Remembering 9/11,,,We were so unprepared , so trusting, so foolish, so naive , we let our enemies say they were our friends, we did not protect our border that Santa Ana's Army could have ridden across, we did not even have the NYC police and fire departments able to talk to each other on their radios !! What the Hell were we thinking !? No locking secure doors on airplane cockpits !? We spent so much so badly on national security.

Even after the 4 airplanes of 9/11, the FBI and the CIA(even the cia with the cia!!) and the NSA and the DOD and the State Dept. were still having 'political turf wars'; very counter-productive.


Now the Republicans are against 'section D' secure broadband for all our security forces, police fire military political, city county state and federal government.  More Republican obstructionism.  Really ?!


Guess we did not learn enough from this terrible lesson.  Do we really have to go through this ,,, again!!,,, to act responsibly?  


On 9/11, the '911' dispatchers were answering the phones and telling the occupants of both HIT world trade center buildings to "STAY in the buildings!", as if everyone had forgotten the endless evacuations drills in elementary school for fires, earthquakes, and bombs.  There were no overhead fire sprinkler systems working.  The NYFD firemen hauling all those very heavy hoses up those 50-80 levels of stairs could not put the fires out,,, and died trying.  The NYFD also did not seem to use their white dust masks or their bottled air and very expensive face masks to protect their lungs and health, so foolishly macho.  So were the firemen and police and the building security, in not expecting and demanding a quick and efficient total evacuation of both buildings and the surrounding area !?  Did no one but   the architect know these buildings were so prone to collapse when hit by large planes, with vs without fuel!?  The buildings were right next to the water, but not one firefighting helicopter was used(blow up the dam tower).  Not one siphon pickup airplane,,, AND the "emergency" fire doors to the roof were locked!! There was no efficient practiced central command, even for just NYC!  The air traffic controllers did not even know where the 4 stolen planes were!  The Air Force and DOD took too long scrambling  fighter jets!; Our military could not intercept!! and what if it had been a private plane full of fertilizer explosives and terrorists flown in from Canada or the Caribbean? Terrible, embarrassing, and costly top-down lack of leadership and poor cooperation!  Could the Republican President Bush have done any better?


Imagine the courage of those civilians on that flight 93 over Pennsylvania,,, to not just curl up in a corner and cry?


  We were and are still very unprepared.

Tried and True tip for raising Responsible vs Spoiled Children: Have a 'to do chore list" for Everyone on the Frig.

Morning chores,,,
After school chores,,, 
Dinner time chores,,,
and ,,, Weekend chores. 
Everybody works like a TEAM.
Even a child can learn to put their toys in a basket. 
In the morning, someone had to set the table.  Expecting Mom or Dad, or just Mom to do it all ,,, is so unfair a burden.
Someone had to load the dishwasher.
Someone had to take out the trash.


Same for dinner.
Some one had to help cook and do the prep work, cutting ,,, washing on a small wooden step at the sink ,,, 


On the weekends, someone, usually the boy , had to mow the front and back lawns.  Someone had to windex all the windows , inside and out, usually a 2 kid job. Someone had to bury all the cat and dog poo.


I know parents in the 90s and 20-00s who would never think of infringing on their child's free time to grow and learn and experiment.  One of those is now a meth-addict, liar, thief, often in jail.  

the Best: my Vote: in 2011 toilets: GERBER (brand), AVALANCHE (model) for about $190. ,,, we got ours at RVCloud, SJ,Ca.

Adult height is so much more comfortable than normal child height.


We had a Kohler and a Toto, both clogged often. This one has a glazed trap/bowl exit.  Rarely plugs up.


Two piece, and easy to install.

Hotel Palmas de Cortez, East Cape of Cabo San Lucas, Los Barriles, Mexico

My San Diego buddy has been fishing Cabo and the East Cape, 40 miles North, for sailfish mainly for decades, and dorado. I had been asking him to take me for years, and he finally did. This was a few years ago.


We got an expensive taxi(so-so driver, but he did stop once for cold water drinks/beer in the hot wx) the 40 miles to the famous Van Wormer's property, Calle 20 de Novembre #2, y Valentin Ruiz Gonzales, 23330, Mexico, phone 877-777-8862 or 818-224-4744.  After check-in, we found our room on the back/land side without an ocean view.  No problem. But the rooms/suite was no better than ,,, actually worse than Motel 6, with weak A/C and plain cheap furniture.  They don't waste water on a rich thick green lawn, tho the huge 'hut'/palapa at the open air entrance is  impressive.  And the surrounding town is Mexico-depressing littered poor uneducated ripoff ugly safety-scary, as Mexico usual(unless you never ever leave a resort like at Cabo or PV).


There was a swim-up bar at the funky smelling  beach side pool, and the big resort is right above the beach, the pier, and the anchored out fishing fleet of many boats.  I was a little worried about the infamous "two step"/runs, but , heh, this is a very popular fishing hotel for "gringos".


I don't drink much, a beer or two with or after dinner usually.  But i got so sick after dinner the first night with the "two step", runs/diarrhea !!  The next morning we were assigned the "second best skipper", as my buddy has spent years at this resort.  He was a young handsome guy and so proud that he was "#2"!   We headed out east into the Gulf and it was very flat and calm and hot. We brought our own food and water; the captain and crew had their own. There was NO cooler full of safe sealed drinks of water and juices, as i expected for so expensive a fishing charter.


Finally we sight-fishing spotted some sailfish working the surface, with the radio help of some other skippers. The  crew put our lines in the water and we quickly hooked up with ,and released, a couple 6-7ft long sailfish.  My first, but kind of depressing they are so small these days for most fishermen. They are so beautiful, but no longer as big as the old photographs you see in the Fish Market Restaurants in California and elsewhere.   It was my first time and the sailfish fight was good, but not great. Nothing to get very excited about.


Then we found some DORADO, or what they call in Hawaii MAHI MAHI, the most beautiful fish alive in the water i have ever seen with blues , gold, and greens !!   And FIGHT !!  Wow !!  They fight SO MUCH MORE AND BETTER THAN A MUCH LARGER SAILFISH !!  No one told me.  And i was told they taste better than sailfish too !!


I notice the Captain was cursing at us and calling us dirty Mexican-language names all day long, not that my buddy cared;  Dick was totally focused on the fishing, as usual.  I grew up with Mexicans in San Jose and i know most of the swear words and insults because of my high school friends.  It really bothered me that this supposedly popular ,"#2", skipper could swear at us all day, and not just the usual "gringo",,, AND DEMAND to be tipped more than $100US  by each of us, EACH DAY !!


I was my San Diego buddy's guest, so i did not complain to the hotel management.  And the second night, yep, i got "Montezuma's Revenge" again !!; My rear end was so sore.  Darn few women,even ugly women at the resort,,, or the swim up bar.  Mostly fat hairy men.


Yes, Mr. Van Wormer is very famous,,, and i have read on the Web a lot of the cookie-cutter "4 star" ratings on several hotel and booking websites.  Bullshit.  


The food in the big, tiled restaurant looked safe, but i was sick with diarrhea all week.  The suites furniture and amenites, like tv(none),radio(none) and A/C(weak) were nothing to brag about.  And the much bally-hooed fishing was weak, with only a few sailfish caught each day for a week and always released(who wants to keep such a small sailfish in such a depleted fishery?!) and a few dorado that turned ugly color when dead and out of the water(i did not trust the captain or staff to clean my fish and freeze my fish for the flight back to the States).  And the constant insults and look of disgust from the popular "#2"captain was not a plus; Yes, i have been in Japan and France and they think they are the superior race too. 


If i go to Hawaii again, trip #26, i may try fishing for mahi mahi/dorado.  It is, in my opinion, a much safer feeling countryside, much more attractive place, much better educated populace, and much safer food. No fun going on vacation and spending hours, day and night, on a toilet.

