The state of the world, pension crises, the housing bubble, job losses, the war in Iraq, destruction of the planet, one party rule and such, are unimportant during holidays. The house is cozy. The food is delicious. There is laughter and the sound of people talking in another room. There is the click clicking of a ping pong game in the bonus room. The piano plays or a guitar from time to time. The world's harshness and our day to day realities are shut out, leaving only a joyous contentment. For the moment at least, we are well. There are photos and birthday gifts and two whole more days to postpone the world. Ha!

Seems wrong to waste this day blogging, but it is the only way to say Happy Thanksgiving to some of you. Our children and our daughter's beau are here for lunch. The bird is in the oven and mmmm hot cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

The Johnny Cash movie, "I Walk the Line" is way way way above any expectations I had for it. Phoenix and Witherspoon (can these be real names?) are both terrific in every aspect. I went with June Carter Cash's cousins, who know their story and all the people portrayed in the movie and they pronounced it the real deal. Some of the things said by some of the people were actually said by other people who never appear in the movie, but hey, it's the movies. It wasn't happily ever after for them after the credits, but J.R. and June did have a great love for each other that is well illustrated by Joaqin and Reese. It was a powerful, sad, and emotional film. Congratulations to them.

Have a happy day
You can do it
Nothing to it
Have a happy day all day / /

Going to see I Walk the Line tomorrow with a student who is June Carter Cash's cousin. It will be fun to get her families perspective on the movie version of the life since they grew up with them in real life.

We are trying to make our Christmas stuff fit into the new house. Were do you put this or that? Things that had their own space in the old house must be completely redone here. We had to buy a ton of garland for all the staircase railing we have in this place. I need a tree that is 8 feet 9 inches tall and less than five feet across, but it is a little early to buy a tree. Once we start back to school though all will be chaos until Christmas.

Mrs. G is having fun playing her refurbished flute. We have never had it worked on in 35 years and now it is completely done over. And it plays well so she is playing. It is a remarkable sound. Why doesn't she play all of the time? We listened to Horowitz play at Carnegie Hall today, that is a recording of him from 1978. He was 75 at the time and playing the impossible Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto. It sounded like two people were playing the piano. How did he do that? Actually I have a vinyl recording of him playing that. I've got to get a phonograph player that works again. My records are calling me.

I read that middleschoolers in American communities don't consider oral sex to intimacy, but rather just some kind of foreplay. I read that my government, led by the preznit and vice preznit, thinks that torture of our captured enemies should be condoned. Suddenly the sex doesn't seem to be such a problem. If torture is okay with us then we stand for nothing. We are supposed to be better than that. If we stand for nothing, if we are morally bankrupt, how do we dare have the audacity to lecture anyone about anything, much less start a war against people who have done nothing to hurt us, because they might try to hurt us someday. I'm still waiting for someone in the government to spell out why we are in Iraq today. Not why we went, but after finding out that our intelligence was all mistaken, why are we still there? Face it. We are in Iraq because we are the biggest, baddest cat in the alley. Nobody in the world likes it, but what can they do about it. That kind of strutting about makes the current administration feel important.

I must go see Harry Potter soon to take my mind off serious matters entirely.

We drove for five hours yesterday to hear our nephew sing in an opera workshop production at his college. He has a nice voice and had a leading role, playing Don Giovanni in one and Escamilo from Carmen in the other.

Time off from working is such a blessing. Relaxation is not an option on most days, but with a whole week off, you can sleep or laze about without feeling guilty about it. Yea! We almost worked the LA Times crossword puzzle yesterday. Only had a couple of words that were stumpers.

We have extra thanks for this Thanksgiving since our children are doing so well with their jobs. It is exciting to see them doing well.

The new Georgia aquarium is open today and being featured on the Today show. It looks amazing. On the other hand there are protestors about the big fish being captive in a relatively small space. The only sad thing is that a ticket is $25 and you can hardly get one right now. There will be huge crowds because 80,000 people have bought season passes! They say 15,000 people a day will see it. Sounds like a mob scene.

The funniest scene of the day is the photo of preznit Bush in Mongolia with a yak. He was there to thank them for sending troups to Iraq. I picture 14 Mongol troops with bows and arrows, riding those little short ponies, galloping across the desert.

