8/29/2008:   I knew he'd do it, and sure enough, the man that opposes equality for women has chosen a woman as his VP.

Well, he made the right choice. Let's see if it can save him. It probably will. Obama should have picked a woman and put the GOP campaign in its grave early, but he tried to go centrist and picked an "old white guy" instead. Now he's going to pay for it.

All the women that Hillary fired up for the Democratic Party are now looking across the aisle and they're going to vote their allegiance and/or emotions and try to put another GOP conservative warmongering whack job in the White House.

I knew Obama should have picked Kathleen Sebelius, and if he had, in order to counter, McCain would have picked... who? A black woman? I think it's completely disengenuous to suppose for an instant that he picked her solely because she was the most qualified person for the job. He picked her to win the election. Period, end of story. Obama picked someone that he felt, from an intellectual standpoint, balanced his qualifications and experience level. McCain went for the female vote.

Pandering, plain and simple. Women that don't care for their country or their children will vote for a woman and end up with McCain. Women that care how their country is protected and what kind of future their kids will have will vote for Obama. I know, a lot of women will see it as a vote for their daughters, but it isn't. What kind of country do you want to leave for your daughters, that's the real question. Okay, so perhaps McCain's VP could become the first woman President. President of what, exactly? But that kind of critical thinking is what the GOP hates most, fights against, and would suffer the greatest from if the majority of the population could be convinced to espouse it just long enough to get through the election.

8/25/2008:   The new McCain ad makes me want to throw up. It has a woman posing as a former Hillary Clinton supporter talking about how she's going to vote Republican for the first time. How she admires his "maverick and independent streak."

You've got to be kidding.

If by maverick she means "stupidly volatile" and by independent she means "follows the GOP rule book", then she would still be an idiot, just an accurate one.

Then she goes on to say, "A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It's okay. Really!"

If by "okay" she means "the downfall of America, Armageddon, the end of life as we know it," then yeah, I could see that. Her vapid, moronic grin at the end just makes the ad complete.

8/25/2008:   I just saw the best campaign strategy Obama could come up with in a letter to Jack Cafferty on CNN. Erin from Michigan suggested that Obama stick with exposing the "ugly truth" of McCain's history and plans for his brand of presidency.

That is absolutely brilliant.

Lies smell like lies, and the truth smells like the truth. McCain's ads don't pass the sniff test. So take it to the wall with the truth. Hit him hard, hit him repeatedly, and don't let up. Tell the truth on him, plain and simple. Don't be afraid to pull out all the stops. List his sins, and make it graphic. Show people what his presidency will be like. Show how he's exactly like Bush and remind people of what they got when they voted for Bush. When he lies, call him a liar. And point out that he's just like Bush, and remind people that Bush is a liar. And when both sides are swinging as hard as they can, let the people decide who the winner is based on the sniff test.

8/25/2008:   I'm not sure I agree with Obama's choice for VP. He's got a TON of experience, he's smart as a whip, he's a genius on foreign policy and global as well as local economics, and he's got integrity up the wazoo. But image wise, he's a killer. New and Improved just paired up with Old White Guy. Change paired up with Same Ole Insider. Sometimes going for broad appeal can instead cancel out the appeal you had.

And speaking of broads, I still think he should have gone for a woman. Part his biggest appeal is the history he's making in this election. Why stop at a non-white individual as the President? Why not use Kathleen Sebelius? Hillary would have been on my short list, even if she is polarizing.

I'm sure Barack had a tight rope to walk, but his message of change suffers by going with someone that looks like just another old white guy.

8/25/2008:   I don't get it. How could the polls between Obama and McCain be tied? This is so much like the 2004 election when Bush lied, flip-flopped, and used fear propoganda to make people that weren't informed vote for an image and a perception of safety that wasn't grounded in reality.

