Exciting Family News

I just got a call from my daughter and our family just got some really exciting news today.

First a bit of background. Last spring my great niece got the opportunity to work as a goffer on a movie set in her town. She really enjoyed the opportunity and had a great time. Plus she knew that if any other movie companies were to be making films nearby, having worked on one would mean she would have an easier time finding work on another.

Fast forward to yesterday. Her school was in a tizzy. Will Farrel (an actor) was at the school for some reason. As my niece was walking down the hall he saw her and yelled out her name. He had been in the movie on which she had worked and she had come to know him over the weeks she had been there. They chatted for a bit while her stock in the eyes of her friends went through the room. As they were parting he asked her if she would like to be in a movie. She asked doing what, and he laughed and said no. He meant how would she like to be in a movie as in having a part in his next film. She was thrilled and said yes of course and gave him her home phone number.

Today his assistant called and formally offered her a small speaking part in his next movie, and set the wheels in motion for her and her father to make a trip to New York city next month. She will, of course, get paid and all expenses are taken care of.

To say that she's excited would somehow cheapen the word. The girl is 16 years old. She's so excited she can hardly breathe. Of course by tomorrow she will be a huge celebrity at her school.

I'm excited for her because this is something so few people ever get to do. Good for her and I hope it is everything she could ever hope for.

I hate bureacrats

Grrrr!!!!!!! I am so mad today I could spit nails. I have always known about bureacracies and the brain-dead loop you can get into with them, but it's been some time since I found myself in the middle of one of their insane catch 22s. Let me reiterate the fun time I have been having over the past two days.

A week or so ago I received a letter from the Social Security Administration saying they will no longer automatically deduct the premiums for my Medicare supplemental insurance plan from my monthly benefit. They did not say why they had made this decision.

Yesterday I received a letter from my service provider telling me that the reason the Social Security Administration had given them was that my benefit was not large enough to cover the premium. My benefit is 10-12 times as large as the premium. This did not make any sense.

I tried to call Social Security. Good luck with that. At first I tried to call my local office. I got two responses from that: in the first I got a recorded greeting, a notice that all their people were busy, and could I please hold. From there after maybe three minutes they apologized and asked me to continue holding. Three more minutes I was automatically sent to a full mailbox, then bounced back to the end of the line. Rinse and repeat endlessly. The second was even more fun. The message said "Thank you for calling the Social Security Administration. Goodbye." Then they hung up on me.

So I called the main office on the toll free line. After maybe half an hour of the most irritating telephone hell you can imagine I got to talk to a real person. She told me that the Medicare people has ordered the stop to the automatic deductions and there was nothing she could do without them telling her to do so.

The Medicare office just kept hanging up on me so I got irritated and stopped trying that. I called my service provider and told them what was going on. They told me that only a letter from the Social Security agency could fix things with them. Back to square one. I had a glass of Scotch and vowed to return to the fight the next day.

I reached the Medicare office the next morning (this morning). They checked their records and said that their records show that the authorization to automatically withhold my premiums was in effect and they had not nor could they tell Social Security to stop payment since they do not know the size of my retirement benefit, so had no way of knowing if it would cover the premiums or not. They sent me back to Social Security.

After endlessly trying to reach a real person in Social Security both nationally and locally I gave up and drove to my local Social Security office. The woman there confirmed that their records show that the automatic deduction had been stopped but there was no reason given. They tried to tell me I had requested it be stopped, but I squashed that one fast. She called Medicare who confirmed that my automatic deduction was valid and fine with them. She confirmed that the Social Security records showed they had ordered the deduction halted. She could not give me a reason and suggested that I should talk to my provider again, who had already sayd they could do nothing.

So here is where I stand. My premiums are not being automatically deducted. Nobody knows why. Nobody ordered it. Nobody requested it. And Nobody can fix it. Nobody has been really busy. My next step is to send a copy of something similar to this rant to my U.S. Senator and as that this be resolved. I need a drink. I need two; they're small.

Mike Huckabee is a Nut

Yesterday Mike Huckabee stated publicly that he wants to change the Constitution of the United States to conform with his version of "god's" law. How exactly he knows exactly what god wants is questionable, and what is more questionable is how one would determine which brand of god's teaching would be imposed on us.

There are as many versions of Christianity as there are stars. The definitions and interpretations of what the bible means fills libraries. Yet Mr. Huckabee wants to try to change the Constitution to impose what appears to be the Christian version of Sharia law on the United States.

I am very thankful that what he proposes is actually next to impossible. Changing the Constitution requires extraordinary cooperation between two parties who cannot even agree on what day of the week it is most of the time. Then it requires a 2/3 or 3/4 majority vote of the states in order to put something new in or take something old out of the document. This is as it should be. I'm really thankful after hearing him talking about what he wanted to do that he's simply spitting into the wind. I would hate like hell to believe for an instant that someone was willing to try to subvert this document.

People are already trying to explain away what he said. They're saying he only meant he wanted to force his views on abortion, gay marriage, and giving citizenship to anchor babies onto us, not the whole of the bible. But that's not what he said. For me, amending the constitution to conform with someone's religious beliefs is not only ridiculous it is the first step down a very slippery slope. I have my fingers crossed tightly that this will never happen.

