Flag the Molecules?

::GR Ou...Confused::
god doesn't discriminate...only religions do. -unknown

Tupac vs. Biggie

I’ve had this discussion a number of times with various people and the same response (save for one) was correct: Who was more street The Notorious B.I.G. or Tupac?

Most people respond that Tupac was more street. Wrong.

Tupac was raised by a single mother, like Big, who was a Black Panther. Tupac attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. Big on the other hand dropped out of school at the age of 17 and got more involved in crime, including selling crack, a practice he continued all the way up to the release of his first album.

Big grew up largely on the streets and rapped from experience. Tupac on the other hand rapped in a more poetic style and defended his lyrics by appealing to a high meaning such as “the problems facing young black males.” This isn’t a critique of the rappers themselves as I think most agree the poetic and message driven songs of Tupac is completely different from the style of the Notorious B.I.G.

In order to up his cred, Tupac took to starting a feud with B.I.G. for apparently recording a song in the same studio Tupac was in when he was recording. Tupac started shit with everyone, does not mean he was more street. His attacks include Jay-Z, the Fugees, and Nas, all legends of Hip-Hop and rap.

Next are their respective run-ins with the law. Tupac went to jail for allegedly gang rapping some girl. Big got in trouble but was never sent to prison once for breaking a window, pulling a guy out and beating him, and another time for weapons and possession charges.

As time went on, Tupac started to embrace the street lifestyle more than Big who had grown up there. It is easy to see where the misconception comes from. Now you might ask why this matters? It does not. Just thought some people should know the history a bit.

::GR Out::
to love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another. ~gottfried wilhelm von leibnitz~

Why you should vote for Obama- Final Part of Election Series

Here is the third installment of the election series.

Economy-

It just makes sense to start here. From the first post (Part 1) of the election series, it is easy to see that Obama benefits more of the country with his tax cuts. Many people claim that he will need to raise taxes to implement his plans but in reality, he is obtaining a lot of his money from the billion-dollar sinkhole that is Iraq. His tax benefits favor the lower and middle class

Some like to claim that the “trickle down” effect is what we should go after which is why the millionaires should have tax breaks. This past week has been a very good indicator of what happens with that trickle down effect. Obama favors more regulation of the economy, which most would agree would have prevented some of the economic crisis we are currently experiencing.

It is also interesting to note this survey of economists that reported that when it comes to economic factors, most favor Obama on most issues. (Linkage)

Healthcare-

Barack Obama has stepped up his attack of John McCain on this point the last couple of days in a very valid attack. McCain’s plan is to privatize and essentially deregulate healthcare. Given the problems of the current economic crisis, John McCain is asking Americans to support a plan to do the same with their healthcare. Obama plans to move the United States of America into a universal healthcare plan, something I feel many Americans should agree with.

Rights-

I believe that my rights will be better protected under an Obama administration. He was a constitutional lawyer for 10 years and knows what is allowed and what is not. He believes in submitting Supreme Court judges that hold to the long held view that the court is to interpret the constitution to our current year and not hold it to what the founders wanted. When asked about this point on the view, John McCain stated that he believes the constitution should not be interpreted any way the founders would not have agreed with (much like current justice Scalia). Whoopie Goldberg had an excellent retort that it would lead black people back into slavery. The constitution has to live and breathe and grow as America does.

Choice making

This is where Obama succeeds heads above John McCain, even to his detriment some times. He wants to obtain the complete picture and not narrow his focus like the current administration by only listening to people that agree with him. He invites disagreement from his classroom to his rallies where he allows for open discourse. This can even be evidenced by his attending Bill O’Reilly’s interview, something John McCain and especially Sarah Palin would never do (could you imagine McCain vs. Olbermann or Palin vs. Maddow?).

