Big Money, Big Oil

So our two esteemed candidates are bickering like little kids over oil and taxes, how sweet. Well I do not blame oil companies for making huge profits in a pure business sense. However we should not be giving them any tax breaks, subsidies or any other money from the gov't coffers. That money belongs to the people of the United States and if you gave "We The People" a chance to vote if we should give them our money I think we would vote NO. Why do we give OUR money to corporations that are making record profits. We need to rise up against this. Please contact your legislators and tell them this needs to stop. We need to find an effective way to protest oil companies and Congress and let them know how we feel.

Another thing that pisses me off is something I heard yesterday concerning the state of the roads and bridges around the U.S.. Gov. Rendell of PA. wants the gov't to spend $140 billion to repair roads and bridges. He wants more taxes, more toll roads and to lease highways to companies to get this done. Well I say screw you. We the taxpayer have already been paying taxes in many forms over the years and you and our other esteemed leaders pissed away those dollars and did not even attempt to fix the road systems. Now you want to take more money from the pockets of the people, very nice. I say you need to come up with a budget based on your your current tax base and make it work with those dollars. Cut all the crap out of your budget and get the job done with those dollars.

Since I do a fair amount of driving, I do photography as a hobby, and have driven on many crappy roads. Did our leaders not see these, are they that blind. I will be going to Ct. in a couple weeks. I95 in Ct. is in horrible shape, way overcrowded. It was that way twenty years ago and nothing has been done. Now how are to fix a major highway through an entire state. Now one has the brain or balls to come up with a plan to get this done. By the time they actually even have a plan and get this done I will be dead and gone and I expect to here for 50 more years.

Now I am going to watch a tv show about BEER on the History Channel.

Stupid People

So for one month Casey Anthony's baby is missing and she allegedly tells not one soul about this. Well I think that to be just a tad strange. Why would you not report this to the police, tell your family or friends, someone. Slightly odd to say the least. Now mom is in jail and Grandmom is all over tv making all kinds of statements about the case. Something about Mom and Grandmom seems slightly off to me. Grandmom is making all kinds of what I term as "non statement" statements. Give us some concrete evidence or some real facts or shut up. You look like a jerk.

Now I understand not wanting to cooperate with the police but the family must realize that in today's world that you are assumed to be guilty in these situations. Sorry but that is the way it is. I suggest the family actually shuts up and does not go on tv anymore. They do not make phone calls in and out of prison to each other. Only talk with your lawyers. The girls father was a sheriff's deputy he knows how the system works. Has he not told his wife and daughter to "shut up".

Now for one last thing that Grandmom has said "My daughter does not do drugs". Ummmm, I would bet she is wrong on that one. My powers of keen observation tell me otherwise.

Weed love it.

Wow, so Barney Frank wants pot to be legalized. I say pass the bong, roll a joint and smoke out.
It is about time someone in his position put a bill forward to get this rolling along. Of course it will not pass but it is a start. We waste some much money and prison space putting pot smokers away. A large percentage of police would be more than happy to not to have to bother with pot.
I know I work with them everyday and many are sick and tired of it. The other cops are quite adamantly opposed to any legalization. If we legalized then we would have more prison space for violent criminals.

Really it is about time we dealt with this issue. We have wasted so much money on this subject. The governments position and statements about pot have never made any logical sense.

Puff puss pass and don't bogart that joint my friend.

He is picking WHO?

So today we see that Obama has floated the name of Tim Kaine as his VP choice. Not sure I understand this. This choice is not likely to gain him many extra votes. I would think that Joe Biden or Bill Richardson would be far better choices, or Jim Webb. If I had to pick for him I say Biden as VP, Richardson as Secretary of State and Webb as Secretary of Defense. This would be a great group of people and they would be able to win over some Republican votes with them.

The only reason I see for him picking Kaine is he wants a VP who does not overshadow him in experience.

The other thing about Obama is that he is swinging more to the center or right in my opinion. Just watch and see how many of things he promised to do in the primary will never get done. He is not as progressive as he leads most people to think. I just say watch your blind optimism or you will be disappointed.

Its Gone

Well it was bound to happen. I just paid off my truck and was planning to put some money away for a couple of months but no Murphy's Law got in the way.
My television of 18 years decided that late Friday night it was going to pass away. Can you imagine the nerve of this. I wanted at least 4 more months.

So I traveled over to the east coast Saturday to see my grandmother. 85 years old and still going quite strong. Then I left yesterday afternoon and zipped home and went to Short Circuit City and purchased a 32 inch LG plasma tv. Since I paid twice as much as I did for my last tv does this mean it will last twice as long or half as long. Well the picture is good. It will be nice when everything is in HD.

