November Week 4, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."

Theodore Roosevelt - (1858-1919) 26th US President - Source: letter 01/10/1917

Today was exasperating, lot of wheel spinning and very little accomplished. I was trying to get the bedroom cleaned up for Christy because she has been sleeping in the living-room for 2 weeks.

Christy made it upstairs, a slow process but she made it, she can't put any weight on her foot and there is no way she is going to hop up the stairs so she scoots up one step at a time on her backside.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Civilization is the encouragement of differences.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

I went to Colville with Christy and Monica, Monica needed her shot and Christy had an appointment with Dr. McKenna, I thought we were going to get a cast today but all we got was another brace. Christy had a hard time with the process for some reason. She got flushed, nauseous and dizzy. Not sure why. She was fine about 20 minutes later but it did scare me for a while.

I did a little shopping at Wally-World and sped home.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Moshe Dayan, military leader and politician (1915-1981)

Amanda has an Endocrinologist appointment in Spokane and she had a flight to SeaTac at 1440. The Doctor sent her for another blood test but he is convinced that she is fine. The high Thyroid readings are normal for her. I figured the airport would be packed so I got her there early, but there was hardly anyone there. I went to the wrong airline, she has always flown on Alaskan/Horizon but this time she was on Southwest... the other end of the airport.

I am also feeling sorta punky, have been for a few days. I wanted to get home and finish cleaning. I left Amanda at the Airport with about two and a half hours to kill (Felt sorta bad about that) I went home via Colville so I could pick up Christy's and my new glasses. More last minute shopping at Wally World.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes.

This is not coincidence."

Erma Bombeck

I got the house cleaned and collapsed (figuratively speaking) The cold is really coming on like gangbusters. My head is stuffed, I cam coughing and sneezing. I am taking so much cold medicine I can't keep my eyes open.

There could be 18 to 21 people here for Thanksgiving.

...19 actually, Thanksgiving was wonderful.. Christy planned and Alisha, Jennifer and the girls did a great job getting the dinner on the table and they cleaned up afterwards too. the house looked better when they left than when they arrived. They are nice kids.

I went directly to bed...

Friday, November 28, 2008

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."

Justice Louis D. Brandeis
(1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice

I went to see Rick Calef for some industrial strength meds to whip this cold. I can not be sick on the 4th...

Rick gave me a 'Z-Pac' and some stuff called Mucinex-D. That lump removed from my back has been redefined again, it's now deemed to be a High-grade Sarcoma, that compounds things a bit. Once the surgery is over and we get a readout from the Pathologists at Sacred Heart Hospital we will have a meeting with Dr, Anthony and figure out whether follow-up will require Radiation and/or Chemo Therapy.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

"If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, - not democracy... But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country."

Michael Parenti

We had originally planned to take Calie with us on Thursday but we decided that the logistics would be compounded if we take take her with us to the Hospital. If we take Calie then there is no one to watch Autumn who can handle her so we would have to take Autumn too and that's just too much. So we are going to let Monica come. This is not the optimum choice because of her ADHD, she gets bored easily.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Autumn is 14 today

Yesterday was a nice day. Barack Obama’s daughters Malia and Sasha made their first visit to the White House. The girls were excited to see where they’ll be living, and President Bush was excited to finally have somebody to play hide-and-seek with.

(Conan O’Brien)

I am watching Brett Favre trying to come back from a 10 point deficit... damn... make that 17 points.

I still feel a bit sick but I feel better than I have in several days, encouraging.

With Christy laid up and me a sickie Autumn's birthday party was sort of pathetic. Autumn didn't seem to mind, she blew out her candles and ate some ice-cream, she doesn't like cake at all. We bought her Hanna Montana stuff.

December

Obama inherits trouble
BY ROSA BROOKS rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com

You knew that W & Co. wouldn't go gently into that good night, didn't you? Please.

We're talking about the people who brought us precooked intelligence, Guantánamo, torture and extraordinary rendition. Who developed bizarre legal doctrines, asserting that the commander in chief is allowed to ignore federal law and the vice president doesn't ''belong'' to the executive branch. Who enthusiastically dismantled long-standing regulatory frameworks and who still insist (as President George W. Bush did last week) that ''too much'' government regulation is our main problem, even as the economic crisis deepens.

You really didn't think these guys would exit meekly, did you?

Don't expect anything undignified, like a Cheney-engineered coup (sorry, conspiracy theorists). But the Bush administration can -- and will -- hamstring the incoming Obama team just as effectively with a raft of poisonous 11th-hour rules and regulations.

Pick your issue.

• The environment? A Bush administration rule transmitted on Nov. 4 hands over responsibility for assessing the environmental impact of federal ocean management decisions to advisory councils made up primarily of people tied to the commercial fishing industry -- who often have a financial stake in the outcome.

• Workers' rights? A new rule effective Jan. 18, 2009, would limit workers' ability to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

• Worker and road safety? A rule announced Nov. 16 will allow trucking companies to require drivers to spend 11 consecutive hours behind the wheel.

• Gun control? On Election Day, the administration put forward a rule to end the 25-year-old ban on carrying loaded weapons in national parks.

Other last-minute rules the White House is trying to ram through would allow federal and state law-enforcement agencies to monitor and share information on the activities of individuals deemed merely to be ''suspicious,'' ease rules on dumping coal mining waste into rivers and streams, and further limit women's access to contraceptives and abortions from federally funded medical providers.

These rules can be enacted by the outgoing Bush administration with relative ease and speed, but reversing them will be far more difficult for the Obama administration: extensive study, notice and comment requirements mean that reversals may take several years, during which a lot of damage will have been done.

Bush also has signed more than 250 executive orders since taking office. Some are innocuous; others, not so much -- permitting the use of interrogation techniques most experts consider torture, for instance. Some are still classified. The Obama transition team will need to go through these with a fine-tooth comb, identifying executive orders that require immediate change or reversal.

Even more complicated, Justice Department lawyers in hundreds of pending cases are still advancing the legal theories developed by the Bush administration's political appointees.

The Obama team will need to carefully review every case. Otherwise, imagine the mess if President Barack Obama announces on Jan. 21 that his administration will never sanction torture, but lower-ranking career lawyers in the executive branch continue, in pending litigation, to advance the same old Bush administration arguments defending ``enhanced interrogation.''

The administration also appears to be seeking the last-minute conversion of some political appointee job slots to career civil service positions. If Bush appointees can ''burrow'' into the civil service, Obama is more or less stuck with them.

Before Bush's inauguration, President Bill Clinton staffers allegedly removed all the W's from White House keyboards. In a new twist, the Bush administration appears to be trying to leave a lot of hidden W's behind.

Obama has an ambitious agenda, but housecleaning will come first. Keep asking for change -- but it may take a while for Obama to sweep all those little W's out the door.

Rosa Brooks is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center