I Am Bored

If I were any more bored I would be in a coma. It seems all I do these days is clean house, work, run errands, and putter. I cannot think of a single thing except playing WoW from time to time that doesn't bore me nearly to tears.

Most of this, I admit is my own fault. I've drawn more and more away from people and the world as I have gotten older. I'm simply no longer willing to put forth the effort it takes to find, make, and sustain friendships. Then one day I woke up and discovered I am a total hermit. What is even worse is that I have little if any real incentive to want to change that even if I had the slightest idea of how to do that at my age.

I'm very self-conscious when I am out in public. Not, as you might think, because of my weight. I made peace with that years ago and figure anyone who judges another by the breadth of their ass rather than by the depth of their soul isn't worth the powder to blow them to hell anyway. I am self conscious mainly about my teeth. I have nice dentures on the top, but on the bottom we got half way and I lost my job/insurance so I never could afford to have them finished. As a result when I smile I look like a jack-o-lantern on crack. So I rarely smile.

It's just easier and more comfortable (and lots more boring) to just stay home and fill my life with chores and projects. But I do admit that sometimes I really miss having someone to talk to. Year before last in the summer I went to Hawaii for a week and met some of my brothers friends. We talked politics and other things for literally hours. It was like being drunk but without the booze. I looked forward to every single day and couldn't wait to get up in the morning. I had a big grin on my face (at home of course) for two days recently when one of those guys sent a wave and a hi through my sister. It was so great to even be remembered.

Tonight, however, I am just bored. My daughter has been sick for days and is just now beginning to get better. She and her friend and husband are in the other room watching American Idol. Personally I would rather watch paint dry, so I am here writing this, then will do one of my Spanish lessons and read a bit in my new book "An Incomplete Education." It's a rather interesting big book of odd facts and information across a spectrum of subjects.

After another hour or two I will go to bed and thus ends another boring day. With more to follow. Thank heavens all of the errands were completed today. I don't have to go anywhere or do anything outside tomorrow. Yay!

The Great Stove Adventure

By now most of you know that I live with my daughter. She has been heating her home with a wood stove for a number of years since the possums pretty much ate out the insulation from under the house and the cost of operating the furnace went through the roof.

At best this is an inefficient way of staying warm. Given the size of her wood stove and the fact it is more an antique than a working appliance (/sarcasm) it didn't do a very good job. On top of that we had to find seasoned wood, arrange to have it delivered, stack it, etc. Then we had to haul wood into the house, start the fires, then remember to keep them going. It was an expensive proposition. It was dirty and messy and inconvenient. On top of everything else it was inefficient in terms of actually heating anything more than the room in which it sits and the room next to it.

I have had days where my hands hurt so bad from the cold that I could barely move them. The dog slept under an afghan on the couch to keep warm. I would routinely wear long underwear, sweats, two shirts and a sweater, plus gloves in the house just to stay reasonably comfortable in the coldest weather. It was, to put it mildly, miserable.

I started talking about replacing the old stove last summer. Susan is a great gal but she's really short on follow-through. It is December now, and she had not yet obtained sufficient wood to get us through the heating season. So earlier this month I just took the bull by the horns and offered to put the entire cost of the replacement on my credit card and she could pay me back half.

I shopped around, did research on the web, talked to people, etc. I researched fuels and different types of stoves. Finally I settled on a pellet stove for several reasons. First off, it's less expensive to fuel than wood, and the pellets are easy to find. It's less messy. It takes minutes every couple of weeks to clean the entire stove. I don't have to hoard cardboard and paper or buy starter logs in order to get a fire going. I don't have to remember to bring in wood or to put it on the fire to keep everything going. There are lots of reasons to get a pellet stove.

So a week ago Saturday we went stove shopping. We found one that we really liked and that was designed for the space we have to heat. It's really pretty. Ok. Pretty shouldn't figure into it, but it's nice that it's pretty. We ordered the stove and Thursday they came and installed it. Within two hours, however, the stove was making weird noises so I called the place where we bought it. After three calls I managed to get someone out. The problems were small, and included the need to tighten some bolts that were loosened in shipping, and the fact that we had gotten a bag of bad pellets. So we shoveled out the pellets, burned down the rest, and yesterday afternoon I vacuumed out the unit and cleaned the burn pan. It's been working well since, though they do have to come out one last time to move the stove very slightly so that one small but annoying buzz stops.

The nice part about the pellet stove, aside from the fact that it works and I am warm even in my room, is that you put a bag of pellets in it and several days later you add another. Depends on how you use the stove really. I don't like sleeping in a warm room, so I turn the stove down to 55 when I go to bed. It turns itself off unless the temperature in the house drops below 55, in which case it starts back up until it's at the right place again. Same during the day. We keep it set at between 68 and 72, but more toward the lower end. Not because we're nuts but because the stove is so efficient that we are comfortably warm at that temperature. So far we're more than happy with the new stove. I am more than happy with hands that work and not having to wear my entire wardrobe just to keep warm.

