End yourself!

The Senate confirmed Geitner. I actually sat through Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, go on about all the economic woes besieging our great nation. It made me want to commit suicide. How the hell are we going to ever get out of this hole?

Geitner has been praised up and down mostly by Democrats such as the aforementioned Dodd and Harry Reid of Nevada. When the vote happened almost all Democrats voted for him. All (not including Al Franken. He's still here in Minnesota, twiddling his thumbs) but 3 Democrats voted against the confirmation: Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Robert Byrd
from West Virginia, the oldest and cootiest coot in the Senate and the Dean (I think Byrd is lonely now that Ted Stevens is a criminal and Ted Kennedy is in the process of kacking Both named Ted...). Eleven Republicans also voted against him. This includes John McCain, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar and Arlen Specter. These are republicans Obama wants to bring into his sphere of influence. There may already be problems. The margin 60-34 which according to Bloomberg news, is the smallest margin for confirmation of Treasury Secretary. Wow. Someone had little to nothing to do.

Seriously, I'm gonna start using "Honest Mistake" on my tax forms pre-emptively. If they come after me for soing them badly I won't even fall back on ill-written tax code. I'll just invoke the Geitner doctrine. During the White House Press Briefing one astute reporter asked that if say Wesley Snipes, a notorious tax evader, were to have been nominated, would he too have seen his tax case handled with kid gloves? Compelling... Nah! Now that Geitner's done we got Daschle to look forward to now. Oh, break out the popcorn!

On to other things. Rod Blagojevich continues his media blitz. He is now officially a broken record. He need only record himself citing the 6th Amendment, presumption of innocence and the non-contextual snippets of recordings of him speaking with censored expletives. Is there anyone that is convinced that this man is actually telling the truth? He's a democrat so if he can't even get to believe in his so-called good intentions, then he's as good as dead.

Lets make something clear: Impeachment trials are not Judicial Trials. There is no burden of proof. FOR ANYONE! Its a political process that has more to do with viability and public trust than aftual verdits of guilt! It basically amounts to the Illinois State Senate believing that they have cause enough to show him the door.

Blagojevich knows he's toast. He's doing this blitz with several possibilities in mind. 1) He's tryin to taint the prospective jury pool. This may or not be the case. He is a former prosecuter who has gone on record saying that he is censoring himself from talking about details of a pending criminal trial. He has also commented that he thinks this a good choice. I concede that he may honorable on this issue. Or is he? The fact remains, when the public has little to no access to the evidence, we can't verify what he is or isn't leaking. He may well be telling enough to taint future jury pools and just enough.

2) He's gunning for a book deal. Everyone can write a book these days. Someone gave Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris all book deals so its not much of a stretch to imagine that scenario. Sarah Palin, aka Moose Hunter Barbie, is hoping to snag a $11M book deal. (Really. She really is a self-important hack.) I can see that possibility. By upping the ante and taking his case to the American People, likening himself to Gandhi, MLK and Nelson Mandela and referring to his trial as a an West shootout, he has created a very important ingredient in National politics and public relations: a brand. You need a brand to sell peanut butter and you also need one to sell yourself to the public whether that be food, a tv, a talk show, President or a failed but colorful former governor from one of the most politically corrupt states in the Union. Yeah...

3) He really is pleading his case to the people of Illinois. Realizing that most state news outlets will be more concerned with the Impeachment trial proceedings, he got the last outlet left to him. National Media needs something else besides the latest Obama event like going to the bathroom and kissing his daughters good night. But if he thinks this may actually win the people over, good luck! I consider myself an Illinoisan. Its where my hometown is (Bloomington-Normal, just northeast of Springfield). I still have family living there. On election night, I had a long conversation with my sister, Mary. I would describe my sister as a casual politico. She's not a junkie, an addict or a fanatic such as I am. But even she hated Blago then and knew of plenty of people who wanted him out of office... in November! You think finding out that he might also be guilty of corruption, abuse of power and... oh yeah.... extortion. Keep digging!

