The Dauphin of Software bought me a new laptop

I’m writing to you from an oh-so-lovely brand new laptop these days. The DoS got a little windfall we definitely weren’t expecting, so instead of just replacing my six-year-old desktop (which I was more than fine with,) he decided to go for the gusto. My desktop, I’m afraid, is about to bite it. Services are pending. In the meantime, this sucker’s blazing fast, has a metric buttload of RAM and a hard drive the size of Texas, and I must confess, it’s a better situation.

Of course, a new computer means reloading every last thing from the old computer. I realize this is not onerous or insurmountable. The only fly in my ointment is that the laptop only came with either Vista or XP. I was quite firm on the whole XP subject with the manufacturing people. I believe I said something to the effect that I would run Vista when Hell froze over. (Let’s just say we are ten miles from the Evil Empire, and well, I’m not a Vista fan.) This means I had to give up my beloved Win 2000 Professional. We can’t get another copy because they’re not even selling it now. (Maybe Bill’s thinking he wants to upgrade BOB or something.)

Windows 2000 Professional never gave me a moment’s trouble. It’s been my trusty computing friend for the past several years. I realize I should just shut up and enjoy my new toy, but I’ll miss you, Win 2000 Professional.

Did I mention that one must obtain Vista in order to upgrade Publisher?

Thanks, Bill. Couldn’t you have bought the kids some new shoes with the money you already HAD in the checking account? Huh?

-S

Live Hard. Die Amused.

Ahhh. The life of a romance author.

I spent some time last week with a woman who’s convinced she can knock out a single title contemporary (100,000 words, probably 300+ pages,) before lunch. After all, they’re “formulaic” and “easy”, aren’t they? I smiled indulgently and bit my tongue. Hard.

I want everyone to write. If it’s self-expression and you enjoy it, that’s great, and I’m completely supportive. I want everyone to get published, too. Let’s face it, some of my favorite authors in the contemporary romance genre take 18 months to write, edit and publish a book, and I need something to read! At the same time, don’t denigrate what I do by suggesting (no matter how carefully,) that it’s brainless, and that we all just phone it in. Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes courage and daring to show up at that empty page every morning. Jennifer Crusie says that a study showed 84% of the American public wants to write a book “someday”. It takes guts to actually sit down and do it.

Every last bestselling romance author I’ve heard at various conferences around the country have all said the same thing. They never stop learning. They never stop perfecting their craft. There are sub-genres of what I write that I don’t particularly care for. (Paranormals, anyone?) At the same time, I know the blood, sweat and tears that author poured onto that page, how freaking hard she worked to get published, and how difficult it is to produce consistent excellence. Constructing a gripping “keeper” book is a long process for most. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — I can’t even remember what author told me this, but it’s the truth: If it were easy, everyone would do it.

In the meantime, I have another page deadline on Saturday.

-S

Woo-hoo! The Wurlitzer’s cranking up!

This morning finds me amused at the right-wing OUTRAGE over Scooter Libby’s upcoming visit to federal court on June 5th. He’ll be sentenced for the perjury he committed while continuing to obstruct the investigation into the outing of a CIA agent. Of course, we all know who’s responsible for poor Scooter’s being brought to justice. By the end of the week, I fully expect that the Wall Street Journal op-ed page will have the Special Counsel sporting horns and a tail. He just doesn’t understand! Scooter had to fall on his sword

keep Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush’s secrets

protect the American people from that awful, overzealous Special Counsel! Really! He’s not at fault! Plus, this had NOTHING TO DO with a consensual sexual act between adults, so it can’t be a crime, can it?

Sigh.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/blogs/news_blog/070530/friends_of_scooter_libby_fear.htm
 

When Lewis “Scooter” Libby is sentenced next month for his involvement in the Valerie Plame-CIA spy scandal, friends and legal allies fear that he will immediately be shipped to jail.

“I think that he will get some jail time and probably be sent away that day,” said a member of the Libby Legal Defense Fund.

(Barbara, is that you?)

Libby’s supporters plan to make the case again that the prosecution was politically motivated, spun out of control, and ended up nailing someone who wasn’t even the leaker of Plame’s name in the case. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, however, has already dismissed those claims and added that Libby has shown no remorse for his acts. Fitzgerald is expected to push for a sentence of up to three years in prison for obstruction.

That guy is just wrecking EVERYTHING! Kyle and Harriet just didn’t have the cojones to make him go AWAY, so now we’re just screwed, aren’t we?

And, from the “I wonder if the bow tie’s cutting off his circulation” file, we have this little gem. Tucker must be so proud.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/29/libby-defense-fund-member-attacks-fitzgerald/

Libby defense fund member attacks Fitzgerald. 

(color me shocked, no, SHOCKED!)

