“Iranian terrorists plant a bomb in Paris, nearly killing millions, and one man must track them down before they strike again.

CIA Agent Grey Stark is back from two decades of retirement, searching for an elusive bomb that can level a city in seconds. As NATO amasses troops at Iran’s border, Stark races across France with his ex-wife, digging through his own dark past in a desperate attempt to defuse the war.

Hunted by a world-class gunman, a playboy terrorist, and half of the world’s intelligence agencies, he realized that even his own boss will stop at nothing to protect the secrets of… THE DEADFALL PROJECT.”

What is this all about? It’s back cover of my new book, The Deadfall Project, to be released on September 15th.
Get the whole story over at the book’s website:
http://thedeadfallproject.com/

I’ve been hearing Hillary Clinton’s voice on the radio a lot recently, and it’s bringing me great pleasure. Not just because my first choice for President gets to play such a prominent role in my new first choice for President’s administration, but because of Donald Rumsfeld.

For the last eight years of my life, Donald Rumsfeld has been stuck in my craw like rancid peanut butter. He was the most vocal person in the Bush administration, and I hated him all the more because he was good at it. He steadfastly rallied the Republican faithful, and, as an intellectual, was especially re-assuring those who had noticed their president was, at least in the public eye, a complete moron.

Rumsfeld was all over the news, assuring his public about the war, ignoring jibes, draping over the statues of Justice without irony, and just generally being the lightning rod from my hate. He pissed me off daily, leaving me too exhausted to properly detest Bush Jr, or that Cheshire trouble-maker, Dick Cheney.

But revenge is mine, and it comes in the form of Hillary Clinton. The moment Hillary announced her candidacy for the Senate, the GOP made it clear that she is their anathema. And so I know that every time she appears in the news, the same painful hate I once felt for Rumsfeld now ripples through the spines of my adversaries. And, as a result, her voice makes me so immediately happy that I can barely pay attention to what she’s saying.

So while no punishment will ever equal the crimes of destroying our economy and middle class, callously killing both our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and making most Americans too embarrassed to travel overseas, I think that a twenty-four hour Hillary channel would be a good place to start.

Like so many fellow Obamacrats, I recently watched with astonishment as a newly-announced Vice Presidential candidate spoke for the first time. A choice so perfectly attention-grabbing, so charismatic, and so cut-throat that I immediately knew that the tone of the election had taken a dramatic turn. I am speaking, of course, about Joe Biden.

But starting three days later, and ever since then, I’ve barely heard a word about Joe. And why? Because there’s a new mouthpiece for the McCaincans, someone more unqualified than Dan Quayle, someone with a weaker grasp of foreign policy than George W. Bush, someone with less federal government experience than I received in my sixth-grade field trip to Washington DC.

And the world can’t shut up about her.

Joe Biden was the 5th youngest senator in U.S. history when he took office. Joe Biden has thirty-six consecutive years of service in the Senate. The principal job of the VP, by the way, is to preside over the Senate. Joe Biden is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Joe Biden led the creation of the Violence Against Women Act—led, not just participated in or voted for. In short, Joe Biden is a senatoral bad-ass, and pretty much the best candidate either party has to offer. He is, by himself, a fair match for John McCain. And yet, Joe Biden is apparently less-qualified for the role of Vice President then his Republican counterpart.

So what does this small town mayor-turned-governor of the country’s least populated state have to offer that Joe Biden doesn’t? For one, the ability to make headlines every single day. And to be on the tip of every single voter’s tongue, pretty much all day. This woman is winning the war of the press, she is choking out Obama and Biden and she’s going to continue to do so until you—yes, you, you stupid democrat—stop allowing her to.

There’s no such thing as bad press. This goes for the print media, the blogs, and what people talk about over drinks or dinner. And every day, Sarah Palin creates new ways to for you to talk smack about her, to discuss—endlessly—her shortcomings. And every day that is what you do. It’s all you do. You don’t talk about Obama, you don’t talk about Biden. You talk about Palin. You keep her in the center of attention. You are fueling her fire, elevating her into office.

I ask you, why not just change the conversation every time someone brings the woman up? Why not absolutely refuse to talk about her. As far as candidates go, she’s not worth talking about. So why are you?

Is it that the above facts about Joe Biden too much like C-Span when you’d rather be watching the “E!” nightly update? If so, you can’t blame Mrs. Palin if she sashays her wildly unqualified ass to the Senate chamber’s throne, dragging good’ole “thumbs-up” McCain along with her. After all, she’s just doing what works.

And you’re the one who’s letting her.

Like so many Americans, I’m spending a lot of time cussing at the gas pump. These days I run my tank a lot drier; such is the dread of having to fill up that I wait until my gas is an “emergency situation.” It easier to bite the bullet that way. But, if I must search around for the silver lining in all of this, it’s this: while rising gas prices are a field day for some big companies, I suspect it’s also a boon for the small neighborhood shops.

At twenty-six in town and thirty on the freeway, I drive a fairly fuel-efficient car. But here in Northern California, the cheap gas is running $4.50 a gallon. What that means is, to get around town, I’m paying roughly seventeen cents a mile. As we all know, this sucks. Hard.

But let’s look it in practical terms. Say I need some milk. Sure it’s cheaper at the supermarket, but how much cheaper? Luckily my local supermarket’s not far, just one and a half miles away. But it will still cost me fifty cents in gas to buy my milk there. My local convenience store is merely 0.2 miles away. Close enough to walk to, even. And more and more I’m noticing they have a lot of the stuff I need. After all, I can buy my coke’s one at a time. And their coffee isn’t as bad as I remembered.

Six years ago, I didn’t hesitate to run down to Target to get razors. After all, I would always find a few other things to throw into my basket to make it worth—what back then I considered the biggest problem with these big-box stores—waiting in the long line. Except now getting there and back is going to cost me a $1.70. So though I need a new pair of flip-flops, I’m waiting until I have a decent-sized list before I make the big trip. And if I happen to find another pair locally, I’ll just buy them there. That’s whats happened to most of the things that were on my Target list. After all, paying a little more at the Seven-Eleven for razors is not only going to save me time, but in the end money as well.

And, of course, the traditional summer gas inflation is only just kicking in. So by August, I might just be eating microwave hamburgers for dinner and washing them down with a Slurpee.

The technology has existed for years, so we’ve always known someone would get around to it. And now Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has proposed a net of state-wide photo radar devices. These machines will be built into the highways, photographing and ticketing every single speeder that passes by.

It’s true that these devices could improve safety, as there are less accidents when everyone is traveling the speed limit. They could also improve the environment, as driving faster burns more fuel. But what seems to intrigue Napolitano is that it could erase the state’s budget shortfall. She anticipates a $120 million dollar in revenue from the new system, with $90 million of it being pure profit. And that’s just the first year.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but my impression of why speeding tickets are so expensive—and why the weigh so heavily on your auto insurance—is due to the assumption that for every time you get caught, there are a plenty of times when you don’t. So shouldn’t the installation of these auto-cops, ones that catch you every single time you speed, result in a lowering of fines? Isn’t anything else just putting the squeeze on people?

Apparently not if you’re trying to balance a state budget, especially one that includes sixteen million on tourism. So don’t speed in Arizona.

Hell, don’t even go there.