Sunday Morning... Coming Down from the Mountain...

I've been in Eatonville for three days house- and critter-sitting for a couple of friends. My sister is holding down the fort at home -- the cats, dogs, goats and fish (one betta, ten goldfish) are in her capable hands until I get back this morning.

The critters I'm sitting -- two horses (a quarter horse and Arabian) -- three little dogs and two big dogs -- are terrific. The dogs are all geriatric and need extra help. One needs help maneuvering the stairs after she goes potty outside, another (small dog) is blind and deaf, one of the big dogs is deaf (or almost) and the other one is crotchety with a lot of people, but not with me. All are healthy, just seriously old, having lived well beyond their life expectancies. It's a joy to care for them. It really is.

I've been reading most of the weekend. I've finished TO KILL A MOCKINGBORD -- started that last month and put it down.  I wasn't able to work from this couple's PC because it  MAY have some kind of virus, so I didn't want to open any attachments or send anything out to anyone... so I have a little bit of catching up to do when I get home for one Elance client.  I've pretty much stopped working weekends for the most part, but since I had to skip Friday, I'm going to work a little today just to be sure the one client is tucked away and happy on Monday morning...

It has been cool and overcast for two days, but not rainy. I like it.

At home I've been filling in a ditch along our property line with drainage rocks to create a second "french drain" behind the goat pen because otherwise the goat pen will get seriously soggy in winter, and goats are susceptible to hoof rot if they have to live in muddy areas. It has been quite a workout! I've transported almost five yards of rocks in a wheelbarrow about 50-75 feet back from where the rocks were dumped. True, I'm taking "granny loads" (15-20 shovels per load) so I don't crap out prematurely, but it has still been quite a task, especially on days when it's been hot.  I worked at least two hours every day last week (early morning before 9 a.m.).  I'm almost done now.  Should be wrapped up in another couple of hours, max. I guess I'm down to perhaps one square yard of rock; maybe a little more.

That's just about all the news that's fit to print for this time. Have a blessed Sunday!

The Political Lies are Ramping Up Again... It Must Be Silly (Campaign) Season Again

I just got a baseless rumor that President Obama "canceled" the National Day of Prayer this year and was found praying with Muslims.

OMG!!!

And the rumor came in an email from a lady I love and respect, so it floored me. I pointed her to snopes.com and truthorrumor.com to show her the reports are not true.

What scares me is that this crap is getting into mainstream reporting -- even though it has been thoroughly debunked -- and perfectly reasonable folks are beginning to fear it's true.  If you repeat anything long enough, some people will begin to believe it.

Please remain vigilant, people. If something sounds too good, or too scary, to be true, check it out at snopes.com or at factcheck.org before you forward it on. By spreading misinformation and disinformation far and wide, you're doing a disservice to our nation and world.

Look for the truth. It exists. If an ad makes a claim against a politician running for office, visit the candidate's website, the Congressional Record, snopes.com, and/or factcheck.org and see what they have to say before you believe what their opponent has to say. There are two sides to every story, and when you blindly accept just one side, you're prejudging and discriminating.

I listen to Fox TV and to MSNBC at least once a week. They have express agendas and viewpoints (opposite ones).  If anything seems too far out to believe, I always check it out. Fox wins, hands down, when it comes to misinformation and disinformation.  MSNBC and CNN get higher marks, even though MSNBC is as "shrill" as Fox. 

The facts matter.  When we demonize each other, we demoralize and destroy the fabric of our nation. We're all in the same boat; let's try to remain humane, sane, and unprofane when it comes to "the loyal opposition."

'nuf said.

Political Thought for the Day...

If you're not 100% happy with our President or your other current DEM representatives...just spend one sleepless night thinking about the alternative!!!  Be sure to vote in November!!!

So Well Said!!!

"The only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion, or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets. You’re only here now; you’re only alive in this moment." -- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Ponder that and don't squander your next moment. Live life the way it's meant to be lived -- FULLY!

I Just Love My Goats!

I've never had goats before, except that I trained one for part of a summer in Colton, CA in 1977 or 1978. I knew I'd like having goats but had no real idea I'd love them like I do. They make me happy to an almost silly degree.

