Cheney, Rove, Lay, Skilling; Oh My!!

"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it." ~ Oliver Goldsmith, Irish born British essayist, poet, novelist and dramatist (1730-1774)

One of these days all of the truth will be out about all of these guys. Jack Abramoff with all of his inter-connection with Ney and Cunningham and now, DENNY. Will it ever end?

Six years ago, just after the planting of new SHRUBBERY at the White House I said, "This new group and President will go down in history as the most crooked and corrupt administration ever." Some of my friends laughed at me, Well who's chuckling now? Well, besides Letterman, Leno, Colbert, and Stewart?

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Look for the Paws...

Make your way off of the exits of I-85 in to the land of dreams, the home of the Plainsmen. Where once stood the Sani-Freeze, the Kopper Kettle and lives have changed forever.

"Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain." ~ Oliver Goldsmith, Irish born British essayist, poet, novelist and dramatist (1730-1774)

"The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy." ~ Oliver Goldsmith, Irish born British essayist, poet, novelist and dramatist (1730-1774)

Poster from MIM 2006

This year's Poster from MIM is a great take on an old Woodstock image. I love it!

Like Woodstock, except

SMOKE PORK INSTEAD

3 Days of PEACE, LOVE, & PORK

When in Texas, Enron is not a running play for the Longhorns...

"Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence." ~ Morris Kline

Today, Skilling and Lay were convicted of numerous counts of fraud and other misgivings to the stockholders and taxpayers of the Great State of Texas. Hey, Mama said, "When you play with crooked boards, you get crooked houses." I just wonder how long it will take the GS of Tejas(whoops, that's the original Spainish spelling) to tie these crooks to the Shrub in charge of the mess we now have in DC.

Didn't Deadeye Dick serve in some capacity on "Enron's Board" at some time? Or did he just get lucrative contracts from the Enronites.

Hey, not only are the "Eyes of Texas are upon You", so are the rest of America's.

Ironic isn't it that the Enron scandal started before Martha Stewart got her "insider info" about just buying stock at a good price, she has gone to trial, been convicted, served her time and now is back baking cookies and decorating her house in CT. But these guys bilked millions of American citizens in the Western States by artificially inflating the prices in the power grid and shutting down several power plants to inflate that price. Oh, but that is just "business". Business unless you are the one getting diddled.

"Man's obsession to add to his wealth and honor is the chief source of his misery." ~ Moses Maimonides (born Moses ben Maimon)

"The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers." ~ Carl Jung

On a side note, does the new English Only Law forbid singing Irish Pub songs in Irish or German Beer Drinking Song in Deutsch? Can I still go to Olive Garden or Pete and Sam's, you know they play that Italian (eye-talian, for Bill O'reilly) music? I really like the Fettucinne Alfredo. And does this new law outlaw ethnic festivals in the inner cities of our great country? I really like them too!

Did they really think about it??

There is so much stuff out there....

"Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations." ~ Oliver Goldsmith, Irish born British essayist, poet, novelist and dramatist (1730-1774)

Dew on the Kudzu....
http://todaysdeepsouth.blogspot.com/

Found this great new blogspot, lots of links to every thing Southern with pictures filed from peerless reporters and writers throughout this great land. Features on everything from a new state park in Alabama to John Wesley Hardin in Texas. Great Stuff!! Highly Recommended. At least 4 and 1/2 of 5 stars, if not a full 5. Too many stories to read in one day.

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding." ~ Justice Louis Brandeis

E.J. Dionne says it better than I do....

Divisive in Any Language
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052201156_pf.html/

From his column today in the WP he covers this subject so much better than I could ever attempt to do in this space. He goes on to say, "There is no point to this amendment (English as the "OFFICIAL LANGUAGE") except to say to members of our currently large Spanish-speaking population that they will be legally and formally disrespected in a way that earlier generations of immigrants from -- this is just a partial list -- Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, France, Hungary, Greece, China, Japan, Finland, Lithuania, Lebanon, Syria, Bohemia, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia were not."

The Senate passed this utterly useless amendment sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) declaring English to be our "national language" and calling for a government role in "preserving and enhancing" the place of English. A very strange stance for a "NATIVE AMERICAN" to place himself, considering his native language is not English either.

Talk about pandering to the BASE.

"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." ~ George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and writer

"Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence." ~ Morris Kline

Watching Politicians Work an Event

This weekend I attended a local civic function on the square where I live. Among the various merchandise vendors and church groups were food vendors selling everything from ice cream to pretzels.

It was interesting to see our local anti-war protester with a booth directly across the narrow street from the flag-waving republican party booth. Yet she was drawing a substantially large crowd in this overtly conservative part of the South. She is not afraid, outspoken and dressed as lady liberty she speaks her peace to anyone that will listen and even to those who won't.

