Anyone have any good plans for ringing in the new year? We really don't either. We are supposed to go to a friend's house tonight but, truth be told, I just can't seem to get myself excited about it. Maybe I just need to get moving and get the blood flowing. Maybe do some shopping later, and I'm sure a few shots at the party will do wonders too. lol In any case, I hope everyone has a very safe, happy, and prosperous new year.
Don't ask me how C-SPAN 2 ended up on our TV but we've been listening to Greg Simon spew to students from American University for about half an hour now. And what exactly is he talking about? The merits of raising gas prices to $4 an gallon again to subsidize other things. And why? Well one of his reasons is because the government knows how to spend our money better than we do. When it came up that people wouldn't be happy about the government raising the price he said it isn't about the individual but about the common good. OK what ever. Then when discussing the cons someone brought up high food prices and he said that people would just have to buy local and eat what is grown locally and in season. OK so how about the people that live in the North where fruits and veggies don't grow in the winter?
Here is the video. It's really long but you can watch bits and pieces of it to get an idea of what this putz was saying.
And by the way who is Greg Simon. Well if you watched any of the video you would know by now lol. Seriously though, he used to be the chief domestic policy advisor to VP Algore and has recently been named to Obama's transition team. Sign of things to come.
As we wait for Santa to arrive I surfing the Internet and I came across this article about President Bush and VP Cheney sending personal letters and privately visiting the families of fallen troops and visiting with wounded troops.
For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.
The First Lady on why these meetings were kept private:
The first lady said that many of the meetings have been kept private because "these are such personal times when people grieve. And we grieve with them. And these are not times when you would want a camera in the room or other people around. They are very emotional, personal times.
I like this story, love how the President took the time out of his day to just sit around with these two soldiers and just talk to them and visit with them beyond what was scheduled.
Some private meetings with soldiers have been publicized at the request of the soldiers themselves. When Mr. Bush met with Spc. Max Ramsey, who lost his left leg in 2006 while serving in Iraq, and Sgt. Neil Duncan, a double-amputee injured in Afghanistan in 2005, it was Sgt. Duncan who asked for news coverage.
"I wasn't sure my buddies would believe me," Sgt. Duncan said, joking with the president. When Mr. Bush had visited him at Walter Reed, the sergeant had vowed to run again, and did so on the White House South Lawn's jogging track in July 2007.
Although it was a Wednesday, Mr. Bush - who had scheduled a brief run - pulled the two soldiers through the trees to the White House pool after their jog.
"The group of us just sat there for like two hours maybe and chatted. On a whim, he just took two hours out of his schedule. ... We talked about personal things, how he feels about the war, what's been hard, what it's like being the president, some of the most difficult times for him. It was very, very cool - priceless."
When I read this article all I could think about was Obama and how he scraped his trip to visit wounded troops at Landstuhl when he found out the media couldn't follow him.
Speaking of Obama, he's on vacation in Hawaii staying at some multi-million dollar place but each morning he has taken the time to Marine Corp Base Hawaii. Are they there to meet with the Marines and their families? Are they there for a morale visit? Well that depends on whose morale we are talking about. They have been going there every morning to work out. After the workouts it's back to the multi-million dollar pads. What, you didn't actually expect them to stay there did you?
Obama and wife, Michelle, made their early morning trek to Marine Corps Base Hawaii just northeast of Honolulu as they had done during the last three days. After about an hour at the base on Wednesday where he went inside a gym for a workout, he walked over to greet more than 60 people who waited for him. The president-elect shook hands while onlookers took pictures with their cell phones and digital cameras.
The only reason these people got this impromptu photo-op with him was because they happened to know he was there and waited outside for him. Had they not been there then Obama wouldn't have been bothered to meet with anyone on that base. Once again he cares more to hit the gym than visit with the brave men and women that serve on the base. So much for a cause close to their heart. What's really sad is that only about 60 people bothered to show up.
"We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation.
So what he's saying is that they are trying to create a skating rink out of Seattle roads?
"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."
Correct me if I'm wrong here but is Puget Sound not a body of salt water? He makes it sound like they are dumping radio active waste on the streets and that Puget Sound is going to turn into a barren wasteland if they clear the streets with, god forbid, salt. By the way isn't salt a naturally occurring mineral that occurs in the water and the land? And I just love how he admits that if they used salt it would clear the streets right up; salt, dangerous substance we sprinkle on our food for flavor.
Seattle also equips its plows with rubber-edged blades. That minimizes the damage to roads and manhole covers, but it doesn't scrape off the ice, Wiggins said.
That leaves many drivers, including Seattle police, pretty much on their own until nature does to the snow what the sand can't: melt it.
The city's patrol cars are rear-wheel drive. And even with tire chains, officers are avoiding hills and responding on foot, according to a West Precinct officer.
Criminals of Seattle here is your chance!
Cheryl Kuck, spokeswoman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said her city prepared the streets last week with the "anti-icing" spray. Once the snow started, Portland used chemical de-icers, followed by plowing with 55 plows and treating trouble spots with sand and gravel.
Although the city had plowed 29 of its 36 major routes, "nothing is clear," Kuck said late Monday afternoon. "This is a difficult and challenging situation that's going to take us a long time to recover from."
And another environmentally nutty city refuses to use salt and nothing is clear, and it's going to take a long time to recover. Of course this wouldn't have happened if they used some salt.
If I lived there I would take my box of salt and sprinkle it out in the street in front of my house, hopefully start a trend with the neighbors. We did it in Germany once to clear the sidewalk in front of our building. It works, and it's so safe you can eat it! This is just ridiculous.
Actually it's been looking like Christmas but at my house we are officially ready for the holiday!
For the last two nights Little Dude and I have been candy making fools. We made pumpkin fudge (sounds weird but it is really really good), and pralines (it's been really hard not to eat it all lol) and tonight he wants to make more so I'm thinking we'll make chocolate fudge.
Today I braved the mob and finished my Christmas shopping. I woke up bright and early and made my way down to the mall, which was pretty empty that early, and took advantage of the sales to buy $500 in winter coats for $100. I love getting a good deal. Then I went from wally world to wally world looking for cammo seat covers for Army Dude's truck. There was only 1 left at the first one, so I left and went to the other store and they only had 1 left too. Do they order these in odd numbers or do people only buy 1? And who the heck would buy just 1 seat cover? Weird. So this time I bought the 1 seat cover and went back across town hoping that no one felt the need to buy just one seat cover.
Speaking of Christmas shopping, Little Dude and I went to Target the other day to do some more Christmas shopping, we were walking through the books when he spots a book with Obama on the cover. He picks up the book, reads the title, looks up at me and says: "Ugh mom, the last thing I want to see when I walk through the store is a picture of Obama on a book. That is one book I will not read. I just can't believe he is going to be our president!" OK, thanks seven year old dissenter. I keep telling him that those are things that a seven year old shouldn't worry about but at the same time it brings a smile to my face.
All that we have left to do is wrap all the presents, which for me is 100x's worse than having to brave mobs at the store and the traffic jams to get there. That will come tonight, unless something better comes up like another family tournament of Mario Kart!
Why I absolutely can't stand when the Obamas claim they care about the military so much.
I complained about it a few times during the campaign, especially when he would bring it up in the debates and then there was that clip where he said he would cut funding and another where he said he thought about joining the military once but didn't think it was important. And I would cringe every time I saw Michelle having a "town hall meeting" with spouses at military bases. It always seemed to disingenuous.
But according to Michelle military families are going to be one of her "issues" as first lady:
I would be honored to be first lady. I would work daily on the issues closest to my heart: helping working women and families, particularly military families.
Fast forward to the present day and the Obamas want to move into the Blair House (guest house across the street from the White House) early because their kids start school January 5. Unfortunately for them it will not be available until January 15, which is the traditional move in date for president elects.
