I don't know if it is just me or if others are feeling the same thing, but it seems that politics are getting dirtier with every election.  The last minute press releases that cannot be fought off or disproved until after the elections.  The way the propositions are misrepresented and the negative campaign advertisements.

All of it is starting to get on my nerves.  Today I was listening to the blow up over the Rush Limbaugh/Michael J. Fox stuff.  I guess Limbaugh kind of made fun of Fox's disease and though he did apologize the liberal media will not let it pass. 

The ad’s that Fox have been running in the swing states demonizing anyone against stem cell research are misleading and in some cases incorrect.  The ad’s running in Missouri are talking about stem cell research while the proposition is about cloning.

Anyway I am just tired of all of it and wish I could watch TV without seeing all of these ads all the time.  It will be great when the elections are over and all this crap stops.  It does not even matter who wins anymore since both parties are the same any more.

I have been watching the fire story with interest.  They are worried about the winds, and hopefully they will die down so they can get a handle on the fire.

Other than that I was hoping to get a round of trading in on blogshares, but they are down for maintenance.  Hopefully they will be back up real soon, so I can get it done before Laila gets up.

I got the shopping done on the way home so today I can just pretty much relax and watch some TV or something if their site stays down.

Yesterday I kind of saw my life pass before me.  On my way home yesterday I had to stop for gas, so I took a different route home.  I was exiting the I-805 at Plaza Blvd; this is a three-lane exit.  The right lane is for right turns while the two left lanes are for left turns.  I was in the middle lane getting ready to turn left.

When the light changed to green me and the guy on my left both started into the intersection.  He was in a mini van so my view to the left was obstructed.  We started into the intersection and all of a sudden I heard a screech of tires and he had slammed on his breaks.  I hit my breaks on instinct and all of a sudden this white car flew through the intersection at about 60 miles per hour.  If I would not have hit my breaks I would have been T-boned and since I have my little Beetle at that speed, seatbelts and all I would be gone right now.

Running red lights and stop signs is a common occurrence here, actually a growing trend.  As more and more of our visitors from the south come here I see these laws being violated more and more.  About a year or two ago, my daughter got a speeding ticket and went to court.  While there she found that for one, she was about the only person that had a valid license, but second she found some interesting opinions of laws.

One of the Mexican guys that was there was under the impression that at a stop sign if you look both ways and do not see a police officer you then there is no requirement to stop.  He told the judge "No cop, no stop".  As long as this is the attitude of these illegal visitors, and as long as our government continues to let them freely come here, innocent people will continue to be hurt and killed as these folks ignore our laws.  After all, they broke the law to get here, so why follow the traffic laws.

While I don't know for sure that the person running the light yesterday was illegal, or even a Mexican, I have my suspicions since the car that ran the light was decked out pretty much as a low rider.

Anyway enough on that subject, I just thank God I didn't get hit.  Last night we watched "Deal or No Deal", "Heroes", and "CSI Miami".  Today Laila has a court appearance so we will not be doing our full routine today.  Her appearance this time looks like it may be the last one for the year.  I forgot which case it is for, but two of the three are just about over and the other one has been delayed for a variety of reasons, like weather, urgent conferences and all. 

Right now it appears to me that trying to get anything settled in the courts there only benefits the courts and the lawyers.  Here you will only make one court appearance and the declaration is made almost immediately.  There she has to keep going back time after time and each time she has to pay the court and the lawyer.  It makes me wonder about the folks that do not have enough money to hire a lawyer.  What do they do to get justice?

I just called home to check the status of the carpet guys and my daughter said they would be there at 10:30.  They called her, and it is going to be so great to see something finally getting done.  And besides, I will have my own bathroom again, even though I will have to move the air conditioner to that room.  I am not too worried about it though since it is fall and will be winter soon. 

Besides I am beginning to think that after I get the rest of the stuff done I may just put the house on the market early.  I can then rent a place until the daughter gets on her feet.  Also I will be out from under the house payment and will be able to save some more money.

I have been watching with interest the reaction of CNN showing the sniper video supplied to them by the terrorists.  It seems there are quite a few people that are ticked off. 

