It's St. Patrick's Month

Come back here every day for Irish Songs, Toasts, Blessings and Jokes

"May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent."
-Traditional Irish Toast

Looking for a great Pub for St. Paddy's Day?

It's St. Patrick's Month

Come back here every day for Irish Songs, Toasts, Blessings and Jokes

Wild Rover

I've been a wild rover this many a year
And I've spent all my money on whisky and beer
But now I'm returning with gold in great store
And I never shall play the wild rover no more

Chorus
No, no, never, never no more
Never never again shall I play
The wild rover no more

There was Kitty and Betsy and Margaret and Sue
And three or four more that belonged to our crew
We'd sit up till midnight and make the place roar
I've been the wild boy but I'll be so no more

I dropped into a shanty I used to frequent
And I told the landlady my money was spent
I asked her for credit she answered me nay
Such a custom as yours I can get every day

Then I drew from my pocket ten sovereigns bright
And the landlady's eyes opened wide with delight
Said she I have whisky and wines of the best
And the words that I told you were only in jest

I'll go home to my parents confess what I've done
And I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son
And if they will do so as often before
Then I never shall play the wild rover no more

Looking for a great Pub for St. Paddy's Day?

No Politicing - No Work

I'm taking a short mental break ... Watching the Food Network ... Real Margaritas with the Barefoot Contessa ... Everyday Italian Roasted Asparagras wrapped in Prosciutto ... Tuna Burgers with Pineapple Mustard Glaza by Bobby Flay and then they went on a tour of fabulous restaurants and ended up at the Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas. It looked wonderful -- Has anybody been there? It's a four star/ four diamond restaurant in the Santa Monica Mountains "renowned for his culinary artistry with elk, buffalo, deer, wild boar, quail and partridge, offering a host of game specialties and great alternatives for seafood lovers and vegetarians."

I'm thinking it might be time to do a list of the Top 100 Restaurants in California to go with my list of the 100 Things You Should Do In California.

If you're interested in more serious fare, Slings and Arrows has a roundup of what the smartest minds in California can tell you about what's going on. Go BearFlaggers!!

Serendipity

We just hosted the most fabulous event for Dan Lungren. He is such a fine man. Smart, tough, kind, moral, honest, straight. Like me, you may not agree with him on every little thing, but you know that he will never, under any circumstances, do anything that is wrong, underhanded, unethical. And you know that his opponent believes that the ends justify the means and if you have to cheat to win that's part of politics. So shame on you if you vote for the opponent.

Anyway, back to our event... the Mayor of Folsom, Steve Miklos, introduces Steve Sax, former LA Dodger and five-time all star, who introduces Dan. In the audience is one of Dan's big supporters, Ted Costa, the Father of the Recall. I felt very proud to be in their company.

I really hope the bloggers answer the call to help with Ted's reapportionment initiative. Please comment with your email address, 'cuz i'm starting a list.

Another April 15th Deadline

The "Father of the Recall", Ted Costa, is circulating a petition to qualify the Fair Districts Now! initiative. We need 600,000 valid signatures, turned in by April 15, 2004, to qualify for the November ballot.

Quoting from a letter I received yesterday from Mark Abernathy, campaign manager:

The "Recall of Gray Davis" was only the beginning in restoring responsiveness to our state government. We must make sure that fair districts are drawn for our Congressional and Legislative seats.

The Fair Districts Now! effort will help achieve that goal because it believes that redistricting is too important to be left to the legislators. This initiative is sponsored by Ted Costa and People's Advocate. It places final approval of any plan where it should be, with the voters.

This initiative is not designed to help one political party over another. In fact, it prohibits taking partisan information or voting history into account. However, as Republicans, we must support a plan that makes the Legislature more responsive to the voters. According to political analysts a fair redistricting plan would result in 5 to 13 additional Republican Members of Congress from California and potential Republican control of the State Legislature.

My challenge to the Bearflaggers and other California bloggers -- Let's be the free media that this campaign needs to get qualified in the next 50 days. Write about it, talk about it, get your friends to circulate petitions.

You can get more info at the Fair Districts Now! website: www.fairdistricts.com/

For All Those Non-Gay Men

xrlq has a cheer for you.

Third Congressional

We have an ugly race here in Sacramento for the open congressional seat. Doug Ose decided not to seek reelection and the fight is on between the congressman's sister Mary Ose, State Senator Rico Oller and former Congressman and Attorney General Dan Lungren. I have never met Mary Ose, so I have no opinion about her. I really like Dan Lungren and I think Rico is scary.

When Rico first ran for Assembly in 1996, he faced a popular (and extremely attractive) opponent in Steve Sax, former Dodger second baseman. Someone ran a really ugly whisper campaign against Steve (do I think the person running the whisper campaign was Rico?) complete with totally false and outlandish accusations. For example - on a particular date Steve was accused of being arrested for a DUI in new jersey - only the truth was that on that same day Steve played in a televised baseball game in a different state. When he was accused of being a coke head and having been in rehab, the Dodger team doctor wrote a letter stating that it was Steve Howe not Steve Sax who had that problem and that the person who had a child out of wedlock was Steve Garvey not Steve Sax. Sax dropped out of the race, telling us at the time that when they accused him of killing his dog it was the last straw. Politics was just too ugly for him.

