This post is off topic for this blog, but it may not who knows, someday it might seem more relevant than it ever should have.
It is staggering to me how much the internet has changed. It used to be a place of endless resources and inside jokes. It would seem that the internet has now become a gateway to mainstream media.
The first time I remembered seeing an example of that was seeing that Seth Green had spoofed some emo kid (Chris Crocker)'s defense of Britney Spears (I'm ignorant to most of the details surround this). Regardless, it's significant because I'm pretty sure it was the first time I've ever seen a fairly accomplished comedic actor jump into the fray of an internet flame war.
For Reference, the original
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LWSjUe0FyxQ
Seth Green's version
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aiqkDm9UoKo
Last Week a co-worker had clued me into a show on MTV called "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" which is "a bisexual themed reality dating show" staring a person who was made "famous" for having over a million friends on face book. This is beyond idiotic to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Shot_at_Love_with_Tila_Tequila
So today, I learned of, what was for me, the 3rd strike for the old community of the internet. I'm sure many of us have seen the Chocolate Rain video which was first posted back in April and widely made fun of as he also became internet famous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
Well apparently, Dr. Pepper sponsored him to remix his song for a TV Comercial/Music Video.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2x2W12A8Qow
If you watched that last video then you probably are right with me in feeling a bit speechless. However, I doubt this will be the last time we see such an example appear in popular culture. For those who partake internet communities, its always been a place where the trivial can become treasure, but to see the trivial actually becoming profitable grossly profitable is mind numbing.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Roy Beck on Immigration
This video was just sent my way and it seems to present a very bleak picture for the US if immigration continues along or exceeds its current rate. I haven't checked any sources (and would like to) but on a preliminarily Google search on Roy Beck I was impressed to not see a lot of hate websites on the man. I consider this a possible testament to the correctness of his predictions, but certainly nothing definite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ
Saturday, November 24, 2007
A Quick Apology
This post below took MUCH longer to put out than I originally thought it would. I'm already about half way through my study of Giuliani. The reason it took so long is that last week I had taken a vacation and took a trip to Achorage Alaska and purposefully separated myself from the internet. I tried desperately to publish my Bio of Barack Obama before I left, but it just proved that I didn't have the time between packing and meeting with people before I left. My week back also proved a bit hectic, but anyways I'm basically back into blog mode and I don't think it will take me 2 to 3 weeks to make any posts for a while. Who knows though.
Candidate: Barack Obama
My Primary Source: Barack Obama: Speeches 2002-2006 by Maureen Harrison (Editor), Steve Gilbert
POV: Speeches from Barack Obama, so the POV is Barack himself
Bias: Neutral, its a primary source
Reason for Source: The biggest appeal for this book to me was that it is a primary source. You can't get much better than that.
Health Care: Obama proposes a health care system for all American's by the end of his first term. His full plan is laid out in great detail on his site and frankly its over my head. Perhaps I'll make a health plan post where I make an effort to understand this stuff and compare and contrast different plans.
Iraq War: In a speech he gave in 2002 Barack Obama refers to the Iraq War as a "Dumb War." He is in favor of a partial calculated withdrawal of a American troops and seeking aid from neighboring countries to help hold Iraq. This calculated withdrawal should be as much a schedule for us as it should be one for Iraq and a driving factor to get their own country in order. Obama then says we should use the freed miliatary resources to turn our attention on the Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria to stop their oppression or dedication to terrorism.
Economy & Budget: Finding text on Obama's financial plan was a bit difficult. I'm basing this section on an article from breitbart.com which doesn't appear to be too fond of Obama. I would agree though that Obama's campaign seems a little vague on this subject (as I previously expressed my difficulty finding any material on this subject). Anyways, heres a quote from the site that has some good info.
Environment: In a speech he gave in April 2006 at The Newspaper Association of America Obama gave his pledge to help us achieve energy independence from the middle east. President Bush has given us a proposal that, "would reduce our oil imports by 4.5 million barrels per day by 2025." Obama thinks we can do better and make it 7.5 million barrels per day by 2025. While I couldn't find this information on his website, there is plenty of text on his energy reform ideas. I have a feeling the policy is in there, and they just changed the units and possibly omitted or changed the timeline.
