Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-New York) said this to the CEOs of Ford, Chysler, and GM at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee:

“There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they’re going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses.

“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious. Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet- pooled or something to get here? It would have at least sent a message that you do get it.

“Maybe you can tell us what you’re actually going to do to sell cars people want. Somebody heard that we’re giving out free money in Washington. They’re showing up from all over the place. But you don’t want to put your last tourniquet on a dead guy.”

I think there’s a sense of class warfare brewing here, but people are scared.  I have a dear friend with 2 small children that just lost his job.  But his tax money is supposed to go to pay someone $30+/hour to bolt bumpers on a Saturn?  Nice work Rep. Ackerman.  You’ve managed to secure a safe re-election with this one comment I’m sure.

I’ve got great friends.  I always have and I really value them.  One of my best and long-running friends is Mike.  If you’ve ever checked out the Root Beer Boys blog you’ve seen him on there.  He’s talented at anything that he chooses.  He pretty much kills it on a skateboard (see here or here), the type of guy everybody stops to watch skate because he’s on a different level.

So on to the centaur part.  He, one of the other Root Beer Boys, and another friend started a band a few months back.  Mike’s been talking about it a lot because he was really excited about the name of the band.  It’s called Brown Secret.  I know, that’s what I thought too but the name refers to the fact that Mike is secretly a brown-furred centaur.  He was talking about the centaur suit he was making for their first show.  To be honest, I had my doubts.  It sounded kind of dumb and I didn’t really get it.

Mike the centaur

He called me and told me about their first show which took place on November 1st.  I knew it was coming…the centaur get-up I mean.  Then he came out from backstage and I nearly wet my pants from laughing.  It was fantastic!  I snapped a couple of photos with my cell phone hence the poor quality.  And I wish I had taken something from the side because this thing was incredible.  Mike built the frame himself and his girlfriend Jenny, an accomplished seamstress, put the fur on.  It stuck out from his backside something like 6 feet and had the perfect finishing touch of a horse tail.  The back legs had casters underneath so when he walked they rolled behind him.  He plans to do this for all future shows as well.

I’m so thankful for Mike.  Our friendship, while sometimes sporadic, is one of the most valuable to me.  And seriously, who could not love someone that dresses up as a centaur in public?

Zmed (right) with Shatner

Anybody remember this guy?  He was in TJ Hooker as William Shatner’s partner and apparently was in Grease 2 as well.  Anyways, I had a dream last night in which Adrian Zmed made an appearance.  I can’t remember the exact circumstances of the dream but I do know that he was in a full police uniform and he was in character.

I find it absolutely fascinating how the brain works.  That is why I’ve added a category called dreams to my blog.  Why in the world would Adrian Zmed of TJ Hooker fame come to mind?  I probably haven’t seen the show in something like 15 years.  And I never even liked the show except for my teenage pre-occupation with co-star Heather Locklear.

Am I nuts?  Probably.  But the amazing thing to me is that in a total state of unconsciousness my brain can find and retrieve this kind of information, not to mention create an interaction between myself and a television character that I haven’t consciously been aware of in almost half my life.  Thanks, God, for a brain that we’ll never understand but we have a lifetime to enjoy.

Well, it looks like sweeping victories for the Democrats.  We’ll all know for sure in a few hours but I suspect that they will not only have the presidency but will also comfortably control at least one if not both houses of Congress.

I know that you all feel great about the elections today.  I would too if my “side” had done as well.  Now with all being said and done I want to bring something to your attention: I want you to remember the vicious treatment that you heaped on Sarah Palin.  And I want to ask you, was it worth it?  I bet many of you would say that it was.

In many ways you had an untouchable candidate.  And I’m glad for that because I genuinely hoped that Barack Obama’s race would not be an issue.  It wasn’t.  I was also hoping that Palin’s sex would not be an issue.  But you made that the biggest issue of the whole campaign.  The attacks started immediately and endured until election day.  This isn’t sour grapes.  I just want you to take a minute during all the celebration and wonder if basically ruining someone’s public image was worth it.  The Republicans aren’t much better here, but they didn’t attack Obama with 1% of the ferocity that you displayed with Palin.  And Biden was basically left as an invisible candidate.

I still love you as much as I did before all this began.  I have learned some things that have alarmed me, both about myself and about your beliefs.  But tomorrow the sun will come up.  And, for the sake of the country we love,  I hope that President Obama is half the man that you all think he is.

Well, here goes snikpod V2.0.  My exit from blogging before was less than dignified, and if you don’t remember that’s a good thing.  You’ll have to trust me that I was pretty much a jerk.  But I’m back, and as most often happens, I feel that a couple more years under my belt has made me a little smarter and a lot less combative.  So we’ll just kind of have to see where it goes because I really have no plan.  I just felt that I wanted to get some stuff off my chest at times, especially with the election.  Ohhhhh the election…

I do not share the extremist opinion of many of my friends that if Obama wins then America ends.  I was also made aware of a local Bible study that was addressing the topic of Barack Obama as the anti-christ.  (A special note to those who organized such a study: get off my team!)  Please do not read this as an endorsement of Barack Obama because I would probably vote for Ralph Nader before I would vote for Obama.  I will cast my vote Tuesday for John McCain and he will most likely lose.  And this country that most of us love will continue on.  Things will happen politically and judiciously with which I will not agree.  But you won’t hear me saying MR. Obama like everyone likes to do with PRESIDENT Bush.  No matter who we voted for, our next president will be titled as such.

Feels good to get some of that out in open.  I fully expect that many people won’t agree with my views on this.  That’s ok, but let’s be civil.  Maybe the politicians could consider doing the same?