Lura is SIX!

We had a birthday party for Lura today. She will be six tomorrow.


She cleaned up on Barbie--Mariposa Barbie from Grandma and 3 Fairytopia Barbies from Grandpa, along with a DVD of the Fairytopia movie.

Sam and Ammon pooled money they'd earned on their paper route to get her a My Little Pony set.
Grandpa and Grandma from Ohio couldn't be there, but sent a great looking coat, very warm with heart buttons

Uncle David and Aunt Wendy were at the party and so were Uncle Gary and Aunt Sarah (accompanied by Murray), Grandma and Grandpa. Gary and Sarah came up with cash (which is just as good as money). David and Wendy are paying for another year of riding lessons, which Lura just loves. We ate some great sandwiches and then cake and ice cream.

All in all, a great party.

IMPORTANT LETTER PLEASSE HELP

This letter, which I got from another website, pretty much sums up my thoughts on bailing out Wall Street. These are the guys who are always complaining (or, in the words of Senator Gramm, whining) that middle class Americans don't have their houses in order. They're the literati of the world of finance. We just don't understand these complex things. Now they need our $700 Billion to rescue them from their greed and incompetence. And we're supposed to trust a minion of the most incompetent, dishonest, greedy and manipulative government in the history of USA with all this money, no questions asked. That's $2300 for every man, woman and child in the country. I may have fallen off the turnip truck, but I didn't land on my head.

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Estee Lauder Politics

Last weekend it was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now, we have Wall Street continuing to collapse, with Lehman Brothers seemingly bankrupt, Merrill-Lynch needing to be sold to someone so they can avoid that fate, and Washington Mutual endangered. We found out that we're importing tainted baby formula from China. Hurricane Ike has brought back $4 gas (what a surprise, a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico). Unemployment continues high and foreclosures have set another new single month record. American casualties mount in Afghanistan and we have illegally invaded Pakistan, a nation we've in the past described as a critical ally in our so-called "War on Terror". And the debate among TV's talking heads? Makeup on farm animals. This nation is descending into idiocy.

In the prior post about Governor Palin, I removed the statement that she was a supporter of Buchanan in 2000, as it seems she actually supported Steve Forbes, and I clarified that she has been associated with the AIP, but has not been a member. Her greeting to their convention as Governor was way to friendly and First Dude Todd is a member, but she's been a faithful Republican since 1982. I apologize for the errors.

On trying to get her brother-in-law fired, this is a high school civics issue. You don't use public office for private gain or to further your private interests. When you're a public office holder and you run into an issue that involves your private interests, you recuse yourself to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. The personal failings of the individual in question are not an issue. For all I know he's a terrible police officer who should be fired. It doesn't matter. These things should be handled in a manner consistent with law. Ms Palin appears, instead, to view holding public office as an opportunity for personal aggrandizement and for the settling of personal scores. It is exactly that separation that distinguishes our Constitutional form of government, in which power and authority are vested in an office and incidentally in an office holder, from a monarchy, in which power and authority are held by an individual as an individual. For the Latter-day Saint readers, I would refer you to the 121st section of the D&C.

I would expect any conservative to be appalled by her actions. These are the kinds of things that have marked the Bush administration's most significant failings, the belief that the President is above the law (as one of his spokesmen said "the President is always right") and that public office is an invitation to pillage the public purse (Halliburton). We're a government of laws and not of men. The growth of police powers and their partisan use--as exemplified by Justice Department officials asking political and religious questions of would-be attorneys--is a shockingly inappropriate use of power. If you're a Republican (or if you won't admit you're a Republican and you're a "conservative") just imagine what you'd think if similar questions are asked in an Obama administration.

McCain-Palin

Gotta love this!

Mariners ALERT!

It appears that Lukas has been paying attention this year, and wishes to offer a critique of the season.

I think he makes a good point.

Lukas at the Ball Game

What a day! Lukas, along with Becky and Mike and Grandpa, took in a late season game at Safeco Field. The Mariners, from time to time, have a peanut-free seating area and we took advantage of that to go out to the ballpark on a perfect late Summer evening. Well, let's call it potentially perfect, the Mariners-after a very nice series against NY-reverted to their usual form today, which ruined that aspect of the outing. But, the game started out with all of us getting free Ichiro tee shirts! Before the end, Lukas told Becky he was having a great time. He endured a pretzel (not shown), blue cotton candy and a foot long hot dog and left the game happy, if on somewhat of a sugar high.

OK, One more break for politics

No promises that this is the last one, but I'll try to control myself.

