faboo mama

Well, look at me…yesterday I got to me the blog owner of Just Kat Stuff and her little Mr. I’ve been trying to post this, but my computer is out of space and the modem is acting wonky.  That’s why I haven’t been posting as much.

We had way too much fun and somehow managed to forget to take a picture together. You think Kat is funny online? She’s hilarious is real life. Baby boy is adorable and so funny. He had these two trains that he would not release for nothing in the world. Even to swing.

I’d post a lot of pictures, but most of the pictures I got came out blurry, but I do have this adorable photo of Kid Kat:

Here’s my monster sliding down the slide.

My daughter was upset that Kat didn’t have a girl her age, so she tagged along with some other people at the park. Occassionally, she’d come back over so I could put her on the swing.

And you can see that Kid Kat thought Ilia swinging was funny.

“One of Clinton’s laws of politics is this: If one candidate’s trying to scare you and the other one’s trying to get you to think, if one candidate’s appealing to your fears and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.”

-Bill Clinton, Oct. 26, 2004

(h/t to RollaMO)

By now, you’ve probably heard of the newest Clinton ad:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/M70emIFxETs&rel=1]

“It’s 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep,” the announcer says. “But there’s a phone in the White House, and it’s ringing — something’s happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call.”

The mother looking in on her children, worried about their safety, is a clear play for the so-called “security mom” vote. Should Barack Obama ultimately win the Democratic nomination, it’s hard not to picture John McCain’s campaign running an ad very much like this one.(TPM

David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager responded:

“We don’t think the ad is going to be effective at all. Senator Clinton already had her red phone moment — to decide whether to allow George Bush to invade Iraq. She answered affirmatively. She did not read the National Intelligence Estimate. She still, curiously, tries to suggest that it wasn’t a vote for war, but it most assuredly was…

“This is about what you say when you answer that phone. What judgment you show…She, John McCain and George Bush gave the wrong answer.”

Then Sen. Obama at an event today said:

I do want to take a moment to respond, because the press is, I’m sure, curious, to an ad that Senator Clinton is apparently running today. It asks a legitimate question. It says, who do you want answering the phone in the White House when it’s 3:00 a.m. and something has happened in the world. It’s a legitimate question. And we’ve seen these ads before. They’re usually the kind that play upon people’s fears and try to scare up votes.

I don’t think these ads will work this time because the question is not about picking up the phone. The question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone. In fact, we have had a red phone moment; it was the decision to invade Iraq.Senator Clinton gave the wrong answer. George Bush gave the wrong answer. John McCain gave the wrong answer. I stood up and I said that a war in Iraq would be unwise. It cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars. I said that it would distract us from the real threat that we face, and that we should take the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan. That’s the judgment I made on the most important foreign policy decision of our generation.

I really don’t think I have to add anything. Bill Clinton just endorsed Obama.  Again.

Wow.

No…WOW!

The Audubon Society’s center at Ernest Debs Park is cool. 100% built green and completely off the grid, it’s the sort of place we need more of, not only in LA but all over the place.

Talk about a flashback, driving up to the parking lot reminded me of the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona.

There isn’t much to say that isn’t already posted on their website. The kids loved the place. We took the butterfly path and it was easy to walk, even muddy. Since none of us were dressed for the walk though we did have to turn around. I couldn’t tell if the plants overgrowing the walkway were poison oak or not and we were all wearing shorts.

This huge rock in the courtyard of the place. It’s a very nice courtyard, one I wish my front yard looked like. To the kid’s left is a nice pond and to their right is another pond.

I was taking a picture of that fencing. What do you think? I’m thinking about doing something like in my front yard. I like how some rails don’t have angles on them. The walk path is also close to what’s in my front yard. Mine’s a little more gravel-y though.

This is kids were learning about butterflies. See those benches? They’re made with 100% recycled materials.

They make a little cave and there’s two stumps inside to sit on. Ilia said, “No Mr. Don’t go in there. There could be spiders.”"Spiders?”, Alton asked?

Ilia nodded, “Yeah and it’s dark,”

I jumped in, “Ilia just because you’re scared of spiders and the dark doesn’t mean that he can’t go in there.

“I’m just thinking about him, mama!”, she cried.

