LT Saloon

Week’s Observations

After moving this site to a new location, I am now in the process of physically moving myself to a new location, just a mile down the road.

I will be without Internet until Wednesday at my house, but I will still be able to get online at work.

So before I disconnect things here, I have some observations about a couple of developments over the past week:

Ralph Nader version 08

Version 00 and version 04 were disasters — for the country.  I could give a rat’s ass as to Nader’s loss in those two election cycles, you can indirectly pin the blame on him for two terms of George Bush. 

I am still not convinced that the Republican Party put Nader up to running in those two elections to siphon off votes from the Democrats, but the result was the same.

Now he wants to run again, totally ignoring the tidal wave of Democratic voters who are focused on Obama and Clinton.  Somehow he thinks that HE is the one they are going to want in the White House.

Look, if I wanted a narcistic grumpy old man for president, I would vote for McCain.  At least he has a party aparatus behind him.  Nader has only himself, with no backup in Congress at all.  He could sit in the White House and demand all he wants, but without a party represented in Congress, he is going nowhere.

Besides, where was this guy from 2001-2004 and 2005-now?  Does he only show his face when there is an election to be had?  And why is it only the Democratic candidates that he has a problem with?  When he threw his hat in the ring this time, he didn’t say a damn thing about the Republican candidates.  He said he is entering the race only because the Democrats aren’t coming through.

Nader needs to sit his ass back down and leave the election to the people who can actually get something done.  Your only motivation in running is to be a spoiler, because you know that it is virtually impossible for you to actually win.

Clinton threatens suit in Texas?

If it comes down to either Clinton or Obama filing suit over how the delegates are picked in Texas or Ohio, the Democratic Party is through. 

Give it a break, woman.  You already knew the rules going in.  It might be the Tom Delay rules, but they are what they are.  If you lose — you fucking lose.  Pick yourself up and move on.  You’ve lost the majority of states already with the “acceptable” rules, then don’t be surprised if you lose under these rules also.

Personally?  While I think you would make a fine President, Obama would make a better one.  If you wanted it so bad, you should have gone for it four years ago.  It just isn’t your time now, and I suspect that your time has already passed.  Live with it.

I think that you should go back to the Senate and run for Harry Reid’s job.  THAT is where you  can be more effective anyways.

The way you have been running your campaign during the primaries is wearing us out.

The Bubble Boy Babbles

It seems the theme of the week here has been about the rough times everyone is having.  Money is tight for most of us — the more we make doesn’t necessarily translate into the better off we are.

Especially if you have the financial rug pulled out from underneath you.

The Bush Adminsitration has been telling us all along that the dollar is strong, the economy is robust and things are a-growin’.  Yet down here in the real world, where most of us live and work, we just aren’t seeing strong and robust.

We are seeing inflation.

The gas for my car is now at $3.42 per gallon at the cheap Arco station.  When Bush came into office, it was about $1.05.  Then it went to $2.05, and $3.05.  It has literally trippled since Bush came into office.

But we only really notice the pump price.

We don’t notice the fact that it takes fuel to get goods to the market.  If the cost of that fuel tripples, then it is going to be reflected in the cost of those goods.  So EVERYTHING goes up.

Except our wages.

In most cases, our wages have remained roughly the same over the past seven years, and in some cases have actually dropped.  There are less jobs paying good wages today than there were at the beginning of Bush’s term.  The only real job creation has been in the lower-paying service jobs such as McDonalds, etc.

Construction jobs are now lower paying because of the huge influx of cheaper labor.  Other manufacturing jobs have been moved offshore, and those that remain are paying less money because it is an employer’s market.  (for you free market people:  the supply of employees is high, and the supply of employers is low.  Therefore the employers can enjoy cheaper labor costs)

But here we have President Bush at a press conference today with the following observations:

“I’m concerned about the economy,” he said. “I don’t think we’re headed to recession. But no question, we’re in a slowdown.”

Slowdown?  More and more people are going deeper and deeper into debt because they are having to rely on credit or payday loans to get them through the month.  Their income is not keeping up with the costs.  Bush’s government is doing the exact same thing:  borrowing obscene amounts of money while at the same time cutting taxes on the rich.  The big ticket items, such as the war in Iraq, are deliberately kept off of the budget so that it appears that things aren’t as bad as they really are.

