Obama/Clinton: the Silly Debate

Okay, this is my first foray into imbedding video in this blog. I'm a firm believer in the hit-and-miss html philosophy, so this should be an interesting experiment in the newfangled technology that's beyond this humble blogger's expertise.

Fortunately, the subject matter is lighthearted. Please focus your attention on the two Democratic presidential candidates in a photoshopped debate that has no desired outcome other than which looks sillier with giant clown glasses added for effect.





You've seen them, now decide.

No Civil Liberties Left Behind

Nancy Pelosi, using her rarely used cojones, finally said “no” to the Bush administration by refusing to allow amnesty to telecom companies for participating in his illegal “spying on America for the good of national security” program. Way to go, Nancy!

Harry Reid, spineless wimp that he is, failed to stand up to Cheney & Company, leaving it up to No Nonsense Nancy to block this piece of fecal matter of legislation that would indemnify Bush’s corporate buddies in any wrongdoing in his relentless war on the rights of American citizens.

This particular American patriot is not against collecting intelligence information, but to grant immunity to anyone who is willing to stomp all over our civil liberties at the request of a renegade administration, particularly corporate entities who contribute generously to the coffers of this administration, is just asking them to stretch the boundaries of ethics in order to gain favor in federal contracts.

Keep in mind that this is the administration that gave no-bid contracts to Halliburton for support services in the Iraq war, and convinced their base that no one else has the resources to provide the services on such a large scale. It also spearheaded the No Child Left Behind program that enriched Bush’s brother Neil and his educational software company under the guise of improving education.

Nancy’s “no” was temporary, however, and merely put off a vote on the permanence of the Protect America Act until August.

Any American that values civil liberty over the ability of the federal government to intrude on individual privacy with no provocation needs to contact his or her congressional representatives and tell them that under no circumstances will we tolerate this intrusion into our private lives.

Do that here. Do it now.

The time has long past when true Americans will idly stand by as their government tramples on their rights in the name of so-called “national security”. It's time to restore our integrity, and reinstate our legacy of "We the people, for the people, and by the people".

Let the games begin!

The race to the white house is heating up, and the candidates are pulling out all the stops in their attempts to portray themselves as the only candidate that can get you what you want in this knock-down, drag-out slugfest known as the 2008 presidential election.

On the Democratic side, Barack Obama is the media darling, despite his questionable connections with a known Chicago low-life. But hey, what are the chances of being involved in Illinois politics without at least one bottom-feeder tarnishing your image, eh?

Hillary Clinton is his primary opponent, and she is taking advantage of every available option, including Barack’s bad press and her “crying game”, for her personal gain. She’s the consummate politician, just like her hubby, so we don’t know where she really stands at this point.

Yours truly is waiting for their votes on whether or not to include immunity for telecom companies in the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA) legislation to decide which candidate to support. We all know how Hillary voted to support the war and that Barry took a pass, but now it’s time to put up or shut up, and I want to see how they do.

On the Republican side, John McCain is the media darling, despite the fact that he’s far less conservative than the base. He is way far left on the immigration issue, against torture, and not exactly the fundamentalist’s vision of the next coming of the Messiah. Personally, I respected McCain up until he approved Bush's appointment of Alberto Gonzalez's appointment as Attorney General, even though at the time Gonzalez approved torture as an effective form of information gathering. Since then, the Bush administration has admitted that information achieved through torture is less than accurate.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and even though that’s not supposed to matter, you know it does. But he’s a businessman and well versed in the practice of laying off people, so you know he gets a pass from neo-cons who favor outsourcing labor to countries that don’t have the stringent safety and labor laws that we have here.

And then there’s Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Huckabee has a following among the born-again crowd, and Chuck Norris, but that’s about it. Ron Paul has a massive following, mostly among the disillusioned who want the government out of your life unless you’re female or gay.

So let the games begin. We’re going to see major mudslinging – first between Hillary and Barry and McCain and Romney, and then between the Republican and Democratic candidates – and then we’ll have the grand standoff in November. We’re in for a major Battle of the Brands.

Regardless, anything result November will be an improvement over what we have right now. Viva la Revolution!