They're Coming to Get You Barbara

My son Brendan loves him some zombies. That's him right there.

He has a zombie Captain America tee shirt and he can go on ad infinitum about the differences between slow and fast zombies. Despite my title above, he doesn't think highly of the George Romero-style slow moving retarded zombie. He likes second and third generation Z's: Resident Evil, 28 Days Later and so on. Moreover, he has an amazing sense of what will turn my stomach and he managed to combine that with his love of zombies this past Halloween. The picture to the right only gives a taste of what he looked like. The scars, burns and compound fractures looked far too real to me. I drove him to his girlfriend's house while he was wearing this makeup and couldn't look at him the whole trip. The arm was particularly gruesome as it lay loose on the front seat between us. In the green light from the dashboard as he stared out the window, you could believe he was thinking about delicious brains-based snacks.

As for his girlfriend, she seems to think he's clever and funny. You really can't ask for much more than that. We all know that high school romances (almost) never last but it's nice when one comes along where you as a parent would be happy if it did. Hopefully I will be able to get a picture of the two them together soon. If I do, I'll post it.

Hello, Loyal Fans!

Yes, I'm aware that nobody looks at this blog. And not just because I haven't posted anything here in well over a year. Even when I was posting stuff, nobody came. How could they? Nobody knew it was here and I had no idea how to draw them here.

Still, I will try again. This time I will look into what is necessary to get viewers. Advertising, I guess. Constantly beat my own drum and blow my own horn on Twitter? I really don't know.

So this is going to be a relaunch. Not today, but soon. Let's see how it goes!

You're pla,
Charlie

Wow! Tell us how you REALLY feel!

Here, from The News Blog, is the best thing I've read in a while. It starts as a justified attack on Thomas Friedman and the New York Times, but it is so much more. Please, please read.

Music for Memorial Day - Steve Earle's Rich Man's War

Breaking news: U.S. F-16s unleash “shock and awe” on South Jersey

Thanks to the brilliant political video site, Crooks and Liars, for pointing me to Will Bunch's Daily News article. All in all, having the Air National Guard bomb us has made for interesting water cooler chat here at work.

We Hate Congress More than Bush? Not exactly.

So a new Gallup poll was released yesterday and it said some things that didn't really surprise me:

According to the May 10-13, 2007, Gallup Poll, 29% of Americans approve and 64% disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. Congressional approval is down 4 percentage points since last month, and is 3 points lower than the 32% average measured during the first five months of the year. The high point for the congressional approval rating so far this year was the 37% approval measured in February. Although ratings are quite low, Americans have been more positive in their assessments of Congress this year than last year, when an average of just 25% approved of Congress.

Even though Democrats now control both houses of Congress, the poll shows that only 37% of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing right now.

The percentage for Democrats is telling. It just doesn't tell enough. Of course we don't approve of the job Congress is doing! The truly sad thing about this poll is that it says nothing about the reasons why we disapprove. Based on the admittedly unscientific polling I've done amongst the Democrats of South Jersey, Congress is in hot water with us because they just haven't done enough.

• We're still in Iraq.
• The President, his Attorney General, and a variety of other miscreants remain in place.
• Habeas corpus is still suspended.
• Guantanamo Bay remains open for business.
  

Not approve? Hell, we're actually kind of pissed off.

The poll doesn't say why we disapprove of "our" Congress and that's bad for a couple of reasons. It gives hope to our Republican pals. They are already cautiously spinning this as the start of their comeback. That's annoying, but really not a big deal, I guess. The Democratic party isn't allowing the Republicans to set its agenda for it as much as it used to.

What could be a big deal though, is the wiggle room statistics like this give Democrats like Rahm Emanuel and his DLC cohorts. They will try to use these numbers to claim that Democrats must trend to the Right. Based on past experience, they could succeed in framing the debate and further shifting the party toward Republican Lite.

It's important that we let people know what it is we don't like. Here are some people to contact. Let your representatives know why you don't approve of how they're operating and what they need to do to make you happy. If you have a senator or congressman who doesn't represent you, let the DLC, the DCCC and/or the DSCC know what you want to see in a candidate. It's never too soon.

Your congressman and senators
the Democratic National Committee
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Can’t Stop the Serenity: 2007 Charity Screenings

The Browncoats are still making a difference, fighting for what’s right even though that may not be the most popular cause in the world.



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