There will be yet another Democratic debate tonight, this time taking place in Ohio. It is scheduled to start at 9pm ET and run on MSNBC. I plan on Live-Blogging the debate (if nothing big happens between now and then) so check back later tonight for my take on the brawl between the two candidates.
The associates of the people who learned how to fly commercial planes into buildings have been reduced to this. Just another example of how awesome our military is.
For all their rhetoric about how Bush is spending way to much money, Barack and Hillary don’t really offer a way to save money. In fact, they are going to most likely increase the national debt with all their campaign promises. I bet you are wondering who is going to pay for all this. No, the Democrats haven’t figured out a way to directly tax the citizens of another country so we, the American citizens, will have to foot their bill. Go here and read Ed Morrissey’s complete article on this subject. It brings up some things you may want to consider if you are planning on voting for either of them.
Idaho’s state legislature House Revenue and Taxation Committee has printed up a tax incentive proposal for nuclear energy companies.
Two proposed tax incentives that would benefit the nuclear power industry cleared the first hurdle in the Idaho Legislature this morning.
The House Revenue and Taxation Committee voted to print proposals brought by Tim Solomon, executive director of the Regional Development Alliance in Idaho Falls.
The first proposal would exempt processing materials used for the production of energy from sales and use tax. The second proposal would cap net the taxable property value at $400 million for projects that involve an investment of $1 billion or more within seven years.
Eastern Idaho has an opportunity to attract French nuclear services company Areva, but the energy production-exemption proposal would create opportunity for greater investment statewide, Solomon told committee members.
The article makes it clear a little bit later that this is strictly going to be a vote on whether to give tax incentives to nuclear energy companies, not on the environmental impacts of nuclear energy. Guess they want to limit the amount of environmental protest this issue might cause.
Looks like Ralph Nader is going to be running on a third party ticket again this election. When asked what they thought about this development, Obama and Clinton didn’t seem to happy.
Obama praised Nader, who turns 74 on Wednesday, for his “outstanding work” on behalf of consumers. The Illinois senator wrote in “Dreams From My Father,” that in 1984, just after graduating from college, he spent three months working as an organizer for a Nader-related group in New York City.
Now, though, Nader is just a “perennial presidential candidate,” Obama said.
“His view is, unless it’s Ralph Nader, that you’re not tough enough on any of these issues,” Obama said Sunday after a tour of the National Gypsum plant in Lorain, Ohio. “He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush, and eight years later I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about.”
Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) expressed disappointment in Nader. “Obviously, it’s not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is,” she said. “But it’s a free country.”
Recalling the 2000 campaign, she added that his being on the Green Party ticket “prevented Al Gore from being the greenest president we could have had, and I think that’s really unfortunate.”
Things continue to look better and better for the Republicans. I wonder what other curve balls this election might throw at the candidates?
Well I am back from the beach and I’m tired. Therefore, I am only going to leave you with this picture I took in a local Publix on Friday that I thought was pretty funny (Hint: Look at McCain’s eyes), and a picture of this morning’s sunrise.
Enjoy.
I’m taking the weekend off and going to be at the beach until Sunday night so everyone have a great weekend. Why would you care about this fact? Well your going to get a break from my posts. I know, its going to be hard for me too.
However, here is my parting gift to you, a poll. Be sure to leave comments explaining your choice. However, the comments won’t show up until Sunday because I have to approve them. To many spammers to have my comment section set up any other way. Anyways, enjoy.
After Serbian protesters set fire to the US embassy in Belgrade last night, things seemed to have quieted down a little this morning, but Russia isn’t ruling out the use of force to end this situation. With all this going on, I feel that the Serbian government doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that things need to proceed fairly peacefully within its own borders.
The U.S. has received assurances from Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica “that there would not be a repeat of this episode, and we will hold them to that,” State Department spokesman McCormack said.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, said: “Those scenes that we saw are regrettable. The Serbian government has repeated time and time again that any solution to the Kosovo problem — other than peaceful and mutually accepted a compromise solution — would lead to instability in the region. Unfortunately, this fell on deaf ears.”
If they can’t even keep their own populous from rioting, why would Kosovo want to stay part of Serbia? Obviously people are mad in Serbia and you can’t just expect them to listen to your words of “stay calm.” Things like that will definitely fall on “deaf ears.” Serbia’s government has obviously failed miserably at protecting its own citizens and the lives of foreigners. They are just lucky that things didn’t get to the point where any American embassy workers were killed.
If these protest to continue, I fear that the world will end up giving in to Serbia and Russia’s demands just to obtain peace, no matter the costs. They will forgo analyzing the issues just so that they can return to the status quo. If Kosovo is to return to being part of Serbia, it needs to be done peacefully and Serbia’s government needs show the world that it can protect its citizens from themselves. If things aren’t done peacefully and either Kosovo returns to Serbia or stays independent, I can see the Serbians taking a lot of their anger out on the Kosovars. Either way, it looks like NATO is going to be there for a while.