Globalization: Obama seems to have two main focuses on Globalization. The first way is his focus in the middle east (see the Iraq War section above), and the second is he would like for us to focus on our economic ties with Africa. The following was taken from a speech he gave at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
Abortion: Obama is pro-choice and strongly believes in potential for stem cell research to do amazing things in terms of advancing health care. There's a whole speech on it here for those interested in a well articulated version of answering "yes" on this issue.
Immigration: Obama's immigration reform seems focused not on the fences, but incentives for illegal immigrants to step over the boarder. By implementing a new fool proof way for employers to easily determine if the person is a citizen or not. His focus seems to be aimed at, "making it fair to legal workers and tougher on employers."
Education: Obama does a great job laying out his plan for national education reform in his speech at the Center For American Progress in 2005. Generally speaking his plan is to take volunteering school districts and in each one will apply an innovative new curriculum in place of their current teaching plans and student progress will be measured. Achievement will be rewarded in schools that succeed "and shut down those that don't." (see above link for source)
Civil Rights: Barack Obama's main campaign focus (next to Iraq) is focused on this issue. Many other points are tackled from a civil rights point of view. Education is tackled by our our need to reform schools in poor areas. Budget seems focused on giving breaks to the working class. As far as I'm concerned if Civil Rights and Poverty are your focus, then Obama is your candidate.
Other Notables: Obama is a Christian. As there is some suspicion that Obama is actually a Muslim (and I will admit I thought he was as well, but have since edited this section of the post) I'll turn to a primary source that indicates differently. It's a recording of a speech on this subject, it is fairly lengthy and if you prefer the text of the speech can be found here.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can): There were two things that drastically turned me off from Obama. Those are his education plan and his foreign policy. As I read the above linked speech on his education reform plan I was fairly impressed at first until I got to the following part quoted about shutting down schools that don't produce positive results in his test. I really had to say "WTF?" It seems to me that any sort of education reform that involves shutting down schools is more like education deconstructionn than reform. Honestly though the part that really confuses me is that his entire plan seems like it would work fine if it weren't for the part about shutting down schools. It doesn't seem like a crucial part of his plan, which makes me wonder why he thought it would be necessary to include it.
As for his foriegn policy, I agree having a timetable for the removal of troops. Frankly I find it hard to believe anyone wants to keep American's sons stationed in Iraq from now till God knows when. What does bug me are his plans at futuring the war on terror. His plans to shift focus to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria seem to be lacking one thing. Why does no one seem to remember about Afganistan? As far as anyone can guess, Osama Bin Laden is either Elivis or Michael Jackson. Meaning that respectively he is either honestly dead yet everyone keeps seeing him popup at their local Burger King (read local Burger King as dark cave reaking of man sex) or alternatively the man that everyone just assumes is dead by now, partly because he looks like death but then publishes another video and everyone goes "Oh crap, why won't you just die?!"
To digress, Obama's furthering of the war on terror honestly makes it almost sound like he's reading a page from Bush's own war plans (except Obama would probably be a bit more equiped to carry it out).
Ultimately, I think Obama is a good candidate, but the fact that he seems so fixated on civil rights and poverty and his education and foriegn policy plans seems to far off that I think he would probably make an excellent Vice President. This way he would probably have the power to head a plans that would improve the working class in America, but would force his power to buffered by the President. So things like education and warfare could fall into someone else's hands. As things are right now that person seemingly could only be Clinton, but we'll see what I think of her when I get there.
POV: Speeches from Barack Obama, so the POV is Barack himself
Bias: Neutral, its a primary source
Reason for Source: The biggest appeal for this book to me was that it is a primary source. You can't get much better than that.
Health Care: Obama proposes a health care system for all American's by the end of his first term. His full plan is laid out in great detail on his site and frankly its over my head. Perhaps I'll make a health plan post where I make an effort to understand this stuff and compare and contrast different plans.
