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.

GB Turned One Yesterday

Head over to the family blog for a post on GB and his birthday. My little guy turned ONE!

I love YOUTube

Here is the "I have a bracelet, too..." video, but it is even better than I remembered. What I didn't notice the first time is that he can't remember the name of the soldier. He has to look down at the bracelet to remember his name.

McCain - genuine. Obama - uh... no.

Man, they didn't even get off the stage and it was going up already

As I pointed out earlier, Obama kept saying that McCain was right... well the campaign video creators noticed it to. So as the debate was ENDING, this video went up.



Nice reaction time, guys.

"I have a bracelet too.."

"I have a bracelet too..." What? Are you serious? I couldn't help but laugh! If there was a sound bite for the night, that was one of them. Another was when Obama was talking about Iran. He made several missteps, until McCain finally jumped in over the top of him and humorously joked that Obama would sit across from Iran and listen to their foolish talk about Israel and say, oh no you won't. I thought those played very much in McCain's favor.

More importantly, time and time again McCain came across as having a tremendous amount of experience on national defense and foreign policy. He repeatedly mentioned trips he had taken to different countries and regions and referenced world leaders by name. Obama came off very weak, very naive on the whole thing.

Obama did not fall on his face. He was obviously prepared and spoke very well, even without the prompter, which is a really big breakthrough for him. However, he also said several times that he agreed with McCain, which helped to give a visual example of the reality that McCain is a leader and Obama is a nice, naive, extremely liberal guy who would have done much better if he would have waited 8 - 12 years while he gained some real experience and had a chance to step up and develop some leadership, which he is sorely lacking.

In short, McCain won handily. It wasn't a knock out, but it was definitely a clear victory.

BTW, I'm switching back and forth between MSNBC and FNC and the libs and conservatives are all saying the same thing. McCain 1 Obama 0.

***Update: Olbermann trying to spin that Obama did good, although he definitely isn't saying that Obama won. This guy is absolutely ridiculous and is trying to say that McCain claimed Pakistan is a failed state, but what McCain SAID was that before Musharraf took over Pakistan in a military coupe, it was a failed state. True statement. Olbermann is extremely dishonest.

***Update: Olbermann actually said there is no doubt that McCain won the debate. WOW!! I just about fell off of my couch! He even mentioned (with shame all over his face) the "I have a bracelet too..." line. For a smidgen of a moment I had respect for Olbermann. Don't worry it passed.

Tim puts the smack down on Biden

I like reading Tim Stevens blog. He's not a political guy normally. He is an executive pastor at Granger Community Church in Indiana and an author. I read his latest Pop Goes the Church earlier this year and really enjoyed it.

He has a great post today showing the giving percentages of McCain, Obama and especially Biden (Palin's have not been made public yet, but should be soon). It's information I've heard from other sources but I enjoyed Tim's take on it.

There is a book out there called Who Really Cares? that is suppose to be a good read about charitable giving and political affiliations. I have not read it, but I did listen to a several radio interviews with the author and it's on my list for future reads, although I think I've already heard most of the interesting tidbits.

Interesting stuff and I think Tim is right, it reveals a lot about a persons character.

Too much going on

At work, at home, in the country... I think my brain is on overload.

First: The McCain surprise yesterday: suspending his campaign, asking the president to call a meeting of the congressional leaders and presidential candidates, and pledging to work until this crisis is resolved. Hmmm. It was bold, I'll give him that. McCain is a leader, no doubt about it. Personally I wouldn't have gone the route that he did. I think some will see it as desperate. Of course, financially our country is in a REALLY tight spot, so... We'll see. President Bush definitely helped him out by calling the meeting he asked for, but I think that more than anyone, Obama helped McCain out with his response press conference where he said, "I'm available if you need me." Hmm... doesn't exactly scream leadership.

Second: The speech from President Bush last night was pretty good. He left out a lot of stuff historically and sugar coated some other stuff, blaming the collapse of the mortgage industry on outside investment that came and went. From everything I've read and seen it really seems to have started with the HUGE accounting scandals by Freddie and Fannie back in the 90's and early 00's. As part of a pseudo plea bargain with Congress and the administration to not jump on them with increased regulation they increased their purchasing and encouraging of sub-prime loans in order to increase home ownership. This was seen as a win by the Bush administration and congressional leaders. This willingness to pick up bad loans by 'government backed entities' encouraged mortgage brokers to explore a whole new market of people who really couldn't afford loans. Worse than that, Fannie and Freddie were buying up way too many of these loans and putting themselves in a bad cash position. Greenspan and others warned about this. McCain and some Republicans tried to push through some legislation to clamp down on this unhealthy practice at FM and FM, but it was blocked by Senate Democrats. At the same time FM and FM were buying off politicians with campaign contributions to try and get them NOT to regulate FM and FM like regular banks (Sen. Dodd was the biggest recipient over his career and Sen. Barack Obama was number two in over all money after just TWO years in the Senate and yes John McCain over his two decades collected 1/5 the money that Obama did).

