I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

River_Rat

Anne,

Interesting link.  As someone explained to me, you paste the link, then highlight it and click on the link symbol above the text box, which opens up a little box where you also paste the URL and then click insert.

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1104/congress/flat.html 

BarbaraA

I just have to share with you gals! My iPad2 just arrived!! WooHoo! I am SUCH a gadget freak. Setting it up now and will post from it (provided I can get it working).

Bren-2007

Barbara .. your new iPad sounds like fun!  Hope you are enjoying it.  I am electronically challenged and don't even know how to send a text msg on my phone!

hugs,

Bren

BarbaraA

I am officially posting from the new iPad2!! WooHoo!! Bren my brain likes computers so I just run with it.

bluedahlia

Barbara, I wouldn't say that too loudly.

BarbaraA

Ooops, you are right Blue. Dang! My screen is frozen!

1Athena1

I have never been as insane about Apple products as everyone else is. BUT I am glad you are happy with your new toy, Barbara. Wait until the sunglasses I ordered arrive. :-)

River_Rat

Barbara, I'm so jealous!  I'm saving my nickels for one.

Bren-2007

You guys are so fun with your electronic gadgets!  I'm saving my nickels for a tractor.  A big John Deere green tractor. 

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Bren

1Athena1

Bren, hope you are having a good day!

River_Rat

Bren, my yard is so small you couldn't even turn your tractor around in it.  I wish I had room for a great big vegetable garden and fields of wildflowers, but alas I will continue to shoehorn in what I can.   I hope that you're having a good day too.

I also hope that everyone else is having a good day.  We had beautiful weather here yesterday.  Today is a moment by moment experience - cold, windy, hopeful looking, a few snow flakes (there goes the hope for now) - Geez I can't wait for this winter to go away. 

1Athena1

Obama announced his intention to run for reelection. But that no-surprise event is not the reason why I post. I merely post this note to give a big sigh of "oh my God" because it means the pundits get into high gear with their campaign observations (usually wrong, unintelligent and entirely off in their predictive value). Here come the unscientific polls. Here comes Politico, that beltway rag of rags, being cited left right and center. I can put up with dirty politics just fine next to my low tolerance for these overpaid, under-worked fools on cable television. Some were once intelligent, but their brain has atrophied from insider-ism. I can hear the drums rolling for Sarah Palin just as they did for Fred Thompson - because the thinking is that if you are senile, conservative and an actor, you must have a winning streak - until, many moons later, she disappears into the abyss long before the nomination. How very tedious and depressing this will be.

When the pundits start to get in the way of the news (as they have in the Arab world uprisings stories) you know that journalism is at a low point. So excuse the rant. I expect to rant about punditry all the way through election time. Honestly, I wish we had a direct vote just so that the pundits would become less relevant.

I can just see David Gergen frowning over the latest unscientific poll as though it were a national security issue. Chris Matthews berating someone, and Rush calling for an end to something absolutely humane and necessary. Where are the politicians in all of this?

bluedahlia

Why is politics all about drama?

River_Rat

Well drama and money.  Unfortunately the outfits that report on politics here (television especially) make a lot of money off of the political drama - run the ads, talk about the ads ad nauseum, run the counter ads, rinse, lather, repeat.  I wish that we had a different system but I don't see it happening any time soon.  I also wish that the process wasn't drawn out over so much time.

covertanjou

Barbara, congrats on you IPad2.  I love Apple products, but I haven't bought the IPad yet.  Do you like it?

KK, if you want to watch the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda on line, here is the link:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/video/ 

As for the drama in politics, I think it is inevitable when you have people like Trump thinking of running for president.

I wonder if this election will be as ugly as the last one.  I really hope not.  I hope we don't have a repeat of Palin inciting violence. 

Bren-2007

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/05/congress.budget/index.html?hpt=T1

Democrats and republicans fail to reach a deal on the budget.  Government shutdown looms as Friday approaches.

