A shirt by Threadless. Look em up!

Liberal and conservative economic models share a common flaw.  For the most part Democrats and Republicans are synonymous with liberals and conservatives but not quite.  The vast majority of Democrats and Republicans take a compromised position on economic policy.  They lean liberal or lean conservative but are unwilling to commit fully.  This is symptomatic of one or more of the following, intellectual laxity, a lack of commitment or belief in the cause, or pandering to voters which in turn shows  a lack of moral character and fortitude.  Socialists and Libertarians tend to be much more consistent in their economic policy views and carry liberal and conservative philosophy much closer to their respective logical conclusions than most members of the two major parties do.  For the sake of this article the terms “liberal” and “conservative” will refer more to the ideals of those philosophies rather than to the mostly inconsistent members of any particular party.

The thing that liberals and conservatives mutually miss or mess up in economic policy is love.  Yes that’s right, love.  I’ll start with the liberals.

Liberals tend to be concerned with the well being of the poor, which is good and loving.  So they begin on the right track but, they forget about love, and so go about it all wrong.  Liberal economic policy in a simplified form is like Robin Hood, take from the rich and give to the poor.  Because the money was not given freely, but rather forced by law, it is not charity. The rich, some of whom are very charitable, resent their money being voted out of their hands and given to the voters.  They feel that the masses have risen up and stolen from them like a pitchfork mob storming the castle.  Because it was not charity (that is, a gift), the poor begin to feel they have a right to it and thus that the rich have stolen from them.  The poor then come to resent the rich.  So liberal economic policy leads to greater mutual class resentment and less love.

Conservative economic policy focuses on what is just.  It is unjust to take a man’s private property so conservatives push for fewer taxes and freer markets.  They count on the market growing when there are fewer restrictions and generally it does.  This they reason, should help the poor in a trickle down effect.  In this model, the poor are an afterthought, not very loving.  The poor resent being an afterthought and the rich assume that the poor are poor because they are either lazy or stupid.  This is not a good way to breed love.

Charity (that is, grace) is the action of love.  Charity and love are two sides of the same coin. Where there is no love, there can be no charity, this is the problem of conservative economics.  Where there is not charity, there can be no love, this is the problem of liberal economics.  So liberals and conservatives take different paths to smothering love as much as possible.  Call me crazy.

Jiminy is the manliest of bugs.

I have written several times before on truth, the lack of it, the abuse of it, and the blatant disregard of it.  USA Today published an article and an opinion piece that should be of interest to any of my fellow lover’s of truth out there.  This is just downright infuriating.  The articles are both on the lack of truth in the political TV ads from the McCain and Obama campaigns.

If you want my concise paraphrase of both articles here it is, “Neither of the United States presidential candidates seems to have scruples about completely  misleading the American people for their own political gain and McCain is the worse of the two.” There you go.

There is so much more I could say on this.  I believe this is the inevitable result manifest, of living in the postmodern era.

The fact checking websites,  FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com were heavily cited in both the article and the opinion.  The chart below helps to demonstate how widespread the problem is.

PolitiFact.com rates candidates’ statements on a six-category scale from “true” to “pants on fire” falsehoods.

Barely true

McCain 22

Obama 14

False

McCain 23

Obama 18

Pants on fire

McCain 6

Obama 1

Source: PolitiFact.com, a joint venture of the St. Petersburg Times and CQ.

This stuff makes me want to pull my hair out and start lighting things on fire!

What a roguishly maverick character, eh?

The race for the White House is about McCain’s experience and Obama’s charisma and celebrity, or at least it was until Sarah Palin was put on the ticket.  By far the largest legitimate chink in Obama’s armor was his lack of experience.  McCain has found a way to make sure that this is not a campaign issue.  Obama can not attack McCain on his lack of celebrity without exposing the superficiality of his own campaign but McCain could use Obama’s inexperience against him, could that is until he tapped Palin to be his running mate.

Palin’s experience amounts to being governor of Alaska for a whopping 20 months.  Being governor of any state is a tough job but does that qualify you to be president?  Isn’t that like being the mayor of Denver with more parkland?  That’s good resume’ fluff if you want to be vice president of the Red Cross but we’re talking about being VP of the United States, one heartbeat from the White House!

