ZED IS DEAD!

g’evening Suze & Pups!

Suz!

Suz!

Suzanne!

g’evening pups

Knopfler is the shiznit.

Oh thanks Suzanne, I adore Knopfler!

Good to see you online Suz. been thinking about you today.

HUG

Yay, mark knopfler!

hugs back jacqrat

bet traffic was forked up big time over in your area of the east bay – both mcsame and ah-nold in town

My friend makes high quality guitars out of his garage. Knopfler bought one last year.

My friend has taken up permanent residence on Cloud 9.

Wow bonkers, no doubt!

OK Get your shovels out and start Digging!!!
Hi Suz glad the fire is not near you… Was worried for a bit!

I think the senators I loathe most (in order) are:

Holy Joe
Lindsey Graham
Mitch McConnell

there are others of course, but those three get me running out of the room when they appear on my telly.

Hey you!
Say Hi to The Spook for me, will ya?
How ya doin’ yerself? Got the Wedding Machine in motion?

the bay bridge back up on sf side was brutal, more so than usual.

Suz!

May your lovely cottage by the creek under the redwoods sell soon.!

Yea, it was wild. My friend went to England to deliver. Ya never know what’s coming around the corner for ya.

Yeah, NDFG, congrats! I saw the video and it’s just too cute! firepups getting married. love in the blogosphere is a wonderful thing.

thanks nahant… been hearing the air traffic echoing off the mountains but the smoke all went south down to monterey – i had clear skies (and lots of wind) but have been monitoring it – it would really have to blow up after changing direction to affect me since it started 15 miles south and east of me and has burned south all day.

but, there was 50 acres burned down near ben lomond today unrelated to the summit fire. about 5 miles down the hill from me.

Whoa! What’s this all about?!?

Suz, have they determined a cause?

from your keyboard to (inset diety of choice)’s ears kirk – i’m running out of time

‘lo everyone.

I was able to set up the 2nd interview for this coming tuesday at 1pm. Time to bring out the nice duds and figure out a bit of minimalist makeup. A full weekend of work and anticipation. XD

oh and this is GOOD stuff, suz.

not anywhere near trying to figure it out ll, they still haven’t pinned down exactly where it even started – first calls were about walls of flames as high as the trees cresting the ridge.

Another good reason to get the hell outta there, it’s only forkin May fer Chrissakes!

IO did hear about that, glad it was contained… with all that fuel out there(20 years worth) it is a dangerous time for fires in the mountains.

Oh, newdealfarmgirl and althespook are gettin’ hitched. I think they met at an FDL meetup.

fire season don’t even start until june traditionally – luckily a smart person ordered the planes and air support staffed early due to the winds and high temps last week

Be happy we don’t have those high temps and the high winds!!

only 15% contained and still threatening to head down eureka canyon and take out the town or corralitos last i heard

Wild.

A hearty congrats and musical tribute:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H5-ENXSXVrM

I listened to that Firedispatch.com site that you pointed me to — didn’t hear too much of any fireground ops, but I did hear some medical locals. Funny how things sound the same out there as they do over here ;-)

just tried to dig up tex betsy’s video of them on youtube but no luck…

well good nite all.

fight on patriots.

I hope I didn’t chase her off by bringing it up!

Good to see you, jacqrat.

hiya busted! I’ll say hi … i’ll take the opportunity to use my daily allowance of one blogwhoring (or madaming as the case may be) to say that he’s got another post up, on Gates’ talk to West Point cadets. Pop over and say hi yerself *g* as for teh Wedding Machine, well, prolly next year some time. We’re threatening our respective sets of children with a Star Wars wedding at a SciFi convention.

thanks, dosido! Yeah, we owe a lot to the Lake … we met at TRex’s Late Nite party, little did we know where it was gonna lead.

it wasn’t on utube..iirc, it was on her picasso site? or was it flicker?

lol.

check out bonkers song. cool!

nite all. stay safe and sound.

I missed it, alias. What interview?

g’nite dosido (and any other leaving sleepy pup i may have missed)

I’ve made it to the 2nd tier part of the hiring process for a hospital, Loo Hoo. I’m broke and happy post vacation, which should help when i go. I applied a few weeks ago, and setting time up for these things and working my current job have been nutty.

