To better things ahead

When you assume failure you won't get your expectations dashed. I expect the new year to be about as bad as this past year maybe worst. That way if it does get better I'll be ahead of the game. Sick logic I know but that's the way I think. I always assume everything will go wrong and sometimes it does so there's no surprise for me. Think that's what's kept me alive the last 20 years.

I see my voodoo doll of Rush Limpballs is starting to work. Now if I could just get that one of Cheney working.

So as I look in my crystal ball for the New Year I see more deaths in the middle east (no ball needed for that one). More job losses although not as bad. More foreclosures and that's something to keep an eye on later in the year as Alt-A loans reset. And I'm sure they'll be more sex scandals and scams along with some natural disasters. Don't look for health care to be anything to cheer about as the insurance companies have done their job in paying off our leaders. Security at airports will be high until airlines start loosing money then things will relax. TV will give us more reality shows and sitcoms that I won't watch. What's next? "Light bulb changer" or "sewage treatment operators", truly gripping entertainment.
And so life will go on in good times or bad. Let's be hopeful for better.

A Happy New Year from here or have a Crappy New Year if that's your choice.

Heads up

Tomorrow night is a blue moon. That's the second full moon in a month that doesn't happen very often. To happen on New Years is a once in 19+ year event. So if it's clear where you are tomorrow night take a peek. And if there is something that you'd only do once in a blue moon then tomorrow night is your time.
Can you think of anything that only happens once in a blue moon?
My pick - Democrats getting their bill through congress without changes.

Your pick?

Back to our regular program

(graphic stolen from Py)
Welp some Nigerian kid tries to set off a bomb on a plane and now you can't take a pee one hour before the plane lands. That will go well with people taking water pills or who get the runs while from a visit to a foreign land. And what is the republican answer to this situation? Fire the union screeners because they make too much and have too many benefits. This from the idiot Demint of South Carolina. I'd like to remind Mr. Demint that we had a privatized airport screeners when 911 happened. Those were the minimum wage part time people who couldn't spot a terrorist if they were handed an Al Qaeda id card.
The other thing to remember was that this person was screened in the Netherlands not in the U.S. so the blame falls on them. The no fly list is based on criminal offenses that comes up when a person ties to fly. The watch list has other criteria. If an individual has no criminal background then there is no reason to prevent them from flying. So rather than put more resources into tracking down the bad guys we all get to be yet more inconvienced with more pat downs and maybe more invasive searches. What's next? Underwear searches? Forget about getting into an accident. Just don't forget to change your drawers before you go. And there will be those who say this is the price that we must pay. If that's the price then they have won. We'll keep changing our security measures until no body wants to fly. Then they will have won. Security by the way is just an illusion.

Got a kick out of this one

Just love those kittehs

Holiday movies

Scanning the TV schedule the last few days has been disappointing. The one bright note was that they didn't run a marathon of "It's a wonderful life" unlike years past. Only saw part of it about a week before Christmas. But what they did do was inundate us with other marathons including but not limited to Home alone, A Christmas story, Bad Santa, The Grinch who stole Christmas and others. As much as I like some of these others are like torture. It seems every generation has it's own little torture that parents impose on their kids. For me it was "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Mom and dad would come back from shopping Christmas eve quickly run presents upstairs to places unknown and then dad would announce that it was almost time for Amahl. It was okay for the first year or two and then it became the running joke. This was a libretto a one act play with the words being sung by the characters. As the years went by we found an excuse, any excuse, to avoid this torture. From having to take a shower to doing homework, Anything to get away from the set. But dad thought it was great and a required family tradition. I was lucky though. The composer regained the rights from NBC and refused to have it air again because he didn't like what they had done with it.
And now we get to torture the young ones with "It's a Wonderful Life". For a few years it was run on every station and a yearly required viewing at school. Makes me wonder what little torture they will come up with for their kids. What goes around comes around. Oops that's the theme of the movie.

It's "that" day

In reflecting on the day I think of those all over the world who for the want of scraps just to survive. I think of the mothers who won't be hugging their children because they died before this day. Of families who won't be seeing their fathers come through the front door because they either died in the line of duty or are in some far off land. Of the homeless who wonder if they'll ever make it back to society. There is always worse that pops it's ugly head just when you think all is getting better but then I also know that worse does not last forever. So for just one day I wish them all peace and hope and better days ahead.

Peace to all.

A Few more before I head out

As promised

Santa's getting desperate

Looks like things are bad at the North Pole this year.

More kitties later..

Not much good news

Once again two more Washington state police have been shot and it doesn't look good for them. That's seven officers in less than two months. Maybe they need to change the way officers respond to domestic violence cases. Like anyone in the house have a history of violence or mental illness? If the answer is yes then call the damn SWAT team.

As Santa Claus was shot dead before Christmas last year I think I'll just post some Christmas pussies for the next few days. Everybody likes the pussies.

Random things

I guy in Japan wants to marry a video character. Well at least he'll be able to shut her up when he wants to.


The Seapigs lost on Sunday. Wouldn't be bad if it wasn't against one of the worst teams. On the good side Randal Graves will be glad that the Browns finally won one. That's the law of averages for you Randal.

