Another Round: Primary & Cartoons

Romney is a droppout

Republican Mitt Romney has dropped out of the Presidential Race. Even before giving the speech in Boston, the news outlets were buzzing about what would happen to Romney's 280 or so (depending on who you go by) delegates. There are state rules and party rules. Does one half go to John McCain and another half go Mike Huckabee? Are they proportional to the amount that those other candidates also managed to win in those primaries?

Say, if McCain won 22% in Minnesota, Romney won 44% in Minnesota with Huckabee taking 20% and Paul taking the remaining 13%. (This is hypothetical. I'll check the numbers later). if this is the case then McCain gets all of Romney's 44% in addition to his own? Or does he get all? Well, the GOP primaries are for the most part WTA (Winner-take-all), but there of course exceptions such as California which went in favor of McCain but didn't give him all its delegates. One would have to assume that the delegates themselves would need to make that decision. As yet, many of these delegates have yet to be chosen. We keep pandeying about this word delegate but there aren't any delegates yet. Hmm....

All this could be for not. In Minnesota, a caucus state, the people could still choose to support Romney despite the end of his campaign. Delegates could switch to Huckabee making these delegates spoilers so to speak. The RNC could be a riot just like the DNC. I'm really hoping it isn't. I live in Minnesota.

The articles about the speech were void of actual quotes from Romney. It seems in their hurry to get an article out with a grinning McCain, they decided not to even listen to the former Governor from Massachusetts. i mean, he's still an important figure in American Politics!!! Give him his due, people! They even referred to him as a droppout. Thats a little crass , if you ask me. It's like he decided to stop going to high school to smoke weed and bad mouth his country.

Update: MSNBC updated their article to give a couple of quotes... well, I guess someone listened.

CNN, which counts Romney having 286 delegates, says that it puts McCain at a margin of 78 for getting the nomination. Aren't they jumping the gun a little? We still don't know if that is where the delegates will go. By Romney releasing his delegates, there are allowed to decide their own destiny, even if they don't know who they are yet. Only in America could we have this kind of kerfluffel.

This headline made me pause. I thought it said rape. My mistake.

I had to peek at the numbers for Minnesota where I knew Romney had won. I wasn't off by much at all! I provided the link for verification.

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Delegates
Mitt Romney	25,702	41.93%	36
John McCain	13,552	22.11%	0
Mike Huckabee	12,322	20.10%	0
Ron Paul	9,717	15.85%	0
Rudy Giuliani	0	0%	0
Total	61,293	100%	36

Funny Pictures

And just because its funny..... Howard Dean.... alone......

McCain wins big; Dems split vote

So, Super Tuesday has happened.

Mike Huckabee was definitely the surprising force of the night. He started out winning West Virginia which had a convention. This began Mitt Romney's cry that there was some backroom deal between McCain and Huckabee. Here's why: the WV convention is basically run as two rounds of voting. After the first round, when the McCain supporters realized there was no way they could win, moved their support to Huckabee.

I will address this on two fronts. First, there has been some suspicion that McCain has bee n making deals ala Survivor to gain the nomination of the Republican Party. It has been suggested that he asked Thompson, who stood no legitimate chance of winning, to stay in through South Carolina to run interference for McCain. The same thing is believed to have occurred with Rudy Guiliani in Florida. Guiliani and McCain are known to be friends as Thompson is as well. McCain tends to appeal the center and has political friends who are centrists. I'll even throw Colin Powell in there though I've never read that they were friends but I can definitely see the two of them getting along. Hell, Joe Lieberman is running around with McCain!!! Maybe that bothers the conservatives: a liberal Connecticut Orthodox Jew is supporting a Republican.

Second, that's politics!!!! Anyone knows that those things happen. Its the nature of the game. Even though Romney outspent both his opponents by millions, it was all for not. And he cried foul after that West Virginia convention which was the first contest called of the day. What a whiny, little pussy!

Though I will grant this: McCain is winning for some unexplainable reason. He didn't win the conservative vote. The southern Cons went for Huckabee and the Northern cons went for Romney. He won amongst moderate Republicans who are anti-war (which he is not) and those in favor of aboritionrights (which I won't try to qualify him on. He is pro-life but has also been on record saying the alternative would be worse). I like him because he is pragmatic. I like someone who is more concerned with being practical and making sense than satisfying idealogues who want someone to do their bidding. McCain has been rebellious since about the age of 8 and is unapologetically so. I want a president who thinks for himself. The alternative is a government run by committee.

