Pat Buchanan

Bonus points to Pat Buchanan for saying on the air that if you want to hear Bush and Cheney getting absolutely hammered, tune into Ron Paul's convention.

Mark Warner's Keynote

Mark Warner's keynote speech was fantastic. He is a completely moderate democrat, who was the governor of Virginia from 2001-2005. He gave a phenomenal speech, but I think that the best part was when he said (and this is paraphrasing):

the worst thing that Bush did was not tapping the resolve of the American people after 9/11. If he had told us after 9/11 that we need to stop using foreign oil that pays the terrorists salaries, by giving up most of our SUV's, carpooling, riding bicycles, and buying hybrids, we would be in a much better world now."

He is right. Gas would not be $4 a gallon due to decreased demand, and it wouldn't matter if it was since everyone would be in a hybrid or not need to buy gas. Bush told us to "go shopping" after 9/11 which only drained our pocketbooks and got us more SUV's and foreign oil.

Warner also told the audience that if we can send a job to Bangalore, we can send a job to rural Virginia (or Flint, MI as another of his examples). During his administration, many "on-shore off-shore" high tech jobs were created in rural Virginia.

One day, Mark Warner may be our president, but if we want to follow what he says and invest in science, the future, and our people, we cannot elect John McCain as president.

I will post the youtube soon.

Not good for Israel's public relations

The very opposite of Mel Gibson.  A drunk Israeli settler, claiming that his people killed Jesus.

I highly doubt this represents the Israeli settlers, but people really need to learn to lay off the booze when there's cameras around.

I'd probably be pissed if a film crew was following me around too, but this is not going to get the Christians to side with him.  

McCain: The Brezhnev Concern

While most of us generally think of McCain in terms of what he represents politically, there is another concern that should be at the forefront of the news: mental decline.

Many pundits will opine that McCain needs to pick someone younger (like Mitt Romney) in order to persuade voters to back a 72 year old. The general consensus is that McCain may not be able to survive the next four to eight years, so a young VP is necessary just in case McCain croaks.

Despite McCain's recent cancer episodes, he seems relatively healthy, physically, but there's another concern we must not forget.

Old age does not just suddenly appear. It takes time to develop, and by the time it is obvious a lot of damage can be done. Especially when you have a man who plans to carry forward the legacy of one of the most secret administrations ever.

We can look to the Soviet Union to see this in action, with Leonid Brezhnev. When Brezhnev took over from Khrushchev, he was a spry 58. By the time he died in office, he was 76, which is, coincidentally, the age McCain would be at the end of his possible first term.

Boris Yeltsin reported a typical encounter with the older Brezhnev, who was still alive, but would not be able to even comprehend the papers he would sign.

Could this happen to John McCain? In McCain's age group, on average 5% of people will have Alzheimer's or acquire it within a year. While a 1 in 20 chance may not seem very high, would you be willing to take this bet on someone who can push the big red button?

Obviously, most of my readers will not for such a man, but it is a shame that the media refuses to discuss this issue at all. They are likely afraid of offending seniors, but I think that these are the people who would be least offended, as most of them would have likely worried about dementia themselves and seen it up close with friends.

One important thing to ponder, is McCain currently in a mental decline? He is working very hard everyday, mentally. At his age, thinking is tough work for even the healthiest, and one must worry about his mental state after five years as a POW anyway, which probably aged him mentally by many years. When you see McCain's confusion on basic mental functions, such as speaking, it becomes apparent that he is not as sharp as he was even one year ago.

The real concern is that McCain would not visibly become incapacitated, and his advisors would take over for him, people like Phil Gramm, or the Georgian Lobbyist. With people like that running the country, and only giving McCain pre-written executive orders to sign, who knows what would happen, especially since these people would have an easy scapegoat should anything go really wrong.

So, how did Brezhnev's illness work out for the Soviet Union? Not too well. During the 70's the economy stagnated and it is unlikely that Brezhnev knew anything that was going on. Ten years after his death, his counry was no more. And Russians are left with the legacy of Brezhnev jokes:

During the Olympics, Brezhnev is giving a speech and begins it: "Oh, oh, oh..."
His advisor says to him: "Comrade Brezhnev, those are the Olympic Rings, you do not need to read them."

