RIP President Ford

While his presidency was undeniably short, Gerald Ford left his imprint on what a good man could do to the office. Instead of allowing the continued infighting and political battles to go on, Ford did the right thing to allow the country to move on and pardoned Richard Nixon. As proven in the 76 election, this was political suicide, but it was still the right thing to do.

Ford was known for his principled stands on a lot of things, even if they weren't necessarily the most popular positions. That of course made him a great choice for president in 76 and had I been old enough to vote, I would have voted for him then. While we can't say for sure that the country would not have still gone through the massive economic crisis inpired by Jimmy Carter, (who am I kidding of course we can!) we do know that we would have had a man of principle who would not have been running around the world disrespecting America for the next 30 years and befriending any dictator who would have him.

As a Naval officer in WWII, he served in the Pacific fights, on the USS Monterrey, a light aircraft carrier that helped secure the Gilbert Islands, Makin Islands, and was part of the Phillippine assault. During a typhoon, the ship was damaged and Ford was nearly swept overboard. It was sent back to Washington for repairs and his service in the war was over.

While I've not agreed with President Ford over the past several years, moderating in his age, I respect his opinions and his desire to see the country move forward.

Semper Fi sailor, fair seas and following winds. RIP

Merry friggin Christmas

So, I finally am joining the 'mp3' world, as the wife has purchased an iPod for me. Not sure whether it's a kick-ass one or not, but I can watch movies on it, so that's definitely a cool thing in my eyes. For a techie, I've definitely drug my feet significantly in this area, because honestly, I just didn't see the value of getting one, as I pretty much listen to whatever I want to hear on the radio. But as I'm getting older and grumpier, I get irritated with all the damn commercials. And while Sirius or one of the other satellite radios seemed to be an option, I couldn't see paying a monthly fee to listen to the radio....So I decided it was time.

But the iTunes interface seriously sucks. I know I'm the only person in the world that thinks so, considering its financial success, but damn, how in the hell can they be as successful as they are with an interface that is horribly 'non-intuitive' (yes, it has me so irritated I'm making up words). The only thing I can think of is that people accidentally buy music they didn't intend to, because of the interface and that explains the profitability.

And of course, trying to download a song today...a single friggin song was like pulling teeth. "We're sorry. We cannot complete your request on the iTunes store at this time. Please try again later" was getting ready to make me throw the damn thing across the room. But finally, Dragula from Rob Zombie came to my iPod and all was a little better. Only $24.01 left to spend on my gift card. Yeesh.

A soldier's silent night

Wow...

If you can listen to this spoken word piece without choking up, you are a heartless bastard. And since I've been called one on innumerable occasions, I can speak from experience here.

Got me big-time.

For the story behind the poem and more info, go to the site.

And anyone who wants to give me attitude about the title 'soldier', know that the original poem was written by a Marine, and usually the lower case 'soldier' is used to refer to any fighting man or woman for a country. The upper case Soldier is usually used in reference to the Army specifically.

The Donald vs Rosie in a smackdown

Man, does Donald Trump have balls the size of watermelons or what? Love the way he called out the FatPig calling her a disgusting human being with a mouth like a truckdriver. That'd be supported by her recent use of what could be considered a derogatory racial slur against Chinese people: "You know, you can imagine in China it's like `ching chong, ching chong chong, Danny DeVito, ching chong chong chong, drunk, "The View," ching chong'. But of course, no one really called her out in massive headlines like George Allen and the macaca incident.....

I just like seeing MissPiggy called out for her stupidity by someone outside the political arena. She's a seriously stupid human being who should go back to doing the one thing that she has proven herself good at...eating. Oh wait, I guess she never really stopped.

But I do hear that she's on a diet now that's high in fiber, apparently something she's been working on for a while.

She's only allowed to munch on carpet.....

(Props to the Bob & Tom show for that one)

Happy Holidays

Celebrate with the one you love

What would Jordan do?

Ok, let me get this clear right up front: I am NOT an NBA fan. Period. I think the league is full of wannabe gangsters and people who, if they weren't playing basketball, would be doing time at the local penal institution.
Nor do I like Michael Jordan. I always thought that he was arrogant and egotistical, as well as not the greatest role model, despite the constant marketing, with his penchant for gambling, womanizing etc.

However, would Michael Jordan have slapped another player, while he was shielded behind a third player, and then ran away like a little bitch, a la Carmelo Anthony this weekend? I think not. If the NBA doesn't suspend this pansy, sucker-punching, wannabe gangster for the rest of the season, Ron Artest got hosed.

If you know not what I am talking about, check this out:

Only queers eat soy?

Well, if you read World Net Daily, that'd be the position you'd take. At least, according to this guy.
Seriously, I laughed when I initially read the beginning of the article, but as you read it, there are some points that I'd have to refer to a physician or someone who knows endocrinology way better than I do in order to refute.

For now, I'd just like to say that Dr. Ken musta ate a lot of soy......

;-)

Vigilance, not pacification

They were 18 year old freckle faced Marines and sailors, away from home for the first time. Recovering from a Saturday night liberty, they awoke slowly on a Sunday morning, typical for the day.

An air raid siren sounds. "Must be just another drill...damn Corps, is killing us with this crap on a Sunday morning", thinks one Marine. Another siren sounds. And another. In the distance the buzz of a plane engine, like a tin can full of bumblebees, is heard. Doesn't sound like the planes normally heard at the base.

At 7:55 am the first explosion, gunfire, and the Marines and Sailors at Pearl Harbor Naval Base knew that this was no drill. The United States of America was being attacked and it was their job to put up the defense, as best they could.

They did a valiant job, but over 2000 Americans were killed that day. Many trapped in sinking ships, with only their brothers in arms around them, to comfort them as they awaited death. Many were burned to death in explosions and fires, and a great number of them were scarred for life, mentally and physically. The survivors fought back, using stationary machine guns trying to swat away the swarm of zeros. Heroes were discovered that day, ordinary men from everywhere in America, doing the right thing, saving their brothers in arms and comforting the ones that cried for their mothers as they lie dying.

This will be the final reunion for many survivors. They meet every five years, and this is the 65th. The 'greatest generation' is fading fast. Those men who were 18 year old Marines then, are now 83. The generation of men and women who built America to be the country it is today, and sacrificed more than my generation and my parents generation will ever know, will be gone soon.

Appreciate their efforts, their sacrifices, and honor their memory.

Remember Pearl Harbor.

The problem with this country today is ______

I was walking into my place of employment and just generally in my own little world as I wandered into the building. Meanwhile, a guy comes striding up next to me starts a conversation with me. Now, I'm not much of a conversationalist first thing in the AM, and just kinda grunted a greeting to him. We stop to let a truck go by that has a 'Devos for Governor' bumper sticker on it. Apparently that triggered some sort of visceral reaction in this clown as he started on a rant about how it's a good thing that we didn't sell our state to Amway by electing him and that unions would have never seen the light of day again were he elected. Myself, I'm thinking that would have been an election slogan if I was in the DeVos camp, but that's just me. Then the guy starts going on about how businesses have run this country into the ground and how they just suck the people dry. Businesses don't bother to take care of people they just use them and toss them aside.

So, of course at this point, I can't really let this guy just think that he's talking to some equally neanderthal thinking idiot, and point out that if it wasn't for businesses, people wouldn't have the products and services they have. In addition, in the quest for competition, businesses continue to offer more and more products and services for less and less money, allowing the fact that even poor people in the US have air conditioners, TV's, and cars, versus these items being a 'status' sort of thing. Granted they don't have 42" plasmas, but they still HAVE the TV.

The guy looked at me like I was getting ready to shoot my load on his grandmothers face. "You mean to tell me that you think that business is good for this country?".

"Ayup" I said, and walked onto the elevator, allowing the door to shut in his face.

What I probably should have done was welcome him onto the elevator as I destroyed his entire belief structure in the 10 seconds it would have taken him to get to his requested floor. But I figured that the hospital where I work will have enough trauma today, and that I didn't need to add to it.

Feelin good, I step onto my floor and proceed to my office. It's good to have an IQ above room temperature...it really is.

You hear the one about the 6 imams on a plane?

Or not....Seriously, how stupid can mainstream America be to even begin to buy into this crap. These jackasses created this situation precisely to have something to protest about. This sort of asinine behavior creates 'incrementalism', where little by little, Americans think to themselves "well, they really weren't THAT bad" and we generally accept their crap, without questioning. Eventually, someone with an IQ above room temperature will look around and say "WTF?!?!"

And by then it'll be too late.

