Not a big truck.

Age Ain't Nothing But An Important Voting Demographic

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:27:28 -0400

In a campaign where demographics seem to be destiny, one of the most striking factors is the segregation of voters by age. In state after state, older voters have formed a core constituency for Mrs. Clinton, who is 60, while younger voters have coalesced around Mr. Obama, who is 46. Age has been one of the most consistent indicators of how someone might vote — more than sex, more than income, more than education. Only race is a stronger predictor of voting than age, and then only if a voter is black, not if he or she is white. Age is likely to play a particularly strong role in the Democratic primary Tuesday in Pennsylvania. The outmigration of young people has left the state with the second-highest proportion of people over 65 in the country, after Florida. Fifty-eight percent of registered Democrats are older than 45, a consistent dividing line in the race. ...According to exit polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky in the states that have voted so far, 57 percent of voters 65 and older have supported Mrs. Clinton and 36 percent have supported Mr. Obama. Most of the Clinton voters say they want a candidate with experience. Of voters age 30 and younger, 59 percent have supported Mr. Obama and 38 percent have supported Mrs. Clinton. Most of Mr. Obama’s supporters say they want change. ...“If I was in my 20s, maybe I’d support Obama,” said Germaine Donahue, 64, who lives in Sullivan County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and helps run a cleaning service. “But life tempers you. I’m with Hillary.”

Source.

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America's first Hip-Hop Mayor reminiscent of Lewinsky scandal...

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:21:33 -0400

As I mentioned previously, America's first "hip-hop mayor," Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit (my home town), has recently admitted to having an affair with one of his staff members. Similar to the case with former president Bill Clinton, Kilpatrick is now being charged with perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. If convicted, he will be expelled from office.

However, unlike the case of Clinton (and unlike the article claims: "The 37-year-old "Hip-Hop Mayor" who brought youth and vitality to the job in this struggling city of 900,000"), Kwame's entire career in office has been strewn with corruption. From the mysterious death of a stripper, to coke and embezzlement scandals, to threatening to shut down the Detroit Zoo (the oldest zoo in America and one of Detroit's only cultural attractions still alive today) as a method of getting his budget passed, Kilpatrick has mostly been a shitty mayor who has done little to help the city with the decline of the auto industry and the economic depression that's overtaken Michigan. In addition to notorious crime rates, Detroit doesn't even have decent public transportation, the "pride" of which being the people mover, a monorail train that runs a circular 2.9 miles.

I love Detroit. How could I not? It's my home, and also the home of what I think is probably the finest local music scene in the country (of course I'm biased). However, I've seen Kilpatrick do nothing positive for the city except worsen its reputation.

I'm personally conflicted. I think one's own sex life is personal and not the business nor concern of the public, and one should never lose their job because of what is, at the most, a marital problem. In the wake of all of these sex scandals, most notably that of Gov. Spitzer, it would be nice if the justice system would, for once, be blind to what is typically deemed "immoral." Also, while Kilpatrick has not been the best for Detroit (in my eyes), I doubt that bringing in someone less experienced as his successor would do any good either.

I swear, the city must be cursed.

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DMX on Barack Obama

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:21:33 -0400

Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.

Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.

But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”

Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.

Source

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Clinton discounts racist comments on Obama

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:04:53 -0400

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, for saying that Barack Obama "would not be in this position" if he were white instead of black.
...Last week, Ferraro told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."
She also faulted a "very sexist media" in the historic race between a man bidding to be the first black president and a former first lady seeking to become the first female president.
In the AP interview, Clinton said, "I do not agree with that," and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters _ on both sides, because we both have this experience _ say things that kind of veer off into the personal."
...
Obama called Ferraro's comments "patently absurd."
"I don't think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party. They are divisive. I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd," he told the Allentown Morning Call.
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Ferraro should be removed from her position with the Clinton campaign because of her comments.
"The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," Axelrod said in a conference call with reporters.

Source

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Libertarian Bingo!

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:35:33 -0500

Source

BINGO LIBERTARIAN

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According to Daily Kos, Obama "makes a better leader"

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:45:14 -0500

I've had a lot of trouble knowing where to lend my support for this election, mostly due to hype and media coverage. It's been obvious to me that much of the negative air around Clinton is inspired by the stereotype of a power-hungry bitch, using her husband's career as a stepping stone -- this stereotype is propagated largely by the media and voters who fail to recognize the sexist slant ingrained into where we get our information. Obama I've had issues with because of his obvious marketing toward the youth and speeches that seem to pray on emotional appeal. At a glance, it's hard to see past the two Democrats' outer-images, and I refuse to have my vote swayed by either of these.

