Global Warming and Cooling Explained with Intelligence

It's almost narcissistic the way that people attribute everything to themselves, both good and bad. Not to themselves personally, but to the group as a whole. It is concerning that some of the 'global warming' environmental crowd actually say that the answer is 'limiting the population'.

Are you serious?

These people are nuts!

If you want some real science and to see some direct cause and effect relationships for earth's warming and cooling trends, you need to look UP.

2008: The Year Global Warming was Disproved

This is a great article and a must read.

As President Obama begins his first term I do hope that he takes a second look at his stance on global warming, particularly at the cap and trade system that is sure to come up in congress in the near future. Our economy just can't afford it and the new 'consensus' is that we don't need it any way.

That's the convenient truth.

This is just sad

It really is ridiculous that trial lawyers prey on the hurt and loss of tragic victims in order to open up outrageous law suits against people were are trying to do the right thing.

This is a great example.

Jacob's getting older

Well, okay he's seven. Check out his birthday post here.

Classic... Why should they have to suffer?

Just got out of our meeting where we found out about the "adjustments" for the next two quarters. Ouch.

In the meantime, Congress just got their automatic pay increases. AZ Democratic Representative Harry Mitchell actually proposed a bill a while back to stop the automatic increase, but it never got out of committee.

Must be nice.

Don't get me wrong, I love Burger King

I have to admit I love whoppers. Back when I could afford the calories I could pound down two of them along with some fries and call that lunch (how did I ever get fat?)

But really? Do I actually want to smell like a Whopper?

Maybe it is just the Christmas movie kick that I get on this time of year, but I can't read about this without thinking about one of my favorite scenes from Elf. "You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa."

Classic.

Words you never ever want to hear over the intercom on your flight...

"I'm not qualified to land this plane."

Ouch, that has to hurt.

What if there had been fog at the airport of origin as well?

The Global Warming Evidence is Piling Up...

In Vegas.

Don't worry, this is all due to global warming because... like... hmmm... that's why there are these freak winter storms... the weather is just like... hmmm.... so unpredictable now.

Before global warming, the weather men were always right!

Right?

All of the craziness

While I have been out of the blogosphere for a while, I have not dropped off the map entirely. I have been busy. Crazy busy. Work, home, church… busy. Good busy, but busy none the less. Considering the current economic state of my company, I have recently taken to several job boards and joined linkedin, a career networking site.

With so many things to occupy my mind I have chosen not to listen to too much political commentary, although I have been following the news. I have paid vague attention to Obama’s cabinet selections so far and I have to say that for the most part they are a) not much of a change from past administrations or leadership positions, b) they aren’t quite as representative of the far left as I would have expected in fact some are even pretty moderate, and finally c) many of the positions seem to have been selected because of their prominence in the (Dem) party or for their faithfulness as supporters, rather than for their acumen for the position. Interesting move on Obama’s part. I’m not sure if this is an attempt to solidify his position as the head of the Dem Party and so shore up his influence in the rest of the Dem led government or if this is an attempt at a throw back to what Lincoln did in selecting his cabinet positions. Either way, it is pretty interesting.

The thing that concerns me most about the actions of the current, as well as the incoming administration is the handling of the financial mess. You would think that in any ‘crisis’ of this sort, the first thing that you would do is identify the real source of the problem and address it appropriately. Unfortunately that is not the course of action that Pres. Bush has selected and certainly not the one that the incoming Obama administration will continue. Instead of addressing the problem of political meddling in the mortgage industry and negligence by the SEC, the Bush administration pulled out a trillion dollar box of band aids and started applying as needed. The Obama administration, combined with the Dem congress has indicated that they will super size that box and add in a few rolls of gauze and maybe even some duct tape if things don’t improve (which they are already warning us that they won’t). In the process they are going to show the country that although the Bush administration and their compassionate conservatism (read NON-conservatism) spent money like drunken sailors and increased spending to unrealistically manageable levels in almost every area, the Democrats are the REAL money wasters and government interventionists.

Right now the solution to every financial problem that we have faced is to throw money at it. And if that doesn’t work, artificially lower interest rates and try and get the private sector to throw money at it. At best this will create a temporary and false bubble. The answer is that companies that are not operating in a solvent and efficient manner need to be shaken up. GM needs to go into bankruptcy. The UAW needs to be dismantled or at least completely reformed. If the TARP program is really going to be used it needs to be used in the manner that was intended. If it is just going to turn into a goodie bag for bad companies it needs to be stopped entirely. After the ‘TARP Junk Real Estate Gov. Coorporation’ buys up all of the ‘toxic debt’ that the government originally guaranteed through Fannie and Freddie, then it needs to transition and facilitate the break up and elimination of Fannie and Freddie.

Government needs to get out of the mortgage business. The shares of different industries that we have acquired during this ‘bailout fiasco’ need to be sold off as quickly as possible. Government should maintain the fair practice of business. They should prevent companies from behaving in a way that limits or endangers the free market, but they should have no vested interest in any part of the market. That is not the job of the government.

What we are looking at his a huge deficit that has no hope of turning around. Revenue to the government is going to plummet while the government just increases in size and cost. The answer is to DRASTICALLY cut spending while simultaneously making huge cuts in the tax rates. Yes, this will run a short term deficit, but it will light a fire in the private sector that will be the fuel for a sustained and healthy rebound.

As things turn around continue to cut government spending. Nancy Pelosi recently said that the congress is where businesses come to get a ‘hair cut’. I think congress needs to pull out the Bic and adopt my style of haircut on the federal government.

Worm on the brain?

Well, not exactly ON it, but rather IN it.

Yuck. Ouch.

Yes, a PHX woman had what she was told was a brain tumor, but when the surgeon went to operate on her brain stem, he found a worm. From undercooked pork. Or somebody not washing their hands after they went to the bathroom.

I hope my wife doesn't read this.

We won't go out to eat for a long time :)

Follow the link and read the story, then watch the VIDEO of them pulling the worm out!!!

Tree Houses

That's right. Tree houses. Not that you can build one very easily here in AZ. I didn't see an 'cactus houses' (ouch).



Popular Mechanics listed 10 great tree houses. Check em out.



This one was my favorite. Don't just build a house in a tree, build a castle!

Did I miss something here?

It appears that the CA Supreme Court is going to hear some complaints about Prop 8. Now I thought the whole purpose of a constitutional amendment, was that it creates the highest law in the land (other than the US Constitution) and so becomes the standard by which judges should make their rulings. In fact the whole issue in CA was that the voters had already passed a law affirming marriage between a man and woman, but the CA Supreme Court had shot it down as unconstitutional.

Doesn't the amendment MAKE it constitutional?

Ugh.

Unreal Expectations

I haven’t been watching or reading much news. I have been trying to avoid it. I’m going through a period of political pull back for a moment. It really won’t last long. I can’t help myself in the long run. Right now I am dealing with some family issues, a crazy busy but tenuous work situation, and trying to reorganize my days. I even finished up a fiction book that my son recommended. I wasn’t that impressed with the book, but I was impressed at the reading level of my 8 year old. Geesh. The book was Inkheart and will soon be a movie starring Brendan Frasier. I’m sure we’ll see it. It wasn’t much of a page turner for me and I kept seeing the villains as cartoon characters in my mind for some reason, but it did have a good, although predictable ending.

All of that has kept me out of the Obama glow. I’ve been getting spammed with emails about “Obama coins” and other assorted “memorabilia”. Sorry, it’s just a little nauseating. Not because I voted for the other guy, but because the expectation level that has been set is… well unrealistic at best. During the election Conservatives joked that Obama was perceived as ‘the messiah’.

We were just joking.