Jimmuh Carter gets called out

Way to go caller...more stuff like this, I may actually tune into C-SPAN once in a while:

Pelosi- "No al Qaeda in Iraq"

Yep, that's a genius for you. All this time we thought we were fighting al Qaeda in Iraq and she finally clears that up for us. Apparently she's also clearing it up for the guys in Iraq that are fighting us who are CALLING themselves al Qaeda. I imagine that the conversation between her and some assbag shooting at our troops over there would go something like this:

"No no no guys, you don't understand, you CAN'T be al Qaeda, because if you were, then Iraq would be part of the War on Terror, and you see, Dimwitocrats have long said that Iraq ISN'T part of the WoT, so you just must be mistaken"

These are the kinds of geniuses that many of those out there pissed off about one whiny bitch thing or another allowed to get elected when they decided to either sit out, or file a protest vote for the guy with a D behind his name instead of R.

Well, the good part about this is that the D-ummies get to display exactly how stupid they really are, and remind us why it is we voted R in the first place. Hopefully the leadership on the R side can take advantage of that, but judging from their recent follies, I doubt it.

File under 'DUH'

A book written by a female psychiatrist notes that women talk three times as much as men do.

Really?

I bet they also noted that the sky was blue, grass was green, and water was wet.

Halftime

Nah, I'm not talking about a football game or basketball game.

Today is my 39th birthday. As such, the average life expectancy of a male in the US is approximately 78, and so, today is the halftime of my life. I've completed half of my expected time on earth now. As such, I've taken the day off today to reflect on the things I've done, the things I've NOT done, and maybe allow myself a bit of self-flagellation and self-congratulation.

Haven't done:

1. Ran a marathon: Always wanted to, almost did a couple years ago, thanks to Dr. Ken, but at the last minute, got tendonitis in my knee and couldn't do it. I may still pull this one off this year. Definitely up there in the 'Need to do' list.

2. Haven't held public office. While I always thought that was something I wanted to do, I'm becoming more and more convinced that I'm entirely too forthcoming with my opinions, no matter how offensive to some PC individuals to actually hold a public office, without causing my family much grief. Still may try, but that's yet to be decided.

3. There's lots of other things I thought in high school or college that I'd do...play center field for the Tigers, (although other than this last year, I probably coulda done better than the guys who DID), center for the Montreal Canadiens, get studio credits on a Bruce Springsteen album for saxophone, since Clarence retired, etc...... Most of these were stereotypical highschool and college foolishness...but still, warrant mentioning here.

Things I've done:

1. Found true love. Yeah, sounds corny, but seriously, I don't know many women that would put up with my shit. My wife has her shortcomings, as with any human beings, but she's incredible and I'm blessed to be with her. I've not exactly been a perfect husband, and she still tolerates me. That's a good thing

2. I've done a half-assed decent job of raising two great kids. They're not perfect, and if they were, I'd be questioning number one here....as far as her faithfulness! My son is a mini-me in looks only. His intelligence and maturity amaze me every day. He's going to be a success, as long as I don't screw him up!
My daughter is a sweet hearted girl who loves everyone. She could make best friends in a matter of seconds. She makes me crazy most of the time, because her personality is so much like mine, but I am amazed by her view of the world and how she sees things through a completely different view. Her ability to see the good in everyone and completely ignore the bad is a great trait that I really hope she never loses, although I hope I can teach her to temper it a bit!

3. Fought in a war and served honorably for 8 years in the Marine Corps. While I don't actually look at this as a major accomplishment, since it didn't seem such a major deal at the time, it's still something that not everyone can say. Facing enemy fire, put into situations that truly tested my mettle, and succeeding tells me all I need to know about myself.

4. I've made some amazing friends along the way. Some I've lost literally, RIP Norm, Dan, and Gerald. Some I've lost figuratively, merely losing track of them. If you're one of those friends, call me...email me...or just let me know you're still out there. I guarantee I've not forgotten you, and I hope you've not forgotten me.

As much as I'd like to put more out here, I'm sure I'm boring the crap out of those of you who don't know me personally. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back to the cynical stuff tomorrow!

J

Thanksgiving

I know that the majority of you won't read this until sometime this weekend or perhaps even Monday, but that's ok....I just wanted to put it out there:

Things that I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

1. My blog readers. Even if you weren't there, I'd still be doing this. But you keep me on my toes, and most of you even make me think as well with your comments and emails. Keep it up.

2. My job. Having worked in a job where people had no hope of getting anywhere without massive ass-kissing, it's nice to work somewhere that appreciates the skills I bring to the table and the experience I have. I may not be on the bleeding edge of computer security, but I'm right there in the middle of the fight.

3. My friends. Even though we've not spent nearly as much time together as I would like to, it's good to know that when it gets right down to it, you're still there for me. And when we do get together it's like we hang out all the time. Beautiful thing friendship and I'm glad I have y'all out there.

4. My family. I'm not saying that my family is any different from any other family, but I have some of the weirdest folks you could imagine in my family. And that's what I love about it. Seriously, between my in-laws, my blood relations, and the extended family, I am so thankful for the support, love and friendship that my family provides. In my 38 years on this planet, they've been there for me and I've learned that isn't always the case with families. I'm glad I have one where it is.

5. The greatest country in the world. Sure we've taken our lumps. Sure we've got a bunch of idiot politicians. Sure we have a media that would rather see us lumped in with the socialists in western Europe as just another industrialized country, but we're still the world's superpower, and will always be. It's just the nature of America. All about the freedom baby....

6. Those who are willing to step up and make the sacrifices necessary to keep this country free. Men and women of the Armed forces voluntarily put themselves in harms way in order to ensure the freedoms of this country as well as other countries. The police, fire, and rescue workers who put it on the line on a daily basis to make sure that we're safe and to help us out when we're not. Thanks for putting on the uniform and doing what you do ladies and gentlemen.

Have a good Thanksgiving and God bless.

Reverse Affirmative Action

A group at Boston University, in protest of racially based scholarships and preferences from the school, has finally put their money where their mouths are and established a "Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship".

In other words a "white kid" scholarship.

Nice...finally nice to see someone do something about the obvious racism that exists out there in the academic community from a financial aid and scholarship standpoint

Semper Fi Green Beret

A Green Beret, who fell in battle sent a posthumus email to his friends basically saying "Guys, thanks for being there for me, love you, party it up in Vegas". He paid for a $100,000 party for his friends in Las Vegas.

Not a bad gig for an Army dog. ;-)

And to combat any sort of stupidity by his friends, relatives, etc, to ensure that they don't decide to get all liberal on him, he included the following paragraph in his letter:

“Don’t ever think that you are defending me by slamming the Global War on
Terrorism or the U.S. goals in that war,” Jeffrey Toczylowski wrote. “As far
as I am concerned, we can send guys like me to go after them or we can wait
for them to come back to us again. I died doing something I believed in and
have no regrets except that I couldn’t do more.”

Hoooahh!

Kramer goes nuts!

In case you didn't see it, Michael Richards, the 'actor' that played Kramer on Seinfeld lost his friggin mind this weekend at some comedy club.
Some guys were heckling him and he started throwing the 'N-word' around like it was cool.

My prediction? He'll go to rehab, go on Barbara Walters, and be forgiven, especially if he notes that he's a Democrat. It's way easier to recover from using the N-word as a Dimwitocrat than it is as a Republican (see Robert Byrd v George Allen).

Deer Hunting FTW

Between a general malaise for blogging, chaos at work, and deer hunting, I've been left little time to blog.....

I'll be back, promise. No liberal can chase me away..nor can a bunch of idiot RINOs who thought they knew what was going on.

Postmortem

So, after having a night to think about it (ok, maybe just a few hours to sleep on it), I've come to some conclusions regarding the election.

1. Dimwitocrats did a great job tying everything to President Bush. Everything. Don't like the way your neighbor cuts his lawn? Bush's fault. Don't like the color of your girlfriends hair? Bush's fault. Taxes too high? Bush's fault. Taxes too low? Bush's fault. Because of the constant hammering of the media and Dimwits over his handling of the war and a few other issues, President Bush's popularity was at an all time low over the last year and Dimwits were able to tie local issues into a referendum on the President. Right or wrong, it's a helluva strategy and obviously one that works. Just look back at 1994 when Newt Gingrich led the Republican Revolution and we took the House. He did the exact same thing, running a referendum on Hillary/Bill and their nationalized health care.

2. Empty suits. Yes, that's what the Dimwits/RINO's have elected in many cases. Seriously, in the rush to say 'we don't like Bush', they neglected to notice who in the hell they're voting for. Menendez in NJ is under investigation for possible illegal activity. Bob Casey in PA is running on daddy's name and is utterly worthless. Sherrod Brown in Ohio has just about as much intelligence as his fellow Ohioan Dennis Kucinich, in fact, I've heard him referred to as 'Kucinich-lite'. Stabenow in MI, who has done zero, zip, zilch, nada to help Michigan. Cardin in MD .....don't get me started on that pandering racist pig. All of them, politicians catering to the lowest common denominator, standing for nothing other than being oppositional. "What do you stand for Mr. Cardin?" "I stand against anything that Mr. Steele stands for". Seriously, if you saw any of the debates with Cardin in them, how could anyone with an IQ above 50 vote for that idiot?

