Many folks have written here in a much more intelligent manner on this topic so I won't attempt to. But Georgia is a total cluster f*^k and there is nothing we can do about even if we had somebody as President that could walk and chew gum at the same time. We knew this yesterday and even this morning.

But then I read something like this:

As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: "Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?"

[....]

Miriyan Gogolashvili, of Tkviav, said: "The Russians will be here tomorrow. They want to show us and the world how powerful they are. Tomorrow it will be Ukraine and nobody in the West is doing anything to stop them. Why were our soldiers in Kosovo and Iraq if we don’t get any help from the West now?" he asked.

But it actually gets worse.

I've had this thought for a long time so I am just going to say it, even if it isn't popular. You know we don't always have to be offended. We don't have to call out this diary or that diary cause we don't agree. We don't have to beat this person bloody cause they write something that makes us mad. We can just ignore it and go off a comment elsewhere. It is really kind of simple if you think about it for a couple seconds.

More below the fold if you care.

As we all do I find many, many things about this story troubling to say the least. In fact I would agree with Glenn Greenwald at Salon that it might be the most important story of this entire decade.

But I want to come at it from a different direction. I want to, for sake of analysis, assume that everything we've been told to this point is 100 percent true, as I am sure the White House, FBI, and Department of Justice (DoJ) would hope we'd think.

I would argue (and I do below the fold) that if everything that has been reported is true, it may be more troubling then if most of it isn't.

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in August 2005 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased more than $85M worth of basic supplies for storm victims. For more than two years, until last month FEMA let the supplies sit in warehouses at a cost of $1M/year.

During that two year period local government officials and non-profit relief organizations in Louisiana and Mississippi made repeated public pleas for donations of the exact sort of items FEMA had already purchased and were even stored locally.

That these supplies people have needed for years just sat in warehouses until mid-June of this year is bad enough, but FEMA was able to find a way to make this story even more sad and depressing the way only George Bush's administration can.

I was reading my RSS feeds and came across this letter a librarian wrote to a person that wanted a children's book, Uncle Bobby's Wedding removed (about gay marriage). It kind of ends with:

I fully appreciate that you, and some of your friends, strongly disagree with its viewpoint. But if the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in our collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life.

Amen brother, amen.

And the scary thing, the guy is just getting started ....

I could use some pics of wonderful cats, we'll take dogs if we must :). They always seem to help lessen the stress that I think most of us feel right about now. And when you factor in I got a Cortisone shot today for my back (good health care story BTW!) I don't feel like moving from where I sit right now.

Not that long ago I took in a cat from a young couple that didn't want it and was going to take it to the local Humane Society. As a three year old adult I kind of felt that might be a death sentence. Some folks only seem to think kittens are cute.

It quickly became clear she was with "child." Wasn't so happy about this (four turns to five cats), but my gosh, the end result is so cute I can't be anything but happy.

More pics of my young lady below the fold.

I've been thinking a little about this post from Talking Points Memo:

"Ordinarily we do not interfere in America's internal affairs," said a spokesman for the rest of the planet, "even when it has become clear, as in recent years, that American voters are about to elect ignorant, incoherent buffoons who will add immeasurably to our immiseration. But this time is different. We didn't think it was worth our while to step up for your Carter or Mondale or Dukakis or Gore or Kerry -- besides, we'd only be bombed or invaded for our trouble. But this time, I mean, come on -- you've got to be kidding me, right? Please tell me you're kidding."

Some more of this "Open Letter From The World" and just a few Sunday morning thoughts below the fold ....

I was surfing the Web, as I often do, and I checked into io9 (a daily must for me). It is a science-fiction (sci-fi) site that can be hit or miss, but when it is a hit boy is it a home run. Well they recently had a little roundup of their favorite opening lines from sci-fi novels. Two opening lines I liked include:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." — William Gibson, Neuromancer.

"Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own." — Dan Brown, Angels & Demons.

Most of the others books listed I had not heard of, much less read (and I read a lot). So I thought to myself, what are my favorite opening lines to a novel?

Below the fold are a few of my favorite, why not add a few you enjoy!

From Jake Tapper's blog, Political Punch:

After attending a banquet at King Abdullah's Beit Al Urdan palace Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, hitched a ride—literally—to the Amman airport with the King.

Abdullah drove himself—with Obama riding shotgun—from the palace to the airport in a silver Mercedes 600 series with blacked out windows.

The King—in the driver's seat—raced onto the tarmac and came to an abrupt halt, stopping on a dinar, just a few feet away from one of Senator Obama's pre-positioned secret service agents.

The Senator and the King got out of the car, spoke on the tarmac for a few minutes and then shook hands. Obama then boarded his plane, without the King, to fly to Tel Aviv.

A few thoughts and comments below the fold ....

