Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: Parade Day No. 2

It's Parade Day again and like last week, it's cloudy and cold. I prefer my Mardi Gras parades under sunnier skies and milder temperatures, but nobody asked me. I'll tough it out! Tomorrow afternoon is the last big parade and there is a 30% chance of rain. But I'll be there! The snow is all gone now so we don't have that to contend with, at least.

So since I have beads to catch, let's get on with this:

Stacy McCain has the low down on the low down Keith Olbermann. Olbermann and Andrew Sullivan are about tied for the lowest low down pond scum award in my book.

Bungalow Bill has a post on Obama's college years and some thoughts from a professor who knew him then. Gateway Pundit also has a post on the same subject.

Fishersville Mike is getting nostalgic about the Olympics.

Legal Insurrection pats himself on the back after Patches opts out of running for re-election. Job well done! And Bob Belvedere celebrates!

Speaking of Bob Belvedere, Grandpa John reveals his secret.

Ruby Slippers has an Instalanche with her Snow Studs post! Woot Woot!

Carol takes a look at some stimulus dollars and points out that Louisiana isn't the only state that has reason to be embarrassed by Washington.

Little Miss Attila has a great, and helpful, post on Blogging 101.

Donald Douglas has a film he wants you to see.

No Sheeples Here has the best roundup evah! and I really hope there won't be any lamb chops on the table for Valentines Day. Avoid the mutton stew, as well, after playing in all that snow!

Wyblog ponders Kindles and e-books. Put me in the camp of real books any day. I will NEVER be an e-book person. I like to hold the book in my hand, feel the pages, smell the ink and have it on the shelf later.

Left Coast Rebel finally joins Facebook!

Generation Patriot likes lasers!

Red has a snow picture with a red dog.

Bread Upon the Waters posts on a tribute to Flight 3407.

Pundette has a nice round-up of stories you might have missed over the past couple of days.

Bride of Rove is just giddy over Glenn Beck's smack down of Meghan McCain!

I needed a tissue and a hug after reading The Dialysis Diary. Don't miss this blog.

My Bossier got into the snow posting yesterday!

That's going to have to be it for right now. I need to make a quick store run to pick up some goodies to take to the parade this afternoon before they close the streets. Of course, if they closed the streets before I got to the store I could always go to ANOTHER store, but I'm a creature of habit.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Democrats or Republicans on National Security Issues?

The Washington Post article this morning about Obama inserting himself into the debate over where the KSM trial should be held (finally) quoted a statistic that has been puzzling me. It seemed off the wall to me when I read it this morning but I didn't question it too much at the time because I was more focused on the bigger issue, it seemed to me, which was that Obama is now paying attention to matters of national security.

The Post said this morning that Obama is more trusted on matters of national security than Republicans, which is so very odd to me (emphasis mine):

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 55 percent of voters say military tribunals should be used to try suspected terrorists, compared with 39 percent who say the civilian court system should be used. In November, there was an even split on this question. Still, Obama has an advantage on national security, with a majority of Americans continuing to approve of the way he is handling the threat of terrorism -- his highest-rated issue -- and 47 percent saying they mainly trust Obama on the issue compared with 42 percent who trust the GOP.

Yet according to Rasmussen on February 10:

On national security, Republicans are trusted more by a 49% to 40% margin after leading by 17 points in January. This marks the first poll to show Republicans earning less than 50% of voters’ trust on the issue since August of last year.

And in the War on Terror (still Rasmussen):

Recent polling shows that voter confidence in U.S. efforts in the War on Terror is near its lowest level in recent years. Only 36% of voters say the United States is safer today than it was before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, marking the lowest level of confidence since Rasmussen polling first asked the question in 2002.

So where does the Washington Post come up with these numbers?

The closest I can get is this Washington Post - ABC News poll dated Jan. 12-15, 2010 in which Obama does have more favorable numbers.