This weekend I brought them out onto the lawn both days, unleashed (because they follow me around like puppy dogs -- actually, far better than puppy dogs) while Jackie was hosting (on Saturday) an outdoor barbecue for her bank branches and (on Sunday) the regular Sunday family gathering. Sunday I brought out both cable spools and placed a 2 x 6 to span the 10' space between them. I didn't even have to suggest to the goats what that meant -- they immediately jumped onto the spools and started walking the plank.  Whenever I turned a spool onto its "side" (so it rolled easily from place to place), Laverne launched herself onto it like a little circus pony and helped me "roll" it to another location. 

Goats entertain themselves endlessly when they're off leash. Laverne vaults around the back yard as though possessed, engaging in mock panic attacks at top speed, then stops on a dime and looks around to see if anyone has noticed, then runs off again... 

Yes, yes, I'll take video soon of all of this and put it on here and on my Facebook page so you can see it for yourself. In fact, I may post the result on YouTube. (That will be a first for me.) 

Buffy continues to think she's Lassie or Bullet. She gets at Laverne's heels and chases her into her pen.  Shirley, though, has Buffy's number and lowers her head to let her know she isn't impressed by two pounds of puffball and bluster, so Buffy leaves her alone pretty much... but Laverne thinks it's such fun to run, I guess, that everything is a lark to her.  If she can get a wee pup to chase her, so much the better!

Because of our goats, our grape arbor has seen better days. Grape leaves are Laverne's and Shirley's favorite treat (after COB -- corn, oats and barley, which they can't have much of on a daily basis) so Casey, Lizzie, Isabella and Jamie pull them down and use them as training aids to get the goats to stand on their hind legs with their front legs on the girls' hips or chests while they feed them a leaf or two... or ten.  It's  a good thing we don't make use of the grapes, because I doubt we'll get many this year. The vines and leaves used to engulf the entire grape arbor trellis from ground to top, but now there is just the canopy left. And the canopy will remain mostly because no one can reach it. We'll see what happens to the dozens of teensy weensy grape clusters now that so many leaves have disappeared. I have a feeling it probably won't be good. But who knows.  Maybe a little pruning (a little?!!) is actually good for grape arbors.  We're going to find out this year!

Newest Photos -- Enjoy!

In Order of Appearance:

Liz and Casey with Nice Neigh-bor

Casey and Liz walking Laverne and Shirley

Jamie and Isabella making sure "I Can't Hear You..."

Trampoline Fun (Video)

If you watch the trampoline video, the horse Punkin will make a brief appearance. (She nuzzled my arm while I was filming so I figured she wanted her piece of the action...)

I had to get training collars and chain leashes for the goats because they were dragging me all over the neighborhood in regular collars and I was getting rope burns (and the rope was fraying).  They learned to walk properly real fast after I got the training collars!

And yes, I take them off whenever someone isn't walking them! Don't worry!

WOO HOO!!!! Same-Sex Marriages Declared Legal in CA Again!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38560562/ns/us_news-life?GT1=43001

And yes, I'm a Christian... but no... I don't think allowing same-sex couples to wed will "destroy" traditional marriage. Traditional marriage will always remain popular with the 90% of the human population that is heterosexual. Marriage should not remain the province only of "one man and one woman" in America.

"Against love there is no law."  - The Holy Bible.

The word "abomination" (when targeting homosexuality in the Bible) means "eyesore," properly translated from the original texts.  I agree that sexuality (of any stripe) may be considered an "eyesore" if engaged in in public... but there is no commandment against same sex couplings where actual love is involved. 

The homosexuality "spotlighted" in the Bible, in every instance, was about lust and fornication without benefit of love or marriage. It was about dominating another, or about uncommitted couplings.

I believe it's hypocritical for Christians to disallow marriage; when we do, we make homosexuals "fornicators" rather than committed couples. By allowing gays and lesbians to marry, we remove the stigma associated with same-sex commitment.  And I'm all for that.

Let's legislate against hate if we feel we have to legislate against emotions, feelings and passionate commitments.  See how that works out...

Recent Interview with Harve Bennett -- Names De Kelley as Healer on the Set

http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100802/LIFE/8020315/-1/NEWSMAP

More Critter Pix

In Order of Appearance...

Shirley

Laverne

Buffy

Jansy

Kiki and Buffy

Update: The Girls Have Settled In

Laverne and Shirley settled in by Sunday. As of today, they're officially spoiled rotten. Any time I go into the back yard, Shirley bleats at me as if I'm a sight for sore eyes -- and if I don't go right over and talk to her, her "baaa" turns into a drawn out wail that sounds almost like a human in the throes of a natural or man made disaster.

