He would have gotten more for me fifteen years ago

Just so y'all know, Trailhead Kid wants to sell me at the garage sale because I wouldn't let him get Pop Tarts at the grocery store. When Mr. T informed him that 1) human trafficking is illegal and 2) he wants to keep me anyway, Trailhead Kid decided the solution was to approach me in a solemn, measured manner, and, with no fanfare, throw Thomas's yellow squeaky bone at me.

Which basically means the kid won't be seeing daylight again till tomorrow, what with him spending the rest of the afternoon in his room and all.

So how's everyone been?

Izzy or Izzeny, Part Three

This article says that "[f]riends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House." This was apparently not done at Gore's request, but he hasn't asked them to stop either.

This part of the piece perked my little pointy ears right up:

Gore-watchers believe that a new book he is publishing next month on the state of US politics will keep his name in the public eye. Many of his supporters helped to run the unsuccessful presidential campaign of John Kerry in 2004. But since Sen Kerry abandoned his presidential aspirations this year, many of his leading advisers have yet to align themselves with any of the other candidates.

They were expected to join the campaign of Sen Edwards, who was Sen Kerry's running mate last time. The former aide, who has himself signed up with Sen Edwards, said: "The question is: where have all the Kerry people gone? The answer for most of them is nowhere. Now ask yourself why."

That's actually interesting. But check out this quote from James Carville:

James Carville, President Clinton's former strategy chief, suggested last week that Mr Gore, who has piled on the pounds, could shed weight over the summer to make himself more media-friendly for a White House run.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he lost 15lb or so," said Mr Carville. "And I think if people thought he could get us out of the mess we're in with Iraq, they wouldn't care how fat he is."

And remember what Bill Clinton said last week:

"[Y]ou have got the prospect that vice president Gore might run."

Carville's an advisor to Hillary Clinton's campaign. And of course, we know who Bill is. Why are they talking about Gore running? See, I don't believe that the Clinton people do or say bloody anything that isn't somehow intended to advance their ball. (Of course, if you read Carville's quote, there's a compliment embedded in a nice little pillow of nastiness -- you know, the part where he calls Gore fat.)

But the question to ask is, what's their purpose in yammering about a potential Gore run? Bill had to know that even that one throwaway comment would cause a ripple through the political press and blogs. Stealing Gore's thunder in the event he's planning to run? Or is he trying, by fanning the flames of hope, to keep those of us who would vote for Gore in a heartbeat from committing firmly to Obama or Edwards? My thought process is this: that Gore die-hards like me aren't likely to fall in Hillary's camp, and if we keep telling the pollsters that we want Al, that softens the support for Obama and Edwards. The longer she can string that out, the better. Gore is currently running third after Obama. Give that support to O or E, and things start looking worse for HRC.

Is that insane? What do you think is going on?

Yipes

Re the pet food recall, ABC is reporting that overseas companies may have intentionally spiked pet food ingredients with melamine, in order to make it appear that the products had a higher protein content. And here's a nice little tidbit for ya:

Federal agencies are trying to determine if it was actually fed to animals and whether it may have reached the human food supply.

Great.

Hahahahahahahaha

I'm upstairs listening to Mr. T try to explain the concept of time to our 4-year old. It's not going swimmingly.

Good luck with that, honey.

Article 17's a deal-breaker, dude

It's quicker to post this than to e-mail it to all the lawyers I know. Um, probably not work safe. Via Kristy.

glumbert.com - Sexual Consent

Trailhead Kid sez

Time to wake up from this Randian nightmare

Go read this over at Sylvia's.

Then go read this article.

It's always funny when it's someone else's kid

Easter

This is perhaps the best thing I've read this Easter.

Wherein your blogger learns how to pronounce "Skagit," and other matters

So here I've been in Seattle for two days and change. Today found me lunching with fellow blogger Kristy, and we had a grand old time. Kristy's probably missing an ear now since I talked it off like I always do when I meet someone. She did let me know that the tulip-harboring valley to the north of Seattle is pronounced "Skajit" and not "Skaggit," and if anyone heard me saying "Skaggit" they'd know I wasn't from around there. So now that I know the secret I can skulk around up there, my foreign nature undetected.

