BREAKING!
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Thursday was a very good day.  
I had the day off and really needed it.  I have been
pretty exhausted - working too much and not
sleeping enough.  Today though, I slept in until
about 10:30.  Then I got up had some coffee and
decided to stroll up the road to see if I could get a
ticket to the 1PM Yankee game.  I got in the long
line and tried to talk down a few ticket scalpers but
the prospect for getting in seemed slim.  They only
had a few $75 tickets left from what I heard.  I love
the Yankees but for this particular game $75 was
not really what I wanted to spend.  Relaxed and well
rested I simply walked around the stadium enjoying
the cool early afternoon and figured I would just go
back home and watch it on TV. Then I overheard
some guy tell his kids that they would go in a soon
as he found someone who needed just 1 ticket.  I
jumped in and purchased the $7 seat.
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I sat in the bleachers for the first time.  It was really great.  I was in the front row so had a bar to lean on (Bleacher seats
have no backs - the only drawback except they don’t sell beer there which I didn't want anyway.)  Man, I was close to the
action - 20 or 30 feet from Bernie Williams!  No homers were hit to center field but if there was I would have been in
perfect position to catch it.

The bleachers fans are more social than the ones in my regular semi-fancy seats.  Everybody is chilled and high five each
other at every good play.  The fact that the seats were only $7 made it all that much better.  It is the best deal in New
York.  Oh, the Yankees won the game and A Rod, who has been slumping, had 3 important hits and a crucial stolen base.

After the game I strolled home and was back in my comfy chair about 4 hours after I left the apartment in the first place.  
Now that’s what I call a great day!
RED RUMMY: THE
REAL FASCIST
There is quite a buzz about Donald Rumsfeld latest
comments which portray those who dare opposed his
policies as friends of fascism and appeasers of the first
degree.

I have written about this here (in the comments section
toward the bottom). Basically I am not surprised at the level of
smear by the Republican Secretary of Defense.  The
questioning of the morality and patriotism of Republican
critics goes back to Ronald Reagan.  For a generation those
of us who have tried to put the brakes on our slide into  this
mess have been called everything in the book.

As I have said repeatedly, the Republican have no choice
anymore but to do this. They only gained power by
demonizing their opponent and constant escalation is
mandatory to keep their base full of hatred and therefore
motivated to vote.  This strategy of dividing the people of
America to conquer power is precisely  why the country is in
such a mess right now. So Rumsfeld's attack on fellow
American is not an aberration - it is the very lifeblood of
Republican rule.
This video is a commentary by Keith Olberman that dissects
Rumsfeld's un American comments and puts them in
historical context     (6:41)
Comments
PRIORITY
NEWS
KATRINA
A blessing in disguise?
T
It was one year ago that Hurricane Katrina blew
away the veil hiding the incompetence of the
Republican party.  With Bush's and Congress'
approval numbers at near record lows since the
storm, it is hard to imagine that just a year ago the
public was still in the dark about just how bad this
country is being run.  

In addition to the widespread physical damage and
human suffering, Hurricane Katrina may be
remembered most as the event that finally awoke a
sleeping American public to the gross indifference
right wing politicians have for the most vulnerable
of their fellow citizens.

On this sad anniversary it is important that we
never forget this and we remind other who may
have,
THIS VIDEO SAYS IT ALL (4:08)
LISTEN TO ME!
Here is today's blog on audio.  Please
let me know if it does not work for you.  
Coming soon (?) MQAblog podcasts
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?
I found this story very interesting.  It reports that a majority of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign because of
the poor way the war against Hezbollah was planned and run.  In short, many feel the war was a misadventure from the start
and needlessly cost the lives of Israeli soldiers and innocent civilians in Lebanon. In fact, most think the war made matters
worse for Israel, the Middle East and the world. In addition to the loss of life, Israel took a huge blow to their reputation and
normally friendly countries now look at them with distrust and disrespect. It will take decades or even generations for the
damage to be undone. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?  Yep, I could be talking about George W. Bush and how his
disaster in Iraq has so gravely hurt the United States.  

But here's the difference - the people of Israel actually want to hold their leaders responsible for the mess they've caused!

This seems a good time to ask, what is it about Americans (well, Republicans anyway), that give their President a free pass
even after he botched things up so badly that tens of thousands of innocents are killed (not to mention almost 3,000 of our
own) and the reputation of our country has become irrevocably tarnished? Misplace patriotism? Blind partisanship?  A
hatred of American values?  Stupidity? Whatever the reason - we are in very serious trouble because of these people.  

While the election in November can be a first step toward trying to correct these problems, I think we
need more than that.  If America makes it to 2009 and the Republicans are completely voted out of
office, I think we will need our own "Truth and Reconciliation" process to uncover all that has been
done by these devious people.

God only knows what Bush, Cheney and the GOP Congress has done without us knowing. The unconstitutional behavior
and widespread corruption that we DO know about is already historic. There surely must be hundreds of other unknown,
activities that will further damage the USA down the road. We need to find out about these things. For example: what
information has been secretly "classified" or destroyed; what other secret prisons, secret wars or unknown signing
statements have taken place; what kind of patronage to GOP cronies and other financial mismanagement of US taxpayer
money have they done... Sadly the list probably goes on and on and on.)

While it will take non-Republicans to get down to the business of trying to save our nation and uncover
the truth of the past generation, we should not ignore the responsibility of those who continued to
support George W. Bush and the GOP long past the point where their damaging actions could be
mistaken or ignored.

Clearly they do not have the best interests of America at heart and are unable (or unwilling) to make intelligent choices
about the country's future.  Left unchecked, these same people - who impeached Bill Clinton but hail George W. Bush - will
continue to harm our nation and our standing in the world.  We have to find a (non-violent) way to make sure that those
people don't hurt us again.  

Any suggestions?
pod
IN THE
HOLE!