I have some house cleaning issues to run through real quick. First, in the next couple days Political Notio will be dormant. We are in the process of moving everything over to The Fold. This is the site Ryan and I purchased a couple months ago and never could decide what to do with it. Finally over last weekend we decided to get something started. Eventually PN will redirect all hits to The Fold. We will leave PN open for reference but will no longer be posting on it.
This site has been up since Dec. of 2004 with some closures in-between. So I have a lot of writing on it. I want to keep it open for reference, for both myself and the readers. This is a way to keep myself honest and also a way to be able to look back.
Hopefully the transition will be smooth but I'm sure there will be kinks to work out. Keep checking back and please give me feedback on the new site.
6.04.2008
House Cleaning
6.02.2008
Rush Hudson Limbaugh Courthouse
I live about 40 minutes away from Rush Limbaugh's hometown. Yes I'm sure one day the GOP will turn the entire town into a museum of Modern Conservatism, but until then President Bush has ordered the new federal courthouse to be named after the drug addict's grandfather, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. Grandpa Limbaugh was a practicing attorney in the SEMO region. I'm not sure but I don't think he was ever a prosecutor so why they would name a courthouse after him is beyond me. Had junior Limbaugh finished college instead of dropping out, he too might have been a practicing attorney as well. I just hope they go easy on the drug dealers that appear before the courts. It would be the fair Limbaugh thing to do.
5.28.2008
Some Clarification
After an email I received from a very concerned and very serious GOPer, I will concede and admit that I do not think the GOP is in self destruct mode. I do think, however, that the GOP is in a state of change with its members realizing the transition won't be easy. This does not mean I personally believe the GOP to be in disarray. I just find it extremely hysterical that every chance a Republican gets and the media as well they want to paint the Dems as being divided and in a constant state of crumble. I think the same attention/scrutiny should be applied to the GOP in that regard. I hope this clears up any confusion my last three weeks of GOP bashing may have caused.
5.27.2008
Sharpest Driving Decline Ever
DOT says Americans drove 4.3 percent less in March 2008 than they did the previous March.
Ever heard of voting with your pocket book? Or wait, is this the same thing as voting with your feet?
5.21.2008
Traveling Again
Long time readers will know that I used to shut my blog down during the summer. Summer is my travel, leisure time and I tend not to care about politics. Usually just baseball and the upcoming college basketball season. Or in the past, I spent my summers working on political campaigns and had absolutely no time for anything other than work. I'm not going to be on a campaign this summer but I will be traveling to wherever my heart desires. But I will try my hardest to keep the site up and not close it like I did last summer and the summer before that.
With that said, I am on my way to Chicago (I hate Chicago) and from there I'm going to Iowa. I won't return to Southern Illinois until Monday, I think. I'm bringing my laptop so I will do everything I can to keep posting. And I'm sure I'll continue to read my favorite blogs along the way.
5.19.2008
5.09.2008
More Conservatism, Not Less
I'm in the midst of reading the much talked about list by Victor Hanson about how to move the "conservative movement" forward.
Some may read the list as a call to action while others may read it as one of those lists people make about how to spend their money when hoping they might win the lottery. Put me somewhere in-between because I can't quit laughing long enough to finish reading it.
I'm going to write more about this later once I get a chance to let it all sink in. I wanted to give people a chance to read before I comment. It's short and worth the read.
*Update:
It's been an interesting read through Hanson's list of what can cure the Republican Party. What jumps right out at me is there is nothing about the environment. There's the mention of "gas prices," which calls for more drilling and more coal production but nothing to safeguard the future of our environment. I think this is a mistake on Hanson's part. A clear oversight it must be. I know many Republicans who are green and believe in a cleaner future.
I also didn't notice any mention of gay marriage and abortion. But he does mention morals so maybe that's what he's referring to. I'll have more later I'm sure.
4.23.2008
Posting From Ireland
The pictures I promised will have to wait. I brought the digital camera but forgot the cord to plug it into the computer. So I can't download any pictures until I get home. Today we are on our way to Dingle where I'm hoping to get my picture with the statue of Bill Clinton. Then we are heading to the north of Ireland for some more beautiful scenery.
