Politicians Who’ve Shot Themselves in the Foot..

Now I won’t lie, I wanted to title this article in a much more vulgar light, i.e. “Politicians Who’ve Fucked Themselves.” I tried to stop myself from including it in the main body as well, but against my better judgment, I’ve decided to just leave it in and damn the torpedoes.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic; I’m here to talk about politicians who have seriously screwed themselves over. Let’s get down to brass tacks: Joe Lieberman is a  candidate for the Darwin Awards either for

1. Stupidity
2. Terrible Luck.

A lot of people would have chosen to do what he did in his position, but others might yet still call it blunt politicking. In his case, as he was dropping from the ranks of the Democratic Presidential nomination, he chose to support John McCain. In mid-April, Joe decided that if he were going to lose the nomination for the Democratic Presidency, he might as well shoot for the next best thing, the VP slot open with John McCain. He chose to do this by appearing at the upcoming Republican National Convention, and naming his support for Arizona Senator John McCain on September 2nd. This unfortunately backfired on August 29^th, when McCain named Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running mate. Of course this was only to pick up voters scorned by the Democrats when Hillary lost in her bid for the presidential nomination.

Well, Lieberman did what any sane person would do in his position. Piss the fuck out of all of his Democratic friends in the House of Representatives and Senate by throwing his support behind John McCain, most likely hoping for some kind of Cabinet position! Wait… No. No sane person would do that. If I were him, and I had not been named the Vice Presidential nominee, I would have given myself the Flu, Botulism, or even the Bubonic Plague. What Lieberman did was what most would commonly call ‘Political Suicide!’

Let’s some up the reason’s that Joe Lieberman is now universally hated in the national Government…

1. He pissed off the Democrats when he ran as an Independent in the 2006 elections…
2. He pissed off the Democrats when he gave a speech at the RNC, saying how inexperienced Obama was.
3. He pissed off the Republicans by being a Democrat.

After the election in 2006, Lieberman was able to retain his ranking position in the Democratic Party by claiming that he was an Independant Democrat. By doing so he was able to gain Chairmanship on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. However, apparently the now extreme Democratic Senate is looking to replace little old Joe for his crimes against them, as well as strip him of party rank.

As we all know, a Senator without a party, seat on a standing committee, or any kind of active committee, is kind of like a gun without bullets. You can send that gun out with a soldier to protect you, but without the bullets he’s probably not gonna make it, which roughly translates to the fact that Lieberman has no power within the Senate.

This may not all happen at once. In fact it might take some time, but I’m willing to bet that Joe Lieberman is now serving his last active term in Senate.

Obama Names Rahm Emanuel As Chief of Staff.

Not a big surprise here, that President-Elect Barack Obama is beginning to shape his presidency even before it begins. Obama has named Rahm Emanuel, a Democratic Representative from Illinois, as his Chief of Staff. Many more announcements regarding appointments are awaited over the next month.

Emanuel is currently chairman of the Democratic Caucus, and a standing member on the Ways and Means committee, and is involved in two of its subcommittees (Health & Select Revenue Measures) in the House of Representatives. He also served as an advisor on President Clintons staff (Assistant to the President for Political Affairs & Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy).

From what’s floating around, Emanuel has a winner takes all, and take no prisoners type personality. This combined with his willingness to commit all resources in order to achieve his goals is, in itself scary, as he may do things which some people would call immoral. This attitude mixed with the fact  that he told former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that “this is important, don’t fuck it up” before he went on for an interview with then president Bill Clinton, should make for interesting future staff meetings to say the least.

Change…

It’s been more than a month since my last post, and suffice to say, a lot has happened. Of course, everyone will have heard to the Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States. While the Electoral College has not yet officially voted, the projected numbers are saying that he will take well over 360 Electoral votes, of which 270 are required to claim a majority. There’s also no need to tell anyone about how brutal things got during the race, with the Obama and McCain camps using insults as ammunition right up to the last minute.

While some of the country may still be bitter about what has happened, specifically the south, we must remember to take the time to help each other before we even consider fight each other. This country is in dire straights, involved in two wars, neither of which is going well, and with a faltering economy. Our situation, coupled with the undeniable logic of the old adage that “we must all hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately,” points clearly to fact that without each other, we’re doomed to the history books. There is strength in numbers, so we the masses must make the right decision in the coming days and support each other, and our new president elect.