I would say that recklessness is not a quality I would want in a President. I think Mr. McCain has demonstrated breathtaking recklessness.

To me, it is reckless to nominate as Vice President someone who has not been vetted, someone who is not broadly known to the American people and someone who has major questions of political judgment.

This woman was associated with a secessionist party--the Alaska Independence Party! The last time a secessionist ran for office in the USA was 1860! That coincides nicely with her first statement when her nomination was announced, that she had to consider what she could do for Alaska as Vice President. UMMM, attention please, the office is Vice President of the United States (all of them), not VP for Alaska.

Then there is the issue of possibly firing a state official who would not fire her ex-brother-in-law as a state trooper. If true, this kind of personal use of official power is exactly the kind of stuff that has been the worst aspect of the current administration.

Can anyone seriously tell me that out of all the Republican office holders, this is the person most qualified to be President of the United States? Until Friday, had anyone even of thought the possibility that she could be POTUS?

We cannot afford to have another (thank you Sue/Ray) reckless, thoughtless, shoot-from-the-hip President!

A break for politics

I mostly intend this blog for lighthearted discussions of family, posting pictures and that sort of thing, but I feel compelled to take a break from that for a bit and talk the serious business of politics.

I think this is a crossroads election. As a nation we've been traveling down the wrong path most of the time since the unfortunate election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and when the Supreme Court awarded the Presidency to the current incumbent, the speed of that wrong-way travel increased exponentially. We are now hurtling towards hell at breakneck speed in a very shopworn basket. The politics of fear, division and hate have allowed these evil people to steal our civil liberties, fight an unnecessary war to enrich their cronies, deny basic facts (global warming) to enrich other cronies all while American lives were being lost at home and abroad. Electing John McCain will mean 4 more years of these policies and will leave an America broken at home, disrespected, even hated, abroad, and deeply in debt, while fueling the ambitions of a man who sees war as the first alternative for settling international disputes. His election will mean death and destruction--not metaphorical, but real--and could lead to the end of the USA as we have known it. In 2000 we allowed an unelected president to steal the office because we valued internal peace too much. We cannot allow that to happen again. In 2008 we must win clearly and cleanly (as we did in 2000) and then not allow the inevitable attempt to steal the election to go unchallenged.

We must elect Barack Obama in 2008. His politics are not perfect, but they at least stop the insane swing towards the ultra-extreme right that we've been making. I regret that he voted to expand FISA, but I have some hope he will curtail the illegal eavesdropping and surveillance of political opponents that's going on now.

I have some hope that tax rates will be restored to somewhat less insane levels, with the very wealthy asked to pay their share and with the overall tax burden eased on middle and working class Americans. The current tax policies, along with this administration's policies of contracting out basic government services, have led to a situation in which the government is performing a massive income transfer--from the middle class to the upper classes and the largest corporations. No reasonable government with even the slightest intention of acting on behalf of the people would ever have such a policy. At the same time, we've accrued an enormous debt (does anyone remember that in 2000 there was debate about what to do with the surplus?), and most of that paper is held by China.

Our position as a great economic power is at extreme risk. The debt mentioned above is one reason, but deregulation of our economic markets has led to bubble after bubble as irrational investor optimism in tech stocks and real estate has been fueled by deceptive practices, once again enriching the wealthy few and leaving middle class and working class Americans holding the bag. This deregulation of business has been accompanied by increased levels of regulation on labor unions, making an uneven playing field even less even. I know that many people, especially the young, think that the relative affluence of working Americans happens because people work hard, but that's only partly true. People have worked hard for centuries and have nevertheless lived and died in poverty--lives that were, in the words of Hobbes, "nasty, brutish and short." It was the emergence of powerful organized labor in Western Europe and North America that led to better lives for working people. It is not a coincidence that the years in which America has had the most widely shared prosperity has been the years in which labor unions had their highest membership. Big corporations don't give anything to workers, the workers have to take it! Regular Americans forget this at their peril! If you think large corporations give high salaries, good vacations, health benefits and such willingly, take a look at their pay scales in the third world. To quote Dennis Kucinich, "wake up, America!"

I have some hope that we can restore our reputation abroad by returning to the international community and reversing our current policies of acting like a one-nation vigilante posse. There is in the world, I think, still a reservoir of sympathy for basic REAL American values, and we can tap into that again if we begin to act as one nation among many rather than pursue independent policies based in an irrational belief in American exceptionalism. We cannot act ourselves in ways that we would not tolerate from other nations. It is clear that Mr. McCain does not understand this--reference his statement in response to Russia invading Georgia that "in the 21st Century, nations don't invade other nations."