In it's current state the health care bill is a no win for consumers and a win win for republicans, conservedems, and the insurance companies. Republicans will vote against it even though they are secretly for it in it's present state. That's because there's no public option (wouldn't want competition) or a Medicare buy in. It will if passed give insurance companies 30 million new customers paying premiums and if they can't pay the government will either provide them with taxpayer funds or a fine that will land up in the insurers pockets. Nothing will change other than a win fall for the insurance companies. And you thought the bank bail out was costly. This will pale by comparison. At least with the bankers it was a loan that will be paid back.

It's Friday and you know what that means?

It's the Friday pussies.

A Christmas Carol part three

Act III The ghost of Christmas future

The Boner back in his leather chair once again farted and rubbed his stomach.
"Must have been that stale sandwich I had for lunch." he thought.
As he was about to get up from his chair the windows suddenly went black and the lights dimed. His heavy oak door creeked open and in sauntered Ronald Reagan with a black hood covering his head and face. Without a word the ominus figure raised his boney hand motioning the Boner to follow him. In a slow motion flash they landed in a hallway of an old nursing home. There before him was his future self sitting in a gold plated geri chair with a cashmire lap blanket a glassy stare as he gaulked at on of the hallway lights.

"Sad" said the nurse "No one comes to see him anymore" "He just sits there for hours on end staring at the hallway lights."
"And to think" said the aid " He made all that money when he was in congress". "Wonder what they'll do with it all?"
"I heard that since he has no living relatives that the state will give it to poor children with no health coverage"
And there the old Boner sat drool running down his chin staring at a light not knowing there was even a world outside.

"No no no!" the old senator was heard yelling as he slowly awoke back in his chair. "Dithers! What time is it?"
"Time to get back to the senate floor sir".
"Hot damn I didn't miss it. There's still time to put a last nail in the coffin of health care reform." bellowed the old Boner
"Did you get that dislexic reader I wanted?"
"Yes sir." said the manservant
"Good, then that damn Sanders ammendment is as good as dead." "Get me up and let's go." "Oh and don't forget to send Joe Lieberman a christmas card. Oh yea that's right he's Jewish, never mind."

fade to black

Merry Christmas folks! I hope you enjoy the lump of coal we just got from our elected officials. But please don't try and burn it because we wouldn't want to add to global warming.

Intermission 2

Our second act was brought to you by these fine sponsors:

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While you're out in the lobby we have some fine keepsake T shirts to remember tonight's performance. Made in China by slave labor these shirts are guaranteed to fall apart on the first washing.

A Christmas Carol Part Two

Act II The ghost of Christmas past

Little Ebonezer McConnell's parents were big fans of FDR. You see the little Boner contracted polio at a very early age and was forced to do therapy after going to Warm Springs something Roosevelt had started for the benefit of poor kids with polio. This would not do in Ebonezers' mind. We need to get rid of the riff raff of society he thought and he was just the person to do it. When all of these socialist programs were in full swing he hatched a plan. How to get these people to pay up the nose and get nothing in return. As he made his way through government stepping on toes and kicking anyone aside who got in his way. He was after all a member in good stand of the good ole boys netwark.

The ghost of Christmas past had little to say. Merely reached out his arm and grabbed Boner by the upper arm and they were off to his old Kentucky home.

"Nezer?" That's what his mom called him. "You will reconsider you're positions. FDR would not have been proud of you you know." said his mom.
"Nah mom I have to support the party line." "Jerry said I could have a great future if I'd just be more conservative". "I know I'll back that new kid Raygun." "I always liked playing with rayguns."
"Nezer you promise me you'll be more compassionate like Roosevelt and stop hanging around with that bad crowd. Those republicans won't amount to anything if you ask me." said his mom.
"Ah mom, but with the republicans I'm makin more money that you and Dad put together." touted the young Boner.

And a montage of the good times flashed before his eyes. Of back room deals and money laundering through campaign committees. Of D.C. cocktail parties and setting policy that benefited his friends in business. It was an orgasm of power and money from the memories of his youth.
Then there was the scene of Tiny Tim Geithner working his way up the financial food chain. Happy as a lark he was following the direction of his masters Bush and Cheney. He just knew the good times would never end. Tim worked hard to lower the amount of capital required to run a bank and that was perhaps his downfall. There was no turning back now. His fate was sealed and his time was now limited. Crippled by his own actions.

"Those were some good times. said the Boner. "Can I stay just a little longer oh please?"
"No said the ghost, these are things that can never be again, at least not for you."
"Then what will become of Tim?" "Is there any hope for him?" "Maybe we could get him off with a pardon." "We could sneak it into one of those Democrat spending bills."

But there was no more word from the ghost and once again the Boner found himself back in his leather chair.

Stay tuned for Part Three after words from our sponsers

Intermission

This play is being brought to you by these proud sponsors:

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The Clapper - That wonderful device that has your lights going off and on by themselves on July 4.

And Bull of Heaven condoms - If anything gets out of that condom you can name him Houdini.

While you're up why not head to the lobby where you can try some of our delicious stale popcorn and watered down fruit drinks. Our candy counter is amply stocked with over sized and over priced candies guaranteed to keep the dentist busy all of next year.

