That to which we aspire

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Less beautiful stuff below.

Race To The White House: Obama’s Bipartisan Appeal

Flip-flop watch .Steve Benen has updates from the past two weeks of John McCain's flip-flops. The total now comes to 48 — though it might be higher by the time I hit the "Save" button on this post. Pandering to the Republican base is hard work.

More below.

Update by PD: Mrs P and I will be throwing into the hat at tomorrow's chicken dinner. The floods continue to strain the resources of communities across the Upper Midwest. Please consider making a donation, if not for our sake, then for the sake of Colloquial's mom, who's pulling together the fund drive at our little church.




The recent flooding in the Wisconsin has taken its toll on a good chunk of Fond du Lac.  My basement escaped unscathed, unlike many others, but the biggest problem is that the flooding closed down all of the city's food pantries.  

Yes, the mail is being sorted at the fairgrounds because the post office is closed, and yes, I have to rely on walking for exercise because the aquatic center is mired in sewage.  But these are minor issues compared to the inability of Fond du Lac's poorest residents to obtain the food they need to survive.

Broken Bread, housed in St. Paul's Cathedral at 51 W. Division St., is undergoing a rebirth. Like Fondy Food Pantry, it lost everything from coolers to food.

Chairwoman Kathleen MacGregor said it was a horrible loss, especially since the pantry recently received 600 crates of food from the Letter Carrier Food Drive. She estimated that the organization lost 10,000 to 20,000 items. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the canned goods would be safe, but the pantry threw them out anyway to avoid contamination, she explained.

The full article is available here.

Can you help?  PD is offering up use of the PayPal account for anybody who would like to make a donation to help offset the costs of cleaning and restocking the food pantries.  Anything and everything is appreciated.

Thanks, everyone...

Happy news to start with From the Reuters blog:

"During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama --a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School -- was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.
"I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution," said Obama."

I find myself salivating.... http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/200...

Less happy stuff below.

US sniper shot at Koran in Iraq  An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_ea...  A level of offense and stupidity that leaves me snarkless.

Scads of stupidity, and some snark, below....

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] promoted by me. Now it's nap time!


Wrong track's up to 82% http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...

So, what are the McCains hiding? Cindy McCain was asked about releasing her tax returns, on the Today show, and reiterated that she would never release them -- ever -- even if she becomes First Lady:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZi6...

We're All Hacks Atrios is right

It's important to remember that none of us are above the fray, that we all have hackish tendencies to suppress information which doesn't fit our worldview and privilege information that does. We're more likely to excuse behavior from people we like and exaggerate the ills of people we don't like. I try to fight hackish tendencies especially during this intra-Dem battle, but I don't claim to have superhuman Nonhack powers.

For the record, I make no effort to be above the fray nor any pretense of being fair or balanced.  I'm not only a member of the Hack Club for Men, I'm the president.  It's good to know your own filters....

More hackery below.

I'm beginning to doubt the straight-talker's integrity.

First he seeks the endorsement of radical warmonger and Catholic/Muslim/Gay-hater Pastor John Hagee. Now I've learned that he's in bed with a convicted felon who promotes violence against the United States government.  The Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman explains:

http://

Watch out below....

Many people have the idea that yoga is a set of funny postures named after animals into which people are required to contort their bodies in order to achieve some known or unknown benefits. Yoga is actually a comprehensive philosophy and discipline for which there are teachings covering every aspect of life and death. The goal of yoga is union with God, and a simple deffinition of the Sanskrit word yoga is to yoke or unite. The physical practice of those postures, called asanas, is known as Hatha Yoga, and within the teachings of Hatha Yoga there are different schools of Hatha Yoga practice.

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] promoted by me.


I know Boston Legal is just a TV show, but this is powerful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GG7s...

Less impressive news resides below.

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] I did it.

Best. Sermon. Ever. Noah and the Ark. (Bill Cosby)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc13...

News below.