Fretboard Diagram - Natural Notes

Greetings Googling People,

Like me you might have searched Google for a proper Fretboard Diagram that you can use and makes sense to you. I couldn't find one that really fit for me so I created one. This Fretboard Diagram is large and colorful and easy enough to understand so you can, like me, make sense of the Guitar Fretboard. The notes you see are the Natural Notes, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. the spaces you see without a note displayed are the sharps and flats. They are  there of course but like me you might be getting a case of overload just looking at the Fretboard with every note on it. You can see for instance that the Note A is a blackish shiny dot there. You can look around and see every instance of it at a glance. You'll notice how that A related to the D note in the Pinkish Color, on the Fretboard it's often the next string over and next to the A Note. Relationships you can't see when it'll all in black and white and all the notes tend to run together. Anyways, I hope you find this useful. I've posted it over at the www.truefire.com/forum in the Beginners Section  http://truefire.com/forum/showthread.html?t=561

Spending More Time Learning My Guitar
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Brad Carlton's Bluesology at www.truefire.com/tftv/index.htm
Topic: Mysteries of Life

Nothing too exciting to say. I am spending more of my free time working on my limited understanding of the Guitar. I've found a very good forum at  Truefire.com/forum with plenty of knowledgable and interesting people. We're discussing Guitar Theory,  Practice Tips, Gear and Software and every other topic you can think of. A wide variety of guitar players and instructors there from early players like myself to people who play professionally and who have been at it for thirty years.

I'm watching the Democratic Convention starting in a day or so. I've avoided, successfully avoided any of the Olympics. My own personal boycott of the repressive Chinese Government was quite successful. That and the Olympics aren't what they were. Professional athletes and rigged contests and the whole thing has had a odor of corruption for some time now. I'm not thrilled that some professional basketball players can beat the Jamacian Team, I don't care to participate in the unwarranted hype for some swimmer or for some underage or overage gymnasts. Just a big corporate festival. No thanks. I'll wait for the Professional Football players to start playing in a few weeks. 

It's been interesting listening and watching the Political Theater. I got my Obama announcement and have been rewarded with an offer to buy the first magnetic Obama/Biden car magnet for only fifteen dollars and I did get the mass email from Joe Biden complete with the  video and the friendly use of my first name on the Email. I like Biden, except for an overly coziness with the RIAA and the entertainment industry he seems like a adult and one not swimming in the usual amount of political corruption. A good choice although it'll get pretty dicey with Obama before it reaches the end. The Republicans are well versed in being able to  get the American people see their opponents as liberal anti American pinkos who only want to allow same sex marriage and abortions at will. The Republicans are great at waving the flag and great at getting Americans vote against their own interests in the name of Flag and Country.  An interesting Political Season once again. I've got my popcorn.

Dwight 'Andy' Johnson
Topic: Mysteries of Life

I was going through a bunch of photos, you know the kind we took before the digital pictures made photos less of a tangible item? Well, I happened across a bunch from the Barrister's Ball some ten odd years ago and I was looking at all the photos of couples and all the folks dressed up and found a picture I had taken of my friend Andy Johnson. Another friend, Mark Messier, had informed me that Andy had been killed in a car accident a number of years ago and it's always been with me. I didn't go to the funeral, I didn't know his family, I lost touch with him after law school. But he died, he was a friend and a person I admired for his kind heart and the true lack of meanness in him. He had survived cancer and was thriving and he had graduated from Law School to boot. Great accomplishments for the man only to have those taken in a car accident on a Freeway in Ohio. Just senseless. To me, it's an example of the lack of justice in the world. A good man gone, for no reason. Evil men live and survive and thrive. Sometimes. Well, I'm fond of saying that you should enjoy your Karma - after all you earned it. I guess even the worst of us gets what is coming to them in the end. We all pass, good and evil. Moral and immoral. Some folks perhaps feel tortured by the evil they have caused, the lives they have ruined. Perhaps. But, regardless, we all get judged in the end. The truth often comes out as to who is bad and who is good and if you're righteous then you sleep at night better more often than those who aren't. Perhaps. I'm a fan of the light of day and the truth. The day comes eventually as does the truth. Andy was good, a good man and that's the truth.