A Christmas Carol D.C. style

Editors note: I can only hope I can do justice to something that Distributorcap would write and sorry no cute photoshoped images of Sarah Palin or the rest of the wingnut crowd. Think of Lionel Barrymore playing a character that's a cross between Scrooge and Mr. Potter of 'It's a Wonderful Life.'

Act I - The ghost of Christmas present

The scene opens with snow flakes starting to fall outside the D.C. office of Ebonezer McConnell. From behind his heavy oak office door you can tell the "Boner" is not happy.
"Dithers have you counted the funds from the insurance lobbyists yet?" bellows the Boner.
"No Mr. McConnell, not yet."
"Well why the hell not you lazy peon?"
"I'm still counting all the gold coin from the energy companies from when Bush and Cheney were in office." whined the manservant.
"Well get your lazy ass in gear. I want to get this wrapped up before the Christmas break. The guys from Wall Street are throwing a party and I don't want to miss it. There's even a rumor that Sarah Palin will pop out of a cake. You know what that means don't you?"
"No sir."
"Means I won't have to use those free samples of Viagra I got for doing the drug companies that big favor."
"What favor would that be?"
"Are you a dunce? Why Medicare part D of course." "Just love the way they came up with that big hole in the middle. We can drain em for every penny they've got. And you know I get kick backs er.. residules if they live past two years."

As the Boner slumps back in his big leather chair for a nice after lunch nap the room goes dark and things get all starry and magical.
Enter the ghost of Christmas present played by Ed Shultz

"You know folks if we don't get a public option then health care reform as we know it is dead."
"Just look behind me at the lines here at the mobile free health care clinic we've set up."
"Is this what you want for the American people Ebonezer?"
McConnell snaps from his afternoon nap. "Why sure, it was good enough for my great grandparents so why can't people buck up and live with it?"
"BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE DYING!" bellows the ghost, nearly shattering the windows.
"Are there no vouchers? Are there no free clinics?" the Boner states gruffly.

"And what's to become of Tiny Tim Geithner?" says the ghost.
"What about him?" grumbles the Boner.
"Well you take my hand and we'll go have a look" says the ghost
"I said take my hand, that's not my hand! screamed the ghost
Like a wisp of the wind the two were transported to the office of Tiny Tim.
There in a fake wood paneled office with Office Depot furniture was Tim slumped over his desk with a bottle of cheap scotch half full next to his monitor and a tipped over shot glass with it's dregs starting to stain the papers on his desk. On his computer screen was the beginning of an outline. Heading read "How to justify AIG executive bonuses." The roman numerals proceeded but nothing was written.
"Good ole Tim, injected Boner, he was almost as good as Scooter. But now his time looks like it's nearly up. Oh well that's what we do ghost. When you're part of our party you have to make sacrifices."
" Can we get on with this ghost? I need to get back to the hill to vote against any bill the Democrat party may come up with."
The ghost, "Sure as soon as you've taken my poll." "Tonight's question: Do you think Ebonezer can block any health care reform? press 1 for yes and 2 for no. The results after the third act.

Stay tuned for the next act coming soon....

Iraq robbery

Sometime in the years after the start of the Iraq war I recall reading the oil agreement that the interm government had drawn up with the U.S.(Yes I read obscure things like that because I like to know the truth.) Entirely written by the U.S. oil companies it was an obscene piece of work. I seem to remember (don't quote me on this) that the deal gave 90% of the money to the oil companies with but 10% going to the Iraqis. And I'm sure the oil companies could have taken most of the 10% with hidden fees and security costs.

The Plan
There was no real plan to rebuild Iraq. Most of that money was stolen anyway. But there sure was a plan to get the oil.
Even two years before the Iraq war started they (oil company execs and advisors) were planning this thing. This was nothing more than a home invasion robbery and a violent one at that. We cut the first line of defense. Had Dad running from the house to hid in a hole then took out his sons one by one so we could strike a deal with any remaining distant family members. For the largest asset the family had, oil. And now that we had the lions' share of the booty we leave the scraps to the rest of the world robbers waiting in the bushes.
So now we have what's left over after Haliburton got finished with the Iraqis The Scraps And the media makes it sound like these countries got most of the oil. Think again.

Friday Pussy

You can't tell I like the pussies.


And for the latest weekly bank failure update:
SolutionsBank Overland Park KS
Valley Capital Bank, N.A. Mesa AZ
Republic Federal Bank, N.A. Miami FL

Medical no coverage

I seem to recall senators on both sides of the aisle saying that we need health care reform just last year. Both sides were touting competition as the solution to rising costs. In looking at the Democratic platforms of the 08 campaign there was even a plank about health care for Americans which reads as follows and this is an exact cut and paste:

Provide high quality affordable health care
Access to high quality affordable health care is essential for every American. 
As a nation, we have the resources to provide this care for all our citizens, as well as for our guests. 
We have the knowledge, the skilled professionals, the technology and the funds. 

Now all of a sudden any hint of a public option or competition has been nearly ruled out. The first compromise was to eliminate competition by eliminating a public option for all but those 55 to 64 without insurance. And since this bill won't go into effect until some time in 2012 42,000 people will die due to lack of coverage.
If what I've been hearing is accurate then there is no real reform. Your senators have had their pockets lined with gold. The insurance companies have been shoveling money at our senators since last spring when the serious negotiations were started. And what has been the response of the republicans? Aside from dumping massive amounts of ammendments (and they wonder why the bill is so lengthy) they have attempted to fillibuster any attempts to get this legislation to the floor for a vote. They'd like nothing better than to stop the entire process and start over again. Well to them I say tell that to the patient with treatable cancer who's just had his coverage canceled because the insurance company and the hospital can't agree on reimbersments. Tell that to the guy who's been layed off and been without coverage for over a year.

