God saves the day!

Or not..

A woman lets gets kids starve for 11 days, making no effort to get help because "God would help them".

God was apparently busy doing something else. Luckily none of the kids died. Look, if you you're going to believe in an invisible sky wizard (and you have every right to) Understand that he/she/it gave you a BRAIN. If you look at all recorded history God shows up in person very very infrequently. His creations are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. He supposedly made us that way. So stop sponging off of God(tm)!

It's okay to lie to us...

So it seems one of the secret C.IA. black sites was set up near Vilnius in Lithuania in what was once a fancy horseback riding academy. This is one of those places we were told didn't exist that did things we said we wouldn't do.

Remember, Lithuania isn't exactly the desolate back woods of Afghanistan. They are our ally. And they are understandably pissed. Imagine Lithuania used a shell company to rent the old Higbees department store building in Cleveland. Then they build a torture facility in it and lie to you and the world about it. You might be upset with Lithuania for doing something like that. After all, this is our country. If you want to hold and torture terrorism suspects, you should do it in your own goddamn country.

But for some reason we are scared shitless of these guys. It's like they have some kind of superpowers. Conservatives are shaking in their boots at the thought of bringing any of these suspects to the U.S. for trial. Whether they should be tried by the military or the civilian courts is a worthy debate. I feels the military option had been pretty much tainted at this point. After all, look how the military (with the Whitehouse's direct permission) handled capturing, holding and interrogating them.

Actions have consequences. We will be cleaning up GW's shit for years to come.

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse...

Truly I am not. Especially since the horse really isn't dead here. Although Gitmo will likely be closed conditions at Bahgram Airbase in Afghanistan are said to be business as usual (i.e. brutal).

But it is very important to look at the faces of those we unlawfully detained and tortured. It's important to listen to these guys. It is important to learn from this mistake. I am all for getting terrorists. But somewhere along the line here we monumentally fucked up and picked up these guys. And we KEPT them. For YEARS. We also tortured them. Now, one could argue that our torture wasn't as bad as other countries torture. Perhaps so. But it's still torture. And of course, there are those who died while in our custody. Those who committed suicide when they lost all hope of ever being free.

One could argue that there are always innocent casualties in war. One might argue that the ends justified the means. That through this treatment, we managed to keep America safe. But most reports I have read seem to indicate that this isn't the case. Most seasoned interrogators have stated that torture is not effective. So why did we do it? Did we, as a nation, go mad? I think so. And in this blind rage, in this quest to punish we ignored the core of what makes this country truly great. As always, I appreciate your thoughts.

I'm gonna write more than a letter...

Like many people I've been keen to upgrade my computer to the shiny new Windows 7 OS. I ran the beta on my laptop for a while at it really is how Vista SHOULD have been. Lot of fixes. Better usability. Clean. I did the install on the laptop without incident, going from Vista to Windows 7 allows for an 'in place' upgrade that keeps programs and files intact. While a clear slate is always best, my laptop wasn't loaded with crap and the results were good.

My desktop however, runs XP. You cannot upgrade XP to Vista. You have to do a clean install and then re-install ALL your programs. For me, thats a LOT of programs. But I was resigned to it. My system has been running slow, giving me plug and play errors. Nothing game stopping, but annoying. But just as I was getting ready to do the deed I came across a program from Laplink that promissed it could actually backup and move my XP programs to Windows 7. I did some research and it looked like a good deal. The software is about $20 or $9 if you download it from Amazon.com. I did the backup. Installed Windows 7 (which went quite fast) and then started the unpacking process. Bam! Sorry mate, you don't have enough room. But I'm just moving files around, why do I need gobs of space?

No answer from their website.

Actually, no website.

It seems that my wireless card wasn't working. No internet. Luckily I have my trusty laptop. I won't bore you with the gory research details. Suffice it to say I wasted about 4 hours downloading drivers, updates, software, more drivers. At one point I got my onboard soundcard working. Great! I didn't know it wasn't woking, but okay. (I use USB wireless headphones that bypass the sound card).

Eventually, out of desperation I went back to the Linksys support site. I did searched for Windows 7 info. I looked up my card again and carefully read the FAQ's. Funny thing, there's no info on Windows 7, but there IS info on Vista drivers. I click a link, download a 500k file, use a thumb drive to move it to the desktop system, clicky clicky and guess what... internets.

Really Linksys?

You've known about this OS for about a year, just like everyone else. It's not like it just sprung forth from the sea like Venus on the Half Shell. It's not like this hardware is old or from an obscure maker. It's f*cking Linksys! And you can't bother to build a driver for your product? Or ever put up a LINK to a blurd that sayd 'Hey, Windows 7 users, use there Vista drivers, they're just peachy" ???

This is the sort of thing that makes me want to buy a place ticket, fly to California to their corporate headquarters, wait patiently in the waiting roon and then, upon meeting the person responsible for not getting this driver in place, punch them squarely in the balls.

Repetitively.

Now that I've got my internets back I will call the Laplink people tomorrow to see if indeed I can do this in place upgrade. Computers... indestinguishable from evil pixies.

Happy Halloween all!

Listening to words

The recent gathering in Washington D.C. was quite impressive. Sure, it didn't actually have 2 million participants. That apparently was a lie. But there were a LOT of angry (mostly white) people loudly venting their disapproval of our government and our President.

Good for them. That is their right. They apparently had a lot to complain about. For the moment, I'd like to set aside some of these people. The abortion protesters have an actual point in that abortion is still legal. They have a position and a stated goal. The Jesus freaks, well, they believe that the bible should run the show. Obama is a Muslim. They also have a position. It's crazy. but they are led by the book their invisible sky wizard gave them. Arguing with them is fruitless. In the immortal words of Dr. House "If you could reason with religious people, there wouldn't be any religious people.".

Then there are those who oppose a whole host of things the government is doing. You can tell this by the 10 second flashes shown on the news and the sound bites of people yelling. But what are these people actually saying? What do they actually believe? A young man apparently went through the crowd and talked to some of these people. And the results are so cringe worthy as to be physically painful.

These people traveled great distances, made signs, got up early and marched to protest things they have no fucking clue about. Seriously. These are dumb people. Now, it is possible that there were some well spoken people with well reasoned objections to certain government bills or policies. But I have never seen them. Where are they? Where are the ones who aren't screaming about death panels and socialism?

When I attended a war protest a few years ago there were certainly a wide range of opinions about our government. From reformers to anti-globalists to outright anarchists. But if you stopped and talked to them you would hear about why they wanted the war in Iraq ended. They knew about the bad intel, the lies, the smokescreen of Al Qaeda the torture of prisoners, warrantless wiretapping. I'm sure a few of them wanted the president overthrown because he secretly was a pawn of the Trilateral commission or the Freemasons, but they still KNEW THINGS based on FACTS. And the interesting thing was the makeup of the protest crowd. Young and old, white and black, Christian and Muslim. They were concerned about a people and a war that didn't affect many of them directly. After all, they weren't being bombed or rounded up and sent to CIA black sites. But the screaming heads on TV these days seem only to care about two things. Themselves and "their" America. To listen to them you'd think that is a brown shirted Obama Youth and FEMA camps for dissidents ready to materialize ANY SECOND. That their guns are already being taken away and government money is being spent right this second on free abortions for gay married couples. All over a burning Bible.

These are scared, stupid, people. And I have no idea how to counteract this level of stupidity. How can you have a discussion with them?

A few give lip service to the idea of making the world a better place for "the children". Hey Cletus, if you wanted a better world you might have spent less time breeding and more time educating yourselves and your offspring.

pant*pant*pant

Ok, I'm gonna go over to cuteoverload.com now and lower my blood pressure...

Get up that hill

There's no way around it. This season, most recently this Pennsic War event was pretty brutal. I feel like I have been stumbling around, unable to get a solid footing. And when I thought I was on solid ground, something would rush up and smack me. Car problems, friends and acquaintances telling me of rough times, health problems, divorce, job loss.

And business? It was down almost 45 percent. That's a huge fucking drop. Then there were the rains and the inevitable mud. What else, oh yeah; my goddamned nemesis Beverle parked her ass right across the street from us. The single worst vendor I have ever known. A liar and a cheat. Kicked out of six different Ren-Faire's. Yet she somehow suckered some poor merchant to give her some space to set up her crap. Swell.

