Current Affairs Archives
Not Plausable
Bonnie and Clyde: Fightin' against "the man" in 1930's America.
Sure, you could say that former terrorist Bill Ayres is now an "English Professor" and has reformed himself from his wild antics in the 1960's. You could also say it in the same way that other people would describe the older european gentleman who lived down the street from you, who was later picked up and deported by the authorities because he turned out to be an SS guard at a concentration camp.
"Nice man, kept to himself mostly, never much trouble, always said hello in the morning, never mentioned the war..."
You could even make the case that you really didn't know about the seditious background of the man that you now dismiss as an "english professor", who was in fact actually plotting and carring out plans to kill Americans back when you were just a "spinach chinned" babe waiting for the next episode of "winky-dink and you".
But if in 1988, you had a summer job with a prestigious law firm and the woman sitting in the corner office was the wife of the the same man, and she herself was an avowed terrorist of noteworthy status herself, don't you think you might remember that? Are you really going to tell me that no one in that entire law firm didnt blurt that out after work while sitting around and drinking down the 6th beer of the evening, down at the corner tavern?
Especially if thats the time and place where you met your future wife?
If I was a hitchiker in Texas during the 1930's and Bonnie and Clyde picked me up on the side of the road and in the process of our adventure I managed to meet my future wife, I think I'd remember Clyde and his profession if someone mentioned his name to me later on.
Somewhere at this law firm there are time cards, memos and various notes from 1988. Imagine how much you could get on Ebay for an interoffice memo or any of the sort of daily office ephemera that is surely kept in the "vault" that has all three of their names on it at the same time.
What I find most implausible is that today, in that entire law firm, there isn't a single employee, staff or associate who as a Clinton supporter isn't willing to do just a little digging in the backroom storage lockers...
Posted @ April 25, 2008 11:05 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
John McCain - Older than...
John McCain is older than FM radio? Oh say it isnt so! Kids, Hes older than Social Security Checks too, shouldn't we get rid of that idea since its clearly past its shelf date?
He's older than the National Endowment for the Arts, so lets ditch that as well. He's older than the State of Alaska, so lets get rid of that so we can start drilling for oil right away. He's older than Pell Grants, Student Loans and Gender Studies. Off they go....
Oh, I could go on like this all day.
John McCain - Saving the world from Punk Hippies since Barack Obama was eight years old.
John McCain - He doesnt hang out with communists, he just kills them.
Oh yes, this is going to be a fun election.
Posted @ April 18, 2008 11:51 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Murtha to address AARP
Snip:
"Democratic Rep. John Murtha says Republican Sen. John McCain is too old to be president. Murtha told a union audience Wednesday that the presidency is "no old man's job." The Pennsylvania congressman is supporting Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton."
End Snip.
Oh, this should help Hillary in Pennsylvania, because what she really needs now is a good old "age bias" slur to put her over the top.
Funny how he didnt say that Obama is too young to be President, eh?
Dear John Murtha,
We welcome your visit to AARP headquarters, so you can explain to our membership in exacting terms why you think that "old people" should vote for your candidate, in light of the slur you just foisted on the American People.
Posted @ April 16, 2008 07:25 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
20 Reasons Why Im Bitter
1. I live in a generation of Americans who don’t know what the words “variable” or “Adjustable Rate Loan” mean.
2. Pets.com really wasn’t worth 60 dollars a share.
3. There just aren’t enough Erectile Dysfunction commercials on television.
4. Bruce Springsteen has made millions singing about being poor.
5. There are still large sections of America that are without the services of an In-and-Out Burger.
6. The death penalty still does not apply to bad drivers.
7. I own an SUV and want the gas mileage of a small Honda Civic. I can have one but not the other. This is simply unfair.
8. My neighborhood wont allow me to park my Personal Water Craft, RV and speedboat in the driveway, which requires that I spend extra money on a storage space.
9. When I fly on airlines, some people have more leg space than I do and get better food.
10. There are large numbers of people who think that Dane Cook is funny.
11. My 47 inch plasma HDTV is heavy and hard to lift.
12. I have 500 channels of television to watch, and there’s not one thing on any of them worth watching.
13. Not one of my three Tivos will record in HDTV.
14. Seafood is only good when its fresh, and I live two hours from the beach.
15. In fine restaurants, polite smokers are always segregated from the general public, yet noisy, smelly, misbehaving children are always welcome and are given the best seats.
16. Soylent Green is people.
17. I now own 'Blade Runner' in 5 different DVD formats.
18. Other peoples ringtones, suck.
19. My gardening service only works one day a week.
20. If I was an irresponsible ass who became a drug user and fathered half a dozen kids out of wedlock, went bankrupt walked away from my mortgage and didn’t pay my bills, the government would provide any number of programs to help rehabilitate me, but if I live a straight life, pay my bills, live within my means and take care of my family, the government can only say that I don’t pay enough taxes and that its only fair that I step in to help people who live in the other category.
Posted @ April 14, 2008 04:09 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Obama: Nothing has changed
The Hypnotoad endorses Senator Obama!
All Praise to the Hypnotoad!
Look folks, I know you’re all excited because it looks to you like Senator Obama has revealed his true self to the world, but let me warn you that nothing new has happened here because of this new statement.
Why?
1. Because if what he said is offensive to you – but you weren’t going to vote for him anyway. If it wasn’t offensive to you, you were already voting for him.
2. Because if to you, this was a wrongheaded and stupid thing to say you weren’t going to vote for him anyway. But to a large number of people in his party, this is precisely what they believe and of course they would vote for him even after he said it . Reverend Wrights ideas are anathema to you, but to Democrats, he speaks the truth and they can’t honestly figure out what all the hubbub was about.
3. Because despite the rather large opportunity to make headway against Senator Obama, Senator Clinton will fail to be able take advantage of it. If she tries too hard to drive this home, it will backfire and by the end of next week, her party will blame her for the situation. Political campaigns are the first show of an executive management style. What Senator Clinton has shown is that she has no ability to execute any sort of plan. This is not a new revelation; we saw this lack of skill displayed in 1993. She is completely unable to deal with competition of any sort; again, this is not new.
4. In the next 48 hours, someone will remind the voters that James Carville once said “Pennsylvania is two big cities with Alabama in between” which will be twisted into something that was not said, but implied. In 7 days, Clinton will be on the defensive for what Obama said rather than the other way around. We saw this phenomenon on display after the Reverend Wright non-apology apology.
5. Obamas numbers will go up, and Clintons down. She is the anti-particle to Bill Clinton. Where he could charm even his enemies, she can only annoy; even her friends and allies.
Senator Obama is past the point where he can be criticized for anything he says. He has become the “hypnotoad” where everything he says is correct, simply because he says it.
Senator Obama could offer to sell Louisiana back to the French, and a large part of the Democrat party would praise his unique foreign policy stance and the consequences to the country be damned.
People in the Democrat party say that they want change, but as I like to remind them, change doesn’t necessarily mean good and it doesn’t always mean ‘sunshine and lollipops’; for example, cancer is change. Simply wanting change for the sake of change is childish and dangerous. It’s like the sort of emotion that comes from a 7 year old when they say they want to run away from home and join the circus because “mommy and daddy” didn’t buy them a “tickle me elmo”.
What is remarkable about Senator Obama isn’t that he says what he says or that he is getting away with it. What is remarkable is that “Senator Inevitable” has become so reviled by her own party that she cannot beat this guy even given every opportunity by him to do so. The soul of her electability is the ethos of victimhood, and being betrayed as a wife is the core of her constituency. The only strategy she has left to try is to have Bill Clinton come out and endorse Senator Obama, which would restore to her victimhood at the hands of Bill and recharge her campaign.
Could Hillary become “the comeback kid”? Sure, anything is possible, but come back or not, she comes back wounded and her party divided, and you can thank Howard “Early Primary” Dean for all of that. Think of all those big party player endorsements who will have to eat their words if she were to win. Yes, that’s a good message to send, the public voted for Hillary, while the party elite stood by Obama. If you cant run a campaign or a political party, how are you going to run a country?
