Too late, smart

Why has Bush's approval rating dropped so much in the past few months? Why, oh why, didn't voters get this last fall? From the New York Times, June 17:

Forty-two percent of the people responding to the poll said they approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job, a marked decline from his 51 percent rating after of the November election...

I have a fantasy that one day Bush ducks into a phone booth, whips off his republican suit and in some fine superhero garb declares: "This was all a nightmare lesson on what can happen when people aren't paying attention. Now, let's go back and do it right."

Public Opinion

I'm pleasantly surprised that Lt Gen James Conway and pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, might think that public opinion on the war in Iraq matters. Yesterday they appeared in a press conference describing the progress in Iraq. The DOD press release quotes:

Di Rita and Conway spoke about recent polls that show a drop-off of American support for operations in Iraq. "Obviously, the public support of these kinds of operations is critical," Di Rita said.

Angry, but not surprised, that Senator Warner (R-VA) and others think Senator Durbin's (D-IL)rhetoric about the torture of detainees at Guantanamo is more shocking than the torture itself. From the Washington Post:

During a speech Tuesday, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.

Edited 6/18/05 to add link to Durbin's full statement.

From the New York Times:

Leading Republicans demanded an apology from Senator Richard J. Durbin on Thursday, two days after he compared abusive treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to the war crimes of oppressive regimes like the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge.

Maggy just sent me the link to this story about a 16 year old girl detained by the FBI and eventually deported as a terrorist suspect.

...as the first terror investigation in the United States known to involve minors, the case reveals how deeply concerned the government is that a teenager might become a terrorist, and the lengths to which federal agents will go if they get even a whiff of that possibility. And it has drawn widespread attention, stoking the debate over the right balance between government vigilance and the protection of individual freedoms.

...An F.B.I. agent, posing as a youth counselor, first confronted Tashnuba in her bedroom, going through her school papers and questioning everything from her views on jihad to her posterless walls, she said. Sent to a center for delinquents in Pennsylvania, Tashnuba said she was interrogated without a lawyer or parent present, about her beliefs and those of her friends, mainly American girls she had met at city mosques.

I guess you have to be grateful, on some level, that she wasn't sent to Guantanamo.

Happy Birthday, Maggy!

Happy Birthday, Maggy!


This is Maggy trying to think of the perfect birthday wish. My wish already came true: we had a wonderful birthday celebration.

Alan Greenspan

In line with my search for more things to laugh about and my admiration for Greenspan, check out these non-poetic interpretations of fairy tales.

More Trouble

More trouble

As if I weren't having enough trouble, this guy and his two siblings were trying to reach the bird feeders again. So, I brought the bird feeders in and eventually they gave up. I'm a little worried about the goldfish on the deck.

I also want to say that Alan Greenspan is the greatest. He makes his thinking so clear. So, I've kind of got it about higher short term interest and lower long term interest and globalization. I've had a grip on the debt issue for a long time. But a committee member asked, "Other than raising taxes or cutting spending, is there anything we can do?" Greenspan answers, "Not that I know of." He's not overly concerned about the debt. But he did seem concerned about our ability to continue paying the interest on it. Since you have to have something of value to pay it with, he thinks we need much better educated workers to achieve a competitive level of production. It's a good point.

Charlie

Here's my troublesome sweetheart. Someone pointed out that I should avoid raising the fence bit by bit and inadvertantly training him to jump higher. Good point. But I have to admit Charlie was getting out by stepping over the fence in a place where he'd leaned on the wire so long it was bent low enough to step over. He can jump (I've shown him over fences) but he

thinks it's stupid. I can't imagine him ever jumping with out being told to.

Charlie

Understatement

I've been reading Losing America by Senator Byrd about the Bush administration. In the first chapter he describes, based on his experience with eleven presidents (since Truman) leadership qualities necessary for a president: "... presidential leadership requires much, much more than an expensive pollster and God-given charisma. Skillfully guiding a great nation...requires a vision,... a plan..., mature, solid judgment...wisdom and restraint. Experience..., good working knowledge of history, a thorough understanding of...our constitutional system and an intuitive grasp of...human nature." Then comes my nomination for understatement of the year: "George W Bush entered the White House with few tools than most." Runner-up understatement in the introduction to Byrd's book: "How can we be so comatose as a nation when so many damaging and radical changes are at once thrust upon us?"

Also, who can resist this list of dangerous books on the website of conservative newsletter Human Events. My favorite, in the runner-up list, is the incorrect title of The Origin of Species which they list as Origin of the Species. I found the dangerous book list, and other fun things, last night in Brad DeLong's blog.

It was interesting to hear Ariana Huffington this morning both on Washington Journal and at the Take Back America conference covered by CSPAN.

On a personal note, much of the past week has been taken up with looking for my horse and mending the pasture fence. Five of the past seven mornings he wasn't in the pasture. He's discovered many more low spots in the fence than I knew existed. And now he's discovered that the people half a mile down the road have horses and they're a lot more fun than our solitary confinement.

