Introducing ...

Riley.
My newest Grandson.
7lbs 5oz
Just like me.
And Keaton is getting sooo big!
Too bad I don't travel anymore.

Boy Joins The Army

Yeah I know what you're thinking.
OMG why? Why.. WHY!??

Well, he doesn't have much choice, considering his lack of drive.
Don't worry.. he chose a tech job, and will be troubleshooting top secret networks.
Good thing I taught him how to do neat stuff like that, or he would be doing something silly like getting killed.
He will start boot camp in January in Georgia, then move to a base in Georgia for 21 months of hardcore network training. After that, I'm pretty sure he will be stationed inside the US, as tech support for our military computer worky thingies. LOL
Sam might be interested in the ethical hacking aspect, that I'm sure Boy will never discuss, due to his soon to come, extra top secret status. So don't even ask about it :P
I think it will be good for him, and so does he.
But I will miss him.

California Girl

Once in awhile, I miss California.

When this occurs, I watch this

Then I feel better.
I'm not giving up my slave labor over here on the East coast!
That, and carrot trees really freak me out.

Cigarette Taxes and how it's NOT April 1st yet

Ok .. I'm really pissed.
We all know about the regressive tax our beloved, love the poor, President has signed into law.
But what I want to know is. why can't I find ,on the internet, anything on cigarettes going up, not once, but TWICE, in one week?
BEFORE April 1st.
Are you people really this stupid?
I see tons of outrage about AIG, which is a given, because after all, who gets a bonus for doing a terrible job?
But where is the outrage at a 63 cent tax that has been imposed twice, before it is legally allowed to do so?
You aren't getting a 63 cent tax my fellow smokers.. you are getting a stick shoved up your ass, and being told it is good for you.
I am flaming mad right now, more at those very people who voted for the assholes who are at this moment shoving a stick so far up your ass, you can taste the wood in your mouth.
Cigarettes in New Jersey.. the cheapest ones at the humble liquor store I work at these days, have gone from $4.03 per pack, to a whopping $5.89 per pack. BEFORE sales tax. It went up twice in one week, from the cigarette companies. God help those that buy non generic cigarettes.. cause those are going for $7 to $8 per pack. One can only imagine how much they are going for in AC, since it was $10 per pack before this assinine tax was signed into law by a smoker with his own room in the white house to smoke his over priced addiction in.
I'm not really good at math, but that isn't 63 fucking cents.
So tell me.. is it going up yet again on April 1st?
Oddly that is April fools day.
You might want to think about the irony of that date.

You know who the fools are? Anyone that thinks this isn't the last straw for those of us who are fed up with the bullshit our government, no matter what damn party you choose, cause I hate each and every one of the motherfuckers, has turned us into.
Sheep.
Working to pay for nothing, getting nothing, and doing nothing about it.
Dumbassary.
Wake up .. Audacity of Hope INDEED.
pfft..
I'll post again, when I'm more pissed off at how stupid you all are.
Dumbasses.

ooOoo

Just so you know.
I'm alive, doing the best I can with what I've got, and have too much to say to write about it. :)

*just checking to see if anyone is paying attention*
Mwaaaaahhhh

RJF 1920 to 2008

This is a picture of my Dad at age 17, the day he was released from Reform School, posing with his most favorite dog ever, Buster.
It's the way I prefer to remember him. He passed on this morning after years of suffering with Parkinson's, Diabetes, and Heart Disease.
He is surely in a much better place, wondering why he feared it for so many years.
Dad will live on here, in my humor, love of politics, strength in the throws of chaos, and taste for beer. I raise my cheap can of Busch Light in his honor this very minute.
Present at his passing were my Mom, and my Nephew, who should be commended for handling it with grace, and strength.
My Mom is holding up pretty well, for being the most emotional one in the family, and having had to deal with his illness for 20 years, pretty much non-stop.
I will be flying out to stay with her for three weeks, on Easter. My nephew will be with her until I arrive, and I'm glad he stepped up when he did. Way to go kid!
Minime was there yesterday, and couldn't stop crying, thus taking over the emotional part of the family tree.
I've never been very emotional about death. I fail to see how it's a bad thing, when a person has lived as long as my Dad did. To me, it's part of the natural human existence, and should be celebrated, as is birth. This is another thing my Dad taught me, many, many years ago.
Although grieving is a natural process, and should be respected, it has more to do with the death of a tiny part of those who remain, than the deceased. For this reason, I feel, that people cling to life more to spare those that will survive them, then themselves.
There are those people that fear death, because it seems unnatural, cruel, and unknown. I encourage everyone with that mindset, to fear not. Sometimes, the pain of life is a much more cruel, and unnatural existence. In my Dad's case, this is 100% true.
Truly, he is in a much better place.
Free from pain. Free from stagnation of mind. Free to paint, play music, dance, and sing. Free from my whacko family.
Lucky guy!
Farewell Dad.

