PSoTD

Obviously, I don't know diddly about baseball. Congratulations for a great managing job.

The things you find out on CraigsList - apparently this "cleaning" service is coming to Harrisburg. They bill themselves as the "Tri State Areas Premiere Adult Cleaning Service".

Color me unimpressed. I just realized that Sprint, which promised me a tech call back on October 22nd within two days, still hasn't called back. I guess I have to call back.

Rock on.

Check it out.

Here's an old favorite - from the movie that launched Susan Sarandon's career...

Of course, I think I've seen all the movies referenced in that song...

I think our Xbox should have been immune.

I've been drifting away from politics as a specific blog focus, mostly because I've reached a saturation point of how deep into it I want to look. There's only so many things in politics you can be surprised or impressed or disgusted by before you become jaded, and who wants to walk around their entire life being jaded? Too many people play politics and governing as a game, and it's not really a game, nor is it something I want to play as a game, and so I have been turning off of the topic.

I'll be taking this blog into different directions after election day - which directions I can't say for certain, but a more open topic space of things that interest me - and although I may post about politics from time to time, that will no longer be the focus by design. I'll keep the acronym, because its meaning over time has become lost to most and so it could be anything I want at this point, including Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers On Tomato Diet, and few would be the wiser. And the old posts will stay - but that is it.

Most bloggers should have some sort of external measure that helps them finalize such a decision, and mine is this:

12 comments on 35 posts in the past week.

Hopefully that will improve as I post less about what I find more interesting, and hopefully so will the readers that stumble in. A blog should have more conversation.

Or, actually, in any way.

Remember October 1996?

Bob Dole claimed credit Saturday for putting Democrats on the defensive over their acceptance of foreign political contributions, saying "The stone wall is beginning to crumble."

The Republican challenger pressed his efforts to link President Clinton to contributions from Asian business interests during a town-square campaign rally and in his weekly radio address."The ethical vacuum at the heart of this administration has been filled with foreign money," Dole told his radio audience.

Dole was trying to energize Republicans with campaign stops Saturday in this south-central Kentucky community and in southern Virginia, both GOP-dominated areas of states where recent polls have put Clinton ahead.

The travel came as Dole aides said internal polls found the GOP nominee beginning to narrow the gap and even move ahead in some usually Republican states where he had been behind.

Ugh. I received this email from a family member yesterday about a piece of shit article published last week:

To all of my family, friends, and acquaintances, please read this very important newspaper article. The truth comes out finally!

*Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?* /By Orson Scott Card /

/Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism. /

...

/This article first appeared in /The Rhinoceros Times /of Greensboro, North Carolina, and is used here by permission.

I cut out all the actual "story", it was well reported about in the blogosphere last week and is really quite a bit of nonsense. And that's not precisely the point of this post.

One of the things I am now begging ANYONE that feels they need to forward me a news article is to Google the author and any specific subject before sending. If one did, you'd find that The Rhinoceros Times is not a news"paper" of any sort - it's an online site only, and a small, very local, and very unimportant to the national discussion website at that.

Secondly, you'd find that most ordinary people probably wouldn't define Orson Scott Card as a Democrat OR a newspaper columnist. He's supported Bush, the Republican Congress, and now McCain in the last three elections. He's a Halloween Republican, dressing up as something else so he can get some attention candy from unsuspecting readers. And it's kind of hard to be a newspaper columnist if the newspaper you write for isn't actually a newspaper at all.

So, if you're going to send me an article that purports to discuss "honest reporters", please make sure the author is actually being honest with you. Card has no credibility after the "Editor's note". People should feel a responsibility to look into it before shipping it off. I don't giftwrap sewage in a candy box, and I prefer to not have lies mailed to me wrapped up in some sort of "honesty" bow, either.

Please don't hire these people.

I have to admit, I'm somewhat surprised and definitely impressed with the amount of political jobs that Keystone Progress posts on their Jobs page.

I don't know, I think it's a lost cause for him here, but I don't have anyone paying for a $100K wardrobe, either.

Waltz's Barbershop is where I go, on Williams Grove Road in Mechanicsburg. Don's a good guy and a good barber. If you're looking for a place, I recommend him.

I know it's all in jest, but I can't help it, I must be an old fogie now. I just can't get on board with any request that ends with ", bitches!". It's a big turnoff to me.

Apparently Sprint sold off most of their cell towers back in the summer.

The flagging carrier sold off "nearly all" (around 3,300) of its wireless communication towers to TowerCo for some $670 million in cash. According to Sprint Nextel's Bob Azzi, the move to lease rather than own these network facilities will enable it to "better focus on its core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers." He continued by noting that the transaction "provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity [for] greater flexibility in managing the company."

Wonder why Sprint hasn't called back to explain my Sprint signal problem here at the house when our Nextel phones get great signal... 48 hour return call, BS.

Based on how aggressively they sent mail to pitch credit cards to us, over and over and over and over and over and over again, I wonder just how bad the credit situation over at Capital One might be - I know I don't want to invest in it.

