Archive for the 'Politics' Category
I think this short documentary taken backstage from SNL’s last episode shows a more “real” John McCain than the one we’ve been seeing during this election:
Of course, then there’s also the opening sketch with John McCain and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin plus McCain on Weekend Update.
2 weeks. That’s how long it’s been since I last posted. Yeah, uh, about that…
So posting on a blog, I think, comes in waves. You go through a couple of weeks where you’re super-crazy about posting and can barely constrain yourself from posting only one article per day. Then there are the times when you just don’t feel like posting, you’re just not that excited about it. Maybe you just need to recharge.
In regard to the wave analogy, maybe it’s like a sine and cosine wave. (Can you tell I’m learning about this at school?) So, the equation of my posting habits would look something like a cosine wave (starting with lots of posting.) I would probably look something like y=4cos(pi/2)x+3, with the x-axis representing the number of posts I would make per week. Sometimes it goes as high as 7 (4 is the max of the wave, plus a vertical shift of 3) or as low as -1, meaning I don’t post for at all for a week. Or maybe it’s for two weeks. I don’t know. And then the pi/2 means that this wave happens every four weeks.
The point is somehow it’s mathematical and I’m smart and I just did my math homework and I feel like I’m ready to start posting again. Maybe. Don’t hold your breath. I mean, this post doesn’t even count, it’s just me saying that I want to post more and making a “mathematical” equation out of it.
Hmmm… someone should figure out how many posts on personal blogs talk about that fact that the blog in question isn’t being updated very often. I think it would be interestingly high. But I will post again. Probably this weekend. Maybe tomorrow. Hopefully on Monday. Definitely on/after election day. Speaking of which, can you believe we’re only 3 days away? Wow.
McCain/Palin ‘08!!!
Over the last few weeks I’ve begun to realize that this whole election process won’t go on forever. For most of the past year, we’ve seen the number of candidates get smaller and smaller until now we are only down to 2, and in only a few weeks only one will be left.
But the crazy thing is, with this whole election process, I kind of forgot that it’s going to end and someone new is going to be President. I mean, of course I knew that from the beginning. But the reality of it is coming closer and closer. Either Obama will be President, or McCain will be President. On one side, it would be so incredibly awesome if Obama wins, and on the other it would so incredibly suck if McCain wins. But, it will be an improvement over what we have now. Unless he dies. That would be the definition bad. But either way, someone is going to win. And that’s a huge thing.
This was originally an email I sent to friends and famliy:
I just donated $40 to the Obama campaign. It’s not much, but small donations like that are part of what has made his campaign unique and special. Regular people are funding his campaign, not huge corporations with special interests.
I decided to donate to Obama because I have become very passionate about politics over the last year or so and believe that he is the change that this country needs to start moving in the right direction again. I was encouraged to donate by my brother Warren, who has been sending the campaign regular monthly payments for a quite a while now. Since I can’t vote, this is the best way that I can help. With Obama as president, we can rebuild our image as the moral leader of the world. Obama will be able to reverse the disastrous mistakes made in the last 8 years.
I lost all respect for McCain after he chose Governor Palin as his running mate. It is an incredibly shallow choice which exposes McCain’s attempt to attract white woman who supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries. Not only is the choice of Governor Palin purely political, she is also someone who believes that abstinence should be the only form of sex education taught in schools - even while her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. She also doesn’t believe that women should have the right to an abortion, and doesn’t believe in evolution. She also has very little experience, with her foreign policy experience consisting of being next to Russia.
I believe that a good president is smart and surrounds himself with people who are educated about important issues, and who may sometimes have conflicting points of views on various issues. This worked very well with Kennedy and his advisors during the “ExComm” meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even though Obama does not have as much experience as McCain (although certainly more than Palin), I am confident that he will surround himself with smart people and be will have an open mind and make the right decisions on important issues. McCain, so far, has surrounded himself with Governor Palin and her family of 7 (Soon to be 8.) while Obama has chosen Joe Biden, someone who has over 30 years of political experience under his belt.