Overall

As I have said from the beginning there are some very narrow issues that if you agree with John McCain on (such as abortion) and that is the only thing that determines your vote then vote for John McCain. I guarantee you however that the background and future of plans of Barack Obama benefit at least 60% of this country and probably more if really looked at. If you have a concern then comment and I will answer you and show how Obama will better protect you than John McCain. If this world poll of countries of the world is any indication, we should be overwhelmingly for Obama. The poll came out to 49% Obama to John McCain’s 12% (Linkage). I hope that we have learned our lesson and can vote accordingly this time.

::GR Out::

every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. ~voltaire~

Deplorable

Bush and the republicans by politicizing many of our government institutions have left a crack in it for our Native American population. Here's the story:

The two candiates have outlined what they want to do with FEMA:

Obama wants to take FEMA out of DHS and make it a free-standing agency, the way it was until DHS was created. "Obama will professionalize and depoliticize the appointment of FEMA's director," says Moira Mack, Obama's campaign spokeswoman. "Like the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FEMA director will have a fixed term of office to insulate him or her from politics." The FEMA director would report directly to the president, serve a six-year term and would have professional emergency management experience, she adds.

McCain has also been critical of FEMA and its actions after Hurricane Katrina, but opposes taking the agency away from DHS. "FEMA is broken," he said during a campaign event earlier this year. "We're going to fix it." McCain's approach would be to rely on private enterprises that have experience distributing goods, services and supplies. "We're going to hire them," McCain said. "Don't rely on some federal bureaucrat."(linkage)

As you can see Obama seems to have an outline to start from whereas McCain just says we need to fix it. Who isn't ready to lead on Day 1? McCain's plan seems to rely too heavily on the private sector which we can see the effects of when it comes to Iraq and Blackwater.

::GR Out::
the more you know the less you need to say. -jim rohn

The VP's- Part 2 of the Election Series

Here is part dos of the election special focusing on VP’s.

The Selection

The first topic to really look at is how the candidates chose their running mates. Barack Obama had many great choices for VP, two of which were Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden. He ultimately went with Joe Biden, who is the head of the foreign relations committee in the Senate and could probably be President in his own right.

John McCain on the other hand went with an untested governor of Alaska. She was chosen to inject life into the McCain camp to actually get the party behind their candidate and to get the public to attack the Republicans, which is instant galvanization for the elephants. She has limited experience but is very conservative which helps shore up the Republican base. The fact that the selection has everyone scratching their head is kind of frightening to me. One of the first big decisions McCain has to make and it has half of America afraid of what could happen with this woman as President. Not the type of feeling I want from my President.

Joe Biden

I will not go into too much depth about Joe Biden, especially in the negative sense. Here is a quick guide to Joe:

Biden, 65, was elected to the U.S. Senate representing Delaware at the young age of 29. He was not old enough to hold the office on Election Day, but he turned 30 before it was time to take the oath of office. This means Biden has been a U.S. senator for close to 36 years.

Prior to his service in the Senate, Biden was a member of the New Castle County Council for two years, and he was an attorney in private practice for four years. (linkage)

Joe is not perfect in his political views for the Reaper, especially when it comes to his views on the internet and policing there of but I do feel safer with him being the VP under an Obama administration.

Sara Palin

I will not attack the amount of experience Sarah Palin has because it brings about a moot point between her and Obama. I have heard the argument that the Republicans have the ticket in the right order but when it comes down to it, McCain’s health brings about the issue and the experience this woman has becomes a much greater issue than the Republicans would have you believe.

The main label the Republicans have tied to Palin is one of reformer (obviously trying to cut into Obama’s message). However, she is being hailed as the earmark queen of Alaska.

For someone who hates earmarks, she seems to have gotten a lot of them for her small town of Wasilla. So much so that John McCain before he had even met Palin criticized her on the amount of earmarks, she actively went after with her Washington lobbyist (LA Times). This same “reformer” also billed the state of Alaska for travel expenses when she was clearly at home (312 nights to be exact) (Washington Post).

The biggest concern is her foreign policy knowledge, which was obviously put to the test in this interview:

I do not trust this woman to run my country if she cannot grasp what has been happening these last ten years. I do not buy her excuse that it is okay for her not to know because she has been busy running Alaska. When you are running for the second highest office of my country you better be damn good.

