Self-composed

A CBS poll that asked 516 “uncommitted voters” who they thought won the debate returned results with 40% saying Obama won, 26% saying McCain won, and the rest calling it a draw.

Why do we care about these uncommitted voters?

Oh yeah, because these people in the wishy washy, fence sitting, uninformed (yes, I said uninformed) middle are the ones who decide elections. Republicans and conservatives don’t, Democrats and liberals don’t, 3rd party wackos sure as hell don’t, the people who can live through at least a year of campaigning, primary season, conventions, with 24/7 cable and network news coverage, daily front page headlines in the paper, blogs, web sites, radio - these people who still haven’t picked a side are basically the ones who decide the elections.

I have more respect for the Daily Kos kool-aid drinkers who’d vote for Obama if he were caught red handed with child porn on his laptop and a million dollars in bribe money in his freezer (and they really would vote for him) than I do these so-called “independents” who seemingly have no principles whatsoever to guide their choice.

So they look to things like who has more experience, who is older, who is younger, who is black, who isn’t black, who talks nice, who is mean, who seems strong, and they may even tune into a few convention speeches, debates, and if they live in a battleground state, they see the ads while watching American Idol or Heroes or whatever it is people watch on network TV these days.

Apparently they don’t have a set of issues that are important to them. They don’t care what happens to their taxes, they don’t care whether Constitutional rights are eroded, they certainly can’t be bothered with understanding the difference between the kind of judges a liberal or conservative nominates. They aren’t concerned with the safety of the country, where are troops are sent, how we deal with other countries, what we’ll do about bad ones who can, might, or have produced or procured chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.

If they cared about any of these things, if at least one or two of these issues were important, wouldn’t they have figured out who’s taking what position on them?

No.

Instead, they wait for someone like Katie Couric to tell them what the big issue is today and what to think about it. They might even decide that being things basically suck right now, and being the guy in the White House has an R next to his name, the guy running with the R next to his name must be bad. Way to connect the dots. Never mind that the suckitude may be completely or partly beyond the control of the current president, and never mind the guy running to replace him has a completely different position.

So, when you watch a debate, or a speech, or a press conference, and the candidate is talking baby talk, pulling punches instead of describing what an incompetent fool his opponent is, when you see Obama being able to get mileage out of a problem that he and his friends and colleagues who share his ideology created - its because of the “uncommitted voters.” The kind of voters we need less of, but are pandered to instead.

If you are reading this, and you still haven’t made up your mind. If you’re still on the fence. If you are still not sure who would be better for the country, do me a favor, do the right thing and don’t bother. Just stay home on Wednesday November 5th, stay home on super-Wednesday and don’t go out and vote. Leave that to those of us who are informed.

Oh yeah, stay home the day before too. Rent some DVDs or go see a movie. Whatever you do, don’t turn on the TV, there won’t be anything good on anyway, just politics and stuff.

+++UPDATE+++

A few important and indisputable facts that need to be clear:

Jopek’s mother did ask him not to mention wearing the bracelet. This was confirmed in the recent AP story (opens in new window).

A few days after offering it to the Illinois Democrat, Jopek, of Merrill in north-central Wisconsin, had a change of heart. She realized it could be interpreted as a protest against the war, a statement that made her uncomfortable because other military families who suffered losses still supported the conflict.

“I am a mother, a mother who lost her son. It’s hard to know what’s right, what’s wrong about this war. Very hard,” she said. “And I know there are a lot of families who lost loved ones.”

So she e-mailed the Obama campaign through its Web site asking that he not mention it during debates or speeches.

Jopek’s mother is a Obama supporter, but an uncharacteristically pleasant and level-headed sounding one, so she obviously won’t take a public position that would hurt her candidate. I’ll also say, she’s handling all this in a very dignified way.

AP released two alarmingly different versions of the story, as Level_Head points out, a lot of damaging information was left out of the revised version, but there was no retraction.

Meanwhile, reporters are still up in Alaska digging through people’s garbage cans and harassing newspaper boys looking for dirt on Sarah Palin.

