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As a child of the 1980s, I remember recieving regular updates on the atomic clock. You remember, right?  The one that told us how close we were to mutually assured destruction via nuclear weapons.

I was reminded of the clock recently via an episode of Heroes, from the first season. We’re watching them all on DVD.

It’s hard to remember with news of hurricanes and presidential candidates, but there is still a nuclear threat out there. In fact, we may be closer to that mutually assured destruction than we have been in more than two decades and no one seems to be paying attention.

For the record, Russia is still a nuclear power. I know, we try to pretend that since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, we are friends with the Russians and we are all too smart to start a nuclear war. Okay, maybe we are. Maybe.

But the posturing going on now between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and George Bush’s America looks a whole lot like the posturing we saw and felt in the 1980s. Maybe it’s not an accident that the Republicans so desparately want John McCain to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.  But he’s not Reagan and this is not 1980.

American troops are stretched thin and war weary. They need to come home, not worry about being deployed to the Black Sea. We need someone, somewhere to start watching that old clock again and remind us that nuclear annihilation is not just a storyline for “Jericho” or “Heroes” but a real and continued threat to our way of life.

The hardline policy in Georgia from the United States is that we are sending aid and sending it via the U.S. military. The hardline Russian stance is that humanitarian aid does not come on Navy ships. Both sides are waiting for someone to blink and to be honest, I don’t see Putin blinking. We cannot afford a fullscale conflict with the Russians in a former Soviet territory.

Whatever the reality of the situation is, we need to remind ourselves and the world that the nuclear clock is ticking….

Let’s get this out of the way from the beginning. I am an Obama supporter. I like Joe Biden. I want to see a Democrat in the White House.

That said, the BS way that the media, political pundits and just about everyone else is handling Sarah Palin’s nomination is really starting to piss me off.  I do not agree with all the decisions Governor Palin has made in her life, nor do I support her politics, but this double standard BS because she’s a woman has to go.

Yes, she has five kids. One of them is a special needs child. So what? Angelina Jolie has six now and I don’t hear anyone calling for her to stay at home with the kids. With three of her children adopted from developing nations, I think you could even rightly say that she and Brad have some special needs children of their own. So why aren’t we calling on them to give up their careers and stay home to raise the tykes?

Gov. Palin is also being asked to prove, via genetic testing or medical records or whatever, that Trig, her four month old son, is hers and not her daughter’s–you know, the daughter that the media is also beating up for being 17 and 5 months pregnant.  Are we claiming that the governor faked her own pregnancy and that her daughter is faking the one now?  Or are we disputing Trig’s birthday and claiming his mother (the daughter) got knocked up again immediately after he was born?

Can you get anymore ridiculous? I know, let’s claim that Palin’s religion means she should be a stay-at-home mom. I was raised in the Southern Baptist Convention and I never got that message. Yes,  the SBC does preach that women should be submissive to their husbands, in matters of the home–it doesn’t impact her ability to do her job.

Talk to me about Troopergate or other accusations about her leadership in Alaska, tell me about how she governs, but heed the Obama campaign and leave her family out of it.

No mother, no matter how good or bad, can keep her child from having sex. That isn’t reality. And no mother should ever be questioned about her decision to keep a child, after all, isn’t that what we are fighting for, a woman’s right to choose?

Governor Palin, you have no reason to listen to me. I’m rooting for the other guy. But if the media asks you again to reveal medical information about Trig’s birth, I urge you to tell them, “You first,” followed shortly by “Mind your own business” and “Stay out of my bedroom.” 

A lot of other women have fought for the right for you to be where you are today and no one should try to take it away simply because you are a woman.

So today is the beginning of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week and I as an MS sufferer think that is a load of poppycock.

I don’t need or want an awareness week. I want a cure.

Okay, seriously though, what’s with the “awareness week”?  Aren’t we all aware of the disease? And, if you aren’t, then it probably isn;t affecting your life, so why would you need to be aware of it?

