Another Failed Promise

Today I heard that our President is breaking yet another promise to the American people. Just a few weeks ago right after the midterms he promised to listen to and consider the recommendations of the Iraq Study Commission when they are released on Dec. 6. Today he said he will not consider any of them unless they echo his current failed policy there. So much for the value of a presidential promise.

Bush maintains that he will allow only total victory in a situation where his commanders have told him point-blank that such a victory is impossible. Why is it impossible? Mostly because of the incredible level of bungling on the part of both Mr. Bush and the members of his administration. He knew even before he picked this war, that he was committing insufficient troops. The first Mr. Bush used 500,000 troops merely to drive Saddam out of Kuwait with no intention of toppling him from power and attempting to pacify the country. Why then did the second Mr. Bush think he could do three times as much with about half the troops?

The problem is that the current Mr. Bush is totally out of touch with reality. He truly believed and still believes it possible to establish a stable democracy in the region. When things started going wrong almost immediately (the violence and looting) he ignored it. When the insurgency began he ignored it. When the sectarian violence started he ignored it. He ignored every time there was a chance to actually make a step toward his stated goal. He stuck his fingers in his ears and screamed "stay the course" to drown out the cries of the dying and the wailing of their survivors.

Now he's done it once again. He's closed the door to possibly the only solution left to us, yet he's equally unwilling to do anything that might make the situation in Iraq any better. By doing so I fear he's opened wide the door to the spectacle of another Saigon with out people leaving in disorder and leaving the country to fall into the hands of radicals and extremists.

Christmas Shopping

There is little I hate more than Christmas shopping. Bah! Humbug! That being said, I am proud to announce that probably 75% of mine is done already. I have five more gifts to buy. One for my granddaughter, one for my sister, one for my daughter's ex and his girlfriend, and one for my daughter's ex's sister.

My sister and the ex's sister will receive gift cards of some sort. One because she is notoriously hard to buy for and the other because she has a severely handicapped child at home and it's easier for her. The gifts for the ex and girlfriend and my granddaughter will be shared gifts with my daughter since we're cutting corners and we can get a nicer gift that way.

I feel proud of myself as I just got that all done this morning. I deserve a piece of pumpkin pie for breakfast as a reward.

Commander in Chief

I've been watching the Republicans scramble since the midterms, especially over the issue of Iraq. The current administration got us into this mess and apparently have absolutely no plan to get us out other than changing slogans from time to time.

You notice I said they have no plan to get us out. It would seem to me that would bother a lot of people, including Republicans. Even the military commanders on the ground over there have admitted they are not winning and have proposed three alternatives, without too many details, none of which involve actually winning.

You would think in the face of all of this that the neocons out here in reality land would finally begin to question the President's wisdom and even intelligence in this war. But what do they do? They attack the Democrats and start screaming that the Democrats don't have a plan to win in Iraq. Well guess what folks? The Democrats don't even take power until January and when they do, guess who will still be the Commander in Chief and making all of the decisions regarding the handling of the war in Iraq? It ain't going to be a Democrat. At best Democrats can give advice.

So when your favorite neocon starts whining about the Democratic plan to win Iraq, remind him or her of two things: Only George W. Bush can develop a plan to get us out of Iraq and only George W. Bush can implement such a plan. Then remind them that they didn't lose the election just because of Bush's war. They also lost because of the corruption, the scandals, and because they accomplished absolutely nothing of significance legislatively for six years, and suggest that maybe they should notice that the finger they are pointing have three more directed back at them.

Do not let them get you defensive. The party hierarchy should start hammering this point home immediately. It was Bush's war before the election and it will remain Bush's war after.

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving has always been a much larger holiday in my house than Christmas for a lot of reasons I won't go into here. Tonight is Thanksgiving eve. My daughter arrived home from work early. Together we had gathered the necessary piles of food for the holiday.

We have lots of little things we do on Thanksgiving eve. We bake pies and we share champagne in special etched glasses that are used for no other purpose than for she and I to drink a toast or two to the holidays. We cook the eggs for the stuffing and the deviled eggs. We chop veggies for the stuffing in the morning, cook the giblets, and make the jello salad.

