Shout-out-to-Molly

My friend Molly...a recovering Republican. Helped put this video together and is one of the people in the video. I thought it was pretty cool. There are several celebrities in it as well. It's short, check it out, and show a friend. Don't forget to vote, even if you live in a very liberal state...I don't want this one to be close.
If you are still undecided, well wake up. Ask yourself which candidate has offered positive solutions and stuck to the issues and which candidate has spent all his money and all his speeches bashing his opponent with ridiculous, dishonorable attacks? What type of person would you want in the White House? And if you need one more reason to vote it is racism. I am not one who believes we are still a racist country at heart. However, I was reminded today that racism is still very prevalent. I was in a gas station, getting my car fixed, and a black man walked in to ask if they could help him open his car because he locked the keys in it. The attendant asked him, "You mean you can't open it yourself? I thought all black people knew how to break into cars?" I was stunned, and shamefully didn't say anything, if this is the voting public I think we can't take anything for granted at this stage. VOTE!

Return of the Culture Wars

I have been getting so revved up about the election I haven't taken the time to write about it much. I have been trying to stay positive as the economy tanks and McCain goes increasingly negative and dirty, but it's hard work. I will assume that if you are reading this blog you are probably supporting Obama, but let me preach to the choir just a little bit. What bothers me about this campaign from the Republican side is the blatant, slap you in the face, spit in your eye, hypocrisy of their campaign (and I include Fox news as an extension of the campaign). Let me just point out a few things.
McCain/Palin's big campaign push is that they are mavericks and can reach across the isle to work with democrats. But if you are such a bipartisan guy how come you keep calling the other candidate a terrorist and using racially coded language against him and his "democratic liberal cronies"? That doesn't seem very mavericky or bipartisan. Or what about McCain's choice of Palin, a governor whose positions are far right of the mainstream and revels in Cheneyesque insults to liberals, is that mavericky or just plain old Republican play-to-the-base politics? Or how does a candidate who paints experience as the biggest credential for office pick an inexperienced two year governor who obviously doesn't have a strong grasp of how the federal government works as his running mate?
What about the "Straight Talk Express"? McCain and Palin have pretty much boycoted the main stream media ever since the Katie Couric interviews. Substituting instead repeated interviews on Sean Hannity's shows, which remind me of an old SNL sketch with Chris Farley. ("So governor Palin you reformed government in Alaska, were bipartisan, saved money, and parted the seas. That was awesome." Way to go after them Sean!) Nor do I consider it "Straight Talk" to base your campaign on innuendo about who Obama might be friends with. I once respected McCain for denouncing these types of attacks and railing against the "Merchants of Intolerance", so it is distressing to see him become one of them.
Not to mention Fox News. I know I shouldn't bother getting upset when it is well established fact that Fox news is the most biased "news" organization out there, but their slogan "Fair and Balanced" never stops getting under my skin. When the face of their network, Hannity, has an hour long show whose main expert on Obama is a notorious anti-Semite, and who argues that Ayers isn't just a friend but is secretly running Obama's campaign and again that Obama is a Muslim bent on destroying America, none of which Hannity even questioned, it pisses me off. As the Obama camp pointed out, does the fact that Hannity is associated with this unrepentant anti-Semite mean that he is in fact an anti-Semite himself? If you still think Fox is balanced check out the post debate poll they did this week: A laughable 80% of their viewers thought McCain won the debate! I wouldn't have a problem with Fox if they just named themselves Republican TV and eliminated the hypocrisy.
Are Obama's hands clean? Perhaps not completely. He has run a few somewhat misleading ads. But in the main he has run one of the most positive clean campaigns on record. Consider this, in the last few weeks McCain has taken all of his positive ads off of the air and is now running strictly attack ads. Obama on the other hand is running somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% attack and 70% positive. During the debates it was even more clear who wanted to run a clean campaign and who wanted to run dirty.
One more piece of evidence about the McCain camps tenor, listen to what the crowds at his debates are yelling about Obama: "Off with his head!" "Terrorist!", etc. Do you want a president that whips up hate and division among his own constituents or one that has stuck to the issues and remained positive in the midst of some of the dirtiest attacks on record?
I could go on and on. It feels good to vent.

