Incoherant Poltical Rant

Just parsing through the text, can anyone take this guy seriously? As much as I don't like Ron Paul and his paleo-conservative distortion of libertarianism, he's genuine, and has built a political career out of fighting Right and Left. Ron Paul demanded government spending cuts equally to tax cuts during Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and now Obama. I only hear of Glenn Beck talking about government spending cuts when Democrats are in power.

Trillions to foreign wars is ok, but trillions to the domestic economy isn't according to Glenn Beck. And Glenn Beck proposes no way to pay for his foreign adventurism financed by debt.

Where was Glenn Beck when it came to the Patriot Act, or Patriot Act II that eroded the liberties of American Citizens?

Where was Glenn Beck when Bush added layers of Federal Bureaucracy by establishing DHS?

Cap and Trade establishes a PRIVATE MARKET for Carbon emission rights. As the cost to mitigate carbon emissions goes down, those cost savings will be instantly realized by private corporations. It's a more capitalist solution compared to a straight up carbon tax, or set untradeable carbon emission regulations. Why do they deride MARKET based solutions?

Freedom of Speech does not mean freedom from criticism. In fact, it's the opposite. Freedom of speech gives me the right to call him a dumbass free from criminal prosecution. If I'm wrong, he has the right to claim otherwise, and exercises that right daily on Fox News. No one credible is trying to take that away.

Voting to establish a union is not the same as voting in a government election. Why is a regulation saying you have to have a secret ballot good, but regulation that allows for a card check OR a secret ballot bad?

I will however give him credit for citing Medicare Part D. But Bush's Medicare expansion will cost the Government more money and put future generations in more debt than all of bailout money passed by BOTH Bush and Obama. Yet teabagees complain about Obama wanting to spend money to fix the potholes on I-95. Well if government doesn't pay for the Wilson Bridge, who the fuck should? Or should people from Miami drive around the Potomac to get to NYC?

Still though, his relative small grievance against the largest unfunded government mandate passed in the 21st century is a joke. Add to that no mention of the boondoggle that is DHS, and I'll chastise him for only offering scant criticism to Bush's huge contribution to the federal debt.

My working definition of an Astroturf teabagger is someone who complains about bailouts adding debt but overlooks the larger debt Medicare Part D will add to current and future generations... while failing to offer senior citizens complete prescription drug coverage. Thanks to GWB, I get $17 trillion in unfunded liabilities and my parents and grandmother still have exorbitant prescription bills if they fall into the coverage hole.

Only in American Capitalism do we have expensive government run programs that are intentionally designed to not fully accomplish their stated goal out of respect to "market forces", "private enterprise", etc.

Instead of having private markets that work, or government that works, we have shortcoming for private markets and an expensive government unwilling to resolve those shortcoming.

Largest military on the fucking planet that has to pay six figure salaries to mercenaries while US troops make $25K. What The Fuck.

The fundamental failing of Republican governance in the 21st Century was its ineffectiveness to provide for the public good. Katrina. Iraq. Economy. Federal Deficits. That's what Republicans don't get. And Tea Parties aren't the solution when Republicans use the occasion to cover 8 years of incompetence.

Celebrate Good Times Come On!

Yeah, whatever scares you the most.

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The Obama Infomercial Hopegasm

You can do a lot with a $600 Million dollars, like run for President!

I was trying to keep quiet

I thought I was going to get out of the whole day without saying anything, but I can't help myself.

Saw the Obama infomercial. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!!! I think I know who's going to win the Emmy for "Best Production Values" next year. While it wasn't done in HD, that broadcast looked better than most things I see on TV. I think they had the guys from Planet Earth filmed it.

But it was positive, hopeful, contains both specifics and a overarching agenda for he future...

He always seems to do it up kinda big. Epic is the word I would use to describe a person that gets 100K+ crowds. But I have to give him props for that. It is the top job on the planet after all.

Wanted to wash clothes tonight, but I goofed off to much this afternoon, perhaps tomorrow.

Speaking of which, I need to call people tomorrow. Get my weekend planned and all. A few events are happening, but I shouldn't go. I have to make sure rent is covered. I heard of this event in Waldorf, MD. Lots of DJs, but it's outdoors on Halloween night. Shit will be cold as fuck. I don't really want to dress in a costume and freeze my ass off. Sounds like no fun. And then to be kicked out when the cops bust the field party down... No thanks. My Ass is getting old.