Today is the first day of a nine day vacation. I must get at least nine things accomplished during that time, but demands are already piling up on my time. My nephew has a concert in another city on Sunday. I think I'm invited to Thanksgiving dinner somewhere. We've got to drive to Marietta today to pick up a repaired flute. That will take half a day. The car must be serviced sometime during the holiday. I have a rehearsal this afternoon. Christmas decorations must be put out during this break because there will be no slowing down after the break. The Holiday Concert program must be finished over the break. Music for the Choral Workshop must be selected and ordered. Yea! Dr. Caldwell from GA Southern will come and direct the mixed choir. Hoping Dr. Raines from GA State will direct the women. I must do that Field trip request form for the committee to approve the workshop again this year. We've got to nail down the air travel for the Spring break venture to NYC. The shows are chosen: The Producers, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera and Don Pasquale. Pick two.

It's cold outside. Not my favorite time of year. That's one reason my parents moved south. As you age you get tired of being cold. You don't even know you are cold when you are young. I had courtyard "duty" this week, during the mornings before school. I am stationed there in the cold to WATCH the students. Why? No one knows. We have cameras there and if anything happens it will be recorded. If something happens will I be able to prevent it? No. I'll just chase down the participants. I was dressed in flannel lined jeans yesterday, with three shirts, plus my down jacket, ear muffs, and gloves. The temperature was 21. Students were sitting on steel picnic table benches wearing, I kid you not, shorts and a T-shirt. The kids who noticed the cold today had on a t-shirt and a hoodie (hooded sweatshirt). I saw exactly one student in a coat. He looked like he had walked to school from some distance. Students are insane. Also, every other one of the little idiots is sick. But wearing a coat or long pants is definitely not cool.

By the way when I came inside after 30 minutes on duty. I was frozen.

I wrote the following blog a year ago. I still can't answer these questions. I'm not becoming omniscient as I age. These thoughts are still front page news so I'm posting them again. I mean, who would ever find these thoughts in my old blogs. No one. Here it is.

I heard one of my students from a very conservative Roman Catholic family saying to a friend who leads the school club, Fellowship of Christian Students, "How can she be for John Kerry? He's for murdering babies."

Procreation is the thing isn't it? What would the world be like if sexual intercourse was not related to procreation or to disease? Would we all be polygamous? Or would we be the same?

Pregnancy is a strange process. From the male point of view it is scary. What must it feel like to have it happen to you? I don't know. Abortion must be likewise and unimaginable for men. I've always thought that men should have no say so in the abortion debate. (I think I'd like it better if women decided when we should go to war too. They bring life into the world. Let them decide when to sacrifice life. I think more people would be alive.)

I'm drawn back to my student's accusation, "He's for murdering babies." The mystery for me is when does a child become a child. Is one cell a child? Are two, are four? Does a fertilized egg have a soul? When an egg becomes fertilized, does a bell ring in heaven and God and his angels grab a soul from the soul bank and immediately transfer that soul to the egg? Is there a different soul prepared for each of the possibilities of combination of sperm and egg? How about all those unplanned pregnancies? How does God get the souls ready for them? Are souls blank slates, imprinted after birth? Since God is all knowing, and he knows that some fertilized eggs are going to miscarry? Does he put a soul in those eggs only to have them die? Can he use that soul again later in a child that will be born, or is it gone forever? An all knowing God would know if a child was going to be aborted too wouldn't he? Is there a soul in every egg? Do we sin when we use birth control methods? I only had two children. Am I a murderer? Isn't that the position of the Roman Catholic Church, that no birth control should ever be used? Does the church believe that every egg is a soul?

This is a mystery to me. I don't know when a fetus becomes a child, a person. When a pregnancy threatens the mother's life should we let the mother die because to endanger the fetus would be murder? When the fetus is badly formed and cannot survive, and the doctors know that, should a miscarriage be induced?

Amazingly, there are people who think they can answer these riddles I have posed. I used to know more myself. As I get older, study more, ponder, reflect and research issues, I seem to know less. Intellectualism is the enemy of simple answers and that's why the intellectuals are rounded up and eliminated when governments are making changes.

There are a lot of questions in life that I cannot answer. I have decided that I'm okay with not understanding. It is okay with me if a woman and her doctor make a decision about this on their own. I hope that the country remains free to handle this issue in this manner. Why should a bureaucrat interpreting a statute be in charge of such a mysterious and difficult decision?

I'm seeing this all over the internet.