Hopefully things will work out for the best, and that we can take solace in the fact that we all did our part yesterday.

Also, on a side note, hopefully more updates in the coming days.

Bailout Passes in the House, Senate; Already Signed by Bush.

It obviously didn’t take a lot of finagling in the House of Representatives to pass H.R. 1424 today. Of course, that’s to say, if you don’t mind dozens of random pork barrel earmarks, among other things. The earmarks of course, amounted roughly somewhere in the region of $938,000,000 on top of the $700,000,000,000 plan by itself. Of course I know that these were added in order to gain support of the people needed for the vote to pass, but that still doesn’t explain just how absurd they really are.
The earmarks range from a lowering of Rum excise tax totaling $192,000,000, to a lowering of NASCAR’s race track taxes, totaling $100,000,000. That’s just what we need in this country, NASCAR to continue driving our wanton love of gasoline gulping automobiles. Don’t get me wrong, I love American muscle like anyone else, but driving around in a circle for hours, in a car that probably gets less than five miles to the gallon is ridiculous. Seriously, the only reason people watch it is for the crashes.
Aside from the ludicrous earmarks, the plan will go on to bailout irresponsible lenders and greedy money grubbing corporate bankers. These are bankers that decided to loan large sums of money, against collateral that wasn’t worth half of the amount of the loan, at horrifying adjustable interest rates. Of course, the public was all-to enthralled by the idea, and bought them up like a hopped up granny at a mid-afternoon grocery store sale. These same bankers that sold the mortgages in the first place then bundled them into packages and sold them off to investment bankers as ’stable long term investment vehicles’. Those people then turned around and sold them off to others, ad infinitum.
So when it’s all said and done, you’re left with a public who’s getting screwed over, irresponsible bankers being rewarded, and other random beneficiaries that I haven’t even discussed. Although this may be a narrow minded and severely biased viewpoint of a much larger picture, it does generalize and sum up 90% of the situation. Unfortunately, we’ll see what really happens in the long though, won’t we?

Buyouts for some, others not so lucky.

With the government takeover of the mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae last week and Bank of Americas purchase of Merrill Lynch on Monday, most of the country can tell that the economy is taking a turn for the worse. Unfortunately enough, the latest news will only bolster the public’s fear of a severe financial downturn. The insurance company AIG joined the ranks of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae today as the government bailed out the company with a staggering 85 Billion Dollar loan.

The buyout came after a series of problems ending with the company’s credit rating being downgraded. Because of the downgrade, AIG was forced to issue another $15.4 billion in collateral for investors, something they couldn’t do in time. This is what caused them to accept an emergency buyout from the federal government. The $85 Billion buyout is set for two years carrying the current LIBOR interest rate (≈3.5%) plus a locked 8.5%. No doubt AIG will have difficulty repaying the loan; however, it’s nowhere near as bad as some other company’s situations.

On the other hand, you have the company Lehman Brothers, which filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection this past Monday. Chapter 11 is usually the last ditch attempt to save a company from total closure and auctioning off of its assets. Unlike AIG, the government has chosen to let Lehman Brothers fail, and is not offering any type of buyout or takeover as of yet. On the dark side of things, one would think that the company would have received, or at least been offered help from the government before filing for chapter 11.

Overall, not a good week for the American economy, or come to think of it, the world’s either.

The Tear Down. Never Pretty.

Arizona Senator and Republican Presidential nominee John McCain had a good pool from which he could have picked to fill his Vice Presidential position. Honestly, there was really only one man that stuck out of the group: Mitt Romney (i.e. the Massachusetts governor who tried, and failed to win the Republican nomination for President). But no, McCain picked the most obvious person for the job, Sarah Palin.

Of course it makes sense; pick the person who has superior experience in managing people, administrative tasks, and even businesses. Hell, by the sheer force of numbers that Sarah Palin governed, she should definitely have been McCain’s first choice.

Wait. What?

That’s right kids: Sarah Palin pales in comparison to our semi-flip flop, Kerry wannabe friend, Mitt Romney. Let’s talk numbers and facts, shall we?

