aksjfd's Blog

The Olympics are everywhere and one can't help but here all, er, some, about it. And, honestly, I don't know what to make of all of it, so I thought I would put it up for discussion.

THe Olympics are supposed to transcend politics so that the athletes can participate in the one sanctified 'holy' event that is supposed to still exist. In other words, the Olympics symbolizes hope for the world and one's country while athletes hope to win. However, the Olympic committee decided to give China a chance. And CHina has made the Olympics their own. It's a communist Chinese Olympics and the Chinese have done a lot of beating....journalists and protestors.

While China has come a long way, they are still limiting the rights of people to protest harsh treatment. Or, should China stifle protests and punish people for disrtupting a tradition? Is this not the time to show one's dissention with the govt.? Is protesting the Chinese govt. unpatriotic if you are Chinese?

I see both sides of those coins. And, honestly, I don't know what to think about this. In my heart, I bleed Liberal blue and think Americans should choose not to watch, etc. But, I also think it would be nice to set aside my disagreement with the Chinese and enjoy my own freedoms. So, what do you all think? Down with CHina (why are we trading with them and not Cuba? Potential for money me thinks) or Bring it Beijing?

Obama really let us have it today. In 30 minutes, Obama managed to outline a plan that will keep us from relying on oil, create more jobs and fix the economy. HOw is he going to do that? SImple, he plans on investing in alternative fuels.

THe unemployment rate is at it's highest in 4 years and climbing. GM and Ford, once 2 of the biggest employers are laying off people in droves as they continue to shut down SUV and truck plants due to the huge drop in demand for these cars. If these companies and Americans were given tax credits to make and purchase biodiesel cars, GM and Ford would reopen their factories and put their people back to work.

By giving the people and emerging companies tax credits for not polluting the earth and buying these products, products that must be made in the US and cannot be imported from other countries, wind, solar and geothermal 'farms' will pop up everywhere. This creates many jobs for all people no matter your educational background. But, best of all, we will no longer be at the mercy of the oil companies who are posting the biggest profits ever made by any company in the US.

Please, watch or read the speech he gave today about his energy policy. It meticulously outlines what his goals are and how he is going to make it happen. Once you read/listen to what he has to say, you will be impressed that he did not dance around the subject, but instead he gave a clear concise plan that will lead us into the next generation of technology that is coming on faster than you might think.

Well, now we know what the Republican campaign strategy for the big election is. They are engineering a campaign very similar to those done by movie studios. Honestly, it's the funniest thing I have ever seen. First the Britney/Paris 'previews' and now the 'passion of the one', McCain manages to sink a litlle lower. Just when I think the sewer water is about to overtake him, he dives down another 20m.

If I wasn't already so disenfranchised and alienated by the Republican party, I would be today. For these ads alone, I would boycott thier party. What kind of person would release these gossip magazine show type ads? This really does 'dumb it down' doesn't it? Would you take any country seriously who elected someone like this? Have you seen "Idiocracy"? The Republican attack ads look like they are taken from that film. In that film, the President is a WWF wrestler and his ads were much like McCain's. And this is something McCain said he was proud of, I saw it from his own mouth.

What is going on here? Why are there so many lies out there about Obama? Has anyone, anyone at all seen ONE SINGLE LIE about McCain? I'd love to hear what attacks you've seen by the Democrats. I receive emails from the democratic party as well as friends who volunteer for them, and I have yet to receive a single one. All I have received from them are websites addressing the lies about Obama. Please, someone, anyone, let me know what, if anything, the democrats are doing.

McCain has never made any apologies for his lack of understanding the economy. Heck, his top economic advisor said that we weren't in a recession, we were just whining. And then there were his grades in math that led him to be ranked 894 out of 899 just above the people who were stoned in class and didn't do there homework. So, it's no wonder he has no idea how to subtract and add numbers with a lot of zeros.

If you haven't heard we have a HUGE deficit and are being bought by foreign interests daily. Yet, somehow, McCain has found a way to allow tax cuts to continue while making even more tax cuts. In the first year, he will save tax payers $300 million. When a reporter mentioned this makes balancing the budget, something McCain and the Republicans promised, in his first year is out, McCain said 'I can find you $100 million tomorrow' without any explanation how. However, I heard him speaking at a town hall and I heard that not only can he find the $100 million, which wouldn't even make a dent towards balancing the budget, he is going to find money to pay for after school tutoring.

