Once again, another rare entry by me!! Of course, I have no real excuses.
As you may have figured out, the November elections have weighed heavily on my thoughts lately. Am I disappointed? Of course. I thought people realized that Bush never proposed practical solutions to the current problems our country faces. In fact, he only attacked Kerry as being a liberal from Massachusetts. Any rational person should have realized that this added nothing to the debate. What should have Kerry said? “Your just a radical conservative from Connecticut who’s a carpetbagger living in Texas?” It doesn’t say anything!! Bush attacked Kerry for not being a descisive leader. Once again…adding nothing to the debate because Kerry is a Senator whose job as a Congressman is to compromise and politic. Shocker!
It was as if the electorate didn’t want to hear substantive debate and well articulated arguments (see John Stewart on Crossfire as a footnote to this). When Kerry articulated his thoughts clearly, many friends of mine said that it was just a politician’s blathering. Another friend said that Kerry never articulated a plan for Iraq and this person isn’t even deaf! It seemed people were aghast that Kerry criticized bush unfairly because there was a war! Shocker! A political opponent was offering a different solution/point of view to a critical problem: and in an election year! My god! Stop the presses! People didn’t vote for Kerry because he was “liberal?” So what?! And, as Kerry pointed out in the debates, it’s just a word that has no meaning when used in a derogatory fashion!? To those who voted for bush and believe Kerry was a liberal, did you actually read John Kerry’s proposals on his website? Or more importantly, did you listen to Fox News and Republicans constantly repeat the word, “liberal,” over and over again? Sigh…
What really pissed me off about the election was that the largest concern people had for voting this November was “Moral Values.” Keep in mind I’m capitalizing this term. Why was this an issue when people run for public office because of the, “I Would Run the Government Well and Better than My Opponent” issue? I’m sorry folks, but Moral Values is NOT family values or govermental ethics. It is code for an anti-homosexual/pro-choice, evangelical agenda. Please, someone inform me how these Moral Values could have prevented the death of 1200+ American troops, put people back to work, put cops on the streets, prevent the spread of AIDS, stopped the violence in Sudan, and kept down the deficit. I’m not disparaging anyone’s values, but do these values have any bearing on how the government is run?! NO! And here’s the kicker: do you really think Republicans CARE about these Moral Values? NO, because once again, it has no bearing on their political philosophy on how government is RUN! Are they stupid for espousing these Moral Values? NO! It gets them votes! Are the people who vote for these candidates stupid? NO! But unfortunately, they may not have made the connection between values and the material world. I hadn’t until someone connected the dots for me: it’s good values to put people to work! When the economy does well and the middle and lower classes have steady jobs, people are more likely to bring a child into this world! A family with a reliable income is a stronger family! A cop who can prevent crime means a stronger and safer community! A system that keeps businessman and bureaucrats accountable for illegal and unethical activity IS GOOD REAL WORLD VALUES AS APPLIED TO GOVERNMENT! Think pragmatically: can Roe v. Wade ever be overturned? Probably not! So why listen to a politician posturing about banning abortions? Additionally, does it make a difference whether two people practice monogamy? Having a stable home is a family value, and why do we listen to politicians who want to tear such homes apart? It sickens me. What I’m talking about is that no single politician can frame a debate properly unless they talk about the execution of their obligations as a Congressperson or President: and that’s not happening on either side of the aisle! Sigh…
What does this so-called shift to the right mean (although that’s debatable)? It means I can have fun shifting the rhetorical backlash to the left, and with my swift judo like abilities, turn it back onto the right. Since I’ve gone long on this post, let me give you a preview of my next post: The right has lambasted the left for it’s political correctness. Well, now it’s my turn to lambaste the right for their spiritual correctness. Ha ha ha! I bet you can’t wait for me to explain that one!

First of all, I want to give a shout out to Dave Sweeney and Ryan! About 30 of us went to the Mount Pleasant Winery on Saturday (Craig went too!) and we had a blast! The weather was great, we played some cards, ate tons of food, drank wine, and then watched the first World Series game.

Speaking of the World Series….ok that’s enough of that. Just remember, the Cards won the National League title and what happened with the Red Sox was just a bad mirage.