“I scared.”, said the little boy, shivering and holding onto my leg.

There was a lot of hands on things up there. There was a little shed with toys for the kids to play with, a water pump, seating all over on the campus and lots of places to climb. One of the most spectacular things is just being able to see 20 miles north to south.

Needless to say, I took a lot of photos of plants and stuff, but I’m not interested in posting them. I also found out that I can reach the lake we visited last week from the different trails that originate at the Audubon Center. The Center’s parking lot was full (it only holds like 20 cars) so we had to park on Griffin Ave. There’s a foot path from the street on up to the top. Walking up there, you can see Downtown Los Angeles and Dodgers Stadium. You also got a great view of the Arroyo from up there and that angle also made that section of the 110 freeway look even more psychotic and hair-raising than it is in real life.

Speaking of getting on the freeway, driving down Griffin, just before I got on the freeway, I saw this:

LOL…in someone’s front yard, they have this huge metal dragonfly! WTF? The eyes, behind the metal caging are two discoballs. I’ve got drive back over there.

I know…they’re just introducing it, but here’s the wrap up:

WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton suggested Barack Obama was not prepared to handle a global crisis in a debate last night that offered one of her last chances before next week’s must-win primaries.They faced off in a debate at Cleveland State University.

She portrayed Obama as a national security novice and said Americans can be assured she would not need a “foreign policy instruction manual” to keep the country safe.

She also compared him to President George W Bush.

Obama, meanwhile, put in something of a good word for Clinton at an Ohio campaign stop, saying voters should support Democrats, because “myself or Senator Clinton, we’re all concerned about creating a better social safety net”.

Former Democratic presidential candidate and superdelegate Chris Dodd yesterday endorsed Barack Obama.

Ha!

Okay. That was painful.

If you didn’t watch it, consider yourself lucky. I got to see it twice. And it didn’t get better.

Hillary Clinton made me want to cry.

For her.

I honestly don’t know why she wanted these extra debates. I really don’t. I expected huge oppo dumps, but nothing. She got to showcase her wonkiness, but that’s nothing different from the other 18 debates. The only new thing she said is that she regrets her vote on the AUMF. Of course she lied and said that she’s been saying all along that she’s regretted that vote. A simple check on transcripts shows that she lied big time on that one.

Sigh.

The debate opened up with a clip of Clinton doing her mom thing Obama. Keep in mind that she spent all day distancing herself from her little weekend tirades, so everyone was wondering which Hillary would be at the debate. If people are wondering which personality is going to show up, your campaign has issues. Brian Williams asked her about her tirade and somehow she managed to make it debate about her healthcare plan. Again.

Yawn.

Sixteen freaking minutes of Clinton running roughshod over the moderators and Sen. Obama. She spent most of that time talking. Remember that her campaign whined today that she gets treated unfair in the media. Maybe it’s because she didn’t win 11 races in a row, she’s losing superdelegates AND she’s acting straight up Sybil-ish. Fucking crybabies, is what they are.

Ooh. I should mention that I’ve had a couple of beers a two glasses of wine, so if they doesn’t make sense to you, that’s probably why.

Anyway. That’s what we were subjected to. Then on the second question regarding NAFTA the lady actually said:

Well could I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time. And I don’t mind, I’ll be happy to field them. But I do find it curious. And if anybody saw Saturday Night Live, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.

(image courtesy of karateexplosions)

The second question and this is what she says? And then she says that she’s happy to field them? Huh? Am I missing something? And what the hell is this pillow stuff about?

Okay, I won’t talk about how lame you must be if you willingly watch SNL after 1994. I won’t talk about how using SNL to make a point just makes you look really lame. It’s not like it’s Chappelle’s Show or even The Daily Show. I haven’t even seen the SNL clip, though I’ve heard about it. It doesn’t even sound funny or interesting enough for me to search for a clip. But for something that was clearly planned for Clinton to bring up, why on the 2nd question? She got her 90 minutes of free press (that evil media!) and she’s fucking whining on the 2nd question? Huh? Just remembe: What if the Roles Were Reversed? And tell me again, how bad the media has been to her.

Whatever.