It's amazing how many things McCain is promising to accomplish in his 4 year term even though he has a bank account in the red. Not only that, he has no plans of getting a second job to pay off his bills. McCain hasn't realized that renegotiating NAFTA will allow us to place some of the burden on those countries we've helped with this program. And he  flip flopped on his original stance against keeping the tax cuts of the rich companies who can afford to keep their companies oversees to save even more. Where is McCain going to get all of this money to provide for us, you know, the little people who make the products in order to buy the products so that their employers can lead the life they lead?

It's simple; McCain doesn't care where he is going to get that money. He stopped caring about the people when he won the primaries. Now, before you start throwing tomatoes, you have to know that he was the candidate I was pulling for from the Rep. pool as he didn't seem that bad and I could have handled a McCain presidency, especially since he won't be running for a 2nd term. Then started his flip flop fever and sold out to special interests repeating his old habits he worked so hard to give up in the 90s. The day after he flip flopped on his orginal position against off-shore drilling and ANWAR, oil companies gave him $1 million. LIke I said, the money is no longer for us, the money is now for McCain who has fallen victim to greed. McCain is in favor of GIVING oil companies, GWB buddies, more assests even though he cannot make them drill. Heck, we can't even make them drill on the 101 million acres that have been available to them for decades.

For those of you still on the fence, think about those facts long and hard. Having an elite, ignorant president hasn't worked out well for us over the past 8 years. Like Bush, McCain will overspend without offering up any way to pay for the credit he used. We need fiscal responsibility to ensure the dollar bounces back sonner rather than later. Over helping others have made it impossible to help ourselves and nothing is going to change with a Republican administration. It's time to bring this country back in balance. Vote balance. Vote change. Vote democrat. Vote Obama.

Should we or shouldn't we? Oh, I am no longer talking about invading Iraq, I am talking about declaring victory and leaving Iraq. The day Bush declared vistory on the big ship (excuse my apathy and ignorance), we had already won. The day Bush found Saddam, we won again. And when he was put on trial and hanged, we won a third and fourth time. Yet, we stayed in Iraq to 'do it for them' to ensure 'our team' won. Over 4,000 people of our people died, trillions of my money that I wanted to use on education and health care was spent on people half way around the world, and inflation went through the roof because my taxes didn't (we traded one for the other) and we had already won 4 times.

Now, I was against the Iraq war from the beginning, but was willing to give Bush some rope. Like you, I hoped that his decisions were sound and it would cost what he said it would, which it would have cost had we left 3+ YEARS AGO. There was no need to hold their hands. They had enough initiative to figure it out themselves and we could have just helped out here and there like we do with Israel. Instead, we have chosen to hold their hands instead of stand tall and fight for your beliefs. Which is also ironic since we always say they are the ones to risk everything for their religious and political beliefs.

Many Iraqis want to get rid of Saddam Hussein just like many Iranians want to get rid of AHmadinijad, however, none of them want those people to be replaced by foreigners. They want the opportunity to fight it out amongst themselves. And with just a little bit of assistance from us, the right compromise would been struck. Let's face it, it isn't bragging when I say that our military could kick their military's butt if our guys had one hand tied behind their backs and were hungover from shenanigans from the night before which is why Israel still exists. What would have been important, though, is that we would have forced the Iraqis to fend for themselves. We would have 'shown them how to fish, rather than just given them fish'.

This is the only blog I use. Kudos to the Fox staff for finding the format that works best for me. All of you make this site enjoyable as well as you all are interested in the same things I am with a different opinion. That allows me to learn more about how I feel about things which either solidifies or changes my mind. But now, I am not so sure if I understand the purpose of this site and political blogs in general. Therefore, I thought I'd ask all of you professional bloggers, what is the purpose of the blogs?

Some days, I think that debate and deep thought are the purposes, motivating me to toss in my own thoughts and rebuttals. I enjoy taking what someone has written and showing the other side of everything they said. When people do the same to me, I am happy to hear it as that means they have actually thought about what I said and thought about thier own position in order to counter. For me, it's a good time and gives me an outlet for what I see that is wrong with the world. The bf can't debate these issues because he doesn't know enough fact and I like to look things up. In fact, my friends will say some random fact and kid me about leaving it up to me to find the answer. And I kid them back that you can only be a Rep. until you start researching it for themselves which is why most college grads, researchers, are Dem. But, it's all in good fun and I love them like family.

