Arkansas Blog

I am having Mike's Hard Limeade this evening. Too hot for red wine, and I am just not a beer drinker.

I will make some frozen strawberry daiquiris at some point over the holiday because a friend reminded me that I make excellent ones...hint hint.

An occasional Miller High Life gives me a memory rush of what beer tasted like when I could sneak a sip once in a while as a child and before the fateful night with that six pack of malt liqour.

It's fresh killed beef here from relative's herd, fresh squash with tons of garlic/Thai basil, green onions from a friends garden and our fav, spinach salad with fresh pineapple. To drink...mostly staying with mango-vodka-lime with a shave or two of ginger...all of this as soon as my two bowls of blueberries digest.

One of our R-necky associates earlier brought up something Clinton had done or said...well

Colbert does the inevitable....THE CLINTON CURSE....it's all clicky.

Back to last episodes, Season Three of Weeds, Nancy employs the messicuns for protection.
.

It's been Miller Lite all evening. Just finished the yard!

"Mark Sanford, apparently unwilling to accept the gift of Michael Jackson's all-media consuming death, has reinserted himself into the national conversation by talking about his feelings toward his mistress to AP:

"I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate."

Yep, saw that eLwood...then Jenny issues her statement today saying she's willing to forgive him.

This is a man who told the ASSOCIATED PRESS he is madly in love with another woman yet his wife is willing to take him back.

What a f*cking stupid bitch! This is why women will always be relegated to second-class status.

I detest her more than her cheating husband.

Yeah, eLwood, he also said he's going to try to "fall back in love" with his wife.
To which she released a statement saying she was willing to work on the marriage.
Could these two people possibly humilate themselves any more????

and this is the example she wants for her four sons...........sad!

Personally, I think Sanford is fooling a lot of people, keeping the media focused on his
Argentine "soul mate."

I think it's very likely there have been other soul mates. So clever move on his part.

eLwood, thanks for Colbert. I just had to share it as a 4th greeting to friends.

Oh, eLwood, have you not been keeping up? He has admitted to others, but said they hadn't "crossed that ultimate line".
Please...someone...tell this man he needs to just shut up! He seems to be about two seconds away from telling us about some of the farm animals he's taken for a hike on the Appalachian Trail!

Roger Simon said today Sanford needs to "zip 2 things, the other being his mouth. He keeps talking like he's in group therapy and WE'RE the group! Left residence/Capitol without his security something like 39 times last year, and already 28 this year."

He's gotta resign... Miller Lite (wife) and High Life for us w/our potato salad, blue cheese dip and hot dogs. Blues bash on the river Saturday. HAPPY Holiday to all, and g'night!

5 banks last week, seven this week... including one biggie in Texas.

And the FDIC is still hiring like mad.

PR-119-2009 The PrivateBank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of Founders Bank, Worth, Illinois

PR-118-2009 State Bank of Texas, Irving, Texas, Assumes All of the Deposits of Millennium State Bank of Texas, Dallas, Texas

PR-117-2009 First Financial Bank, National Association, Terre Haute, Indiana, Assumes All of the Deposits of the First National Bank of Danville, Danville, Illinois

PR-116-2009 Galena State Bank and Trust, Galena, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of the Elizabeth State Bank, Elizabeth, Illinois

PR-115-2009 The Harvard State Bank, Harvard, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of Rock River Bank, Oregon, Illinois

PR-114-2009 The First National Bank of Beardstown, Beardstown, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of the First State Bank of Winchester, Winchester, Illinois

PR-113-2009 State Bank of Lincoln, Lincoln, Illinois Assumes All of The Deposits of the John Warner Bank, Clinton, Illinois

Feb 2009:
"Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama plans to revoke a last minute rule from the Bush administration to shield health workers who refuse to participate in abortions or other medical activities that go against their beliefs."

I was wondering what happened to that campaign promise........

July 2, 2009:
"Obama said he is a "believer in conscience clauses" and supports a new policy that would "certainly not be weaker" than the rules in place before the expansion late in President George W. Bush's administration."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202451.html?hpid=topnews

Hopefully with new leadership at NOW, they will start calling BS on this crap.

Excuse me..Which party won the '08 elections???????

"The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials. "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771.html

You're right, HenryS,

We elected an empty suit who is afraid of his own shadow. Damn, damn, damn...I was honestly taken in by all his bravado and promises.

He's just like Blanche and Mark on a larger scale....Republican lite who is likely bought. We've gotten to the magic number of 60 with nothing to show for it.

I'm quickly losing faith in the whole system.

