The Hackenblog

It’s just the way I blogroll.

Actually, I’m going to be very bad and link to blogs that were published in the Journal of Bloglandia. These are very fine, well written small-ish blogs very much deserving a wider audience. Click ‘em, Dano.

J Bloglandia, vol 1, issue 1, ISSN 1940-7645

The Ruricolist
Philosopher’s Playground
Mr. Dan Kelly
Buzz, Balls & Hype
Deborah Teasdale, who locks her blog now, so I guess I’ll have to comp you that essay. Lucky you, eh?
Seth Anderson Cover artist.

More contributor information.

Vol 1, Issue 2.

Feel like breaking into print?

Here’s links to all the posts from Jan 31, Feb 1, Feb 2, and Feb 3 for the B.A.D. celebrations chez Hackenblog.

“Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.

“She spanked each of them on the thigh with three swats. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would eventually have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.

“A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.

“The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman’s arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

“‘I had no idea I was breaking the law,’ said Freeman, 40, who spent three months in jail before pleading guilty.”

~snip~

“The costs of a conviction can be enormous. In Tamera Freeman’s case, it cost her custody of her children.

“The confrontation on the Frontier Airlines flight to Denver was particularly harsh, recalled Amy Fleming, the flight attendant who told Freeman to stop spanking her children. In a recent interview, Fleming called Freeman the most unruly passenger she had seen in 11 years on the job.

“‘Absolutely she deserved a felony conviction,’ she said.

“But at least one passenger, John Carlson, a defense attorney who was seated near Freeman, said there was no threat. ‘There was a nasty, loud exchange,’ Carlson said. Then Freeman ‘capitulated and offered no resistance. My sympathy shifted to her.’

“A spokeswoman for Frontier said the airline has provided more training for flight attendants since 2001, including classes on ‘ways to calm a situation before it reaches a boiling point or physical confrontation.’

“After three months in jail, Freeman agreed to plead guilty in exchange for being released on probation. A court-appointed attorney told her that a plea deal would be the fastest way to see her children, who had been taken back to Hawaii and put into foster care.

“Her probation required her to stay in Oklahoma City, where she grew up, and prohibited her from flying. Meanwhile, legal proceedings in Hawaii have begun to allow the children’s foster parents to adopt them.

“Freeman has been denied permission to attend custody hearings in Maui over the last six months, court records show.

“‘I have cried. I have cried for my children every day,’ Freeman said. ‘I feel the system is failing me.’”
In-flight confrontations can lead to charges defined as terrorism, by By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, LA Times, January 20, 2009 (pdf in case it vanishes)

The Patriot Act just makes it easier to grab the kids and funnel them to more worthy indoctrinators. It’s also a graphic lesson for anyone with kids who might want to resist: forget it.

Say it with me: Waterboarding is torture.

But not for this guy, who’s evidently never been waterboarded.

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s choice for top U.S. spy declined on Thursday to call waterboarding ‘torture,’ only days after his attorney general nominee condemned the interrogation practice as precisely that.

“Retired Adm. Dennis Blair replied cautiously when pressed on the waterboarding question at a hearing on his nomination to be director of national intelligence, of which the CIA is a part.”
Obama spy choice won’t call waterboarding torture, Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, editing by Philip Barbara, Reuters, January 22, 2009

Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis. Sigh.

You deliberately almost drown someone to coerce them into doing something and that’s not torture?

Someone deliberately almost drowns you to get you to do something and that’s not torture?

What planet is this guy on? Planet Military? Dump him! Now! Enough of this bullshit.

“In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program ‘Frontal 21,’ on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George W. Bush’s head of state immunity now terminated, the new government of Barack Obama was obligated by international law to commence a criminal investigation into Bush’s torture practices.”
UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld now, by Scott Horton, Harpers, January 21, 2009 (via)

This is what the world has been waiting for. Let’s do it.

Is my Aunt Minnie in here?

“NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street ushered in the Barack Obama presidency with a record Inauguration Day drop on Tuesday amid fresh signs the global bank crisis was far from over.

“High expectations for details on how the new administration would address the growing banking crisis and faltering economy were dampened after the inauguration speech concluded with little new information to digest.”
Banks sink stocks on Inauguration Day, by Chuck Mikolajczak, Reuters, January 20, 2009

High finance – it’s wonderful.

Hm.

I didn’t. Talk about the end of an era.

“In 2004, Rees announced that the strip (Get Your War On) would end with the Bush administration, and with Barack Obama assuming the U.S. Presidency on January 20, the cartoonist is doing just that.”

~snip~

“The Bush years are almost over and so is “Get Your War On.” Is it a relief? Is it sad?

“It’s bittersweet. I fantasize about Bush and me going into business together, maybe starting a record label? I think that could be really fun. He probably knows a lot of people in the record industry, which would help. (I assume he knows people in the record industry because he was President and the President knows everybody.)

“What were you doing on election night, 2008?

“Hiding under my sofa. After they called it for Obama, I went to a party.”

~snip~

“What’s next for David Rees?”

“I have no idea. Fortunately, the entire economy is collapsing, so it should be really easy to find a job….
David Rees Talks “Get Your War On”, by Alex Dueben, Comic Book Resources, January 13th, 2009

I haven’t read GYWO in years, but now I think I’ll miss it.

“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand — true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

“We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we’ve shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

“For we know that, Lord, you’re able and you’re willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

“We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

“And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

“And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

“Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

“We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

“Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around — (laughter) — when yellow will be mellow — (laughter) — when the red man can get ahead, man — (laughter) — and when white will embrace what is right.

“Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

“AUDIENCE: Amen!

“REV. LOWERY: Say amen –

“AUDIENCE: Amen!”
Rev. Joseph Lowery Inaugural Benediction. Transcript, BeliefNet, January 20, 2009

Kelly Taylor emailed me that Lowery kicked Obama’s ass with this benediction and, probably due to some personal failing on my part, I’m not sure what she means. I don’t think President Obama needs God to get him hip to equality and justice for gay couples who merely want to get married under our legal system. I think he just needs to look past his heterosexual success in the patriarchy, and God can’t help him with that. Obama has to climb that mountain on his own. Will he? We’ll see.

Here’s Bishop Gene Robinson’s beautiful prayer for our nation (and the guy we just elected to diss GLBT folk in it) because these lovely words certainly didn’t air on HBO.

Here’s the text:

“Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
“O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
“Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
“Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
“Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be ‘fixed’ anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
“Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
“Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
“Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
“And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
“Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
“Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
“Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
“Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
“Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
“Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
“And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
“AMEN.”

HBO did not broadcast these words ON DIRECT ORDERS FROM BARACK OBAMA. Sing out David E!

And Pam S has some reactions.

Sigh. First Rick Warren, now this. I know we elected the better guy, I just wish he’d act more like it.

John Chiang has a tough job this year:

“The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday.

“Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state’s nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.

“The controller said the suspended payments could be rolled into IOUs if California still lacks sufficient cash to pay its bills come March or April.

“‘It pains me to pull this trigger,’ Chiang said at a news conference in his office. ‘But it is an action that is critically necessary.’

“The payments to be frozen include nearly $2 billion in tax refunds; $300 million in cash grants for needy families and the elderly, blind and disabled; and $13 million in grants for college students.

“Even if a budget agreement is reached by the end of this month, tax refunds and other payments could remain temporarily frozen. Chiang said a budget deal may not generate cash quickly enough to resume them immediately.

“Not all payments will stop Feb. 1. Most school and healthcare programs will be paid, as required by state and federal law. The state will continue to pay more than $6.6 billion in such bills.

“And Los Angeles County officials said they would cover welfare payments to more than 500,000 local recipients — for now.”

Good for us! That should keep the rioting to a minimum.

