Middle America's Worldview

I can't help feeling sympathetic to those unable to get away from the natural horror in New Orleans and Missippippi. However, I was blown away from what I heard this morning.


I was watching the news this morning before work, yeah its all about Katrina's snail trail. Some guy on the tv was saying "people are doing what they do out of necessity".

I guess necessity comes in those roll of coins within the slot machine. Vandalism and looters are rampant.

Here you have 80% of New Orleans under water and people are taking everything they can get their hands on. Unbelievable.

This same guy on the tv was saying "people are doing what they are doing from necessity". Seems the end all of me has become priority. Then he proceeds to inform the newscaster "People are crazy. There was a girl raped last night. It's all crazy here".

Geez, what neccisates a girl getting raped? Hey Harvey, you getting any since the flood. Nope. Hey look at that chick all alone.

What are these people thinking?

Later on more newscasters went out during the daylight catching anyone nearby to make a statement. Mainly everyone was stating the same thing. "We need help. We need food. We need water." I didn't hear the question, 'why are you still here?' or 'why didnt you leave when 2 days prior everyone showed this coming?' I guess they couldn't really answer that one. Albeit some couldnt leave, for whatever reason.

Personally, I do not see how they can plug this levy up. From what I heard, their dropping 1000 pound sandbags to no avail. Considering this storm could had caused even more damage if it had not wobbled a bit when it hit land.

Don't get me wrong. I am sensitive to the loss, damage, heartache these people are going through. I was thrilled to hear Germany was willing to help U.S. out. Where is the United Nations?

And my final gripe today is these freaking gas prices. Here in Southwest Oklahoma it went from 2.69 to 2.89 today alone. Unreal.

I am not too much into sueing. I know there are many many out there willing to sue for the sake of it. ACLU for one, low-lifes looking for easy money for others.

Don't get me wrong, there are good reasons for it.

However, I am thinking of sueing Axe Toiletries. I picked up the Axe shower gel and deadorant. I have been showering and using it for 2 days now and not once have I been tackled by unknown beautiful women nor seen my wife unwillingly grind in the shower after me.

False advertisement man.

I already put my thoughts on the gaza pullout regarding Israel and Palestine. Today Gary Baer post's the first of many Islamic Terrorist attacks.

--Please note the thread below----------------

In the Middle East, no good deed goes unpunished. Israel Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon thought he was doing a good deed that would start
the illusive peace process when he ordered the forced evacuation of 8,500
Jews from Gaza. Now it’s payback time, but it isn’t olive branches that
are being extended.

A Palestinian homicide bomber blew himself up outside a bus station in southern Israel yesterday. At least 10 people were injured, but the death toll would have been higher if the bus driver hadn’t identified the man as a terrorist in time to stop him.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the Hamas "military,"
issued a bin Laden-type videotape over the weekend promising that now that
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is complete "all of Palestine" would "become a hell" for Israelis.

And finally, Israel began the last stage of the Gaza evacuation today—removing Jewish remains from 48 graves in the Gaza cemetery. The removal is necessary because Palestinian thugs will surely desecrate the graves if the bodies are left behind. And these are the people who optimists believe are prepared to "live side-by-side in peace with Israel."

I had an odd dream last night.

I dreamed I was with someone (I dont know who) traveling in a car. Don't know the destination nor where I was, but the mood was cheery. I then found I had the ability to do anything I wanted to do. At first the ability to put my hands through the car, walk through walls, even change the enviroment or world around me. Thinking to myself in the dream, it must be one of those I can control. So I played around with my new ability to develop the world any means I wanted too.

I then found myself with the feeling of non-satisfaction due to my ability to have total control of everything. I ended up creating a world without micro-managing. Those who asked for my help, I provided. But this too became troublesome because I soon didn't feel appreciated.

I woke up wondering about the odd dream. Perhaps it was due to the seminars, ect. However, I also couldn't help wondering if it was more of a message.

Home that four letter word that means so much. Kel and I made it home safely this afternoon. Man, it's good to be home. We stopped at Kel's parents to pick up the kids and her dad was grilling lunch. We had a good welcome home lunch and some leftovers to take home.

I already kindof dread this week. I start on call tomorrow and the history of on call has not been easy. Oh well, I had 3 days of pleasure with my wife and now it's back to reality.

I will say, I learned quite a bit from the seminars. It was very worth it. I look forward to putting some of this new knowledge in place. As usuual, the more knowledge I acquire, the more I realize how much I have yet to learn.

I am sitting here watching this 4400 show trying to figure it out. It's kindof weird but different.

I am at grips to watch my favorite Deadzone show.

I already have had my melatonin and looking forward to my own bed. ( deep sigh )

Kel and I were able to pull out Thursday night to head for Oklahoma City. Finding, our hotel I was impressed of its size. I wasn't too impressed on the aspect of having to pay 8 bucks a day for the parking. Seems every little iota in here has a small price tag for it. Anything from a bear asking to be taken home, to the 3 dollar candy bars in the hotel rooms fridge. On top of it all, They charge extra for internet access. I have been to a few hotels due to work, and to me this one is pretty expensive. The little extra's with a price only puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I spent all day Friday in the seminars and I was impressed with some of them already. I found it fascinating, I came upon a conversation of a OSSBA and Principle (Muskogee) discussing the need and desire to create a network of contacts. This would allow someone to see what the other districts are doing in respect to policy/procedure, ect. Crap, that's what I been saying all along! Needless to say, I handed him my email address in agreement. It only cost me a few moments to listen to his pangs within his school, he is dealing with.

I see Halo Scan isnt coming up on my blog this morning. I will have to look into this when I get home tomorrow.

I look forward to the round discussion tomorrow morning at the conferences. Seems this time is availible for all to pose questions, and ask for assistance in their respective circumstances.

This morning, I am looking forward to the "Do's and Dont's of a School Board Member". I am curious how much I am screwing up. : )

I have to make one final commment in regards to last night. Kel looked very hot (as in sexy) when we went out to eat dinner. The dinner was good and I enjoyed walking the mall, ect just to be with her. I have to say, my mind was on her throughout the evening. I kept saying "you look good tonight". I am not sure how the statement sounded after number 15, but I was totally enamored by her.

OK Pat Robertson stated some remarks this week that brought him to the fore-front.

First he calls for Hugo Chavez assassination. He then states Islam is a religion of violence by explaing the foundation of Islam.

I could say, he doesn't speak for all christians. But that would be a bit hypocritical, considering I slam the liberal Dem's for their statements. So, I will be honest and say, I personally agree.

Why would a christian want agree to a assassin of a human being or be so myopic in thinking a religion actually calls for violence?

I cannot help but think, Hmm, if I had the opportunity to put a bullet in Adolf Hilters skull prior of the jewish onslaught, would I? The answer is a resoundley yes. Most of the people should recognize the fact we are in a war of ideology. On one hand, we have the idea of a Democracy. On the other side we have the ideology of Dictatorship. The ideologically leaning left continues to gripe about the money going into Iraq. But act shocked on the idea of dismissing a similar dictator. Oh well.

As for the idea on the religion of Islam, history shows this to be a fact. I like one statement I heard. Not all muslims are terrorist, but all terrorist were muslims. This holds true for the current war we are in. The fact is this is a war of ideology. You have the muslim extremist that are willing to die for a cause. You have dictator's not wishing the idea of democracy to be put in the peoples heads. This would cause the dictators to loose their power. A quick look of a brief muslim chronology gives us a short view of assassinations and war. Also a look at the history of Abraham with Isaac and Ishmael showing Isaac was the father of Israel and Ishmael was the father Islam. Although the two brothers were able to reconcile their differences but these two nations (Palestine and Israel) cannot.

This is the way I see it anyway.

Another busy but this time progressive day at work for me. Some days it just clicks. I been trying to figure out 2 project issues on 3 interfaces I have been working on. Today, I think I resolved them. For some reason, the answers just seem to make sense and materialize. It could be the fact, I was not bombarded all day by everyone, or I wasn't entrenched with support. Regardless, I did actually get some things done regarding my development in work today. Tomorrow I am on support all day, so I am not holding my breath. Taking it one day at a time.

We lost the means of the internet this evening. I wasn't able to sleep tonight so checked it again 11:30 p.m. local time. As luck had it, we have it back. Seems the whole area of Fort Smith, Van Buren, Arkansas was effected. Since Pocola is using the same network as Fort Smith, we were caught in the outage.

I am having a little difficulty with the School Board and some issues I am trying to resolve in my head. I was frustrated with the admin and the means or rather their in-effective means of management and ability. I attempted to help in a resolution prior of school board without getting anywhere. One of the reasons I tried and now succesfully gain a position on the School Board was to be a positive influence toward that same goal. However, I find myself still unable to do anything short of the same. The burden remains on the teachers to produce the examples and facts of the admins inability to promote a positive work enviroment. I can only convey the teachers and parents have a friend on the board that will support them in anyway I can.

I think with work, worry about Kel and now the School Board issues coming into play, I have a lot on my mind and it appears sleep will not come easy.

Today was my actual break of my bad 2 weeks. I was busy as normal and I am so far behind on my projects it's not funny, but, I could at least breathe today.

I did some PTA stuff this morning at school. Tried to get copies to the teachers with more copies to the students made.

I managed to get on and off the work conference calls with ease as well. Over all a busy but not so hectic day.

