The city of berkeley Finds their Disrespect for the US Military Costly

The city of berkeley California continues to disrespectfully choose open combat with the military that protects their city as well as this country. Though they live under the same umbrella of protection provided by the US Military as the rest of this country, they are of the NIMBY persuasion when it comes to the military recruiting in their town. The city council has aggressively went out of their way to tell the military they are not welcome in the city of berkeley. Back in January they stepped up their attacks on the military recruitment presence by passing resolutions hostile to the US Military recruitment office located in town. In an article over on Poligazette they talked about the mounting personal and financial costs that the city is experiencing over the City Councils declaration of war on the US Military. Excellent, I hope the backlash the city is feeling will drain the city treasury and give the citizens reason to vote the council members out of office that are responsible for this despicable treatment of our Military!!!!!!!

Making Big Brother Possible – Future Cable Boxes With Cameras Inside?

According to an article Peter Mychalcewycz, Comcast Cable is experimenting with the idea of placing cameras inside cable boxes to improve service and help subscribers with security. I can see both good and bad with this idea. I can see how it would be a help for subscribers, especially parents, whom limit access to certain programing. Of course if you want to think about conspiracy possibilities, it was in Orwell’s 1984 where cameras inside the house were used by the government to help spy on and control the Oceanic citizens. And even without reaching towards Orwellian extremes, as seen with the recent passport problems for the Presidential candidates, information can be abused no matter how well the gathering intentions. Plus having dealt with Cable-Companies in the past, I am sure that the service inclusion will include a new hidden fee ! Careful now – all you guys worried about your macho image – remember when watching those chick flicks, Big Brother could already be watching.

2008 Chicago Cubs Season Starts March 31st & My Matt Murton Rant

The Chicago Cubs preseason schedule finishes up today and Saturday. Tonight, Friday, they will play Seattle at 9:15 PM. Then they will play Seattle again on Saturday at 2:05 PM. Both games can be watched on WGN TV. Then the actual 2008 MLB season starts for the Chicago Cubs on Monday, March 31^st, when they play last years biggest competition within the division, the Milwaukee Brewers. That game will also be broadcast on WGN, at 1:20 PM. Holy Cow – it has seemed like forever waiting for the season to start.

I have not posted much about the preseason despite it being full of drama for the Cubs. I personally think, barring injuries or team implosion, the Cubs will have a great team this year and have a shot at making it to the World Series for the first time in a very long drought. The team looks fairly set at every position including centerfield where they brought in Reed Johnson to take some pressure off the still awaiting emergence of Felix Pie. Which brings me to the rant of this post.

The signing of Super Stud outfielder Soriano last year and followed by the signing of Japanese Super Stud outfielder Fukadome this year has made one of my favorite players on the team, Matt Murton, odd man out. That Sucks Big Time, but it is part of baseball! Matt Murton has just never fit in to the scheme of the Cubs outfield. He is a very good hitter and despite that he lacks superstar homerun power he does have good overall slugging numbers. And in my personal opinion Matt Murton has more hustle and as much heart as any other player on the Chicago Cubs and in all probability the same could be said if you compared him to most players in Major League Baseball. I hate to see him leave the team, but in all fairness to Murton, the Cubs need to trade him to a team where he can compete for a starting position instead of getting shuffled back down to the minor leagues. I just lack the confidence in Jim Hendry being able to get the job done. Hendry seems like a decent guy, and is solid at resigning players already on the team and roping in free agent players. But in my opinion when it comes to trading talent for talent, Hendry usually gets taken to the cleaners. It is not a strongpoint of his abilities. A trade needs to be worked out, as there is no reason Matt Murton should not be starting this year for some team in Major League Baseball!!!!!

Go Cubs!!

