off to hilton head, short movie review

tomorrow i leave for grand opening week of the hilton head comedy club in south carolina. should be great fun in as that my two best friends are the owners. starting a business in the middle of a recession takes some balls but it also takes confidence in one's own ability and that john has that as his trump suit. john was the best promoter of a comedy club that i have ever come across and i have no doubts whatsoever that he and mike will make a go of this.

have watched three movies in the last four days: 12 angry men, auntie mame and the latest indiana jones. the first two are incredible movies and jones is below average. want to see real acting and get real dialogue? go get 12 angry men with henry fonda. what a great movie! want a fun movie with a hellava plot? join rosiland russell in her romp through auntie mame. want to save some money? don't go see jones.

may not take computer to hh so this may be the last post until after the 4th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RHONDA!

i want to wish my wife, rhonda, a happy birthday. she came into my life in 02 and at that time i was an emotional wreck and still recuperating from the death of ellen. rhonda brought joy and love back into my life. i could have searched the world over and not found anyone better than she. not only my lover, rhonda is my best friend. she is highly intelligent, articulate, funny (a great mimic!), loving, beautiful and keeps this old man's motor running. THE best cook i have ever known and is always on OUR side, not her side or my side but our side. when i am down, she encourages me and when i am up she always along the ride. she is my biggest fan and i am hers. as the line in the song goes, "i will be the biggest fan of your life" applies to both of us. (her brother, larry, sang that song at our wedding and sang it beautifully i might add).

she even has become not only a good poker player (never played before) but is also my poker coach. she can talk poker, baseball and basketball with the best of them. we can be silent together or talk all night.

she sees the good in people and truly cares for them; when they suffer, she suffers; when they rejoice, she joins in.

intelligent? she has two masters degrees and is a cpa (the exams for cpa are harder than the law bar). once, in some magazine, there were some problems from the mensa test and i did one of them and it took me 15 minutes and pen and paper to solve; rhonda comes home and i say, " hey baby, take a look at this and see if you can solve it" she sort of takes a gander and says "38". i go, ""at least you could have acted like it was hard!"

rhonda and i fell in love over the phone. she had come to a show of mine in bloomington, ind., where she was a consultant to the university and bought two of my c.d.'s. later she emailed me and we started a phone conversation that lasted months and months. finally after about 6 months of that she came up to indy to see me perform again and magic was there. after that weekend we were supposed to go to her mom's house for thanksgiving but a friend of mine got us FRONT row tickets for the rolling stones here at the mgm and so we came here. and here we still are.

i have had a lot of good things happen to me over the years but rhonda was the best thing that has ever happened to me. she is my life and my love, my friend, my companion, my lover and my partner in crime. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RHONDA.

tragedy

senator john mc cain has become somewhat of a one trick pony because, it seems, that whenever he speaks about anything he brings that "anything" around to "keeping us safe." his chief advisor, a mr. black (oh what a name for fearmongering), said that another terrorist attack against the united states would be "a great benefit" to the mc cain campaign. the bush people said basically the same thing BEFORE 9-11 but i can't remember the exact wording. but it is the same old same old same old; BE AFRAID. the boogyman is going to get you. be afraid and vote republican.

(just to refresh your memory; prior to 9-11, george bush's approval rating was already very low, only after 9-11 did he go up in the polls and stayed there for three years...if it had not been for 9-11 we would have been rid of bush, like his daddy, in four years instead of the 8 year disaster we got instead)

according to the latest polls, i don't have to do much selling of senator obama to the people...he is going to crush senator mc cain in november. mc cain cannot run away from bush; he can claim to be a "maverick", but he voted 95% of the time with the administration. i have always said that once the people got a better look at mc cain vs obama the better obama is going to look. senator mc cain does not represent any kind of change of course for the country, senator obama does. now, i can hear you stuttering out there, "yeah, but what kind of change?" look at it this way, joe, it can't be any fucking worse than it already is.

i am tickled at the republicans sudden love for public financing of the presidental race and their attacks on senator obama for changing his mind about whether or not to take public financing. at first he said that he would and so did the republicans. BUT that was before the obama express took off and he tapped into the internet and raised hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly from small contributors. in 80, 84, 88, 92, 96, 00 and 04 the republicans raised much more money, mostly from very large contributors, and did they opt for public financing? of course not, they had the money advantage. that worm has turned and the republicans are going to have to live with it. the millions who gave to the obama campaign and i am one of them, wanted to help him and one of the ways we could is through the pocketbook. to renounce those millions of people who donated and then not use their money would be unfair. as you know, if you have read this blog this year, i worked for senator obama here in nevada (back when he was a long shot at best) so i am not a johnny come lately to this party.

