Messie Politics

Bureaucracy Sucks

messman23 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:21:42 +0000

Bureaucracy sucks. Therefore I am moving everything to one blog. Why did I have four? Seemed like a good idea at the time. But not anymore. Hop on over to:

http://messman23.wordpress.com/

Everything will be continued over there.

PA Aftermath

messman23 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:25:53 +0000

Clinton won PA by 10 points. It’s not as large as her lead in the polls was throughout the beginning of the campaign, but in the end it’s a significant victory. She won Lehigh (60-40), Carbon (74-26), and Northampton (61-39) counties handily. I’ve spent a few weekends up there and it’s not surprising to me.

Guess what we get now? Another couple of weeks of endless soundbites and media commentary until the next primary. Are you as excited about that as I am???? (Unfortunately there’s no “sarcasm” button next to bold and italic…hmm… that would be a handy button now that I think about it! We’ve all sent that email that didn’t sound quite right because the sarcasm didn’t transfer to the typed words, right?)

According to everyone out there, Indiana will now decide whether or not Clinton can continue… as has every single contest in recent memory. I don’t know too much about Indiana. I’ve driven through it a few times, and even spent a couple of nights in hotels there. If I remember correctly I was in a hotel someplace in Indiana for the Republican convention in 2004. I know that Evan Bayh is one of their Senators. He’s also a former governor. That’s about as far as my political experience with Indiana goes. Obama has had chances in Ohio, Texas, and PA to end Clinton’s candidacy. He hasn’t been able to. Will he finally accomplish that in Indiana? I doubt it. It feels like this whole thing is going to drag on forever.

Votes! Finally!

messman23 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:46:49 +0000

It’s finally time for more votes to be counted! It’s been what… a month or so since we last got to do this? It sure feels like longer than that. Honestly, I’m getting tired of the whole mess on the Democratic side. When this campaign started I felt like we had a win-win situation. Both Clinton and Obama would be great candidates and you really couldn’t lose choosing either one. Now it feels as though we’re stuck in a lose-lose. There was an op-ed in the Times this past weekend that summed it up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/opinion/19herbert.html?ex=1366344000&en=66368a4d208c0e28&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Ever the optimist I’m confident that things will get better soon. For the sake of all of us they have to.

Like I said before I have a soft spot for Pennsylvania. I’ll be paying special attention to the counties in upstate PA that my grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents (you get the idea) called home… Lehigh, Carbon, and Northampton. I’ll also be paying special attention to what happens in good ol’ Kennett Square… where my pops grew up. Oh and I guess I’ll also be watching what happens to the state overall as well. I have a feeling that Clinton could have an Ohio-like day… but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up closer than that. I guess we’ll see soon enough.

Did I Miss Much?

messman23 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:15:12 +0000

I didn’t watch the debate last night. I was instead watching my glorious New York Yankees slug their way to victory over their archest of rivals, the Boston Red Sox. When I woke up this morning I realized that maybe I didn’t miss very much, and that watching the baseball game last night was a far better use of my time (and much more enjoyable). Here are two headlines that greeted me this morning:

“Debate Void of Issues So Far”

“American television network ABC was accused of bias and triviality today in the wake of the latest debate between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.”

Sounds like the debate was a real winner.

Debate in Pennsylvania Tonight!

messman23 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:38:36 +0000

Make sure you check out the debate tonight! My Dad grew up just outside of Philly, and our family has been in PA since before the United States existed, so I have a big soft spot for the Keystone State. Pennsylvanians are good folks. Let’s hope it’s an exciting night. If anything from tonight sticks with me I’ll make sure to mention it. If it turns out to be more of the same I’ll leave it to the talking heads.

Lindsey Graham…

messman23 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:24:30 +0000

…not so much. I generally do not approve of him speaking.

My Unsung Hero of Last Week’s Hearings: Evan Bayh

messman23 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:23:25 +0000

In 12 minutes and 25 seconds on Tuesday, Evan Bayh won himself a new fan: me. In fact, he had me completely on board within the first three minutes. I admit that I don’t know much about him, and maybe something I learn in the future will change how I feel, but his questions and comments were of superstar quality. Check out the video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lcc0d6OXChg&feature=related

I especially like the remarks about how maybe we are doing exactly what Bin Laden wants us to do.

Evan Bayh… Awesome.

Bayh and Graham

messman23 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:38:52 +0000

I’ll post my thoughts on these two later. One is my unsung hero from yesterday, the other is not so much.

David Petraeus on The Hill

messman23 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:33:04 +0000

I had the hearings on in the background yesterday at work, so admittedly I didn’t catch everything that was said, but there were a few things that stood out from yesterday.

Let me begin by mentioning something that really really gets to me: protestors who think it’s a good idea to scream and chant and interrupt the hearings. YOU LOOK AND SOUND LIKE FOOLS! Respect the hearing, those leading it, and those testifying. It’s the same reason that I would stand if President Bush walked into a room. You have to respect the office and not the man. Respect that you are on Capitol Hill and most importantly have some respect for yourself and your cause. I agree 100% with what they were saying, but every time they do something stupid like getting kicked out of a hearing they turn more and more people against our cause and give our opponents more ammunition to attack us. Goodness people, use your heads. Ok, rant over.

The first thing from the actual hearings that stood out to me was the emphasis that some Democrats were putting on the agreements that were being signed with the Iraqi government. Treaties need to be approved by the Senate, and Democrats are worried that the administration is trying to skirt around them and sign what are in essence treaties without going to the Senate. I have no doubt that the administration is trying to do just that, and as Joe Biden said yesterday, the Senate should be involved if agreements signed by President Bush are going to bind the next President. I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard much about this issue before yesterday, but I’m intrigued. It’s worth following.

At one point a Senator mentioned that the average combat soldier in Iraq was 20 years old. 20! That’s three years younger than me. Unreal. The future of America is dying in the sands of Iraq. What’s worse is that the older generation, still stuck in the mindset of the 20th Century and the Cold War, are the ones who are sending them to their deaths.

It’s striking how the General and the Ambassador can sit there and say with a straight face that our efforts in Iraq are making us safer. No use beating a dead horse, but we’re not. Our invasion created any threat from Iraq. It was not an imminent threat to us before 2003 and it is not one now.

Last night I saw on the news that Obama said something to the effect that he’s worried the definition of success from the administration is so high that we will never be able to achieve it, and thus will never be able to leave. Great point Senator. We don’t have a properly functioning democratic government in our country, an we have thousands of years of democratic tradition behind us.

Which leads me to my next beef with all of this talk about democracy in Iraq. In essence, what does having a “democracy” mean? At the most basic level it means that the people of a country get to choose who their leaders are, for better or worse. It means freedom of choice. That means that if the Iraqis want to elect Islamic extremists to lead their country, they can – no matter how much they hate America. It also means that they can choose what they want their government to look like. Forcing Western democracy on them won’t work. The freedom to choose, however, is an idea that would probably appeal to them.

Messie is my name, politics is my game!

messman23 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:52:53 +0000

Welcome! I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on all things politics. I’m not going to comment on too much from the past, except as it relates to future events. There is just too much that has gone on in the last few months to catch up on. Enjoy!