As the borrowers in the sub-prime market started to default on their loans, the cash position at FM and FM got worse and worse, until they finally got taken over by the Fed a couple of weeks ago. So then you have this downward spiral by all of the businesses that worked closely with them in addition to banks and investors who were heavy into mortgage securities. Banks are regulated (if they want to be FDIC insured) and so they have to have a certain ratio of cash on hand to outstanding loans (mortgages are a big part of that). Well, people start defaulting, FM and FM aren't buying up the loans like they were, so now banks are stuck with them and they panic and stop lending anything to anybody so that they can stay solvent and maintain the ratios that they need to be in business. The bummer at that point is that businesses then can't get loans, you can't get a car loan, and even though you have good credit, you can't buy a house because no one is lending money. This is the big pile of steaming credit crisis that we are in.

So, the 'bailout' package is basically purchasing these sub-prime loans from the banks that are in trouble so that they improve their cash position and resume (hopefully) responsible lending. Of course these loans are going to be purchase at something like 20 cents on the dollar. It is a "write down" for the company, but they are out of the loan and they have cash. Obviously these banks just can't go on business as usual. In most (if not all) cases the government will sack the management of the institution and put in government managers who will temporarily run things while the board of directors seeks new leadership. This is similar to the whole Savings and Loan fiasco a while back. In the meantime the American taxpayers become owners of all of this bad real estate. Congrats! :( The hope then is that the market turns around and that not all of the sub-prime loan holders actually default and eventually the Fed (you) makes their money back.

I think that's the gist of it. As a responsible person who pays their bills and taxes, you get hosed. But if they didn't do anything, then you wouldn't be able to get a loan to BUY anything. The company you work for would be in a similar situation. Good companies would go under. All kinds of jobs would be lost. Basically, you would probably get hosed even worse. At least this route, the financial industry can keep functioning, the stock market will respond well, people keep working and maybe in the end the tax payers make some of the money back. I've heard some people speculate that we will MAKE money on the deal, but considering it is all coming straight out of the national debt, I don't see that happening.

And when they say $700 BILLION, that is the high end. Of course that also equates to about $10,000 for every family in America. Nice eh?

News Busted

The Newsbusters website is dedicated to showing the bias in media. As part of their page they always include a news style video in the top right corner. Sometimes they are pretty funny. This one isn't great, but it does a pretty good job at poking fun at all of the favorites of the Newsbusters crew, the Right, the left, Hollywood and celebrities. Enjoy.

SHOCKING!!! ML asks some big questions! Obviously not a Biden fan.

This video is pretty shocking. If anything it shows ML is not a Biden fan. He points out one of Biden's missteps and gets Obama a little flustered and irritated. I like it. This is actually some legit journalism that we haven't seen from NBC. Nice. Then he points out the fact that Biden was a bad pick compared to Palin or Hillary for that matter. Classic stuff. Go Matt!

I am really starting to like Joe Biden

For the same reason that the Obama team is wishing they would have picked someone else.

Katie actually gets a good point in and Biden is quick to say how much he disliked the commercial put out and endorsed by his own campaign and his running mate.

Nice.

Ducking the Issue

It happens quite a bit. Someone gets called out on something and instead of addressing the real issue, they get 'outraged' over something completely irrelevant.

For instance, the McCain campaign came out with a very effective ad linking Obama's advisers to the corrupt federal mortgage industry. Check it out.




The reaction from the Obama camp was... this ad is racist. That's right. Racist.

What? That makes no sense.

Playing the race card whenever they want to duck an issue. That's not change, that's the same old trick.

It's time for Charlie Rangel to Go

Amidst his own plethera of tax and income reporting issues, NY Congressman Charlie Rangel decided to open his mouth and swallow BOTH feet. Now Charlie isn't known for being the most well mannered and articulate congressman anyway, but this was over the top. He needs to go.