Mitt Romney

• Governed Massachusetts for 4 years.
• Did missionary work for 30 months after his college graduation.
• Governed close to 7,000,000 people from 2002 – 2006.
• Served as CEO of the 2002 Olympics.
• Served as VP of Bain & Company, a management consulting company.
• Graduated Summa Cum Laude & Valedictorian.
• As CEO of Bain Capital for fourteen years, the internal rate of return was 113%.

Sarah Palin

• Served on Wasilla City Council.
• Served as Wasilla City Mayor.
• Governed 650,000 people from 2006 – ?
• Owned 20% of a failed Car-Wash.
• Worked as a sports reporter for KTUU-TV.

From a basic lineup of administrative and past job experience, you can see that Sarah Palin is the obvious choice for John McCain’s VP, right? On the other hand however, maybe he just wanted to pick up the isolated women voters, which lost their faith in the Democratic Party when their candidate, Hillary Clinton, didn’t win the nomination. That sounds like a great idea right?

If he were to win and something were to happen to him, the country would be left with a sub-standard VP, all for a sleazy political decision. I’m not saying that I support McCain, quite the contrary in fact. However, I am saying that McCain is willing to sacrifice this countries security, and well being, all to snag up more votes in the long run. Shame on you John.

The Sabres Keep on Rattlin’

Tensions continue to rise between Russia and most of the Western world, as Russian leaders continue to make ambiguous and volatile threats. In the past four days, Russia has not only called for a military response to the signing of a deal with Poland regarding the signing of a deal between the United States for a missile shield, but has also gone far enough to say that aid coming from any countries in Georgia, would be considered an act of war.

Unfortunately, the list of detrimental overtures stemming from the Kremlin doesn’t stop there. In a move basked in controversy, the Russian government has acknowledged the two rebellious regions of Georgia,  South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s independence. This directive was met with immediate, and strong criticism from not only President Bush, a number of Western European countries, but the United Nations as well.

Russia has also gone so far as to say that there were Americans in Georgia when the initial conflict began. The Russian Government has said they were there to incite the original problem and inflame the aftermath. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying: “U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict,” Putin said, “They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered.” While he provided no evidence to back those statements, they are no doubt inflammatory and will only worsen the current international predicament.

While the situation is precariously balanced on the verge of nuclear war for the time being, there is no doubt enough room for anyone on either side to make a mistake. Fortunately for the United States, for once, we’re not the ones making the aggressive moves. However, Russia sees no problems with going ahead and making aggressive global decisions. Russia is very close to signing a deal with Syria which would allow the Middle Eastern oil exporter the use of Russian S-300 Missile Systems, which are classified as surface to air missiles.

While some analysts are saying that this conflict is hard pressed to start a new cold war, it’s hard to deny that things are going anything but terribly in the world of international relations right now.

Witch Hunting At Its Finest

Sometimes it takes a ridiculous move from the government to make people realize what the hell is happening in this country. For Erich Scherfen, it hit real hard when his employer informed him that he had been placed on a terror watch list, and that if he was not removed by the end of the month, he would be fired. As an airline pilot, this was obviously disturbing news. Erich is a man who served as not only a helicopter pilot in the United States Army, but also in the general infantry in operation Desert Storm. He was discharged, honorably, after 13 years of faithful service to the country, and how do we repay him? By stamping out his chances of a good job as an airline pilot.

Many people like Scherfen, are asking why they’ve has been placed on the terror watch list. However, the government has refused to tell them, let alone officially acknowledge that they’re even on the list. Unfortunately the reason is only to clear for Scherfen: he married Rubina Tareen. Rubina is an American citizen who came to the US at age 19 from Pakistan and when Scherfen married her, he converted to Islam.

It’s terrible that we count Pakistan as a close ally in the war on terror, but we don’t even trust the people who immigrate from there, just because of their religion. Now I know that this country has had some extremely rough patches with people who are Islamic, but remember, not all of the people from the Muslim faith are like that. The small groups of extremist & fundamentalist Muslims are performing their little Jihad now, just like the Christians had their little crusades way back in the middle ages. I know that it’s not justification for anyone’s actions, but every once and a while, you’ll get some idiot who thinks that they’re righteous in the eyes of the lord, and who tells everyone that they have to smite down all non-believers.