I hear Hillary won Penn. Good for her. Now drop out already. Obama should win NC and things should be okay. The Irish are probably better read and pay closer attention to our politics than we do. They love Hillary here and especially Bill. When I tell them I'm for Obama they laugh. Not sure exactly why they love Bill but they do.
Anyway I'll do another post soon with more content. Well probably not, I'm on vacation.
4.18.2008
Off To Ireland
I'm leaving in the morning for Ireland. I'm pretty siked about this trip too. I will do a post from Limerick ju
st as soon as I get the chance. But for the next 10 days or so posting might be rather sporadic. Instead of my normal Bush bashing I'm goi
ng to try and do more cultural posting, and try to bring a foreign view about America. Of course all that might be impossible since the country is loaded with Guinness.
We've rented a car and are going to drive all over that Emerald Isle. I'll have my laptop with me but all will depend on what kind of signal I'm getting at the time. Since we are going to be rushed for time, I will do my best to keep the blog going. And don't forget, I'm going to make sure I get my picture with the Clinton statue so that I can post it on here.
Just A Little Shaking
Woke up this morning to an earthquake. It was about 4:30am and I woke up to shut the tv off that I had left on. After finally finding the remote I had just rolled over and the whole house shook. At first I thought it was a thunderstorm. It sounded like rolling thunder. But then it kept getting stronger and the pictures on the wall started shaking. It lasted about 15-20 seconds. Then there was a small aftershock and that was it. I fell right back asleep. When I got up at 6am I watched the news and confirmed what I pretty much figured had happened, there was an earthquake.
Last quake I remember was when I was in junior high. We might have had some small rumbles since then but an actual quake that made the news was in '91 or '92. Most people don't realize it but Southern Illinois sits on one the largest fault lines in America- New Madrid Fault. California gets all the fame for having seismic activity but Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri are right smack dab in the middle of dangerous territory.
Though I didn't think this one was all that big it appears it was felt far and wide. Here' s the NY Times:
For a quake that has not so far yielded any reports of injury or significant damage, it sure was felt far and wide: The Associated Press says it was felt as far away as Milwaukee and Cincinnati, and that skyscrapers in Chicago and Indianapolis were set to shimmying (that’s good news, compared to cracking and crumbling). An early morning radio host all the way over in Des Moines reported feeling her desk chair roll and shake beneath her. Even Grand Rapids, Mich., noticed the rumble.The USGS describes the region as:
This large region borders the much more seismically active New Madrid seismic zone on the seismic zone's north and west. The Illinois basin - Ozark dome region covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis. Moderately frequent earthquakes occur at irregular intervals throughout the region. The largest historical earthquake in the region (magnitude 5.4) damaged southern Illinois in 1968. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed historically in the region.And now as I'm typing this...another quake just hit. More later...wow it's 10:16am
*Update:
Things have stopped shaking again. Not sure what the strength of this latest one was but it didn't last as long and seemed to be a little weaker than the first one.
**Update:
Initial reports are the aftershock felt while typing this post was a 4.5 earthquake. Much weaker than the 5.2 felt very early this morning.
***Update:
Nice ABC News article about seismic activity in Southern Illinois.
Tags: Earthquake
4.01.2008
Milestone!
Today marks a milestone for Political Notio. This is the 300th post! It only took more than 3 years to get there. Well not really. The blog was started in 2004 and then ended in 2005 and then started again in 2008. We have a lot of new stuff in store for 2008. As you can tell we already have a new template which I'm liking very much. I'm also thinking about adding a fourth column for quick posts. Those are to be used more for quick one or two sentence posts that won't get covered up by lengthier posts in the main column. In other words, quick posts are going to be for things I don't want lost on a page somewhere.
We also added the Fantasy World Award which has been going very well. Our next big leap is going to be to a new domain. That's right, a new domain that hopefully will just redirect traffic right to the new spot. I've already purchased the new address and just as soon as me and Ryan can get it up we are going to unveil it. The new domain will also give us much more functionality than Blogger; although I must admit Blogger has been nice. It's just a pain sometimes to get it the way I want it.