I really had no idea that a good chunk of the population was serious. Howard Kurtz has an interesting piece about the frenzy. My favorite quote has to be, “Being cool can really help a new president.”

The depth of the comment is beyond me. I’ll have to meditate on that one for a while.

Have you EARNED your man card?

PM put together a list of the 100 things that a man should be able to do. I heard about this on the radio this morning and the DJs were remarking that they only got about 25%. I'm not too shabby with SOME do it yourself things, so I thought I would at least take the test and see what I got.

Some of them are pretty basic, some are a bit more complicated. A few of the things I've seen, but never done myself (like using a stick welder). I'm pretty sure I could, but I didn't want to count it, since I didn't KNOW I could do it.

I think I can keep my man card, I got an 89%. Not too shabby. I think I'll growl a few times and go rewire a power supply!

Mormons take the heat for sticking by their beliefs

Here in AZ we passed prop 102, an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage to be the union of one man and one woman. In CA it was Prop 8. These are similar to amendments passed in 30 states now. The purpose of all of this is to fight back against ‘alternative lifestyle’ education in our schools and to preserve the definition of marriage.

In any case, the fight in CA was particularly nasty. The LDS church led the way in getting Prop 8 passed.

Watch this commercial put out by a NO on Prop 8 organization.


The Huffington Post has to be one of the worst and most popular left wing blogs. Here is what they had to say about the LDS church and their support of Prop 8.

Yet somehow an economic boycott doesn't feel direct enough; those who team up against gay people must learn that there are consequences.

That's why we are seeking to strip the Mormon church of its status as a religious organization.

I hope that people with healthy levels of sanity prevail. I would hope that the court would support the first amendment. You don't cease to have the right to speak just because you are religious.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

This is what crazy looks like

Guts galore... brains... not so much. A surfer takes a 40+ foot wave.

... and YES he did bail just after these pictures were taken... NO he isn't dead, just REALLY beat up and has some torn muscles...

Hopefully it didn't hurt the few brain cells that he had.

This one is worth a read

Very interesting editorial in the American Spectator.

It's a little paranoid for my tastes... but a good warning to keep your eyes open and your wits about you.

Can a government where the executive, legislative and judicial branches are all controlled by the same ideology, even the same group of people, really hold each other to the intended checks and balances?

I guess we'll find out. Let's hope it's not too hard and too long of a lesson.

My Representative Speaks for Me

I am very proud to say that my representative is Jeff Flake. He was one of a few Reps yesterday who had no cause for concern (he won 62 - 35). An editorial from him was published in the Washington Post this morning. I've included it below. I think Jeff would be a great House minority leader moving forward. It will be interesting to see how the shake up goes.

A Way Out of the Wilderness
Well, we Republicans have just made history.
Not the type of history we wanted to make, mind you, but history nonetheless.
Not only did we lose the White House but, after losing our House and Senate
majorities in 2006, we followed it up last night with even steeper losses in
Congress.In January, Democrats will enjoy lopsided congressional ratios not seen
since the 1970s. Let's face it: We Republicans are now, by any reasonable
measurement, deep in the political wilderness.The temptation for Republican
members of Congress today will be to assume the role of the post-Watergate
Republicans of 1974 and accept minority status as a permanent condition. Indeed,
the terrain is more difficult for us now than it was in 1992. Then,
Republicanism was still largely defined by the Reagan years. Today the party is
defined in the public mind by the Bush presidency. We've got a steep hill to
climb.Much of the backroom maneuvering and media speculation in the coming weeks
will focus on identifying new standard-bearers for the party. This is important,
and after a second straight drubbing, the House Republican leadership should be
replaced. But the far more critical task is determining what standard these new
leaders will bear.I suggest that we return to first principles. At the top of
that list has to be a recommitment to limited government. After eight years of
profligate spending and soaring deficits, voters can be forgiven for not knowing
that limited government has long been the first article of faith for
Republicans.Of course, it's not the level of spending that gets the most
attention; it's the manner in which the spending is allocated. The proliferation
of earmarks is largely a product of the Gingrich-DeLay years, and it's no
surprise that some of the most ardent practitioners were earmarked by the voters
for retirement yesterday. Few Americans will take seriously Republican speeches
on limited government if we Republicans can't wean ourselves from this insidious
practice. But if we can go clean, it will offer a stark contrast to the
Democrats, who, after two years in training, already have their own earmark
favor factory running at full tilt.Second, we need to recommit to our belief in
economic freedom. Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" may be on the discount
rack this year, but the free market is still the most efficient means to
allocate capital and human resources in an economy, and Americans know it. Now
that we've inserted government deeply into the private sector by bailing out
banks and businesses, the temptation will be for government to overstay its
welcome and force the distribution of resources to serve political ends.
Substituting political for economic incentives is not the recipe for economic
recovery.Most House Republicans opposed the recent bailout and will be in a
strong position to promote economic freedom over central planning as the Obama
administration stumbles from industry to industry trying to determine which is
small enough to be allowed to fail and which is not. Since timetables will be in
vogue, perhaps Republicans could even insist on a timetable for getting the
government out of the private sector.There are, of course, other pillars of the
Republican standard -- strong national defense, support for traditional values
and the Second Amendment -- but these are not areas where voters question
Republican bona fides. In any event, as we have seen over the past several
months, economic woes tend to subsume other concerns. We shouldn't complain. We
can now play our strongest hand.In some respects, raising a new standard was
made easier by yesterday's rout. The Republican Party is not bound by
election-year promises made by its presidential nominee. More important, the
party is finally untethered from the ill-fitting and unworkable big-government
conservatism that defined the Bush administration.This is not to say that it
will be an easy transition. Congressional Republicans picked up some
unattractive habits over the years in an effort to hold on to power. Whether it
was relying on the redistricting process to help us choose our constituents,
using the appropriations process as an ATM or passing legislation -- such as a
generous prescription drug benefit and a bloated farm bill -- to pacify
individual constituencies, these habits and voting patterns will be hard to
break.But there is reason for Republicans to feel optimism. Politically, America
remains a center-right country, and America loves a chastened and repentant
sinner. As surely as the sun rises in the east, the Democrats will overreach.As
long as we Republicans are willing to admit our folly, get back to first
principles and work like there's no tomorrow, we've got 'em just where we want
'em.

Still some interesting things happening

Obviously the presidency has been decided. Like our current government I plan on watching the next group and tracking them to see what they are up to. Always a good idea.

But some interesting elections are still on going. Four senate races are still close. Reps lead in all four. The closest one is in MN between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. Are you serious? I guess the same people that elected Jessie "the Body" Ventura as governor would only be living up to their reputation if they put 'Stu Smalley' in office. I'm still pulling for Norm.

Probably the most interesting race is in Alaska. Stevens, having recently been found guilty of uh, graciously accepting all kinds of... gifts that people just left at his house, is WINNING! And most likely will win. So what happens then? Well, that would mean another election in Alaska.

Can you see it coming?

Yup.

Good money says that the election would be between the Dem candidate that Stevens just beat and our former VP candidate Gov. Palin. She has already indicated a strong desire to stay in national politics and in Washington. Taking Stevens disgraced seat and doing some 'mavericky reforming' would be a good start.

The people that say politics is boring aren't paying attention.

I'm exhausted

Wow, what a couple of days.

Brandi started her new therapy in Scottsdale on Monday. We are very optimistic that this will be a great thing for her. She's really a trooper. It has been 11 months now since she had the worst back episode of her life that landed her in the hospital for a few days. Please be praying that this therapy will be effective and have great long term benefits. Thanks so much to all of the friends and family that God has put into our lives to help get us through this. We really couldn't do it with out you guys. Four days of therapy, every week, for six weeks.