Radio blowhards are just attacking him. Conservative Talk Radio is just plain babble. These village idiots with their radio soapboxes are ranting about how they cannot stand the other side. Rush Limbaugh vilifies McCain for reaching across the aisle to work with the other party. All Limbaugh is doing is proofing the rest of the country right: Conservatives are smug, hateful and cold people who would rather hate their fellow American than learn to live with them.

And I hate (not really, but it sure sounds good) to break it to Conservative Republicans but he is the last hope for your broken down, mean little party. This is the party that gave us Abraham Lincoln who felt that after the Civil War, the north should reach out to help the South and not grind the Confederate states under the northern boot. Somehow, I feel that empathy is missing.

Americans are tired of the "My way or the highway" approach to politics. It is fracturing this country and is leading us down the path of destruction. People are fed up with neo-conservatism. True conservatism, which is what McCain is closer to, is preferable compared to the shit that Bush, Limbaugh and all their ilk keep shoveling down our throats. I think they're poor sports and bad losers just like Romney.

On the Democratic side there isn't really much to talk about. Hillary lost her voice in the days leading up to the primaries. She was fighting a cold. She cried at one point on Monday. When all was said and done, she had won the more populous states whilst Obama had taken the less populous ones but more of them.

The races coming up on Saturday: Louisiana, the caucus in Washington, Democrats in Nebraska, Republicans in Kansas and as well as the Democratic primary in the Virgin Islands which like American Samoa, can vote in primary but has no voice in the general election. On Sunday, Maine holds its Democratic primary in Maine. There will be a Potomac primary is next Tuesday. This is a primary that I am more interested in. It is the states of Virginia and Maryland and Washington, D.C. Look for LOTS of press on that day. it won't be near the juggernaut that last night was but it will be important.

Tidbits: Clinton saying "missourah". She's from Illinois. She should be saying Misery.

Super Tuesday Countdown T-24 hours

Back to the Blog!!! In the past month, the Primary season has started. Since that time we've had a few casualties in the race for President. on the Republican side, Thompson and Guiliani are gone. On the Democratic side, Richardson and Edwards are gone.

Feasably, this leaves McCain and Romney to duke it out for the Republican nomination with Huckabee trying to get in and Ron Paul throwing rotten tomatoes from the stands. I will reveal that I was pulling for Ron Paul in September. Since then I wavered. But we'll get to that...

On the Democratic side, its really down to two people: Hillary & Obama. I don't think a lot of people call her Clinton. Either we don't want to confuse some people, taint her or she's a woman and women weren't typically referred by their last name back in the bay. Whatever it is, I don't call her Clinton either.

I miss Edwards. He made me laugh. I am now torn between these two who impress me and then disappoint me in one breath it seems.... everyday. I suppose that is the nature of politics: Never getting exactly what you want. It ain't Burger King. Which reminds me...

Ok, one whopper later...

I want to talk a bit about my political history... yeah.... Back in the early '90's, I swallowed what my parents said and didn't think for myself. But eventually, I did. I decided to be pro-life, anti-gun (which my parents were, too), but particularly, anti-Christian coalition. Back in 1994, the Republicans took over Congress after decades of Democratic rule there. It was an orgy of Republican happiness. But the Christian Coalition bothered me. And I could not quite put my finger on it until I learned more about my country. The whole State and Religion thing. Its not wrong for someone to run according to their faith. But it is inherently wrong to run a country according to a person's faith. Why? Because even Baptists can't agree with each other!!! You think other faiths can, too? No, a secular nation with laws based on moral (not Christian) principles is best, in my ever so humble opinion.

I completely switched parties at the age of 16 which isn't saying much since I couldn't vote for two more years. But I started to pay attention and get to know people. I was interested in politics even then. And it was a lot harder to get immersed into something when the Internet was still crawling. We had access but there wasn't really information. Therefore, I watched a lot of CNN and a ton of C-SPAN. I had the C-SPAN schedule memorized. And when 2 came along, oh happy day!!! I eventually began to notice this guy from Arizona named John McCain. To be honest, I thought he was Catholic since his name was Irish. I didn't know much about things like that then. I just assumed Irish=Catholic. Period.

