Politics

So Bill Richardson turns out to be an idiot. Great, just great. Now who am I supposed to vote for? It may be back to Barack, but we shall see. If you don't know why I am referring to Bill Richardson as an idiot, it has to due with his comments regarding his favorite Supreme Court Justice ever... Check out this article on the Daily Kos for more details. Dumbass quote for the month of April: "White was in the 60s. Wasn't Roe v. Wade in the 80s?" Sure, Bill...1973, 1980s...what's the difference? ehhhh not even a date in that 10 yr span. So he could be off by anywhere from 7 to 16 years. I'm not saying the average person has to know this (though it'd be nice), but I AM saying, if you are citing as your favorite Supreme Court Justice a man who had a dissenting opinion in this pivotal landmark case, you ought to know your facts. And so what if he's good at football???

In local news, the primaries in Pennsylvania are today for the local stuff. I am now an official Pennsylvanian, having got my license after a one-hour-forty-five-minute wait on Friday. I registered to vote while I was at it, but too late for these elections. I'll catch the ones in November, I guess. Before, I was registered as an Independent, because I felt it gave me more freedom of choice, but I got tired of only voting on the issues in primaries, and want to help determine the candidates for Presidential elections, so I signed up with the Dems this time around.

I saw people outside with giant signs endorsing Luke Ravenstahl for Pittsburgh Mayor. This struck me as particularly pointless as he is running uncontested. That's right, the mayor who became mayor by the previous mayor dying has no one running against him. Some loophole or something. Goodness. He may have won regardless, but at least there would be an illusion, if nothing else, of a choice to make at the ballot boxes. Apparently, the Republicans are encouraging voters to do a Write-In. I wonder what the statistics are on a write-in winning? Hmmm. Note to self: Research Write-Ins...

Under my Radar: Bill Richardson

Let me preface this by saying that as recently as August 2006 I was reading the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Guardian EVERY DAY and watching CNN near constantly. So I got a little burned out and pulled away from the world for a bit. And I can't afford cable and the local news doesn't talk much about anything beyond a 10 mile radius. So that's not a very good excuse. There is such a thing as NPR and the Internet, and I should have stayed aware, but I will try to remedy that now.
Anyways, in my previous one political post, I discussed three candidates for the Democratic nomination- Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Rudy Gulianni. Of those three, I identified the most with Obama. This has not changed. However, there is a fourth possibility that I did not consider: Bill Richardson, the current Governor of New Mexico. This man is more than qualified. I mean, he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times. I like that he takes stronger stances on the issues. I am waiting to make a more final judgement until I learn more about his record in New Mexico and his past relationship with the Pueblos there.
So far: a conversation with Bill Richardson on Indian Country Today.
Stay tuned,

~S

Politics

Well, as a respsonsible citizen of the U. S. of A., I've been trying to decide who to cast my lot with in '08. I have arrived at my current choice through the process of elimination. This perhaps is not the ideal method, but I suppose it works as well as any.

I am choosing Barack Obama, not so much for being in agreement with him on the issues (he doesn't go far enough on some things in my mind), but because I disagree with this choice the least.

I am not choosing Rudy Guliani because nobody would have chose him prior to 2001. Doesn't anyone remember how we felt about him before the was The Mayor?

I am not choosing Hillary Clinton, because if she is our first woman president, I don't think we'll get another for a hundred years. And she is too wishy-washy on the issues, trying to please everyone instead of taking a solid stand on anything important.

So, there it is, my vote (as it stands now, my mind could be changed): Obama '08

~S