Senate spends big.

Senate sends big spending bill to Bush to sign - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Automakers gained $25 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans and oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as the Senate passed a sprawling spending bill Saturday.

Oh. My. God. Putting aside the $700 Billion bail out nightmare, who the @$*& ever thought the Senate would just go ahead and stab the taxpayers in the back anyway? $25 Billion to automakers? Are you f--ing kidding me? Those bastards deserve EVERYTHING they have coming. They ought to go down in FLAMES. Flames.

Thanks for NOTHING you Capitol Hill Bureaucrat jerks, excepting the 12 who voted against this, I will do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure you are gone, GONE...looking at YOU, Mitch McConnell.

The first debate.

The first McCain/Obama debate was absolutely horrible.

For starters, the first question was about the EXTREMELY unpopular Wall Street bail out. Neither one would take a stand and say, "NO! I will not spend the people's money to bail out Wall Street." That was disappointing.

I was frustrated for the rest of the debate. They both seemed woefully off their game, Obama more than McCain. It was as if, after their photo-op rush trip to the White House about the impending economic crisis, they came away with a new sense of dread, and are now both terrified of actually becoming president.

McSnore and Osnooza...it was hard to stay awake. Neither man, in his tone or his message, moved me to anything but getting more comfortable with a pillow.

I'm afraid for our country.

Taxpayer-funded bailouts SUCK.

No Cash for Trash! — Oppose taxpayer-funded bailouts

A cause we can all rally around! It's amazing that congress has been inundated with emails and phone calls from the PEOPLE, just saying no to another Wall Street bailout. I've sent my email. A bunch of people I know have called. And emailed. AWESOME.

I smiled when I found this website and saw Moveon.org next to a link for Downsize DC. But you know, this is how America works when it's working. The things that we can all agree on are the things that should probably happen via Congress...and as far as I'm concerned, nothing else should be legislated.

Rally for the Republic.

I've never been to a political rally before, and I think the Rally for the Republic was a good first-time event. I was amazed at how many people from all over the country had come to show their support for Ron Paul.

On Sunday, we got a glimpse of cars in the class parking lot from Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and California. That was no day-trip excursion for those folks, never mind that they most likely had to take time off from their jobs to come to the rally. On Monday night there was an informal gathering at a nightclub for rally-comers, and I met people from Iowa, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Texas, and Florida.

After watching conventions and events on television in the middle-of-nowhere-Utah for seven years, to actually be present and involved in something this big, this ALT-mainstream, was awesome. To be with so many other people that felt the same way that I did about overreaching government, taxes, foreign policy, and the like was actually mind-blowing. I've always felt like my husband and I were on this libertarian-minarchist planet all alone when it came to how the country should be run. In my life, I had never actually met other people that mostly believed in the politics that we practiced and voted. We were all together for one shining moment in Minneapolis this week--all 12,000 of us that could come, which means there might be at least 1.2 million of us out there on the whole, if not more.

There were all kinds of crazy booths set up inside the Target Center that people could browse between the long list of speakers that included Jesse Ventura, Gary Johnson, Lew Rockwell, Barry Goldwater, Jr., and Ron Paul. The Free State Project (a political movement to get people to move to New Hampshire and take over the state via local politics) had a booth and we talked with those folks for quite a while. My husband and I have absolutely no intention of moving to New Hampshire, but we'll go and visit because we love to travel. We got pocket copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence from the John Birch Society--who knew that they were still around? The guy at the Liberty Dollar booth was totally interesting, because he was trying to introduce private currency based on precious metals. His coins were beautiful; however, he was still struggling from an FBI/Treasury Department raid earlier in the year that had taken all of the metals on which the value of his coins were based. Man, the government HATES competition.

For the second time within two years, I was within six feet of MSNBC's Willie Geist (formerly of Tucker, now on Morning Joe). The first time was a over a year ago on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I turned around and almost ran into him. This time, I turned around from some table full of liberty schwag and there he was with a camera guy. Is this some kind of sign from the universe? What kind of coincidence could this be? I sort of wanted to talk to him, because how many times do you run into someone on TV in person in two totally different places in the United States? That alone was weird. My husband really wanted me to go talk with him, but I didn't want to be on TV, and Willie was obviously working to create a segment (which I watched this morning and loved. I would have loved to be hanging out during the editing process for the footage). I was certain that an appearance on cable news from a fringe rally wouldn't necessarily fly at my new job if powers-that-be happened to catch me on TV (I don't know if it's really flying now in my branch office as ultra-liberal co-workers discover the reason for my Minnesota trip; I hate not talking about it, but it's in my best interest not to tell them everything). I suppose I could have asked Willie where my "Situation with Tucker Carlson" mugs were that Brad Como said he would try to send to me. Now that the show has been canceled, I am deeply saddened that I didn't rate a mug--and that conversation probably would not have ended up on television.

