Long Time

No see!

Looks like i haven't posted in over a month! Sorry about that for all of you waiting with baited breath.

What have I been up to? Let's see:

• We went to Ireland at the end of November to visit family and see everyone in Killarney.
• While we were there we left the kid with the family and went to Rome with Jeff and Mindi!
• Got snowed in by Snowpocalypse 2008! Sorry, no photos...
• Managed to drive to Idaho and spent Christmas with My dad, his wife and my grandmom.

Ireland was very nice, I've been there a many times now. Mostly spent time with the family hanging out. Not too much partying, though there were a couple good nights. It was way freaking cold, must be the dampness, but it's way colder than Seattle. We got to see everyone and see the neices and nephew.

Rome was great, we'd never been there and we saw a lot of great things. It's amazing to see all these things you see in movies and read about in books up close. It was also great to see and hang out with Jeff & Mindi, they are great travel companions for us (we hope they feel the same!). The thing that amazed me about Rome was the food was so great. Even when what I ordered wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was still very good. I kept saying that there was no where else I could have 10 meals and not have a single disappointment. If you know me, you know what I mean!

We went and saw the Vatican, which was amazing for many reasons. We also saw the Colloseum and Palantine hill which were very cool. Our last full day we took it slow; slept in, got breakfast in bed. Hit the Pantheon during the day (we'd been there a couple times at night when it was closed). We went to the spanish steps and hung out for a bit. Which reminds me of the only annoying part of rome...

The street vendors and rose jerks. These are people who come up to you and pressure you into buying some piece of junk they're selling. The rove jerks are even worse... They come up to your wife (in my case) and hand her three roses and say they are gifts because she is so beautiful. Of course their next step is to come to you and ask for money. Luckily my wife doesn't really go for that kind of thing (especially not two day old wilted flowers) so she would try to avoid them, one guy I did give 2 Euro to, he then kept badgering me for more and I said no. Then he took the roses away from my wife! We both thought it was classic! We then left and placed the wilted flower somewhere to die a peaceful death. Of course all through the trip we were accosted by these jerks. We were much more forceful after the first time. Poor Jeff actually gave the first guy 10 Euro! (SUCKER!)

After Rome, it was back to Ireland for a few days before heading back to Seattle. We had a great time in Rome and definitely want to go back to see the things we missed this trip (catacombs for sure!)

Snowpocalypse 2008 was fun! It's funny how when Seattle gets a few inches of snow the whole place shuts down. Being from Denver I always have to laugh. Of course, out here the snow almost instantly turns to ice and Seattle is fairly hilly, so it really is difficult to get around.

The first night a guy came down our hill and slid into my car, YAY! Amazingly, he only hit the tire, no body damage at all. Of course he bent the tie rods which needed to be replaced. But he came back and gave me his information after sliding the rest of the way down the hill to where he lives. Took a few days to get it fixed which was a pain, but it's all good now. We worked from home a few of those days, but did manage to get in to work once... After a 3 hour journey.

Then we were off to Idaho where my dad and his wife had come to spend Christmas with my grandmom. I had been looking to spend Christmas in Seattle with friends, but this kind of trumped that. The drive over was fairly hair raising, but we made it without crashing. Took 8 hours though which sucked. The drive back was much better, took 6 hours which is closer to normal. We had a good time seeing my family for a day or so. It had been a while.

So, that's what I've been up to the past month. Now I'm back at work, trying to get all the stuff finished up that I missed while I was gone.

I'm hoping I'll post more frequently in the new year as I'm getting myself a new netbook which should allow me to use my time more efficiently.

I'm going to try and get a year-end post up soon, so keep watching!

And so it begins

Well, just heard from CNN that president-elect Obama's pledge to not allow lobbyists into his white house may be already fading away. It's just another case of what I'll call the Nowick syndrome where politicians say anything to get elected, then when they actually are elected those things tend to change. Of course, this was to be expected, and I think that McCain would have ended up being worse, but it still annoys me.

Here's the clip from CNN:

Election Roundup!

Well, it's been a week and I've had a chance to ingest all the information from the election. It looks like a pretty good score to me... The Democrats picked up several seats (now up to at least 57) in the Senate and a bunch in the House. I'm very excited that Colorado went Blue. They got a new Democratic Senator and showed Colorado Springs who's boss.