Let the games begin!!

Clinton criticizes Obama over mailings
Man! This is going to be a fun year!
I'll be honest.. I actually thought this years elections would be less about throwing dirt, and more about running nice clean campaigns. At least in the Obama/McCain camps.
Silly me!!
Obama seems to have caught on to dirty politics, and more than likely, can pull it off, while looking like the victim. Clinton used to be the champion of the "victim card", and is going all out to keep her title, but I think she has met her match.
Obama is gearing up for the McCain fight as well, as is evidenced here.
Truly, I don't think McCain can keep his cool, and win, without giving it back as hard as he gets it. But, his main persona is to do exactly that. Keep his cool, and laugh. Which is why I like him, btw.
Unfortunatly, voters are too dumb to read enough about anything that isn't on the front page of the rags we call "Newspapers" these days, or the opinions of "reporters" who should be all about actual facts, on your favorite TV media fix channel. but aren't.
You can see this as big as life in the famed New York Times hit job on McCain, this week.
Even though most of the media denounced the Times for doing an article without any real facts, or sources that could be concidered reliable, or honest for that matter, it has given some fuel to Obama's new found lean towards the dirty side of politics. Oddly, Clinton has not used this much, unless I missed it somewhere.
You know why? Well, she's been in Washington long enough to know, you can't walk across the street without a lobbyist holding out it's hand to lead you to the other side.
However, Obama seems to be sticking to facts, while leaving out realities.
Sadly, even Cindy McCain has started the sniping wars, on Michelle Obama. Though, I have to say, John McCain made sure that was dropped, pretty damn quick. I hope he can control Cindy, better than Hillary can control Bill.

All in all, it's looking like another election year filled with more bullshit than a Texas steer farm.
Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Michigan Primary

As much as I detest writing about politics (hehe) I had to laugh at what happened in Michigan.
The most obvious is the Democrat side. Hillary, Gravel, and Kusinich, were the only ones that bothered to even get their names on the ballot. The only reason Clinton won, was because of that fact alone.
At 50% of precincts in, 36% remained uncommited. Makes you think about what would have happened if Obama would have given half a rats ass about Michigan. Hell, all he would have had to do was to put his name on the ballot, made one or two speeches there (perhaps in Detroit), and he would have kicked her ass, easy. The mere fact he didn't, made me loose what respect I had for him. Now he's making press releases asking the press not to make this a "Victory" for Clinton.
Is he stupid???
Let's look at what the voters in Michigan are thinking about that statement.
Is he stupid???
Yeah, so what if Clinton won. No one cares about Michigan anyway.
Is he stupid????
I don't know about you, but I was under the impression, that a President represents the entire United States, not everyone, except Michigan. So fuck him too.
Hillary shouldn't be all gloating either, concidering she lost (now at 55% of the precincts in) 37% of the uncommited vote. If you look at the remifications of that alone (and I suspect it will rise to at least 40% uncommited against her) you will see, she really lost there.
Hell, Kusinich got 4%, and he's a damn idiot for christs sake!

Now on to the Repubican side.
Mitt Romney won there. Not by a landslide really, but I'll give him his due.
What I though was crass, was how he stepped on, first, the end of Huckabee's concession speech, then second, the top of McCain's.
Oh, and the media pointed out "His hair was mussed"
Also, the uncommited on that side ran 2%, which in my view, isn't saying much for the red state side either.

So now, you have the media proclaiming Romney the front runner, which is total bullshit really. This is the first state he won. There IS NO FRONT RUNNER YET!!! Hello!
Are they stupid???
How can you be a front runner, and loose Iowa, AND New Hampshire???
Short answer... you can't.
Romney pulled all his Ad's from every state, except Michigan. His reasoning was, if he can't wi Michigan, he needs to turn tail and run away. That, of course is mostly true. I think the real reason is, one, he's running out of matching funds, and can't use his money anymore, and two, people are really annoyed by his negative Ad's, so he pulled em.
Let's see if he changes those Ad's in the next state he decides he must win or turn tail and run away.