On one issue particularly worrisome to American consumers, there are indications that paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline is not out of the question once the summer driving season arrives. Asked about that, Bush said “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. … I know it’s high now.”

Yes it is high right now, you jackass!  It is a direct result of your policies that has caused the price of oil to skyrocket, and the oil companies to pocket more money as profits than any other company or industry in history.  YOUR industry, YOUR friends.

“I believe that our economy has got the fundamentals in place for us to … grow and continue growing, more robustly hopefully than we’re growing now,” he said. “So we’re still for a strong dollar.”

Define growing, bunnypants.  If you mean the continous siphoning of money out of the middle class and redistributing it amongst the top one percent of the people, then you are doing a bang-up job.  I know that your people are looking for a payback from the policies of the New Deal and the Great Society, so you are trying to grab back as much as you can — while you can. 

Bush criticized the Democratic presidential candidates over their attempts to disassociate themselves from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a free-trade pact between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Bush said the deal is contributing to more and better-paying jobs for Americans.

Really?  Where?

Inspection- The Passion of the Bill

Pen in hand, as if it were a weapon using logic for bullets, he would listen patiently during the debate. When making a point he might wiggle his nose or make his eyebrows dance and, almost always, smile. The pad of paper he rested on his knee was always there for him to mark down comments he wanted to make.

God Bless

Jesus Dave. I’m sorry about your house and everything else thats happening to you and Arron.
I have been diagnosed with a form of MS, and am becoming a human pin cushion lately.
I’ve been reading everyone else’s comments lately and appears we’re all in for a shit year.
Well, God bless everyone here, no matter what form you think he takes. We all need the prayers of each other right now.
Right now, If I thought dying would take away the pain, I wouldn’t hesitate, but then I would be greedy to those who stand by me.
Sometimes I think that list is getting shorter. No one wants to hear it after awhile.

Life is what happens when you are making other plans…

I’ve gotten a bit behind in getting this shebang back up and running. 

I made a faulty assumption that THIS site would be like all of the other ones I’ve moved — download, upload, restore the database, and viola!  Carnation Instant Website.

Nope.

There is some time-consuming tinkering I have to do here to make this site compatable with the new version of WordPress that comes out next week.  I also have to take out virtually EVERY plugin and start over.

All of this while I have to make an “emergency” move to a new place this weekend.  The county has “red-tagged” this property and we have until Monday morning at 7 AM to be out of the house. 

Not to fear, we have another house a half mile away from here, and we are busy moving stuff right now.

The bad thing is, I will not have my FIOS connection for at least a week (or a connection of any type, unless I get a comcast internet for a few days)

I am slowly but surely putting this together in between work and moving.  I have EVERYTHING on the Archive site, and it is my intention to start this one fresh.  Your login will work here fine, you won’t have to re-register.  Just continue on the way you have been right here.

Well, back to woik.

How to Drive NYC-ites Crazy

Part my my early youth was misspent close to New York City. My family, from the Adirondacks, was there because my father was offered a job on Park Avenue during the depression. Getting NYC-ites to notice is tough, especially as they walk to or from different destinations in Manhattan. This guy manges to get their attention in Grand Central Station. I know that’s tough because as I wandered the streets as a just barely teen it was close to my father’s office… so I knew it well. So let’s pause… to give a hats off to the gentleman who orchestrated this…

The Tattlesnake — What They Say in Private Edition

Glenn Beck: “Hand, you are my only friend, the only one who always agrees with me and loves me without question. Hand, I will always stick with, and to, you forever.”

Wolf Blitzer: “Somebody adjust my pole NOW! Adjust the pole NOW!”

Tom Brokaw: “Shay, where doesh Russert keep hish got-damned vodka hidden?”

George W. Bush: “How can they say I’m not popular - just look at this crowd of smilin’ people applaudin’ me. Okay, what time do we leave the Rose Garden and go make that speech at the Heritage Foundation?”

