It seems the democrats just love making their detractors right. They love to prove themselves to be disingenuous and manipulative and they have done it again. Their bill to open up the coastlines for oil drilling as a gateway to energy independence is no more serious than the promises they made in 2006 to become the "New Kids on the Block". This plan, like their hundred day plan, is a sham; a smokescreen to lure a desperate public to their side before the elections. I don't think it will work this time.

The bill opens up waters, but only fifty miles or more offshore and then only if the state whos shores will be drilled off of agrees to it. Even if the states agree to it (which is unlikely when you consider that democrats control most of the states where this drilling would occur which which would allow the state senates to say no for the sake of their states even though their Washington representatives said yes for the sake of getting elected) it is still fifty miles offshore. The oil is much closer inland and they know it. Oh, did I mention that the Gulf states are not included in this bill? The only states that that would throw their waters open because there IS oil in the fifty plus mile zones in the gulf.

Nancy Pelosi, who ram-rodded this hoax of legislation, has already been overheard telling deomcrats to "say whatever it takes to get the votes". You can't buy high quality glass as transparent as this woman!

I read an article slamming McCain for his energy plan because it wasn't, essentially, short term enough. Hey people, there is no short term solution to oil prices. My last post spoke to the real reason gas prices have fallen even the small amount that they have and it has nothing to do with political decisions(on oil anyway) or public opinion.

I am confident that more Americans will come to the same conclusions I and many others have where a realaistic, long term solution to energy, namely fossil fuels, is concerned. Stop gap election year whitewashing is beginning to wear we average Joe's down. We all want real solutions and the dinosaurs in donkey suits are going to find that out the hard if they don't start listening.

Oil companies have already stated that they will not invest in drilling operations outside the fifty mile zone, so I ask you, what did the democrats accomplish? Nothing, nada, zilch; at least not as far as drilling is concerned, but hey, shoehorned into the bill is a tax on oil companies that will collect billions from the largest oil companies that can be used to "promote energy effenciency"! Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy now? You can lie under a blanket in your cold, darkened house with a car full of gas in the driveway that no longer has those cute "Malibu Lights" alongside it as you ponder the shape of the economy due to higher taxes that help no one and hurt the rank and file oil industry workers with job cuts to accomodate the higher taxes, but at least gas prices wont go back up! Whatta plan!

Yes, unrealistic drilling plans and higher taxes on oil companies. Umm..that helps you and me how? Now or in the future? This plan is another democrat smokescreen that I honestly believe will be disapated by the winds of change, and it's not going to resemble the change the likes of Pelosi and Obama have spoken of.

You see it everywhere. People smiling at the gas stations because prices are falling. It's a warm fuzzy feeling because now they can take the wife to dinner or the kids to the beach. Then they get there and reality sets in. The twenty they saved at the pump isn't the same twenty they were holding a year ago. It may buy a few more gallons of gas, but it won't but the two of you dinner at Denny's or the family a bowl each of clam chowder at Pismo.

Uprisings in Nigeria, the problems with Russia, Irans continued insolence, the mid east situation and the uncertainty over domestic production; these are things that should be driving prices UP, not down. The dollar is a mess and the economy is staggering under the weight of a recession that the Fed should have let happen after the dotcom collapse and 9/11 instead of floating hope in the form of money that really wasn't there.

It's easy(and quite popular)to blame the current administration, but in reality, Alan Greenspan is as much to blame as anyone else. The easy money of the last eight years was his baby. It was he who decided America shouldn't have to weather the storm of the easy money of the nineties going haywire so we could have more easy money in the new millenium. That America had suffered enough..On HIS watch anyway. Well, he is gone and hopefully so are his ideas about saving us from ourselves.

It's time for us to feel the pain that Bill Clinton said he felt along with us(I doubt he and Hillary will feel any of this pain..I guess that really makes them Republicans!)and allow the economy to take the lumps it should have taken back then when it wouldn't have been so painful. Lumps that would have healed by now. We can't keep putting it off by printing more money. We made this bed, why should we not have to sleep in it?