OK, as part of a military family all I can think is cry me a river.
But it gets better! On Friday's Good Morning America they had a segment on this story and David Wright tells us the this little nugget of information:
The White House kindly offered up temporary accommodations on a nearby military base. The Obamas politely declined.
HA! Michelle dear, by either moving to Washington on the 15th or staying on the military base you'll finally have one thing in common with a military family: Uprooting your family at a not so convenient time for you school aged children or living in military housing (although you'd be staying in a much nicer house than most other military families). But I guess you are too good for either. I really get a kick out of the fact that they declined to stay on a military base when she says that military families are an issue close to her heart. I guess we are like a charitable novelty. One of those things that sound good in theory but god forbid you have to live where they do for 10 days (horrors!). She always seemed so insincere when talking to these military spouses, bored even. She never cared about them before but all of a sudden they are dear to her heart? I always thought she was trying to repair her image after saying she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life and that America was a downright mean country. And now I believe that even more.
So next time I hear her or Obama try to tell us that they support our military or that the military families are dear to their hearts I'm going to think about him saying he didn't think it was important to serve, that as president he'd cut defense spending and that they declined to stay on a military base when the Bush administration was trying to accommodate them in their desire to move to DC early and then I will throw up in my mouth a little.
If only I could get a raise every year no matter how dismal my performance (and it was up to me to decide to vote against it). That's exactly what congress gets to do this year.
According to the latest Rasmussen telephone survey Congress has an appalling 9% approval rating. That's embarrassing. And yet they voted themselves a raise, an extra $4700 for 2009. That comes out to a 2.8% raise next year. OK here's the deal, if you worked where I work and you had a 9% approval you'd be fired, forget the raise.
"Members of Congress don't deserve one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009," said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. "While thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, Congress should be mortified to accept a raise. They failed to pass most of their appropriations bills, the deficit is on pace to reach an unprecedented $1 trillion, and the national debt stands at $10 trillion. In addition, this Congress has been ethically challenged, plagued with corruption allegations, convictions, and sex scandals." "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) probably rues the day she so blithely promised that Democrats would 'lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.' Instead, there has been a relentless degradation of the ethics rules. While Congress has sat in judgment of everyone from oil company executives and financial services industry executives to domestic automaker CEOs, it has failed spectacularly to police itself.
And in the spirit of the season:
"If Congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should give pay raises to this rogue's gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked egg nog," concluded Schatz
By the way: Did anyone catch 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl say that Elmer Fudd is the smartest guy in Congress?
**NOTE CLICK PAUSE ON BOTH OF THE VIDEOS BELOW** They automatically start playing when you load the page and it's really annoying. Play when you are ready to watch and don't miss them.
This time last year there were so many yummy goodies on the table behind my desk that there wasn't room for anymore. This year we got one tin of yummy pecans (I was in pecan heven!) and that's been it. Hmmm...must be the economy.
Another sign of the times: I swear the insane are running the asylum! On sunday two cops tried to pull over a thug in a stolen SUV, which by the way they had reports that he had drugs and guns in said stolen SUV. When he wouldn't stop for them they boxed him in at which point is started raming the police cars. One of the officers had gotten out of his car to apprehend said thug who then tried to run the officer over. So the officer shot him in self defense. The people of the projects (where this upstanding young citizen tried to run from police and turned an SUV into a deadly weapon) rioted. When his family took him off life support, last night, they held a candle light vigil for the thug and then started throw bottles and rocks at the police. At one point an officer patroling in his car hear gun shots, turns out his car had been hit by a bullet. Thankfully he didn't get hit. I read some of the comments in the newspaper's story online and it was absolutely ridiculous, people saying things like he was trying to flee they should have let him go. Yes of course because we should let all criminals do as they please. And of course it's a racial thing, damn those racial cops, nevermind that of the two cops involved in the incident, one was African American the other was Hispanic. What I don't understand is why it is that when a known drug dealing thug who tries to run over a cop while fleeing in a stolen vehicle is shot in self defense riots break out and damned be the police; but if the officer wouldn't have shot the thug and he would have run over and killed the officer he would have been a cult hero in the projects. Where are the riots when a police officer is killed in the line of duty? Why are the no good piece of trash criminals exhalted and the people that go out there everyday and put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe treated like garbage? Here is a history of the arrest record of this fine young citizen:
By the way all the comments to this video are along the lines of his past doesn't matter, he did so much good and you are making him look bad. No he made himself look bad.