Then, there are the other days. Those days I think the purpose is mearly to say everything you want to say and have every single person on here agree with your position so that you can pound your chest. When a person with a different view reads everything you said and counters, I would think you felt honored that you wrote something someone read and thought about. Some days I think I am wrong and people feel I am attacking them and not their arguement. Instead of countering, people call me names usually with the Rep equivalent to the 'n-word' for white people...liberal attached to it. So perhaps this is not a place for debate, but a place for agreeing?

Whatever you think, please let me know. Perhaps I've been wrong all this time and debate is not the goal of bloggers.

If taxes are a concern, I'd like to know what tax bracket you are in. To be fair, I will reveal my salary. Right not, I make less than $150K. When I get married in CR, together we will make just over $250K.

How about you? Do you make more or less than $150K. If you make less than $150K, your taxes will decrease under Obama. If you make less than $250K, none of your taxes will increase, they will remain the same. If you make over $250K, your taxes will increase. So I ask, what is your tax bracket? Under or over $150K? Under or over $250K?

I look forward to your replies.

From factcheck.org:

• Home Sales: The claim that Obama would impose a 28 percent tax on the profit from "all home sales" is false. Both Obama and McCain would continue to exempt the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of a primary residence ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly) which results in zero tax on all but a very few home sales.
  
  
• Capital Gains Rate: It's untrue that Obama is proposing a 28 percent capital gains tax rate. He said in an interview on CNBC that he favors raising the top rate on capital gains from its present 15 percent to 20 percent or more, but no higher than 28 percent. And as for a 28 percent rate, he added, "my guess would be it would be significantly lower than that." Furthermore, he has said only couples making $250,000 or more (or, his policy advisers tell us, singles making more than $200,000) would pay the higher capital gains rate. That means the large majority of persons who pay capital gains taxes would see no increase at all.
  
  
• Tax on Dividends: Another false claim is that Obama proposes to raise the tax rate on dividends to 39.6 percent. Dividends currently are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, and Obama would raise that to the same rate as he would tax capital gains, somewhere between 20 percent and 28 percent but likely "significantly" lower than 28 percent. This higher tax also would fall only on couples making $250,000 or more or singles making more than $200,000.
  
  
• Taxing IRAs and 529s: Contrary to the claim in this e-mail, raising tax rates on capital gains or dividends would not result in higher taxes on any investments held in Individual Retirement Accounts or in popular, tax-deferred "college funds" under section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code. The whole point of such tax-deferred plans is that dividends and capital gains are allowed to accumulate and compound tax-free, and neither Obama nor McCain proposes to change that. And as previously mentioned, any capital gains or dividend income from stocks, bonds or mutual funds owned outside of tax-deferred accounts would continue to be taxed at current rates except for couples making over $250,000, or singles making more than $200,000.
  
  
• Doubled Taxes? The claim that "Under Obama your taxes will more than double!" is also false. The comparative rate tables this e-mail provides for McCain and Obama are entirely wrong, as we explained in an earlier article March 13 about another false e-mail from which these tables are copied. It is supposedly a comparison of tax rates before and after the Bush tax cuts, but it grossly overstates the effect of the Bush cuts. Furthermore, Obama proposes to retain the Bush cuts for every single income level shown in this bogus table.
  
  
• Estate Tax. The claim that Obama proposes to "restore the inheritance tax" is also false, as are the claims that McCain would impose zero tax and that Bush "repealed" it. McCain and Obama both would retain a reduced version of the estate tax, as it is correctly called, though McCain would reduce it by more.
  
  The tax now falls only on estates valued at more than $2 million (effectively $4 million for couples able to set up the required legal and financial arrangements). It reaches a maximum rate of 45 percent on amounts more than that. It was not repealed, but it is set to expire temporarily in 2010, then return in 2011, when it would apply to estates valued at more than $1 million ($2 million for couples), with the maximum rate rising to 55 percent.
  
  Obama has proposed to apply the tax only to estates valued at more than $3.5 million ($7 million for couples), holding the maximum rate at 45 percent. McCain would apply it to estates worth more than $5 million ($10 million for couples), with a maximum rate of 15 percent.
  
  
• "New Tax" Falsehoods: The e-mail continues with a string of made-up taxes that it falsely claims Obama has proposed. He has not proposed a tax on new homes with more than 2,400 square feet, or a new gasoline tax or a tax on retirement accounts. The most laughably false claim is that Obama would tax "water."
  

