Remember

Prayer works better than actually voting.

Please, if you believe in the power of prayer stay home and pray.

Bubble Boy Bush

Here is an interesting essay from a member of the liberal academic elite.

Published on Friday, September 24, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Rip Van Winkle had nothing on the Boy in the Bubble
by Rosa Maria Pegueros


Perhaps the most astonishing pronouncement of the inarticulate President of the United States is that he doesn?t read. George W. Bush says that his advisers tell him what he needs to know. What an amazing thing for the husband of Laura the librarian and the son of Barbara Bush, campaigner for literacy, to say! But more than that, it is deeply disturbing that the president of the dominant global power, the leader of the free world, the most powerful man in the world, would choose to have his perceptions of the world censored and spoon-fed to him by his underlings. It is simply unfathomable.

However, it does help one to understand how Bush could honestly say, as he did in a recent interview with Larry King on CNN, "I don't have a sense that there's a lot of anger [towards me]." *

If Bush reads nothing and his campaign workers screen all the members of the audiences at his campaign stops and require them to sign a loyalty oath promising to vote for him, how could he perceive anger towards him? If his critics are described to him as the usual pot-smoking, hippie malcontents that he expects them to be, can he know that protestors against the war in Iraq cut across age, race, and class lines?

As he makes his proclamations about creating an ownership society, does he have any idea that many working-class people are living without medical insurance, without drug coverage, and the terrifying prospects that catastrophic illness, disability and old age pose to them? Such elaborate lengths to insulate him can only result in a clueless leader who ambles along, convinced that he is universally admired.
[more]

Veterans for truth

Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey had this cartoon in today's paper (it is from Sunday but it was in our local paper today).

One nation under evangelical christians

"God is pro-war"
-- Rev. Jerry Falwell

Who needs the Constitution, why don't we just scrap it and replace it with The Holy Bible as interpreted by Evangelical Christians. Soon we will adopt their perverted form of christianity as our framework for government.

I just don't understand these people. Is it that they think they are right and everyone else is wrong? They claim that their God commands these things and you can't argue with God. They not only want to dictate how their own people live but how the rest of us live. If I don't accept Jesus as my personal savior I am going to burn in hell.

This is nothing new, I guess. It has been going on from the time that the Puritans, fleeing religious persecution in "Old Europe", landed here nearly four centuries ago. It just comes in waves. From witchhunts to abolition to McCarthyism. We don't really learn about these things in school from the football coach that is supposed to be teaching history.

Although I am not a practicing christian, most of my family members are church-goers and I was raised as a christian. More specifically in a Congregationalist church. There were about fifty members of this little autonomous country church which was established in the late eighteenth century. Each Sunday it was pretty much the same: a few readings from the Bible, a few hymns, the Apostle's Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and a sermon from the minister. Forty-five minutes a week of "religion", the rest of the week was spent on community things like bloodmobiles, bake sales, dinners, food drives, etc.

While I enjoyed the community aspects of the church I do not believe in God. I could not stand there every Sunday and say "I believe in God, the Father Almighty," because I don't; I never have. So I stopped attending church as soon as I was able to make that choice.

Now I live among Old Order Mennonites and Nebraska Amish. Their horse-drawn buggies share the roads with the evengelicals' SUVs and pick-up trucks. The clip-clop of their horses is part of the daily background noise. They, however, do not proselytize. They believe what they believe and they live their lives according to those beliefs and let the rest of live as we want.

They are not very popular among some of the mainstream protestants in the area. Interestingly the Mennonites ended up here after some Old Order Mennonites were incarcerated here during World War II for being pacifists. They noticed the land surrounding the prison and after they were released they told their families about the land and they bought some farms here.

I have been religion free for many years now. However, it is getting harder to escape other people's religions. I cannot listen to several public radio stations that used to come in clearly because there are now evangelical christian radio stations with national programs that block out the community radio stations. Even the local AM radio station carries James Dobson's daily message of hate. There are billboards lining the country roads with messages like "Have you personally accepted Jesus Christ as your savior?" Every meeting or dinner that I attend seems to start with a christian prayer.