Tonight we watched March of the Penguins together. At the end of the movie we shared a piece of freshly made pumpkin pie before going to bed.

Tomorrow we will make stuffing, cook two kinds of potatoes, stuff celery, make relish trays, and put together a big meal fit for an army. Some friends who have nowhere to go for the holiday will share the meal with us. Susan will send pies to her ex and his girlfriend, and his sister and her family (don't ask. My family is nothing if not complicated). And we'll enjoy our time together.

The next few weeks will be very stressful and we're facing some hard times, but we'll make it through. For now it is Thanksgiving eve, it's late, and I'm heading to bed. I wish everyone a great holiday. Tomorrow I'll deal with having as a guest a 6' tall male crossdresser and his whatever. That should be infinitely interesting. As I said, life is sometimes quite interesting and unusual around here.

We'll See

I have taken a step today I may live to regret. Then again, maybe not. Years ago I was very politically active, working on campaigns (both parties), and doing a lot of things to get candidates of my choice elected. I did press stuff for a recall campaign that recalled 5 members of a 9 member city council, meeting with other plotters in a sort of seedy waterfront bar to get the information for the initial press release, etc. Was great fun.

Then my ex got home from Vietnam all screwed up and one of the things I had to drop was any political involvement because of his behavior. He would make my life so miserable if I tried to do things that made me happy that eventually I quit. I tried going back many years later, and actually did work a successful campaign for a U.S. Senator. But I didn't follow up.

A couple of days ago I got a note from the Democratic National Committee about a new website for volunteers they have set up to keep their grassroots momentum going for the next two years. After thinking about it for a few days and visiting the site a couple of times, I decided to sign up. I told them what I do and do not like doing, so I won't be asked to work phone banks which I loathe passionately. It's Sunday so I'll see if I get a response. They claim I will.

They also have blogs, groups, etc. so that will give me yet another place to be opinionated. This is a good thing.

Dreary Day

It has been an absolutely do-nothing day today. I awoke around 3:00 and was up an hour or so before I got tired enough to go back to sleep. I was up again before 7:00. No dog this morning; this is a good thing.

The weather is dreary and nasty. It's been storming all day. High winds and copious amounts of rain. I don't even have the ambition to play my games or write or do anything. I didn't even do my laundry which desperately needs to be done. I will definitely do it tomorrow.

This afternoon it was cold and my feet were freezing. I couldn't build a fire. There was little wood in the house and no starter logs. So it was cold on top of being damp and drippy. Finally the lack of sleep caught up and I pulled on an extra sweater and my gloves, then put my afghan over my legs and chest. I was asleep in minutes. I only slept maybe 45 minutes, but it helped a lot. I woke up very warm and cozy. I really hated to move.

I guess I'll dig in my drawers and see if I can find some socks. I'll never get to sleep tonight if my feet are this cold.

I have Insurance

Well ok. I don't yet but I will soon. The first of December to be precise. I got the card in the mail today indicating I have been accepted for the supplemental Medicare plan I chose.

As soon as I am eligible I will locate the nearest clinic and make an appointment to have my two most annoying problems taken care of, if possible. The first will remain between me and my doctor as it's embarassing to admit to, but I understand there is a prescription drug that can stop the problem.

The second is my sleeplessness. I haven't slept through an entire night for close to 20 years. There is a new sleeping pill that doesn't carry a caveat of a risk of dependency. That's all I would need, to find something that worked then discover I could never get off if it. I understand that rebound insomnia is a really difficult thing to deal with. I'm sure I would have less depression and more energy if I were ever truly rested. On the very rare occasions I do sleep and only wake up three or four times in a night I know I feel a lot better. I can just imagine how sleeping 6-8 straight hours would feel.

So I'm psyched. I also got dental insurance which will permit me to get my teeth relined. If I do it in December, then I immediately have the entire years funding when Jan 1 arrives. My teeth definitely need to be relined.

I've been nervous thinking that after all the research and everything that I would be turned down for this coverage. I'm glad I have it. I suppose I'll be getting some sort of membership package in the next couple of weeks. And this coverage also includes prescription drugs, glasses, and a membership in the local YMCA as part of the package. That's more health coverage than I have had in literally 10 years.

