Category: Politics
Deep insight
My favorite bit of insight so far from this election season is General Wesley Clark stating, while commenting on the Democratic race on the night of the New Hampshire primaries, that, “it’s still too early to call this election.”
In other news, later that night, General Clark’s retinas were burned after he stared into a mysterious glowing orb – observers characterized the orb as, “a blinding flash of the obvious.”
State of politics
I was pretty bummed to hear, shortly after our return to the US, that Joe Biden’s candidacy for the presidency was at an end. I am no longer “sidin’ with Biden” as he has lost his “Mo-Joe” and wasn’t able to keep up his “Joe-mentum.” (these are all real taglines – dude, I can’t make up stuff that is so cheesy. Apologies to Lieberman for the requisitioning of “Joe-mentum”).
While Biden was a long shot, I am now placing all my hopes on my man, McCain – I am hopeful as he is still on top of the Republican polls in New Hampshire, tho not by a lot.
Finally, I am very disappointed with all y’all’s lack of support for Dennis Kucinich and Alan Keyes in my poll to the right. If we do not support our fringe candidates, who is going to tell us (with a straight face) to abolish the income tax or withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO??
Thoughts on the presidential primary debates
I recorded the Democrat’s debate at UNLV a couple of weeks back and the Republican’s debate in Iowa a couple of days back and finally got around to watching them both.
There is no doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is my lead candidate. Unlike all the other Democrats he was direct, honest, took a position and god forbid, answered the question asked.
My view of Hillary/Obama (Hillabama? Clintarak?) has sunk to a new low. All they did was dance. Not only did they refuse to answer most questions, they would not take a position on anything, and they tried to be all things to all people. Grow a goddamn backbone and tell me WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?? Not having the balls to take a position on the debate floor leaves me worried what will happen when they have to make these decisions for *real*.
I don’t want to blame the candidates entirely because the moderator *was* pretty bad, but *MAN* the Republicans are boring people! I am less familiar with their lineup, but I had some distinct impressions coming out of it. Mitt came off much the same way that Edwards comes off – too slick for his own good. My lead man McCain didn’t impress me that much but I had a good impression of Mike Huckaby.
You do have to wonder what Dennis Kuinich and Alan Keyes were doing there. Both were summarily ignored for most of the questions and both were (understandably) visibly irritated by the end.
I have been paying closer attention to the Republican side lately because I am soo disillusioned with the poor selection on the Democratic side. In the very likely case that Biden does not win the nomination, I really have NO IDEA who I will vote for…
Samuel Alito nominated
Another Bloom County comic from ~20 years ago that is remarkably relevant for today…
What goes around, comes around
This comic serously cracked me up. Not because it is particularly funny, but because it was written in the early 80s and yet, 20 years after it was written, it is just applicable as it was then… 
And while we are making fun of the W, this picture has been circulating through email for a while now… on the off chance you haven’t already seen it…
Some thoughts on Dubya’s press conference yesterday
After hearing Dubya’s views on the terr-ists, Slobakia, nucUlar policy, that “fella” John Bolton and his buddy Vlada-mer, I feel comforted knowing we have the right man for the job on the case.
Social security and this country’s ability to focus
Early this month, Dubya announced that he is going to make "60 stops in 60 days" to sell his plan on overhauling social security.
Now, as far as I can tell, Dubya hasn’t presented anything more concrete than: social security, in trouble… private accounts, good. Never mind that the latter has nothing to do with solving the former. Is there really nothing more pressing going on in the world that the president has two months to kill selling a plan that does not exist?
Nothing more pressing like say… the two wars that we’ve started recently… the two axis of evil countries claiming to have nuclear weapons… a massive growing federal deficit… a sliver of peace between Israel and Palestine (that we seem content to let the Egyptians handle)…
Fine, fine… you’re right… the only really important thing going on these days… Terri Schiavo.
Some brief thoughts on debates 1 and 3
Well, I just caught the third debate on TV then immediately watched the first from video off the internet (which I hadn’t seen yet) – I do want to watch the second at some point as well, but after three full hours of presidential debates… I am done for now!
Generally speaking, I think that Kerry did a better job of actually answering the questions asked. Bush relies much more on repetition, answering each and every question asked with the same answer – regardless if it made sense or not in order to drive home a point.
In the first debate, Dubya harped on the point that Kerry is a flip flopper. He worked it in every answer that he was resolute and that Kerry was a flip flopper.
In the third debate regardless of the question – Bush’s answer was education and "no child left behind". When asked about jobs and economic development – "no child left behind" was the answer. When asked about healthcare – "no child left behind" was the answer. When asked about raising the minimum wage – "no child left behind" was the answer…
Finally, in the conspiracy theory department, I thought this was pretty funny (this link too)… apparently, the story goes that in the first debate Dubya was wearing a wireless receiver and was being fed the answers by an offsite team of Republicans. After watching the first debate, this theory sure does answer a lot of questions…
Talk Radio
I thought that as soon as you called up and pledged to public radio (like the annoying man told me to), the irritating pledge drive was supposed to end *immediately* (ok, well maybe not thought that, but wished it). Since that’s not how it works, I have been forced to expand my range of commute hour talk radio (until the pledge drives *do* actually end).