Maybe I am just noticing it more these days. I don't know.

I am pretty sure though that the God I learned about in my church-going days was not pro-war.

From: BBC

Religion and politics in America
By Richard Allen Greene
BBC News Online in Colorado Springs and Boulder, Colorado

The first bumper sticker I saw when I arrived in the United States said "Got Jesus?" So did the second one. And the third.

Americans are divided about the role of religion in politics
The stickers - a religious take on a milk advertising campaign - were plastered on a Ford van in Detroit.

The next day I ran across a lawn sign asking "Need prayer?" There was a free phone number on the sign: 1-800-541-PRAY.

Americans are a deeply religious people - and one - as the stickers prove - comfortable with public displays of faith.

In fact, although the United States has a constitutional barrier separating church and state, the vast majority of Americans want their leaders to be religious.
[more]

Cat Stevens: Terrorist?

The former singer boarded a plane from London to Washington despite being on the US "no-fly" list. He was quickly sent back to London. I feel much safer now.

Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be, some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now I?ve been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be, something good has begun
-- from "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens

From: Agence France-Presse
Cat Stevens's expulsion causes rift

The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has complained to his US counterpart, Colin Powell, about the deportation from the US of the former pop singer Cat Stevens as a possible terrorist risk.

Mr Straw, in New York for United Nations meetings, told Mr Powell that "this action should not have been taken", a British spokesman said.

The singer, who changed his name to Yusuf Islam in the 1970s, said on his return to Britain yesterday: "I'm totally shocked. Half of me wants to smile, and half of me wants to growl. The whole thing is totally ridiculous." He described Mr Straw's intervention as very kind.

A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was diverted to Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday after US authorities discovered that he was on board.

Who says

they say
America needs no permission slip
we are above the law
you are with us or
you are with The Terrorists
God is on our side

they say
the law does not apply to the rich
taxes are for the poor
we are right, you are wrong
we are righteous
you are un-american
maybe even french

they say
you are not safe
we will protect you
we are sent by the Almighty
pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

they say
if you question us you hate america
rights are only priviledges
when we are at war
just call them enemy combatants
Ashcroft decides
so let the eagle soar

they say
war is peace
slavery is freedom
ignorance is knowledge
occupation is liberation
Iraq is al Qaeda
al Qaeda is Islam

they say
you are
un-american
a traitor
on the side of terror
the cause of 9/11

Totenberg hits back

Nina Totenberg had a piece about Dick Cheney on Morning Edition today.

Totenberg describes Cheney's political role: "In this campaign Dick Cheney is the hitman, whose task is to discredit the Democratic presidential candidate. It's an assignment he's carries out with a monotoned zeal."

She also mentioned Rick Lyman's recent article (below) in The New York Times about his attempt to cover Cheney which was made difficult because the Bush/Cheney Campaign has not allowed a reporter from The New York Times on Cheney's campaign jet.

From: The New York Times (free registration required)

Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney
By RICK LYMAN

OREGON CITY, Ore. -- They say that most stalkers imagine themselves to be the victim, and I guess I'm no different.

My first look at Vice President Dick Cheney was from a baking lawn on Ellis Island as he made his grand entrance into New York on a National Park Service tugboat, waving to the sweating crowd. I was just part of the small pack of reporters watching as he posed before the backdrop of Lower Manhattan, my first day on Cheney duty.

The vice president travels on Air Force Two, a tech-packed wide-body with private areas in the front, a Secret Service buffer in the middle and a media cabin in the back. A crew of about 10 reporters flies with him, representing all the networks, the wire services and two or three newspapers. There are snacks, cable television and camaraderie.

But there is not a seat for me.

Nor has there been a seat for the previous two New York Times reporters sent to cover the vice president. I am told not to take this personally. Nor, I am told, is this intended as a slight against the paper, which normally maintains a seat (paid for handsomely) on all campaign planes, presidential and vice-presidential.

Frankly, there are some colleagues who suspect that antipathy toward the newspaper may be behind it. Anne Womack, the vice president's chief spokeswoman, says such suspicions are baseless. There simply are not enough seats for all of the press, and other publications got their names on the list before us. If someone drops out, they'll let me know.
[more]

Don't expect Totenberg or Lyman to be invited aboard that jet anytime soon.