Tonight I will be live blogging the CNN Democratic debate at the University of Texas. I’m not really looking forward to watching this because last time was really really boring. However, the talking heads are predicting a pretty vicious Clinton tonight so that might make this experience more enjoyable. We shall see.
UPDATE (8:02pm ET):
Oh this is funny. When the CNN anchor introduced the Univision reporter, he didn’t at first come out so she then made “come here” motions with her hands as if she were talking to a child. Priceless.
UPDATE (8:07pm ET):
Whenever Clinton insists on talking about individualism and personal responsibility, I laugh out loud (“lol” for all you who know AIMspeak).
UPDATE (8:10pm ET):
I really don’t understand how Hillary keeps insisting that the government just giving money people actually creates more jobs. Its simple economics that shows handouts actually decreases worker output a makes them less likely to decide work.
UPDATE (8:21pm ET):
After speaking a little espanol, the Univision anchor (Jorge) asks if they would be willing to meet with Raul when he is in charge.
Clinton insists that she would only talk with Raul if there was “evidence” that “change was happening” and there was a move towards democracy.
Obama will meet with Raul without “preconditions” but there has to be “preparations” on the agenda that Cuba will address human rights issues. This is Obama trying to not go back on him saying that he will meet with our enemies while still looking like a tough president.
UPDATE (8:30pm ET):
Next question from John King is about the Economy and how they differentiate themselves.
Obama says that we have to restore a sense of “fairness and balance” (aka Socialism). Viva la revolucion! And then he comes out with it. Obama wants to create a “green economy” and he doesn’t mean cash. He is actually sounding a lot like John Edwards in that sense.
Clinton wants a moratorium on home foreclosures and freeze interest rates for 5 years. Now Hillary also gives her stint about how green jobs will boost our economy. Finally she says that we need to stop Bush’s war on… science? When did he declare war on that?
UPDATE (8:36pm ET):
Hillary just said that if any illegal has committed a crime in the United States then they shouldn’t be allowed to stay here but instead they should be deported. Hmmm…I wonder if she knows that entering the country illegally is considered a federal offense (aka a crime)?
UPDATE (8:43pm ET):
Hillary wants a border fence, but not a complete one. Therefore she wants just to hire more people to patrol the border and use more technology to keep our border secure.
Obama agrees. Plus he wants everyone to prosper (illegal and legal alike).
UPDATE (8:47pm ET):
Next topic: Bilingualism
Hillary said that she wants English to remain as our common unifying language but she doesn’t want it to be our official language. I don’t get it.
Obama wants everyone to be bilingual (foreign born and native born). I agree on this sentiment. I don’t think bilingualism should be necessary within ones’ own country but with globalism and all, everyone should have another language handy.
UPDATE (8:57pm ET):
Ohhh John King just asked why in the world aren’t Hillary and Obama going at eachother’s throats. I’m glad that he did because I was wondering the same thing.
Hillary just claimed that her campaign has been a very positive one. I find that really really funny. Don’t you? She then goes on to attack Obama as all talk and no action.
Obama retorts that he has done a lot and proceeded to list off the things that he had done. A lot had to do with things on the state level.
UPDATE (9:00pm ET):
Oooo the fighting begins. Hillary says that Barack’s “plagiarizing” isn’t “change that you can believe in” but instead “change that you can xerox.” Classic.
UPDATE (9:07pm ET):
Another break. Here are some other Live-Blogs of tonight’s debate:
UPDATE (9:15pm ET):
Hillary is looking pissed and this is getting good. I don’t know if it was too smart for them to sit so close together. She might just claw his eyes out. Clinton is also looking like she is about to cry and she is angry. All I got to say to this is YES! By the way, they have both hijacked this debate to focus solely on health care.
UPDATE (9:28pm ET):
So now we finally move on to Iraq and whether Iraq is better because of the surge.
Hillary sidesteps the question by saying that the purpose of the surge hasn’t been fulfilled.
Obama also sidesteps the issue by saying that we are wasting money and should focus on ourselves. I doubt he would have same reaction if we were sending money to liberal spending project.
UPDATE (9:38pm ET):
If the candidate is different than what the people have voted for in the primary, would that be a bad thing? (referring to the superdelegate question)
Clinton: Not really. This will all sort itself out.
Obama: YES! The voice of the voters must be heard.
UPDATE (8:42pm ET):
What are some crises that you have overcome in your life?
Obama’s greatest achievement is learning to take responsibility for his own actions. Weird how his party is almost completely for shifting individual blame on others.
Clinton’s greatest crisis is well, the crises she sees in many American’s lives. Once again, tears seem to want to burst forth from her. Mind you, they never did.
UPDATE (8:45pm ET):
Its over and I think Obama wins this debate just because he stayed civil the most. Plus he was able to get a rise out of Clinton that at least entertained me a little.
Iranian exiles have produced more evidence that links Iran to making a nuclear bomb. Instead of me typing up how I feel about this, I will refer you to Hot Air which has basically stated everything I would have.
Oh, if anyone was wondering, my answer to the question at the top of the article would be “Ask me again on November 5.”
