WTF: Another Week, Another Bitch or Five

What can I tell ya? Some stupidity just makes you "Hulk Out". Here's a short list of bitches that have me a little fired up lately...

The ECONOMY.

As you saw in my last post The Economy has me bitching, but I'm still doing a little research on that so you lucky readers here won't be subjected to that little slice of heaven just yet. Still mad, but still prepping. Onward...

GM AND SATURN.

Because of their money troubles, GM is making plans to dump or sell off the Saturn brand name. Who the boneheaded idiot up in the big silver tower in Detroit came up with that wonderful idea ought to be either fired for being an asshole idiot, or at best have their year end bonus (corporate bonuses will from now on be refer ed to as "boned-us")taken away and given to the Saturn marketing department. wait, actually, honestly both that idiot AND the Saturn marketing department deserve to go, and go quickly.
Saturn is one of the few bright spots out there in the GM stable, it's just that SO few folks realize this (apparently even their corporate heads refuse to realize this as well). Saturn, though they have had their defective design problems, and sad auto lines, was able to do one or two things totally right: 1) they stayed making the same car (the SL-1) for many, many years until they refined it and made it a quality product, and 2) Since they stupidly stopped making the SL-1 they have designed as good, or better products at a lower than average price structure, especially for a GM product.

Ask anyone who owned, or still owns an SL-1, you still see them on the road, they are quality cars, and frankly my little SL-1 is a TANK. I don't know of anyone who's owned one within the last three years of it's manufacture that does not love their car. A good portion of those people have actually gone on to purchase another Saturn based solely upon their love of the SL-1, and they will probably be faithful to the brand for a few more years to come. My second car is an Ion, and it is NOT designed nearly as well as the SL-1, I have had to pour a grand into it's upkeep within the last six months and need to take it into the shop again in fact, but I am already looking at buying an Astra as soon as a few more of my debts are gone.

Saturn's problem is that they stopped making the SL-1, PLUS they have yet to successfully market ANY of their cars to the public. Their marketing STINKS. I honestly cannot remember a single TV ad for Saturn that I liked- NONE. I bought my first SL-1 because a friend of mine swore by them. I bought it and have ran it into the found over a period of seven years now and have yet to do any kind of serious maintenance on it. It was a showroom sampler when I bought it, and loaded with options, easily affordable, and I think the only major thing that ever went wrong on the sucker so far is the electronic window switch went bad (but that was from me playing with it too much I'm sure). My Ion, on the other hand has had front wheel structural problems, a plastic window clip bust and have to be replaced, a circuit switch in the steering column replaced, my windshield wiper assembly totally replaced, and one or two other things done to it, all with about half the actual millage that my SL-1 has had. Still, it's been almost 5 years owned and I has not spoiled my taste for the Saturn brand a wit.

So, if you ask me, DON'T sell off the brand, REDEFINE it with the rep it;s earned from it's drivers who LOVE it. It fits a market (low end, practical users and first time buyers) and needs to be catered to it. There are SO many other makes and models you can trim before shitcanning the entire company. Oh, and you can stop making the Vue if you have to, either that or make it look a hell of a lot cooler. that MIGHT get me to buy one if it looked cooler. i would have bought the Astra by now if it looked a little sleeker. The wife likes it at least.

McSCREWED.

That double cheeseburger DID get jacked up around here, it only took them a couple of days to do it. McD's entire menu has been jacked up, all this AFTER the price of transporting their products has dropped, AND the fact that they've received a sales jump due to the economy and folks wanting to eat out and not spend- well, if they hit the McD's they'll be spending a little more than they did last week. Now all the other fast food chains are expected to follow, AGAIN after the cost of moving their products have hit a new low. For once i kind of agree with the sad Wal-Mart philosophy of keeping the price structure manageable- pound the supplier to pound their supplier to give them a cheaper price. McD's is officially the LAST place I'm buying fast food from now on. They join Wal-Mart and Circuit City for places I'd rather be dead than to walk into. McScew 'em!

COMICS.