So, as our cars sit, tanks full of cheaper gas, in our driveways, let us look at the big picture and contemplate why that is happening so next time it starts to happen we will say "Hey, Wait a minute"!

YEAH RIGHT!  And people have the nerve to say that conservatives have THEIR heads in the sand!

Chrysler in the seventies, the S&L's in the eighties and now Freddie, Fannie and possibly the Big Three and American Airlines. I'm speaking of bailouts. The excuse? They're too big to be allowed to fail. What about letting them fail and allowing those interested in rebuilding the markets in a way that won't wipe out the economy all at once? Maybe smaller companies could better manage things as they tend to be more accountable in these matters. Hey, I'm no economist or even a businessman, but I can't help wonder how they were allowed to become so large that it was obvious that their possible failure would have devestating economic repercussions that would, once again, overburden the taxpayer.

Well, it happened. Fannie and Freddie are now, for all intents and purposes, under the control of the government who has pledged unlimited backing of bad loans held by the two corporations. In the beginning it was said the cost of the bailout to the taxpayer would be in the neighborhood of 100 billion dollars. Now economists are saying that in reality it will be somewhere between 1.2 and 2.7 trillion dollars which translates to about $7,500 to 14,000 to every houselhold in America over the next five to ten years!

I am a people watcher. Wherever I go I spend a great deal of time just looking around seeing what people are doing, how they are dressed, what little moves they make and tells they may have. I can spot certain types of people a mile away and very accurately predict their behavior. I am wrong once in awhile, but not very often.

I used to sit outside the Thrifty Drug store in Tehachapi with an old friend eating ice cream on we called "Inventory Bench" because we wouls sit there and take the inventory of everyone who walked by. If character assasination were a crime, we would both be doing life sentences!

During the years I was involved in AA and NA I honed my skills at figuring people out quickly. I could tell if someone was serious about changing their life just by watching the way they walked in the room and how they sat. People watching there was shooting mice in a barrel! I know these programs aren't supposed to foster that type of judgement and aren't there for teh purpose of people watching, but they are and human nature is what it is.

The mall is an excellent place to people watch for myriad reasons. The age groups, income brackets, attitudes, cliques, etc. Christmas is particularly interesting because almost everyone is pissed by the time they have fought traffic and parking to get there then realize that in the next couple of hours they are going to spend more than they made in the last couple of months. It's fun to witness the dichotomy of grumbling mall scrooges elbowing their way through the churning mass of humanity as gleeful, hopeful Cristmas music wafts from the PA system.

Doctor and dentist office waiting rooms are also a palette of hunan colors and hues of attitude and personality. Nobody wants to be there, but I always try and make the best of it. Just today while waiting for my daughters to get exams, I watched a very attractive woman with her teen daughter as she grumbled about the wait and then groused on her cell with a son who had obviously screwed something up. When she hung up she grumbled "Idiot"! I had to go outside and laugh. When I came back in she was looking at me oddly and I said, "You sound just like me"!

All these are great places to pick on the human condition, but none come close to the true candy store of human diversity. Las Vegas! I have never run out of crap to talk, cultures to slam, drunks to dog or women to watch while there. From guys gambling away a savings account to married women on the loose with a casino full of young men and free booze, from foreign tourists dissing we Americans in God knows how many languages to Seniors on bus tours dressed in Neo-Gift Shop neon to locals looking bored and annoyed with the whole thing. It makes me want to go back just thinking about it!

So, the next time you're somewhere and see some guy looking around with alternating looks of humor and amazement, possibly even stopping on you for a moment, come over and say hi!

In the summer of 1971, when I was eleven, I was working for a guy named Jimi Monji cleaning horse stalls. It was my first job and I made $1.00 an hour. One day as I pushed the loaded wheelbarrow up a 2x12 plank that led to the "Big Pile" to dump my load, the plank flipped over and one of the skids of the barrow landed on my right big toe. It split the toe open and hurt more than anything I had even known to that point. I never went to the Dr. but I am sure it was broken, having experienced the same thing a couple of times since.

