Victory...

Has been declared by Republicans in the debate. I suppose this can be taken from the fact that the prez did not drool on himself noticeably in the course of debate. Perhaps we can also infer this because there were no obvious signs of the loss of excretory function. The President did not erupt into a screaming curse filled tirade with the cameras on him. See? He won.

Reality Check: John Kerry kicked ass. He had a message. He stuck to the message. He was able to elaborate. He was able to get off topic, speak to the issues, and get back to topic. Anything outside the script caused W? To stare blankly into the camera... Perhaps more fodder for Bush or Chimp. Anyone still undecided is just fooling themselves and making all effort to become the center of attention.

Running red lights...

It's not just for idiot Republicans in SUVs anymore... Watch shrub: he's 3-5 seconds in the red for every question and re-direct. Now he's demanding follow-ups.

The message that wrong-war-wrong-place-wrong-time sends to the troops is, I think "Sorry our president is a moron."

and Kerry is hitting on all cylinders now... The hits just keep on coming!

Programming note: Look at the boxes when they go split screen... I'm watching on a 20" TV... Bush's box is 6.5 inches wide. Kerry's box is 6.8 inches wide. Also, They line up Bush's box with Kerry's by head (see how much more poteum is in the screen).

"It's obvious that you've got nothing when all you do is attack in your rebutal."
- Baby Tiger

"Prediction: Osama Bin Laden will be caught somewhere between the October 18th and October 21st, give or take a day..."
- Baby Tiger

p.s... Remember, don't change horsemen in the middle of the apocalypse

DAMN YOU LEMONY SNICKETT!

as usual, the book was awesome. But due to Handler's handlers, we must wait another year to find out the plight of the poor Baudelaire children and the plans of the evil Count Olaf.

I gotta confess, if you like fun writing, with a flair for the slightly gothic, The Series of Unfortunate Events books are awesome. Currently, there are 11 in the series, and they do come out more consistently than a certain British author of children's' books with more money than the bloody queen.

Also reading: Hegemony or Survival: America's quest for global dominance (Noam Chomsky) and You Have The Power: take back our country and restore democracy in America (Howard Dean.)
Just thinking again (watch out everyone!): how much more fun would the Dean/Bush debates have been? Dr. Howard would have never agreed to this kind of wanton censorship of the democratic process. But, really -- is anyone surprised that the Bush administration (with the aid of Democratic complacency) has absolutely ransacked the idea of free and open debate in the American political arena?

It seems like only weeks ago...

We were sitting in the same place with the teeth of the hurricane hydra beating slowly about our necks... Blowing my diet on comfort foods (Mmmm... brownies and beer [drool....]) Just kidding, I have no beer. Maybe 1 Corona, but it's the only culture I have left in the house.

Gee, I wonder why we're having such an active hurricane season (or am I trying to reason it?) Glad there's no global warming!

Till the power goes out, I'm going to sit around and wonder what "Let the Sun Shine In" by Pebbles and Bam Bam would sound like if recorded by Social Distortion. Then I shall read the new Lemony Snickett. Ahh... It's good to have plans.

A few thoughts...

Do you think, maybe, that the reason that Florida's legislature wants students to learn the Declaration of Independance is because of the words "by their Creator"? Could it be that Jesus freaks, who want God in everything, are going to use the next generation of kids to prove [sic] that there is no separation of church and state? Could it be possible that creator is not to be interpreted as any specifically higher power, but by the humans that created us?

Hey! Ho! Lets Go...

to heaven... And now a punk rock moment of silence for the passing of guitarist Johnny Ramone, who follows Joey and Dee Dee to that great mosh pit in the sky. If you listen closely you can hear the holy hosts chanting "Gabba gabba! We accept you! We accept you! One of us!" Interesting fact: Bruce Springstein originally wrote "Hungry Heart" to give to the Ramones but kept it for himself because his manager told him to (Thanks, CNN.Com!) How about "Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack" in straight 4/4 time at 190Bpm. That would have been way friggin' cool.

Game off...

I guess no one in the NHL read my blog... The lockout begins at midnite. Good luck, morons.

