Chris Casarez's Blog

Palin Attacks: An Act of Desperation

Chris Casarez — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 04:48:13 EDT

So today Governer Palin was in my part of Southern California, talking in fron of a group of people. I wish I could have been there to show my unsupport for her ticket, but I was at a phonebank calling Nevada swing voters.

It seems that Sarah Palin has stepped up her verbal assault. Not only has she taken the proverbial gloves off, she's pulled out a switch blade. Palin is now accusing Obama of "palling with terrorists." This type of sliming is not only controversial, it's a double-edge sword. McCain has already taken heat for nonsensical ad, accusing Obama of wanting to teach sex ed to 5-year-olds. Even Karl Rove condemned these actions. It's possible that his slip in the polls is in part, due to this.

But, being the self-proclaimed marketing know-it-all that I try and convince myself that I am, I like to put myself other's shoes. So here's that I think:

The McCain camp is desperate. They are getting smoked in the polls, which, if anything, probably understates Obama's lead (think, young vote). The sliming will get worse. The McCain camp knows it needs to change something. They have nothing to lose by sliming Obama. It's an act of desperation. It's dangerous, but everything else they've tried has fallen short.

Let's see what the good Governer Palin says next!

Read more: Palin accuses Obama of "Palling Around With Terrorist"

Palin: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Chris Casarez — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:05:45 EDT

In her RNC debut, Governer Sarah Palin’s stepped onto the scene with her small town, girl-next-door charm, dazzling us with her maverick-like stance in telling congress “Thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere,” and eventually portraying herself as an environmentalist. This created a bubble of excitement which put McCain ahead in National polls, and it really shook up and reinvigorated an unmotivated Republican base. It appears she was even able to siphon off a few Hillary supporters.

Weeks of fact checking and a couple of interviews later, the Palin-bubble would soon burst. Her cute quips got old after awhile and she seemed less girl-next-door-like with the odd troopergate situation and her not-so-subtle dabbling at library book banning. Everyone who bought in to the bridge to nowhere refusal had egg on their face after videos showed that she was for it, before she was against it. On top of this, a cursory search shows she “killed” the program when it was already dead. Environmentalist? Go to a Sierra Club meeting and show your support for aerial wolf hunting, suing to have polar bears delisted as a threatened species, and grossly low-balling the effect that drilling in ANWR would have on the local wildlife. As the public got to know Palin, McCain’s delayed but inevitable slip in the polls would begin to take effect.

Palin’s role in tonight was to apparently defend the Bush-Cheney-like policies her ticket represents, at least in regard to Iraq and the economy; and apparently to use the word maverick as often as possible. Biden had his facts in hand, and was able to catch Palin’s misstatements time and time again. Palin looked frustrated, as though she was struggling to make words come out of her mouth. Biden’s responses were seamless.

Tonight, mainstream America finally got to know Joe Biden, who has been so far, an unknown on the national scene. His years of experience in foreign policy and his great standing with the middle class actually made him my favorite of the early Democratic nominees (unlike Hillary fans, I was ecstatic when Obama chose him). Leading up to tonight's debate, I was worried he would slip up and say something inappropriate (which he occasionally does), but this never happened. Tonight Joe Biden made his prolonged national debut, and concurrently wiped the proverbial floor with his opponent. I guess public opinion will tell us.

Is Obama the House Favorite?

Chris Casarez — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:42:04 EDT

Ok so I spent the entire day walking around nice, well-to-do Las Vegas (Nevada is a swing state) neighborhoods and this went far better than I imagined. Before I describe my experience I just want to say that I am typically horrible at any kind of door to door activity (ie. sales). Why? Because of a nagging suspicion that I may be wasting this person’s time. Because I know deep down, that what I have to talk about may not really benefit the person I will talk to, even if it may benefit me. Because I’m too objective to only read spin, and my objective research generally tells me that the product or idea I’m about to talk about is, at least partially, overhyped.

Walking door-to-door in neighborhoods that were partially Republican or something else (ie Independent, Libertarian, non-affiliated) I didn’t have this same inhibition. Why? Because I really feel that Obama is the better man, not just because I agree with the vast majority of his stances (and even the stances where I disagree, McCain doesn’t represent them much, if any better), but because I firmly believe they will be better for the people I was talking to, along with their children who will benefit from higher education standards and a United States that hasn’t alienated its allies while suffering from blowback from underhanded meddling in other parts of the world. I wasn’t worried that the next person who opened the door would be an overzealous NRA member who believes Barack Obama is a crazy Muslim who secretly hates the US. I was happy to talk to this person, listen to his/her ideas, and explain (not argue) why I believe Barack Obama had both our best interests in mind. I wasn’t even inhibited by the thought that karma had awaited this moment, get even for all the times I’ve slammed the door on salesmen and Jehova Witinesses (after chiding them for all the paper they waste with pamphlets and newsletters).