Some really tough news coming out of work in the last couple of days as we frantically try to fill a req for a much needed technician before they completely slam the door on any hiring. Mandatory vacations. How can you mandate 160 hours of vacation in 5 months, when most of your employees only acrue 120 hours of vacation in a YEAR?

I talked to our financial guy yesterday. He said invest in guns, ammunition, seed and fertilizer. Something about the return of the hunter/gatherer society... Guess he isn't too optimistic about the government solutions to the financial mess so far.

The boys finished up their baseball season with a LATE GAME (oh joy). It started at 7:30 and ran until almost 9. It has been a great season. The kids have really learned a lot about the game. The coach has been absolutely awesome! Definitely a best case scenario there.

We seem to finally have crawled out of our three weeks of sickness. It started with a nasty cold that went through the ranks, followed by a touchy stomach bug. Jacob was declared well yesterday and allowed to leave the house for the final baseball game of the season.

Something else happened yesterday too, but I can't think of what it was... hmmm... it'll come to me....

But it's not just coal!!

The McCain team is hammering Obama right now for a quote from a January article. Here is the quote that they are using:

"If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will
bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that
greenhouse gas that's being emitted,"

It's not really shocking if you follow the cap and trade program that Obama would support and that the Dems are almost certainly planning within the first few months of his presidency. I've written about it before here.

The sad thing is, that McCain supports the cap and trade program as well, although I think he wouild be slower to implement it given the economy.

When the bill hits the floor, it will be up to average citizens to call and fight it tooth and nail, regardless of who is president. It will throw our economy into a depression. It will make EVERY SINGLE THING you purchase more expensive by massive amounts.

All for warm feelings about a green planet and Al Gore's hype about global warming. It will cost jobs, it will cost our economic security, and it will cost lives in impoverished nations around the world.

Politics Are Affecting the Festivities

HT: MM

Empty Rhetoric Meets REALLY Gullible Followers

HT: MM

I needed a good laugh this morning

If you aren't part of corporate America, you might miss the last reference and hence the humor.

If you don't get it, then google "who moved my cheese".

The Obama Infomercial! Don't miss it! For a limited time ONLY!!

I really don’t have time for this, but I just can’t help myself.

In case you missed the Obama Infomercial last night, let me give you a recap. Sob story, sob story… Obama will fix EVERYTHING! The only line that was missing was, “I’m Barack Obama and I’ll fix that country for $39.95!”

There was a sad story about an older couple that retired, but had some health problems and he had to go back to work. There was a sad story about a family where the dad worked at a factory and the factory cut back his work. There was the teacher who worked a second job. Then we heard about Obama growing up as a kid. How much his mom helped him, followed of course by the heart breaking tale of his mother’s death from cancer. Interlaced through all of this is Obama telling you that he is going to fix that problem.

According to Senator Obama, he is going to create 5 million new ‘green’ jobs that CAN’T be outsourced. Really? That’s wonderful. HOW? Has he already invented some tremendous new technology that is going to produce energy from thin air. Maybe there will be 5 million people harvesting air? I know it sounds great. If there was a way to make so much money that you could afford to employee 5 MILLION people… don’t you think there would be entrepreneurs and businesses JUMPING all over it?

He’s going to cut healthcare costs by $2500 per family. Really? HOW!? By getting hospitals to transfer all of their records to electronic format? Trust me, and I definitely know something about this. Transferring to an electronic system may eventually save money (mainly by cutting people who handle the paperwork), but it costs a lot of money up front and if it isn’t done right can be time and ‘expensive’ labor intensive. Even if it went seamlessly, it won’t save the average family $2500 per year (or $10 for that matter). And while we are talking about that, let’s just think about some numbers real quick. $2500 per family… hmm… let’s be conservative and say that there are 75 million families in the US. That’s $187.5 BILLION dollars that is somehow just going to VANISH from the healthcare industry and no one is going to miss it! In fact while he is at it, he is also going to GIVE healthcare to 47 million people that don’t have it (he doesn’t mention it, but about 15 million of those are illegal aliens). So just do a sanity check here. He’s going to save the American people $187.5 BILLION dollars, while giving you better healthcare and covering 47 million people that aren’t currently covered…. I’m pretty good at math, but Senator Obama must be a lot better than I am if he can make those numbers work.

Occasionally the video (which was HOLLYWOOD quality in its production) would cut away to a Democratic politician saying how great Obama is and how he is a once in a generation leader. Really? What has he done? The only things that they mentioned in the video last night were the times he ‘reached across the aisle’ by working with people like Senator Lugar to push for the containment of old solviet era nukes. Wow, sounds impressive. In fact that sounds like something that everyone would want. As a matter of fact they did! It was unanimously passed. Not because Obama wrote a great bill, because he didn’t write hardly ANYTHING. What they are talking about is an ‘add on’ to an existing bill that was written and passed in the 90s. After the USSR collapsed we passed legislation to allocate funds to help the solviets break down some of their nuclear arsenal so that it didn’t fall into dangerous disrepair, or worse, into the wrong hands. Obama “REACHED ACROSS THE AISLE” to add a couple of lines to the bill to expand the program! COME ON!!! This is ridiculous!! Then they went on to talk about how he had fought against some of the senior people and leadership, but gave NO specifics! BECAUSE THERE AREN’T ANY!!!! He hasn’t done ANYTHING of substance!!! Period. That’s why they have to be vague and fill a 30 minute spot with glurge and sob stories! They want you to think that this country is a horrible place! But somehow, when Obama becomes President EVERYTHING will be better. In an instant! It will be like the rapture, but you don’t have to go anywhere, the rapture will bring you to Obamaland!

Please.

Someone needs to take his medicine. He’s having delusions of EXTREME grandeur.


What you heard last night is the same thing he’s been doing all around the country for the last couple of years. He finds hard cases, and there will always be hard cases to point out, and he talks about them. He goes on about the hard questions and tough issues facing this country and then says that he will fix them. If you ask him how, he tells you how much money he is going to throw at it.

That’s a lot of money. Thrown pretty much EVERYWHERE.

Hmmm… where does that come from again?

I mean, he already said he is going to cut taxes on 95% of working Americans. Which means a good chunk of people that don’t pay taxes will get paychecks from the government… hmmm… that’s more money gone. He is going to increase all kinds of taxes on wealthy people and businesses, which historically speaking means LOWER REVENUE to the federal government, lower profits in businesses, cut backs, fewer jobs… How is this going to solve ANYTHING!?

The man has been running for president for almost two years. We have yet to really see any new, good, or even SUBSTANTIVE ideas.

This is a frightening election.

****Update: Just caught this AP (of all people) article that sheds some light on some of the shady aspects of the Informercial.

Obama the first Pro-Abortion President

Please read this article. Written by a professor at Princeton who is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. It’s a crushing blow to pro-lifers who have tried to justify a vote for Obama. I have listened to well intentioned and intelligent people try to argue in their own minds that the next president will have NO effect on abortion, but they couldn't be more wrong.

Here are some things that Obama has vowed to do to support and truly INCREASE abortion:

- Repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which according to NARAL has cut the number of abortions that ‘should’ have occurred in half because it cuts public funding for abortions where the mother’s life is not in danger and that don’t involve rape or incest. This one change alone could mean tens if not hundreds of thousands of additional abortions every year, funded with YOUR tax dollars.

- FOCA : Freedom Of Choice Act. Sounds good doesn’t it. Obama has pledged that he would sign FOCA, which would repeal all limitations on abortions through the entire 9 months of pregnancy.