Today I wandered around and pulled down various species of tree branches filled with leaves for the girls to munch on. I noticed that whenever I take them for a walk they make a beeline to fallen leaves, so that was a clue... 

In other news...

Today I mowed and fertilized the lawn and then watered it really, really well. That's why the goats didn't get their "lawn hour" today and why I picked them leaves and branches instead.

Both of them jump onto the cable spools now -- and they often sleep atop them. Laverne is the bossy one; she pushes Shirley around by butting into her flank. I'm trying to discourage it, but I think it's just goat antics.  Shirley doesn't seem to mind all that much...

What else?  I'm making phone calls from home again as a volunteer for the State DEMS, encouraging voters to be sure and vote during the upcoming primary August 17th.

I'm making money at Elance. 

I just read two books -- by Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball. Carol's book ("This Time Together") has a chapter in it that had me laughing so hard I thought I was going to hurt myself internally. I have rarely laughed so hard in my life. It was about why the TV show PASSWORD went from LIVE to taped, and it happened while she and Elizabeth Montgomery were celebrity guests on the show.  What happened was so hysterical that Elizabeth Montgomery fell off her chair.  I can't repeat it here because it involves a word that is never used in general audiences -- or much of anywhere else.  God, I thought I was going to wake Jackie up, I laughed so long and so hard -- I cried and ached, I laughed so hard.

The rest of the book is good too, but this one incident alone is worth the price of admission... I promise you!

Local Author Nick Rogen Impresses Me

This weekend I stopped by a local BORDERS store with Dr. Mary Jo Robinson while she picked out a DVD. When I walked in the door a handsome young man was sitting at a table with a small stack of his book, A Life Worth Living.  Always eager to meet other writers, I stopped to say hello and read the back cover. Intrigued, I asked if the book is autobiographical; he said, "Yes, it is."

I leafed through a few pages, read a few lines, and decided to buy a copy. I asked Nick to sign it to me , which he did. We visited for another five minutes or so and then I re-joined Mary Jo on her quest for a DVD.

When I sat down for the evening, I picked up A Life Worth Living. Published by iUniverse (not unlike AuthorHouse, which published my first four books), it's a powerful, compelling story. I couldn't put it down.

Like most first-time authors, Nick's manuscript would have benefitted from having a second set of experienced eyes (an editor) look it over before he submitted it to iUniverse to publish, but let me assure you, it's easy to overlook the tome's few editing lapses because the story is an absolute page-turner from start to finish.

Nick has been through the wringer already in his young life: his mother struggled with schizophrenia for decades until she found a reliable drug to help her, leaving Nick to fend for himself at home pretty much while keeping an eye on his mom to prevent her from committing suicide during the depression phase of her disorder and to chase after her and cut her off at the pass to keep her from spending the family's income on a gambling addiction when her mood was on the upswing (into the stratosphere).

All of this responsibility at such a young age took its toll on Nick. He developed a predilection for one of his mom's prescribed drugs (which he pilfered once to calm his intense anxiety, then went out and scored his own prescription for it by feigning -- or capitalizing on -- his own ADD tendencies).  From then on, and for years, he battled his own dependency on mind-altering drugs while continuing to try to keep his mother stabilized on hers.  It's a heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant story.  I'm glad Nick says at the outset that the story ends happily or I would have been on the edge of my seat the whole way through praying for just such an outcome. No youngster should be saddled with the responsibilities he had to deal with from a very young age... but alas, many do... and Nick's story should bring hope to a lot of them.

I give the book an A+ for Nick's storytelling ability and a C for editing. I hope next time he writes a book he'll tap me as a local editor. But as long as he gets someone professional (as all successful authors do) to burnish and buff up the few unfortunate blemishes (this book has numerous errors in punctuation, some clunky metaphors, and a number of sentences that are less powerful than they could be), he should enjoy a long and successful career as a writer.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to sit, read, and vicariously cheer on a formerly-troubled, extremely talented new author who has laid bare both his journey and his soul to help others who are facing immense life challenges and personal demons of their own. I also recommend it for those who wonder how the wonderful kids they know could have ended up addicted to drugs. Most don't get there simply on a lark. Something in this life is so unsettling and beyond their own control that a lot of kids opt for a prescription drug to take the edge off their anxiety and fear. Many addictions start innocently enough, then take over with a vengeance. Nick's story shows there can be light at the end of the tunnel.

