Get your representative to sign.

If you can.

There is a campaign by the people of the Sunlight Network, in essence it’s an attempt to make the people we elect to represent us in Washington accountable to us the very same way we all are accountable in our daily jobs. This is definitely a good thing, we as citizens need to know the kind of job our elected officials are doing. The taxpayers of our nation, the voters are the ones who have put these people in place to represent their best interest. It’s important for us to be able to keep tabs on a legislators’ movements and meetings if we can properly assess their job performace. It’s exactly what the Punch Clock Agreement was meant to do and it’s exactly why you should download a copy and send it via registered mail to the office of your electde officials to make sure they get, sign it and do it!

Starting with the next Congress, I promise to publish my daily official work schedule on the Internet, within 24 hours of the end of every work day. I will include all matters relating to my role as a Member of Congress. I will include all meetings with constituents, other Members, and lobbyists, listed by name. (In rare cases I will withhold the names of constituents whose privacy must be protected.) I will also include all fundraising events. Events will be listed whether Congress is in session or not, and whether I am in Washington, traveling, or in my district.

Who knew Pittsburgh was so important.

The last several years Pirates fans have suffered, oh how they have suffered. Even though they got a new stadium and hosted and All-Star game, they suffered now through many, many seasons of lackluster performance by their hometown heroes.

This year is different though - not so much because the Pirates are a great team - today their record is 61 wins and 86 losses and they are way, way back in their division. Still even with that record the Pirates have a lot to say about what happens at the end of the season this year. Not so much for their own fate but, for the fate of others.

Between now and the end of the season, a mere two weeks away, many of the teams who aspire to get to the post season will have the Pirates as an obstacle to get there. Should be a piece of cake, no? Well, at this point in September the Pirates have a record of 8 wins and 6 losses for the month. The Mets, Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Astros and Cincinnati all play the Pirates between now and the end of the season. While it’s a foregone conclusion for the Mets at this point, San Diego and the Dodgers are in a dog fight for the Western Division lead. Both teams have a fallback in the wildcard but, the Pirates playing tough could alter that in a big way. Cincinnati is a long shot in the wild card as well but, if either the Dodgers or the Padres go on a prolong losing streak (or Cincinnati gets hot) they have as much chance over the next two weeks as these other teams do.

So, let‘s hear it for the Pirates - doormat of the central they may have been for the last few years but, this year they can play the role of spoiler quite well!

Friday cat blogging.

A tradition which I have been terribly remiss in. This week Anna shows why ordering books from Amazon.com can have ancillary benefits for the kitty of the house. Nothing is so perfect a size for her tiny little form than her new kitty fortress.

I’m leaving on a jet plane.

Or how the flying ban after September 11th turned out as a way to fight the flu.

During the first five flu seasons, flu deaths peaked on or around February 17. But in 2002 the peak was delayed by two weeks, until March 2. In the years that followed, the peak moved back to February, they wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science-Medicine.

And during the 2001-2002 flu season, it took 53 days for flu to spread across the United States, 60 percent longer than the average time of 33 days.

Seems like researchers have found a new weapon to control the spread of disease but, can you imagine the outcry if they actually attempted to use it?

Anybody else notice?

How the weather today is a mirror image of the kind of day it was five years ago?

Unity Walk - sounds like a nice way to commemorate the anniversary.

Can’t say if there’s an agenda one way or the other but, I thought I would pass this along for those who were interested:

Religions for Peace-USA has agreed to join partners in Washington, DC for a Unity Walk to honor the significance of this day in American history. Save the evening of Monday September 11th. The New York Unity Walk begins at 5:00 PM at the Gandhi Memorial in Union Square Park.

RFP-USA will be working with New York City partner agencies to sponsor the walk from Union Square’s Gandhi memorial to the World Trade Center Site to Pier 40 for a Floating Lantern Ceremony. The effort is to promote interfaith appreciation and understanding. Please contact Katherine Clark, office: 212-338-9140

Somehow, I think an event based on the premise of greater understanding and acceptance of each other’s faith, on the anniversary of something rooted in intolerance, is the proper way and intelligent way to combat those forces and insure another a similar tragedy won’t take place.

...and sometimes live just goes along swimmingly.

I haven’t been writing or taking pictures lately. It’s a mix of the good and the bad. Good because I have just found myself far too busy over the last few weeks. Plenty of writing going on, just not necessarily up on the blog. There also have been a few times when I have labored away at very long winded posts only to have the application lock up because I’ve got ten windows and over 100 tabs open in Safari. As much as OSX vaunted stability is a major selling point of the operating system, you still are exposed to application lockups and failures.

