Well, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday it looked like Harriet's going to fight it out, today, she's down for the count. What gives?

What looked like a handgrenade, actually turned out to be a handgrenade. And for a while it looked like Bush's team found the pin and was going to manage to put it back in, when the grenade went off.

So, now that they are trying to pick themselves off the floor, what do you think they will come up with? Will Bush listen to reason and put up a centrist for nomination (see Roberts... sort of) or will he become Limbaugh's bitch and nominate some extremist to the bench? Hmmm...

I have another hypothesis for you. This may be a little far fetched, but I wouldn't put anything past Boy Genious / Turd Blossom. Try this on for size:

The Administration knows that Fitzgerald will come out with the Plamegate investigation findings any moment. Given where all the fingers points to, the Bush team decides to have Miers "quit" just in time for a second nomination to be put forth when the news cycle is taken with talk of top level criminal indictments. And so, switch the news cycle back to the nomination, taking the pressure off the VP and all the rest of the crooks. Too far fetched, you say?

We'll see.

My daughter Arden's birthday was yesterday. She's now 3 months old. Which is fantastic. She truly is something else. I have never quite felt this way hearing a girl laugh. Sky parting, angels looking down and all that.

I do have to mention that there are a few things that having a baby will teach you. First of all, when people tell you: "Are you having a baby? Wow, everything is going to change!" they don't really say anything.

They might as well say: "The muezzin's song is very beautiful in the morning fog." Means absolutely nothing to you and as sure as hell does not offer any constructive indication on what's to come.

I would have appreciated a lot more wisdom morsels like: "Wait for 5 minutes before changing the diaper. There might be more in there." Or, drooling is normal. All babies do it.

Which leads me to the next thing. Babies are cute, adorable and leaky. They leak out of all orifices, at all times and at the most innoportune moments. But we love them all the same. And boy, do I.
I would do anything for little drooling, smiling, adorable Arden.

Had some time to re-think some of this blog's function and I got to say, doing a drawing a day can be somewhat taxing. So, it's time for a revision. Drawing will happen as and when I feel like it. Which, to those of you that love quality art, could be quite the relief...

Meanwhile, while I was out, my house was NOT, I repeat, NOT, redecorated, but sadly, my country has.

As in, the president's backers have discovered that backing an incompetent president can actually hurt your efforts to transform the country into your vision of utopia and instead turn it into a shit heap, Hollywood has released some crappy movies and the Colbert report has hit the airwaves. Well one out of 3 isn't all bad...

More later.

Sad news. Rotring, the company that started in 1928 in Germany has been taken over by American manufacturer and member of the Rubbermaid empire, Sanford. And as every thoughtful takeover of a better brand than your own, you do the right thing and kill it. Which is exactly what's happening at the moment.

Can't have the sub-brand out-shine and be overall better than the main brand. Ergo, must kill the quality product and flood the market with the crappy one.

Go Sanford, make us all proud now!

16th child born today to the same mother. A full on soccer team, complete with reserves. Here are few interesting facts about the situation.

Husband name?
Jim Bob.

First name initial of all children names? J.

Wife haircut?
Mullet.

Place of residence?
Arkansas.

Does she want more children?
Yes, if the Lord wants to give them some more, she will accept them.

Husband's occupation?
Politician.

Comments? Didn't think so.
We're done here.

The new iPod Video launched today. Just in time for the Christmas shopping season. And if you are a TV addict, well, this is just the answer you were looking for. TiVo to go. Perfect. Now, all I have to do is convince myself and all my loved ones that me having one of these things is indeed a good thing. And THAT, my friends, will not be easy...

Today the US pledged $ 50 million to quake relief in Pakistan.

To put in perspective, that's 2.5 crazy US businessmen taking a little amuzing trip to the yonder space, or to further put in perspective, for 4 extra million Affleck and Lopez could have re-made Gigli! Or, just a little more than 1/2 of Tomb Raider.

Maybe, perish the thought, we would have gotten Angelina Jolie with 1 breast? For lack of funds to pay for the other's salary?

It's a sad state when we 40,000 lives are not worth the price of making a crappy movie like the Hulk. Or when multi millionaires / billionaires are taking trips to space instead of helping their fellow man with money they will never ever even get a chance to spend.

What is going on in TV land these days? Why are all husbands / fathers portrayed like absolute idiots on everything from commercials for toilet cleaning products to sitcoms and movies?

Sure, we may miss that toilet every now and then, leave the seat up and all that, but this doesn't or shouldn't earn the scourge of an entire communications medium and the contempt of a few generations of daughters.

Sitcoms. Take for example "King of Queens". Very funny and full of important lessons about chicken wings pizza and beer. And at it's very base it showcases a fat guy obsessed with junkfood and a thinner, attractive wife. Same with The Family Guy, Still Standing, etc.

Makes for interesting viewing for men (the wife) and interesting viewing for women (sweetie, that's just like you, with a ratty teeshirt and sweats, eating chips on the couch.

Aaah yes, don't forget commercials involving teenagers. The father is a complete idiot that somehow holds a job, putting food on the table and is being completely thrown off his game by the daughter's / son's choice in jeans or taste in junkfood.

