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1月30日 Further proof that Washington State is politically stupid.From the Seattle Times:
Sen. Patty Murray to endorse Hillary ClintonBy The Associated Press WASHINGTON. — Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state is endorsing New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for president. The Clinton campaign announced the endorsement in a news release this morning. Murray, the fourth-ranking Democratic senator, planned to talk about her endorsement later today in Washington, D.C. Clinton told Seattle's KING-TV from Arkansas that Murray is one of the most effective senators and that they have worked together on issues including emergency contraception and veterans affairs. Clinton also told the station that she will campaign in Washington state. Clinton and Murray have worked together on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in the Senate, and have cooperated on port security legislation and on several health issues, including opposing the Food and Drug Administration's reluctance to approve over-the-counter sales of the Plan B emergency contraceptive known as the morning after pill. Washington's other U.S. senator, Maria Cantwell, endorsed Clinton last month. Clinton also has the endorsements of former Gov. Gary Locke, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, King County Executive Ron Sims and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon. Gov. Christine Gregoire says she will endorse a presidential candidate before the Feb. 9 caucuses. 1月29日 Hillary sure sounds victorious in a contest that doesn't countSo...I am here watching the returns from the Florida crossing my fingers for Johnny Mac.
The Democrat Party stripped Florida of its delegates because Florida decided to hold their primary earlier than the Party wanted them to. Because, apparently, States' rights mean nothing to the Democrat party. You MUST do what we tell you.
Anyway...because of this, the candidates agreed that they would not campaign in Florida.
Until yesterday. Hillary all of a sudden decided she wanted to campaign. Kinda. The Dems still voted. Their votes just didn't mean anything. Now, today, Hillary is having a victory speech of sorts. She and her cronies are hooping and hollaring about how they are going to take Florida's votes all the way to the White House.
Quick side thought...Hillary just said she's going to take her 35 years of experience to the White House. Let me ask a question again. How, in the name of all that is Qualified, does being married to a Governor and then a President give you experience to run the most powerful country in the world? I will give her the 7 years in the Senate. But, my favorite e-mail forward right now is the one that talked about how Brett Favre's wife was going to play in the playoffs in his place because, as his wife, she is qualified to play Quarterback. End of side thought.
This just adds to my dislike of Hillary. She's trying to do anything she can to bring attention back to herself after the Kennedy family threw their support behind Obama.
Hate is a strong word and I'm not ready to use it. But, I really really really really really really really dislike Hillary.
As of 6:01 Pacific Time, McCain is up 35% to 32% (over Romney) and the race is "Too Close to Call." 1月28日 Ah, that explains it...I think.So, for the first time ever, I will be participating in the caucuses. I have never caucused before, in Arizona nor in Washington. Even though we will most likely know who the candidate is by the Feb. 9th caucus, I am still excited to participate. And, whether he's in or out at that point, my vote remains solidly behind John McCain.
Anyway...I have been confused for a while because Washington has both a Caucus (on Feb. 9th) and a Primary (on Feb. 19th).
Huh-wha?
I don't get it. Why do we have both?
Well...the Seattle Times article above explains why...kind of.
In a nutshell, apparently the Republican caucuses will assign about half (21 of 40) of it's delegates and the primary will select the remainder. The Democrats also participate in both, but the Dem primary is purley symbolic as all of their delegates will be chosen through the caucus.
Is it just me, or does this sound retarded? In reading the article, it sounds like this is a method of making sure everyone gets a say. Not everyone can make it to the caucus, so the primary option is still on the table. However...I don't see how this isn't actually just a way to make sure the party die-hards get more of a say. I can't find anything that says I can not participate in both the caucus and the primary. So...how am I not essentually getting 2 votes. Sure, that's 2 votes for John McCain, but I happen to know from experience that Washington State Republicans are stupid (except for Rob McKenna and Dino Rossi...I love those guys). I was recently listening to Kirby Wilbur (the Washington State Rush Limbaugh. Just as opinionated and just as stupid). He was professing his love for Fred Thompson. Said something like, "When I think of who I want to see across the table from Al Qaeda, I want to see Fred Thompson." I think this is simply because Thompson "looks" presidential, or something. But, seriously...why would we ever be across the table from Al Qaeda? We're not going to talk to Iran. Why would we ever talk to Al Queda? Second to Thompson, Kirby likes Rudy. Kirby has also said, "I'm Conservative first, Republican second." Uh, yeah...and Rudy is clearly the most conservative candidate.
