A Trapdoor In The Sun

Please read this report released by the AMSA about the benefits of implementing a Universal Health Care system in this country. 1 Trillion in savings over 10 years...SIGN ME UP. http://www.amsa.org/uhc/CaseForUHC.pdf

Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq White House News Message to the Congress of the United States Regarding International Emergency Economic Powers Act By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional ste...

I was listening to this Peter Gabriel song today, and it hit me. Though the song is about experiencing the death of a loved one, the lyrics pinpointed exactly what I've been going through over the past year. Last September, a six year relationship died. It was devastating, probably more so than the divorce I went through when I was younger, mainly because I still loved this person. Our relationship had been experiencing a slow death for months and I refused to believe that eventually it would draw it's final breath. She was unhappy, and began an open affair with a co-worker. Still, I got out the resuscitation paddles and attempted to keep us on life support. Finally, in August, she pulled the plug. I left her the house and moved out on my own, determined to move on. My life was turned upside down and slowly I've worked on rebuilding it. But the grieving process remained... slowly my love for her went away, then the pain of missing her... then all I was left with was anger. ...

I'm sure this movie has been out for a year or so now, but I caught it last night on Starz and was angered by the obvious greed on the part of the automotive and oil industries. My dad's boss, aeronautical pioneer Burt Rutan had one of these EV1's for a while in the early 2000's. He kept dodging the repo' guy from GM...hiding the car in a hanger at work..because he loved it so much. Eventually he had to turn it in when GM threatened to sue. Then it went out to GM's proving grounds in AZ and became scrap to be buried in a landfill. Isn't it odd that such a good idea would be considered so dangerous that the automotive industry would want to bury it from the American people like it never even existed? EV's were introduced in California when the California Air Resources Board had the state law changed to make zero emmissions vehicle sales mandatory in the state, with the percentage of such type vehicles sold required to increase on a yearly basis. Basically...

A friend of mine over on Myspace wrote a blog over the weekend that really got me thinking. She asked, "How do you perceive home?" To elaborate, do you consider the place you live now, where you work, shop, play, and exist as home? Or is it where you were born and raised? Is it with your parents or maybe an ex-lover? Or are you a Jack Kerouac, considering the next town over the hill your home... for now. What is 'home' to you? Home is where the heart is. For the longest time during my mid to late 20's, I always thought of San Luis Obispo, CA as my home. I called it my 'happy place'. I had went to college there along with several of my best friends from high school, and those years molded and shaped my thoughts and beliefs like no other time of my life. When I moved on, I felt tied to SLO; not unlike a surfer is tied to the ocean no matter where he lives. Home to me was walking down Higuera St. during Farmer's Market , or spending the afternoon brows...

I've decided to step back through the wardrobe and into the blogging world once again. There will be a few changes though. In the past, when this blog was called Weapons of Mass Distraction, I feel that I got caught up in the pursuit of readership and attention. I narrowed my writing focus to cover mostly political events and stories. Somehow, I feel I lost myself in the dialogue, thus, I shut the blog down. To be fair, there was also a myriad of personal issues I was going through at the time, so blogging about how evil our government is was not high on my priority list. With Eyes Forward, I want to return to writing. I want to spill my thoughts out on the digital canvas as a jug of freshly made Kool-Aid would be spilled all over your nicely vacuumed Berber carpet. No regrets. No censorship. No apologies. ~Andrew

Not that I've updated it in the past ohhhh 3 months or so... but I'm moving this month and will not be doing any blog work anytime soon. However, feel free to visit my personal page at Myspace. http://myspace.com/chasingdogma Cheers! Andrew

Normally, I do not like to post entire articles on my blog. But this is a very good read..as well as a great viewpoint of what is really going on in Iraq, through the eyes of a soldier. Link - The American Conservative Nation Breaking A soldier discovers that training the Iraqi army is not President Bush’s priority. By Joe W. Guthrie I didn’t grow up with dreams of spreading democracy. I was an all-American kid from a small southern town who went to college on a baseball scholarship and joined the National Guard to earn some extra money. During graduate school, recruiters persuaded me to join the Army through ROTC so that after graduation I would enter as an officer. I bought their pitch and believed our newly elected president when he promised no more nation building. My dad told me, “It’s a great time to join the military. It has done an excellent job of repairing itself after Vietnam.” I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in December 2002 and, after paratrooper and additional o...

I briefly want to thank all the people that have stopped by here and at my other blog to check up on me. I'm fine, just going through some intense life changes at the moment. When I was a kid, I remember once going to San Francisco with my grandparents for a long weekend. I was facinated by the cable cars that rolled up and down the slopes. dwawn by thick underground cables that seemed to continuously move in one direction. "What happens," I though, "when the car comes to the end of the route? It can't just stop." It turned out, as we walked down to of the endpoints on the Powell-Hyde St. line, that some of the cars were turned around.. or in a new direction.. on giant turntables. It wasn't easy work. The car conductor would have to get out and physically turn the whole turntable, car included, with help from the grip man. Then the car would set out on the new tracks. In a new direction. I've reached that turntable in my life, so to speak. Where my ...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/15/libya/index.html "I was sponsoring air terrorism before it was even cool." "They like me! They really like me!" (Flashing gang-sign) "LBC, biaaatches. That's Lybian Bad-Ass Crips to you. Better check yoself before you wreck yoself!" "Hmmm... in certain indirect light, I'm sure I could pass for Bono..." "Lockerwho?"