My Dad didn't like him. He served in the Navy in Vietnam and said the fire on the USS Forestal was his fault. And that he lost 4 planes. Well, considering my Dad was a SEaL and lost parts of his brain in 'nam, I'd say McCain made it out better. Anyways, I noticed him as early as 1995. The following year, I was disappointed that he didn't run for President. I thought he would have been perfect. I couldn't see voting for Bob Dole who looked like he was made of wood or was going to fall apart at a moment's notice. I guess I thought he was biding his time. I started collecting newspaper articles on the maverick Senator from Arizona and registered myself as a Democrat. And then I joined the Navy...

The 2000 election will go down as horrific on many fronts. But I can understand why McCain would be so angry at Bush even if they were in the same party. McCain does take things a little personally and in many cases its humorous and a little annoying. But from what I've read of the 2000 campaign, there were some reasons to take things personally. Someone ran a campaign to smear McCain using his then 9-year-old daughter, Bridget. Bridget is Bengali and was brought from Mother Teresa's orphanage by the Senator's wife, Cindy, when she was 10 weeks old. She needed medical treatment and they eventually were able to adopt her. But smear said McCain had had an illicit affair and father a black baby which in South Carolina was a hellworthy trespass, let alone, reason enough for conservative voters to swing toward Bush who had no black daughter to speak of. There were other smears like those directed toward Cindy's addiction to painkillers (Everyone has addictions to something legal or illegal. Get over yourselves). For this, I can see why McCain would carry some anger toward Bush. It benefited from the campaign and its fair to assume that it came from him. McCain stayed on and I began to lose hope.

In 2004, I was not in the Navy but starting College now, I was hoping he'd run. He must have made a promise or something because he didn't. Two years later, sitting in the parking lot outside my school, smoking a cigarette before Comparative Politics, I heard on NPR that McCain was gathering people who'd worked on Bush's campaign to work for his campaign. I groaned... Later, he was giving going to be speaking at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University commencement. I just about gagged. Didn't he once call him an "Agent of Intolerance"? I was rightly pissed. I may call myself a Democrat but I had carried a torch for John McCain for over decade at this point. I'd even enlisted in the same branch of military (just for the record: since BOTH of my parents were in the Navy, they would have shot me for joining anything else... well, maybe disowned me for joining the Marines).

But I took comfort in one small detail in all the rhetoric: he was running for President again.

And Clinton by this point was known to be. I counted on Edwards and Biden who is perpetually running for president. I thought Kucinich was a freak of nature. I figured that Guiliani would be in there. I became annoyed that Thompson took so long to jump in. I thought Romney was a goof and Huckabee was too religious.

Ron Paul was closer to how I felt politically but I knew he'd never go the distance. I heard of Obama early in 2007. He was non-committal at this point. But he was starting to get his message out there. I remember watching his speech in front of the Old Capital Building to announce his candidacy. I had never heard someone allude to or say the name Lincoln in all my life. And probably never will again. [psst... he was a Republican!] But, did that stick in my memory. See, prior to 1994, I lived in Illinois for a few years and that was where my accent was finally cemented and my geographic identity was settled. I identify strongly with Illinois political values. And I love Lincoln. I was intrigued to say the least.

But now as we get down to Super Tuesday, the next couple of days will be interesting. Hell, the rest of the year is going to be interesting!!! This is what politics is all about!

One last picture. One of Edwards with his wife. They are saying good-bye. I'm posting it because we constantly treat politicians like crooks and liars. Every politician is a human. Every politician has problems and stresses in their life. Every politician has someone behind them. So, a nice photo to remember that there is someone who suffers through campaigns right along with them.

Back to the proverbial Grindstone

So... the last time I posted anything was on Veteren's Day. Instead of saying how much I suck, I'm just gonna gussy up and slog through. Even if no one is reading any longer. I want to talk about the Presidential Election. Its coming down to two people on either side (at least in my opinion). Here's my take on those that have weathered the storm of political wackiness that is our electoral process (a collective groan is appropriate).

I'll start with the Democrats. Bear in mind that this is based on my take on these people and may not actually be based on fact. Who cares about the facts anyway? This is politics! Let the wonks fight over the facts!!!

Hillary, or Billary.... I have supported Hill at times. I think she has good ideas like making sure that stay-at-home moms still have a retirement fund (who knows what will happen, eh?) but this has not received much press. I can see why: Everybody would be required to get her health care plan! And the people who'd pay for it? Those who make $250,000 or more a year. I'm not sure I like a compulsory health care plan. What about extending medicaid and medicare to everyone? Social Security was originally a plan set up for Widows and orphans. All FDR did back in the day was extend it to everyone. What is little known is that it is not legally required that a person have a Social Security number to live or work in the United States. Did you know that? Keep that in mind...

