I didn't try. I did.

And my point stands. You can hide behind emotional independence and paint me as the thought police but here is the truth.

Third party supports don't have to ever answer to things because they never get into office.

Reagan was the only one who was being called out on a flawed philosophy. They said the math wouldn't work, they said it was voodoo economics (his veep said this mind you)

If Ron Paul was taken seriously and wes debated, he gave answers that were show to scrutiny and he was elected, and then they worked. At that point I'd tell you that you had to work for it.

Saying your voting Ron Paul is absolutly no different than supporting the Stewart/Colbert ticket.

WHAT!? I go to an almost all black school and about half of the students don't know anything about what Obama stands for, just that hes black. So that's who they voted for. No support, yea maybe in an all white suburb.

I live in an all white suburb and basically everyone support Obama in my school.

Yeah but you live in kennedy country. We let the opposition have Beacon Hill and thats it.

Republicans are banished to the western suburbs here and their not let out.

As far as (uninformed) people go, just as many voted against him for the same reason. S*** guys, i live in Utah. I can't walk down the street without hearing people complain about how the "Hitler Anti-Christ is going to bring about Armageddon." The fact is: most Americans are uninformed, and people pick their vote by how someone looks on TV, or what their religion is, or only by which party they represent, or completely by random at the booth.
As for the third part issue, i think that it is good to have third party runners even if it only gets people thinking outside of the standard Republican/Democrat ideal. So we can realize that there are allot of different ways to view politics other than the main two.
I also think they should bring back the competency test for voters. although that brings up the issues inherent in standard testing so....

and time for a completely unrelated bit of comedy. Not sure how these clips haven't been latched onto before, but this is f*cking hilarious.

When Should Barack Use His Bad Boy Voice? / Jossip

So to try and take Gunnels lead I want to talk about what he's doing now...
So far he has signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, review military trials for terror suspects, and ban the harshest of interrogation techniques. Anyone know what has come of this order yet?
I think it's a great step, I think torture such as waterboarding has no place in American-led interrogations and I think it's hypocritical to condone the use of torture techniques and denying people a fair trial or even a reason to detain them when we're supposed to be the shining beacon of democracy and freedom to the world. I can of course see the side that they were doing all this in order to get information to stop terrorist attacks but I personally haven't seen any evidence to support that any information gotten through torture techniques ever saved an American life, but maybe some of you have heard that?
Also, Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State, anyone have an opinion? How do you guys think he's doing so far?

Short notice but Obama's first official press conference is coming on in a few minutes, hope everyone can catch it

Okay I realize I'm posting back-to-back-to-back so forgive me but I wanted to give a report on how the news conference went to those who are interested but didn't want to sit through an hour of boringness (so I'll do most of it in bullet-point style)...

The press conference started with a brief introductory speech which was aimed at convincing the American people of the need for and the possible success of the proposed economic stimulus package. It should be said that A LOT of the details of the economic stimulus package will me hashed-out in tomorrow's (2-10-2009) press conference with Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. So some of the details this time around were maybe a little vague, but here's what he had to say:

• Talked about Indiana's 10% unemployment rate increase from last year
• Bottom line of the package is to create 4 million American jobs
• $2500 tax credit to those paying for college :D
• $100s of billions in tax cuts to middle class
• Investment in the healthcare industry and alternative energy industry
• "loosen" credit - getting people and businesses easier access to credit by making transparency and oversight in the credit system (meaning no more bonuses for executives)
• Jobs created will include fixing roads, building wind turbines, building fuel efficient cars, teachers, and firefighters
• He talked about how creating jobs now such as building new schools will pay of short term with the immediate job and long term with the investment in children
• Other jobs will be in making government buildings more fuel efficient which will lessen the amount that tax payers have to pay to maintain them
• Current bill calls for $800 billion from government

Next was the question and answer session. I'll only include questions that pertained to the economic stimulus plan...

1.What would lead you to say that the recession could be permanent?
If you delay acting on this economy you potentially create a negative spiral that is even harder to get out of. It happened to Japan in the 90s (the so-called "lost decade") where the country had no significant growth for ten years. The problems are accelerating if we look at how bad unemployment rates have gotten even over the last three months. The economic stimulus plan must be passed and soon.

2. The bipartisanship that you spoke about in your campaign is completely lacking in the passing of this bill. Is your staff moving away from bipartisanship?
It's going to take time to break down the habits of old. I have three republicans in my cabinet which will hopefully help build up trust over time. But bottom line right now is that we can't afford to see congress play usual political games, we must deliver for the American people. Reasons for lack of bipartisanship in this bill are: 1. Some republicans believe that the government has no place interfering in the economy in this way. 2. There are programs that are good policy that are not job creators and therefore can be dealt with later (left off this bill).

3. If your plan works it's going to increase consumer spending; should we not pay debt off first before feeding the economy?
The reason for the economic crisis is banks taking risks with other people's money on shaky assets. That led to contraction of credit, businesses then couldn't make payroll or inventory. Sequence that we need to take is: 1. Stop downward spiral by putting money in the pockets of the American people by loosening credit. Then, 2. We can worry about how we can operate more prudently.

4. Experts say that to fix the credit crisis alone it could take $1 trillion, is the current $350 billion that's left enough?
The second half of the "tent" money (money used to bail out the credit industry) has to be spent well. I have to worry about how to use the money wisely with transparency. Part of the problem is that nobody really knows what's on the bank's books. We need to open things up and restore some trust.

5. How will the American people gauge the success of the plan? When do we know we need to go to plan B?
1. Creation of 4 million new jobs or saving 4 million current jobs, 2. Are we seeing credit markets operate effectively?, 3. Have we stabilized the housing market and housing values?, 4. Biggest measure of success will be if we're stopping the shedding of jobs and actually growing new jobs.

6. Are you going to impose the issue to banks that they must use government given money to loosen credit?
Pass to Tim (Geithner) tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I have never nor do I consider myself a reporter. I'm working off of some notes I took during the press conference. If there are any serious errors let me know. I urge you to actually watch the press conference on youtube.

That was a good summary. Obama has been pretty bipartisan about this whole thing though; which I had a problem with. I understand he's trying this whole bipartisan thing out but he needs to realize they're the opposition party.The republican congress and Bush were not this nice to the democrats and the democrats shouldn't be afraid to do things without republican support.