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On my Facebook page, I came across an audio file posted by one of my friends. It is pretty disturbing, to me, at least.
Know Your Candidate!
It’s an “on the street” kind of interview with voters in Harlem who state they are voting for Barack Obama. The disturbing part came when the reporters asked which Obama policies they agreed with – and then gave them McCain policies to choose from. None of the people in the interview said “Whoa, those aren’t Obama policies!”
Naturally, I KNOW that this audio file is comprised of carefully selected responses, and I KNOW that someone else could do the same thing with McCain supporters / policies. That’s not the point.
The point, for me is, that there are voters out there, supporting someone, without having A CLUE as to WHY. They are supporting a name, an idea, a race (black OR white.)
People, please. Educate yourselves before you pull that lever on Election Day Tuesday. Know WHY you are voting for the person you choose – don’t do it just because someone else says so, because you THINK you know the candidate’s politics, or because you get warm fuzzies when you listen to him…or because another one simply makes you angry.
Don’t listen to the pundits, listen to the candidates themselves.
Voting Booth Photo courtesy of thepodger, via Flickr / Creative Commons.
NOTE: This post originally appeared on my MySpace blog in 2006. I liked it so much I decided to resurrect it.
I had a diary when I was about thirteen, which I wrote in fairly regularly, and I’d love to see it again, though I do remember some of the entries, and I know they’d make me squirm. I worked so hard to hide it from my mother that I lost it myself.
I found a fun diary online, that made me laugh and laugh and laugh…it brought back memories of being nine years old:
I remember one particular day in my young life was very very bad, and it started out horrible. I wrote:
“Today was a bad day. I knew it would be when I went to the bathroom and dropped the toilet paper, and unrolled all over.”[sic]
My, how easy life was for me. Now, I’d know it was a bad day if I dropped it in the toilet, and it was the last roll we had, and my hubby and kids were all banging on the door because they had to go. Now, THAT would
be a bad day.
Well, since I’m on a toilet paper kick (and somehow, I need to tie this in to my title that has something to do with politics), I just learnt a valuable tip from one of my buddies on the (now defunct) Coffee Sinners Thread on Crosswalk.com.
When you run out of coffee filters, according to Utilityfielder, you can use TOILET PAPER to line the basket. As he said “Paper is paper…”. 
And for added dietary benefit, Eutychus helpfully added that since the toilet paper dissolves in water, we can have lots of added fiber per cup. Who knew? As for me, well, I’ll just have a cuppa cowboy coffee, thank you.
What does this have to do with politics? Well, for me it’s not that much of a stretch; you use toilet paper for a dirty job (unless it’s for coffee, the nectar of the gods), and politics IS a dirty job (unless you are 24’s David Palmer, whom I not-so-secretly support for President, and his assassination a few “hours” nearly two years ago has me still in deep mourning and shock. I have a deep burning desire to go purchase All State insurance, simply because HE tells me to)
*shhh those voices in my head are messing up my concentration*
Ahhhem. Anyway, Politics. Today in the car on the way to school, we were listening to the radio, and of course had to hear an ad for some woman running for state senate. A former state senator was endorsing her, saying how wonderful she was. Some doctor claimed she helped fight cancer, diabetes, obesity, toothaches, and the chicken flu for twenty years.
Former Governor Tom Ridge shared that he picked this woman because she was, among other things, “intelligent” and “smart.”
And you sir, are redundant and sound like a buffoon.
But my daughter asked, after the commercial was over, the most important question of all:
“But does that lady put good things in food?”
Children everywhere, like mine, who suffer from having inept cooks for moms, want to know.
Dear Diary image courtesy of Incurable Hippie on Flickr, via Creative Commons licensing.
Dear Senators Obama and McCain:
I’d like to know what you, as President, are going to do about the Chinese Imports That Threaten Our Very Lives.
You know that they’ve poisoned our pets with melamine, some toothpaste has been poisoned with diethylene glycol and snuck here in the United States, and they even poisoned 50,000 of their own babies with melamine. I wrote a very disturbing blog about diethylene glycol myself.
Their food products are sneaking into Canada, and they are also getting into the United States. Carrots. I used to buy carrots to mash up as baby food for my babies. WHERE THE HECK WERE THEY GROWN? Not even fresh fruit and vegetables are safe – who knows what kind of toxic soil China grew their stinking carrots in.
What are you two clowns proposing to do about this? Anything? I’d be very surprised. Seems like American politicians have been in heat to trade with China since before Jimmy Carter.
I WANT ONE OF YOU TO STAND UP AND SAY “HEY, WE WON’T TOLERATE THIS FROM CHINA ANYMORE! NO FOOD PRODUCTS OR INGREDIENTS FOR HUMANS OR PETS WILL BE ALLOWED IN THIS COUNTRY!”
