What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective. « Mudflats

Lovely Downtown Wasilla, Alaska

“Is this a joke?” That seemed to be the question du jour when my phone started ringing off the hook at 6:45am here in Alaska. I mean, we’re sort of excited that our humble state has gotten some kind of national ‘nod’….but seriously? Sarah Palin for Vice President? Yes, she’s a popular governor. Her all time high approval rating hovered around 90% at one point. But bear in mind that the 90% approval rating came from one of the most conservative, and reddest-of-the-red states out there. And that approval rating came before a series of events that have lead many Alaskans to question the governor’s once pristine image.

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The Sheriff that "Made My Day"

On my way home from work this evening I was pulled over by a Loudoun County Sheriff. Normally this would be something of concern but not in this case. You see he was pulling me over because I wasn't wearing a helmet at the time.

I drive from Fairfax County in through Loudoun County to get home each day. When I get to the border I pull my helmet off and hang it on a hook under my seat. I wasn't more than three blocks into Loudoun when I hear a siren and see lights pulling up behind me. I of course pull over, mainly because I thought I was getting nailed for running a stop sign. Much to my relief the first thing out of his mouth was "did you know it's a state law that you are supposed to be wearing a helmet while riding that thing?" (That thing being my electric scooter) Having researched all of the laws pertaining to this type of vehicle prior to purchase I simply stated the facts. "No sir, there is no state law regulating the use of helmets in Virginia. There are however laws per county which regulate their use but Loudoun does not have any law which states such a requirement." He asked if I had a Virginia drivers license; he did not ask to see it though because I think he was a little befuddled by my previous response. After a little more back and forth he said "we'll let's just look this up and I'll show you the law". "Yes, please do" I said. He pulled over to the curb just past where I had parked and got out his book. I walked over to his passenger window and just started politely telling him about the bike and all the research I did prior to it's purchase.

After a few minutes had passed he asked me how fast the bike went. Of course I knew the new law says if the vehicle can travel at speeds greater than 35 mph it will be classified as a motorcycle; so I of course told him 35 tops. I told him it was all electric and sometimes, by the end of a long ride, it didn't have enough juice to even do more than 15 mph. He was a little surprised to hear that the scooter was all electric. And in fact when he was unable to find any regulation in either of his books regarding the use of helmets he says "good thing it's electric, if it had been gas powered you would have had to wear a helmet." Of course I knew this was just being said to save face so I didn't correct him. I simply said thank you sir and have a nice day! I don't know why this incident made me so happy but I laughed most of the rest of the way home.

Rip-off

Beware of efax.com! They claim to offer a free trial but they do not. I signed up for the "free trial" because I had to fax a lease agreement for my daughter. The leasing company would not accept an email attachment?!? Whatever.

Not owning a facsimile machine since the 20th century I went online. So I find this company which offers a "free trial" for sending and receiving faxes. They require a credit card number but say that you won't be charged for the service if you cancel within 30 days. I figure I would use it then cancel and bingo bango would be done with it. I sign up, send my faxes back into the 20th century and think great, I'm done nice and neat. Well today I go into cancel my account and am surprised by a $10- charge to my Amex. It has only been 1 day since I signed up so what was the deal? I sent an email to their "customer support" and got back a form letter which they apparently send out all too frequently. Basically it says F U and we are keeping your ten bucks! This is why I am sending out this warning to anyone who may see this post. Watch out for this sleazy, deceptive web site!

Sole Black Reporter Booted from McCain Event

by thinkbridge

Sat Aug 02, 2008 at 12:36:07 PM PDT

Tallahassee Democrat senior writer Stephen Price was singled out and asked to leave the area reserved for media at a rally for John McCain in Panama City, Florida, on Friday. He had showed his media credentials and employee i.d. in order to enter the area when a member of McCain's security detail asked him to leave.

