War in Iraq - Clock

2015 Days since the start of the War in Iraq

U.S. Military Casualties since the start of the War in Iraq

(Includes casualties from fighting in Afghanistan)

Deaths - 4779

Wounded - 30662

Visit Anti-War.com

David S. Broder Wants A Jerk

David Broder, Op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, has made a remarkable interpretation of the Presidential Debate hosted this past Friday by Jim Lehrer. He sees McCain's angry, undignified demeanor as somehow being a good thing - a positive for McCain. The fact that McCain could not look Obama in the eye or even speak directly to him, Broder sees as a plus for McCain. For most Americans who watched, this apparently was not true. It is not true for me. McCain looked like a jerk, in my opinion. A candidate who cannot look his opponent in the eye, even when shaking his hand, most likely has hatred for the other candidate. This makes me question what causes such hatred. Hatred for a political opponent is certainly not a quality I want in the President of the United States. Broder looks to statements by Obama that McCain was "absolutely right" on very specific points as evidence that Obama was somehow conceding to McCain. This surely was not the case. Obama clearly showed that although he agreed with McCain's concern about a particular problem, it was not agreement on the solution for that problem. Obama proved himself a statesman. McCain proved himself the opposite, whatever term fits. For Broder, that term is "Alpha Male." I find use of this term laughable. Obviously, Broder has never seen wolves pick an "alpha." They do not turn their eyes away from their challenger. Obama conceded nothing to McCain, not command of the issues, not intellect, not the strength to lead. Obama showed the calm, reasoned response that the President of the United States should be able to maintain in the face of opposition. 

NO BAILOUT FOR WALL STREET!

If you have not been following this story, you need to wake up! Paulson & Bernanke are trying to screw the middle class of the United States by adding hundreds of billions of dollars to our debt. Paulson calls the "plan" an "asset purchase" plan. This is PURE BULLSHIT! A BOLD FACED LIE! What is being purchased is paper with NO VALUE! These are derivatives - speculative bets made on the direction of particular stock and commodities markets. This is NOT  a move to save "financial markets." This is a move to protect brokerage firms and their fat cat CEO's wealth. If your senators and representative vote for this bailout, they are voting to put this weight of this "crisis" on your shoulders and mine. Don't let them do it. Go here and send a message to your senators and representative demanding that they reject this bailout. Do it now for the sake of every family in this country.

Hagan Smith - NVCCA Grand Opening

Although this video is focused on the drivers license, it goes into some depth concerning the Constitution of the United States of America. It may be a difficult video for some of you to watch because of your experiences growing up in the United States thinking that we have the type of country that the founders intended. We do not. It is not even close. In fact, I agree with the what Mr. Smith in the video states - that if the founders of this nation were alive today, they would once again take up arms against the leaders of this government. He also believes, as do I, that our current government is even more tyrannical than the one from which the founders first claimed independence. Yes, the totalitarian monarchy of King George III of England was not as tyrannical as our current day democracy. You can view the video by clicking here.

War in Iraq - Clock

2005 Days since the start of the War in Iraq

U.S. Military Casualties since the start of the War in Iraq

(Includes casualties from fighting in Afghanistan)

Deaths - 4765

Wounded - 30642

Visit Anti-War.com

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live

p>

Governor Palin's Reading List

Please read this post by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It is a short post but no small matter.

I HATE THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES

Yes, I really mean hate, as in abhor, cannot tolerate, wish they would disappear. And I mean all three of them: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Why? Oh, let's see...

• They collect and hold very personal information about me that I never contracted or approved for them to have.
• They disseminate very personal information about me without my knowledge or approval.
• They "score" me based on the very personal information about me that they hold.
• Based on THEIR score I may or may not receive credit or get a job.
• When they hold and/or disseminate incorrect information about me, they make it EXTREMELY difficult to correct.
• They charge ME to put a "freeze" on MY information.
• The time, expense, stress and turmoil that they have caused my family and me cannot be recouped.

