I have nothing against Mr.Whitlock –that is, besides his lack of hardball questions. Yes he somewhat tries to question his quests, and yes he tries to somewhat make them a little uncomfortable, but anyone who watches the show knows he’s not pushing hard enough.

I want some more Republican voices on the show. The Rio Grande Valley and Hidalgo County in particular is pretty purple –bring on more of the other side Ron!

I’m not going to be rude, I’m not crossing the line (this time,) but there is a lot that can be explored in terms of the show and the host.

Barack made what has to be one of his smartest moves so far; he has officially announced that Joe Biden is his VP choice like I mentioned in my previous post.

Officially news broke about 10 minutes ago. Un-officially news somewhat got broken when ABC found out that the secret service had been dispatched to Biden’s home at bit before midnight eastern time.

I cant help but feel that letting the cat out of the bag at 2:30AM wasn’t the plan and someone just said “screw it, lets do it!” and the site and text went out considering the media had already broke the news and so that the Obama supporters can still feel a little more important. In any case its official, it’s exciting and I knew it’d come earlier than expected.

Obama’s campaign is going to make an official statement shortly which I’m looking forward to receiving.

According to ABC News US Secret Service is on Way to Joe Biden’s House. Kaine and Bayh are officially out and I’m just left wondering; what now? Among those who get to listen to my rants on politics, there is no secret that I’ve been talking about Biden as a great choice as Obama’s VP, now it seems like Joe’s been picked and while it’s great for Obama to have someone on his ticket who actually knows a damn thing about foreign policy –unlike himself, it’s going to be up to the Republican VP choice to knock Joe Biden on his ass while campaigning and debating.

Joe Biden isn’t a sissy and he sure as hell knows what he’s talking about when he opens his mouth. He’s the type of guy that Republicans don’t want to come up against due to their popularity and strengths, the old-school Democrats. If chosen, he’s bringing a lot of credibility to the Obama ticket and the Republican VP choice needs to know his stuff, Mitt Romney seems logical and while not my favorite choice, he could surely out-debate Biden.

Joe Biden has a long history and there’s a lot to like about the guy and a long story, with some sadness added due to his wife and infant dying in a car accident when he was first elected to the senate.

Assuming Biden is the choice (because nothing is official) I’m not done with the VP topic. And finally; one line, voters vote for the top of the ticket so Biden will help but can’t solve everything if he’s really the pick.

MORE THOUGHTS COMING IN A FUTURE POST.

*UPDATE 1*

11:40 PM CNN Confirms from Democrat sources that Obama chooses Biden for VP

*UPDATE 2* 12:00

Fox News is on it LIVE… FINALLY. ARG.

*UPDATE 3* 12:21

Bob Beckel is on… He sounds sleepy. I like Bob -thats is.

*UPDATE 4* 2:32 AM

It’s official, Joe Biden is Obama’s VP. Fox News and CNN are reporting Obama’s camp has sent out the text saying so and it’s up on his official site.

“Going green” isn’t easy. Over the past couple of months I’ve taken steps towards being a bit nicer to my host, otherwise known as planet earth. While reading The Monitor today I found out that a new wind farm is going up in Kenedy County and I think it’s great. So I decided to share some of what I’ve personally done to help clean up our increasingly mucky planet.

• I’ve switched to an all-renewable electric provider and there is A LOT of them to choose from and even if you’re simply trying to reduce your energy bill alone you should checkout www.powertochoose.org; which is a service by the Public Utility Commission of Texas which compiles info about electric providers, their prices and renewable energy content. Visit the site, compare providers and lock in a good rate and opt for 100% renewable energy.

If you’re too lazy you can visit Green Mountain Energy –they have decent prices per kWh.

• I’ve also gotten all my electrical junk and plugged them into power-strips and when I’m not around I’ll unplug the whole strip and kill all wasted energy. There are some disadvantages to this with some electronics being “reset,” but for the most part you don’t need all your junk sucking juice out of not only the grid but your wallet!

• I also unplug my PC’s when not in use, this one was hard to adapt to but once again a power-strip means only one thing being plugged in (ideally.) Any reduction in power use helps, even that damn light on your pc junk! I also realized I didn’t need my laptop plugged in and on all night, which means I don’t sleep within a few feet of a PC just waiting to be used for hours on end.

• Over a year ago I switched to energy-saving light bulbs, the switch took over 70 bulbs and was pretty costly but worth it. While on the bulb subject, do you really need a working bulb in each socket? Energy saving or not un-screw bulbs you don’t really need.

• I’ve also tried to reduce my use of my hand-dandy clothes dryer. While it leaves our clothing nice and fluffy… it’s an energy hog. I’m at the point where I’m using good old-fashion clothes lines and sunshine. While this is a pain in the –uh, neck. It’s really a great step to take and it’ll reduce your power consumption dramatically. I will admit towels were really hard to get used to, getting out of the shower and not having my usually fluffy towel was scary for a while, its worth getting used to. It worked for as long as people have had wet clothing (for ever,) so there’s nothing wrong with using nature to do your laundry drying.

• I also take it easy on the A/C, living in South Texas this is a major pain, but do you really need to have your home at a chilly 74 degrees or lower? 78, 79, 80 degree temperatures on the all feel fine in a well insulated home with ceiling fans and stuff. A programmable thermostat also goes a long way but I’ve been a fan of all digital for a long time and haven’t made that leap yet.