But I have a hard time with Obama. What the hell does he really stand for? What does he really plan on doing? Use over inflated hyperbolic speech for 4 years? He's got charisma, I'll grant him that. But what in God's name does he want to do?

Eh... I don't even care.... good night!!

We're off the air!!!!!!

6 November 2007
Dateline....

Don't you miss that? Don't news outlets know how to be newsy anymore? Did Walter Cronkite take that with him when he retired?

Anyways, I've been out of it for a few weeks. I'm moving into the gritty part of the semester and I'm actually beginning to enjoy it. Granted, I'm jobless (which sucks) and I'm still nursing a perpetual broken hand. But no worries...

I have several things with which to undertake on this November day. They are as follows:

1. Hillary Clinton's "victimhood"
2. waterboarding
3. Writers' Guild Strike
4. My awesome presentation in Global Studies last week
5. Pakistan: 'nuff said

They will not be attacked in that order. Also, I will be writing another get to know the candidates here in a week. I will also be filling you in on some WWII stuff that is rather current. On Sunday, we will have Armistice Day which is a significant day and not just for veterans.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, we move on to the opinions.

Pakistan. Its not even the only one undergoing political upheaval. There is some going on in Georgia. Suicide bombings are taking place with more frequency in Afghanistan. First, a small history of this nation. The nation originally was two chunks sliced from India in 1947 in what is called Partition. This was a bloody birth for the young nations. In 1971, the eastern part split away and became Bangladesh. Pakistan has alternated since 1972 between Prime Ministers named Bhutto, first Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and then his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, and military leaders. In 1998, the nation became nuclear just after India did which led to a war particularly in the long contested borderland, Kashmir. In 1999, the current military dictator Pervez Musharraf took over in a bloodless coup. Since then he has reigned over the Muslim state with a heavy hand and yet, the current US administration has fostered a closer relationship than most would find comfortable. Benazir Bhutto returned from 9 years of exile just last month.

On November 1, Bhutto left Pakistan for Dubai. The following day the Supreme Court of Pakistan reversed an earlier decision to allow for an election to proceed in January without scrutinizing the previous election that was challenged by Wajihuddin Ahmad. At 1720, November 3, the Pakistani television reported that a state emergency was imminent. Twenty minutes later, the private media went off the air. At 10 minutes after 6 PM, local time, the state run stations reported that indeed the state emergency had been declared. At 7, it is reported that constitution has been suspended.

Musharraf has claimed that he declared martial law to protect the nation from terrorists. In reality, it is a power grab.. Bhutto has stated that Pakistan is returning to a dictatorship. Musharraf has expressed some dismay with the media's "negative" reporting. "The media could not lend a helping hand to improve the situation" said Musharraf in his speech to the people of Pakistan. The Army has entered the Supreme Court and detained detained Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry because the "judiciary is not working efficiently".

Since the emergency began, journalists, lawyers and other "terrorists" have been detained or in some cases, killed. As seen in other power grabs throughout history, liberal middle classes and the ‎educated classes have been targeted. These are the people who are going to object and will be able to do more than merely object but rally opposition. They pose a huge danger to the regime that Musharraf wants to hold onto. And of course, protests and violence as the Army cracks down on media outlets and regular citizens alike.

What may disturb many Americans is Musharraf's references to Lincoln. Lincoln, though credited with preserving the union and abolishing slavery, made some decisions that, in hindsight, are not considered the wisest. During the Civil War, as with any war, the executive retained certain powers that were stipulated under the constitution. One of these was Habeas Corpus. Over the course of American History, there have been several times when laws have been imposed and rights infringed. Presidents Adams (the first one), Wilson, Roosevelt (the second one) and Nixon have all made strides to make being American a lot tougher.

Bush is right in there who buttered up this military leader so that we could use Pakistan for our wars. Now, we don't even know what to do. The State Department tells Musharraf to knock it off. They keep expressing disappointment. Oh, like that's a threat? Well, yeah, it could be since their alliance was rather... lucrative on their end.

I want to send out a huge "oorah" (I'm ex Navy) to Geo TV and ARY one for deciding to continue reporting the news on the Internet. By doing so, they are working to keep not only their fellow Pakistanis informed but also the rest of the world. Otherwise, we are all stuck with Musharraf and the sanitized state-run media (which I'm sure even you guys are sick of). They're risking a lot to not be complacent and keep working to bring out the truth. For those who understand Urdu go for it. Even if you don't they do speak in English occasionally. For myself, I know Hindi and can make out some of the words and get the gist.

