Here is a cool little web site that has you answer a number of questions and then tells you which candidate you are most aligned with and farthest from. Surprisingly it made me an Obama man. Guess I better take that Hill Dog sticker off my car.
VinVin asked me last week if I would be the first guest on his new show the Seemic Cafe. Of course I said yes, I love to see myself on camera. Let me know what you think. Thanks to the gang at Seesmic for making me look so good!
Shall we begin with the Democrats? There are two candidates for President left on the Dem’s side, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both have tons of money and a strong base of supporters throughout the 50 states. They have both laid out exits to the war, modernizing the health care system, strong economic plans and both have really good looking spouses. Which in my book makes it really had to pick between the two of them, that is if you are of the liberal persuasion. Below I have provided a breakdown on each candidate on five topics; the economy, health care, the war, terrorism and education. Lets get started.
The plus of the Hill Dog as President in my mind is that she is seasoned. Eight years with her husband as President, eight years as a US Senator where she has served on various committees and solidified her political connections. She has been through hell and back so many times, I have lost count. She is organized, energized and well connected. Everything you want in a new President. Did I mention that her husband was also President. Two for one baby! Not a bad deal.
Economy: Her website provides some nice bullet points that outline how she thinks the economy can get back on track. This give you an overall picture of what she plans on doing in her first four years. Nothing groundbreaking. I always read this stuff and I am hopeful. But lets face it, a lot can change from now until January. Look at Bush’s first year in office.
War: Hillary has said she will put together a viable plan to bring the troops home in the first 60 days of her Administration. If you read the whole outline I think it is a little more complicated than just pulling out the troops. Read on.
Terrorism: There is a great bit on her website titled: “Restoring America’s Standing in the World”. She talks about getting back to what America does best, not fighting, but building strong alliance and working diplomatically to end conflict and strife. Both candidates say pretty much the same thing in regard to less fighting and more talking. Read on.
Education: Her education policy is about what you would expect from a liberal democrat. Here are some of the key points. Read on.
Healthcare: You might remember Hillary tried in 1992 to pass a comprehensive health care plan and was thwarted by both the Republicans and the health care industry. She has said that fight in 92 taught her important lessons on how to deal with the health care crises in this country. Here is a link to the summary of what she envisions. Plan
Barack Obama:
Obama is young, 47, and has spent the last four years in the US Senate. Before Washington he was in the house and state senate in Illinois. He is a Harvard educated lawyer and by the looks of his resume he has everything you would need to be President. He is a strong public speaker with great convictions this combined with his good looks helps convey his trustworthy every man persona. He gained national attention after his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. I remember saying to myself, “this guy will run for president”. Still think he should have waited to 2012, but what do I know?
Economy: Tax Credits, Tax reduction, small business support, tax break for the elderly, easier tax forms and did I already mention support for small business? Barack’s economic plan is pretty standard fair. All the candidates are pretty much touting the same plan only with different colored bows. Read.
War: Obama has pledged to immediately begin to remove the troops from Iraq if he becomes President. He has never supported the war in Iraq and believes that the only way Iraq will stand for its self is if we leave. He has laid out a plan to make this happen along with how we will continue to support Iraq and the region in the future. Read
Terrorism: Under foreign policy on Obama’s website we learn about his ideas on the war in Iraq, renewing diplomacy, locking up the nuclear weapons, dealing with Iran (which I personal think he is misguided on) the site outlines his policies on keeping America safe and in doing so stymieing terrorism here at home and abroad. Read
Education: Instead of axing “no child left behind“, he wants to reform the program, this a difference between the two candidates. He also wants to work with drop outs, increase funding for after school programs, tax credits for college students and more. Hillary and Obama are pretty close on how they would deal with education. It comes down to the numbers, yep money. Read
Healthcare: I love how both of plans have the word “portable”. What does that mean, portable? Maybe I can take the plan with me when I leave here. Obama’s plan feels more like the start of national healthcare and takes a lot of plays from Hillary’s health care bill of rights. Read
There you have it! A break down on five key issues that define, I think, the campaigns for both candidates. There is tons of information and I am pretty sure you could spend the rest of your life researching both candidates. I have used the candidates websites as my frame of reference. I am not looking to debate the who, why and where at this point. I just wanted you to see a couple of key issues and be able to link to the information quickly. I have provided a couple more links here at the bottom of this post if you want more to read.