Now the states are running short on funds and having to cut those at the bottom. I hear the SCHIP program may have to be cut because there isn't enough money. This was a program that was just expanded in February . People are being told to take their kids to the emergency room. Where's the logic in that? Now instead of a $100 doctor visit that could easliy been spread out among many will turn into a $500+ visit and tie up doctors and nurses who should be doing emergency work. The stupidity just overwhelms me. Does penny wise and pound foolish come to mind?

What's the real solution? I'd say a 3 to 4% national sales tax on all items except food with a sliding scale copay based on income would be more than enough to cover everyone. By spreading the risk or costs it would cost much less. Health care shouldn't be a privledge but a right of all Americans. We seem to have the funds to kill people, why can't we find the funds to save lives?

Where did all the words go?

Year and years ago I used to be able to pull words from my gray matter like a magician pulls rabbits out of his hat. Always the perfect word for the situation. In milliseconds I could come up with a razor sharp wit and put verbal bullies in their place. I once had a supervisor in near tears and running to his boss. Mattered not to me as he was a boob and nobody liked him anyway. Needless to say I don't like stupid people especially when my own skin is involved. But, where the hell was I? Oh yea, the loss of mental acuity. After spending 16 years stuffing my brain with information, somewhere along the trip some evil event happens. As if some invisible hole has been drilled somewhere in the back of the skull. Quickly painlessly the hole magically appeared. And you can't even tell it's there. So slowly without notice that mass of facts drips like a Chinese water torture out the back of your head never to return. It's not as if you notice this phenomena being so slow and painless. And it's not like stepping into a room only to realize you forgot why you went there in the first place. It's devilishly worse. Trying to remember an instructor of a few years back even though I've worked with him on numerous jobs and seen him several times since yet there I stand a total blank. Digging deep in the recesses of my mind trying desperately to not look the fool. I'll fake it. You know give that warm and cordial greeting. Great to see you again, haven't seen you in quite some time. Ah, it worked I've fooled him into thinking. But then as you are about to retire for the night and that area between sleep and awake slowly slips away his name comes to you and you rise up from the covers and shout "That's his name! Damn just couldn't think of it"

Buuut, then there's a book or a paper that you know you've read. The cover is part of the room decore you've passed it for years then in a moment of bordom you pick it up open and it's as if someone changed the words. Nothing formilar. Logic dictates that the words are the same but the mind changed. And just as you think it's coming back to you the mind goes on a tangent. You put the book down and wonder why you came in the room in the first place.

My stuff and your s#@t

Rodger Green got me to thinking about all the stuff we collect. I know I have things in a closet or bin that I haven't even looked at in well over ten years and yet there it will remain until for some reason (usually remodeling) it will get moved or donated or thrown out. I truly believe that we throw out enough junk to start another country. Maybe that would be a good way to get out of Afghanistan. We'll empty out our closets and send them all of our junk. Since they have almost nothing now it would be a windfall for them. In doing so we could quickly Americanize them to our materialistic way of thinking. Imagine them walking around in Nikes carrying ipods. And this would be far cheaper than using drones and expensive military hardware.

I used to have enough room for my stuff until somebody put their s#@t in the way. Now it's a constant task to move or throw things out. The never ending battle against clutter. This is now a never ending battle. A war that can not be won. A quagmire worse than any guerilla war.
And now we come to that time of year when stuff is what it's all about. How much loot did you get from Santa? Maybe I'll just be bad this year. I could use the coal to keep warm.

I'm back did ya miss me?

And what would Friday be without the Friday pussy.

Kind of feel like that cat. But I see the world didn't blow up yet and things are getting strangly better in an odd way. I must say you can go through news withdrawl. Nice to be out for a while. But as they say the job isn't over until the paperwork is done.
I was the only one to pass the course the first go round. Now I get to be the one pushing the pencil and walking around with my hands in my pocket... there's a nice thought.

Where does the time go?

In a little less than a month we've had one cop gunned down on Halloween night. Friday a drunk driver ran into a patrol car injuring the officer and today someone guns down four police officers killing them all. I know as the economy gets worse we'll be seeing more situations like this. There's been cuts in mental health and they even wanted to close Western State hospital at one point, one of our local mental institutions. As things get worse people will do very irrational things. One woman just the other week was about to jump from a bridge as she had just lost her home to forclosure and car to repo. She was lucky enough to have a driver on the bridge see the sight and stopped her. I hate to get political about this particular situation but much of this started when Raygun opened the doors to mental hospitals and let most of the inmates out. Just so that he could have his tax cuts. I've seen several of these people on the streets of Seattle when I worked down there and I know it's getting worse.

Update: From what I'm hearing now they have a 'person of interest' A man who just got out of jail this past week known to be paranoid. He owns a pressure washing business but appears to have some serious mental problems. That is if he's the one. But then you know this country you're guilty unless you've got an iron clad alliby. Gee wasn't that what Russia used to be like?

