Now I see this clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction.

More bits...

I don't know why and I don't even know what it is but I really wanted the Arte y Pico award and was really tickled when Doctor Zaius tapped me to win it.



The origin of the award is here.

Because I'm always the bridesmaid when this is passed around I think I'm just about the last one on our little circle of friends that recieved this thing. As such I really don't think there's anybody on my blogroll that hasn't been to this dance already. If I'm wrong please let me know and I'll tap you right away.

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Hillary Clinton's speech was great. The only thing I would've liked was more digs on McCain. That problem isn't isolated to Clinton. It's something I've been complaining about regarding the convention since before it began.

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Having said that- Clinton and Montana Gov. Schweitzer and two of the stand out lines with regards to McCain. Clinton had the great "Twin Cities" jab and Schweitzer had a good line with regards to drilling for oil in John McCain's back yards "if he could remember where they are."

Humor is great but the fact of the matter is negative ads work and the Republicans are going to turn their entire four day convention into one big negative ad against Obama. I guess it's up to Biden tonight to go for the throat because there's no doubt Obama won't throw much red meat into his speech tomorrow night.

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I'm muting the network hosts altogether. They're worthless and it just gets my blood pressure up.

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I can't find the article now but I read something yesterday that labeled House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as a "partisan firebrand." I got a chuckle out of that. Most of know Hoyer as the chief capitulator representing the Blue Dogs. He's all hat and no cattle.

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At an outside press conference Nancy Pelosi was confronted by a group of McCain supporters shouting "drill now!" Her response? "Can I drill your brain?" Sure it's juvenile but I like it.

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I won't be watching the Republican convention. Their candidate, and their party, are bankrupt in every sense of the word. I'll be declaring next week Animal Blogging Week and in honor of that I'll post some great pictures of a doe and her fawns that wandered into our camp while we were camping a couple of weeks ago.

We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy.

A bunch of other miscellaneous stuff---

Pop star Madonna pisses off John McCain. As would be expected conservatives are throwing a hissy fit. How those guys can see themselves as muy macho while they whine like children who've just had their favorite toy taken away every time someone looks sideways at their candidate just escapes me.

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I watched some of the convention last night. A few observations--

It can't be emphasized enough that the talking heads suck. Most of the rest of the progressive blogsphere has talked about how the chattering hosts were simply clueless about everything they consider themselves "experts" on (I laughed out loud last night at a comment Charlie Gibson made about being a "political junky.")

My personal annoyance was how apologetic the media seemed at having to cover the dirty old democratic convention in the first place. Having to show Michelle Obama's biographical video sent the ABC hosts into a tizzy of warnings that the video was produced by democrats and they promise to show videos produced by republicans at the GOP convention next week. Never has the conservative domestication of the media been more apparent. Those guys are afraid of their own shadow.

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Kennedy's speech had me in tears. I couldn't shake the feeling this is the last time we're going to see that guy in action. The Kennedy's have become nothing but a punchline to the right in this country but to me they're still heroes.

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Shut up about the Clinton/ Obama spat already. There's no there, there. The media want to create a damned story line where none exists.

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Michelle Obama's speech had me AND my oldest daughter in tears. It's too bad she had to devote part of it to explaining to the audience why she loves America. In a rational world that wouldn't even be in question. We don't live in a rational world.

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I'm hoping that tonight and tomorrow night are the nights they trash McCain. Because he must be trashed. No mercy. Cobra Kai!

You know, a basketball hero around here is treated like a god.

I just heard word that former Trailblazer Kevin Duckworth passed away suddenly while at the coast to teach a children's basketball camp. R.I.P. Kevin.

If you don't recall the former Blazer center he was a big guy that made Shaquille O'neal look graceful. He didn't so much shoot as try and drill the ball through the hoop. Indeed it often appeared as if he was playing prison ball instead of hoops.

Duckworth was part of the last Blazer team of greatness which included Clyde Drexler. They, and Kevin, were a class act. Rest in peace big guy.

Life. Don't talk to me about life.

If you live in the Portland area please consider heading by Cosmic Monkey comics and signing the petition to rename 42nd Avenue into "Douglas Adams Blvd."

Sure, it's not the most urgent cause in the world but it would bring a little joy to the world.

