Two Months Old and Counting

Maya's two month birthday was yesterday. Two months that both sped by and elongated each day considerably. Some signposts have been passed - Maya sleeps well through much of the night with usually one feeding in the early hours of the day, she's put on the pounds like a lit'l Kirstie Alley without any of the career-tarnishing ridicule, she smiles and loudly fills diapers and holds her head up and digs bathtime and makes loads of noise everywhere in between. Like like all new 'rents, we think she's gorgeous and brilliant. The challenges in the weeks ahead will be considerable. Sarah heads back to her clinical responsibilities later next week. After an early adoption of the bottle, Maya's shown some recent disdain for the non-boob feeding method which will need to be remedied. And there are certain to be timing issues we've not even begun to ponder. Maya seems ready for whatever's coming down the pike, so we'll just need to follow suit. Rest assured that we'll keep the running commentary updated herein.

Big, big news day otherwise. Lots of stories will surely get lost in the mix.

The Iraqi Cabinet has been chosen, and the delay in naming them is only surpassed in appalling gaps left for the most important jobs. Ahmad Chalabi is yet again given a position of power - the oil minister, fer chrissakes. Hard to believe that he'd be the phoenix rising from the ashes he's time and time again proven himself to be. In distinctly opposite fashion, Former HeadLacky Ayad Allawi got all pissy and walked out of the government because the Shiites didn't fold to his demands for a handful of ministers and a vice prez from his LackyParty. Too early to tell how this will be received by the Iraqis themselves. But you can bet that the Bushies will take full credit for the partial list.

The Daily Show showed yet another singularly brilliant juxtaposition during their moment of Zen last night - after showing Dubya make his ridiculous energy policy speech including the quote that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil they cut to the widely circulated video of Dubya and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince walking hand-in-hand through the bluebonnets in Crawford. Hypocrisy like that just can't be topped by comedy, but in this case it added extra loft to the silliness.

Tom DeLay's goose increasingly looks like it's cooking. Sure, the Ethics Committee will now have to look into his problems. Sure, he's getting pissy with the crowd of cameras following him around. But when media orgs start scrutinizing the cigars he's smoking like TIME has done with a Cuban he's seen toking in Israel way back in 2003, you know the floodgates of retribution are opening. Good riddance. Also, the NYTimes published an interesting take on the "money laundering" (my quotes added) from his PAC (Americans for a Republican Majority) to House Republicans that then donated money back to DeLay's legal defense fund. $200K came back, amounting to a sizable skimming of funds. Hard to prove outright that the intent was to pull money from his PAC and push it into his defense fund. But like just about everything else in DeLay's orbit of influence, it smells like somebody stepped in something.

Today's the one-year anniversary of the Abu Gharib scandal coming to light thanks to Dan Rather and "60 Minutes 2" broadcasting a story that included the now-famous photos of Lyndie England and her chums. In honor of that anniversary, the Army's planning to release a new manual that no longer condones torture. I'm sure THAT will satisfy the World community.

In Wisconsin news, after last mentioning the then-First Place New Brew Crew Milwaukee's fallen to Last Place in their Division. After starting 5-3, they went 2-10. So the dream may well be over. But the good news from my home state is that the woman who won the Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin competition only to be shamed with the fact that she could actually stand under her own power has claimed a new title. Ms. disAbility International (their spelling, not mine). Sounds like a promotion, albeit a strange mixed-case one.

Dubya's holding a prime-time news conference tonight for the first time in over a year. So the need for damage control for the Bushies has reached Orange Alert. Apparently Dubya wants to start off by expanding on the terrible energy initiatives he announced yesterday, but I can't wait to see where the questioning goes from there. I'll be posting my blow-by-blow reactions after the fact, so please check back. Rock on.