Update

So, when finalising the plans, it seems I can't leave earlier than Friday (I'm on a deadhead ticket, which has the advantage of being completely reschedulable, and the drawback of needing an empty seat. For reasons which passeth all understanding, the earliest flight which isn't booked solid is Friday afternoon. but the last leg is looking dicey, so I'll probably catch the red-eye out of LAX, and then the first in the morning out of Charlotte, ending up in Knoxville Sat. Morning, which means I can make it to my sister's birthday party).

Which means those of you who were thinking of buying a print, and haven't made your minds up, have a couple of days to commit.

Every little bit helps

The Republican disarray continues. Arlen Spector to switch parties

Right now that seems to be a tactical shift, and he's as Blue Dog as it gets (semi-toothless when he was a Republican, barking about how this, or that, was unacceptable, and then rolling over; I don't really think he's likely to change colors much, with his turn of coat), but that's one vote less certain in the cloture fights.

If Reid could sprout a set of gonads, and make the Republicans actually filibuster, things might actually start to change.

Because pictures are sort of like breathing

I worked some more on the stuff from yesterday.

The poppies in this series were shot a little earlier (perhaps half of an hour) and the light was warmer, harder and a trifle richer (there were scudding clouds, which changes the fill from skylight).

Crepe Paper



Crumpled


Ruffed Collar


The next one I really like, because of the way the seedpod seems to rise up, and congeal, out of the wash of color.

Bullseye


Now for something completely different

Succulent

Too Rich

So, as expected the Republicans are saying, "good riddance" and other such stuff. The party is stronger for losing a RINO, etc.. Never mind that the way they treat, "RINO"s is probably why Specter left. Those of us who count ourselves he progressives need to take this as several object lessons. Primary challenges have effects, some are not what one expects, nor wants.

Mind you I think this is the opposite of what the progressives are trying to do. We want to move the party left, yes, but I don't see us doing it with litmus tests; rigid applications of ideology. If we were, there would be more primary challenges, and the Blue Dogs would either jump to the Republicans, or vote a little left.

But the Republicans (esp. after this last election, where the number of self-declared Republicans dropped to the 20 percent range) have made themselves a small core of really dedicated; and strident, members. Specter wasn't making them happy, so he was doomed; if he stayed in the Party.

He might be doomed anyway. That depends on how he statisfies the Democrats in Penn.

And the Republicans need to ponder their role in the nation. Are they to go on, as they have in the past, with a sense of entitlement, part of which comes from them, and the press, explaining (ad nauseum) that the US is, "a center right nation", and then explaining they are that "center right" party, instead of the "leftist/socialist" party they accuse the Democrats of being.

They, however, aren't. They can't even look at the way they ran things when they were in charge.

"I think the threat to the country presented by this defection really relates to the issue of whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority to have whatever it wants without restraint, without a check or a balance," [Senate Republican Leader Mitch] McConnell said during a Tuesday afternoon press availability.

"Obviously, we are not happy that Senator Specter has decided to become a Democrat," McConnell said. "If we are not successful in Minnesota…Democrats, at least on paper, will have 60 votes. I think the danger of that for the country is that there won't automatically be an ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule."

The same note was struck by John Cornyn, “Senator Specter’s decision today represents the height of political self-preservation. While this presents a short-term disappointment, voters next year will have a clear choice to cast their ballots for a potentially unbridled Democrat super-majority versus the system of checks-and-balances that Americans deserve.”

Got that, the Republicans are saying (now) that the nation is best served when the majority party isn't large enough to not work without getting some cooperation from the minority party.

Compare that to the attitude a few years ago, when the test for bringing a bill to the floor of the house wasn't, "Is this in the best interests of the country", nor was it, "do a majority of the members support it", but rather, "do a majority of the Republicans in the House support it?"

We were told that, no matter if it was veto proof because of bipartisan support, absent a majority of Republicans being on-board, it was DOA.

Where were McConnell and Cornyn then? Oh yeah, talking about removing the Filibuster ("The Nuclear Option") so the minority Democrats would be even less capable of opposing things they disagreed with.

Who's being politically expedient here?