Ron Paul for Most of the Cabinet

Congressmen Ron Paul may have left some of your radars since he failed to win a major nomination, but he has by no means fallen from the political scene. Not only does he continue to speak and write about his beliefs (his latest article appeared on CNN.com's front page), but he remains on the minds of many Americans. In a recent online poll of its readers, the New York Times asked its readers to select their own presidential cabinet. Although he was not listed on any of the website's drop-down selection menus, Ron Paul ranked in the top 7 of all five major postitions through write-ins. He was the 3rd choice for Secretary of the Treasury behind a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and a previous Secretary of the Treasury.

bwA

60 Minutes Obama Interview

60 minutes tonight features a three segment interview with Barack & Michelle Obama. as i watched, i actually turned it off partway through the third segment. Obama was vague about cabinet decisions, and introduced nothing new about his time immediately after becoming president. it made me think about why would he be so uninteresting on 60 minutes, a fairly well viewed show?
I came to the conclusion that it must be a very awkward time to do interviews for Obama. He is not president yet, so he doesn't have any control, so when discussing policy, he still has the same material from the campaign trail. so theres nothing new there. furthermore, any decisions about his cabinet, he's obviously not going to discuss in detail, so he's limited in his speaking on that topic too. Overall, right now, he's just getting briefed about security info, and finding cabinet members, so theres not a whole lot of things to say in a big interview. in conclusion, i wonder why 60 minutes picked to do such a comprehensive interview at this stage in Obama's presidency? wouldn't they have realized there wouldn't be anything new to discuss?


Bwa

One President at a time. C'mon, do we have to? Really?

Barack Obama has taken an active stance on many of our country's problems. Yesterday he met with (still) President Bush, urging him to support bailouts of America's auto industry. Obama and Bush have, understandably, taken up very different viewpoints on our economic crisis. Only a week after his election, Obama is making his political presence felt at the White House. Still, over two months remain till Obama's inauguration. As much as the country and I want him to be President right now, the fact remains that he isn't. The transition period is always a delicate time, and until Jan 20, the Obama camp must strike a balance between governmental aloofness and personal concern. Meanwhile, Bush is trying to cement his legacy and end his second term as not-the-worst President in history. Speaking of legacy, maybe Obama's history-making will overshadow Bush's mistakes. We might remember our 43rd President simply as the guy who came before the first Black President. That's not too likely, though.

bwA

Obama Plans to Overturn Bush Decisions

Even before he was officially nominated at the Democratic national convention, Obama's team has been working on compiling a list of decisions made by the Bush administration that could be overturned by an executive order.   That is to say, without waiting for legislation from Congress.  Although the Obama campaign is hesitant to announce what changes will be made, they've let on that both limitations on stem-cell research and oil drilling are being heavily scrutinized.  Meanwhile, the Bush administration is pushing to have 360,000 acres of public land in Utah dedicated to drilling for oil and gas, a measure that, we are assured, will not harm the environment in any way.  

bWa

Whats China Stimulating?

China announced today that they're going to do a 586 billion dollar stimulus package. These packages seem to be the in thing, so with the Chinese spending virtually nothing, it seems like a good idea to pump money to citizens who will then spend money. but wait, there going to invest in infrastructure like highways, subways, and airports. i don't understand what that's going to do to stimulate the economy? Better highways aren't going to increase spending according to me. maybe im wrong. anyway, after reading a second article, this one from the UK, i learned well actually infrastructure and social programs, and top priorities would include low cost housing, and environmental projects. that doesn't seem like its going to do a noticeable amount much stimulating.
in America, we sent money straight up to people to increase spending. April and May people got their checks, and when the economic reports came out, spending was significantly up, thus business spending was up, and that lead to more money circulating, and the stock market being up. Now we obviously cant do that all the time, but it is very helpful.
i dont understand why China doesn't just do that. They need to increase spending NOW. They cant wait around, there GDP is dropping hard. They've cut their growth rate from 12% a year, to 4%.
A stimulus package similar to ours would make the most sense to me, but apparently Hu Jintao knows something i don't. i hope it all works out for them, because it their stock market/economy crashes, the US will be deeply affected no matter how well Obama does here.

