President Obama’s first press conference, courtesy of C-SPAN. Mainly about the economic stimulus package. I am not 100% on his ideas. I believe that while it is good that he is wanting to give money to the people. However, I think that it is important that citizens should begin saving again… It is a long video, but is worth the watch.

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I come to you not as a McCain supporter, or Obama supporter, but as an individual who put facts together. This will be quite harsh of an entry, and will seem like I am a disgruntled McCain supporter. I am whole-heartily not. I already had a person I went to college with call me a piece of shit for not being a pro-Obama guy. So let’s begin.

I am quite sad that the United States has picked Barack Obama for the 44^th President of the United States. Basically he is the lesser of two evils, in my mind. I am not saying that Obama is an evil man or whatever negative connotation you want to spin on it. What I am saying, is out of the two main candidates, he is the better one. Although I do not think that he will be a good president at this moment.

In late 2007/early 2008 I did a few posts regarding the hype surrounding Obama was throwing his hat in to run. I thought it was pretty awesome that this could happen. So what turned my thumbs down? A few things actually. Before there was only two candidates I really wasn’t happy with the selection. Second, Obama’s policies/policy views did not sit well with me. Third, I only was able to watch the third presidential debate, the last time the candidates could address the people. Following that debate, it was a big slap in the face, I thought to myself, crap, this will not be good. One reason for this is his universal health care policy.

While I admit, I didn’t follow things at the end of last year due to my busy schedule. After I heard what his plan was, I couldn’t do anything else, but laugh. From what I recall from the debate is: if your employer offers some sort of health care coverage, you have to take it. If you are unemployed, you can get on the “universal health care plan.”

How does it effect you?

I can see a number of ways. If you are currently covered, you are out of luck. Well I am guessing that the laws will be pretty damn detailed. Companies will try upping their health care eligibility, so that while company x is offering health care, but John Smith cannot be covered. The huge possibility of John getting lost in the system. That will leave who knows how many people with the decision of if I work, no health care; and if I quit, I can get health care (let us just say 6 months). Which is better? As the federal system will grow, it will seek outside help, ie, go to the private companies. Since the government cannot just say American’s now have to pay [more] to the federal system, the insurance companies will say okay and turn to the private companies, and raise the rates. In order to basically stay afloat, the companies will push this onto employees, and the system starts over again.

I did not read the whole thing, there is an article in the Washington Post about Obama’s nominees for various positions that have been announced/leaked. I am a little shocked that names are coming forward.

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I started this post back on June, when Jim had passed. I am not sure what all I was going to say. I am publishing this just for archiving sake.

The Empire Strikes Barack

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I found an article in the New York Times that digs up a 1920’s biography about Warren G. Harding by historian William Estabrook Chancellor. Chancellor wrote the piece to try to mess up Harding’s campaign. The article mainly discusses how African Americans who believed that Harding was in their family by blood had to keep hush hush about it. We still don’t know if Harding did have African American blood in him, and we may never know.

What is interesting that as we inch closer to election day, stories start to pop up. I mean William Chancellor’s racist biography has been around since 1920, while it was removed from the public for the most part, it is interesting that it is now being brought back up that Obama may not be the first black president.

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The article also lists various information by state in regards how they handle dog fighting. How does your state hold up?

Each state has a different number of Electoral Votes, the number of votes are determined by the number of Senators and Representatives the state has. Most states use what is called a short ballot, which I explained above, and the Elector for the state casts all the votes for that state for the candidate who win by majority or the plurality. Currently, Nebraska and Maine allow their votes to be split between candidates. What happens in these two states is the winner in each district gets the vote, and the overall winner will get an extra two votes.

Now, California is looking at an initiative that will do the same thing. The crucial thing about this is that California has the greatest number of Electoral Votes, with 55, the next state is Texas with 34 votes. In 2000 and 2004, Bush won just under half of the districts. If the initiative passes, the way campaigning in California will change quite a bit.

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From the way in which my professor presented the question, your could tell that he intended that he wanted a yes, it will have major impact on foreign policy, or that no, global warming will have little effect on foreign policy since global warming is something that is made up, and we should not worry about it at all. Well, me being me, I do not fit into ether one of those molds. So, I do not know what category I would fit into, I am not really wanting to say that I have a Realist point of view for this never-ending debate.

To that end, I want to present a new way of thinking that is not a realist or a liberal view. What I would like to call this is, the logical or the logisticianal point of view. Which I am saying is you look at the hard facts and go from there. This is different from a realist view, since the realist would say we do whatever is in the best interest for the nation or nation-state. The liberal view says we need to come together with others, being countries or non-governmental organizations, to collaborate to get anything of value accomplished. That being said, this is my reply to the question at hand:

How and even if global warming will be addressed in future foreign policy all depends on who is in power. If the President becomes a literal figure-head to the United States, the leading view in Congress will become the policy. If Congress becomes a sitting duck, then that power is then transferred to lobbyists, whomever voice is the loudest. So, saying what will the policy be, whether it is in the foreign or domestic realm, in the next 5, 10 or even 50 years will be difficult to predict. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” made it seem that global warming/environmental issues would be at the forefront of his presidency, and thinks that an adopting of a similar policy from George Bush, was one of the number of things that ended up costing him to win the election. We all know what policies Bush has put into place since he has got into office.

Since my professor said he didn’t want a five page essay, I left out the fact that we cannot really ding President Bush on not doing anything regarding global warming because of the events of September 11th. Now, if those events never happened, it would be a different story. Political candidates often pick up some portion of his or her top opponent to gain the interests of a wider population. The follow-through of such policies are under a lot of criticism because of the reasons you can probably guess. I am not saying the President’s policies are flawless.

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