2. Oil Spill. OMFG, is that shit still going on? You know, when I made my first Facebook post about that, it was already two weeks old. Now it’s more than two MONTHS old. Beaches are getting trashed, lives are being devastated, and it’s become quite the nightmare environmental scenario. Worse, the relief wells are still not due to be complete for over another month and you know, I am not all that confident that’ll fix things either. This situation cannot be minimized. It really is THE most important thing in America right now. It practically screams what’s wrong with our government, our industry, and our energy policy what with all the corruption and inaction across the board.

3. Afghan War. A big time general got kicked out because he said lots of negative things about those in charge in an article published in Rolling Stone. First, Rolling Stone still exists? Secondly, I want to know why we’re still in Afghanistan. It ain’t to fight Al Qeada like was originally planned. They’ve moved on to Pakistan. Is it to fight the Taliban? Is it to fight people that only fight us because we’re there fighting them fighting us? I thought I elected Obama to get us out of these wars. Wait, that brings me to…

4. President Obama. He hasn’t closed down Gitmo. He hasn’t brought home our troops. He hasn’t really done a very good job at bringing our economy back. He kept many of the Bush era policies of warrant-less wiretapping and secret prisons. He’s half-assed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He’s half-assed nominated liberalish people to the Supreme Court. I’m going to say what many of my liberal friends won’t… he’s not been an effective leader. Yes, I know it’s only been such and such many months. Yes, I know he inherited many problems. But he’s had plenty of time to suck on his own. He completely has bungled the Oil Spill. He continues to not be a good leader in economic policies that reform the way things are done. Handing out cash isn’t a solution. His one big win of Health Care isn’t even really that impressive considering it lacks a Public Option and the implementation of the effects are all way diluted with time. He has squandered a majority in the house and senate and now with mid-term elections looming, under his leadership or lack thereof, there are overwhelming predictions that Republicans (and even more terrifying Tea Party members) are going to be roaring back. Son, I am disappoint.

5. “Later, Skater: On Tour!” Buy your copy for summer reading today. Sales haven’t been great, which is confusing me. I mean, I sold and gave away lots and lots of copies of the original “Later, Skater” The sequel is bigger and better and downloadable for instant gratification for only 5 dollars. FIVE DOLLARS! Get it today to help keep me encouraged about my writing.

But you know, I don’t think it’s just the weather that is giving this winter a particularly nasty bite.

Politics are always vicious, but it seems especially contentious here in the United States with Democrats and Republicans infamously slugging it out, while meanwhile a seemingly pretty large portion of the population wants to throw them both out on a rail. Sometimes, I don’t disagree. But if that puts me in the same category as the Tea Party assclowns or big mouth Glenn Beck, I’d rather not.

And then there is the never ending cycle of the Twenty-Four Hour News Media.

They’re there to always constantly remind us that just when you thought there may be a glimmer of light at the end of this dark, dark winter, you’re wrong. Quick to rattle off facts about unemployment, terrorism, or domestic crimes, there isn’t a shred of good news to be found. And yet they are playfully ribbing on each other and the subjects at hand right before a few messages from their sponsor.

Before Conan o’ Brian was unceremoniously kicked off his quick stint on The Tonight Show, he called us kids and told us to not be cynical. He said that it doesn’t help anything. It was easy for him to say considering while he did just lose his life long dream in the hosting gig, he did get paid a shit ton of money to go away. But that’s just me being cynical.

And just like this winter, I think we’re sooo tired of being cynical. We need to find ways to free ourselves from the constant drumbeat of desolation pounded out not just by politics and the media, but by the actual environment around us. Yes, it’s really hard when it’s 23 degrees and you can’t feel your left testicle, but you know, even when here locally I had about two days of near 60 degree weather, I missed my opportunity to briefly change things up a bit.

Maybe you did too.

Spring will come, so at least the weather will change. But don’t count on the rest of the stuff doing it, unless you demand it. Not only from THEM but from yourself. I haven’t really been hibernating, but I certainly haven’t been out in the world behaving like the person I really am. Merely a dark winter’s shadow. Let’s see if that can’t be altered.

No criminal charges will be filed against the juvenile or the juvenile’s parents, spokesman Edwin Donovan said. Donovan would not identify the names of the child or parents or say where they are from.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents took no chances.

The poll asked respondents “Should Obama be killed?” The choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts myhealth care.

After Secret Service agents met with the child and the child’s parents, they determined there was no intent to harm the president.

“Case closed,” Donovan said. “I guess you could characterize it as a mistake.”

