The Weight of Words

Phrases that make me remember the weight of words:

You can trust me
I love you
I trust you
I care for you
You're right
Thank you
Yes, please
Good job
I'd never lie to you
Please don't tell anyone

To your comment, Rob, yes, I think sometimes one has to censor one's self. I'm so sad that that doesn't align with your idea of what is and what should be!

Love everything forever!

Our Own Versions of Googlism

Reader challenge: email me your own personal googlisms. If someone was to GOOGLE YOUR BRAIN what would appear? I'll post it in a post in 4 days. YOWZA!

Some restraint encouraged (if you're inspired, write in your journal!).

I'll do mine some time soon.

xoxo

PS I live in New Hampshire now!

Googlism

Googlism is the absolute biggest waste of time ever.

susie is retarded
susie is available @ ohiovalleycockers
susie is obedience trained and
susie is bright chatting with the queen of cunts by adrian ryan
susie is her name
susie is a talkative
susie is dependable by sonyaw
susie is busy training for the run which takes place on sunday
susie is
susie is irish
susie is bred by ralf golzem & markus horn
susie is one of those fortunate people who are blessed with success
susie is a 19 year old transfer student from bel air
susie is alone and vulnerable
susie is receiving the missing enzyme through regular infusions and her condition has stabilized except for her lungs
susie is the daughter of randy and lucy carmichaels
susie is extremely smart
susie is one of the few people i have ever known that i can say
susie is an award
susie is overrun with mice
susie is a sweet girl who needs a quiet forever home
susie is an employee
susie is earnest
susie is getting roughed up by this lung fei guy
susie is too young and too inexperienced for jack
susie is bemused by the adult world
susie is not
susie is always at the top of the list
susie is a loveable dog
susie is a seven
susie is now busy exploring her options to cash in on the patent she does have
susie is one of the best
susie is 14 when she is raped and dismembered by george harvey
susie is one of my newest friends but i have been an admirer of her work for quite some time before meeting her online
susie is jamie's 10
susie is 11 1/2 inches tall and is a beautiful doll
susie is a new member of the community
susie is smiling because she is happy to hold your plastic bags for you
susie is a life long resident of kent and has fifteen years of real estate
susie is killed just as she was beginning to see her mother and father as real people
susie is about 5' 8" and a size 6
susie is the youngest kid of five children raised by right
susie is a plott hound and will tree both squirrels and raccoon
susie is making good time
susie is lured into a secret hideaway by the odd mr
susie is a 7 year old spayed female purebred german shepherd
susie is the editor and founder of the most talked about collection of women's erotic fiction ever
susie is a sexpot and a flirt
susie is single
susie is our foundation bitch
susie is avoiding math or looking for attention
susie is unable to speak or walk
susie is a strong fiddler with a penchant for building extended solos to exciting climaxes
susie is comfortable with that
susie is a visiting professor at london school of economics
susie is always happy to do an interview
susie is not only very friendly and easy to work with
susie is a veteran teacher and university librarian with over 30 years experience teaching in the public schools and university classes
susie is a junior majoring in journalism and political science
susie is sick
susie is technically a horse
susie is a tremendous resource for schools
susie is also the founder of the daughters of luke
susie is pretending that bobby is a dog" instead of "susie is pretending that willy has a dog"
susie is proud of the "jumping fence" project and can't wait for you to hear it
susie is also the first australian female to ever win the 200m butterfly
susie is a member of the board of the quality standards task group established by the national council for voluntary organisations to advise on quality
susie is obedience trained and loves playing ball
susie is working at home and has more time than otto
susie is a very good one
susie is the daughter of frank
susie is afraid of boris then either she is timid or he is a vampire
susie is one of the most patient horses in the barn

Thanks for Speaking Out

Batiste on Olbermann on MSNBC

I Love Radio

Thank God, number 1, for Public Radio, in general. Number 2 for Mpls/St Paul's The Current 89.3 (I can listen to it all the way from Minneapolis to the lake in Cumberland, WI).

I was driving from Minneapolis to WI this morning and came across Sound Opinions. A show out of Chicago Public Radio in cahoots with American Public Media (who are also responsible for the fabulous Splendid Table) that is, at times, gimmicky (Rock Doctors...good concept, just a little "Car Talk-y" but not in the good way Car Talk is), but mostly information filled and funny. I had to get gas today on the way north and I left my windows open with the radio on so I wouldn't miss a thing...I love Sound Opinions. I might start to love Jim and Greg if I'm not careful :)

So, do me and you a favor and tune in and see if you like it. And if you do, tell your friends about it! And if you find yourself listening pretty often, give 'em money. I'm pretty sure the best club in the country to belong to is Public Radio lovers!

