Good Morning!

Have you been keeping up with our friends in Minneapolis? There's been a lot of interesting things happening up there in the Twin Cities.

I believe I have seen a whopping two persons of color on the convention floor....Mondo has observed the automated nature of the applause from the delegates, but "their eyes are empty" as if responding by rote, without any passion or conviction.

I'm impressed by the number of hand-painted signs; I don't know if this is the norm for the convention, but I don't recall seeing that at the DNC in Denver...it really makes this convention look like a bunch of low-budget amateurs.

And nevermind that "deer in the headlights" speech from Governor Palin last night....I don't recall ever hearing such a disjointed and unprofessional speech from a major candidate. And they speak of Obama's lack of experience...


But the thing that I have noticed the most is all of those "Country First" signs. I'm finding it vaguely unsettling. Much has been made about Obama giving a speech in a stadium to cap the convention, and of course comparisons were made to certain rallies that took place in Europe in the 1930s. But isn't sacrificing everything on the altar of the state one of the hallmarks of fascism? I know we're all familiar with it, but a brief review of the 14 characteristics of Fascism is in order. How much of this have we seen so far this week?

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291 comments (Latest Comment: 09/05/2008 06:40:42 by livingonli)

Good Morning.

Today is our 1,994th day in Iraq.

We'll start 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): 4151
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4012
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3690
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3292
Since Election (1/31/05): 2714

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 314
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 581
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 366
Contractor Deaths - Iraq: 444


We find this morning's Cost of War passing through $ 550, 598, 575, 000.00.

Since it's the first day of school tomorrow for most of the United States, we'll briefly take a closer look at the war's cost in real-world terms today.

$4,681 per household.
$1,721 per person.
$341.4 million per day.

For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the money spend in Iraq could have bought the following things:

2,217,591 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
265,270 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
317,450 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
1,932,158 Scholarships for University Students for One Year

(more at the link.)

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277 comments (Latest Comment: 09/03/2008 03:40:27 by livingonli)

Finally! A candidate that Velveeta Jones can wrap her hands around! Sarah Palin! A true fighter. A woman, a wife and a mother! A mother, who apparently, never gives up. Its obvious that her natural reserves have been drilled often - she has a barn load of kids. And not with silly popular names like "Lindsay" or "Michael", rather, strong names that will really make these kids stand-outs on the national stage. Names like: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. I'm sure that "Dirk", "Butte" and "Seedling" will be appearing in the future, since she still has plenty of birthing years left. She can even have them while in the job of VP. And, since she recently told us that she's not sure what the Vice President does, why not just make more babies for the "democracy spreading" that McCain has promised us for the next 100 years?

Poor, sheltered Sarah, she's not sure what the VP does? Well, here’s some things her predecessor excelled on, maybe she can find a few tips:

Do shoot your fellow lobbyist/friends/donors in the face while “hunting” at farms where they drug and cage the animals then release them for an easy kill.

Do set up a task force and have secret meetings with corporations (i.e. Oil executives) that have a vested interest to make and set policy and agendas.

Do try to convince us that you would not be a member of the Executive Branch.

Continue trampling on the Constitution.

But I digress. What is it about this woman that arouses so many of us? Is it because she's such a great role model for our Grand Old Party? What say's "Republican Values" better than holding the second highest office in the world, while toting around a 4 month old. Sarah Palin is a feminist in every sense of the word! (Excluding Roe v Wade).
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71 comments (Latest Comment: 09/01/2008 08:49:53 by Random)

Did you wake up this morning still feeling it? The happiness the hope and the change that we are making happen? I know I did. I don't have to tell you how historic last night was. What I do want to tell you is that It was, and still is, an honor and a privilege to be able to share it with all of you.

We have a chance this time to not just move away from the failures of the past 8 years, but to be a part of great change in this country. I for one am so happy that I am here to be a part of it. 58 years ago, Rosa Parks was sent to jail for not taking her seat in the back of a bus. Over the past year, Hillary Clinton puts 19 million cracks in a ceiling. Last night, this is what we saw:
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281 comments (Latest Comment: 08/30/2008 12:33:24 by trojanrabbit)

Last night was the big night for Hillary's speech. Concerns abounded as to whether she would be able to convince the PUMAs to get behind their party's presumptive nominee. The results were as good as could be expected. There were other speeches earlier in the evening that were also quite good, sadly missed by anyone watching anything other than PBS or C-SPAN.

Hillary spent close to half of her speech talking about her own campaign. Perhaps that was a last bit of meat to toss to her supporters. She wrapped that up by saying that both she & Obama supported the same things and that the only way to get that was by voting Democrat in Nov.
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280 comments (Latest Comment: 08/28/2008 06:48:52 by livingonli)