Election, what else...

Well I think the blog is finally living up to its name and writing about politics. Just to take a side detour, the election has me thinking a lot more about our democracy/republic in general. I was talking with a friend recently about the federalist papers, and their vision for our country, but I have also been thinking about the way the constitution set up our government vs. the way it is set up now. The main difference is that our country has become more democratic over time in two ways. First, the requirements for voting have become increasingly liberal: from property requirements to universal white male suffrage, to black male suffrage, to womens suffrage, to protection of voting rights at the polls themselves. (Despite Republican efforts at disenfranchisement every cycle...) Secondly, by tying the electoral votes to the popular vote in each state either proportionately, or more commonly as a winner takes all system. (How electoral votes are cast remains the decision of the state legislatures.)
Originally, the electors were chosen by the state legislatures themselves, with the idea that they would choose wise representatives who at least closely mirror the political feelings of the people, after all the legislatures were largely chosen by the people. While the first instance of allowing more and more people to vote was of course overdue and made our country a stronger better place, increasingly I wonder if the second instance of tying the electoral college directly to popular votes was such a wise decision.
I have been telling friends that increasingly our presidential elections resemble a middle school that has decided to choose its next principle by a vote of the students. Removing the presidential election from a direct vote of the people would not make it less political, but perhaps it would at the very least raise the level of discourse from blatent pandering on both sides to real discussion of the issues, and could perhaps take some of the money out of the process. It may be that I am overly optimistic of the changes that this would create, but at least it would open up the possibility that the candidates could engage in a higher discourse and discourage such hail mary histarics as choosing a crazy lady from Alaska as your running mate. (Sorry, couldn't quite keep my own feelings out of this). But ultimately it is not a partison issue, I think both parties would benefit from this change and it very well could improve people's faith in our leaders as they could tone down the double talk, lies, and exageration during the campaign and thus maintain just a little bit of their dignity. (While John McCain has certainly been the worse of the two in this regard, even my beloved Obama has not been completely above the fray.)
I know that this opinion sets me up as some what of an eletist but I think one only needs to look at some of the political ads that are running, some of the polls that indicate how little the public knows about the candidates (they still think Obama is a Muslim), and it becomes clear that the system we have now is not necessaraly the best way of doing things. I do not believe that we have to follow original intent of the Constitution, but in this case I think the founders had it right (despite being racist, sexist, elitists, they were pretty smart dudes.)
One final thought, for those who fear that this is undemocratic, you could conceivably keep the primary process as is, while changing the the general election to this system. Therefor the people of both parties could still choose their leaders while the electors could decide the election. Extra point for whoever figures out based on the composition of the state legislatures who would win the election were these changes enacted.

Palin Friends with Witch Hunter

And this isn't from some wacky liberal blog (like mine), I found it through a link at the Wall Street Journal. Apparently Palin has been blessed by this wacky witch hunting Kenyan evangelical. This is just what we need as a vice president. Check out the article.

Is God running for President?

There is a great chart at NYtimes.com showing how many times different words were used at the two conventions. Number one word on the Republican side...God. I mean I am a spiritual person, and God is great, but I don't think he is running for office, nor will he fix our political problems. Plus when Repubicans talk about religion they conveniently forget Jesus' caution that rich people aren't cool and won't be entering the pearly gates.
(photo from scrutinyhooligans.us)

Election

This is why the Daily Show is a better news source than all the networks combined. No joke, while this is hilarious, it is also deeply depressing and why I find it so incredible that people actually watch Fox news. Isn't it at least a little depressing that so many people would rely on this network for information?

Election

I have been a little distracted lately with a lot of vacationing and relaxing. Watching the DNC got me fired up about the election though. I am not a big follower of polls, in fact I think we would all be a lot better off if news organizations stopped taking polls all together. I think they influence people too much and they are often inaccurate. Having said that, there is a cool feature at Slate.com that sums up all the polls in different states and nationally and sums up the electoral votes for each state based on their polls. You can check it out here. The New York Times has a similar feature, but I like the one at slate better, it's fun to play around with.