How to- Be the Most Informed Person Around

A few links to helping you be the one who knows everything that is affecting the world.

DESKTOP NEWS TICKERS
D.N.Ts are little tickers that you download and they run accross your screen. Some have the option of setting it to NEWS ALERTS. Everytime something urgent occurs, you can get little pop-up boxes whenever something is happening. Here are some good ones…

CNN News Ticker- http://edition.cnn.com/services/desktopnews/
FOX News Ticker- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89257,00.html
BBC News Ticker- BBC has some of the best international news coverage in my opinion- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223354.stm
ABC News Ticker- http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/feature?section=resources&id=5792262

NEWS SITES
You should have a few general news sites to visit often. IF you are particularly into something like the stock market or sports you should find a specialty site for that.
GENERAL NEWS SITES-
CNN.com
Yahoo.com
Aol.com
Msn.com

Sports Sites-
Rivals.com
ESPN.com
Si.com

Business Sites-
WallStreetJournal.com
Fool.com

Political Sites-
Politico.com
FreeMarketNews.com – PERSONAL FAVORITE

NEWS CHANNELS
Watch the news- CBS, NBC, FOX(even though I hate them), ABC, CW, CNN, BBC

Father/Soldier Posts Youtube of Gross Conditions in Military Baracks

15 months in Iraq. All you want is to see your family, some McDonalds, and to use a good bathroom. Sgt. Jeff Frawley found the conditions in Fort Bragg’s bathrooms disgusting. Bad enough he was willing to post a YOUTUBE video about it.

Chipping paint, which could be good because it’s lead-based anyway according to Frawley covers the walls. 3 inches of water cover the floor. Most of it is used…. The military and other government officials promised action. Sen. Elizabeth Dole described it as unacceptable conditions. Ed Frawley, father of Jeff, says he hopes nobody gets fired and that they just fix it.

“They [the military] have the slowest contractors in the world” says Ed Frawley.

See the video by Frawley for yourself.— Click here.

Tibet Watch- Seoul Leg is Disrupted in Relay

It was the greatest protest yet. Despite China outnumering “Free Tibets”, it was a good fight to the finish. Around 8,000 riot police were deployed to cover the 15 mile area of where the 17th leg of the relay was happening. Looks like we need to ship some hippies over to help out the Tibet protestors. (Get a one-way ticket and it could be a win-win!)

All I can say right now is that China is going on the offensive…

All Korean officials could say was that the protestors have a right to speak their minds, but this is neither the time or place to do it.

Jens Galschiot, creator of the “Pillar of Shame“, was denied entrance along with other members of Color Orange. They were told that it was due to immigration reasons. China is really weird like that. They have an incredibly crazy human rights record, yet they cover something as small as that up.

We’ve still got a long ways to go with this relay. It ends obviously in August in Beijing. I don’t know if any Tibetans are crazy enough to protest in China, I guess we’ll see.

94th Annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner

For anyone who didn’t catch any of it, I saw maybe 15 minutes, it was pretty good. Everyone was making fun of everyone as usual. It’s always great to see how good politicans are at putting on fake smiles after they’re mocked.

Craig Fergusson, the comic for the night, was really good. When speaking about George W. Bush leaving the White House, he said, “You could look for a job with more vacation time.” Ouch. Just because he leaves after every disaster not personally caused by him, DOESN’T mean he folds under pressure.

Bush was pretty funny too. “Hillary couldn’t be here because she’s under sniper fire and Senator Obama is at church.” He can screw up everything but no matter what he’s STILL able to make fun of other people. He’s referring to a misquote by Hillary claiming she was shot at in Bosnia, it was all a mistake. The Obama thing was just he knew a pastor or speaker or something that made negative comments about America.” Bush loves to joke about other peoples’ misquotes, how many hits when I google “bushisms“? About.com has had a Top Ten List of Bushisms every YEAR since he became president. I don’t usually defend democrats, but in this case, George left himself WIDE OPEN.

All in all it was a good night. There were a lot of stars there. Ben Affleck….uhhhh, okay….Ashlee Simpson….ooohhh, bad choice…….the JONAS BROTHERS??? What was George thinking? Who are they going to play for George Bush’s Lil’ Bush side?

