The countdowns are over. What's the story with Paterson?

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I said I wasn’t surprised that Paterson picked Kirsten Gillibrand previously.
However that doesn’t mean I agree with his choice.
First off she’s fairly conservative for a democrat, well ok so that’s not the end of the world.
But she’s not a strong backer of gay rights and is endorsed by the NRA, and quite a bit of the unknown to the rest of the state.
When Kennedy dropped out it seemed from what Patterson said that he was almost pre-determined to pick a woman to replace Hillary.


Now I may be totally off base here but if it was me was making the choice, I would have chose Cuomo so that he definitely didn’t run against me for the governership. After all Paterson is in an odd position himself being a result of the Spitzer disaster. Now he’s alienated a lot of democrats and I have no idea why he would do that intentionally. Who was advising him I wonder?
There are certainly people that don’t like Gillibrand and will run against her in 2010 and she may be a strong candidate in a more republican area of upstate running as a conservative democrat but… can she really fly in an election over the whole state? She’ll be challenged by at least one other woman and Cuomo would beat her hands down if he doesn’t decide to take out Paterson instead.

What a weird drawn out mess Paterson turned the appointing of one senator into.
Drama, drama.
Kennedy should have stayed out of it and taken time to cultivate her possible entrance into politics.
But she didn’t.
Paterson should not have taken so long and then seem to quickly pick out of a hat.
But he didn’t.


I wonder who Hillary Clinton would have picked for her successor? Hmm.

Oh well, nobody checks these things with me. lol. What the hell would I know?

G'night,

Laura

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Two days into the Obama Presidency. Can't believe Bush has finally left the building!

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Looks like Geithner will be approved dispite the tax thing.
Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand is the likely pick for Hillary Clinton's senate seat.
He is definitely going to pick a woman I'm sure of it and I think it will be Kirsten too.
Wasn't too sure about Caroline Kennedy for many reasons.

I'm rather annoyed by something that Rush LImbaugh said (big surprise).
Rush said on air that he hopes President Obama fails. Literally that is what he said. He wants Obama to fail.
He disagrees with Obama obviously but to say such a thing at this time and place is pure bullshit.
To wish failure on Obama means that many American’s would have to suffer even more than they are now.
I despise Rush Limbaugh, what a jerk. How stupid can you get and still be listened to?
What’s the difference between him and any ex-drug addict, oh, yea, he’s not in jail. Yes, ole’ Rush’s moral character is of the finest caliber… but I guess his God forgives him those trespasses eh?

Interesting thing about Rush Limbaugh… he has a web site of course where you can go listen to his tirades.
Or at least you should be able to, but there’s just one thing: you can’t listen to anything without joining his “group.” Costs you money to do that folks. So I guess Rush is just another money grubbing creep. So many of them out there. Check Rushie’s site out:

Limbaugh's World

Very high opinion of himself it would seem. Bill O’Reilly’s site has the same thing. Ya gotsa pony up the bucks if you want your daily dose of right wing dogma.
Well, at least I can see those cute lil’ clips on CNN and You Tube even if I wouldn’t in a million years send any money to hear your constant tirades and add to your coffers. we can find you out there for free… oh lucky us.

******

I want President Obama to succeed. Sane people want Obama to succeed.
All people want to avoid a depression. Most people support whoever is the president of the United States of America even if they didn’t personally vote for him/her themselves. We don’t wish our president ill we support him. The majority of people in our democracy freely of our own volition VOTED for President Obama.
I didn’t vote for George Bush but I didn’t want him to fail if it meant that our country would fail.
Shut up Rush. Just shut up. I know you won’t but it’s a free country and I’m free to dream.
Actually I don’t care if you shut up really, I just hope people start to think about some of those really inflamatory and stupid things you keep saying and simply stop listening to you. That would be better, since you share the same freedom of speech we all have.

Amazing.

G'night,

Laura

The day after inauguration... or the rocky road back to the future.

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Hillary Clinton the new Secretary of State.
VP or President would have been better but I think Obama stands the best chance to get us out of some of this mess.
There will be time for a woman president (and there will be one).
Approval for new position for Hillary 94-2.

Caroline Kennedy is out of the race for the NY senate seat vacated by Hillary. Interesting.
Not sad about that because although she's certainly capable and well educated, I think her manner of speaking would have driven me crazy. I'm happy to not have to listen to GW anymore.