When asked if respondents approved or disapproved of the way Obama is handling terrorism, the results were:

b. The threat of terrorism

      -------- Approve --------   ------- Disapprove ------     No
      NET   Strongly   Somewhat   NET   Somewhat   Strongly   opinion
1/15/10    55       31         23      42       14         28         4
11/15/09   53       31         22      41       14         27         6
9/12/09    55       31         24      34       12         23        11
6/21/09    57       NA         NA      36       NA         NA         7
4/21/09*   57       NA         NA      26       NA         NA        17
*Pew

It's interesting. Curious, but interesting. The number of those who disapprove has climbed from 26 to 42 yet those who approve has stayed pretty much the same - from 57 to 55.

The sampling for the latest poll is supposedly:

          Democrat  Republican  Independent  Other  No op.  Dem.  Rep.  Lean
1/15/10       32         23           38        7      *      17    20     9

When asked how much confidence one has in (item) to make the right decisions for the country's future, 47% trusted Obama to 24% who trusted Republicans in Congress and 32% trusted Democrats in Congress.

And on preventing another terrorist attack in the U.S.:

a. Preventing further terrorist attacks in the United States

      -Excellent/Good -   -Not so good/Poor -     No
      NET   Exc.   Good   NET   Not so   Poor   opinion
1/15/10   58      8     50    41      30      11       1
9/7/06    66      9     57    33      24       8       1
1/18/04   74     14     61    25      19       6       1
9/7/03    80     19     61    19      16       3       1
9/8/02    75     13     62    23      21       3       2

Obviously that number has changed since Obama took office.

At any rate, I can't find the numbers WaPo refers to in their article today and they don't link to the poll. This January poll is the closest I can find.

I just don't believe more people trust Obama with national security than they trust Republicans, although I guess it could depend to which Republicans one refers. The Democrats, after all, is the party who just charged a man with explosives in his undies on an airplane in Detroit with nearly 300 people as a common criminal rather than an Al Qaeda trained enemy combatant.

I'm not trusting them. No way.

A Trip Around Town in the Snow

Shreveport in the snow:

The bayou along East Kings Highway was deserted this morning; usually the park is filled with kids but I guess they all stayed home this morning!


However, some intrepid souls had been out and built a couple of snow people. These are at the bayou which is also along the parade route, thus the beads. The snowman is holding a note with the names of their creators and the note proclaims them to be "Who Dat Snowmen." Their smiles are made from beer bottle caps.


The ducks aren't too happy with the snow, I don't think. None of them were in the water.


At Norton Art Gallery the scene was peaceful and majestic. There were a few neighborhood kids out playing in the open, snowy areas and a few small snowmen here and there, but mostly it was hushed and beautiful with only the sound of the streams and the snow crashing from the trees overhead.


This cat wasn't bothered by the cold as he stood keeping watch over the grounds at Norton.



Needless to say, Querbes golf course was deserted this morning, too. I'm sure some die hards would have been out there if the course had been open, though.


At Centenary College, the band shell was adorned in snow. The campus was pretty quiet. I walked around a little and saw a few students moving from one building to another; there were three girls playing by the band shell, one making snow angels on a hill. Other than that it was all very quiet.

Things are starting to melt now. There will be some snow still around through the day, especially in the shady areas. It's time for this to clear on out though because we have a parade tomorrow!

More photos here.

Crossroads

Obama Taking Charge of KSM Trial

After much bungling and backtracking we now get word that Obama is "planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash." The Washington Post has the story here.

I'm still trying to figure out why he wasn't part of the decision in the first place, although the Post says it is because he wanted to have a separation between Justice and The White House. Yeah, I'm buying that.

The problem with all that is that the KSM trial shouldn't ever have been a "justice" problem; it should have stayed right where it was...in the hands of the military and the military commissions where KSM had already confessed and was ready to receive sentence.

Snow Day

And we finally got snow here in Shreveport. This is no DC blizzard or Shenandoah Valley wonderland, but it's nice anyway.

I took the dogs out early and it was still trickling down a little; it had been heavier through the night. I ended up with about 4 or 5 inches here. My Boston Terrier was kind of afraid to go out in it; she's old and doesn't take change well. She eventually got brave when she saw the Lab go. He bounded out into the slush with the innocence of a puppy, ran circles in it, tossed snow up with his nose, and then tried to dig to see what was under it.

