keepingfaith

Ooooookay, just for you I picked up some more ..... but I like the newer pictures more than the Bob's Big Boy or Kewpie Doll hair pics. Give me that aquamarine shirt with his eyes any day! Edited to delete. So somebody contacted the photographer to thank him? Who was that rocket scientist????

Gone but not forgotten.

What a shame to have to delete these.

Love my Cat's Meow. How gorgeous is he, really. Can anyone tell, because he's run completely off my charts. So intrigued that he had a private dinner for two last night with TV Exec Josh Berman. Who can resist this man and his EFs? The stuff legends are made of.

I don't know about McCartney's new oldies record, because I'm still spending money on the old stuff. I just ordered the Anthology DVD set and CD set for my youngest son for his birthday. I'm certain that I must have this new remastering of "McCartney", just as I had to have the recently released "Band on the Run" remaster, and the entire 2009 remastered collection. The Beatles' heirs will be making major money for a long, long time. http://www.paulmccartney.com/mccartney/usd.php And, this week I downloaded seven remastered Moody Blues albums with unreleased material on each, and all are amazing. I'm spending so much money on new "old" stuff that I may be too broke to buy Macca's oldies "new" music. Buuuuut, I doubt it. I'd buy something of Clay's too, if he had something new for me. Oh yeah, the OFC swag. I'll have to have it. I'm sick. I really don't like magnet note pads, etc., but I have to have it. How pathetic am I? I don't care. I own my extreme patheticism. I'm also glad to hear that Rob Mariano has a reality show coming. I don't why I like that guy so much. But I even watched his wedding to Amber. I was embarrassed for myself, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Whoever this is, he's adorable. And cute little ears, too!

That's definitely Jaymes -- I recognize her ears and nose. Who else would she be holding who is a boy about 2, blond, adorable, with long lashes, extremely fair skin, and who looks like a sweet pea .... A previous sighting after the 2009 Gala, at a restaurant, described Parker with curly blond hair. And look at that purdy mouth. And he's wearing a striped shirt. If only we could see his feet!

What spin? We have the WHOLE video, not just pieces of Bush after the attack message. We watched him sit and bite his lip and look weird for nearly seven minutes after being told "America is under attack." There's not much to "perceive" -- it's forever on tape. If you're the President of the United States, and you're told "America is under attack," and you're at an elementary school, how do you know that the school isn't a target because you're there? He should have gotten the hell out of there and to a secure location with his sophisticated communications equipment seconds after he heard the news - for the safety of the children among other considerations. "Boys and girls, sometimes the President has to be called away and I have to leave earlier than planned. I'll come back very soon and finish the story." I've always wondered what Rush Limbaugh would have done with a liberal president sitting there all that time in the face of an attack on the country. Watch and judge for yourself.

I think the reason Hillary looks so apprehensive in that picture taken during the raid, is that from what I've read today, she was one of the ones voting against the ground raid. There were three options at Thursday's meeting -- send in ground forces to capture or retrieve the body, blow up the place from the air with a couple of bunker busting bombs, or wait for proof that Bin Laden was actually there. The article basically says that the operational people were for the ground raid, and everybody else divided up between the other two options because they believed a ground raid was fraught with risk. Obama made the decision overnight and called everyone in on Friday to announce that he had decided to go with the ground raid and put it in motion immediately. He directed that an additional helicopter be included in case of malfunctions, and then it was out of his hands and JSOC took over. Obama was worried that too many people knew about the pending operation and the location of the compound to delay taking action. He nixed the air attack because it would have killed everyone in the house and there would never have been proof that Bin Laden was there. Not even the military would have known. We now know there were something like 23 children in the house, and 9 women, I believe, who are in the custody of the Pakistanis and being returned to their country(ies) of origin. I think Obama was up for the 3am call.

This is worth watching:

http://www.businessinsider.com/bin-laden-death-torture-waterboarding-obama-2011-5 I heard another report this morning that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed denied he knew a courier he was asked about so that's why they were interested in him. Waterboarding and other torture techniques didn't do a damn thing except scar the American soul and give us a well deserved bad rap all over the world. My son has taught interrogation techniques, among other things, in the military for several years, and he has told me that information garnered from torture or harsh techniques is useless because people will say anything to get it to stop. They will say whatever you want to hear, and make it up if that's what they think you want. He says the best intel comes from creating a trust relationship between the interrogator and the prisoner, where the prisoner gets something positive from speaking the truth -- a cookie, a cigarette, whatever works. Even in hard core cases where the prisoner will never divulge information, they still won't do it under torture, they will lie every time.

