News Today

President Barack Obama has always struggled to hide his awkwardly balanced position on gay marriage and gay rights. During the campaign he repeatedly said that he was against marriage equality. However he also has repeatedly said that he didn’t approve of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Sure enough once Obama was elected a gay couple in California tried to sue to overturn DOMA. Not only did Obama not stick up for the couple, he sent his lawyers to defend the law. Even worse than the 180 degree turnaround from our President was the argument his lawyers came up with.

“Courts have widely held that certain marriages performed elsewhere need not be given effect, because they conflicted with … public policy,” said Obama’s lawyers, pointing to marriage of uncle to niece, marriage of 16-year-old or marriage of first cousins as other examples.

So let me get this straight, Obama’s position on gay marriage is it is the same thing as incest? Do you wish to clarify that at all Mr. President?

Realizing his misstep, Obama drafted a revised legal briefing on the California DOMA case earlier this week. This time, Obama clarified that he actually is against DOMA but that tradition dictated that he defend the law.

While there is some truth to the tradition argument, it really is just a cop-out. The President would have been able to standup against DOMA if he had actually wanted to. Obviously the President didn’t want to though, leaving many in the gay community to question their previous support for him.

Is Sarah Palin getting a divorce? According to Alaska Report yes, multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage (including a former Palin staffer) have confirmed the split.

The two have been noticeably separate ever since the National Enquirer did a story detailing affairs on both sides in the Palin marriage. Apparently Sarah Palin hasn’t been wearing her wedding ring for a couple of weeks now.

An interesting aspect in all of this is the fact that a divorced man/woman has never been elected into the White House (that is to say, they’ve all been married when elected - much thanks to the exiled Tailback24 for pointing this out to me - Ronald Reagan for one had gotten a divorce). Then again we had never had a minority race take office until 2008 either, so I wouldn’t throw Palin 2012 out of the window quite yet.

One thing is for sure, with two single Palin girls palling around the state the guys in Alaska need to be really careful. That is one family you do not want to get tangled up with…

Editors Note: Sarah Palin did release a statement (through facebook) denying the allegations that her and Todd are splitting up. Who knows though, that woman can lie like a rug. Plus she is so batshit crazy and delusional that she might have already signed the divorce papers when she denied this. I wouldn’t put it past her.

Is it really just ten days away? Ten days away from what could easily be viewed as the most historic (and perhaps most important) election that our country has faced yet?

Nah, that’s just sensationalism. I would know, I’m a journalist! :)

Nevertheless we are 10 days away from electing a new President of the United States and the stakes could not be greater (there I go getting all sensational again).

Ten days, just a little thought.

Now earlier I had been getting into U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and I wanted to follow up on this subject a little bit. I know it’s not the most interesting of all subjects to read about, but what happens over there directly affects what happens to us in the United States. This is true now more than ever before. I only wish I could be the bearer of better news.

Where to start… Israel? Let’s start out with Israel.

According to reports out of Jerusalem, Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni has abandoned her quest to become Israel’s second female prime-minister and will most likely ask for a general election (which would probably take place in February).

Livni was charged with the task of creating a coalition for Israel’s new government and was lobbying for the support of the Orthodox-Shas party. The talks apparently fell through because Livni refused to pledge that the future status of Jerusalem would not be on the agenda in negotiations with the Palestinians.

To make matters worse the conservative Likud party led by former prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu is favored heavily in the polls and would be expected to take power again if it does go to a general election. Netanyahu takes a hardline stance on negotiations with the Palestinians.

So that whole peace-with-Palestine thing? The returning of taken lands? Arab countries recognizing Israel and vice-versa? Not happening, forget about it, peace in the Middle East is a pipe-dream anyways.

Now let’s move on to Iraq, where the news isn’t much better.

Iraq’s largest Sunni party has apparently decided to “suspend all official contacts with the Americans, both military and civilians,” due to a U.S. military raid on Friday.

Our news report states: U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers arrested a wanted insurgent leader suspected of training roadside bomb cells in an operation Friday that killed an armed man who opened fire on the troops.

Their news report states: A senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party was killed in his bed and five others were arrested during the raid in the Halabsa area on the outskirts of the former insurgent stronghold.

Which one’s the truth? Probably neither one, actually.

The IIP is demanding an apology and an explanation from the U.S., essentially signing their own death warrant. You don’t get an apology in Iraq from the U.S. government, if you’re lucky you get nothing. If you have any power or pull, you’ll get a bomb.

Just how much does it cost to make Sarah Palin look “so durn purty?” A lot of money apparently. In fact Amy Strozzi, Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, made easily more money last month than any of McCain’s advisers.