+++++++++++++++

The short of it: The bracelet with Ryan Jopek’s name that Obama had to consult during the debate was not intended to be a prop for a campaign stunt. Especially not an embarrassing stunt like the “I have a bracelet too, from the mother of…errm, uhhh, ummmm…” fiasco that is likely to blow up in Obama’s face in big way - much larger than a simple gaffe.

Bracelet, worn by Obama, commemorating Seargent Jopek

It seems neither the mother or father of the soldier want Obama to wear the bracelet. When Jopek’s mother gave Obama the bracelet it was intended to be between her and Obama, not fodder for the campaign trail. She asked him not to wear it. She’s now understandably upset with the attention she’s getting.

She was upset back in March when Jopek’s father was interviewed on the radio and discussed the problems Obama’s exploitation of their son and the gifted bracelet were causing.

Jopek: She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don’t think he’s…

Moberg: It has been a while since he’s brought it up.

Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that’s his own choice. I mean that’s something Barack Obama, that’s a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to… Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn’t want to do anything to sabotage his campaign, so, if he’s still wearing the bracelet then, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.

Here Obama was causing these people grief six months ago. Note: Jopek’s mother is a Obama supporter which explains why she hasn’t pushed the issue publicly. It also explains why she hasn’t been causing a stir.

Had not Newsbusters beat me to it, I would have made the obvious point that this would be an entirely different ballgame if McCain was wearing a bracelet commemorating a fallen soldier against the wishes of the family.

No one is asking the father who supports the war in Iraq. No one can ask the soldier who volunteered and gave his life supporting it.

The other story here is that a blogger who discovered this, the radio interview, and basically broke the story. Hopefully it’ll snowball into something the mainstream media has to respond to.

***

H/T on some great blogging: Jeff-Protein Wisdom <-- Warner Todd Huston-Newsbusters <-- “Level_head” dehavelle.com

***

I’m anxious to see some comments on this one. Let ‘em fly.

Source

I think I like this idea. I have kids, and when they were that age I didn’t take them to nice restaurants out of respect for the other patrons who likely choose nicer restaurants at least in part for the atmosphere. Noisy, messy kids don’t make for a nice atmosphere.

I hope this catches on.

SILVERTON, Ore. — The management for a popular restaurant in Silverton, Ore., announced Thursday that young children would no longer be allowed into the establishment.

The manager at the Red Thai restaurant on Oak Street said children under the age of 6 aren’t welcome in the eatery.

The Red Thai manager, Craig Gereau, said children disrupt people who are trying to enjoy a quiet dinner.

He said most of his customers like the new rule, but he’s had to turn some people away.

“We’ve had to turn a few young parents away. They’re a little bit appalled, a little bit annoyed, but we have to do what we have to do. We can’t stay in business to please everybody,” Gereau said.

Gereau said he’s not discriminating against anyone; he just wants to run a restaurant that caters to adults, and said there are plenty of family restaurants in Silverton for children.

Random thought: I kind of wish the presidential race were the other way around. Instead of the party deciding for a year which candidate they’ll throw into the ring through the canibalistic method of primaries and what not, and then that candidate running for president against the other party’s candidate, I wonder if I don’t have a better idea.

Step 1. Presidential candidates declare they are seeking the presidency, and declare which party they will affiliate with.

Step 2. The nation holds a national election to decide which party will represent them. A vote for a party registers one as a member of that party and they will not be able to vote for candidates from another party that election cycle.

Step 3. The winning party begins a process much like that of the primaries and conventions. Electors from each state are chosen by that party’s voters to represent a candidate “at the convention.” The candidate with the most electors from across the nation wins the presidency.

One thing I think a system like this would promote is actual strength of 3rd and 4th parties.

It would also likely result in disaster and chaos. The people who wrote the Constitution were much smarter than I, and much more sober that I was when this idea began bouncing around my skull.

I just got the dumb idea to try live blogging my New Year’s eve experiences tonight. Dumb because I’ll probably finish one or two entries and then forget about it.

Its currently going on 3:00PM and we’ve collected all the stuff for tonights party. The kids are in high rotation waiting to get started on the fireworks, the wife is having a much-needed nap, and I’m drooling over a bowl of Cumberland from a tin I just popped with over a year and a half of age on it. This stuff is grand.