In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal
limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for
minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience
protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care
industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of
abortion or else lose their jobs. The pro-abortion National Organization for
Women has proclaimed with approval that FOCA would "sweep away hundreds of
anti-abortion laws [and] policies."

- Repealing the Mexico City Policy which will send tax payer dollars to other countries to fund abortions.

- Appoint pro-abortionist judges who will uphold these policies and undo the small amount of progress that we have made under W. Possibly pushing abortion forward for decades to come.

You simply cannot say that the next president will not impact abortion. In reality the next president could very well change the entire debate on abortion. Which way the debate goes may decide on your vote. This isn't a scare tactic. It's reality.

Catching up on Dilbert

Tuesday is my catch up day and the start of my four day work week... that's right. :)

Dilbert of course is near the top of the list of things to catch up on... right after a huge steaming pile of email.

Naked Socialism

Obama is a socialist. Just listen.



If this is news to you, then you haven't been paying attention to what he says.

If you are okay with a socialist government then you are woefully ignorant of history and our constitution.

Obama and Biden over the last couple of weeks have been trying to avoid the word "socialism" because that is a buzz word and people don't like it. So they try and use other phrases, like 'spread the wealth around' and 'redistribution' (although this one has been pretty rare as well).

I've had several discussions with people that say, "well weren't the first Christians essentially communists, in the pure sense of the term?" and again, "Didn't Jesus promote socialism?"

Yes, in many respects both of those things are true. My wife and I had a discussion about this last night. The big difference is compulsion vs. desire. If I want to give to the poor then praise God. If I want to share all that I have with others, that's fantastic. The difference is the government TAKING from you to give to others. I'm completely in favor of Christians and churches being generous in trying to help those in need. That's one of the great things about the US. Historically speaking, Americans and Christian Americans specifically, have been the most generous people in history. That is something that we don't want to lose. If anything we want to encourage that as much as possible. A government that lets people keep their money so that they can afford to be generous, is the best way to do that.

The High Road or the Fraud Road, Which Would You Choose?

Having had a credit card number swiped and used fraudulently, I'm a little paranoid about my on line purchases. Retailers do their best to cover their backsides as well.

Wouldn't you think a politician would do the same?

McCain did, according to several people conducting "tests".

Obama... not so much. Check out this article on Obama's contribution system. This has been brought up several times and for months now. You would think Obama would have had his people look into it and fix the problem. But that might limit the funds coming in from... well... anybody in the world.

Considering that foreign contributions violate federal election laws, could this be construed as gross negligence? Of course, Obama didn't set the campaign website up, that was just his advisers and staff. To accuse him of wrong doing based on these 'associations' would just be ridiculous...

Murphy's Law and the Market

Smile, tomorrow will be worse!

Unfortunately that could be the case.

Markets tend to change not on what they know NOW, but what they predict for the future.

So is the market giving us an indicator of where investors think we are going?

Although the author doesn't give any financial kudos to McCain either, he sees Obama's tax plan as the worst possible thing to do in a bad economy. We'll see.

And, as it looks increasingly likely that Obama will be that man, the
markets are casting a vote of "no confidence."

The "Fairness Doctrine"

Well, I’ve been absolutely swamped the last few days, so catching up on news and blogging has been down on the list. I did want to call you attention to this:



A lot of people don’t know what the “Fairness Doctrine” is, but basically it says that because the airwaves are owned “by the people”, that every station should have to present both sides of an issue or be neutral. Well, if you watch the evening news, you know how different people interpret neutral.

If you don’t think this is a big deal, then maybe you don’t understand what is out there. Right now there are dozens of local and syndicated radio shows that have millions of listeners. The biggest by far is Rush Limbaugh who has about 20 MILLION listeners a week and has the most listened to radio program in the history of the world. Sean Hannity is next in line and then is followed by a host of other shows including Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reily, Mike Gallagher… the list goes on and on. It’s extensive. Of these shows the vast majority of them are on the “Right”. The first liberal/progressive doesn’t show up on the list until #7, if you count Don Imus as a lib. If you don’t then you would certainly count Ed Shultz at #8. Of course even Ed isn’t as far left as most of the others, in fact he describes himself as a “gun totin’, meat eatin’ lefty”.

The biggest experiment into an all progressive radio network up to this point was Air America, which tanked so enormously that most of it’s biggest players have gotten out of the game. Most of their stations went bankrupt and some of the show hosts even complained of missed pay checks.

Rush Limbaugh on the other hand just signed an 8 year, $400 MILLION dollar contract, the largest in radio history. Why does he make so much? People enjoy listening to him. Conservative talk gets listeners, which means more advertising money, which means bigger contracts and more conservative hosts. It’s about a free market. If people wanted more liberal talk, then the liberal hosts would get more listeners.

So the reality of the “Fairness Doctrine” has nothing to do with fairness. It has everything to do with limiting free speech. When you hear “Fairness Doctrine” what they mean is the “Silence Right Wing Radio Act”. I would hope that even if it does pass, it would get shot down by the Supreme Court for being outrageously unconstitutional. But it shouldn't have to come to that.

Nancy Pelosi is a HUGE fan of the FD, but Obama has said that he does not support it. Of course not supporting it doesn’t necessarily mean having the gumption to buck the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate by vetoing it. I think it is more likely that the FD would be a lot like other things that have been ‘reconsidered’. You know like accepting public funding, FISA, banning hand guns… you get the idea.

Caridee : Another schedule change

The board of pediatric cardiologists at PCH reviewed Caridee's file this morning and they decided that it would be better for her to gain some more weight before they perform the surgery. So it has been postponed and they will be monitored. Obviously this is an emotional roller coaster for Heather and Chris.

In the meantime she has had trouble gaining weight because of the heart condition, so it's kind of a chicken/egg thing.

Please just continue to pray that God heals her heart without the surgery and that she quickly starts to gain weight and energy.

Thanks,
Keith

New Time for Caridee's Surgery

We got an email saying that the surgery has been bumped up from Wednesday to Tuesday about noon.

Please keep them in your prayers. If you would like to pass on any words of encouragement you can leave a comment below and I will gladly pass them on.

Thanks and have a blessed weekend!

-Keith

**** Update: They have also established a Caring Bridge website for her here. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/carideegill

My SECOND favorite conspiracy theory

Okay, still thinking about conspiracy theories.

Here is an interesting one and a well made video to boot. (HT: J. White)


BTW: I had an easier time viewing it in the high resolution mode.

If everything is straight up, then produce the docs and you're done. Why WOULDN'T you do that. Just to put the issue to bed.

Here is the article from Factcheck.org . It's pretty convincing.

I am curious about the dual citizenship issues that were raised. That was an interesting point. I guess I don't really care to much if Indonesia thought he had dual citizenship or not, but rather, if the US considered his citizenship valid. What you don't hear is the head of the INS or any officials with the INS raising this question. Which in my mind pretty much puts it all to bed.

In any case, conspiracy theories can be entertaining. Michael Medved has a "conspiracy day" radio show every time there is a full moon. You hear some pretty crazy stuff. I highly recommend it.

In any case there are plenty of reasons that Obama should not be president, but personally I think they are all based on policy, experience, vision, and judgement.

Is Joe the Plumber the Game Changer that McCain Needed?

I didn't think so at the time. I heard the sound bite on the radio and thought, "yeah, so what, Obama is a socialist... duh!"

Evidently this is news to some people.

Polls are narrowing.

Here is a good article on this whole thing and what people think of a political philosophy that wants to "spread the wealth around".

When your goal is to level the field by knocking the big guys down (OVER-tax the rich), everyone ends up down. The goal is not to punish the prosperous by to make everyone prosperous.

