Only time will tell

So with everyone cretin history is about to be made in this country come November fourth. A second piece of history is about to be made; now, this one may not be as obvious at first but it's there. Anyone in my generation only knows the republican party as Reagan's party.

Now what I mean by this is that Ronald Reagan had to do something that has changed and had far reaching repercussions for decades. Reagen for better or worse was the man who put the GOP in gear for what is happening now. Let's be honest Sarah Palin is nothing more then the end result and now the final blow to those who are traditional conservatives. Now I did not Just choose Reagan because he is an easy punching bag for the left. (Which he is. Or the death of the right.) I mainly chose him because of this quote "I didn't leave the party, the party left me." (I know he was talking about the Dems. He started his career as a democrat)

So on what almost everyone has deemed a guaranteed victory for Senator Obama. I do wish him best of luck, the poor man is walking into a true shit storm. I am very interested in what will be unfolding in the Republican party. Everyone knows the party is put together by people who either hate each other or are uninterested in their goals to say the least. With the party supporter of old and those who wish for the old goldwater days; one would have little in common with an religious zealot. So as Palin goes "rouge" and John McCain supports now distancing themselves from her we might just see the party split for the fist time in my life.

To be honest I welcome it. This used to be the party of intellectuals. The party of limited government. lets be honest the republican party is the big government party not the dems. Hell they are not even a fiscal conservative party. Let alone a party for non intervention. So as history is being made in many ways this November. A president of color a Democratically controlled house, senate and presidency. We just see the much needed amputation of festering cancer ridden republican party of all of their religious zealots.

Only time will tell what will come of this possible massive defeat. I think the larger the defeat the faster the party will drop it's dead weights and old ideology. The questions I have are, will the religious extremist leave peacefully or will we see things get ugly. Will they have knock down drag outs on the news shows? Granted I would watch while eating popcorn. Or will they create a third party? They could create a third party that would give a run for the other twos money. The last thing that could happen is something I would rather not think about. I am saddened that I am even typing it. Though this could be the death of all Berry Goldwater republicans. If Sarah Pailn is the future of the party we truly are all fucked on the right.

As Keith olberman says "goodnight and good luck."

Fable two first impressions

I finally got to sit down with Fable two for a little bit. For the most part I was very impressed with what I saw, the mini games are easy enough to drop in and out of to make a few extra gold. Plus another thing I really liked that they did was when you rent out a house or two you now will just get the money, you will no longer have to travel to the property to collect the rent. This is very helpful if you would like to do some adventuring without having to head back to town every 15 minutes or so.

Over all the game has seen a large improvement over the first one. Though I think the first one was well done since you did not go evil. The world boasts that it is around five times larger then what it was. Plus they have done something that I have really enjoyed so far. That is when you die you lose some experience but not very much and then out get right back into it. No more load from the last save you did. This makes all the difference. So no more re-doing the boss battle three times because of a cheap shot or mechanic. Now if he kills you wait a couple of seconds then you can keep pounding him into the ground until he or she is dead.

As it is with my limited play time I have only come across one annoyance. Though this is due in large part in how I play these games. When it comes to games that allow you to choose which type of "hero" you want to be, I always choose the bastard at first. I am not sure if it is in fact because I am just an asshole or if I am curios on how far the game lets you push it. So with that said Fable one was a bit of a let down. Mainly because in the first game people just tell you to sod off and find you so ugly and fearful shop owners just run out the shop screaming. Which gets a bit old when you want to hock some stuff and get some better gear.

So sufficient to say I was not a huge fan on having to look really pretty while having huge horns so people would stand still long enough to talk to. Which brings me to my one quip so far, and that's that the system is still there. Granted this may be games way to try to detour you from kill everyone in a town and buying up all the houses and rent them out. Though it's still annoying to say the least. Also one thing I have noticed is that the people you work for in sword mini game say all about five things. Which gets old if you are grinding the skill as fast as you can. I get it, I need to hit it in the green dot!

Overall I think this game has made huge advances from the last one. One thing I really like is that the towns people do in fact remember you. As it is in one town people will run away screaming when they see me, plus yell murderer at me. This is very cool that your actions are remembered. Though in my defense the guy I kill in the town had it coming, he claimed to minstrel. He spoke ill of me, granted I may have done all the things he said but it was getting old to hear sung back to me. In any case this game is at least worth a rent to see what all the fuss is about, plus with at least two plays through I would even say it's worth picking it up. I mean how many games do you know are a guaranteed two play through without thinking about it?

Sorry no updates for a bit

Since this is a free rants that I am doing it's taking a bit of a backseat at the moment. I'm trying to work out about five things first then I'll be back better than ever. Or at least back to adequate.

