Good morning, y’all.

Al Franken moves on to the general election in Minneapolis against repugnant incumbent, Norm Coleman. Al has to win because it looks like Mark Warner could take Virginia and that would just be too much teeth in the Senate.

The Maron v. Seder VOD from yesterday is up now.

It’s fun to see the shows on with regularity but it is discouraging to see how little reaction that they are getting live, at least on the blogs. The IM traffic seems pretty good. I wonder if it is a bad time slot, tech problem burnout or just too little too late. I think it will be a good show and maybe ‘live’ is not that important although I enjoy the audience reaction and participation. However, I don’t think that they want to be playing to the choir. I trust them when they say it will be very different when it rolls out since it will be done from a real studio with bigger pipes on the AAR website rather than Sam’s ‘tubes. Ultimately, I hope they end up with a real over the airwaves time slot when some AAR contracts expire.

I am wondering how RG’s Minneapolis adventure went and if it was more G than R or a combination of the two. And for PJ, I am sorry about your Uncle Bill. I guess my Dad is the last person standing of that generation though he is drifting into a different place. It is saddening and sobering.

Happy Humpty!

Bachelor days are over today, as Granny is scheduled to arrive at some point, fresh from her trip to the fascist state known as Minneapolis. Oh, the boys and I have had a good run here for the past 10 days or so, watching football and action movies (where shit gets blowed up and whatnot) ’til all hours, with nary a dissenting word. But all that changes today.

It’s rather convenient, really, since it’ll (hopefully) give me somebody to attend my uncle Bill’s wake and funeral with. I’m not real good with that kinda stuff, so it’s a big help to have somebody to go with. Uncle Bill is the last member of that particular generation on my side of the family. I guess that means it’s my generation’s turn to start dying off next.

Not today though. Today I gotta go to work.

Shit, Monday already. That sucks. On the bright side, while SU sucks, it may actually be fun to be a Jets fan again. At least it was yesterday. I don’t know how many miles old man Favre has in him, but it would be lots of fun to have him get back to the Super Bowl. Yesterday was a good day for the green overall, as the Eagles trounced the hapless Rams (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the fact that the Rams are in St. Louis, the Cardinals are in Arizona, the Colts are in Indianapolis, and Baltimore has a team, but it’s called the Ravens) behind a nice performance from Donovan McNabb. Hell, if SU has to suck, at least the SU alums can do well.

As for this SU alum, I’m afraid it’s back to work again today. I don’t expect to have an All-Pro day, though. Just looking to get it over with.

Today on Press the Meat it’s the next Vice-President of the United States, Joe Biden. Then Tom Brokaw chats with Tom “my head is flat” Friedman about Friedman’s new book (he’s the new Al Gore, doncha know).

Meanwhile, over at CBS, it’s Maverick John McCain on Faze the Nation. :yawn:

At Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has David Axelrod, chief strategist, Obama campaign and Rick Davis, McNutz’s campaign manager. Plus a bunch of fuxheads.

On the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus hosts the next President of the United States, Barack Obama.

CNN’s Late Emission has Krazy Jon Kyl, Tim Kaine, Barbara Boxer, Texas hottie Kay Bailey Hutchison, Robert Gibbs, Obama Campaign Adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer, McNutz Economic Adviser, James Carville, weird cupie doll looking motherfucker, Alex Castellanos, Republican stooge, Tara Wall, another Republican stooge, and political mastermind Donna Brazile.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Bob Woodward hawks his new book, Morley Safer interviews Alec Baldwin, and Bob Simon reports on how the yuppie desire for sushi (because people will eat fucking bait if you tell them it’s the “in” thing) is killing off the bluefin tuna.

Mostly, though, it’s the first Sunday of football season!

I’ve been avoiding doing a morning blogpost because it is truly intimidating to have to follow PJ, Vernon and Travis, who can so cogently begin a blogday. Lately, cogent and Soupy are not great partners.

The school year is beginning and I’m not ready. The summer which usually recharges me has instead been quite draining. Hubby’s 4 week hospital sojourn and the endless doctors’ visits that have followed weren’t what an old teacher needs. ( He’s much better, working successfully on regaining the 40+ pounds he lost as well as all that muscle strength.) But, in spite of what all those “education” . blathers who write about teachers who work for non-monetary remuneration, I work because I need to. It’s a great bonus that I generally like the work, but work it is and it’s not really a choice.

And now there is this terrifying election that we’re facing. Obama is a Democrat, as opposed to one of those Rethug loons. That gives me some measure of comfort. I like a lot of what he says and am not too thrilled with some of it, too. But, his election means that the Supreme Court will not have 3 more Scalias. Perhaps the environment won’t be assaulted as much or as often. Social Security won’t be abandoned and maybe, just maybe, Americans, will finally have a right to healthcare.

The prospect of what John McInane (did you know he was a POW?) or foreign policy expert Miss Wasilla could do in 4 years is too scary to contemplate.

Will Americans really not vote their secret and/or unacknowledged racism once they’re faced with that ballot? Has Rove’s election steeling apparatus been sufficiently dismantled? Will young people vote in large numbers? Maybe I’d better stock the liquor cabinet in preparation for election night.

It’s Saturday, so enjoy it. Monday will come soon enough.

The bad news is that it’s supposed to be 90 here today. The good news – in addition to it being Friday – is that the Republican National Convention is finally over. I didn’t actually watch any of it (saw a clip of McCain form last night though, and, well, aside from him sounding pretty lame, I didn’t see any American flag lapel pin), but it sure seemed to have lasted for months. This whole campaign seems to have been going on for years.

