Why I won’t vote for Obama

Don’t get me wrong, the “big O” definitely has mass appeal. He was definitely on my list for consideration. The past 2 weeks have moved him solidly from a “maybe” to a no way this side of a snowball in hell”.

So, why the change? the Big 0 has not changed any of his positions (or made any of them any more clear, realistic, or achievable - but hey, that’s true of ALL the candidates). He hasn’t made any major social missteps at his campaign stops. He has a ton of people supporting him. The problem is that his campaign refuses to leave me alone. My phone number is unlisted, “do not called”, and otherwise kept out of the phone spam lists every way possible. Somehow, the Obama campaign got my cell phone number anyway. That’s OK - they are not he only campaign that has called me. They are, however, the only campaign that has called me every single damn day for the past 2 weeks. They have interrupted dinner, business meetings, family time, and left me countless voice-mail messages. Despite frequent requests to be removed from their call list, they continue to call me daily. Today, I filed a complaint with the FCC. Maybe that will make a difference.

At this point, it doesn’t matter what his positions are, what his history is, what he stands for, represents, or even how much he offers to pay me to vote for him,. ain’t no way it will ever happen. He has invaded my personal life at a level that is bordering on harassment, and that is simply inexcusable. Other campaigns that have called me are polite, and somehow manage to be well enough organized to only call once - a request to be left alone works. Either his campaign is so unorganized that it cannot accomplish this simple task, or it simply doesn’t care. Either situation is a poor indication of how Obama would function in the white house.

Sorry man, you blew, you lost my vote for this campaign, and all future campaigns.

Since when is a litle snow news?

I live in New England. That means that in the winter months, my neighbors and I expect it to snow, as do most of the people I know who are familiar with climate and North American weather patterns. Howeve, for some reason, over the past few years, the anticipation of a “snow storm” has become major news. I find this a bit disturbing.

 After our first snowfall this year (A whopping inch or so od the white stuff), I actually heard a news reporter refer to it as “the biggest storm so far this season”. And, no, the newsperson was NOT being funny (at least not on purpose). True, this was technically acurate reporting -it WAS the biggest storm so far in the season. Of course, it was also the FIRST storm of the season. By using grossly overblown presentation, the reporter turned a piddly little nothing snowfall into a “newsworthy” event. This bugs me because by using this extreme hyperbole, the newcaster is, in effect, lying to the listeners. Does anyone out there remember studying “Yellow journalism” in school? It is when a journalist intentionally misrepresents facts to try and present something in a way that is technically acurate, but conveeys a completely innacurate message.

So now, a couple of weeks later, we have another snow storm coming in. This time, the hype started a whole week before the storm. Newspapers, radio, TV, and pretty much every media channel I know of was raving about the “Huge snow storm” that was going to “hit the Northeast”. I’ve got new for you guys: a “huge snowstorm” implies something that will have huge effects. Up here in the great white north, a foot or so of snow is no big deal. Schools might be closed for a day - two if the timing is right, or the snow is mixed with a lot of ice, but that’s about it. This is not news. It’s normal life in  New England.

 Of course, with the media hype, the public responded as only true sheep can. In anticipation of this “killer storm”, the great unwashed masses flocked to grocery stores buying up everything that they could cram into thier carts. People were going to be ready to hunker down and endure the horrible tribulations of living through a (que dramatic music) HUGE, KILLER SNOWSTORM! A REAL NORTHEASTER! (with huge gnashing teeth……). Of course, what these people do to prepare is kind of funny - I saw one woman with a shopping cart full to the top with bags of ice - in case the power went out, she was going to fill her freezer with ice so the food wouldn’t thaw and go bad (Clue for ya lady: If its cold enough to snow, just put your food on the back porch, and it’ll stay frozen). People were buying batteries by the dozen (for flashlights, I suppose), piles of frozen food (wonder how they’re gonna cook it if the power goes out), and generally panicking.

Of course, now that the storm is here, everything is (justifiably - the roads are crappy) closed. I wonder what all of those “prepared survivors” are going to do tomorrow when they realize that everything is back to normal, and about all the preparation they needed was to make sure that they had enough chips and beer to sit in front of the idiot box and watch the weather channel tell them how bad the storm is. Of course, a glance outside would tell them that it’s just another normal snowstorm, but then they wouldn’t have any reason to panic….