 

Florida Primary - Zombie McCain
Now Playing: Brooklyn Bridge - Requiem , Blessed is the Rain
The Primary in Florida is today and it's going to be interesting to see if the last minute smears McCain has visited against Romney will work enough for him to squeak out a victory in the winner take all state of Florida. Of course, never underestimate the stupidity of people and their inability to see through  outright lies and misinformation so you never know. Romney is less than a perfect candidate himself and the same cann be said for Rudy or Huckabee or Ron Paul. Voting has actually been going on for two weeks in Florida which makes the daily polls and swings in support much less the indicators they might be. But as we've seen, the polls aren't always right and surprises are always waiting for us right around the corner. If I had to predict I would predict Romney, the relentless Robocampaigner - will win in Florida. Rudy should show strongly and with any luck at all this could be the beginning of the end for McAmnesty McCain. I really really hate that guy for his Amnesty position as well as his arrogant belief that his position is better than the position as vocalized by the American People. We have just had eight years of someone who didn't listen to anyone and who thought he was a Dictator rather than a President, we don't need another one.

Halloween
Topic: Mysteries of Life
It's near that magical time of year. Halloween. The ring on my phone has been the theme to the Halloween movie for a long time now, Tubular Bells makes an excellent ring. It's an odd holiday, people acting like they want to be scared and lots of fun is to be had at  Halloween parties and with costumes and dressing up. Of course, that's often the theme of the horror movie. People pretending to be at grips with their own mortality by dressing up as the dead, as zombies, as vampires and as crime victims. The fear of death and the fear of the unknown is laughed at and made less fearful by mocking it and making it less unknown and less fearsome.  That's the general view of it all. Some folks are actually like the character Jason in the Halloween movies, they are mentally ill and their motivation and desires are necessarily deviant and wrong. So many people are in between those extremes. It's like skiing, it seems like lots more people are into the activity because it gets so much attention in the media. Most folks don't ski or go to Halloween parites really. In the movies it's often a Halloween party where the mad superhuman killer stalks his victims who pretend to be scary or something other than what they normally are. In real life the actual scary person percolates and bubbles in their own tortured mind until finally erupting and bringing real horror to their victims. You'll hear the news report at any time of the year and in any place. Usually it's long held wrongs or jilted lovers or co workers or someone who was bullied or wronged or a  reason that you can look at and say that it doesn't affect you because you don't know anyone who has one of those grievances against you.   And then those stories go away with the start of the next story and we all wait for Halloween to have our official collective scare time.  All very curious. Happy Halloween.

Benazir Bhutto almost blown up
Topic: Politics

 

In the biggest non surprise I've seen in a while there was an attempted assassination of Benazir Bhutto today. I predicted that as soon as she got off the plane she would be a target and I still fully expect her to be assassinated in short order.  To me it's inconceivable that she could think she could go back to Pakistan and not be a target. Too many people in that country have a vested interest in her not being there and too many people have a vested interest in seeing her dead. They don't play nice in Pakistan and furthermore that whole place is a powderkeg waiting to blow up.

Other interesting news was the Dahli Lama receiving the Congressional Gold Medal and the expected tantrum thrown by the Chinese. Every honor that the Dahli Lama receives is well deserved and he is the highest moral authority figure alive on the planet pure and simple. And this is perhaps the best thing that President Bush has ever done, taking a stand for freedom and standing with the people of Tibet against the half century of oppression brought by the Han Chinese.  What Americans fail to understand about the Chinese is that they do not recognise any other moral authority but their own. Over two thousand years of history gives them a belief in their own cultural and moral superiority that is a form of racism. Therefore they do not see anything wrong whatsoever in holding down and oppressing other people in what they consider to be their own territory. Much as Hitler decided that the Sudetenland was and always was a part of Germany, the Chinese think that everything is a part of China and that by right everyone still needs to pay tribute to them. I've said for as long as l can remember that the Chinese are the enemy of the United States, an adversary at the very least and our delusions that we can be friends with them are just that, delusions. So you'll see the Chinese throw a tantrum and bluster and scream and all of that and you'll see some Congress creatures want to kowtow to them. But for one moment, there was standing up for what is right and naming what is wrong.

