I still haven't watched the Bush briefing video... my blood pressure is already high enough, really, and I'm already willing to believe that Brown was forced to take the fall for all his upper management.

The port deal is almost comical. Especially the veto threat and then finding out that Bush didn't even know about the deal until it was in the news.

I hate the right wingers who are pulling out the racism card. I mean seriously if this was a Democratic administration allowing a government that has had known ties to Al-Qaeda to take over operations of ports, would they be okay with the deal?

Isn't one of Bush's cronies a major investor in that particular Dubai company? I don't know if I read that somewhere or if I just assume it to be the case.

I do just use small, medium, and large. Can't be arsed to remember their words for it, and I have no patience to try

This is so me. I've never been corrected and I always get the right order. But I rarely go to a starbucks.

I have my neighborhood places where they know me and are friendly (coffee shop, bars, restaurants) but nowhere they anticipate my order. I don't think. Even though, for example, at the coffee shop I only ever get coffee with room for cream in the mornings.

The ultimate irony in my view is that GWB & co. are the ones fomenting racism and yet they are shocked and surprised when some have this reaction to the port issue.

I have no opinion about the Dubai port deal except that I don't trust one thing that GWB and his administration does. So if they think this is a good idea, for non-specific reasons, I don't think it is a good idea.

This is interesting and scary:

March 2, 2006 | Republicans representative of their permanent establishment have recently and quietly sent emissaries to President Bush, like diplomats to a foreign ruler isolated in his forbidden city, to probe whether he could be persuaded to become politically flexible. These ambassadors were not connected to the elder Bush or his closest associate, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, who was purged last year from the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and scorned by the current president. Scowcroft privately tells friends who ask whether he could somehow help that Bush would never turn to him for advice. So, in one case, a Republican wise man, a prominent lawyer in Washington who had served in the Reagan White House, sought no appointments or favors and was thought to be unthreatening to Bush, gained an audience with him. In a gentle tone, he explained that many presidents had difficult second terms, but that by adapting their approaches they ended successfully, as President Reagan had. Bush instantly replied with a vehement blast. He would not change. He would stay the course. He would not follow the polls. The Republican wise man tried again. Oh, no, he didn't mean anything about polls. But Bush fortified his wall of self-defensiveness and let fly with another heated riposte that he would not change.

[link]

The whole article is interesting....

You haven't been corrected when you do that? I always get corrected.

Are you sure they're correcting you and not just passing your order on to the barista? Because no matter how the customer phrases it, it really is important for the cashier to translate the order into Starbucksese for the barista in order to make sure you get the drink you want.

(This is probably not the case if you're just ordering tea, but I was harrassed endlessly by customers who thought I was being snotty when I'd rephrase their drink orders. And I *really* didn't have time to explain that, no, I don't care how you order it, but when I tell the barista what to make, I have to use the standardized language or it will take five times as long.)

Got a letter this week from the Dem running against DeLay in TX. He is getting lots of financial support and is actually ahead of DeLay in some polls. I am sure that much of his $$ (like my donation) are coming from out of state donors and that the DeLay camp will use that fact to try and sway support away from him. If you know anyone in TX that might be persuaded to make a small donation to a campaign, you can direct them to : [link] .

I hope the Republicans move away from Bush. Bush is the worst president I have ever known (well his administration anyway, I think Bush is not really aware of that much). There are plenty of decent Republicans and they need to distance themselves from this disaster of a presidency.

Are you sure they're correcting you and not just passing your order on to the barista? Because no matter how the customer phrases it, it really is important for the cashier to translate the order into Starbucksese for the barista in order to make sure you get the drink you want.

"You mean a Venti?" is not to the barista. I've heard it a million times.