Erindria Beach, Baja California Sur, Mexico

WARNING !!
This beach is NOT for beginner surfers or beginner surf schools, in my opinion.
I was there a few years ago with a group from Santa Cruz, Ca. and saw a young healthy man SHATTER HIS ANKLE!! on the MOSTLY CONTINUOUS BOULDERS UNDER WATER!!, NOT SAND,  by amateurishly steeping off his board, instead of butt and back flopping as instructed; Easy and common mistake for a beginner,,,on a proper, safer sandy bottom shore and beach. He was placed on the steep beach, head uphill,,, and almost went into SHOCK with the EMT there.  


Then he was placed flat, and then on a surfboard, and into a pickup for the long long painful drive back to San Diego and a good hospital. This was not a simple easy one bone break, but a major surgery event in a third world country.


WARNING: THIS IS NO BEACH FOR BEGINNER SURFERS !!


If you must , there is a cheap ok hotel at the N. end, a long walk or cheap bribe motorbike ride with one of the many poor kids (and thieves) from town. It is very hot mid-summer days,,, and foggy freezing cold at night.  If you sleep on the beach in a tent and sleeping bag, you will suffer.

the Best:My Vote: dentist, Silicon Valley, San Jose, Ca. area = DR. JOHN H. BROWN, DDS,

10090 PASADENA AVENUE #b1
CUPERTINO, CA. 95014-5939
408.255.2500, phone
*****Mrs. Barbara is the Best DH / dental hygenist, also !!

the Best:My Vote: auto repair, Silicon Valley, San Jose,Ca. = WILLOW GLEN AUTO ELECTRIC

1654 Almaden ROAD #A
SJ,Ca. 95125
408.286.5049 ,phone
$85/hr labor rate !!

Why is the Web so darn s-l-o-w after dark and on weekends, not even 1/2 speed ! ?

s-o

s-l-o-w

$35 "EZ Seed" by Scott-MiracleGro ,,, is NOT !! You water,per directions, every morning and evening for DAYS ,,, and WEEKS !!, and the grass seed does not quickly 'root and shoot', like it was non-vital,,,

Where is the rooting compound additive to get this darn EXPENSIVE grass seed to germinate faster and root and shoot !??

i recommend you do not buy this product until Scott actually makes it "easy" , dammit !!  

i bought 5 bins and can get a refund for all ,,, but Costco does not do online account summaries, i guess,,, darned careless corporations,,,

The WWW/ "web" is sooo SLOW on Sundays after 10pm PCT every damn day,,, even Gmail-Google is So Slow on Sundays !!

Is this a good-enough business model with the Web being so very slow after say 10pm PCT and on Sundays !?


i don't think so!!

August 2011, What happened recently in California ,,, is replaying Nation-wide, and the Major Lesson is ONE PARTY RULE

We elected a promising new Governor, Jerry Brown, instead of 2 scary Republicans, HPs Carly Fiorina and eBay's Meg Whitman.  But we still elected Republican State Senators and State Representatives; Thus we are still in GRIDLOCK.  The lesson is : we should only have one party in the 3 state branches of Governor, Senate and House.


Same goes for the Nation in the next election, 2012.  Most sane people can remember how bad it was when the Republicans had the White House AND Congress.  Look how bad it is now ,,, with the Republicans barely controlling the House, but not the Senate or Presidency.  Do we really want to go backward,,, again?


Yes, most everything is a mess, from the environment to job creation.  Even tiny things like a free phone time tick(gone) and the ability to bring your loose change to a bank for paper bills(gone) and the most teacher's hate national education system called "no child left behind"(still a total failure,,,and still hurting us).  And i am very disappointed in Mr. Obama as a leader. 


But if we "piss in the wind" and elect a Republican President and a Republican Congress, we the entire USA will be in so much deeper trouble.   It is not that we are rewarding Obama with a second term, it is that we have to "make things better for all of us" and that means not voting for any Republicans, only Democrats in 2012 , for the next 4 years.


Yes, i wish we had elected Mrs. Clinton,,, but we can't replay.  There is no third party , responsible candidate, yet, so we are stuck with Obama.

Aug.2011, What the US Media is not saying ,,, Is that women , in private, are SAVAGELY RIPPING CRITICIZING and LAUGHING AT the Republican Female Presidential Candidates, whatsherface and whatsherface2

Women, guys if you have noticed much at all being in their company, are super-hard on other women.  Cheap shots, bellow the belts shots, hair and makeup digs, the works !!   And Mrs. Palin and the other one,,, uhhh, whatsherface#2, that other ignoramus!!, are being savaged by MANY women's remarks, right now.


Too bad the American media is not paying attention,,,

August 2011, We are living in the Great Recession, yet there is no law that "California jobs go to Californians first" and "USA jobs go to Americans first" ,,,

How much pandering and political corruption do American corporations really need to succeed?


Other advanced countries are much tougher on corporations and,for instance, don't give huge corps like IBM tax breaks/fee breaks to stay around San Jose.  You might think these huge , super-profitable  American corporations that are sitting on $Billions and $Trillions instead of hiring over 9% unemployed Americans would be ashamed of their conduct. Nope.


You might think the Senators and Representatives in Congress who do the Corporations bidding, instead of "for the good of the people", might be ashamed especially of their recent very irresponsible conduct.  HP laid off 30,000 employees,,, and then after buying more corporate jets,  Republican Ms. C. Fiorina tried to win/buy the California governorship, like Republican eBay's Meg Whitman.  Americans really need to remember the recent California history of recalling our Republican Governor,'fired' Grey Davis, who lied about deregulating home power and the price would go down,,, and the budget being 100days late and costing us broke Californians(see "enron" dvd movie) $56M/day , each of those 100 days recently.  That is just a taste of how far the Republicans are willing to ruin these United States.  Is irresponsible, delayed and backlogged Congress ashamed?
Nope.


You might think the President, Mr. Obama, who ran a campaign with all the fine talk of ,,, ending the wars,,, ending the other parties tax cuts for the rich ,,, getting USa back to work with major public works projects ,,, single payer and even just the small concession of a public option to a much needed revision of the nations health care ,,, to Leading us out of decades of Republican fiscal and truthtalk failure ,,, and who used the words "hope" and " change" to get us to vote for the first black President in the history of the Nation ,,, might be a little ashamed at how poorly he has done, so far, in being the Leader of this American Nation.


Imagine you are in the shoes of someone in college now, and how hopeless everything seems.  The Republicans want to or will let their radical fringe , the Tea Party, seriously damage financially and politically and our reputation around the world, the AAA rating of the USA.   Are we all really going to elect a Repubican "pretty face", shallow as that is, and go backward to the days of unhappiness with Reagan and Bush 1+2 ?   Is the Democratic Party so weak, they are counting on the unlikeness of a viable third party , to keep them in power ??


Yikes,,,

President Obama's approval rating ,within his own party electorate, is falling. If he can't or won't lead based on his campaign slogan and retoric , then maybe we should have voted instead for Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, fighters. The Democratic Party has a HUGE problem, now and come 2012 !!

The Democrats have the Presidency and the Senate, but it is like they are the minority party in federal government, not acting like the majority party AT ALL.


The Progressive, social liberal and fiscally responsible wing of the Democrats has to give us an honest option in 2012 election, like Ralph Nader.  Has to !!  We can not dither along being un-led another 4 years as a Nation.


Some , not i, but some protested President Obama's failure to end the wars, balance the budget with an end to the Bush tax cuts for the comfortably rich and wasteful spending cuts ,,, by voting Republican. Boy did that BACKFIRE on the Nation !!  With a 2 party system, and no 'vote of no confidence' like in England, what are voters to do every 2 years between presidential elections?