On to politics…

Remember the news about 360-380 tons (~770,000 lbs) of RDX and HMX explosives? Quick reminder: The Iraqi Government and IAEA (International Nuclear Inspectors) said the stuff was missing from Al QaQaa, the largest ammo depot in Iraq for such things, and was probably looted. The week before the war around mid-March 2003, IAEA put their seal and lock on the explosives then left town. The administration said these explosives were probably moved by Saddam during the invasion (which lasted three weeks) because the army divisions who were there on April 3rd and 10th didn’t find the explosives. Is there evidence to the contrary? Of course. The 3rd infantry who was there first said they didn’t search extensively but found a white powdery substances that wasn’t a chemcial weapon (Globalsecurity.org) and didn’t leave a security detail as per orders, the 101st said they didn’t do an extensive search on the place (and the NBC emdedded reporter, Lai Leng Jew, said as much, too ) and didn’t leave a security detail because Baghdad was where they were needed, the Iraqi manager of the site said the explosives were still there post-invasion, a pentagon offical said they were there post-invasion in a report via the AP, and lastly, a week after the 101st left Al QaQaa, an embedded reporter from KSTP(MN) GOT THE STUFF ON CAMERA (here and here).

Want more? Read this! (This is sub-filed under “Holy Shit!”) David Kay, the man in charge of searching for WMD in Iraq, was on CNN.

Here’s former weapons inspector David Kay on Aaron Brown this evening delivering the news …(a little more of my commentary after this)

Aaron Brown: We saw at the top of the program there is new information to factor in. Pretty conclusive to our eye. So we’ll sort through this now. Take the politics out of it and try and deal with facts with former head UN weapons inspector, US weapons inspector, David Kay. David, it’s nice to see you.

David Kay: Good to be with you, Aaron.

AB: I don’t know how better to do this than to show you some pictures have you explain to me what they are or are not. Okay? First what I’ll just call the seal. And tell me if this is an IAEA seal on that bunker at that munitions dump?

DK: Aaron, about as certain as I can be looking at a picture, not physically holding it which, obviously, I would have preferred to have been there, that is an IAEA seal. I’ve never seen anything else in Iraq in about 15 years of being in Iraq and around Iraq that was other than an IAEA seal of that shape.

AB: Was there anything else at the facility that would have been under IAEA seal?

DK: Absolutely nothing. It was the HMX, RDX, the two high explosives.

AB: OK now, I’ll take a look at barrels here for a second. You can tell me what they tell you. They, obviously, to us just show us a bunch of barrels. You’ll see it somewhat differently.

DK: Well, it’s interesting. There were three foreign suppliers to Iraq of this explosive in the 1980s. One of them used barrels like this, and inside the barrels a bag. HMX is in powder form because you actually use it to shape a spherical lens that is used to create the triggering device for nuclear weapons. And particularly on the videotape, which is actually better than the still photos, as the soldier dips into it, that’s either HMX or RDX. I don’t know of anything else in al Qaqaa that was in that form.

AB: Let me ask you then, David, the question I asked Jamie. In regard to the dispute about whether that stuff was there when the Americans arrived, is it game, set, match? Is that part of the argument now over?

DK: Well, at least with regard to this one bunker, and the film shows one seal, one bunker, one group of soldiers going through, and there were others there that were sealed. With this one, I think it is game, set, and match. There was HMX, RDX in there. The seal was broken. And quite frankly, to me the most frightening thing is not only was the seal broken, lock broken, but the soldiers left after opening it up. I mean, to rephrase the so-called pottery barn rule. If you open an arms bunker, you own it. You have to provide security.

AB: I’m — that raises a number of questions. Let me throw out one. It suggests that maybe they just didn’t know what they had?

DK: I think you’re quite likely they didn’t know they had HMX, which speaks to lack of intelligence given troops moving through that area, but they certainly knew they had explosives. And to put this in context, I think it’s important, this loss of 360 tons, but Iraq is awash with tens of thousands of tons of explosives right now in the hands of insurgents because we did not provide the security when we took over the country.

AB: Could you — I’m trying to stay out of the realm of politics. I’m not sure you can.

DK: So am I.

AB: I know. It’s a little tricky here. But, is there any — is there any reason not to have anticipated the fact that there would be bunkers like this, explosives like this, and a need to secure them?

DK: Absolutely not. For example, al Qaqaa was a site of Gerald Bull’s super gun project. It was a team of mine that discovered the HMX originally in 1991. That was one of the most well-documented explosive sites in all of Iraq. The other 80 or so major ammunition storage points were also well documented. Iraq had, and it’s a frightening number, two-thirds of the total conventional explosives that the US has in its entire inventory. The country was an armed camp.

