Today I just have a few random thoughts that I want to pass along.

U So Mukasey was confirmed by a vote of 53-40. While it is interesting to note who did or did not vote for him, what is most interesting is who DIDN’T vote. That would be Alexander (R-TN), Biden (D-DE), Clinton (D-NY), Cornyn (R-TX), Dodd (D-CT), McCain (R-AZ), Obama (D-IL). Five out of those seven are presidential candidates. So there are two takes on this: either they don’t want to be held accountable for their vote, or they’re too busy campaigning to do the job the American People elected them to do. Either one is unacceptable.

U You know what? I kinda like Obama, and before you revoke my membership in the conservative club, let me explain. While I don’t feel that he has enough experience yet for the job, and while I consider most of his policies to be too liberal for my liking, I DO consider him to be the most honorable man in the field. However, missing these important votes are starting to be a habit with him, and if it continues I’m afraid it is going to be too easy to lump him with the rest of the opportunistic candidates in the race.

U Thursday was “Green” night on NBC. All of their programming had a “green/environmental” theme, but unfortunately, most of those themes consisted of making fun of global warming. One high point was a guest appearance by Al Gore on 30 Rock. He was genuinely funny. Way to go Al.

U So my daughter has been bugging me to let her get a kitten. Never mind the fact that we already have a cat and three dogs. Her friends cat had kittens a few weeks ago, and we went to look at them. Her eleven year old friend informed me that these kittens were democrats. “Okay”, I thought, and didn’t think much of it. Today we went to look at them again, and now her friend informs me that they are Republicans. My interest piqued, I reminded her that a month ago after they were born, she told me they were democrats. Why the change” I asked her. “Because now their eyes are open” she replied. I wonder if her folks want to put her up for adoption?

U Nearly 15 years after Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan famously imploded, Bill Clinton blamed a new culprit for the failure - himself. "It was more my fault than hers," he told an Iowa audience. "We couldn't raise the money."

So this raises two possibilities in my mind. The first (and most likely) is that Bill is covering up for her, and do we need a president who can’t take accountability for his or her own mistakes? The second is that he is right, and it was his fault, which of course means he let her take the blame for his mistake for 15 years. Yeah, those are the kind of folks to vote for.

U National Archives Inspector General Paul Brachfeld said on Thursday that the Reagan Library complex, outside Los Angeles, could account for only 20,000 of an estimated 100,000 items in its collection. "This does not automatically mean the approximately 80,000 remaining items are missing. ... Some of these items may be missing or stolen, or none of these items may be missing or stolen," he said. You know, If I had 100,000 of anything, I’d probably have a clue if 4 out of 5 were missing? In related news, Hooters this week announced there newest location is opening inside the Clinton Library.

U Hillary Clinton's tipping skills were called into question Thursday, after NPR reported an Iowa waitress who recently served Clinton got stiffed. But apparently the campaign left a $100 tip - on her entourage's $157 tab - to be divided among the servers. While I am glad that Hillary didn’t stiff this women, do we really want to put someone in charge of our tax dollars who leaves a $100 tip on a $157 bill? Talk about someone who has no problem spending other peoples money

U Senator Joe Lieberman, self-billed as "the only independent Democrat," took the Democratic presidential candidates to task for "pandering to this politically paranoid, hyper-partisan sentiment in the Democratic base." He seems particularly disgusted with the various conspiracy theorists who are running the show at the DNC these days.

U I’m going to end with these words from a fellow blogger at http://iraqpundit.blogspot.com. We talk a lot about success and failure in Iraq, but I think these words from an Iraqi say it best (Please hop over to his blog to read the entire post:

I know those who are wedded to the idea of a failed Iraq are calling me a deluded idiot and worse. But things are improving slowly. My relatives in Baghdad say there's no comparison; things are much better than they were six months ago. They can visit friends in different areas and walk about the neighbourhood in the evening.

Frankly, I don't understand why so many mock us for wanting a future for Iraq. Is your hatred for George Bush so great that you prefer to see millions of civilians suffer just to prove him wrong?

It really comes down to this: you are determined to see Iraq become a permanent hellhole because you hate Bush. And we are determined to see Iraq become a success, because we want to live.

Have a great Veteran’s Day Weekend – Iowa Bob