Fightin!

Interesting article below that the better half sent me. It looks like the Republican ticket is cracking a bit under the pressure. Or maybe it's just overblown. But definitely not the type of attention you're wanting at this point in the campaign. It's definitely a very slanted article so take it with a grain of salt...

From Yahoo News:


John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”
Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)

McCain didn’t seem to care that much. McCain admitted recently on national TV that he “didn’t know her well at all” before he chose Palin.

But why not? Why didn’t he get to know her better before he made his choice?
It’s not like he was rushed. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in early March. He didn’t announce his choice for a running mate until late August.

Wasn’t that enough time for McCain to get to know Palin? Wasn’t that enough time for his crackerjack “vetters” to investigate Palin’s strengths and weaknesses, check through records and published accounts, talk to a few people, and learn that she was not only a diva but a whack job diva?

But McCain picked her anyway. He wanted to close the “enthusiasm gap” between himself and Barack Obama. He wanted to inject a little adrenaline into the Republican National Convention. He wanted to goose up the Republican base.

And so he chose Palin. Is she really a diva and a whack job? Could be. There are quite a few in politics. (And a few in journalism, too, though in journalism they are called “columnists.”)

As proof that she is, McCain aides now say Palin is “going rogue” and straying from their script. Wow. What a condemnation. McCain sticks to the script. How well is he doing?

In truth, Palin’s real problem is not her personality or whether she takes orders well. Her real problem is that neither she nor McCain can make a credible case that Palin is ready to assume the presidency should she need to.

And that undercuts McCain’s entire campaign.

This was the deal McCain made with the devil. In exchange for energizing his base by picking Palin, he surrendered his chief selling point: that he was better prepared to run the nation in time of crisis, whether it be economic, an attack by terrorists or, as he has been talking about in recent days, fending off a nuclear war.
“The next president won’t have time to get used to the office,” McCain told a crowd in Miami on Wednesday. “I’ve been tested, my friends, I’ve been tested.”

But has Sarah Palin?

I don’t believe running mates win or lose elections, though some believe they can be a drag on the ticket. Lee Atwater, who was George H.W. Bush’s campaign manager in 1988, told me that Dan Quayle cost the ticket 2 to 3 percentage points. But Bush won the election by 7.8 percentage points.

So, in Atwater’s opinion, Bush survived his bad choice by winning the election on his own.

McCain could do the same thing. But his campaign’s bad decisions have not stopped with Sarah Palin. It has made a series of questionable calls, including making Joe the Plumber the embodiment of the campaign.

Are voters really expected to warmly embrace an (unlicensed) plumber who owes back taxes and complains about the possibility of making a quarter million dollars a year?

And did McCain’s aides really believe so little in John McCain’s own likability that they thought Joe the Plumber would be more likable?

Apparently so. Which is sad.

We in the press make too much of running mates and staff and talking points and all the rest of the hubbub that accompanies a campaign.

In the end, it comes down to two candidates slugging it out.
Either McCain pulls off a victory in the last round or he doesn’t.
And if he doesn’t, he has nobody to blame but himself.

Song lyric of the day "Girls who are boys / Who like boys to be girls / Who do boys like they're girls / Who do girls like they're boys / Always should be someone you really love " Blur, Boys & Girls

Until next time.

Ace

Spooky

What is everyone going to be for Halloween? I haven't fully made up my mind yet, one great suggestion was to be that super creepy Burger King dude. I love his commercials and apparently there is a full costume with mask and all available. Tempting.

I'm also tossing around a few other costume ideas. Our house will be filled with princesses and a Darth Vader. We're hosting a costume party with some kids and some adults so it should be fun to see what everyone comes dressed as.

Work is finally calming down a little and class is really heating up. I've got to get moving on my final paper and presentation, both due in early December. I'm hoping to spend some considerable time on both this weekend.

That's all for now peeps!

Song lyric of the day "I had a dog and his name was King" Neil Young, Old King

Until next time.

Ace

Freebies and a smile

Two freebies pointed out to me by various friends today:





1. Taco Bell is giving away a crunchy taco to anyone who wants one on Tuesday of next week since there was a stolen base in last night's World Series game. Good marketing move! Details here.





2. Dr. Pepper is giving away a free 20 oz soda to those who bother to register for one. Why? Because it appears as if Gun N Roses is actually releasing their long rumored (17 years?) Chinese Democracy album. Wow! Details here. If you fail to read the link, Dr. Pepper has said that GNR guitarists (at various times) Slash and Buckethead are ineligible for the promotion - hilarious!





And a joke from Comedy Central





A dying man smells his favorite oatmeal raisin cookies cooking downstairs. It takes all the strength he has left but he gets up from the bed and crawls down the stairs. He sees the cookies cooling on the counter and staggers over to them. As he reaches for one, his wife's wrinkled hand reaches out, smacks his and she yells:
"No, you can't have those! They're for the funeral!"





Song lyric of the day: "I've got a tongue like a razor / A sweet switchblade knife" Guns N Roses, Rocket Queen



Until next time.

Ace

Odds and ends

Great news, I got my GRE scores and my suspicions were confirmed, my writing score was good enough to surpass program requirements. At this point, the only thing standing between me and entry into the grad program is the review and acceptance of my application, recommendation letters, etc. I'm guessing this won't be a problem. After all, if there's one thing I've learned about higher education, it's that the higher the institution can escalate its tuition income, the better!

In the meantime, reading assignments have been somewhat long, taking up all available time. I can already foresee myself cramming down to the wire on my research paper and presentation that are due in early Dec. Ugh, I hope I can avoid it.

