Boy, was I wrong! The latest comes in the form of this $700B crap sandwich that they've sold as the only way to save humanity. Not only is it a lousy attempt at a solution that won't work - it perpetuates the problem. And then comes the salt in the wound!!!

Instead of voting on this thing on its merits - after all, we're only shelling out over 25% of the total budget for the upcoming year, what's a few hundred billion between friends, huh? - the wastes of flesh in the House and Senate have loaded bloated it up with a veritable smorgasbord of pork in exchange for their support.

Here's a thought, gang! Have some stones. Grow a spine. Come somewhere close to having principles and standing on them. If this thing isn't good enough to vote for on it's own, it certainly doesn't magically get better by adding $192M in tax benefits for Caribbean rum producers.

I'm so glad that I dropped my party affiliation a while ago. I don't want to be associated with any of these people.

From the looks of it right now, I've made up my mind who to vote for.

I can't totally rule out a change in that stance but I haven't yet seen anything that'll convince me that either one of these guys will provide any meaningful leadership and not drag us ever closer to a Socialist/Marxist nanny state.

This post on a friend's blog got my writing blood flowing again. This time, there's actually some substance to my rambling, which should scare anyone who knows me.

While I have specifically refrained from commenting on the Presidential election (save for that uninformed Wexler kid) - and not because of a scarcity of items that were worthy of comment - I want to make one statement.

First, let me echo the sentiments of countless journalists and others in saying that you are a smart and impressive young girl. You carry yourself in a way well beyond your 12 years and I won't be surprised to see your name in the years to come in either California state or national politics. I applaud you for taking an interest in and action about things that will affect your life for years to come. Unfortunately, that is the extent of the similarity between those comments and mine. Most of them continue on to fawn on you and your speech at the Democratic National Convention. And for good reason - it apparently made for great TV during an event that was lackluster by most accounts. Sorry, kid, but I don't let you off that easily.

I've been wanting to write this for quite a while and today seemed a fitting time. This afternoon President Bush signed the ban on partial birth (D&X - Dilation & Extraction) abortions and, while I support that measure, I disagree with many conservatives on a fundamental cornerstone of the abortion debate.

How did I miss this when it happened? The UCLA Bruin Republicans held a bake sale to demonstrate the hypocrisy of affirmative action.

It struck me the other day that the folks who are objecting to a so-called "pre-emptive strike" in Iraq are the very same ones who said that President Bush should have known that the Muslim extremists of Al Qaeda were about to fly planes into buildings and should have done something to prevent it.

Hypocrites can be so annoying.

If you haven't heard the latest, Ananova is reporting the latest comments by Richard Gere at the Berlin Film Festival. What makes these folks think that they speak for the entire American population?