Tomorrow we will take a look at the Republicans. What FUN!
Links: Hillary, Obama, Debates, the money, campaigning, a break down
You have seen every movie in the theater. You have cleaned out your TiVo and there is nothing left but reruns of the Dukes of Hazard. You would watch a podcast or two on your iTunes, but your computer is so riddled with trojans and worms you cant get Windows to start. Football is done and lets face it, real men don’t watch basketball. So now what? There is always Politics. Did you know it is an election year?
Thats right this coming Tuesday is SUPER TUESDAY. The name alone should get you so excited you will want to run out of your house to the nearest polling place to cast your vote. This Tuesday 20 states will hold primaries to chose a candidate for both parties for President of this fair land. What do you have to do to vote you ask? Is it as easy as voting for American Idol? I wish. I think a lot more Americans would vote if they could vote from their phones and if someone cool like Orlando Bloom was running. To tell you the truth it is kind of a pain in the ass. Having to register, find the poling place, leave your house, deal with the old ladies and use a touch screen voting system that in most cases will have you voting for the wrong guy or gal. In the end you are left with someone you most likely will never meet and might even get you into some kind horrible war, leaving your children to pay for in the end. Please do not let my cynicism stop you from casting your vote for the next leader of the free world. I have provided links at the bottom of this post to help you find the who/where/when on election day. I really do care. Please vote!
So you know where to vote and how to vote, maybe? Now who to vote for? Good news for those of you who are not fans of change. Since 1988 there has been either a Bush or a Clinton on the ballot for President and this year is no different. Keeping in the tradition of the way you have voted or not voted over the last couple of decades the choice for you few should be fairly easy. For the rest of us however, I think the decision might just be a bit more complicated. Lets take a look at the parties and the candidates this year.
In America we have two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Sure there have been others throughout the course of our short history, but this is what we are stuck with this year. Truthfully these days the difference between the parties is so few, I think you could say we have a one party system in this country. Lets save that argument for another day. A Presidential election is the big game for the political parties in this country. Having your party control this powerful position in government allows you to guide the agenda for four long years. Each party fields a number of candidates for President, some hand picked and others who have crawled out of dark and scary holes to provide entertainment to the serious candidates. (Hi Ron Paul) The process of the Primary is to weed out the good and the bad candidates. Each state is awarded a number of delegates, those delegates are then awarded to the candidate that wins the state. After the last Primary it is off to the party convention to added up the delegates and declare a winner. The winner of most delegates, in most cases, is then that party’s candidate for President. It is now February and we are now more than halfway through the process. Some early primaries have taken place and the field is beginning to narrow. Super Tuesday which last year only represented seven states has ballooned to 20! Some calling this year’s Super Tuesday the first national Primary. In the past Super Tuesday allowed momentum for candidates but didn’t always lockup the nomination of the party. Some are saying with so many states voting it will be easy to declare a winner after Tuesday. I tend to agree with this theory. Although much like everything else in life you could wake on Wednesday morning, next a half naked women and still have an open field of contenders. This race could go down to the wire, all the way to the convention. It might be kind of fun! So, are you lost? Remember there are links at the bottom of this post that will provide further clarification. So if the Primary’s are in place to weed out and setup a candidate for President. Lets talk about who is left.
The field of candidates is still pretty thick at this point at least on the Republican side. The Democrats have got it down to just two, John Edwards dropped out last week, leaving Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to battle it out. The Republicans however have four remaining candidates, with the leader John McCain followed by Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Still quite a few to chose from?. Now I cannot tell you who to vote for, I could but I am not going to, I am going to give suggestions and maybe even some facts? In my post tomorrow, I will provide a short run down on each candidates likes/dislikes, platform, what they eat for breakfast and so on. I might throw in a prediction of two.