Well that about all I have to say for this week. But I'll be back for the Friday pussy. What would Friday be without the pussys?

Time for the Friday pussy

I was going to use one of Billy's pussy pics until I found this one. More fitting considering my last post. I'll be out next week for instruction but have no fear I'll be back when I have no class. :-)

Bank failures: Didn't check them this week but as this was a short week with the holiday I don't think there were any. If I get motivated I'll check into business failures. Saw an ad for commercial property auctions. No, not in the market for one just watching the melt down continue.

Call me what?!!

The shadow knows.

A few of you out there were disheartened that I haven't posted an email address. The story behind that goes back some years when the innertubes were first getting started. I had one of those free internet connections for a while. You know the one. They had disks all over the place with 2000 hours of free connection after which they'd tie you to a subscription for the rest of your life if they could. This was back in the dial up days so getting on line was a hastle. Well one night I sat down to do some late night surfing only to have the connection denied. A call to the customer no service and the nice young geek determined that someone had stolen my password and was using my account. He threw them off and I was able to get back on to discover that it was some young kids from a chatroom that had done the dirty deed. All went well after a change in passwords until about 6 months later the same thing happened. This time customer no service was not as nice. They told me that I would have to wait until the thief was finished using my account. I told them to cancel my account if I couldn't use it. Since that time I've remained pretty much a non person on the net and only give personnal info on very rare occasions. You may contact me by one email account that I keep for such purposes but I'll tell you right now the name given is not me. The address is dsentor yahoo. I'm sure you can figure it out but don't expect any immediate responses as I only check it about once a month. Sorry for any inconvience but there are too many braty little assholes out there who'd be more than happy to throw their latest virus creation on your computer. And since going underground this way I've had no problems of any kind in well over 10 years.

So I remain your friendly enigma.

Thanksgiving

The holiday has lost much of it's luster. I think the relatives who used to get along fairly well in my younger years have gotten old and grumpy. You know the 'get off my lawn' attitude. Even that fake sense of decorum is gone so now we pretty much celebrate from the safe distance of our own homes. Such a gathering would not be a pretty picture these days as about half the family are republicans and the other half democrats which doesn't make for happy gatherings as almost everyone in the family is out of work at the moment.

So what's to be thankful for in these trying economic times? I guess I am thankful that I was smart enough to pay off and own my own home. Thankful that I'm not living in a tent at a homeless camp. Thankful that nothing lasts forever and maybe some day things will get better.

So in the true spirit of the holiday season "LET US CONSUME MASS QUANTITIES"!

And how about those indians. They knew how to party.

A thought came to me

We're slowly becoming part of the Borg or is it the Matrix? I'm not quite sure. Think about it for a sec. How much time do you waste surfing the innertubes with relationships from one end of the country to the other? Or is it world wide now? Like a human lump sitting in a chair staring emotionless at a screen, that window to the outside world. Think were obese now just wait another generation when the spawn are bigger than Jabba the Hut. Then there's Twitter. Sounds like some form of masterbation to me. The teacher caught Johnny twittering in the cloak room. "Johnny cut that out! You want to go blind?" And with the size of phone screens getting smaller he just might.
So here we sit wondering about things and looking for things we wouldn't have thought about in years past. Where does this all get us? Is this just some fools' errand? The new TV of the 21st century. What was once the lure of vast quantities of higher learning now seems to be reduced to a time waste of watching a cat chase a lazer dot on Youtube. You just have to watch this latest video of yet another bumpkin making a fool out of himself as he falls from the roof or drives the family car through the livingroom wall.
Nay this is not life. If I'd have wanted this I would have taken some strong meds and gone back to bed and had weird dreams. Something that even the best writers on TV couldn't have thought of. No. It's time to get up from this chair because for all the rain we've had here I'm liable to start growing moss. Or I could just sit here and listen to my arteries harden between keystrokes. No, better to get up and get moving lest I get blood clots in my legs. But then again there was that blogger I found from outer Sillystan that I've been meaning to get back to.

Oh well see you tomorrow.. same time ... same place.

This one's for Dana

A man a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He lowered his altitude and spotted a woman in a boat on a lake below him.


"Excuse me, can you help me?” he shouted down to the woman. "I promised a friend I would meet her an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman consulted her portable GPS and replied: "You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude at an elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level."

The man rolled his eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”

"I am," the woman replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "ask a simple question and you give me this left wing liberal gobbledy gook to show off your college education. I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The woman smiled. "You must be a Republican," she said.

"I am," the man replied. "How did you know?"

"Well, you don't know where you are or where you are going,” the woman said. “You obviously have no qualifications for what you are doing and have risen to your current position because of a large quantity of hot air. You have made a promise you have no idea how to keep. You're in exactly the same position you were in before, but somehow it’s now my fault and you expect me to solve your problem and save your a$$.”

Well the ole man here just turned 5*

No I won't give my exact age because I've been holding at 39 for many years now and just don't want to think about it anymore. The mind keeps telling me I'm 30 but the body has other ideas. More like 80. Well what do you expect after nearly 20 years of heavy labor? The mind wrote a check and the body cashed it but I think it bounced.