One of Scooter Libby’s “most ardent defenders, Richard Carlson, a former chief of the Voice of America who serves as a member of a defense trust set up for Libby,” reacts to Patrick Fitzgerald’s latest filing which again states that Valerie Plame was covert:

I think it’s certainly unseemly that he is kicking him while he’s down. For Fitzgerald, to get on his high horse, it’s disgusting and he should be ashamed of himself.

Richard Carlson is the “bow-tied father of bow-tied television pundit Tucker Carlson” who “sent a courier with a check to Libby’s Virginia home…on the morning of his perjury indictment.” 

I just got done reading over at firedoglake.com that one of the exculpatory reasons that Scooter shouldn’t have to go to jail, according to Mr. Libby’s defense attorneys, is that his defense has been so costly. Why does that matter if he’s not paying for it himself, anyway?

The mind boggles. In the meantime, the OUTRAGE! is palpable, isn’t it?

-S 

Broken Heart: Day Five (and oh, yeah, Valerie Plame was covert.)

 

He’s just so cute.

Sigh.

I’d like to thank those who’ve sent their kindest wishes and sympathy over the past five days.  Let’s face it, I’m a little old for this, but really – when have I ever had a crush on a guy so massive I chose to discuss it in a medium that complete strangers can read about it? Woe is me. I’ll be hitting the gym to work off all the chocolate any minute now.

In the meantime, there was a bit of news today from the Special Counsel in the Scooter Libby trial, who just happens to be the object of my completely ridiculous and totally improbable affection. It seems that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert agent! Color me shocked.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18924679/

WASHINGTON – An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame’s employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was “covert” when her name became public in July 2003. The summary is part of an attachment to Fitzgerald’s memorandum to the court supporting his recommendation that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former top aide, spend 2-1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation. The nature of Plame’s CIA employment never came up in Libby’s perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

Undercover travel
The unclassified summary of Plame’s employment with the CIA at the time that syndicated columnist Robert Novak published her name on July 14, 2003 says, “Ms. Wilson was a covert CIA employee for who the CIA was taking affirmative measures to conceal her intelligence relationship to the United States.” Plame worked as an operations officer in the Directorate of Operations and was assigned to the Counterproliferation Division (CPD) in January 2002 at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The employment history indicates that while she was assigned to CPD, Plame, “engaged in temporary duty travel overseas on official business.” The report says, “she traveled at least seven times to more than ten times.” When overseas Plame traveled undercover, “sometimes in true name and sometimes in alias — but always using cover — whether official or non-official (NOC) — with no ostensible relationship to the CIA.”

Criminal prosecution beat national security
After the Novak column was published and Plame’s identity was widely reported in the media, and according to the document, “the CIA lifted Ms Wilson’s cover” and then “rolled back her cover” effective to the date of the leak.

To quote the immortal words of Stephen Colbert, “Eat it, Toensing!”

You know, I’m almost feeling — well, just a little bit better at this news!

-S 

 

My poor heart is broken.

I awoke yesterday morning to the following in the Chicago Sun Times:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/395519,CST-NWS-SNEED22.article

Pssst? Pssst?

Buzz Buzz: So, who was the the young, gorgeous blond with the long locks and knockout figure accompanying U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to the Chicago Legal Clinic awards dinner Friday night at the Chicago Hilton, where he was honored with the Cardinal Bernardin Award? Inquiring minds want to know.

• • Sneedless to say, I’d like a nickel for every single female who’s told me Fitzgerald would be an amazing catch.

I’m crushed. Obviously, I’m married to the Dauphin of Software, but I did amuse myself with the whole idea that he’d just be there, pining away, for a woman he’d never have.

Anyone can date a young, gorgeous blonde with a great figure, but roly-poly redheads with dazzling wit and a smart mouth don’t come along every day, do they? DO THEY?

In the name of all that’s holy, please — send chocolate.

-S

Last night, I went to the opera

My latest book features a heroine who’s an opera singer, so a trip to the opera seemed like good research. Hopefully, the IRS will think so as well. The Dauphin pleaded extreme disinterest, so a friend and I saw “La Boheme”.

“La Boheme” is user-friendly. If you don’t reside under a rock, you’ve most likely heard a lot of the featured music elsewhere. I’ve wanted to see it ever since I saw the movie “Moonstruck”. If you’ve ever seen the movie, you’ll know why. The opera was funny and sad, and I was spellbound. To my amazement, I fell in love with it.  I now understand how others love it, too.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to go again soon.

-S

Friday afternoon cat blogging*

*Homage to Atrios of Eschaton. (www.eschaton.com)

I give you my friend leinie’s cat, Squeaker. (leinie, if I’ve screwed up on kitty’s name, I apologize.)

