A Serving of Gov. Palin, With a Side of Fiscal Responsibility...

Catchy title, eh? I think it might be a book soon. As many of you may know, my major is Political Science. So, for a moment, let's get scientific about politics. Many of you might not even care, which means you're not fulfilling one of your most American and responsible rights as a United States citizen.


The Convention

Hosted at the Pepsi center, and then Mile High Stadium, the Democrats were just that - high. Did Hilary really think she was fooling anybody when she said "Barack Obama is my candidate."? She didn't fool me. No matter how many times Hilary says she is on board with Barack Obama, she isn't. There is obviously underlying discomfort between the two - why wouldn't he have picked her for his Vice President if he respects her so much?
Bill Clinton's speech was simply ridiculous. I don't think I've ever heard a speech geared to elect someone else that turned out to be so selfish. Clinton said so much about himself and his own policies, and so little about Barack's. He spoke about a balanced budget, and he did balance the budget - there's no denying that. However, he did it by cutting the U.S. defense by so much that we hardly spent any money on military defense for this country. It took George W. many years to get the defense budget back to where we could actually fend off enemy intruders - God forbid that were to ever happen.


Obama's VP Pick

Barack Obama - Change We Can Believe In
I used to cringe every time I heard this little phrase. However, as I keep watching and watching, I realize it's just a political ploy. Obama is the same puppet having his strings pulled as anyone else in Washington. First off, his major sponsor is AT&T. I don't know if anyone follows AT&T, but they were just pardoned for committing illegal acts. You see, under the Patriot Act, AT&T monitors your phone calls - every single one. They sit in the room and listen to conversations of Americans to see what's going on. Is this really right? Is this sense of "guilty until proven innocent" really what the founding fathers intended when they drafted the Constitution?
Back to Obama's VP pick. Joe Biden is experienced. He brings a lifetime of experience to Barack Obama's campaign. This is the same experience that Obama claims is bad for Washington. If Obama is running on the theory that Washington is broken and it needs to be fixed, why would he pick the 4th most senior member of the Senate as his running mate? Joe Biden has been there far longer than almost every Senator, leaving him directly accountable for what's happening in Washington.

Joe Biden voted for the war in Iraq.

Joe Biden is a major stockholder in MBNA, one of the biggest and wealthiest banking systems in the U.S.

Joe Biden can use his own words against himself, "That's not change, that's more of the same."


Gaining Traction

John McCain has pushed all the right buttons in the past two weeks. This is not just coming as a McCain supporter, hear me out here.
Barack Obama's biggest strength is his ability to deliver a high caliber, people motivating speech. His speech at the DNC fell short of what most people expected of him. After the DNC, Obama recieved about an 8 point jump in the polls. This put him up on McCain 48% - 40%. This was the minimum amount that the Obama campaign hoped for. Usually the candidate jumps around 10% after their own convention in the polls. The day after Obama made his speech at the convention, McCain revealed his VP pick, essentially stealing the spotlight from Obama's speech. The media had no chance to talk about his speech. This is a huge move on McCain's part.


The Wild Card

A little known candidate from Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin brings with her a strong track record - albeit short. Her fiscal responsibility has left her well known for "cutting the fat" by limiting ear marks on bills passed through legislature. Her pro-life beliefs back John McCain 100%. Little is known about Palin so far, but I do know this - she's a woman. Try as we might, we will never stop strong feelings from many women voters out there. Many women went to the polls for Hilary Clinton for that very reason alone - they wanted to see a woman in that seat. Now, however, the closest we can get to having a woman in office is having one as Vice President. Voting should never come down to whether the candidate is black, white, man, or woman - but polls show that it sometimes does. I think McCain sewed up many bitter Hilary Clinton supporters with his choice of a female for VP.

Whether it's McCain or Obama, we're making history this election season. I encourage everyone to get active, learn about the candidates. Don't listen to the media, they only give you their side of the story. Now, I realize I was extremely biased in my little ramble session - that was the point. In a world full of liberal journalists, we have to fight back.

A Different Perspective

If you'd like to read about the comedy routine at CMU through the comedian's eyes, he has a blogger account! : ) He talks about his trip to Central and a little about the crowd (which if you read my blog this morning, you'd know I was a part of).

Check it out!
http://www.johnnywalkercomedy.blogspot.com/

Heeere's Johnnnyyyy

So my first night on campus was great. My roomates seem to be pretty cool guys, and I even had two high school friends come visit. I've become really good friends with our RA, and even met a couple other people already.

Since my friends were here, we figured we had to figure out something fun to do on campus. So, in RFoC...my dorm's dining area, there was a comedian. His name was Johnny Walker - and he was simply hilarious. I really encourage you to check out his website, or maybe look him up on youtube.

www.johnnywalkercomedy.com

In his act he talked about a specific youtube video that I looked up this morning and found to be hilarious. In his act, he claimed to have watched it 42 times in a row. I encourage you to watch if 3 or 4 times, since it's only 5 seconds long.