Help Me will.i.am - You're My Only Hope

During its election coverage, CNN debuted some state-of-the-art hologram technology. On another day (like today, for example), this would have been some important stuff. But while everyone was occupied with the big news of the Obama victory, this little development understandably fell by the wayside. I think die-hard Star Wars fans probably appreciated it, though. What really gets me about this whole situation is that after the CNN team showed off its new machine with reporter Jessica Yellin, they set up a hologram of will.i.am. What business does will.i.am have being the second person ever on televised hologram? Sure he composed a memorable and inspiring song for the Obama campaign, but he was also featured on Fergalicious. Oh well. I guess somebody needed to be the first musician to appear on live tv hologram, and who better than "heartbreaker" and composer, along with Hans Zimmer, of the score for what's sure to be the smash hit of the year, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa?" Now that this election is over and much of the landmark news is gone, the networks need some other way to grab the ratings. Or at least it really looks that way.



bwA

ps - I really like that dance move he does at the end of the interview.

Jim Cramer For The Economy!!

I think we've sufficiently covered the election excitement; Obama won, made history, everyone's dreams have come true. so on to the next exciting thing. Who's Obama going to pick for his cabinet (if he decides to have one)?
well, Jim Cramer made it perfectly clear today on his show Mad Money(excellent show, on from 6-7 on cnbc) that he would like SEC commision chairman, Federal Reserve chairman, and Treasury Secretary. not too much to ask right? i mean, he just wants to be in total command of the economy? i actually like that propisition. Jim Cramer should be in charge of all things economic. he's arguable the smartest person in the stock market, and he would easily do better than Ben Bernanke( Federal Reserve), and Chris Cox(SEC). Anyway, the thing is Jim wasn't kidding when he was saying he wanted to be in charge of everything. so therefore, he explained to the viewers how he could fix most of our issues in 4 days.

day 1) Fix the auto industry, which is going to need a bailout within the next year. he see's opportunity to help America while at the same time, making a SAFE loan, which will be better off in the long run.

day 2) He'll solve the energy crisis. BAM. that easy. the US has a surplus of Natural Gas which will last forever (long enough where its not an issue). no one talks about Natural Gas, honestly i dont know a lot about it. i believe its related to oil, but the US has even more of it than oil, and its cleaner than oil. We will be able to use natural gas and oil to create drilling jobs, and keep energy in the US and not have to use all kinds of crazy alternative energies which aren't ready to be fully implemented.

day 3) stop immigration deportation. Illegal immigrants cant buy homes right now, and if we legalized them, they would be able to buy up the overbuilt home markets. the issue is a supply and demand problem. we have more houses than people who want houses, thus prices go down. the overbuilt areas are the places immigrants tend to buy homes, and they almost never default so they're a safe loan. that would seriously help relieve the crisis.

day 4) Rest. After that hes pretty much God.

if you want to watch the video of him going more in depth you can see it here....
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27559642

Bwa

Congratulations Are In Order

Congratulations to both candidates on a well fought election. Although it got a little patchy at times, it managed to end on a graceful note. Well done.

bwA

As I Speak

It's an historic day, one that many of us have been awaiting anxiously for months if not years. This last little while has been a blur of mixed feelings about the race, though my predominant sentiment has been a sort of timid optimism. It seems just too good to be true that things are going the way that they are, and as certain as I am in my logical mind that Obama's got the election, there's still a part of me left saying, 'what if?..'
But you don't want to sit there and listen to me talk about emotions. Let's get some facts down. The counting is underway, and exit polls predict Vermont going for Obama, while McCain has Kentucky. There are a number of battleground states such as Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia that are far too close to call, and even these all have less than 20% of their votes in. Nationwide numbers show Obama currendly ahead 53% to 46%. The polls should be closed nationwide by 11:00 EST, and we could have a new president as early as tomorrow morning. I'll try to keep this updated.