There wasn’t much to the debate though. Obama held it down and called Clinton out on her bullshit. You know same old, same old; Clinton tells a lie, Obama checks it, Clinton slithers.

There were some odd moments. Tim Russert is still a fucking moron and asked some dumbass questions. It was like there was a coin toss backstage between Russert and Williams as to who gets to be The Tool for the evening. Guess Williams was tired of being The Tool.

The first question was regarding Clinton’s tax returns. She said that she was gonna try to release them and then tackily said, “Well since people heard I loaned my campaign money, we’ve been raising close to $1M a day on the Internet…” and then she plugged her fucking website. Again.

Now, you have to understand, I don’t care about the Clinton’s tax returns. I can see why some people are clamoring for them, but I really don’t care. So, I had planned on tuning the question out when she was pressed about releasing them before March 4th and she said, “Well I can’t get it together before then. I’m kind of busy right now.”

THUD.

Well…uh…I’m almost positive that Clinton isn’t going to rifle through basement storage for her own tax returns. I thought that as a sitting Senator, she has to give some Senate ethics thingy her tax returns anyway. And you know what, you’re running a campaign (badly, I might add) and you’re too busy to call your accountant? What kind of non-multitasking president are you going to be?

Russert asked Sen. Obama about Louis Farrakhan’s talking nice about him.

What?

I just about feel out of my chair. Farrakhan didn’t endorse Obama, he just said he liked the guy. Farrakhan won’t be out stumping for Obama or working with the campaign. Yet, Russert were like “The Jews may be mad!” Puh-lease. The Jews are lining up with the The Christians, The Buddhists, The Atheists and The Muslims to vote for Obama.

Obama, rightly, distanced himself from Farrakhan. In the most long-winded way. Actually, that was Russert’s fault. Apparrently the bottle of vodka he downed before the debates made it difficult for him to comprehend the simple words Obama said, so he had to repeat himself 3 times.

Then Tracy Flick Hillary Clinton just had to inject herself. She told this pointless story about how some anti-Semetic people were in NY when she was “running” for Senate and she flat out said that she didn’t want their support.

Brave stand there, Senator. Or as north_aufzoo said on TPM:

A daring move on Senator Clinton’s part. She didn’t just speak out against anti-Semitism, she had the courage to do it in that hotbed of intolerance, New York.

Then she made it an issue that even though Obama was denouncing Farrakhan, he didn’t reject him.

Huh?

Did she dip into Russert’s vodka?

Surreal. Obama just said, “Okay…I don’t see the difference between denounce and reject. (audience laughter) But I’ll concede the point. I denounce AND reject him.” (audience laughter). Then Brian Williams made a joke about it too. Yeah, she looked dumb.

There was a mixup of sorts and they were going to play a clip of Obama, but accidentally ran that clip of Clinton acting like a spoiled teenager, being sarcastic and mocking Obama. She turned all kinds of shades of red when they played that clip. Obama came to her rescue, “I give you points for delivery.” (Clinton horse laughter). Then she said a curious thing, “I was trying to lighten up. We give so many speeches, I was just trying to have fun.”

Dude. Fun? You lead your group of followers in the Macarena. You tell WH jokes. You play a game with them. You do not mock another candidates speech.

She was having fun.

That’s some bullshit right there. If that’s how she has fun, then she’s a small and petty person.

Then they played the clip of Obama saying something like, “The premise of Clinton’s candidacy has been 35 years of experience, including eight years in the White House. She’s basically told us that she’s a co-president. That’s fine, but “The notion that you can selectively pick what you take credit for and then run away from what isn’t politically convenient that doesn’t make sense. If she suggested she had nothing to do with economic policy in the Clinton White House, then it would not be fair for me to bring it up but as you know, that’s not the claim that she is making,”

And Obama owned it. He didn’t run away from that clip like Clinton ran away from hers. He owned it and expanded it.

Now the most curious thing happened. You go around the blogosphere and people were like, “Clinton’s done.” She looked dejected through most of the debate and after the healthcare question, she looked like she was going to cry. Now go over to First Read and Political Ticker…during the debate it was all, “Clinton is so wonderful, Obama sucks!” It was almost like Michelle Malkin Taylor Marsh was blogging for them. I mean every little thing was an Obama fuck-up in their minds.

