Beef Jerkey,

My Christmas was pretty good and I have been spending my time eating beef jerky and watching my new Arrested Development DVDs killing time waiting for the next holiday at the end of the week.

America's only nominated president, Gerald Ford, died. So they spent a day building him up being the big republican who got a bad deal. He gave us Rumsfeld and Cheney and pardoned Nixon and oh how conservative. Then the next day Woodward drops the not so fast story right on them. Apparently he wasn't to keen on the Iraq war. I had heard somewhere around the republican convention in '04 that besides his failing health he either refused to go or wasn't invited because the party had veered so far right of him, who was in his time considered very right wing. Although I don't have anything to back that up and don't even really remember who said it, this kind of tells me it is right.

John Edwards announces his run for president today. I voted for him in the primaries last time and am a big fan of what he is trying to do with his two America's thing. I just think there might be too much baggage from running with Kerry, plus his being from the south and probably won't be able to turn too much blue down there. Then again I wanted a twice divorced, Jew to run, so maybe I shouldn't go on about being unwinable. We will see if Edwards can convince me over the unknown stances of Obama. Those are the two guys that I am currently considering.

Fist are starting to fly,

Blame is starting to be dished out in the Falk explosion.

Falk says;

"When a leak was discovered, Falk employees were told by Brennan employees that it was under control and there was no need to evacuate," Zeppos said.

Brennan retorts;

Jeffrey Remsik, a Brennan spokesman, disputed Zeppos, saying that "Brennan employees actively assisted Falk employees in attempting to direct people away."

We shall see how this will all play out, but unfortunatly I know how this is going to play out. In the end they will try to blame this all on the working man and not the cheap corner cutting companies.

But here is what I find interesting;

Brennan officials are analyzing work orders to determine the extent of the company's previous work on the propane system and boilers.

How low can it go,

I was a bit taken back by watching this clip. I knew things were bad and this military escalation is unpopular, but I was still surprised to see such a harsh assessment on a republican show. At one point the liberal guy was talking about the presidents approval rating getting down to single digits. That seems almost ridiculous, but then again if anyone can do it Bush can.

All the Kings Men,

One movie that I was anxious to see this year, but ended up waiting for DVD because of poor reviews was All the King's Men. I watched it last night and loved it. The story is loosely based on Huey Long, an immensely interesting politician from Louisiana. While pushing popular progressive legislation he was accused of being dictatorial in his approach. I can kind of see how some people would be turned off the movie for political reason, but the reviews that turned me away wouldn't fall into that category. I guess they just don't know a great political movie when they see it. I wanted to watch it again since beer, whiskey and a consuming thought made the end a bit foggy, but I think I will just wait until netflix sells it and buy my own.

The next movie that I am really anxious to see is The Good Shepard. I am going to have to see this one in the theater. How can a story about the beginning of the CIA not be interesting? It is too bad it is coming out around Christmas, I will have to wait until after the holidays to see it to avoid a crowd.

When I first heard they were making another Rockey movie I was saddened. The original Rockey is such a great movie the second one was pretty good too, if only they would of stopped there. But they didn't and made joke of the series by progressively pumping worse movies out. However I keep hearing that the new movie is really good and gets back to the stuff that made the first movie so good. But I just don't think there is anyway I am going to like a movie about a sixty year old boxer. Maybe it will make my netflix list, but probably not.

Christmas present,

Since I don't have that much money for Christmas this year, I will just be giving this;

Nuckin Futs,

Jib Jab has another great video out. They sure can deliver the funny.

Nuckin' Futs! The JibJab Year in Review | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

Books and stuff,

Last night on the PBS show Independent Lens they did a profile of John Fante. I was really pleased to see them doing this. Terrence Howard did an introduction to the show with the question, "Would you rather be famous or a genius?" Although he has some fame mostly coming from Bukowski promoting him, he is still a relatively unknown except among authors. He is less known for his books than the authors that were inspired by his books; an authors author. Ask the Dust is his most well known book and was made into a movie last year. I highly recommend reading him.

I just finished reading the guy that runs IAVA book, "Chasing Ghost". The book tells his story of being in Iraq shortly after the start of the war, to the rise of the insurgency, to his coming home and getting involved in the 04 election to starting up the IAVA. I consider myself antiwar or at least I think that the U.S. has been way to eager to use it's might war machine since the end of WW2. But for some strange reason I am very drawn to war books and movies. I got really into this book. I think John Crawford's "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell" and Paul Rieckhoff's "Chasing Ghost" are must read for all Americans to know what is going on over there.

Last Thursday after I wrote three post I looked at my counter and seen that while writing I got a hit from someones senate office and the New York governors office. I have gotten letters in the mail form both my senators and more than one from my congressman, but I felt pretty good that my blog drew the attention from a couple of people in government. Even if it was some intern that only read a couple of sentences, I drew there attention.

Rumor has it,

Yesterday morning I got a call from one to the guys that I use to work with. This is one of the guys that worked for the company that did work at Falk. He tells me that that company installed those gas lines, was testing those lines at the time, has guys in the hospital, OSHA meet with the company and some lawyers a few days afterwards and they have just started laying off a lot of employees seemingly out of the blue. So it sounds like they are in some hot water. This just goes to show you; you fuck with my check and wham! four months later your company causes an explosion that gets national attention. People should send me checks just to keep me happy, I got some major karma working for me.

