Obama's Running Mate

[SOOOSKA]

Hey Peg, I thought I heard that they may still have the convention but they don't want it to be a party like atmosphere. I heard some of the announcers saying that they may have it so people can donate money for relief. Honestly i think if they do this it may get them some votes.

I to was looking forward to the convention just to see what they have to say. I also watched Larry King last week as he had on Republican people discussing all the speeches. This week he is going to have on Democrats to do the same thing.

Susan

 

[TinysMom]

I agree that they shouldn't have a "party-like" atmosphere - but I was really looking forward to hearing the speeches of certain people.

I was really hoping that people would get to hear more about Sarah Palin (I've been doing some reading about her as Alaska's Governor and the things she's done - and I've been reading things from both the left and the right to get a better picture). I've done more reading about the McCains too - I never liked him during President Bush's first term in office as I saw him as a thorn in the President's side. However, the more I've read the more I want to know more about him.

I also am hoping that when Senator McCain speaks - that he will give specific examples of what he wants to do. While I liked the some of the message behind Senator Obama's speech - I felt like he was not specific enough (from what I'm reading so did several others and I don't mean just from the GOP or Fox News).

Anyway - to go back to the topic of the convention - I can't say that I care a lot about some of the speakers. If President Bush doesn't speak - it won't break my heart. I'd rather be hearing from Cindy McCain or Sarah Palin. I'd rather hear more about what McCain sees for the future - than what has happened in the past.

I heard one interview (I can't remember where I heard it as I've been going to CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) that I want to find again. It was Steve Forbes of Forbes magazine talking about the economy and how each candidates' plans would affect that. Susan - was that on Larry King? I don't think so. I'm going to have to look again - I'm wondering if it was on FoxNews since I think Forbes is a Republican or something.... He had interesting things to say about both plans....

Anyway - I don't mind if they use part of the convention to raise money for the hurricane victims - that would be fine. I don't mind if Senator McCain spends the first three days of the convention handing out water to the victims...or searching through the rubble. I just want him to speak the last night and explain to us all why he picked Sarah Palin and why we should vote for him. (Mind you - my mind is made up...but still yet - I want to hear him explain things). I also want him to NOT spin the truth.

I doubt that will happen....but it would be nice!

 

[seniorcats]

That's a lot to think about. I guess I am trying to be very practical. Life goes on its daily course, the convention should go on. Looking at it from a purely economic point, Minneapolis would probably suffer financially. It would also be an opportunity to raise funds, if needed, for hurrican relief.

Maybe they should skip the party part and the Elvis impersonators!

I pray for those people in the path of this hurricane. Thank God the state now has a Governor, Bobbie Jindal,with the brains to call up the National Guard (only the Governor can) and the integrity to see that relief funds go to the needy and not into a corrupt family dynasty's pocket.

 

[TinysMom]

From CNN

St. Paul (CNN) – Sen. John McCain said the Republican National Convention will suspend most of the activities scheduled Monday because of Hurricane Gustav.
“We’ll pray for the best and prepare for the worst,” the presumptive Republican presidential candidate said Sunday, quoting Gulf Coast Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
Campaign manager Rick Davis said Republicans would meet in an abbreviated fashion, conducting only what was necessary to constitute a convention, such as calling the convention to order, receiving a report from the credential committee and adopting the party platform.
“Tomorrow’s program will be business only and will refrain from any political rhetoric,” he said.
The convention will begin at its regularly scheduled time, 3 p.m. CT. Davis said the convention would adjourn around 5 or 5:30 PM.
The GOP’s four-day program was originally scheduled to begin Monday in St. Paul, Minnesota. Davis said the rest of the week would be determined on a day-by-day basis.
Earlier Sunday, Sen. John McCain said it wouldn't be appropriate to hold a political celebration during the storm.
"We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," he said, adding that it was likely the event would change into a "call to the nation for action."
"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention … to act as Americans, not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat," he said.
Also on Sunday, the White House announced that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would not be in attendance.

 

[TinysMom]

I have got to say that I really didn't know much (still don't) about Governor Jindal - but when I watched his press briefing - I don't know - there is something about him that I really liked. He seems to genuinely care about his people or something - I can't explain it. I was also pleased and surprised to see he had someone signing what he said too - I love watching people use sign language.

