Sad story

This is such a disgusting story - I had to debate with myself before I posted anything about this. This blows me away! I believe in a woman's right to choose, but I also believe it is too easy and there needs to be a line drawn regarding when it is OK and when it is not. Babies are born and live at 23 weeks. It happens. That this woman could go in for an abortion at 23 weeks shocks me and I am disgusted in how the clinic handled this. How long can you wait to get an abortion? I thought you had to do it by 12 - 14 weeks, but obviously I was wrong. Either way - at 23 weeks pregnant should people really be able to get an abortion just because they want one? I could agree with it if it was for health reasons, but just because? Horrible.

Do Something!

I was so worried yesterday about what to do and now today I have done nothing! But I have decided... I am going to put on the back burner my newest idea. Once I have my website designed and up and running I will focus more on my new idea. I am anxious to get going on my website so I am going to focus on that for now. If I make sure to accomplish something everyday then I will be able to get it all done - right? I sure hope so! And in that case, I better get busy and get something done today.

All of these ideas - what to do?

Have you ever had too many ideas? I have spent a long time trying to figure out what to do with myself after my sudden departure from my last job. Now I am closer to figuring out what I want to be doing, but I have too many ideas! If I start them all then I am worried that I will not be doing any of them justice. Drawing the line between too much and too little is the key. But will I be able to see the line once I draw it? I am committed to this blog (this was the first in the line of ideas) and I am going to keep this up - even if I never share it with anyone! And I have been spending days working on one of my other ideas - as soon as I have it set up I will unveil it (to myself) here first! Do I stop and focus on these two ideas for now, or do I let myself go with the third idea I want to start? I will sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow. Having spent the last few years with a total fear of commitment - can I really commit myself to three different ideas at once?

Vote today!

Today is the first of 6 possible election dates this year. King County has a county wide election to elect the Director of Elections. I supported making this an elected position and I am voting for David Irons. I think that he has the experience to manage a large operation like KC Elections, and he also has the history with King County to know how to get things done in the County. Sheryl Huff is probably going to win, and from what I hear the people working there are happy with her at the helm. I am not going to vote for her, I think she has been less than genuine with some of her reasons for mistakes that have been made and I believe that she may have moved to King County with in the required time line but I do not believe that she followed in the spirit of that law.

David Irons or Sheryl Huff, either one I am OK with. I really am torn on Julie (Ann) Kempf. I really do not want her to win. BUT the "evil twin" in me sure would find it funny for the people that work there to find themselves working under her again. Anyone that worked there before when she was there knows just how painful that was! It will be interesting to see if it is a close race and who will win. A recount would be particularly juicy. Stay tuned...

Yippee!! Sims is leaving!

I was hoping this day would come! I must say this is possibly my favorite thing that President Obama has done yet (although the wisdom of this move on his part is a bit scary). Ron Sims, King County Executive, has been nominated for the #2 job at Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Great news for King County, bad news for the country. I am just glad to see him go from King County. I have my own personal reasons for wanting him gone, but I have always thought he was a horrible Executive.


As a former County employee, I always felt that Sims was only interested in his own agenda. I recall one time where he was coming to view our warehouse and attend a council meeting that was being held in our warehouse. I was responsible for putting together talking points for him while he was touring our facility and meeting with our employees. Sims was an hour late, never went farther than 20 feet into the building, had a closed door meeting regarding Sound Transit with another council member, announced some development for Sound Transit (it seems like they had just gotten the funding to get to the airport) and left. Showed no interest in our facility or what we were doing. This was the Mail Ballot processing warehouse and this was not long after some major issues had been dealt with. The County Council was meeting at our building to see the changes we had made and recognize the changes. Sims was supposed to be there for the same thing but showed no interest in the processes and only in the Sound Transit update.


The $50 million computer system that never was implemented (but was paid for), Critical Areas Ordinance, the medical examiner brains for cash scandal and Sound Transit are all reasons to be glad that Sims is gone. Maybe we will be able to replace him with better, but I would bet Larry Phillips will be the next Executive. It will be a democrat I am sure, people around here vote more for the party than any other issue. Either way - I am THRILLED that Ron Sims is no longer going to be the King County Executive!

Stimulus package or Christmas present?

The House passed the "Stimulus Package" last week with lots of reports about the fact that every Republican voted against it. I was surprised to find this quote in the New York Times:

All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against
it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to
seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other issues to
come.

I am surprised to see that 11 Democrats broke ranks with Speaker Pelosi and President Obama. I am more surprised that there was not more reporting about this, but then again - you can not expect much more from the mainstream media at this point.

This "Stimulus Package" looks to me to be a Christmas Present to the Democrats who could not get funding for much of these issues during the Bush years and they are now piling them on at the first chance they can get. I understand that is how politics work, and this is exactly why I was afraid of one party having total control. But at the same time, don't sell this package as "Stimulus" and necessary to save the economy. On January 30th CBS News ran a story detailing why Republicans are against this bill. I was shocked when I read:

But emergency bills aren't paid for with higher taxes or budget cuts - the
stimulus is all borrowed money. And so anything Congress couldn't afford before
-- $50 million to support the arts, $70 million to help people stop smoking --
has found its way into the stimulus now.

And according to an article at cnn.com:

Much of the $550 billion in spending is divided among these areas: $142
billion for education, $111 billion for health care, $90 billion for
infrastructure, $72 billion for aid and benefits, $54 billion for energy, $16
billion for science and technology, and $13 billion for housing.

I am all for spending more on education and health care. But how is that going to stimulate the economy now? It certainly isn't going to help me today, tomorrow or next month. It wont help my husband's company find more work because it isn't going to help potential customers feel they can remodel their homes. So please, Congress, call it what it is. A pork laden belated Christmas present delivering money for every pet project you could find, borrowing money to pay for it. But wait, isn't that what caused the housing collapse? Borrowing money to buy things you can not afford...

Myspace, facebook, twitter - Oh My!

Strange that I feel this way, since I am trying to get started blogging. But I just can not get into My Space, Facebook, Twitter and all of those social networking sites. I have accounts at those websites, but I don't do much with them. But some of my friends sure are into them, downloading the Facebook app to their blackberry, sending all of these strange requests out from drink requests to posting 25 things about themselves. I guess, having gone through some very public issues not too long ago, I just am a little too private to be very involved in these sites. But it makes me wonder, when my daughter (who is 8 now) starts to get into using the computer and socializing, what will the "normal" things on the internet be? Sharing so much information so publicly kind of scares me. I have seen my young cousins my space pages and the pictures on them.... WOW! I will have to insist that my daughter allow me to be her "friend" when she starts doing these things so I can at least monitor it.

And in this My Space and Facebook time, every news story involving a person gets checked on Facebook or My Space. Do they have a page? What do they have on their page? Or my favorite story so far, the pilot of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River. Some very enterprising person made a Facebook page for him and he now has over half a million friends on his page that he had nothing to do with.

Or how about people updating their pages from work? My favorite example of this was during the Christmas season one of my best friends posted on her Facebook page "I am doing my Christmas shopping, shhhhhh don't tell my boss". How does she know her boss isn't going to see this post? This post impressed me because I thought she must be very confident that her boss a: would not see it and b: if her boss did see it the boss would not care. And since they frequently have beer Friday at her work, I imagine her boss wouldn't care! But I don't think all employers are like hers.

Either way, it is a very public and permanent way of socializing. Future employers, friends, and any other person that wants to look can find out all kinds of information about you that you would not normally share with strangers. Think twice before you put your information out there. Because it is there for anyone to see...