Thoughts on the First Debate

As I always do, I watched the Presidential Debate last night between John McCain and Barack Obama. This is the debate that almost wasn't, as McCain tried to use the financial discussions in Washington as an excuse to avoid the debate. However, a President can't pick and choose one crisis at a time, so I am glad that Obama held McCain's feet to the fire and that McCain did show up.

As to the debate itself, Moderator Jim Lehrer made repeated attempts to get the candidates to talk to one another. Eventually, Obama did start directly talking to McCain, but McCain refused to look at him, instead keeping his eyes staring out at the audience. My dad raised me to know that it is rude to not look a man in the eye when he is talking to you. This did not come across well for McCain. Still, while I disagree on most points with McCain, he did make his case better than I thought he would.

Being as objective as I can, I still give Obama the win on this debate, but it was not a knock out. Next up...Joe Biden versus Sarah Palin. Maybe she will do like she did with Katie Couric, tell Biden she'll have to get the answers and "bring 'em to ya!".

Sarah Palin is a Boob

Yes, a boob, and not in a good way. Although I expect hits on this blog may skyrocket, as people search on Palin and boob! :)

Anyway, the more she opens her mouth, the more she makes Bush look like a Rhodes scholar. Maybe George H.W. had an affair, and she is another of his idiot offspring? She proved at the GOP National Convention that she can read from a teleprompter, but actually think and talk at the same time? We'll let her speak for herself on that.



and this one . . .



Kinda reminds you of another "beauty queen" doesn't it?

Dobbs & Randy - In Agreement

Lou Dobbs just did a commentary on CNN that repeats what I said earlier...that Treasury Secretary and Bush appointee Henry Paulson is an "empty suit" and "incompetent". Sometimes I agree with Dobbs, other times not, but tonight, he agrees with me. Paulson's latest is that he is against limiting executive pay at these firms where CEOs get hundreds of millions of dollars for destroying their companies. They should get not one thin dime of taxpayer funds, despite Paulson's desire otherwise.

Paulson...do the honorable thing for once in your life and resign immediately. If you don't, President Bush should fire you.

The Difference is Clear

As an update to the previous post, Senator McCain is now supporting oversight to go along with the Wall Street bailout. He is saying that "trust me" from the bankers isn't good enough. Of course not, and I am pleased to see him take this stand, even if he is saying it for political reasons. However, he is only looking at the short term.

Senator Obama is proposing not only oversight, but reforms to insure this doesn't happen again. These include bans on people coming from an industry being able to be in charge of regulating that industry; bans on anyone who leaves his administration from ever lobbying the administration; creating more transparent government by allowing people to read bills and comment on them via the Internet prior to his signature; and to reform the entire government contract process. This is a leader with ideas. This is a refreshing change . . . a change we need now.

And yet, the DJIA dropped over 370 points today, and oil has its highest ever one-day price increase.

Political Thoughts on This Equinox

Today is the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the vernal equinox in the Southern. In the United States, we are coming up on the first of the Presidential Debates on Friday, and the General Election in about six weeks. So let's make a few more political observations on this day of equal sunlight and darkness.

First, it is good to see the Democrats in Congress sticking to their guns, at least at this point, to put some conditions and terms on the $700,000,000,000.00 bailout of Wall Street. The Democrats have tried to play nice with the President, but it has been hard to make any progress with a razor thin majority in Congress and no way to override the veto pen of the Decider-in-Chief. In my opinion, they need to be as resolute as Bush has been. It will take years, maybe even decades, to undo the damage wrought by this band of corporate yes-men and yes-women who have occupied the White House. While I am glad that there is some action being taken to protect the greater economy, it should not be yet another blank check to the people who caused the financial mess. I also believe we should push back hard to not have foreign banks be bailed out by the American taxpayer.

Secondly, aren't you glad that Congress didn't let Bush divert our social security funds into Wall Street? The program isn't perfect, but it beats gambling our futures on the bunch who gave us this financial disaster! And while we are on social security, don't believe for a minute any scare tactics about Social Security going under. If they can bail out the financial geniuses at AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, there is no way in hell Congress will ever allow Social Security to go under.

Thirdly, isn't it amazing to watch the McCain campaign resorting to repeatedly lying in a desperate attempt by their corporate power brokers, to retain power. The ads go from blaming Senator Obama for the cost of gasoline, to blatantly stating he was for sex education for kindergarteners. All of these fabrications are meant to put fear in the hearts of the voters.

