Meet the 1977 Ford Grenada.

It’s not sexy, edgy, or by any stretch of the imagination, something you want to admit that you are affiliated with let alone own (or let anybody else know that you own for that matter). This is a car that few ourside of Ford are willing to admit that they liked. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t even seen on in person until a year ago when some mexicans were selling a serious beater. I spend a couple hours looking up this car because I couldn’t find a whole lot on it or anybody in person willing to talk about it. I was literally beside myself when I saw one in mint condition in the movie No Country for Old Men.

However talks about the fabled Ford Grenada made the front page of the business section of the Detroit News last week, which I noticed as I was cleaning the papers up. Of all the important things to cover in the world of business, this is not it. For whatever reason beyond my understanding, staff writer Manny Lopez wrote a column titled Obama’s rip on auto infamy is a clunker. For even more reasons beyond my understanding, editors approved and printed it.

Now it’s not uncommon that as Americans we read things that we find rediculous. Same for stuff on TV, the radio, internet, etc. However this article is something that’s beyond pointless and absurd.

The article blasts Barack Obama’s claim that the Ford Grenada was “the worst car Detroit ever buit”. The article flow looks like this

1. Claim that no matter how bad the Grenada was, Detroit has made a lot worse cars.
2. France and Yugoslavia have made worse cars.
3. Quote Obama again re: how much the car sucked and he thought it would fall apart.
4. Say that all cars suck compared to what Obama drives.
5. Mention that few cars from the 70s were good enough to survive.
6. Talk about how almost ALL cars from the 70s sucked and were a pain.
7. Talk about how Ford is a different company now.
8. Claim that this is a failed campaign tactic by Obama.

That’s if you don’t feel like reading the article, and I don’t blame you. I’m not a fan of Obama’s, however I don’t see the point at all in writing this article. The grenada WAS a bad car. So how is anybody, be it the next guy on the street begging for change or the guy running for the presidency begging for change at fault for making this statement?

Not only that, but the article is all over the place and doesn’t really even make sense as there isn’t real sense to it. The right defense to “your car sucks” is not “we’ve done worse and I can prove it”. There’s even a quip in there attacking Obama’s environmental views because at once point in his life, he drove over 80mph by his own admission.

The article is pointless drivel that goes all over the place and doesn’t accomplish anything. I know that the Detroit News tends to be a little more right leaning than left, however if you want to make a point about a presidential candidate, actually make a point.

Make it a good point.

And don’t make it a point about the Ford Grenada.

And if you do, at least write a decent article about it.

So yesterday I got myself up early in the morning to make it to Oakland University for John McCain’s town hall meeting. I got up specifically just so I could ask some questions, I’ve seen enough of him on the news to know how he stands on most things. Some of it I like, and some of it I don’t. I’m not going into specifics, but I’m not exactly a support of his (and you all know how I stand on people like Obama). Anyways, I had 2 questions I wanted to ask regarding:

1. The value of the dollar
   and
2. If his temper would be an issue as president

Apparently the rest of the meeting was so boring that my temper question raised a few eyebrows over at places like MSNBC, FOX, CBS and was even a featured story on CNN. Google news even gave it it’s own section. City newspapers such as the LA Times and the New York Times also had their say.

The Libby Quaid of the Associated press picked it up as well, so it’s been popping upon all sorts of places from Yahoo! News to every other news palce you can think of. The blogosphere also started reacting, placed including the Pensito Review, Hot Air, and Weasel Zippers (although I’m sure there’s others).

I’m working right now on getting the full question(s) up on here so I can respond with my reasoning in a better fashion, but for now we’ll have to do with the CNN / WDIV video (which is better than the youtube one), which they don’t let you hotlink so you have to go HERE to view it.

Now, I don’t like the video at all. It completely cuts off the first part of my second question, initially adressing the issue, and hearing a response from him. However it starts with my response from what he said which was something along the lines of “I get angry because I have passion”. It makes me look like I opened my statement praising his passion, which I didn’t do. That was not my intent.