After the debate, the media that never gives Clinton any good press, spun their little hearts out. Tonight was Clinton’s night as they took every single flub of hers and tried to turn it to gold. And the funny thing, is that looking at them, it was almost like even they didn’t believe it. Everyone (except Chris Matthews) was talking in subdued, somber tones, Keith Olbermann looked not only pissed at Russert’s line of questions, but at the entire charade of them acting like Clinton did good.

All I have to say, is thank God it’s over. I am not going to watch another debate. If I have to listen to either of them talk about their crappy healthcare proposals, I’m going to put a hurtin’ on someone.

Can’t wait to see what the new smear the Clinton campaign has for Obama.

I think my thighs have stopped protesting now. Last Wednesday, the entire family headed over to Ernest Debs Park not far from our house. I’ve been up there twice since we’ve moved here. Once during the summer just see what was up there and again a few months ago. There’s no reason not to go to the park except there’s no playground so the kids get out of control at times.

Anyway, there was a break in the rain and since I’m considering training for a marathon, I’m now scoping out places to exercise. From the satellite map, you can see the paths around the park, so I figured that would be better than driving all the way to Griffith Park. My logic is that when I get so run-ready, I could easy just jog over to the park. Of course, I forgot about the ginormous mountain you have to drive up to get to the park area.

While you’re driving up, to your right you have a pretty great view of Alhambra and other Foothill Cities in the distance. To your left, you get a hillside. A few weeks ago, it was pretty windy and it’s been raining for like the last 3 weeks. There were several large trees uprooted and laying on their sides.

The park is a nature preserve. You can see all kinds of wild animals up there and all the sites warn you to be vigilant about coyotes and other wild animals. The Audubon Society has a center on the lower and decidedly flatter part of the park. We’re going to go there on Wednesday, so I’ll post on that part of the park later.

At any rate, we parked the car, and started on the path.

This is to your left when you’re heading uphill. There were 6 uprooted trees and 4 snapped ones. It must have been really windy up here.

The path is asphalt and goes up a hill. A steep hill. That hill was so steep I thought the little boy was going to have a heart attack running up it. I can honestly say that that was probably the steepest hill I’ve ever walked up. Anyone who’s lived in the housing developments in suburbs of LA will probably understand how high this hill was. It was a first gear hill.

Okay…I’m done, but that hill was really, really big.

O-KAY!

To distract myself I ignored the ragged breath and pounding of my heart and pretend to care about the plants. I was actually looking out for wild animals, but then I glimpsed this:

Could you imagine a clear day what that would look like? That’s our underwhelming skyline. LA Rocks! In the summer when it’s like 112 degrees on that asphalt and those who haven’t died on the way up look at this, I bet it’s really pretty to see the sun dancing off the glass buildings. I’ll never know, because ain’t trying to die on a hill in a park in LA.

Oh, I bet you’re wondering why we risked coyotes and rain and potentially fatal heart attacks with no working mobile phones and two toddlers. I learned there was a lake. I don’t remember how I found out about the lake, I just heard it was there. And I had to see it. Now.

So we climbed and we climbed and we climbed…poor Alton and his little legs were just pumping, but it was like, uh…running uphill for him. We literally had to pull him along. Odd, even though I was practically gasping for air, I didn’t break a sweat at all. The hubby does what he always does and pretends he’s in the same shape he was 20 years ago. I’ll ignore the wheezing to have a bit part in the charade.

We get to this flatish area and while my husband was eager to go down a hill, I turned to see where the other path lead…

There’s our lake! From my online reading you can fish there and like all the lakes at parks around LA City, you can fish, but you can’t swim.

The kids took a couple of photos and we started walking around the lake. Now, clearly it isn’t a big lake, but it is bigger than it appears in these photos and in reality. The east, south and and west edges lead to big drop offs. In the southwest corner, there is a little path that takes you to other smaller bumpout. I wasn’t intersted in risky slipping on mud down 70 ft.

This is on the other side of the lake. From this side you can see Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium, Glendale and Pasadena. That’s on a cloudy, overcast day. I can only imagine how far you could see on a clear day.

We continued around the lake and as we reached the north side, we found rocks and what looks like pools.