We also had a PTA meeting tonight. Our first one! We had a great turnout (in comparison to the ones in the past)tonight. I think around 11 signed up and paid for membership tonight alone. The meeting didn't last very long, but it was nice to get the first one kicked off. Kel is again President and I am again Treasurer this year. This will be the last year we can retain these positions. There is a 2 year limit for each officer position. Personally, I wouldn't mind stepping back a bit on it.

I was able to watch Dead Zone last night. This is a great show! It totally rocked last night. It's hard to believe next Sunday will be their Season Final. But then again this year has really flown.

Looking forward to having Friday off this week. Kel and I plan to go to Oklahoma City this weekend. I have a 3 day seminars regarding School Board and perhaps she can have some quite quality time.

A hellacious weekend of on-call. Yet, it is over. I am officially off one week then back on the wagon again next week. Gotta make that money.

I finally put a new face on my blog. Please comment if it sucks or not. Personally I liked the old one, but it seemed way to busy and too wide.

I want to give a nod over to Mongo's excellent history test.

I also wanted to point towards STOP the ACLU interesting post on the ACLU putting the initiative to sue a county. I thought those interested would contact the ACLU as opposed to ACLU looking for a lawsuit? Oh well, I called the Oklahoma ACLU last week and still waiting for that return phone call. Seems they simply do not want to answer 'questions'.

Gotta hit the work early this morning. I am already looking at 3 conference calls before noon.

Strategically, its not a bad idea. I think there were 6000 jews compared to nearly 1 million palestinians. By pulling them out, they Israel army would have a better chance to hold the new border. In addition it should appease the palestinians the fact of fulling giving the land over to them and show the world, Israel is working toward peace.

However, the fact is, regardless of how much land Israel gives over to the palestinians, they will simply want more. News are already showing, the land they have given over is being destroyed and uprooted.

Scenes of jewish brothers pulling other jewish brothers down from their synagogues is a tragedy. Camera's showing tormented souls losing their homes and land. Although, being told they will be paid a specific amount for their homes and land doesnt give much comfort to those losing. I am reminded of the fighting in U.S. homeowners over their land by states wanting to put in roads and buisiness's. It doesn't seem so different. So why doesn't the world care?

Seems Israel is asking United States to assist in this compensation to those losing their homes in the tune of 2.3 billion in aid. My question is why not assistance from the U.N.? In addition to Israel asking for assistance, Abbas is also requesting United States for assistance in obtaining equipment to bolster the security forces, such as communications gear, computers and vehicles. My question is, where is United States getting all this money to provide aid?

I understand overall what Israel is trying to prove. They will pull out as agreed but the crazies will still attack and commit suicide bombings, only at a better advantage point.

However, everyone with a clue already understands this and the show is not required.

We are actually getting the rain we need. Now my once dying yard is becoming a tropical rain forest. I think the weeds have grown to my ankles at this point. Oh well, the farmers needed rain.

I find it fascinating in the one aspect of being on the school board. Last night, someone had purchased last years PTA Yearbook. As he was speaking with me, the discussion ended up on a issue on the middle school gym. I guess I should be getting use to these types of discussions. It will start on one subject but inevitably the true meaning of the contact will end up on a particular issue the person will have.

Seems this virus has also effected Siemens and hospitals as well. Gotta love the worms out there. (shaking head)

I actually drunk a beer last night. This is highly unusual for me. I think last week was the most I have drank (one beer on the nights I actually did drink)and this is the first one at home.

Regardless of the one beer, I didn't sleep worth a flip last night. I don't think Kel did either. She mentioned she was up last night and didn't think I was asleep either. I told her, she should had talked with me. Oh well, at least work didn't call me for on-call stuff.

I had a live that didn't happen at work today. I also seem to be busy as all get outs. On top of the busy-ness our cable went out around 2:30. Talk about sucking. When your remote and your link is down, your just out of luck. Cable guys finally arrived around 5 p.m and we learned the contractor that hooked up the neighbors cable, accidently kinked or loosened a nut on our end. Sigh.

I was scheduled to be on-call this week. Fortunately our seek peer arrived back to work today. She took my on-call and remaining support today. She was appreciative of us picking up the strings last week and was more than willing to do whatever today. I really didn't want to give it up, but with the cable going out on me, I didn't have much choice.

I didn't sleep great last night, but much better than I have all week. It was just nice to be able to sleep with my wife again.

I was thinking today how much I love my kids and family. Regardless of how hard it was today and with everything working against me (cable, bad live, ect), I remain appreciative to have a good home with great kids and a beautiful, peaceful wife.

Tipping my water to all and wishing them a blessed week and NO MORE MONDAYS. geez.

I am finally home and glad of it. My connecting flight was late on departure. About an hour late. I didnt get home till around 5 p.m. Bummer.

I gave the surprises to the kids (more than half was from Kel earlier) and Kel. It was a Teen Titan bonanza. LOL. I was able to find a cool hingebox for Kel.

I already have the clothes washed and currently being dried. Kel fixed a good homecook meal as well. Mmm mmm.

I look forward to a good nights rest snuggling with my honey before the week starts yet again.

I finally get to go home tomorrow. I am soo ready.

I actually slept in this morning till 9:30. That's a record for me. Basically today I went to Barnes N Noble as well as Borders looking for a particular book. No go. However, I was informed of another book in the same subject matter. I also went to a local library to check it out. As I parked the car, I couldn't help but notice the other park car had one of those car-jack gadget on the steering wheel. The thought of 'what kindof area was this' ran through my mind.

I also went to the I.S. Picnic to show my face and took a couple of pics. I said my hello's and stayed for about 2.5 hours. It was hotter than ever out there. I had shorts and a cool shirt on but it didn't help much.

I am already packed, took my tylenol pm and requested my 6:30 a.m. wakeup call. I ran across the move 'Cellular' on tv. Never seen it, but it looks like an ok movie.

Peace for 12 hours. I ended up having to take 1/2 a day of support tomorrow. I have it 9 till midnight. Someone else is taking it the remaining 12 hours. We are simply a victim of circumstances and being shorthanded.

I planned on revising websites ect, but alas I havent done that at all tonight. I found myself in the Stop the ACLU chat room. There was interesting discussion going on. I have a follow-up to do and felt compelled to find something to write about in assisting them. I support their cause and it appears I wasn't alone. So if you start noticing any Anti-ACLU blogging from me, that's why.

Today was another bad day at work. Two servers went down around 12:30 and again after we had them back up. Hence we had to keep recycing interfaces till nearly 6. Made for a long Friday.

I am tired and ready for bed. It's already 11:25 p.m. now. Maybe I can sleep in till at least 7 in the morning. Sigh.

I was able to sleep all night without waking up every 40 minutes thanks to melatonin. I still was up around 5:30 a.m., but, I stayed down till 6 a.m.

I already have 3 conference calls/meetings scheduled for today. In a addition a cleardown for a live Monday. I also plan on completing a couple of projects today. Busy busy. But hey its Friday.

I plan to revise the blog website a bit tonight. I hope to also revise the other websites I am maintaining tonight.

I couldnt help but think of today being the first day of school for the kids. I hope they and Kel's day goes very well today. Regardless of being on the other side of US, my mind remains on my 3 blessings.

Last night while I was trying to relax, I accidently found the movie "Bad Santa". I ended up watching it (not much of choices) and found myself actually laughing out loud. I consistently was shaking my head in wonder as this guy was cursing and hating all the kids. Realistically it was a pretty sad movie. This character was so low and with no respect of himself, he was literally at the bottom. His so called partner only heaped on his problems by consistently putting him down. During the movie a simple child started to show him a way to make him crawl out of the darkness of his soul. I would not allow any child less than 18 to actually watch it due to very strong language, but under all the foul language there was a message in it.

I have to say, today was a better day. Yes, it was busy and full of meetings. However, today is over and only 2 more to go up here. Unfortunately the wife has to deal with everything as I am away. And it appears she is dealing with a lot this week.

I am kindof looking forward to tomorrow night. I will be off call and actually have the ability to sleep in. I have to go to the I.S. Dept Picnic Saturday. That isn't till 12-3.

I didn't sleep worth a flip last night. So tonight it's melatonin time.

Yes a new day emerges as the night dwindles down.

I awoke this morning at 5:30 this morning unable to sleep. I couldn't help but put my situation in a different perception. Considering the fact I have a good job (every job has it's stress) that supports the family. Many perks can be found in my job as opposed to what I use to do (Rad tech).

The fact is there are many soldiers across the ocean with far more sucky jobs and little pay. There are many out there wishing they had a job. So I now feel bad about pissing and moaning. It's all a matter of perception.

Well, my plan was to check out downtown Philly this Saturday morning. Two of the reasons I came up this week was to be at a Siemens afternoon party (this evening) celebrating the amount of interfaces we have on OPENLINK. We have over 1000 interfaces on OPENLINK alone. Also on this Saturday, the IS picnic is happening at our CIO's house. This is a yearly occurence. I haven't been to one in about 6 years.
Now with the prospect of on-call being forced on someone, who knows.

I also wanted to catch up on the websites I have been maintaining. I guess I will do this Friday night.

So for today, regardless of the craziness and I am sure frustration, I will put on a new shield and view. Just call me bulletproof.

I like the saying....You cannot control what is given, but you can control how you deal with it. May your day be a blessing.

Well, this week is still sucking. I know, I know it's my first day here. I arrived and settled in the hotel last night around 8 p.m. After running around to get something to eat and water for the week, it was nice to pull the shoes off.

