Archive for August 29th, 2008

August 29th, 2008
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6 Good Reasons Why America Does Not Need Sarah Palin as Vice President

Sarah Palin has been selected by John McBushCain to be, quite possibly, the second most powerful person in the world.

Now everyone across the nation is saying to themselves: “Who is Sarah Palin?”

Perhaps the second question running around is “Why is she fit to be the next Vice President of the United States of America?”

Well folks, it doesn’t really seem that she is. At least not in the opinion of this blogger.

Here are 6 Good Reasons Why America Does Not Need Sarah Palin as Vice President:

  • 6. No experience with how to rebuild a nation after war.

    I would like my Presidential candidates to have some idea of what it is to be in combat, but I would like even more for my candidates to have experience or education in rebuilding a country after a war; whether it be ours or theirs. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in politics. No combat experience. No education on the subject. The closest she comes to having experience with war is having her son enlisted. Her son, according to some, is scheduled to be deployed in September 2008. Now isn’t that just handy for the campaign of a war President?

    Oh wait, she poses for pictures with injured soldiers. I forgot she’s got experience with posing for pictures:

    Which brings me to my next point…

  • 5. Winning second place in the beauty contest means you get to collect 10 dollars.

    I don’t really think that it’s important that the Vice President of our United States won a beauty contest, whether it be Miss Alaska or Miss Teen USA. In fact, I think it detracts from how other countries view us. We go from having an idiot in the White House as President to an old war monger and a beauty pageant loser? Really? I think it’s possible that people could lose even more respect for those positions.

  • 4. She’s all about oil.

    Sure, it’s oil in Alaska. But the last thing that this country needs is another leader that has big oil signing their paychecks. Don’t believe me? Here’s her own words:

    ““We want it to happen,” she said, “Alaskans want to open up the lands for that development, for the contributions that are potential here for the rest of the US.” Palin went on to note that “it’s really a pathetic situation

    “And I have to ask lawmakers in Washington, DC, who have prohibited this drilling in ANWR if they’re doing all they can to secure the United States. When you consider, too, the geology that we’re talking about here, and the physical space that’s even needed to drill now, about a 2,000 acre plot, because of directional drilling and new technology, allowing such a small footprint to even be placed upon the tundra up north, it’s about 2,000 acres, which is smaller than the size of LAX and other big-city airports, that we would need to drill…”"

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about removing our reliance on foreign oil, but again: we do not need another President with ties to big oil companies. I, for one, am sick of doubting the true intentions of my President (or Vice President) with every step they take.

    Besides, after she gets 3 square miles of land to drill for oil, how big is the next chunk of land she asks for going to be?

    But she doesn’t just want to drill for oil in Alaska:

    “Gov. Palin has also worked with the legislature to encourage these three big oil companies [BP, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips] — and others who are not already so heavily invested in Alaska — to compete in developing a natural gas pipeline that will bring cheaper and more reliable energy to Alaska’s own consumers and eventually permit cheap export of natural gas to the Lower 48 states.” (source)

    Natural gas? Cool! I’m all for it! But assisting gas companies with anything is not something we should be focusing on right now. I know, I know. Those oil companies are really going through some tough times right now aren’t they?

  • 3. She seems to have her hands full enough already.

    Sarah Palin has 5 kids. They are 7, 13, 17, 18 and oh yea, one around 4 months. She had a baby in April that has Down syndrome. I don’t think that anyone, man or woman, young or old, has the capacity to raise a newly born child with Down syndrome, and other kids going through school (or Iraq) AND competently help run the United States of America as it is coming out of one of the most destructive Presidencies in its history. Not her, or anyone else. Please don’t take this as me saying that those with families can’t raise their kids and be extraordinarily successful, because I don’t think that’s true. I’m just saying that Vice President of the United States of America, at this point in history, is a position that requires the utmost dedication, focus, patiences and time; 4 qualities not usually found in excess for a new mother or father, let alone a new mother or father with 4 other kids already there.

    I looked around to try and find some good quotes about her being a parent and I was a bit shocked. Just when you thought we couldn’t get more “quotable” candidates in the office (for saying stupid things unfortunately) for the USA, check out this gem:

    “The Palins named their first child, a boy, Track, after the track and field season in which he was born. Sarah’s father jokingly asked what they would have named their son if he had been born during the basketball season. Without hesitating Sarah answered “Hoop.”"

    Or how about this one when it comes to her being a mother:

    “It’s said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick,” she wrote. “So, with lipstick on, the gloves come off in answering administration accusations.”

  • 2. She posed for Vogue magazine.

    No, I’m not referring to the Photoshopped image that is floating around the internet. I mean she posed for Vogue magazine. Here’s what she said about the shoot:

    “”At first they had me in a bunch of furs,” she said. “Yeah, I have furs on my wall, but I don’t wear furs. I had to show them my bunny boots and my North Face clothing.”"

    She just had to show them her bunny boots.

    • How can we expect countries like North Korea, China, Japan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. to show us any respect on the global front if they are seeing the one of the leaders of our country plastered on a beauty magazine?

  • 1. Just 5 months ago, she could not even get her arms around or contemplate being selected for Vice President.

    From her own words in March of this year (just 5 months ago) on being selected for the Vice Presidential position:

    “I’ll tell you, I think that the possibility of this ever happening is so far out there, that it’s tough to get my arms around and even contemplate.”

    Now suddenly she is accepting the position for nomination? How about someone who was striving for the position for, I don’t know, sometime within the past year? Could they really not find a single person who wanted to be Vice President bad enough to push to be on the ticket?

    Nope. Instead they found a 44 year old beauty pageant loser with 5 kids, one of them being in the military (of course), with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in politics who used to be a television reporter, that now has a few years experience in politics for the state of Alaska, for the next Vice President of the United States of America.