In Washington, the Governor's race wasn't as close as it was last time, which is a good thing. Even though she seems to be somewhat ineffective, I'd prefer an ineffective Democrat over an ineffective Republican. Hopefully she realizes that a lot of people are really looking for her to do something.... We also approved a "Death with Dignity" initiative. I think this is a good thing. I think there are a lot of people against it who still don't really understand it. A lot of the Anti press seemed to make it sound like anyone could just go to a doctor and get some pills and kill themselves. The reality is that they would have to be terminally ill with less than 6 months to live and be approved by 2 physicians. It's not like doctors are in the business of offing people, but when there is no other choice, people should have the option of making that choice for themselves. I hate to bring up the little fact that people kill themselves every day without a doctors help, so it's not like we're providing the only way to kill themselves....

California did the unthinkable (at least to me) and took away people's rights with an election. Voting on Proposition 8 undid the law allowing gay marriage. This makes me sad. Why do people think they have to tell others what they can and can't do. My favorite argument against allowing gay marriage was because it redefines marriage, then one woman said : "What if I wanted to marry my dog because I love him? Should that be legal?" My god, you must be the dumbest person on earth. Other than the stupid statement comparing your dog to a sentient human, it just doesn't make any sense. Dogs cant sign contracts, can't give consent and their breath smells like balls. Hopefully something will be done to fix this, but I wouldn't count on it.

Here's a little bit of Keith to give some perspective:



Anyway, I think it's a great thing we all did and I think this will help get the US back on the right track. With Bush's approval ratings in the shitter and the opinion of the US as one of the "bad guys"

Wisdom

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature.”

-- Abraham Lincoln

Tomorrow is the day

Tax Proposals - What will you get (or lose)?

I saw this in the Washington post. It's a comparison of how your taxes will change under each candidates tax proposals. I find it truly amazing that McCain thinks that people making over 2.87 MILLION dollars should get a larger tax cut than those of us well under that amount who actually WORK for a living (OK, I suppose most of the rich people work too, but I do it for much less).

My Comment on a friends blog

Today I was wandering around the Internet and ran into a blog posting from a friend of mine, Jay. He was angry with all the crap the politicians were saying to and about each other (and everything in general). Read his blog to get the background, here was my comment to him:

Hey Jay,Great post (and great comments). I know how you feel, the whole thing about continuing to say something, even though you know it isn't true, has been in the Republican playbook for years now. I found it funny that at one point John McCain was scolding Barack for saying something that was true over and over again...

The idea that Obama's tax plan is equivalent to Socialism is just another scare tactic. We (you, me, and everyone else who pays taxes) have just actually approved a Socialist takeover of the banking system. This actually is socialism; the goverment now owns an equity stake in several banks.

Of course, most people don't really understand Socialism as it exists today in Europe. There is still a free economy, but yes, there are higher taxes. Those higher taxes assure that every citizen is able to get healthcare, top-notch education, and infrastructure improvements.

Taxes are one of my biggest complaints about the Republicans. They call the Democrats "Tax and Spend", but the Republicans are "borrow and spend". Howdo they think the three wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism) we're carrying out will get paid for? When Sarah Palin said it wasn't patriotic to pay taxes, I was wondering how she expected her son's body armor to get paid for? I'll tell you how, we borrow money from the Chinese to pay for the tax cuts for the rich, that never seem to trickle down to you or me (at least I know not to me!)

Anyway, just wanted to let you know my feelings, I may post this comment on my blog. One of my favorite clips is from Jon Stewart and I have it on my blog, check it out: http://tevsplace.blogspot.com/2008/09/jon-stewart-best-ever.html
It shows how Republicans (and yeah, I suppose Democrats too) will say completely
opposite things depending on the situation.

Talk to you later,
Tev

I know any of you who read this somewhat regularly won't be surprised with my comment, but I thought it was a good point that I wanted to share.

Newspapers and Politics

I was reading some articles on politics today, and through the rat hole, I came across a list of newspapers and who they are endorsing in the presidential election. Some highlights:

Obama:
The Denver Post
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Times

McCain:
The Pueblo Chieftain
(Spokane) Spokesman-Review

Of course these were picked to highlight my point, that the big cities lean democrat when the smaller more rural cities lean republican.