BRAVO!!!

Goat Antics....

This afternoon I put the goats on a common, long rope and took them for a walk.  As soon as they started following me reliably, I dropped the rope and started running like a madwoman away from them.  They bleated and took off after me as though thinking I was trying to abandon them! I ran into their pen -- they followed. I ran out of their pen -- they followed.

So I'm officially "Mama Goat" tonight. WOO HOO!!! Jackie will see if she can catch us in action with a video camera tonight or later this week. If so, I'll attach it here so we can share the smiles with y'all...  You really gotta see it to appreciate it.

Following "MomGoat Kris" FAST to the holding pen

Laverne and Shirley in Action Close-Up

More Goat Pix

Click on photos to enlarge them...

Meet Laverne and Shirley (Not Twins After All)

From Top to Bottom

Kris and Laverne

Kris and Shirley

Casey and Shirley

One of the twins had a rash on her udder, so the seller didn't want to send her home with us. Jackie chose the red/brown goat as her replacement, since she knew I loved and wanted the red goat but just didn't want to break up identical twin sisters. We've named the girls Laverne & Shirley, at least for now.  (Another geat idea was Mocha and Latte, but Laverne & Shirley gave us such a laugh that we're probably keeping those names. My niece/Jackie's daughter-in-law Wendy came up with both pairs of names. Clever lady, huh?!)

The red/brown one is Laverne.

Surprise Coming This Weekend...

This weekend -- I hope by Saturday evening -- I will be able to unveil something I've been working on feverishly for five days. I'm waiting to make the announcement because I want to include photos of "the happening" -- and the happening isn't happening until Saturday morning sometime.

I'll give you a few hints:

I had to build a holding pen and enclose a portion of an outlying wood shed (see above photo) to accommodate the newest members of the family.

They're four month old twins. Identical twins, I think. (I couldn't tell them apart when Jackie and I went to look at them last weekend.)

They're mammals.

They're awfully cute... and I've never had one of their kind before. (Now, THAT limits the field by a bunch because I've had cats, dogs, skunks, ferrets, hawks, horses, cattle, sheep, a serval, and more!)

It has taken me four whole days to dig fence posts, stretch wire, get some "play toys," buy feeders and frame and enclose  a shed for these critters. I'm sore, bruised, scraped, burned, battered -- and wildly excited.  It's costing a small bundle but the idea is to help Jackie with some of her outdoor work on the periphery of our property.

Have you guessed the species, yet?

If not (or even if so), you'll be able to meet our newest family members just two days from now... so, stay tuned!

The Writing Life -- Wordsmith Wisdom

"Do what you love -- the money will follow."

"Follow your bliss."

These quotes have spoken to me -- resonated mightily -- my entire life. It's rather appalling to me now that I didn't obey them decades sooner and hang my writing shingle a long time ago.

I've been a writer all my life -- I just didn't BELIEVE (rely on) it before 2007 as a means of income. And that's a shame. But I'm relying on it now and it makes me feel happy, alive and contributory. 

I was a spectator before - left like an alien. The work I did before 2007 (executive secretary, administrative assistant,  etc.) was an act, a role, and I felt like a fraud. Even though I was very good at it, it wasn't me -- it's what was "expected" of me by others (loved ones) who never really felt I could make it as a writer -- and they communicated that to me in unspoken ways. To this day, a couple of them still do, but it's out of concern/worry and love and I accept it as such (instead of as a judgment of my ability).  I just don't adopt or embrace their concern and worry anymore -- which helps enormously! 

I have developed complete faith in myself as a communicator (on paper!). I've honed the craft and often impress myself these days with what I come up with (which was a rarity years ago). I know who I am when I write: a craftsman... a wordsmith... a

force of nature.

Oddly enough, instead of this knowledge making me proud or arrogant, it makes me humble. Words can be whispers, wonders or weapons; it's all in how you wield them.

