I love this place. I know, I know, it's like a family reunion where there's bickering and partisanship, name-calling and feuds galore.   But at the end of the day, I feel very much engaged in the Public Commons and appreciate everyone who contributes.

I just wish there weren't so many diaries about candidates!!  I care, but I'm NUMB from the sheer volume!!!!  

What worries me more is the Constitution... and how quickly it's slipping into a coma.

We must keep alive the stories that pertain to blatant and pernicious violations of Constitutional Law.  These include contempt citations against Joshua Bolten and Harriet Miers, the Don Siegelman case, presidential signing statements, and much, much more.  If you want to give the breath of life back to the document that makes this nation great, check out my quick and dirty list below.

When asked about immigration, he doesn't revert to the usual political scare tactics and negativity about immigrants, who are essentially the lifeblood of the American Dream... instead of veiled (or explicit) racist warnings... instead of talking about walls....

...he reminds us of where most of us came from...

and the ideals of the Statue of Liberty, and the moving poem of Emma Lazarus.

This is the kind of human being I'd like to lead my country.  

Be inspired below the fold, and don't miss Fox news removing its microphone DURING his answer!

I buy at least one Starbucks coffee beverage every day as part of my commute to work.  My morning desk feels incomplete without a triple grande one pump no whip skim mocha.  Yes, I'm a bit of an addict.  Yes, I can handle it.  :-)  Yes, go ahead and lampoon me in a Saturday Night Live skit.

But I have some concerns about this company's "green cred," and want them to do better.  Although I don't mean to single them out (there are companies that are wretchedly evil compared with Starbucks), and although I probably won't stop visiting them daily (sometimes twice daily if my energy is lagging), I have noticed some wasteful patterns that I want to discuss here.  

Overall, I love the quality of their coffee -- they really know their beans and roast them to perfection --  if you check out my list below, you may come to realize there are things we can all do better to reduce, re-use and recycle.

Join me for a trippio soy caramel macchiato in a personal cup below the fold.

A story I just came across on CNN left me absolutely gobsmacked.  Well diaried by Uncommon Sense here,
the original story concerned a stunt pulled by inept FEMA press officials who staged a news conference during the recent California wildfires, where actual press outlets and journalists were given only a one-way ability to attend by speakerphone (in "listen only" mode), almost no notice, and were not able to ask questions; instead, FEMA staffers posed as reporters for the record.  This is from an agency that was trying to show its newly reorganized self after missteps and fumbles from Katrina.

According to the story, FEMA completed a review of this false press conference, and now Aaron Walker, press secretary for FEMA, has resigned, to take the fall.

What really stunned me was Michael Chertoff's comment about the incident, here below.