Defiantone.com

Tags: beer, humor, photo

Its far too easy to make fun of her. She does all of the work on her own. I cannot, in good conscience, vote for McCain because he put this woman on the ticket. She is an absolute freaking moron. Don’t believe me? Watch her… these are her words… what a f’in joke

Want more?

The defining moment for me came shortly after Palin and her family stepped down from the stage to uproarious applause, looking happy enough to throw a whole library full of books into a sewer. In the crush to exit the stadium, a middle-aged woman wearing a cowboy hat, a red-white-and-blue shirt and an obvious eye job gushed to a male colleague they were both wearing badges identifying them as members of the Colorado delegation at the Xcel gates.

“She totally reminds me of my cousin!” the delegate screeched. “She’s a real woman! The real thing!”

I stared at her open-mouthed. In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here’s the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket.

Read the rest here

I respect John McCain, but, the republican agenda and machine has gotten involved. If he could have ran the race as an independent he could have had my vote any day of the week. He turned this race into a circus. Shame on you if this is your vote. This is BAD for America.

Tags: joke, Palin, video

A few weeks ago Jessica and I woke up early and headed south to Mt St Helens with a 10 mile trail in our sights. She promptly fell asleep in the car as I drove south. We knew that the skies were cloudy and the forecast didn’t look that great but we were hoping that the skies were clear. They didn’t.

We drove through the clouds to visitors center and got a few photos through breaks in the fog. When we reached the visitors center we parked the car and walked over to the park map. We looked into the distance and saw a herd of elk - nobody was around for miles so we spent 10 minutes watching them and listening to them call back and forth to each other. It was pretty damn cool - the pictures really don’t it justice because they were a good quarter mile away and the camera had problems picking up the light.

Jessica recorded a few videos which you can see below. Make sure you turn the volume up so you can hear them calling.

Hopefully, when we return the clouds will be gone and I’ll actually be able to see the mountain. If you want to check out the rest of the pictures you can find them in the gallery

Tags: camera, elk, gallery, hiking, Jessica, Mt St Helens, photos, trip, washington

VP candidate Palin struts her stuff in this ancient video. Remember, she takes over when McCain dies.

Tags: humor, politics, video

McCain promo

Tags: humor, McCain, politics, sarcasm

It’s been all over the news and I’ve been watching the developments over the last few days but I still have my reservations with the plan. Over the past 80 years we have created a number of social programs to help fellow Americans that were unable to reach acceptable living standards. The degree of these programs varies based upon the scope and many are short term programs with specific eligibility requirements.

To my knowledge, we have never created a social program for failed businesses. Government incentives and grants have been given to businesses that work in specific fields. They needed short term support because the initial cost of operation were far too prohibitive. The businesses in the bailout plan need long term support because they had a failed business plan.

I want to know whether it would be more expensive to pay for the social programs for the individuals that would be affected if these businesses should fail or if it would be cheaper to bailout the businesses.

I don’t know if anyone else has actually looked at this issue from this viewpoint. If it would cost more to bailout the businesses we should let them fail. If it would cost more for social programs we should do the minimum to keep businesses in the financial sector alive. Additionally, the legislation should include provisions for fully recouping our investment. This investment would be one in our neighbors next door and across town - we’ve just got to make sure that we make the right decision.

If the bailout is passed in congress and subsequently signed we should quickly create further legislation that would prevent this from happening again. All business is a risk - the taxpayer shouldn’t pay the price when one of them fails - no matter how big or old they might be.

Tags: business, economy, news, opinion, politics

This has got to be the best catch I’ve seen in a year - probably better than the catch made during the Giants game winning drive in the super bowl.

Tags: football, video

Someone made this model of air traffic across the globe. Quite cool to watch. You’ll notice a surge across the Atlantic heading in opposite directions twice per day.

Tags: interesting, video

If this information in this video is correct I’m probably not the only one that is confused. According to her report, an active duty army unit is going to be assigned to northern command and will be specifically stationed within the US Borders. They will respond to domestic threats as required. Don’t we have a national guard that is designed specifically for that purpose? Don’t they fall under the command of their respective governors for such a purpose? Are we stretching the guard units so much that we’ve got to draw a unit from active duty units? Some think this could be a precursor to martial law - that’s going a bit far but it is an interesting thought.

Tags: military, news, politics, video

A group of over 100 leading economists sent a letter to congress outlining their reservations with the proposed bailout plan. Their concerns mirror my own - I need more answers before anything is done. The full text is below

As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:

1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries “systemic risk.” The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America’s dynamic and innovative private-capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.

For these reasons, we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.

Tags: economy, news, politics