in another case of horribly twisted logic several republicans have written me or said to me that ONLY 19 AMERICANS WERE KILLED LAST MONTH, THE LOWEST TOTAL OF THE WAR. from that they said it was proof that we are succeeding in iraq. let me make something perfectly fucking clear to you: ANY AMERICAN DEATHS IN A WAR THAT WE SHOULD NOT BE IN IS A TRAGEDY!!!! ANY AMERICAN DEATHS IN AN OCCUPATION OF A COUNTRY THAT DID NOT DO ANYTHING TO US IS A TRAGEDY!!! and this month it has gone up again. tragedy.

there is no victory in iraq to be had. this "war" has been a tragedy for iraq, for us, for the world. saadam hussian was an evil man and a dictator, no doubt about it but there are evil dictators all over the middle east, africa, south america and asia. it is not our job to be policeman of the world. (and, once again, we coddled up to saadam in the 80's and we gave weapons to iran so get off your high horse because we do not hold the high moral ground here)

and one final thought: afghanastan has just had another record poppy crop meaning that tons of heroin are now heading to america and europe. and incidently, the taliban pretty much did away with the poppy crop when they were in power. now, of course, they are growing it to finance their attacks on us. oddly enough, the last american tragedy of a war, vietnam, lead to an increase in heroin production as well. well, you know what they say, nobody runs drugs like the cia. air america flys again. (that is from my little poem, "poppies") tragedy.

p.s. have we caught osama bin laden yet? dead or alive? tragedy.

BISCUITS WANTED FOR MURDER (AP headline)

linda burnett, 23, a resident of san diego, was visiting her in-laws, and while there, she went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head. one customer, who had been at the store for a while, became concerned and walked over to the car.

he noticed that linda's eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. he asked her if she was okay, and linda replied that she had been shot in the back of the head and had been holding her brains in for over an hour. the man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and linda refused to remove her hands from her head.

when they finally got in, they found that linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. a pillsbury biscuit cannister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. when she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. she initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.

linda is blonde and a republican, who is going to vote for mc cain but i am certain that's irrelevant.

(my thanks to anne h. in bloomington who sent this to me)

TRULY FUNNY

in my opinion there is no such thing as "the funniest comic ever" because at a certain point it becomes a matter of taste. who can say that richard pryor was funnier than, say, bill cosby or sam kinison was funnier than bill hicks or buddy hackett was funnier than rodney dangerfield? but each one of those comedians reached the level of TRULY FUNNY. to our collective loss, one of the TRULY FUNNY ones, george carlin, died on sunday evening.

not only was george truly funny, he was one of the most prolific comedy writers ever. the complete body of his work is staggering not only in its volumne but in it's subject matter as well. for those of you who never got to see him work, you missed one of the true giants.

i am not nearly a good enough writer to do full justice to george carlin's genius so all i will say is; rest in peace, george, you were truly a funny motherfucker. (one of his seven words, i'm sure)

too few aim at the good of the whole...

the general, now retired, who investigated the abuses at the notorious prison in iraq concluded that torture was condoned at the highest levels of our government and recommended bringing members of the bush administration up on charges of war crimes. obviously a liberal plot.

the district attorney of nye county, nevada, was arrested and charged with dui after wrecking TWO cars within the space of 7 hours. if you like corruption and wild and weird behavior in your public officials, then nevada is the place for you. once here in vegas every member of the city council, save one, were convicted of taking bribes from a titty bar owner. i love this place.

the idea of drilling off the coasts of america recently floated out there by gwb is another red herring. first of all, it would take until the 2020's before any came on line which would do nothing at all for our high prices RIGHT NOW and secondly, there are hundreds of thousands of leases off shore RIGHT NOW that are not being explored. the oil in the artic, which none of the oil companies are proposing to drill, does not contain enough oil to really make a difference. the only reason bush and mc cain are pushing this is to look like they are trying to do something about our energy crisis that does not involve changing the way we are doing energy business. neither wants to put tighter regulations on the car companies to come up with more fuel efficient vehicles nor have we gotten really serious about coming up with alternative fuels even though much of the technology is there right now. cars and buses are being run on natural gas, of which we have plenty, cars and trucks are running on fuel made from cooking oil including the hummer that arnold drives in california. AND REMEMBER, THE ADMINISTRATION WILL STILL NOT TELL US WHO WAS AT THE ENERGY CONFERENCE IN 02 THAT CHENEY FLOORED. NOR WILL THEY TELL US JUST WHAT THE POLICIES THEY CAME UP WERE. both bush and mc cain are willing to toss out false accusations against the enviromentalists blaming them for our energy crisis but are not willing to come up real world solutions. of course, the FACT that bush, cheney, rumsfeld and connie rice were all associated with the oil business never is brought up in the media. their buddies and their past business partners are all making a killing right now. hmmmmm. just a coincidence i am sure.