Random Ramblings

These are just random thoughts on a cold, wet, windy day. I'm really bored, yet I actually have more things to do than I can possibly get done at any given time.

I have finished my planning for Christmas. I know who I am giving what. The quilt I am making for my son and his wife won't be done by Christmas, of course. I'll send them each a small present with a picture of the quilt attached to it so they can see what they are getting. Works for me.

It's probably not going to be a very merry Christmas this year. My daughter's divorce will be final and she's got some personal problems that may mean she won't be home for the holiday. Unfortunately nobody but me and one or two very close friends know of this and I cannot talk about it at her request.

My feet are cold, but that will change soon as I get ready for bed and crawl between my nice warm flannel sheets. I do need to wash my down comforter though. The dogs have left footprints all over it. The weather has been miserable for a couple of weeks, though it barely rained today.

I just learned that my favorite conveniently located grocery store is going out of business in a couple of weeks. *sigh* I will miss the quality. Albertsons just doesn't cut it.

Tomorrow I plan to get the rest of my housework done, do my laundry, wash the comforter, then dig out a jigsaw puzzle and start working it on the dining room table. I will also finish a book I've been reading and get more writing done. I always have more books to read, a quilt to work on, and an afghan that I am knitting. It's always something. I may toss some Posole together in the crock pot first thing in the morning and let it simmer all day for supper tomorrow night.

I am craving something sweet. And it's really time for bed.

I m probably imagining things

I know it is probably all coincidence, but a few months ago I sent the DNC a letter containing the piece I posted here of advice on what to do if they won the election. Naturally they did not even acknowlege getting it, but it's amazing that they have apparently implemented every single I suggested.

I fully realize that most of what I said was purely common sense. Still, today Nancy Pelosi announced a list of things Republicans had excluded Democrats from in the House and vowed to include them as much as possible now that Democrats have power. That was one of my suggestions. I suggested they muzzle Howard Dean until he could be a bit more temperate in how he spoke. He was hardly seen during the election. Others spoke for the Democrats. I suggested they make a list of a few essential things they intended to accomplish, then work across the aisle to make them happen. They've done that. I suggested that they absolutely not get tied up in an impeachment effort; Pelosi has said they will not. I suggested several other things, a total of ten in all, and every one of them has been implemented.

The reason I know it just has to be common sense rather than them paying attention to me is that if they truly were using my ideas, they would have contacted me by now to at least thank me for the advice. I offered it freely but I would have been so totally excited had someone acknowledged it and said thank you. Everyone likes to believe their ideas have merit. I guess I'm no different in that.

Interesting Events

Last night's election was a real eye opener to those on Capitol Hill who arrogantly assumed that the average voter could be scared out of their outrage at the way things are going and scared into voting Republican.

They were wrong. As it now stands the House is firmly in the hands of Democrats even with nine races still outstanding. Of those, one will probably go Republican, three Democrat, and four are just too close to call. One, Louisiana, had so many candidates that it will require a runoff. That one will probably go Democratic as well.

Senate control hovers on a knifeblade. One seat in Virginia which is now undergoing a recount and which is leaning Democratic. If that one tips Democratic, Democrats will control all the chairmanships in the Senate.

What I found more interesting is the reactions from all concerned. Bush is clearly furious and confused. His press conference was all but painful to watch. He accepted Rumsfeld's resignation, which is a good thing, but proved he lied last week when he said he would keep the man until the end of his term. He is now talking concilliation and cooperation, but it's clear that neither appeal to him very much. I believe he has gotten the message but that he got it from his own party.

John McCain just held a news conference, and he's clearly speaking for the majority of Republicans at the moment when he says the war must take a new direction, and that if that means more troops to quell the insurgency and the militias then that is what it will mean. He also pointed out that 19 of the seats that changed hands in the House yesterday did so because of corruption and other scandals. He says he believes Republicans have got to get their act together and return to the basics of Republican philosophy which includes reduced spending, less government, and other core principles. He's clearly chastened and scared for the Senate as well.

Perhaps more surprising though is the tone of the Democrats. It's as if they realize that if they get cocky and stupid then they are in major trouble. They have only two years to pull this all together and make it work. That's not a long time.

