Half full or half empty

Half-full: After snowing all day today, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Half-empty: It's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Half-full: I have my Christmas lights up already.

Half-empty: They don't go on until after Thanksgiving.

Half-full: We have family and friends visiting for Thanksgiving.

Half-empty: They have to drive over the Cascades, which are full of snow.

Half-full: Bend is considered one of the safest cities in America.

Half-empty: This news comes after a spate of killings.

Half-full: The BCS pits the two best college football teams in America.

Half-empty: There are still four undefeated teams left.

Half-full: Sarah Palin may run for president, meaning she'll win the GOP nomination.

Half-empty: Sarah Palin may run for president, meaning she'll lose to Obama.

Half-full: The TSA starts news screening and pat-down procedures.

Half-empty: A tiny percentage of Americans complain.

Half-full: TV hypes minor story of TSA procedures.

Half-empty: TV neglects major story of insider trading.

Half-full: Wall Street bonuses reach another high.

Half-empty: Defaults and foreclosures on Main Street haven't hit bottom yet.

Half-full: Teabaggers blame government for all of our problems.

Half-empty: Teabaggers glad to be exploited by corporations.

Half-full: Unemployment stays at 10 percent.

Half-empty: Naturally, prices for everything escalate.

Half-full: Because of higher prices for everything, we'll buy less this holiday season.

Half-empty: Yeah right.

Half-full: Corporate profits escalate.

Half-empty: Unemployment stays at 10 percent.

Half-full: Stock market rebounds.

Half-empty: Retirement accounts do not.

Half-full: Where does all this money go.

Half-empty: To the powers that be.

Half-full: Meteorologists know more than they used to.

Half-empty: You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

A raise is a raise is a raise

If you want to know one of the reasons why the economy is mired in the sinkhole, check out this WSJ story of bonuses and raises for the highest paid CEOs in America.

Yes, getting by on $86 million a year is harder these days. Can you believe the price of cable TV? Even the cost of tires are steep.

Well, these CEOs were rewarded for the rise in their companies' stock price.

Their stock went up because revenues increased due to layoffs and outsourcing not because demand increased so dramatically for their products. In fact, demand is down across the board. That is the primary reason why the Great Recession goes on and on.

And, their were tax incentives, written by their lobbyists, that rewarded them for shipping jobs to Mexico, India or China. In essence, taxpayers subsidized the elimination of their jobs.

These CEOs then turned around and bankrolled the ascendancy of the teabaggers and the restoration of the GOP in the House. The speaker in waiting, John Boehner, is known as the main House member who is always for sale, to the highest bidder.

With the emphasis now on reducing the federal deficit, we can be assured that more jobs will be lost and that CEOs will get richer beyond the beyond.

Freedom rides again

To get your blood stirring, check out this link on a wealth manager. As the song goes: "Next to health is wealth, and only wealth will buy you justice."

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Speaking of money and banana republics, another song goes: "The rich get rich and the poor get children, ain't we got fun."

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Teabaggers should read a little history once in awhile. Our first attempt at a republic failed because of actions similar to what teabaggers are whining about in Arizona today. Then again, this is Arizona, a state that never turns down a chance at ridiculous publicity.

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What does Sarah know? Who knows? Even Reagan's chief acolyte dismisses the Quitter.

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Last week's election showed that the GOP's "Big Tent" houses the "White Fright" movement. Also, polls show that the GOP attracts the less-educated as well. Oh well.

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Finally, really shocked that this poor chimpanzee didn't end up at Tumalo's Chimps Inc., where he could have delighted visitors with his smoking prowess. Also, unfortunately, Chimps Inc. is holding another Civil War game fund-raiser, which is one or the weakest causes ever for such a fund-raiser. Chimps Inc. lures in young animal-lovers to care for the chimps at the "sanctuary" and then laughs at them when a chimp bites off their fingers.

Dudley: the latest GOP dud

True to form, Oregon Republicans showed what losers they are. They haven't won the governor's race now for more than a quarter century.

Today, as the vote tallies trickled out of Multnomah County, like Chinese water torture for GOPers, the ebullient elephants in rural Oregon, where few voters live, dropped to their knees in total despair.

You should be used to it by now.