Bush apologist calls for pullout of American troops

This is a war, and there should be no limits for our troops to winning it!

As much as I have supported the war in Iraq (my brother just went over two days ago for his second tour) I have found that I don't even care about the Iraqi people anymore. I voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and I will do so again in November but I don't think the Iraqi people are worth one American life and sometimes I really wish we would withdraw our troops and be done with the place. Let those ungrateful, hateful people self-destruct. I'm just sick of it.

I'm sick of the liberals whining and crying about Abu Ghraib while ignoring the massacre of innocent children in Beslan and the beheadings of innocent men who were kidnapped and slaughtered. The enemy we face doesn't wear a uniform. The enemy we face murders innocent people with pleasure. In fact the innocent are targeted! And yet the only bitching I?ve read from most libs is how our soldiers are killing innocents in Iraq. Can they not see their own hypocrisy? We don?t target innocent civilians but in all war such causalities happen and it?s always unfortunate and sad. The difference is that terrorists HUNT the innocent and rejoice at their destruction. Who do you defend? I say take them out before they take us out...and always remember who struck first.
© 2004 Donna Schoenrock aka Nativeborn

Who struck first? It seems to me that the United States decided to invade and occupy Iraq in the name of regime change (or was it WMD or 9/11 or Saddam is evil). The United States waged an illegal war after failing to win the support of the rest of the world. Now they are having a harder time trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East because the Iraqis are using any means necessary to fight back. Do I think it is right for Iraqi insurgents to take and kill hostages? Absolutely not. But is it right for the United States military to fire rockets into a crowd of civilians or to torture prisoners of war? No.

Those of us who have oppsed this war from the instant that Washington started suggesting it have nothing that we have to explain away. We have been pointing out that Iraq was not involved in the 9/11/2001 attacks. We have said from the beginning that Saddam was no immediate threat to the United States or Western Europe. You call us hypocrites? Ms Pro-Life says, "take them out before they take us out," yet she calls us hypocrites.

"Who do you defend?" she asks. Well, one can't really defend murderers on either side. I think that the world has a duty to defend the civilians of Iraq. They have gone from being ruled by a brutal dictator to being invaded by the Imperial West and they have seen their cities destroyed and their neighbors killed.

Mrs. Schoenrock also posted a link to video of the latest beheading. A shocked Amy Proctor commented that the web site on which beheading video is hosted "is full of porn and perversion". Really?! I replied that a video of a beheading is itself pornography. My comment was quickly deleted.

Anyhow, Donna writes, "I really wish we would withdraw our troops and be done with the place. Let those ungrateful, hateful people self-destruct." Ungrateful? What do they have to be grafetful for? Before March 2003 they could walk to the market without dodging bullets. Their children had schools to go to. They could lead relatively normal lives. Now they live with an occupying army. There are bombs exploding around them. Thousands of civilians have been killed. I'm sure many Iraqis would be happy to see the Americans leave.

Home again

I'm back.

I had another long drive yesterday from Indiana to central Pennsylvania. The weather was beautiful; clear blue sky for as far as one could see and a comfortable 65 to 70° F. The trip was pretty much uneventful for nearly 600 miles until I got about 30 miles from home.

It was about 9:30pm and I had to decide whether to go over the mountains or through the valley. The mountain route is bit shorter but the road winds and you go through a bunch of small towns so I chose to go through the valley. The road is as straight as any road in this state and runs though a state forest and Amish farmland. I had gone through the only town on the route and the speed limit went back up to 55 mph. I was cruising along closer to 60 and I came over a small hill and noticed that something did not look right up ahead. The double yellow line in the middle of the road seemed to have a gap in it. I slowed down and before I knew it I came face to face with a black horse standing in the middle of the road. I swerved around it and then I saw a car in a ditch to my right. I stopped my car, flashed my headlights at an oncoming vehicle to warn him and then got out to help.