It's past time for the very public Senatorial humiliation of one Deputy Dog Lieberman. This includes items such as committee assignments of one "Senate Committee on Toilets" and a provision of the worst office available. Who is he going to complain to that should give a shit?

The guy is a phony, has been a phony, will continue to be a phony. He cannot be trusted. If Senate Leadership does not publicly demonstrate this with the public distribution of the worst responsibilities and most meager benefits of Senate Office, then they are not doing their part to heal the country. Phonies must be outed so the public will remove them.

It's a trap, I'm telling you. It is a bakery chef's evil plot to mess up your clothes. And it is unstoppable!

Will McCain's campaign be rather dull and lifeless over the last week, or it will it be pitchforks and torches to everything? There's not much middle ground for them now.

Yes, yes, and yes. Tim McCarver has reached Joe Garagiola territory - once a little bit of his chummy broadcasting felt like a good thing, but now it is old and stale and reminds me of the Christmas fruitcake in February - will anyone ever just do the right thing and take it out to the trash?

Hey, if Fox wants the new chummy, go get John Kruk.

I guess nothing else is working for them.

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said Saturday that an Obama presidency combined with Democratic control of Congress would lead to bigger government.

“Now they do this in other countries where the people are not free -- government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us,” she said during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa. “I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me.”

I've got the Haydn thing going on with the hair over my ears now, and it ain't a wig. Too much trouble to try to have long hair.

You can see it in the columnists. Republicans already trying to define why Obama will be elected and limit his reach. Hey Peggy Noonan - people aren't going to listen to you. Just because you weren't one of the absolute worst Republican commentators during this election cycle doesn't mean you have any credibility with those who vote for Obama. You don't.

This is the thing: If Mr. Obama wins, and governs as a moderate liberal, not veering left, not seeming to be the cap that pops off a kettle that's been boiling for eight years, but governs to a degree, at least in general approach, as Bill Clinton did—as a moderate Democrat well aware of the terrain—he may know some success. And he may be able to tamp down the insistence of the long-simmering left by the force of his own popularity, which will grow once he is president among grateful Democrats, and others. But if he goes left—if it comes to seem as if the attractive, dark-haired man has torn open his shirt to reveal a huge S, not for Superman but for Socialist, if he jumps toward reforms such as a speech-limiting new Fairness Doctrine, that won't yield success. It will yield trouble, and unneeded domestic arguments. We have enough needed ones.

First of all, quit the 7-year-old's labeling tactic, we all know you don't believe it. Secondly - don't tell the candidate that wins by a considerable margin to avoid unneeded domestic arguments. Tell the people that just had their domestic policies shoved up their ass by the people at the ballot box - that's right, the Republican Party - to avoid them. BTW, if you look around your Republican Party these days, you'll notice that 90% of their campaigning is just that - unneeded and worthless arguments.

McCain would have had a great shot at winning in Pennsylvania if he had selected Ridge as his running mate.

It's that time of year.

Well, the Republicans are desperate enough to run a guy for Congress who clearly doesn't understand what policies can help the middle class. Besides, I bet there's going to be a lot of leftover "Joe the Plumber" crap that could be used in a campaign...

Maybe in 2010 the Republican Party should recruit and ONLY run plumbers named Joe for Congress.

Forbes is a little late to this party. Marion, the home of my grandparents and where both my parents grew up, has been a vulnerable town for quite a while. Just seeing what has happened to my grandparents' old home shows me that. But Forbes, thanks for taking your attention away from :CueCat and looking around to notice if there are any real problems out there deserving some consideration!

I may have the most boring Twitter stream ever.

One of my little irritants about political campaigns is about the use of political signs - particularly, the yard sign variety that gets placed on unimproved property and relatively open spaces such as parks.

Political campaigns must adopt permission marketing in regards to placement of signs. I know that volunteers and advocates get excited and want to get the word out about their candidate as much as possible, and having that trunk full of signs emptied is easier to do if you don't get permission from the landowner.

But you have to. Our neighborhood has three parks, and we have a policy that all signs are removed if permission is not requested. There's another policy, which is that political campaign signs are not allowed to be posted on the park property. Which means there will never be a campaign sign given permission to be posted there.

So when I find a campaign sign there, it's immediately taken down. It's a dereliction of both responsibility and courtesy to post signs without permission, and it actually makes the candidate look bad to the property owner or manager.

I see these signs planted just off the roadside of empty fields and woodlands as well. Was permission requested? Somehow I suspect not.

Michelle Malkin's gut feelings on the "B Carving" attack story are the same as mine, and to her credit she posts them.

I'm going to get even with my kids for getting these "lyrics" stuck in my head. A weekend of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy" may be in order...

I, for one, would like to see him run for President, if only so he can have his half-baked opinions stuffed back so they can be fully cooked to mediocre. Half-baked mediocrity is only accepted in the realm of talk radio.

