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Republicans are crazy
[March 27, 2010 by jamie] - Yeah, I think the Republicans are crazy. When adults act like children, that's one thing, but it's hard to know what else to call it when its carried to the extreme that we've arrived at. Read more...
Obama Promises vs. achievements
A quick note: Check out The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises on PoliFact.com. It doesn't rate promises, though. For example, promise kept 'No. 33: Establish a credit card bill of rights' doesn't take into account that the bill is weak, just that Obama promised it and its done, and its better than what he was; this probably should have gone under compromise. Still, this thing is awesome.
Seabrook, where do you think you work?
The following is from NYTimes.com:
City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook surrendered to city and federal authorities in Manhattan on Tuesday to face a 13-count indictment accusing him of money laundering, extortion and fraud in a series of schemes that included helping a close associate win a contract to install boilers in the new Yankee Stadium.
The charges also include actions related to Mr. Seabrook’s use of City Council discretionary funds, known as earmarks, to finance a string of nonprofit groups that prosecutors say Mr. Seabrook controlled and used to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and consulting fees to, among others, his companion and brother and other family members. Mr. Seabrook and others were able to do this, prosecutors contend, by repeatedly inflating expense claims to the city on the part of the nonprofit groups, including rent costs.
Seabrook, where do you think you work? When are politicians going to get it through their think skulls that you just can't get away with this sort of thing in New York City, or anywhere around here. Seabrook thought he was going to get involved in shady activities during the undertaking of a huge project like the new Yankee Stadium and people weren't going to find out? Sure, we understand that if Seabrook was an honest person, he would have went into an honest line of work instead of politics, but you don't end up with a list of indictments like this by playing it straight. So, just one more time for all of you in public service and those of you considering going into the field: Don't screw around. This is New York City, and we'll find out, and you'll go down. It's that simple.
A quick note on politics
Jan 2010 - In light of recent events with Health Care, the Supreme Court decision on campaign finance and the satirical tone we often take when blogging on these and other serious issues in this space, we feel its necessary to provide you with a quick note on politics and how we perceive the business of government. This boils down to our view on the two major political parties: the Democrats can't get anything done and the Republicans do everything wrong. Imagine you hired these two groups to build identical 20 floor buildings right next to each other. You check back on them six months later:
The Democrats' site has some steel sticking out of the ground; minimal progress at best.
"What have you guys been doing all this time?" you ask.
"Well," the Democrat leader says, "We've got over 300 different companies and sections of government working on this project and nobody can agree on anything and everybody hates each other. But we've making progress! These fellas on the build crew do fantastic work! Oh and we're a few million over budget."
You'll check back with them in another 10 years; they may be done with steel construction of the 10th floor by then.
Then, you walk next door to the Republican site and are confronted by an enormous satellite dish resembling something from the end of The Arrival (that's right, we made an obscure Charlie Sheen reference) or something.
You decide to go all Qbert on their ass.
"What the $#@! is this thing? I said 'office building,' not 'satellite dish!' What are we going to do with this? Did you spend the entire budget on this?"
"This," says the republican leaderr, "is a state of the art satellite that will be used to coordinate drone missions over US soil to destroy domestic terrorists, gays who want to get married, people who want to protect the environment and so on. Oh and we're way over budget; we outspent Regan. Can you believe that? I know, its amazing how much this kind of stuff costs. My iphone was like $500 or something."
This is how we feel. Prove us wrong, status quo. Please.
It's official - the Republicans have lost their minds
What else can you call it when Republicans start campaigning against people running for office who are Republicans?
No, this isn't a typographical error: Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 23rd District, is facing stiff opposition from other Republicans. This is insanity. Surely the Republicans had the opportunity to run somebody else for this seat; isn't Election Day a little too late to start worrying about who is running on the Republican ticket and where they stand on major party issues? You can easily understand why Republicans like Sarah Palin and Dick Army have come out against her: she's pro choice, pro same-sex marriage and not opposed to raising taxes on rich people while lowering them on poor people. People like Palin and Army probably aren't aware of the fact that even the conservative population of New York is not willing to have someone with 1950s styled values represent them. And did the Republicans not notice that they are in the minority right now and they need every seat they can get? This is politics 101; even a so called liberal Republican is a lot more likely to be sympathetic, if not agree with another Republican than a Democrat is. And congressmen of the same party have a way of putting pressure on each other that does not extend to the other side of the aisle. This is just one more example of how out of touch Republicans like Sarah Palin and Dick Army are. We're sending them a copy of, "Insane in the Brain" by Cypress Hill. So, "toss that ham in the frying pan," Republicans - this will virtually lock up another Democratic seat.
Gillibrand attacks 'Don't ask, Don't tell'
Every once and a while, someone from New York goes to Washington, DC and does something we can be proud of.. and the ny post reports it... its like the world is about to spin out of its orbit! New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand has announced a hearing on getting rid of the 15-year-old "Don't ask, don't tell," policy that keeps gays out of the military. Gillibrand released a statement saying, "'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is an unfair, outdated measure that violates the civil rights of some of our bravest, most heroic men and women. By repealing this policy, we will increase America's strength - both militarily and morally." We second that - besides, we can say that, as heteros, we certainly don't want to fight, so anyone who wants to go do it for us has our blessing. Gillibrand has flip-flopped on this issue, but since Gillibrand flipped to our side, we're not complaining.
[July 2009]
Judge Sonia Sotomayor's hearings
The only bit of comedy we can find (black as it may be) concerning Judge Sonia Sotomayor's hearings as a candidate for the US Supreme Court is Republican senators alluding that she's a racist - the very same guys who won't let gays marry. It's pretty hilarious to watch, but maybe not as hilarious as Senator Al Franken (that still sounds weird) questioning her about Perry Mason episodes.