Last night I was watching the O'Reilly Factor and he had one of my favorite commentators on last night, Michelle Malkin.  O'Reilly seemed to get on her case when she said that CNN had an anti-American bias and that they were siding with the enemy.  O'Reilly seemed to be justifying CNN's behavior by saying that they are more of a world news organization not catering to just the United States viewers.  Also he was saying that CNN has made deals with the terrorists for access, so they will go ahead and air anything to keep the terrorist channels open.  Since most of the world is against America's involvement he surmised that CNN was catering to its international audience. 

I don't care what audience they cater too, airing snuff videos of American troops getting killed is inappropriate.

CNN has gone from the number one cable news organization to a distant second now, and if they continue to be an outlet for terrorist videos, they will be off the air.  CNN just doesn't seem to get it.  Even people who are against the war are at least for the troops.  I haven't watched CNN or maybe I will start calling it Al Jazeera West, and when I hear of these types of things being aired, it will definitely keep me from ever tuning in again.  I may even have to write Direct TV and have it removed from my tuner.  I have heard a lot of callers calling the talk radio stations and they are furious.  This happened last week and while I only heard a few news stories about it over the weekend, it is now the top topic on many conservative talk radio shows.

I was just looking at a USA Today newspaper that one of my students left in the classroom while they are at lunch and the sports page was loaded with accusations that Kenny Rogers was using pine tar to doctor the baseballs during game two of the World Series.  While they made a big deal pointing it out on Sunday during the first inning of the game he washed his hands and the umpires didn't eject him or anything.  I wonder if it is just the Cardinals already making excuses should they lose the Series.  He did pitch just as good after he washed whatever he had on his hands off, and the fact that the umpires let him continue, tells me he was doing nothing wrong.   

Well now that I have covered several subjects I guess I will wrap this up for today.  I just called home again and my daughter said that the installers are there, so the new carpeting should be installed by the time I get home.  Then tonight we will start moving everything into that room so Judy and Carlos can get started on their new room with the painting and all.  Have a great day everyone.

Another Monday is here and it is back to work for the week.  This morning I finished up all the classroom work for the WSC- area, so the next two weeks or so will be all lab work.  This afternoon when they get back from lunch we will go through the receiver alignments, which mean I will be hopping.  I have everything layed out and set up, so now I just need to wait for them to get back.

Yesterday Laila has to attend one of the court cases, so she got up very early on her side, went to court and then found out she would not be heard until the afternoon session.  Because of that we did not get to spend our regular time together on line, even though we did watch "Heroes" last night in between her travels.  While she was gone the first time Carlos and I watched game two of the World Series.  I was quite impressed with Kenny Rogers pitching performance but was really worried when they took him out for a relief pitched and saw the guy load the bases.

The Charger game was a disappointment after watching them tie the game and then lose by a field goal in the last minute.  Also we have another Charger in trouble as Shawne Merriman failed a drug test.  This team has been losing players at a rate of 1 each two weeks due to stuff like that.

Tomorrow the master bedroom gets carpeted and I am looking forward to that.  I have to remember to get the electrical switch plates on my way home, to make the room look better.  I also have to make sure I stop for gas so I make it home.

Tonight is another "Deal or No Deal" night so the families will have fun.  I think the new episode of "Heroes" comes on tonight.  Actually I like "Jericho" better, but the kid love heroes, so I will let them watch it of course.  Laila likes it too, and while I like it, I am not fully attentive when it is on. 

Well, time to get some stuff done before the class gets back.

Last night it was hard to get to sleep because the neighbors on the one side were having a loud party.  I had the kids complain about the noise, but they wound up with an invite to the party instead. 

I just stayed up and Laila and I watched movies last night.  We watched "The Waterboy" and then "My Cousin Vinny" and then we watched "Little Nicky" so last night was comedy night and Laila was laughing all the way through them.

This was after I watched the first game of the World Series and watched the Cardinals destroy the Tigers.  Right now I am watching the Chiefs destroy the Chargers.  The Chargers just are not playing right at all.