There's an entire blog's weight in problems from this shoe sized industry that I just don't want to approach right now, but eventually will. There hasn't been any good reading out there in months, but on the plus side I have found a few books well worth my time. I'll tell you all about those as soon as possible.



MY BITCHY BLOG

Hey, sorry if you think I should 'lighten up" here in my blog. I speak my opinionated mind and TRY to have my opinions backed up by a little fact every once in awhile. I KNOW some of you would rather I speak about comics 24/7, and for that I have to admit that I write about what I give a shit about, and more and more lately it just doesn't include today's funny books. I stopped buying most of that crap, even though I love the art form, there's only so much shit you can put in the barn before you drive out the animals. I'm still trying to get up the energy to tell you about the Heroes I Miss, but I'll TRY to get more comic commentary here asap.

This whole political thing has had me in a tizzy, followed by our bungled economy and the fact that we as Middle Class Americans have been the primary ones screwed out of all this just pisses me off a lot, and as more and more of the Obama administration is revealed as the old Clinton administration my thought about my country and my livelihood are dimming in their cheeriness.

I hope Obama at least tries to live up to his promise of "change" without screwing us any more. After looking around this area I honestly don't know how much more we can take.

On the plus side my interest rates on my credit card(s) and the evil equity loan has dropped considerably, allowing me to keep paying the same and yet pay off more of the principle. I want to say it helps me see the light at the end of the debt tunnel a little clearer, but I'm a cynical monkey and know that that exit has a tendency to move farther away at times. Enough bitching I have work to do. More here when I can- till then...

WAKE UP!

Middle Class War

I gotta hand it to all the freakin' spinners out there; "Bail-Out, No Bail-Out" crappers who really haven't taken the time to look and research it all, to TRY to wrap there heads around just what has been happening here, in out local area, in our state, in our country, in our world, but most of all in our very way of life.

I'm from FLINT, you think we're just heading into a recession, and the economy is just a little unstable PLEASE STOP BY. Our economy has been on a slow and steady decline since the late 70's and all we did was shoot (and bad spin) the messeger. Michael Moore will tell you that he's not "from" Flint anymore (really he was from Davison, a suburb of Flint), he lives in Traverse City, WAY north, and MUCH more quiet and secluded from Flint. You see, FLINT's the place that GM screwed in the late 70's. I know because I was around to see it. Flint was THE birthplace of the "middle class" the beginning of the "middle class disposable income", and the first city to feel the economic pinch way, way back when.

When I was a kid all the shop workers had cabins "up north", bought the latest recreational toy, populated an incredibly high per capita fleet of bars and strip clubs, baby we had it GOOD. Late 70's, when GM started outsourcing, I watched as a tap was turned on draining the area of the money brought to us, not only by industry but by the working man's capitalizing on that industry and "getting them some". I was offered admittance into "the shop" TWICE and turned them both down, primarilly for my sanity, but I was also lucky in that EVERYONE my age that went into "The Shop" when I would have were all caught up in the first waves of lay-offs during the Carter administration. I was that guy running the local bookstore chain that was capitalizing on everyone else's misery by selling them Houston papers, wrapping papers, and racing forms.

Later on, through the 80's and a failed marriage, I worked as an art department in a few t-shirt print shops (an experience both happy and rewarding as well as tedious and stressful- not from the work as much as the employers)and watched as our local economy settled out a little. Times were a bit better, but not because our local economy was better, but because we made them better by working harder and earning more money. I stayed sane working in an artform that I loved on a mostly part time basis, but living and breathing comics was what kept me sane.

The 90's were different. I watched as the art form that I loved decayed into a state of near nothingness. Where a readership of over 1000 meant unusual success, and Flint struggled on with systematic lay-offs and a manufacturing industry that was still bleeding, albeit a little slower at some times than others. The Clinton years saw housing values rise, even depressed area's property values. and a stock market where folks could make a little jing on that new fangled internet. There was a guy back then name of Perot that was spun into being a mad man, chastised for warning everyone that that new NAFTA agreement Clinton was signing would spell doom to our national economy, and there would be a "Giant Sucking Sound" of jobs running south of the border and elsewhere as we people suffered a slow economic drain EXACTLY like the one I've been watching happen in Flint for the previous 15-20 or so years.