I moved my easy chair out to the garage where we’ll be partying. In Hawaii, most house’s have their garage opening at the front, facing the street, so its a pretty typical place for people to hang out. I set up some music as well. I’ll be rinsing out the old year with Samual Adams Light, some Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale (good stuff) and my beloved Johnny Walker Red. There’s also a couple bottles of champagne.

I asked my wife not to make a big meal tonight, I want her to be able to relax without stress and enjoy everything. So its finger foods - chips and dip, blue cheese/shap, soybeans, korean cuttlefish (taigu), lomi lomi salmon, and nachos.

Well, that’s the plan anyway.

Update:

I fell asleep that night at about 10:00. Best laid plans….

I did a lot of stupid things when I was a kid. Fortunately none of them left scars. Kids, if you think the best way to enjoy alcohol is lighting it on fire, blow it back out before you pour it in your mouth and all over your face.

Be careful out there.

18 spam messages today. I always wonder who answers these things. It seems someone would have to be hooked by them or they wouldn’t be profitable.

For most of the time I’ve smoked a pipe, I’ve loved bouncing from one blend to another, always trying something new. I’ve racked up a few favorites, but I always have had this nagging feeling that I’m missing something by not giving any one blend its due.

More precisely, I’ve been wondering to myself if I can enjoy a blend more by smoking a tin of it in a week or two, rather than over the course of a month or two.

I finally got around to giving Old Joe Krantz a try a while back, and later Bailey’s Front Porch. Both from Cornell And Diehl. At some point within the last week I decided to see how long I could exist on a diet of just these two blends. In the last few days, I’ve strayed by a bowl or two of something else here and there, but I’ve largely limited myself to these two excellent blends.

They are both “all day smokes” which to me means they aren’t complicated, or “complex” as some like to describe their favorites, nor do they bite, and most importantly - they taste good enough you’d want to smoke them all day! It doesn’t mean they are low in nicotine content, and they are definitely not lacking in flavor. I definately picked two great candidates. One has Latakia, the other does not.

I hope I stick this out for a while as I’m already noticing things. OJK is getting about 2/3 of my attention and I’m smoking it in various pipes. Tasting a tobacco in one pipe now, and another pipe a few days or a week later isn’t enough to discern the difference the pipe makes, but dumping a bowl from one pipe, and lighting the same blend in another pipe soon after does. This is something I’m seeing more clearly.

More observations will follow if there is ever a part two.

Jumpin’ Joe Lieberman?

Looks like Joe has floated the idea he might jump over to the GOP if the Democrats continue with their foolhardy plan of cut and run.

Illegals killing more Americans than the war in Iraq?

Looks like that is the case.  That’s just one cause of death that outnumbers fatalities in Iraq.  But that’s not really a fair comparison.  A more fair question is, what is the ratio of fatalities over time to troops deploy to Somalia?  I don’t remember a lot of fuss from the left over that debacle.  Then again, I don’t remember a lot of fuss over our cut and run either.

Vilsack is done

I always have to wonder if guys like this ever really think they have a chance.  Did he, in the first place, expect the money to start rolling in?  “I came up against something for the first time in my life that hard
work and effort couldn’t overcome,” he said, his wife, Christie, and
two grown sons at his side. “I just couldn’t work any harder, couldn’t
give it enough.” He’s refused to endorse another nominee.  Why?  I don’t think anyone has asked him what is wrong with the current crop.

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This week I’ve been having a new roof added to my house. Before it was wood shakes which were probably as old as the house, now its composite tile - meneer? (sp?) What I’m really looking forward to tho is the addition of a couple sun lights above our dining room area which has no windows and kitchen. It’s going to brighten up the place considerably. To deal with the heat, we’ve had two solar fans installed. These are obviously powered by the sunlight and draw the hot air out.

When I left for work this morning, they were still humping the tiles on the roof - I couldn’t see how they’d finish that and lay them in two days. To my surprise, the roof was mostly covered when I got home. I’m pretty impressed.