But enough about me and my usual overly analytical self. Here is what happened today:

Not one person I talked to was pro-McCain. I was constantly amazed by statements like “Oh, I support Obama all the way,” and “well, I’m for Obama, and so is my husband, even though he usually votes Republican,” and last but not least “I'm afraid of Sarah Palin.” Several times I was invited into people’s homes and offered food and water. Several times I wanted to say something stupid like “wait, you look like you make enough money to where you might actually get a tax increase, are you suuuure you want Obama????”

People I talked to included union workers who were disgusted by how the Republicans have been allowing union busting to toss unions and with them, living wages to the wayside. It included people who were sick of the Republicans pretending their demonstrably false trickle-down mantra really worked. It included people who understand that, as McCain nears his 156th birthday, Sarah Palin, who can’t even give a straight interview and who’s only argument has been “look I’m just an average girl next door who really overemphasizes her accent to drive that very point” and whose energy and foreign policy are unnervingly married to her end times prophecy beliefs could be running things in our country.

Then of course, were the undecided voters who were happy to hear what I thought about Obama and why I supported him, and were happy to listen to me recap the many reasons why McCain is really Bush 2.0.

I’m always chiding people (my friends especially) for stereotyping people and things. But I was guilty of this myself. I expected to walk into Republican territory (because these people were, or at least seemed, so well-off). I expected to have doors slam in my face. I expected to have to debate supply and demand, the pros and cons of minimum-wage salary increases, and explain what drilling in ANWR would really do to the local wildlife. In reality, many of them were just tired. They knew something was fundamentally wrong with the ethos of our executive branch. They knew that change was needed, and even if they remain skeptical of Obama, they know that the policies that have been stubbornly held in place haven’t worked, and that McCain is essentially part of the club.

They are not excited about McCain and they dread Palin. I believe, that the more those two open their mouths over the coming weeks, and have to explain their policies in the face of skillful politicians who will be ready to challenge their every unsupported and misleading claim, their distrust for these two will only be exacerbated. I guess we’ll know in 5 weeks. Maybe I‘m wrong. Maybe I’ll have egg on my face for having made these claims. But if McCain and Palin become our leaders, egg on my face will be the least of my worries.

--Chris

McCain: More Republican Fear Mongering

Chris Casarez — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:49:37 EDT

McCain: More Republican Fear Mongering

Over the last month and half, the media has continually referred to Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia which resulted in a counteroffensive from the Russians, as “The Russian Invasion.” John McCain has jumped on this opportunity to verbally condemn Russia, and berate Barack Obama for ‘weak’ foreign policy, adding to the usual argument: The Democrats are weak appeasers, and only we can protect you.

My first reaction to this was frustration, over yet another irresponsible knee-jerk reaction to a situation with a long and complicated geopolitical history. Long story short: Georgia invaded a small country known as South Ossetia, which few of us Americans have ever heard about. This is in part, because generally we tend to not know what a map looks like outside of the US, and even worse, those of us in California tend have difficulty differentiating the states that begin with an ‘M.’ But even this can’t be blamed for our ignorance on South Ossetia, because it’s not even on our maps that we tend to never study.

To make a long story short: South Ossetia declared its independence of Georgia, when Georgia declared its independence of Russia. It subsequently won its independence in a civil war, then drafted its own constitution (sound familiar)? Of course, this does not mean that it's recognized by NATO as its own cuntry. On August 8th, the eve of the Beijing Olympics, Georgian troops and tanks rolled into South Ossetia, in an attempt to annex the region (Video: Georgian tanks head for South Ossetia). See timeline of events here.

The Russian invasion was in fact a response to this action. The Russians drove the Georgians out of South Ossetia and moved into Georgia itself (Video: 12-year-old South Ossetian explains this to Fox News (the Russians were greeted as liberators) and Testimony of an American vacationing in South Ossetia). Whether or not Russia’s response was disproportionate can certainly be debated, but it’s difficult to even have the debate when we have a media that does little/nothing to actually explain the sequence of events, and we are left with our ant-Russian confirmation biases satisfied. After all, those of us who grew up in the 80’s know that Russians are evil people who wear funny hats and live in perpetual snow. This only satisfies our inherited bias.