I know, I know. The week is sort of an acknowledgement that this is a serious issue to our society and to help more people become aware of symptoms and get diagnosed and yada, yada, yada.  Mostly, it’s about raising money so somebody can fund the research to find me that cure, right?

The problem I have with it is that nobody is really doing anything in awareness weeks…nobodyt is actually raising the money to do the much needed research and no one prioritizes any of it until it strikes their lives. I know I didn’t. So in the emantime, anonymous people suffer with lupus and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and dozens of other autoimmune disorders and all we get is one week a year when somebody is trying to make us “aware” of the disease.

Okay, I’m aware. Can I give it to someone else now?  Take a bit and then pass it on?  I know this sounds a bit more angry than I really am, but the point is that we as a nation need to do soemthing other than just be aware of things. i can be aware that the kitchen is filthy, but until I take action to change it, the awareness doesn’t change the facts.

Sadly, I think that’s the case with many things. Awareness doesn’t change the facts and until we are more than aware of these crippling and deadly disease, we aren’t doing anything at all.

A few months ago, some of the writers over at the Accentuate writers’ forum decided to issue monthly challenges to ourselves to track the things that we do and encourage ourselves to do more.

To be honest, it hasn’t worked very well for me. In two months I have failed to meet my goal both times. But, at the same time, I am very glad that I have participated in the challenge. Now, I ahve a better feel for what I do and do not accomplish in a month or even in a day. I know what distracts me from work and I know that I have accomplished more writing in last year than in the last 30 years.

So, not that I am starting a new season 9fall starts on Labor Day, right?), I am adding a bit more to my challenge. This month, I want to finish three short stories and ahve them ready for editing in october. Sounds easy, right?

Ha. Until a little over two eyars ago, I had never written a short story and now I have accomplished a grand total of six. Each has, in my opinion, been better than its predecessors, but they still need a lot of work. So, to keep getting better, this is my new challenge.

Wish me luck!

The Republic National Convention will be several thousand miles north of where Gustav strikes, but candidate John McCain wants to make sure everyone knows that the RNC feels for the Gulf Coast. It is a largely symbolic gesture and a bit of grandstanding, attempting to look as though the RNC is doing something about the hurricane.

On the one hand, I applaud McCain for the effort, calling the nation’s attention to the potential for destruction and death on out coast line again. He means well, I think. And huge parties in one part of the nation while another part suffers is in bad taste. Kudos to him for having the forethought to think so.

On the other hand, the cynic in me recognizes the gesture as meaningless. In fact, it is sort of a slap at those who can attend. Here they have waited for four years to attend the convention, earned the right to play a part in the democratic process and now Mother Nature has taken their stage away.

In many ways, it’s hard to say that the show must go on, but I think its the American way. There is not a darn thing the politicians gathering in Minneapolis can do for the Gulf Coast, other than watch and pray. Perhaps, after we know the extent of the damage, they can host a fundraiser or sent aid from their home states, but nothing they do on Monday will change the course of the storm or the people it affects.

The show should go on. In fact, I think the Republican Party will suffer greatly by curtailing their events. The storm will doubtless be the headline news for the next several days. The convention will, at best, be relegated to the second slot. To take advantage of the headlines they should have been getting, the Republicans need to go on with the show. part of what we love about politics is the pageantry of it all. Kill the pageant and all you have are some boring speeches.

John McCain is right to subdue the opening festivities, but other than a short show of respect for the people of the Gulf Coast, he must go on and to paraphrase the faremr, “make hay while the sun shines.”

“Unlike Katrina, when thousands took refuge inside the Superdome, there will be no “last resort” shelter, and those who stay behind accept “all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones,” said the city’s emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed.”

According to the Associated Press, as many as 30,000 New Orleans residnets are lining up for buses headed north, part of a city evacuation plan developed after Hurrican Katrina. But officials believe many of the 300,000 residents of the city may try to wait out the storm in the city.

To them, Sneed is sending a message:  you stay at your own risk.

of course,t eh reality is, we all know that they do not stay at their own risk. If things were to go horribly awry again, the Coast Guard, FEMA and the National Guard would ocne again be expected to save them. And, in soem ways, that’s a good thing.  It is, after all, part of the reason that such groups exist.