Speaking of Tucker Carlson, he hosted the first of half of the event and was great, but he disappeared some time after Jesse Ventura spoke. This didn't surprise me at all, because Jesse is having a full-on, Lyndon-Johnson-post-presidency-style break down. After railing on the mainstream media and making some provocative 9/11 remarks in his speech, Jesse then threatened to return to the USA from his post-gubernatorial compound in Mexico and run for office in 2012. *gulp* For the love of god, somebody get him a cold shower, some strong coffee, new clothes, and a hair cut. If I was Tucker I may have had to distance myself from that spectacle alone--mainly because of the 9/11 comments. All I could envision was Jesse backstage holding some poor dog by its ears ala Johnson in that classic "I-am-out-to-lunch-now-and-my-dog-loves-being-held-up-by-the-ears" picture.

It was an entertaining day and in the final analysis, after taking days off from work and driving eleven hours to get to Minneapolis, I was glad that we did it. It was an excellent adventure.

It's freedom o'clock.

The day of the Rally for the Republic, protesters, and the early police presence at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Minnesota, 2008: pt. 2

We wandered in downtown Minneapolis one afternoon; its architecture and art was captivating and entertaining, like the "bean" bronzes in front of the Federal Court House. The "bad bean" being carried away by the police in this sculpture (notice real police in the background) even had media coverage. See the "media" bean, below.

Right across the street from the beans was city hall, a Richardsonian Romanesque delight. Oh my heart!


The new library building was pretty impressive, too. The cantilevered UFO awning thing was pretty awesome. The white window panels were pixillated photos of either birch or aspen standing together. Very cool.

If this isn't Orwellian then I don't know what is. Click on the photo for a better look at the wording.

Old bridge, part of the Mill Ruins area along the riverfront.

Excellent life-size frog bronze on the riverfront walk.

The Class Closed on a High Note.

Near the end of the Real Politics class, Ron Paul showed up to share some words of encouragement.

Ever humble, he seemed honestly touched that so many people showed up for the class. He couldn't believe that we were actually "out there" and expressed his gratitude that we would even be interested in continuing the work that he began--the liberty message that took hold of so many--with his presidential campaign.

Ron Paul makes it easy, though. His middle name is Ernest. Seriously.

His middle name really is Ernest.

And he is all of that when he talks about the future of this country.

Politics.

Our visit to Minnesota began innocently enough.

The drive up the state from the Wisconsin border along the Mississippi at sunset, weaving in and out of towering bluffs, was a peaceful, beautiful welcome.

The next morning began the Rally for the Republic's Real Politics School. I signed us up on a whim, thinking that it would be a fun way to kill time before Ron Paul's Rally on Tuesday.

My goodness.

The class was a long, long, day of obnoxious yakking by some third-string candidate/campaign manager from Virginia that went out of his way to irritate everyone at some point during the day. However, the knowledge he had to impart was enlightening. Frightening. Sobering. Saddening. Soul-killing. Interesting.

I have to question people that want to enter politics or study it for a very long time. It's rotten and vile.

My husband and I sat in a room with close to 600 people from noon to almost ten at night, learning about the intricacies of public opinion, what causes "pain" for a politician, and what kind of chance we have, if any, to change the status quo.

I'm not sure hope can be found in the system as it stands. I'd like to think so, but...damn it. Anyway, here are some pictures from class. By the way, neither vehicle in the photos is ours. Both were in the class parking lot, though.

Minnesota, 2008.

There will be a lot to talk about, and I'll edit it as I am ready.

But first things first...Minnesota is a state where Al Franken is running for office. I thought his campaign commercials would totally kick ass.

I was wrong. They are not funny. Not interesting. Same sh*t different day campaign commercials. I am SO disappointed. Jesse Ventura's ads were SO much better--but more about him later.

News from Alaska.

So, I have lots of other news to write about from Minnesota, but I'll start with this news. Now, lord only knows how my good buddy ACE, aka Uncle Kayak, got a hold of this picture, but for the love of all that's decent and holy...sweet jesus.

Let me tell you about Ace. He's a legend in his own time...he's been going up to ANWR for about four or five years now just to look in on goings on there, and he's 'in' with quite a few Alaskan locals. That being said...

I also saw a picture today of Mrs. Palin in a star-spangled bikini holding a rifle. There is no doubt she has the Red State Update contingency locked up--and, of course, the MySpacers. And liberal PhotoShop geeks.

And now you know...the REST of the story.