But i’m soooo hoping i get this one. I could get myself out of debt in a year at the wages they’d pay me at a hospital compared to my current greedy corporation’s peanuts they call ‘pay’.

thank you! good choice of songs *g* and of course my kids think their mom is an uber geek for meeting a guy on a political blog

this is good news alias. fingers and toes crossed ya get the hospital job

Duly Bookmarked for further perusal and soon to be Blogrolled at, ahem, the Ornery Bastard’s place.

Good luck alias! Please keep us posted.

busted, a big thanks from al.

alias, good luck! I’m so pleased you’ve made it into the higher rounds of the interview process.

Dugg.

I fell asleep at the switch for a while there, nahant. Glad you had it covered.

The New Deal meets the New Media!

This is fantastic. You’re showing yer whippersnappers how to take full advantage of all the opportunities life presents you. Life’s so short after all. Great story!

*snickers at the thought of a SciFi Con wedding* XD

I’m glad for both of ya. Good to see a bit more joy going around after the crazy of these years. A hearty Congrats! Omedetou!(nihongo)

so, who do ya’ll think is gonna be on obama’s vp short list?

Evening Neuro, glad to see you had your shovel handy after your nap!!! How are you doing??

I’ve been hearing noises about our governor, Tim Kaine. Interesting!

Does Sam Nunn stand a chance to be on Obama’s list?

It’s gotta be Edwards. In the polling so far of an Obama/Edwards ticket, they absolutely destroy McKeating/RandomNutball.

My ideal choice would be also be Obama’s best insurance policy – Howard Dean.

It’s been strange to me to see the Sebelius idea take hold so quickly though. Not sure I like that yet. Don’t understand where this came from….

Same here with AZ Governor Janet Napolitano… she endorsed Obama before the primary….

OMG, aliasofwestgate! I’m so keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Just be yourself…when will you hear back? Any idea?

This is interesting…

… top Obama organizer Paul Tewes is in discussions to take over the Democratic National Committee.

Isn’t that Howard Dean’s spot…?

Jeezus…I hope not. I want any “centrist” Dem kept as far away as possible from Barack.

Heading off to bed…. nite all….. just imagine…. it is 35 degrees cooler than it was yesterday….. brrr…

Jim Webb.

Aloha, Katy!

Hi again

nite katymine

sebelius

OH….. Letterman is really going after McOld….

“McCain will be at casa viagra this weekend…”

Admittedly I don’t know much (if anything) about Napolitano; I do know that Kaine is well-respected and has been as effective as he can be in still-purplish Virginia. It’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

I was confused by that story when I read it yesterday. There was no mention of Dr. Dean at all, so I wonder if the reporter was being lazy in spelling out the position exactly. Didn’t seem like it meant Howard’s position, which is elected anyway…

g’nite katymine

Thanks for the link – am more surprised on who is missing from the story, i.e. – the new senator from VA. Or did I just imagined Webb’s name was prominent early in this endless primary?

I’m fine, but a bit tired. Won’t be lasting long this LLN, I don’t think.

How are you doing?

Maybe as the liaison to the DNC… They can be lazy, as evidenced daily…! ;-)

KO even asked him about it when webb on was countdown this week

katymine, We just went through that wicked weather change up here last week, a 50 plus degree temp swing over 5 days, cold, killer hot and back to cold w/ rain. Jeeze!

Some people are saying Bill is hinting at Hillary being the VP choice.

I support that idea, but it needs to be Obama’s choice. Which I do think will be a white man with military experience. Webb? He’s sure been in the news lately.

Sweet dreams.

And Webb was very cagey about it. Downright clever about his evasion of the topic.

It’s been around awhile. She endorsed him before our caucuses in March.

Some people may not know she’s from Ohio and her father was governor there. Not a bad connection to have.

She has a proven ability to attract independents and moderate Republicans (of which there are still some left).

At the absolute latest it could take up to two weeks for them to get back to me after this final interview. So far the longest part was the initial application period, which it took them that 2 weeks to get back to me. But the this only took a few days. I would have had it done last week, but my vacation sorta interrupted that. ^^ I’m hoping i’ll have an answer by friday at the earliest, or the first friday in june at the latest on whether i get the ‘yes’ to be hired or not.

If i do? I’m giving my current employer a month’s notice to get a new set of hands in to train up, then i’m soooooooo GONE. They already know i’m looking for new employment, and i’ll miss everyone there. But i’m to the point where wandering away is better for me in the long run. I don’t have any reason to stay with the company and the way the corporation treats us has frustrated me for long enough.

