Noahs Flood

I found 5 inches of rain in the backyard gauge - it's been raining every day for days. It may be time to start working on an ark. It's supposed to continue another week.

News has been a strange mix: bombings in Iraq - we are 6 days from the June 30 turnover - President being deposed on the exposing of a CIA agent, and other assorted downer news.

People in the 30's depression used to watch Seabiscuit's improbable races (and wins) as a distraction from the bad economic news. Smarty Jones did that for two of three races, but has disappeared from the scene, leaving us without a distraction.

But then "SpaceShipOne" made a successful flight to the edge of space - 3 entrepreneurs opening the door to private flights in space. That was a great day. Then the next day it was back to hearing about someone losing their head in Iraq and more bombings. Bummer again.

I have been talking to a lot of people in my quest for Congress - the Main Street report is grim, some tell me sales are off 75% the last two years! Jobs are going elsewhere. The mood out there is frustration and insecure. People seem to be in the mood to roll some heads of their own.

Well, back to building my Ark.

 

Only in America -

It's official - I'm a Congress candidate officially.

I found a letter in my mailbox Sunday from the Texas Secretary of State, stating that I had qualified for the November ballot as a candidate for US Congress (www.Congress1.com).

The present incumbent has been there for 20 years. When I challenged him in 2002, I was thrown off the ballot and had to sue to get back on. And I won the suit, but not that primary.

So I'm on the ballot again, but for the first time on the general election ballot - the last two times were in the GOP primary. This time I'm an independent and I like it. Now I can talk to everyone, not just members of one party.

Only in America can the little guy challenge the powerful - and polls are showing that the incumbent is down to 36% among likely voters. 54% say that they want "someone else." Earlier this year another challenger for a Constable position actually beat a 16-year incumbent in my district, after he was knocked off the ballot by the GOP. It made people very angry and the kid swamped the incumbent with 60% of the vote.

My case is unique.  Unlike most independents I have a prior track record in this district - so it's going to be close between 3 of us. It looks like the Democrat is the potential spoiler, not the independent (me) since the best a Dem ever gets is 36% in this district in a 2-way race. Just call me the anti-Nader independent.

My entry makes it a possible for possible "Seabiscuit" race against the incumbent (actually 3 -- a Libertarian with the same name as the Democrat (ironically) is also in and usually pulls votes from the GOP side).

So this should be interesting. I'm definitely the darkest horse in the race...

Only in America...

 

Pres. Reagan Joins the Challenger Crew

Yesterday was an odd day. It was the day before D-Day, a time to think of our vets.

Then their was surprising news that President Reagan had died after a ten year losing battle with Alzheimer's. After that, Smarty Jones lost his bid for a triple crown win in the last seconds of the race. The Strawberry Full Moon was in full swing.

The highlight was attending a Literacy fundraiser in the George Library that was very successful, and it went late.

I had to get up early since I was a layreader at church. So I got there feeling still half numb and not running on full batteries.  I found the "Prayers of the People" section, and came to a place where it said "We pray for those who have died, but it was blank.

So, I penciled this in and read it to the congregation without prior approval:

"We pray for those who died, especially former President Reagan, who has slipped the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God."

The idea came after reading about his remarks after the Challenger crew was lost. They also fit for a former President, who has now joined the Challenger crew in touching the face of God....

Michael Fjetland

 

Strawberry Full Moon tomorrow - HOT

It's a major "Global Warming" outside - HOT as hades in Houston. We get a wet heat that makes your clothes stick to your body in seconds despite air conditioners blowing full bore. In the Texas panhandle it's a DRY heat, but not here on the coastal plains.

And I haven't even seen the move "The Day After Tomorrow" and its global weather disasters!

Tomorrow is unique. "The moon will be full June 3 at 12:20AM ET. Indian tribes called this the Strawberry Moon because it came during the short strawberry harvest season."

Yep, the strawberries are roasting out there today. So are the issues - it turns out the guy who talked the Bush admin into invading Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, was arrested by our own forces and charged with giving confidential info to the Iranians.

Moral: Don't invade a country based on one guys "inside info."  That mistake just cost us $300 billion1

Well, back into the H E A T in a few minutes. Half of Houston has fled town, probably for a beach or mountain top somewhere.  Americans should move north in the summer and south in the winter instead of being savaged by the extreme heat and ice.