And speaking of people that are somewhat linguistically challenged, David Letterman did a final skit last week and I don't know how long it will be availible to view but I'm going to put it here anyway. It's funny and worth watching.



Funny that the J Crew site went down because of the Obama women's outfits at inauguration.
I think I like this new first family alot!!!
Since today is the start of a new presidency don't have much to say. So what I'm going to do is post some of the photos I took on one of my long walks in the snow a few days ago. It was the only daytime walk I took, mainly so I could take photos.







Walking in the snow is soothing and peaceful. One of my favorite things to do.
I don't think I could live somewhere that there was never any snow.

G'night,

Laura
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A dozen days left of BushLite's presidency: What no roses?

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Well now we're looking at Congress' typically twisted way of showing bipartisanship... Republicans acting like democrats and democrats acting like republicans. Which by the way gets us no further along on the road to agreement or unity at all.
The question is not who's on what side; it's who's going to work with Obama.
Please make Reid stop talking before he thinks things through, actually let that be a model for them all.

Reid's still holding out on seating Burris on a technicality about a signature on his paperwork. Though everyone has pretty much stated directly or indirectly at this point that he will be seated.
I'm still thinking that Blago isn't going to jail after all the dust clears... unless there's more we haven't heard yet, because I think they jumped the gun this time. We'll see eh? They probably will remove him from office though if they can manage to.
Reid needs to stop talking. I expect the republicans to express skepticism about Obama but Reid says he's not going to simply go along with Obama... blah, blah, blah, stop talking... Jeeze Reid, Obama's not even president yet.

So Reid defends his position against Burris on his incredible principles (fear of the spread of "taint") but gives a speech that praises Ted Stevens for his indictment on seven federal counts of years of service.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And it's interesting that Sarah Palin is on the whine again about the unfair treatment of her and her family by the liberal leaning press. And how Caroline Kennedy is getting a free ride from the media... now surely you jest Ms Gov Palin? The press is happily crucifying Caroline. She isn't getting any free ride. Her pedigree has been picked at, her experience criticized, even her speech has been mimicked by commentators, pundits and (golly gee) late night talk hosts.
You know, someone, um, called her diction "valley girl" style, like you know, um... yea.

Then again, Palin wouldn't know a cause to be sympathetic if it jumped up and bit her in the ass 'cause, she's being that the only one criticized that is out there and so it seems to make her crazy, you betcha.

I still can't get the image of a giant Putin rearing his head over the Alaskan tundra. AAAaarrrgggghhhhh!!!
::sigh::
So hard to take anything seriously at a very important time that everything should be taken seriously.

Wow, five presidents in one Oval Office, and lightning didn't strike!!!
Two George Bushes, one Clinton and a Carter, standing with president elect Barack Obama.

Truly amazing but me being me, of course I couldn't stop thinking about the Saturday Night Live cartoon spoofs "The X Presidents." Always dependably tasteless and crass but nevertheless oddly funny. Did you remember that the SNL cartoon "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" was voiced by Steve Carell and Steve Colbert? You can see one of the cartoons here but remember I said it was funny tasteless... The X-Presidents

G'night,
Sleep well,

Laura

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Thirty-two days till the bail out bail's out Bush.

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So it took GW until Friday to decide to give the loan to the auto makers to attempt to bail them out.
Even without a shoe whack upside of his head...
Well I don't think it's going to help all that much when people aren't thinking of buying new cars in the near future.
But I'm hoping that I'm totally wrong.

Mixed feelings about the possibility of Caroline Kennedy (isn't her name Schlossberg?) being appointed as Senator from NY.
Could certainly do worse, might do better. Wish she had more of her brother John Jr. She seems far more serious.

For now Al Franken seems to be ahead in the count in Minnesota. What a joke. Don't like either one of them. Get it done.

I may be nuts but I'm not sure that Rod Blagojevich is going to have much happen to him. He may be forced from his office but so far I'm not sure I heard anything that puts him in jail... Hmm. Like I said our political system is getting weirder and weirder.

It seems that the Prop 8 supporters have brought in Kenneth Starr as council to "protect marriage" (ie between a man and a woman. So there will be a few challenges to Prop 8... let's hope that we move away from govt. sanctioned discrimination (and it shouldn't matter what side you are on, pro gay or not). This is a civil rights issue.Prop 8 article

And the best news: Paulson wants the second half of the 700 billion dollars now... nevermind that wait until Obama is president in Jan. Me wants me cookiieeeessss. Nope. Can't we get rid of Mr. ex CEO of Goldman Sachs?
He hasn't fixed anything, let's try a new approach. Seriously let's try.