It may be enough, however, if they realize that Republicans can only be just so obstructionist without further infuriating voters who are sick of the lot of them at the moment. This is the message I hoped voters would send in this election. Shape up, get back to the people's business, or else. Let's hope it sticks well enough to produce results. Politicians have notoriously short memories.

Bush Caught Lying Yet Again

Honestly, the man has such a problem with telling the truth. This time it has to do with his avowal that if elected Democrats will raise taxes. He is the President. He is the only one who can sign a tax bill into law. Exactly how will the Democrats raise taxes? At best they will take the House tomorrow and by far less than a 60% majority. They probably won't take the Senate.

What this means is that in order to raise taxes, Democrats will have to pass a tax bill through both houses, one of which they do not control, and then persuade the president to sign the bill or override his veto, neither of which they will have the votes to do.

Bottom line? The threat of increased taxes is a political lie, pure and simple unless Bush is planning to raise taxes himself. There's no other way a tax bill can get passed and signed into law.

I have been tagged

I'm not sure what it means entirely, but I will at least try to keep it going to the best of my ability. Here are the rules:

1) Name the person who tagged you
2) 8 things about you
3) Tag 6 people.

Sewmouse tagged me.

1. I've never been in love. Don't expect ever to be at this point and would run like hell if I thought it might happen.

2. I am a good writer, but don't seem to have the impetus to get things finished. I get hung up then don't write.

3. I have not slept through an entire night in about 20 years. Not one night. Not even after surgery. I've even been drugged in the hospital and still was awake a few hours later.

4. I've been fighting chronic depression for most of my life.

5. I always have at least two craft projects going at any one time. Generally it's a quilt, and one other thing. Right now it's a knitted afghan that fascinates me because it's entirely double sided yet is knitted on the same set of needles and each side comes out right.

6. I'm retired now, but not from choice. After my last job I was unable to ever find another one and chose to retire so I would have an income. I'll be 65 in another month and a half.

7. I live with my daughter. It has worked out ok most of the time, though I could certainly do without a lot of the high drama that goes on around here.

8. I was born in Alaska, and have visited all of the states but New England. I have also visited Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, England, and Germany. I love to travel and were I rich I would be on the go constantly. Well, that's not entirely true. I love visiting new places. I actually hate to travel. I need a teleporter.

I'm adding a fact #9. I don't know six other people to tag.

A Closer Look at the Bush Tax Cuts

This election year about all Republicans have to boast about seems to be Bush’s tax cuts. They pin all of the economic growth and job creation on these cuts. Democrats, on the other hand, point out that the cuts are unfairly weighted to benefit the top 1% or so of taxpayers, who are receiving 300% of the tax savings as are average middle class taxpayer. This is a percentage not a dollar amount. It means that rich people are getting three times the percentage of tax cut as is the middle class, not just that they pay more taxes. A fair tax cut is the same percentage across the board regardless of how much you earn. This intrigued me, so I went looking for facts. This is what I found. My sources are listed at the bottom of this essay.

Citizens for Tax Justice and the Children’s Defense Fund point out that over the ten-year life of the Bush tax cut (remember congress always intended the cuts to be a temporary boost to the economy) the top 1% of taxpayers will realize nearly half a trillion dollars ($477 billion) in tax savings. This cut is designed so that the very top tax payers receive progressively larger cuts each year until 2011 when the law expires. The first year of the cuts the amount averaged about $12,000 per taxpayer.

By contrast, 75% of families and individuals making less than $73,000 a year (and that’s most of us) received ¾ of all the cuts they will receive in the first year, and those averaged about 350 per taxpayer.

The writers conclude that making the current cuts permanent will reduce Federal revenues by $1.7 trillion through 2014, a figure that includes the added interest on the national debt. They also project added budget deficits of $20 trillion across that time with no clear material benefit to the average middle class taxpayer. The Brookings institution estimates that this would amount to about 1.8% of the GDP.

A second negative is that because of these factors, an additional 44 million people would see their tax bill grow appreciably when they became subject to the Alterative Minimum Tax (AMT) by 2014.

