A final update from: (Link) It was Jake's time to go. The last couple days he had hardly eaten, and he was always looking downstairs, like he wanted to be down there. It's cool and quiet, and my sister and her boyfriend are usually up late, so he would have company for longer. Last night, he managed to get the door open and went downstairs. Every time my sister tried to coax him back upstairs, he simply stayed put or trotted away. I think this was his way of telling us it was time. This eveni...

Just after I left work this afternoon, I was greeted with a sight that made me laugh and cringe at the same time. It was one of the simplest things you could imagine – a bumper sticker. And yet, despite its simplicity, it conveyed a message so filled with bitterness, so packed with stubbornness, so unbelievably negative that it could not go unanswered: (Image) So how’s that “hope” and “change” working out for you? Could somebody explain to me the reasoning behind this little gem, brought to y...

I was inspired driving home from work this afternoon. With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien... The fires below awoke in anger, the red light blazed, and all the cavern was filled with a great glare and heat. Suddenly America saw John McCain’s long hands draw upwards to his mouth; his white fangs gleamed, and snapped as they bit. Barack Obama gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm’s edge. But John McCain, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the Ring, a finger still thrust...

There is a LOT of stuff to focus on while leaving her children out of it. The Repukes drag children into this shit. We can avoid that kind of disgusting tactic. Focus on how she left the town she was mayor of near $20 million in debt... Or how she tried to abuse her power to fire and ex-brother-in-law because or personal reasons... Or how she supposedly fired the chief of police and the head librarian after becoming mayor for political purposes... Or how she wants to rape the Alaskan wilderness...

I know we'd all been pretty antsy around here lately, waiting for Obama to enlighten us as to which political veteran he'd choose as his running mate. We finally had that tension relieved sometime early Saturday morning when it was announced that Senator Joe Biden would be Obama's running mate. That question was finally answered, but it began to raise another one: Who would John McCain, perennial loser and presumptive Republican nominee, choose to be HIS running mate? Sure, we've heard a lot of...

Imagine, if you will, a different world… There was no war in Iraq. We never invaded. We never accused them of having imaginary weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was never toppled. Al-Qaeda never spread into the chaos that was never created. The attacks of September 11, 2001 still happened, though the leaders of our country tried their hardest to prevent them. The memo advising the President that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States never fell on deaf ears...

The bulk of the dream took place at night. I was going somewhere with my friends, driving somewhere. They were all in one car and I was alone in my car. At an intersection, I was stopped at a light and I made eye contact with a cop as he was on another part of the road. He stopped, squinted his eyes, and pointed for me to pull into a nearby parking lot, turning on his lights. So I obeyed... I followed into the parking lot to find, to my surprise, three other cop cars already there and a couple ...

There is so much happening in our world right now that, at times, it seems difficult to follow it all and keep up. I do my best to get as much national and international news as I can without letting it upset the balance in my mind between what I can accomplish and what I cannot. I CAN send letters and call my Senators and Representatives repeatedly in an attempt to get them to understand how dangerous things have become in this country. I CANNOT fix the problems because, in the end, I don't mak...

Cindy Sheehan has become many things since she first entered the scene a few years ago, but above all there is one thing I think whenever I hear about her. Cindy Sheehan is a human being. She is a human being. She is an American. She is a mother, a protester, an advocate for change. She is using her right as an American citizen to speak her voice, to protest that which she does not agree with, and try to bring about change to this country and to the world. At times, she has been right. There h...

So, a few days ago I followed a link here at DU leading to one of those one-stop sites where you can enter your zip code and send a message to all those who represent you in Congress - in my case, Udall, Ken Salazar (D), and Wayne Allard (R-Obviously). Udall, so far, is the only one who sent a reply. Here's what he had to say... Dear Mr. *******: Thank you for letting me know you think the House of Representatives should consider impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I apprec...

You probably don't know me, and odds are you don't give a rat's ass about what I have to say. Well, it feels like I'm about to go off the deep end on this one, so hold onto your corrupt asses. I am an average American citizen of voting age with an opinion on politics and how this country should be run. You know - the people you morons continue to ignore at every turn. Today, 41 of you (including the holy Joe Lieberman) voted to continue debate and delay a real vote on Senator Jim Webb's bill, S...

Today, in case you missed any news outlet or forgot to change your Bush-joke-a-day calendar, was the Fourth of July. It was 231 years ago today that our founding fathers declared, in no uncertain terms, that it was their intention to separate themselves from English rule and to bring the American colonies into a new era of peace and prosperity. It was a great experiment, the greatest ever undertaken by a group of revolutionaries rebelling against their oppressive rulers, and it is still one of t...

The past week has become a near nightmare for me... It feels as though the weight of the world is crushing me, and that everything good about this world is crumbling before my eyes. I am stressed out, tired, angry, frustrated, and seemingly alone. Though I may not be alone in spirit, sometimes spirit is not enough. A guy I was friends with the last year and a half of high school died last week from a drug overdose. I haven't been able to feel anything but numb until today. My job is so frustrat...

I find myself today feeling a great emptiness, a great sorrow within the very depths of my soul. If I tried to point to a single, powerful reason for these feelings, I could not. Rather, I would end up pointing in a thousand different directions at a thousand different sources that, once combined, make me feel as though the weight of the world is crashing down upon us all, and that there is no salvation from it. I look at the news on TV and the Internets. I read the papers and the blogs. I list...

(Link)/ This headline was looking up at me from the front page this morning. Max Karson, a junior at the University of Colorado, was suspended from the university and arrested by the university police yesterday for comments he made in a class that was discussing the Virginia Tech tragedy. Multiple CU students reported to the police that Karson was "angry about all kinds of things from the fluorescent light bulbs to the unpainted walls, and it made him angry enough to kill people," and that "he...

33 dead. Many more injured. One community shattered. One nation shocked and saddened. No easy answers. That's all I can grasp from this unimaginable tragedy today. There are very few answers right now, and we probably won't get many more for at least a few days. When I first saw the report on the news this morning, I felt like I was going to throw up. I still feel that way right now. As I write this, I'm having a very difficult time trying to organize my thoughts. They keep dancing from one th...

Imagine, if you will, the scene I am about to describe to you. If is sometime during the summer of 2007. President Bush's "New Way Forward" is well underway, and Iraq is still in chaos. Nothing is working, and the President is on the verge of losing faith in his master plan for democracy in the Middle East. One day, as the President is sitting in the Oval Office, a team of scientists enters, escorted by the untouchable Karl Rove. They bring the exciting news that they have perfected a top secr...

Every time I open the newspaper, turn on the TV, or search the Internets I see it. When I turn on NPR or Air America, I hear it. When I look at a picture of people like George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, or those of their similar ilk, I feel it in my deepest soul. It's the intangible yet palpable fear that, as a nation, we are slowly spiraling out of control. It feels like the very pillars of government and accountability are crum...