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While people like Gerard Baker, James Joyner and even John McCain himself are prattling on about how McCain's policies and campaign are not a pale rehash of the Bush administration, his hiring choices tell a different story.
Here's a short list of people either currently on his campaign or people formerly holding key positions on his campaign who were also policy advisers to the Bush Administration:
Terry Nelson
Steve Schmidt
Phil Graham
Tom Loeffler
Charlie Black
Randy Scheunemann
Nicolle Devenish
Douglas Holtz-Eakin
Mark McKinnon
So it would appear as though most of his top staff are either lobbyists with close ties to the Bushies (not mentioned here) or actual former members of the Bush cabinet.
Now tell me again how a McCain Presidency would be fundamentally different from the current cabal seeing as most incoming Presidents choose their cabinet from among their campaign staff? |
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I'm not even out the door yet and already the Project of Doom has started to come apart at the seams from a process standpoint. Developers and project managers are right back to doing whatever they please with the process, concentrating more on getting things done according to them than actually getting buy in or review on their work. By the time this all hits the fan, I will be long gone but probably still near enough in everyone's minds to be blamed for s**t I didn't do.
C'est la vie.
I started part time on the new gig last night and it's even bigger than I first conceived. The company is literally attempting to change how people consume electronic media from a retail standpoint. I can't go into too many details, but it's somewhat daunting in its scope and partnerships. On top of the software it also has prototype hardware elements, which means I'll need to find a hardware tester as soon as possible. If anyone knows some one looking for a hardware testing contract, let me know. We're located downtown in Pioneer Square and apparently have taquitos in the freezer.
Now that the weather's turning chilly, we need to get the furnace replaced. We decided to go electric since it's the cheapest option long-term for our area. Washington State has literally tons of wind, hydro, and solar power plants up and running. so barring actually viable biofuel options for heating oil, electric seemed the better choice from a green standpoint. We also need to get our plumbing replaced and are in the process of obtaining bids. Since we're replacing the plumbing, we might as well redo our bathroom while we're at it since we'll need to open up those walls anyway.
In short, we'll be spending a lot of money soon and living without a bathroom.
Does anyone mind if I stop by and use their shower? |
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Back to killing time. It's odd how all those little things that used to cause actual facial tics when encountered sort of roll off me now. The one job I have left for which I'm supposed to show up every day was made ... difficult ... by the project lead this morning. She went in and completely messed with the report template I generate and didn't bother to tell me or anyone else. So what did I do? I restored it using a backup copy and sent it up to her and her lackey for approval. That's when she bothered to tell me she'd been in my work messing with it unannounced.
That's the kind of crap I'm not going to miss because it's practically a daily occurrence around here. It's a little drop of water on your forehead every thirty minutes, give or take ten. After a while I just gave up trying to head them off. Just when I would think I'd all the bases covered, some one would go back and do something we'd previously agreed was a "Very Bad Idea" and act offended when referred back to previous agreements.
I hear the phrase "just get it done" so often I feel like I'm sitting front row at a Larry the Cable Guy show.
Anyway, I think I'll go workout this afternoon. It turns out ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lilithium and I work out at the same gym although she probably wouldn't know me from Adam since I stopped hitting the clubs at almost the exact time she started. I read her blog because of mutual friends and all that.
And yes, she does have phenomenal abdominals in case you were wondering.
I haven't worked out in two weeks with family illnesses, interviews, and general idiocy at my current job. I'll keep my membership going so I'll have no excuses other than laziness when six months from now I'm still not fitting into my wedding kilt. |
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Catching up on life outside my little bubble.
I'm only getting fleeting references to Duri's (Thog) memorial service.
I didn't know him socially but we did work together for a while after he got me hired on at one of this consulting gigs.
Are there details around his passing people feel okay sharing? |
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Vegas police: Jerry Lewis cited for gun in luggage
LAS VEGAS — Police say they have confiscated a gun belonging to Jerry Lewis that was found in the 82-year-old entertainer's carryon bag as he prepared to fly to Detroit from Las Vegas.