What’s wrong with DC? Taxes, war, corruption, and now BOY BANDS.

Need more info?—Click here.

Love Triangle- Obama, Clinton, and McCain- Election Updates

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the 2008 elections news. At this point, I think we can safely assume that McCain is dead……seriously, where has he gone? Why hasen’t he said anything controversial? He still has to win the White House. I mean yeah, “Congrats, you won the nomination for the party that everyone hates. Good job.” He should be out there campaigning and saying things that I can pick on him for.

On the left side of the table, Hillary wants a no-moderator debate. Uh-oh. Looks like trouble for Barack, but he’s not backing down. I don’t know what channel will be hosting it yet and I guess it doesn’t matter really.

In the independent corner, Ralph Nader has been……who are we kidding the last time we heard about him in the news it was to say that he was running.

Atheist Soldier Files Lawsuit Against Military

Like there weren’t enough controversies surrounding the militaries already. Many people in the war are seperated between believing in it and not believing in it, supporting Bush and not supporting Bush, wanting to be there and not wanting to be there.

Now we have a new challenger. One who is bringing up the controversy that he was pressured to believe in God. Twenty-three year old Jeremy Hall has contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation claiming people called him a devil-worshipper, immoral, and gay. Hall denies all of these things.

This is insane! This guy has got to stand up for his rights or else other problems will emerge, so the cause of this is those soldiers. I’ll bet that it was just a few SUPER religious people, but they’ve got to realize that most religions ask for TOLERANCE OF OTHERS. They’re only causing problems for the U.S.  I don’t know if the lawsuit involves money, but Hall said this, “I’m not in it for the money.”  He didn’t deny asking for it though. I really hope it doesn’t because right now America needs every dollar we can get our hands on to feed the war-machine that is the U.S. government.

Summary of my view- This isn’t one of those “over-sensitive-wackos-destroying-the-great-country-of-America”(TM) situations. This is a “miniscule-comment-gone-overboard-one-too-many-times”(TM) situation. We need to know when comments turn into lawsuits. I know that the guys who said the comments have a right to their freedom of speech, but there is a balance as delicate as a Republican’s feelings(just kidding!) between freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Tibet Watch: Chinese Supporters Outnumber Pro-Tibets in Japan Relay Section

So far Tibet has covered the news almost every day since the torch relay started. “Tibet” is the top-searched phrase on CNN right now beating out things like “Ron Paul” at 4th-yeah!, China at 8th, and Obama crawling in at 9.

The tides have turned for China as in this leg, Tibet-lovers are outnumbered everywhere. If they aren’t getting arrested, they’re being ridiculed by China. What’s up with everyone who is Chinese or Tibetan visiting Japan for the relay anyway? I mean, why?  It’s like visiting Canada fr the relay if you’re American. Better yet, if you’re East Prussian, visiting Russia for the events.

Tibet does have cool costumes when they protest, AND they have the Buddhists on their side, but China has almost every company in America behind them. Anybody who makes something makes it in China.

Looks like we’ll be choosing between NewBalance and Freedom.(Just to name ONE possibility).

Hopefully something more exciting than a family being hit with bopping sticks happens during this whole Tibet ordeal. For now, I’ll sit back at pray that no protesters screw up my Olympics. USA! USA!

P.S. I can no longer be held accountable for spelling errors because the spell-check on this thing is screwed up. Example- Is this the right way to spell “with”?

Devil’s Advocate: Sean Bell Verdict

All three police officers tried in the Sean Bell trials have been found GUILTY on 0 of the 8 counts brought against them. Not one lousy misdemeanor.

“This is an injustice. It’s racism!” are the cries of the people. FREEZE-FRAME. Let’s take a look at the police officers. Well, people are mad because they are saying it is a whole racism issue. First off, let me say I think that they were guilty, but right now that isn’t the point. The point is, let’s look at the officers who shot Sean Bell and his two friends.

Here are the cops that were charged. The top-left one actually was not charged, neither was the fifth cop involved because there wasn’t enough evidence to indict them.

There is more than a racism thing going on here. I mean, honestly, it isn’t just 3 guys shooting someone and getting away with it because they’re white and he is black. Two of the cops were African-American. I think that this goes deeper. It’s just a cover-up for the American court system flaunting its power again. It is just showing off what it can do without consequence to people who understand how corrupt it is.