Iraq War: In a speech he gave in 2002 Barack Obama refers to the Iraq War as a "Dumb War." He is in favor of a partial calculated withdrawal of a American troops and seeking aid from neighboring countries to help hold Iraq. This calculated withdrawal should be as much a schedule for us as it should be one for Iraq and a driving factor to get their own country in order. Obama then says we should use the freed miliatary resources to turn our attention on the Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria to stop their oppression or dedication to terrorism.
Economy & Budget: Finding text on Obama's financial plan was a bit difficult. I'm basing this section on an article from breitbart.com which doesn't appear to be too fond of Obama. I would agree though that Obama's campaign seems a little vague on this subject (as I previously expressed my difficulty finding any material on this subject). Anyways, heres a quote from the site that has some good info.
Obama's plan was short on some specifics. But he said he would give 150 million workers a $500 payroll tax credit, expand relief on mortgage interest, eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 and simplify returns so millions can file in less than five minutes.
[...]he spent just one minute skimming over how he would pay for it and neither he nor his campaign provided a breakdown of the revenue his plan would raise.
Environment: In a speech he gave in April 2006 at The Newspaper Association of America Obama gave his pledge to help us achieve energy independence from the middle east. President Bush has given us a proposal that, "would reduce our oil imports by 4.5 million barrels per day by 2025." Obama thinks we can do better and make it 7.5 million barrels per day by 2025. While I couldn't find this information on his website, there is plenty of text on his energy reform ideas. I have a feeling the policy is in there, and they just changed the units and possibly omitted or changed the timeline.
Globalization: Obama seems to have two main focuses on Globalization. The first way is his focus in the middle east (see the Iraq War section above), and the second is he would like for us to focus on our economic ties with Africa. The following was taken from a speech he gave at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
As a Senator from the United States, I believe that my country, and other nations, have an obligation and self-interest in being full partners with Kenya and with Africa. And, I will do my part to shape an intelligent foreign policy that promotes peace and prosperity. A foreign policy that gives hope and opportunity to the people of this great continent.
Abortion: Obama is pro-choice and strongly believes in potential for stem cell research to do amazing things in terms of advancing health care. There's a whole speech on it here for those interested in a well articulated version of answering "yes" on this issue.
Immigration: Obama's immigration reform seems focused not on the fences, but incentives for illegal immigrants to step over the boarder. By implementing a new fool proof way for employers to easily determine if the person is a citizen or not. His focus seems to be aimed at, "making it fair to legal workers and tougher on employers."
Education: Obama does a great job laying out his plan for national education reform in his speech at the Center For American Progress in 2005. Generally speaking his plan is to take volunteering school districts and in each one will apply an innovative new curriculum in place of their current teaching plans and student progress will be measured. Achievement will be rewarded in schools that succeed "and shut down those that don't." (see above link for source)
Civil Rights: Barack Obama's main campaign focus (next to Iraq) is focused on this issue. Many other points are tackled from a civil rights point of view. Education is tackled by our our need to reform schools in poor areas. Budget seems focused on giving breaks to the working class. As far as I'm concerned if Civil Rights and Poverty are your focus, then Obama is your candidate.
Other Notables: Obama is a Christian. As there is some suspicion that Obama is actually a Muslim (and I will admit I thought he was as well, but have since edited this section of the post) I'll turn to a primary source that indicates differently. It's a recording of a speech on this subject, it is fairly lengthy and if you prefer the text of the speech can be found here.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can): There were two things that drastically turned me off from Obama. Those are his education plan and his foreign policy. As I read the above linked speech on his education reform plan I was fairly impressed at first until I got to the following part quoted about shutting down schools that don't produce positive results in his test. I really had to say "WTF?" It seems to me that any sort of education reform that involves shutting down schools is more like education deconstructionn than reform. Honestly though the part that really confuses me is that his entire plan seems like it would work fine if it weren't for the part about shutting down schools. It doesn't seem like a crucial part of his plan, which makes me wonder why he thought it would be necessary to include it.
