I had been a Republican for a long time. To paraphrase Reagan, I didn’t leave the party, the party left me. It seems others have felt the same way.
Check out the interview and read the post from a former Republican and conservative author Frank Schaeffer here. I agree with everything the man says.
National Writing Project
This election season, Google and the National Writing Project invited middle and high school students to make their voices heard by writing letters to the U.S. presidential candidates.
Guided by teachers and mentors, students across the country composed their thoughts on the issues they care about most – everything from gas prices and the economy to education and the war in Iraq.
Using Google Docs, a free online writing tool, the students wrote and published their letters for the entire world to see.
During this time of campaining, we’re asked to make choices. The candidates tell us who they are and what they’ll do. It’s very easy to just be cynical and say that it doesn’t matter who’s elected, but it does. The next president will be faced with many tough choices, and the direction of his choices will affect us for a long time.
How about the choice of spending $1,000,000,000,000 of cash (certainly of less value than the lives of 4,500 US Soldiers and thousands of others) in the Iraq war? What could we have done with that TRILLION dollars? A writer provides a few choices…..
When the Sunday morning political pundits began talking last year about the tab for the war in Iraq hitting $1 trillion, Rob Simpson sprang from his sofa in indignation.
“Why aren’t people outraged about this? Why aren’t we hearing about it?” Simpson said. And then it came to him: “Nobody knows what a trillion dollars is.”
The amount — $1,000,000,000,000 — was just too big to comprehend.
So Simpson, 51, decided to embark “on an unusual but intriguing research project” to put the dollars and cents of the war into perspective. He hired some assistants and spent 12 months immersed in economic data and crunching numbers.
The result: a slim but heavily annotated paperback released, “What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We’ve Spent on Iraq.”
Simpson is no geopolitical, macro-economic, inside-the-Beltway expert. He’s an armchair analyst and creative director for an advertising agency, a former radio announcer and music critic in Ontario and a one-time voiceover actor.
His alternative spending choices reflect his curiosity and wit.
Read the whole article from CNN here. Access Simpson’s web site here.
From the article by Scott Berkun:
It’s nowhere to be found in major coverage, but smart folks have studied what traits led to more successful presidencies. Sure, these things are subjective, but they offer a better framework, based on history, for making our next big bet.
Fred I. Greenstein, Professor of Politics Emeritus at Princeton University, calls out 6 attributes most related to success in office, a veritable scorecard for our use:
- Effectiveness as a public communicator
- Organizational capacity
- Political skill (well duh, but he explains specific traits)
- Vision
- Cognitive Style
- Emotional Intelligence
Read the whole article here: http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/how-to-pick-a-president
This is what politics is to me. Someone tells you all the trees on your street have a disease. One side says give them food and water and everything will be fine. One side says chop them down and burn them so they don’t infect another street. That’s politics. And I’m going, Who says they’re diseased? And how does this sickness manifest itself? And is this outside of a natural cycle? And who said this again? And when were they on this street? But we just have people who shout, “Chop it down and burn it” or “Give it food and water” and there’s your two choices. Sorry, I’m not a believer.
- John Malkovich, Esquire Magazine, Nov 2008
My friend Al Friebe sent this one in:
In the spirit of the WWF, I’d like to offer my script for the next presidential debate …
Moderator: In the corner to my liberal left, the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama! And in the corner to my reactionary right, the Republican candidate, John McCain! All right, gentlemen, I want you to shake hands, fist bump, and come out fighting!
McCain: Good evening, and thanks for inviting me. I’d like to open tonight by pointing out that my opponent’s middle name is “HUSSEIN”, as in “Saddam HUSSEIN”!
Obama: Good evening. My opponent’s name is “John”, as in “John Wilkes Booth”!
McCain: Have you heard that Obama can’t account for two years of his life? Could it be that he spent it at a madrassah or terrorist training camp?
Obama: And McCain can’t account for five years of his! POW … maybe! Or maybe he spent the time at the Kremlin, consorting with his comrades and political masters!
McCain: My opponent pals around with terrorists!
Obama: And mine pals around with Barbie!
McCain: My friends, did I mention that that one is black? That his wife is black? And that his kids are black, my friends?
Obama: After five years allegedly spent in a torture chamber, my opponent might be schizophenic, paranoid or both!
McCain: He’s a terrorist!
Obama: He’s a racist!
McCain: Traitor!
Obama: Codger!
Moderator: Thank you, gentlemen! And good night from the Mainstream Media!
