Just saw in the news that Bush is now lowest he's ever been in the polls. 81% think he's going in the wrong direction concerning the war, and this is despite the recent cheerleading testimony from general Petraeus and the generous support of the major news media. Another hopeful sign is the fact that McCain continues to get _less_ campaign donations from average citizens after every pro-war speech he makes. He still gets huge donations from corporations, but in donations from normal people who plan to vote in the coming election he is way behind Obama and Clinton.
While this is a good sign, we've still got to remember that the republicans control the electronic voting machines, that we are a nation of total idiots (even counting the rigged elections in 2004, Bush still got almost half the vote, and that's not even counting the morons who believe in creationism over science) and even if by some miracle they don't pull an october surprise and suspend the election and Obama wins, that just means four years of petty, vindictive personal attacks from republicans in congress and the mainstream media. I expect if Obama wins it will be about three months before a special grand jury investigation into (insert imaginary scandal here) is called for by the GOP and we'll see hundreds of headlines shouting rumors and baseless speculation at us on a daily basis.
I honestly hadn't realized that the six month term had been used that much.
This is a difficult election year for me because I'm floating between voting for Obama, whom I like a number of issues; but is also for things that I'm against, and voting independent as I usually do.
If one were to ask where I stand I'd say yes I believe in health care that everyone can get, I believe in creation (kind of a given for me all things considered), I believe in honesty and fair play. I believe that there should be a sliding tax scale that accurately and, above all, fairly uses taxes to get government revenue. I believe in taking care of the earth and being good stewards of what we've been given. I believe that war is horrific and that it should be the last resort in roughly 95% of the time. The other 5% are those unavoidable times when action must be taken because there is a moral imperative to do something.
I believe that people should be free to choose the path of their life. Whether to believe in God, as I do; or to reject that and go their own way. I think that if we'd just stop the posturing over issues we'd get a lot more done and a lot of the problems that exist could be solved.
In my heart I'm an idealist, and that's pretty painful when the storms of reality come knocking.
I'm not really sure what else can be said or done at this point. What do you think Tom?
I think I have no idea why you call yourself a conservative. :) Basically, you sound like a progressive with religion. (Always seems to freak out Southern Baptists and pundits that other religions exist, and that their followers aren't necessarily living by exactly the same rules as they.)
What do I think? I think you've said a lot of it, and I agree with it. I would add that I think a vote for an independent candidate is wasted unless and until an indie party gets the infrastructure that at least the Reform Party had when Perot was running. Sad but true.
I think that all the people who want their incomes to be left alone, they just want to be left alone, keep forgetting two things: that taxes pay for their civilization -- roads and fire protection and food inspection and the armed forces and pollution control and so many other things it'd freak 'em out to be shown a list -- and that, if they want to be left alone, it behooves them out of simple fairness to leave other people alone.
I believe rich people should pay higher taxes because rich people use more of the nation's infrastructure, not merely transportation and utilities but manufacturing and financial and political-social. I do not believe they should be beggared, and a fair system wouldn't do so.
I believe it is our obligation to take care of the earth not merely for our children's children's children but for ourselves, if only for the obvious fact that we have nowhere else to go if we continue to foul our own nest.
I believe that war should only be fought in self-defense, and you had damn well better be exactly right about why you're doing it. It is the biggest and most dangerous thing that humans can do, and it changes the world more dramatically than anything besides geologic upheaval.
I believe in privacy. Period. If someone is doing something that causes harm to another person -- for the purposes of my abortion position, I define a person as a human viable outside the womb -- you stop them. Other than that, if no one is getting harmed, whose business is it?
Most of all, I think that public servants should remember -- and, if necessary, be frequently and forcefully reminded -- that their job is to serve the public. Not their donors, not their corporate buddies, not anything or anybody besides the best interests of the American people. Honestly, I can't think of much nobler than that, and can't understand the need to hoard money or power or sex or whatever.
I think that if we got past the bullshit on the news, the lies and obfuscation and misdirection we are fed constantly from the government and passed on without comment or filter or truthcheck by the mainstream media, we might have a chance of fixing this country.