Why can't they get their act together?

Key Democrats rejected a Republican proposal to keep the government running for one more week at the cost of an additional $12 billion in cuts. Republicans, meanwhile, dismissed Democrats' insistence that there had been an agreement to cut $33 billion for the rest of the fiscal year.

konakat

Thanks Mary!!

I am sooooo happy election season in Canada is just over a month long.

Bren-2007

Our country is in a constant state of elections.  I wish our system was more like Canada's.

Bren

1Athena1

The pundits are addicted to elections. The couldn't even take time out once Obama was elected. They had to come up with another race: the first 100 days. remember that? They are junkies and don't even know it. It has become one big reality TV show.

konakat

I was living in Boston when Obama was elected -- I was so proud to have witnessed such a great event. 

The pundits in Canada for the most part are quite good, not just someone with their blonde hair sprayed into a helmet head as her/his only credential.  You can even get non-partisan analyses up here too!  But if election season went on so long in Canada even our newspeople probably would turn into blathering idiots -- it's just too much to endure!!

River_Rat

Konakat, Happy belated Birthday!  I just stumbled across another thread that tipped me off - just wish I had found the other thread a long time ago.  I also hope your treatment is going well.

BarbaraA

Evening folks. About the iPad2, I really love it. So I download the big stuff using my wireless connection and save the AT&T data connection for small stuff. I have NetFlix and download movies to it, it is unbelievable the quality of the screen. Amazing. Highly recommend it.

bluedahlia

I'm with you Kona.  I couldn't stand all that crap.  They over-report the smallest issues and make mountains out of mole hills.  I guess they need to keep their ratings up at the expense of the gullible.

What about that guy that burned the Quran In Florida.  I know that falls under "freedom of speech" but talk about being inciteful.  What did he hope to accomplish except bigotry!

BarbaraA

That moron is a whack job unfortunately protected by freedom of speech. Ugh, he gives my state an even worse name than Flori-DUH.

River_Rat

Things are moving quickly in Ivory Coast:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/06/ivory.coast.unrest/index.html?hpt=T1 

Bren-2007

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/06/news/economy/government_shutdown/index.htm?hpt=T1

Consequences of a government shutdown. 

I think it's a very sad reflection of our government that they can't agree on a lousy 6 month budget.  800,000 govt workers will be without pay and work if they can't agree on a budget by Friday evening.

And for the first time, officials hinted at just how many workers would be asked to stay home. The official estimate: 800,000. That means almost a million Americans won't get a paycheck.

konakat

You'd think Gbagbo would have learnt something from his history degree.  Won his presidency fair and square 10 years or so ago and then didn't want to accept defeat.  If he was smart he would have gone into exile somewhere for a few years, let things calm down and run the next time around.  But noooooo.  Plain and simple hubris.  Maybe he and Ghadafi can become roomies in Paris or somewhere...

Bren-2007

River Rat ... I read the article you posted about the Ivory Coast.  Maybe it is the beginning of the end of the conflict. 

I've had a happy day.  It was warm enough to be outside doing stuff and I was able to transplant four of my roses today.  Yay!  Just wish the wind would die down a bit.  But warmer temps are on the way!

Bren

River_Rat

Konakat, I don't think Sarkozy would want them in Paris, but Berlusconi has a soft spot for Ghadafi so maybe he might find a place for them.

Bren, I hope there isn't a government shut down but I don't want the Democrats to give away everything to keep it running.  

I hope that we might be seeing the beginning of the end for Gbagbo in Ivory Coast.  It has got me thinking, Obama said that they were dealing with that in a different way which I didn't put much store in before but now I am wondering.  Now is there hope for Darfur, the Congo, Syria, Yemen, ...

River_Rat

An interesting article concerning which countries might give refuge to Gadhafi:

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/29/who-would-be-willing-to-give-moammar-gadhafi-exile/