Was that on Huffpo? There is often little connection between the title of the article and the substance. (or lack thereof)

Fingers crossed here for you too.

Isn’t Webb a recent convert to D?
I know he has good qualities but he is still pretty hawkish for my taste.

The presidential candidate’s choice usually gets elected, maybe always.

exclusive footage of recent McCain fundraising trip.

I don’t even know whom to prefer at this point, but I figure Obama will try to tap someone he’ll consider likely to be reassuring to voters on national security and foreign policy issues.

You go!!

You wouldn’t believe how normal that is for michigan in the fall. Usually when there’s a tornado or a severe thunderstorm making its way over us.

Hugs Betsy, come play a word game with me in a bit if you still can’t sleep.

Very late here, leaving you all with this song:

When The Deal Goes Down – Bob Dylan

‘Night all!

Video not available in my country.

pout

Yep, they’re a pack of baboons alright…! ;-)

g’nite ll

just did!

Well, he’s been good on Iraq and Iran. Plus, the indication he gave on KO last night is that he would be able to bring in the white Appalachian voters.

He would balance the ticket quite nicely, I think. Plus, being a military man, Barack wouldn’t need to worry about him trying to get outside the chain of command like he might worry about with Hillary.

Nah…gunna…dew it. Saw this earlier today…

The Field can now confirm, based on multiple sources, something that both campaigns publicly deny: that Senator Clinton has directly told Senator Obama that she wants to be his vice presidential nominee, and that Senator Obama politely but straightforwardly and irrevocably said “no.” Obama is going to pick his own running mate based on his own criteria and vetting process.

http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=1248

Giordano has been one of the most reliable sources out there. Plus, this Hillary as VP reasoning falls apart within a few seconds of analysis.

must be pretty obscene baboons

Are you serious? It’s filtered? 8-(

Aloha, LL!

I assume its some kind of rights/distribution thing.

Fern, what country are you in?

Wouldn’t that set up Tom Davis to run for John Warner’s seat. Or do I have the cast of characters confused?

AmericaBlog:

Could Hillary and Bill even survive the Vice Presidential vetting process?
…
Hillary always claims she’s fully vetted, but that’s not true. And, the vetting process includes the spouse.

Basically, this means Obama’s vetting team would have access to all the Clinton’s records — all the stuff that hasn’t become public. The Clintons would have to open up the library funders and foundation donors. They’d have to name everyone who has paid Bill Clinton to speak or do any other work. They’d investigate all of Bill’s dealings with Ron Burkle, for example. And, for sure, they’d have to investigate a lot of other rumors that swirl about.

The Clintons can keep their own secrets when they run the show. But, this won’t be their show. They won’t have Howard Wolfson and his team stonewalling reporters who are asking prying questions.

bold added

The great white north!

night, ll.

Time to fall down where it is soft.
Gnite Pups, Most excellent vibes for you Alias.

Canada.

g’nite busted

Aloha, BK!

I didn’t sleep much last night in anticipation of my interview this morn, I shall bow out early tonite! Aloha Oe!

Goodnight, Busted.

local news on.. saying the fire will burn for several more days at least. gov has declared it a state of emergency latest totals 15% contained 3,000 acres could be 4,000 by morning anticipated to grow to 10,000 acres and hundreds of homes still threatened. 10 homes burned so far

aloha ct

Congrats and good night, CT.

way to go tuttle. nite

Ironically, baboons crashed by “Safari,” so along with you, wasn’t able to view the McCain-a-palooza.

Hi Late Nighters. Been awhile as I’m in it thick, getting ready for the big move to France. 25 days and counting. Packing up the house, which isn’t rented yet. Trying to sell our Eurovan too. Not a very good economy for either one. Yikes, we’re crazy!

Was glad to see Merkley on a thread downstairs. Smith has got to go and I think Jeff’s gonna do it!

VP – obviously I like Edwards as he originally had my support. Webb is an interesting choice as he can help negate the “military hero” bs with McSame.

Omedetou, CT! Oyasumi Nasai

(Congrats, and good night!)

Sorry. Indulging in what little japanese i do know. ^_^

Random thought…Does this work?

M.I.C.cain.

Ya know, the phrase made popular by Eisenhower?

nite Busted!

