[W]hen she alit in The Situation Room the other day to tell CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she deserves credit for “changing the debate” on the Iraq war and she and her Democratic colleagues were holding President Bush accountable, I was so dumbfounded that I had to confirm the references.Why dumbfounded? Because of the reality that on Pelosi’s watch 30,000 additional troops have been sent to Iraq and she and her fellow Democrats have pretty much given the president a blank check to dump the whole mess on his successor.
Yeah, pretty much my thoughts too.
As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.Seriously. He said that.
Wal-Mart on Monday also announced a partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (C.D.P.) to measure the amount of energy used to create products throughout its supply chain — many of which come from China.Great! But here's the problem: China isn't about to change their production to benefit the environment. They want to do whatever will make money, and unfortunately the "green" thing is not always the cheapest thing.
The most frequent and difficult question we get in China with every policy initiative we put forward is: ‘If it is so good, why aren’t you doing it?’ It’s hard to answer — and somewhat embarrassing. So we point to good examples that some American states, or cities, or companies are implementing — but not to the federal government. We can’t point to America.America should be leading this cause. Period.
Army Chief of Staff George W. Casey Jr., who is scheduled to testify today before the House Armed Services Committee, intends to move as quickly as possible to grant soldiers more relief from the war zone, having argued that the troop rotations of 15 months in combat and 12 months at home -- required by the buildup of U.S. forces in Irag and the conflict in Afghanistan -- are "not sustainable" for the Army.Hopefully, the civilian leaders in the government will listen to the military.
In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this.Rrrright. Doug Ireland begs to differ. Peep the photos.
GQ was working on a story the [Clinton] campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland.Nice. Deprive the public from hearing negative accounts of your campaign... that's great for a message of transparency.
So Clinton’s aides pulled a page from the book of Hollywood publicists and offered GQ a stark choice: Kill the piece, or lose access to planned celebrity coverboy Bill Clinton.
[H]e's going to move "In God We Trust" to the front of the new dollar coins instead of the side.Oh, and this gem:
I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA.Ugh.
"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said to applause from many of the 600 people in the room for a speech from the Iranian leader.
Bollinger cited the Iranian government's "brutal crackdown" on dissidents, public executions, executions of minors and other actions.
And he assailed Ahmadinejad's "denying" of the Holocaust as "ridiculous" and "dangerous propaganda." He called the Iranian leader either brazenly provocative "or astonishingly uneducated."
"The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.
He said he doubted Ahmandinejad would show the intellectual courage to answer the questions before him.
Ooooh! SNAP!
Growing up in central
Naturally, when the idea of a family vacation came up in conversation with my wife, my thoughts immediately turned to
Needless to say, a lot has changed in my life since those dog days of summer spent in the
My wife did not grow up squishing sand between her toes every summer. In fact, her first trip to the beach was with MY family during one summer back in the 90s when we were still merely dating. Fortunately, Melissa fell in love with the beach and we try to go as much as we can – even if it means without taking our kids…
BUT, this trip was going to be our whole clan – including my PARENTS – which in and of itself would normally be a challenge. Add a four-year-old and one-year-old into the mix and you have yourself a steaming kettle of anxiety… if it is not handled properly.
We rented a beach house for the second week in September. This is a useful tip because the rates for beach houses are at their peak price in July and August – but if you can wait a couple of weeks into September, you will cut your rental cost in HALF (in late-July, our beach house cost $1500.00 per week and we paid just under $600.00 for the week that we had it). We rented a second-floor, three bedroom house that was three blocks off of the beach (also a cost factor). It was a great house. The owners of the home either have kids, or were simply over-prepared for their guests as we found a Graco high-chair and Pack-N-Play and numerous beach toys already waiting for us. We went with three bedrooms in the hopes that our two kids would be able to sleep in the same room all week. Fortunately, it worked out pretty well. There weren’t too many sleepless nights for anyone involved. Next year we will likely shoot for a four bedroom place.