By the way, the kids are either really put off by how uncool the father is or are enjoying his predicament just a little too much, fully deserving a beat-down...

Is this an appropriate portrayal of reality? And is this bothering everyone else?

Tsunamis, wild fires, hurricanes, earthquaqes, Pat Robertson, bird flu... It's all very exciting. Makes you think that living in this century will be a lot more un-fun that the last. (minus the 2 world wars, the other smaller, less "world" wars, flu pandemic, the pet rock, etc) I'm bitter already and it's only 5 years into it.

Today's Nobel Peace Prize award to the IAEA and El Baradei, incidentally awarded by a body that is as independent as it gets, would make it seem like our esteemed president G W Bush is somewhat of a liar, having publically discredited the agency and it's leader, by insisting against all reason and evidence that Iraq is in posession of nuclear weapons, or is in months away from completing a nuclear device. A claim that amounted to a cassus belli and justified an invasion. Of course, the fact that he didn't wait for the UN to finish their inspection, that Saddam ultimatelly allowed, helped maintain the veneer of righteousness. Which by the way, should serve as a polite "shut the f#&k up!" to the crowd saying that the Europeans thought the same thing and the Clinton administration thought the same thing. Point is that neither the Europeans or Clinton ordered the invasion of Iraq. Bush did. Before the inspection completion. And, of course, once it was obvious that there was no nuclear or bio program to be found, we transition to "Freedom's on the march" as the reason, after a quick discredited stop on "harboring al Quaeda"

Remember these lies when you gas up at the pump this weekend:

"Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies." (Second Debate)

"If we failed to act in Iraq, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day." (2004 State of the Union)

"The Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."

The intelligence "leaves no doubt that . . . Iraq . . . continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

In October 2002 Bush stated, "[Iraq] is moving ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon."

I listened today to the president's speech on terrorism. Here's the long and the short of it: long in rhetoric and short in substance. More self back-patting. One interesting point. It struck me that this speech was appealing to our collective fear much more than our need to be better and inspire us to actually WANT to make things better. Another interesting thing is that you can hear the other side making the same claims of success in their fight with almost the same language. Here's an example you sould read while picturing Bin Laden with some cloth background and an AK next to him.

"There's always a temptation, in the middle of a long struggle, to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world, and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder. This would be a pleasant world, but it's not the world we live in. The enemy is never tired, never sated, never content with yesterday's brutality. This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory."

Evidently, if the voting goes well and there is a majority of votes for it, the constitution passes. If the majority votes are against it, then only the "registered voters" ballots will be counted. Not all the votes cast will be counted and tallied. An interesting switch that the UN decries and Washingtom may just see it as a great step forward for Democracy, no doubt in it's hurried flight from Iraq.

From ABC News: "Election rules hold that the constitution will be defeated if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces vote against it even if it wins majority approval nationwide. Sunni Arabs have a sufficient majority in four provinces.

But on Sunday, parliament passed a new interpretation of the rules declaring that two-thirds of registered voters must vote "no" not two-thirds of those who actually vote. The interpretation raises the bar to a level almost impossible to meet. In a province of 1 million registered voters, for example, 660,000 would have to vote "no" even if that many didn't even come to the polls."

So this here is an interesting story. If, 9 years ago, I would have told a republican that Bill Clinton and Al Gore along with their respective chief of staff and assitant have been involved in leakig the identity of a CIA operative, I would have been faced with some rabid person foaming at the mouth and demanding that the president be impeached. In the absence of such damning national security breech evidence, they settled for the next best to national security threat to impeach him with. A blow job, of course. The question is, when is ANYONE going to call the current administration out on it's fake patriotism and expose them for what they really are? You know the kind of patriotism I am talking about, right? The kind that calls for the terrorists to be "wanted dead or alive" and then obstructing the 9/11 commission. Or the kind of patriotism that during the Vietnam war found an easy out in the Texas National Guard, or, in Cheney's case, busy with "other priorities".

Samuel Johnson said it right: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." So true.

Introducing the predictably named operation... Iron Fist! Those pesky insurgents. By the way, that's what we call them. They may very well call themelves Iraqis. What we call ourselves is liberators. And what they call us is invaders. I guess it all depends what side of the liberation/oppression fence you're on, and who wins the fight, of course. But, back to the new military operation. All these names that are meant to inspire(us) and frighten(them). We're so fortunate to have an administration with a good spin machine that can pull together names exhibiting this level of sophistication. Consider "Shock and Awe". Or "Iraqi Freedom". Or "Platinum Turban". Ok, the last one is not part of the roster of operations conducted by the US Army. But should it be? Hey, why not have some fun with this? Why not Operation Ageless Boyfriend? Or Operation Angry Wombat? At best we may just confuse them into submission. At worst we'd be fodder for editorial cartoonists everywhere. And since we're already there...

Make your own operation name at this website. Fun, fun, fun.

Are stamps relevant anymore in this age of email? Sure they are. Mostly because you do have to pay that bill to that company that does not yet have electronic bill pay service. And when you do give your money to a company like that, what more cheerful way to tell them: UPDATE YOUR SYSTEM, than with a cheerful well placed Miss Piggy stamp?