My turn to write

Hi! I’m Shadow! If you click my picture with your paw it gets bigger. I’m Lerxst’s GSD (German Shepherd Dog). He’s still sleeping. He decided to take the day off from work to take me and Sammie (Lerxst’s brother-in-law’s dog) to the dog park. I am sooooo excited! I’ve never been there. I’ve been to one other park but not this one! I get to run around off my leash and play with other dogs in a huge fenced in area!! I think he said we were going to take a few balls and maybe a frisbee.

Sammie is staying with us for a few days because Wife couldn’t say no to BIL (Lerxst’s Brother-In-Law). Lerxst had some plans but had to cancel them. I’ve never had a house guest before. It’s taking some getting used to. Sammie has had a couple accidents on the carpet. Lerxst taught me to have accidents on the hard slippery floor. He said it’s easier to clean-up if I do it there.

Let’s see .. I’m 4 and 1/2. D1 and D2 say that adding the 1/2 is really important. I’m not so sure why. I’ve been told I have very beautiful markings. I am black, and white with a little bit of tan here and there. I love my coloring! Of course I have these huge brown eyes that Lerxst just can’t say “no” to .. especially when I make them look sad. And of course I have huge ears! I’m supposed to, I’m a working dog.

Lerxst thinks I don’t know how good I’ve got it. I understand how it works better than he does. He’s top dog. I let wife take second place while he’s here, but when he’s gone I’m in charge. That’s the way he’d want it I’m sure. Then there’s D1 and D2. I like them. D1 picks on me sometimes and I don’t like it. D2 lets me sleep in her bed with her. I let her use me as a pillow sometimes. She loves having me in her room. Especially when she has a nightmare. We snuggle up real close then. Sometimes Lerxst let’s me sleep in his room. I try to sneak up in the bed. Sometimes it works. If I get caught I make my eyes look sad and act like I am having trouble getting up in the bed. He usually lets me get up. I wait until he goes back to sleep and then I slowly creep up between him and Wife. I like to put my head on his pillow and one paw over his shoulder.

Lerxst worries about his job and about the way things are going in this country too much. I don’t get it. What’s a job and I’ve only been to 3 cities … how big is this country and why does he worry about it so much? I have food and water every day, I have a great yard to play in. And a warm bed to sleep in. I have a pack that loves me and I love them back. I know 16 people I really like and the rest I’m trying to get to know. But most people don’t like me. I’m not sure why. Lerxst says I’m great! He thinks I am just too big and people are not sure about big dogs. I am just all puppy inside and love to meet people. I love to just roll over and have people scratch my tummy. It feels soo good!

Well I need to go .. my nose is getting sore from typing so much. Have a great day everybody!

Hiel Bush

What do the following have in common:

1. USA Patriot Act
2. USA Patriot Act II
3. Military Commissions Act of 2006
4. NSPD 51
5. Protect America Act of 2007
6. John Wamer Defense Authorization Act
7. Homegrown Terrorism and Radicalization Act

Go ahead and read all about them. Go on .. you are old enough to read this you can follow the links and read what they are.

OK .. Here’s a hint … Hiel Bush! Hiel Bush!

They are the seven steps to turning the US into a police state. These seven “acts” were setup on purpose to give our guberment the ability and authority to allow our federal gubment to take control and “save us from ourselves”. Do you own a gun? You might want to consider buying one. And ammo … Every house should have a rifle and a shotgun. There should also be a handgun for every man woman and child (provided they are big enough to handle it … your call on the age). Everyone should learn how to use a gun as well as clean the gun. I think if every citizen had a gun we might see less personal crimes.

Add to the seven acts able the ability to control 800 billion dollars!!!

Didn’t Bush say “If this were a dictatorship it would be a heck of a lot easier. Just so long as I’m the dictator. Hehehehe” Makes me wonder if we will have another president ……………

It’s coming!

The Next Great Depression … well maybe. From what I understand US Treasury Bonds are still receiving the highest rating possible. And Countries like Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia are holding on to them. The bond market has been riding high since 1982 … and I’m not sure how much longer it will last.

This market “shrinkage” is like a bad hangover. Ever since Greenspan was in charge of the Fed we have partied like it was 1999. And any time there was a sign of hangover coming on, Greenspan pushed a pill on the American public. He didn’t want a hangover for America. At one point interest rates were as low as 1% (not for you and me but for banks). And that led Americans into debt spending. Credit was cheap .. too cheap. It led to the housing market casino and now the banks have all the bad loans Freddie and Fannie pumped out. This latest pill the Bernanke&Paulson team is making the American Taxpayer swallow will not fix the hangover. And this one is gonna be a biggie. Puking included!

Once the Fed and the NGM (Nice Government Men) realize this they will start pumping more and more money into the system. We may even see interest rates drop below the 1% mark in hopes of encouraging spending. It won’t help. You and I can’t afford it without our own bailout. Then we’ll see the NGM buying more bad debt from banks and business and more monies pumped into the system by becoming the biggest consumer. We’ll see spending on infrastructure .. roads, bridges to nowhere .. and when that fails .. start a really big war. War seems to bring everyone together. We unite as a nation. And the government spends. We sacrafice and scrimp and save and buy war bonds. And then they will have to figure out how to pay for all of it once things get working again. By raising our taxes.

