Politics makes my brain hurt

I’ve been listening to the Democratic National Convention.  No, I can’t explain why.  Maybe it is to fuel my boundless rage… Maybe I’m just a masochist… Maybe I’m the guy that just can’t help buy stare at the carnage as you drive past a car wreck on the freeway.

 

All I know is that I actually hate these people.  Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t hate rank and file democrats.  Most of you, the sane ones anyway, who aren’t hugging trees, or protesting Marine recruiters, are probably as sick of your party apparatchik as I am of mine.

 

But I hate the democrats in charge right now.  Holy crap, what a bunch of nut-logs. 

 

Okay, Barack Obama, who’s the #1 most left wing liberal in the senate, picked the #3 most left wing liberal in the senate, to be his running mate.  Wow.  Big tent there. 

 

Joe Biden wrote the first assault weapons ban. People of Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan, please keep that in mind as Obama tells you that he’s not going to push for any new gun laws. Oh yeah, he’s going to let all of us “typical white people” just keep “clinging to our guns and religion.” No problem there.

 

Barack Obama actually thought it was okay for you to try to abort a baby, and if it came out alive during the partial birth abortion, to just let it die.  Don’t take my word for it. He’s the only person in the entire legislature of one of most corrupt states in the country who actually thought that was just swell. Heck, it’s one of the few things he actually took a stand on. Whoops, this one’s still alive.  That’s okay, let’s just leave it here for awhile until it dies.  Pesky little brat. 

 

Yeah, we sure wouldn’t want those kids to grow up in poverty with unhappy familes… ‘cause that wouldn’t be kind.  Well, listen up douchebag, I grew up in poverty with an unhappy family, and I’m still pretty damn glad that nobody cracked my skull open and wire-whisked my brains because I was inconvenient for to my mom. 

 

I’ve disliked politicians before. I thought Bill Clinton was a scumbag, but I had to respect him as probably one of the best politicians of all time (that’s actually not a compliment).  I thought Al Gore was insane.  I thought John Kerry was a pathetic shell of a man.  But I actually think I hate Obama.

 

And I’m no Republican shill.  I think George Bush was domestically weak, not a true conservative, but I could admire his stance on killing terrorist scumbags.  I think John McCain is basically a middle of the road democrat, but at least he’s a grown up and not-a-Marxist. 

 

But Obama?  He’s a man who’s basically done nothing in his life. He has no experience, gives a good speech off the teleprompter, but then chokes like an idiot when he’s not scripted. 

 

When asked a very difficult question, he replies with, “that’s above my pay grade to answer with any specificity.” 

 

Huh?

 

Pay grade?  Friggin’ pay grade?  You want to be the President Of The United States of America.  What pay grade is above you?  Do you need to consult with George Soros first? 

 

Well, part of the problem was that the question was about when life actually started.  John McCain clearly answered after less than a second with what he thought.  Since Barack thought that a kid who was born alive and breathing actually didn’t have civil rights, and could just be left to die, then I could see why he might be a little hesitant to actually answer the question.

 

Idiot. 

 

Every time he opens his mouth, he’s got another proposal for another idiot program where government gets to be our dad.  I’ve still not seen anybody in the regular media dare to ask him about what he meant with his Civilian National Security Force.  But since ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and every major newspaper in the country’s reporters are too busy providing him oral sex during the interviews, it might be hard to get to those tough questions. 

 

But NOOOO… foolish right winger, there’s no media bias.  (see, that’s why all the reporters are wearing PURPLE during the convention, I kid you not).  There’s no bias.  That’s why when I’m buying my friggin’ Slurpee at 7-11 and look at the magazine rack, ¾ of the magazines have Barack Obama on the cover, none have John McCain, and Rolling Stone doesn’t even have a caption or any words, they’ve just got a picture of Barack with his little smile, and they’re worshipping him like he’s Jesus.  (Rolling Stone got Jesus and Kayne West mixed up last year though, so you’ve got to give them a little slack).  The only magazines he wasn’t on the cover of was Guns & Ammo and Monster Truck Weekly.

 

There’s no media bias. So how many of you turned on the regular news and caught that the Zogby poll had McCain leading for the first time?  You know, the Zogby poll, which has been the most reliable one in the country for like the last 16 years in a row?  Yeah, that one.  No?  You didn’t see that?  SHOCKING…  But I bet you did see that McCain owned a bunch of houses.  Yeah, big mean rich people, what with their buying houses instead of donating all their money to crack whores.  How many houses does Ted Kennedy (who in the words of the press “electrified” the convention) own?  Nancy Pelosi?  Naw… Barack only owns one really big house which was paid for by a mobster in exchange for purchasing votes and sweet Illinois contracts… But I should just stop with my crazy talk.  Stupid mean Republicans. 

 

I listened to Bill Clinton’s speech tonight.  Now my head hurts. If anybody out there is a student of history, or you actually paid any attention and have a memory longer than that of a fruit fly, you would know that he flat out LIED and just rewrote history.  No problem.  Don’t worry, he’ll get a pass.

 

My business is suffering because my customers are paying $4 a gallon for gas.  Every business in the country is suffering because of this.  America is suffering.  We could lower the price of oil within 24 hours if the Democrat Congress would just vote on the stinking energy bill, but Nancy Pelosi sent everybody on VACATION, that way the Dems couldn’t vote and be held accountable by their constituents. 

 

But somehow, this is all the Republican’s fault, because the news said it is. 

 

The sad thing is that the Republican’s are all such spineless pansies that they’re preparing for a defeat in congress and the senate. 

 

Idiots. 

 

Hammer home the fact that we’re getting raped at the pumps while the democrats take a 5 week vacation from voting on energy.  Hammer home the fact that their nominee thinks that it is okay to take a baby that was born alive and let it die, because hell, you tried to kill it, little bastard was just tough.  Hammer home how their VP thinks banning all guns in America is an idea “whose time has come”. Point out how their nominees entire message to beat Hillary was about pulling out of Iraq, only to get to right now, and- whoops-we’re winning, never mind.  (which by the way, go to hell Harry Reid you worthless sack of shit for saying that we’d already lost.  Eat crow you son of a bitch).    