If you don't read it regularly, you absolutely must sign up for Media Matters for America updates. Thanks Dave, too bad you got your dose of conscious after assiting in getting Clinton impeached. But you're on the right side now, and that's what matters. You need to get back on the in, so you can start reporting some of the truths about the bushies and working towards his impeachment.

Not that I want to sound anti-patriotic, but next week is Freedom Week. Does that sound alarmingly like Hate Week? (Remember, Winston: We are at war with Eurasia. We were never at war with East Asia. The Brotherhood, lead by Goldberg, is our only chance at beating Big Brother. Oh, by the way, there is no Goldberg, and Big Brother wrote The Book. Thanks George Orwell, for 1984) I mean, we already have expanded the 5 Minutes Hate to the 24 hour a day, seven day a week hate (see: Fox News and buy Outfoxed.) Remember: Clinton lied and the Democrats want to steal your money and give it to men who want to give heroin to kittens.

Thinking out loud... (conspiracy theory time...)

There's a possibility that the documents that indicate that president Bush may not have adequately completed his service were not real. I'm just thinking out loud (or as the Party in charge might say: committing thoughtcrime) but, is it possible that the documents were intentionally created as forgeries and leaked to the media so that it may cast doubt as to who would create such documents and to the authenticity of other documents that can be proven authentic? Obviously, blame would be placed directly at the opponent of the president, in this case John Kerry, as the attacker who would have reason to use forgery to put a chink in the Bush armor. This is a logical conclusion to dismiss the information as biased and not authentic, taking Kerry down a notch. An investigation is conducted, an innocent party confesses to guilt in conspiracy and steps down and is summarily indicted, arrested, convicted and lives in shame. Kerry loses ground in the public poles - biased though they may be - and Bush gets added points for sympathy vote.

But, isn't there a member of Bush's brain trust who has a history of doing shady things to discredit opponents in political races? Didn't Karl Rove once bug his own office so that his opponent would be convicted in the press (a press that frequently convicts innocent people by over-reporting, rarely lets facts get in the way of a good story, and never ever apologizes when they get it wrong) so that the candidate he worked for would win in a landslide?

Just asking.

Just say you have a month or so to kill...

My latest guilty pleasure is a game called Insanaquarium, available on www.popcap.com. You basically have to feed fish and keep them alive while collecting egg pieces to have new pets with special powers, while in the process, upgrading your weapons to blow up the aliens that frequently invade your tank. It's mind numbing, but a great way to kill several hours (way more than you want...)

Early frontrunner for the Hakuna Matata award for frolicking with lions, or for the Darwin award for more faith than brains: Mental defect enters lions den durring feeding time armed with a bible. See the the video, here: http://www.wftv.com/newsofthestrange/3728626/detail.html
Perhaps he missed the Caesar's memo about Christians and lions?

Enough already...

I got a survey last week asking my opionion of a new video game marketed to players over 17. It sounded neet until the graphic discriptions of the games' violence. Then it sounded like a real problem, because no 17 year old will be playing it. Kids in my classroom will. And they don't know the difference. And their parents, trying to make their children happy, won't have known, because the cryptic ratings system is defective. Who'se fault is it, then, that we have children learning to be killers? I overheard 5th grade children once talking about how cool Grand Theft Auto Vice City is when you start shooting up all of the buildings in Miami then you kill the pimp and slap the prostitute and (I may be embelishing, but you get the idea.) The glee in the childs eye when describing the scenario was truly chilling. Enough.

Fun site: www.george-says.com : make the president say what he's really saying anyway, then get it on a magnet.

Re-spon-sa-bil-i-ty

I explain it to my students, must I explain it to my [sic] president? If you do something, it's your fault, not the guy that was in your chair last period, not the guy who'll be sitting in your chair tomorrow.

I will grant W. that NAFTA was not the wizest policy ever in American labor, but to blame Bill Clinton because Team W. has seen 2.4 + million jobs leave US shores is nearly (though not quite) as stupid as blaming me because the sun came up this morning. How the hell can you possibly blame Clinton? If the jobs were lost on your watch, they're your fault. If the buildings were hit on your watch, they're your fault. Did Clinton blame King George the First? The WTC as first bombed 36 days after he took office and his public stance was to take full responsibilty for the bombing, and then made sure that Ramsay Yusef was brougt to justice. Did W do the same? Don't think so.