“But California is projected to be $346 million short of the funds it needs to pay all its bills in February. By March, the state would be so far in the red that even continuing to suspend payments would not cover the shortfall. California would be insolvent, making the issuance of IOUs likely.

“State officials have already designed an IOU template, Chiang said, and have been negotiating with banks over whether taxpayers could cash or deposit them if they are issued. The state could be forced to pay as much as 5% interest on delayed tax refunds if they are not paid by the end of May, Chiang said.

“The last time the state issued such IOUs — the only time since the Great Depression — was in 1992.”
California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants. John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, because with no budget in place the state lacks sufficient cash to pay its bills, by Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy, LA Times, January 17, 2009

Bank of America covered the first paycheck IOUs in 1992. Then they wised up. Since BoA is in the banker’s bailout of 2008/9, I doubt they’ll be stepping up. They’re not even a California bank anymore.

And what a fabulous birthday it must be.

“Bernie Madoff’s investment fund may never have executed a single trade, industry officials say, suggesting detailed statements mailed to investors each month may have been an elaborate mirage in a $50 billion fraud.”
Madoff’s fund may not have made a single trade, by Jason Szep, Reuters, January 16, 2009

This makes it hard for me to believe Madoff was acting along. I don’t see him generating and mailing fake statements all by himself. This doesn’t let him off the hook, but if other people are involved, they should be prosecuted, too. More work for the SEC or whoever wasn’t doing their job in the first place, but there you have it.

Thanks WalletPop, of all blogs, for pointing it out:

“While the Claus Von Bulow and OJ Simpson trials made it seem like American justice was for sale, subsequent events have more or less erased any doubt. For example, in 2007, software executive George Anderson was sentenced to a mere 16 days in jail after he ran down a 60-year-old woman, fled the scene, refused to take a breathalyzer test, and failed a blood alcohol test. Similarly, when Lizzie Grubman, a celebrity publicist, struck 16 people with her SUV, she was not given a breathalyzer and was ultimately able to reach a plea agreement that landed her with a mere 37 days in jail and five years of probation.

“Fame makes it even easier to purchase freedom. For example, Lindsay Lohan received one day in jail after pleading guilty to cocaine use and driving under the influence. By comparison, Martha Stewart’s five month imprisonment seems positively draconian, particularly given that her crimes, including securities fraud, conspiracy, and perjury, weren’t life threatening. Of course, she probably served only a fraction of the time that she would have been stuck with if she had been an average, middle-income American.”
How much does it cost to escape the law? by Bruce Watson, WalletPop, January 16 2009

And not a moment too soon:

“A is for Jack Abramoff who’s big in pay-to-play.

“B’s for greedy bankers who have fleeced the USA.

“C is for Rep. Craig who isn’t gay, except in bed.

“D is for democracy which Dubya hasn’t spread.”
An Alpha-Political Farewell to Bush and Cheney, Mad Kane, January 13, 2009

She does the whole alphabet, go read, it’s a riot (and true).

“3. Are those yours? (Well, I paid for them.)”
10 Things You Should Never Say To A Porn Star, ErosBlog, January 15, 2009

Are manners completely dead or just in a coma?

“‘Obama Tuesday night trekked to the Chevy Chase, Md., home of conservative columnist George F. Will to talk politics and get to know some of his fiercest intellectual adversaries: Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot.’

“”The two-and-half-hour dinner, which came at Will’s request.”

“George says ‘Jump,’ Barry asks ‘How high?’”
Coffee Time, Fablog, January 14, 2009

Dave Barry (I think) once wrote (about Clinton, I think) that really intelligent people became total morons in Washington D.C. He hypothesized that there was some kind of stupid ray focused on the White House and environs. Ya know…maybe he’s RIGHT!

Well, that got your attention, here’s the clip, you pervs.

Where does Logan find these things?

I’m really looking forward to the Obama Administration. I’m just a little annoyed that the first order of business – The Stimulus – is the political/economic equivalent of a 50-foot dive into a shot glass.

It’s not that I don’t think the O Team can do it, I’m just sorry they have to on their first day on the job.