The century turned and I voted for a new president to come in and add a little dignity to a job that was demeaned by a guy getting a BJ in his office. There would be change, and a new definition of America as we knew it running square into the new century of growing wealth and oppurtunity. Oh yeah, we forgot in all that spin to realize that that oppurtunity would come at the cost of our freedoms, rights, personal income growth, and many more middle class youngsters who would give their lives uselessly on what everyone now says was "bad intell" on some despot(or 3 or so)that we gave money and power to in the hopes of...really...in the hopes of what exactly? Honestly, what were we out to acheive and did it work?

Makes you think that Alex Jones (look him up!) isn't such a madman after all doesn't it? Who out there is crying asnd pointing about a "War On The Middle Class"? I was talking about it for YEARS before CNN made up their little graphic and Lou Dobbs decided that there was ratings into it. But then again I was looking at it from a Flint perspecitve, from growing up listening level-headedly to folks like Perot and Michael Moore and looking around considering both sides of their spin and making up my own mind for myself as to just how valid they were (and still are).

I'm talking the REAL Michael Moore here, NOT the liberal characature that his name has been spun into, believe me when I tell you that they are 2 SEPERATE things. Go read his stuff for yourself, free of any spin, and decide on your own. Sit and watch Roger and Me...but wait I digress and Moore is another posting for perhaps another time...

Back to point here, I'm from Flint, I KNEW about the "War On The Middle Class" YEARS ago. All I had to do was watch it happen. I LAUGHED at Bush saying our economy was sound. I KNEW McCain would NEVER have the guts/balls/stupidity to come here to campaign (and yes, I was SHOCKED to see Obama here as well, and the more I think about that...well...that copuld turn out to be as bad a mistake as voting for Bush...), I watched with my own eyes as the spicket on our local economy was turned wide open YEARS ago when folks started treking the hell outta town in greater numbers. I voted against Bush the second time because all I had to do was look around, I voted against out Governor the last time for the same reasons. Nice to see folks finally saying we're in a reccession, I say "Where the HELL have you been?!" As Flint goes, so goes the national economy, and I can tell you folks that we haven't seen the bottom of this hole yet not by a LLOONNGG shot! If you think it's bad now, just wait to watch how many retail stores go out right after Xmas, THEN tell me about how "sound" our economy is!

I say we as Americans SHOULD rebel, but not against our system as much as the people running it, and ESPECIALLY against all the sad spinners out there trying to say we are okay and that things are fine. Those folks that are telling you how great our economy is are only saying that untill they shore up their wealth, and then they're outta here and we all can go to hell.

The "War" hasn't only begun, we're way into it and we've already lost a number of key battles.

More on this as I get fired up and start to gather a little evidence. What, you didn't think I wouldn't want to prove my point here? In the meantime do us all a favor and

WAKE UP!

stay tuned!

Mc Not Screwed yet (Update)

So much for the British newspapers. Our local McDonalds has yet to raise their prices on the ol' Double Cheeseburger. Only time will tell I suppose. Still, I find myself going to McDonalds less and less, and it's not a matter of money (yet), just a matter of taste I suppose.

More as it becomes available. Just not much to write about here at the moment. As soon as I have something useful I'll let you know. Till then...

Wake Up!

McScewed (AGAIN!)

Well, apparently it's official. The McDonalds Double Cheeseburger will most likely no longer be a buck as of next Monday (December 1st). It will now be $1.19 on most menus. Apparently that 6 cent slice of cheese they normally charge all of us fifty cents to put on most anything else is just eating them alive.

I accidentally stumbled across the notice here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3523555/McDonalds-hikes-price-of-cheeseburgers.html

Via a little Farking (www.fark.com).

Enjoy your dollar Double Cheeseburgers while they last. McDonalds is already contemplating introducing "The Double" that will have two burger patties with one slice of cheese between them, probably for the same price as the newly hiked Double Cheeseburger. Apparently the meat of the cow is cheaper to grind up than the residue from the byproduct from squeezing their tits, once again porving that life is cheap, but milking always comes with a price.

