Category: Politics

El hombre del peluquín

Donald Trump, The Donald, recently dubbed “el hombre del peluquín” (the man of the toupee), has made this election so enjoyable to watch. He has taken a process which is like a year and a half long episode of Charlie Rose and turned it into Jerry Springer. In just 3 short months we have witnessed, in no particular order… hand to hand combat with Jorge Ramos, the destruction of Lindsey Graham’s cell phone, Jeb’s “low energy,” that “loser” McCain, Mexican rapists, a wall that those smart Mexico government guys will pay for to keep themselves out, the cancelling of the Miss America pageant, China, China, China… the list goes on. You can’t make up TV this good!

However, I will say that I am incredibly surprised and frankly a little terrified that Trump hasn’t flamed out by now. Continue reading →

Republican Debate #1 – thoughts

The first chance we had to see the key occupants of the Republican clown car in a single forum didn’t disappoint. It was well run (not a small feat considering there were 10 people on stage), the grandstanding was minimized, we got to see some hand to hand combat and most importantly, it was informative – we got to learn more about almost all of the candidates to understand who Hillary will stomp next fall.

For me, almost everyone came off with a worse impression than what I came in with.
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The only question worth asking right now…

Ok Jeb’s in. The only question now is what is the Donald going to do? Tomorrow’s the announcement??

I really hope he runs. This election will just be so soo much more boring without him. If he doesn’t run, then I have to pin all of my entertainment hopes on Sarah Palin.

Actually, what I really want to see is a debate between Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. That or the two of them jello wrestling. Or jello wrestling while debating.

Governor vs. Senator

Some more thoughts on the Republican Primaries….

I just noticed that almost everyone running for President is either a Governor or a Senator. There is also a Neuroscientist, former CEO and whatever the hell Donald Trump is (ok fine, he’s not really running… yet???). But that’s it. Does that strike anyone as odd? For the millions of things people can do in this country, there seem to be really only 2 real entrees into the presidency.

Going back into recent history (well as far back as I can recall from memory without looking anything up), it seems that being Governor is a huge advantage to winning the White House. Obama is the only President who was previously a Senator. W, Clinton, Reagan and Carter were all Governors. Bush Senior was director of the CIA and VP (and probably some other stuff) so I have no idea where to put him.

2015 Republican Presidential Primaries

Started this page on my take on the Republican primary nominees… will keep it updated as time goes on, things develop and as I learn more…

Osama bin laden dead? Do you buy it??

I will admit that I haven’t been spending as much time listening to fringe media as I have been (you know, the real “tin foil hat” guys)… I dunno, things just haven’t been the same since Alex Jones’ broadcast became overpowered by the Hispanic rock station. However, in light of recent news, I will have to say that I am pretty damn disappointed with the fringe’s apparent acceptance of the assertion that Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Immediately after 911, conspiracy theories abounded. I still have yet to find any theory with any entertainment value whatsoever about how Bin Laden is not dead. I mean, come on! Burial at sea? Not showing the picture of his dead body? Relying on the word of the *government*?? How do we *really* know that Bin Laden isn’t really living in some villa in the Seychelles on a US government paycheck in the sane complex with Donald Trump??

The fringe has disappointed me…

The end of an era

This is the first time that I have spent a significant amount of time paying attention to a presidential inauguration. And while part of it has to do with being on vacation on the 20th, I am actually quite surprised at the level of excitement and optimism that I now again feel in this country. I think the feeling was best stated in a facebook status I saw somewhere that stated this person “feels like America is the good guy again.”

It is however, the end of an era. Salim’s World came into existence at almost exactly the same time that Dubya was elected. While I am looking forward to a world where we will no longer have to buy kits when traveling abroad, I am going to miss the random snarky/obnoxious posts about the man.

Most tragically of all, my Bush-monkey rotating pic on the right, while hilarious, is indeed now tragically out of date and will need to be replaced. While I am at it, I do realize that the campaign banners need to go too… and the poll needs to be updated…

Any suggestions???

Right wingers and the election

I have lived in one of the blue-est areas of California for the better part of 20 years and as a result have developed a pretty strong left leaning slant. Moreover, most of the people I hang out with tend to have a similar slant. This post is education for those people.

Following is a round-up of the right wing press in the aftermath of the election.
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Total waste of my time

I just watched the Hillary/Obama debate in Austin (well technically, a recording of the rebroadcast of the debate 🙂 and I can safely say it was a total waste of my time. Earlier, when I eyeballed their positions on the issues, they were identical. It felt like the two are clones of each other and it shouldn’t matter which gets the nomination. Given that, I was looking to the debate to find out what some of their differences are. All I learned was that, on *EVERY* issue, they agree with each other and that it’s all really George Bush’s fault.

I will say, Hillary is growing on me, she generally sounds like she knows what the hell she is talking about. While Obama’s lack of experience did shine through (especially compared to Hillary) the idea that we need a fresh, optimistic face in Washington is growing on me as well.

Following are two SNL sketches from the Bush-Gore debates which show that the more things change, the more they stay the same – Bush-Gore debate 2 spoof (2:50, 2.6MB) and Bush-Gore debate 3 spoof (7:02, 4.83MB).