I sent an email to David Broder a few weeks ago for a lousy column he wrote (standard fare for him) and today, finally, came this:

Thank you for your e-mail to David Broder. With the popularity of these columns, we receive upward of 1,000 e-mails a week. We regret that we cannot respond to all of them. If we did, there would be no column to e-mail about. But be assured that David Broder or one of his editors will read every e-mail. If you are responding to one of Mr. Broder's columns, we invite you to let us know in which newspaper you read the column (unless you have already done so in your e-mail) by replying to davidbroder@washpost.com. Then we will share your e-mail with your local newspaper editor, who would also appreciate hearing your feedback.

Sincerely,

The Washington Post Writers Group

After a week and a half, that's a bumbling email to send. It's an autoresponse, why wouldn't it have sent out immediately?

This seems like a great place to hold a Pennsylvania blogger meetup next June.

Now I know when it was that Mom took us to the airport to see Bobby Kennedy.

The potential of an Obama victory over McCain on election day becomes more "realistic feeling" with every day that goes past with Obama leading significantly in the polls. This leads Republicans, particularly Republican bloggers, to try to find ways to discredit the evidence and/or change the reality in a way that will keep their readers hopeful on the election results. This week we've seen an evolution of "the polls could be changing, the polls could be wrong, the polls are wrong" posts from these folks, and no doubt we'll be seeing more of the same for the next few weeks. There's no way that statisticians and professional polling organizations could know as much as joe ordinary republican blogger. No way!

But as that "real feeling" starts to sink in deeper amongst both the bloggers and their readers, their reactionary blogging is likely to become more desperate. I'm sure that next week we'll start seeing weather report blogging, with focus on the ten day forecast for swing states, particularly in big cities. Could be a major rain storm in the DC area that will cut down voter activity in the Virginia suburbs? Could be hail in Philadelphia? Snowstorm in Denver? Locusts in St. Louis!

It'll get more desperate later next week. I'm sure that somehow the late night drinking of east coast college students for the Monday Night Football game between Pittsburgh and Washington could end up swaying the election as they are feeling too sick to vote. By election eve, look for

CHUDs Attacking Precincts in Florida!!!!!

on some Pajamas Media site near you.

Americans will move to them only if there's a clear economic reason to do so. They're just not buying new cars, period.

Which I am one... check out this new blog, Conodoguinet Creek Critter Chronicle.

Nobody's safe.

In a sign that cybercrime can reach even heads of state, French police are scrambling to investigate the hacking of French president Nicolas Sarkozy's personal bank account.

According to reports, Sarkozy called police in September after he noticed small amounts of money had been disappearing from his account. The story first surfaced yesterday in a report by the Journal du Dimanche.

The French consulate in San Francisco did not respond to requests for comment by press time. The U.K. Daily Telegraph quoted Sarkozy's office as saying a prosecutor is investigating, together with fraud squad officers.

My wife and I have Nextel cell phones, and they work fine at home with strong signal. Sprint bought Nextel earlier in the year. Our daughter's birthday being yesterday, we decided to get her a cell phone, and added her to our service, which is now Sprint-Nextel. Weird thing: she's on our service, but her signal strength is VERY weak at home, hovering between zero and one bar. My wife and I have full bars on our Nextel phones at home. What's up with that? Is it possible that even though Sprint and Nextel are one company now, that service to our house comes from different towers?

I've been taking kids to the bus stop in the morning for five years now. Our bus stop is on a street lined with oak trees, and one of the games we like to play while waiting for the bus is something akin to pitching pennies - trying to get acorns to stay on the manhole cover in the street.

It doesn't look like we'll be playing that game with acorns this year - I see NO acorns on the oaks lining our streets. None on the ground. None in the trees. No remnants. I don't know if this is due to the lack of rain we had for a good chunk of summer, or something else, but...

Gonna be a tough winter for the squirrels.

Which ran on WHTM.

It's hard for me to believe this song is 20 years old. Time is slipping by way too quickly.

What is the reasoning for giving houses of worship tax-exempt status again?

I better use my Circuit City gift card in case the local store closes...

I have forgotten almost anything I might have somehow accidentally learned about THE POETS in my education, but thanks to this web site, I can impress, as long as I can access it before having to say anything about poetry.

Whoda thunk...

It’s nearly time to consider Kyle Orton a must own fantasy QB. He did it again Sunday, completing 21-of-32 for 283 yards with two TDs and no interceptions as the Bears won a slugfest over the Vikes. Give Orton three straight solid performances.

Especially those who have Brett Favre and Carson Palmer as their quarterbacks...

A friend of mine told me that "Terror Behind the Walls" at Eastern State Penitentiary is pretty damn scary.

I'm just kinda wondering, has Joe the Plumber actually said his life has been destroyed the past few weeks? Or is he liking his fifteen minutes of fame?

If the Chicago Tribune had any brains, they'd replace John Kass with Joe the Plumber. I don't care if Joe can't write anything interesting, at least so far he hasn't proved that he would pen something irrational and stool-like.

Philadelphia Flyers still winless since Mooselina dropped the puck for their opening game.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Several lineup changes couldn't help the Flyers find their way in San Jose last night.

The Flyers, despite two goals from Danny Briere, blew a 3-1 lead and dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the San Jose Sharks before a sellout crowd of 17,496 at the HP Pavilion.