Besides, he's got two daughters and his wife lost her job as a fundraiser. And she's also named in the probe of the Governor. Turns out
there are questions about her receiving commissions from state contractors and Rod's political supporters when she was still engaged in her real estate business. I think the Blagojeviches should take a hint from the Gov's aforementioned westerns and get the hell out of Dodge!

Thats it from here. Its freaking cold as hell and I think I have frostbite on my toes. No joke. If they turn black and fall off I'll blog about and include snazzy pictures. Till then!

Let it go, Ann...

It's been awhile.

I have have some of the worst 6 months of my life. I worked a despicable job, had a disastrous love affair, health problems and an abysmal semester. And along the way there was an election. We got now President Barack Obama. I really don't have to talk about this. I think there has been more words written about him in the past year than the entirety of literature proceeding his candidacy.

What I do want to bring up is someone I cannot stand: Ann Coulter. I can't stand her mostly because she is the reason Conservatives are so easy to mock (and rile). There have been great SNAFUs on her part such as claiming that Jews needed to be perfected and that women should not be able to vote because they don't understand money. But recently she posted in her own column a rather interesting tidbit.

When will the first reporter ask President Obama to admit that he has made mistakes? Try: Never.

No, that question will disappear for the next four years. It will be replaced by the new question for conservatives on every liberal's lips these days: Do you want Obama to succeed as president?

Answer: Of course we do. We live here, too.

But merely to ask the question is to imply that the 60 million Americans who did not vote for Obama are being unpatriotic if they do not wholeheartedly endorse his liberal agenda.


I take issue with the question "Do you want Obama to succeed as president?" The reason I take issue with this is because of the question that was asked to liberals about the war in Iraq. "Don't you want the war to succeed?" We argued that this was a loaded question. It was a question that was just as bad as "When did you stop beating your wife?" These are unanswerable questions. And Miss Coulter has a very short memory to not remember this fact. She also shows that her sense of humor is pretty much non-existent.

In addition, Miss Coulter also went on to rail about liberals:

Liberals always have to play the victim, acting as if they merely want to bring the nation together in hope and unity in the face of petulant, stick-in-the-mud conservatives. Meanwhile, they are the ones booing, heckling and publicly fantasizing about the assassination of those who disagree with them on policy matters.


Doth mine ears heareth whining? Whining is something that Ann Coulter has turned into an artform. It has enabled her to sell trite little books calling people names and laying down baseless claims and smug arrogance that the radical right laps up. As educated as she is, she uses more anecdotal evidence than facts. Or she does the most dangerous thing: generalizes. These leads to stereotypes and prejudices. This leads me to make the following statement.

Politicsm. Racism is, God willing, slowly receding though far from being history. It is not acceptable among polite society. But hating people of another party is completely acceptable. Telling lies about that party, those ideas and those who represent that party are perfectly fine. But no less disgusting. I call it politicsm for now due to the lack of another word.

As long as Ann Coulter uses unsubstantiated claims and views on liberals, or anyone for that matter, she will not have any respect from this Libertarian. She is only helping herself I might add. The arguments she uses against liberals can and do apply to everyone.

[Liberals] viciously attack all while wailing that they are the true victims.
but also states in the same text, Guilty, that
Liberals seem to have hit upon a reverse Christ story as their belief system. He suffered and died for our sins; liberals make the rest of us suffer for sins we didn’t commit.


People portray themselves as victims while viciously attacking the other side because, um, that's what humans do. We do in arguments with family, coworkers, the legal system... Ann Coulter seems to have a problem: self-awareness. Does she realize she is guilty herself of the very things she is angry about? Or would that be right up there with money and be too difficult for her to understand? She doesn't seem capable of turning the other cheek instead she is on the offensive with obvious defensive motivations. I do think if she is that hypocritical then her book titles like Slander, Treason, Godless, Guilty... actually fit her...?

I don't know how Andrew Stein was capable of dating her. Once.

After all that, I have nothing more to add. Listen to Democracy Now! for today for some stuff I really dig. David Korten is someone I can so get behind! He has great ideas that are congruent and complimentary to many of my political ideas.

