Dallas-Cowboys-Shop.com announces new preferred partner

Dallas-Cowboys-Shop.com, a member of the spot4news.com store network, announced its newest preferred partner, ProSportsMemorabilia.com, which stocks hundreds of autographed Dallas Cowboys memorabilia items. Take a look at their great selection, and they have items from all other teams, as well!

Canine Presidential Candidate Produces First TV Spot

Who says a dog can't be president of the United States? (For the record, not the U.S. Constitution. It only says that one must be 35 years old and born in the United States. I certainly qualify in dog years on the former, and on the latter, it goes without saying.)



The first few days of his historic campaign have been breathtaking. Embedded in this blog entry is a video of my first campaign ad, produced with the help of a close personal friend. I have heard a collective howl of support from canines of all shapes, sizes, breeds and training levels. I'm counting on them to nudge their owners to run to the polls in November and cast their vote for me, the only announced candidate with a plan to deal with our oil crisis without new drilling.

And don't forget, everyone reading this blog is asked to join my team to vet possible vice presidential candidates. Please leave your comments, thoughts and ideas at the end of this blog entry. And please stay tuned in the days, weeks and months ahead, because this campaign is going to shake our political foundations in ways never seen before.

Here are some links with more information on my campaign:

http://www.spot4president.com/
Quadruped Surprises Nation, Announces Presidential Bid
U.S. Needs True Leader to Drive Reduction in Oil Consumption by 50 Percent
Why Gas Will Never Hit $10 Per Gallon in the U.S.

Quadruped Surprises Nation, Announces Presidential Bid

It's been a historic year in presidential politics. It's a year in which an African American has won the nomination of his party, narrowly defeating the first woman to make a truly concerted run for the White House.

And now, it's about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Get ready for the first quadruped to occupy the Oval Office. I'm here today to announce my formal candidacy for President of the United States.

No doubt this news gives most of you -- as well as most of the country -- paws, (make that, pause) but this year has proven that all of the old stereotypes can be tossed out. I think it was either Will Rogers or Paris Hilton who said, "I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons." Well, fellow Americans, the times they are a'changing. Canines are people too, or at least most of us feel like we are. There's more to us than just cute, furry faces and feces.

A Jack Russell Terrier does not come to a decision like this without a lot of thought and kibble behind it. Recently in this blog, I called for one of the candidates to step forward and show the kind of leadership needed to lead the country through what can only be called an oil and energy crisis. After weeks of having this call for leadership circulating on the Internet, some of my worthy opponents have finally decided to take a position on what is without question the most important issue in this election.

Mr. McCain has called for 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and for the renewal of offshore drilling. I made it clear in my previous post that these are mere puppy steps on the way to where we ultimately need to be, but at least someone has let us know they're aware of the problem. And Mr. Obama's idea? Let me be very kind and say that I'm waiting for the punch line.

It's taken an economy in turmoil to motivate people to do what we recommended more than a year ago on this blog: stop paying twice for water! Americans are realizing that they are often paying twice for tap water when they buy bottled water, and they are starting to come to their senses.

It is with utmost humility that I point out to my fellow Americans and future constituents that you don't often see this type of futuristic thinking and leadership skill in a miniature breed. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, I decided -- after consultation with my assistant -- that it was time to offer my talents (which include fetching my squeaky toy and barking The Star Spangled Banner on key) to the country.

As we inch toward November, we'll outline our platform and make other very interesting announcements here first on this blog. So visit us often to follow this historic run (oops, forgot to heel) on the road to the biggest upset in political history.

As a bit more of an introduction, here's a short bio. And, in the age of Internet communication, I'm convening you, the American people, as my committee to vet veep candidates. Post your comments here at the blog on who you think should be my running mate.

See you on the campaign trail -- if not on the walking trail in my parents' neighborhood.

U.S. Needs True Leader to Drive Reduction in Oil Consumption by 50 Percent

As the presidential campaign continues to grind along, we wait for one of the candidates to address the key issue that faces our country in the next couple of decades or more.

But neither Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama nor John McCain has stepped forward with a plan to reduce America's dependence on oil -- specifically, foreign oil -- not a real plan, anyway.

In his short but eventful term, President John F. Kennedy acknowledged that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into space with its Sputnik satellite. At a time when the Cold War was still raging, fear and anxiety raged in the U.S. If the Soviets controlled space, it would only be a matter of time before they would control the Earth, the conventional wisdom said. In 1961, this was very serious business. The country was in the midst of Sputnik-phobia.


Kennedy reacted with the leadership quality that made him a legend in his tragically short term:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

Of course, the goal was achieved by NASA Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. But it wouldn't have been possible without leadership from both the president and from Congress. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon Johnson, understood both the strategic and the morale importance of the U.S. being the first country to achieve a successful trip to the Moon and back.

