I have a ups package waiting for me. Somewhere. Now to figure out how to get it. May ask them to leave it with my neighbor. Of course, they didn't say when they tried to deliver it. This is the only day this week there WASN'T a UPS truck arriving as I got home. Of course.

My kitchen is unpacked. I'm eating soup.

Upper sixties predicted for Saturday. I LOVE THIS WEATHER.

In other Eat It news:

WASHINGTON - Hours after taking control of Congress, House Democrats disclosed a plan they said would strengthen homeland security after five years of complaining that Republicans weren't doing enough.

Democrats say their legislation bill would implement the unfinished 9/11 Commission recommendations that fall under the Homeland Security Committee's jurisdiction.

The bill would require private companies to prepare for terrorism and the government would have to inspect cargo on passenger planes and shipping containers leaving the largest ports. Airport screeners would be given whistle-blower protection, money would be set aside to develop technology for detecting explosives at checkpoints and an appeals process would be established for airline passengers mistaken for terrorists on watch lists.

Democrats have said the Republican-controlled Congress didn't implement the commission's 41 recommendations aimed at improving safety after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The commission itself met a year ago to hand out failing grades to the government, giving an "F," for example, to improving airline passenger screening and homeland security spending for cities considered most at risk of attack.

The bill will be debated and voted on Tuesday — without going through the committee process — as part of the Democrats' "100 hours" plan to quickly accomplish their priorities.

Republicans objected to the speed with which the Democrats are moving.

Get this, the legislature is passing legislation that makes the country work better. The Republicans think this is crazy fast because in the last five years they did nothing on this subject. That's their idea of appropriate speed.

Ha ha Republican congresspeoples! You sucked his cock and did what he wanted and now you lose.

Pelosi is kicking ass and taking names.

Those Democrats sure are crazy, voting on bills all willy-nilly.

Those Democrats sure are crazy, voting on bills all willy-nilly.

I keep laughing at the Republicans going, "Whoa! Whoa! Slow down there kid. No need going and doing stuff!"

Oh, and a bunch of Republican congresscritters were whinging about legislation -- originally submitted by Pelosi in 2004 -- that would guarantee some 'legislative minority' rights. Which the Republicans basically crushed at the time, of course.

Those Democrats sure are crazy, voting on bills all willy-nilly.

One would think that that was their job. Poor, poor Republicans. Meaniehead Democrats are making them look bad.

I can't wait until Emmett finds out adorable kids are chick magnets.

One last little bit.

***********

‘It’s Not Whining’

Not so the Republicans convened upstairs. Waving his hands and stomping his feet, Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina acted out on Wednesday what the rest of the Republican caucus must have felt. “It is so hypocritical, just on its face,” Mr. McHenry fumed.

His complaint: That Democrats, on the verge of taking control of Congress, were planning to run the place their way, driving the legislative agenda themselves without input from the Republican minority.

Wasn’t that, someone asked, how the Republicans had run Congress for more than a decade?

“We didn’t campaign on this openness,” Mr. McHenry argued, denying that he and his colleagues were just being sore losers. “It’s not whining,” he said. “It’s a matter of calling them out on their rhetoric.”

Democrats had not even taken over yet. But Republicans, suddenly facing a minimum two-year sentence out of power, coalesced around a message of kvetching.

They held up reports that Democrats would conduct their first 100 hours without allowing Republican amendments. They held news conferences to deplore the new regime, citing letters from Mrs. Pelosi from when she was in the minority, requesting a piece of the legislative action.

Missed the death of the old thread.

Blargh. Before he left, my boss told me the CIO wants me in the corporate office at 8am tomorrow to answer the phones from there. No real explanation given beyond he doesn't want the deparment empty during the all-hands meeting tomorrow. Nevermind the meeting doesn't start until 9:30. So I have to get up 4 hours early so I can make the commute to corporate to arrive 3 hours ahead of my normal start time to do something I could do better from my normal desk, just so there's someone physically in the department tomorrow. WTF?

Nothing like killing the thread with some whine.

Happy Birthday to ita.

Happy belated birthday to shrift (One of the last posts I've read so far in the previous thread mentioned it.)

They held up reports that Democrats would conduct their first 100 hours without allowing Republican amendments.

One of the pieces of legistlation they plan on enacting in their first 100 hours includes minority party protections.

They're not allowing any Republican amendments in the first hundred hours so the Repubs can't scuttle any of the legislation with trick amendments.

I'm not so much with the caring about the Repubs' problems at this point. Talk to me in a hundred hours and I'll take a moment to consider giving some thought to caring, depending on if they're actually getting screwed over, or if their just trying to upset the apple cart.