As for his foriegn policy, I agree having a timetable for the removal of troops. Frankly I find it hard to believe anyone wants to keep American's sons stationed in Iraq from now till God knows when. What does bug me are his plans at futuring the war on terror. His plans to shift focus to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Syria seem to be lacking one thing. Why does no one seem to remember about Afganistan? As far as anyone can guess, Osama Bin Laden is either Elivis or Michael Jackson. Meaning that respectively he is either honestly dead yet everyone keeps seeing him popup at their local Burger King (read local Burger King as dark cave reaking of man sex) or alternatively the man that everyone just assumes is dead by now, partly because he looks like death but then publishes another video and everyone goes "Oh crap, why won't you just die?!"
To digress, Obama's furthering of the war on terror honestly makes it almost sound like he's reading a page from Bush's own war plans (except Obama would probably be a bit more equiped to carry it out).
Ultimately, I think Obama is a good candidate, but the fact that he seems so fixated on civil rights and poverty and his education and foriegn policy plans seems to far off that I think he would probably make an excellent Vice President. This way he would probably have the power to head a plans that would improve the working class in America, but would force his power to buffered by the President. So things like education and warfare could fall into someone else's hands. As things are right now that person seemingly could only be Clinton, but we'll see what I think of her when I get there.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Finland shooting
Ironically in an earlier post I mentioned my disagreement with a quote by Cameron Diaz based on the ground that she's was basically slapping in the face the basic constitutional rights that even allow her to make such a statement. Well in this post I'm going to be a little hypocritical while I do the same thing. I read about this story in the paper yesterday morning where a Finland student went on a shooting spree, killed 8 then himself and previously posted a video on YouTube announcing the attack and calling for others to start a revolution. This video was reported to have been removed.
As a person who frequents and very much enjoys the web phenomenon that is YouTube.com I find this use of the website disturbing. There is something to be said for the power of autonomy and ability to voice your opinion on the internet, but when its used as a means of self empowering people to do bad things it makes you wonder if having access to a massive library of cat videos on the internet is actually worth it.
This is, as I previously stated, hypocritical opinion for someone who is currently maintaining a blog to discuss his own political views. However, it would be nice if, in a perfect world there could exist some sort of fast, automatic and precise means of censorship for this kind of content. In a world where we can send rockets out in random directions and know that it will eventually collide with a body of mass that is currently not there, unfortunately, it still seems that the most complicated thing for us to be able to predict are the people who are numerous to study, but impossible to find trends in.
Granted, the universal access people have to the internet is not what is to blame. It is currently a mostly uncensored and limitless media thats has probably saved countless lives. Furthermore, anyone could certainly see that with or without the invention of stream video, this was a disturbed individual. Yet the internet's potential for destructive self-empowerment is great, and correction for such a thing is both intrusive and difficult. Ultimately I know there is no solution and no one to blame other than perhaps the child's own parents, friends and foremost, himself.
So I end with a video of funny cats video, courtesy of YouTube.
As a person who frequents and very much enjoys the web phenomenon that is YouTube.com I find this use of the website disturbing. There is something to be said for the power of autonomy and ability to voice your opinion on the internet, but when its used as a means of self empowering people to do bad things it makes you wonder if having access to a massive library of cat videos on the internet is actually worth it.
This is, as I previously stated, hypocritical opinion for someone who is currently maintaining a blog to discuss his own political views. However, it would be nice if, in a perfect world there could exist some sort of fast, automatic and precise means of censorship for this kind of content. In a world where we can send rockets out in random directions and know that it will eventually collide with a body of mass that is currently not there, unfortunately, it still seems that the most complicated thing for us to be able to predict are the people who are numerous to study, but impossible to find trends in.