I have no idea why tha’ts purple, but my curiousity got the best of me and I followed this smaller path over near those railings. Turns out, it zigzags down and there are more pools. I guess at some point these used to be waterfalls connected to the lake.

Here’s one of the “falls” and a pool. The pool goes on for another 4 or 5 feet, then drops again. You cross it by walking on a stone.

So, we walked on up the path to leave the park.

And in keeping in line with the Clinton’s insulting voters at every turn, superdelegate, Ms. Ferraro tells us that voters don’t represent rank-and-file Democrats:

Besides, the delegate totals from primaries and caucuses do not necessarily reflect the will of rank-and-file Democrats. Most Democrats have not been heard from at the polls. We have all been impressed by the turnout for this year’s primaries — clearly both candidates have excited and engaged the party’s membership — but, even so, turnout for primaries and caucuses is notoriously low. It would be shocking if 30 percent of registered Democrats have participated.

You’re looking a little green. Go ahead and spit out that bile in your mouth. I know how it is. It’s kind of sad that a former Vice Presidential candidate went that far. That with record turnout at the polls and at caucuses, Ferraro had decided that dismissing all those people participating in democracy was a good idea. This goes to show that Team Clinton really did expect a coronation. Like it’s the voters or Barack Obama’s fault the Clinton’s can’t run a national campaign.

The focus of Ferraro’s op-ed is that only the superdelegates know what’s best for the party. That’s why they’re super, thanks for asking…

But the superdelegates were created to lead, not to follow. They were, and are, expected to determine what is best for our party and best for the country. I would hope that is why many superdelegates have already chosen a candidate to support.

Wouldn’t you just love to hear the explanation as to why these supers haven’t found it fit to lead these last 16 years. Why they felt rolling over for the GOP was better than leading. Why they were so scared that the infantile infotainment channels might say something mean about them? Oh wait, it was the voters who were clamoring at these guys not to rubberstamp an illegal war the PATRIOT ACT, NCLB, the FISA bill, torture or the bankruptcy bill. It’s so heartening to know these superdelegates lead us right down the drain with their special brand of leadership. Since I can’t quite remember Geraldine Ferraro standing up for our democracy and country then, I can only wonder why she feels the need to inject herself right now.

We can add Geraldine Ferraro into the long list of Clinton backers who now want to change the rules midgame. Now, it’s a problem that Republicans and independents are voting in our primaries. A more optimistic person would be thrilled. They’d say, “Wow, look at all these people switching over. We should do something to engage and keep them.” The Clinton’s camp looks at them as more people who’d muddy up their flowcharts and focus-tested phrases, making them pay Mark Penn even more money for his microtrends.

Perhaps because I have endorsed Mrs. Clinton, I have noticed that most of the people complaining about the influence of the superdelegates are supporters of Mr. Obama. I can’t help thinking that their problem with the superdelegates may not be that they’re “unrepresentative,” but rather that they are perceived as disproportionately likely to support Mrs. Clinton.

And I am watching, with great disappointment, people whom I respect in the Congress who endorsed Hillary Clinton — I assume because she was the leader they felt could best represent the party and lead the country — now switching to Barack Obama with the excuse that their constituents have spoken.

Yeah, uh…because, why should they start representing their constituents now when they’ve managed not to do that the last 16 years, right? Naturally, Ferraro’s piece devolves into Team Clinton’t usual bleating about seating Florida and Michigan delegates. Naturally, Ferraro’s piece manages to not mention that Clinton had signed an agreement saying her name would be removed from the ballot, but Ms. Ready from Day One managed to forget to do it.

I’m tired ya’ll…this race shouldn’t be this hard. I never thought that I’d see a former First Lady or a sitting Senator use race-baiting and xenophobic tactics on a member of the same party. I never thought I’d see a former First Lady or a sitting Senator decided that voters in 24 states, black voters, activist and caucus-goers aren’t part of the electorate, that those groups don’t count. I never thought I’d see a former First Lady or a sitting Senator accuse an opponents supporters (over 10M people!) of being delusional for supporting him. I never thought I’d see a former First Lady or a sitting Senator who did not stand up to be counted when an election was being stolen, sit here and try to undermine the democratic process of voting.  But what I really can’t wrap my head around, is that I never thought I’d see a former president, a former vice presidential candidate, Senators, Governor and Congresspeople, acting like this presidency was an entitlement that Clinton deserved. I never thought that I’d see these elected Democratic officials doing their damnedest to undermine the Democratic Party and democracy as a whole.

