ECTOPHENSIS

I am called a no-good Republican by a lot of people -- most notably my loved ones -- for my positions on various things. Yet, I am also referred to as liberal, but likable by my conservative friends.

So what am I?

Democratic Loyalty Quiz

Your score is 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are a moderate Democrat. You agree with Democrats more often than not, but have misgivings about some of their positions on key social issues, as well as their ability to defend the country. You remain supportive for now, but if Democrats keep moving to the left and taking their cues from people like Michael Moore, you may decide to jump off that crazy train.

Republican Loyalty Quiz

Your score is 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are a moderate Republican. You agree with Republicans more often than not, but have misgivings about some of their hard-line positions, as well as the direction they are leading the country. You remain supportive for now, but if Republicans keep lurching to the right and taking their cues from religious fanatics and belligerent neocons, you may decide to jump off that crazy train.

Well then. I guess that settles it!

This is not going to help the perception of the school district much.

Annika and Nicole Jewett are twins who live in the same house, their beds just two feet apart. Their mother never dreamed they'd be assigned to different schools for kindergarten this fall.Stephanie Jewett listed the same three schools in the same order on each girl's application. Made a note that the girls are twins, and told the enrollment staff the same thing.

Local News | School policy splits family's twin kindergarteners | Seattle Times Newspaper

Tags: school, Seattle

Not a lot will wake you up faster than pouring steamed milk on your foot.

Tags: wisdom, coffee

surfing the intertubes, looking at failblog (working fail!) and I'm like what the hell, why is there PR0N on failblog?

And then I see the problem.

Oh, my. This picture doesn't even show anything, but it has to be the most embarrassing example of homemade pix that you really wanted to never show up on the intertubes.

Unless she's just the babysitter. Then maybe it's not so bad.

Maybe.

Today is Lisa's 29th birthday.  (Again.)  Happy Birthday!

Tags: Lisa, birthday

This is the most important line of the story.

The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.

(Found at Craig's.)

Tags: gun, mice

Seattle Times is having a "Political Caucus", where they ask readers who have volunteered to participate questions about the current national political cycle.  Linked below is the first set of results for their first questions.  You may recognize the name of one of the participants.

--update: I noticed that my title was the link's title, so I adjusted it. I'm using a browser called Flock (I know, I know, the last supporter of IE switches to something else) and it has a nifty 'blog this' feature. It has a few things I don't care for though, and that's one of them.

1. Politics | Seattle Times Political Caucus: Who would make the best running mate? | Seattle Times Newspaper

And one last good place for having an argument has ceased to be so.

Can I take a minute to get some administrivia out of the way? First up: I am disabling comments from here on out. Many of my sinestra pals will no doubt chalk it up to “stifling dissent,” and being an enemy of free speech. (Let’s set two hours for the over/under on the first use of the word “brownshirt,” and I’ll take the under.)

Whatever. Get after it.

As much my fault as anyone's, I suppose.

That damn brownshirted Craig! (Haha! First! Because the people he really meant that to wouldn't actually call him a browshirt after he called them on it. Unless of course, he meant me in that group, in which case I fell right into his trap! That damn brownshirted Craig!)

--Update, 7/13/08, 9:15 PM:

Speedkill comments on Craig's comments.

You know, it occurred to me when I wrote this post that I would be quite likely the only person that raised their hand and say, "I am part of that problem". The 'problem' being snark for snark's sake rather than just making the point. I am given to snark, and I do admit it.

This, um, 'fellow' named Mark? Snark yes, not so much on the admitting, no.

1. mtpolitics.net » Blog Archive » Administrivia

Tags: dissent

Roger Simon of politico.com has an essay (link 1, below) detailing why he thinks that Senator Obama is not running as a movement.  He contrasts Obama's candidacy with that of former Governor Howard Dean, who was committed to running as a movement and lost because the Dean's movement was unpalatable to enough Iowans to scuttle Dean's campaign.

