Patrick’s Rants

Well… if it wasn’t SCO, the geeks and nerds over at http://slashdot.org might be a little more upset. But, they’re not. I did personally check out the site http://www.sco.com and found the site was still sporting the banner image at 7:50AM MST 11/29/2004. In case it’s ‘fixed’ I mirrored some screen shots captured from around the net: (more…)

On Saturday we packed the kids into the van, ran around town for a while, then pulled into the Harkins Theater to get in line to see The Incredibles, the story of super heros forced into retirement over law suits and their subsequent reintroduction to crime fighting.
During retirement, the super heros are put into the equivilent of the witness protection program where they are not allowed to use their powers.
As always in this kind of film there is an evil plot, a villian who is bent on ultimate power. When he captures Mr. Incredible a chain of events is set off that requires his entire family to come to his aid. Fortunately, they are nearly all bestowed with extraodinary powers of their own.
The story is a coming of age and coming to grips with their powers, powers that they have been forced to keep under wraps until the fate of their family, their whole town, hangs in the balance.
The kids were glued to the screen, their attention clearly and completely tuned to the movie playing in front of them. All in all a great movie. It will probably be added to the collection when it’s out on DVD, and the kids will no doubt watch it over and over attempting to wear out the disk.

If you follow my site at all you will notice a reduced number of posts to the blog.
First I would like to apologize if you are using this site as your source of humor, daily politics, or movie reviews
Since the election, which still seems unbelievable as far as results, I have been heavily involved in setting up a web site with its own bulletin board and blog. That site is dedicated to looking forward (although some retrospective will still be required) to the future. We truly hope the future is not as bleak as it potentially could be with a contraction of civil liberties, erosion of the separation of church and state, the hostile attitude of newly elected Senator Thune towards single mothers and homosexuals as teachers.
Do join us for positive, forward looking conversation on the Liberals For Truth website

Black Box voting .org is reporting that they have requested information from different elections officials regarding the secret and hidden voting methods involving the electronic voting machines. The machines that have no paper trail, no proper auditing built by the company whose CEO swore to deliver Ohio to George W Bush.
Irregularities include negative tallys before the voting even started and non-votes or blank ballots- who would stand in line for hours to vote and not cast a ballot after getting to the machine and logging in? Seems those Democrats were just kidding. It was all fun and games to stand in line just to frighten the Republicans into thinking that Bush was going to lose, to tell the exit pollsters that they voted for Kerry when they really cast a blank ballot.

I think it’s interesting to note this link in the headline on Yahoo. It will probably go away, but here is the link to hostages reflections, 25 years later of Iran’s capture of US citizens
We treated Iran with more respect than they deserved, the Iranians actually accomplished something by holding our citizens and they were never held accountable. The hostages feel like that was the beginning of the end when it comes to terrorism. So do we blame Carter? Maybe, but Reagan took over and did nothing as well. Except for meddle in the affairs of the middle east (note all the people in power now were players then)

In a move that proves he is a bigger man than I, John Kerry called George W Bush to concede the election.
I am greatly saddened and somewhat surprised by this move. I did not expect the concession to come this early. I had hoped continued counting would bear out Mr Kerry’s election.
John Kerry has reportedly stated to W that the country is too divided. While I agree that it is divided, I cannot believe that we are headed in the right direction by leaving this man in power. Since religion continues to be dragged into this let us remember that God has warned us about false prophets and I firmly believe George W Bush fits the bill.

dateline 2:00am, November 3, 2004

When I logged into my laptop I was greeted with this message of the day:

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

– H.L. Mencken

How ironic as the current electoral college vote is 254 to 242, leaning toward Bush.

Should Bush win there are many questions to be asked. Some exit polls seem to indicate that people were voting moral issues more so than the economy, Iraq, etc.
Since the moral issue is what people seem to be voting why do they not look to George W Bush and question his morality?
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Nov 2, 2004.
Election Day.
I didn’t used to be politically vocal. This President, our esteemed Congressman Rick Renzi, and a local sheriff’s campaign have changed that.
The very future of democracy, of the United States, hangs in the balance. George Bush has brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy, needlessly sent troops into harm’s way with no plan to bring them home, given back the budget surplus and is plunging us into a horrific deficit that even my grandchildren (who are not even a twinkling in my childrens’ eyes as the saying goes) will not be able to pay it off. Where is Ross Perot with his charts?
I am voting this morning. Depending upon how the precinct looks, I may be bringing coffee and other snacks, blankets and allowing people to sit in my van for warmth. I will have at least three toll free numbers on hand in case of voter intimidation.
If you are being intimidated, questioned on whether you can vote, challenged in your right to vote call any or all of these numbers:
866-OUR VOTE (non partisan number)
866- MY VOTE1 (NBC news)
877-888- PAUL ( Paul Babbitt- Congressional District 1 AZ)
You can also bring your video camera to record voter intimidation. Michael Moore would like to hear from you if you do, email him: videoarmy@michaelmoore.com
Go. Vote. Remind George W Bush that we didn’t elect him the first time, that he cannot financially rape and pillage the United States and not be held accountable.

One hopes that the history of the United States is not a book whose story is nearing its end.

This country was founded by people fleeing their oppresive governments. The orginal settlers were not only seeking freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion. The separation of church and state is so fundamental to the continued survival of our country that I can only believe the end of our great experiment called democracy is nearing its end. George W Bush is handing government money to so-called faith based initiatives, he wants to amend the constitution- our most sacred document - to define, one might say redefine, marriage, we are currently fighting a crusade like war in Iraq, we are breaking the promise of Social Security. Our country is broke. Our political line of credit is used up. Our standing in the world is one of the big bully. Instead of jobs, Bush talks about No Child Left Behind, a program that discriminates against gifted programs, underfunded schools and every state that is struggling to find money just for text books.

The government now owes more money that could be paid for by selling everything owned by everyone living in this country. We are owned by foreign governments and investors.

With the “Patriot Act” the Bill of Rights is eroded, illegal search and seizure doesn’t apply. A search warrant is not required. One must take care to note that the “Patriot Act” was proposed before 9/11/2001. It has nothing to do with fighting terrorism and everything to do with eroding the Bill of Rights. Of course the reduced funding for local law enforcement balances out the big brother effect of the Patriot Act.

So what hangs in the balance this Tuesday? A woman’s right to choose, the makeup of the Supreme Court, Democracy itself.

The revolution must take place with the ballot or I fear that it will take place in the streets. We revolted against England when the oppression was too much to take, our militia may soon begin to feel the need to arm itself against our leaders.

George W Bush’s is running a commercial showing wolves running around in the woods while telling you that John Kerry will cut the spending and make the United States more dangerous. Apparently, the terrorists are wolves and we must take these vicious creatures off the Endangered Species List to make America safer.
The wolves, in classic political thrust and parry fashion, have created a web site to respond to George W Bush’s false and misleading attacks on John Kerry that disparage the American Wolf