Shots out for musical genius in their own ways:

Brendan: for your yearly best of albums that always open new doors-and somehow getting me to like Eminem and Gang Starr
Matt: for being a founding member of The Current and introducing me to Wilco
Em: for the San Fran for Suz mix and general wonderfulness
Rob: U2, Peter Gabriel, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Cream, Moody Blues, Tom Petty...
Nate: U2 and knowing how to ROCK
Andrew: Allen Ginsberg and Art Blakey
Sam: reintro of John Mayer and getting me to sing
Joel: for thinking I might be able to write songs
Emma: for the love of art
Vanessa: for the sounds of Brooklyn and beyond on Sunday mornings
Vanessa B: Gipsy Kings in Miami
Cassie: Dancing in the kitchen
Michelle: Ani while driving around the lakes
Sara: the O Brother Where Art Though genre and signing your heart out
Cole: Massive Attack
Dan: The Last Time I Committed Suicide soundtrack
El: innumerable
Kate: dancing anywhere and everywhere
Denielle: always listening
Justin: interest in new things, always
Cleaver: the mixes you made me when I left Cali and your insatiable love of music
Syliva: general inspiration
Jane: for Lucinda Williams and Trip Shakespeare
RKW: life consulting and artistry in life
Aaron: for somehow getting Brendan to listen to something other than hip hop
Adam B: Amy Winehouse and relatively objective consulting services
Adam U: those Jewish rappers :)
Nicola: for trying to get my folks to go to a ZZ Top concert. This year.

On another note, Obama missing talking to the NH Fire Fighters personally is a pretty big gaffe. Regardless of how he "had a talking to" with his staff. Lame-zo. And that the prevailing take on the story is that he "chewed out his staff" and isn't missing this meeting is even MORE lame of the media.

Things I'm Looking at on the Porch of the Cabin

Edwards ad in Iowa...Looks good to me!

Iraqi parliament to take a 2 month siesta? Seems strange.

Bill Clinton's crossword puzzle clues :)

Timetables timetables...will anything ever get us out of this MESS??

"If the Iraq war is lost, who won?"

Life Is Not Just

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Your parents told you that life wasn't fair, and yet you still expect justice — is it really too much to ask? Well, your parents should've said that life isn't fair in the short run. It all works out in the karma of long stretches of time.

Keep your expectations grounded in reality today. If you let yourself fly off on flights of fancy, you will end up being disappointed. Perfection is impossible, no matter what the magazine covers tell you. Your life can't be perfect, no matter how you or anyone else in it tries. Have patience. Go too fast, and you'll never discover the wonderful things that await beneath the surface.

Good lord, Yahoo
Either Yahoo is anal as all get out or Google is messed up in its editing capabilities tonight. Sorry for the weird formatting.

Regardless, these are the two horoscopes I consult on a pretty-much-daily-basis and I love 'em.

I, for a long time, wanted to write a book called "Everything They Didn't Tell Me," and that all applies to today's horoscopes. I later came to realize that the title w/should have been "All They Wanted To Tell Me That I Wouldn't Have Understood If They Had."

So, I'll go to bed with this: I'm grateful that "they" (ma, pa, other mentors, adults and friends in my life) let me figure all of this on my own (with a GREAT deal of their help, assistance, love, acceptance).

I know I'll have sweet dreams and I hope you do too!

Obama's Talking Points Leaked...Oops!

Ouch for Obama:

The shorter Fineman piece:

Secret Obama Fax Was Ethics Slip
Newsweek

May 7, 2007 issue - Sen. Barack Obama vows to bring a "new kind of politics" to Washington. But a copy of a 36-page fax from Obama's Senate office, obtained by NEWSWEEK, shows that the rookie presidential candidate, riding the biggest wave this side of his native Hawaii, needs to keep a sharp eye on the details of his own campaign. Senate ethics rules allow senators with active campaigns to "split" the work time and salary of official schedulers such as Obama's Molly Buford. According to Obama's campaign spokesman, Robert Gibbs, she in fact is paid by both entities. But Senate rules and federal law forbid the use of official equipment—such as faxes and phone lines—to conduct campaign business, which was what Buford was doing last Thursday when she faxed Obama's political "call list" to the senator's personal aide at a Columbia, S.C., hotel. "These are the call sheets for tomorrow's call time," she wrote on the official cover page, emblazoned with the seal of the U.S. Senate.

