Not much to say just yet, so I’ll just dedicate the following to Granny:

The poor dogs have to be alone all day today, guarding the house. At least they don’t have to go to work.

The I-35 bridge in Minneapolis reopened this morning (100 days ahead of schedule). I can only imagine how much easier that will make life for everybody in the Twin Cities area. Not sure I’d have wanted to be the first person over, though.

If only we could fix the whole financial industry thing in 13 months. It’s particularly difficult here in NY State, since we’re out even more tax revenue over this mess, in a year when they’ve already had to make deep cuts in non-essential areas – like schools and hospitals. They say the recent collapses have already negated $475 million in budget cuts the NYS Legislature enacted in an emergency summer session this year. I sure hope they don’t have to rescind tax cuts for rich people and corporations.

Looks like McCain thinks Spain is part of Latin America, and isn’t willing to meet with the Prime Minister (‘cuz he’s one of them Socialists, which is worse than being an al-kayder, I think).

And then there’s this from RFK Jr:

Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that “some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.”

That’s not change we can believe in.

Back to my least preferred location this morning, which kinda sucks. Could be some light at the end of the tunnel in that respect. We’ll have to see how things go.

Have a good one.

So, the Fed is taking over AIG. It’s getting to the point where being a failed financial institution is almost as good as being a software company competing with Microsoft. If you’re a good company that threatens MS, they buy you out. If you’re a crappy company that threatens the status quo, the government (or some other branch of the “free market” buys you out.

Pretty cool.

I was waiting for some inspiration this morning (or somebody else to jump in there for me). Unfortunately, neither one happened. Oh well.

By the way, if you want to sign up to download Michael Moore’s latest movie, Slacker Uprising, next Tuesday, you can do so here.

There are few things in life I hate more than doing plumbing work. Chief among those is working on cars – in particular, Korean cars. Dubya may have included North Korea in the axis of evil, but the truly evil ones are the South Koreans – makers of Hyundai.

Granny’s alternator belt broke on Saturday (close to home, thankfully). In order to change that belt, you have to take all the other belts off. To make a long story short, it’s a pain in the ass, and all my shit hurts this morning.

Thank god I can go to work and rest up a bit.

Today on Press the Meat, very serious journalist Tom Brokaw has Chuck Schumer and (for some reason) Guidi Ruliani. When this disgusting Nosferatu in drag continues to get any airtime is beyond me. Then Chuck Todd will be on to blather some inane conventional political wisdom, and Bob Woodward continues his book tour.

Faze the Nation has Gov. Janet Napolitano, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas (and apparently less qualified than Sarah Palin to be VP), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and former acting Gov of Massachusetts (that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit, isn’t it?), Jane Swift.

Speaking of the bottom of the barrel, Fux News Sunday has Pillsbury Dough Nazi Karl Rove, Alaska Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, Tony Knowles, former Democratic governor of Alaska, and Jim Laychak, president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund. Plus the usual Fuxheads will join Weaselface Wallace.

Over at the Goebbels network, it’s occasional Democrat Claire McCaskill, disgraced former HP CEO (and McCain adviser) Carly Fiorina, and Alan “the hunk” Greenspan. Then at the roundtable, it’s Paul Begala, hubby and wife tag team Jay Carney and Claire Shipman, plus (of course) George :jerk: Will.

CNN’s Late Emission has David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tim “no money for old bridges” Pawlenty, Bill Richardson, DINO Dianne Feinstein, Tennessee cracker Marsha Blackburn, Obama adviser Linda Douglass, and grampy McCain wet nurse, Nancy Pfotenhauer.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft and John Solomon report on flawed science used to convict innocent people, Lesley Stahl chats with Antonin “Fat Tony” Scalia. Whoopdie friggin’ doo.

Have a good one.

So, I went to my uncle’s send off yesterday. It was nice, as far as these things go. He was quite active in the VFW and was in the Navy in WWII, so they did the flag draped coffin thing, and played taps, after which they folded up the flag and presented it to my cousin. I’m not normally fazed by such things, but it was really quite touching.

At this stage in my life, I feel as if I’ve moved up one space in line. When you’re a kid, absent any untimely tragedies, your grandparents go. Then it’s your parents generation’s turn. Once they’re gone, well, guess what? You’re on deck.

Of course, I think I still have a few years left in me.

It’s a big day here in the ‘Cuse, as we host the world premiere of The Express – a movie about the life and too soon death of Ernie Davis, the first black person to win the Heisman Trophy. So, in addition to the Hollywood types, we’ve got 40 members of the SU National Championship team that played with Ernie coming to town, as well as Jim Brown, Floyd Little, and Art Monk, among others (I realize most of you don’t know who those people are – except for Jim Brown, I guess). Oh, I know, not a big deal to you more cosmopolitan types, but it’s pretty big stuff in these parts, especially coming the night before Penn State comes into the Dome for the first time in 18 years.

Sadly, Syracuse has become so horrible, it’s likely Penn State will stomp on them. Too bad. It’ll screw up a perfectly good weekend.

So, we all know what today is. It’s the day of the year that Guidi Ruliani walks around with a hard on all day, and the day used to justify the passing of the most fascist legislation since the Enabling Act of 1933.

Tonight at 9:00 (Eastern), the History Channel is airing (unedited and commercial free) a documentary entitled “102 Minutes That Changed America.” They’ve taken video from over 100 witnesses in NYC with video cameras (some news footage, but mostly amateur video that’s never been seen before), and cut it together in one chronologically sequential piece, from moments after the first plane hit, until after the towers came down.

People on the streets, people sticking their cameras out their windows, people trying to get closer, people trying to get the hell away, people hanging out the windows as far as they possibly can – people jumping. It contains all the reactions of those filming (as they – like the rest of us – called their families and friends), as well as the people in the streets, and the first responders.

I watched it last night, since it was already available “on demand” through DirecTV, and, well, it’s something to behold. Scary, creepy, sickening, sad – horrifying (an appropriate introduction to the Bush/Cheney era, really). It’s a far cry from that endless loop we all watched over and over again seven years ago.

I hesitate to say I “recommend” this film, but if you get the History Channel, I think it’s something you’ll need to watch.