AB: David, as quickly as you can, because this just came up in the last hour, as dangerous as this stuff is, this would not be described as a WMD, correct?

DK: Oh absolutely not.

AB: Thank you.

DK: And, in fact, the loss of it is not a proliferation issue.

AB: Okay. It’s just dangerous and its out there and by your thinking it should have been secured.

DK: Well look, it was used to bring the Pan Am flight down. It’s a very dangerous explosive, particularly in the hands of terrorists.

AB: David, thank you for walking me through this. I appreciate it, David Kay the former head US weapons inspector in Iraq.
(end transcript)

What does this mean? Whether or not you think invading Iraq was right or wrong, the evidence from the beginning of the war to now DIRECTLY POINTS TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S INCOMPETENCE. Not only were there not enough troops to stop general looting, but they didn’t have enough troops to stop munition dumps from being looted. This isn’t a “Whoops!” Any idiot intelligence official knew where the munitions in Iraq were! Doesn’t that freak you out that “Iraq had two-thirds of the total conventional explosives that the US has in its entire inventory?!” Al QaQaa is just the tip of the iceberg!!!! Blatant incompentence. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLANNED FOR!! Support our troops! Vote BUSH OUT OF OFFICE!

(BTW, to the religious right friends of mine, Bush tolerates gay civil unions–oops! There goes your “moral” high ground. Well, any high ground was abandoned once you supported Bush and his war…A vote against W would be the right thing to do!)

I wrote this to some friends who are conservatives and are supporting Bush….

One thing people are confused about this next election is that it’s perceived to be about liberalism vs. conservativism. It is not. It’s about a progressive view of government vs. neo-conservatives. My thesis in this post, Bush is NOT conservative.

Traditional conservatives espouse 3 things (as a recent add in the NYT from 20+ GOP officials/governors).
1) Fiscal Responsibilty:
It seems that the last 12 years has born this out: The Democratic party is dedicated to fiscal reponsibility (dem pres. surpluses vs. republican pres. deficits). No one can refute this. It seems our country works best with a conservative house, moderate senate, and progessive president.

If you are an avowed conservative: has the Bush administration delivered? A 500 billion dollar YEARLY deficit is anything but that: the tax cut has not created one job (as there is still a deficit of 1 million jobs) and if the tax code wasn’t touched, (even with 9/11, economic downturn, and that horrible strategic error called Iraq) the deficit MIGHT have been kept under 50 billion and that’s being generous. No president has ever espoused a tax cut during a time of “war,” and any red blooded conservative should be pissed off. This is ESPECIALLY egregious because Republicans control both houses in Congress (i.e. the purse strings).

2) Conservation:
All Republicans from Theodore Roosevelt to that cold blooded bastard Nixon were still environmentalists (Reagan’s and Bush I’s legacy is a milquetoast on this) and have been rather progressive in this regard. They realized the importance of having a healthy environment by signing into law such things as the National Park Service (TR) and the Clean Water Act (Nixon). In this regard, a traditional conservative believes in conservation. As the Bush administration has clearly shown is that they have no regard for the environment and science in general. By using oil company “research” on greenhouse gases to halting higher standards of mercury emissions from power plants to the Orwellian named “Healthy Forests Initiative” (which will actually be used to cut down old growth trees and in fact destroy vast tracts of wilderness in order to “save it”). This administration is not conservative in that regard. Any red blooded conservative should be pissed off.

3) Small Government:
This seems to be the bread and butter of the conservative mantra (which is intrinsically linked to fiscal responsibility). Under Bush II, government spending has gone up. It even went up under Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton (but Clinton was progressive and not conservative). The number of people employed by the federal government has gone up. A true conservative believes in shrinking the government in all regards. There are three forms of this: a) Letigously shrinking government: like keeping the Bill of Rights/Constit. simple, upholding civil rights like privacy/search and seizure, and keeping regulations at a minimum. b) keeping beaurocracy small and non-invasive c) financial responsibility from a smaller government thereby lowering the tax burden. All of these things are perfectly legimate political ideas and true conservatives have espoused these ideas (I don’t necessarily disagree with this). Unfortunately, the Bush administration has failed in this regard too. By passing the Patriot Act in the middle of the night on a Friday, the administration has invaded our privacy by making it legal to track our library/bookstoore habits. This administration has suspended the writ of habeus corpus for Americans, like Jose Padilla, by calling them “enemy combatants.” (Certainly, these Americans are shady characters, but they are still U.S. citizens who deserve rights: if you want to call them traitor, then look in the Constitution because even traitors have rights Article III, sec. 3). And don’t get me started on prison abuse….

Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, the idea of “big government” is a misnomer. Republicans believe in “small government” when it comes to social programs, but when it comes to the military, Republicans certainly believe in “Big Government.” Democrats believe in the power of federal social programs and especially during the post-Cold War, a smaller military. Neither *political party* believes in small government. Personally, I don’t know how a bigger military could have prevented 9/11. With strong allies around the world, why have a big military? With a healthy intelligence community (an egregious oversight of both Bush I and Clinton: after the Cold War, intelligence spending went down because many didn’t realize the new threat) why do we need a big military to fight terrorism when when it’s boundaryless? Terrorism’s problem is universal, but our adminstration, for some reason, thinks it’s our sole burden and is unwilling to work with other countries. Why? They don’t realize (and neither does Mark) that our country doesn’t need to convince the ultra-extremists that we’re O.K., our country needs to reach out to those who *might* sympathize with the extremists. These normal people who live in the Middle East have no reason to believe EITHER SIDE and they want change but don’t know who to trust. Well, Bush II gave them a reason to align with the extremists because of Iraq. Why should Joe Arab believe us when we invaded a country without SOUND PROOF. We gave them no reason to believe us! Attacking an oil rich country is EXACTLY what Bin Laden wanted (btw, where is he?), and those moderates are more in Bin Laden’s camp. That’s an utter failure.

One other misconception is that taxes will go up under Kerry and/or that your taxes will go down with Bush. Wrong. For us in the middle class, there are other taxes that we carry an undue burden. When you go to pay the taxes on your car,house, or food, that’s a state and local tax. In fact, state and local taxes have gone UP because the federal government can no longer send money to municipalities for stuff like police officers, firemen, and education: the states/cities have to make up for this lost revenue or cut services. Why? See conservative principal #1 and how there is now no fiscal responsibility!! In fact, the tax burden (as a percentage of total federal income taxes paid) of the middle class has expanded under Bush!

Lastly, the media is NOT liberal (usually this refers to broadcast media). Republicans have been crying about this for the last two decades. It’s a simple method used by coaches in sports: it’s called working the ref. They yell and yell and insult until the ref/media cowers. Look at any of the broadcast media: they’re owned buy huge coorporate interests!! Huge coorporate interests that overwhelming donate to the Republican party (opensecrets.org)! Look how GE, Westinghouse, and News Inc donate to the Republicans. Look at the coorporations that ADVERTISE on the networks: they overwhelming donate to the Republican party. There are only three categories that donate overwhelmingly to Democrats: Labor, Lawyers, and Entertainment. I hate to burst your bubble, but Entertainment, does NOT include GE and Westinghouse and certainly does NOT include the newsrooms (plus, look at some of the news orgs inside the Entertainment subsection: they give about 50-50 to the parties with Fox News…well you know how they lean). Here is the most profound thing you’ll hear from this paragraph: THE NEWS MEDIA IS NOT LIBERALLY BIASED, BUT PROFIT BIASED (thanks Al). They will report anything that will turn a profit (and not report if it will hurt the bottomline). What other proof do I have? CNN/FOX, et al, did not question our war in Iraq!! Where was this so-called liberal media when they never really questioned the motives and most importantly, THE EVIDENCE of Iraqi connections to Bin Laden and WMD?!?! I don’t want to toot my own horn, but before the war began: I REALIZED THAT IRAQI WMD AND AL-QUAEDA CONNECTIONS WERE A RED HERRING!! Look at my website: click on the “Journal Link” then go down to the March 12/13, 2003. If you had been reading international news in addition to blogs and the Knight-Ridder news service (Reuters, AP, and the Rev. Moon owned UPI also failed to report this stuff), you would have realized that there was no nuclear program, that there were no connections to Al-Qaeda, and that if there were bio/chem weapons in Iraq, why didn’t he use them against us in the last 13 years? WHY DIDN”T THEY ASK HARD QUESTIONS AND GIVE THESE PITIFUL REASONS FOR WAR ANY SCRUTINY? The thing is: They didn’t!!! How dare you accuse the media of being liberal when they utterly failed to do their job and became a mouthpiece of the administration.