You would think a smart well-educated guy like President Obama would get the point of low poll ratings among Americans to "change" his weak, passive, and too Conservative governing style ,,,

Comcast's tv schedule was WRONG, again, today, 2 August ,,, when it said Rachel Ray would have Cheryl Crow as a guest ,,, and instead had Eva Longoria

This happens too often with Comcast cable tv service,,,

Here are some more recent examples:
1 May,,,on screen program guide, why 2?, said "Kentucky Rifle", but was BALLET ,,, instead.


On channel 7, on screen program guide said "Brothers and Sisters" , but instead was "Desperate Housewives".


And "Poach Salmon with Giada" ,,, was not.


So , if you are considering Comcast, be forewarned:
The volume on the highest on both the tv and the cable at '50' is not loud enough to hear in the next room.


Also, the HD channels are hidden way back in the 700s.
So lets say you want to watch channel 5 , digital is channel 5,,,But HD channel 5 is 705 !!, not right side by side.


Another recent problem with Comcast is ,,, If you take a payment in to one of their stores and hand it in,,, it is often not credited to your account THAT DAY.   Boy, that seems fishy,,, And you are not given a receipt of payment FOR AND ON THAT DAY !!

The 2011 Tour de France has ended,,, Again, such a farce!! Day after day, watching leaders slow at "stage" finish lines, yielding to a lesser rider,,, "All a stage" of fakery actors,,, but for the injured and hospitalized !!

Here is a bicycle race, with no leader speed constantly posted!, as in the Indy500.  In fact, no peloton /main group speed either!, when at times they are 'faking' racing by using low gears to spin the pedals faster, tho the pavement is barely moving by. (It's French.)


They display distances, but not speeds! So strange to call this a 'race'.  And time between the leader and the following pack, but not how fast or slow these bicycle racers are going.  So frustrating and hard to watch , or believe.  How can you have an internationally televised event , a "Tour" whatever that is is not a real honest fact-based race, and give so little important information, like speeds, incline or decline angles, race weather in the hottest time of the year like temperature and humidity and wind speed and wind direction?? (It's French.)


And then there are all the injured and hospitalized with broken bones and worse.  How can a group of 'professionals' , on a closed road race course, with lots of police on the street, motorcycles and cars and even helicopters to watch and protect the bicycle racers, have so many accidents?  Huge money ? (It's French.)


Oh, even the official race cars collided with 2 bicyclists this year, pushing one into a barbed wire fence!!  Such gladiator carnage is unnecessary and unprofessional !! (It's French.)


So what if the French want to , year after year, fake the winning of 'stages', and the winning of the yellow , green, white, and red polka dot jerseys / shirts ?  In day 20, the next to the last day, there is no believable way Andy S.--they showed him SLOWING DOWN on this time trial on the slight hill left side of the road!!-- was truly and honestly beaten by his slower brother Frank S. and Cadel E.!!  In boxing, if you throw a fight, you get ridiculed and, if for money, go to jail !!  Not in the 'Tour de France'  (It's French.)


Maybe the French are comfortable with all this actors-on-a-stage fake and the Tour not really being an honest real bicycle race, by the day or by the 3 weeks !!  The French seem to be very comfortable stealing from tourists with the wrong change at places like the Gare du Nord Metro Station, where i lost most of a 100fr.note.  Hopefully this sports fraudulence will not spread to the rest of the world, like the Tour of California !!  Phil and Paul yammering away all the time, i just laugh at the commentary b.s.!!  What a total sham !!  There is no way a reasonable person can look at the pavement and these bicyclists who stop pedaling just before the daily 'stage' finish line and call this a real honest team and or individual race !!  It is a phony show, a French fraud of massive monetary complexity, a hoax, a 'tour' , a joke !!  And they have not even started talking about all the illegal drug doping, but for one rider i heard, in this bicycle poorly regulated 'sport'-farce !!  Why would Andy and Frank yield the win to weaker short Aussie Cadel !?  We may never know the truth. (It's French.)


'Professional' bicycle racing as a sport is hurt by the fraudulence of this 98 years of French faked 'race' show.

BLOGGER TEAM, "SOMETHING IS BROKEN",,,like my blogger website will not scroll on compose or edit,,,HELLO !!

oh,,, we can't post problems now,,, just look at as 'archive',,, day 3 and waiting ,,, This is one big constant problem with 'Blogger' in that there are constant problems and no quick pro. contact fixes.


No "customer service" to talk to at Google or Blogger.  No 800 # to call.  No "live chat",,, Another big company , like Microsoft, with terrible 'customer service', and that is ok with them,,,


What to do? Vote self-destructive Republican!?

San Jose, lCa. real estate problems ,,, There is a City Code Enforcement Dept., but that does not mean they do much ,,,

South Central SJ's Willow Glen is one of the nicer neighborhoods in the City, but on ONE BLOCK we have an example of how SJ can no longer maintain its own rules and regulations: Several houses HAVE CUT DOWN BOTH CITY OWNED TREES IN THE PARKING STRIP,,, 2 houses HAVE DIRT FRONT YARDS INSTEAD OF LAWN/PLANTINGS ,,, 1 house has an ILLEGAL BUSINESS THAT THE CITY KNOWS ABOUT BUT WILL NOT DO SOMETHING ABOUT BECAUSE THEY ARE MEX.(-AMERICANS) ,,, 1 house has too man

Always amazes me how little Realtors know/tell when you buy a used house: Want lead-based paint on your walls with that $800,000 old 1950s San Jose house,,, and we don't even have to tell you which side of the house the sewer service line is on!!?

"All electric kitchen!!",,, and exactly how old is that wiring??


Is there a 'carfax' like reference on all the troubles with this house, like fire damage, termites, any murders at this house,,, there should be histories on all houses and properties, since this is valuable information some want to hide,,, and some want to know !!

I watched every tv game of the World Womens Soccer Championship in Germany and salute the fortitude of our fine America Team !!

I never played futbol/soccer,,, and don't even know the rules of the game, or how to find them online.


But seem to see that the Japanese goalie,moving the correct way BEFORE THE KICK by the American attacker, had a read /tell on which way the USA team would kick the ball so close to the goal box,,, running so fast.  As i said, i don't know much about soccer,,,


Maybe the USA Women's Team should run slower, like the winning Japanese team, and give less of a sign / tell that they are kicking it so close, to the left or right?


Just a thought ,,, 


I will be cheering , and crying as a 63yr old man for your victories in next years 2012 Olympics in England.  Thank you for showing us back in the states so much 'heart'.  And 'guts'.  And 'spirit'.  You did USa proud.

Saw the last of the Harry Potter movie series last night ,,, and the End of HeWhoShouldNotBeNamed Voldemort. Kinda reminds me of our current situation with the minority Republican party ,,, flexing its stupid unkind short-sighted muscles to the detriment of the entire Nation ,,,

Even on NPR this morning, KQED radio, there was some un-grounded, irrelevant, fantasy-world Economist and Professor saying "This is definitely not the time to raise taxes on the rich corporations with enormous profits or individuals making 10-20-50-100$ Million dollars ,every year, because THESE ARE THE PEOPLE (yeah, paper corporations are the same as 'people',,, that is a current self-deception big bad lie) WHO MAKE ALL THE NEW JOBS WITH SMALL BUSINESS STARTS."


If that were true(it is sooo obviously UNTRUE,,,) ,,, THEN DON'T YOU THINK WE WOULD BE SEEING MUCH MORE JOB CREATION, WITH THIS OVER 10 FAILED EXPERIMENT IN HUGE TAX CUTS MAINLY TO BENEFIT THE RICH ,,,?  This often repeated defense of our terrible current situation has been proven , year after painful year for most of USa, to be UNTRUE !!