The transmission was an isolated mistake, Gibbs told NEWSWEEK. "It should not have happened, and we will make sure that it will not happen again." (The campaign made another misstep a few weeks ago, allowing political guru David Axelrod to be photographed chatting with Obama in the Senate office.) The fax itself shows the campaign working to round up endorsements from established party leaders. In the "talking points" for a call to Rep. William Clay of St. Louis, Obama is advised by his Chicago political team to say: "Your endorsement is important to me and I hope that you will join the movement supporting my campaign. I would like you to take an official leadership role for my campaign in Missouri." But the memo cautions Obama. "Avoid discussing specific titles," it says. "Staff will work this out later. YOU can assure him he will be one of the main leaders in Missouri for your campaign." The guidance for Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri was similar. "Carnahan is just waiting for an official ask from you to endorse publicly," the staff advises. "Assure him he will be one of YOUR leaders in the state, but DO NOT lead him to believe that he will be in an exclusive role."

At the Columbia Marriott, which served informally as hotel headquarters for last week's Democratic debate, aides from several campaigns may well have had access to incoming faxes. A copy of the one to Obama was slipped, anonymously, under the door of a NEWSWEEK reporter. But the sender clearly knew the ethics rules. The accompanying note, written on hotel stationery, said of the fax: "Unbelievable, USS, office, phone, long distance, staff, etc.—for political." With all eyes on Obama, he needs to watch out.

The longer version, also by Fineman:

By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 2:53 p.m. CT May 1, 2007

May 1, 2007 - Here’s the private advice Sen. Barack Obama’s staff gave him the other day as he prepared to make a series of phone calls in search of support:

Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee is a “huge finance wonk,” and the way to win him over is by “giving Cooper a role in policy discussion.”

The route to D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s heart is a spot on your “national leadership team” and a role as a “national surrogate” and adviser on education.

Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York is in play—the only Democratic in the New York delegation not to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton—because Hillary’s “senior press aide worked on behalf of Clarke’s primary opponent” last year.

Federico Peña , Bill Clinton’s secretary of Transportation, “would be a good high-level Hispanic endorsement, especially considering the recent endorsements of both former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez for Senator Clinton. YOU should make a hard ask for his endorsement and offer him a position on the campaign’s national leadership.”

Got all that? Obama apparently did.

Old School Obama
On the campaign trail, he is the picture of casual cool: the tieless, open-necked embodiment of a new generation and style.

However, behind the scenes, he is as old-school methodical as they come, with an operation that is not as experienced as Clinton’s, but that has the focus and discipline to try to run with her. The results are serious, and thorough, though at times the scripted rigor borders on the comic.

That is the conclusion I draw from a fascinating piece of inside evidence that fell into my lap (or, more specifically, into my hotel room) the other day in Columbia, S.C.

The Democratic presidential contenders were in the state for their first debate, broadcast on MSNBC and streamed live on msnbc.com.

While I slept, an unidentified mischief-maker slipped under my door a copy of a document that is as inside baseball as it gets: 36 pages of lists and background briefings for the 17 phone calls Obama’s political staff wanted him to make that day.

A novice on the national scene, Obama needs research and detailed staff work to compensate for his lack of personal knowledge and contacts in the country.

Attention to Detail
The document shows him working the margins of the Clinton juggernaut, reaching out to leading African-American politicians not yet sewn up by Clinton, John Edwards or other campaigns.

They show a careful attention to detail—down to the names of the politicians’ children—and the call sheets leave space for the candidate (or his personal aide) to note whether the phone connection had been made. Many refer to Obama in the second person as YOU or YOUR—the capital letters meant to focus the reader on precisely what he should say.

The talking points at times are frank—though never disrespectful—in their assessment of those from whom Obama is seeking support, an endorsement or a chat.

Two of the names were what the campaign calls “faith calls”—a subset of the political shop’s work—aimed at influential ministers in the black community.

Of the 17 calls on the list, 12 were to blacks, two to Hispanics and three to whites.

The purpose of some of the calls was to line up support for a trip Obama will make to Missouri on May 11 and 12.

Another aim was to harvest supporters from among a crowd he had met in Atlanta in April. Other calls were aimed at those who had not committed elsewhere—especially to Hillary.

Representative Cooper, who is white and represents the Fifth District of Tennessee, is a moderate and the object of sustained effort.

Known for his concern about federal spending, Obama’s folks advised him to talk substance.

Getting the Endorsement
“Cooper is with YOU,” the talking points said, “he is just hesitant to go public with his endorsement. The KEY to this endorsement is giving Cooper a role in policy discussion. Cooper is a huge finance wonk … Assuring him access to the policy and legislative operation will give him enough incentive to overcome his hesitancy….”