In the overtime, Dan Boyle scored from in close with 1:25 gone as the Sharks improved to 5-1.

The Flyers remain winless (0-3-2). They played with more vigor than during Thursday's 5-2 loss against Colorado. But they were also outshot, 45-17, by the Sharks, who played the night before in Anaheim.

but I will question his reasoning as to why McCain might be moving up in Zogby polls...

McCain's strong performance at the Alfred E. Smith charity dinner in New York City Thursday, combined with his appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman Thursday night, may have had a positive effect.

I guess maybe they'll lead now after Sarah Palin's performance on SNL? Bizarro...

I think I read where the CW says that this election, at most, could be a 4 point win in total votes, either side, because of the split of the nation.

First Dude Todd Palin and Republican senator Norm Coleman at a rally in Minnesota.

We used to go to this when the kids were smaller.

Photo by Spotobe

Just curious: with $368,895 in "html earnings" in the past six months, when 1753 html jobs have been posted in just the last 30 days, sounds like there's not much money available through this job site. So who's doing these jobs?

My wife noticed the Linens 'n Things on Simpson Ferry Road in Camp Hill was going out of business, and wondered if it was just that store. Nope, all of them.

Memo to the Right Wing Wacko Concern Trolls for Joe the Plumber!

Halsey Frost has owned his own company "Frostworks",since this marriage announcement in the NY Times in 1992 so he chooses to not give himself insurance. He also employed his wife as "bookkeeper and operations management" prior to her recent 2007 hire at the "medical publishing firm". As her employer, he apparently denied her health insurance as well.

His company, Frostworks, is located at 3701 E BALTIMORE ST. A building that was purchased for $160,000 in 1999. The buildings owner is listed as DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIAL DESIGN CENTER, LLC whose mailing address is listed as 104 S Collington Ave which is the Frost's home. The commercial property he owns is also listed as the business address for another company called Reillys Designs which leads to the question of whether rental income is included in the above mentioned salary total

The current market value of their improved 3,040 SF home at 104 S Collington Ave is unknown but 113 S COLLINGTON AVE, also an end unit, sold for $485,000 this past March and it was only 2,060 SF. A photo taken in the family's kitchen shows what appears to be a recent remodeling job with granite counter tops and glass front cabinets

I sure gotta admire your respect for a citizen's privacy.

And now it's time for another episode of the right wing wackos favorite gameshow .... The Guilt By Association Game!

Today's password is "David Ifshin".

Ifshin, you see, had been a vehement anti-Vietnam radical. He had even gone to Hanoi at the height at the war and given a speech denouncing the American pilots dropping bombs on North Vietnamese civilians as “war criminals.” The speech was broadcast repeatedly in the Hanoi Hilton, where McCain was being held captive. More than a few people thought Ifshin was guilty of treason.

Ooohh ... scary bad evil America hater commie!! Kill him!! Kill him!!!

Well actually, he's already dead. But wonder whose close friend he was?

Issue still building in Camp Hill.

Pennsylvania American Water has delayed for 30 days a water pressure increase in Camp Hill that was scheduled to begin next week.

The borough had filed a petition this week asking the Public Utility Commission to issue an emergency order delaying the pressure increase for at least 60 days.

The borough claims the increase is unnecessary and poses the danger of water line and property damage and loss of service. The water company says the project, which includes gradually increasing water pressure for all its West Shore customers, will improve reliability and service.

"It's a start but not enough," Borough Council President Rick McBride said Friday.

Sure, at least ten newspapers that backed Bush in 2004 are now endorsing Obama this year, but unless they've changed editorial boards, I can't be impressed with decisionmaking made by folks who backed such a problem causer for the United States in 2004.

The tax code, once you get past some sort of flat rate tax, is ABOUT REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH AND RESOURCES. Credits, deductions, exemptions - someone doesn't pay here, someone over there pays more, the bottom line is that this is restructuring wealth in this country. I doubt I've heard one conservative complain about Obama's comment that doesn't ALREADY RECEIVE THE BENEFITS OF A TAX CODE REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. Anyone know who gets most of the credits and deductions and exemptions? Is it the wealthy?

That there's room for a successful "reality" contest television show, where contestants create quality Halloween costumes for less than $60. Every week could be a theme - superhero, horror movie, occupational, historical figure - hell, I don't care, but they can't do any worse than some of the stuff out there.

Automatically voted off if they come up with this, though.

They're having some issues with customers as they increase water pressure on the West Shore. But homeowners don't want water pressure increases that cause leaks around the house and generate large plumbing bills...

A lot of right bloggers are incensed about the public vetting of Joe the Plumber, and there's a valid point. Ordinary citizens, asking a question of a candidate, don't deserve such treatment - and very rarely do they receive it.

However, there should be some honesty about this. Joe the Plumber went from ordinary citizen to campaign prop during the debate on Wednesday night, and John McCain used him as a crux to attack Obama's positions several times.

Fine. And that crux would have stood fine if what Joe the Plumber had said - in public, in his comments that went beyond a simple question about a candidate to an editorial determination about that candidate - were accurate. John McCain made political arguments based on what Joe the Plumber said that were not true about Joe the Plumber. Is the news media supposed to ignore that?

