Sunday Shorts

October 5, 2008 at 1:07 pm (Cats, Nate, Politics) (Branchflower Report, Cats, EU, McCain, Pakistan, Palin, Politics)

*  Read an article in the Washington Post about Michelle Obama. It was pretty interesting, not all of it was muck flattery, but a decent piece of journalism about who she is and her relationship with Barak. The main idea I got from the article, which was condensed from the forthcoming biography of Michelle, was “ambition.” Both she and Barak were characterized as such. I hope they, Michelle and Barak, remember what Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about ambition, that it is a good servant but a poor master.

*  I also read an interview with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in The Wall Street Journal. Ummm, it was okay. Pretty short, but it made some pretty good points about how much better the Taliban can pay Pakistan’s military than the government can. Zardari seems to be moving progressively toward raising the funds to provide for his military so the Taliban doesn’t pay them better, improving relations with India, and assisting the U.S. in rooting out the Islamic militants, unwilling to be specific on that point, and dismissive about irritated relations with our government over attacks, but generally seemed to be a very sad, tired man who knows his head is on the chopping block, and what happened to his wife is probably going to happen to him. He just hopes he can get them, before they get him.

*  The WP and the WSJ  both have articles about the EU trying to bolster confidence in their financial markets. The WP  has a nice photo of Sarkozy and Merkel. At least he’s not trying to hug her or squeeze her. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, its when Dubya squeezed Merkel’s shoulders at the G8 Summit in Russia a few years back. Made big headlines then. Angela is a really interesting person. She was born in Hamburg but raised in East Germany. She’s a physicist and speaks fluent Russian. She and Putin must have gotten along well because he also speaks fluent German. Just thought that was interesting.

*  Mudflats, the Alaska journalist and blogger has a great piece up about the duel rallies held at the same time and blocks apart in Anchorage, Alaska. She also has continuing updates about the Troopergate (I hate calling it that!) and the Branchflower Report that is due out on October 10th. She has the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the people in charge of deciding whether or not to release the report publicly and many are involved in an e-mail/call-in campaign to make sure it is released. The report is set to be completed even though Todd Palin and state employees, at the behest of the Attorney General of Alaska, Talis Colberg, ignored lawful subpoenas to give sworn testimony on this matter.

If sources are correct, Governor Palin was the first to say, “Hold me accountable!” and after becoming the Vice-Presidential nominee, the McCain camp swooped in and said, “Nah.” So much for all that government reform – accountabillty bullshit. That’s actually the only reason I liked Sarah Palin at all.

If you have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong, then why not cooperate and get it over with?  Why not cooperate to exonerate yourself? Yeah.

*  The WP and Rolling Stone both have articles on John McCain. The focus of the WP article was the time that Senator McCain spent in Hanoi as a POW. The RS article gives an entire background of McCain, starting with prep school through the present. It includes a quote from retired Colonel John Dramesi, also a POW in Vietnam – “McCain says his life changed while he was in Vietnam, and he is now a different man,” Dramesi says today, “But he’s still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in.” Dramesi’s story is still spoken today among Air Force initiates and his story is quite compelling.

In short, you probably could not find two more opposite articles regarding John McCain. I read them both. The RS article is very long (10 pages on the Web), but I would suggest reading it, along with the WP article, just to get both sides of it.  Its very compelling. Very.

*  On the home front, Luna tried to incenerate herself in the oven earlier. What I figure is that one of the cats had been playing with the bottom drawer, or broiler of the oven, which was open about two inches. With their crafty paws, it wouldn’t take much to open it. After I opened the oven door a crack and turned it on, I came back to find the drawer opened even further. WTF? So, I closed it. Luna must have been in the broiler when I turned the oven on and when the flames in the oven poofed out, well, Luna came crashing out of the broiler door, opening it even further.

Luna must have hidden because it was a few minutes later than she tore deranged into the computer room, her coat singed and her long white eyebrow whiskers melted. If I had closed the broiler door when I turned the oven on, Luna would be dead. The thought tears at my heart, and I’m just so very thankful that I didn’t. Quite possibly when she squeezed out of the space of the broiler door it put the fire out and she escaped with a lot of singed fur but no burns. I’ll be checking the oven now before turning it on, just in case.

Her brother, Jirachi, is on another round of antibiotics and seems to be improving. He’s so spoiled, its unreal. We have coddled and babied him so much that he’s just a little rotten monster. He’s adorable. Rotten, but adorable. He does have decent manners though. Instead of jumping up on the counter or the table, although I’m not sure with his small size that he can, he just climbs up my clothes to obtain whatever it is that he wants. What actually happens is me dancing around yelling, “Ow! Ow! Ow! Get off!”

Rotten little puss likes to blog with me. He’s lain here the entire time, purring his face off. Its after 1, and I have a lot to accomplish before I pick up the Natester, who went to his first college football game yesterday. He said he had a really good time.

Have a lovely Sunday.