Oh, Dick. I understand you had other priorities, but take a walk down the street and look at that haunting black wall, see the names of 54,000 people who also had other priorities.

Also, for anyone who would like to kill, say 5 minutes to an hour, click here to see John Kerry's original testimony to congress from 1971. Note the Parts that the swift boat liars always quote when saying that Kerry was unpatriotic and gave comfort and aide to the enemy are actually quotes from other soldiers and recount first hand information. None of his words were his own. Truth is the cornerstone of democracy, and the media has been very irresponsible in not re-broadcasting this testimony; thus the Swift Liers can turn the words against Kerry. George Washington, often considered our country's greatest patriot said as a boy "I cannot tell a lie." He then blaimed Bill Clinton for chopping down the cherry tree.

Selfish note: I keep hoping to get the e-mail from NHLCBA watch saying something like, "GAME ON: NHLPA and league reach a collective bargaining agreement," or something, so that I will have hockey to watch this year. But no, the players are too busy with their money grab to agree to a salary cap and the owners are too busy with their insistance that the league is in financial perill to agree to a CBA without a cap. Neither side wants to address the fact that hockey is starting to suck... especially if you're a fan of my beloved Panthers. The excitement is gone (and not just because they lose) because the style of play in the game, rules related, does not favor exciting play in the most exciting game. What should they do?
1. Get rid of the blue line... no 2 line passes will speed up neutral zone play and make for more odd man rushes, break aways, and more scoring.
2. No ties. No 4-on-4 overtime... back to 5 on 5. Ties are like kissing your sister, and a point for not losing does not incent any team to actually try to win. 5 minutes of 5 on 5 and if the game's still tied, go to a shootout. They do it in pee-wee. They do it in juniors. They do it in some of the minors. Why does the worlds elite league insist on having their fans come out to watch their team not win and not lose?
3. Players -- take a salary cap. You players need to understand your fan in the last row who works 20 hour days for 25 grand a year and who has just taken out a second mortgage on his house so that he can park his car, get a seat, get a hotdog, drink a beer, and watch you PLAY A FRIGGIN GAME FOR 3 HOURS is not even slightly able to sympathize with you because your contract includes only $3 million in salary and not $5 or $10 million. You play a game and you are extremely well compensated for it. Even at the league minimum ($180,000) which no one makes - is a lot of money. Get over yourselves.
4. Owners: Make some concessions -- accept a slightly higer cap. Bend over backwards. You're dealing with prima-donna players, deal with it. For crying out loud, think of your fans... think of the money you make, not the money you lose.

I am of dual feeling on this, though, because I'm almost always pro-labor, except when it comes to sports... you guys make way too much money to play this crap.

Ok... I suppose I don't watch enough dumb TV anymore...

But when did Drew Carey change the theme song? I really dig the Proclaimers version of the Hollies "5 O'Clock World". Some of the cover themes themes look cool, too. Is this like the last season for it or something? It really stopped being funny right after the episode with Little Richard and Joe Walsh playing chess with Bernie Kosar.

Every wonder what the world did back before the days of electricity? How did people lie about each other before modern media? And exactly how many times do you have to repeat a lie before it becomes the truth?

And while I'm ranting, what sick bastard thinks anyone is actually happy that 1000 Americans have now died in a war in Iraq started under pretense of a lie by a president that was not elected by a majority of anyone that does not act for the majority of anyone? Oh. That sick bastard is Rush Limbaugh. See the article here. I think that was the reason we protested the war being started in the first place. The article, by the way, is published on Mediamatters.org, run by David Brock.

And with 8 weeks left to election day, how many more days before we find bin Laden? I guess all is fair in love and the war on brains.

The New Bush adds...