Tomorrow will be yet another adventure. The stove sits on a brick pad. Over the years the mortar has begun to crumble and the bricks have to be reset before the inspector comes out next week. My daughter's boyfriend was going to do it on Friday. He in fact got started, but then he got sick and didn't get it done. Yesterday, when he was feeling better, he had other things to do. Same with today. I am a person who asks once and expects a reasonable adult to keep their word. He didn't get the work done and I know that tomorrow he'll be gone most of the day with some business he absolutely has to attend to, so the work is not going to get done again.

Then again, that's not an accurate statement. It is, in fact going to get done because I am going to do it. I got out my daughter's home repair book tonight and checked the information in it. There isn't a lot to doing this. I am working with a single layer of brick. The only things I didn't know was how thick to put the mortar and where, and whether or not it went on the bottom of the brick where it meets the wood pedestal or not. I know these things now, so by the time he gets home tomorrow I will have replaced the remaining bricks. They probably won't look as good as if he had done them, but then again they will be done which is fairly important.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned in my life is that when push comes to shove, there is only one person you can every depend on totally and that's yourself. So I do my best to include other people in my life, but I never depend on them to do anything for me. If they do what they say they will do (rare) I am thrilled. If they don't then I do it myself or pay to have it done. It's the same with this. I would lay dollars to donuts that he won't get up early and finish the job before he leaves to do his business. I wish he would, but I absolutely don't believe he will.

So right now we have a great new stove that needs a bit of attention (probably will take 10-15 minutes tops to set it right), and we will soon have the few bricks that came loose around the front edge of the pedestal fixed. I'm later on to figure out a way to put tiles, a mosaic, or something on the bricks to make the whole thing look more like a nice hearth.

Stuff and more Stuff

I have been busier than the proverbial one-armed paper hanger the past few weeks. Somewhere I seem to remember reading that when you retire, you have more spare time and get to do a lot less. Well, with me "retired" is always a relative term anyway, but that's an entirely different story.

I finished one of my Microsoft assignments on the 30th of November and began the next one on December 1. Today I got an evaluation and the old group asked me when I want to start doing the next one next year. This is flattering. My current assignment, which begins today involves writing 589 biographical profiles, is going to take a while to complete as well. So it appears that while "retired" I will be busy throughout the upcoming year, at least part time, which is perfect for me to be honest.

I've discovered that what I need is a new hobby. Well ok, I need another 20 lbs on my butt about as much as I need a new hobby, but that's another story for another day. I've wanted to learn to do beaded flowers. I've made jewelry in the past, so I am familiar with some of the techniques, but beaded flowers are very pretty and very artsy. I was in the craft store yesterday getting some odds and ends and trying to get a picture of a quilt that Sewmouse wanted. I was talking to one of the instructors there. The long and the short of it is that she and I are going to get together some time in February in order to sit down and figure out how to make these intricate, beautiful beaded flowers. I love the idea of working with someone else. It will also fill in for those times I cannot knit. I did so much knitting over the past few months that I have managed to get repetitive stress in my right shoulder, which is getting better now that I am not knitting. I have to do some knitting though because I owe Sewmouse an afghan that is already started, but which I had to put down because of the pain.

I plan to use up a lot of my bits and pieces of yarn by making afghan squares for a local charity, but I had to switch my preferred method from knitting (much faster) to crocheting because I knit right handed (it's my right shoulder that's messed up) but I crochet left handed.

Right now, however, I've been slacking off around the house for so long I am fully expecting a visit from the local board of health if I don't empty some wastebaskets, vacuum, pick up, and wash the dog snot off of the majority of the windows.

I picked up a couple of things while out shopping today that should cause some comments around here. Last year one of my daughter's plants died. It was an old plant and I'm not really sure why it died, but it did. My daughter is insisting that I killed it. So today I saw some gorgeous plants of the same type, and absolutely huge for the price so I got her one. Sewmouse will understand this next one....I got the devil dog from hell a new hedgehog who does not have his sqeakers broken and who is wearing a Santa hat.

Meet Amy

Amy is the latest in my Christmas do-it-yourself accomplishments. She was not as easy to make, unfortunately since the directions were totally hosed up, and it took me literally a day or better to figure out how to make her head and her legs. The stitch counts were all off and two rows were missing on the head.

Amy is my statement against what is happening with imported Chinese toys. Today I heard that more are being recalled, this time because they contain dangerous chemicals that are literally putting children into comas. None have died thus far, but I suppose given the toy's popularity in both the U.S. and in Europe it's simply a matter of time.

I vowed when all of this started that I would not buy anything that was not American made, or that I did not make myself. This is the second of the do it yourself things, and there are two more to go, a sweater, and a hooded poncho.

Amy is not perfect, but Amy was made with love and she is not toxic. Even her stuffing was made right here in this country. I'm really rather proud of her, though I would hasten to add that given the time it takes to make one, she is not something anyone would make for other than the love of doing so or the love of the person for whom she is intended.

So anyway, say hi to Amy. I am sure she is glad to meet you.

