On this Independence Day, I am so very proud of all those who have chosen to serve our great nation and I honor their selflessness and the sacrifices of their families, too.

If I may, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the last 24 hours and share my thoughts with you.

First, I want to thank you for your support and hard work on the values we share. Those values led me to the decision my family and I made. Yesterday, my family and I announced a decision that is in Alaska’s best interest and it always feels good to do what is right. We have accomplished more during this one term than most governors do in two – and I am proud of the great team that helped to build these wonderful successes. Energy independence and national security, fiscal restraint, smaller government, and local control have been my priorities and will remain my priorities.

For months now, I have consulted with friends and family, and with the Lieutenant Governor, about what is best for our wonderful state. I even made a few administrative changes over that course in time in preparation for yesterday. We have accomplished so much and there’s much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most. And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier – I’ve never been one to waste time or resources. Those who know me know this is the right decision and obvious decision at that, including Senator John McCain. I thank him for his kind, insightful comments.

The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.

I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America. I am now looking ahead and how we can advance this country together with our values of less government intervention, greater energy independence, stronger national security, and much-needed fiscal restraint. I hope you will join me. Now is the time to rebuild and help our nation achieve greatness!

God bless you! And I look forward to making a difference – with you!

Sarah

Oh, I will miss you, Sarah Palin. I will miss you so very, very, very much.

If he goes on giving speeches like this, I think Congressman Harper may be qualified to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket in 2012. Harper might want to think about beefing up his resume a bit, though. It’s been six months that the 111th Congress has been in session, and he has yet to write or even to cosponsor a single piece of legislation.

…although there’s already plenty of awareness of that problem, isn’t there? It’s at this part of the story that the Plastiki voyage starts to fall apart for me.

People have been aware of the problems of excessive garbage, especially large amounts of plastic that never degrades, for as long as I can remember. Most people have been aware of the Pacific Ocean gyre for years. So, what do we need a Plastiki voyage to raise awareness for?

The only thing that the Plastiki voyage seems to raise new awareness for is the “career” of its leader, David de Rothschild, the Adventure Ecologist. What is an Adventure Ecologist? You probably haven’t ever met one before. There likely isn’t a neighborhood Adventure Ecologist working just down the block from you.

There’s a good reason for that. Being an Adventure Ecologist takes a lot of money. David de Rothschild seems to be the first and only Adventure Ecologist there has ever been.

An Adventure Ecologist is a person of leisure who has fun on a lot of adventures, using a lot of energy and resources in the process, but does so in the name of educating everyone else in the world about the importance of being ecologically sensitive.

David de Rothschild, you see, is an heir of the Rothschild family, perhaps the most wealthy and influential banking family in the world. The Rothschild family has funded the development of the industrial economy that has led to us having huge amounts of garbage littering the land and floating about in the ocean. The Rothschild family uses huge amounts of energy and natural resources just to satisfy its whimsies.

So, naturally, through his Adventure Ecology vacations, David de Rothschild seeks to educate us, the little people of the world who weren’t born into rich and powerful families, about what we have to do to make things better. David de Rothschild isn’t seeking to increase awareness within the Rothschild family empire about what the Rothschilds need to do to solve the world’s ecological problems. No, instead, he’s seeking to reform the rabble.

The more I look at the Plastiki project, the more it takes on the appearance of recycled Rothschild snobbery.

I’m not denying that the ordinary folks of the world have a lot of responsibility for the global ecological crisis we’re in today. I just don’t think it’s appropriate for a man who was born into extreme luxury, who has always been able to consume whatever he wants whenever he wants, to lecture the rest of us about how we need to live more simply, and change our lifestyles.

Have fun on your little corporate-sponsored South Pacific vacation, Mr. Rothschild, but please don’t expect me to give you applause as you board your yacht.

Smile!

