You may think that I’m about a month late with this post, but Blagojevich is not the focus of this particular blog entry. This is the perfect opportunity to display to conservatives how to handle one of their own in a sticky situation. Let me show you how to act when one of “your guys” screws up.

Blagojevich is shady. He’s my Governor and we’ve known it for quite a while. Politicians in our state (Democrats included) have an intense hatred for him and have gone to battle with him repeatedly. The fact that he has a “D” in front of his title does not mean anything to me. There are Democratic politicians out there that are dirty and crooked. I won’t defend them.

It amazes me that amount of defense that is displayed for crooked conservatives. Really, it’s ok to admit what they are. You don’t have to defend a dude trying to get some in an airport bathroom. You don’t have to defend a congressman trying to get with underage pages. You can see the hypocrisy and humor in an anti-gay conservative pastor having meth fueled sex with a gay prostitute. It’s really ok to call out these people even though they are in your camp. You will find out that not defending them will actually make you look like a level headed person that does not blindly follow a party.

But do what you want. I’m just trying to help you.

So here we are with President Barack Obama.

I really don’t know how we got here.  I suppose there are more than a few Republicans thinking “Oh!  I get it…a community organizer is a person that is probably pretty good at organizing a community.  That might be a handy thing in a general election.” 

There are a few topics I’d like to discuss in the next few days.  I thought maybe breaking them up would be a better idea than spewing everything into one post.  It might also help me get into the habit of writing consistently.  Today, I would like to discuss the 2008 election in general terms.

The main point I’d like to touch on today is one that I’ve been dying to write about for months, but I’m a Cubs fan, so I’m a very superstitious person that always experiences that impending sense of doom.  I didn’t dare talk about a possible Democratic victory.  But now that Barack Obama has begun selecting cabinet members, it is safe for me bring this topic up. 

Four years ago, after George W. Bush defeated John Kerry, I heard conservatives claim that it was the death of the Democratic Party.  After the 2004 election, the Republicans controlled the White House, had a 17 seat advantage in House and a 3 seat advantage in the Senate.  Even in victory, Republicans aren’t honest with themselves.  Bush claimed this victory was decisive enough to give him a mandate, and he planned to spend that capital.  After all, Bush received more votes than any other president in American History.  Of course, John Kerry, in defeat, received more votes than any president in American History, as well.  Bush beat Kerry in electoral votes, 286-251.  If Kerry would have won Ohio, George W. Bush would have been a one-term president like his father.  If you don’t remember how close Ohio was, the margin of victory for Bush was 118,599 votes.  That is .02% of the total votes cast.  Doesn’t sound like a mandate to me.

So all of this talk about Republican domination for years to come didn’t make much sense to me at the time.  But for those of us that were disgusted by the idea that Bush won even one term, it sure felt like we didn’t have any power and who knew how long it’d be until we got some.  The length of time that it would take the Democratic party to recover, according to these conservatives, was a generation.  So it would be roughly 25 years until the Democrats would become a relevant contender in American politics again?  Things didn’t go as planned for the conservatives.  A short two years later, the Democratic Party reached out their big paw and stole both the House and the Senate.  It only took two years.  I suppose there are lots of reasons for this sudden change.  First of all, elected officials from the Republican Party were in trouble all over the place for a variety of reasons.  Back then, it seemed that almost every day there was another Republican politician linked to Jack Abramoff.  Also, Americans had a crash course in Republican led governmental incompetence with Hurricane Katrina.  Bush’s approval rating had dipped into the 30′s and the Hoover comparisons were already being thrown out there.  The final tally ended up giving the Democrats a 31 seat advantage in the House and a 5 seat pick-up in the Senate. 

That sure was a short generation.  Fast forward two more years to Tuesday’s election.  The Democrats picked up at least another 18 seats in the House and possibly more when all is said and done.  The Democrats are also sitting at 55 Senate seats with 3 seats still up in the air.  Oh yeah….and Barack Obama is the new President. 

So here we are, four years from the so-called “end of the Democratic Party” and they now hold a firm grasp on every bit of government.  Karl Rove’s plan of dividing this country to give Republicans the power for years to come has completely failed.  The country wised up to this type of politics and the guy that was once considered the most brilliant man in politics could be known as the guy that ruined the strong Republican hold on our country.  That’s what greed does.  It causes people to over-reach and it backfires. 

Barack Obama ran a brilliant campaign.  He took the 50-state campaign approach and it actually worked.  Not only did he turn red states into blue states (Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ohio), but he took deep red states and turned them into toss-up states.  He went into the Republicans backyard and I can only imagine how shocked they are.  They must have that feeling that a homeowner gets when someone breaks into their house.  You think you’re safe and in control and then you realize that you’re not as safe as you thought. 

I’m no political expert, but I think there is one thing that helped lead to this result.  The extended Democratic Primary was seen as a negative for Obama.  Hillary was supposed to have roughed him up.  But I only see good things that happened from that extended primary. 

1.  The one thing that worried me was that Obama wasn’t tough enough to face the Republican machine in a general election.  I can only assume that this Democratic Primary helped Obama prepare for what he was about to face.  He learned how to handle this opposition.  I have never seen a politician so disciplined.  He knew what to address and what to let go.  He came off as focused, knowing what truly matters.  During debates, I was screaming at the tv for him to go after McCain on topics the McCain campaign had been bringing up in commercials and through Sarah Palin.  I kept replaying John Kerry not fighting  back about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.  I was convinced Obama was another soft Democratic pushover.  Nope, he knew exactly what he was doing.  He was steps ahead of the McCain campaign and he wasn’t about to step back and wrangle with them over non-issues.

