This is sandblade’s first endorsement. I heartily endorse John Murphy for the 16th Congressional District. As an independent he has absolutely no chance. Plus being anti-corporation won’t help him either. Sure he’s crazy, but he’s my brand of crazy. Murphy’s stand on immigration, healthcare, our wars, and terrorism is spot on. Pitts is pretty much guaranteed re-election. I think his very secure seat has made him feel immune to any kind of dissent. The three times I’ve written his office I essentially got blown off, with no consideration at all. If Murphy got 5% of the vote, it would send a pretty loud message. If you’re in the 16th, you’re vote is already wasted, join sandblade.net and waste it in style.
So if you’re like me you’re probably not sure if you should buy that macbook or if you should liquidate all your assets and buy some farmland and live off the grid. A friend of mine asked if I thought we were going to go into a depression or not. And I think I changed my answer a dozen times. I’ve always had an interest in macroeconomics ever since college, but I barely understood it then, and it’s even more complex now. As a complete amateur hack in econ, here are my thoughts about what’s going down (and it’s mostly down). Take it with a proverbial bag of rock salt. (more…)
I’m all for government protecting us in matters that make sense - like the FDA disallowing big pharma putting rat poison in our medicine. However I am concerned with the growing absurdity of the nanny state. The truth is if people don’t get a chance to exercise their own common sense, they’ll simply lose it. The litigious nature of Americans is only reinforced with the government acting like the helicopter mom for all of us. Which brings me to two proposals: (more…)
I have to say this isn’t entirely original. This is what I was thinking about after listening to Slate’s excellent political gabfest podcast.
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So Rick Santorum wants to let you know that if you vote for Casey. North-Korean-Islamo-Fascists will kill you, your children, your dog, and your grandparents in a firey nuclear holocaust. Oh and the Chinese will get all of our oil, hopefully for their sake before the nuclear holocaust, because it won’t be worth much after. And in case you don’t know we need bunker busting nuclear weapons to destroy the Iranians. Because as everyone knows the best way to prevent a nuclear war is to start one. For the love of all good things, don’t vote for Casey, touching that touch screen will be like pressing the red button in Pyongyang for your own annihilation.
Hazleton, PA is trying something different in an attempt to purge the illegal immigrants in their city. They’ve enacted ordinances that will impose fines on those who rent to illegal immigrants and will deny business permits to businesses that hire them. These are the first measures of their kind in the nation. Hazleton has seen rising gang and drug related crime. The politicians of the city blame the illegal immigrant population for this problem, and have drafted these ordinances as a result. (more…)
I posted on this blog a while back that I didn’t think W. could do anymore damage to this nation in a second term. Man was I wrong. I think the attack on public broadcasting was the last straw for me. I honestly think the next thing they’ll try to do is steal candy from babies, seriously.
I’m remarkably bummed out about this whole election. I’m very surprised. I usually have the cavalier Green Party attitude of, “eh, both parties are just as bad so who cares.” Well this time around I really seem to be affected. I’m usually very good at seeing the other side’s arguments, but I just can’t come up with one good logical argument for Bush, and that is personally very disturbing… So here are the things that are sort of comforting me: (more…)
It’s no secret that I think Kerry’s a prat. He has failed to provide leadership in the Senate, has done nothing remarkable in his political career, and seems to pander to every special interest he can find. I really don’t think he can make things any better. I know with a Republican majority in Congress, he won’t get any of his tax, health, or education plans passed ( and he knows it too). I don’t like Kerry’s rhetoric on how he’s going to track down and kill terrorists ( I have this vision of him going out with his over/under and shooting terrorists ). All in all I find him absurd.
But I was watching the Daily Show yesterday, yes I am one of those “stoned slackers” Bill O’Reilly warned you about, and Madeline Albright was on the show. I have a lot of respect for her and her opinions. She travels a lot and has connections all over the world, so she’s on my short list of people to listen to when she talks about what’s going on in the world. She made a very good case for Kerry that I hadn’t thought of. Albright said that in her travels almost everyone she runs into is puzzled and troubled by what the U.S. administration is doing, but they know what the American people and the American government are different. Just because W. and his administration are against the world, doesn’t mean Americans feel the same way. However if we re-elect Bush it’s like saying to the world, “Hey we approve what Bush has done, we hope he does more of it, we don’t care about you, and screw you we’re #1″ That’ll will all sorts of hearts and minds.
I couldn’t care less if W. becomes president and runs our country into the ground. Frankly I think we deserve it for being such knuckleheads for following him without question. But I do care what the rest of the world thinks. Americans deserve to live under the consequences of our own electoral process, but the rest of the world shouldn’t be punished for it.
I wish I could Tivo the news to November and get this dismal election year over with. Regardless of who gets elected, I think we’ll lose. The question really becomes which choice is worse. Currently I’m thinking it would be better if Bush got re-elected. Now before you start doubting my liberal street cred, let me explain why.
- Bush has made his bed, he should have to lie in it. This administration has refused to believe there is anything wrong with their policies or decisions. Well, give them four more years and see what happens. Let’s see if the debt gets out of control. Watch inflation and interest rates kill the economy. Let the body bags pile up and see if we still believe Bush when he says we’re safer. If Kerry wins, he’ll be blamed for all of this mess simply because it will occur in his term. Let Bush be blamed for the fallout of bad decisions in the first term.
- Kerry doesn’t have the moxy to fix Bush’s mistakes. People are looking to Kerry to get us out of this mess and he can’t do it. There is nothing he has proposed regarding Iraq, healthcare, Social Security, medicare, debt, etc. that will even remotely work. In fact if you really look at what Kerry and Bush propose, they’re more similar than different. Basically the only way to fix this mess is to make some seriously tough calls that would be very unpopular. Kerry is a career politician. Don’t think for a second he wouldn’t sell out future generations for another term.
- Kerry’s election will doom a better option in 2008. The chance that Kerry actually does a good job in the next four years is pretty slim. But as an incumbent president he’ll run again and we’ll either have to pick him or whomever the neocons decide to puppet for the ‘08. I’d rather start fresh in four years with all new choices. Plus after Bush runs everything into the ground in the next term, it’ll make someone as radical as Dean look electable.
Well the situation isn’t pretty but I’d sacrifice the next four years if it meant a better eight more after that.