Some more A-List blogging returns tonight right here from Half The Politics. One of the major stories that I’m working on is the “Touchplay controversy” that has hit the state of Iowa. While you are waiting for the next update take the time to analyze the photo below. Is that a female? male? Why should anyone care? And do they have an extra lipstick?

As those of you who visit this blog know I’ve recently placed my laptop on ebay. Well, the results came back and the auction went for $$186.50! I was only expecting to get at least 100.00, getting 80 dollars more (plus shipping) was an unexpecting treat. The money I made on this auction is going towards my recent purchase of my new laptop, which I received today!

Most of my future blogging will done wirelessly throughout the house… hehe

Some State Legislative bodies debate issues that are what I consider to be A-List topics. For instance, South Dakota recently passed the Anti-Abortion bill which I’m sure you’ve all heard about. But, did you know that Iowa has an upcoming A-List topic that is currently being discussed on Capitol Hill?

License plate change would cost $19.4 million

Replacing Iowa’s blue and white license plates would carry a high price tag.

State transportation officials estimated Thursday it would cost $19.4 million to reissue plates. They did not provide a breakdown of the expenses.

A bill being considered by state lawmakers would require the Iowa Department of Transportation to issue new license plates "of a distinctively different design and color" every five years, beginning in January 2007.

Supporters of Senate File 2105, including the Iowa Motor Truck Association, counter that replacing license plates would raise more money for the state’s road fund, partly from increased compliance with vehicle registration requirements.

Supporters argue that requiring new license plates in a different color would force scofflaws to come forward and register their vehicles, because violators would be easy to spot.

Which side of the License Plate issue, or Senate File 2105 as I affectionately refer it as, do you stand on? I’ve always felt that the current design was way better than the old white/blue plates that the state used to have. I’m not sure how the plates themselves will bring in more people to Iowa.

Let’s say you are in Illinois and you are driving around minding your own business. Then suddenly you drive your car into a designated parking spot. Hours later an Illinois couple walks by and they notice something is wrong. This car with the Iowa plates does not belong! Does this trigger electrical charges in the "vacation" synapses about vacationing to Iowa? Probably not. Now, if the Iowa plate had naked women on it…

I’m going to need more facts.

Tags: License plate, Iowa Senate

Planet’s Population to Hit 6.5 Billion Saturday

On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people.

Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S.

Census Bureau points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau’s Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks.

Sidenote: Could you imagine how a family photo would look of the entire human race? I’m thinking the only way it would be possible is if everyone lined up along a mountain range and the photographer might have to be a couple hundred miles away to get everyone in the picture. Who would you want to stand next too? I personally would love to stand next to JJ Abrahms so that he can tell me all the secrets of Lost.

My fellow Iowanite, Brian, tagged me:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Rise: American Hi-Fi’s best song on their The Art Of Losing album. To me these lyrics are saying that if you are in a place that basically sucks then its okay to leave to start a new life. Changes are good especially if you initiate them yourself.

I Hear Music: This Billie Holiday song reminds me of my High School days. I was part of the show choir. Yes, you can laugh. I’m secure with singing and dancing…! During my senior year we received a new instructor and she had everyone re-tryout for the choir. She selected 60 seconds of this song. We heard this song at least 1,000 or 2,000 times. After the tryouts and the rest of the semester passed people seemed to forget about the torture we went through. So I downloaded this version of the song and would play it back during a special moment. We had to meet at the school building at 5am the morning of one of the regional competitions to catch our bus. About an hour later my recording of the song started to play on my cd player at the highest level. I don’t think I made any friends that day… and might have lost a few!

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Glenn Beck’s 2004 Theme song was based off of this song. I’m ashamed to say that I like the Good Charlotte version more than the one Glenn had!

Longhorn: This is the John Bradshaw Layfield theme song. He’s the WWE Smackdown Superstar by night and conservative/capitalist/radio show host by day. The song is very reminiscent to anything Aaron Copeland would have composed. There are no lyrics for me to link to.

Lonely Road of Faith: The first time I heard this song something clicked in my mind and I was different. The world was in turmoil, September 11th was a recent memory. This song brought it home that my life would forever change because of what happened and what is still to happen.

A Mighty Wind: Love the double entendres!

The Heart of Worship: It’s easy to forget, but at the end of the day It’s all about You, Jesus.

Now it’s my turn to tag someone..

Tyler!

