Flotsam and Jetsam

Today I was sitting and waiting for a prescription to be filled at our local Safeway pharmacy, minding my own business, not bothering a soul. An old woman, dressed in what I guess is Bonners Ferry chic: a sweatshirt over a longer shirt that hung out behind, sweat pants that had obviously seen better days and were a foot too short, ankle length black boots that were untied, and what appeared to be mismatched socks, stood nearby looking down on me. She had no teeth and was leaning heavily on a wooden cane. With absolutely no preliminaries she suddently asked, "what do you call a cow with two short legs?"
Taken aback, I answered, "I don't know, what do you call such a creature?"
"Lean beef!" She announced with glee.
I smiled. She then commanded, "what do you call a cow with no legs?"
"Beats me," I said. "What?"
"Ground beef!" she announced in her loud voice, then laughing heartily.
Before I could recover from that she went on, "what do you call a bunch of cows that have just had abortions?"
I just stared at her unable to even speak. "Decalfinated!" she cackled, opening her toothless mouth in uninhibited mirth. Her prescription in hand she limped off with her cane. "Have a nice day," she exclaimed.
God, I love Bonners Ferry.

I recall that when Addington was picked to replace Libby there were some raised eyebrows. But as most of us had never heard of him we didn't know exactly what to expect - other than trouble, of course. He is another one of Dick the Slimy's thugs, like Bolton, who will stop at nothing to get their way. He was also one of those who influenced Yoo to write his absurd legal opinions about totally unrestricted Presidential powers. He apparently also had great influence with our apparently pretty clueless Attorney General. Barring another grossly illegal Supreme Court ruling it is doubtful that these Presidential yes-men will be able to prevail. Surely there is nothing in the Constitution or American law, or International law, that would allow a President of the United States dictatorial powers. It has been asserted often enough, it seem to me, that "no President is above the law." What more needs to be said. In fact, it is absurd that this is even being questioned (unless, of course, we have already entered Wonderland). I find it terribly unlikely that international treaties that have been ratified by other branches of government can be simply ignored by the Executive. Similarly, as we are not truly at "war," which can only be authorized by Congress, Bush's claims to absolute wartime powers is more than merely questionable. However, with Democrats effectively castrated, and the American public anesthetized by television garbage, I guess most anything could happen.
Happy days, I fear, are not here again.