The crazy adventures of Biblely!

Prop 8 passed, while folks in CA voted heavily for Obama. It was truly ironic that much of the support came from Black and Latino voters, who have the unpleasant historical experience of having their civil rights restricted by the state because of the color of their skin.

Huh?

Morford has an excellent commentary on it, that about sums up the reason why it failed. Of course

Excerpts:

Some say the inglorious success of Prop. 8, the brutally regressive measure that removes the rights of very specific people who love very specific other people from ever marrying them, can be blamed on multiple factors.
...
Or maybe it's all those sad, white, central portions of the state, the huge chunks of voters who live in places without much culture or perspective or major universities, who only hear certain strains of spiteful rhetoric and thin fearmongering, whose general lack of education means they apparently still believe certain flavors of love will poison everyone's soup and ruin the sanctity of the time-honored 50-percent heterosexual missionary position Christian divorce rate.
...
[...]I think the real blame lies with, well, the Almighty himself.
...
Behind it all, it's God. No, not the god you and I understand as a universal, non-gendered, asexual, love-drunk energy coursing through all things at all times everywhere without the slightest wisp of prejudice or geographical preference, but that famously small, myopic version, the one that encourages a literalist interpretation of very carefully selected Bible verse (to the complete disregard of myriad others) -- a version that, in short, has been drilled into the consciousness of far too many voters for far too long.

Is it not true? Once again this election, in pulpits across America, the call rang out: We must stop the gays. We cannot allow them entry into the sanctuary of Eternal Hetero Love. After all, marriage is (these people believe) the last upstanding Christian stronghold, the final barrier preventing America from becoming some sort of Sodom-iffic nipple-pierced polyamorous rave party where anyone can marry anything and pets are running scared and people stick parts of their bodies into other people's parts for sexual pleasure. The horror.

My take on it: restricting civil rights using a simple majority vote is un-American. That, and the simple fact that nothing is removed or lessened for heterosexual relationships should gay people marry.

What would Mr. Show do?

Or Senator Tankerbell? You gotta watch it to get the Bibley reference.

I hear there's mashies on the youteletubbies

Check out the "W." film channel on youtube. Visitors can make video mashups with the content provided. Oliver Stone has a welcome spot, in which he indicates that he's picking a winner, and the prize is well over a million dollars...not really.

Even if you don't make a mashup, there are some great clips of Dubya in inaction during his great prisonmate ass-raping of the world during the past 8 years.

Well, she didn't wear an ear bud

On the whole, I found the VP debate to be pretty anticlimactic, but interesting.

I found Biden to be better than expected. He was pretty much to the point, and smartly remained focused on highlighting the differences between McCain and Obama, and portraying Obama in a more positive light, thereby emphasizing the skills he'd use when supporting the President.

Palin did better than I expected, which isn't saying much given that the bar was set so low, all she had to do was show up, smile, talk about Joe Six Pack, and talk about how silly all that crazy political talk sounded since she's such a Washington outsider. Palin seemed to take more jabs at Biden, and didn't always address the moderator's questions. I found her folksy 'small-town' colloquialisms to be insulting, as it's reminiscent of Dubya, another self-coined 'Washington outsider'. She reminded me of Charles Montgomery Burns when he ran for governor.

I heard that Palin's debate talent rests on the fact that she leverages the theatrical element, rather than relying on facts, numbers, and y'know...anything that would establish political data points used to construct a trend, which could be used as a predictor for future behavior. She pretty much smiled, acted cutesy, delivered barbs, and dropped a few numbers here and there, which were her clumsiest moments. Facts-schmacts.

I found the reactions to global warming hilarious. Palin basically said she didn't want to point fingers at causes, while Biden indicated that you probably won't be able to come up with a solution to a problem if you don't identify a cause. Her constant comments about Alaska being an energy-producing state were vomit-inducing. Alaska's untapped fields aren't going to provide a long-term solution to the world's addiction to fossil fuels...not while the U.S consumes 25% of it.

My favorite moment related to taxes. There are mountains of spam moving around about how broke we'll be if Obama comes into office because of his record of voting to raise taxes (94 times). Palin called this out, and Biden clarified it as being an inaccurate statement, while leveraging the same rationale to McCain's record and indicating by the same logic McCain voted to raise them 477 times.

courtesy SFGate

I walked away from it feeling better about Biden. Palin delivered barbs and did her best to try to make herself and McCain seem like a voice of change, which was downright laughable. The Obama movement was launched with the theme of change, and gathered so much momentum the only way the GOP could counter was to get someone REALLY inexperienced, and make Palin seem like a moose-eyed newbie, even when Obama's only 3 years older than her. It appears that the less experienced she is, the better, since it's closer to Joe Six Pack, and that is who she's talking to in her fireside chats.