I Had an Aha! Moment This Morning

I am sitting at my desk working on an assignment for Microsoft, when I had this Aha! moment.

The job I am doing is very complex. There is a pile of 40 some candidates for outstanding achievement awards. These are a lot of very important people. The job is mind-boggling because the write-ups are so god awful in most cases. Some are rather like trying to read a plate of spaghetti.

My job is to bring order out of chaos, discover what needs to be said that isn't in the documents before me, and then to contact the people involved, get the information, and complete the write-ups. And I have a bit less than two weeks to do it in.

Please understand that for this assignment, Microsoft came looking for me not the other way around. I'm a consultant. This was based on the smallest possible job I did for them sometime last year. I wrote up the proceedings for an off-site series of meetings they held. Someone there was so impressed that when this latest bunch of stuff came up, she asked for me by name, even asking my agency that if I were on assignment that I perhaps could work for them too on weekends and after hours. That was very flattering.

Deciding to take the job was one of my smarter decisions. Now to the aha! moment. I was busy firing off emails all over the globe to the director of this, and VP of that, then sending a suggestion to the manager I'm reporting to telling her of changes that need to be made in the process and volunteering (for money of course) to actually give some form to their current chaotic process (herding cats comes to mind) and write up a guideline to enable people to do a better job up front. That's when it hit me. In the past I have always been sort of overwhelmed by such important people and having to deal with them. I mean, some of these folks have world-wide reputations.

The aha? Well, I'm not only not overwhelmed by them any more, I don't feel at all inferior to them either. While I haven't accomplished the heady levels of technical and managerial they have, in my own way and in my own field I am just as good and just as accomplished. It's done wonders for my ego.

I think this happened in part because I am being treated as an expert and my opinions and suggestions are being respected with this group. They act as if I walk on water. I am referring to the local Microsoft group for which I am working, not the broader company or all of these technical geniuses with whom I am dealing. I honestly needed this. It's done an enormous amount for my self-esteem. It doesn't hurt that I get to work at home, set my own hours, etc. It also doesn't hurt to be told that people are so impressed by me and my work that they are asking my manager for a place in the queue for my services as each project is finished.

On some level I know my own expertise and worth. But on another I needed to hear it from someone other than the little voice inside my head. This next couple of weeks are going to be brutal. There is nowhere near enough time before the deadline. I'll meet it of course. I've already let management know I will be going into overtime and weekends. I have strategies for doing research until the answers to my emails begins coming in, and there are a very few of the nomination write-ups that are actually good enough and which contain sufficient information for me to begin the final drafts of those.

In the end I will do it. But I'll also turn around and refine their process so that next year whoever does this will not have nearly the hard time I am. In their defense, I should add that this program only started last year, so the guidelines have not really been set. They will be next year because I will set them. I feel very good about me this morning.

Frustration

I am frustrated enough to bite the dog today. I have a new assignment with Microsoft with a very tight deadline. I have 42 files to read, understand, research, rewrite, and turn in. I have two weeks from Monday to do it.

For some reason known only the the Microsoft network itself, the damned electronic babysitter will not allow me to access the site I need to be able to download the files I have to work on. The system administrator has worked for two days to try to remedy this and thus far we have failed miserably. This morning I still don't have access. Of course I didn't know that for two hours because the damned auto-update feature is also bugged and defective and didn't work, thus denying me access to any of the Microsoft site. Yes. I am being paid for that time. That's beside the point. Finally my daughter the systems administrator, fixes it for me and the updates get updated.

So I go out to the page I so desperately need. Still no access. For 20 of the files, I have paper copies. If things get desperate by Monday, I can enter these by hand and thus have files to work on. I have enough work for today and about halfway into Monday before I have to start doing this in order to move ahead. For those other 22 files, there is no way. If I cannot even see what they say, I can't assess what is good or bad, what is missing, or what research/interviews I have to do to bring them up to speed.

I am not terribly efficient when I am this frustrated, I admit. I need to start my interviews/research etc. on Monday once I am fully up to speed on what is needed on these current files. This I can do. However, with 10 working days to do it all, I am not happy with the idea that 22 files are out there I can't even read much less work on. I take great pride in the quality of my work. I work fast. I am willing and able to work long hours and weekends when necessary (nice paychecks btw when I do that).

So I have fired off a note to my boss and am going back to work on what I have. By the end of the day at least 20 files will be annotated as to who I need to contact, what information I need, and what research I need to do online to make sure that the story is written well. Monday I start on that and pray. I plan to hand enter only the file I most currently will be working on in the hope that somewhere along the line this mess gets fixed and I won't have to do all of them.

Grrrr......I don't need this.

I am So Excited

As many of you know, I am very political. I generally have an opinion on almost everything. Today I was listening to CNN when Jack Cafferty asked what we thought that the new embassy in Iraq, which has had huge overruns, has now had its opening postponed indefinitely. He asked what that said about the Bush administration.

