Oh, my God... I'm still chuckling a little... check this out:
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Audacity of Hope 2004
During the 2004 DNC, a virtually unknown Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama gave the keynote address for the Kerry/Edwards campaign.
At the time, we were on vacation in Santa Cruz. And as much as I wanted to see the acceptance speeches - I wasn't too concerned with the pomp and circumstance leading up to them.
So when that young Senator took the stage I was outside, washing my mom's car. And when my decidedly non-political wife came outside to tell me I should really see the speech I was missing, I brushed her off.
Later that evening I heard several people assert that Obama would one day be candidate for President. I was convinced that they were caught up in the emotion of the moment, nothing more.
And quite honestly, this is the first time I've seen his '04 speech in it's entirety.
For those who, like me missed the first go-round... or to those who claim he's changed his message over the past four years; I submit for your examination Obama's keynote address from the 2004 DNC (in 2 parts):
Once again... 'nuff said for now.
At the time, we were on vacation in Santa Cruz. And as much as I wanted to see the acceptance speeches - I wasn't too concerned with the pomp and circumstance leading up to them.
So when that young Senator took the stage I was outside, washing my mom's car. And when my decidedly non-political wife came outside to tell me I should really see the speech I was missing, I brushed her off.
Later that evening I heard several people assert that Obama would one day be candidate for President. I was convinced that they were caught up in the emotion of the moment, nothing more.
And quite honestly, this is the first time I've seen his '04 speech in it's entirety.
For those who, like me missed the first go-round... or to those who claim he's changed his message over the past four years; I submit for your examination Obama's keynote address from the 2004 DNC (in 2 parts):
Once again... 'nuff said for now.
McCain's True Bio
Thanks again to "The Daily Show" we now have an accurate (and hilarious) version of John McCain's road to the GOP nomination for President.
As I've personally told many people; I strongly considered McCain as worthy of my vote in 2000.
Sadly, the man who ran the "straight talk" campaign 8 years ago is gone. Replaced by an automoton who will do and say anything to become President.
The folks at the Daily Show have nailed it succinctly with this clip:
As I've personally told many people; I strongly considered McCain as worthy of my vote in 2000.
Sadly, the man who ran the "straight talk" campaign 8 years ago is gone. Replaced by an automoton who will do and say anything to become President.
The folks at the Daily Show have nailed it succinctly with this clip:
The Daily Show clips I couldn't post before
I've decided to see if I can get the other Daily Show clips to embed this time. They're just too priceless to ignore.
First, I'll try the one they called "Sarah Palin - 'Vet This'.."
Okay, that seemed to work. Let's see if I can get the one of Samantha Bee trying to get Republicans to say the C-word on television:
First, I'll try the one they called "Sarah Palin - 'Vet This'.."
Okay, that seemed to work. Let's see if I can get the one of Samantha Bee trying to get Republicans to say the C-word on television:
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Olberman, the RNC and 9/11 TM
My man, Keith Olberman has once again hit the nail on the head. The so-called 9/11 tribute video shown at the RNC was clearly just more GOP fearmongering, and more of their BS claim that "only we can keep America safe".
I find it especially interesting that in that video, they end it with the tag line:
"... and we will never let it happen again."
Really? After 7 years of saying "It's not a matter of if Terrorists will strike again, but when." They are now confidently saying that if kept in power they will NEVER allow it to happen again?
I'll give them one thing... they've got balls. Unfortunately they're made of paper-thin glass and will shatter into a million pieces the moment another terror strike happens.
They've concentrated almost totally on Iraq - a country that hated Al Quaeda before we invaded - and virtually ignored Afghanistan, the country long-believed to be the safe-haven of BinLaden.
Yet they expect us to believe them when they say they are our Protectors. And only they can be trusted with the safety of our nation.
Have you heard about how porous our ports are? I've personally gotten on 2 airplanes with a lighter in my pocket without being questioned. It very easily could have been a glass knife or other non-metalic object. However, they made damn sure my shampoo bottle was the right size.
Anyway... here's a clip of the assinine "tribute" video from the RNC, along with Keith's live reaction:
While I've been working on this post, midnight has come and gone. So it is officially the 7th anniversary of that tragic day.
I remember a certain level of incredulity when I was a kid and heard adults talking about how they all remembered exactly where they were and what they were doing when JFK was assasinated. Ever since 9/11 I've understood what they meant. I still remember the moment I was told that something was going on, and even more vividly remember the first televised images I saw.
I also remember being inundated with those images to the point of saturation. I avoided the television altogether for days. I remember quite well the way I felt that day, and for weeks afterward. The images will never fade from my memory. And I didn't know a single person lost.