Gov Palin Resigns - but why?
Former Vice Presidential Candidate and current Governor of Alaska Sara Palin has announced that she not only will not seek re-election at the end of her term in 2010, but she is resigning from office at the end of July, well over a year early. We watched her entire press conference, unedited, and we're not exactly sure we understand why she is resigning, so if you're familiar with an old adage, "Press conferences are called to answer questions, not create them," we'd say she didn't do well. We know her family has been in the news: her daughter, Bristol Palin, has been on the cover of magazines during a tour promoting abstinence. Yes, if you recall, Bristol was pregnant during the campaign and has since given birth to a child fathered by her high school boyfriend. Abstinence. Right. During the campaign, there was a lot of talk that the teenagers were going to get married, but it never happened, and we'd guess it never will, because, you know... they're teenagers who didn't plan a pregnancy, but that kid is a hockey player, and as the play by play commentators like to say, "He shoots - he scores!" and then the color commentator will say something like, "It's a calculated risk, pulling the goalie late in the game, and it clearly backfired here..." So anyway, Governor Palin cited things have been rough on her family. When the Palins were her in New York, Dave Letterman made a joke that the Palins were offended by - he was clearly referring to Bristol, but Bristol was not traveling with her parents, their younger daughter was, and she's a minor, so there was a big misunderstanding, and the Olive Garden dropped their advertisements from Letterman's talk show. Palin refused an invitation to come on Letterman's show and clear the air, so Letterman has continued to use her as a punching bag and run Palin jokes into the ground. Also, Palin referenced that people had been making comments about her youngest child, Trig (that is his real name), who had down syndrome. During her speech, Palin said that the "world needs more Trigs, not fewer" - we have no idea what this means. Obviously, she wasn't saying the world would be better off if more children were born with down syndrome, but what she actually meant, we don't know. We also don't know why she named the child Trig or why all of her children have such unusual names... but we'll let that slide. Trig Paxson Van Palin sounds like a rock star to us!
So, we're pretty sure that one of her reasons for resigning is that people are being mean to her and her family. She also cited some ethics charges against her, cases she has won, but she says has cost the state of Alaska a ton of cash. As far as we could tell, those were her two reasons for resigning: family and wasting Alaska's money fighting ethics charges. This doesn't seem like a good reason to resign to us. During the presidential campaign, we thought she was pushing the "I'm a tough hockey mom slash moose hunter who shoots wolfs out of a helicopter and I can see Russia from here!" persona to "I'm being bullied by the press and my political enemies and it's not fair, so I'm going to back down."
So, we think this is all a bunch of BS and in reality, there are 1 of 3 things that could be next for Governor Sara Palin:
1. She is running for President in 2012 and she wants to go on tour and meet people in the lower 48 states and start raising money. This is a calculated risk that we think would turn out like Rudy Guiliani's decision to try and win the Florida primary and ignore the other ones...
2. Somebody has something really nasty on her that will presumably end her political career anyway, and she decided to do a preemptive strike
3. She's famous now and is going to write books, get a talk show, be a pundit on TV or become even more rich some other way
Young Cons - why white rap should be outlawed
Wow, this is the worst thing ever. We've always maintained that white people have gravitated towered African American Culture because frankly, they don't have any culture of their own, but this is going a step to far. We never thought we'd advocate this sort of thing, but it might be time to get a rap war on. Jay-Z, we're counting on you! Listen to this nonsense if you dare. If you make it through the entire thing, you get a gold star!
Young Cons rapping their extremely lame rap
Health Care Reform - Write your Congressmen!
If you missed the hearings in our fantastic House of Representatives on Health Care Reform, we don't blame you; hardly anyone covered it on TV! The online media caught it, but hey - we don't miss a damn thing!
So here is the big thing you need to take away from this and write your congressmen about (we've created a draft you can use): Congress asked Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth's Golden Rule Insurance Co.; Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health and Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of Blue Cross of California if they would stop dropping client's health insurance coverage unless the client had committed fraud. They all said no, they couldn't make that promise. This means that if any of these companies insure you and you get sick, they reserve the right to drop your coverage. Even Congress was shocked - this was BS on a level that appalled politicians. Congress discovered the aforementioned insurance companies dropped 20,000 clients during a 5 year period to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims. Wow.
write your congressmen - remember, you're their boss!: House.gov
Dear Representative ________,
I understand that health insurance executives Richard A. Collins, Don Hamm and Brian Sassi recently gave testimony before Congress and did not agree to stop dropping customers except where they can show "intentional fraud." This is not an acceptable business practice and I implore you and all members of congress to take immediate action to rectify the situation so that our fellow citizens can get the care they need when they need it the most!
Thank you,
Your Name
Gov. Sanford of South Carolina is GREAT
Gov. Sanford of South Carolina is GREAT... for blog fodder. Seriously. We love how the story kept changing until it reached its inevitable conclusion. Here are the steps on the staircase to comedy:
1. Staff: "We don't know where he is or how to reach Gov. Sanford."
2. Staff: "He's hiking on the Appalachian Trail."
3. Wife: "He needed some space from the kids to get some writing done... on father's day weekend. Seriously. It's father's day... it's his day... he can do what he wants, right? Oo, did I say, he can do what he wants? Anyway, I don't know where he went, but I'm not concerned - he's fine."
4. Staff: "OK, you got us: he's not hiking on the Appalachian Trail. But we still don't know how to reach him... Yeah, it's been a few days, this is getting weird... day 4, day 5, day 6..."
