eric135

Well now we know how they throw down a party in Sparta

I've watched another night of the Republican Convention.

• I was not very impressed with the reaction to the CEO of eBay and HP. The speeches were not all that inspiring, and it didn't seem as though anyone in the audience was paying attention.
• I thought too much of the convention was devoted to the polarization of America into two camps, the Liberals vs. the Conservatives.
• While I don't think terrorists deserve any rights at all, I do think that anyone that is under suspicion of doing terrorist activities deserves to have at least basic human rights until absolute evidence is gathered. I don't believe that all of those detained in Guatanimo are terrorists, and I can't figure it out because they have not been afforded any rights to Habeus Corpus.
• I agree that Americans generally do better when competition is allowed to proceed fairly, and that the American system will weed out weak and wasteful competitors. But what is happening is that failed corporations and capital ventures are placing the assets of Americans -- mortgages and pensions -- at risk. I believe in hands-off government, but I believe anything that can destroy the retirement livelihoods of millions of Americans can use some bigger government.
• I was disappointed that the convention could not find even a sliver of positive outcomes after 8 years of Republican administration. I mean, they have had a Republican President, a predominantly Republican Senate and/or House of Representative for 4-6 years, and an overwhelmingly Republican Superior Court. After all this, all they could do is tell Obama "You Suck!" ?  That's the best positive influence you could come up with?
• I find Huckabee likeable and entertaining, but that silly story about the teacher that didn't give her students desks was unbelievable.  I mean, what did those 100-150 students do all day?
• It is always easlier to bully and tear down than it is to work together to build. It takes more leadership ability to find commonalities and appreciate diversity and take advantage of that. Bullies know that, when you can't come up with something nice to say, you can just pumch someone in the face. That's the message I got all night long.
• The audience spent a lot of time laughing. And it didn't feel like an enjoyable and appreciative laughter. It was sarcastic and mean and it worked a lot to make the Republican party look unfriendly.
• So who doesn't want energy independence? Both want to reduce taxes... Both want healthcare for everyone... Both want to help big businesses. Come on folks, give me something to compare you guys besides how mean you can kick a democrat.
• This election is going to be urban America vs. sub-urban America.
• I need to figure out what a community organizer does. My thoughts are that they may well be the force that gets things done in local communities. Was Martin Luther a community organizer?
• There are rumours out now that Palin has voted in the past to support that Bridge to Nowhere. If they find that, she'll be in trouble.
• You can't beat the applie-pie image of her family, with the kids, the babies, and pregnant daughter with her fiance... I mean you can't beat that no matter what party you are in.
• More POW stuff. They need to take the POW to some other place. Heroes are heroes, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to POWs and soldiers. But does that automatically mean they make good presidents?
• WHERE THE HELL ARE THE MINORITIES?

Well, Wednesday night did go better than Tuesday night. But I'm left to wonder... could I be a Spartan?  I find that more and more difficult to believe.

Gosh that didn't go down well...

I spent the night watching the Republican National Convention.

I decided that, for this election, I would really give both parties a chance to present their case and I'd vote according to the issues.

So I sat down to see what the Republicans would have to say.

I'm not very impressed. I'm thinking maybe their first real night of convention coverage was so distasteful because maybe they are still recovering from all of the disruption of Hurricane Gustav. I certainly hope so. I mean, what a fiasco.