House and seeking life/death
Now Playing: Janita
Topic: Mysteries of Life

  Sitting here listening to a bit of Tannahill Weavers from the Cullen Bay album, some lovely Jane Monheit, some similar jazzy female vocals by the Finnish singer Janita and flipping through some old Archies from the first vinyl record I have some memory of listening to while living in Maine and while under the age of five. It's remarkable the things you remember and a true blessing of many of the things you forget. Funny, I remember being alone in my room, five years old, listening to Hot Dog and Sugar, Sugar and looking at the cartoon Archies on the cover. The creeping realization that the world was not quite right, that cartoon characters weren't real and couldn't sing in an album and also wondering which female voice was Betty and which one was Veronica.

Having watched the recent new episode of House I'm reminded just how great that show is. You're not left with comfortable unremarkable characters and quaint answers to the questions of life. Oh no, you are pulled out of your comfort zone and have to look at yourself and see your own faults reflected back at you through the thoughts and actions of those on screen. No perfect human beings, all flawed and often uncomfortable to watch them in their destructive behaviors. This episode didn't have a happy ending for the patient of the week or the House proxy patient who reflects a part of House's character and ideas taken to the extreme. Both patients died, the long suffering young man with the degenerative disease whose life was reduced to suffering and pain who was willing to see an end to the pain and it's left open as to whether he tossed his own medicine or not. The other patient had been in a car accident and had 'died' for a minute and a half and found in that period of time the total 'bliss' he had always sought through an Abby Hoffman like search through recreational drugs. Both patients, proxies for House and by extension proxies for the rest of us, were left looking at the big questions of life. Pain and bliss, one seeking the absence of pain and one seeking that bliss of the other side. Death was the answer in both cases but House wasn't interested as much in the answer that the man seeking death sought in death. He couldn't and doesn't understand the giving up the fight despite the pain. His own life is about pain, loneliness and putting one foot in front of the other, being needed by everyone but scorning their praise and company and preferring the certainty of his pain as his grasp on reality while at the same time obliterating it through medication. The other guy was as convinced of the answer he found and put a knife in a light socket to reach that ecstatic place he found at the moment of death. The second guy intrigued House with his certainty enough that the seeker and questioner in House finally put a knife in a wall socket looking for that Bliss. House didn't find that magical place and didn't expect to but for him the infinitesimal chance needed to be refuted so the rest of his life could continue based on the logical assumptions he had reasoned through already. House told the corpse of the wall socket guy that he was wrong. As House has said many a time, there's no Bliss in the end, no 70 odd virgins, there is nothing there, there is only here. I agree with House but I also agree with the Wilson character who said that if some folks feel some comfort wrapping themselves in other believes then it's not right to rip that comfort from them. Wilson being the Greek Chorus who often times expresses the arguments of the audience to House.

We all bring our own filters to the game and like the car accident guy in the show, I've been clinically dead. I've been down that path a few times instead of the one time as the character experienced. I can't say that I experienced any visions of Valhalla or Heaven or any unforgettable bliss although one time I did think I heard the voice of an angel calling me back. But then, we bring our own hopes and desires to any experiences like that. From seeing the masked faces of doctors all around and above me fading from my sight to waking up alone, strapped down and able to see my own chest bloody, red and disfigured with black glossy stitches all along the wounds looking and feeling like legs and antenna of angry carnivorous beetles fighting to get out. The clear feelings of mindless terror followed not by soothing comforting words but by the circuit breaker of my mind simply shutting any further memories down. Hearing the Bliss seeking character relating his car accident as a slow motion nightmare and remembering the two times I've spun a car while going down dark and snowy mountain roads alone on the road. One time fighting to catch the car on a railing and succeeding with a few feet to spare, getting out of the car and looking down the side of a mountain I had almost plunged down. The other time completely loosing control and spinning like a top as time also slowed time and my calm resignation wondering how much it was going to hurt before amazingly hitting a snow filled snow bank sideways. Moments, which like the Slaughterhouse Five novel by Kurt Vonnegut, seem to come back to me in random order and just as vivid as they are happening all over again. Interesting.  

