I can't stop shopping!

I am a reasonably intelligent person, and I understand that with the volatility of the economy, it is probably a good idea to save money rather than spending it. Still, I can't resist a good deal. Just last week, I purchased a $350 coat for $79 on J. Crew.com. That is the best deal I've scored so far, but I've also been racking up on cashmere sweaters and other winter items that have been marked down in some cases by as much as 75% because folks just aren't shopping as much. I've kept my spending under control so far, but I know that I am easily tempted and need to be careful.

One good thing to come out of this is that I am back to hunting for coupons online. I had gotten out of that habit because for a long time there weren't any decent coupons available. I was able to save $10 on groceries last week with a combination of coupons clipped the Sunday paper and those that I printed online. I also buy some on Ebay.

Yes we did!

I am feeling downright patriotic today. The American people rejected fear mongering and divisive politics in an unmistakable way, and although I was hopeful, I had my doubts that I would ever see this day. May this be the beginning of a new era and better days for all of us.

People who live in glass houses....

Well, you know the rest of it. I found this video today and had to share it in light on the latest attacks on Obama's patriotism. This clip speaks for itself.

Signs of Desparation

Sen. McCain really needs to muzzle the hockey pitbull in a skirt because not only is she trafficking in lies and innuendo, but she is whipping crowds up into a frenzy with dangerous rhetoric. She dares to bring up William Ayers when her own husband has ties to a secessionist group - a group for which she prepared a video statement this year?

Since his campaign is so worried about judgment and associations, how about asking ole Johnny to explain his membership on the board of the US Council for World Freedom - a group that helped fund the Contras in Nicarauga through the illegal sale of arms to Iran? McCain claims not to have been aware of their activies, yet he was on their board for several years during the early to mid-eighties. This group was the US chapter of World Anti-Communist League which has been linked to Nazi sympathizers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100700234.html

Also, Cindy McCain really needs to tone down the vitriol because she is far too imperfect a person to fling mud at anyone. She had the nerve to claim that Obama is running the dirtiest campaign ever. Really? Is she unaware of what her husband's campaign operatives have been doing? I saw that clip of her carrying on about Sen. Obama's vote against troop funding and noticed that she conveniently forgot to mention that her husband also voted against a bill to fund the troops because that bill had a timeline for withdrawal. Obama voted against a similar bill because it did not have a timeline. So how is Obama any worse than McCain in this case?

And finally, what kind of man sends women out to do his dirty work? He lets the pit bull and the ice princess go out on the stump making false and reckless allegations while he stands back and grins. But Cindy better realize that the more she is out there spewing lies, the more people are going to look into her background, and she really cannot withstand the scrutiny.

Brown Man Thinking Hard: Yes They Can: Purging Voter Rolls

Brown Man Thinking Hard: Yes They Can: Purging Voter Rolls

You need more people

I watched Sarah Palin's speech and found her to be snide, sarcastic, dismissive, obnoxious and dishonest. For all her mocking of Obama as a community organizer, she fails to realize that the man is a U.S. senator with more and better credentials than she has who has represented far more people than she has ever governed. She was elected mayor by 600 votes. There are more people in my subdivision.

True enough, Obama started off as a community organizer working with poor folks from Chicago's south side, but he also graduated from Harvard Law school, was a constitutional law lecturer ( does she even know what that document means), a state senator and a U.S. Senator. As a state senator, he sponsored more than 800 bills and cast 4,000 votes for a district that had nearly as many people as her entire state. And he has sponsored legislation in the U.S. Senate addressing ethics reform and nuclear proliferation. So much for her theory about him not authoring anything other than his books -books which she probably would have had banned from her city's library since she was into that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, this Hockey Mom newcomer is embroiled in ethical scandals http://www.mahalo.com/Sarah_Palin, has a an unwed pregnant daughter that no one is supposed to discuss even as Palin trots her and the babydaddy out for photo ops, has ties to a secessionist group that wants to have a vote on allowing Alaska to be its own country, claims to be a reformer and yet hired lobbyists to get $27 million in earmarks for the city of Wasilla (population 5,500) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090103148.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008090103340&s_pos=which she also left Wasilla with $22 million in debt. Mind you, the city had no debt when the Hockey Mom took office. Also, for all her talk about her special needs child, as governor, she cut funding for special needs children AND pregnant teenagers. And I just read in the Washington Post that she was a director of disgraced Sen. Ted Stevens' 527 group http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/01/palin_was_a_director_of_embatt.html

I am not impressed by her ability to be bytchy while delivering someone else's lines because she didn't say much about her ability to govern. While she gets high marks for reading a teleprompter, the job of Vice President of the United States requires a broader skill set.

So Hockey Grandmom, in the words of that great American philosopher Sean Carter "We don't believe you- you need more people."

That John McCain?

This post was inspired by a rant that I left in response to a video on youtube from someone agreeing with Traitor Joe (Lieberman) that John McCain is the best candidate in the presidential race.

Does anyone honestly think that McCain, the hothead who admits to knowing nothing about the economy, would be a better President than Barack Obama?

McCain whose slogan is "Country First" yet who in his first executive decision selected a wholly unqualified woman to win over disgruntled female voters - passing over qualified and better known Republican women like Christine Todd Whitman, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Elizabeth Dole in the process.

Mccain whose VP pick has more baggage than Delta Airlines and was not even properly investigated before being selected as his running mate. That John McCain?

McCain the 72-year old cancer survivor who would be the oldest president to start a first term if he were to win the election.

The same McCain who is suddenly aghast at the Old Boys Network, of which he is a long-time member, for daring to question Sarah Palin's qualifications.

McCain who has a newfound appreciation for Hillary Clinton and her supporters after having made many sexist remarks notably calling his own wife the C word and making a tasteless joke about rape. Is that the McCain you want to be our President?

McCain who did nothing but laugh when a woman at one of his rallies referred to Hillary Clinton as a beeyotch earlier this year.

The one who thinks that being a former POW insulates him from all criticism? The one who is being called out by fellow veterans and POWs for cheapening that experience by citing it for political points when it's not even relevant? Is that the McCain that some claim is the better candidate - or is there some other McCain running for office that I don't know about? That must be it.