George W. Bush is winning people over with this whole port business deal. Can we just stop with the politics and focus on what is right for the security of our nation. The American people, myself included, want to win the War on Terror. We also want to keep our homeland safe, which includes better patrolling of our borders. These are two strong reasons why we re-elected Bush. Can anyone tell me with 100% certainty that this deal will not come back to bite us in the behind 2 years from now? How about 5 years? 10? It takes just one extremist in the board room to turn this into an advantage for the terrorist. While the United Arab Emerites is currently on friendly terms with the United States there have been plenty of red flags in recent post September 11th times. The UAE’s banks blocked investigators from researching money trails after the attacks. That’s strike number 1, 2 and 3 for me. Our relationship with the UAE is one-dimensional. We allow one of their companies to take control of some of our ports in exchange we can trust to hand over information, even though there is nothing set into stone saying they will keep their part of the deal.

Blurbs published on Rush’s website. In them he demonstrates how to turn this situation into a right versus left issue instead of right versus wrong.

It’s an election year. The left is so vulnerable on national defense that they are having to track as far to the right of the Republicans as they can on this port issue. They’ve been praying for an opportunity that they could see an enemy somewhere and they finally had it shown up in the United Arab Emirates.

The left is pulling a John Kerry. Note, they’re not demanding to "Stop the sale!" and there’s some Republicans in on this, too, I know. They’re not demanding to stop it. They’re demanding to stall it. "They want to be able to investigate it, sailor! Need a moratorium to look into what really happened." Then we find out that Bush didn’t even know as we pointed out yesterday until after it was a done deal, yet he is standing by it. They want to be able to stall the deal, the Democrats do, so they can look the voters in the eye and say, "I opposed this sale before I supported it," or "I support this sale before I opposed it," whichever it turns out to be.

How can the White House have a secret agreement with Dubai Ports World and our President not even know about it? There is just something fishy about this whole thing and I still haven’t been won over. Everyone’s gut feeling was that this was wrong. Trust your first impressions.

Tags: President Bush, Port, United Arab Emerites, Dubai Ports World

Can we be honest to each other? This is just between me, blog writer, and you blog reader. Does anyone else think that our President should stop making his political base upset with dumb decisions. There was that whole the Anti-Christ supreme court justice nominee in Harriett Miers that I certainly didn’t agree with. Perhaps you saw some qualities in her that made you feel comfortable, like the color of her hair? I saw nothing of interest in her. When someone is nominated to the bench they should have at least a record for every breakfast and dinner eaten in the last 15 years.

 And now we have this whole selling our ports to some "friendly" middle eastern country. Drudge has this posted right now,

He said he would veto any legislation to hold up deal and warned the United States was sending ‘mixed signals’ by going after a company from the Middle East when nothing was said when a British company was in charge… Lawmakers, he said, must ’step up and explain why a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard.’ Bush was very forceful when he delivered the statement… ‘I don’t view it as a political fight,’ Bush said

Whew, Mr. President you have made your point. Forgive me for I have sinned. I discriminated against a country, who by they way helped fund the attacks of September 11th. I mean there were only 3,000 lives lost in that event. When we were enemies against England we lost far more Americans. Well, they weren’t Americans yet, but you understand what I’m saying.  Thank you, Mr. President for setting me straight. Now can you please stop portraying the oil-guzzling, big spending, war mongering idiot that the liberals have up to this point wrongly painted? What are we doing allowing The United Arab Emirates to control our ports?

Weasels, I’m a few days late to comment on the whole situation, but I thought I should at least chime in.

Tags: President Bush, UAE, Ports, Common Sense

Mrs Sharpie decided to pose for the auction pictures.

Has anyone seen “Sleeper Cell” on Showtime? I briefly heard the talking heads on the AM stations discuss the show last fall. In turn, I  dismissed it as being another one of those Cindy Sheehan type masterpieces where they completely ignore fact and build up the idea that everyone is Anti-USA. I downloaded the first couple of episodes on iTunes just to see for myself. I’m not sure what Rush and Glenn have against this series because it’s done very well. It’s actually believable. Without spoiling on here the basic premise is that the main character is recruited to an islamic sleeper cell based out of L.A. The first episode reveals that Darwin is actually an undercover agent for the FBI who just so happens to be muslim. “Sleeper Cell” is like a hybrid of 24 and Alias, two other shows that I really enjoy.

Check it out on iTunes. You will be pleasently surprised.