As most of you know, I am on team Obama which means that I spend time researching all of the lies the Republican attack machine comes up with in order to learn if what they say is true or not. Every single lie that I have heard, I have been able to easily disprove with minimal effort and not one person on this site has rebuked any of my facts, because they are just that, facts. So here is the latest Republican attack that is a downright lie.

Some are believing that McCain pays women better than Obama. Complete lie and not based in fact. Obama has only one intern on his campaign last year because he apparently believes in paying women money for the job they do. McCain doesn't feel the same way. He employed 23 interns, 8 of whom were women who were not getting paid a dime. In order for the Republican liars to make McCain looks good, they did not include those unpaid women when calculating the average salary of a female working on McCain's staff, which is how Tweety's figures were calculated. However, when those unpaid women were included, McCain is dead last in the average salary paid to women campaign staffers.

Just goes to show that you can't just beleive anything you read without finding out what figures and methodology were used to come up with a conclusion. One of the best lessons learned in college is how to discern fact from fiction in 'studies' that are trying to prove a point that they want made. We learn that it is easy to manipulate these studies into giving the results one wants. It's easy, but to those of us who know how to disect these studies, we can spot a lie a mile away. Now, if only you would read the methodology of studies that show illegals take out more than they put in. But, my guess is you won't because you are happy that your position appears correct. Like Britchick explained, most of you think from your heart without using your head.

Isn't funny how times change? Many have expressed their belief that 'we are fighting the terrorists there so that we don't have to fight them here'. While there was no basis for this opinion, the Republicans fed it their people, who ate it up and regurgitate every chance they get. On the other hand, some of us just can't believe anything anyone says without looking up the facts and deciding if an opinion was warranted. My stance on this one has always been the same; the trends don't support this at all.

Ah yes, I have written this before. As a math tutor, it is my job to explain how trends are formed, what their purpose is and how to predict what will happen (this is how I teach y=mx+b and I have incredibly results with this method). Therefore, I knew that the statement "we must attack them here, so they don't attack us here" had to be based in a trend. So I looked it up. Based on data that showed, on average, we are attacked every 8 years and it usually happens when a new President takes office (provided the new Pres wasn't the outgoing VP). We are attacked, however, very often on their turf, the Middle East.

Now, finally, someone has agreed with me. Sen. Joe Liberman has echoed my comments. He supports McCain and he asserts that "our enemies will test the new President early. Remember the truck bombing of World Trade Center happened in first year of Clinton's presidency and 9-11 happend the first year of the Bush administration." I guess now you have to ask. A vote for McCain means another all out war for any attack that happens done by a rogue group that is sacraficing  a country that doesn't supports its views. A vote for Obama means an appropriate response like bombing the terrorists and taking care of govt. that support these terrorists like those in Africa, especially Afghanistan. Want to get Osama? Vote Obama!!!

After writing a bunch of posts on why I believe that off-shore drilling is just a ruse and a political trick McCain is using in order to be put in office, I decided to give a viable solution that makes a lot more sense than keeping any dependance on oil. Some of this may actually surprise you as much as it did me. I couldn't believe the US was so far behind, but then again, I did live in Europe for 2 months and found this to be true on many levels, but that's another story.

A few weeks ago, I watched an interview about electric powered cars and discussed it with my bf, the robotics engineer. He explained, as did this ed. show, that we don't yet have the technology to make batteries strong enough for this technology to work. The person who figures that out is going to be "..a very rich man." Currently, the Asians own this market and are able to run a car for 40 minutes on a single charge. As McCain understands this and has offered a $300 million prize for developing a better automobile battery. Obviously this was an incredibly stupid business move as this race is already on. And the race is in Asia, not the US.

It seems crazy to believe that the up and coming technology isn't being invested in heavily and is largley ignored by the masses. Would you believe that the US doesn't really make batteries? I remembered that the woman they interviewed expressed her desire to have batteries for whatever she was involved with made in the US, but couldn't find a company in the US to make them. Well, I can't find that transcript but here is something I did find to collaborate her story: "The fact that the U.S. has little battery cell production is a major hurdle for domestic electric vehicle makers, he noted, as it makes purchasing cells costly, and limits the diversity of the supply." (earth2tech.com by Katie Fehrenbacher).

Having said that, I'd like to know if you still think that offshore drilling that, at the earliest, won't be online for 4 years is a better place to hedge our bets or battery powered cars that get their charge from solar, wind, hydro and geo-thermal power?

