Stop the Bush Insanity!

Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON - President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers' demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors. (Yahoo News)

How much more does it take for this President to be called to account? President Clinton, was impeached for lying about having "sex" while in office. Sure, lying is bad. President Bush however, has violated several federal statutes that are well documented, refuses to acknowledge the authority the Congress has over the Executive branch on certain issues and is ignoring the authority his own branch has.

This is not a "strong" President. This is a man who has gone renegade in office and it is time to put a stop to it. Regrettably, that will not likely happen.

How Long Can Bush Ignore the Changing Political Landscape?

Britain's New Leader Names Cabinet Team June 28, 2007 - 7:34am By DAVID STRINGER Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) - Britain's new leader chose his senior circle of ministers on Thursday, picking David Miliband, the youngest foreign secretary in decades and a rising star who voiced doubts over the Iraq war. (WTOP)

One has to start wondering, especially if he is the President of the United States, how much longer he can continue alone among the world leaders. With Blair no longer in office and the new Prime Minister of Great Britain moving rapidly to show he is not a stooge of the United States, the questions about how the US can continue to press their bizarre world agenda begin to become more and more.

Iraq is only one of two countries that the US is embroiled in, as well as a rapidly declining world view of the US (not that it was all that great to begin with). President Bush has the opportunity to set a real legacy here. Unfortunately, I am afraid that the legacy he will leave behind is one of disharmony and disunion and disillusionment. One that I suspect will take generations to repair, both at home and abroad.

Election 2008? Is it over yet? Please?

Mirth and missteps enliven 2008 White House race by Stephen Collinson Sun Jun 17, 7:42 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - From the steamy, to the bizarre, and the downright embarrassing, the marathon grind of the 2008 White House campaign is mercifully, rich with missteps, mirth and melodies. (Yahoo News)

I was hoping to avoid any sort of comment, but I think I have to say something about this thing the American people call the electoral process. Someone, in a newspaper I read recently, pointed out that in Canada, and Mexico, Great Britain and even France, the election lasts about 90 days. Maybe a little longer. Tops. Yet here in the United States, where it is only June (and 18 odd months before the November 2008 election date) and we are well into the process of choosing the next President.

If you are tired of this, please raise your hand. Better yet, stop giving these idiots money! It is estimated that it will cost a billion dollars to elect the next President of the United States. A billion dollars! And yet, this country cannot afford to....yeah, if you have been reading long enough, you know what to insert here....so I have to wonder. If there is a billion dollars floating around looking for work, why are we complaining about raising taxes?

It ain't Skylab

Is the Space Station a Money Pit? Thursday, Jun. 14, 2007 By JEFF KLUGER There are bad ideas, and then there are true historic stinkers. Put the International Space Station in that second category. (Time On-Line)

I am a big fan of space exploration. There is just so much out there that we, as a race, need to see and experience. But I have to agree that the space station is little more than space junk. Sure, it was a good idea in the 1980s when it was thought up, but then, we also assumed that the payload vehicles would be bigger and stronger and more powerful than the Shuttles that they had to work with. And clearly, Russian engineering has not really improved all that much since the end of the cold war.

With $100 Billion dollars, the United States could actually fund the war in Iraq, although I would advocate that the money can and should be better spent training new scientists to look for alternate fuel sources. Not only so we can be sure to get to work on time, but so that the next space station is more in line with what Asimov or Clarke would have designed, instead of what we have today.

Nancy Was Right: Just Say "No"

Kellogg to raise nutrition of kids' food By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 14, 7:51 AM ET WASHINGTON - Kellogg Co., the world's largest cereal maker, has agreed to raise the nutritional value of cereals and snacks it markets to children. The Battle Creek, Mich., company avoided a lawsuit threatened by parents and nutrition advocacy groups worried about increasing child obesity. Kellogg intends to formally announce its decision Thursday. (Yahoo News)

OK, it is time, once again, for me to get out my whipping stick and use it against the backside of some people's heads. Let us start first with a reality check shall we. Everyone who was born before 1980, raise your hand please. Now how many of you ate Froot Loops (and those other confectionery yummies) on a fairly regular basis? Now, how many of you that did not, asked your parents for them on a fairly regular basis?