A true tribute to 9/11 would have focused on the heros of that day, and the families directly effected, and the healing that has occured over the years - as well as the scars that remain.
Instead, the RNC and McCain/Palin chose to once again smack us across the face with the brutality, violence and terror that we all remember quite well, thank you very much.
All in the interest of furthering their bid for the White House, with their preposterous claim that they are the more qualified or caring party when it comes to protecting America from terrorists.
Oh... and the best part is this - McCain has been claiming since January that he knows how to stop BinLaden. Yet apparently will only share this revelation with the rest of us if we elect him POTUS. Nice.
Olberman puts it much more succinctly than I ever could in his "Special Comment" - so here it is:
'Nuff said for now.
I find it especially interesting that in that video, they end it with the tag line:
"... and we will never let it happen again."
Really? After 7 years of saying "It's not a matter of if Terrorists will strike again, but when." They are now confidently saying that if kept in power they will NEVER allow it to happen again?
I'll give them one thing... they've got balls. Unfortunately they're made of paper-thin glass and will shatter into a million pieces the moment another terror strike happens.
They've concentrated almost totally on Iraq - a country that hated Al Quaeda before we invaded - and virtually ignored Afghanistan, the country long-believed to be the safe-haven of BinLaden.
Yet they expect us to believe them when they say they are our Protectors. And only they can be trusted with the safety of our nation.
Have you heard about how porous our ports are? I've personally gotten on 2 airplanes with a lighter in my pocket without being questioned. It very easily could have been a glass knife or other non-metalic object. However, they made damn sure my shampoo bottle was the right size.
Anyway... here's a clip of the assinine "tribute" video from the RNC, along with Keith's live reaction:
While I've been working on this post, midnight has come and gone. So it is officially the 7th anniversary of that tragic day.
I remember a certain level of incredulity when I was a kid and heard adults talking about how they all remembered exactly where they were and what they were doing when JFK was assasinated. Ever since 9/11 I've understood what they meant. I still remember the moment I was told that something was going on, and even more vividly remember the first televised images I saw.
I also remember being inundated with those images to the point of saturation. I avoided the television altogether for days. I remember quite well the way I felt that day, and for weeks afterward. The images will never fade from my memory. And I didn't know a single person lost.
A true tribute to 9/11 would have focused on the heros of that day, and the families directly effected, and the healing that has occured over the years - as well as the scars that remain.
Instead, the RNC and McCain/Palin chose to once again smack us across the face with the brutality, violence and terror that we all remember quite well, thank you very much.
All in the interest of furthering their bid for the White House, with their preposterous claim that they are the more qualified or caring party when it comes to protecting America from terrorists.
Oh... and the best part is this - McCain has been claiming since January that he knows how to stop BinLaden. Yet apparently will only share this revelation with the rest of us if we elect him POTUS. Nice.
Olberman puts it much more succinctly than I ever could in his "Special Comment" - so here it is:
'Nuff said for now.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Dateline Wasilla, 2000
Today I came across a story I hadn’t heard about since McCain’s announcement of Palin as his running mate. Many others have spoken about it online, but once I found the original article from the local newspaper from Wasilla, Alaska from 2000 - I felt an overwhelming desire to have my say as well.
Unlike many of the other stories about Gov. Palin, this one includes hard numbers claimed by her administration when she was Mayor of Wasilla. This one is straight out of the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So please check out the actual article (linked below) before continuing.
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt
I’ll address Palin’s culpability later. First, let’s do a little math.
The article states that the tests cost between $300 and $1200 apiece. The mean (average) of these numbers is 750, so let’s use that as our estimated cost.
Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon claims in the article that the (then) new law would cost Wasilla between $5,000 and $14,000 per year. The mean (average) of these numbers is 9.5, so let’s say the average yearly cost to Wasilla would be about $9,500.
By dividing 9,500 by 750 we arrive at 12.66666... So let’s call it 12.7. This is the average number of investigated rapes in Wasilla per year, according to the Chief of Police.
According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape#Statistics), the per-capita incidence of rape is around 0.4 per 1000 people over the age of 12.
I’ve heard the population of Wasilla variously reported as being anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000. Apparently, some of this discrepancy is due mostly to rapid growth during the ’90s. Let’s continue to use the mean (average) number for our calculations: in this case, we’ll call the population of Wasilla 6,000.
Using wikipedia’s numbers, the average annual number of rapes in a city the size of Wasilla should come in somewhere around 2.4. And that’s assuming that every person living in Wasilla in 2000 was over the age of 12!!
According to it’s Chief of Police, in 2000 the small town of Wasilla, Alaska was experiencing incidents of rape almost 5.3 times higher than the national average. Even higher if you factor out children under the age of 12.
