**get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit**

OMG. Thank goodness for microphones. Does anybody know where to find an audio clip of this? I'd love to be able to hear for myself the "inaudible" portions! Click on the title of this post to link to the UK's Guardian, where I clipped the dialog below.

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Bush Yo, Blair. How are you doing?

Blair I'm just...

Bush You're leaving?

Blair No, no, no not yet. On this trade thingy ...[inaudible]

Bush Yeah, I told that to the man.

Blair Are you planning to say that here or not?

Bush If you want me to.

Blair Well, it's just that if the discussion arises ...

Bush I just want some movement.

Blair Yeah.

Bush Yesterday we didn't see much movement.

Blair No, no, it may be that it's not, it may be that it's impossible.

Bush I am prepared to say it.

Blair But it's just I think what we need to be an opposition...

Bush Who is introducing the trade?

Blair Angela [Merkel, the German chancellor].

Bush Tell her to call 'em.

Blair Yes.

Bush Tell her to put him on, them on the spot. Thanks for [inaudible] it's awfully thoughtful of you.

Blair It's a pleasure.

Bush I know you picked it out yourself.

Blair Oh, absolutely, in fact [inaudible].

Bush What about Kofi? [inaudible] His attitude to ceasefire and everything else ... happens.

Blair Yeah, no I think the [inaudible] is really difficult. We can't stop this unless you get this international business agreed.

Bush Yeah.

Blair I don't know what you guys have talked about, but as I say I am perfectly happy to try and see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral.

Bush I think Condi is going to go pretty soon.

Blair But that's, that's, that's all that matters. But if you ... you see it will take some time to get that together.

Bush Yeah, yeah.

Blair But at least it gives people ...

Bush It's a process, I agree. I told her your offer to ...

Blair Well ... it's only if I mean ... you know. If she's got a ... or if she needs the ground prepared as it were ... Because obviously if she goes out, she's got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk.

Bush You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit and it's over.

Blair Syria.

Bush Why?

Blair Because I think this is all part of the same thing.

Bush Yeah.

Blair What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if we get a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way ...

Bush Yeah, yeah, he is sweet.

Blair He is honey. And that's what the whole thing is about. It's the same with Iraq.

Bush I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen.

Blair Yeah.

Bush We are not blaming the Lebanese government.

Blair Is this...? (at this point Blair taps the microphone in front of him and the sound is cut.)

I Know I Sound Like a Broken Record

Moving Moving MOVING. We are starting to get things in order. Slowly, each day, we go thru what seems like thousands of boxes a day. Most things, such as most of our kitchen and dining room stuff, are going to the basement to live for a while, till we get through renovating the kitchen. Yesterday and today, we pretty much got the living room and dining room in order. Here's a pic of the living room, complete with fabulous Sputnik chandelier, hanging over our ginormous coffee table (some of you may recognize it... it is our old dining room table, atop our old coffee table base... glass top broken in move. Thanks for the fabulous orange bowl, Dawn and Preston!).

Jing Xia cooked a wonderful dinner tonight. She really is a great cook, and seems to be getting along in demolition kitchen just fine. We can sit on cushions on the floor and get 8 people around that coffee table if we want to...hmmm that could be fun.

In other news, Steven had a second interview today with Nationwide in Columbus. He seems to like the jobs they are looking to fulfill, and they seem to like him. If they make an offer--and he thinks they will--he can choose a job that will allow him to work from home for some portion of the week. I'm hoping he could just go in one day...maybe 2 per week. And we made a deal: if he gets that job, he has to immediately trade the Jetta in for a Volvo or some other kind of super-safe car (and one that we can put a hitch on to haul stuff around for our garden and kitchen renovations. and after that we have a WHOLE LEVEL of basement that needs so much work I can't even think about it now). I really can't stand the thought of him commuting so much. But, I guess if he dislikes the commuting we can change it.

And in still more news, I'll be starting new projects in Sioux City Iowa and Columbus Ohio in the next few weeks. Yippee! Thank goodness neither of these new projects have weapons-based collections... I think I've had enough of that for now.

www.donotcall.gov

In case any of you are wondering if it really works to register your phone number... let me tell you: I just registered our new phone number, after maybe oh gee I dunno maybe 50 junk telemarketing calls over the past several days. In Atlanta, our number was registered, and we did not recieve many telemarketing calls--usually just from organizations and groups that we are members of or have given money to called us, and it was rare that a call got through that was from Planet Claire. Anyhoo, I wish I'd done this last weekend, but we've had so many hiccups getting online again, particularly getting our wifi to work (aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh), that i hadn't gotten around to it. Does anyone know if we'll continue to get calls from the people who've already disturbed our peace? I think that is the way it works: anyone who gets through BEFORE you register legally can continue to do so.