5. Staff: "OK, he's in Argentina and he's coming home for a news conference... because, you know... we all look like idiots up here, because he's not keeping us informed and when he does, he lies... almost like he's paranoid, hiding something... uhm..."
6. Gov. Sanford: "I had an affair with a woman in Argentina. Her name is Maria. 'How do you solve a problem like Maria?' Well, the first thing you do is run your hands under some warm water... oh wait, is this mic on? Never mind. Anyway, I'm back now. Remember when I voted to impeach Bill Clinton because of the Monica Lewinsky thing? Boy, is my face red now!"
7. Wife: "Look, I didn't think it was my responsibility to tell all of you that he was having an affair. I could have said, 'no comment,' but before I'm his wife, I'm a Republican, and I'm sorry, but our official policy is to lie first, see if you buy it - no matter how ridiculous it is. See, Clinton was thinking, 'Nobody has any evidence, right? I did not have sexual relations with that woman - what's that? A dress? With my WHAT on it? Oh. I mean... uhm, oh. Yeah, I did it, but it depends on what the meaning of it is, or something.' Anyway, guess you weren't buying that... I didn't want to end his political career, there's a lot of money in politics, and I likes the monies!"
So while it's not unusual for a politician to go on vacation and not disclose the location of the vacation (say that 3 times fast), it is unusual to not tell anyone you're going anywhere and then to lie about where you are to your staff (Gov. Stanford: "I told them I was hiking on a trail that's not in my state... that makes perfect sense!") instead of just saying, "I"m going out of town for a few days, you can reach me at this number in case there is an emergency. Oh yeah, and alert the Lt Governor that I'm out of the state." That's literally all he had to do. We're guessing that if he doesn't resign, they'll probably impeach him for being a jack ass. What a jack ass!
No Child Left Behind needs reform
The relatively new No Child Left Behind program needs serious reform. We've spoken to a few teachers, and the whole concept sounds pretty crazy. It sounds like they're following their usual curriculum, then they stop teaching and start preparing for the standardized tests, and if you've ever been in a classroom while preparing for one of these tests, you know there is no learning going on here, just memorization. Then if the school doesn't do well on the standardized test, they get less funding, and if they don't do well for a long period of time, the state comes in and fires everyone - and who's going to want to work there then? Rather than this ridiculous testing format, we propose a bit of a throwback to old education standards: many baby boomers went to high school and had to choose whether they'd focus on (outside of the three Rs) business classes or academia (preparing to go to college), and we think this is the approach that could work, but with a different feel. We submit to you our ABC Standard for Education:
A Standard: highest level of high school education for students who show an aptitude in a particular discipline and take high level courses like Physics or Calculus
B Standard: standards all students must begin middle school attempting to achieve B Standards to be ready to enter college. Successfully complete Algebra, Algebra 2, Geometry, 2 years of any foreign language, and at 3 lab sciences
C Standard: students must meet minimum requirements, including a high school level math course that includes practical math such as fractions and percentages as well as the core standards of 4 years of English, 3 years of History and one lab science as well as an additional science class
Let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter.
Ahmadinejad's win sparks protest
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won the election in Iran, sparking mass protests by voters of opposition candidates. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called for an investigation into the allegations of election fraud and Iranian opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, has asked the people for calm, but over a half million people have taken to the streets in protest over the results that gave Ahmadinejad the victory, and we can't say we blame them.
"We want a President who wears a tie!" one protester told our Iranian correspondent. "Seriously, how can you run a country if you look like you're going to Starbucks on Madison Avenue? Am I really supposed to trust my future to some guy who looks like he teaches remedial math at a community college?" OK, we made that up, but we do think its true, but probably not the reason he lost; it's probably the fact that Iran's economy is in really bad shape and he's a crazy person. Still, it's not as though he's from the really excellent group of power brokers who run North Korea, but Iran wants a change and they think they got conned.
Christie captures Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey
Chris Christie won the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey over former mayor of Bogota, NJ Steve Lonegan. While Chris Christie is a hilarious name and is not necessarily a saint, Steve Lonegan is much more fun to poke fun at. While he did have his victories during his 10+ years as mayor of Bogota, NJ, he also had some hilarious failures. Two of our favorites were his unsuccessful attempt to make English the office language of Bogota after CBS Outdoor posted a spanish language McDonalds billboard (we find it interesting that a man who couldn't possibly read the sign for himself would find this so outrageous that he'd attempt to get it on the next ballot, but the County Clerk refused to let the item go to referendum. Ironically, Lonegan hired two illegal aliens to do some day labor putting together political signs the next year. He also had a CSX train ticketed for idling too long in Bogota town limits, although the train tracks do not actually reside on borough property, but understand that the train tracks are fairly close to Lonegan's Larch Avenue home, as is the approach to Teterborough Airport's landing strip, which Lonegan also fought to get the approach changed. We asked some Larch Avenue neighbors of Lonegan's who told us that the trains still idle and blow their whistles and the landing approach switches back now and again. We also enjoyed the use of a state grant to change some major intersection cross walks to red brick, which Lonegan then ordered to be painted red... which seemed strange, since the bricks were already red. While Lonegan's reign wasn't necessarily a gilded age for Bogota as some have suggested, his victories did little if anything to improve life for its citizens. Chris Christie, besides having a hilarious name, might be a real snake, as opposed to Lonegan, who is socially awkward and probably doesn't have enough political experience to be the governor of a state as troubled or complex as New Jeresy (that came out awkward, but the guy's legally blind, so we didn't want to say he didn't have the vision, but he doesn't) and Governor Corzine is the smarter person between himself and Christie, so we're endorsing him.
Our new political policy: vote for the smarter candidate.
