THIS IS WHAT I MEANT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KERRY_VIETNAM_RECORDS?SITE=MAQUI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Note the response from Thurlow.Despite the fact
that his medal is based on a recommendation from
someone other than Kerry, a George Lambert, he
now says it was a lie. So is Thurlow's whole
service record a lie? Was it ALL written by
John Kerry? Was Thurlow incapable of writing his
own reports?

Hoffman wrote the group report. He now says it
was a lie. SO..why should we believe he isn't
lying now?

And yet another Bush campaign worker with ties to
the SwiftBoat group.

Just how stupid is America?

Can we just tell this group to go away and get
back to discussing issues?

NOT TOO SWIFT

So..about this "Unfit for Command" book by the
SwiftBoats ForTruthgroup:

I'm sick of it.I'm sick of people coming into our
store and rudely..and yes, I mean rudely, nastily,
uncivily...accusing us of being part of a vast
conspiracy along with B&N to keep the book out of
the hands of Enquirering Minds.

BULLSHIT!

Right, we don't want to make money. We're in the
book business for our own hidden agendas.

I finally realized it was a losing battle after the
exchange I had with a customer this morning:

ME:"But sir, why would we not sell it? Why would we
not want to make more money?"

ANGRY CUSTOMER: (leans forwards with a triumphant
smile) "EXACTLY! Why don't you?"

I gave up. I later gave another customer the email
addy and website for Regnery Press, the numpty
publishers who didn't print enough copies of the
book in the first place.

As for the controversy itself, it makes me sick.
No matter what Kerry says, he's wrong. If he says
nothing, he's weak and ineffective. If he hits back,
he's whiney. If witnesses come forward to back him,
they are immediately attacked as either "honestly
mistaken " or as Kerry shills. Kerry is urged to
release his records. But the reports he's already made available are attacked as "lies."

Someone asked Al Gore's daughter last week if she
has any plans to follow her father and grandfather
and run for office. "More like run away" was her
answer. Looking at this whole mess, I can only urge
her to run away as far and fast as she can.

A few last items on this.

1. It's not just Kerrey's medals that are being
called false here. By extension, it's also every
man on his crew who received citations for those
actions, and even Commander Thurlow, who received
his Bronze Star for the same action Kerry did.And
what of others who won medals? Do we now question
everyone's? When some punkass kid makes some
sarcastic remark about medals meaning nothing and
points to this whole debacle, how can we answer it?


2. Bob Dole must have opened up some old wounds for
Vietnam Vets last week when he poo-poo'd Kerry's 3
Purple Hearts saying he barely bled. It was these
sorts of comments from WW2 vets that belittled the
medals and problems of those who returned from Viet
Nam, and is the reason so many of the Viet vets did
not join the VFW or American Legion when they did
come home.

3.Isn't it funny that the folks calling for
Kerry to produce his records can't seem to find
theirs? And in Thurlow's case, when some are that
support Kerry's story, well, then Kerry must
have been the one to write those reports.

4. Finally, I might be more willing to listen to
this Swift Boat group if it weren't for the fact
that many of the people behind it were also involved
with the smears of Max Cleland and John McCain.
Come on!
A triple amputee and a former POW and they accused them of being UNPATRIOTIC?

It's sick. It's slimey.

It's politics.

Now if you will excuse me, I must now go join my
fellow book selling conspirators. We are burning all
the copies of "UNFIT FOR COMMAND" that we hid away
near all our stores. When the bonfires are seen from
space, the pattern will reveal the answer to the
DaVinci Code while at the same time forming a road
sign to the invading fleet of aliens from John
Kerry's home planet.

Ssssssssh! Don't tell anyone!

It's a conspiracy!

ANOTHER YEAR OLDER IN DEEPER IN..WELL..YOU KNOW..

Well, Friday was my birthday and it came and went
fairly uneventfully. J at work gave me a card and
a cd demo of Celtic Circle. I got a bunch of nice
email from my online friends and Cheryl called me
to wish me a good birthday.No word from Phil but
he's never been good on birthdays anywho.

I bought a marked down half a cake for a $1.75
to celebrate and that lasted a few days. Chocolate
Mint. Yum!

I climbed the fambly tree a bit, found out a few
more fun things that don't mean a damn thing in
real life but are fun to think about.

I got a second installment of UC out. Got to get
more busy with the writing.

Ribs are mostly fine except for an occasional
twinge when I get up in the morning.

And th-th-th-that's all, folks!

HI HO, HI HO, IT'S BACK TO WORK I GO

Lucky me. Ah well, maybe someday I can retire.

Sometime in my 80's.

Worst part of vacation is getting back into the
swing of things at work when you return. And it
was really crazy for a Monday. Rainy days
always up business but rainy Mondays even
more so.