The Friday pussies - this one's for Watertiger

A funny from the Blog Fodder:
Wife: Whenever I am down in the dumps I buy a new outfit.
Husband: I wondered where you got them.

Must have forgot last week to post the bank failures there were three more last week two in Fla and one in Ca. Nothing so far this week.

Keep the greasy side down... Later...

And now for the contest

The rules are simple and only one applys - Come up with a good use for Sarah Palin's book 'Going Rogue". Extra points for the most creative ideas. I'll post the best answers and the winner later and as a bonus you get to copy and paste the award to your blog.



Okay pencils down. Looks like we have all entries in and the winner is (drum roll please)

A toss up: S.W. Anderson said...
Glue them together into building blocks, to be used creating shelters for the homeless.
and
Lockwood said...
I'd like to find out how far they'd extend from the Aleutians toward Australia, if you took every copy and laid them side-by-side starting from, oh, maybe a mile offshore.

Some fine use of such wonderful verbage, paper and glue. Now we could find out just how far it is to Australia in book distance or put them to better use to house the homeless.

Misc.

For all those out there who got their panties in a bunch over Obama bowing here's a shot of Raygun meeting with Al Qaeda before they became that organization and are now our enemies.

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U.S. threatens Iran if they don't quit their nuclear program. What are we going to do throw spitballs at them? Our military is stretched to the max and they know it. If we or anyone else attacks they'll start shooting missles at Israel in retaliation.

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Health care is slowly moving forward. Normally I wouldn't care that much one way or another but when you're out of work you lose your coverage. A whole lot of us have done just that. And that 46 million figure they talk about with no coverage is bull because every month another couple hundred thousand have lost coverage. When you're on unemployment you can't afford to buy a COBRA. There's a snake that would devour your bank account in short order. I'm still leaning towards a national sales tax to pay to cover everyone. Slap a 4% federal tax on all non food items then you could lower the state sales tax since it would get a bunch of money off the states' back as well as businesses. And this way you don't need any penalties for people who don't sign up. Everybody gets covered and it would keep Medicare and Medicade solvent.

Stay tuned for my Sarah Palin contest (I'm surprised nobody thought of this one sooner)

Sarah's Thankgiving dinner

Sarah Palin is having a reunion of sorts in Richland, Wa. that's right near the Hanford nuclear reservation. Maybe she can go turkey hunting the night before and bag one of our glowing birds. Easier to hunt at night don't cha know. But Sarah why are you putting on those hipwaders to go hunting?

For a truly funny thanksgiving dinner story pop over to Dcap's for some really good photoshop work. The comments aren't bad either.

Busted!

Looks like the IRS is going to be flush with cash by Jan 1 if this program keeps going. The Swiss were about to turn over some 4500 names of people who have cash stashed overseas to evade taxes. This is in the billions of dollars. And the republicans keep telling us there isn't enough money for health care. There would be if their buddys didn't have it hidden away. Now I hope they'll go after all the companies that have phoney off shore front companies. You know one small building that houses 23,000 companies. Give me a break. And notice how only one guy went to jail and that was only because he told the SEC he did it. It's like the Wall Street police are too busy eating dougnuts drinking coffee and reading the paper to be bothered. Oh! is something wrong? (as the economy collapses)

The party's over

Hanford cleanup?

People around here are angry about the delays at the Hanford nuclear reservation. They don't seem to understand the problem. This isn't about digging up a bunch of contaminated soil and moving it somewhere else. This is about merely containing a very large amount of contaminated water, some 80 square miles to be exact. The photo above shows how they used to get rid of radioactive wastes back in the 40s although the photo looks more like the 50s or 60s. They never thought a thing about digging a hole and burying anything contaminated whether it be tools or even an entire truck. Out of sight out of mind was the order of the day. The biggest fear right now is whether the contaminated water will make it's way to the Columbia river if it hasn't already. Clean up? Not going to happen. Containment? Maybe.

Hanford

Friday beaver on hiatus

As we all know beavers go into hibernation about this time of year so while they're busy getting their dens ready I thought I'd post some pussies instead for your viewing pleasure. Fear not the beavers will be back in the spring.

It's Friday the 13th

But it has nothing to do with this guy. I never saw why this guy was so scary anyway. Now if you're looking for scary you might try this guy

This would be one Tony Alamo who was sentenced to 175 years for sex crimes with minors. He took on underage girls for his 'wives'.
But enough of the scary stuff. I don't go for all the superstious stuff anyway. As the story goes my one brother was born on Friday the 13th in room 1313 and mom just happened to have 13 cents in her purse or so she said. My brother made it through Vietnam and continued to fly as a pilot for many years and he considers 13 as his lucky number.

Jim over at Major Conflict has a very good article about our current political situation. It is rather long but pretty much sums things up nicely.
Dog Eat Dog

Only Darkblack could do this type of work

Captioned: I'm ready for my close up Mr. Demint

Veterans Day

What a disservice we've done for our veterans. They do a tour or two or three in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have a day to honor their service and what do we do? Go to the cemetary for some quiet ceremoney for fifteen or twenty minutes then it's business as usual. The banks and post offices close. Government offices are closed and buses are on holiday schedule. Furniture stores and car dealers have their Veterans day maddness sales. The focus shifts from it's intended purpose to an odd holiday that most people don't get off anyway. Here they've fought and risked their lives only to come home to be kicked to the side. I hear that 25% of homeless people are veterans. I've heard the figure of 1.4 million. Nothing like coming home from a war to be jobless, homeless and have no healthcare.
They get lured in by promises of education benefits but I'd venture to say that they can't use them unless they have a job and with the job market being what it is those chances are slim to none.
Now for the real kicker, it looks like the health care bill won't do much to help them either. It doesn't cover many in their situation.