I discovered it during the Carter presidency. I thought the Democrats played nice during Reagan and Bush I. But during the Clinton Administration things went off the tracks completely, with special prosecutors out the wazoo looking for evidence of blow jobs in the White House, cheesy land deals where people LOST money, and radio rumors of murders and all manner of folly. This was followed by an administration, Bush/Cheney that didn't want to be criticized at all, which insured it, propelled by an all spin all the time cable news industry. Obama has been trying his heart out to get people to use their reasoning and logic and common sense -- but it seems people don't listen to the principals anymore, they just tune in to their opinion maker of choice and accept whatever is being said by the person they trust to provide the bias they require. Maybe things will get better now, because I think as a nation we've had as much polarization, demonization, character assassination, and flat out lying than one people can stomach. I hope it's time to start spitting out some of the bile that we've been forced to ingest for many years now and expunge the haters from our lives. Let those bastards look for a job, or live off their sizeable fortunes, and pay taxes for a change.

Couldn't resist this humorous little mash-up, which does have a point ... : But for serious pictures of Sunday afternoon and evening: Watching the raid in real time: In the situation room after the raid: Calling the ex-presidents, Bush and Clinton: Writing the address to the nation: The national security team listening to the President speak in the East Room, the President speaking, and then saying goodnight:

My son is on Cloud 9 today -- especially since the Navy Seals executed this operation. He's worked with quite a few Seals, and counts several among close friends. He was so happy on Easter 2009 when President Obama chose a Navy Seal team of sharpshooters to take out the Somali pirates holding our people at sea, and this is another example of their expertise. Just to clear the record. This operation was NOT years in the planning - as Rush Limbaugh is bloviating. It was August 2010 when a couple of Gitmo prisoners began to cooperate (and not under torture or harsh techniques, but after Obama ended that) and told us the names of OBL's personal, trusted couriers. It was February of this year, maybe while I was at a Clay Aiken concert, when the couriers' code names were ID'd and our intelligence personnel on the ground began watching them. This compound in Abbottabad has been watched for a couple of months after the couriers were followed there. President Obama has been in on the initial planning and operations from the beginning and personally gave the order on Friday before he left for Alabama. He gave the final "go" in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday. He was so cool and collected, and funny, at the White House Correspondent's Dinner Saturday night, and probably did not sleep a wink once back at the White House. I wouldn't want to play poker with him! And .... for anyone who wants to deny full credit for this success to President Obama .... there was a time during the last presidential campaign, in 2007, when Senator Obama said that he would send forces into Pakistan to take out Bin Laden and other high value Al Qaeda operatives if we had actionable intelligence and if the Pakistanis were unwilling to act. Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd said this was "naivete" - and Republicans in the the Bush security team, and then-presidential candidates including Mitt Romney, heartily criticized his speech and said the United States could not violate the sovereignty of Pakistan and that Obama was showing himself as unworthy of leadership. I think Giuliani was the only one who approved. So, whatever you think of this operation, it was a Barack Obama operation in concept and in execution, and he was the leader of this from the beginning. He deserves credit for putting his balls on the line and being an effective and victorious Commander in Chief, and great credit also goes to the CIA, JSOC, and the Navy Seals for being the intrepid professionals that they are. Bravo! The Pakistanis have a lot of 'splaining to do about why Bin Laden's compound was in the same town, two miles away, from Pakistan's counterpart to West Point. No way they didn't know since it's now being reported that he was there for the past 5-6 years. I just wonder if people really think we should have let Bin Laden stay in his house for the rest of his life so we wouldn't offend Al Qaeda! That makes no sense to me, unless we're a nation of knee-knockers and appeasers, and I hope the American people have as much fortitude as our kids who we send into harm's way to protect us. You probably know that I have had two sons in the service, and one still in, who trains NCIS agents, and he's ECSTATIC about the events of the past 24 hours. As am I. I just listened to a female journalist from Pakistan being interviewed and she said the without OBL Al Qaeda will be nothing. There may be other groups, and there will always be terrorists, because the last terror attempt in this country was by a right-wing extremist who set up a bomb at a MLK Day parade in Spokane, WA in January. There will always be terrorists, and God willing there will always be retribution for their heinous acts against humanity. My sister made me laugh last night. We had heard the news that OBL was dead, and we had heard that yesterday was the 8th anniversary of President Bush's Mission Accomplished speech on the aircraft carrier, so my sis said, "Maybe the reason it's taking Obama so long to come out and make the announcement is, they haven't finished making his banner." I think it was SO prescient to bury OBL's body at sea. No grave for that man. No pilgrimages. He sleeps with the fishes.

Okay, Couchie, I haven't heard any Mama news lately. I thought the fling with Romeo had cooled after her extended stay in SC? This is still on the front burner? Oy vey!