Palin

At first, I thought it was a brain dead move, bringing in Palin to the McCain campaign. But after all the initial stuff, I think I see the biggest pluses she brings to the campaign. At first, given the backdrop of the Hillary storyline, it’s easy to see Palin as Clinton primary voter pandering move. But if you look at who is really excited about her, and where her base of support is, it’s not necessarily the working class that Hillary claimed to get the backing of, or women, but the evangelical. Palin brings the evangelical base. Her politics, from supporting Intelligent Design and anti-environmentalism, are evangelical wing-batism. But the real appeal seems to come from her uncanny good looks and her life story. Say what you want about getting her ex brother in law fired or teen daughter getting pregger… its so distracting to her appearance that all the non-policy issues slide off her. She’s too sexy for your scandal. And then she brings out this picture perfect family, and holds to stuff like hockey mom as if it’s a badge of honor, suburbs of America will eat this shit up. It’s the perfect counter to Obama. If Obama is “different,” “weird,” and “foreign”; Palin is “familiar,” “normal,” almost “cozy”. It works so well, I almost have to hand it to McCain. Smart play.

As convincing as Obama’s speeches are, even I find myself wondering how much of a consensus builder he is versus being a more standard politician. He doesn’t fit the DLC mold, but he’s not exactly a pure liberal contender. He’s something else, and I haven’t quite put my finger around it. That said, I want someone in office who will think about the problems that approach him. That’s Obama’s real strength, his analytical approach. It looks like he spent more time vetting his VP pick, and deciding what was right for him. While McCain might have made a good pick, I don’t see how the two will work together for 4 or 8 years. The choice of Palin, curiously, exposes McCain’s rashness and also gives us the most convincing example of him caving to the evangelical base.

Seeing what has happened to McCain, being remade into this puppet of the right-wing, is not the kind of maverick I voted for in 2000, and he’s not one I want to vote for to today. Palin being the vice president only makes the issue more clear.

Al Gore and Obama address

The final day of the DNC was better than the other nights I saw. I liked Al Gore's speech. It was somewhat bitter, but I can't blame him for that. It was a straight forward message that hit on all the shortcomings of the past 8 years. I'm glad he spoke on it with clarity. Also, there is a real difference in passion when he speaks of climate change vs anything else. That difference in passion is probably why he's doing the best thing for himself by staying out of politics and sticking to promoting climate change awareness.

Obama's speech was... wow. I can't recall a better speech. It lacked specifics that would quell my hesitation concerning Obama's support of civil liberties, but barring that it was perfect.

On Tuesday I commented on Digg just how pointless this whole circle jerk exercise was, but I have to admit that this speech mattered. Color me impressed.

This election will suck, and let me tell you why.

McCain is ahead in the polls.

Obama resorts to personal attacks.

Bob Barr is running as a libertarian.

I want this as a t-shirt. I think it sums up the election in a nutshell.

Sleepy

Personal note, I’ve had a hard time sleeping… Kind of effects me at work and afterward. Just don’t have the energy to do much of anything.

Digg is like the unofficial Obama website. I’m starting to tire of reading about every little thing McCain does stupid. It would be one thing if this was the Daily Show, and they are posing fun at him, but every little quip makes “Popular”, outside of any real perspective. If there was some BIG news, then it should be front page. But everything is front page, so there’s no differentiating and its getting tiresome. By November, I’m not going to care, and I imagine other people will be burned out too. In the end, having people being burned out in November is a bad thing.

That said, seeing McCain’s comeback in the poll is the perhaps the best reason to re-energize Obama. Regardless of however “typical politician” I think Obama is, I don’t think the country can handle 4 years of McCain 2008.

The ebay stuff is going well. Spent $160 on 11 blu-ray titles. It’s under the $20 average Amazon price which is good. Got another 14 blu-ray movies from Amazon that were on sale, and then picked up 6 more from CL. That should build up my Blu-Ray collection, so combined with the HD DVDs I should have a healthy High Def DVD Catalog. Just have to wait for everything to arrive now.


The Media Server’s Hard Drive situation is finally resolved. 3TB running now. I did decide to sell my old LCD monitor and am replacing it with a matching 2nd Dell LCD, also getting a 9600GT for dual DVI goodness. It’s amazing what $100 will buy now in terms of graphics power.

Obamamania

I don't want to sound like a Ron Paul supporter, but the Constitution matters. What makes the American Republic special isn't democracy, but rather the limits government places on itself. At the core, there is a division of private life and public life, and government should be limited from intruding into private life. I think I could live with all of Obama's other reversals, but the FISA one is just makes a WTF moment. I guess he can say he voted against it before he voted before it.

I'm so used to seeing McCain change his beliefs, it's nothing new. But to see Obama do the same thing... is disappointing