a poll released yesterday showed that 83% of the american public thinks the country is on the wrong course. 17% think everything is just hunky dory, these people are more than likely rich. the working man and woman of america is being squeezed on all sides and most of us are just a termination slip away from being broke. our savings rate here is abysmal and we have been living on credit cards way too long. people used their homes as some kind of atm machine and borrowed against it to finance their spending ways. those chickens are heading home to roost.

my back still hurts and i still can't beat the internet in poker.

one of the things that i have always liked about senator obama is his stated desire to bring some kind of harmony to the debates in washington and end this political infighting that has engulfed us since the clinton presidentcy. the rancor of the republicans against bill and hillary c. has been returned by the rancor of the democrats against the bush administration. (however, i cannot see the equality of getting upset over a blowjob and lying about and going to war on false reasons and lying about that) regardless, we must learn, left and right, republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives, white, black, brown and yellow and all in between to come together to face our problems. senator obama has made that same argument, we can handle anything facing us if we all face it together. that is the "change" he is speaking of and only someone not already caught up in the endless squabbling in d.c. can bring about.

"THERE IS NOTHING I DREAD SO MUCH AS A DIVISION OF THE REPUBLIC INTO TWO GREAT PARTIES, EACH ARRANGED UNDER ITS LEADER AND CONVERTING MEASURES IN OPPOSITION TO EACH OTHER."

"HOW FEW AIM AT THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE, WITHOUT AIMING TOO MUCH AT THE PROSPERITY OF PARTS."

both of those are from john adams.

we are in the 21st century, people, and we have to come up with 21st century ideas or we will end up in dust bin of history as another great empire that fretted away it's greatness in foriegn wars and homefront neglect. it happened to many others, it can happen to us.

i agree with the conservatives on this one...

there was a headline in today's las vegas review journal that said, "housing rescue plan under fire from conservatives" and i must admit they have a good point. senator tom coburn (r-okla.) said he was against the bill because it would "reward stupidity on the part of people who bought homes they couldn't afford." i think the majority of the sub prime loans went to people who were greedy and stupid. i think they didn't buy the home and believe that their income was going to go up so much that they could afford payments twice as high as the original but because they thought they could sell the home for a profit before the payments went up. that makes them stupid AND greedy which is a sure fire formula for failure. stupid because they thought housing would keep increasing by double digits yearly and greedy because they thought they would make a lot of money by selling and then stupid again because they didn't factor in that they would then have to either buy or rent another home and if prices were still going up at that rate then their "profits" would be lost because of the higher price they would then have to pay for their new place and then greedy again because they thought they could do this ad infintium which is, of course, stupid. plus, many of these houses are owned by "investors" who didn't live in the home but thought they could flip it quick.

the banks and mortgage companies were stupid and greedy as well. there is no possible way that the banks thought these people would be able to afford the new and much higher payments because many, if not most, of them had shaky credit to start with. the banks thought that the buyers would be able to sell the home before the payments went up which makes them stupid and greedy for the very same reasons as the buyers were stupid and greedy.

so now, the stupid and greedy buyers and the stupid and greedy lenders and the stupid and greedy real estate people want the rest of us to bail them out from their stupidity and greed.
no thanks.

if we are going to bail out some homeowners may i suggest NEW ORLEANS. just a thought.

now joe, my probably republican poster, has said that i overstated the inflation rate and that we were not suffering "historically high" rates of inflation. well gee, let's look. gas up 181% in 7 years for a 25.9% per year increase, housing up, even counting the recent turndown, 160% in 7 years for 22.9% per year increase, heating oil and electricity up about the same. in the last year, pork has gone up 50 cents a pound, beef is up 20%, a five gallon jug of canola that used to cost 15 dollars in now 40 dollars, a 50 pound bag of flour jumped from 7 dollars to 23 dollars. not only that but if you own a cafe not only do you pay these prices you must also pay a fuel surcharge of between 5-9 dollars on all deliveries.

a survey done by the NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS found that for the first time in 25 years, small business owners said INFLATION was their single biggest concern.

gosh, joe, think of all those brain washed business owners; they just don't realize how well bush's policies are working. and those poor misguided souls who think they are paying over 4 dollars per gallon when you know that it has not gone up; it is just an illusion.