BTW – it’s not just cheapo brands that are risky – check out Cadbury Chocolate!
I was continuing a discussion online about Obama being President when someone said “We’ve had enough WAR, it’s time for a change…” or something to that effect. The idea was that Republicans are war mongers and Democrats are peace loving dudes.
With my tongue a little in cheek, I posted a simplistic response…World War 2 was entered into under a Democratic President, the Korean Conflict was entered into under a Democratic President (and ended under a Republican), Vietnam was entered into under a Democratic President (and ended under a Republican). I neglected to put the first Gulf War down though I should have but my point was – the Dems have had their fair share of entering wars and Republicans have ended them….I really don’t think party has anything to do with it.
I made a comment about the WTC being attacked under President Clinton’s watch…because as we know, most people want to blame everything that’s wrong today on President Bush.
Another person on the Obama side was frustrated because those of us who were not for Obama were not being “objective” and were “biased” and “ill informed” (see previous blog for my rant on that.) The person said “Please can we stick to serious informed dialogue?” She demanded facts with footnotes…
So I asked her if she denied anything I posted about the Presidents and war ….asked her if she denied that it was under a Dem that the WTC was attacked.
This was ignored because I was being “sarcastic” and “attacking.” (Okay.) Until today.
Someone else said they were disputing my factoid that the WTC was attacked under Clinton; it occurred in 2001, only seven years ago. Well, at least he/she has some math skills.
I guess the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center doesn’t count because “only” six people were killed. It doesn’t count because it didn’t succeed in destroying the Towers. It “only” hurt 1,000 people…
No, actually it “didn’t count” because it was forgotten. Or maybe never even known about (Not sure how old this person is….but supposedly everyone on this forum is at least 18…or should be.)
This is sad. The US targets were actually attacked several times under the Presidency of Clinton. It’s very easy to forget what led up to 9/11 and blame G.W. Bush for the entire mess, but it’s not accurate or even fair. Terror attacks have been ongoing for decades.
That there are people out there who don’t remember something as traumatic as the 1993 bombing in New York City scares me….those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it – how true it is.
If you don’t care for Obama, then you are uninformed & lack objectivity. At least, that’s what I’ve come across online.
You are only respected if you say that Obama (or whoever the current liberal darling is…past darlings no longer count) is absolutely right and exactly what our country needs.
If you point out the shortcomings of previous democrats (in an effort to show that incompetence knows no particular party) you are ridiculed as being an uninformed bumpkin.
By stating that I’m not too keen on the current Poster Child of the DNC, I am “entrenched in deeply rooted biases and prejudices.”
It’s funny – I had just stated that
I would vote for Bill Clinton
(don’t tell my husband I said that) were he able to run for President again – I prefer him over Obama AND McCain. So I don’t have any “deep rooted biases and prejudices” against dems…. Am I biased and prejudiced because I happen to be white, and Obama is not?
(I’ve stated many times that I wish David Palmer, the character on 24 created by Dennis Haysbert, could be our President. I really do not have any race issues at all with Obama.)
I don’t care if he’s black, white, young, old, or purple. I just think he plain stinks as a possible President.
And McCain ain’t much different, in my book.
I just wish people would let me have, and express this opinion, without throwing sand about being biased and ill informed and stupid and what-not. Just grow up, already. It really is okay to disagree nicely.
Am I unAmerican for saying that I want the Democratic Presidential primary candidates to GO AWAY? Please, why is this taking so long? Why did the Republicans get finished so much sooner? Is McCain THAT attractive? Had the Republicans had a Dynamic unDuo like Nobama and Shrillary, would they still be going at it too? (shudder)
Forgive my ignorance, I don’t delve into politics very often. It just seems unnaturally long for this primary thing to be going on…but maybe I was just very unobservant in the past. When will it be OVER?
Though I will say, I think it is pretty cool that I bowl wayyyy better than Barak Obama – of course, I guess you’d have to be really bad to be beaten by him. (Pssst…my average is about 56.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally anti-Democrat (I do like some of them) and I’m most definitely not pro-Republican either (I don’t like most of them.) My vote is going for Ron Paul, because how can you not vote for someone with two first names?
I’m just tired of the “Will Senator Obama win? Can Hillary overcome this?” blah blah blah.
While we’re waiting for the answer, let’s head over to the Glider Diner in Scranton for a hearty sausage and pancakes breakfast; I hear Senator Obama was served more than he could eat when he was here in NEPA, wooing the Scrantonian public.
PS – another thing I hate about politicians. They think we’re stupid enough to lap up their tripe about “being for us” and “this is our home too” and all that nonsense when they’re trolling our towns. Right. Okay, whatever.
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Credit: Photo originally uploaded to Flickr by squishyray
