The Z Spot

So I was really enthused when I read this article about Obama meeting with Republican lawmakers. Then I saw the vote on the stimulus package.

For someone who says he’s not biased along party lines, and wants to incorporate other ideas, he sure did a good job getting every Republican to vote against his stimulus package.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that Obama is progressing from all talk and nothing to show for it to all show and nothing getting done about it. Is this really a new kind of politics? Are posed oval office pictures and “closed door” meetings from which picture-perfect quotes are released a new kind of politics?

I feel like Obama is slowly turning the White House into a reality TV show. We’re all waiting to see what happens next, and get a glimpse of his “real” change, but instead, what we’re watching is a carefully scripted and edited production.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The General Election
My personal opinion, the general election should be quite interesting. Right about now, it looks like it will be McCain and Obama. What’s going to be interesting about this is the independents, and how they factor in to the election.

Both Obama and McCain have shown an ability to draw in independent voters. Think way back to when nobody thought either one, much less both, would be doing particularly well. The one big wildcard in the early, open primaries was not whether Dems would vote for Hillary or Obama, or whether the Republicans would vote for Mitt or Huckabee. It was actually whether the independents or weakly identified partisan voters would vote in the Democratic primary for Barack or in the Republican for McCain.

The general election should be interesting. Although unidentified voters in open primary states have already had to decide which primary to vote in, in the many states where primaries are not open, they have not had to think about this. Which raises the question of, come November, when they do, what wil happen? And will the polls in the General be as awful as some of the polls in the primaries? Only time will tell.
Posted by Zach at 12:45 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 08, barack obama, elections, John McCain, politics

Alright. Obama and his potential administration have made some comments that really upset me. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of free trade or fair trade, this should really bother you.

Apparently, China has been unfairly manipulating its currency and its trade, to the detriment of the rest of the world. So we have a developing country (albeit a very quickly developing country) who is undermining the free trade system. They are also not being very fair trade about it.

So, what is the response? Let’s have America throw the weight of its economic and political power (doesn’t sound very fair) into enforcing compliance with our own economic standards (or very free).

I think if anything, China should be an indication that the free market, does, in fact work. They can manipulate their currencies, lower their standards, and allow companies to export poorly made products for so long. Eventually, there will be problems with baby toys, baby formula, etc. and the world will lose trust in Chinese products. We’ll learn to stop buying, because cheaper is not always better.

Perhaps the title of this post is a little unfair, because Republican administrations do this to, but for us to be the police of the “free markets” seems a little absurd. How can we a) continue subsidizing our own unproductive industries (agriculture, aviation, automotive, etc.), and b) use tarifs, embargos, and other economic policies to enforce our standards, and still believe that we are in a position to tell anyone about either free or fair trade?

So Obama has ordered a halting to all of the Guantanamo prosecutions. Which is good, in that it is a step toward following through with his promise to close the prison. And I think it’s good to let him and his administration review the process and review the cases before continuing.

But, I really wonder if some of the ideas being talked about would work. Trying these individuals in a Federal Court? Perhaps this was the right idea when they were first obtained, but now it can be nothing but disaster. How can we pretend to give these people rights when we have denied them for so long?

What happens when they appeal their verdicts based on the right to a speedy trial? Or when they say that their statements were obtained in unconstitutional ways? Perhaps we should have tried them in the criminal justice system to begin with, but now we need to weigh the value of giving them the rights of “ordinary” suspects with the risk of them getting off, even though it’s obvious that they are dangerous criminals.

I’m interested to see what Obama does, and how it works out.

I guess this is probably not surprising given his activity over the last couple months, and the early start he got on the transition (including early meetings with Bush), but Obama has jumped right into the Presidency, taking action on some of his campaign promises, and some other things.

I think this is great, and shows that regardless of whether or not he will let people down, he was not blowing smoke up our you-know-where’s during the campaign. Even if he set the bar too high, he actually seems like he’s trying to reach it (although simultaneously lower it).

My only concern (I’ll translate it for the people who think I’m out to get Obama: my only hateful comment) is that maybe he’s jumping into too much too quickly. By trying to close Guantanamo, freeze salaries, freeze any pending policies, bring peace to the middle east, come up with a tax stimulus plan, increase government spending, retake his oath, and get all of his appointees confirmed in a matter of a few days, is he hurting his chances of success with any one thing? Only time will tell. Eventually he will have to ease up and focus on one or two issues at a time.

But so far, I am impressed.