Tagged

I almost feel like I’m passing on spam mail through my blog, but… Nick tagged me and it’s a slow morning, so.... Here are the rules:

1. Post these rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of you post (I’m making this optional to relieve any guilt, including my own for continuing this).
4. If you get tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.
5. If you don’t do it, I will be crushed emotionally and will probably never recover from the rejection. Okay, maybe I will.



Here are my six random things:
1. I relate strongly to the movie Office Space. I work in the basement. I clutch my stapler and mumble incoherently. It’s not the red Swingline model, my company is too cheap for that. It’s tan colored and has somebody else’s name written on a piece of paper and tapped to the bottom. I guess they didn’t clutch it closely enough. Seriously.





















2. I’m a pen freak. Not like, hey this is my favorite pen, it goes much deeper. I have multiple pens sitting on my desk because they are different thicknesses and I like them at different times for writing on different kinds of paper. I always have one in my shirt. Don’t ask to borrow it. If you do, I’ll let you, but I will also anxiously follow you around biting my fingernails until you give it back. I do this to my kids all of the time. I also tell them that they can’t ‘color’ with my pens, it ruins the tip. Sad and strange, but true.
3. I really WANT to be organized. But it’s not in my nature. My desk is a perfect example.





















4. I go through denial every week the night before I have to work. I tell myself that if I don’t go to bed, I won’t have to get up and go to work. So I stay up late and then I’m exhausted the rest of the week. Stupid, I know.
5. I use to be a pretty decent piano player. Not so much these days. I kind of miss it sometimes.
6. I feel like the king of the world when my kids look at me admiringly, give me a hug, and tell me they love me. I treasure those moments.


I tag (in no particular order) Charlie, Kristen, Faith (must be enforced by Kristen to get her blogging again), Oh let’s go ahead and drag Bill C into this, I’m sure he’s got some interesting stuff, and Mike (although you may have to wait until Innovate08 is over).

Here they come!!

The debates that is. Just in case you haven't set your calendar or DVR yet. Here are the dates and locations of the debates. All of them start at 9pm ET.

First presidential debate:Friday, September 26University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
Vice presidential debate:Thursday, October 2Washington University in St. Louis, MO
Second presidential debate:Tuesday, October 7Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Third presidential debate:Wednesday, October 15Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Patriotism and paying taxes

So Joe Biden says that it is patriotic for wealthy Americans to get a tax increase. Hmmm, not sure about the logic there, but hey, nobody ever accused Joe B. of using logic.

But if you follow that train of thought, would Joe say that the nearly 40% of the people who don't pay direct income taxes are UNpatriotic?

While we're on that note, lets take a look at an analysis of the Congressional Budget Office figures by Americans for Tax Reform. The results are very interesting.

...the CBO data also shows that the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle
class, paid only 4.4% of federal income taxes. The bottom 40% of income earners actually paid a negative 3.8% of federal income taxes. That means they got money back on net from the federal income tax system, rather than paying money. The top 40% paid 99.4% of federal income taxes, covering for the negative 3.8% paid to the lowest 40% of income earners.

Now, if you are actually paying attention to some of Obama's words, other than 'hope' and 'change', you will note that he makes the statement that he will cut taxes for 95% of working Americans. But 95% of working Americans don't pay taxes. Evidently 40% actually get money back that they didn't even pay in. So what does a 'tax cut' really even mean to them?

Maybe instead of 'tax cut' Obama should really call his plan what it is; an increase in government hand outs and a surge in the number of Americans dependent on the government. This will come in the form of tax credits. Of course if your number of tax credits exceeds the amount of taxes that you should have paid, then you get money back. Money that you never paid in to begin with.

Tax cut? No. Buying votes? Something like that.

Hockey Moms for Truth

This was kind of funny.

What IS the difference between icing and off sides?

Ranting

If I hear or read this one more time I am going to vomit.

Pa-lease. I am amazed that the media is so amazed. I’m shocked that they don’t get it. I am even more shocked that instead of getting it, they blame RACISM for something that they clearly don’t understand.