8:10 - Obama with 77 electoral votes, McCain with 34*
8:45 - Obama with 102 electoral votes, McCain with 34*
9:17 - Obama with 172 electoral votes, McCain with 64*
10:26 - Obama with 207 electoral votes, McCain with 135*

*according to exit polls
bWa

Too Much Excitement?

American voters are ready for tomorrow. The primary elections registered record voter turn out, and the early voting available at many polling stations already shows signs of an all time high. I'm not sure about you, but my doorbell has been rung by get-out-the-vote canvassers, and I've gotten election reminders in the mail over the past few weeks. The people are definitely ready, but is the system?
How will this election fair after the problems of the past two? Record voter turn out could create painfully long lines at voting stations, scores of first-time-voters, eager to participate in this landmark election, could be slowed by unfamiliar protocol, the sheer number of voters might cause low-tech stations to run out of ballot paper. This level of enthusiasm has already led to 3.4 million new voter registrations in battleground states, as opposed to 1.8m in 2004. Of course this phenomenon feeds right back into the ACORN controversy. But it seems that problems like new voter identification laws in many states and voting machine shortages in minority areas give us enough to worry about without considering fraud. Whatever concerns the American people may face tomorrow, apathy is most certainly not among them.

bwA

Health Care Doesn't Add Up

How is Obama going to pay for his new government based health care plan? I haven't really thought that hard about it. I guess the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and increased taxes on the wealthy would pay, right? Obama says it will only cost 55-65 billion a year when in full phase, and since we spend 10 billion a month in Iraq, thats 120 billion right there we'll have free, so it all makes sense. But where is he getting the number 55-65 billion from?
On CNN today, our Tim Kaine was on talking with Wolf Blitzer, and the governer of South Carolina. Tim Kaine, when showing how perfect Obamas' health care plan is, said that everyone will be able to get insurance just as good as they get in congress, and thats 50 million people who will need to improve their coverage. Further, It will cost the government ONLY 7,000 per person to do that. Thats when the SC governer chimned in to say that the math adds to 350 billion a year, so even with the customers paying the 300 billion, that comes out to a cost of 6,000 per person that the consumer must pay, which at that point, John McCain's 5,000 credit makes more sense. The bottom line is, it seems like Obama's health care will cost at least 350 billion a year. Therefore, the goverment is going to be piling up more debt keeping Americans with health care, but rampant inflation (as social security is in shambles) and now another 350 billion a year is the price we'll have to pay.

Bwa

Obama's Ad

Obama smashed ratings with his paid political ad, which aired Wednesday on seven separate television networks.  On average, these networks will pull around 30 million viewers on a Wednesday night.  Obama's ad grabbed over 33 million; the baseball World Series got a measly 19.8 million, and the presidential debates topped the count with 57.4 million viewers.  Obama also appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart the night that the ad aired, and raked in a record 3.6 million viewers for Comedy Central.

bWa

A Look Back

With just 4 days to go till Election Day, I think its time for a little recap; you know for the sake of perspective. It feels like this election process has been going on for while. A long while. But just how long has it been? Well the first caucus was held January 3, 2008 in Iowa. But that was by no means the beginning of the race for the White House. The party debates were held in June of 2007: the Republicans' on the 5th, the Democrats' on the 3rd. By January of 2007, the field of candidates was already beginning to take shape. Names like Mike Huckabee, John Edwards, George Pataki, Al Gore, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Dennis Kucinich, and Tommy Thompson graced polling ballots across the country. Barack Obama announced his consideration of a presidential bid in December of 2006, and McCain formed a presidential exploratory committee just a few weeks earlier in November. That's a solid two years of campaigning for both major nominees. Yet we can push the start date back even further. The first Republican straw polls were held March 11, 2006. By the way, that poll saw John McCain recieve only 4.6% of the vote. Some would argue that the cycle began as soon as the final vote was counted in 2004. It was a few months earlier, July 27, when America was first publicly introduced to Barack Obama. He spoke at the Democratic National Convention, and from then on was the subject of presidential speculation. Conjecture about Hillary Clinton's candidacy existed as early as 2002 with Maureen Dowd's New York Times Article, "Can Hillary Upgrade?" So if after as many as six years of presidential gossip you're fed up with the whole process, the end is in sight. But rest assured, on the morning of November 5th, you can bet someone will start the ball rolling on Campaign 2012.

bwA

Obama's Not Socialist?

