Gag.. And in other news

Drug reps are slimy!

Drug reps are slimy!

Drug reps are slimy!

They make me want to take a bath whenever they are within 5 feet of the front desk.

Their lizard smiles, the soul-less eyes, the I'll do anything to make you buy my drugs attitude.

They're like legalized dope dealers but with less conscience.

I do like the pens and the coffee mugs though and they bring us food all the time.

I feel dirty now.

In other news:

I caucused last night. Minnesota had a record-breaking turn out this year and the Dems definately beat the flood-water pants off the Republican party. I think something like 200,000 Dems turned out to caucus while Reps could only muster a pathetic 70,000. I know my own Rep mother went home without caucusing because she would have had to miss "The Biggest Loser" *dramatic gasp* if she went to vote.

It all goes to show that the Dems are much stronger in this state than the Reps. The Dem candidates have won this state every presidential race since 1972.

Yep, I'm a proud Minnesotan.

Sound off.

And in one more random turn of topic, the "No" calls have stopped (alhumdulillah for arabic). Woot.

Caucus? Well, Caucu!

Oh, politics, politics everywhere.

I'm not sure but, have I ever mentioned that I hate politics?

I'm putting myself out and calling it right here: an Obama/Clinton ticket for the Whitehouse. I'm certain of it especially after Thursday night's debate in LA. Reading the transcript of the debate you can really see them foreshadowing it. If they haven't already come to an agreement I'd be incredibly surprised because the overall impression that I got from the debate was "look we're friends and we agree on EVERYTHING!" and Clinton really took a low key backseat on most of her points. I feel that she allowed Obama to take precendence and come out stronger.

I have to admit that I have a lot more hope walking into Super Tuesday than I did before. And I, also, have to admit that I'm eating a bit of crow. I'm not sure what it was that made me dislike Obama so much from the beginning, but now that I have read more on his political standpoints I am finding myself agreeing with him.

And honestly I think that an Obama/Clinton ticket could be an awesome thing for my country.

Maybe, just maybe, I can see a bit of hope on the horizon.

What is everyone's take on the candidates? Who do you think is the best candidate for Prez?

ps- Why do we have to host the Republican Convention? We didn't do anything wrong! We don't deserve it!

Just Stating The Obvious: Why Bush Will Accomplish Nothing in Israel

So, the really funny thing to me is that even most news sources have pretty much written off Bush's visit to Israel. In fact except for reading the BBC and AlJazeera I probably would not have even known Bush was in Israel. Why? Because Britney losing her mind means a lot more to this country and this country's media, obviously, than a fake attempt to "bring peace to the Middle East." Although really, I don't think Bush or anyone involved actually believes that they are going to do anything of consequence on this trip let alone bring peace to the region. Especially when they are so keen and proactive on destabalizing it instead. And just to further unacknowledge the trip the media here is also now in the grip of the 2008 election primaries- they're so focused on who the next president might be that they've pretty much forgotten the old (who is still current and still f**ing our country up).

What they are trying to find an outlet in celebrity insanity for is to cover up whats really going on: the recession that this wonderful and imperishable country is currently in. We're losing jobs. Our currency has taken a complete nosedive to the point that Europeans have started to take vacations in the US because its so cheap. And there are a lot of people I know who are locked into houses they can't afford on a salary that hasn't risen in proportion to inflation and rising gas prices because the housing market is at an almost complete standstill.

The goverment won't admit that we're screwed because thats bad publicity. So far the Bush administration hasn't made any statements on Merrill Lynch's findings, Bush is focused on lessening the chance of the country falling into a recession rather than addressing the all too obvious proof that we're already there. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Britney's convenient loss of rationality isn't gov't backed (in true wag the dog fashion) to distract the nation's focus.

But these are all issues here on the homefront. Nice cozy problems for Bush to ignore when he comes home from his tax-payer-sponsored vacation to the Holy Land. What I want to discuss is the curious and yet unsurprising disregard that the U.S. media is holding this trip to Israel in. I haven't heard a peep about it on the local news and a quick stop by CNN (no matter how painful it was to type that website in) turned up not a single mention of Bush in Israel (on the front page headlines at least). There was something about Bush calling Iran another bad name but nothing about the possibility of Bush solving all of the Middle East's problems.

One would think that the first presidential trip to this ravaged land in nine years would merit some kind of flurry of forecasted outcomes. But it seems that everyone has given it up for a lost cause. Why? Hm maybe it was because they all made a fuss about the Annapolis peace talks last month and the only response that got on Israel's part was to funnel more money into building more houses on an illegal settlement within the West Bank. Of course the end to the "peace talks" was blamed on the Palestinians and their inability to control Hamas. I only heard about the continuing construction of the illegal settlement by watching Link TV (check it out) finding a link about it was a bit more trouble.

So why will Bush accomplish nothing in Israel?

Because no one is willing to address the real problem.

Israel.

I told you it was obvious.

I'll let SubZero Blue wrap it up for me:

Of course in the end, the failure of any peace negotiations will be pinned on the Palestinians, as usual, and things will go on like they have been for years; until we approach the end of another US president's term and they suddenly feel like leaving on a bright note: that they at least gave Middle East peace a shot.

I don't know why we even bother let our hopes get lifted by these peace conferences, agreements, negotiations and crap anymore. It's obvious that until Israel is held accountable for its actions just like Palestinians are, there will be no peace!

Well said.

Rock the Vote?

So, everyone is gearing up for the vote next fall. Obviously I'm not going to vote Republican (or at least thats obvious enough to me.) Even the fact that the Republican convention is going to blight our fine city next year is repugnant enough. But who do I vote for?

I have to be honest here, I hate politics. I passionately hate politics. So what am I going to do? I want to vote, despite a pessimistic certainty that it doesn't really matter. I voted in the last elections and my state went for Kerry, but darned if it made no difference and we were saddled for another 4 years with Dubya. But still I tell myself that I have a civic duty to vote, to have my say, to wait in line, to fill in a bunch of bubbles that I don't know what they mean, and to wait and see if my one drop of a vote in the ocean of elections makes some sort of a difference this time.

I am notoriously lazy at doing research. Compound this with utter distate for politics, and this makes me an admittedly ignorant voter. But there are a few things I'm certain of:

1.) Voting for any candidate except Republican or Democratic will be a wasted vote. Anyone who argues with me please name a past President who was something other than these two parties.

2.) I'm not going to vote Republican. Ever.

So this basically leaves me with whoever runs on the democratic ticket. *sigh* So I'm sitting and waiting to see who wins the seat: Obama or Clinton.

I personally really want Hillary to win the seat. Why?

She is a woman and I'd love to see a woman President. I also think that her husband was one of the best presidents we've had in the past 20 years. Yeah he effed an intern, so what? I'd prefer my president eff an intern rather than eff the entire country like Dubya's been doing for the past 7 years. Personal preference I guess.

Additionally I think Barak Obama is an ineffectual fairy. I think he'd be the closest thing to a Republican sock puppet that we could get. Hello rule by proxy. Plus, I don't know what it is, but I just really don't like the guy. I never have, not since the first time he came on the scene.

I guess I think we'd have a white female President before we would have a black male President. Or so I'm hoping.

Hillary has a lot of good experience if you think about it, Bill had probably the best foreign policy out of the all the Presidents since before WWI (i.e. since the isolationist years.) She'd have good counsel when she needed it. And I really just want to see a First Husband.

Besides that I'd like to probably have more information going into these next elections. Does anyone know if there's a good "2008 Elections for Dummies" website? Maybe I should check out Democracy now.

Who is everyone planning on voting for? Who do you want to see for the next President?