Make him sound like a decent human being who is actually concerned for human existence and for the quality of life for the poor, down-trodden, and the beleaguered working class. And if you give him four more years he'll actually get to that stuff... As the New Jersey progressives screamed during the Great American Shoutout "Yeah, I MIGHT vote for Bush." Sorry, you had 4 years that you squandered to give Halliburton and Bechtel no bid contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan and provide sub-standard services to American servicemen and women rather than using the services wing of the armed forces... Soldiers should help soldiers. At the same time you were doing this this George, did you too, forget the economy, Stupid? Jobs being sent overseas faster than one could say "Cheap WalMart crap." Unemployment rates looking better as people who can't receive further benefits fall off the roles (no they didn't find jobs) and/or just stop looking for work. Working people seeing their health insurance premiums skyrocket at a rate in opposite proportion to their benefits... George, did you think of controlling costs at the risk of curbing profits of insurance companies, or placing price limits on pharmaceutical companies so poor people don't have to decide between eating and meds? Didn't think so... While we're on the subject of the kings Bush, do you know Son calls Father 41 and Father calls Son 43 (referring to the number that they were [s]elected president of the US)? Anyone out there old enough to remember the age before cell phones when we all had beepers? Remember when we invented all of those codes to communicate by beeper? Remember what code 43 was back then? [Hint: Cheney you]

Oh and Jeb... Thanks for saving me a whopping $.08 per gallon on gas last month (saved me dang near $5.00, enough for a pack of cigarettes if I still smoked, or a Double Whopper, fries and Large Coke if I still ate carbs, or a 6 pack of really cheap beer if I still drank.) And thanks for giving it back in tax money, rather than working to have gas companies actually lower prices and reduce profit... another bizarre concept I admit, but I must just be some kind of extreme left-wing liberal or something.

Thank you Frances,

I want to take a moment to pause and reflect on how fortunate I was during this hurricane. Aside from having to reset my clocks every 20 or so minutes, the two tiles lost over the back porch, and all of the leaves, palm fronds, and various other pieces of crap strewn about my existence, I made it through o.k. Those in the north Palm Beach county and some of the central counties cannot all say the same. Fortunately, while kicking Grand Bahamas ass, Frances lost a good portion of her strength, making landfall as a CAT2 and not a more powerful and damaging CAT3 or 4. Huge difference in the damage done by 100 mph winds and that done by 120+ mph winds. Please remember those less fortunate than us when thinking charitably.

It is still raining and I'm beginning to wonder can locate woodstuffs sufficient to build an ark that is 30 cubits high and 80 cubits long. In SoFla, there is a severe lack of trees (thank you developers) so probably the answer is no, it's not available. Most of the debris from the cleared meleluca thicket stayed put in the NW wind, in that none of it came through windows in the back of the house. You know, developers, if you're not going to be able to put houses on that land, could you at least do something of ecological value? Say, maybe convert it to wet lands or something? Or are you all content to allow it to become an overgrown thicket once again?

Hopefully, the good folks at FP&L and BellSouth will get utilities back on to those without quickly so that our SoFla friends and neighbors don't have to go without AC for too long when the sun finally returns, and so BT can contribute.

As soon as Frances gets far enough out, the business of picking up the broken pieces starts in earnest, just in time for the real job of getting ready for Hurricane Ivan.

If you can't say anything nice...

You're probably set for a career in journalism. Our local One and Only news station just spent an hour showing a large motor yacht adrift in the intercostal waterway. They deemed that the person was not using their base intellect and that they should have listened to the governor when he said to make sure all was in order before the storm.

Actually, that person was prepared, but their two anchors gave way in the 90 mph winds that we're getting so far. One of the other stations actually took the time to interview the captain, who actually saved the vessel and was doing the best he could to save property and the environment. But, if you'd rather report based on observation, than people think that someone busting their ass to do the right thing is really an idiot out playing in the storm.

Who's the idiot?

Oh... and video game comercials are really getting disturbing. Have you seen the one for Pimkin? HOTDOG HOTDOG HOTDOG. I'm scared.