I dashed off a response. Of course I didn't think to keep a copy of it. I just heard my entire comment read on CNN during the Situation Room. I was so excited. So I started dinking around with my mail program and found the original comment. Here it is:

"That boondoggle of an embassy will stand as a permanent monument to George Bush's ineptitude, and the failure of his policies in Iraq. It was started with inadequate knowledge and planning, carried out without oversight and apparently without a master plan for success, and in the end will stand empty as a hollow tribute to everything that went wrong over there. Mr. Bush cannot afford to fund health programs for poor children but he has no problem dumping money down a rat hole with projects such as this."

Yeah, I know it's a very little thing, but damn.

Meet Max

This is Max. He's a hand-made stuffed dog that I am giving my granddaughter for Christmas this year. I've been alarmed over the entire toy thing with all the poison paint and other things, and I don't know what is safe and what is not.

From my point of view, all the toys that are going to be put on the shelves for us to buy this Christmas season have already been manufactured and are either in store warehouses, already on the shelves, or in transit. We know from the reports that there are going to be many more recalls before Christmas is actually upon us. For that reason I determined not to buy anything that is not made in this country this year. I will not risk the well-being of my precious granddaughter for the profits of some greedy toy company who won't even do the basic quality control one would expect of any manufacturer, but especially for those who are importing toys from third world countries where safety and quality standards are all but nonexistent.

Max isn't perfect. Then again neither is his owner. On the other hand, Max is made with a lot of love, he's soft, cuddly, washable, and he contains nothing toxic. From his yarn to his stuffing he was manufactured in this country. He is safe. To me anyway, that's a lot more important than the fact he is not entirely perfect. He looks handmade. I suppose that's because he is. Funny how that works.

Anyway, Max meet the world. World, meet Max.

Another One Bites The Dust

In a good way this time. I got another one of my afghan projects for Christmas finished. This is for my ex-son-in-law and his new wife. It's pretty but I'm glad it's done and I can move on to all the other things I need to get finished.

It looks nice and will be something useful as well. I guess you can't ask for anything more than that.

I have had to redo the body of the stuffed dog I am making. I did something stupid and ruined the first one. But that is just one evening's work, so it's not that big a deal. I have also started yet another afghan. This is my next to the last one. From there I need to finish all the things for my granddaughter, and make my daughter's present as well.

This winter I will do something very unusual for me. First, and more important, I'll be working hard to finish Sewmouse's quilt for her. In addition, I plan to make a couple of sweaters and a couple of pair of socks for someone I almost never make anything for......me.

A Wonderful URL

Man, do I have a deal for you. If you're one of those who is inundated with credit card offers in the mail every week, there is a way out. go to this link and you will be able to opt out of receiving this annoying bits of paper for five years. If you wish, you can mail in a form that opts you out permanently.

Note the "s" at the end of HTTP. That's for secure. I just did it and can't wait to see if it actually lowers the numbers of these things I get virtually daily. It would be so nice if it did.

Moving Right Along

I just got back from Michaels, the local craft store, where I picked up the materials to make a cute crocheted basset hound. Thank you Sewmouse for that and the many other patterns you found and sent me.

I checked my Christmas giving list. I was able to delete one of the afghans I was going to send, but the yarn is now redirected to a sweater for my granddaughter. The timing will be tight because I am going to make all of her Christmas gifts this year, which I was not planning to do until very recently. I simply cannot justify buying any toys until this entire recall thing is resolved, and I am convinced that the contaminated Chinese-made toys are already in the warehouses and are going to be sold to us for our kids then recalled after Christmas.

I am nearly finished with one afghan, and have two more to finish by Christmas, plus all of Rachel's gifts. I'm going to be one busy camper for this upcoming season. Still, I have over three months, so if I really work hard, I'll get it all done in time. The little kid stuff can be done at the same time as other things, one small piece at a time, then assembled and stuffed at the last moment. My daughter can help me make some of the plastic canvas things. That should be fun for her as well.

I wish this were not the case, though I admit I'm having fun planning all of this, and will feel an enormous sense of accomplishment when everything is finished. I will be posting pictures of things as they are finished, so everyone can keep track of my progress. Wish me luck people, this is a huge amount of new work that I hadn't counted on having to do. Still, my granddaughter is precious to me, and she's worth the added work. I won't risk poisoning her for corporate profit.

Spin! Spin! Spin!

The Facts

1. At the beginning of the year President Bush proposed a troop surge of approximately 30,000 troops. His stated purpose was to provide additional security on the ground to give the Iraqi government the breathing room it needed to implement some hard diplomatic solutions to Iraq's problems.
   
   
2. At Congress's behest and with Mr. Bush's full and public support, 18 benchmarks were established that would provide a concrete and measurable gauge by which progress toward the stated goals could be measured.
   
   
3. Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki went on television in a widely viewed address to both his nation and the people of the United States and assured us that not only would they fully meet all of the benchmarks, but they would exceed them.
   

The above facts are indisputable. They happened and are easy verified by going back and reading the stories in the press during that time. So now we have the base established. The bottom line is, that according to Congress, Mr. Bush, and Mr. al-Maliki, the only measure of success is whether or not the benchmarks are met. That is all the surge was intended to accomplish.

What Happened?