3. Conservative values work every time. It doesn't matter whether you've got a D or R or L behind your name, if you run on Conservative values in the majority of districts (Pelosi's, Conyers, et al notwithstanding) will get you a victory. Take a look at some of the Dimwitocrats that won and you'll see that. Heath Schuler in NC is more conservative than a good number of elected (and defeated) Republicans. Ellsworth in IN is way more conservative than folks like Olympia Snowe (R-ME). So, as a conservative, I can still hope that these new congressmen will stand up for what they ran on in this election. Because if they don't, in two years, we'll be back. Just that simple.

4. Silver Lining time. In Michigan the Affirmative Action ban won. The proposal requiring that schools are funded at the rate of inflation, which was backed by the teachers unions was defeated soundly. In fact, if you look nationwide, a good number of conservative proposals won. So, that tends to tell me that this truly was a referendum on President Bush, rather than a repudiation of conservative values.

I guarantee if the Republicans go back to the values that led to the Reagan Revolution, as well as the Contract for America, we'll get it all back in '08.

And if we don't, plan on a long period of me being cranky.

Gonna call it a night.....

Congratulations-
Nancy Pelosi, arguably one of the most liberal speakers of the House in history.
John Conyers, supporter of reparations and impeachment, head of the judiciary committee
Barney Frank, pole-smoker, head of financial regulations
Alcee Hastings, impeached as a federal judge, head of Intelligence committee.

Nice work those of you who didn't vote or voted libertarian or dimwitocrat in 'protest'.

Well congratulations you jackasses

The Dimwitocrats have won a number of seats in the House now, a couple in the Senate, and the Republicans are getting hammered on a regular basis.
Thank you to the people who either didn't vote or voted for the Dimwits in 'protest'. I'm sure the Republicans will get the message.

As will our enemies in Iraq. Good work you assbags, you've just given the morale of the al Qaeda troops a huge boost. Thanks.

The blood of our troops will be on your hands.

WTF?

Ok, I don't even pretend to understand how exit polling can be extrapolated into completed information, especially when only 1% of the precincts are reporting, but how in the HELL can Foxnews report Steele losing to Cardin?
Crock o' crap.

But I guess what IS interesting is that our polls here in MI have been closed for 24 minutes and they haven't called either the governors race or senate race....maybe that's a good sign.

MD = Voter suppression?

The polls in MD have been closed for more than an hour, and has ONE vote been counted? Probably. Have the results been announced? Nope. So, you have to wonder why that is.

Voter suppression. Steele is kicking ass and MD is run by Dimwitocrats. As such, they're getting all the dead folks around to get their votes in.

No evidence, just a suspicion.

Son of a.....

Well, looks like we've lost a potential pickup in NJ. Not that I expected those liberal boneheads to actually pull their skulls out of their rectum long enough to vote for an R, but it woulda been nice.
And Santorum made just a few too many enemies in PA, along with the complicit media not showing the people of PA what a liberal idiot Casey is. That and the fact that PA is a lot like Michigan, with a bunch of union idiots sitting on their asses waiting for a government handout.

Conservative Dimwitocrats vs RINOs

So, a lot of polls have closed now, and amusingly enough, the Dimwitocrats that are winning are more conservative than a good number of the RINO's that are out there. It'd be interesting to see them actually step up and vote their supposed beliefs rather than following the 'party line' and electing such major liberals like Pelosi to their speaker, if they take the majority.

Turnout

I don't know about the rest of the state, but here in Kalamazoo, turnout is amazingly high. In the 1st Precinct of Texas Township (where I vote) there are about 1400 people registered to vote. When I turned in my ballot at 6pm, there had been 700 voters so far, and there was about 40 waiting in line to vote.

I hope that's a good sign for my pal Bouchard, who could use a good turnout after his website was attacked by a DDoS.

Good start

Not that it was a surprise, but Dick Lugar (R)-IN wins in Indiana. Bernie Sanders, the only socialist in the House was also elected by the folks in Vermont. Too much maple syrup up there or what guys?
On another note, Mike Bouchard's web site was attacked today, subjected to a DDoS attack. Two IP's where it looks like it's coming from are 66.82.9.55 & 66.82.9.56 but those could just be zombies.
Figures, when Dimwits can't win on ideas, they attack by any means necessary.

Losers

Predictions

Well, since the day is almost over, I'll go ahead and post some predictions and we'll see how it comes out tomorrow:

1. Corker(R) over Ford in TN.
2. Steele(R) over Cardin in MD
3. Allen(R) over Webb in VA
4. Talent(R) over McCaskill in MO
5. Tester over Burns(R) in MT
6. Chafee (RINO) over Whitehouse in RI

Not going to make predictions about the Michigan races until the polls close. I've yet to vote, but I'll put my vote on display here, and let the bitchslapping begin:

1. Devos for Governor (duh). He's not the best candidate, but he's the best one with the shot to win
2. Bouchard for Senate. Best candidate. Period. No discussion. Stabenow has produced diddly shit for the state of Michigan and should be put out to pasture. Considering the amount of weight she's gained since being elected to the Senate, pasture is the appropriate term as well.
3. Terri Lynn Land for SoS. Hell, I don't even know who she's running against, but anyone who can turn the Secretary of State into the semi-high tech, smooth running bureau it's become, deserves my vote.
4. Mike Cox for Atty Gen. I like what he's done with hunting down deadbeat dads, telemarketing scammers, and id theives. I just wish he'd chill on going after the retailers. The law that MI has requiring them to price every item in the store is antiquated and needs to be removed.
5. Jack Hoogendyke for state House. Jack's the man. Plus he called me personally and wanted to make sure I voted for him. How can I say no?
6. Tom George for state senate. Tom is a good man, and no way the scum that he's been portrayed as by the Lipsey campaign and that pole-smoker John Stryker. Bet your grandpa's proud of the way you're spending his billions John.

Prop 1- Voting yes. Keeping the money that is designated for the parks by the users of the parks is not only fair, but fiscally responsible. When I pay $10 for a park pass, I don't want that money lining the pockets of some Granholm flunky in Wayne county.
Prop 2- Voting yes. Affirmative action is unfair, unconstitutional, and generally just not right. No way should governments be spending my tax dollars on programs that don't benefit the entire population, rather than a select group.
Prop 3- Hell yeah, shoot them damn doves.
Prop 4- Yes- This is the spin off of the Kelo case for MI. Requires that the state pay 125% of the 'market' value of your home, and makes it illegal for them to take it and transfer it to private ownership. Considering the average 'market' value that the state gives is less than real market value, I'm good with that.
Prop 5 - NO. We've been funding schools quite well, despite the whining you hear from the left and the teachers unions. This money will go nowhere but to teachers unions, pensions, and jack up your taxes, because we'll be constitutionally required to fund schools at a certain level, no matter what the other economic conditions in the state are. BS. In hard times, everyone must sacrifice, including schools.

Anyway, that's it for now. Remember, vote early and often......

A little vote fraud humor there folks....another prediction, we'll hear a lot of that phrase over the next few days, especially if the elections don't turn out the way the media is predicting.

Wow!

Apparently Faith Hill was not amused by the fact that her fellow country singer, Carrie Underwood beat her for best female something or another at the CMA's last night.

Today's the day

Vote. It'll take 30 minutes of your life. Just get it done and go on with your day.

Veterans Day

Friday is Veterans Day. November 11. My main point of contention with Google, although there are many, is that they create these stupid logos for everything from Martin Luther King's birthday, to the anniversary of the first airplane flight, to DaVinci's birthday. But for Veterans day, the last two years (at least) there's been nothing.

I would like to put together a massive online campaign to pressure Google to create some sort of logo to honor our men and women who have served this country properly and have worn the uniform of the armed forces, Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and National Guard. All of them.

J^2 has suggested a massive Google Group to try to pressure them, share suggestions for logos and communicate between ourselves. Anyone else with a better idea, bring it, but I kind of like the irony of using their own tools to give them grief. When I get it all created, I'll post it here, but if you want further info, drop me an email at webproze AT yahoo dot com. No link, stupid spambots are getting smart enough as it is.

Borat - three stars

Friday I went to Borat. At lunch. For $5. A couple of guys from work decided that we usually take a little over an hour for lunch, so heck, it was Friday, why not take two.

So we did, and we took in Borat.

Honestly, I expected that it'd be the kind of movie I could not get too excited about. I wasn't planning on going to see it and would put it on my Netflix queue. But I was glad I went to see it.

