The Week of Dee & Other Highlights

For all of you Seinfeld fans out there you will remember the episode entitled "The Summer of George". George finds out that he gets a 3 month severance package from his job at the Yankees. He is excited to be able to enjoy the summer w/out having to work. So he calls it "The Summer of George". This upcoming week my kids are going to a Day Sports Camp. So I've entitled it "The Week of Dee" because I get a break from all 4 of my kids for a week. Since I homeschool that doesn't happen very often. In fact the only other time I think I've gotten that long of a break was when I went on a Missions trip and was responsible for teenagers. And technically I won't be getting a break this week because I have a bunch of house projects planned. But I'm just excited to be able to work on them without interruptions. As those of you with kids know, you never get to concentrate on anything for very long w/out getting interrupted. Thats why I usually write on my blog late at night. All that to say I'm looking forward to this week. It will probably be light blogging this week too because of working on my house and I've got political phonecalls and meetings this week at night again.


INSPIRATIONAL POST OF THE WEEK

I think I'm going to start a new tradition on my blog of having an inspirational post, quote, movie etc. of the week. This week I have an inspirational post of the week. Patrick wrote a post reflecting on my Winston Churchill quotes and a comment I had made. He wrote a lot of biography stuff about him and even some of his own memories of events. Churchill is a very inspirational man and I found the post just as inspirational and encouraging. I reflected on it last night while watching Fox pundits talk about W's low poll numbers. It gave me a lot of hope on how history will view W. Churchill got turned out of office after his courage during World War II so the people of the time don't always get it right. Fifty years from now I will tell my grandchildren how I was in the minority at the time but I was right :-))). Go check it out. It is entitled, "Winston Churchill".


JACK BAUER THINKS I'M #1

I think the guys over at Blogs 4 Bauer felt sorry for me that I didn't take first place in the Fox Awards :-). Here is what they said in giving me "The Jack Bauer Thinks You're #1 Award":

"Little Miss Chatterbox recaps the season finale for 24, Prison Break, and Alias. Her recap also notes her losing out on a Fox Award. She has been Jack Bauer's biggest fan this season and deserves something more than a little Fox award. LMC you have won The Jack Bauer Thinks You Are #1 Award, presented by Bill Buchanan (Jack Bauer doesn't have time for awards)."

This put a big smile on my face--thanks guys!!!

Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy & Hope

"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."--Sir Winston Churchill

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."--Sir Winston Churchill



"For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else."--Sir Winston Churchill

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."--Sir Winston Churchill


"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half."--Sir Winston Churchill

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job."--Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill is one of the heroes from World War II and for good reason!! When I went to find a quote by him I found a treasure chest of wisdom. I had to stop with these but there were many more gems. In my opinion we need more Winston Churchills today. But I take solace in the fact that Churchill was not looked upon as favorably as he deserved until many years later. I think the same will be true of George W. Bush.

I seem to be in a small minority in my continued support for our awesome president but I've decided thats okay. Our American Girl group went to the Truman Presidential Library and Museum today. Harry Truman did what was right and didn't care about the polls. Many underestimated Truman only to be surprisingly impressed. Again I think the same can be said of W!!!

(Go here to see a bigger version) (They won't let me snag the bigger version to put on here) Cartoon credit: Michael Ramirez

Liberals are bashing Bush over the war and conservatives are bashing him over immigration. On the war I think their points have no merit. War is hell but the MSM and the liberals refuse to point out all the good things, and only the bad. On immigration Bush has made a good start and could stand to improve. But in my opinion he does not deserve all the heated rhetoric and anger that is being thrown his way.


Suzie and Wordsmith both pointed out an AWESOME post to me written by the Anchoress. To be honest it is one of the best posts I have ever read on a blog. I highly, highly recommend that you check out this link to her post. It is entitled, "The Essential President Bush". Here are some excerpts:

"That made me wonder a little - has President Bush lost his bearings, or have we? Is it President Bush who has broken faith with “his base” or have they?

When I read my friend’s line, I thought of a line from Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth Bennett says in new appreciation of Mr. Darcy, “In essentials, I believe, he is very much what he ever was.”