the unemployment rate went up in may higher than any time since 1986 when, incidently, a republican was in the white house. (as i have pointed out before republicans historically bring on debt and recessions because they keep trying to convince people that trickle down is not the same as being pissed upon ... but it is.)

job growth lowest in 15 years. job losses last month...49,000. i will pass the word on to them, joe, that this is all the democrats fault they have been secretly running the government the past 7 and half years.

small businesses are the centerpiece of the american economy and they are being hammered right now. ah, but the oil companies and the insurance companies are doing quite well. we gave tax breaks to the oil companies under bush...have they passed that savings on to us? uhhhh, no.

john mc cain flipped flopped again. he used to be against drilling off shore but now he is for it. we will never know just really where senator mc cain stands on anything, other than war, of course, because he keeps changing his positions depending on which way the wind blows or the religious right tells him what his position should be. (see roe v. wade, gay rights, bush tax cuts, etc etc etc)

the lakers really went into the tank against the celtics; they looked beaten, bruised, confused and afraid. soft? as a feather pillow.

backs and hacks and thank a liberal

now back in las vegas (be it ever so humble no place...) and first day home, doing some light yard work, pulled my back. it felt like someone shot me in the back! banshees looked around to see who that was screaming. damn, this hurts! been going to chiropractor and it is a little better and tomorrow go to regualar m.d. to get drugs so between the two i should be ready to rock and roll next week.

my last couple of blogs have picked up a "flamer" named joe who writes quite a lot arguing with me and my readers about things i have posted about politics. joe seems to be a republican since he uses so many of the catch phrases that the rnc puts out, seemingly daily, that the "true believers" then parrot across the airways and, in this case, across the internet. joe has informed me that senator obama is an "empty suit" and once he gets away from his speeches he is an imbecile. i pointed out that senator obama was the editor of the harvard law review and then taught constitutional law at the university of chicago. you know, very few imbeciles teach constitutional law and very few get into harvard much less edit the law review but apparently joe, being a good neo con republican, doesn't know that.

i am against the war so to justify why we should have gone into iraq, joe, like the republicans today, is quoting some of the democrats that backed bush as if i wasn't throughly disgusted with them as well. i have said before the democrats and the republicans are both guilty of this war. both parties joined in the rush to war, both parties would not let the united nations finish their inspections and both parties refused to read all of the intelligence reports. there were many caveats in those reports with wording such as "sources unknown" or "source has proven to be unreliable in the past" or "other sources give exactly opposite information" and other disclaimers that neither bush nor the democratic leadership brought up in their drumbeating speeches. bush, cheney and company didn't lie as much as they "cherry picked" information about the wmd's. they did lie about saadam and obl. anyone with an understanding of the middle east in the year of our lord, 2001 knew that s. hussian and obl were mortal enemies. saadam was way too liberal for osama, way too secular for al qyada.

even if they had wmd's, which they didn't, how were they going to get them here? we had been bombing iraq for 8 years! they didn't have an air force much less icbms.

war should be the ABSOLUTE last resort to resolve any international crisis. war was our only resort in the case of iraq; no information was released that disputed the administrations claims. the so-called liberal press was not to be heard from. colin powell also feels that he was mislead in the days preceeding his speech to the united nations. there was even a book written before the 2000 elections, called, i believe, the rising storm; the case for invading iraq. it was the neo con bible.

one of the reasons that i believe that senator obama will be a good if not great president is that a. he was opposed to the war from git go and thusly will have the high moral ground on that issue. b. is because he is an outsider and not part of the entrenched washington society he has the ability to unite, if not the hard core republicans, the moderate republicans, independents and democrats in coming up with a way to extradite ourselves from that mess. extradiate ourselves is what we must do.

senator obama has a history of helping people. he was a community organizer. mc cain married a beer distributor. obama wants to lower taxes on the middle class and raise taxes on the wealthiest. mc cain wants to keep the bush tax cuts in place. (they have worked so well for us..lol) mc cain still is pandering with his plan for a gasoline tax vacation which, of course, would cost us billions of dollars that would be used to EMPLOY PEOPLE to fix the roads and, of course, would add to the already horrendous national debt. obama wants everyone, including the rich like mc cain, to pay into social security (which, incidently, would bring ss up to solvency) while mc cain wants young americans to give their money to wall street for their retirement fund and opt out of social security which would bankrupt the ss. that johnny, boy is he for the little guy or what? guess you lose your perspective when you marry into millions.