Non political:
Why is it that Drew Peterson is engaged again? Wife # 5 to be and young too (23ish).
I don't get it. Is there something appealing about someone who may have killed at least one of his prior wives?

Snowing in NY. My rosemary on the steps was blanketed with snow. It's so pretty outside right now, but it's starting to turn more into sleet and rain as usual here. Like as not tomorrow all snow will be washed away for the most part.








Don't hold your breath waiting for me to "grow up."
If growing up means I can't take walks in the snow, enjoy crunching ice coated mud puddles, throwing snowballs and building snowmen... I don't really want to. Isn't much fun then. And yes, I built a small snowman I usually do every year.
The kids have "outgrown" snowmen it seems and I used to get snowball fight takers but not so far this year.
Oh well, I love snow and if there was a hill nearby I'd be sleigh riding too.
Well to all of you out there that think adults don't build snowmen by themselves, I don't care, it makes me smile and that's okay with me. Children just gave me more of an excuse... ha.

The jar of cookies are chocolate covered coconut macaroons. Not bad. Done with baking cookies (before christmas anyway).

Tired and have some things to do. Time is rapidly running out on my holiday preparations.
Probably won't relax in any way again until after Christmas.
I am still looking forward to New Year's Eve and 2009.
It's a good time to reevaluate, I for one plan to take the whole year to do just that.

G'night,

Hope you're safe, warm and near to those you care about.

Laura

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Thirty-three days left until dubyah leaves the building...

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Late on the post again. It's still Thursday to me anyway even if not to my computer's clock.

Every time I think it can't get more chaotic this Christmas my day explodes into a wondrous mess.
By the time I get everything straightened out I was tired and still had to get things done.
So at 11pm I found myself making coconut macaroon cookies that tomorrow I'll put chocolate top on them.

Going to bed. I heard some interesting things on the news but nothing seems to be moving forward right now.
Mixed thinking out there about Caroline Kennedy being Senator from NY.
Liberals mad at Obama? Get used to it guys, ain't gonna be the last time by a long shot.
Conservatives mad at Warren for agreeing to speak at the evil Obama's inauguration? Amusing.
I guess it's guilt by association... otherwise known as "Palling around with liberals."

G'night,
Hope your Holiday Season is going far more smoothly than mine!
Laura

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Thirty-five days left of George W Bush

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Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme has turned into a really big deal.
But there are still folk that feel deregulating everything is a great idea.
This year especially was a bad year for those that think that businesses and politics can regulate themselves.
But still we got the billion dollar bail out "to save the economy" even though many folk said don't do it, bad idea.
So what will happen to Madoff? Will anyone recoup their losses?
Good luck fixing the cumulative mess Barack, I can't imagine. I truly can't.

Hard to have faith in anyone anymore... People with education or without, poor or wealthy, equally untrustworthy.
Look at so many of our representatives. Politics as usual reeks. No consciences, how do they sleep at night???

RNC released a new anti Obama ad. This is from a link at the RNC's own site. Interesting. We haven't heard the full story and yet there is the ad. So, we're going to do this the whole 4 years are we? He's not even in office. It seems nothing has been done wrong on Obama's side and we don't know what the feds are advising him either. Of course someone from his staff was in touch with the governer of Illinois, he picks the new senator. Duh. American's are sooooo patient.



Such fuss over Hillary's senate seat. Apparently Caroline Kennedy wants it.
So what? She's capable, seems honest, smart, is a good fundraiser and has strong name recognition...
What really ticks me off are these Hillary supporters... you know the ones, those that refused to vote for Obama because he didn't chose her as the VP candidate, even after she asked them to support him.
Those that now are annoyed because Caroline Kennedy went public with her support for Obama over Hillary for presidential nominee. Also Ted Kennedy gave his support to Obama. Gee sorry, that's the way politics goes. Life goes on.
But they say she's not qualified, she's too pedigreed and not political enough.
Give me a break.
Who should we have? Someone like Al Franken, Ted Stevens, Dianne Wilkerson, Fred Thompson, or folk like Spitzer, Palin, Larry Craig or even John Edwards?
Seriously, get over it. I really wanted Hillary to be the first female president, I voted for her in the primary. But she lost because the voters spoke. I was disappointed but wouldn't in a million years have voted for the McCain/Palin ticket because my feelings were hurt. Grow up, you're not helping women seem reasonable and intelligent by being disgruntled sore losers.
If you're against Caroline Kennedy as senator (and I'm not against it, she's better than many of them) make it for a real reason.