I do however, respect the fact that he is passionate about what he does. I feel if you’re going to be one of 2 people representing a state, you damn well better be passionate about it.

I also highly respect the fact that he is actually taking audience questions, which has monumental potential for catastrophe. But I think it’s something that every politician should do, and the audience should not discourage that. Which is why I asked the question I did in the manner that I asked it. He’s giving us the chance to talk to him one on one, no reason why we can’t do it like civilized people. (That, Trish at the Pensito Review is why I asked the question nicely. And for the record, no, I didn’t lose a bet).

Besides, I did a good job of seperating myself from the protesters who I hung out with before we all went over in a group to the meeting. I didn’t want to spoil my assimilation by attempting to make an ass out of McCain and instead make an ass out of myself (which I’m sure some will argue I did anyways).

There were tougher questions I could have thrown at him. About the war, the economy, how he always votes party line when things matter. I could have gotten into an argument with him about his response, as it wasn’t exactly what I was referring to. I don’t care that he gets angry about a bridge to nowhere. That’s not special, so do I. But I don’t get into it and scream “fuck you” to show how angry I am with other senators of the same party. That’s just rediculous, and he knew damn well what I was talking about and chose to ignore the basis of it and talk about how he’s angry with the status quo.

The more I sat there contemplating asking this question, the more I thought it would end like this. His straight talk is more of a straight and narrow line for what he wants to address, which I think he proved very well yesterday if you listen to his responses on a lot of these questions. But that’s neither here nor there.

It also identified me in the papers as a “concerned republican voter”, which I did say. Which was more of my way of identifying myself as someone who does not support Clinton or Obama, as with a question like that you can almost hear the crowd under their breath go “here’s more liberal hippie bullshit”, so I had to put that to rest quickly.

So in all, I felt the answer was unsatisfactory, and of course he played politics with it. If your essential response to “Will you temper be a problem” is “I’m an angry guy”, then you’ve raised more questions than you’ve answered.

OK So I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve been super busy with a million things and had to take a few weeks off. My sidekick is in the shop. My Macbook Logic board died and had to get replaced. I renewed my NAPP membership. I renewed my LP membership. I got an xbox 360 so I could play GTA4 (now you know where my time has gone).

My loft looks like shit. There is garbage and clothes all over the place. I need to clean it. And I will soon, but things have been going back and fourth from GTA, Homework, School, and hanging out. Not neccessarily in that order. But I have found time for some other random stuff that will work it’s way over into the Photoshop section of this website at some point. I’ve been posting up in the NAPP battleground, here’s some of my stuff

This is a CD cover, we had to make the band name a random wikipedia entry, the album name the last 4 words of a random quote generator, and the cover had to be a random SXC.HU image.

Here someone posted an eyeball and we were supposed to do whatever we could with it. This is what I got:

And this sucker is the result of battle for week 114. The image was a shield with crossed swords, and we had to make what we wanted out of that. I was a little unorthodox in my methods.

More posts and ramblings coming soon.

Dear 9/11 Truth Movement,

I would like to start out by commending you for standing up so harshly for what you believe in, despite the amount of political opposition against you. That takes balls, and I can respect that. I also feel that your argument even has some merit to it. I don’t trust the government in any way, shape, or form, and there is not a thing that I wouldn’t put past them. Am I sold on the argument that the government blew up the twin towers? No. Do I think it’s possible that they had a hand in it? Sure.

I am not an expert on explosions or demolition, and odds are you aren’t either. I don’t care how many experts you have lined up to support your cause, because there’s just as many experts on the other side. You are not going to win me over, it is not worth my time or effort. I’m not interested in hearing about melting points of steel or temperatures of kerosene. I’ll agree, it’s very suspect. A lot of things about it don’t make sense about it on the surface. I’ve heard all the arguments before, and don’t really need to hear about how “impossible the whole thing is” again. I work with computers, I see things that shouldn’t happen, don’t make sense, are irrational, etc. on a daily basis. This is nothing new to me.

