Let the nominations begin! (again)

Well............hear hear.........Harriet Miers has withdrawn from the Supreme Court nomination circus today. In her note to Dubya, she claimed that in stepping out of the way she is protecting private conversations between her and the President and doing what's best for the country. She feels that it is weighing his Presidency down.

Harriet honey........he didn't need your help for that.

I digress.......some Senators believe that her departure can be blamed on the "radical right wing of the Republican Party" killing her nomination. EGADS! Can you imagine? A wing of the Republican party killing anything that Dubya wants to push through!

Anyway..........please step aside and let the next nomination through..............

Good ol' Dick

Well well........it seems that Dick Cheney has been busy behind the scenes for the last two years and not connected to hospital machines as I have thought. He is now the primary focus of the investigation into the leaking of the CIA agent's name - Valerie Plame. Sources say that he was the one who "leaked" the name to Lewis Libby - his aide.

When all is said and done I believe we are going to see a couple of good ol' boys take the fall for those in the Executive Branch of this administration. There is no doubt that they all knew the ramifications when releasing her name to the public and knew exactly who to place in the forefront when the "manure" started flying.

News sources say that the investigation and the grand jury indictments will revisit the lack of reasoning behind going into Iraq in the first place thus drowning "Dubya's" popularity poll even more. Pffftttttttttt!

Please tell me its time to launch the Presidential campaign!

Elevator results

Since my last post, I have tested the New Yorker's elevator "express" myth over a five day period. Now you can call it a coincidence if you would like, but in the last five days of using the elevator to leave the building, I haven't stopped at a single floor. Today I shall begin testing the elevator without pressing the destination floor and the close door button at the same time.

While this may appear that I am taking this all too seriously, I can assure you that I am. Try it for yourself the next time you are in a hurry and need to take the elevator. I will convert you too!

New Yorker elevator advice

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to just spend the day in a couple bookstores. I managed to get caught up on some reading and feed my addiction to Caramel Cafe Mochas and Caramel Fraps.

As I was reading through the latest version of the New Yorker, I came across an article on elevators and how to "rig" them to become express elevators. Absolutely invaluable information to have since I work on the 11th floor of my office building. Someone is always trying to disrupt my end of the day departure or my quick run to the local sandwich shop.

Anyway, one of the tricks is to press the Close Door button at the same time as you press the button of the destination floor. I have tried it twice today - once at 12:15pm and once at 1:25pm. Both times I reached the 1st floor without a stop.

Coincidence? Maybe so, but I am going to keep a mental note of my attempts to gauge if this really works.

If nothing else it breaks up the monotony of a busy work day and gives me a chance to "beat the system".

Qualified nominations vs. a Posse

I recently listened to an editorial comment about recent Bush nominations within our federal agencies. They outlined a variety of "cronies" that Bush has nominated to various departments within our government. While the list was broad, I have decided to focus in on the top three of late: Mike Brown, Harriet Miers and Julie Myers.

Let's start with Julie Myers and work back.

The nomination of Julie Myers as the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was just approved by the Senate this week. At 36, she is a well connected "young" lawyer with little or no management or immigration experience to lead an agency that staffs 20000 people with a budget of $4 billion a year.

The nomination of Harriet Miers is still being viewed with skepticism and criticism by many players in Washington. No judicial bench experience and no guidance on how she would rule on key issues that are brought to the Supreme Court. Dubya says that he knows her character and her judicial viewpoints and that is good enough for him. Well, maybe this is why we have not heard from the religious conservatives that sleep in Dubya's back pocket.

As for Mike Brown, former leader of FEMA, he gained this high office position at the nomination of Dubya as well. Little experience working large scale disasters and a "juiced up" resume has landed him out on the streets and thousands of people struggling in the deep south.

Unfortunately, the President of the United States can appoint and nominate anyone he or she likes in regards to our federal agencies. It is unfortunate that because of party lines the Republican led House and Senate continue to approve these nominations just because Dubya said so.

Maybe it is time for a split ticket to lead this country. Perhaps we would receive more qualified individuals instead of one person's hometown posse of friends.

Harriet Miers

Well..........the conservatives (Ann Coulter's and the like) are absolutely foaming at the mouth that Bush would make such a dumb decision as to name someone with no judicial experience to the Supreme Court. This is quite surprising since they usually sing his praises. The fact is no one knows which way she will go and this makes her a threat.

I think she is a dead ringer for Faye Dunaway in "Mommie Dearest" myself.

Around the leagues

Wow................what a weekend in sports! Let's catch up, shall we?

• The Boston Red Sox clinched a playoff position in the American League after beating the Yankees yesterday 10-1. Of course the Yankees are in the playoffs as well and we will certainly face them again in the race to the World Series.
• The Bengals won again! They defeated the Houston Texans 16-10. A win is a win.........sometimes they aren't pretty wins but until they start scoring PW's or PL's (pretty losses) it all counts! The Bengals are one of four teams that remain undefeated. They are in good company with the Colts, Redskins and the Bucs.

Just a minute - I am picking a suitable music score for the next sports update. Hmmm...let's see.......circus music or a funeral march?

• The Patsies were manhandled at home yesterday by the San Diego Chargers. Final score 41-17. This ends the Patsies 21 game winning streak at home. I don't even think "manhandled" is quite the word for this loss. This team is suffering because they do not have any suitable bench players to fill in for their injured reserve. They have simply counted on their starters to lead the team and it is now paying them back in buckets. It is a matter of time before Tom Brady goes down himself and his backup will be forced to enter the game. (Who is his replacement anyway?) At that point, the season will be over. Mr. "I am a changed man" Corey Dillon is not adding anything substantial to the running game and seems to wallowing again in his own discontent. He ran for 63 years yesterday and that is his season high so far this year. The Patsies better make a few changes because the 4-0 Colts will be coming to town on 11/7 and this team is eager to collect on some past losses - especially in Foxborough.