Anyway...I digress. I am saving a huge blog for how much I can't stand Kirby Wilbur. I miss the Sytman and Bose show.
This system gives the die hard left/right wingers 2 votes. If you are worried the caucus doesn't give everyone a say, then only have a Primary. But, not both. I finally understand why we have 2, but it only further confirms my hypothesis that Washington State is politically stupid.
PS: Sorry for any typos. I don't feel like spell checking right now. Would be much easier IF SPACES WOULD INCLUDE A SPELL CHECK OPTION TO THEIR WEBSITE. 1月27日 Mariners trade Adam JonesI haven't made a Mariners post in a really long time. But, tonights news warrents one.
So...the Mariners have traded Adam Jones for Erik Bedard of the Baltimore Orioles.
www.ussmariner.com has a great blog about this. Go check it out.
The number one things that the Mariners needed this year is pitching. We had a strong offense, but we had a horrible starting rotation. Pitchers rarely made it past the 5th inning and ERAs were huge. Batista was a welcome surprise and Hernandez performed better than he did last year, but still...with HoRam, Weaver, and even a very mediocre Washburn, we lost a lot of games due to crappy pitching.
So...the Mariners did what they promised. The traded for a top of the rotation pitcher. Yay!!!
But...
In making this deal, they have gotten rid of their #1 prospect. They have gotten rid of a rookie who has the potential to be the next Griffey Jr or ARod. The original plan was to have him play right field, greatly improving our outfield defense. Guillen had a cannon for an arm, but his defensive skills were so-so. We all know Raul has a lot of work to do on D.
Next year or the year after, everyone expects Jones will be hitting over 300 and cranking out some home runs.
Bedard is a Cy Young caliber pitcher. There is a good chance he will be our #1 starter. His contract is only good for 2 more years and their in absolutely no assurance that he will hang around after that.
Brandon Morrow has great potential as well. But, with this trade, he will be relegated to the bull pen for another year, at least.
I'm excited about a Bedard, Hernandez, Silva, Batista, Washburn rotation. I feel that with Guillen gone and Jones no longer taking his place, the offense will suffer. So...we may be stuck with the exact opposite of what we had last year when we had strong offense and crappy pitching.
So, ladies and gentleman...here is the new Starting Rotation for your Seattle Mariners. Comments welcome. Make me feel better about this.
1月20日 Why must people insult me anonymously?So...I have, on many occations, talked about how annoyiong I find teachers' strikes to be. Apparently, somebody took issue. But, I have no clue who they are as they didn't leave any kinds of name and their site is blocked to the pulic. So, I have no way to really respond. Best I can do is leave this letting you know that I have responded. I do get annoyed (but not as annoyed as striking teachers make me) when people take a swipe at me without leaving me a way to respond.
Which reminds me...I have a guestbook. Whether you love or hate me, you should sign it so I can say thanks. I like to know who's reading.
Anyway, you can find the post in question here:
Here is the comment from my new friend, Mr. I want to insult you, but not give you a way to fire back.
Your ignorance is shameful. If schools were run like businesses and given the resources they deserve - teacher's wouldn't have to go on strike. Where I live the teachers are 2nd lowest paid graduates - lower than personal trainers, lower than psychologists and many other occupations not nearly as essential. Educate YOURSELF before you make such uninformed statements. January 20 5:20 AMAnd, here is my response...which is long enough to be its own blog entry...which is fitting since I haven't posted in a few days.
