Wait, why is this controversial?

Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law today a bill aimed at insuring fair and untainted elections throughout the state.

According to the usual sources (liberal media, howling libs, etc.) the bill will stifle election turnout by increasing voter intimidation and making it harder to vote.

?!?

The bill changes the early voting times from 15 - 6 hour days to 8 - 12 hour days, which makes it easier for working voters to vote before or after work. I guess knowing that unemployed voters are more likely to vote Democratic, since they want to keep the gravy train rolling, media hacks figure that this somehow benefits Republican candidates.

Yeah, I don't get it either, but I'm not a professional ass kisser/socialist like the liberal media types.

The bill also requires voters who haved moved just prior to the election to cast provisional ballots. According to the above sources, this is a demeaning and intimidating thing meant to scare away voters. Not sure how that works either. The only voter intimidation I've seen in recent times was the Black Panthers brandishing clubs around polling places to keep non-minority voters away.

One mid-state county official said that prior to the last election, he had upwards of 3000 voters move into his district at the last minute and register at the polls when they voted. Coincidentally, all these voters were registered Democrats too. Gee, that doesn't sound suspicious at all.

Out of curiosity, I checked and found a website for Pinellas County that allows you to update your voter info online. Gee, how convenient. Now according to the above sources (again) this whole "online" upgrade is way too hard for college students to figure out and not everyone has internet access yada, yada . . .

Perhaps if the League of Women Voters would take a few minutes away from creating attack ads that target politicians they don't like (read: republican/conservative/tea party) they could help with this whole voting registration thing. I kind of thought that was their purpose for existence anyway.

One official actually stated that voters don't think about stuff like this until the last minute and they shouldn't be penalized for procrastinating.

Yeah.

Here's my thing -- unless you just turned of legal voting age, you've been voting for quite some time. These elections don't sneak up on you. You knew it was coming. If you're too stupid or lazy to get registered, then you don't get to vote. End of discussion.

Like I said, why is this controversial?

---

And apropos of nothing, here's a couple pics of Brooke Hogan in a bikini.

What do you mean, why?

She's got a bangin' body . . . she's kind of cute . . . she's . . . ahh get off me, okay. I've had a long day.

sheesh

Quote of the day

From Ann Coulter's column at Human Events:

"As [Phyllis] Schlafly says, no wonder liberal women think men are pigs: Their men are pigs."

*emphasis mine*

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=43598&s=rcmp

Newt Gingrich performs political sepaku

A few years back, I was one of the Bloggers for Huckabee, actually one of the first bloggers he had on the rolls. And as the campaign primaries unfolded, so did Huck. Or more accurately, he imploded. A series of unexplainable gaffes and ham handed political mistakes cost him the primary and I believe the presidency. Because I believe he would have defeated Obama in the general election.

It was painful to watch him unravel thusly. I believe due to the rigors of the campaign, something he had not really prepared himself for.

I'm getting a deja vu thing here with Newt.

His disastrous performance on Sunday's Meet the Press, probably ended his campaign before it ever got off the ground.

Bashing Paul Ryan's budget, talking about right wing social engineering, contradicting himself -- he displayed a tone deafness to the grass roots political uprising in his own party that defies explanation.

Of course, he's desperately trying to walk this stuff back. Talking about how the MtP thing was out of context, how he wasn't aggressive enough, too scholarly, yada, yada . . .

I'm going to give him the same benefit he gave Sarah Palin after her ambush interview by the now unemployed Katie Couric -- how can Newt hope to run the country when he can't handle a simple interview?

I'll give him credit for taking his lumps and trying to fix all this. And he actually seems to relish the idea of fighting to restore his campaign. But I believe he's done for here.

I wouldn't have voted for him unless he was the Republican nominee anyway. My personal feeling is that Newt's a lot like Bill Clinton -- Clinton only wanted to be President so he could spend the rest of his life being referred to as "Former President Clinton" it was a resume thing, not a "vision thing" as Bush used to say.

Plus, they have better looking interns in Washington as opposed to Arkansas. And you know how ole Billy Jeff likes him some interns.

Newt just wants to show a list of "things" he got done. He doesn't care if they fit in with his political party's ideals, he just wants a list of accomplishments after his name. That's why someone who is supposedly so smart has jumped fully onto the farsical AGW bandwagon and refuses to notice the scores of scientists now pointing out all the faulty science and misinformation in Al Gore's ponzi scheme.

So sadly, Newt's going to keep making the rounds of the talk shows, walking back his talk and diluting the field for the next election. All to feed his ego.