However, there seems to be a need for personal responsibility in the Gulf Coast. 24 hours ago, Gustav was a tropical storm and the weather watchers warned people that it was going to get ugly. Right now, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, it is up to a Category 4 hurricane and is expected to be a Catergory 5 by morning.

Some people are smart, fleeing ahead of the storm in the evacuation buses provided for them, but others are not. And, even now, Governor Bobby Jindal is planning ahead to avoid the lawlessness that plagued New Orleans during the aftermath of Katrina. Louisiana National Guard troops are already in place in the city.

In short, the government is doing everything it can to prevent a recurrence of the storm three years ago. But are the citizens? Sadly, the initial answer seems to be no. Theya re hoping the levees will hold or that the storm will turn a different direction, but they are not fleeing the city in the numbers that the governor and mayor hoped they would.

In the end, it is unlikely that the storm will be as devastating as Katrina. Too many of New Orleans’ residents never returned after the last big storm. But it still seems likely that many lives will be lost, not because the opportunity to flee wasn’t present, but simply because they chose not to take it.

At some point, we have to wonder, is the cost of rescuing the stubborn worth it?

Gustav is still only a tropical storm, not even a full hurricane yet, but the projections are that it will become a hurricane and head towards New Orleans. So, three years after Katrina created a federal disaster area in the once vibrant Big Easy, Gustav is looking like a rerun.

Three years ago today, New Orleans was about to be slammed and slammed hard by katrina. Right now, it looks like it might be Monday before the city gets slammed again. This time the lessons have been learned. The governor and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin are already looking at evacuation plans. The buses are already on the way into the city.

Here in Illinois, our state management agency announced they are gearing up for a relief effort for wherever the hurricane, should it develop, hits. On the one hand, I think it is nice to see that the lessons of 2005 are remembered. On the other hand, how long will it be beofe the Gulf coast gets sick of crying wolf again and goes back to their pre-Katrina attitude toward storms?

The irony of Gustav is in its timing, virtually three years to the day since Katrina hit, but the question is are we really any better prepared?  The governor has declared a state of emergency is Louisiana and the buses to evacuate New Orleans are already in place. Which means we are prepared for Katrina three years later. But are we prepared for Gustav?

Historians regularly talk about the tendency of the military to prepare for the last war it fought and sadly it appears that FEMA and the Gulf Coast are following that example. While we know that new orleans is ready, what about Florida? Today the storm is approaching Cuba. It has to pass over or around Florida to get to the Gulf.

You remember Florida, right?  Where they had up to two feet of rain about a week ago? 

i’ve heard all about the preparations in Louisiana, but what about Florida? Mississippi? The Mississippi Gulf Coast was as devastated by Katrina as New Orleans was, but is anybody making preparations there?

And, did we learn the lessons of Rita too?  The biggest number of fatalities there came during the evacuation phase. As we prepare to evacuate half a million people again, can we do it safely?

So, the Illinois budget is a mess. That’s nothing new. But while the governor of Illinois is off schmoozing in Denver, the citizens of Illinois are getting the shaft.

Today the governor’s office announced that it will be cutting 450 state jobs including more than 300 from the Department of Children and Family Services. Another 75 are coming from the Department of Human Services with the remainder coming from the state’s natural resources and historic preservation agencies. Once again, the governor chose the most vulnerable people in the state and cut their access to state assistances.

DCFS case workers are already over burdened and doing a piss poor job of protecting the children of Illinois. DHS workers are seeing increasing case loads as the economy worsens and now there will be fewer of them to see the people that need help.

And, closing state parks and historic sites when these contribute directly to the local economies. Maybe since none of the proposed closures are in chicago, the governor figures it won’t effect anyone he knows.

In tiny little Randolph County is the southeast corner of the state, three historic sites are slated for closure. There was no proposal to allow them to raise entry fees or try to make up the operating deficits. instead, the governor continued his rampage against all things not Chicago and is intent on driving Illinois further down the road of economic depression.