“According to the reporter who first broke the NSA wiretapping story, there is no proof the agency has scaled back its interception of the personal phone calls and email messages of American citizens as promised by the Obama administration or even that it is being straight with Congress about its activities… one NSA analyst was even found to have been reading the private email of former President Bill Clinton.

Risen told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann the next day that he knew of no other cases like the Clinton incident but that many NSA analysts had been abusing their powers in other ways. ‘It sounded like, from the former NSA analyst that we interviewed, that it was rare to access the emails of celebrities or famous people,’ Risen stated, ‘but that it was fairly routine, according to him, for people to access the emails of girlfriends or wives or other people that they might know.’”

Smile!

Not a soul in Congress has added their support to a congressional surveillance inquiry for three weeks.

HTC Ozone from Verizon Wireless... reviewed by a political writer

1) mobile blogging device I can fit in my pocket
2) with photo, video, and sound recording and posting ability
3) on the internet with
4) javascript and flash functionality so that I can use blogging applications like WordPress, and
5) a QWERTY keyboard on which I can effectively write
6) on a Verizon wireless plan, since I’m moving to an area where only Verizon has decent coverage, and that
7) I can afford, not having much money to burn.

The two developments enabling the pursuit of my dream:

1) My current 2-year cell phone contract just expired, and
2) The HTC Ozone, a new smartphone fitting the bill, just emerged onto the market through Verizon.

The HTC Ozone works from a Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, which means that its Internet browser has the javascript and flash functionality I need to access online blogging software (check). At 4.5 by 2.5 inches, the phone can certainly fit in my pocket (check), but nonetheless has a full QWERTY keyboard and 5-way navigation so that I can write (check). A 2 megapixel camera for photos video is sufficient for online presentation (check). A sound recorder package is included and software to record phone conversations can be obtained (check). Did I mention that the HTC Ozone is cheap? At a price of $50 after mail-in rebate, plus a $50 credit at the end of a previous two-year contract, after a mild amount of hassling a customer service rep to get the billing right I got this smartphone for free with my new contract (check-o-rama).

On paper, then, the HTC Ozone looked like it would fit my needs. How has it worked in my hands?

Physical Interface.
Keep in mind as you read this that my previous cell phone was actually just that — a simple cell phone, and that I’ve never used a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone before. I’m not used to typing on a tiny keyboard, and the other little keyboards I’ve tried out in my quest for the perfect device have driven me nuts. Don’t even get me started on the “touch screen” virtual keyboards that are so slow and inaccurate I might as well write by smoke signal.

This time, I’m in love. The HTC Ozone QWERTY keyboard has rounded keys with little spaces in between so that even my big lug fingers can manage to hit the right keys. In the space of two days, I’ve gotten to be reasonably adept at typing on the Ozone, quickly enough to post some of the articles you’ve read here while I’m on the road. No, it’s not as fast as writing on a full keyboard, but it’s fast enough to work. I appreciate that the keyboard has a “special symbol” key to press for odd or infrequently used symbols, like the greater-than or less-than symbols, that are nonetheless crucial for writing html code.

The HTC Ozone is not a touch screen device, and I’m happy it’s not. No, I can’t swish or flick or do a twofinger thingamajig to bring up some new screen, but hey, I’ve borrowed an iPhone and I can testify to the frustration when one’s flick isn’t on target. You know what the 5-key navigation system does? It does exactly what I want it to do. Every time I press the right key. Style, schmyle. Hip, schmip. This navigation system does what I want it to do. It consistently works.

