The Model of a Modern U.S. President

For those who this reference is lost on...

Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly

One hour of Jon Stewart, one on one, with Bill O'Reilly. I personally think Stewart handled O'Reilly quite well with his mixture of seriousness and satire. It's hilarious to me that O'Reilly really has become the level-headed mouth of Fox News. Haha.

Brett's Brain: America's Great. Except for the South.

Forgive me if I'm wrong Brett, but I think this is continuing series!
Obviously, I don't want to offend my Southern readers (coincidentally, those that I know of aren't originally from the South, but that doesn't matter anyways), but from one undervoiced citizen living in a politically-stupid state to another: your politicians suck just as bad as mine. Brett posts:

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby (R) blocking ALL Obama nominations:
Over defense pork projects . . . Tell me again why it's the Democrats who are irresponsibly bringing us to ruin? It's definitely time to change the Senate rules.
Shelby is holding Obama's nominees hostage until a pair of lucrative programs that would send billions in taxpayer dollars to his home state get back on track. The two programs Shelby wants to move forward or else:
- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers . . .

- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI . . .

John Marshall:
In this case, we're not dealing with a stand on partisanship or ideology or simple political shiv play which I guess can each be respected in their own place. This is more like just a stick up. Gimme my money and I'll give you your Senate back! Worse than a squeegee man and not much better than a bank robber, Shelby is shutting down the president's ability to appoint anyone to anything until he gets his way.

For Obama-haters who happen to float on the right, this is a big black eye in my opinion for your whole party.
[Brett's Brain]

Propaganda, Reason, Passion, Obama

I've been enjoying some great posts on BoingBoing from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, watching all sorts of great archived animation, from Mighty Mouse to incredibly obscure and unknown animations. I've really enjoyed the last two posts, and I figured I'd link to them here:

The concept of propaganda is widely misunderstood. Many people automatically assume that it's a negative thing. But propaganda is just a tool that can be used for either good or bad. Propaganda involves bypassing the intellect and appealing directly to emotion to motivate a group of people to action.

While there are many people appealing purely to our emotions nowadays, I don't have to stop and think long to think of the main transgressors. It's my desire that reason not be put in the back seat like it has in so many discussions I've been involved with lately. They both have a spot, but give reason the controls, people, please.
[WWI and WWII Propaganda Posters]
[In Praise of Passion]

Also interesting, Tom Junod's piece in Esquire about the type of leader Barack Obama is. Basically, and the article is great, it talks about how Obama is a true father figure. I hate just to use long excerpts--you should read it yourself--but there's a few poignant points I want to include.

Your example is your authority. Positive discipline does not mean no discipline; it means that discipline is a matter of teaching mutual respect, rather than making your child suffer. "Children do better when they feel better, not worse," is what it says on my kitchen cabinet, and so when faced with intransigence, parents have to respond by stating their expectations, repeating the rules, and then giving their children the love and support they need to follow them. Always try to include, rather than isolate; avoid labels; don't negotiate, but don't escalate, either. If your children are not doing well, either take them out of the situation or remove yourself. You — and they — can always try again.
It is a philosophy that could have been minted by Cass Sunstein, the White House advisor who is developing ways to "nudge" citizens to make the right choices without them being aware of the manipulation. It could serve as a précis for how Obama has dealt with Joe Wilson, not to mention Skip Gates and Sergeant Jim Crowley, not to mention Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was never threatened but rather told to "think carefully" while answering the protests of the Iranian presidential election with the truncheon and the gallows. One could almost hear Obama saying, "Use your words, Mahmoud. Use your words."
...
Barack Obama, then, is not the agent of change; he's the fulfillment of a change that is already occurring culture-wide, in every place but politics. That's why the Republicans fear him so much; why, while waiting for him to fail, they just come off as the political party for people who want to hit their kids.

Take a look here.