We're going up to 40 today so this won't last long. They closed schools today and I'm staying in until time to go check on mom this afternoon.

Snow day!

Agnostic on Taxes?

It's true that most of Obama's promises have expiration dates, which Jim Geraghty points out, and as Ed Morrissey says, "this one's a doozy." (That's also the last line in Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" which seems ironically appropriate.)

During the campaign Obama promised multiple times not to raise taxes on the middle class, specifically, on anyone making less than $250,000 per year: "NO family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

That went under pretty quick as soon as Obama raised taxes on cigarettes to fund the CHIP program.

But now he seems ready to abandon all pretense of keeping this promise, saying in an interview with Business Week that he is "agnostic" about pulling higher taxes from those making less than $250,000:

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

While the broken promise is one thing, I find his use of the word "agnostic" in this context sort of strange. It's kind of reminiscent of when he said the Senate was on the "precipice" of passing health care reform. It's just a weird word choice.

The word "agnostic" comes from the Greek ágnōst(os) or ágnōtos which means "not known." So is Obama saying he doesn't know if he'll choose to raise taxes?

As an adjective, "agnostic" is defined as "asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge." Well.....okay. He has no knowledge if he'll raise taxes? When will he know? What will help formulate his decision? Is he just using this word to try to sound smart? Couldn't he just say, "I'm open minded to raising taxes..."? Or is that not what he meant, because maybe he does know.

Really? His best answer is "I don't know"?

We are so screwed.

(More at Memeorandum)

Snow in Shreveport

We have snow in NW Louisiana. It started coming down about 7 a.m. today where I was (earlier in other areas) and it snowed steadily up until 2:00. At school we carried on as usual and watched it out the windows as we worked. Nothing was sticking because we've been just above freezing all day.

After a break for two or three hours, it's now snowing again and they're predicting 4 to 6 inches. Who knows, really. Schools are already closed for tomorrow in anticipation of dicey driving conditions.

It's kind of funny after watching people in DC all week, and in New York, to see people here going absolutely nuts over this. By 10 a.m. tomorrow it'll all be gone and the temperatures above freezing, but folks are swamping the grocery stores and every meteorologist on every television station is standing by the side of some road somewhere giving "updates on the conditions there."

It's kind of fun, and snow brings out the kid in us all, for a little while anyway. But seriously. I don't think we have to build igloos just yet.

Heck, I don't even have a good snow picture to post for you. It's all melting! Maybe later.

Biden Says No More Major Attacks Are Coming

Here is "Don't Mess With Joe" Biden talking to Larry King about the potential for another massive 9/11 type attack, which he declares "unlikely."

In fact, he explains that the terrorists seem to be going to "smaller" but more "devastatingly frightening" attacks, like the Christmas Day bomber. It's hard to imagine how anything could be "more devastating frightening" than 9/11, but Joe says it's so.

All is well, though. Biden says he's "been impressed" with the efforts this administration has made in building on the last administration in the fight against terror.

That's a relief.

Never Forget

ABC News has released never before seen aerial images of 9/11. They're incredible. This image is just one of them. Go here to see the rest.

ABC News obtained these images after filing a Freedom of Information Act request in 2009 with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Is Sarah Palin "Mean-Spirited"?

Over at Politico's Arena, Attorney Walter Dellinger characterizes Sarah Palin's Tea Party speech as "mean-spirited."

Dellinger sees Palin as one filled with "mean-spirited sarcasm" when she asks, “A year later, I've got to ask the supporters of all that, how is that hopey-changey stuff working out for ya?” of Obama's supporters.

I don't see it that way...I think Dellinger is reading to much into that question. I think it's a fair question to ask.

Dellinger says:

Laughing about – and at-- the disappointed hopes of fellow Americans, many of whom I saw stand with their children for hours and hours in inclement weather to see a candidate who gave them hope for a changed America, is not an expression of populism but of something far less appealing.

