So, who are YOU gonna vote for??

I don't know who wrote this, so I don't know who to give credit to, but I thought it was interesting.....


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.


Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere.
"

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere.
"
(edit-just heard, she also didn't give the money back.)

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.
"

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.


PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.
"

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.


Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.


He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.


MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.


THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.


MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.


THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.


FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.
"

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.


FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.
"

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

FINALLY some GOOD movie news!

Well, only 27 years after it was made, one of my favorite lame "punk rock" movies is finally out on dvd. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains" is coming out Sept. 19th.
If you've never seen it, it's about a girl punk rock band, fronted by a very young Diane Lane, and Laura Dern. They get very popular, and get thrown on a tour with The Looters, who is comprised of some actor as the singer, and Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols/Professionals on guitar and drums and Paul Simonon of the Clash on bass. They're both support bands for a "Kiss"-type band fronted by Fee Waybill of the Tubes.
The girl band gets a much bigger response on the tour and end up headlining. This movie was obviously written by someone who was in a shitty punk rock band and thought they should have been bigger than they were.
It's definitely worth checking out, if only for the "live" footage of the bands.
5 stars

Whew! I'm actually in a GOOD mood after writing a movie blog! haha!

That's it....

I give up.....
Look at THIS.

One of the pitfalls of living in a house in an alley....

For the second time in as many days, I had to chase a drunk away who was taking a piss on the wall.
This one was weird, though.
I told him to "get the fuck out of here", "an alley isn't a fucking toilet, asshole", etc....
Then he came back with "Are you telling me you've never pissed in an alley before?"
I said "No, I haven't!"
He said "Are you serious? You've NEVER pissed in an alley before?"
Am I missing something? I'm used to that sort of questioning when I tell people I've never drank before. I get a LOT of "Seriously? You've NEVER drank alcohol?"
But pissing in an alley?? Is this a by-product of the whole drinking thing I'm missing out on? It sounds like almost no fun at all.
Oh, well. Add it to the list of shit I don't understand.

Bigfoot must be real...

Hell must have frozen over, and pigs can now fly.

I had a good experience at Safeway.

It's good to know the folks at Safeway read my blogs.
They must.
Either that or the old cliche must now say "53rd time's a charm."
I went grocery shopping today. I didn't used to hate grocery shopping, but in the last year, I've learned to.
I remembered my stupid card this time. I found everything I was looking for, too. The lines were long, but as soon as I got in line, a clerk came up and said, "I'll take you over here sir." and opened up a new register. He didn't drop anything, and my total came to $50.01. I gave him $51, expecting him to be a prick about the penny and give me .99 back. But he handed back the dollar!
So, while I bitch when people are assholes, I like to think I give credit when they're not.
So, Safeway, here's to you.
Keep it up. Don't make me blog about you ever again.

*sigh*

I seriously think these movie executives sit around in a huge conference room asking each other "What can we do today that will piss Tom off?" Then they do it.

It was just announced that Billy Bob Thornton is going to play Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare On Elm St. remake.
I think I've made my opinions on remakes clear.
I like how they call it a "reimagining". What they really mean is "We've completely run out of ideas. People go see these stupid remakes. Which one can we remake to cash in on this shit?"
Y'know, make all the sequels you want. If they're any good, people will go see them. But leave the original alone. Normally, I'd have put that last sentence in bold and in CAPITAL LETTERS, but I'm just beat down. There's nothing left in my tank. It takes a lot out of me to hit that "caps lock" button.
I also like how they say "Ooooo, Wes Craven is involved, so it'll be good!"
Did anyone see "The Final Nightmare"? It was the one where Heather Langenkamp, Nancy in the original, plays herself, the actress. She is making another "Nightmare" movie in the movie. The "real" Freddy Krueger haunts the set. Or something. It fuckin' sucked. And Wes Craven wrote and directed that.
Fuck it. I'm done.

Oh, and they're remaking "Fargo" with Jake Gyllenhall and Ice-T as the hitmen, and Elizabeth Hurley as the cop.
















Not really. But admit it. It didn't sound all that far-fetched, did it??

Ok, a little more bitching....

I have been living in my current house for one year. Happy anniversary to me. Anyhoo, my neighborhood grocery store is now------ Safeway. (I just threw up in my mouth a little).
Ok, quickly, a list of businesses I have a problem with:
Starbucks
Safeway

Maybe it's just businesses that start with "S".
Look out, Shopvac and Sara Lee. You're fuckin' next.

So, in the one year I've lived here, I go to Safeway once a week to get my groceries. So, roughly 52 trips to Safeway. 52 SHITTY trips to Safeway. And counting.

EVERY time I go there, I come out saying to myself "I'm NEVER going back in that shithole ever again." But I do, because it's the only grocery store in walking distance.
When I go in there, the clerks are downright rude. They drop my groceries on the ground when they run them over the scanner only to pick them up and continue like nothing happened. No "sorry, sir, can I get you another one?" (this has happened 4 times in the last year! In all my 44 years, I've never had that happen ONCE till I started going to this dump!)
I get money orders there to pay my bills. Usually I go somewhere else, but Safeway has stamps. So, I bite the bullet and go when I have to. EVERY time, I stand at the counter waiting for a clerk. If it's only 10 minutes I consider myself lucky. Employees walk past me and when I ask them if someone is working the counter, at best I get a slight acknowledgement that I exist, at worst I get completely ignored. When a clerk decides to show up, they act like they're doing me the biggest favor by waiting on me, punching buttons on the machine WAY too hard, shaking their head, acting VERY put out, like it's MY fucking fault their life sucks.
Sometimes I forget my stupid little Safeway card. When I tell the clerk, and give them my phone number, of COURSE it doesn't work. So, I guess I'm fucked. At Albertson's, they have a card at the register that they scan for me. Not here, though. You're fucked. And I get VERY pissed at myself when I forget my goddamn card. It's almost worth walking all the way back home to get it.
It's gotten so bad with this ass pit that the other night, when I found myself completely out of food, I actually ordered a $20 pizza from Round Table just so I wouldn't have to deal with their bullshit. $20 is my grocery money for the week.

Someone PLEASE open a new grocery store close to my house!