There are a few other small things I’ve done but those were the most important. Month after month I’ve gotten better and better at saving power. I’ve also gotten my family and friends to think about making changes in their life. Power consumption at home has gone down about 30 to 35 percent. Being a heavy PC user and TV addict I’m looking into getting solar panels for those items alone, a solar water-heater is also on the list.

While I’m not totally green and won’t ever be, I’m just trying to kick some bad habits and save some cash.

Neil was off the air since June 24 and it appears that he was recovering from Surgery related to his MS. He looks well, and Your World is back to its normal greatness.

“Now may I suggest you take your column and shove it?” – Neil Cavuto

While I’ve almost screamed “CONTENT IS EVERYTHING” on RGVSEO.com, there’s more to it than that. You need a good looking blog and something that makes YOU stand out. Judging by the amount of comments I get, I haven’t found my niche, but I don’t need to. This is my spot on the web to rant and establish an online reputation for myself in a subtle way.

I know I get hits, I keep track of it, the lack of comments doesn’t mean there is a lack of readers; yet, lack of comments can turn away a new commenter.

logging is simple and complicated at the same time.

Ehhh, I’m running on no sleep, I’ll stop typing now.

My father is a life long Democrat, I suspect that since the first time he ever voted he’s never cast a ballot for a single Republican. About two weeks ago my family was about to have dinner and my dad says, “I think I’m voting Republican,” with a blank look on his face. He went on by saying:

“The more I see Obama, the more I don’t like him. Lately he’s walking around with a smartass attitude and I saw one of those town hall meetings with McCain I liked that he took shit from people and let them talk, Obama always wants to shut people up when he doesn’t like what they’re saying. Obama also says he doesn’t want to drill in the ocean either, I don’t get it…”

I stared at him as he went on and on with his reasons. I couldn’t get past the fact that my dad is very much into politics but doesn’t watch the pundit shows. He’s more likely to tune in to the big 3 or C-Span than anything. While there was a minor stir about Obama’s; well, apparent arrogance, my dad’s a normal guy and none of this got to him. He came to his conclusion by himself, he didn’t get pushed one way or another and I had no part in this despite the fact that I’ve been calling myself a Republican for a long time.

The conversation went on with my big sister jumping in and taking my usual role as Republican pushers, she has NEVER been into politics, NEVER been in love with voting and NEVER shown much interest in much of this unless I was breaking it down in a funny way. From what she has picked from Obama, she can’t stand him. She was more of a Hillary backer, now she’s on my side of things. She attributes her dislike to him simply being “a dumbass.”

While I made up my mind about voting McCain a LONG time ago, those close to me seem to be thinking harder about their vote this year and not casting their vote for the Democrat just because it’s a habit. I can’t help but wonder if this is happening across the US and maybe is attributing to Obama and McCain being in a statistical dead-heat in most polls in a year where Democrats should be FAR ahead.

]]> http://luisrocks.com/blog/2008/08/02/even-though-he-said-it%e2%80%99d-never-happen-dad%e2%80%99s-voting-republican/feed/ http://luisrocks.com/blog/2008/08/02/back-and-better-than-ever/ http://luisrocks.com/blog/2008/08/02/back-and-better-than-ever/#comments Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:05:25 +0000 Luis http://luisrocks.com/blog/2008/08/02/back-and-better-than-ever/ So I killed my blog last night. What started off as a simple 10 minute redesign at 5 in the morning turned into a CSS nightmare when I deleted a HUGE chunk and was simply too tired to repair it. At this point I’ve fixed the actual stuff I killed and the blog is 85% updated. I’ll finish up later today.

*Yawn* I’m out.

As things clear up in South Texas the destruction that was left behind by Hurricane Dolly is more and more apparent. There are still many people without power, and some running low on food and essentials. The local media is doing a pretty good job reporting everything going on.

Meanwhile, local, state, and federal help is flowing in and besides minor problems and a lot of complaining –and rightly so in some cases while maybe not all. A lot are being helped and there’s a lot more help on the way.

The thing that gets to me is the fact that no one died is being downplayed. Property can be replaced, and the poorest will most defiantly get help along with the others in need. Things could have been worse and there is a lot to be grateful for –life, for instance.

So it’s still raining outside and besides a downed tree or two and a bunch of branches all over the yard and part of my fence going down, everything is perfect. An absolute mess mind you, but not bad. I really wish I could have snapped a few more pics; sadly the best action took place just as it got dark and still is going on now. In terms of my area, things seem ok, there was a tree or two uprooted or snapped, and crazy dirty buildups from the runoff, other than that I wasn’t able to make out anything major but it is dark outside. I do have a few more video clips from yesterday and I’ll be getting at least one or two more on here, but there wont be anything GREAT to show like a flying cow or goat. (This is south Texas!) So after all that has happened, Western Hidalgo County largely got away with minimal damage.

So here is my final photo until sunup:

Here’s the Cary - Eddie shot I couldn’t help but snap:

Like I said, this was an hour ago the rain is really coming down now and the winds wicked out there. I’ll try and get a video or pic of it soon.

And heres a still shot from a vid I took while walking around outside –where I almost got hit by a few things. Nothing too bad came my way. A branch or two and a low flying bird (no joke.)

I really want to post a video but my connection is going in and out. The power has been steady and flashed off once or twice. Thank god for battery power.

Blind Melon - No Rain – Truly a great song and vid.

Erasure - Only Rain – I’m an 80’s boy damnit!

The Doors - Riders on the Storm – Timeless!

Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain – Totally calming!

There’s more but I won’t make it drag on and on!