Las Vegas policeman Bill Cassell said Tuesday that the actor was cited Friday for carrying an unloaded concealed weapon at the Las Vegas airport.
Lewis' manager, Claudia Marghilano, says the handgun is a hollowed-out prop gun that Lewis sometimes twirls during his show. She tells The Associated Press that the gun couldn't fire.
Marghilano says Lewis didn't know the gun was in the bag along with other props.
Cassell says if the gun were merely a prop "it wouldn't be a weapon and we couldn't cite him for carrying a weapon."
like cat pee on carpet, the Gonzalez-Feith reasoning for legal guilt has oozed into the underlayment and sub-floor of regular law enforcement. The reasoning of Lewis's guilt apparently goes like this, "The innocent cannot be charged so if you are being charged with something, you must be guilty."
First they came for the foreign exchange students who had not renewed their visas, and I did nothing.
Then they came for the employees of charitable organizations, and I did nothing.
Then they came for people who had at one time contributed to charitable organizations, and still I did nothing.
Then they came for comics who made the French laugh, and I thought that was understandable. |
| » Still Crazy After All These Years |
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I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still here.
I've just been hellaciously busy lately.
I still love you all, some of you more than others.
You know who you are.
The big events that have happened lately are Kowgirl getting into an accident with our "good" car. She's fine, but the insurance refused to pony up for repairs. We then purchased a new car (new to us, at least) as a replacement. However it looks like we'll need to repair the older one anyway as Kowgirl will start taking classes soon and her campus does not have any bus service to it. None. Not even inconvenient "only comes once and hour" service.
In other financial news, we applied for an extension of credit on our LOC in order to do some required work around the house. Basically the plumbing is literally falling apart. We also lost our furnace this past spring and are relying on a wood burning stove to heat the house. We'd hoped to get about $20k as a loan to use for remodeling the bathroom, a new furnace, and replacing the plumbing. Long story short, we got turned down. The housing crisis has made everyone REALLY skittish about new loans. The $20k would pretty much max out our equity based on an estimate so our financial adviser has warned us pretty much no one is going to take a chance.
So it's belt-tightening time if we want to take a shower and stay warm this winter. I'm not sure how to broach this subject, but Kowgirl wanted to take two weeks in Mexico this winter and I don't see how we can do both. She may have to choose between a break from Seattle winters or heat during Seattle winters.
How're things with everyone else?
Jul. 28th, 2008 @ 03:53 pm
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| » The Big Read |
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I would first like to comment the person authoring this list is obviously either lazy, a member of Oprah's Book Club, or both. The fact they included "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" in addition to both "Hamlet" and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" tells me they're an idiot. My first clue was the inclusion of Harry Potter in a list supposedly identifying the top 100 books printed by some organization. It sometimes goes down from there. I would also like to mention that no, I have no read "The Da Vinci Code." I read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" years ago and see no need to read a pale imitation sexed up for the masses. Get it? Catholics ... masses? Oh snap.
Anyway, here's the meme for what it's worth.
"The Big Read* reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them
( Answers under the cut )
Jul. 2nd, 2008 @ 09:42 am
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| » Can we force Texas to secede already? |
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I loves me some 3rd District Court of Appeals in Texas like I love watching "The Girls Next Door" on the E! channel. Which is to say I don't, except in the part of me that likes be surprised at how stupid a person can actually be and obtain a position of prominence in our culture.
You may remember the 3rd Court of Appeals who ruled against a teenage girl attempting to get an abortion without the consent of her father, the same father who was at the time serving a sentence in prison for raping her and causing the very pregnancy she was attempting to terminate. Remember them? Well they just ruled that the State of Texas will have to return the children seized as part of the raid on the Mormon polygamist sect in Texas. Their reasoning was the State could not demonstrate enough of an imminent threat to violate the sanctity of the family, so therefore they (the Texas DA) violated the law when refusing to return the girls and boys to their mothers and father.
Yes, you read that right.
The 3rd Circuit said the State of Texas was too protective of children. The same State that refused to prosecute charter schools who physically abused children in their custody. The same State that executes minors as a matter of course.