Democrats are the strangest group of people I have ever known. They speak diversity and yet are shocked to find that half the electorate doesn’t agree with them. This is precisely because they don’t tolerate the presence of Republicans or “right wingers” around them, nor do they watch evil Fox News. Diversity is for other people I guess.
If Democrats shopped at wal-mart, went hunting and maybe joined the military now and then, they might find themselves winning elections again.
Be aware that they aren’t voting for Obama because he’s the best candidate to win the general election, they are voting for him because it makes them feel better about themselves for being who they are, which doesn’t do anything for the rest of us who don’t feel that way about him. He offers the Democrats a sort of “moral car wash” for their souls, which is fine if all that is wrong is that your car is just a little dirty, but if the problem with your car is that you are missing a distributor cap and its out of gas, taking it to the car wash doesn’t much help matters, no matter how good the car wash makes you feel.
John McCain should tell his campaign staff to run just one day of advertising each week between now and Election Day, just to remind all voters that he is in the race. The ad should simply play Obamas ads and speeches on a split screen, and on the right hand side show John McCain simply standing there, shaking his head in wonderment at the outright childish palaver that they both say and believe in that party. At the end of the ad, John McCain could say “ Please vote for me so we don’t all have to spend every single day of the next eight years listening to this drivel. For the love of God and all that is holy, please don’t make the people of this country have to crawl though this. Life is too short.”
McCain will win 49 states, not because he’s a great candidate with a lot of great ideas, but because he’s the only adult in the race.
And for that, we can all give a big “Thank you”, to “Howard Dean – Master Strategist”.
Posted @ April 13, 2008 11:00 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Rockefeller hates George McGovern
Lt. George McGovern. The photo is taken in 1943, during a periond of relative unrest in Europe where 'anti-jewish militants' were in control of the government of Germany and many of the worlds nations worked together to broker a 'peace plan' between the anti-jewish factions of Germany and the rest of their neighbors.
"He's a fighter pilot. He flies at 35,000 feet and drops laser-guided bombs, missiles. He was long gone when they hit. What happened down there, he doesn't know.
That's unkind, because that's fighting for your nation and that's honorable. But you sort of have to care what goes on in the lives of people. ... and he never gets into those subjects"
Senator Rockefeller is apparently unaware that the 1972 Democrat party candidate for President dropped bombs from his B-24 from 25,000ft over Europe using a method that was a great deal more indescriminate and directed at civilians than John McCain did in 1968.
Its my guess that Senator Rockefeller cant read.
Posted @ April 09, 2008 08:02 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
now serving double entendre at montana teds
Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day at Montana Teds!
Look, we all knew that Ted was crazy, long before he demonstrated the effect of his losing battle against depression on the Charlie Rose show. Honestly Ted, I think you lost your remaining audience of sympathetic supporters at the "cannibalism" thing.
Now when you say something like "Were all going to be cannibals", you need to be extra special with the text on your website,less someone misunderstand. But check this bit of text that I found on his website for his restaurant chain, the Montana Grill:
At Ted’s Montana Grill, above all we are authentic. Real food. Real people.
Real Food? Real People? I can just see Charlton Heston crying out in the ending of Soylent Green with the words "Real Food IS Real People!!!!"
So, this is just a suggestion Ted, but after your appearance on Charlie Rose this week, you might want to change that text.
Posted @ April 02, 2008 11:06 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The nerve of some people
Referring to Gov. Richardson's defection to Obama, President Clinton said:
"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.
Gosh Mr. President, you mean he lied to you? He looked right at you and lied? How could he do that? Who does he think he is?
Posted @ April 02, 2008 01:04 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Rashomon - The Air America Version
Local radio station KSAC has dumped Air America. My first reaction?,I thought that they were already gone, arent they?
So, let's read the reaction of the loss of the progressive flamethrower from this market, from two different viewpoints.
First up, Mike Malloy - who broadcasts on the Progressive Channel:
"I got the call from (KSAC general manager) Paula Nelson today -- she told me it broke her heart to have to make the change," Malloy says.
"It's not a ratings thing -- we have plenty of listeners," Malloy says. "KSAC is experiencing what most other liberal talk show format stations are experiencing - it's not a lack of audience, it's a lack of business support"
"If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, you'll hear (plenty) of national ads," he says. "If you listen to someone like me or Randi Rhodes, there's a complete lack of those types of sponsors."
It's a problem plaguing liberal talk radio in markets across the United States, he adds, noting that stations in San Francisco and San Diego have been forced to make similar changes.
Yes, all around the country is a booming business in Hip-Hop Gospel, because you guessed it, thats what KSAC is changing its format to.
"Progressive" talk radio, to Hip-hop Gospel. Why just the other day I was driving down the road and I just could not get a hip-hop gospel radio station to come in. It really set me to thinking, this town really could use a hip-hop gospel station. Clearly, Im not the only guy who was thinking that.
Well, what do you know! Businesses, who are portrayed regularly as evil, no good corporate blood suckers, don't want to advertise on stations that try to make money selling that opinion, Who knew? Next thing you know, you'll tell me that the DNC won't advertise on Limbaughs show.
But wait, theres more! and here's where it gets fun. We see more evidence of the "Liberal Reality Distortion Field" in action. Remember that station manager, who had her heart broken when she had to make the change, Paula Nelson?
We look at the end of the post and we see a link to another blog. What does that blog say?
"KSAC (1240 AM) station manager Paula Nelson says that, frankly, she's happy her station made the switch today from progressive talk radio to gospel.
Oh, and it's not just any ol' gospel - it's hip-hop gospel. Think anything from Yolanda Adams to the Rooftop MCs.
"It's got all the good beats and an inspirational, positive message, too," Nelson says of the new format, which went into effect late Saturday night. The call letters officially switched today.
And, right about now, Nelson says, she could use some positive.
"I was ready for this change - I just wasn't having fun anymore," Nelson says. "The whole political thing has gotten nasty, dirty and contentious."
And it didn't help that major political companies didn't support the station during its four years as a liberal talk radio station, she says.
"There are all these Sacramento Democratic organizations that haven't spent a dime on (advertising) for our station," Nelson says. "To them I say, 'You did this - you were complicit, you shut us down.'
"If you're not sending us the marketing dollars, then you're part of the problem."
You know, you can hardly tell the difference between what Mike said Paula said and what Paula said. Fun, upbeat positive thoughts set to music has actually beaten the voice of constipation, defeat and negativity. Who would've guessed?
I'm telling ya, the more things go on like this, the more I think McCain is going to win 49 states.
Posted @ April 01, 2008 12:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Great Depression - The 2008 Version
Dear Diary,
I am down to my last 4 cases of bottled evian water, and the nutrasystem diet shipment doesnt arrive until next week. I may be forced tout of necesssity to cook for myself using canned vegetables.
I am in despair. My extensive Itunes account has now been terminated. I may be forced to listen to the radio. We await the government help that was promised to provide us funding for out itunes accounts to help us survive against Apples predatory purchasing schemes that scammed into buying more music than we could afford.
Yesterday a group of us at the hobo jungle, which we call "Bushville", discovered that the government has established a sort of "free bookstore" where you can get books for nothing. Its like Borders and Barnes and Noble, except that there is no Starbucks and instead of using a credit card, you just give them your name and address and you can take anything they have for free, which is a pretty good deal. Other people have already read the books, but thats to be expected in times like these. Everyone must sacrifice a little in these sad times.
They say its called a "Library" which is a new word for me. The trick is, you have to return the book after they give it to you, which is a bit problem for me since the first 20 books I got there I sold on ebay the next day for a hefty profit.