Drank? Why are you going all past tense, as if it were ancient history ... didn't I see you chugging a tall glass of strawberry koolaid on February 14th? I was there to testify that a lot of us chugged on the Koolaide that night. Keeping, yours was especially tasty. And do you remember the name of the liqueur in my martini? .... X-RATED, of course, and it is all hot pink and koolaidey! I have memorabilia everywhere. In plastic bins, under the bed in boxes, on the walls, hanging in the closet, sitting on a shelf in a kitchen cabinet, draped over an etagere, sitting on a dresser, and, at Christmas, hanging on the tree. I live in Clay World. And I'm not moving.

Drank? Why are you going all past tense, as if it were ancient history ... didn't I see you chugging a tall glass of strawberry koolaid on February 14th?

Bingo!!! KEEP ANGST ALIVE! KEEP ANGST ALIVE! I loved the keyring last year, and wore it around my neck on a silver chain quite a few times. The first three times I wore it I saw Clay in person -- the first time Jerome talked to me, and the third time Clay talked to me. It was a talisman. Alright now, the chant-bitching at Clay wearies my mind and brings me down. I'm good with whatever Clay chooses to do no matter how trite that sounds -- I'm not interested in telling him how to further his career - or in reading others' rather demanding opinions of what he should be doing to further his career. It's all so 2006! I've noticed RCA shit creeping in recently around the boards, and that's a deal breaker for me. Worry worry toil and trouble -- anxiety, stress, imbalance and fear. Not for ME! Wallowing in conspiracy theories about Clay's career is a non-starter. (There are enough REAL conspiracies to investigate). Blaming Clay for wrecking his own career is off the chain insane. I don't have a good time reading woe-r-us posts, and a very wise person once told me -- when it stops being fun, don't do it. I'm taking that advice. Clay is ALWAYS fun, so I'll continue to do him. I still have my famous FCA Doing Clay Aiken pin! Unless someone actually IS Clay, having walked a mile in his shoes, they don't know jackshit about him or his career. Even if we have memorized every word he's ever said on any subject, can quote Learning to Sing by rote, have had a dinner with him, or sat next to him at the theater, know his boyfriends, his mother, or his dogs, we don't know shit. I don't care if someone knows all about the music industry, the marketing industry, or the people industry -- if they aren't Clay and haven't experienced his life first hand, they can't speak for him and his decisions. Because it's just a ride. I'm going to again quote my favorite humorist/philosopher/political commentator, the late great Bill Hicks, who died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 32: The world is like a ride at an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it's real, because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud. And it's fun, for a while. After being on the ride for a long time, some people begin to question: 'Is this real? Or is this just a ride?' And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and they say 'Hey! Don't worry, don't be afraid -- ever -- because ... this is just a ride.' And we kill those people. Treenuts, darling, about that hologram ... I'd pay double dues ... and he doesn't even have to pick up the soap! Should we make him an offer? There's a drumbeat for Clay to do the latest media things to gain popularity -- online sex worked for the Kardashians ... I mean if he really wants a huge lot of publicity and riches there are more compelling and intimate ways than tweeting about the mall.

I'm curious, do most fans think Clay was serious about thinking DLTSGDOM was a George Michael song? Because I'm pretty sure he was totally pulling everyone's leg, and he wore that sly half-grin on his face to go with the sarcasm. He had to know it was an Elton John song for at least two reasons -- he recorded it back int the Clayton Grissom days and used the Elton John version for background music, and Debra Byrd said that when he wanted to sing it on Idol for the Wildcard performance, they had to contact Elton John and talk him into letting Clay sing it. Also, JBT was the same tour where Clay pretended to be playing the piano on Love Me Tender, so I think the guy likes to pull things over on people, including audiences. He likes to get a rise. Yes, I said it!

I always say gospelish.

I'd almost forgotten that! WJ was put on "Moderation" - meaning that all posts had to be reviewed by the admins before posting. Wacky wasn't banned, but was "watched" and suspected of being a turd-stirrer. Hilarious, don't you think? Well, it CMSU! Made me spit my coffee -- and I LOVE my coffee. Couchie, it's great to be back! If I'm not as present on the boards in the coming weeks, it's because I'm distracted by health problems - overlapping issues - but nothing that I can't handle. There is a hysterectomy in my near future - but I don't need that useless old thing anyway! This morning I'm having these enormous allergic full-body sneeze attacks, and these just suck with heavy cramps. I've been off work since the middle of last week, but haven't been much out of bed. I'm going stir-crazy.