Perhaps I am a dim bulb, but President Bush has never surprised me, and that is probably why I have never felt let down or “betrayed” by him. He is, in essentials, precisely who he has ever been. He did not surprise me when he managed, in August of 2001, to find a morally workable solution in the matter of Embryonic Stem Cells. He did not surprise me when, a month later, he stood on a pile of rubble and lifted a broken city from its knees. When my NYFD friends told me of the enormous consolation and strength he brought to his meetings with grieving families, I was not surprised. When the World Series opened in New York City and the President was invited to throw the first pitch, there was no surprise in his throwing (while wearing body armor) a perfect strike.

And now, the Great Big Immigration Imbroglio of ‘06 has turned “the base” quite vicious. President Bush is no longer simply a moron or an idiot to his base, he is a bad man. He is a bad American. He is a bad president. Everything he does now, is wrong. As yesterday’s WSJ pointed out, Bush is closer to the deified Ronald Reagan on this issue than anyone on the right wants to admit. And they’d never do to Reagan what they are doing to Bush.

How you receive a good has a lot to do with whether any more “good” comes your way. The Conservatives got a “good” in 2000 and 2004; they’re receiving it very badly, indeed. I think the throwing-under-the-bus-of-George-W-Bush by “the base” is one of the most shameful things I have ever witnessed in all my years of watching politics, from both sides of the political spectrum. How do you receive a good?

President Bush has never surprised me. He is, in essentials, the man he ever was. It does not surprise me that he is a Christian man living a creed before he is a President, that he is a President before he is a Conservative. It seems to me precisely the right order of things.

You don’t have to agree with everything President Bush does; I don’t. But he deserves a lot better than he’s getting from his own side. He deserves, dare I say it, a spirit of compromise and workability, as opposed to the hard-line demand for a “perfect” solution (one which will never pass congress) to a problem no one else in government has even dared to even address.

You “base” have received a great good. You’ve forgotten it. Continue to do so at your - at all our - great peril."

Blue Star Chronicles also posted on this subject and advertised The Victory Wing blogroll. I was very excited to join and for those of you who agree I encourage you to do the same.

Blogs who also have excellent posts on this subject:
The Essential President Bush--The Anchoress
Quote of the Day--Blue Star Chronicles
Peace Hero--President Bush--Suzie
Supporting Our President--Suzie
Victory or Defeat? I Choose Victory--Mike
The Right Man at the Right Time--Robin
Conservative Battle Fatigue?! Now is not the Time!--Wordsmith

Special thanks to Little Orange Fox for making the anti-defeatism, anti-pessimism, and anti-negativism buttons that you will see on my blog now and in the future. She made them for me at my request.

New to the blogroll:
The Anchoress
Blue Star Chronicles
Chickenhawk Express
Point Five

A.K.A. Miss Congeniality & My Football Diversion

Unfortunately, I did not get 1st or 2nd place in the Fox Awards. But I did get 3rd place and got awarded the title of Miss Congeniality!!! Since I love that movie I was kind of excited to get that title! Thank-you to all of you who voted for me and even those that tried to vote twice ;-)!! Little Orange Fox was clever enough to set it up not to allow more than one vote per person but I was honored that some tried on my behalf :-)!!

I know most of my readers are into politics and not TV/Pop Culture. But since I am into both you'll have to indulge me from time to time when I need to post on TV and/or movies. People complain when Rush takes a diversion from politics and talks about football but it has to be done from time to time. So allow me to talk about my "football diversion".

So what did I watch this year? These were the biggies that I'm going to talk about:
Prison Break, 24, Alias, Survivor and Amazing Race.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!



Prison Break is my favorite NEW show!!! It is awesome. The season finale was very, very good. Even if I was traumatized by T-bag losing his hand. The genius of this show is how they make you love even the bad guys. The only other show I know that can do this is Alias. I love all the characters and it has a lot of twists and turns like 24. Wyatt did an awesome post summing up the season finale.



