Reminded why I like John McCain

He hosted a few years ago and it was hilarious. Then again, SNL can make me a fan of almost anybody.

I think McCain is funnier than Obama. Why did he wait so long to bring out the humor in his campaign?



Here's McCain talking about his new strategy to be a "double maverick":



In a better world, McCain would not have had to court the conservative base, could have run on a platform with some major points being immigration reform and climate control, and could have picked Joe Lieberman as his running mate. I don't know if that would have been enough to sway my vote, but it would have made the decision a lot harder.

Will Ferrell Returns!

If you missed it last night...

The Facts on Debate #2

This should be standard viewing procedure after debates.

Is lying okay if you warn people first?

Let me get this straight.

1. McCain announces that he will begin personal attacks on Obama. 
2. McCain then makes good on that promise. 
3. Obama then accuses McCain of smears. 
4. McCain says they are all "true facts" (as opposed to "misleading facts," or "true lies," or just "lies").

Was the McCain strategy (or tactic? I obviously don't know the difference) to tell us in advance that he was going to be throwing mud so we wouldn't be so disgusted when it happened?

For those who "just can't vote for Obama" for whatever reason, you have my condolences that McCain is your only other viable option.

10/7 UPDATE: Obama throws back a few whoppers of his own. I'm going to go crawl into a hole. Are we all just resigned to the fact that our leaders are dishonest?

Just the Facts and some SNL Therapy

"The ads are fast, furious, and factually flimsy."


Who's the bigger liar? I welcome proof otherwise, but McCain seems to be in the lead. Apparently reading my mind, SNL tries to make me feel better by putting a positive spin on McCain's ever-growing body of lies:

Obama and Your Taxes

What is the difference between misleading and lying?

According to Sarah Palin last night, if you vote for Obama your taxes will go up.

"The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for business - like millions of others who run small businesses. How are they going to be any better off if taxes go up?"

The truth is, if you make over $250,000 your taxes will go up. I guess if you're making over 250k per year, by all means don't vote for Obama. If you make less than that (most of America), you will see a tax cuts up to 5% by 2012... Well, we'll see if that one comes true. Also, if anyone knows, isn't that personal income Obama would be taxing? How would that affect a business?

In fact, under Obama the middle class will pay less than under McCain, (5% vs. 3%). So lets leave the "Obama is going to raise my taxes" complaint to the rich. Well, 250k is rich for me. So is 100, or 200. Should this number be higher or lower?

There will be more half-truths to come, from both sides I'm sure.

VP or: McCain's Third Mate

John McCain announced this morning that Sarah Palin will be his running mate. She has only been a governor for 2 years (in Alaska) but she is a member of the NRA, so I guess the elephants will like her. It's funny he found someone with less time in office than Obama. What do you think?

Do you think he should have chosen Mitt Romney, or would that have completely ended his chances?

Are you more likely to vote for McCain with a woman VP (because really, she has a better chance than Biden of filling in as headmaster)?

Would this set up a future Hillary C. vs. Sarah P. run for POTUS in 2016? Does her nomination decrease Clinton's future appeal, or does it pave the way (hopefully) for more women in office?

How does her two years as a governor compare to Obama's two as a senator?

She has a four month-old baby boy with Downs Syndrome. She is also a career woman. Can her husband do as good of a job raising him?

Obamaprophecy, compressed cheerleaders, and spoiled Twilight fans

So much to blog about after the vacation... an assemblage:

• False prophet Religious pundit assures us all with his proclamation that Obama is not the Antichrist, but then scares us again with the prophecy verbal vomit that Obama is the one paving the way for the Antichrist. I consider myself sensitive to other cultures, but people that believe this stuff are really scaring me.
• 26 teenage cheerleaders try to ride a dorm elevator at the same time. Repairman spends 25 minutes "extricating" them after said elevator breaks down, at the rate of one cheerleader every 57.7 seconds.
• My parents wouldn't let us get a trampoline. Perhaps this was one of their fears.
• Twilight author allegedly "spoils" her own book, sending thousands of teenage girls everyone on the planet into a frenzy. Chillax, she replies. She didn't spoil all of it.
• McCain says we're better off than we were 8 years ago, but not 4 years ago...
• Video archive of Letterman's Top 10 lampooning Obama's aplomb mysteriously disappears from CBS website... but can still be found on YouTube, of course! No media bias, heh. What ev. CBS did balance it out a little though with Letterman's Obama "uh" count.

My first and last link to anything Paris Hilton

I never thought I'd be promoting Paris (nor Hilton), so let this be the only time, with her (or her PR person's) response to being compared to Obama:

Her campaign website: VoteParis2008.

McCain's original ad:

Why do we not hold presidential candidates up to our own standards?