I forgot to add this - I thought it was interesting - also from CNN but another article..

The McCain campaign arranged a charter flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday afternoon for delegates who wish to return to the Gulf Coast region ahead of Hurricane Gustav.
Louisiana Republican State Party Chair Roger Villere Jr. said some of his states' delegates have already departed, while others plan to leave.
The same plane will fly back to Minnesota if delegates have children or other family members they want to remove from the area.
[align=center]AND THEY ALSO SAID THIS....
[/align] A senior McCain source said Saturday that officials were considering turning the convention into a massive telethon to raise money for the Red Cross and other agencies to help with hurricane aid.

[line]
Anyway - I'm a bit disappointed but I think they're doing the right thing. I'm sure they're trying to stay on top of what is happening with Gustav and make decisions that they feel are the best.
I just feel bad that we may not get the full normal convention we'd planned on. But still yet....I have to respect them for the decisions they're making.

 

[Haley]

I agree, Peg. After the Democrats got a week of full blown media coverage I was looking forward to the RNC. From a strictly political standpoint, this stinks for Republicans since each party usually gets a boost from their respective convention. However, theres not much else they can do in light of the devastating weather coming and I think theyre doing the right thing.

 

[JadeIcing]

So who is ready for this to start?

 

[TinysMom]

JadeIcing wrote:

So who is ready for this to start?

I'm ready for it to start - but I am guessing the delegates are exhausted. I just heard that the delegates and alternates were on a phone bank today calling all over the US - and they raised ONE MILLION DOLLARS to help out the victims of Gustav.

I don't know what they're going to do with that money....how it will be used (for supplies or whatever)...


....but after working on phones for customer service for several months - I don't envy those folks.

So I guess I'll be ok waiting till tomorrow (hopefully it will start tomorrow night).

 

[TinysMom]

Oh wow - I don't have a Target near me - but this would make me want to shop there....Ali - you have got to be proud of Target since you worked there...

From the RNC website - about their activities tomorrow:

The 2008 Republican National Convention has joined with Target, FedEx, and the Red Cross to send 80,000 "comfort packages" to the Gulf Coast region. The packages will be assembled at the Minneapolis Convention Center in a staging area being assembled today. The packages will have basic necessities donated by Target, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, granola bars, and other prepackaged foods. The donated materials will arrive in Saint Paul on Wednesday at 8 a.m., and FedEx will ship the packages to the appropriate locations.

I understand we don't know what ALL the needs are by any means - and I know that Senator Obama is asking his people to help too....but for Target to donate 80,000 of each of those items....that ain't cheap....(I know - it won't break their budget either - but still yet).

I just became a TARGET fan and may shop on their website when it gets closer to Christmas time...

 

[JadeIcing]

Target donates money in the millions to Red Cross and the Salvation Army EVERY YEAR. This is not counting what they donate in situations like this. They sent things in Cali with the fires, also during the floods. Each store is expected to do alot locally. Ifyou have aTarget Card they will send a portion to the school ofyour choice. It is theTakeCharge of Education Program.

Right now Targets current in store campaign is for UNITED WAY. We are doing raffles, talent shows and ALOT more.

Over the summer we (our store) did theRelay for Life. We raised over $2,000 in about a month. Our store matched a percentage of it and evendonated stuff toour raffle.

 

[gentle giants]

JadeIcing wrote:

So we either have a black guy and a white guy or a white guy and a white lady. This just got intresting.

Actually, Obama isn't black, he's Middle Eastern. Also, for anyone who owns any kind of gun, if either Hillary or Obama gets in, count on losing it. They are both very anti-gun. They are also both pro-abortion, while I am VERY pro-life.

I feel like the choices are basically going to be "the lesser of two evils" as well, it seems like very election it gets worse.

 

[JadeIcing]

Ok man of color. I meant skin color. In my eyes we all came from two people so we all have something in us. If you want to get techinacal I am more white than spanish.

gentle giants wrote:

JadeIcing wrote:

So we either have a black guy and a white guy or a white guy and a white lady. This just got intresting.

Actually, Obama isn't black, he's Middle Eastern. Also, for anyone who owns any kind of gun, if either Hillary or Obama gets in, count on losing it. They are both very anti-gun. They are also both pro-abortion, while I am VERY pro-life.