Poppy Bush: “It’s a hell of a way to show your oldest boy you disapprove of him, I say ”all this chumming up to Bill Clinton and endorsing John McCain and so forth” but it must be done and when something hard must be done, I’m just the gent to do it.”

Hillary Clinton: “This poll says that most voters think I’m too bossy, calculating and harsh. You people better find a way to make me look authentic and soften my image or you’re all fired!”

Larry Craig: “It’s always ‘use a condom, Larry, use a condom, Larry’ with guys like you ” like I do this all the time in men’s rooms or something.”

John Gibson: “Gee, I wish we had a War on Christmas all year long.”

Mike Huckabee: “Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle built for two” where the hell is the goddamned Christian base hiding?”

John Kerry: “I’m going to help Barack fight for every vote ” just like I did in 2004!”

Rush Limbaugh: “You boys take your clothes off while I put some of this special sugar in the Kool-Aid. Yeah, heh, heh, ‘sugar’.”

Chris Matthews: “You gotta nice smile, kid, you gotta gorgeous face, what are you 16, 17 years old? You gotta big future — you’ll do good in the TV business. HAH! Here, turn around so I can get a good look at your backside…the twenty bucks is on the dresser.”

John McCain: “Did I have an affair with that lobbyist in 2000? Wow, what a sex machine I was eight years ago!”

Barack Obama: “Don’t forget: Cleavon Little DID clean up that town.”

Keith Olbermann: “One more Britney Spears story and I’m buying the sniper rifle.”

Bill O’Reilly: “You know, the blacks they have this new thing they call the blues, or maybe the rhythm and blues – I think I’ll try it out but, if it isn’t up to my standards, it may be time to fetch the rope.”

Dan Rather: “Crap, next I’ll be doing the jewelry report on the Home Shopping Channel.”

Tim Russert: “Who’s got my vodka? Who the hell’s got my got-damned VODKA?!”

Brian Williams: “Bring me my eyebrow grease, pronto!”

Inspection- The Patriot with an Upside Down Flag for a Backward Country

Mark’s teenage son got threats at high school.“One of the larger hicks in town confronted him and said, ‘Hey, I don’t like your flag. That’s pretty fucked up.’ And a group quickly surrounded him, but fortunately a teacher broke it up, Mark says. A while later, when his son was walking down the sidewalk, another student pulled his truck onto the sidewalk and, according to Mark, said, “One of these days we’re going to burn your house down.”

Every one knows the story of the Hitler youth. Challenge the Nazis and it went from bricks thrown through your window and escalated from there. I was reminded of that when four youths jumped out of their truck a few years ago; across from our anti-electronic vote scam protest, and started jeering, pounding baseball bats into their open hands and increasingly acted more and more threatening. The leader of our small group; Bernie Ellis, went over and spoke with them and… after a while… they jumped into their truck and drove off.

Bernie said they thought we were protesting the conflict over in Iraq. Members of the group proclaimed that that proved that just talking with such “gentle” souls was all that’s ever needed.

I wished, at the time, that I could have joined this feel good bravado but, frankly, I think it more likely they were too stupid to understand the nuances of electronic voting, and that it… amazingly… almost always favors their candidates. If they had figured out that, and understood that the same people who enjoy manipulating elections often are working for candidates they support… there probably would have been more than a few bloody heads.

Besides, aren’t we missing the point? If we were protesting our policy in Iraq, what the hell gives them the right to harass… maybe even beat to death… those who don’t agree with them? Isn’t it pretty obvious that, by their very actions and behavior, that such people don’t believe in free speech, or the very country they claim to love so much?

Just like those threatening Mark Karol-Chik and his family. If he wants to fly his flag upside down: it’s his flag. But those who do such things are the real “haters of freedom.” Some claim it’s because they “fought for the flag.” If so, then they should have bought a flag, “planted” it in their room, locked the door and then used whatever weapons they may have to keep anyone from damaging their flag. Don’t ever come out again: you’re an embarrassment to those who actually fought for our country not a symbol made from cloth… or even plastic. Oh, and I would also recommend you buy a plastic flag: because it’s the perfect match to the quality of your type of “patriotism.”