And the outrage!
Don't you just love when this guy says they can't fight these men with their guns. That's how he talks about the deputies. Here's a thought, quit breaking the law! It just seems so simple. Instead of inciting hate and the victim mentality why don't you teach your children to respect the law and to be good responsible citizens? And by the way, in one of the comments I read from the news paper today it said that witnesses said he was just stoped at the stop sign when he was shot, but notice the stolen vehicle is on the grass. I guess things must be different on that side of town, you don't drive on the asphalt you drive on the lawn.
Finally! Here are some pictures from the Chambliss rally last week:
This first one is a view of the line. This is actually about halfway through the line. Here we were standing at the corner, that building in the distance is the James Brown Arena.
We got a kick out of this sign:
Gov. Perdue introduced Senator Chambliss:
Senator Chambliss and his lovely wife:
And of course, the reason everyone got up bright and early to stand in line out in the cold, Gov. Palin:
It really was great, mother's took their young daughters, high school kids went with their friends, men and women both went wild when she came out. She really has gotten people into politics that normally would not be. I would be willing to bet that most people there that morning would not have stood out in below freezing temperatures if she was not going to be there. I wold have rolled over and gone back to sleep under my nice warm blankets myself.
I’m supposed to be working on an assignment for the Political Theory class I’m taking, not to mention the term paper I have due in a week. I can’t think of anything that I want to write and instead I find myself watching game shows with the Little Dude on GSN. We’ve been watching GSN (which is Little Dude’s new favorite channel) for the past 2 hours and I’ve come to realize that they will turn any and every idea into a game show. I’ve also come to realize that Little Dude is an old man trapped in a little kid’s body and that anything and everything will distract me from doing my school work. Earlier today Little Dude was in the yearly G’town Christmas parade, on the Cub Scout float. It was so much fun. There is nothing like a small town parade and this one does not disappoint. The starting point is in one of the first subdivisions when you come in to town, that’s where all the floats and bands line up, and it goes down past the fire and police department and city hall about two miles to the IGA. The participants throw candy to the crowd and if you sit in the right spot (right at the start of the parade route) you can get as much candy as you would going trick or treating with none of the effort. I have to download the pictures I took today and I’ll post some. Speaking of pictures, Army Dude downloaded all pictures that I had trapped in my camera. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some time to post pictures from the Saxby Chambliss rally. But first I want to finally get down to the Christmas tree farm and buy a wreath and work on these last two assignments for this term (yes really work on them). By the way I just got an email from the professor from the other class. I got an A on the final, add that to the fact that I got an A in all the assignments turned in and YAY!!! I survived that crazy lady’s class! HA!