GOD, I hate that asshole!
I hope he crashes, and burns in every other state.
McCain did rather well, concidering Michigan is Romneys state. Romney should have gotten at least 50%, to make it a real slaughter, but he didn't come close to that.

This race is giving me a headache.

A quickie

Ok, OK... I've been lazy in the blog area again. So shoot me.
Lot's of the things I think about posting, end up annoying me, so I've been avoiding the whole blog thing.
So I'll write about current events in my home instead.
Boy has been trying to pass his driving test this past month. Personally, he's doing about as well as he is in finding a damn job.
Next Thursday will be his third try. I don't know if I can watch him fail again. Like it's so hard to drive and junk. Sheesh, the pressure!
The first time, he claimed he failed because of a blind turn, and the car the tester failed him for, came around the bend after he was almost through the intersection. That and signaling 100 feet before a turn. But he did the parallel parking so perfect, I almost cried. (I taught him that!)
So he scheduled one at a different testing site.
Now guess what he failed on here?
Yes, you guessed it! Parallel parking!!
I saw that one, and my jaw dropped, I was so surprised. The guy didn't even let him continue to the next step. Man, that was depressing.
He admitted there was no one to blame there, but himself.
The kid drives damn good too. I haven't driven much since he started being my chauffeur. I feel like Miss Daisy!
Everyone send good thoughts so he'll pass the next one. Oh and add "Get a damn job" to that too, while you're at it. hehe
Speaking of jobs.
o-1 might get laid off tomorrow, so I'm looking for work. He's planning on getting another job, but being as sick as he is all the time, it won't be easy. Loosing health insurance is deadly in this house.
This is a bit confusing for me, since what I do, doesn't really exist in southern Jersey. Quality Assurance final inspection in PCB manufacturing, isn't part of the lingo here.
So, I'll have to fall back on my mad Pizza makin' skillz, or learn something new.
Mind you, that's not easy when you're two months from 51 years old, and too sick to pull a full 8 hour shift running around like I used to.
I'll need a desk job, or something I can do while sitting in a cushy chair half asleep.
Oh Joy!
We have a supermarket in town I can get a job at in the deli, maybe. Seriously, I'd have to drive to Phili to get a crappy QA job that will piss me off more than Wellex did if it wasn't for places like Burgar King!
Then again, I could manage a Pizza Hut easy, but I'm not sure they would get my down home California sense of humor in these here parts.
It's been so long since I've had to look for work, and I'm not fully jerseyised yet, so it's a bit disconcerting to me right now.
Hopefully, the lay off thing isn't going to hit us here, and I can start thinking about what I should be learning to get a decent job in this state.
Not like I ever HAD a decent job really.
Man are we screwed.

I guess we could always go live with my Mom.
hahahaha

I'll do a piece on politics or something later. After the shit storm.

Update:
o-1 didn't get laid off, but a lot of other people did. Wheew

Justice going to the Dogs, or Not

Peggy Drexler: Dead Dog Waiting - Living on The Huffington Post

The story seems to become less important the farther you get from Central New Jersey. But for those who haven't heard of Congo, he is, by all accounts, a big and affable dog who lives with his family, his mate Lucia and four puppies on 10 acres near Princeton. One of his nicknames is "Happy Dog."

In June, two gardeners who worked for a local staffing company arrived an hour early for a job. They came in the yard despite, the family contends, being asked to stay in the truck until the dogs could be corralled.

When Congo, Lucia and three of the puppies came running toward them, one landscaper grabbed Congo's owner from behind to put her between him and the dogs. She screamed and, according to the owners, landed on top of the gardener as they fell to the ground. Congo reacted as you might expect of a powerful dog with protective instincts.

The landscaper required surgery to close wounds -- mainly to his leg -- and had to receive rabies injections because the puppies (who may have thought a game was in progress) had not completed their vaccinations. The family was fined for the un-vaccinated dogs. The gardener got a $250,000 insurance settlement. He has said he bears to dogs no ill-will.

First thing to note is Congos' age - 18 months. Hell he's still a puppy himself!
Ok, so far, things don't look all that bad for Congo.
Think Again!