Read the whole story>>

Going Green

Well I have been riding the electric scooter back and forth to work at Long & Foster Real Estate for over a week now. My commute is roughly 15 miles and it takes me about 45 minutes. It is a real pleasure to ride especially when you consider the amount of money I am saving on a daily basis not driving a gas guzzler. Every day I see more and more of these scooters on the road. Hopefully this trend will continue and automobiles will become the odd vehicle on the road.

Beside just being a fun way to commute, I really feel good knowing that I too am helping in nearly every possible way to reduce pollution. Admittedly, I do smile each time I pass a gas station showing prices for unleaded gas at over $4.00 a gallon.

JimmyD - Plurk.com

JimmyD - Plurk.com

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Earl Scruggs & The Chieftains

Best Irish joke of 2006 (allegedly)

John O’Reilly hoisted his beer and said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, between the legs of me wife!”

That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night.

He went home and told his wife, Mary, “I won the prize for the Best toast of the night”.

She said, “Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?”

John said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife.”

“Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!” Mary said.

The next day, Mary ran into one of John’s drinking buddies on the street corner. The man chuckled leeringly and said, “John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.”

She said, “Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he’s only been there twice in the last four years. Once he fell asleep and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come.”

Why Vote Republican?

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What will Microsoft do now?

Yahoo and Google will make a joint announcement at 1:30 this afternoon, we’ve heard from a reliable source close to one of the companies. What is the announcement? The very likely answer is, a search partnership between the two companies that outsources all or part of Yahoo search marketing, and possibly search itself, to Google.

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Kucinich to push for Judiciary to take up impeachment res.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who last night presented articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to Congress, will tonight move that his impeachment resolution be referred to the Judiciary Committee, per a press release from his office...

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They Call Me Scooter

Got my new electric moped Sunday and have been having tons of fun breaking it in. I will eventually start using it for my daily commute. With gas prices over $4- a gallon, I will be smiling all the way to work and back!

Drove it a few miles this morning to go and vote in our local elections. Had a little problem when my right foot got caught on a piece of trim and I ended up taking a spill. No big damage, just a few scratches and popped off the end of the right break handle. I have to take in back in a couple of weeks to get a part replace anyway so I figure I will just have that replaced then as well.

I strongly recommend to anyone with a short commute to look into buying one of these. It is not only good for the environment but it would also be good for your pocket!

Plurk - The new social network aint so social

I have been using Plurk for only a couple of days now. I was cajoled into it by a friend at the office. It is an instant messaging type service with an historical timeline which allows you to go back and comment on posts made by people in your network as well as post your own messages. The one issue I have been seeing as more people join is that, much like Twitter, it is having trouble handling the load. I just got this a few minutes ago "Oops... The page you are looking for is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a few moments."

It is a fun way to connect with multiple people but if it continues to have issues like this, or if the issue actually get worse, I see Plurk going the way of the dinosaur.

Catch Up

That's what the father tomato said to the little tomato that kept falling behind.

Here is some of my "catch up". April 4, 2008 my father passed away due to complications from lung cancer and heart disease. Since then my mother has not been doing too well. I am hoping she comes out of her depression soon.

I had to postpone my Chesapeake Bay charter fishing trip for May 17th with Capt. Mike because of work. The Long & Foster headquarters is moving and I am providing support for all of our applications as our servers are moved. Basically I just need to be available if something doesn't come back up so I can design an "Oops it's down" page.

We have canceled our European vacation this year because of the falling dollar. So we will be flying Joanna here for a visit and to attend the 80th surprise party in Florida in August. We are waiting to find out if she will be leaving from Greece or from Germany.

I found a guy here the sells electric scooters. If I am allowed to plug one in at work I will begin commuting for free. That reminds me, I need to find someone and ask him if this would be ok or not.