Let's hope that a lot of people from the big cities get out and vote!

Smart Guys Vote Obama

This guy actually did invent the Internet (sorry Al). Well, I'm voting for Obama too, so I guess non-smart guys are voting for him too.

Olbermann Takes on Palin

Kinda long, but makes some interesting comparisons about what Palin is saying aboout Barack.

Sarah Palin on the Economy

This totally reminds me of that dumb pageant woman... But better.

The Waldo Ultimatum

I'm Voting Republican

A Year in the Life

So, as you may or may not remember, the kid is a year old now (actually he's 14 months, but it's taken me 2 months to get around to this). I figured I'd do a review of the things I've learned about being a dad and having a kid.

Things you miss:

• Happy Hour - Doesn't occur without lot's of planning.
• Dinner and drinks with the wife - Again, must have a babysitter and enough energy to stay up for it.
• Being able to go places without at least one bag of supplies.
• Sleep - Our guy wasn't too bad overall, but some nights were rough
• Free Time - Only get times to watch movies or play games after his bedtime.
  

Things you didn't know you'd miss:

• The child - Leaving him in the morning is always a bummer.
• The smile - When you walk into a room and he sees you and just BEAMS at you because now you're there.

Things you definitely wish you could miss:

• Poop - Not fatal, but definitely not fun, even in it's safest forms. I've been really good and don't think I've talked to any of my friends about his poop. I think I get a medal for that.
• Spit-up - Also not fatal, but more dangerous because there's nothing containing it. It can happen at any time and can be even grosser than poop.
• Waking in the night - Thanks to modern technology you can now hear every time your child breathes in his room 50 feet away. Due to now being a "parent" even the slighest changes in breathing, coughing etc. will awaken you with worry. This will happen 4-400 times per night.
  

Things to remember:

• Your wife is just as tired and grumpy as you are, try not to kill each other.
• All of the bad stuff is instantly forgotten as soon as some of the good stuff happens. For example, this makes you completely forget about this.
• Take lots of photo's - It's amazing how quickly and how much they change. Looking at photo's from the last year there are some I don't even recognize as being him.
• If you've got family or friends take advantage of them! It's great to be able to get out once in a while with your wife, remember the love that got you in this trouble in the first place!

All in all, this whole kid thing is a wonderful experience. It's always changing and always gets better. There can be some trying times, but like anything else, being able to persevere is just the icing on the cake.

This post will probably be edited because I'm sure I've forgotten to mention a lot of the great stuff I tried to remember. If you want, the three of you can add your experiences.

[Edit] I remembered 2 other things:

• People who design kids clothes with buttons instead of snaps obviouslt DON'T have children.
• Kids books MUST RHYME! I'm not talking some kind of strange dactylic rhyme, just a nice easy rhyme that makes sense.

Ok, back to ranting about the economy or politics!

McCain gets Barack Roll'd

Jon Stewart. Best. Ever.

Damn Those Pesky Mics

Be sure your mic is turned off before you start ridicuing your party's choice for VP....

The Great Economic Inequality

So, I ran across this article in the New York Times, which talks about how different people (rich, poor, and otherwise) have been affected by the different parties since WWII.

It talks about how the Rich (over $180,000/year) have been better off when Republicans are in office, but how the Not Rich (less than $180,000/year) have benefitted from the Democrats in office.

The stark contrast between the whiz-bang Clinton years and the dreary Bush years is familiar because it is so recent. But while it is extreme, it is not atypical. Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.

That 1.14-point difference, if maintained for eight years, would yield 9.33 percent more income per person, which is a lot more than almost anyone can expect from a tax cut.

Some of my family seem to think that they will be better off financially when the Repulicans are in office, but I am fairly sure that none of them make over $180k. so, if they really want to get richer, they should be supporting the Democrats and Barack.

Dingle, County Kerry Ireland

Democratfix

So - tonight I watched a little bit of the Democratic convention. I watched Hillary's speech. It was really good. I was impressed with how it sounded like she meant everything she said and I think it had a good chance of changing some people's mind.

I've been wanting to do a political blog for a while and I think I've pondered enough to let it all go! In Chris fashion I'm going to make it a list entry.

