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::fuzzy and blue --political musings by a proud Democrat::
::Author::  Name::Tina From::United States Married college graduate and parent who lives in the Mid West View my complete 
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007 Winter arrives in Ohio... finally!... & a pregnancy update and a New Blogger update  Well, as you can see, snow and freezing temperatures have finally arrived in N.E. Ohio. Of course, the arrival is about 2 months later than usual, but if you were to ask the Bush admin, they'd pull their usual crap of forcing scientists to change their data and/or outright lie to suit their delusional BushCo global warming denials and claim that this is all somehow "normal" for snow and freezing temps to be delayed until the end of January in my area. I have lived in OH my entire life. Trust me when I say this: Normal it ain't. I fear that my kids will never get the opportunity to make snow angels and snowmen. If I wanted that to be the case, I'd live in a southern state. We happen to like the snow and cold, as well as the beauty and joy of experiencing 4 very distinct seasons every yr, yet we fear all of that may disappear, whether Capt Clueless and his evil band of minions want to acknowledge it or not. Fortunately, the rest of the world w/ a pulse and brain has the sense to acknowledge it. Onto to updates: Sure, I should probably be discussing the Libby trial, Bush's unspeakable threats against Iran, Cheney's batshit insane interview w/Wolf Blitzer or any other disasterous event our nation is facing, but in all honesty, I've been waaaay too busy avoiding switching my blog to New Blogger. I can no longer avoid it... I was told when I logged in that I have to switch over after this post... Wish me luck folks...... UPDATE: I tried to switch my blog over to New Blogger, only to receive this email from Blogger Support: "Thanks for your interest in the new version of Blogger. An error has occurred that has prevented us from switching your account at this time. Our engineers have been notified of the issue, and your blogs and Blogger account should not be affected. Please try switching again later via the promo in your dashboard, and please remember your Google Account information as you will need it to switch to the new version of Blogger. For now, you can still log in to old Blogger using your original Blogger account. Thanks for your patience, The Blogger team " Ya know what? What a complete crock! As Kvatch said at his place: Old Blogger is like Classic Coke... better than New Coke and New Blogger. Damned technology is the devil, I tell ya. Anyhoo... I've also been waaay pre-occupied w/several medical issues and my all consuming and oftentimes irrational pregnancy "nesting." Medical issue #1: Despite my wide "birthing" hips that could easily pass a baby dinosuar or an entire brood of kids, my OB/GYN has determined that I happen to be one of those unfortunate women who are unable to regulate their blood pressure during pregnancy. It continually skyrockets up and plummets, making me constantly at risk for dizziness, stroke, early labor and feeling like complete crap. Conclusion? This will most certainly be our last child. I've given it 2 valiant tries, and twice my pregnancies have been risky. I know when to count my blessings and call it quits, and so does Hubby. He has very willingly volunteered to get a vasectomy. He found this site, which shows pix of a guy's vasectomy, so while we both doubt it could ever possibily compare to 2 risky pregnancies, labors and deliveries, I do sympathize w/him. A needle and scalpel in the "biscuits" won't be fun. Medical issue #2: After a HUGE jump in my weight (over 10 pounds in less than 2 wks), guzzling water NONSTOP and feeling extremely dizzy and sick after eating, my OB/GYN retested my glucose, and I have now developed gestational diabetes. The reason for the jump in my weight? My inability to stabilize and manage my blood sugar level is causing the baby and I to gain weight fast. So, in order to prevent me from becoming insulin dependant and the baby from becoming macrosomic, I have to test my glucose levels with a monitor and I am on a strict diabetic diet for the remaining time of my pregnancy and for at least 6 wks after delivery. Medical issue #3... but this one was a false alarm and completely unglamourous: I stood up from reading a story to BabyGirl, and felt a HUGE gush of wetness. I thought: "OMG! My water broke!" I ran to the bathroom, and of course I had to pee (at this point, I swear I could pee every 45 mins) but I kept "leaking" out wetness for several hrs. Panicked, I called my OB/GYN, and they asked me to smell the wetness in my undies. Yeah... I know, but amniotic fluid is supposed to smell "sweet and clean" and pee... well, pee smells like pee. But all I could smell was laundry soap and fabric softener, so who the hell could tell the difference? I was told to get to the hospital asap and they would do a test b/c if my water had in fact broken, the baby was too early to not have serious complications and infection could set in quick. After many hrs of panicking and praying that my water had not broken, the conclusion that was reached?: I peed my pants. Yep. An ultrasound in the maternity triage showed that the baby's head was laying directly on my bladder and caused the sudden gush and continual uncontrolled leaking. Great. I'm sure my insurance will just LOVE to pay for this visit. I can see the billing now: $1500 for peeing of pants. Payment DENIED. Now onto to some happy news: This past weekend, after putting BabyGirl to bed, Hubby and I settled in while the snow fell to watch a wonderful lil movie that we had never even heard of, yet we highly recommend you see: The Prize Winner from Defiance, Ohio. Based on a true story, it stars Julianne Moore as a 1950's housewife and mother who enters contest after contest to better her family's poverty stricken life, and Woody Harrelson as her despicable drunken husband whom you will hate and pity all in one. It was wonderfully sad and charming. We give 2 thumbs up. After the movie, we fell asleep in our bedroom watching Comedy Central. We woke up around 5am to BabyGirl crawling into bed w/us (believe me, as I get bigger and bigger, bedspace is at a premium) and I hear her say this to my Hubby: "Daddy, what are those girls doing?" Hubby, rubbing his eyes and squinting, realizes to his utter horror that a Girls Gone Wild infomercial is on, and yes, you can easily imagine how quickly he is searching for the remote to change this. Without missing a beat, Hubby nonchalantly says while changing the channel and pulling her close to him: "Oh sweetie, those girls are killing their poor daddies, b/c only girls who want to make their daddies die of a horrible heart attack and shame would ever act like that."..... Oh my. 