And yet the Republican Party keeps saying it and the tv and radio commentators keep letting them get away with THIS HUGE BIG BAD LIE!  OK, so i see a similarity with the movie's 'DeathEaters' and the Republican Party, don't you ?  The 'DeathEaters' would take away any good feeling you had, make you very miserable, and take you to a terrible place called (Greece)'Azkaban',,, and the Republican National Party wants to end Social Security and Medicare, ending/ killing possibly thousands of (poorer,but not Rich) Americans, before their time, had we kept those 2 programs and say, ended all Middle East military unilateral action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan immediately.  And closed all the tax loopholes and rifleshots. Ended all farm subsidies.  Ended all  Big Oil Industry subsidies that they want but clearly do not need.  Return to pre-weak-mind Reagan Progressive taxation ,,,


Oh, yeah, and kill more poor elderly seniors.  Yep, that sounds like 'DeathEaters' to me!!


Notice how 'Voldemort' is willing , he says, to kill everyone who does not 'come over to his side' in this final Harry Potter movie and attacks and destroys the beloved huge castle of Hogwarts School ?
Doesn't that sound just like the Republicans , willing to drive the USa over the fiscal cliff, because a Republican President Bush JR., and even 'Ray-guns' before him, started us down this terrible path of pampering and pandering to the whims of the very small minority,super-Rich Corps and individuals, like these fund managers who make $1Billion/year and only pay the minimum 15% tax ?  


WHERE ARE ALL THESE NEW JOBS THESE TAX BREAKS ARE SUPPOSE TO CREATE !!?  Instead , the head of the Republican Party, 'B', is going to trash this once proud Nation and crash us like Greece!  That sounds a lot like 'Voldemort' to me! 


iif

Hope Every Good American turns ON your TV today to support the USA Womens Futbol-Soccer Championship Game in Germany vs the Very Good Team from Japan !!

GO ,,, TEAM ,,, USA WOMEN !!

July2011,,,It isn't as if we can't see where the Republican Party is pushing this Nation, All of US, OVER A FISCAL CLIFF: Debt-based riots in GREECE, Many folks out of work in IRELAND, SPAIN and PORTUGAL in deep debt trouble, and ITALY also in trouble,,,ALL AVOIDABLE, natch, like the Canadians avoided the USA pain in 2008 becuz of STRONG BANK REGULATION

Americans!, do you really want to be in as much trouble for as long as Japan was ,,, and the "piigs"(portugal ,ireland ,italy ,greece) are now ?


Really !
There is no FDR to save us this time,,,

The Republican Minority is about the PUSH THE USA OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF, AGAIN,,,Time for the President to declare a "National Emergency" to save usall,,,

Would the Republican Party really take us to the brink of 2 August 2011, and as the minority party, PUSH ALL OF US OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF,again !?


Looks that way,,,

Why is it that you can not find washable car covers, when you know they are going to get dirty, and bird droppings, and NEED WASHING !!?

I have been shopping for years,,, COSTCO ,,, KRAGEN'S,,, PEP BOY'S ,,, all the usual auto parts stores with no luck.  All of these CAR COVERS ARE UN-WASHABLE !!


Talk about the lack of American Common Sense, Practical Inventiveness !!

Recommend you do NOT BUY these MATTRESS PADS WITH ATTACHED VINYL SIDE, as they are too hard to wash machine wash and dryer dry,,, Instead, get a separate $20 Full size/your size WATER BARRIER and SEPARATE MATTRESS PAD !!

My folks are in their 90s ,,, and in their 80s, when Dad started having bladder problems at night, they bought two new expensive mattress pads WITH WATERPROOF VINYL PLASTIC UNDERLAYER ATTACHED.  Very hard to wash in the machine, as the vinyl layer keeps the water from circulating.  Same with dryer machine, as the vinyl bottom layer keeps the hot air from circulating.


This is NOT AN IMPROVEMENT !! 


So if you go to TARGET, all the way in the back with BEDDING you will find these different brands of very thin and inexpensive SEPARATE WATERPROOF MATTRESS COVERS, usually made out of polyester or some other synthetic like polypropylene.  Then, I got a very high quality SEPARATE MATTRESS PAD, FULL/DOUBLE SIZE for $50,,, much cheaper than BED BATH AND BEYOND !! 

Don't you think this FLORIDA DISCONNECT ABOUT THE VALUE OF A CHILD'S LIFE AND THE ULTIMATE RESPONSIBILITY OF THAT CHILD'S PARENT are going to HURT Disney Corporation and DISNEY WORLD, that supposedly highly value children ,,, versus THE 12 ADULT FLORIDA JURORS, who obviously do not hold much RESPECT or VALUE to A SMALL DEFENSELESS CHILD'S LIFE !?

Juror #3, a blond FLORIDA woman, was on TV defending her decision of 'not guilty beyond a REASONABLE doubt'.  She implied the State of Florida did not PROVE THAT CASEY ANTHONY and no one else absolutely, definitively, without any doubt, with like-TVs crime show full sequence pictures and video of how SOMEONE DUCT TAPED AND GARBAGE BAG KILLED CAYLEE.  The law does not say "WITHOUT ANY DOUBT".  It says "reasonable".  


Shame on you adults of Florida!!  What was show CLEARLY was that Casey is a PROVEN LIAR, and for not reporting her child missing for 31 days, a HORRIBLE PARENT, maybe not in FLORIDA, but in most "reasonable" places!!


Just like ARUBA and governing HOLLAND learned a very hard lesson after the murder of a vacationing young American woman ,,, with public protests about the terrible job the police did and the horrid level of public accountability and the rule of law in both countries,,, as people AVOIDED ARUBA FOR YEARS. 


Isn't it "reasonable" to believe that most people, adults, who place a VERY HIGH VALUE on the  PRECIOUS LIFE OF A CHILD will want to protect THEIR CHILD and AVOID FLORIDA FOR SOME TIME ?? 


I do not encourage punishing Disney World for the adults of Florida failure to find 12 or 2 steadfast jurors out of twelve who value a child's life over that of a lying irresponsible parent.  But i think a state such a Florida that is DEPENDENT ON TOURISM for a large part of its INCOME and TAXES will likely see a significant and long decline in VISITORS TO FLORIDA.


  The media may quickly forget this PRECIOUS CHILD Caylee, but i suggest the public at large in the world will not.


My neighbor in California left the backyard gate to the pool open and one of their several children was found, minutes later, face down and dead in the swimming pool.  The city attorney possibly felt they had suffered enough the loss of a child and they were not found guilty of this irresponsible , "beyond a reasonable doubt" death of a child.  Not one day of jail time. Not one penny in fines. Not one year in mandatory parenting classes ,,, They were simply not prosecuted, criminal or civil law, at all. There was no question whatsoever that these parents were FATALLY IRRESPONSIBLE to a small weak defenseless child.  How often does this same story happen all over the USA?  I guess this kind of justice passes for Justice all over the USA,,, 


Isn't that so very sad.

Two tract homes, side by side in San Jose, Silicon Valley, Ca.. One pays $400-500/mo. for electricity from PG&E ,,, and the other "never pays more than $200" . How can this be !?

House 'A' is occupied by an old, slightly senile, senior couple in their 90s, and they had to put in an A/C system for health reasons for the retired public school teacher.  One pension and Social Security. They pay $400-500/month for electricity from PG&E.  No swimming pool.

House 'B' is occupied by a middle aged couple and their two adult kids.  They have a very similar house and A/C "which we use a lot".   They also have a pool out back that "runs at least 4 hours per day. We have never paid more than $200/month for electricity from PG&E."


The couple in House 'A' contacted PG&E, as the installer of their new smart meter (beware,this company has proven time and time again that it can not be trusted,whether by suit, settlement and conviction) said he lived just west of Stockton in the very hot summer Central Valley and had the A/C on "all the time, and have never paid more than $99/month for electricity from PG&E."

  PG&E, the company to blame for the "Erin Brockovich"-movie massive pollution, says their is nothing wrong with their pricing of these 3 homes in California.

And yes, there is the state agency, the CPUC, or California Public Utilities Commission, gutted of any real power by the campaign contribution-"sold out" State Legislature. 