Of course this is inevitable, and it’s one of the major problems that comes default with all religion (I’m talking about organized mass religion not a personal faith). Whether it stems from a person who doesn’t have it all together upstairs, or a person who knows how to take advantage of the system, people like to be lead, and the nastier it is, the faster they get behind it.

The worst of it is, is that sometimes people just get taken advantage of when they’re scared, you don’t even need a religion as a stepping stone. People are scared that a depression will continue after their country has lost a war, that someone will fly a plane into their office building, or just begin to ethnically cleanse their country because of their religion. We as a people are guilty of getting swept up in the fervor. We got behind someone who setup restrictions on our freedoms, and we went along with it because we thought it would make us safer. We never thought that it would effect us, because we weren’t Muslim.

It takes years for wars to be fought, in order to make the other country stop whatever they were doing to you. In the case of WW2, we were trying to stop the Nazi’s. Just think about this, if they had won, it would have been at the cost of millions of lives, on their side and ours. It would have been a quick stripping of our freedoms and rights, and we would have sacrificed so much, for nothing but a freedomless land. Our government has done just what the Nazi’s wanted, without sacrificing a single man, and what’s worse, we helped them do it.

This country is no longer a government working for the people, it is a government working against the people; thinking for the people. Remember, if you support the goverment for what they’re doing with their terror lists, the PATRIOT Act, or the Telecom scandals, and you have a list of favorite quotes, put this at the top: Ignorance is Strength.

Why we can’t break loose from oil…

Although, I’m sure that most people have an opinion about this already, I’d just like to reiterate a couple of facts before we all go bat-shit insane. Remember, this is a generalized and rough overview of the situation. Things have been omitted as they’re not quite ’sweet’ enough. Oh god the punnage!

On average, the United States Consumes 400 million gallons of gasoline daily, which shows that we have a steady dependence, which was pretty obvious in the first place. American refineries use 20 million barrels of Oil Daily, which is shipped in barrels and tankers, and then refined in the United States. Killing the oil industry would mean that we would put even more Americans out of jobs.

Regrettably, the United States produces roughly 8.9 million barrels daily, which explains why we have to shell out exuberant amounts of cash to OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), as we need about 12 million more barrels daily. Another problem is that oil extracted in the United States is harder to refine than oil from say, the UAE. This is because Middle Eastern oil is ‘sweet crude’. When I say that it is ‘sweeter’ I mean that it is much more naturally refined. American oil has higher deposits of chemicals such as sulfur, and is much grittier causing it to be called ‘Heavy Crude’. The United States also holds its refineries to stricter environmental standards then other countries, which heaps severe filtering costs onto each barrel refined.

One last unfortunate fact is that we get plastic from oil as well what we would expect, like jet fuel, gasoline. If the United States has one addiction aside from Gasoline, it’s plastic. Plastic has become an extreme foundation for almost every consumer goods industry in the world. So, not only do people need the oil for gasoline, but for plastic as well. While plastic is a semi-byproduct from the process of refining oil, it still adds to the overall demand of the base product, causing prices to rise.

With that said, it’s safe to say that oil is a firmly planted industry in the United States, and the world as well. Now that I’ve stated the blatantly obvious reasons as to why the oil industry will be hard to break away from because of everything they provide us with, let me explain a couple other reasons. When people talk about breaking away from the suckle of oil, they talk about zero-emission cars, like hybrids, electric, ethanol and hydrogen. All of these things are fantastic ideas for oil alternative products, but there are a couple problems that stand in the way.

Hybrid cars are a fantastic alternative to normal combustion based vehicles. Unfortunately, like many medical treatments of the past, the idea treats the symptoms and not the cause. They are still based entirely on gasoline. You cannot run a hybrid without the gas. You may be saying to yourself that that’s not true but let’s check out the facts. Hybrids second engine runs on battery power, and those batteries don’t get charged unless the gasoline powered engine is running. While most hybrids do produce 90% less pollutants that normal cars, we cannot look solely at environmental gain: it still runs on oil, which is still a sign of dependence.