My chief minion Lindsey, who I love like my own kid has been a bit of a fuck up recently. I won't go into details. She's hit a hard patch like the rest of us.

We left Pennsic after the usual dark-thirty loadout. Rossana in a grim mood because Pennsic doesn't feel like Pennsic to her anymore (and that hurts to hear) only to have a full day of rain the next day at Great Lakes with accompanying shitty sales. The vendors at the show are now being cited by the local town for not having a 'local transient vendors license', something we don't fucking need under Ohio law but still threatens the livelihood of everyone working the show. Everyone is on pins and needles. Rumors run rampant.

Then we got the cherry. Russ shows up. He's an on site EMT. He tells us that his brother Hoss died at Pennsic that morning.

I've known Hoss for something like 7 years now. He was overweight, crude, politically incorrect, a know-it-all and an overall great guy. He took shitty care of himself but once threatened to kill a guy who accidentally cut the power to his camper where he kept his dogs diabetes medicine in the fridge. I talked with him Friday morning as we rushed around getting ready to pack up. Russ claimed he wasn't broken up about it, that he and his brother were just on polite terms. But he was seething. Hoss was told by EMT's on site at Pennsic three times that he was having a heart attack and he refused to go to the hospital. You just couldn't tell Hoss what to do.

At this point I just wanted to go home. But we couldn't. Sunday was the hottest day of the summer so far as I could tell. And the longest. We rolled in at about 11pm last night but we head out Wednesday morning for GenCon, which I pray isn't bad.

At Pennsic our camp it at the bottom of a hill. And every day you have to climb that hill. I've been doing it at Pennsic for something like 24 years. This year it took more, much more to get up that hill. It's not that I'm in bad shape. It was just the weight of all the things around me, pressing down. It would be easy just to stay in camp. A lot of my friends do. They seem content with that. But I can't. And this year once again showed me that stopping is not an option. Gotta keep moving. I've gotta get up that hill.

I never thought I'd be happy to see Winter and the end of a season.

Pennsic night

Late. Very late. I wander into camp just as the women folk are getting ready for a night out.
I sit with the men folk and have a cider. A pipe is
passed and I find myself wandering over to Vlads for the slave auction. I finally get to say hi to Ariana who got to attend Pennsic thanks to her father (whom she hates) dying, thus getting her out of Qatar. The butler in me takes over and I help serve some great pomegranite mead and canapé. It's hot, a light rain Patters on against the roof of be tent. I stumble back to camp where Wine and Alchemy are playing. I visit Darter who is busy cooking up sausages at one am. We eat. Tasty. It feels more like Pennsic now. Eyes are heavy. Feet so tied. Only a so-so day. Another long solo day tomorrow. The heat saps my energy. I need sleep.

I try to respect other beliefs, but sometimes I think its important to listen to some of the faithfuls actual words. So here they are:

Nothing happened today..

I was keen to see what was happening in Iran over the weekend, but I couldn't. Apparently the death of Michael Jackson was the ONLY goddamn thing worth covering for four days straight.

But I don't want to be disrespectful of the dead, so here a small bird moonwalking.

Father-Son moment

Last week my Dad drove down from Boston, on his motorcycle again, at 72, despite having broken his neck a little over a year ago.

This act of sheer ballsiness shamed me into getting my own bike up and running again. It wasn't a huge project. I needed to actually order the new battery I'd put off and go get an oil filter. I didn't expect much. The bike hasn't run for quite a while. But with an oil change and some elbow grease, she fired right up. I spent a few hours cleaning her up and helping my Dad change the oil on his Honda Pacific Coast.

The experience was very strange for me. My parents were divorced when I was quite young, my brother went to life with my Dad while I was raised by my Mom and her second husband (who had his own son). But they eventually divorced when I entered Jr. High. As such, I never really had any of those father/son moments as I hit my teen years. My Mom, bless her heart, was amazingly cool with my strange hobbies and friends and did a great job as a single parent. And I learned to travel and to appreciate history and many other subjects from Jack Ellis, my Big Brother (Mentoring program). But he was more of a kindly Uncle or Grandfather figure. I just seemed to miss out on that special kind of cool bonding that some kids get with their Dad. And to tell the truth I'm sorry I did now.

I have never looked back at my childhood and regretted much of anything. I had a roof over my head, clothes, an allowance. I wasn't abused. Things were, for me, pretty good. But some of these kinds of moments would have been pretty nice too. I'm glad I had the chance to share one, even if it did take a while to happen.



So when we sat in the shop talking and working on our bikes it took me a while to even recognize we were having one of those special moments.

Please stop being stoooooooopid.

There are certain advantages to being a self employed member of the Merchant Class. I tend to awaken late (if at all), my off season schedule allows me to travel to strange and exotic lands and showing my "Member of the Merchant Class" ID card allows me to get out of some very sticky situations involving the disposal of dead hookers.

But one thing that we are at the mercy of is Other Peoples Stupidity. This year, it was looking like the last weekend of the Great Lakes Fair would overlap with both the opening of the Michigan faire and GenCon. This is what we in "the business" call "teh suck" as it means I either split my stock 3 ways (with too little stock at all three shows)or split it two ways and leave my minion Jesse with at Great lakes to sell pictures of corsets from and empty booth. But wait! A ray of sunshine. A fellow merchant tells me Michigan moved back its opening one weekend. Sweet! This means I don't have to pack up Pennsic frantically, unpack, repack for two events, leave Ohio, drive up to Michigan, set up a booth, leave stock, and then drive to Minneapolis. Horay for sleep!

But wait! The contract for the Michigan fair arrived today, with a prominent sticker declaring the earlier starting date. The contract within also confirms the earlier, more sucky date. This begins a small flurry of mental activity, as we will once again have to make the grand tour of middle America AND rob one of my booths to satisfy the hunger of two big shows. There's nothing for it, we just have to bend over and take it.

By sheer chance I called the Michigan Ren offices to let them know that their website was incorrect and that they might want to fix that. 'No, No' I am told "the dates on the site are correct'.

"But by contract says otherwise, and my contract trumps a pimply 17 year old part timer on the phone."

"No, the Craft coordinator didn't have the correct dates and is now working to correct the mistake."

Now I know the craft coordinator has a lot on her plate. But really. The one thing you should really have a farking grip on is the dates of your event. Some merchants are on the road constantly, getting mail very infrequently. And contradicting info will surely mean that at least ONE merchant is going to be VERY pissed when he opens his booth on Sat Aug 15 and NO ONE IS F@CKING THERE. It will happen, of this I am sure. Some of these guys leave one show and roll in the night before the next show opens, working all night to prep their booth and set up stock.

I'm glad I won;t be one of them.

The Good News...

I returned to my doctor today to see if a month of clean(er) living (and some drugs) had improved me any. I was pleasantly surprised. First, I apparently lost 7 pounds. Horaaaay! Rossana gave me a dirty look.

"I hate you." she said, smiling.

Then we checked my blood pressure. 117 over 80, or as some people call it - Normal!

The doctor was pleased if somewhat surprised. He told me how some of his patients are on 6 different medications because they won't change their bad habits. He also warned me not to go back to my old ways.

For my part I was very happy to hear some good news about my health. The weight loss was a pleasant extra. So far the medication hasn't given me any big scares. I do sometimes feel a little light headed or dizzy, but nothing serious. I do pee more, but I already drank tons of fluids before so no big change. I also appreciated the comments people left. I also got an email from and old old friend of mine. He was a little more blunt with me. "Get your shit straight and stay with the program or so help me...."

I don't to know what "so help me" means and I don't want to find out. He works for the military-industrial complex and for all I know has satellites trained on me to make sure I don't stray. I can easily imagine getting a call after walking into a Burger King.

"Hello?"

"You better be there to only use the bathroom." the voice on the phone says.

The two pills

*** Notice! Explicit Language Ahead! ***

I visited the doctor a few weeks ago. I wasn't feeling bad when I walked in his door. No sir. I was feeling like crap a week earlier but I was fine when they actually got around to seeing me. I explained how I somehow threw out my back doing NOTHING. The pain was so bad I took some pain killers my wife got for dental surgery. This deadened the pain but I suddenly developed a screaming headache and a dull but persistent testicular pain. That's right, it was like a little man had taken up residence in my underwear and decided that he needed to squeeze one of testicles constantly to punnish it for some perceived wrong it had commited.

