Coming Up For Air
The Labor Day weekend was a mix of activity and gray sky dreariness that kept me occupied or at least quiet. That I'd had another post well underway only to have Blogger freeze up and me lose the work (save, save, save...) didn't help. Once the framework of details I'd put in place was wiped out in a system re-start I couldn't trouble myself to start over. It was just concerning a clix match I'd run against myself late Sunday night, and I couldn't justify the effort of re-creating the foundation again, nor bother writing about anything else.
I'll get to that in a separate post yet, folding in a separate match Travis and I ran Tuesday night and a scenario I'll be playing against myself... but not in this post.
The weekend saw the final prep for the new school year, my riding herd over the kids on some much-needed clean-up, the usual domestic tasks and trying to squeeze some sense of a holiday weekend out the dwindling hours. Then, the delayed work week began -- what is it about short weeks that makes them feel so much longer? Is it that the closer proximity of the two weekends makes the work days in-between seem so much more like a long interruption? Much like the time between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays does?
My tank's been on or near empty this week, and as I look so much, including:
The suspiciously lower gasoline prices - a mix of gimme to the GOP as the oil industry tries to help raise the mood of prospective voters so that the status quo has a better chance of staying in place so that more record profits are more easily come by over the next couple years.These and other things closer to home have left me drained. On the political scene I'm mustering the resolve to help several democratic candidates win seats in this November's races.
The two-faced Bush administration seemingly embracing the new rules on prisoner treatment from the Pentagon while lauding the waterboarding and worse that had been used.
The admission that the US government via the CIA have been doing what human rights organizations have been claiming all along -- running secret prisons -- as 14 are transferred to Gitmo. Knowing that there's currently to stop them from doing the same again -- never mind whether or not others are still being held this way -- and that the Pentagon's rules won't apply to those prisoners.
Bill S 2453 being pushed through the Senate in what could become an end-run around the recent ruling on the un-constitutionality of the Bush wiretap policies. The bill is intended to strip the federal judiciary of the power to reign in the expansions of executive authority. Essentially taking our rights and putting such issues on secret trial in an arena where only the administration's case will be heard. Congress has rubber-stamped so much as it is, do we really want a subset of the people who gave Bush carte blanche post 9/11 to be the ones deciding - months after the fact, and only to the depth that they decide to press for details - the legality of electronic surveillance actions?
Bush going on the GOP stump while pretending it's for some other reason, and reminding us that we're At War. Yeah, George, we remember. You're the one who declared it.
Bob Casey is running to unseat one of Pennsylvania's greatest embarassments - Rick Santorum. Meanwhile, a House seat is up for our decision, too, as Joe Sestak seeks to oust Curt Weldon, who's been in the seat for 20 years. These are the two races I'm primarily focusing on.
With only two days down and the third underway, the new school year appears to be going fairly well for both kids, so that's a plus.
For now, though, it's time to plunge back into the workday.
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Comments
Good luck on unseating Ricky. It will be a tough one, despite the obvious. Any politician that has been in Washington so long, has deep, deep roots (to match those deep, deep pockets).
Secret prisons, huh? Americans running them? Pardon me whilst I hurl again. We have do something to slow the international embarrassment. Don't we? Even the pubs have to be feeling embarrassed that we kick ass all over the world for other people doing this same stuff. It can't be just us liberals feeling this way. Can it?
Hope things with the boys continue on their positive vein. Nice to hear things are going well there. Good luck with the other trials and tribulations. We're around if you need us.
I had to laugh as I noticed that BP has been outpacing the competition with its price drops, seeing as how they're currently the company under the microscope for suspect business practices including price manipulation. The heat's especially on them as this is coming out following the pipeline corrosion/shutdown situation up North. It's all a game and it's all negotiable.
Yeah, I suspect BP's putting on a good show for everyone.
I suppose we should enjoy the lower prices while we can, because as soon as it's deemed safe they'll be back to claiming panicked market forces about endangered supply lines, etc. will justify another steep rise. Our region was seeing prices rise a bit ahead of most of the nation over the past year or so because so much of our supply comes from Venezuela... not that that has much to do with anything at the moment.