Regarding my vote, I am hopeful at this point that Obama will win the nomination; that's the way all indicators are pointing. He is an inspirational speaker, and we really do kinda need that right now; he is much less divisive than Clinton, who has been a polarizing figure for over fifteen years; and his positions and policies at least approach mine more than do either HRC or McCain.
On policy, I was and am an Edwards man. I actually share a little more with both Gravel and Kucinich (if you go by the internet's various Who Is Your Ideal Candidate? tests), but Edwards tempered his positions with just enough recognition of the practical difficulties of Getting The Job Done.
Obama is, I think, the best chance of at least getting a foot in the door on a lot of things. His platform is not perfect. His health care plan is troubling -- he seems to be one of the believers in mandates, which always overlook the fact that telling people it's against the law to not have health insurance doesn't help them pay for it. I wonder if he still thinks he can deal equitably, somehow, with an insurance industry whose sole objective is to make money on the backs of sick people. (I want single-payer government-run health care because, among other reasons, we need to get the damn profit motive out of it.) But I think his chances of actually getting something near universal health care are light-years better than either Clinton's or McCain's.
I heard something today that cemented my desire to bring the troops home. I've thought the war was wrong for a while now and the way the government has treated the troops, wounded or otherwise, is abomnidable.
However I just learned today that 121 of our nation's heroes have killed themselves. Suicide rates among the soldiers is higher than it's been in years. They're supposed to have 12 months on and 24 months off so they can dial down.
One of my very best friends is in the army. He has a wife and three children. He could have been one of those 121 fallen. This is now more personal than it already was. Obama or an independent there's no way I'm voting for someone who plans on continuing the war.
I haven't been paying much attention to McCain. He's for Bush and for letting our troops die in Iraq in a war of choice. That's enough for me to be against him. But where did this "100 years" come from? Did he actually say it or is it a reasonable conclusion based on what he said. If he didn't say it, we shouldn't pretend that he did. If we do contribute to the "100 years" that McCain never said, then we're no better than the conservatwits who go on about how Al Gore claimed he invented the internet. We should go after McCain on what he said, not on what we think he means.
Yes, I want this to be a clean race at least as clean as possible from the Democratic side. I can't expect anything from the Republicans. (Yes, I also know I can't get what I want, but I can still hope.)
I do like the video, too bad the YouTube logo covers up the count of US dead.
He said "100 years in Iraq would be fine with me", and then tried to spin it away (http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=mccain+100+years+iraq&btnG=Google+Search). The key moment is here (http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/04/mccain-100-years/).
Thank you. I wanted to be sure. I'm near Illinois's 14th district so I had to listen to a bunch of commercials against Bill Foster by the Heritage Foundation which took something he said completely out of context. http://alverant.livejournal.com/2258.html I didn't want "We can be in Iraq 100 years" comment to be the same. We're better than that.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-10 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-10 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-10 07:47 pm (UTC)While this is a good sign, we've still got to remember that the republicans control the electronic voting machines, that we are a nation of total idiots (even counting the rigged elections in 2004, Bush still got almost half the vote, and that's not even counting the morons who believe in creationism over science) and even if by some miracle they don't pull an october surprise and suspend the election and Obama wins, that just means four years of petty, vindictive personal attacks from republicans in congress and the mainstream media. I expect if Obama wins it will be about three months before a special grand jury investigation into (insert imaginary scandal here) is called for by the GOP and we'll see hundreds of headlines shouting rumors and baseless speculation at us on a daily basis.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-10 11:16 pm (UTC)This is a difficult election year for me because I'm floating between voting for Obama, whom I like a number of issues; but is also for things that I'm against, and voting independent as I usually do.
If one were to ask where I stand I'd say yes I believe in health care that everyone can get, I believe in creation (kind of a given for me all things considered), I believe in honesty and fair play. I believe that there should be a sliding tax scale that accurately and, above all, fairly uses taxes to get government revenue. I believe in taking care of the earth and being good stewards of what we've been given. I believe that war is horrific and that it should be the last resort in roughly 95% of the time. The other 5% are those unavoidable times when action must be taken because there is a moral imperative to do something.
