Inauguration Thoughts

I debated whether or not to write about this since I normally don’t blog in-depth about political topics.

Originally, I wasn’t going to watch the inauguration. I had never watched one before; why would I start now? However, something in me said it was an inauguration I needed to watch. It was going to be such a historical event in our nation’s history.

My thoughts:

The chanters in the crowd singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” as President Bush was introduced are classless assholes. Whether or not you agree with the man’s politics, as President of the United States, he deserves everyone’s respect.

There’s been a lot of coverage regarding the actual oath. Yes, the Chief Justice botched “to” instead of “of” and on repeating put “faithfully” in the wrong place. But I hate to break it to the people complaining that the phrases were too long (which I do agree with).. it’s been like that (with a couple variations) for quite a while:

• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George H. W. Bush
• Ronald Reagan
• Richard Nixon
• John F. Kennedy
• Dwight Eisenhower

Hell, listen to Franklin D. Roosevelt take oath!

Regarding President Obama’s speech.. I honestly don’t know what to make of it. It definitely felt like he was speaking from his heart; that’s obviously a good thing. On the flipside, it also seemed like a campaign speech and that he was still trying to win votes. Overall, it was a pretty good speech.

The benediction is where I get very upset. Seriously? “when black will not be asked to get in back”? ”when white will embrace what’s right”? This is 2009, not the 1950s. The white supremacists that exist today aren’t going to magically change their beliefs all of a sudden. Nor will the black supremacists. People have inherent prejudices that are extremely difficult to change. The majority of citizens of this great country could care less about skin color. Yes, I truly believe that. Such a bad way to end an otherwise great inaugural ceremony.

As for me..

Did I vote for President Obama? No. My opinions on too many issues differed from his.

Will I support President Obama? Absolutely. The electoral college and a majority of Americans voted him into the office of President. And with that, President Obama has earned and deserves my respect. I am sure I won’t agree with everything he does while in office. I didn’t agree with everything President Bush did while in office; I didn’t agree with everything President Clinton did. But the job of President is by far the toughest job imaginable, and I believe each President acts in accordance with that they truly believe is the right course of action.

Congratulations, President Obama. Serve this country well and in its best interest. You have my support as the President.

American Idol > President?

Supposedly, over 100 million votes were placed last night for American Idol. That’s ridiculous.

Why?

That’s almost as many votes that were cast in the 2004 US presidential election. According to Wikipedia, 122,267,553 votes were cast for president.

On another note, it’s now obvious who the judges and producers want to win this year. Archuleta sang well last night for the most part. But so did Cook.

I feel the judges were very unfair in their assessments of David Cook. For example, all along the judges have stressed being original, making songs their own, and essentially “thinking outside the box”.  Apparently this doesn’t apply to the crappy winner’s song. His performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was amazing, but I would tend to agree that he should have chose a different song than The World I Know. He performed it well, but I would have rather seen something bigger and better. I loved his little dig against Archuleta though about performing something new.

David Archuleta did exactly what he has been doing all season — he sang slow, sappy ballads. He has shown absolutely no originality, improvement, or versatility. Is that not the point of having theme weeks?

David Archuleta, if crowned the winner, will falter just like all of the other male American Idol winners. David Cook will excel and follow in Chris Daughtry’s footsteps.

Maybe Idol producers will fix the show in time for season eight.

Department of Defense?

I just received an eBay spoof email requesting I verify my user information by clicking on the link. Being the geek that I am, I proceed to view the email’s headers to see where it came from. I perform a whois lookup on the IP address..

OrgName: DoD Network Information Center
OrgID: DNIC
Address: 3990 E. Broad Street
City: Columbus
StateProv: OH
PostalCode: 43218
Country: US

NetRange: 33.0.0.0 – 33.255.255.255
CIDR: 33.0.0.0/8
NetName: NIPR-CONUS
NetHandle: NET-33-0-0-0-1
Parent:
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: CON1R.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: CON2R.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: EUR1R.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: EUR2R.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: PAC1R.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: PAC2R.NIPR.MIL

So what does that mean you ask? That means one of two options:

• The US Department of Defense has a spammer working from within their network.
• More likely, there’s a US Department of Defense workstation that has malware and/or viruses on it that’s allowing the real spammers access to their computer to exploit.

I’m not one to really get involved in bashing politics and the military, but it isn’t very comforting know that the US Department of Defense cannot protect its network yet is charged with protecting the United States and everything for which we stand.

Democratic Aliens

Most of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claim an unidentified flying object with five aliens aboard crashed on a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that precipitated the investigation by the U.S. Government and was called “Project Blue Book”. Many believe the true facts have long been covered up by the US Air Force and the federal government.

You may NOT know, however, that in the month of March 1948 the following people were ALL born:

Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William Jefferson Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer

This is exactly nine months after the UFO landings in Roswell.

Coincidence? I think not.

Social Security

I’m not a huge fan of forwards, but I received this one today and is quite interesting.

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society . They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.

Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that’s Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.

This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA..! ..ZILCH…

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan . The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;

“OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK”!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer). we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley’s benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:

Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us.

Then sit back and see how fast they would fix it.

One Tough Grandma

I don’t try to force my political opinions on anyone. But hell – this is my blog and I’ll say what I damn well please!

I got this email today. I’ve been sold on Strayhorn for a while now.

Early voting starts today. When I announced my candidacy, I said it is time to set aside partisan politics and do what’s right for Texas. Texans have an opportunity to send that message to Austin by shaking up the two-party system with their vote on November 7th. I am asking for the vote of all Texans who believe it is time to change things in Austin. The momentum is with us. All across our great State, Texans come up to me with their prayers and words of encouragement. People are sick and tired of partisan politics that is beholden to special interests.

It’s time to put Texans first, not special interests. That is why I outlined my Texas First Agenda to make our schools great, to secure our borders and critical infrastructure, and to bring about responsible government that listens to the people.

I encourage each of you to reach out to as many friends and family members as possible. Let them know about our campaign to shake things up and bring about positive change for a better Texas. Urge them to go to the polls. We want as many Texans as possible voting. Victory is within reach.

Now is the time to for all Texans who want change to unite together and send a powerful message to the two-party establishment. Together, we will put an end to the status quo in Austin. Thank you for your support, and God bless our great State of Texas.

Carole Keeton Strayhorn
www.CaroleStrayhorn.com

Words from Ben Stein

The following article is from The American Spectator and written by Ben Stein.

A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth:

1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.

2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.

3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.

4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world’s worst polluters — China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.

5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush’s fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It’s not George Bush’s fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.

6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.

7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.

8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.

9.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.

10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.

11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.

12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.

God bless all of those dear people who are suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with George Bush.

More Mysteries of Katrina:

Why is it that the snipers who shot at emergency rescuers trying to save people in hospitals and shelters are never mentioned except in passing, and Mr. Bush, who is turning over heaven and earth to rescue the victims of the storm, is endlessly vilified?

What church does Rev. Al Sharpton belong to that believes in passing blame and singling out people by race for opprobrium and hate?

What special abilities does the media have for deciding how much blame goes to the federal government as opposed to the city government of New Orleans for the aftereffects of Katrina?

If able-bodied people refuse to obey a mandatory evacuation order for a city, have they not assumed the risk that ill effects will happen to them?

When the city government simply ignores its own sick and hospitalized and elderly people in its evacuation order, is Mr. Bush to blame for that?

Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush’s fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?

Where did the idea come from that salvation comes from hatred and criticism and mockery instead of love and co-operation?

Conservative Lubbock?

Seems Lubbock was named the second most conservative city in the nation. Lubbock..conservative?? No way..

http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?s=3725052