According to U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the energy bill being debated in the Congress (which our Fearless Leader has already promised to veto) constitutes a "transfer of wealth" from the South East to "other areas of the country".
The bill mandates that a certain amount of fuel for electric plants come from renewable sources, and Corker is upset because using renewable energy favors those states who "have" renewable energy.
You know, things like the Sun, and the Wind, and Garbage. Things that Tennessee, being in the South East, doesn't have.
I was shocked when I heard this.
Those goddamn elitist liberals and their goddamn elitist sunshine...
OK, so, we all know that many of the Senators running for President this year didn't read the Iraq intelligence assessment before casting their vote to authorize the war. Their opinions were informed by briefings and committee hearings, all of them set up by the Republican leadership, which led to a fundamental misunderstanding of what they were voting for.
We also all know that Senator Obama opposed the war not just from the start, but before it was even authorized.
Here are a few points that the candidate, and the media, ought to be talking about.
There's been a lot of media nonsense about how Obama didn't have to vote on the authorization, so he got off easy, but some people appear to be missing the point- at a time when the war was immensely popular, and Obama was preparing to run for the U.S. Senate, he took a great political risk by opposing the war. Conversely, those other senators, including the media-anointed Democratic front-runner, were already safely elected, and chose to vote with the public opinion polls anyway. Obama had substantially more to lose than those other Senators.
Secondly, while the senators who cast their vote for Iraq didn't even read the information in front of them before they voted, Obama not only opposed the war but correctly predicted the outcome, without even seeing the intelligence assessment. So we know that not only did the senators who voted to authorize the war have information right in front of them saying that the postwar situation would turn nasty, they didn't even need it in order to know better.
Why the news media isn't hammering on this is beyond me. Our United States Senators, with access to the entire National Security and Intelligence establishments, could not determine what Obama was able to figure out on his own from his state senate office in Chicago.
Clearly, he lacks the experience and aplomb needed to run this country.
I have been an avid follower of politics since a very young age, and an avid progressive, and so, naturally, at age 19 in 2007, preparing for my first presidential election, I find myself a hardened, cynical bastard that treats politics like a meaningless spectator sport. This makes me a part of Barack Obama's natural constituency.
Although I'm officially on the Hope Train, I don't think I should give up the valuable asset of being a complete asshole. I believe it will serve to keep the candidate on his toes. With that frame of reference in mind, I've been carefully monitoring The Candidate's Media Presence.
I believe the candidate should-
1. Get on the patch.
After carefully studying the debate video, I determined - 1) That the Senator's responses were not scripted, 2) That he was one of the few candidates to not flagrantly disregard the question that was asked, and 3) That he was aching for nicotine. Count the number of "ums", short pauses, or awkward word choices in the last debate. Anyone who has ever been a nicotine addict knows what's happening.
I know the Senator is using the gum. I would recommend the patch, as it gives a steady supply of nicotine all day, and it can be used while on camera.
2. Write some new material.
We've all heard the stump speech, and a lot of us have read the books. The Senator needs to dig deep and either find some new life stories, or make them up. I actually heard him change the punchline of one of the jokes he uses about his daughters between seeing him in Oakland and seeing him on Letterman. It was pitiful.
And about that Letterman appearance,
3. Adjust candor according to setting.
One shouldn't give the stump speech when one is on a late-night talk show. The Senator should try to loosen up his tie whenever possible. Part of Hillary Clinton's appeal is that she is able to overcoat her duplicity and lack of any legitimate vision with a thin veneer of personability. Obama actually has substance, but sometimes lacks the personal touch to bring that substance to life. Given the choice I would rather have a no-nonsense kind of guy running my country, but it's hard to get elected that way.
So there's my two cents, or three dollars, as it were.
I dare you.
I work at a bakery on the overnight shift and deliver in the morning. The last place I go is a hospital. The other night I cut the tip of my thumb halfway off in the middle of my shift. We have a first aid kit, but it only goes so far. I arrived at the hospital a few hours later, and after dropping off my delivery, I thought, naturally, that they might be able to set me up with a better bandage than I had.
I walked into the emergency room, took off my band-aid, showed my thumb to the clerk and asked if she had some gauze, tape, and neosporin. She told me to sit down and sign in and started asking me for all kinds of personal information- name, birthdate, driver's license number, primary care physician, etc. I told her that I don't have insurance, and she informed me that she couldn't give me a bandage, that I would have to pay for a doctor's visit, and that the doctor might decide that my thumb needed stitches, and that would cost me a whole lot more.
I told her I just needed a bandage, and she looked at me like I was an idiot. "They have those at the pharmacy."
They also have them at the hospital, in great supply, but the insurance companies keep those things under iron-clad control. Costs have to be controlled, don't you know.
I told her I couldn't afford a doctor's visit, and she said that was fine, but that I would need to sign an additional form stating that they didn't technically refuse treatment. Then I had to give them more personal information so that if I came in again, they would have me down as not having insurance, and a billing address to find me.
I wrapped a paper towel around my thumb and went back out to my car. I had forgotten a box, so I headed back into the cafeteria. The cafeteria ladies asked me if I had tried to go to the emergency room, and I told them yes. They told me not to bother next time. Even people who work at the hospital don't get medical coverage. Even if you cut yourself in the kitchen, a few doors down from some of the most advanced medical equipment in the world, you cannot get a decent bandage unless you have private insurance, or you want to pay for a doctor's visit.
Every kitchen ought to contain the things I needed in its first aid kit, of course, but this is beside the point. What ought to be common courtesy is cost-controlled and inventoried so that not a single item isn't accounted for.
They way they act, you'd think they were losing money.