I do however, support you and your right to continue to investigate and find out the truth, if that is what you are really interested in.

I have supported many theories in the past. I’m a firm believer that we are not alone in the universe. I believe that genetic engineering has all sorts of interesting (and potentially comic book-like) things in store for us. I can even find some logic in some parts of scientology’s dianetics (although that’s another thing that I will not completely research. There are much better things to do with my time).

But I have some big problems with the 9/11 Truth movement. Here they are:

I remain completely and entirely unconvinced that you are after truth.

I look at many of you and see people that are just as bad as those on the other side.

There are three different kinds of passionate people on this issue.

To get this out of the way, there are the conspiracy Muslims, who feel that the Jews hijacked the planes on 9/11 to frame and destroy them.

On another hand, you have your patriotic American who is convinced that Muslims are his sworn enemy. He is completely behind the US military action and believes that everything happened the way the MSM (mainstream media) has reported it. He doesn’t see any merit in the 9/11 truth argument, and all of his arguments are completely one-sided, without any kind of respect for the other side, and if it was proven that his government was involved, he still wouldn’t believe it.

Then you have the people that claim to seek the truth. However much like their mainstream counterparts, they take a completely one-sided look at things. They don’t believe anything the MSM says could ever be true and sees no merit in the argument that things happened the way that was reported. All of his arguments are completely one sided, without any kind of respect for the other side, and if it was proven that this was the work of terrorists and the government was not involved, they still wouldn’t believe it.

Never have I encountered a group of people who have claimed to be about truth and been so one sided at one time. You say you pursue truth, yet you advocate only one theory. That is was makes you lose credibility and makes nobody want to listen to you. To the rest of us, you become no different than the hacks on Fox news, rambling on about the same tired shit that you’ve been rambling on about for years now that most people have been uninterested in.

Saying the same things over and over again isn’t going to drill the idea into our heads, just use the example I gave above. Watch Hannity and Combs for a week straight and see if you’re over on their side about anything. Odds are you will just become more pissed off and anything you might have seen eye to eye on them with you will now completely appaul. Welcome to the world of the rest of us.

I have concluded that you are more after proving that the government was involved than anything else. I can see why you call yourselves a truth group, it makes you seem less crazy. But it’s not true. You are not a truth group, you are an anti-government group. Please stop bullshitting us.

If I am uninterested, please leave me alone

Even the people who protest the abortion clinics just yell and move on. You guys just keep trying to chat me up as though you are only inches away from converting me, which I haven’t given you the impression that I am nor was I interested in talking to you to begin with. Yet you continue to walk up to me, handing me business cards for Alex Jones or a flier discussing the “Fall of Babylon”.

The conversation is tired enough, but everyone in viewing distance flocks away, leaving me and you pretty much alone, me victim to what you have to say. Why do they flock? There’s all sorts of people handing things out, so how to they know that you are the one handing out 9/11 propaganda.

Gee. Let’s think. Maybe you’re not all that hard to spot in ANY crowd.

That picture was taken last tuesday, April 15th 2008 at the Freedom/ Anti-Tax rally in Washinton DC. I know, I took the picture. Dress like a normal human being (or even normal for the event) and maybe I’ll be more inclined to talk to you. See the other 2 highlighted people? Ernie Hancock is a well respected radio personality. As such, he dresses like a well-respected guy.The dude in the back is demonstrating what a patriot he is, and obviously there to support the Freedom movement and the Ron Paul movement.

Your argument would have more merit if you didn’t think you were in bladerunner, or some other tangent alternative universe where you are the ones saving the day.

Stick to your own damn movement and leave mine alone

Everyone that is anti-government should not band together. We all have different goals, different aims, and different messages that are very different from everybody elses. Just because we share one similarity does not mean we want to listen to everyone else’s problems. We all have our own brand of crazy, and what doesn’t seem crazy to us is batshit crazy to everyone else.