You don't have to try and even out the pie. You can make more pie and everybody gets more.

Sorry, I like food analogies. I wonder if they have some pumpkin pie in the cafeteria...

Prayer Request for baby Caridee

Well, Caridee had her check up and her heart condition has gotten worse. The surgery to resolve the shrinking of her aorta is this coming Wednesday.

Please keep my little niece and her parents in your prayers. This is just a tough thing to go through, especially for first time parents.

I'll make another post before Wednesday, but I just wanted people to be able to talk to any prayer chains that you may be a part of at your churches so that we can create a chorus of believers lifting up this little family.

Thanks and have a blessed weekend.

-Keith

Hey they have a sense of humor

I personally thought McCain was a bit funnier. The crowd took it well too. I think Hillary was in a full on belly laugh.



Obama had his moments too. Needs to work on the delivery though. Evidently no teleprompter and he didn't rehearse his notes well enough.

Is Obama Really an Author?

Okay, this one is all Nick's fault. :) He got me going on conspiracy theories this morning, so here you go.

Jack Cashill puts together a string of 'evidence' to support his theory that Obama's best selling and very well written Dreams From My Father was actually written by William Ayers.

I know it's kookie. I'm not saying I believe it. But it's interesting.

Just a theory...

Good Ad

Another good one from the RNC.

And the winner was... JOE the Plumber!

Well, what did you expect? He got mentioned over two DOZEN times last night. That's crazy! There was also one "I've got a bracelet too..." moment in there when Obama said, "I want to talk to Joe too..." like Joe was hanging out on a conference call waiting to take their input. Classic.

I thought the start of the debate definitely favored Obama. McCain came out swinging, which is good, but you can't come out flailing, which is what it sounded like. The thing about landing political punches is that you shouldn't even try it if you can't do it in a smooth way. Don't try to change the subject of a question in order to beat up your opponent. Answer the question. If there is an opportunity in the question to bring up a flaw of your opponent, then point out it, but don't come out and start ignoring questions just to see if you can land a haymaker. It doesn't come across well. While McCain was swinging away, Obama was making some points in his suave fashion that definitely gave him the edge.

As the debate went on, McCain composed himself and started answering the questions and delivered some decent jabs. Unfortunately I think he missed several opportunities. If you are talking about taxes and your opponent has said over and over that he wants to raise taxes on businesses, then why don't you point out the fact that businesses don't pay taxes... their customers, employees, and shareholders do. Higher business taxes mean HIGHER PRICES, fewer jobs, and less investment. Point out the fact that EVERY time we lower income tax rates we INCREASE revenue to the federal government AND the whole economy goes UP. It's just a fact! The only time it doesn't have a direct correlation is when you have an economic down turn. Like right now. And in that case the WORST thing you can do is to raise taxes because it hurts already cash strapped businesses. McCain was ALMOST there on some of these points, but he really didn't complete the thought and draw the direct relationships for people. He tried with all of the references to Joe the Plumber, but he kept getting... almost... there... and then... would stop and go off on a rant. It was kind of frustrating. Obama also brought up his tax cut for 95% of working Americans. McCain could have pointed out that only 60% of Americans actually PAY individual income taxes. Basically there were several opportunities that McCain just didn't take advantage of, and that is irritating.

It shouldn't surprise me, but it did. There were several times I started talking to the TV last night in frustration at Obama's out right lies. Here are two examples. The first is the Bill Ayers issue. He said that it wasn't true that he started his political career in Ayer's living room. A total lie. That's were he announced he was running for the IL state senate seat, that's where he was endorsed by the incumbent and held a fundraiser, if that isn't a launch, then I don't know what is. The second was when he went on about the stance that he has taken on abortion. He said, "Yes, let me respond to this. If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that's because it's not true." It's absolutely true! I just wanted to scream LIAR!!!

On free trade, on abortion and the selection of judges, and especially in their closing remarks, I thought John McCain won. The first 20 minutes of the debate, I thought Obama seemed more presidential, and so I give him the edge on that.

In all I thought that Bob Schieffer did an excellent job. I like the format of the debate a lot better than the last one or even the first one. I like the fact that they did the split screen through a good portion of it (on CNN anyway, I'm not sure if all of the networks did that). I thought that Obama got a very condescending look when he disagreed with McCain and I thought McCain looked like the Cheshire cat when he thought he had something to get Obama on. But it was entertaining.

I HATED the fact that immigration wasn't brought up in ANY of the debates. I don't know if this was part of some pre-debate agreement between the two (since their views on this are relatively similar). But it is an important issue and the American people need to see where the candidates stand and they should have to defend that position.

In all I think this debate is a lot like the other two, although I think it was the best of the three. Basically there are no real memorable lines out of any of the debates and they will have no real impact on the election in the long run.

Kind of typical that way.

BAD voters

Voting is a big deal. It is up to each person to really look at the issues that are involved and vote for someone based on their ideas, leadership ability, vision for our country, and values. Having put an enormous amount of effort into educating myself on the candidates, I get very frustrated when people don’t put in a minimal amount of effort.

I heard a tremendous example of this yesterday on the radio. Let me just clarify, the clip is from the Howard Stern show, but I was NOT listening to the dirty old man, I was listening to my normal right wing radio wackos. :)



Someone does not have to have a college degree, or even high school education to be able to find out where a candidate stands on the issues; they just have to care enough to want to find out the information. Obviously people don’t.

If you want to vote for Obama because you like his socialist stance on issues and his philosophy that the right government can not only solve all of the domestic, but all of the global problems, then that’s fine. If you want to vote for McCain because you like his fiscal conservatism combined with his desire to fix the global warming hoax and continue the semi-open border policy, that’s fine. If you want to vote for one just to vote AGAINST the other one, that’s fine too. But if you are voting for someone because they seem popular or because you like the way they speak or you think they remind you of your great grandpa, then please, just stay home.

Be educated about the candidates or recuse yourself from the process.

(HT to my buddy Steve for reminding me about this)

Obama and ACORN

Good grief! The reports of fraudulent voter registrations by ACORN are incredible. The number of people saying that they have been HARASSED by ACORN canvassers is beyond ridiculous. And all while collecting tax payer funds.

Mickey Mouse even gave in and registered.

Obama now claims that he has nothing to do with ACORN.

Oh really. There is some good info here.

The REALLY bad thing about this is that this election is going to be ugly. I mean really ugly. It's too late at this point for it even to approach being civil. I highly doubt that we will know the winner on Nov. 5th, or even shortly there after. If Obama wins, then people are going to be screaming fraud (mainly because they are now), with legitimate claims and concerns, considering the 1.3 million people that ACORN has reportedly registered, with tens of thousands thought to be fraudulent. Of course if McCain wins, the pundits have already been promising that there will be riots in major cities and cries of racism and disenfranchisement.

This is all out of hand.

We need a NATIONAL system for conducting elections. We need training offered on how to vote on those systems. If they could have it in place by 2010, that would be great, but at least by 2012. I'm tired of all of the hanging chad business and somebody hacked the computer garbage. Just ridiculous. I would highly advise going with something like we have in AZ. Paper ballots that are simple to fill out, then are read and stored by the machine with immediate feedback over whether or not there was an issue. They work great.

Any way you slice it, it is just going to be ugly. Already lawyers on both sides waiting in the wing to challenge results.

This is pathetic.

****Update: Check out the clip from CNN

Just in case you aren't one of the 100 MILLION people to watch this

My family thought this was hilarious.

My sweet wife insisted that I put it on the blog... because she says it's funny AND non-political (what fun is that?)

About the VP debate

Ann Coulter. Okay, some of you stopped reading right there.