Oh, and speaking of sleep, many resort towns have companies that will rent items like strollers and cribs to families who are on vacation. The last time we took Holden to the beach, he was still sleeping in a crib at home – so naturally we rented a crib for our beach house. Not this time. I decided that since I could fit it into our Dodge Caravan, I was going to disassemble and pack Fiona’s crib for the week. It was a royal pain – BUT, it saved us FIFTY bucks (yes, that’s right folks FIVE-ZERO dollars to rent a crib for one week). Money that Melissa and I then used for a ‘date night’ out to a nice restaurant.
If I were to change anything about our rental house, I would say that the second floor was a bit too much for our family (especially moving that crib in and out). With a toddler who has just learned how to walk, being on the first floor would have been a lot more convenient.
Packing.
If you have children (and if you are reading this article, you most likely DO), then you know that packing for a trip that is longer than to-the-grocery-store-and-back can be quite an ordeal. Especially if you have young children.
Our solution to trying to remember every little item was to mentally walk through a day at home (my job) and make a list of things that we use every day. Wake up: diaper, clean clothes, breakfast for each kid, etc. This proved to be a fairly successful system. The only things that we had to buy upon our arrival in
Travel.
My least favorite part of family trips is the actual trip. The Boy gets car sick when we travel windy or hilly roads. I’m not kidding when I say that we always take one of those over-sized, 35 ounce coffee cans on long trips. We affectionately refer to it as the “puke bucket”, and yes – it has indeed gotten some usage. Gross. The Bean on the other hand is quite the opposite. As I mentioned earlier, she just recently figured out how to walk. Now, she wants to get really good at it by practicing. She doesn’t express her frustration with this until about 20 minutes into any given trip, but rest assured – she’ll let us know that she wants to get out and walk.
Our saving grace for this trip came in the form of one of Melissa’s colleagues. This generous co-worker let us borrow a portable DVD player and two strap-to-your-headrest TV screens. This way, the kids could watch movies during our long van ride to
Please don’t misunderstand – we are not the type of parents who park our kids in front of the boob-tube. But on a six-hour trip in a confined space with two kids – we became that type of parent, if only for that short time.
Enough with the appetizers – bring on the main course.
Vacation.
We had a great time. Out of the seven days we spent in
The kids BOTH loved playing on the sand. We brought the usual beach toys (sand buckets, shovel, castle molds, etc.) as well as a small, inflatable pool in which Fiona could splash around.
Prior to arrival, Melissa and I were worried that she might be somewhat frightened by the waves that pound the beach. Man, we were WRONG. Every opportunity that my daughter had, she made a break for it and went charging towards the water. Chasing her around became great exercise for my parents. Holden had been to the shore in past years, but because of his young age he had no memory of the beach. He also had fun playing in the sand, chasing sea gulls and flying his kite.
The only real challenge during the week was our family’s adaptation to a new schedule in a new environment. When we are at home, there is an almost predictable pattern to our days. After breakfast we play until about 10 am when Fiona goes down for her nap. Then Holden and I get to build with Legos or color in his coloring books or play with his awesome Cars toys (my son is like every other kid his age and seemingly obsessed with Disney’s Cars). At the beach, we would eat breakfast, lather ourselves with what seemed like 80 SPF sunscreen (so strong that it made your skin crawl) and hit the beach. Sometimes we would push through Fiona’s 10 am nap – other times one of us adults would take Fiona back to the house while everyone else stayed on the sand with Holden. There weren’t any real problems per se, but because we were in exciting new surroundings, the Bean had some difficulty settling down at her nap times.
Dinner each night was one of the great successes of this vacation. My wife had the foresight to suggest that we prepare a couple of meals and freeze them prior to our vacation (I highly recommend doing this). Thusly, on the nights that we didn’t use the grill (hamburgers, hot sausages and chicken), we would cook our frozen lasagna or enchiladas. These frozen dinners also doubled for cooler ice-packs during our voyage into
Some of the other advantages of taking a late-in-the-season vacation to
At the boardwalk, we all had a great time and treated ourselves to some Kohr Brothers frozen custard. Yum!
Adults.
While some families may cringe at the idea of taking their parents on vacation with them, my wife and I found it to be quite enjoyable.
