This is a plea for signatures to help a young girl, Jayci Yaeger see her father for the last time before she dies of brain cancer.  Jayci's father, Jason Charles Yaeger, is incarcerated in a South Dakota prison just three and half hours drive from his daughter.  He is scheduled to be released from prison in August.

Quote from ABC News:

He (Mr. Yaeger) has pleaded repeatedly with prison officials to honor the bureau's apparent policy of allowing furloughs and transfers under "extraordinary'' circumstances, but has been rebuffed time and again

And prison officials released a statement (pdf) saying:

Late Thursday, after abcnews.com published this story, the Bureau of Prisons released a statement saying that officials there "have reviewed inmate Yaeger's request for a compassionate release and have determined his situation does not meet the criteria..."

If an inmates daughter's dying does not constitute "extraordinary circumstances" then what does?

                                         

I figure since Mardi Gras and SuperTuesday fall on the same day, why not show our support to the fine people of NOLA by wearing beads to vote?!?!
WE haven't forgotten them, maybe the Bush administration has, but WE haven't!

So here, take some beads & adorn yourself!

                                 

Happy Mardi Gras, Kossacks!  Today begins the three-day countdown to 'Fat Tuesday', as well as 'Super Tuesday', so I figure I'll go to the voting booths with mardi gras beads in remembrance of one of my all time favorite places-New Orleans!  

When I first moved away from home in CA, I had a list of all the places in the world I wanted to live.  New Orleans was #5....London #1, Paris #2, Amsterdam #3, Key West was #4!  Miami, New York and Boston were also on that list.  I still haven't made it to New York and I haven't actually lived in New Orleans, yet!  Maybe someday, when my kids are grown, I'll have a chance to live there....I hope so!  I was there twice in my lifetime and would relish the chance to go back.  

A group of bloggers over at Docudharma have been actively writing about NOLA after Hurricane Katrina and we have decided to do a week-end marathon fund-raiser for the 9th Wards' N.E.N.A. (Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association)

Kossacks came to the rescue when Pretty Bird Woman House needed help.  
And for that you are all superstars in my book-no matter who you're voting for!!!
Now, New Orleans Ninth Ward needs our help, and this is more of a reminder than anything else, since the needs are ongoing.  Who is NENA, you ask?

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) was established in the aftermath of Katrina to play a lead role in rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.

Organized and controlled by residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, NENA addresses not only the immediate recovery needs created by the storm’s destruction, but also the institutional neglect and disinvestment that plagued the neighborhood long before Katrina. NENA works with current Lower Ninth Ward residents, displaced residents living in other parts of New Orleans, and the broader diaspora who want to return to the neighborhood.

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

We have asked, implored, pleaded, written, called and protested for the Impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney and President George W. Bush for more than four years.  When you took office as the first woman Speaker of the House, you gave us women, and many men as well, hope that finally justice would be served to those whom have lied to us, taken our country to war under false pretenses, stolen our credibility and destroyed our national security.  Oh, that's not to mention the trillions upon trillions of dollars of tax payers money to pay for a war based and CONTINUED on lies.  LIES.

(WARNING-GRAPHIC PICS)
This is what happens during a war, and it should NEVER, NEVER have happened here.  The pictures are graphic, the situation is horrific.  When a father is killed when a mother is raped and left for naught, what happens to their children?  They go to an orphanage to be abused and left for dead.  This is because of US, in our name, Bush/Cheney let this happen.
More below the fold.....

If not now?  When?  This is Memorial Day Weekend, we are supposed to honor the fallen.  What better way to honor our soldiers in the Middle East then to ask for their return?  Bring them home, take them out of harms way, and end this horrible collective nightmare we are all living.

Karl Rove has called the lawsuit "absolutely and utterly without merit."  

Oh REALLY?

Then why do you suppose San Franciscan attorney and powerful Democratic Party fundraiser Joe Cotchett of the law firm of Cotchett, Pitre, Simon & McCarthy has been named to lead the trial counsel in the federal civil lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, top Presidential advisor Karl Rove and other unnamed current and former administration officials for outing CIA agent, Valerie Plame?  
This is the news release from U.S. Newswire

Alright, alright, alright!  I am a career waitress by choice-I love the culinary world, I love ensuring an awesome dining experience to the people I wait on, I love the rythym of the rush, I love the wine, the food.....but most of all, I love the conversations with the people I meet.  Oh yeah, the money helps!

Tonight was no exception:

Listening today to NPR, I heard a constant theme of their programming and that theme was Bush's plan for a "New Middle East."  Expressed by Condoleeza Rice in a single, chilling sound-byte heard throught the land of Islam.....

"It is time for a new Middle East," she said. "It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not."

The Washington Post