Here is our latest experience with Experian. Today, we received a letter from our mortgage company, Countrywide, stating that one of their "former" employees, stole and sold our personal information. They stated that they are working with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to prevent any misuse of the information and are providing a two-year complimentary subscription to Experian's "Triple Advantage" service. OK, that sounds fair enough. There are always unscrupulous people who get into any company and get access to information of which they then take advantage. The problem? Although the letter is addressed to both my wife and I, we were only able to sign up for one subscription that does not allow the addition of a spouse to the account. When we attempted to use the activation code a second time to create an account for the other person, the system would not accept it. When I attempted to call for assistance from Experian, I received a message that they were experiencing a "very high call" volume (no kidding) and that I should attempt my call at another time. They are ALWAYS experiencing a very high call volume. They have NO INTEREST in serving the consumer. Their business comes from companies and corporations that contract their services to keep out so-called "high risk" individuals. Personally, I would love to see these "agencies" shut down - completely put out of business. The harm that they cause the consumer far outweighs any good that they provide to corporations. Are there any brave law firms out their willing to try a "class action" against the Big 3?

Technology Service Corporation is Becoming My Enemy

When Being Civil Does Not Work

So there is this company called Technology Service Corporation that appears to be a contractor or sub-contractor for the Defense Department...

They apparently have braniac engineers working for them, but they must not be all that intelligent. What is my evidence for such a statement? For the past 6 months or so, we have been receiving calls on our home phone during the hours of 3:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. from one of their computers or fax machines in Silver Spring, Maryland, attempting to send a fax. The first time it happened, no big deal right? I called the company and left a message with the receptionist that someone in their company had either programmed in a wrong fax number or was dialing it incorrectly. I politely requested that she follow-up on the situation for me and make sure that it was corrected. The problem persisted, so I called back to the company, each time somehow reaching a different person, and each time receiving assurance that the problem would be resolved. Ok, so, still no big deal right? Just order "selective call rejection" and program in the company's number. Eventually, they will realize that their faxes are not getting to the right place. Right? Wrong! It is now 6 months later. I thought by now I would be able to drop the Selective Call Rejection feature, but no such luck. These inept BOZOS are still trying to send a corporate fax to our home. What's my next step? Two things:

• I am going to attempt to receive the fax and find out where it is supposed to be going. Next, I will call TSC one more time and tell them that I have received some important information from their company that was not intended for me and that I have tried many times asking them correct the situation. However, since they do not seem concerned with correcting their error, then the information that I am hoping to intercept must not be very important to them.
• I am going to begin billing the company for the cost of the Selective Call Rejection feature so that they have to waste time and expense to have someone print out a check and send it to me. That alone will cost them more than what they will be sending to me.

It is no wonder that our government is trillions of dollars in debt. Companies like Technology Service Corporation are sitting on their fat profits (from you and me), not interested in hearing a word we say. If this is how they run the rest of their business, I am certain that we are not getting our money's worth from them.

Mozilla Firefox - The Best Browser?

It seems that ever since Firefox came on the scene back in late 2004, the "experts" of Information Technology have been singing its praises. Although I have wanted a competitor to wipe the floor with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, I still find myself returning to it. Why? Several reasons...

• It doesn't play nice with media players. I have installed plug-in after plug-in, update after update, and still have difficulty getting media files to simply stream and play consistently when I click on them within Firefox.
• Adobe's Flash Player behaves badly. I have attempted to view Flash movies, charts, and other content in Firefox with very sporadic results. For example, when I attempt to view an interactive stock chart at Marketwatch.com from within Firefox, I can see it for a couple of seconds. Then it disappears.
• Secure connections do not always succeed. I have no idea what this is all about, but sometimes I have to load a secure site several times in order to see all the content. No, it has nothing to do with allowing scripts. I have already checked this.
• I cannot configure the appearance of Firefox easily. I would like to be able to simply drag, drop and resize toolbars and buttons to my liking. I have found no way to do this in Firefox.

Now, some of you might be saying, "Why don't you just install the IE plug-in and use it to view the sites with which you are having difficulty?" I have done that, and in SOME cases it has worked. In others, like the Marketwatch charts issue, it has not. I see no reason why I should use 2 browsers when 1 can accomplish the task. Therefore, unfortunately, I will continue using Internet Explorer because, for me, it is still the best browser.