Is there a world in which that sentence would be true? Up until a few hours ago, i wouldn’t have even risked joking about it. Then, this morning, with the catalyst of an intelligent comment left on a blog post that has become known for its stupidity (There is intelligence on the Internet! Shock, i know.) my brain started mulling over the possibility…should i vote for John McCain?
About 27 months ago, when the candidates started campaigning, there wasn’t a chance i was voting for anyone but the democratic candidate. I’ve often felt that the only way to hold elected officials responsible for their actions is to boycott their party. If the Republicans fuck up for 8 years or so, then you have to put them as far out of business as you can…that is, until the Democrats screw up and then you do the same to them.
When it appeared that Obama would be that candidate, i was cautiously hopeful. I read (well, 100 pages) of Audacity of Hope, tried to believe in what he said and was absolutely MOVED when he gave his speech on race back in March. For about half a second, i actually thought that –regardless of experience or other issues — he was a leader and a person who actually had the best qualities of this country at heart. And then the last 8 months happened.
Both candidates have flip-flopped, back talked, shown ugly sides, pandered, coddled special interests, answered everything but the questions asked of them and acted, well, like politicians. Fine. Whatever. I’m not upset about this. I expected this. But at the heart of all his stirring oratory and thunderous rhetoric, i had been told by Senator Obama that he was different, that he was above that behavior. He wasn’t. He could not stay on that road (the road being the one less travelled, or even the high one). At the end of the day, he was a politician trying to interview for a job.
If you haven’t seen this clip of the two candidates at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner a few weeks ago, check it out. It’ll melt your skull. These two guys, in front of a wealthy, influential audience in tuxedos, actually act human…and you know what? It looks like they’re making fun of each other, but no. They’re making fun of us. THIS IS HOW THEY ACTUALLY ARE…WHAT WE SEE ON THE CAMPAIGN? IT’S ALL A FUCKING ACT! They’re not bad guys. They don’t hate each other. They’re actual people with a sense of humor. Why can’t we see this side of them? This proves to you how dumb they really think we are. Hands down.
One of my favorite quotes regarding presidents goes something like this: “Presidential candidates spend millions to get elected to a job that pays $400,000 a year. Must have one hell of a health plan.” I digress.
The aforementioned comment that started all this reads as follows:
For a different and perhaps more pragmatic point of view… I voted for McCain and against Obama, simply because neither party distinguishes itself when it has control of Congress and the Presidency. Seems they all come down with a fatal case of “Potomac Fever”, when given the opportunity to stick their hands in the cookie jar, without opposition. Since we can’t send them out of town on even more vacations, then gridlock is a fairly effective way to keep them out of mischief. Look, the first priority of politicians is to be elected, then re-elected, or to run for higher office. All of ‘em will take care of their main campaign contributors FIRST, whether it’s through obscure holes in the tax code, sweetheart govt contracts, or favorable legislation. Doesn’t matter which side they are on, or how pure they were when they first decided to seek public office. The reality of how the game is played, will mold most of them into relentless fund raisers and panderers to monied special interests. By the time they are elected, most have completely sold out. This last, dismally long campaign cost probably a billion dollars. Who gained? Media consultants, media outlets, sign makers, and caterers. Each could have had 24 hours, on one of the c-spans to tell interested voters exactly what their platforms are… probably 12 times over, and then re run it weekly until the election. They’ve squandered donated funds, with the same reckless, self serving, abandon with which they will spend taxpayer dollars.
The current Democrat Congress has been in power for two years and has accomplished nothing, aside from ignoring Fannie, Freddie, etc, as well as addressing domestic energy policy. They’re as worthless as the Republicans, when they controlled both House and Senate.
Bottom line, it’s not going to be good when Obama wins. Democrats will spend like there is no tomorrow, and you can be darned sure no obsolete, inefficient, or redundant programs will be cut. The Treasure is firing up the printing presses, and if you thought you lost your arse in the market crash, just wait until the dollar really plummets. We’re in for a prolonged and very deep recession. All the politicians will do is point fingers, fund raise, and hope for re-election, while our economy tanks.