One other thing I got this weekend. A friend of my grandmother who knows I love photography gave me a 1960's Mamiya C3 professional camera. They only used it once or twice so it is really brand new. This is a tlr camera and it uses 120 film. This should be a great camera to mess around with.

All is OK.

Lets see we are going to bailout or rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and homeowners who in most cases should have never received loans. The deficit for next year is going to be $490 million dollars. Yep, things are just fine. Thank you George Bush. We love you.

Wait, wait, wait. I am hallucinating. We are in deep doo. We should not bail these people out. Let the market correct itself. If this happened then the housing market would correct itself and prices would fall to where they belong. In most markets where the real estate market has been hit bad prices are not falling. Believe me. I see it here in Tampa. Prices have not fallen to any real extent and we have one of the worst markets in the U.S. and there are tons of places that are sitting empty.

As for the deficit that is just inexcusable. We will pay dearly for that in the very near future. The $490 million does not even include the dollars spent on the war. How do we fix that problem? Well I guess we could end the war and direct that money to the deficit.

Radio Ga Ga

So today the FCC approved the merger of XM and Sirius and I say "Thank You". I have Sirius and gladly welcome the chance to have more alternatives to listen to. Both have a wide variety of channels and now I have more too chose from. The wide variety of music channels is great for music fans like me. Most of these channels are commercial free or have very few commercials and that is a good this.

It is even better because this was opposed by the major radio station owners like Clear Channel and I despise them. People like Clear Channel have ruined regular radio with crappy programming, playing the same damm songs over and over again until you want to puke. They play too many commercials, and have no imagination when it come to programming. When i was a kid i wanted to be a dj. The dj has lost its identity because of the way regular radio is so controlled these days. So I applaud the FCC for once.

Now we need to get back control of our newspapers. Yes I still read a newspaper. I read parts of the New York Times everyday. Great writers.

Tour de France

Well I have been spending some time the last few weeks watching the Tour de France. That is one sporting event that I would love to have competed in. It amazes me how these guys expend so much energy over a three week period. The only thing that bothers me is the way the peleton sticks together so much. I would like to see more riders or teams breakaway from the pack and cause a little more chaos in the races.

Maybe I go race in an over forty race someplace. I would require much work as may gut would be like an anchor. It is a goal I need to shoot for.

Stop your Crying

So once again I hear another story on the news about Hillary supporters pissing and moaning that she did not get the nomination. They are going to vote for McCain if she is not picked as Obama's running mate. This is not going to happen.

Hillary ran a crappy and ineffective campaign. The nomination was hers for the taking. She and her team underestimated Obama and let his campaign get off the ground and they failed in getting their message across as effectively as was needed. The other thing they never figured out was that many Democrats were unwilling to put up with another 4 or 8 years of the Republicans Clinton bashing. Many Democrats are sick and tired of all that garbage and are seeking someone who they hope can move the country and the party in another direction.

So go ahead and vote for McCain because your feelings got hurt. That is a good way to pick the leader of the free world. Morons.

This weeks nominees are.......

People who use too much of my oxygen.

1. Michael Savage---Just a big asshole.

2. The idiot who put gum on the rear window of my truck.--Obviously an asshole.

3. People who do not use their signal light.--Are these options on new cars. Must be why they do not use them.

Eric Lindell Band

So Friday night I went to see the Eric Lindell Band. They are a great band. They are a New Orleans based soul, blues, R&B rock band. Guitar driven with an excellent harmonica player, who also does great backing vocals. This was the fifth time I have seen then in the last year and a half and they always put on a great show. The whole band is very tight and entertaining. They are all very talented. This is a band that is much better live than on record in my opinion. Check them out if you can.

www.ericlindellband.com

Hope and Faded Dreams

So today the Miami Herald revealed that there are 10,000 ex-cons working in the mortgage industry in Florida. Who the hell let this happen? So on top of greedy bankers, realtor's, builders and homeowners we have cons in the real estate game. Florida never changes. I bet the cons relatives were the ones selling swampland to Yankees in the past. Everyday we see how this market was driven by real criminals and soon to be criminals. What the hell has happened to us?

I swear that we are going the way of the Romans. It seems like most people really could not care less about their fellow man. Is it all about the money? When will the common man rise up against this and demand that they be heard? Will they ever rise up? Will they be allowed to rise up before it is too late? Why do we have so little respect for each other?

WTF is wrong with people.

Christ, I need a Xanax.