If we had everyone speak at these rallies and protests that was anti government, here’s a small list of who might show up to speak

• The Ron Paul people
• The 9/11 Truth people
• The mormon/pro-polygamy sects
• Scientologists
• White Pride Worldwide
• The Black Panthers
• The Grey Panthers
• Communists
• Anarchists
• Militia Movements
• The NRA
• Anti-Abortionists
• Pro-Abortionists
• The Libertarians
• The ACLU
• PETA
• Rage against the Machine
• Even Anonymous might show up

Is the point I make here pretty clear? There are a lot of organization that feel the same way on some of these issues, but they shouldn’t mix.

For example, the 9/11 Truthers Support Ron Paul. The Ron Paul people support Ron Paul. The white supremecists support Ron Paul. Yet when the 9/11 Truthers come to Ron Paul rallies, they don’t do it to talk about Ron Paul, they do it to talk about 9/11. Yet I’m sure you would be just as pissed as the rest of us if White Pride World Wide showed up at a RP Rally talking about the strength of the white man. Seriously, go check it out. Go to their forum and search for Ron Paul, see what comes up. Even better, they support the 9/11 conspiracies as well.

Here’s a poll taken from their site, click it to go to the page.

The only thing that truely upset me about the Freedom Rally on the west lawn of the capital on April 15, 2008 was that towards the end there was a pretty lengthy speech from a man talking about 9/11. This pissed me off for a number of reasons.

This is NOT why we were protesting. This is not why we came here, and this is not what we want to hear. Stay on topic at least to a point or say something that will help us.

I don’t want to be seen on youtube.com in a video watching you spew this stuff. Sorry, but I got up and walked over to a “We the People” booth after a few minutes, I’m just sick of hearing it all.

The timing of the speech couldn’t be any worse. We were out there since 11am, yet it was around 5 that the person started talking. Right when people are getting out of work, kids are getting out of school, etc. And what do they all see? A bunch of Ron Paul signs and a guy talking about the mysterious explosion of Building7. That is not the kind of press we need.

Worse yet, giving this speech was pointless. It has literally 0 chance of doing any good. Everyone involved with the Freedom Movement has already heard all the arguments on 9/11 at some point, just from hanging around. So you’re not introducing any new points to us or getting any new converts out of us. Instead, you’re preaching to the world at large. The people walking by aren’t going to stop and listen to you, they’re going to think you’re nuts and keep going. Meanwhile, I’m seen publicly at such an event, listening to all of this. If I w

If I want to be part of your movement, I will join your rallies, come to your protests and hear your speeches. I am proud to join the freedom movement, and if I cared to join the truth movement, I would be proud of that too, as I’m sure you all are. But I’m not.

Don’t damage the Freedom Movement or Ron Paul any more by doing this. You do a substantial amount of harm and very little (if any) good. Stick to your own flock and I’ll do the same.

I very much hope you would take this into consideration in the future. I wish you all the best of luck and hope that if you are after truth, you discover it. No matter what it ends up being.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, On behalf of the Freedom Movement,

John Carlos Cruz

I had originally written off the prospects of going to Washington DC for tax day, just because I thought it would end up being too expensive or not work within my schedule.

Funny how things change.

After finding out that there were still spots on a convoy from South Dakota to Washington DC passing through Ohio I decided that it would be worth it to hop onm board. It’ll only be one day, we’re just going for the rally/protest then taking off right afterwards.

It should be interesting. I’ll make sure to grab my extra camera batteries.

Some things I really, truly love about Mount Clemens. But there is something that I miss about Clinton Township. It sounds trivial, but I miss the ability to put my trash on my curb when I want.

I just recently cleaned out my upstairs loft, just because a lot of crap had accumulated from regular living, parties, etc. It had to go. So I threw out five bags of garbage and went on my merry way. The next day there was a nice note left for me by the city, a “newsletter” that gives you all the answers ‘you’ needed regarding refuse, compost, and recycling.

