This is an open thread for general conversation. But don’t forget about Tuesday’s runoff election in Ohio’s 2nd district. Chris Bowers has some fresh dirt on the Republican candidate.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
well even though it’s fresh dirt on the Republican candidate, I’m sure it still has a familiar smell ; )
Interesting diary about things we don’t often discuss…
Skin and the color of money
by: pamindurham
“Can black people tan?”
— a white college student at Fordham, back in 1983, asking me whether I could turn browner in the sun, as we sat outside in the late spring
Read the rest and join in the discussion here:
http://www.soapblox.net/myleftwing/showDiary.do?diaryId=924
Thanks for the link. We need more diaries like this over here or to have that cross posted here. There isn’t enough discussion or learning going on between people when it comes to issues involving race and still so many misconceptions I’m sure.
stolen from Al Rodgers excellent diary at DKos.
“Doing good, sir. How about you?”
“I feel like I got no brain left,” Maxwell said. “My brain got whacked pretty good. I kind of have to fake it to get by.”
On Oct. 7 in central Iraq, mortar shrapnel tore into Maxwell’s skull, causing severe brain damage, and lacerated the left side of his body. Seventeen days later, a rocket exploded near Ferguson in western Iraq, shredding his lower left leg.
= = = = = =
Maxwell, one of the highest-ranking U.S. service members wounded in Iraq, recalls encountering a 20-year-old Marine sitting alone inside a Camp Lejeune barracks in May.
“The kid couldn’t use his arm. He’d seen his buddy killed. His family was in Florida,” Maxwell said. “And he told me he felt so lonely and lost. I decided no Marine was going to be left all alone like that.”
Marine to Marine, today’s LA Times.
MarineLink, 22 Jul ’05.
They’re always out there, sometimes we just can’t see them.
Earlier today I headed out to a barbeque that a friend of mine was throwing. I was tasked with picking up some beer on the way. I stopped in at the grocery store, grabbed a 12-pack, and proceded to the checkout where I was informed that I couldn’t buy beer before noon on a Sunday due to state law (it was about 11:40). So I told the cashier that was fine (hell, it wasn’t his fault), muttered something under my breath about the damn Christians trying to impose their sabbath god-fearing on me, and left. Boy, was I pissed.
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending, as I just stopped at a store a little further up the road after noon. But still…what a worthless law.
Down in Georgia, you cannot buy alcohol in a store from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday. Not just half the day, but all 24 hours. If you’re having a Sunday gathering, you have to remember to stock up the day before.
There are even some counties where you can’t buy alcohol at all, ever. It’s funny because around these “dry” counties, just outside their limits, are the hugest liquor stores you ever saw.
Just like fireworks: You can’t buy them in Georgia so you know you’re approaching the state line when billboards start advertising the fireworks store up the road.
Up here in Virginia, I was delighted to discover I can pick up a bottle of wine 24/7. So much more enlightened… And fireworks stands sprouted on almost every street corner just before the 4th of July. There are restrictions on the types of fireworks but, hey, you don’t have to drive 200 miles just to get a box of sparklers.
We have been getting great rain in Southern Az this weekend. I have been sittin on my porch enjoying the gift from the sky. Hey ejmw, you forgot to invite!
True that…not sure if it would help in that situation though. Big chain stores and whatnot.
Hey Manee…where are you at in AZ? Are you down Phoenix way, or Tucson way, or neither? Just curious. I’ve been down around Scottsdale/Phoenix/Tempe quite a few times, but never any further south. It’s HOT (“dry heat” notwithstanding). Glad you got some rain.
I’m down here in the Old Pueblo/Tucson. Alot of the family is in the Phx metro area but I enjoyed the quieter atmosphere down here and decided to stay after school. Cheers
Fargo, Hector International Airport
Last Update on Jul 31, 11:53 pm CDT
Fair
70°F (21°C)
Humidity: 84 %
Wind Speed: Calm
Barometer: 30.03″ (1016.6 mb)
Dewpoint: 65°F (18°C)
Visibility: 9.00 mi
It’s been another hot and muggy day here in ND. AC still feasible at 11 cents per Kw. My friend in the LA are pays 18, (Thanks to Enron) so can’t afford to run her AC much.
You know what though, I bet in proportion to overall cost of living your electricity’s higher!
-Alan
Could be! Brain too slow tonight for proper analysis, but;
Gas here at $2.14/gal for 10% ethanol, two bedroom apt, fairly new, $650 per month, new const bi-level twin home, 1672 sq ft, $108,000 with appliances.
However, wages = crappy, unless you are skilled craftsman or professional of some sort.
There ya go. The proportion of electric bill to monthly rent (or mortgage) has got to be higher where you are (and where I am) than it is in Cali. I don’t know how people are staying afloat with the housing bubble they’ve got out there…they do have a lot higher wages for white collar professionals, but not so much for the low wage service sector. I think places like New York and L.A. can be the worst for the “Nickel and Dimed” class. At least out here, a crappy seven dollar an hour job can actually pay the bills (which sounds like a pipe dream for people in California or NYC I’m sure).
-Alan
I had an interesting conversation with a friend prior to last year’s election that has remained with me for quite awhile. Let me share:
I was bitching that Arizona was gonna go for Bush and that it was B.S. He said to me, “what are you talkin about, no votes have been cast.”
It made me stop and pause.
Regardless of the Diebold tinfoil hat stuff (to which I think needs further exploration), he was absolutely correct. Elections aren’t final until the voting is completed. Regarding OH-2, we have some serious momentum and all we can do is work our tails off to make sure that Hackett and other candidates get elected. I have hope that our efforts will finally pay off in 2006 and beyond, but we have to make sure that the BushCo minions are exposed for the monsters they really are. Am I making any sense?
Absolutely right. Local organizing and work can turn almost any situation around. There is no rocket science to elections. Voter ID, GOTV, poll watching, local knowledge (of town clerks, etc) Works. We took a swing county and are making it blue. What it does take are volunteers and Work.
Dean yes. But who’s in charge at the DNC? I just got a call (Sunday noon) from the DCCC. Conversation:
Me: “You want money, right?”;
the guy sez (laughing) “No we’re just…”
Me: “where are you calling from?”
Him: “north carolina”
Me: “who hired you guys, the DNC?”
Him: “I don’t know, we’re just doing this for the DCCC. Would you be willing to contribute $110 to be a…”
Me: “Money. What do I get to be for fi’ty? Pass, I do my politics online.”
Him: (laughing) “Well, you have a good day sir.”
Got me to thinking about Dean traveling the country as a regular human, biz class on airlines. Then hit the website this morning, figuring they’d “got it” by now. Wrong. The “Leak” is still front-paged, and the balance of the stories are still negatives with no positive solutions offered.
DNC = premature brain death. Maybe they should just chuck it all and go join ActBlue.
has been re-running the entire Tanner ’88 series. It’s an in depth ‘cinema verite’ behind the scenes (albeit fiction) of a presidential campaign. I didn;t see it much back then but it is almost 20 years later and it’s so strange, why it could have been yesterday…similar cast of characters, Gore, Gephardt, campaign staff, issues, etc…The only real difference? There’s no Howard Dean character…interesting that.
Anyway, if you get Sundance, it’s worth a look..Robert Altman and Gerry Trudeau dreamed it up
BBC
NyTimes
When I saw the lead story on google news this morning, I immediately thought of DuctTapeFatwa and chuckled to myself, “Well, they finally admitted the old guy is dead.” Guess they just couldn’t preserve the corpse any longer.
any minute now. The arrogance of this village idiot! They are a runaway train!