It's HOT as blazes. Summer has hit Houston like a blow torch - A/C is O U T on the old Merc and only 1 window will roll down. Time to get a hybrid (50 mpg!).

News keeps getting stranger by the day. New abuse photos and videos, and I heard a military intelligence officer try to say that Nick Berg was part of Al Qaida and consented to his own death - I find that too off the wall.

Got to run...

Just back from bean town Boston - for a BU graduation that turned into Noah's floodwaters - people walking around in $1,000 suits drenching wet with no umbrella.

Then our hotel turned out to be 1 block from City Hall where gay marriages were issued for the very first time - which was at our underground rail stop. AMAZING scene it was. Will discuss more later...

Grandmother is 100 and news is she is failing, so must go. News gets weirder by the day from Iraq.

Those Who Kick Dogs and People

As I was walking a neighborhood a few days ago, collecting signatures to get on the ballot, a man came out of his house with his dog.  His dog made a beeline toward me. He was friendly and cute and wanted to play, but the man saw me with my Congress T Shirt and yelled at the dog: "Murphy, get back over here!"

Murphy did as commanded an--d the man then kicked him! Poor Murphy yelped. It was all I could do to keep from kicking the man for kicking the defenseless dogs. Obviously, the guy likes the incumbent I am running against (Tom DeLay) and hated my "Fjetland for Congress"  T-Shirt presence, so he took it out on the dog.

Later, I passed his house and never asked for a signature. I was getting 9 out of 10 anyway and don't need a signature from a bastard who kicks dogs. I wouldn't have asked for his signature even if I had needed it! People who abuse dogs and humans are unAmerican creeps.

Seeing the mistreatment in Iraq of prisoners made me feel the same - a few morons mistreating Iraqis making all of us Americans, and our military, look bad. A military source now says that 90% of the Iraqis had committed no crime -- they were civilians caught in various dragnets. These weren't dangerous Al Qaida types, but ordinary Iraqi moms and dads and brothers caught in a cross cultural hell. 

Then the horrible news of Nick Berg being beheaded by Al Qaida terrorists (they were not Iraqis but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi an Al Qaida leader overtaking Osama as a global killer showed how ugly tit-for-tat violence can get.

Then it turns out before he was killed that Berg had been in JAIL in Iraq --by our own military-- and our people would not let him have access to a lawyer! His own family had to sue in court to get him released! What is going on over there? This is not the America of our forefathers, who fled an abusive Monarchy and set up a bill of rights to avoid just this kind of nasty treatment. This is not a role model of democracy that is supposed to be set up in Iraq.

We have to reclaim the moral high ground.  We start by providing Iraqis with access to courts, bonds, attorneys and fair hearings.  If Americans had a foreign army here putting us naked on the end of a dog leash, etc. and not letting our families know what happened to us for weeks on end, we'd all be outside planting roadside bombs too. 

Duh, connect the dots Washington! If you treat people like dirt the situation gets worse, not better. Some genius in Washington or the Pentagon forgot that if you don't treat people with respect and give them a chance to prove their innocence, they get very hostile. We are supposed to show the Iraqis a role model better than Saddam, not copy it! No wonder things are going to hell over there. So many screwups and those awful pictures have led to more bullets being fired back at our troops and has cost us the moral high ground.   

Those prison abuse pictures had a kick back effect --and helped cost Nick Berg his life. People around the world are feeling very abused and kicked by officials here who talk democracy but don't practice it.  Kicking Iraq won't make it better, it will only make it more dangerous. But like an abused wife, it will be nearly impossible for the current players to win back the trust or the hearts and minds of the people needed for success in Iraq (or elsewhere).

Sadly, our leaders have alienated nearly the entire world, spent $200 billion on a war that had no connection to 9 11 or weapons of mass destruction -- and was rushed into with no plan or enough troops to provide the necessary security.

At the same time we now have a half trillion deficit with only the rich getting the real tax cut. Everyone else gets left table scraps, and they think they've just had a break.

It's time to kick some arrogant people out of Congress who have abused the trust of the American people -- and left them facing more hundreds of billions in costs for future years in Iraq on top of the half trillion dollar hole in our budget and a record trade deficit.

Our economy and kids will be paying in money and blood for their follies and disrespect for generations.