In the meantime, the story is receiving little coverage here in the United States. The Cable News outlets are barely mentioning it. CNN has paid it some attention whilst Fox has devoted nightly opinion shows to Dog the Bounty Hunter. Bill O'Reilly is a lost cause: his show is an excuse to show banned or salacious material that his stooges find on the Internet that "we should not see" and then are shown anyways.

I need to move on. What else is on the list? Hillary Clinton. Lately she has found that the rest of the Democratic candidates are ganging up in her like the Republicans have been. There has been some call that its an "Old Boys Club" and they are ganging up on her cause she's a chick. Well, I don't know about her being a woman, but I don't think that's why. Its called ganging up on the guy in the lead. Or in football, the guy with the ball.

She's the receiver and the ball slips. She dives as does everybody else, those on the team, on the opposing team and the kickers (Paul and Kucinich). They all pile up on the ball. Its going to be about who has the ball when the ref pulls the bodies off.

So, why the complaining? Because it works! By playing the victim she gets women who know what she means. Women can't get a decent run for anything in this country. Men are unable to claim that they are just ganging up on the leader because it sounds sexist. They're screwed.

But is it that tough for a woman in a man's world? Can a woman become the leader of a country? I would like to take this time to point out that both India and Pakistan have elected women as leaders. These are two nations considered far more conservative than the United States. In addition, the first elected women Prime Minister (Ministress?) was Sirivamo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka in 1960, the same year the United States elected its first Roman Catholic. 1974 saw the first women president in Argentina, Isabel Perón, otherwise known as Evita.

On top of all this there are currently 7 female presidents worldwide: Chile, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia, The Philippines and Switzerland. There are 4 Prime Ministers: Germany, New Zealand, Mozambique and The Netherlands Antilles. Only Suadi Arabia and Monoco have never had a female anywhere in government. Sweden became the first to recently have their "cabinet" be more female than male with an 11-9 count. If these women can make it, what's wrong with Hillary? If Benazir Bhutto could make it?!?!?!? Hell, some countries who've managed to be led by a woman have been Norway, Canada, Ukraine, Panama, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Peru, Latvia, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Malta, Turkey, Portugal, France, Jamaica, and I don't know... GREAT BRITAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I need to get onto other things. Like Waterboarding. Yeah, Waterboarding. The practice is torture. Messing around with the legal terminology all you want does not change the fact that it is torture. It is also form of coercion.

You hold a gun to a person's head and tell them to tell you what you want to know or they die. Hmm... tough choice. Either they bet you bluff or they spill their guts/lie. They more than likely lie. When you say "tell me what I want to know!!!" Gee, ok. I'll tell you. And we have laws to reject confessions from being admissible as evidence. So, what makes the evidence gleaned from this practice any more credible? Because its the CIA?!?!?! Oh God, we're all fucked!!!!!!

Now, the Writer's Strike. Beyond the fact that I've waited long enough for Battlestar Galactica. The writers have now seen fit to stop working. As ticked some of us may be, there is a point to this madness. It is the fees that are made off internet and DVD sales. These writers create material that is, like it or not, intellectual material. Depsite the traditional way of seeing the writing as a product for the show and therefore, the show's proberty, we've changed where something conceived in someone's mind is now their proberty. Even if they were paid a salary to do it and should be happy.

But with the MPAA and RIAA raising a ruckus about intellectual property and the copyrights it is now coming back to bite them. Well, its biting the MPAA. The RIAA has its own hydra to worry about. It cannot have it both ways. The writers want to have some of the take when it becomes natural that a film or TV show which 20 years ago made a splash at the box office, faded, maybe made some money in Video sales and rentals then died, is now making killings years after its wrap party. These goods now make money in perpetuity and the writers feel they should, too. So, in essence I agree with them. I just hope that people start watching more news or something.

All Right... last thing... I think.... well two. I had to give a presentation in class on Thursday. My topic was the Global Civil Society and particularly warfare of modern era. I stood up at the front of the classroom and lectured on this with a 72 count powerpoint presentation. I went to town and talked about everything. And when I was done speaking there were a lot of questions. I spent another 45 minutes discussing those.

Afterwards, I was outside with many of my classmates. I got a bunch of good reviews and was even told I should teach the class. So, I feel pretty good about that. I did very well when I thought I might not.