I understand she is inflamatory on a good day and has a well earned reputation for saying things JUST to get people upset. But, underneath all of that she can make some good points.

Here is her take on Biden's truth and knowledge in the debate last week.

The Creepiest of the Creepies

Okay the videos of the little kids was bad. The military fatigued teenagers was worse.

This takes the cake.






***** Problems? ->If you are experiencing technical difficulties with the video, I do apologize. Evidently it is getting MASS traffic on YOUTube. A basic summary is the leader of the Nation of Islam, Minister Farrakhan (as Sen. Obama calls him) is giving a speech and claims that when Obama speaks you are hearing "the Messiah". Farrakhan is creepy enough as it is, but hearing his almost Vincent Price type voice calling Obama the Messiah makes my skin crawl.

Voter Fraud

This makes me so mad I can’t see straight. We really need to overhaul our voting process in every single county in the US. There really should be one consistent method and it should be as fool proof and more importantly fraud proof as humanly possible. I don’t care if the people doing it are Dems or Reps, they should be caught and thrown into prison. If there are people or organizations who have been supportive or have condoned these activities they should be shut down and their management imprisoned. If we can’t trust our elections, then we have all lost.

Here is another one. I see a new one almost every day related to ACORN. Don’t get me wrong, I do not, and would not ever want, to disenfranchise legal voters, but I equally despise the idea of people and especially organized groups, intentionally violating election laws. You can bet that if I heard of a Rep group doing it, you would be reading about it right here.

P Building and the cage

The plant where I work use to be one of the crown jewels of Motorola. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day this facility was packed with thousands upon thousands of employees. Any time of day you would have been hard pressed to find a parking place. One person even told me that there use to be a little grocery store on the corner where you could rent a parking place and the owner of the store would keep an eye on your car. Eventually Motorola purchased the store and tore it down to expand the parking lot.

Now that same parking lot sits mostly empty, like the rest of the parking lot. On any given day you can find a real good parking spot, even in the new covered parking. I come in at 5am and I pretty much have my pick of where I want to be. There are some cars here from the night shift of the one manufacturing area left in the facility, but they don’t take up much space. Most of the time I’m in the first row. Some of the people I work with have been here for twenty, thirty, even forty years and they look back and remember fondly how this place use to be brimming with people.

Personally I have never seen the facility like that. To me it’s an older industrial complex. They have fixed up quite a few things, but it’s mostly old furniture and old equipment. I’m in the basement and you can hear the non stop sounds of fans, compressors, air conditioners and power transformers. You don’t really notice it unless they come in for maintenance and shut a few things off, then it suddenly becomes quiet… kind of peaceful… kind of eerie.

However, nothing compares to P Building. It was once a hub of the whole facility. People packed in the hallways, even golf carts and fork lifts would go into the building to load and unload certain equipment. It’s big. From the outside you can see all kinds of pipes and chimneys and you wonder if anybody really even knows what half of it was ever used for.

I’ve been in P Building before, but never alone. We recently consolidate our labs and in the process lost a lot of storage space. No problem, facilities just moved some of our things over to “the cage”. A storage area that is just for us inside P Building. Actually there are several, owned by different groups, all with chain link fence around them and big padlocks. Unfortunately I agreed to help someone out with some hardware and found out it had been taken over to the cage. I got the key and headed over. I hadn’t been by myself before, so I got directions. Go straight in until you hit a T in the hallway. Turn left and go up three levels, then go through some double doors on the left. Sounded pretty straight forward.

I went across campus and right into the building. The doors are left open all of the time and I do mean all of the time. There are bird feathers and dirt everywhere. Already I can feel my allergies kicking into high gear and I’m starting to panic that I am somehow going to contract some West Nile/Haunta/MRSA/Bird Flu and die before I even get out of the building.

There are holes in the walls, debris is scattered all over the place. Every once in a while you see a little black box on the floor. That’s to catch the mice. I don’t know why they bother, whatever killed the bird near the entrance would probably be quick enough to catch the mice.




















See the black box in the bottom center of the picture.

It just amazes me how much stuff is left in this building. Huge areas that are gutted accept for chairs, garbage, racks that use to hold equipment and… I don’t know how to describe it. Just debris everywhere.



















Evidently they keep a couple of spare signs over here.



















The halls are literally caked with dirt. I don’t know if it is from moving stuff around or the fact that it hasn’t been cleaned in years. It’s disgusting and you can feel your feet scraping along as you go. The middle of the hallways are almost clear accept for big black marks from dragging equipment. The sides are caked in a good half inch of dirt.



















Over head you get the same feeling that you got from the outside of the building. Massive bundles of pipes and wires, cutting in and out of walls and going on for miles. There is no way that anyone really knows where they all go or what they all do. There is the constant hum of electricity as you walk, but there is no air conditioning and the building is warm, musty… there are a few lights that work, but just enough to see where you are going. Some things are just hanging by wires from the ceiling. The whole thing just feels like a nightmare sequence from some B-rated horror movie right before the unsuspecting employee gets electrocuted by the janitor that use to work there. The hallways go for ever and there are a hundred little turns. Every so often you see a well lit area, but when you look inside you see the same dirt and dust that cakes everything else.



















The directions were good. I found the cage and was even able to find the hardware I needed. As I closed up the chain link door I heard a rumbling sound creep up behind me moving very quickly. My heart skipped a beat or two and I realized that someone must be running a fork lift on the second floor above me.

I locked the gate and headed back out. Through the double doors, down three levels and back out towards the light. The trip out took a lot less time than the trip in. :)

I went back to my own area and washed my hands, face, and head. My shoes were caked with dust. I brushed off my clothes, wiped down my shoes, and headed back with a phone full of pictures.

It was kind of creepy. Really disgusting. And if I come down with some mystery disease in the next couple of days, hopefully SOMEBODY will have gotten through this whole post and can tell them that I must have caught it from P Building.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

ACORN. Community organizers. Ever heard of them? I hope so. You are paying for 40% of their budget. But don't worry, the Democrats call them the good guys. Helping people get registered to vote (because it is SO difficult these days). M. Malkin has a great piece on ACORN and the voter fraud that you are paying for.

Here are the highlights (bolds are my additions).

— Lake County, Ind., election officials this month rejected a large portion
of the 5,000 registration forms ACORN turned in after conducting registration
drives in the area all summer. Some vote canvassers had pulled names and
addresses from telephone books and forged signatures. According to local
reports, “large numbers of voter registration forms bore signatures all in the
same apparent handwriting style” and “apparently the organization’s canvassers
broke rules to meet ACORN-set voter registration quotas to get paid.” The fake registrants included dead people and underage
kids.

On a conference call yesterday, GOP officials noted that up to
11,000 voter applications were no good — tying up election officials and jeopardizing the voting rights of untold victims whose identities may
have been stolen.

– Last month, Milwaukee, Wis., officials discovered at least seven
felons employed as voter registration workers for ACORN and another affiliated
group. They also uncovered a raft of problematic voter registration cards. The
state GOP accused ACORN of attempting to enroll dead, imprisoned or
imaginary people to voter rolls. Fraud has plagued ACORN’s Milwaukee
chapter since the last election cycle.

– In Florida, in Orange County alone, ACORN workers turned in multiple
copycat forms for six separate voters over the summer. According to the Miami
Herald, “One individual had 21 duplicate
applications.” Election officials had flagged ACORN’s negligent practices several months ago, but it may be too late: In Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, ACORN has signed up 135,000 new voters, nearly 60 percent of them registered as Democrats that constitute a fifth of all new voters in that region.