The wife gave sad news to the family yesterday. She announced that the vacation to Disneyworld is off this year, since there would be little chance of staying "on the park" and the indignity of staying at a property outside the park would simply be too much for the little ones to bear. She then announced to us that it might be fun to go one of the many National Parks that are nearby and the kids broke down into tears over the indignity of sleeping in something less than the suite at the Grand Californian or the Maui Hyatt, which until this damned depression arrived was our normal annual destination. I never thought I would feel the shame of telling my kids they would have to camp outside in tents like vagabonds as part of a vacation, but thats the world that George W. Bush has brought us to. What kind of vacation would it be for kids to suffer like that?
I have had to endure the unendurable in the past eight years. Last week I told my son that I would not be able to buy him a new car for his 16th birthday, that due to the depression, I would have to buy a used car. It just tore out his heart. "But Dad, how will I face the other kids?" he said and broke down crying in my arms. I think I will have to sell another T-bill just to get him a car of any sort at all. I feel lucky to be able to do that, I know some parents who are forced out of necessity to have their kids ride a bike to school. Its shameful, when you see it, teenagers riding on bikes, you just turn your head and try not to look out of embarrasment for them.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that because of depression, he may have to go to a State College. I may soften the blow by telling him he just doesnt have the grades to go to University.
Its terrible what this economy makes you do.
Posted @ April 01, 2008 07:51 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Why Do Iraq War Movies Suck?
Please take 15 minutes and view this scene from a film by Akira Kurosawa’s called “Dreams”. It's called “The Tunnel”. Go head, I’ll wait right here for you to come back, it wont take but 15 minutes and it will help illustrate my point.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
To men that have fought in war and survived, there is a “Private Noguchi” in every shadow. As a genre of the film art form,"War Movies" almost always fail to capture this basic horror of corrosive fear that lives in the heart of any man or woman who has faced the horror of war.
Movies are unique as an art form, as they act more as a mirror of the people making the film rather than reflecting the views of the audience viewing the film. Today's Hollywood cannot make "war movies" because almost everyone in Hollywood has never served in uniform, rarely even met anyone who has served in uniform, have never known the horror of war as a civilian and hold in contempt nearly all who have come into any contact with any war.
The consequence of this is that the modern "War Movie" is actually a political movie, where the spirited arguments for and against the war are fought out on the screen, rather than the audience seeing a depiction of the various battles of the war itself.
Certainly there is never an example of 'heroism' shown on the screen and no hint of a victory is ever given or hinted to. To be sure, in Hollywood, heroism is reseved only to those who stayed home. In fact, this is the only war that the Hollywood culture knows, Not the "Iraq" war, but the war of politics, the war that was fought at the tables of Starbucks around all of the very best neighborhoods in Hollywood, Santa Monica and downtown Manhattan.
If an act of heroism in war is actually shown in a modern war flm, the act is always destroyed and denigrated by an uncaring government or the ignorant charactures known as "the folks back home". The enemy is always held in a place of honor and the people of this country who fight in the war are always treated with contempt, unless of course they act as a traitor or embrace the enemy in some small way. Killing the enemy, and winning a battle is never seen or depicted unless the enemy is shown as an honorable man killed by a blood thirsty American no-necked yokel.
There is no bravery, no honor, no respect in the modern war movie; There are only fools that are fooled to fighting a war for "corporate interests" and general betrayal by the so called leaders and the country. The people who fight on our side are always dupes, on their side they are always men of courage fighting against the odds.
In the example that started this post, you can see Akira Kurosawa capture the essential horror of war. He does not make a political statement because to do so would be false and it would be caught as a lie by the audience. His images state what needs to be stated; the fear, the guilt and the shame, not of the dead but of the living. He does not argue for or against the reasons for the war; a war in which his protagonsts in the film and a large part of his Japanese audience will have personally suffered. He is commenting on the war the way that all soldiers do, in the language of duty, honor and country.
This is language that Hollywood does not understand. This is why "All Iraq War Movies Suck", because they are all made in the wrong language.
Talk to any man or woman who has lived in combat, and if you look into their eyes you will see their "Private Noguchi" looking back at you. Be warned, no man or woman who has actually lived through war is likely to tell you much about war. You are a civilian, you arent in the "special club" made up of the suvivors of war. Because you are a civilian, you dont know and you don't really want to know what that 'fear of shadows' experiencd by veterans of war is really like.
You go to war movies because you think that going to a movie is your version of "doing your part", but nothing could be further from the truth. You react to that scene, not because you know what its like to order men to their deaths and the sense of doubt that forever scars your soul, but because you too feel the shame that the Captain feels, the shame of not dying while others you know, did die.
All you really need to know, is that to the veteran, the fear is always there and it is always real. You should also know that capturing that emotion of surviving war, is rarely, if ever done with the exacting artistic perfection, as it is in Kurosawas Dreams, so don't set your expectations so high.
This is why all Iraq war movies suck. They always fail to capture the essential truth of the event. Those of us who stayed home while it was being fought, only know about the war from the spittle of the people on the other side of the table at Starbucks. Those who actually fought it, dont have time to educate us on what the war was really like, because life is too short for such trival things. The people of Hollywood don't care to tell the story in the way their sacrifice deserves to be told with the language of "Duty, Honor and Country", because they dont know what that means.
Posted @ March 30, 2008 07:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Obama: At last, change even I can believe in!
From the folks at Rifftrax.
Posted @ March 29, 2008 10:19 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Dogfight: Congress vs. the American Aviation Industry
Theres a list of names to remember about "The Tanker Deal" that I am certain will come up over the next few months.
The most obvious one is Senator John McCain, who seems to have driven the Air Force and Boeing to the point of exhaustion over this deal.
Here is his statements from November 19, 2004, in regard to the original tanker deal. Very enlightening...
Here is the "document dump" on the Emails that Senator McCain mentions in his statement. This is from the Congressional Record: November 20, 2004 (Senate) Page S11776-S11789
Prominent names that fall out of those statements are as follows:
20th Secretary of The Air Force, James Roche
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions, Marvin Sambur
Darleen Druyan
Former CEO of Boeing, Phillip Condit
Former CFO of Boeing, Michael Sears.
Darleen Druyun has a nice description of her background, called "Rise and fall of a maverick". (ed: McCain must've laughed real hard when he read that one.)
From her plea agreement, we read the following:
- Acknowledged conflict of interest in negotiating employment for herself and others (daughter and future son-in-law) with Boeing while at the same time negotiating with Boeing on behalf of the Air Force.
- In negotiating with boeing concerning a lease agreement for 100 Boeing KC-767A tanker aircraft, she agreed to a higher price for the aircraft than she beleived was appropriate as a "parting gift" to Boeing prior to her leaving the Air Force Procurement Office.
Well, that's not good...
The Department of Justice published this document in regards to Michael Sear's Sentencing.
Quoted within:
United States Attorney Paul J. McNulty - "Mr. Sears had a clear choice. Instead of respecting the integrity of the governments procurement system, he chose the financial interests of his company over the best interest for America"
I think that about sums it up, both the previous "Tanker deal" and the current one as well. At a time when the Aviation industry was realing under the stress of an airline industry in collapse, Boeing was trying and was very nearly was successful at subverting the purchasing process inorder to secure billions of dollars on long term leases for these aircraft.
It was a scheme that very nearly worked and one which the taxpayers and the military in the long run, would have paid a great deal.
The fallout from the failure of this scheme cost many smart and I would even say patriotic people, their jobs and careers, all of those promises became tragedies. Worse, this was being done at a time of war, and I would make the argument that the money and man hours that were wasted in this process did little to help bring an end to the war or to help the sailors and airmen stationed overseas.
Senator McCain and Warner are to be thanked for their efforts.
As a corporate officer you have a responsibility to protect your shareholders but as a citizen you have a duty to respect the governmental processes that involve the use of taxpayer dollars.
All of the people you see mentioned above, were in some form of fashion removed from their responsibilities. Two of them, Druyun and Sears were convicted and jailed. After Condit was replaced, the next CEO was also replaced, Harry Stonecipher was also quickly removed from his position.
Now remember, Boeing is a private company, but in many ways it is also a strategic asset. It is very important to the country as a whole that Boeing be successful in its marketplace. While all of this activity was going on, Boeing was under extreme pressure with Airbus and the A380. In the end, what has saved Boeing and this strategic asset is not a new set of CEO's with special backhanded deals, but the men and women at Boeing who work as engineers, line foreman and test pilots at positions all through the company in the creation of the new Boeing 787.
As we have seen, Former CFO Michael Sears, Mrs. Druyuns boss at Boeing was also removed from his position at Boeing, but what about her boss at the Air Force? Well that was Dr. Martin Sambur. You might be interested to know that according to this site, Dr. Marvin Sambur, is now a contributor to the Clinton Campaign.
I have this feeling that we wont be seeing any contributions from these folks to the "McCain For President" campaign any time in the future.
More to follow...
Posted @ March 29, 2008 02:43 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Dogfight: Congress vs. the American Aviation Industry
Marine Sgt. Geoffrey Kohlmeyer (far right) poses with Sen. John McCain and an unidentified soldier in Al Asad, Iraq. They are standing on the loading ramp of a Boeing MV-22 in Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron VMM-263, known as "The Thunder Chickens".
Senator John McCain, a former Naval aviator who voted throughout the 1990's to continue funding for the MV-22 Osprey, often against Dick Cheneys wishes, just spent a week visting Iraq. During his time "in theatre", he was flow around in a Marine MV-22, a controversial aircraft that is now in its first time under combat conditions.
"Senator, while you were in Iraq, what was your general impression of the Boeing MV-22 Osprey. In your opinion, was the aircraft that you flew in worth the investment over the last two decades?..."
Wouldn't that make a set of interesting questions to pose to Senator McCain?
You should be aware that yesterday, the Defense Department awarded a 10.4 Billion dollar contract to Bell/Boeing to produce 167 new MV-22's.
Unlike the recent "Tanker Deal" that went badly for Boeing, there is no other aircraft in the world like the Osprey and as such, the vendor making it can be expected to get a little preference outside of the normal competitive needs of the marketplace. Detractors will say that there is no aircraft like the Osprey because its an awful idea. On the other hand, Boeing and the American Military might just have the right idea and this is an investment that may have paid off for our benefit.
My bias should be clear, Im not big on rotary wing aircraft since I prefer the confidence and mental calmness that a fixed wing pilot gets from having an actual glide ratio, but I have always wanted to see the MV-22 succeed.
Unlike a host of other candidates in the race for President, John McCain is someone who's opinion on the matter might be based on something other than who lives in his state or congressional district and who and who is not greasing his palm.
It might just be based on actually knowing how to fly and knowing what a combat aircraft must be capable of in that environment.
Posted @ March 29, 2008 11:02 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Coming up next: The Yoyodyne AT-AT
As a technologist, I find this very interesting.
As a warm blodded mammal, I find it disturbing in a deep seated psycological way. Theres something just not right about it and I can't explain why.
Walking is easy, but as any 2 year old will tell you, balance is hard. This prototype is rather impressive and yet creepy all at the same time.
I'm sure that the fax machines at the legal offices of Skywalker Films are overheating now that this is out.
Posted @ March 28, 2008 02:28 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
True Confessions
Since we all seem to be doing some 'spring cleaning' with our souls, I will air mine out as well.
When I recently stated that back in the 1980's, I had a torrid love affair with Signorney Weaver that ended in tears for the both of us in a seedy Mexican seaside resort,I may have actually misspoke or you may have simply misinterpresed my meaning.
While I did have a torrid love affair with Signorney Weaver, I just neglected to mention that I never actually met her in person and that she has no idea who I am or that I exist. While I have been to a seedy Mexican seaside resort, I never visited it with Miss Weaver, while it is possible that she did visit it on her own at some time in her past. It is possible that I confused the details of my affair with Sigourney Weaver with a late TV night showing of "Night of the Iguana".
Aside from those tedious details, the story is completely true.
I think what matters here is the background narritive of the story, not the actual facts of the situation.
Oh, by the way, Howard Wolfson is a good friend of mine, with only three degrees of separation( I know Rich Galen, Rich Galen knows Howard Wolfson, see how easy that was?). This fact,and my ability to prevaricate with such ease practically makes me part of the Clinton Campaign.
Posted @ March 25, 2008 07:58 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Arthur C. Clarke - "The candles cost more than the cake"
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, in December 2007 saying "thank you and goodbye from Columbo Sri Lanka".
Would it be too much that we, the earthbound, do honor to this man, his intellect and his vision for the shared future of mankind by renaming the "International Space Station" as the "Arthur C. Clarke" Space Station?
It seems a small thing to do as a memorial to one man considering what his vision has done for us all.
( My favorite "Clarkian" bit of logic: "Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying". I thought of that Clarke-like twist recently when I said that I would be much more impressed if life was not found on Mars than if it was. If life is found either existing now or at some time in the past, it would not surprise me at all, what would absolutely shock me is if there was absolutely no life on Mars now or at any time in the past. That fact and the implications would positively floor me, as I'm sure it would Sir Arthur. )
Posted @ March 18, 2008 09:49 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
How to Melt a Tank in Three Seconds Or Less
From PopSci.com
Posted @ March 14, 2008 09:25 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Remainder Bin is a little bit more full tonight
Not too terribly long ago, John Podhoretz once wrote a book called "Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless... "
It turns out that the answer to that question is that not only can she be beat, but she managed to get beat by the lightest weight fighter who ever fought in her weight class.
You understand what I'm getting at right? She didnt get beat by the big bad right wing, paternal,God and the flag big buisness conspiracy that rules the world, she got beat by the only person in her party who didnt cower down to her in fear. As I said before, the man is to be both thanked and respected for that fact. He wont win the Presidency, but he deserves a medal for his work all the same.
Its my expectation at this point in the election show that on March 5th, we finally will see the "good ship USS Clinton" finally slip beneath the waves. I just realized that ff Castro dies on March 6th, i'll be all out of champagne, I guess that means I better stock up!
Let me also say that I think that Senator Obama is the most beatable candidate to grace the stage since McGovern or maybe Carter in his second electoral attempt to be a President. The only type of person that people hate more than a person who recently stopped drinking or smoking and cant wait to get you to stop either one is someone who implusively overpromises and then underdelivers. We have many, many months to go before the election and I guarantee you, this patina of charisma is going to buff off and reveal a pretty dull piece of statuary underneath. Any teenage male can tell you that when your potential new girlfriend is in one those girls with a 5-alarm teenage crush, that when that crush soon wears off that shes not too happy about the loss of endorphins that come from discovering that you really arent the dreamboat that she thought you were, and she will blame you for not being the guy she thought you were and ruining that really cool good feeling that she had. And yes, there will be blood... Fallen Idols, dont usually do very well.
Part of the reason I say that Obama will be defeated is because I'm now starting to hear Democrats say that they can't vote for someone who is that far to the left, that they just might vote for McCain after all, because " he doesnt seem so bad by comparison to that guy". When you have one candidate who most Republicans will vote for and a good number of Democracts will vote for, you have yourself a Presidential candidate who is going to win ( and not by 300 votes either). I have yet to meet an "independent" or a Republican who does anything but laugh at the idea of voting for Obama. Its my belief that while "everyone loves Obama" and theres no question that they do, only a small number are going to be willing to give him the electoral equivalent of free access to both the liquor cabinet and the Corvette.
Between now and the election, McCain only has to remain steadfast and alert and keep a smile on his face. Dont fall of the stage, dont dotter in the Debates, just answer the questions intelligently and clearly. It shouldnt be too hard to smile though, he's about to be President of the United States. He finally gets to outrank his "old man" and his Grandfather.
And all I have to say how is "GO NAVY!"
Posted @ February 21, 2008 07:23 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Who you callin' a plagiarist?
Senator Clinton is calling Senator Obama a 'Plagiarist",which strikes me as a charge that ultimately wont stick because of the character of the person making the charge.
The problem is that Senator Clinton has run her entire campaign by co-opting her husbands presidency, in effect "plagiarizing" President Clintons work as her own. Senator Obama on the other hand is running on his record, and no one elses.
Words are easy to copy, but it takes a real heart of larceny to steal someone elses political record.
This tactic will go nowhere, and will in the end backfire. You can already hear the keyboards a'tappin in the Obama campaign headquarters and by morning, we will have a dozen examples of Senator Clinton doing the very same thing.
It's desperate, inneffective and bitter. Sounds kinda like a law firm on retainer to the DNC me...
Posted @ February 18, 2008 07:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
And I say this in the most totally straight-hetero way I possibly can
but I just LOVE Bob Lutz.
Now, I'm sure his comments will upset those who are parishioners at the Holy Church of Mother Earth, but folks lets try to remember that if the market insisted on having cars that ran on soap bubbles and pixie dust that its not Mr. Lutz' job to figure out how to talk you out of it or agree with you; its actually Mr. Lutz' job to figure out how to make the best soap bubble/pixie dust burning cars for the most profit.
He doesnt care why you want zero emission cars, he just wants you to buy them from him. He's not making cars for you and your sense of well being. He's making them so the shareholders of General Motors can make a profit. If theres a profit in it, he would make cars that run on hamster pellets.
If I were Mr. Lutz, I would sell the Volt, not as an "Green" car, but as a "patriotic" car. This is the car to free America from foriegn oil. Whats that song they run? "This is our country?" Well, this is our car.
I'm one of those funnily odd folks who think that you can get closer to the "green ideal" if you remind people that its fundamentally patriotic to do so than you can by tut-tutting everyone who doesnt live up to your neo-luddite idea of modern civilization. At the end of the day you have to understand that every gallon of gas you burn actually funds the people who want to kill us.
You want to go green? then try going Red, White and Blue first.
Welcome Instapundit-eers! And to think that for awhile there I was sure I was blackballed by "the prof" for some infraction.
Posted @ February 14, 2008 09:21 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Two Predictions
1. Romney is out by Friday.
2. Its a McCain/Huckabee ticket.
These races should have been much closer than they were. In the end, it can best be said that Romney simply never closed the sale with the Republicans. People hate McCain, but they cant quite make up their mind one way or the other about Romney and thats a shame. It's my personal opinion that Romney was robbed.
My own feeling is that Republicans have an built in distrust of eastern Republicans and we see that illustrated in this race. The two candidates who have done the best, are the two from the furthest west in the candidate pool.
Here's another thing to consider. McCain has always had this odd sort of black cloud following him through his life. He was on the USS Forrestal during the fire, more to the point he was right in the middle of it. He was shot down and became a POW. He also had some fairly rough handling as a candidate for President back in 2000.
So, lets say 71 year old John McCain makes it to President. What are the odds of his Vice President needing to take the helm at some point?
I know, its a tough thing to talk about, but its very possible. That means that the number two guy is going to have a more than average shot at being President.
Yes thats right, this is a "double-whammy" ticket.
First, McCain was supposed to be out of the race and into 'forlorn hope' months ago. Well that didnt happen...
And now I've just painted a very likely scenario where we would get a "President Huckabee", which we also said would never happen.
Never say never...
And let me say this about Romney. The man is ok in my book. You folks that voted for Huckabee because you got some major bug up your ass about Mormons, do me a favor and take one of your Mormon nieghbors to lunch and talk to them. Just sit down at the table and talk to them. You really need to set your 16th century, small minded bigotry aside and see the real measureable goodness that they and their faith brings to the world. You dont have to share another mans faith to respect him for what he is in his.
He is a good man and he doesnt deserve what you folks did to him, he really doesnt. This is a big country, but it sure does have its share of small people in it. Some of you did vote for Huckabee because he really represented what you wanted, but more than a few of you voted for him for less than honorable reasons. You know who you are and you have to live with yourselves on that one.
Ok, you folks that hate McCain, good for you! Now, welcome to the town of Minority, population - "You". Now, you say you call yourself "The Real Republicans!", well now you get your chance to prove it. How? Its called "Down ticket". You dont have to vote for McCain, thats fine, but you still have a chance to get what you want by working to elect a conservative Republican Senate and House. If the candidate in your district sucks, then go find another one. Its a big country and a whole lotta districts. This is the age of the internet, you can find them and help them. Thats the cool thing about the House, they all have to run. You say you want to make a difference and you are principled and believe what you think you believe, then go and do thusly.
Forget about McCain but do something besides just sit and pout. You can neutralize McCain or Obama or Evita by ensuring that the House and Senate are on your side. Those damn framers of the Constitution, they think of everything, dont they?
Posted @ February 05, 2008 11:07 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Tells you everything you need to know
I just got back from voting at my local precinct. This is one of the most Republican counties in California. Turnout so far, is the lowest recorded in over 16 years.
San Francisco, which can arguably be called the polar opposite from this precinct has a different story.
Momentum. It tells you everything you need to know.
You know, its not like we havent already been campaigning for a year because we have. Its not like rock ribbed conservatives didnt get a chance or didnt raise enough money, they did. Its not like people didnt get their message out because "big media is out the get them", if that were really true, Huckabee would never have left Arkansas and Ron Paul would be leading a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party somewhere.
The problem is that no one is buying what they are selling. If solid conservative is a good product then why did Tancredo fold up like a wet paper sack? Thompson? Didnt get their message out? Come on guys, Huckabee won Iowa on a $1.95. Its not just money, you have to have something to say on those big media buys.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter ran on a campaign of change and people bought it. It was refreshing and fun to watch someone like us rise to be President, the only problem was that the world wouldnt wait for us to feel better about ourselves by electing a nice man to be President. We very nearly lost it all in 1978, and yes kids, it was that close.
I was there. I watched it happen. I watched gas lines, forget paying lots for gas, you just couldnt get it. You had "odd/even" rationing. I watched gas go over a dollar a gallon and I thought there would be a revolution in the streets, I really did. It was that bad. I watched mortgages with interest rates like credit cards. I watched as my countrys flag was torn down and burned everywhere in the world.
I watched in agony as my President used the word "Malaise" in public and it made me wretch. (And just to run salt in the wound, I think he wore a sweater when he did it.)
The late 1970's were a dark time for the United States. It was an era, marked by Gov. Jerry Brown saying that people needed to "Lower their expectations", that Americans needed to understand that America was in decline and would remain there. That was what passed for leadership in the 1970's.
I hated the Jimmy Carter 1970's the first time I lived through them. I'm really going to hate them the second time when they are warmed up and resold to us in 2008, but thats whats coming.
And no, I dont think that means that another Ronald Reagan is going to rise from the grave and save us all from this horror. In this party, in this climate of todays political world, the mortal Ronald Reagan couldnt get elected to anything under this Republican party.
The God Ronald Reagan didnt get elected to anything by the way.
The God Ronald Reagan didnt come about until long after he died. We forget that the veneration for Ronald Reagan didnt come into universal appeal until after he had left office and until after he died. While he was in office, and while he was in competition, he was hated and feared and despised and dismissed - by Republicans!
Reagan brought Democrats, Independants and yes, Republicans into the party. Once upon a time, we thought this was a good thing, now we get snotty when we hear that Democrats might like one candidate or another.
Its not the candidates fault that this disaster has happened. Its ours. Candidates are a reflection of the party, and this party has turned its back on the country in a fit of self pity.
Well, we get what we deserve. You'll excuse me for awhile, I have to find my 2 stroke moped, my bellbottoms and white Adidas shoes and my pukka shell necklace. If I have to live through the 1970's again, I might as well look good doing it.
Posted @ February 05, 2008 04:56 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
Endorsing McCain
Primary campaigns are when you decide the idealogical makeup of the party. If you've got strong feelings on subjects one way or another, the time to get them out and discussed and hopefully make them part of the party platform is during the primaries. After the primary is over and the party has voted and cleared one candidate and their approach, your party platform has also been set for that election.
Remember, Democracy is not about getting your way, its about being asked. "Getting your way" out of Democracy is really just a side effect of the process itself.