"President Bush embarks on the promised "hit back," in a Veterans Day speech in which he said: "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began. More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power."

The point of these remarks by the president is that democrats viewed the intelligence just like him and supported him. So there. THE TRUTH IS, the democrats viewed the intelligence he showed to them, intelligence he told them was true, intelligence that Colin Powell swore on, and then they fell in line. The further truth is that the intelligence was fixed and the preznit and his cronies were the ones who fixed it. Now they continue to stymie any investigation of how intelligence was used in the lead up to the war. It is clear already that the main push to war was supported by information known to be false to the administration and by claims of informants who were listed as "not credible."

An aside to Carter and friends.
James is sucking you into dialogue based on comments by James Taranto. James says that the internet site he runs is the best news source available in his opinion. James Taranto gave all the credit for the horror of the aftermath of Katrinia to local and state democratic authorities. That's how reliable a source Taranto is. I loved the quote he used.

Finally, with the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the country hit rock bottom:. . . Blessedly, 25 years ago today, it came to an end with the election of Ronald Reagan and the dawn of the age of confident conservatism.

To say that Mr. Carter's presidency was a rock bottom time for America is stupid beyond belief. I was a graduate student during those days and got my first full time job during the Carter administration. There were negative things in the news: inflation and high interest rates, hostages held by another country with whom we had no diplomatic relations. But the country was holding together thank you very much. It was not the depression years of the 30's with people roaming the streets begging for scraps of food, it was not Dec. 8, 1941. It was not the 50's in the south where black men were hanged by mobs if someone said they raised their head and looked at a white woman as she passed by. It was certainly not the pre-civil war America that embraced slavery. I think James' source for the best news in the country might be a little off calling the Carter administration, rock bottom in our country's history. Having said that, you can be sure that the "dawn of confident conservatism" that follow is also a huge load of crapola.

If you do some studey on Taranto, you'll find out that he is one of the Republican party hitmen. His job is to slaughter anyone in the media who dares to offer any criticism to the right. He doesn't address the criticism, he simply attacks the messenger. A quote I found on the net follows:

a key part of Taranto's modus operandi, namely, smear the critics, but never discuss the merits of the criticism.

As for Mr. Reagan, he just happened to be sleeping in the Oval Office when Mr. Gorbachov came to power and released the iron curtain countries from their bonds. If he was resposible for the fall of communism then by the same logic, the current preznit must be responsible for 911. I haven't seen any Republicans saying that.

This is the best story I have heard in awhile. Someone should grab it up and make it into a movie for all the life lessons it teaches.

The most difficult championship to win as it turns out, is not the World Series, nor the Superbowl. It is the high school state championship. A hundred or more teams vying for one winner. Our girls were striving against the odds on Saturday, running a hilly course over in Carrollton, Georgia. The championships are run there every year. Maybe you don't know how cross country works. First you run across fields and through the woods. You run out of sight of the audience. Minutes tick by with coaches and parents pacing back and forth anxiously, staring at a spot off in the distance where the first runner will appear in their own time, bouncing out of the woods. The spectators are watching for the color of the jersey first and then the color of the hair. Is it their runner, and which of their runners is it? A cry will go up when they appear, still a long way off, perhaps a half mile, or three quarters of a mile away. You want it to be your best runner coming first, because if your number 2 runner shows up first then something bad has happened out on the three mile course and your best person is down or walking somewhere and your team is in trouble.

Here's how the scoring works. As each runner finishes, they are given a number: 1,2,3,4,5, in the order of their finish. When all your team finishes, you add up your lowest five numbers and that is your score. Lowest team score wins. Sometimes it is impossible to know who won the meet until everyone turns in their scores and the officials compare. Your time really doesn't matter on a cross country course. Each course is different and the times fluctuate depending on the steepness of the trails, weather conditions, how the grass is cut, etc. It's the order of finish that matters. Who crosses first?

Our team this year has been solid. They have not won any big invitational meets but have placed near the top. They were ranked 6th in the state by the newspapers. They didn't win every dual meet. They have one "talented" runner, Emily. Not that she doesn't work hard, because the whole team works hard and Emily especially does. But whereas most of the top girls are solid runners, they don't win races. Emily however, is fast. If she had a good day on Saturday, other coaches around the state knew that Emily would win the state individual title. I have 7 girls on the 28 member team who are in chorus. Only the top seven runners from each qualifying school may participate in the state meets, bringing about 212 runners from 32 different teams together for the mass start in an open field. Only one of my girls was among our seven, Kaelyn. She told me that she usually ran about 6th of the 7 girls. Only five of their scores would count. I asked Coach B how he thought the girls would do when I saw him in the office on Friday afternoon. He said that if every girl ran her personal best on Saturday that they would win. If not and we still had a good day, then 3rd or 4th was possible. It sounded very exciting.