– In Ohio, large numbers of homeless people received free van and bus
rides to register. Shelby Holliday, a reporter for Palestra.net, filmed ACORN
shuttling prospects to the polls. She told me she spoke with one
homeless woman who told her ACORN “told her who to vote for if she wanted a ‘better life,’ and told her not to worry about jury duty (one of the
reasons this homeless woman didn’t want to register) because the government
probably wouldn’t be able to track her down. She was registering with a
temporary address.”

Ah! Corrupt Chicago politics on a grand scale. I actually heard one news report yesterday that of the multitude of fraudulent registrations was fake registrations from the entire Dallas Cowboy football team. Nice.

Corrupt campaign donations and fraudulent voter registration = Change You Should be Afraid Of.

Presidential debate numero dos

I caught part of it on the radio and part of it on T.V. In all I thought it was actually pretty uneventful. Both candidates did fairly pitifully. One person asked a question about the energy crisis and global warming. McCain had a decent answer about a focus on nuclear power. Obama responded with something like uh... wind... solar... 5 million new jobs. For being a big issue, it was an amazing poor answer. The same goes for McCain on Social Security and Medicare. His answer came down to, hey I'll reach across the aisle... I'll pull in the smartest people... I have no plan right now, but give me a shot and I'll have smart people come up with one. Weak at best. Obama ducked the same question, just so that he didn't have to explain that he didn't have an answer. Nice.

Oh, by the way, HATED McCain's mortgage bailout idea. Since when does the government have the power to re-negotiate private contracts?

Ugh. I'm watching the global economy slip into the abyss and Obama is rambling on about expanding the Peace Corps to reduce the burden on our military. Huh?

Really? These are the two best guys for this EXTREMELY important job?

Can we go back to the primaries real quick?

This scene came to mind a couple of times last night. Classic.

Great SNL Skit

I didn't get to see it first hand, but I caught the link here (WARNING: some offensive text on this site) of the hilarious SNL skit this weekend.

No, not the Palin/Biden debate, although that one was definitely funny. I am talking about the one where SNL points out the painful fact that the Dems, including their chief financier George Soros, are at the root of this whole thing. There have been several postings of the skit, but they have all gotten pulled down except the one link above. I'm sure the owner of the site will probably be forced to take it down soon, so click quick.

Classic stuff and down right hilarious. Watch Pelosi's eyes! That cracked me up. Botox is not your friend Nancy.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

*** Update: Here is the Palin/Biden skit, since that one was still on NBC's site.

More creepy stuff

Does this kind of stuff bother anybody else?

Palin v. Biden

Yesterday afternoon I picked up the boys and took them to baseball practice. We were early, so we practiced pop flies. Both of them were really doing better when we finished. Then they had their regular practice and I watched a little bit as I practiced my kidstuf script. It’s only four pages this week, so it isn’t bad at all and my friend Rich is in the skit with me as Chef Bean. It should be great, the kids will love it. In fact the whole show this month is not only very interesting, but don’t right hilarious. I highly advise attending if you can (5pm Sunday night). Brandi had a singing practice that started during kidstuf rehearsal and didn’t finish until later, so I took the boys home and put them to bed at about 8:30. SO, all of that to say that I didn’t get to watch the debate as it happened. My good friend J, was texting me with updates, and from his messages, I was not very encouraged.

However, I did catch most of the debate on CNN’s re-run last night and I have to say I thought it was pretty good. I actually thought Joe Biden was “Good Joe” last night. He didn’t stick his foot in his mouth as he is very prone to doing. His answers were pretty clear and he spoke from experience. Unfortunately Palin didn’t really hammer him on the plethora of mistakes that he has made and continues to make, but that’s okay she didn’t need to. I thought Palin was good, not great, she did duck some questions, something that B and I both noticed. But she was VERY charming. In fact I think by the end of the debate Biden was ready to ask for her number. She showed a lot of confidence, humor and poise. She almost carried some things a little too far. I’m not sure how people are going to take the winking at the camera and the little shake on the “drill, baby, drill” (see video below), but all in all I was definitely pleased. At the end of the debate B asked why they have debates. I said it’s a chance for somebody to really mess up, or somebody to really say something unique, profound or even funny. Really it’s suppose to be about presenting the different positions of the parties, but unfortunately they don’t historically hold much sway in that fashion. You can definitely lose ground in a debate, but you can rarely pull out an election victory from a debate. Other than Palin’s charm, I don’t think much will be remembered from this debate (she’s the only candidate that I have ever seen give a wink to the camera and even a ‘shout out’ to her brother’s third grade class).



***Update : I just watched the clip again. I forgot this is where she called him Senator Obiden. I like it. :)

***Also, as I was watching last night I already started laughing, knowing that the SNL skit this week should be pretty funny.

Barack and Joe's buddies

A good clip.

Pork and Mess in the Bailout Bill

I’ve just been through a good portion of the bailout. What was once 3 pages has swelled to 451 and that is before the House gets to it. New pork and changes could be added then. The actual text of what is set up and established to deal with the mortgage mess begins on page 3. Everything associated with the “bailout”, including regulations, oversight, lots of specific stuff is finished by page 113. A big bill, no doubt. But manageable on it’s own. The other 300 plus pages of this bill are total garbage that has been tacked on. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are good things that we should definitely do, but they should be proposed and voted on as separate bills. The bill writing and amending process has become absolutely ridiculous. We need to be pushing for a huge CONGRESSIONAL REFORM that limits what is included in a bill.

This is atrocious! Call you congressman and complain about that! Go to the websites of the presidential candidates and tell them to push for legislation reform!

If you think I’m wrong, then please read through what is included in this bill. Yes I went through it one section at a time and noted each one for the most part. Some of them were grouped into sections as I got tired, but you get the idea. I’ve put my favorites in BOLD print. Some that were so obscure I couldn’t translate were left in CAPS and are quoted. My comments and section numbers are in parenthesis.