And then there is the recently departed, politically, x-Governor, Arnold S. , who had a very polite staff that answered his phones quickly and very professionally and usually effectively, connecting you to the head of any State department immediately, something unheard of in this State's governing probably until then.  But Arnold only promised "not to raise taxes",,, and i think he will be in social hell indefinitely for not keeping another promise, to his wife!, (a Kennedy !!)


New Governor Jerry Brown is trying. But the few, very few, minority Republicans are still trying to blackmail this State with their attitude of "our way, or no way" political suicide.  Times are very very hard in California now,,,

2011 and the Republican Dream, if you are dumb enuf to believe it, is "The small minority Rich get Richer and the vast majority Poor get Poorer"

They say it differently:"lower taxes(only for the already very Rich)".  I mean, you couldn't really say what the Republicans stand for ,,, and not be laughed out of the room, the House, Senate and USA.   


What the Democrats believe in , who knows.  Yeah, you could invite a Democrat or Republican wealthy, elected representative 'slacker' to your 4 LONG YEAR PARTY.   But do you REALLY want to invite SPOILERS ?!


But if you are an Anarchist, a Libertarian, someone who flunked out of high school, yes, you might vote Republican.  All the rest of you will have a very gulty conscience hopefully.

Guys, if you don't like 'housework', here are some simple hints: unscrew the refrigerator light, put a spray bottle of Simple Green in the shower, always use a female condom vs a male condom, and put your aftershave / cologne on a piece of paper instead of your skin

Do you realize how much heat an incandescent, old-fashioned light bulb puts out,,, in the back of your refrigerator every time you open the door, with the light on in the room you are in??  (Un)screw it.  (Yep, the USA refrig. industry is still selling that old light bulb crap, not an l.e.d.)


Don't like to clean the white soap scum and hard mineral build up in your shower, lazy guy?  No problem, use a spray of Simple Green on all your aluminum sliding door rails, chrome soap  recesses, faucets, and especially showerhead after every shower.  Worst case, you may have to use a kitchen nylon-sided sponge one a season on the tough spots while you are showering.  Much much easier than taking up your valuable Saturdays or day off, or live like a bum-slob !!


Your girlfriend may 'trust' you and be so dumber, but for cheap cheap more reliable insurance, you best get use to the comfort of female condoms vs the feeling of a tourniquet,,, or Not!! when one of those slippery 'male' condoms rolls off !!  You are not ready for a shit-load of 'housework', are you ??  The woman that will breast feed, cook well, dress attractively, do ALL the housework,stay fit and in shape, and work a job 40hrs/wk, vacuum, go grocery shopping daily, oh and change the diapers ,,, all by herself,,, are pretty much gone, Guys.

How can the current party in control, the Democrats, and the past party , the Republicans, allow our once great public education system to be destroyed from inside by bankruptcy due to public school administrators allowed to make more than the President, take 'golden parachutes' and 'golden handshakes' and outrageous pay, benefits and pensions for decades !!??

Why are they making a good education, especially a good college education, unaffordable for most people ?  Back in the late 1960s a 4 year education at a second tier state college cost $400 in tuition,,, and , for me, about $4000 in private book store (vs  student union non-profit control) cost for textbooks.  Yes, back then we 'subsidized' the one private book store ,off campus, at SJSC at too high a cost.  But now the entire Nation's public education system is at risk, and both parties, Democrat and Republican, seem to be equally to blame for allowing it to happen.


Why would President Clinton, a Democrat, so something so Un-Democratic Party and yet so Republican Party, as to end the Great Depression's most valued fiscal lesson of the Glass- Stegal Act !!?  And also loosen the regulation of Wall Street, against the greater national public interest ,,,!??  It makes no sense.


It is not just greed and ambition and a foolish electorate that voted ,again, for a movie star governor like Arnold, who promised us 'no tax increases' yet left the state of California in near bankrupt, so much worse financial state ,,, and lack of leadership state with a state legislature clearly opposed to the best interests of the citizens of California , but more interested in campaign contributions from unethical hostile corporations, foreign and domestic.  Our budget was late 100 days at a cost of something like $56M/day,,, and now Arnold has to face the music of cheating on a Kennedy his entire term-Yikes!!


Who are our domestic enemies, to the public interest, removed of convenient labels that don't stand for anything anymore, like Democrat or Republican ?

The 2011 is the same,again,,,no leader speed, no peleton speed, no temp-humidity-wind, no gradient ,,,ALL VALUABLE INFORMATION,,,well hidden by the race organizers, the bicycle ruling committee, the French, as IF we did not care and did not notice !!

How many more years are we going to watch VS/Versus tv channel, with so little information,,,and the same 2 old guys chattering away,,,like someone naming parts during sex??  We have had professional tennis players collapse because of terrible hidden-from-public weather stats,,, 


Just run a line at the bottom of the screen:temperature in C and F, humidity %, wind speed,,,leader bicycle speed, peleton speed, grade % up or down, distance covered and distance to end.


Oh, and the yielded 'wins',,,as IF we do not notice the leader , fit, slow down and yield to a lesser ,maybe national or local champion,,,This tour is such a huge sham, deception, and not just the drug doping!!


i guess we will have to boycott watching it to get a major change.  Not an Obama 'change'!!

BEWARE: Comcast is advertising a "$99 sale" bundle of your LANDLINE, tv, and internet. The hidden secret is a $5/mo. box rental fee,,,and a 2 YEAR CONTRACT, in tiny fine print, not mentioned on the tv ad, and Comcast says "It's implied.",,, for an EXISTING LAND PHONE LINE !?

This has got to be a deceptive and unfair business practice, especially since Comcast has a cable tv monopoly here in Silicon Valley !!


BEWARE !!

Shower head not recommended: Price Pfister bell-shaped chromed with black knob of about 4" total length

93yr old Mother broke lousy-cheap knob off,,,and the ball joint was never swivel usable.Model A112.18.1M,,, 2.5GPM,,,

Shower head i do not recommend: Body Moods "Drenching Downpour" Rain Splash 4" Solid Brass Showerhead

It only gives a trickle,,,and i can not remove the flow restrictor is there is one.

The 'high temperature' forcast by ABC, NBC, CBS and TV2 was "95F" for San Jose, Ca.. Yet before noon, it WAS 100F !! How could they all be so WRONG?!!

San Jose's only official weather station is at San Jose's Airport, tho no one lives there.  It is common knowledge that is would be hotter in the southern concrete asphalt jungle of downtown, and hotter still in the Westside, Eastside, and especially the popular Southside of Willow Glen and Almaden.

Yet every one of the local news services, tv and probably radio too, got the high temperature quite wrong for the over 1 MILLION PEOPLE who live in the South Bay.   And do you think they all will admit their mistakes tomorrow,,,and show how far off they were??  Not likely.  There bad guesses, conservative, sandbagging, low-balling guestimates will go down in tv history and , our memories more importantly, as actuals!!   This is how low and badly done weather forecasting has become in California, if you can remember the days when they actually drove up to Donner Pass on Highway 80 near the official snow gauge station at Soda Springs and actually showed us the snow pack.  Remember the good old days??

Is this more of the "no global warming" data conspiracy?

it takes 7 DAYS to suspend delivery or change delivery address on USATODAY !!??

7 DAYS,,,??
21st Century,,,June of 2011,,,the digital age,,, 


What's up, USAToday ??

The second "dirty Top Secret" in the American Toilet Industry , besides they STILL sell traps/drains that are NOT GLAZED, is that the "industry standard" is a bowl LESS-THAN CHAIR HEIGHT!!, more like a kid potty !!

Most people , and most of us are adults , a lot of us are senior citizens, would probably be more comfortable sitting on a toilet bowl and toilet seat closer to normal chair height.   You might assume that most toilets are 'chair height', but if you go into Lowe's or Home Depot, you would see lots and lots of cheaper-to-build, less material,  dwarf toilets !!