I agree. It's definitely a misnomer because I find that most people who consider themselves pro-life are also pro-death penalty, and oppose aid for children living in poverty. Pro-lifers are now among the same people cheering for cutting off Meals on Wheels, WIC, Headstart, and health insurance for the poor in the US Congress, while protecting $4 billion in tax subsidies to the oil industry and tax cuts to billionaires. I wonder why people think it will create jobs to give more money to people who inherited their wealth and don't run companies at all. They aren't businessmen, they are yachtsmen. By their fruits you shall know them. It's always puzzled me why members of the Christian community support the death penalty when Jesus himself was an innocent victim of capital punishment. We know about people being executed here in Texas who were later found to be innocent. And in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he was acknowledged to have been wrongly convicted, yet the governor would not stay his execution because he was found guilty before he was proved innocent. These people are being murdered in MY name and in the name of every other citizen of this state. It's unconscionable and uncivilized. And it's certainly pro-death when it is supported in spite of killing a few innocent citizens, as if that's an acceptable price to be paid. I applaud the states who are banning it. George W. Bush actually laughed and made mocking jokes about executing people while he was governor of this state. Just another reason he's repugnant to me. I am tolerant of everyone except the intolerant. As to the intolerant, they are the scourge of the world and to be strenuously opposed. Someone once said that tolerance is a virtue, but passive tolerance is a vice. I agree. On another subject, I have to applaud President Obama for how he has so deftly hamstrung his health care opponents with the directive a few weeks ago that individual states are free to devise and implement their own plans, if they meet standard criteria: Vermont is taking him up on it - and they are expected to enact a single-payer system that will exceed the minimum standards and ultimately save money. The governors who claim that the Affordable Care Act is a federal power-grab, and unconstitutional, well, they are free to do their own thing, if they can do it more economically and maintain standards of coverage to a commensurate number of people. I'm eagerly awaiting Gov. Perry's response here in Texas. It will be interesting what Vermont comes up with. Maybe they will come up with a system that other states will want to emulate. Doesn't NY have a good health system for its residents? Or do I have the wrong state?

I agree. It's definitely a misnomer because I find that most people who consider themselves pro-life are also pro-death penalty, and oppose aid for children living in poverty. Pro-lifers are now among the same people cheering for cutting off Meals on Wheels, WIC, Headstart, and health insurance for the poor in the US Congress, while protecting $4 billion in tax subsidies to the oil industry and tax cuts to billionaires. I wonder why people think it will create jobs to give more money to people who inherited their wealth and don't run companies at all. They aren't businessmen, they are yachtsmen. By their fruits you shall know them. It's always puzzled me why members of the Christian community support the death penalty when Jesus himself was an innocent victim of capital punishment. We know about people being executed here in Texas who were later found to be innocent. And in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he was acknowledged to have been wrongly convicted, yet the governor would not stay his execution because he was found guilty before he was proved innocent. These people are being murdered in MY name and in the name of every other citizen of this state. It's unconscionable and uncivilized. And it's certainly pro-death when it is supported in spite of killing a few innocent citizens, as if that's an acceptable price to be paid. I applaud the states who are banning it. George W. Bush actually laughed and made mocking jokes about executing people while he was governor of this state. Just another reason he's repugnant to me. I am tolerant of everyone except the intolerant. As to the intolerant, they are the scourge of the world and to be strenuously opposed. Someone once said that tolerance is a virtue, but passive tolerance is a vice. I agree. On another subject, I have to applaud President Obama for how he has so deftly hamstrung his health care opponents with the directive a few weeks ago that individual states are free to devise and implement their own plans, if they meet standard criteria: Vermont is taking him up on it - and they are expected to enact a single-payer system that will exceed the minimum standards and ultimately save money. The governors who claim that the Affordable Care Act is a federal power-grab, and unconstitutional, well, they are free to do their own thing, if they can do it more economically and maintain standards of coverage to a commensurate number of people. I'm eagerly awaiting Gov. Perry's response here in Texas.

This weather is spectacular here today. I was walking downtown this afternoon and the city is absolutely sparkling. Not a cloud in the sky, low humidity, temp is 82. My sis works in NYC during the week and flies home on weekends. She loves NY, but this time I don't think she's ready to fly back on Sunday! This weather is great for all the visitors here for the next few days -- Houston has the Shell Houston Open going on this weekend (waves to merrieeee ) and also the NCAA Final Four. I noticed lots of visitors on the streets today, two different men asked me for directions to Discovery Green so I know they weren't local -- and anyway, most Houstonians are underground in the tunnel system at the various shops and restaurants throughout. I will be back there too, when the weather heats up (probably next week), but for now it's GORGEOUS OUT! I walked over to Macy's and rewarded myself with two pairs of new shoes. It seemed fair.

So much for claiming to be "pro-life" in Florida. More at Orlando Sentinel Article