Anyway, enjoy the site. Enjoy the new changes and enjoy the even newer changes that are on the way.
Pics For Everyone
I've updated my profile page and added a picture of yours truly. I know everyone is excited and will be asking for more and more. However, if you have a Facebook account you can add me as a friend and see many more pics.
In the realm of sports my bracket is terribly messed up. I hate the fact that all four #1's are in the Final Four. I'm still pulling for Memphis, not because I'm a big fan but because I don't want to see any of the other three teams win it.
The MLB opened yesterday to what is always a very boring first month. My pick this year is anyone but Boston. And as usual I pick the Cubs to finish last in the NL Central with my Cardinals winning the division and losing in the first round of the playoffs. I can't wait for summer.
3.18.2008
Having Your Cake...and everyone elses (Update)
Following the context of Obama’s speech below, there’s not one person’s writing that I’ve read who has more talent than Jaz. He’s just a natural writer. We’ve been known to debate a few items here and there but with this one I just don’t understand his interpretation.
I made a comment on Lisa’s blog where I agreed with her that Rev. Wright’s comments were going to be burdensome to Obama. I agreed he was going to have to distance himself and would have to do it quickly and probably forcefully. Then at the end I said a few years ago I told people it would be hard to beat Obama on issues and charisma, it would be his middle name and his church that would cause the most trouble for him.
I’m assuming Jaz replied to that last sentence of mine stating that a relationship with a pastor (Obama’s most definitely) is about issues; further arguing that it’s dismissive to attempt to separate issues from the philosophy that shapes and defines those issues. In essence, Obama’s relationship with his pastor is the guiding philosophy that shapes his issues. Jaz concludes, “[s]omething as transcendent as someone’s spiritual guidance and philosophy cannot simply be compartmentalized and then dismissed.”
So what we have is that religion is philosophy that guides political issues. Fine with me. But as soon as I bring up former presidential candidate and current VP hopeful Mitt Romney, Jaz says the same interpretation of religion and issues doesn’t apply.“Jaz, I would think that someone who openly, proudly, and vehemently supported Mitt Romney would want to do is make religion an issues argument. The church Romney belongs to and regularly attends believes that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri and when Jesus returns he will return to Jackson Co. Missouri to setup the New Jerusalem. They also believed until 1978 that black people were second class citizens and were punished by God.”
Jaz says by mentioning Romney I’m classically trying to derail the argument:“Mentioning Romney in the context of this discussion is classic Chris obfuscation (or ‘derailing’ if you like). The strategy being, if he muddies than waters enough around all of these various distinct discussions, then out of the confusion and murkiness will arise a vindicated Barack Obama, rising out of the ashes of the discussion like a phoenix.”
Right then we see two very different standards.
Jaz already previously stated that a relationship with a pastor and one’s religion is the philosophy that guides political issues. Separating the two was “dismissive” and something as “transcendent as someone’s spiritual guidance and philosophy cannot simply be compartmentalized and then dismissed .” But for Romney Jaz completely dismisses and compartmentalizes his very own logic by stating that religion for Romney simply only “informs” his decisions on political issues and that there is no similarity between the two situations. Talk about derailing. But Jaz didn’t derail my argument, he derailed his own.
The point of the matter is if religion is the guiding philosophical principal to political issues, like Jaz originally said it was, then it applies to both parties—to politicians everywhere and not just to Barack Obama. If the Jaz standard is that personal faith personally reflects political issues, then Mitt Romney who is an ordained priest in the Mormon Church is also bound by that same Jaz standard. You can’t separate the two. Romney’s faith can’t merely inform his political issues while Obama’s completely guides his. Or if you do separate the two don't insist the other person is derailing the argument.