Climate Change, Evolution, and What We Sound Like

It's always an interesting task to me to characterize a language. Example: what does Xhosa sound like to you? (Clicky?) Finnish? (guttural perhaps?) Estonian? (drunken finnish)
I think I find it interesting because Albanian initially sounded (I think, if my memory isn't failing me) very "k-ish." Haha, I don't know if that makes sense, but I heard lots of "kuhs" and "chuhs" in the language I couldn't understand. But now that I can speak it, I can't hear what I used to. Instead, I hear words and things and objects and actions (if you speak another language, perhaps that makes sense to you?)
So, it was to my absolute delight to hear what English might sound like to foreigners in this uncanny and delightful Italian video from the 70s. The first time I heard this, my mind WAS trying to understand it, and not to mention that this video is just plain hot:


To wrap up, I read two AMAZING articles: one on evolution/human history, and one on climate change (it's actually more about making a change, but climate change is the centerpiece). I thought they were well written and in general represented a viewpoint that I highly agree with (especially about making a change) and I thought I'd share it all with you! They're very fantastic and not too long. Here are some excerpts:

See, humans today may look pretty different from one another but, genetically speaking, there's not much diversity at all within our species. In fact, chimpanzees, which look pretty much the same from one individual to the next, are much more genetically diverse than we are. To scientists, that suggests that humans have come through a genetic bottleneck--a point where our numbers shrunk dramatically, and a relatively small population had to rebuild the species.

"How Shellfish Save the Human Race" - BoingBoing

But if you look at the impact of those emissions reductions in the scope of the world, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I make the decision not to fly. That's not gonna stop the plane. The plane's still flying. Even if the ski industry eliminated all our emissions, we're still out of business by 2050 or 2100 because of the climate.
So what do you do? You gotta fix the whole system.
...
They want me to do rinky dink stuff like bamboo foors and recycling, and I tell them it doesn't matter, that their personal actions don't matter because the problem's too big. That pisses people off — they get mad at me and say every little bit helps. But every little bit doesn't help because the problem's too big. If everyone who was so inclined did every little thing from the Prius to the bulb, we still wouldn't solve this problem. It's gotta be a global mandate, not a voluntary thing. My day is full of people getting furious at me. Last week I had to send the FBI some death threats I was getting about calling the governor of Utah willfully ignorant on climate. This is war. This is a combat situation. and it's gonna hurt people the way wars hurt people. I like to say, we're gonna have to break things and hurt people to make this happen. Just being straightorward and truthful about these things instead of glossing and deluding people is incredibly valuable.
...
What if I said, you know what, I can't justify being here at this five star hotel. I'm gonna go to the peace corps and work on putting photovoltaic installations in Samoa. What have I done? I've essentially made myself powerless. I've changed this from being about climate to being about me personally.

"What a Luxury Ski Resort is Doing to Solve Climate Change" - BoingBoing

So Easy to be Ignorant

Check out all of Ms. Palin's lies in her book here!

Healthcare

I hope everyone had a chance to read or listen to President Obama's speech tonight.

It's why so many aspiring entrepreneurs cannot afford to open a business in the first place, and why American businesses that compete internationally -- like our automakers -- are at a huge disadvantage. And it's why those of us with health insurance are also paying a hidden and growing tax for those without it -- about $1,000 per year that pays for somebody else's emergency room and charitable care.
...
There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada's -- (applause) -- where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everybody. On the right, there are those who argue that we should end employer-based systems and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.
I've said -- I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both these approaches. But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
...
You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter -- that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.

Transcript is here.

IG Torture Report

The Inspector General's Torture Report has been released (of course with its myriad of redactions), and I agree with Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald: every American should know what was done in our name.
It's sad, but an important looking glass into the tactics used in Iraq.
Good read, and he's even summarized the report for lazy American viewing/reading.
What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report

CARS

So, I got an email today. It was a forward, which of course, usually goes straight to my trash, however, whenever I think the forward is full of misinformation, I usually read it over quick and if I find that I was right, I usually try to kindly correct the misinformation. Often, I probably don't come off as kind, but I hope everyone would realize that my intentions are.
So, I got this one today:

Subject: Fwd: Please take the time to look at this story about Cars.com (Stay away)
Be sure and watch this. Very frightening.
Subject: Cars.gov (Stay away)
Please watch this. You will not believe what can happen to you.
This is a must see... some really amazing things the government has pulled of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqfuZ7hiap0
And Pres. Bush got criticized for the FISA wiretaps???