Strozzi (who won an emmy on the show “So You Think You Can Dance”), was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone. Angela Lew, who is Palin’s traveling hair stylist, apparently received $10,000 for “Communications Consulting” in the first two weeks of October.

Palin’s $11,000 dollar-per-week lipstick job isn’t the only thing catching negative attention in the latest Republican National Committee’s campaign finance report though.

The Federal Elections Committee is currently investigating a claim that $150,000 dollars in campaign funds were used illegally to buy Governor Palin and her family clothes shortly after the Republican National Convention.

Jeff Larson, a Minnesota-based Republican consultant, was reimbursed for purchases of $75,062 at Neiman Marcus, $41,851 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $4,902 at Atelier New York, $4,397 at Macy’s and $5,103 at Bloomingdale’s.

Melanie Sloan, who to be fair is a staunch liberal, called it “ridiculous that RNC would spend $150,000 to outfit a vice presidential nominee and her family at any time,” even more so at a time when many Americans have been hit hard by the sagging economy.

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” “I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you—not financially to help him—we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

You know at first look, this seems pretty obvious. With a 10-trillion dollar-and-raising national debt, a global economic crisis, the daunting task of truly ending America’s dependence on foreign oil, the challenge of creating new jobs and cutting unemployment, fixing a hurting education system, and fighting two wars across the globe the next president will face plenty of challenges. Oh yeah and also increasing instability in the world today. Barack Obama will definitely have his hands full if he gets elected.

Still, there’s something about this comment that worries me.

Mostly it’s the lack of details (a common theme in this election). He did cite the Middle East and Russia as possibilities, but he really didn’t go into detail about it any more than that. I want to know what kind of threat we’re in, and I want to know what Obama plans to do about it. Obama speaks about transparency in government, and has vowed on many issues to improve this, but he’s missing a chance to prove it here.

Perhaps this is what his 30 minutes of prime-time tv he bought on CBS and NBC is for? I hope, at least. We’re hearing increasing news about hard times that are on the way, what does Biden know that

As November 4th draws nearer and candidates buckle down and fight for votes in the key states, lets take a look at how the electoral map is shaping up.

So without further ado, I now direct you to the worst and most crudely drawn map of the United States you’ve ever seen and hopefully will ever see in your entire life. Apologies ahead of time.

Oooookay, once again sorry for that. Why is Kentucky so big? I don’t know. Why does Minnesota look pregnant? I don’t know. Why can’t I draw the United States correctly? I blame standardized testing. Anyways — let’s examine what the map is telling us.

The mark for winning is at 270 electoral votes. Let’s assume that the leaning states are still too close to call (because if we don’t, Barack Obama at 277 already has enough). Obama currently has 211 that are solidly for him (Dark Blue). John McCain has 143 solidly for him (Dark Red).

Now this leaves 184 votes that are too close to call. 66 of those are leaning more towards Obama, while 15 (Georgia) are leaning towards McCain. We’ll go ahead and give McCain Georgia.

What this means is that in order for McCain to win he would have to take all of the swing states (giving him a 261 count) and then either Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Washington, all of which are leaning towards Obama.

It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to tell that this doesn’t look promising for the McCain camp. It’s still too early to call anything for certain, but the numbers definitely aren’t in his favor. Even if McCain can manage to take one of the states leaning towards Obama, then all Obama would have to do is just take one of the swing states and he would win.

Today John McCain did the right thing. In recent rallies with both McCain and Sarah Palin, audience members were crossing the line when it came to respect for democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

“Traitor! Terrorist! Treason! Liar! Off with his head!” Yelled the crowd. But today, McCain did the right thing. Instead of standing idly by and ignoring the cat-calls as he had done in the past, today McCain addressed them head on.

“I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States,” said McCain after a supporter admitted he feared an Obama presidency.

One woman stood up and said “I heard Barack Obama is an arab terrorist.”

“No, ma’am,” the Arizona senator assured. “He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab terrorist].”

McCain did the right thing today, and what happened to him? He was soundly booed by his own supporters.

So today was a beautiful day, Barack Obama came to my hometown to kick off a two-day tour of Ohio and did a free rally at our minor-league baseball stadium. He hit upon four main issues, spending about fifteen minutes each on the economy, the mortgage crisis, his tax plans, and healthcare.

Between the excitement of the crowd of around 8,000 and Obama’s soaring rhetoric, it made for a very interesting day.

A couple notes to take away from the day:

Obama seems much more relaxed in person than he comes off on television. At times he even joked around with the crowd. When one person said they couldn’t hear him at the beginning of the speech he paused, “You can’t hear me?” Obama asked, then he pointed to the third base side of the field, “Can you guys hear me?” The crowd enthusiastically responded “YES WE CAN.” “What about you guys, can you hear me?” He asked pointing to the first base side. Then he turned around towards the outfield “How about behind me, can you hear me?” Then he turned to the person who couldn’t hear him before and said “I think you’re the only one in the stadium who can’t hear me!” Later on when the speakers went out for a minute he joked that he would bring the sound guys up on the stage so we could heckle them for their performance.

