Saturday, September 27, 2008

Thankfully There Are Still Sane Republicans

Some Republicans are finally seeing what a terrible Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is. I think both parties should look at things objectively so we can come to an agreement that Sarah Palin is not a good Vice Presidential candidate.

Stop being blinded by party lines.

Presidential Debate 1 - Lie Tally

We won't get into the stupid drama of McCain trying to chicken out of the first debate to try to prevent the inept Palin from having to debate Biden in the Vice Presidential debate. However, the Presidential debate did happen as planned and it was intense. Both politicians made a few misstatements and downright lies.

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_debate_no_1.html

Here's the scorecard: Downright lies are worth 2 points, misstatements are worth 1 point. It's a little subjective what is a downright lie, but here we go.

Kissinger and preconditions: McCain: 2.
Downright lie because Kissinger was quoted as saying exactly what Obama said he was.

Obama and raising taxes in the past on people who make $42000 a year: Obama: 2, McCain: 1.
Obama lied about voting on the bill. McCain however, still overall made a misstatement in that that wasn't the full story of the bill.

Troop withdrawal timetables: McCain: 1.
He mischaracterized the statement by the general as being specifically critical about Obama's plan.

Earmarks increasing: McCain: 2.
Flat out lie since it's the opposite of the truth.

Bear study: McCain: 2.
If it's so bad, why did McCain not attempt to remove the specific $3 million dollar to study bears from the bill.

Iraqi surplus: Obama: 1.
Obama's number was off by like 30%. He's right there's a surplus though.

Buying foreign oil: McCain: 1.
His number is off by like 40%

Obama's tax cut: Obama: 1.
His plan would lower taxes for 95% of families with children. Only 81% overall.

Employers taxed for healthcare: Obama: 1.
Employees themselves pay the tax, which, sounds even worse to me.

Obama's universal healthcare: McCain: 2.
McCain totally mischaracterizes Obama's plan as taking away people's right to choose.

McCain on Eisenhower: McCain: 1.
Misremembered the quote.

Obama on troop withdrawals: Obama: 1.
Has been quoted saying differently. Maybe he's softened his stance?

Obama and Iran: McCain: 2
Flat out lie about Obama's stance.

McCain on Russia and Georgia: McCain: 1
McCain may disagree with Obama, but it's not fair to say Obama's naive when that's the White House's stance as well.

McCain on Boeing: McCain: 1
McCain's motivations were not exactly clear in this.

McCain on Obama and nuclear waste: McCain: 2
Flat out lie on Obama's stance.

McCain's stance on alternative energy: Obama: 1, McCain: 2
Obama exaggerated how many times McCain voted against alternative energy. However, McCain flat out lied that he had never opposed it.

Obama's Senate subcommittee: McCain: 1
He implies that Obama should have had hearings when in fact it wasn't Obama's job to.

McCain on Reagan and Lebanon: McCain: 1
He didn't actually vote before sending troops.

Final Score:
McCain: 22 falsehood points (or roughly equivalent to 11 outright lies)
Obama: 7 falsehood points (or roughly equivalent to 3.5 outright lies)

We have the Republicans, as expected, outlying the Democrats by 3:1.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Economists Comparing Obama vs McCain

Scott Adams conducted a survey of 500 economists to try to figure out which presidential candidate would be better for the economy. The interpretation of the results is obviously subject to a lot of subjective calls, but take a look yourself.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Good Summary of Palin's Career

New York Times had a good summary of Palin's career. Thankfully, more and more people are starting to realize what a terrible candidate she is.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Daily Show Comes Through Too

The Daily Show ran a segment called John McCain, Reformed Maverick. This is awesome since they show him totally reversing his position from a few years ago on many key issues.

SNL Still Does A Good Job Sometimes

Since everyone talks about the presidential race all the time these days, someone has to keep a sense of humor.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

Sleazy Politics

In the last few weeks, the presidential race has become absolute garbage in terms of content. Ever since the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, the Republican campaign has devolved into outright lies and complete avoidance of issues.

Please, I urge everybody to pay attention to sites like: FactCheck.org

Both sides have made exaggerated or false claims, but McCain and Palin lately have been so full of lies that it's ridiculous:

Palin on Alaskan energy production - Supposedly she knows a lot about energy? Yet it clearly does not occur to her that there are other forms of energy but oil. I wonder what her stance on alternative energy must be.
McCain lying about Palin on earmarks - She keeps claiming she was against earmarks, against the "Bridge to Nowhere" but those are outright lies.
Palin on holy war - She believes our war in the Middle East is a religious cause? Just like the good old Bush "crusade" comment.

Palin's ignorance of what the"Bush Doctrine" is - She's all for war but she doesn't even know what Bush's reason for getting us into war was?
Palin on getting us into war against Russia - Sure, we may be fighting a war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but why not tackle a former superpower as well? I'm not afraid of nuclear war!

McCain lying about Obama's vote in favor of a bill to educate children in an attempt to prevent sexual molestation - McCain must be pro child sexual predator then? Maybe he's courting their votes.

What's the truth about Palin? She's a religious right wing extremist. That's how she's won over the extreme right wing votes.

Palin wanting creationism taught in schools - She believes her religion has a place in public schools. I don't see her pushing for evolution to be taught in religious schools. Or for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism to be taught in schools since that is another view on creationism.

Palin is anti-choice - It's really great that she doesn't believe in abortion and practices what she preaches, however she's in favor of taking away women's rights.

Palin abuses her governorship to attempt to pressure an official to fire a state trooper that was in a child custody battle with her sister. Then fires him when he doesn't.

Palin abuses her governorship to fire a librarian who refused to censor books according to Palin's whim
.

This list goes on and on. And the worst part is that the Republican Party is gaining ground. What is wrong with all you Republicans out there who support them?

Monday, September 1, 2008

I Want A Tree House!

Building useful things out of living trees is a pretty amazing idea that could be both sturdier and better for the environment. I mean, there are 5000 year old trees in California, but are there 5000 year old wooden structures anywhere in the world?

Nevermind

There's plenty of evidence that Sarah Palin was indeed pregnant with her Down Syndrome son. Oh well.

... And It Gets Better?

Apparently there's significant speculation that Sarah Palin lied about her son with Down Syndrome and it was actually her daughter's baby?

Talk about great moral values. Honesty and great family values all in one. Her unwed mid-teenage daughter mothering two children wouldn't be far worse than one, but this is just too messed if it's true.

Sarah Palin

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate is rather disturbing to me. This lady is pretty much a crazy religious nut and will be one small step from the presidency, given McCain's seemingly frail health.

She's ignorant of the history of the Pledge of Allegiance. She's extremely anti-abortion, however at least she practices what she preaches given that her 17 year old daughter is having a baby soon and she herself chose to give birth to an unborn baby diagnosed with Down Syndrome. I mean, I give her credit for standing firm in her belief on the issue, but really, is it morally right for a parent to give birth to a child who will suffer his whole life because of an incurable disease that you knew about ahead of time? The religious nuts will say "life is sacred" and all sorts of things, but really, an early stage, unborn fetus is not a fully functional organism according to scientific definitions.

I dunno, I'm pretty sure the religious nuts were already going to vote for McCain, so I hope this helps push the more moderate (read: sane) voters toward Obama's side.