Moving :: Part 10 of 10

Sheesh i'm tired of all this moving crap. Tomorrow will be one week that we've been in the new house and oh what a lot of stuff there is to do. The kitchen is semi gutted. The windows are dirty and need work (though Steven cleaned alot of them this week). The yard is a mess. It's been raining for a week and it is sooo steamy here I can't stand it. Thank goodness for HVAC, but i haven't been able to walk much due to the deluge. The movers come tomorrow with all the rest of our stuff from Atlanta. We need those extra beds, as Steven's Mom arrived today from China and has to sleep on the sofa for one night. For the life of me, I cannot understand how the lady gets all the stuff from China to here. She packed like 20 thousand items in 2 suitcases. A mountain of tchotckes. Lots of groovy fabrics. A ton of prepacked Chinese foods and candies, etc. I wish she would just come and bring herself! I think maybe i'm a tad depressed about all the WORK we're going to have to do to find places for that 12,000 lbs. of stuff. And i'm going to be a freak running around putting those darn sticky feltey crappy things on the bottom of furniture, sos our new floors don't get scratched. Mommie's going to need a little helper or 10 tomorrow. Can somebody overnight something to me? Valium? Buspar? Lithium? Uggggggggggggggggggh. Here's a picture of Steven (not Steve Lawrence) and Eydie Gorme taking a nap... to cheer me up.

Hooka Bar

I don't even know if i'm spelling that correctly. Well, we took a break from the painting/moving chores last night and took a long, nice walk around Athens. We discovered a Hooka Bar that opens at 9 pm and closes at 5 am. They had just opened when we got there, to stop and have a coffee. But no coffee was made, owing to the big hole into the earth where a water main was being worked on. Anyhow, the middle-aged proprietor gave us an earful! His daugter is a student at OU, and he has a cash register business in Columbus. But he has opened this hooka bar, which has all kinds of beautiful smoking contraptions, middle eastern decor, and all kinds of crazy infused tobaccos... with strawberry, apricot, and who knows what all. Everyday we find such unlikely things going on here...it is like a little surreal oasis in the mountains. After, we walked through the Hollywood Hills to get back home, and found the cool San Francisco-like stairs that connect severall streets on the mountain, ending right next to John's deck and woods.

Somebody Slap Me!

Cause I can't stop laughing at this! Steven Colbert is just a little exact slice of perfection. Oh god I love him!

Declare YOUR Independence

My Mom forwarded one of those chain-letter emails to me yesterday. You know the ones: they say 'forward this to everyone in your address book, or years of bad karma will reign down on you!' Well, i find those kinds of emails especially easy to resist, I hate that kind of crap...but the subject of the email was Independence Day, and basically implores support the USA or get out. That's the kind of oversimplistic statement that the hijacked Conservative party uses to hypnotize people into supporting their extremist and hateful rhetoric and policy.

It's not that my Mom falls for that kind of drivel, she doesn't. I think she just innocently sent something along to me that really pushed the wrong buttons for me, anyway.

I can remember honestly thinking to myself 6 years ago, when Bush was finally declared the winner of the 2000 race, I'll give this guy a chance and see what happens. Who on earth knew how completely disastrous he and his administration would be and how much destruction they would shower down on us all? I am so tired of that criminal man and his gang of criminal "staff" being able to claim patriotism, cloaking themselves in our flag, while they rape and pillage the world, loot our country of its economic power and freedom, loot our national psyche and will of it's all important energy and spirit, and do everything they can to wind back the clock on sensible, progressive policies. I mean honestly, what is next? Will they bring back child labor? The Trail of Tears? (Don't forget Abramoff--he's not far off from Andrew Jackson's attitudes and behavior toward the Native American world).

Here is the contents of the email, roughly:
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AMEN TO THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!



I'm proud to send this one

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having "In God! We Trust" on our money and having "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to Shut Up and BE QUIET!!!

If you agree, pass this on, if not delete.

I AGREE !!!!

"God Bless America."

PLEASE KEEP IT GOING---IT IS WELL WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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My blogger friend Curtis posted a perfect reply to this email I think. You can see it here.