Posts Tagged ‘McCain’

we need to know.

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

According to John McCain (for the past two or three weeks), “we need to know the full extent” of Barack Obama’s associations with “domestic terrorist” William Ayers. Now, I’ll get this out of the way right now: I think it’s a horseshit question. But I’ll tell you why.

Take a look at the video below. You may have already seen it, but look again. McCain asks the question, and puts Obama on the spot. What does Obama do? Of course, he answers the all-important question. At length, and in depth. But, while Obama is answering the question, what is McCain doing? He’s looking at the moderator and virtually begging to be given the floor so he can repeat the question as if it were unanswered. He’s not interested in the answer. He’s not interested in letting the general public hear the answer. He simply wants the question asked over and over again until election day, in the hope that people will vote for him, and not That One.

Now, I know how politics work. Politicians all lie, or stretch the truth to some extent. They all manipulate, they all distort the facts. But the fact of the matter is, some politicians do a damned fine job of it, and others are just plain not cut out for it. I think Lewis Black hit the nail on the head when he said “You have to manipulate me better!”

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Fundamentals

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Sarah Palin is coming to town. If you wanna spend a minimum of $1000 a plate, you can have lunch in the same room as her.

Man, I know Democrats probably have these fund-raiser things too, but this still gives me the heebie-jeebies. If you don’t have a weak constitution, feel free to read the comments thread on that news link. Woodside, where Palin will be conducting her fund-raiser luncheon, is one of the most affluent towns in America. It’s the type of town where you find several country clubs of the sort where Rupert Murdoch might fly in for lunch to enjoy a several-thousand-dollar cigar. The type of town that boasts dozens of estates that range in size from 10,000 sqft. to 65,000 sqft. Keep in mind, my apartment is about 470 sqft., in which I live with my girlfriend, dog and cat.

I took my motorcycle out for a test drive after fixing something on it yesterday, and I traveled into Woodside. It’s been a while since I drove through the hills, which means it’s been a while since I’ve seen the larger many-million-dollar estates, chateaus and villas. Granted, we live in a neighborhood that boasts many “multi-million-dollar” homes, but they’d hardly come close to qualifying as “estates.” Anyway, I rode my motorcycle through some of the less remote areas, and was reminded just how huge the income gap is between myself and these people. You know that bar graph comparing Obama’s tax proposals to McCain’s? Yeah, that top 0.1% of the richest people in America have a huge presence in my neighborhood.

Thing is, I’m getting really nervous about this election, because there are two groups in this country who could really elect the wrong man:
1) the incurious and ill-informed among us who simply think McCain’s POW history makes him the right man to lead, and Palin’s folksy, down-home, can’t blink (can’t take a moment’s thought before acting), hockey-mom attitude is the right person to lead, should he die.
2) the unbelievably, insanely, astronomically rich, whose wallets will be most thankful for the big tax breaks McCain is offering, as opposed to the middle- and working-class people, whose wallets would barely notice.

The thing is, trickle-down economics DON’T WORK. You can’t give huge tax breaks and incentives to the ungodly-rich, and just hope that it’ll stimulate the economy and work its way into the hands of the humble. It doesn’t. Fucking. Work. Especially in this day and age.

Oh, and I just heard that HP — also based in my area — is cutting 25,000 jobs. That’s twenty-five THOUSAND. But apparently (or so I’m told), the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

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oh, the humanity

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Over the past few days, I’ve been trying to listen to the speeches given at the political conventions of the last two weeks. First time in my life that I’ve either A) given enough of a shit, or B) had enough skill to de-focus my eyes and look past the bullshit rhetoric in order to get a clear reading on my gut. I may already know who I’m voting for, but I figure the more I know about both sides, the more adequately I can help inform others. Anyway, as I’ve posted on Facebook, I’ve been really blown away by the difference in tone. Not too big a surprise, but the Dems got me feeling proud of my country, whereas the Reps just make me feel manipulated and insulted.

I’m always most likely to roll my eyes when the current speaker (whether R or D) starts into the “I’ll never forget the waitress from Oklahoma who told me she works seven jobs while raising fifteen children and battling AIDS, malaria and gonorrhea.” Hell, maybe the stories are true, maybe all these politicians really have been touched by people’s stories from the trenches. And I guess there’s no better way to express why you’d be likely to keep campaign promises that’ll work for the working-class.

But the thing that really got me laughing this morning on the way to work was listening to John McCain’s speech. The absolute FIRST sob story he pulled out of his hat was this one:

“I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market.”

