Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Written September 20th, 2008 at 8:01am in Politics, Videos

Written September 4th, 2008 at 5:04pm in Politics, Technology, Videos

Don’t worry, it’s not as gross as it sounds….

Do yourself a favor and watch the entire video, John Stewart takes the piss out of a lot of people involved in the election as only he can.

Also, if you found yourself moved by Palin’s “stirring” speech last night (you know, the one in which she didn’t mention Afghanistan, healthcare, college tuition, unemployment, etc), you might like to know that her speech was riddled with half-truths, among them:

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

Honestly, I only WISH I could say that I was shocked to hear that much of the speech was hot air.

Written September 2nd, 2008 at 9:25am in Politics

Here we have a clip of the ever-engaging James Carville debating Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) as to whether Sarah Palin was a good VP pick for McCain.

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Rj2dMb6fecY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Rj2dMb6fecY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

As entertaining as I find that exchange to be, it troubles me that some people are quick to jump on the Palin train (no, that had nothing to do with her daughter. Zing).

Written August 31st, 2008 at 9:30am in Politics

Is Sarah Palin really the mother of her youngest “son”, Trig? It sounds outlandish to make the allegation that she might not be, but Daily Kos has some very interesting “evidence” making the case that her youngest son could, in fact, be her grandson. Wow.

You MUST read this.

Written August 29th, 2008 at 12:23pm in Politics

Well, there you have it folks.

Senator McCain has named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Supporters of Senator Obama have praised his VP choice, Senator Joe Biden, for being a champion in the cause of combating poverty.

Let’s send a message to Sarah Palin that we would like her to do the same. Click here to send a postcard to Gov. Palin asking her to take a stand against global poverty.

Written August 29th, 2008 at 7:16am in News, Politics

Late last night California Democratic President pro Tem, Don Perata, scheduled a vote on a compromise proposal that would end the state’s budget stalemate.

The vote will take place today at 10am, just as California was set to break the record for the longest amount of days into a fiscal year without an operating budget.

I certainly hope they’re able to get this done, as they (and I mean everyone) has been displaying an astounding amount of ineptitude over the last 59 days.

I’ve written about this several times over the last few weeks, check out the related links for more.

If you’re kind of lazy and don’t feel like going back to the older links read below. It the text of a revision to the budget proposal put forth by Governor Schwarzenegger last week and will give you a decent overview:

California’s budget problem has reached crisis proportions. After months of negotiation, the Administration and the Legislature have yet to agree on a plan for solving the state’s budget shortfall this year, eliminating its long-term structural deficit, and reforming the budget process to prevent such a crisis from recurring.

The Governor believes that to solve the budget crisis and move forward, the state needs to do all of the following:

Make major reductions in programs to bring spending in line with a realistic long-term revenue projection.

Provide for a temporary increase in revenues to see the state through the next several years of anticipated slow economic growth.

Modernize the state’s lottery and securitize expected increased revenues to pay off General Fund debts or contribute to the “rainy day fund” (Budget Stabilization Account) to help see the state through the next three years.

Enact major budget reform that will prevent future legislatures and governors from committing temporary surges in revenues to ongoing program expansions or tax cuts, and that will provide a rainy day fund and mid-year cut authority to address future downturns in revenues.

The last two components of this plan both must be enacted by the people. Budget reform can only be achieved with a constitutional amendment, and lottery reform requires amending both the Constitution and an initiative enacted by the people in 1984.

In the absence of these two components, the only alternatives to solving the state’s budget problems will be massive program cuts and/or major tax increases. The Compromise reflects lessons learned after months of negotiation with legislative leaders of both parties. It is a plan that has components that are objectionable to all parties—including the Governor.