I'm John Blanco and this is my life in blog: Democrat, chess player, Wii Gamer, hubby to Michele and Cedric's daddy. :-)
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Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, man, Sex and the City was amazing. Wow.
Update: I see Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie a 55% -- a splat. Just looking at the reviews shows these bad reviews are people who just didn't like the show. The movie was great. :-)
Update 2: Suck it, movie critics. Sex and the City took in 55 million, the BIGGEST box opening weekend for an R-rated comedy EVER.
Let me first begin by saying I believe every vote should be counted. I oppose restrictions designed to limit votes, voter caging, and all deceptive acts that seek to disenfranchise voters.
That being said, this is not an election, but a party primary, and Florida and Michigan broke the rules. Their votes *should not* count.
The people in these pictures, encouraged to show up and protest the DNC rules committee meeting today by Hillary Clinton (and assumably some by themselves, and some supporting Obama but who were actually *discourages* from showing by the Obama campaign, the right thing to do). They have been fooled by Hillary that somehow Obama is behind this. He most certainly is not. In fact, the Hillary campaign signed their support to "disenfranchise" these voters months ago.
But that was before they found themselves over 200 delegates behind Obama and having "won" these primary states.
Here's the problem: the vote should not count. The state parties broke the law, though Michigan I believe did so alongside the Republican Party who was also penalized there. If you want to protest, people, protest your STATE PARTY. They knew the rules.
IF the vote were to be counted, who would be disenfranchies? How about all the people who DID NOT vote because they were told the vote wouldn't count? How about the moms and the dads who decided not to call a babysitter so they could go wait in a long line to vote? How about the hard workers who decided that the difficulty of getting out of work was no longer worth it for a vote that didn't count?
FOLLOW THE RULES.
As for the Hillary supporters, what would you be saying if you LOST the vote? I assume you would not be there screaming for your vote. So, now you might ask, what are the Obama supporters doing? Are they arguing AGAINST the vote?
No.
The Obama supporters are relegated to defending Hillary's assertiong that BARACK OBAMA SHOULD BE CREDITED WITH ZERO VOTES IN MICHIGAN. The man who has won over twice as many states as Hillary should have zero votes in Michigan. Yes. Seriously. That's what the campaign wants?
Why?
Because Obama's name WAS NOT EVEN ON THE BALLOT in Michigan. There was Hillary, Kucinich, Gravel, and "Uncommitted". And despite not having his name on the ballot, Uncommited did quite well! Hillary won 56-31%. Think about it. People went and voted for NOBODY. How motivating was that? To go and NOT vote for who you wanted. And 1 out of every 3 Michigan residents did that!!!
But does Hillary think Obama should get those delegates? No. He should get zero.
So, don't tell me this is about voter disenfranchisement. This is desperation.
This is a picture of President #44 with a guy named Aaron which is *huge* in the Colorado Democratic scene:
Lucky bastard. He got it taken when Obama came to town on Wednesday. Good for him, though, he deserves it.
Spotted this in a comment on Daily Kos:
No, it's not a dig on Hillary. Check out the guy in back. Frickin creepy. The guy on the left looks a little bewildered as well. He finds Hillary dreamy. :-)
Another random thought. Guru.com fucking sucks. :-) It is the worst. I have casually kept an eye on it for over a year now. When I see interesting projects, I put in a bid. Sometimes, I put in extremely low bids just for something to do. I never get responses.
The other suckiness about it is people ask for things like follows:
Need to convert Palm-based chat application to J2ME and re-write backend. Bids must be between $250 and $500.
I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately. Not for a lack of ideas on projects, but because everything I come up with has been already done.
I'm still bitter about 2 years ago when I spent days designing out a beautiful political game, only to have my friend, Vincen, point me at a "similar" game. Well, not only was it similar, it was like they read my mind down to the fine details!
It continued in the last 2 weeks. I had two distinct ideas for writing a Facebook application, only to find out they have been done. One was a brilliant dating service, the other was a gossiper. BOTH DONE. The dating service that uses my idea is actually doing quite well. Fortunately, the gossiper app has about as many users as you can count on two hands. So, that saved me some time.
For now, I will turn my attention to AIR. Screw Facebook. There are a ZILLION apps written for it, and they all pretty much suck except for a few. Every conceivable idea has been implemented. And there's no money in it, anyway. ;-)
Bah, if only this were the old days. :-)
A lot of people on the right-wing like to say that the government is incompetent and that private business should take over everything.