Once again, John McCain has pushed something - and this case, someone - as a central part of his campaign that has not been vetted. And it didn't help Joe the Plumber that apparently he didn't have the wisdom to realize that if what he said to Obama wasn't 100% accurate, he probably shouldn't be spending all that time with the news media regardless of the fact they were camped on his street. That's called stoking the fire, and that's how those who aren't media-savvy get burned.

I really don't see how Obama's campaign is to blame for the fact-finding into Joe the Plumber's life. I do see how John McCain used Joe the Plumber as an hatchet rather than a scalpel to try to attack Obama's positions, and Joe the Plumber is probably going to be the one that gets chopped up the most.

You outlast some of your vendors. Some that we've seen disappear, or swallowed, in the past:

Sir Speedy printers
PA State Bank
epix
Mail Boxes Etc.
OneMain.com
PCS One
Velocity Networks

Does it make sense for the FCC to be pushing ahead on big issues on that day?

But McCain's campaign could easily fall for it.

My favorite part of the debate was on Obama's health care plan, particular good on the split screen. McCain looked like he could have spit out his teeth in surprise.

Obama: I just described what my plan is. And I'm happy to talk to you, Joe, too, if you're out there. Here's your fine — zero. You won't pay a fine, because...

McCain: Zero?

Obama: Zero, because as I said in our last debate and I'll repeat, John, I exempt small businesses from the requirement for large businesses that can afford to provide health care to their employees, but are not doing it.

Here it is on YouTube. Enjoy the dumbfoundedness.

I keep reading about them in the news, but I'm not seeing many of them outside, and we have a lot of oak trees on our street.

Banished from Right Wing Crazy World!

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

Interesting stat coming out of a town in Mississippi that is considering banning the dogs...

RIDGELAND - A vote to ban pit bulls and other dangerous dogs was delayed Tuesday, but city officials expect to revisit the issue in the near future.

...

Police Chief Jimmy Houston championed the ordinance when it was presented Monday, touting statistics on pit bull attacks. Houston said that according to his research there have been 2,495 dog attacks since 1982, and pit bulls account for 1291 of those attacks.

I do not understand why financial institutions believe it should cost over $30 to stop payment on a check.

Pennsylvania's web-based activists working their right-to-know probably should bookmark this site.

but these folks do...

Links to online newspapers.

is to read the assessment of Christopher Hitchins on McCain and Palin - and Obama.

Bill Kristol has some advice: keep aimlessly flailing.

What the heck, maybe America wants an extremely erratic leader! Who knows? It's just too bad that you didn't name a Wilson volleyball as VP!

It's abundantly clear, the Republicans as a group don't know how to campaign in today's America, so how would anyone expect them as a group to know how to govern?

Can't call it a theory, but a hunch, that for 2009, local government entities might see their specific web site's usage actually drop over previous years. It's based on how important, impact-wise, local government is going to be seen to users versus everything else in a limited time universe which is web browsing. How will people and organizations prioritize their web browsing? With a new administration coming in, with so much concern about news and issues that are larger even than the state government level, how much attention will local government get?

The restaurant sector...

Families are increasingly foregoing restaurant meals, opting to pick up prepared meals at grocery stores or buying the ingredients to cook meals at home. In a recent national survey of 1,500 people, Mintel found that 57 percent were dining out less frequently. Of those, 63 percent said they were cutting back on meals at mid-priced casual-dining restaurants (the category that includes places such as Applebee's and Coco's), 58 percent at upscale "white tablecloth" restaurants, and 53 percent at fast-food restaurants.

There's a surprising amount going on...

One of the things I noticed in the parking lot, in the shopping cart pickup area, and in the store at large was that I was in the minority of folks that were using the large shopping carts. Most everyone was using the small shopping carts, even folks carrying around kids with them. I've noticed that the carts in the storage area, from week to week, seemed to be getting a growing ratio of smaller carts to larger carts, but didn't think too much of it as I walked past the small cart rows.

But after seeing families shopping with the smaller carts, I think I'm getting it. There's a lot at play here - smaller packaging, more expensive food, and the need to shop around for the best deals. So people are probably doing all their grocery purchasing in one stop for the week less than they did in the past, and they're buying less stuff, and the stuff they're buying is coming in smaller packaging. Shrink, shrink, shrink goes the need for larger carts.

Where's the "How to Get Employers to Lobby For Their Employees" seminar?

Decision '08, helping your employees understand the big picture of an election; Jim Buchen, vice president of government relations, shows employers how to create an advocacy program with employees; 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., Howard Johnson Inn & Conference Center, 2101 North Mountain Road, Rib Mountain; Cost: $16 for Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce members, $30 for non-members; Registration: Available online at events.wausauchamber.com through Nov. 6.

Either I didn't know or didn't remember...

Those who like to honor Columbus would have us believe that bringing up the darker side of the explorer is an attempt to blow the man's memory off course.