I have a guy on the team leaving this Friday. I like the guy and he knows his stuff. There is also another gal on the team that has been out all week. She happend to be on call this same week, so they begged someone to take her call. I took tonight and tomorrow. I don't want this weekend. I have to travel back Sunday and I start next week on-call. I don't know what they are going to do. Nobody seems to want this weekends oncall. If I was home, it would be different.

I was able to acquire wirless for my work laptop. I have to say it's pretty sweet. I just plugged it in with the cd install and boom. I am online. The weird thing is at this Hilton the wireless net is free but if you just have a plug, then you have to pay for it. Last night I couldn't get online.

Now I sit here finishing up some work stuff and able to blog. I have a red wine, merlot sitting here beside me. I am finishing up on my Tostado Nachos fro TGIF watching some weirdo movie on my 15 channel lineup.

After my poor wife allowed me to vent, I feel better. Or it could be the Corona I had after work and knowing this wine is waiting on me.

My Monday in word..sucked. Since I was up late last night, it seemed to just continue in the morning. I was on support today and it seemed to never stopped. Due to the servers being down last night, some files didn't cross over. Hence, a continuation. I tell you man, it was a Monday.

I did manage to get the grass mowed this morning after my barrage of tickets. It was already hot hot early morning. So I sweated it out and took a shower midday. But it is done prior of me leaving tomorrow.

In a quick synopsis of my day...Worked, cut my and neighbor's yard, ran the kids to speech, ran the kids to the doc's, hit the school board at 6:30 local time and managed to fix the broken fence in the back yard.

But enough of me griping.

The day is over and I am off to Pennsylvania tomorrow morning. I am sure once I am there, I can relax at night alone.

School Board meeting was quick tonight. We were in and out 29 minutes flat.

Through out the weekend, I heard basically 3 things from my kids. "When will mom be home", "Can I call mom" and "How long before mom is home".

I selfishly played and entertained the kids all weekend. I say selfishly with a grin, because, I have a school board meeting Monday night and leaving for Pennsylvania Tuesday morning. I will not be back till next Sunday. So I purposely spent alot of time playing with the kids all weekend, as opposed to ignoring them. (wink)

Kel asked me not to trash the house (lol) while she is gone. I managed to not only clean up my and the kids messes, but shampoo'd the carpets, wipe down everything and clean out her car. (big applause for me) Other than that, I pretty much gamed with the kids.

Unfortunately I was awoke Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m. by work. I had forgotten in my slumber I was actually on-call this Sunday (took it for a peer). Talk about a rude awakening. As you know, once I am up, I am up.

Now that it is 2 a.m. local time, I am again awaken for work. Not a single call all day with the exception of these off hour ones. I guess I shouldn't gripe. Seems there were 3-4 servers down. No telling why. I just spent 40 minutes recycling what I can with a vendor. I updated the siemens ticket and paged the facilities to recycle their side. I should head back to bed gathering what little sleep I have left, but I figure as soon as I do, my cell will ring.

I am glad Kel is back home. I knew she would be tired. I didn't think she would be up too late this night and I was right. around 7:15 p.m. she was already crashing. What surprised me was our son beat her to bed. Unreal.

Saturday with the kids was great!

I picked the kids up earlier than normal, when they stay over at the kids Nana and Papa's. After staying for a bit, we headed home. I started another load of laundry (those seem to never end) and shampoo'd the carpets. The kids started watching a cartoon on tv. I fixed lunch and we headed to our errands afterward. We dropped off the library books (kids didnt want to go in) then all the movies from last week and last night. The kids found 2 more movies to rent for our all nigth stayup, Pokemon 3 and Teen Titans Volume 1 DVD. We also picked up the pizza on the way home, so we didnt have to get out again.

Once we arrived home, I had the kids jump in the shower and pajama's. They had to wear one of their moms sleepshirt since they missed her. I pulled out my surprise for them. It was a new PS2 game called Xmen Legends. All four of us could play on it at the same time.

We gamed most of the evening with the Xmen. Taking a break, we watched Pokemon 3. After that we gamed some more. During this time, we actually received rain so let the dogs in the garage.

Our plan was to stay up all night gaming and movie watching. Around 9:30 this old man was already feeling it. We took another break to watch the Teen Titans. Knowing, it was a long dvd I picked up the snacks, pizza ect. The living room looks like a Frat party had taken place. Sure enough, our son fell out first with our daughter to follow around 10:30 p.m. local time.

I followed suite and headed to my own bed. I didnt plan to be beaten and squashed all night tonight.

Around 12:30 Kel called from her partying. It was loud in the background and she mentioned Eugene jumping into the water. My honey was still rocking and partying, while I was dozing at home. Sounds like she is having a blast and I am glad for it. She much deserves it. I keep telling her, just bring pictures back.

My father-in-law grabbed the kids around 4. I finished picking up the house and cruised over to my buddys house. He and I ate out at Logans. I actually had a Corona (the only beer I like) with my steak. We then hit Blockbuster to see if they had any movies for later. Picking up Hide and Seek, I seen if they had Evil Dead. The classic that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. They didnt have it. It was a shame the kid that worked there even stated there really wasn't any good scary movies, other than Hide and Seek being pretty good.

We watched Batman Begins. Seeing the previews of War of the Worlds, we wondered if we picked the wrong movie. However, I personally thought it was a great movie. This guy far outweighed any other Batman movie (if you call anything with Val Kilmer a movie). I would suggest it to any guy to watch. I will be owning this bad boy when it hits DVD.

After the movie, we decided to run by Walmart picking our choice of beer. A 6 pack of Corona for me and a 6 pack of Smirnoff for him. Adding a bag of chips a piece we then hit Movie Town for 2 additional movies, Girl Next Door and The Jacket.

Since he has surround sound, we watched two movies there. After the second one, I left and headed home. It was 1 a.m. and he was yawning way too much.

During our movie watching the girls (Kel and her party animals) called and sounded like they were having a great time.

Well, that was my guys night out.

Friday morning started off way too busy and didnt stop. I knew I was going to get our friends kids Friday for me to watch around 8 a.m. However, what I didnt expect was that 7:55 call from work. I received a call about a project I am not even working on for questions (well its mine now). Two ladies called me for 'questions' (I hadnt had my coffee yet my girl was still asleep. The questions became more questions then they pulled in the vendor on the call to get this all settled. Next thing I knew it was 8:35, Erich and his kids are at the door. Being on mute, I asked them to get it. The kids let them in and the house alarm went off. With a phone jack in my ear, I quickly turned it off. I didn't even say hi. The kids were dropped off and 10 minutes later I am still on the phone. Then the cops were at the door. "Yeah we are ok, just didnt turn the alarm off." Left him and still on the phone. Then the neighbor was trying to call like crazy. I ignored it. Then she walked over. Phone still plugged in my ear while the vendor is speaking specs. "yeah we are good" Left her at the door. Finally, off the freaking phone after over an hour.

I called the neighbor gal back and let her know my first morning wasn't a tragedy. Fixed the kids breakfast and finished my half pot of coffee.

The remaining of the day was just busy busy for work. It was just too crazy for a Friday.

Kel left for the big city of Oklahoma City last night. It was around 6:30 when the other girls (2) came and they headed out. Our daughter hugged and held her most of the time of her escape. I pulled the mat from the office sofa/bed into the living room for the kids to sleep on. I had picked up a couple of movies for us to watch as a kickoff for the weekend. Our son picked out 'Fat Albert' and our daughter wanted to watch 'Are we there yet'. I had seen neither movie so was looking forward to watching something new.

Anyway I pulled the mat out and made the snacks and we were on our way to partying our weekend.

We started off with 'Are we there yet' and before the movie was half way over, our son didnt like it and didnt want to watch it. I had to inform him we were finishing it before we started watching Fat Albert. He then said he didnt want to watch Fat Albert. I reminded him he picked it out. "uh huh" Oh yes you did.

Needless to say, every hour (for 4 consecutive hours) the kids wanted to call mom. I held them off at least that much. They told me it's just not as fun without mom. Yeah, that's how much I rank. Even though, I leave for a week at a time, they are just not use to having mom gone. OH well. I say we stil had a good time.

We watched the two movies and then turned on Digimon. The kids talked me into sleeping in the middle of them. I laid there half asleep while digimon was playing and asked them if they are asleep. No answer. I turned the tv off around 11:30 p.m.

During the night I had one girl on one side that took up half the mattress. On the other side a boy that must had been dreaming of playing on the monkey bars (I was pulled, kicked, halfway beat to death). Then the dogs from outside first screamed to come in and then must had communicated that to the neighbor dogs, because it seemed to me they were up half the night barking.

Is it really Tuesday already? It's hard to believe Kel will be heading out to Oklahoma City in two days. Now I know how she feels being on this side of the fence. The honey leaving for a few days. I will have the kids to myself all night Thursday and Saturday. Friday, I get to work and watch my kids in addition to our friends kids being over all day Friday, I have my work cut out.

I have to say, I am looking forward to the nights alone with the kids. I purchased Xmen game for the PS2 that allows all of us to play at the same time. I told them we will stay up all night playing games, ect. I plan to get the pizza and party with them all night long. : }

Friday night, the kids will be picked up by Kel's parents. Even our friends kids. This will allow my buddy and I to go out to the movies. He want's to watch Dukes of Hazard, but realistically the more I see the previews, the cheesier it looks. I mentioned to him yesterday, I would prefer to see War of the worlds or Batman Begins on the big screen. I have heard rave news on Batman Begins and War of the worlds looks to be a cool movie on the big screen. Guess we will see.