May is here and everything is becoming beautiful here in Westerville again. It's so nice to see green on the trees again, and witness the spring flowers blooming. We've been trying to spend a good amount of time outdoors, so I've left little time to my other interests... blogging ect. Ah, but so goes life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent polls show a pretty encouraging trend (or discouraging depending on who you talk to, I suppose). Bush is at an all time low of 31%, not too far off from Nixon's 27% during the Watergate scandal. Polls also show that the general public's trust in the Republican party versus the Democrats is also suffering. You hear Republican pundants constantly spouting off a "lack of agenda" problem with the Democratic Party. In my opinion, the Dems don't need one at this point. Bush continues to drive the party like a coked-up drunk headed for a brick wall at 110 ...

Thank you, Stephen Colbert!

I don't know if you've ever checked out "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, but it's quickly becoming a staple in my household. I would even go as far as to say that it outshines Jon Stewart's "Daily Show". While I love Stewarts swarmy wiseass commentary and humorous assignment reports, Colbert is near impossible to turn off. In character, he comes off as a well dressed, ill informed neocon apologist, with a little bit of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and a lot of Bill O'Reilly thrown in to boot. Bill actually believed that Colbert was sincerely attempting to imitate him. Saturday, Colbert was invited to the White House Corrospondent's Dinner, and gave a rousing speech (or roast, if you will) directed at the Bush Administration. George and Laura, in attendance, forgot to laugh. Story Here's some gems from the speech. [snip]He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck cha...

In a not-so surprising move today, the Bush Adminsitration named Fox News Anylist Tony Snow to replace Puffy McMoonface as Press Secretary. Bush stated he felt the move would eliminate some of the needless beauracratic layers between the Administration and the fourth arm of the government, the Ministry of Disinformation.. or Fox News. Bill O'Reilly is still waiting on his appointment. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/26/snow/index.html

My little sister forwarded me an email this morning that after opening, just about made my head explode. It was a little "poem" about illegal immigrants. Illegal Immigrants Poem I cross ocean, poor and broke, Take bus, see employment folk. Nice man treat me good in there, Say I need to see welfare. Welfare say, "You come no more, We send cash right to your door." Welfare checks, they make you wealthy, Medicaid it keep you healthy! By and by, I got plenty money, Thanks to you, American dummy. Write to friends in motherland, Tell them 'come fast as you can.' They come in turbans and Ford trucks, I buy big house with welfare bucks They come here, we live together, More welfare checks, it gets better! Fourteen families, they moving in, But neighbor's patience wearing thin. Finally, American moves away, Now I buy his house, and then I say, "Find more aliens for house to rent." And in the yard I put a tent. Send for family they just trash, But they, ...

If ever there was a reason to consider impeachment...

I was sitting here at my desk listening to "To the Point" with Warren Olney when I had this sudden compulsion to spit my gum out at my monitor. The topic of today's program is "How Much is America Spending on the War in Iraq?". If you check the link tomorrow, there should be a podcast available. What nearly caused the catapult-ulation of my Coolmints Icebreakers onto my Samsung LCD monitor was a mere number. Two trillion dollars, to be exact. That's two thousand billion dollars, not exactly chump change, so to speak. What will really blow your mind is if you put that amount in perspective with what Congress was told it was going to cost to fight the war in Iraq, a mere 60 billion dollars. Think of it like this. You go to a slot machine in Vegas with the full intentions of winning that million dollar jackpot on nickel slots. You put in your nickel, pull the handle and get nothing. So you put another nickel in. And another. After all, it's a million doll...

I've decided to take a break from blogging for a while. At least political blogging. What started out as a fun spare time hobby has become much too time consuming and sometimes very emotionally draining. Sadly, when I step back and look at the world as it is, I have a hard time believing that anything I say, write or do actually makes a difference. At least not here. Perhaps that seems a tiny bit apathetic, but that's the way I feel right now. To all my friends and family that have at one time contributed to the dialog here on WMD, I thank you for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. It's been a fun little project for me over the last year or so. In the meantime, I will still be contributing to other debates and conversations around the blogosphere when I have time, and I can still be found over at my personal blog, Voyages of a Carpet Yeti . Peace... Drew I have nothing more to offer right now, other than this bunny with pancakes on his head.

Once upon a time, in the not so distant past, American workers and the big Corporations they helped build held a loving if not symbiotic relationship. The worker gave hours of his/her life to further the betterment of The Corporation and thus increase profits for the stockholders. In return, the worker received a good wage, health insurance benefits and a pension to help aid his/her retirement. Now, I don't know how you view it, but when a company offers a pension plan to attract talent which further generates profit for said company, then the company in question has entered into a contractual agreement with the employee to supply the agreed upon pension. After all, word is bond. Or is it? Apparently not. By law, The Corporation does not have to offer it's workers a pension plan in the first place, so it isn't obligated to fulfill pension promises. I wish the same line of thinking worked with credit cards. I could open up as many accounts as possible, max them out, and the...