As many New Yorkers suspected, it turns out that “Democratic” candidate for Governor, Andy Cuomo, is a Koch sucker. David Koch, that is. Yes, the man who founded and funds the teabaggers, and is also the founder of the wingnut group “Americans for Prosperity” (which, among other things, “trains” teabaggers on how to be ignorant, uninformed, and obnoxious) donated $50,000 to Andy’s election campaign. Andrew, being the whore he is, gladly accepted. At least I’ll be able to say “don’t blame me – I voted for Howie.”

Speaking of voting, today is the last day to register and be eligible to vote in the November election here in NY (or at least in the county where I live). Since a closing date is not yet in sight, I guess that means I’ll be voting one more time where I live now.

My polling place is at an old elementary school that was turned into a Jewish Community Center (fun fact: the actual voting takes place in the “Schayes Family” gym, the money for which was donated by Dolph Schayes who may possibly be the greatest Jewish basketball player of all time – in fact, he was voted one of the top 50 NBA players – Jew, Shiksa, or Schwartze – of all time; and, yes, a Jew named Adolph is, indeed, somewhat ironic). And for those of you who remember Dolph’s playing days, may I congratulate you on still being alive.

I mention this because, when I voted in the primary, I happened to notice that the Center was flying the Israeli flag.

Now, far be it for me to give a shit, but imagine if this had been at a (gasp!) Islamic Community Center, and they were flying an Iraqi flag or something? Oh, the outrage! Not that we’re at ground zero, but we do have a 9/11 Memorial less than a mile and a half away that features a twisted, 100% certified World Trade Center I-beam, so I’m pretty sure that qualifies it as sacred ground.

On a side note, this is my favorite story on the former Burlington Coat Factory “Terror Mosque.” Not because of the story content, but because it’s quite prominently labeled as being written by Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, whose name evokes rather disturbing images of Michael Richardson and that bubble-headed chick from the comics caught in an intimate moment.

Did you know that in Nazi Germany, you could be thrown in prison for refusing to recite the oath of allegiance to the Nazi flag? I’m not sure that’s actually true, but it certainly has an air of truthiness about it.

In Tuplelo Mississippi, however, it’s more then truthy – it’s true, and it happened to attorney Danny Lampley in a Mississippi courtroom.

When a Mississippi judge entered a courtroom and asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, an attorney with a reputation for fighting free speech battles stayed silent as everyone else recited the patriotic oath. The lawyer was jailed.

Attorney Danny Lampley spent about five hours behind bars Wednesday before Judge Talmadge Littlejohn set him free so that the lawyer could work on another case. Lampley told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal he respected the judge but wasn’t going to back down.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how could a thing like this happen in Mississippi, of all places (personally, I think the judge was trying to over-compensate for his last name)? I mean, not only is it (probably) a bastion of teabaggers and free-thinkers (or is that being redundant), it’s the most fun-to-spell state in the Union. I, for one, am shocked. Shocked, I say!

A bit of sad news (assuming the pummeling of the Constitution isn’t sad enough). For a host of reasons, mostly related to not wanting to deal with the hassle any more, I decided to pull the plug on Sedition Radio last night. The MS archives are still there, but that’s about it. With it being nearly five years since the last MS show aired, I guess it was just time to move on.

Speaking of moving on, it’s time to get out there and get this week over with. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day today, which won’t do me much good, since I’ll be stuck at work. The big question is whether or not to make it a three-day weekend (Monday is Columbus Day, doncha know?), and right now I’m leaning toward “yes.”

We’ll see how I feel over the weekend.

As for now, though, I’ve gotta go start my day by pledging fealty to a piece of cloth.

Not that I pay much attention to baseball, but Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw only the second no-hitter in playoff history last night against the Cincinnati Reds. Not that this should really count as the playoffs, of course. Back in the day, you could kinda justify the ridiculously long baseball season (162 games), because only the top four teams (two from each league) would make the playoffs. But now there are all kinds of divisions and wildcard teams and whatnot. Oh, it’s not as bad as the NBA or NHL, of course, where 82 game seasons serve to eliminate, like, two teams, but still. Anyhow, throwing a no-hitter (and, if I can read a box score – which isn’t certain – being one walk away from a perfect game) is big news at any time of the season, let alone the playoffs. Yes, it’s true. Baseball is the kinda game where the less action there is, the more exciting the game is considered.

In other news, more bad tidings for Uncle Carl Paladino. Not that an endorsement by the Onondaga Country Executive is gonna make or break the Governor’s race, but our Republican CE endorsed Democrat Andy Cuomo yesterday. Local teabaggers are, predictably, incensed. Poor teabaggers. The more people get to know Carl Paladino, the more they think he’s nuts. And it appears that Cuomo’s lead is increasing – back to double-digits. Not that I’m exactly thrilled at the prospect of Uncle Andy being Governor either, but Crazy Carl would be a disaster (though it would probably make for a pretty entertaining 4 years), but a double-digit lead means I can safely vote for Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins.

