Great Night! Great Debate! Hanging w/ W.

I just got home from a Republican rally where we watched the debate and then the President stopped by afterwards (Thanks haze for the tickets). Bush did great tonight! The atmosphere was electric and we luckily got upgraded to some premo seats (Thanks Aimee) right behind where George W. was speaking. We were in the fourth row directly behind the podium probably about twenty or thirty feet away. Look for us on TV clips or pictures.

I'll post some more comments tomorrow about the actual debates... and hopefully with haze's help I'll be posting some pictures.

PeopleSoft - Oracle Soap Opera

Everyone loves a good drama... The attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle has all the makings of a good movie.

Craig Conway (the recently fired CEO of PeopleSoft) used to work for Larry Ellison (the founder of Oracle). It seems like this takeover offer is more personal pride and vengeance than sound business practices.

Granted, by purchasing a smaller competitor, Oracle could gain some market share. But they have stated that they will not enhance or create future versions of PeopleSoft's offerings, thus alienating PeopleSoft's existing clients, especially those who have large scale investments in PeopleSoft software. Would you buy software from a company who attempted to shutdown the software you were using and force you to move to another application (after the support runs out of course)? So while gaining market share, the company is upsetting the people they gain. They are also losing the PR battle.

Now that Craig Conway is gone, this deal will probably go throw and Ellison will win his battle. Conway has been on a one-man mission to stop the acquisition and it cost him his job and through his "half-truths" to the the public about the effect of the deal on PeopleSoft it has cost the shareholders 2 Billion Dollars.

Here are a few good links about the situation:
PeopleSoft Running Short on Options, Credibility
Oracle Clears the Conway Hurdle

Something else...

I saw this news this morning:

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a Democratic bill Tuesday that would reinstate the draft, 402-2. The vote was scheduled to silence a Democratic whispering campaign that accused President Bush of having a secret plan to restart the draft if he were reelected. Only Congress could authorize an involuntary call-up.

Which by itself is no big deal, but then I realized that two nights ago a democratic congressman was talking about reinstating the draft because he felt like the poor people were the only people affected by war. So he wanted to "spread out the casualties". Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "what's the big deal?", "we heard the same thing on the news". Well.. the big deal is that the democratic congressman was an actor and the show was The West Wing and it was on tv for the first time about a year ago.

Have we really gotten to the point where the democrats are watching The West Wing to see what Aaron Sorkin's next big idea is?

Great Joke

I think haze may have already shown this one... But I saw it again this morning and figured it was worth a second look:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, 'Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.'

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, 'You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.'

She rolled her eyes and said, 'You must be a Republican.' 'I am,' replied the man. 'How did you know?' 'Well,' answered the balloonist, 'everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me.'

The man smiled and said, 'You must be a Democrat.' 'I am,' replied the balloonist. 'How did you know?' 'Well,' said the man, 'you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met but, somehow, it's my fault.'

U.S. Senator Jim Talent's (R-MO) Statement on the Kerry Doctrine

Talent's comments....

I think Talent does a great job of being straight to the point.

The Kerry Doctrine dictates that America should not defend itself unless the French and others tell us it’s okay. Senator Kerry should tell the voters how many permission slips he would require and from whom.