Long time readers, some of whom were at our wedding, may know that last Friday the 25th of July, Jenny and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Thanks to one of my sisters who offered to take our kids and dog for the weekend, we were able to get away for a few days to Jamaica to celebrate and enjoy our first “solo” vacation in as many years.

It was a wonderful time, although not as much as we would have liked to spend in such a wonderful place as Negril, Jamaica. I did get the chance to partake in some cliff diving though:

Getting ready to jump

While the location from which I jumped looked reasonable from the water below, it did take some coaxing, in the form of chants screaming “DO IT! DO IT!” from those below, to take the plunge from 40 feet above the water.

We’ve never been much of the kind of couple who does “the resort thing”, but after actually doing it, and the level of care that the Couples resort we stayed at provided for us, it’s definitely something we’ll be doing in the future.

Ya mon!

If John McCain is such an expert on foreign policy matters, why doesn’t he spend more time talking about that than… you know, Paris Hilton?

Record high gas prices, a weak economy, a never ending war, a failing healthcare system, etc, etc… And the thrust of his campaign message is jealousy and comparisons of his opponent to an over hyped heiress?

At least one candidate is talking about the issues in this race.

Two days. Two different articles. Two different journalists.

And yet, they both managed to include the exact same paragraph to describe McCain’s ridiculous “Celebrity” ad.

Here’s yesterday, written by Beth Fouhy.

John McCain’s presidential campaign on Wednesday released a withering television ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, suggesting the Democratic contender is little more than a vapid but widely recognized media concoction.

Here’s today, written by Mike Glover.

For its part, McCain’s campaign on Wednesday released a withering television ad comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, suggesting the Democrat is little more than a vapid but widely recognized media concoction.

If you’re going to lift right-wing talking points so egregiously, absolutely and consistently, the least you should do is cite them as sources.

Here’s my post on this from yesterday.

Barely clearing $11 Billion dollars in three months, who knows what kind of financial ruin awaits big oil should you and I stop giving them Billions in tax breaks?!

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.

The world’s largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.

On the flip side, because people might have gained $0.20-$0.50 due to XOM being in the index fund their 401k is in invested in, it’s all good! The extra dollar for every gallon of gas I buy every week is clearly worth the massive dividends I’m seeing in my 401k!

Every extra dollar I spend that lines their pockets is at least 1/100000th of a dollar back in mine, so let the gas prices surge!

I could get away with spending hours and hours hammering Barack Obama about how he’s SNUBBING THE TROOPS or something even though it’d been totally debunked by people who were actually, you know, there. Facts? Research?!

Who cares about accountability?! (Unless of course, it’s poor people “proving” they’re really poor enough to justify a cell phone while standing in line for food stamps)

Smear and move on to the next smear.

The national media just can’t seem to repeat the GOP talking points about Sen. Obama enough.

John McCain ’s presidential campaign on Wednesday released a withering television ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, suggesting the Democratic contender is little more than a vapid but widely recognized media concoction. AP

Withering? Really?

That makes about as much sense as calling the ad a “hard hitting policy attack”…

And then you have the national media repeating the GOP line that Sen. Obama is little more than a vapid “media concoction”. Double irony batman!

While the use of the term “limo” in the headline of this story from the Journal Sentinel has more punch, I don’t think it’s really accurate to call a Lincoln town car a limo.

But then it wouldn’t be as SHOCKING of a story about government officials - or continue the theme that state employees are always wasting money the Journal Sentinel seems to be hammering lately - if the headline read “Former Wisconsin commerce secretary hired town car to attend meetings” instead. When most people hear “limosine” they think stretch limo’s with a sunroof and champagne on ice. While I’m not defending anyone here, I don’t think that was exactly the case.

Apparently state officials trying to convince businesses to bring their money to Wisconsin should be showing up to meetings in a Ford Escort and staying at the Bates Motel.

No business executive in their right mind would do that, and for obvious reasons. They’d have a hard time being taken seriously by the very people they’re trying to impress. Why are the State’s top officials any different?

One last thing, if we’re going to get outraged over $500 on the taxpayer bill, how about shining a little light on the hundreds of millions of dollars we’re spending in Iraq right now?

Maybe someone from the JS could shed a little light on how much it costs an Iraqi politician to get from point A to B and who’s picking up the tab for that.

Who says Sen. McCain’s mavricky flip-flopping doesn’t pay off?

The last thing America needs is another four years of an administration firmly in the back pocket of big oil.

Out for a few days…

Topic to discuss: If sequals work for Hollywood, why don’t Republicans debut “Contract With America 2: We promise this time will be different. Again.”

Ho hum. Liberal media blah blah!

You’d think that a Presidential candidate completely getting it wrong on the very thing he’s built his campaign on would make the news, not be cut from it.

Despite what you may hear on the radio, all the corporations cutting jobs across the Country has nothing to do with giving mandatory sick leave to employees.

Wachovia is the latest company that will cut nearly 6,400 jobs. I doubt it had anything to do with the threat of mandatory sick leave in their community. Same with Miller/Coors. Same with Harley Davidson. Same with Midwest Airlines.

If your businesses viability is threatened by giving an employee an hour a of sick leave for every four days they have worked, then there might be bigger issues your company is facing than the latest bogeyman from the right-wing faux rage machine.