Dick Cheney needs to go away
Dear Vice President Cheney,
We're posting this open letter to you today to ask you to please shut the fudge up and to make a few facts clear on why you should and examine why you may not be shutting the fudge up.
For your information, you're not the Vice President anymore. Just because you get to retain the title doesn't mean you're still a public official. Have you noticed what President Bush is doing? He's shutting the fudge up, and rightly so, as no one wants to hear what he has to say and we can assure you, Mr. Vice President, that NO ONE wants to hear anything you have to say. ANYTHING. Just because people want you to come on their TV show doesn't mean anyone really cares, the TV people just think that someone will watch.
More to the point, the American people don't agree with your views. How do we know? President Obama won a sweeping victory in the 2008 election. Your own party nominated a candidate as far to the left of you as they possibly could, and he still got his clock cleaned (although his own incompetence had something to do with that).
So why might you be going on TV rebutting the sitting President's statements and policies instead of the shutting the fudge up like you're supposed to? Maybe you think you're going to run for an office in 2010, or, god forbid, president in 2012. Lets talk about why that won't work:
Do you think you'll still be alive in 2010 or even 2012? Remember the Inauguration, when you were in a wheel chair? Remember when you had a heart attack in 1978? Or again 1984? Or again 1988? Or again 2000? Our compliments, by the way, on that 12 year heart attack free run. Guess those 3 coronary surgeries you had were helpful, or at least they were till 2000. Do you find it difficult to believe that people might not want to vote for a 70 year old man with a history of heart problems?
Just to make it clear that at last check of public opinion in 2007, the people disapproved of your job performance by 60%. This is pre economic collapse, pre torture revelations... (you know, where we went from, "We don't torture," to "Yes, there were a few bad apples," to "OK, we only did it a few times" and finally, "Torture works.") so although we couldn't find a more recent poll number, it probably goes without saying that your disapproval ratting is probably HIGHER THAN 60%. So go home. Eat some vegetables and go for a walk. Don't shoot anyone in the face. AND SHUT THE FUDGE UP.
~Your Friends at MyTriState.us
Rep Michele Bachmann
Is there any guilty pleasure more delightful than a dumb member of congress? Ah, Rep Michele Bachmann (R - Minnesota) - she's so much fun. Her latest new super power is that she either can't read a calender or she can't tell President Ford from President Carter. SO, when was the last swine flu out break? Anyone? 1976, Fort Dix, New Jersey. Who was president in 1976? Ford. What party was Ford a member of? The Republican Party. OK, watch the video.
Democrats: Don't get too excited about Arlen Spector
While Democrats may have reason to cheer for the defection of Senator Arlen Spector from the Republican Party to their side, there are downsides, too. While Spector is socially liberal and essentially aligned with the Democrats on issues like health care and the environment, he's not going to be an automatic 'yea' vote on everything the Democrats want to do. Also, take a moment to reflect on how people who voted for Spector must feel; some may not care, because, as already noted, he's not especially close to core Republican values, but when you vote for someone, you don't expect them to change parties. Our favorite highlight to Spector's career came before he entered Congress: The Single Bullet Theory, also known as The Magic Bullet Theory. Spector is usually credited as the author or co author of the theory that a single bullet caused all of the non lethal wounds to President Kennedy and Govenor Connally. If you're not familiar with the Warren Commision, which Spector worked on, the Warren Commision maintained that three bullets were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald: the first shot missed the motorcade entirely and a ricoocheting bullet fragment hit a bystander, the second shot, a bullet now known as CE399, caused all of the nonlethal wounds in President Kennedy and Govenor Connally, and the final shot ultimatelyat fataly wounded the President in the head. The second shot, which is the one in question, is said to have entered President Kennedy at the back of his neck, passed through the front, entered Govenor Connally's back and passed through his chest, then entered and exited the Govenor's wrist and finally into Govenor Connally's thigh, where the bullet remained until he was taken to a nearby hospital, where the bullet allegedly fell of of Govenor Connally's thigh and was found on a stretcher. The bullet found there was, for the most part, undamaged. So yeah...
Anyway, if you'd like to read more about Spector, you can visit his website, which as no information of any kind about his decision to change parties. http://specter.senate.gov/public/
House of Representatives are making us crazy!
The United States House of Representatives is comprised of 435 members and each member represents over 500,000 people and is paid annually at least $169,300. You know how some of them think the best way is to keep you informed about what they're up to? Twitter. That's right, Twitter - the stupid blogging site for people with no writing ability or attention span. As you've probably already heard, they were sending 'tweets' during President Obama's speech on February 24, 2009, when he covered such topics as economy, war, health care and more (see below) and they started texting each other like the idiots on Family Guy (see video below). It wasn't just members of the house, but they wrote some of our favorites.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.): "One doesn't want to sound snarky, but it is nice not to see Cheney up there."
Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.): "Capt Sully is here -- awesome!" - referring to the pilot who landed the doomed jet safely on the Hudson River. And we disagree; its not awesome, unless Sully was a green beret and can go capture Osama Bin Laden for us or is a fiscal genius and can fix the economy for us - otherwise, let that dude go back to work; he's actually good at his job!
And the winner is for the most obnoxious tweet - Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.): "Aggie basketball game is about to start on espn2 for those of you that aren't going to bother watching pelosi smirk for the next hour." NOTE: This no longer appears on Rep. Barton's Twitter page.