Sometimes the news just gets too depressing

In the past few weeks there seems to have been more arsons more shootings and more fires and floods then any time I can remember. Then there was the earthquakes and tsunamis on the other side of the world. There's been so much that after a while it all seems to run together in a jumble of bad news. And the stresses of all of it are starting to take its' toll.

Typhoon in Samoa
Fires in California
Floods in El Slavador
Police officer assasinated in Seattle
Mass murder at Fort Hood
Business owner shoots his partner
Gunman kills two at drug testing facility in Portland
Restaurant fires
School fires
Business fires
Arson

And now the health care bill moves to the senate

Where if you thought the first act of the circus was something then you ain't seen nothin yet. With billions (make that trillions) of dollars in profits at stake the insurance industry which has been shoveling greenbacks at our senators will now resort to using dump trucks fulll of loot. They did after all make some 146 billion in profits. A few million doled out here or there won't make much difference at this point. And like Let's Make a Deal the comittee making up this hodge podge of legislation will have the choice of what's in the large bulging envelope or what's behind the curtain which just might be... Why yes... it's the senators' entire voting district ready to tar and feather them for taking the envelope and leaving them with no health care! But don't worry too much senators because you also get what's behind the door, a book deal while you wait to get into your very own lobbying business set up by your insurance buds.

The Friday beaver

A sad day for police beavers. A Seattle poilce officer was gunned down here last weekend. The memorial service was held today. As the service was ending police were surrounding the suspects apartment. He ran and was shot. That's about the fifth or sixth incident in the last week around the nation involving the military or police. And then the guy in Orlando who shot up his former place of work. As things implode it will get worse before it gets better. I just wonder when people will realize that you can only do so much and what's happening now is not their fault. Suck it up, hunker down and things will eventually turn around. Look at our friendly beaver up there. He's got nothing other than what he can get by on in nature and he does okay.

NEW FRIDAY ITEM - BANK FAILURES - Five more banks in various states failed today. I'll expand on this as I get motivated.

Nothing like speaking too soon

Unemployment figures come in at 10.2% today as the president signs the unemployment extension bill. Guess I spoke too soon when I said I had some work lined up. Seems that is on hold. But such is the nature of the beast when you're dealing with anything associated with construction. So for now I'll be doing some classes and expand yet again my extensive resume. With the exception of radioactive materials there isn't anything I haven't dealt with over the years.
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It makes me wonder with the current shootings what makes up the last straw. What is it that pushes someone over the edge? I've been in plenty of extreme stressful situations at work and yet we all made jokes about it later. War stories we call them. And yes we've even lost a few good guys over the years and there's been times some disagreements nearly came to fisticuffs but never to the point of going postal.

A reprieve and other things

I guess I get a temporary pardon from having to face bankruptcy. The Senate voted yesterday to extend the unemployment. The republicans just couldn't help but get their mitts on the bill and slid a nice biscuit in for business. They get to avoid taxes by spreading out what they owe in 08 and 09 over the last five years. Then there's yet another loop hole for companies that do business over seas. I didn't read all of that but weren't we supposed to be going after all the tax money they owed that was stashed in the Caymans? And let's get something straight. The republicans whine about all the borrowed money and yet they were the ones to shoot loans to their friends on Wall Street and it now looks like CIT won't be paying us back. If that was you or me the IRS would make us pay it back even after your house was gone to foreclosure.

So of all TARP and the stimulus money that has been shoveled around nearly all of it went to business and state and a tiny bit to local governments. The banks are back to playing the games that got them into the mess. State governments are still hurting and have cut most of their payrolls and put in hiring freezes. They've looked for ways to increase state coffers with increased fees and taxes. When the money did trickle down it was for just band aid jobs that took few workers for a short period. There was no major push to rebuild the infrastructure. There's no major work on bridges and roads or the electrical grid but lip service of a smart grid in Hawaii and a few solar projects here and there. The bulk of the money is scheduled to get out there next year so I am hopeful that something will break. At present I'm working on getting a few small jobs from a very small company that does government work.

The health care bill is moving along and may be voted on this Saturday. Republicans scream that the bill is too big 1900 pages and was put together too fast. Yet if they had their way they'd stall this bill for another year. Imagine how big the bill would be if they had their way with another six or nine months to play with it.

To Hoffman and the Neocons in NY

That'll teach you to mess with peoples' local politics. You just keep moving the party farther right and this is what you'll get. Contrary to what you think this country is not made up of a bunch of old racest white guys who hold your values. It's moving more to the left and if you don't change your ways you'll end up like the Whig party just a footnote of forgotten political parties.