LINK TO PART II (coming tomorrow)
Links: Primary Elections, Super Delegates, Primary Dates, Super Tuesday, Delegate Counts, Where to Vote?
I spent the better part of my day today, talking. I know that might sound crazy, because we all talk all day long. I guess that is true. Though, I was not just talking to talk. (That is a lot of talk?) I had some meaningful conversations that got me to thinking. Jim thinking, equals dangerous.
Over the last year I have been hitting around in my head some ideas for a political type podcast. I am a passionate person. I was quoting my father right there. He was saying some really nice things about me at our lunch. It is always good to hear these kinds of things from the man that raised you. Anyway, it made me think that I need to take this passion I have for politics and harness it into something constructive.
Those of you who know me, know that when it comes to the politico, I can sometimes become a bit of a blow hard. Which is to say, I can go on and on and on until someone gets up and leaves or falls asleep. The later is always funny. Politics has always been something I love to talk about with people. I especially love hearing new ideas from both left, right and far right. So given my love for politics and my knowledge of the podcasting world you would think I could have figured something out? Not the case.
Then it came to me. I think the problem is that I have been over thinking the whole idea. What are two things I have always wanted to do? No not that Chuck, that is your dream and a sick one at that you pervert. Wait i guess there are a lot more than two, I would have to include singing in that list. Ok so there are many things I want to do. Two of them, I have talked about in the past, my love for politics and my love for my own voice (come on you like to hear it too). Are you seeing the logical progression of this? No?
So the whole time I have been thinking about doing some kind of video project. Which is crazy as Chuck and I are already over burdened each week with our current shows. Another video podcast would surely kill us or lead to one of us killing the other. As that thought went through my head, while chomping on a chip, I thought why not just do a weekly audio call in show. I already have the technology in place. It is easy to produce. I can put almost the whole thing together by myself. Leaving Chuck to do whatever it is he does when he is not slaving away on our other shows. The end game, I think I would really enjoy it! Even if my Mother was the only caller and or listener.
I am going to put some more thought to this in the next couple of days. I know there are like a million of these things on the Internet already. I am not looking to stand out and or make some kind of political statement. I just miss good mind numbing political conversation. I have been saying for years this is the constant that seems to be lacking in my life. Maybe this is the easy solution?
What you think? Leave me a comment.
Have you been following the recent development in regards to the Genocide of Armenians during the Great War? If not here is a good place to start. I am lucky as I belong to a mailing list with some of my more learned friends and they have been passing links back and forth for a couple of days in regard to this issue.
Seeing the links in the emails, watching the CNN and catching the occasional NPR story. It began to sink in as to what all of this could mean for the US and the war on terror. To tell you the truth I was a bit shocked and confused? It didn’t really start to settle into my mind until today when talking with one of my clients about the whole situation. I should let you know that he is a hard line Republican who will back the Pres till he is out of office. Don’t hold it against him though, he is a great guy and a big thinker. He just happens to be on the other side of the isle. He is always up for a good debate and continues to help me see the other side of this crazy world. So we started in.
His point is simple and one that I had read late last night. Pelosi cant get enough votes to end the war in Iraq any which way you slice it. She knows that Turkey is the key to the whole region. More than half of all our supplies to fight the war go through Turkey. See where this is going. If you can some how piss off one of our oldest Allies, by I don’t know saying something like; they committed genocide on over a million people. (which by the way it turns out they did) This might give you the chance you have been seeking. Turkey is not to hot about being blamed for something another regime carried out some 90 years ago. This has always been a sticking point with Turkey and we have always known that calling it genocide would be a deal breaker. He went on and on but I think you get the picture.
So, do we really want to get out of Iraq that bad. Is it worth starting a bigger fight with an old friend to stop another fight with a new one? (new friend could be debated) Or is it just simply politics. Yes, I know everything is politics. This is no different. I guess if I were thinking about this in terms of Democratic strategy, it is brilliant! Talk about forcing the hand of the Republicans. Not only that but at this point the ball is moving so fast. Combine the genocide call and Turkey’s eagerness to wipe out the Kurds in Northern Iraq and you can smell the disaster all around you. If Turkey and the US are no longer friends, you can bet your butt Turkey will get rid of those nasty Kurds in the north tomorrow. If that were to happen where would that leave us? Would we have to go to the defense of the Kurds? Fight the Turks?
