I do not trust George W Bush

George W. Bush and his campaign continue to distort and mislead the public, and appear to be taking some actions that are at least unethical if not illegal. Consider:

• Bush Tried To Install Crony At Florida Election Board
• Bush To Alter Economic Stats Again
• Swift Boat Vet Got $40M Contract From Bush
• Bush Misleads on Global Warming

For those (like the senile Zell Miller) who believe that we should support the President no matter what, and who might dismiss the above articles without reading them, please note that these brief articles each list the sources for the various statements (sources include the White House web page, Business Week magazine, CNN, and many other respected sources).

Last night I forced myself to watch the Republican Convention. I had honestly thought that at least Bush would stop trying to associate Saddam Hussein with the attacks of September 11, 2001. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. No link between Saddam and al Qaeda has been found. We do know that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11/2001 were Saudis and that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks. So last night Bush stated:

"...We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and support for terror. We knew his long history of pursuing, even using, weapons of mass destruction. And we know that September 11th requires our country to think differently..."

Bush did not directly state that Saddam was behind 9/11; he did, however, intentionally mention 9/11 and Saddam in adjacent sentences, giving the impression to many who don't bother to listen carefully - that the 2 are related. This is just one more reason why I have no respect whatsoever for Dubya. Clinton cheated on his wife - in the White House - and lied about it; the Republicans impeached him for that. Dubya lies and misleads about war, resulting in the deaths (so far) of at least 12 THOUSAND people (11,000 Iraqi civilians and 1,000 coalition forces) ...and the Republicans say "Four more years!" WTF?!?!

Hurricane season

Here we go again. Hurricane Frances is now on its way to finish what Hurricane Charley started. Many out of state friends and family have been emailing (a few even spending the money to call, so they must be really worried or else somehow under the mistaken impression that we've got money and have left it to them - rather than the truth, which is that we don't have money, and if we did we'd most likely leave it to some flaming liberal cause) ....but I digress.

Many have been asking how long hurricane season lasts, are we prepared, will we be ok, etc., etc.  The answers are:

1. June through November - a glorious 6 months
2. We hope so
3. We hope so
4. We can't possibly provide an answer if you're going to be so general with the questions

To give a better understanding of hurricane season and the proper approach to preparation, please read Florida Hurricane Season Notes. I'd write more, but I need to run to the store and see if I can fight off the hoards and buy that last can of SPAM.

House - Concrete in walls

Today they filled the blocks with concrete and added the hurricane ties that will help (hopefully) secure the roof in high winds. ...And speaking of high winds, hurricane Frances - now a Category 4 hurricance - may pay a visit this weekend. We're just keeping a watch on the movement of the storm for now, but this is a huge hurricane, so we kind of expect that we'll at least get some wind and heavy rain. I'll post more news and/or pics when we have more :-)

We've got walls!

The workers were busy yesterday! We swung by the homesite this afternoon and the block walls were in place. This baby is starting to look like a house :-)  ....ok, it wouldn't be the best in the rain, but it will get there. Interior framing should be happening this week. I'm not sure when the roof will be going on, but that is when it will really look like a house. After 6 months of looking at an empty weed patch, it's soooo great to see a home growing there. Here's more pics from today.

Woo-hoo! The house is started!

On February 8, 2004 - a little over 6 months ago - we put a deposit down on a new house. Today the slab was poured. Apparently, this is a normal wait in Florida; the permit process takes a l-o-n-g time. So now the fun begins! By next week the block walls will be up and the framing (for interior walls, roofing, etc) will be underway. We're very used to construction of "stick" houses (2x4 or 2x6 framing on post and beam foundations), and have done a fair amount of remodel work over the years (framing, roofing, siding, plumbing, cement work, brickwork, wiring, laying carpet, hanging wallpaper, fencing...most everything a homeowner could do). But block home construction on slab foundation is new to us, so it will be very interesting to see how things are done down here in Florida. Click the small photo in this posting to see a few shots of the house beginnings.

You can also see in the pics a glimpse of some of the huge houses in the neighborhood. At about 2,000 square feet, we'll have one of the smallest homes in the group, and that's fine by us :-)

Cheers.