McCain/Palin campaign parallel to Bush/Cheney administration?

Finally, the 2-year long presidential race is drawing to a close. During this final stretch, does the McCain campaign choose to draw in new voters by advocating and promoting his own plans and strategies as President? Or does he and Gov Palin continually mock and attempt to ignite fear over Sen Obama? Hmmm, gee I can’t tell.

Campaigning in Pennsylvania together this week, the McCain/Palin team have kept up their constant hammering over their Muslim/Arab/Terrorist Associating/Socialist opponent. “He’s more interested in controlling wealth than creating it, in redistributing money rather than spreading opportunity,” Mr. McCain said. “Senator Obama is running to be redistributionist in chief. I’m running to be commander in chief.” Continuing on there was the moment when he characterized Mr. Obama’s energy policy as “blah blah blah,” as in: “You know, when we talked about offshore drilling, he said he liked it, blah blah blah, all this, and then he said, ‘I will consider — I will consider offshore.’ We don’t need to consider, we need to drill now!”

It is extremely unfortunate for the Replublican party that their candidate is continuing to run on what has become an obviously failed strategy. Interesting parallel isn’t it? The Bush/Cheney administration has been running for the past 8 years on what is now called (even by Fox news) failed and foolish strategies, in both their economic, and war plans. However, they still laud and praise their own ideals as being successful, despite one of the lowest approval ratings of all time.

In the same way, according to all polls, McCain/Palin are now down by double digits. And yet, just a couple days ago on Meeth the Press, McCain claims that everything is wrong, and he’s going to win by a comfortable margin. But he and Bush are nothing alike right?

Oh well, at least McCain finished his latest speech with one of his trademarks. “By the way, when two mavericks join up, they don’t agree on everything,” Mr. McCain said, “But that’s a lot of fun!”

 

quotes courtesy of the NY Times

Obama advocates Socialism?

Well, the word of the week has been the dreaded SOCIALISM!! Welcome back to the 50’s folks. The McCain campaign has been pretty vigorous this week with claims that Sen. Obama’s middle-class tax cuts are a “Spread the Wealth” Socialist effort.

This doesn’t really warrant much attention, as just the latest in a seemingly never-ending parade of ditch-effort claims (my personal favorite was the Terrorist). It really does show some insight though into McCain’s mind. The Trickle-Down plan, which has been in effect for the past 8 or so years, was louded and praised by so many people as the answer, but has now proven itself ineffective, and in fact harmful to the middle and lower classes. However, now when there’s a proposal to cut the taxes for the middle class, it Socialism? The ideas floating around are astounding! I got an email forward today comparing it to going to a restaurant, but then tipping the homeless guy outside instead of the server. Good grief.

I guess it’s to be expected though isn’t it? Who has the most political clout, and the loudest voice in the country? Is it the working class? Or is it the people with the most excess cash, and the multi-million dollar companies? Of course any plan that threatens to take any additional revenue from them is evil and must be destroyed any way possible.

Doesn’t Sen. Obama’s plan make sense though (at least to those of us making less than $250k a year)? If you make more, you can afford to pay a bit more in taxes. If you’re making less than that, you pay a little less, allowing you to put more money into savings, retirement, and back into the market! Yes it’s true that the upper echelons of society might have to go with a lower Jaguar model, but don’t worry, I’m sure that the leather interior smells just as good 🙂

Local Politics

As many know, I like to volunteer for the Young Democrats of Utah. This election cycle, their overall campaign slogan has been focused around “16 Votes.”

In 2006, one of the local Democratic candidates, Laura Black (I believe), lost to her Republican opponent by only 18 votes. That just seems insane! You never hear anything like that in a presidential race, because of the electoral college process. Sometimes I think people tend to forget that in the races that truly matter the most to your individual community, every vote truly does count.

I think that’s why I’m so cynical of our voting process sometimes. I tend to get more worked up and excited by national and international issues, but living in a state by Utah, my vote really doesn’t count for much, being blue. I understand that the electoral college was extremely necessary back in the day, because most people in the country had little to do with the presidential candidates, not having the luxury of radio, tv etc. People just rarely had the opportunity to learn anything about race, or the issues involved. But in today’s world, we all see the news, and most people have at least a basic knowledge of the candidates and their positions. So why can’t we just do away with the college, and count the vote outright. It seems as if that would be the truer form of democracy anyway, where the President is the person who actually received the majority of the vote, not the majority of the delegates. Government by the people right?

So what’s my point with all this? In this election season, everyone is very focused on Obama and McCain, which is great; But don’t forget about your local elections! Those are the people who are going to directly effect your lives the fastest, and although they may not shape the world, your personal world doesn’t extend (normally) beyond your local district. So go vote!!!!

Elephants in the Room

We met and I told you the truth,
My past, my men, my women and self.
Why did I change, what were you for me?
That I could abandon all, for one I couldn’t see?

All the silences and the fights over doom,
All the dishes are rattling from the elephants in the room.

I skipped and jumped past years of my life,
isn’t this what you’re supposed to do?
The house and the car, the ties and the white.
The symbols for you, and I loathe the tight.

All the silences and the fights over doom,
All the dishes are rattling from the elephants in the room.

Then you go and her I stay, we
try to say it’s for the best, but 3 weeks is all it lasts.
And I’m stuck here in higher years
trying to reclaim the past but getting only tears.

All the silences and the fights over doom,
All the dishes are rattling from the elephants in the room.

Couldn’t Say It Better

You know, I really just couldn’t say it better.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=188632

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

This week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that he was supporting Senator Obama in his candidacy for President. I have some mixed feelings about this one, as many people know how strongly anti-Powell I was a very short time ago. And yet, he spoke very eloquently about why he was breaking with his party on this vote, and I think voiced many of my own concerns and issues with the McCain/Palin ticket.