I will say this: I have respect for the traditional conservative political philosophy because it’s well developed and cohesive (I disagree with some of its tenets, but that’s…just politics), BUT I GIVE NO QUARTER TO THOSE WHO SUPPORT NEO-CONSERVATIVES. People who support this president and its administration are intellectually lazy or are voting for Bush out of personal gain. I don’t know who you are voting for or if you’re voting: just remember George Bush is NOT a conservative. If you want an alternate view, and in my opinion, a more comprehensive vision of our future, go to johnkerry.com and look up his views. Also, listen to the media with a better understanding of their motive, and take Republican/Democrat smears with a grain of salt. However, I categorically say that those who vote for Bush are WRONG !!! A traditional conservative SHOULD NOT support this administration. Thank you. Maybe next time, I will tell you why voting for Kerry is RIGHT for a conservative..

So, am I suffering from writers block or have I developed some aversion to updating my website? Don’t quite know.
I know I’m very upset with the current state of America (that’s no shock there). I’m pissed off at the administration, I’m pissed of at the so-called “liberal media,” and I’m pissed at people who are continually suckered by the previous two. Everyday I’m outraged and everyday I want to write about it, but I don’t express it here due to the repetitive nature my posts would take.
I cancelled my newspaper subscription today. I used to be an avid newspaper reader, but it’s not interesting to me anymore. It glosses over the real problems both at home and abroad on top of the fact that it’s always a day late: I get my news online now and analysis follows about 10 minutes after the news breaks. The only reason I kept my subscription was the comics. It’s the only part I read daily as it was an effortless compilation of daily humor.
What do I do? I read blogs like Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, and Wonkette (the last being a funny political/social gossip page). I also still read Salon and the news wires on Yahoo. Through these, I can follow links to articles and documents that provide a much sharper view of events than broadcast and dead tree news can provide (also see my January 21, 2004 entry about this subject).
Well, that’s all I have for now, and I’ll give everyone an update on my life next time around (unfortunately, not much is happening!)

Hey, and welcome back to my rarely updated website! Whoo hoo! Not much is going on…my Aunt and Uncle from Maryland are visiting! I haven’t seen them yet as they’re staying at Mom’s, but they’ll be headed my way soon and I’ll be going out to see them too! Also, the weather has been great and I’ve been out rollerblading. I’ve also had the opportunity to air out my apartment and here’s a little formula: (1.bachelor + 9.closed_windows + bachelor_cleaning_habits + many_Del_Taco_runs) x 160 days = FUNK! Yup, it takes a real man to admit it, but it’s time for spring cleaning–I just need to find someone to do it for me…ok, I’ll do it!
Now on to serious stuff: Did you watch bush’s press conference last night!? First observation: WHERE IS HELEN THOMAS? If you don’t know who she is, she’s the most senior member of the White House Press Corp who has covered all presidents since JFK, and as a courtesy, the first question goes to her. Since I didn’t see her and given that bush’s press conferences are as rare as a full beer in Pat Sumerall’s refrigerator (get better Pat! I hope your new liver works out!), I thought she had passed away. After a little research at www.dead-or-alive.org, I was shocked that she was still alive! Where is she? Apparently she’s been asking too many tough questions and the White House moved her to a less prominent seat: namely, not in the first 10ish rows (don’t know her exact location, but traditionally, she sat front row in the closest seat to the aisle). Why is the hard hitting Helen Thomas put in the back of the bus? Let bush speak for himself when he couldn’t answer a question asking to name a mistake he has made since 9/11:

I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. John, I’m sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could’ve done it better this way or that way. You know, I just — I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet.

And ending his response…

I’m confident I have [made mistakes], but you put me on the spot and I’m not quick enough on my feet to come up with one.

