Republicans are elated with Sarah Palin's performance in the VP debate last night. On the Internet GOP diehards are celebrating the return of the "Barracuda." Whatever. She answered only 5 questions directly. The majority that she couldn't answer she simply dodged by talking about what she wanted to talk about or calling McCain a "maverick."

This flowchart is uncanny in predicting the Barracuda's responses from last night:

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/10/03/leaked_from_palins_debate_prep.html

Many Americans have taken part in debate clubs in middle or high school, including yours truly. If Palin had gone to a competition, she wouldn't have even placed. If she had been in debate class, she would've failed for failure to answer questions.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Thursday, October 2, 2008)

There are actually quite a few of these ghetto-ish buildings in Houston which look quite similar: dirty white stucco exteriors, rusted fire escape stairwells, and cracks running up the structure if you go closer.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Wednesday, October 1, 2008)

The area around the Chase building seems to have been hardest hit. I particularly like this picture. It features a devastated interior, no windows, new windows, wooden panels over broken windows, and reflections of wood-paneled windows from the neighboring building. Quite poetic, eh?

Newspapers are telling us not to underestimate Palin. I hope she puts up a good fight tomorrow. And I also hope Biden tears her back down.

Microstock Photographic Theme of the Day: Black Monday

No telling how low we may go. Nearly an 800-pt drop yesterday on the DOW. Jesus Christ. Although I plan to vote for Obama, I don't agree with the Dems and him that about the $700 billion bailout. Like we told the Asians 10 years ago, "Let it fail. Other businesses more deserving will rise up and fill in the spaces." After all, WAMU started off small and then grew to its present size. Perhaps the next WAMU will take a cautionary lesson from what happened this time and operate more wisely.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Monday, September 29, 2008)

Some more buildings from downtown Houston being patched up after Hurricane Ike. CNN says the DOW just fell 700 pts due to failure to pass the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Sunday, September 28, 2008)

Electricity came back on today. Yee-haw~! With the return of light, I saw how much I had to clean up around the house, which is what I did for most of the day. I've only managed to submit 75 photos this month, mainly due to Ike knocking us on our @ss for about 2 weeks.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Saturday, September 27, 2008)

Day 16 of no electricity. I'm currently watching the debate between Obama and McCain from last night, since I wasn't able to watch it last night after getting home, BECAUSE I still have no juice.

It's hard to believe that many Americans--even die-hard Republicans--still want to vote for McCain, who will simply be handing over more tax loopholes and tax cuts to big business. He doesn't seem to understand that if Main Street collapses, Wall Street all the rest of America will go with it. Who knows? If I had 8 houses and 12 sports cars, I might have a hard time understanding what the average American who just had his house foreclosed upon is going through.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Friday, September 26, 2008)

Bush: "Wall street got drunk."
Lloyd Doggett: “Mr. President, you gave them the keys to the liquor cabinet, by failing to enforce our laws.”

Meanwhile, while McCain says that he wants to take politics out of the picture and stop his campaign to deal with the current economic meltdown, he is fully cognizant that he has actually politically polarized the ruckus over the proposed $700 billion bailout for the Fat Cats of Wall Street and their familiars. He's drunk, too. Let's see if he's man enough to show up at the debate with Obama tonight. We had presidential debates during the Civil War and World War II, no reason why the nation can't hear why McCain wants to be president so badly.

Microstock Photography of the Day (Thursday, September 25, 2008)

Day 14 of no power. That's 2 weeks, Centerpoint. In my book, you now officially suck. The Houston Chronicle yesterday said that the Bush administration's efforts to give the Fat Cats of Wall Street $700 billion is expected to overshadow pleas for financial aid from Texas legislators. Awesome. The beach house-owning, Porsche-driving schmucks that ruined our economy will be getting more money to pursue "business as usual" while Texans continue to sit in ruined houses with no electricity and in some cases no water either. Good job, guys. Jolly good job. Your mothers must be very proud of you. I'm actually seeing more boarded up windows around town. I guess more glass must have fallen out.

Microstock Photography of the Day (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)

This is the legacy of Hurricane Ike in Downtown Houston. We've been without power for nearly 2 weeks now. To add insult to injury, Centerpoint Energy has decided to "revise" its original estimates on when we will be getting the juice back. From here on out, people will be tracking every word and action on the part of our elected officials with bated breath. If they don't deliver in the next 4 years, they too will be drawn into the maelstrom.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)

This construction worker did not look at all happy to be up there.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Monday, September 22, 2008)

That tall structure you see is the Chase Tower. It got seriously gimp-slapped by Ike according to my friend who works there. I went by there last week and something like 100 windows had been blown out. Clean-up is a "rhymes with witch" I'm sure.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Sunday, September 21, 2008)

Someone downloaded all of my pictures of Houston after Ike. This was one of them.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Saturday, September 20, 2008)

Quite of a few of my "Houston after Ike" photographs were just accepted by Shutterstock. Check it out. You'll see more than a few buildings with wooden boards on the broken windows.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Friday, September 19, 2008)

Phew! I'm finally caught up with my "Microstock Photograph of the Day" daily series. I was behind already, and IKE certainly didn't help.

Anyhow, this is a picture of the Enron Building pre-IKE. It may have suffered some damage since, and if it has, you can bet your money that I'll have the damage posted here for you to see soon.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Thursday, September 18, 2008)

Some colorful brick wall patterns in Houston.

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Wednesday, September 17, 2008)

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Tuesday, September 16, 2008)

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Monday, September 15, 2008)

The Chinese character for "grass."

Microstock Photograph of the Day (Sunday, September 14, 2008)

The Chinese Character for "Meaning."