I spent all afternoon and early evening drinking with those guys in a dive bar. I came home and stopped drinking. I realized why most people drink at night, so they can sleep while sobering up. As I sobered up during the evening it hurt lots.

Some links,

It's a three post type of day and I even slept in,

For all of you looking for a hot manatee porn site your prayers have been answered.

Looks like Comedy Central is taking another stab at mocking Bush, remember the show "That's my Bush". A couple more good Progressive links Dumb and some Outcast, Charlie Brown style my favorite dance is the kid in the yellow.

The explosion,

I had just woken up yesterday right before the news broke that the Falk plant blew up. I was immediately concerned because I knew a company that I worked for last summer did a lot of work there and I was friends with some of the guys. Later in one of the news coverage I seen what looked like one of their vans. I was a bit relieved when they announced the names of the three that died and they weren't anyone from the company I worked for.

All morning the news stayed on coverage of the incident. Which is very understandable, but all they were doing was taking calls from anyone who had some connection or claimed to know something. This is not news it is merely gossip. I honestly can't think of anything I heard at that time, besides the building was called the annex, that was informative.

Then they had an evening news conference and the DA talked about investigating the incident to look for any criminal action resulting in the explosion. He did say there was no evidence to lead that way right now, but he was going to make sure that wasn't the case. During the questioning time a reporter asked the Mayor if he supported the investigation since Falk was such a large employer for Milwaukee. Yeah because they hired enough people they are allowed to kill off a couple. The corporatism in this country right now is disturbing. There is a certain class of people that just don't understand what a normal person has to go through. Like this congressman who thinks working more than three days a week is destroying his family. Welcome to the real world bub. It sucks!

Lets talk,

With the Iraq study report coming out yesterday, I was struck dumbfounded that the one idea that was getting attacked the most by the pro war crowd was talking with Iran and Syria. This sees idiotic to me, we have a isolationist diplomacy with a global military this will only result in permanent war. My brother told me in '04 that someone asked the packer coach what he thought of the debates. He said something along the lines of it just shows who the better talker is. Well guess what that is what politicians are suppose to do. You go and talk to these people; you don't have to agree or cede and ground, but you talk to them. That is how wars are avoided. When the Iranian president sent that letter to the president a while ago he should of sent one back. From what I remember the letter was filled with accusations of religious hypocrisy and challenges. Why didn't we turn around and do the same thing to them. Only good things can come from talking because not talking leaves you with two options war and no war.

My great senator, Russ Feingold, has other problems with the report.

Socialist,

I found this funny;

A vandal struck the ATM area of a Sheboygan bank overnight Saturday.

Sheboygan police said someone spray-painted vulgar statements against capitalism, authority, and high-interest rates above the drive-through area of a US Bank.

Now the funny part is the title of the story is;

Socialist Vandal Strikes ATM

if being against capitalism, authority, and high-interest rates there is a lot of socialist out there. Time for Eugene Debs to run for president again. I know he is dead, but he once ran from prison so I think he can do it.

I would like to take this moment to say I kicked Adrian's ass in fantasy football this week. I even had four of my six highest scores on my bench. Boy does he suck.

I was wrong,

So Barack didn't announce last night. He should of. The way that Jay was kissing his ass so much strengthens my belief that the presidency is his for the taking.

Here are the dirty pictures of Britney Spears that are getting so much press. That bum she married must be laughing his ass off knowing how rich she is going to make him when she loses custody of the kids to him because she wants to party every night. Personally I hope she, her ex, the Hilton's, Richie and all those other fake ass, useless, party people disappear from the face of the planet because I am sick of hearing about them. And yes I do realize the hypocrisy of writing about people I am sick of hearing about.

To live this life,

I am glad I don't have a job today. I shoveled my driveway this morning and it kicked my ass. And now there is another couple inches of snow and no sign of it letting up. It would really suck if I had to deal with that after hanging tin for eight hours.

I got my hair cut yesterday by a black lady with hair so white that it could only of been a wig. She wasn't old enough for it to be age and I am telling you there is no hair dye on earth that good. I wanted to give it a good tug to see, but that would of been inappropriate. I am also not ruling out that she is a movie star researching a role for some movie because her hair covered her face good enough that I couldn't get a good look at her. It had been a long time since I had gotten my hair cut. Now it is really short and it is cold out so my head is cold. My patience with having a beard is wearing thin so pretty soon my face will be cold. That is OK though it will match my cold, cold heart. I also got my new glasses yesterday, but that was mostly uneventful. I imagine I will be a little sad now, missing my old glasses.

I bought a pineapple at the store the other day, because well I like pineapple. However now I have all this pineapple and don't know if I will be able to eat it all before it goes bad. I ate about a quarter of it last night. I think that was a bit much in one sitting, my mouth was a little swollen after that. Oh the problems of food shopping for one.

Barack Obama is going to be on Leno tonight. I would assume he is going to announce he is running for president. In a way I hope he does because I think he is the closest thing we will get to a progressive in the White House, but I am cautious as David Sirota writes at Kos, he is very unproven. Although I should say I am a more optimistic than David.

Have a good weekend all my reader friends, Drink lots!