It was a fun 7 days.

The doctor listened to my symptoms and then, I kid you not, said "Well, you're feeling better now aren't you? SO I guess it wasn't serious."

Really? I spent a week freaked out, sleepless and panicked about taking pain killers that caused a four day headache and wondering why the hell one of my fracking BALLS was turning EVIL. This is your wizened medical opinion? Awesome.

Since there was nothing for him to look at he decided to check my blood pressure and schedule a physical. I got my blood tested and a chest x-ray. Then I got poked and prodded, and yes, that included our favorite the D.R.E. (Moooooooooon Riveeeeeeerr....) Too obscure?

The doctor reviews the various numbers and tells me that many things are just fine. Great. I like things being fine. But one number isn't fine. My blood pressure. He's taken readings like 20 times and seems confident that it's "Slightly high". Hmmm. He goes on to explain that HBP is "The Silent Killer".

I thought that Ninja's were the silent killers. But tests have shown that HBP kills significantly more people than Ninja's (these days). Then he writes a prescription and hands it to me. That was a slap. I have rarely been prescribed anything. And now there are not one but two pills that I am supposed to take every morning. I guess 'Slightly High' was high enough to warrant drugs.

I hit wikipedia and the side effects scare me. Having a heart attack scares me more. I take the pills and really don't feel them doing anything even after 2 weeks. The doctor has said that I have to cut down on the sodium as well as the shitty foods. Get more exercise etc etc blahblahblah no more fun...

Then we go on the road to Florida. To work. To do what we do for a living. Let me tell you that the road is not kind to someone looking to "cut back". There is almost nothing available in a gas station or fast food restaurant that isn't packed to the gills with evil. Real evil. Do they really need to use babies slathered in lard to make a Wendy's double? It's bad food. I've always known this. I am not naive. But once you start reading those packages, desperate for something to eat, you cannot help but get discouraged. That's why I used to ignore those labels. So that I may live in blissful ignorance. I tried ordering off IHOP's 'Healthy Menu'. and even without bacon or sausage or anythin obviously bad it STILL had 1,100 mg of sodium. Just so you know, a low sodium diet should be under 2,000mg per DAY. In the end we found a grocery store and bought some tuna, bread and sugar free cookies. Can't use lunchmeat, too much frickin sodium.

That actually worked out pretty well. Convention food is brutally expensive as well as super evil. I'm happy to save some money, it's just hard to find time to make a sandwich. When we got back home we went shopping at WalMart. I found plain chicken breast was filled with more sodium than I could have imagined. I had to get the "Super Healthy Cuts" . These didn't have the extra crap and yet they cost more. That is a swell racket.

I know that making these changes will improve my health. I also know that I have very little willpower. Give up wings forever? Ha! But I suppose I can cut back. It's strange but I think I can actually taste the extra salt now in regular foods now when I eat them. Am I crazy?

And another thing? Rossana's blood pressure is actually too LOW. She needs more salt dammit! I'm thinking of getting her a salt lick.

I hope I can stick with this. Our work schedule and travel has meant that we've slipped in our eating habits. Rossana has always been good, but even she has slipped and it's my fault. I have stuck with one healthier choice so far. A couple months ago I cut way back on diet cola (caffine). I switched to water or diet 7 up and I'm actually less twitchy. Maybe if I stick with this I'll loose a few pounds and feel better as a result. We shall see...

The Cult of Done Manifesto

From here:

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

I have a lot of projects that I am constantly thinking about or working on. But I sometimes get stuck because I don't have the right part, or the right tool or the right materials. I need to stop procrastinating on these things. The list above is a good set of guidelines. Although I disagree with abandoning a project if you haven't started on a project in a week.

Remember this guy?

Joe the plumber. I first heard about him during the Presidential debates. A seeming everyman. A hardworking average American just trying to get ahead is a tough world. Both sides tripped over themselves to garner his vote. To show who would help Joe out more. In the end, Joe ignored the fact the Obama's tax plan would save him more money and he sided with McCain.

I can understand that. Ones choice of President isn't always motivated my self interest. Joe might have supported McCain's foreign policy plans, or worried that Obama lacked executive experience. But then we started to learn who Joe was. And Joe turned out to be A) A bit dim and B) A bit of a dick.

But that didn't stop him . No sir. He went on the campaign trail with McCain, even though he eventually said he didn't like McCain at all. He did like Palin. A LOT. And that right there pretty much ruined ANY shred of credibility the man had. He was no longer an everyman. He was a moron. He railed against the government and how it could do nothing right, despite the fact that he has enjoyed protections provided by immunizations, fire departments, police and our national army. He drives on safe roads, eats (mostly) untainted foods can go to public libraries and enjoy the benefits of Social Security when he gets old and yet this tax delinquent squeels about how our country is going Socialist.

Undaunted by reality, he worked hard to extend his 15 minutes. He went to the Middle East and bemoaned the fact that we can't outright censor the media. Whines how he would punch out other elected officials if he himself were elected to office. And then....he wrote a book.

Here's picture of his signing:


He sold, I believe, 5 copies. Your 15 minutes sir, are up. But if you want to experience a little more schadenfreude check out the reviews over at Amazon.com. Priceless:

RINO spinmeisters, aided and abetted by the liberal media, have promoted Joe the Plumber as being an everyman, the archetypical "average American." This book shatters that image.

Joe the Plumber is not the "average American." He's the "average conservative," and I thank God for that.

Last year, the "average American" elected an Harvard educated constitutional law professor to the presidency. Average conservatives knew better. They rallied behind Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin, people like ourselves; people I proudly call "mediocre Americans."

And that's why Joe is still so immensely popular. He's angry, vicious, ignorant, and intellectually incurious. He's one of us, and like us, he didn't learn about public policy and international relations at a university or from books or journals; he learned everything he needed to know by tuning into Rush, Hannity, Savage, and Ingraham.

This is a great book, one every true conservative should buy, and more importantly, read. Yes, I know that sounds like a tall order, but it's an easy read. Joe uses one and two syllable words (many of them, written forms of various grunts) almost exclusively. If I have one complaint, it's that the publisher, Pearlgate, printed it in ink rather than crayon like the original manuscript. Other than that, I think it truly is the perfect book for the average conservative.

Beating a dead horse?

I promise to move back to some lighter stuff, but I highly encourage you to read this first hard report of the first days of Guantanamo. It's told by the most clean-cut American youth you can imagine. It's a window into a world we never saw and many wish had never happened.

This testimony does not relate to how detainees were interrogated. This is just the story of a kid who was put in charge of guarding "the most dangerous men in the world" who mostly turned out to be undernourished and frail foreigners sold to the Americans for $1000 a pop. He is very detailed in what he personally witnessed and what he did not witness.

Some of what you will read may not seem, on the surface, to be all that bad. If you don't think stress positions, beatings, degradation, intimidation and anal penetration are all that bad then I suggest you try them for yourself. You will likely change your mind. This story is just a small piece of the overall system put in place by the Bush administration. A system that disregarded the Geneva conventions and many of the standard operating procedures of our own military for treating detainees. What this kid witnessed was Guantanamo-Lite and it's a fascinating read.

Standard Operating Proceedure

The previous post "I'd give the Devil the benefit of law" generated some strong opinions about how we should treat 'the bad guys'.

I appreciate strong opinions. I have a few myself. Some of which were reinforced when I watched the film Standard Operating Procedure which dealt with Abu Gihraib. It was hard to watch at times. The matter was not a simple black and white case. We put 18-21 year old kids in charge of a prison. Kids who are trained to follow orders. Kids who were told what was being done was okay, even if the regs said it wasn't. After all, we're in a war, right? I'm not sure what excuse the older personnel had. They knew better.

It gave context and detail to the infamous photographs. It showed the mindset of some of these people. Their reasoning and rationale. And what was seen in the pictures was not the worst of it. It never is.

Is it okay to torture a suspect if you believe he is guilty of being an insurgent or a terrorist?
After all, we didn't hang them, or beat their feet with metal rods or shock their genitalia.
THAT'S torture. Saddam did that shit. We didn't (Although we sent people to countries that did it for us).

Lets talk about what our guys did.
Tying someone in one position naked for 5 hours naked isn't torture, is it?
Depriving someone of sleep for days isn't torture, is it?
Forcing prisoners to masturbate and simulate sex acts in front of women isn't torture is it?
Waterboarding and punching prisoners isn't torture, is it?
Keeping high profile detainees from the eyes of the Red Cross isn't illegal, is it?
Our guys just 'softened them up' for the pro's (CIA, FBI, DIA etc).