With the starter's gun, a field of girls began sprinting, racing for the woods, trying to get into position before the trail narrows making it harder to pass slower runners. Each of these girls is one of the top girls on a top team. They are all fast. They all know how to race. They disappeared into the woods. Coaches all look at their watches. This particular course if just over a mile and the athletes will make three circuits of it on the way to the finish. Our girls have trained all year together, working as a team. The coach stresses teamwork. They have fun activities to get to know each other. They do team building activities and learn to appreciate one another regardless of their standing on the squad. Each girl can push the girl in front of her. Each girl can encourage the girl behind her. They run most of the way in clumps, bunched up according to skill level. In the championship race, our girls would be running in a knot of green jerseys most of the time, encouraging each other all the way. Emily does not run with the pack. Emily doesn't run with anyone. She runs alone, way, way, way out in front and out of sight of the others. She has her own private war going on with her body, with no one to help her.

The first two laps are difficult to judge. Everyone looked okay. Emily was running in the front, Erica not too far behind her, maybe 15th overall, then there were a number of different jerseys and gaggles of girls going by separated by a second or less. Spectators shout encouragement to their favorites, but the girls can't really hear. They are focused on how they feel. Can they push harder? Are they running too fast? For a third time, everyone disappeared into the trees. At least all of our girls were still running in the first half of the pack.

The time got close, coaches got edgy. Any moment someone would come into sight 800 meters from the finish. One coach, and one group of supporters would give a cry. Girls would begin to scream the name of the front runner, who would still be too far away to hear. Finally a small thin blonde burst from out of the trees, running fast. Her jersey was green. It was Emily. And then, no one. She was running alone, seconds went by. 10 yards, 20,30, 50 yards. 100 yards. 150 yards and Emily still ran alone racing uphill. Running as if possessed. Teammates were leaping up and down, screaming and crying at the drama. Finally 200 yards back a blue and gold jersey came into view. Last year's champion, still only a sophomore this year, came into sight. Both girls are blonde. Both are named Emily. They are friends. Another minute would pass before the third runner appeared. There was great joy with our fans and parents. They began to think what was possible. Another fine team has won this event year after year after year. Could we unseat them? It now all depended on the invisible 6 who were still out on the course. Were they running their hearts out? How badly did they want to win? How badly were they hurting? Of course, they had no idea that Emily was running first. Emily came over the rise and began to pick up speed toward the finish line. In a race where only six girls in the state would finish under twenty minutes, Emily was on pace to be under 18 minutes. 100 meters from the finish, leading by nearly a minute, Emily fell. Her legs gave out from under her and she crumpled to the ground. She tried to rise but could not continue. She was still. Emily had run faster than was possible for her on last Saturday. Despite the cheering fans, despite the fact that she could have crawled to the finish and still won the meet, Emily did not rise again. It was evident that she was in a crisis and Emergency Medical Personnel had to intervene for Emily. She was taken to the medical tent, and it would be an hour before she got up again on her own. All year the girls had talked of state championship, they had worked with it in mind. Now the coaches and fans were in tears, both crushed that Emily would not win the individual state title, concerned for her health, hurting for how the loss would affect the team. It's not a good thing to see a young athlete fall and lie still. The Emily in Blue and Gold ran by and crossed the line to win the state title. The next runner was still a minute behind.

Three minutes behind Emily, Erica, Rebecca, Kaelyn, Kristy, Kaia, and Olivia were still running their hardest and running close together, a knot of green uniforms in a sea of colors, red, blue, gold, and purple. Erica was strongest among them and had drawn away. Rebecca went with her. She couldn't keep pace with Erica, but she kept her in sight, nine runners ran between the two. Then among the host of girls making up the pack of runners that made up the first 1/4 of the finishers, there were four more green jerseys, close together, Kristy, Kaia, Kaelyn, and Olivia, the first two within a few seconds of each other and then Kaelyn and finally Olivia who was beginning to fall back. They came into the clear and heard the cheering fans. To the fans watching, the jersies were all the wrong color, only two of our girls were in the top 40 to clear the trees. Then suddenly, there they were. Green, green, green, green. "I see them all!" someone shouted. Erica was now the first runner for our team. It's not clear to me if she knew that or not. She ran hard maintaining her position in the elite girls who were running ten and fifteen seconds apart. She came across 14th in 20:38. Some well meaning fans scooted out toward our girls shouting out "Emily fell. She's out of the race." Someone said that Rebecca felt her heart fall in her chest and she wanted to stop and step off the course. "All for nothing" was all she could think. She ran on, finishing 24th overall.