I been trying to work on a certain project today and yesterday. More research here lately than me actually doing anything yet. I spoke with a senior analyst today in my idea and he replied with 'thats alot of work'. Yeah, but what are you going to do?

Tonight we had 15 girls over for a slumber party. Around 9:30 it dwindled down to around 9 girls as 4 left. Then another one left just now, 10:30 p.m. local time. I actually enjoy these parties, knowing the kids will not be young for long, but they wear me out. They were able to swim, play on the swing set, Kel had them creating a craft with flip flops, and they put on a fashion show with dressup makeup the works. Yes, even the little brothers had to put on a dress.

Now the trick is to get them to settle down. We also went through 6 pizzas. Thankfully Eureka Pizza has the buy one get two pizzas free. I sure thought we would have some pizza left in the morning, but nada.

Sigh, gotta go settle them down again.

I better update the remaining of the week.

Thursday: To be honest I can't recall. So it must had been really exciting.

Friday: Hey it's Friday. What else can be said about it? I recall it seemed like it took forever to be 5 o'clock. I was so ready to get outta the office, it wasn't even funny. Quite a contrast since the weekend is already almost over. (long sigh)

Yesterday, I was stuck working on our home P.C. Seem it grabbed something nasty to cause a software corruption. I was on the phone with Dell nearly all day. They had a office in India containging 1700 support personel that was flooded. So that left approximately 158 support personel in U.S. to help everyone. I kid you not. This is what I was informed and the cause of the 35 minute minimum wait for support. This was better as the morning was 85 minutes. So if you own Dell and wonder why you always get the guy who can speak with a broken language...there you go.

I heard a fascinating thing on Attack of the Show (please don't hold it against me) the other night. Evidently, there are hired spies to monitor movie theaters as you go into them. Kevin P. reported they were wanded and no camera's, camcorders ect was accepted as you entered the theater to watch your movie. Then on top of that, there were 2 guys in the lower corner of the theater watching everyone to ensure no-one was taking snapshots or video of it.

My thought on it? Why don't the Entertainment Industry clean up their own backyard first. It has already been shown most movie leaks, ect come from inside the Industry as opposed to some lame video hound from the street.

I hadn't actually had a chance to blog about the week. First of TGIF. I am glad its Friday tomorrow. I will try to pull in my week without too much detail (also what I actually remember of it).

Monday: I was on support for work. It was busy as usual, hence my interest in getting it done and out of the way. I recall Monday night I found out my brother had called in for his work. This really pissed me off. I normally do not speak of such language on this blog, but I was actually beyond aggravated on this one. He had actually called me Sunday and was mentioning his nutso wife pulled another hospital visit (she does them for sympathy and attention). Kel and I asked why don't we watch the kids so you don't have to call in (he has been calling in way too much for work). He got pissed and defensive mentioning a babysitter. Low and behold he ended up calling in to pansy his wife.

Tuesday: Work day wasn't nearly as bad. Had a conference call with a facility and vendor to schedule a live date on a project that took way too long. I was excited. I started to look for Christmas stuff online for the wife. I get paid once a month only and with that type of situation Christmas is only a few paychecks away.
I also caught the end of Criss Angel on A and E. Has anyone seen this guy? He is a illusionist slash magician and seem to have his own show. We also took the kids to our old church. They are having their vacation bible school between 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. I had mixed feelings seeing the old members. It was nice to see everyone again. Plus Kel and I actually had nearly 1.5 hours alone time. Sigh, good times.

Wednesday: Did some heavy research on a Christmas gift for Kelli. I think I now know what I will get her. I came close to ordering it, but they didn't have it. Work was work. I also did some research on this Criss Angel guy. Seems he was awarded Magician of the Year twice, which is unheard of. I was impressed with the short videos I seen. We took the kids to vacation bible school again. However, as I took the kids out, our friends were driving toward our house. I returned and they were still there. The girls were in the kitchen shooting the breeze and I was remarking Erich and I needed to choose a movie to watch. The girls are going to a PTA conference in Oklahoma City, leaving next Thursday till Sunday. I will have the kids Thursday and Saturday night alone. I am excited! Friday Kel's parents are actually watching ours and our friends kids. This allows Erich and I to take off and do some guy stuff. He wants to watch The Dukes of Hazard movie. I had mixed feelings on it. I grew up watching it as a kid. But, how will the movie be? It looks totally cheesy. He had'nt seen the "boots were made for walking" video by Jessica Simpson. So I had to ablige him by promptly taking him to the office and we both watched it online. Hmm, after seeing Jessica Simpson kick butt and washing the General Lee, I might have to watch it now. : )

I had to add this article in the blog. I read about this in the local newspaper yesterday. I could only shake my head with a grin.

Basically it boils down to this statement from her.

"Let’s start by uniting against the hard-right ideology in Washington,” Clinton said. “All too often we have allowed ourselves to be split between left, right and center. "

Yeah, they need to do something in the Democrat Party. Anyone with one eye can see the Democrat Party is split between the far left liberals (such as Hillary) and the moderate Democrats (such as Lieberman). I liked Mongos take on it. It's hillarous to see Hillary trying to ride on her husbands Presidential term and putting on the angel suit for take-off. Perhaps we will see her fall in a heaping defeat.

Sadly, if you can believe in polls, some people actually are buying it.

On another note, I really don't see anyone, Republican, Independent or Democrat, standing head and shoulders above for the next Presidential Election.


Some online articles on it.

Union Leader ran it

Cleveland article

I received another email regarding more screaming from the left on John Roberts. Just think of what one can better do with Soro's money. I can personally think of removing poverty in my county, first off, alone.
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JUDGE JOHN G. ROBERTS

MoveOn.org, the far left-wing nut group operated by billionaire George Soros raised $1.3 million to fight Judge John Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court BEFORE he was even nominated, and within minutes of his nomination called him "another right-wing croney."


Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who's most recent controversial remarks came when he compared American troops to Nazis, called Judge Roberts a "controversial nominee" who guarantees a "controversial nomination process."


Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), said, "I voted against Judge Roberts for the D.C. Court of Appeals because he didn't answer questions [about his views] fully and openly when he appeared before the committee." REALITY CHECK: He was one of only three Senators who voted against Roberts in the Judiciary Committee. Roberts was confirmed by the full Senate by unanimous consent!


Senator Reid (D-NV), the current Minority Leader, stated that confirmation could take "months" indicating he intended to try to stall the nomination indefinitely.


The far left Los Angeles Times could not really find any way to attack Judge Roberts, so the second day after his nomination by Bush they ran almost a full page story attacking his wife Jane. YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT - the Times ran a lengthy story attacking Jane Roberts because she at one time served as an officer of the pro-life organization Feminists For Life.


On one TV talk show I actually heard a panelist demand to know "what kind of people" Judge Roberts attended church with and there was some concern because he attended a Catholic Church in the DC area that was thought to be "conservative."


Judge John G. Roberts will be confirmed. The fight will be short, but it will be intense and costly. In the end President George W. Bush will prevail and Judge Roberts will be confirmed because the Senate now has 55 Republicans! Had this seat opened last year when the Republicans had only 51 seats the results could have been different. Of those 51 there were two North East liberals who had voted more with Democrats than with Republicans. But in the 2004 election more of our kind of Republicans were elected. GING-PAC was intimately involved in two of those Senate elections --- John Thune (R-SD) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) --- we also supported Sam Brownback (R-KS) when he first ran for the House and then when he ran for the Senate. Brownback is on the Judiciary Committee and will help with the John Roberts confirmation!

==================================================================================

Even with all this chatter, mostly by the left wing groups, it appears the Senate has yet to pull a filibuster. You have to feel sorry for the liberals in one way. They live with a dying ideology and it's giving more and more people a bad taste in their mouths when they speak or hear of it. Let's face it people, the world is changing and we need to change with it.

Supreme Court Nomineeâe's Record, Philosophy Debated

(CNSNews.com) "No Democratic senators have threatened to block the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, but that has not stopped liberal groups from trying to stir up opposition to President Bush's selection. Many conservatives, meanwhile, stand ready to defend Roberts" from his liberal critics....

The weekend is already almost over. Saturday morning before 8 a.m. I was out and sweating my butt off. It is absolutely unreal how hot it is in Oklahoma. Friday showed to be around 113 with the heat index and I think it was the same Saturday. Around noon Saturday the Bank temp showed 105. That's without the heat index. This Sunday morning, I cleaned out the garage and straightened out the back storage, again around 8 a.m. and looked like a whore in a church house or pig in heat, take your pick. After my second shower this Sunday, I just put on my pajamas and we planned to just stay inside.

Yesterday (Saturday) we took the kids to the Circus! A actual Barnum and Bailey Circus came into Fort Smith. It was within the Convention Center so we were inside and cool for the whole show. It contained one hour of preshow and 2 hours of actual circus time. So 3 hours of watching feats the human body can actually do. Quite amazing if you asked me. I think the kids enjoyed it and like them, it was the only acutal circus I personally have ever attended. The girls were hot and the animals were very well trained. : )

After the circus we hit a resturant with our friends (that came with us to the circus) and pigged out. We then hit the house and actually took a nap. It is very rare we get to take a nap, so I deeply enjoyed it.