As I went towards the car an Amish farmer met me and asked if I could call 911. He was about half a foot shorter than me. The old farmer wore grey beard, black pants and vest, a straw hat and he spoke with a Pennsylvania Dutch accent. He told me the address for the 911 operator and said that there were two people hurt and one trapped in the car. I relayed the information to the operator, she took my cell phone number and said that that help was on the way.

Apparently there were three horses tied to fence near the house and they got loose and wandered onto the road. The other car hit two of them. One was on its side a few feet from the crumpled car. One of the Amish boys was talking to it in Pennsylvania Dutch and he kept patting and stroking the horse.

There were about six or seven of the Amish boys already on the scene. two or three were assisting the people in the car, two were tending to the injured horses and two were trying to get the other horse off of the road. I don't know what I would have done had I come upon the scene and was the first one there. I did not know exactly where I was and I am not very good with blood; and there was a lot of it. The woman in the car was covered in blood but she was alert and asked for a blanket, which one of the boys went to get.

The EMTs and fireman got there in about five minutes and took over. I got back in my car, a bit shaken, and made my way home.

My sojourn to the Midwest

I spent my day driving to the Midwest. Five hours of my nine hour trip I was trekking accross the cold reainy Buckeye State. If bumper stickers are any indication I'd say that Ohio is pretty evenly split between Kerry and Bush. Ohio might even be first in bumper stickers per capita.

Two cars with bumper stickers stuck out. One was a lemon curd yellow '80s model Buick with the trunk tied shut. It was driven by a guy who sort of looked like Jerry Garcia and was sporting a big blue bumper sticker that read "Dennis J Kucinich". I thought that one was fitting.

The other was an early '90s Chevy Cavalier driven by a man in his late 20s. The car was dented and rusting and apparently the defrost did not work because all of the windows were fogged. This guy had three Bush/Cheney stickers on the back of it. I was trying to thnk why this guy might be a Bush supporter. Does he support Bush's tax policies? Does he think that Dubya was chosen by "The Almighty"? I kind of hope it's the latter, I'd have an easier time accepting that. But I have a feeling that it is the former. Even though he will probably never earn enough to benefit from Bush tax cuts. But then he is probably one of those guys who doesn't want to work overtime for $12/hour instead of his normal $8/hour because "they take out too much in taxes". I have never understood that.

I also listened to Rush Limbaugh for three hours today. That is the first time in years that I've listened to him. He's not as funny as he used to be.

Some other observations:

• Is Ohio the only state that does not have a rectangular flag?


• Why do old guys on Harleys insist on riding on the middle line?


• Do all fast food restaurants in Ohio have signs on their doors asking patrons not to bring firearms inside? If the sign wasn't there would Ohioans assume that it is acceptable to have a gun in a restaurant?


• I saw the Weinermobile on the interstate. It's not as big as I thougt it was.

America (the book)

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have a new book out. If it is half as funny as the show will enjoy reading it.

Makes a great xmas gift ;-)

Among the topics:

• Ancient Rome: The First Republicans


• The Founding Fathers: Young, Gifted, and White


• The President: King of Democracy


• The Supreme Court: 18 Legs, Four Tits, One Mission


• Running for Office: What Are You Thinking?


• The Media: Can It Be Stopped?


• The Future of Democracy: The Constitutional Robocracy and You!

Thou shalt not speak ill of Dubya

This is just priceless. The police handcuffed and hauled away this grieving mother.

(In the name of compassionate conservatism.)

First Lady's Speech Interrupted By Dead Soldier's Mother
Woman Blames Bush For Son's Death

HAMILTON, N.J. -- First lady Laura Bush made a campaign stop in New Jersey Thursday.

The visit comes as her husband, President George W. Bush, gains strength against John Kerry in the Garden State.

"There is a lot of intrigue with this race in New Jersey. Imagine if we were competing at full throttle, and that's why the first lady came here today," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos Jr., chairman of New Jersey's Republican party.

The firehouse trip was a first visit by Bush/Cheney campaign to New Jersey that wasn't a fund-raising event.

The visit didn't go exactly as planned. One woman was arrested and removed from the event.