I'm quickly losing faith in the whole system.
***********
After the '06 election, I rationalized and made excuses for the pathetic behavior of the Congressional Dems and doubled my political contributions for the '08 election cycle. I have run out of excuses...WTF do we do now??? At least with Bush there was an end is sight....Obama is worse than Bush....With Bush, I expected nothing from a Republican...Obama is a damn Democrat. Tonight I was trying to think of one campaign promise that he has kept and I can't think of any. There was the over turning of the "Mexico City Policy" and then he removed the women's health funding from the Stim. Bill, There was Stem Cell but two day later he signed legislation that had the "Dickey Amendment" that bans federal funding for most type of embryonic Stem Cell research; and then there was Ledbetter but he had the Senate Dems pull the "Fair Pay Check" legislation that would have made a difference for women; and now there is "Obama Care"...Jeebus what an f'ing nightmare!!!!!!

This points out the problem with some political marriages, where the relationship between the candidate and spouse is based on seeking power and looking good in a photo-op, rather than love and family commitment.

What next? Will Mark Sanford be hooking up with an Academy Award winning-actress in the foreseeable future? I doubt it. That would be very expensive and take a lot of careful planning, not some lame 'hiking in the Appalachians' alibi. No, it would take a more experienced politician than Mark Sanford to pull that off without getting caught.

"...What a f*cking stupid bitch! This is why women will always be relegated to second-class status.

I detest her more than her cheating husband."

Hold on there, sister...sure, watching one more woman stand by her man REGARDLESS isn't fun/easy to swallow. (And, I can't fathom forgiving my mate for declaring another is his soul mate...much less fucking her.) But I'm not gonna toss a blanket condemnation over women for, well, centuries of patriarchal domination. Every female generations' equality gets a little better...but we should never forget that our moms/grandmas/great great great relatives lived in different worlds, gender wise, than we do. We don't blame slaves for their enslavement, so why lay all gender equality crap on women rather than where it mostly belongs: With men/religion. Many women are relegated to second-class status because it's the role most of them have been trained for their ENTIRE lives.

But I love women, my sisters...regardless of how male-dependent/bitchy they sometimes act. And I'm prone to defend them, or, at least, try to understand where they're coming from...regardless. Just as gays have to constantly fight against societal norms that have been battering/shaping them their entire lives...so do women...still.

Basically Sanford should STFU.

Dear Arkansas Times Bloggers,

dottholliday has sent you a Jacquie Lawson electronic greeting card.
Please CLIK see your card.

Alternatively, please visit http://www.jacquielawson.com and select the Pick Up Card option in the menu. Then enter your card code, which is: 1887174935794

If you have any problem at all viewing your card, go here:

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That was very cool, dott. Thanks for sharing.

Cool card dott. Very appropriate for the holiday weekend. Thanks for sending it.

Sister --

NOBODY'S ever going to relegate Jenny Sanford to "second class"citizen status! Born to a wealthy Catholic family in Winnetka, she was already a highly successful investment banker when she met Mark (or, "M&M" as insiders dubbed him last year: I couldn't figure out why, at first) at a party in the Hamptons where he was trolling for a rich wife.

(Unbeknownst to Mark, say insiders, she was trolling for a potential politician she could mold into a position of power -- a governor or congressman or maybe even President.)

She managed his campaign. She's incredibly smart, a terrific mother and the consummate wife. She's also no-nonsense, down to earth and doesn't suffer fools gladly.

When a reporter asked her last week how all this would affect Mark's career, she said:

"His career is not a concern of mine. He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children."

Not "our" children: "mine." It's amazing, Sister-, how just listening to people tells you everything about them! In one remark Jenny acknowledged Mark's political potential is in the toilet and she's outta there -- with "her" children and most of the "security" (read, "money and property").

Can't blame her. She's got the money. She's got the brains. She's the grown-up and those four boys are HERS to raise, not the serial adulterer's she married.

M&M has blown it all: marriage to a rich wife who's far smarter, better connected and more politically savvy than he; family, career and future. Gone. All gone.

They're living separately, Sister-. Nobody, but nobody, likes him anymore. Everybody wants him to resign. He is met with polite but hollow smiles -- when former friends and colleagues can't avoid him altogether.

Jenny WOULD have worked to save the marriage, say friends, had M&M not come out publicly at his press conference about having found his "soul mate" in Argentina.

That's the reverse of saying you're sorry about being an adulterer. It's saying, as he effectively did, "I'm glad, because I found the love of my life."

Not to mention suddenly (and illegally) disappearing for days, leaving South Carolina without a governor.

Belatedly, Jenny realizes the father of her four sons has shown his TRUE priorities as a selfish emotional adolescent who is professionally and politically irresponsible -- and just plain stupid.

Professional / political / emotional adolescence Jenny might sustain. But stupidity is the deal-breaker.

Jenny knew the risks and rewards from day one in the Hamptons.