In the last few days, McCain has been calling Obama a socialist, as a last effort to get the few undecided votes left. i would think that that'd be a compliment since pretty much all of Obama's plans are socialist. i mean, im not a socialist, but apparently most people want socialized health care, government help with current economic problems, and a mass redistribution of wealth in this country. all of which Obama is proposing. On these issues and other key issues Obama promotes bigger government (classic socialism). Therefore, Obama is more or less a socialist. i don't think that's a stretch. i mean itd be tough to argue that Obama's for small government, and low taxes for all. okay, so McCain claiming Obama's going to socialize America is fairly truthful, and if i was Obama, i would say ya, i am. here are all the good things socialism will bring, and have brought in Europe. strangely, Obama has dismissing claims he's a a socialist, and has been complaining and asking McCain to stop. he routinely brings up in his speeches the 'desperate attacks' of McCain.
i think Obama should bring socialism to America, and why wont he say so. does he think he'll lose votes? i don't. i think most people in America want socialism. The grass is always greener on the other side (of the ocean).

Rogue Agent Palin

Gov. Palin has been branching out politically lately. Sources from the McCain camp indicate that her deviations from the McCain platform are creating real tensions within the campaign. It could very well be that her policy contradictions were completely unintentional; that she got confused when answering direct questions, or just flatout didn't know what she was talking about. Honestly, that's not too hard to believe. Other inside sources have said that Palin's "lack of fundamental understanding of key issues" after her appointment "was dramatic." The sources went on to say that Palin might well have been the least informed candidate in history. But certain McCain aides have accused her of being a "diva," who "takes no advice from anyone," believing her statements were premeditated. She definitely shops like a diva. Palin is not the only V.P. to take a stand against her ticket-mate. Biden's getting his fair share, what with the "international crisis to test Obama" schpiel. John Edwards in '04, Gore in '96 and '92, even Bob Dole and Dan Quail have all endured some strife with their Presidential partners.

bwA

Wow

When Brian Williams asked governor Sarah Palin in an interview Thursday night "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist, under this definition, governor?", he was giving her a no-brainer.  Filler.  I don't think that anyone honestly expected her to reply,   "There's no question that Bill Ayers by his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist.  Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to... I don't know if you're gonna use the word 'terrorist' there."

Now, Palin, I don't care what your actual beliefs are.  When you're asked in an interview if people who would kill American citizens for coercive purposes based around their own highly prejudices ideals are terrorists...  You say yes. There's no room for 'I don't know.'  But no, Palin hemmed and hawed, and eventually decided that the question was too hard.  I guess they can't really be terrorists if she shares their beliefs.

bWa

 

Gaining Capital Gains

The other night at dinner, i was discussing what the tax rates would look like under an Obama administration with my mom. Someone had sent her an internet calculator which showed how much money you would be saving under Obama compared to McCain. In this calculator it was shown most people would save 3 times as much as McCain, and as he boasts, 95% of middle class families would see lower taxes. hey, that sounds nice. but there are other taxes besides income tax. Sales tax, estate tax, capital gains tax, etc. while i dont know what hes doing about sales, or estate taxes, hes made it clear he'll be raising my capital gains tax. That sounds good to me, since well, only the rich invest, therefore we should take their money, and redistribute it to the poor. wait a sec, i dont like that idea. The current rate is 15% and John McCain has said he'll keep it the current rate. When talking to Maria Bartiromo, Obama said he'll raise it, but not more than 13 %to 28%( the Clinton rate). it comforts me to know Warren Buffet is advising him, so he wont raise it too high, and i trust Buffet to know what hes doing with the economy, which is who'll be essentially in charge of it.
Where im going here is that in theory a raise in capital gains sounds nice, and makes sense (even to me). Unfortunatly, itll make a lot of upper class people kinda annoyed, since its essentially stealing more of their "hard earned" money, which they need to go to Mortons, and Ruth Chris every night. Sounds funny, but i had to pay capital gains tax the last few years, and its just down right annoying to make X dollars and then have to give some of it to the government. im pretty sure theres not much intrinsic value difference in the tax raise, but there's some emotional discomfort with big time investors who wont like it, and they'll have to spend more time finding loopholes, which is time could be spent making more money.