The "surge" went into Iraq. It was shortly after the surge began that we learned that rather than working on the political reconciliation and other issues as they had promised, the Iraqi government was planning a two-month long holiday at the end of the "surge." This left no appreciable time from when the last of the U.S. troops hit the ground and they were expected to produce the results they promised. While Washington managed to bully them down to only one month of sipping tea and popping bon bons by the pool while our soldiers died, they still managed to accomplish virtually nothing.

Over the past week two reports have surfaced. One states that while the Iraqi army is making some limited progress, it will be from between 12-18 months before they can even begin to assume any sort of leading roll in Iraq's defense. In an interview with those who wrote the report (on Meet The Press) they estimate it will be 3-6 years before this transition can be expected to be completed. The same report concluded that the National Police, run by the Department of the Interior, is so corrupt and so sectarian that it should just be disbanded and reorganized.

The Iraqi government has fulfilled 3 of the 18 benchmarks and has made no progress whatever on the really essential ones. Large blocks of the government and the parliament has resigned or withdrawn because of this lack of will. Ethnic cleansing on the part of the Shiite militias in Baghdad goes on unchecked and nearly 2 million have fled the country. More than that have fled the city as one Sunni neighborhood after another are given the choice of either leaving or being murdered.

Since the beginning of Mr. Bush's "war on terror" (as if you can make a war on either an emotion or a tactic) terrorist incidents worldwide have increased 500%.

Most military leaders point to small and limited improvements on the ground and claim that the "surge" is working. The surge is working only if the Iraqi government has achieved its reconciliation goals and has completed the benchmarks. They have done neither.

The Spin

Mr. Bush, et. al have been been in a frenzy of spinning for the past two weeks. Mr. Bush now claims that any sign, no matter how small, of military progress on the ground is "proof" that the surge is working. Now I grant you if small or measurable success on the ground were the goal Mr. Bush, Congress, and Mr. al-Maliki had named as the indicator of success, then this would be true. Unfortunately however, it is not what they all said would measure success. Only political success would do that and there has been no political movement, much less success.

Most experts on the region agree that without a political solution there is absolutely no way for the U.S. to ever stabilize Iraq. Even now, were all of the foreign fighters to leave today, the levels of violence on the ground would barely abate because they are no longer the problem. Iraq is embroiled in a sectarian civil war. here is no solution to that other than a political one onto which all of the parties sign.

General Petraeus is expected to testify before congress tomorrow, and the ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday. They are expected to spout the party line that the surge is "succeeding" while acknowledging that only a few minor benchmarks have been reached and that no diplomatic moves have been made toward political reconciliation. He is expected to recommend (ala Mr. Bush's orders) that we leave the troops there to die for another six months or so to give the Iraqi government time to work on political solutions. I am positive he will not explain how this is expected to happen and why now when they have utterly failed to regard it as sufficiently important to even stay in session and work.

Mr. Bush and his crew of merry vagabonds continue to insist that the majority of the fighting on the ground right now in Iraq is the result of actions of al-Qaeda members in the country. Every civilian and military expert who has been there over the past six months agree almost to the man that this is not true. The violence now is between various Muslim sects and the divisions within those sects. In Baghdad, for instance, The Shittes are clearing out the Sunnis at a record pace so it's not surprising that when you couple fewer people with more military boots on the ground, the level of violence has gone down in some places there. Overall, however, the death toll of civilians last month exceeded the month before by quite a bit.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line that will be concluded by most reasonable people other than the 29%ers who believe Mr. Bush walks his dog on the lake every morning are as follows:

1. Given the stated purpose of the surge, it has failed. While there are a few small military successes to point to, military success was not why the surge was implemented.
   
   
2. The al-Maliki government either outright lied or misrepresented what progress they could reasonably be expected to achieve in the six months they were given, and that even then they didn't even try to meet the goals.
   
   
3. General Petraeus will concentrate on presenting congress with the rosiest possible picture of the conditions on the ground in Iraq, will lobby for more time, and will studiously ignore the real reason for the surge in the first place. He will pretend that military success on the ground is the reason for the surge.
   
   
4. Congress will conclude that the surge is a failure, but will almost certainly cave in and give Mr. Bush a blank check. All the time making (or trying to make) political hay over Mr. Bush's war, which a few of them honestly wish to continue and perhaps even get worse before the upcoming elections so as to generate a very real anti-Republican backlash.
   
   
   
5. Mr. al-Maliki will go on television sometime toward the end of the week, probably after Mr. Bush gives his blowing sunshine address to the nation either Thursday or Friday, and will appear openly defiant and repeat his offer for us to leave right now and his assertion that they can do just fine thank you without us. I urge the President and congress to take him up on it.

Conclusion

It might sound cynical to some, but I don't feel this dog and pony show will accomplish anything or will change any minds. Mr. Bush will get his blank check and our troops will continue to die. The government of Iraq will fall sometime within the next four months leaving the country in even more chaos than it is currently. The civil war will continue unabated until the country splits into three separate and warring provinces. Finally, we will be there, and we intend to be there, for at least the next five to seven years and probably more. Remember, you heard it here first.