You can check out Ann Coulter's column (if you must) here. You can also subscribe to Democracy Now! if you'd like.

More Oil. NOW!

Saudi Arabia announced in the past hour that they will increase production of oil. The amount would increase to 9.7 million barrels in July. It is currently 9 million flat. Also, the Saudis have said that by the end of the year, they will be producing 12.5 million barrels.

On paper this sounds like relief. But it should help a little by easing the demand. Saudi Arabia has also said they would like to create an OPEC fund of $1B for loans to third world nations such as African nations.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a very recent candidate for candidate for President, who also thinks the Surge didn't work in Iraq, thinks that increased oil production is not the windfall some are hoping it to be. In the short term it may be a relief, but in the long term, he's right. We need to continue focus on developing energy systems the run on renewable resources because its only a band-aid.

Oil Companies have used many tactics throughout the past century such as buying new technogies and suppressing them. There have also been anecdotes about murder being used to suppress technology (Think I'm making it up? Nope. That this guy might be. I doubt it.). What we really have is an energy monopoly. Not very libertarian. It results in restriction from a free and open market. I can't walk down to the local dealership and get a car that doesn't run off gasoline. Hybrids regardless of their fanfare, still utilize oil at some point during the operation. Hydrogen requires a mot of oil to create the hydrogen fuel to run those cars. Why do you think George Bush was in favor of that particular alternative energy?

I want to point out that with Bush's declarations that Congress needs to open up ANWAR and other areas for exploitation, it seems rather stupid. Here's Why: Bill Richardson brought up something that has only been mentioned in the past week. Oil companies hold leases to many places throughout the country where they can drill for oil, which by the way, it takes ten years to develop an oil deposit. They aren't using them. Why? Why is there a demand from Oil man George Bush to open up areas when there are plenty of leases already held?

A good reason is that by limiting the supply, it drives the price of oil up. it is highly unlikely that ANWAR will ever be opened. It creates a perception of restricted production that drives price uo and puts money in the hands of those who already have plenty. This sounds criminal because oil is in many areas of the country a necessity. In rural parts of the nation, there is no access to alternative transportation like buses, trains and light rail lines. Its the car, truck or tractor to get around. There are no alternatives! But in the rural areas there are plenty of renewable resources like wind, solar, hydro and other biological materials that can be utilized for fueling purposes. However, these are not going to make a dent in the energy problem in the near future.

What I'm getting at is that the whole country is not made the same. Every city and every region has its own set of unique problems and also solutions. The reason we cannot tackle "America's Addiction to Oil" is because its an extremely daunting task. Every area needs to be evaluated for its particular needs, problems and available resources. What works in New York City may not work in Davenport.

I also want to point out the media's misuse of the phrase "Addiction to Oil". Is it an addiction is the only vehicles a consumer can purchase is gasoline fueled? Is it an addiction if car manufacturers continue to produce cars at the minimum of CAFE standards? If I could change my car to running off of water, trust me, I would. But I lack the automotive abilities to make that transformation.

As you can from the meandering post that I have composed thus far, there is not an easy issue to analyze. No one solution is an absolute cure all. This means that one person does not hold all the cards to solving the energy crisis. It involves a lot of hard work and patience from all involved and the country itself. Unfortunately, with our global economy and the limited supply of oil, costs will not decrease any time soon and many people will continue to suffer through these hard economic times, myself included.

But we were warned. The demand for oil is infinite. The supply is finite. When we burn a fuel faster than it can be harvested and refined begins to become a problem. There is also the issue of peak oil. Peak oil is basically this idea: oil production will peak at one point and drop off. Now someone could point out that will alternative energies, this would cause the dropoff prophetized. But M. King Hubbert who made this prediction in 1956 was not looking at environmentalists to change the fuel economy of the world. Peak Oil would come about because of resources of oil which I've already pointed out are very finite. Hubbert predicted that the US production of oil would peak in the late '60's to early '70's. This roughly coincided with the fuel crisis that developed. This was not a natural crisis. There were also political motivations involved such as the Arab-Israeli war.