Bye Bye Rethugs

One burger hold the Rico

The Blog Fodder mentioned in a comment that some years back he found out from an RCMP friend that some gangsters showed up in burgers at the Montreal Expo. How crude. In the U.S. rat gansters become either Brizilian dog food or key components of our highrise office buildings. They're not considered palatable enough for our American burgers. Although McDonalds some years back was known to import a large quantity of kangaroo meat. What they did with this is still a mystery.
Is Solent Green in our future? Or how about a big box of Ganster Helper to stretch that family food budget in these hard economic times. Gad I need to quit hanging out at Randal Graves. He's such a bad influence.

Here there insanity everywhere

First thought was how nice they took the steel from the WTC and made it into a battleship the USS New York. Then that feeling of conscience took over. You know the one. After an initial gut reaction that part of brain looks at the overall picture and reacts. Looking far down the road at what may happen. We were attacked on 911. That's a fact that will live forever. Nothing will change it. And the first response, that knee jerk reaction is to kill everything that crawls the earth that so much as resembles those responsible. But then the light of sanity takes over. To go after anyone the even looks remotely like the perp is foolish or should I say childish. What should be a police action has now become a world obsession and god help those that stand in our way.
No, better use for this material would have been a hospital or homeless shelter or anything that would save lives. Alright call me a bleeding heart but before you do consider the future. Ask how many more will die at the hand of this warship? How many women and children will fall from the missles of this ship? How much more hate will be bred by its' actions?

A Seattle police officer was killed on the job in an unprevoked attack while sitting in his patrol car discussing a police matter with a trainee. My initial guess is that this was some type of gang initiation. It had been the gangs were fighting amongst themselves with shoot outs. And again the knee jerk reaction would be to round up all the members and throw them in jail or worse, but that would never really work. Where or when will this all end? Last time the leaders were rounded up and given long jail times only to get out and start all over again about 15 years later.

Company recalls over 500,000lbs of beef with e-coli. I'd say that will be the end of that company. It may well be that to get ground beef you'll have to grind your own. So I see our system of food checks is still broken even though much was started with additional manpower and resources.

Largest bank in the country went belly up. CIT filed bankruptcy on Friday. They get the elevator and we got the shaft. U.S. taxpayers will lose around $2 billion in this. If that wasn't bad enough 9 other banks took a dive. Hey weren't they supposed to put some safeguards in place to protect our assets in this deal?

Report says economy turning around. The market jumps 100+ points. Ha don't believe it, it's just money chasing itself. An illusion of the cruelest kind. You think your stock is really worth what they say? Just stop to remember what your house was worth three years ago. Then you have companies lying about the earnings estimates. Oh and keep an eye on those bank fee and interest rates. They're all looking to jack up rates before the credit laws change next year.

So where am I going with all this blathering? Hell I don't know I'm nucking futz you know.... later.

Flash is???

I always thought I was somewhat up on the latest trends. I may not do facebook or twitter or any other "in" things but pride myself on knowing what they are. Flash seems a puzzlement to me. Dirty old men flash in ankle length raincoats. Girls in New Orleans flash for beads. Flash Fridays was made popular by a radio guy. And now I find it all over the net with no real definition to be found. Urban dictionary has dozens of definitions but none that fit. Is it a rant? Is it a rave? Can it be true or is it just fiction? Randal Grave that esoteric wordsmith of evil thoughts always gets me to thinking about the dark recesses of my mind. So I'll give it a shot.

It was a plan. A truly evil plan. On a large planet somewhere out by Alpha Centori the creatures there where having problems of their own. Much on the scale of global warming of earth they were running out of food. Being a far advanced society they were smart enough to look at problems in centuries rather than years. They did after all live to be 300 of our earth years. So their overlord and his minions hatched a plan. Having received the first broadcasts of "I love Lucy" they thought what a wonderful food source the earth would make. They captured Judge Crater and found him to be quite delicious but not much meat for the effort. What to do?
It was a simple effort for them to infiltrate our advertising and food companies. A charge to fatten up the population. First they started with kids cereal. Sugar coat everything was the order of the day. Then they set about studying what graced our tables and how farm animals ate. They realized that most of our food was fattened up with corn. So king corn it would be. Have it put in everything from cookies, cakes, ice cream and hot dogs. They started with the kids first. Put corn syrup and starch in everything imaginable to fatten up the kiddies and get them hooked. But blast those kids sure did run off all those empty calories. What to do?
Make the TVs bigger and the furniture bigger and overstuffed was the order of the day. Increase the number of channels with movies more than could be watched in a lifetime. Close the playgrounds and discourage sports execpt for watching. And the next wave the increase of fast foods. Sodas that were once 8oz. then 12oz. then 16. Higher and higher to 1 litre then 2. and don't forget the chips once 1oz and now 6. And the killer of all fast food restaurants with McDonalds that sold millions to billions of first single then doubles and triples and quads. With cheeses and sauces and sides of super size fries but don't forget the ice cream dessert or fried apple turnovers.
Now their plan was going quite well but why stop there? They'd throw round 2 of their plan at us with video games and the internet where you can sit with a mouse in one hand and a burger in the other. For hours on end sitting and eating the butts they did grow big. With 1/4 of the kids now obese their plan is going well. They have us just like cattle at the trough. So I just have to wonder when it's harvest time for these higher beings. Is it halftime yet on their planet?

What would Halloween be without

The Halloween beaver?



But what could be more scary than....