More telling, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of making the costs permanent at $1.6 trillion over ten years. However, people at the Office of Management and Budget point out a buried clause in the budget that hides more than another trillion dollars in lost revenue.

The explanation of why this is so is complicated. At the time these tax cuts went into effect (Bush wanted them to be permanent), Bush also attempted to make a change in bookkeeping methods that would effectively remove the true costs of the cuts from the main budget. In the words of a Washington Post writer this means that “If you tell Congress the cost of making those tax cuts permanent lawmakers might have second thoughts about doing it.” In 2004, 2005, and again this year, Republicans have submitted legislation to make this bookkeeping change. It has been voted down each time.

Another thing the administration lauds publicly is that its tax cuts have resulted in significant job growth. According to a watchdog group called Jobwatch, however, it is increased Federal spending and not tax cuts that have created the bulk of jobs created over the past five years. They point out that if the tax cuts were responsible for job growth, then the bulk of the new jobs would have been created in the private sector with its own funding.

The Department of Defense estimates that since 2001 it has added 1.495 million jobs to the private sector through its own spending. Another 1.325 million jobs were added through increases in non-defense discretionary spending, for a total of 2.2 million new jobs directly attributable to increased government spending, not private enterprise. This does not include jobs created by increases in mandatory government spending and I could find no figures to account for these.

Monthly job growth since 2003 has been approximately 50% of that during the previous administration and real wages are lower by 22 cents an hour since June of 2003. Since March 2001, the United States has lost approximately 659,000 high paid information jobs. Add the loss of manufacturing jobs and this figure rises to over 2 million.

Since November of 2001 the economy has added 1,93,000 jobs in education and health services, and another 1,087,000 in the hospitality industry. These jobs in general pay appreciably less than the jobs we’ve lost. These figures would be appreciably different if the Bush administration had succeeded in a change it proposed to job reporting rules that would have allowed them to mask the enormous decrease in manufacturing jobs by re-classifying burger flipping and other restaurant jobs as manufacturing jobs.

The bottom line is that the Bush tax cut are nowhere as clearly beneficial as Republicans would have us believe, nor are they producing the number of new jobs we have been told once you factor out those jobs created by profligate government spending. The facts certainly open the door to discussion. I would urge people to read the information and to search out more information on their own.

Sources:

http://www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm

http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/gale/20040121taxcuts.htm

http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb101.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021701848.html

http://www.jobwatch.org/

Bush on the Campaign Trail

With the midterm elections only a week away, I've seen daily reports of the President on the campaign trail for this candidate or that candidate. He gives campaign speeches, etc. all over the country, at taxpayer expense of course.

The thought struck me today that when he was elected President, he became the President of the United States, not the President of the Republican Party. Regardless of his party affiliation, George Bush is the president of all Americans. As such he represents us all and has absolutely no business campaigning for anyone for any reason.

Why is the President allowed to campaign against the wishes of at least half of his electorate....the people he purports to represent? He should remain in D.C. and keep out of the races. They are none of his business but are rather the will of the people in action. By making partisan appearances and taking partisan positions, he undermines the very notion of a President for all the people of the country.

Negative Campaign Ads

I am so sick and tired of negative campaign ads. You would think that people running for office would want the voters to know their record, what they would try to do if elected, etc. Instead we get an almost endless supply of extremely negative attack ads which often have little more than the merest shred of truth in them. I truly question the intelligence of anyone who would let their opinion of a candidate be swayed by an advertisement by someone with a vested interest in making the other person look bad.

I see ads calling an opponent "the biggest spender in Congress" as if one person decides and spends money there. I see ads infering that a black politician is consorting with white prostitutes to play the race card in a southern state. I see ads in which the scenes in one candidate's novel are portrayed as his opinion of women in real life. I see national ads that portray one party's position as being nothing that is related to what that party actually is saying.

These ads have been getting worse and worse over the years. I would love to see the voters entirely reject any candidate who dares to run one. Tell me what your positions are. Tell me how they differ from those of your opponent (and be honest about your opponent's position). Tell me what you will try to do in congress, what committees you'd like to serve on, what your special interests are. Don't do dirty attacks on your opponent because you're not winning. Reach me through intelligent discourse, not though mud-slinging.