Speaking of teabaggers and nuts (can’t have one without the other, I guess – in more ways that one), Rand Paul is more or less standing by his statement that there ought to be a $2,000 deductible on Medicare. In fact, he says everybody 55 and under ought to pay that deductible. Good for you, Rand, that ought to…. Hey, wait a minute. I’m under 55.

Keep you dirty hands off my Medicare, asshole!

Speaking of health care related stuff, “Obamacare” is kicking in big time. Now, many of us thought that the version of HCR that passed was pretty lame and insufficient, but, hell, at least it was something, right? And something Obama can be proud of. Not proud enough to actually allow being put into place, though.

…Obama administration officials put into place the first major wave of changes under the health care legislation…by granting dozens of waivers to maintain even minimal coverage far below the new law’s standards.
[…]
Among those that administration officials hoped to mollify with waivers were some big insurers, some smaller employers and McDonald’s, which went so far as to warn that the regulations could force it to strip workers of existing coverage.
[…]
Several leading insurers, including WellPoint, Aetna and Cigna, have also objected to new rules requiring them to cover even those children who are seriously ill, warning that they will stop selling new policies in some states because the rules do not protect them from having to cover too many sick children.

Sounds great. Let me be the first to tip my hat to Max Baucus, Rahm Emanuel, the President, and everybody else who made reform possible. Bravo, gentlemen.

Fortunately, my health insurance remains the same (so far), so I really don’t care.

Speaking of me, due to some issues that the sellers need to address, it looks like we won’t be closing on the new place until the end of next week at the earliest (and maybe not ’til the week after). If this was, say, June, I really wouldn’t care. But I need to put up about 600 feet of fencing, fix two chimneys, install a pellet stove (or two), and do some other outdoor-related activities (not to mention just plain moving a lot of shit), and the weather can get nasty at just about any time now around here. I recall trick-or-treating in the snow on more than one occasion, and an Election Day blizzard or two.

Of course, it could also stay nice and warm right through ’til Christmas. You just never know, and I’d really like to get a start on the outside stuff. And being up on the roof working on the chimney is really no fun in the cold rain and snow.

It’s Super Dirt Week here in Syracuse, and you know what that means. No? Well, neither do I. But it’s apparently a big deal, and it’s been going on for 39 years (based on all the Roman numerals they’ve got after the name). Something to do with stock cars going around in circles on a dirt track at the fairgrounds. Well, whatever it is, I think it means people will be coming here to spend money. And we need that money. Big time.

It’s also the first day of the Major League Baseball playoffs, from what I understand. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to baseball, but was glad to see Boston will be watching the playoffs on TV. I’m pretty sick of Boston, whether it’s baseball or football (or basketball, for that matter; I’m still worked up over the rivalry we had with the Celtics back before I was born). My team, of course (to the extent that I have one), is Washington. Parent club to the Syracuse Chiefs, and last place team in the NL East (but not the worst record in baseball, which belongs to Pittsburgh). I always feel more comfortable rooting for a last place team. It just feels natural.

In other exciting news, we got a new coffee maker yesterday. We’d been using the trusty Mr Coffee with a thermal carafe that I’d gotten for my summer in exile in DC. The pot was fairly small, but I’d been limiting myself to one giant cup of coffee lately anyway (it was making me feel kinda crappy if I went over the one cup), so it was cool. Then Granny made a crappy little half pot one day, saying we’d been throwing out a lot of coffee. So, rather than make a half pot (I have the mix down for a full pot; a half pot doesn’t get it), I decided to up my caffeine intake a bit.

Surprisingly, two giant cups were no longer making me feel shitty (something about no longer drinking beer, I think – though you’d think it would have the opposite affect).

Anyhow, Now that I was drinking more coffee, we suddenly didn’t have enough. I guess it’s one thing to throw it away or make less, but if I drink it, then everybody wants more.

So, anyway, I bought the largest thermal carafe one I could get, and Granny took charge cleaning it and getting it ready for use – and she did a great job (much more than I’d have done; one time through with water only would have sufficed for me), other than setting it to Central Time (but I was up early enough to get it going before I took a shower, so that was OK).

Granny has an odd sort of way of measuring out the beans. Rather than putting all the beans in the measuring cup and then dumping the beans into the grinder, she kind puts some in, and then some more. Or something. Not sure what her technique is, but, what with us needing to get the bean proportions down (always a hassle with a new coffee maker), Granny made some high-grade, extra octane coffee this morning. So, I gotta go.

Big time.