(Worst: Jenny's own private To Do List in snagging an immature "moldable" would-be politician has been exposed. "Why ELSE," friends whisper, "would she have married a 'second class' jerk so inferior to her in character and intelligence?")

It's not Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate" but it's not Ellie and Carl in "Up!" either.

She's been sucker punched and it WON'T happen again.

Feel sorry for HIM, if you must, Sister-, but not her.

Oh, yes: M&M stood for "Mark and Maria."

It's hard to keep bedroom antics secret in these echelons.

It's during patriotic holidays like the Fourth of July that Americans should be thankful for our freedom. Unfortunately the crisis in our health care system consumes our thoughts constantly. One reason for this crisis is people like DEMOCRATIC SENATOR BLANCHE LINCOLN and her mystifying LACK OF SUPPORT for a public option in health reform. Well I guess it really isn't so mystifying considering she recieved over $1million in campaign contributions from health insurance companies and private hospitals. Let her know she NEEDS to support REAL HEALTH REFORM or she won't get your vote for re-election in 2010. Without a strong public option it is pointless.
D.C. office: (202) 224-4843
Little Rock office: (501) 375-2993
Toll Free: 1-800-352-9364

Cato, be careful. You may hurt yourself as you fotfl.

Severus, you, Liebertus, LargeA** and HD may research and post as many blogs as you want, but you'll fail to find the Washington quote or the amplified flagpole story. But go ahead, I'll give your posts to Snopes, it will save them so time on research.

My Cousin sent me an audio file TheStarSpangledBanner__asyou_veneverheardit.wmv
I listened to it and my jaw dropped. Some poor benighted soul, who is so intellectually bereft that they adamantly must have "graven images" to believe in rather than concepts of freedom, facts and truth has rewritten history to "assist" you in your grasp of patriotism and its indivisibility from christianity on this 4th of July weekend. There are glaring idiotic errors in the script the actor is reading.

In researching the claims, I found other written postings of the same "amplified" truth at:
http://webit4unow.com/AmericaPart01b.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/940659/posts
Clik to read

One "the colonies" "the American Colonies" Francis Scott Key wrote the poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry" during the War of 1812 (in fact September 13-14, 1814). The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified March 1789, twenty-five years before. After twenty-five years at least the U.S. residents were calling it the United States of American and not the colonies.

Two, search as I might (about an hour and a half) in my print collections and online there is no confirmation that George Washington, known as a Deist, Anglican and Non-communicant Episcopalian ever said "The thing that sets the American Christian apart from all other people in the world is he will die on his feet before he'll live on his knees."

Third, the writer and narrator said, ". . . Francis Scott Key . . . immediately went into Fort Henry to see what had happened. And what he'd found had happened was that that flagpole and that flag had suffered repetitious direct hits...and when it had fallen...that men, fathers...who knew what it meant for that flag to be on the ground...although knowing that all of the British guns were trained on it, walked over and held it up...humanly...until they died. Their bodies were removed and others took their place. Francis Scott Key said what held that flagpole in place at that unusual angle...were patriots' bodies."

Read this more accurate and less propagandized version of the events of September 13-14 , 1814 in Francis Scott Keys life from Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607-1900. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1954: 301..

". . . The Star-Spangled Banner
During the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of a prisoner, Dr. William Beanes. Beanes was a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland and had been captured by the British after he placed rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest with a group of men. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were allowed to return to their own sloop, but were not allowed to return to Baltimore because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13-September 14, 1814.[2]
When the smoke cleared, Key was able to see an American flag still waving. On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem describing his experience, "The Defence of Fort McHenry", which he published in the Patriot on September 20, 1814. He intended to fit the rhythms of composer John Stafford Smith's "To Anacreon in Heaven".[2] It has become better known as "The Star Spangled Banner". Under this name, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 (which had little effect beyond requiring military bands to play it) and then by a Congressional resolution in 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover. . . ."

I volunteered and served six years in the U.S. Navy, during Vietnam in a War I knew was wrong, but I owed a duty to my country. I do not need nor want my history amplified and/or corrected to be a patriot. My motive for service was duty to my country and the Constitution of the United States. It greatly angers me when some moron decides that their political and religious predilections override facts and truth to advance their own agenda. This perversion of history and the truth is a prime example of that "lying is okay because I know what I believe is right and the ends justify the means!" It is hard to believe that anyone could have greater contempt for two American historical figures and for the readers/listener than this moron did.

Lil' CCRRR's, stick to worshiping the political "graven image"s erected by your guru Karl Rove, who graduated high school, but deigned graduating from any institution of higher learning. Leave the rest to scholars who actually studied and read history.

P.S. I will repost this and the 4th of July card on tonight's open line, Dottore.

NOBODY commented on Natty Boh? The beer I grew up drinking? What a shame...

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