2 Parties

The Democratic Party:
While Laura had the awesome opportunity to attend the Democratic Convention in Denver this week, I settled for the TV coverage. When I was younger, I'd have been glued to the set all week. I watched the '88 & '92 Conventions every night (& even @ 10 years old I watched a bunch of the '84)... this time I only caught a couple hours. We watched Obama's speech last night & Dick Durbin's speech before that & a bunch of random people talking about why they're voting Democratic this fall. Before I comment on them though, it's important to mention that I was impressed by the fact that they were willing to speak @ all. They're nervousness was obvious, but we're talking about people w/ assumedly little public speaking experience addressing a football stadium full of people (Not to mention the national television audience). That said, some had a bit of the douchebag in them. "I'm a lifelong Republican. I voted for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush, & GW Bush, but I just can't do it this time. Now that I've lost my job & my house, I feel that we need a different direction." Part of me says, "Great, better late than never," but this change of heart is pretty selfish & self-serving. What they're also saying is, "I didn't care about the millions of people who were effected by the GOP policies before, but now that I'm the one getting fucked, I suppose I should be a little more compassionate." Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have them on our side than in the McCain/Palin camp, but perhaps had all these people the DNC is parading around made the switch, oh I don't know, 8 years ago, we wouldn't have gotten in this mess to begin w/. I'm glad they're w/ us, but a little mention of their previous errors would have been nice, yet there was never any acknowledgement of "Oops, I fucked up in the past & I'm sorry." All I'm saying is that would have been nice. Here he is letting his winger know the cross was good but he just couldn't quite connect & find the back of the netThe Big Ass Summer Party:
Tomorrow is the big party for those of you who have forgotten (or those of you who didn't know to begin w/). The music has been arranged, the lights have been hung & we've been cleaning. I even chopped wood yesterday for the little suburban yuppie "I can't actually commit to a fire pit" fire pit thing. In doing so, I of course broke my old industrial sized yard clippers, but the ax & the saw made it through unscathed. If you're coming (& y'all better be coming), remember to bring lawn chairs & food or drinks if you'd like. Oh, & an instrument or 2 to join in the music w/ Jim, Gerry & Warren.