I hope someone can come up with an argument that refutes this…but honestly, it floored me. I’ve never considered voting like this. Voting to retard the system. Maybe it’s all the Anti-Obama emails my dad has been sending me, but i’m starting to believe that in the current state of our economy, Obama isn’t the one who will make it better. As liberal as i have always leaned, i despise big government. I don’t want it to be a free-for-all for democrats who seemingly are going to spend on their own states just to get re-elected again. This comment shook me because i’m that cynical. I don’t believe they have our best interests at heart and i don’t believe that any of these candidates are willing to make the tough choices needed to get this country back on track and at least begin to clean up the clusterfuck that was Bush Part Deux. So is gridlock the only answer? Is voting so that the parties oppose each other at every turn and have to work together to get anything done the only solution? Will they really take full advantage of having a more streamlined process of completely fucking the American people? It’s hard to believe they won’t.
At the end of the day, i’m voting for Obama. I want history. I want to tell my children of the first black president (hey kids, it only took 230 years!). I think that the President of the Unites States should be mostly a figurehead. A person who can stand up and make amazing speeches and fill the country and the rest of the world with awe and faith and trust in the U.S. Even if it is all smoke and mirrors…i don’t care. JFK, LBJ, FDR, even Clinton recently…these were men who didn’t always have the answers or make all the right decisions but they let us think that everything would be ok so we could go about our daily business of going to work and paying our taxes and making this economy roll the way it should without fear that it was all going to end in chaos and anarchy (or totalitarianism.)
If gridlock is the only answer, then doesn’t that prove just how fucked the system is? (and maybe it is busted beyond repair at this point.) I’m not willing to believe that just yet.
McCain is an angry, curmeodgenly old-fuck professional politician. Sarah Palin was barely qualified to be the principal of my high school (3,000 students, just 6,000 less than Wasilla AK). These people do not signify anything better for our country. They signify the status quo. And maybe at the bottom of this, i am scared of Obama. I am scared of change. I am the status quo. I am going to be a middle-aged, middle upper class white man here pretty soon. Fine, i admit it. I don’t want to be taxed because i’m succesful. I don’t want to hand over half my paycheck to people who are abusing the system (i’ll most likely give it to them myself out of my own charity work and my own goodwill towards people, but that’s different then being fucked out of it by a large federal government, isn’t it?) Happy now Dad?
At the end of the day this upcoming Tuesday, we need a change. No matter how bad the democrats are, or how bad they will act over the next 4 years, we have to give it a shot. If George W. Bush has taught us anything, it’s that no matter how shitty a president is, the world won’t end. It’ll get ugly. It’ll get embarrassing. But it won’t collapse. I hope that President Obama will do what he said he would. I hope the democratic majority House and Senate won’t go apeshit and plunge us further down this toilet of debt and stupidity and corruption we’re currently sitting in. I hope the world starts to hate us a little less now. Maybe that is an audacious hope.
Here’s your chance Junior Senator from Illinois. Don’t fuck it up. Or else i’ll see you in the voting booth in 2012, where i’ll absolutely hold you accountable for your actions…by voting Republican.
….at basketball!
It won’t be long befoer we have a President that can actually make a layup:
Filed under: Bush, McCain, Oil, Pebble Mine, alaska, apocalypse, greed, more fucking stupidity
It’s hard to stay optimistic sometimes…especially when “they’re” about to ruin one of my favorite places in the universe:
You know the alien movies when they talk about how the evil aliens move from planet to planet staying only long enough to suck the place dry of every life-sustaining resource until they’re forced to move to the next hospitable place? I don’t know if you know this or not, but that’s us.
Sunday night, i watched The Discovery Channel’s new mini-series, “When We Left Earth” about the history of NASA and our experience of exploring outer-space. It was captivating, moving and absolutely terrific in HD. I couldn’t be more excited to watch the rest of the series.