In fact, after hearing the phrase “separatists” instead of South Ossetians numerous times, I came to realize that even the Russian entrance into South Ossetia was considered part of the invasion, given that South Ossetia itself is regarded as part of Georgia.

The point of this rant is the following: Like Bush, McCain seems all too eager to follow the same “evildoer” foreign policy as Bush. The media doesn’t help us much, by giving us skewed sound bytes that give us a false snapshot on long and complicated situations. What we are left with, are presidents that are given a free pass in their bully-like foreign policy.

This becomes all the more unnerving when we factor in McCain’s frightening blunders, like referring to Putin as the President of Germany, or thinking Iraq shares a border with Pakistan.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia: 2008 South Ossetia war
Article: Blowback From Bear-Baiting by Pat Buchanan
Video: Day one of the Georgia-South Ossetia military conflict

The Trickle-Down Non-effect

Chris Casarez — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:25:54 EDT

Time and again I hear it from my own friends (most of whom are in the same income bracket as myself) that taxes are the problem, the source of our inability to own houses, despite our ambitioius work ethic, and that lowering taxes on the upper percentiles will trickle down and benefit the rest of us. The logic sounds great on paper, except that in practice it's not true.

It's not our taxes that make it difficult for us, but the fact that working class incomes have stagnated over the last few decades, and have been outpaced by our cost of living. The living wage jobs of yestercentury have largely been replaced with jobs that leave Americans living paycheck to paycheck. America has become far richer and more productive, but most of the economic gains have only been realized by the top 1% or so.

In other words, this expectation has shown to be wrong, as the wealth continues to not trickle down, but rather coagulate at the very top (it's worth mentioning that we have the largest disparity in wealth of any industrialized nation--read more here and here). As the graph below (taken from Paul Krugman's blog) shows, we are essentially back to the gilded age in terms of wealth disparity. The solution is not "more tax cuts on the rich," as even conservatives like Ben Stein acknowledge (read his article You're Rich? Terrific. Now Pay Up and watch him argue his point on Fox News). Rather, the lack of wealth distribution has taken us back to a time before a tangible middle class even existed.

Today, the phrase "wealth distribution" strikes a chord in many if not most Americans. In their minds, it wreaks of socialism, which wreaks of communism, and we all 'know' communists are nihilistic vampires that want to do away with free will once and for all. In sum, conservatives have played off of our vestigial cold war fears to wedge their laissez faire ideals back into the mainstream.

Obama - Better for Middle-Class America

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:48:58 EDT

TheMiddleClass.Org compiles the DMI’s (Drum Major Institute for Public Policy--a non-partisan organization) analyses of bills that affect the girdling middle-class. It then rates members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives based on how they voted on relevant legislation. As you can see, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and John McCain sore 88%, 95%, and 60% respectively.

Visit TheMiddleClass.Org.

Obama vs McCain on Taxes

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:44:43 EDT

While both candidates have proposed tax cuts, Barack Obama has proposed larger tax cuts on middle-income earners than what McCain has proposed. The only tax increase Obama has proposed will go to individuals making $200,000/year or more, or families with an annual income over $250,000 or more. Of course, this hasn't stopped John McCain from falsely (and repeatedly) accusing Barack Obama from wanting to raise taxes on the middle-income earners.

Read full article

Obama - Better for the Environment

Chris Casarez — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:49:35 EDT

The Sierra Club, America's oldest outdoor environmentalist organization, officially endorses Barack Obama. In matters of taking on big oil, investing in the clean energy economy, fixing global warming, and increasing fuel economy, the Sierra Club finds Barack Obama's record far more consistent in its aim in preserving the environment.

Read entire PDF here: Presidential Scorecard

Election 2008 - Useful Online Sources

Chris Casarez — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:03:36 EDT

Voting for Obama (MySpace Profile)

Sources for following the 2008 Election

CNN, Google, and Politico all have excellent archives and portals for finding relevant information on the election.

CNN Politics
Google Election '08
Politico

Like all U.S. Presidential elections, this human horse race is filled with incessant character assassination and other forms of slander. These sites are great for staying on top of this spin.

Fact Check.org
Fact Checker
Politifact