My response is: Have you *seen* private business in action? They are downright awful. In Colorado alone, let's see, are you gonna tell me the following companies are *competent*?
Just dorking around and built a simple Flash game that primarily demonstrates rotation. Throw in the concept of peripheral vision and you have something original. See if you can figure out how to play. (Note: There may be a bug or two involving the clicking. I'm just throwing this up for fun.)
In case you missed it, the primaries END in one week! Can't ya just wait? The primary phase has been going on for a looooooooong time. The next phase starts soon after. Once the primaries end, it's anticipated that most of the superdelegates will announce their support -- and it should be enough to make official:
Incidentally, for the "Barack is all about 'hope' and doesn't have a plan crowd," highlights of his economic plan are:
And for the "There is more important things in the world!" crowd, I repeat, those are just highlights of the economic plan.
The Mets are distinctly pathetic this year. Poor fellas. Maybe next year after we break up this team a bit, eh?
(OK, this isn't an image from this year, and we're only 3 under .500, but the writing is on the wall based on their play. This team is toast.)
Just finished it. WOW! Completely enlightening. Thom Hartmann is one of my favorite talk show hosts, and a true man of the people. I highly recommend this book to EVERYBODY to get a clear vision of how the American Dream (tm) is being stripped from all of us.
A Fox News personality thinks it'd be grand to kill Barack Obama:
Sorry, racist lady. You and your corporatocracy are going down. And unlike you, we won't need guns.
Update: And here's the smirky "apology":
Bad humor -- based on true feelings -- indeed.
This is why Markos Moulitsas (owner of the Daily Kos) is the most insightful man in politics today.
He looks shit up. :-)
And that's why we love him!
Interesting. Apparently, John McCain's wife is his Sugar Mama:
WASHINGTON - Cindy McCain has released her 2006 tax returns, showing total income of more than $6 million. The wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain paid more than $1.7 million in taxes.
McCain's campaign said she had received an extension on her 2007 tax returns and planned to make those public when they are filed.
Under a prenuptial agreement, the McCains have separate assets and file separate tax returns. John McCain made his tax returns public last month.
Is the party of the all-American white male going to vote for a guy who's wife gave HIM a pre-nup? :-) haha. I didn't think that was their kind of party?
In the last week he's gone from being able to stand for several seconds and taking the occasional step to being able to walk longer distances. Go, buddy, go! :-)
While the campaign and their supporters are sounding more and more like Republicans, trying to lie their way to the top, Harold Ickes takes the cake. Here is is stance on the Michigan delegates:
In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan -- they don't want the 55 "uncommitted" delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan).
On Aug. 25, when the DNC's rules panel declared Florida's primary date out of order, it agreed by a near-unanimous majority to exceed the 50 percent penalty called for under party rules. Instead, the group stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later. Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them—most notably strategist Harold Ickes—voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)
UPDATE: Josh Micah Marshall summarizes it best:
Why do I think that? For a number of reasons. One of her most senior advisors, Harold Ickes, was on the DNC committee that voted to sanction Florida and Michigan by not including their delegates. Her campaign completely signed off on sanctions after that. And Clinton was actually quoted saying the Michigan contest didn't count. Michigan and Florida were sanctioned because they ignored the rules the DNC had set down for running this year's nomination process.
The evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn't think this was a problem at all -- until it became a vehicle to provide a rationale for her continued campaign.
Written by a Daily Kos blogger, Bill, for his local newspaper in Maine: LETTER OF THE MONTH
Here's the letter:
It’s reached a point where here you have the citizens of Maine upholding the gay-rights law, and Michael Heath has always said we have to listen to the will of the people, and that’s apparently not good enough for him any more. I felt compelled to speak out about the issue.
What must we do? What must gays and lesbians – like me and my partner of 15 years – do to be accepted as equals in the eyes of Michael Heath?
We obey the law. We pay our taxes. We follow the Golden Rule. We work hard. We help the local economy. We vote. We give to charity. We take great pride in our state. We keep our yard clean. We’re good neighbors. We even fly an American flag from our porch.
But none of this is good enough for Michael Heath. In his world, we’re conspirators in some ‘sexual revolution’ that’s responsible for all the social ills in the state – including broken homes, child abuse and abortion.
Big day, today. Barack will clinch the pledged delegate vote when Oregon and Kentucky vote today. It looks like he'll win Oregon, but is predicted to get whacked in Kentucky. That's OK, he'll get a couple delegates anyway. :-)
When today is over, it's a race amongst the superdelegates. He has a very comfortable lead in that category now, but these are only "promises." The supers don't vote until August.
