So we got our house...!!!

Marcela and I closed on our house on Monday, and moved in on Tuesday!!! Whhoohoooo! Our first house!!! Obviously, we are very excited. It's a great place, built in '85, 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage.

The previous owners were super nice and did tons of landscaping outside. Plants everywhere, a great lawn, even lighting and an in-ground sprinkler system, which I've never had. Great stone porches on the front and back, even all around the house. I'll try to post some pix soon.

Have a great day!
Charlie y Marcela

Little room for real news

"I knew the exact time Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, and I could tell you that the runaway bride got a half-million-dollar advance to tell her story.

But I had lost track of how many U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq."
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Nice. Exactly what I'm talking about in the below post.

Charlie

Why is this national news?

Are all the senior editors at news media outlets going crazy? Or are we?

Why is Oprah not being allowed in a store news? Why does ANYONE fecking care?

Why is a boy that gets lost national news even after he gets found? There are thousands of children dying every day because of starvation, aids, child abuse and drunk drivers... why don't they make the headlines?

We should really get a clue on what is really important in the world, and the management of media outlets should be paying attention.

Charlie

New 'Downing Street Memo' says Bush, Blair agreed on 'regime change' in 2002

New 'Downing Street Memo' says Bush, Blair agreed on 'regime change' in 2002; Iraq seen to 'slide into civil war'; and more.

The Times' news story, written by defense reporter Michael Smith, about the newly discovered, secret briefing paper noted that it had confirmed that Blair "had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W. Bush three months earlier." In his news article, Smith explained that fabricating conditions for going to war "was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal U.S. action."
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Can't we hold these clods accountable? Write, call or email your congressional rep today!!! House, Find your Senator

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Bin Laden, Taliban chief 'alive and well'
Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden are both alive and in good health, a senior Taliban military commander has told Pakistan television.

Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush

White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and its role in helping to formulate US policy.
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So now the "conspiracy theorists" are right about corporations running the world.
Pretty pathetic I think.

Sign the "Downing Street Memo" Investigation Letter

The Downing Street "Memo" is actually a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002—a full eight months PRIOR to the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003.

The contents of the memo are shocking. The minutes detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war to the American public; and how the Bush Administration’s public assurances of "war as a last resort" were at odds with their privately stated intentions.

When asked, British officials "did not dispute the document's authenticity." and a senior American official has described it as "absolutely accurate." Yet the Bush administration continues to simultaneously sidestep the issue while attempting to cast doubt on the memo’s authenticity.

Nobody wants to go to war. We trust our leaders to shed blood in our name only when absolutely necessary. But the facts revealed by the Downing Street Memo force us to ask ourselves: Was I misled? Did President Bush tell me the truth when he said he would not take us to war unless absolutely necessary?

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Crikey, what a mess. Why isn't the American Media picking this up?

--- SIGN THIS!!! ---

We at least need to have it investigated!

Kinky Friedman for Texas Governor!

He has a lot of good things to say, among them:

Texas is #1 in drop out rates and #48 in education spending. Our children deserve so much more. Texas is also 48th in per capita child protection expenditures, as well as 49th in general, 46th in mental health, 45th in public health, 49th in state arts agency, 44th in highway, and 49th in water quality expenditures. The Austin American-Statesman is correct: "It’s Texas vs. Mississippi in a race to the bottom."

Teachers are Kinky’s heroes, along with police, soldiers, firefighters, and cowboys. Each of us remembers a teacher who made an impact on and changed our lives for the better. Kinky intends to identify these special people and seek their advice in creating a vibrant, responsive and forward-looking education system for Texas. "Politicans appear to be more interested in French cuffs than solving our problems." - Kinky Friedman

Poll finds dimmer view of Iraq war
52 percent say United States is no safer than before conflict

For the first time since the war in Iraq began, more than half of the American public believes the fight there has not made the United States safer, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall, more than half -- 52 percent -- disapprove of how Bush is handling his job, the highest of his presidency. A somewhat larger majority -- 56 percent -- disapproved of Republicans in Congress, and an identical proportion disapproved of Democrats.
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I have to say.... well, DUH! Finally the "pr buzz" is wearing off and people are starting to see parts of the MESS that we are in. Now will they start looking at the HUGE, HUGE debt Bush has put us in?

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Man With Chain Saw Allowed to Enter U.S.
On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

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This is completely consistent with the posts I've made below regarding police and TSA screeners going by the "letter" of the law, but not using their freaking brains! This guy has blood on weapons in his possession and they let him into the country? Hindsight is 20-20, but don't these guys have ANY ability to question and THINK? It's obvious that they should deny entry and have Canadian police hold and question this guy... geeze.

Charlie

oh dear, this is fun!

Where is the outrage in the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman?

Where, in the week after the Great Newsweek Error, is the comparable outrage in the press, in the blogosphere, and at the White House over the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman? Where are the calls for apologies to the public and the firing of those responsible? Who is demanding that the Pentagon's word should never be trusted unless backed up by numerous named and credible sources?

Where is a Scott McClellan lecture on ethics and credibility?

The Post's Josh White reported this week that Tillman's parents are now ripping the Army, saying that the military's investigations into their son's 2004 "friendly fire" death in Afghanistan was a sham based on "lies" and that the Army cover-up made it harder for them to deal with their loss. They are speaking out now because they have finally had a chance to look at the full records of the military probe.

"Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country," White reported.

While military officials' lying to the parents have gained wide publicity in the past two days, hardly anyone has mentioned that they also lied to the public and to the press, which dutifully carried one report after another based on the Pentagon's spin. It had happened many times before, as in the Jessica Lynch incident.