Today, I plan on watching the movie National Treasurer with the kids. I finally was able to talk them into it. This is a great movie for the family.

Another attempted attack on London's system the day after a botched job was done early this morning.

I woke up this morning with my wife informing me a attempted terrorist was shot down by London police. My first thought was, already another attempted attack?

The nut-job was shot down 5 times in Scotland Yard under the shoot-to-kill demand from the up and up.


From Fox News website this morning we read the following.

The man, desribed by passengers as South Asian, was shot was wearing a thick coat when he ran into the Stockwell subway station in south London Friday. Witnesses said armed police in street clothes chased him, he tripped, and police then shot him. The man died after being shot by officers at, police said.


"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corp. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."


Whitby said the man didn't appear to have been carrying anything but said he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded.

At first glance it would seem the police there had itchy trigger fingers. The reality is not every police persons even carry guns. Now at 8:30 a.m est we hear the suspect wasn't carrying anything but ran from the police when asked to stop. Plus it appears this same individual was a suspect from yesterday's bombing. More than likely he was running from being apprehended and questioned.

I have two main concerns from this.

1) This action will most likely be a backlash on the police from doing their duty in apprehending a suspected terrorist.

2)The second thing is (in my opinion) these jobs done in London stations is a bigger job than what the surface appears.

Let me explain. It appears the first individuals might had been told one thing (drop the bags and leave) but was duped to be part of the operations. Then the botch job exactly two weeks after the first bombing. This must be significant and planned out. My fear is someone or a group is placeing emphasis on the stations and then will hit their primary target, something large, whatever that may be.

It took exactly twelve minutes for left-wing groups and liberal Senators to go on the attack against President Bush's conservative nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge John Roberts:

People for the American Way is "extremely disappointed" in the President's selection, saying it's "a constitutional catastrophe."

Alliance for Justice "cannot support Judge Roberts' elevation to the Supreme Court" because President Bush has a "track record of selecting ideologically-driven, divisive candidates for the bench".

The National Abortion Federation "calls upon the Senate to stand up to President Bush's attempt to destroy the fragile balance on the Supreme Court".

Planned Parenthood stated, "The nomination of John G. Roberts raises serious questions and grave concerns for women's health and safety."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), whose most recent controversial remarks came when he compared American troops to Nazis, called Judge Roberts a "controversial nominee" who guarantees a "controversial nomination process."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), immediately announced that "I voted against Judge Roberts for the D.C. Court of Appeals because he didn't answer questions [about his views] fully and openly when he appeared before the committee."

Hinting at a possible judicial filibuster of the President's nominee, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced on Fox News, "The fact that Sandra Day O'Connor stepped down creates an extraordinary circumstance."

MoveOn.org raised $1.3 million to fight Judge Roberts... BEFORE he was even nominated, and reacted to the nomination by calling Roberts "another right-wing crony."

NOW (the National Organization for Women) said of Judge Roberts that "our hard-won rights will be in jeopardy if he is confirmed," and that President Bush chose "to pick a fight. We intend to give him one."

NARAL stated that "President Bush has consciously chosen the path of confrontation, and he should know that we... are ready for the battle ahead."

Below is a snippet of the email sent out by NOW

"Once again, George Bush has chosen partisan politics and paybacks over uniting the country," said National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy. "Roberts' background shows a political ideology that is inconsistent with the independence we have a right to expect from the Supreme Court. He does not have a commitment to the basic values of fairness and equality, and our hard-won rights will be in jeopardy if he is confirmed."

"NOW will fight Roberts' confirmation through a nationwide grassroots lobbying campaign. Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, leaves us a legacy as a centrist and independent jurist who upheld the rights of women. We don't need someone with an extremist political agenda, tied to special interests, who will tarnish that legacy," said Gandy.
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Other than a liberal choice, we expected the Left not liking any choice made whatsover. Personally, I think most of the verbage will be behind the scenes on this one.

Just a little on-call hell yesterday eve and last night. I was called yesterday evenign regarding a server outage that took out 8 facilites. Everything had to be recycled. It took 4 hours and then about 4 facilities never replying to my endless text pages for them. Sigh. Then around 12:30 a.m to 1 a.m. some facility I.S. that was on-call called me up griping about not getting called for a specific interace issue. This came from a facility not even part of the 8. Unreal.

So, I am up to 3 nights of little sleep. Last nights bit of hell and the two prior nights of nightmares. I am off call starting tomorrow morning and looking forward to it.

Today we were able to go to church. It was nice to see everyone again. I have to admit I do get aggravated at some of the things going on, but all in all it's a good church, with a good pastor.

When we came back home, we cleaned the house and outside yard. I didn't mow the yard, but we did get other stuff done. Inside the house, I had the cd blaring Def Lepard while cleaning the kitchen.

My great wife reminded me of Dead Zone being on. Talk about a rocking series. I absolutely love the show.

My night out with my wife for our 10th anniversary was great! Her dad picked up the kids a bit earlier than expected. I was hoping to get out early as well, but that didn't work out. My scheduled conference call lasted 1.5 hours. I was thinking more of a 20 minute call would occur. Someone took my on-call for the night, so no worries there.

We went out to a resturant we had not been since we were engaged. Being young and new, we had gone to it as a celebration of our marriage engagement, so only fitting to return to it for our 10th anniversary.

After dinner we went to Books-a-million and walked around. I love looking at books and it was a pleasure to view my interest (computer, ect.) without a bother. It was also interesting to see the people already showing up for the Harry Potter book release. They had setup a table in the back and the employee's was dressed as characters. I never read any of the books, but there was much chatter about it.

Saturday
I was awaken with work issues, so the one night relief was good to have. I took the kids out to watch Fantastic Four. I know Aggressive Voice flamed it pretty hard, but I personally liked it. I had a friend inform me, it was worth just seeing Jessica Alba. After seeing it, I have to agree. Man, I need to start watching Dark Angel. I admit the movie was nothing more than a intro to the characters. I also know the main actors/actress signed up for a 2 movie contract. Thus in my opinion, it's a clear attempt to gain more money by having this and another movie draw out the audience, toys, ect, ect. There was a couple of moments, I was concerned for my kids viewing, but they seem to roll with it.

I was on support today for work and it was a busy day. We kept having a server go down all day (still down) affecting 4 facilties. The gurus were on the phone with HP trying to see what the heck is going on. I guess they are still on the phone. I will probably get the call when I am almost asleep tonight, whenever that will be.

Today I received the call from the jewelers regarding Kelli's ring. They already had it resized. Man, that was quick. So I took off down there after work before 9 p.m. and picked it up. Brought it home and asked Kel if she would stay with me for another 10 years. Yeah, she picked it out, but you gotta admit 10 years is something to be proud of these days. And we are actually happy together as opposed to many. I was glad it came in before Friday and able for us to actually get it.

I also asked Kel if she wanted to go out Friday night. She said she "didn't care we could even bring some food home and stay inside". I replied, "I wanted to do something special". In that sweet voice she stated, "any thing with you would be special". how sweet for her to say Then she finished it with, "I put up with you for 10 years, haven't I"? Classy babe. : ) Well Kel, put on something nice, we have reservations for 5 p.m. Friday. (wink, wink)

The Vice President of PTA came over tonight and the 3 (Kel, she and I) went through all the 'stuff' from the PTA. There were papers back in 97 and 98. Unreal. They, more than me, really cleaned through it all. She just now left nearly 10 pm. local time.

During this my son kept asking me, "Dad can you help me with this game?" I being the game master said sure. So I tried to get Shaggy across this scenario (scooby doo game) without freaking dying. After the 5 attempt and my son informing me the ice stage is next I gave up. Crap, where was my gaming abilities? I went back to the pile of PTA mess and when I looked up he was already passed my point of defeat. I said, "Your already there? Your better at this game than me." His reply? "Yeah, I know." Man, I feel old.

Monday wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be.

This week is Kelli and I 10th anniversary. It sure went quick for me. I am oncall this week, but managed to trade this Friday with another peer so I didn't have to worry about it. Kel's parents will take the kids Friday night to allow us some quality time. I looked into a night at Beland Manor. It is located in Fort Smith, not far away. It is also the outside location where we married. Due to finances and all our running this summer, I was still willing to bite the bullet. I also wanted to get her something nice but realistically I couldnt. Now comes the cool part. Kel spotted the exact anniversary ring she wanted in Kmart Monday. Kmart was having a 70 percent discount on their jewelry. So I grabbed the kids up and headed that way during my lunch to meet her there. The cost of the ring and having it resized is less than one night cost at Beland Manor. I think she was very excited about it. I personally was relieved to be able to get her something I wanted her to have.

I had a school board meeting Monday night as well. For the amount on our agenda, it went pretty quick. We were in there from 6:30 p.m. to around 8:20 p.m. I actually hanged a little afterward to catch an opportunity to speak with a couple of the other board members. I feel like I still need to get my language correct and more knowledge down before my next meeting. Fortunately, I wasn't called or buzzed from work during the time I was up there.

The weekend was nice in two ways. The first, we actually deep cleaned the house and organized. Well, Kel did most of the organizing. Second, we actually stayed home all day Saturday without having to go anywhere. Sounds crazy, but after running all week and having Kel work the full 8 hours everday it was nice to just stay home and clean.