Now add to that the fact that “only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to police” and it would appear that Wasilla had a very serious problem with rape and sexual assault 8 years ago, during Palin’s 1st term as Mayor.
Whoa!
So what to make of all this? Seems pretty clear to me that one way or another, Sarah Palin was demonstrably ineffective on at least this one issue during her tenure as Mayor.
Why do I say that, you might ask. After all, it wasn’t Palin who made the claims quoted in the article - it was the Police Chief.
Who do you suppose the Chief of Police is subordinate to? Who does he report to? Who is his boss?
The Mayor, that’s who.
So either Palin was behind the policy of charging rape victims for their examinations to save the paltry amount of money claimed by Fannon for such a service - which strengthens the claims that she is a ruthless, money-hungry , cold-hearted bitch . Or she wasn’t even aware of it., which confirms other contentions that she was an ineffective (if not damaging) presence in local politics during her 2 terms as Mayor.
To those Palin supporters who want to write this issue off as “aww… you can’t blame her, she must not have known.” I say: You are the people directly responsible for the state of government in this country. Stop buying the rhetoric on face-value. Do some research.
So either she was the force behind the policy, or she simply knew about it and did nothing to change it, or even worse - she was totally clueless.
None of these scenarios supports the claim that she was an effective Executive at even the level of small-town Mayor. Let alone Governor. And surely not as 2nd in command of the United States of America.
All it points to if McCain/Palin wins this election is more obfuscation, deception and cronyism.
In other words - more of the same from the GOP in DC.
If that’s what you’re looking for, we have nothing to talk about. However, if you are one of the millions buying into McCain’s new-found claim to be an advocate for real change in Washington because it’s what you truly want - I implore you to keep reading. Keep googling. Seek out people who are able to speak about the candidates honestly - warts and all.
If you come across someone who claims that their candidate is perfect… walk, no RUN away.
Do the same if you find someone who is placing a vote AGAINST a candidate.
If you truly want to learn which candidate is right for you, YOU must do the leg-work. Don’t let the media or the pundits do it for you.
Visit websites like www.snopes.com, and www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com to find truly non-partisan parsing of the facts. Be aware that in doing so you will learn things about your candidate that you might not like, but with enough searching and stumbling, you’ll eventually begin to form your own true opinion.
Further searching will land you on blogs like mine. Some you will agree with wholeheartedly.
Others you will wish could be wiped off the face of the earth (the GOP might actually help you with that… just remember that if they can ban the ones you disagree with, they can do the same to the ones you like).
Regardless of where you go or what you find - if you keep yourself open to hearing differing perspectives - you WILL learn something.
About yourself, about our government, and about how you really feel about the future of this great nation.
I encourage everyone to do this, knowing that by doing so I am risking the possibility that some “fence-riders” might be influenced by a position I disagree with and turn to the Dark Side. If you do so of your own accord, with actual facts and personal opinion to back you up - I’m okay with that.
Just don’t walk into the voting booth with the voices of politicians or pundits echoing in your head. Do it truly of your own free will.
And if I meet you in a bar - be prepared to explain your decision without using party-line rhetoric. Use your own words and give me real-world examples of how your candidate is going to benefit you during his time in the White House.
That way, when 2012 rolls around… one of us will be able to say “I told you so.”
And actually mean it.
Unlike many of the other stories about Gov. Palin, this one includes hard numbers claimed by her administration when she was Mayor of Wasilla. This one is straight out of the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So please check out the actual article (linked below) before continuing.
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2000/05/23/news.txt
I’ll address Palin’s culpability later. First, let’s do a little math.
The article states that the tests cost between $300 and $1200 apiece. The mean (average) of these numbers is 750, so let’s use that as our estimated cost.
Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon claims in the article that the (then) new law would cost Wasilla between $5,000 and $14,000 per year. The mean (average) of these numbers is 9.5, so let’s say the average yearly cost to Wasilla would be about $9,500.
By dividing 9,500 by 750 we arrive at 12.66666... So let’s call it 12.7. This is the average number of investigated rapes in Wasilla per year, according to the Chief of Police.
According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape#Statistics), the per-capita incidence of rape is around 0.4 per 1000 people over the age of 12.
I’ve heard the population of Wasilla variously reported as being anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000. Apparently, some of this discrepancy is due mostly to rapid growth during the ’90s. Let’s continue to use the mean (average) number for our calculations: in this case, we’ll call the population of Wasilla 6,000.
Using wikipedia’s numbers, the average annual number of rapes in a city the size of Wasilla should come in somewhere around 2.4. And that’s assuming that every person living in Wasilla in 2000 was over the age of 12!!