too many of the politicians in both parties are just hacks and are looking only for ways to get re- elected and are not looking for the RIGHT thing to do. i am much more a progressive liberal than i am a "democrat." the democratic party, right now, is closer to what i think the role of government should be than the republicans are and senator obama is the first man (or woman) that i have truly been excited about on the national scene.

the republicans or should i say the neo-cons would like to make liberal a dirty word; i am proud to be a liberal and proud of the things that the liberals have brought into our society: when you make that morning coffee and get that clean water from your facuet, thank a liberal. when you buy a product and all the ingredients are listed so you know what you are putting in and on your body...thank a liberal. thank a liberal for the fda which inspects the meat that you eat. if you have health care at your work, if you have a retirement plan, if you have money in a bank that is insured by the fdic, (go research out the crash of 1929 and see what the banks did then and you will appreciate the fdic a lot fucking more), if you get a vacation from work thank a union member for fighting and sometimes dying for that as well as your retirement fund and your health care. if the conservatives had their way, none of these would be in existance. the conservatives have fought tooth and nail against any thing for the worker over the employer. there would be no minimum wage, no social security and no recourse if you were hurt on the job.

conservatives like to think of themselves as "self made" and don't give credit to the society in which they live that allows them to do whatever it is they do. from the roads we build, to the police on the street to the teacher in the school; all those have an immense effect on our day to day lives. if you become unemployed, thanks to liberals and union members, you get unemployment insurance because some girli-man thought it wasn't right that you go broke because of some unseen circumstance.

if you went to school on a student loan...thank a liberal.
when you turn on the electricity...thank a liberal. (fdr in this case)
cars are much safer now than they were 40 years ago...thank a liberal.

but hey, listen to rush or savage. they will tell you that we liberals are a threat to the country.

but we are not a threat. we are on YOUR side because you see, liberals want fairness for all and you are included in that.


the republicans are going to try to run on fear. they want us to fear muslims. they want us to fear a guy who lives in a cave. they want us to fear the iranians. they want us to be afraid of our shadows because apparently republicans are very afraid themselves. the boogyman is coming. and only a republican can save us from the boogyman. LAUGH OUT LOUD!

don't go for it, folks. the world is full of people who just want a better life for themselves and their children. they want to get an education. they want to put food on their table. they want to run their own countries and not have american troops on their land.

for years the neo cons told us about THE GODLESS COMMUNISTS in china and how we should fear them. now china is whom our neo con leaders go to for loans. (p.s. how is it that a communist country has the money to loan us anyway, i thought you told us that communism didn't work????)

and as far as drilling in the artic and off the coasts..sure i would go for that as long as that oil belongs to the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES and not to the oil companies. i would be willing to start a national oil company to do that drilling. is that okay with you neo cons? have it belong to the people?

i am not leaving the country, sorry joe.

in the last post i said let's talk about issues and the first guy, joe, suggested that i leave the country. LOL. god, i just love an intellectual argument.

one guy said that since i have been married multiple times i shouldn't mention that mc cain divorced his first (and crippled) wife. i need to point out that a. i am not running for president and b. have never claimed to be high on the "family values" rating system.

the other two were bright and reasonable though i disagree on the one about health care which i will address in a coming post but don't feel up to it right now.

the shows in fort worth and last night in arlington have been nothing short of great. for the past six months i have really been on top of my game and, truth be known, it feels real good. i plan on rocking until i drop dead and hope that is not for many years to come but hey, we all die anyway.

you will have to notice that the republicans have avoided any comment on issues and stick to personal attacks on senator obama...the "terrorist hand jab" describing senator obama and his wife touching of fists when he clinched the nomination was reported by that "fair and balanced" fox news. apparently the nba and the nfl are inflitrated by terrorists since that is the going version of a "high five". fox news...the best comedy on tv.

speaking of tv, may i recommend COUNT DOWN WITH KEITH OBERMANN on MSNBC; what a hoot it is; as good as if not better than the DAILY SHOW.

on issues:

mc cain wants to stay in iraq.
obama wants to leave.

advantage: obama.

war without end or end of an illegal and immoral war.

we were attacked by a small group of fanatical criminals not by a state. the attack could have been avoided had anyone up and down the line been paying attention, after all, bush and company had recieved a national security report that said osama bin laden planned on attacking the united states using airliners. two of the highjackers were on the fbi wanted list, they carried weapons onto the planes, the air force did not scramble when FOUR AIRLINERS WERE HIGH JACKED and so, we invaded iraq. most of the attackers were saudis, none were from iraq nor iran.