I had not seen this posted, and it is interesting to say the least. John McCain was in St. Louis Wednesday and I am happy to say not all reporters are enamored with John McCain's press operation.

Now sit down, cause the local St. Louis Fox affiliate posted this video (under the fold) of the awkward, testy exchange between a McCain's senior press aides--Brooke Buchanan, the national press secretary, and Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director.

In a nutshell the media outlets were told that McCain could only be shot from the left side, not to show his scare from cancer surgery and there had to be some sort of "patriotic" image in the background. Well, they didn't like being micro managed like this.

"I think there was an attempt by somebody in your staff to take a look at the shot, and I have never, ever had anybody at any organization ..."

"Really? You've never done anything at the White House? I was at the White House for seven years and we looked at every shot," the McCain staffer pushed back. "Not at our shots," while his colleague asked Wallace, "Which White House?" She refused to answer, saying it didn't matter. He replied, "Oh yes it does!"

to a wall!

Now I am not perfect, five years ago I got a DUI. I was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And then wrong some more! I did everything the court asked and then some. Cost me, as it should have, thousands and thousands of dollars.

Thought it was behind me.

I was going to see Batman tonight and got pulled over. 67 in a 55. Mind you pulled over by a police officer in my little town. It went down hill from there.
 

I'm a fan of Digg. I was reading through the top ranked stories the other day and came across a January 17, 2001 story from the Onion, the title being Bush: "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over".

Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

President-elect Bush vows that "together, we can put the triumphs of the recent past behind us."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

You would think those are just "general" things from the Onion, a site based on satire and humor. Well normally I laugh when reading the Onion, not this time.

To me there are three things we all should do everyday. Number one is laugh. You should laugh everyday. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three you should have your emotions moved to tears.

[....]

Just think about it. If you laugh and if you think and if you cry that is a full day. That is a heck of a day. Do that seven days a week and you'll have something special.

As a huge, I mean a huge sports fan I can't believe I had never heard this quote from Jim Valvano's 1993 ESPY Speech. Can't believe it. He'd died of cancer, which he knew he had, two months later.

Towards the end they wanted to move him off the stage, you know time stuff. He says:

And that screen up there is flashing :30 seconds. Like I care about that screen right now. I have tumors all over my body and I am worried about some guy in back going :30 seconds.

Often, and I am to fault, the bad is highlighted here 24/7. There is good in this world no matter how bad it seems.

In the past couple weeks there has been a lot said here about the Olympics. Bush should do this he shouldn't do this.

Not much of a fan of George W but this is one place he is right.

In another time in my life I played a few sports on a national level. Heck, for most of my life I thought I'd play at least one of those sports for a living. Short of winning a Noble Prize for peace there is nothing, I mean nothing I'd rather do then represent the United States in the Olympics.

I personally can't think if anything cooler then walking into an Olympic stadium, holding the American flag high, and leading our delegation of athletes.

I try to be logical and utilize critical thinking at all costs, even if it goes against my party or my previously held beliefs. I find time to think and reflect helps in this process. I've been away from my computer and almost all news of any kind for about six days, therefore I had time to think about these statements by Maliki I heard while on vacation:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the prospect on Monday of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement with Washington.

As I've tried to catch up on the news today I've read time and time again that Maliki doesn't really mean this, he is just being a politician. I tend to agree. But the problem is it is at this point that the Republicans stop their use of critical thinking and analysis.

Below the orange fold I highlight the simple, yet huge mistake they are making.

I won't see him until this weekend, when we head to "Corn Day" but doing a little jig for the man. Thought I might just write down a few thoughts. Oh, and yes, I live in a place where we have "Corn Day."

He went to college when he was 15. So young my great grandmother moved with him to Urbana (that would be the University of Illinois). He got his medical degree when he was 20.

The next year when he got done with his internship at Barnes in St. Louis he moved home, married my grandmother, bought the place he'd have his practice at for 50 years, and joined the military in literally a day.

That must have been one heck of a day.

I know this is talked about all the time as it relates to climate change, the war in Iraq, you name it. I want to come at it from a different angle.

Over the course of the last year or so I have become 110% addicted to BBC America. One of the best shows is Top Gear. Think three guys getting to drive the world's fastest and most expensive cars and then talking about them.

But in a few shows the three hosts are given a small sum of money to buy a junker and then complete nearly impossible tasks.

They came to the US for the first time. They started in Miami and had only $1,000 to buy a used car and drive to New Orleans. When they got to New Orleans it got interesting, and I don't mean in a good way.

This will be short, but I kept thinking somebody else would post a thread on their rally and alas it didn't happen. I got more than a little upset at Bill and Hillary during the primary (as many of us did). But I was very impressed with what she just had to say. Powerful, funny at times, respectful. If Obama keeps doing what he is doing and Hillary does as well the can of whoop ass McCain is going to get will be fun to watch.

So if you are watching Obama now start speaking what do you think?