There is a possibility that the Army Dude will be going somewhere in Korea that I can go with him. Last night we briefly talked about it but we didn't really go into details. We just talked about him possibly not finding out till he gets there and how it would be difficult for me to get everything situated here to go over there and do we really want to do that for one year. I think he's right, there would be an awful lot that I would have to do: get the house ready to rent, get our stuff packed and shipped, do something with the boat and four-wheeler, and so on. But then I thought about what a great opportunity this would be for the Little Dude to see a different part of the world (like really different not just Europe different) and I would love to get that opportunity for myself as well. Then I went back to thinking about having to leave everything here to go there for a couple of years only to come back here. And then I thought about how not many people get a chance to live there, and then I thought that this PCS (permanent change of station) is already putting a hold on expanding our family and if I go it would do so by an extra year. But it really would be an exciting opportunity. I don't know. And speaking of our family planning. I had the Little Dude young. And when I had him we said we would not have another one until he started kindergarten. When that time came I really didn't feel like I wanted another one, I guess I wasn't ready. Now I'm ready but it's a bad time. If he does go for a year that would put me at having another baby when I'm 30. I thought for sure that I'd have a second child when I was 26 maybe 27. When I think that I had Little Dude when I was 21 it seems like such a long time and it makes me wonder if maybe I waited too long. I don't realize how long we've waited until I think about what age I had my first and what age I would have my second.
What he fails to mention is that the Motor Trend Car of the Year is the Cadillac CTS MSRP for a base, manual transmission CTS: $34,420. Yeah let me run out and buy one of those. And the MPG is comparable to the MPG I get from my SUV. He makes a big deal about it being an award winning car but come on I don't care what Motor Trend says, a person is going to buy what they can afford and what they want.
As far as the safety goes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety There were 72 winners of the Top Safety Pick award. Of those 72 winners 55 are foreign vehicles (some of which are made in America by the way which the mayor very conveniently left out). I also thought it was interesting that there were no American made minivans, and most of the SUV's and pick-up trucks are foreign. Typical American vehicles you'd think that the American car makers would run away with those. Another interesting fact, Chrysler didn't have any Top Safety Picks, didn't they already get a bail out and paid it back and now are asking for another one? Why is that?
I have been super busy lately. That's why I haven't been able to post much, although, trust me, I have wanted to!
Like I said before, last week I got sick just in time for Thanksgiving and didn't start feeling better until Monday afternoon. While I was sick I slowed down on school work because I couldn't concentrate so now I have to pick up the pace. The term is almost done, today I did the final for the political geography class and now I have to finish working on the term paper for political theory which is due next weekend. We also have our town Christmas parade that little dude is going to be in again this year (we have to set up the float Friday too) and of course the SEC Championship is Saturday as well, ROLL TIDE! and next weekend is little dude's birthday. I can't believe he's going to be 7 already. Oh and did I mention the Army Dude has a new assignment. Looks like Korea. I don't really know what to think, I'm relieved in a way that we get to stay put but then again I want to go with him. I love to travel and to experience new places and Korea would be so cool. I've had a couple of friends who have been there that liked it and one of my good friends lived there when her dad was in the Air Force and she loved it too. We've done the year separation before so we know what that's about but it wont hit me until he leaves and we don't know when that will be.
What kind of people forget to vote in a run off election? People like me. After all these weeks of watching the commercials and hearing about the run off in the news and even going to the rally yesterday, today I forgot. Luckily I tuned into the news and they mentioned it yet again. So with half and hour to spare I ran out and voted.
Sunday evening, when we got back from our trip, The Army Dude checked our messages and told me I had one, it was a robo call from Michelle Obama, very funny. She said thank you for supporting her husband, then I deleted the message, obviously it wasn't meant for us because we didn't support him.
Yesterday we went to see Sarah Palin at the Saxby Chambliss rally. When we got there the line to get in was down to the corner, by the time we parked and got it line it was wrapped around the corner and half way down the block and there was a steady stream of people getting in line behind us. We didn't get too close because the floor was standing room only and I still wasn't feeling too great so we sat. Decent seats but I was just glad to be there. She was great, the energy in the place when she came out was great. She was the only one to get a standing ovation and she spoke longer than everyone else put together. I have some pictures but I haven't had a chance to download them. As soon as I do I'll put some up.
When we got home we decided to take a little nap and I was sleeping really good when the phone rings. When I answer it's Obama's voice urging me to vote for Jim Martin. What?? I got woken up for that!? Another robo call this time Obama of all people? It was actually rather creepy.
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