I feel like the choices are basically going to be "the lesser of two evils" as well, it seems like very election it gets worse.

 

[Haley]

Actually he is black.His mother was white and his father was Kenyan (which is in Africa). Since "black' usually refers to people of African decent, Id say he's technically half black


He is not Middle Eastern, although his father was a practicing Muslim early on (which could be why people think Middle Eastern).

 

[Bo B Bunny]

gentle giants wrote:

JadeIcing wrote:

So we either have a black guy and a white guy or a white guy and a white lady. This just got intresting.

Actually, Obama isn't black, he's Middle Eastern.

No, he's half black and half white. (which is legally black) His father was a black man from Kenya, his mom a white woman from Kansas. Her second husband was from Indonesia (where Barak spent part of his life).

He was born in Hawaii, went to Indonesia, came back to Hawaii with his grandparents.

 

[JadeIcing]

I never pay attention to that but nice to know.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Bo B, here's another bright question. Why if he has one parent that's White and one that's Black is he considered Black. I find this very confusing as one of his parents is white. Same a Tiger Woods, he's half black and half Oriental (I forget where his Mom is from) but everyone refers to him as Black. I think if I was the white parent I would be quite upset hearing my child being referred to as Black, it's as if the one parents heritage doesn't mean anything.

Do you understand where I'm coming from?

Susan

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Don't ask me! I think it's goofy too! but it's the way the system works!

We have debated checking the DNA of my son for American Indian percentage - we feel there is enough in there to warrant his and my daughter being that, and that would give them some benefits but...... at what cost?

 

[Haley]

Susan, its a cultural thing dating back to slavery with the "one drop rule". I usually dont cite Wikipedia but heres a quote from there which explains it:

The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry is considered black unless having an alternative non-white ancestry which he or she can claim, such as Native American, Asian, Arab, or Australian aboriginal. It developed most strongly out of the binary culture of long years of institutionalized slavery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_drop_rule

 

[~Domino~]

I'm like most of you, and most of the people I have talked to, I don't necessarily like either of the presidential candidates. I've never been a big Clinton supporter but I can honestly admit I was strongly leaning towards her. After she "lost" the race, I haven't known whether or not I was for Obama or McCain.

I just turned 18 in August and I've always wanted to vote. So as you can imagine I've been following the race pretty closely. I was raised a Republican. My father is retired from the military after serving 20 something odd years. He has VERY strong Republican views. I also believed I was republican, up until the middle of my freshman year in high school. That's when I finally opened my eyes to the world around me and saw it for what it really is.

As of right now, I will probably be voting for Obama. I believe McCain's views are too conservative (and they really aren't that conservative). Our society needs a change of which is not going to happen if we keep conservative views. Obviously the society in which we are living in is changing and there is going to be a great struggle if the administration that is in office tries to keep a conservative view.

I definitely made my choice on who I am going to vote for after I heard who McCain chose as his vice presidential candidate. Even thinking that she may become a vice president sickins me for A LOT of reasons. Don't get me wrong, I am a woman and I believe it is about time there has been a woman in office. She however, is NOT that woman. Reasons you ask? Here are some:

She supports having intelligent design taught in schools. For some of you this might actually be something you are for. However to me this is a diaster. I am going to school to be a veterinarian (I'm an undergraduate going through the pre-vet program right now) and so as you can imagine, I am having to take lots of science courses. To have intelligent design brought into the science textbook really bothers me on so many levels. I could write pages on why this is such a bad idea but I will say this, I believe in seperation of Church and State. If someone actually wants to debate on this believe me I will, but I will just say I believe she is wrong on this stance.

She wants to open ANWR for drilling. Ummm...how will this help us anytime soon? According to the Energy Information Administration, we wouldn't see the price of gas drop until the year 2026 to $.75 a barrel! So quite frankly, if America (even the rest of the world) is still dependent upon oil by that year, we are in big bunny crap. This is one thing that sounds great but it's going to take way too long before we even see any of the oil of Alaska. Also, ANWR isn't going to be able to produce enough oil to make us Americans happy whether we like it or not. So we would still be at the mercy of OPEC that can increase/decrease oil production in order to affect oil prices world wide. Also, she argues that ANWR oil development drilling is only going to effect 2000 acres out of I believe 19 million acres (please correct me if I'm wrong). That sounds pretty good right? Wrong. Roads, support structures, pipelines, etc. are all going to have to be built in order to keep drilling sustained. Thus it will take up much more space. We all know that roads basically kill the wilderness anyways.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/anwr/results.html