there is no VICTORY to be had in iraq. john mc cain cannot define victory, only to say we will stay until iraq is a secure and functional democracy and an ally of the united states yet the iraqi people want us gone and gone now. that is how they vote. but hey, fuck democracy if they don't agree with us.

advantage: obama

younger, beautiful and let us not forget, rich

john mc cain and his supporters want to present him as such an example of "american values" but closer examination of his past reveils some things that they obviously don't want to talk about. oh, the right wing, wants to make big TALK about a militant black preacher in chicago but do not want to have any talk about homophobic, sexist preachers who claim that such things as 9-11 attacks and hurricane katrina were imposed on america because we tolerate gay "lifestyles". the right wing would like to take michelle obama's words and make much ado about the shakespearian nothing. (and for those of you who say in her words of "first time...proud..being american; let me say this about you: first you are white. second your friends, your wife, your neighbors are white. you never have experienced racism directed against you just because of the color of your skin. you have never been pulled over by the police because of the color of your skin. you have never seen your people clubbed, hanged, beaten, tortured and killed strictly because of the color of their skin. neither you nor your relatives had to sit in the back of a bus, not be allowed in eating places, not being allowed to check into certain hotels nor go to certain clubs nor be allowed to apply for certain jobs all because of the color of their skin. and this is not "ancient" history, it is in my lifetime and yours too unless you are under 50.....and you probably didn't cry when dr. martin luther king, jr. died. that black people are sometimes a little bitter is not amazing; that black people are not really bitter all of the time is.) a person should be judged by the whole of themselves; by what they have done with their life, by what kind of parent they are, what kind of husband/wife they are, by what kind of citizen they are, by what their priorities in life are; these are the things that should be taken into account when evaluating someone, not judging but evaluating. when we are comparing two people who are running for the highest office in the land, good for gander must also be good for the goose. in that frame of mind let us look at john mc cain and his WIVES.

you see, john mc cain has been married TWICE. odd, they hardly ever mention that...family values and all. john divorced his first wife. his first wife was a beautiful model. a tall, lovely willow of a woman. while senator mc cain was in prison in hanoi, his wife had a car wreck in which she was severly and permenantly injured. parts of her legs had to be removed making her shorter, she to this day lives in pain. she was no longer the tall beautiful wife when mc cain returned to the usa in 1973. he admits he had a series of affairs and eventually met the present mrs. mc cain who just so happened to be younger, beautiful and rich. so long first mrs. mc cain.

in fairness, john mc cain promised to take care of her medical bills for life and he has. she still speaks very highly of him and supports his bid for presidency. also in fairness, many of his friends and past supporters do not his bid and think his treatment of her was cold at best. some had very unkind things to say about senator mc cain.

this could be spun any way. in the newspaper (a british one at that) story there were many quotes that reflected badly on senator mc cain; i choose not write them here; they are of no consequence. but if the republicans plan on making this personal, then it is up to the press and the bloggers to give both sides.

the point being: we are not electing michelle nor are we electing cindy; we are electing either senator mc cain or senator obama to the presidency. policy not politics should be our focus. positions not preachers should be argued. war and peace are too important of subjects to be demeaned by side show attacks. we have many problems here in america from the economy to the occupation of iraq and the continuing war in afghanastan. we have millions out of work and millions in risk of losing their homes. the dollars shrinks weekly and oil goes up seemingly daily. draught is wrecking the farm economy in several parts of the country and new orleans is neither rebuilt nor have the levees been properly repaired. our roads and bridges are in dire need of work and upkeep and the national debt is staggering. social security has been looted and our kids are being left behind the rest of the world. we spend more on health care than any other country and almost 50 million of us have no insurance. we have millions of illegals in our country and our ports are not safe. airlines are going broke and those that aren't are raising prices through the ceiling. industy is shrinking and government is growing. food prices are soaring and the stock market is sinking. these are the major things that a president and congress must address. so let us talk about these things. the things that should matter to any concerned citizen from either the left or the right or the giant middle in between.

ron
in houstonbydamntexas
on a thursday afternoon
thinking about my country

see you in the night.

"the pentagon plans to sell up to 4,000 sets of high-tech night - vision goggles to iraq, despite u.s. government audits showing that the deal could leave a critical u.s. military asset vulnerable to theft or diviersion to insurgents fighting u.s. forces."

that is in USA TODAY tues, june 10th.

"THE PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLICIZED SALE is sparking concern from members of congress."