Let's review, shall we? Following Bush's announcement to the United Nations that the U.S. intended to wage war against Iraq, two high level CIA managers publicly resigned, stating that Bush's case for war was based on bad intelligence. And by the end of 2003 it was clear there were no weapons of mass destruction and Bush admitted Saddam never had ties to Al Qaeda. It was equally clear that Bush was violating the Second Amendment by having everyone's phone conversations recorded and monitored without warrants of any kind. And a couple of weeks ago one of those CIA managers came out and said that Cheney instructed the CIA to forge documents to support the case for war that the Bush administration was making. So at the time that Bush was telling everyone that Iraq was a necessary war that was as good as won and that voting for a Democrat would put everyone at risk of terrorist attack, he was lying as hard as he could go.

My point being, the information was there the whole time. The people that read the news and had any kind of memory for facts knew Bush was as full of crap as everyone, even those that are semi-uninformed, now realize. Of course there are the idiots that just refuse to believe that they voted a traitor into office, but that's guilt for you. There are also people who still believe 9/11 was an inside job. There are some whack jobs you just can't help.

So where was John McCain during that time? Supporting Bush's every move. Wouldn't you think that, once the information was available that the war was waged on false pretenses, that a man who was all about "straight talk" would jerk the President up short and tell him to get the army back out of Iraq, ASAP? That he'd want an accounting of how we got into the war? Wouldn't you think that a man that fought in one of our wars, and publicizes that fact as often as possible, would want to reserve the act of war for defending America and not for redrawing the political lines on maps? But instead he's been beating Bush's war drum as hard as he can go.

And now the Russians have invaded Georgia, raising the spectre of a new Cold War -- or even WWIII. Do you want someone that is a warmonger taking the helm, or would you rather have someone whose policy is to talk softly and carry a big stick? You do realize that if we don't put someone in office that can steer us through these times with a focus on a healthy peace, that the draft will become a necessity? And worse, the mushroom cloud Bush used to scare you in 2004 will finally become a reality, not because of terrorist states, but because our President loves war and either fires or provokes the first shot.

McCain thinks an income of $5 million is the cut-off for being rich. McCain isn't sure what properties he owns. It's only seven, so either he's senile or he's immune to caring about money. McCain gives corporations HUGE tax breaks and raises the taxes on the middle class. That's his record; look it up. It's also his stated plan, even though he'll *tell* you that the tax plan is good for America. Apparently, if you're not rich, you're not American.

Mr. Straight Talk won't even answer a direct question without hemming and hawing, whether it's about abortion, gay rights, his participation in the run-up to the Iraq War, social net programs, global warming, you name it. Take the anti-choice movement. They're just determined to force their religious views on others when it comes to women's medical decisions, and when they put a question to McSame about his pro-choice pick for VP, he gave a circumspect, yawn-inducing response that didn't answer the question. He portrayed his record as pro-life, he quoted the Bible, he quoted the preamble to the Constitution.

I just don't get it. He's George Bush all over again. And we as a nation, as taxpayers, and as Americans, can't afford four more minutes of the Monkey Faced Frat Boy, much less four more years.

8/11/2008:   "We want to make sure our Russian colleagues understand that the days of overthrowing leaders by military means... in Europe... are gone."

In Europe. Of course, violent regime change in the Middle East is fine, so long as you lie your ass off to make your case for waging war.

8/11/2008:   John Edwards finally admitted to the press that he'd had an affair in 2006 with his campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter. He long ago told his wife and he and his family have worked through it. The press just couldn't leave a commodity alone and pushed to have the story run until it was. Nice.

I figure that his private business, but two things bother me about this story.

First, why do good-looking, powerful men pick homely women to have affairs with? It's not like these women are better looking than their wives. Elizabeth Edwards has this Hunter slut beaten by a mile and half in the looks department. I figure, if you're going to dip your wick in forbidden wax, shouldn't the candle be worth the heat? I'm just saying...