I'm not sure Palin was "laughing about...the disappointed hopes of fellow Americans" but rather I see her as trying to figure out how so many were pulled in by a man with no experience and no resume. All he came into office on WAS hope.

However, the time for debate over Obama's qualifications has past.

With unemployment still incredibly high and the deficit rising higher by the day, with national security at an almost pre-9/11 mentality, with all that is wrong in The White House right now, I think Palin asks a fair question.

And I don't think she's laughing.

What do you think?

No Spammers!

I've been getting a lot of SPAM comments lately. If you're a spammer, please be advised that I reject SPAM comments. If you want to link to your Canadian pharmacy or online tech store, please don't use my bandwidth to do it.

Love those "This is very excellent. I thank you for posting it. Keep up the good work. Please visit...." comments.

This morning I rejected one that was in Japanese.

*sigh*.

I welcome on topic comments, even off-topic, somewhat relevant comments! Even comments from the opposition. But no spam.

Love those internets.

Busy Reading!

Blogging has been light over the past couple of days; I'm deep into Marc Thiessen's Courting Disaster. I expected it to be good but it's even better than that. This is a subject area, of course, that regular readers know is something I'm interested in. I blog a lot about Gitmo and about national security. However, even beyond that this book is fascinating. I've been up later than usual each night, unable to put it down.

At any rate, I have Game Change in the wings when I'm done with this one, then I'll get back to my Edwin Edwards biography.

No More Human Props for Obamacare

I'm holding my breath waiting to see if the Republicans fall into the trap of becoming Obama's next "human stage props" as Michelle Malkin called the proposed bi-partisan health care summit.

After inviting doctors to the White House lawn and providing them lab coats for a photo op, what will he provide the Republicans for props? Legal pads? Pencils? Scalpels?

Hopefully Republicans will see this for what it is. This stunt smacks of Rahm Emanuel because if the Republicans attend, they'll lose, and if they don't, they'll lose. If they reject the meeting then all Obama has to do is say, "Hey! We tried! They refused our offer for bi-partisan talks! Party of NO!" Then he'll feel free to go ahead with reconciliation.

If they do attend, the television cameras will show Republicans rejecting one lame, job killing, deficit raising Democratic idea after another - "See! Party of NO! Reconciliation coming up!"

Republicans have already sent a letter in response with multiple pointed questions. I'd have bypassed that step. Those questions all seem rhetorical, to me.

Instead, they should make clear that they have put plans forth, provide those plans once again, and refuse to take part in discussions where the bills have already been written and the back room deals already set. The problem here is not Republicans - they can pass the bill without Republicans. It's Democrats who don't like it.

Besides, I thought we were focusing on JOBS JOBS JOBS now...

(More at Memeorandum)

Clarke Speaks Out Against "The Party Out of Power"

Richard Clarke, former counter-terrorism adviser for Clinton and G.W. Bush, calls in the New York Daily News for "the party out of power" to back off the criticism of Obama's national security policies.

Clarke lists several bones of contention in support of Obama's program. His first point is that it was Bush who released Gitmo graduates that have returned to fight for al-Qaeda, not Obama. Clarke says, "Obama's new review process has been successful in identifying those who might be recidivists and has kept them in custody."

Well, that remains to be seen, doesn't it? We don't really know yet what those that Obama has released are doing. We do know, however, that he has released some pretty unsavory characters, among them Hasan Zumiri (or Hasan Zemiri) and Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili and don't forget Qais Qazli who is about as nasty as they get. The point is, there's very little transparency here about who is getting released, why, and what happens to them afterward, so Clarke is making an assumption that Obama's releases have been, or will continue to be, risk free.

Clarke's second point, that terrorists will talk without torture, is also sketchy. Some might, some won't. I think Marc Thiessen makes this case pretty clear when he outlines how the CIA got information out of KSM which prevented another mass attack. We would not have obtained that information without enhanced interrogation. Clarke is off base when he assumes one strategy for everyone and every case.