Life has been settling into a bit of a routine and a nice one at that. The mysterious ‘STUFF’ is getting done and that’s a good thing indeed!

The fastest road to 1000.

I have posted oh so many photos on Flickr over the last few months. Some I am very proud of, some not so much but, they are all my children so I love them equally. However, I can see what people look at and what they don’t. Female photographers get more traffic than male photographers, particularly if they use themselves as a model, even more so if they flash skin. There is an army of men out there (and I unfortunately am among them), wandering the electronic byways. All of them looking for pretty things to look at. So, it comes as now surprise to me, I have set a new record for myself, quickest views to 1000. Just posted last week, another one of the NetMichelle series has taken off as people are compelled to look even when what they are looking at is the merest of flashes of skin.

I had to pass this along.

I was looking for a movie quote for something I was writing and I was checking out Kevin Smith’s movies because I’m pretty sure the quote in question comes from one of his flicks. I ran across this little jewel which had me laugh hysterically:

One time my cousin Walter got this cat stuck in his ass. True story. He bought it at the local mall, so the whole fiasco wound up on the news. It was embarrassing for my relatives and all. But the next week, he did it again. Different cat, same results, complete with a trip to the emergency room. Then, last week, I saw him in the pet store. He was buying another cat. I said, “Walt, what the hell are you doing, you know you’re just gonna get this cat stuck up your ass too, why don't you knock it off?” And he says to me, “Brodie, how the hell else am I supposed to get the gerbil out?” My cousin was a weird guy.

More proof you’re getting screwed.

No, it’s not your imagination. Contrary to whatever crap you’ve been fed, wages are not keeping up with inflation.

After factoring for inflation, Americans’ median hourly wages have declined 2 percent since 2003, while productivity, the amount an average worker produces in an hour, continues to rise.

Workers’ pay now makes up the lowest share of GDP since the government began recording the data in 1947. In the meantime, corporate profits are at their highest share since the ’60s.

Wild card predicitions.

I’ve refrained from commenting on baseball, choosing instead to just bask in the glory that is this year’s Mets season. The national league though is interesting if only in that there are quite a few teams jockeying for a wild-card berth as the season winds down in the next five weeks.

This is the breakdown of the standings as they are today for the NL wildcard:

Team	Wins	Losses	Games behind	Games remaining
San Diego	68	65	—	29
Philadelphia	67	66	1.0	29
Cincinnati	67	67	1.5	28
San Francisco	66	68	2.5	28
Houston	66	68	2.5	28
Florida	65	68	3.0	29
Arizona	64	69	4.0	29
Atlanta	63	69	4.5	30

Last month, Florida ran off a streak where they went 9 wins and 1 loss against some decent teams. They just dropped two in St. Louis but are going into Milwaukee for a weekend series. If they manage to sweep or take two of three from the Brewers, watch out. Philadelphia, the team in front of them plays them 9 TIMES between now and the end of the season. They also play Cincinnati 3 more times and the Mets 7 more times. Out of 29 remaining games, they will be playing those teams ahead of them 19 times. Florida manages to run off another 9 and 1 streak between now and the end of the year, they will be the surprise wild card winner.

Make your vote count!

Interesting tidbit via the MonsterBlog where they are having a contest allowing people to vote on the worst summer job from among five candidates. Worth the time to take a look and vote, as exhibited by part of the story below:

About halfway through the summer, I got promoted to work the end gate at the Safari. My responsibilities were laid out by my manager. He dropped me off at the end gate of the Safari and asked Jose to show me the ropes — or the bat, that is.

You see, the end gate was a passage to the real world for the monkeys and baboons. The inner fence was controlled electronically as cars drove up to it to exit the final portion of the safari. About 30 yards after that gate was my new post. The gate remained open until the safari closed. Here, Jose showed me how the baboons and monkeys would try to make a break for it by riding atop a car, under a truck or just plain rush my gate. I was trained on how to use the Baboon Beater — a three-foot-long, six-inch-round bat — to dissuade our fuzzy friends from exiting.

As if there weren’t better things to get incensed over...

Whatever floats your boat. If you find yourself up in arm over the recent decision there are only 8 planets in the solar system then, this is for you:

“We as planetary scientists and astronomers do not agree with the IAU’s definition of a planet, nor will we use it. A better definition is needed,” says the protest, placed on the Web at (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest).

The petition organiser, Mark Sykes, who is director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said the IAU definition of a planet “does not meet fundamental scientific standards and should be set aside.”

A word to the wise.