After all, these guys were the Bag Guys. Except the ones that weren't. And it seems that the vast majority of these people were just dumb SOB's. Drunks & thieves... oh yeah and most of the fighting age males in an area. Fathers and sons. We took them from their homes because they could POTENTIALLY join the insurgency, not because there was any suspicion they were.

Lock them all up and DO NOT let ANYONE out. That was the order. We did not deny them due process, we denied than ANY process. When they finally got out, I wonder how many of those average Iraqi's were willing to let bygones be bygones?
The end result of not following the rules and the law was an increased insurgency and a deep unifying hatred of Americans in that entire region.

Take a look at this list of Memo's. Look at the titles. Some of the details of these memo's are just now coming to light though we likely will never know the full details of them all. Look at the titles: Convention Against Torture has limited application in the U.S., Torture can be prosecuted only if there was 'specific intent' to harm Is this America at it's finest? Is this the beacon of freedom spoken in hymn and song? It this the best we could do? America has the brawn to do these things, but does it have the brains to do something better? To fight smarter?

I highly recommend you check this movie out through Netflix. It's thought provoking. Here's the trailer:

I would give the Devil the benefit of Law

In response to this McClatchy article about the Captain of the U.S.S. Cole saying "We shouldn't make policy decisions based on human rights and legal advocacy groups,'' a spirited debate sprung up on FARK.com regarding whether we should give suspected terrorists the benefit of Habeus Corpus or other rights.

I will confess that as I am not a Constitutional scholar, a lawyer or an expert in military law I am ill equipped to speak with any great authority. It is not any easy situation to rectify, made worse by the previous administration that simply had no strategy whatsoever and simply did "whatever was necessarily" to "keep us safe". But since we aren't operating in the shadows anymore we must take the bull by the horns.

There are criminals in Guantanamo. By various accounts 70 of the 270 are really bad guys. This is down from the over 600 who used to reside there. We let the rest of those people go because we really didn't have anything on them. With all the resources and the with the full and intimidating threats of the US of A pressed upon them we simply had nothing. I am sure they forgive us though.

Rumor, innuendo, suspicion. On that evidence we abducted people, held them in secret prisons, and tortured them.

On the flimsiest of connection to 9/11 and on dubious intel we waged a war on Iraq that has killed tens of thousands.

But we had to, you know, to keep us safe.

Look, thinking is hard. But maybe if we did it more we wouldn't be in this shit. I don't want to give any religious whack job with a desire to kill people a pass. But to ignore the law? To just go all Jack Bauer? Is that the answer? Will ignoring US law, international law and treaties work? Will that find and punish the guilty? George Bush thought so. He thought these men were evil.

But I would give the Devil himself the benefit of Law.

I offer this short clip from A man for All Seasons:

That other good speech..

I'm sure you all heard Obama's speech today. It's was pretty good in my opinion. So here's another one. FDR's speech from 1933. You've heard the soundbite of "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself". But the whole speech is very good, addressing the economic crisis of his time.

Things get a little strange at the end, where he says that if Congress doesn't act, then he'll ask for "supreme executive power" to give him the same authority he'd have if we were at war. We saw what an unchecked Executive branch got us and it wasn't good. But the speech is great otherwise.

WARNING! Scam Alert

If you're like me, you don't look super close at your bank statements. I confess, I am lax. But my beloved wife is NOT lax. She is a hawk. Nothing escapes her view. Which is why she caught the bogus check that took $24.95 out of our account. The same thing had happened to her about two months ago and fixing it was a pain in the ass.

I don't know how they got my account into, but they did. They then made out a check from ME to a company called Payment systems for a 'subscription' (apparently to an adult website). There is a phone number and a reference number on the check. The company that answers the phone is called M Billing or any of a number of variations. They quickly offered to refund the money (Rossana received hers promptly). They claim to only be a billing processor. Using the googles I traced their official address to Cypress. Read into that what you will. I smell a rat.

There is some internet buzz that the account information was leaked from Mary Kay or from Propay.com When Rossana was hit, they had her old address on the check, mine had my current address. Some people have been hit multiple times. We will likely never know the source of the leak. So many companies have your account data these days its frightening.

Tomorrow I will go to the bank, open a new business account, move most of our money into it, check for any outstanding checks, then close the account and order new computer checks. Fun.

Now go check your bank statement, here are some links to more info on the scam.

Whale Wars

If you've not heard of this show I urge you to seek it out. It's pretty cool. The 7 part show follows the Sea Sheppard's as they attempt to locate and disrupt the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctica. In short, the Japanese can hunt down and perform "research" on a limited number of whales every year and then sell off the 'specimens' for a whacking profit. There are laws protecting the whales, but there is a grey area that no country seems willing to deal with. Unlike Greenpeace, the Sea Shepperd's believe in direct action/confrontation. Take a look at this trailer. You have to admit, it looks pretty badass.




But watching this group of seasoned veterans and mostly young volunteers is a little painful. They SO remind me of the kids I met down in New Orleans in the 9th ward. These were people who were driven. They were 100% dedicated. They were willing to risk life and limb for what they believe in. But they are also terribly unprepared for the task. Most of the volunteers have almost no training and as a result their very lives are at serious risk as they ply the Antarctic. Several people are injured as a result of stupid mistakes. Simple safety procedures are not followed resulting in near disaster.

They are also media whores. Which is important because they want to bring attention to their cause. They actually have two people board a Japanese ship, and then tell the press that they have been 'kidnapped'. They throw stink bombs and deploy prop fouler lines. All in the name of their cause. Which they are very dedicated to. They aren't taking pictures or writing letters. They are taking the fight to the enemy. They are brave and they are foolish and I hope they make a difference.

An attack on the President

I haven't checked the tv to see how this is playing out, but today a journalist threw his shoes at Bush.

At first this might sound simply strange. Something for the "Wacky but true" section of the newspapers. But it is far more meaningful than that. The reporter was an Iraqi, and throwing a shoe at someone is really a VERY big sign of disrespect. You have to hate someone to throw your shoes at them.

Remember when the statue of Saddam was pulled down? Go back and look at the tape of it, you'll see Iraqi man beating the head of the statue with their shoes. Now Bush is getting the same treatment.   Heckava job Bush.

Doing something like this takes balls of fucking steel. Would YOU make any kind of aggressive move toward the President of the United States? The guy who basically destroyed your country? Hell no! But this guy did.

Bush did his best to spin this as "Freedom of Speech" though I doubt the journalist in question will be heard from much again, at least in a professional sense. Sure, adults and especially journalists should show more maturity and professionalism that this. Despite everything that Bush has done over the past 8 years we still treat him with civility. Reporters still dutufully write down his words and repeat them knowing full well most of them are either empty or at worst lies. So how angry did this guy have to be to actuall lash out the way he did?

I weep for our future.

So, are you smarter than your average Elected Official? Go ahead and take this 33 question test.

The average for elected officials (which was slightly worse than the general populace) was 44 percent. Worse? Wow.

I did 77%. Post your score in the comments.

A short moment of gloating...

A gentleman would accept the victory of Barack Obama with a quiet pride and humility.

Thankfully I am an American and am thus allowed to be an ass on occasion.

Please understand that I have never been a gloater. Never. My parents raised me well, with a respect for other peoples feelings. Gloating does not come easy to me.

But when you consider the sea of bullshit that we've had to wade through this past year, it seems only fair that a little bit of gloating be allowed. I have no wish to gloat over friends of mine who may be conservative. Most of my conservative friends fall under the 'small government/ socially liberal' heading. And that's fine.

I'm talking about gloating over the smug pundits and talking heads. The Rush Limbaughs, Karl Rove's, Sean Hannity's and Michelle Malkins. The gibbering assholes and self satisfied pricks who declared Obama simply could not win. The ones who just made shit up and went on endlessly about his lack of qualifications even while puting Sarah Palin up as VP with a straight face. The dicks who found deep connections between Obama and Willian Ayers while just skipping over the part where America gave Saddam Hussein chemical weapons technology. The ones who screamed Obama was a Socialist and a secret muslim and was unfit to hold the office because he didn't wear a fucking flag pin.

