Category: Politics

We Now Live in Obama Nation

Posted on

Last night we elected Barack Hussein Obama to be president of United States.  I’m incredible excited about this – much more so than i thought i would be.  I find that i’m constantly wedged between people who are overly optimisitic about the political situation in American and people who are consistenly negative and pessemistic.  Listening to Obama last night, i couldn’t help but caught up in the hope and optimism that is reverbirating through the country.  Some things i feel:

  1. We have an intelligent president again.  Obama was president of the Law Review at Harvard.  You don’t get there by being competent.  Clinton was this way too.  Bush wasn’t. I like the thought of having a President who can take in lots of inputs and process them intelligently.
  2. I feel that Obama will be more transparent than past Presidents.  This isn’t a rip on Bush but rather a reflection of our times.  With the rise of the Internet, information is everywhere and the world is becoming exposed.  You can no longer protect information. Instead you need to over-communicate and release it.  Angelina Jolie figured this out and releases more press releases than any other celebrity around and i think Obama has too.  One line he spoke yesterday was: But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.” makes me think we’ll more information from the Obama camp than we’ve heard from past presidents
  3. The return of Joe Biden.  Biden was a Senator at age 30 and was once thought to be the future of the Democratic party.  Time hasn’t shown that to be true but it’ll be interesting to see how he puts his foreign relation skills to use
  4. Shedding the dillusionment of American Politics.  Most people i know couldn’t care less about what the govement does. “It doesn’t matter to me” is a common response.  But, these same people felt inspired by a candidate for the first time (at leat that i can remember).  The passion i saw the older generation talk about JFK, i saw people talk about Obama and i felt it too.  If Obama would have lost, i think we would have lost the younger voters forever.  Fortunately it’s moving in the other direction

I’m happier than i ever thought i’d be about a President.  Last nigth when the results were announced all the cars in Hollywood started honking their horns for about 30 minutes. It was loud, obnoxious and totally amazing.

Related articles:
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

NYTimes is the only legit map

Posted on

I’m at work and trying to figure out who’s winning the election and what i notice is that every site is different.  Some have called over 15 states already whereas others have only called 2.  How can this happen?  It can happen b/c lots of sites are just making the news up.

The NYTimes however has a map that is reporting county by county and showing that reporting in real time.  This is real facts and you can see the actual information as it comes in.  Sure, they are way behind Yahoo, CNBC, CNN and BBC in results but they happen to have the real deal.  That’s where my browser’s going to be for the next few hours.

County by County
County by County
Related articles:
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Undecided Voters

Posted on

I thought this was a good article by David Sedaris in The New Yorker:

I don’t know that it was always this way, but, for as long as I can remember, just as we move into the final weeks of the Presidential campaign the focus shifts to the undecided voters. “Who are they?” the news anchors ask. “And how might they determine the outcome of this election?”

Then you’ll see this man or woman— someone, I always think, who looks very happy to be on TV. “Well, Charlie,” they say, “I’ve gone back and forth on the issues and whatnot, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind!” Some insist that there’s very little difference between candidate A and candidate B. Others claim that they’re with A on defense and health care but are leaning toward B when it comes to the economy.

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Am I the only one…

Posted on

who thinks that if McCain is elected that he’ll pass away and Palin will become President?  I know everyone knows that it’s a possibility but i’m SURE it will happen. It’s almost destiny.  Here’s someone who was in city council until 1996 and then mayor from 1996 – 2002 of Wasilla, a town of 5500 people.  This is the size of my high school.

Only in America can someone go from being a mayor of a town of 5000 to leader of the free world in 4 years.  Very interesting times….

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

World Peace? We're Closer than we think

Posted on
During my trip to Maui, i brought along the book “The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria. It’s a good read (not done yet). One part i really liked at the begging was when he was talking about how war and organized violence have declined substantially over the past 60 years – and dramatically over the last two decades. This was news to me. He writes:
The general magnitude of global warfare has decreased by over 60% [since the mid-1980’s], falling by the end of 2004 to its lowest level since the late 1950’s. Violence increased steadily throughout the Cold War – increasing sixfold between the 1950’s and early 1990’s – but the trend peaked just before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the extent of warfare among and within states lessened by nearly half in the first decade after the Cold War.
To that Harvard’s professor Steven Pinker argues, “That today we are probably living int he most peaceful time in our species’ existence.”
This seems so contrary to what i feel everyday due to the constant news of terrorism, bombings, airline accidents, etc. Zakaria addresses this saying:
One reason for the mismatch between reality and our sense of it might be that, over these same decades, we have experienced a revolution in information technology that now brings us news from around the world instantly, vividly, and continuiously…. Every weather disturbance is “the story of the century”. Every bomb that explodes is BREAKING NEWS. It is difficult to put this all in context because the information revolution is so new. We didn’t get daily footage on the ~2 million who died in the killing fields of Cambodia in the 1970’s or the million who perished in teh sands of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1908’s
But now the deaths of ten, because they are seen up close, make the world seem more and more dangerous. When, in fact, the opposite is true.

Joke: How many is that?

Posted on

Got this from here and it gave me a chuckle.

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”

“OH NO!” the President exclaims. “That’s terrible!”

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, “How many is a brazillion?”