This will effectively knock my McDonalds visits WAY down, as I have prteviousaly bitched that you can't get a breakfast there for under four bucks anymore, let alone a Quarter Pounder Combo for under five. This at a time when McDonald's revenue is actually going UP becuase more people are choosing to east out there as opposed to those other more yuppie places like Bennigans and TGI Fridays.

The greedy bastards.

WAKE UP!

Thanks, Now GET STUFFED!!

Hey, again it's been awhile since adding anything here, and again I'd like to say that there IS a LOT more in the pipeline, it's just that I've been a little hectic as of late trying to make a little jing as well as working on a new project that is very near and dear to my heart, not to say that this blog is not "near and dear" mind you, just that this has to come first. Hopefully, with the holiday weekend upon us, I will be able to catch up a little and schedule a few things here, so sorry things have been sparse, just keep checking back and I'll try to get something here shortly.

Till then, it's TurkeyDay, hope all of you are well on your way to getting stuffed!

Wake Up!

WTF?!

WTF?? - The Economy


So when did a Quarter Pounder meal get over 5 bucks?? Or, worse still, and Egg McMuffin meal jack to over 4?? I just got my last McD breakfast this morning, and have to tell you that when a QP meal is more expensive than a lap dance around here, there's something VERY wrong- and it ain't with the lap dance price either.

I have the feeling that a LOT of the corporations have developed the same sales philosophy as the gas suppliers and they're leaning on the excuse of the fuel hike to jack up their prices. I. like most Americans, will be voting against these hikes with just not buying anything I think is too expensive. Seriously, CD's that used to be 10 or 11 dollars are now 15? Those were too expensive at 10! No wonder the music industry is crying. Shit like that actually encourages folks to subscribe to Itunes and not even attempt to listen to any new music.

You see the gas prices are dropping slowly while at the same time I can't help but see consumer prices jacking up to more than fill the void. Folks, we're going to be in this so-called recession for some time to come. any company that wants to jack prices like that will have to work twice as hard to earn my business back. Why have a FOUR DOLLAR Egg McMuffin meal when I can get the Breakfast Special at my local greasy spoon for the same price with MUCH better quality food? Frankly it just doesn't make sense.

One the positive side I have become SO much more price weary, and that's a good thing. Plus I've learned that I can go through the grocery store and NOT but a lot of junk food because I can't stomach paying the extra 50 cents or buck, or cheesier still, do with MUCH less product for the same or slightly higher price, especially from the bigger corps. These folks have thrived for YEARS on shaving their overhead, their work force, and their quality of goods while at the same time jacking their prices right up to the limit of what the market can bear to move their shit. It's not that they're losing money with the price of diesel jumping, its that they're making LESS money per item. NOW they'll be making even LESS money since they've not only jacked up their prices, but they'll have to go out of their way to justify the expense to the consumers in there penny pinching times. THEN, after they've seen that folks are really not that attached to their product, they'll be forced to discount AND up their advertising. Apparently Mc Donald's isn't happy that their sales had shown an increase because of our economic hard times, they have to keep their profit percentages at the same level and jack up their prices. Well, I literally ain't buyin'!

WTF?- The Geeks HAVE inherited the Earth!


According to the Huffington Post, as well as other sources that I've tracked to a German newspaper that actually asked the question. President Elect Barak Obama is actually a big comic book geek and that most of us fellow comic geeks probably walked past him at a Chicago Comic Con at one time or another. How cool is that?? He collects Spider-man and Conan, apparently mylar snugs them and files them into comic long boxes. That kind of explains the Alex Ross portrait that popped up many months ago. Finally I HAVE to wonder if he ever read any Arrow Comics (being here in the Midwest and all), and if he's got any Spank The Monkey comics in his collection. Kinda makes the fur on the back of my neck rise thinking about it.

