Call Me Easily Amused...

This "political" ad I found on Youtube made me giggle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdAjGXFJw3s

I am, of course, assuming that this is all tongue-in-cheek. If not - that is one competitive pre-school....

In the News...

Al-Muhajir says Rumsfeld fled Iraq
Dubai, 20:46
The leader of Iraq's al Qaeda wing on Friday gloated over forcing outgoing US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to flee the Iraqi battlefield. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, said in a purported audio recording posted on the Internet that the group has 12.000 armed fighters and 10.000 others waiting to be equipped to fight US troops in Iraq. "I tell the lame duck (U.S. administration) do not rush to escape as did your defence minister ... stay on the battleground," the speaker said. After Republicans' defeat at the midterm elections, President Bush announced Donald Rumsfeld's replacement by saying that "fresh perspective is needed at the Pentagon to deal with the war in Iraq".

================================

al-Muhajir was also heard to say: "ARGGGG!"

And Furthermore...(Sassette Weighs In)

The democrats would not have triumphed so immensely if people were not so completely fed up with the direction the administration and their legislative enablers have taken this country.

• Who wants to be reviled by the rest of the world?
• Who wants to be the ones that jail people indefinitely with no visits, no lawyers, and rhyme or reason?
• Who wants to be the ones who torture people - in other words - the BAD GUYS?
• Who wants to be the guys who back out of Kyoto, when we could set a good example; because it would be too much of a hardship on our companies?
• Who wants lobbyists writing legislation that screws Americans? Drug benefits, bankruptcy laws, energy policy, etc.?
• Who wants to see more of our fellow citizens killed when no one in charge seems concerned that our people keep dying long after "Mission Accomplished"?
  

People went democrat, because it is in our nature to want to believe there is hope, even when things look hopeless....

Now let's HOPE that the new majority will focus on doing our business, and not going all Cock of the Walk with their vanquished foes....

Don't try to impeach, don't hold endless hearings, just dig in and try and fix the mess W& Co. have made.

Xen's Post-Election Zen

I have heard (online & on the radio & on cable news-as-entertainment channels) quite a bit of bitter conservative whining/ranting this week, post election. I can't help but feel that this kind of behavior is EXACTLY what brought the results upon them by the electorate.
To lose both houses and a ton of the governorships is a massive statement. A statement indicating that more people than not are in the middle politically. This is something that the conservative leaders have tried very hard to have us believe is not true. It was a tool used in attempts to make people believe that the country was utterly polarized. That you HAD to be at one and or the other of this spectrum - and that they were the only REAL choice for leaders and governing.

These post election commentaries are still rift with fear-threats assuring us all about how the country and the world is now worse off because they aren't getting their way (that being, unrestrained power). There is a formidable level of anger, and, in many cases, the continued practice of calling the general electorate stupid. I am amazed at this arrogance.

To me, this isn't about the new time of Democrat rule. It's about non-performance. It's about abuse of powers. It's about the failure of the checks and balances in the democratic system to exist for too long a period. It's about the silent political middle not being so silent.

I am filled with happiness at the outcome of the elections because it gives me hope for the system, and it shows that people DO have a voice and can use it for change. It WORKS.

The new mix of elected officials have a huge responsibility to make progress. And they need to be humbled by the change in the face of our government by the citizens. Just like that. Peacefully. And I hope that if there is further failure, then we will change again. It's a fantastic dynamic.

We cannot be deterred by the anger, abuse and cajoling of those cast from power. It's not ABOUT conservative or liberal. It's about doing the right thing and maintaining this country's principles and ideals. To paraphrase: The ends for all do not justify the means of a few.

Xen's Weekly Image

Here's a picture taken at about 5:00PM on Nov 4th, looking towards the eastern horizon. I think it looks appropriately eerie to be used in a horror movie or murder mystery. Or as a book cover image. Something with one of THOSE titles, like: "And the Moon Watched Her Die ... a Jack Parish Novel" Ha.

Sassette’s Excellent Voting Adventure (a few days late)

1. Walked to the polls, thereby saving the environment from unnecessary pollutants
2. Noted that my polling place, a local church, was (I believe illegally) displaying a campaign sign for only one candidate: Patrick Lynch
3. Was then greeted warmly by Patrick’s mother, who shook my hand, asked for my vote for her son, and told me I have beautiful hair
4. Was tempted to give her my vote just for the compliment, but I remembered the stakes were higher than just having people in office whose mothers like my hair
5. I did NOT inform Mrs. Lynch that I suspected that she had illegally placed a campaign sign on the church lawn
6. I also did NOT inform Mrs. Lynch that she had lipstick on her teeth
7. Was told by the sweet, 800 year-old man at the voting table that I “had to be voting for the first time”
8. Was tempted to vote for him as a write-in candidate for every office, but I remembered the stakes were higher than just electing super-old people so I will seem really young by comparison
9. Began connecting the arrows, and accidentally voted for both Patrick Kennedy and his republican challenger – must have been still preening over the elderly gentleman’s compliment
10. Brought my folded ballot over to an 800 year-old lady, and explained my error
11. Was glared at so powerfully, I suspect this lady was one of the church “sisters” – lay people just don’t pack glares like that
12. Got shiny, new ballot and filled it out correctly
13. Wept bitterly that nearly all my local politicians were running unopposed, and could faintly hear the founding fathers rolling in their graves
14. Fed the municipal referenda ballot into voting machine with success!
15. Fed state/federal ballot into voting machine and was rewarded with a sound like the one the keno machine makes when you have a lucky ticket
16. Briefly thought I had won some sort of prize… (“Straightest Arrow-Connecting Lines” or something)
17. Watched in horror as the machine SPIT MY BALLOT OUT AT ME
18. Whistled and looked around innocently while wrestling the last quarter inch of my ballot from the EVIL VOTING MACHINE
19. Since no one came to my assistance, I did a “do-over” and fed it back in – Take that EVIL VOTING MACHINE!
20. May have actually voted twice! Go me! Hustled out of the polling place before I was nabbed for voter malfeasance or some such infraction.
    