Robert Jordan Dead
Mood:  sad
I read this over at reddit.com and the wikipedia article about Robert Jordan shows him to have died today at his home with his family around him. Very sad news if it is true and there is no reason to believe it isn't true. I saw him at Books and Company in Dayton when he was touring with his latest Wheel of Time book and I got that book signed. As you can see from the picture here to my eyes he looked sick. And then of course it was shortly after when he went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a particularly nasty type of cancer. I've been rereading his books right now. A great author whose imagination and vision brought a generation of new readers to fantasy books. Damn. He died with one book left unwritten in the twelve book series but you know, that hardly matters now and whether his widow can finish his book up is of less importance than the fact that he passed on. Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, Faile and the whole cast of characters were brought to life by Robert Jordan and they have brought a certain immortality to Robert Jordan. He will be missed.

Now Comes the Hot War
Now Playing: Brooklyn Bridge - Requiem , Blessed is the Rain
Topic: Politics
 

Senator Craig of Idaho has confounded his colleagues and the Republican Party by deciding that he was too quickly shoved out of the door and thrown under the bus. Upon reflection and realizing how his 'good friends' neither came to his defense or offered a single word of support the Senator rightly felt a bit put out and while the Republican Party was congratulating itself on how quickly and easily they bum rushed their fellow out of the Congress he said not so fast. On second thought, Senator Craig thought “I've been bum rushed a lot lately and will hire a good lawyer and try to get that previous guilty plea thrown out and might not resign from the Senate after all”. Basically a screw you guys attitude on his part and an attempt to not go quietly into the night. Well you know, as I've previously mused upon, the chances of forgiveness for him by the usual crowd he runs with are slim to none and slinking away only serves everyone else, not him. So it's time to try to fight. As Craig is a Conservative Republican you can only nod and say that his Karma has caught up with him and the intolerant folks he identifies with only reflect the same amount of mercy he would have given anyone other than himself. Still and all, I shed no tears for the Republican folks who coldly turned their backs on him. There is plenty enough Karma to go around it seems.

The upcoming World War has taken a few more steps closer to a more active conflict. Israeli jets flying over Syria and being shot at. Iran offering assistance and help to Syria against Israel. They always talk about how there is 'increased chatter' with regards to the faceless and unknown sleeper terrorist cells when they (Bush administration) wants to gin up the fear of the American people. The principle is a valid one, more talk the same way the two groups of monkeys in the movie 2001 'talked' and screamed and fake charged at each other before the actual conflict began. We are the same, as nations, we talk and bluster and pose and threaten before we fight. The war chatter is escalating, reports of the US planning a three day bombing of Iran, Iran changing the leadership of the Republican Guard in preparation for war, Iranian rejection of nuclear inspections and bragging about how many centrifuges they have a jittery fluctuation stock market – oh and perhaps knowing that there are four carrier groups in the area. Tons of other bits of evidence stacking up and future historians will look and wonder how come nobody saw the signs. Personally I thought this particular stage of the war would have already happened. I thought that the signs pointed to this part of the war happening six months ago. I would say that the major hold up has been the Bush administration having lost the Congress in the last election, the pressure on the failures in Iraq needing to be addressed and the non victory of Israel over Hamas and the Gaza mess. In all instances the conclusions by Israel and the US are that their problems will not get better as long as Iran is left with their present capabilities and or present government. And if everybody is convinced that war is coming then everybody will try to position themselves in the best way to win that conflict. Syria may well believe that it's best bet is to strike first and will of course see any attempt by Israel to calm the waters now as clear evidence that Israel wants to attack at it's own time and perversely decide it needs to attack first. And all Syria has to do is to send a column of tanks toward Golan and for Israel to say it must be go time and we need to hit those tanks before they come over the border and kaboom – it's on. And if Iran sends so much as a box of Kleenex to Syria, the United States will see it's opening and say 'boom, it's go time' and the bombing campaign will start. Iran starts to blow up tankers in the Straights of Hormuz and the ensuing price panic could entice Russia to decide it's a good time to take care of that pesky Georgia and their tanks can start rolling. China might see that and say that it seems like the best chance to deal with Taiwan. And we aren't even talking about what could happen if a giant sized terrorist attack actually hits in the US. Not likely now that all these dinky ones in Germany and Denmark are being rooted out and if those are evidence of the best they Islamofascists can come up with then we're in good shape in that department, even if Osama bin Boogeyman actually is alive and shows up in a 'video' for the September 11^th Anniversary.

Forgivenss
Now Playing: Me on the guitar
Topic: Mysteries of Life

You can't help but be struck by the theme of the news lately. No, I'm not talking about the obsessive breathless reporting about every mass of swirling clouds near Africa that might or might not turn into the “Ultimate Hurricane” capable of destroying the eastern seaboard or a wide swath of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or Florida that is hoped for and dreamed of by every cable news network ready to turn their studio into an emergency command post where empty headed teleprompter readers get to practice their faces of grim expectancy as they prattle on bravely in the face of doomsday and every once in a while throwing it to some expendable dolt wearing a logo laden slicker and standing in the path of death and destruction. No not that trend, as abominable as that particular aspect of yellow journalism is and evidence of the continued decline of civilization as we dream it might have been in the halcyon days of our imagined past. No not that trend. I'm thinking about the parade of disgraced and fallen public officials, entertainers and sports figures. Your basic Senator Craig, Michael Vick and NBA referee Tim Donaghy just to name three convicted fallen folk.

Senator Craig, by all the evidence is a religious, conservative Republican who by the evidence, is a fellow with homosexual tendencies. Well you know, if you have to have a chart of this sort of thing you'd pull out the New Jersey former Governor McGreevey who was a closeted gay and who wasn't trying to suppress it and in fact was getting himself in trouble by using his position as Governor to get a job for a lover and allegedly sexually harassing males. Pretty far on the heinous side there I'd say. He was run out of office and is now humorously enough studying to become an Episcopal priest. After him I'd put the Colorado Pastor and former leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs who also didn't suppress his homosexual tendencies to include a long term affair with a Denver male escort. He was pretty bad as a human being since he was preaching about the evils of those evil homosexual types while he was one. That would be hypocritical indeed on many levels. He of course went to some sort of 'Christian' camp to have the gay demons removed from himself, he proclaimed his miraculous deliverance from the evil gayness and is busy asking his former church for money as he and his wife go to school to learn something else to cheat people doing. At least McGreevey raised his hands when he was caught and said 'yup, I'm as gay as the day is long' and he is now living out of the closet, divorced his long suffering wife and is getting on with it. Now I'm looking at soon to be former Senator Craig and hearing him proclaim himself to be not gay. Well, okay. The evidence is of him trolling around bathrooms looking for that gay sex. So far no gay escorts are stepping forward to say they've been his longtime squeeze so perhaps this fellow is that type who has lied and denied to himself while still living that secret life he has compartmentalized and separated from the part of him that denounces gays and gay marriage and the like. Perhaps. All very interesting. Sad and interesting. All these folks, according to the reaction of the society in general, have committed unforgivable sins. More or less, no rehabilitation will be sufficient for any of them to reach the levels they were at. This is a given, this is fact. Forgiveness and a chance to make amends is not available to these folks. Of the three, McGreevey is the liberal fellow and has a book out about his life and the community he came from will accept him back after a fashion. Not so for the folks of the moral center and the religious Christians of the right. These guys eat their wounded and both are expected to crawl under rocks and die quietly.