After the show was over, i got into a conversation with my roommate, who is a computer engineer for a major aeronautical company — he basically works on guidance systems for missiles all day — and we talked about how amazing it was that the engineers, scientists and astronauts for NASA had no precedents to work from, zero research about space travel (because it hadn’t been done before…at all) and did the majority of their calculations and design work with pen and paper. They just had to sit in a room together and try and figure out the best way, and then test it. A perfect example of this would be during the Mercury missions, the precursor to Apollo, when they were trying to simulate zero gravity with astronauts attached to ropes and pulleys…and Buzz Aldrin — an avid scuba diver — said, “Hey guys, why don’t we do this in a pool?” And some of the brightest minds of that generation said, “Duh.” The whole thing was an amazing example of American intelligence, cooperation and ingenuity.
Of course, the whole project was initiated out of a military need to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in our technology and weapons capabilities. Anyone who thinks we just wanted to explore the next frontier is stupid…the reason for our space program had nothing to do with science and everything to do with being able to stop missile launches from Russsia, return fire with our own missiles and spy on them. That’s it.
Beyond that, JFK said — and i’m paraphrasing –, “Start studying math and science so we can put a man on the moon in this decade.” We sent Alan Shepard into orbit on May 5th, 1961 and landed Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon on July 20th, 1969…just 8 years later. With no historical precedent, no concrete knowledge of whether space would suck the eyeballs out of your skull, no idea if zero gravity would cause your blood to boil and not a single clue as to whether the devil himself lived on the moon. Seriously, i’m not exaggerating. We didn’t know. How could we? We just had to try and see what happened. And we succeeded. (Contrast this with Bush’s “Vision for Space Exploration” which in 2004 stated that we would be back on the moon by 2018… Really George? It’s going to take 14 years to do something that it only took us 8 years to do in the first place? With 3,000 times the experience and technology they had? Moron.)
Fast forward 40 years (40!!!), we’re currently involved in a war in one of the major oil-producing countries and regions in the entire world. If we had learned anything, ANYTHING! from our past lessons, we’d realize the power these countries have over us and we’d react, not by attacking them, but by pushing our own technology and education systems to put our country in a position in which that region of the world would no longer have power over us. We’d create a community that would try things that had never been tried before, we’d throw billions of dollars at it and we’d put our most courageous, intelligent and scientific minds together and work together until we came up with something that gave us the upper hand in the world again. I’m not talking about reducing our dependence on foreign oil, i’m talking about completely eliminating it. I’m talking about once again leading the world in technology (and scaring the shit out of everyone else in the process.).
We put a man on the moon in 8 years back in the 1960s! And you’re telling me that we can’t make a decent electric car? We’re still burning coal for power? We’re getting worse gas mileage than we were 20 years ago? Our best solution is to drill in the oceans and Alaska, in the very places that we need pristine in order for the human species to survive? Are you kidding?
What in the sweet fuck has happened to us?
(and this isn’t the first time i’ve made this point…i just found this post from Oct. 12th, 2006)
Filed under: Bush, China, Death Cab For Cutie, Hitler, Jamie Lynn Spears, McCain, Nazi, Obama, more fucking stupidity
I LOVE the new Death Cab. Ignore the critics and just enjoy this album. Seriously, for as much as i want to be a music critic, i just couldn’t handle what it would turn me into (This review sums it up nicely). Yes, it is true that this album is not as happy and optimistic as Plans (Plans actually seems sugary by comparison). Yes, it is true that the song “I Will Possess Your Heart” has a long instrumental intro (about 4 minutes). But come on people, if you appreciate Ben Gibbard’s lyrics and songwriting ability at all, you shouldn’t really give a shit if he’s happy or sad. It’s a great album; passionate, clever, dark, moving and when it’s done, you’ll be sad that it’s over and want to start it right over. Just listen and appreciate. Kudos to the following songs: “I Will Possess Your Heart”, “Long Division” and “Pity and Fear.”
Other albums on my playlist these days are The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America, Okkervil River – Stage Names and Spoon – GaGaGaGa…not new, but certainly good.