Big happy bdays to half the world, who seem to be celebrating this week, including D, W, N and #3, who turned 2 this past weekend. I believe a small gathering is in the offing to celebrate the affair, a little later than the actual day due to some other stuff on the calendar.

I'm afraid that's all I've got time to bore everyone with today - work is nutso right now!

Song lyric of the day: "Taking what they're giving cause I'm working for a living" Huey Lewis

Until next time.

Ace

Crises and bailouts, oh my!

Have you heard? We're in the midst of a financial crisis, requiring massive government bailouts and other really scary sounding, alarmist actions dealing with esoteric financial derivatives and instruments that have been extensively discussed everywhere you look. However, one thing that's really got my attention but I have not heard being discussed is what has happened with gas prices in the last six weeks or so.

In our area, gas prices have dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% or more, around $1.10 per gallon in the last six week alone. Why? Well, good question. The price of a barrel of oil has certainly come down, which helps to some degree. But I've got to be honest, gas prices have been much higher than this at the current price of oil. So what was keeping oil prices elevated? Some would tell you it is oil speculators, people who simply trade contracts for future delivery of oil. You'll probably hear some chatter about hurricanes shutting down refineries. And I'm sure a talking head somewhere will tell you of geopolitical issues, maybe a discussion of warring tribes in some undeveloped nation.

I'm here to say it's all a bunch of BS. All of the above are probably contributing factors but I think corporate greed is the driving force behind the price of a gallon of petro folks. It seems awfully fishy to me that as the economy takes a deep nosedive south, the price of gas suddenly does the same. It's almost as if someone has decided that at long last, the economy has had more than it can take and that price relief needs to be instituted. And so, the price plummets. Maybe it's all a big free-market coincidence but I find that very hard to believe.

The galling thing about all of this is that up until said price relief was instituted, the prices were artificially inflated. Shocker! I think we all at least suspected this. I find this entire situation to be infuriating. It's as if the wizard behind the curtain has finally decided that he can stop taking from our collective wallets. A prime example of big business sticking it to the population.

I'm sure this sounds very conspiratorial and I'm not normally of that mindset. But I just can't believe that these things aren't related. With that, I'll end this rant. I certainly don't want this blog to become political so we'll return to some different fare.

Song lyric of the day: "All American, an evil game of extortion" Anthrax, I'm the Man

Until next time.

Ace

Brew and brawl

Earlier this week, I'm sure most of you know that the second presidential debate took place. The format was a townhall style meeting, with around 80 local Tennessee residents sitting around the candidates and Tom Brokaw moderating the affair. I decided this would be a good time for me to watch the fireworks, with all the talking heads predicting that McCain was going to really get after Obama since he was beginning to sag in the polls a bit.

Well, my friends, I have to say, this was a good time! The expected fireworks never really materialized but alas, something better did. It became clear in the first few minutes of the debate that McCain's phrase that pays for the event was going to be "my friends", as in, "My friends, America can do this" or "That, my friends, is what I will do as President", etc, etc, etc.

I could not let this golden opportunity go by without taking strong and decisive action. No sirree, I made a beeline for the fridge and grabbed a cold one. From that point forward, every time Johnny McC dropped a "my friend", I took a pull from my frosty beverage. I'm not going to lie to you, faithful reader, I may have been a bit tipsy by the end of the affair. I'll also postulate that this was definitely the most fun I've had with such an event. Good times! On a more serious note, the debate helped me crystallize which way I'm going to vote. So, from that perspective, it was also time well-spent.

Song lyric of the day: "My friends I'm so depressed" Red Hot Chili Peppers

Until next time.

Ace

Psychos and Kid Shows

What a weekend!

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Started things off with a poker tourney on Friday night, 18 man league game I've been playing in for a couple of months now. On the first hand I lost about 1/3 of my chips, not a good start! But, about 3 hands later I more than doubled up when my pocket Jacks flopped a set. That literally was enough chips to last me for quite a while, getting me to the final table. A few hands here and there kept me afloat but there was one giant stack at the table who had literally 10 times more than anyone else. It was just a matter of getting a great hand, pushing against him and hoping you held up. Fortunately I had enough chips that I could be patient to find my hand to push with and outlasted several shorter stacks, cruising into the money and lasting all the way until second. By the time we got heads up, dude literally had 10-1 chip lead on me. I doubled through him once to bring my stack up to about 42k (out of 270k on the table). Then I got my chips in with QJ suited against a random hand like 36o but dude flopped a six and that was the end of that! Had my hand held up there, I would have been only down 2 to 1 chip wise and liked my chances. Still, it was a pretty solid performance overall that should put me in a good position in the standings, probably in the top 4 or so out of around 30. Nice!

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Saturday was a trip to Chicago Theatre to see the Backyardigans. We had sweet seats, 4th row. Any closer and I think it might have been a little too close. Kid #2 was hilarious, very apprehensive when the show started. The Backyardigans is a kids show that is animated. But the live show was actually people dressed up like the characters. #2 was not buying it. But eventually, everyone came around and wound up having a good time. It was a good, fun family day. We wound things up with a trip to the local Red Robin, where all the high school kids had descended for their pre-Homecoming meals. There were some seriously shiny dresses and bad ties. I cringed remembering my own ridiculousness at this period in my life.

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Last night I decided I needed to mix things up a little and decided to finally watch No Country for Old Men. This was an excellent movie, in line with other offerings from the Coen brothers. Josh Brolin was really good and Javier Bardem definitely earned the Oscar that he won. His role was one of the great characters in recent memory. A very suspenseful movie, very violent and lots of fun. Tommy Lee Jones was good but not Oscar worthy. I'm not sure I loved the ending but I don't have a problem with it.

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Song lyric of the day: "We're knights, that's right!" The Backyardigans

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Until next time.

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Ace