 

These things should be a no-brainer.  Just because the press is against you doesn’t mean we’re going to lose. SCREW THE PRESS.  All of us out here with any intelligence quit paying attention to them awhile ago.

 

We should take these issues, sharpen them to a point, and then stick them in, and break them off.  Republicans, quit trying to be Democrats.  Grow a spine and take a stand.

 

The other day I saw a bumper sticker.  It said:

 

Aw, F**k it.

McCain ‘08

The less repulsive of the two democrats running.

 

Now that is a campaign slogan that I can get behind. I’m no McCain fan, but he’s a better man that Obama. In the next couple of days I’m going to see if McCain picks a running mate that doesn’t totally suck.  That would actually be kind of nice.  It would be really cool if he picked an actual Republican or something, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

So now experience matters...
On self publishing

27 thoughts on “Politics makes my brain hurt”

  1. You know, it’s always interesting to read your blog from the other end of the political spectrum. My issue with Obama isn’t that he’s too liberal; matter of fact, he’s really not. He and McCain are funded by almost exactly the same corporate interests (if you’re interested in letting Rolling Stone redeem itself, there’s a really good article on the respective campaign contributions of the two candidates in the new one).

    No, my issue with Obama is that he’s basically useless. This is nothing new, most politicians are essentially useless regardless of whatever talk of “change” they might offer. But for some reason, liberals have picked up on Obama as some kind of messiah for the left despite the fact that a. He’s really not all that liberal (a few obvious exceptions, such as partial birth/DX abortion, but for the most part he’s a lot more middle of the road than either he or the talking heads on the right would like to admit) and b. He doesn’t actually have that much in the way of any plans. No Democrat in their right mind is going to touch gun control with a ten-foot pole, at least not for another four years. Even then, there’s enough Democrats who are realizing that actually, gun ownership is (or at least should be) a liberal value as well that Biden/Feinstein/McCarthy would have a hard time getting a strong majority.

    The Republicans may be trying to be Democrats, yes–after eight years of G.W. Bush, everyone’s sick of Republicans, and rightly so. But at the same time, Democrats have been attempting to be Republicans since Reagan was elected the first time. Bottom line, they’re all a lot more interested in their own reelection than they are in their principles, their constituents, or even their party. In reality, the vast majority of the differences between the two parties are fallacies, misunderstandings, and wedge issues like abortion and the war that keep people from realizing that no matter who they vote for, it’s not going to be good for any of us.

    Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

    [Side note, just cause I have to mention it: I’m pro-abortion rights. I don’t like partial-birth abortion either; however, less than 0.2% of abortions use that method, and most of these are cases in which the health of the mother is at risk and/or the baby is going to be stillborn. Partial-birth abortion is a rare procedure that’s been overhyped by anti-abortion groups to try and make it appear as though every woman who gets an abortion is popping out a fully developed baby and then spiking it in the head, which is about the furthest thing from reality there is]

  2. I watched part of Biden’s speech. I made the mistake of actually listening to the words. After 6 or 8 sentences my brain actually began to auto-respond with “that’s crap”.
    In half of his statements he contradicted himself.
    I quit listening when he said something about how we should go to war in Georgia.

    It’s long past time the rational population voted the idiots out of office. This is our fault – we let it get this bad and it’s up to us to fix it.

  3. I have made it my duty to change the channel as fast as humanly possible every time the DNC is on, or there’s any coverage of the DNC on. I am so sick of hearing about the Dems fellating themselves I can’t see straight.

    I thought about taking your position; watching out of sheer morbid curiosity. It didn’t take me too long to remember what a migraine headache feels like, so I passed.

    We know damn well what the current group of leftist, Marxist fucktards are trying to do to this country. Watching the DNC would just give you an idea of what it would be like if they succeeded. We’d see ’em all on TV every other five minutes talking about how great they are, how they are the we we’ve been waiting for, and how the Change is coming and it’s just peachy.

    Then after the change comes and the world turns to shit for everyone (not just the folks like you and me who are churning out the money for the Change machine), they’ll still be on TV every five minutes or so. I’d bet you even start to see pictures of our “leaders” up on various government buildings, too.

    I think you know where I’m going with this…

    tweaker

  4. tweaker: You think that’d be any different if the neocons all got their way? Christ, did you see the 2004 Republican National Convention, starring Rudy “9/11” Guiliani? Both of the parties are completely full of themselves, and also completely full of shit. Whether you’re buying into the theme of “Obama is America’s savior!” or the theme of “Democrats are commies so we need four more years of Bush Lite!,” you’re playing into their hands and falling for their bullshit. Democrats don’t have enough balls to be commies. They know commies don’t get elected, so even if they really wanted implement socialism they’d never try it. Not to mention that in this day and age most socialist states look like the Netherlands or Norway rather than the USSR or China, but the conservative talking heads still try to invoke fear of the Soviets. But I digress.

  5. Many liberals don’t think other liberals are all that liberal. Personally, I have no idea what standards one uses to measure a person’s level of conservativity or liberaloisity. I’m not fond of these political labels and red state/blue state camps anyway.

    So I have no idea if Senator Obama is a liberal by whichever definition you want to use. Here are some things I do know, though:

    -Senator Obama wants the government to be in charge of the medical treatment of every single American (“health care”).

    -Senator Obama wants the government to decide what’s fair and what cannot be said on the radio (“fairness doctrine”).

    -Senator Obama doesn’t really think the government should be limited by the Constitution, and should do whatever is felt is necessary at the time for the greater good (the “living document” interpretation; he decribed his feelings in this matter in one of his books).

    -Senator Obama thinks the government should (and has the authority to) tax “carbon output” to fight “global warming” (cap and trade).

    I haven’t mentioned anything about gun control. The Democrats’ position on gun control is abundantly clear. I have a Utah Democrat friend who keeps trying to tell me these supposed “Blue Dogs”, apparently John Kennedy Democrats, are different, but I think they’re a myth, at least on the federal level. You see them out here in the western states, but they don’t get anywhere.