I hate all billboards, really, but I really hate the electronic ones. So I really like this:

“Assemblymember Mike Feuer is introducing a statewide moratorium on electronic billboards, and I am fully supporting this effort.

“Electronic billboards are cluttering our neighborhoods and we need to stop them before they take over our communities. If passed and signed into law, the moratorium would be in place through 2011 to give the city and state the opportunity to strengthen our laws and give local communities more control over where electronic billboards are located.

“If you want to express your support for Assemblymember Feuer’s proposal, you can send him an email by clicking here.”
New state electronic billboard moratorium, by Eric Garcetti blog, January 13, 2009

You’ll have to click on the link to send Assemblymember Feuer an email, I’m too lazy to code it.

“Khuraira, a make-up artist with 17 years experience, also noticed Mrs. O’s preference for a neutral lipstick palette. ‘Her constant choice of neutral lip colors is the ultimate endorsement of my belief that bold red is not the lipstick shade for women of color,’ says Khuraira. Instead, she believes that a shimmering but low-key color conveys glamour and sassiness. As a result, she has created the Lady Obama Lipstick.

“According to Khuraira, she chose a gold bronze tone for this honorary shade because she wanted a color that Mrs. O could wear for any occasion — plus one that would work with any woman’s skin tone. ‘After all, she is going to be the First Lady of all women,’ she says.

“Because Barack Obama has lost two important women in his life to cancer-his mother and then his grandmother just a day before his historic election-Khuraira is donating a percentage of the sales of this lipstick to The Breast Cancer Network of Strength. That’s what we call a show of true beauty.”
The Secrets of Beauty, Mrs. O blog, January 12, 2009

It’s going to be an entertaining eight years, isn’t it?

And his hair is perfect.

e-Spinner Rack

Check out Savage, Wilde & Corrigan. The art is by Brad Rader, so it’s great, and the story is humorously noir, if you can imagine such a thing. If not, you’ll just have to click on the link and go experience it your own self. You’ll be glad you did!

Hmmmm…(via)

A Brief History of Modern Lying Authors.

Amazin’

“Mr. Paulson must have had some reason for doing what he did. No doubt he still believes that without all this frantic activity we’d be far worse off than we are now. All we know for sure, however, is that the Treasury’s heroic deal-making has had little effect on what it claims is the problem at hand: the collapse of confidence in the companies atop our financial system.

“Weeks after receiving its first $25 billion taxpayer investment, Citigroup returned to the Treasury to confess that — lo! — the markets still didn’t trust Citigroup to survive. In response, on Nov. 24, the Treasury handed Citigroup another $20 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, and then simply guaranteed $306 billion of Citigroup’s assets. The Treasury didn’t ask for its fair share of the action, or management changes, or for that matter anything much at all beyond a teaspoon of warrants and a sliver of preferred stock. The $306 billion guarantee was an undisguised gift. The Treasury didn’t even bother to explain what the crisis was, just that the action was taken in response to Citigroup’s ‘declining stock price.’

Three hundred billion dollars is still a lot of money. It’s almost 2 percent of gross domestic product, and about what we spend annually on the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation combined. Had Mr. Paulson executed his initial plan, and bought Citigroup’s pile of troubled assets at market prices, there would have been a limit to our exposure, as the money would have counted against the $700 billion Mr. Paulson had been given to dispense. Instead, he in effect granted himself the power to dispense unlimited sums of money without Congressional oversight. Now we don’t even know the nature of the assets that the Treasury is standing behind. Under TARP, these would have been disclosed.

“There are other things the Treasury might do when a major financial firm assumed to be ‘too big to fail’ comes knocking, asking for free money. Here’s one: Let it fail.

