It's All Good

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Thank you, Worcester Wreaths.

Friday, October 27, 2006

[via my mother by email; who saw got it from glenn beck]

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

How much do I love that President Bush made another surprise visit to Iraq? This will be another big boost to the troops and I’m sure the Iraqi government officials with whom he’s meeting will be happy to have that pleasure as well.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

al-Zarqawi is dead.

Enough said.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Irony:

i·ro·ny
[definition 2.a.]

Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.

Irony:

A 13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee rattled off “ursprache” to claim the title of America’s best speller on prime-time television Thursday night.
Katherine Klose, an eighth-grader at the H.W. Mountz School in Spring Lake, N.J., is the first girl since 1999 to win the national spelling title.

They misspelled her name, which is actually Close.

Hilarious.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

I was out getting my nails done when I saw the news that Jose Padilla was indicted on 11 charges.

I returned to the courthouse to the news that Abu Ali was convicted on all counts on which he was charged. He faces life in prison.

(No link yet. I will update the post when there is a link - FoxNews.com has the yellow Breaking News banner.)

Monday, October 24, 2005

Three interesting nominations from the White House on Friday.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Beau’s sister mentioned this in a comment to one of last week’s posts, but I thought I’d flesh it out a bit more after a conversation I had with a guy in the lunch room yesterday. We had the news on the TV (of course) and the topic was the slight stall in the progress of the Iraqi Consitution. So the guy said something to the effect of “I can’t believe it’s taking so long for them to resolve the consitution over there.” My jaw dropped in disbelief and then I realized that a lot of people might think the same way.

“You do realize that they held their very first democratic elections in January, right? That they’re this close to having a completed Consitutional document is actually amazing. It’s only 8 months. How long do you think it took for our own Constitution to be completed and ratified?” I asked.

He stammered, “I don’t know [ed. - thank you American public school system]. A couple of years, maybe?”

ME: So you’re willing to give us a couple of years, but not them?

And then I shared a little of the following (note that some of the statements are my own, some are from Wikipedia):

1. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.

2. A year before [the signing of the Declaration], war had broken out between the colonies and Britain, a war for independence that lasted for six bitter years.

3. While still at war, the colonies now calling themselves the United States of America drafted a compact that bound them together as a nation. The compact, designated the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union,” was adopted by a congress of the states in 1777 and formally signed in July 1778. The Articles became binding when they were ratified by the thirteenth state, Maryland, in March 1781.

4. On February 21, 1787, Congress resolved: “It is expedient that on the second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.”

5. The period between the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781 and the drafting of the Constitution in 1787 was one of weakness, dissension, and turmoil. [ed. - sound familiar?] Under the Articles of Confederation, no provisions were made for an executive branch to enforce the laws or for a national court system to interpret them.

6. Read this information about the Ratification process. It’s too lengthy for me to quote. The gist? It wasn’t completely ratified until 1788 with the requisite 9 of 13 states. Massachusetts required some changes and the first 10 Amendments were added in 1791 by James Madison - they are known as the Bill of Rights. The final 4 states bickered and the last one (Rhode Island) on board with the amended Constitution voted their approval in 1790.

7. The American Federal Government was not established until 1789 with the election of George Washington as the first American President.

Just a few snippets of our beginning history and a little perspective for those who naysay the minor delays in the work of creating the Iraqi consitution. If it takes them a year it’s fantastic - it took us at least 13 years.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

I left for work late this morning in order to watch the landing of the space shuttle live.

Welcome home, indeed.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Good news!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian mini-submarine burst to the surface on Sunday after rescuers hacked away the cables that had snared it deep in Pacific waters and saved the crew before their air supply ran out.

“The mini-sub has surfaced. The seven submariners on board are alive,” naval spokesman Igor Dygalo was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Blair is “shocked” that bombers were British? Puh-leez.

Al-Timimi got life+30 years. Yay for justice!

A Few Minutes Later: Wicked glee = media types out front + the heavens opening up in a drenching rain. Hee.

Still Later: Rain has ended - for now. Meanwhile here’s an updated link about Al-Timimi except that the AP writer is wrong in his headline. He won’t be going to a Virginia prison, but rather a Bureau of Prisons facility (most likely out west).

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Although I have little to no interest in financial news, I do watch Neil Cavuto in the morning while I get ready for work. Why? Because he’s a straight shooter with great common sense. Case in point about yesterday’s small-plane-headed-for-the-Capitol-scare (mild profanity alert - Neil is not prone to cussing normally, so he must have been ticked yesterday):

This is to those congressmen still freaking out about not getting more advance warning about this errant plane over Washington on Wednesday: Shut up.

While you were bitching, F-16 jets were flying over the Capitol (search) to protect you. Capitol Hill Police — paid a lot less than you — were busy trying to evacuate you. Ditto the White House (search).

You may not like what’s going on, but some — and I stress some — of you didn’t waste a nanosecond to trash the very folks trying to protect your sorry asses.

One congressman even had the gall to say personnel were rushed out of buildings for nothing. Hindsight’s 20-20, Einstein.

But it’s a familiar rant: No plan. No procedure. No exit strategy.

Now whose fault is that?

Is there an orderly way to evacuate people when you have only a few moments’ notice that those peoples’ lives are in danger?

Maybe there is, look into it.

Fortunately your respective leaders, Senators Bill Frist (search) and Harry Reid (search), were kind enough to commend the D.C. police. I wish I could say the same of all of you.

I caught a couple of Democratic senators on our air, including New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg bemoaning no coordinated action. Still another congressman blasted the lack of protocol.

I’m here to blast the lack of something else: class.

Maybe you’re right. But you’re a senator. You’re a congressman. Your body houses a brain — I think. Use it and quit shifting blame. Because the shift has hit the fan and some of you are sounding like whining, self-absorbed losers, who’d sooner blame others for not doing what you should have been doing all along.

To me, you sounded more concerned that you had to exit with the minions, than the fact that you and the minions survived.

Go, Neil! Heh.

*shamless plug* Watch Neil Cavuto weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on “Your World with Cavuto” on Fox News Channel. */shameless plug*

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Paintball terrorist convicted. Full article in the extended section.

Friday, April 22, 2005

I’m going to try to get in for The Big Hearing. Last time he tried to do this, we waited in line to get in and they stopped allowing people in about 5 people ahead of us.

This time I have a better inside scoop and have a good shot at getting in, but it will involve a couple of hours of twiddling my thumbs in the courtroom. I’m debating taking a book to pass the time.

So you’ll either hear from me pretty quickly because I didn’t make it or you won’t hear anything until it’s over.

4:33pm: It’s done. Guilty on all six counts as charged.

It was interesting - the main room was all press except for a few 9/11 victims/families. He looks rough - those four years in “the cave,” as he called it, have taken a toll. But he is an intelligent and articulate man and has a very good grasp of our laws. The penalty phase will be very interesting indeed.

MORE: Oh, and it’s a media zoo outside my window. I meant to bring my camera today and completely forgot. And I have a hilarious story about two reporters that I wish I could tell, but alas I cannot. But trust me, it’s hy-larious.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Well, this makes a lot of people around here pretty happy.