Cooper needs some pressure, they advise. “YOU MUST make a HARD ASK for PUBLIC endorsement,” they said. “Cooper wants to get involved in your campaign, but needs YOUR push towards a public endorsement. All he wants is to work with policy, so if he feels he is being brought into that operation, he will endorse.”

Not everyone is a hard catch, according to the private advice Obama got. An eager fish is Rep. Russ Carnahan of the Third District of Missouri, one of the two other white politicians to whom Obama was reaching out late last week.

Carnahan is portrayed as enthusiastic, but perhaps a bit too desirous of a leadership campaign role in his state.

“Carnahan will ask you for a specific leadership role for YOUR campaign in Missouri,” the memo warns. “Assure him he will be one of YOUR leaders in the state, but DO NOT lead him to believe that it will be an exclusive role … DO NOT commit to anything specific.”

You have to wonder if Obama is a little too generous with his offers of top roles—for several of the call memos warn him about the same thing: don’t make commitments.

Two of the calls are to black ministers—an important political constituency for any Democrat, especially for an African-American whose ties to the community are, for some, an issue.

One of the ministers is Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, Pastor of the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, Calif.

This is relatively new territory to Obama, judging from the memo.

“Faith Central has more than 13,000 members and owns and meets at the Great Western Forum, the former home of the L.A. Lakers. He has a weekly broadcast on TBN that reaches millions of viewers.

“Bishop Ulmer is very interested in your candidacy,” the talking points continue. “His primary concern is that your campaign is about more than politics, and that you will be interested in a relationship with him whether or not you win.

“YOU will be in Los Angeles this Sunday but will not worship with Bishop Ulmer. You’ll be at first A.M.E. for a service commemorating the anniversary of the L.A. riots.”

Then the staff gave Obama a suggested script for his conversation with Ulmer:

“Bishop, it’s good to connect with you. I’ve been looking forward to speaking with you for a while. How’s everything going at the church? I’m looking forward to worshipping with you all very soon. Have you been following the campaign? How do think we’re doing so far?"

The suggested script continued, "Bishop, my campaign is about integrity—returning integrity to the political process, and treating people’s needs with integrity. I understand that’s the same approach you’ve taken in your ministry for a long time. I think we have a lot in common. Bishop, I’d be honored to have you on my team. I would like you advising me on the landscape in California and how to approach the religious community nationally. Can I count on your support and guidance?”

You get the idea. I’ll check back in a few weeks, especially after the event in St. Louis, with the box score on how many calls bore fruit.

YOU can read the piece and I hope YOU will enjoy it!

Love!

Adam Sandler

I love Adam Sandler.

At a job I had in New York I had the great pleasure of taking his silverware away from him because he was beating on a metal table with them. It was genuinely one of the most annoying sounds I've ever heard in my life. I walked over, sat down beside him in an empty chair and explained to him how annoying it was that he was making such a horrendous sound. He asked who I was, I told him. I walked away.

He did it again. I went over, smiled at him and took his and all the surrounding silverware away without a word. Enter: Mr. Sandler's bewilderment. I told him they could all have it back when they got their food.

We went on to have a fun evening, as much as a patron and manager can have. I gave him and his entourage a tour of a closed portion of the place I worked, where I got to tell him I've seen none of his movies. He said, "really?" I said, "no, I love them."

I have held this day dear-the day I made Adam Sandler laugh-until about five minutes ago.

Adam Sandler is a republican.

I know I'm supposed to love everyone regardless, and I will never not love Sandler's work. But it colors who people are for me so much; the values they hold high, how they respect and who they respect and what they think of politicians and themselves.

At the cabin now, so many more random ramblings inspired by reading lefty blogs and mainstream news coming your way!

I'll try to make some of them upbeat, I swear :)

Sweet Little Honey Bee

Where are the bees going and please don't take my avocados away!

2 Things:

Hi-za--Two things:

On the right you'll see a little box with random things from me in it. I can text things to this box and tell you where I am, what I'm doing and how things are going. I will do this often. It's through a service called Twitter and it updates ALL RIGHT, but not really fast enough. I'll update and you can check status on my Twitter page-that will be MUCH more up to date as far as I can tell from my simple experiments today.

Next, much more IMPORTANT: Florida goes back to PAPER BALLOTS!

My favorite part of this, other than the actual reinstatement of paper ballots (which I learned of through MoveOn's website while reading about the banners they flew over tonight's Republican Debates) is that it's in Australia's newspaper. Not LA's, not Florida's, but Australia's. Thank God for a 24 hour news cycle, right?!

Shots out (the good kind) to FL's legislature. Maybe we can all FINALLY learn a palpable lesson from those long long 36 days in 2000.