Kaelyn said that she and Kristy and Kaia in front of her all heard the shout clearly. "Emily fell. Emily's out!" Kaelyn doesn't know why, but without any communication among them, the three of them bolted forward. Olivia held on in place, but could not go with them. Kaelyn is long and lean--six feet tall and with a long stride. She's not your typical girls cross country runner. She felt okay though and pressed herself. It suddenly became clear to her that as the sixth place runner on her team, she was no longer an extra. With Emily down, Kaelyn's score would count. They were running uphill and Kaelyn tried to catch Kristy and Kaia. Their newfound speed pushed them past tiring runners from other schools. Kaelyn got closer and closer to the other girls. They crested the hill, three hundred yards downhill to the finish line. Kaelyn still felt good and she started another surge. It occured to her that she didn't have to follow Kristy and Kaia in and she began to stretch her long strides. Closing on Kaia, she moved past her. One hundred yards to go she began to push again and passed Kristy. Kaelyn was running 3rd on the team and came across the line to take the number 30. Kristy was two seconds behind and took 32. Kaia held 35. Olivia chased them with all she had and a few seconds later took number 49. The girls huddled, gasping for breath. "Is Emily really out of the race?" They learned yes, it was true. "Do we still have a chance?" asked Kaelyn. The others shook their heads. "No. We're out of it." 14,24,30,32,35,49

The coaches had come out of the emergency tent to greet the girls. Emily had been unconscious but had been given oxygen and was now awake, but being monitored. She was dizzy still and could not get up. Numbers were written on forms. Forms were passed in to officials. All the runners soon finished. In awhile the girls began to forget about their initial hurt. Emily was doing okay. We'll all run again on another day. They wondered which teams would win. The awards ceremony began to get organized and a loud speaker announced in alphabetical order the four teams that should proceed to the awards area: Chapel Hill, Lakeside, Marist, and McIntosh. It was now an hour after Emily fell and she was back on her feet with the other girls. Fourth place went to Lakeside with 159 points. Our girls smiled. They were excited about third place. Third place went to Chapel Hill with 151 points. "Oh well, Marist is going to win again, keeping their streak intact," thought the fans. Second place with 149 is Marist, and the champions with 130 points--McIntosh. Our field runners, 2 through 6, without their star, had won the state championship.

Later after the celebrating. There were these interesting thoughts. Though Emily did not score, she was the motivation for the outstanding races of the others. Olivia's points also did not count, since she was the sixth runner for the team. However, Olivia had been racing with all that she had and if our number 4 or 5 runner had faltered in front of her, Olivia's finish would have saved the day. Even with Olivia's 49, the girls would have still won the state championship. They did it together and in an improbable way. They carried Emily to the awards platform on their shoulders. She was named to the first team of the All-State runners. Had Emily finished first, the team would have won the championship by 53 points.

Cudos to Louis Gould for his article in yesterday's Houston Chronicle.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3440292

He highlights the problems of continuous campaigning by our leaders who should instead, be governing. A must read for thinking people. No he doesn't spare the democrats and yes he attacks the media as well. I think he is right.

I don't want to know what George Bush is doing today. I want him working so hard that he doesn't put his head up for air for weeks at a time. Let his minions report on what is going on. Let the media research what is going on instead of having the whitehouse tell them what the day's stories are. It's a big government. What is it doing media people?