My passion to write was a gift I was given before birth. I was CREATED to write -- I didn't DECIDE to write. From the moment I learned how to build sentences I've been captivated by stringing words together, pulling out thoughts and feelings and putting them on paper to reach out and touch others. God gave me the passion to write and the perseverence (addiction!) to keep at it in journals, letters, and blogs all along the way, even when writing for a living seemed quixotic.

It isn't always EASY - but it's nearly always enjoyable. That's because I only accept projects that I feel certain I'll ace and enjoy. I freely decline Elance projects  that are offered to me if the subject matter or formats don't resonate with me.

My criteria for selecting projects begins with one rule: What I agree to write has to matter in some way -- not just to my clients, but to me. It has to help someone in a significant way.

I don't take projects solely to make money -- I take work that will make a difference in the realms where I agree making a difference is vital. On the few occasions (early on) when I haven't followed this Prime Directive, I've regretted it, so I don't do it anymore. My heart has to be in it or I can get miserable pretty fast!

I'm going to turn down two new projects tomorrow -- ones that came ONLY to me (as an invitation) -- because they don't float my boat. I have plenty other clients to keep me busy right now, and besides... I turned down a project last month from a former client because it was finance-related (YAWN!) and he just got back to me with a project that I want to do... so I've discovered that I don't lose clients by being true to my Prime Directive; it shows folks that I'm in it for MORE THAN THE MONEY, that I must be as passionate about every project I accept as the client is. That way we both know that what I agree to do is going to receive my complete focus and best effort.

I have a really great client now who is referring his clients (who need copywriters) to me these days. The only "problem" (I say with a grin) that I have with him -- and them -- is that they think (or have been taught) that long form sales letters and landing pages are the ONLY way to go -- even for $39 items. It drives me nuts! 

For starters, I despise writing long-form sales copy, and unless the product or service is expensive (more than $100) or not well understood, I think a 500-word sales piece is entirely sufficient. My rationale: most Internet seekers are busy people who just want to find what they need and buy it; having to slog through 1600 words of copy to find the offer drives them crazy. (I know it does ME -- and I love reading and writing! Many people don't!)

So today, per instructions from one of these wonderful gents, I adapted two 1600+ word landing pages and then wrote a third, 500 word landing page for the same offer. I'm absolutely convinced it will convert better than the "war and peace" (long form) copy.

The offer is for busy Adwords users who have wasted ENOUGH time and money already trying to get their ads to convert seekers into buyers. I singled 'em out right up front (target audience), gave 'em the scoop (identified the offer), gave 'em the guarantee of satisfaction, and provided links to their ordering options. My copy is powerful, concise and convincing -- but in no way bland (as the above description might seem to indicate). I provided no story line beyond what they can expect the service to do for them -- which is a LOT, while saving them oodles of time and even more money. Their decision should be a no-brainer if they fit the profile I outlined. They'll whip out their credit cards before they get halfway through the 480 words. They'd be nuts not to take the trial offer... absolutely NUTS! I want to take it -- and I don't even fit the profile!!!

In the long form copy the offer is so completely hidden in non-essential, feel-good colloquial chat that it seems whoever wrote it is trying to coerce the reader into a less-than-stellar deal. I'm not saying the copy isn't good -- it's fine for what it is -- but it goes on FOREVER and that's a waste of people's time. The offer is so good that the copy should have them almost at "hello."

A great $39-$99 offer doesn't have to overcome the seeker's "sticker shock," so the more concise and direct the copy, the better, in my opinion.

I think the client is going to split test the three ads, so we'll see shortly how they compete against each other. If my copy doesn't convert better, I'll be enormously surprised. If it does, they'll learn something new: why spend 3-6 hours writing a 1600 word ad (or pay a copywriter to do it) when a 500 word ad works better?

Thanks, Greg Barton, For This Terrific Link -- De Kelley Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zSuM1Sa6fs

Women's Right to Vote Came HARD! Women, VOTE!

I had never read about this! Isn’t it amazing that in school we were never told about this. I think every American woman needs to know this and teach it to her daughters. Amazing. I would love to see the movie.


This is the story of our Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago.




Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.


The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.


And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'


(Lucy Burns)


They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.



(Dora Lewis)


They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.


Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.


(Alice Paul)


When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.


So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because - why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?


Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.


All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.


(Berthe Arnold, CSU graduate)


My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming

back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.'


The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'



HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.


It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.


The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'


Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you
know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember to vote in Nov.

