Will The Real John McCain Please Stand Up

Will The Real John McCain Please Stand Up

Yet another rant from my buddy and good friend, Michael Watts.

Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Lame Duck...

Was guest ranter on my buddy Michael Watt's blog...here's the addy:

http://michaels-rant.blogspot.com/2010/11/dont-ask-dont-tell-lame-duck-by-isidro.html

The Honeymoon is over

This just in...President Obama scored his first major legislative victory on Wednesday with passage of an $825 billion economic stimulus package by a sharply divided House of Representatives, 244-188. Just eight days into his presidency and wishing for a more bi-partisan victory; President Obama received all that he had asked for thanks in part by the Democratic Majority in the House. As true to form every single Republican voted against the measure saying that they wanted more tax cuts and less spending. According to Reuters, all but a few Democrats voted for the measure. Next stop: The US Senate where an even larger and more expensive package is expected to pass. The bill would then go into conference to hammer out the solid detalils. The final bill should be ready for President Obama to sign within the middle of next month. I guess the Obama honeymoon is no over and so soon after.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

Well it's been several days since the inauguration of the nations 44th President. I wasn't privileged to be in DC during this historic event but I did get to see it on Television and I guess it was better since I wasn't out there in the bitter cold and in the confines of my home. While I was watching several things stuck out as funny the first was when former Presidents HW Bush and Clinton were in the breeze hall way prior to being announced to the those in attendance they were talking in the hallway thus causing a bottleneck in the timing of the festivities. The next one was when now former President George W. Bush was introduced several people in the crowd started chanting "Na-Na, Hey-Hey Goodbye". Now it was somewhat expected but it was still shocking. Daniel Ryan, the Ector County Democrat Club president; who was in attendance told me that some in the crowd actually wanted to boo but instead resorted to this. The last one was during the administering of the Presidential Oath of Office, Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the words tripping up the President-Elect. They did finish the oath but in order to curb skeptics the Chief Justice re-did the oath the next evening. Some say that this oath is purely ceremonial and that there is no need for this as the 20th Amendment provides that the term of the President ends on January 20th at high noon with the new term commencing at the samt time.

Finally

The day long awaited is finally here...the day we can say sionara to a man that shouldn't have been president in the first place and say hello to a man that is the answer to a dream that was spoken about several decades ago.

Shall we all recall the debacle called Election 2000? That day will live inside many hearts as the day the American nation took many steps backwards too many to count. It seemed like each day we would take giant leaps backwards until that fateful day on September 11, 2001; the day we were attacked but not by the Iraqis as our 43rd President would have us still believe but by militants that came out of Afghanistan. In fact the lot of perpretrators that committed this heinous act were from Saudi Arabia not from Iraq. It seems like these past eight years were just a serious of blunders and misteps from the handling of the "War On Terror", a concept created by the outgoing president and the handling of the hurricane relief to the final financial crisis.

Speaking on the "War On Terror", we have gone so far away from this concept it's ridiculous. We are now bogged down in a conflict where we have become literal "baby-sitters" while they thumb their noses at us and throw their shoes at the President. Now I'm not really going to condemn that action as he probably did what alot of us wanted to do over the years but couldn't since we might of ended up in Gitmo and don't get me started about that.


But all in all here is to a wonderful four to eight years. Hopefully that is enough time to fix all the wrong 43 did to our country. Hail President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joseph Biden.

The Debate on the Debate

As I was watching the debate last night, I thought I was watching an odd scene. The moderator, Jim Lehrer, tried several times to get the candidates to talk to each other. Sen. Obama, would look at Sen. McCain each time he would say something while McCain would just stare straight ahead. McCain looked really rigid almost like he was upset or dare I say angry when Sen. Obama took him to task on Iraq or what led us to this sham war. To be quite honest, Sen. Obama hit it home at the debate when he listed off a litany of falsehoods that the Bush Administration and the Republicans which now includes Sen. McCain fed us on the lead up to this wag the dog distraction.

Even though he did hit this point home, I didn't feel Sen. Obama really took advantage of several points when it came to the economy. I wanted to hear what he would do for the middle class. I know that he's spoken about that countless of times but it would have been great to gauge Sen. McCain's reaction to that issue or those talking points. He did do just enough but really didn't hit anything home. I've already decided on who I was going to vote for in fact it wasn't even a hard decision but what I'm talking about is that these debates are designed for the undecideds that will actually elect the next president.

Last but not least, I really don't like watching the after debate "Spin Room" talk because it really doesn't do much but what was really striking for me was that Sen. Biden, Sen. Obama's VP choice was at the after debate spin and where was Gov. Palen? She was at a debate party. Sen. McCain's surrogate was Mayor Rudy Giuliani...not a good comparison there. I just hope she shows up on Thursday for the VP Debate

The Flipflop, Makes a Comeback

The Vice-Presidential nominee on the Republican ticket, Gov. Sarah Palin; has stated on several occasions that she was against the "Bridge to Nowhere", what she isn't saying is that she was for the bridge before she was against it. According to the Boston Herald, Gov. Palin ran for her current position in 2006 on a build the bridge-the-bridge platform.

This is surprising because during her introductory speech after being selected as Senator McCain’s running mate, Palin said she had told Congress "'thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere." What was not said was that the money which was a whopping $223 million wasn’t given back; but instead it was used on several other “pork barrel” projects.

Also during her campaign Palin was asked whether she backed continued funding for the bridge project and said, "Yes, I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

According to Reuters.com in 2007 Gov. Palin suddenly stopped her support and called for a halt on the bridge. Mayor Joe Weinstein of Ketchikan, Alaska said many residents remain irked by Palin’s failure to come to Ketchikan since that time to defend her decision - despite promises that she would.

On the flip-side several Republicans have gone on record as being disheartened by the rhetoric that is being put forth by Palin, including several that have said that they would have a hard time voting for the McCain ticket because of Palin’s subsequent neglect of Ketchikan and her flip-flop on the “Bridge.”

So, now there’s the charge of flip-flop. Doesn’t that sound familiar anyone remember four years ago someone else that was running for the presidency, Sen. John Kerry. Now that the flip-flop is on the other foot will they take the same dose of medicine…I think not.