Nobody wants to continue giving money to the middle east. Nobody wants to be subserviant to another county. We live in a country that cannot fuel itself. We need to be able to do that. But as long as we have a oil companies restricting technology, refusing to exploit alreasy held lands and pushing to create better technologies, we will be held hostage in the Global Economy. And while the welathy exploit the middle and lower classes to line their pockets, they will destroy the economy. If the economy crumbles, then it won't matter anymore. That's how bad it could get. Stock up on water.

Moving on to other topics that are less depressing. Tim Russert died over a week ago. This led NBC to broadcasting a gluttony of production that came just short of canonizing him as a Saint of American Objective Journalism. True, he probably the last bastion of the objective journalist values so rarely seen in the media these days. But seriously! Things went too far! I couldn't turn on a channel without hearing about it... and the 17 girls in Gloucester, Massachesetts. The man was a great guy but i think this was overdone. Russert himself would have been embarrassed.

That's it for now. I was planning on writing more, but I'm running on empty.

Midsummer Eve

Today is Midsummer Eve! Tonight is the shortest night of the year. In Scandinavia, the sun does not set.

It is considered a low sabbath in the Wiccan calendar. But it is my favorite. I don't have to think of any particular mystery or event in the spiritual calendar. Just concentrate on the healing and nourishing power of the sun. Because winter sucks.

Blessed Be!

And get out and party!!!!!!!!!!

Pigs, Tigers and Doughboys

The upper Midwest is still in the grips of heavy flooding from the Mississippi river. Twenty levees have been overrun this week according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Two levees broke in Illinois today, flooding the town of Meyer. The flood waters have receded in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Behind them is a millions of dollars of damage to 10 square miles of the city.

Quincy, Illinois and Hannibal, Missouri, are two culturally significant towns in the area. Both are threatened by rising waters. I have experience in that area during the the Great Flood of 1993. During the summer that year, I volunteered to may sand bags to reinforce the levees. I urge anyone who reads this and lives near the area, please do what you can to help if you are not in the area affected.


Tiger Woods was able to secure victory at the US Open on Monday. He played 91 holes total to achieve this feat against Rocco Mediate, a 45-year-old golfer who has never won a major and hasn't won a tournament in six years. Prior to the tournament, Tiger Woods had undergone his third surgery on his left knee. He has overstressed his left knee over the years. When he wants more power, i.e. torque, he "snaps" his left knee to make his hips turn faster. This has enabled him to make those stunning drives that he his known for, particularly off the tee.


After the Herculean effort to win the 2008 US Open, which many were comparing to Francis Ouimet's 1913 win US Open (though this comparison was more apt for Rocco Mediate), Woods was found to have torn his ACL and incurred two stress fractures. This makes all those grimaces witnessed during Monday's initial 18 holes telling: Tiger was beating himself up.

Woods is likely going to be out for the remainder of the season. With a tear to the ACL it may be career ending. Love him, hate him or just apathetic, Woods affect on Golf is similar to Ouimet's. In fact, it is likely that Woods would never have played golf if not for that win 95 years ago in Massachusetts. Woods brought many spectators into golf's arena. The interest may linger but some see this as the end of golf's recent renaissance. I'm not willing to declare this. I think interest may continue past any career-ending injury.

But if this is the end, I have to thank Tiger Woods for being a champion in mind, body and spirit. And for bringing the sport to the level of popularity it currently enjoys. Thank You!

(But I think you'll be back)

The President of the United States honored the last living US born WWI veteran today. Frank Woodruff Buckles was born February 1, 1901 in Missouri. When the US entered the war in 1917, Buckles was only 16. He was rejected by the Marines for his weight. So, he signed up for the army and lied about his age claiming he was 21. He served as an ambulance driver in France and after Armistice, he escorted German POWs home. He was discharged in 1920.

After living from 1936 till 1938 in Germany, and seeing the beginnings of Shoa (Holocaust), he relocated to the Philippines. There, during World War II, he was captured by the Japanese and was a prisoner for three years.