I'll let that sink in for a second.
So the State now has 14 days to return the children to their parents who discard the boys once they hit their teen years and marry off the girls when they're as young as twelve.
It's too bad for the children that the adults in question aren't homosexual, because that would be a demonstrable imminent threat according to the same court. It'd be perfectly fine for the State to take custody in that instance.
May. 22nd, 2008 @ 01:20 pm
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| » Things that make me Happy |
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Happy hump day, everyone. I hope everyone out there reading this is having a great day today. Barring that, I hope you are at least enjoying a nice hot beverage of your choice.
I've been up to my eyeballs trying to change a domestic turkey into an ocellated turkey at work, with mixed results. Even though they're basically the same thing, one's much prettier than the other. In the midst of all that, being a father's become my real full time job. Since Kowgirl went back to work part time, I only get one day of the week to do household chores and the like. This means we never see anyone. Ever. I have friends who want to meet up for a beer after work, but I almost always have to get home so Kowgirl can make a class or be at work. Saturdays are right out as I watch Kowbaby all day while Kowgirl has managed to schedule her only regular office hours at that time. This means we both have Sunday with nothing booked months ahead of time. That translates into mowing the grass, doing laundry, weeding the garden, and all the million and one little chores we didn't have time to do during the other six days.
So to all the people we should be meeting and spending time buttressing up our friendship(s) ... all of us apologize profusely. It's not that we don't want to meet with you, we just don't have the time.
But something I do have the time to do this morning is make a list of five things about which I am quite happy as of this morning.
( Five Happy Things )
May. 21st, 2008 @ 08:21 am
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| » California Defense of Marriage Act ruled unconstitutional |
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This is an interesting day in legal news. The California State Supreme Court this morning ruled the State law defining the legal term "marriage" as only applying to a union between one man and one woman as being unconstitutional under California law. Evidently the California State Constitution specifically guarantees the right to marriage, among other things. In limiting the definition of that term, Chief Justice Ron George stated in the opinion the State Legislature had violated the guarantees of equal protection even if the same fundamental legal benefits were accorded the exclude through other methods. In short, the Court ruled the old "separate but equal" logic to be inherently invalid and unconstitutional even if applied to same-sex unions.
In the dissenting opinion, Justice Corrigan puts forth the reasoning that "separate but equal" is perfectly Constitutional so long as the legal status afforded each group is truly identical in practice. The majority of his opinion is based on a strict Separation of Powers approach where he reasons it is not the role of the Court to overturn "the will of the people" (ie: Referendums, Initiatives, the Legislature, etc) unless there is a clear and direct violation of Constitutional guarantees. Since the existing Domestic Partnership Act already guarantees identical legal status, he sees no clear and direct violation of the fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.
It may seem like quibbling, but I agree with the majority opinion and must respectfully disagree with the minority. So long as "marriage" is specifically mentioned as an inalienable right within the California Constitution, it must be treated as protected from the whims and vagaries of a shifting Legislature and popular opinion. "Domestic Partnerships" are not (as far as I am aware) mentioned as being guaranteed so today's law can be struck down tomorrow by a simple majority on a poorly worded initiative. In other words, the two designation are not actually equal so long as one is ensconced in the Constitution and the other is not. A good metaphor would be compare two people each with a million dollars. One has a million in cash while the other has a million dollars in their investment portfolio. Three days from now, the person with cash will still have a million dollars while the investor may have more or less to varying degrees depending on the vagaries of the markets. Would you say they are equal?
I wouldn't, which is why I agree with this ruling ... but fully expect it to be tossed out the window by SCOTUS as soon as Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito can get their grimy little paws on it.