It was definitely funny, although many 'uncomfortable' humor moments were experienced. I'm generally not a fan of 'uncomfortable humor', but in this case, it worked. The type of humor that makes people kind of squirm in their seats and look around to see if others are laughing. Borat pulled it off, and while many people would look at it as a movie critical of the US, I looked at it like I look at most other forms of entertainment. Just that. Entertainment. Sasha Baron Cohen kept me wondering how in the HELL he stays in character when faced with such odd circumstances, as well as how much of it was staged and how much was really as uncomfortable as it looked.

Anyway, if you get a chance, take a look at it, it's not a bad flick at all, and for $5, you could do worse....like 'Running with Scissors'. When the previews for a movie suck as bad as these ones do, you know it's going to be bad. They're supposed to pick out the BEST scenes for the previews. Yikes.

Project Valour IT

Project Valour IT is a charity that purchases laptops with microphones and speakers for our injured troops. The voice controlled software would help the injured troops still write letters/emails to family as well as read email and surf the web while recuperating.

From their site:

Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of voice-activated laptops for wounded servicemembers. As of October 2006, Valour-IT has distributed nearly 600 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country.

During its initial phase, Valour-IT created "libraries" of laptops equipped with voice-controlled software for the severely wounded staying at major military medical centers. In many cases a laptop was provided to a wounded hero for permanent use.

This is an amazingly good cause, so please donate. I am working on a way to track the donations made specifically from my site, because my plan is to match every donation made.

That's right. You donate $50, I donate $50. You donate $25, I donate $25. Since my readers are some of the best people out there, I have no doubt that I will end up cutting a pretty big check, but I'm ok with that. Good cause, good thing.

For now, if you send me your receipt, I'll note it and on Dec 1, I'll cut a check to match the donations I've received up until then. Hopefully there will be a better, automated way of checking, but until then, let's do it this way.

Howeird Dean rides again

In an interview with the Montpelier Times Argus, Howeird Dean claimed that George Bush is the most incompetent president in our lifetime.

Now since Howeird is way older than me, I can't speak to folks prior to Lyndon Johnson, who was amazingly incompetent in the way he led the country into Vietnam and declared a war on the poor. No, not war on poverty, but war on the poor, let's face facts. Since the 'war on poverty' that Johnson declared, our welfare roles have grown exponentially, only reduced in the last 10 years thanks to welfare reform. The destruction that happened in the black community may never be properly measured, but it's there. Look around.

Then there's James Carter. Iran, double digit inflation, double digit interest rates, double digit unemployment. Which part of most incompetent are you missing here? Should I throw in pandering to Fidel, Arafat, Noriega, the Sandinistas, and many others? Yeah, I think that Jimmuh DEFINITELY is in the top two of most incompetent presidents ever.

Not that I think there's another, just that he was so overwhelmingly incompetent that he deserves the top two spots....that's all.

I'm sure Howeird thought long and hard about that answer (about three seconds before saw something shiny...a microphone).

John Kerry is a hypocritical prick

Have I mentioned lately how much I'm glad this arrogant prick didn't win the election.
So in essence, if you're stupid and uneducated, you join the military? Is that the message here?
Someone a lot smarter than me is going to have to explain this one to me, because I was too stupid to stay out of the military.

Bouchard for Senate

He may lose (currently down by 6 points according to polls), but at least he's had some pretty good advertisements:

Angry voters

I don't know how many of you have seen the 1976 movie "Network", but the character Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, has one of the most memorable lines I have ever heard in a movie. The scene is when he is speaking to his viewers about how he is getting ready to be fired because his ratings have gone into the toilet and he says "

You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

Well, as a Republican, I'm feelin him. I mean, let's face it, this last session of frustration over the last two years has been less satisfying than in high school dating the school prude. So close, but yet, no way. And as people who believe in personal responsibility, we want to hold someone accountable for the utter failure of this Congress to enact any sort of immigration reform, failure to control the growth of government, and failure to do damn near anything worthwhile.

So we decide, 'dammit, I'm not voting. Screw those jackasses. If they want to win, it's going to be without me'. Right? Tell me I'm not the only one who's thought this.

The problem is, where the hell were you people during the primaries? When we could have knocked off a moderate/liberal/spineless incumbent and replaced them with a conservative? Oh yeah, it happened in a couple places, in fact in the district next to mine, they replaced RINO Joe Schwartz with Tim Wahlberg. But truly, where has that happened around the country. Thanks for joining the fight folks, next time let's do it before the damn primaries so we can get rid of the idiots making the decisions.

But for now, to leave the next two years up to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, John Conyers, John Dingell, and worst of all, Teddy Kennedy is just too scary to even consider.

Yes, I'd like to tell you to vote Libertarian, and in the races where your vote isn't going to make much of a difference, you should. If the governors race here in MI wasn't so close, I'd do it. But we're talking about reality, not principle here. Reality: Libertarians have zero shot until they get a 'name' candidate to run and attract the $$ that the other two clown-stores can attract.

Anyway, if your excuse it that you're angry with the Republicans and want to teach them a lesson, remember the soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen in the field, and remember the 'lesson' that the Dimwitocrats would like to send the world about our military. They want to quit, run away with their tails between their legs leaving the fledgling democracy in Iraq to totter on their brand new legs and possibly fall, and then point to President Bush and blame him for the instability. And then we'll have a new terrorist training ground, sponsored by yet another middle eastern government. Great.

Amazingly, Puffy was right.

Vote. Or die.

Cheney and Rummy must go

Ok, that's not really my opinion, but the opinion of Boston Herald columnist, Jules Crittendon, whom I've linked to a few times in the past.

Usually Jules is right on the mark with his columns and I agree 100% without reservation. However, I'm not quite on board with him right now.

While I agree that Rummy has led the US into a war where more would have been better, and he chose less, where armor and strength would have been better than diplomacy and neutrality, I'm not 100% sure that it was his fault.

It seems we've fought this war like we fought Desert Storm, where we were worried about world opinion and the opinions of the others in the coalition. While we do have to take the opinions of the others in the coalition into mind, we need to fight the war as it needs to be fought. Brutal. Ruthless. Dirty. And with some finality. Either we win, or we die. Just that simple. If we don't win in Iraq, the terrorists will have another training base for operations, government funded, and backed by the full faith and credit of yet another middle eastern government.

And I agree that Rummy hasn't exactly shown that willingness fight it with an overwhelming force described in 'Shock and Awe', but not displayed by our attack. Yes, we kicked their asses in record time, but that didn't eliminate the enemy. Just gave them a chance to be assimilated into the citizenry. And with the fear that Saddam's government had instilled in the people, they were terrified to give them up, for fear that Saddam would come back, and there would be repercussions.

My question though, and obviously this is strictly for discussion purposes is, who would be the head of the DoD then? I think Sam Nunn would be a good choice. He's a DINO (Democrat in Name only) former Senator from Georgia who was extremely influential in the defense department and was always a strong defender of American interests.
But perhaps someone outside the beltway...like General Norman Schwartzkopf. Now THERE would be a DoD leader.

Just a thought.

Gun grabbing

Those of you who are consistent readers of this blog, or who know me personally, know that I'm a strong advocate for the second amendment. Granted, I'm a strong advocate of all the amendments, but unlike liberals, I don't pick and choose. Freedom of religion is a right guaranteed by the constitution, as is freedom of speech, congregation, and gun ownership. The founding fathers intent was to ensure that the people were never again under the thumb of government and suppressed as they were under the King of England.

But what has happened over the last 50 years is so disgusting a violation of the people's consitutional rights that we should be outraged. But instead some just nod their heads and say "Yeah, really..what does someone need a gun for with the police protecting them?"

Well, out of all the lessons of Katrina, the most compelling that I've found is the necessity of people to fight for their rights to own and carry a firearm. Not just the looting, raping, and murdering brings this to mind, but the fact that the authorities entered citizens homes, law abiding citizens mind you, and took their firearms from them. These were the same citizens that the police could NOT protect from the gang members and hooligans roaming the streets, the police were entering their houses like the Nazi's and taking their only defense.

Normally, I don't advocate joining any organizations or donating money to political causes here, because I don't really think that my place is to solicit funds for a third party.

But, people with intelligence, people who are intellectually honest, and people who want to defend the citizens rights to own and carry a gun should join the NRA. Period. I've even provided a handy link right there. It's all of $35/year. Heck, that's a cheap night out at the bar for some of you...you know who you are.

And if you don't believe me that the SS police were confiscating guns, something the media and liberal left wing gun grabbers said would never happen, take a look at Givethemback.com. Yes, it's done by the NRA, and obviously they have their own axe to grind, but if you truly look at what happened in New Orleans from a gun right standpoint, how can anyone in an area where disasters may hit, not be horrified. Houston, all of Florida, California....this could happen to you. Although in CA, most of the guns are in museums anyway, thanks to the government of the Peoples Republic of CA.

I'm not saying it'll happen again. I'm just sayin it'll definitely happen again if people don't voice their dissent.