Oh, SNAP. They lost their real estate investments? Jiminy! That must have really thrust them out of the frying pan and into the fire! They had to have been really struggling, what with having real estate investments and all. And now that their real estate investments have gone sour, they must be positively whoring themselves to put bread on the table.

Apparently I’m not the only one who noticed this. Again: pay attention.

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Mixed Feelings

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

On the one hand, I’m getting really pumped about the fact that the current presidential campaign is being augmented with communications from each camp on YouTube, Twitter, etc. The main reason it makes me happy is because I’m so completely sick of closed government and secrecy. The Bush administration is scarily closed and secretive.

So, if Obama is elected, I just really get the feeling he’d open up the windows and shutters on the White House to air it out a bit, and be a bit more transparent. And seriously, if the websites and podcasts and twitter updates are any indication…if the State of the Union Address (and other Presidential addresses) were to be made available via Podcast or something like that, I think it’d honestly have an impact. Bring the stuffy-ass institution that is the Presidency into the 21st Century. Who knows, maybe it’s highly unlikely, but hey…it’s an interesting thought.

Of course, I don’t think the same would even be possible if McCain were elected. He’s admitted that he’s computer-illiterate, and I’d imagine he wouldn’t make any effort to update such communication.

I mentioned “on the one hand.” Here’s the other hand: all this openness and internet-driven communication has totally killed a lot of faith I had in the American people. Perhaps I was naïve to have that faith in the first place. But yeah…it’s really killing me to see so much confirmation of the old phrase “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Too many suckers out there, and it’s starting to sadden me. The lies being bandied about by the McCain/Palin camp are so easily proven to be lies, yet there are millions of people out there who are buying it hook, line and sinker.

Add to all this, the fact that all these campaign promises are much more effectively collected and noted than they ever have been before. And when whoever gets elected doesn’t follow through on something, it’ll be interesting to see how big that list is. Data collection has never been as accurate and complete as it is today. Let’s see what we do with it.

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Community Organizers

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Please don’t think I’m beating a dead horse: I simply can’t get my brain past how much Sarah Palin not only insulted the good-hearted people in this country, but also took a noble, good-example-of-how-to-live-your-life-right, and turned it into a “bad thing.” What kind of example does that set? It’s hard enough to find good-hearted volunteers in this world, and now we’ve got this pitbull in lipstick (her words, not mine) attaching a stigma to it? If you were gonna vote for her, please keep your eyes and ears open.

On the one hand, they accuse Obama of being nothing but “words,” implying that actions speak louder than words. And on the other hand, they take the actions he’s done to back up his words (beginning many years ago, not just recently, for political gain), and attempt to discredit them. Actions speak louder than words, yet somehow the actions don’t matter either. If anyone listens to these speeches and doesn’t see the hypocrisy, they deserve a wake-up slap.

Enough from me. It’s already been said, in words I can get behind, by better folks than me. Here’s one:

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why I’m posting political shit

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

You’re likely to see some political stuff popping up in my Facebook and Twitter streams. I usually only post stuff that either makes me laugh, or is at least mildly intellectually stimulating. And, like most people, I really dislike when political commentary comes between friends. But elections are inherently shrouded in lies, and I hope you like a good fact-check like I do.

So, basically, whenever I see important political revelations or fact-checks that come from CREDIBLE news sources (which, of course, is a subjective assessment), I’m gonna post it. The unfortunate fact is, it may not have much impact. For the people who already think like I think, it’ll be like preachin’ to the choir: net change of zero. For the people who disagree wholeheartedly with me, as is often the case, they’re gonna pass a judgment on me and I’ll essentially lose respect. And for the people who couldn’t give a shit about my Facebook posts, or haven’t a friggin’ clue what the hell Twitter is, it’ll be lost on them. But for the small number of people who don’t think along the same lines as me, yet they’re open to learning facts to support their decision-making process for the election, I’m hoping it’ll do some good.

So, yeah. I won’t be posting stuff from sites or news agencies that have rank political slants, and I’ll only be sharing stuff that can be corroborated by public records. I’m interested in learning truths.

Please, if something I post has opened your eyes at all, please take a moment to echo the post in your stream as well. If you’re not sure how, I’d be happy to help. This is all about us, and communication isn’t a bonus: it’s the point.

http://twitter.com/punkassjim
http://facebook.com/profile.php?id=505021102
…or, if you like, it can all be monitored in one place, even via RSS:
http://punkassjim.soup.io

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