Here is what the Court System is saying, “Haha! I can choose whatever verdict I want and you can’t stop me!”

How it is possible to fix the court systems without screwing up innocent peoples’ lives is the biggest challenge we’ve faced since we killed the Articles of Confederation. (It took 100% vote to change the A.o.C.) The whole double jeopardy thing is only fair when the people actually are innocent. When they’re guilty, it just blows up in our faces.

So here’s my summary of this whole mess- it seemed like another cover their own butts situation with the verdict. Shooting a person because you think they pose a threat to you is a very delicate situation, but there was no immediate proof that Sean Bell or his friends were dangerous. You can’t just walk up and down the streets shooting at people if you think they might have a gun. Even if they do have a gun, you can’t just shoot them. The whole thing was a tangled mess.

Protestor outside after Sean Bell verdict.

Well At Least We Know Barack has Good Strategy

Genius. He knew he would lose, so he rubbed it in Hillary’s face that he would be defeated. He saw the storm brewing, so he went out and said, “I’m screwed, but only by a little bit.” or translation from over-liberal-madness-disease(TM). “I’m going to lose, but by a small margin.”

And he did. So while Hillary was making her big victory speech, (Pennsylvania, take away Hershey Park and they’re just another Utah, WOOHOO!), we knew what she was thinking. CRAP! Barak was such a little spoil-sport. You can’t cheer over something if your OPPONENT says you’ll win! It’s like making a bet that you’ll die.

Barak Obama- strategic genius, so good you could almost forgive him for being a liberal…..almost.

My Pick for the 2008 Election

In the 2008 Election it is between Obama/Clinton and McCain. So who do I want to win???

This is Ralph Nader’s year man!!!! Just kidding. But you can’t say he doesn’t have experience in the election. He’s tried for the White House more times than Pat Buchanan. If that joke flew over your head, read these parentheses, (Pat B. ran under the Reform ticket in 2000 and sought the Republican nomination in ’92 and ’96), are we cool now?

So anyway….during the primaries I was backing Ron Paul. Let me go on a micro-rant here. I’ll keep it to one paragraph, thats all I need to make you consider jumping out of your office when you see how screwed the country is without him.
Ron Paul- Has never voted for a tax increase, is the only candidate who presented a balanced budget, and won almost every debate he was in, including one where he was only allowed to say 6% of the words spoken that night. Awesome. Also, he is the only candidate who wants to pull out of Iraq immediatley. If you want more info and SOURCES, visit KnowBeforeYouVote.com.

So continuing, my main choices for the hot topics of this election are, going back to the gold standard, something only Dr.Paul wants to do, pull out of the war so that I’m not paying more than a few trillion for the debt, and DESTROY THE FEDERAL RESERVE.

Why would we do that? You say inside of your head. The federal reserve is QUASI-private. All of the money we make with them is worthless because it’s not backed by anything, such as gold. And considering that it is made by a partly private corporation, it is double worthless. And we wonder why the debt is going up!!!! Canada’s dollar is equal with us. That means that our value has cut in half. We used to be 2.00 -> their 1.00 now they are equal to us and the Euro is 2.00 to our 1.00. We’re terrible.

Back to the gold standard. Destroy the Federal Reserve so that we can stop borrowing the money we make against ourselves which doesn’t make sense because we pay with the money we borrowed. To explain this, I’ve taken a quote from “Common Beliefs About Money” at http://landru.i-link-2.net/monques/belief3.html. Also, pull out of Iraq, destroy the PATRIOT ACT, and bring back the constitution. P.S. No more intervensionism.

2. The government prints money. The belief is a half-truth. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving prints Federal Reserve Notes for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve pays a price for the notes, owns the notes, and issues them to member commercial banks for the convenience of bank customers who want them. Federal Reserve Notes are symbols of debt created out of nothing by the Federal Reserve when it purchased government securities. That is why they are called notes—they are debt banknotes, but they have been declared legal tender by statute law. Federal Reserve Notes account for only a tiny fraction of the legal, transactional U. S. economy. The government currently prints no money for itself. (See 4. below.)

So now that we know that, let’s give Nader a chance shall we?