I have to apologize...

I realize that I might sometimes come off as a raving lunatic bastard when I post here (particularly when talking about those who are in charge). I'm not a raving mad individual. I'm just frustrated by the political duopoly machine at times. I love this place and I wouldn't live anywhere else. That being said, I feel it necessary to spread the word that there ARE alternatives. Yeah, I won't change anything. Not by myself. I've heard catchphrases like "I wish there was an alternative choice" so many times. There are alternatives. I have mine, but there are others. However, when an alternative is presented, many people often seem to stick with one of the big parties for fear of a wasted vote. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Here's why I feel that's dangerous. Bush says he believes in the concepts embodied in the UN. He also says that we won't ask them for permission to defend our country. He is right there. At one time, Kerry said that our troops wouldn't be deployed without the blessing of the UN. More recently, he mentioned the "global test". That's BS! However, my take on things is that Bush's war on terror (and the one in Iraq) have the potential to (and are) leading us down a slippery slope of interventionist foreign policy. When I speak about my choice, one of the biggest complaints I hear invokes the demon of isolationism. It's true (somewhat). If my choice became reality, we would try as much as possible to extricate ourselves from the governmental affairs of the rest of the world. I don't feel that that's a bad thing. We've opened and rubbed wounds in the interest of the US for the past one hundred years. Stepping back wouldn't end terrorism, but it would allow us to focus better and let us stop rubbing SOME of the wounds that, while not causing terrorism, aggravate the situation.

Is Gnomedex 5 in the works already? If we can make it next year, we will.

Well, I don't know what happened to the DHS Daily Reports culled from the news media at www.nipc.gov. If you're interested in those types of matters, there was some interesting info culled from the news and put all in one place. This source has reports that appear to be maintained.

The mainstream news won't talk about alternative events that happened outside of tonight's debate so I will...

The candidates of the Libertarian and Green parties were arrested while attempting to gain access to the Presidential debate this evening. These two men are Constitutionally eligible and have sufficient ballot access to be theoretically capable of winning. The catch-22 experienced by these alternatives is extraordinary. They won't be admitted to the debates as run by the Commission on Presidential Debates because they don't poll at an arbitrary 15% in national polls. They will never get there unless the Libertarians (or Greens) get a candidate who is filthy rich or ultra-famous. This is sad. Voices are being squashed.

For the Libertarian account, read here.

For the account from the Green Party, read here.

Intel bonanza doesn't lend a great deal of credibility to Dubya and company...

The past two days have seen some interesting information come to light. The first was the news about a CIA report that found no conclusive evidence of ties between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein. The second is the massive report about Saddam's WMD. I haven't read any of the material I am linking to yet because I have the pleasure of going in to work soon. The prepared testimony of Charles Duelfer and Brigadier General Joseph J. McMenamin, USMC before the Senate Armed Services Committee can be downloaded here.

We truly have a great country. Information like this is frequently available in near real-time when it's not being subjected to highly restrictive secrecy barriers. Sometimes those barriers are necessary.

The CIA has a wealth of useful information available on its website.

Although we don't hear much about the Mars Rovers anymore, they are still alive and kickin'. I almost forgot that our names are in the cosmos. Here's my proof. Here's Suzanne's.

Well, I have to run. Bye!

As I've noted before, the cable news channel we typically stick with is MSNBC...

However, like every other news channel, as soon as the candidate debates are over, they analyze them to death in search of the elusive answer to the question of who won. What follows here is only my opinion, so please take it as such. I feel that the American voter has lost. There are a few undecideds left out there. They have probably waited for these debates as part of their decision-making process. What they are getting is a sanitized, scripted, and lackluster rewording of the stump speeches that we've all been hearing for close to a year now. Hell, check out the Memorandum of Understanding for this year's farce. The candidates can't directly question each other or participate in any alternative debates. I won't even mention what I think of the fact that Constitutionally qualified candidates with sufficient ballot access are excluded.

The Nobels for Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology/Medicine have been announced. The awards for Literature, Peace, and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel are due to be announced on October 7th, 8th, and 11th respectively. The Nobel site has some excellent material (or links to material) on Nobel winners.

The ACLU has a great portion of their website devoted to the Patriot Act and FOIA material they have obtained regarding Patriot. Searching through some of it, I found this chart of what the government can and can't do and under what circumstances. You've got to love the net!

This is a test...

This station is conducting a test of the Email Blogcast System. This is only a
test. In the event that this had been a real post....yada-yada-yada. You get
it.

RIP Rodney...

Now to less important news...

We're actually watching the debate between Cheney and Edwards. Suzanne isn't watching very much. It would be cool if Edwards brought up Halliburton and Cheney dropped the F-bomb again. At least Cheney isn't making goofy looks of exasperation...

Speaking of the F-bomb...I was filtering through some of the IP traffic to my site. I noticed that several of the IPs were from Saudi Arabia. Without thinking much about it, I went searching through some of the IP range. It just so happens that I have IE titled with...let's just say a very colorful title. Hopefully I won't offend anybody who will be reading their logs. Must...use...Firefox...

Speaking of Firefox...Give it a shot!

John Edwards is bitching about outsourcing and John Kerry voted for NAFTA in 1993. I suppose that's similar to Cheney's disagreement with Dubya about the Federal Marriage Amendment. Viva la revolucion! When I mention to people that I'm voting Libertarian, people ask the inevitable question about a wasted vote. I always opine that a vote for either of the political juggernauts is a waste.

In closing, keep an eye out here.

We DID make it home safely last night around 8:30 PM...

The plane ride was fairly uneventful but driving damn near straight into the sun while leaving Chi-town in the thick of traffic was quite a feat. Suzanne and I thought that Gnomedex kicked ass. As usual, I don't normally meet a whole lot of new people when I go to something like this because I hang around with Suzanne and beyond that, I'm fairly introverted. I am pleased to have met and chatted up Jim and Michael. Additionally, meeting and talking to the individuals responsible for majorgeeks.com was A-OK! We're already raring to go next year...

One thing that a rep from Yahoo! brought up on the closing night was their newly retooled "My Yahoo!" portal. I was using it before we even went to Lake Tahoe. One ultra-cool feature they have set up is the ability to integrate RSS feeds right into your own "My Yahoo!" page. You can also do this with your favorite blog(s). See?


Obviously, you have to be signed up on Yahoo! to use the features available, but it's nice to be able to view the latest headlines and blog posts all in one convenient spot. If you do sign up, be sure to visit your account page and set up the "marketing preferences" as necessary.

I knew I should have called in last night to see if I was supposed to work today. As it happens, I didn't. Oh well, I was in and out very quickly.

One last thing... If you run Windows and want a good graphics editing program on the cheap, think about getting GIMP for Windows. When I was trying out Linux on my desktop, I used The GIMP and I loved it. Having played around with it for a few hours this afternoon, I was reminded of the fairly extensive feature set that it has.