Mr. Simon is a smart man, but I think that comparing Dean's campaign at the point of the Iowa caucuses with the Obama campaign post-primary is another basket of mixed fruit.

It is my estimation that Obama has taken the Dean base and fused it with other elements of the left and center that he has brought together with his twin messages of 'Hope' and 'Change'.  Simon points out that Dean's message was one of power -- the people that had the power were the wrong people.  I think that Obama learned from this important, but perhaps subtle mistake.  The overarching stress of power translates to, "we want power for power's sake", and it is a negative message.  Hope and change are, to the national constituency, always viewed positively.  The problem is that while Obama might bring hope, he doesn't really bring change, no matter on what bill of goods he has sold his supporters in that regard.  It is my guess that is the reason that supporters of Clinton are wary of him, even after she publicly threw her support behind him in Unity, N.H., last month.  

That Obama is running as a movement is a fact, whether he or Roger Simon want to admit it or not.  This is evident by the primary challenges that are coming to a few elected officials who supported Clinton for not supporting Obama instead (link 2, below).  Evidently Unity didn't matter to these folks, and I get the feeling that it doesn't matter to the bulk of the rank-and-file that voted or caucused for Obama.

The question I always come back to is what are these people going to do when they realized all they were promised was hope and change.  Hope doesn't have to deliver anything beyond the hope, and everything always changes. 

No challenger to any elected official has ever run on a platform of keeping things exactly as they are.

1. Obama not running as movement - Roger Simon - Politico.com
2. Visible Vote 08 » Brooklyn Blowback: Hillary Supporters Face Primary Challenges

Tags: Obama, hope, change

Cute picture.


more cat pictures

But, wow, the ignorance or stupidity or ... something there is breathtaking.  Possibly literally.

Should you let your cat into your child's crib?  I don't.  Cats don't steal the breath of sleeping babies as the tales about the old wives' tails, er, tales go and it's rare to see a cat steal anything, but generally this is not the best idea.

Should you let your infant sleep on their stomach?  That one looks awfully young to be doing that.

Should you use a crib bumper pad?  Again, probably not.  And apparently not in this case, either.

Oh, well.  At least the cat was keeping an eye on the baby.

Tags: SIDS, cat, baby

The question being, "Have you ever seen a dead cat in a tree?"

Lynx refused to come down from Northwest Trek tree - Seattle Times

Very suspicious.

Fire damages home of congressional candidate Darcy Burner - Seattle Times

---update: News tonight says that it was caused by a lamp.

Burner is running against Dave Reichert for the second consecutive election.

Tags: burner, reichert, eighth

I've started seeing ads this morning hitting back at Dino Rossi, targeting him on budget issues.  How effective are they?  One came on in the middle of me writing that sentence, and now that it's over, I can't tell you what it was about.

Maybe that's more an indictment of the viewer rather than the material, though.  I'm not sure.

I've also heard another radio ad from Rossi supporters decrying Gregoire's veto of a bill that didn't expand foster care funding.

Suppose that is completely true on its face.  Does anyone really think it would have survived a Governor Rossi veto?  That seems rather unlikely in the current Republican thought-climate of "business can do government better than government".

Tags: gregoire, rossi

Oh, I like this article an awful lot. Although unlike this fellow, I like Vista, too.

Money quote:

My computer is not a fashion statement. It's a computer.

Bill Gates Retirement Party: Why I Still Use Windows Despite the Peer Pressure

Tags: Windows

Whoops.

Gov. Gregoire's re-election campaign, or the state Democratic Party, or someone else, or some combination of the above, made a commercial that used the theme song from The Sopranos while attempting to link Dino Rossi to the BIAW.  See also. 

Mmm.  Poor taste.  Wifey tells me that she's hearing people calling for Dwight Pelz' head on a platter over this.  Worse things could happen than the Dems ditching Dwight.

Tags: gregoire, rossi, sopranos