Axis of Balance

Mitt Romney gave his much awaited speech this past week, and the mainstream media seems to love it, sort of. Well they liked it the first time when it was by JFK. Romney made a point to say to his listeners that he was just a regular Joe American and his religion was not important. Also he stated that America was founded as a Christian nation, and that people of secular (i.e. - agnostics and atheists) were wrong. Hey Mitt, when you decided to try and mirror a great president maybe you should actually listen to what he said. The general premise of Romney’s speech is not surprising, it is a gigantic pander to the religious right in this country. Romney knows that he cannot be honest and say that agnostics and atheist are just as welcome in this country as anyone else, because he is base will crucify him (pun intended). That my friends, is the saddest part of what has become politics in America. The inability to be intellectually honest to your own base. Sad.

Huckabee is surging! Just off his stylish victory over the plethora of loser who are now representing the republican party, he is sitting in the number one spot. Of course, with the title comes the spoils. Unfortunately, the spoils in a primary race are generally nothing you want. He now is being put under a microscope over he past record in Arkansas, as he should. Huckabee the fun loving politician who seems to have all the right things going for him has a closet filled with a few rather large skeletons. The main carcass looming over his Cinderella story is the one of a serial rapist he let go, and who of course raped and killed two women after being released. Letting him go is not the issue, doing it for purely political purposes is another. In a word, disgusting. This story isn’t really hitting mainstream news like I would have liked, but time will tell. The other story that is making some headlines is that fact that Huckabee made several statements that he was in favor of a quarantine of AIDS patiences in the early 90s. Huckabee was questioned on this by Chris Wallace this week and he danced around it with semantics at first and then stood by his statements. The statement to begin with is quite ridiculous, but as a evangelical preacher I am not surprised. I think Huckabee has a real chance to walk away with Iowa without breaking a sweat. However, once people start to see him for what he really is things will change. A candidate who does not believe in evolution will have a hard time getting the final vote from Americans come November ‘08. Until then keep dancing Huckabee, we are just waiting to see if you get tired before we do.

So yesterday Oprah Winfrey, television talk show host giant, went on the road with Barack Obama to start campaigning in Iowa. The crowd that was drawn in Iowa was in the realm of about 30,000. That is by far the most of any candidate during this horse race so far. There have been many questions as to whether or not Oprah’s endorsement for Obama will give him any further boost in the polls. As many people know, a celebrity endorsement rarely means anything for candidates in the long run. However, With Oprah’s sheer popularity she could convince more people to come out and vote instead of staying home. This is nothing but good news. Whether or not Obama gets the votes of these 30,000 people is actually irrelevant; what is relevant is that maybe 15,000 or so people get out and vote this go round. The exposure of any candidate to that many people can only be good. I guess we shall see how it goes in the polls later this week.

So CBS news has been following a story that is developing in California. Turns out that some Republicans want to change the rules on how electoral college votes are disturbed in the presidential race. On the surface this proposition seems to ride on the back of being fair. Make no mistake this is anything but. Here is what the initiative proposes to do in California only, no other states are included in this, and no talk of future expansion to other states. As it stands right now, California has 55 electoral votes, the largest amount in the country. This new initiative proposes to change it so that all 55 votes does not go to the winner of the popular vote, as is law currently. It would split the 55 votes via district, therefore give the Republicans the opportunity to poach approximately 20 electoral votes from California even if they lose the popular vote state wide. This is completely fine if you did this throughout the nation. Making Texas the next state to be divided up. The controversy arises from the fact that this is only being applied to in California and nowhere else in the union. As a resident of California, this make me so frustrated that people would try to basically legalize cheating in a election. This does not make it fair for anyone, just swings the pendulum towards the Republicans.

Finally, this initiative has been hidden behind this guise to help children with cancer. First they get people to sign a petition to give more money to kids with cancer, and then they ask them to sign the petition about the electoral votes, hoping to slip it by them. If you are for fairness, regardless of your party affiliation, this should get your blood boiling.

That’s all for the ranting and raving.

There was a hostage crisis at the New Hampshire campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton yesterday. This seems like it is right out of a movie, but in fact this is our reality. The standoff lasted a good portion of the day, and the mainstream media was all over it like white on rice. In other news, Obama has been labeled by a insidious whisper campaign that he is in fact a Muslim spy and has been planted to destroy America from the inside out. Ok lets start the much needed ranting and raving…

First off, what the hell is going on. The Washington Post is suppose to be a newspaper with some sort of credibility, right? The story read more like a hit job on Obama than actual journalism. Quotes like “be very careful” when referring to Obama and his religious background littered the article…of the goddamn Washington Post! This is not Star magazine, where I would not be surprised to see this article next to recent sightings of Batboy. I can not believe that the journalistic integrity of our country’s newspapers have gone the way of the Dodo. To the writer of the article, you sir are part of the problem. What other internet bullshit rumors will you help to facilitate into the minds of the naive. I cannot express how much this pisses me off. I guess its ok to continue rumors that have been proven false in the past to help with your own agenda if you are a “journalist.” I think its funny that this makes the cover of the WashPo, yet the story of Guiliani’s connections to the Sheik of Qatar and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad barely makes a ripple in the water. I have never seen the Washington Post as a very middle of the road newspaper, in fairness, I don’t see the NY Times as one either. However I do think that the NY Times has better journalists, who don’t write stories from internet rumors. If you get a chance check out the article on Guiliani and the Sheik of Qatar (read more here).

So thats all or my first of many rants and raves here.