Standing on the Edge of A Cliff

...and looking down.

That's how I feel tonight. At 10:00 AM tomorrow, I will start perhaps the biggest chapter of my life thus far. Tomorrow is the day in which after 18 years, I leave home. Granted, it's only about 20 miles, but still. Words cannot describe that feeling. I'm in a state of awe to know that my life will never be the same come 10 AM. How can 11 hours separate such a big moment in someone's life? Don't get me wrong - I'm not regretting it in any way, shape, or form. I am extremely excited about this. I've been waiting for this moment for the past month. Ever since baseball got over with I was ready to go to college. Now that it's on the horizon, I'm ready to eat it up.

Note(s) to self...

Helpful notes for myself. Feel free to add these to your own lists.

1. Never fly with Sarah.
I have enough stress in my life, why would I want to be delayed every time I'm planning on going somewhere?

2. Don't ride fair rides.
They're never as fun as you wish they'd be. Also, who wants to spend 20 bucks to inhale carny smoke?

3. Don't eat yellow snow.
It's usually not a lemon snow cone, especially if a teenage boy that has no access to either a blender nor lemons hands it to you. He's not smiling because it tastes good.

4. Don't listen to political commercials.
John McCain doesn't love faltering economies, and Barack Obama probably isn't Paris Hilton.

5. Step on a crack, break your momma's back.
Fault lines count too!

6. Turn around and smoke the crack...break your mother's heart.
Okay, so that one wasn't mine - thank you Bo Burnham.

7. He probably didn't go to Jared.
What a bunch of awful TV commercials.

8. Don't expect much out of the Tigers.
100 million dollars and they're 4 games under .500? Is this the mid-May Yankees?

9. Expect even less from the Lions.
Bring back Harrington!

10. Don't tell Brett Favre he's done.
Who are you - oh the guy who keeps retiring. I thought that was a one time gig?

11. Don't tell Heath Ledger he's dead.
Hello, Oscar.

12. Don't trust Kwame Kilpatrick.
Must have read those text messages wrong.

13. Don't mistake The Onion for a serious newspaper.
The same goes for the Detroit Free Press.

14. Michigan roads have always been, and will always be closed for construction.
Does anybody have stock in those cone producing factories?

15. Root for Michigan football.
There's a 90% chance they'll be better than Notre Dame.

: )

Lookie Here

No words to be needed here. : )

Can ANYbody?

So as I sat in Burger King watching the Olympics, I thought of a clever blog topic. I was watching Roger Federer play tennis against someone and wondered to myself - can anybody effectively return a Roger Federer serve?


Can anybody sing like Axl Rose from Guns 'n' Roses?


Can any white male jump like Sam McGuffie of U of M?


Can anybody throw a fastball like Joel Zumaya? (keep your eyes on the radar gun)


Can anybody lie like Slick Willy?


Can anybody beg for change like this man?


Can anybody smile and laugh as awkwardly as this man?


And finally...
Can anybody stammer and mess up as much as this man?

A Much Deserved Vacation

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And if the Sun Comes Up Tomorrow...

Tonight's song is just an absolute must have for every iPod, .MP3 player, computer, record collection, 8-track, cassette, and anything else music related.

Hootie and the Blowfish was one of the greatest bands of the 1990s. They inspired ingenuity and diversity in all kinds of music. If you ask me, they have one of the best voices in all of rock music. Let Her Cry was probably their biggest single, and for good reason. The song just moves people. It's your classic "make your skin crawl" love story filled with disappointments and hardships.

I don't think anyone will have any trouble getting all the way though this song.

Let's Compare

Now, remember way back when when I got on my soapbox and complained about almost anything and everything to do with politics?

As we get closer to election time, I think it needs to be very clearly acknowledged that you cannot listen to most of the media out there. Journalists are gold diggers. Every journalist is out there looking for the big story to set their career off. Let's compare two interviews with Barack Obama, for instance. Charles Gibson is a humble man that appears to be doing his job for the right reasons. Keith Olbermann, however, has one goal. His goal is to tell everyone who will listen just how dumb Conservatives are.

Watch as he tosses up question after question for Barack Obama to just absolutely nail. There is no contest by Olbermann. I wonder who he's voting for this fall...hmmm.



--Also, as a side note - notice that Obama said right at the beginning that he knows that 20,000 extra troops wouldn't reduce sectarian violence in Iraq...now that the surge has been proven to have worked in Iraq, maybe he's changing his story.

Now, take a look at Charles Gibson drilling Obama with tough questions. Keep in mind, Gibson has taken a lot of heat from ABC for giving Obama such a hard time.


Would they say the same if he was drilling John McCain?

You bet your bottom they wouldn't.

Just something to think about.