Patting America's Collective Back vs. You Scratch Mine, I'll Scratch Yours

I'm not really sure exactly what to talk about now that Barack Obama has been elected. My diet is still going pretty well. I've also been forgetting about my OKCupid.com account a lot and am checking in only once a week or so now. Still haven't gotten those WTF Reports! Women... What else? I still need to find a day job. Any ideas? I watched You Don't Mess With the Zohan a couple days ago. I didn't hate it... John Tuturo plus Hummus gags equals satisfactory. Hmmmm...

Going into last night, I had zero faith in the American Electorate. How could I when GW was elected twice (regardless of Gore's victory)? People are obviously mentally handicapped on the whole. Look at those Sarah Palin rallies! FULL OF 'TARDS. I guess even a broken watch is right twice a day though, amirite? America elected the vastly more intelligent and presidential individual to the office. Democrats picked up Senate and House seats. For the first time in ten years, a liberal agenda (whatever that means) can and most likely will be put back into action. It's exciting stuff; as it represents a 180 from the theocratic movement that began to take over mid-Clinton. It's a brilliant opprotunity for some real change... I still find it hard to have faith in politicians to make change. A small CNN poll just taken suggests 94 percent of others feel like a new president can make a difference. It seems to me that if anybody could, Barack Obama should have a good shot. The celebration babies conceived last night surely have a much brighter future now than they might have otherwise.

It's noon. It's lunchtime.

I Don't Know Much, But I..."

LOVE Horatio Sanz's impression of Aaron Neville; cocoa buttery goodness. ONTO TODAY! (I foresee many of these impromptu bastardizations of capitalization in today's entry, BEWARE!) I'm beginning to think that Bobby Moynihan (the newest Featured player on SNL) may be the long overdo replacement of Horatio's role on the show; which as I see it, was to be goofy and fun no matter what circumstance (a comedy sketch failsafe). I'm still raving over last week's episode, so I'll point out this example: Moynihan in the Asshole Advertising sketch, crying. BRILLIANT! You may go watch that clip on Hulu if you like... Hulu... Huuuuluuu... HULU!

Forrest Gump is on HBO at this very moment. Forrest Gump is in my opinion, the best movie that I, personally, enjoy.

I plan on rocking the vote shortly (Billy Shortly) after this little P.Diddy right here. Perhaps I'll write about my choices on Friday or Monday. The only candidates I've endorsed at this point are Barack Obama and The Guy Who Isn't Leonard Boswell. If somebody tells you that "Ut oh! I think I blog'ed myself totally just endorsed Tom Harkin via twitter!" then that person is a liar. I'm on the fence with Harkin. He's beginning to look a lot like Boswell... who looks a lot like Hillary Clinton (politically). That type of Democrat needs to be removed the same as the GOP needs to distance itself from Neo-Conservatives and the Evangelical Right. The last election was obviously a step in this direction, in that the people supported change more than their candidate. I think that some of that is definitely spilling over into this election, in addition to overwhelming support for a candidate people really believe in. As I've said, I don't believe in him so much... but I'm definitely very much supporting a vote for change.

I began a diet the day after watching the DWS show video... I hadn't realized up to that point just how much bigger I am these days. Without divulging the detail of an exact weight, I will announce that I've successfully shed nine pounds (-9 LBs) over this two weeks. It's my goal to triple that loss over the next month or so. GOALS!

Japanese people don't hold very many erections.

Where to start today off (I'll confer with my notes...): DRUG-TOWN STORY! At some point a little over a week ago (or maybe exactly one week ago), another fella and I were at DrugTown on 42nd & University collecting snacks. After grabbing chips, cookies, and drink (the perfect snack-time combination, imo) we proceeded to the check-out lanes. At the cashier was a large and obviously drunken, black man (the comma makes it not a stereotype!); I'll call him Joe Six-Pack. He was very excited about Barack Obama, yelling things like "HOPE, MOTHERFUCKER!" at the man behind him in line. A man who was clad in casual gear (black athletic shorts and slightly large t-shirt... flip-flops) and had a cart full of some random junk (I don't recall what was in his cart). I'll call him Joe the Plumber. Six-Pack was taking forever in line as his credit card wouldn't run, so he had plenty of time to make this situation very awkward. It might've been much worse if PJ (Plumber Joe) were not a Barack Obama supporter as well (or intelligently non-confrontational in his situation). He nodded his head and told Joey Six'er that he was "preaching to the choir." The cashier continued to work on the CC-dialer issue, calling over another employee (obviously defeated in his life's trials) and finally, after maybe six minutes, got things up and going. Joe Six-Pack left the store "get'n out the vote" for Obama. The cashier continued to help Joe the Plumber and the cashier's co-worker opened the next register to help me and my buddy. Our cashier apologizes to us (not for his comb-over or pedephilic mustache) for the large, boisterous man... he told us "that one's a decent, good man." He then stopped and reflected a second (before asking me to pay my total) and said "I guess we've gotta ask ourselves, are we ready for President Biden?" I asked, "huh?" to which he replied, "I give it two months before somebody kills that muslim Obama, so we're basically electing Biden." I said, "that's a pretty sick view of our country, dontcha think?" "I'm just saying... I'm a Republican."

WTF.

I collected my change, grabbed my unbagged groceries, and left the store a bit in shock. This is the first time I've witnessed first-hand the type of ignorance I assume has majority in this country, in such a painfully unexpected moment (a late-night snack transaction).
Anyways, as a metaphoric epilogue... What if Joe Six-Pack in all of his excitement forgot to register to vote or Asgard-forbid he lives in Ohio and his vote never gets counted? What if Joe the Plumber says he's likes Obama, but actually intends to vote for the old white guy? What if our dumbass cashier or one of his cousin/wife's relatives actually attempt an assassination? UGHHHHHHH. While I trust in Biden's ability (last year I assumed the ticket would end up Biden-Obama), I'm excited for the symbol Barack Obama represents in this election... which if anything, is a symbol that the people are beginning to demand change. I hope the average Joes don't fail again.