John Edwards

It's been a while since I've written and a lot has happened/is happening. YAY! I like it when there's a lot going on...as always.

This post is dedicated to my new boss and all he's doing to become the next POTUS.

A few articles, a few videos and we'll see if I can't convince you to, at the very very least, keep your eye on him over the next few and very important months.

First:

Edwards Rejects the "War on Terror"

No Baloney Candidate
by Joe Klien, Time Magazine
26 April 2007

'"I want this to be a country where everyone has the same chances I had," John Edwards recently told a large crowd at the Electric Park Ballroom in Waterloo, Iowa. "I want to live in a country where you can go from having nothing to having everything." He paused. "Not sure I want to live in a country where people pay $400 for haircuts." There was a bolt of laughter. "So embarrassing," Edwards said. "So embarrassing."

I'm not sure I want to write a column about his $400 haircuts either. I doubt Edwards had any idea how much those trims cost. Presidential candidates don't think about those sorts of things. They're scheduled for the barber; they go; someone pays. Sooner or later, the public will have to make a decision about whether Edwards--with his haircuts, 29,000-sq.-ft. house and lucrative hedge-fund employment--walks the populist walk that he talks. For now, though, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say, furthermore, that it's a very good sign that Edwards has responded to the haircut fluff with self-deprecating humor rather than defensiveness or abject apologies.

In fact, the tone of the Edwards campaign has been impressive from the start--from the moment, during Christmas week, that he announced his candidacy by helping clean up a devastated neighborhood in New Orleans, without buttons or balloons, without a bombastic prepared text. Also impressive was his first appearance as a candidate on Meet the Press, a show that had totally boggled Edwards in 2004. Tim Russert hammered the candidate repeatedly on his support for the war. "I was wrong," Edwards said plainly, sans baloney. But most impressive has been Edwards' willingness to step out and get specific on some major issues in a way that none of his opponents have.

Edwards says his first act as President will be to send Congress a universal health-care plan--and he has proposed one, with all the gory details. He would require all employers to provide health-care coverage for their employees, and he would provide tax credits, according to income, to all those currently not covered. Edwards says this would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year, and he would pay for it by eliminating the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000. This is a breathtaking gamble: that a politician isn't presumed dead on arrival if he proposes tax increases during a campaign. By the way, Edwards says his second act as President will be to get on an airplane and start traveling around the world, mending fences after the arrogance of the Bush years. "After Iraq, there's going to be a temptation for us to withdraw from the world and deal with the problems here at home. We can't do that," he says. That's also a courageous statement, given his populist constituency, which tends toward isolationism.

Edwards is similarly bold about global warming. He favors a mandatory 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, with an auction for the rights to pollute. He believes the auction will raise $30 billion to $40 billion, which he would spend on conservation and renewable-fuel technology. Like Al Gore, he is opposed to the construction of any more coal-fired power plants. Unlike Gore, he is opposed to a carbon tax. But the 80% reduction in carbon emissions, if successful, will cause the same sort of increase in energy prices that a carbon tax might. "It's time we asked Americans to be patriotic about something other than war. There are some hard things we're going to have to do together," Edwards says. Good line.

His crowds are not as large as the throngs turning out for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but they are huge by traditional Iowa standards. "Why is everybody here?" Linda Hearn asked her husband Dave, the former Webster County Democratic chairman, as she scanned more than 350 of her neighbors who had turned out to hear Edwards in Fort Dodge. "Because this is it," Dave replied. "We've got to get it right this time." That sense of seriousness is pervasive, and Edwards' response to it--his specificity on the issues--is a gamble that may well pay off. "I like the way he dives into issues," said Terry McGrane, a Waterloo machinist. McGrane's wife Mickey agreed but in classic Iowa fashion said she's still shopping. "Maybe Clinton," she said. "But I want to hear her details too."

Edwards has weaknesses: his knowledge of foreign policy is limited; nor does he know much about the U.S. military or national defense policy. He recently opposed the U.S.--South Korea trade deal, which would bring significant economic benefits to U.S. companies and consumers. There are probably better ways to get to universal health insurance than his plan. If his bouts of conspicuous consumption continue, voters may find him untrustworthy. For now, though, Edwards is demonstrating two of the qualities I most value in a politician: self-deprecating humor and real courage.'

The videos are in this order:
1) Edwards on Faith and Honesty
2) Edwards' entrance to Congressman Clyburn's Fishfry in Columbia, SC
3) Edwards on his Rural Recovery Plan

Edwards Rises to the Moment

John Edwards: The People Party Candidate of 2008

So there's some food for thought!

Hope you're all well-