It is also interesting to watch how hard they are running from the Republican record; talking about how they have fought against the other Republicans and the President. The fact remains that McSame has voted with Bush over 90% of the time. Maverick? Hardly! If the GOP could have solved our problems, they have had eight years to do it. But what do we have? To repeat the old question, ask yourself if we are better off than we were eight years ago. And then there's his clueless pick for running mate, whose balloon is already starting to wilt. The more people learn about Governor Palin, the less they like her.

If we elect another President whose campaign is bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists, does anyone really expect the people to have an ear at the White House? It speaks volumes that Senator Obama has not taken one dime for his campaign from the lobbyists. His campaign is funded by small donations from the people who want to take back the government from the special corporate interests.

We are at a crossroads in American History. Does self-government have a limited life span? We shall see. However, it is time for people to think through the issues; to challenge their own beliefs; and to examine with fresh eyes, the issues at hand. Forget about the campaign lies and rhetoric. Look at all the substantive issues that are threatening our nation today. I have done this myself. Over the years, I have changed as I re-examined the issues. This one time supporter of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan has grown and expanded, as the GOP has contracted and left its conservative roots.

The government has exploded in size under "small government" Bush. Yet the GOP continues to denigrate government, even as they expand its size and power. I am for smaller government, but for more effective government. Depending on free markets without regulation is foolhardy, as human nature will always have its selfish side come out. Total deregulation can lead to anarchy and a massive migration of national wealth to the very top tier of Americans. However, the government that serves ALL Americans best is one that works for all of us.

Now is the time to stop rewarding corporations for exporting our jobs to Communist China. Now is the time to start the withdrawal from Iraq. Now is the time to insure that every American can get the health care they need, rather than letting corporate bean counters dictate what procedures our doctors can provide us. Now is the time to take major steps to rid ourselves of dependency on oil from countries that hate us. Now is the time to take back our nation from the corporations and put the government back in our hands.

Private Debt, Public Bailout

Bush’s Treasury Secretary Paulson, wants a quick, no strings attached Congressional bailout of the mismanaged Wall Street firms, decrying Democrats calls for conditions and accountability. I thought Bush told us it isn’t the government’s money, but “the peoples’ money”. Why then, don’t the people get to apply conditions to this record bailout plan?

Listen using the player below, or download the audio by clicking on the title of this post.

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A Parker MFFY - Busted!

Just before noon, the LS and I decided to stop in at Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers in Parker to pick up a couple of items after our visit to the farmer's market. There I saw what my fellow online roadgeek, Ryan, calls a MFFY. That is short for "Me First, F-You". There are many such creatures on the road, and it always is amazing how many of these are young women with children in tow. Sometimes their antics are just downright dangerous. This one on the other hand, is just selfish and rude.

As I have a mother and a father-in-law with serious mobility problems, and a friend with severe mobility problems from his Cerebral Palsy, I have a high sensitivity to such MFFYs when it comes to people illegally hogging handicapped parking spaces.

The woman getting out of this Tahoe pulled right into the closest handicapped spot to the door of the store. She then got out and unstrapped a toddler from a car seat, and carried the child into the store. She was fully able bodied, and was just being selfish. Having a child is not a handicap last time I looked.

Not only was she not visibly handicapped in any way, but there was not a handicapped permit in her car either. She didn't have proper stickers or placement on her rear license plate either, and in defiance of another Colorado law, she doesn't have a front plate on her truck.

Hanging from her rear view mirror was a student id card from the University of Colorado Health Science Center with her name on it. I will only use her first name here, but Petra, you are busted! Shame on you! You are the MFFY of the day!

World's Best Squash Casserole

Last weekend, we went to the farmer's market in Parker to get some fresh, locally-grown vegetables. Among the things the lovely spouse and I bought, were some beautiful summer squash, some Colorado onions, some green beans, some tomatoes that were so deep red and sweet inside, some Yukon Gold potatoes, and some wonderful sweet corn. Some of these items went into our beef stew we had earlier this week, but last night was the best thing ever.

I don't know exactly how she did it, but the LS made up a recipe as she went along, making the best squash casserole I have ever had in my life. She really outdid herself on that one. I know she cubed and boiled the squash, then mashed it before preparing it to go into the casserole dish. I also know she used a couple of handfuls of cheese and some cubes of bread from a day-old baguette from the little French bakery we buy from. I guess the rest of the ingredients must have been love and magic, because this was the best thing I have ever eaten! Cracker Barrel and Black Eyed Pea squash have been not just beaten, but kicked to the curb. I told her that she should enter this into the county fair.