Gotta wonder two things: Does and/or will this raise comic's visibility any higher, and will such comic masters as Will Eisner or Jack Kirby get some sort of honors recognition for their contributions to American culture now that the President (Elect) uses that medium as a source of entertainment? There's a potential world media making article for the first comics oriented website or magazine that can get five minutes of Obama to discuss his hobby. One informed columnist (who's name escapes me and I'm sorry for not properly referencing him because his column was very good) also poses the question of whether or not Obama will be thinking that great Stan Lee tag line when he's being inaugurated "With great power comes great responsibility". Somehow I think he's already considering that with most every decision he's made over the last few years.

WTF?- Spank Blog

Again, apologies for not being more prolific here. My last few weeks have been especially hectic between paying work and getting a mock-up together for a project that I'm still not quite ready to talk about, but it's pretty cool and it seems to be working out, and I'm working hard not to get too excited about it because whenever I get excited about a good looking project it usually falls through the floor. So mum's the word, and we'll see what happens.

What's happening for me is the Xcape-Con this weekend, where if all goes well I'll be announcing the above mentioned project, so wish me luck. For more info in them check out Xcapecon.com. Hope to see most of you there...Maybe SOME of you...ANY of you??

Till then, I'll post whenever I can, I STILL have a good 5-6 Heroes I Miss illos done and ready to go if I can I'll try to get another one of those up here before too long, plus I'm almost done with another Comics My Way rant- so until then...

Wake Up!

HEROES I MISS: Adam Strange

Truly a metaphor of what was so right and then so wrong with the mainstream comic market, ADAM STRANGE remains one of my personal favorites, and yet at the same time most disgusted and frustrated hero properties in the DC Universe. Adam Strange went from genius to misunderstood to sheer waste in his career, and comics are much worse off for the attempt.

Starting as a kind of heroic science fiction adventurer in the pages of DC’s Showcase series (#17, December 1958) Adam Strange was a modern day world traveling archaeologist, traveling the world in a quest for knowledge when, in an opening so much like Raiders of The Lost Arc, he was being chased off a cliff by the local spear throwing natives and was suddenly hit by a mysterious light that transported him to the far planet of Rann. Once having the alien language implanted into him, he becomes involved with Sardath, a single father-mad scientist type (responsible for shooting the zeta-beam ray to earth in an attempt to teleport earth artifacts to him for study), and his lovely daughter Alanna who, in true heroic fashion, is the most beautiful woman Adam has ever seen. What follows are a number of Flash Gordon style adventures with Adam, armed with rocket pack and ray-gun (staples of most any heroic space opera stories of the day) defending Rann from all sorts of baddies using his imagination (something Rann apparently had in short, short supply- as well as guts), until the Zeta Beam wears off, transporting him back to Earth. Luckily Sardath has been making a number of Zeta beam attempts as Adam continues to tack their hit points on Earth, enabling him to return to Rann every chance he gets to do the same thing over and over again.

When I was younger my parents wouldn’t allow me to read superhero comics because of the violence. It took a little bit of explaining to my mom to convince her that Adam Strange really wasn’t a superhero as much as a science fiction space man. Having only appeared in Showcase for the usual 3 issues, Adam Strange them went to the lead spot in DC’s sci-fi anthology book Mystery In Space, then later on, when I was first reading comics, his adventures were reprinted in Strange Adventures (another sci-fi anthology that for whatever reason, DC kept printing long into the 70’s, even though most of the reprints they did were firmly planted in the 50’s). I read a couple of year’s worth of Adam Strange before I read most other superheroes. Sure, the stories were basic formula: get to Rann- hug Alanna- find trouble, solve trouble, and before he could really enjoy his time with Alanna he was teleported back to earth. Thinking about it, it was again a metaphor, this time for most relationships between boy and girl at the time: hang around- fight off all the barriers to get her alone, then just as you were about to get some- the ultimate put off and you were left to try to get to a base on your next date.