Mattel Arrogance

"Mattel Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Eckert said in an interview that the company discloses problems on its own timetable because it believes both the law and the commission’s enforcement practices are unreasonable. Mattel said it should be able to evaluate hazards internally before alerting any outsiders, regardless of what the law says." Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2007

This is a quote that says more than I believe Mr. Eckert really wanted to say about how Mattel feels about this whole toy recall thing. The Consumer Protection Agency requires that all such discoveries be reported within 24 hours. What he is saying is that he doesn't care about the law; he clearly believes that Mattel is above the law in this instance, but also that he doesn't care that millions of our children are being slowly poisoned while Mattel executives and lawyers dither around trying to find a way to spin this information to their favor.

From everything I've read in the past two days, these recent recalls and toxic toys from China are merely the tip of the iceberg. There will be many many more of these in the coming months, and there is an extremely good chance that Mattel and the other toymakers already know about them, but are delaying the recalls. Again while our children suffer what could be permanent brain damage in the interim.

While thinking about this this morning, I realized something else. The lead-in cycle for toy manufacture, especially when the manufacturing has been sent all the way to China, is quite long. Months I would guess. Many of the toys being currently recalled were intended for this upcoming Christmas season. Then it hit me. I'm willing to bet that Mattel and the other big toy makers are going to put many of the toys that they know are contaminated, but which have not been declared with the CPA and recalled, on the shelves to sell for Christmas. Then, a month or two after Christmas they will "discover" that the toys are contaminated with lead and heaven knows what else, and will issue a big recall. Of course the money will already be in their pockets, and the last quarter earnings reported to Wall Street, so the stock will be much less seriously impacted.

The losers here? Well first and foremost will be our children, who will have all those months (as they had the past many) to become contaminated with lead and other unhealthy substances. Mattel apparently doesn't care about that, despite Mr. Eckert's avowal that he too has children. I will bet none of his children or grandchildren if he has any, were allowed to keep a single one of those toys a minute beyond the day that Mr. Eckert first became aware they were toxic. Too bad he didn't care enough to do that for our children rather than let them ingest this poison for what he admits were months.

I for one will not be purchasing any toy made in China this coming Christmas season. I will also not purchase any toy which I cannot determine the country of origin immediately. Sewmouse has some cute patterns for kids toys that are either knitted or crocheted. I am getting them from her and will make my granddaughter some for Christmas. Then I will make her a cute fuzzy poncho, and a nice knitted sweater. I won't risk poisoning her so Mattel can have a good bottom line.

I urge any parent or grandparent who loves their children to do the same. Don't trust any of the major toy manufacturers. They have already proven themselves willing to endanger our children for their own arrogant and selfish reasons. Buy your toys at craft fairs, from friends and neighbors, make them yourself, or seek out the small toy manufacturers who still operate in this country. You can find them on the Internet. Don't risk poisoning those you love. The toy manufacturers have proven they don't care about these children; it's our job to protect them until this mess is sorted out.

The Depths of Stupidity

There are some sorts of stupidity that seem to defy time and situation. I ran into the same one in two places this past weekend.

You all remember my daughter's ungrateful friend. The one I wrote about a couple of times here. She's the one for whom "thank you" is a difficult concept, and personal responsibility a mystery. She's with a guy right now who will, one day soon, hospitalize her. He becomes more violent and more abusive toward her every time he gets drunk which is several times a week. But that's another story. She has also lost custody of one child who simply didn't like her lifestyle (she was with an abusive lesbian for a while) and voluntarily gave up the custody of her 8 year old son because he was an inconvenience to her new romance. Well, Ms. Bright As Hell, now may be pregnant with Mr. Abusive's child.

It's difficult to believe that in the 21st Century there are still people who don't equate sex and pregnancy and take one of the many avenues of birth control available to anyone. This woman has no more right to bring another child into this world than I do considering marrying Tom Cruise. The difference is that I wouldn't have Tom Cruise. She's too irresponsible to have another child. Yet here she is, potentially pregnant because she was too lazy and too stupid to take a simple precaution.

I said two....remember? Well, the second is my great nephew. He just graduated from high school, was headed off to college, and was going to be the first (possibly only) of that generation to do so and what happens? He gets his girlfriend pregnant. Exactly what part of birth control is such a difficult concept to grasp? It's not as if he wants a kid at this age. It's not as if either of them do, but again we have too lazy, too stupid, and too irresponsible to take simple precautions.
I find it next to impossible to believe that any adult in this country doesn't know about the ready availability of birth control and doesn't realize how thoroughly having a baby when you don't want one can screw up your life. Of course neither of these people who do not believe in birth control believe in abortion either, so one and possibly two more unwanted humans will grace the planet. One will probably be well cared for and loved at some point, but the other will not and will at best be neglected and resented. That's really a bad start for any life.

Rule number one in life is "people are stupid." If you are ever amazed at something someone does, simply refer back to rule number one.

Am I Being Thin-Skinned?

I've been wondering this past week if I am being a bit thin-skinned. A couple of weeks ago my daughter's friend was given an assignment at work. She was supposed to update a report that was originally written by one of their regional managers. She had no idea about how that could be done and my daughter volunteered to help her out.

