Club Red Vacation Passes Three Weeks...

Not Club Med, but Club Red as in red states with few people (and reporters) who might be dogging W's trail.

Since Aug 2nd when the Time Share Texan began his leisurely campout in the wilderness, 68 more of our sons and daughters have died...

In Honor Of...

My grandson loved his new goldfish, of course named Nemo, bought at a local county fair. But Nemo had some noticeable psychological problems from the beginning. And when a playmate fish, Giggles, was introduced into the small tank recently, Nemo clearly did not like this idea. Giggles was found belly-up in the tank, and my grandson's parents decided Nemo needed to disappear as well - but not before it seemed appropriate to rename both fish posthumously. We agreed that Nemo should be renamed Pat Robertson, and Giggles should be renamed Hugo Chavez.

p.s. In case you are worried, son-in-law is currently out buying replacement fish before grandson comes home from day care today...

One Powerful Dude

Time for one of my less frequent trips to the barber shop these days. But I love going there. This one-seater shop, that I've written about before, is the focus of heated politics in a suburb of Portland, OR and almost always has loud arguments going on as you walk in the door. Thursday was no exception.

The barber - we'll call him Eddie - is a progressive liberal who wouldn't care what the label meant. He basically despises anybody named Bush and anybody who works for him. Pretty smart guy for someone who didn't finish high school.

In Eddie's chair is Denny, a Bush-loving self-described patriot with the requisite two yellow magnetic ribbons on his - you guessed it - massive SUV. Hard to get more stereotyped of the two sides of our country these days.

They are in the middle of a heated Sheehan/Crawford Texas argument, so loud I can hear it as I got out of my car down the street. I came in the door:

Eddie to Denny: Don't you know an idiot when you see one, or is that because you are one too?

Denny to Eddie: Look you terrorist loving coddler, get your head out of your a..

(Are you getting the picture, readers?)

Denny to me walking in the door: I hope you are a Republican and can talk some sense into this screwball.

Me: That screwball has a straight razor in his hand.

Eddie laughs hysterically.

Denny: well I don't care what you meatballs think. I've met George W. Bush and you can just feel the enormous power he has when he gets close to you.

Me: And your point is???

Denny: I'm telling you, this guy is powerful - he oozes power and people ought to respect that. He's the President of the United States!

Me: 'Ooze' is the right word. And he's got power all right, but power out of control is dangerous beyond belief, in his position.

Denny throwing money at Eddie and going out the door: You guys are throwing away my country.

Eddie getting in a last shot: Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you!

(Note: Eddie & Denny have known each other for years and are good friends)

While Nero Bicycled...

Bob Herbert in today's NY Times:

The war is going badly and lives have been lost by the thousands, but there is no real sense, either at the highest levels of government or in the nation at large, that anything momentous is at stake. The announcement on Sunday that five more American soldiers had been blown to eternity by roadside bombs was treated by the press as a yawner. It got very little attention.

You can turn on the television any evening and tune in to the bizarre extended coverage of the search for Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba in May. But we hear very little about the men and women who have given up their lives in Iraq, or are living with horrific injuries suffered in that conflict.

If only the war were more entertaining. Less of a downer. Perhaps then we could meet the people who are suffering and dying in it.

For all the talk of supporting the troops, they are a low priority for most Americans. If the nation really cared, the president would not be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.

Instead, Mr. Bush is bicycling as soldiers and marines are dying. Dozens have been killed since he went off on his vacation.

Question for the day: How can you be in the party of 'morality' when you have no soul?

Three Months Later...

Yes, it has been a longer sabbatical than I planned on. I won't go into the details. But I do want to give a big "THANK YOU" to those who emailed with kind comments. I am back, and will be blogging again - perhaps not on a daily basis. There is too much to say & do to fight back against the "I've-got-a-bigger-flag-than-you" idiots who would run over the crosses of dead veterans...