The Ugly America

While sitting down eating Easter dinner, I was privy to the ugly side of America.  As I was eating, not talking politics (as I normally do) two white men in their 40s were talking about Obama.  

They both said something to the effect of "I hope that Obama wins so I can see the first president assassinated in a long time."  

This is some of the ugliest type of language I have heard in a long time.  I told both of these redneck assholes that I equate their language with treason and they they run counter to everything I love about America.  They did not like that too much, so I sit here now at my laptop instead of continuing dinner with such ignorant people.

It is one thing to say you oppose someone based on the issues, their personality, or other things.  But to wish the death of a candidate just because one of his parents was not white is not acceptable in my book.  Unfortunately both these people have children who they probably say the same things to, creating a new generation of white supremacists.  

Now i should issue a disclaimer that these two fucks are just stupid.  I doubt they'd ever hurt anyone, but to say this type of stuff with a straight face, or to say it at all, is not something that should be done.

Luckily, these types of viewpoints have become the minority viewpoint in America, but as long as there are a handful who share these views it's a problem.  It's not clear how you can change viewpoints like this, and I think a lot of it is resentment to minorities since these guys have shitty jobs.  They blame everyone but themselves for the fact that they don't make quite enough money for a good life.

Maybe low income white America isn't Obama county, maybe its not Hillary country, maybe its not even McCain country.  It may just very well be David Duke country.

Richardson Endorsement

Despite what Clinton's campaign might say, Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama is huge.  Richardson is a western, somewhat libertarian democrat (an example would be his pro-gun views).  Last year, he was the one democrat I was really pulling for.

Richardson is also of hispanic descent (though not an immigrant himself).  He speaks Spanish fluently and will likely help Obama in that segment of the population.  

Furthermore, Richardson is a very close friend of the Clintons and worked in their administration.  While he had never endorsed Clinton, it seems that this is just another nail in Hillary's political coffin.  

California may be our only hope for privacy

A few months ago, I wrote about how Montana had rejected the REAL ID implementation.  This law would create a de facto national ID card, the "papers" that are referred to in the caricatures of a Soviet saying "your papers please."  

California has now said that it does not intend to implement REAL ID.  As Wired's Threat Level points out, its easy for the federal government to tell the several million people who live in New Hampshire, Maine, and Montana that they will need passports to board an airline or enter a federal building, but it will be much harder to fuck with the 36 million Californians.  

Hillary's Bracket Folly?

The two and a half (Hillary barely has a chance anymore) presidential candidates were all asked about their thoughts on the NCAA tournament.  Bloomberg has a nice writeup of their responses here.

 McCain, who is fiercely anti-gambling and would likely shut down every casino in Vegas if he could, allows people to fill out a bracket on his website and compete against him.  The winner will get a McCain t-shirt.

Obama published his bracket but has no contest open to the public.  He said that his campaign staff and he are all in an office pool in which everyone puts in $10 and the winner gets everything (which incidentally is the same kind of game I'm playing at work).  

Hillary said that she doesn't know much about it and will have to ask Bill for help.  While this might seem trivial, I don't think this is the time when she should be saying she needs Bill's help with anything especially in a game that appeals to 90% of men and probably 25% of women.  She desperately needs votes from everyone, including sports fans.  

Dangers of CFL's

Despite the small problem of them containing mercury, I am still a big fan of compact fluorescent light bulbs.  I think it is a no brainer to use them, as it could very well save you $20-$50 per month in electric bills.  If you don't have any installed now, try them out.  

They last each for well over a year and more than make up for their extra cost in longevity and efficiency.  I believe that the average bulb can save something like $50 over its lifetime.  

But do be careful if the bulb breaks and when it burns out do not throw it in the trash.  Click here for some tips on disposal.

Olympic Problems

The Chinese are cracking down on Tibet, months before the Summer Olympics.  Between 16 and 80 (depending on whom you believe) people were killed in riots.  China blocked access to youtube so other Chinese could not see images of the violence.  With the Olympics coming up, China does not its horrid human rights record to be dragged in front of the world stage, which is exactly what is happening.

But we can all rest assured that it won't rain on the olympics.  China says they can now control the weather.

At least he walks the walk

The Obama campaign removed an unsolicited endorsement by the New Black Panthers, a racist group that once went to my school and caused a big ruckus.  

This endorsement was posted in the "groups" area, where anyone (including you and me) can post stuff.  

Obviously, after the speech he gave yesterday, you can't even have this group posting stuff on your website even if you did not ask for it.  

Quote of the Day

Is it just me, or does he sound like Ron Paul?

 

"Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and al Qaeda," Senator Obama said. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."

 

-Obama

Obama's Speech on Race

Probably the best speech I've ever seen a politician deliver.  It was timely, well-worded, and should get American's talking on the issues of race. If you have not yet seen the speech, I recommend that you view it in full below, watching the clips on CNN does not do it justice.

Or you can read the full text here.

Answers

Why is our economy in the toilet?

www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

The sheriff of Oakland County, MI wants to send seized cigars to troops overseas.  Seems to be a decent thing to do.

Commentary of the day

Over at CNN, Glen Beck has a great article on personal responsibility, recommend you read it:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/beckfloridamichigan/index.html

Rate Pork

I found out about this site because it had been shut down for a while.  It seems to be backup now.

www.ratemycop.com

It seems to have listings for most police officers in the USA, including their full name and department.  

So next time a cop gives you a ticket plus some attitude, tell everyone to avoid the pig here.

Market Swings, Oil, and Foreclosures

The markets were up an average of close to 4% today, one of the biggest gains in a decade.  Why did this happen and why is this a bad thing?

The gains today were due to the Federal Reserve promising to dump $200 billion into our money supply to loan to banks that are dealing with the subprime loan fallout, thereby diluting the currency in your pocket.  Imagine you have a martini, and someone says that they will turn it into 2 martinis.  You agree, so they put half of yours into another glass and fill both up with water.  This is what happened today.

Another trend to look at is the price of oil reaching a new record.  While oil is reaching a new record in dollars, this is mostly due to the dollar dropping in value to its lowest point ever against the Euro.  Why are our greenbacks worthless?  For the same reason as above, and also because of our $3 trillion war, and most recently the fed's interest rate cuts.  When the government lowers interest rates, other countries pull out of the dollar (since it pays less interest) and put it into things that they think will increase in value such as gold and oil.  

There is no oil shortage and there is no manipulation by the oil companies either.  It is simply economics at work, it is a market that has been beat up so badly by our government that it is swinging wildly to correct itself.  The only way to let it do that properly is to leave it alone.

Let people get foreclosed.

Let some banks go under.

Why should I be punished with a worthless currency because several million people bought houses they couldn't afford?  I don't own a house, and as of yet I didn't have enough money to and I understand that it would be foolish to take on an interest only loan or similar product.  Yet we are all paying for people that do.  

Leave the market alone Bernanke!

Eliot Spitzer's Problem

I don't have too much to say about this situation except that in the past he has prosecuted prostitution rings, which makes him a hypocrite.  He also happens to be one of Hillary Clinton's superdelegates.  Maybe he figured he had so much in common with Bill that he just had to support HRC.