Tag: politics

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Great Moments in Presidential Speeches

Update: From David Letterman’s “Great Moments” re-cap on January 16, 2009:

I ran across this page at Rawstory.com and decided to replicate it here, although I already have a similar page up in my Quotes section of the blog. Needless to say, I’m trying to help celebrate the end of the Bush Presidency… w00t, January 20th! Can’t get here soon enough!

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“They misunderestimated me,”
— Bentonville, Arkansas, November 6, 2000

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again,”
— Nashville, Tennessee, September 17, 2002

“I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office,”
— to Israeli journalists in Washington in an interview published May 12, 2008.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we,”
— Washington, August 5, 2004

“For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times,”
— Tokyo, February 18, 2002

“I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend,”
— on the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington, June 29, 2005

“Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech,”
— Washington April 16, 2008 to Pope Benedict XVI.

“I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office,”
— Washington, June 26, 2008

“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully,”
— Saginaw, Michigan, September 29, 2000

“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country,”
— Poplar Bluff, Missouri, September 6, 2004

“It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber,”
— Washington, April 10, 2002

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
— Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000

“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test,”
— Townsend, Tennessee, February 21, 2001

“My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended… The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free,”
— USS Abraham Lincoln at sea off the coast of San Diego, California, May 1, 2003

“I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense,”
— Washington, April 18, 2006

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My civil duty

So, I got a notice in the mail a little over a month ago from the city…apparently, I’d been selected for jury duty…… The plan was for me to appear at the civil courts building downtown on Nov. 3rd at 8:00 am and wait to see if I get selected.

Quite honestly, it was a fascinating experience. I got there a bit late (a comedy of errors going on there, forgetting my summons after parking, having to get cash from the ATM to pay for parking, but the ATM not having any cash to give out, etc…), but generally you hang around in this large room with, literally, 500 other people (there were two rooms like this available), until you get selected. There was a lunch break, but otherwise, you sit in a room and wait. Thankfully, I took my DS along and played some Phoenix Wright to pass the time…

Every 30 – 45 minutes or so, the voice over the loudspeaker would read off juror numbers and have you all come downstairs to a separate seating area where they could look at the group (making sure they got a good sampling of young/old, black/white/hispanic, etc.), and then they’d send you off to your designated room.

I got called around 3:15, so I was one of the last groups to get to go. Around 40 of us were taken across the street to another building where we had to answer a variety of questions from the two lawyers, whittling us down to a group of 14 (12 of which would decide a verdict, and the other 2 would be alternates). Of course, I was kept on and had to return the next day (Election Day) to serve on the jury.

After voting at 6:15 am, I went to the court around 9:45 to serve. I won’t go into the details of the case here, but essentially, it was a case involving a car accident and who was at fault. We ended up deciding in favor of the person bringing the suit, mostly because their lawyer was much more effective in his arguments and the defense was…well…not so effective…

The most interesting part for me was the “awarding of damages” portion… I personally tend to err on the side of not awarding “pain and suffering,” but the other jurors felt it was appropriate and, in the end, they were probably right. I guess it’s just hard to come up with a monetary value to decide what something so abstract as “pain” or “suffering” is worth. Especially considering that I haven’t ever been in an injurious accident where I felt I was owed something for all I had just been through. Figuring in the length of the court case, the car repairs, the lost work due to physical therapy, and the costs to the lawyers hired, we felt that going above and beyond the monetary value of the medical treatment alone was just and right.

Anyway, I’ve served on a jury now. And as the judge pointed out, it isn’t very often that one gets to perform two civil duties in a single day: serve on a jury, and voting. Both of which are things that many people around the world aren’t allowed to do.

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Here’s my guess…

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!!! (I’m only putting Missouri as “blue” because I want them to hold their bellwether status…)

Update (11/6/08): While it looks like MO will go for McCain (grrrr…) and NC will go for Obama (yay!), that means it’ll end up something like 364 – 174…which means…I was damned close… 😛

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Palin vs Obama

I honestly wasn’t impressed with the “Mercenaries 2,” but with downloadable content like this, I may have to change my mind. Running around as Palin or Obama with a rocket launcher? Classic!