And then there's the mistress arrangement. Hunter is a New Age devotee, wannabe actress, divorced, semi-broken, whack job. She once shopped an idea for a television show about women who help men get out of failing marriages by having affairs with them... Maybe that made her seem like an easy target. No challenge, slightly beneath him, interesting and goofy, a slightly worn party girl good for sex and that was about it. Okay, so it must be typical to pay the woman. Edwards gave her a ton of money to pay for her living arrangements and what-not. So doesn't that make her a hooker? Let's review: she knew he was married, she had sex with him anyway, and she accepted money for it. In my opinion, that's the definition of a prostitute. Not that I care; my question is, does she see herself that way, or did she think she'd be Mrs. Edwards someday? Wife-in-training, that sort of thing? Mrs. Edwards does have an incurable form of cancer, so as calculating and cold as it might be, that's the most likely mindset.

And if the kid Hunter had turns out to be his, what then? Some poor bastard child of a morally arrogant wannabe-President, the child will grow up knowing his mother is a floozy and his rich, powerful father didn't want him. That's a big esteem builder, yessir.

8/8/2008:   Jon Voight decided to air the usual laundry list of closet racists and NeoCon GOP powermongers to argue against Barack Obama. Let's take it point-by-point, shall we?

Whether your children are "programmed" or not by anyone in their circle of influence is under the control of the parent, if they're good at being parents, and from what I've heard Mr. Voight is no shining example of this. I'm not attacking the messenger, because Mr. Voight isn't one. He's the source, and his credentials are lacking in this department.

He also grew up with good, loving, open minded mother and grandparents, and he spent the majority of his youth in schools and around children that were good, open-minded, and peace loving. For Mr. Voight to indict everyone Mr. Obama was exposed to is either stupidity on his part, or racism. I'll let him explain which.

The Republican Party has, in its quest for power, shoved fear, divisive religious issues, and outright lies down the throats of otherwise well-meaning Americans since the Nixon administration. Let me repeat the most important part of that: in its quest for power. They have openly admitted that their tactics weren't just to push a social agenda or protect the interests of America at large, but to gain political and physical currency for themselves while crushing the Democratic Party at every turn. They have broken laws, broken Congressional rules, and flaunted any semblance of ethics to not only gain that currency, but in the last 8 years, to attempt a grab at nothing less than world domination. Mr. Voight is short-sighted, if not racist, in his attempt to bad-mouth Obama and secure another four years of GOP evil. He talks about parenting children -- how about securing our children's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

Mr. Voight's difficulties with his progeny have no bearing on my communication with mine. The Democratic Party isn't programming my kids. I've been talking to them since they were old enough to understand, and always presenting as balanced and critical a view of all the parties as I could. And y'know what? They like Obama, but they're not jumping up and down for him. They definitely don't like what McCain stands for. And that's it.

Those aren't the only people that don't want anymore people dying in their name when it was based on lies. I was a small child when all that was going on. Nobody programmed me. And I can't believe that people like Jon Voight don't have any better critical thinking skills or moral fiber than to back McSame.

More lies. Mr. Voight, at no time have our wonderful troops been protecting our freedom and democracy in Iraq. Get over yourself. Bush used smoke and mirrors to make us forget who we are and what's at stake. He let Bin Laden get away, he's let Afghanistan fall apart, and he's let the Taliban back into Afghanistan. His creation of a test field for terrorist battle and munitions training in Iraq and the deaths of millions of innocents whose relatives have joined Al Qaeda for revenge has strengthened the terrorists worldwide. His war based on lies and for the sake of oil and destabilization of the Middle East is the greatest propoganda tool terrorists have at their disposal.