The Twitter thing is just an example. There are just too many people in the house; its like presiding over a senior high school class that "so checked out at the end of the 3rd marking period; just cruising through the 4th marking period till graduation, blazing, you know, I'm a baller..." that sort of thing. And how can you really expect this many people to ever get together and agree on anything? It's partisan, it's petty, and most of all, it's a tremendous waste of time and resources. Let's whittle the house down to say 200 members, or at least cut it in half. Then maybe we won't have to sit through another hearing on something like that woman from Connecticut who was attacked by the monkey and how we can prevent that. Now this is actually a great piece of animal rights legislation that was long over due, which is sort of the point. This should have taken five minutes. Actually, the bill, the Captive Primate Act, was introduced on May 24, 2007. It apparently takes YEARS to figure out that feral animals shouldn't be held captive. It's really incredible, and then, when someone is seriously injured because of this gross inaction, still, there's one hearing, and that's it? Maybe we missed something, but as far as we know, there's not movement on this - or anything else that'll keep our country from sinking into the seventh level of hell. You can check out more on the Captive Primate Act at
http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr80
http://blumenauer.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1421&Itemid=160
Peter and Quagmire text while bored at the ballet, sort of like congress while President Obama is speaking.
John McCain goes back to basics
John McCain may have lost the fight over ear marks, but its good to see that he's getting back to what he does best - bitching about the government spending tax money on dumb crap no one cares about, including the people that live in that particular state. See, this was the only thread of himself that he hung on to during the 2008 presidential campaign, and we think it ultimately killed him... along with Sara Palin, putting air quotes on 'the welfare of the mother' in respect to abortion, and saying 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' hours before the market crashed... those three items probably didn't help his candidacy either. But, make no mistake, John McCain has gone back to basics, and we love it. Don't give up, Senator - and if you get a chance, run over to the House and knock those numskulls heads together who are passing the interstate monkey bite bill, or whatever it is... tell those idiots to get back to work!
However, its worth mentioning that the pork spending that Senator McCain hates so much usually works out to be two percent of the national budget... true, its millions of dollars, but, its actually a very small part of the budget. Its also worth noting that everything that gets labeled as pork spending isn't necessarily bad; their was something about a convention center in one of the Carolinas... that sounds like a great idea - it should create jobs and bring in tourism, help out the local hotel industry, restaurants, golf courses... should this be paid for by the federal government? Probably not, but, it sounds like the sort of thing that will help some American citizens, so in terms of spending, that's not too bad. Could this money be allocated somewhere else to a better end? Probably. Its worth looking into! [March 2009]
President Obama addresses congress on the economy, energy, education and healthcare
President Barack Obama gave us an earful on where we need to go, but not exactly how we're going to get there. But, if significant progress can be made in the areas of the economy, energy, education and healthcare, that'd be an amazing achievement. If the federal government can prod the banking system to start lending and get credit flowing again, that's more than half the battle and will grease the wheels on a number of other issues, but how you actually do this, we have no idea. President Obama also referenced that we would double our use of clean renewable energy, which sounds great and it sounded like there was already a plan in place. As for education, we liked the idea of calling out Americans and making people aware that dropping out of high school is not acceptable and you must get some form, any form, of higher education. We are not, we don't think, fans of incentives for teachers who have successful students, because we're pretty sure that means high standardized test scores, which means classroom time will be monopolized by preparation for standardized tests instead of learning, as we think the primary goal of education is not memorizing facts or formulas, but learning how to think and learning skill sets, learning how to reason and problem solve - sure, some of this probably comes up when preparing for these BS tests, but... well, we doubt it places the emphasis on what we value as beneficial for life. Finally, it sounds like they are finally getting serious about healthcare reform, which probably excites Secretary Clinton, who, we assume, still dreams of Americans having healthcare on par with Canada, not to mention the thousands of Americans who go bankrupt every day because of medical expenses.
Essentially, we see the president as someone who oversees congress and makes sure they allocate our money as best they can and not waste it on crap. We think picking the smartest guy was probably the right move.
[February 2009]
Barack Obama Inauguration Image By David Bergman
davidbergman.net has an amazing image of President Barack Obama's Inauguration that will blow your mind. You can zoom in on it all day long - it's 1,474 megapixels! Below, you can see we have made a few screen grabs for your consideration. Those guys up on the roof appear to be snipers or spotters keeping an eye on things. You zoom in for stunning detail on the podium, including Dick Chenney in his wheel chair, conjuring the dark side of the force to no avail! You can check out his post on this here. 
Barack Obama sworn in at frigid Inauguration
President Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States on January 20th, 2009 before a veritable sea of people on a chilly winter's day. He spoke of not sacrificing freedom for safety and for making choices that should have already been made - essentially, it went something like this:
The previous administration broke some stuff and ignored some stuff. The Obama administration is going to fix some stuff and addresse the ignored stuff - if you're not down with that, please, get out of the way now.
That's what we got out of it. We were also wondering if President Obama is the best speaker ever OR if former President George W. Bush was just the worst and Obama seems amazing by comparision. In any case, it's pretty exciting to have an intelligent, well spoken president again, because at the end of the day, we view the president as someone who gets to hold the debit card for four years: sure, a country needs to buy stuff, you just hope that when you send them to the grocery store, they come home with bread and what not and not a playstation... or a war. You know, whatever's on sale!
Barack Obama Wins Presidency
Will someone teach spell check to learn President Barack Obama's name?
In all seriousness, it's refreshing to vote for someone who actually won! Let's break down how Obama won, but really, how McCain did his best to sandbag himself at just about every turn since he secured the nomination. Read more...
Final Obama McCain debate drinking game
Drink every time one of the candidates says any of the following... Read more...
OPINION: 2008 Presidential Candidates
The years (in some cases) have trickled down into months, and now the months have become weeks left in a presidential campaign that seems like it will never end. As useless as the debates may have seemed, they did help us form an opinion of each of the four candidates, if they didn't do much to change our minds. Read more...
