In Memoriam

Today's edition of Daily Kos has an item titled "In Memoriam: Buddy 'Doc' Hughie (for Soonergrunt)". You might want to have a look at it now, and then come back. It's okay; I'll wait.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/25/45345/4649

*hums a little tune*

Got it? Good. Now here we go.

Sadly, the America that Buddy (and I, and so many others among us) grew up in doesn't exist any longer.

Every single one of our kids Over There has someone here who loves them, someone whose world will suffer irreparably for losing them, someone for whom a knock at the door is going to forever be paired in their minds with death and the collapse of dreams and the waste of the future and the loss of hope.

What every single one of our kids Over There HASN'T got is a president that gives a rat's ass about anything but Staying The Course, and a vice president willing to discuss the national energy policy he formulated in secret that obviously requires cannon fodder as some sort of ritual sacrifice to the Oil God, and a Congress with sufficient spinal steel to put its collective foot down and say no, dammit, this continuation of hostilities and death and maiming and draining of the treasury is NOT what the American people want, and we're going to shove it down your wannabe-Texan throat until you gag and choke on it like it was a pretzel and come to the realization that we were elected to stop you.

This Memorial Day, I'm remembering who got us into this mess and refuses to do anything at all to get us out. I'm remembering who blasted Clinton for not having an exit strategy for Kosovo, yet refuses to put one together for Iraq (Think Progress » In 1999, Bush Demanded A Timetable ). I'm remembering who started out swearing he'd get somebody "dead or alive" but now declares it "not our priority" (Bush Quotes about Bin Laden - BuzzFlash Reader Commentary ). I'm remembering the identity of he who proclaimed himself The Decider, and then apparently decides not to properly equip those going into harm's way or allow us to see the flag-draped coffins as they come home or provide proper medical care for those who somehow manage to make it back alive. I'm remembering wondering why it was more important to spend time reading about a pet goat than getting to a place of safety and keeping a Florida elementary school off the strike list.

I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't doing more to cover the articles of impeachment that have been introduced. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't up in arms about having the First Amendment right to a free press abridged so grossly. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't saying anything about posse comitatus and habeus corpus and Real ID. I'm not sure why The Liberal Media isn't chatting about the lack of the children of chicken-hawks (i.e., those with surnames like Bush, DeLay, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Lott, Brownback, Romney, etc.) in uniform on the front lines (or hell, even the rear echelons, as they seem to be nearly as dangerous lately).

What does become clear is that there's no panacea, no easy cure, no simple answer, no straight lines between dots to connect. We keep getting tossed placebos and sound bites and buzzwords and flashes of what passes for brilliance in neo-conservative think tanks.

PNAC got its new Pearl Harbor. What we need now is a new Boston Tea Party.

Ballerina Baby

For the last several years, we've been overseas during the spring months. It's never been a problem (missing out on tornado season couldn't ever be a bad thing for me, ha), but we've had to forego certain things that might have been nice ... like ballet-class photos.

They're kind of like school pictures, really. There's one of your little darling in a cute pose flying solo, and there's a group shot of the whole class doing something equally adorable. Kendall started taking ballet at age three, and we've never had these pictures because we've always been gone in May when they've been taken.

Not any more.

The photos won't be available for some time, but your intrepid über-mommy did manage to catch a cute one of Kendall with another cutie from her class outside while we were waiting for another class to be finished ...


I'm not sure what their recital song is this year, but judging solely by the costumes, it's something country. We were allowed to watch the individual pictures being taken (although we got kicked out for the group shot, and the photographer did snarl at one parent for the incredibly gauche act of whipping out a camera phone to take a picture while the solo picture was being taken ... nice, eh?), and it occurred to me that with Kendall's missing teeth, she looked all kinds of hillbilly in that getup. Shame they didn't have a hay bale and a banjo and a big jug with XXX on it as props!

Cinco de Mayo

Yep, it's the fifth of May. I have no clue what significance this holds to the Hispanic community, and I'm sure I'll get dissed far and wide for it. However, we have had a lovely day followed by a lovely evening and I'm now headed for a lovely night's sleep, to be followed all too soon by tomorrow morning's lovely hangover.

This morning was ballet class as usual, followed by showing houses (four today, four tomorrow, and hopefully one of them will be The One for this buyer). Then we met friends Sean and Mary and their daughter Emma at Abuelo's for dinner and ale. Afterward, we returned to our hacienda for further ale and playing on the Wii.

Um ... that's it. I'm smashed. I'm happy. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I shall pay for my sins and see (albeit hazily) the errors of my ways. Aren't you impressed that I can still type? Sheesh.

(Can you tell I'm feeling guilty for not posting for two months?)