Olympic Athlete Veterans for Truth

The time (earlier this month) when GWB showed he had no clue what Tribal Sovereignty meant was bad enough (see the Q&A with Mark Trahant, widely available on the web). It was like watching a high schooler asked to define a word he'd never heard before.

Now GWB can't even admit he hasn't watched the Olympics. What is so hard about him telling the truth, even for something this inconsequential? He could've answered "I really haven't watched the Olympics," but noooooo ... he had to (try to) lie:

REPORTER 1: You're not going to Athens this week, are you?

GWB: Athens, Texas?

REPORTER 1: Nope, the Olympics, in Greece.

GWB: Oh, the Olympics? No, I'm not.

REPORTER 2: Have you been watching them?

GWB: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's been exciting.

REPORTER 2: Any particular moment stand out?

GWB: Umm -- particular moment? I like the -- let's see -- uhhhh -- Iraqi soccer. I liked -- I liked seeing the Afghan woman carrying the flag coming in. I loved, uhh -- you know, our gymnasts. I've been watching the swimming. I've seen a lot, yeah. Listen, thank you all.

-- 23 August 2004

A President Aday Keeps the Meatloaf Away?

Word is that Marvin Lee Aday will accept a write-in vote for President. Wonder if that's possible on the electronic voting machines during Early Voting?

Google du juor: Bush "most corrupt" points to John Dean's Worse than Watergate book. Dean was Richard Nixon's legal counsel, so he presumably knows about corruption! Now age 65, Dean claims that the Bush administration is more secretive, deceptive and politically cynical than even Richard Nixon. Hmm .. strong words.

I might blow him off, if it weren't for numerous similar books by people like journalist Bob Woodward (Plan of Attack); journalist (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty; former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty; investigative journalist Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud, and the list goes on and on and on. Sure, they're all trying to sell books, but these are not people who are out of the loop, and all are putting their credibility on the line. Well, I'm not planning on purchasing any of them. Perhaps I should join a book discussion group and just listen to what others got out of these missives?

The New York Times 2004 Election Guide paints a very different picture than ElectoralVote.com and ElectionProjection.com. I wrote off Texas as a rational state a long time ago; people here confuse loyalty with morality, and the Yellow Dog Republican voters can't be reasoned with; they'd vote for Bush even if he was caught with an intern in the Oval Office.

The states I'm watching more carefully include Ohio, West Virginia and Michigan (where the Swift Boat Liars - VietNam Veterans who can't understand why we hated their war - funneled their money). The Radical Right must think the voters in Ohio, West Virginia and Michigan are complete morons, in the "repeat a lie often enough, and enough people will believe it to sway an election" rationale (which does work, sadly .. but it doesn't make these slimy tactics morally right). Having watched the CFRP smear campaigns for the past dozen years or so, none of this surprises me; they have turned into a "win at any cost" party and may have lost my vote for years to come.

1:30pm news flash: GWB says the Swift Boat Liars For Bush should stop their ads. This is a Catch-22: if they do stop, they will show that GWB was indeed pulling the strings. If they don't, they'll upset their Führer. My, oh my .. what will happen next?

Who shot J.R.? Hey, wait .. this is 2004.

There's an article in today's Dallas Managed News about J.R. Ewing, the fictional oil tycoon portrayed by Larry Hagman (now 72, and in town to promote a DVD) in TV's Dallas.

In the article (titled "J.R. revived? Look in White House, Hagman says"), columnist Ed Bark quotes Hagman saying that J.R. was a failure, and GWB is running the White House in much the same way - incompetently. Wow.

The TV show aired from 1978-1991; it was off the air by the time I moved here, and I didn't watch it before then - but, I'll admit - one of the first things I did after moving was find the Ewing mansion, which is actually in Parker, Texas (20 miles northeast of Dallas) and across the road from a trailer park. If you don't count the huge "SF" [Southfork Ranch] on the side of the barn, you'll easily drive past; it's not terribly well marked.

Trivia: Porsche happily staged a 911 and a 924 in the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode. Gotta love product placement; when I worked in Los Angeles for Sun, we'd sometimes be asked for loaner computers by the movie and television studios, along with a technician to "make them do stuff".

Also, I still smile when I see "EWING DALLAS" on license plate frames; they're from [Ewing Buick-Pontiac-GMC] which just might be capitalizing on the name recognition. I'd bet dollars-to-doughnuts that the employees of that dealership grimace every day when Goober waltzes in, demanding to speak to J.R. about a car.

"doing a Newham" : I like it!

Thanks to BS (not a -Bob) for pointing me to Find-a-Drug. I promise I'll only run it when the UD Agent is down for maintenance.

Deep Thought #43: When someone says "it's not about the money ...", it is ALL about the money.