THIS MAN IS OUR PRESIDENT? I’m embarrassed! Why? It wasn’t a press conference! It was a horrible audition for a high school play! Reporters had submitted questions to him BEFOREHAND and he wasn’t able to answer those in a coherent fashion! It was obvious that he was following a script of talking points!!! And several reporters had the audacity to ask unscripted questions *gasp*!! And it wasn’t only that question. He refused to take any accountability for 9/11 and the failings in Iraq! Any rational person can believe that he is not responsible for 9/11, but it happened on his watch and at least he could say like any good leader, “The buck stops here!” .sigh.
My two favorite questions (paraphrased) were “Why do you have to appear with VP cheney before the 9/11 commission (when Bill Clinton and Al Gore appeared seperately)?” His response (not paraphrased), “Because it’s a good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9-11 commission is looking forward to asking us. And I’m looking forward to answering them. Let’s see. Hold on for a minute. Let’s see. Oh, Jim [ergo: he moved on to the next question].” No shit Sherlock! If you’re in the same room, both of you will be able to answer the questions. But why does cheney need to hold your hand? He couldn’t answer it! Bush is uninformed about his own administration! Did you see him look down at his crib notes?! (I’ll give him crib notes for remembering reporter’s name, but he looked down during answers!).
The last question was asked by some dude from NPR (paraphrased), “Since these press conferences are so rare, do you think you’ve failed as a communicator?” His response (paraphrased), “er uh…uh…er..uh..er I don’t know. I mean…” Pathetic. Pathetic. Remember folks: Don’t Drink and Vote! You might vote for bush!

Congrats are in order for my oldest sister, Beth, and my brother-in-law, Josh: Megan Elizabeth was born late Monday night on March 15th! She was six pounds and five ounces! I’m an uncle for the third time!!
Click here and and here for pictures! What a little cutie!!
I would have a slick page for the pictures, but right now, I’m having a hard time getting my html editing software working and I don’t really feel like coding at this moment.
And speaking of pictures…I have pictures from the FIRST competition too. I was head ref! Click here and here to see me in action. Click here to see the arena from high above. The whole event was very rewarding and with all of the running I did, exhausting!
Oh, it may say, “Thursday,” above, but it’s actually 11pm Wednesday. That means: It’s still St. Patrick’s Day! Since I took the day off, here’s some pictures of the Dogtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade! It’s Elvis O’Presley! Lots of people showed up on this overcast day!

Update 3/24/04: I am too outraged (at Bush and co) by Richard Clarke’s, the former Counter-Terrorism head, 9/11 Commission testimony that I honestly don’t know where to start (or care to spellcheck!). I picked up his book, “Against All Enemies,” and the first chapter was gripping!! It detailed how, as crisis manager in the White House (which was evacuated except for crisis management staff), he was able to manage governmental continuity during the emergency. You won’t find a person who will disparage this account (on the right or left). He acted bravely and admirally. But now that he’s been critical of Bush’s “Iraqification of 9/11,” the administration wasted no time in attacking a fellow Republican who served Ronald Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton! Clarke is dumbfounded as to why Bush is running on the war on terror’s execution because Bush botched it by going after Iraq! Bush and the Republicans are shameless!
Here’s the quote of the day by Mr. Clarke:

“Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. I failed you. We tried hard, but we failed you…I ask for your understanding, and your forgiveness.”

Clarke is the first Bush administration official, past and present, to publicly apologize for 9/11: he holds himself accountable! He is a class act and deserves our respect. I recommend either reading his book, go to C-Span to view his testimony (or read the transcript), or go to NPR.org to listen to his interview earlier today.

*Note: All the picture links in this post were pointing to a local file…I need to fix this, eventually.  Kooz April 5, 2008

What an exciting day! I’m head referee for the FIRST Robotics, St. Louis Regional competition! It’s a competition where high schoolers design then build a real robot and they play a game that changes every year (but is played on a field of similar dimensions). If you have a chance, check out The FIRST website and the St. Louis FIRST website! It’s a terrific organization!

In other news, I wish I could listen to Al Franken’s new radio show which will start to air at the end of March. It’ll be called “The O’Franken Factor!” Ha!!! From a story today at Salon.com (3/12/04, Geraldine Sealy): “Bill, I want you to sue us,” Franken said, referring to a case last year in which a judge threw out Fox’s request to ban Franken from using the slogan “Fair and Balanced” on the cover of his book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.” The ruling earned tons of publicity for Franken, who said Wednesday: “We’re going to be baiting (O’Reilly) as much as we can.”

God Bless Al Franken!

Not much new to report! Everything is going well. My computer is running well! The problem was the motherboard…the motherboard I got now is very cool, and I’m happy I went with it! (It’s an Asus!). However, I won’t have DSL for a while, and unless I’m at work (which I am now–it’s 7pm!), I’ll be cut off from the digital world. But don’t worry: I have the newspaper and some cool off-line (aka. “normal”) games to keep me occupied.