Obama and McCain debate foreign policy
Barack Obama and John McCain met for their first in a series of debates ("it's Obama vs McCain on friday night debate', ya'll!"), this one being on foreign policy. And McCain didn't win. Read more...
Rick Astley Meets Barack Obama
Ever wonder what happened to Rick Astley? Read more...
Clinton wins Pennsylvania
Senator Hilary Clinton defeated rival Senator Barack Obama in the April 22, 2008 Pennsylvania Presidential Primary. While Obama maintains a commanding lead in the delegate count, we can't help but take a closer look at the states he's won and lost. Read more...
Clinton and Obama debate in Pennsylvania
During the April 16 debate between Democratic presidential nominees Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, we finally heard Clinton make the point we've been waiting for. Read more...
Bruce Springsteen endorses Barak Obama for president
Thank god celebrities are writing us letters so we know what to think. Read more...
NJ State Parks may close in July
New Jersey budget problems may force state parks to close. Read more...
The only March 11 primary, the voters of Mississippi selected Barack Obama over Hilary Clint somewhere in the neighborhood of 60% to 40%. On the all but over Republican side, John McCain won this primary easily.
The NY Times article mentions that someone shouted at Obama that they, "need some jobs" in Mississippi and Obama responded that he "promised to come back to the Delta," when he was president. We're not sure exactly what this meant. Mississippi has been ranked as one of the poorer states in the union over much of the twentieth century as well as placing low in education standards. How a president can bring new jobs to a place that has seen most of their lively hood wander over seas, we can't say - the dollar isn't that weak. Perhaps he can find a way to allocate funds to retrain the workforce, but for what industry? It's a difficult problem, and it was a smart move to avoid making any promises.
Senator Clinton takes two more big states in her bid for the Democratic Nomination for President. You can get some info on the aftermath from this New York Times article. We don't understand why there isn't more pressure on Senator Obama to drop out. Take a look at this map. We get it - Obama has won 25 states and Clinton has won 16. But look at which states he won and which states she won. Clinton won California, New York, Texas, Florida - big states where lots of people live and the Democrats could actually carry in November. We argue that Obama only won two big markets - Chicago and Atlanta, and we give the Democrats a 0% chance of carrying Georgia in the fall. It's simply not going to happen. Obama won North Dakota; we're sure three people live there because they have two senators and one representative in the house! Not to mention the fact that the Republicans will eat Senator Obama alive (inexperience, fake and meaningless religious accusations, speeches that never really say anything). At the end of the day, we don't see how Obama could beat McCain. It's just not going to happen. It's time for the Democrats to wise up and realize they should have begged Al Gore to run, but Senator Clinton is their best option now.
Just for giggles, we've included a spot featuring Jack Nicholson's endorsement for Senator Clinton.
Senator Clinton noticed the media doesn't like her
We missed the debate, but we saw the highlights. If you check out this article about the debate from The New York Times, you'll get an idea of how the event went.
Clinton's point was that while the media seems to engage in a lovefest with Obama, she is always the subject of some form of attack.
So, from what we can tell, Senator Clinton is now wise to the fact that the media doesn't like her. Did she nearly all of her husband's first two terms? We're not sure the media ever liked her. They've been ripping on her ever since, "A card, for every American." We're not saying she's not paranoid, but she's not wrong, either.
John McCain/New York Times controversy
We never chimed in on this, and as the NY Times is a favorite publican of ours and we don't especially dislike Mr. McCain (or, as we call him, "the best worst case scenario ever"), we feel we need to take the New York Times to task a bit.
Check out the various Times articles here
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We read the initial article, and it didn't seem like they had very much there. No quotes from someone willing to give their name, no substantial charges... we just don't know what the point was. We wouldn't call it a smear job, maybe a 'negative glaze job' or something. Anyway, if you check out the New York Times link above, you'll see their response, their readers response, the McCain response press conference, and a lot more.
NJ may deliver 15 electoral votes to national popular vote winner
Maryland has passed a law that will send its 10 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote and New Jersey was hot on their heals. Read some more details about other states that wussed out on the CBS News site.
This sounds really great - we can't think of any drawbacks off the top of our heads. Getting away from this electoral college nonsense sounds like a good plan. We can only hope that other states will consider this and the ones that have rejected it (we're shocked, California) will reconsider.
Haven't heard it yet? What're ya waitin for?
AP says Romney is out of the Presidential Race
We read on WNBC's site that Mitt Romney is out of the race.
Surprised? We're not.
We've been taking a very informal survey about Romney for the last week or so, and we've found that most people answer the question, "How do you feel about Mitt Romney?" the same way: "Isn't he a Mormon?" It seemed as though Mike Huckabee took most of the Republican party's Christian vote, and we believe that this lack of support from the party's Christian base is the reason for his withdrawal.
The AP also reports that Romney will take a jab at Senators Clinton and Obama on his way out, saying that he the Republicans need to get their national campaign on so neither of their terror surrendering to bids wins out in November. Classy!
McCain takes commanding Super Tuesday lead while Clinton holds edge over Obama
McCain holds sway over the competition by over 300 delegates while Clinton and Obama are separated by less than 100. The NY Times has complete results on their site if you want to ogle the numbers, but the message is clear - the Republican race is over, and the Democrat race is not.
We watched the results, flipping back and forth between CNN and MSNBC. CNN's presentation was weird - they had all these extra camera guys with shoulder packs and steady cams... but they were in the studio. Both channels also had all these silly graphs and touch screens and spent a lot of time reading to us what was up on the screen - it was like going to a talking website.