Mr. T and Trailhead Kid rode the Amtrak up today and tonight we ate at the utterly touristy Ivar's Acres of Clams on the Seattle waterfront. Actual conversation at Ivar's:

Mr. T: So earlier today I thought our son might have an STD.

Me, the forkful of salmon pausing halfway to my mouth: Um, what? Our son is four years old.

Mr. T: Yeah, I know. I took him to the bathroom on the train and I noticed that his penis had red dots all over it.

Me, eyes widening: Oh no. What is it?

Mr. T: A tragic red marker accident. Except, not really an accident, apparently.


Maybe he was just trying to get rid of a penis headache.

Where does Attle live, anyway?*

I'm off to Seattle this morning to visit a friend who's doing a visiting professor dealie at a law school up there. Mr. T and TK are taking Amtrak up on Friday afternoon, and if I can determine whether the tulip bloom has progressed enough to make it worthwhile, we might zip up to the Skagit Valley on Saturday with my camera gear before returning home.

I'm also planning to meet Kristy for lunch on Friday. I'm looking forward to this; how could I not want to meet someone whose latest post was entitled The Semi-Violent Eroticism of a Washington State Emissions Test?




*This is, as are so many things on this blog, a family in-joke. FullMoon Kid, now a strapping almost-ten-year-old, was once a young sprite much like our own Trailhead Kid. We were eating breakfast together once when I announced to my sister that I needed to go to Seattle and take a deposition. FMK cast me an inquisitive look and asked, "But does Attle live far, far away?"

Since it's Bloggerdad week around here...

Gotta tell ya. I'm fond of my dad and all, but I don't want him up my nose:

In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father’s ashes mixed with cocaine.

“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

“He was cremated, and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said, adding that “it went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

Of course, a spokeman is now insisting that Richards was joking. Sorry dude, but you can't unring that bell, especially when it's Keith Richards. I mean, how many people, when they read this, thought to themselves, "Well, of course he snorted his dad, it's Keith Richards, for crying out loud."

More on the Edwards lunch, this time on foreign policy

Post by Bloggerdad

Most of my original post was about John Edwards' position on domestic matters, or at least non-military matters. But he had quite a lot to say about foreign policy and the military. He is not timid about these matters. He favors a quick withdrawal from Iraq. He says that there is no US military solution to the problem, and Iraq's neighbors have a powerful interest in stabilizing that country but not while we are there. But he does not propose to withdraw from the area. He favors a robust US military presence in Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. He says a nuclear Iran is unacceptable and that it is presently being governed by a madman. But he says we need to be smart about the situation. He is cognizant of the fissures in Iranian society and considers them an opportunity that we should exploit, but not by military force.

He favors deploying troops withdrawn from Iraq to Afghanistan to finish what was left undone when we went on the misadventure in Iraq.

He would seek cooperation and participation of all interested parties in seeking stability in the middle east.

My sense is that he would not shrink from use of military force when he thought it was necessary, but it would be as a result of thought, not ideology.

I very much hope I have accurately stated his positions on these points. My remarks are based on my memory and some inferences I drew. I sense steel in this man.

There is an interesting comment in the New York Times* today under the heading "The 2008 Campaign".

The section titled "The Polls' has bar graphs comparing favorable, unfavorable and haven't heard enough for Hillary, Obama and Edwards. The comment says that Democratic voters have a more favorable opinion of Hillary than of Edwards and that is what the poll shows as far as it goes, but it is very misleading. The bar graph tells a more complete story. Those Democratic voters also have a more unfavorable opinion of Hillary than Edwards. Edwards unfavorables are minuscule. Hillary's are not. But even more interesting is the fact that the difference between Hillary's favorables and Edwards is taken up in the bar graph by the "have not heard enough" responses. Rather surprising that a former Vice Presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket appears not to be as well known in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania as Hillary.

*[Trailhead note: Bloggerdad advises this is from the dead tree edition. I haven't the time this morning to see if it's online or not, so if anyone has a link to the online version, please share it!]

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