More Food Recalls (Sara Lee Edition)

Via the FDA - Precautionary Recall Alert Issued for Selected Whole Wheat Fresh Bread Products

Sara Lee Food & Beverage is issuing a
voluntarily and precautionary recall of selected whole wheat bread products produced at the company's Meridian, Miss. bakery and sold at grocery retailers in the following areas of the country: the entire states of Mississippi and Alabama, most of Arkansas, far southeastern Missouri, western Georgia, southwestern Tennessee, southeastern Louisiana and the panhandle of Florida. The affected products may contain small pieces of metal.

The link above has the entire list of recalled breads. I swear it is getting to the point where one has to be suspect of anything not grown or produced at one's own home. It is just ridiculous.

Even more pictures

My two older boys having a snowball fight in mid-July at Rocky Mt. National Park.

A chipmunk eating a nut in Rocky Mt.

The Grand Teton Mountains

A few more pictures

Me at the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone

A Bull Elk in Yellowstone

My husband and my boys at Mammoth Hotsprings

A Grizzly Bear in Yellowstone

Big Horn Sheep in Rocky Mt. National Park

Vacation Pictures

St Louis Arch at Sunset

Mt. Rushmore

Me and my boys at Yellowstone

A Bison in Yellowstone

A Bald Eagle in Yellowstone

Irony Anyone?

Via WaPo - Outsourcing the Picket Line: Carpenters Union Hires Homeless to Stage Protests

The picketers marching in a circle in front of a downtown Washington office building chanting about low wages do not seem fully focused on their message.

[. . .]

Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.

They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.

[. . .]

The carpenters union is one of the most active picketers in the District, routinely staging as many as eight picket lines a day at buildings where construction or renovation work is being done without union labor.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony in using non-union labor to protest the use of non-union labor?

On the one hand, it is nice to see that there are groups out there that are willing to hire the homeless and ex-cons. On the other hand, I feel like this whole thing says something not too good about our society at the moment. The bottom line here seems to be all about the bottom line. In other words, they don't want to have give up their own paid time to go protest. They just want to pay someone else to fight their battles for them while they continue with life as usual. To me at least, that does not say anything good about them.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I will say that my father-in-law was a union carpenter for much of his career in carpentry. His local union was very good to him and has continued to be very good to my mother-in-law since his death.

Overly confident?

I've been wondering lately if maybe the Democrats are getting a little over confident about the 2008 Presidential election. Last Friday, while having dinner with some friends, the conversation turned to the 2008 election. One person asked another what the chances were that a Democrat wouldn't win in the next election. The response was that the Democrats would definitely win in 2008. In fact, this person went on to say that he thought it would just be wonderful if Obama would just recognize his youth, accept second place and be Hillary Clinton's VP running mate. He went on to suggest that this scenario would practically guarantee 16 years of Democrats in the White House (8 for Hillary and 8 for Obama). This kind of attitude worries me.

I am afraid that too many Democrats may think that any candidate the Democratic Party puts forward will automatically win. After the last election cycle, I am unwilling to think that way. It is true that Bush is much less popular now than he was then, but Bush isn't running.

Late Night Funnies

I'm back!

My two week long vacation to Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park has finally come to a close. We had a pretty good time. I'll probably be posting some pictures soon. I've got a lot of news to catch up on. Maybe regular blogging will resume soon.

A little vacation fun

While we were at Big Sky, MT we did a little whitewater rafting. Anyone who's interested can check out the pictures from our float down river here.

Amazing "Man Bites Dog" Story

Via CNN - Man bites dog to rescue puppy

A Chinese man bit to death a fierce dog that was savaging his beloved puppy.

Awakened by the puppy's yelps, a villager named Geng first tried to chase the dog away by hurling watermelons at it, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The farmer then threw himself on the dog, clamping his teeth around its neck and eventually killing it.

The puppy lived and the man was injured.

Libby NOT going to prison after all

Via WaPo - Bush Commutes Libby Prison Sentence

President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case. Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.

I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. In reality, Bush had no reason not to pardon him. It's not he's worried about it affecting his approval rating or anything.

Some Second Quarter Numbers

Via CNN - Obama raises $32.5 million, thought to be a Democratic party record

Presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $32.5 million in the second quarter of 2007, topping his first quarter effort by nearly $7 million, the Illinois Democrat's campaign announced Sunday.

The Obama campaign said the senator raised "at least" $31 million in the second quarter in primary money, and a total -- counting $1.5 million in general election funds -- of $32.5 million.

Senator Clinton has not reported her second quarter number yet but

Spokesman Howard Wolfson said Thursday that the New York senator and former first lady expected to be out-raised by Obama. Wolfson said she would raise "in the range of $27 million" in the second quarter, putting her total take for the year north of $53 million.

Looking down the candidate list, according to the article, Edwards raised $9 million, Richardson raised $7 million, and Dodd raised $3.25 million.

I'm glad to see that Obama is ahead of Clinton. Hillary likes to try to make people think that she is the candidate apparent, so to speak. If Obama keeps raising more money than her, it will make that line a little harder to sell.