Today, in my Comparative Constitution class, a question was posed to us in the course of debating headscarves in Germany. The Metric system has yet to be adopted in the US making us the lone holdout against the rest of the world. What was brought up was our reason for not jumping on the bandwagon. It would cost trillions to change over all the measurements in the entire country. Well, other western nations have done that and we wouldn't be talking about a 2 year switchover plan. More like 20 year.

And, those trillions would create jobs. Which would create taxes. So, the trillions would end up in government coffers in some way. The government could even go so far as to offer tax deductions to companies who such and such money to implement the plan especially if they do so quicker than mandated by the 20 year plan. We'd start saving money because we spend gobs of money every year on conversions. Yes, conversions!!! In the end companies would save money. They also wouldn't have to make things like speedometers in two sets of numbers!

Ok, on this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

A scant four years later, the last unit to surrender after the Civil War was the CSS Shenandoah. It circumnavigated the globe and went looking for ships to sink. Um, kind of sounds rednecky if you ask me, which you didn't. And it managed to fire it guns off the coast of Alaska.

On this day in 1917, the third battle of Ypres ends as does the irregular papers printed celebrating the "entrenched" battle being waged there.

Back in 1935, Edwin Armstrong revealed his radio discovery called Frequency Modulation aka, FM.

In 1985, "Irangate" was undergoing and it was uncovered that Reagan authorized shipments of arms to Iran.

Time to blow this popsicle stand.

Smoking Lamp is out!

P.O.T.U.S. '08: Independent Edition

So you know that there is a presidential election going on? Ok, well I want to take occasional oppotunities to talk about politicians that are running and even some who are not. I also will be taking time to discuss certain posts that are in the administration that a worthy candidate upon election will be filling.

I will choose them somewhat randomly. To begin with, however, I'm leaving out the Republican and Democratic parties and focusing on the lesser known ones (Hey, there are more than two parties here!!). I will work my way to the biggees later. They get more coverage so what's the point? In fact lets go with the completely unaffiliated candidates.

In a randomized order...

#1 Joe Schriner.

He calls himself "Average" Joe Schriner and he is from Bluffton, Ohio. He was bron in 1955 in Cleveland. Currently, his family consists of his wife Liz and three children. Mr. Schriner is a Roman Catholic.

A graduate of Bowling Green University and a freelance journalist, he is running for the third time in a row. He has worked as a painter and handyman. It appears that he is also a coach for Little League Baseball (yay, baseball).

There isn't much listed on his NPAT but that will likely be forthcoming. However, there is some information that says Mr. Schriner supports the implementation of a Department of Peace. He shares this idea with Representative Dennis Kucinich. There is some question as to his independence. He may be part of a so-called Third Party party. He registered with the Green Party in July of 2006.

To keep an eye on this candidate, go here. Otherwise, on with the candidates!

#2 Frank Moore:

A San Francisco artist and performer born in 1946 is running. He came under fire in the early '90's by Senator Jesse Helms for his "obscene" art. The NEA also was a bit wary of his tastes. He does actually do some rather erotic stuff. He was born with cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or talk.

He lists several issues on his platform. Some things are rather extreme compared to other candidates such as guaranteeing "universal prenatal-to-the-grave health care and universal free education with equal access". He has stated that every American would receive $1,000/month that would be non-taxable. His tax scheme also calls for a flat tax and an end to tax deductions for those who make more than $12,000. Essentially, those who make money and do not just live on the government stipend will be taxed.

He says he will cut the military by at least half. He also stated that he will make mass public transit "free, 24/7, and reliable". He also promises to "forgive the loans to the so-called third-world countries over the original principle".

If you'd like to read the entire platform which is very lengthy go here.

#3 Blake Ashby:

The Missouri entrepreneur became a republican during his sophomore year. He even ran in 2004 as a republican for the highest office in the land. He has since become disenchanted with the republican values of his fellow party members. Many of whom do not strictly hold the ideals of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. Mr. Ashby is a stronger proponent of free market capitalism and believes that many of the Republican candidates do much to hurt the free market with regulation and constriction.

Blake Ashby's website can be viewed here.

#4 Michael Moriarty:

The actor who, born in 1941, played Ben Stone on NBC's legal drama Law & Order. He has tonies and emmies. He is from Detroit. A Republican and pro-lifer, he has some rather interesting statements about how people in this country would have you believe that unborn children in the first 2 trimesters are "no more than egg yolk".