    Anyway…again, I don’t know if you could rightly classify Senator Obama as a liberal. All I know is he wants the government to do things that the Constitution doesn’t authorize the government to do.

    It took a Constitutional amendment to get prohibition, which was still a horrible idea. It took a Constituional amendment to get the income tax, which I think was also a horrible idea.

    But now, no amendments required. Congress and the executive just do whatever they want.

    This is where, when talking to a typical self-described liberal, they just roll their eyes and scoff. They don’t think the Constitution should limit the legislature, as one of our esteemed Supreme Court justices said recently.

    Well, fine. Don’t think the Constitution’s limits on government are important? That that shouldn’t get in the way?

    These people are the same ones, ironically enough, screaming about the Patriot Act. Trust me, those Constitutional limits will seem pretty God damned important when some government goon squad is dragging you off into the night for saying the wrong thing.

    Can’t happen here? IT HAS HAPPENED HERE. Several times in the past. Woodrow Wilson did many atrocious things with his Presidential power. FDR did plenty too. And LBJ. And this was all decades before some of George W. Bush’s advisors apparently convinced him that Habeus Corpus didn’t really matter.

    This stuff has happened over and over again in our history, and each time it does, it never quite goes back to the way it was before. The pendulum inevitably swings the other way, but we never get all of our freedom back.

    Now, they’re talking about Fairness Doctrine again. Just wait until the government decides that for the common good, the internet is now under their jurisdiction, and blogs like this have to give “equal time” to the “other side”. Of course, some government toady will decide what the sides are and what constitutes fairness.

    Decades ago, the government decided that the radio airwaves were government property. No Constitutional amendment giving them this power, they just claimed it.

    The internet is next. Tougher to control, but that won’t stop them from trying.

    I have a friend and a mentor that was a professor when I was in college. He marched with Dr. King during the civil rights movement. He spent some nights in a Birmingham jail over it. He volunteered for service in Vietnam. He’s been teaching for decades now.

    In the sixties, he was scoffed at as a bleeding heart liberal. Now he’s considered a right wing reactionary for holding the same views as he held then.

    John Kennedy, for all of the comparisons to Barack Obama (and vice versa), couldn’t get anywhere in the modern Democratic Party. A strident anti-Communist who wanted one out of every two federal dollars spent on defense? HA! Such a man would have a hard time making it with the Republicans. He wouldn’t have been invited to watch the induction ceremony at Senator Obama’s makeshift temple in Denver.

    “As not what your country can do for you” has turned into an endless cacaphony of shrill calls for the government to manage every aspect of citizens’ lives. And the citizens, the heirs to the revolution that created the first real hope of a free nation in the history of the world, they line up for it, hands extended, wanting nothing more than a handout and a pat on the head.

    Unless, of course, the politican in question is from the other party. Then said government meddling is suddenly bad.

    Then there’s energy. Obama and his people have been saying that they’re going to use alternative energy, and in ten years we’ll be off of oil.

    GREAT! OUT-F’ING-STANDING!

    Um, one thing, though. How? Those ships that haul supplies across the oceans run on diesel. So do the trucks that haul food from the midwest to stores on the coasts. We’re just going to not use these anymore, huh? New Yorkers are going to start growing their own food? Or do we have trucks that run on something besides diesel?

    (Well, we do. Natural Gas can run trucks. But they don’t want to drill for that, either.)

    *sigh* Sorry. This is very long now, and I”m very tired now, and I’m rambling. You shouldn’t talk on the internet after a twelve-hour shift…

  6. Well, my own definition of “liberal” (as in when I tell people I’m a liberal) is social permissiveness, with strong funding of health/welfare/education. But I suppose that’s really neither here nor there.

    I have no problem with making healthcare available to everyone. The problem is that everyone seems to see it as either the insurance companies and private hospitals are the greatest thing ever, and/or socialized healthcare would necessarily be of poor quality and lead inevitably to rationing, bread lines, and flags with hammers and sickles on them. In reality, public and private healthcare are no more mutually exclusive than public and private education. I’d like to see a similar system in place for healthcare–if you want to pay lots of money for insurance or for treatment at a private hospital, more power to you, and you’ll likely get excellent care. But there should be an acceptable baseline standard available to all citizens free of charge.

    As far as what can’t be said on the radio, the FCC under Bush is not exactly fond of free expression. Not to mention his administration telling people that maybe they should “watch what they say” lest they be accused of supporting terrorism.That’s a censorship thing and a government power thing, not a Democrat/Republican/liberal/conservative thing.

    Not being limited by the Constitution–where in the Constitution does the President have the power of “signing statements” which allow him to ignore part or all of a bill passed by Congress with a 2/3 majority? Where in the Constitution does it authorize holding “enemy combatants” at US bases without any rights under US law, military law, or international law? Where in the Constitution does it authorize a President to start a war? Illegal wiretapping, seizure of library and bookstore records, “extraordinary rendition”… This administration, and all of Congress but Republicans more so, have done more damage to the Constitution over the last eight years than Barack Obama could ever hope to do. Anyone who claims to support the Constitution, and also supports Bush, is either poorly informed or full of shit.

    I also have no problem with higher taxes for heavy polluters, though I’d prefer tax credits for environmentally friendly businesses instead. Positive benefits instead of negative consequences and all that. Whether or not you believe in global warming, the air in Salt Lake City is fucking BROWN sometimes. Air is not supposed to be brown. There’s a lot of good reasons to invest in lower pollution.

    As for JFK, that was a completely different time. The civil rights movement showing a lot of strength (and the accompanying white supremacist backlash), Vietnam, the Cold War. Strident anti-Communists don’t get anywhere in today’s Democratic Party, not because they’re all commies, but because the Soviet Union fell 17 years ago, China is basically capitalist even though it’s still a dictatorship, and the only people in the US who still feel the need to invoke the specter of Communism are right-wing pundits, and even that’s only when even they can’t make the specter of terrorism relevant to the issue at hand. The comparisons to Obama are ridiculous, I agree, but comparisons of early 1960s politics to contemporary politics are equally dubious.