This race isn’t close because the country is racist. I would dare say that racism has almost NOTHING to do with this whole thing. But for some reason, they just can’t conceive why the average American doesn’t want the most liberal senator in the country to be our next president. It just doesn’t make sense that people who adamantly oppose abortion wouldn’t want someone picking our next Supreme Court justices who thinks that abortion should be allowed at any point in a pregnancy, at any time, and for any reason. It is completely outrageous to think that when we are flirting with recession, two real wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the constant threat from Islamo-facists that the American public wouldn’t be falling all over themselves to put someone in the White House with absolutely NO executive, leadership, military, or even REAL WORLD experience. Someone who talks of endless government hand outs and almost 1 TRILLION dollars in new government spending and expansion. Someone who proudly extols that they would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, limit our development of future weapons, and cut military spending, all while Iran is developing nuclear weapons and Russia is flirting with a return to its former dreams of global and regional domination. I mean come on, Obama is a good speaker, he’s handsome, he’s young, he’s not a white, upper class, conservative Republican. Why wouldn’t we all just fall down like a bunch of mindless drones at his feet? Didn’t we all get the memo? I mean, haven’t we checked the world polls? Don’t we know that everybody wants us to elect this guy? Don’t we know that Vladimir Putin is really pulling for Obama? Don’t we know that Hamas has endorsed him?

The only truly amazing thing about this race is that Obama is IN IT AT ALL! It is a very sad day when a party that represents approximately half of our country, nominates a man with no experience, no new ideas, no leadership skills and no real ability to think for himself.

It is also a sad day when the media stops reporting news and starts trying to make the news. They stop being objective and instead work to shape a story as they see fit.

Ugh.

A couple of powerful ads

What would you do?

The alarm went off at 3:30 this morning. I was already partially awake, but I decided to set it back 15 and steal a few more minutes of sleep. 3:45. I got up, shaved, showered and got dressed. I was about to walk out the door when I took one last look at my watch. 3:20, yup, I should be able to make it to work by... wait a minute, 3:20? I checked again. Bummer. Went and checked the clock in the kitchen. 3:21. Ugh! Checked the alarm clock in the bedroom again. 4:21.

I hate it when that happens.

So, you're dressed and ready for work, but you are an hour ahead of schedule.

What do you do?

A. Take off your clothes and get back in bed.
B. Leave your clothes on and just sleep on the couch.
C. Go into work and immediately send your boss an email so that he can see how early you got in. :)
D. Go to Denny's and have a good breakfast before you head into work.
E. Go into work, close your door and get an hour of sleep.
F. Go into work, but go online and buy a new alarm clock that sets itself based on where it is positioned globally.
G. ?

My wife ROCKS!!!

When we started going to SSCC, Brandi really missed being on the praise team during worship. She especially missed being on the praise team with her sister. But for the last couple of months we have been helping out with the kid’s large group. She helps out leading worship and I do storytelling. This has been challenging but a lot of fun.

This last weekend she had to lead the kids in a song by the David Crowder Band called No One Like You. First of all Brandi isn’t a rocker, she likes crooners and country music. Second, she’s a high soprano. She was freaking out about singing this song. More than any other one she struggled with the words and was just very uncomfortable. She was stressing.

But before she started the first small group she just prayed that God would work everything out. She put herself out there and it was AMAZING!! The kids were so into it and they were doing some serious rocking out in praise to God. She had them get the air guitar and air drums going; it was so awesome!!! I was very impressed. I know what an amazing person, mother, wife, singer, Christian, and over all incredible woman that my wife is, but I have to say that I was blown away this last Sunday.

She gives all of the credit to God, as she should, after all, he was the one who made this incredible woman.

Rock on, baby!

I guess they are trying to avoid anymore 'unscripted' comments

After the lipstick and pig comments it looks like the campaign isn't taking any chances.

Obama is taking his addiction with him wherever he goes now. Ouch.

I guess even he is having trouble keeping up with his message.

Double ouch.

LOL! I KNEW IT!!!

This explains SO much!!! Not to bag on vegans, but this completely explains PETA and that whole crowd.

Classic.

So I wonder if the inverse is true... if you eat a big fat steak, does your brain get bigger?

I love it.

For some reason I am craving In-n-Out Burger for lunch. Make it a 4x4 baby! I'm eating brain fuel here!

Oh yeah, you wanna bet on it?!

I've been hearing about this site for a while and finally brought it up. It's called Intrade.com and it is basically a place to bet/watch predictions on the election or any number of things. I did this visual grab off of the site.

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not pushing this site for people to actually go out and use. I just think it's pretty interesting and kind of fun.

Even more interesting is that McCain just pulled ahead for the first time. Hmm...

Change... really?

One of Senator Obama's biggest campaign promises and favorite lines on the trail is that he is going to "cut wasteful spending." Really?