The speech wasn’t all fun and games though, shortly after pulling off his suitcoat Obama began to dwelve into the issues. Obama said McCain’s newest mortgage plan “punishes taxpayers, rewards banks and won’t solve our housing crisis.” He said it would “guarantee that American taxpayers lose by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess.”

Noting the wide change in proposals by John McCain to solve the economic crisis, Obama again went on the attack saying “I don’t think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times.”

The biggest hit on McCain came when he mentioned how a McCain strategist told the New York Daily News earlier this week that “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.”

“This isn’t about winning a race, this is about doing what’s right for Americans,” said Obama.

Regardless of what you think of his politics, the man is an incredible speaker. He flows so elegantly from subject to subject, building up emphasis in a loud crescendo before tearing it down and starting over again. He’s inspiring, he’s intelligent, he’s intellectual. Aren’t those qualities we should look for in a president?

Photos courtesy of my sister.

Today, as Sarah Palin defended her comments made about Obama yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty joined the GOP attacks on Barack Obama’s view of America.

Pawlenty’s argument was that Obama “has been critical not only of the president but of American policy and hence has kind of a negative view of America in the world.”

Once again I think this just points to how out of touch the McCain campaign is with Americans at the moment. These statements don’t help their case. I would even argue that when McCain was trumpeting change the election looked a lot closer. Our own citizens don’t like the direction the country is heading, much less the rest of the world. The “Rah-Rah America” theme just doesn’t apply here.

What the McCain camp is trying to do is question Obama’s patriotism. This brings me to my point in this post– What does it mean to be a patriot?

To me, a true patriot can look at the flaws in its country. A true patriot recognizes those flaws, even gets angry at their country for those flaws. This is because a true patriot wants to see their country live up to its potential.

I don’t support everything America does. In fact lately I haven’t supported most of what America has been doing. I want America to return to being the beacon of hope that it once was. I want the words liberty and equality to ring true throughout the whole nation. I want America to work together, coming up with bi-partisan solutions to solve the bi-partisan problems that we’re facing. I don’t pretend that the problems don’t exist, and I would expect the same from anyone else who considers themselves a patriot as well.

What does patriotism mean to you?

United we stand, divided we will fall.

These words echo so true to me in this time of partisan-politics. Even as the House of Representatives did not pass the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout plan, within minutes both sides of the aisle were attempting to put the blame on the other party. They’re missing the point, the American people did not want the bailout and the House, wary of angry voters with elections coming up in five weeks, didn’t want to lose their jobs.

What the point is: Rather than focus on the failed bailout plan and petty reasons why it didn’t pass, we need to focus on where we’re going from here.

I was strongly against this bailout, but that’s not to say that we don’t need some form of relief. Congress does need to do something, and fairly quickly, or else a lot of Americans are going to suffer. Not feeling the pinch yet? Ask anyone with a 401K who’s lost thousands of dollars in the last week and a half.

I’ve played the blame game for this recession. I still stand by my words, that the Federal Reserve and Wall Street deserve credit for the situation we’re in. Many others have their own theories for how we ended up in this state too. Regardless of who’s to blame, America needs now, more than ever, to move forward together. We need a bailout plan that will not only help the situation now, but will improve our economic strategies as we move forward as well.

How do I propose doing this? Sheesh come on guys, this is only a blog, and I’m only a college student, what do you want from me? :)

One proposal that has been floated back and forth is raising the FDIC limit on bank deposit insurance (currently at 100,000). This would be a good idea as it would increase confidence in banks. John McCain and Barack Obama both support this measure. Another proposal being tossed around is for the Treasury to use its exchange stabilization fund (ESF) to help backstop the market. The ESF allows the government to influence currency rates without affecting the money supply from the Federal Reserve. If used creatively though, it could serve as a tool to help guide us through this recession.

Whatever plan of action Congress decides to take, they need to be careful. Americans will be paying close attention to the details of the new proposal. If our legislation fails to produce something that people can see will help Main Street as well as Wall Street’s woes, it’s entirely possible that the new proposal will fall as well.

One candidate in particular is saying what the country needs to hear.

“While there is plenty of blame to go around and many in Washington and on Wall Street who deserve it, all of us now have a responsibility to solve this crisis because it affects the financial well-being of every single American,” Obama said. “There will be time to punish those who set this fire, but now is the moment for us to come together and put the fire out.”