"POST NO. 600 !!!"

Yes. Here in less than 36 hours you won't have a Bush to beat anymore, but rather you'll be part of The Obamanation. And I say, the best to our new president, although I'm going to rather miss G.W. He was the first funny president we'd had since Clinton.

Of course, Obama has already started going back on his campaign promises. "Big surprize". I haven't seen anyone running for the precidency yet that's ever really kept any they've made, or, at least, kept them exactly as promised.

Obama's made three such promises: To improve the economy, Get out of the current war, and Have an affordable health care plan for everyone in this country. So, let's look at those promises.

Let's take affordable heath care first. It's impossible. Bill Clinton gave us this promise way back when, but quickly discovered he just could not deliver on it. And there's reasons why this won't work. Look at countries that have a socialized medical system. A large percentage of their doctors have moved here to the U.S. because here they can charge whatever fees they wish, rather than have a ceiling on such services. To know this is true all one has to do is visit any hospital and see how many of the doctors there are Asian, Canadian, East Indian, etc. The American Medical Association pours millions upon millions of dollars into our government each year just to keep socialized medicine OUT of this country. Our government, in turn, pours a great sum of money back into medical research. It's a scratch my back I'll scratch yours situation that's just not apt to ever change. And, when you start looking into that "affordable" health care system that you see advertised on television or whatever, you'll still find that it'll cost you from $450.-$550. per month for their most simple plan. This is far from affordable especially for those who are making minimum wage. All you can hope to do is wait until you reach age 65 and get medicare and perhaps some sort of affordable suppliment, but even that suppliment goes up and up every year. Currently, even one from A.A.R.P. will cost you in the $200.+ range per month.

And on to another promise; getting out of this current war. Six months just is not going to do it. I haven't seen a U.S. involvement yet that didn't leave some sort of established troop in any country in which they've fought. You may see troop withdraws, but you won't see them totally leave. Which brings us to the third promise.

Solving our economic crisis. With servicemen returning to The States, many will leave the armed service. Where are these men and woman going to get work? If you think unemployment figures are bad now and it's tuff to find even a minimum wage job, wait until those leaving the service start applying for jobs. Employers automatically give preference to those who have had military service before they will you. There's reasons for that. Military people know how to take orders. They've got discipline. They've been trainined to "take care"of situations and solve them. They've been trained in other skills. Naturally, an employer will look at them for a possible employee before one that hasn't had military service, and, besides, they fought for this country (and that goes a long way).

So all of this I see being in the way of keeping these three promises, But, I still wish the new president much luck as he'll definately need it. Perhaps the first thing he should have done is tell the inauguation committee to have a private swearing in ceremony (and this goes for ANY new president). This would have saved the tax payers over $150 Million. What you say? That's helping the economy? Perhaps in Washington D.C.. Perhaps to a lot of big airline companies. Not doing much for anyone here in the middle of Nowheresville where I live. Yes, I'd say by tomorrow night, ol' G.W. will be sitting somewhere comfortably laughing his ass off at all of those who have put him down here these past few years, thinking,"It's YOUR baby now, B.O.. YOU burp it!"


But...enuff o' dat.

Let's talk about something really important. The opening episode of "Smallville". This past week we got to see the first new episode where "The Legion of Superheroes" came back into the past to visit with Clark Kent. And I must admit that it was done exceptionally well save that they screwed up with "Lightning Lad". As one friend of mine stated, he was too much of a fan boy; very true. This isn't the character that sacraficed his life in those early 1960's tales of The Legion in Adventure Comics. He should have been played much more seriously. Otherwise, I was very pleased with this episode. If only they could quit making this such a soap opera I could enjoy it even more. Looks like soon it'll be a battle with "Doomsday", and finally, Clark may actually fly. I figure that "whenever" he gets the costume, they'll end this series.

Been some great people that have passed from this realm of life recently.

Artist Andrew Wyeth, whose work I very much admired.

Actor Ricardo Montalban, the only person that could make me want to buy a Cordoba ("KKKKKHHHHHAAAAANNNNNNN!!!"). Loved his performances.

And actor, Patrick McGoohan. I think I watched every episode of both "Secret Agent" as well as "The Prisoner" back when. The last thing I saw him in was as Billy Zane's father in "The Phantom" flick of some years past.

All will be missed.