Dumb all over

So the big news yesterday on the the price of oil was the big drop it took in prices this week and it was the biggest drop in prices ever. Well I say BFD. Whats a record drop in prices when the price is a all time high prices. It really means nothing. Because of this huge drop in the price of crude I guess we go all now safely run out and by our SUVS, stupid urban vehicles, turn our ac down to 62, forget about alternative sources of energy, turn in all hybrid vehicles and go back to the good old days of wasting oil. With the way the media trots out crap like this all the time it is no wonder people get confused. A large number of people hear these stories and take them to heart and do not think them through and that is the way we get into trouble.

As Frank Zappa said "People, we is not wrapped tight".

I want a real debate

I think the Presidential race needs a real debate. We need one that runs for 3 hours.
We need the first hour to be the two canidates questioning each other. No time limits, no commercials and a moderator to keep the peace.

The next two hours would be the real fun. The canidates would be questioned by the people.
The tickets for the event are first come first serve. The canidates get no tickets to give out. No screening of questions. No getting your own people in the hall where the event is held. In order to get a ticket you must present a valid form of ID showing you live in that town. That way the campaigns can not stack the audience with their own fans.

The audience members can ask followup questions. It would be a hoot. You would get very serious questions and you would get some of the dumbest questions in the world. I would like to see how the canidates would handle a free for all like this. Then we could get a better feel for who these people really are.

Of course I am crazy and this will never happen, but I can dream.

Support the Arts

Most artists work for the love of the craft they do. So I say go to a gallery opening, an art show, visit a place where local artists sell their work. My favorite way to support the arts is by going to see live music. There is nothing better than seeing greats musicians at small venues. They and the crowd feed off each other and a good time is had by all. The other thing you must do is buy their work. They all work for the love of it and would do it for free, however buying something they have created it good for you and for them. One of the things I do when I go on vacation is look to buy some type of art from a local artist. It does not need to be much. A piece of pottery, a small painting, local music, photographs from a local artist. These are much better ways to have a lasting memory from your vacation than a t-shirt.

What Real Estate Problems

Its a greed problem. Banks, realtor's, mortgage brokers, builders, and speculators all got greedy and thought they could make tons of money off a false real estate market. This was also fueled my the media. The Tampa area is a perfect example of this. Back when this boom started property was affordable but it very quickly rose to ridiculous prices. Then the building got out of control and homes, townhouses and condos were built all over the Tampa area. They were selling at prices that where much too high for the area. It always seemed strange to me that all these property's were selling at the prices they were going for. There was no way wages were rising this fast, so were was the money coming from. Greedy people giving bad loans. Like they did not know these people could not afford what was being sold. They are getting what they deserved in my opinion. Unfortunately now we the taxpayer are going to have to pay to bail these assholes out. I say let them fail and we can have a major correction in real estate so that property prices can better reflect what peoples wage can support.

The other thing that amazes me is that we have huge numbers of unoccupied property's and the prices are still too high. They would rather just let them sit empty and be bailed out down the road. Well I hope that doesn't happen.

This may be an over simplification of what happened, but most likely not.

On the art side of life

Yesterday I went to St. Petersburg to PaleHorse Design which is an art studio and gallery.
They are running an event now featuring artists from around the world who do works in the graffiti style. Great works of art and the artist/owner of the gallery was very friendly and answered many questions I had. Here is his website. www.palehorsedesign.com

Also for those who have the Ovation network as one our your cable channels they are showing the movie Grateful Dawg tonite. This is about Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. It is a great movie and I will be watching it again tonight. Check your local listings.

And the nominees are........

Can we please just vote these people out of our lives.
Their carbon emissions are too high and they are using the too much of the air we breathe.

1. Nancy Grace. For being a pompous ass.
2. Gloria Allred. Self serving media whore lawyer.
3. Harvey Levine. Sleazebag who runs the TMZ website.

These are the type of people that symbolize what is wrong with America.

First out of the box

Well here is the first post and the first thing to get me going is paranoia.
Last night while out doing some photography with another photographer we got stopped and questioned by a security guard. He wanted to know why we taking pictures and did we have permission. Hello guy, we are public property. No permission needed. The object of our shooting, a parking garage. Not a high value target for misdeeds of those guys across the pond. My buddy gave him a bunch of crap and took a couple pictures of him which really pissed him off. In the end we left happy, he left pissed and the garage still stands, I think.

So in ending I say "People stop being so paranoid". You can chose to live in that world. Most of us do not want to live in that world and if you do I am sorry. Now go out and piss of somebody in authority.