Carnivals

I've just discovered the blog concept of Carnivals - a kind of rotating party of links to 'best of...' blog entries related to the carnival topic. History, Philoshopy, Science, Future, Education, Comedy and many, many more.

This morning from The Panda's Thumb, I found Tangled Bank #28. There I found 10,000 Birds and many other wild and wonderful links to diverse things from Evolution to Economics to Feminism to Psychology and more. One thought underlying Carnivals is that they save time looking for gems. While that is undoubtably true, they consume enormous amounts of time reading the gems.

Wildlife

The pavement must be warm. And it's been raining a bit. So there's a light fog rising from the road. A fawn, with its quick little steps, runs across in front of me to join it's sibling on the right side of the road while the doe lags behind and watches from the left side of the road. In the next mile I dodge a 'possum. I turn right onto my road and slow down for a buck in the ditch, and another a hundred yards beyond. I turn into my driveway, looking out for the deer that usually graze in my yard - not there tonight. But the cat and dog run out to the car before I can pull into my parking spot and turn of the engine.

I'm gonna go watch the photographer's awards. I understand Bush is attending.

Grown-up Women

Thanks to Jill at The Business of Life for steering me to Time Goes By. It's a pleasure to find well written pieces written by someone with whom I have something in common.

Yet another obstacle to gardening

Tang in Catnip

Tang has claimed this catnip plant and - well - several square feet around it. While he was lounging there, I managed to finish adding compost to the other beds. So, I'm pretty much ready to plant as soon as I can count on frost free weather. Peas, lettuce, spinach and onions are already growing. The plan this year is for more flowers, fewer vegetables. Maybe just tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers and squash. And dahlias, glads, marigolds, calendula, zinnia, poppies, nasturtiums and probably more I can't think of at the moment.

Jack-in-the-pulpits are blooming in their own discreet way. Fritellarias are still in bloom and Japanese primroses will be out in a day or two. Violets and veronica everywhere in the lawn! And the hummingbirds are back.

I have finally figured out how to add links to the sidebar. And I started with Living in Dryden where Simon, bless his heart, spares me the need to read the Ithaca Journal by summarizing any local news I might want to be aware of. He also writes about local government and community events. Thanks, Simon.

Picasa again

skunk cabbage

Okay. Obviously I need practice with this. It took half an hour of kind of random clicking to get this picture here using Picasa. And maybe I can contact the nice person who left a comment a while ago about how to format text around a picture. And maybe if I figure out just how this worked, I can write instructions to help me do it again. I'm sure they think it's really simple. After all, there is that button labeled "Publish." But obviously Picasa's instructions are not working for me.

Anyway, this is the skunk cabbage in the beech woods that I was describing earlier.

Freeze

I know the weather report last night said "freeze." Not just "chance of frost" but FREEZE. Still, for some reason I didn't think of protecting the geraniums I had moved out to the deck after nurturing them all winter in the studio. They're looking pretty damned disappointed. They're not dead. But I'll have to cut them back pretty far. Oh, well. Maybe the cutting back will improve their shapes. I also have lots of cuttings from the last time I cut them back.

Belinda drove around the north trails with the chainsaw to scope out how many trees had fallen across the trails during the winter. When she got back she urged me to walk with her back up the the beech woods in the northeast 'cause it was so beautiful. She was right. The grey background of the beech trees, still leafless was gorgeous against the emerald green swath of skunk cabbage coming up along the brook.

Multitasking

As I fed cans into the machine that crushes them and spits out my refund receipt, I was patting myself on the back for being fairly orgainzed. I hang a shopping bag in the closet and put empty returnable cans and bottles in it. On shopping day, if it's full, I return them. So, I never have many to deal with. Tuesday, picking up the bottles and heading to the car, I'm glad I don't have much to carry and I walk right past the 3 winter coats I had laid on the banister to remind myself to take them to the drycleaner. So, while I may be fairly orgainzed, I'm kidding myself if I think I can do two things at once.

Like I can never remember to take my camera unless it's a specific photo trip. Yet I often find myself with a bit of time on my hands at a site that might make a good photo. Today I'm taking Bill to the library and we'll drive through the Plantations on the way home. I'll try to remember the camera.

Oh, dear

Oh, dear. A whole month and no writing. It was a tough month for some reason. A couple of days stand out. Belinda and Bill's birthdays. The Monday of my bookclub meeting when I did almost all my weekly housekeeping in one day. The Wednesday the new satellite dish was installed. The Thursday town board meeting filled with questions from the board member who hadn't read the report under discussion. The Saturday that Maggy was home and Belinda and I saw Death of a Salesman at the Cider Mill Theater.

But it's May now. I'm sorry I didn't celebrate May Day. I really can't count fixing the pasture fence as celebration. But I'm glad it's done. Maybe I'll celebrate tonight. Flexibility is a good thing.

This morning I was happy to read the big brass blog entry about Bush's reference to the "drawer of IOUs" that he says threaten the Social Security trust. I was listening to a rerun of the press conference on CSPAN when my outrage at hearing this dumb comment again made me turn it off. Check it out. Those IOUs Bush wants you to think are worthless are treasury bonds. When Bush says the surplus in the social security trust is used to "fund other government programs," he doesn't mean the government just spends the money. The money is borrowed to cover a part of the huge budget deficit. I don't understand why no one demands that he clarify that point - among many others.