Another lie. Why not just scream, "BOOGIE BOOGIE BOOGIE! The Boogie Man is going to get you! Bang bang! Pow pow!!" If Obama had had his way, we wouldn't have gone to war with Iraq at all. McSame has the same warmongering views as Bush. When Obama manages to settle things down and get the Middle East situation stabilized, I hope all the cells in your body will be willing to admit their stupidity. As for John McCain, he graduated at the bottom of his class as West Point, screwed around on the job in Vietnam, got shot down, was made a POW like thousands of others, survived, and came back. His refusal to be set free without the rest of his group was herioc, no doubt, but that's where it starts and ends. And as the for the Democrats controlling the media, maybe Mr. Voight didn't get the memo: Scott McClellan has admitted on national television that the White House regularly feeds talking points to their friends in the media. And one of their biggest friends is Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox "News" and hundreds of media outlets.

Wow! "Shame upon him!" Let me ask you, Mr. Voight, do you feel the Swift Boaters of 2004 have shame upon them for slandering Mr. Kerry's valorous and decorated service in Vietname? A man that was wounded while saving his fellow soldiers in the heat of battle? Where was your fervor and eloquence then, sir? I say, shame is upon you, sir, for slandering Mr. Clark, a heroic and noble figure himself, and for not being vocal in 2004 in Kerry's defense. Shame upon you, indeed.

This time is no more perilous than 2004 was. God help us to all make the right decision this time and NOT vote for John McCain. As for the "socialist" comment, I doubt Mr. Voight would know the difference between socialism, capitalism, and communism if you hit him on the head with a poli-sci book...

8/6/2008:   I hear PETA sneered at by Faux News entertainers and Republicans all the time. I'll be the first to say that they are extremists, and some of their members are downright anti-human. But if you've ever taken a serious look at animal research labs, it's enough to make even the most jaded uber-conservative sheep shut up, at least until their next mind-numbing dose of Limbaugh/Hannity/O'Reilly/Savage:

Like I said, PETA as an organization is pretty over the top sometimes, but when it comes to dealing with animals in a dignified, humane fashion, I can't agree with them more.

Give me the guy shaking and punching the beagles for about, oh, ten minutes alone in a small room. I guarantee he'll never hurt another animal as long as he lives. I'm liberal only in the sense that conservatives on average seem to be those people with no mind of their own, and fundamentalist religious hatred but no actual soul. On the other hand, my desire for world peace doesn't translate into being a wimp. I'd actually enjoy beating down someone like the guy in that video.

8/1/2008:   Michael Savage went on one of his typical rants on a less than typically gut-wrenching topic: autism. He called 99% of autism cases, "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out." He claimed that nearly all autism cases are misdiagnoses where doctors are just trying to get rich by declaring nonexistent illnesses in their patients. He went on to call autistic children morons, putzes, and idiots.

And people were shocked! Shocked I tell you!

I don't know why. Savage makes his living being a complete moron, and his followers are complete morons. Someone needs to take his stupid ass into a back alley and... explain to him the error of his ways (my attorney says I have to watch the firey rhetoric).

I hear he lost a huge sponsor and was dropped by about a third of his stations. Now *that's* good news.

8/1/2008:   Just hours ago, GOP House members ended a 5 hour temper tantrum because they no longer control Congress, and dang it, they're so mad!

Minority Leader John A. Boner... er, Boehner... and other GOP leaders opposed a motion to adjourn the House so that Congress could leave and start their August recess. They wanted to have a vote scheduled on the climate destroying, environment poisoning, oil-company enriching resolution to allow offshore drilling. They screeched that the very act of adjourning was hurting the American economy.

Put to a vote, the adjournment passed at 11:23am, and Congress filed out, all except for six foaming-at-the-mouth NeoCon idiots that had quite had their fill of not being able to steamroll the Democrats by violating House rules, using partisanship and outright exclusion, and even breaking the law to heap on abuse after abuse. Y'know, the way they did for the first 6 years of the Bush administration and the first six years of the Clinton administration under Newt Gringich's "Contract On America."

This little band of brats refused to leave the floor, and eventually the microphones and then even the lights were turned out. C-SPAN coverage went off, the press was ordered to leave the gallery. And still they stamped their little shoes and ranted about how unfair it was. They stood in the dark squealing and crying about oil prices and how those mean hold Democrats were keeping them from making all the money they could wring out of the oil market.