This morning I got up at 8 and chatted with Laila, and then she went to bed early so she can go to court in the morning on her side of the ocean.  Judy and Carlos got up and were ready to go to church at 9:30, but even though I was up, I had not showered yet, so we went to the 11 AM mass, but then we had to leave early because Carlos got sick.

We will attempt to go again if he feels better, but it would not be nice to have him throwing up in church.  It may because of something he ate yesterday or maybe because of some drink David gave him last night.  I know my cooking is a little different than he is used to.  Also the avocado's I bought yesterday may have done it.  I am not an expert on them and I guess three of the four I bought were bad.  I think he ate the fourth one.

Today is the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  The first reading is Isaiah 53:10-11 and the second reading is Hebrews 4:14-16.  The gospel is Mark 10:35-45.  Since Carlos got sick we left in a hurry and if he feels better later we will go back.  If not I will try and go myself, but want to make sure he is feeling better just in case.

Well that is the day so far and I guess I will watch the second half of the Charger game while doing some more laundry.  I forgot the colored clothing from the trip and also the kids have a ton of clothes in the garage.  I don't even know if it is stuff worth washing or if it is stuff that should be donated or thrown out. 

We have been getting rid of all kinds of stuff that the ex used to packrat.  The house is getting less and less cluttered each week.

I am in a happy mood this morning.  I got up early after a great night of sleep and since I get to cover some of the more technical circuit cards today, work will be fun.  Also the day will pass by quickly and tonight when I get home it will be another TV night since “Deal or No Deal” and “Dateline” will be on.

Last night I cleaned up my PC.  I had many duplicates of the pictures I have taken and so I cleaned up and got rid of all the duplicates.  I also backed up everything on my laptop and so now I will have a backup in case something bad happens to my PC.

Yesterday I tried to configure my new DSL modem but I was having a problem.  I think my phone lines are messed up.  When the storm hit over the weekend my son tried to fix the phone lines after he discovered there was no dial tone on the phone.  I managed to get the dial tone back, as well as DSL on the old modem but it was dropping out frequently and I thought it was due to heat.  I think my problem might be a wrong connection with the two sets of phone lines, so I will contact the phone company and have them check my connection. 

There is one thing I didn’t try, and I will try that tonight.  I can try and set up the connection from my laptop.  Since it is XP it might have better results than 2000 NT that I am using on my PC.  I guess it can’t hurt to give it a try.

This weekend I think I will go shopping for carpeting for the master bedroom.  The room has been painted and all we have to do is remount the closet doors and put the electrical switch plates and receptacle plates back up and it will be ready to go.  I also bought a dimmer switch for the lighting so I can install that.  I think we are in a good position to finish 1 bedroom a week.  Anyway we will see what happens.

Last night they had the illegal immigration housing bill vote, and the city counsel has now made it a crime to rent to anyone who is not a citizen of the United States.  Of course they had to have police available to control the huge protest that ensued. 

Again I am hearing this same argument from the illegal immigration supporters and the ACLU that this is a violation of their Constitutional rights.  I did not know the Constitution of Mexico, or Lebanon, or any other country that exports their poor to the US, was recognized by our government.  Since they are not citizens they do not have rights under our Constitution, just as I have no rights to their Constitution when I go to their country.

This morning on the way to work I was listening again to Rick Roberts and one of the callers was pretty angry about the protests.  He is an elementary school teacher, and due to the Hispanic invasion they have had to modify their curriculum since the invaders do not speak English.  This has had a huge negative impact on the money spent in our schools.

Also these folks left their countries to get what the US has to offer.  When they get here they are trying to turn the US into the same thing they came from.  The whole situation just does not make any sense to me. 

Well time to go get some lunch.  I can’t wait to get home today at the end of the day.

Well unlike yesterday, this morning I got up on time, in fact I got up a little early.  I chatted with Laila a bit and we did our morning routine before I left for work.  This morning I have to give one of my students a retest so I will be a little behind from the start of this area, but I will have plenty of time to catch up.