If you think gold is expensive at $900 an ounce now .. wait until inflation kicks in because of the “flow of money”. I am thinking we will see gold at $1600 by year end with silver sitting around $25. If you can, buy gold and silver. Mostly silver if you can find it. Look for coins (dimes, quarters, 1/2 dollars and dollars) minted prior to 1965. Here’s what to look for - 1971-74&76 Eisenhower dollar is 40% silver, 1965-70 Kennedy 1/2 dollar is 40% silver, 64 Kennedy 1/2 dollar is 90% silver, 1948-63 Franklin 1/2 dollar is 90% silver, 1932-64 Washington quarter is 90% silver 1916-64 dimes (FDR and Mercury) are 90% silver and the 1942-45 nickle is 40% silver. I always check my change … you never know when you might get lucky.

There’s no way around it. We are headed down the hole .. head first into a deep recession. If not a depression. It just depends on you and me. How much are we willing to carry? Me? None! I’m ready for a new revolution!

What if ….

you could have an hour alone with the President? What would you ask? What would you tell him?

you had $1million to spend .. and you had to spend it all on other people .. and you could not give it to a charity, family members or friends? How would you spend it?

you could ask God one question, what would it be?

you could turn back time and change one event in your life what would it be?

you were told that you had 3 days to live, what 3 things would you do?

tomorrow all the banks closed up?

the US was attacked again, would you be ready to defend yourself and your family? Would you have enough supplies on hand to get by until things clear up?

How much more?

I’ve been quiet for a while. I’ve been digesting the recent happenings on Wall Street, the $800 billion bailout and in politics. As well as trying to figure out what my company is planning to do. First and foremost is what my company is planning to do.

Here’s a quote from our CTO, “I want to acknowledge that these sourcing actions will result in job reductions in our [Company Name Here] data centers as a result of our outsourcing and off shoring initiatives.  We will communicate details and review transition plans with you as soon as they are complete.” That was on September 5th. The grumblings in the hallways say that this is the week for the layoffs. If I make it through this round there will be another round in April. Or at least that’s the pattern from the last 2 years. With smaller layoffs here and there.

We have had to fill out “skills surveys” for PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as detail every single tool, script, software package we use to do our jobs as well as detail all the applications our department supports. All this information was given to Infosys. They are bidding on doing our jobs. And if trends continue our department will be outsourced and we will have to go to India to train our replacements if we want our severance package. Infosys’ top management (with the exception of 2 members) are all Indian.

To complicate matters we are supposed to migrate server images to IBM’s datacenter in Rochester, NY. IBM will be managing those server for us. We will not have “root” access and we will not be responsible for admin tasks on them after they move.

My concerns were not that heavy until about 3 weeks ago. And I (along with all the other admins in my department) started mulling this over. We had pretty much thought we had things locked up and in our favor because of the sensitive nature of some of the data we gather for various governmental organizations and law enforcement. We have very strict guidelines and auditing procedures to make sure the data is secure. Now this data will be accessible to non-US citizens. We are talking very sensitive data. And I doubt the appropriate authorities have signed off on this. I’m fairly certain if law enforcement and various government agencies knew this was happening they’d be very uncomfortable.

But this morning I realized something … these assholes from New York that have taken over the CTO, CIO, and any other C BLAH O positions are sneak bastards. They were the IT gurus at AIG (and look where that company is now). And they left AIG 18 months ago and came here to rape and pillage our company. Since arriving in the midwest they have created I don’t know how many new VP positions and hired at least 6 former AIG employees to fill the all the VP slots available. And they’ll make new ones when they want to. They have moved all the tech jobs to a new “spin off” company that is to provide all IT services for the parent companies. In doing so our little American spin off company can hire and outsource anything they want … and provide services to the parent companies as an “American based company” … To complicate matters even more, from what I understand, Infosys (our new outsourcing partner of choice) has outsourced some of it’s development work to a Chinese firm! But it’s all OK because  my company is an American company … and it is using a loophole that is very dangerous for data security.

I have to sit back and wonder, when did we lose our country? It’s no longer ours .. The Federal Reserve (which is not a government agency) controls our monies. Our debts are owned by the Chinese. Our companies are employing more and more “off shore” employees. Our properties are being devalued an bought up by foreigners. Our government has an agreement with Canada and Mexico to use their troops on American soil to perform military action (martial law) if necessary.

How much more of our country are we going to give away? How much more of the fake government will we have to tolerate? This is not the America I grew up learning about in school. Maybe it’s time for a new revolution. Washington has not listened to it’s citizen’s for years. They make laws to save us from ourselves, they bailout companies that screwed up. If you or I screwed up will they bail us out? If you or I broke laws would they look the other way? If I took 1/2 of your savings and made it vanish into thin air would you forgive me and look the other way? If I loaned you money knowing full well you could not pay me back would I have a leg to stand on in court to reclaim my money?

America, I still love you. But we are reaching a point of no return. How much more are we going to take?