Works for me even if it took me longer than I care to admit. :~)

Wow! Moving to France. Do you have a job there or are you retired?

me too ;-)

Those ain’t Japanese alphabet looking!

nice to see ya.. what part of france?

DarkBlack has a great graphic for McNeoCons. http://darkblack999.blogspot.c…..-that.html

History has shown the VP choice to be overrated IMO. Edwards did little for Kerry, even in NC, and with DeadEye hovering around 20% popularity at the time. Shrub the First won with Mr. PotatoE Head as his VP.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_c00_QkXUd8

i don’t get it

Tex, haven’t seen darkblack around lately. Hope you’re feeling well soon.

Thank you. He’s floating around.

iirc, he was around within the past week

Military Industrial Complex.

As in the retiring president/former general told us to be wary of

VP -Webb!

Thanks so much for the linky – great graphicindeed. Great to see you here this late Ms. Betsy!

duh! i kept thinking icbm and mice (aka mic-key m-o-u-s-e)

Yah, I’m not always the best with this damn language thingy-ma-bob.

slept 4 am to 1 pm last night. bleh. gonna try to sleep pretty soon

Romanji generally isn’t :P

I just got my paws on some how to learn katakana books last weekend when we went to the bookstore in Mitsuwa in Chicago. After about 3 years of badgering from my friends i’m finally going to start picking up on the written charcters. It’s a start. I can speak a bit here and there and figure out what’s going on in a tv show when i hear it, but reading and writing even the shortcut characters is still beyond me. Hence their ‘buy the books this time Alias! This one’s good.’ *grin* Learning the actual kanji takes a long time, as even most japanese people don’t know all of them, there’s so many. But if i can read katakana, it’s a start.

MICcain.

Perhaps I’ll try it on for a bit and see how it fits.

nite all

Sure works for me – though I will always have a soft spot in my heart for John Edwards I cannot imagine a stronger ticket than Obama/Webb.

g’nite neuro

gonna be interesting watching this all sort out… i’m hoping for edwards as cabinet post – where he can work on the two america’s problem

Start with katakana, move onto hiragana and then maybe start messing with the kanji. Considering my favorite series has a lot of kanji in it, i’ll HAVE to learn some of them. When the authoress has a tendency to really play with her character dialects and she’s heavy on the punning and double entendre(sp?)(and occasional triples, when she’s really on a roll with her antagonist in all his wordplay glory), i have no choice but to learn this stuff.

Edwards had his shot. Twice.

Both Webb and Obama are mercurial in the senatorial sense, but by putting Webb on the ticket, Obama is neutralized in the area of military expertise, general defense experience, and crossing party lines. Webb’s son is in the service in the war zone. you get to play the macaca monment tape again, which worked in ‘06, and reverses the polarity on an aspect of the race argument.

I like it too.

I meant “Obama’s attackers are neutralized…”

I think you are correct.
BUt…
Does he want to be Vice-President?
and
Is his loss in the Senate worth it?

Total respect for you!

Night, neuro.

That’s an amazing challenge.

Good night friends.

pain free sleep wishes tex

nite neuro
nite betsy

It depends on what Obama offers him, I think. I’m beginning to feel that we’ll pick up more than five seats in the senate, more than 25 in the house.

i wonder what the friday nite news dump will be this week.

Thank you.

Night Tex.

The governor of Virginia is Tim Kaine, a democrat.

He would get to replace Webb, correct? Safe seat.

I don’t have any objection to Webb – a bit conservative for my tastes, but he’s a solid man and would be a solid VP.
He is, however, a great Senator, and will be so for as long as he is there. Just an exceptional presence.

A problem with Webb though at this time is that he’s been branded, fair or unfairly, as sexist from his book and marriages.

That’s the last thing we need as far as bringing Hillary backers along with us.

I’m just crazy, that’s all. *grins widely* And it’s something to do with my time. I’ll eventually take a trip to japan one day, just for a real and honest visit. But for now, this will keep me occupied and challenged.

That and i eat context for breakfast. I never had an issue with it in english, and japanese is very context heavy but overall straightforward in language rules. The fun part is the modes of speaking. Women have a way of speaking differently than men and vice versa, and children have their own way. Then you’ve got your rowdy types with what i call ‘gutter’ japanese. *snickers* I know ‘em all when i hear them, but reading them? Not yet. But it adds a whole new dimension to a character when you’re able to hear his particular mode of speech. One of my favorites is unfailingly and heavily poilte–to the point where you start to pick up on the heavy sarcasm after a while. I compare it to the differences in british class accents. And it’s about as complicated–but egads is it FUN.