There was a new word mentioned, exceptionalism, thanks to Sarah Palin, the spiritual torch-carrier for imaginistic langualogy in the same breath as Dubbya. Voice of change indeed.

She did much better than her recent Couric interview:

Couric: You have a 72-year-old running mate - is that kind of a risky thing to say, insinuating that Joe Biden's been around a while?

Palin: Oh no, it's nothing negative at all. He's got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience.

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

 I think I can see Alaska from here...must make me a geographer!

VP Debate pre-show details

The VP debate's on tonight! See what channels offer it where you live.

Seen the AP piece on the recent bout of network hosts blasting the VP candidates? It's fairly one-sided because, well, we haven't seen this much of a sub-par GOP VP nominee since Quayle ran with GHW Bush. She's an unstoppable force of fodder. The bar's been lowered so far, that she'll be seen as a competent candidate as long as she remains standing, maintains that spooky smile, and utters a few incomprehensible words.

And be warned...if her hair isn't in a bob, then she's wearing an earpiece, so her handlers can bail her out.

In the event you don't like additional mouse-clicks, here's the highlights from the article:

"Last night during an interview on CBS, Sarah Palin said, 'One of my best friends is a lesbian and I love her dearly.' After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, 'Prove it.'"
_O'Brien, NBC's "Late Night."
___
"I love this show! It's like the first season of 'Lost' only it makes less sense."
_Stewart, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show".
___
"It's been reported that John McCain is taking an herbal supplement to improve his memory. Apparently McCain is having trouble remembering why he picked Sarah Palin."
_O'Brien, NBC's "Late Night."
___
"Great day for Sarah Palin. She has been practicing for the big debate tomorrow night. Palin's staff has tried to find a stand-in to pretend to be Joe Biden. But so far all they've come up with is a tree stump. Which actually sounds about right."
_Craig Ferguson, CBS'"Late Late Show."
___
"This is for all the marbles, this debate tomorrow night. And Sarah Palin is nothing if not diligent. She's working hard on preparing for the debate with Joe Biden. Earlier today in Arizona, we just heard, she shot a donkey."
_Letterman, CBS'"Late Show."
___
"Now we all know Gov. Palin has a lot of foreign policy experience because from Alaska, she can see Russia. More to the point, Russia is on the other side of the international dateline from Alaska. It's tomorrow there. So when Palin looks at it, she's actually seeing the future."
_Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."
___
"The vice presidential debate is tomorrow night. Joe Biden, already gearing up. I understand he went to the hair salon, told the guy to put a little more on top ... And Sarah Palin she's getting ready for tomorrow's debate, too. I understand she now knows all three branches of government."
_Jay Leno, NBC's "Tonight" show
___
"Teams of technicians have been working around the clock trying to figure out how to run an Internet cable directly into the back of (Palin's) skull."
_Jimmy Kimmel, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

I'm voting Republican, so I can go to Iran

Came back from a trip overseas (where news about the corporate bailout took up a generous chunk), but was pleased to see some videos relayed my way, as they were the juicy bits of email wheat in an otherwise sea of chaff.

One of these videos convinced me to vote Republican. It just feels so much cozier...so I can stay in Iraq...so I can go to Iran!


The other, well, it's a great tidbit of our nation's most fav high functioning moron.

Shepard Fairey drops a bomb...paints the bomb?

Probably best known for his 'Obey' work, which features a stylized rendition of Andre the Giant's face, Shepard Fairey is now a tad more mainstream, albeit in making some provocative pieces pertaining to BushCo, the war on terror, free (or lack there of) speech, all inspiring critical thought. He's got a show going in SF right now at WhiteWallsSF.

 

I can see Russia from my house...

Thank you Tina Fey.

Housekeeping or precursor to The Road?

A nice summation of the current state of the economy from SFGate:

WINNERS: Bank of America: Buys Merrill Lynch in a shotgun sale for $50 billion, creating the largest U.S. financial services company. Warren Buffett: His insurance holdings stand to benefit from AIG's weakened position, and he could buy some or all of the company at a big discount. Taxpayers: The federal government refuses to throw financial lifelines to Lehman Bros. or AIG that could have put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in bad loans. It also refuses to pay the ousted chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to $24 million in exit packages.