The blame game

Since people love to point the finger when stuff goes badly so here goes. Where can we point the finger? Most scream either wall street or main street. Which don't get me wrong they both plaid a part in this. I mean its never good when you just make up profits, ok that's not true.
In the beginning it looks really good. Hell people thought Clinton was a genius, because it was the first time ever the Dow broke 14,000. Well of course it does when you make up how well you are doing. That's ok it was not Clinton's fault, really he did right by his country. No the real truth it seems from what I can see is that we are all a little t blame. OK, maybe not all but pretty damn close.
First up like I said when you just make shit up it will come back to haunt you. Plus no offense to anyone making around ten a hour. (I'm right there with you guys) we are not the house owning types let's be real. To own a house might be your dream, I know one day I may like one myself but; with all the do you really think ten a hour will cover everything? You have a mortgage (rent) power, water, sewer, net and whatever you might need. Plus lets say you make enough to cover this, one thing goes wrong and boom you are back in major debt. So no, maybe we should be smarter and take some personal reasonability.
Then came the lenders that gave you the reach around saying its all good. They may be a little slow but they all cannot be out to lunch. They know how much you make, hell they can up how much you make a year and how you spend it faster than you can. So yeah they also are to blame big time.
Now the last group, well I don't one needs to do a drum roll. No surprise here the last group is those we elected into office. I know its a real shocker that I blame the government. Now I'm not going to whine and say they should have stopped the banks, and told us what is right and wrong for our own good. No, my issue is running two wars at once for what is now coming up on a decade. We are nearing eight years and still no Osamma just saying. Anyway, they have been spending cash likes it's going out of style. Ha, ha guess what? When spend money like it's going out of style it will in fact go out of style. So what does this mean? Well it's to late to turn your money into Eros that thing that now runs the world. You will have to improvise. Or just admit defeat and never leave the U.S. because you can't even afford to get to the borders to Mexico or Canada.

So how long is enough?

So the big questions we have to answer is when do we get to leave Iraq? The other big one is how? They seem simple enough but yet no one has a great answer. Senator Obama at least has one to his very great credit. Mc Cain well I will get back to you when he is at the gates of hell. So Obama is for being out in around years time. This is very promising mainly because he is leading in most of the battle ground states.
How do we leave Iraq? It's a very tough question to answer especially if you are unaware that the country has borders. No, I'm not just making an asshole statement, we were able to fly and march in how hard is it to walk backwards with a gun? In a country with now free elections it's own troops and way, way more money than we do they need us to hold their hands anymore? I'm being serious if that is not the sound of victory what the hell is? Free elections check, money in the bank check, own people to defend your borders check. So..they are not free until? What they need universal health care, the four day work week, hybrids?
So if you have to vote for one of the main two at least vote for the one that wants to get the hell out. Then we can work on repairing dams, bridges, and banks. Shit you want to fix problems I bet any American can give you a list as long as their arm. Oh and who is going to give Iraq the bill?

Let them eat cake

The very ominous words from a queen out of touch with her subjects. Now with Congress passing the bill to save us all and now after seeing what has gone on with the AIG "issue" should we stay by quietly? I am not advocating any dismemberment of anyone but I did find the story about the Dick Fuld getting knocked out a little humorous.

So lets think about this for a minute. You are the head of one of the largest insurance companies in the world. So you may have embellished some facts and now you have to pay the piper. Lowe and behold the piper comes in and carries all the rats that are the American people demanding everything from wanting to know how one perpetrates such a heinous crime. To the ones that question your very intelligence.

Though that doesn't matter to you. You know what you need, and that is a message. Well that and an extended stay at a spa and thousands on thousands of dollars of room service. Now the only road block in this plan would be how to pay. I know why not skim a little off the 85 billion the US government gave you to fix your blunder.

I mean with your advanced inelegance you know how to get back on track with the money so you skim what about half of a billion off the top. So yes tell the world let them eat cake and see what happens.

Now What?

So now that it seems that the 700 billion may have been a mistake what do we do now? Granted some have said that enough time has not been given before we can question the validity of the plan. This might be true, I'm not sure how fast the congress works after they have enacted a plan.

Though one thing I do know, the markets issues went from some peoples problem to every ones who pays taxes. So we all now a forced interest in keeping crooks and thieves in power. So the question is how do we measure success and how long should we allow our money to act like a salve to the deep wound caused by the housing crisis? Once again it is to soon to see the the long term effects. The immediate ones have shown us this may have been a rash decision brought on by a desire to want to help.

So what is the correct thing to do? I have no idea, the level in which these people fucked up we will still be finding issues for years.