We heard about everyone speak last night as the polls were closing. We keep hearing Senator Obama talk about change, but we aren't really sure what he wants to change and how he wants to change it - we didn't hear any issue buzz words, did we miss them? Senator Clinton was a bit more clear - mentions stem cells, Iraq and other issues. While Obama took Connecticut and Pennsylvania is yet to be decided, Clinton took New York and New Jersey while McCain dominated the Tri State Area. Let's wait for PA on April 22 to see who our area likes for a Democrat (April? Jeez!)
Clinton and McCain win Florida
Check out the results as posted by the NY Times - Clinton won by 15 points and McCain by 5.
You'll notice in the results that the Democratic winner didn't receive any delegates. That's because Florida, like Michigan, is being punished by the DNC for moving their primary up before Feb 5 (super Tuesday) - Hence, Senator Obama's camp can quickly say that the Florida 2nd place finish doesn't matter toward getting the nomination, and they're right, of course - but, people are going to hear that Senator Clinton won FL and MI. Anyway, John Edwards, who finished a distant third, is expected to drop out today, but no one knows who he'll endorse.
With McCain's win, he's widely viewed as the front runner and former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop out today and endorse him. Mitt Romney finished a close second and Mike Huckabee finished right behind Giuliani, so it looks like a two man race between McCain and Romney. There's a pretty stark contrast between these two men, so we think Republicans have an easy choice before them. We view McCain as the anti George Bush, so he does have that going for him, along with plenty of name recognition. We also believe Romney can grab a large piece of the party's Christian vote.
Check out A Daily Show's report on the Florida Primary below.
Obama is big winner in South Carolina
Obama won by over 25 points (see results as posted by the NY Times here) - now that's what we call a butt kicking.
The South Carolina Primary has been widely heralded as the first primary to contain a large African American population and that community's first real opportunity to show support for a candidate. If Obama can bring this momentum into Florida and win there, that's a huge nail in Clinton's campaign. Florida is a strange, large state with many issues and a Republican governor, so it's hard to say which way the wind will blow.
At this point, we'd like to endorse someone, but we just can't and probably never will. We feel Senator Clinton flip flopped on Iraq and Senator Obama's withdrawal from the Michigan Primary rubbed us the wrong way (just recent examples), so we don't know what to think. We don't see any strong 3rd party candidate emerging, so we're pretty undecided about what to do come November... at least at this time.
The government might send us checks!
CNN has an article posted that outlines the proposed economic stimulus plan, under which tax payers would get a check for at least $600. The article goes on to say that couples would get $1200 and those with kids could get as much as $300 per kid.
If we get $600 bucks, we'll primarily allocate it toward paying debts (and buying tissues to coup with our tears of loneliness, as we're not eligible for the $1200). We doubt we'd pump more than $100 back into the local economy, and that's the point of this exercise, right? But hey, we're not complaining - we'll take the $600 bucks.
Report Says Bush Administration made 935 false statements
Yahoo! has an AP article posted that says the Bush Administration made over 900 false statements about the threat to US national security from Iraq after the attack on September 11.
It did catch our attention that the article doesn't use the expression, "alleged false statements." While this report isn't too shocking, the sheer number of nearly one thousand false statements is pretty high. We've already sent an email to our member of congress asking for hearings (you can do so too using the Resource Links above) - after all, if there's time for hearings on steroids in baseball, why not this?
With the Democrats going on Jan 26, the Republicans have already given victory to John McCain - by less than 5 points. See the NY Times results here.
Romney doesn't make much of a showing here and Huckabee gets some much needed life shot back into his campaign. Feb 5 is getting closer and it's do or die now in Carolina - right?
Clinton and Romney win in Nevada
Romney dominated and Clinton won by nearly 10 points (see results as posted by the NY Times here.
Obama did well, but Clinton still won by a comfortable margin - and you have to wonder if Edwards is starting to get nervous. True, it's early, but Edwards needs to win his home primary just to keep his head above water. Romney, on the other hand, dominated the competition, with no other rival within sight of him. Super Tuesday is closing in and things aren't looking as tight as they once did.
Getting lost in the jargon?
Essentially, a Caucus is open to registered members of a party only, where as a primary is very much like a standard election - and therefore giving you a better idea of the pulse of that primary. So, we don't think Caucuses are worthless, but we think a Primary is a way better solution.
Romney got just what he needed to stay alive and McCain can't feel too bad about second, but we're unhappy with Obama and Edwards decision to sit this one out and it's swaying us a bit. Check out the NYTimes.com Michigan Results or check out this Detroit Free Press article for more.
To us, opting out of the Michigan Primary because the state's Democratic Party decided to move the primary up (and therefore violating national party rules) is a sign of party unity, and that's not something we're big fans of. Show some loyalty to the people of Michigan instead - that'd get our attention. This is the first time we've felt like Obama was a party insider and Clinton was on the outside, and given the Democrat's performance since taking control of congress, we're pretty sure we like outsiders. But we're not willing to endorse anyone just yet. We can't blame Michigan for wanting move up on the calender - New Jersey's primary is always meaningless.
While Romney celebrates his victory, we figure McCain will play this off as Romney winning his home state (by nearly 10%) - which was kind of a silly angle as Romney hasn't lived in Michigan since he was a teen, but it apparently worked. It probably didn't hurt that his dad was a popular governor for several terms. Anyway, we think Giuliani's strategy of going hard late isn't going to work, but we'll have to wait and see - stranger things have happened.
Clinton and McCain win New Hampshire Primary
We read a NY Times.com article that wraps up the New Hampshire Primary.
Wow, big upset, right? Na, we didn't think so.
