Gridlock News

Here's a great little Paint Ball Game.  All you have to do is select which Presidential candidate you want to be.  Then you navigate through the levels trying to shoot it out (with paintball) with the other candidates both Democrat and Republicans.  I tried it and was able to easily eliminate Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Rudy, but I was stumped by Mitt Romney who shot my Barack Obama in the fourth level.

On a computer the mouse button is your firing button.  The R button is for reload and your arrow keys move you around To make your player duck, simply hover the cursor over just below the players head. when the donkey or elephant pops up, shoot it for an extra 1,000 points

FYI

This is just a free flash game you play right from the browser, there is no downloading or anything, just hit play and shoot at the candidates with green paint to you feel content.

It's obvious why Dick Cheney doesn't play paintball, first they do not use real bullets and second if he did play he'd need a portable oxygen concentrator.

If Giuliani's poll ranking falls any further, he is going to have to hire a travelpro.

Preferably, one that is not paid for by the taxpayers.

Rudy, who is extremely charismatic could come back if he can find a message that resonates. However he is fighting off his own past mistakes, which include visiting his mistress on the tax payer dime and profiting when the US Government led by GW spied on US citizens.

As a result of his actions and the negative publicity that came from it following the last Republican convention and some investigative blogging/reporting, Rudy dropped 13% in national polls, while Romney and Huckabee advanced.

I read an article this evening by a fellow political blogger that called out the irony that Hillary Clinton is benefiting from her husband stumping for her when he continually cheated on her with other women for many years.

There’s nothing like letting the man who cheated on you in front of the entire world (many times), praise your character and ability to be president.

Title: Big Dick Bill Stumps for Hill at Opinionnation Times

While I think Bill Clinton's character is lacking for cheating on her and not being a little more honest about things, I see no evidence of hypocrisy in his stumping for her like a light fixtures at a festival of lights.  He is stumping for her for political, financial and power reason.  If she wins, they both gain politically, financially and in power.

Bill is not stumping for Hillary to promote her sexual prowess, her looks, her sex appeal etc.  If he were stumping to promote Hillary going to bed and having sex with voters things would be a little more hypocritical.  Thankfully he is not doing that!

There is a 527 group spending money on television ads for John Edwards because he has not taken special interest money. 

The group is the Alliance for a New America headed up by Edwards 2004 Campaign Manager.  (Political Nepotism?  Sure  Normal stuff?  You bet)

In a paradoxical way, Edwards is getting special interest money indirectly from a special interests against special interests!

Critics are charging Edwards to tell this group to stop paying for these TV ads, but Edwards claims that he has no association and no control over the group.  I suspect that Edwards will not protest too much unless his early warning campaign medical id triggers a red alert that his lack of action is creating a backlash.  I doubt that will happen and in the meantime, he'll benefit from more tv ads than anyone.

Fidel Castro has announced that he will not return to power, making his temporary step down permanent.  It is unclear if his brother will continue to rule Cuba or if there will be some change in the future.

"My elemental duty is not to hold on to positions and less to obstruct the path of younger people," the 80-year-old Castro said in a letter read on Cuban television. ~ Reuters

Castro took power during what was supposed to be a communist revolution.  It rapidly became apparent to any doubters that it was just another revolution by a dictator.

Once Castro finally passes away, it will be up to Cuba to determine just what type of country and government they really have and what they will really do.

The country of Cuba has and has always had a great deal of potential, but that potential has been on hold for the last 40+ years.  The country needs to determine if they are finally going to enter the world economy, which at a world stage functions in a capitalistic capacity or if they will continue to remain mostly isolated selling cigars, oil and cat furniture.

There is a rapidly growing effort around the United States and the world for that matter to increase the size of the eco economy.  Many eco friendly products are becoming not only more popular but in some cases much more practical.

Solar energy used to be a nice to consider project for those inclined to invest money in something that would not likely be paid off in savings.

Personally, I am making attempts to be part of the solution and less part of the problem.  I no longer commute to work.  I run a Solar energy focused site these days as well writing about solar related products both from a practical use perspective but also from the perspective that it is a much better investment than it used to be.

Many sites and groups are doing similar things these days.  A site called GreenandMore.com, offers up a combination of both information about eco-friendly products as well as offering a forum to share information and purchase a number of products including energy saving devices as well as products that are environmentally safe or friendly or even designed to clean volatile chemicals from the environment.

They are also offeringa discount through the end of the year.If you utilize the coupon code GREEN10 you will get a 10% discount on your purchases through their website.

All year I have been watching Meet the Press and their segments to "Meet the Candidates".  Meet the Press is working to bring every Presidential Candidate onto their show for an in depth interview.

I just finished watching the interview with Mitt Romney and reviewed it within my column on No More Incumbents.  In my opinion, Mitt Romney appears to be one of the most dangerous candidates running for office in either party and a good deal of the potential risks that he brings to politics in the United States was evident in his interview on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, who did a very good job of incisively targeting some of the issues surrounding Romney like a surgeon plasma cutting the cancer out of a patient.