Bush compared Obama’s idea of sitting down and talking with Iran and other “enemy” countries to the appeasement of Hitler: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush told the Israeli lawmakers. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”
And for once, the guy kinda, sorta, almost makes a logical argument. Some of these people can’t be negotiated with, but as always, here’s where i disagree. Obama will be a new president with semi-new ideas…i don’t see anything wrong with him at least entertaining the idea of beginning a dialogue on a clean slate…who knows, it just may work, it certainly hasn’t been tried recently. Update: Obama, as you’d expect, is not pleased with Bush’s comments.
And while we’re using the words Bush and Hitler in the same sentence, let’s read about how Bush’s grandfather had financial ties to Nazi germany. Way to go, prick.
Obama called a reporter “sweety” and it seems the reporter was less than pleased. Obama did call to apologize afterwards, but what do you think? Was that a sexist or chauvinist comment? (Try and listen to the audio if you can…i think it’s an innocuous word in the context of the situation. He was actually being polite and maybe misspoke. It didn’t sound demeaning or derogatory and certainly doesn’t hint at anything larger. But i can see how the reporter — who is in an industry where it is crucial that she be seen as equal to the men who run it — would be upset.) I do this all the time (and maybe i shouldn’t) but i picked it up from some Southern friends of mine who when talking to a female waitress, bartender, etc. always say some variation of “darlin” or “sweety” or “sugar” when asking them for something. They do it in a southern accent so it comes off as cute and the female subject usually smiles and blushes and ends up getting them a better seat or refilling their coffee or something nice just a little more often than not. So, female readers, what do you think? Sexist and demeaning? Or slightly antiquated but acceptable chivalry?
John McCain is an asshole and cannot be the next President, in case any of you were still on the fence.
On a ligher note, a Golf Pro in Colorado hit a hole-in-one on a par 4 with news cameras rolling…pretty awesome. Video here.
And continuing with Colorado’s awesomeness, the Governor’s son really knows how to party (and is my new hero).
Jamie Lynn Spears is a 16-year-old who is 7 months pregnant, so what does she do for fun? If you guessed drive an ATV without a helmet, you’d be right!
It’s kind of hard to believe just how fucked China and Myanmar are right now.
And to end on a better note, a precedent has been set in flatulence-based lawsuits. Sign up for the class-action lawsuit today!
Filed under: Bright Eyes, Bush, China, cheney, links, protest, terror | Tags: Bush, cheerleader bitches, cheney, China, protest, Terrorism
Tonight, The Office comes back and people must be excited about it because my post with the semi-NSFW picture of Jenna Fischer has had 200 visits…just today (Update: 290!) (Update 2: 410!!!! This is ridiculous). Most ever. I’m very excited about the traffic, because i’m a nerd.
There are 7 new deadly sins that we need to watch out for…but as the author of that article points out, they don’t really work as well as the original 7.
And speaking of people who deserve to go straight to hell, how about those cheerleaders? (video is extremely violent and totally evil…man, am i glad i’m not in high school anymore…) Update: These bitches are going to be tried as adults and put in jail…Good, fuck em.
I’m not going to lie, I can’t even watch that video…i got through more of 2girls1cup…i’m not kidding. (FYI – DON’T google 2girls1cup ever, ever, ever. Seriously, i’m not fucking around.)
San Francisco totally chickened out of their Olympic Torch relay yesterday…but i’m not sure how i feel about this “time-honored” tradition anymore, since apparently it was started by Hitler.
And China is trying to make itself look better by making up news about “thwarting” terrorist attacks…seems they learned something from this guy:
And staying on the theme of a-holes in the White House…is it just me, or is the reflection in Cheney’s glasses a naked woman? (i got this from Fleshbot, which is very NSFW, but very AFH. Awesome For Home.)
(Update: USA Today jumped on this and found a hi-res picture that shows its Cheney’s hand on his, er, rod. Woulda been fun though.)
Conor Oberst is a genius (this one too). Most of you know this already, i’m just finding out.
And to conclude, here is an awesome article about what $40 billion could buy you that i got from Brett’s blog.
Ok, one more thing…thought for the day (that you should answer in the comments): Pick one thing that you would do today if you knew you couldn’t fail at it…just one. I’ll tell you mine in a whole big post i’m working on.