After Steve dropped out, the leading opponent was Kirk Uhler. In a series of very hard hitting mailers, Rico publicized the fact that Kirk had provided liquor to minors ... never telling the public that Kirk was 20 at the time.


Two days ago, the Bee reported that the Governor had asked Rico to quit using his likeness in Rico's ads but Rico refused. It's pretty duplicitous for Rico to pretend he supports the Governor and that the Governor supports him and lie about the Governor's role in selecting Rico to carry the driver's license bill when just a few month's ago Rico told the Lodi Sentinel

Friday, August 08, 2003
The man who hopes to assume Ose's seat after Ose retires from Congress next year finds The Terminator a bit too liberal for his liking.

"He isn't my kind of guy," state Sen. Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, said of Schwarzenegger. "He's far too liberal in many ways. He supports, as I understand it, gay adoption, gay marriage and spending tax dollars for all sorts of social programs. It's not my view of government's legitimate role."

Just a couple days before the Bee had reported about the restraining order that Rico's wife got against him 15 years ago after he physically threatened her.

But the story that intrigues me the most is the one about bear hunting. In 1998, Rico and his campaign manager were charged by the Siskiyou County District Attorney with "failure to show a bear on demand, and waste of game, violations of the state Fish and Game Code" I know nothing about hunting, but my hunting friends say that leaving an animal is a terrible violation of the outdoorsman's code. My Montana friend says that once she and her sister had to help their dad look for an elk for 8 or 10 hours after the animal was wounded but not killed. I'm very curious -- did the jury trial ever take place? What would be the penalty for this type of crime? Why hasn't the outcome been reported. Is it because Siskiyou is a tiny rural county that doesn't have their newspaper or government records online? Would it be normal for an experienced hunter to do something like this? Is a bear really a pig?

I'm Baaaacckk

Back from the last crazy days at work and a fabulous week at the AT&T Golf Tournament in Pebble Beach. The vay kay was terriffic. It was pretty soggy at the beginning of the week, but by Thursday the weather was beautiful for golfers and spectators.

We saw lots of golf, some of it great, some of it just fun. A few tidbidts ...

Tom Brady was there - fresh from his Super Bowl victory. Someone was following him around on Friday wearing a football helmet.

Chris O'Donnell is a pretty good golfer and was paired with Scott McCarron who is from Sacramento. The two of them look like twins and one day even dressed alike. Apparently Chris's brother was on the UCLA golf team with Scott.

George Lopez played well and valiantly tried to take Bill Murray's roll as the chief jokester.

At one point on Friday Phil Mickelson and Charlie Schwab were in the lead for the pro-am. We were very happy because Schwab was always a great supporter of the Young Republicans back in the day. But alas, he didn't make the cut.

Apologies to Scott DeSano

The funniest thing was getting recognized as the Irish Lass! One of my first posts when I started my blog was about Peter Ueberoth's fundraising.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Recall-itis

I have a theory on Peter Ueberoth's fundraising ... It's the AT&T ... at least 3 ams from the Pro-Am tournament -- Scott McNealy, Maury Povich and Scott DeSano have contributed. Probably the rest of the donor list is people who hope to be invited to play in the greatest golf tournament in the world. Ueby is one of the owners of Pebble Beach Golf Club.
Posted by: irishlass / 11:22 PM

Just after I posted about him, Scott was written about in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers about his proposal to reform the New York Stock Exchange. Over the last few months a hundred or more people have visited my site googling for more info about him. It's ironic, because I barely know him, and I know alot more about other things I've blogged about than I know about this.

Anyway, Tuesday night at the Tap Room, he comes over to our table to chat and we're talking about the stock exchange and he said that his firm had offered him bodyguards. I get out my pen and write his comment down. He says what are you doing. I say I might want to report about you. He says "Do you write for the Irish Lass?"

So, here's my apology. He says he didn't give money to Peter Ueberoth to get invited to the tournament, but because Peter's a good guy and he thought he'd be a good governor. He also said next time Arnold has a fundraiser I can send him an envelope and maybe he'll contribute.

Scott, I'm sorry for my snarky comments. And Congratulations on your Top 10 finish in the Pro-Am!

Super Bowl Warm-Up

The Jocko has news about what the Bear Flag League is saying during the week leading up to the big game. Cool.

A Song for HoHo to Sing to the Deaniacs

I’m Sorry

Artists: The Platters (peak Billboard position # 11 in 1957)
Words and Music by Buck Ram, Peter Tinturin, and William White

I’m sorry for the things I’ve done
I know that I’m the foolish one
Now that I see who’s to blame
I’m so ashamed, I’m sorry

I’m sorry for the things I’ve said
Just like a child I lost my head
I should have known from the start
I’d break your heart, I’m sorry

Please be kind and I know you’ll find
It’s so easy to forgive
Darling, wait for it’s not too late
Give our love a chance to live

I know the heartaches you’ve been through
I know for I’ve had heartaches, too
There’s nothing more I can do
But say to you “I’m sorry”the heartaches you’ve been through
I know for I’ve had heartaches, too
There’s nothing more I can do
But say to you----“I’m sorry?