On Monday, Our Scoop asked us to sign a petition to help KEEP Handmade toys on American Shelves. I signed the petition. While I too was glad to see regulation placed BACK, it seemed as those a few provisions were a bit out of whack. Specifically this: That is a lot of money to make sure a toy is safe. What many people may have missed is that it doesn't stop there.
Continue reading...

139 comments (Latest Comment: 01/09/2009 04:17:15 by clintster)

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,120th day in Iraq.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from the warron terra...courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4221
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4082
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3760
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3362
Since Election (1/31/05): 2783

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 316
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 630
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 412
Contractor Deaths - Iraq: 445

We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

$ 585, 898, 600, 000.00



So. We've all torn the page off the calendar, and most of us are looking at 2009 with a fair amount of hope and optimism. Unfortunately, for families with someone in the military, 2009 is the same as 2008, or 2007, or 2006, or....

Some families are adopting unusual coping mechanisms to deal with the endless cycle of separation and worry. There's an interesting story from yesterday's Globe about one family.

Continue reading...

140 comments (Latest Comment: 01/07/2009 03:22:09 by Mondobubba)

As I write this morning to fill you in on this weeks events, we are learning that Al Franken is up by 50 + votes! Go Al! We are all rooting for you.

FOX News is none to happy about that, but then, I may be giving them too much credit, as they don't ever seem to be happy unless they have a Dick Cheney interview. If one could label a television network as "miserable" and "most likely to hold a grudge" FOX news would take home this prize each year.

Recently there was some hullabaloo about a text message that aired on New Years Eve. As BobR reported, FOX allowed their brainiac viewers to send a text to them which would then appear on the crawl below the box. Well, it seems that one racist comment made it to the air. Can you imagine that! I'm shocked!
Continue reading...

12 comments (Latest Comment: 01/05/2009 02:01:14 by TriSec)

With the new year comes hopes and dreams of change and improvement. Such is the stuff of New Year's resolutions, psychic's predictions, and retrospectives, the latter seeming to indicate we have a clean slate with which to start over. For most people, however, this new year won't actually start until Jan 20th. Until then, we have to deal with the same old shit from 2008.

We can certainly count on the Bush Administration to obstruct justice and claim "Executive Privilege" right up to the very end. This time, it's Mukasey trying to protect Cheney:
Continue reading...

79 comments (Latest Comment: 01/03/2009 02:32:35 by TriSec)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." So begins "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. It describes countries undergoing revolutions, when the people take their countries back. With the economic meltdown and election, it seems a fitting epitaph for this year.

It was certainly the worst of times for the Republican party this year. They saw their grasp on power slip away in astonishing fashion, as the Democrats nearly took complete control of the Senate, widened their grip in the House, and took the Presidency as well.

Of course, the presidency seemed inevitable. The Republicans had no strong candidate; all were deeply flawed in some respect. I remember thinking "is this the best they can offer?" In true conservative fashion, all the Johnny-come-latelys were quickly jettisoned, and the old familiar face of John McCain remained. Could he do it? The hard-core of his party hated him, but he appealed to moderates...
Continue reading...

125 comments (Latest Comment: 01/01/2009 08:12:43 by Scoopster)