Clarke then moves on to tout the security and safety of holding terrorists on US soil in US prisons. He says (emphasis mine),

There is a repeated chorus that housing Al Qaeda terrorists in U.S. prisons is some sort of risk to American security. For some reason they are supposed to be less risky if they are jailed in Cuba. Yet, there have been Al Qaeda terrorists housed in U.S. prisons for years. The Supermax facility in Florence, CO, has the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City bomber and the shoe bomber, and many other Al Qaeda terrorists. They are all in confinement in a place that is a lot more punishing than being in Cuba. U.S. federal prisons work well and no Al Qaeda prisoner is a Houdini.

Yet there is no good reason NOT to hold them in Cuba. The case has been made time and time again that Guantanamo is a model, Geneva compliant prison. The prisoners don't even want to come here! And maybe I missed something, but the prisoners Clarke listed are not al-Qaeda terrorists. I'm pretty sure the Unabomber was not affiliated with al-Qaeda.

You can read the rest of Clarke's argument here, but I've seen enough.

Update: As an afterthought, I want to go back to Clarke's point that only the terrorists released by Bush have returned to the fight. I still stand by my statement that it remains to be seen what happens with Obama's releases, but want to add that of course, one error should not lead to another. It is the obligation of the Obama administration to learn from the errors of the Bush administration. Bush certainly made some mistakes - he released some folks that should not have been released. Another huge mistake was not properly explaining the role of Gitmo or defending those who worked there. That led the American public and many of our overseas critics to blur the lines between Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.

Again, one would hope Obama would learn from those mistakes rather than compound them.


Related Post:
Richard Clarke on the Gitmo Video

(Via Memeorandum)

The Morning After The Super Bowl Round Up

It's quite difficult to focus on political news when THE SAINTS HAVE JUST WON THE SUPER BOWL!

This blog will get back to politics shortly. Meanwhile, here's a round-up of the morning after commentary:

Red has the celebration videos. The folks in the French Quarter went wild, as one would expect!

The Dead Pelican went black and gold again last night and has lots of links.

My Bossier has Tracy Porter's interception video clip, and a video of a hilarious and unorthodox church service in New Orleans yesterday.

NOLA has the morning after write up and more video:

After the confetti had dropped, after the tears were shed, after they stood in front of the cameras and the microphones and tried to put the greatest night of their professional lives in perspective, Sean Payton and Drew Brees shared a quiet moment together. They hopped on the back of a golf cart, each with a hand on the shiny silver Vince Lombardi Trophy that rested in Payton's lap, each with a wide grin across their faces.

"Don't you just want it to slow down and last longer?" the coach said to his quarterback.

Governor Bobby Jindal's bet with Governor Daniels means that a "Who Dat" flag will fly over Indy this year!

The Hayride has thoughts after the victory:

It’s hard to form coherent thoughts when one is absolutely, completely numb.

The Saints winning the Super Bowl, as happened tonight, is that kind of event. Numbing. Until this year it was never even allowed, it seemed, for Saints fans to seriously think of their team as a champion...And while Payton is a sensational coach, Drew Brees is equally superlative. Brees is, to me, the epitome of what a star athlete should be – he exudes excellence on the field not based on overwhelming physical talent, though he’s unquestionably a phenomenal athlete, but all of the other factors. Brains. Character. Class. Work Ethic. Commitment. Courage. Leadership.

I'll update through the day as more trickles in.

31-17!!! DAT IS ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hell has frozen over! Government Offices in Washington are shut down tomorrow...and the SAINTS WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a nervous wreck up until the last minute and a half and then I figured we had it!

Shortly after the game ended you could hear yelling and horns honking all around; I went outside on the porch and a guy was running down the street in his tennis shoes, his briefs, and nothing else, hands over head, with his friend driving along behind him honking the horn for all to hear. I'm assuming he lost a bet!

The Dead Pelican has gone black and gold and has the siren up. Red Stick Rant is also celebrating with black and gold.

Here is a live cam of Bourbon Street! Here is the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles.

Good times!