That's right folks. THe speculators are talking, but not about the price of oil. They are speculating that Bush may decide to attack Iran in the coming weeks. As we are all aware, Israel has been displaying their might by running training missions that are the exact distance from Israel as Iran. Bush is denying that their is an increase in special ops training going on in Iran, but there is a report that says this increase is real. When you add these two things together, only one assumption can be made, the US is gearing up for war number 3.

Now, I have asked that many of you research a map of the middle east and a map of where the oil fields are in the volatile region. One will notice that Iraq and Iran's fuel must go through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is only 27 miles wide. Because every country 'owns' 15 miles worth of water from thier shores, this means there is no international water in this Strait. Also, if you review a map of where the majority of the oil in Saudi Arabia is, you will see that the vast majority of their oil must also go through this narrow Strait. Saudi Arabia does have pipelines that can carry oil from the east to the west, but these pipelines haven't been used in decades and will most likely leak. If they are in pristine condition, Saudi Arabia will still see a decline in how much oil they can ship.

What's this all mean? Gas prices will go through the roof. The pundits and govt. can tell you the oil speculators are at fault, or the increase in demand in China and India is the problem. But, my common sense says that an increase in gas use by the world's largest consumer of oil, the US military, and a decrease of more than the current million barrels per day is the real culprit. Therefore, hold onto you socks, because it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Mark my words, if, or should I say when, Iran is attacked, the price of gas will double.

The Republicans are most likely betting that this war will greatly improve McCain's chances of winning the presidency. And, unfortunately, they are probably right. Americans seem to be ready to go to war with whomever over whatever without thinking about the consequences back home. If you are complaining about the price of oil now, you ain't seen nothing yet!!

Alright, alright, I believed you guys when you said that a fence and laws prohibiting employers from hiring illegals would work. Well, the fence was a big waste of money, but the laws seemed to be working. That or our economy is so bad there is no reason to head up to the US looking for work, after all, they don't speak English. But, that wasn't enough for you rich Arizonans, no, you wanted Joe to waste more money arresting landscapers.

So, let's see what the sweeps in Mesa netted, other than a disgust for the Sheriff's office and racial tension. According to Joe, he arrested, ready for this, 14 illegals. 14 illegals took what, 40, 50, 100 hours worth of pay? And, here is the kicker, 9 of them were already being arrested by the police dept and ICE in an operation that arrests 2-3 times as many illegals as Sheriff Joe. THerefore, Joe only managed to arrest 5, yes 5, illegals, that's it!!! And you rich people from Arizona who don't understand that the state budget is broke are all too quick and eager to support him spending all of this money to do a job for which the federal govt. should pay and not the state of Arizona. Brilliant.

Ahhhh....the time has come to throw his name out there. That's all I have to say...

Discuss.

"The Navy is still the world I know best and love most..." McCain recently said. When he said this, it struck me in a way that surprised me. Does he love the navy more than he loves his country? From his own mouth, he has said that he would choose the military over the good of the country. It frightens me as he seems all too ready to race off to war in Iran the day he takes office. He was happy that "Iraq attacked Kuwait as it gave them something (besides the Keating 5) to talk to me about". Not only does he have a strong allegiance to the Navy, he knows what a war can do for your reputation.

Sitting down with leaders from 'terrorist' countries "that call Israel a stinking corpse and arms terrorists who kill Americans, will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear weapons...", McCain ranted from his pulpit. His allegiance to the navy has clouded his vision and made it impossible to accomplish anything without "bomb(ing), bomb(ing)...Iran". One only has to look towards Cuba to see the quick results of aging leaders in a progressive, internet linked world. He is too old to learn new tricks in the age of technology that can decimate the world. This is a dangerous equation.

And then there is his inability to keep track of which country is Shiite and which is Sunni. His love of navy and all that is military has made it unimportant to be bothered with learning about the causes of the violence in that area. His solution is bombs, guns and death, theirs and ours. Will the US be the newest addition to the war that has lasted 1000s of years? And how will this war end? By talking, of course, when we negotiate treaties. Why not skip that part in the middle?

As much as I have questioned my countrymen the past 8 years, I have more faith than ever that they will elect the right person and my country will be restored. Every sign points to a democratic victory, it is theirs to lose. Correction,  it is ours to lose. Think long and hard about the lives of you children and grandchildren who will have a chance, slim, perhaps, but slim nonetheless, at being drafted into another costly, gas guzzling war in a desert half a world away on the supposition that they will attack us without so much as an air force and....you guessed it, a navy.