Coffee Klatch

Here’s a link to the text of the speech that President Obama made to schoolchildren today: http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Main topics included: set your own goals for your own education, don’t quit, keep trying even if you fail, ask for help when you need it, don’t ever give up on yourself, and you are ultimately responsible for yourself.

Political statements were blessedly absent.

Google Maps proving useful in yet another way. You can even click on states to zoom in to the county level.

Here are some quotes from various late-night talk show hosts/comedians. I’ve tried to include a balanced perspective.

John McCain
“He looks like a guy who’s backed over his own mailbox. He looks like the guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors. He looks like the guy at the movies whose wife has to repeat everything.” –David Letterman

“President Bush spoke at a campaign rally in support of John McCain. They raised millions and millions of dollars, most of which will be used to repair the damage of President Bush supporting John McCain at a campaign rally. So it’s kind of a wash” -Jay Leno

“It got a little heated at one point during the debate. McCain talked about experience and he said, ‘We don’t have time for on-the-job training.’ Then why did you pick Sarah Palin?” -Jay Leno

“McCain kept talking about how he could help this man. If McCain really wants to help this guy, you now what he should do? Just have him re-pipe all of McCain’s houses. That would be a job for life.” -Jay Leno, on Joe the Plumber

“John McCain may be behind but the man is a fighter. He doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. He used to, but it was stored in the same part of his brain that remembered to vet his running mate.” -Stephen Colbert

Barack Obama
“According to recent news reports, Bill Clinton has now become an adviser to Barack Obama. Bill Clinton is giving advice to Barack Obama. Do you know who is really upset about this? Michelle Obama.” -Jay Leno

“And how about last night on all the major television networks, Barack Obama has a half-hour infomercial TV special. I mean, thank God. It’s about time this guy got some media coverage, don’t you think?” -David Letterman

“The presidential debate was a town hall format, which is John McCain’s favorite way to speak to crowds, as opposed to Barack Obama’s favorite way, a Sermon on the Mount.” –Jay Leno

“Barack Obama said today the government’s $700 billion bailout should not be a blank check. Barack Obama says he knows that $700 billion is a lot of money. In fact, it would take him at least 10 Hollywood fund raisers to come up with that kind of money.” -Jay Leno

From David Letterman’s Top Ten Questions on the Barack Obama Running Mate Application: #9: “Do you have any crazy clergymen we should know about?”

Sarah Palin
“Sarah Palin is taking heat because the Republican National Committee has so far spent $150,000 on wardrobe for her and her family. She spent $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $75,000 at Neiman Marcus and about $5,000 on hair and makeup. Hey, representing small town, common-folk hockey moms isn’t cheap, folks.” -Jimmy Kimmel

“Sarah Palin was asked a question by a third grader and she got it wrong. She apparently still does not know what the vice president does … She says he or she runs the Senate. No, not in this country. You know I would never accuse George Bush of being a bright man, but when he was elected, at least he knew which building to show up to.” -Bill Maher

“Political experts are saying that to succeed in the vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin needs to show that she has the same concerns as everyday Americans. For instance, Palin planned to start the debate by saying she’s really troubled by John McCain’s choice for vice president.” -Conan O’Brien

Joe Biden
“And as you know, they’ve already come out with a Sarah Palin action figure. And today, the Democrats released a Joe Biden action figure. It talks and talks and talks. You just can’t get the thing to shut up.” -Jay Leno

“Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s running mate. Yeah, nothing says change like a guy who’s been in the Senate for 35 years.” -David Letterman

“After his big speech in North Carolina today, Senator Joe Biden said he was experiencing a sore throat and lost his voice. Boy, the good news doesn’t stop for Barack Obama. Just one lucky break after another.” -Jay Leno

Barack Obama delivered the Top Ten list during an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

(For those that just want to read them)

10. To keep the budget balanced, I’ll rent the situation room for sweet sixteens.
9. I will double your tax money at the craps table.
8. Appoint Mitt Romney secretary of lookin’ good.
7. If you bring a gator to the White House, I’ll wrassle it.
6. I’ll put Regis on the nickel.
5. I’ll rename the tenth month of the year ”Barack-tober.”
4. I won’t let Apple release the new and improved Ipod the day after you bought the previous model.
3. I’ll find money in the budget to buy Letterman a decent hairpiece.
2. Pronounce the word nuclear, nuclear.
1. Three words: Vice President Oprah.

“By 1815, Jefferson had come to agree with Benjamin Rush’s view that America was fast becoming a republic in name only, where power may have been derived from the people, but where they possessed it ‘only on the days of their elections. After that it is the property of their rulers.’ The steady transfer of power from the local governments to the states and from the states to the federal government threatened to turn all the challenges of self-government—of what later generations would call democracy–into problems of administration. Self-government required the active participation of well-informed citizens. Problems of administration relied, instead, on a professional class of increasingly unaccountable government agents, with as little involvement as possible by the people themselves.” (p.130, Twilight at Monticello. Crawford. ISBN 978-1-4000-6079-5)

Food for thought.