I think Sarah Palin was chosen because McCain hopes she will be able to get people excited, that she will be a celebrity.  So, both candidates  tried to patch up their armor with their VP picks.  Its just that Biden’s experience helps Obama’s campaign and Palin’s inexperience helps Obama’s campaign.  I do give McCain some credit though, if all he wanted was a conservative Obama then he could have put Joel Osteen on the ticket.

In an earlier post I wrote that I had been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software. I praised it and harped on it but alas, I have found the Dragon’s weak underbelly. Dragon cannot spell Arauca bomb, Arauca mama, Morocco bomb, aaaahhhh B.A.R.A.C.K. O.B.A.M.A. Dragon can’t spell the name of that new dynamic politician. For your amusement, I have kept a running tally of all the various things Dragon has called For Rocco Momma. Complete with commentary

Brock of Mama I’m at a loss on this one. A Bonus a bonus sounds good, I think. All Ballmer he did play baseball. We’ll Bomb I doubt it, he’s more of a talker than a fighter. whoObote, ask the neighbors to the north. A Bomb On this seems to be a recurring theme. A Ball And balls and bombs, what’s up with this guy? Old Drama Its getting there quickly. Overall My…What? Over all your what? A Ball and, A Bomb Oh dear. Oh Bottle Oh yes! Morocco Bomber No, Kenyan, Kenyan Bomber. Ab Rocco Bomba, in his first appearance with Secret Squirrel! COBOL An ancient and secret organization of intellectual elites! And last but not least, Will Mamma, what choo talkin ’bout Will Momma for?

Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination, finally. Hillary Clinton has conceded the race. Now there is much speculation that she is vying to be Obama’s vice president. There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton has legions of staunch supporters and you can easily see why Obama would choose her as his vice president. Though they’re both liberal, Obama and Clinton appeal to different segments of the population. Many people have called this potential matchup and a dream ticket, and it would certainly be very hard to beat.

I do not know whoObote will pick as his VP, and I will not make any predictions on that. However, I do want to predict that it will not be Hillary Clinton. I know I’m going out on a limb here and putting my neck on the line. I thought about not posting this yet. I thought maybe I would wait a few days and see how cordial they were to each other. But then I thought to myself, be a man and quit worrying about it. I’m not infallible, after all, and I’ve given up trying to be. So you can all tar and feather me (in the comments section) when Obama does pick Clinton, as he is sure to do, if only to spite me!

I find it difficult to believe that Clinton and Obama have warm and cozy feelings for each other. It’s very easy to see why Clinton would not like him, she has been planning on being the President in 2008 since 99 or 2000, and Obama took it from her. However, going the other direction, Obama has reason not to like Hillary Clinton either. She has done more to harm the Obama campaign than any Republican. Running a presidential campaign is no easy task, and Clinton has made Obama drag it out for months. True, if she had conceded earlier he would still be campaigning but, he would have been able to start his general election campaign much earlier. In short, she has delayed his progress.

Now, Obama is of course weighing all this out against how much she will help his ticket. She would help, but, does he need any help? Obama will be running against John McCain. McCain is certainly a formidable politician, and knows how to run a campaign. You do not get to be in the Senate as long as he has unless you know how to run a campaign but you only need to watch one Barack Obama speech and one John McCain speech, to see that McCain is in trouble.

John McCain hangs onto the podium and gives a halfway decent speech, or even a very good speech, and he gets a golf applause. When Barack Obama gives a speech, he is greeted at like the Rolling Stones. When he gives a speech, it doesn’t matter if it’s a good speech or not, he gets roaring thunderous applause. People swoon and faint at a Barack Obama rallies. This is shaping up to be a race between the dreary old politician in a fresh new rockstar. I think Obama sees this and I don’t think he believes he needs to put up with Hillary Clinton in order to beat John McCain.

Additionally, Obama has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and his ego has to be swelling just a little bit. Two years ago, very few people knew who Obama was. Four years ago, he was a state senator in Illinois. Since then, he’s been elected to the U.S. Senate, then the keynote speaker at the Democratic national convention, beaten Hilary Clinton for the nomination, became a best-selling author, and is now the most likely next president of the United States. Taking all this into consideration, I think it’s very likely that Hillary Clinton will not be Obama’s running mate.