End * on * End

So it seems winter has started. Cold and snow hit the Buffalo area yesterday and continued into today, making the outside world a not-so-fun place to be. I don’t want to complain too much, since this is nothing compared to what we will see, but it is always hard the first few days.

Not to mention I haven’t been feeling well recently. Diagnosed as allergies (possibly to cats – which we have two), I’ve been on Clarinex all week, with mixed results. The doc said it may take up to two weeks to start working, so I am trying to be patient. This is getting old though—the head pressure, the stuffiness, the spacy feeling, the fatigue—all worse than I have ever felt before. Hopefully it is allergies and hopefully the meds will start working soon.

Had some problems accessing the Admin, so I apologize for the downtime. Everything is back now, so I’ll try to resume my semi-regular posting.

Says Bush, all while Cheney is pushing for exceptions to McCain’s anti-torture bill in the Senate. Exemptions would include the CIA, who are rumored to have covert jails in Eastern Europe & Thailand (which have been made unavailable to the proper international human rights agencies and unknown to most of Congress, who are supposed to oversee covert operations.)

Also see a very interesting New Yorker article on the torture issue. Among the many items mentioned (including some of the above), the most unbelievable is this:

The Bush Administration has resisted disclosing the contents of two Justice Department memos that established a detailed interrogation policy for the Pentagon and the C.I.A. A March, 2003, classified memo was

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All the talk of nominating a woman or a minority male to the Supreme Court ended today, when Bush took the more familiar route and nominated a white guy named Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. And no, I don’t count Harriet Miers as an attempt, because I have a feeling Bush knew she wouldn’t get past the confirmation process. I think it was no more than a feeble attempt to appease the folks who were calling for a woman to replace a woman. That didn’t work, so back to the original plan! As mentioned in the MSNBC article linked above:

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to preview Bush’s remarks, said Alito was virtually certain to get the nod from the moment Miers backed out.

Anyway, Alito has been called Scalito and Scalia-lite, which is not a good thing in my eyes. Scalia, the same judge that has been associated with the phrase, “conflict of interest” more than once during the Bush II administration. (He went duck hunting with Cheney before the Supreme Court was expected to hear a case that involved Cheney. Then there is the case of the Florida recount in 2000, where Scalia and Thomas had Bush family ties.)

Enough with Scalia. Alito is another super-conservative that is sure to come under extreme fire from the Democrats during his confirmation hearings. Will he pass? I’m sure he will after a long fight, although you never know… he may be Borked.

Yes, the people have spoken and God has finally listened. Red Robin is coming to Buffalo. Thanks to Margie and her wonderful eyesight to have reported back to the Dettbarn household that she saw the “coming soon” sign with her own eyes.

Thanks be to God!