So if you are looking for a new toilet, or wondering why you toilet is so uncomfortable and clog-happy,,, you may want to look into 1, a glazed trap/exit from the glazed bowl,,,2, a higher toilet of chair height so it is easier to get up and down,,,3, a larger than 2" diameter tank drain of maybe 3" or 4" for more forceful flushes with the same amount of water,,,4, a larger trap/drain from the bowl diameter instead of the old , archaic 2" diameter drain to 2 1/2" or 2 5/8s".   And instead of a round toilet bowl , if you share it with a man or boy, you may want to get an oval bowl.  And they have new toilets that sit closer to the wall , if you have an old tiny 5ft x 5ft master bath from the 50s like we do.  There are also toilets that low flush the pee and larger flush the poop,,,And some store multiple flushes in the tank ,so you don't have to wait so long for the tank to refill, if you have a busy bathroom with a large family as we did with 6.

Item #439-570, the cheap $20 hose at Costco, i do not recommend, as it KINKS A LOT

Took all my 'bargains' back for full refund, from both houses.

There will be little progress against STDs UNLESS THE FEMALE CONDOM IS WIDELY AVAILABLE AND USED BY WOMEN. Why? Because men experience tearing and frequent roll-off with MIEN'S CONDOMS,,,AND BASICALLY HISTORY SAYS YOU CAN NOT TRUST MEN !!

As a man,senior citizen with scads of experience,I wish the "Oprah Show" had done something positive, besides make Oprah W. super rich, selling books.  OK, lots of people were reading those books.  But did, socially on a large scale, anything change?


Equal pay for women in the old USA might have been nice, if she could have inspired her mostly female viewers to political action.  But, no.


Greater sexual understanding, woman's comfort in their own skin with their sexuality, and better sexual health thru education and advocacy would have been nice.  I meet a 62 yr old very attractive woman last year, we got in a phone call and email long distance relationship, but it ended because she could not even talk about masturbation.  OK, so no greater women's knowledge, responsibility, and acceptance /comfort with women's own bodies and sexuality.  Sad, a second huge social women's opportunity missed.


And what about making women better drivers, instead of my personal laughing stock and red flags on the road?  Gee, guess Oprah was too busy make $Millions and $Billions, coming from poverty it is very common for women to do ANYTHING to get rich and not be poor.   And i mean anything, run away from a child and marriage when the first silicon millionaire EE flirts, etc.  Guess Oprah was not interested in saving women's lives behind the wheel of a car.  Gee, so MANY missed opportunities !!


i could go on ,,, and on.  Gays may just shallowly admire her POPularity and SUCcess ,,, that is fine, for them.  Like that Microsoft guy with a huge Billion/Trillion personal fortune from a very mediocre product with horrible customer service if any, i say , on the larger social scale,"so what, all that money has made little or no difference for the betterment of mankind."  What a shame.

Stanley Steemer, yes the constant expensive "alpaca poo" tv commercial, will not soap spray and hot water spray and vacuum normally clean your carpets,,,IF THEY ARE EVEN DAMP, say the Pope spills some Holy Water

It does not say that on the front of the website in plain view.  Just call the 800# and when the yellow van driver-employee of Stanley Steemer arrives, THEN you will get the shock of your day !!


"We do not wet-vacuum already wet or even damp carpets." 


period.  Even tho you told the employee you scheduled the appointment with at the 800# that the carpets were wet/damp from say, your girlfriend keeps spilling her nighttime glass of water by the bedstand,,, or your young boy hit the ceiling with his pee when you were changing his diaper ,,, or you spilled a potted plant you just watered at the faucet all over your clean , now damp, carpet.  Wet spills happen all the time at parties with cocktails and beer and wine.  


"The carpet must be complete dry before we will normally wet-vacuum it.  Company policy."  


So , you have to wait for a wet spilled glass of wine stain to dry, "COMPLETELY", before Stanley Steemer will wet-vacuum carpet clean it??!!


Get Back!

June 2011: Crucial tip in buying a toilet,,, You must stick your hand in the 'trap" to see if it is glazed, like the bowl, or ROUGH and will catch and clog TP !!

I have called both Home Depot and Lowe's and they have not put the critical information on all their toilets displayed above reach in their warehouses!!


Evidently, this is considered a "toilet top secret",,,what with Republican de-regulation and the current pro-business attitude of Congress.  So ,,, BUYER BEWARE !!


My folks own 2 very expensive toilets, a KOHLER and a TOTO,,, and BOTH are not glazed traps !!  The toilet salesperson did not tell them, and they did not do the research to know TO ASK!!


You should be aware of the distance from the wall, the tank exit diameter or 2in or 3in or 4 inches for more force, and the GLAZED or UNGLAZED (one toilet in HomeDepot almost tore a gash in my hand in the dry trap!!) TRAP,,, and whether the trap diameter is 2in or 2.5in or 2 5/8inches for less likely obstruction.


Guys , you probably want an oval bowl ,,, for the 'family jewels', right?

In California, where we all have to buy car insurance now, if your car is too near a collision and damaged by flying debris or immediate debris on the highway/roadway, YOUR EXPENSIVE INSURANCE DOES NOT COVER YOUR DAMAGES !!

Don't you just hate those lazy lousy elected politicians in Sacramento and how they take our votes,,, and sell us down the river to campaign corp. contributors interests!!


I talked to a AAA claims adjuster who told me about a guy driving legally in a new Mercedes and he has a tire fly in his windshield from a collision he could not possibly avoid right in front of him.  He had to pay for all his cars damages as the insurance companies involved, INCLUDING HIS EXPENSIVE CAR INSURANCE COMPANY!!, said he, the legal following victim driver in the Mercedes, get this!!, was "causing his own car to be damaged"!!


Holy Shit, do the insurance companies have it made; The sorry bastards in Sacramento have rewritten the law so that someone minding their own business and legally driving on the state highways ,,, has to pay for damage to his car in the $10,000s because the liable driver that CAUSED THE COLLISION has an insurance company that does not want to pay full damages , including flying debris and immediate debris, of that same accident!!


In my case, it was my own Nationwide Insurance company who did not want to investigate how my car was damaged over $1000 by debris.  "Oh, why don't you call the CHP and get the accident case number and who they determined was at fault?"  I had 4 Nationwide reps tell me this. 


So i called my local State Rep.  He tried but we got a rude and insulting letter from the State of California Insurance Commissioner's office, 'who the hell do you think you are to bother your State Representative and have them bother us,,,!"   Gee, guess i did not know Sacramento had SCREWED ALL CALIFORNIA DRIVERS, AGAIN.

United States citizenship needs a PROBATIONARY PERIOD,,,badly.

If we had one, think of all the Italian Mafia we could have sent back!


At least 10 years for minor crimes like violent assault-rape, so we can send them back to France,,,Then maybe 20-40 years for serious crimes like stealing payroll for years from all /most of the immigrant's employees, so we can send them back to Korea or Iran.  And a first generation lifetime probationary period for serious crimes , like murder and terrorism, so we can send them back to Muslim countries,,, instead of paying massive amounts to 'properly' jail them.


Unlike the Founding Fathers, we are no longer desperate for just any warm bodies, or should not be.  Why are we allowing low IQ India's in as full citizens, who work at gas stations and take forever to count a few paper money bills they are still not familiar with after years?  And they are never on time!


If you have a Mexican drug cartel tattoo, you get deported!, with your whole state-side family, back to miserable Mexico!   We don't have enough jobs for all these illegals, let alone those born here legally.  And we don't have the tax base anymore to pay even for their jail time.


The Republicans want to kill Medicare and end most government, but for a very expensive military.  If they win any seats in 2012 you can expect more potholes, less health care , and a more toxic public environment, with continuing sewage spills/dumping in San Francisco Bay and old coal plants that still, still, do not have modern stack scrubbing equipment,,, We are going to Hell in a hurry, and most don't seem to care that the quality of life that was American is quickly passing.