We're at another one of those key turning points in our history -- one of those handful of moments that you look back on over the course of a few hundred years and realize that a different decision or a different strategy could have made things very, very different.

Americans are watching gasoline prices going up and up and up on nearly a daily basis. At the time of this writing, the average across the U.S. was around $4 per gallon. The president and the Congress?s reaction to date have been akin to Alfred E. Newman: "What, me worry?" The president keeps telling us that yes, things are tough, and we?ll have to buckle down to get through it. Congress is talking about suing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to force it to bring oil prices down.

Going through international and world courts, that suit would probably see the light of day in about 10 years. In the meantime, the industrial revolutions in China and India will continue, and the demand for oil will continue to grow in those two heavily populated countries as more and more people start to need and be able to afford cars.

Our country?s current leadership is completely asleep at the switch, which is why someone has to come forth and make a Kennedy-like declaration -- something like this:

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the year 2020, of reducing our use of and dependence upon oil by 50 percent. No single undertaking in the history of our nation will affect as many people individually as will this one. No single undertaking will tip the balance of commerce as much as this one will. No single undertaking will leave as many of our citizens having to make life-altering changes. But no single undertaking means as much to our continued survival as not only a leader of the free world, but as an independent, self-sustaining nation, as this one.

"Through very well-meaning actions, we have effectively put ourselves out of the oil production business in the Gulf of Mexico and in Alaska. We could wage political wars and battles to reopen and start drilling in areas where we know oil exists, but we would be merely delaying the inevitable. The day will come, sooner or later, when our insatiable appetite for oil will be our doom. Our economy -- already leveraged to the hilt by governments, businesses and individuals -- will collapse under the stress of out-of-control inflation, spurred by oil prices we can?t control. Without an undeterred effort to reduce our oil consumption, this outcome is a certainty. We don?t know when -- only that it will happen -- sort of like our own fate as individuals on this Earth.

"To meet this goal, we will grant preferred status and tax incentives to companies -- both currently in the auto industry and not in the auto industry -- that will work to develop technology to produce autos that will operate on clean, renewable, non-fossil fuels such as hydrogen, water, solar -- and let's allow our imaginations to run wild on what else might be used.
"This endeavor will require the country's most creative minds to lead us to the solutions we need. The job of those of us elected to lead this country will be to allow those solutions to occur. There are no certainties, other than these: there will be timelines and deadlines to be met, and there will be time periods when our economy will struggle mightily as we move toward self-sufficiency, lower prices and less anxiety over how much it will cost us to get from here to there. Make no mistake, the costs will be high, but the results will drive this country?s continued survival and success for the next few hundred years.

"Nothing this generation will undertake will have more impact on the future of the nation and of the world than this project, and we must succeed."

Why haven't any of our candidates made this kind of statement? First and foremost, common political theory would tell you that anyone who tells people that things have to get worse before they will get better doesn?t have a chance to get elected ? or re-elected. It's very scary, but it seems that is the reason that the most important task of our country?s history to date is getting swept under the rug.

The United States needs a leader, not a popularity contest winner, and it doesn't matter from which party he or she hails. We hope that one of the current candidates -- or perhaps one as yet unannounced -- will hear our plea.

"Just Throw the Thumb!"

Remember the classic TV comedy "Happy Days?" It was very highly rated in the 1970s, and generated its share of popular lexicon of the day: "Ayyyyyyyyee," courtesy of "The Fonz," "Sit on it," courtesy of Potsie Weber, and "Pinky Tuscadero" (one of the Fonz's many girls).

But there's one that lives on today and has outlasted the rest: "jumping the shark." According to jumptheshark.com, it means: "It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on ... it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it "Jumping the Shark." From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same."

What does all of this have to do with Happy Days? According to Wikipedia.com, "The most famous of these plots involved Fonzie performing a water ski jump over a shark in an episode aired on September 20, 1977, during the show's fifth season. In later years, this episode has often been cited as the point where the series had passed its peak of quality and popularity. The phrase jumping the shark was later applied to popular culture phenomena in general."

Jumping the shark came immediately to mind while viewing the second of two parts of A&E Network's remake of the motion picture thriller "The Andromeda Strain." Part one, airing Memorial Day 2008, was an edge-of-the-seat thriller that drew upon the multiple themes of extraterrestrial attacks, germ warfare, group intelligence by cell-sized entities, government-military conspiracies and terrorist threats.