• I'm really disturbed at how poorly represented minorities are, at least if you had to judge this by the camera shots of the convention. I mean, it basically was a bunch of old white men. I didn't see any minority speakers (at least not during prime time), no women other than First Lady Bush, and no young folks. It was glaring.
• I am offended at the thought that the Republicans seem to think that if you are not a veteran, if you don't support the war, that you are not an American and that you are thus against the brave young men and women making the ultimate sacrifice in the war. I can understand some suggestion of this, but it was a constant ongoing message. Those "Country First" signs seem to suggest that if you aren't Republican, you are against the soldiers. This totally offended and alienated me.
• I was not convinced that being a Prisoner of War, as a matter of fact, prepares someone to be President of the United States. I think it makes someone brave and heroic, and I think John McCain is very brave and I consider him an American Hero, but I didn't see anything that convinced me that this clearly means he is an obvious choice to be President.
• I chuckled when the sattelite statement by President Bush was immediatly followed up by a video tribute to Ronald Reagan.
• President Bush's statement about the "angry left" made me... well... angry. Especially when this statement was made not at a political rally, but from the White House.
• Joe Lieberman speaking at a Republican convention? Oh come on... he's a loser, couldn't win his Democratic Party's primary in 2006, so he had to run as an independent. Jesus, he'll be speaking at Ralph Nadr's Green Party convention next. He made me sick. And when he gave such a strong endorsement to Palin, even though they are totally 180 degrees apart on many of the issues, such as abortion rights. I found him completely and totally unbelievable.
• I didn't really want to hang out with the Republicans. Their music sucked, they can't dance, and their stage show was boring.

Well, I am still trying to keep an open mind. I wonder how much Gustav "rushed the show" and maybe they just couldn't get their act together. I mean, after each and every night of the Democratic Convention, I went away feeling hopeful and positive, and I really felt like I had witnessed history while I listened to Obama's acceptance speech. I never found myself so angry at the television that I had to put the TiVo on "pause" while I stormed into another room to "cool down" enough to watch the rest of the show.

My assessment? Republicans are, so far, a very bad taste in my mouth.

a Week with my Parents

I've been watching the Democratic National Convention with my parents. It's the week after our beach trip, and I added an entire week just me and my parents (and we're taking care of one of my nephews for a few days also).

My parents are pretty staunch McCain supporters, and I'm leaning toward Obama. It's been an interesting several days.

Tonight, we watched Hillary Clinton give her speech, basically endorsing Obama for president. It was a really good speech, a superlative display of oratory. I am not sure it did enough to support Obama. Her main point was, "I did this, and this, and we did this and this, and hey if you are into that then you should support Obama." Not exactly a rounding show of support.

But given the tone of their campaigns during the primary season, I didn't think she could pull off a full 180 reversal and say, "well, heck, I said all that stuff about him not having enough experience, but dammit vote for him anyway because holy shit we can't vote for McCain because, heck, we're Democrats for god sakes."

I see a definite Hillary bid in 4 years, especially if things go south for Obama and he loses the presidential election.

I was really hoping for an Obama/Clinton ticket, and hoped for it right up until he announced Biden. I was so sure of it that if it had been an O/C  ticket, I could have filled out my early ballot and mailed it in. Now I've got to listen to both conventions, and then the presidential and VP debates. Not too happy about that.

They're running with the bulls again in Spain.

I find myself rooting for the bulls.

I know I really shouldn't, because folks get seriously injured.

And, yes, I eat meat.

But it seems they (either the matadors, or the guys running in the streets with the bulls) are just asking for it.

I can hear the "tsk tsk" about cultural diversity and all that, and I'm totally in favor of it when it concerns food, dance, clothing, etc. But this isn't culture, it's the usual mob rule, with the added spice of animal cruelty. That's some culture I can do without.

 

So... yeah.. GO BULLS!!

Typhoon Frank

 A pic from the relief/clean-up efforts in Kalibo Aklan Philippines, in the aftermath after Typhoon Frank. It's been more than 20 years since I've been to the Philippines, but my heart goes out to all those devastated by flood waters. In my aunt's home, water was up to their necks on the first level of their home, and they had to seek refuge on the upper floor. They've just recently gotten minimal running water restored, but it could be up to a month before electricity is restored.

We may never sleep again...

I haven't been blogging much. We recently splurged on a 42" TV and I've been spending a lot of time in front of the television. It's been a real eye-opening experience, one that I had resisted for a long time (in a previous post, I had said I would never spend more than 200 bucks on a TV... Ha!) but we do get a significant amount of our entertainment through the television and thought it was a sound buy (no not an investment but not everything in life necessarily grows in value ... some stuff you just get because everyone else has one).