JasonP
Wow...SLAM, Mr. (or MS...don't know cuz you don't leave your name) Anonymous. So...as, you're telling me to educate myself, I highly encourage you to read my other posting on the issue. I do, in fact, on many occasions, say that I think the best teachers are indeed underpaid. My complaint is not that I think teachers are paid too much. It's that I think it's BS that teachers go on strike. They are public professionals. Striking does not hurt the employer, as strikes are supposed to. The only people negatively affected by a teachers' strike are the students...and, the parents who have to find daycare since their kids can't be in school. Personal Trainers and psychologists obviously chose their professions because it pays well. We live in a Capitalist society. If you want $$$, you go where you can get it. And...many psychologists have earned their Ph.D.s I would say this warrants more money than someone who gets 3 months off at summer, a week in the spring and 2 weeks at Christmas. My other complaint is that we have WAY too many underperforming teachers. WAY TOO MANY. Again, if schools were run like businesses (which it almost sounds like you agree with, but I can't ask you because your comment is anonymous), these underperforming teachers could be managed out. I will absolutely not vote for an increase to the pay of teachers who can't get their students math scores up. And...where is my ignorance? Did you go to school in Washington? Do you know what the word means? In fact, all of my info can be looked up. Maybe I should add another ignorant fact. Recently, on a National level, Washington State schools received a C-. One of the reasons it was a C- and not a D was due to the WASL. Wait...don't WA teachers and the WEA hate the WASL? Or...maybe I am ignorant because I am not a follower who thinks that all teachers need to get a raise simply because they're teachers. I mean...this is our FUTURE we're talking about, right? Sure...it's our future. And, our future is looking pretty retarded. Better grades, higher graduation rates, then...we'll talk about blanket raises. For now (as you would see if you read previous posts) I am sticking to my support of merit pay for teachers. Finally...if you read some of my previous posts, you will see how annoying and cowardly I think it is when people leave a comment calling me names and implying that I am stupid anonymously. I don't expect you to leave your real name...but, at least the ability to see your site or some way to show you that I have responded to your comment. The discussion (and your opinion) are welcome here. The insulting guerilla comments are not. Now…if you want to leave an anonymous comment about how good looking I am, feel free. 1月14日 Jason's Movie Review - AtonementWell...it wasn't a snoozer, which I kinda thought it would be.
Was it best picture worthy...no way.
I think the working title for this film was something like, "Debbie Downer: The Movie." I told my wife as we were leaving that the song at the end should have started with, "Wah-Wahhhhh."
The goods: The acting was great and the directing was Fan-Freakin'-Tastic (although it didn't get this Golden Globe...the directing award went to some movie I have never heard of).
The bads: This was one helluva depresing movie. I mean, it's hard to say exactly why without spoiling something for those that haven't seen it. But, come on. Way to make a crappy week end on a crappier note.
Really...that's all I got. Made me sad. And, I don't like being sad. Good news is...in order to get me to see it, my wife had to promise to see Cloverfield with me on Friday. Nothing like Monsters ripping up New York to cheer me up.
1月8日 Could you have a cup of coffee with her?What the heck kind of a stupid question is this?
Apparently...one of the questions that reporters have been asking potential voters in New Hampshire, at least in regards to Hillary Clinton, is, "Could you have a cup of coffee with her?"
2 disclamers. 1) I do not know if this has been asked about other candidates. The example I heard on the radio was referring to a Hillary supporter. 2) I do NOT support Hillary for President (in case it wasn't clear from my last post). I just think this is a lame question.
Seriously...who cares if you can have a cup of coffee with the person. When I am weighing considerations as to who will be the most qualified to be President, I don't sit and wonder how good their Bridge game is. Or, if they take cream in their coffee. I wonder how they will handle terrorists and what they're going to do about the continually falling dollar. Frankly...if they are having coffee with little ol' me, they are probably not working as hard as they should be on the country's problems.
Let's switch it to my Man, Johnny Mac. Could I have a cup of coffee with John McCain? Who the hell cares? I probably could, but I can't imagine what I would have to talk about with the war vet and long time member of Congress. I can't image he would really want to hear about how much I love Belgian beer or how pissed I am that I didn't get a credit in Halo 3. And, frankly...if I want to hear about what he's going to do as our next President, I can pick up a newspaper.
Having a cup of coffee with your candidate of choice would be pretty cool...but, it's a stupid question. It's almost like the media wants us to see our candidates as real people. Same thing with the Hillary "cry." We know they're real. We know they will work hard. We shouldn't care what they want to do on a Sunday afternoon. We should care about how they're going to catch Osama.
Stupid media. 1月7日 There's no Crying in PoliticsSo...Hillary Clinton got a little vaclempt today in New Hampshire. What was she talking about? Basically, about how badly she wants to be President.
Now...this is not a "A Woman can't be President," comment. Simply a "A Person who cries in public because they aren't winning shouldn't be President," comment.
A Haiku:
BooHoo Hillary.
Losing doesn't suit you well.