*Update:
As I was posting this one, Jaz posted another reply on Lisa's site. After reading his latest I understand much better where Jaz is coming from on this. It's about spiritual guidance and not about religion. Though that distinction is hard to make, technically speaking Jaz does make sense. But I still don't see how one can separate Romney from his spiritual guidance and not Obama. Not only is Romney an ordained priest in the mormon church, he's also a prophet and a spiritual leader in his own right. Obama's merely a member of a church-- a member who has routinely rejected his former pastor's comments and actions. If a priest is believed to be only "informed" of his faith and guidance on issues how can a member be held to a higher standard? If anything, one would think a priest would be much more inclined to use his spiritual guidance as advisement to their political issues than say a layperson.
3.06.2008
Winter Has To Go!
In Southern Illinois a typical winter is normally mild. Every fews years we'll get some snow. For instance the last snowfall we had was in 2004. Until this year that is. We've always had ice storms, which to me is worse than snow. But snow isn't common though it does happen. On Sunday it was in the 70s and now they are forecasting 2-3in. of snow tonight and 2-3in. tomorrow. Total accumulation could be 8in. or more. I realize 8in. of snow isn't that much. But to us it is. We don't have the equipment to handle that much snow and no one around here knows how to drive in it.
As you can tell from the above weather map something very odd is happening. This winter storm is blowing in from Arkansas! A winter storm coming from the Southwest? I don't know if I've ever seen that before. What I do know is that I'm sick of winter. I'm ready for some warm weather and sunny skies. I had so many big plans for this weekend too. It's March, it's not supposed to be doing this in March.
Editor's Note: For all you people out there who think I'm from Chicago, as you can see I'm no where near it. We're actually farther south than 90% of the State Commonwealth of Kentucky. And closer to Mississippi than the city of Chicago. Judging from the last three weeks of winter weather we've had, we might has well be in Michigan.
2.17.2008
Happy Grand Leaders Day
For most of us who have cushy government jobs tomorrow is a holiday honoring our grand leaders for their ser
vice. As an American, I've always felt a little uneasy about this
holiday. It seems awful close to old Soviet holidays honoring their revolution or something right out of North Korea. But this one is a little more tame when it comes to actually honoring anything substantial. It began as an honor of George Washington's birthday. Then later amended to include Lincoln. And pretty soon will include Reagan if the neocons get their way. I propose though that if we do include Reagan in the holiday that we give
him his own. We could call it Super Patriot Serious Tough Guy President Day. It would make no sense to have Reagan share his day with Washington or Lincoln, who did nothing to end the Cold War.
2.14.2008
2.13.2008
The Morning After
I bet some thought this post would be about the morning after the Potomac Primaries yesterday, well you'd be wrong. If you want that go here. It's about the morning after our new template and just like with anything that's done late at night, you almost always have second thoughts when you wake up the next morning-- especially in college, but those morning afters always had a sense of fear whereas this one is more of a sense of I still have more work to do. Craig knows what I'm talking about.
I don't like all the dead space surrounding the main column. The left margin is huge and the top margin I could drive a freight train through before it actually gets to the posts. I'll have to work on that today. I do like the sidebars and that widebar at the top. I hope it updates like it's supposed to. I also want to give a special thanks to Isnaini Dot Com for designing the template. He seems to do a pretty good job.
Once we get our own domain and break away from the chains of blogger things should go much smoother.
2.12.2008
New Duds
As you can see, we are updating quite a few things around here. Looks like we still have some bugs to work out but overall it's coming together nicely. I think everything carried over except the links on the sidebar. So periodically throughout the night we'll try to add the links back, at least the ones we can remember that is. This template seems to have much more functionality to it than the last one. I like the three column with a widebar at the top much better. It will allow for updates of videos and news coverage that's supposed to feed right into the bar without having to add new javascript. We're still unconvinced about it working that easily, however.
If people notice something we left out just shoot us an email or leave a comment. And if the new template doesn't look good in your browser definitely let us know because it's supposed to be a fluid template.
We're also going to try and add widget boxes back for pollster.com, but at the moment I'm not sure where to put it. I don't want to overcrowd the widebar and it won't fit on the smaller sidebars.
For the most part it's looking better. The next step is to switch over to our own domain.