Crib Notes

Aww heck, I have notes on my hand, too! What's the big deal!? At least I don't need a Teleprompter in my living room to remind me who to cheer for as I suppose some folks do.

I can just imagine the Super Bowl party at the White House:

(Cheer now.)

"I'm pulling for New Orleans."

"Boy, that Peyton Manning is really something!"

"It's Bush's fault."

Who Dat Gameday!

Game Day!

I've got my baby back ribs ready for the grill along with my venison & pork sausage. We'll also be having baked beans and various other Super Bowl things to eat.

I have football squares but my numbers suck, unless "five" comes in. Figures.

Geaux Saints!

False Hope

Now I understand why Andrew Sullivan spends so many of his waking hours demonizing Sarah Palin and her family. He's afraid of her:

Above all, she is capable of generating a personality cult - much, much more so than Obama, because she can harness Christianism to her divine destiny. The power of this kind of appeal - of a charismatic, beautiful woman, an icon of the pro-life cause, persecuted by the evil elites, demonized by libruls, and commanding the biggest military on earth - should not in my view be under-estimated.

Know fear.

Of course, most people have figured this out already, but I don't usually pay that much attention to Sullivan.

But, I got my hopes up when I saw the headline on Memeorandum:


I got hopeful that he'd finally decided to quit talking about her.

Silly me.

Parade Night No. 1

Big time at the parade tonight!

It was C-O-L-D cold, but we had fires burning and plenty of wood so we were good. Steve and I always walk down to my friend Harriett's house which is on the parade route and "park" there. There's always something on the grill and everyone brings something.

This year our old high school buddy Lisa showed up which was so fun! I hooked back up with her via Facebook and I asked her to come by, and she did. I'm posting a picture of Lisa and me; we took one with Harriett too, but I look god-awful in that one so I'm not showing it to anybody. My two high school friends have fared so much better than I have as far as aging goes!

We caught lots of cool stuff - Steve is tall - over 6 ft.; and he always catches the neat stuff. He got all the medallions and heavy beads. He caught a nifty stuffed fish and a stuffed rose. He also got a cool string of beads which I had to trade to Harriett for a Frisbee for the dog. We got lots of plastic cups but no Frisbees. Harriett got one though, so we traded. And it was worth it because the dog is WAY happy.

The parade was all about Who Dat! which was the rally cry from every float. We were standing next to some funny guys who had a 12 pack of Coors Light in a box at their feet and they kept shoving it back and forth with their feet as the various floats rolled through - some pushing us back toward the curb and some moving back toward the middle of the street. At one point one of them offered Steve a beer, and he said, "Thanks, but I don't really do Coors..." and so the guy pulled a bottle of Miller Light out of his pocket, still cold, and offered it up, and Steve took him up on that one!

When it was all over, as predicted, we carried our tired selves home and now must rest before the Barkus and Meoux parade tomorrow and then the Super Bowl!

I'm too old for all this.

Waiting For The Parade

Daisy Begs

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: Mardi Gras Part 1 Edition

Today the high is going to get to 50 degrees which isn't very warm when the sun begins to set and the Mardi Gras floats begin to roll.

I will be risking life and limb today, standing in the cold, probably near a fire pit, probably drinking beer and eating something that came off a grill.

Before the floats roll, and they'll get to our end of the route around 7 or 7:30, I will have walked miles up and down East Kings Highway and down side streets talking with friends and looking to see who is there. I'll take pictures of anything that catches my eye. I'll probably get run over by a couple of skateboarding kids or hit with a random football or two. I'll ogle the food being cooked on the grills along the route and experience the most delicious food smells and wood smells up and down the streets.

Once the floats roll the objective will be to catch a bunch of cheap, plastic, shiny beads made in China that will soon go into the garage in a big box for eternity. If I'm lucky I'll get a bunch of plastic cups and if I'm VERY lucky I'll catch some Frisbees to bring home to my dogs. I will step on the hands of other adults, I will jostle aggressive teenagers out of my way for position, I will yell and scream at the people of the floats who cannot possibly hear me because of the music blasting from their speakers. And I will come home hoarse and raspy.