How nice of them to take time out of their busy day to give a shit.

I knew we were not allowed to use trash cans, but the fact that NO trash can be placed on the curb until the night before is just ridiculous. Especially since it includes “bulk items”, such as furniture or washing machines. What are we supposed to do with said old washing machine until trash day? Leave it on the lawn somewhere? Put it outside, in the way only to have to move it later?

Here’s my biggest problem with this. Lets say trash day is on Monday (my trash day might very well be Monday. To be honest, I really don’t know.). The newsletter states (and they even highlighted it) that: under no circumstance is any type of refuse to be placed at the curb before 6:00 p.m. the day before the scheduled collection day. That means every Sunday night is open season for garbage pickers.

They come out like vampires at nightfall, with their bikes, beat up pick up trucks, or vans that look more like a permanent residence than they do transportation. Picking up not just the old chairs and hot water heaters but going through anything that is out on the curb.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to put my trash on North Avenue, at a fairly busy intersection. So vans stopping by the side of the road is not a common occurrence. However, for many of my neighbors on streets close by, it is. Government policies like this set a small time table that creates an open season for this kind of stuff. In reality, all this does is inconvenience residents.

My favorite part is the last little bit that’s highlighted: If I do it again, they’re going to come pick it up and charge me for it. No way around it, that’s just bullshit.

The letter they sent me is below, click on it to download a PDF version.

The City of Mount Clemens Refuse Policy:

I’ve partnered with Mippin to provide a mobile version of Conveniently Misplaced. This is better than the iPhone version that was on here as it provides a full mobile browsing experience for full articles, not just a preview with the article names.

Check it out at

http://m.cruzweb.net

Hash Bash and The Breakfast pictures are up, check it out here. 

I went to Ann Arbor yesterday, not because it was the annual Hash Bash, but because I wanted to see The Breakfast, some old clients of mine back when my life was nothing but college and freelance web design work.

I’ll work on getting the pictures from everything up online, but the thing that amused me the most was the religious presence in Ann Arbor. At the corner of University and State, there were people taking turns standing on a platform yelling at passers by about how everyone was going to hell from sin, less they repent immediately. It’s one of those things you think you’ll never really see in person. For those who missed it, I remembered that my digicam does video. It’s great how the kids just kinda laugh in their faces.

Interestingly enough, the bible-thumpers weren’t the only ones bringing their message of love, there was also a small parade of Hare Krishnas wandering about.

After I stopped filming, I heard someone say “If I had to choose between 2 religions, and one was telling me what an awful person I was and the other said ‘Lets go out in the street to dance and sing!’, I know what choice I would make”.

Well put. The Christians were calling people out, pointing at them as they walked through the crosswalk, telling people that they lead lives of sin and were going to die because of it. Had this been in Detroit, they probably would have gotten killed themselves.

So every once in a while I get really inspired to do something creative. Its usually either some kind of computer creative thingy or a music creative thingy. Yesterday, it was music creative. I try hard not to listen to any kind of top40 music because they overplay it to the point where I can’t stand it, however Love Song by Sara Bareilles has trickled down into my ears recently. It’s an amazing song, but it sounds like it was written 40 years too late, it sounds like a 60s soul song, only without all the horns.

So I woke up this morning and decided to remix it a bit with some sax recordings. It’s pretty rough, but I like the way it came out and really didn’t want to make a big production about it all. So here it is, complete with the video so you have something to amuse you while listening. Please send me your thoughts, I want to know what you guys think of it all.

 

The recording session turned out to be a pain. Apparently there’s something in the latest version of MacOS Leopard that screwed up my USB audio interface driver, so it would randomly turn to static and I’d have to re-launch garage band. I tried logic too and thought my interface was blown till I googled and found the driver issue. The mix could have come out better but overall I don’t think it’s too bad. Also, I’ll update the h.264 version soon, but blip.tv was giving me crap about it so I just let Premiere do the Flash conversion. Enjoy

Let me know what you think.