Here's an interesting non-political story that one of my liberal radio hosts found from somewhere.  Just so you don't worry, the dog (a shih-tzu) is fine.

Dog Found Hanging From Leash Caught In Elevator

I'm back after a long absence from Xanga (not that many would notice)...  I've been busy with work, and at home.  Well, we have a new Supreme Court Justice.  Many think he's a conservative, but I don't know of many conservatives that believe that:

1. Automatic machine guns (and presumably portable rocket launchers and other large weapons like ) cannot be regulated by the American people through Congress.
   
2. Police officers can strip-search people who are not named in a search warrant (including 12-year girls) even if they not inside, but in the vicinity of the house specified in a search warrant.
   
3. Presidents have the power to intrepret Congress's laws and decide if they apply to him, when he signs those bills into laws - as he did when he claimed that Republican Senator McCain's anti-torture admendment didn't apply to him.  (Which explains why he has never vetoed any bills)
   
4. People like himself, who lie to the Senate, should get promotions - instead of being fired.  (He previously told the Senate that he would recuse himself from cases involving a financial investment company he had lots of money with, and also his sister's legal firm - both of which he failed to do.)

On another note, I heard the State of the Union speach... It sounded like Bush was proposing many ideas that Democrats have been proposing for quite a while.  Such as "America will continue to rally the world to confront these [Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon] threats."  Which is what Kerry ran on doing to fix the problems in Iraq.  And..."Keeping America competitive requires affordable health care. Our government has a responsibility to provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility."  Other than the fact that we are obviously not providing affordable health care to the poor and the elderly...it seems like exactally what every Democrat who has ever spoken on health care has said.  Also..."To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy."  is practically right out of the environmentally friendly Democrats platform.

He's also made quite a bit of other promises that he's already started work on breaking.  See the many posts debunking almost everything he said at ThinkProgress

He also made broad stereotypes of his opponents, such as repeating that same often heard line "there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure."  Implying that most of the critics think that everything he's done has failed, and that they don't offer any useful suggestions.  I've previously said that he's done one thing good (I had to think hard about it first...), which is that he attacked and brought down the Taliban in Afganistan after 9/11.  Other than that, I'd love to hear what someone who supports him thinks he's done a good job on (expecially if you're one of the 2% of african-americans that support him).

UPDATE:

A Republican's congressman's wife was kicked out of the people's house before the State of the Union for wearing a t-shirt supporting the troops.

From AP

Of course, Cindy Sheehan wasn't just kicked out, but was actually arrested also just for wearing a t-shirt - despite the fair and ballanced Fox news falsely saying she was unfurling a banner, being disruptive, and refusing to cooperate with authorities, (as video proves she did none of).