Bush says Iraqis just aren't grateful enough  After watching last week's unspeakable speech that unveiled Bush's "new plan" for Iraq, I merely assumed that the prez was completely delusional and probably under the influence of smack. Now, after watching Scott Pelley's 60 Minutes interview w/Bush at Camp David, I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bush is not only delusional, but he is 100% certifiably batshit insane. Besides cockily announcing that he certainly does have the "kingly right" to do whatever the hell he wants" in regards to our troops and our taxpaying money in regards to this clusterfuck war-- irregardless of what we the people or Congress says about it, Bush also made this delusional statement: "We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq." So the real problem is that the Iraqis are simply not grateful enough, eh Dubya? These people live in complete misery... not liberated bliss. Read ANY entry from this blog or this Iraqi's blog or this Iraqi's blog or this blog and you will see that the unspeakable existence we have forced upon the Iraqi people we wouldn't wish upon an American dog. Our invasion and occupation since 2003 has caused/ contributed to the deaths of 600,000+ of their people. Like or not ya bloodthirsty Neo-Cons searching to desperately justify this clusterfuck of a war, that amount is more than Saddam could claim during his reign. Iraqi children are dying before their parents' eyes of dehydration due to diarrhea caused by the Iraqi population being forced to drink dirty water b/c the basic infrastruction systems that ANY society needs to remain civilized and operational are simply nonexistent. Iraqi children are picking thru garbage heaps and being sold to pedophiles b/c Iraqi parents cannot feed their children. Iraqis are not grateful, Mr President? Saddam already gave them enough death and destruction. They don't need to thank you for making those Saddam yrs seem like the glorious good ol' days. But who knows... if your insane ass gets your secret wish granted-- to launch us into war with Iran-- maybe WE the American people will end up being the ones who will look back upon the already horrific enough pre-2007 yrs as our "glory yrs" and express extreme wistful gratitude for the good ol' horror that once was.
Sweet Jesus, how I despise AT & T. We've had ZERO landline phone service and DSL since sometime Saturday afternoon, only to have both come back on sometime Weds evening. Now, if this didn't happen fairly often, maybe Hubby and I wouldn't be so pissed off. But, it does happen way too frequently and we have NEVER been credited on our bill for the time that neither service was available to date. I wish we could pay our bill in the same half-assed way as they provide their services and crappy customer care.
 Looking like a broken man wearing pissed in pants, Bush pulled out his old and tired terrorize the American people bag of tricks: "al Qaeda", "terra," "9/11," but he also delivered this unbelievable quote: "Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship." Uhhh, yeah. I guess not. Betcha really regret that photo op that Rove hand crafted on the aircraft carrier now, dontcha Dubya? Can you imagine having the gall to use that quote WHILE announcing to the American people that he'll be sending in 21,000 more of our loved ones to this unspeakable debacle after posing under that stupid banner? Anyhoo... Here is what I think are the scariest collection of highlights from Bush's sweaty and scared "deer in the headlights' speech: 1) Patriot missles to allies... b/c we all saw how well supplying all of those weapons to Israel worked for us when Israel laid all of moderate Lebanon to waste this past summer, huh? 2) Destroy networks sending weapons into Iraq from Syria and Iran... b/c we've already done such a bang-up job of stemming the violence between the various "networks" as is aptly displayed by Shiia vs Sunni vs Christian vs secular vs Kurds vs Baathists vs who ever the hell else we've pissed off, mis-identified, and mishandled. 3) New carrier group in region... just in case we need to attack... oh I don't know... IRAN? 4) New Navy guy in charge... just b/c we don't like the facts the old guy in charge kept telling us and/or b/c those facts didn't suite our agenda. 5) Blatant threat of violence to Iran and Syria... b/c Iraq and Afghanistan have been such victories, no? Oh yeah. Mission Accomplished. If mission accomplished means we now get to waste more time, lives, and money in Iraq before we newly begin wasting more time, lives, and money in Iran.... then, uh, sure... the mission is accomplished as Mad King George's credibility continues to circle the bowl, and the insane Neo-Con lies, bloodlettings and delusions continue.