Granted, the universal access people have to the internet is not what is to blame. It is currently a mostly uncensored and limitless media thats has probably saved countless lives. Furthermore, anyone could certainly see that with or without the invention of stream video, this was a disturbed individual. Yet the internet's potential for destructive self-empowerment is great, and correction for such a thing is both intrusive and difficult. Ultimately I know there is no solution and no one to blame other than perhaps the child's own parents, friends and foremost, himself.
So I end with a video of funny cats video, courtesy of YouTube.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Candidate: Mitt Romney
My Primary Source: Mitt Romney: the man, his values, and his vision by Lisa Ray Turner and Kimberly Field.
POV: Mormon and Evangelical Christian discuss life and politics of MR
Bias: Pro-Romney
Reason for Source: Honestly books on Romney were slim. This was the only book I saw on my search through Amazon that didn't actually have the word Mormon in the title. This book has a chapter on his religion rather than the entire book. I found this more appealing than my other options.
Health Care: As Governor of MA, Romney put into effect the 2006 Health Reform Statute that grants health insurance to every citizen of the state. Ironically while Hillary (seemingly the most vocal supporter of public health care) praised his success in creating a public health care system, Romney seems to strongly oppose her plan. Details of both plans are probably worthy of a separate post.
Iraq War: Romney is, as statistically speaking most of America is, unhappy with the place the Bush administration has put on us. However, he acknowledges we are in this particular situation regardless of wither we should or should not have started it. Romney supports additional troops in Iraq given presentation of an intelligent placement and political focus.
Economy & Budget: Turner and Field stress that this is his strongest asset. They both argue that when Romney took office in MA, the state was in bad shape financially. Romney turned that around without any raising of taxes (more on this under Education).
Environment: My primary source provides a direct quote on the subject of Global Warming which is very descriptive of this view on this matter.
Globalization: As you can probably guess from the previous two sections, Romney sees economic globalization as key to our own economy. National investment must be made in order to stay competitive with other nations.
Abortion: There is no straight yes/no answer here. Romney has flip flopped on his stance on this issue and has taken heat due to this. Originally pro-choice despite his own strong religious opposition and known dedication to family values that were in directly conflict to a pro-choice stance. His original support for the pro-choice stance came from his support in stem cell research that could also greatly benefit his with who has been diagnosed with MS.
Currently Romney is pro-life. The change of heart came for a new understanding of the uses of research that benefits from abortions. This was in regards to research in cloning, which he obviously does not support.
Immigration: Simply, or immigration needs to be reformed. Romney is for immigration, but believes our current system is letting in illegal immigrants, while making it increasingly difficult "to bring in more of the brains from around the world." He believes this is the exact opposite of what we should strive for and needs to be corrected.
Education: Romney seems to frequently mention education along with economic globalization. He believes our financial competitiveness with other countries is heavily dependent our turning out educated workers and researchers. It is also notable (and neglected by my primary source) that Romney has cut a great deal of education budget of Massachusetts for secondary and higher education while governor.
Civil Rights: Civil Rights is mostly mentioned along side education (and thus is also tied to his interest in economic globalization). In mentioning poverty, he seems to constantly segue to the need for better education in poor areas, and then lead into the need to stay financially competitive.
Other Notables: Romney's religion is probably the hottest issue revolving this candidate. The Mormon religion isn't very well known. There are several issues that are worth consideration. Mormon's believe in polygamy, the marriage of a man to more than one woman. This brings his family values under fire as being unconventional and certainly askew with most of America, however, cannot provide any proof that Romney has any other wife than Ann Romney. However, Fox News reported Romney's Grand-father did have more than one wife. If interested I will certainly mention this in the Personal Opinion section below.
The other most notable issue that arises from his religion is their belief in a living prophet. There is a fear in exactly how much power would such a person actually have over Romney. The issue is if this prophet were to say he had a vision regarding a national policy or international politics, would Romney blindly follow. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has releasted the following statement to this effect.
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can): I feel like I've been pinching my own lip to stay objective in writing the previous post. I couldn't wait to get to this section.