(wouldn't want the folks to know about shit like this)

"iraqi forces have been faulted along with their pentagon supervisors for being unable to account for THOUSANDS OF FIREARMS AND OTHER BATTLEFIED EQUIPMENT provided by the united states in recent years."

understand something here; these goggles are so powerful and so far beyond anything else out there that they give our soldiers a tremendous advantage at night; so much so that many dangerous operations are performed AT NIGHT BECAUSE WE HAVE SUCH AN ADVANTAGE. (the newspaper points this out but not with enough emphasis in my opinion.)

the iraqi forces are now and have always been corrupt. they are inflitrated by shiite gunman and sunni insurgents. they remind me of the south vietnam army that was going to take over the fighting then too. the old joke was "south vietnamnese army rifle for sale: never been fired and only dropped once." south vietnam was a military dictatorship that kept changing every three or four months or so for several years. hard to get someone to fight for a military dictatorship that just overthrew a military dictatorship that had just overthrown another military dictatorship which had just overthown............and so on and so on.

over the years since we invaded in 2003, there have been dozens of stories in the press about how much has been lost in iraq due to corruption and just out and out theft. not only tens of thousands of weapons but tens of millions of dollars has just disappeared into the corrupt quaqmire of iraq. that slurping sound you hear is american gold and american lives going down the drain into the cesspool of the middle east.

we install a puppet government in iraq by having elections that we decide who gets to run. cool, huh? democracy at it's finest.
then we watch as sunnis, shiites and kurds all argue all of the time. (of course, that they have all been arguing with and killing each other for the last 1400 years or so never came into our thinking).

we claim that iraq is important for our security. but we are not there to stay. but then we want 56 PERMENANT BASES IN IRAQ.

the iraqis call us "occupiers," which, of course, we are. they don't want us there permenantly. who would? if we stay they will keep attacking us. the iraqi in the army is more likely to back iraq instead of the united states. duh. so, what do we do? sell them more arms.

back to the newspaper story: this statement sent me reeling:

"the sale would send hummvees, rifles, grenade launchers and cargo trucks to iraq, WHICH HAS BECOME A LEADING FORIEGN BUYER OF US WEAPONRY"

so we are spending ten billion a month in iraq and we are paying for their government and they won't use their oil money but now we are selling them arms. whatthefuck.

we are not planning on attacking iran but we want permenant bases in iraq. we are some peaceloving motherfuckers.

when iraq attacked iran back in the 80's we sold them weapons to do so.

for two wars since then we have fought iraq who has been using our old weapons against our new weapons and now we want to sell them some more new weapons. we want to be sure that our boys will have an equal fight i guess. fuck that, i want our boys to always have the advantage.

on one hand we are told that iraq is a hotbed for terrorists. next we want to make sure that everyone in iraq has some weapons. let's arm the people who have been killing each other for centuries and then stay in the middle of them. bush and boys are tactical geniuses. peace in the middle east is just around the corner.

p.s. don't forget that the iranians got their weapons from ronnie reagan when he traded weapons for hostages. ronnie was strong on terrorism. lol.

p.s.s. don't forget that before that, iran also got their weapons from us because we had overthrown THEIR GOVERNMENT and installed the shah. whom we then armed. whom they overthrew. whom we then armed.

we are some peace loving motherfuckers. aren't we?

psst. want a gun? we got guns. you got enemies? we got guns. your enemies have guns. we know, we sold them to them. so, once again, do you need a gun? we got guns. need one? thought so. here you go.

and there you go.

don't you see the light at the end of the tunnel?

general westmoreland did.

and so did john mc cain.

they were both wrong then.

and there is no light at the end of the tunnel in iraq either. get out. get out now. stop the insanity. it is insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

war and debt or peace and prosperity...your choice

i arrived in fort worth this morning having left on wed. morning from vegas. first day made it to albuquerque where, when i woke up on thursday, it was in the low 40's! here, however, high 90's with humidity to match. i really look forward to these two gigs because the rooms are so good. if you are in neighborhood of the metroplex come on down, let us rock.

i just got XM radio in my car and now i wish i had done it sooner. how cool is sat. radio? i was able to listen to dodger game in middle of afternoon and in middle of nowhere. dodgers lost but what the hell, it was baseball. the selection available is just amazing; i am sure the wonder will wear off but for now; i am enthralled!

for you fans out there with either xm or sirius be sure and email the comedy channels and have them play more of me. for real. the only way i can get more widely known is through these mediums and you, my fans, are the ones who can do it for me. i know for a fact that both radio outlets respond to emails and calls.

