I can't believe it's not a democracy!

Sorry for the light posting yesterday, but

I was at a holiday party at Chez Jenn's. And a good time was had by all. Lots of good food, great conversation. Naturally I have laryngitis this morning, which means that I am at the tail end of that cold that I caught last week. I sound horrible, but feel world's better. Of course, I have to leave in a few hours for Round Two: Xmas with the Family. No doubt one of my little cousins has a competing cold or virus that I will acquire for next week. Sigh.

In any event, posting this weekend will be light to nonexistent until my return on New Year's Day. Although the signs don't appear to be in our favor, I am still going to hope that we all have a peaceful New Year. So to you and yours, have a safe and festive New Year's Eve and a healthy, prosperous and, most importantly, peaceful New Year.

Wow, I don't even think that Cheney would try this one:

Bhutto died trying to duck from blast, not bullet or bomb: ministry. Talk about misguided. Bhutto's followers are awash in grief, the world is stunned and concerned, and Pakistan's interior ministry says that "Bhutto died from hitting her vehicle's sunroof when she tried to duck after a suicide attack, and that no bullet or shrapnel was found in her." Her followers must be blind with anger. First they lose their leader, now the government tries to pretend that she was not assassinated. Instead of tamping down on the outbreaks of violence through out Pakistan, this statement by the interior minister could very well fuel them. What a fucking outrage.

Thanks to Mr. Slice for the head's up.

This is why the democrats will win more seats in 2008, despite the spinelessness of its leadership:

Pocketbook worries outweigh voters' concerns over war in Iraq. The article has a couple of anecdotes about registered republicans who intend to vote for the democrat (interesting that a generic democrat will do). And there are no such stories about registered democrats. Still, if the article dug a little deeper I would think that the author could have found people like me who are ready to reregister as independents because of our disgust with the democratic leadership. I still won't vote for a republican, but they had better not count on me holding my nose and voting for Hillary, because I will not. I will no longer vote for the lesser or two evils, because in the end you are left with evil.

Thought I would add that I have a friend whose father was a congressman during the 1950s and early 1960's. According to his dad, Sam Rayburn said that the problem with the republicans is that they just don't know how to govern. Ah, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Long and short, when republicans are in power they do what they do best: sow dissension, attack the weak, and rape and pillage the treasury. It's all they know how to do, other than steal elections that is.

Because things in Pakistan aren't fucked up enough:

The World Health Organization confirms a case of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a family in Pakistan. Well, on the good side the WHO added that there was no apparent risk of it spreading wider. There's that, no? Because on a day like today, you have to embrace whatever good news you can.

Pakistan is going to explode:

Pakistan's Bhutto killed in attack . I assume the reaction to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto will trigger something none of us wants to contemplate. to be frank, I was surprised she lasted this long. I doubt she wanted to become a martyr, and I assumed she had excellent security, but the powers that be who wanted her out of the way won. No doubt W's best buddy Musharraf is blameless. At least that's what Dana Perino will tell us.

I'm back, and I am fucking exhausted.

I caught a cold somewhere between here and there, so after spending Saturday baking cookies for, oh, 6 to 8 hours, I awoke Sunday with a sore throat and a slight head cold. Still have it. Now I'm somewhat anal (I know that's a surprise), so I made sure that I had everything purchased and wrapped on Sunday so that I could sit back and relax on Monday. Yes, that didn't happen. My nephew realized that he had to purchase some gifts (just for his parents and sisters) on Monday. Christmas Eve. At 2:30 p.m. I was the natural assistant. Got him out of the house, to the appropriate stores and back in an hour, then I helped him wrap everything. I finally had a few hours of rest, then Christmas Eve dinner at my sister-in-law's parents' house.

My sister-in-law's father does a traditional Italian fish feast for Christmas Eve dinner. You are supposed to have an odd number of fish dishes. I didn't count, but the table was groaning. Calamari in tomato sauce, chilled peeled shrimp, crab cakes, stuffed flounder....etc. Then back to my brother and sister-in-law's place and bed...at 1:30 a.m. Of course the girls (they are 8 and 9 years old) were up before 8:00 a.m., eager to trek down and look under the tree. They got a Wii (my brother lucked out and found one), and lots and lots of stuff. Seems like too much, but they weren't complaining. It seems a bit pointless to do all that work for one day, but I got to see most of my relatives and friends and things went really well. A good time was had by all.