It WAS formula, but it remains a solid and entertaining one, and one that with a reboot on DC’s end could be VERY viable given today’s writing structure. Imagine a younger- early twenties Adam doing his lonesome globetrotting waiting, measuring, trying his best at predicting just where that Zeta-beam was going to hit so he could be once more teleported to his true love on Rann, only to meet with whatever catastrophe found there to fight, then in eternal frustration, never knowing just when the Zeta Beam would wear-off- if you leave it more unpredictable, never quite keeping to a time schedule, the possibilities for drama here would be endless. The ultimate young adult story, especially keeping the odd 50’s sci-fi elements when he is on Rann- making them all the more alien and bizarre, it could easily once again become a space-opera style romance/adventure strip.

Instead of keeping the chase alive, and trying to keep a fresh, more modern to this concept DC incorporated Adam Strange into the DC Universe proper, actually marrying him off in the mid to late 80’s to Alanna, and changing his body chemistry, if memory serves me correctly, so that he could never set foot on earth without dying. Now he his some oddball space policeman/protector/leader of the Rann army, decked out in more fierce armor, with a much bigger gun and armor. Gone is the romance, gone is the “fantastic” elements that made the series a joy to read, but most disappointingly of all, gone is the QUEST. The continual FIGHT Adam had in pursuing his own private happiness, not only on Earth, but also on Rann and with Alanna. He is no longer the hero that I knew and loved. That’s where my true frustration comes in. I miss those elements that made him unique and nostalgic to me, elements that could easily be VERY attractive to new readers, particularly I suspect a female audience. DC has from time to time, tried to attract such an audience in the past and they always seem to fail miserably (I’m planning a “Comics My Way” posting soon to address that, so stay tuned if you’re interested).

Classic Adam Strange reprints hold MUCH more than a good formula story. Once his feature was moved from Showcase to Mystery In Space Carmine Infantino became the penciller on the series. It is definitely one of his very best works, especially when Murphy Anderson is inking him and the majority of those old stories have them together- VERY classic stuff there. Additionally most of the stories (if not all of them) were written by comic’s veteran (and sci-fi plotter extraordinaire) Gardner Fox. It is one of those rare occurrences of top-notch talent working on a top-notch concept- he has never looked or read as good as with them three on him, in fact any story of Adam Strange without one of those three on it just seems a pale imitation.


DC, in a rare case of intelligence, acknowledges how great this series was with multiple reprints of this classic series, in hardbound Archive editions, as well as at least one Showcase Presents volume to date. There’s only enough good stuff to last one more Showcase Presents volume, and I sincerely hope they get around to producing that soon. If you get the chance either one of those reprint venues are great to read and I recommend them both highly, and know they are all available on Amazon. Take it from me, the Adam Strange currently shown in the DC Universe is also a pale imitation of what was, and we as comic readers are MUCH worse off because of it.

Enjoy, and WAKE UP!

Election Wrap-Up / Final Sign Update

Well, it's the next morning and I have to say I awoke with a LITTLE more confidence in the thinking ability of my fellow countrymen. C'mon, is there ANY coincidence that McCain took those states with the lowest education levels? Just askin.

Well, it's done now- THANK GOD!! We can get back to the really important topics, like Comic Books, cool shit in general, and of course- titty bars (whick I appologize for not having a whole lot of here before now- a sitiation I will be working hard to correct- lol!).

McSame and Failin are due for obscurity. Watch and see if McCain survives his current term, let alone get elected to another one, and the same goes for Palin. She has scandal following her enough to last her the rest of her term at least.

I do have to ask and wonder- when's Bristol's wedding? Will she even have one considering her impregnator's unwillingness for marriage- now that the spotlight is a little removed perhaps it will fizzel away, much like her mom's footnote in history.

To me, after seeing this campaign, the Republicans will have to go a LONG way to convince me that ANY candidate they try to introduce to the public is viable, let alone votable for. The Republican side of this campaign has left a shitstain that will not soon be removed from any descent person's conscience, especially any one with enough sense to back up whatever "fact" they might be spewing or spinning.

I'm seriously going to try to stay as far away from politics as I can for awhile.