Celebrity Culture and Hillary Clinton

Posted on

Let me start by saying that i don’t dislike Hillary Clinton. I think she’s a smart, capable and ambitious woman. She definitely knows the major political issues at hand and has some good first-hand experience. That said, I dislike the “Hillary Clinton situation”

hilary.png

Let me explain. We live in a celebrity culture: US Weekly, E! channel, The Real World, Brad/Angelina and American Idol. We all care and discusses celebrities and those who are on TV. It’s what unites us and makes us American. These people can be talented (Bob Dylan), can be beautiful (Scarlet Johansen), can be controversial (Michael Moore), can be heavily promoted (U2), or just heavily discussed (Paris Hilton) – but they all are known and exist in the public’s consciousness.

Hillary Clinton is one of these people. She was a major player in a huge scandal – Bill Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky affair. If there was no affair, she’d merely be a First Lady that nobody knows too much about nor cares about. I don’t hold this against her. It’s just a fact.

What i don’t like about the entire “situation” is that this fact – that Hillary is a celebrity – is the major reason why people want her to be President. Like all celebrities people believe that they know her and what she’s gone through. They lived through the scandal with her and sympathize. This, of course, is ridiculous. We don’t know her or what she’s been through. And, even if we did, this should not be a qualification for being the leader of our country. Simply knowing someone – or thinking you know someone – does not make that person more qualified.

To me, The President of America should be incredibly qualified. He/She should be courageous, competent, and charismatic. And there is no way that over the past 19 years, the best people for this job has come from only 2 families (Bush and Clinton). Impossible. I hate what that represents. It means we’re no longer voting for the person but rather for the name. And that is something Hillary has. She has a name and that’s what got her in this race. I just hope it’s not enough for her to win.

It's not all technology – the arts matter too (Dana Gioia)

Posted on

Below is a great speech by the poet Dana Gioia to the Stanford graduating class of 2007….

Stanford Commencement address by Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (June 17, 2007)

Good morning.

It is a great honor to be asked to give the Commencement address at my alma mater. Although I have two degrees from Stanford, I still feel a bit like an interloper on this exquisitely beautiful campus. A person never really escapes his or her childhood.

dana.jpg

At heart I’m still a working-class kid—half Italian, half Mexican—from L.A., or more precisely from Hawthorne, a city that most of this audience knows only as the setting of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown—two films that capture the ineffable charm of my hometown.

Today is Father’s Day, so I hope you will indulge me for beginning on a personal note. I am the first person in my family ever to attend college, and I owe my education to my father, who sacrificed nearly everything to give his four children the best education possible.

My dad had a fairly hard life. He never spoke English until he went to school. He barely survived a plane crash in World War II. He worked hard, but never had much success, except with his family.  When I was about 12, my dad told me that he hoped I would go to Stanford, a place I had never heard of. For him, Stanford represented every success he had missed yet wanted for his children. He would be proud of me today—no matter how dull my speech.

On the other hand, I may be fortunate that my mother isn’t here. It isn’t Mother’s Day, so I can be honest. I loved her dearly, but she could be a challenge. For example, when she learned I had been nominated to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, she phoned and said, “Don’t think I’m impressed.” Continue reading “It's not all technology – the arts matter too (Dana Gioia)” →

John Quincy Adams was a Badass

Posted on

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – Feb 23, 1848) was a Federalist, the son of the last Federalist President and was one of the most talented men to ever serve the country. He held more important offices and participated in more important events than anyone else ever in the history of the nation. Early in his career, he alienated his political party (the Federalists) by voting in favor of the President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and even attended parties for its approval (imagine that happening here in DC!).

Also, at the time, the British (being the little bitches they were) were capturing American ships regularly and confiscating the vessels. Quincy wasn’t having any of it but his boys – the Federalists – were sympathetic to the British. So, Quincy Adams went to the Republican meetings and helped them draft a bill of America’s fighting resolution and put in place an embargo. This embargo made John QA, who was a senator at the time, extremely unpopular with his constituents (the local shipworkers) as it halted their production – but he believed it was the right thing to do at the time and “private interest should not be put in opposition to public good.” Times were so bad back then and business was struggling so bad that New England frequently talked of seceding. The embargo was a big deal and Quincy Adams was enemy #1. In fact, the main focus of Federalist party (QA’s party) in 1808 became the destruction of Q.A and he was actually voted out the party by his peers 9 months before his term ended. He had no friends and was basically ruined.

He may have been ruined, but he was a badass who walked alone and acted solely upon his principles and I back it. 17 years later, he was able to regroup and come back and become president. Talk about a comeback! In today’s world of politics, i couldn’t see anyone going against the public, against their party at the expense of their career to do what they thought was right. That’s integrity.

His birthday is today so raise a glass

Happy 4th

Posted on

The first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made on June 4, 1776. After hard debate, the Congress voted unanimously, but secretly, for independence from Britain on July 2. The Congress reworked the text of the Declaration until July 4, when the 12 colonies voted for adoption and released a copy signed only by John Hancock, President of the Congress, to the printers.

John Adams the unofficial whip of the independence-minded, wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

He forgot to mention beers, bbq’s, baseball games and fireworks – but otherwise he pretty much nailed it

Also, a song for today: Independence Day by Ani (click here)