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste a nonprofit, nonpartisan group just finished their analysis of the 2007 congressional record concerning earmarks, otherwise known as pork barrels, or "wasteful spending". Governor Palin isn't on the list because she is not a member of congress and so doesn't appropriate federal funds. McCain, Obama, and Biden are on the list.

In all fairness Senator McCain has also pledged to "cut wasteful spending," he has even gone so far as to pledge that he will veto any bill that has pork in it. Pretty bold pledge.

So, based on past history which is our only possible means of predicting future performance, who will keep their word?

Let see how they ranked.

The CCAGW broke it down by 2007 and then to be fair, they included a life time rating.

Obama - for 2007 - 10% Meaning that 90% of the time he voted for pork.
Biden - for 2007 - 0% Meaning that he voted for pork 100% of the time.
McCain - for 2007 - 100% You get the idea, he NEVER voted for pork in 2007.

Now for pretty much all of 2007, all of these candidates were running for president. So lifetime averages...

Obama - 18%
Biden - 22% (evidently 2007 was a very porky year for him)
McCain - 88%

So what do you think? Who really will "cut wasteful spending"?

H/T: MM

Biosolids...

With all of the talk about an energy crisis, I was just waiting for this one to spring up.

I'm not saying it's not a good idea. In fact, it's probably a great idea.

Maybe we can all keep our thermostats at 68 (I don't think my AC would ever turn off). Just make sure that you eat your dose of 'fuel'. You know, beans, broccoli, cabbage, prunes, raisins... you get the idea.

Methane power. Now that's some 'natural' gas.

I think you get the idea, the jokes are pretty much endless.

Obama puts foot in mouth... all the way up to his thigh

If you pay attention to the news today you are probably going to see headlines about Obama calling Sara Palin a pig. Well, watch below and see what you think.




I really don't think that Obama is dumb enough to be referring to Palin, despite my first reaction and the first reaction of everyone I mentioned this comment to. I'm sure the crowd at the event was drawing the same parallels as well given their reaction. But I don't believe that it was intentional. I DO believe, however, that this is what happens when Obama is off of the prompter.

Open mouth and insert foot, in this case all the way up to his thigh.

He's kind of like the Democratic version of Dan Quayle. With fewer accomplishments.

*****Update: Obama responded today and called this whole thing ridiculous (I agree), but I love his quote:

"These are serious times and they call for a serious debate...spare me all the
phony outrage. Spare me all the phony talk about change."

Amen! Spare us all your phony talk about change and don't lie to us about your desire to debate. You've shot down every offer from McCain to debate! Let's see what happens when you can't duck anymore.

Truly a Dilbert moment

Dilbert is the funniest when it is so incredibly true.

I can't tell you how many times I have lived this moment.

Now here is some change to believe in

I'm liking it!

All of the polls are trending in the 'right' direction for McCain and Palin. The good news is that this race is almost over.

The bad news is that the race is almost over and people are going to have to start living up to their promises. The bar isn't real high to begin with, since I disagree with McCain on a host of issues.

The most important thing this election season is to remember that YOU need to be the change.

If you haven't checked out the Jesus for President series at SSCC then you are seriously missing out. The one on marriage this week was awesome! Throw out the parachute, grab your spouse's hand and run to Jesus. Good stuff. Download it here.

This is more telling for entirely different reasons

I like this video for several reasons, none of which have anything to do with Obama saying that he has a "Muslim faith". Watch and then read.






A couple things here. Number one I'm really proud of George Stephanapoulos. This was actually some decent interviewing. He wasn't letting Obama up about this and he was really hammering him on it. Not about having Muslim faith, but about accusing McCain of bringing up Obama's religion (black liberation theology). McCain has been very above board on this. He has attacked Obama's positions and lack of experience, but not his radical, America hating, racist pastor. The second thing that I find very interesting is that once again Obama doesn't do well when he has to speak off the cuff. He's flustered like usual, but there is something else in this interview. He's frustrated. I think he sees the whole thing slipping away and he can't get it back. I think he also knows that his real problems are about to start with the debates. I think he is also doubting his decision not to at least ASK Hillary to be his VP. Most importantly I hope he is second guessing his decision to run right now before he could really establish any kind of record or accomplishments.

I think he's on the ropes and the polls aren't looking good.