Dennis Kucinich, Democrat and hero to the nation for his stand against Bush and his insistence in introducing articles of impeachment against Bush and Cheney, stuck around a while to see what the GOP morons would get up to, then decided it was so infantile that he had better things to do, and he left them to their tirade.

Boehner, Shadegg, McCotter, Blunt, Manzullo, and Nunes were among the dolts that either started the tantrum or who showed up to join their compatriots in entertaining the press and getting a little exposure.

Finally, they tired of standing on chairs, making fun of Democrats, and printing out joke pictures off the Internet and parading them around the auditorium, goose-stepping and waving their arms. And like tired little children, they finally filed out of the darkened room, the echos of their cries and their dried tears all that was left of of their grandstanding.

There were never any WMDs in Iraq.
No links to Al Qaeda.
No ties to 9/11.
Bush, Cheney, and Condie lied to you.
You ignored the facts.
You re-elected a liar and a murderer by proxy.
But now it's time to show your support for the troops.

8/1/2008:   Gallup is up to the same crap again. An average of all the main stream polls, minus Gallup, gives Obama a 9 point lead, but Gallup Daily gives him only 1 point. The polling company led by people that have, in the past, promised to portray Bush as winning in the last two election cycles, is putting a partisan spin on its products once again.

Why is Gallup taken seriously anymore?

8/1/2008:   Vince Weiguang Li of Edmonton, Alberta, got onto a bus in Ontario. He sat towards the front of the bus. He seemed normal. At a rest stop he got off and had a smoke, got back on, moved to sit further back in the bus. And half an hour after leaving that rest stop, he began stabbing the man sleeping in the seat next to him, 22 year old Tim McLean of Winnipeg, Manitoba. According to witnesses, Mr. McLean screamed out as Li quietly, roboticly continued stabbing him.

Who came to his rescue?

The bus driver slammed on the brakes, and the passengers exited the bus. That's what the news report said, "exited the bus." I'm guessing they panicked and ran screaming from the bus. The person sitting in front of Li and McLean, one Garnet Caton, "exited the bus" as well.

Who came to McLean's rescue?

A trucker pulled over, heard what was happening, and armed the passengers that were milling about outside the bus with wrenches and crowbars so they could prevent Li from leaving.

Who tried to stop Li?

By the time police showed up, Li had hacked McLean's head off. Then he'd broken a window and attempted to jump from the bus. Police stood around for an hour talking him out of the bus and finally took him into custody.

...

Wow.

Obviously Li is a psychopath, completely off his rocker, but I picture him wondering how long he'd be stabbing his victim before someone finally stopped him. And once McLean was dead, and there was no one on the bus anyway, the beheading was out of disgust at the cowards that all ran away.

God have mercy on the souls of those that sat just feet away from the crime and, rather than trying to save a young man's life, jumped up and ran away to save their own skins. They won't sleep well at night, and I would imagine Mr. Caton is going to have some skin crawling nightmares. Guilt will haunt every man and woman on that bus that could have at least attempted to do something to stop that murder. I'd rather die trying to stop evil than watch it play out fully. Every man on that bus can, as Shakespeare put it, "hold their manhood cheap."

Okay, I was going to wrap this up there, but one last sentiment: I'm more appalled by the complete lack of spine that the passengers displayed. Maybe there were only two on the bus, Canton and the girl that Li was smoking with. With that bus driver, that makes only three people that weren't raised with enough spine to help out someone in dire trouble. But it's still horrifying. Imagine being the person being stabbed, and as the knife is ripping into you over and over, everyone is just running away. You're alone with the greatest evil of your nearly finished life. All alone, disabled, your blood spilling from you, pain like you've never known and will never know again. Abandoned by humanity. God, it makes me want to weep.

