This week has been very long and very strange, and I’m thrilled it’s nearly over. From events at work to happenings outside, I’m just happy that it’s Friday, and I can hibernate away for a long weekend.
Finally, a response by John Kerry to the 24-hour-slander-a-thon by the anti-democratic GOP.
We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention. For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander-in-chief. Well, here’s my answer. I’m not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq.
The Vice President even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I’ll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.
Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi royal family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you’re still on their payroll makes you unfit. That’s the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And it’s not going to change. I believe it’s time to move America in a new direction; I believe it’s time to set a new course for America.
Courtesey of The New Republic.
Categories
Not So Clever
Since I’ve been back from California, the days have felt very disjointed. Because I’m too tired this morning to think about it, I’m going back to sleep…, err, work.
Categories
Republican Smears
George Soros is being slandered by the irreputable Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Just another example of how Republicans don’t even try to compete in the realm of ideas, but instead sink to innuedo and name-calling as their official talking points. At least Hastert has the “bravery”, and I use that term loosely, to not hide behind sham groups like Bush.
Update: Slate picks up the story.
Categories
On the Home Front
The suitcases were unpacked, the clothes washed. The paperwork was put away and sorted. The mail was reviewed, bills were paid, and letters were sent. E-mail and phone calls were placed. Meetings were scheduled and chores completed.
Isn’t it great to be home?
Categories
Global Crossing Settlement
Global Crossing, a telecom firm in which I had invested money back in the 2000 – 2002 timeframe, reached a settlement earlier this year. I received the paperwork in the mail last week, informing me I was entitled to an average payment of $0.042 per share I held during the interval in question. This might yield about $2.50 – $5.00 if I’m lucky, which is still better than the MBNA check I received a few months ago for $0.03 cents.
Lest you think I seek out these class action lawsuits, they instead appear to find me. In the past two years I’ve received notice of multiple suits, including the one over Global Crossing, and others for Verizon Wireless, PayPal, MBNA, WorldCom, and CD distributos/retailers. Most of the alleged activites occurred during the 1999 – 2002 timeframe, when external pressure to meet revenue and profit forecasts led companies to engage in many shady schemes.
Categories
Swift Boat Veterans who lie
If only the media would finish doing it’s job and clear up the Swift Boat “controversy”, when the only controversial item is outing the liars.
Categories
Toy Recall
Categories
Home, Sweet Home
If you want a sense of the degradation of the Haight/Ashbury area of SF, the stores at the intersection provide a superb indication. On one corner, GAP, the quintessential American clothing venture. Across the street, a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop, the faux-hippie enterprise devoted to satiating overweight Americans. The hippie panhandlers decry the very people they seek money from. All in all, a fall from the ideals it once represented.
Not that that should come as any surprise, as the free-love crowd came to seek commercial success. And they have generally found it, as living standards have increased beyond imagination in the past few decades. A fair trade, for some at least. And those flowing skirts and peasant tops make for some very pretty women.
Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the beatnik downtown, I absolutely love the city. The young life, the relatively well integrated populations combined with their cultural and linguistic diversity are all elements that make SF such a unique place relative to so many other urban areas. Sure, the city has its marks. The high rate of panhandling and the expensive cost of housing come to mind instantly. But on the whole the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Which is why, in a few months’ time, I’ll be back here again.
It’s been a long last day with family here in San Francisco, and boy are my dogs barking. Ok, ok, couldn’t resist the bad line.
It was a fascinating day, waking up at a beautiful bed & breakfast in Napa, with the vineyards just a stone throw away. Couple that with drinking by 10 a.m., a generous set of relatives and a delicious lunch at the Mondavi winery (with photos of the main man, himself, at a spry 91 years old), and you have the makings of a great day. Toss in a return to SF to visit Alcatraz and you really can’t ask for more than that.
In just a few hours I return my family to the airport, then spend the next two days enjoying the area for myself before returning to my “home”. Too bad my heart’s here, not there.