They never stopped gushing about the great war hero who was in fact a shitty Naval Academy student, a drinker, a womanizer, a gambler and a piss poor pilot who after returning from Vietnam cheated on and then dumped his wife in exhange for a rodeo beauty queen heiress.

Then he went into politics and spent the past few years kissing the ass of George Bush and towing the party line. THIS was the Republican maverick (tm) who at 72 would with an idiot sidekick save our nation? The fact that he came anywhere near the number of votes he did is a testament to how stupid a lot of Americans are.

And yet the kid who grew up raised by a single working mother and his grandmother, overcame the stigma of mixed race, studied hard, advanced himself, went to Harvard on scholarships, led the Law Review and rather than going into private practice worked in the poor communities until running for the Senate. THIS guy was the goddamned anti-christ!

I've read some stories recently that indicate Palin might have been even dumber (or at least less prepared) than stated by the kool aid drinking advisers stated she was. If you read through the comments threads you will often see this:

"It's over now, why don't we just move on?"

No. We do not just fucking move on. That's the kind of stupid thinking that keeps us from learning from our mistakes. Sure we'd feel better just to not think about the past eight years of bullshit, but we wouldn't learn anything. Remember the saying "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Yeah. That's why I am all to happy to continue disecting the rotting corpse of the Bush administration.

And I suppose that's why I feel okay doing a little gloating. Not a lot. There's actually work to be done. But a little.

Looking at the source...

It's been interesting to hear McCain and Palin go after Obama for his 'association' with Bill Ayers. There seems to be a constant back and forth about how much Obama associated with  "terrorist" Ayers.

The answer seems to be that he had very little to do with Ayers. Not that this fact will stop the more excitable members of the conservative base from frothing about the 'sekrit muzlim and his terrist buddies'.

But who is Bill Ayers? It's off to wikipedia! Go there now and learn.

While the accuracy and neutrality of wikipedia  is sometimes called into question I learned a lot about this fascinating man that I didn't previously know (and that isn't even mentioned in the media).

What  strikes me is that Ayers has always had, and still has a strong drive to provide quality education. He is a teacher. In the 60's he was motivated by his conscience to  do something about the Vietnam War. Part of that action was planting bombs.  His girlfriend was killed in a bomb making accident.  He considered himself a "little c communist" but insisted that he wasn't a terrorist: 

. "The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people. Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam by the United States."

I'm not sure I would give him a total pass on the terrorism charge. Bombs cause fear, even when they don't specifically target people directly. The IRA would plant bombs and then call the police so they could clear and area, but they are generally agreed to be a terrorist group.  What Ayers did was take his struggle to stop an illegal, unjust and brutal war too far. He did some stupid shit.  Pundits and spinmiesters today are 'quoting' Ayers saying "wishes he could have bombed more" though it seems pretty clear that what he actually said was that 'we' (meaning all Americans) could have done more to try and stop the Vietnam War. 

Like many people in the world Ayers has contrasting elements. He is not a caricature. I urge you to do a little reading on the matter. As always there are layers. Things are not quite black and white. 

What seems pretty clear is that Obama is no protege' of Ayers. They aren't pals. They share no political agenda. But if we're going to start judging people by the company they keep, I would look at the people a certain 72 year old politician pals around with; starting with a guy who lied to get the war he wanted, allowed prisoners to be tortured in secret prisons, engaged in warrantless wiretaps, attempted to suspend habeus corpus,  presided over the biggest increase in government and the worst financial disaster on the past 70 years. 

THAT'S the kind of guy you should be distancing yourself from. Too bad he was your president.

They eat their own...

If you've never heard of the late William F. Buckley you should poke around the internets or youtube to see examples of the mans writing and style. He was a noted conservative and if there's one thing you can say about the man it's that he was intelligent, very well spoken and had a great style. He had a rapier wit. I am not a devotee of his, nor do I think I would agree with him on many points but you have to admit its sometimes fun to see him work. Listen to him and you realize that todays talking heads and GOP surrogates are like a pack of howler monkeys.

His son Christopher, who also has a great deal of style, hell the man wears a fedora, has written a column for the National Review (a conservative magazine founded by his father) for some time but when he stated on his personal blog that he was going to vote for Obama his 'friends' turned on him like school of pihranna. Apparently his views were much sought after, until he made a choice that went against conservative dogma. He offered his resignation, which was quickly accepted. Quoting Ronal Reagan he said "I didn't leave the Republican party, it left me."

The last few weeks have seen lots of Republicans trying to distance themselves from McCain ( or rather George Bush). I don't blame them. Their party is being shot in the foot over and over by McCain. The biggest wound being the choice of Sarah Palin. Many undecided and a number of moderate Republicans are going over to Obama.

This is leaving an increasingly vocal and slightly unhinged group of die hards. The people who still insist the GWB is doing a heckava job. These people just cannot admin that their party and their president could be wrong. EVER.

Me? I've learned that it's wise to know when you are wrong. To be able to admint a mistake and to learn from it. These people? Not so much.

It's time...

After sitting back and watching as little men from little parties bark at each other I have decided that I cannot STAND anymore.

Therefore I have decided to throw my hat into the political arena. And by hat I mean a grenade.

President? BAH!! Steven Pack does not want your puny presidency! Steve Pack will be your

GOD-EMPEROR in '08

Think I'm mad?? Possibly. But click the link above to see how I am already spreading my message.

Things will be different under my all powerful administration. Very different.

The Big One

You may remember there was a bit of a kerfuffle about warrantless wiretapping a while back. Essentially, the government said that they needed to be able to intercept terrorist communications and to do that they needed the help of the phone companies. The phone companies agreed, without FISA court approval and eventually Congress gave them immunity for this breach of the law and public trust.

Nice.

But it was all okay, because we weren't really monitoring all those phone calls. We weren't listening in to people private communications. We were going to look at the HUGE number of calls made to and from the US from "Bad Guy" countries and once we had SOMETHING we would listen in. 

This, strange as it seems, makes a kind of sense. Filter the raw data. Apply some logic to it. And you might just get lucky and track down the bad guys. And George Bush could have actually pushed this through with America firmly behind it if had been A) Smart and B) Honest.  But he isn't and he wasn't. Like everything else he did he tried to cover it up with lies and BS. 

And there's the fact that unchecked surveilance powers is ALWAYS abused. Period. It doesn't matter what the law says or what your mandate or mission profile states. If you give people the power to listen into phone calls, they will. And they did. 

Now the denials begin. And again, some low-level NSA flunkies will get the axe. No one at the top had ANY IDEA this was being done. "We follow the law". Which we've heard before, haven't we?

Supposedly the program did help prevent some IED attacks, which is what it was supposed to do. But how much time was wasted listening to phone sex and monitoring Red Cross workers? I wonder how much dirt was collected on various political and military leaders? 

If you're not furious, you're not paying attention.

My head - It hurts

I used to think that John McCain was just not the right person for the job of President. A lot of pundits seem to agree that he isn't the principled reformer that he once was when he ran for the job last time.

But then I read the Rolling Stone story about him and now I just think he's another incompetent asshole who has somehow failed UP over and over again. Like Bush, but actually worse in some ways.

How can this be??? How do we allow such mediocrity rise to positions of power and authority?  Why are we even considering this man for the Presidency?

I will grant that there are two sides to any story. You can look at a mans actions and see them in different ways. At one point the article takes McCain to task for some of his actions while a POW. I will not pass judgement on a person who is being tortured and just wants the torture to stop. 

But in every other aspect of his life McCain showed himself to be a self-centered asshole. No dicipline, no aptetude, no real skills, always in the shadow of his father. A womaniser, a drinker, a gambler and a lousy pilot. I'll go easy on a guy for drinking and gambling to a degree if he has something else going for him, some skill or ability, but McCain doesn't. He cheated on and then dumped his wife after he got back from Vietnam (she wasn't pretty anymore after a bad car accident). He married a rodeo princes heiress (Hey, she was pretty and loaded) and then continued to be an asshole. It's like the experience of being a POW had zero effect of his bad habits. 

And then he went into politics.

Now you could say that this view of McCain is tainted by the people telling the stories about him but time after time McCain HIMSELF talks about what a douche he was/is. His own biography contains accounts of his ineptitude, failings and lack of qualifications. This guy graduated 4th from the bottom of his class. Any advancement he got was as a result of strings being pulled by his father. This is a fact and not a smear or conjecture.