Same ol', same ol'

I finished my 2008 calendars last night; woohoo! What a crazy weekend. I had a last minute request to make some changes to the corporate website that wasn't tested thoroughly before pushing live. I got stuck making some quick fixes remotely Friday night and Saturday morning which took some time. Then we had to do some shopping and prep for Thanksgiving as we are hosting again this year. Jackie came in around 5 from Tech and wanted me to make her favorite dinner, pork chops, baked mac and cheese and steamed veggies. I also found some time to download and play with miro. It's pretty cool. Sunday between working on Chesapeake Boats, working on the new calendar, making baklava for the department holiday party, making dinner, etc.., Maria calls from the store telling me that Jackie fainted. She wanted to know if she should call and ambulance and go to the hospital. After some discussion I found out that Jackie was okay and recommended she just bring her home. When they got home I checked for the usual symptoms of a concussion and found none. She was probably just mildy dehydrated so we pushed fluids. She was fine; thanks goodness.

This is obscene!

I came across this article on Digg just a few minutes ago and wanted to share it with anyone who may read this. Soldier wounded in Iraq is told to leave his Army home within 30 days.

Normally I would say "I can't believe this" but in our current situation with an administration breaking the law on a daily basis I am afraid I CAN believe this. This is no way to treat a veteran and someone who was willing to give his life for his country. It's absolutely reprehensible.

Back to work!

I just downloaded "Flock", a new "social" browser. It is pretty damn cool. For anyone not familiar with this check it out at www.flock.com. It uses tabbed browsing like Firefox, IE7 and Safari but what is really cool is that it works well on a Mac or a PC. So far it looks like it works better than Firefox on the Mac. Uh oh, this could be bad news for Firefox.

Mr. Marble breaks out

 
 

Cardinal 

I'm moving to Germany!

Story By Alexandra Hudson
REUTERS
7:05 a.m. February 23, 2005

MAINZ, Germany – Some 7,000 protesters, some carrying banners saying "Bush go home," "War Monger" and "No. 1 Terrorist," marched through the German town of Mainz on Wednesday but were kept away from the visiting U.S. president.

The largely peaceful rally never got within a kilometre (half mile) of U.S. President George W. Bush, who is on his first German visit since the 2003 Iraq war, which was deeply unpopular in Germany. "I'm disgusted by the war in Iraq Bush started that has cost thousands of civilian lives," said Thomas Odenweller, 49, a computer technician. "Now he's trying to normalise relations with Europe. It must be stopped."

Ignoring snow and freezing temperatures, the demonstrators held banners chastising Bush in English with slogans such as: "You can bomb the world to pieces but not into peace." Many had pre-printed posters reading: "Bush, No. 1 Terrorist."

Before the march, one speaker told the crowd: "Mr. Bush, please leave our country. You started an illegal war against Iraq."

German police confiscated one poster that read: "We had our Hitler, now you have yours."

Some protesters praised Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for his opposition to the Iraq war and refusal to send troops.

"Schroeder's opposition to the Iraq war made me so proud to be German," said Helmut Bach, 50, a pilot who marched with his 20-year-old daughter. "That's why I voted for him."
Several protesters wearing fake U.S. army uniforms pulled a trailer with dummies of blood-covered Iraq prisoners impaled on iron bars under a banner: "We don't want your type of freedom."

A force of 10,000 police officers staged one of the biggest postwar security operations. Frogmen searched the Rhine for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers were welded shut and thousands of residents were displaced.

For Bush's 8-hour stay there was also a strict ban on air traffic within a 60-km (40-mile) radius of Mainz, barges on the river were halted and motorways in the region closed. Factories, businesses and schools were shut.

Alex Berg, 31, a dancer, and his friends were dressed as cows and carried a poster reading: "We don't need no cowboys."

Bush's visit contrasted with that of his father to Mainz in 1989 when large crowds cheered Bush senior for his calls for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

Other U.S. presidents have also been given a hero's welcome in Germany.
"When John F. Kennedy came to Germany he drove through cheering crowds," said Mark Reichelt, 20, a student. "Now Bush is here and will drive through empty streets."