Like many of you, I was dumbfounded today to see all of the rumors that Democrats are pushing around the internet about VP Nominee Sarah Palin, her teenage daughter and fifth child with Downs Syndrome.



Writers have come straight out and accused Governor Palin of lying about the legitimacy of her fifth child Trig. They claim that the child is not hers, but instead the son of her teenage daughter Bristol, a minor now.



They claim that Bristol was hidden out of school while she was pregnant and that the governor at first said nothing and then announced her own pregnancy at seven months, before giving birth just after 8 months of pregnancy.



They claim that in dozens of photos and videos of the governor that the Governor did not look pregnant. I've seen the photos and videos supposedly used as evidence and to me they seem completely inconclusive at best, and likely to show a woman that is an avid runner that could well have been 5-6 months pregnant.



So Here is my question...



Are Democrats tripping all over themselves to commit political suicide by outing a teenage girl for having had a child? Are they too consumed with trying to catch a governor in a scandal, that they fail to realize that if true, the scandal shows that the governor is actually a mother that may have been protecting her own daughter and grandchild?



This story has lit up Digg, like papparazi bulbs going off around a pop star exiting a car in a short dress, and it has lit up what appears to be the worst in Democrats.



Now, the Obama Campaign does not appear to have anything directly to do with this, but they also do not appear to have any control over their supporters.



I am 100% for transparency, but when I look at the likely political implications of outing this type of story, I see this as a major backfire for Democrats. If this 2 day old rumor is untrue, Democrats are going to look very very bad.



If this 2 day old rumor turns out to be true, Democrats will have essentially succeeded in attacking a 16 year old girl and her mother.



How is that going to play out on the national stage?



I suspect that it will bring embarrassment first to Democrats and support and empathy to the Governor and her family second. Democrats have to learn some day that if they want Americans to stop getting upset over sex, they have to lead by example. If they do not want their candidates sensationalized by sex scandals, then they have to stop sensationalizing sex scandals themselves.



Democrats screwed up by blocking John Edwards from the convention and as a result, nobody gave a damn nor said a word for the poor, just the poor middle class [emphasis on whining]. They blocked him because they were embarrassed that he had had an affair a couple years ago.



So What?



Now, they are preparing to tar and feather a mother for either being a mother or for protecting her daughter and grandson. Either way, they have just jumped into a lose lose battle.

Last night, I too thought Obama might have a clear path to the White House, but after McCain's pick things have changed completely.



Obama had a lot of trump cards in his hand as of yesterday. Today, McCain just filled out his own hand with trump cards, and the playing field is almost completely flat now.



I was just gathering together 14 videos covering Palin on YouTube (there's not much, slim pickings).



She is definitely a very interesting and likeable person.

http://www.nomoreincumbents.org/…-to-watch/

The sun just broke out of the clouds and its amazing how much my spirits are improving, working on the dock, listening to music loudly, and enjoying the beautiful weather after several days of torrential rain verging on flooding.

Check out this ABC News article on some of the major campaign donors that previously donated to Hillary Clinton and are now donating the maximum amount possible to John McCain.



http://abcnews.go.com/…ions/Story



Per the story, in addition to these serious campaign contributors saying,



"I talk to plenty of people like me who just won't accept an unqualified president."



Obama has heretofor raised a lot of money, but the real race starts Friday. Those hundreds of millions of dollars raised so far, only convinced Democrats to vote for Obama. That's only 1/3 of the US population. There is another 1/3 that are swing voters, independents etc that don't vote along party lines.



Obama has to raise money to reach those people if he is going to win. That means he has to raise all that money all over again and he has to do it within 2 months.

I just ran into a funny little bug on Utterz today. I just happened to joke around and send a message to @VerizonWireless only to discover that the user actually exists. (no idea if its the company or just a person) If its truly the company, then Verizon Wireless, you suck!



If its a person with no Verizon affiliation, you don't suck, but I question your naming motivations. :)



Anyway, I thought I would block the user with the name VerizonWireless. After I hit the block button, it shows me as a follower of VerizonWireless!



The last thing in the world I want to do is be perceived as a follower of that terrible company (did I mention they ripped me off for over $500 this year and then an additional $150 when they couldn't fix my account for problems they admitted to? Yeah, I probably did. :) )



So in my quest to snarkily attack Verizon Wireless, I somehow was dumped into a box that could be perceived as an endorsement of the company that ripped me off. That's the last thing I want, so I'd like to point this out to the Utterz team and ask that they reconsider their blocking functionality. :)

In 24 hours

I'm seeing several broken css styles with the rendering on Utterz today.



Plus, the query to start typing what I'm doing (as opposed to typing a title) and then to actually type what I'm doing in the body section, is down right confusing.



When I first saw this, I thought Utterz had added one of those mood ring like tools found on Facebook. (ex. Brett is Happy today. Brett is soaking wet from rain today or Brett is lost in a social media design today. :) or Brett is . . . yada yada yada)



I'm seeing text input boxes that do not fit with in the theme for the body section of Utterz.



Also, the Add Audio Pic Video buttons seem a little buggy as well.



I have a feeling that there was an attempt to make things wider and address some of the feedback requests of the past, but something definitely seems to be wrong in the execution.



I'm browsing in Firefox 3 on a 17" laptop with resolution set at 1080 I think.



As to the text prompts to kick things off, I think using verbage that sounds Facebooky is a mistake for several reasons.



1. It limits Utterz capability.

2. There are facebook connotations here that will mess with people and make Utterz feel like a bit of a knock off, which it isn't.

3. three, three, . . . I forget what three was for, but

4. You can't see the body text box, when you start the title text box, and that is just confusing up front and on the back end when it does show up.



In general, this just doesn't feel very tight. Maybe that's an execution thing, but aside from the wider boxes, the purpose of some of these changes seems mis-directed.

I worked very late last night, slept in until about 9:30 this morning and woke up to the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay dropping inches of rain on North Carolina.



The rain was pooring down fast and the first thing we ended up doing was bailing out one of our boats, the pump/batteries couldn't keep up with the rain.



Then we pulled a paddle boat out of the water that was almost full as well.



The office was pretty much wet everywhere from the rain falling into the office sideways. I don't keep my major equipment in the office (gets stowed away at night), so there was no damage or anything, but I'm going to be working somewhere high and dry.



The rain came at a great time as the lake was just starting to get dangerously low. Here when water levels run low, the conventional wisdom is that 9-12 months down the road we could run out of drinking water.



The reality is when it gets very low, we have a longer supply of drinking water, but we do not have a water supply that can keep the dozens of power plants cooled down and running. No water, means no cooling systems and that means power shut down, black out across the South East and possible power grid strains on the east coast.



It would really suck if a drought in North Carolina triggered a blackout or riot in DC or NYC or any of those acronym cities ending in a 'C'.



Fortunately, we have picked up a good amount of water and with luck, we'll get lots lots more over the next few days.

But the people here will drain your IQ

I can haz claws in yuRRrr paint