Still no goddamn closing date, so I guess I’ll have to cancel that trip to Europe. Just as well with the big travel alert or whatever it is, I guess. I heard Mike Chertoff yesterday saying Americans shouldn’t go traipsing around Europe with American flag patches on their stuff. I think that ship sailed about seven years ago, Mike. I haven’t actually been to Europe since ’04 or something (that reminds me, I really need to cash in my Euros and Pounds), but my ‘Canada’ clothes are still ready to travel if need be. As long as I don’t have to fly to get there. Flying sucks.

Unless you have your own broom, of course. Then it might be fun – except for picking the bugs out of your teeth. Speaking of flying around on brooms, just in case you missed it, here’s Christine O’Donnell’s new campaign ad.

Some of you out there have no doubt experienced the “empty nest” syndrome. You know, the one where the kids move out and you finally have the house (and the teevee) all to yourself? It’s an experience that engenders mixed feelings. On the one hand, there are feelings of peacefulness, serenity, and privacy. But those are tempered with feelings of ecstasy and euphoria.

So, it takes a while – approximately three to five seconds – to completely adjust to the lack of pitter-patter (more like clop-clop-clop) of big fat feet pounding across the floor, the faucets no longer drip-drip-dripping because now they get shut off all the way (is that really so hard?), and the silence of doors not being slammed repeatedly because how many goddamn times I gotta tell you not to slam the freakin’ doors, all you gotta do is pull ’em until they click and the more you slam the goddamn things the more everything wears out and breaks and the harder they are to close, fer chrissakes! :slap:

Some of you may have also experienced something not so nice: having the damn kid(s) move back in. This sad state of affairs is something we were forced to endure this weekend. Seems that somebody decided to start a fire in the laundry room of the apartment building where my stepson lives at about 4:00 Sunday morning. The short story is that he’s homeless for up to three weeks, and therefore has invaded our space for the duration. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad he’s OK (and thank goodness it’s only temporary), but I very much prefer the empty nest thing. He better remember this when I’m old and feeble and need a place to crash (and somebody to change my diapers).

Otherwise, it was a fairly good weekend. Sportswise, SU didn’t lose (because they had the week off), the Jets kicked the crap out of the Bills (who really, really suck), so that’s kind of a two-for-one, Donovan McNabb returned to Philly and won, and the Giants even won last night.

On the productivity front, I put in some quality tractor time on Saturday, and managed to finish off two more windows yesterday while getting my laundry done. Not bad. Two more windows to go.

Unfortunately, that all leads us to today, which, sadly, is Monday. Bleh.

But maybe I’ll get a closing date some time this week. That’d be cool, ‘cuz I’m looking for a quiet place to crash for the next few weeks.

Let’s see…. No Press the Meat today, ‘cuz they’re showing the Ryder Cup. The winning team gets a free truck rental, I think. No such luck on CBS, though. Instead of golf (oh, did I mention that the Ryder Cup was golf?) it’s Faze the Nation, but today it’s Democrats-only day with PA Guv Ed Rendell, NM Guv Bill Richardson, and Vermont’s Boynie Sanduhs.

You’ll probably never see an all-Democrat day on Fux News Sunday, but you can always count on a crazed wingnut or teabagger (or two). And today’s no exception, as KY teabag darling Rand Paul faces off against his opponent for Senate, Kentucky AG Jack Conway. And then of course there’s the usual Sunday panel of fuxheads.

Over at the Goebbels network, undercover Muslim Christiane Amanpour has a town hall meeting as Franklin Graham, Daisy Khan, 9/11 families, a jihadist and more debate the question: should Americans Fear Islam? Well duh. Personally, I think Americans should fear any ideological movement that requires total, mindless, irrational faith and obedience from its followers while demanding they convert, assimilate, kill, or at least impose their values and beliefs on non-followers – and that includes radical Islam, fundamentalist Christianity, Teabaggery, and every other goddamn (so to speak) group of losers who refuse to leave me the f*ck alone. But that’s just me.

At CNN, Fareed Zakaria has an interview with Wen Jiabao. Can you tell me who that is? Huh? No? OK, well, he’s the Premier of China.

Also, there’s a war that officially comes to an end today. Can you guess which one? The War in Afghanistan? Yeah, right. Nope, it’s World War I. Now, I know that if you went to public school, you probably learned that WWI ended with the Treaty of Versailles, but, like so many other things they taught us, they lied. WWI isn’t officially over until those dirty Huns pay the last of their reparations – and that happens today as Angela Merkel tears that last coupon out of the book and puts the check in the mail.

You know what I’m betting you won’t see today? Any mention of the tens of thousands of progressives who rallied in Washington at the ‘One Nation Working Together’ event. And really, why would you? I mean, it’s not like Glenn Beck was there.

Oh well, lots of work to do today, so I better get to it.

