Random Pages About Stuff
  » Typical "About Me" Page
  » Things I Want, But Don't Need
  » Unnecessary DVD Collection

Apple iTunes


 All blog visitors may view pictures


Only Facebook members can view

 New Jersey Blogs
 Link Exchange Sites
 My Friends

LinkShare  Referral  Prg

 Check Out These Sites

Archive for the ‘United States Politics’ Category

Where Do The Republicans Go From Here?

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

Though this post might be a bit early, all of the polls are suggesting that this Tuesday is going to bring big gains for the Democrats in the Congress. Oh, and then there’s that whole Presidential election, where it is likely that Barack Obama will bring the White House back to the Democratic Party. The Democrats are looking at holding a solid majority in the House, Senate, and the White House for the first time since 1992. And it’s looking more and more like the Democrats will wind up with 60 seats in the Senate after the election, giving them a filibuster-proof majority.

Halloween was yesterday, but this is a frightening proposition.

Now settle down my little extremist minded readers. I am not suggesting that this is scary because the majority of our government will be Democrats. Rather it is scary because one party will have complete control of the American government (the Supreme Court ideologies do not count). That’s not right. Of course, the Republicans have had this coming to them for a while now. The Republicans took over the American government and did not bring the change that the people wanted. It’s funny, though, how in the wake of President Bush’s second term the nation forgets about the Democratic scandals of the last two decades. It’s even funnier that this country is dominated by a vicious, disgustingly biased media. But I digress…

What will the Republicans do if they fail as miserably this coming Tuesday? Frankly, it’s time for the GOP to go back to the drawing board. They had their opportunity to make a difference in American government and they failed. I see two paths for the Republicans in the wake of a pending disaster on Election Day.

First, they can choose to take up a truly moderate position on all of the major issues. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has a think tank called American Solutions. This group has taken a variety of polls showing how 80% - 90% of Americans agree on certain issues. For example, polls show that 87% of Americans support English as the official language of the United States. Another example - 81% support greater use of domestic energy sources to fuel America’s future. Great.

The Republicans can choose to be the champions of these bipartisan issues and use this stance to win back some of the good graces of the American public.

The second direction the party can go from here is highly unlikely, but still a possibility. In short, the party can break up into various factions. Let’s face it, John McCain is not the same Republican as is George W. Bush; just as Elizabeth Dole is not the same type of Republican as Arnold Schwarzenegger; just as Christine Todd Whitman is certainly a different type of Republican than John Ashcroft. The fact is that there are too many different “types” of Republicans and this is a bad thing. Why is it a bad thing? Look at the current election cycle. There will be Republicans who lose Senate or House seats because there is an “R” after their name on the ballot. Sure, they may disagree with all of the policies of the current administration, but they’re about to get punished anyway.

Why not have a Conservative Republican party? Why not a Constitutional Republican party or a Traditional Republican party? Trust me, I understand why the power structures at the top of the Republican party would never allow this to happen (ca-ching!), but it might be time for the candidates (present and future) to take this party into their own hands. If you’re running as a Republican in San Francisco, guess what? You lose. But what if you ran as a candidate in a Liberal Republican party? What if you could disassociate with the stigmas and stereotypes of a nationwide organization?

With all of this being said, I have to say that I believe if Obama wins the election it will be very hard for him to win re-election. My reasoning is exactly the same as above. If the Democrats win the big majorities in the Congress, then it doesn’t matter who sits in the White House because the Senate Majority leader will rule the legislative agenda of the country. I believe that this country will experience a major shift to the left in the coming years and it might be too big of a swing for many to take. Obama needs to watch out for that if he’s sitting in the White House…but first he has to win the election.

Twenty Similarities Between Obama and Bush

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

The folks over at CNN put up an interesting piece of commentary by a former advisor to the Republican National Committee. The article is interesting because it compares Senator Barack Obama’s stance on certain issues to those of President George W. Bush. Surprisingly, the author of this article (Tara Wall) found twenty issues where the two politicians pretty much agree. From the article:

Budgets: Obama voted for Bush’s budgets, which included 19 spending bills.

Obama supports charter schools, as does Bush, and merit pay for teachers, and he voted in favor of supporting the president’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers.

Obama has said the U.S. must “lead the global fight against the AIDS virus.” And earlier this year, he encouraged lawmakers to “Use whatever works with AIDS, including teaching abstinence.” Obama has given Bush kudos for his efforts to combat global AIDS and the record amount of funding ($15 billion over 5 years) the president has earmarked for the fight. Obama said in September, “I think President Bush — and many of you here today — have shown real leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

Obama voted yes on preauthorizing the much ballyhooed Patriot Act, sought by the Bush administration.

These are just a few of the issues that I cherry-picked out of the list of twenty.

The Last Presidential Debate

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Sorry, folks. I didn’t really watch the last Presidential debate so I can’t offer any insight as to who won and who lost. In my book, McCain won the first two and Palin vs. Biden was a draw or slightly in Palin’s favor given the amount of misinformation that Senator Biden put out there. But as for this last Presidential debate - frankly it’s all the same stuff over and over again with different words.

The election is in the hands on the media now, so we’ll likely see a build-up in Obama’s numbers heading into November. The media has anointed Senator Obama as the next President and that’s fine so long as America understands that we have a biased media and unless there are drastic changes (like the increasingly influence of an independent media through online channels), then we’re doomed. A news channel that would simply report factual news or even both sides of the same issues would be a huge success in this country. Oh wait, we already have FOX News and the brainwashed extremists think that it’s biased in favor of Republicans.

Isn’t weird how some Americans will ask for something, get it, and then condemn it?