Filed under: Biodegradable, Bush, Chris Jordan, Lindsay Lohan, Obama, green, more fucking stupidity
This picture is my moment of Zen today:
Freckles go south for the winter! Lindsay Lohan continues her descent (ascent maybe?!?) to full-on pornography. Lindsay considers offer from Playboy?
And on a more ironic, but less hilarious note: Bush Criticizes Obama on Foreign Policy. You know, i’ve really held back from ripping President Bush on this blog* but i just can’t do it anymore. What a complete and total fucking moron. Yeah, because referring to our previously non-adversarial enemies as the “Axis of Evil” in a State of the Union address is totally sound reasoning and carrying out pre-emptive strikes on autonomous countries based on faulty and irresponsible data is a WAAAYYY better foreign policy strategy than getting your picture taken and having a candid conversation with Raul Castro. If Cuba all of a sudden feels empowered enough to launch a military strike because the U.S. President took a picture with their president then i’m pretty sure we could withstand the attack from their life-raft armada and floating door Navy. Thank you President Bush, you have inspired us all with your BRILLIANT Hatfields vs McCoys foreign policy strategy. I have seen the light and will now vote for my war-mongering, veteran grandfather instead of the guy who doesn’t mind talking a bit before he pulls the trigger…What a friggin’ jackass.
And my favorite part is where it says “In the lively 46-minute session, during which Bush bantered with reporters, he delivered a forceful plea…” Has anyone ever seen Bush “banter”? Studder maybe, but not banter…and the only thing he’s ever said forcefully was, “It’s not my bedtime yet! I want to keep playing Playstation! I’m on level 6 …level 6!!!”
*may not have held back
Did you know that when you throw biodegradable materials into the garbage, they never biodegrade? (pdf) News to me as well.
I’ve been checking out a lot of social and political art lately…you’ll appreciate this:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/ (click on Intolerable Beauty)
The California Department of Corrections (not the real one, this group defaces billboards in genius ways.)
The Billboard Liberation Front (i’m thinking about joining…)
What in the world does a 72-year-old man do to piss a 20-year-old girl off this much?!? (oh yeah, i forgot, females between the ages of 12 and 22 are fucking nuts. I say this unapologetically.)
And as always, my God is better than your God.
It is sad to me that both of these stories happened in Colorado…
(Also, if you haven’t checked out Sam’s post on Bush’s trip to Africa, it’s a must read.)
Filed under: Bush, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Killers, anberlin, cheney, dog poop, rain
Links of the day:
Bush has big plans for this year…you know, besides feeding Cheney his weekly ration of babies. (I kid the president…i do have to hand it to the man…how do you give a State of the Union address these days without using the words “Totally fucked”? That’s impressive…)
We had apocalyptic rains here in Phoenix yesterday and it was awesome.
Bill Maher’s Dickheads of the Year (funny and accurate)
The best sports name ever…(joining the ranks of Dick Butkus, Kosuke Fukudome, Rusty Kuntz and Brian Suksomwong.) and it’s so sad that Alabama State doesn’t stitch names on their jerseys…
I’ve wanted a dog for a really long time, but after watching my parents’ dogs this last weekend, i’ve decided that i can wait…a long time. Do you know how much poop a 95 lb dog creates a day? That answer is infinitely more interesting when she deposits it on the kitchen floor. And because any further description gives me the dry heaves, here’s the image results from the Google search “dog poop.”
I don’t know if this is totally stupid or genius:
I wish we could train Sofie to do this:
Or this:
Albums of the Day:
The Killers – Sam’s Town (I loved “When You Were Young” off this album but never really listened to the thing as a whole. It’s a very decent album, but not nearly as good as the band thinks it is.)
Neutral Milk Hotel – On Avery Island (This is one of those Iron&Wine-esque bands that i’m just not sure of yet. Some of their stuff is terrific, and other times i can’t stand it. Who knows?)
Anberlin – Blueprints for the Black Market (If you can’t tell, i’m officially obsessed…)