FINAL McSAME SIGN UPDATE

On Halloween I sold another three signs, then on Monday sold one of the signs from my yard. This morning (Wednesday- the day after the election) I meant to pull up the last sign in my yard and place it in my garage (right next to the Ron Paul sign I still keep out there), but before I could get to it (around 10:30 am) somebody lifted the sign, pole and all, and made off with it. I figured somebody just doesn't have any sense of humor about them at all. Either that or THEY wanted a souvenier and decided that taking the sign was just what they needed.



Still, the final tally for the sign are: 9 sold, one given away, and two stolen. If you are the one that took it, you owe me at least 5 bucks.

Once more, if I had only thought of this about 2 months ago I might have made a small fortune from doing them.

I'll know better for next time.

And here "Next Time", no more politics. at least for a llooonnnggg while!

Wake Up!

Obama: "Brothers Should Pull Up Their Pants."

One of the coolest interviews I've seen from Obama, and it kind of hits close to home as Flint Police's feelings on saggy pants and making it against the law continues to get press nationwide:

MTV Shows

Just thought I'd share.

11/04/08: The Day The Earth Stood Still

I find it strangely ironic that the day before the election (yesterday) that the 2 most major events to happen in each other's political camp were really the obvious themes to me throughout the entire campaign.

First off Obama's Grandmother, a woman VERY close to this man's heart, so much so that he suspended his campaigning a few weeks ago to go visit, passed away. To mark the event, only a day before the election, Obama did what any responsible, presidential candidate so close to winning the election, and yet knowing that so much was riding on HIM, would do: he kept going. Not only did he keep going, but he only mentioned his grandmother's death in passing, swearing not to dwell on it for very long. In all truth, from most of what I've been able to glean from all the reading and research, and trying to sift out from all the hype and shitslinging- he acted presidential about it all. Time to grieve later, right now there's business to do.

On the other hand, again to emphasize and amplify the quality of the difference between the two camps, Sarah Palin was acquitted of wrongdoing for her role in the so-called "troopergate" scandal by a bipartisan commission yesterday. If you weren't looking you might have missed that out of the mainstream media- from what I saw it's just hitting the main news desks now and only a few late night pundits mentioned it last night that I saw. As a PRIME example, again of the quality and tone that this campaign has been waged in, this decision is probably rushed out to try to make some effect IN the media, and admittedly probably ignored by most media, in the hopes of swaying a voter or two in favor of the "pitbull with lipstick". A "pitbull" who swears she ain't goin' nowhere and will probably make a stab at the presidential post in the year 2012. I am taking the UNDER on that bet- it probably ain't gonna happen and I'll tell you why in a sec. Right now I want to finish my analogy on this campaign...

Ok, Palin was found "innocent" on Troopergate, but wait, just a few weeks before she was found by the state of Alaska's judicial board to have definitely broken at least one ethics violation in this mess, so, you ask- "WTF?". Well, the non-partisan board that cleared her yesterday was entirely appointed by HER, and she KNEW they were going to make a ruling on her case, and I'm sure she was hoping they would have made that announcement a few days earlier, but low and behold- SOMETHING held that decision up until it couldn't be used to back up her Vice Presidential run. THERE'S a coincidence in a world where most believe that there are no coincidences. Now, if all the polls are any indication she's probably heading back to Alaska to live, at least for the next four years, right? On a final note, this was a commission that she herself 'lawyered up" on, on the VERY day she wagged the dog on her "Bristol's Pregnant- please give my family some privacy" memo to the press.

To sum it all up, as I see it, Obama, business as usual- business in the face of tragedy, but business as usual. For Palin- Thank you lawyers for getting me cleared, but God Damn it, why couldn't I have used this to have an effect on how I look in the polls and the voting booth!". To me this "Professionalism VS. Legalese Sleeze" honestly sums up the way I see both of these campaigns running. One can still do what he has to even in the face of losing loved ones, while the other props up her loved ones in front of the media in order to divert attention from the real problems and their legal manipulations to fix them. By now, you have no doubt of who I just went and voted for- and this from a staunch Ron Paul supporter to boot.