Mr. Moriarty left the United States in 1994 for Canada and was a self-proclaimed political exile. He has gained Canadian citizen which you would think might preclude someone from being able to run for President of the United States. His official party is the Realist Party. His campaign website is unreachable therefore, I've provided a MySpace link.

#5 Jonathan "the Impaler" Sharkey:
Ok, this guy I know. He is a self described Vampyre who drinks his girlfriend's blood. He is originally from New Jersey but makes his home in Minnesota which is why I know about him. He entered the gubernatorial race early in 2006 which cost his girlfriend her job as a school bus driver after outing her as a witch in the media. At the time he made claims that he would impale sex offenders on the lawn of the State Capital building. He has run for president two previous times and for other elected offices in New Jersey, Indiana and Florida. Mr. Sharkey is also a satanist and hates God but not his followers. He was arrested in 2006 but the subsequent trial ended with a verdict of not-guilty.

Apparently, he back in Jersey and still running on the impaling platform. After encountering an unreachable campaign site and a difficult to find myspace page, I have at least his myspace page. I post that picture of him, but there is apparently one of him in a suit from his race for governor here. There is also a documentary called Impaler about him.

I do not endorse these candidates nor an parties, if specified if they run for them. You may notice trends among them such as extreme views on certain issues or measures that should be undertaken. Take this what you will. At times, some candidates are stating causes that are related to problems that deeply affect them on an individual basis or, as in the case of Mr. Moriarty, a moral one. These candidates aren't tied to a political party machine and have less money to work with as well. It is unlikely that people outside their communities and obsessives like myself know of them. They are however, part of the political process and as citizens who are as equal to any other law-abiding citizen deserve the chance to run and be heard.

I, again, formerly endorse no candidate and merely serve to inform. I have my own convictions but until such time as they prove relevant, they shall not find themselves printed in this blog for the interest of avoiding bias.

Thats it for this edition of get to know the candidates.

FUBAR on SNAFU

Heh. Interesting day today. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی‌نژاد) visited Columbia University in New York. He was invited to the campus to speak before going to the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow. Its likely that the speech he gave today will be what he'll give tomorrow.

He questioned why the Palestinians should pay for the crimes of Germany. He also said that he thought the way the US managed the world is wrong.

Before he got the chance to speak, the president of the University, Lee Bollinger, had plenty to say, much of it insulting, about the leader after defending the school's decision to host Ahmadinejad on Good Morning America today. He said "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator". He also told the president that there is no reason to research the holocaust: "The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history".

Despite he past claims that Israel should be wiped off the map, he would not go so far as say that here. The likelihood he would not escape New York City with his life or something like it may have been a motivation for the omission. He did comment that the Palestinians deserve self-determination and free elections. To read more on this, there's a large article on CNN.

See that? POTUS?! What a weird name, right? Well it's a new channel on subscription satellite radio service XM radio. This channel is on number 130 and will likely have a 14 month or so life. This will take it through the election of the President of the United States next November. That's right, POTUS stands for the President and his (her) title. After previews and such it has finally gone on the air. Yay!!! If you're a subscriber, tune in!

Recently, maybe today, there was a story about protest songs. Back in the day, there were heaps of songs protesting the Vietnam conflict. One such song was "Save the Country" by the 5th Dimension. Apparently, there is a line in the song that refers to the Kennedy's:

"Come on, people
Sons and mothers
Keep the dream of
The two young brothers

Take that dream
And ride that dove
We could build the dream
With love, I know"

It made me pause. I forget, and I think many people do, how much of an affect the Kennedy's had on the country. I dunno...

Marcel Marceau, the famous French mime, died at the age of 84, on September 22nd. He left no last words.

Back on this day in 622, Muhammad completed his pilgrimage or Hegira. This would be the first on many for Muslims. It continues today and is a major tenet for Muslims the world over.

In 1664, the Netherlands surrenders New Amsterdam to England. It is now known as New York.

In 1890, The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints denounced polygamy with purpose being Utah becoming a state. It never goes truly out of practice and the debate around the practice continues to this day.

On this day in 1906, US President Theodore Roosevelt made Devil's Tower the first national monument.

In 1957, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders the 101st Airborne to go into Little Rock to enforce desegregation at the high school there.

And in 1991, Nirvana released their album Nevermind. Rock music would be never be the same.

عصر بخی

Asr be kheyr!
(That's "Good Evening" in Farsi)

The Next Contestant...