    Energy policy–yeah, it’s a problem. The reason it’s a problem is because after the oil crisis of the 1970’s, nobody listened when Jimmy Carter said hey, maybe we should start working on things that will prevent this from happening again. That doesn’t mean that drilling more is a good idea. Most of the offshore oil that we’re not already drilling is lower quality and much more mixed with sand, thus making it more difficult and more expensive to drill. The oil in Alaska would last us about six months, a year at best, given our current consumption rates, and it wouldn’t show up on the market in any substantial amount for a few years anyway. Oil shale is worthless–not only is it incredibly damaging to the environment, but it’s nearly energy negative (it’s only been in the last few years that test sites have managed to produce more energy than they put in) and it’s a huge waste of water, especially in desert areas where most of our oil shale lies. Not to mention that IMO, US oil reserves ought to be saved for the military–if we go to war with China or Iran, where do you think we’re going to get oil from? Venezuela? Hardly. They’d cut us off now if they could afford it.

    Natural gas isn’t much better. It’s also non-renewable and limited, and the sheer amount of daily energy consumption in this country makes it an unfeasible option for more than a fraction of our energy needs.

    Geothermal, wind, ethanol, solar–those are all decent options. They have their limitations, yes, but we’d be much better off trying to negate those limitations and make them better and more efficient, than we would trying to extend our ability to rely on oil for a few more years and continuing to ignore the fact that eventually, oil is going to run out (or at least become prohibitively expensive) and if we don’t have something else in place by then, we’re all fucked.

    None of this, by the way, should be construed as me saying I support Obama. It’s more that I just don’t support anyone.

    Cthulu ’08.

  7. -Senator Obama wants the government to decide what’s fair and what cannot be said on the radio (”fairness doctrine”).

    False. Obama has been on record opposing the fairness doctrine.

  8. “False. Obama has been on record opposing the fairness doctrine.”

    Oh really. And you believed him, huh? So when Nancy Pelosi’s congress passes a Fairness Doctrine bill, he’ll veto it, then? Just like the Democratic congress has ended the Iraq War and removed the Patriot Act?

    *snicker*

    Nick…I have a question for you. I listed a bunch of gripes with the policies of Democrats in general. You counter with a “well, Bush is bad!” argument.

    Did I say anything about Geoge W. Bush in my post that would lead you to believe I am a supporter of his? Well, I said he apparently doesn’t hold Habeus Corpus in high regard. So yeah, I guess that makes me some kind of Republican hack, hey?

    That’s the excuse everyone makes. Well, it’s okay if our party does this because the other party does it too!

    As for the War, Congress DID authorize that. All of the Democrats, with a few exceptions, jumped right the hell on that bandwagon, when it was popular. When it wasn’t popular anymore they decided they were against it, and their supporters for the most part just accepted that flip-flop without question.

    (Psst…every time you exhale you emit Carbon Dioxide. I guess you should pay the pollution tax, too, huh, since CO2 is apparently a pollutant now?)

    And, um, Nick? Services by the government are NOT FREE OF CHARGE. You may have noticed that on your paychecks you get about 20% less than you actually earned.

    Right now the top 10% of income earners pay something like 80% of the taxes in this country. There aren’t enough rich people to pay for health care for 300+ million American Citizens and 20 million illegal aliens.

    But that’s beside the point. Are there any of life’s necessities that you DON’T think the government should provide? If my taxes go from 20% to 50% to pay for health care (which is about the typical tax rate in Denmark), I won’t be able to pay my rent. Can I expect the government to pay for that too?

    What about food? You can’t live without food. Should the government provide food to everyone also?

    (Speaking of Denmark…the taxes are high to provide health care, but everyone in that country pays the same tax rate, regardless of income. They don’t have a welfare state like we do.)

    And tell me this. Why don’t you think a federal health care program would require a Constitutional Amendment?

    I think that’s because they know they couldn’t get it passed. Quite a few states would be opposed to it. So instead of doing it the right way and risking it failing, they just want to make it a law and shove it down the throats of states that would be opposed to it, which defeats the purpose of a federalist system in the first place.

    Screw self-determination! We’re CONGRESS! We know what’s best!

    So what it boils down to is you don’t really care about the law so long as you get what you want. But that’s okay, because George Bush did it too.

    That, my friends, is why we’re screwed. It’s not about right and wrong, or about upholding the ideals of freedom and limited government. It’s about one team or another winning at all costs, and nothing more.

  9. I never accused you of being a Bush supporter; perhaps I should have been more clear–my point was only that voting for McCain, the other realistic option besides Obama, is hardly a vote for a government or party that respects the Constitution. By the same token, I am not an Obama supporter, or a Democrat of any type; I despise the Democrats almost as much as the Republicans.

    Congress authorized war spending (even if you’re against the war, you have to authorize spending money on it lest you be on the receiving end of a campaign ad accusing you of “voting against paying for body armor” or other such spin), but it was Bush who declared war. They are two different things, and both are the province of the legislative branch, not the executive.

    The tax code needs to be overhauled in general. If you ask me, it should be about five pages long–people in this income group pay this amount, corporate taxes are this amount (and you can’t get out of paying them just because your “headquarters” is a PO Box in the Cayman Islands), and these are the tax-exempt entities and tax credits. None of this 9000 page, loophole-filled, bogged down bullshit we’ve got now. Granted, I’m not a CPA so I don’t know all the ins and outs of tax code, but that’s the point–it should be simple enough that we all know what we’re paying, who we’re paying it to, and what it’s for. If we did that, I’d be okay with a flat tax rate, as rich people wouldn’t be able to get out of paying taxes through various write-offs and offshore holdings.

    Another point regarding higher taxes and healthcare: Yes, taxes would be higher across the board. But you (or your employer) wouldn’t have to pay for insurance, you wouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for a month’s supply of essential medication, you wouldn’t be charged a fortune because you went to the emergency room when you broke your arm, etc. Individual and employer costs would decrease drastically under a tax-funded healthcare system. I’m not sure what the exact ratio would be between current costs and probably tax costs, but I imagine you’d end up with about the same amount of money in your pocket you have now.