Bwa

A Global Picture

So much of the media's election coverage revolves around domestic issues: policy changes each candidate will make, how they plan to help Americans, and more recently, heated accusations and challenges of character. Yet the domestic concerns are only half of a president's responsibilities. Foreign policy (that thing that Joe Biden is so good at and that Sarah Palin winds up embarrassing herself over) and how the US is represented on a global scale are just as important. Over the past 8 years, America's world image has suffered. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 recieved standing ovations world-wide. Large numbers of tourists, including a German couple I know who are quite fond of backpacking in the American West, plan trips to Canada to avoid Americans. We have generally established a persona of arrogance, impatience, and ignorance. But change is in sight: change we can believe in.
In a recent BBC poll, voters in each of the 22 countries studied preferred Obama to McCain, in an overall ratio of four to one. Almost half of these voters declared that thier view on the US would "fundamentally change" with Obama's election. This seems to fit with Colin Powell's theory that Obama's election would "electrify the world." Hopefully the world's hatred of Bush will be outwieghed by its love of Obama, and America's actions will reestablish its international legitimacy. But if not, maybe the fresh, modern, hip America that could elect Obama could also transform its own image. Electing him would sure help with that though.

bwA

Let's Go Shopping!

Have you noticed that Sarah Palin always manages to look flashy and stylish yet hardly wears the same outfit twice? Well that's because she and her family have spent $150,000 of Republican Party money on clothes since joining the McCain ticket. According to the campaign finance bill "coincidently" passed by John McCain himself, it is illegal for a campaign to provide for the personal needs of its members. However, the law places no restrictions on political parties. Accordingly, the Republican National Committee financed a neat little shopping spree for the Palins. To aviod concerns over the legality of this action, the RNC claims that the clothes are its property, and that following the election, they will be returned and donated to charities. So if you see a homeless woman walking around in a chic fitted jacket and little black skirt on November 5th, you'll know why. I just hope they'll be giving away some of those rimless glasses, too. I'm a big fan.

bwA

image: (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Politics Everywhere

I was just watching game 1 of the worlds series, when instead of going to a commercial break, Fox had a 2 minute film about the history of baseball and politics, narrated by none other than Barack Obama, and John McCain. Each of them took turns reading off a line or two about a bill or situation where baseball was relevant. I was surprised that the MLB or Fox got them to do the narrating. Even in a baseball game, we're still hearing about the presidential race.
This isnt the only unusual place though. I also saw some "campainging"(if you call it that) against McCain in an episode of family guy Sunday night. Some characters went back in time and killed a natzi to get his uniform. When he got the uniform he noticed a blue dot, and zoomed in. It was a McCain & Palin button, which they left zoomed in for a couple of seconds, which of course implies that natzies support John McCain. I was surprised that a funny cartoon which never so blatenly talks about current events, would mention politics.
At this point, you couldnt avoid things even if you tried. Every other add, is an Obama add or McCain add, McCain had adds up on youtube recently, and you cant even watch a baseball game without hearing about John McCain, and Barack Obama. I get that its the political season, and its the big thing these days, but have other elections been like this? It seems like literally everyone has some opinion on issues and the candidates, opposed to the usual vote for the democrat or vote for the republican.All this election fever makes me happy to see people actually looking at issues, and i hope voting non-partisanly, so that we can elect the president who will be able to make the majority of Americans satisfied.


Bwa