Much like today, it’ll be nice to get it over with.

Back to work for me today. That blows. It’s been really nice to be off the last 4 days – most I’ve had off in a row since I can recall, right off the top of my head. Last Christmas, at least. But I actually got quite a bit accomplished (not that I exactly had lofty goals).

Thanks to Travis for jumping in there yesterday morning. I didn’t have anything much to say, and, since I had the day off, figured I’d sleep in a little and see if I felt inspired. I wasn’t – but fortunately I didn’t need to be.

I haven’t been paying much attention to the Republicans. I’m kind of shocked by the MSP police, though. I never thought of myself as naive, but I can’t figure out if I’m more appalled by what they’ve been doing, or by the fact that nobody seems to know or care about it. The comments at places like the Star-Tribune or even The Nation are more than I can bear to read.

I’ve said for quite a few years now – way before I met all you guys – that we were heading into a period of fascism here in this country. It was the way kids of the time seemed to be getting buzz cuts and going all rah-rah for the military and stuff. Nothing against that, but it’s pretty foreign to my personal experience. Hell, even one of my stepdaughters came close to joining the army. Go figure. I just don’t get it.

But, anyway, once everybody starts getting enamored of the shiny black leather boots and parading around in uniforms, well, you’re on you way to Krystallnacht (not that the Nazis were all bad, my Schwiegervater would be quick to tell you). When you look at where this country has come to in such a short amount of time, it’s pretty depressing.

Oh well, good thing it’s a short week.

New Orleans is The City that Care Forgot, dubbed so by American writer Mark Twain for the laissez-faire and carefree atmosphere that used to prevail there. Sadly, it has become the City a nation, or at least its governments, has forgotten.

Hurricane Gustav is ramping up to most likely a 4 and more storms may be on the way. It is Labor Day weekend and the annual Southern Decadence Weekend, aka “Gay Mardi Gras’, is going down in New Orleans but will be cut short. That was the event the fundies like Hagee blamed for “God’s punishment” three years ago.

We passed the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina a few days ago which coincided with John McCain’s 72nd birthday. When my favorite place in the world was being smacked by Katrina, ‘President’ George Bush was off in Arizona helping celebrate McCain’s 69th on an Air Force tarmac. Later he played a fool with a guitar at a military base with some second-rate country music ‘star’.

The fruit didn’t fall far from the tree. This shot is from Lee Atwater’s R&B inaugural ball in 1989 when Poppy B joined his main campaign man on stage where various Blues and R&B performers were entertaining to feign guitar playing and make ‘monkey lips’ as he called it. Nice.

Now with all of the cynicism of the Palin selection (can you say “Brownie” scout?), the same party and its leaders that ignored NOLa when it was drowning due to malfunctioning infrastructure and degraded wetlands that the federal government allowed to happen are now full of ‘compassion’. McCain and McQuaylin rush down to Mississippi to visit Haley Barbour and maybe check out Trent Lott’s porch. Barbour is the smug and smarmy repug party leader and lobbyist turned governor who was more than pleased with the recovery assistance his state received after Katrina. Chances are Mississippi may not take much of a hit from this one, God bless ’em. Bush and Cheney will use their ‘concern’ as an excuse to skip their visit tonight to the repug con in St. Paul. If you think that is the only reason they won’t be there, I have a collapsed bridge nearby to sell you. Most of the first night of the repug con has been abandoned for appearances’ sake. There are even some rumours that the acceptance speech may be delivered from the disaster zone. That might be the only way McCain can challenge O’Bama’s huge event of Thursday. It would also back memories of another cynical speech full of empty promises that Bush made from Jackson Square when he finally made it to NOLa two weeks after the fact or maybe his recent speech in New Orleans where he misrepresented gov’t involvement and accomplishments in the ‘recovery’ that was incompetent and corrupt and shortchanged at every level of government. Watching these bastards use the possibility of another disaster for politic posturing and advantage, as an excuse, a backdrop or an attempt to erase the memories of their previous unacknowledged failures is disgusting.

There have been concerted efforts to limit the return certain elements (race and class based) back in to NOLa and much of the intransigence about rebuilding the city and upgrading the levees and restoration of the wetlands has been part of that, a wait them out strategy. NOLa is prime real estate being historically one of America’s greatest cities. As every desirable destination in America is now being bought and sold to the interests of the upper-classes, Katrina’s aftermath has been used to facilitate a cleansing of ‘undesirables’ to that end. Unfortunately, what made NOLa great was not the party town thing about which GWB and his frat boys pals wax nostalgically. It was the unique blend of cultures and people and flavors that produced tremendous physical beauty, fantastic food, the best of music and arts and literature, and a welcoming almost European environment that was comfortable and rich in a very different way. The people who are being left behind were a very integral part of this mix. New Orleans will not be the same place if the dreams of some to make it a sanitized Disneyland/party town for adults kind of resort city become reality.

There still needs to be a national initiative to restore NOLa and the Gulf Coast and upgrade storm protection. Bake sale charity and faith based ‘initiatives’ and volunteerism and private donations and good will do not come anywhere near what needs to be done to fix this. For now, we can only hope Gustav takes a benign turn and the storms behind it either die or do little harm. Then after the current administration leaves the stage, hopefully a larger Democratic majority in Congress will be able to finally start to correct this national disgrace even if there is a McCain regime. It’s not too late, yet.

There is a new record from Dr. John and the Lower 911, “City That Care Forgot” that is worth checking out. Maybe you should just get it and skip the previous rant.