Thursday, February 7, 2008
Romney Dropping Out
Came out of nowhere. Wow. I guess a vote for Huckabee wasn’t really a vote for McCain after all. And what’s with Romney praising McCain? Not that I mind, since I really do think McCain should be our next President. But, for all of their bickering, and for all of the talk of Romney and Huckabee being the two “real” conservative (i.e. openly way too religious to a. win a general election, or b. be an effective President if elected) candidates, that was a shocker. Is he going to come out and endorse a candidate now? If so, which one? More to come.
Posted by Zach at 11:16 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: 08, elections, John McCain, mike huckabee, mitt romney, republican

Monday, February 4, 2008
Ron Paul and his supporters
This was inspired by a post I read on another blog, and a Ron Paul supporter’s response to it. Now, before I say this, let me say that I am glad Ron Paul ran. And I’m glad that he got the media attention that he did. In the same way that I am glad that Howard Dean experienced the success that he did. I am glad to see non-mainstream politicians running and capturing people’s attention. I also hope that all of the young voters who got involved in Paul and Dean’s campaigns have remained, and will remain, engaged in politics.

Ron Paul’s supporters, though, need to step off their high horse. Ron Paul has raised a TON of money. He has a ton of attention. Instead of blaming his failure on a media bias, they need to really reevaluate what the issue is. And the issue is one of two things.

One, Ron Paul and his campaign have been too busy talking about being outsiders, the media bias, complaining about not being in this article or that debate, etc. to talk about the issues and get something more than Ron Paul’s name out there. In addition, perhaps Ron Paul rEVOLUTION is not the best use of campaign funds. Especially when you’re running in the Republican primary. Republicans don’t support revolutions. Period. I believe that if the campaign hand’t been associated with “revolution,” it would have been at least somewhat more successful.

Second, the MAJORITY of people still don’t support Ron Paul’s policies. He has the media attention. He has the money. His name is 7 letters long. Very google-able. People know what he stands for. They just don’t like it.

If MILLIONS of people are out there putting up RP Revolution signs, YouTube videos, MySpace bulletins, and donating money, where are they when the caucus or primary rolls through their town?
Posted by Zach at 12:33 AM
Labels: 08, elections, Ron Paul

So, I admit it. I’m not a big TV person, but I have my two shows. They’re Big Love and Prison Break.

Re-watching the first two seasons of Big Love has really got me thinking about something, and made me become a little more Libertarian. Let me preface this by saying that I know that Big Love is fictional, so don’t jump on me about that.

But, that being said, the premise of the show is that there is a polygamist family living in a Utah suburb, leading a normal life except that they happen to believe in and practice plural marriage. This is contrasted with frequent images of the polygamist compound on which the husband and one of the wives grew up.

My libertarian thought was, “Why not legalize polygamy?” People are going to practice it anyway, and what business is it of ours? As long as it’s consenting adults, so what? If polygamy were legalized, more polygamist families could live lives like that of the Hendricksons on the show, finding new wives out in the open, etc. They would not be driven to live on compounds led by perverts. It would be easier to monitor the age of the girls being married into that lifestyle. And the polygamist leaders would lose a huge card that they play, which is that the government is out to destroy their holy lifestyle.

In reality, how much difference would it make for enforcement anyway? Do you ever see people being charged with polygamy in the news? No. They’re charged for tax and welfare related fraud, or for child abuse, or for kidnapping. So what’s the big deal? Let people live like they want to, and perhaps we could save the lives of the children who have no choice in the matter.

So, about a week ago, I was listening to old replays of a show about the conversion to television, and although I forget the exact number, I remember hearing about an absurd amount of money being spent by the government and the private partners to ensure that the public was made aware of the transition.

What it made me think was, how was that money spent?

Maybe it’s a tainted image, but here’s where I heard about it. On cable TV. Over and over again. And what I wondered was, why are these people telling me about the conversion? If you have cable, it’s already going to be fine. It’s people without cable that have to worry.

Also, how much money should they really spend on this? With wars, famine, and an economic crisis, is someone’s television set not working really a crisis?

Also, are the people who don’t watch enough TV to want cable really going to miss their three stations all that much? I’m curious to see what other people think about this.

Another post to please the people who want to see me as a hopeless Obama critic. But please, it’s not about that.

I’m actually impressed that Obama has realized (maybe he knew all along) that some of the expectations being set for himself, which got him elected are unreasonable. It’s also prett impressive that he’s actually admitting this to the public.

Now I’m curious to see how everyone reacts, though. He now acknowledges that closing Gitmo may be harder than people know. Let’s see how long it takes him. The promising thing is that he still wants to, and still may be able to, get it done. But within the first 100 days? Probably not going to happen. Let’s see whether this becomes a less-than-expected Obama success, or grounds for criticism as an Obama failure.

Unfortunately, people on the far left are already criticizing his comments, saying that he is not making this a priority, etc., etc. Some people are writing it off as a failure. I hope for Obama’s sake that the far left learn to scale back their expectations.