2.11.2008
Ice Storm
I'm really not much on winter. It rarely snows here, we had like an inch last week and that was our first snowfall since 2004; but I will admit I would rather have snow than ice any day. Much to my disappointment it looks like we have a round of ice storms heading my way. It started about noon today and we probably already have half an inch covering the ground.
It was in the 60s over the weekend and now this. Plus around here people have no clue how to drive in snow or ice. And the last place you want to be is in Wal-Mart. People are ransacking the place like it's the Second Coming or something. I usually just try to wait this stuff out and avoid contact with any public place, that's if anything is even open. Everything shuts down here with the just the threat of winter weather.
Tags: weather, Edison Chen, ice storm
2.09.2008
The Return of Jaz (Update, Update II, Update III)
Actually it's more like the return of me since I'm fairly certain I'm the one who keeps quitting and returning. But for those of you who remember some of mine and Jaz's prized discussions, we're having a fairly tame one right now concerning, well I don't even know what it's about to be honest. Ours are almost as good as Lisa's and Graham's used to get.
*Update:
And we're off...
Actually this is all in good fun. I'm posting my reply to Jazz here because I wanted to post a vid and the blogger comment section wouldn't let me do that. The argument that McCain is the real flip flopper, or that John Kerry is, in regards to Romney, is irrelevant to the points I wanted to stress in my first reply. As far as I'm concerned if you're not flip flopping you're not running for office. And so follows my reply.
--Jaz, half of what you say belongs on a McCain rant page and I’m almost positive I’m not the one to fire back with McCainisms to prove you or anyone else otherwise. I can’t help that McCain is the Republican nominee. By the looks of things tonight, it appears Huck will probably be his best pick for VP, but still Romney wouldn’t be a bad choice either. Though I’m not buying the McCain’s the true flip flopper and Romney isn’t stuff. They are both flip floppers. Heck all politicians are flip floppers.
Suggesting, via wiki, that flip flops are sudden changes of position and not a process over time is spinning at its best. The root of John Kerry flip flops begins with him returning medals in the 1970s then only later, decades later, to state that he didn’t actually return the medals but the ribbons. It is then that Republicans start with the flip flops on Kerry and not in 2004. How convenient, once again, it is for Romney that flip flops are only sudden, in mid speech changes on positions. But even, just even if that was the case, the span of 13 years like you mention is totally inaccurate. It wasn’t that Romney in 1994 while running for the senate was pro-gay rights or pro-choice or anti-gun or whatever else right wingers consider to be liberal positions, it was as early as 2002 that he claimed to be pro-choice when running for MA governor.
Here’s a vid to refresh some memory.
It wasn’t until the end of 2007 that Romney joined the NRA and it wasn’t until he was in the middle of his presidential campaign that he finally came around to declaring he was not a champion of the gay rights movement. A process over 13 years? Not hardly.
That also goes along with him not being a career politician. Maybe he hasn’t been running for office his whole life, but being the son of a former governor and Republican presidential candidate, and having a mother who also ran for numerous offices, surely doesn’t make him an outsider either. That would be like me saying Chelsea Clinton is an outsider to politics and really only made up her mind about positions after deciding to run for office for the third time. It would be hard to make that argument fly in any conversation.
I don’t know what Romney believes in his heart, I have no clue to that. Only God sees the heart. All I have is his actions and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And his actions demonstrate that for this presidential race he has moved his position as far right as he could. That’s not a bad thing. That’s not an uncommon thing. Reagan did it in 1976, and was denied the nomination then. So hope is still very much alive for Mitt in 2012. But him changing his mind by some long term convictional process isn’t something the public has bought into just yet.
I like Romney as a candidate, that’s why I thought for sure he would win the nomination. I’m not big on his religion but as a candidate, coming from someone who has managed many campaigns, I think he’s a great candidate. I think he would have had better luck had he not tried to flip flop and just ran as himself.I do, however, particularly like the notion that Bush's unpopular polarization is part of some national hysteria rather than the fact that he's just been a really bad president. Not having one single domestic item he can claim as a success, or really one foreign item, while running up the largest deficit in the history of this country and overseeing a party that has two incumbent congressmen sitting in prison with a plethora of federal investigations underway, and also overseeing the first reduction in American household income ever on top of $3 gasoline, I'm sure has nothing to do with his unpopularity and everything to add to the hysteria.