Those Blu-ray discs are not cheap. Most of them are around 30 bucks, but the quality of the picture is definitely noticeable. Cox Phoenix doesn't really carry that many HD channels, but the ones we get are amazing. The nature shows are simply dazzling (and are driving poor LadyKitty crazy with the birds chirping and all). One of the first HD shows I watched that I really loved was on HD-Theater, a show called Romeo and Juliet: A Monkey's Tale. It's the age old story of two monkeys from the opposite side of the tracks. Juliet is from a troupe of monkeys inhabiting an ancient Buddhist temple. Romeo's troupe lives the exciting street life. Really very entertaining, especially the part where a heart-broken Romeo hops on a train and heads for the hillside, and Juliet leaps into the bed of a passing pickup truck to find him. No really, it is a nice story.

We're also watching a couple of Nature shows on Blu-ray: Planet Earth and Galapagos. Absolutely amazing. I watched the Planet Earth program "Deep Sea" with the lights out in the middle of the night, and was totally blown away.

Our older non-Blu-ray discs look great too. I watched Star Trek II: Chest Wrath of Khan and it looked really great and that's one of our older DVDs. The battle scene between the Enterprise and the Reliant in the Mutara Nebulla completely blew me away.

And, yes, I shed another tear when Spock died.

On a totally different note, my room mate bought the blu-ray version of Hairspray. Surprisingly, I LOVED it. I've downloaded all of the songs on iTunes, and he also bought me the soundtrack CD, which is on continuous play while I drive to and from work. It's definitely not my usual sci-fi fare, but the songs are great. My favorite tracks are Good Morning Baltimore, I Can Hear the Bells, You're Timeless to Me, and I Know Where I've Been. I'm also listening to the original broadway soundtrack, and hell, even Harvey Feirstein sounds good.

I know why I like the story -- I love stories that celebrate diversity and acceptance, and hate stories that make entertainment by making fun of people -- but the songs are not only beautifully written, but hilarious and at times politically incorrect. I mean, Queen Latifah singing Big, Blonde and Beautiful (here are the lyrics), or Run and Tell That's "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice... I mean, my goodness.

OK time for bed. Gotta work for the next 2 nights.

Welcome back, Hillary

I'm really happy that Hillary is still in the race. Again, I haven't figured out who I will vote for in November, but I'm pretty sure I want Hillary on the ballot. I of course am excited by the prospect of our nation's first woman president, but I'd be just as excited by our first African American president.

One thing's for sure, if the race will depend on oratory, our next president will be black. He's just got the whole speaking thing down, from the pacing, to the Martin-Luther-King hopefullness and bravery, to the Sunday morning preacher soundbites, he's just got it down. I like Hillary, but she just doesn't sound as good.

I found it interesting that Hillary took back the woman vote in New Hampshire (a state I probably can't find on the US map, so I obviously don't relate much to their voters -- I mean really, south of Canada, north of Maryland and east of the Great Lakes is one big lobster-sucking region of the US to me, I doubt I'll take my vote based on what goes on there, wherever "there" is). But the return of the woman vote put Hillary back in the race (and possibly back in the White House).

No idea how much "The Tear" played in last night's race. I think it had as much to do with Hillary's return as the woman vote. I know it struck a cord with me. It made her look really human. We obviously want a human being in the White House, and, honestly, we can't have our Chief Executive Officer doing the boo-hoo every time things get tough. But it made up for how sterile she tends to sound in her speeches. "The Tear" sort of summed up the American sensitivity for people getting "bullied" by two male front-runners.

No idea what will happen in the GOP (other than the fact that I will just totally die if Huckabee becomes president). I find McCain to be the most likeable, although there are plenty of his platform points that I don't like. I know everyone is getting sick of hearing this, but his experiences in Vietnam give him an undeniable authority on War. I can't think of anyone who could be more motivated to keep us out of War. So his support of the war is remarkable.

But now we get a bit of a break from the presidential election, about a month until SuperTuesday February 5th. Just in time, as Alcoa kicks off the new earnings season.

Weather, TV and Politics...