Time to grow a pair. Be smart, New HampshireTomorrow is the New Hampshire primary. New Hampshire has a habit of picking the party's nominee. After Romney's loss in Iowa, he is at risk and McCain has the most to gain from this contest. A win in New Hampshire is practically essentual for John McCain.
So...people of New Hampshire (cuz, I know you all read my blog), this is for you!
The purpose of the primaries is to pick each party's nominee for President. Who is the best candidate to go forward on the national stage and convince the country that he (or she, but hopefully not this year) is the best person for the job.
In your state, it seems to be down to Mitt Romney and John McCain.
Mitt Romney CAN NOT WIN the National Election. And, this has nothing to do with the fact that he's Mormon (although, this apparently will play a pretty big role to a lot of voters...I have heard people I know say they won't vote for a Mormon). Mitt Romney may, "look the part," but, that's about it. He is a scab. He will tell you what he thinks you want to hear.
Immigration is the hot topic for Republicans this year. So, what's Mitt Romney's biggest platform? Immigration! Even though is comes from Massachusetts, which is thousands of miles away from the border. Even though he had undocumented workers working in his home. He's also the king of exageration. Check out my blog 2 blogs ago. He's been called for even more since then.
People are tired of partisal politics in this country. I am a prime example. I am a lifelong Republican (all 30 years), however...I will NOT vote for Mitt Romney or Rudy if they are the nominees. Does that mean I'll vote for Hillary? No way. I will write in a candidate or vote for the 3rd party before I will vote for any of those people. So...what does that mean? It means that in that scenerio...the Democrat candidate will win.
John McCain, even though he is the oldest candidate and potentially the oldest President, he is a new kind of candidate. He is conservative (dispite the claims of some idiot Republicans), he is smart, and he is inclusive. He will not be a President that is constantly at odds with the Democratic Congress.
So, the moral of my story: For those of you that care about electability, please be smart about this. John McCain is the ONLY Republican candidate who can win in November. John McCain need to win New Hampshire. And, Mitt Romney needs to go away. 1月3日 McCain on Taxes and ImmigrationSo...just in time for the Iowa Caucus. Where, by the way, we are hoping to come in 3rd (and by We, I mean McCainiacs).
Anyway, I was in the car the other day listening to Michael Medved. I don't listen to him very often because his show is in the middle of the day and, frankly, he annoys me a lot of the time because he continually mutes and talks over people when they make a good point that he doesn't agree with. This time, though, he was sticking up for my man, which I appreciate.
Still...it put me in a blogging mood because some of the callers seemed soooooooo ignorant, it was driving me crazy.
Multiple people said John McCain wasn't really a conservative. "Why?" asked Michael Medved. Here are a couple of the answers he received that had me going, "You're a complete moron, Mr. Moron caller."
McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts.
Of course he voted against the tax cuts...and he made it very clear why he was voting against he tax cuts. The same reason every fiscal conservative should have voted against the tax cuts. With tax cuts MUST come spending cuts. You can't just cut your income by 30% and keep spending at the same rate. You need to get rid of some things. The problem with the Bush Tax cuts is that spending was NOT cut. In fact, we decided to fight 2 wars at the same time. It's like taking a pay cut and deciding to upgrade to Premium Cable.
McCain supports Amnesty for Illegal Aliens.
What? No he doesn't. How do people keep coming to this conclusion? McCain's first priority is SECURING THE BORDERS, which I think is a fantastic idea given that there are more threats to worry about at the border than a few Mexicans. He supports the border fence (as do I), and he wants to make illegal aliens pay lots of dinero in fines prior to becoming citizens. But...he's not for setting up an Illegal Immigrant Gestapo that will wrangle up all the people picking apples and shove them back over the border. Rather, he wants a guest worker program and he wants to find a way to address the millions of people that are doing jobs that we NEED to have done. Seriously...who's going to do it when we kick them out? It's not like there is a high rate of unemployment, currently.
And...think about this. With the exception of Bill Richardson, McCain is the ONLY candidate from a border state. His constituents have to live with this a lot more than Mitt Romney's do. But, Mitt's plan? Kick them all out and deal with the problems later.
Seriously...I have no clue why do many people like that clown.
Before I sign off...for all my Democrat friends that don't like John McCain because he supported (actually, he came up with the idea for) the troop surge...I would like to point you to all the news reports that the surge has been successful.
McCain 2008!
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