- Tax credits, tax incentives, and bond measures for renewable energy. (Several sections in the 100s)
- Tax credits for steel industry fuel (seems to pertain particularly to coal). (Sec. 108)
- “SPECIAL RULE TO IMPLEMENT FERC AND STATE ELECTRIC RESTRUCTURING POLICY” (whatever that means) (Sec. 109)
- Multiple provisions to modify (from the number it’s a drastic increase) and expand coal projects and credits (Sec. 111)
- Increase in coal taxes to fund a black lung trust fund. (Sec. 113)
- “Special Rules” (I hate that language) to refund coal excise taxes for certain producers and exporters. (Sec. 114)
- Tax credit for “Carbon Dioxide Sequestration” (does this mean I can get a tax credit for planting those trees in the backyard that my wife has been begging me for?) (Sec. 115)
- “CERTAIN INCOME AND GAINS RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL SOURCE CARBON DIOXIDE TREATED AS QUALIFYING INCOME FOR PUBLICLY TRADED PARTNERSHIPS.” (anybody’s guess on the real point of this one) (Sec. 116)
- Investigating the magnitude of the effect of the tax code on carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. (no, I’m serious) (Sec. 117)
- “INCLUSION OF CELLULOSIC BIOFUEL IN BONUS DEPRECIATION FOR BIOMASS ETHANOL PLANT PROPERTY” (I’m guessing this means that people who produce ethanol from other plant matter, like the corn husks can benefit from the same pork that the people using the kernel get) (Sec. 201)
- Tax credits for biodiesel (Sec. 202)
- A clarifier that fuel incentives are designed to increase domestic production. (I guess they couldn’t even figure out WHY they were doing all of this!) (Sec. 203)
- Extension and modification of alternative fuel credit. (Sec. 204)
- Credit extensions for new qualified electric, plug-in vehicles. (Sec. 205)
- “EXCLUSION FROM HEAVY TRUCK TAX FOR IDLING REDUCTION UNITS AND ADVANCED INSULATION.” (Sec. 206)
- Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit (I guess that’s good news if you want to open up a 7/11 that dispenses hydrogen) (Sec. 207)
- CERTAIN INCOME AND GAINS RELATING TO ALCOHOL FUELS AND MIXTURES, BIODIESEL FUELS AND MIXTURES, AND ALTERNATIVE FUELS AND MIXTURES TREATED AS QUALIFYING INCOME FOR PUBLICLY TRADED PARTNERSHIPS. (Sec. 208)
- EXTENSION AND MODIFICATION OF ELECTION TO EXPENSE CERTAIN REFINERIES. (Sec. 209)
- EXTENSION OF SUSPENSION OF TAXABLE INCOME LIMIT ON PERCENTAGE DEPLETION FOR OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCED FROM MARGINAL PROPERTIES.(Sec. 210)
- “Fringe benefits” to bicycle commuters (you can’t make this stuff up). (Sec. 211)
- Energy conservation bonds (Sec. 301)
- Tax credit for “Nonbusiness energy property” (Sec. 302)
- Tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings. (Sec. 303)
- Energy efficient home credits. (Sec. 304)
- Energy efficient home appliance credits (Sec. 305)
- “ACCELERATED RECOVERY PERIOD FOR DEPRECIATION OF SMART METERS AND SMART GRID SYSTEMS.” (my smart reader is telling me this whole thing is a pile of POOP!) (Sec. 306)
- Defining sustainable design projects and green buildings. (Sec. 307)
- “Special” depreciation allowance on certain properties used for reuse and recycling. (Sec. 308)
- “LIMITATION OF DEDUCTION FOR INCOME ATTRIBUTABLE TO DOMESTIC PRODUCTION OF OIL, GAS, OR PRIMARY PRODUCTS THEREOF.” (Do we want to be limiting deductions on DOMESTIC production? How does this help our dependency on foreign oil?) (Sec. 401)
- “ELIMINATION OF THE DIFFERENT TREATMENT OF FOREIGN OIL AND GAS EXTRACTION INCOME AND FOREIGN OIL RELATED INCOME FOR PURPOSES OF THE FOREIGN TAX CREDIT” (Oh, okay maybe this helps… or not)(Sec. 402)
- “PERCENT FUTA SURTAX.”(I have no idea what a FUTA surtax is)(Sec. 404.0.2 – no I’m not kidding)
- “INCREASE AND EXTENSION OF OIL SPILL LIABILITY TRUST FUND TAX.” (Sec. 405)
- Div. C contains all kinds of individual tax relief, extensions, extensions for business and restaurants. It includes increases in the “cover over” (whatever that means) of the rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Economic development tax credits for American Samoa. Mine rescue team tax training credit. Different bond measures. Several pork bones to Indian tribes. Railroad maintenance. Katrina tax breaks. Change of tax law for motorsports race tracks (Sec. 317 of Div. C). Tax breaks for investing in Washington DC (Sec. 322 of Div. C). Tax extensions and modifications on wool (Sec. 325 of Div. C)
- Tax breaks for film and television industry. (Sec. 502)
- Some obscure tax exemption for wooden arrows designed for use by children (seriously) (Sec. 503)
- Pages of tax law changes for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
- Tax law changes for claiming farming equipment as property. (Sec. 505)
- Tax law change on penalties for the taxpayer on understatement of liability of tax payer by tax preparer (my head is spinning) (Sec. 506)

Oh, by the way this was all tacked onto a $3.5 billion measure intended to force health-insurance companies to cover mental illness as they do physical sickness, that included it’s own pork about rural schools, federal land, and national disaster relief.

WHAT A MESS!!!

I thought debate moderators were suppose to be impartial

So how does it look when the debate moderator for the VP debate tomorrow night is about to publish a book with the words 'in the Age of Obama' in the title?

Here she is covering the RNC. No smile. Shaking her head. Obviously disgusted at the energy in the room, at the way Palin landed full on body blows to her book subject, and very thinly veiling her repulsion at having to attend Sarah Palin's first speech where she performed amazingly.



Now watch this promo video for her upcoming book. Do you think it is possible that the selected moderator for this debate has a vested interest in seeing Obama and hence, Biden, win?


The Breakthrough: Gwen Ifill - The most amazing home videos are here

Who is funding the Obama campaign?

Obama is out on the trail and he likes to say things like, his campaign isn't financed with a single dollar from lobbyists, that most of his campaign contributions come from small on-line donations.

But exactly who and where are these donations coming from? Is it from single moms who are true believers in his cause? Definitely some. Is it from liberal college students about to vote in their first presidential election? Most definitely, some. Is it from Palestinian camps controlled by Hamas? Evidently. Is it from a huge number of foreign contributors? Illegally so, yes.

Please read this.

From the Horses' mouths

A great video. Watch until the very end, the last testimony is some of the best.

This is kind of creepy

Talk about setting unrealistic expectations. This is what the soaring rhetoric has brought.

I'm sorry, I know it's suppose to be cute and touching and everything, but it's just kind of creepy.

More prayers for Caridee

It was so wonderful last week to be able to take the boys to see their little cousin for the first time. They were SO excited and didn't want to stop holding her. I can't blame them, she is quite precious.

She has been going for regular check ups and they were concerned that she was not gaining weight. Another echo on her heart showed that one side was slightly enlarged and further tests showed a narrowing of the aorta. Common I guess for Turner's babies, but not good news. They are meeting with surgeons to discuss what needs to be done. She will most likely have surgery within the next few weeks.

Please keep little Caridee in your prayers that her aorta will expand on it's own. The doctors have already said this would be a miracle, but hey I know someone that can handle those. :) But no matter what pray for healing for her and that the problem will be resolved one way or another.

Please keep Heather and Chris in your prayers as well. It's tough enough being new parents, but this is a whole different hurdle to climb.

Thanks,

Keith

We need another Lincoln

I just finished reading Lincoln on Leadership. I enjoyed it, but it also makes me very sad.

We have no Lincoln in this race.

We don't have anyone who is even close.

Catching up

There is just a lot going on in life. Work. Church. Politics (several ughs here).

Saturday we had another baseball game. It went great. Both of the boys batted a thousand. We had the snacks. Gatorade and granola bars. I remember when I was a kid it was always soda. I always liked when someone brought the cheap grocery store soda, because there always seemed to be a cream soda in there. I love cream soda.

I finished one book and started another one. I've been reading a lot more lately. Not in long spurts because there is just too much going on, but I am able to get through a few pages here and there.

I went out this morning and worked on the yard. The front had quite a few weeds and I received a notice from the lovely home owner's association. You gotta love that.

Right now I'm watching Goochy and GB. The Gooch is driving me crazy and GB is refusing to take a nap. Brandi has a chiropractic appoitnment followed by an appointment with the accupuncturist. Somewhere in between she is taking the boys to school and reserving the park for GB's birthday party.

I'm working on drafting a letter to my current employer so that they can give me the thumbs up to start a consulting gig on the side. It should be a good deal, if I can get it going. It would help a lot and may be a good long term solution. Hopefully it is one step closer to my goal of working from home. The only obstacle at this point is that there is a clause in the Code of Business Conduct that says you cannot have a second job working for a customer, competitor or supplier. Considering we sold enough parts last year so that everyone in the world could have five of our devices, it is kind of difficult to find companies that don't fall into one of those categories. That means I need VP approval. I hope that doesn't mean I have to draft a new letter for every company I try and consult with. That could be a little tedious.

Like I said, there is just a lot going on.