It is all short-sighted, for profit, me first,,,

PG&E's Citi-bank Debit card to credit / reward customers for less gas use,,,IS A PAIN!! Many places will not accept it as partial payment, so unless the amt you owe at the register is less than "$25", THE CARD IS REFUSED !!

Does the Cal-PUC care? Not likely,,,


We are pawns to the N.Cal. power company.


8 people DIED,,,38 homes BURNED,,,and yet not one Executive has gone to jail.  White collar crime, murder, is so tolerated here in the USA.  What a shame.  In France, you may forcefully assault and rape a woman,,,no problem.  Here, a corporation, the Supreme Court 'says' is the same as a person, can kill 8 PEOPLE, yet NO ONE IS HELD RESPONSIBLE, TRIED, CONVICTED, AND SENT TO JAIL FOR A LONG LONG TIME.

"pureclease3000", colon cleane formula, out of Murray, Utah: BEWARE !!

A late night tv mistake,,,ordered with my AX, a free trial order with full refund ability,,,and was charged $79 for 60 pills on a Visa account i do not have.


BEWARE,,,BEWARE,,,oops

Don't buy the 150ft hose, item 224 632, at Home Depot, as it will massively kink and tear holes in itself ON THE FIRST USE

THIS IS A TERRIBLE HOSE, yellow and grey label with black and white writing.
"made in taiwan"...green 150ft hose.

Last year, 2010, you had to tape both ends of alkaline batteries to RECYCLE THEM , that was the FEDERAL RULE!! Talk about stupid;Now you don't have to, and OSH accepts them so don't toss in your trash as TOXIC LANDFILL.

Seems the Feds were afraid they would catch on fire if not taped with masking tape on both the + and - ends,,,


Yeah, like that is a major problem, not that MOST PEOPLE JUST TOSS THEM ON THE STREET OR IN THE TRASH !!


Please properly recycle,,,we all live on the same planet, right?

May and crowded June are the best times to visit Yosemite. SO WHY ARE YOU STILL NOT THERE?

The waterfalls of the valley start to diminish in late June,,,

(warning:this is real news)The 100TH BAY TO BREAKERS is on Sunday at 7AM,,, and CalTrain does not have the Brains to RUN A LOCAL TRAIN TO GET US ALL TO THE CITY FOR THE PRE-RACE PARTY WELL BEFORE 6AM!!

Caltrain is a huge expensive now-quality system that is in budget trouble, so you might thiink they would be interested in making more money and providing a very valuable public transit service, like a special LOCAL TRAIN TO ALL STATIONS THAT WILL GET TO S.F. WELL BEFORE 6AM ,,,SO WE CAN WALK OVER A MILE TO THE START,,, AND ENJOY THE PRE-RACE PARTY,,,LIKE A BIG BIG BIG TRAIN, ONE, WITH ARRIVAL AT LIKE 5AM IN S.F.





But ,,, no ,,, we have to put up with old original bad-caltrain thinking ,,, remember the ORANGE upholstery, dirty tinted windows , and rude unhappy unsmiling conductors in the late 80s and early 90s?





As i said back then, a high school student could run CALTRAIN better than the mgmt we got now !!  Stupid,,,stupid ,,, stup-id . Period.

Will California and the S.F. Bay Area EMBARRASS all of us again with POOR PREP. FOR MAJOR EVENTS, like 2010 Fleet Week hours long traffic jam in the S.F. Fisherman's Wharf area?

California is poised to FLOP!! again!!: CalTrain does not have a local train to arrive from all Silicon Valley and Peninsula stops before 5am or even 6am with the race start of the 100th BAY TO BREAKERS Spring fun run (the pro runners are just a nuisance and can run off a pier for all most care) a mile and half away at 7am.  Does BART(70mph system failed experiment in not buying a Japanese bullet train system) have enough early large trains from the East Bay?  Doubtful with incompetent mgmt that fired the train cleaners 3 years ago, the last time i rode.





Oh, right, the media avoids the obvious potential disaster ,,, until it is OFFICIAL ,,, and they can "report" it , like they did with all the close-ups of the 1989 fires in the Marina District to Scare-shock news-value people ,instead of a more honest perspective from the Golden Gate Bridge or Pacific Heights.





Another poor prep. Bay Area disaster recently? 





No problem: the 50 anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in the spring of 1987.  I was there, so no johnny-come-lately-Historian pomposity here. The evening tv news in the night before broadcasts said that the S.F. Mayor, Diane Feinstein, had closed the Golden Gate Bridge to cars, a bridge she and the State do not own by the way, and 2 state freeways , 1 and 101, and only "200 to 300 celebrants were expected",,,!!.  I drove up the peninsula and got there early and watched the crowd on a beautiful spring day grow to estimated 800,000 on the bridge from the foot high rail separating the sidewalk then from the road at the south end of the bridge. We were packed as tight as a can of sardines and there were fights when people could not leave, esp. to even go to a bathroom!!  Not near enough cops to keep the people moving across the bridge in opposite directions like cars, in fact damn few cops, which is common in SF. When people far away called 911 with fears of the bridge collapsing from the big sag in the middle, only then did the CHP and other cops show up in force to quickly "party over" for no reason, until we got home and saw the huge sag with our own eyes!!





Next is the 100th running /walking of the BAY TO BREAKERS on Sunday 15 May 2011.  Expect too many to drive and too many to not find parking in SF.  And expect all the State and Bay Area politicians to say they did not 'expect' such a crowd , most say over 100,000 are coming from far states and wide!!





Then , next ,,, we can embarrass ourselves by not being ready for Larry E.'s-Oracle's AMERICA'S CUP sailing race, expected to bring 'a Billion$ to the Bay'.  We Californians voted for high speed rail, but expect huge car-jams, frustrated visitors,,, "the usual".





Where is that thing we use to call ,,, "Political Leadership"?!! 





Embarrassing, isn't it? 

An open letter to President Obama: May2011, San Francisco does not "NEED" a subway from the ballpark to downtown, so WHY are we wasting valuable tax money ?!

Talk about a total waste of money!: a subway from the ballpark to Union Square and the Financial District.  We have a Mediterranean climate and it is only about a mile or less to walk on relatively safe city streets.  So why waste all this money,,,when our roads need repaving more to fill all the potholes in California, and CalTrain is in trouble, and there is so little money for the recent ballot passed "fast train" from LA to Sac. to SF ??


Please, Mr. President, STOP this public money WASTE immediately !!


San Francisco may Want this 'public works project', but no one can prove it is Needed.  What a waste!!

Glasgow, Scotland has public streets closed to cars and free pedestrian access;San Francisco closes public streets and says "REGISTRATION REQUIRED" PAY $75 in violation of their own ISCOTT city rules, for the 100th Bay to Breakers celebration . SF has crossed the line, for a City dependent on Tourism as its #1 income.

In the days immediately before the race on Sunday,15 May 2011, public radio station KQED has a radio show with the B2B race manager, Sam Singer, representing both the sponsor, Zazzle, and the L.A.-based race mgmt company, AEG, who says the SFPD will turn away anyone without a $75 race bib on the day of the race trying to walk on car-closed public streets race course,,, and that the North (Golden Gate Park) Panhandle Association has volunteers also on the start line street 'pens'!! area and race course to ,along with the Police, ask anyone without a $75 bib to leave the highly fenced, public property, street course!!  This is a direct violation of the spirit of the race for decades and San Francisco's own ISCOTT rule/law allowing public access to all car-closed public streets!!


I paid the full fee for years in the 1970s and 1980s and even volunteered ,for free one year, to work the race start when the old locally owned Examiner and accepting of rich and poor,balanced attitude company ran the race, instead of the arch-conservative creeps who own it now.  Where is the new Mayor , Mr. Lee?  Where is the S.F. Board of Supervisors?!  How could all the 70% of SF who rent or lease , the 'have not' non-owners of houses and apt.buildings, let this happen in a City famous for Tolerance of Gays,,, Chinese,,, Italians,,, all nationalities, cultures, and religions??  Look at all the rude scary discrimination on the official Bay2Breakers website !!


