Rifle Hunting Allowed in CWD Zone

Great!

When deer hunters take to the fields this fall, they will be allowed to fire rifles in diseased deer areas of south and central Wisconsin under a state rule change that some local officials say endangers residents near hunting land.

Now if only they’d do that for all of the other areas. 

U.S. Normalizing Relations with Libya

Excellent.

Relations between the US and Libya have entered a “new phase”, according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Speaking after a historic meeting with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, she said differences remained but they had started a new era of co-operation.

A cultural exchange agreement would be signed, and the US hopes to have an ambassador in Tripoli soon, she said.

They met in a compound bombed by the US in 1986 over what the US said was Libyan involvement in a terror attack.

Dogs Likes To Eat Balls

Yummy.

Owner Chris Morrison had been taking five-year-old black labrador Oscar round the Pitreavie golf course in Dunfermline for several months.

He took Oscar to the vet after noticing a rattling sound coming from his pet’s stomach.

They then discovered that 13 balls - each weighing 45 grams - were lodged in his stomach.

Mr Morrison, a planning administrator, said one of the balls had been in his stomach so long that it had turned black and was decomposing.

He said: “He finds golf balls like truffles. We’re not sure how long exactly this happened over, but it must have been a fair period - several months at least.

Fantasy Football Costs Companies $500 Million A Week

I believe this. 

According to a study released two years ago by outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray and Christmas, fantasy football players in the workplace conservatively cost the U.S. economy about $500 million a week in lost productivity, slightly more than $9 billion during a 17-week season.

The Chicago firm based that on actual fantasy research conducted by players, such as scouring injury reports or making trades, which it estimated to occupy workers for more than an hour a week. It also added that fantasy football aficionados spend more than a half hour a day just thinking about their teams.

The Ladies of McCain’s Life

Here’s a shot of the ladies of McCain’s life during the speech.  Sorry for the crappy camera work.  You get what you pay for. 

Loyal to the Senate Leadership

Just so you know…

Also, Obama voted in line with fellow Senate Democrats 97 percent of the time in 2007 and 2005, and 96 percent of the time in 2006, according to CQ.

Well, I was always taught that before you could be a great leader, you had to learn to be a great follower first. 

Top Ten “That’s What She Said” Moments From Star Wars

Whew… needed a break from political blogging.

Associated Press Low-Balls Attendance For McCain/Palin Event

Interesting choice of words by the Associated Press.

More than a thousand people jammed the streets to see McCain and the Alaska governor…

“More than a thousand?” People going in had to register, so there is a hard count of the people who were inside. 12,500.  It’s anyone’s guess at how many were outside and couldn’t get in.  Why would the AP so blatantly low-ball the number?

Obama Resorts to Lies About Republican Convention

This is the beginning of an Obama fund raising letter:

Owen --

John McCain and the Republicans had all week to make their case—and they didn’t do it.

The whole Republican convention went by without offering a single idea about how to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.

Along with that, Obama keeps saying that nobody at the GOP convention spoke about the economy.

That’s an outright lie and there’s plenty of recordings to prove it.  The Republicans talked about lowering taxes, policies to make us energy independent, regulatory reform, and on and on and on as ways to improve the economy.  I know that Obama disagrees with the Republicans on these issues, but to say that they didn’t talk about it is a flat out lie.

Video of Protesters During McCain’s Convention Speech

Scott Walker at the GOP Convention

J. B. Van Hollen at the GOP Convention

Sorry about the crappy lighting. 

McCain, Palin, and Me

This morning we decided to ditch school and see the next president of the United States.  Well, actually, I gave our two older daughters the opportunity to do their schoolwork ahead of time so they could have an excused absence to witness history.  The older daughter agreed, but Daughter #2 was dissecting flowers in science today and did NOT want to miss it because she was dissecting the roses Owen gave me for our anniversary last week.  My mom also made the trip, so there were three of us.

As soon as the kids got on the bus this morning, Mom, Daughter #1, and I got in the car and made the half hour trek to Cedarburg.  We found what we thought was a great parking place, parked and got out.  A lady came trotting toward us and told us we had to pay $10 to park there.  There were free spots on the street, but we paid the stupid $10 because we really just wanted to get in line.  Capitalism at work, I guess.