    I’m not sure why you’d need to amend the Constitution for this either. After all, taxes and spending are Constitutional, thanks to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1, which reads “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.” A public healthcare system would involve levying a tax in order to provide for the general welfare, so I fail to see how you think public healthcare funding would violate the Constitution.

  10. Nick, I have to say, you make good and salient points, even if I disagree with you. Reasonable political discussion on the internet is a rare thing, and it’s appreciated.

    I listed to Senator Obama’s complete speech tonight on the radio. It was a good speech, I mean, a really good speech. Excellently executed.

    So much hot air, I think, but that’s the way it goes.

    Couple of points came to mind, though. The Senator was discussing people that can’t afford their cars, and can’t afford their credit card bills, and that the government should step in to solve it.

    I don’t think my tax dollars should pay anyone’s damned credit card bill. People need to take some personally responsibility and stop buying crap they can’t afford instead of going insanely deep in debt and then crying for a bail-out. This includes big corporations. Corporate welfare irritates me even more than the individual kind.

    Barak Obama talked about safely harnessing nuclear power, a rare sentiment for a Democrat. I agreed, but hardly anyone cheered when he said that. Most likely it won’t happen. The party of Al Gore will never let nuclear power go anywhere.

    He reiterated that we’re going to be off foreign oil in ten years, a stance I’m 100% behind. I’m still curious as to how Wind, Solar, and Geothermal energy are going to replace all of the diesel-powered trucks, trains, and ships that carry food and commerce around the country and across the globe. By 2018.

    Right. So much hot air.

    He was talking about our differences, and said that gun ownership means something different to hunters in rural Ohio and citizens plagued by gang violence in downtown Cleveland.

    But, he said, we can uphold the 2nd Amendment while keeping “AK-47s out of the hands of criminals”. About ten guys in the audience cheered; I guess those are the Blue Dog Democrats.

    I took this to mean, and granted I’m cynical, that another assault weapons ban is on the way. Hell, like Larry said, Joe Biden wrote the first one. With a supermajority in Congress and the White House, there’ll be nothing to stop the AWB from getting passed.

    Sure, that conflicts with “upholding the 2nd Amendment”, but…how do you ban AK-47s while promising only to keep them out of the hands of criminals? Easy! Make them illegal! Then, anyone who has one is a criminal!

    *sigh* Don’t worry, Larry! When you go out of business because of the new AWB, I’m sure you’ll get welfare from the Federal Government.

  11. True, this is the internet. I suppose I should call you a Nazi or something. Then you can tell me I’m a godless Communist who hates America, freedom, and apple pie.

    Just watched the speech on Youtube (I’ve been trying to avoid watching TV all week). You’re right, it was fucking amazing. Obama has the same ability Reagan did–even if you don’t agree with a word he says, there’s a part of you that wants to pump your fist and start chanting “U-S-A!” when he gets done speaking. Aside from the rhetoric though, I was actually impressed with how substantive it was in the middle portion, if not toward the beginning and end. I’m more impressed with Obama now than I have been in a long time. We’ll see if that holds true through the debates.

    I’ll definitely agree on credit card bills. If it’s necessities–if someone had to buy food on credit or something–that’s one thing, but if you bought your $3500 TV on your Visa and now you can’t afford to pay the bill, you’re shit out of luck. Deal with it.

    If they could start a strong campaign to inform people about nuclear power, I think there’s a good chance that it could be accepted in the current political climate. There’s little that’s cleaner or more efficient than nuclear energy. The only real problem is storing spent fuel rods. If that could be worked out somehow though, I think it’d be a good way to go. Or at least worth a shot, particularly if we can’t get solar/wind/geothermal to pan out.

    I actually don’t think a ten-year goal for ending dependence on oil is completely unreasonable. Heavy shipping may not make it, but with the technology we have there’s absolutely no reason (beyond oil companies having a controlling stock in both auto manufacturers and Congress) that we need to have oil-powered passenger vehicles. Hydrogen drives, based on water, are nearing the point where they’re viable for mass production. The technology for electric cars has been around for years, and it’s only getting better–the company that makes Smart Cars has come out with a version of the Smart Car that is entirely electric powered, and it charges from a standard 110/220v wall socket. Granted, you only get about 120 miles per 5-6 hours of charging, but that’s more than enough for a commuter car; as long as you’re okay with flying or taking the train instead of road trips, it’s a great alternative. The only reason that things like this aren’t already on every car lot in America is because the oil companies have so much control. If we decided to just give them the finger and do what’s best for America instead of what’s best for them, we could at the very least have all newly manufactured cars be oil free in ten years. Again, shipping may be another story, but it’s not out of the question, and at the very least it’s worth a shot–what’s the worst that can happen? We’re completely oil-free in 15 years instead of 10?

    The gun thing is really the only part that worries me. But with the Heller decision, the “Blue Dog” Democrats and the rise of more libertarian-type voters (particularly among young people, I’ve noticed–I know far more people my age who identify as libertarian or independent than as Republican or Democrat), I’m not too worried. The situation is different than it was in 1994. Sure, we’ll have some members of Congress trying to pass those kinds of bills. The usual suspects undoubtedly. And Obama would almost certainly sign such a bill if it came to his desk. That said, I don’t think a majority of members of Congress support such legislation enough to risk being on the wrong side of a voting issue like they were in 1996.

  12. I don’t think the Big Left is as open minded and about “choice” as they like to claim they are.

    I’ll give you an example: Social Security. I don’t want Social Security. I don’t think it’s going to be there when I’m old enough to collect it, and my mom’s experience has taught me that if you expect the Government to take care of you when you’re old, you’re misguided at best.

    I want to opt out of Social Security. I’m willing to sign a binding, permanent agreement with Social Security Administration stating that I will no longer be taxed for social security (that takes makes up almost 5% of my total tax burden). In exchange, this agreement would say, I forfeit all rights to collect Social Security at any time, so long as I shall live. In effect, if I’m old and invalid, they’ll let me die in a gutter before giving me the dole.

    Call me a fool if you want. I’d sign the paper. Yet I don’t have that choice. Social Security is MANDATORY. If you don’t pay the tax they’ll put you in jail.

