Few worries as a cat???!

Good morning! I am watching the rain fall and watching my two beautiful cats sleep...wishing that I could have so few worries as they. If only humanity were more like felines...the best line! They are much like babies, they eat-sleep-poop and want to be petted, but only on their terms! My cats wake me every morning sometime between 0300 and 0430. My alpha cat, Olympia, is not into charming wake up calls. She climbs up on the counter top and with one fell swoop of the paw or a nudge of her nose, pushes soap, toothbrush, lotion, cups, etc. into the sink or onto the floor. Now she has started reaching underneath the pillow I place on top of the night stand and she swipes the telephone off of the night stand. Anything to make a fall and crash sound so to startle me. Then a nice "MEOW"...for her that means "I'm hungry; feed me NOW, not later or this will go on until you do feed me!"

So, since both cats have been up since about 0430 (I got to sleep in this morning), they are fast asleep and I am having a cup of coffee. I will attempt to post a great comic strip that depicts "the lived experience of the doctoral student trying to figure out when she will complete her doctoral thesis". Hopefully I will figure that out sometime today. I also plan to get some writing done on the thesis and have birthday lunch with one of my best buddies, Mary Margaret. Her b'day was yesterday, so we have to feast and catch up over lunch like good southern girls.

I hope the rest of you have as few worries as my cats seem to in the midst of all the banking crises and the political Capistrano...the swallows are comin' home!

Election and economy thoughs

It has been some time since I've written. I am currently in dissertation purgatory. I am pushing to get a revised proposal out for the second part of my dissertation so I can get it approved and then out to my committee. Hopefully, I can get that approved quickly and start collecting data SOON! 

I have to say that I am very fascinated with the climate of the economy in the US and worldwide and by the effect this is having on the election. As a prior supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, I believed she was the best candidate in the race. I believe she understood the nuances of the economy, social issues the majority of the nation faces, as well as how to handle diplomacy and military action in the rest of the world. With that said, when Senator Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for President, I had thought it would be hard for me to support him. I quickly decided I had no choice but to support him and to support him wholeheartedly! As a nurse, I see people every day who cannot afford healthcare and it is not because they aren't working or they aren't trying. Most people do not realize that the average American family, self-employed and having to purchase health insurance for a family of four would have to pay approximately $12,000 per year for health care coverage. Add that cost to a $500 per person or $1000 or $1500 per family deductable, the cost of prescription drugs...regardless if your insurance provides a copay for generics or a higher copay for non-generics and maybe no help for "non-formulary" medications...now tell me how a $4000 tax credit is going to help the average family earning $30,000-$45,000 per year in Mississippi or North Carolina? McCain is really working hard for the lower and middle class, aye?! I can go on and on, but that's just one thing that bugs me, not to mention that I believe Senator McCain chose Sarah Palin just to have breasts and a vagina on the ballot with him! I think it was a total ploy, there are many more women who are better qualified than she for a Vice Presidential running mate. She is a conservative extremist who is very narrow-minded. America and any woman or person who supported Hillary Clinton and is even remotely thinking of supporting Sarah Palin and John McCain needs to perform a serious gut check! This woman supports nothing that Hillary Clinton supported. 

The final beef I have today regards where Roger Wicker and Ronnie Musgrove will be placed on the ballot in Mississippi. This story has made national news...at least in the newspapers if you've been keeping up. If not, I'll gladly catch you up. The election commission in Mississippi, made up of Governor "Mississippi is Bah-Lessed" Hailey Barbour, Secretary of State Dilbert...excuse me, Delbert Hoseman, and Attorney General Jim Hood. Gov. Barbour and Secy of State Hoseman had the intent of placing Wicker and Musgrove's race for US Senate seat at the bottom of the ballot in the special election section; they were opposed by Attny. Gen. Hood and are now in a battle with Attny Gen. Hood and the Mississippi Courts to decide the names should go at the top of the ballot just under the Presidential race where by law Federal races are supposed to be placed, but since this is a "special election" to fill Sen. Trent Lott's seat, Barbour and Hoseman's argument is that it should go in the special election section.  See Clarion Ledger Article.