The people will have spoken. Hillary likely won't drop out tomorrow as there are just a few weeks until all the states have voted. But, I can dream.
...
In Cedric news, he is ever so close to walking. :-) He is now up to taking 10 steps or so to get between mommy and daddy. It's so cute, he laughs and giggles with every step, like it's the most coolest thing. (It probably is!) He can even stand up from the floor with no help, and walk over. He just needs a little more balance to do it consistently.
And, as a correlary, last night Michele and I were doing what we always do each evening -- playing Mario Kart Wii online. I had wrapped up 1st place in Peach Gardens (yeah, baby!) when I looked behind me. Cedric was SITTING on our END TABLE holding Michele's glass of water. WTF?! :-) The kid is barely learning to walk, but he can climb a 4-foot table.
I rescued him, and now Michele and I realize Cedric has hit an age where we can't turn our backs for a second.
That, and we're going to sell all our tables. Only bare floor for us from now on! ;-)
This whole Barack Obama thing is crazy. Hillary clearly deserves to be the candidate.
First, she won the popular vote. Yes, you have to count Florida, which all the Democratic candidates agreed not to count because they broke DNC rules. AND you have to count Michigan, even though Barack's name didn't even appear on the ballot. What? His name wasn't on the ballot so I'm assuming a vote count of ZERO? That's his problem. Seems fair to me!
Second, only black people like Barack. He has a clear advantage being black. All black candidates do really well. Obviously, most Americans are black. Hillary being white is a clear disadvantage.
Third, Hillary wins the important states. Wisconsin? Fuck Wisconsin. Hillary won California, which Obama obviously would never dream of doing in November. Yeah, yeah, I know Obama won in Texas, but please, we have no chance in Texas anyways. And it's not really that big. You see, it doesn't matter he's won over twice as many states. Hillary won New York, a Republican-leaning state with no black people.
Fourth, Barack has to outspend Hillary. Let's see what he could do on her budget. Everyone knows money doesn't win elections. Having less money is a clear sign the people support you, because it's a jinx to have money.
And anyway, Hillary has more super delegates, too, right? What? Oh, I guess not. But, it's just black congresspeople voting for Barack. Not the important ones, right? What...John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, John Edwards, Chrid Dodd? They're not REAL Democrats like me.
Poor Barack, Oregon will be a laugher. The guy goes to Oregon with his minority of supporters and what, draws only 65,000 80,000 people? I mean, come on, there are millions of people in Oregon, and only 65,000 80,000 show?
And most of those people were Hillary supporters who just got confused. They obviously thought it was she who was going to be there. Besides, have you ever seen so many black people?
Obama supporters are sore losers. They aren't even American. If Hillary had won the nomination, all those Democrats woulda have shamefully voted for her. How pathetic to vote their values! Us Hillary supporters will vote for McCain, because we are loyal!
Remember, it's the media's fault. If only they would have covered this Jeremiah Wright guy. They kept it under wraps. I assure you.
Vote Hillary. Hillary 08!
UPDATE: Hillary agrees. Big crowds are no big deal.
She said Monday that she is the "more progressive candidate" and dismissed the hype surrounding Obama that results in the large crowds like the record rally of an estimated65,00080,000 he drew in Portland on Sunday afternoon.
Clinton said Obama, who has refused to debate her since they last faced off just before the Pennsylvania primary last month, would "rather just talk to giant crowds than have questions asked."
Later, while speaking to several hundred people in a high school gymnasium, Clinton picked up her campaign's argument that Obama's victories in states that had caucuses instead of primaries are somehow less significant because turnout was lower.
During his Presidential campaign in 2000, Bush said:
The last time taxes were this high as a percentage of our economy, there was a good reason; we were fighting World War II. Today our high taxes fund a surplus. Some say that growing federal surplus means Washington has more money to spend.
The Iraq War is costing us $5,000 per second
Think about this. How much a year do you give to the government in taxes? Unless you're a millionaire, chances are that in the time it took you to read this sentence, the Iraq War just spent ALL your tax dollars.
And not just spent. They borrowed it. We have to pay it back. Look at this graph of our budget deficits and the Presidents who administered them:
Wanna hear the scary part now? The Iraq War IS NOT included in the budget.
Our 2008 budget deficit is in the hundreds of millions. Our surplus from the Clinton era is long gone. This means that every year that goes by causes us to owe hundreds of millions more to the federal deficit which will soon eclipse 10 TRILLION DOLLARS. Wanna know what that means?