The poll was not created by Facebook, but by an independent person using an add-on application that had been suspended from the site, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said earlier this week.

Too bad Dr. House isn’t practicing medicine anymore. Sorry for that slight spoiler alert, but we’re two episodes into the new season and sometimes you need to be shocked into remembering to watch again, right?

I hate feeling sick.
Worse, I hate that I don’t have Health Care.
I mean, it’s been this huge ass national debate — read: Yelling tennis match — for the last eleventy months it seems. I’m one of the uninsured!

It all happened when my Pizza Hut got bought out by a franchise and dumped every.single.last.one.of.my.benefits. No 401k. No vacation. No health care. No accident free rewards program. Jack shit.

Get another job, you may say?
Um, I should fucking lucky I HAVE a job right now.
But how long can I continue saying that if I have to occasionally call in sick? And by occasionally, I mean two full days and two half days in September.

I’m actually pretty confident my job is secure since when I am there I’m the best there is. I’ve only moderately complained that the work load has increased by about 100% due to the cutting of the second daytime driver AND cook.

Yeah, we run a restaurant with just a manager and a driver. Isn’t that fucking insane?

And that kind of leads me to wondering, maybe that’s what has got me sick. Sure, DragonCon and the 40,000+ weirdos that attend probably had something to do with it. And my sister and her Kid Rock Look Alike Boyfriend have three dogs and I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to at least the big brown one.

But I quit smoking over 6 months ago. I eat more healthy than ever before with lots of veggies and water and all that.

So maybe it’s the stress.
Oh and the fact that I don’t have health care.

Why not buy some on my own, you say?
Have you seen the terrible economy? I couldn’t really afford health care on my own over a year ago when things were half-assedly decent. An extra 120 dollars a month now is really hard to find. Especially reliably every single month.

But you know what?
I’m not going to let this get me down?
No sir!
Not even when the Republicans are bickering about how we can’t afford any heathcare bills like the ones perposed.
Not even when the Democrats want to fine people for not having healthcare. (Um, gee, if I had the money, wouldn’t I buy it?)

I will feel better.
I will go to Alchemy this weekend with DJ Kaze and conspire to write my 4th Novel.
And maybe just maybe things will start to improve all around me due to some of my positive energy at work and in my own personal economy.

Oh, yeah, and I turn 31 years old next Friday. Holy shit.

The move would make good on a campaign promise to Silicon Valley supporters like Google Inc. from President Barack Obama, but will trigger a battle with phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., which don’t want the government telling them how to run their networks.

The proposed rules could change how operators manage their networks and profit from them, and the everyday online experience of individual users. Treating Web traffic equally means carriers couldn’t block or slow access to legal services or sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals.

The rules will escalate a fight over how much control the government should have over Internet commerce. The Obama administration is taking the side of Google, Amazon.com Inc. and an array of smaller businesses that want to profit from offering consumers streaming video, graphics-rich games, movie and music downloads and other services.

Julius Genachowski, head of the Federal Communications Commission, is also expected to propose in a speech Monday, for the first time, that rules against blocking or slowing Web traffic would apply to wireless-phone companies, according to people familiar with the plan.

(more at the Wall Street Journal)

Freedom of speech, hell yeah.
Freedom of responsible speech, maybe something that needs to be looked into.

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., tried to call Obama to apologize in person, but ended up speaking to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

The contrite congressman, “expressed his apologies” to Emanuel, not the president at whom he had shouted a few hours earlier, Wilson’s office said.

By that time, Wilson’s House Web site had crashed and he had taken a brutal beating on his Twitter page for breaching protocol and good manners during a presidential speech to a joint session of Congress.

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me,” Wilson said in a statement. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”

Wilson’s outburst came after Obama said that extending health care to all Americans who seek it would not mean insuring illegal immigrants.

“You lie!” Wilson shouted from his seat on the Republican side of the chamber.

Republicans froze, with several looking in Wilson’s direction.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed a fierce frown at him; first lady Michelle Obama pursed her lips and shook her head from side to side. Vice President Joe Biden looked down and shook his head, too.

Obama, meanwhile, looked toward the outburst and replied, “That’s not true,” and went on with his speech.

Right away, Wilson seemed to sense that he had fouled up. Wilson appeared to consult his Blackberry for much of the rest of Obama’s speech. He shook his head defiantly after several of the president’s statements. When Obama finished, Wilson bolted from the chamber.

Wilson’s wasn’t the only interruption during Obama’s speech, but it was the most notable.

