If the Republicans are worried about Hurricane Gustav, why don't they just nominate by aclamation and leave town ASAP? A long drown out convention is certainly not needed to get the job done.

Wow, I can't believe it. On Aug. 14th I sent in the requisite forms for a rebate on my new Verizon cell phone. I fully expected it to take four to six weeks to complete as it said on the form but surprises of surprises, today, Aug. 30th, my rebate check arrived in the mail. I have never received a rebate in that short a time. Were they just being extra efficient or did my rebate request arrive during a slow period?

This is interesting. McCain and the other Republicans have been complaining that Obama has little experience and is not qualified to be president but now he chooses a person with even less Federal experience. Palin has no experience in the Federal government and rather limited experience in Alaska as well. So this raises two questions in my mind. Was she selected because she is a woman and he hopes to get votes from disaffected Hillary supporters, or did he chose her because she is against abortion therefore appeasing the religious conservatives of his party? Oh, there may be one more thing. There is OIL in Alaska much of which is currently off limits to drilling. Could THAT be the reason for choosing her?

To me it is beyond belief that a bunch of spoiled brats, namely supporters of Hilary Clinton, would sabotage the 2008 presidential election by voting for John McCain. Haven't we had enough of Bush policies for the past eight years. Why vote for McBush and extend that another four years? We must put away our dfferences and work for the good of the country. People who get caught up in personalities are the stuff of military coups in other countries. Let's not go down that road here.

And speaking of "here", I am beginning to think we need to call out the National Guard to patrol the streets of San Francisco and Oakland as our police departments are stretched too thin and our courts don't prosecute to the fullest extent of the law and these dirt bags who are robbing restaurants and shooting people. Just this week there was a shooting incident in San Francisco near the Hastings College of Law which is just behind the Asian Art Museum in the Civic Center and that was in the daytime. Then a Muni passenger gets robbed on a Muni bus on Market Street in the daytime. The list is getting longer and longer as crime finds its way into neighborhoods which have not seen incidents like these. Would a shooting on the steps of City Hall spur our elected officials to get serious about crime? I have my doubts.

This has been a great day. After spending nearly a week with my friend in Vallejo I returned to San Francisco yesterday and was kept very busy this morning working on problems with the IRS, the USPS, and other entities. Surprise! Everything went well and I will get my refund soon and I picked my mail on vacation hold and all sorts of things went right this morning. Yippee....

Tomorrow morning I will go to the DMV to get my driver's license renewed. No driving test is involved but a written test is as well as having my photo taken plus my finger prints (thumb print I think). Hopefully that will go well also.

I received good news that Richard's blood test of last Friday revealed a decrease in the number of cancer cells. This is very good news although we do not know if this will continue this way or not. For the moment however the chemotherapy seems to be working.

There are some weird and sick people out there. Who, in their right mind, would paint a pigeon or any living creature?

I see that the local Democratic party is trying to put together what it calls "The Hope Slate" for citywide elections this fall. Ha! This is really "The Hopeless Slate". This group of ultra-liberals wants to decriminalize prostitution, get rid of JROTC from public schools, set up public power by taking over PG&E, and wants to reject Mayor Newsom's special court in the Tenderloin known at the "Community Justice Center". They are really hopeless and are why this city is in such a mess now. Then we have the stupid ranked choice in city elections which was foisted off on the public a few years ago. It is hard enough to choose one candidate for an office...choosing three in ranked order is impossible.

Meanwhile, over at NBC, we find the network inundating us with hour after hour of beach volleyball from a city which does not have beaches. How boring!

Oh well, at least we know who will NOT be Barack Obama's running mate this fall.

Way to go Mary-Kate! I always liked her and she and her twin were always so cute on Full House.

Our wonderful government at work once again. This story really pisses me off. Does the stupidity of this government know no bounds these days? I thought we were living in the USA, not the USSR.

It is so sad when we export our corrupt American society to other countries via video games.

"I'm starting to wonder how bad four years with no president would be". (Maxine)

In reference to the item below which really ticked me off, I have vented my concern in letters to Senators Feinstein and Boxer as well as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I don't expect things to change but they need to know that there are some of use who are upset about these types of situations and hopefully this will start the ball rolling for change in the right direction.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

This is the most disturbing news I have ever read concerning this country. This is a total and blatant invasion of privacy and I will be writing to my representative in congress about this violation of the Constitution. My pictures of friends or cities that I visit which I post on my website are none of this governments business - PERIOD.

I guess I have been lucky so far as they have only given me a yellow card and searched my luggage and looked at some of the pictures on my camera but if they ever seize anything and I am in the wrong mood, I COULD go ballistic over this violation of my constitutional rights. Who do these people think they are anyway?