We're not trying to paint the voters of New Hampshire a particular color (pun intended), but we were pretty sure Clinton was their clear choice. We don't think America, on a whole, is ready for Barack Obama, but might be ready for a woman. And we think that when America looks deep down into its racist heart, they'll find room for Senator Clinton - at least while they're choosing between here and Senator Obama. It'll be key for him to get out the African American vote, just as its key Clinton to get out the woman vote. As for McCain, it was in the bag - he's won here before and his popularity hasn't seemed to wain in NH at all. We think McCain's high visibility over the last decade and his war record makes him a strong front runner for the Republican ticket.
Historically, NH winners have a better than 40% chance of going all the way, but tell that to McCain and Bill Clinton (McCain who won in NH before and Clinton who lost).
Obama and Huckabee win big in Iowa
We read a NY Times.com article that wraps up the Iowa Caucus as the presidential candidates head back east to New Hampshire.
We can't say we're shocked by this outcome - although the large margin of victory was a bit of a surprise. We think Clinton is perceived as a Washington insider, a member of the old guard and many are hoping that Obama is the second coming, if you will, of JFK. As for Huckabee, he was endorsed by Chuck Norris - what else do you need? Mitt Romney doesn't seem to be connecting and Guliani's strategy of winning the last few innings (or whatever he's been saying) doesn't sound like a good idea. Besides, Guliani is pro choice and he's been married 3 times - doesn't sound like a republican presidential candidate to us.
Chuck Norris endorses Mike Huckabee
Now there's a shocker. Whether you've visited ChuckNorrisFacts.com before or not, this was still a good idea. Check out the video, even if you don't dig Huckabee.
Unity08.org
Unity08.org says, "We believe that neither of today’s parties reflects the aspirations of the majority of Americans. Both are unduly influenced by special interests and by money." They will pick their presidential candidate in June of 2008. Check out Unity08.org.
Bullworth for President!
Bulworth is a great movie starring Warren Beauty as a disillusioned politician who hires someone to kill him so his daughter will inherit the insurance money during his reelection campaign for US Senate. Consequently, he decides to say whatever he wants. Bulworth on AOL.
Giuliani sold out gun ideals?
Michael Daly has an article in the Daily News (yes, hilarious: Daly in Daily. Great.) that seems to accuse presidential candidate and former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani of betraying his gun principles by seeking out an NRA endorsement. Check out the article at The Daily News .
Is seeking an endorsement from the NRA (presumably legal gun owners) the same as being tough on illegal guns? We don't think so, but more to the point, we don't think Giuliani, despite his 9/11 accolades as the so called 'Mayor of America' will over shadow the fact that he's not conservative enough to win the nomination.
Politics: Campaign Finance Reform
We've got a wacky suggestion for reforming our campaign finance system. We don't think anyone will take us up on it, but we think it would work. A major part of funding gets put toward commercials and pollsters (or so we're told). Lets cut that in half by outlawing those really annoying commercials. We think it's a simple, effective plan: this will cut down on the amount of money needed and therefore phases out a portion of the special interests. See? We've accomplished two things at once: eliminated annoying commercials and cut down on the special interest groups. We know no one will take us up on this, but we thought it was worth a try.
NYU's Washington Square News reports Obama in lead; students voting rights for sale
The Washington Square News reports that if students had to choose between voting for Senator Hilary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama, Obama would capture about 40% of students while Clinton would get about 20%. In a related story, WSN also reports that students will exchange their right to vote for, "a year's tuition. And for a few, even an iPod touch will do." Read the Obama/Clinton story here and the voting price sale here.
Phili hosts NBC's Democratic Debate
If you missed the Democratic debate, here's the short version: the other candidates officially kicked off their 'Anybody but Hilary' campaign. Now, we're not saying she's the best candidate they have, but wow, nice showing of party unity.
Head over to The New York Times for more on this story.
CNN's Democratic Presidential Debate
Anybody else watch this snooze fest? Our synopsis is as follows: someone remind Dennis Kucinich that no matter how short you are, if everyone else stands up when they speak, you should too; Hillary Clinton is a master of middle; Barack Obama looks really young; and finally, we'd guess (but don't endorse) that the nominee is going to be John Edwards. If you missed it, they've got video on their site.
Other Politics Websites
Not all politics websites are created equal as everyone has their own opinion.
FactCheck
FactCheck.org does a pretty good job of keeping people on their toes in terms of pointing out the half truths and flat out lies that spew out of politician's mouths on a regular basis.
Vote-USA
Vote-USA.org connects voters and candidates by letting the candidates express their opinions on issues directly to their users without cost. The site also has registration information.
Register to vote
Register-vote.com has voter registration info and other political news.
US House of Representatives
house.gov allows you to email your representative. Then, a few weeks later, they'll snail mail you back a generic reply. It's a great system!
US Senate
senate.gov allows you to email your senator. Then, a few weeks later, they'll snail mail you back a generic reply, so its about as worthless as a reaching out to your representative.
whitehouse.gov
whitehouse.gov has a feature that allows you to email the president which, during the Bush administration, did not return any of our emails.
The Democratic Party
democrats.org has news on the Democratic Party.
Republican National Committee
rnc.org has news and info on the Republican party.
Green Party USA
greenparty.org has news and info on the Green Party.
Fantasy Congress
fantasycongress.com is just like any other fantasy sports league, but with members of the house and senate. It's a bit over our heads, frankly.
The Daily Show
thedailyshow.com is hosted by Jon Steward and features a comedic take on political and other events.
The Colbert Report
thecolbertreport.com is hosted by Steve Colbert. It is more or less a parody of Bill O'Reilly's show, who Colbert often refers to as "papa bear".