Naturally, I have to rinse and repeat this weekend. Every year we have a cousins' brunch right around Christmas so that all the first cousins, their kids, my aunts and uncles and my mother can get together for the holidays. For reasons that I cannot fathom, my cousin who is throwing the brunch this year decided that Sunday, December 30th was the best time to have it....at 4:00 p.m. (what part of brunch didn't she understand?). So I will be doing the train ride down and running around for one more weekend. Then, mercifully, rest. Next year my brother will be hosting the cousins' brunch and he told me that I get to influence the schedule. Ah. I love my brother.

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday, whether you celebrated or not. Me? I am off to bed early tonight to rest up for round two.

I'm off in a couple of hours for my

to s. jersey to celebrate my special form of xmas (cookies, check. gifts, check. Midnight mass.....um). It's going to be a world of running around to get a few last minute gifts, wrapping up what's not already wrapped, baking a buttload of cookies, etc. As a result, posting will be light to non-existent until my return on the 26th. Hopefully I'll fit in a few minutes of rest over the next five days, and I hope that everyone has a lovely holiday and a prosperous and peaceful New Year.

Well, at least we can say that the democratic leadership is consistent. Yep, they capitulated yet again:

Dems give up SCHIP fight until the 111th. The 11th congress that is. The Hill.com reports: The Democrats’ yearlong fight to boost federal spending on children’s health insurance ended with a whimper Tuesday.

After coming up short in their efforts to enact a $35 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) — enduring two presidential vetoes along the way — congressional Democrats signed off on Republican demands to extend the program until 2009.

Rather than expiring just before the presidential and congressional elections next year, SCHIP will keep running through March 2009 under the plan originally conceived by House Republicans and hashed out by the Senate Finance Committee and Senate leaders late Monday.

* * *

The GOP claimed victory. “It’s certainly another example of the Democrats caving to the Republican position at the eleventh hour,” said a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Not only did the GOP prevent the Democrats from expanding the program, the minority party prevented the majority party from using an SCHIP vote and veto next fall as a wedge issue just before Election Day.

Because denying children health care is something the GOP feels is a victory. They are evil, there's no other word. But what about the democrats? They capitulated to the republicans on providing health care to kids. At Christmas. And they lost "a wedge issue." Kudos Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, your record of defeat is sound.

Update: So I checked out the blogs to see what folks were saying, and apparently I did miss the bit where the democratic leadership says they haven't walked away from SCHIP. In fact, Nancy Pelosi's spokesperson said: House Democrats are not walking away from SCHIP, said a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). For a start, the House will vote on Jan. 23 to attempt to override President Bush’s second SCHIP veto.

Really. And what fucking leverage will you have, Nancy? A version of SCHIP passed, so the republicans will claim they limited coverage to kids who really need it, not middle class kids whose parents make too much money. And what about this little tidbit: Democrats blamed Republicans for the impasse and insisted they would continue their efforts to move a new SCHIP bill, possibly with the help of a Democratic president in 2009.

So that's the plan: blame the republicans and tell the voters that if only they elect a democratic president and enough congressional democrats so that the democratic leadership has a supermajority, then they will start doing something. Meanwhile, the republicans, who are in the minority, seemingly are able to do whatever the fuck they want. Think we can't see that? Pathetic. Disgusting. Appalling. Losers.

Yet another dispatch from the Department of the fucking obvious:

Uninsured cancer patients more likely to die. Note to AP reporters: The republicans want certain people to die and die quickly, that's why they are uninsured. Hope this helps.

I'm sure nothing valuable was destroyed:

Fire controlled at White House compound. Hmmm, I wonder what building was at risk. The AP reports: Thick black smoke billowed from a fire Wednesday on the White House compound in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The blaze appeared to be located in Vice President Dick Cheney's suite of ceremonial offices on the second floor of the building. Cheney and President Bush were across the street in the West Wing of the White House when the blaze broke out. It appeared to be under control within an hour.

Why do I suspect that shortly after the blaze started Dick got a call from someone telling him about the fire, and the caller had not the slightest hint of concern in his voice?