Some more details about the hardware of the HTC Ozone:

• The Ozone has access to a 3G network, although you have to purchase a data plan for $29 a month. This is for unlimited data use, including e-mail.
• WiFi! You can connect to your home, library, university, or coffeeshop internet access point as well.
• The phone has a pretty high-capacity battery. I’ve been able to noodle with the phone on and off all day, leaving it on in between my sessions, and after 12 hours the battery is still half-full.
• There’s a MicroSD slot in the phone into which you can put up to a 16 Gigabyte removable memory card to store all your music, photos, documents and so on. The little MicroSD card fits into a bigger SD adapter, and then can be stuffed into your regular computer for transfers.
• There is included sync software on a CD for my computer, which is a Windows Vista machine, and it works in a straightforward fashion with an included USB cable which you won’t lose, because the cable is part of the regular AC wall charger.
• The HTC Ozone doesn’t just connect to Verizon’s American CDMA network, but also can connect to the GSM networks that populate the rest of the world. This is very handy if you’re a traveler. Also handy: included in the Ozone box are multiple power cord adapters for various electrical systems around the world.
• I find phone call audio to be crisp and clear. The included 2 Megapixel camera takes shots that are resoundingly OK; this is a cell-phone camera that will produce web-standard, glossy-catalog-awful photographs. Below is a photo of a backyard sunflower I took with the camera. Look at the pretty thumbnail, then click on it to see the somewhat smudgy full-size results.

Backyard Sunflower, July 4 2009

Software.
I’ve heard complaints for years about the “awful” Windows Mobile smartphone operating system, but folks, I have to tell you I’m quite happy with it. Within 24 hours of the FedEx fella handing me a package and no previous experience with Windows Mobile at all, I downloaded, installed and used the correct applications to get worldwide satellite photos, a full Facebook interface with photo and video upload, mobile blogging software for when I don’t want to use a browser, and RSS reads of the BBC, New York Times and Washington Post. It took me — I kid you not — two minutes to configure my phone to receive my Yahoo Mail and Gmail. I’m all set up not only with Microsoft Office editing programs but with full Google Docs access.

To satisfy the curiosity of those interested in the browser wars, I have downloaded Opera Mobile version 8.65, the latest for non-touchscreen phones. Keep in mind that you have to actually buy the Opera browser for $24 after 30 days, which means that if I’m going to keep Opera it’s got to be a fair chunk better than the included Internet Explorer. I’ve used the Internet Explorer for the HTC Ozone and found it to be just fine in terms of download time. I don’t find Opera Mobile to be appreciably faster, although I’ve heard some including the folks at CNET rave about Opera’s speed. Opera has the advantage of processing every web page through its own server to try and shove each website down to a smaller width. Opera has the disadvantage of scrolling not across and down a page, but leapfrogging from link to link, which means that on some wide pages I can’t center on the column of text I want to read. Since I’m interested in reading more than surfing links, this is frustrating. The included Internet Explorer browser does not have this disadvantage.

What really impresses me is that the software for Windows Mobile 6.1 not only exists, but works and does so intuitively without a steep learning curve. To give you an indication of how easy it is to master these applications, I can tell you that 12 hours after I first turned on my HTC Ozone, I was at a dance club in Columbus, taking photos and videos and posting them to Facebook with commentary in the time it took my wife to head to the bathroom and back.

I’m having a blast with the HTC Ozone and I recommend it to anyone else who might be looking for an inexpensive but highly functional mobile blogging device. You can find it on the web from Verizon.

The poor dear. If he weren’t such a policy hypocrite on marriage, I’d give him a break.

Palin’s reason for resignation — that she has tired of the “political blood sport” of being Governor of Alaska and had tired of the critical attention focused upon her — leads me to wonder: if the McCain-Palin ticket of 2008 had won election, how long would she have wanted to stick around in Washington, DC?

That’s what the American Revolution was all about, after all: No vacation without representatives.

From Japan to California to Europe, they’re gathering bread crumbs, getting into sugar bowls, and waiting… waiting… for what? Well, to get some more bread crumbs and get into more sugar bowls. Though these ants have a society that’s global, they don’t have a global communication system, nor do they have any culture to pass down a larger agenda.

Woe unto us if they ever should develop these skills. They would disable our television sets while we sleep, leaving us unable to follow the celebrity dancing contests that hold us together.