Month: October 2005

GOP Trying Not to Panic

Posted by | Oct 2, 2005 |

Things are not going well for the Republicans. From Newsweek:

More Americans still disapprove of the president’s handling of problems caused by Rita than approve (49 percent vs. 42 percent.) And, across the board, most of his most visible policies only pull the support of a third of the country: on the economy, 35 percent approve; on Iraq, 33 percent; on energy policy, 28 percent.

More worrisome still, the base that provides the floor to the president’s support are critical of their own party these days. For instance, a 49-percent plurality of Republicans says their party is “too close to oil companies” and a 53-percent majority says it’s “too close to big business.”

And the GOP politicos are starting to feel the heat. Here’s a selection of quotes from this morning’s New York Times.

“It’s been a difficult week, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said Representative David Dreier, the chairman of the Rules Committee, who has assumed new duties in the reshuffling.
Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, agreed. “You get your job done,” he said. “You can’t panic. Even though our poll numbers are going down, there’s no great love for the Democrats, no great support.”
“The Republican Party has taken some real body blows and is on the ropes right now,” said Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota. Because of recent events, he added, “Democrats basically have been keeping their mouth shut and watching as the Republicans kind of implode.”
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, argued that the Republican Party needed to acknowledge the governmental failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina and outline a broad agenda for change. As the party in charge, “We had better be the leader of changing it until it works or we will legitimately be fired as failures,” he said.
Other Republicans argued that the political times demanded a little soul-searching. Representative Chris Shays, a Republican moderate from Connecticut, said that the Republican Congress “needed to do a better job of oversight” of the executive branch. “We are not a parliament,” he said.
And John C. Danforth, a moderate and former Republican senator from Missouri, argued that the times “call for the Republican Party to recapture the middle of the political spectrum and to do a better job of emphasizing that.”

Perhaps Nancy Pelosi sums it up best:

“Republicans are blinded by their culture of cronyism and corruption,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. “They’re crumbling, arrogantly protecting their power.”

And Nancy is not alone. It’s just that GOP members aren’t willing to go on the record.

Some backbenchers were gloomy and resentful, but unwilling to say so on the record, for fear that the vindictive DeLay might survive. “Leadership has become ossified and hopelessly out of touch,” lamented one such member. “They only care about one thing, hanging onto their own power. I’m not ready to take them on, at least not yet, not unless I have to!”

Is it 2006 yet?

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Froggy Bottom Art Fair — Submission Guidelines

Posted by | Oct 2, 2005 |

 

Froggy Bottom Photography Fair

October 8 and 9

Submission Guidelines
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
  1. You can create your own diary with these guidelines:
    • Photos in diary 150px wide/40kb
    • Photos can be links to larger display photos (not in diary)
    • 10 photos per diary
    • Photos in comments are allowed, if they follow
      size constraints
    • If you want your diary linked to the main Fair
      Diary, you must email us your username and Link to your diary
    • address: froggybottomphotofair@gmail.com
  2. You can submit photos to us
    • we can edit for size (not color or other work)
    • We will follow the above guidelines
    • Submissions should be made by Thursday to be
      assured entry in the Fair
    • Subject line on submissions should say:
      PhotoFair: YourBoomanUserName (PhotoFair: katiebird)
    • Photos must be named with YourBoomanUserName and numbered. (ex: katiebird5.jpg)
    • If your photos are Titled or have attached comments, please make sure each is labeled with the correct photo filename.
    • Submission address: froggybottomphotofair@gmail.com
The small diary-display size for the images has two purposes:
  • The committee understands that many Bootribers use dial-up connections and we wanted them to experience the full fun of the fair.
  • And the display requirements of the site software meant that we couldn’t allow gigantic megapixal photographs — we had to have some size limit.

So we decided to have a single standard (150px wide/ 40kb file-size).


But, please notice this:

Everyone is encouraged to use display-images as a thumbnail link to a full size image if you feel the small size doesn’t do justice to your photograph.

We know that all the resizing and linking could be difficult for some participants.


And that is why the committee has worked out the details of posting images for anyone, everyone who would like us to do it for them.

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Tribbers and their children – happy times

Posted by | Oct 2, 2005 |

This diary started with a desire to flag tiggers thotful spot‘s diary about increasing infant mortality in the US over at dKos. I also read Ductape Fatwa haunting diary : They passed the babies forward, about the NOLA refugees desperate attempts to make sure that at least their children would get out.

But then I thought: why focus (yet again?) on the bad news? Let’s maybe look at the bright side of this: parents’ love for their children, and their desire to want the best for them.

I don’t know how many tribbers are parents, I suspect a majority (take the poll below and we’ll maybe have a better idea), which means that such tragic news or stories resonate immediately for many of us. Today, however, I’d like us to bring out some happy stories.

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