May. 15th, 2008 @ 11:03 am
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| » Charges are expected in the Megan Meier case |
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According to a report posted today on the Smoking Gun, Federal prosecutors are expected to announce indictments against in the Megan Meier case at an 11:00 am press conference today in Los Angeles. A grand jury convened in Los Angeles earlier this year heard testimony from Federal investigators on the now infamous case of cyber-bullying which ultimately ended in the death by suicide of a 13 year old Springfield, IL girl. Federal investigators became involved after the Illinois State's Attorney General declared the adult(s) involved with the incidents had violated no Illinois laws and so could not be charged with any crimes. The incidents occurred via a fake MySpace account; a company headquartered in Beverly Hills where the expected indictments are to be announced. The Meier family has so far refused to file wrongful death suit against their neighbors and have stated they did not give any testimony before the LA grand jury, although they were interviewed earlier in St Louis by the Federal prosecutor handling the case, Mark Krause.
Speaking as a father, I know nothing will ever bring Megan back to her family and I understand she was a troubled child before she was ever contacted by her adult neighbors posing as a cute teenage boy. Based on interviews I've read with the primary adult in the case, Lori Drew, I also am fully convinced nothing ever done to her will shake her belief in her own innocence of any wrong-doing or culpability in Megan's death. So any punishment meted out will be strictly vengeful with no utilitarian motive whatsoever.
I can honestly say I am perfectly fine with that when I think of some one doing what she did to my daughter and laughing about it later.
May. 15th, 2008 @ 08:11 am
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| » Five Things Monday |
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We're looking at the amount of money we'll need to take out in a loan to "do it right" when remodeling our current house. It's moving beyond daunting into staggering. Of course these are all just guesstimates based on our limited knowledge of actual contracting costs and time frames. We'll be keeping costs down where we can, but there's only so much you can do.
To keep my spirits up, here's a list of five things that make me happy from this morning and last weekend.
1) Kowbaby laughs a lot when you tickle her. She isn't ticklish, she just likes you playing with her sides and feet and will laugh like a maniac. She also likes to wrestle, but that's for another day.
2) My mother will be retiring next month. She's earned her retirement. We're all looking forward to her and my father finally getting to travel like they've wanted since any of us could remember. She'll also get to spend more time with her grandkids, which she desperately wants now that she has a grand-daughter. After forty years of boys, she finally gets to buy frilly things.
3) Kowbaby likes spending time with her grandparents even if Mommy isn't there. This means we can leave her with them and take a baby holiday once in a while. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
4) I still have a job. People who know me IRL will know about this one. Suffice it to say I finally avoided being the scapegoat at a company. Without going into details, it looks like people who should be getting some attention actually are. Refreshing.
5) I've lost inches off my waistline. I've been trying to lose weight for a while, and it's finally starting to show results. I measured this weekend and I estimate I've dropped three inches off my tummy since February. I need to start keeping a journal so I can track my progress and keep motivated past the wedding in June. My goal has been to slim down enough to wear my old(ish) suit to a friend's wedding in a month and a half. I don't think I'll make it, but it won't be for lack of trying.
May. 5th, 2008 @ 09:13 am
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| » It could be sweet; like a long forgotten dream. |
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The following entry is in response to a series of compositions collectively titled “Making Out with Portishead” first published inVol. 17, No. 33 of the Stranger, Seattle’s arguably most popular weekly news publication.
“I really like Portishead because she’s the only music out there that really sings about what it’s like to be a woman.” I can remember some one saying that to you while we were seeing each other. I don’t remember if it was your ex-half-brother, or if it was one of the many men and women surrounding you in the hopes you would eventually love them. A lot of my memories of you are that way. They’re all mixed up and sifted into a mélange that’s cohesive in a symbolic fashion, but not in a factual or linear way. I can recall your voice quite clearly in all its nuances, from the whiny, grating tone you’d adopt sometimes as the Jewish American Princess you half-jokingly admitted to being to the husky screams and phrases you’d emit during especially hard sexual encounters. I can’t honestly recall what it was like to kiss you. I can picture your naked body in multiple flashes of scene. If I think really hard, I can sometimes remember what you looked like on those odd times you would smile. But most of my memories are questionable at best; more likely to be a composite of different lovers and friends than an actual event or moment we shared together.