Bush talked about more tax relief for businesses, healthcare reform and defeating terrorism. Many people in the crowd had lost relatives on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's for our country, and our children and our grandchildren that we do the hard work of confronting terror and promoting democracy," Bush said.

[more]

Assault weapons on TDS

"There's good news for anybody looking to kill lots of people quickly!"

watch video

• "Why can't cops look at the reintroduction of assault weapons as a challenge; an opporunity to dodge faster bullets."


• "IRONY people!"


• "AK forty-schmeven"


• "If you have an assault weapon you don't need to make sense."


• "Really relaxing to squeeze off a few, Jon...oh yeah...I fired my gun too."

Featuring Senior Armament and Ordinance Analyst Stephen Colbert

Army: killing civilians "clearly within (its) rights"

from LA Times:

Army Defends Baghdad Battle That Left 16 Dead

• Helicopters targeted insurgents opening fire near a damaged military vehicle, U.S. officials say.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD -- U.S. commanders acknowledged Wednesday that their helicopters fired seven rockets and 30 high-caliber machine-gun rounds onto a crowded Baghdad street this week during a battle that killed 16 Iraqis and sparked a heated debate about how civilians often become the victims of U.S. firepower.

Army officials said the helicopter attack was an appropriate response to insurgents firing on U.S. soldiers from the vicinity of a Bradley fighting vehicle, which had been set ablaze by a suicide car bomb.

"The actions taken by our soldiers and pilots were clearly within their rights," said Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which patrols Baghdad.
[more] free subscription required

How do you defend firing rockets at civilians in the street?

Even worse, they go on to say that it was necessary to disperse the crowd so that they did not loot the Bradley fighting vehicle. So in the US Army's book one Bradley fighting vehicle is worth at least 16 Iraqi lives (plus injuries to 61 others).

Site of the Day

TRUTH BE TOLD
Commentary From A Thinking Individual

Johnny joins Joey and Dee Dee

Punk guitarist Johnny Ramone dies

Johnny Ramone had battled cancer for five years
Johnny Ramone, guitarist in punk band The Ramones, has died at the age of 55 following a long fight against cancer.

He passed away at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, surrounded by friends and family, said the band's artistic director Arturo Vega.

Johnny Ramone, real name John Cummings, battled prostate cancer for five years.
[more]

"God bless President Bush, and God bless America"
--Johnny Ramone, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2002

John Kerry: job creator

Kerry Hires Ala. Woman Fired for Sticker

DETROIT - Democrat John Kerry has a new campaign worker helping him drum up support in Alabama after hiring a woman who was fired for displaying the presidential candidate's bumper sticker on her car.

Kerry called Lynne Gobbell on Tuesday after reading a newspaper story describing how she had been fired last Thursday from her job packing cellulose insulation at a Moulton, Ala., plant.

Gobbell said her former employer had told her she could either work for him or Kerry. She said Kerry told her, "Let him know that as of today, you're working for John Kerry.
(more)

I think that is one more job than Dubya has created.

John Kerry: terrorist-loving baby killer

I think that our friends on the right secretly like looking at pictures of dead babies and children. Why else would they keep linking to pictures of them?

From our old pal Donna:

Where's your outrage libs?

OMG!
Pupils tell of siege hell
And the left refers to these EVIL terrorists as freedom fighters? This is unconscionable! Then there's John Kerry who says we should have a "sensitive war on terror"! Are these "EVIL THINGS" sensitive to the innocent when they rape and murder young girls and bayonet a six-year-old boy in the throat because he dares to ask for water? How would John Kerry feel if his two daughters were among the raped, tortured and mutilated? Do you really think we can negotiate with terrorists? Why would you want to?!

Hmmmm...

"And the left refers to these EVIL terrorists as freedom fighters?"

What??

It was the REAGAN Administration who sold arms to Iran to fund "freedom fighters" in Nicaragua. Those "freedom fighters" who became a CIA-trained army of terror and killed tens of thousands of people.

It was the REAGAN Administration who funded and trained those "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan (including Osama bin Laden).

The US Army runs the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation training camp. The former School of the Americas has trained many terrorists.