as most of you know, i have been an obama supporter since almost the git go and here we are, a mixed race man as the nominee of a major party. we have gone so far in the last 50 years here in america and this nomination should show, not only the world, but ourselves as well, that we have gone beyond our racist past. people of all colors should be proud of this moment. whether you vote for obama or not his nomination is a great thing for america.

when gwb was elected:
gas was 1.46 per gal.
we had a huge surplus
we were at peace
clinton's administration had seen 22 million new jobs created.

today:
war without end in two countries
osama bin laden still not found (dead or alive)
gas is at 4.00
we have lost jobs overall since bush took over
we have a 3 TRILLION dollar debt
military stretched almost to breaking point
over 4,000 american troops dead
over 25,000 american troops wounded
millions losing their homes
inflation at the highest level in decades

want more of the same? vote republican
want peace and prosperity? vote democratic.

mc cain backed bush 95% of the time he was in the senate. want more bush? vote for john. had enough bullshit, had enough war, had enough lies, had enough job losses, had enough inflation, had enough debt, had ENOUGH??? vote for senator obama.

will senator obama bring peace and prosperity? i don't know. i do know this, if we have another republican in the white house we HAVE NO CHANCE AT ALL OF HAVING PEACE NOR OF HAVING PROSPERITY. the republicans have become the party of the very rich and the corporations. the military industrial complex that ike warned us about has taken over the republican party.

let us bring our troops home. let us spend that TEN BILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH here.
whatya say? let's quit supporting iraqis and start supporting americans. your choice and it is very clear. there couldn't be two more different candidates

poker, poker, poker

to be good a poker and especially, no limit hold-em poker you not only have to know the right way to play the cards but you also must know the right way to play other people. the most important thing though, is know the right way to play yourself.



i can teach anyone of average or above average intelligence how to play the cards. i can also teach someone most of the common "tells" that players exhibit that will show the strength or weakness of their hands. what i cannot teach is how to control yourself. you can learn what cards to come in with at different positions in the betting cycle. i can show you the values of hands based on various factors; i can teach you how to get the maximum win out of your good hands and how to minimize the losses when you are beat. doing these things is then up to you.



once, back when rhonda was still learning the game, she and i were at another poker player's house and we were discussing the game and strategys for play when jake asked rhonda, "if you had to put it into two words what would you say is the secret to winning at hold-em?" rhonda answered, "big cards!" jake agreed and then asked, "when we are at boulder station playing how many of the players at any given table know that same thing?" rhonda answered correctly again, "well, almost all of them." then jake said, " right. they know that, then why don't they do it? why do they play king 7 suited in early position if they know that is wrong?"



and the anwer to that question is the crux of the matter. why do they do it? because they get bored; "i haven't had any good hands for over an hour so ..." or "i saw numnuts over there win a big pot with this hand" or "k-7 is my lucky hand" (they say that because ONCE they won a huge pot with it and so now it is their "lucky hand" and they conviently forget that since that one hand, they have lost and lost and lost with k-7.) they don't have the self disclipine, the self control to do what they KNOW IS RIGHT. the succumb to weakness, they get so desperate in their desire to WIN that they then do things that will guarentee, in the long run, they will LOSE.

another thing that can effect your game is the belief that one hand or one session somehow or another effects the next hand or session. you get drawn out on a couple of times by people who hit that miracle card to take your stack. the fool called your trips all in bet with an inside straight draw and hits it. your straight is beat by runner runner spades for a flush. then, (and i have done this very thing) you get gun shy and don't bet your hands big enough, make bad calls hoping to return the favor...but miracle cards are MIRACLE cards and thusly, don't come. one losing session leads to another and then you play even worse and, of course, the losses pile up.

this past week i made every possible mistake and it cost me hundreds of dollars. my wife, however, played the way i taught her to do and she won over 600 dollars in two sessions and baled my sorry ass out.

poker can be very humbling; just when i think i have no limit figured out, i go and play like a real fish and make mistake after mistake and my attitude goes in the shitter. rhonda, though, is a very good coach and gave me the pep talk that i needed and got me back on track so i had a nice win yesterday at the mgm.

so, i can teach you how to play the game but i can't teach you how to control yourself...i am still learning that one. the thing about no limit is that the swings can be very drastic (daniel N. lost more that 800,000 dollars in one week here just recently and even he said that it rattled him...as you can well imagine) and can and does cause people to give up the game and go back to limit hold-em.

i am a big winner at poker and still i have my moments of stupidity. rhonda is going to be just a great player and as the teacher i am very impressed with my student.

for any of you who would like to start a poker dialogue please write and we will start one. i am thinking of giving lessons here in vegas for fans who are coming into town. let me know what you think.

may all your flops be good.

ron