The one thing of which I am dead sure is the music. We had two albums that were ours’ during the time we attempted to make something work that was doomed from the start. One was Switchblade Symphony’s album “Serpentine Gallery.” The other was Portishead’s, “Dummy.” We discovered Switchbalde together, so it was sort of “our music” in a way. Listening to it would feel like something couples did, so we’d listen to it and screw to it and generally go through the motions of pretending we were a couple. Portishead was brought to our relationship. We both had baggage and impressions of the songs and their emotional content. Therefore it seemed when listening to their music, we would come to feel the closest to each other we’d ever feel. Beth Gibbons’ vocals would open raw wounds in our hearts; wounds we would fall into each other’s arms to salve. We would be the most intimate not when we were sharing something, but when we were both seeking to forget or forgive. Portishead takes you into that space between love and loss. It is a Zen moment, struck between the last pure note of a bell and the inevitable silence. In those moments we would find solace in physical contact.
To this day if I want to remember how I felt about you as clearly as I am able, I have to put on “Dummy.” When the music dredges you up, I can face what I was then and reconcile it to who I am now.
Apr. 25th, 2008 @ 11:24 am
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| » This is why they hate our freedoms |
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Here is reason #47 why I hate most US citizens.
Wednesday (4/23) on the History Channel:
20:00 UFO Hunters: Reverse Engineering - Exploring the theory that modern technological advances were made by studying UFO crafts retrieved from wreckage sites.
21:00 UFO Hunters: UFO Vortexes - Exploring areas where a supposed higher frequency of mysterious activity takes place, including Sedona, Ariz. Also: remarks by an astrophysicist.
22:00 UFO Hunters: Alien Contact - The team meets people who claim to have had contact with aliens.
23:00 Majestic Twelve: UFO Cover-Up!
Apr. 22nd, 2008 @ 04:05 pm
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| » Monday Meeting Fun for April 21, 2008 |
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"You are the knowledge and subject expert on this so we look to you for direction and definitions." - Meeting organizer when asked a direct question
"That's not what that term means." - Same meeting organizer when given a definition ten minutes later
"We're not going in the correct direction. We should be doing this." - Same meeting organizer
Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
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| » This is a liberal media? |
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Well the liberal media is weighing in on the Philadelphia debates hosted by ABC, and it looks like contrary to opinions on countless blogs, journals, websites, and even people attending the event in person ... the debate was both substantive and enlightening.
The New York Times called the debate "tense" with Senator Obama delivering "arguably one of Mr. Obama’s weakest debate performances." The authors then proceed to give the readers two pages of detailed descriptions about how the two candidates were sparring and struggling to respond to intense questioning by the moderators. There was no mention of the audience heckling and booing the moderators for asking inane questions.
The Washington Post called the debate "potentially pivotal." They further assert the questions that have been dominating the Democratic primary these last few months are questions about "gaffes, missteps and past statements that could leave them vulnerable in the general election against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee." So according to the Post we (the people supposedly selecting the candidate) are more concerned with whether or not Obama will wear a flag pin on his lapel than, say .... the Iraq War, or the looming economic depression that will hit if we don't do some major adjusting for real numbers (see "Numbers Racket" by Kevin P Phillips in the May edition of Harper's Magazine). Really? Do you seriously think we are that dumb and/or shallow?
So far all the papers and news outlets I've been reading through (CNN, MSNBC, Boston Globe, The LA Times, etc) have talked about the debates as if honest questions were being fielded by candidates responding in all seriousness. In short, they're trying to keep the illusion this is a horse race alive. They're struggling to keep this alive by completely ignoring opinion polling and onsite commentary by witnesses to the debates which have given the sham a resounding farting noise in the general direction of Stephanapolous & Gibson and ABC in general. Actually, that's not fair as the Washington Post did in fact run an opinion piece calling the debate a debacle buried deep within their web page.
Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 12:39 pm
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| » Temptations, i can haz 'em |
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Some one brought two pallets of strawberry and cream cheese danishes into work this morning.
Okay, they're not actually pallets and are instead large trays. But to my dropping weight by cutting out extraneous caloric intake eyes, they're freaking Costco pallets of yumminess.
Curse the Danes and their pastries!
I will slim down before the wedding this summer!
Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 10:59 am
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| » Good Times .... |
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I was feeling somewhat disgusted with the citizens of the United States of America. After watching the ABC debate in Philadelphia moderated by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous, I now know I am actually disgusted with the "political machine" and the fawning sycophants in the media who feel they know exactly what the US populace should be worried about even if they claim they're actually worried about something else. I first saw this happening during the whole BJ-gate scandal back when the so-called liberal media (or SCLM) was united in their stance that Clinton had tarnished the name of the Presidency beyond all repair. Everyone (including the New York Times and Washington Post) were calling for a National purging through his resignation since he obviously had lost the faith of the people. Meanwhile, every survey and poll taken showed "the people" were actually more worried about things like losing their jobs to foreign competition, the sky-rocketing cost of housing, and health care that was becoming increasingly unaffordable to an increasing number of people. This did not phase anyone in the media. Instead of reflecting on their priorities, they simply turned on their audience. Then started a campaign of finger-wagging against a people too uninformed or self-involved to be aware of just how bad a President lying about getting a BJ outside wedlock was for the entire country. The rather tawdry and not all that ironic situation culminated in Congress finally admitting it would lose them votes if they spent more time attempting to oust Clinton when the country was facing a looming recession and rapid cost of living increases. For refreshing insight into this whole situation, I would recommend Joan Didion's essay, "Vichy Washington" published in the New York Review of Books but also available in her collected work, Political Fictions.
I saw it again played out over the past eight years as Bush the Lesser has been lobbed softball after softball by the SCLM in an attempt to drum up a story or not rock the boat too much. I turned off the media in disgust when a candidate (and then President) couldn't name a single foreign leader with whom he'd be forced to deal as a partner when asked, only to hear from the SCLM how he's "won the debate" by "coming across well ... Presidential, really."
Well the latest Democratic Party debates in Pennsylvania hopefully gave the SCLM a shot in the groin about what really matters to the people they supposedly are informing. After an hour of what is being called the least substantive (at best) debate in recent memory where the moderators were actually being fed "gotcha" questions by right-wing media pundits who support McCain, the people in the audience actually began to boo the moderators.
Yes, the moderators were being booed down by the audience for being idiots.
I love America.
Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 08:35 am
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| » Bread and Circuses - 2008 |
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So once again the media is focusing on a complete non-issue and rallying around it like frat boys around the hot girl about to pass out. As a point of clarification they could easily make themselves, I would like to correct the following two mistakes (misstatements, lies, propadanda, etc) currently being bandied around by the liberal media:
1) A representative from the Obama campaign met with the Canadians and assured them he was in favor of NAFTA despite his rhetoric in Ohio.
Actually, what happened was Austan Goolsbee met with the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago at their request on February 8th of 2007. According to a memo leaked to the press Dr Goolsbee about the campaign's positions with regards to Canadian trade and economic relations. Among the topics discussed was NAFTA, brought up by the CHCGO. Goolsbee stated the Obama campaign was not interested in removing NAFTA all together and would instead seek to renegotiate new terms and language on labor mobility (outsourcing) and environmental protections. So far that doesn't sound like anything different than what the campaign has been saying all along, even in Ohio. The drastic language used in Ohio was a challenge to the Clinton campaign to commit to walking away from NAFTA if Mexico and Canada refused to renegotiate on such things as labor mobility and environmental protections. Somehow this got spun in the media to be a meeting where the Obama campaign was promising to leave NAFTA intact despite their promises to renegotiate.
2) A representative from the Clinton campaign met with the Canadians and assured them he was in favor of NAFTA despite his rhetoric in Ohio.
This story began with a story on CTV based on an offhand comment by Ian Brodie, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The comment itself was widely heard and has been sourced by more than one individual, but there is no evidence beyond the assertion made during what was by all accounts "a slow news event."
So in other words, the whole thing is complete hogwash and unverifiable he-said/she-said stuff.
Let's just drop it.
Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 03:47 pm
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| » The Cute!!!! |
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Bask in the cuteness!
Bathe in the waters of cuteness!
Come to the cuteness with reverence!
Mar. 26th, 2008 @ 11:29 am
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