I always thought about the problems inherent in selling an old cell phone, this article just proves my concerns were well-founded:

“People are just not aware how much they’re exposing themselves,” Schmidt said. “This is more than something you pick up and talk on. This is your identity. There are people really looking to exploit this.”

Executives at Trust Digital agreed to review with AP the information extracted from the used phones on the condition AP would not identify the sellers or their employers. They also showed AP receipts from the Internet auctions in which they bought the 10 phones over the summer for prices between $192 and $400 each.

The new Bush initiative:

At last we finally get a sense of the direction the president wants to take the country in!

“Make no mistake: It will take patience and sacrifice,” Bush said. “But such drastic measures could lead to a better tomorrow for all of us, especially for your commander in chief.”

Bush then closed his speech by exhaling sharply, tightly closing his eyes, and massaging his temples. “I just—Christ, I just need a goddamn minute, you know?” he said.

Another reason not to be crazy about big SUVs:

Is the stupid behavior of the people who drive them.

“I heard his tires,” he said. “Then I heard a couple of thuds. I looked out and saw a couple of people lying in the middle of the street. They were just pedestrians walking.”

As bystanders began gathering around the victims, the SUV came back around, swerving and knocking over newspaper boxes on the sidewalk, Fulford said.

“Everybody started freaking out, getting out of the street,” he said. “That car was like a weapon. He could have come right at us.”

Makes you just shake your head.

Your kid commits suicide.

The kid has been the target of bullies to the point where you are in the process of transferring him to another school and before that happens he takes his own life. To add insult to injury, you are prosecuted (and convicted) because as a single mom raising two kids you don’t keep a clean house. Sounds like a story you’d have to make up, unfortunately no:

Scruggs said she was shocked when authorities charged her. She said her apartment was cluttered, but not filthy.

“I miss him every day,” Scruggs said. “The pain is always there.”

Prosecutors said the boy was miserable because his schoolmates ridiculed his body odor and bad breath, caused by Scruggs’ filthy home and her lack of attention to the boy’s hygiene. His mother said that the bullying drove her son to take his life.

Legal experts said it was thought to be the first time a parent had been convicted over a child’s suicide.

House rule number 8!

Friday cat blogging on a rainy Monday.

Alluded to last week – the incredible kitty haircut with before and after pics!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Without all that hair, there’s hardly a kitty there!

A most wonderful day.


Unplanned to say the least but, a wonderful treat nonetheless. Today as I was flipping channels I came upon this unbidden, something which I had caught snippets of before but which I still find gripping and watchable.

Since the weather for the last few and next few days is overcast and miserable, I wound up leaving the television on and what a treat:

Grant plays Admiral Matt Sherman, Commander of the submarine U.S.S. Seat Tiger, which is stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. Joining him is Nick Holden (Tony Curtis), as his conniving junior officer. The story is narrated by Grant, reading selected logs to us from the U.S.S. Sea Tiger captain's journal, a gimmick that was later used in the TV series, Star Trek.

Then, one of my all time favorites:

A surprise Academy Award® winner for Best Original Screenplay copped by Sidney Sheldon (yes, that Sidney Sheldon, the future best selling author at the beginning of his 50 year plus career), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) delighted audiences who lined up to see it again and again during its enormously successful post Oscar® re-issue.

Followed by something I can easily identify with:

The trials and tribulations of home ownership portrayed in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House resonated with a public living in the post-war housing boom. The premise was reworked later for a radio series in 1949, starring Grant and his future wife Betsy Drake, who also wrote some of the scripts. And over the years, the plot has been reincarnated countless times, most notable in 1986’s Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks.

Finally, if you find yourself up later this evening - these two are some of the most watchable films ever made:

North by Northwest came into existence when Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman hit a brick wall while working on the nautical thriller, The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). They messed around for a few weeks while telling the studio the project was going great until one day Lehman thought of creating a pure Hitchcock film.

...and for the night owl:

The film’s ending differs from the ending of the Frances Iles (a pseudonym for author James Hilton) novel on which it was based. In the novel, the character of “Johnnie” kills his wife “Lina” by poisoning her with a glass of milk. In a 1941 New York Herald Tribune interview, director Alfred Hitchcock stated that this ending was unacceptable because the studio feared that an unhappy ending would result in commercial failure and because the Production Code Administration mandated that all screen murderers must be punished.

Two things occur to me today:

First, Cary Grant was a singular movie presence the likes of which we will never see again. The nearest actor today who could even come close to being in Grant’s league would have to be Sean Connery.

Second, I have to admit to thinking of Madame X and Betty, neither of whom wouldn’t have been happier than to make a day of something like this and throw in a little baking (cookies?) as well.