Well, I missed my v.p. diary taking a long nap in the hot afternoon after work today. I taught English to tenth graders, so I thought I'd share an anecdote about what I learned in school today.

We started out with silent reading and some writing practice, then I gave the students some notes on figurative language. After I had defined various terms and given examples, they had a bunch of worksheets to do, so I went over the directions with them and set them to work on that, telling them to ask me or the teacher's aide if they had any questions.

I got up again to point out that many (if not most) common literary figures of speech they would encounter in speaking or reading could be traced back in some form either to the Bible, Shakespeare or Cervantes.

(continued below the fold)

I'm still going to school and I live at home with my parents. I always thought I lived in a pretty nice neighborhood. I mean nice not as in well off, but one where the neighbors generally get along and you see lots of little kids playing outside. But after tonight I'm really wondering what happened to it. More after the flip.

In recent months, this community has increasingly flattered me with recommended diaries, digg requests, personal friendships, and even job offers.  You have praised me when I've said something cool, forgiven me when I've said something offensive, and always treated my ideas with respect, even when they were opposed to the prevailing progressive opinion.  Since I signed up for Kos more than three years ago, I've written scores of diaries, and apparently more than 3,700 comments.  

So, at the risk of losing my trusted user status for the first time in years, I'd like to come clean about something.

I voted for George W. Bush.

Twice.

I'm lucky.  

That's what I've been told, anyway.  I'm lucky to have such great health insurance coverage.  The pharmacists marvel at my excellent coverage.  They've never seen such great coverage.

I'm so very lucky.

I'm concerned. No, not about the election. About you. You're running around on this site annoying the shit out of people. Either that, or you're being annoyed by the people who are annoying.

Take a breath, and think for a second. What was the last thing you enjoyed to such a degree that it could be said that you savored it?

I'm still at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.  We're finishing up and getting ready to head back to Fort Bragg in the next few days.

    I consider myself a seasoned pet person.  My husband and I have shared our lives with 14 cats and one dog in our 30 years of marriage;  we had cats long before we had kids and have always had at least 2 cats at a time.

    But I admit I was surprised to come home two days ago, open the refrigerator and find Cat #14--a black and white kitten we called Max, who found our pet-loving house a mere six days ago--sitting on a carton of eggs in the middle of our refrigerator, blinking as the light went on.

A transplanted Midwesterner puts down roots in Alabama and helps show how "loyal Bushies" have corrupted our justice system.

My niece sent me this email and asked me the following...

Subject: Fw: Taxes...VERY IMPORTANT!!]

Date: Sunday, August 17, 2008, 6:13 PM

Hey Aunt C, Somebody sent this to me and I know you are fantastic at finding the truth, so is this true or some republican trying to change peoples votes. Thanks, (Niece)

INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES
Click here to see "FORWARD" on Snopes

(The Forward Starts with this:)
Spread the word.....This is something you should be Aware of so you don't get blind-sided.This is really going to catch a lot Of families off guard. It should Make you worry.
Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election:CAPITAL GAINS TAX

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from the Republican Party. Since I am a registered Republican, they wanted to know who my choice for President was. I have to say, this was the most entertaining conversation I’ve had in a long time.

Here is how the conversation went (it’s not verbatim, just going off of what I remember, near the end, it’s almost perfect!)

Some family, friends and I have decided to get together at my house to watch Obama's nomination acceptance speech. With a chuckle, we decided to make it an "elitist" event.

I'm calling on the DKos Kommunity to help us out.

This is a diary of depression mixed with anger. It's based on two men who successfully avoided both while they faced the thing we all fear the most: Death. Leroy Sievers and Randy Pausch both made peace with their impending death, knowing that not only was it was inevitable as it is for all, but imminent. They faced death and did not display anger and depression, and that is where I admit I am not so strong. I am ashamed to be alive in light of the spirit that they displayed throughout the moments we know we will all face - but don't believe we have to day to day.

I'm seething inside after watching Saturday night's transparent panderings to the religious right; who's hubris in co-opting the phrase "culture of life" is unforgivable. I feel they have absolutely no credibility to claim any moral standing on life at all and I'll explain why.

(Note to readers:  My grandmother passed away on Saturday.  This diary is a grandson's remembrance.  You won't find any analysis of the issues of the day within, but you will find insight into my relationship to my Mommaw, and hopefully, some insight into the relationships between grandparents and grandchildren generally.  Thank you for your indulgence.)

SUBTITLE: She danced with the President (TJ that is)

The most comfortable pajamas I have ever worn were a breezy banana yellow pair with prints of little boys in blue and red running, skipping and jumping along the sides.  Wide collar that was the style when I was four or five, and three butttons up the middle on the shirt.  They were the lightest, most comfortable clothes you could ever wear or imagine.

In the time of the Roman Empire, civic life was divided between the Blue and Green factions. The Blues and the Greens murdered each other in single combats, in ambushes, in group battles, in riots. Procopius said of the warring factions: "So there grows up in them against their fellow men a hostility which has no cause, and at no time does it cease or disappear, for it gives place neither to the ties of marriage nor of relationship nor of friendship, and the case is the same even though those who differ with respect to these colors be brothers or any other kin." Edward Gibbon wrote: "The support of a faction became necessary to every candidate for civil or ecclesiastical honors."

Who were the Blues and the Greens? They were sports fans - the partisans of the blue and green chariot-racing teams.

~Eliezer Yudkowsky, A Fable of Science and Politics

Barack Obama came to San Francisco tonight for a fundraiser, probably his last visit here until the election. So I scraped together the price of admission and went to see him. And had a few words with him. Again.

First, let me say that the event raised a record $7.8 million, the most ever raised at a single San Francisco event.

Second, he made it clear in his speech that he knows what he's up against ("The Republicans are meeeeean" was the way he put it), and he is going to be fighting back HARD. He's heard the hand-wringers and the doomsayers (gosh, d'you think he reads dKos?) and in so many words he was telling them not to worry, he knows how to fight. The GOP knows they can't win on the issues, he said, so they have to fight dirty. And he is ready for them.

For the rest of it, come below the fold.

I realize that it's been awhile since Netroots Nation, but I've been meaning to write this diary for awhile.  As a veteran myself, I want to thank everyone who put together the Netroots for the Troops.  I am proud to call myself a member of this group called the netroots, and that has never been more true then when I went to pack my box on Saturday afternoon and couldn't even find space to sit down because so many people where helping out.

I was supposed to meet up with a friend of mine in Dallas this evening for some drinks.  He’s one of the relatively few Iraq vets in the area, so my wife and I hang out with him and his fiancée a lot on the weekends.  Instead, he called me about 5:30 and said it wasn’t happening.  I said, "Yeah, that’s okay.  I gotta go to the store anyway. . .and then take care of some things for work tomorrow.  But anyway, what’s up?  What do you have going on?"

This is our experience, that others might learn.

I know, and I agree...politicians should stay away from Fox News.  They're a vile, hateful, propaganda machine.  

We're not politicians, we're actors and comics who perform satire.  When asked by an employer to do an appearance on Faux Noise to promote an event?  What do you do?  Well, this is what we did...