Here are interesting links for 8/29:

McCain Taps Palin for VP

JPG for kid saves his life

Women wearing veil told to leave Italian Museum

Hurricane Gustav causing gas prices to spike

Interview with Sarah Palin

Donald trump’s daughter is really hot

Giant 4-ft NES Controller

Myspace deletes burn victim’s Photos

Play:

Mercenaries 2

Star Dominion

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McCain made an interesting pick today is choosing Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate on the republican ticket. While many democrats and some analysts say this was too risky a pick, most analysts say it is a solid pick, although a slightly risky one. Palin has been a governor for only 1.5 years but she is oddly the only person on either the democratic or republican ticket with any executive experience(no being senator is not executive experience). Its funny how some democrats are complaining about Palin’s lack of experience when their presidential nominee is so lacking in it himself and has not really accomplished anything himself.

That being said, Palin is still a risky pick because of McCain’s age and health. If he should pass away before his term is up, we would have a fairly inexperienced person running the oval office, of course it wouldn’t be any different if Obama won the race for president either.

In my own opinion, McCain has pulled out all the stops and has played his trump card, albeit a risky one. Palin is a solid conservative, pro-life, pro-death penalty, and a life-time member of the NRA. This should do enough to please the conservative base. The fact that she is a women should not bother any but maybe the most extreme conservatives. On the other hand she is a complete contrast to McCain. She has youth, charisma, is fresh, and holds appeal for a lot of young people. McCain has said to the democrats “I see your youth and experience and I’ll double your bet”. Democrats are mainly complaining because they can(duh, the republicans would do the same) and because Palin represents a clear threat to them. Obama has been running on youth, hope, and change. Unfortunately for him, Palin brings that to the table for the republicans as well. The real kicker is that Palin is a women, which could mean a mountain of trouble for Barack Obama. There are still millions of disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters that are upset that a women lost the nomination. Now since there’s a young women on the republican ticket, there are more likely than ever to jump ship.

I have to say that this is a well-played move by McCain as it removes some of the “old and rusty” away from the republican ticket, bring a fresh face on the scene, and can sway many female voters. Her inexperience could be a problem, but it really shouldn’t be seeing as how it hasn’t hindered Obama yet.

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Interesting Links of the day for August 28th:

Crucified Frog makes Pope mad

Chinese people don’t know what the hell a fortune cookie is

Virgin Mary spotted in tree trunk

Jesus seen on wings of a Moth — And you though the Virgin Mary was impressive

Proposed City inside a Pyramid

Our X-ray vision abilities

More people concerned with Cars than Bodies

Play:

Never end

Billy Genocide

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While most of this election has been focused on Tabloids, the real issues have to creep in somewhere. That is where you will find the real difference between John McCain and Barack Obama. After all this election is not really about how many houses they have, who their pastor was twenty years ago, or how well they’ve hid their tax returns. Its about real issues such as the war in Iraq, taxes and the economy, and national security. And that is precisely where people should focus when truly looking at the two candidates. Besides national security, where McCain is the clear favorite on, the two candidates differ in three major area as Outlined by CNN: the war, health-care and energy policy.

Obama wants out of the war as soon as possible and plans for a quick timetable for withdraw. Although I favor this idea as I was against invading Iraq in the first place, I fear that his approach may be a little too rash. Yes, we do need to withdraw but we are in so deep right now. We need to stay there long enough so that the Iraqis can stand on their own feet. It should be a gradual withdraw spread out over many years. Despite what reports most people have heard, I highly doubt that we will be able to leave Iraq by 2011.

McCain on the other hand wants a much slower timetable on withdraw, and although not quite 100 years, it is slow for my tastes. I favor a complete withdraw somewhere in the 5-8 yr time-frame, not 3 years and not 100 years so neither of these candidates really satisfy me here. We can’t just leave and let the Iraqi government collapse yet we can’t stay there forever.

On healthcare is one point I really don’t agree with Obama on. Obama wants to subsidize health care by increasing taxes on the wealthy. This is one policy I don’t agree with and its not because I’m wealthy(if your interested, at $20,000/yr, I make well below the median income, mainly because I’m self-employed right now), but because I generally don’t believe in stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Yes, the rich should subsidize society to some degree but I believe they are already do their share, if not more than their share already. The rich may make the majority of the nation’s money, but they also pay the majority of th nation’s taxes. Poor people complain all the time about how the rich aren’t paying enough taxes, but what I don’t get is how they can complain when most of them aren’t playing any taxes at all or are even getting a rebate from the government for being poor. I don’t believe you can complain about something when you aren’t contributing anything to help the problem.

The last point is energy and I’m divided on this one. Obama favors cap-and-spend plans to lower carbon emissions and while McCain has different ideas, he even says that cap-and-spend has its benefits and will probably implement them to some degree. McCain will push for offshore drilling which will only slightly increase our supply of oil. But drilling may put more pressure and scare the middle-east into increasing their production and thereby lowering energy prices worldwide. Both candidates should push for alternative energy sources because in the long run, we will need them. On this point I prefer a combination of the two candidates strategies.

So overall, the real thing that is pushing me in McCain’s favor is the tax policy. While I also favor McCain on foreign policy, it isn’t quite as big of a tug. If Obama would change his mind about taxing one part of society more heavily than they are being taxed now to subsidize another part of society, I may consider supporting him. But that probably isn’t likely to happen.

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Interesting links for 8/27/2008:

Two headed baby under police protection because people want to worship it

Portal to Mayan underworld may have been found

Mushroom soup causes emergency landing

Restaurant Food comes with expiration date

How much will Obama cut your taxes?

Firefox announced firefox 2 extension winners

Tears of victory for Obama and supporters

Play:

Hexiom Connect

Descent II

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Despite Hillary’s speech today which many claimed to have re-united the democratic party, there are still doubts as to whether she truly supports Barack Obama deep down. If one Takes a closer look at what she said, they’ll notice that she mentioned herself more than him. So while it may sway a few voters who were ardently supporting her before to vote for Obama, it did even more to remind everyone that she is still a very big character in politics both today and in the future, say possibly 2012.

Barack’s sinking poll numbers and his inexperience in foreign policy(as demonstrated by the conflict between Georgia and Russia) may play well into Hillary Clinton’s plans. On the surface, she has to support Barack Obama because it would be political suicide to not support him within the democratic party. But inside, Clinton might already be planning for 2012. She kept the party divided just long enough for John McCain to pull even with Barack Obama and a good number of supporters are just bitter enough to jump ship to McCain to make sure that Obama does not win the election. By making a speech that seemingly tries to convince her followers that Barack Obama is the man but at the same time making herself stand out more than him in the speech plays the role that she might have been planning ever since she lost the nomination. With her seemingly iron support for Barack Obama and attempts to unite the democratic party, she is gaining political capital and gaining many allies back whom gave her the cold shoulder during the primary season. But, by taking center stage during her own speech, she stays larger than life as a looming figure in the background ready to pounce when the chance strikes — just like a seasoned politician should be.

I’m not sure how many people noticed this during her speech but it should not be passed off as a coincidence. Hillary’s got more brains in her head and tricks up her sleeve than most people in politics — and thats saying a lot.

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