• Dec. 16: Mitt Romney (R): Netcast | Transcript
• Dec. 9: Rudy Giuliani (R): Netcast | Transcript
• Nov. 11: Barack Obama (D): Netcast | Transcript
• Nov. 4: Fred Thompson (R): Netcast | Transcript
• Oct. 28: Chris Dodd (D): Netcast | Transcript
• Sept. 23: Hillary Clinton (D): Netcast | Transcript
• May 27: Bill Richardson (D): Netcast | Transcript
• May 13: John McCain (R): Netcast | Transcript
• April 29: Joe Biden (D): Netcast | Transcript
• Feb. 4: John Edwards (D): Netcast | Transcript
• Jan. 28: Mike Huckabee (R): Netcast| Transcript

Meet the Candidates - Meet the Press, online at MSNBC- msnbc.com

We all have experienced telemarketers calling at all times of the day and night.  We signed up for the do not call Registry and for a few short months we had relief.  But then the telemarketers got wise and the calls started coming again.

They're using a technology that many businesses are using today to save money on their phone bills.  Its voice over IP(VOIP).

For businesses and consumers that means that you got to pay for long-distance and you don't have to worry about minutes.  For telemarketers, it means that you can make phone calls and nobody knows where you're calling from.

That means for telemarketers when they call you, you don't have to worry about you screening out their calls with caller recognition or caller ID.

Plus it enables them to plug their systems into computers which can dial your number automatically and as soon as you actually pick up the phone it in connection to other operators will start talking to as if they dialed the phone themselves.

Now, I'm not encouraging this tool or these phone systems for telemarketers, but it can save consumers a good deal of money.  Just like many technologies this one has its good and its bad.

There are many brands that produce this technology from Motorola(my former company) to Skype to Vonage and then many other manufactures such as Talkswitch, Bizphon, Panasonic and many many others.

You can use this same technology to fight the telemarketers.  You can setup a VOIP system in your home or business and use the system to screen your calls just like your email program screens out spam.  In fact you can have your voice mail sent to email and listen to your voice mail like files.

Congress tried to block telemarketers, but ultimately the market was too nimble.  Maybe our next best bet is using technology to block phone spam.

To much Junk definitely causes gridlock in traffic, in politics, in finances, in life and in spirit.  Here's 9 suggestions to reduce the junk and the gridlock!

1. Give the Gift of Life - Heifer.org ~ organization enables people to give pairs of livestock to poor families in villages around the world.  The offspring of these animals must then be given to other members of the village.
2. Care Packages for Deployed Troops - ~ Send a care package, post card, food etc to a specific person in the military deployed somewhere around the world.  It cheers them up significantly shows them they are supported and that positive encouragement often times helps them to renew their spirits just a bit and pass that along to the people they encounter.  Keep your ambassadors Happy and Healthy!
3. Worried about Dangerous Toys?- Don't buy any toys for Christmas.  Its really kind of simple.  (Although I'm still trying to convince my own wife and family.)  Instead use that money to DO something with your family, maybe a family vacation, a trip to a museum, concert, play, play some games, go hiking, skiing, sledding anything but why waste the money on something that will probably end up in the trash bin in a few weeks and might even be dangerous.
4. Buy your Kids a Pet - Adopt a cat or dog from a shelter.  You might even consider getting rabbits or guinea pigs or a chinchilla or a bird or something.  An animal helps your children learn some responsibility but more importantly it helps them learn how to connect and practice kindness.  But don't expect it to happen automatically.  If your child has no experience with pets, then you may need to teach them this behavior.  Playing with a toy or a doll or stuffed animal is not the same as playing with a dog or cat or rabbit.  Take the time to teach your child how to be kind to the animal.
5. Share Books or Books on Tape or Books on CD - Once you have listened to one of these books, possibly even during a road trip during the holidays to a friend or relative's house, then give them the book so that they can share in the experience.  If you must spend something a subscription to Audible.com can be a great gift as well.
6. Give a Laptop Get a Laptop See - LaptopGiving.org from the 1 laptop project
7. Make a DVD to send to your relatives.  It doesn't cost much these days, but does take a lot of work and effort.  The tools are easy with apple or WindowsMovieMaker(free with XP or Vista)
8. Go to the Mattresses - This is kind of a necessity, but its also something that people do not think of during the holidays.  I only think of it now as I have been sleeping on a terrible bed the last few months while I live in corporate housing.  A good comfortable bed is definitely the gift that keeps on giving, plus if they must have a stylish present you can always opt for whatever their tastes might lean towards from simple platform beds to something lofty.  Just make sure you focus on getting a good mattress!
9. Buy someone their name as a domain - example mine  BrettBumeter.com  Of course I haven't done anything with the domain yet, but it does redirect to my info.  Nice gift for the kids as well, kind of let's them grow into themselves on the internet.  It's a little vane but so is a Lexus to Remember.