This guy wasn't good enough to be a pilot, let alone a top gun. Any other person with his record would have been washed out. And yet people, even his opponents are careful to NEVER treat him with disrespect. He is a hero. A valiant warrior. His experiences make him qualified to lead the nation is wars. Really? How?

If you were, say Colin Powell, that might be true. Or even Norman Schwarzkopf.

But how does being a bad pilot who crashed three planes before getting shot down make you a great military leader?

Being a POW might make you think twice about mistreating prisoners, but he's compromised on that point so what else has he got? 

I'm sorry. I've gone beyond disagreeing with his policies. Now I just don't like this man. Every day the market drops I recall that he was one of the Keating Five. He's a rich fuck who hobnobbed with other rich fucks for the purpose of making those rich fucks richer by creating financial houses of cards. Awesome. 

How is this man the shining example of 'Family Values' to the socially conservative set? Why is praise heaped upon him?  In the last decade he may have worked on some good legislation. So did a lot of other Senators. It's their job. But in that he's also been a failure. He has one of the lowest attendance record of ANY Senator.

I will concede that Obama has a short track record. But that's better than a long BAD record. Obama being a christian has be concerned. McCain strikes me as not giving much of a crap about god except when it gets him votes. But Palin? She's a believer, and what's worse, she's a stupid believer. She drinks all the cool-aid. 

I've already talked about how he is officially old and a cancer survivor. 

I'm just so sick of the stupid. Can we just try doing it different? Can we try using smart people in Government? They might fail. They might fail badly. It's not like Obama is inheriting a prosperous and peaceful country. He might not be able to fix what has become so badly broken. 

But I'm willing to give him a chance.   How about you?

Dead man walkin'

I'm going to vote for Obama. There are a number of reasons for this and it's possible that you might disagree with them. That's cool.

That leaves McCain or any independent candidate you care to throw away your vote on in some kind of 'protest'.

You might like his policies, or maybe you just dislike him less than Obama. Fine.

But there's very good reason you may want to reconsider that vote for McCain. And it unfortunately has to do with him being a 71 year old cancer survivor. I suppose I am in fact being ageist. I don't want to be. I personally want to be VERY active and mentally sharp when I am Mr. McCains age and beyond. And it appears that John McCain is fairly sharp most of the time.

But most of the time is not what I want from a 72 year old President. I don't want his health to be 'passable'. If you are 71 and are running for president you better be sharp as a tack and able to go up stairs without getting winded. I would prefer it if you can wrestle a bear and recite the Treaty of Tripoli (google it) but I'll take moderately good shape.

A few days ago during the debate I noticed McCain exhibiting a minor facial tick during the debate. It didn't seem too serious but I wondered about it, especially after the many small mistakes he's made in interviews and seeming contradictions from things he's said only a few days earlier. A lot of the liberal blogs rail about him being a 71 year old cancer survivor, but that cancer was melanoma. A skin cancer. He's had several lesions removed, only the last was of any concern. I felt that perhaps they were being a bit alarmist about his health.

But the fact is that McCain only let a handful of reporters LOOK at his 1200 page medical report. They weren't allowed to make copies or take notes.

And then I learned that melonoma is one of the really fucking serious cancers. It can spread almost anywhere in the body and do it agressively. And unlike breast cancer, where the chance of recourance goes down ofter x years, the chances for recourance with melonoma increase.

Several doctors are commenting over at Americablog about this and other things they have seen recently and while a video diagnosis cannot yield any concrete evidence these doctors are VERY concerned and would advise ANY patient they saw exhibiting these symptoms to get to a hospital for a full work up including CT scan for a possible mini-stroke.

I wouldn't fly on an airplane with a pilot 10 years post melanoma who had not been followed/staged/ examined because he might seize and the FAA wouldn't let him fly as far as I know.

Would you?

I am actually concerned now for this guys health. Let's set aside that fact that Sarah Palin is in NO WAY qualified to be President. That's another issue. If McCain gets into the White House he will have access to the best doctors anywhere. But the fact is there is still no CURE for cancer, and treatment is painful and debilitating.

I'm voting for the 47 year old.

What the...?

On a completely different note, SPACEBALLS was quite possibly the worst goddamn movie ever. I have a highly developed sense of humor. I find mirth in both high and low forms of comedy. I appreciate the folksy wit of A Prarie Home Companion AND a good hit to the groin  (someone else's groin of course).

So when I say SPACEBALLS was the biggest turd of a movie I have ever seen I am not exagurating. Rossana walked out of it. I wanted those 90 minutes of life back with interrest. 

So what does Hollywood do? They make an animated series out of it. 

Wow. It just boggles the mind. I watched the trailer, just in case it had some kind of redeaming quality. But no. It's still a turd. An animated turd. I won't even link to it. 

Really Hollywood, this is the best you can do? I hate you.

Immature but gratifying...

On my way to the Michigan show last weekend I was re-routed by road construction. It's a minor aggravation but what can you do but grumble and move on.

As I cruised along at a sluggish (for Michigan) 80 mph into Detroit I noticed a few motorcycle cops.

Hmmmm. 'Must be an accident somewhere, I hope rubberneckers don't slow everything to a crawl.'

Then I saw two more, then a highway patrol car. Then another. What gives? Then I noticed that there were NO cars on the other side of the road. I looked up ahead and saw a LOT of flashing lights approaching.

And then it hit me. McCain was doing a campaign stop in Detroit. This MUST be his motorcade.


Well, it's unlikely that I'll ever meet the man. I'd love to debate policy, both foreign and domestic for hours on end, but I only had a few moments to think of how to communicate my position vis a vis his party and politics.

So I did what came naturally to any Ugly American. I pulled into the left lane, rolled down my window, leaned on the horn and gave the entire motorcade the finger.

I understand that this was childish. It was a base and low form of expression. But I don't care. It felt good. I was speaking truth to power, as the expression goes. And it's just possible that Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin were looking out the window of the "Straight Talk Express(tm)" at that moment, marveling at the post-apocalyptic grandeur that is West Detroit, and there I was.

Giving them the Finger.

Of course, the finger is a bit like a sawed off shotgun. I'm sure it hit some of the cops, the Secret Service guys and of course some of the media. I'm sorry about that. They didn't deserve it. Well, maybe some of the press guys, who haven't been able to ask Palin one damn thing so far and seem content to just go with it. But I'm sure they knew that my outburst wasn't meant for them.

I went on my merry way with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Is it just me or has the world gone mad?

John McCain just chose Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, to be his VP running mate.

I did a wikipedia search and while she seems to be a decent person and a good governor so far, I don't think she is really the person for the job. Do you? About 3 months ago I opined to my wife that the perfect running mate for McCain was Condalezza Rice. She is smart, has a crapload of experience. She is Black AND a woman. While I hate the moron she works for, she doesn't seem to be innept at her job. And with Hillary out of the race, it would present a real chance to reach out to minorities and women. It would be a bold, gutsy move.

But the Republicans just couldn't do it. They couldn't push their party THAT far. A woman VP? Maybe. A Black VP? Hmmmm. But a Black woman VP? Oh Hell no.

So with all the other qualified women to choose from, why did they choose a woman who he met once for 15 min? Why did he choose someone with SO LITTLE experience? Sure, there have been other VP's who didn't have a massive amount of experience, but Palin's resume is almost empty.

Check out the last few VP's experience:

Dick Cheney: US Rep '79; Sec of Defense under Bush I
Al Gore: US Rep '77; US Senate '85
Dan Quayle: US Rep '77; US Senate '81
George HW Bush: US Rep '67; Ambassador to the UN '71; chairman of RNC; envoy to China; director of CIA
Walter Mondale: organized HHH's US Senate campaign in '48; US Senate, '65
Nelson Rockefeller: Gov of NY... for nearly 15 years

So what is the defence of this action? What is the comeback? Well, Obama has no real experience and he's running for the Big Chair.

Ok, lets compare the life experience of the two (via a comment at FARK.com):

OBAMA:
- Studied at Occidental College, Los Angeles.
- Graduate of Columbia (B.A., Political Science exp International Relations)
- Graduate Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude).
- President, Harvard Law Review.
- Professor, Constitutional Law, University of Chicago Law School.

PALIN:
- One semester at Hawaii Pacific College
- Graduate, BS in "Communications/Journalism" at University of Idaho. (One of those degrees for people who can't handle math, science, law, physics, medicine or computers).

Well, I'd say they're about even in education, wouldn't you?

Another important measure of experience is LEADERSHIP.

OBAMA:
- Director, Developing Communities Project, Chicago, 1985-88. (Huge success story).
- This success led to: Consultant, Gamaliel Foundation.
- Editor, Harvard Law Review.
- Director, Project Vote.
- Professor, Constitutional Law, University of Chicago Law School.
- Member, Board of Directors, Woods Fund, Chicago.
- Member, Board of Directors, Joyce Foundation.
- Member, Board of Directors, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Member, Board of Directors, Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Member, Board of Directors, Lugenia Burns Hope Center
- Senator, Illinois State Senate (3 terms)
- Chairman, Illinois Senate Health and Human Services Committee
- Senator, United States Senate
- Candidate, US President

PALIN:
- Sports Reporter, KTUU Anchorage
- Member, Alaska Independence Party
- Councilmember, Wasilla Alaska
- Mayor, Wasilla City
- Governor, Alaska (~18 mos)

Oh, yeah. It's a dead heat in LEADERSHIP.

Finally, there's LIFE EXPERIENCE. It's hard to define and pin down. But a person's life experience is often a good indicator of their worldliness and sagacity. Let's compare!

OBAMA:
Born of mixed race parentage, son of a black Kenyan and a white Kansan. Endured parents' divorce, the family moved to Jakarta when he was 6. Moved to Hawaii to live with grandparents when he was 10. Excelled in school and experimented with soft drugs and alcohol. Became a reasonably talented basketball player. Moved to LA for college. Good grades got him to Columbia and Harvard. Traveled to Europe, Africa and Asia. Has now traveled extensively around the world. Married Michelle Robinson 1992. Two kids, girls. Authored two bestselling books, "Dreams of my Father" and "Audacity of Hope". Though not raised in a religious home, became an observant Christian. Has spoken about race relations and his personal experiences with eloquence and forthrightness.

PALIN:
Born in Sandpoint Idaho to white-bread middle-American parents. Moved to Alaska when an infant. Grew up in a religious Pentecostal household and remained observant. Went moose hunting with her father. A reasonably talented basketball player, she was known as "Barracuda" and led prayers before games. Won Miss Wasilla beauty pageant and placed second for Miss Alaska. Eloped with husband Todd Palin at 24. The couple have 5 kids, one of them an infant. In 2007, had her first ever trip overseas to visit Alaska National Guard troops in Kuwait and Germany. Claims to have visited Canada once. Has run a marathon and has a pilot's license.

This is the person who is a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency? Now, the President has a lot of people who help make the show run. There are layers and layers of agencies and experts that advise and prevent the POTUS from doing stupid and rash things. But that didn't stop Bush now, did it?

But if anyone tries to bring up the fact that Palin isn't the person for the job, fingers are pointed and cries of "Sexist!" arise. 'It's insulting to women!'.

What?

It doesn't matter that she's a woman at all with regard to her lack of experience.

Then there's the personal stuff. Obama won't go after it. But I'm not Obama, or anyone official. I'm just some guy with a blog. (aka 'An asshole with an opinion').

Palin gave birth 4 months ago to a child with Down Syndrome. That's a huge responsibility above and beyond the standard baby thing. Even with Dad helping out, how much time does the VP job give you to address the needs of such a child? Running the country is the most stressfull job around. It takes a lot of life out of those who hold the job. Look at Both Bush and Clinton before and after this job. They eat right, exercise and have the best healthcare of any American and the job still sucks out a lot of life.

Her 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant. She now has to pretend to be thrilled with this situation. Very few parents are thrilled to learn their 17 year old is pregnant. If only her kid had been given some better information, maybe access to contraception. But condoms are bad, aren't they? And waiting till marriage to have sex works so well, except when it doesn't. Luckily her parents have enough money to help their daughter out. Others might not be so lucky since she slashed funding for a transition house for teen mothers. Their family unit seems strong. Cool. Of course, if her daughter had been raped or the victim of incest or just not ready to be a parent Mrs. Palin believes she shouldn't have the right to get an abortion.

Yes, these things happen. Even to conservative, Christian families. Actually it happens to them more often. The difference here is that they feel they need to tell me about how they are the ones with 'values'. They are more 'moral'. Gays? They shouldn't get the right to marry. But I better not point out the hypocrisy of their unwed pregnant daughter. Their daughter will apparently 'do the right thing and get married". But what if that isn't the right thing? I know I wasn't ready to be a parent at 18. I can only imagine the pressure they are putting on the kid who fathered this child. Does that seem like the 'right thing?'.

These people believe they should be allowed to set government policy based on their 'family values' and their creepy holy book.

I know, Obama is a faithhead too. I support him despite his religion, not because of it.

I'm having a hard time believing the McCain team is this stupid. It's an obvious attempt to grab some disaffected Clinton supporters. They'll be sure to ignore Palins pro-life stance just to get a woman into the White House. They'll ignore her lack of experience completely. They'll ignore the fact that McCain wants to overturn Roe v Wade, put their sons and daughters through a few more wars and another trillion of debt.

Or they won't. Broads are funny that way.

That's a tough one...

The McCain camp is seriously asking Americans to answer the question "Are you better off now than 8 years ago?".

If I had the political hack who came up with that question in front of me, I'd punch him in the throat. What the hell kind of question is that? It's a bullshit one is what it is. I heard this one the other day and I stopped to actually consider it, and for a monet, I was suprised at the answer.

For myself, I might have to say "Yes, my life is better in some ways than 8 years ago".

• I have a home.
• I own my own business and it is profitable.
• I own a vehicle that isn't at constant risk of falling apart.

By those criteria, I should be happy to vote for McCain. Because my life is better now, isn't it? Of course, none of those things came to me as a result of George Bush's policies. If I am better off in some ways today it's because of hard work, perseverance, a great wife and a crapload of luck. And my business? I can only imagine how much better I'd be doing if the economy wasn't in the shitter. Seriously. I don't sell food or medicine, I sell a luxury item. You don't need my product to live, like say, gasoline. The question being asked completely ignores that fact that people struggle and work hard to better themselves and their lives. It ignores things that have nothing to do with who is president. It is a complete bullshit question.

And yet they get away with asking it. Look how the question is crafted. "Are YOU better off?".
It's almost clever. And it might work on some people. Dumb people, sure, but it might work. Joe Blow might just look at his life and say 'Hey, I have a wife and a kid now, I got a promotion and we live in a nice new house. Things ARE better for me now. I should vote to keep the status quo!".

The tactic might have worked if things weren't so monumentally fucked up now. Because even though I and others might be doing okay, most Americans aren't. I haven't had my job shipped overseas. I don't have a kid fighting in a pointless war. I can still afford gas and food. Does that mean my overall life is better?

But I can't really ask "Could my life be significantly better if someone else had been President for 8 years?" That's just wild speculation, isn't it? But if I may, hell yes I think my life would be much better, and so would the lives of many other people. Yes, it's hypothetical, but I don't think I'd lose much money of that bet.

The real question to ask (and the one the Republicans sure as hell aren't asking) is:

"Do you think the country is better off than 8 years ago?" I bet I know the answer to that question.

I'm voting for THIS GUY

No, not that one...

This guy.

And I'm not really voting for him, I'm sending him $10. But if if I could vote for him, I would.

Bitter much?

I like to think that I am open minded. I enjoy discussing just about any subject and have friends on both sides of the political spectrum (although most are more likely Democrats or libertarians).

So on a whim I went to both the Democrat and Republican websites. If you have a moment, you should visit them for yourself.

The Democrat site features a happy and smiling Barack Obama, with links to joining the campaign and get email newsletters. There's news, policy links etc.

Now go check the RNC website. Oddly, it doesn't currently have ONE picture of John McCain. Maybe this is because he isn't the 'official' nominee yet. I would understand that. The are however at least SEVEN pictures of Obama. Each one is as unflattering as they can use (without resorting to darkening his skin like O.J. Simpson or putting a kafiyya on his head in photoshop). Each picture is accompanied my snide jabs, accusations, innuendo and claims of democratic party disunity.