LOSERS: Merrill Lynch: One of the best-known and most respected companies in American history vanishes overnight in a desperate sale to Bank of America. Lehman Bros.: It survived the Civil War and the Great Depression, but it can't escape the credit crisis and files for bankruptcy protection as it closes. Washington Mutual: The Seattle thrift was flying high amid the real estate boom, but it crashes just as spectacularly. Now it reportedly looks for a buyer as it tries to avoid insolvency.

HOSERS: Current Presidential nominees.

Can we finally put the whole lipstick-gate thing behind us? No one owns that word, and who gives a damn if she can field dress a moose? It's not like living in AK gives Palin years of valuable foreign policy experience.

I don't care about her baby and her baby having babies, or McCain delivering sermons on how he's more patriotic than Obama, I care about getting the economy stabilized, the job market improved, and the perception of Americans improved in the international sector. It's a sad state of affairs when the majority of Americans buy into the political campaigning and spin doctoring designed to cast candidates in more favorable light, especially when it detracts from 'real issues'. And please GOP/McCain campaingers...spare us the all the 'elite media' tripe you've been spewing. Just because you're not the loveable darling now that Dubya and Cheney salted it for you, doesn't mean you need to whine.
Thank you Dilbert. You so wonderfully characterizes the legacy of the Bush administration, and what we'll [hopefully] be recovering from in the next Presidential term.

I'm just saying, if that's what your standards are

My bestest buddy Gabe hooked me up with Patton Oswalt's "Werewolves and Lollipops" album that we'd listened to while driving down to Big Sur, where we TOTALLY saw Natalie Portman, for some beer drinking...er...camping with another old school homie.

Gee, gosh, darn he's funny. Ross prefers Jim Gaffigan, and characterized Patton as edgier, but not as funny.

While Jim has some good stuff, I really dig on Patton's political sensibilities. Take his 'The Dukes of Hazzard' piece. Brilliant.

Who would play Kuato?

izz naaht uh toooomah

PS: some of you on the Google Groups might have noticed some jerkface assclown spammed the group with some porn themed postings. I've since reported them to the Google Hive. Let's see what happens. I'd originally left the group open so anyone could post, but I've now restricted it. The internets are an amazing place that we each have to police. Let's make the world a better place...one keystroke at a time.

There was an RNC?

What is so great about Sarah Palin, other than the fact that she looks better than Joe Biden?

The malarky surrounding the recent Republican convention was downright hilarity. Since when does a lame-ass VP-nominee feel the need to take shots at the Presidential nominee, especially when she one-ups Obama on the whole 'inexperience' issue.

She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. A governor for just 20 months, she was two-term mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest civic worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race.
...
The pick earned McCain praise Friday from evangelicals and other social conservatives who have been skeptical of him. "Conservatives will be thrilled with this pick," said Greg Mueller, a conservative GOP strategist.

The price for that support could be high. Palin's lack of experience undercuts GOP charges that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief. McCain said in April that he was determined to avoid a pick like Dan Quayle, the little-known Indiana senator whom George H.W. Bush put on his ticket in 1988. The choice proved embarrassing.

Her comment about Obama, talking one way to some voters and a different way to others was laughable. I'd have liked to see her deliver the same style speech she gave at her old Pentecostal church.

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God," she exhorted the congregants. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."
...
"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

I recommend you check out the link to that speech, as there's a charming video that allows for a more visceral experience of the crazy. The pastor, Ed Kalnins? He makes Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright look like Mother Teresa.

What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.

Interestingly enough, the Wasilla Assembly of God website is now unavailable except for the holy cache. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the McCain-Palin campaign leaders made a quick call up to AK and had to enact some damage control. Odd how we're not seeing any media backlash on this one, though. Dare I suggest that Ed's comments aren't perceived as inflammatory because he's white, and more in line with the current administration's take on the "War on Terror"?

So hurray for the Palin nomination! Thanks Sarah, for making the current Republican party seem like a bunch of angry, fearful, hateful wackjobs. It makes it easier for everyone on election day.

I, like George Washington, favor a heady dose of the separation of Church and State...otherwise, y'know...we get all fundamentally suicidally and killy-like. Just like those terrorists your pastor denegrates!

Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.

(George Washington, letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 726.)