On Palin and her running wherever; This is the real rub to all of this. Her record is open for anyone to uncover. All it takes is a reading of her entry in Wikipedia, a little "between the lines" reading and some media watching, with full "spin filter" on on any media show you watch and/or listen to. Palin was a FLAWED candidate from the get-go. Just a pair of legs connected to a record that was far from "pitbullish" as much as it was corporate ass-kissing. Any person naive enough to believe that Palin was THE choice for McCain has honestly got to re-educate themselves on just how our "wonderful" political parties work. Seriously. If it was McCain's choice to make he would have chosen Lieberman, ran on his more liberal record and told the neo-cons to goosestep in line. Instead he flip flopped over the last four years, backing Bush's policies, just to get the RNC nod for Presidential Hopeful, was TOLD who his running mate was by the RNC (It's already public knowledge that McCain had only met with Palin one or two times before he announced her as VP choice), in order for this train wreck to move forward to its' inevitable conclusion. One that if the polls are dead on or close to accurate will leave McCain AND Palin impotent for the rest of their political lives, what little there will be left of them. "Mr. McCain, I'm sure you know Mr. Kerry (who?), and Ms. Palin, I'm sure you know of Mr. Quayle...those are both of their footsteps you will more than likely be following, and those are their footnotes in political history that will not only be slightly above yours, but will likely be slightly longer".

I tell folks that Palin was mayor of Wasilla (a town literally 5/8 the size of Flushing Michigan), she took their budget from a surplus to a 25 million dollar hole over a sports complex built by the construction company that built their house (for next to free- again "coincidence"?), and the residents in Flint Michigan just signed a recall petition on their mayor- forcing another election- and He's only dealing with a NINE million dollar hole-in a citer that is lierally FIVE times bigger than Wasilla- go figure. Palin served on the gas and regulatory board where she met a LOT for big oil execs, and preceded a republican incumbent into the Governor's chair using not only those connection but also help from her mentor, the newly indicted Senator from Alaska, Mr. Stevens (who is up one what, SEVEN counts of perjury). Plus, she used the money originally earmarked for that "bridge to nowhere" to cut property taxes in Alaska a whopping SIXTY percent- an advantage that not only bumped her approval rating but made some big land owner oil coprporations REALLY HAPPY. Not only that, but she literally stepped on the republican graves of the mayor, oil commissioner, and Governor that proceeded her, playing this hardball "slit your throat" tactics that seem to stem more from a "woman scorned" perspective more than anyone looking to play the political party game. To me that doesn't make her a "Maverick" by ANY measure- just a back stabbing bitch. Am I the only one who thinks that her entire VP run was a set-up by the RNC? Literally a "win-win" situation for them and played upon her thirst of power to make her totally political impotent. Face it, if she won the VP spot- she's got no real power, and if she losses, she's branded a loser in everyone in the party's mind- "allowed" to finish her term as Governor in SHAME and all the while one scandal after the next will continue to plague her until she retires (she's still got a lot of Wasilla 'splainin' to do) . I think the RNC HATED her, they HATED McCain (who to me was a solid pussy to kiss RNC ass for four years just to get a spot that seems to be taking him nowhere), and they LET him run a down and dirty, shitslinging campaign because that's all that was really left for him to do. What?, he was going to run on message, with a solid by-the-book, full of solutions plan? GET REAL! He couldn't run on his record (and all those flip-flops), he couldn't run on his reputation (knowing full well that if Hillary was his opponent all we would be hearing in the media would have been "Keating 5" over and over again), so he ran the only campaign he could, one of negativity, shitslinging, fear mongering, and hatred. I not only hope he loses, but that he loses BIG!! Again, all this not only from a staunch Ron Paul supporter, but one who voted for Regan, and both Bush's (one time apeaice- I DID vote for Kerry last election).

I, like all of you who give half a shit, await the outcome of this election with baited breath. Either way, not only is history made, but the shape of the world will shift, ideologically, thematically, and even economically. The way we are looked at from outside our borders will be reassessed and we will turn in one direction or the other but things won't be exactly the same as they are today. In the immortal words of the immortal Bill Hicks, "We have a choice, right now, right here, between fear and love, right now, make a choice."



WAKE UP! please.