I generally listen to NPR because it produces intelligent (mostly) unbiased commentary and the people who call in aren’t total neanderthal morons. In comparison, most of the other talk radio that is broadcast is generally unimpressive. Making the rounds this is what I found:
- I have always found Rush’s rantings entertaining in small doses, but I am not sure if he is no longer on the air because I can’t seem to find him
- Howard Stern is entertaining in *very* small doses but is generally infantile and gets old quickly
- Sarah and No Name spend all of their time talking about stupid useless bullshit
- Michael Savage remains a xenophobic, racist, Nazi that I can’t deal with for even a second
- Armstrong and Getty are mildly entertaining but have no real staying value
- The biggest gem that I have found was Bill O’Reily’s show
What really won me over, in the first 15 minutes that I listened to O’Reilly, he said something that was actually intelligent. This was the first time on a non-public radio station that I had ever seen someone take a point, weigh the pros and cons and make a reasoned argument – I didn’t agree with his point, but that made me appreciate the way at which he went around going there all the more.
Unfortunately the moments of intelligence are few and far between and scattered among self-pitying whines about how he was cancelled from something or another or desperate self-praising pleads on how "only the Toledo times was intelligent enough to realize how great my show is while everyone just else ignored me" and there was a fair amount of other just general nonsense. However, compared to some of the tripe that is on the radio, it is not horrible.
While I am on the topic of political commentary, I think my buddy Kyong has some excellent comments on the Republican National Convention, although his "Girls of the right wing" commentary, gallery and survey are quite possibly the scariest thing that I have seen on the internet in the last month.
Bush gets soverized
Following is the transcript (video below as well) of President Bush being questioned at a gathering of minority journalists (the UNITY conference in Washington DC, August 6, 2004):
MARK TRAHANT: Mr. President, […] what do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and state governments?
GEORGE BUSH: Tribal sovereignty means that, it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’re a — you have been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity.
MARK TRAHANT: Okay.
GEORGE BUSH: And therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities. Now, the federal government has got a responsibility on matters like education and security to help. And health care. And it’s a solemn duty. From this perspective, we must continue to uphold that duty. I think that one of the most promising areas of all is to help with economic development, and that means helping people understand what it means to start a business. That’s why the Small Business Administration has increased loans. It means, obviously, encouraging capital flows, but none of that will happen unless the education systems flourish and are strong. That’s why I told you, we spent $1.1 billion in reconstruction of Native American schools.
Afterwards, the Reverend Jesse Jackson held a news conference which he used to poke fun at Dubya.
BRENT MERRILL: As you saw today at the president’s conference, the leader of the free world does not understand tribal sovereignty. What would you do in your estimation, Reverend, what would you do and how would you advise tribes to educate our folks, just exactly what tribal sovereignty is?
JESSE JACKSON: The President explained. You just didn’t understand. Sovereignty is sovereignty. You understand? It’s like in sovereignity. If you are on a reservation, you have been soverized. Your Ph.D. is in soverbication. You understand? I don’t think you understand. [laughs]
BRENT MERRILL: You’re right. I didn’t understand that.
Watch the video, it’s freakin’ hilarious!! The original transcript and streaming video are available too:
My only comment on this, is that this bumbling idiot has access to nucular weapons – if he asks nicely, he can even get access to the nuclear weapons. He has access to the most powerful military in the world. He sets the policy and tone for the largest economy in the world. Is he *really* the right guy for the job???
Now, one may make the argument that as president one can’t stay up to date on the issues of every single group in the country, and that would certainly be true. However, considering that one of the four groups that organized this press event was the Native American Journalists Association, this question, or one like it, should not have come as a surprise.
All of this leaves me really impressed with Dubya’s campaign machine. John Kerry has almost constantly been on the defensive about stupid trivial non-issues – many of which apply just as validly to Dubya. Kerry is completely unable to keep the conversation focused where *he* wants…
- Flip flopping??? My god, did we not hear Dubya state in the 2000 presidential debates that he would avoid nation building and would use our military in a more sensible manner and not over-commit the military and that he valued smaller government??
- Vietnam – regardless of whether or not Kerry threw away *all* of his medals or how much fire he actually came under while in Vietnam… he WENT TO VIETNAM… willingly… voluntarily. What did Dubya do? Well, all we know is that he is really defensive about it and won’t tell anyone.
If we are going to talk about stupid issues like the above, why can’t the Kerry people keep the big picture in the front of mind… like THE CURRENT PRESIDENT IS A BUMBLING IDIOT… and not let themselves get dragged down into esoteric details.
Oh enough ranting…
To finish, let’s review…
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sovereignty |
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increased loans |
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Salim's World 