Thank you Sarah Palin....mmmm....tasty

I was all fired up to do a little something on Sarah Palin, and found that the dailykos had already delivered a lovely piece on why:

1. she's ineffective
2. Alaska is effed, and the GOP is scrambling
3. the rhetoric used to highlight Obama's 'lack of experience' blows up in the GOPs face with her nomination
4. the neo-con star chamber, led by His Exalted Evilness Karl Rove still runs things

I'm feeling better every day about the upcoming Presidential election. Haters move out of the way. We're going to have a President who speaks in complete sentences and doesn't make up words without knowing that he's made up a [albeit cool-sounding] word. If only we could install stupidfilter for Dubya, then at least we wouldn't need to contend with his failed policies AND his mind-numbingly lame diction.

Oakland needs superheroes

Nobody's put it out there yet, so I'm going to go out on a limb.

We need superheroes in Oakland. A Watchmen-like troupe would suffice. A seething mass of face-punching justice wranglers who can instill a sense of loss and mortality in the d-bags who are robbing local restaurants in the Oakland area. Most people have eaten at least one of these restaurants in the area. I can't back this up on e-paper...I don't have the results of a properly structured social study...but there some discrete quantitative data points numbering three or more (indicating a trend) that concisely tell us that this phenomena is increasing.

We don't need to arm the populace. We just need superheroes.

We need a few people who know what's going down, and where it's going down, so they can be there when it goes down, and twist fools. Someone, somewhere knows where the next round of robberies is going to be. Someone knows who's going to do it. That means the heist is avoidable, or, shall we say, conducive to bringing the proper big scary people who knock down doors and beat/maim/kill...fine...apprehend the bad guys.

We need people who can roll through to Ron Dellums' pad, sneak into his room, nudge him awake from his cozy Depends fortified slumber, whisper in his ear: "You are not doing your job Mr. Mayor...the Edgerlies of your city are running it...do something now, or we will."

We need Chip Johnson to be granted superpowers, so he can bust on fools who pistol-whip workers and patrons, package them for pickup for the cops, then take pictures of the perps, and then post them in his column where he'll expose their names and addresses.

Then...once a semblance of safety is returned to the streets of Oakland, we can turn our attention to the rotting, decrepit, desiccated, and corrupt zombie-like corpse we call City Hall and perform some major reconstructive surgery.

So far I haven't been able to find any postings on Craigslist offering superhero services (although someone's selling a superhero suit). If anyone finds one, please comment with the contact info, so I can get in touch with the person and discuss the role and compensation.

Mayor Dellums: Flaccid Impotent Bookend from the Past and His Crazy Adventures in Oakland

Way to go Dellums!

Whoo-hoo! The FBI issued subpoenas for current and former Oakland City Hall non-elected officials in connection to fiscal tomfoolery and crusty backhanded shenanigans enacted upon Oakland's coffers.

One of the recipients is Deborah Edgerly. She was the top non-elected official in Oakland since former Mayor Jerry Brown, and boy did she like to stick it to the man! Er...the taxpayers of Oakland.

I no longer live in Oakland, after departing to suburbia to raise a family, but I still love the city. Say what you will, Gertrude Stein, but there is plenty of 'there' there.

I do work in Oakland, and like other residents, we're all well aware of the embarrassing state of the public school system, increasing crime (hello robbers in the hood), and ineffectiveness of the current Mayor.

He's been living up to his moniker: The Quiet Mayor. He's staying out of the limelight, avoiding the press, and not saying much. He's also not doing much to improve the situation. What the hell? Does he think that the edifice of the eponymous Federal Building is going to be able to hide his ineffectiveness in managing his staff and the city?

Let's just take the case of the recent spree of 'takeover' robberies. Granted the state of the economy is somewhat to blame for the increase in crime, and that doesn't excuse the perps, but it does beckon the Mayor to step up and get serious about cleaning up City hall and improving the safety of individuals who are directly responsible for providing income for the city: namely local restaurateurs and related business owners.

I never saw the appeal in Dellums. He seemed pleased with himself for his past accomplishments, and thought that it'd be cool to chill in pseudo-retirement in a city that was so corrupt and mismanaged that it wouldn't make matters worse for him to stroll into office, pronounce some vapor policy, and then fade into the woodwork all the while touting his new 'political transparency' model.

Is this the same guy who voiced so much opposition in the 80s against arms development and the refocusing of federal budgetary expenditures and was lauded by Nancy Pelosi and other high-ranking dems?