McCain and her are both for abstinence-only education. If you grew up in the era that I did, you and I both know that this doesn't work. The media portrays sex more and more everyday and teens are naturally drawn to it. So you think that telling us teens we aren't allowed to have sex at all is going to keep teens from doing it? Wrong. Unfortuantly this looks good on paper but doesn't work in a real world with real people. Whether or not anyone likes it, I know from experience most of my peers have had sex (not necessarily intercourse I suppose you can say) in their early teen/pre-teen years for the first time. It's sad yes and most probably contract a disease of some kind. Safe sex has to be taught in the classrooms, that's all I can say. I hate the fact that it has to be but abstience-only education hasn't lowerd teen pregnancy but almost like it highered the rate. Another thing that makes me go Huh? with Paulin is that she ha a daughter that is 17 and is pregnant? So where do these abstinence-only education methods work if even her daughter is having trouble with the issue? Perhaps there is more to this story so I am not going to try to poke holes into it...yet.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8470845/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080319151225.htm

She's Anti-Choice. Palin, a member of the anti-choice group Feminists for Life, said during her campaign for governor that she is opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. I have to admit I am Pro-choice. I believe it is the woman's choice. I also strongly do not believe a woman should have to give birth to a baby concieved from rape or incest. Mind you I do not support partial birth of any kind. I don't categorize myself as a feminist but I believe having Palin as a vice president would set women back from moving forward. America is such a great country because we, women and men, have certain freedoms that many other countries don't. I would rather that not to be taken away or restricted. It really bothers me that she is a woman but yet..it's almost as if she is trying to hold women back.
http://www.naral.org/elections/election-pr/pr08292008_palin.html
http://www.feministing.com/archives/010705.html

Now I just made a huge post and I have more to say but I'm gonna go eat something and then study some. Just hearing how a lot of people think she's the greatest choice McCain could ever had made, really REALLY bothers me. I kinda felt like I had to rant.

 

[gentle giants]

Well, I gotta admit, everything you just mentioned here just makes me like her more. I will try not to rant at all on this, cause these are subjects that are very near and dear to me.

~Domino~ wrote:

She supports having intelligent design taught in schools. For some of you this might actually be something you are for. However to me this is a diaster. I am going to school to be a veterinarian (I'm an undergraduate going through the pre-vet program right now) and so as you can imagine, I am having to take lots of science courses. To have intelligent design brought into the science textbook really bothers me on so many levels.

I do think that this is a good idea. I will not go into all the reasons why right now, but I think evolution islaughable, personally.

McCain and her are both for abstinence-only education. If you grew up in the era that I did, you and I both know that this doesn't work. The media portrays sex more and more everyday and teens are naturally drawn to it. So you think that telling us teens we aren't allowed to have sex at all is going to keep teens from doing it? Wrong.

I am no expert, but here's the thing. It is true that the media is constantly portaying sex everywhere you look, (mabye we should do something about that, too?) but I think that is all the more reason to teach abstinence. Mabye a compromise would be in order here? Make sure that birth control isstill available, and information on how to use it, whatever the teaching, I do believe that is neccesary.
She's Anti-Choice. Palin, a member of the anti-choice group Feminists for Life, said during her campaign for governor that she is opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest.

I am also pro-life, yes, even in cases of rape or incest. First because even if it is the product of rape, it's still a child, and it deserves to have whatever life it can. There is always adoption for anyone who would not want to raise such a child. Plus that's why we have the morning after pill. I cannnot even imagine getting an abortion. And yes, I have been faced with being pregnant out of wedlock, and it wasn't even a consideration for me. I know you probably don't have any kids yet, but I don't know how anyone who does have kids can look at their own child and think it's ok to kill one. To me, the abortion decision is not about the woman, it's about the child. Rape victims are only a small portion of those who get abortions, and anyone who has sex willingly and gets pregant-well, if you are old enough to have sex, you are old enough to know what could happen. I have no sympathy, and like I said, I've been there.

Now I am going to shut up, before I REALLY get into a rant, LOL.