24 also had a good season finale. I loooooooooved how Martha & Jack got her weasal husband to confess to all his crimes. Jean Smart did an awesome job this year playing the psycho wife of the Weasal President Logan. I was so glad to see him finally go down. And I loved how she smiled as Logan was taken away. I have to admit I was shocked by the shooting of Christopher Henderson but not upset. I loved Pierce's character this season also.

Favorite quote from last week's episode: (This is Martha Logan talking to her Weasal husband)"If I wasn't so horrified by the fact that I married you I might be impressed."


Alias had an awesome series finale. In fact I'm not sure I've ever seen a series end so well. For example there was so much hype surrounding the end of Seinfeld and then I was so disappointed in the finale. So it was with great pleasure to see Alias go out on such a good note.

I watched it with a friend and there was a lot that we enjoyed about it. We were pretty upset when we thought they might kill Marshall. Sooooooo
glad they kept Marshall & Dixon alive and I even liked how they brought
Marshall's wife back into it and they had this techie-geek connection where
she would know his secret messages. Very cool.

I loved how they had showdowns between Vaughn & Sark, Sydney & her mom and
Sloane and Jack. I thought it was pretty ironic that Sloane figured out how
to live forever only to be trapped forever. Now thats hell!!! And my friend
brought up how Jack ensured by trapping Sloane that Sydney & Isabelle would be safe.
I was kind of sad though that her mom was ultimately more evil than good and
that Sydney lost both her parents in one day. But I think in order for it
to be realistic her mom had to be evil, that was her nature.

I loved how Isabelle called Dixon Uncle Dixon--very cool!! And I also
liked that Sydney still did some CIA work, it was what she was meant to do
and if they had her get completely out it wouldn't have been right.

I cried when Jack was dying. I wish they had kept him alive but I loved how they showed all his good points in this episode. He died protecting his daughter and granddaughter. I also noticed that the scene where Sydney is holding his wound and crying was EXACTLY like the scene when Dixon got shot in season 1. Her hair, clothes everything was the same. It was pretty remarkable to me, like deja vu or something. Jennifer Garner crying makes you really believe something is happening. I told my friend that that is how Sydney would've cried if Vaughn had really died earlier in the season. That was one of the main reasons I knew Vaughn wasn't dead because of her reaction.

And the ending was so great with Vaughn and Sydney married on the beach w/2 kids and one named after her dad. Cool!!

Favorite quotes from last week's episode: (A guy is talking to Sydney about some evil people)Guy--"You can't stop them!" Sydney--"You don't know me very well."
(Vaughn talking to Dixon about Marshall) Vaughn--"Do you know what he's talking about?" Dixon--"About 50% of the time."

Another friend has a great post on the final episode also.



Survivor can sometimes be a frustrating show to watch. Often the person who wins is not really the most deserving in my opinion. There have been many seasons where I have been unhappy with the winner. The couple exceptions were when Ethan won Survivor Africa, Rupert and Amber both won Survivor All-Stars and when Tom won a recent Survivor. This season's Survivor Exile-Island came up with another un-deserving winner. My kids and I loved Terry and that he was able to make it to the final three with his ethics intact. We were bummed that Aras won instead of Terry.


Amazing Race made us feel a little better after the disappointing winner in Survivor. The Hippies won and thats who my kids and I were cheering for most of the season. They seemed to take most things in stride and were pretty happy and kind the majority of the time.

Overwhelmed

I have a million hot button issues I would love to post on but am overwhelmed by my real life right now. I feel like I'm being torn in many different directions. Next week will be crazy too but the week after that all my kids are going to a day Sports Camp at my church. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that and how excited I am. It will be the first time all my kids can go to something like that for the majority of the day and I will get a break. Hopefully then I can get back to some of my deeper posts.

Tomorrow Monica has an end of the year baton performance, I'm in charge of a Republican phonebank and we need to go to a graduation party. And saturday is supposed to be my recoup day. Also, next week Monica is going to be taking a standardized test. For those of you who pray, please pray for her and me. When you homeschool you tend to feel responsible for how your kids do academically so I'm a little nervous.