Nader Tots!

Cole and I drove to Ames earlier today to watch Ralph Nader speak at ISU. I made a couple notes regarding particular talking points of his that I really liked. The first of which was his refrain that America is the only "Western" country failing to provide so many human accomodations that would better our society; such as health care and college education. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded health care? Absolutely. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded a college education? Definitely. I'm on board with both ideas and am glad that the candidate I intend to vote for (Barack Obama) has plans to make both of these subjects a reality. Nader threw out $60 billion as a rough figure for what it would cost to provide free tuition to public universities. That's what our military is spending roughly every ten months in Iraq...or less than ten percent of the recent bail-out package. If we're going to create money out of nowhere, shouldn't it be for the general benefit of everybody, not just a select group? Another point from Nader is that while we're all subject to sales tax, Wall St. is exempt. If Wall St. were taxed just one tenth of one percent on the sale of derivatives, it would net $500 billion per year (they could bail themselves out?). Unfortunately, our government blew a great opportunity to institute such a policy by giving in to special interests. Ralph Nader suggested a couple of solutions for this reoccuring special interest problem. One solution would be to take away the legal stance that a corporation is a person with legal rights; which takes away any business' ability to legally participate in government. A supplemental idea I really like would be to create Congressional Watch-Dog groups in every district. Two or three non-partisan, full-time employees monitoring the actions of a distrct's representative and reporting back to that district (making more readily available information so that we can hold our representatives accountable). This can be greatly effective in that the most power granted by the Constitution to any branch of government is to Congress... a collective of representatives that can have a two-thirds (majority) change in seated representatives every four years. If we held our representatives accountable for their actions (and obvious catering to lobbyists), perhaps representatives like Leonard Boswell would rightly be out of office well before they can make such an ill-advised vote as he did on the financial markets bill. Ugh. Anyhow, the main theme of Nader's speech seemed to be "civic responsibility." He's running for President, although there's no chance of winning, because of it is his civic responsibility. He's able to spread his ideas around the country and provide a call to action for persons suffering from general apathy. He said something along the lines of 'freedom is actively engaging the forces that would potentially impede such liberty'... not simply sitting around listening to the music of our choosing or whatever inconsequential thing any of us are doing; but being involved in the process. I hope to take that to heart. Finally, a point he made a couple of times is that if one concede's to "least-worst voting" (less of two evils), one must challenge the candidate they choose to take up ideas that aren't being discussed. We must hold them accountable for flip-flops in stance, when their original stance was the right one (see: Barack Obama's FISA vote). It's with this idea, that I can still vote for Barack Obama next month and not consider myself a hypocrite. I have to challenge myself to do what's in my power to make him a candidate I support. On a smaller scale, I need to challenge myself to be more active in harassing our dumb ass local representatives until they start acting correctly in their elected capacity.

Third Party or Bust!!!

The Senate will vote today on a slightly amended version of the bail-out bill the House put down two days ago. My Presidential pick, Sen. Obama, is pushing for it to pass and this makes me sad because I don't know if I can support him anymore. What happened to opposition in politics? Not just fillibusters and party-platform politics, but asking questions about the agenda behind a bill and looking for other solutions. This bill forces our government (our collective voice) into what should be a private and free market, allowed to prosper and fail on its own. A free market can correct itself when situations like our current one arrise. It may take some time, but in the end I think it has to be better to let the market cut its own corruption and fat by expelling these inflated industries through bankruptcy. The necessary parts are going to keep chugging along because the demand is there for their services. Forcing over $700 billion in tax payers money (created out of thin air) into the market in hopes of correcting the horribly bad decisions of some runaway special interests cannot be a good idea. Is there no understanding in Washington that everytime more money is printed, it further deflates the value of the dollar? How is that good for America or the greater world market? Are we forgetting that our "President" is the one who is trying to rush us into this? The same guy who obviously doens't give a damn about anybody who isn't wealthy enough to benefit from his policies and vote for him the last two elections? At this point, if GW suggests something, every single democrat should be against it. I thought that Barack Obama would understand the weight of this situation, but instead he's turned into Hillary Clinton. A majority of Americans do not want this bill to pass. These are the people that Obama has been talking about helping over the last year and a half and the same people who got him to the top in the primaries. The change we can believe in is a shift from Washington only working for special interests to casting out those interests in favor of the common man. If and when Barack Obama votes for this bill today, he will have made a gross error in supporting more bad ideas to help the wrong people... more of the same. Where's the Obama that I was excited about last January? That Obama would stand up against this and fight for a better solution. As much as I don't want to, I'm being forced to buy into Dr. Paul's suggestion that these two politicians (Obama & McCain) are more or less the same person (politically). I'm sure if you looked at their voting records the last few months, they'd be nearly identical as they spend this amount of time pandering for middle-ground votes... support they'll inevitably forget about next January. I still believe that Obama is far more intelligent and much less of a risk to our country than John McCain; therefore, he'll still get my vote in November. It's finally been reduced to a 'lesser of two evils' view for me... something I really hoped wouldn't happen this election.I can't wait for the election when we have viable third party candidates, if only so it'll open up the current two parties to playing better politics. Ugh. The Great Depression of 2008 for me, may have absolutely nothing to do with Wall St. and everything to do with Obama turning his back on Main St.


btw, did anybody else notice that after the House voted against this bill, gas prices went down?