Last night, again I was having Internet problems.  It looks like it may just be that the DSL modem that I am using has been overheating.  Either that or I may still have a phone line problem.  Laila wanted me to call my ISP and get another modem, but knowing how they do business it would take some time to get it swapped out, so I checked online and found that Best Buy has an ATT DSL modem for only $62 so I think I will just buy one on the way home from the dentist this afternoon.

Yeah, I have a dental appointment today at 3:30 PM, but it is just to check the status of my dental implant.  The only problem is that it is in Chula Vista and anytime after 3PM the southbound freeways here are already backed up.  I guess it is because they have developed the Bonita and east Chula Vista areas so much, but have not upgraded the freeways to handle the traffic.  Instead they invested the money in the trolley system.  It makes me feel rally good as I see all the empty trolley’s travel past my place of employment each day as I see the freeways all backed up.  Yet the city continually is upgrading the trolley system and does nothing about the roads.

Also on talk radio yesterday I was listening to the Roger Hedgecock show.  Seems over the weekend two women were repeatedly raped and their boyfriends attacked in Pacific Beach.  Since the City of San Diego is so broke right now, they do not have enough police to patrol the area.  Roger who lives in that area and several neighbors are taking up a collection to hire a private security firm to patrol the neighborhood.  It sure is a shame when private citizens must stoop to this level because all the money they are paying in taxes is being wasted by government, in this case city government.

And what is really a shame is that there are so many ballot measures asking for more money for this and that.  Most of it looks to be going toward paying the bills of programs that have been bankrupted by illegal aliens.

The city of Escondido went ahead and is going to make it illegal, to rent to illegal immigrants.  I guess tonight it will be finalized by their city counsel, and the pro law breaker groups are really going nuts trying to stop it.  This morning Rick Roberts had an irate caller that was really angry because he can not get the amount of rent he is charging the illegal aliens from legal people, but he can get a high rent from illegals.  He was Hispanic, and he is taking advantage of the illegal Hispanics and is outraged that they would ruin his money making venture.

Also yesterday on Fox News there was a report that the alien smugglers are now the Mexican drug lords, and they have more firepower in the form of automatic weapons and such than all the agencies that are part of homeland security.  They went on to say that these guys will smuggle anyone in, for the right price, and especially like to smuggle the folks from the Middle East because they get much more profit.  That doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy when I also am still seeing the terrorist’s warnings for Muslims to get out of the US.

Also I guess Hugo Chavez is allowing terrorists to train in his country.  We have he little knucklehead in North Korea testing nukes.  But where is our government?  The house and senate are out campaigning for reelection.   They voted for a 700 mile fence but didn’t vote in enough funds to make it happen.  And hey, did they ever think that these guys have been tunneling under the existing fences?  The people in Washington think we are morons and that we will keep reelecting them as they continue to misspend our tax dollars and do anything to keep in power.  It is time to clean house so keep that in mind when you vote in November.

That is if we still have a country.  With the illegal immigration invasion and possible terrorist attacks I am starting to worry and wonder if we will still have a country.

Well off to work.

Lunch time has arrived and so I ran out to Best Buy and bought the DSL modem.  I like Best Buy but I am beginning to wonder about their employees.  While I was in the computer area looking for the modem it was kind of obvious I was looking for something in particular.  I had seen it online and knew exactly what I wanted to get but it was not in the modem section.  I passed two sets of employees that were shooting the bull and pretty much ignored me.  I finally found the ATT/SBC display and there it was. 

I then went to the checkout stand where they only had 2 registers manned and each had about four people in line.  I was kind of wondering with all the people wandering around the store just shooting the breeze, why they could not open another register.  I like their selection and have been shopping there frequently because I got great customer service the first time I went there.  Since then the customer service part has been non-existent.  I guess I might switch back to Circuit City for more of me PC needs.

On my way back to work I saw another blatant traffic infraction.  I was heading down Broadway in Chula Vista in the vicinity of D Street when some Hispanic male driving a minivan stopped at the red light, looked both ways and ran the light taking a left turn, crossing in front of the cars traveling on Broadway (a major street). 

Well my class is coming back so I suppose I had better get ready to teach.  Ow when I get home I will have to install the new modem.  I will also check the phone lines one more time.