The video is from the Glenn Beck program. If you have ever looked at that program with a level head, you'll admit that he vies for his audience on pure sensationalism. Given his recent embarrassment, I'm surprised even FOX keeps him around.
Focusing on the email again, I want to address a few things. First of all--just to get it out of the way--FISA wiretaps were done illegally and without consent. Period. There is no comparison.
Now, Glenn takes us on a Willy Wonka tour of CARS.gov. For those unaware, CARS.gov is the interweb's portal for information about the so-called "Cash for Clunkers" deal that you may have heard of. However, Glenn starts misleading right from the start. First of all, he doesn't even show you the consumer side of the website: the side that you will reach by going to www.CARS.gov, but rather, he takes you to the dealer website. Second of all, the link he claims to click (isn't it interesting that they don't give a clean shot of the site so you can read it?) doesn't exist. Heck, Glenn can't even get the rumored warning to come up on screen!
Huh? The entire argument that the government forces you (the consumer) to agree to anything is moot if the consumer (you) never sees the alleged agreement. Seriously, Glenn? I do have to give him props though: he did cover his back by saying "the dealer has to go to the website," then went on to twist that into making people believe that the consumers must go.
So, this leads to two possible conclusions: either the website he was on is dealer specific and has to do with a system of receiving rebates directly from the government (which would technically make it a federal computer, bound to the same rules and regulation that all other federal computers are bound to, namely controlled surveillance), or Glenn Beck elaborately created a look alike website and completely lied to his audience--an easy task that was old in High School.
Which is it?
In the end, CARS is a great program for getting our gas guzzlers off the road and helping the auto industry get back on their feet with the added benefit of diverting the money to consumers/citizens instead of corporations. If you can, use it!

Critical Consumption

Brett brings this to light:

Mark Tomasky: Did an Obama judicial nominee really express a preference for Allah over Jesus?

Naturally, it's all a lie, but as I said, even I was shocked at how rancidly despicable a lie it was.

Read the post; it's worth at least skimming or keeping in mind if someone comes to you with such a story. My general rules of thumb for judging any story that sounds absolutely infuriating:

1) If it sounds absolutely ridiculous that such a thing could happen, a relatively (and often absolutely) small amount of research will usually debunk the claim or weaken it significantly.

2) Rule 1 applies 100 times over if it comes from fringe groups and people who need attention in order to maintain their lifestyle. This includes for practical purposes all explicitly political Christian groups (unfortunately), Fox News, leftist groups (Democracy Now, CODEPINK, and the like), and professional non-elected political personalities (Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, Ralph Nader, etc.).

3) If it is in a chain-email, it is a lie 95% of the time.

4) These rules (especially the first two) don't hold a tragic proportion of the time to claims about the Bush administration. You should still be skeptical though.

I would expand on rule number 3 to say that if it's in a chain-email, it should be disregarded, even if there is any truth to it. Chain e-mail should never be trusted, unless you know everybody who it was sent to for at least three generations.

Mistaking Tyranny for Losing

Thanks Brett!
It's absolutely fanatically CRAZY how the GOPs mouthpieces are reacting. Seriously, if they want a chance come 2010, they'll have to drastically change their approach.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

SPAM! and BANKS!

Wow, I just got spammed in my comments. COOL!! Well, I think it's cool because it's in a foreign language. I thought about deleting it, but I then thought..."I don't think anybody that reads my site is gullible enough to start clicking those links," so I'm keeping it up. Don't let me down, people!

