apple juice

During the day, we keep Yeti in the kennel. Our various experiments with letting her roam free throughout the house during the day have left us with dozens of unmatched socks, shreds of carpet and rug, and bite marks on shoes, cabinets and doors.

So we keep her in the kennel now. Getting her to actually go into the kennel has always been an adventure. A dumb dog, she is not. She has actually memorized the sound associated with turning the Tivo off, and then the TV and then the receiver with meaning that it’s time to go to bed. She’ll be laying on the couch, calmly gnawing on a rawhide or something, I calmly press the buttons on the remote, bee-dup, bee-dup, click, click, I’ll look over, and she’s bolting off the couch.

And she’s not bolting for the kennel. No. She’s heading for the underside of the table, the bed, inside a closet or any other general hiding place she can find.

The dog is smart enough to know when the jackets are being put on, there is a good chance that we’re leaving as well.

So today, I was getting my clothes on to go to work, and Yeti was laying at the top of the stairs. I looked down the hall at her and said, “Yeti! Kennel!”, and went back to room to finish getting dressed.

I say “Yeti! Kennel!” just about every morning, and every morning I have to run around the house, looking for her. Today I came back out of the bedroom and didn’t see her at the top of the stairs. Great. I looked in the office, no, the other bedroom, no, back in our bedroom, no, downstairs, no.

I was climbing back up the stairs when I heard her tail in the kennel. Sure enough, she had layed down in her kennel all by herself.

I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She got a bunch of treats for that one.

Alpine Launches World’s First Car Audio Head Units to Allow True Integration with iPod

“Alpine’s iPod Ready in-dash receivers will allow iPod users seamless control of up to 10,000 songs easily in their car,” said Stan Ng, Apple’s Director of iPod Product Marketing. “Being able to display song information and browse the iPod’s entire music library right from the Alpine head unit makes this a superior way to enjoy non-stop music in the car.”

I’ve been waiting and wondering when someone would develop something like this… too bad I have a first generation iPod. Oh well, I’ll add it to the list of gadgets.

The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me as I look back was it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions. . .

President Bush on Meet the Press – 2/8/04

Complete Transcript

“We had politicians making military decisions.” Funny, that. Could I get a show of hands, how many people think that the current military intervention in Iraq was driven by the political whims of the Bush administration? How many believe it was because Saddam Hussein was able to deploy WMD “within 45 minutes”?

I encourage everyone to read this article at Mother Jones entitled, The Lie Factory. It is an excellent article. I’m going to continue repeating this until everyone gets tired of hearing it. And then I’ll repeat it some more. This war was manufactured. Planning started from Day 1 of the Bush administration.

The reports, virtually all false, of Iraqi weapons and terrorism ties emanated from an apparatus that began to gestate almost as soon as the Bush administration took power. In the very first meeting of the Bush national-security team, one day after President Bush took the oath of office in January 2001, the issue of invading Iraq was raised, according to one of the participants in the meetingÇ — and officials all the way down the line started to get the message, long before 9/11.

Bush and Cheney created a secret intelligence group, the Office of Special Plans, to manufacture intelligence that would justify going to war. It was all false.

The purpose of the unnamed intelligence unit, often described as a Pentagon “cell,” was to scour reports from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and other agencies to find nuggets of information linking Iraq, Al Qaeda, terrorism, and the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In a controversial press briefing in October 2002, a year after Wurmser’s unit was established, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that a primary purpose of the unit was to cull factoids, which were then used to disparage, undermine, and contradict the CIA’s reporting, which was far more cautious and nuanced than Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith wanted.

Read this article, support the democrats who have called for an investigation into the workings of the OSP.

I just purchased a new handsfree kit for old reliable.

how long do you suppose until my old handsfree kit comes out of hiding?

The gentleman on the right is making an album of songs about the democratic party. He worked with Harry Truman. He walked away before I could find out how to send him this picture. He wanted it for the album cover of his aforementioned album of songs about the democratic party.

I’m so glad I bought this camera.

Today at the Olmsted County Government Center, Terry McAuliffe, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, gave a press conference and answered questions from the crowd.

About one hundred people were there, and Mr. McAuliffe spoke briefly about overtime benefits, health care, and how the primary system has been working this year.

Afterwards I had a chance to shake his hand, and introduce myself. He asked if I was excited about the election and that he could see I was a Dean supporter (I had my button on). I said to him, “Dean has brought in a lot of new voters like myself to the party, don’t forget about it”.

Whoops, I felt like I was on the Daily Show. I meant to say, “Don’t forget about us!” “Don’t forget about it” sounds a little too combative. Terry if you’re out there, don’t forget about us!

As this picture was being taken, I believe he was talking about his lapel pin that said “ABB”

He also told the crowd that in 2000, Ralph Nader said that he ran because nobody in the Democratic Party reached out to him. Terry said this year would be different, and that they have already had meetings with Mr. Nader.

I voted for Nader in 2000 not because I’m a Green or because I necessarily agree with him or his policies. But I think our system is messed up, and it needs to be fixed. At the time, the choice between Gore and Bush looked to be no choice at all. Bush didn’t win the election, Gore lost it by not standing up for what he believes in. Gore gave a couple speeches in the past year that I thought were very good, and it put some faith of mine back into Al Gore. But it’s 2003, and it’s a bit late for that now. (Obviously in hindsight, I have no doubt Gore would have been the better option)

So hopefully all you long time democrats who are voting for Kerry know what you are doing. I want someone to get Bush out of there, and I hope that if Kerry is the nominee, he’ll have what it takes to stand up and fight for the next 8 months. Nader isn’t the problem. Providing a real alternative to Bush is the problem. And when the democrats figure that out, they’ll have found the solution.

AOL Presidential Match Main

I like these issue quizzes since it allows you to answer without bias towards one candidate or the other. I ended up with Kucinich 100%, Kerry 85%, Dean 81% and then on down from there… to Bush 11%

Take the test to see who has your views…