3 in 10 Hillary Supporters are now "uncommitted" or voting for McCain
Look, I understand that you're miffed about Hillary not winning the nomination, and not really being considered for VP either, but truthfully, it was her own doing. Her campaign got so many things wrong that there was no way she could win. So now you want to take your toys and go home? That's the Democratic spirit! When the going gets tough CAVE.

Let's look at some of the overwhelming similarities on her two big issues that make it easier to choose McCain over Barack:

Abortion:
Hillary - Pro-choice, not pro-abortion I suppose that this clarificaiton needs to be made to avoid the republicans calling her a baby killer any more than they already do.
McCain - "I have stated time after time after time that Roe v Wade was a bad decision..."
Conclusion - Well, pretty much a no-brainer (which may be just enough for this 30 percent). I would say in general Democrats are pro-choice and that would pretty much put them on the exact opposite side of the spectrum as John McCain.

Healthcare:
Hillary - Require all americans to have health insurance.
McCain - "I've made it very clear that what I want is for families to make decisions about their health care, not government..." ( TEV - it's worked well for the 47 million without healthcare so far)
Conclusion - Again, while you may be pouting about Hills not being the woman, Barack's healthcare plan is MUCH more like hers that McCains ever could hope to be.

Anyway, it seems completly ludicrous that ANYONE who was supporting Hillary Clinton 2 months ago would now switch sides just because she lost the race. If you're truly contemplating voting for McCain over Barack then fuck you. You're dumber than the republicans and you deserve them.

Attack Ads 5 Minutes After VP Announced (and feigned outrage of said attacks)
Moments after Biden was announced as the VP, there were ads on the Internet bashing Obama using Biden's words. I'm sure the republicans had 3 different versions of this ad ready depending on who was actually selected as VP.

One thing I can't stand are these attack ads.They don't actually acomplish anything but try to create fear or doubt. Then of course the atackee gets in a big huff about it, complains about how the other guy is not talking about the issues and is muckraking. Then 20 minutes later they launch their barrage of misleading attack ads and the process continues until november. Wow, what a great way to campaign.

Are conservatives racist, greedy, or just naive?
Racist: So the republicans seem very into keeping those illegal immigrants out. Of course one of our borders seems to be much more 'protected' than the other. I don't see any freaking walls going up between here and Canada. They continue to talk about these immigrants taking our jobs, but these days you can barely get 16 year olds to work at McDonalds, let alone clean toilets, pick fruit in the scorching hot sun, or wash a thousand dishes a day. You know who has no problem doing that? Illegal immigrants. Don't give me crap about taking american jobs, I don't know a single person (remember I grew up in Denver and there were a lot of "those" people) who lost their job or couldn't get a job because some illegal got it. C'mon, really?

Greedy: This is the one I hear a lot when I'm talking to my family, a few of who vote republican. "the Democrats are just going to raise my taxes but the republicans will help me become rich". As if we somehow forgot that "trickle down" economics (aka Voodoo Economics) didn't work in the '80s so we should try it again in the 2000s. See, the problem with trickle down economics is that not enough money ever trickles down to help the people who so desperately want it. They give tax breaks and funds to bussiness owners in the hopes that the money will work it's way down to all the little people. You know what? It never trickles that far. When my brother, who had been unemployed for way too long says that Bush is going to help the economy I can't even bring myself to try and educate him because he is so ignorant of the actual workings of the world that it pains me (I do love my brother, I just hate that he thinks republicans want to help him.)

Naive: My favorite people are the Libertarians. You know the people who say that big governement is bad. They say that the democrats create big government (wrong)and spend way too much money (wrong.) They also like to say that the government shouldn't over-regulate our lives. of course when asked about things like abortion, stem cells, or gay marriage, their views seem to change. "Well, of course we need the government to regulate those things, I mean those things are important!" You can't have your cake and eat it to libby libby libby! Either you want smaller government or you want George Bush. Either you want to curb governmental spending or you want George Bush. Either you want the government out of your private lives or you want George Bush. Of course McCain isn't as bad as Bush, but neither is my cat and I don't want her being the president. (FYI - I don't really have a cat)

In conclusion I'd just like to say:

Stop being whiny little bitches and vote for Barack! Don't act like a fucking three-year old who doesn't get to play red light, green light. Instead, play the next best thing; Simon Says!