Bush needs bodies in combat boots for his war? Well, just send letters to dead soldiers and demand they report for duty!  Wow. Just when I thought that this NYT's article about the Middle East's view of the "newly dignified in death" Saddam --due to the US's extreme mistake in allowing him to be tried in a kangaroo court & hanged by Shiia thugs-- couldn't make this war in Iraq any more of an unmitigated BushCo clusterfuck disaster, I come across this via CNN: "The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty. The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action." NICE. I guess this June 2006 snarky article about plumping up the troop numbers via "reanimated from the dead zombie soldiers" isn't so far fetched, huh? And you would think that when Bush is so busy tossing in that signing statement that allows him to open up and read our citizen's mail WITHOUT a warrant and when the White House & the Secret Service quietly squeaked in and signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring records identifying visitors to the WH are not open to the public that Bush might just insist that the Dept of Def actually cross their T's and dot their I's by double checking the list of troops who have been killed in action, wouldn't ya? Oh c'mon. Who am I kidding? This administration could fuck up a bachelor party gangbang in a Las Vegas whorehouse... and speaking of oncoming fuckups, check out what this retired Naval commander has to say about how badly BushCo is chomping at the bit to launch a war with Iran.
As Pelosi becomes the 1st female Speaker of the House, a tip of the hat to GIRL POWER & I think my Hubby is a genius  Now I'm no great fan of Nancy Pelosi, but as a woman, as a Democrat, as a proud feminist, and as the grand-daughter of Italian immigrants, I can't help but feel pride that Nancy Dallesandro Pelosi will become America's 1st female Speaker of the House. Which brings me to a topic that has been sticking in my craw for awhile now: Why are men threatened by strong women? I've asked Hubby what's the dealio, but since he is married to me (ahem... clearly NOT a milquetoast kind of girl) he may not be the best person to ask. But his response did speak volumes: "Maybe for the same reason so many guys are homo-phobes. They're just too insecure w/themselves to handle it." Excellent point, Hubby. He then added, with a devilish smile: "Not me. I think strong women are sexy. There is nothing sexier than a woman who can hold her own in a fight and the bedroom. Then when you've won, you've really won, and when you've lost, you still get to win... when you make up w/ her later." Ahhh... I see. But hey-- I've won alot of fights over the past 7 years of our marriage-- I guess that really means he has ended up "winning" plenty of those fights, too, huh? Oh well... there are certainly WORSE ways to "lose." Like for instance, I could be married to a religious fundamentalist or live in a nation that blatantly values their farm animals more than their wives/ daughters. This Christian Monitor op/ed hits upon that exact point by asking: "A real test for US allies is how they treat their women." I couldn't agree more b/c fanatical ideology (whether it be Muslim, Christian, African, etc or otherwise) cannot be ignored when we females comprise 50% of the world's population. Unless of course you happen to be living in India, where we clearly do NOT comprise 50% of the pop... which brings me to another point: While watching a repeat of one of Dateline and Chris Hansen's "predator-stings" on MSNBC Weds night, I turned to Hubby and said: "Isn't it kinda weird that so many of these guys that get caught on Dateline trying to hook up w/13 yr old girls are Hindu-Indians?" Hubby, always the caustically dry-witted one, w/o missing a beat (or a handful of that caramel popcorn he was munching on) casually tossed this social grenade out: "Well, maybe since they've happily killed 10 million babygirls over the past 20 yrs in India, these men never get to actually see teen girls in person." Oh, my.
Happy New Year All!  Ring out the old of the dying year. Ring in prosperity, peace, and cheer. While perusing for some lovely Victorian images for New Year's, I came across this 1863 poem by H. F. Chorley, which waxes upon the dying year, and all of the hope we place into the new year. I know I am certainly hoping and praying that 2007 is a better year than 2006. I guess I can't look at my 4 yr old kiddo and ever growing baby-belly and not have hope and prayers for our future. I have to try to keep hope alive that we can all make this a better and peaceful world because my kids are depending upon me to do so. Happy New Year all. And let's all make a big effort to take better care of each other in 2007... simply because it is THE right thing to do.
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