The word is out

So Judy is out of jail.

 

Good for her.

 

I'm glad she's out of jail, even though I couldn't agree with her less.

 

However, the gig is up for Scooter Libby. Turns out he was the source for Judy on the article she never wrote. I'm not sure what this will mean with the "ongoing investigation" but I'm looking forward to seeing how the White House squirms out of this.

 

I've got a problem with someone named Scooter being the chief aide to the Vice President. Men who work in the White House shouldn't have the name Scooter. Or Lenny, Buddy, Kip, Brownie, Shorty, Skip, Biff and Mort. The same goes for women with the name Kimberly, Lacy, Buffy, Biffy, Gigi, Missy, Misty, and Minny. Adults don't have names like that, and certainly not adults who are running the United States of America. I just think a grown man going by the name Scooter is silly. I mean come on, what are you, five?

 

I bought some Delta stock today. My theory is that they're the third largest carrier in the country and The Fed won't let the go under, nor will the industry. I'll hang onto this dirt cheap stock for a few years and maybe cash out and make a few grand. I only spent 200 bucks and got about 250 shares or so. Who knows?

 

Have a good weekend.

 

-O

 

 

 

My progress this week

Well, it's now day four without coffee. As I write this it's 4:57 in the afternoon and I don't have a headache. I can honestly say that I was not groggy this morning either.

 

While I've never been a morning person, I found that during the time I was drinking coffee, I was always groggy in the morning.

 

At any rate, today has been a good day. Feeling pretty good.

 

I'll head out of work in a bit and then head to the gym. It's an arm day, which is always fun. Get to blast those tris and bis with a bunch of reps, make 'em look good and pumped. Okay, I'll stop being dumb now.

 

On to political news, way to go Tom Delay! I've been so sick of his Tom "I'm A Better American Than You Are" Delay routine for soooo long it makes me sick. It was interesting to listen to his speech yesterday talking about a left wing conspiracy. My, my, how things have changed. Was it really seven years ago when Hillary said there was a vast right wing conspiracy out to get them, and the one leading that charge was Mr. Delay, was it not?

 

All in all, I think the reds are starting to fall apart. I don't mean that this is the end of the Republican party, quite the opposite. This might just be the start of the rift in that party that has needed to happen for a long time. The true Republicans can stay as Republicans, and the Neo-Cons will split and hopefully form their own political party. Neo-Conservative party of Neo-Republican party, whatever. Things will be interested to view from afar, and I'm glad I'm not in the thick of it.

 

However, I really hope that the Democrats don't screw this up by trying to take advantage of this in the wrong way. Sometimes to just need to left things happen and reinforce your "I told you so" message. No slogans are needed. No mass mailers trumpeting the coming of the end. Just good, clean, politics and present ideas and solutions to the problems currently happening. People will come around and by this time next year we'll be positioned to take quite a few seats back in the House and Senate.

 

I'm not saying we'll get the majority, because we won't. However, the closer to 50/50 the better in my view.

 

I'm out.

 

-O

 

3:29, the headache sets in

So, I'm getting my headache now.

 

I know I said "my headache" but this has been a semi common occurrence since I stopped with the coffee. It usually comes on between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. It's 3:35 right now so it's right on schedule.

 

An interesting side bit to this little battle of mine, I've had an increase in palpitations the last few weeks.

 

I think that might be due to the fact that I was drinking more coffee that I should have. Its interesting though, as to when I get them.

 

I never used to get them when I exercised, never, and I've been having them on and off since I was like 14. I played all sort of sports growing up and never remembered having any after strenuous cardio activity (read soccer and track).

 

I was an avid weight lifter for a few years in college, and have recently started training again. For the last few weeks I was doing cardio to drop some weight, and as usual, nothing happened. Now however, when I lift weights I get the thumps in my chest. Most of the time it's a brief flutter, sometimes it's more.

 

The funny thing is, the harder I'm working, the less I get them. For example, if I'm really busting my ass on my arms or shoulders, nothing, no skips, nada. On another day I do chest and my heart is all over the place.

 

It's scary sometimes, but I've read time and time again that it's normal I guess, and some people like me just have more of them. Everything mentions to cut back on caffeine, and since coffee is a relatively new addition to my daily diet, that's just what I'm going to do.

 

On to greater things!

 

-O

Must...have...coffee... *gasp*

It's Tuesday, still no coffee. I'm so tempted to make a pot at work right now.

 

I didn't sleep well last night, actually, I don't know if I even actually fell asleep. I haven't been sleeping well in general lately. I'm not sure what it is. I'm eating well, I exercise regularly, I don't have much stress in my life right now...so I'm a bit perplexed as to what might be the cause. Regardless, I need to start sleeping well, and soon. I can feel my body getting exhausted much quicker than it just just six months ago.

 

Maybe I'm just getting older, but I don't think that's it. I don't feel tired physically, it's more of a mental thing. Like...well, like not sleeping.

 

At any rate, my mother told me about some stuff I can take, some herbal things, that I might want to check out. Maybe I'll call her today and ask what they are again. I've got to go to Target anyway to get some t-shirts, so I'll see if Target has it.

 

Speaking of t-shirts, I had all my nice shirts pressed by a professional for the first time. It was sort of odd taking them out of bags and looking at them, knowing that it wasn't me that ironed them. A little known secret, I love pressed shirts. I can spend an hour on just one shirt to get it perfect, so perfect I almost don't want to wear it. I'm not sure where this came from, and it's a rather new phenomenon for me. Regardless, the dry cleaner needs to use more starch. I like my shirts a bit stiffer than they are right now. No big deal though since other than that, he did a pretty bang up job.

 

-O

No coffee day 1

Today is the first Monday in quite some time I'm not drinking any coffee.

 

I didn't have any on Thursday or Friday and had headaches almost all day.

 

No headache today, but I'm still quite cranky.

 

Plus, it's raining outside and traffic was horrible on my way to work.

 

Anyway, back to the coffee thing. I'm not drinking coffee outside of the weekends anymore. Bebe thinks I drink like a gallon of coffee a day but in reality it's 2.5 cups, all in one drink holder, most of the time drank on my way to work and while at work.

 

That's not really a lot of coffee, but it was part of my routine in the the morning, and now I miss it. There is just something that feels good about sipping on a warm beverage in the morning. I guess when it starts to get colder maybe I'll drink hot chocolate or something.

 

At any rate, I'm cranky and probably will be until after lunch.

 

-Steven

Bushism

Another example of our fine President's great relationship with the English language.


Bushism of the Day
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005, at 8:03 AM PT

"So please give cash money to organizations that are directly involved in helping save lives—save the life who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina."—Washington D.C., Sept. 6, 2005

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

So after reading this, you'll finally know what I know--that Dubya really is the spawn of Satan...


Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

By E&P Staff

Published: September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM


NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George
H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in
Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the
poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this
evening on American Public Media's "Marketplace"
program.

She was part of a group in Houston today at the
Astrodome that included her husband and former
President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son,
the current president, to head fundraising efforts for
the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack
Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of
evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost
everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them

Waiting for a Leader

Another example of our fearless leader being an hour late and a dollar short. But at least he was golfing this time instead of reciting a story about a goat during a time of national crisis.


Editorial

Waiting for a Leader

Published: September 1, 2005

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.


We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.

Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.

While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?

It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.