Heres the situation:
There are now three viable candidates for President. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.
On the Democrat side, we have two leftists. The race for that partys nomination is not yet decided, but soon will be.
On the Republican side, we have former Naval officer and POW. As of last night, this race is now decided.
Idealogically there are vast difference between all three candidates but no matter who we vote for, and it pains me to say this, we are getting a Senator.
Mitt Romney worked his tail off and spent alot of money, and got second place in most of his primaries. I'm sorry, but thats just not good enough, which is a shame. Huckabee exists to give people who more than a little anti-mormon hatred a place to go and there appear to be more of those people than I had hoped was the case but thankfully not enough to give us a candidate with that ethos as a base. Ron Paul? Well theres one in every crowd isnt there. The mirage candidacies of Fred Thompson or Rudy Guiliani show that pundits, pollsters and "gut instincts" really dont mean a damn thing. In both cases, when these two candidates were put to the test, they folded up like a wet paper sack. How these two actually worked out may not have surprised you, but it surprised the hell out of me.
So its either McCain or one of the two leftists. So as to paraphrase a wise man and statesman of the last administration: "You dont go into the election with the candidate you want, you go with the one you have"
We now have McCain and we had better make the most of it. At this time I'm now formally endorsing McCain and I wrote a check for his campaign this morning.
Posted @ January 30, 2008 07:07 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
This is not an endorsement
I’ve been watching the election season like a passerby on the street trying not to be noticed as I peer through the dark glass on the front of an adult bookstore. Of course I want to look inside; it’s just that I don’t want anyone to see me while I do it. I haven’t commented on the election much because I don’t wish to become known as a political pundit, I like to believe that my mother and father raised me to be better than that, but I will take just a moment and say something about it that might just shock you.
I think its time I reveal that I have been following one particular candidate since his candidacy was announced. At first I thought it was a joke candidacy, meant only to boost his standings in the party and get his name out in the public mind for a future and far more likely shot at the “big prize”. Yet, with all the shock that comes from the idea of “A Capulet dating a Montague!” I find myself here now, during each of the primaries and caucases rooting and in some cases even cheering when the results for this particular candidate come in.
I’m not doing out of a strategy meant only to beat the far more formidible candidate by backing the beatable one instead, I’m doing it because despite my political leanings and patriotism for this country, I find this one candidate, whom I once dismissed as one who would end up one day only as “a new metaphor for lightweight” is instead the one I find the most interesting to watch, and I dare say the most courageous in his campaign.
I’m talking about Barack Obama.
You see, you just don’t take on the Clintonistas lightly. They are brass knuckle, suspicious flat tires, brick through your window in the middle of the night campaigners. They are dedicated to the cause, which is to say, themselves being in power. You stand in their way; you get the full force of influence applied against you. You become “One of them”, that infamous list of people who are part of a “right wing cabal” mean to hold back the waves of the progressive future that is promised by the American “Evita”.
And yet, Obama has taken on “the machine” and survived. Despite their self agrandized reputation, Obama has shown the Clintonistas are in fact, beatable and more to the point, beatable without someone from the left needing to become an “evil right wing hatemonger”. There is nothing more delicious to me than to watch the former President reach into his black bag of rhetoric and try to weave a spell that casts Obama as a member of the right wing, only to have Obama smile and watch all that pixie dust from the wand of “The Great Prevaricator” wilt away, which of course makes Bill Clinton even more angry and even more impotent in the next attack.
There simply aren’t that many men who have been able to withstand that assault. Obama has managed to do it with a smile. I like that.
I find it fascinating to watch the former President get red faced angry that the press is not doing what he wants them to do, as her perceives that they did for him in the past. Poor fellah doesn’t seem to understand that the fawning 60’s generation “dry-look” press of his day have been largely replaced by bare knuckle internet kids who were born in the era of Reagan and have as their homepage the nemesis of Clinton, The Drudge Report. Such is life at internet speed which is something he never could quite deal with during his administration. That former enemy has now grown a new layer of muscle and outer armor plate over the past decade when they last locked horns and he lost. The press of today finds Clinton “wagging finger” wand of 1998 to be just as impotent as it was then and now its twice as pathetic. Worse for Evita, everytime he opens his mouth, she becomes just a little bit smaller, reminding more than a few of us of the 1980’s Lily Tomlin movie that is serving as a metaphor for her candidacy. It’s gotten so bad that press coverage of the Clintonista campaign rarely mentions the junior Senator from New York, just the latest machinations of the once great and powerful man making the world safe from the right wing, who is now increasingly seen by many as just a white haired bumbler pulling levers of machinery behind the curtain making special effects on the wall.
Poor Bill, he doesn’t realize that this is the age of HDTV and in this age, its important that you hide the strings as best you can because now everyone can see everything all the time. All this happened because one man said;“ Heck if the Democrats want to run a junior Senator with little experience based only on the value of minority status then let them run me!” and he hasn’t backed down an inch since then to the wall of intimdation and damnation thrown up against him not by us evil right wingers but by his own party and polticial fellow travellers.
I respect the fact that he has withstood every attack launched against him. I respect that he hasn’t just stood there and been nice about it and not responded in kind. He’s handed back as much as they have handed out, and considering the forces allied against him, this is no mean feat. I respect a man who has courage, and that man has a certain kind of courage to do what he is doing.
It’s not Iwo Jima courage, but its courage all the same and it deserves our respect.
So what do I, a “no-necked”, rockribbed, knuckle dragging, rightwinger of the first order get out of an Obama candidacy? Well a black man is running for the Office of President of the United States, and that seems to be ok with most folks. It just totally ruins one of the columns of the temple of mythology that shelters the left. The country as a horror of racism has a real live black man running for President, even in the south and the man has the ability to campaign and win his party nomination.
A black man running for President, and no one seems to really care (except of course the Clintonistas), I think that says something about all of us, something rather positive. It was always ok with me but I’m just not like a lot of folks; I don’t tend to believe in this superstitious nonsense called racial classification. I tend to think that were all of the same race, the human race, and this stuff we call “race” is a rather new thing that only happened in the last 9,000 years or so. It’s something that came about only with the human diaspora that occurred at the end of the last ice age. Give it another 9,000 years and it all goes away and we all look like Kennewick Man once again.
Oh I know, crazy me. Obamas candidacy and potential Presidency says that race doesn’t matter, which is what Ive been saying for a long time. I think that’s a good thing. The Clintons want it to matter because its all they have to run on, which is pathetic. It doesn’t matter Obama and his ability to win beyond his "race" is proof of that and good for us all that it doesn’t matter anymore.
I like his campaign because he has the gall to be a Democrat and offer praise of Ronald Reagan. I like that he did it for two reasons; first because President Reagan is worthy of praise. Second, because of the genius that by doing so sent Bill Clinton into a lather, which predictably backfired on Bill Clinton, it’s a “win-win-win” strategy. Obama has Clinton playing Obamas game and not the other way around.
A smart man that Senator Obama, and I admire smart men.
I also like the fact that Obama is beatable in the general election by those of us on the other side of the political argument. Yet, if Evita overcomes this challenge from Obama, I like the fact that she has now had to fight and claw and work very hard for this election. Our big fear before Obamas challenge was that the wave of inevitability would sweep her into office with little or no effort and that the “mandate for change” would give her the cover to do what she wanted, which is nothing less than moving us rapidly towards European socialism. That being a system which has failed to produce the utopia it promises in every part of the world that its been tried no matter how often it is tried but that wont stop those who want to try it here.
This sort of thing is much like hoping that the flightless pengiun really will fly if you just move it to the right place and give it the right incentive to do so. No matter how much you think the pengiun should fly, the penguin will respectfully disagree. Humans have an inate desire to be free, and putting more controls on people and their behaviour, no matter how well intentioned, does not make you more free and in the end, people will reject it.
I admire Obama for not putting the ‘flag motif” on his campaign literature. Look closely, and you don’t see it. You expect to see it, because you always see it, but its not there.