-S

James Comey’s still the pony in the bottom of the box, or Integrity is the New Black

I have been digesting the testimony of James Comey before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the past two days. The Dauphin of Software, for instance, was compelled to watch the first twenty minutes of Mr. Comey’s comments to Senator Schumer late last night before we went to sleep. (What did we all do before laptops with a wireless connection and You Tube, anyway? I’m sure there was something. Oh, yeah: Sleep.)  If you haven’t read or seen it yet, here’s the transcript: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501043.html Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxHjWYA50Ds

To say that I found the testimony electrifying and astonishing would be an understatement. I think it’s the most important 90 minutes of broadcast testimony I’ve seen since Watergate, and I seem to remember that we’ve had some fairly significant government committee testimony over the last couple of months. There was only one question I longed for – Senator Schumer did not ask Mr. Comey if he was asked to leave the DOJ and who might have made that request. Somehow, I’m sure that question (and many more,) got asked in the closed-door meeting that was mentioned during the hearing.

For those of us who sit in front of our televisions or our computers and watch this stuff, most of the time it’s a long slog through those who’ve been carefully coached to not actually divulge any information. This was a man that had waited three years to tell his story, and told it. I read another account in the mainstream media that stated the testimony smacked of a “potboiler paperback novel,” and in some ways, I have to agree with that assessment. Who would honestly believe that the vast majority of those who ran our government in 2003 were packed into a dim, quiet intensive care room in a Washington, DC hospital, waiting for what essentially was hired muscle from the White House to arrive and force a critically ill man to sign off on a program so illegal that the Department of Justice refused to certify it? Who would believe Mr. Comey’s followup comments — that the bulk of those who ran the FBI, the DOJ and the Attorney General’s office were prepared to offer their resignations on the same day, and the only reason why it did not happen is because the man that lay in that hospital bed, John Ashcroft, had asked them to wait until he was able to resign with them? One of the more surprising comments to me was Ted Olson’s role in this matter. James Comey had told Andy Card, Bush’s chief of staff, that he would not meet with the group at the White House unless he had a witness present, and he requested that witness to be the Inspector General, Ted Olson. I’m not an Olson fan. I remember the stuff he did during the Clinton administration. At the same time, if he can put aside partisanship and put the good of the country first, maybe I was wrong about him.

What on earth could be going on in our government that is so obviously criminal that the acting Attorney General of the United States felt he needed to protect himself by bringing a witness to a meeting with the President?

By the time he finished his testimony, I was in tears. I want to know where we can all go to get our country back. I want to know who is going to fix what’s broken at the Department of Justice, or if it’s possible to be fixed at all. Would we have EVER found out what was truly going on if the Democrats had not swept the majority in November?

There’s one other thing I’ve mused about over the last couple of days. Nobody gets rich doing government work (well, unless you’re Dick Cheney.) A guy with a wife and five kids doesn’t walk off his job because he’s had a bad day. He said he couldn’t stay with the Bush administration’s unwillingness to obey the law. One thing’s for sure, my estimation of Lockheed Martin just went up 1000% if they chose to hire a general counsel more concerned with ethics and integrity than cash.

-S

The New York Times loves me and wants me to be happy

There’s an article in the New York Times this morning about women over 40 and the lack of acceptable fashion choices. Those who read my blog might remember the quandary over an appropriate dress to wear to an event coming up in July. I can only deduce by the fact the NYT Style section considers this news that they have finally decided to throw me a bone. It seems I’m not alone in my plight. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/fashion/17OLDER.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=6a5674a9be27c6b1&ex=1179547200 

My favorite part of the article: A lot of women with young families and careers can’t be bothered with shopping — a larger problem for the industry, especially old-line department stores. As Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, a writer in Paris, put it: “The idea of lunch with a girlfriend and then going shopping — I prefer to stick my hand in fire.”

You go, girl. (Italics are mine.)

I have time to go shopping. I’d just rather be dragged buck naked over broken glass. There are many other things I’d much rather be doing. In the meantime, I’m hoping that some of the designers who think that a 46 year old woman likes wearing microminis and baby doll tops are listening.

-S

Jerry Falwell died this morning

I wish I had some kind of pithy thoughts on this subject. Unfortunately, the only thing I’m left with is the very real feeling that Rev. Falwell must now know some of the agony he visited on others during his lifetime.

Those who’ve read my blog with any regularity know that I’m a former fundamentalist Christian. I am sick inside when I consider the sheer numbers of people in my life that endured my supercilious and smug life view for so many years. I can apologize and apologize (and I have,) but the memories are enough to keep me very, very humble.

My very soul is vexed that one man could spend his time on this earth visiting such hatred and destruction in the name of his God onto others. I’m sorry for his family’s loss.

I’ll be writing on the amazing Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with James Comey that happened this morning at a later time. Suffice it to say that maybe we should all light a candle in the meantime and think about the truth of the New Testament — Christ preached love and acceptance, not hatred and intolerance.

-S