See that guy? That is New Mexico's very own Bill Richardson. He was born in Pasadena, California to a half Hispanic father and a Mexican mother. This, of course, leads many to believe that the Hispanic governor is pro-illegal immigrant. We'll eveluate that later.

But first, I want to discuss a particular moment in time. Some time ago, some classified data pertaining to nuclear energy went missing in the form of hard drives. At the time, Bill Richardson was the Secretary of Energy under 2nd term Bill Clinton. You can imagine how things were going for that man... Due to wrangling involved, during the senate investigation into espionage and what have you, (it really is too complicated to get into. I remember some of this from when it went on. But really, this government investigations are really good at 1. Destroying whole swaths of forestland due to the tonnes of paper needed for everything; 2. Digging up everything on a person like when they got a haircut, walked the dog, sold secrets to China... you know, little things; 3. Digging up actual people: Alive and Dead; 4. Taking an infentesimal time to accomplish ABSOLUTELY NOTHING; 5. But look good in the process, prove to those slack-jawed wankers at home that you indeed "work" and therefore, will get re-elected.) Richardson came to the senate to yabber about his non-responsibilty to the Senators old and dying (Strom was there). Richardson shrugged off a Senate appearance before finally coming in to testify. His reasoning was that he wanted all the facts in hand before coming before them. True, that might be good. But thats if you believe this is really going to accomplish something (see above). Senator Byrd (another old dude) said to him "You had a bright and brilliant career, but you will never again receive the support of the U.S. Senate for any office you seek. You have squandered your treasure." The Coda: Richardson won New Mexico's gubernatorial election in 2002.

How does this bode for the highest office in the land? Richardson has in fact announced that he has put together an exploratory committee for a possible bid for the White House in 2008. If he wins, he'd be the first Hispanic President. That would be cool but I know what some detractors are saying. That is why I included the fairly innocuous but relatively important biographical information. One might assume from this pedigree that Richardson would be for the illegal immigrants swarming over the borders. But the man declared a state of emergency in November of last year as he felt the problem had reached an intolerable threshold. Illegal Immigration, though a burden for the country as a whole, is a particularly acute pain for border states such as Texas, Arizona, California and New Mexico. In fact, this is how Richardson feels on the illegal... thing:

* Declared state of emergency on Mexican border. (Nov 2006)
* Path to legalization if illegals pay taxes & learn English. (Nov 2006)
* Reduce immigration; no automatic citizenship for kids. (Nov 1996)
* Guarantee human services to illegal immigrants. (Nov 1996)

(Go to the site On the Issues for anyone for that matter. Great site!!!) In the end, Richardson is a candidate who can be bipartisan rather partisan and unilateral. Hell, I live with republicans and they'd vote for him. And that is saying something about my Dad.

If you'd like to see other candidates or "explorers", go to this site. Its a wikipedia which means it updated fairly quickly whne news breaks which should start picking up. I'll keep covering and do some more tidbts on probable, possible and confirmed candidates and those who help them on the campaigns. Elections are exciting and halfway point in a presidential term is when things start solidifying. People start raising funds like mad and drawing lines. Good Times!!!

(Speaking of funds, its likely candidates will need to raise $100M by the end of this year alone to run a strong campaign. The combined funds of cadidates may break $1B...)

On this day in 1525, the Anabaptists re-baptised each other in Swizterland. O....K.

In 1793, Louis XVI gets guillotined.

On this auspicious day, the new USSR lost Lenin and gained the egotistical madman known as Stalin, His real name was Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; a Georgian name. In Georgian it looks like this: იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი. And in Cyrillic: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Джугашвили. Yeah...

And in 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardons most (most) Vietnam war draft dodgers.

नमस्ते

George Allen is done!

Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Macaca is over.

Granted, he was the most entertaining election of all this midterm season. First, his racist slip, then his mom is a Jew, he used to unmentionable things in the mailboxes of black people.... It was all quite interesting.

But now, both houses belong to the Democrats de facto. After twelve years of Republicans calling the shots in DC we have the Democrats in charge. So, is this better? Maybe. If they reverse the tax cuts possibly not. They will likely increase minimum wage and loosen the restrictions on financial aid for college students. Ok, I'm done for the day. 'Sides, I gots to celebrate this most momentous occasion since.... since Bill Clinton won...?

P.S. Allen is likely looking to run for President of the United States in two years. God help us...

To keep up with the 2008 Presidential Election, go here. Honestly, presidential elections are years, if not decades, in the making. There are already a handful of announced campaigns.