We didn't even go to church today. I mowed mine and my neighbor's yard. It was hot as hell, figuratively, out there. Crazy thing was, when I finished we started to get a cool breeze. I guess the sweat did me good though.

We also went to our friends house today around 4 p.m. local time. They had invited us over for supper. It was nice to go to someone else's house to have them cook for us. Normally we have them over for these type of occasions. The food and company was good. Both our kids are around the same age so had a blast playing together.

Kel and I now are about to organize for the week to come. She doesn't have to work the full 8 hours each day, but again has a lot of running to do. It just crazy with all the running she does. Everything from doing the average errands, Doctor visit's, taking our son to the therapies ect.

Speaking of our son, I have to say he is doing great! We had our neighbor's girl come over last week and she could tell a dramatic difference in his speech. When I took him to the chiropractic and was informed he wasn't out of alignment. He also made 100 percent on his 4 syllable words. The speech therapist said he will now start on the 5 and 6 syllable words. Crud, I told him in the car, I would have to look those up. Those are too big of words for me. : )

Last night we started to watch The Greatest American Hero dvd I received for my birthday/Fathers day. My daughter loved it, but my son started to ask, "when is this movie going to be over?". Oh well, I was surprised they started to watch it with me anyway.

You can't but help feel sorry for some of these left wing organizations. Below is an email sent out by NOW rallying their supporters for a shout out to Bush. They are urging all to stop Bush from threatening women's lives. Little did I now women's lives were at stake.

I put the email in italics, my comments in bold.
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Women's lives are at stake. Tell your Senators to oppose any Supreme Court nominee who would threaten women's rights and civil liberties.

Lives are at stake our liberties could be removed from women. Wow all from one vote in a pool of others.

Please contact your Senators immediately and urge them to oppose any nominee who would overturn Roe v. Wade or limit the civil and human rights of any group of people.

So here is the crutch of their worry. An overturn of Roe v. Wade. Regardless of the fact Roe herself tried to overturn it 2 years ago.

With the resignation of Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, George W. Bush will have the opportunity to replace a justice who has often made the difference in the preservation of essential rights. With a fragile 5-to-4 split in the Court on issues like abortion and affirmative action, we must fight for the appointment of a justice who will uphold and protect our hard-won Constitutional rights. Justice O'Connor played that role in many key decisions for women. Urge your Senator to oppose any Supreme Court nominee who would overturn Roe v. Wade and limit the economic and reproductive rights of girls and women in the U.S.

How can it be considered 'reproductive rights' when your destroying life? How about bringing it to a state by state decision or better yet a vote from all people? I admit this is a sensitive subject but realistically why should a lifetime appointment pend on his/her view of one issue?

Action Needed:

Please contact your Senators immediately and urge them to oppose any nominee to fill Justice O'Connor's vacancy who would overturn Roe v. Wade or limit the civil and human rights of any group of people.

Again the plea of roe v wade issue. It's obvious their primary concern.

After emailing your Senators, please call their local office (it's more effective than calling the DC office) to request a meeting with them or their chief of staff back home to discuss the importance of appointing a Justice who will uphold and protect all of our hard-won rights. You may not actually get a meeting, or it may be with a staff member, but a lot of requests for meetings will demonstrate the depth of our commitment.

Yeah, that's what our Senate needs, another meeting. Personally I am bogged down in them with my work. Why would you want to hold a 'meeting' when a simple request via phone, email or letter would suffice. There are only so many ways to convey your message. I guess they can later use this as a tactic to state "my Senator wouldnt see me or hear my comments".

Background:

As Texas governor, George W. Bush demonstrated that he doesn't require legal skills for a judicial nominees. His only requirement was that judges share his anti-abortion, pro-corporation ideology. Many of his nominations to the federal bench seem to have followed the same pattern.

The man's been in a Presidential office going on 2 terms and they still can't accept it. Unreal. It has already been shown the majority of the people reside on the moderate to conservative side. NOW just happens to be on the far left in ideology.

The character and record of anyone nominated to our nation's highest court must be thoroughly reviewed and considered by the Senate in their important "advice and consent" role. The Senate must be certain the nominee can discern between personal conviction and interpretation of the law as they balance the interpretation of our Constitution and our democracy's promise to protect and expand the civil liberties of all people, not just the privileged few.

Yeah right. I think we already seen the mockery of how the Senate abuses the filibuster and we already heard from some Senators they will go to an all out war for any form of conservative nominee.

Again, take action NOW!

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Nice

Again, it appears they are very worried on this change in the most liberal circuit. I recently heard possibly 2 of the circuit may step down and retire. It would be interesting to see the most liberal circuit become a moderate or conservative one. I wonder how long it would take for an outcry to break them up? Guess we will see.

This 4 day work week sure feels like a 5 day work week. Man, the last two nights I haven't slept worth a flip. I am taking drugs tonight. Whether it's tylenol pm or Melatonin, I don't care. The night before last I had nightmares all night and last night I just couldn't get rested.

My honey had to work all week at her job. So I am home with the kids all week. That's ok, we pretty much have a routine down now. The brats sleep till after 9 a.m. and play games all day. : )
Just kidding honey. heh heh

Looks like terrorist struck again. This time in London. Unreal. I was surprised to hear this, but not surprised to hear the the left making unreal statements. When will people wakeup and realize we are in a war? We fight a ideology in terror and on the supreme court bench. The question is who is more persistant?

Other than that, I personally continue to pray for safety and health to all.

Man, has the time flown. We had a great 4th of July weekend! We arrived home safe Friday night and finally unpacked the last bag tonight. heh heh

Basically we hit Dallas, Texas Friday night and then drove on home. It took nearly 1.5 hours just to get out of Dallas due to construction. At least we didn't get lost on the way back. : )

Saturday we spent the day doing our necessary errands to catch up and put some food in our fridge.

Sunday we went to Kel's parents to help out with the yard and get things ready for the 4th. Actually worked that day on the yard and cleaning up the garage, ect. That night Kel cooked 80 cookies and 24 cupcakes. I ate about 10 of the 80 cookies. Some were broken (had to eat those) and some were not (had to do a sample taste).

Monday we spent the day with Kel's parents. We had some of our friends over and enjoyed their company. Her dad had two grills going and cooked enough for an army. We had many variety of meat with some special delicacy ect. Man it was good. Some were smoked and others grilled. Toward the end, we were comfortable enough to actually get out and play some volley ball. There were 3 (counting us) families with 4 in each plus her parents and aunt. Then her brother showed up with some friends and about 3 kids. They didn't stay though. Even with all those eating, all took food home.

Get to get out of here tomorrow. I am so ready. I have to say this has been a good week having the family with me. I chided my wife by saying 'I never done this before'. However, I have to say this has been a very enjoyable week with them.

Tuesday night I had literally no sleep. Well maybe one hour. I had a datamove that night and ...it .... took .... all ..... night. I was able to knock back 3 cups of coffee all morning. This allowed me to move through the day. In fact that same day/night, we went to see some friends we use to live near 6-7 years ago. It was amazing to see the 'baby' now nearly a teenager. Unreal. Talking about feeling old. I was told I looked more grey and pudging out. Yeah, tough crowd. It was nice to see them though.

Today, I spent all freaking day trying to assist a peer in her project. I didn't get anything accomplished on my own stuff and I will be traveling all day tomorrow. I refuse to do it now. Its nearly 10 p.m. and we need to get up 4 a.m. The plane departure time is 7:30 a.m. It will be an early morning.

Did I say I am ready to go home?

My first work day in PA wasn't too bad. I only had one meeting, which helped out a lot. The day was pretty much taken in creating documentation and material for some education I will give to the group on Wednesday. I will be going over some applications I pretty much soley use, within the group.

Seems like Kel had a bad time with the directions. She called me up and I had to attempt to steer her the way to the zoo. Looks like Mapquest was way off on this one. Fortunately she found her way there, was able to take some pics and more importantly find her way to me. I was ready to get out of there.

The thought of seeing everyone and getting to converse with them in person is a nice thought. However, the reality is your still stuck in front of a computer within a cube doing your work. The primarly form of communication remains IM and email.

The Hampton were staying at had Pizza for us Monday night. So we chowed on it. They hotel provided it to it's guess. How cool is that? I chowed on pizza and then had one merlot and one zinfandel wine. The hotel is more impressive than I had thought it would be. I think I will be saying goodbye to MainStay and start coming here. They are currently renovating but overall the facilties services have been excellent.

I sit here alone in a huge office meeting room. The interface team was to get together and share ideas, knowledge. However, that is not happening. Two of the six was in here about 5 minutes. One of the six skitters back and forth. Only the guys stayed here the longest discussing. Oh well. I have 2 more days after this and I get to go home where it is sane.

Man, it's been too long since I have blogged. I tried to start one before I left for PA, but the stupid thing crapped on me. Oh well. I was going to comment on the crazy events going on within the news. But, its already 10:30 p.m. est and I am tired. I gripe at the other bloggers I read for not blogging after a couple of days, so I also felt obligated to get back in here.

The kids did great on their plane ride. Both were excited and after we were above the clouds the gameboys came on.

Basically the week went as follows.

We had the extermco guy come and do his thing Thursday around 11 a.m He showed up around 10:30 a.m. The guy really soaked everything down with the poison. The more the better, is what I say. Kel and the kids went out when he started to be away from it. She took them to watch 'Shark Boy and Lava Girl'. I had no desire anyway. After hearing my wife would rather have a bullet than to watch it again or when she is pissed at me, I would have to see it over and over again, I am glad I didn't. Evidently the kids liked it but my wife kept looking at the watch. I stayed in the office to finish up my 'have to' stuff with work before I grew a headache with the fumes. I took off and ran to Fort Smith for a bit.