My parents adore their grandkids. Sure, they are the usual spoil-the-kid-then-drop-them-off types of grandparents, but you can really see the love when they build a sand castle with their grandson or chasing sea gulls with their granddaughter. I think that my parents had just as much fun on this vacation as my kids did.
BUT, there was definitely an ulterior motive to vacationing with my folks: free babysitting. While Melissa and I did not abuse the privilege, we definitely took advantage of the presence of my parents. As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I did go out one evening for a nice dinner-date followed by a walk on the boardwalk (and the required trinket gift-shopping). We also “allowed” my parents to watch the kids nearly every day when we went for a bicycle ride in the morning. Who would have ever thought that it would be so enjoyable to ride a bike up and down the streets of
Back home.
Though we all had a great time at the shore, it is indeed nice to be home again. While I always love the smell of the salt air and the sounds of the surf and sea gulls, it is definitely nice to be back into our routine at home.
The old saying says, "Home is where the heart is." That is true. But, home is also where the kids eat better, sleep better, and are generally better behaved because they are not made hyperactive by the excitement of vacation.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some clean laundry to fold.
The idea of winning the war in Iraq is beginning to get a second look.Rrrright. And there were sooo many of us Americans who were considering the "idea" of LOSING the war as our "first look". How about you Harry Reid (D-Nv)? What's your take on all of this?
In blocking this bipartisan bill, Republicans have once again demonstrated that they are more committed to protecting the president than protecting our troops.Well, that may be the case - but you are the guy who stated "this war [in Iraq] is lost" - so you've lost your credibility with me. Be quiet.
This goes to the heart of the surge that is showing success in Anbar province, in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. The effect of this amendment would be to emasculate this surge.Mmmmkay, you are a veteran and someone who knows about troops on the ground, that sounds reasonable... so why did you ALSO say that U.S. forces in the region are "overstressed... but not defeated"? C'mon Johnny! The point of this bill was to take some of the stress away - not get defeated.
It's unfair to continue to load this burden on the same people, deployment after deployment. Not only will you ruin your military . . . but you will also have an impact on our society, because a democracy cannot continue to function when you ask 1% to make all the sacrifices and carry all the burdens.Now, there's a response that I like.
Gosh, no one has told me that there's any major reserves in the Everglades, but maybe that's one of the things I need to learn while I'm down here.Really? Yikes.
The oil price increase was propelled by investors covering previous bearish bets, worries about rapid declining US crude oil and products inventories and the prospect that interest rates cut will prop up the US economy.What?
OH Mr Pundit...you as well as I know this is what McCain is all about. He is a comical father like figure. If you said your father was old...what would he call you? Worse than Jerk would be my guess. I like Johnny Mc for the reason that he acts like a regular Joe but has so much more experience in world affairs than your average "John". And let's be real...this is what you like about him too. For my last point...know that NO PRESIDENT WILL EVER BRING BACK THE DRAFT! It will be the end of their presidency and their party...and they're not stupid.Mmmkay.
"Thanks for the question, you little jerk," McCain joked back to one student who asked the 71-year-old about his age. "You're drafted."Right. Using the word "draft" in this election cycle is probably not the smartest way to win the young vote. That combined with calling people schoolyard names is definitely on the do-not-do-this-on-the-campaign-trail-list.
He [Robert Draper - author] also makes new disclosures about the behind-the-scenes infighting at the White House that helped prompt the change from Card to Bolten in the spring of 2006. By that point, he reports, some close to the president had concluded that "the White House management structure had collapsed," with senior aides Rove and Dan Bartlett "constantly at war."Great. And these are the folks who are running the country - not to mention a couple of wars.
For three years now, he's been a feared one-man machine, "outing," he says, nearly three dozen senior political and congressional staffers, White House aides and, most damagingly, Congress members on his blog.Yikes. The fringy-right-wingers are most likely shaking in their $2,000 suits.
In the coming months, he plans to post the names of "a few more" closeted Congress members on his blog, he says, all of them Republicans. There are 33 names on his published list, most of them men, 30 from the GOP.
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