Google sucks, pt 4,732

So, Google doesn't exactly like it when people who understand the whole algorithm they use to rank pages, fiddle with their pages to make sure that they always get top billing. In fact, they have threatened to sue several places who've done it in the past.

Then comes Chris Bowers, some left wing jackass who decided that he was going to 'GoogleBomb' several conservative politicians over the next couple weeks. And is Google doing a damn thing about it, even though the unethical tactic is being published in the New York Slimes? Nah...

Thanks Jiggidy for the following:

First off. Google is supposed to be "immune" to this kind of stuff. It used to be this way, but they have radically changed their algorithms to incorporate multiple factors so that this exact thing cannot be done. For example, why would a company buy Google's AdWords service and pay to up their Google ad rating if they (the company) can guarantee that they'll get a high hit-rate themselves by doing what this ignoramus is doing...? They wouldn't. In other words, there's two conclusions you can reach:

1.) This guy has insider knowledge of Google's algorithms and can thus tailor his website to theirs. This was supposed to be stopped by Google also looking at referring webpages, their content, etc. I just don't see this as a possible scenario, because this guy would either need his own server farm or a whole gaggle of cohorts.

2.) ...and I think that this is VERY likely. Google is _ACTIVELY_ allowing this to occur. They are a very disgustingly liberal organization who doesn't care about things like ... our veterans. Yep, that's right. My buddy who is a Marine has written them for two years now asking why they make special "google home page designs" for stuff like MLK, Ramadan, and Ka-Boom, while they don't do ANYTHING on their site for Veteran's Day. NOTHING.

There's nothing more that I'd like to see than Google's stock come crashing to the floor. They're a disgusting liberal organization that can "labor" in anonymity using the fact that they're simply offering a search feature. Well, as John Mayer's song says... "When they control the information, they can bend it all they want." While it's not the reference that he had in mind, I think that it perfectly describes the power that Google has.

J^2

p.s. See their placating of China:
US Site: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tiananmen+square
China Site: http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen+square&hl=zh-CN

I just don't give a rats ass

I was listening to Mancow this morning, something I do on occasion when I get sick and tired of Bob and Tom (which happens once in a while, usually as a result of Tom's being a dumbass) and I realized something: There's a lot of things out there that I don't post about here, because I just don't give a shit.

1. Gay Marriage. I don't care. Seriously. Not one iota. If y'all want to be as miserable as us married folks, go right ahead. But just remember, gay marriage also means gay divorce.

2. Mark Foley. Can't find one bone in my body that gives a flying rats ass. So he's gay, so what? So he sent some pages some dirty IM's. Age of consent in DC is 16, the pages were 16. The only thing that irritates me about this whole deal is the hypocrisy of the Dimwits screaming about him being gay when Barney Frank has a gay whorehouse run out of his house and they're fine with him.

3. Global warming. Couldn't give two shits. Considering on October 12, we had two inches of 'global warming' spread all over Kalamazoo, and then again last week got another inch of it, I think big Al has his head in his ass. Additionally, in the 70's, Newsweek had all kinds of 'scientific' evidence that proved that an Ice Age was coming. So, I'm not putting much weight in this whole thing until most of the east coast is under water....and hell, then we'll be rid of a large number of blue states, so we're all winners.

4. Exxon is making huge profits. Hell, I used to be a stockholder and sold when they hit $65, so I'm only pissed because I sold the damn thing and didn't get the dividends. They took huge losses when gas was $20/barrel. Anyone pissed about that?

5. Walmart. Yep, they sell stuff cheap. Yep, they don't pay their employees much. Neither does Kmart, Meijers, or Target, but no one is pissed about them. Why is Walmart the target? Two reasons: they're #1, and they fight unions wherever they go. I say "go Walmart". Hell I may even start shopping there more.

6. Anything slutMadonna, FatassRosie, AlecdoublechinBaldwin, Susan Sarandon, Sean 'Anger Management' Penn, or the Dixie cHicks have to say. Hell, just lump all those idiots who wanna spout off like they actually know what they're talking about in there. Shut up and sing/act/dance whatever we're paying you for. You remind me of a stripper at the titty bar: I pay for a lap dance, don't come over here and get all verbal diarrhea on me with your opinion on world hunger. Shake your booty in my face, take your $20, and move on. I. don't. care. Go away.

Just can't even raise a hackle about it. Not even one little fart of a concern.

Attention all Veterans!

WASHINGTON – The Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and leaders of major veterans organizations today called on America's veterans to help kindle a new spark of patriotism on Veterans Day by wearing the medals they earned during military service.
"We are announcing a Veterans Pride Initiative to remind Americans of the pride and honor in the hearts of those who have served," Nicholson said. "We expect Americans will see our decorated heroes unite in spirit at ceremonies, in parades and elsewhere as a compelling symbol of courage and sacrifice on Veterans Day, the day we set aside to thank those who served and safeguarded our national security."

The campaign is modeled after a tradition in Australia and New Zealand, countries who honor the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) on April 25. ANZAC Day sees veterans wearing their military decorations whatever they are doing on that day. Nicholson said he hopes a U. S. tradition will ensue to emulate this pride in being a veteran and in honoring our veterans.
VA is offering information about the campaign on its Web page, http://www.va.gov/veteranspride/, where veterans also can obtain information about how to replace mislaid medals and learn how to confirm the decorations to which they are entitled.

Oh christ..shoot me in the face

Are you kidding me? How about stepping up and being a parent you worthless waste of space.

Muslim Leader: Women make us rape them

Seriously. Are you kidding me?

In 2000, there was a series of gang rapes where women were attacked by a mob of muslim animals. Only 9 of the 14 animals who participated in these rapes have been convicted of their crimes, due to lack of evidence on the other 5. They've been sentenced to anywhere between 11 and 40 years in prison, being other peoples bitches.

However, now the senior cleric in Australia has come out and said that it's the girls fault. It's their fault because they "sway suggestively and wore make-up and immodest dress". Now, I understand that it's their belief that women should be dressed conservatively with the veil and all that, but how in the hell can this assbandit get away with this sort of crap without the left going nuts? Muslims like to spout off all the crap about how they're a civilized religion, religion of peace, etc, but then want to abdicate responsibility for anything that they do, blaming it on others.
"That homocide bombing wasn't our fault, Israel oppresses us"

"9/11 isn't our fault, the US is the great satan"

"These gang-rapes aren't our fault, these women dressed suggestively, wore makeup and let's face it, they were hot!"

The funny thing is, that feeds right into the beliefs of many of the people who are beginning to hate Islam, stating that it is a religion of animals and medieval-minded morons.

I personally know and am friends with several Muslims that don't fall into this category, and just like any other sweeping generalization, you can't paint them all with a broad brush. But these other clowns keep giving me the brush, paint, and instructions to start going that direction.

Mexicantown Welcome Center

Well, when I first saw the news article about this in the Detroit News, I thought "WTF?". And then my friend Terrible Teddy pointed it out as well, and I thought "well, guess I better look into this". There's no WAY that my tax dollars are going to some sort of illegal alien welcome center, because I'll lead a revolution if that were the case...or at least write letters to every politician that I know and post something here.

Well, the research that I've done has been less than conclusive, but it looks like the Welcome Center is a tourist thing. Basically, the Mexicantown area in Detroit is right off the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ontario, Canada, with D-town. A lot of development has been happening in that area over the last five years, including shops, residential areas, etc. This was supposed to be a centerpiece for the area, attracting tourists and providing information about the things you can do in Mexicantown.

Now, I dunno about now, since I've not been there in about three years, but back in the day, there was two things you could do in Mexicantown: Go to Xochimilco's, arguably one of the best Mexican restaurant I've EVER been to, and get robbed. Hopefully, with all the new development, the latter isn't as prevalent a choice anymore.

And apparently, it wasn't completely funded by tax dollars, which I'm also appreciative of.

So, no complaints from me right now about this deal, and heck, I hope it helps develop the area so that our tax dollars aren't used so much to support it.

A little palate cleanser

Wow....

As someone who lived through the 70's, I'm ashamed to admit that I remember much of the styles and trends from then. Granted, I was barely a teen at the end of them, but I still remember the strange colors and weird styles.

However, THIS, takes the cake. Apparently, in 1974, the folks at Weight Watchers thought that Fluffy Mackeral Pudding was a good idea and sounded tasty. Also apparent is the fact that the folks at Weight Watchers took way too many hits on the bong before publishing these recipes. The best part, other than laughing at the decor, are the comments. I'm not even sure what this is, but it's the most disgusting one.

Thanks Sandy for the laugh.