3:15 update: I'm so friggin' bored! I braved the elements and lived to tell the tale a few hours ago, funky noise comming from outside and macho curiosity (there's an oxymoron for ya') told me to investigate. My dad said he saw wicked blue sparks jumping from a substation on the other side of the expressway, which he attributed to the noise -- I saw no funky spark. : (. But on the bright side, all of the dead fronds have been stripped from the 75 foot tall Washingtonian Palm. On the down side, the neighbors will likely be pissed that they now litter their yards.

8:45 update: Still powerful, still bored. Baby Tiger lost power at 12:30, and has been relegated to flashlight and candle power all day, but not me. Have power, and blog and less and less sanity. As Comic Book Guy would say, "Slowest storm ever." A few recent power glitches, though lead me to worry if I'll even finish this post, but we'll see how long it lasts. I still can't believe I'm trying to survive a hurricane withouth marshmallows. (tradition) Damn you, low-carbohydrate diet!

Trying to reason...

I forget... Does Jimmy Buffet actually explain how to reason with the hurricane season, or is his ultimate solution to just get drunk? Might be easier than watching any more pre Frances coverage, watching things grow on the walls, or thinking. I swear, if they show another gumshoe reporter earning his or her bones in the Bahamas standing in the middle of the storm doing the report-by-scream method, I may just have to go find traffic to play in. Roads are dead tonight, so I may have to play on the expressway!

Beautiful sunset, though:

Nice sky... 

A little truth...

goes a long way, but apparently not at the RNC. Take the Governator for example... The muscle-man claims to have been 'saved' while watching a debate between Richard Nixon and Humphrey in 1968. Never happened: Nixon and Humphrey never had a debate. So, why is it even a big deal? To me it indicates that even when the right attempts to be sincere, they have to lie to pull it off. How hard would it be to tell the truth about why you became a republican? Or is it that the years of hard training, clean living, and good times before Maria have fogged your mind?

These people are turning America into the land of Make Believe, be damned those who attept to disagree. Big ups to the plucky protestors that infultrated the young republican speach, much to the annoyance of all the righties.

Change of subject: Did I mention how much I love waiting for hurricanes? The schizo forecasts, the rizing bile in the natives, all the fun? You can tell distance and risk factor by the horns, speed and curse words foisted towards each other on South Florida's streets. Still hoping for a change of course... probably won't see a direct hit, but we'll get storm force winds. Fingers crossed.

IT'S COMMING RIGHT FOR US...

O.k. enough sarcasm... You see, for years after moving to SoFla, my family dutifly followed the stop-drop-and-roll hurricane prep to the nines every time the weatherman called, stocking up on sufficient canned goods to feed a small country, glomming bottles of water, and procuring all provisions. Each and every time we followed the motions, the storm turned at the last minute, sparing us, but leaving us with a lighter wallet and the Publix managers with a particular glow. I became convinced that the word "hurricane" was a code for critical overstock conditions at WinnDixie and the Home Depot.

Then came Andrew. The most destructive storm to ever hit the United States. We were fairly untouched by Andrew, but we were without power for 17 days (in August and September) but hey! We had walls and a roof and that's more than could be said for those living just 30 miles south of us. No one was shot for looting in my neigborhood (at least not in my neighborhood, I don't know if any of my opportunistic locals drove down for a free buffet of crap from some downtrodden soul) but people did get testy over water, batteries, non perishables, etc. I learned the joys of Ballpark Franks and marshmallows roasted on the gas grill on the back portch, and Candle S'mores. I found myself sweating in the middle of the night with the windows open (not sleeping too soundly), and gritting my teeth at the roar of my neighbor's gas generator.

I wanted to rail on more hypocracy in the right wing tonight but with Frances bearing down on us, and with most of us just hoping that we'll be spared the devistaton, praying for a turn to the north, politics seems irrelevant now. For the moment, right or left alike, batten down the hatches, get the supplies ready, keep the flashlights out of the kids hands until they are absolutely necessary, and pray to what ever deity you choose that we all receive leniency.

Kudos to the local weathermen for not launching into their normal tear of breathless hysterics by this point. That is their usual M.O., but they have remained clear, sober, and infomative. ^5.

Good luck Florida.