Stream of Conciousness- Politics and news

Wwwwwooooooo

That is me blowing the dust off my keyboard. It has been a while old friend. But here we are back together with that tap tap sound (not as fast as Lindsey’s that is so fast it sounds like constant noise rather than individual taps,) spending that quality time together that has been missed.

This is a good day to get back on the blogging horse because the direction of our country IS being decided most likely today, Super Tuesday. Also Lent begins tomorrow for Catholics so today is Fat Tuesday. My friend Bull is actually coining today, “Super Fat Tuesday,” and I like his commentary associated with that name. In fact Bull did such a good job with the “Fat” part of today that I will stick to the “Super,” errr not so Super. Bull I am going to take your coined phrase one step further and declare today “not so Super Fat Tuesday.”

Politics. They say NEVER EVER discuss politics in the confines of the cockpit (flight deck, whatever.) I am sure this holds true in cubicles, computer engineering labs, water treatment facilities, railroad shops, marketing firms, pulpits, dental offices etc. But this is particularly true when you are in a confined space that you have NO choice but to share with someone else for 6-8hrs a day for up to 6 days in a row where there is no alone time. You are always sitting within spitting distance. The exact opposite seems to be true in school settings where professors who probably think too much of themselves spill drivel all over their “students” while teaching theory of whatever. Bloggers also fall into this category, but no students (captive audience), just plenty of drivel, so here is mine.

I admit, I am 75% Republican. Not ashamed, that is just where I fall. Without a doubt not a Democrat b/c of what I would consider to be the “buck stopper” issues. Any party that does not value the SANCTITY of LIFE will never get my vote. So unless the Democratic Party platform does a 180, it or any candidate from this party, will never capture my vote. Oh yes, they will blur the definition of “sanctity” all day long, but here it is:

“America was founded on the principle that we are all endowed by our Creator with the right to life and that every individual has dignity and worth.” George W. Bush

With that said, if John McCain comes out the Republican victor today, the Democrats are currently choosing the next president. Sadly the previous sentence isn’t actually true either b/c this goes back further to when the primary candidates started. There were better candidates from both sides of the aisle, but the media honed in and started to focus on fewer and fewer, marginalizing candidates that they didn’t want to see in the big showdown. Ultimately, the media outlets didn’t just want a Democrat in the White House, they wanted their Democrat in the White House.

I think if you talk to party Democrats they will even agree to this. The media mainstreamed it down to Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Republican race is becoming which candidate will be thrown to the wolves, or at least that is what they (media) are trying to portray this year, poor Republicans don’t stand a chance… Really? Why is the media on the McCain bandwagon lately? My thought, the media wants a political romp! With McCain they have bags full of divisive material, plenty of mud to sling and they won’t even have to make up any fiction. Just stick to what they don’t have to dig very far for and they will have most of the Republican base staying home in Novemeber. Which in the end is the media continuing to develop the story they want for Election 2008. My guess is that 90% of the 45% of Americans who will vote November for the next president get all that they need to know about the Presidential election from the USA Today (probably not, that requires reading) or the evening news (ahh yes that is the ticket.) NOTE: a future blog will have to be about the media.

Hillary Rodham Clinton.. Well she would finish the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton sequence. I think if elected she would probably make it a perfect match by making it a one hit wonder like George H. Bush. She is the quintessential politician. You ask her if it is raining and she will let you know… lets examine the question, there is precipitation falling, but by definition we would need to take a reading and determine what amount of H20 is descending. Then we will consult the brightest meteorologists… In the end, no answer.. Good politician.

Barack Hussien Obama.. I think this is a scary reality. He is the ultimate poser. The wolf in sheep’s clothes. Even the Democrats aren’t 100% sure who they are electing, but the ones that are, well their convinced it will be a change for America… will it? Who knows? The guy has taken three positions on everything, and that is starting with the fact that he had no position on record, no voting record at all. The best thing going for him was that he was not in the halls of Congress when 9/11 happened. For a short while He and Hillary started to flesh it out to the public and we started to see what is at the core of the two of them…you know, what kind of “people” they are when nobody is looking. Back room deals at Wal-Mart (Hillary), and Chicago housing scams (Barack). People think they aren’t electing a career politician with Barack… I guess these people are neglecting to look at his resume. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080106/news_mz1e6caldwel.html Yes he held a non-political job at a publishing firm. A job that he greatly embellished in the first autobiography he wrote in 1995 that didn’t get notoriety until 2004. But his political work up until becoming an elected official, can you say “special interest”… scary.

John McCain- Like Barrack, John is clearly the medias choice for the Republican candidacy. Thus when the Republicans get their 40% of the time during the political news (It is fact that political coverage spends 60% of its total time pumping the Democratic change that is coming via Obama or Hillary. If you don’t believe me time it for yourself. My Dad timed the “fair and balanced” Tim Russert show the other day… 60/40 dead ringer!) Anyway, during the 40% of the time talking about the Republicans they say “front runner” John McCain Blah Blah Blah. You see, that is what they want, him to be the front runner, so they say it. In Florida he was the clear choice… of the 60% of Democrats that admitted to voting in the Republican primary since the Democratic primary didn’t count. (That is the people leaving the polling place that actually admitted to being Democrat and filling out a Republican ballot during exit polls.) Bottom line, if Obama wins the ticket and he faces John McCain, it will be a landslide. The media will market old man Washington versus new young idea outsider. The Republican base, mostly as the left calls us “Evangelical Christian”, probably won’t vote. I am not going to lie, I will have a hard time voting for him. He hates pilots! His son is a pilot for American Airlines and they are estranged. Only two things keep me voting for him, one the potential running mate could be someone I like.. and the idea that by not voting for him would be equivalent to voting for the opposition. My vote for him will be nothing more than a non-vote for the other side.

Mitt Romney- I think he is almost the perfect candidate. Clean cut, has a nice look… Quite frankly probably out of all the Republican candidates, probably the most likely to be able win if he could become the party candidate. He might draw more votes from the Democrats than any other candidate. He just wasn’t my top choice due to his social policy. I could live with it, but I think so could the media since they didn’t completely take all the spotlight away when they started touting McCain as the favorite.

So if you made it this far in my stream of conscience you are to be rewarded! Lindsey and I are expecting our second child September 3.

Trudging on… There were some outstanding candidates that were marginalized by the media. Ron Paul being the first and Mike Huckabee being the second. Huckabee because of his strong push by the Republican base overcame the media snub. Hucks one big chink in his armor, in my opinion, is the border protection and generous amnesty. With that, he lost some of the base. The media almost had to say Ron who? a few times. Fred Thompson was just made into a joke as was the candidate from Kansas who actually was the total package. Of course my all-time favorite didn’t run, but I love Alan Keyes! Maybe 2012!

Sorry to end my blog hiatus with a very very long political rant, but I ran into someone recently who said that Christians are weak minded, can’t discuss politics, and quite frankly shouldn’t, since we are nothing but co-dependant non-freethinkers. I think that not to be true. I think that my relationship with the Lord and Savior dictates my views (see “buck stopper” at the top.) However it doesn’t make me mute or opinion-less on other subjects of less than eternal value. Quite the contrary.

I took this quiz and it was interesting: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/ It told me my #1 choice should be Mitt Romney #2 Mike Huckabee #3 John McCain

I guess I will end this rant with a question, mostly for the Republicans reading. Is not voting (assuming McCain wins) like a vote for the other side?