On a lighter note, Based on a True Story... has a comical entry - Unitarian Jihad.

Deer and Rhododendron

I knew I'd regret it if I didn't try to discourage the deer from feeding under the bird feeder. Last week they ate over half of the flower buds on the big rhododendron under my living room window. I had a fence around it. But too low and too close to the plant. I should have sprayed repellant on it. Anyway, I won't have the spectacular show I was expecting from the rhododendron.

There's still quite a bit of snow on the ground. But I'm determined to get outside and start pruning apple trees and cutting brush.

Picasa

Another experiment with Picasa. Okay. I thought I might be wasting time trying this. But now I can get pictures in to the blog. That's cool. I wonder how/if I can format text around the picture.
Echinacea

Ben Nelson

Ben Nelson's right. In this week's NY Times article, "A Democrat Apart, he says "I think the party is challenged with getting ahead of the curve and defining itself, because its opposition has defined it." At a recent county Democratic Committee meeting, a newcomer asked what the committee does. There was a titter from the audience, not because the question was funny, but because people in the audience were nervous that they didn't have a answer. Irene Steiner, the chair, didn't hesitate with a good answer. The committee exists to identify and encourage candidates for public office.

Nelson goes on to say the party's been "defined as though Democrats want to ban the Bible, burn the flag, promote same-sex marriage, rewrite the Pledge of Allegiance, take away everybody's guns..." and that the new party leadership should "reverse that image." I admit I don't want to ban the Bible -- or any other book. And I don't want to burn the flag, tho' I find myself wondering why I think cars sporting flag decals are driven by people I should be careful around. I'd be happy if "God" was dropped from the Pledge of Allegiance, 'tho it's not a very high priority for me. And guns... Well, yeah, maybe...

This morning I was reading through some blogs I've bookmarked in the recent past. The Free Range Librarian linked to a Times article about Sideways. I'm glad to find something from people who don't think the movie was so great. They both refer to the alcoholic character. That didn't stand out for me when I saw it, but it certainly adds to the failure of the story. I've seen good movies made from bad stories. But Sideways failed in nearly every way. Bad directing, mostly bad acting... The only things I remember without negative thoughts are the sets and costumes.

The whole blog world is getting interesting. So much of it is about getting recognized, getting the most links, getting hits from Google. But getting links and getting hits doesn't seem to have much corelation to content (except other links) or quality of writing or design.

Months go by

I started this blog to learn how to do it and to encourage myself to write on a regular basis. Some success on both scores. I learned something about blogger and coped with the frustration of things I couldn't do easily. So, I started writing fairly regularly and switched to a word document rather than the blog.

But when I look around a the great things people are doing with blogs, I dream about using mine more -- or better. One of the greatest frustrations in browsing blogs is finding the ones that end abruptly or update rarely. Of course, I've already figured out that pretty much no one will find this blog unless I tell them about it. I'd like to make the blog interesting enough to be worth telling someone about it. I want to be able to use pictures, put favorite links in the sidebar and more.

Trouble is -- so much to do, so little time. I think I should be able to read, draw, paint, take photos, play the piano, garden etc,etc all more or less at once. And still eat, bath and keep a clear path through the house. Oh, and stay current with local and national politics and continue encouraging Maggy and help Bill with his house. Seems like other people do lots of these things -- and sometimes more. Why can't I? I'm not willing to give up any of these things. Does that doom me to doing all of them poorly? I know I get distracted easily, but I don't think my time management is all that bad.

So I've just finished reading Atonement which was fabulous. Dovetailed nicely with The Kite Runners. Main chracters in both recount having done something bad and spending the rest of their lives thinking about it. Both main characters are writers. Both use exquisite language and great ideas.

I've done a few sketches - some nice but nothing spectacular. Painted several color studies and the beginning of a landscape. Okay. I'm learning. Taken some good photos. Printed and framed 2 for the gift exchange at Roz's and they were quite a hit. Printed some greeting cards using one of Bill's paintings and some of my photos. Pretty nice.

Haven't played the piano in a while. I've been to quite a few political meetings and found some worthwhile stuff online. I'm keeping up okay with Maggy and Bill. I'm working on a pretty good garden plan. In fact, browsing for garden blogs is what made me wish my blog was better.

Okay. Time to review priorities and goals. And above all, time to go get groceries 'cause JW's coming for dinner.

Snow and improvised explosive devices

Reading the list of American Military Deaths in Iraq shows that the issue hasn't been weapons of mass destruction, so much as improvised explosive devices. Maybe now that we've had our fill of campaign and election coverage, we'll be hearing about people dying again. After reading the list and the NY Times report of a young man's suicide at Ground Zero, it's hard to think about anything else.

But the ground and trees are lightly covered with snow this morning. If I put aside the knowledge of how long winter is going to be, the view of the snow is really beautiful. It's a classic example of the need to live in the moment.