Referencing the recent push by the McCain campaign to associate Sen. Obama with 1960’s radical Bill Ayers, Mr. Powell said, “Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed up terrorist, but then why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have the robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate. Now, I understand what politics is all about, I know how you can go after one another and that’s good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for.”

I really couldn’t agree more. As Obama said in the 3rd debate, he once, a decade ago, served on a board with Mr. Ayers, along with several well known Republican figures, including one of Ronald Reagan’s advisers. The fact that McCain continues to try link Obama’s and Ayers’ names together through these so called “robocalls,” the debates, and through Sarah Palin shows all of America just what we don’t want to see any longer, continued negative, fear-driven rhetoric.

Mr. Powell also referenced the continued mentions in the media and from the GOP ticket about Obama being a Muslim. “Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian,” he said. “But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.’ This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”

Why does America, the “Greatest and Most Advanced Country in the World” continue to be scared of having anything but a Christian in the White House? Well that’s for a later post, but for now, congratulations to Colin Powell and making some well thought-out decisions.

 

Powell quotes provided by The Huffington Post.

Joe the Plumber

10/19/08

Wow, so Joe the Plumber. So interesting to hear how interested the nation is in this one guy. He’s been pretty thoroughly commented on already so I won’t waste much space, but isn’t it hilarious what people’s backgrounds actually show? One man questions one of the presidential candidates’ tax plans, and all of a sudden he’s the focus of the final presidential debate, his name being mentioned 26 times! Then later, we find out that he not only owes back taxes and has a lein on his home because of it. He also is not even a plumber, but works for a plumber, and has no current possibilities of starting his own company. Oh, and he actually would be saving money under Obama’s plan, and would lose money under Mccain. Sigh.. when will people learn that if they’re going to criticize the powerful (or at least most public) people in the world, they need to be prepared to have every aspect of their lives ripped open? It’s a little pathetic of the media I think that they were that interested in this one man, but he brought it on himself a little I think, he didn’t have to do any of the interviews.

Oh yeah, and Joe also said that he thought it was horrible and mean of the media to dig into his personal life, as he was getting on a plane to do some talkshows in New York. wow…….

Follow up thoughts on Mormon church v. California Prop 8

Ok, now that I’ve had further time to digest this development with the Mormon church and Proposition 8 in California, I have some further thoughts on it.

First, here are the things going on that I have the biggest problem with:
1: The church donates over 10 million dollars to the support of Proposition 8
2: The general leadership of the church sends out a letter to California church members encouraging them to get out and support the political cause.
3: The general leadership then has the local Bishops and stake leaders encourage the single utah members to donate extra money to the cause, and spend up to 20 hours of their time calling California residents and attempting to sway more support.

I think my biggest issue with all of this is that I feel it’s just an extreme violation of trust for a religion to impose political views on it’s members. The whole point of a religion is to follow people who can help you get closer to God. I understand that the tenants of the church say that the leadership are only human, and can make mistakes, so whenever they say something, you should pray about it and get an answer for yourself. The flaw in this plan is that if you ever feel like you get a different answer, the culture says that you’re doing something wrong, and ostracizing ensues. And despite what the tenant of the church really is, you know that millions of followers will just immediately follow anything the 1st presidency says without question, and assume that they are doing what “God” wants them to do.

The church has given money to politicians and causes before, which I also don’t agree with, but at least it was done quietly, and without release or encourgement to the members. But this is the line that no religion must ever cross, at what point does it cease to be about “God” and become just another political pusher.

Palin Debate Flow Chart

Thought this was hilarious.

Thoughts on Hands of Sodom

There was a “brown bag” discussion today at Westminster college to discuss the show. The director, Jenni Lou Oakes, the playwright, Laekin Rogers, the director of the department, Michael Vought, and several members of the cast attended. We took questions and discussed the show from a psychological and social point of view with members of the audiences, and interested community members.

Since this was a workshop production, and there wasn’t any documentary made of it, I thought I should put down some of my thoughts of the process.

When we first got together, our first rehearsal was just a read-through of the script. I think it may have been kind of weird for Laekin, but it was extremely odd for me as an actor. This was the first time ever that this script had been read out loud by any actors, which is very different from a normal reading. It may have just been the experience of beginning to put together something that you know has never been done before. There aren’t any previous performances to base anything off of or use as a foundation. Because of this, as well as the personal nature of the show, it almost forces oneself to turn inward more than normal to create your character.

Hands of Sodom has 2 acts, each showing different scenarios and relationships in a family. The hard part for me personally was the Act 1 Father character. Originally I had 3 different people I was going to base the part on, however the first time we ran some of the more intense scenes, all of a sudden my father came out, and from then on, it was a much more personal experience.

The director was very into method acting, but it’s different working on this kind of show rather than a musical or something that isn’t directly relateable. Drawing from personal experiences is quite different when drawing an emotion for a desire to find a white cow / red cape / yellow hair, compared to finding the emotion to play a Dad almost out of mind with confusion on how to bring his family back to what he feels is the “right” path. A Dad who sees everything slipping away from him and the only way he can think to stop things from going further is to try and hold on tighter. Sound familiar? hmm.

Well overall, my thoughts of the show in general have remained the same. I told Laekin from day one that this was one of those unique shows that you want ripped up, so no-one can ever read it again. But at the same time, you want the entire world to see it, and take the lesson (or at least the lesson that I felt it was about) of being yourself and allowing others to be themselves to heart.

Isn’t it always unfortunate that the people that need to see things like this the most are always the ones who are the least likely to attend?

Left-Anna Morris (Girl) / Right - Ashley Laurence (Jane)