The Busy Season

My busy season has already started. I am frantically trying to finish an afghan for my daughter's birthday in about two weeks. I'm making good progress by keeping myself to a strict production schedule that eats up to two hours a day. I should be able to finish it in plenty of time. The problem is that I can only work on it when she is not in the house so I keep a second project going at the same time.

The second project is a quilt for my son and his wife for Christmas. Of course it's not going to be finished by Christmas, but it should be far enough along for me to be able to send them a nice picture and a promise. It will be done in early Spring at latest. I have two of the thirty squares already finished. I love quilting and keep one going at all times. When this is done, I have two more, and four wall hangings to do.

Sometime this upcoming week I will get a kit for a beautiful blue knitted afghan. It has a snowflake design. It's reversible, so that will be pretty. It's going to be for my daughter's girlfriend. I will have to push hard to get it done in the five or six weeks I'll have to do it. I'll figure out what I have to finish in what time frame to make it happen so we'll see.

Because of all of this, my time for games and other things is restricted. I have not been writing much, though I have to get that to change. I am going to start (again) trying to write for an hour every morning as soon as I am up. That seems to work better than some other things.

For now, however, I'll chug along happily with my various projects and see where it gets me. I have one afghan square finished already this morning, and if Susan comes home soon (not very likely) I will still have this evening while she is out to do the other one. I only have to get two a day finished to hit my deadline. I have five done now and will have one more today. That leaves 11 more of this color. The other 18 are already finished.

Democratic Agenda

I have heard a lot of talk coming from the Republicans about how Democrats "have no plan" etc. However, after doing a bit of reading, I discover that they have put forth a rather definitive plan of what they would want to accomplish should they take control of the House and/or Senate in two weeks.

At the top of the agenda is legislation to increase the minimum wage, force drug companies to negotiate price on prescription drugs sold to Medicare recipients, implement all of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, end tax breaks for big oil, and increase spending for embrionic stem cell research. While it's not "stay the course" it's certainly a very ambitious agenda and if they can actually do even part of it, it will be remarkable and will be 100% more than the current congress has managed to accomplish.

Republicans say that the Democrats will increase taxes, but tht's just a scare tactic as is the call to impeach Bush. While a few Democrats might like to do that, most realize it's a waste of time that they will need to solidify their base and set themselves up with accomplishments going into the next presidential election. On taxation, the only thing I found they were going to propose is an overhaul of the alternative minimum tax, which is increasingly gouging into income of the middle class. Republicans have also called for doing this, but they have never actually proposed legislation to accomplish it.

Another thing that Republicans say is that Democrats will bog congress down with investigations. I cannot see how congress could possibly be less effective than it is now, but I agree with the areas where the Democrats want to conduct investigations. They want to focus on waste, fraud, and abuse in government contracts awarded for Iraq, Katrina, Homeland Security and other such huge handout programs. I would hope this homes in heavily on no-bid contacts to Bush and Cheney buddies. They are also saying they will investigate the reconstruction contracts in Iraq for war profiteering. These are good things, and the money that could be recovered in such investigations would more than pay for any new programs.

In effect, Democrats are saying they will actually try to accomplish something even if Republicans block it and Bush vetoes it. Since most of their agenda is important domestic things, it will sell well to the voters either way. Democrats will have to walk a very fine line this upcoming two years as their aim is not just regaining the House and possibly the Senate, but also defeating Republicans for the Presidency in two years. Personally, I honestly believe they will blow that one. Then again I am not convinced they will actually take the House or the Senate in two weeks. I do, however, hope that if they do they follow through to end much of the acrimony and fighting and actually try to accomplish something.

The Midterms

The political climate is heating up again as the midterm elections are only two weeks away. As usual there is political rhetoric and attack ads. What there isn't, as usual is any substantive action or call to action on the part of either party. We have the usual: "We can do better," talk, but given the total inaction on the part of this congress, I am not sure why anyone should believe them now just because there is an election.

I admit I'm disappointed. I had hoped maybe this could have been an election on issues and plans. What legislation will the Republicans or Democrats introduce in the new session to address even one of the major domestic issues in this country? Thus far the biggest news on that front is that Bush will stop using "stay the course," as a slogan for Iraq. No plan or anything for ending the conflict, but by god we are getting a new slogan. That's so reassuring. I hope he's not simly switching to "Well stand down as they stand up." Maybe something with more zip like: "Mission Accomplished!"

