Friday, October 06, 2006
Am I Back?
Perhaps...
Things are very salacious here in DC aren't they?! I can't believe I missed all the craziness. First Bush reveals that he lied about those secret prisons and extraordinary renditions, then he continues to use signing statements to overide Congress, and then John (sell out) McCain of all people helps enable his "creative interrogation' techniques. Then we get this Foley thing. Sad.
The funniest thing is that I cut out the blogging as I'm working on several big personal projects like retirment planning, estate planning and career stuff. I thought it would save some time. It does, but I have no outlet for my random thoughts and musings. Even if no one reads this, it is a nice exercise to attempt to put my thoughts into coherent-ish blurbs.
September was great by the way. I hosted a successful and fun cocktail party for about 30 guests (even hired some staff to help out). Then last week I jetted off to Paris so officially ring in my 37 year on this T-shirt producing planet called Earth. Paris rocked, I'll try to get some pictures up next week.
I'm heading into October busy as all get out. Business travel for most of the month - NY, Austin, Vancouver, Palm Beach, Tampa, Phoenix, and LA. I'm tired already. Was going to take extra time in Vancouver with Donkey and Midge, but had to pull back due to the fact that in addition to this travel, I'm under deadline for a book, a white paper and a monograph. I guess I'll be doing a lot of writing on planes of the next couple of weeks.
Either way, I'm feeling sort of bloggy...so stop by, there may be some new things happening.
Things are very salacious here in DC aren't they?! I can't believe I missed all the craziness. First Bush reveals that he lied about those secret prisons and extraordinary renditions, then he continues to use signing statements to overide Congress, and then John (sell out) McCain of all people helps enable his "creative interrogation' techniques. Then we get this Foley thing. Sad.
The funniest thing is that I cut out the blogging as I'm working on several big personal projects like retirment planning, estate planning and career stuff. I thought it would save some time. It does, but I have no outlet for my random thoughts and musings. Even if no one reads this, it is a nice exercise to attempt to put my thoughts into coherent-ish blurbs.
September was great by the way. I hosted a successful and fun cocktail party for about 30 guests (even hired some staff to help out). Then last week I jetted off to Paris so officially ring in my 37 year on this T-shirt producing planet called Earth. Paris rocked, I'll try to get some pictures up next week.
I'm heading into October busy as all get out. Business travel for most of the month - NY, Austin, Vancouver, Palm Beach, Tampa, Phoenix, and LA. I'm tired already. Was going to take extra time in Vancouver with Donkey and Midge, but had to pull back due to the fact that in addition to this travel, I'm under deadline for a book, a white paper and a monograph. I guess I'll be doing a lot of writing on planes of the next couple of weeks.
Either way, I'm feeling sort of bloggy...so stop by, there may be some new things happening.
Holy Flirking Shnit!
Can You Hear Me Now?!
Hey kids. I just couldn't keep my 'mouth' shut about all the doin's a transpirin' here in DC. Jebus, what the heck is going on? Hastert is off his rocker in thinking that his approach to this is anything close to adequate. But what is now clearly apparent is the Republican Majority, as I have long argued, has more than adequately jumped the shark and deserves to be sent packing.
There is an old adage in politics that one of my old bosses liked to use. I think I was interviewing for a job on Capitol Hill. It was a big deal and I was kind of nervous. So I went to my boss and He would say to me, "Elephant, nothing is ever a sure thing, but unless you get caught with a dead girl or a live boy, you're a shoe in for this job." A nice, albeit crude sentiment. The core of his statement rings true today however. A majority of the public or the base may be able to buy into an excuse that the GOP leadership isn't at fault for spending, or corruption or some other policy issue. But when it is revealed that a member of Congress is using the Page system as his personal sexual farm team, and the first instinct of the GOP leadership is to do whatever it can to protect itself (up to and including blaming the teenage pages), the curtain drops and the public sees these folks for what they are. Fat cats who have spent why too much time at the public trough.
Another interesting thing is that if you look at pundits across the board, from RedState, to Michelle Malkin, to Daily Kos, Talking Points or even John Avros - they are all on the same page. Hastert has been negligent and his excuses run into the realm of WTF-dom! Seriously, what are these people thinking?
Am I excited by the prospect of Speaker Pelosi? Chairman Conyers or Waxman? No, not at all, in many ways they are the flip side of the coin here. But I am certainly willing to give them a change, at worst the ridiculousness would be of a leftist flavor. (And seriously, should I worry about them spending too much? Could they be worse than this current crop of so-called republicans? I doubt it).
Hey kids. I just couldn't keep my 'mouth' shut about all the doin's a transpirin' here in DC. Jebus, what the heck is going on? Hastert is off his rocker in thinking that his approach to this is anything close to adequate. But what is now clearly apparent is the Republican Majority, as I have long argued, has more than adequately jumped the shark and deserves to be sent packing.
There is an old adage in politics that one of my old bosses liked to use. I think I was interviewing for a job on Capitol Hill. It was a big deal and I was kind of nervous. So I went to my boss and He would say to me, "Elephant, nothing is ever a sure thing, but unless you get caught with a dead girl or a live boy, you're a shoe in for this job." A nice, albeit crude sentiment. The core of his statement rings true today however. A majority of the public or the base may be able to buy into an excuse that the GOP leadership isn't at fault for spending, or corruption or some other policy issue. But when it is revealed that a member of Congress is using the Page system as his personal sexual farm team, and the first instinct of the GOP leadership is to do whatever it can to protect itself (up to and including blaming the teenage pages), the curtain drops and the public sees these folks for what they are. Fat cats who have spent why too much time at the public trough.
Another interesting thing is that if you look at pundits across the board, from RedState, to Michelle Malkin, to Daily Kos, Talking Points or even John Avros - they are all on the same page. Hastert has been negligent and his excuses run into the realm of WTF-dom! Seriously, what are these people thinking?
Am I excited by the prospect of Speaker Pelosi? Chairman Conyers or Waxman? No, not at all, in many ways they are the flip side of the coin here. But I am certainly willing to give them a change, at worst the ridiculousness would be of a leftist flavor. (And seriously, should I worry about them spending too much? Could they be worse than this current crop of so-called republicans? I doubt it).
