Foreclosure

I've been fighting this all year, but the end came two days before Thanksgiving 2008 - Foreclosure!

Foreclosure of my mobile home that I have been living in for the past 12 years now. Now adrift of a place to call "my" home, I must now pay more in rent than what I had to pay in order to hold onto my home to begin with. Irony of ironies.

What does this mean for my blogs? Just that updates will be spotty until I can established a new permanent home and thus Internet connection. By the way, if one is observant, one can spot my local Star Trek Club's shuttle craft project tucked in behind my house.

Here is the NEW starship USS Enterprise

First image of the new starship USS Enterprise was released recently to Entertainment Weekly in November by J.J. Abrams. This new design is kinda ungainly looking.

It looks like a cross between the Enterprise from the first movie and a ship from Star Trek – The Next Generation. And for the life of me, those warp nacelles remind me of the headlight clusters from some 1950s Ford or Chevy automobile! And the engineering hull, while beefier than the original, it just doesn't quite look right. The shuttlecraft bay is still inbetween the two warp nacelle/pylons, but from the angle shown, the rear half of the ship appears to be cut “short” from the original TOS Enterprise. The deflector dish is too far forward, while the main hull pylon (between the saucer hull and the engineering hull) is thicker. Lots of improvements there that were taken from the first movie as well such as the proton torpedo launchers and the side airlocks.

Now all that might appear as criticisms. But to look at it from a modern day engineering angle – this does appear to be a better design than the original. The main problem was weight distribution in the original design. This one seems to have taken care of that by moving the saucer backwards a bit and moving the bulkiest part of the warp nacelles forward in order to have a better stabilized center of gravity.

Ref. ( http://trekmovie.com/2008/11/11/first-full-image-of-new-star-trek-enterprise/ ) and ( http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/11/star-trek-first.html )

America's Vote has Been Heard - Barack Obama the Winner

Well, history has taken place on November 4, 2008. America's Vote has Been Heard - Barack H. Obama is declared to be the Winner. He is now the President-elect for this great nation. Like other Americans, I joined a watch party held at a friend's house and there was 20 or 30 people at one time or another to come in and out of the front door.

I sat with my liberal friends to watch MSNBC while others were sitting in the other room to watch the results on Fox News. We counted down the electorial map until MSNBC went wild with Barack H. Obama reaching the magic 270 electorial votes. We watched McCain's concession speech. Thats when several of us went outside to smoke victory cigars (or in my case, my defeated candidate cigar). I missed Barack H. Obama's victory speech - secured in the knowledge that I will be seeing it replayed over and over again for the next week.

We are now living in a Chinese curse (May you live in interesting times). Like my host, I am now glad that THIS TWO YEAR LONG ELECTION IS FINALLY OVER WITH!!!!!!!!

Stargate SG-1 Colonel Jack O'Neill 12-inch Action Figure

Well, purely by chance, I was at a local Hastings store when I spotted the Colonel Jack O'Neill 12-inch tall action figure. (Please see my review of Dr. Daniel Jackson from the same Stargate SG-1 line). I left the store the first time without buying the figure, went home and when it came supper time, decided to go back out and after dinner, go back by that same Hastings and bought that figure. It was selling for $39.99.

The face sculpts are good. This one of Richard Dean Anderson looks like it was made using photos from season 4 or 5 there abouts. The clothing is the same as per the Daniel Jackson figure.

The accessories with Colonel O'Neill are different. One is that Colonel Jack O'Neill DOES have a P-90 included in the boxed set! And a standard canteen without any belt to hook it onto (I might add). A "Zat" gun (aka Zat'Nik'Tel). The same type of walkie-talkie radio that is in the Daniel Jackson set. But the best news of all is that with the O'Neill figure; you get a GDO, or "Garage Door Opener" worn by off world personal that can send a coded signal back thru a open Stargate to Stargate Command to open up the iris to allow for the teams to return to earth.

I also want to put in a word for a great magazine. STARGATE, The Official Magazine. The current issue (#25, Nov/Dec 2008) has a special section dealing with the passing of a great actor, Don S. Davis who died this year. He will be sorely missed. He played roles on such shows as the X-Files as Scully's father (Captain William Scully). Major Garland Biggs in Twin Peaks. Don S. Davis had a 20 year acting career. But his best remembered role will be that of two-star General George Hammond. Commander of Stargate Command.

As a personal choice - I would love it if they did a General George Hammond action figure in his U.S. Air Force class B uniform (that is the short sleeve, open collar light blue shirt and blue trousers). I'll settle for the class A uniform (which is the long sleeve light blue shirt with dark blue tie and button jacket and round service hat), but I think it would be nice for that to happen.

Obama's Civilian National Security Force!?

There was a article posted by Herschel Smith on November1, 2008 over on the Captains Journal blog ( http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/11/01/civilian-national-security-force/ ) about a new proposal put out by Senator Barack Obama that has me FLOORED!

Obama wants to give to the Department of State its OWN military force?! Called the Civilian National Security Force (CNSF). Quoting Obama, “Just as powerful, just as strong, and just as well funded.” To a non-Obama kool-aid drinker like myself, the State Department will have its own air force, navy, army, coast guard, marines? IS there something else that is wrong with the Department of Defense that we don't know about? (i.e USAF air-tanker snafu procurement process to to name one example).