The Republicans are having heart failure over the thought of Nancy Pellosi as Speaker of the House if the Democrats win. There is even talk of a grassroots rebellion among Democrats against her candidacy. On the other hand, she has put forth an actual plan for her first few weeks in office that is impressive, even if it's impossible. Even if the Democrats win and step up to the plate in terms of advancing domestic legislation aimed at solving problems at home, the Republicans and the President will shoot it down in the interest of partisan politics.

I guess in the end that is what bothers me most about our current government. It's all about political power and acrimony and not anything about actually stepping up to the responsibilities of the job we elected them to do. I would sooner have one party or the other pushing a major agenda with which I basically disagreed than to do nothing. At least they would be trying to accomplish something aside from raising money, getting reelected, and kissing ass on big business and big donors.

The midterms are coming. Will it really make any difference at all which party wins?

Addictions

Everyone has addictions of one sort or another, some are simply more universally acceptable than are others. Drugs, alcohol, excessive sex, and the like are examples of bad addictions. Books, learning, writing, and the like are examples of things that can be viewed as good addictions.

I was thinking about this this past week because I again indulged in my biggest addiction of all..buying books. I love books. I read them vociferously and I learn or am entertained. I also have a weakness for pens and blank books in which to record ideas. Tablets. I always have a lot of these things at hand scattered across the house and even in my purse or in the car. I am having to be more careful about the book addiction of late because I am now retired. I go to half price books more often and buy paperback as opposed to hardback for all but the more urgent offerings. I mean I won't wait a year for the newest Harry Potter book to be published in paperback, for instance.

That being said, however, I do buy more books than I should. It often takes me a while to read them all and I generally have a pile of 10 or more in my queue. I freely admit that I start getting really antsy, even anxious, if I am down to my last one or two books. I suppose as addictions go, this one, while expensive, is better than many other types of addictions. I guess this is a good thing because I cannot even imagine not having a pile of cool new books waiting to be cracked open and enjoyed.

Hmmmm.....I suppose hints to my relatives that gift cards to book stores make excellent birthday and Christmas presents might be in order.

Getting Things Done

I seem to be off and on when it comes to getting things done. I never seem to get everything I want done no matter how hard I try.

This week I did manage to complete an afghan for myself for this winter, and also a quilt that my friend Arla and I made for a friend. She cuts and pieces and I quilt and bind. Neither likes the other's job much so it works out perfectly for me and things get done.

Today I went out and bought backing for my son's quilt, and will put the batting, backing, and top together today sometime and begin quilting that. I already know what I plan to do in terms of quilting it, so that helps.

I started an afghan for my daughter for her birthday. Will have a push a bit to get that one done by the 9th, but the saving grace is that it is done with really chunky yarn so a huge square is only 7 rows.

I've fallen down badly on my writing. I think I have a work-around for that and will see tomorrow morning. I decided to pull up whatever I was working on first thing before I even head to the kitchen to make coffee. Then I'll come back and write while the coffee is brewing and while I am sipping a couple of cups. It would be just another way to get my morning going on an up note.

On the up side of the writing, I did manage to rewrite and then edit my white paper on outsourcing and also to write the marketing letter. Today or tomorrow I'll select up to ten possible recipients and personalize each letter a bit for them, then send it out. I know it's a really good idea, but I need to be realistic in terms of anyone else seeing the possibilities. Then I shall move on to completing the outline and proposal for the book on teaching techies to write. I want to include a special chapter or two at the back concerning the problems of teaching non-native speakers to write at a professional level. I doubt it can be done to be honest, but I do know what it would take to do it if it were possible.

I need to do more to keep the house up. Just one or two things a day will make all the difference in the world when it comes to keeping on top of things. My daughter is doing better about picking up after herself and doing things too. At some point we will make a list of everything that needs to be done every week, divide it up, and then each person will do their share as they find the time.

I find it particularly ironic that now that I don't work any more I seem to be more busy than I ever was when I did.