His portrait will hang in the US World War I museum as a reminder of our last living link to the Great War. He was awarded the légion d'honneur from then President of France Jacque Chirac in 2003. He has also been after many requests, been accorded the honor of being buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

At the end of ABC's news at 5:30, they had the brains enough to show footage of a rainbow that had just happened during the broadcast. I have to say that is awesome! In the tough times we are going through with everything, it is nice to see something so beautiful. It reminds us all that the simplest things can be some of the most beautiful (not to mention, free). I also may not bea religious, but rainbows are symbolic of hope and remind us to do just that.

Sir Prince William!

Oddly enough, there's lots of news. For a Tuesday.

Hamas and Israel agree to a cease fire according to the Beeb. CNN reports that a truce is near completion and would go into affect in as little as three days. The article on the BBC notes that Israel is still "looking to see if this is serious".

Hamas came to power after elections in January 2006 displacing Fatah. In June of the same year, Corporal Galid Shalit. a dual French-Israeli citizen, was abducted. After this, Israel threatened the Palestinians by saying that the "sky will fall" if he was harmed. Many negotiations have been made over the past two years. Even the Catholic Church of Gaza and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have tried to negotiate for Shalit's release.

Since the rise of Hamas and the kidnapping Shalit, Israel has restricted supplies of gasoline, diesel and electricity to Gaza, limited the amount of food and other goods entering the strip and made it virtually impossible for manufacturers and farmers in Gaza to export anything to the outside world.

Israeli officials have said these measures are intended to pressure Hamas to stop its members and other factions from firing mortars and rockets into Israel.

Prince William has been made a member of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. His official title will be Royal Knight Companion. The Order was established in 1348 by King Edward III. The numbers of the Order are limited. There are only 24 Companions.

William is in the midst of completing two months of intense Naval training. Next Week he will begin to serve on the HMS Iron Duke in its patrols of the Carribean.

The President of France, Nikolas Sarkozy, has announced that France will rejoin the Command of Nato. Then President Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of the Command structure in 1966 in a bid for independence from the US dominated Western treaty. With this announcement comes also the news that 50,000 defense jobs will be cut and the Intelligence community will be boosted.

Special Effects master Stan Winston died yesterday. He had struggled with Mulitple Myeloma for the past seven years. He recently worked on Iron Man and was also contributing to projects such as GI Joe, Avatar, and a forth coming chapter in the Terminator series of films. Stan Winston was known for intergrating practical effects (sometimes known as in-camera effects) with the the more recently developed Computer Generated Images, or CGI. He has been awarded four Academy Awards for his efforts in such projects as Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park.

This looks like a job for Superman!!

There plenty of things to discuss. I have taken a great deal of time away from this blog due to things that are beyond my control. Needless to say, I'm glad to back blogging. I will not be posting me World War II blogs in their entirety here. I will also be starting a new blog about Internet Radio.

Recently, I switched from Windows Vista which is a ghastly excuse for an OS to Linux. Specifically, I went running to Ubuntu. I am happy to be rid of Windows at the moment but time will tell if Ubuntu is the right OS for me. There are compliance issues to resolve.

So, to move on and keep this short. It should not be news to anyone that Hillary is out of the race. Now we can get down to ripping Obama and McCain to shreds. May the last man standing be worthy of the office! It seems that things are getting considerably worse everyday. This is why I'm not really blogging. What do I have to blog about? There are more crises going in this country then I have blogs for! And I don't think I can add anything to the vitriol that is already stewing.

Since I'm not going to add to it, I'm going to just make a not of something. Seventy years ago (technically in April), something different popped onto the pop culture landscape. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? no, it was Superman!
Boy could we use you now!

The man in the red, yellow and blue kick started a new genre of storytelling and solidified a medium. There have been many superheroes since Superman that are as diverse as the writers who dream them up. But Superman was the quintessential superhero and many are variations on the theme.


I also want to note that from 1938 until some time into World War II saw the United States at the height of its pop art. Music, Film, Illustration and even photography, had some its finest hours during these years. Some might theorize that hard times make us hope for a better tomorrow but since we still have to live with the pain of today, a little escapism couldn't hurt.