It's going to be a long drawn out political death, and one that will probably be enjoyed as much on the right as the left.

Why the post office doesn't work -- part 1017

So my truck breaks down on the route today.

Like I'm supposed to do, I call the office. And I call again. And again. And again.

Yeah, no one's answering.

So I finally text one of the clerks and ask her to pass along the info that I'm broken down and calling the maintenance guys to service the truck.

I takes the dude about 30 minutes to get out to my truck. Now bear in mind -- I told the dispatcher what was wrong with the truck, so they had an idea of what was up before hand. Turns out it's the starter. Problem is, the mechanic doesn't have a starter with him.

?!?

After I described the problem on the phone, they don't send out the necessary parts to fix the vehicle.

So the dude calls in for the part to be sent out. And we wait. And wait. And wait.

It finally gets there after nearly another 30 minutes. So I've been standing out in the sun, doing nothing, for over an hour now. And guess what? Guy has brought the wrong starter!

?!?

Now apparently, there are only two types of starters for these vehicles. If it was you, would you not have brought one of each with you? You know, just in case. 'Cause you've got this big ole' truck and them lil' starters are so teensie weensie, why golly, you could just put bunches of them in there without causing any problems.

So they call, again, for the right part to be delivered. And we're gonna have to wait for it. And again, bear in mind -- I've been on the clock for over 7 hours now with no break or lunch and it's mid-afternoon and I've got 3/4's of my route left to deliver and my truck is still broken!

So I call my office and tell my boss I'm going to need another truck, 'cause heaven knows how much longer this is going to take and I'm going to need help to get off the street by 5:00pm.

Now the 5:00 window, though total bullsh*t, is a really hot topic at the P.O. They harp on it constantly and it is a daily source of aggravation and point of contention between management and craft.

So my boss knows what's up. Knows all the consequences of delays here. My office is 5 minutes away from where I'm broke down. The vehicle maintenance office is over 30 minutes away. Wanna guess who gets to me first?

My bosses, but only by one minute!

Long story short (too late, I know), I swap my stuff out, get some help from another carrier, skip my lunch (if you're counting at home, that's almost 10 hours on the clock with no breaks or food) and get done.

A simple situation, something that could have been handled with a minimum of disruption to the timely delivery of my route turned into a complete clusterf*ck nightmare!

And this incompetence permeates every level of the Post Office. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of decent, hard working, consciencous workers at the P.O., but gross stupidity and mis-management runs rampant throughout the organization.

And to think, I'm going to have to ride this Titanic all the way to the bottom.

*groan*

---

And for no particular reason, here's Adrianne Palicki, of the now cancelled Wonder Woman reboot. Probably a bad idea, since tv writing pretty much sucks these days, but I was looking forward to seeing if they could pull it off.

Plus she's kind of hot, which is a good thing.

Rule 5 Sunday -- Joanna Krupa

This week's Rule 5 posting is Joanna Krupa.

I'm not entirely sure why Joanna is so famous. I mean, I know she's pretty hot, and she's got a pretty hot sister. And I know she does a lot of modeling in sexy lingerie or swimsuits. Sometimes even naked . . .

Oh . . . *slaps palm to forehead* . . . okay, nevermind.

*click on the thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Eesh, what a week!

Man, the first week back after vacation has really sucked! I had plenty of things I wanted to blog about, and just couldn't get up for it. Good thing no one actually follows this blog, they might be disappointed. heh

It poured rain today. We had the Food Drive, so I can barely lift my arm. Did you donate? It's a good cause, especially now with the economy in the crapper. My customers are the greatest, they actually go shopping for stuff and leave bags of groceries at their mailboxes.

Thanks guys!

As I type this, the Rays lost to the Orioles, but remain in first place in the East. Wade Davis got smacked around a bit, and the offense forgot to show up. This is where the presence of a dominant clean-up hitter would help out. hint, hint

The Sox are in a pitching duel with the hated Yankees -- scoreless last time I looked.

Update: Sox win in a shut out. Huzzah!

And this just in -- Jorge Posada is a whiny b*tch! Dude's batting close to the Mendoza line and instead of accepting his move to 9th in the order, he opted out of the line up and plans to give a "statement" after the game.

Hey Jorge, here's a statement for ya -- try showing a little class. Take a cue from Jason Varitek of the Sox. He gracefully accepted his limited role/dh and hung around to mentor the new catchers that are following in his huge footsteps.

Fun fact -- 'tek's the only catcher in history to catch four no-hitters with four different pitchers!