The referee who found himself having committed the unforgivable crimes of gambling and perhaps game fixing is the most normal of the three and quickly and fairly quietly he's given up the fight with the authorities. He has said he is guilty and he will give over evidence and cooperate in the search of others who are up the food chain in game fixing of NBA games. Well, he is the least of the public public figures and while he has committed considerable damage to the NBA, there is no question of him being forgiven Indeed, that isn't even part of any discussion. What will he do when he has gone to jail and come out the other end? Nobody knows and nobody cares. It just doesn't matter as a point of interest. Society expects him to crawl off and die as well.

Now Michael Vick is another matter. The questions of forgiveness and redemption for him are ones that burn up the airways and discussion boards and conversation. His crime of the three is the crime that has had the biggest emotional reaction from the public. It's fair to say that Michael Vick is the most hated man in the United States outside of the President of the United States. His crimes of gambling and running a dog fighting enterprise have struck a chord with the public and have roused anger and calls for his punishment. Of the three people discussed who have admitted to some portion of their crimes, his crime is the one that cries out the loudest for lack of forgiveness. Curiously enough, the future of Michael Vick is the one most worried about. The discussion has revolved around how he could possibly plead guilty, get sent to prison, do his time, do his suspension and get back to the NFL. I've heard folks characterize their concern as being worried about the future of a young man who has done nothing wrong otherwise and who now realizes the errors of his ways and will be a good fellow from now on. All three have lost their positions, their dignity and position in society like many many other people who have gone through the criminal system. Redemption, forgiveness - these are just words that don't apply to people who have in some fashion gone through the criminal justice system. Unless somebody else can make money off of you as in the case of Michael Vick, nobody cares and it's of no consequence that your life is over.

Senator Craig in the end had no friends and nobody stood up with him or for him. Obviously a flawed fellow who doesn't garner much sympathy from folks but I wonder what he's thinking. A few days ago he had all sorts of friends and people who were happy to see him and to talk to him. Now nobody calls him, nobody takes his calls and there is no forgiveness for him. Everyone who has ever known him would be most happy if he faded away, crawled up under a rock and was never heard from again. The NBA official of course has no friends now, and probably has nobody saying he is a good person. Michael Vick of course still has friends as long as his money holds out and as long as he has the chance of returning to the NFL after his time is served. It's funny in a sad way. I wonder what all the friends and acquaintances who have abandoned their friends in trouble think of themselves now.

Climb a mountain, look better

The immigration bill is currently about to make a return to the stage as the supporters of it make one last gasp effort to pass the legislation before the elections get them all closer to Jesus and voter accountability. The concept of voters actually remembering how you voted on anything is something Congressmen and women don't normally have to deal with. So the closer to the elections, the smaller is the chance that those who have an interest in seeing an amnesty comes to pass will get their way. For Republicans who support the bill it's a free 'get out of Congress' card and the wrath of their voters will send them off to the arms of their lobbyist friends. Congress has a voter approval rating of less than 20 percent and the voters are angry. Candidate McCain, the war hero, the former prisoner of war, is about to be run out of the Republican nomination process because of his support for this bill. It's bad news all around and it's an answer in search of a problem. The main worry of people in the country is border security and there are laws and fences that have been authorized that are not being enforced and fences that are not being built. It's simple, when somebody breaks into your house, you don't start discussing whether or not the burgler has had a harder life than you have had, you don't ask if he is a minority who has been kept down by the man, you get him the hell out of your house. You make sure your doors are locked and your windows are secure. To think that the flood of illegal immigrants is any different is woefully ignorant and genuinely anti-American. It's that simple.

But the thing that I find the most interesting is the charge of racism I've encountered whenever I make my opinions known. I'm some kind of Nazi, hillbilly, trailerpark living white trash because I think that the laws should be enforced and the borders secured. Funny thing about that, my mother was Hispanic and my father Welch/English. In law school I was the President of the Hispanic Law Students Association and I kept organization viable when there weren't many Hispanic students at the school. I think I did a number of things that were good while I was there and one thing I kept in mind was that the Hispanics were a part of the greater community and we worked in concert with the Asian Law Student Association and every other organization for that matter. The point is that we tried to build bridges and while celebrating our differences we were still all Americans with the same ideals. That is not the case in this whole illegal immigration debate and reality. In this debate I am a racist and ignorant because I don't support the enormous breakdown of law and illegal behavior done in the name of social justice and with the excuse of entrenched 'white racism'. No, that's not acceptable.

 We have laws designed to bring in immigrants in a way that enhances and makes America better. Laws passed and in fact there is a history of legal ways to come to America. For skilled workers there is an issue of how many and how that impacts American workers. With lower wage workers there are quotas and work permits have limits and numbers and targets. In all cases people have issues with the numbers. Some farmers say they need more, and of course the way to deal with that is to petition Congress for a change. If you perceive a problem the way to address it is not to encourage law breaking and to break the law itself by employing people you know aren't legal. It's simple yet tragically, the rule of law and the belief in the law continues to break down in the face of this illegal invasion.

Padmasambhava statue demolished in Tibet
Topic: Politics

A report from the Buddhist Channel states The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) received confirmed information from reliable sources that, in mid May 2007 Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) demolished a colossal statue of Guru Padmasambava popularly known as Guru Rinpoche of the Samye Monastery and that rubble from the statue's destruction is being transported to unknown location according to reports emanating from the area.

Typical thuggish behavior by a nation state born of thuggish brutism. No concept of human rights or freedom of religion for an invaded people who at some point in the distant past were part of some previous thuggish Chinese dynastic empire and so in the eyes of the Chinese government becomes forever a part of the rightful Chinese Empire. This gives them, in their eyes the right to kill and destroy the native culture of Tibet and to try to take over the Tibetian Buddhist religion by picking their own puppet religious leaders. The Chinese Olympics should be boycotted and China treated as the moral pariah they are. And of course, successive US administrations from Nixon on forward have failed to appreciate the mortal danger that the Chinese ambitions are to the West as a whole. The Clinton administration let them get ballistic missile technology that they didn't have and allows their spies access to anywhere in the country so that by dint of espionage they are able to level themselves up to the technology advantage that the West has enjoyed. Totally criminal and completely swept under the rug.

But I would remind the Chinese that the last government that did destroy Buddist statues once resided in Afghanistan. The Taliban, or the remnants of the Taliban are hiding in caves and no longer enjoying a leadership position. Karma does eventually catch up to you.  

Into the tunnel
Topic: Politics

Well, just thought I'd put a graphic here, the next President of the United States unless something big and unusual happens. I'm actually okay with it, the possibility of someone who might be competent is a good thing regardless of Party affiliation. If she stumbles  then Gore is poised to jump in and take the nomination by acclimation. Obama, or as I've heard, "Obama the Magic Negro" - loses his luster as he speaks and I don't see his turn as the Savior of the Country to last long. Edwards is a place holder who wishes he never heard of Obama and should be gone before the primaries churn through. The rest, ah, you won't remember them after next February if not before. No, I think this nomination was won a long time ago as Hillary has turned the political wheels for some time and been running for some time. It's all over but the crying. 

On the Republican side I was interested to see that Hagel is already running into trouble back home. Attorney General Jon Bruning ran a poll that shows he is ahead of Hagel amoung likely Republican voters in the state. As I mentioned earlier he is heading into the kind of backlash that DeWine of Ohio ran into and was sent packing because of.  Maverick Republicans cannot exist very well in Republican minded states. The media driven talk of him running for President is like the media talk of Gore running on the Democratic side except that Gore has a real chance of pulling it off and Hagel doesn't. It looks like he'll be looking for that lobbyist job in 08. Essay ,  Poll

Writing a bit more, I've run myself into some carpal tunnel in the wrists and so I'm spending little time practicing with the guitar. More time with those wrist things on.  Time to replace the frozen t-bone steak with a fresh one. 