    This is why I balk when liberals talk of “social permissiveness”. They’re all for it unless you just want to live your life and be left alone. Then you’re some kind of narcissist who is threatening to destroy their way of life through your desired non-participation.

    One part of the speech that bugged me was Senator Obama’s assertion that George W. Bush “let New Orleans drown”. This is an outright lie, pandering to the left’s vision of G.W.B. as some kind of mad supervillian. No, the fucking idiots who run New Orleans let the city drown. And look! They re-elected Mayor Nagin.

    The Corps of Engineers had been telling New Orleans for decasdes that the levees wouldn’t hold in the event of a big storm. The Feds gave them money to upgrade the levees. The upgrades never happened and the money was squandered.

    When the hurricane hit, the city officials let an entire fleet of school buses be submerged instead of using them to evacuate people. Half the New Orleans Police Department deserted. Other police officers joined the citizens in looting; I saw it myself on TV, a uniformed police officer walking out of a store with a TV in his arms.

    They had no plans for dealing with a big hurricane, for evacuations, and they didn’t upgrade the levees though they had ample opportunity.

    But that’s the problem. “It’s not my fault” is the modern ethic. “I can’t afford college”. Well, fine, get student loans. “I can’t afford to pay my loans back!” Don’t worry, we’ll bail you out!

    Signed onto an adjustable rate mortgage for a house you can’t afford? We’ll bail you out!

    Are you a big bank who lent a lot of money to people whom you should’ve known wouldn’t be able to pay it back? Don’t worry, Bear-Stearns, we’ll bail you out too.

    This is America! No consequences for poor choices here! *sigh*

    Education is a pet peeve of mine. I bought into the whole federal subsidizing of education when I was in college, hook line and sinker. Then I did some research. My God, are college students being ripped off.

    Every time they increase student financial benefits, tuition increases accordingly. Your tuition dollars are used for all manner of things that have nothing to do with you becoming educated. Until you’re 25, you have to report your parents’ income on your financial aid forms; you’re a paying customer at the university and you’re not even treated like an adult.

    Why should you be? The administrators will all tell you that you aren’t paying for your own college, even if you are, so they have a right to treat you that way.

    At my college, when you were a freshmen, you HAD to live on campus and you HAD to get the full meal plan, the total of which cost well over the price of tuition. Can’t pay for it? Heck, son, just get a loan! Debt is a way of life!

    Then I moved to Utah. I set up residence here, worked here for over a year, then applied for a university. I got accepted, but was told that I’d have to pay out-of-state tuition (which is about 350% the standard tuition rate).

    “But I live here,” I said. “I pay Utah taxes”.

    “You haven’t lived here over a year,” they said.

    “But I have,” I replied. “I’ve lived here since April of 2006. It’s now July of 2007. That’s more than a year.”

    “But the one-year rule starts in July of 2007,” they said. “So technically you’ve only lived here for a month.”

    “Can I have my state taxes back then?” The answer to that was no.

    I found out, though, that had I been an illegal immigrant using a stolen social security number, then I’d have gotten in-state tuition. But a blue collar, working taxpayer? Forget it. Just get loans, they told me.

    PFFT.

    They get the country convinced that people without four-year degrees are undesirable as employees, then they make it extrodinarily expensive and time-consuming to get those degrees. At a lot of schools, you’re lucky if you can get that degree in only four years, with all of the fluff and crap you have to take in order to graduate.

    It’d be nice if there was competition. Want a degree in engineering but don’t want to pay for art classes and a football team? Go to a technical school. Want a degree in art? Go to an art school. Just want to get some job skills? Go to a vocational school.

    But no. It’s been decided that we all have to go to “college” and take classes in music and art no matter what we’re studying. We have to pay for football teams and campus organizations and the Starbucks they built in my college’s caffeteria, even though that football team and that expensive coffee aren’t going to help you compete.

    The core of our education system has been gutted and replaced with fluff and politically correct yammering. Don’t worry, though, I’m sure we can fix this by throwing more federal tax dollars at it.

    It’d be more efficient just to pass a law saying that every US citizen that reaches the age of 24 is awarded a Bachelor’s Degree in Generality.

  13. On a completely unrelated note, it’s August 29th, 2008. We’re at the eleven-year anniversary of when Skynet caused a nuclear holocaust and started the machines’ efforts at exterminating mankind.

    Happy Judgement Day, everybody!

  14. “I thought Al Gore was insane. I thought John Kerry was a pathetic shell of a man. But I actually think I hate Obama. ”
    Thought? You use that in past tense?
    But seriously, I find your post brilliant. Stone brilliant. And, indeed, F^*K IT McCAIN ’08.
    LOTE
    LOTE
    LOTE
    (by far)

  15. BTW, NC. I find your posting well in tune with my opinion. And, Nick? Sorry to say this but, libertarian? I find you a leftist parrot. I do not wish this country that I spent 20 years(from VN-Desert Storm) to go down the socialist shithole. It has NEVER worked, in any nation it’s ever been tried in. They ALWAYS, even if by no more than looking the other way from the “black market” that must now exist to provide for those things that are not provided by the government. Sorry Nick, capitalism may suck, but it’s better than anything else. Utopia CANNOT exist, due to human nature being what it is.

  16. Damnit, I wish there was an edit button. Add comma after way, strike “from”, insert “allow”. It’s late.

  17. Be glad you don’t live in central europe. If Obama fuels your boundless rage. You would shit nukes out of our goverment, that call temselves “rightwing” if you would live here. Yeah and we got real Marxists and commies in parliament opposition, thats real disguisting. And they propably win next elections that’s even worse.

    I fear if Obama wins, it will fuel russian expansion in eastern and central europe. They’ve already started by attacking Georgia.
    And if it comes to us, I bet those EU pricks would throw us over board, changing us for cheap russian oil.
    So we need strong US as ally. I hope that the XBR of anti balistic missile defence will be build here ASAP.

    You can see, that in this globalised world american elections will afect, much more then just americans.

    So Mc Cain ’08. Maybe he’s not enough republican, but he surely doesn’t like ruskies.