I want to mention the most important American veteran in my family, my Dad. Papa is 82, lives alone and manages 16 acres and a vicious terrier (just kidding). When he was 17 he joined the Sea bees, later transferring to the Navy where he served the country in the Pacific ocean on the LST-460, a floating tin target for Japanese suicide bombers. At nineteen he found himself wounded and floating in that ocean as his LST sank to the bottom of the ocean. He could swim, so he was luckier than many of his friends. The officers were all killed in the blasts that sank the boat so he was adrift with a bunch of other boys about his age. While some of the men were in a raft, Dad was swimming, trying to catch a line from a passing ship and bring it back to the raft. As it worked out a sailor with a good arm threw a monkey's paw with a line attached right into the raft of my dad's buddies and that little group was saved. About half the men went down with the ship. Dad had been in the radio shack but came out to fire an AA gun. He thought they had shot down the kamakazie flyer, but as it went into the water just short of the ship, the ship blew up anyway. Forty years later, he'd learn that another suicide plane had hit them from the opposite direction. That was his last day of fighting the war and he finished the war in the hospital and in recovery.

He's old now. Hard to deal with. He sees the world with different eyes from me. He lived through the depression without a father, he lived through the war. He came home and helped build a country with hard work and tax dollars. He got a GED and went to American Television school on the GI bill, learning about electronics and bought a house with a VA loan. He's my favorite veteran. Happy veteran's day, Papa.

P.S. Don't anyone forward him a link to my blog. It would make him furious to read it, and why would we want to make him furious. It's okay if we are not the same.

I know he's a yankee, but you should take time to read www.reality-basededucator.blogspot.com

He'll keep you up on your current events. I wish I knew how to make that a link, but oh well. I challenge you to bookmark that site.

I've been opening boxes in the attic to see what the heck is up there. It is creating work for me. I found some things that belong to other people that I need to get back to them. I found lots of old junk too. Why do we keep that stuff?

I've got to turn my Sports Illustrated archive into treasure on Ebay and get rid of most of them. People sell them on Ebay all the time so I guess I could too. I only have about 8000 of them! Jack Nicklaus winning his sixth masters. I have it. If they went for $1 a piece I'd have a pretty penny for them! Hmm. What do I want to buy for $8000? My first car cost $500.

We just passed 6 months in the new house. Remember how much we liked it when we moved in. We like it even more now.

Another chorus auction has come and gone. They are so much fun. I'll bet some of you guys have never been to an auction. I must tell you that your life is not complete until you go to a few auctions. Mrs. G and I used to go to an estate auction on Grinstead Ave. in Louisville, KY, back in the 70's. I went every week for the longest time. I bought a little wardrobe there for $18 and sold it years later for the same. I saw one like it recently, and no I'm not kidding, for $800. Maybe I should have kept that thing. The rocker that I bought for $11 is still rocking in my living room. We bought two gift certificates, two nights in a luxury condo in Athens (Going back, going back, going back to Athens town. . . do you hear the men singing?) one block from the Arches. Which reminds me . . .
When I went to college we didn't do much investigating of the place. They had a music school. I applied. I got in. Florida State wanted me too and gave me a scholarship, but boy was it a long way away. I went to UGA. We loaded the car one September day and started out and guess what, we didn't know where it was. I mean we knew it was Athens. So we just followed highway 78 to Athens and my Dad said, "Athens isn't that big of a town. We'll just drive around until we find the University." I was anxious, but when we got to 78 and Lumpkin Street, there was the sign on North Campus, then we passed the arches and turned down Jackson Street. Then we rode up and down streets until we found Payne Hall. 303. That was my room.

Anyway, we have 2 nights in a luxury condo in Athens and plan to go over to see our niece swim on the National Champion women's swim team! Cool, huh? Go Kelley!

Dinner for 4 at the director's house got into a bidding war this time and went for $250. Not kidding. Hope I don't burn the steaks.

Pizza and popcorn are still considered staples around here. How can I expect to live to be 54?

Miers looks like she'll pass the confirmation process but is forced off the scene by (right) wing-nuts. No hearings and no votes allowed. The Democrats are mistified at what happens, conservatives attacking conservatives. They realize that this is potentially worse for them than the unproven person who was the preznit's first choice. So they asked the preznit only one thing. Appoint anyone, sir, but not Alito. For him there will be anger and an all out battle. The preznit then appoints Alito. No one else will do. Then the same people who forced Miers offstage in a bums rush say to the Democrats. We want a straight up or down vote on Alito and soon!

I now hear that the "escaped" Al-qaida prisoner was scheduled to testify about abuse. But oops, he got away. The other two witnesses are 1. dead and 2. released and can't be found. Okay, case dismissed.

There is no limit to the hipocrasy nor the corruption of this administration.