Hopefully we will not have these type of jokes in four years...

Ron Paul does WHAT?!

Ron Paul, the last bastion of liberty, has sold out.  He has endorsed Alaska Rep. Young, who is about as fiscally conservative as Hillary Clinton (and that's probably being unfair to Sen. Clinton).  

I guess we should all remember that Ron Paul is indeed 73 (that's one year older than John McCain), and at this stage of his life, with his manifesto published, he may feel its time to just be nice to people and compromise.

More here.

Our next VP

Joe Biden - Not a millionaire

Joe Biden only owns one house, in the Wilmington, DE area.  He commutes to work daily on the Amtrak, 1.5 hours each way to Washington, DC.  

He makes under $200,000 per year, most of which is his senate salary.  His net-worth is somewhere around $150,000.

If McCain picks Mitt Romney... Romney is likely worth half a billion dollars.  That won't play out well.

Biden

So my pick was wrong, but at least I mentioned that if not her, then him.  

Biden is a good senator.  He is fairly conservative on budgetary issues and is very good on privacy.  He also has chaired the foreign relations committee for sometime, and will likely tear McCain a new asshole over national security.  And Biden's not afraid to get in your face either.  

I think he's a very good counterpunch to Obama and will do well.

Another example of a new type of campaigning

Never before has a campaign built up this much anticipation about a VP pick.  Regardless of who it is, everyone (including republicans) is trying very hard to figure out who Obama has chosen.  

This plan has accomplished a few things.  

1. Obama has millions of new cell phone contacts who signed up for the text message to alert them when the VP pick will come.

2. Add to that millions of new email contacts.

3. Nobody is paying attention to anything McCain says or does, other than his slip up about not knowing how many houses he owns.

4. #3 will continue for all of next week, since the democratic convention is starting.

Mitt Romney: The Key to President Obama

We will likely know late next week if John McCain will tap Mitt Romney to be his vice president.  That choice would likely be the biggest boost to Obama.

Mitt Romney is known by many as "multiple choice Mitt."  He was the governor of one of the (if not THE) most liberal states in the nation, he was pro-choice until 2 years ago, and he's worth double the money of Cindy McCain.  

He also tried to buy himself an election, and failed.  All Mitt will do is add another 5% to McCain's vote total in Utah.  

Pat Buchanan: McCain's advisor a traitor

John McCain has lost Pat Buchanan as a supporter.  Not sure he was ever onboard, but this just shows that McCain is much closer to the Bush-style of republican politics than the Ron Paul side.

McCain: I don't disagree with reinstating the draft

No, I am not making this up.  McCain thinks that our military needs to be in so many places that we now need to reinstate the military draft.  

Oops.  

New Friedman Book out soon

Thomas Friedman, author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and The World is Flat has a new book coming out on September 8: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- and How It Can Renew America.  

I can't wait.  To be perfectly honest, I have read Lexus and much of Flat, but not the others.  I live in the Flat world, working with Bangalore on a daily basis.  

What's great about Friedman is that he seems to know how our world is today before we do.  He saw that we were already globalized, and several years later (2005), saw that the world had become so globalized it was effectively flat.  Distance no longer matters.  

His new book relates to the environment to America's problems.  I suspect he will argue that we should spend massive amounts ($10 trillion or more) to make ourselves totally energy independent with green energy (this means no "clean" coal, which does not exist).

Finally - McCain's associations called into question

Rachel Maddow gets her own show on MSNBC

Rachel Maddow, usually the guest host of Countdown when Keith is out, is getting her own show. Should be interesting. Although she is completely to the left on everything, her opinions are pretty interesting at times. I also cannot remember an openly gay host on any network.

She also frequently chats with Pat Buchanan, I hope that he is a frequent guest on her show. It could turn into a Hannity & Colmes type of show in that case, except a bit more balanced since Colmes is a weenie.

And she's replacing a horrible show, the Verdict with Dan Abrams.