When it's all over, Steve and I will gather our debris and my aching legs and his aching back will make our way home, on foot of course, loaded down with supermarket plastic bags filled with heavy beads. At least one of the sacks will tear, risking loss of my plunder, but I'll have a extra bag or two so I can double up.

We will get home, exhausted, dump our loot out in the middle of the living room floor and admire the shiny beads and pull out the ones with pretty medallions or special ones. The cups will find their way into the kitchen and I'll promise the dogs to throw Frisbees tomorrow.

Holy Heck! Why am I dithering here?! I have to go to the grocery store before they close the streets and I have to do at least one load of laundry, go check on my mom, and cook something to take as my food contribution to the Mardi Gras party! I have to get DRESSED - bright green, purple and gold! I have to get my bags ready and the beer chilled and..and...and....

Hurry - links!

Carol's sheep are celebrating the Super Bowl and she has a long list of great links when my necessarily short list today runs dry.

Troglopundit has Danica Patrick's banned Super Bowl ad.

Stacy McCain is on another road trip, this time in Alabama, and has a great story to tell!

Heh! Fishersville Mike explains all the snow in D.C.

Bride of Rove makes a very valid point about the reasoning behind naming her blog "Bride of Rove."

Another Black Conservative has the story of the woman who was buried in a Barack Obama t-shirt who Obama decided to politicize and then couldn't remember her name. Clod.

Caught Him With a Corndog explains her little place in the echo chamber.

In possibly the most bizarre story I've read this week, Jim Treacher was run over by a car. Not just any car. Camp of the Saints has the story.

Ruby Slippers posted on Al Franken's bad temper.

My friend Greta at Kiss My Gumbo has the Super Bowl drinking game; here's a sample:

1. Every time they mention hurricane Katrina, drink 1
2. If they show pictures of the City of New Orleans right after Katrina, drink 1
3. Every time they say how much the Saints mean to the City of New Orleans, drink 1
4. Every time the words “tragedy”, “flood”, or “devastation” are used, drink 1
5. Every time they talk about how good Reggie Bush was in college, drink 3
6. If they show Kim Kardashian in the stands, drink 5

On a more serious note, be sure you're reading The Dialysis Diary. She breaks my heart every single day but I can't quit reading it. Today she finally explains "D" a little of which I had already figured out.

The Daley Gator posts on the "offensive" NBC menu and uses one of Red's Banned Words. Uh-oh.

Bungalow Bill previews The Who's Super Bowl performance.

Carolyn Tackett noted my noting that Jindal may be supporting Crist, but I've not found any more fuel for that fire. I'm just not sure that's going to happen. Not even Jindal can be that dumb. Can he?

SWAC Girl is posting THE most beautiful snow pictures! And Pundette has a great snow post!

Legal Insurrection is on a new mission!

Okay I know there's more but I have beads to catch and things to do. I'll check back on you cat-daddies later and will post some live pictures from the parade route this afternoon.

Stay warm, my friends up north!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The Saints Prayer

At the Who Dat Pep Rally yesterday, this prayer was read, first uttered in 1968 when Archbishop Hannan read the prayer at the inaugural Saints and Sinners dinner:



Here is the text:

God, we ask your blessing upon all who participate in this event, and all who have supported our Saints. Our heavenly father, who has instructed us that the "saints by faith conquered kingdoms... and overcame lions," grant our Saints an increase of faith and strength so that they will not only overcome the Lions, but also the Bears, the Rams, the Giants and even those awesome people in Green Bay.May they continue to tame the Redskins and fetter the Falcons as well as the Eagles. Give to our owners and coaches the continued ability to be as wise as serpents and simple as doves, so that no good talent will dodge our draft. Grant to our fans perseverance in their devotion and unlimited lung powered, tempered with a sense of charity to all, including the referees.May our beloved "Bedlam Bowl" be a source of good fellowship and may the "Saints Come Marching In" be a victory march for all, now and in eternity.