Take a look at how we allocate our spending each year:
See the big ticket items? Health and Human Services is Medicare and Medicaid. Very expensive, but at least it goes towards providing medical care to those who can't afford it. (Our elderly, disabled, poor and even our lower-middle class.) But check out the Treasury Dept costs.
THOSE ARE OUR INTEREST PAYMENTS WE PAY ON THE 10 TRILLION WE OWE!
Oh, and see the other big ticket item? The Department of Defense is the military budget. Here's a tip: When Republicans rail on discretionary spending such welfare spending and Medicare and Medicaid, remember this. Without Medicare, your grandma would die. Without Medicaid, your struggling cousin would be dead. Without welfare, many of our single moms would not be able to feed their children because their fathers ran out on them.
You know what else is considered discretionary spending by the government? The military. And guess what...they want to increase it. That's why spending never goes down despite all their promises. They just want to change what they spend the money on. Actually, spending has gone UP under President Bush!
BTW, McCain wants war with Iran. Guess what that's gonna cost?
Yup. Enjoy your stimulus check. It's your kids' money.
But
How has Bush done in his 7.5 years as President? How about on oil prices?
When Bush first ran for president in 2000, he criticized the Clinton administration for high fuel prices and said the president must "jawbone" oil producing nations and persuade them to increase production. At that time, oil was nearing $28 a barrel.
...
Oil prices climbed to a new high Friday, above $127 a barrel. At the pump, gas prices rose to a national average of $3.78 per gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
...
When Bush met Abdullah in mid-January, the president also asked Saudi Arabia to raise production to ease high prices at the pump. But he got a chilly response to that plea. The kingdom said it would increase production only when the market justified it, and that production levels appeared normal.
Kevin James takes the cake! Listen to this to see the agenda! Feel the anger. The rage. And then find out he doesn't even know what in the blazes he's even talking about!
It's all about words. Hate. They don't give a fuck about you. These people are paid BIG MONEY to push an agenda. Obama? Conceding to the terrorists? What the HELL is he talking about?
Apparently, he has to admit he doesn't know either.
John McCain today:
By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced.
Bush in 2004:
Just this weekend, Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to -- quote -- 'nuisance' -- end quote -- and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling. See, I couldn't disagree more. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance. Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorists, and spreading freedom and liberty around the world.
Republicans are welcome to come up with nonsensical, desperate reason why both are right.
You see, this is the problem. They don't give a damn about what's going on in the world, they just want to use words to make you vote for them. They have no solutions. It's an agenda to reshape the world in a way that benefits them, and the way they do that is to spin anything to make you feel like it's important to you.
In other words, they don't give a fuck about ending abortion rights -- they use those rights all the time. They just want you to vote for them based on that, so they can continue fucking up the country because they know that running on a platform of millionaire tax cuts doesn't work.
But, open your eyes. It's what they do. And about that abortion thing -- yeah, they won't do anything about -- ever hear the term "states' rights?" Yeah, that's code for "Maybe it'll get banned in Alabama."
UPDATE: Turns out, John McCain AGREES with talking to Hamas. Glad he and Obama are on the same page. Too bad Bush thinks McCain is Neville Chamberlain:
Watch Keith Olbermann systematically disassemble the so-called President of the United States.
Among the Democratic former presidential candidates:
John Edwards - Endorsed Barack Obama
Chris Dodd - Endorsed Barack Obama
Dennis Kucinich - Encourages Barack Obama
Bill Richardson - Endorsed Barack Obama
Joe Biden - Did Not Endorse
Mike Gravel - Became Libertarian
Barack has also received the endorsement of NARAL! Sweet.
Bill O'Reilly, a Fox News shill, has many a viewer. Why? Fuck if I know. The guy is wrong on almost every issue, but since the media holds politicians' decisions from 20 years ago to the fire, but no ever goes over the history of blowhards like Bill O'Reilly, most people seem to forget.
He's wrong on just about everything. Not only that, he has a very specific attack machine setup against everyone who either disagress with him or thinks he's a hack. (Well, we know it.) Here's some recently unearthed video of him from Inside Edition. Next time he calls Howard Dean a "nut" or Hillary "off the handle," just play this in your mind:
UPDATE: Orally doesn't want you to see it. Despite it being allowable to show on the air (Olbermann had it on last night!), they are getting it off YouTube. Industry bad-ass Raw Story is now hosting it. Here it is!