Every time I go through this, I have to wonder what is going to happen if (when) there is a real snow storm or hurricane here. People are so used to getting hyped up by the stupid normal weather that they think they actually know how to prepare for a real event. I mean something that really would be news. A storm that shuts things down for a week or two. No power, roads closed, national guard, the works. Last time I dealt with a storm like that, the answer was simple: the vast majority of people simply curled up and waited for rescue. A few knew how to be prepared, and actually had rational emergency stores, heat supplies, and knew how to shut down their house so that the pipes wouldn’t freeze, but the vast majority of people simply waited for the national guard to come rescue them, and left everything they had behind. I can’t tell you how many contractors I know that cleaned up replacing ruptured pipes, soaked (and frozen) drywall, etc. I guess the general public really is stupid enough to believe what the media tells them. After all, despite a complete lack of evidence, the general public bought the hype about Iraqi WMDs, association with the Taliban, and all the other crap that Bush made up. Given that, why SHOULD I be surprised that these same people are too stupid to look out the window and realize that snow is a normal occurrence in New England.

man, do I hate that whole Xmass thing….

So call me the grinch. That whole xmass present orgy, month of sappy songs crap just does nothing for me. Except make me reallyglad I’m Jewish.  Being Jewish means I don’t have to worry about xmass presents (I won’t call is christmas because it has nothingto do with religion any more - except worship of the all-holy buck, materialism, and consumerism). So, as grudging acknowledgement of the orgy of consumerism that the next few weeks will represent, here is my Xmass posting. Chappy Chanukkah, Cherry mixmaster, and all that crap. Now get back to work.

 Things I won’t do this month:

1. Go to the mall. Any mall. While you are all running around like crazy running up your credit card bills, I’ll be sitting at home sipping something toasty, and laughing.
2. For that matter, I won’t go shopping. screw the mall. I’ll stay out of all the stores except the grocery store. Heh. I’ll even avoid that for the week or so before Xmass.
3. listen to crappy xmass music. It started before thanksgiving, and I’ve turned off my radio in favor of records (yay vinyl), CDs, and Ipod. Sometime around New Years, I may return to radio, but certainly not before then.
4. Pretend that I care about people I really don’t give a crap about. Hey gang, MY holiday celebrates a military victory over yet another government bent on destroying my ancestors. In that particular event, my ancestors kicked the living crap out of their tormentors. Now THAT’s something worth celebrating.
5. make the slightest effort to make anyone think I give a crap about the whole xmass thing. Show me the folks that are spending the day in church, doing their 6AM mass, midnight mass, and the whole shebang, and I’ll acknowledge that there are a few folks out there that can actually recall what Christmas means. Oh yeah, they’re also the ones that aren;t participating in the whole Buy Buy Buy thing…..

So there ya go. Go on ouot, ramp up your debt, and do your best to boost the economy. I’ll sit home, ignore the whole idiotic orgy, and enjoy the fact that I don’t feel obligated to buy present on demand. I can wait until I find something that actually has meaning, deliver it as a surprise, and make somebodies day.

Iranian Nukes - or are they WMDs?

So the Bush is at it again. Turns out that the last 4 years of rhetoric about Iran’s “nuclear weapons program” (that’s Nukular, if your name is bush…) is just that: rhetoric. as in hot air, double speak, political blathering, or 9dare we say it) outright lies. Despite the fact that pretty much the entire world is ‘fessing up to the fact that they bought George’s Big Lie Re: WMD and starting the iraq war, old georgie seems to think that he can fool the world again. Except this time, the intelligence wonks over at spook central, USA have realized that supporting the Bush WMD lie has cost a lot of folks their careers, and that old georgie’s days are numbered anyway. That means that chances are pretty good if you’re a spook working for the USA, and you don’t toe the Bush policy line this time around, chances are good you won’t get punted. You may even get a promotion. (Goes to show what type of folks work for the spooks, eh?).

 ’Course, old Georgie ain’t buyin’ it. “Iran was, is, and always will be a danger”. They stopped their nuclear (NUKULAR) research program 4 years ago, but they COULD restart it, so all you voters keep being scared! Remember, The Decider KNOWS what is really going on - even if his spook puppets are finally showing some spine and refusing to cook their data to support him…

I’ve really started to wonder if this bozo is so delusional that he actually believes the crap he spouts, or if he’s simply got his head rammed so far up his posterior that he hasn’t realized yet that the entire friggin world knows he’s lying through his teeth….

Will someone PLEASE give this clown a BJ so we can get rid of him?