Sadly, I’m just not sure that he will have state left to govern if he doesn’t stop this imbecilic administration soon.

I have become something I hate and it all started with a tiny, beat-up and rain-soaked kitten.

My entire life I have preferred dogs to cats. Cats were the unfortunate result when kittens, which are cute, grew up.

Every cat I had ever met was aloof and boring, never wanting to play or show affection. Give me a dog that meets me at the door.

So, just under two years ago, a kitten changed all that for me. Rain appeared under my car one day in an October storm, soaked. The next day she appeared again, on my porch this time, and bearing signs she had been beat up by one or more of the local strays. She was four pounds of the most adorable kitten ever.

But I didn’t initially want to keep her. Kittens grow up into cats. Cleaning the litter box and feeding them, no big deal. But if I was getting a pet, I wanted one that was affetionate and playful, that would come when you call it. I wanted a dog.

I also live next to a three-lane highway and in an apartment, so a dog was a bad idea.

Rain tried to prove to me that she was not a typical cat. She waited on the porch all day, meowing and rubbing on my ankles when I walked buy. At first, when we invited her in to the house, it was to see if we could find her a home. Silly us. She had already found one.

My cat, proving that you can train one to be what you want/expect in a pet, comes when you call her and greets us at the door when we’ve been away too long. She plays fetch and soccer with her ping pong ball and her favorite place to sleep is within arms’ reach of where I am at the moment. She still rubs my ankles as a sign of affection. She is only aloof when she is half asleep.

Now, I am completely conditioned. I am something I used to hate. I not only love my cat, but I talk about her — a lot. And, I brag that she is the most uncatlike cat ever.

So why do you need to know this? Because rainthecat is starting her own blog, a cat’s eye view of the world around us. She is funny and smart and you should take a look. You might end up liking her as much as I do.

For the last week, the world has watched in horror as Russia attacked the small independent nation of Georgia, but other than some strong words, nobody seems to be willing to do anything.

The United Nations has not condemned the action, NATO has not ridden to the rescue despite the fact that Georgia was petitioning for membership, and the United States has well, mostly, not really paid attention. The president told Russia we would be sending humanitarian aid to the victims of Russian aggression and that the American military would be leading that effort. John McCain said “Today we are all Georgians” and that the American citizens stand behind Georgia. Barack Obama called for the an immediate cease fire and a UN resolution condemning Russia.

Whatever.

Seriously, all three of these men suck big time at this international issue. Bush, who has been called a warmonger so many times that the word has begun to lose some of its venom, chastised and offered humanitarian aid. Okay, that’s a start. And,  the American military airlifted Georgian soldiers home from Iraq to fight in their own country.

Again, it’s a beginning. But Georgia is our ALLY. Yup. We consider them friends and their next door neighbor planned an attack, moved an army over the Caucus mountains and used the Olympics as a diversion. And, we said “Shame on Russia.”

Maybe the president is negotiating behind the scenes to put pressure on Putin and the Russians to get out of the democratic country of Georgia, but if so, he’s not doing enough.

“Today we are all Georgians…” What does that even mean Mr. McCain?  That we feel their pain as women and children are killed by Russian bombs and tanks?  I know you aren’t the president, but you are a member of Congress. Guess what! According to our Constitution, it’s Congress that declares war.

So stop the rhetoric, get your butt back to Washington and propose a serious response. Either lead or get out of the way and don’t hide behind the title “candidate”.

Mr. Obama the same goes for you. Yes, we know you are on vacation before the convention. So what?

The people of Georgia cannot wait until you get back from Hawaii for the world to care about them. If you really are a world celebrity, do something—go to the UN, call our other allies, hell, grandstand and ask what alliances actually mean if people are not going to stand up with and for their allies.

Do I want a war with Russia?  Hell no. I’m a child of the 80s and the thought terrifies me. But, if we don’t stand up for democracy and save the world from tyrants, who will?

If the election were today, I wouldn’t want either candidate running my country.