The Sassy Sundries: My Week in Review

Here I consider matters personal, political, and nonsensical from my week and assign a numerical value. I’ve stolen this idea from the Boston’s Weekly Dig’s Bean Counter column.

Spineless Republicans supposedly in favor of a non-binding resolution criticizing the president’s ill-conceived surge vote against debating the measure. Minus Five

I reconnected with a friend, and it was good. Plus Four

RIP, Anna Nicole Smith, victim of stereotype and the media. She had nary a brain cell in her head, but that makes it all the more reprehensible that people reveled in her exploitation. Minus Two

A most interesting e-mail exchange with McIntriguing has me smiling a lot. Plus Five

I had to resort to platitudes to calm myself down while I waited for the e-mail to ring. Minus One

Bush’s foreign “policy” of late has me even more worried than usual. This article lays out the sheer idiocy of the Administration’s posturing on Iran. And although this article James sent me doesn’t have a lot of new information, it lays out a very convincing case for the real motivations behind our Middle East policy. Minus Five

I got to knit with Grey’s when the show was actually on. Thanks, Carissa! (If you haven’t checked out her critique of the show’s location issues and other crimes against Seattle, you should. It’s a scream.) Plus Four

I’m going to New Hampshire tonight, and I’m going to see my favorite dog. Oh, and my parents. That will be nice too. Plus Three

Plus Total: 16
Minus Total: 16

Verdict: Even
Last Week’s Total: Minus 1

Nightmare Scenario and Showing Him the Way: Thoughts on the State of the Union

I cannot say enough how relieved I am that W can no longer claim a majority in Congress to support his disastrous leadership. Listening to him plead with lawmakers and the American people to give his war a chance was far more heartening than hearing him gloat about the “successes.” The most common word I’ve used to cover the response to his State of the Union address was “tepid.” W knows that the American people do not support him or his war, and he knows that he can be defeated.

Still, his words about Iran make me very nervous. If he broadens this “war on terror” to include a fight against Iran, I fear for the future of my country, and I fear for the safety of the entire world. We are not winning in Iraq—what makes him think that we can take on Iran? “Nightmare scenario” indeed.

Senator Jim Webb’s succinct and cogent response for the Democrats demonstrated why he won his seat as a Democrat in the red state of Virginia. Here was a voice who knows war himself. His father served in the military, he served in the military, and now his son is serving in Iraq. He said that this war was misguided from the beginning and that it is time to extricate ourselves from it now. Alluding to the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, he said that Congress would be “showing him the way” if W refused to listen to reason about this war. The American people have placed their trust in the Democrats to do just that.