The peace sign

turns fifty today. It was first used for a march on a nuclear weapons facility. For a story about it with links to a newspaper article go to our friend Ted’s Page.

Campaigning must be hard. Long hours, early mornings to late night. Candidates wake early and stay up nights. Tough, kind of like a truck drivers job.

I have driven 14 hours looking forward to a nap at the receiver while they unloaded me only to be told I would have to put my fingerprints on every box while I was the one unloading the trailer. Then when it was unloaded have dispatch send me to a shipper 150 miles away to load before I could get some sleep.

I sympathize with their fatigue and really hope all of them stay somewhat healthy. What I don’t understand is how some pussy pampered politician could compare campaigning with torture.

Check this Huckabee quote out then see if you think he is making light of an illegal torture procedure. What a dweeb!

I was writing a post Tuesday evening. Something about the Obama lead over Clinton and how the Paul/Huckabee campaigns were slowing the McCain…well you have read everyone else’s opinion of the old news so I’ll just piss and moan about why I have been off line.

While writing my post my hosts server crashed. It was down both Tuesday and Wednesday. When they got the whole thing back up there were errors of some kind messing up the links from server to web page….then when I was online chatting with my hosts techs my internet provider crashed.

I have been out of touch for days but I wasn’t raided or shut down as was suggested by one reader. I just had some bad luck. The upside is that I get a month of hosting at no charge. Thats cool.

It’s a good night and we are expecting snow tonight in Roswell. Probably wont last very long as it is supposed to get warm tomorrow afternoon. I will be back up to posting stuff tomorrow. (saturday)

I hope your weekend is great.

Daytona 500 Sunday for those who like to watch 43 drivers go fast and turn left.

I haven’t paid much attention to the news over the weekend. Just babbling about Huckabee dividing the nation and black people pushing for Obama. The race card has been played hard lately but Clinton has gotten hurt from whoever is voting for Barack. Bad enough that she felt the need to change campaign managers in the middle of the stream. Aging bald dudes seem to be working for the change Obama promises by the looks of things at the Rotus Ranch.

Clark, the head rancher over there also has a nice blog with music reviews. Go check it out at Clarks Picks.

Rotus has a somewhat different take on some issues and I try to read his stuff every day. I think you should too.

The street sweepers are washing the pavement in the alleys and streets of the French Quarter. New Orleans bar workers are mopping up the funk that comes from days of revelry while the bar owners are counting their riches. Catholic faithful are going to masses to have some ash smeared on their foreheads. Lent is here and in the next 40 days leading up to Easter the city will relax. Almost rest.

But Ash Wednesday in New Orleans is also the day of the Louisiana Primary. There will probably not be as big a cleanup as one might think. The election results from todays primaries and caucuses show McCain is the only candidate that cleaned up in the polls. The Democrats are still pretty much on the same level when it comes to their peoples support.

McCain’s overwhelming win of delegates is due to the “Huckabee Factor”. Mike has taken a lot of the “liberal” Republican vote from Mitt much to Romney’s chagrin. His whining today just alienated more of his would be supporters giving John McCain more of an advantage. That scares me.

With McCain the probable Republican candidate for president America is facing a strange future. His stance on the war in Iraq along with his hinting at future wars, Iran probably, could make or break him. Especially if his Democratic opposition remains weak on their demands to withdraw our troops from Iraq. If the Democrats can’t show strong we may be facing Johns proposed 100 years there.

New Orleans, and much of Louisiana, has a large black Democrat population. The strength of the black vote became clear in 1992 when Democrat Edwin Edwards, a known criminal and liar, was running against Republican racist David Duke for Governor. More black people registered and voted than any time in Louisiana history. The crook won in a landslide even though the Republican Duke got a huge turnout of white voters.

Obama and Clinton are running neck and neck. Clinton has only 100 more delegates then Obama. The primaries in the weeks to come can change that. There are more delegates yet to be chosen and Barak may overcome Hillary in the polls. With only 56 delegates at stake there Louisiana wont be a deciding factor in the final outcome but will probably bring the race closer. I think Obama will take the state today.

The really surprising state for Obama was Idaho. Such a huge amount of their votes going to him there shows me the race card is fading in this campaign. When I was a kid growing up in Idaho there was an underlying racism that welcomed many white supremacy groups  to build compounds and enclaves all over the state. I was pleased to see that the old days are going away and people are starting to think clearer.