While the Dem site lists news articles about the democratic party, Obama and links to getting involved (with some links to McCain policies and history) the RNC site is ALL about what's wrong with Obama. Not the democrats, JUST Obama. He flip flops, he knows a guy who did something illegal, his promise to limit lobbyist money has loopholes, he has bad judgment. There's even a counter showing how long its been since Obama went to Iraq. Because if he went to Iraq, everything would be better. Right? There's also a link to find and contact local talk radio stations so that you can spread the word to other fearful whites about the scary black man who will rape your women and OHNOEZZ HEEZ A MUZLIM!!!

Wow. The whole site is just plain bitter.

It's not just the content of the site, as a web developer the RNC seems to be going out of their way to make the site super serious. Deep red indicating danger. Want information? You must register with the site. While the Dem site has a subtle 'Contribute' button the RNC demands "Help elect a Republican President and congress. Support the RNC! DONATE TODAY!". Do it now!! The liberal hordes are at the gate to take our guns and institute communism!

This is the first time I have visited either site this year. I'm curious to see how they both evolve during the election season. So far McCain isn't winning any awards for originality by copying Obama's slogan. And with his record of voting pretty consistently with Bush it will be hard to declare himself a maverick or a reformer.

For extra credit I also visited the Libertarian site. It's simpler, but I like their slogan "The Party of Principle" and the Green party. It's very - green.

Am I crazy here? Tell me what you think in the comments.

Is it something in the water?

As of today it appears that the primaries are over. Obama has apparently won. Which makes the actions of Hillary and her supporters all the more unfathomable. I mean, have you heard some of the crazy shit some of her supporters are saying?

Please don't think that I hate Sen. Clinton. I do not. She seems to be a competent Senator and genuinely seeks to do all she can to help America. My initial nervousness at the Democrats two main contenders being a woman and a black was more than overcome by my pride that we in fact did such a thing and that they were both worthy of the chance. I don't believe we'll be seeing a woman or a black presidential candidate coming out of the Republican party any century soon.

And so the fight was on. And as the end drew nigh something very weird happened. When Michigan and Florida were punished for breaking the rules and holding early primaries her people flipped out. And when Clinton didn't get all the delegates from a state where Obama's name wasn't on the ballot and she agree'd not to count, she and her supporters somehow came to believe that a vast DNC conspiracy was afoot. People were being disenfranchised, theri VOTE wasn't being counted. And EVERY VOTE was somehow crucial to the survival of America.

This wasn't Obama's fault.
It wasn't the DNC's fault.

The state Democratic committee's did this. It's their fault. There are rules. You were TOLD the consequences of breaking the rules. You did it anyways. And when the Rules committee decided to seat their delegates but punnish them for breaking the rules, you would have thought that we were sicking dogs and firehoses on Hillary's supporters. Some actually compared the act to slavery.

She started repeating, at every opportunity, that she was getting the most votes. Of course, you had to jump through a lot of hoops to get her numbers, but that doesn't matter because that isn't how the primaries work. It isn't a straight popularity contest. Then the Hillary supporters turned on the media. But the media has been responsible for keeping the appearence of a real race alive for months when it was clear to most that Hillary wasn't going to win. They fought to keep the race alive for the sake of ratings.

Then came the charges of sexism. Sexism? Then it became about her 'electability'.

And when the end came did she concede graciously and make the case for party unity? No. And her most ardent supporters started screaming about fighting all the way to Denver and even voting for McCain rather than Obama.

Why would you do that? What good would that serve? How would that support the agenda and ideals espoused by Ms Clinton?

And the hate coming off these people, you can almost see it. They HATE Obama, for a multitude of reasons that sound only slightly more crazy than the 'He's a Muslim who hates America because he doesn't wear a pin' stories. They are furious because they believe we will loose the general election, all because the DNC and Howard Dean have somehow calluded to shove Obama down the Democratic parties throat. But what about all the superdelegates? Were they merely puppets? And the elections where he won? He must have some support. But to hear these people talk those people are mindless sheep and Obama some kind of cult leader who will kill us all.

I understand being devoted to a candidate, but this is getting ugly. There was a time when people talked about the 'Dream Ticket' of Obama and Clinton. And on the surface it sounds like a great idea for unifying the party. But now? Not so much. I don't think it would work.

Am I biased? Maybe. But it seems to me that Barrak has consistently taken the high road during this process. Even tonight during his speach, where Cinton gave him two lines and then talked about herself and her agenda. Barrak praised her in the highest terms and did not seem to take any jabs at her at all, instead calling for unity. Clintons speech sounded like a campaign speech. In places she took swipes at Obama, although these were couched politely and in general terms. And despite loosing the primary, she said she'd hold off on deciding what to do. What to do? Do what any 1st grader would do. Shake hands with the winner and learn from your mistakes. Work towards winning for the good of everyone, not just YOUR personal cheering section. Hillary is working towards being the new Ralph Nader here. A good person who blows it for everyone just so they can prove a point.

Customer Service = Boot to the goin...

Whenever we leave for a trip abroad my wife dutifully calls her credit card companies to to let them know where we're going to avoid the cards being flagged for foreign purchases.

I usually think about doing this and then just go on the trip without any incident.

But this time I actually wrote a note and called Capital One. After identifying myself I told the nice lady that I was heading off on a German adventure. She made a note and then for some reason transferred me to another department. This lady told me that the card 'needed to be re-activated' and that I had to answer several questions.

???

Re-activated? I checked the expiration date. No that's fine. And I used the card last week for a business purchase. Ooooooookaaaaay. I'll go along because I'm a sheep.

'First question: How much is the amount of your mortgage payment each month?'
I am given 4 possible answers.

Me: "Um, I'm not sure I can answer the question"

That was obviously the wrong thing to say.

"These questions are generated by the credit agencies. To verify who you are we need you to correctly answer these questions"

Me:"Well, there are two issues here. First, my mortgage is paid automatically each month by my bank. Second, it recently changed slightly and the amount might be answer B or C. I don't know. We set it up this way so that we wouldn't have to worry about writing checks every month. You know, to lover our stress level." I give a chuckle, there is no reciprocating chuckle.

Second question:"Your mortgage is held by which company?" Several choices are offered.

At this point it feels like this is some kind of fishing expedition. Why the hell do you need this information? I ask why I am being grilled about my Mortgage and she say only that I have to answer these questions. I ask for a supervisor.

10 minutes later I get an American voice. She starts explaining that the questions are needed to verify I am who I say I am because only I would know the answers to these questions.

I inform the woman that I was told I had to 're-authorize' my already active card and that I didn't think that my mortgage was any of their damn business thank you very much. She explains that the questions are random and might be as simple as "what color is your car?". Why the hell would my credit card company know what color car I drive???? By this time I am wrapping my head in an intricate tin foil hat/brainwave shield.

She tries to explain that they are simply trying to prevent fraud. That calling the credit card company and letting them know you are heading abroad is JUST the kind of thing that filthy criminals would do. Great. If I simply take off on a trip and buy a sausage alarm bells go off at Capital One, if I TELL them I am going to Germany as a courtesy I am obviously a criminal looking to game the system.

She then goes on to tell me that I am obviously not paying close enough attention to my credit cards and that my wife could go off and open an account and leave me with massive debt.

I am not kidding.

I put a halt to the conversation. "Ask me your questions. If possible I'd rather they don't involve inquiries about my mortgage."

"Why not?"

"Because there are three institutions people don't trust any more. The Government, the banks and the credit card companies. The order these institutions are mistrusted by me is quickly being rewritten based on this call".

"How do you pay the balance on this card?"

Wow. How do I explain the convoluted process by which we pay for stock? I try to explain that charge the card but then pay off the balance every month with a home equity line of credit that doesn't (as I delicately put it) 'Rape us so badly'. That payment is made, I think, by check.

"I need specifics sir. Who's name is on the checks?"

"Jesu Christu I just don't know, my WIFE writes them. I suspect both our names are on the checks."

"And what bank is this through?"

At this point I honestly don't know. My blood pressure is dangerously high and I am under my desk with the lights off because I think someone is outside my window peaking in. Is it the mortgage company? The bank? If I get this wrong will they nuke my account? Will the credit card company call homeland security to warn them that Al Qaida is attempting to import weaponized chocolate? I take a wild guess which must have been right. She gives me a number to call if I loose my card and thanks me for choosing Capital One. I hang up the phone and then beat it against my desk several times for good measure.

Customer service.

Wow.