And speaking of NY, Gov. Paterson signed a bill that would stop tax free cigarette sales by Indians... Interesting, need revenue?
New Bill on Indian Cigarette Tax

******
Non political:
If you caught Fall Out Boy on Leno tonight performing Sleigh Bells Ringing it must have made you smile (especially if you like them). I was impressed, it was nice to see a Christmas song that wasn't traditional Tony Bennet.

My mood is slightly better, not a lot mind you, but I guess it's an improvement.
Stressed out, one major gift isn't going to be here for Christmas which sucks because we cut back on the gifting.
Still have to bake and all hell has been breaking loose unexpectedly the last week or so.

UGH. Bah Humbug!

I mean Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Happy Christmas Year Holidays New Hanukkah Season Santa Menorah Tree... Kwanzaa.

And to all a Good Night!

Laura

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Forty days left of Prince George and his merry men...

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This might be a short post because it's been a horrible rainy day and now it's pouring and windy here.
My cable keeps going off and on which makes the internet unstable and has to be reset each time.
Went down in the basement and it's been raining so hard for so long that there are three puddles down there.
Nothing to get damaged near them but enough with the rain all ready, don't want the basement to flood.

I love the political machine... no let me rephrase that, I'm constantly amazed by the vast lack of common sense that permeates both parties. That and the "do what I say but not as I do" mentality.

Let's look briefly at a few of the stories:
Of course there's the obvious one Blagojevich. Now Bernard Madoff arrested for securities fraud.
So who is Madoff anyway and why should we care? Well, he's a former Nasdaq chairman. Great huh?
That's why I don't like Mr. "parachuted over from Goldman Sachs" Paulson in charge of the bailout money.
Conflict of interest to me.

Here's yet another dumb statement since Caroline Kennedy while not in the public eye all the time has done many things.
She's a lawyer, she's raised money for NY public schools, she chairs, serves as director, and does more than many others.
But, here's the thing: NY democrat Gary Ackerman (Queens) states that her qualifications are apparently only that she has "name recognition, but so does J Lo... I wouldn't make J Lo the senator unless she proved she has great qualifications, but we haven't seen them yet." ::sigh:: Number one I'm from NY and still am pissed at Gulliani, now... look, Gary's entitled to feel what ever he wants to about Kennedy and the senate seat but seriously J Lo??? Reminds me of the comparison between Obama/Britany/Paris in that McCain ad. Wtf were you thinking, better yet, were you thinking at all? Wow.

Whether or not Caroline gets the senate nod hopefully doesn't depend on nonsensical statements said by a congressman.
It's so great to see the hypocrisy of the political system doesn't favor just one party. There are ridiculous folk on both sides that don't seem to understand they should think about what they say BEFORE they say it.

The auto bailout didn't get through the senate... not a surprise I kinda expected it. So now what happens?
The loss of jobs, lack of morality, global recession, heating oil prices, mortgage crisis, stock problems, two wars, polar ice caps melting and all the other problems facing us... makes this a rather disturbing end to 2008.
Tough to raise that ole holiday cheer. Just doesn't feel the same to me this year. Grateful for what we have, yes.
Thankful for my family, yes. But there's an underlying anxiety for the future. Being trained in social work makes you aware of the struggles people have, and this is a very tough time for many Americans, especially hard on children. No way around that fact. Blame it on who ever you want it still doesn't fix anything.

Donate to food banks if you can, they can always use money, non-perishable food items and most of all volunteering some precious time.

The reason I'm really late with this post because I was finishing the second day of baking and packaging 18 plates of cookies, one large box of cookies for my husband to take to work and all those left over are for my mom, brother and of course us!
Only just finished. Promised myself I wouldn't go on the computer until I was done.
These cookie packager are some of the fruits of my labors for the past two days.
Take a breather Laura and de-stress. (I think I've almost forgotten how).


G'night,
Hang in there everybody
Going to bed.
Hopefully I can sleep with all this wind.

Laura

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Forty-three days left of GW Bush...

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Wow I had no idea that Caroline Kennedy as a possibility for Hillary's senate seat was going to cause such a ruckus.
Glad I don't have to make the decision that NY Governor David Paterson will be responsible for.