    THE END.

Ranting about TV is as much fun as WATCHING

XEN:
Please allow me to point out in a typically MALE kind of way that BONES is incredibly hot when she's dressed to the nines and playing a floozy .... The gum snapping and flapper-squeak voice and attitude just works... LOL !!!

Now.. if you watched the show... I have a question. Know how they determined that the girl was murdered by a baseball bat? the same one that killed the original person whose remains they found?
OK... but, I can't for the life of me figure out when they said WHO DID IT.

They focused on the girl boxer suspect so much that I couldn't figure out who really did it?
Was it one of the Vegas mob fight-club guys?



Sassette:
It was the kid who hung out at the boxing gym with Joe Nolan - the ex boxer. He was the son of the loan shark that Booth initially suspected.

Bones is totally hot all dressed up - she has a ridiculously tiny waist.

In a coincidence, the actor who played him also guest-starred on Jericho as the remorseful Ravenwood guy. He competed with himself in the 8-9pm timeslot....

One thing that totally annoyed me on Jericho (ok, maybe two things) : first, the mayor had a fever, right? So science-nerd-girl remembers a really long, boring way to make ice without refrigeration. Part of her instructions is to "get water from the well, it will be cooler." Now, having had well water, I can testify that it is absolutely FREEZING even in the heat of summer. So, why didn't they just dump Mayor-Sicky-Pants into a cool bath in the first place? That's what my mom used to do with us when we had high fevers. (well, maybe not dump, exactly)

Second, how are they going to have this woman (a nurse no less) be pregnant and not be absolutely sick with worry over all of the radiation that she has been exposed to? That would have to impact the baby, no?

XEN:
I THOUGHT he looked familiar when I watched Jericho later.
Ha! Too funny.

OK, now I see how he was the one on Bones who did it.... thanks.
Jericho...
(I am JOKING HERE!!) You TOTALLY have it in for this show...I can tell. You WANT to like it, but just can't suspend disbelief ... probably because there have been a TON of Armageddon shows & movies and it's so easy to pick them apart~

But yeah, you are also completely right about each of those things....
They should have had him in a bath days and days ago .... not under the covers (with ONE trickle of sweat running down his cheek).
The good part for him is that they are like 7 episodes in and he's not had to do SQUAT as far as acting after the 1st two epi's.
LOL
Even if the water was relatively WARM, you'd float him .... PLUS - they all wear coats at this point... get the guy outside....

Oh..the pregnancy thing is a stupid contrivance. Once she said that I started to get ticked off. Of COURSE the girl who was going to divorce her estranged husband suddenly is pregnant. Explain this... the show opened saying it was a month after the bombs. So she can't even KNOW really that she's pregnant unless the conception happened almost a month BEFORE the bombs went off. And they couldn't STAND each other then. Oh, but they had sex? NO problem with fulfilling needs with someone you are not getting along with? Or in using protection? And she's a nurse? Right. Not.

Plus this plays the entire BS storyline with those two out further.

She worked on ALL radiation poisoned people. The kid's gonna be a freak.

SO.
All said and done. I agree with all you say. Hee!

And why is it a BIG secret that he went away and drove a truck in Iraq as a contractor? If there isn't MORE to is, then it's stupid.
I suspect this guy will be super spy by the time they are done with his past. He can DO everything. Fight, improvise, he's MacGyver, and probably has superpowers too.


Sassette:
Yes, that is one of the most annoying aspects of this show - Jake-Of-All-Trades.

I mean, I get it, he's a cutie. So, TPTB want him in as many scenes as possible, doing as many manly things as possible.

But, as you say, he is becoming some sort of cheap MacGyver imitation. He runs! He shoots! He can use dynamite to rig a strategic cave-in! He has a dark past! And a bad*ss car! Every pre-menopausal woman in town wants him! ("You sir, are NO Richard Dean Anderson") I wish I had high-def so that I could see what information Dawkins pulled up on him on his Super-Secret-Spy-Computer...

And I do want to like it. I really do.

I just can't help gritting my teeth through the cliché surprise(!) break-up pregnancy, and the fact that last week we had horse thieves, and next week we can look forward to mercenaries (it's a western! it's a war pic!). Sometimes I can't help thinking it would be the best thing for Jericho if The Walkin' Dude blew into town and wiped them all out...