    BTW. for gas prices and taxes. Galon of gas costs here today eqivalent 7.74$(30.5czk/l) (USD is on historical minimum). Having average paycheck aprox. 17000$/yr, goverment rip me of 4000$/yr.
    I’m not naggin’. I just wana show that 4$ per gallon is still good price ;).

  18. Max, that is a major bummer. Sadly I think that is what is in store for us in the US if the dems control both the legislative and executive branch.

    The only reason Old Europe was able to become such a socialist experiment was because they didn’t need to spend any money on their military. They had us as their crutch. Same as Canada.

    New Europe gets it. You guys lived under the shadow of the Russian menace. You understand bullies. Old Europe has had us to cover for them for so long that they atrophied and spent all their money creating a cradle to the grave welfare states.

    Now with a big aggresive Russia, we’ll see just how long that kind of fun lasts. Somebody has to actually pay the bills eventually.

    Nick, I’ve got to respectfully disagree with you. I think that you’ve been fed a line of bull on some issues.

    First off, on the FCC and the fairness doctrine, it is really popular for people to say just how terrible George Bush has been, and how if you say anything negative then you’re a terrorist. This is a huge meme on the left, and you see it in movies, games, comic books, running gags on comedy central, and I’ve even seen it in cartoons.

    That said, does anybody on the left have any examples of this actually happening? Has Bush actually censored anyone? On the contrary, I see a president who has been more savaged on a daily basis than any other politician I can ever think of.

    Harold and Kumar; Escape from Guantanamo Bay was not a documentary film.

    On Energy, don’t buy into the whole “failed policies of the past” BS. Obama is a LIAR.

    If you want good energy policy, get the government OUT OF THE WAY. The market will determine what is the next best thing. Not the government. Heck, the government actually thought ethanol was the answer. You need to realize that anything they touch turns to crap.

    If something else is going to be cheaper, easier, and most of all, profitable, then somebody will do it. That’s the nature of the beast. The whole “BIG OIL is keeping us down!” mantra doesn’t fly in real life. They’re a handy scapegoat, and the government always needs a handy scapegoat.

    The “failed policies of the past” have given us the greatest period of invention and prosperity in the world’s history.

    The states and factoids you’ve given here indicate that you’ve been lied to. Every point you’ve got about getting more oil has been shown to be wrong. The 6 months in ANWAR, wrong, just another twisting of the facts that’s been thrown out in the media.

    The part about oil shale? Wrong. We’ve got the tech, and we’d use less water than Vegas uses to fill it’s hotels swimming pools.

    What we lack is the infrastructure. That’s the part that takes time. That’s why so many of us want to tap ANWAR like frat boys at a keg party, because the pipeline is already there and we could be getting oil out of it in a couple of years.

    As for time, we should have started this over a decade ago when the democrats vetoed it last time.

    Solar, Wind, etc. etc, all have their negatives, and tech keeps getting better, but until I can drive Jabba’s Sail Barge to work (which would friggin’ rock) we need internal combustion engines. The next thing in that could be 5 years away, or it could be 30. Either way, the smart thing to do is to actually use the resources we’ve been given.

    And the air over Salt Lake is brown right now because of forest fires. The last time the air was brown was because of the California fires. We just live in a large valley that collects all of the crap from the vast spaces to our west.

    Now in winter time we’ve got a lousy inversion that traps the bad air. But it is even worse in Cache Valley, which is just as big, but has a fraction of our population. Geography sucks. And that’s coming from a guy with asthma and allergies.

  19. NC: Well, the problem with taxes is that we all end up paying for things we don’t like. I’m paying money for a war I didn’t want the US to start, I’m paying salaries to Congress (most of whom I hate) and George W. Bush, I’m paying tax money to fund religious groups and “abstinence-only” education. I’d like to opt out of all of that. True, I get some of it back, since I’m still listed as a dependent (mostly so I can be on my dad’s health insurance plan, which is excellent), but the point remains. Paying for things that the government and representatives do, whether or not we support each individual item, is part of the social contract. It sucks, but the alternative is allowing people to opt out of whatever taxes they don’t want to pay, at which point we probably wouldn’t be able to fund roads, schools, defense, or pretty much anything else.

    Katrina was a clusterfuck on everyone’s part. True, Nagin royally screwed the pooch. But at the same time, Bush appointed a FEMA director with no qualifications whatsoever (he bred horses, for Christ’s sake) who sat back and waited for Nagin to do something, and then when it became evident Nagin wasn’t going to do anything, Michael Brown was the one largely responsible for the Superdome fiasco. Bush himself showed his “concern” for the people of New Orleans by asking his pilot to fly under the clouds on the way back from Texas so he could see New Orleans from the air. The entire situation was handled poorly by pretty much every single person who had a hand in it. So it’s unfair to blame Bush entirely, but he’s also not without some responsibility.

    I don’t really have a problem with student loan assistance; I think it benefits everyone economically to have a more educated populace. I agree with you on the other bailouts though.

    I also largely agree with you on education. I personally like the university setup, and since I have family members working in the U’s pediatrics department I get half off in-state tuition, so it’s actually not disgustingly expensive for me (except for textbooks). But there do need to be more tech and vocational schools than there are.

    cmblake: I never claimed to be a libertarian. In fact, I defined myself as a liberal (and what I mean by liberal) up above. I just said that the Democrats would be unlikely to focus too heavily on gun control, since there are a lot of libertarian and independent voters, particularly among the younger age groups. Also, where did I say I hated capitalism? I think we should have a baseline standard of healthcare available to everyone, and free public education, with the option for private services in both areas. I’m hardly calling for government repossession of farmland. “Liberal” and “Communist” are not the same thing, no matter what Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity tell you.

  20. Oh really. And you believed him, huh?

    I just think there is no point getting too worked up about something that has not even been introduced as a bill and that Obama supposedly doesn’t support.

    I honestly have no way of knowing whether this will be a major issue in the nest 4 years, but I somehow doubt it. There isn’t much support outside of some Democrats and there is caselaw that puts into doubt the Constitutionality.