Gag me.  I just read a post from Wolf Blitzer who seems suddenly overly concerned about media fairness in regards to candidate time.

With Ralph Nader now in the presidential race, there’s a serious question those of us in the news media have to ask: How much air time do we give him?

Are you serious Wolf?  How much time?  How about none?  None would have been good.  My response I posted, but probably won’t get out of “awaiting moderation”:

How about giving him as much air time as you give Rep. Ron Paul or Mike Gravel? Or as much time as you gave Rep. Kucinich, Rep. Hunter and Sen. Dodd or Sen. Biden? Already, the media has decided to collectively ignore Gov. Huckabee, yet for whatever reason, you’ll still paying attention to Sen. Clinton, who’s won only 3 more states than Huckabee did.

Why are you pretending to care about fairness?

This is a station that decided to eleminate half the Democratic candidates that were still running from debates after the middle of January.  We’re supposed to think they care about fairness?  Remember that they let Giuliani stay on the debates, while they tried to kick Ron Paul off?  Despite the fact that Paul had raised more money and got more votes than Giuliani did.

And now we have a guy who’s running for president for the 5th time.  In 2004, he got a little over 436K votes out of 122M votes casts, in 2000 he got 1.3M votes.  This is a viable candidate?  I can guarantee that if I decided to run for president today, I won’t have 15 minutes with Tim Russert to announce.  I can also guarantee that if I decided to run for president today I could probably get more than 436K votes.

I get that CNN gives into nutter egomaniacs, I do.  After all this is a station that not only has egomaniacs, but they’re racists too (and note, I’m not even going to mention the gambling drunks they have). But don’t insult my intelligence and pretend that you care about fairness in the media.  That’s a stinkin’ load.

Okay…I know I shouldn’t post that headline, but 1) it does make me laugh and 2) when you read what’s below you’ll even say, “What’s with these crazy white bitches?”, even if you’re a crazy white bitch yourself.

Can you say overboard? Ha!

Last night, I was reading Me, Myself and Eye and I saw a post titled The Blair Witch Mother. I kinda glanced at it, but had planned on ignoring it when I realized it was about Lisa Whelchel of The Facts of Life. Most of you may know that Ms. Whelchel is born again and has spent the last decade or so touring the country testifying. I don’t knock her for that, I still don’t get the born again thing (I’ve never heard of that in my black Baptist and Methodist churches) and it just sounds like she got some Christ-fever going on. Can’t fault her for that.

On one of my birth club boards, there’s a lady who seriously scares the bejesus out of me. This is a person who uses crazy-ass James Dobson’s books as parenting guides. (For those who are lucky enough not to know about this crazy mofo one of his tips to raise tough boys: “He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.” In my world, we call that “child abuse”. And this a nutjob who dares slurs gays with the pedophile tag. Fucker.) When she tells us how she disciplines her kids, I want to call Child Protective Services so bad it’s not even funny. I’ve had to stop visiting the site because sooner or later…okay, sooner I was going to tell this crazy white bitch off.

So, when I saw Sister Toldja’s post on Whelchel, the part that caught my eye was:

“Having a struggle at bedtime? Try this: Next time you’re dealing with the usual bathroom trips, cups of water, giggling, and talking, call off bedtime. Declare, ‘Nobody has to go to bed tonight!’ Inform them that they may stay up as long as they like—the operative words being stay up. Then have each child stand still in the middle of a separate room of the house.”

Say what? I had to scroll back up. What is this? A joke right? It has to be a joke. Turns out Whelchel has written a book on parenting titled Creative Correction and in there she give tips on how to discipline your kids and raise them to be good little foot soldiers in God’s Army.

World o’ Crap shares a post with us:

In addition, Whelchel offers the following: “For lying or other offenses of the tongue, I ’spank’ my kids’ tongues. I put a tiny drop of hot sauce on the end of my finger and dab it onto my child’s tongue. It stings for a while, but it abates. (It’s the memory that lingers!)”

Well cut my legs and call me shorty!  That’s fucked up.  I mean beyond fucked up.  In saner parts of our world, that’s called ‘torture’.  I do everything possible not to have to spank my children and there is no way I’m going to “spank their tongues” with hot sauce.

A book reviewer mentions several disturbing “tips” in the books, one that Sister Toldja mentioned in her post”

Whelchel advises readers to give their children ridiculous commands in public which they must instantly obey without asking any questions, while refusing them permission when they make requests which Whelchel herself admits are perfectly legitimate. She writes: ‘As we walk along together shopping, I will suddenly give them silly commands that they must obey without arguing, such as ‘Walk backward,’ or ‘Stop and touch your toes,’ or ‘Give me a kiss.’ Occasionally I’ll throw in a real command, like ‘Don’t touch that,’ or ‘No, you may not have an Icee.’ My favorite curve, however, is to say no to some reasonable request, like ‘May I go to the bathroom?” (p. 138)

THUD.

Her “favorite curve” is to deny letting her children take care of a body function?  What the hell is that?  How much does she hate kids?  I mean, I don’t particularly like children, but damn, if my kids need to pee, I’ll let them pee.  My daughter does this thing when we go out, we sit down at the table, order our food and no matter how long it takes to get our food or if she has just gone to the bathroom, guaranteed the moment the food is set down, my kid needs to pee.  Sometimes I’ll make her wait a minute or two to make sure everything is settled, but I could never tell her ‘no’.  Hmmm, maybe if I “spank her tongue” she’ll stop asking…something to think about.

The thing that kills me is that if you go to Whelchel’s site, the suggestions are logical and normal-like:

Forgetting to feed a pet? Try putting her lunch money or lunch bag in a box next to the pet’s cage. That way, your youngster won’t get to eat unless his pet eats first.

Sloppy schoolwork? Buy a printing or cursive workbook from your local teachers supply store. Then ask your child, “What takes longer: a report done neatly in 15 minutes or one you’ve sped through in 10 that must be redone and warrants a page of handwriting practice?”

Toddler independence? If your little one balks at holding your hand while in a parking lot or crossing the street, give him a choice. Remind him, “I can either hold your hand or hold your hair.” Independence isn’t quite so appealing on those terms.

Okay, these aren’t exactly good, but you have to admit they’re more normal than the hot sauce thing.  Over at Amazon, one reviewer posted more Whelchel’s child abuse ideas:

Lisa recommends:
–blindfolding children for an hour if they roll their eyes
–handcuffing quarreling siblings together
–putting quarreling siblings outside, whether it’s 30 degrees or 100 degrees
–making a child wear boxing gloves all day long for hitting; they are not to be removed for eating; as if this isn’t enough torture, she recommends videotaping the child trying to eat popcorn with the boxing gloves. This might be appropriate in the context of a family game night, but not in the context of humiliation and punishment.
–burning a few of the child’s toys if a child is caught playing with matches (what about putting the matches out of reach or doing some standard fire-safety education?)
–pinching a child’s tongue with a clothespin for disrespect
–pouring hot sauce on a child’s tongue
–saying “no to reasonable requests such as ‘may I go to the bathroom’” in the name of keeping children on their toes in terms of obedience
–restraining a one year old in a car seat if the child won’t stay in time out (time out is not appropriate for one year olds to begin with, and, with any child, if time out is not “working,” change your strategy– don’t restrain them!)
–making children stand in the center of the room for a long period of time if they are resisting bedtime (”make it tough” she says)
–making a child close the door quietly, like 100 times, for slamming a door

Those are only a few examples. Lisa also takes Scriptures from Proverbs and turns them into physical punishments. It’s almost as if she flipped through Proverbs looking for Scriptures she could use as physical punishments. And we wonder why an estimated 80% of Christian kids are leaving the faith in college? There is a connection there.

When I was a kid I got spanked.  A lot. My mother’s idea of fun was waking us up at 4am on a Saturday morning and making us clean the house top to bottom because company was coming.  Then around 3pm, she’d joke that she make it up to get it us to clean.   Two weeks after I moved out of the house (first time I got kicked out), my mother called my dorm room at 4:30am asking me where one of her fugly scarves were.  Then she said, “I’ll come by to get you so you can look for it.”  You know my ass stayed in bed.  Fuck that.