About two weeks too late

Well, you can tell from all of the chaos that something was going on over at MSNBC. Unfortunately this move comes two weeks too late for people looking for fair coverage of the conventions. I actually enjoyed Olbermann and Matthews' coverage because it was so blatantly biased that there was no chance of anyone actually confusing it with objectivity. I have no problem with a network that says, "hey we are in the tank for Obama because we are liberals and that is what we believe in." If that is what people want to watch, that's fine.

It is interesting to see the shake up.

I hope this doesn't mean that the blow ups and the tirades are over. That was by far the most entertaining part!

WARNING... WHINING AHEAD!!!

Yesterday was crazy.

Work was normal busy. I was able to leave in time to pick the boys up from school, but before that I had six extra minutes to spare! So I ran into WallyWorld and bought a case for my new phone and a baseball glove for Hunter. Then I picked up the boys and met Brandi and the other two boys for a nice healthy dinner at Some Burros. From there we went to our first little league practice of the season. It’s kind of nice because both of the boys are on the same team. I’m not sure how all of the interpersonal dynamics are going to work out with that, but we’ll see.

I had to leave before practice was over because I had Kidstuf practice at church. It was a blast as always and I got to mess around with a couple of voice overs. I really enjoy these because you aren’t actually out there on stage. Plus I get to do all kinds of impressions and weird voices… not that anyone who has ever listened to my answering machine would know that I like doing that kind of thing. This week I get to do a thick southern hick accent and a Mrs. Doubtfire type accent. Then in kids large group on Sunday morning I get to be a German scientist. Good times.

After Kidstuf practice was over I went home and spent some time chatting with my beautiful wife, then packed up some things and took them over to Heather and Chris’ so that they could be ready to bring their sweet little girl home today! By the time I got home it was about 11 or so and I was just in time to catch the repeat of the McCain speech (more on that later). When that concluded, I edited a story that Hunter had written. Now, I know I’m a little biased, but that kid has some mad creative writing skills!

I finally got to bed about 12:45am.

Don’t worry I got to sleep in this morning… until 4:30 (well it’s better than 3:30).

Ugh. Need… more… coffee…

She's coming home!!!

Last night I stopped by Heather and Chris’ empty house and dropped off our bassinet for them. They are going to need it because CARIDEE IS COMING HOME TODAY!!!!

Praise God! All of the follow up tests have looked good and they think that Caridee is going to be fine. It has been a very dramatic roller coaster ride and I know that Chris and Heather really appreciate all of the prayers. Check out this excerpt from the message that Chris sent out.

The doctors watching over her were absolutely wonderful, but even they
couldn’t really explain all the events that took place. For instance, the
bacteria they initially found in the bladder and the lack of pee after 3 days,
could have been indicative of renal-failure of the kidney’s (potentially fatal),
but this bacteria never cultured (which was perplexing in itself) and
mysteriously disappeared. This is when the floodgates were opened leading to
nice wet diapers; definitely a God thing.

Praise God and thank you for taking this very precious family before the throne of our God in prayer.

A little interesting prediction... just for entertainment purposes of course

Jim Geraghty from National Review made a rash prediction last Friday when Palin was picked by McCain. It's fringe at best... but VERY interesting.

It does raise an interesting point. Palin has clearly energized the base and even persuaded some of the independents and fringe voters. Things are getting more and more interesting. The speech last night was powerful and had 37 MILLION viewers. Not bad for a first big speech. Obama's big nomination speech drew 38 MILLION viewers. Hmmm....

So what will Obama do if he really slides in the polls? Would he really dump Biden and go to Hillary? Would she jump on a failed campaign, late in the game? After all, isn't she kind of hoping Obama tanks so that she has a shot at 2012?

Interesting questions.

BTW, the line in the speech last night about small town mayors being community organizers with actual responsibilities was Jim's. She didn't steal the line, he actually wrote a post on his blog begging her to use the line. It was classic.

******UPDATE: Sorry the latest numbers say over 40 MILLION people watched Sarah Palin's speech, compared to 38 MILLION for Obama. Wait, that's more than the Big 0. Ouch.

Justice finally caught up with the worst mayor in America

Kwame Kilpatrick made a deal and pled guilty.

It's about time.

I wonder if he will retract the comments that he made in his "State of the City" address last year condemning these attacks against him as "racists attacks against a black family".

Our justice system isn't perfect. But I think more often than not, we get it right.

Hmmm... imagine this.