Gen. Eric Shinseki (retired) seems a reasonable choice for Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Seems Obama is getting competent, intelligent and qualified people to head his cabinet.
This should be a great thing, we'll see how it plays out but it shows a lot of promise.
Or maybe the preferred word would be hope.

Supreme court declined to hear the Barack Obama's citizenship case... shouldn't have taken even that long?
Tribune Co is filing for bankruptcy and will be restructuring under the laws... will it be enough to save the papers?
Tune in tomorrow same bat time same bat channel...

Gitmo news: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others detained for 9/11 attacks want to be put to death. Hmm.
What a quandary. Let's see they want to confess to conspiracy for helping plan the attacks and plead guilty to charges.
At least some of the relatives of people who lost their lives on 9/11 were able to be there at to see these men in front of them.
I don't know how I'd feel about seeing them in person myself. I just came across a paper my son wrote the day after 9/11 for a class. It made me cry and brought it all back to me. New Yorkers will never forget 9/11 it tore deep into our souls.
CNN story

Significant riots and protests in Greece because the police shot a 15 year old and the information as to why he was shot is rather sketchy. Though the news states that two police officers have been arrested in the case.
Greek riots

The world seems exceptionally dangerous when put on continuous diet of feedback loops of terrorist attacks in India, riots in Greece, The war in Afganistan and Iraq, pirates in Somali, scary things going on all over the world.
Perhaps our air and water quality, over crowding, poor diets, economic meltdowns and worldwide stress is making us a more aggressive species?

Looks like the auto industry is going to get money, how much and under what conditions is the big question.
All the companies including Toyota and others in the US are in serious trouble.
And everyone's fighting over everything as usual, seems to be a prerequisite of legislative bodies in general.

I think that there's too much "news" out there. It's interesting... with 24/7 news channels and constant access internet news there's a constant need for new stories. Seems like everything is made to sound somewhat sensational.
We don't hear some of the stories we should get the details of that would be relevant to us and other stories become a constant replay of video clips with endless banter. UGH. And they call that news.
No wonder most people prefer to watch TV shows and dvds instead of shoveling through all the news nonsense that does nothing much more than bore, anger, or scare the crap out of them.
Mostly bad news: economic, health, political, war, crime, job losses, recession... on and on and followed by a blonde with wishing you goodnight and happy holidays.
::sigh::

Interesting note: the "Call in gay day" idea for Wednesday. Questionable in effectiveness but will get people talking about human rights hopefully.

I'm hoping that I'm not being overly optimistic looking forward to 2009 but I still am.

Happy Holiday Season to all
and to all a G'night

Laura

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Forty-six days left of GW Bush...

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I'm wondering if it's getting near time to refinance our mortgage.
I hear that shortly the interest rates might go down a little yet again.
Will look into it next week and see if it would be beneficial to us or not.

I saw that OJ Simpson is going to jail for at least 9 years possibly more.
Now I'm not a vindictive person (though I can be rather sarcastic) but I was reasonably content with that judgement.
Restores my faith in Karma, though about 13 years overdue in arrival.
Now we'll see to what the cosmic powers demand of the juice.

Car manufacturers still crying you must save us.
While at least some of the banks are laughing all the way to the bank.
NY Times says that the US lost 533,000 jobs in November.
Outlook isn't that good for December/January.
I'm digging my heels in for a long cold winter.

I successfully accomplished my mission this evening and we video taped it in small segments.
I'm going to upload it tomorrow and attempt to make it watchable.
I apologize in advance for the possibility of the "awfulness" of my first video.
Was thinking of doing one or so a week.
If nothing else it was fun and I'll hopefully get better along the way.
So, I'll see you, or rather you'll see me tomorrow.

Still squawking about Obama's birth certificate (he was born in Hawaii).
Interesting that it was Clarence Thomas referral.
What a waste of time, effort and money.
Give it a rest... people will believe whatever they want to anyway.
Maybe Obama arrived via UFO, no wait now I remember:
I heard tell that was Sarah Palin and that's the scoop.
And you betcha. Pass it on...
Obama is a US citizen

Will Caroline Kennedy seriously look at the NY senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.
That's an interesting development.
Another woman smarter and more interesting than Sarah Palin.
Keep it coming.
Someday soon we'll come out of the dark ages and elect an intelligent, capable woman for the President of the USA.
Yes, we can.
And we will.

G'night
Back tomorrow.

Laura