But these facts of genocide and land theft are not part of a revisionist, false history. In his own words spelled, out in his personal diary, Columbus acknowledged his scheme to subjugate the Taino Indians: "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased."

Columbus' men rounded up 1,500 people and selected 500 as slaves to be shipped off to Spain. Two hundred died en route. This did not deter Columbus, who, according to historian Howard Zinn, later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

Some defenders of Columbus fall back on the rationale that he was just a man of his time, with the prejudices that prevailed. But one of Columbus' own contemporaries, Bartoleme de las Casas, a Spanish colonist turned priest, spent his last years trying to wash the indigenous blood from his hands by calling for an end to the slave trade.

John McCain is going to find out this country is better than he thinks it is. I hope.

Anyone have an opinion on this mass email delivery software?

Dear Republicans,

In 2000, you had a primary choice: George W. Bush or John McCain. You chose Bush, overwhelmingly. Non-Republicans wondered why. But now, maybe, we get it, sorta - you went for a campaign that showed a little more discipline and structure.

You really need to find some better candidates.

Sincerely,

Not The Republicans

Somebody else wonders how it can survive without a revenue model.

and the finding in "Trooper Gate"...

American Patriots will keep their money in the stock market.

You know that political message is coming...

I think Obama's campaign would be smart to start mentioning the plausibility that terrorists will want to impact our elections. The USS Cole bombing happened in mid-October during the Bush-Gore campaign of 2000.

Bin Laden released a tape a week before the 2004 General Election.

So, we should be prepared to hear from them again in the next month in some manner - and vow that 2008 is the last American election that Bin Laden himself could possibly try to sway.

Sometimes I can really annoy my wife with my unexpected "jumping" into a picture...

For election coverage, David Gergen is about the only reason to watch CNN. The lack of thoughtful, honest conservatives on television makes Gergen's regular appearances stand out as some of the most watchable political commentary on television outside of The Comedy Network. It's worth - and only worth - watching CNN's coverage to hear a conservative actually honestly assess what is going on with the Republican Party.

For anyone that has most of their "assets" tied up in real estate and the stock market, they're fortunate if they're more than a little over half as wealthy as they were one year ago.

Because he's babyassbitching about his job. Maybe next time CBS should have him cover the Libertarian Party's candidate. Seriously, is this what CBS is paying him to cover - how he's treated on the campaign?

Better living through reuse.

BOSSES at a composting site in Suffolk are planning to use residents' rubbish to make electricity.

For years, Greenview Environmental has composted waste from St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath at its site in Lackford, near Bury St Edmunds.

But the firm now plans to use new technology to turn 26,000 tonnes of collected waste each year into compost and electricity.

The system involves green waste from kitchens and gardens being put through a modified Tollemache machine which pulverises the waste before air is forced through it, heating it up to kill potentially-harmful microbes.

The end product can then be left to become compost or fed through an anaerobic digester which will generate electricity.

It is believed the site could produce between one and three megawatts of electricity which will be sold to the National Grid.

You don't have to tell me.

PS - after my wife of course.

They were so important to music history...

Even David Frum knows:

American voters are staggering under the worst financial crisis since at least 1982. Asset values are tumbling, consumer spending is contracting, and a recession is visibly on the way. This crisis follows upon seven years in which middle-class incomes have stagnated and Republican economic management has been badly tarnished. Anybody who imagines that an election can be won under these circumstances by banging on about William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright is … to put it mildly … severely under-estimating the electoral importance of pocketbook issues.

We conservatives are sending a powerful, inadvertent message with this negative campaign against Barack Obama's associations and former associations: that we lack a positive agenda of our own and that we don’t care about the economic issues that are worrying American voters.

The problem for Mr. Frum is that he seems to think that:

There's something good happening in this country, I hope. John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing the country a big favor by going all Karl Rove on us in this campaign. It's giving Americans another shot at a clear choice - to reward this kind of political behavior and intelligence, or to repudiate it. By doing this, McCain/Palin are doing the Republican Party a big favor also, because this election will hopefully provide the kind of crushing that will allow the silent and squeamish-about-Rove conservatives to squash the screaming memesters like political cockroaches and try to clean up their kitchen and be relevant in educated political conversation again.

Gone. I liked My Place Pizza, too. I think it had been there, under different ownership, since we bought our house here in 1995, but I might be wrong.

The chairwoman of the National Automobile Dealers Association says the credit crunch and economic problems are likely to cause 700 auto dealers in the U.S. to go under this year.

There's more to it than that, I suspect.

My wife and I have larger vehicles that do not get the greatest gas mileage. On the other hand, mine is paid off, and hers will be in a few months. Yes, gas prices are high, but the truth of the matter is that I drive my car less than 8000 miles per year, and that's WITH vacation driving, and although she commutes five days per week, it's mostly highway driving. I suspect we drive less than the average family of four, thanks to my working at home.