So, I support Obama not just because I don’t like McCain (specifically what the political process has turned him into.) I support him because he is educated, smart, and understands the lives of Americans in a way that McCain never will. How is one supposed to understand what Americans affected by the mortgage crisis are going through when they themselves have 8 houses? After all, shouldn’t our president know about some of the problems being faced by the people they govern?
Well, okay, technically I didn’t vote. I’m not exactly 18 yet. But then again, technically I did. I turned the switch and pulled the lever so I did vote. Only, well - it was in my mom’s name.
But, hear me out! I still voted! You see, my mom couldn’t choose between Obama and Clinton (for the democratic primary of course) so she let me decide for her. After careful consideration (of course) I chose my candidate and went inside the booth with my mom and voted. Yay.
So, sure, maybe officially I didn’t vote. *wink* *wink* My mom did, but it was my decision, and I pulled the lever and everything so technically I voted for her. Yay. I feel smart. Now that vote had better of made a difference. OBAMA!
From the New York Times:
In the first counterterrorism strategy of its kind in the nation, roving teams of New York City police officers armed with automatic rifles and accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs will patrol the city’s subway system daily, beginning next month, officials said on Friday.
Mr. Kelly’s plan to heighten security and monitor a subway system that carries nearly five million people a day along 656 miles of tracks reflects the city’s continuing concerns about a possible attack.
Each team in the operation will comprise a bomb-sniffing dog and six officers: a dog handler and a sergeant and four officers from the Emergency Service Unit who will be outfitted in heavy, bullet-resistant vests and Kevlar helmets and will carry automatic weapons, either an M-4 rifle or an MP5 submachine gun.
I struggled to find a word to describe these 5-person teams, and all I can think of is “bomb squad.” Technically, it means a team that’s there to defuse bombs, but it’s really the same difference here. So… to wrap this up:
These 6-person teams are going to stand around on the subways with these guns:
…and a bomb-sniffing dog. And of course, this is all in order to protect us - too bad it took them over 6 years to implement a realistic long-term plan like this! It’s hardly realistic anyway. All it’s gonna do is scare the crap out of people and make them afraid to take the subway. And if something does happen, how many armed men does it take to shoot a terrorist? 1? 2? 3? 4? 5? 6? And a dog?
They need to rethink the security plan that took them 6 years to think up.
NEW YORK, NY — Austen Squarepants, rejecting entreaties from the Clintons and their supporters, is set to endorse Senator Barack Obama’s presidential bid on Monday as part of an effort to lend the Netsua charisma and connections before the 22-state Feb. 5 showdown for the Democratic nomination.
Both the Clintons and their allies had pressed Mr. Squarepants for weeks to remain neutral in the Democratic race, but Mr. Squarepants had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides said. He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Squarepants considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.
Mr. Squarepants called Mr. Clinton Sunday to tell him of his decision.
The endorsement, which followed a public appeal on Mr. Obama’s behalf by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, was a blow to the Clinton campaign and pits leading members of the nation’s most prominent Democratic families against one another.
Mr. Squarepants, a minor figure in the blogging world for more than 3 years, intends to campaign aggressively for Mr. Obama, beginning with an appearance and rally with him in Washington on Monday. He will be introduced by Ms. Kennedy.
Mr. Squarepants then heads west with Mr. Obama, followed by appearances in the Northeast. Strategists see him bolstering Mr. Obama’s credibility and helping him firm up support from unions and Hispanics, as well as the party base.
Okay, it’s 15 minutes later, but whatever. Yeah. It’s like 11:02 and Hillary pretty much won, but Obama was soooo close! It’s because of her tearing up, it’s been the most-watched video on YouTube all day. Oh well. Maybe Obama will still win but this would have been cool.
Still, it is AMAZING that the two top candidates in this election, for the first time ever, are a black man and a woman. Before this, all major runners in previous elections have been old white guys. It’s amazing, also, that Obama won in Iowa, which is 97% white.
Enough said.