Genocide is serious and there is no doubt that Turkey wiped 1.5 million Armenians of the planet in the those war years and after. It was documented and written about at the time in which it was happening. Does this mean we should officially call it genocide? Yes, but if we declare this now on the Turks does that mean we will pass a resolution calling genocide, genocide in the other parts of the world were it is happening now? If we do this and Turkey cuts off all access to their country and breaks diplomatic ties. What then will happen to the region we are keeping stable. Will this one act of political maneuvering bring down everything we have worked for in the region. Will this declaration of genocide bring forth more death, unrest, upheaval and finally genocide. Is this what we are after? Is this worth the end of the war in Iraq? Is this what the Democrats think it will take to win the Presidency in 08. A huge gamble if you ask me. With way to much to lose.
Remember the Soviet Union? Remember the Cold War? Remember the nuclear bombers? The Russians are bring it all back for what I am calling, Cold War Reunion Tour 2007 or Nuclearpoloza.
Seems our old friends the Russians have resumed nuclear bomber patrols after a 15 year hiatus. The Russians have been feeling the threat as of late from the whole world. They are especially unhappy about the USA parking a missile defense system in the former Eastern Block . So in good old fashion last century saber rattling, the Russian are flying around some bomber with a shit load of nukes loaded. We get the message, you can still kill us if you want. To that I always say, go for it! We can kill you more! I like to talk tough, gets me dates.
When will we ever learn this life is not about big dicks, hurt egos, misunderstandings and mistrust. Life is way to short to be pissed and trying to kill each other over stupid shit. When are we going to realize that life is about friendship, kissing young girls, love making, hand stands on green grass, nuclear bombs and the frolicking that follows? Nothing in this world is worth this shit.
Thanks to Heiser for passing this along. Happy Friday
I have read Ann Coulter and seen her on TV and every time I do, I think to myself what the fuck is she talking about. I understand the shock value and the money it is making for her and for the networks. But who in the world is taking what this women says as anything more than a crazed right wing persona? She continues to do and say things that help her sell herself, her books and her column. But is she offering anything more than the far right party line? How much longer will she be relevant one and two what will be her self destruct. What does she have to say or do to tie the noose around her own head?
Just in case you missed it, I know my eyes seem to blur a bit when the news speaks of more violence in the middle east. Lebanon is back in the news today, no they are not going to open the new Hilton as promised. Instead we have more unrest in a country already on the brink of complete claps, again.
Over the weekend one of the many Palestinian refuge camps started a little shooting match with the Lebanese army. According to the NY Times, the army entered the camp, which is home to some 40,000 people, in search of a couple of bank robbers. One thing lead to another, this is were it gets a bit foggy for me, and fighting broke out. So, you are looking for a couple bank robbers and widespread fighting breaks out? The answer is yes, these camps, which are spread out throughout Lebanon are some of the poorest places in the region. Many of the people that live in these areas have been there for over half a century. Take the fact that they are Palestinians living in a foreign country with no rights and very little opportunity for work or advancement, it is not to surprising there is some unrest. Groups related to Al Qaeda have moved into the area and our friends, the Syrians have been playing their role as well, supplying money and arms.
The real lose with a population this size in the middle of armed strife are the civillian casualties. I think if these idiots want to fight, why cant they “take it outside”, fighting in the middle of a populas is unforgivable. I would love it if we didnt have to kill each other at all, but that will never happen. So, maybe the next time you are chasing a couple of bank robbers into the middle of a “camp”, you should head the advice bartenders give every night to drunks all over the world. “Hey assholes, take it outside.”
I realize the situation is complicated, just like the rest of the situations in this region. I also know that there are big parts of the story that have been omitted. I am the first to admit, I don’t know all the facts. Maybe you could bring me up to speed, or let me know were I have gone astray.
Disclaimer: The “take it outside” foreign policy segment of this blog is copy written. All right reserved.