Who the hell does Senator Obama think he is? COBRA Commander?! (and for you non-action figure collectors out there in the studio audience, COBRA Commander is the fictional leader of the terrorist organization that Hasbro came up with for their small size (3.75 inch size G.I. Joe action figure line back in the 1980s) and that which is going through a new relaunch currently. There is even a G.I. Joe movie in the works now based on this toy line).

Is the good senator going to re-activate closed bases all across the country for this new military force? The current defense budget is a half trillion dollars. So the USA will spend an ADDITIONAL half trillion to build up a new military force in the middle of a recession?

Maybe he does want to start a Second US Civil War and to be fair, the opposition side that he wants to fund needs to be brought up to par with the US Defense Forces before the bell rings on round one. Its puzzling to me why he and McCain can agree on keeping the shuttle flying until Project Orion is declare operational – but stuff like this CNSF comes out that makes me question what Senator is likely to be like if he does indeed wins the election. Sometimes, it is downright scary.

Ref. Captains Journal ( http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/11/01/civilian-national-security-force/ )

Second US Civil War About to Start?

Famed 66-year old author Ericia Jong told a Italian newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, stating that if Barack Obama does not wins, there is be blood in the streets. It will be the start of the Second Civil War. And her friends Naomi Wolf and Jane Fonda were also worried about that.

If Ruby Ridge and Waco didn't get the Second Civil War started, I don't think a McCain victory will be able to start one as well. I can see riots taking place - people venting their anger over the results. But taking it to the next step beyond into full scale warfare - I just do not see it.

McCains' Hanging in the Race Still, Plus the Hillary Supporter Letter

Pollster Zobgy stated on Nov 1, 2008 that Presidential candidate John McCain is back within the margin of error for his tracking poll. The three-day average is steady, but John McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in the Friday, one day, polling. He is cutting into Obama's lead among independents. McCain is also now leading among blue collar voters, investers and among me. And among the NACSAR voters, McCain is stomping on Obama.

I told my young coworkers not to count their chickens before they hatch. And I need to make sure that I follow my own advice as far as this bit of good news for the McCain campaign.

And now, something else from Red State Conservative News. First of all, I had never heard of this blog before until I heard Rush Limbaugh speak about it on Halloween, (Oct 31, 2008).
It appears that a former campaign worker for the Hillary Clinton campaign posted some comments which is listed below. Going by the handle of "Anonymous_14". She posted her comments at Oct 30, 2008, 04:52pm CDT to an article dealing with Sara Palin. Here it is:

After a long and careful consideration of all the implications and possible consequences of my actions today, I have decided to go through with this in the hope that our country can indeed be guided into the right direction. First, a little personal background… I am a female grad student in my 20’s, and a registered Democrat. During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets you’ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top. Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker. Though I was still bitterly loyal to Hillary, I still held out hope that he would choose her as VP. In fact, there was a consensus among us transplants that in the end, he HAD to choose her. It was the only logical choice. I also was committed to the Democratic cause and without much of a second thought, transferred my allegiance to Senator Obama. I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. I’ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down. 1 – Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas – particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaign’s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, and I do admit that I am relying on internal gossip, Senator Obama actually went against the advice of his top advisors. They wanted him to choose her, but the only significant opposition to this within the campaign came from Barack and Michelle Obama. In short, he let personal feelings take precedence over what was the most logical thing to do. Biden, by the way, has been a disaster inside the campaign. Everyone cringes whenever he gives an interview, and he creates so many headaches as the campaign has to stay on their toes in order to disseminate information and spin whatever it was he was trying to say. 2 – Sarah Palin. Don’t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing – we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I don’t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them. With Leiberman, the plan was to paint him as an erratic old-timer who didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing (pretty much a clone of McCain). In Romney, we had him pegged as an evil capitalist who cut jobs. Pawlenty was going to get the “Quayle treatment”, or more precisely: a pretty face, with no valid experience. Tom Ridge was going to be used to provide a direct link from McCain to Bush. As you can see, we were quite enamored of all of them. Then the unexpected happened – Sarah Palin. We had no clue as to how to handle her, and bungled it from the start. Though through our misinformation networks, we have successfully taken some of the shine off. But let there be no doubt. She remains a major obstacle. She has singlehanded solidified “soft” Republican support, mobilized the McCain ground game, and has even had some appeal to independents and Hillary voters. This is what our internal polling confirms. 3 – Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCain’s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didn’t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. They’d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank. 4 – The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it. As part of my research duties, I scour right wing blogs and websites to get somewhat of a “feel” as to what is being talked about on the other side. Much of it is nonsense, but there are some exceptions which give the campaign jitters. A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Don’t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaign’s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media “buzz” which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the “under-reported cell phone users or young voters” we hear so much about. What is underreported is you. I changed my somewhat positive opinion of this campaign during the unfair and sexist campaign against Sarah Palin. I will never agree with her on the issues and will probably never vote for her, but I am embarrassed of what has happened. I can’t ignore our own hand in all of this. What I do know is that I will not be voting for Obama this time around. Treat that as you will.

That is it. That posting cause quite a stir over the radio. I am glad that I took November 4th off so that I can attend a watch party with some friends. I cannot wait to see the election coverage as the evening progresses. But reactions at work the next day will be telling as well.

Ref. -From Red State Conservative News blog and from the Drudge Report