Thus began a thirty seven year run of broken bones(over 15), torn muscles and ligaments, blown cartilige, sprains and various owies including two broken femurs(1975 and 2000), two fractured vertabra and disc fusions in my neck, which was my last major  malfuction associated with a very rough and demanding physical life, and I tell ya people..I feel it.

As I look fifty in the face I am beginning to realize that my body will not last forever. Aside from mutants like Jack LaLane, our bodies wear out, some faster than others depending on the abuse we subject them to, and I have subjected mine to plenty. Motocross, Baseball(didn't think it was a rough sport, did you?), fighting and work have conspired to age my bones beyond their years.

I limp, I pop and crackle and I grunt when I get out of a chair. I sometimes take scalding showers because my burning skin takes my mind off whatever  else is bothering me. I can no longer run and even walking more than a mile or so makes all my joints below the waist give me fits. I have to take sabbaticals from the gym because I am only good for a year or so before even that catches up with me.

I have to be very careful when walking on uneven ground and especially down inclines as I have no ACL in my left knee and it tends to pop out of place if I put too much lateral pressure on it. I have a prescription knee brace, but I only wear it when I am on the dirtbike.

After my broken femur in 2000, I started taking Vicodin and still do occasionally, when my body demands relief. It doesn't matter if it's hot or cold. My body hurts when it feels like it.

Yeah, I've been pretty hard on my body over the years and the lessons I've learned over time generally keep me from doing any more damage to myself with the exception of riding dirtbikes. A dangerous habit I just can't seem to shake.

I don't remember what it's like to feel like a million bucks or wake up in the morning not aching. I can't hold a phone in the crook of my neck and it's difficult to hold a pillow under my chin while I try to put a pillowcase on it. I should pay more attention to what I say in tense situations as my shoulders are too messed up to throw a decent punch and my legs are too messed up to run away!

I have enough metal in me to start a small scrap metal business and one of my most prized trophies is the first rod they put in my femur in 2000. The first was too small and had to be replaced. I really do think of it as a trophy because on a Sunday I went 3-1 for second overall and Monday(It was Memorial Day)I went down and to AVMC for an all expenses paid week! I also have copies of all the x-rays of my little metal collection. Is that classified as Sadism?

I haven't had a steroid injection in my left shoulder for over a year and it is starting to keep me up at night again and really hurt after exertion. My right ankle is starting to "hitch" more often(it has a screw in it) and my hips never stop hurting, but I have no regrets. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat, although those who have been burdened with my recoveries may have other ideas!

Yes, it has all been worth it. Like the Garth Brooks song says, "If I hadn't taken the chance, I'd have had to miss the dance". I can't wait for it to get cooler so I can go ride the dirtbike again. Yeah..I need some excitement even though my life has been anything but boring..

Hey..Can you pass the vicodin?

Well, We all know who is running on both sides..The Prez, the Veep. Both have made their speeches at their respective conventions, and let's face it. 99% of Americans have already made up their minds on who they will pull, punch or touch for. Liberals made their minds up after the Primary as did Republicans and most conservatives. I say MOST conservatives because some, so fed up with the inadequacies of the last few years of Dubya defected to the Libertarians, but not enough to make a real dent in the final look of the fender.

Yeah, the debates still loom, but those rarely cause any defections from either candidate, it just gives the networks another way to try and monopolize my time, but instead, send me running to the History Channel or some such enlightening network.

I am not going to change anyone's mind with my blatherings on things political and I tire of preaching to the choir. As I recently said to an old liberal friend(he would make RF seem like a moderate),"It's not like you are going to open one of my e-mails and say..OH MY GOD! I've been wrong all this time"!

With that attitude in mind, I am going to write about some things that make me feel good. Ya know..Life in general. Talk about things instead of talking crap about things and people. I feel emotionally bankrupt and politics just wears me out even more...

So..On with the show