The next best thing is an electric car, or so you’d think. Most people think that they’re getting their electricity from a clean source, like wind generators, hydroelectric, or even nuclear, but that is much farther from the truth than you could know. In 2000, the United States relied on oil and gas for 26% of all electricity. Even worse, from an ecological standpoint is that coal accounted for 43%. So, now you’re drawing your energy for your car from not only oil, but coal. It may not be entirely as bad as a hybrid, but still, the signs of dependence are there.

Moving up the line towards the best idea is of course, ethanol based cars. While this is a totally oil free concept it would be difficult to produce, mainly because of the American government. Not too long ago, a number of studies came out revealing that it would be more costly to produce ethanol in the United States than it would be to continue importing oil. This is totally true, but only if farmers and the auto industry were to work within the current economic system in place.

Subsidy’s are a price paid to a farmer which allows the government to set price floors, so that if someone produces too much, they’d still get a good price for their crop. Unfortunately, the government can also pay people not to produce certain crops. We get ethanol mainly from corn, which is heavily subsidized by the government. If we were to remove that subsidy, it would be possible to grow corn at an affordable rate. On the down side, farmers would then be urged to grow ethanol creating crops, and would turn corn into a major cash crop, which would in turn destroy the supply for the demand of such crops as wheat and soy. Some might say that we’d eventually settle into an economically sound system, but that may take years, and the economy would most likely crumble, not to mention raise our dependence on foreign food products in the interim.

The best and most viable option to kill our dependence on oil is hydrogen. In fact, if you were to enter hydrogen and oil into a boxing competition, oil would be pronounced a vegetable after the first round. This is the true renewable energy that we need. It’s good for not only cars, and any type of propulsion, but the by product is water. It’s also extremely easy to produce, as all you need is a type of electrolysis plant to produce it. The problem is that the infrastructure is not ready to support it. You’d need a new type of car (one that is TOTALLY sealed), new types of pumping station, and while all of that is a totally feasible option, the fastest that we can hope for it is ten to fifteen years, and that’s a very optimistic viewpoint.

The fact of the matter is that we are going to have a tough time ahead of us. We’ll either deal with this sooner or later, and the economy probably won’t recover until we do. The glass half empty viewpoint is that we will probably hit a 15-20 year depression, and the glass half full viewpoint is that it’ll only last 5-10 years. Either way, buckle up, we’ve officially arrived at the rough patch.

Someone is already holding the basket…

That the world is going to hell in.

Who didn’t see this coming, honestly? Poland signed an agreement with the United States today, letting the US begin construction of a new I.C.B.M. (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) shield, in exchange for also deploying 10 new Patriot Missile systems throughout Poland.

The US was at first discouraged by the idea of deploying a Patriot Missile Defense system, but after a year and a half of negotiations, it seems that pressures have finally forced them to concede. With Russia’s recent backing of South Ossetia Georgian rebels and the outright invasion of Georgia, it’s clear that Poland is now extremely exposed.

As Eastern Europe shudders at the idea of another cold war or even outright war, the US seems to have conceded in order to gain a larger presence in the area. This is something that may help to deter Russia from considering any kind of aggressive move against Poland or other eastern European countries in the short term, but unfortunately, it may in the long term, help to bolster rising tensions between the two super powers.

Whereas the latter may seem as though it’s a bad decision, it’s the beginning of the only logical move in a dangerous gambit of international brinkmanship. Letting this opportunity in Poland slip away would have been a serious mistake on the part of the US, letting it become vulnerable to attack, and even annexation from Russia in the near future. This is reminiscent of the concession of Czechoslovakia to Germany shortly before World War Two. Except now, instead of a post WWI Germany, we’re dealing with post Cold War Russia, wanting to reclaim one of its rightful areas of land.

The US and Poland maintain that the long range defense missiles are merely for protection against any short range missiles, not just Russia’s. On the other hand, Russia is concerned with the missiles only being 115 miles from their border. Russia has already responded by saying that “The long-range interceptor missiles to be deployed in Poland do not have, and in the foreseeable future will not have, any target other than Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles,” adding later in the release that, “Russia will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic demarches.” Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn also stated at the tail end of last week, that Poland’s acceptance of the treaty may even incur a nuclear attack.

While of course this is almost completely all hearsay, one cannot deny what has happened in the past half month between Russia and other countries. Political tensions are rising, and we’ll just have to wait and see what is to come of the situation.