The Daily Kos has this in common with me. In her blog entry, she decides where to place her vote based on senate voting records, meticulously going through the Library of Congress's website and reading each one. If you don't feel like doing the same, she summarizes the key points quite well.

I suggest all undecided voters check this out.

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Georgia county makes the switch

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:33:42 -0500

Clark Country, GA has decided to switch their tactics. Currently, an "abstinence only" curriculum is taught in the high school. The country also has a 4.5% teen pregnancy rate, which is higher than the state average. In order to try to combat these rates, the county has voted to start teaching safe sex in schools, which has proven to be effective in preventing teen pregnancy.

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western world, most likely due to a conflict between an over-sexed media and a moral approach to sex ingrained in the Protestant society. Abstinence only programs only help to support this conflict, telling kids that sex is wrong and then sending them home to their televisions which portray lots of gratifying, unprotected sex -- even on basic cable.

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Getting around the smoking ban

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:44:55 -0500

A law in California passed in October permits actors to smoke during a production. Now bars all over the state have begun to stage "theater nights," making all those who attend actors and therefore allowing them to smoke in the facilities.

Lisa Anderson, owner of Mike's Uptown bar in Hill City, said that last Saturday she staged a "theater night" and packed in four times the usual crowd that has come in since the smoking ban took effect.
Anderson said she has been helping other bar owners who want to put on their own tobacco productions.
"I'm going to continue to do this,'' she said. "It increased my business.'' (source)

People don't realize how much the smoking ban effects business. Since the ban was put in place in my town Chicago in January, bar revenue has dropped 50% and casinos 18% (source). The fact of the matter is that there is a huge economy in this country made off of bad habits. You can educate people as much as you want about the dangers of smoking, but in the end, it's the individual's choice, and a lot of tax money that helps out schools and other important government-funded facilities is made this way. When you try to take away the choice, the economy suffers, and you get a lot of pissed off smokers choosing to stay in their homes and drink rather than be forced out in the cold at a bar.

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Abortion law says the fetus is more valuable, according to logic

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:34:12 -0500

It seems curious that if I was 28 weeks pregnant and presented to my doctor saying there was no way I wanted to continue with the pregnancy, the doctor would not be able to refer me for termination unless I met the restrictive criteria which have been outlined. It would be assumed I had an obligation to the fetus because it was potentially viable and I had passed the point of viability. I therefore would be compelled to maintain its life and deliver the child. In contrast I have a two year old, and if he suddenly became ill, and needed me to donate an organ to survive, I would probably consider myself a heniously immoral woman if I did not concede to that demand. However there is no law in the land that could oblige me to do so. In effect we impose greater obligation to women to preserve the life of their fetuses than we impose to preserve the life of their born children.

In abortion law we are therefore distinctly privileging the life of the fetus over the wishes of the woman in a way we do not do in any other form of medical practice. I would therefore argue that the current abortion law is ethically inconsistent in the way it permits abortion in some circumstances but not in others and that it in denying abortion it undermines the basic principle of individual autonomy which is accepted in the rest of medical practice.

Source.

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Feticide?

nobody@vox.com(INTERNET) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:25:51 -0500

In this article, the term "feticide" is used to refer to the killing of a fetus, as occurs during abortion or miscarriage. I greatly dislike this term, for it seems to equate "feticide" with words like "genocide" or "homocide," which are inarguably crimes more heinous than the taking of a life of something parasitic and incapable of conscious thought.

This is dangerous. The article itself is about the House of Virginia passing a law that makes "feticide" a class 4 felony. In Virginia, a class 4 felony means 2-10 years of imprisonment and up to $100,000 in fines. Also a class 4 felony in Virginia: rape/sexual assault and statutory rape, so you get the idea to the sort of moral standards its being equated to -- funny that it's with laws that supposedly exist to protect women. Basically, this means that in the eyes of the Virginia law, a woman trying to terminate a pregnancy gets the same punishment as a child molester. Sound a little crazy to you?

This is not to mention the fact that, according to the famous Roe vs. Wade, "feticide" is a constitutional right. Never has the constitution been interpreted by the US Supreme Court to say rape was a constitutional right, but, hey, no one really knows what the fore fathers were thinking when they wrote it!

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