Given that so much discussion is going on about the presidential candidates, and given that we’re having another presidential election in just a couple of months, you may be interested in a website that gives you the candidates’ perspectives on tons of issues. Unless you’re a one-issue voter (which I think is a pretty inefficient way to properly evaluate our potential national leaders), you will probably benefit from a resource that gives you all the details. ProCon.org is a site that does that. They have a 1-minute overview that tells you what their site is all about.

Before you get into comparing the various candidates, you seriously may want to take their survey that compares your positions on 65 different issues with the positions of all the candidates. Go to http://www.2008electionprocon.org/candidatesurvey.htm and download the Excel spreadsheet and take the survey. When you’re done you’ll see at the bottom what percentage of your views is shared by each of the candidates.

After you’re done with the survey, you can visit http://www.2008electionprocon.org/ for tons of information about the candidates and even pick particular issues and see how everyone stands. Or you can scan their Summary Chart. Candidate positions are backed up by quotes.

Today President Bush said that the U.S. economy is still strong and growing. What the heck? Is he living in the same country I’M living in?

[This morning President Bush] attempted to calm jittery economic markets and anxious Americans at a morning press conference, insisting that the U.S. economy is still growing despite its problems, even as new reports showed inflation rising at the fastest pace in more than a quarter-century, and the prospect of more bank failures loomed.

If consumer confidence is any indicator of the strength of the economy, it’s far from strong. Many other indicators say the same thing. Yet Mr. Bush chose to point out that:

“our economy’s continued growing, consumers are spending, businesses are investing, exports continue increasing, and American productivity remains strong.”

Food and gasoline costs are the highest they’ve ever been, there have been runs on several banks (some actually folded), the housing market is still going down, foreclosures are STILL going up, job losses are still going up, the stock market is still going down, and the U.S. dollar is weak all over the world (including at home). That sure doesn’t sound to me like a strong economy.

Somebody is seriously deluded.

He’d be better off explaining what’s truly going on and suggesting ideas to make it through the tough times he acknowledges we’re in. Instead, all I hear is “We’re doing fine. We’re doing fine!” That’s no help. It’s delusion.

I got really frustrated on the way home today, because I was listening to the governor of Florida lamenting his state’s current situation with regard to the Democratic Primary and their votes not being counted.

Florida and Michigan are both in this situation because they moved their states’ primaries to earlier in the year, hoping that their states would have more say in the process. In hindsight, things are still so even between Obama and Clinton that they would have HAD their say if they’d done things properly. But they had to KNOWINGLY break the rules and move their primary date. They knew it was against the rules and even refused to talk to reporters about it afterwards.

And NOW the governor of Florida is saying he wants the votes counted. Shouldn’t he have thought about that BEFORE breaking the rules?? It sure isn’t the Democratic National Committee’s fault that his state’s voters are “disenfranchised.” But during this whole interview, he ignores the rules and keeps insisting that the best solution is to count the votes that were already cast (improperly). I was appalled. (Yes, I feel sorry for Florida (and Michigan) for their Democratic Primary votes not counting, but it’s the states’ fault.)

Give a listen at NPR’s All Things Considered.

While the 2008 presidential election is still a ways off, we can honestly say that it appears that the field of contenders is down to three: Clinton, McCain, and Obama (in alphabetical order–no preference intended). Do you know who you will/would vote for? Do you know the candidates’ positions on various topics?

Here are a couple political quizzes that determine your position on a variety of topics and compare it with those of the candidates.

The VoteMatch Quiz is the simplest and when you’ve answered the questions shows how all the candidates compare with your perspective. Also included are links to more information about the candidates.

Another similar one, but more in depth, is The Political Compass. This one is interesting because they use a spectrum for the economic scale and another for the social scale, resulting in a grid that is a little different from some other political quizzes. After you’ve taken the quiz there, you can click on U.S. Primaries 2008 to see how the candidates have positioned themselves and then compare your spot on the grid with theirs. Presumably the one closest to your dot on the grid is who you’d prefer to vote for.

HTH! (Hope that helps!)

We’re a little more than a year away from our next presidential elections. Many people are longing for that day because they’re discontent with the way things are now. (Like that isn’t ALWAYS the case to some degree or other.) This morning I found a website that allows you to pick your stance on a variety of issues and then see how the candidates compare with your views. It’s quite enlightening. Make sure you click on the issues to see just what it means to support or strongly support (or oppose) the issues. Clicking the issues brings up a new window with the details about each issue and what supporting or opposing it means.

Take the VoteMatch Quiz now.