The race has been limited, officially, to "55,000 paid entrants", instead of allowing for decades lots of people to walk the course and welcome them, before the race, to do so. Yes, i heard that the SFPD relented, at the last minute!!, this morning in turning away anyone without a $75 bib,which would have been a direct violation of City law. And  something like 110,000 people celebrated Spring and the City of San Francisco together, in peace and respect and commonality.
  
But many of us were warned away and scared away,threatened!!, by the heavy handed mgmt of the ultra-conservative AEG , who has no place running/owning such a public gathering event(listen to the public radio archives on KQED),,, and the neighborhood associations like the Panhandle Assoc. made up probably of home owners, the 'haves' in this terrible American economy, with homes they knowingly bought on the race course and leave on race day,they say, instead of staying to protect their lawn from someone peeing in their yard along the same official 12k race course!!  How discriminatory, irresponsible, and unfriendly.  


I was ready to walk last ,in the rain and lightning even, peacefully and respectfully, to Celebrate San Francisco and Spring,,, but that drive at 4am, PAY to park at 5am, walk to start at 6am for pre-race party, and watch the fun cooperative friendly crowd with usually only a few bad actors run jog and walk across the City.  I even tried to pay the FULL $75 last week and was told the 'race course was full'. How rude and illegal!!


San Francisco has too long a history of pandering to the rich and super-rich , the 'haves' who could afford to pay $75/gallon of gasoline and not bat an eye. Alamo Square has been closed to tour buses stopping for decades,,, because the local owners of expensive houses/ apt.buildings around a famous tourist attraction by the 7 most famous Victorian houses in the City consider it 'their own PRIVATE front yard'.   And Bay st.-Marina blvd.-Doyle drive on the N. edge of the City in front of the Marina neighborhood mansions has been closed for too long to tour buses when the #1 business of SF is tourism.


The City of San Francisco has stumbled. Let us all hope it regains its tolerance, reasonable acceptance, and warm welcoming Spirit of old.

May 2011: Mitt Romney is 'running' for President in 2012, Really? Scary.

Mr. Mitt Romney was officially in charge of the USA 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, and should have been fired!!  As a hired bus driver, i also blame the IOC and the USOC!!  He and they hired a transportation coordination company-sleazoids- who lied to us in recruiting in the SFBayArea with "$18+/hr pay" and "no more than 10-12hrs / day work schedules".  We drove over 2 days to get there and they then say "oh, your pay is half of what we said cuz you are working from 6am-2am, every day, regardless of the federal 8hrs off-continuous to sleep per day safety rule!!


The east SLC apt was a dump and i could only get 2 sheets and one blanket IN THE WINTER with snow on the ground, tho at 7000' Park City there was a news-ban snow drought of only 2ft.  i drove my minibus all over town looking in Salt Lake City for blankets, electric blankets and big warm comforters,,, but the stores were already and then ,DURING THE OLYMPICS, pulling all that off the shelves and putting up ,,, swimsuits for Summer!! (big group laugh at SLC)


I worked for arrogant Sports Illustrated(never again), instead of friendly and generous Nike, for a week until i could not longer stay safe and awake and quit and flew home to the SFBayArea.  Many other professional commercial-license bus drivers did as well; Feel free to call Hotdogger Bus of SoCal to verify that their ENTIRE COMPANY quit!!  


Mitt, did you serve the standard 8 yrs as an officer in ANY branch of the U.S. Military?  No?


Mr. Mitt Romney, you are no leader to me.  Take your pretty wife and go home.

(warning:this is real news)The 100TH BAY TO BREAKERS is on Sunday at 7AM,,, and CalTrain does not have the Brains to RUN A LOCAL TRAIN TO GET US ALL TO THE CITY FOR THE PRE-RACE PARTY WELL BEFORE 6AM!!

Caltrain is a huge expensive now-quality system that is in budget trouble, so you might thiink they would be interested in making more money and providing a very valuable public transit service, like a special LOCAL TRAIN TO ALL STATIONS THAT WILL GET TO S.F. WELL BEFORE 6AM ,,,SO WE CAN WALK OVER A MILE TO THE START,,, AND ENJOY THE PRE-RACE PARTY,,,LIKE A BIG BIG BIG TRAIN, ONE, WITH ARRIVAL AT LIKE 5AM IN S.F.


But ,,, no ,,, we have to put up with old original bad-caltrain thinking ,,, remember the ORANGE upholstery, dirty tinted windows , and rude unhappy unsmiling conductors in the late 80s and early 90s?


As i said back then, a high school student could run CALTRAIN better than the mgmt we got now !!  Stupid,,,stupid ,,, stup-id . Period.


It costs $9 round-trip for a 2 zone trip from San Mateo County to SF. I am willing to pay double, $20, for a special early train!! But 'no', CalTrain is not interested to one wise timed train vs 4 poorly scheduled late trains.  At this rate the SFBayArea will never be Leadership and Organized ready for a major event like the Olympics.


It is like BART;With all this birthplace of the computer smarts and riches you would think we could make a transit system equal to or better than a Japanese off-the- shelf  bullet train,,, but 'no'. Skill at one thing and its wealth do not favor success at most things.

2012 Presidential Elections could learn alot from the current fiscal and financial deep red hole that CALIFORNIA is in! (but then That would be news!!)

California is broke, busted, dead in the water.
We are BILLIONS of dollars in debt. And as you may have heard , we are still doing REally Stupid Stuff like giving a major company for the working class in Brisbane TAX BREAKS to move to massive gang violence Fresno area,,,and destroy the Brisbane economy!!


It isn't just that we voted in fiscally and financially irresponsible Republican and Democrat Legislators to Sacramento. But if you watch "ENRON" the movie/dvd , we had a REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR-a string of loser-republican governors who did not like the public and did very little public speaking to lead the entire state together- Grey DAVIS who promised us IF WE DEREGULATED the price of home gas and electric would go down. The energy market natural capitalist forces would do this by the rule of economic supply and demand.  It sounded too good to be true,,, and it was.


We went from being the wealthy state with the best public K-12 schools, road and highway surface maintenance, and best bond rating in the USA ,,, to now our roads are full of potholes and we are rated one of the WORST in K_12 public schools, road and highways surfaces, and bond ratings. Last year the budget was again late, 25 of the last 30 years--MAYBE WE SHOULD JUST FLUSH SACRAMENTO AND START OVER FRESH?- and i cost us Californians something like 56 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY ,,, FOR 100 DAYS,,,so 100 x $56,000,000.00 ,,, and the really sad thing is , we do not have the tax base to be that financially frivolous anymore.


Yes, California is STILL making MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES, but with the Bush era tax cuts for the rich extended again and again after President Obama's election and then after his first 2 years, we are in terrible shape, with little hope, other than the new Governor, Jerry Brown, the only candidate who was not going to give away the rest of the state to the sole benefit of corporations. Thank GOD!! those 2 women lost!!


As i said, it would be news worthy if PBS discussed this hard difficult divisive-rich-vs-the rest of us issue,instead of the mind-numbing safe and boring and timid discussions of "is the mood changing in Pakistan after the assassination" ,,, I am very afraid Obama will continue to be too weak and we will make the same mistakes we have made here in California , but on a much bigger scale in the Nation.


The Democrats are good at doing next to nothing and the Republicans don't like the truth with their strong support of trickle down economics-failed!!- and deregulation-failed!!- and too big to fail- yep,FAILED and they say still threatens us with the real poor house nationhood like corrupt and incompetent Mexico.


But as long as the sun is still shining , we have to go to work to pay the bills.  And our collective future does not look bright at all. Can we really postpone, again, the debt ceiling until ,,, August?!  Congress is sooo irresponsible and we the Public are responsible for That.