WOW – Great Things to Do in Quad Cities USA

Every once in a new moon I am pleasantly surprised by Quad City Leadership. Over the weekend I was shuffling through my accumulated copies of “The Dispatch” and came across an advertisement that had gotten buried among the usual glut of weekly advertisements. When I saw it I almost could not believe my eyes. But yes, there it was, a promotional flyer hawking six of the places that offer Quad City Entertainment – other than getting drunk and gambling at the River Boats! There among all the ads trying to sell me clothes, electronics, appliances etc. was this beautifully done flyer directing me to visit the Niabi Zoo, the Family Museum, the Putnam Museum/IMAX Theater, the Quad City Botanical Center, the Figge Art Museum and the River Music Experience (RME). The flyer was superbly colored to catch your eye without overpowering your senses. It had just enough information to tease your interest while giving you business and contact information. Hey – I didn’t know you good get into the Zoo for free March 24-28 or that the Putnam was about to sponsor a Civil War exhibit, or that you could book a wedding at the Botanical Garden, that the Family Museum had an outdoor water play facility, or that the FIGGE was having a glass artist exhibition, or that the RME offered up music educational opportunities to kids! But after reading the flyer I know a little more about what each of those places offer and how to contact them, including websites for those preferring to use Computer research, to find out more information. The flyer was also chocked full of visuals about what each experience offered the visitor by displaying people and kids enjoying themselves at the various locations. I liked the ideas behind the flyer and especially the product. It was great to see someone seriously promoting entertainment for Quad Citians and their visitors to go out and enjoy themselves other than gambling and booze. So go out, take the kids if you want, have some fun and enjoy life in the Quad Cities!!!

On a side note. It would have been nicer if the newspaper had found a way to distribute it separate from the standard ads that so many people just open their paper up and dump straight into the waste basket. But in my personal opinion those responsible for the flyer deserves a pat on the back for the effort and the design! Granted the Riverboat Development Authority sponsored it so the gambling boats get subliminally mentioned, but it was all about other great things to do in the Quad City that deserve a push! Hurrah! Somebody, Somewhere here in the Quad Cities understands it!! All businesses need-to-feed from each other for each business to survive!! Keys to helping the Quad City prosper from the tourism industry are tools like these flyers. Plus they need to combined with employee education of the features/benefits of the great things to do in the Quad Cities they can share with the visitors, family, friends and each other. If the Quad Cities truly wishes to benefit from the tourism industry they need to learn to think as one family helping each other out through promoting each other.

Those of you wishing to return to drug and booze induced zombie states of existence, may now do so!

Et Tu, Brute err. I mean Bill Uhh, I Mean Judas?

During the Democrat Debates, Clinton political friend and fellow POTUS wannabe, Bill Richardson left me the impression he was campaigning for the Vice President nomination as much as he was for the President slot. Richardson hedging his bets, nothing wrong with that. Now, with his recent endorsement of Obama over Clinton, you have to wonder if he is trying to further cut a backroom sweetheart deal for that Vice President slot. An endorsement from a Super Delegate, such as Richardson, could just be the momentum to finalize the deal for an Obama presidency run. To say that the Richardson’s endorsement of Obama has not went over well in the Clinton camp would be a great understatement. Never a political force to be minimalized, the Clinton Camp refuses to settle for the normal colloquial like, Et Tu Brute. Instead, Clinton-Barker James Carville has embraced an Easter Holiday comparison to Judas’ betrayal of Christ to describe former ally Richardson’s endorsement of Obama. The never use a shotgun when you have a Mark 84 available strategy. I am assuming, probably as does Carville, that Richardson is hoping his thirty pieces of silver comes by the way of a Vice Presidency offer from Obama and the Democrat Version of the Sanhedrin. However, I am still having trouble forcing my mind to make the comparative jump equating Hillary to Jesus. I really-really-really ain’t quite there yet!!! Perhaps if they literally crucified Hillary and left her staked up on Capital Hill, then buried her under the Senate Floor. Then we could all wait and see if she arose again in three days. Is it live or is it Memorex? Of course, if her body did disappear and/or arose, then we would all have to wonder if she was really resurrected and whether she was really a messiah or Mabus, another of Nostradumas’ predicted Antichrists.