I admire that he doesn’t wear a lapel pin with a flag. The flag repels Democrats and Leftists like vampires are repelled at the sign of the Cross. Of course Democrats are also attracted to votes like vampires are to blood, so they are usually in a quandry. Wave the flag and get elected or don’t wave the flag, stand true to their beliefs and lose. I respect the fact that he’s willing to say what so many other Democrats say yet dare not do for risk of “offending the voters”. His willingness to do what other Democrats only dream of doing despite the risk shows a certain level integrity to his thinking.
It also ensures that I don’t have to look any further at this candidate or ideology. If you cant see symbol of this country in the light of the glory for which it stands, you don’t get to play on my team. I thank him deeply for not wasting my time by pretending to be something he is not.
Because of Obama, Evita is no longer "Senator Inevitable" and for that fact alone, he should be thanked by one and all. No one in this country should ever be “inevitable” but she came very close to being just that. I don’t like the precedent that it would have set. But that is no longer, thanks Barak Obama and a few thousand Democrat voters who would not be intimidated by some pretty powerful forces on the side of the “Status Quo”.
Obama has had the audaciousness to say that CNN probably shouldn’t have Begala and Carville commenting about the election when they were and are members of campaign staff. And in the shock of the ages, CNN agreed and removed the two “Clintonista Political Officers” from the channel. It makes me say;“ Why didn’t anyone think of this sooner!” but there you go action gets reaction and the advantage goes to – Obama!
I also like the fact that so many of the Democrat Senators have aligned themselves with Obama. The fun part being that if Evita gets the nomination, she has to fight and fight hard whomever the Republicans nominate, and so long as it’s not Ron Paul that we nominate, I’m pretty sure we’ll do just fine against her with half the Democrat Senate feeding us damaging information from behind the scenes. If I’m wrong and She wins; about half the Democrat Senate will have her tied up in knots for her first term because about half of them are now not just endorsing her competition, they are working actively on Obamas side against her and that’s not something that will go unpunished.
The punishment She will mete out will be small, and it will be petty but most of all, it will be fun to watch. I will stock up on popcorn. Ah, The bitter, acrid smell that comes from the buzzsaw of Democracy as it hits the hardshell of your hopes and dreams. I don’t think Saul Alinsky covered that in his book, at least not the first edition.
In point of fact, Obama has liberated the Democrats from the one force that usurpsed their power in the 1990’s. Not the evil “right wing”, but the Clintons themselves. It was Clinton who lost the House and Senate; it was Clinton who reshaped the countries politics so as to lose the Presidency in 2000. That party has been in long retreat since the days of Clinton. Obama has shown them a brighter future comes only when the clouds of the Clinton finally leave their party for good. If they give the Republicans the lightning rod of Clintonism and not the photogenic type but the Evita type and the Republicans will be in unchecked power for a generation. This is why the Democrat power base in the Senate is in revolt over Evitas acendancy. All she can do is threaten their power, not enhance it and therefore it must not be allowed to succeed.
I respect Senator Obama, I would even go so far as to say I am growing more and more to like him. It might just be the fact that for the moment we have the same enemies, but I see something in his character I did not see before. I hereby I retract my previous statements about his being “diaphanous”.
Come what may in this election, Senator Obama is a force to be dealt with. I cheer his candidacy and his campaign. I think that if I were Democrat, I would not only vote for him but I would actively campaign for him, for he has clearly given even me reasons to hope for the future of this country and that’s not a bad thing to have as the base of your candidacy.
After all, it worked for Ronald Reagan.
Posted @ January 27, 2008 03:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Voting with their feet
Snip...
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile wall dividing the border town of Rafah.
The Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or riding donkey carts to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has no forces on the Gaza-Egypt border and, "therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly, according to the signed agreements."
end snip...
Now hold on there just a darn minute. You mean to tell me that there was a wall between Gaza and Egypt that was put there by the Egyptians to keep the Palestinians out?
I must have missed that part in Jimmy Carters book complaining about how the Israelis put up a wall and how awful it is that they did that. I have to say Im shocked to find that other Arab states are interested in keeping out Palestinians to the point that they put up a wall to keep them out.
Posted @ January 23, 2008 07:18 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
What I'm reading; The Big Switch
I've lived long enough to watch Black and White TV be replaced with Color TV, watched VCRs replaced with DVD, watched streetcorner phones replaced with cellphones. I've also watched mainframes replaced with Client/Server systems and I watched client/server replaced with Web Apps.
Now, I'm watching Web Apps about to be eaten by "the cloud" and once again the big debate between what was happening and what is happening goes on again. This book describes a parallel between the effects of electrification at the beginning of the last century and the growth of "utility computing" at the beginning of this one.
I've read this book twice in three days and I am absolutely intoxicated by the implications of what the book has to say. After I read the book the first time, I spent some time using the internet to check on a couple of facts that the book made reference to. One item was the contruction of what was considered by the author to be a large data center in Oregon by Google. Dollars spent doesnt tell me anything, but you show me a cooling tower and a substation and I can guess whats going on in the building pretty quick.
It took me a few minutes of research but in quick order I had overhead pictures of the "secret site" along with a 15 minute video walkthrough of the site while it was under contruction. One overhead view gave me an excellent view of the data center cooling towers and the substation that had been created to power this monster. I had all I need to determine the nature of this site and I also knew right away why the chose this location over others. The city the chose had a municipal power district and they owned their own hydroelectric dam on the Columbia river.
Of course I could tell most of that information by using Google Earth. Interestingly enough, the view of the site itself does not appear on Google Earth or Maps, I found the best picure on of all places, The New York Times.
Now, they are not a public utility so I dont think that they are under any disclosure requirement, but it does make you wonder what would happen if the information had been in some way harmful to that company.
Secrecy can become addictive to the corporate mind.
In 15 minutes, I could tell everything I needed to know about these two rather large non-descript buildings. But more to the point, I had checked the facts of the book but I was also able to check the theory of the book itself. Information that was once in the hands of a very few people is now in the hands of everyone.
The world once again has changed under our very feet and I wonder just how many people are really aware of this tranformational fact. When I presented the output of my little weekend research project to some co-workers and made a case for what I felt the implications were to my little group to this new situation. However, only a few of the people I talked to understood what I was trying to say, and these are people who I work with every day in this same part of the information world, people who should know better that to think that the way things are now will never change. Most of the folks I talked to could only comment at how worried they were about "their jobs being moved overseas" and how this new information didnt help them with that worry.
I now keep a picture of the Oregon site as my Windows desktop backdrop as a lesson to myself in humility.
Posted @ January 21, 2008 02:15 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
The Batman Utility Belt
Back when I was an “on the road travelling software consultant,” our little “band of techie brothers” used to joke about how the demand for “on the spot “ contact had spawned the growth of the “Batman Utility Belt”.
You could tell the average techie by what he wore on his belt. A cellphone, if not two (one would be your home phone, the other for the company, the company being loathe to use valuable company cellphone minutes for your personal business) A Palm Pilot , a beeper ( yes, beepers were still required, even though you had a cellphone.) and very probably a small flashlight and tookit as well.
It was rediculous. You had these things riding around on your belt that you just had to have with you at all times, lest someone not be able to get in touch with you at some precious moment. I hated it, I utterly, totally and completely hated it. They weighed a ton, if you had to suddenly sprint somewhere, you rattled like a broken 25 cent kiddie ride in front of the grocery store. Heaven help you if you had to catch a flight with all that stuff because sure enough, you get it all cleared by security and one of the two phones goes off, but you can’t get to it and the nightmare of "missing the call" begins anew. Don’t forget that on top of all the crap, you still had your rather large and heavy mid-1990's era laptop to lug around with you.
Over time, I learned to loathe cellphones, because they just lead to trouble. If you give people the idea that they can get ahold of you any time day or night and sure as anything, they would do just that. Beepers? I still can’t stand beepers. Luckily the usefulness of beepers has fallen out of favor and their curse is slowly being removed from the world, and not a moment too soon if you ask me.