  21. “I think we should have a baseline standard of healthcare available to everyone, and free public education, with the option for private services in both areas. I’m hardly calling for government repossession of farmland.”

    Okay, once again, nothing provided by the government is free. Replace “free” with “taxpayer funded”. There is no such thing as “free”.

    You might not be calling for that. There were a couple of representatives in Congress calling for that nationalization of oil refineries. Guess which party they belonged to?

    If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. You know why the Democrats haven’t said a peep about the Patriot Act since they took over Congress, despite all of their screaming about it in the past?

    Because they think THEY can use it “responsibly”. Too much power is only bad when the other party has it.

    “I don’t really have a problem with student loan assistance; I think it benefits everyone economically to have a more educated populace.”

    That’s exactly how I once felt. The fallacy in this line of thinking is the assmption that absent the Depatment of Education, no one would be able to get loans to go to school.

    There are private sector loans for school. You even get payments deferred until after you graduate. Absent “big education”, there’d be more of them to fill the void.

    And don’t tell me that only the government would provide loans for the “little guy” or “low income families”. Look at the housing problems going on. Lenders are more than eager to throw money around, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, to people that probably can’t pay it back. Four years of college at a typical school might cost eighty thousand dollars, with room and board. That’s a fraction of the average mortgage these days.

    Housing is more necessary than education, yet people get by just fine without government housing loans being common. Moreover, absent Uncle Sugar throwing money around willy-nilly, univeristies might actually have some incentive to try to lower cost to the students. Other alternatives in higher education would become more common.

    Anyway…following Obama’s speech, one analyst claimed she had to go back to the green room to “weep”.

    *sigh* What a servile fool. You see a lot more of this on the left than on the right. As popular as Reagan was, you don’t hear a lot of conservatives talking about crying during Regan speeches.

    On the left, though, I have a theory. Religion is far less common on the left than on the right. Absent religion, people look for other “big things” to fill that void in their lives. Very often they latch onto politics. Hence, they HATE the other guys. They CRY at the speeches of the guys they like. They PROTEST and engage in ACTIVISM, like a relgious person would regularly attend church.

    You do find this on the right; I’ve known several conservative types that fit this mold perfectly. It’s just more common on the left.

    As for Governor Palin, I like her. I might actually vote for that ticket now. Maybe. Obama’s campaign came out and said she has “zero experience”.

    Well, Senator, granted, she’s no COMMUNITY ORGANIZER, but she is the governor of a state. Ironically, she’s the only one on the ticket that has any real experience as a chief executive of anything. Personally, I think being a Senator should automatically disqualify you from running for President…

  22. Everyone keeps saying “All these technologies will take 10 years to come on line”. But these same people were saying that 10 years ago.

    And we’ll likely still be using them in 10 more years. So let’s like, plan for the future and get some of them underway.

    The big problem with nuclear power right now is that “spent” fuel rods are still like, 96% good material. But the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty forbids recycling them. Thank you, Jimmy Carter.

    We could solve a lot of the “nuclear waste” issue by renegotiating the NPT.

  23. Goddammit. I just wrote a big long response to Larry and NC and then closed the wrong tab. So, main points to Larry–Check the US Geological Survey of 1998 for the amount of oil in ANWR (between 5.7 and 16 billion barrels of oil). Then check for daily US oil consumption–over 20 million barrels. The best case scenario at current consumption rates is that ANWR would provide around 2 years of recoverable oil, and that’s once it started to show up on the market, which wouldn’t be for a while and certainly not soon enough to lower gas prices in the short term. As for oil shale, according to Wikipedia (yeah, I know, but I’m lazy and it seemed to be properly sourced) each barrel of oil derived from oil shale requires between one and five barrels of water. Not exactly an efficient program in the middle of the desert.

    Main points to NC: Private student loans have much higher (and variable) rates compared to government loans–most of the ones I found when I was looking for myself were between 8-9% to start, variable up to 15-25%, compared to my government subsidized loans, which are 5.7% and 6.8% fixed rates. And while I don’t believe people should be bailed out for making a bad decision to buy a house, there are alternatives to owning a house–renting, or living with family. There’s no alternative to higher education–there’s a college degree, and then there’s a high school diploma or GED. Particularly in today’s economic climate, where everything but management, retail, and higher-level jobs can be outsourced, you’ve basically got no choice between going to college or getting screwed by the oh-so-wonderful free market in the next few years. Also, while some liberals are distinctly douchebaggy, it’s ridiculous to claim that the right-wing isn’t at least as full of hatred as the left–ever listen to Ann Coulter, or Rush Limbaugh, or Sean Hannity? Ever hear an abortion protester call a woman walking into Planned Parenthood a murdering whore? Because that, of course, is what Jesus would do.

  24. Over a decade ago I was living in Venezuela. A former paratrooper who attempted a coup de etat was given a presidential pardon in order to “heal the nation” and “bring us together” and the former paratrooper also agreed that bringing the people together was a priority and that he was the Hope for the country. He launched into a political campaign under the banner of universal health care, reducing poverty, affordable housing and re distributing the oil profits for the poorest in the nation. He was wildly popular under the promise of “change” and won my a landslide which gave him the power of start his changes “for the people” and lobby for a congress that was agreeable to his cause. He got it.
    When the country woke up from the hang over of euphoria “for the people”, it realized that it was all a sham but when it went to protest, it was put down. The paratrooper’s version of the Fairness doctrine was implemented and those media outlets that complained or challenged the government were promptly convinced otherwise or shut down. If people freely gathered to redress their grievances, the Paratrooper’s followers (in all their fanaticism) would appear and beat or shoot those who dared talking about the Savior of the Country. Wealth was redistributed and private companies shut down in record numbers, unemployment grew to numbers unheard of before. Crime rose prompting everybody to claim for extreme measures and they got the most comprehensive and restrictive gun control laws ever which was followed by a doubling in the murder rate and quadrupling violent crimes. The Paratrooper’s foreign policy consisted in making friends with the likes of Hussein’s Iraq, Iran, Russia’s Putin and any communist and nutjob out there.
    And that is when I see Obama, I see an English speaking Hugo Chavez and that scares the shit out of me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *