Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates

From The Tavis Smiley Show, September 29, 2004--Visit NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4052162

Connie Rice: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates

After weeks of political wrangling, Sen. John Kerry and President Bush will square off for the first of three key presidential debates. Both camps have agreed to an elaborate, 32-page contract that spells out everything from the size of the dressing rooms to permitted camera angles.

But the controversy over the debates threatens to overshadow the events themselves. Some citizen groups complain that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) isn't as non-partisan as it should be, and that Kerry and Bush won't be pressed on urban issues. Commentator Connie Rice says that's just the tip of the iceberg, and she's got another Top 10 list -- this time: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates.

( Are you ready for this? )

I think my time will be better spent reading a spread of liberal and conservative blogs....

Bits 'N Pieces

I'm acutely aware of the change in the sun's angle this year--it's a lovely thing, watching the year cycle and finding yourself in it. We've had so much rain, we might have some color this fall--it's been years since the Prairie Flameleaf Sumacs have had a chance to strut their stuff. And you must see a Texas Ash on a cloudy day to believe it--sometimes they glow as if a candle is in their center--like a maple wired for neon.

It's cooling down already, oddly enough--we've dropped into the upper fifties at night, which is usually NOVEMBER weather, thank you very much. Still mid-eighties during the day, but my autumn window for the pool may have just vanished. May need to start hopping in around 4 PM....

If my hands would just cooperate, I could start some basic planting--like a smoke tree in the front yard, and an oak of some type for the side yard. But not cooperating...only thing that is not cooperating from the treatment.

Read another article talking about the longer you've had LBb, the less effective antibiotics are.... Guess I'd better stop grumbling about how slow this holistic treatment is, and start praying it's going to work.

(Interesting sidenote--the major annoyance the past few weeks has been not the arthritis, but the right shoulder, which I suspect I injured literally years ago, dancing, and have continued to annoy. The chiro and a fellow RMT have been concentrating on it--and yesterday, RMT SP started to do some Critz Release Therapy on the infraspinatus (back of shoulder.) An hour later, she had "unwound" a spiral of increasing girth and depth that will need another hour or two--and halved the pain. I'm feeling slightly optimistic for the first time in ages. CRT is the "No-pain" stuff I've been doing so successfully for the past year--but I never really had anyone to work on me in that modality. Thanks to a class last weekend in Austin, I have several people eager to work on someone who can correct incorrect technique. Ah, work!)

Since I'm reading off and on about labyrinths for the next Allie book, this was an interesting quirk of fate....