The line was already pretty long when we got there at 8:00, and we got to know the people around us quite well while we waited two hours to get going.  They didn’t let people in at 8:00 like they said they would.  From what I understand, after about half an hour, the line extended 7-8 blocks behind us.  Later, I heard that the line extended nearly a mile.  I’m not sure, though.  There were two lines entering at two different streets, and there were a LOT of people.  While we were waiting, we saw some protesters, whose song and dance (really, there was music) did little to change the minds of the people waiting in line.  One McCain supporter shouted, “Get a job!” and the protester lifted his McCain mask off his face and said, “Believe it or not, I get paid for this.” Nice.  I’m sure his mom is proud.  Another McCain supporter began shouting “Obama sucks!” over and over.  At that point, I turned to my daughter to explain to her that neither person did anything to advance his cause by yelling stupid stuff.  Their energy could be better spent in productive ways of getting their points across.  Jim Burkee’s family also came by handing out stuff and talking to the crowd, which was indeed a much more productive way to try to change things, even if I like things the way they are.

We finally got in right at 10:00.  I say “in,” but really we were out because there was no in, we were out.  At one point, Representative Pridemore was standing in front of me.  Representative Mark Gottlieb seemed to be the MC, and the mayor of Cedarburg, Jim Sensenbrenner, and JB Van Hollen all spoke.  Bonus points to JB for being upright, since I know Owen saw him in Minneapolis last night.  I’d post pictures of them, but I think we’ve seen them enough to know what they look like, no?  Someone from Concordia did the invocation, and he said he was going to present Governor Palin with a Concordia hockey jersey (do they call them jerseys?  Sweaters?  Whatever), which read “Palin” on the back with the number 2.  He also talked about a colleague whose father wanted him to give his Medal of Honor to John McCain.  This really touched people, who murmured among themselves how special that was.  Then we waited something like 20 minutes with nothing but music playing until the bus arrived.

This was all very much like the Bush visit awhile back, blue bus and all.  The candidates came out of the bus, kissed hands and shook babies and got on stage.  It appeared to me that there were a lot more handmade Palin signs than McCain signs.  One of them seemed to have a manifesto on it, however, upon closer inspection it read, “Gloria Steinem says, ‘Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton.’ Wisconsin says: ‘Thank God!’”

Governor Palin spoke first and disappointingly just paraphrased, and often just simply quoted, her convention speech.  That would be fine if we hadn’t just watched the same lines from the comfort of our own living room couches just two days ago.  Then McCain spoke, and he was really in his element.  This is really where he shines.  He was behind a podium, but it was like he had a list of things in his head he wanted to tell us, and he used his own words to get it done.  Sure, some were talking points, but it was so much more natural and funny than his speech last night.  If he could have given that type of speech last night, it would have been great.  Americans would have seen a different John McCain from the forced, nervous presentation he gave then.  Cindy McCain stood by the whole time, and I felt badly for her that she was wearing her cast again.  I had noticed last night on TV that she was shaking hands with her left hand, but there was no denying the hot pink cast she wore today.

And then it was done.  McCain and Palin shook a lot of hands on the way out, so many, in fact, that we left before they did.  We took some pictures in front of the “Straight Talk Express,” then we left.  Daugther #1 had to go back to school, and Mom and I had to eat lunch.  When we took Daughter #1 to school, we found someone there who had gone, but the line was too long so he left.  He heard that an estimated 30,000 people showed up, though it appears not everyone was able to make it in to hear the speeches.  It was fun, and I’m glad we went.  Except for the business that owns the parking lot, I’d be glad to stop in Cedarburg again sometime.  Maybe.

UPDATE:  Mary-Eileen was in Cedarburg today, too.  We might have been at the same parking lot.

Yes, I’m The Short One

Link.

Classy Feldstein

Cool.

I was really, really disappointed to see at least two protesters interrupting senator McCain in the Xcel Center. That’s simply not called for. They were hastily removed, thank goodness.

The rest… not so much.