Ron Paul to do Live Interview

On the Thursday night/Friday morning show, Coast to Coast Am Radio announced it will do a live interview with Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul on this coming Monday 3/24/08 (the show starts 10 PM pacific time). Paul will be doing the interview despite John McCain already clinching the Republican nomination. If you interested and if you are a late night owl, it will be an actual chance to hear and talk with a Presidential candidate. The host of the show, George Noory, usually allows the audience time to call in and ask question/s of his guests. Though I am not a Ron Paul follower, it will probably be an interesting interview whether you are a Ron Paul fan or not, as Noory and his audience, tend to ask questions and follow dialogue roads mainstream media is inclined to avoid. I did not hear how long the interview will last, but the show transmits live and can be heard here in the Quad Cities on WOC AM radio from Midnight until Four AM. For updates and further details I recommend visiting the Coast to Coast AM Website.

The date for the Ron Paul interview is now listed for for the first hour of the Monday, 03/24/08 show.

Maybe she just liked to watch the show

Caution the following post contains adult subjects, read at your own peril.

Okay – I am not a big fan of Hillary Clinton. So I could care less how bad or how often she is harpooned by the media. Still I guess in this day and age I am more amused and annoyed than shocked at the suggestion, by CNN, that she might have been in the White House during Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct with Monica Lewinsky. Do we really need to relive the already well publicized Bill Clinton sex scandals? I am one of those people that has never believed that Hillary did not know about the promiscuous sexual escapades that were previously going on with her husband and all those women. She is way too intelligent and there were just too many episodes for her to be that blind. In fact I get the impression she was more interested in the couples climb to power than what was happening with Bill and his bedroom eyes locked on to all the other women. For all I know they could be one of those couples whom are married in name only. Heck maybe she liked to participate or even watch the Lewinsky show for all I know. It is not like she would be the first or the last individual into kink. But there is such a thing as Too-Much-Information. And I have had all of the Clinton’s sex scandal I can stand. We have already been made aware that he is a philanderer, a liar and a misogynist and the majority of the country has said so what and cuddled up to his bad boy image. Do I approve, no. But the time for tap dancing on his thick skull has long passed. We have heard it all before and it is all old news. And anyone who believes that Hillary was unaware of what was going on is just basically beyond gullible. So can’t we just leave the sordid rehash of Bill Clinton’s sex life in the gutter where it belongs? And lets all get back to what is really important, the upcoming Major League Baseball season, Opening Day: 11 days 9 hr 25 min 39 seconds and counting!

Barack Obama – Part of the Racist Problem – Not the Racist Solution

There are a series of daily commercials frequently run on radio. The commercials have a reoccurring theme that talk about how people shrug off the racism they encounter during normal social interaction. And the advertisements are very accurate in their portrayal of everyday events of racism. It was one of several key components as to why I left any association with the Democrat Party years ago, which is ripe with racist hypocrites. They generally talk the talk but do not walk the walk except when on camera. The key point in all the advertisements are that good people often either do not and/or pretend to not notice when people say or perform bigoted actions. Today Barack Obama had a chance to address his close connections to a bigot that has been a large part of his life the Reverend Wright. He gave a very powerful speech. He is very good at speaking but then again so are most politicians. It touched all the right emotions concerning the problems with racism. But like so many people whom have close ties to racists, like Reverend Wright, he failed to explain why he waited until after the racism became exposed that he even condemned the man whom he admitted hearing spew “controversial”(the implicit meaning is bigoted) comments. In other words like so many other individuals, as Obama condemned Wright’s remarks; he also enabled the Reverends bigotry as he made excuses for the Reverends bigoted rhetoric. Obama is right that racial issues are not going to go away, nor should they be ignored. But as Reverend Wright proves, bigotry and racism follows the path of all social groups, and Obama has become part of the problem and not part of the solution with his enabling of the Reverend Wrights racism. Maybe he should listen to the radio commercials once in awhile. Because he failed to answer why, despite knowing of the Reverends racist actions, he enabled them by keeping silent. Barack Obama enabled racist of all creed every time he stepped foot in to that church. Obama enabled factional racial hatred every time he refused to confront Wright over his statements of hate. Obama enabled all racist rationalizations when he chose a racist preacher to marry him and baptize his children. Obama enables all racists to justify circling the wagons as he continues to enable the Reverend Wrights actions by continuing to rationalize the reverends actions with todays “protect my political ass” speech. And as he asks us to vote for him as the Truth, Justice and Agent of Change, it brings out more reasons not to vote for him and his selective memory and a campaign built around an old school political dog and pony show.