Obama’s Republican rival from last year’s presidential race for the White House defended the president.

Wilson’s behavior was “totally disrespectful,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CNN. “There is no place for it in that setting, or any other, and he should apologize for it immediately.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said “I have never in my 29 years heard an outburst of that nature with reference to a president of the United States speaking as a guest of the House and Senate.”

“It was a shameful act,” he told WTOP radio.

Hoyer said he’ll work with GOP lawmakers to decide whether to punish Wilson.

I admit, I used to visit the Drudge Report a few times a day to gleam off some of the more unusual or interesting stories. Sadly, it’s become nothing but an anti-Obama machine.

And while I, OF COURSE, have some issues with our current administration, and I, OF COURSE, had some issues with the previous one, a non-stop blah blah blah is never interesting.

Print copies of “Later, Skater” and “Freakshow” are 11 dollars each. That’s a savings of 2 dollars this month.

But the real deals come with the downloads!

You can get a digital copy of this year’s release, “Freakshow” for only 5 dollars.
Best yet, you can get a digital copy of “Later, Skater” for only 3 dollars.

THREE DOLLARS! Hell, you can’t even get a Baconator for that price. So check out the link, the previews, and do some reading (and fapping) this June and thanks!

*** Yet another stimulus bill is winding its way through the Congress. The last 700 BILLION DOLLARS has apparently already been pissed away by the banking industry. Now, with a new President, we got a bill stacked up to nearly 900 BILLION DOLLARS. It’s stuffed with a lot of projects for states like infrastructure and the like, but exactly where is all of this money coming from? Oh, that’s right, the taxpayers current and in generations to come. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll feel very stimulated following the assured passage of this bill.

*** People in India are protesting the hit film Slumdog Millionaire because they say it shows their people in a negative light. Destroying cinemas that are playing the motion picture, they’re obviously not really that concerned about being viewed in a negative light. Slumdog Millionaire is highly considered the front runner for Best Picture in next month’s Academy Awards.

*** Starbucks is going to cut more jobs. Sales are down for the premium coffee shop, but perhaps not for the reason why you’d think. It’s not that Americans are now unwilling to pay so much for a specialty coffee, it’s just that they realized en mass they don’t really look that cool hanging out there listening to lifeless jazz music anymore.

*** You May Not Have Mail: Like many companies, even the US Postal Service is having problems in this economy. Faced with a huge deficit from last year totaling about 3 billion, they’re considering cutting back service to 5 days a week rather than 6. Considering the only thing I ever get in the mail is junk mail, they could cut it down to like once a week if you ask me.

*** Refund? We don’t have your stinking refund! California is broke. I mean, the State of California is broke. So broke, in fact, that if you live in the state and are looking for a tax refund check, you may be waiting for a while. The government there has been running on fumes for the past fourteen months. Where has Arnold been? Mars?

The Senate voted Monday to delay until June 12 the deadline for the changeover from analog to digital television broadcasting. People still getting their pictures through old-fashioned antennas otherwise would face a Feb. 17 cutoff.

Comparable legislation is being readied in the House, and the Obama administration has called for a delay amid mounting concerns that too many Americans who rely on over-the-air broadcast signals won’t be ready.

It’s estimated that more than 6.5 million U.S. households are still not prepared for the upcoming transition.

In a letter to key lawmakers earlier this month, Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta said the transition must be delayed largely because the Commerce Department had run out of money for coupons to subsidize digital TV converter boxes for consumers.

“With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient, and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date,” Podesta wrote in a letter to top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Commerce committees.

In 2005, Congress required that broadcasters switch from analog to digital broadcasts, which are more efficient, to free up valuable chunks of wireless spectrum. The newly available room in the airwaves can be used for commercial wireless services and for emergency-response networks.

(Ed note: Rabbit ears are now only good on one thing, shotas. So get your goddamn TVs up to speed with the digital age people! You’re slowing down the rest of us!)

The visit came after Malia, Sasha, and some of their friends from their new school Sidwell Friends saw two new Disney movies — High School Musical 3 and Bolt — and participated in a scavenger hunt in which they ran around their new home, learning about this history of the White House. White House ushers had organized a similar scavenger hunt for a young Chelsea Clinton when she first moved into the White House in 1993.

At the end of Malia and Sasha’s scavenger late-night hunt, they opened a door to discover their favorite musical performers: Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas — the pop boy band sensation who first exploded on the Disney Channel and also appeared earlier this week at the Kids’ Inaugural Concert.