"Then there's John Kerry who says we should have a 'sensitive war on terror'!"

Kerry actually said, "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."

Effective? Thoughtful? Strateg(er)ic? Proactive? Hmmm?


I wanted to comment on the post directly but comments are not open on it. From past experience they would have been deleted anyhow. Also from past experience she'll accuse me of harassing her and "Hubby" will leave a comment for me.

'I'm Batman'

I'm Batman

'Batman' protest at palace
By Justin Davenport and Robert Jobson, Evening Standard
13 September 2004

A protester dressed as Batman breached Buckingham Palace security today.


Jason Hatch, 33, from Gloucester, managed to reach a ledge beside a balcony despite the presence of armed guards, said the group.

Fathers 4 Justice. After climbing a fence at the side of the palace courtyard, dodging police and highly sophisticated alarms and cameras, he crossed the palace courtyard and scaled the walls of the building using a ladder. A second-protester, Dave Pyke, dressed as Robin, tried to join Mr Hatch but climbed down when police threatened to shoot him.
more

SLC Punk

...gets visit from Secret Service because of his bumper sticker.

Things getting sticky for owner of sticker
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune

Derek Kjar is not the president's biggest fan.
But the 19-year-old Salt Lake County man says he does not intend to harm President Bush with anything more than a vote for John Kerry come November.
Just to be sure, though, agents from the Secret Service recently paid Kjar a visit, telling him that his neighbors had alerted them to a potentially threatening bumper sticker on his car.
The sticker, which can be found on a number of Web sites, features a black-and-white likeness of Bush, a crown tilted slightly on his head. Under the image are the words "KING GEORGE - OFF WITH HIS HEAD."
Glen Passey, agent in charge of the Secret Service's Salt Lake City office, would not confirm that agents visited Kjar.
But Passey said his office investigates all threats against the president.
"Oh, please," said David Hudson, a research attorney who works for the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. "It's political hyperbole. However distasteful you might think it is, it's pure political speech."

Quote du jour

"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she [America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
-- John Quincy Adams, Independence Day Address, 1821

One of the new entries in the 2004 edition of Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Jimmy the Cab Driver

MoveOn.org recently released some new ads. I like the Jimmy the Cab Driver series written by and starring Donal Logue. I thought that the cab driver character was hilarious in the old MTV promos, but these ads are a much better use of his talents.

• Ad 1


• Ad 2


• Ad 3

New Look

After two years of black and blue and and extremely screwed up code I switched to one of the standard Blogger templates. Bleh.

Fetus Update

We had another ultrasound visit today. We requested a different perinatologist this time and it made a big difference.

The VSD is still present as is the spot on the heart. The kidney problem seems to have corrected itself.

The difference this time was the doctor. The first doctor was a woman who was all business and no people skills. The doctor we saw today is an older man who was very friendly and reassuring. He said that all of the findings above are markers for Down's Syndrome but that he thinks the odds are against it.

We have three more months to go. No more ultrasounds; just visits with the midwife.

A blast from the past

My Movabletype db blew up (or something) so I have brought back my old faithful Blogger.

I will try to get this thing up to date in the next week or so. Until then you're stuck with this.

Quote du jour

"Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their...their love with women all across this country."
-- George Dubya Bush, Sept 6, 2004

Quotes for today

"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason..... if a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar.... There is no America without labor, and to fleece one is to rob the other."

-- Abraham Lincoln




"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country"

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933

September Saturdays

...are for football.

I spent the day at Penn State for their game against Akron. Below are some photos (click on each to enlarge).



The first is some whacko guy with a bloody cross preaching outside of Beaver Stadium. He was positioned near another guy that was handing out free Penn State football schedules that had Bush/Cheney on the back. Even at a college football game you can't escape politics and religion.

The middle photo is the view from our seats during the Blue Band's pregame show,

The last photo shows a trumpeter in the Akron band who uses a wheelchair. I don't know how he plays and maneuvers the chair at the same time.

Penn State won 48-10. This looked like a Penn State team of old, except for a few needless personal fouls. The Phillies also won today. Lidle pitched his second straight shutout.