I watched local political personalities mingle through the larger than usual crowd due to mild morning temperatures growing to hot in the afternoon. It brought back memories of traveling with my parents to rallies in my youth to drum up support for candidates and the party in elections gone by. Today's encounters were brief yet just as effective, they were to allow the public to see the "PUBLIC SERVANT" as one of them. Some of these "PUBLIC SERVANTS" actually are effective, others are bodies taking up space.

"However far you may travel in this world, you will still occupy the same volume of space." ~ Traditional Ur-Bororo saying

Unfortunately some of these folks take up valuable space!!! Effective leadership is needed in every town, city, county (parish)(township), district, state, and especially in our nation.

Back to another thought: If the Senate is to pass a law regarding the use of English as the official language; two things:

1. Laws should be in that plain English for everyone to understand. Period.
2. The President should have some command of the language, himself. Period.

Those should be fairly easy, if we require new residents to know English, so should everyone in the Bronx, South Beach, Chicago, Boise, Las Vegas, Crawford, Park City, Toledo, Miami, Nashville, Houston, and everywhere in-between.

"He who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that." ~ John Stuart Mill

"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them." ~ Charles C. West

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this blog without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse or protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.

Do you have the CODE?

So much furor, so much dinero, (oops! money for those language challenged in the US Senate). So many francs, no wrong language too. So many lira, oops, that's another non-english tongue, how about yen, no not that one either. Well they say money talks and bs walks........ except in the Senate. There it VOTES!

Looks like the critics were wrong about the buying public, AGAIN! Multitudes went out despite being told by the Catholic League, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Bill O'reilly and the like to see the latest offering from Hollywood. Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's NOVEL The DaVinci Code. (Key word in the code in that sentence is NOVEL)
Everyone from Christendom has either been stirred up in anger or in anticipation awaiting an opportunity to witness to the un-churched masses going to attend the film. It seems that it just happens to be a very good interpretation of the book, which critics don't like, but the public loves. Truth, or in this case fiction is stranger than manipulation.
Every time a movie is made based on a best selling book, critics seem to want the director to take liberties by forcing the screenplay in a totally different direction, yet when they don't; the public rewards them by making it a hit movie and a box office success.

Then there is MI:III or MI:3, oh! whatever: Tom Cruise, jumping, sliding, dropping, staring, explosions, etc. Critics - LOVED. Most of the public stayed away. Could have been Tom, Scientology, TomKat, Tom, Bad movie, Tom, who knows? Couch jumping is up for an Olympic event in the world of Battleship Earth, I hear. Or is it Matt Lauer screaming? I forget.

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

gall 1 (gôl) n.
1. See bile.
2. a. Bitterness of feeling; rancor.
b. Something bitter to endure: the gall of defeat.
3. Outrageous insolence; effrontery.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gall/

How dare the US Senate pass a resolution demanding English being the OFFICIAL and ONLY language of the United States of America, I guess all of their ancestors were born English speaking when they were born, huh? Why now? They did not require this of the Middle Europeans of many diverse backgrounds when they landed on Ellis Island and other ports of entry in years past. Why now?

It is easy to see the CODE as to why the Preznit wants to allow a GUEST worker program: He and his friends (read cronies) need gardeners, dry wallers, carpenters, masons, and restaurant workers at below the PRESENT MINIMUM WAGE that they don't want to raise for "REAL" Americans. So "Joe and Jill Republican" the reason you can't make a living wage is your guvment you elected, so keep it up, unless you break the CODE.

"What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul." ~ Jewish Proverb

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this blog without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse or protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.

Wow, it was great, wish you were here!

"Be not the first by whom the new are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside." ~ Alexander Pope
Friday, went to Tom Lee Park and Memphis in May "3 Days of Peace Love & Pork". It was beyond my imagination! The sensations of the aroma of roasting, smoking pork was almost more than I could contain. By going early we were able to get in free; yes free. As we entered the U of Tn was conducting a survey on why people attend festivals such as this. They paid ME a $2 bill for taking the survey.

Par for the course during a MIM it did rain, yet however not the hurricane force winds and rain typical of MIM. Just a short shower, enought to cool it back down with the breeze off of the Mighty Mississippi.

We visited several competitors booths, those that were friendly enough to speak to uninvited guests. Lawry's Seasonings sponsors a Cooks Caravan (tour of several competition booths) to initiate the public into the real world of competive Barbecue. We got to see a couple of the favorites that we wanted to see: Jack's Old South and Big Bob Gibson's. The folks at Big Bob Gibson's invited us to come back and eat with them at 7 PM that evening after the first meat came off the grill.

After taking it in my wife and I decided that we might try some of the amateur Patio Porker competition in this area next year.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive." ~ Harold Thurman Whitman, Philosopher and Theologian

"I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really." ~ Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi (1911)