The Obama/Wright controversy is getting a huge amount of commentary on all the media blogs.

Obama Political Mentor – Ted Kennedy – Agent of Pollution?

It looks like Barack “POTUS Agent of NonChange” Obama’s point-guard on the east coast, Teddy Kennedy, a Sith Lord wannabe that always fell short of his personal goal to become Sith Royalty, continues to have more hidden scandal pulled out of his tainted past. It is old news, that to my knowledge never made it in main stream media circles until recently. But it seems that Darth-Wannabe Teddy managed to be the agent of pollution back in 2002 by dumping diesel oil into Nantucket Sound. Hmm this is the same location where Darth-Wannabe Teddy led a NIMBY charge to keep pollution-free windmill power from spoiling his sailing fun. Huh – I guess Teddy isn’t a true Goracle Disciple or even all that “Green” except when it comes to counting the Kennedy wealth. So it evidently took a while for the story to get out. Imagine that, Ted Kennedy probably squashing news that displays what a hypocrite and naughty boy he has always been. It reminds me of his “Mary Jo” moment where he immediately went into spin control to save his image. You never get to the political heights Teddy has obtained without learning how to operate damage control on your evil deeds. I can also assume by the close Obama/Kennedy connection in the current political race that Darth-Wannabe Teddy is taking his young political apprentice, Obama, and teaching him the Dark Sides of the Force. Gee whiz Teddy is just like one of those daddies trying to relive his lack of reaching the pinnacle of his life long ambitions through his offspring/apprentice. Plus I guess Agent of NonChange, Obama, can now add another Kennedy scandal to his list of I knew him but I did not Really Know him memory recollections I talked about in my previous post.

The New Agent-of-Nonchange Obama Mantra

A repeating mantra has made it into the Obama daily rhetoric. It seems as if every time a past personal and political relationship becomes threatening the same words roll off the “agent-of-change-pretenders” tongue. We heard it when his past personal/financial/political ties to Rezko became problematic. Now we are hearing the same chant, since his even closer ties to the bigoted Reverend Wright has become a political burden, towards Obama’s lust for the kind of power that only becomes satiated by controlling this country from the White House Oval Office. Sitting in the control seat of one of the most mighty countries in the World is a powerful hunger to feed. It is the kind of hunger that will lead you down the path of denial. Of course that denial is much easier when you have already intentionally kept your eyes advantageously closed to the past transgressions of those you use and need to power your grand journey. So once the events, actions and realities of those you have used for your political aspirations have become a liability rather than a asset you have to turn to that agent-of nonchange political adage/mantra: I knew him but I didn’t really know him. Ahh – it brings back the good old bad old scandalous days of Bill Clinton denials: Yes, I smoked marijuana but i did not inhale it. Or an even better one: Yes, I knew Miss Lewinsky, but I did not have sex with that woman. Obama may be running against old school Clinton politics but he is certainly not above using old school Clinton politics.

A note to the regular readers of my blog. No, much to the chagrin of many, I have not fallen off the edge of the planet or evaporated into the cosmos. Still it is uncertain as to how much blogging time I will have available to me. It seems that the older theScoundrel gets the more he stays the same. And as I was chasing a brunette around my living room I had a typical theScoundrel moment of gracefulness and I now am the proud owner of an ankle that more resembles a Volkswagen than a human appendage. So time sitting at my computer is restricted as it does not afford me the luxury of keeping my foot elevated. So you may not see a lot of updating for a while. (Really it depends upon the frequency of the computer police stopping by and checking in on me.) If they come by and catch me on it too often they might unplug it from the wall and currently electrical outlets located behind objects and close to floors are a challenge. Oops gotta get in Big Green and elevate my Volkswagen, the dogs are barking like someone is at the door.