A local animal control officer insists the attack was unprovoked. And a municipal judge agrees. Even though Congo has no priors and a parade of workers and delivery people testified that he is friendly and docile, the judge declared Congo "vicious." That carries an automatic death sentence.

Now, any logical person can see already, that the animal control officer was not only incorrect, he was overly so.
Anyone who has ever had a dog, no matter what size, can tell you the first thing they do when they percieve their human is under attack, is to defend said owner, at all costs to his own well being.
This is one of the many reasons humans love dogs so much. Loyalty, above and beyond anything a human would do for another.
Add to that, the attack on his puppies, and you have a case for self defense.
It doesn't matter what the Gardener claims his perception was. He's already been compensated for his injuries, and isn't going after the death penelty for Congo. Basically, he knows he was at fault for provoking an attack, by first entering the backyard, when he was specifically told not to by the husband, IN SPANISH!
If I were the owners, I would have filed charges for assaulting the wife, and the puppies.
I mean really, in Jersey, who knows what those gardeners were planning to do to the wife, if those dogs hadn't been there?

And yet, the injustice continues:

Congo's lawyer continues to argue that Congo was reacting as any protective dog would when he thought a family member was being attacked. He also said the landscaper has changed his version of events five times. The animal control offer said in response -- "No, it was only three times."

The owner testified she told the animal control officer she was pulled to the ground, which he put in his notes. Unfortunately, he reports, the notes from the owner and all defense witnesses were eaten by a stray dog he was transporting in the front seat of his truck.

One of the puppies had wounds that the owners say happened when the other gardener struck at them with a rake. The animal control officer says the owners inflicted the wounds themselves to strengthen their story.

Wait a dog-gone minute here! A dog ate the report!???
And what the hell is he saying? The owners beat up their puppies??
What a bunch of malarky!
Here these people are trying to save their loyal friend from the death penalty, and this asshole claims they beat up his puppy!!?
Oh, but a dog ate his homework report. I'm seeing a pattern here.

The owners turned down a plea bargain that would have labeled Congo a "potentially dangerous" dog, which would have required him to be tattooed (literally) as such and put strict limits on his movements. They argued he didn't do anything wrong.

I can see why they would go that route. Admitting guilt, is basically opening the door for a damn lawsuit, for one thing. Second, it closes the door for Congo. All he'd have to do is bark at the mailman, just once, and he's a dead puppy.
This story has gotten so big, it's hit TV news, which is where I first saw it.

There have been demonstrations in front of the court house, cleared court rooms, many thousands of calls and e-mails to the Governor's office, a blizzard of blogs and assorted death threats to the judge. New legislation ("Congo's Law") aims to refine the concept of provocation.

The case has even taken on overtones of privilege and class. The white well-to-do family in an upscale area versus a gardener who, it was reported, is here illegally.

Well now, isn't that interesting? An illegal alien, and a family who can afford to live in New Jersey, legally.
What about the damn DOG!
This may not seem all that important to you, but if the justice system can be influenced by an animal control officer, who is too incompetant to even secure evidence, we are in really big trouble.
Therefore, I am asking my readers to reach out, and touch the New Jersey powers that be.
It's best said in one of the comments in the above article:

Peggy:
I'm a big fan of your dog stuff. But I have to admit, I thought you were making this up.
A dog ate my notes? Something is rotten in the state of Jersey.
So I checked out your story. Damned if it isn't all true.
One thing you didn't do is give any links.
Maybe you don't want the New Jersey State Police at your door.
I got this from a German Shepherd site.
The number to call is 609-292-6000
The e-mail is:
http://www.nj.gov/governor/govmail.html
(Choose Law & Public Safety from the Drop Down and on the next page, Pardons & Clemency. Seriously -- this is what the German Shepherd people say to do. It works.)
You can reach the municipal judge who seems determined to do Congo in at:

r.annich@princeton-township.nj.us
(Careful, I think threatening a judge is a crime)

From what I've read, the Governor's office is tallying up the save Congo calls. Kind of like American Idol, I guess. Only the loser gets a needle. No word on how many calls saves him.
Gov. corzine may not care that much about contacts from outside New jersey. But then again, he may have presidential ambitions. And dog lovers have long memories.
You can also sign a petition at:

Care2 Petition Site

Poor Puppies!!!