Oakland's Project Mayhem

I'd just ported over my blog to wordpress, and have been tinkering with stuff over there, when just today I find that Google has finally put some effort into enhancing Blogger...so I'm going to try it out.



Meanwhile, I came into work today (it's been busy, hence no postings) and found that the 12th St BART Station was closed because of 'police activity'. Normally this means the cops had to lay the beatdown on someone who was acting a fool, but SFGate reports the presence as a result of a 'suspicious device'. Sheriffs, OPD, BART po-leece, and helicopters were in full force. Still, my money's on the real Oakland gangsta pictured at left.



Who dat, you ask? That's Deborah Edgerly. She alledgedly interfered in the police towing her nephew's car, and threatened them to call Internal Affairs, while also warning her nephew about an increased police presence because of his affiliation with his rough riders. Her nephew, rolls with some other thug-lifas in Oakland. What is it with this city? Ron Dellums is sitting in his office, drinking his Ensure, while the city continues to crumble.



If I didn't know better, I'd think Project Mayhem was running afoot in my hood.



Regardless, things are looking good on the horizon, once we can clear the air from all the fires, weather a drought, and squeak through a $5/gal gas summer. Truly, now when you see someone rolling an H3 or some other Earth Destroyer 2009 model, it's textbook conspicuous consumption: I drive this because I can afford the shitty gas mileage...or I'm too dumb to care that the cost to fill the tank rapes my bank account.



But seriously people, the light is at the end of the tunnel...and let's hope it's not another train. We're going to be shedding Bushco, and although we're going to be collectively paying for its mistakes through our lives and possibly the lives of our grandchildren, it'll be better.



It's almost like we had to hit rock-bottom to know what we had to do. How bad could it get? Pretty bad. We had to feel it before we could even be ready for the possibility of Obama. Is he going to take it? I think so. Will he be able to prevent people from thinking a 40oz wrapped in a paper bag is a 'suspicious device' inside the BART terminal? Probably not, but it's a start.

Worst. Movie. Ever...oh...and our progeny is doomed

WTF? Isn't the world bad enough with Uwe Boll making movies?

Why would someone ever make a movie about the game Tetris? My mind reels in its inability to understand why anyone would provide funding for this. From the looks of the preview, it's like some Tetris fan's bad wet dream a la 300.

Premise: guys fly huge Tetris blocks around in the air...I guess it's a sport but bigger, but not as big as Rollerball. Guy's brother dies in Tetris match. Brother to avenge death. Filmed in your neighbor's garage via greenscreen.

We are all dumber having knowing someone made this film.

You want to see a relevant and hilarious piece of work? Check out Mark Fiore's White House Life. Oh man.
In a related note, I never found myself that big of a fan of Black Sabbath, probably out of ignorance for actually giving the music a shot after seeing the horrible reality program with Ozzy's family. I stand corrected, and thank Guitar Hero 2 for opening my figurative eyes. It was during gametime that I was able to play War Pigs, and I thought 'sigh...Sabbath...bat-head eater gimmick...lame...' but I needed to beat the song in order to move onto the next level, so I gave it a go.

The song rocks, not just in a pre-metal 1970s rougher-than-Zeppelin kind of way, but in its forthright commentary on war. What I find remarkable is we seem to be expressing the same frustrations and making the same articulations almost 40 years since the song's release.

If the government was run more like a business, then I wonder if Dubya would've been allowed to remain in office. Shareholders would probably have kicked his crappy administration out of office years ago. Why haven't we? Maybe we like the war on terror, and suffer from some prideful ailment that's crippling us from packing things up, which of course we really can't now that we broke it ('it' being the stability of the Middle East). Then again it's not like the current administration is tearing its hair out to attend to majority of people's concerns: jobs, affordable housing, education, etc.

Maybe it's the alluring thought of receiving that juicy economic stimulus package that I won't get because the plan didn't factor in an adjustment for residents living in areas where the cost of living is higher. Oh well, that's just money my great-grandkids would owe the Bank of China anyway.

Ques: How will the US pay for 'economic stimulus package'?
Ans: The US Treasury will write a check for the debt.
Ques: How will the US Treasury finance the check?
Ans: The US Treasruy will borrow the money.
Ques: Where will the US Treasury get the money?
Ans: The US Treasury will sell "paper" at the debt window. [think of your neighborhood checking-cashing facility! yay!]
Ques: Who will buy the "paper"?
Ans: Foreign Central banks interested in US debt (ie China, Saudia Arabia, etc.)
Ques: What will be the interest rate on the loan and what will be the term?
Ans: The rate and term of the loan will be negotiated.