I do not want a President or Vice President I would want to have a beer with. I want the highest officials in my government to be better than me and strike fear in me when it comes to how much more they know about the world and my own country. I seem to know more about Sarah Palin when it comes to United States History and foreign events, which scares the hell out of me. Maybe it is just that she has not shown her true knowledge yet but I do not have time for her to show me something she should have command of right now.

Matt Damon sums up the Palin rise perfectly:

:: GR Out::

to have doubted one's own first principles, is the mark of a civilized man. ~oliver wendell holmes~

Si, Se Puede!

Not able to give you the Part 2 just yet on VP choices but it will be up in the next 24 hours. In the mean time enjoy this video:




::GR Out::
shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars --unknown

Do not vote for John McCain- Part 1 of Election Series

In Part 1 of this election discussion I will go over why you should not vote for John McCain. If you know John McCain’s complete platform and agree with over 75% of it then this article will not sway you. If however you are like most people I run into who intend to vote McCain you have no idea where you candidate stands and just repeat the talking points without any real evidence to stand on. This article is for the people who are unsure and need some data to help them out.

Economy

One of the first and biggest parts of American politics is the voter’s pocket book. John McCain likes to say that he will offer tax cuts across the board and in fact, he will. Here are the side-by-side proposals

The top 1% of the country receives healthy tax breaks while 60% of the country gets meager tax benefits. Moving further, The Tax Policy Center reviewed both candidates’ proposals and concluded “…Senator McCain’s proposals lose $600 billion.” For a country that is already bears a very large deficit this is not good news for our economy.

Energy

McCain’s energy past is abysmal. He has missed many of the past crucial votes on energy legislation in the Senate. He could have had the crucial vote in many bills these past 2 years and has been absent, one time staying in his Senate office as one of the votes was being cast. In an era where energy is becoming a greater issue in the minds of Americans, McCain has been horrifyingly absent.

Foreign Policy

Another large question in this year’s election is what to do in Iraq. McCain buys into the idea that Iraq is the place to fight and is happy to poor more of our countries dwindling resources into a nation that has $6.4 billion oil surplus. All of this while there are larger fights to be had with terrorist organizations in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Healthcare

Healthcare

There are many different sides to this issue. Democrats believe in a universal healthcare, a plan that has taken hold in many other countries across the globe. While the effectiveness of these plans is hit or miss depending on which country, John McCain’s plan of privatizing health care is a step in the wrong direction:

More than 30 states already have programs almost exactly like the one McCain just sketched out. They are called "high risk pools," and the idea is pretty straightforward: Private insurers agree to sell policies directly to individuals, even those with pre-existing medical conditions, as long as the state helps to subsidize the cost.

But the whole reason conservatives like McCain prefer this approach to liberal schemes for universal coverage is that it involves minimal government regulation. As a result, private insurers have enormous leeway in dictating the terms of coverage. And one place they use that leeway is by setting high prices. A few years ago, a Commonwealth Fund study found that, on average, state high-risk pools offered coverage that was two-thirds more expensive than regularly priced coverage. In some states, the high-risk coverage was actually twice as high as regular coverage. (linkage)

At those prices, you might think the coverage was spectacular. Not so. While private insurers in high-risk pools are willing to accept people with pre-existing conditions, they're not generally willing to cover expenses related to those pre-existing conditions--at least not right away. Nearly all the plans surveyed had waiting periods of between six months and a year, during which the insurers would not cover care for prior medical problems. (linkage)

Closing words

I used to love John McCain. During the 2000 election, I had hoped he would win the nomination, as I liked him even over Al Gore. He was a man who had no problem standing up to his party and was truly the Maverick he tries to pretend he is today. That John McCain is not the John McCain of this election. I could talk a bit about this topic but the Daily Show puts it perfectly and I will end with a video segment aired on the show a couples of days ago: linkage

::GR Out::

john mccain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with george bush 95% of the time. that’s not a maverick. that’s a sidekick.-- senator bob casey