**Update II
Once again I need to use a video so I'm going to have to post my latest reply to Jaz on the main page. To read Jaz's response please go to the comments section or click here. I should also preface this by saying please see my sarcasm when reading. There are times to be serious and times to have fun. For the most part, I'm not even sure if it's worth doing if you're not having fun. Splitting hairs in an argument usually brings out my inner sarcastic self.
Jaz, you crack me up my man. He says, point blank, in the video that he believes abortion should be safe and legal in this country. How else can that be categorized other than being pro-choice? Believing abortion should be safe and legal means women should have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. It doesn’t mean that Roe should remain law. Yes he does go on to state Roe should be left alone, but he unequivocally states that women should have the right to choose and that he would do everything in his power to see women maintain that right. Trying to split hairs looks really silly with this argument and in legal terms there’s no such thing as pro-choice or pro-life or whatever you may call it. The real kicker though, is that if he’s merely stare decisis as you’re trying to argue then that would require allowing women to have the right to privacy. And even if Roe was overturned, all it would do is turn it back over to the states keeping abortion legal, thus still giving women the right to choose. Either way, stare or not, it’s pro-choice. Here’s another video of him proclaiming his right to choose beliefs from 2002, and not 1994 as suggested in your last reply.
I don’t use a ten second piece of video to prove Romney’s liberal, in fact in my first reply to you I state that I don’t believe Romney to be a liberal at all. I use the video to show that he tried his hardest to flip flop on issues hoping that no one would notice. He might not have a verbal gaffe that you mention, but he sure is trying to have it both ways.
I see no problem using wiki as a source at all. Where do I ever say anything about the validity of wiki? I never even questioned the definition of flip flop that wiki uses. I don’t even care. Wiki could say that a flip flop is only a flip flop when three people hear it at the same time while bouncing on one leg and I wouldn’t care at all. If I shit in a box and put a guarantee on it, it’s still just shit in a box. That’s my best Tommy Boy for ya. I don’t even know what you’re talking about concerning wiki. I merely mentioned it in a prepositional phrase and you think I’m attacking your sources. I certainly am not.
So now Romney goes from not being a lifelong politician to simply not being a Washington insider? Is that the same thing as the bastardization of the term that was originally used most prominently and incorrectly for George Bush when he ran as a Washington outsider in 2000?
Somehow I knew you would fall back on the Bush has saved us from another terror attack on our soil argument to defend Bush’s otherwise pitiful record as president. But when a president has a 29% approval rating and nearly three-quarters of the country disapprove of the job he’s doing, it’s not just Democrats who don’t like him. Unless you’re trying to argue that Dems make up about 70% of the population which I’m sure you aren’t. An election being stolen has nothing to do with Bush’s unpopularity. That argument left when he won in ’04. This is not irrational hatred or hysteria, this is Bush exhaustion besieged upon a country that wants change.**Update III
Since I'm not using a propaganda video this time, my latest reply to Jaz is in the comment section. I think what strikes me most about this whole conversation is the degree to which political correctness in it's most politically correct use of terms is so insistent by the proclaimed conservative Republican. To keep everything in order here is a quick run down.
- Jaz's original post, where I actually agreed with him that led to this whole thing.
- Our comments on his page following my agreement, which somehow turned into a lengthy, but fun, discussion of what a pro-choice stance is and Hillary as being the only polarizing politician to ever run for office unless we include George Bush in the realm of politicians who have run for office.
- Finally, the conversation is moved to my page so I can post propaganda videos of Mitt Romney where it's not actually him speaking but an actor paid to portray Big Love to essentially be used against him by those hoping to paint him as a flip flopper. And where we discuss the total irrationality behind the 70% of Americans who disapprove of George Bush versus the non-hysteric, very serious and very rational people who think he's doing a good job.