These are things that would keep them out of the FBI, or prevent them from getting a faculty position at most universities, yet somehow it is condoned if one is running for President. Perhaps we have no one that could measure up to flawless standards, but one does have to wonder…

Cindy McCain ran her fingers through her husband’s hair and teased, "You're getting a little thin up there." He reddened and fired back, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt." McCain later apologized saying he’d had a long day.

Any wives out there that accept verbal abuse based on a “long day”? What will President McCain say to the Chinese ambassador after a long day?

Here’s McCain on a good day:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

Not to be partisan, here are two gems from Obama:

"...I've got two daughters… I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

The principle seems off here. If they make a mistake, he doesn’t want them to face the consequences?

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person..."

I’m not sure what he means here, but I’ve often been critiqued for making generalizations around my colleagues… can someone this high get away with it?

I do not intend to slam both candidates, nor suggest that we should view it as choosing ‘the lesser of two evils.' We should choose the candidate we think is best for the job. My question is, should a presidential candidate be held up to higher scrutiny or personal standards than a daycare worker or a substitute teacher? No offense to those honorable positions, but this is the highest office in the country. 

I have had four background checks (for work and school) in the past two years, and have been told to be wary of what I write here, lest future employers base their hiring decisions on my words. Do politicians get away with abuse or questionable judgment because they have a monopoly on candidacy?

Oh yeah, and McCain committed adultery in his "immature" 40's, and Obama is the Antichrist. People believe both of those. One of them is true.

Who is not an environmentalist?

18 out of 20 people in the poll here so far agreed we should take care of the environment. (For the record, one person who voted "worship it" actually wanted to vote "fear it" but that was not available so they "chose the next best thing.") We all probably suspected that would be the case. The real issue may be to what extent should we take care of the environment? This also made me wonder, am I an environmentalist?

• I buy growth-hormone free whole milk for my son.
  
• I believe that we are stewards of the earth, that we should use our resources carefully, and not put the economy above our friends the tree frogs without giving it a second thought.
• I hugged a tree while I was in Hawaii.
• I think we should practice the 3 R's even when it's inconvenient.
• I eat some animals, but am mindful that their lives were sacrificed. Recently in a prayer before eating some chicken I even noted that to God and my wife and I started giggling. It just sounded funny, you know? But I am mindful, and grateful.
• I like organic food.
• I turn off the water when I brush my teeth, and try to take short showers.
• I enjoyed An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed The Electric Car?
• I don't know how I feel about more drilling. If it would prevent wars (which is what McCain seems to insinuate) I could definitely see the use. It does however seem like giving more crack to an addict rather than dealing with the problem.
• I think we have a responsibility to take care of animals, and treat them with respect.

To what extent should we take care of the environment? When do we go to far? When do we not go far enough? Should animals have rights? Are shopping malls more important than wildlife?

Why do you abhor/love political discussions?

Recently for dinner I had homemade chicken enchiladas, a moderately sized bowl of Tillamook vanilla bean ice-cream, and a semi-charged discussion with a good friend about the morality of taxes.

He actively participated yet also averred his disdain for politics, (no question about the enchiladas here; as my father often says, “tortillas are way better than wonder bread”). My wife has also oft been inundated by a blitzkrieg of political discussion by my family and I, I think from the third date on. (That’s how we did things in our family, I guess… you know, first date hug, second date kiss, third date intense political discussion.)

I am intrigued as to why people so abhor political discussion. Maybe it’s me. After all, I did attempt to describe to my aforementioned friend that evening how I am both a socialist and a libertarian… But really though, why doesn’t everyone just love political discussion?

I get excited when discussing politics, but it is not schadenfreude (not trying to sound pseudo-intellectual, just practicing my vocab); I don’t take pleasure in starting agitating discussions (okay, maybe sometimes) but I like it when my views are disputed. I especially enjoy the challenge of remaining calm and disinterested when the other party is noticeably feverish… maybe that is a little sado-narcissitic (made-up word)…

Perhaps some people don’t like their latent negative emotions that come up during political discussion. Maybe they don’t feel competent, and don’t want to feel ignorant. Maybe they don’t care. Some people do care, but may not think debating the (un)controversy of Obama’s Robin Hood tax plan or McCain’s sordid marital history is going to solve anything.

Are you a lover/allergic to political discussions? Why or why not? Also, check out the related poll on the left.

McCain on Oil and Iraq:

This quote was given a few weeks ago, but I came across it today:

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will -- that will then prevent us -- that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East..."

So what he's saying is, if we were not dependent on oil from the Middle East, then we would not have started the war? Has he retracted this statement? He can't seriously believe this, can he? What about those of us that were told we invaded Iraq to free the Iraqis or to take down Saddam, or to fight terror?