    Not only that, but she has already disregarded the Vice Presidential position in government. She was caught asking a reporter to tell her:

    “…what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration.”

    Apparently she is of the opinion that the Vice President does not work real hard in administration.

    When the reporter challenges her and says that the Vice Presidential position is a tough one she responds: “Well this is a pretty cool job here too though as governor of Alaska.” Check it out for yourself:

    Do you really want a Vice President, who was not ready for the position 5 months ago, to take on the position and think that it is a “pretty cool job?”

    At this point: it doesn’t surprise me that the Republican party could make such a stupid decision.

Those are just 6 reasons. But they are reasons enough for me. Please do not vote for John McCain for President in 2008. If McCain wasn’t bad enough, his pick for VP certainly isn’t even close to an ideal candidate either.

Bonus Reason:

  • According to screen shots taken today from Wikipedia, Sarah Palin is, in fact, the Hulkster!:

    Here’s a closer look:

    Do we really want someone, who is afraid to admit who they truly are, to be VP?

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Category: List | Tags:
August 14th, 2008
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Welcome Sky News Readers

Today, this blog was featured on the large and popular news site, Sky News for the Google map that I created involving the conflict in South Ossetia between Russia, Georgia and the South Ossetians. If you are looking for the post featured in the the article, you can find it here:

An additional story covering the cyberattacks, when they first occurred in the region, can be found here:

Here’s an excerpt from the Sky News story about the post:

“The map was created by American blogger David Drake who writes for the blog ilovebonnie.net.

David will be keeping the map up to date as events take place.

He told Sky News: “When I first heard about the conflict I was surprised that it was so difficult to find a good map of the area so I decided to make my own.”

“I first became interested in Russia when I took a History of Russian Culture class in my studies at George Mason University. We studied some of the conflicts that have happened, historically, in the region. Obviously Georgia came up during those discussions.”"

The main story from Sky News about the conflict can be found here.

While you’re here, please consider subscribing to my feed, and also be sure to check out the other Google maps post I’ve done including a map of the 2008 submarine cable cuts.

Category: Misc | Tags: ,
August 12th, 2008
3 comments

Bush Aims to Let Developers Choose Whether Their Development Has Endangered Species Effects

[UPDATE]: as a reader has pointed out, NASCO has denied claims of a super highway (yet they freely acknowledge a NASCO corridor). It should be pointed out, however, that NASCO does support the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). Their own timeline (which can be found here) states that they are almost finished with their environmental studies. What are they waiting for? The last two entries in their “Environmental Study Timeline” are “Prepare final environmental impact statement”, which is labeled as ongoing & “Federal Approval (record of decision)”, which is labeled as anticipated Summer/Fall of 2008.

The Bush administration has decided that there is just too much fact-checking occurring for developers when it comes to their effects on endangered species:

“The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

New regulations, which don’t require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years…”

This is not the first time the Bush administration has tried to annihilate our environment.

When I first read this article my hear dropped, but I was not surprised in the least. Why? Because I remembered hearing about a major development project that the current administration has been working towards. The NASCO Corridor. Before Bush and friends are removed from office, they want to be sure the NASCO corridor is going forward with full steam. Why does it seem appropriate to tie this endangered species announcement together with the NASCO corridor?

Well, 2 months ago, the NASCO Conference 2008 was held. There, Mexican Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel, speaking on behalf of the Mexican President:

“…emphasized that Mexico recognizes that growing global trade and rising North American trade flows “have generated challenges in infrastructure, logistics and public policy.” She praised the nonprofit, tri-national NASCO and its efforts to unite public and private sector trade and transport stakeholders to overcome these challenges and “promote a secure, efficient transport system in North America that facilitates cross-border trade.””

In addition:

“Undersecretary of Transport for Mexico Humberto Treviño informed attendees of President Calderón’s aggressive National Infrastructure Plan to invest $45 billion in public/private funds in Mexico’s national transportation infrastructure, including in highways, tollroads, railroad network expansion, modernization and expansion of airports, air cargo terminals, seaports and port terminals as well as in major electricity grid transmission equipment and networks and oil and gas pipelines and electric power plants.”

It would seem, from these quotes, that the conference is focused around the transportation of Mexico. So, it is probably a conference made up of mostly Mexican officials from Mexican companies, right? WRONG:

“Top company executives in attendance included Mike Haverty, CEO of Kansas City Southern Railroad; officials from Mexico’s Ferromex Railroad; Roberto González Barrerra of food/tortilla giant Grupo Maseca and Banorte Bank; senior executives from FedEx; and leaders of small, mid- and large-sized trade, logistics and transportation firms across North America.”

… just to name a few.

Two months after this meeting (where U.S. companies as well as U.S. senators attended), there is suddenly a need to make it easier for developers to develop in the United States? Why would there be this sudden interest in giving less oversight to developers?

Enter the NASCO corridor. A highway; a very, very big highway. That’s right, a 10-lane, limited access highway, that runs directly from Mexico to Canada. The effect that this will have on the U.S. economy will be absolutely staggering:

The video above starts to describe just how much of an impact this is going to have. One example offered of how this will have an effect on America is by looking at the Ford company. They worked to release 30,000 jobs in the U.S. and plan on employing 150,000 in Mexico. In addition, they have invested $9,200,000,000 (9.2 billion) in the country of Mexico to help their plans along. But surely an American company opening plants in Mexico would use American parts for production, right? Nope. Where, then, are the bulk of the parts necessary for production coming from in Mexico? China.

It’s interesting that this major U.S. development plan is not mentioned anywhere in the Associated Press release. But then, that shouldn’t surprise us much anymore now, should it?

Category: Misc | Tags: ,
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