Damned cowards.

7/31/2008:   For those that are living under a rock, Bush, prior to finally getting his stupid butt kicked out of the White House and desperate to do something noteworthy that doesn't involve getting our troops killed for oil profits, is attempting to have abortion legally defined as "termination [of a pregnancy] between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

In other words, if you're on the pill, you could potentially be having an abortion every month. And that means that doctors and aid workers, right off the bat, can plead religious persecution if forced to sell birth control pills, IUDs, and morning after pills. And following that, any attack against abortion rights becomes an equal attack against birth control that prevents implantation. In fact, if it doesn't just plain prevent conception, it stands to be outlawed.

This is all courtesy of that assholes at the Family Research Center, which wishes to force its religious beliefs on everyone in a country founded initially for religious freedom.

I wonder if the 30 million women that voted for Bush in 2004 are comfortable with their government telling them how they are allowed to prevent unwanted pregnancies? Hmmm... Well, consider this: Obama has immediately spoken out against it, and written a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and asked that the initiative be dropped. McSame has declined to comment.

7/31/2008:   I watched a woman, a former Hillary supporter, explain why she was going to vote for McCain. She basically said the world was a scary place, and we need a leader that can stand up to the scary things.

Give me a freakin' break. She look 70, but she talked like she was 7. So you'll put a guy that will enable the further killing of our troops beyond what is necessary to simply allow the Iraqi government to take over, a man willing to put hundreds of thousands of our troops in harms way for "a thousand years," who admittedly knows little about the economy and has demonstrated a talent for votes that favor the rich and elite and step on the poor and middle class, into the role of continuing the Constitution-rending policies of the last 8 horrible years? Really? Geez louise...

And then you've got Savage, Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly leading the racists that are just terrified at having a president that isn't old, white, and elite in the White House. It's revolting and saddening. I'm astonished that I live in a country that is so filled with backwards morons.

I would like to ask the 59 million morons that voted for Bush in 2004 to please either stay home or try to repair the damage they've done to their kids' future by voting for ANYONE except McSame.

7/30/2008:   Rep. Barney Frank announced a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams of marijuana. Citing statistics that show that marijuana arrests and programs to fight it have cost Americans billions of dollars and ruined lives and careers over a substance that is no worse than alcohol, he proposed that responsible medical marijuana users with prescriptions should be immune, at the federal level, from prosecution for possession and use of the substance.

Personally, I think it should be legalized, regulated, and taxed using the same system we use for alcohol. I suppose we could limit production to licensed growers and manufacturers, limit the strength, and limit sales to marijuana bars, but the point would be to stop an ineffective prohibition. Then we could leave it up to individual states to set their own laws and standards, but we would take the federal government out of the loop.

That's just my opinion. Not being a user, I have no personal involvement in the issue, but I just don't see the harm. I hear it's gotten substantially stronger through selective breeding, but it's still a plant that, when smoked, gets you stoned. And I can buy a bottle of Grey Goose and get obliterated legally right now. Marijuana, from what I understand, is less addictive by far that alcohol and is about as toxic as tobacco, albeit due to a different set of chemical components.

Given that that's the case, why don't I have the freedom to buy a pack of marijuana cigarettes -- filtered, even -- before heading to a party? With a designated driver, of course. I'm a programmer and I need every brain cell firing perfectly, so I can't actually see myself doing that, but I should have that freedom in my not-always-humble opinion.

7/30/2008:   I've had more time to read over the FISA bill wording and think it through, and I have to say, I'd have been far more impressed with Obama if he'd voted against it. Say what you want, at the end of the day he could have stood at a podium and claimed the moral high ground, the protection of our Constitution and our rights, by voting against it. It's what his supporters wanted, it's what his detractors would have grudgingly admired. I've heard the "crazy like a fox" rationale for his and other Dems' votes, but what they're really saying when they make that case is, "Trust me."

