My favorite time of year is in full swing. Crunchy leaves, trees of the deepest fire-red and brilliant yellow against the colbalt skies. My kind of temperatures, my kind of weather, the best thick wool sweaters and hiking boots.

This is my “behind the scenes” photo of our models running around between shots. I wonder if they thought of this as work.

Yesterday though, we nearly hit 70 degrees. One warm, sunny day plopped right at the end of October, and it was exactly what I hoped for. We did our first product photo shoot for my clothing company, Milk Bandits, which I mentioned previously. About eight little kids, toddlers mostly, played at the Skokie Lagoons wearing my t-shirts. We had a professional photographer there to capture it. The photographer was great, the kids were adorable, and the shirts fit perfectly. Can’t wait to see how her photos turned out – we’ll be using them for the website and promotional materials.

I’d brought our beat up aluminum canoe for use as a prop, and after everyone left I threw it in the water and went canoeing for a couple hours. Apparently not many people think to spend time outdoors this late in the year, so I had the entire forest preserve pretty much to myself. It was extremely peaceful… the water like glass, and covered with leaves.

Not quite yet – but soon. The wheels are in motion and all pieces are in place for a Republican controlled House and Senate to confirm President Bush’s latest pick for a Supreme Court justice – Sam Alito. And this guy is a real winner – the top pick for anti-choice right-wing conservatives, a dream judge who will guarantee conservatives that abortion will be outlawed.

Prepare to watch as the rights of a weeks-old unborn blob of cells trump those of a fully-functioning, thinking woman. Prepare to watch as thousands of unwanted children are brought into this world, put here by the demands of white bread middle America. They’ll base their laws on their mighty values, but you can be damn sure those values don’t extend to cleaning up the mess that will result. They’ll punish young, unwed women to live with their mistakes and have these kids, but they won’t lift a finger to adopt them. They’re busy pumping out their own, “natural” children.

These right-wingers told Bush over the past week that he had “better choose very carefully,” I believe the phrase was. And Bush has bowed to their mafia-style threats. They put him in the White House, and they want their activist judges.

Alito was the only Circuit Court judge in favor of a Pennsylvania law forcing women to notify their husbands before having an abortion. Thankfully the law was overturned. This is the mentality now behind what will probably become the swing vote on the abortion issue, which is split down the middle in the Supreme Court.

Alito has an agenda, and there’s nothing Democrats can do to stop it. Republicans, whether or not they’re centrist in their views, will stick with their party on this one simply because this guy has an acceptable amount of experience.

Senator Arlen Specter (R) who chairs the Judiciary Committee said in the past few days that “Guarantees are for used cars and washing machines, not Supreme Court justices,” and that nobody is entitled to know how this judge will vote on specific issues.

That’s a wonderful thought, were it even close to being true. This is a certified guarantee to conservatives that Roe V. Wade will be overturned.

Next on the docket: Erasing the separation of church and state from the Constitution, denying homosexuals basic human rights, and an assault rifle for every man, woman and unborn baby.

By now, everyone’s heard that Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court this morning. And, as usual, your President is pointing fingers as to why she’d do such a thing – this time it’s all those pesky Senators who asked to see documents regarding Miers – documents that might have shed some light on who this woman actually is – documents he refused to share, ridiculously claiming they were “confidential” and “classified”.

You tell ‘em, George! Can you believe the gall of these Senators? Why, how dare they try and learn about a nominee before giving them a lifetime position in the highest court in the country. How dare they research, I say! They’re wasting our time, when the golden word of Dubyah ought to be enough!

Strangely, the neo-con Republicans are the main ones who questioned the beliefs of Miers – she’s simply too much of an unknown for them to trust the future of the Supreme Court to her. The Dems didn’t even need to raise a finger on this one, they just sat back and watched it all implode.

Which would be fine, except for one thing – Republicans don’t reject a safe bet conservative like Miers… unless they want one thing: an even more conservative nominee. Bush doesn’t want to lose his base (the right wing) so you can be damn sure that whoever is named next is gonna be an even more hardcore Christian, and create an even bigger problem for those of us who would like to see the Constitution interpreted, rather than have a court that uses the Bible to dictate your reproductive rights, gay rights, science and medicine.

There’s a stupid article on CNN right now about a stupid poll that says our stupid President wouldn’t win an election if it were held today. A lot of good that does us, huh?