Personally I thought she should have told her manager the truth; she doesn't have a clue as to where to even start and probably couldn't do an adequate job. This girl is a bit light in the loafers in the intelligence department to begin with. I don't mean she's exactly stupid, but she has no interest in this kind of heavy thinking and analysis. However, she was not willing to do that. She figured my daughter could update the report, then she'd take the credit for it at work.

Well, my daughter started and figured out that she can't do it either. Given enough time she probably could have done something that would be at least adequate, but while she's very bright she's not a writer. So guess who volunteered to help out? I've been doing this type of research and writing for well over 20 years. It wasn't exactly rocket science despite me not having access to the expensive statistics the original writer had.

The report took me about four days to research, think about, then write, edit and assemble. At my current billable rate, that would have cost the company quite a bit had they hired me to do it. It's an acceptable analysis but nothing exceptional in keeping with the idea that this woman is going to present it as her own work.

Now we come to the gist of this story. Even though I kept the vocabulary and even the depth of the report on a level with what she might be expected to produce, it still turned out a lot better than anything she could have managed. Some of the things I discovered and wrote about will be useful for the managers who are using it for planning for the upcoming year. The problem is this young lady doesn't understand much of what I wrote. She was supposed to sit down with me and ask questions so that she understood well enough not to look stupid if her manager questioned her. She never did. She turns the report in later today (I'm having another sleepless night which is why I'm writing this at 2:00 in the morning).

So to my question: am I being a bit thin-skinned because I am miffed that this girl has never spoken directly to me about this project? She's never asked a question, commented on the quality of the report, or....the big one....so much as said thank you. I don't expect her to act as if I'm some wonderful person etc. for helping her out of a tight corner, but is an email saying "thanks for the report" too much to expect for four days work? She was here picking up some of her things last night and never even bothered to say a word to me though we were in the same room several times.

When I get paid for my work, I still generally get some comment on the quality of the work I do and often get thanks. Is it too much to expect a simple thank you when someone bails your ass out of a tight situation? Again, I am not talking anything effusive. Just two words to acknowledge that I bothered to take the time and effort (which I will not do again as a result of this).

Political Ads

There are two political ads showing up on the cable channels recently. One has a woman claiming to be the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq and the other is supposed to be a soldier serving over there. The gist of their comments is that the current "surge" is working, showing amazing progress, and laying a path for the end of the war, and more or less imploring people to be more patient and that things are working out. More or less same stuff different day.

But then the tone changes, and they each begin explaining that the reason we have to stay in Iraq has to do with 9/11 and they try very hard to say without every saying it that Iraq was somehow involved in 9/11.

This is a very old administration tactic that has been repeated continually even while those saying it are confirming that they know this is a lie. The Bush administration wants very much for us to tie the 9/11 attacks to Iraq so they have some justification for their continuing this war. It's unfortunate for them that it's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt by anyone including Mr. Bush that this simply is not the case. So while they cannot make the claim directly, they can make it indirectly by talking about the two events in the same context without ever saying that they are related. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney do this constantly.

So what has this to do with these ads? I wanted to know the same thing. There is a new website out there called politFact which resides at politfact.com; I went there and posed the question to their people, describing these ads and asking who was behind them. That was this morning. This afternoon I heard from the Washington Bureau Chief for the St. Petersburg Times. He said he had heard that these ads were going to be coming out, but didn't know that they had hit the air. The person behind them is Ari Fleischer, Mr. Bush's former press secretary. By extension that means at least that the Republican National Committee has its mark on them somewhere.

The guy from the site is now checking this out to find copies of the ads and to determine exactly who is doing what. I kind of like that. While my part in exposing this is teensy, it allows me a temporary illusion of being a politico or perhaps a mini-reporter. Talk about fulfilling a dream. *big ol' grin*

I was a little self-indulgent

I'm not generally the self-indulgent type. I buy things because they are something I need and then I toss something else out so the dresser and/or closet doesn't get overloaded. However, yesterday I bought something for no reason other than it was really pretty. It's a nightgown and robe set. Off white with pink and purple flowers on the hem and a few other places on the gown, and as the base of the robe. It's soft and feminine. Not two of my better traits generally. I haven't worn the robe yet, but the gown is really soft and nice.

Today I've been working on the area we just cleaned out. I've almost finished tossing all the old mail, bags, boxes, etc. Will do that by the end of today. If/when we do get my things out of storage, I already have an area mapped out there for my big oak bookcase. It will replace two smaller and not very pretty ones that sit there now. Lots more space and looks better. We're just chipping away at things and they are getting done. I like that.

Today I need to run up to Office Depot for some folders. I need them to finish the reordering I'm doing in my own room. It's like 90% finished now. Makes me feel good and it really looks organized and cool. Yay for organized and cool.

I really do need to measure and figure out where to get insulated curtains for my bedroom. That would look terrific and would be a boon this winter when it gets really cold in here even with the small heater. Every time I try to find something the sizes are all wrong or the hardware is ridiculously overpriced. I really do want something very very simple.