Smoke 'em if ya got 'em...while you still can

To those of you that tire easily by hearing of Maya's tremendousness, please skip to the next paragraph. Because she was a freakin' angel yesterday and last night and is now crashed in her swing looking robustly cute. Sarah had a 24-hour on-call at the hospital shift and I know she felt slight pangs of separation anxiety amidst her doctorly duties. But Maya couldn't have been more agreeable if we'd had a team of lawyers negotiate the day's activities. A nice run and then a long walk in the Park with the Sunday crowds of freaks and fanciful geeks in full bloom. Bottles downed in record time when that well-choreographed desire arose. Diapers filled to bursting but with (almost no) overflow. Lots of chatting, all the requisite interest in books, and then early to bed for a solid 10-hour stretch. I can't say enough about what a quiet riot and considerable pleasure it is to hang with Maya. You all should try it sometime.

Watching "Meet the Press" yesterday morning while Maya took a rare nap, I was struck by the consistently slimy yet ultra-professional wordsmithing of Ken Mehlman (the past Chair of Dubya's re-election effort and now RNC Chair). The Republican Party's mouthpieces are ten-fold better than the Dems at spitting out the things they want you to digest and regurgitate. Mehlman threw more garbage on the table than a homeless man with three shopping carts. Using the signature "I respectfully disagree" caveat, Mehlman worked to discredit just about everything asked of him from our Guantanamo Bay detentions to Iraq to Pat Tillman's parents' grieving to...well, you get the picture. Nothing stuck, even though everything that was brought up stunk. And this comes on the heels of a Howard Dean interview with Tim Russert two weeks ago wherein Howie never had a single well-scripted response to any of the probing questions asked of him. In short, this is what I see as the primary problem with the two-Party political system in this country currently. One side lies their butts off and never gets even a scratch in return. The other side stumbles through every opportunity and never gets any leverage. Say what you will about what a soulless freak Mehlman's presents as his PR visage. But the GOP still stops the Dems cold when it comes to staying on message. Watch the streamed interview if your stomach is strong enough.

For all those TV addicts that have HBO, the new season of "Entourage" premiered last night. Hilarious. Again. Jeremy Piven has taken his slimy brilliance in the role of super-agent Ari to an almost Zen level. The throwaway lines are the most important because they seem totally unscripted (Ari joking in a crowded bar scene about a bitchy publisist working for NPR made me guffaw loud enough to wake the dead). This group of actors honestly seems to enjoy inhabiting their characters. If you haven't watched it yet, don't fret. HBO will rebroadcast every episode, oh, about every three days or so. Well worth a looksie, in my never-humble opinion.

The Bushies have to be bummed about that scrappy lit'l 9/11 Commission they cobbled together. Seems as though they take their mission to follow-up on last year's stunningly well presented Report seriously. Damn straight. Somebody should. Expect the "National Security interests must be protected" yada yada yada excuses for not sharing information to begin flowing from the White House almost immediately. But I don't think this well-crafted group o' codgers is going to take that one lying down.

The Supremes just struck down States' rights with regard to medical marijuana legislation. Once again, I see such hypocrisy in the way this Court plays both sides of the States' rights issues. Expect an FBI round-up of glaucoma patients to begin right about...now.