So as the post Carnival cleanup continues in The Big Easy the cleanup in the polls wont come. The democratic candidates will have to really duke it out. Lets hope the mudslinging doesn’t start too bad. Thats a mess that may cause McCain to clean up in November.

We can’t have that.

Its times like this that make me glad I’m not a Republican. Florida’s primaries brought out the frontrunners Tuesday and showed who will be left in the dust. With McCain coming out on top and Mitt being the runner up I think we have seen the end of Rudy, Mike and Ron. While Paul was the best choice the Repubs had to offer he still came up short on foresight and it doesn’t hurt my feelings that he is 5th.

With 9/11 Giuliani preparing to drop out rumors are flying that he is going to endorse John McCain. Skippy The Bush Kangaroo says that means an additional 5 votes for John.

Here’s some coverage of the McCain win at Crooks and Liars.

I remain confused. They all talk about change but without really saying what the changes will be how do we know we would be better off if any of them were elected?

Tip o’ my hat to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

Only 366 more days until George Walker Bush leaves the Whitehouse. This is a leap year so we have that extra day of his bullshit but it is an exciting year anyway. January 20, 2009 can’t come soon enough.

We will have another president at that time and hopefully the American people will have a real chance to have their voices heard. Maybe the voting machines will be fixed and not miscount the votes like they did in New Hampshire last week. Maybe “undesirable” voters wont be banned from the polls. Maybe Bushco wont steal the election this time. Maybe this time we will actually get the lesser of two evils and a thinking person will be the puppeteer.

Since W has been the president with record setting vacation days I’m sure a few more of them are in his plans for this year. Probably the longest will be in November and December. Sure those days will be filled with the duties of every lame duck. Pardons, commutations and favors to cronies but thats par for the offices course. They all do it.

I am still apprehensive about who the electoral college will place in there. I am not convinced that any of the frontrunners aren’t already in the war machine’s pockets. Barring the religio-nuts and 9/11 Gulliani I think we will be better off in the long run. Maybe we will have a minority for the first time. Maybe just another white man who fits the rich politician norm. Whoever, it’s time for a real change.

Almost anyone would be better than The Evil Bushman and his cronies.

Mike Huckabee is a zealot with that Reaganesque delusion that he will be the man in charge when Jesus returns to earth.

The Rev. Jay Cole, one of the nuts who make up the fruitcake that is Mike Huckabee, rants about Mikes link to Jesus in this post fromCrooks And Liars.

The people of Iowa went and voted in their local primary caucus. They were the first to choose who they wanted to go forward in the campaigns and eventually become president.  They didn’t really have much to choose from. With the ultra right wing neocons in the Republican bunch and the same good ol’ boy offering from the Democratic bunch I was amazed to see record turnouts at the caucus polls. I have been of the frame of thought that the theft of the last 2 presidential elections would make the general public to throw up their hands and say, “Whats the use?’.

Maybe the scandals caused the people of the United States  to wake up and realize that their voice can be heard if they actually speak up in the polling booths. Maybe this time the votes of the poor and people of color wont be cast aside. Maybe this time we have a little hope.

Out of all of them I would like to see a Richardson/Kucinich ticket but that doesn’t seem possible since they both want to bring our troops home from Iraq and that isn’t in the war machine’s best interest. The Halliburton, General Motors, General Electric interests are too invested in reaping profits and there is just no way they will let the kids quit dying if it cuts into their pockets. Besides Richardson is pushing for alternative energy and the oil and coal industries will try to stifle that.

Bill has done great things for the state of New Mexico with his energy and medicine policies. The laws give tax breaks to individuals and companies who power their buildings with solar or wind power. Big breaks for the electricity providers too. He fought for compassionate medical marijuana laws and even though the NM legislature shot it down 6 times he persued the issue until we became the 12th state to ok weed for therapeutic use and pain relief. The federal government still hasn’t given the thumbs up for the medicine and the Big Pharm will also fight his candidacy.

I hope the trend of more voters actually casting their ballott will extend beyond the borders of Iowa. Even with the slim pickin’s we have to choose from maybe we can take back our government from those who want to follow the same old same old. If this administration doesn’t strip all of our rights by November we may still have a chance.

Maybe we will be lucky this time.

If you don’t speak up how will you be heard?