Honestly, I like Romney, but I'm not sure I want him for president in 2008. I see global warming as a bigger issue than he seems to make it out to be and I believe we should at least take some initial steps toward correction against environmental abuse. Romney's concerns for taking action in favor of correcting global warming in that it could negatively effect our economy is actually a real threat. However, Romney prides himself as an excellent economist. If he's anywhere near as good as he and his supporters say he is. He's a perfect post Global Warming reform president. We need to elect a president who will take some major steps in favor support of global warming and then Romney would be a great cleanup man. It seems to me he could very well be an ace up our sleeve that I don't think we should play yet.
I also respect Romney's stance on abortion and stem cell research. In the near future I plan on making a post in regards to religion and politics, but I admire Romney's realization that his own religion should not be legally forced upon others though legislation. I see his flip flop as merely showing he's a candidate that is possibly always researching the issues and isn't afraid to change his mind. Its actually refreshing to hear a pro-life argument that doesn't involve religion (directly at least, as cloning could still be a religious issue obviously). Frankly, after Bush, shouldn't we have had our fill of a president who isn't willing evaluate new evidence to reform his opinion? I know I am.
Originally I considered Romney's religion of little concern to me, until I read my primary source and I understood where the opposition was coming from. The polygamy doesn't bother me. At least the possibility of having 3 first ladies is probably on par with having a first gentleman should Clinton be elected. At best, having 3 first ladies could be like having a first congress in charge of... well its not like the first lady has a defined job anyways, so I guess 3 ladies can just sit around and have undefined jobs as well as one can. Regardless, as I said previously, Romney's one and only known wife is Ann Romney. As far as I'm concerned, until presented with evidence to the contrary, he only has one wife.
The realization that the LDS's believe in a prophet did raise an eyebrow. However any concerns of a possible religious conspiracy I may have shared were completely disarmed by the official LDS statement I quoted above. Mormons are very pious people as I've come to understand. I believe they would release an official statement lying about their beliefs about as much as I believe the Vatican would do the same as the Catholic that I am. In other words, I don't believe the heads of a church would probably not lie about such a thing for the sake of politics.
POV: Mormon and Evangelical Christian discuss life and politics of MR
Bias: Pro-Romney
Reason for Source: Honestly books on Romney were slim. This was the only book I saw on my search through Amazon that didn't actually have the word Mormon in the title. This book has a chapter on his religion rather than the entire book. I found this more appealing than my other options.
Health Care: As Governor of MA, Romney put into effect the 2006 Health Reform Statute that grants health insurance to every citizen of the state. Ironically while Hillary (seemingly the most vocal supporter of public health care) praised his success in creating a public health care system, Romney seems to strongly oppose her plan. Details of both plans are probably worthy of a separate post.
Iraq War: Romney is, as statistically speaking most of America is, unhappy with the place the Bush administration has put on us. However, he acknowledges we are in this particular situation regardless of wither we should or should not have started it. Romney supports additional troops in Iraq given presentation of an intelligent placement and political focus.
Economy & Budget: Turner and Field stress that this is his strongest asset. They both argue that when Romney took office in MA, the state was in bad shape financially. Romney turned that around without any raising of taxes (more on this under Education).
Environment: My primary source provides a direct quote on the subject of Global Warming which is very descriptive of this view on this matter.
I want to make sure we don't do something which costs hundreds of billions of dollars in this country and make us less competitive with China and India. If carbon-emitting manufacturing moves to other countries, we've done nothing for the planet and we've hurt ourselves immeasurably.
Globalization: As you can probably guess from the previous two sections, Romney sees economic globalization as key to our own economy. National investment must be made in order to stay competitive with other nations.
Abortion: There is no straight yes/no answer here. Romney has flip flopped on his stance on this issue and has taken heat due to this. Originally pro-choice despite his own strong religious opposition and known dedication to family values that were in directly conflict to a pro-choice stance. His original support for the pro-choice stance came from his support in stem cell research that could also greatly benefit his with who has been diagnosed with MS.
Currently Romney is pro-life. The change of heart came for a new understanding of the uses of research that benefits from abortions. This was in regards to research in cloning, which he obviously does not support.