Two questions then: 1) Were you obese during your school years and do you think it had ANYTHING to do with the cereal you ate? 2) Do you think, for those parents that did not buy it, that they were in any way influenced by your begging for it?

Folks, let us be honest here. Sugary cereals are no better and no worse for our children (or us) than anything else they put into their bodies, including but not limited to juice boxes, peanut butter (except those with allergies of course) Domino's Pizza or a Big Mac. What is bad for them is doing it in excess and as an excuse for poor nutrition. It is also not good that most children today get less exercise in a week then we used to get in a day. Between the elimination of exercise (gym) classes, busing and limited outdoor play time (remember you would walk to school, then have to wait outside until they opened the doors? And you would do that at the beginning of the day, at lunch and at the end of the day, and have two recesses as well - at least at elementary school level?). Now they pick you up by bus, even if you live across the street from the school (yes, I am not kidding - there is a tunnel under the street and everything too so they could walk), march you into the gym and make you sit quietly in rows before marching you off to class. You get one recess and that is it. They come home and maybe get a few minutes of play time before being rushed off to this or that activity (which results in more sitting in the car than time spent at the activity) and then home to do a couple of hours of homework.

And we are wondering why our society is fat? Give me the study money and I will tell you why, and all I will have to do is take a chair out to the corner of walk and don't walk and count pedestrians. Our society is fat because we have gotten lazy. Pure and simple. It has nothing to do with advertising on TV and it has everything to do with parental responsibility, personal responsibility and the willpower to say enough is enough.

FCC and Profanity

Broadcasters Win Appeal Of FCC's Profanity Ruling By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 5, 2007; Page A01 A federal appeals court tossed out an indecency ruling against Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network yesterday and broadly questioned whether the Federal Communications Commission has the right to police the airwaves for offensive language. (Washington Post)

The FCC was handed their hat by a New York Appeals court. And rightly so. This is an agency that has been fickle about the regulations it enforces for years now. In 2007, the FCC really should not be playing nanny to the nation. However, I do not believe this ruling opens the way for broadcasters to start using Carlin's Seven Dirty Words either.

There is a lot of technology out there to keep you from seeing programs that you find offensive, but the most important one is called the power switch and it comes with every TV ever manufactured. It is not the government's responsibility to monitor the television airways for things that some group might find offensive to this or that segment of the population. That is your sole responsibility, and if you abdicate it to the government, what other, more important responsibility are you abdicating?

What makes something "The Best"

My copy of TV Guide arrived in the mail yesterday and on the cover, in bold letters was the headline touting the show "The Sopranos as the "best show on TV" (TV Guide).

Now there are a couple of minor issues I have to highlight here. To start with, the Sopranos is NOT a TV show. Sorry, but it aired on Showtime, one of the three or four original premium channels that have you have to pay extra for and that the FCC (who is also in the news today) ignores in terms of content. This does not disqualify the Sopranos as a "good show" but to say it is the best on TV means truly stretching the definition of what the TV stations are anymore. If it has to be censored to run on A&E, then Showtime is NOT a TV station.

The second problem is that I never saw it. I do not know anyone that did see it. That sort of puts a crimp on the definition of best. The best is a show that will be remembered and in reruns 20 years after it was put to bed (M*A*S*H anyone?), but to say a show is the best as it is ending its run is a bit of a stretch. I suppose you could point to the number of Emmies it won (and it did win some) but then so did a half a dozen other shows that were equally as good or better.

I realize TV Guide is out to sell magazines and that putting the cast on the cover is a way to increase sales. I will not be cancelling my subscription, but maybe, just maybe, we need to have a longer discussion about what is good TV, because frankly, at the moment, I do not think anyone has a clue.