Amnesty Bill Cloture Traitors
Now Playing: Pandora - Fred Astaire
Topic: Politics

 

I'm looking at the Rhino's in the bunch - Hagel (Republican) from Nebraska leads the pack of fake Republicans, followed closely by Voinovich (Republican) of Ohio and of course McCain, who embraced this piece of backroom betrayal of the American people. Voinovich didn't take note of the fate of the last Ohio Republican DeWine who crossed the line to stand with the Democrats to cut the legs out from under the President on a war issue - his reelection came up and he was shown the door. Voinovich as a past state Governor perhaps feels himself a bit more immune or perhaps he's already made his plans for a fat corner office at some lobbying firm after this term. Hagel of course is still sitting in the back and making his decisions based on positioning himself for some delusion based Bloomberg/Hagel Independent ticket or perhaps equally implausible - a Hillary Clinton/Hagel 'Unity' ticket. I can't think of any possible place for him on a actual Republican ticket but there's no telling how far his own delusions stretch.

I'm looking at Spector from Pennsylvania, another Republican in name only who more often than not votes with Democrats, he's already seeing the future without a Republican President or Congress and is doing his best to blend in with the Democrats. The two Florida Senators, the Republican Martinez has taken his cloak off and there's a big fat L for liberal on his chest. The Conservative voters of Florida have long memories and this vote will definitely star in many a attack commercials when he tries to run for reelection.  Lugar and Graham are also standing with the Democrats on this. 

Of course, since it didn't go well for the Bill the Democrats are calling it Bush's bill and you can see how important it was to him since he had it brought up when he was at the G-8 meeting trying to start up another Cold War. As he stumbles through the meetings with the other major leaders of the world further shaming our Country, his bill dies for a few months and then the snakes will take a look at the lay of the land and try to ressurrect this thing once again, hoping to sneak it under the radar as they have done with countless other bills. Of course, the closer it gets to an actual election the less likelihood the Amnesty Bill has of passing since at that time the "Representatives" will be that much closer to accountability from their voters.  It's a sad thing when the only thing stopping our Representatives from selling the Country down the river is  a nearby election. 

Debate Impressions
Topic: Politics

Well the first question in the Republican debate from New Hampshire went to the ghost of Ronald Reagan's hair worn like a holy relic by Mitt Romney. He spouted on incomprehensibly for a long time while not answering the question. A good start. After another answer like that I stopped trying to listen to anything that flip flopping douchebag had to say. You know, some folks are good, some folks are bad and some folks are like Romney- a finger in the wind, mind changing douche politician. I hate that kind. He has a lot of Mormon money funding him right now and is already running the Ronald Reagan type 'Morning in America' ads where he's trying to evoke the winning formula of Reagan. Lot of money, money talks and we'll see how it goes with him.

Other big loser in this debate was the original loser, John McCain. He's been in the

Amnesty for illegal immigrants camp and best buddies with Ted Kennedy for a while now and his position in the Republican race for the nomination has continued to slip as a result. He had a touching moment with a young lady who asked a question about Iraq and whose brother had died there. Pundits make a big thing of it because it's good tv and McCain is their best liberal in the Republican Party on Amnesty buddy. And of course, he knows better than you do about the immigration problems so you must listen to him. Another dictator in waiting like Bush.

Well, Rudy did well, first one to stand up and walk out to walk to the audience to answer the questions, which created a stampede of 'me to' candidates standing up after him. Point is, he led, they followed. His answers were direct, they hit him as they always do with the abortion questions which he didn't duck. The abortion questions are not as important in these days as are the security questions and Rudy is still the candidate with the most experience and the best likelihood of being competent in that regard. I dub thee winner of the debate.