To all of my loyal readers (both of you! ha!), I would like to apologize for the rather lengthy disappearance. As you may or may not be aware, I have resumed my seemingly never-ending, 14 year now adventure towards completing my bachelor's degree. I am choosing to jog out of the gates rather than sprint, as I am only taking one class this first semester. In the future, I plan on taking two classes per semester (still doesn't seem that fast, huh? luckily for me the semesters are only 8 weeks!). I am attending school at a local university, Regis University, am doing my classes online, am on track to completing my bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and am hopeful to be done in the next couple years. Anyway, working on that class is what has pulled me away from my regular blogging. I would like to change that and see if I can at least pull off one blog a week (making this the Weekly Mind Reader, huh?). Please bear with me and check back here at least that often for updates.

So what have I missed in my absence? Or rather, what have you the reader missed as I am too obsessed with the world of politics to miss much of anything. Let's make a quick list and recap some of the highlights (low lights?).

• Alberto Gonzales is STILL the Attorney General. Wow, was I way off on this one! I thought he would be out by the end of March, then by the end of April, now I don't know if he will ever give up his post. There was talk earlier this week of a "no-confidence" vote in the House and Senate, not sure the latest status of that. In a twisted sense, it is almost better that he stays in at this point. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see him go down in flames, but his refusal to step down and the "President's" refusal to ask him to step down is making for a non-stop politically damaging show for the Dems to capitalize on. Every week, every day sometimes, there is a new and even more damaging revelation into this whole mess. Viva la Gonzo!!
  
• The Iraq war still rages on with no end in sight. Is this really that surprising to anyone? I guess when Bush said there would be no end to this war (side note: I think we should stop calling this a 'war'. The war ended a few months after it began when we took out the leadership of that country as well as its Army. What we are in now is a protracted occupation, not a war.) while he was President, he meant it. The sad thing is that, in a representative democracy, with plenty of checks and balances on run away power, that nothing can be done to stop it. The majority of this country wants us out of the war, the majority of Iraq want us out of their country, and the majority of the troops want the war to end too, and we are still in this mess to 'spread democracy'? Does anyone else see the hypocrisy there? Anyone?
  
• It is still getting warmer here, are we doing anything? Simple answer? No. Complex answer? No, nor should we, there is not enough science yet to prove that it is man made, changing our ways would ruin the American economy, Al Gore is a douche. You know the talking points, sing along! Thankfully we do have some common sense people in this country who are trying to inform us to change our ways. Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the finer actors of our time and an increasingly reliable voice in the global warming fight, is producing his own 'Inconvenient Truth' called '11th Hour'. Check it out when it comes around.
  
• We have a new 'Idol', sort of.. Am I the only one who was a little let down with the final two on this season's Idol? I am, OK, well I will keep my opinions to myself. HA! No I won't! This is my blog, deal with it! I felt personally that the best two singers this year were clearly Melinda and Lakisha (with Lakisha holding the edge and a special place in my heart). I would have loved nothing more than to see these two divas battle it out at the end. Nothing against Blake (who I love and will buy his CD if/when it ever comes out) or Jordin (who was just a little too 'Disney cute' for me), they just weren't the best this year. Oh well, congrats anyway goes to Jordin.
  

OK, back to work for me. OH! One last thing I almost forgot. (not really, I was saving it for the end for dramatic purposes) I am PISSED at the Democrats in the Congress, and all of you should be as well. After the big 'battle' in the last few weeks over the supplemental spending bill they send the "President" that (how dare they!) had timetables attached, they are all set this week (maybe even today) to vote on and send him a bill free from restrictions. Yep, that is right, the 'Defeat-o-Crats, as the 'right' likes to call them, are living up to that moniker. This is an outrage on so many levels. Mainly I am pissed, and everyone who cares about this country should be pissed, because they were elected into office to fix this crap. They talked tough before and right after the election about how things were going to be different and they were going to end this mess. Now they are merely playing the enabler role that the Republican congress before them played. No, I do not suggest giving up on them, not voting, or heaven forbid, voting for Repubs. What I do suggest though, is that we turn up the heat on them. Find the email address, phone number, snail mail, or whatever other contact info on your local representative and harass the hell out of them. This is NOT right and should NOT be tolerated.

Here is the contact info for Ken Salazar:

U.S. Senator Ken Salazar
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5852 main
(202) 228-5036 fax

Or click here to send him a 'friendly' note. Hurry before it is too late!

OK, NOW back to work. Thanks for reading!