According to it’s Chief of Police, in 2000 the small town of Wasilla, Alaska was experiencing incidents of rape almost 5.3 times higher than the national average. Even higher if you factor out children under the age of 12.
Now add to that the fact that “only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to police” and it would appear that Wasilla had a very serious problem with rape and sexual assault 8 years ago, during Palin’s 1st term as Mayor.
Whoa!
So what to make of all this? Seems pretty clear to me that one way or another, Sarah Palin was demonstrably ineffective on at least this one issue during her tenure as Mayor.
Why do I say that, you might ask. After all, it wasn’t Palin who made the claims quoted in the article - it was the Police Chief.
Who do you suppose the Chief of Police is subordinate to? Who does he report to? Who is his boss?
The Mayor, that’s who.
So either Palin was behind the policy of charging rape victims for their examinations to save the paltry amount of money claimed by Fannon for such a service - which strengthens the claims that she is a ruthless, money-hungry , cold-hearted bitch . Or she wasn’t even aware of it., which confirms other contentions that she was an ineffective (if not damaging) presence in local politics during her 2 terms as Mayor.
To those Palin supporters who want to write this issue off as “aww… you can’t blame her, she must not have known.” I say: You are the people directly responsible for the state of government in this country. Stop buying the rhetoric on face-value. Do some research.
So either she was the force behind the policy, or she simply knew about it and did nothing to change it, or even worse - she was totally clueless.
None of these scenarios supports the claim that she was an effective Executive at even the level of small-town Mayor. Let alone Governor. And surely not as 2nd in command of the United States of America.
All it points to if McCain/Palin wins this election is more obfuscation, deception and cronyism.
In other words - more of the same from the GOP in DC.
If that’s what you’re looking for, we have nothing to talk about. However, if you are one of the millions buying into McCain’s new-found claim to be an advocate for real change in Washington because it’s what you truly want - I implore you to keep reading. Keep googling. Seek out people who are able to speak about the candidates honestly - warts and all.
If you come across someone who claims that their candidate is perfect… walk, no RUN away.
Do the same if you find someone who is placing a vote AGAINST a candidate.
If you truly want to learn which candidate is right for you, YOU must do the leg-work. Don’t let the media or the pundits do it for you.
Visit websites like www.snopes.com, and www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com to find truly non-partisan parsing of the facts. Be aware that in doing so you will learn things about your candidate that you might not like, but with enough searching and stumbling, you’ll eventually begin to form your own true opinion.
Further searching will land you on blogs like mine. Some you will agree with wholeheartedly.
Others you will wish could be wiped off the face of the earth (the GOP might actually help you with that… just remember that if they can ban the ones you disagree with, they can do the same to the ones you like).
Regardless of where you go or what you find - if you keep yourself open to hearing differing perspectives - you WILL learn something.
About yourself, about our government, and about how you really feel about the future of this great nation.
I encourage everyone to do this, knowing that by doing so I am risking the possibility that some “fence-riders” might be influenced by a position I disagree with and turn to the Dark Side. If you do so of your own accord, with actual facts and personal opinion to back you up - I’m okay with that.
Just don’t walk into the voting booth with the voices of politicians or pundits echoing in your head. Do it truly of your own free will.
And if I meet you in a bar - be prepared to explain your decision without using party-line rhetoric. Use your own words and give me real-world examples of how your candidate is going to benefit you during his time in the White House.
That way, when 2012 rolls around… one of us will be able to say “I told you so.”
And actually mean it.
Monday, September 8, 2008
YAY!! It's time for more clips!!!
First; special thanks to Jon Stewart and the folks at "The Daily Show" for putting together the following piece. IMHO it's a pretty good benchmark for the duplicity of the GOP and is a clear indication that FoxNews is anything but fair or balanced.
Here's another one from "The Daily Show". I know, I know... they're fake News. However, they're never too far away from the video archives - and it seems people there have really good memories. This bit is from the night after McCain's acceptance speech, and it's freakin' hilarious. And what's the old line about good comedy? "It's funny because it's true."
That's it for the fun and games for now. For some reason the other 2 clips that I wanted to use won't embed for me. Hope you enjoyed these ones, and perhaps some of you gained a little perspective.
Here's another one from "The Daily Show". I know, I know... they're fake News. However, they're never too far away from the video archives - and it seems people there have really good memories. This bit is from the night after McCain's acceptance speech, and it's freakin' hilarious. And what's the old line about good comedy? "It's funny because it's true."
That's it for the fun and games for now. For some reason the other 2 clips that I wanted to use won't embed for me. Hope you enjoyed these ones, and perhaps some of you gained a little perspective.
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