From The Nation, through Common Dreams an editorial begins:
As Republicans gather in New York City, the Bush campaign will undergo a drastic makeover, camouflaging gutter tactics with a veneer of moderation calculated to help the President win another four-year term. But the hard truth of this campaign is that George W. Bush, while attempting to impose an extremist right-wing agenda on this country and the world, has compiled a record of staggering failure.
.. and ends
But this President does not admit error. When asked at a press conference whether he had ever made a mistake in office, he couldn’t think of one.
If Bush wins in November, given this record of misfeasance, American democracy is in much greater trouble than even the most alienated citizens imagine. A President so out of step with the needs of the American people can only rule by sowing division and fear. Americans have one recourse: to ignore the costume ball in New York City and fire the worst President in modern history on November 2.
Take the time to read it all here.

why write, i ask myself, when there’s so much else. moving and shaking and making sure she takes all of her medications. out in the park, two pairs of egrets, a lone white duck. cat litter to clean. who has enough time empty of necessity to follow the call of words. hurry up, please. it’s time. i dream of good-byes. wait for rain. time. the toothy smile of a toddler who remembers.

Gone. That’s where the time went.
Working on grant proposals (current free-lance gig).
Reading Alice Hoffman’s Blackbird House. I want to write like that.
Also reading book of speeches by Howard Zinn: Artists in Times of War. sent to me by one of my sorority sisters. That reunion we had is paying off in all kinds of ways.
Had my annual physical today. In pretty good shape for an old broad — except for the 15 pounds or so I wish were gone, gone, gone.
Leaving for my daughter’s tomorrow to take them to get their first car. Will be listening to an audiotape of J.D. Robb’s Rapture in Death to keep me awake on the drive across just about the whole state of Massachusetts.
Coming back Friday to take care of mom. Driving out again on Monday to help my daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and their two cats move closer to the rest of us.
Somewhere in there I’ve got a few more proposals to churn out.
I’m supposed to be retired. Yeah, right.
Going….going…..going…..

ONE THOUSAND REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR BUSH.
You don’t have to buy the book to read the reasons. Just scroll down and take note of items like these, complete with links:
Attitude: The ‘don’t blame me’ presidentTHE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding the Korean conflict, his attitude was: “The buck stops here.” And when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold. Boston Globe 2004-07-15 link
Attitude: To Err Is Human, to Flip-Flop Divine
NEW YORK — President Bush is working hard to convince the American people that John F. Kerry has a fatal flaw: He changes his mind. Or, in the current political lexicon, he “flip-flops.” But isn’t a willingness to change course — even to admit error — an asset in a leader?
Throughout U.S. history, important decisions, some of monumental proportions, came about because presidents changed their minds. In his first political statement, in March 1832, the 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln said, “Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I thought. So soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.” LA Times 2004-07-06 link
Attitude: A Willful Ignorance
According to The New York Times, President Bush was genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The report on the “perception gap” suggests that the leader of the war on terror has no idea how badly that war — which must, ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds — is going. Mr. Bush’s ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity: “The best way to get the news,” he says, “is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff.” Two words: emperor, clothes. NY Times 2003-10-28 link
And there’s more. More than a thousand more.

I wear red on Fridays.
Today is Friday the 13th, I and several of my women friends will be wearing red as we meet meet for dinner (even though going out to dinner on Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck).
But we do not have Paraskevidekatriaphobia (an irrational fear of Friday the 13th). What we have is Georgedubyabushyphobia (a rational fear that Dumbya will get re-elected).
We’ll go out to dinner and wear red and talk politics and I’ll do a little ritual involving giving each of us a red dragon.

And then I’ll share the following information about Friday the 13th, snipped and re-arranged from here.
Some say Friday’s bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Adam bit, as we all learned in Sunday School, and they were both ejected from Paradise. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.
Other sources suggest the number 13 was purposely vilified by the founders of patriarchal religions in the early days of western civilization because it represented femininity. Thirteen had been revered in prehistoric goddess-worshiping cultures, allegedly, because it corresponded to the number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The “Earth Mother of Laussel,” for example, a 27,000-year-old carving found near the Lascaux caves in France often cited as an icon of matriarchal spirituality, depicts a female figure holding a cresent-shaped horn bearing 13 notches. According to this explanation, as the solar calendar triumphed over the lunar with the rise of male-dominated civilization, so did the number 12 over the number 13, thereafter considered anathema.
In pre-Christian cultures it was the sabbath, a day of worship, so those who indulged in secular or self-interested activities on that day could not expect to receive blessings from the gods