Anyway, now I'll explain the reason for the pic of Colin Farrell. I just recently watched "The New World" with him in it. I figured all of us blogging chicks would enjoy the pic. I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the movie and its ending but Colin looks great w/long hair.

ARTICLES WORTH YOUR TIME:

I was sorting thru papers today and came across some articles that are worth your time. The first one is about the genocide in Darfur. It is entitled "World Must End Tragedy Now" by Peter Makori.

The second is about an issue here in Missouri. The Missouri Congress has just passed a bill that says Voter ID's are mandatory for voting. But guess who is screaming that it will disenfranchise voters? The democrats!! I don't get this, you have to have a photo id to write a check. Who doesn't have a photo id???? Democrats are claiming that 175,000 Missourians don't have photo ids. I find that hard to believe but most of them must be people in nursing homes that probably aren't able to vote. To read the KC Star article on this go here.

Third, George Will wrote an awesome opinion piece on John McCain. He points out that McCain might have trouble taking the presidential oath since he seems to think the constitution is flexible. Remember his statement that clean government is more important than the 1st Amendment? His article is entitled "Just What Does McCain Mean?"

Fourth, The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz had this to say about Tony Snow's first press conference:

"He showed more emotion in 60 seconds than Scott Mclellan did in 3 years."

Isn't that the truth?


And finally a great cartoon by Michael Ramirez.

Oh, and don't forget to vote for me in the Fox Awards. I've lost my lead and need your help :-).

Happy Days!!

Happy Days are here for me :-). I'm celebrating 2 things in this post. First of all I reached 20,000 hits on monday. Woo-hoo!!!

Second, Little Orange Fox also known as The Outlaw Republican has started her Fox Awards. And I was nominated!! I will be shameless (like Wyatt who plugs his blog on Blogs for Bauer all the time and gets irritated if you bring it up :-)) and ask you to go vote for me. To vote go here! Then scroll down and the poll is on the left side.

Our Day at the Log Cabin

As I've mentioned before I have an American Girls' group that meets in my home. I started it for my girls to be able to do other things with girls' their ages. It has worked out well over the years and several of the girls have brothers so all my kids are happy.

Once a month we try to go on Field Trips. Yesterday we went to this Authentic 1829 Log Cabin. The lady does all kinds of neat things with the kids and has a ton of energy. We were there from 9:00-2:00 yesterday. These were some of the activities we did:

--Observe how logs of cabin fit together
--Climb ladder to loft in cabin & read from Little House books
--Help put chinking in between logs
--Locate edibles once used by pioneers
--Eat refreshments from covered wagon
--Rediscover site of foundation where Jesse James ate a meal
--Walk on road where Jesse James traveled
--Dip candles, churn butter, grind corn/coffee
--Learn Square dancing
--Basket Weaving

I am exhausted. I got 3 hours of sleep the night before and this week I'm going to be running around like a crazy woman so probably no deep posts and not a lot of comments this week. I'll do my best!!


On the politics front--I wish I had time to do a post on Bush's immigration speech. I liked everything except for the guest worker program. Lone Pony and Patrick both did good posts on this. Check them out!!

Blogging Chicks

I've joined the Blogging Chicks!! Its a group of women bloggers and you've got to love the name Blogging Chicks!! I do :-)!! Suzie joined and I saw it on her site and thought it sounded like a great idea.


Here is the main Blogging Chicks site.

Here is Michele's site (the creator of Blogging Chicks).

If you want to read about why she created this cool group, check out this link.
Pamela is also a contributor to this site & her blog is here.

So any of you other chicks out there want to join? Go here!!

And check out all the cool chicks on the blogroll on my sidebar!!

I also finally got Patrick's Compatriot blogroll on my sidebar. Its a great blogroll also so check out the links :-)!!

