YouTube VS Politics

Sorry if the title sounds uncatchy, but it's almost true.

There are a lot of people pointing out the lack of civics education or actual participation in Democracy by the younger generation. I know a lot of them THINK they're being participatory, but the true fact is that the younger generation is simply regurgitating the same tired facts and opinions being fed to them by the liberal media. A media, which purports to label itself 'impartial', divides our country more than actual bi-partison squabbling.

This simply isn't participation. Participation is educating yourself on candidates and facts, not someone else's opinions (you get the FACTS so you can draw your OWN conclusion). Participation is not only voting for your choice of president, but federal legislator, state governor, legistlator, mayor, city council, etc. I don't see the sense of urgency in people 10 years younger than myself to get involved.

Unless, of course, it's the tech generation. I'm sorry, but sending in sloppy questions like "why shouldn't we get married", or listening to a guy in a santa suit send video questions to candidates is kind of making a mockery of the system, in my opinion. Granted, I understand that these are issues which are important to the person asking them, but a part of our Democracy is also being inclusive of others, and challenging the accountability of our leaders and candidates. A debate is simply a very public job interview, and our job as spectators is to use that information to draw our own conclusions and therefore support the person we believe is best for the job.

Really, I just can't believe that we're sidestepping social security, a failed Iraqi government, two-front wars that are costing hundreds of billions of dollars, illegal immigrants, failed justice systems, etc in order to field questions from a guy in a santa suit. Doesn't make sense.

Anyway, that's one poor man's opinion.

RB

Happiness, and What Not

Thanksgiving was yesterday, and it was damn well nice.

Went to my grandma's, had some good food, and then adjourned to my sister's withe some of her husband's family there. Great food and even better times.

Didn't have shit to write about -- I went a responded to someone else's blog with all my thought and vocabulary I'm going to get to use today. At least I liked the response.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great turkey day. I'd post pictures of my day if; A) I had pictures, and B) I knew how to do it.

Happy Holidays (won't say it much longer, because I'm going to have a serious holiday bitch very soon)

RB

When The Looking Glass Is Reversed...

Great article today in the St Pete times. I won't try to take anything away from it, so I'll leave the link at the end of this post.

The gist of it is, Bush's warrantless wiretapping program in actuality exceeds the scope he described to the American people. A former AT&T executive states that he has seen some of the NSA's "secret rooms" where agents are filtering through millions of web pages and email addresses -- this is traffic that is originating and TERMINATING within our borders, which, according to Bush, was not supposed to happen. Does anyone else think this guy is an imperialist?

Here's the link. Enjoy and leave your comments. http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/18/Opinion/In_the_US_of_A__we_ar.shtml

RB

Blackjack, Bacharrat and Slots -- OH MY!

To say that I'm thrilled right now would be a bit of an overstatement, because I really don't give a shit either way, BUT:

Governor Crist signed a compact with the Seminole Tribe to allow Vegas style card games and slot machines in all 6 of its casinos in Florida. The state is guaranteed $100M in the first year alone.

The state legislature is not too happy about this turn of events. They are planning to block this measure if it has to come through the floor of the House. One member of the GOP cited that the presence of slot machines and blackjack would increase crime rates (SERIOUSLY?! It's a casino surrounded by cops! And, if you look at my LAST post, you see what happens to criminals after fucking around in a Seminole casino), and someone else cited the fact that compact is non binding and therefore not a legal agreement with the State of Florida.

Either way, those douchebags should seriously shut up. It's $100M in revenue the state needs, and they're probably objecting because they did not work to capitalize on this opportunity. So, I guess to cover the fact the state is going to be over $1B short in revenue for the second year in a row, select members of the legislature are going to play the moral card. Sometimes I'm ashamed to be a Republican, but what are you going to do?

Nothing from state Democrats, but I'm sure once the above is all finalized, I'm sure we'll all see some requests for ridiculous social programs, like "save the butterflies", and "science and research run amok: Cloning".

At any rate, remember that if you play your hand too strong, they will fold, and if you play it too weak, they will draw out on you. Every time.

RB

How Crime Kills

So, some guy on the Miccosukee Indian reservation was breaking into cars when noticed by police. As you probably know, all Indian reservations are autonomous, which means they are self-governed, and have their own police force (and I could have fun with THAT, but I digress).

So guy breaking into cars gets noticed by the cops, and runs into a retention pond. Apparantly, he disturbed the meal of a pretty big alligator, who wasn't quite thrilled about that, and promptly bit the man on the head and dragged him 50 under water. Needless to say, the man died.

Now, they trapped and killed the alligator, because under state law, any gator that bites and/or ingests a human must be destroyed and not consumed as tasty gator tail nuggets (tastier chicken and baby cow nuggets, even).

That's lunacy, I say. The state should be offering this vigilante reptile a job, either as a police chief, or even to be the new face for "Take a Bite out of Crime". In fact, we could probably throw this gator into the Democratic presidential race, and then we could all rest better knowing there is at least ONE tough candidate on their ballot.

RB

First And Foremost...

First and foremost, this is my first post on my new blog. Certainly new to the blogosphere.

First post = no readers, so I'll see if I can actually draw a fucking hand.

RB