The casserole was browned just right to have a little crispness around the edges, and just enough cheese to add a flavor that matched perfectly with the squash and whatever else she put in. I was going to take a picture of it, but that will have to wait until the next one, because it was consumed very quickly! We had fresh green beans cooked with a dab of bacon grease for flavor, and some nicely seasoned herb chicken. It was all delicious, but that squash casserole was unbelieveable! I told her that if I ever get put on death row and have a last meal request, that squash will be on my menu. The farmer's market happens again tomorrow, so you can be sure that squash will be on my list!

Manipulating the Electorate

OK, let's try something new today . . . let's do today's commentary as a webcast! If your proxy doesn't block you from Podbean, you can listen using the player below.

The lies about, and misrepresentations of, Senator Obama by the McCain camp in their television ads is only the latest in a long standing campaign to get the electorate to vote against their own self interest. The use of the mass media, and the disingenuous appropriation of the Religious Right's "hot button" issues has resulted in many people not thinking things through nor investigating the issues and facts for themselves. Listen to my commentary, and feel free to leave me a comment or link to yours. This webcast is 5:50 in length.

As always, these are my opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of anyone else.

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To download the webcast, CLICK HERE.

"I Can See Russia From My House!"

While I didn't catch the broadcast of the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, I did watch the opening skit via the Internet. Tina Fey returned to SNL to do a dead-on impression of GOP Veep Nominee, and Pentecostal looney, Sarah Palin. She got it perfect, from the glasses, to the look, to the annoying, nasally whine. Maybe we could substitute Fey on the Republican ticket for Governor Palin. I have a feeling the country would be better off in the event of a McCain win in November, if Fey were Vice President.

In case you missed it, below is the skit. It is doggone funny.

Texas, Time to "Hunker Down"!

Having experienced several hurricanes during my life, I have a healthy respect for these storms. I lived in Houston during both Hurricanes Carla (1961) and Alicia (1983). During Carla, I was eight years old, yet I have vivid memories of it. When Alicia hit, the Lovely Spouse and I had a new baby. Since we had no power for days after the storm passed, we used a gasoline-powered camp stove to sterilize bottles. It appears that Ike is more on the scale of Carla, much bigger than Alicia was. Carla reached Category 5 status, and hit the Texas coast at Galveston as a Category 4. I remember the beach at Galveston littered with huge boulders that had been pushed out of the sea, and dead jellyfish splattered all over the place after Carla moved out. It was such a catastrophic storm that the name was retired from further use.

This satellite image of Hurricane Ike, shows how far out cloud bands can extend. You can see clouds from the storm reaching from Belize to Cuba, Florida, and the New Orleans area. There are not storm conditions out this far, but the system itself is quite large. With the storm now projected to make landfall near Freeport, Texas, my thoughts turn to my parents who live in Houston. They are in their 70s and less mobile than they once were, so I always have concern when a hurricane enters the Gulf. I can say that I am glad for modern satellite imagery and weather radar, which gives advance warning and gives one time to make preparations. In earlier times, there were no such forecasting tools. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 killed about 8,000 people. Despite the seawall, a huge storm today could put Galveston Island under the water even today.

So while I am glad to be living at over a mile above sea level and a thousand miles inland, I am keeping an eye on the situation. For all of you on the Texas coast; evacuate if you are in a storm surge area or live in a mobile home; otherwise "hunker down" as they say down there. And stay away from parts of your homes near trees.

Philippi Covered Bridge

West Virginia Historic Marker for the Philippi Covered Bridge.
Barbour County Sheriff's vehicle is approaching the bridge in the background

During my recent trip to West Virginia, I got to take in some historic sites. One afternoon the Lovely Spouse, her lovely mother, and I took a little drive south from Grafton to Webster and Philippi (pronounced "FILL-uh-pee"). This town is rich in history from the Civil War era. The line of loyalty to the Union or the CSA was between Philippi and Grafton, 20 miles to the north.

Philippi holds the distinction of being the location of the first land battle of the Civil War (with Ft. Sumter, SC being the first sea-based battle). The state of West Virginia owes its existence as an entity to that war, as it was created from loyalist counties in what was the western part of Virginia. In any case, the highway between Grafton and Philippi parallels the Tygart Valley River, and today carries US highways 119 and 250. In 1861, this was the main route south to Richmond, Virginia. Troops from both sides had encampments along the road, and one of the rail lines that runs beside it was a major transportation line even during the war.

The covered bridge at Philippi was used during the Civil War, and today is part of US highway 250. It is also one of the longest covered bridges in the United States, and is the only double-barreled covered bridge carrying traffic of a major federal highway.

As an additional note, three of the miners who died in the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster were from Philippi.


A side view of the Philippi Covered Bridge


View of one end of the Philippi Covered Bridge