Can we please put Dubya in the Tetris movie, so it'll at least be funny to watch? I also find the mental image of him getting crushed by a giant CG metal block positively hilarious.

After all this time it's just an embedded video?

I like this. I was on the edge of my seat while viewing it. It's kinda like what a stick figure themed version of the Matrix would be like...and no, I'm not referring the bullet-time action sequences.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

We've been working on rolling out a Hyperion Business Intelligence (BI) environment at work, and have been pulling the 12-13 hour days for the past month it seems. Needless to say, it's been leaving home when the moon is still visible, and coming home when the crickets are composing their evening symphony, so their hasn't been much time for anything else. I don't even see much of the news anymore, although I do see a certain hillside every morning and see we're making good progress in filling it up with crosses.

Meanwhile gas is now over $4.00 a gallon in the Bay Area, layoffs are plentiful across industries, not everyone is getting the 'economic stimulus package' (read: kiss this money good-bye because it's either paying off debt, buying a flat screen LCD, or going to your interest-only home loan(s)), and our exit strategy is now to go through Iran.

Thank you Bush administration. You're leveling a bill that transcends 3 trillion dollars on future American generations that you'll never see or care about as you cooked your neural synapses on superb 1980s coke while your daddy was running the CIA. Bang up job Dubya.

I keep waiting for the Neo moment when Morpheus wakes me up with the red pill, and can fathom that power larger than the Bush dynasty is responsible for the economic and patriotic wasteland that's permeating our global landscape.

Right now I can't take the blue pill, as a $50 tank of gas coupled with a mortgage crisis, corporate 'downsizing', and (most importantly) a seemingly neverending antiseptic war on terrorism was unleashed on taxpayers by an American president.

Spitzer to provide extracurricular activity lessons to Vallejo city employees

It's tragic, offensive, and downright embarrassing for everyone.

Now that we have that out of the way, here were some of the recent highlights of comedy antics surrounding (now) former Gov. Eliot Spitzer:

I sat next to the guy three times and I didn't pick up on any of this. - Stephen Colbert

It's just mind-blowing that he spent $4,300 on a hooker. It just shows how high the cost of living is in New York. That same hooker would cost $50 in Newark. - Lisa Landry

They're talking about impeaching Eliot Spitzer if he doesn't step down, and I'm thinking, 'Whoa, a Democrat being impeached for extramarital sex. Well, happy days are here again!' - David Letterman

Not surprisingly, clients 1 through 8 were Charlie Sheen. - Conan O'Brien

If this guy was a plumber ... he would have his wife's SUV tire tracks over his head - Jay Leno

No. 1: "It's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks. I'm no longer America's creepiest governor." - David Letterman's Top 10 List

Spitzer resigned yesterday. If only other elected officials in similar circumstances could follow suit....ahem...Mr. Craig?

Next on the list for the former Governor? Well, he's heading to Vallejo, CA to act as Activities Director for the city's overpaid city employees.

When did bi-partisan become a naughty word?

You know what I like about the 2008 election campaigns on the Democratic side? They've been relatively devoid of acrimony and slash and burn tactics. Sure there've been a few barbs here and there, but for the most part Clinton and Obama have been composing themselves.

What's with the 'conservative' lashing at McCain for his past bi-partisan efforts? It's like some members of the GOP are pissed because he didn't sequester himself in a room with other GOPs and only worked on initiatives with GOPs. Does democracy exist, or rather, is it sustainable in a vacuum? I don't think it is.

When Ann Coulter says she'll vote for Clinton if McCain wins the nomination I think, 1) she's full of ess, 2) I wish the mothership would pick her up and simply note that the experiment was a failure, and 3) what's so great about Huckabee and his carefully nuanced claims to bring Church and State closer together?

And what's wrong with building consensus? We're a nation of many different viewpoints. Shouldn't a consensus builder be considered an asset and not a liability, especially since we're going to be cleaning up the mess left from the Bush dynasty?

It's like neo-cons are so polarized that they might need to come out from the shadows and actually touch a member not of the GOP.

You know what...Jenna and Barbara Bush date Independents...oh the scandal. Their babies will be Independans...or Republidents. Either way, they'll party a lot and have progressive views. Yeah...that's what's going to happen...we're going to breed out all the religious fundamentalists and clinically repressed people everywhere.

VOTE!!!! Yes you can

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