Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey folks,

Well Thanksgiving is just about upon us. I've been enjoying a much-needed vacation from my bill-paying job, and it's sort of good that I got some time to relax and chill out, especially with the holidays here. Cripes! The holiday shopping traffic is ALREADY here! It's insane!

So while I have a few minutes in between working on stuff for this week's very vocal rant, I want to cover a few things...

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Well Dan Rather is stepping down from his comfy anchor desk over at CBS News. I'm sure some of you are saying "There! Happy? He's gone!" No, I'm sorry, but I'm not happy that he's leaving, because it is still ON HIS OWN TERMS!

Dan Rather needed to either resign IMMEDIATELY after the fraudulent memos were announced. Either that or he needed to be FIRED, along with the producer who provided the memos. Both of them still have their jobs! Rather isn't leaving CBS News, he's just leaving the anchor desk. He's still going to draw a paycheck from them.

Meanwhile, a night-shift network producer was FIRED from CBS because he DARED to interrupt the last five minutes of CSI with the official news of Yasir Arafat's death! CBS apologized for interrupting five minutes of airtime with an ACTUAL NEWS STORY!

And Dan Rather kept his job, and so did the producer of that forged memo story. Now THAT is social injustice for you! Yeah, that's sticking up for journalism. Heaven help us if a nuke goes off during the finale of "Survivor"! You won't get the late-breaking news from CBS, that much is certain!

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NBA riot: that's the subject for this week's audio rant, so I won't cover it here.

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Spending my off-time playing "Dead or Alive Ultimate" on the Xbox. That is a KICK-ASS game! Great graphics and audio. That and a nice classic tune from Aerosmith in the intro.

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So the Congress managed to FINALLY get the budget passed! Hey, it only took them almost two months this time. Last year it took them SIX MONTHS! Six months of operating without a budget for the year.

It finally occurred to me why members of Congress drag their asses on this time and time again... because it's due in October, and if they pass it with all of the pork and unconstitutional laws that they want before the elections in November, it would end their careers!

Oh, and there's one little bit added in this "omnibus spending bill" that should piss you off. It seems that the Chairman of the House Finance Committee penned in a little law that would give him and any member of his staff the right to look at ANYONE'S tax returns! Anyone! Not just Congress... not just members of the military... EVERY TAX RECORD FOR ANY CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Congress is calling this either a "mistake" or a "misunderstanding", depending on which apologist describes it.

Well if it's a mistake, then why don't they ask Bush Junior to exercise his line-item veto power? Bush Junior hasn't vetoed a single bill in his four years in office! What's wrong with this guy? Why hasn't he carried out some of that fiscal responsibility that he claims to possess?