Gettin muddy

It seems that things are getting muddy in Michigan, and I'm not referring to the weather. 'Tis political season, and that means that lies and innuendo are being slung around the airwaves more often than rumors of Brittney & K-fed breaking up.
This morning I saw some ads that troubled me though, and while I know it's just typical lying political groups, I thought I'd address a few things here. The particular advertisement was for Alexander Lipsey, who is running for State Senate against Tom George. Not a particularly sexy race, but one that I think really typifies the races across the state. It's definitely a competitive district, but also one where the Dimwitocrats love to attack the incumbent, George. Last election, Ed Laforge, the Dimwitocrats candidate, threw everything but the kitchen sink at George and he was able to come through it, but this year remains to be seen.
Anyway, the advertisement has this couple sitting at the kitchen table (apparently a place that all folksy political ads should be filmed) and they talk about how they both lost their jobs due to outsourcing. Outsourcing has become the 'dirty word' of politics in Michigan lately, because apparently focus groups have shown the Dimwitocrats that this word gets a rise out of people. Except for the fact that outsourcing means that the company actually gives the work to OTHER companies rather than moving the work to another country...but let's not argue semantics right now. So, these two people say that Tom George voted against a meaningless proposal in the Michigan state senate that asked the US Congress to pass a law punishing companies that outsource work and that they lost their job because of him.
Now, I realize that political ads have to say a lot in a short time, but let's at least have some semblance of truth in them. Yes, Tom George voted against it. Not sure why, not that it matters. It was meaningless. Asking the US Congress to pass a law like that is akin to just asking companies to go ahead and move all their operations out of the country because we're going to be just about as friendly to the corporate world as Europe. Obviously this ad is funded by unions who could care less about the health of the company, as long as they get their share.
The couple goes on to say that their jobs were 'outsourced' to Mexico. This is where I stood up and went "HOOOOOOOLLLD on there partner". Isn't Mexico where the former hero/Presidential candidate turned nutjob, Ross Perot said that there would be a giant sucking sound coming from? And isn't Mexico the number one beneficiary of NAFTA, the treaty supported by the Dimwitocrats patron saint of liberalism, William Jefferson Clinton? Ah yes, it comes full circle.

But it doesn't end there. about 15 minutes later, I'm watching the news, they break for commercial and here's the SAME commercial. However, this time, they've edited it so that it's against Michael Bouchard, the candidate for Senate against worthless Debbie Stabenow. And they've added on the end that a vote for Bouchard is like a vote for Bush and Devos economic policies. Funny thing is, everywhere else in the entire country the economy is rocking right along. Unemployment is down, housing starts are STILL going, amazingly so, inflation is tame, and people are working. Yes, jobs are lost, but other companies are hiring those people right back into the work force. However, in Michigan, the state is sucking. And while they'd like to blame Bush, let's face it, the Dimwitocrats have run the state for four years, as well as the fact that we've had Dimwitocrats Senators for the last six years.

And we see how well that's worked out for us.

Coolest.Pictures.Ever.

A great friend of mine works at Kennedy Space Center and sent me these pictures of the Shuttle taking off, taken from the space station. He tells me that he didn't take them, but I dunno...I know there was a time back a while ago that I didn't hear from him, so ya never know. ;-)

Winner: Best use of Johnny Cash song in a political ad

Very nice work GOP. Too bad you're waiting until there are three weeks left and most people have made up their minds to start fighting back:

I got stripes

I'll try to embed it, but the code the site provides didn't work when I tried it and I didn't have time to debug. I'll work on it later.

Much thanks to J^2 for this

A letter sent to a Senator:

The Honorable Carl Levin
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Levin:
As a native Michigander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My reasons for wishing to change my status from U.S. citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, what I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.

I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year, so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of the last five years taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent return for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005 and I estimated a gross savings approximating $72,000. After the fine this would yield me a net savings of $70,000.

In addition, I would reap the other benefits of being an illegal alien such as free health care, avoidance of paying Social Security taxes, buying automobile insurance, serving on jury panels, etc. If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent

Don't Forget! Wednesday is National Talk rike Kim Jong Il day!

Gonna be tough. But I rike our chances.

H8...sheer unadulterated H8

So, the majority of you know that I work in computer security. And as a result, I occasionally have to deal with consultants. As a former consultant who travelled for 4 years, I fully understand the rigors of that sort of work, and realize that after a while you get kind of burned out and just want to do your own thing.
However, this particular story has nothing to do with that. It has to do with a company whose product is so horrible that we spent $125k or so on it, and it gives us nothing useful. But we can't dump it because we SPENT $125,000 on it! This product is called QRadar. The idea is that it's supposed to provide a visibility into the network so that network admins can track down potential problems, security pogues can track down viruses or policy violations, and server admin-types can track down traffic that may beat up their servers. It's fun for the whole IT family.
And if it worked as advertised, I'd be happy.

But it doesn't. The filters set up on the box are generally crap. The traffic that its sensors pick up is standard stuff, but it gets caught in the 'offense manager'. 'Oh that's a problem with the tuning' they say, trying to sluff their crap off on my stupidity.

Not this time junior.

So, back to the $125k. Included in that amount was 5 days of consultative time. They're supposed to come out, help install the product, and get it tuned for you. As well as ensure that you're getting what you want from the product, report-wise. My first experience with them was at my 'home' site, where I'm stationed 90% of the time. I asked for 5 days, got 2.5, with a promise for more in the future. "We're really busy and short a couple field engineers, so if you don't mind, we'll get it installed and then help you online and over the phone get it tuned". Needless to say, it never got tuned properly, and hell if I have time to get it squared away.
So, I tried to get it right with this site. I started planning and scheduling this in August. Yep, August. Finally, two weeks ago, I get an email from the guy, "Congratulations, I can be there Oct 16-18". I figured, that actually meant to WORK the 16-18.

Nope.

That meant he'd arrive at 6pm or so on the 16th, and come to my site at 10:30am on the 17th. Leaving a day and a half or so to get the install done. (Remember I said we had 5 days? yeah...)
Then their special hardened OS distro doesn't support the 3com fiber cards in the server. 3com. It's not like we picked some random-ass noname network card. It's a friggin 3COM! But no. So, we have to use a redhat distro, which I'm ok with, since I kinda know RH. But of course, today of all days, the RH site is down. Not sure why, or wtf happened, but it's down.

So, comedy of errors all around, I'm sitting in the datacenter at 5:30, and I probably will be here tomorrow at 5:30am as well, without having gone back to the hotel to sleep.

Damn consultants.

Want to know the truth about China?

As I've said on a regular basis over the last several years, we should not be relying upon China for anything. Not for monitoring North Korea. Not to keep their crappy products in their own country and not flood our country with it. Not to keep from manipulating their currency to make their exports cheaper in our country.

And apparently we can't trust them to not shoot their own citizens for walking peacefully over some mountains to see the Dalai Lama.

Why isn't this a headline story on CNN, FoxNews, or pMSNBC?

SEALS are American heroes.

Now I was a Marine. Marines, while a division of the Navy, regard squids as their annoying older sibling. Someone you have to tolerate, because hey, they buy you beer and take you for cool rides in their boats, but for the most part, you'd rather not acknowledge their existence or your relationship to them.

However, SEALs are way different. I've trained with SEALs on the Arabian penninsula, I've taught them about explosives, they taught me about weapons. When I see a story like this, it tears my heart out, but it also reminds me why it is that I respect SEALs so much, and why it is that we're so lucky to have people like this in our military. From Foxnews:

CORONADO, Calif. — A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.
"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it,"said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day."He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs'lives, and we owe him."
Monsoor, a 25-year-old gunner, was killed in the explosion in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. He was only the second SEAL to die in Iraq since the war began.
Two SEALs next to Monsoor were injured; another who was 10 to 15 feet from the blast was unhurt. The four had been working with Iraqi soldiers providing sniper security while U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted missions in the area

Fair winds and following seas sailor, may the good Lord keep a cold one on ice for you.

Novel Piece Prize

In an effort to render itself completely meaningless and out of touch, one of the candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize (otherwise known as the 'Leftwing self congratulatory stupidity award') is Casey's mom, the Sheehag.

Just to put this into perspective, let's take a quick look at some of the past winners:

Yassir Arafat: This would be the man who diverted billions of dollars into his own Swiss bank accounts that was intended for the Palestinian people. Not only that, but the money that DID happen to get to them, was siphoned off by Hamas, the PLO, Hizbullah, and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to be used to kill Israeli's among others. Yep, he deserved the award.

Mikhail Gorbachev: While Gorby was being bitchslapped by Reagan at Reykjavik, he still had the KGB torturing and killing civilians during his rule. He also kept the Afghan war going for longer and was the first Soviet leader to send troops to Chechnya. He also threatened to squash any revolutions in the Soviet bloc, although by that time, he lacked any power to actually do it.

Jimmy Carter: While never really having been responsible for wars directly, Jimmuh is fully responsible for the beginning of the latest wave of Islamic facism by not stepping up and siding with the Shah of Iran. He may have been a dictator, but he was OUR dictator, and a helluva lot better than the guys who followed, one of which is now pursuing nukes and leading the country. He's sided with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, Manuel Noriega and others...all brutal dictators in their various countries. But yeah, his interests are peace.