“Not as chaotically as Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. If a failing firm is deemed ‘too big’ for that honor, then it should be explicitly nationalized, both to limit its effect on other firms and to protect the guts of the system. Its shareholders should be wiped out, and its management replaced. Its valuable parts should be sold off as functioning businesses to the highest bidders — perhaps to some bank that was not swept up in the credit bubble. The rest should be liquidated, in calm markets. Do this and, for everyone except the firms that invented the mess, the pain will likely subside.”
How to Repair a Broken Financial World, by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, January 3, 2009 (this article actually starts at The End of the Financial World as We Know It. It’s all a time-worthy read.)

Yes! Nationalize it all! Then the taxpayers (like me!) would own it and we’re a Socialist/Capitalist Utopia! God, I never thought I’d live to see the day…oh, wait…I haven’t because the wingunts would go crazy if anyone other than bushco or zombieSt.Reagan tried to do anything remotely like that. Oh well. It was a nice thought while it lasted.

(So since it’s not going to happen, I might as well add that liquidating in calm markets might be trickier than it sounds. In The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery: The Collapse of the Savings and Loan Industry, by Martin Mayer, he spends much of the last chapters describing the near impossibility of buying defunct S&L assets, mainly property, from the government. No one even knew which departments were in charge of selling it to buyers, with CASH, who called to inquire. Crazy, very crazy. I’m not sure it’s any better even now.)

By the way, I think Paulson panicked and started throwing money at whatever scared him most. I really do wonder what the hell he’s so afraid of. Maybe I should be afraid of it, too.

to describe the thinking of Alberto Gonzales and also Laura Bush:

“Unusually, I’m having a vocabulary problem. There has to be some word for the kind of person who considers his mild discomfort the equivalent of torture, crippling injury, or death for other people. But I can’t think of it.”
Looking for a Word, Paul Krugman blog, December 31, 2008

I missed the comment deadline on this one, so I’ll have to put my contribution here. I believe the word Dr. Krugman seeks is

Always glad to be helpful.

And she’s already not very good at it:

“Looks like the GOP’s head cougar has gone from political attack dog to snotty celeb fashion critic.

“In her new book, ‘Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America’ Ann Coulter slams Michelle Obama for her hairstyle and clothes. Coulter calls Michelle an obvious Jackie Kennedy wannabe with her ‘flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses’ and ‘the short strands of fake pearls.’

“Good news: Coulter reportedly had to have her jaw wired shut. Bad news: She can still type.”
Coulter Calls Michelle O Jackie O Wannabe, TMZ.com, January 3, 2009

I really hate TMZ…except when I love it.

Forget Coulter – now, always and in general, too. Stick with Mrs. O for the low-down on Michelle’s look.

Updated Jan 10, 2009: I sent the same package Priority and it was there in two days. Oh well.

I usually don’t have problems with the USPS, I certainly like my local branch of it a lot, but this is turning into a bad joke:

Label/Receipt Number: 0305 0830 0004 5762 8913
Detailed Results:

Processed, January 06, 2009, 7:48 pm, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, January 04, 2009, 12:47 am, OAKLAND, CA 94615
Missent, January 03, 2009, 7:19 am
Processed, January 02, 2009, 1:41 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Missent, December 30, 2008, 6:50 am
Processed, December 28, 2008, 11:21 pm, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 25, 2008, 12:13 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 24, 2008, 9:14 pm, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Missent, December 22, 2008, 7:21 am
Processed, December 19, 2008, 7:02 am, RICHMOND, CA 94804
Processed, December 15, 2008, 5:20 pm, GREENSBORO, NC 27495
Processed, December 12, 2008, 4:54 pm, BELL, CA 90201
Processed, December 10, 2008, 9:11 pm, LOS ANGELES, CA 90052
Acceptance, December 10, 2008, 3:30 pm, LOS ANGELES, CA 90031

However, I am impressed that they work on Christmas Eve and Day, but then sat on it for eight more days over New Year’s, and still seem to be “processing” it. Weird. And, I mean, it’s just going to Virginia. For the past three weeks. Oh well.

And get Mummers!

These pictures are from the Philadelphia parade. Lynn L sent them to me.