You are thrust onto the national stage and immediately ridiculed and beat up. Your family and family issues are dragged through the mud, all the way back to the DUI that your husband got 22 years ago. Reporters and editors have been saying everything from you being a bad mom to you being inexperienced and unprepared for the job you've been nominated to.

Then you get out on stage in front of a rowdy and excited crowd for a long speech that will be beamed into the homes of millions of anxious Americans.

Your first test.

Your first real moments in the spot light.

You start delivering the speech and it is being well received, people are cheering... and cheering... and cheering... and the whole time your speech scolls by on the teleprompter and you have no "back up" button, no way for it to come back... what would you do?

Well, if you are Sarah Palin and the next Vice President of the United States you go from memory, smile, and deliver that speech like NO ONE ELSE could have.

Are you impressed now?

She CRUSHED it!!!!!

Wow, earlier in the evening I was thinking, man, probably not a good idea to put Sarah Palin up after Romney, Huckabee, and Giuliani. They were all good and Giuliani especially did a GREAT job, but for the life of me I can't remember hardly a single thing that he said.

Sarah Palin commanded that stage and that audience from the very moment she walked out. She was smooth, she was comfortable, she was funny, she smacked Obama dead in the face at times, and she did it all with a smile! It was classic! And the convention itself was a complete turn around last night. It was ELECTRIC! You couldn't have coached someone for years to do what she did tonight. She rocked on presentation and substance and she connected with the audience like she was sitting down having coffee with them.

The talking heads are driving me crazy. They are trying to play it off by saying that someone else wrote it. DUH!!! There isn't a single person who has talked in the last two weeks that actually wrote there own stuff. Virtually every person on MSNBC (except for Pat Buchanan) acts like someone peed in their coffee and they have to smile and drink it. I thought Andrea Mitchell was going to vomit. You couldn't have taken a fish hook and yanked the corners of her mouth up. It was CLASSIC!!!

I loved it. McCain did good and he looks golden on this decision. Some were wondering if she would really be able to hit back at the media and I think she showed that she could go toe to toe with these guys and knock them on their CANS!!! Even Keith Olbermann just said "she can throw punches with the best of them." LOL!!! I love it!!! I even caught MSNBC showing one of the woman delegates weeping with joy (don't worry they turned away as fast as they could).

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

Palin/McCain! Baby!

Ooops... I mean... McCain/Palin :)

Don't bring your bias to the Newt, he'll SMACK you down!!

I love this video. Watch the whole thing or just skip ahead to about minute 2:00. The MSNBC hack tries to belittle Gov. Palin and gets the full on smack down from Newt who lists off Palin's accomplishments without skipping a beat and then turns the tables and asks for ONE thing Obama has done.

Needless to say that's where the hack cuts off the interview.

Go Newt!!

After day 2 of the RNC

I had mixed observations as I watched the RNC last night.

First of all let me say that Laura Bush is an elegant, articulate, and very classy first lady. President Bush’s speech was pretty typical for him. I don’t think that he has ever been an impressive speaker and an even less impressive communicator, but for a cameo, he did fine.

Fred Thompson stole the show last night. I thought his speech was excellent and I thought he delivered it perfectly. If Fred had campaigned for president like he spoke last night, he would be the nominee right now.

There was also a huge contrast between Fred’s endorsement of McCain and either of the Clintons’ endorsement of Obama. The only time Senator Thompson brought up his own record was when he was referencing John McCain’s leadership, friendship, and example. His speech was exciting, humorous, inspiring, and dramatically delivered. I’ve heard John McCain’s POW story a number of times, but Thompson really made it hit home.

He took a few shots at Obama (but not by name) and some more shots at the Dem congress and explained their failed ideas in clear terms. His comments about Dem tax increases coming out of the “other side” of the bucket were excellent.

Personally I thought they should have ended the second night right there, or switched the order of Thompson and Lieberman. Not that Senator Lieberman is a bad guy or that his speech was bad. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. He tended to emphasize the things that conservatives despise about McCain, but then again he was obviously trying to appeal to Independents and Democrats. Unfortunately Joe Lieberman is a tiring speaker. His frowning way of talking is just hard to listen to and he smacks of Ben Stein on Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. Ugh. I just felt like the whole night would have ended on a more positive and uplifting note if it would have ended with Thompson.

I do appreciate the fact that Lieberman is endorsing McCain. It’s a bold move to slap your party in the face. Not that they have shown him any respect the last couple of years by supporting someone else in the Dem primaries, but still, I imagine they will do whatever they can to make it a little bit more difficult for him after this.