Kofi Annan: Kofi has presided over what can only be described as the largest scandal in the history of the world, but yet, it never made the mainstream media. The oil for food scandal, where various bureaucrats were paid off, or were able to buy and resell items to Saddam Hussein is in the billions of dollars, but has it been on the front page of the NY Slimes? Washington Post? Nah.

Come to think of it, to lump this psychotic idiot in with the rest of them, may not be a bad idea....

Thought for the day

"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." - - Ronald Reagan

Dirty Harry

No, not Clint Eastwood, although that'd be a whole lot easier for the average American to understand.

I'm talking about Harry Reid, who over the last year or two has accused the Republicans of being everything but stealing candy from babies (and I'm sure that has crossed his mind as well). The hypocrisy comes in the fact that if you investigate it, Reid is dirtier than the majority of Republicans.
-First of all, the free ringside boxing tickets given to him by the Nevada Athletic Commission (the regulators of boxing in Nevada) during the time that Senate was considering a bill to regulate boxing. Nope, that's not corruption, that's 'investigative legislation'.
-Next, Jack Abramoff. Tom Delay is forced to resign due to the money he took from groups represented by Abramoff, but Reid? Oh, heck no. He'll take the money and keep calling the Republicans corrupt without any concern for a politically overzealous prosecutor going after him.
-How about land deals? Nope, not sexy, but definitely dirty. Harry has two that stick out, and that's without even doing much research. One where in 2002, thousands of acres of federal property were opened up for development. His son's company? Oh, they got access to a large portion of this property and developed it for millions of dollars. I'm sure there's absolutely zero connection between Harry being there and his company profiting.
The other land deal is a bit more complex, which is why, like Whitewater, I'm sure it'll get no traction amongst the media. IQ points of members of the media being in the double digits tends to mean that we as Americans only get the news that they can understand. But I'll try to explain:
In 1998 Harry Reid bought some vacant land outside of Vegas for about $400,000. Yes, this is the same land that he worked to get freed up for development from federal acreage. One parcel he bought solo, the other parcel was bought jointly with a guy named Jay Brown, who doesn't exactly have the purest reputation.
In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to an LLC created by Brown, but did not disclose that he had sold it through any of his reporting required of senators.
After using Reid's influence to get local officials to rezone the property, Brown's LLC sold the land, and paid Reid $1.1 million. In 2004.
But Reid didn't OWN the land in 2004. So either he got paid for his influence in getting the property, for his influence in getting the property rezoned, or paid for helping this guy sell the land. Any of these are unethical. Oh and did I mention that when questioned regarding this land deal by an AP reporter, Reid hung up on him?

But it's the Republicans who are corrupt? Man, we may as well legalize it, because it seems like a good number of folks are smoking it.

RIP Cory Lidle

pMSNBC sports "expert" (apparently being a talentless hack on ESPN qualifies you to be a complete and total talentless hack on pMSNBC) Keith Olberwoman was his usual condescending self when describing Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering what we know about the clueless wonder that is Olby. I guess expecting people to exhibit some semblance of class in the absence of clue is like expecting Madeline Albright to act in the interests of the United States. Worth a shot, but more than likely a waste of time.

But seriously, this jackass KO has the balls to talk about Lidle being a 'journeyman'? Are you kidding me Keith? How many gigs have you had since 97? According to some research I did, you're looking at just about the same number. So that makes you a journeyman as well, certainly not a star/superstar. And according to the gossip columns, that goes for your performance in the sack as well, but we probably all could have guessed that. Your gall on your show displays some sort of need to overcompensate for something, so I guess we all know what that is now.

Anyway, usually I'll not waste bits/bytes talking about the Yankees, probably my most hated sports team of all time(besides the Raiders), but in this case, Lidle was a class act and talented guy and my condolences to his family and friends.

National Talk Rike Kim Jong Il Day!

I realized why it was that Kim Jong Mentally Il tested his alleged nuke the other day. He's so ronrey. See, instead of diplomacy, what we need to do is to empathize with poor ol' Kim. And what better way to empathize with him, but to talk like him. So I declare next Wednesday, October 18, National Talk Like Kim Jong Il Day. If he sees that we all can see how ronrey he is, and how much he needs a fliend, maybe he'll give up on his nuclear ambitions and pursue a more friendly line of discussions. Rets do it! Rets have evelyone flom New Yowk to RA speak rike the the Dear Reader and pewhaps it will touch his heawt and tuwn him away from eviw.

When babies are outlawed, only outlaws will have babies....

Some asshat baby factory in Erie PA stands accused of using her 4 week old son as a weapon against her boyfriend, swinging the child at him, and hitting him with enough force to cause the child to suffer a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. At 27, this jackass has five children who were taken from the home (rightfully so). She faces charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and simple assault.
Her boyfriend, who apparently blackened her eye after she put the child down (nice guy there) said "People are trying to make a big deal about it, but she did not do it on purpose. ... It was just a mistake". A mistake? Are you friggin kidding me? A mistake? She accidentally grabbed her 4 week old son and started swinging him like a Louisville slugger? Just exactly how stupid does this moron think people are. Nevermind.....I already know. And the worst part is that some other idiot is now saying that she may have suffered from post-partum depression. That'd be the same mental disorder that Andrea Yates used to get herself acquitted of the murder by drowning of her five children.

And liberals are trying to ban guns? How about banning reproduction by stupid people? Banning stupid people from breathing? Banning people letting stupid people drink..oh, no wait, that'd shut down 95% of the bars.

Jesus...someone whack her in jail...please.

Zucker advertisement

David Zucker, of Airplane, Scary Movie, etc fame, has made an advertisement for the Republicans that they apparently felt was a bit over the top. Well DUH. Ever seen his work? What the hell did you expect? He's not exactly Francis Ford Coppola, but he seriously is probably one of the funniest guys out there. Oh, and by the way, YouTube.com is already getting all kinds of leftwing. It's marked as offensive...idiots. Judge for yourself, but be prepared to laugh your butt off.

Olbermann is a douchebag

The idiot ex-ESPN'er apparently had a one-nighter with some hottie and she's spilling on him.
According to her, he's nowhere near as liberal in the sack as he is on his show.

Some NY gossip columnist posted the information in their column, and as a result, her blog has been hacked, slammed with comments, and generally dissed.

I just like the fact that the idiot named from pMSNBC gets low ratings on TV and in the rack. Coulda guessed.

N.Korea's got nukes, Thanks Bill

Please someone say it. I know y'all want to. So I guess I'll be the first one.

It's Bill Clinton's fault.

Yes, I know, I LOVE to blame Bill Clinton for the worlds ills, and for the most part, I'm right when I do so. But in this case, it's true. Let's look at the North Korean deal for nuclear technology back when Billyboy was in office. In 1994, Bill Clinton and his administration sold light water reactor technology to the North Koreans. As a result, this put the North Korean government on a fast track to nukes. And bam, there you are.

I said it before, I'll say it again, Bill Clinton did irrepairable harm to the world. Everywhere. North Korea, Sudan, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq and more.

Sports fans in Michigan

Man, talk about your great weekends to be a sports fan in Michigan. Tigers eliminate the Yankees after DOMINATING them the last two games, Wolverines take out the Spartans....

Only thing left is for the Lions to smack the snot outta those damn Vikings.

Yeah, like THAT's gonna happen.

Women against Webb

George Allen's opponent is on his way to being 'swiftboated'. Doesn't break my heart, considering the amount of money that the Dimwitocrats are spending to try to beat Allen, it's good to see that at least the people of Virginia have some semblance of common sense and can see that the majority of the attacks on him were completely unfounded and hypocritical.
But now, a new website has come out, Webb against Women, filled with quotes from Mr. Webb. Things like:

“Many women appear to be having problems with their sexuality…What kind of woman would seek out the Academy routine?” (pg. 282, “Women Can’t Fight,” Washingtonian Magazine, November 1979)

Apparently Mr. Webb isn't exactly shooting for the women's vote.

Nice thing is that this is coming out BEFORE the election, as opposed to when I'd expect it to come out...afterward.

Yep, threw up in my mouth a little there.

YECH!

Proceed with EXTREME caution.

Michael Steele: Class Act

Despite being 'stalked' by Dimwitocrat operatives with video cameras for every public and private event for the last year and a half, Michael Steele has remained a class act throughout, and has yet to have his 'Macaca moment' a la George Allen.
However, he finally is fed up and is asking for an apology for a recent intrusion on a conversation with some parents who lost their children in Iraq during a welcome home ceremony for a National Guard unit. In an open letter to several Dimwits, he called them out, individually for their hypocrisy. A breath of fresh air. If this guy loses in his Senate race, it's a clear sign that the east coast has truly lost their friggin minds.