I quit being a “road warrior” back in the fabled year of 2000. You remember the year 2000, the year that all our electronic devices failed due to the now famous man made disaster caused by the Y2k bug that laid waste to all civilization and left half the human race as zombies and the other half living in backyard bomb shelters, holding off their former neighbors at gunpoint.
Oh? That didn’t actually happen? But it was in all the papers, "world doomed due to inability to tell what day it was" or something like that. That didn’t happen? Does that mean I can come out of the bomb shelter now? Or is this some trick by the cannibalistic zombies to lure more food out where it can be had?
But I digress…
When I came off the road, I also gave up cellphones. Like I said, I really hated cellphones back then. In many ways, I still hate them, but since 2000, they have improved dramatically. In 2000, I had that assembled bit of kit attached to my belt everytime I left the house, but in todays world I can get most of that stuff down to a single device which is much more comfortable to use and carry. In addition to just being a work tool, the modern “smartphone” is also, dare I say it, a nice thing to have.
Wow. Theres a transition for you! You see! I can learn new skills.
What I once thought of as being the “devils own horseshoe” is now a pretty nice thing to have? Well yeah, because now that same space and weight that you used to use just for a cellphone can also have much more functional use for recreational purposes.
About two years ago, one of my co-workers turned me on to the Nokia 8125. Knowing that I was rather legendary in my hatred and dislike for cellphones, my friend ran through the options for this new system and was a good advocate for its use. He made a good case but in the end, I was convinced to use it because of the low, low price since we were gettting them for through a special company deal, but that the cellphone could also double as a PDA.
So I gave in and I got the phone. It took quite a while for me to warm up to the phone but eventually I found that the key feature was how well the phone worked with my office PC. The fact that the phone was a Microsoft Windows system helped in my conversion from begrudging user to raving fan.
It’s not that Im a big fan of Microsoft Windows and I don’t hate it either. It’s a tool like any other, it just so happens that most of the software I use on the office deskop is Windows oriented. (This is not an invitiation to sell me on Apple or Linux. I actually have a 1984 128k Macintosh that I bought new in Febuary 1984, so I’ve been around Apple for as long as most of you have been eating breakfast. And I use Linux every single day, so save it folks; I’m already on your side. Its like telling someone your religious affiliation, suddenly half the room jumps up and tries to convert you to their side when in point of fact, the argument is already long over. )
There’s just a tremendous amount of software, really helpful software that can and does run really well on the Windows Mobile Platform. Heres a few examples of what is running on my Phone (which is now 2 years old):
1. Slingbox Mobile. Slingbox for those who don’t know is one of the best working, easiest to use pieces of technology ever invented. What does it do? Well, Tivo and the DVR revolution allowed you to break the bounds of “when” you watched your TV, Slingbox breaks the bounds of “where” you watch TV. If you are travelling and you want to watch what you recorded on your Tivo instead of the god-awful cable choices you sometimes get when you are on the road, all you need is an internet connection and there you go. You’re not watching someone else's TV, youre watching your TV from somewhere else. Slingbox Mobile allows you to use the Cellphone Wifi connection to watch your Tivo from anywhere you can get a Wifi connection. How does it work? It works great. Slingbox tied to a Tivo is the perfect combination.
2. Tivo-To-Go. Ok, so youre out somewhere where you can't get to Wifi and you want to be able to watch a movie or one of the shows you recorded to your Tivo. Tivo-to-go lets you download the recorded shows to your PC, or even your cellphone. My cellphone as a 2gb SD memory card, and on that card, I cant get 4 hours of recorded shows. Frankly that’s more than I can watch on the phones battery. I typically keep a couple of episodes of “No Resevervations” on it, just in case in stuck somehwere and I want some light entertainment.
3. Odyssey Mobile. This one is pretty cool. Having GPS in your car is becoming a “must have” but if you travel or move around, you don’t want to get back into the problem of having to take a GPS with you everytime you go, else the “Batman utility Belt” comes back into play. What would be better is if you could have a good GPS for driving that’s right in your phone. That’s what Odyssey Mobile gives you, a solid transportable GPS that you can use to help navigate in whatever town you land in.
4. Pathaway. Ahhhh. Pathaway. The “GPS tool of the gods”. Pathaway quite literally does everything that you would want a good GPS to do. Its ability to allow you to make your own maps from topology mapping software makes it particularly helpful when you are off in the woods. Its real selling point is the use of GPS Tracking, allowing you to track other pathaway users or allow other pathaway users to track your position from either their own pathaway systems on their phones or on a website. GPS tracking is the killer app for GPS systems but tie a GPS to a cellphone and its really fantastic.
5. Yahoo Go! Yahoo Go is a set of easy to use tools to make a cellphone easy to access the web. Frankly, this tool makes up for some of the shortsidedness of Windows Mobile, but it works and works well. Mapping, Information and websearch with an easy to use one-handed interface make it a must have for any Windows Mobile app.
6. ATT Remote. ATT Remote is probably one of the most underused thing that any homeowner can use to help monitor their home. Instead of signing up for a security company, you can use ATT tools to set up cameras and sensors all around your home. You can monitor your home or turn on lights all from your cellphone from anywhere in the world.
Yes, you can also use this litle device to make phone calls, but wheres the fun in that?
Posted @ January 17, 2008 04:50 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Bourdain Dilemma
We spent this weekend in Napa Valley celebrating our anniversary. We spent our time there enjoying 65 degree temperatures, clear skies, entirely too much great wine and seeing hardly any of the normal polyester clad herd of middle aged wine poseurs that transforms that lovely valley into an impassible traffic jam during the normal vacation season.
Its times like this when I'm reminded of my relatives who are getting freezer burn in Idaho or getting soaked to the bone in Seattle and they who are always hounding me about "leaving California" as they have wisely done. Oh yes, you were right all along, I should leave Sunny California for Idaho or Seattle,blah,blah,blah,blah,bllllaagghhh.
Then you have to see it from my eyes, looking out across the vineyards, the verdant hills with a light cover of yellow mustard plants coming into bloom providing all that lovely contrast with just a whisp of fog on the hilltops, sitting on the veranda of the lodge, that there I was holding a glass of wine with fresh bread and cheese all made locally as the warm yellow sun hits my face - all in mid January, I'm thinking to myself "Oh sure, I'll call U-haul leave all this behind and move to those places that are right now under 4 feet of snow or where the rain hasnt stopped in 12 straight weeks..."
Are they nice places and beautiful in their own scope? Sure they are and I really like them, but they are simply not for me. To paraphrase Emma Goldman, "If I cant wear shorts outside in January, I dont want to be part of your revolution"
I'm a Californian, worse still, a Native Californian. Even worse, a 2nd generation Native Californian, which is like saying you are sasquatch, a mythical beast that many have heard of, but few have actually seen and is thus discredited out of hand by closed minded academic types.
And just so I set the right tone, I now will go ahead and show all of my "leper-stripes", you see, I'm the worst kind of Californian.
I'm a Southern Californian...! ( Cue the ominous music!)
Worse even still, as hard as many of you find this to believe, I really do like it here and I plan on staying, so when I'm visiting your state please dont lecture me about "not moving up here" as they do so frequently in Oregon. I know lots of people from California have moved to all the other western states, but you guys have to understand, those folks werent Californians either, they were from Texas or Ohio or somehwere else. They came to California and after 5 whole years, moved on to somewhere else. You are just the "flavor of the month" as soon as those folks see another rainbow in the sky, they will leave your part of the world too. When you lecture me at the gas station in Roseburg Oregon about how they dont want Californians up there, its cool, I get it. We tried telling the Oakies that too back in the 30's, it didnt work but we tried. You just have to take my word when I tell you I really am just visiting. Love Oregon, Love Washington, Love Idaho and yes, Love Nevada, but I'm really not going to move from here to wherever-the-hell else you think I cant wait to move to. Because the evidence is, I can wait and in all likelyhood I will continue to wait. This isnt just a place to park my trailer for a week like it is for some folks, its