Immigration: Simply, or immigration needs to be reformed. Romney is for immigration, but believes our current system is letting in illegal immigrants, while making it increasingly difficult "to bring in more of the brains from around the world." He believes this is the exact opposite of what we should strive for and needs to be corrected.
Education: Romney seems to frequently mention education along with economic globalization. He believes our financial competitiveness with other countries is heavily dependent our turning out educated workers and researchers. It is also notable (and neglected by my primary source) that Romney has cut a great deal of education budget of Massachusetts for secondary and higher education while governor.
Civil Rights: Civil Rights is mostly mentioned along side education (and thus is also tied to his interest in economic globalization). In mentioning poverty, he seems to constantly segue to the need for better education in poor areas, and then lead into the need to stay financially competitive.
Other Notables: Romney's religion is probably the hottest issue revolving this candidate. The Mormon religion isn't very well known. There are several issues that are worth consideration. Mormon's believe in polygamy, the marriage of a man to more than one woman. This brings his family values under fire as being unconventional and certainly askew with most of America, however, cannot provide any proof that Romney has any other wife than Ann Romney. However, Fox News reported Romney's Grand-father did have more than one wife. If interested I will certainly mention this in the Personal Opinion section below.
The other most notable issue that arises from his religion is their belief in a living prophet. There is a fear in exactly how much power would such a person actually have over Romney. The issue is if this prophet were to say he had a vision regarding a national policy or international politics, would Romney blindly follow. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has releasted the following statement to this effect.
Elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated Church position. While the Church may communicate its views to them, as it may to any other elected official, it recognizes that these officials still must make their own choices based on their best judgment and with consideration of the constituencies whom they were elected to represent.
Personal Opinion (section to extract my emotional commentary out of the above as best as I can): I feel like I've been pinching my own lip to stay objective in writing the previous post. I couldn't wait to get to this section.
Honestly, I like Romney, but I'm not sure I want him for president in 2008. I see global warming as a bigger issue than he seems to make it out to be and I believe we should at least take some initial steps toward correction against environmental abuse. Romney's concerns for taking action in favor of correcting global warming in that it could negatively effect our economy is actually a real threat. However, Romney prides himself as an excellent economist. If he's anywhere near as good as he and his supporters say he is. He's a perfect post Global Warming reform president. We need to elect a president who will take some major steps in favor support of global warming and then Romney would be a great cleanup man. It seems to me he could very well be an ace up our sleeve that I don't think we should play yet.
I also respect Romney's stance on abortion and stem cell research. In the near future I plan on making a post in regards to religion and politics, but I admire Romney's realization that his own religion should not be legally forced upon others though legislation. I see his flip flop as merely showing he's a candidate that is possibly always researching the issues and isn't afraid to change his mind. Its actually refreshing to hear a pro-life argument that doesn't involve religion (directly at least, as cloning could still be a religious issue obviously). Frankly, after Bush, shouldn't we have had our fill of a president who isn't willing evaluate new evidence to reform his opinion? I know I am.
Originally I considered Romney's religion of little concern to me, until I read my primary source and I understood where the opposition was coming from. The polygamy doesn't bother me. At least the possibility of having 3 first ladies is probably on par with having a first gentleman should Clinton be elected. At best, having 3 first ladies could be like having a first congress in charge of... well its not like the first lady has a defined job anyways, so I guess 3 ladies can just sit around and have undefined jobs as well as one can. Regardless, as I said previously, Romney's one and only known wife is Ann Romney. As far as I'm concerned, until presented with evidence to the contrary, he only has one wife.
The realization that the LDS's believe in a prophet did raise an eyebrow. However any concerns of a possible religious conspiracy I may have shared were completely disarmed by the official LDS statement I quoted above. Mormons are very pious people as I've come to understand. I believe they would release an official statement lying about their beliefs about as much as I believe the Vatican would do the same as the Catholic that I am. In other words, I don't believe the heads of a church would probably not lie about such a thing for the sake of politics.
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