When I drove home after my shift ended at 7pm,
I sat in my car for a few minutes in my parking
lot and nearly fell asleep right there. When I
finally hauled my tired old butt inside it was
7:45. I nuked a dinner, sat down in the parlor,
ate, and then slept in the chair until about
12:30am. I've been sort of vegging out here
at the screen since then, but the bed is looking better and better.

And the bad news is my first day off this week
is not until Friday, instead of the usual one
of Wednesday.

Oh well, I'll get to sleep in late for my birthday
if I want.

ABOUT THAT TIME

Geese flew over the apartment building tonight at
around dusk. Hard to miss it with all the racket
they made as they went over.

Guess it's official. Summer's nearly over.

I'll start humming "Urge for Going" by Tom Rush
any day now.

And vacation is over. Back to work tomorrow.

Yowza.

I had more intelligent comments to post than this
but it took me so damn long to log in, I up and
forgot the suckers.

Ah well. Bedtime soon.

AND I'LL BLOW YER HOUSE DOWN!

Charley seems to have blown himself out before he gets here.We're hunkered down up here waiting on
the rains.
On the other hand.....

My Aunt Emily retired to Florida a few years back
and I haven't really seen or spoken with her since
my Mom's death.I had thought based on what Mom
had said after visiting Emily that she was living over by Orlando and would not get hit badly.

I was wrong.

She lives in Punta Gordo,right behind the Charlotte County Airport,as my sister told me this morning.

But since Emily usually comes north this time of
year to NH we assumed she was up there with her daughter Winnie and out of danger.

Wrong again. She was down in Florida.

Cheryl tracked down Winnie this morning on the
phone and Emily is fine. Apparently Winnie called
her yesterday, told her to load up her car with
as many friends as she could fit in it and get her ass out of there, which Emily thankfully did.

She's at some evacuation center for now, since
they won't let her back to her home as yet,and
her oldest kid,Richie who lives up by Tampa drove down to be with her.

So even that turned out well, considering.
Emily's house was insured.
Things can be replaced.
A life cannot.

And dang..there may be another hurricane headed to Florida.

Heck of a year.

YOU CANNOT SEE THE SHAPE OF THE PILL WHEN YOU ORDER IT

So sayeth the subject line of my lone spam of the day.

It has a sort or reggae lilt to it, don't you think?

"You cannot see de shape of de pill when you order it,
No,No, No!
You cannot see de shape when you pay for it,
No,No, No!
You cannot see de shape when you take it home
NO!
But you see it just before you swallow it!"

THINGS TO DO ON MY VACATION

Shop for food _/
Recycle Bottles _/
Laundry _/
Vacuum _/
Wash Floors _/
Clean Bathroom _/
Find Info on Whites
Write _/
Sleep _/
Write some more


Say..did I mention sleep up there?
Thought so.

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

Still climbing around in the fambly tree and last
night the realization hit me that my mom's parents
most like married in the first place because Nannie..
Grandmom Aggie...was pregnant with my Uncle Ed. They
married in October of 1924 and Eddie was born six
months later in April of 1925.

So perhaps the later breakup should not be so much
a mystery to this generation, but in those days,in
the 1920's Irish Catholic Boston, it must have been
a tough row for Aggie and her kids to hoe.The family
scandal, perhaps?

I was also struck by the fact that in two weeks I'll
be the same age as Nannie was when she died:56. She
was young but her health had been poor due to her
rheumatic heart and living through the divorce, the
Depression and then World War 2. Her ex-husband,
Edward (the bastard) would have been the same age as
she, and Mom had never mentioned hearing if he'd
passed away all those years since. I wonder if he
ever tried to see her or Uncle Ed as they grew up
and got married.Did he worry about his son serving
in the Navy during the War? Did he know anything
about his seven grandchildren and did he ever see
us when we weren't aware of it?

Was he, as I used to think, the person who'd call us on the phone and then never answered when we asked
who was there?

Did he live long enough to learn he had great grandchildren?

How sad if he didn't know any of this.

How much even sadder if he did, and either just
never cared to contact any of us, or was just
to afraid to try.

I know that even though Mom never talked about it
much except for a few bitter sentences now and again, she was terribly hurt by all of it. I wish
I'd been a bit more insistent on discussing it with her when she was alive now, if only because it
might have forced some sort of contact with her
father, even if it was for just some sort of
final confirmation of what they thought of each other.

And now of course, they're all gone: my grandparents, my parents, and Uncle Eddie as well. Aunt Emily
told Cheryl last week that Eddie would never talk
about his father with her either so she has no
information that could help.

I hope I can find out once and for all if there's
another group of relatives out there and see if they have any more pieces to this story.