It’s sad to see Ted Kennedy go. He was a true, honest politician who led the Democratic party in a positive direction. He will be missed. RIP Ted.
I wonder what Ted would have been like as a president. It has always confused me why he never ran before 1980, and why he never tried to run again in 84 or 88.
Ted died of a high-grade glioma, a primary tumor of the brain. From what I’ve read, it was located in his left parietal lobe, which is responsible for speech, language, and abstract thinking, all of which Ted was famous for. Unlike other types of brain tumors, Ted’s cancer has an average lifespan of 14 months. Ted lived for 15 months after diagnosis.
Tonight’s 60 Minutes included a story by Leslie Stahl on Al Gore’s continued fight for the environment. This piece was incredibly powerful and motivating as it discusses Al Gore’s new, massively expensive ad campaign designed to push enviromental issues to the forefront of our upcoming presidential election.
Will it work? Who knows. Regardless, take the 13 minutes to watch this 60 Minutes story. By the way, this is my first attempt at Flash video (I ripped this story from my DVR), so if the quality is bad, I apologize.
I know I posted on Obama several months ago, but I think need to mention again my support for such a great candidate. Today, Ted Kennedy expressed his support for Obama:
I remember another leader who inspired the nation, especially our youth, to fulfill a promise of change. Those inspired young people marched, sat in at lunch counters, protested the war in Vietnam and served honorably in that war even when they opposed it.
That leader challenged them to ask what they could do for their country and, together, they changed the world.
So in the words of that leader, John Kennedy: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do… It is time for a new generation of leadership.”
I have found that next generation of American leadership in Barack Obama.
-Ted Kennedy
If you don’t know much about Obama, he is truly the “change” candidate. His proposed policies in all fields go way beyond the other candidates, yet they are also feasible and can be achieved during his presidency.
For example, I love Obama’s healthcare policy plan. His medical plan would cover every single citizen in the United States under a default medical insurance plan. Don’t want the default insurance? Then you can easily opt out for whatever insurance your company provides or insurance that you bought. The bottom line is that everyone will have insurance, which will hopefully improve America’s “preventive medicine” goals. People won’t wait until the last minute to go to the doctor for a disease because they’ll be covered by health insurance. They’ll go in earlier and get treated earlier, making our economy much more productive.
Obama’s technology policies are also incredibly focused. He has been working with Lawrence Lessig, the founder of “Creative Commons”, a non-profit organization trying to create a much more open and flexible copyright law. Obama is in strong support of net neutrality, blogging within all organizations, establishment of a “Technology” cabinet position, as well as making all government organizations more open so that they can be watched over by citizens’ groups.
Obama’s environmental policies are also very well done, as he supports putting twice as much money into renewable energy compared to Hillary’s plans. This may not be enough, but it’s the best we’ve got out of any candidate so far, republican or democrat.
Finally, Obama’s Iraq policy is an immediate pullout, leaving only enough soldiers to guard the American embassy in Iraq. This is an excellent move, as our country needs to move on from the mistakes made in the past several years. It’s time to refocus our money not on defense, but on schools, healthcare, the environment, the space program, and other more progressive and inspiring fields.
It’s time for our country to be strong again… to compete with our neighbors, with China, with Europe, and with Japan. We may be entering another recession soon, and we need a strong leader to pull us out. I believe that Obama is that candidate.
So no matter if you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent, please consider supporting Obama for 2008!
The video at the top of this post is Obama’s South Carolina Victory Speech. As one poster put it, “Obama hit his usual points of unity, gave one hell of a backhanded slap to Bill, followed it up with an olive branch, then stole every ounce of Edward’s populism and made it sound like it was his issue all along. One hell of a speech.” Watch it if you have some time!
Yesterday, CNN aired a piece on Michael Moore’s new documentary, Sicko, as told by CNN’s health correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. After airing the piece, Wolf Blitzer had Michael Moore talk live via satellite.
Moore blew up, obviously angry about CNN’s remarks that “Moore fudged the facts.” He challenged Dr. Gupta to actually turn up hard evidence of any wrong facts. It will be interesting if Gupta takes up Moore on the challenge. Regardless, I was happy to see someone stand up to the American media; it seems like every day, the American news channels get crummier and crummier. Instead of showing real news like how Bush messed up Iraq, we get fluff pieces about Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, and my favorite fluff piece, Don Imus.