My mother has devoted her adult life to acting a fool and being a straight up crazy high yellow bitch.  I do not talk to her at all.   A few months after I had my daughter, I picked up some stuff from my mother’s place.  She said, “Oh, grandmother told me you had a kid. You should all come by so I can see her.”  Like that was going to happen.  I nodded and sped a way.  I didn’t see or hear from her for another two years and that was at my grandmother’s funeral.  She managed to ignore both my husband sitting next to me and my daughter on my lap to tell me some stupid bullshit story…I ain’t never getting those 2 minutes back.

I am 35 years old and I haven’t willingly spoken to my mother for 13 years.  My sister didn’t speak to her for a long time, until her current husband practically forced her to.  My brother doesn’t willingly speak to my mother either.  This is the road that Whelchel is travelling.  She’ll be like my mother a lonely, bitter woman with not even her kids willing to speak to her just because her glee in torturing defenseless children outweighed their need for a burden-free childhood.

Here’s the short version: The Clinton’s campaign sends out photo of Obama in African dress. Drudge (of all people) mocks them for the stupidity of it. Obama campaign says it’s pretty sad that the Clinton campaign has resorted to this. The Clinton’s campaign responds back that Obama is being petty, but doesn’t deny that it came from them.

The longer version:

A photo of Sen. Obama dressed in African garb was sent out. I won’t link to Drudge, but you can find it if you’d like. From his site:

With a week to go until the Texas and Ohio primaries, stressed Clinton staffers circulated a photo over the weekend of a “dressed” Barack Obama.

The photo, taken in 2006, shows the Democrat frontrunner fitted as a Somali Elder, during his visit to Wajir, a rural area in northeastern Kenya.

The senator was on a five-country tour of Africa.

“Wouldn’t we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?” questioned one campaign staffer, in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

Then Drudge pretty much laughs off the “attack” and posts 3 photos of Sen. Clinton, Bush and Bill Clinton in various traditional garb of countries they’ve visited.

Now, you know it’s bad if Matt Drudge won’t run breathlessly with it. Evenhanded is not the word ever used to describe Drudge’s brand of “reporting”.

The origin of the photo can be found at Han-Geeska Afrika Online.

The Obama campaign released the following statement(TPM):

“On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world.”

Greg Sargent over at TPM immediately contacts his buddies in the Clinton’s campaign to get response from them. After a while Maggie Williams sends out this head-exploding non-denial:

Enough.

If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

We will not be distracted.

Go ahead…make sure you get the pieces of brain that feel behind the sofa. I’ll wait. Clean up is tough with stuff like this. I completely understand. While you’re at it, I’ll tell you a story. When I was around 6 or 7 years old, I used to bug my little sister a lot. I’d be generally annoying just to get her attention and make her play with me. Once I got her attention, I’d then complain to my mother that she was bugging me.

Got all the brains back in? Good.

Note that there’s no denial of the photo being sent from the Clinton’s campaign. For whatever reason the Clinton’s campaign is running with the lie that Obama called the photo divisive, when he actually called their tactics divisive. This is just as bad as last week when the Clinton’s campaign said that they’d poach Obama delegates, then when called on it, they said that they had never said that and were waiting for the Obama campaign to deny that they’d poach Clinton’s delegates. This is what Granny Weatherwax calls headology. The only problem is that the Clinton’s campaign kinda sucks at it and it only makes them look like me at the age of 7.

UPDATE:  h/t to Buzzflash, it seems that the Clinton’s campaign does have someone working to feed Drudge stories:

Clinton’s communications team, led by Howard Wolfson, is not leaving Drudge to the Republicans. Five current and former Democratic officials said Clinton has on her side the closest thing her party has ever had to Rhoades (ed. note: this would be Matthew Rhoades who worked for Romney and was fed stories to Drudge–read the article)  in Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee official. The officials said that Sefl had established a friendly relationship with Drudge and that Clinton’s campaign often worked quietly through her to open a line of communication with Drudge.