Genocide in Darfur

Credit: Responding to Threats of Genocide Today

The scene is by all accounts horrific and tragic in Darfur, Sudan. This is an issue that I would think all Democrats and Republicans could agree on. Something must be done to end the genocide in Sudan. The issue is making strange bedfellows. Conservative Republican Senator Sam Brownback, Democrat Senator Barack Obama and George Clooney were all at a news conference on thursday to highlight the crisis. And some of them were at the Protest Rally today against the Darfur Genocide. President Bush supported the Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur.


What exactly is taking place in Darfur?

I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know much about this crisis until seeing an ER episode. And even though I will praise ER for highlighting this important issue I resented the fact that they used it as a PC moment to bash Bush and our country. They could've easily highlighted the tragedy without using it as a platform to push their pc propaganda.

On the ER episodes you see the massive amounts of refugees and the murder and rape. The crisis started in early 2003 and continues to get worse. According to a Reuter's article this is what is happening:

"Arab militia, backed by the Sudanese government, have terrorized non-Arab tribes in the region over the past three years, murdering and raping tens of thousands, burning villages and driving more than 2 million people into squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad."

These are the numbers from Save Darfur:

"According to reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced due to violence, and 400,000 people have died in Darfur thus far. The international community is failing to protect civilians or to influence the Sudanese government to do so."

What was the rally about today?

According to a Fox News article:

"Thousands of people joined celebrities and lawmakers at a rally Sunday urging the Bush administration and Congress to help end genocide in Sudan's Darfur region."

"The organizers' permit anticipated 10,000 to 15,000 people would rally, one of several in U.S. cities this weekend against what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian disaster."

"Bush met with Darfur advocates at the White House on Friday and lent his support to the weekend rallies. "For those of you who are going out to march for justice, you represent the best of our country," Bush said."

Credit: Chuck Asay

What can we do to stop it?

Unfortunately although this cartoon makes a point its really not funny. I think the United Nations probably started out as a noble organization. But it has now become so corrupt and ineffective that it is almost worthless. They did nothing about Rwanda in 1994 and they stand by now watching thousands of sudanese be tortured, raped and murdered. How does an international, humanitarian organization sit back and do nothing except pass worthless resolutions?

The Wall Street Journal has written an excellent editorial about Darfur. In it they point out that the U.N. and the French should be able to intervene but...:

"To his credit, Kofi Annan started shouting about the problem two years ago, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell labeled it "genocide" not long after that. The U.N.'s mighty peace-making machinery then started to roll and . . . nothing. The Chinese (who have close commercial ties to Khartoum) and Russians have blocked any serious intervention. Arab members of the Security Council have also opposed any attempt to single out Khartoum."

"As for Europe, France would be ideal to lead an intervention force. The French have military bases in neighboring Chad and could establish a no-fly zone to stop Janjaweed bombing. However, Paris is already occupied with another intervention in the Ivory Coast, and with its own business interests in Sudan isn't volunteering in any case."

I applaud Democrats and even George Clooney for highlighting this problem. But I find it a little hypocritical that they want us to intervene in Sudan and actually blame us for not doing more. When all the while they are screaming about our interventions in other countries. How many thousands did Saddam massacre and yet we weren't supposed to interfere in Iraq's perfect little dictatorship. With that said something does need to be done. Since the U.N. and France refuse to intervene it will once again be left to the U.S. Here is the conclusion of the Walstreet Journal column:

"So that leaves . . . guess who? The cowboy President, the American unilateralists, the Yankee imperialists--or, to put it another way, the only nation with the will and wallet to provide order in an otherwise Hobbesian world. However, that will and wallet are being stretched today in Iraq and elsewhere, and Mr. Bush is rightly wary of committing more American blood and treasure to a conflict in Sudan that the rest of the world doesn't seem serious about ending in any event. One lesson of Darfur is that there really are limits to American power, and in its absence the world's savages have freer reign."

In conclusion I would highly recommend everyone check out the Save Darfur website. They have tons of research, history and actions that can be taken to try and make a difference.

SOURCES:
Save Darfur
Hobbes in Sudan--Walstreet Journal
Protesters Rally Against Darfur Genocide--Fox News
Bush raises pressure as Darfur deadline nears
Bloodshed in Sudan--Crazy Politico