I know how to get a kid to sleep.

Reed came creeping downstairs after I put him to bed tonight. 
“What are you watching?”
“The vice-presidential candidate debate.”
“Can I watch?”
“Sure.”

I think he was asleep in under a minute. =)

p.s. earlier tonight as we started to brush his teeth, Reed started what he called a “language pattern”. One, Dos, Trois, Four… . That’s right: counting while rotating English, Spanish, French. 

Are you serious? We’re actually even considering letting this administration “fix” something else before leaving office?

I posit George Bush has been akin to the anti-Forrest Gump. Whereas for loveable Forrest was a dimwit who blundered his way into unbelievable success, Bush is an unloveable dimwit who has blundered this nation into an abysmal morass of failure. 

So, before we go doling out 700 BILLION no-strings-attached dollars (that’s the equivalent of, oh, six more years in Iraq, in case you’re counting) to his henchmen, I hope you don’t mind that I have just a couple of simple questions:

1. After September 11, you said those responsible would pay. How’s that working out? I mean, minus the fact that you essentially let him go in Afghanistan so you could fight a totally unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive war in a completely different country.
2. How do you assign someone who despises the United Nations to be the ambassador to the United Nations?
3. You say we’re fighting evil doers but then set up hidden prisons to detain and torture people. I say this as a preface to asking: which Bible are you reading again?
4. Your “Clean Skies” program actually put more pollutants into the air. In college, did you major in Irony?
5. You authorized illegal wiretapping of American citizens. You broke the Constitution. You intentionally manipulated the will of Congress through ‘signing statements.’ Are you aware of the definition of ‘asshat’?

There’s more. Like, how can you fail at being the manager of the Texas Rangers and think you’re qualified for the office of President. I wouldn’t hire you as a shift manager at Denny’s. Why is it that everything you do is wrong and turns into a flaming shitball of failure? Are you cursed? Should I pity you? 

And now, now we’re going to have an American fire sale, squeeze the last bit of cash out of our coffers and into the pockets of your minions before you are gone. To think: I was done hating you because, really, after Iraq, how could you fuck up anything worse? It’s inconceivable. But by gosh golly, here we are. So, maybe that’s like a success? You win at failing?

To think if 260 people voted the other way in 2000 … 

I’m aghast.

I hadn't realized (duh) how effectively the GOP had been at making this about Palin, the person, as opposed to the governor of Alaska. The reason she has resonated (in the past, it appears she has fallen off by about 10 pts in the polls since the weekend) with the whole "soccer mom" thing is a direct result of that.

We have not spoken of her as the Alaskan governor. We speak of her as Sarah Palin. And that needs to stop. This isn't about anything but qualifications. And being gov of Alaska for 2 years does not qualify her. End of story.

Esp when stories about her actually cutting Special Olympics funding (while she says she will be a supporter of the students with special needs) keep surfacing.

So I'm going to stop calling her out by name. I'm going to avoid the personal narratives and try to look at it without that spin.

Okay, I don't know why no one else seems to have noticed this but:

Is it just me, or is Sarah Palin basically just George Bush with a vagina?

Seriously, I'm having flashbacks to the 2000 campaign. All this psuedo-folksy, rural drawl bullshit that falls out of Palin's mouth is seemingly verbatim dim-wittedness from Bush. Apparently, people like that shit. Or, at least 51% of people, given our last two presidential elections. But, really, can this country take any more Bush/bush?

There was an interesting discussion today on 'talk of the nation' about Sarah Palin vis a vis the working mom and what that says about modern feminism. Seeing as how they only took call from women, I found the conversation a bit one sided. That, and it was about Palin, so of course there was that lingering barf taste in my mouth. Nonetheless, as a society we discuss motherhood as if it were some kind of factor in job performance, but we never do that with regard to fatherhood. 

In a similar vein, but made by my friend Mike at work:

Dude, I invented the friggin Blackberry. Have you heard of it?

Seriously, you'd think they would know better:

“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”

link