I believe that people should be free to choose the path of their life. Whether to believe in God, as I do; or to reject that and go their own way. I think that if we'd just stop the posturing over issues we'd get a lot more done and a lot of the problems that exist could be solved.
In my heart I'm an idealist, and that's pretty painful when the storms of reality come knocking.
I'm not really sure what else can be said or done at this point. What do you think Tom?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-11 12:47 am (UTC)What do I think? I think you've said a lot of it, and I agree with it. I would add that I think a vote for an independent candidate is wasted unless and until an indie party gets the infrastructure that at least the Reform Party had when Perot was running. Sad but true.
I think that all the people who want their incomes to be left alone, they just want to be left alone, keep forgetting two things: that taxes pay for their civilization -- roads and fire protection and food inspection and the armed forces and pollution control and so many other things it'd freak 'em out to be shown a list -- and that, if they want to be left alone, it behooves them out of simple fairness to leave other people alone.
I believe rich people should pay higher taxes because rich people use more of the nation's infrastructure, not merely transportation and utilities but manufacturing and financial and political-social. I do not believe they should be beggared, and a fair system wouldn't do so.
I believe it is our obligation to take care of the earth not merely for our children's children's children but for ourselves, if only for the obvious fact that we have nowhere else to go if we continue to foul our own nest.
I believe that war should only be fought in self-defense, and you had damn well better be exactly right about why you're doing it. It is the biggest and most dangerous thing that humans can do, and it changes the world more dramatically than anything besides geologic upheaval.
I believe in privacy. Period. If someone is doing something that causes harm to another person -- for the purposes of my abortion position, I define a person as a human viable outside the womb -- you stop them. Other than that, if no one is getting harmed, whose business is it?
Most of all, I think that public servants should remember -- and, if necessary, be frequently and forcefully reminded -- that their job is to serve the public. Not their donors, not their corporate buddies, not anything or anybody besides the best interests of the American people. Honestly, I can't think of much nobler than that, and can't understand the need to hoard money or power or sex or whatever.
I think that if we got past the bullshit on the news, the lies and obfuscation and misdirection we are fed constantly from the government and passed on without comment or filter or truthcheck by the mainstream media, we might have a chance of fixing this country.
Regarding my vote, I am hopeful at this point that Obama will win the nomination; that's the way all indicators are pointing. He is an inspirational speaker, and we really do kinda need that right now; he is much less divisive than Clinton, who has been a polarizing figure for over fifteen years; and his positions and policies at least approach mine more than do either HRC or McCain.
On policy, I was and am an Edwards man. I actually share a little more with both Gravel and Kucinich (if you go by the internet's various Who Is Your Ideal Candidate? tests), but Edwards tempered his positions with just enough recognition of the practical difficulties of Getting The Job Done.
Obama is, I think, the best chance of at least getting a foot in the door on a lot of things. His platform is not perfect. His health care plan is troubling -- he seems to be one of the believers in mandates, which always overlook the fact that telling people it's against the law to not have health insurance doesn't help them pay for it. I wonder if he still thinks he can deal equitably, somehow, with an insurance industry whose sole objective is to make money on the backs of sick people. (I want single-payer government-run health care because, among other reasons, we need to get the damn profit motive out of it.) But I think his chances of actually getting something near universal health care are light-years better than either Clinton's or McCain's.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-11 04:51 am (UTC)However I just learned today that 121 of our nation's heroes have killed themselves. Suicide rates among the soldiers is higher than it's been in years. They're supposed to have 12 months on and 24 months off so they can dial down.
One of my very best friends is in the army. He has a wife and three children. He could have been one of those 121 fallen. This is now more personal than it already was. Obama or an independent there's no way I'm voting for someone who plans on continuing the war.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-11 03:45 am (UTC)Yes, I want this to be a clean race at least as clean as possible from the Democratic side. I can't expect anything from the Republicans. (Yes, I also know I can't get what I want, but I can still hope.)
I do like the video, too bad the YouTube logo covers up the count of US dead.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-11 08:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:42 am (UTC)