Or you could just be a strag.

Whenever we get too high-hat and too sophisticated for flag-waving, some thug nation decides we're a push-over all ready to be blackjacked.

Dean's quick advice to the Democrats on how to have a successful convention--

Wrap it in the flag - Dems get killed every convention on this simple issue. Old glory needs to be EVERYWHERE. Not just on the giant digital display but actual flags. Flags need to permeate the crowd, clutter the stage and fill every nook and cranny of the center.

Make it about McCain - I'll never forget the talk leading up to both of the last major party conventions that they would be kindler, gentler affairs that focused on their own candidate. Instead both conventions would up focusing on Kerry- one buiding him up then the other trashing him. Dems need to trash McCain in at least a 60/40 ration to talking about Obama.

Youth and change - That's what Obama is selling and that's what the convention ought to be adverstising.

What surge? - Don't even discuss the surge when talking about Iraq. Instead focus again on the fact that the initial war was an act of sheer foreign policy idiocy. Anyone that supported that war doesn't have the judgement to be talking about foreign policy or national defense. Period. Bonus- make sure you mention Lieberman by name when pushing this.

That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard! That's totally non-sequitary!

I started this a while ago but decided I better rush to finish it since the POW thing's getting played out.

As before please feel free to share if you enjoy the thing.

Apologies in advance that the voice work isn't as good as last time. :-)

That's okay Mikey. You and your brother are back with your mother and I. That makes us the richest people in Astoria.

McCain:

“I define rich in other ways besides income,” he said. “Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”

It means the warranty has run out on Dungeon Master's brain.

You've probably already heard about pro-McCain conservative blogger Michael Goldfarb's stupid swipe at Obama supporters "It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement..." but I just want to add that Goldfarb has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and other hawkish neocon posturing around the world.

As somebody who has played games like Dungeons & Dragons off and on through his entire life I'd just like to say that our little fantasy world is fairly harmless. (Other than the calories consumed eating chips when we play.)

The fantasy world Goldfarb and his neocon buddies live in has been projected onto actual policy and resulted in the real loss of thousands of lives.

I don't think it's a question as to which group are the clueless assholes here. It ain't the guys rolling 20-sided dice.

It's teaching its son all right. And, he's teaching its son just like people teaching its children, just like a papa.

Happy birthday to Dean Jr. who turns twelve today.

At our house we have a tradition when it's one of the kid's birthdays - the 6 a.m. bagpipe procession to their bedroom. I get out my pipes (I really need to practice more) and we march into the birthday boy/ girl's room with the rest of family in tow. Our Chihuahua/ Pekingese Spike always comes in last, howling at the noise.

Did you know that John Woo and Dick Cheney considered listing bagpipe music under acceptable torture methods but even they couldn't bring themselves to be that cruel?

Dean Jr. tried to hide under his pillows but there was just no way to stop the dulcet tones of the pipe drones and chanter. When we finally dragged him out of bed and sat him down to watch a video that his sisters put together for him.

Comprised of pictures of him growing up, shots of Godzilla (his favorite movie star) and laced with music like Chicago's "You're The Inspiration" I couldn't believe that this little movie was put together by the two girls who spend the rest of the year plotting Dean Jr.'s painful demise.

In honor of his big day here's a much better piper than me playing the theme to Star Wars--

You should try talking to it. 'Cause, like, supposedly they can hear you even though it's all, like, ten-thousand leagues under the sea.

This...

Three weeks later, Mr. Bush went to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, at the invitation of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. There, he received a message from the Russian: the push to offer Ukraine and Georgia NATO membership was crossing Russia’s “red lines,” according to an administration official close to the talks.

Afterward, Mr. Bush said of Mr. Putin, “He’s been very truthful and to me, that’s the only way you can find common ground.” It was one of many moments when the United States seemed to have missed — or gambled it could manage — the depth of Russia’s anger and the resolve of the Georgian president to provoke the Russians.

...reminded me of this.

Later the transcript has Glaspie saying: "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."

Which in turn reminded me of this...

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

When it comes to foreign policy it's probably best to heed the advice of Jesse Jackson and "stay out of the Bushes." Their incomptence is generational. In fairness a president McCain would be just as clueless