So, looks like Jon Stewart won’t have Rick Sanchez to kick around anymore. You have to wonder how a teevee personality who presumably understands that when you appear on a radio show, people might actually hear what you’re saying (even if it’s only on Sirius) can be so stupid. Then again, this is the guy that was voluntarily tasered, so maybe it isn’t that odd after all. Oh well, farewell Rick, and we look forward to seeing you turn up on Fox. They hate Jon Stewart too, so you should fit right in.

Mira Sorvino “feels compelled” to fight human trafficking, saying it’s “the worst kind of human depravity that you can imagine.” I dunno, Mira. I’m not saying it isn’t, but as far as human depravity goes, there’s a lot of competition for the #1 spot.

But, wherever human trafficking (which, frankly, as a term seems little better to me that “human resources.” I think the world all began to go to hell when we stopped being persons – as in personnel – and started being the equivalent of the utility bill – an unfortunately unavoidable expense that should be kept to a minimum if it can’t be eradicated entirely) falls on the human depravity scale, I’ll listen to Mira because she was great in Mighty Aphrodite (which was a great movie – and not just because the boxer dude wanted to quit boxing and be an onion farmer in Wampsville, which, yes indeed, is not only a real place, but of course isn’t very far from me, and was, in fact, the place where a lot of kids took their road tests when I was 16’ish, because it was rural and presumably much less likely to hit anything in) and I liked her old man in Law and Order.

I’m just now watching last night’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and thank goodness that Andrew Breitbart wasn’t on this week. I don’t mind a conservative point of view, but a loudmouth schmuck who will do nothing but blather and filibuster adds nothing to the conversation and only serves to piss me off.

Not that this week’s panel wasn’t flawed. First off, there was Joe Klein who is, well, to put it mildly, an asshole. Then there was Arianna Huffington, who’s OK, I guess, but I’m getting a little tired of her and her Gabor sister accent. That’s unfair, I know, but, hey, what can I say. She’s also starting to look (especially her profile) like a caricature of herself drawn by Matt Groening. Cornell West was on, though, and I like him (even though he looks like he just got done filming an episode of the ‘Wild Wild West’ – kinda like the half-brother of Artemus Gordon that everybody kept a secret).

God, I wish Joe Klein would just STFU.

Big day today, which you might not have heard about because nobody seems to give a shit about it, but there’s a big, big rally or demonstration or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days for Single Payer Health Care. Hundreds of thousands (or maybe just hundreds) of people are expected. I know what you’re thinking, “hey, don’t we already have single payer health care? Or something?” And the answer to that is no. No we don’t. Maybe if Rahm Emanuel had left the White House sooner (or President Obama hadn’t chosen him to be Chief of Staff in the first place), we would. Or maybe Obama would have at least made a half-assed attempt to get it.

But he didn’t and we don’t. So, people with a lot more ambition than I have are still out there trying to get it. Most of them are old people who saw the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era, and actually think that marching or demonstrating or whatever it is they’re calling it these days will accomplish something. Good for them. I have my doubts, mostly because the government and the media are bought and paid for by the people who most stand to profit by the status quo, and because most of the people in this country are idiots.

And we no longer have Rick Sanchez to stand up for us anymore.

It finally appears to have stopped raining out there. Yesterday (and all through the night until just a few minutes ago), I was starting to wonder if it would ever stop, and I guess we’re lucky it wasn’t a little later in the year, ‘cuz if it had been snowing, we’d have gotten a good three feet (and right now, I’d settle for two good feet. Arh!). There’s been some big-time flooding around, and they had to open up some dams (‘cuz that’s what they do around here). We got nothing compared to what they got down in the Carolinas, though; parts of North Carolina got a foot of rain. I’m no expert, but that’s a lotta friggin’ rain.

If I lived in Delaware and was still up in the air as to who to vote for for Senate, I think this 2002 photo of Christine O’Donnell with Ozzie Osbourne would probably seal the deal for me. I’m not really an Ozzie fan per se, but I was big in to Black Sabbath back in the day, and I’m assuming Christine was, too (at least in her witchcraft days). Though back when I was crankin’ ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ in the school library (and generally getting kicked out for it), Christine was probably only about 5 years old. But I’m sure she got the call from Satan at a young age (like Damien).

The counter-clockwise (depending on what direction you’re coming from; from in here, it’s counter-clockwise) progression of pain is nearing the end (I hope) of its vicious cycle. What started out at my right foot, moved into my right shoulder, then jumped over to a tooth on the left side of my face has now worked its way down to my left foot. Actually, right now, everything from (and including) my left knee on down to my foot is pretty much killing me. Kinda sucks, and this wet weather probably isn’t much help, either. Only two questions remain: how long will it last, and what’s next?

It’s gonna be cool this weekend, but dry (so they say; I never trust ’em). So tomorrow should be a good day for the dogs to go play with their cousins (and for me to play with my tractor – goodness knows I won’t exactly be up for doing much walking). Today, though, needs to be dealt with first.