*hugs*

Gotta get outta the lake – get ready for our Alaska Democratic Party Convention beginning very early in the morning…

I’ll be covering it.

going to japan is on my list of places i wanna see… along with the british isles, australia, alaska, bora bora, russia.. hell, i would love to be independently wealthy and be able to travel all over

Good questions indeed. His poise and clarity would be powerful on the campaign trail and I could imagine him being very useful to an administration trying to sort out the Iraq/MIC problems.

The whole issue of who will Obama choose to get close to and how he will use others is intriguing. Judging from his campaign, he knows how to delegate and anticipate/forestall problems. The contrast between his and Clinton’s campaign in that respect is striking.

sweet! most excellent news et and i’m looking forward to your coverage of the convention. sleep well

Night, ET. Look forward to seeing how it all goes in AK.

I’ve been to england twice, and want to go back yet again. I loved that place and got spoiled on the whole idea of light rail nationwide and actually efficient. From all i’ve heard about japan? It’s even better over there on that little set of isles.

I’m with you on the independantly wealthy thing though. I’ve always wanted to do a lot of traveling outside the US. It’s why i’m renewing my passport again. Mostly in the hopes that i’ll get a whole new set of stamps to go with it a few years in the future. ^_^

That and i eat context for breakfast

Sprinkle a little nuance on the context, then a heaping of sarcasm, and you’ve got a well-balanced diet to start your day.

I’ve worked in Japan, rural and cities, and had a hard time getting by with just a few simple phrases in my verbal arensal. Sounds like you’d have a grand time there knowing the langauge somewhat. I plan to learn more before going again. Really makes it more enjoyable…

i have yet to get one… and now they have those radio transmitters in em

although i supposed it could be accidentally driven over by a big rig…

I think Hillary backers just want someone who will win.

Here on the Monterey coast – home of the Naval Postgraduate School and the US Army’s Defense Language Institute, as well as the esteemed civilian (private graduate school) Monterey Institute of International Studies, and me thinks the possibility of an Obama/Webb ticket would electrify active & retired members of this community.

Niters ET – love the way you keep on leading by doing – truly inspiring!

one day, we will be able to say we knew him back when he just another pup like us

Two of my roommates(and longtime friends) at the Convention i just went to last week spent a year in japan teaching ESL so they came back with some fairly decent fluency. They loved it, and have plans to eventually return for another similar trip. I’d just be happy with a visit and be able to understand so much of the material that comes out there. From all they’ve said, knowing the language helps a lot Many of the people there will switch to english for you just so they can try out their own skills at it. *grin*

But they do encourage to learn at least a little bit of the language to get by. It helps immensely.

Hugs, Newspaperbrat.

Hear, hear! ((((((((((Edward Teller!))))))))))

Teaching English as a second language sounds like something I would love to do. There’s a huge need for it around here, we have lots of Ghanian and other immigrants in Columbus.

Hugs right back attcha woo woo Loo Hoo!

npb, how is the air down there? the smoke from the fire looked like it was going right over your area

Here’s a heavy video on NYT.

A soldier who has an arm prosthesis, but who also cares about his Iraqi partner.

I’m renewing mine this year. This little site, has some good things to help with the few hackers of the credit cards and the passports/various IDs with the RFID on it. It doesn’t block every possible way, but it a nice bit of insurance while traveling.

This one too.

i always think back to this post by howie on his travel blog…

i sent that post to my mother who travels a lot

ok, pups, that’s about it for me tonight. off to do dishes etc just in case and then work some more on the gift. g’nite all and thanks for hanging with me tonight

Oh dear, I missed this. Take care you guys.

nite suzanne

Night suz. Distracted myself a bit there. ^^ I should toddle off to bed too, at this point. *yawns* Been a long day, and i get to sleep in again tomorrow.

nite alias

Well now, isn’t that interesting. My wife and I renewed our passports 1-10-07. Hers is thicker and has a little gold symbol (that looks like an abstract camera) on the front cover. Mine doesn’t! My daughter got hers later in 07 and it too has the symbol on the front.