My question is this: what is our economic incentive to buy a new car? Both of our vehicles are in pretty good shape. Miles per gallon could and should be better, but frankly, I think that buying a new car today is a fool's game - if technology doesn't improve MPG dramatically in the next five years - or replace MPG with a different fuel source altogether - then humanity is pretty well screwed by our own lack of initiative. I'm betting that cars five years from now will render the new cars of 2009 as relatively obsolete, or at least of little value on the resale market. So what is the economic incentive to buy a new car? I don't get it.

McCain insisted on saying it, though, 19 times, during Tuesday's debate. "My friends"... what is the reason for repeating such a line so many times?

There must be some alternative reason that ticket sales suck besides reality. THERE MUST BE A CONSPIRACY!!!!!

From a tourism survey:

Fifteen percent of respondents have been to a clothing-optional or adults-only resort.

One of the clear cuts on this campaign is that McCain's effort is all about biography, whereas Obama's has been all about political strategy. The McCain camp has been woeful on political strategy. Obama's biography, although interesting, isn't as captivating as McCain's.

This is not a biography year. This isn't about what you did when you weren't President, it's about what you'll do, and how you'll get it done, if you are President. To that extent, all these expected efforts by the McCain camp to blast Obama's biography are likely to fail as long as Obama continues to work the "what the next President has to do" territory.

And to be honest, maybe we're seeing that NO year is a biography year for electing a President. When was the last time a candidate for the office won that had the most compelling - and impressive - biography? 1988?

If you had to pick one to go to this weekend, which would it be?

Four weeks from today is election day. I'm leaning on being a retired political blogger five weeks from now.

I can't imagine the personality that would choose to pay for this as a costume...

Revenue for the West Shore Recreation Commission are down about 20 percent from what they budgeted. In the past few years, fees have gone up for various activities, and I suspect they've learned a bit about the elasticity of activity prices, because they don't appear to think they can go back to that well this time...

The West Shore Recreation Commission is bringing in about 20 percent less revenue than expected this year, which means municipal members may be asked to contribute more money, officials said.

"Our revenues are down this year because of the economy. People are cutting back," commission executive director Carmen Williams said on Friday. "We just had fewer adults participating in summer activities," starting when gasoline jumped to $4 a gallon.

Participation in youth programs has remained steady, she said.

In response to the reduced revenue, the commission laid off one of its five full-time staff members and has cut expenses, Williams said. "I don't know what else we can cut without the organization disbanding. We already had a pretty frugal budget to begin with," she said.

The commission -- whose municipal members include the West Shore School District, Lemoyne, New Cumberland, Goldsboro, Lewisberry and Lower Allen, Fairview and Newberry townships -- offers about 600 fitness, hobby and recreational classes and activities a year, led by part-time instructors and independent contractors, Williams said.

The commission's budget this year is $566,000 and the board recently approved a 2009 budget of $531,000, Williams said. About 70 percent of the commission's revenue comes from participation fees, with member municipalities making up the rest.

The commission will meet on Oct. 14 to discuss the "unforeseen revenue shortfalls" and consider what to do about them, board president Doug Goodlander said. The options include fundraising activities and asking the member municipalities for more money, he said.

Lemoyne Borough Council rejected additional funding for the commission at its meeting Thursday night.

I don't think they're going to have a lot of luck getting more money from local governments who are under a lot of budget pressure of their own. Fundraising is going to be difficult in this environment as well. I suspect that there's going to be an activity by activity audit to determine which programs over the past several years have been revenue losers, and those are going to get cut.

Ranked in the Top 25!

I didn't realize that they're still made in this country... And Altoona tested!

Now do you feel old?

If you're ever at our house, and we serve you a wine that has this label, then you should know that we really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really like you. Like, like you more than we like ourselves... this stuff is over a couple hundred bucks a bottle...

But someday I want to taste it. C'mon rich bloggers, invite us over to share a bottle!

Here's a game that you can spend quite a bit of time trying to master.

When people ask the news media to examine the debate content in detail, I do not think that this is what they mean.

McCain/Palin is ruining the national memory of an enjoyable television western.

Anyone else think this child should be monitored closely by law enforcement for the remainder of his life? Isn't this the stuff of serial killer bios?

I guess I'm a bit jaded, I don't see these "commentators" as just being horrible judges of politics and how Americans see it today, but as strong efforts to try to prop up what can only be perceived as an unacceptable debate result for any Vice Presidential candidate.

You know what would be fun? A CNN program that discusses analysis of the VP debate from four different commentators including the two above, and have one of those "undecided" focus groups with that male/female response graph at the end, and see who people actually believe.

Truth hurts.

Pa. said to be ill-equipped for gas-drilling rush

A top state environmental official says Pennsylvania is ill-equipped to handle the huge influx of interest in drilling for a potentially lucrative natural gas formation.

John Hanger, the acting secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, made the comments during a hearing in Harrisburg before the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Hanger told lawmakers that he needs dozens more employees to review drilling permit applications and inspect drilling sites over the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

He also said he is concerned the state will run out of capacity to treat the contaminated water left over from the drilling process, but that state laws are largely adequate for protecting the environment.

Pennsylvanians have to pay attention to all the costs related to drilling for natural gas in this state. Hanger's warning against the "get rich quick" mentality.

