For some time now I’ve been concerned, nah, that is such a weak word, terrified, about our government, our economy, and our ability to seek happiness (you do know that this is one of our liberties as a citizen of the US, right?). We see over and over the government thinks that if they aren’t removing a right or creating control where it wasn’t before, they are wasting their time in office (could they be doing more besides just being a politician… didn’t Representatives and Senators back in the day also Farm, or Teach or some other job that actually made their real money?).

In this interesting time we also see people sitting back into the lifestyle of the content… yet they aren’t reaching for happiness and instead are making sure that they are just better than the next… not really looking inside anymore (would they run in fear for how empty the space is?). I guess that since I am
alive and no one is taking my home I should consider myself happy or lucky.

When someone responds to you, don’t you expect some form of certainty in their reply? To me, if they are debating or selling themselves to me, I like to see a full spec sheet. What is important… none of the fluff.

All that being said – this article by The Rolling Stone was quite interesting about Palin and I will quote my favorite section as it is right now.

here is a linky: http://www.rollingstone.com/poalitics/story/23318320/mad_dog_palin/

"The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains. Sure, there was politics in the Palin speech, but it was all either silly lies or merely incidental fluffery buttressing the theatrical performance. A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down-syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education.

Palin’s charge that "government is too big" and that Obama "wants to grow it" was similarly preposterous. Not only did her party just preside over the largest government expansion since LBJ, but Palin herself has been a typical Bush-era Republican, borrowing and spending beyond her means.
Her great legacy as mayor of Wasilla was the construction of a $15 million hockey arena in a city with an annual budget of $20 million; Palin OK’d a bond issue for the project before the land had been secured, leading to a protracted legal mess that ultimately forced taxpayers to pay more than six times the original market price for property the city ended up having to seize from a private citizen using eminent domain. Better yet, Palin ended up paying for the fucking thing with a 25 percent increase in the city sales tax. But in her speech, of course, Palin presented herself as the enemy of tax increases, righteously bemoaning that "taxes are too high" and Obama "wants to raise them."

Yeah this part is awesome as well:

"Then there are the salacious tales of Palin’s swinging-meat-cleaver management style, many of which seem to have a common thread: In addition to being ensconced in a messy ethics investigation over her firing of the chief of the Alaska state troopers (dismissed after refusing to sack her sister’s ex-husband), Palin also fired a key campaign aide who had an affair with a friend’s wife. More ominously, as mayor of Wasilla, Palin tried to fire the town librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, who had resisted pressure to censor books Palin found objectionable.

Then there’s the God stuff: Palin belongs to a church whose pastor, Ed Kalnins, believes that all criticisms of George Bush "come from hell," and wondered aloud if people who voted for John Kerry could be saved. Kalnins, looming as the answer to Obama’s Jeremiah Wright, claims that Alaska is going to be a "refuge state" for Christians in the last days, last days which he sometimes speaks of in the present tense. Palin herself has been captured on video mouthing the inevitable born-again idiocies, such as the idea that a recent oil-pipeline deal was "God’s will." She also described the Iraq War as a "task that is from God" and part of a heavenly "plan." She supports teaching creationism and "abstinence only" in public schools, opposes abortion even for victims of rape, has denied the science behind global warming and attends a church that seeks to convert Jews and cure homosexuals."

Palin hasn’t been too worried about federal taxes as governor of a state that ranks number one in the nation in federal spending per resident ($13,950), even as it sits just 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434). That means all us taxpaying non-Alaskans spend $8,500 a year on each and every resident of Palin’s paradise of rugged self-sufficiency. Not that this sworn enemy of taxes doesn’t collect from her own: Alaska currently collects the most taxes per resident of any state in the nation."

Does that seem a little two faced or maybe just someone that doesn’t pay attention to the facts? Is either better?

Make sure you talk about facts with friends… not the color of tie or the designer of the dress of the candidates. What they wear or even what they say means shit – it is their actions that dictate the response we can expect from them.

Oh and life is doing okay / better for me,
it looks like we (The Lan Party) are going to have one of our clients re-sign a contract labor form with us, another client just put a down payment on a website we are building, my brother is making good progress to settling himself back in Columbia, MO, and I am still enrolled in classes (and passing most if not all of them).

Much love to all my friends,

Jim