A group of doctors and scientists stationed several stories underground in a super-secure facility feverishly tried to understand how to defeat an unknown spore that killed humans almost instantly, and other life forms a bit more slowly. It was all sailing along to what promised to be a thrilling end when, with about 30 minutes left, the show jumped the shark.

As a sequence to destroy the underground research facility counted down, two of the scientists were climbing piping of the building's inner core to reach a cut-off level where they would be able to disarm the device together: one with a key card, and one with his distinct thumbprint, in sequence.

So the guy whose unique thumbprint was needed to disarm the device slips and falls several stories into a concrete-bottomed pool of water, where he is killed instantly. Another of the scientists, understanding the urgency of the situation, climbed down to his fallen, deceased colleague and amputates his thumb. Then, with the clock ticking down, said scientist throws the severed thumb up several stories, where the remaining scientist catches it. And, of course, after he is nearly blinded by a scalding flow of steam and nearly killed after falling through a ceiling grate, he manages to insert the key card and blindly press the severed digit against the computer screen, saving the day with seven seconds to spare.

Until the hero scientist severed his colleague's thumb, the plot and movie promised a sensational climax. But there was something about a scientist accurately hurling a severed digit several stories in the air to a winded, afraid-of-heights colleague who makes the catch that reminded this viewer of something at Sea World. Or maybe of a Happy Days scene:

"Hey, Fonzie, go to the tree, take four steps left, and take off running for the goal line, and I'll hit you on the fly with my grandmother's right foot!"

Why Gas Will Never Hit $10 Per Gallon in the U.S.

News item: Gas Prices in the United States May Someday Hit $10 Per Gallon.

Spot sez: You'll never see it happen, and here's why. The day when this blog entry was published, May 4, 2008, gas prices in the U.S. were hovering at around $3.50 per gallon. Everyone who drives a car is feeling the impact, but some more than others. Over-the-road truckers are paying several hundred dollars more per fill-up thanks to the skyrocketing price of diesel fuel.

Meanwhile, every Tom, Dick and Fido are complaining about the price of gasoline, but let's look at the true impact. The top-selling car in the U.S. is the Toyota Camry, which has a fuel tank capacity of 17.2 gallons. At $2.50 per gallon, it cost $43 to fill the tank. At $3.50 per tank, it costs $60.20, or about $17.20 more. Fill your tank three times a month, and you're paying $51.60 per month more than you were about a year ago. Yeah, that hurts, but most of us are going to grin and bear it. Most people will cut costs somewhere else to make ends meet. It's not going to radically change the way we live. And, for the upper middle class and very wealthy, an additional $51.60 per month is really not that big of a deal.

Now, let's look at those scenarios at $10 per gallon: It would cost $172 to fill the tank of a Camry, compared to $43 at $2.50 per gallon -- a difference of $129 per fill-up, and $387 per month based on three fill-ups. All of a sudden, you're talking about a monthly jump in prices that the average middle class, credit-card-debt-ridden family is just not going to be able to bear. And, $10 per gallon gas prices will even get the attention of the super-rich, many of whom are driving gas-guzzling SUVs and luxury cars. The impact on these folks might be as much as twice the average, or about $774 per month.

When we've reached that point, all socioeconomic classes of our society will be demanding alternate forms of transportation -- mass transit, electric cars, hydrogen-powered cars, etc. The demand for change that has been needed for really the past 30 years will become so pervasive that there will be no turning back. And if there is anything that can lead to the downfall of the major U.S. oil companies, it is that. For the past several years, all of the major oil companies are reporting huge profits. As the price of crude oil continues to increase due to new demand overseas, these profits will continue to grow.

There will come a price point, and it will be before $10 per gallon, at which the oil companies will know they cannot continue to pass along all of their rising costs to their customers. With billions of dollars of profit per quarter, there is room for the oil companies to eat some of the increase from the oil producers and settle for, let's say, hundreds of millions of dollars in profit rather than billions. The oil companies are all aware that the only event that can lead to their downfall, at least in the short term, is to allow prices to escalate to the point where both John Q. Public and Bill Gates are having trouble coping. They're not going to make that mistake.

Patches the Miracle Dog Survives 100-foot Plunge

Meet Patches the Miracle Dog. In Smith County, Texas, this pooch slipped and fell down a 100-foot well at his owners' home. The amazing part? After a death-defying plunge, Patches was apparently none the worse for wear.

Let's put 100 feet into some context. In Major League Baseball, it's the distance from home plate to first base, plus 10 more feet. It's 40 to 50 normal human walking steps. Think about how far that is.

A guy in California wasn't as lucky as Patches, showing the kind of results you'd expect from a freefall.

Spot sez: Patches won't be a media star, but his story is truly amazing. Every pooch, hound, mutt, canine and pup should be envious of Patches' good fortune.