We left as soon as Kel and the kids arrived home. We drove to Dallas getting there Thursday night. This allowed us to get in the Airport early for our flight Friday morning. We got turned around more than once and it took us a bit to get to the hotel. Once there, we found we were able to park the van there for less than 3 bucks a day. This is far less than expected. They shuttled us over and will shuttle us back when we return. Yes, honey, I am sorry for the crazy drive there.

We hit the airport earlier than needed. But oh well, it's better to get there early than late. This was the first time I used Air USA. I normally take America Airlines out of Fort Smith. We drove to Dallas purposely so we didnt have to take on 2 flights (Fort Smith and Dallas to PA)with the kids. Just a flight to and from on one plane for us.

We are staying at Hampton Inn in King of Prussia. Again, it's different for me in this regard too. I normally stay at Mainstay. I am happy with this hotel so far. Evidently on the weeknights (mon-thur) they provide free drinks and a meal in the evenings. I look forward to seeing if its any good. If so, I will stay here from now on.

We also hit the Green Dragon the same night we arrived in King of Prussia. It was closing down by the time we arrived. We was able to grab some fruit for the week and had some food on the way back to the hotel.

I had a hard time getting to sleep and when I did, the hotel's fire alarm went off around 1:30 a.m. Evidently the lobby's microwave threw a circuit.

Saturday we went to the Central Philly and rode the ducks while they explained the history of the area. It was cool.

We then walked King of Prussia Mall this afternoon. A very eventful 48 hours.

Too much has gone on, so I will be brief and try not to digress.

Fathers Day was good. I was able to get the yard done, but unfortunately without incident. I should say, I was able to sweat my butt off while I did our yard in addition to our neighbors yard. As my lovely wife has posted, one of our dogs unfortunately ran into the wrong crowd. We have 3 little dogs in the back and when I mow the yards it allows them to actually roam free. They get to go mark the other yards. Well, the smallest one went into the fence of 2 larger dogs. Why, I have no idea. It appears they mauled him to death. When I got there, he was already gone. My daughter, justly so, bawled her eyes out with my wife following suite. I buried him in the back and was man enough about it, till I came in the living room. Listening to my daughter talk about it, with both girls shedding tears was just too much. My heart ache and my eyes watered. It's one of those things you wish you could do something about, but just can't. The only thing I could do was listen and keep saying we will get through it. I also had to tell her the story of my first dog I lost. Yes, we re-live through our kids, unfortunately also through the bad times.

Monday was just another busy day. I had the kids all day and made them work. heh heh I managed to get them to do one closet. Yeah, real slave driver.

We plan to go to dinner with the friends tonight. Supposedly the kids eat free at this place tonight. It was unexpected and came into light, during church.

I had the kids again today. I plan to put them to work, if I can pry them from their gameboy and cartoons. We made a run between my meetings to get haircuts here in town. I like this gal. She is quick and normally not that busy on the times I happen to hit her. I received the pleasure to hear how she and her 1.5 year husband split up 2 weeks ago. Fortunately we were pretty much in and out. A short cut for my boy, bangs cut on the girl and a good trim for me. Slam bam, thank you maam.

We are now planning to drive into Dallas, Tx, thursday night after work. We fly out to Pennsylvania Friday. I had to take that day off as vacation.

What remains of our week looks like this;

Tuesday - dinner at night with friends
Wednesday - work and dinner at night with Kelli's family for her birthday (Sunday)
Thursday - have exterminators over to hit it again, drive to Dallas that nigth after work.
Friday - fly to Pennsylvania.

In the mean time, continue to keep house up and clean. We still need to pack and get ready for the trip. Get the guilt trip from my parents to see them before we go. Fun Fun.

I was able to watch Star Wars Episode III last night with a bud of mine. It was the first time he and I got out of the house together. I enjoyed his company as we were transfixed with the show. He like I, has a wife with no interest in the Star Wars saga. Also, he like I, has a birthday this week. So, with both wishing to see it on the big screen, broke loose and watched it.

The movie in one word was, coooool. I had read the reviews and thoughts of others watching the movie, no spoilers for me. I agree with some but not all. I personally didn't think it dragged at first. The 2.5 hours went quick for me. Yes, the desirable questions were answered, why, why, why. As we watched it I caught myself saying out loud. 'That's why....' Yes, the movie was great.

The plan for last night was for me and a friend to watch the flick, while my honey had some time alone last night. The kids went to their nana and papa's since we will be flying into Pennsylvania next Friday for a week. I couldn't help having the image of my wife waiting for me in bed at home while I watched the show. Yes, my imagination is good. I also had the lingering wonder if she would actually be asleep, LOL. The movie was over at 9 p.m. and my buddy and I talked as I dropped him off at his house and headed for home. I unlocked the front room door and sure enougth the lights were out with the exception of the bedroom. As I came in, Kel said she had to hide the guys in bed. I thought she was kidding, but then she said "and the pokemon movie". Then I heard the movie in our bedroom.

"What?"

Our son was in the bed watching a Pokemon movie.

She explained around 8 p.m. someone was homesick and came back. I quickly calculated that gave her barely 2 hours alone time.

So, no alone time for my honey and my dreams of lust bit the dust.

The week has been busy, yet again. I have attempted to do more and get additional 'stuff' done during the day of my work while Kel and the kids are away. I think I must have vacuumed the house 20 freaking times, wiped everything down again and keep everything picked/straightend up with the exception of my desk.

Since I find Fox news becoming repetitive, I found myself listening to C-Span during the day. I have also been searching on the net for a free website without banners. I will be testing out CJB.CC to see how it is.

I turned 34 yesterday. I don't feel any older or younger. I tried to consider how I changed over the years with reflection. I may post on that later.

I acquired 'Greatest American Hero' and Star Wars on DVD yesterday. In addition two really cool "Fear God" shirts. All of which I am tickled to death to receive. The kids and I watched Episode IV Star Wars and I was happy and surprised they stuck with me throughout the movie. I thought it was cute how my 6 and 7 year old kept asking questions during the movie. 'What is the forc? Is Yoda in this one? Those people look weird. Why is there a silver C3PO?' On and on they kept inquiring through the movie. I think I will try to go see Episode III at the theaters with a friend tonight.

Yesterday before my wifes family and my dad came over last night, I cleaned up the Frog pool in the front. We have a small circular pond about 2.5 feet in diameter with a frog in our front by our door. Kel received it last Christmas from her Aunt. I cleaned it up and filled it up with water. I planned to turn it on to allow the water be spitting out of the mouth. Well, when i plugged it in, no water. Hmm, messing with it I found there must be something in the tube. Well the tube part comes out of the butt of the frog. I tried to blow that end with no success and then attemped to other end. The mouth to mouth didn't work either. Of course after I did this, I couldnt help having the realization of what it looked like. Grinning, I grabbed the air compressor and gave it a good shot in the butt with air. Whatever it was, finally blew out.

I was able to get Monday over with, finally. Yeah, its nearly 12 a.m. est.

Work wasn't too bad today. I was able to get some things done and accomplished. I only had one conference call, that always help. Afterward, I ran our son to speech therapy then a doc's appointment. We then ran by Walmart on the way home. Kel had the supper ready and we feasted. I had a School Board Meeting tonight at 6:30 local time. I managed to eat, clean the kitchen and start the dishwasher, throw the kids in a bath before I left. The meeting ended nearly 9 p.m. It ended up a long meeting. Sounds busy but my wife had a busier one. She had to do vacation bible school and afterwards take 3 kids (ours and one more) to basketball. She then took care of our daughter and friend, while I was gone with our son's running, till the friends mom showed up. Then while I was at the meeting till 9, the kids evidently did not let her do any work. They hit the bed when I arrived back home.

That was pretty much today. This weekend was pretty much the same busy-ness.

We arrived in town Friday night around 5:30 p.m. Once we entered the home, we were abruptly attacked with fleas. Unbelievable. Where did these come from? We immediately started to call exterminators. Fortunately we found one nearly 6 p.m. Making arrangements, the guy would come over Saturday morning. No way we could sleep there tonight. We didn't even unload our stuff. We drove over to Kel's parents house and all 4 of us spent the night over there. Not really what we wanted to come home to, but better to a burnt or damaged house.

The next morning, Kel and I ran back to the house, leaving the kids at Nana's and Papa's. I mowed the yard, dipped the cats and dogs before the guy showed up. I told him to spray everything and do whatever it takes. We had them exterminate the house and yard. Kel and I had to hang with the cats out of the house for about 2 hours allowing the poison to settle and let the fleas scream to death. After she and I went back in and actually tried to relax, microwaving a burrito for lunch, we ended up with headaches.

We took off for a bit and came back home for that night. It was better after awhile. We ended up cleaning top to bottom as far as we could till around 10 p.m and crashed.

Sunday morning we finished cleaning everything. Wiping down every room, vacuuming again and mopping we totally cleaned the place. I think we ran the crazy washer and dryer for nearly 10 hours.

We went to church that Sunday night and crashed that night.

Regardless, it is nice to be home. It was so nice to see green as we passed into the states from Arizona. We get to do the exterminator thing again in 14 days, right before we head off to Pennsylvania for one week.