What a dull and dreary day today (at least up until about 1pm when I went to bed). We had a rain storm this morning, and the noise it made on our roof put both of us and 1 of our kitties on our balcony to... well... watch the rain come down. It's the same storm system that has wreaked havoc in California and Nevada, and causing problems everywhere else. Our problem has been some flooding in low-lying areas, and as I type this, I'm watching a clip on CNN where yet another Phoenician muckhead is getting yanked by helicopter off the roof of his car because he ignored a "Street Closed" sign.

We've been watching the first season of Babylon 5 on DVD. It's become our new morning ritual (we watch either DVDs of a show's entire season one episode at a time) whenever we don't have new shows to watch off Tivo. We got a bunch of DVDs of TV shows for Christmas, that will hopefully keep us entertained during the writers' strike.

I've decided to try to keep more informed about this year's political race. Today, I tried to request an early ballot for the presidential primary to be held on February 5th. It turns out that the online voter registration was down, and the fax machine at the county recorder's office wasn't answering. Hopefully, the changes I made online last Friday will get us early ballots but if not, I guess we'll go to the primary polling site and see how this happens. I was hoping for an early ballot because, every time I vote, there are dozens (hundreds) of other offices that are usually voted on at the same time, and it's a total random crap shoot as I totally guess and make random marks on the ballot (I kid you not, some of the local offices I voted by how their name sounded as I said them silently in my head). Hopefully, with an early ballot, I can at least go online and do some research and make some sort of educated vote. My links (these are admittely only presidential, I'm on the lookout for local links):

CNN Political Ticker

2008Central.net

Politics1.com

Race 4 2008

Road to 2008

Political Realm

Barack Obama

Wow, Barak Obama won the Iowa Democratic Caucas.  Regardless of who I vote for in November (I haven't decided yet), I think it's amazing to think we've gotten to the point where an African American and a woman can get the top three spots.

I really have no idea why the Iowa Caucasses are so pivotally important, except for the fact that they are the first state to hold caucasses/primaries, and the media hype that comes with that fact. I don't know how representative Iowans could be, compared to other larger states. And it seems to me that they could easily rotate this privilege so that other states could get the spotlight.

But even so, the results are amazing. I mean, when I first heard Barack Hussein Obama's name (it was mispronounced as "Obama bin Laden" by a CNN Headline News anchor, who quickly corrected herself), I didn't think he'd have a chance. But listening to his acceptance speech last night really opened my eyes. Not so much to his campaign, but more for where we are as a country, and how far we've come.

The last time I voted for president, my main concern was the stabilization of the stock market, and the feverish desire to prevent a re-occurrence of 9-11. Maybe I can be a little more broad-minded this time around.

Don't wash your car at Circle K

Well, the whole thing with the car wash was, well, a wash. We got a letter:

Our investigation into this incident indicates that there was no negligence on the part of Circle K or its employees. The car wash equipment is under a preventative maintenance service contract with regularly scheduled service and inspections. There were no equipment malfunctions or problems before or after your use.

It is our position that the damage to your vehicle is due to operator error. The type of damage you allege is inconsistent with our car wash's operation. For these reasons, we must respectfully deny your claim.

We don't know what the hell "operator error" could have been. We basically drove into it, put the car in Park once the light turned green, and just sat there. I mean, it aint rocket science.

Of course, I am not happy, but there doesn't seem to be much to do. I doubt I'll go small claims court because we're talking about 1700.00 of damage plus rental. I'll bet court fees will be a lot more.

And folks are telling me that one does give implied consent when you enter an automatic carwash. Which I think is reasonable for the occasional light scratch or other minor damage. But I really think this level of damage goes way beyond what a consumer would consider acceptable risk.

So this is my reply:

I am of course not satisfied with the judgement regarding our case. I feel that the damage is too major to be covered by the implied consent that a customer gives when using an automatic car wash.

I am sending a copy of your response, copies of my photographs, and copies of our original written communication with you to the State Attorney General's office at the following address:

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Consumer Information and Complaints

1275 W. Washington

Phoenix, AZ 85007- 2926

I am listing a Consumer Complaint against the following business and addresses:

CIRCLE K STORES INC.

RISK MANAGEMENT -DC30

PO Box 52085

Phoenix, AZ 85072

Respectfully,

Eric

I know, it's a waste of time, but it's just the principle of the thing.