It’s time Americans stop putting up with our crappy American media, because if we can’t get news from people we trust, then how are we supposed to understand what’s going on in our economy, government, and our world? Oh wait, that doesn’t matter… the celebrities are way more important….
Today, Al Gore testified to the house regarding changes needed to turn around our growing environmental issues. The following points are a brief summary of what Gore said; The Huffington Post has a point by point summary of Gore’s speech.
1. An immediate “carbon freeze” that would cap U.S. CO2 emissions at current levels, followed by a program to generate 90% reductions by 2050.
2. Start a long-term tax shift to reduce payroll taxes and increase taxes on CO2 emissions.
3. Put aside a portion of carbon tax revenues to help low-income people make the transition.
4. Create a strong international treaty by working toward “de facto compliance with Kyoto” and moving up the start date for Kyoto’s successor from 2012 to 2010.
5. Implement a moratorium on construction of new coal-fired power plants that are not compatible with carbon capture and sequestration.
6. Create an “ELECTRANET” — a smart electricity grid that allows individuals and businesses to feed power back in at prevailing market rates.
7. Raise CAFE standards.
8. Set a date for a ban on incandescent light bulbs.
9. Create “Connie Mae,” a carbon-neutral mortgage association, to help defray the upfront costs of energy-efficient building.
10. Have the SEC require disclosure of carbon emissions in corporate reporting, as a relevant “material risk.”
The suggestions are pretty radical, but I believe that at this point, radical changes are needed if we ever want to take control. Even if just a handful of Gore’s suggestions are implemented, we could see some serious energy savings. Our Houston oil companies won’t like that though.
So I guess Gore won’t be running again for president.
A group of Obama supporters and created this ad: it’s the infamous 1984 Mac Super Bowl commercial (named one of the best commercials of all time) modified to fit their campaign.
Regardless of who you support, this is quite a creative effort.
Now let me state first hand so it’s open and in the clear: John Edwards is your classic scumbag politician. First of all, he is credited for making medical malpractice the issue that it is now, as he loves to sue the life out of doctors. Secondly, he’s the world’s biggest hypocrite. For example, he’s strongly against Wal-Mart and is trying to help its employees form a union (you can decide whether that’s good or bad), but then he uses his political power to coerce Wal-Mart to get him a Playstation 3 on launch. Stupid!
So yeah, I don’t like John Edwards.
I think Hillary Clinton will be a good president, but she is becoming too conservative for my tastes.
Then we have Barack Obama. I agree with almost everything this man says. See this article for his voting record during the past eight years.
So in the end, I think Barack Obama has my vote for 2008. Of course, we’ll have to see how the primaries turn out, but if he makes it as the Democratic presidential candidate, he’ll get my vote.
I have an addiction to 60 Minutes. It’s my all time favorite news broadcast; the stories are always very touching and concise. (In the mid 90s, I loved 20/20, but that show went down the drain after Hugh Downs left).
Last week, Ed Bradley, my favorite 60 Minutes reporter, died of leukemia. He always did the very personal stories: Timothy McVeigh, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Bono, along with numerous stories on hunger in Africa. His personality was always entertaining, and he had a unique ability to relate with his guests, no matter how atrocious they were.
Can the media be so stupid a second time in a row? After the media totally bombed after inviting Jon Stewart to Crossfire, you would think they would finally take comedians seriously?
No, the media can be just as dumb as some of the news they report. About a week ago, the White House Correspondents Dinner was held; it’s an annual tradition where the press and the president get together. The point is for the press to make fun of the president.
Of course, no one in the press really makes fun of the president. The associated press this year invited Stephen Colbert (from The Colbert Report… absolutely hilarious show) to talk about the president. Well, that’s what Stephen did, and it was absolutely hilarious. Guess who didn’t laugh? The president and the audience!
Maybe the press will finally take Colbert and Stewart seriously… if not, I’m going to really look forward to many more of these incidents!
Guess what? A panel on “Darknets” at SXSW turned into a 1 hour bash-a-thon towards one of the panelists, an MPAA representative. Listen to the mp3 here. Here’s a person’s account of the scene. Man, now the $300 ticket seems worth it!