"Maverick" is this year's "pet rock". By the end of this campaign, people are going to be so sick of the term that they won't buy ANYTHING that uses the term. Palin used it six times last night. The Republicans need a thesaurus. Thank you, Joe Biden, for pointing out McCain's dishonesty in advertising:

BIDEN: I'll be very brief. Can I respond to that?

Look, the maverick — let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he's got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against — he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.

He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Can we send — can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't — we can't make it. How are we going to heat the — heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.

I heard an Elvin Bishop song the other night on the radio and thought, I haven't listened to him in forever. Saw him (with Mickey Thomas, yearrgh) at the Sac State Gym in concert in 1979, Bishop doing his cool stroll through the crowd with his guitar. Underappreciated artist in my opinion.

Ugh. Maybe this does explain the weird management of Dusty Baker.

But nothing explains the free agent pickup by the Bengals of one Cedric Benson. I guess they don't have enough problems already.

And proudly put it up in the yard. I tend to think that these things are not convincing of anything unless you see them in mass - now if a dozen of my immediate neighbors put up Obama yard signs as well, perhaps it would be more impressive upon the neighbors who are still undetermined in their voting preference. And it's not like people are going to drive by our house and say to themselves that "if THEY'RE voting for Obama, I have to also". But it's a signal of depth of support, I guess, and it ought to keep any McCain doorhanger people off my yard!

Wow, San Francisco's 29th Annual Exotic Erotic Ball and Expo is this year, later in the month. For some reason, I thought it was older, but I guess I was 21 when I first started hearing about it. And in the 1980s, you heard about it, it was advertised on radio stations and was treated as almost mainstream in some ways.

I don't think people come for the live "professional" entertainment listed here, however.

And then, sometimes, never get around to it. Here's a bit of catchup:

Anyone out there use MailList King? I've had this saved for over a year for a client that was curious but eventually decided not to run their email list through their own servers. I'm still curious.

Quantcast has an interesting review based on traffic of the top visited sites on the Web.

One more web-based question - anyone have any experience using Blue Archer?

I have three or four "newspapers of the world" web sites bookmarked, but haven't settled on one yet as a favorite. Maybe onlinenewspapers.com.

Sometimes Google Trends tells you more than you want to know about the depth of the online public. Spanx underwear?

At some point I was planning to write about The Livermore Earthquake of 1980, since I experienced it and it was quite a sensory experience, but I haven't gotten around to it and not sure I will, other than to say that it scared the hell out of my Grandma.

If she didn't disclose to both campaigns about the book she was writing, that was bad judgment, and is unfortunate, since the biggest advantage a debate moderator has is the image of impartiality and above-board judgment.

On the other hand, the press should get a comment from both McCain and Palin about this before they decide this is a perfect way to avoid the debate in the first place.

I dunno, could it be The Naked Clown Calendar?

Everyone has to take a pic of the Old Bridge when in Florence, I guess.

About college costs:

A recent survey by the College Savings Foundation found that one in four parents want the federal government to cap college costs. Neither candidate plans anything like that, or even smaller steps such as forcing schools to spend more from their endowments to hold down prices. That's a relief to colleges, which resent interference from Washington.

The reasons why college prices are rising are complicated, and largely beyond the purview of the White House. Washington provides $86 billion annually in grants, loans and tax benefits to support students, but it's state budgets that mostly determine public colleges' list prices.

Critics say colleges share the blame, for failing to curtail their own spending. Families also bear some responsibility: While they gripe about rising prices, in the end, many still choose more costly schools. That could change in a prolonged economic downturn.

And there we have it, about the total depth of America's discussion on how to reduce the costs of college education. There is a culture of ignorance in our country about this issue, and even as one of the ignorant I realize that it's time I (and everyone else) get an education on the subject. I'm in the camp that the public college and university system is a grossly inefficient business system that cannot continue to be supported by continually increasing tuition and other costs, and that too many private colleges and universities are mired in branding additional value (and cost) rather than figuring out different and efficient models to expand educational reach. But I'm not married to that opinion, because...

I know I'm ignorant on the topic. I don't feel any less informed than most everyone else, though. I also have two kids that will be in college within a dozen years, and I'd like to hear a national conversation about what we want our country to do about postsecondary education and the values and costs of it. I'd like it to be a focus of the next four years, an effort to start working at a consensus of how our nation expects the college and university system to work in the future - what rewards our society expects, what value it provides, and therefore what kind of cost is reasonable.

I also am tired of the discussion of reducing price to college being so focused on scholarships and grants. That is not a true reduction of price, that is an enhancement to paying costs. Not the same thing, and there's a reason for the difference, and those reasons need to be part of the discussion as well.

So... I hope the next President finds some innovative ways to get the conversation really rolling on this topic. If people want things to change - really change - on this issue, then some radicalizing of the market needs to happen. This begins with a conversation about easy core questions - what are we trying to achieve as a nation with our postsecondary education, how do we measure success or failure with that system, what are the costs and benefits to America with the current system, what are the benefits needed tomorrow and how can we reach them - that have deep philosophical answers that need healthy consideration by the nation.