Dear John:

So it seems that John McCain has giving up on Michigan. In a rare statement that did not hurt my brain Mrs. Palin said "she understood but was still wishing she could spend time in Michigan." It seems they believed that a million a week was no longer worth it; for the battle for the state.
Granted in the greater scheme of things it was a smart business move. Obama and Biden are leading by double digits after the vice president debate. Though the issue is that this is not meant to be a business. You are fighting for the minds and hearts of your fellow Americans, so this has come off as nothing more than a lazy and dare I say it an elitist move? Think about it, Obama has not conceded a state yet. But John no longer seems to care about his fellow Americans unless they are the majority in the zip code. So what's the deal? Are you really that broke John? Look I'm not sure how much you have been able to raise but you really are to poor for a million a week? You have no problem voting for wasteful and damaging bailout to the middle class and lower class. Wow, all I can say is I hope you shoot the TVs like Elvis did we you see Obama take that very historical walk

The 800 Billion it'll Be OK Fund

So where to begin? No really, this is stupefying on a level I didn't think possible. Now this could have gone down worse but not by much. Look we already know at this point they are just making up numbers. That much has already been reported. When asked why 700 billion the response was, we wanted to ask for a high number. Well, I don't even know how to respond to something so blatantly greedy.
Now I have stated that this could have gone down in an even worse way. To the credit of the United States government they at least took out a loan. Now I know it's bad when you praise a loan; but the only other alternative for most of those in the House and Senate where willing to accept was to print the dollar into oblivion. So what does this mean to you and me? Well that's to be seen.
To a good deal of people who where either misinformed or just stupid it means that they will be able to keep their homes. Which is a good thing. I am all for home ownership, as long as you know what you are getting into. Don't get me wrong I don't completely blame the people on this, they where told that they could live way outside their means by the banks. So blame will and has fallen on the banks in at least in some part. Some have even gone T.U. but with the bailout we may see saved. Once again only time will tell.
So what "we" have agreed to when we bailed out the market? Basically it is that "I know you have messed up. Now if I give you a lot of money do you think you can be more responsible?" Look, most of us in this country are or at least give lip service to believing in the free market. Part of that belief is the belief that it can take care of it self. As Wachovia was going under bigger banks that could whether the storm where already lining up to buy it. So people would still have their money it would just be under different name. That sounds a lot like the market fixing it self. I am not saying we should not punish and throw away the key to those that stood by and let it get this bad.
But Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling said it best "How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down?" A valid question if I ever heard one.

Right around thirty and counting

With about a month out till the next presidential election you need to start asking yourself some tough questions. Not how much does a plane ticket cost, and how quick to naturalize in your new home country. You have to ask yourself are you going to vote? It's a simple question but one that was a topic of a fierce debate on world have your say.
Should people be forced to vote in our country? Is choosing not to vote really a way of sending a message and should you really vote for the lesser of two evils? If so is that a statement about a failed party system?
So will you vote? I know in my home state of Oregon not to vote means you may be the laziest individual I have ever met. For you that are unfamiliar with what I am talking about in the state of Oregon all ballots are mailed out and you have multiple weeks to fill it out and send it in. So at least in my state you really have no excuse not to vote unless you are so disenfranchised with what you see and what you have lived through all these years. Now I would recommend instead that if you so not see enough in McCain or Obama to write someone in. The reason I say this if the candidate can garner just five percent this time around, next time he or she will gain campaign funding for 2012. Now if don't believe in the system at all then I cannot help or give any advice to you.
Now comes to the age old question should you just vote for the lesser of two evils? In the words of Mr. Nader "the lesser of two evils is still not good enough for America." Now this brings up an interesting question should you fall into line for someone you agree to at least on a few things in principal over one that you do? not Now a lot of people would say, "of course you do." Though all this does is give you a taste of what a better America could be like.
Another issue plaguing this country is for the most part only the extremes of the ideological left and right are vocal and sometimes in power. Now that's great if you vote straight party lines and don't think. Or maybe in fact that crazy.
Now with all that lets tackle the first question. Should you be forced to vote? Like I said you could always vote for a third party no matter what people tell you. Every election is important no one will tell you otherwise so why not at least vote your voice? So should be forced, well I will still say no. Choice is the reason we are free and it's what we love more than anything. Now I do urge you to vote but I will never make you. Once it's no longer a choice you are no longer voicing your beliefs. So in fact we have lost what we love, democracy. So it all comes around, yes you should vote but what's point if it's at the barrel of a gun? If we are going to force people to vote what's next? Only have a two party system? Yeah limit choices and voices that'll make us great.
So remember as long as we have the choice we are free, and that's what this is all about. Now not voting can be lazy if you don't at least look into all the candidates, hell, if all else's fails run yourself. It's not like you'll do much worse anyway.

Microsoft to sell gears 2 Zune

All in all it's not that surprising that Microsoft would not give this second outing. This seems to be an obvious choice to push the Zune more. The first time was with Halo three the most anticipated shooter for the 360 that year. Now the Gears of War two Zune will be on the 120gb model. You will be able to pick it up at Amazon on October 1st for $280.00. With the large cult following that the Gears of war series has, this only makes sense to introduce it. This news is also coming on the heals of the new 3.0 software update that has been very positively received.

The new update now introduced quite a few things this go around. Some things are small little fixes like adding the much demanded clock, also with the ability to tag songs you hear on the radio so you can buy them from the zune store later. That and they have introduced games as well. Only time will see how well it will sell and if the Zune can rise to be a serious competitor to the ipod.

For the full story Endgadget has all the news.