Case in point: Officials say Linux not a price ploy in Microsoft deal. The term "doing a Newham" refers to pushing Microsoft for lower licensing costs by threatening to "go Linux"; I find it hard to believe that Microsoft considers Linux to be serious competition. Last time I looked, Linux still had less than 3% of the server market share (and this is years after it became politically okay to deploy on something other than Microsoft).

Yesterday, I rendezvoused with Renegade at Culver's in McKinney, and sampled their Pot Roast Sandwich (2 thumbs up!) and a ButterBurger (okay, but not extraordinary). Renegade had the Philly Ribeye Sandwich, which extended well outside the bun (and vanished quickly from his plate). Since Culver's faces 75-Central and is next to a movieplex, I'm predicting it'll do well. Location, location, location is key to success as a QSR (so I've been told).

Finally, I got a free car wash yesterday (my gauge says 1.8" of rain) but still need to hand-wash the wheels. Gotta love organic brake shoes and that black carbon (graphite?) build-up. Hey, they do stop the car efficiently!

The rain in Dallas falls mainly on the Palace

First: this week's Sundry on Thursday has a lot of stuff. The middle of August is a good time to (web)surf, I reckon.

If Gene Bob Were President ...

ALL outdoor cats would be destroyed, if they insist on living outdoors, because of their impact on the wild bird population (they're not native, and thus disrupt the Balance of Nature). New Zealand's already lost 40 species of our Fine Feathered Friends. Keep your cats indoors! Buy a litter box! If you have a rodent problem, buy mouse or rat traps.

Fast Food QSR in DFW

Somehow I wandered across the QSR Magazine [Quick Service Restaurant] site, where they list the Top 50 (fast food) Chains nationwide. I found it interesting that the Metroplex has 40 of those 50 chains (all but Hardees; Carl's Jr*; Checkers; White Castle; Del Taco; El Pollo Loco; Krystal; Bojangles; Papa Murphy's and In-n-Out Burger).

* for purposes of this entry, I listed Carl's Jr. although one can be found within an hour's drive; it's co-located in a Love's Truck Stop in Van, Texas (east of Dallas).

I found 2 units of Culver's in the area and plan to sample this chain Real Soon Now.

Spotted: 2002 Forbes article extolling the virtues of Dallas, and the Four Seasons Hotel. Hey, it's entertaining. I learned a few things. It won't blind you. Objects in the rear view are closer than they appear.

Beta's tummy

I'm concerned about Beta the Wonder Dog; she has an upset stomach. For the past day, she's been regurgitating bile and grass throughout the house. Often, she'll give me enough warning so as to get outside, but not always.

Now, she's not eating her regular food, and can't keep anything down. I gave her some fresh water and a Breathbuster dog biscuit, but (30 minutes later) that mix is now part of the carpet.

I hate to be a hypochondriac and take her to the vet, when all she did is chew on some bad grass in the backyard, but ...

9am update: If it were my upset stomach, I'd pop a Tums tablet, or maybe Mylanta liquid. I thought about this, then nosed around the web to see if that'd be safe for my canine friend. Indeed, there are several references to it helping with calcium problems, so I decided to give her a couple tablets. So far, so good. Time will tell?

1990 deja vu

I watched The Amazing Race 5 again last night; other than Cops, it's still the only reality show I enjoy (probably because it reminds me of my world travels).

In the scene on the bus to Mto wa Mbu ("Mosquito River" in Swahili), one of the Tanzanian drivers charged FIFTY TIMES the going rate ($150 vs $3). It reminded me of the cheating Greek merchants (when I visited Athens in October 1990) which made me never want to return. I hope those attending the 2004 Olympics aren't similarly gouged.

Funny/good stuff I remember about Athens: the winding streets of the Plaka; the Parthenon (and the photo badge in the Parthenon Museum); the Grande Bretagne (hotel); roasting chestnuts on the street corners; the mini-tank in front of the International Air Terminal.

While nosing around the web, I wandered across Athens Survival Guide (which I wish had existed when I travelled there!)

Deep thought #42: I haven't been to Europe since the debut of the Euro (January 2002). Life must be so much simpler, now that you don't have to exchange Greek drachmas for (German) Deutchmarks for Austrian marks every time you cross into another country, losing a little in each exchange. The only unhappy ones must be the European bankers, who made mini-fortunes on those exchanges. Noteworthy: Ireland is in the eurozone, but many European countries have yet to join, so we still have Hungarian florints; Great Britain's Pound Sterling; Swiss marks, etc.

Also (unrelated, but for those keeping score), the guy from Scotts returned yesterday, after the Very Scary Encounter with Gene Bob and his Lawnmower on Saturday.