Dear Congressman Cardin, Governor Dean, Chairman Lierman and Senator Schumer:

For several months, I have been trailed by Democrat operatives filming my public events. At these events – speeches, press conferences, county fairs and parades – my every word and move has been recorded.

I realize this has become a part of modern campaigning and I welcome the scrutiny. In fact, I always make a point to say a friendly hello to whomever the Democrat Party sends to follow me. However, recent actions have crossed the line from political activity to an invasion of privacy.

On the morning of September 30, I participated in a homecoming ceremony for the Army National Guard 243rd Engineers. The event – as fitting for the occasion – was non-political. Republicans and Democrats joined together to welcome home brave men and women returning from Iraq and I attended in my official capacity to spend time with the troops and their families.

While speaking with two mothers whose sons had died in Iraq, I noticed the ever present Democrat operative filming our conversation. A conversation with parents who have lost a loved one in combat is private in nature and has no place in partisan politics, and certainly not in the smear campaign you have waged against me even before I entered the race for United States Senate. The filming of this conversation demonstrates a callous disregard for families who have lost a loved one and is an indefensible invasion of privacy.

Unfortunately, I have come to expect such ugly, gutter politics from you. Congressman Cardin, while saying you have expressed outrage to “all concerned parties” for the racist comments on your senior staffer’s blog, you have yet to apologize to me. Chairman Dean, your personal pollster, Cornell Belcher, advocated racist attacks to “knock” me down and “discredit” me, and yet I have received no apology from you. And, Senator Schumer, your staffers pled guilty to a crime when they stole my credit report and violated my privacy and that of my family, but I have had no apology from you either.

I did not think until this past Saturday, however, that such ugliness would intrude upon the return of our troops from Iraq. As I told your colleague, Congressman Steny Hoyer, who attended the event, this action represents a new low in Maryland politics and has no place in this campaign.

My campaign is focused on having a conversation with the voters of our state about the issues affecting Maryland and I am committed to building bridges over that which divides us. But, ugly partisan political tricks only work to divide our communities and represent the very type of political behavior voters are sick of.

If your respective organizations are as concerned as I am about the use of such poor judgment by your staff(s), you would take immediate steps to hold all responsible parties accountable.

I eagerly await your prompt response.

Sincerely,

MICHAEL S. STEELE

Foley-gate

Who knew what and when did they know it?

That seems to be the mantra chanted by both the Republicans and the Dimwitocrats over the past week in regards to Congressman Mark Foley's stupidity when it comes to IM'ing and emailing male, minor Congressional Pages. The dimwits are chanting it because it is politically expedient (not saying the Republicans aren't) to weaken the leadership of the Republican House and make it look like Speaker Hastert knew, but did nothing about it.
The Republicans are chanting it because it defrays attention from the actual scandal and also attempts to cast the Dimwits in a negative light, by saying that they put more minors at risk by not saying anything until the last minute, despite the fact that an apparent Dimwit operative had this information almost two years ago.

Who's right?

Neither. Mark Foley is a scumbag who deserves not only to be drummed out of the House unceremoniously, but also charged with felonies. Those felonies would be the same felonies that became felonies thanks to the laws he helped get passed. If you took one minute to read some of the crap that Foley was tossing around at the pages, you'd be with me on this.

The only thing that I WOULD like to emphasize is that former Congressman Gerry Studds, (unfortunate name, yes) admitted to actually HAVING sex with pages (not cybering, but actually physical sex), and was censured. However, during the censure vote, he turned his back on the House in a symbolic move to basically say "screw you people, I'm a congressman, I'll do what I want". When he left the House, he was given a standing ovation by the Dimwitocrat caucus.
Current Congressman Barney Frank (or Barney Fag)had a boyfriend who operated a male prostitution ring out of his apartment. Franks was also investigated for fixing tickets for his boyfriend's clientele who received them for parking in front of his apartment. Franks is now one of the 'voices of moral reason' in the Dimwitocrat caucus.

So, let's face it, the world if full of scumbags. We both have our share. The only problem being a Republican is that when our scumbags are discovered, they're splashed all over the news for weeks. When theirs are discovered, they hide it on page D-19 of the papers, and they never get a breath of air on TV.

Mexico lobbies for a veto

The leader of Mexico, although I think 'leader' is a bit strong for him, is lobbying President Bush to veto the recently passed bill to build a fence along the US/Mexico border.
In a weird twist of logic, he actually says that building a fence to keep illegals out of this country will DECREASE security. Now, I've heard the saying "good fences make good neighbors" so I'm trying to understand this. Was it a situation where his english is not so good and as such, he screwed up the translation? I have to believe that's it, because no one with any friggin brains can believe that a fence to keep people out will actually make things LESS secure. I don't believe, unless you installed a big tunnel under the border and didn't monitor either side of the tunnel that you COULD make it less secure than it is now. We have people crossing the border at their own whim, we have border patrol stations that are NOT manned during certain ours of the day, we have people just coming across in the backs of trucks...how in the HELL can a wall make it less secure?
Just another great example of the asinine logic (or lack thereof) that the people who want to take advantage of the American system use.

Well, at least they're not whining that this is a violation of their civil rights......yet.

Update: If President Bush chooses to exercise his right to veto a bill in this case, for only the second time in his presidency, I guarantee that the Dimwitocrats will take over both the House and the Senate, with a majority large enough to subject the US to impeachment, withdrawal from Iraq, tax increases, and an immigration bill that will allow anyone to come into the country any time they want, with full coverage under medicaid and any other federal program.

Katie's Revenge

In Wabash Valley State prison, in Indiana, a convicted child molester/murderer has been tatooed. This wasn't your normal 'bitch' tatoo either that these sorts of guys get in prison, this was on his forehead, and it reads "Katie's Revenge"

Anthony Ray Stockelman was convicted of the abduction, rape, and murder of a 10 year old girl, Katlyn Collman. Apparently, in a bit of 'jailhouse justice', the inmates decided to welcome him to prison with a bit of a gift.

Now, I've heard the legends about how child molesters are treated differently in prison and how the prisoners tend to mete out their own bit of justice on these freaks, but damn. Maybe Congressman Mark Foley will get a tattoo along the lines of 'HYPOCRITE'.

Amazing, a boycott working

Several months ago, I encouraged people not to buy Citgo gasoline. This was based upon the fact that Citgo is wholly owned by the nation of Venezuela and as such, Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator that is their leader profits from you buying Citgo gas. Now granted, I wasn't the only person calling for this boycott, and I'm sure wasn't the first. However, if you look at the news of 7-11 dropping Citgo after an 18-year contract as well as another company called Susser Holdings, which operates Susser Stores, you have to wonder if the boycott is working.

I've seen numerous postings supporting a boycott and a number of emails as well, so either people are driving an extra block to buy gas from someone else, or there are other reasons, but either way, we're winning. And that little tin-pot idiot who wants to come to our country and criticize our generosity to other nations can take his oil and do with it as he wishes.
The other twist to this is that 7-11 has announced that instead of contracting with a vendor, they are going to have their own 'brand' of gas. But supplying this will be US companies like Frontier oil of Houston, Sinclair of Salt Lake City and Tower Energy group from Georgia.

Hopefully it will be American oil that they're supplying them with, not stuff shipped in from the Middle East. I'd hate that my money ends up going from a tin-pot dictator who supports terrorism with his oil to a nutbag Imam who supports terrorism.

Wow....great weekend!

There's just so much to say about what happened this past weekend that I just can't get to it all. Heck I spent yesterday merely sitting in a drug-induced haze trying to get some sort of perspective on all of it......

Ok, maybe the drug was Sudafed, and it was because my sinuses were killing me...but either way, it was a goooood day.

Bill Clinton loses his friggin mind all over Chris Wallace, who I've not really liked for his tendency to throw up softball left-wing questions to interviewees.

I can only say....Wow.

I mean, seriously, does anyone really think that he was 'obsessed' with bin Laden? Seriously? Ok, maybe the dimwits over at the Daily Kos, but they also think that Cindy Sheehan is a loving doting mother who merely wants President Bush to listen to her whine, not some hippy windbag who's popularity clock keeps hitting 14:59.

Definition: Obsessed- " To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic". Does that even remotely sound like Bill Clinton? Sure if we're talking about his 'legacy'. Or if we're talking about interns. But terrorists? Oh please BillyBob. 'Lob some missiles at them and watch my approval ratings go up!' was the closest he got to anything serious. And for him to throw that Richard Clark piece of toilet-paper book out there as the defining authority for anything regarding 9-11 just shows you what a complete idiot he thinks we all are.
Hell, his own people disputed a lot of what Clark said, along with a number of proven facts elsewhere.

But that wouldn't help Hillary get back to the White House, so that just won't do.

Bill, shut the hell up and go back to porking interns. At least then you weren't bothering anyone but the interns.