"Trust me that we'll do the right thing when the time comes. Trust me to punish those that have hurt you. Trust me to make sure this can't happen again. Trust me to wrap my arms of power around you and make it right." Trust me to not betray your trust like I did when I took impeachment off the table...

If you're getting the impression that I don't trust the Dems to do the right thing, you're right. I don't. Pelosi saw to that. Obama could have broken with the old guard and really stood for change. He has shaken my trust in him, and shown me that political expedience is as much a major component of his political arsenal as John McCain's.

I want Obama to stand up and right the wrongs. I want him to stand up and shore up the weaknesses in the Constitution that allow such wrongs. I want investigations, trials, and convictions; I want amendments and laws and restructuring. And I want it now, for the sake of my children and all my descendants.

I want my country back, and I'm counting, with some new trepidation, on Obama to deliver it.

7/30/2008:   Iraq was about oil. Anyone that thinks otherwise is a fool, and can be proven so with ease. I bring this up not to debate it but to set the tone.

Bush wants oil companies to be able to purchase rights to drill in currently protected areas. All protected areas. Protecting endangered or vital resources do not figure into his equations at all.

There are several reasons why we do not need to give up those resources:

So why do it? Who really benefits from drilling? Is it the public? The drivers? It's certainly not the climate. Rather than cutting carbon emissions, Bush wants to suck more oil out of the ground as fast as possible and burn it, accelerating a climate that's already changing rapidly. So who is this really going to help?

(Like I actually had to set this up...)

The oil companies, and by associating and investment, the Bush clan themselves.

Well, let's not put ALL the onus on Bush. There are a lot of GOP lawmakers and leaders that would see their wallets bulge significantly if oil stocks soared even higher. And that, my friend, is the bottom line.

7/30/2008:   I don't get it. Al Gore challenged the United States to achieve 100% freedom from oil by moving to solar, wind, and water generated power by 2018. It was reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's proposal to put men on the moon. And for some reason, the Al Gore haters have flung themselves at him in glee, calling his challenge impossible and silly.

Kennedy's moon program was the most ambitious, dangerous, and at the beginning, unreachable goal mankind has ever set out to achieve. Whole areas of technology that would be required were as yet undeveloped. He had asked a group of scientists, is it possible, and knowing this was a once in a life time opportunity, a history making moment, they had replied unequivocably, "Um, sure... why not?"

And eight years later, a man took a picture of his own footprint in the moon's talcum-soft dust.

What Al Gore is proposing is doable if we, as a nation, embrace it. It's not as sexy as rockets and space suits, but it is necessary and achievable. Our economy, our lifestyles, our environment, and perhaps even our very lives depend on us doing this anyway, and quickly. There is more riding on Gore's proposal to halt the damage to our planet's climate than on Kennedy's pissing contest with Russia, but the pundits make money and maintain their following by taking potshots, not by making sense.

The right path is obvious. I just hope our leaders decided to lead.

7/29/2008:   Back in March of 2006, I wrote about the death of Slobodan Milosevich, and mused that all that was missing was the arrest, trial, and execution of Radovan Karadzic. Last week, he was finally caught. And once again the media told the horrible stories and showed the gut-wrenching, judiciously edited clips of Karadzic's men abusing and killing people, of the death camps so starkly similar to Auschwitz, and of Karadzic giving orders and smiling at the camera. Karadzic, now old, long-bearded, and withered, will never again see freedom. It's sad that it took so long to hunt him down, but he was found, and justice will finally be served. And that will have to do.

The following people voted against the Constitution, against the Fourth Amendment, against your rights, freedoms, liberties, and protections. A version of the FISA reform bill that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that broke the law at the president's behest and gives the president the ability to grant immunity without oversight or further authorization, has passed the United States House of Representatives on Friday, June 20th, 2008. These are the people that voted for that measure. Included among them are Democrats that have betrayed their constituencies, including my own Jerry McNerney. Let us not forget these traitors at election time.