Long time, no ranting. I'm not sure if most of you are taking the time to watch the early debates, but here's my observations: Republicans pandering to the shallower thinkers by asserting that only they support our troops, understand that the world is a dangerous place, believe in God, etc. If you are a conservative voter - demand actual depth in your nominee's positions. Democrats offering

As you have no doubt heard, in the US, the Democrats have reclaimed the House of Representatives and are a single close race away from a majority in the Senate. Now for my open note to the Democratic party... You almost certainly were put in power due to the abysmal performance of the Republicans with regard to foreign policy - most specifically the war in Iraq. So, your #1 priority is to do

Well, tomorrow morning, many of us (in the US at least) will drag ourselves to random schools, churches, and community centers to pull levers, touch screens, or otherwise make a choice. It doesn't matter if you think the right has taking the country in an awful direction, that the left would throw a parade for terrorists, or that it is all a waste of time...get out there and make your choice.

As if anyone with a pulse could have missed this, in the US we are about to have our 'mid-term' elections. These are the elections that occur on even years between our presidential elections. Up for election are 1/3 of our Senators and all of our House of Representatives. In addition there are countless State and local elections. What I've decided to take time to talk about here is being

You ever hear something so outside the realm of what you thought was possible that it takes you quite a bit of time to even react? As I'm sure you've all heard by now, our government here in the good old Land of the Free; Give me liberty or give me death; etc. etc. is collecting information on every domestic phone call they can get their hands on. Before, people got upset about illegal

Oh, I made it to Colorado for anyone who read my last post. I'm even starting to get used to seeing mountains instead of corn fields out the windows. Well, on to today's post - the controversy on the 'Happy Holidays' trend. I've heard a steady rumbling lately of people who celebrate Christmas who seem to see a 'trend' of groups/stores/etc. using the 'Happy Holidays' tag versus the more

My wife had her class reunion this past weekend and a conversation with an old classmate of ours made me think. Currently, we live in Indiana. We are planning soon to move to Colorado. This friend of ours said, incredulously, something to the effect of "You're moving from one red state to another red state?"...I should probably mention that she's probably even more liberal than either myself

Let me start by saying this as clearly as I can...I am a car guy. I eat, breathe, and live automobiles. Nothing brings me more joy than a well executed car - whether that be from a spirited drive down a curvy back-road, taking an inordinate amount of time to wash, polish, and otherwise obsess over every contour and finish, or even just dreaming of cars I'd love to drive and likely never will.

It looks like the Republicans are at it again... Can we all agree that there is not all that much oil in Alaska? That oil exploration there is nothing but a political ploy to put up the appearance of trying to work toward energy independence without actually doing anything hard? There is currently legislation pending that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling...

Well, the math was pretty hard to argue with and now we are officially on the road to the second 4 years of George W. Bush. Of course, if you thought the first four years showed reckless disregard for what the rest of the world and progressive minded folks like myself thought...just wait until you see what GWB not needing to keep enough people happy to get re-elected will look like. Thanks

I stood in line for a good hour waiting to vote this morning (went at 10am to try to avoid the before-work and at-lunch rushes, didn't seem to do much good). Heard the poll workers panicking about possibly running out of ballots (oh boy, just what we need - that kind of controversy)...they said the fewest number of people in line was 8 when they opened the doors at 6am. There were a good 100

Part 2 in my 'Breaking it Down' series about the issues in the US Presidential Election - Tax policy and Jobs. Sorry for the late post - I hope some of you find this helpful. Okay, regardless of what you attribute the recession we have gone through in the past 3 years...it was up to the current administration to take action to help minimize the impact and move the economy back out. That is

Well, here we are. Election day 2004. A day of newscasters trying to fill hours of TV about what might, should, could happen at the end of the day when all the votes are counted. I'll have my taxes and jobs article posted in a couple hours for anyone that might want to read my take on the Bush tax policy and the economy. To all you registered voters out there...I don't care about your

This is the first in a series of 'Breaking it down' posts I plan on making in the couple remaining days before the US Presidential Election. I plan on trying to cut through the clutter of finger-pointing and fear-mongering that has done nothing but confuse the issues facing the US. I hope that in some small way, this might help people get a clearer view of the issues at hand and help them

The folks over at JibJab.com have put together another satire poking some good natured fun at the presidental candidates. Take a look over at JibJab and enjoy.

I know the current presidential campaign has made many draw a line in the sand and vilify the other side of the political spectrum. Dems have George W. painted as a big-business loving, environment hating, right-wing Christian flunky. Republicans see John Kerry as a threat to the safety of the nation and to their moral and economic values. Tonight on PBS, Frontline is airing a 2-hour

If y'all will let me rant about something a bit outside the charter of my blog... What, pray tell, could possibly possess someone to think that reading a newspaper and driving is a good idea? I'm not talking about at a traffic light or with no one in front of him...this was a guy in a mid-90's Ford Explorer (it just had to be an SUV, didn't it?), at least 50mph and maybe 3 car lengths off

Okay, let's delve into a topic that has been beaten into the ground - yet, when taken to its simplest form - still bears discussion... Iraq. Basically, there are two schools of thought on the war in Iraq. 1) The war is a logical next step in the US war on terrorism. 2) Iraq was a war that the Bush White House had decided was going to happen before 9/11 and terrorism (and the fear

Not a whole lot of time to post today, but I thought I'd mention a documentary I watched last night and would recommend to anyone wanting to see some of the possible pitfalls of having too much power in the hands of a few media companies. Produced by MoveOn.org, OUTFOXED talks about the Right-wing biased news organization that is the Fox News channel. I guess some people, who've been duped

Hmmm, here's something I find interesting... MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are both 527 organizations (527's are non-profit political organizations, often using donations to run political ads and perform voter drives). For a list of the top 50 527's - take a look at OpenSecrets.org's list. You may notice that most of them (and certainly the largest) are Democratic leaning

I think it is fair to say that John Kerry would like to be president. It would also probably be fair to say that his campaign staff are a bright bunch of people. Why is it, then, that the Kerry campaign doesn't seem all that interested in really getting the word out what Kerry is about and what he would do if elected? The one complaint I've heard about the Democratic National Convention and

I'm fed up...at middle America. This morning, I listened to a news story on my way to work. In the story, they spoke with a woman from Missouri who is voting for George W Bush because of his morals. Specifically she referred to his stand on gay marriage and his 'honesty and integrity' - Hello?! I have heard this several times now, that people are going to vote for Bush because of his