In other news, I was made aware of a very interesting NY Times piece the other day. It's titled, "CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS." It talks of how this deregulation bill would negatively impact the economy and how the bill made it easier for financial entities to enter other financial markets (i.e.-it made this current recession possible.) It's publication date? November 5...1999. You can insert your own ironic/sarcastic rebuttal now.
Interestingly enough, this bill passed the house and senate with majority votes from both parties, indicating that although Clinton signed it into law, and Bush did nothing about it, it wasn't just the Executive Branch that royally effed our economy up back then. I'm started to really dislike the majority of congress-people. I WANT TERM LIMITS IN CONGRESS!
I can't prove that they would have prevented this, let's not be naive, but I can't help but to wonder how much they were influenced (for a lengthy amount of time) by lobbyists. Term limits would not only harbor in stupid congress-people, but I imagine they'd also impact the lobby...in a good way (for Americans, that is, not the lobbyists).

Small clarification

Obama does not equal socialism.
For all of you have who have been misled through Fox News, Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hanity, or your own fear of progress, please read this.
Thanks, Brett!

Small Weird Rant

A while ago, some friend of mine tried to persuade me to believe that the armed forces budget for the US was small in comparison to social services...I ignored him, because I thought it was obvious that he was wrong, but I was reminded of this when I came across this cool little doo-dad (I'm sure I've posted it before...but I was reminded of how cool it is). It's interesting regardless of the point I would be trying to make...

Propositions

A comment I left on Chelsi's post about post-election violence re: Prop 8:

chels! i like it, even though you know my thoughts on the whole issue. it's very true that those opposing prop 8 have really shown their colors in the past few weeks.
i think the main reason the lds church is seeing so much spotlight concerning this issue is the fact that while we represented a very small percentage of the vote, members contributed a staggering $17.7 million of the total $22.9 million rasied for Yes on 8 (your numbers were a bit off from my research). so, while i certainly don't agree with the response, i think it's quite explicable. i'm linking this on my blog.

I should add that I meant "...very true that some of those opposing..." because it's quite obvious I don't mean everyone (ahem...including myself). Check out her post by following the link above.

Nuclear! Nuclear! Nuclear!

So, I found this to be a great look at 5 physics problems that Obama will have to deal with. Of course, it includes a resounding backing for nuclear power, and although it argues against manned spaceflight, I think it's a worthy read (it's short).

Yes We Can

Well, I was so excited last night, I think I gave myself ulcers. Or something. Seriously, I couldn't sleep last night, so Chase and I played Ping-Pong until 2am, at which time I got intense stomach pain and had difficulty breathing.
Odd.
However, my excitement has evolved into immense appreciation and happiness, for I have heard and seen things that America has been missing for a long, long time.
Everywhere I've read this morning describes throngs of people who have been united and have a genuine pride, shall we say, for being American all because of this election. When was the last time we became united for something other than a crisis?
As I was listening to both McCain and Obama as they spoke last night, I was also impressed by how good both candidates were. McCain's concession speech was good, and he lost very humbly (although I think even he was disappointed in his supporters). Obama's speech will be watched and read in history classes in years to come for many, many reasons. If you didn't watch it, watch it now, or read it here--it's amazing.

Barack Obama will be our next president, and I encourage anyone who doesn't support him now, to listen to his offer:

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

Some presidents take over power while we are living high and having a good time. Others, like Obama, must take control while we are in an epic nose-dive. If at any time we need to be united and supportive, it's now. Pray for him. Do what you can to help America re-establish itself as a beacon in this world. Give him a chance, if you haven't already--I think you'll find you might even like him.

Re: Disturbing...

Brett's offered his point of view regarding my post on the meaning of marriage and the church's involvement here.

It's done?

CNN is reporting that McCain's top two aides have conceded there is no mathematical way for the Republican ticket to win. Which means...Barack Obama is OUR 44th PRESIDENT!!!

(And for the record, at this time, Google and CBS is reporting Utah an McCain win, but Obama is leading by 2 percentage points. Probably the closest we'll be here, but that's with 180,000 votes counted...yaya!)

Obama's President!

Well, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. They call Ohio Obama's, and therefore say all the dominoes will fall. Hip hip HOORAH!!!