Ah, gotta love those Republicans. They haven't given a flippin fuck about people for years, but even this commercial makes me laugh:
What is S-CHIP? Well, hopefully you already know, but if not play along. So, let's see. Based on the commercial, the bill would RAISE OUR TAXES. It's a GIGANTIC INVASION OF GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE! And, ZOMG, Heather Wilson supports this abomination!!! (She's running in the Senate primary to go against Tom Udall (D) in New Mexico.)
What is S-CHIP?
The State Children's Health Insurance Program. That's right. It's health insurance fund for CHILDREN who's parents cannot afford healthcare for them, but they get sick and need medical care.
I love these people. They spend 24 hours a day calling me a Soviet communist, but they believe in an America where kids should rot because of the financial well-being of their parents. Ironic, no?
"The Club for Growth has paid for this 2008 election white washing."
Tonight, we say goodbye to my favorite restaurant. Goodfriends, a Colfax staple, and home of the damn finest nachos and onion rings, closes it's doors in a couple weeks.
So, we'll partake in our last meal there, ironically, with good friends. Here's a pic of me devouring some delicious goodness about 17 pounds ago:
Hey, look, I'm the first one to throw out the cute nickname. :-)
So, Obama won big last night IN NC and fell just short in Indiana. The end result is a big delegate gain for Obama because he wins a lot more states and stays close in the ones he loses. Hillary's camp likes to say this is a "50-state battle," but cleverly forgets this fact when she claims she should be the winner because she won New York and California.
Hillary, I love you, but it's time to go. The Huffington Post has it right. You are out of math, money, and momentum. In two weeks, you will officially lose the pledged delegate battle, and your only recourse would be to change the goalposts for the 1,000th time. You've lost my wife's support as well, which is saying something. You've lost. We NEED to move on.
If you decide, instead, to up your attacks, it will only be clear you are trying to sabotage Obama for a chance in 2012. If you do that I swear I'd stay home that day. And THAT is saying something.
As for you, Barack, well done in North Carolina and start prepping for Johnny McCain. The man will surely get the whipping he deserves come November. This country has devolved far enough. We don't need 4 more years of the same path!
OBAMA '08
I'm constantly forgetting to blog my life between my political posts and my geek posts over the The RIV Developer Corner. So, here's one of those life posts. :-)
The Current May SOTU is good. It'd be excellent, but we have sad news to report. Michele's brother, Michael, has seen an advancement of his brain cancer which is now spread. The doctors are saying anything from 2 months to live, to 50/50% chance of it possibly stopping. It's kinda crazy, but we're all very well braced for the worse right now. He left the ICU yesterday and is leaving the hospital tomorrow to go to a Hospice where he can get the best care possible. Our thoughts have been with him since September when he got his diagnosis.
Aside from this terrible news, Michele and I are doing pretty good. Cedric is just the cutest little guy. :-) He's 13.5 months now, and has undergoing some changes. First, he is now starting to get a little tired of baby food. We're getting close to just stop buying it. He still loves the morning yogurt, though. Now, when we go to restaurants, more and more, we order off the kid's menu -- which is a lot of food! He prefers to feed himself as well...well, and the floor.
At work, I am starting a new project tomorrow. I'll be working directly with Adobe on a project that has me a little excited. Actually, tomorrow, I'll be doing a LOT of walking downtown as I ideate on a design for them. Prolly a good thing, I ate too many cookies today. :-)
Also today, Michele and I hosted the second Adventure Club Olympics! This one was a good one. Remember the first one four years ago?
This year's was so much better. We had each participant select a country to represent. I also put together a set of anthems to play for the victory celebrations. We had four events again, but this time we had Scattergories instead of Taboo and a Littleton Scavenger Hunt instead of Laser Tag. Both were better than their counterparts.
In the end, K represented South Korea well, winning gold in the AC Trivia and Russian Volleyball events. I won gold in Scattergories. Aaron and Adriana won gold for the Scavenger Hunt which went off very well -- not bad for our first one! And we had great weather for it, too! A walk in Clement Park. :-)
The participants this time were Me, Michele, Aaron, Adriana, K, Shawn, and Annie. I'll post pictures here soon.
Here's what he said yesterday:
My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
Hillary Clinton says:
If We Had the Republican Rules, I Would Already Be the Nominee...
Let's see. You are using Republican talking points like Obama is a Muslim, and attacking Obama's pastor. You are conflating Farrakhan to Obama. You are showing Osama bin Laden in your ads. You are telling us how qualified you and John McCain are. You are telling us you expect calls on Iran at 3 AM. You are going on Bill O'Reilly.
If you love Republicans so much, you might as well just RUN as the Republican nominee.