2.  Obama was on the ground and in every state for all the primaries.  In some parts of this country, he was fairly unknown and this was a great way for him to introduce himself to these people and for them to get comfortable with him.  It gave him the opportunity to organize volunteers and his grass-roots operations in every single state.  This also gave Obama the opportunity to raise much more money, which really is an indicator of a fired-up and growing following.  McCain had the Republican nomination wrapped up weeks ahead of time and missed out on this opportunity. 

So that’s my disjointed take on the 2008 Election.  Stay tuned because in the next few days, I plan to write on where I see the Republicans going in the future.

Stevens is also known for his support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”, which has become the poster-child for unnecessary and irresponsible government spending.  Stevens threatened to quit Congress if the funds were diverted from the bridge construction to relief for Hurricane Katrina.

Nowdays, a Senator being indicted for corruption doesn’t really catch my attention, but Ted Stevens has made a name for himself after he gave this clear and thorough explanation of the Internet.  The internet is not a big truck, it’s a series of tubes.

I flipped on Fox News, only because it is channel 39 and the Cubs were on channel  40.  They were doing this story about a guy from Orlando, Florida who is selling his body for a tattoo on Ebay to any corporation willing to buy his ad-space.  He seemed like a decent enough guy.  He recently got laid off and is married with 2 kids and another on the way.  He talked about how he has turned in his resume to 30 employers and has not gotten a call-back. 

So, at the end of the story, they go back to the “newscasters”.  This is how they end the story:

Woman: “I wouldn’t buy his body.”

Man :  “I don’t know about all that.”

Woman:  “Yeah, I mean, get a second job”.

Man:  “Yeah, I hear McDonald’s is hiring”.

So first, let’s explore the fact that apparently the woman did not even pay attention to the story.  He lost his job, that’s why he’s trying to make ends meet by allowing some corporation to tattoo their logo on his body.  This was not some dude looking for publicity.  In fact, he tried to keep it a secret and somehow it got to the media.  But yeah…common sense tells you that you can’t get a second job until you have a first.  Plus, she was obviously commenting on that she did not consider him to be an attractive person.  I mean, granted the guy was less manly than Ann Coulter, but I think her first comment was pretty inappropriate for a “reporter”.

But this is the cold-heartedness that you can expect from those that get off on their conservativism.  You know the type, those that take the most ridiculous stands, as if this helps prove they are truly a conservative.  You see this frequently on the program Fox and Friends.

You know, I would think a conservative would think this is a great idea.  This is the free-market.  It’s capitalism.  Plus, it would keep the guy off welfare.  Why would they immediately decide he’s a loser and this is wrong?  Because they have to take that stand.  How else could they get a promotion at Fox News?  They have to out O’Reilly everyone else.

So this might be a good time post the link to the Cubs blog that I write for again.

www.ivyenvy.wordpress.com

Bob Dole was funny, but waited until after the 1996 election to show us.  After that, everyone said “If he would have shown us his humor, maybe people would have liked him more and he would have gotten elected”.  So now politicians go overboard…not with real humor but with this stupid contrived self deprecating humor.  The one exception is Mike Huckabee.  He has made me laugh a few times.  Of course, his “gun pointed at Barack Obama” line he threw out at an NRA event was pretty bad.  If you’re known as the funny guy, you don’t have to force things to continue that.  It’s ok to let something happen without having a punchline.  I am willing to look past this bad joke.  I think he just tried to force something and it was the first thing that came to mind.  When he plays the role of a pundit, I find him to be pretty funny. 

But John McCain is not a funny man.  Amazingly, I think that George W Bush has a better delivery in public speaking that McCain.  If there’s one thing I know about humor, it’s that delivery is very important.  To be funny, you can’t tell a joke in teleprompter speed and tone. 

So stick to issues, Mr. McCain.  There are enough issues to focus on…the war, the economy, healthcare and gas prices, just to name a few. 

Enjoy!  

Arrested Development Movie listed on IMDB.com

This is easily my most anticipated movie right now.  It’s pretty safe to say that Arrested Development is my favorite TV series of all-time. 

I really hope this doesn’t fall apart before they shoot this movie.

Sure enough, we had an earthquake.  Well, we didn’t, but Southern Illinois did.   The epicenter was near West Salem, Illinois.   Earthquakes must travel better through this rich and compact midwestern soil than it does in sandy California.  It was only a 5.4 and felt 450 miles away. 

So in the last week, this place has really felt like Los Angeles.  We’ve had a black man shot by the cops which lead to near riots that has caused tension between cops and the public and an earthquake.  How can people live here?  Oh yeah, affordable housing and zero traffic…except the corner of 34th Street and 12th Avenue, now.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

In the last year, I have played two shows with Cool Your Jets from Greenville, Illinois.  Their sound is something that takes me back to the good old days of emo and indie rock.  But at the same time, they seem to have managed to appeal to the younger kids that undoubtedly don’t hear the Promise Ring, Braid, the Anniversary and Koufax influences that stand out to me. 

Their recordings are good.  But like most bands, it doesn’t come close to capturing the intensity and energy of their live show.  Oddly, it seems to me that their vocals are better live.  This might be due to the fact that their vocals have so much energy in their live shows. 

They are good guys and their down-to-earth attitudes and friendliness is refreshing to me.  Local scenes need more bands like this and less bands like the assholes that think they need to walk around local shows wearing tour placards they made for themselves to feel like rock stars.  Chances are, if your entire fan base is 15 year old girls, you write shitty music.  If you have more t-shirts designs than chords you use, you are a shitty band.

Cool Your Jets does not write shitty music and they are not a shitty band.