History is being made. Women need to write their part of it.Thanks to JC Waters for sending the following to me...

QUIET OBAMA ACCOMPLISHMENT

I haven't been watching TV much recently, so if this has been reported and I just missed it, forgive me. But it seems that the plan Obama has hammered out with BP re the Gulf oil compensation plan is an AMAZING accomplishment.

Under present law (thanks again, Bush-Cheney admin), an oil company can only be held liable for $54 million in claims. WA Senator Patty Murray is trying to change that with a new bill, but in the meantime, that's the law/regulation or whatever you want to call it.

Obama has gotten BP to fund a $20B fund to pay the people hurt by the Gulf oil disaster -- and it isn't just $20B, according to Ken Feingold, who is administering it.  It's replenishable by BP if $20B isn't enough -- and as the efforts to stop the flow have failed miserably, it may be necessary to pay fishermen, shrimpers, hotel chains and other tourist industries who depend on tourism, etc. for numerous decades.

This is HUGE. This is so huge, in fact, that some GOP folks are calling it a "shakedown."  One GOP fellow has apologized to BP for the inconvenience of being required to help beyond what is actually required of them. 

Kudos to BP for agreeing -- but the greatest kudos go to Obama's folks, who doggedly pursued them, cajoled them, and reminded them that this disaster is a public relations nighmare and that only by doing the right thing could they ever redeem themselves as a company in the eyes of the world.  That must have taken some doing...  That's diplomacy (or clout) of the highest order. 

Because of the way this has been handled, the American taxpayer shouldn't have to put out an extra dime to rescue the Gulf; BP had agreed that they made the mess, and they'll clean it up.

So in addition to health care reform, mitigating a global financial meltdown, smacking Wall Street upside the head and almost 100 other things this administration has done, it has also had our backs during this presently-unmitigated catastrophe in the gulf.  The oil continues to gush, the white sands of Florida continue to turn foul,  people continue to hurt and fish, foul and mammalian wildlife contine to die, but one thing is certain: Obama is focused on what CAN be done to make certain something like this will be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and then WHEN it occurs, the companies responsible will honor their moral and ethical reponsibility to fix it, whatever it takes, for however long it takes.

That's leadership. That's quick-witted strategy. That's the fellow I voted for.  I have never been more proud of a vote in my lifetime.

I hope every other person who voted DEM in 2008 will take stock of what has been accomplished against enormous, vitriolic odds and realize that this administration is getting results. In just 18 months we're a helluva lot farther along than we "should" be, given the virulent attacks and stonewalling of the other major party.  And it's only the beginning, as long as we turn out in large numbers this year again and use the ballot to proclaim, "Good job!  Keep it up!"

I hope Obama supporters will get busy following the 4th of July and volunteer to make phone calls, go canvassing, and reach out to friends and family to underscore to all you meet that you've seen what can be done when you have representatives in Congress and elsewhere who have ours backs and who do the right thing, even when it's hard...

Michael Jackson One Year Later...

This anniversary snuck up on me. I can't believe it has been a year already. I guess that's because I'm not over being sad yet...

Michael Jackson's untimely death was a tragedy of immense proportions. There are so many questions left unanswered...

He was helpless to help himself. Why would nobody else help him?  

Are people allowed to disintegrate before the eyes of their familes and friends?

Are there people willing to look the other way, provided they're well paid enough?

Will a company use a person until they're all used up?

The sad answer to every one of these questions is "Yes."  It happens every day. It doesn't only happen to Michael Jackson. But when it happens to someone who's world renowned, we take notice.

We look around. We realize the importance of the people around us, who are as special to us as Michael Jackson was/is to his family and fans.  Any of them could be gone tomorrow... just as he was...

It isn't fair. Michael was killed by an addiction that consumed him, administered by a licensed doctor who continues to insist that nothing he did "should" have killed him.  But it did!!! 

It did.

And here we are, a year later, sadder... but no wiser. People die every day of legally-prescribed drugs approved by licensed doctors. Dr Murray administered a drug in Michael Jackson's rented mansion that should only have been administered in a hospital setting during a surgical procedure. He did it because Michael insisted.

Would he have fired a gun at Michael, had Michael insisted?  He may as well have...

If Michael wasn't competent to make wise decisions, why in the world would a doctor abide by them?

I just don't understand. And I never will. This is a tragedy that should never have happened.