

I kind of want to go downstairs and kind of don’t.  Uphere is it a little warmer, but you get some sun and the fact that starting tomorrow we will be downstairs for the weekend due to the heat.

My mom called yesterday to chat and say hi.  =)  But then she had to rub in my face that she has lost more weight….meanie….lol

Clinton barbs resonate among working women

 Gatta, of Rutgers, thinks one very positive thing to come from Clinton’s campaign is that working women saw that the kind of things they experience in the workplace — whether it is overtly sexist jokes or more subtle barbs — are also experienced even by a woman at the highest career levels.

“I think women related to Hillary on that, that in their own lives they’ve experienced different degrees of sexism,” she said.

Similarly, if a woman can rise as high in her career as Callan and still find her appearance being discussed, it resonates with working women who face similar issues in their own jobs, Gatta says.

The days when women were routinely called derogatory names or overtly denied promotions because of their gender are largely over, and women now enjoy more protection from discrimination in the workplace.

Still, Gatta thinks Clinton’s campaign highlighted the more subtle ways in which women are undermined in the workplace. For example, Clinton was often referred to by her first, rather than her last, name — the same thing that often happened to Carly Fiorina during her tumultuous tenure as head of Hewlett-Packard. Gatta, who has the same experience herself sometimes, thinks that can be a way of taking a woman less seriously.

**Maybe with this campaign younger women will finally start to be able to see that sexism still exists and it effects them.  Many of this generation of women take it for grant how far we have come, but don’t seem to see that there is still so much farther we need to go for true equality.

Is media skewering badly behaved female stars?

But Negra said the coverage of women is more judgmental, casting wayward female celebrities as “cautionary tales.” She said coverage of female celebs is less likely to celebrate a troubled star’s triumphant comeback, the way Downey has been lauded for “Iron Man” or Owen Wilson has been shown returning to work after a reported suicide attempt.

“We seem to have a lot more fixed ideas about what women’s lives should be like than we do of men,” she said.

“When we use female celebrities this way, we see them failing and struggling, they serve as proof that for women the work-life balance is impossible. Can you have it all? The answer these stories give again and again is ‘absolutely not.”’

**More on sexism in the media and society.  As far as I’m concerned people enjoy seeing women brought down.  Because it enforces the culture that women shouldn’t want it all and shouldn’t put themselves higher then men.  They aren’t suppose to be to have ambition or success….that is a “man’s” place.   Heaven forbid if a woman doesn’t stay in the kitchen and make babies.

Now I sure in hell don’t care of the Paris Hiltons and Spears, they totally push feminism back.  But the gossip feeding public loves to tear women down….they barely touched on men when they screw up.

Supreme Court Shoots Down D.C. Gun Ban

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to keep and carry a gun. The decision will affect gun control laws across the country.

“We hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violated the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense.”

He addressed the “problem of handgun violence” by saying there are a “variety of tools” such as “measures regulating handguns” available. But he said that the “enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” which includes measures such as an “absolute prohibition of handguns.”

**This does not surprise me.  Absolute prohibition of handguns never seem like it would hold up…..but they have stated that measure regulating handguns as a tool for the problem of violence.

Now I firmly believe in the right to own a REASONABLE gun/rifle.  I do not believe in the right for everyone to own a frigging AK-47….that is nuts.  That is not for self-defense and that is not of hunting.  Unless you are a collector that has had a background check and mental evaluation….you shouldn’t own one. Which brings up something I do believe in, background checks with waiting periods, and mental evaluations (within reason…nothing way out there).  Things within reason.

I also believe in gun education and handling.  To me, there is no issue in families to raise their kids with guns if they teach responsible handling.  And many families that grew up with them usually do.  It has been the right of passage for many generations in families to teach the kids how to hunt.

John Roberts’ Favor To Obama

It’s still too early to judge Roberts’s tenure, but it seems increasingly clear that liberals dodged a bullet when President Bush nominated him to be chief justice. Instead of siding with conservative extremists like Clarence Thomas, who are eager to press the limits of the so-called Constitution in Exile, resurrecting limits on federal power whenever possible, Roberts prefers narrow opinions that can attract support from the center. Liberals ought to applaud this instinct because, even if Barack Obama gets to appoint the next justice or two, it’s the only thing standing between them and a Court eager to roll back progressive reforms.

Roberts has also promoted unity by encouraging the Court to hear more business cases, in which the justices tend not to divide along ideological lines. Roberts told me that unanimity in less high-profile cases could promote “a culture and an ethos that says, ‘It’s good when we’re all together,'” and that’s exactly what the business cases–which represent about 45 percent of the court’s docket this year–have achieved. 

**I love to read things about the Supreme Court.  Even though a huge amount of everyday Americans don’t give them a second thought, they really do effect our everyday lives.  And I really wish more people would care and really take more interest in it.

This article was interesting in that it seems that Roberts is trying more for the center then down partisan thinking.  Which seems to give the impression that both sides will be given more thought.  We will see.