Glad to say we get to leave the day after tomorrow now. Yesterday we had a small crises.

Kel took our son to the doc, but didn't get very far. The car wouldn't start. Sigh, I went out to check it and to me it sounded like the starter. She would crank it and nothing but click click click click as the starter attempted to turn over. Great. We ended up calling a cab (35 bucks one way) to get her and our son to the doc, then I started to make phone calls. Seems the price was going to be nearly 500.00. Nearly 100 for the tow and early 400 for the manual/parts, ect to replace the starter. The gentleman came to pick up the van and ended up doing a jump on the van. He said it was the battery not the starter. He had it running for me. My daughter and I paid him 45 bucks for his wisdom and jump and headed to find a battery. Not stopping the engine till we found a Autozone, the girl and I made up stories as we went. I pulled the battery out and took it into Autozone. They did a free test, I figured might as well get a confirmation. Sure enough it was bad if not dead now. So we ended up with a new battery rather than a new starter. 150 bucks (if you count the cab fare, battery and the tow guys jump/wisdom) was better than nearly 500.

I have a small frustration dealing with my son's situation. As you know our main purpose on this trip was to get our son back on track and into the ability of not having to return here (unless it's a simple checkup). Seems the good doctor was able to view him in a different surrounding while we were at his sons birthday party. How, I don't know, but I will leave that alone. Regardless, it seems we will be given a new exercise routine for him. During my short time to discuss with him, he kept asking me if I had any other questions. I replied with the fact its hard to ask the right questions. It reminded me when I started doing interfaces. I cannot ask the right question until I am in a specific situation of need. I am the type that learns by doing. I go head strong into a given subject, devouring the information then analyzing the required answers I need. Looking back, I did this all my life. When I was given a problem or interested topic, I would do research on it and then come out with my answers. The problem here, is I cant seem to get the proper information, therefore I am frustrated with the feeling of not having the answers. I recognize everyone is different and this is just the way it is, deal with it. My wife gets aggravated at me regarding the way I do certain things. Sorry, but I am just designed that way. It just seems if I do have a specific question for the good Doctor, I get the feeling of hesitation from him. I don't mean to back him up in a corner with specifics, but it is hard for me to work in a relative environment when I am attempting to get specific answers. Oh well, just blowing out my frustration.

This last weekend in Arizona has been fun. We were able to go to the Doctor son's birthday party. He invited us over for his sons sixth birthday. I thought it was a nice gesture and it supposedly allowed him time to view Bradens interactions. I ended up pitching to the 10 kids outside in the backyard without my hat. Now I have a sunburn on the top of my head. This is yet another reminder of how less hair I have then when I was younger.

This sunday we treated the kids out to a place called Mukutas Island. It was a combination of Chuckee Cheese and Rainforest cafe on crack for kids. The place was awesome. It had a huge floor with a giant tree in the middle of the room. Inside ladders, tunnels, firepoles, mazes within and all over the place. Kel liked the fact it didn't focus on the game playing (had a small area for the token games) but the play area itself. I liked the play area and trying to keep up with the kids, empasize on the keep up.

I bought Kel some socks and we put our stuff in the 50 cent storage locker and explored the place with the kids. I was impressed Kel actually went inside the tree, up the ladders, through the small holes/mazes, it was great. Me, there was no doubt, I had to go and play, but she normally sits on the sidelines. As we traveled the ever expanding tunnels on our hands and knees, we were reminded by our bodies the fact we are slower than the kids. They just kept staying ahead of us pushing us to go faster. heh heh

After the first round of play, Kel and I called for a break. We had to get something to drink and actually walk upright for a few moments. We bought the one 1.85 bottle of water and shared it for awhile. Then it was off again to run the playground. Kel held back, saying she was too old for this. I had to go on. Well, at first on that second round I was ok, then I started to sweat like a whore in church. Then I got really tired. Man, what was going on here? My body stopped reminding me and screamed 'give it up dude'. So I gave in and we hit the token games. After the tokens were gone, we took a lunch break and allowed the kids to hit the playground for another 20 minutes. I with Kel stayed out. For awhile we were all kids, then reality set in. I probably will be sore tomorrow, but it was cool.

You can check out Makutu's Island website here.

Ahh seven days to go and counting. We get to leave for home next Friday! I have enjoyed the stay in Arizona. I have enjoyed the bond and more bonding of the family as we lived in this 'hotel of four walls'. But the cracks are starting to show.

Unfortunately, some of the family members get anxious or upset (myself included) over the little things and it is becoming apparent more and more we are ready to go home. Just imagine being with your spouse, two kids for 5 weeks and the hotel room is as large as your living room. Yeah, I will leave it at that.

I think my wife is wearing me down on this cursed pool want. Prior of our 5 week tour, she was talking about getting one of those blow up pools for the back yard. You know the kind. I am sure you seen them in most of the stores. They range from sizes 15' to 18' in diameter coming with a electric filter. Yeah those round blue ones. When she brought this up, I must had initially looked at her as if she had 3 heads. Our kids get out of school and were gone for 5 weeks. When we get back to ou home, we have 2 weeks before we leave for another week in Pennsylvania. Then the kids start back to school August 11.

Hmm, lets see how this looks to me.
We start out with about 14 weeks of summer vacation for the kids.

Gone away literally for 5 weeks right off the bat, leaving 9 weeks left.

We are home 2 weeks. However, the first week will consist of vacation bible school during the day and basketball during the evening for both kids. Then we leave that following Friday, barely 4 days there. (Lets not forget getting our crap caught up from our leave) That's seven of fourteen weeks down.

We are then gone for one week in Pennsylvania. The family actually gets to come to work with me. Six out of fourteen down.

Alright, so that leaves six weeks for the pool. Hmm, that's if you play in it every weekday. With rain and other stuff going on, I am not sure. It just doesn't seem worth it to me, inititally anyway. She threw me a new bone the other night. Let's just say images of two adults under the stars. Not fair using that while we are here in the same room with two kids for 5 weeks straight.

For some reason, I woke up this morning contemplating on perception and in regards to ones situation.

There is a great book/cd out called ‘who moved my cheese'. I listened to some of it during our 10 plus hours down here. One of the things he pointed out made a lot of sense. He said “humans our different than animals in the regard we can decide our actions rather than our actions being decided on the outside stimulation".

The example was our ability to choose to become angry, afraid, ect. with the given outside stimulation.I let that thought linger awhile as we drove into Arizona, now more than 3 weeks ago.

Last night similar thoughts entered in my conscience again. I heard my wife speaking with one of her friends on the cell. This friend of ours is also going through a hard time. She has a disabled child and it just seems an uphill battle for her in regards of the school providision. In addition it seems generally a bad week regarding her health. I heard my wife make the statement “I guess we did something bad in our life to have to pay for it now." Or something to that effect. So I made the statement to her “No we are making small steps for something good in our life". I think she thought it was humorous. However, I already see a differences in our lifestyle and way of thinking then in other families within our area.

We live in a small town with small ideas. With our family having to go outside the area and bring in ideas outside the box, it has given us new perception of life and knowing there is more than the local community. Having been introduced to new medical treatment, Kel has introduced this to a local Doc/friend. This has created a symbiotic relationship in regards to now having the medical equipment closer for us, and allow the doctor to branch his office to new more availability for others. Since our son is special in some areas, Kel has grasped everything available to Oklahoma parents and passed that knowledge onto others who are less fortunate in acquiring knowledge and rights. I personally have a better sensitivity toward other parents having disabled children and this will bring me more clarification regarding a school board member. I just wanted to point out a couple of things this experience has given me and my family. In addition I wanted to point out what I meant by perception. Rather than wallowing in the idea of woe is me. I am viewing this as an opportunity to learn from it. For now at least, I may be griping at a later date. Heh heh

Another example of a change in perception for me personally stood out last night. Being here in Arizona, one cannot help to notice the other people. I am speaking in regards to attitude and especially body habitus. There are some good looking girls/women around here. Being a guy, I simply cannot help but notice. Now, however, I have noticed a change in myself regarding my appreciation in their physique and appearance. It hit me as I was waiting for this skinny girl to fix my mocha. My wife and kids were waiting in the car as I stood there thinking about this. This chick couldn't be about 17 (but who knows anymore). She was a cute girl. I can recall my dad and I going out on the town, way back then before marriage and kids. He and I would scope out the chicks. As I stood there in line zoning and thinking on these things it hit me. ‘We would probably be scoping this chick out too and this girl'. Then another thing hit me, 'that could be my girl fixing the drinks while some perv was scoping her out'. It was a chilling but serious change in my perception. My daughter is going to the second grade, but I realize in no time flat she will be in this same situation too soon.

I know I probably digressed too much, but wanted to blog this as I was thinking about it. Never know when it might actually mean something to someone else.

On another note, Gary Bauer wrote this interesting statement yesterday. I thought it fit well with my view of perception so early this morning.

About Deep Throat

Well, the Washington mystery has been solved. “Deep throat," the source responsible for leaks to The Washington Post that brought downthe Nixon presidency, is none other than W. Mark Felt, formerly the number two man at the FBI.

Mr. Felt was being judged a hero last night for his clandestineleaks. But just a few years ago another “whistle blower," Linda Tripp,released secret tapes that led to Bill Clinton's impeachment and I don't remember anyone in the “mainstream" media calling her a hero. Did whistle blowing go out of style, or does your status depend on which president you attack?