Depressing
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Maroon 5
From American Progress:

"How Large is 45 Million?
Today, the Census Bureau reported that 45 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2003, up by 1.4 million from 2002 and 5.2 million from 2000. (The poverty rate also increased significantly for the third straight year). How large is 45 million people? It is roughly equal to the total population of everyone living in California, Oregon and Washington state combined. There are more uninsured in America than African Americans (37.1 million). And the number of uninsured in America is four times the population of Greece (10.6 million)."

Does anyone see a problem with this? Anyone? ::crickets:: Just me? ::more crickets:: Okay.

A Fair Shake in Florida?
Mood:  chatty
Fat chance.

In other news, Pumpkin was foaming at the mouth last night. She's been getting more and more militant in her reactions to all the pills she now has to take to fix her butt problem. She saw me coming and started hyper-salivating in preparation for the not-swallowing of the pill in question. I kid you not there was a fat string of bubbles and drool that stretched at least four inches and connected her face to the floor. It wasn't pretty.

We watched a great movie this past weekend. Bubba Ho-Tep. Check it. Bruce Campbell plays Elvis. Ossie Davis plays JFK. Together they fight an undead Egyptian mummy who's been terrorizing their rest home. It was awesome. Go rent it immediately.

About Time?
Mood:  irritated
I think the outcome of the big meeting down in Crawford today was all about damage control. The polls tell us that Kerry and Bush are too close and Bush wants to come off as the "good guy", the guy who's outraged over all these false allegations, the guy who just wants a fair fight.

Well, he's finally "denounced" the anti-Kerry ads but unfortunately, he's only denounced them in association with all the other negative ads going on out there.

He's said absolutely nothing about the Kerry ads in particular. Whatever. I don't know why I'm surprised.

Oy
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Annie Lenox
I'm not sure how I feel about this. A guy was tossed out of a Bush rally for "heckling". Now, the Bushies have such tight strictures on who's allowed to attend these things that I think there'd be more heckling if more regular people were able to attend. So no big surprise here.

On the other hand, this guy not only got tossed out of the rally, but the next day he got fired from his job as a graphic designer. Now that's just wrong. Fired from your job for having an opinion? Are you kidding me?

Protesters Go Home!
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Avril
This morning?s New York Times article on the upcoming RNC really pinpointed a few major problems. The gist of the article, which you can read in full here, is that in preparation for the protests that they know are coming, the Bushies have devised a very clever way of spinning the potentially embarrassing protests.

?Republicans said they would seek to turn any disruptions to their advantage, by portraying protests by even independent activists as Democratic-sanctioned displays of disrespect for a sitting president.?

Even though it is our right under the First Amendment to speak out in protest of anything, the Bush camp will seek to turn the protesters into ? you guessed it! ?disrespectful of a sitting president and by extension unpatriotic as well.

Never mind that if there were no demonstrations they would no doubt say, ?See? Everybody loves us! That silly John Kerry is wasting his time!?

How are people STILL undecided???

Handful of Butt
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Annie Get Your Gun
So last night I put on my bathing suit, got into the tub and shampooed my cat?s butt. No, really.

I had to take her to the vet last week because she had this weird matted fur going on in that area and it didn?t look good. So I took her in and he tells me that she?s got vaginal fold pyoderma.

Basically she?s so fat that the skin in that area has folded over and allowed for bacteria to become trapped and infected.

The way to treat this problem? Keep the area clean and lose weight.

The problem? She?s only lost a half a pound since April (bringing her down to a whopping seventeen pounds for those of you keeping track). So that leaves keeping it clean. He recommended a bath with some baby shampoo three days a week and he was kind enough to shave her butt for me.

As I sat in the tub last night directing the shower massage while Kevin held her down it occurred to me that I would probably find the situation hilarious if I weren?t the one with the handful of shampoo.

My cousin thought the abbreviated version of this was pretty funny so I thought I?d give the rest of you a laugh.

Grrr.

Misery Loves Chocolate. And Nachos.
Yesterday I had to go down to Atlantic City for a business-y type event at the beach. All seemed to be going well until on my way home when I stopped to pick up a pair of pants. In the dressing room I took off the khakis I?d worn to the beach and threw them on the little shelf provided.

And that?s when I noticed a huge blue ink stain. On the seat. Of the pants. This was not some tiny little nickel-sized spot. I had apparently sat on something that had rubbed all of it?s color onto me.

I was immediately mortified and pretty much still am. The worst part is that no one bothered to tell me! I walked around all day with this huge blue stain on my ass.

Needless to say I went home and consumed a plate of nachos. Today I?m working my way through a bag of Hershey?s Kisses.

Every time I think about it I just want to crawl under a rock. How could no one tell me? Bastards!

I?m going up to see Baby Kate this weekend and can?t wait. I need something to make me smile.

It Never Ends
From American Progress Action Fund:

Rep. Porter Goss (R-PA) ? who President Bush recently nominated to head the CIA ? has recently introduced legislation that would allow the agency to arrest U.S. citizens. The bill would "substantially alter?if not overturn?a 57-year-old ban on the CIA conducting operations inside the United States." The Goss bill "would enable the president to issue secret findings allowing the CIA to conduct covert operations inside the United States?without even any notification to Congress." According to Jeffrey H. Smith, a former general counsel of the CIA, the language of the legislation "on its face would have allowed President Nixon to authorize the CIA to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters."

~~

I have nothing but low expectations. Perhaps this means that I won't be too disappointed. One can only hope.

Darth Cheney's Take on Oil Prices
From the Democratic Underground:

Back in 2000, George W. Bush used rising gas prices as a campaign issue. He said, "I think the president ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, 'We expect you to open your spigots.' ? The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." Meanwhile, spokesman Scott McClellan was telling reporters that rising gas prices were an example of "failed leadership." Well guess what? Now that oil is more expensive than it's ever been, it's suddenly somebody else's fault - specifically, John Kerry and John Edwards. Whuh? How did that happen? At a campaign event last week, Dick Cheney "blamed his Democratic opponents and their opposition to the Bush administration's energy policies" for rising gas prices, according to the Los Angeles Times. If you feel like pounding your head against your desk at the unbelievable temerity of that statement, please, go ahead. Okay, so let's get this straight - when Bill Clinton was in office, rising gas prices were a sign of "failed leadership." Now that George W. Bush is in charge, rising gas prices are a sign of, um... hey! Look over there! It's John Kerry's fault! Ah, the Responsibility Administration is hard at work once again...

Bad Movies
It turns out the Brittney Murphey disaster is as bad as I feared. Read it and weep.

Also, without having to post a review from someone else, I can tell you that The Bourne Supremacy was also as bad I feared. Matt was great, but the direction and script were pretty bloody awful. And Franka! I won't give away plot, but I can tell you I was pretty upset over her character's "development".