Oh, did I mention how much I respect our president? Good, because I don’t. I find it sickening that our president will take an issue like gay marriage and try to score political points by amending our Constitution! Not only am I for equal rights for two consenting adults who love each other and want to have a lifetime monogamous commitment, but I’m against the legalization of discrimination. Why? “Gay Marriage” is a misnomer! There is no such thing as gay marriage because as I stated, marriage is the union of two people committed to a lifetime loving relationship. Now what despoils the institution of marriage more? Two committed homosexuals or any drunk moron getting married by a fat Elvis impersonator on a moments notice? What despoils marriage more: two committed women who want visitation rights when one gets ill or that the divorce rate is hovering at 50% (and that the divorce rate is higher in the Bible Belt!). I think it’s hypocritical of conservatives and the Religious Right to bemoan the largess and intrusiveness of government into our private lives and support this amendment at the same time.
If you like irreverent satire, I recommend this: Proposed Amendments based on Biblical verses. Now the Good Book shouldn’t be mocked (a good kind hearted ribbing is ok), but at the same time, so called conservative Christians should take their “literal interpretation in moderation” (an oxymoron?): if they want marriage defined on Biblical standards, then it should be all or nothing. The “this is how marriage has been for the last millenia” is misleading. Marriage has been defined differently by different people during different eras (even modern eras!).

Well, Wesley Clark is out of the race. It’s very disappointing to me seeing how I was an early supporter who started the Draft Movement’s St. Louis chapter. Wes is a great man who deserves better, but in these times of political turmoil, people felt more comfortable with established political figures like Kerry and Edwards. Surprisingly, I’m fine with that assessment and I’ll support either candidate!
What lessons did I learn? Politics is tricky business: it’s one part salesmanship, one part organization, one part loyalty/dedication, and all bullshit. Ha! Actually, b.s. should be “one part magic” but everyone knows there’s a lot of b.s. in politics.
I’ve gained valuable contacts in political circles, and I’ve learned a bit about myself: I could be a bit more organized. Usually, I employ the “oh, I’ll remember I put it there” style–others call it “active brain organizing.” Whatever it’s called, I’ll be aware of my cognitive hierarchies from now on. Also, I’m a lot shyer than I thought when it comes to one-on-one interactions–maybe I need to stop using terms like cognitive hierarchies. ha! But, put me in front of a group, and I’m as snug as a bug. I thought I was only shy with beautiful women–which, btw, I still am. However, lately, I’ve been getting over this shyness, and I’m having a much better time!
Computer Update Nothing new. It’s still not working even though I tried some new troubleshooting tricks…time to return some stuff. :[

I hope everyone enjoyed my last post. I thought having a hand-written blog would be innovative…but then reality hit. I have piss poor handwriting (and keep in mind all the bandwidth an archive of handwritten posts would require, not to mention the load times). Don’t worry…it might make another cameo!
Work is going well! And if you read my last post, the upgrade bug bit me in the ass–sorry Mom, er, posterior. I got a p4 2.8ghz processor with 1gb of RAM. I haven’t installed it yet because I haven’t received the shipment of RAM. I’m giddy like little kid before Christmas morning!
I also went shopping the other day for a pair of shoes only to leave the store with three pairs and a cashmere sweater. I’m not a clothes horse, but I really needed shoes and well…I’ve never owned a cashmere sweater before (it was 65% off!). I wore the sweater and the shoes on my date last night. Personally, the clothes are very unimportant–what was important was that my date was very cool and tons of fun…even though after dinner, I thought I was going to a karoake bar. But it turned out that the bar, Baileys (may it rest in peace) had turned into the South Side’s Chimichanga Hut (or something like that). Ooops! My bad! I also have to say that I love how icy it is in St. Louis! And I’ll leave it at that…
Update: 1/10/03 [SIC 4/5/08] As the philosopher, Murphy Lee, begins his paean, “What da hook gonna be?” he posits this tidbit: “What goes up, must come down” Last night I came down, my giddy inner-child turned into a miffed, butt-crack flashing plumber as I leaned over my disabled computer trying to figure out why my upgraded computer wouldn’t boot (for you techies, I’m getting the dreaded beep codes, aka: “Baby Talk”). Sigh…I’ll probably have to go through the return merchandise rigamaroo. But seriously, I’m not getting too worked up about this…it happens and it’s no big deal (especially in lieu of other folk’s problems).