As a whole I was kind of disappointed at the convention itself (except for Fred’s speech). It seems like all of the delegates that are there are, well... older. They need more fresh faces. The whole thing seemed to be lacking a little bit of spunk and spirit. Let the delegates bring a friend. Fill the arena with cheering people.

I really hope we see a little bit more of that tonight when Giuliani and Palin take the stage.

This is what media bias looks like

If there was any doubt in your mind before that there is a HUGE left wing bias in the media, that doubt should be long gone by now. The response from the media to Sarah Palin should tell you two things. Number one, they are so far in the tank for Obama that they can't think straight (then again, maybe that's how they got there in the first place). Second, Sarah Palin scares them because she is a woman who is feminine but tough. She's pretty, she's smart, she's a leader, and she's conservative. She has energized not only the conservative base, but women and independents who were on the fence. Palin has brought energy to the Republican side that just wasn't there before.

This interview by Campbell Brown is one pathetic example of what I am talking about. I have not seen ANYONE question Obama's experience like this, and he's the one on the TOP of the Dem ticket.

Great day yesterday

I had the great privilege yesterday of getting to hold my sweet little niece, Caridee! I might be just a little bit biased, but she is INCREDIBLY PRECIOUS! What a beautiful little baby!

And the best part is that right after I got to hold her, they moved her down to the lower level ICU. No IV. No formula. Just mama's milk. All of the kidney issues have cleared up. She even got a little baby massage yesterday to help with the puffiness in her legs.

Here is an excerpt from the message that Chris sent out this morning, I think he says it all pretty good.

God has been working in this hospital and making His mark on the nurses and doctors that have been caring for us. In fact, our doctors are completely stumped as to how Caridee has healed her biggest trial in the hospital so far (kidney problems). They are still unable to tell how exactly the issue resolved itself. We tell them it
was God taking over! He is almighty and gracious.

They are still running some more tests today, mainly repeats just be sure that everything is okay. Heather and Chris were so happy yesterday when I talked with them. I think they can finally see the day when they get to take their sweet little girl home. Praise God!

Keep praying. I'll post another update when she gets to leave the hospital. Hopefully in the next day or two.

Qualified?

The first thing that the talking heads started saying when McCain picked Palin was that she was very inexperienced and that by picking her McCain had taken the experience issue out of the race. I find this quite amusing. The more amusing thing is that Obama is getting questioned about whether he has more or less experience than Palin and his answer is REALLY amusing.

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees.
We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million
dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,”
Obama responded.

That’s classic. Evidently running for president is Obama’s strongest example of the experience that he needs to BE the president. Now, maybe the Obama camp is different (NOT) than any other campaign I have ever heard or read about but usually the candidate is not the one running the campaign. That’s what campaign managers are for. The candidates have to focus on their speeches, their delivery, how to connect with the audience, come up to speed on current national and local issues so that they can speak intelligently about them. From his own defense, Obama’s campaign manager is better qualified to be president than he is! Ouch.

Also notice that he went back to her time as mayor for the comparison versus her time as governor. For an apples to apples comparison wouldn't he have to reference his time as an IL State Senator. I guess when he crunched the numbers of his campaign vs. her time as governor of Alaska, they didn't fall so well in his favor.

That’s not even addressing the HUGE, OBVIOUS point that he is having to defend his experience against the VP selection of his opponent. Of course, he isn’t running against the VP selection of McCain, he’s running against McCain.

I think this whole thing really takes Obama down a notch… or four.

I’ve never been a big McCain fan, but I have to hand it to the guy. Old or not, he has shown himself to be one BRILLIANT politician through this campaign.

A new message about Caridee this morning

I received an email from Chris this morning about Caridee. It is all very positive. She seems to be urinating a healthy amount now and she has been moved to the intermediate ICU and a step closer to going home! The doctors anticipate that it will still be 2-7 before she leaves the hospital, but things are definitely looking better. Here is an excerpt from Chris' email. Praise God and keep praying!

She is so much more in tune with her surroundings, looking around, and just taking in life one breath at a time. We can tell she is feeling better. It is so neat to look into her eyes and see God's miracle in our hands. If you remember, the doctors only gave Caridee a 5% chance of even making it to delivery, but God had other plans,
and we know with Him anything is possible... We just have to have faith and ask. And that is where you come in, at times Heather and I were down, and that is why it is so important to have a church family, close friends, and family like you to encourage us and help us through these trials.