Losers.

Naturally, many angry elephants see a conspiracy because most Oregon's voters live in the Portland area and most of them are Democrats.

They also blame ACORN and black helicopters.

In essence, these losers don't get it.

Oregon is a "blue" state, not a "red" state.

If you want to sleep with elephants, move to Utah. In some parts there, you can sleep with more than one elephant at a time.

Anyway, back to the Dud-ley (Do-Wrong?), a former Trail Blazer who couldn't hit a free throw even it came wrapped in tax cuts.

What sealed the deal for Dudley's demise was that he was correctly perceived as a RINO, Republican in Name Only. In fact, he was a registered Democrat in college, before he became a millionaire in the NBA and moved across the Columbia River to avoid paying Oregon income taxes.

The Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates knew this and that is why they ran. These extreme right-wing candidates cost Dudley the election.

This isn't new in Oregon. In fact, this is the status quo. The far-right and extreme right wings of the Republican base choose to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

When Dave Frohnmayer won the Republican nomination for governor in 1990, he enraged the the kooky fringe element in his party, which prompted a third party challenge from Al Mobley, who cost Frohnmayer the election. He ultimately lost to Democrat Barbara Roberts, the first woman governor in Oregon's history.

Ironically, Frohnmayer was such a popular attorney general that he was nominated for re-election by Republicans and Democrats in 1988.

Frohnmayer was an old-school Oregon Republican that was progressive. He eventually served as the University of Oregon's "best president ever" according to Phil Knight, Oregon alum and Nike benefactor.

Dudley, though, was a complete unknown, a "stealth candidate."

Wisely, he chose to debate Kitzhaber just once, on Oct. 1., but it cost him in the polls for a few days. By evading any future hard questions and relying on his significant war chest to fund a slew of negative ads, Dudley bumped into a slim lead.

It looks, though, that Dudley will lose by 10,000 to 15,000 votes. The Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates had more than 36,000 votes by 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3, the day after the election.

Once again, Republicans, and their "big tent," can't "win the day."

In fact, they can't win any statewide election.

How wimpy can you get?

Impeach Obama?

Forgot to mention in last post that another obsession teabaggers have is impeaching President Obama. (Google "Impeach Obama" for pictures and you'll see a wide variety stickers, buttons and t-shirts.)

At the least, teabagging House members will spend their time investigating Obama. Here's a quick look at those "investigations."

As for creating jobs? Well, you do need a lot of lawyers and legal secretaries when doing multiple investigations.

Now, if they can only find his birth certificate. That would solve all their problems.

More teabagging woe: Senate losses in Colorado and, likely, Alaska.

Election: Teabaggers brewing trouble

Rand Paul, who won a Kentucky Senate seat, called his victory part of a "Tea Party tidal wave."

Make that a little back-splash in the bathtub by a pouting toddler.

The high-profile teabaggers in Nevada, Delaware, New York and elsewhere were all trounced.

The House, though, will have its fair share of teabaggers who could block John Boehner from becoming speaker. Michelle Bachmann, a complete wacko, may try for the post. Hope she gets it so that Americans can see the real face of the teabagging movement.

The diehard teabaggers have a wonderful platform: repeal health care reform, get rid of the minimum wage, privatize or eliminate social security, make English our official language and Christianity the official religion, wall off our borders and nuke Iran.

Is everybody happy now?

Well, the multi-millionaires - Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Linda McMahon - are not. They got fleeced at the polls.

Whitman, by wasting $140 million of her own stash on her ego, is a disgrace to the human race.

Imagine what $140 million could do for those truly in need. Despicable.

Same goes for Fiorina and McMahon.

Another multi-millionaire, Chris Dudley, is leading the race for governor of Oregon by 20,000 votes over Democrat John Kitzhaber. However, most of the remaining votes, about 19 percent, come from the most populous county, Multnomah, which is breaking for Kitzhaber by a 2-1 margin.

Hope the sensible folks of Portland save our state from the embarrassment of electing a former basketball bench warmer as governor.

Finally, Republican Dino Rossi appears to be a loser yet again, this time against Sen. Patty Murray (D) in Washington state. This will be his third statewide defeat.

Yo, Dino. Get a life, loser.