Friday Nights, Books and Politics

I love the promise of the weekend that I always feel on Friday evenings. Two luxurious days to myself. So much to do. Yard work has been beckoning for three or four weeks now and the weather this weekend will be perfect for it. We'll be in the 70s tomorrow!

I have books stacked up like crazy and can't seem to get offline long enough to read. I'm working my way through Team of Rivals still; it's very interesting and I'm fully engaged in my sticky note making, but have only read 25 pages this week. I'm also reading a Rosamunde Pilcher novel for those moments when my brain is too tired to worry about Lincoln, Seward, Chase and Bates. I'm about halfway through that one.

My copy of The Yankee Years arrived yesterday and I might have lost it temporarily to The Teenager who asked me if I ordered it for him because he wanted to read it.

Inside Gitmo also arrived yesterday and I received a nice email today from its author, Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu who thanked me for mentioning his book on my blog. He also told me about the companion website, which is great. Tons of information, resources and insight there. Check it out!

I've been just about enraged for the past 24 hours about the dropped charges on al-Nashiri. I noted on the FoxNews website that they had an interview with the mother of one of the seventeen sailors who died in the October 2000 attack that was planned by al-Nashiri. She refused to go to the meeting today with Obama. She says that there is "nothing" he can say to her that will make this better. Of course, The New York Times gives the impression that the meeting went nicely and that everyone is pleased as punch now that they have listened to his words of explanation.

The Porkulus bill just nauseates me. I feel like I am Alice venturing into Wonderland. I've had too many mushrooms. Wake me when it's over. I fail to understand the world when the mayor of my own city submits the purchase of eight Harley Davidson motorcycles as a "shovel ready" project. These projects, as you know, were supposed to create jobs. When asked on Fox and Friends how many jobs the purchase of these Hogs would create, Mayor Glover said, "one or two, at the manufacturer." God help us.

On a lighter, happier note, today is Ronald Reagan's birthday! I surely miss Ronnie.