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Find the Difference

One of these things is not like the other… And it amuses me greatly… 🙂 Hint: One difference is “3,000” and the other is “90,000+”…

McCain Crowd in St. Charles - 10.20.2008

Obama Crowd - 10.18.2008

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Old people are funny!

This was on last night’s Daily Show… One of the commentators, Wyatt Cenac, shows clips from the debate with some old people and gets their comments… Cenac doesn’t have much to say, as the old people are plenty willing to give their opinions.

But yeah, either way, some striking insights!

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Top 10 McCain “Hail Mary” stunts…

Slate.com has predicted the next 10 “Hail Mary” campaign stunts to follow suspension of his campaign:

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.
2. Offers the post of “vice vice president” to Warren Buffett.
3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.
4. Learns to use computer.
5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.
6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.
7. Sex-change operation.
8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.
9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.
10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

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Bigotry and the new frontier…

So, I don’t have an Xbox 360…nor do I really want one…but this is one of the reasons why Nintendo has been so slow to get voice chat features in its games: the company wants to protect children from hearing the other idiots that frequently populate these games.

I’ve only listened in on some of these chats on the Xbox a few times, but I do remember specifically playing the Halo 3 Beta at Josh’s place and hearing what these kids are saying. Not to say that I was any different at the age of 13 (although I hope I was!), but seriously, there are a lot of kids out there playing games (chatting online, posting on Facebook, etc.) that really don’t think about what they’re saying and thinking they’re “cool” for using language (“colorful metaphors,” for the “Star Trek” fans out there) that is somewhat unbecoming. Personally, I find the language part to be more of an annoyance than anything else, but making fun of people and uttering racist and homophobic comments online or while gaming because you are an anonymous person on the internet is pretty unacceptable.

Arguably, were I a parent with a 13-year-old, I’d be more likely to let them play violent video games than to actually talk to these other kids while they play them. I know a few people that don’t even turn their chat feature on so they don’t have to listen to some of these people.

Anyway, this video is from Current TV (w00t, Al Gore!) and is discussing gays and video gaming, and more specifically the “new frontier” of bigotry when a person can be even more anonymous than they used to be (wearing a KKK hood, for example).

I found it interesting, at least…

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On being Pro-Life for Obama…

Obama has made the point a few times, but it tends to fly over the heads of many that consider themselves to be “pro-life”… Obama has consistently said that he wants to limit the need for abortion by providing good health care and education to the masses, which tends to be the prevailing strategy of Western Europe (most of which has a lower abortion rate than the U.S.). Regardless, Sister Mary Jude Jun made an editorial comment in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch that gets this point across very well. Keep in mind that she makes no mention of who she’ll vote for in November, but she still makes the point effectively.

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Web of life

The view of pro-life is distorted when only the birth of children is considered instead of the entire web of life. Abortion is not the underlying problem. Poverty and other difficult situations lead women to this extreme way out. What can be done to make abortions fewer and the entire web of life more respected?

If, with billions to spend on space research, we rejoice to find water on Mars, do we have funds for the untold numbers of children dying each day for lack of clean water on this planet?

New mothers often work several jobs to survive. They need child care when they are at work, healthy food for their children and insurance for sickness. Are we pro-life when we forget about mothers and their babies after they are born?

Countless women die in childbirth because they lack prenatal care; sometimes, the babies die, too. Can we be pro-life and not be concerned?

Jails are a multi-billion dollar business; we fill them with our youth. Could we use those funds to give them the help they need before the cycle of violence begins on our streets and in our schools?

Life is precious from the womb to the tomb; in identifying only one part as important while neglecting the entire web of life issues, we lose our values as citizens and the respect of others.

Sister Mary Jude Jun | St. Louis

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Point is: people should realize that there is a clear distinction between “pro-life” and “pro-birth,” and this distinction is frequently lost in the nuance of political campaigning and speeches.

If you’re truly pro-life, you need to look at all the policies being put forward instead of looking for “ban abortion” in a political platform, and then writing off everything else that individual or party stands for.