Let’s just all hope they don’t stampede. They look wired to me.

“DENVER – The “credentials” issued by the Democratic National Convention for fans of Sen. Barack Obama to attend his nomination-acceptance speech next week at Denver’s football stadium are raising questions because they apparently have the U.S. flag flying upside down – an international signal of distress.

KUSA-TV in Denver reported its viewers have raised the issue, and online, a participant in a GatewayPundit forum said, “That’s an upside-down flag. It may not be intentional, but there it is.”

The television station said viewers see the blue field and stars in the lower left corner, even though published flag etiquette states the stars should be displayed – always – in the upper left corner.

Obama spokesman Matt Chandler told the station the flag isn’t upside down; it was just stylized to blend the stars on Obama’s shirt with the flag.

“The DNCC community credentials incorporate patriotic design elements,” said Natalie Wyeth of the DNCC in a statement to the station. “They do not depict an actual American flag. The DNCC has full and complete respect for the flag and all rules of display.”

Such affirmations, however, were lost on some of those commenting on the issue.

“Dude can’t stop disrespecting this Country!!!” wrote a contributor to the station’s forum page.”

Yea expect change.

It’s just like Obama … an empty suit. Never hunt for Bigfoot at a Costume Supply Company.

Story here.

….. Mike B sends

Obama’s deliberations remain remarkably closely held. Aides said perhaps a half-dozen advisers were involved in the final discussions in an effort to enforce a command that Obama issued to staff members: that his decision not leak out until supporters are notified.

Obama had not notified his choice — or any of those not selected — of his decision as of late Monday, advisers said. Going into the final days, Obama was said to be focused mainly on three candidates: Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and Senator Joseph Biden Jr. of Delaware.

Some Democrats said they still hoped that he would choose Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, or Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, who has been under steady consideration by Obama’s campaign.”

Administration Reunions will be held in Hell.

Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) — The Korea Stamp Corporation issued commemorative stamps (a sheet and an individual stamp) on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army Kim Jong Il’s start of leadership over the Songun revolution.
The stamps deal with the undying exploits Kim Jong Il has performed by making ceaseless journeys for devoted service for strengthening the revolutionary armed forces over the last several decades since he started providing dynamic Songun revolutionary leadership on August 25, Juche 49 (1960) and the invincibility of the Songun politics.
A sheet carries the picture of kind-hearted Kim Jong Il visiting again a post to keep the promise made to its soldiers to come to it again when persimmons would be ripening and depicts the bright looks of the servicepersons replete with immense honor and happiness.
The individual stamp reflects the spirit of the army and people of the DPRK advancing under the banner of Songun, tightly holding rifles in hands and carries the slogan “Long live great victory of Songun politics!”

“It is a relief that Georgia was not permitted into NATO ahead of Russia’s clearly orchestrated invasion. Yes, you heard correctly, a relief.

Why?  Here’s why: Is there anyone who thinks for a second that any of the NATO members would have risen to the occasion to defend a newly admitted Georgia against “mighty Russia”?

It is much more than possible that Russian armor would have been confronted with flurries of impenetrable “strongly worded statements.” Kind of like now. Only, had NATO failed to rise to defend a member state — which is wholly plausible — NATO would have been exposed as nothing more than the paper it is constructed around.

There may be some credibility to the claim that NATO membership would have served as a deterrent for Russia, thus preventing the invasion. Perhaps. Credibility, but not assurance. And what if Putin, who cares little about world opinion (perhaps his greatest asset), had called the NATO bluff? Then what?”

NATO with the possible exception of the newly joined countries especially Poland …. joined NATO so that if the Ruskies attacked the US would join the fight.

Germany never joined to protect England or the USA… and so forth. All the memebers of NATO simply joined to protect their own butts. We standardized ammo and ordinance with NATO in the hopes that there would be some prestaged assets there afte (fill in the country here) tossed down their weapons and ran in the face of Russian armor …. there would still be some ammo there that we could use.

NATO … dried out ink stains on a page.

“JERUSALEM – Was Sen. Barack Obama a citizen of Indonesia at any point in his life?

That question has been circulating on the blogosphere with increased fury the past few days, ever since a photograph emerged of Obama’s school registration papers as a child in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim nation – showing the presidential candidate listed as a “Muslim” with “Indonesian”

A 2007 Associated Press photograph taken by Tatan Syuflana, an Indonesian AP reporter and photographer, surfaced last week on the Daylife.com photographic website showing an image of Obama’s registration card at Indonesia’s Fransiskus Assisi school, a Catholic institution.

In the picture, Obama is registered under the name Barry Soetoro by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. The school card lists Barry Soetoro as a Indonesian citizen born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, . His religion is listed as Muslim.”

It doesn’t get any better than this. A nice clean kid friendly lake. A place where the small (miss m) and the tall (miss emster) can learn how to do all the stuff that pertains to fishing. They are all getting really good at this stuff, including miss m.

What a pair of determined campers. Ner and miss M work together as she gets the feel of casting, watching the bobber, and reeling in fish.

The boys of summer Pete Mr N and Repete working together to learn guy stuff.

Jim casts long to get into the channel to see if the catfish are active today. They are, but they take their time, their strikes bend thick poles and break lines. Next time we get heavier line. They seem to like hot dogs and garlic hot dogs dipped in cheese spread today.

This place is one of the most “family friendly” places I know. These rock outcroppings were built into the lake. You can drive right up to them from the road. They let you get out into the lake a bit to cast and stay free of the weeds. The main one we occupied was shaded by several trees. It was great.

Today it was totally uncrowded. We could have occupied several of these outcroppings if we wanted. We did occupy a couple. Repete is hard at work fishing.

Repete had some luck with bluegill and sunfish very much larger than this baby bass, but you take the good with the bad. We had to put this one back cause the taxidermist said they had to be at least big enough to see with his glasses. Repete was  proud that he took the hook out of this one himself and returned him to the lake. They are getting pretty independent.

That lil green thing in the cup is a crawdad. It was a good day for them too. Super aggressive miniture lobsters…. is how we like to think about them. It was a good day to learn how to pick them up without getting pinched.

Gathering at the end of the trip. You can see a couple of the trucks here pulled up to the outcroppings. All you have to do is unload your stuff walk 15 - 20 feet set it down bait up and go. Ma is pointing at a large hawk circling above us. At the end we pulled up our chairs … said some prayers … and headed on home with a stop at the local “Good Enough” Pizza shop. They even had men’s and women’s rooms.

I remember when these guys were so small they all needed their hooks baited and we used cane poles. Life moves fast. I hope to get to do this as much as possible before they get all big and move on past this stuff.

Life is good.

The preliminary agreement, which has been under negotiation for two years, was struck after the U.S. agreed to Warsaw’s request to station Patriot surface-to-air missiles on Polish soil. In exchange, Poland will host part of the missile defense shield which the U.S. says is needed to defend Europe and North America against potential long-range missile attacks by terrorist groups or hostile states like Iran.

The plan to establish a missile defense system in the former Soviet satellites of Poland and the Czech Republic is an issue of bitter dispute between Washington and Moscow, despite the Pentagon’s assurances that it is not designed as an umbrella against Russia’s large nuclear missile arsenal.”

Russia counts on us electing Obama