But don't expect class from one of the whiny millionaires on the Yankees.

Huck's decided not to run for President, to the cheering from the right wing pundits. I guess the bit where Huck polled better than any other candidate against Obama didn't mean much to these geniuses.

They're still hung up on the bad grade he got from the Club for Growth when he was governor of Arkansas. Never mind he was lauded as one of the top five gov's in the country. He couldn't run his cash poor state like New York or Florida.

And oh yeah, here's my thing -- why are conservatives letting the left tell them who to run for President?! Ever notice how the only people the right talks about are the losers the left tells them should run? Trump, Ron Paul, Mitt "flip-flop"? Maybe the left likes these guys 'cause they couldn't win in a race against each other, let alone the current President with the entire media behind him.

But what do I know.

---

And I know these pics have been everywhere already but here's my thoughts:

Remember when everyone was saying that Miley was getting all tatted up, 'cause she was acting out over her parent's possible divorce? Yeah, well apparently little Miley likes the ink 'cause mommy looks like midway carny! No wonder Brett Michaels wanted her on his Rock of Love skank bus. jeez

And for the record, I apologize for noticing that Miley looks kind of cute in a bikini.

Because everyone else has weighed in on Lady Gaga

Deliberately being lazy yesterday on the penultimate day of my vacation, I caught Lady Gaga's HBO special. It was hard to miss, actually, because they ran it back to back on every effin' channel all day long!

But I did watch it. And here's my thing -- it was pretty good.

I'm not on the hater parade about Lady Gaga. She's a musician, not a rocket scientist, so I don't get all the angst over her from, well, pretty much everybody. Her music has an interesting sound to it. Some I like, other stuff -- meh.

In my other blog, I gave my thoughts on Born this Way, her note-for-note reissue of Madonna's Express Yourself. And aside from being perplexed that she wasn't sued over it, I like the song. Mostly because I liked the original.

But her MSG performance that HBO taped was a nice mix of spectacle throughout. It has a theme -- her and her friends travelling to the Monster Ball. They get lost and singing ensues.

Despite all the noise about Lady Gaga, one thing is very clear -- chick can sing live. And that is something that sets her apart from the majority of the music industry today. Her voice may not be perfect, but she's got the pipes to pull off a live show that sounds good.

She does a song off her new cd -- You and I -- I think it's called. Performed live, its a pretty tough rocker and sitting at the piano, she pounds that sucker out -- with, as she points out, her "long ass New York fingernails" -- I was impressed.

She makes a point during the show about not lip-synching her performances which sounded like it was aimed at Britney (who completely deserves it, imho). But she is clever enough to have 3 or 4 back up singers who harmonize excellently with her. This allows her to vocally step in and out of songs to manage the dancing involved. It's a savvy tactic, and something that winds its way through her entire music career -- she's taking everything everyone else before her has worked out, and put it all together in one package -- her.

She plays the audience, throughout the show, like a violin. For someone who's just burst on the scene, she displays a long time pro's knack for knowing how to work a crowd. Watching her push the audience's buttons again and again brought a smile to my face. It was a veteran-like performance from someone who simply shouldn't know how to pull it off. But does.

Gaga takes a lot of hits for pandering -- whether it is to gays, or her audience in the form of self empowerment spiels, shout outs to celebs in attendance, etc. Again, here's my thing -- what performer, in any genre isn't pandering to their audience in one way or another? Whether its making music they think their fans want, or movies, or writing books, everyone selling a performance is pandering to their fan base.

Lady Gaga is just a bit more blatant about it.

So I say -- so what? Don't like it? Don't pay attention to her.

And I've got to give her props for self-confidence, because she spends almost the entire show half naked. And that's a gutsy thing. From a purely guy-ish standpoint, that's some amazing white girl booty she has going on there! The dancing is nothing elaborate, but she's moving with the music and it seems kind of natural. I always thought those singers that were noted dancers -- Madonna, Michael & Janet Jackson -- always looked better when they just danced rather than worked so hard at choreographed numbers. Gaga keeps it simpler with her moves and to this rythymless old white guy, it looked pretty good.

With the exception of one part in the show where she went a bit overboard to be religously discourteous, it was worth watching again. And I have.

So if you haven't seen Lady Gaga, and want an idea of what all the hubbubs about, I recommend watching it. And if you're already a fan, and haven't seen it, you're missing something.

To reinforce my point about her pipes, here's an acapella version of Born this Way that plays at the end of the show. Again, girl does have some talent: