Obama 2008 DNC speech.

I missed my chance tonight to watch the speech first hand, but I did manage to find the highlights of his speech. So my opinions are purely based on that as well as previous speeches from this week.

Obama has a dream sure enough but that's as far as it goes. He spoke briefly of the American dream where anyone can do anything and be anything,he his vision of a brighter American future to all who watched but how he plans to go about it is another issue entirely. Obamas platform for this presidential race has been "Change" and he has brought forward many ideas of "Change" but he has yet to really lay out a plan to accomplish this "Change". He moved on to his plans for the economy. "We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honours the dignity of work. ". What disspointed me here is that he did not shed light on his plan, rather ignored going into completely to paint a picture of america how it is with him being the light that will guide us.

Obama has vowed to keep his word on his campaign promises some of which being the ending tax breaks to corporations that ship American jobs overseas, as well as rewarding businesses that keep jobs in America, he also plans on eliminating the capitol gains tax for the small business to bring back the cutting edge jobs of today to America. Along with this he says he'll cut taxes for 95% of Americans. " I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. " again he didn't go into specifics or give a look into his plan for it, I for one would be extremely interested in his plan for it, besides inflating your tires/green technology that wont be ready for atleast another 10-20 years.

The was wrapped with talk on American foreign policy and again nothing of particular interest was said here except the usual which went down the the usual Democratic checklist. Use of troops only in matters with clear purpose, check better treatment and benefits for veterans, check, end US occupation in Iraq/Afghanistan, check, reestablish a foreign policy, check, and the tackle of international relations through diplomacy, check. everything seems to be there.

The entire Democratic convention was sort of disappointing, no candidate or major democratic player strayed far from the democratic formula. Pretty much all of them said the same speech except with minor changes, almost interchangeable if you ask me. I shouldn't act surprised though after all this is American politics.

By this point I've grown to accept that Obama is a dreamer, and that is his selling point. He may not have as much experience as McCain, but he does have a vision for America and if he can bring about that vision and support it with plans, outlines, information, etc to support his vision and make it plausable then he would have my vote. I'm sorry to say now, that I am succumbing to the Democratic bashing Republican party, I'm not prepared for another 4 years of what we had but i would like to remain neutral till after the RNC.


Update will happen tomorrow.

DNC 2008 Protests

http://www.youtube.com/user/HoaxM3Not

some fairly shocking video of the protests, and yes riots in Denver. I can assure you that you wont be seeing this on CNN or what ever anytime time soon.

Kucinich on fire!

Kucinich gave a riveting speech last night rallying the democratic party further, driving the crowd into a frenzy in fact, at some high points. Although he didn't stray from the normal Democratic laundry list of issues, and more or less lectured the crowd which is the norm of politics lately. Don't get me wrong I do respect the message that the convention is trying to make. Hope, potential, initiative, growth, change all important for the future of our nation. Unfortunately all of that is pretty much just "talk" unless the people get involved and remain involved and ride the politicians asses like they should. As we have seen in the past, during the 60's we saw the greatest political change but this was due to the people being pissed off and actually wanted change and weren't content with just sitting around waiting for it, they went out and got it.

In November we know we'll have the highest voter turn out years, the real questions is if we'll be able to repeat it in other elections, or will we fall back into old habits?

But back to my main point Kucinich gave a great speech and hopefully the items he mentioned will be changed and we'll see America as the leading world power once again, with better foreign policy, less debt, etc..

Barack Roll

I wish they would play this at the 2008 DNC, now that would be the way to unite the democratic party!

2008 DMC Clinton Speech

Hillary spoke extremely well tonight, she showed tonight why people believed in her. Unfortunately that all I'm going to give her.

Earlier this year when she was running her campaign her biggest argument against Obama was his lack of experience, a message she did in fact approve. But now she says no Obama is the man he'll get us out of the ditch we dug over the past 8 years.

she spoke of the neccesiaty for green technology, reform of the education system (that most likely won't fix it.), restablish Americas relations nationally(we'll have our work cut out for us with Russia), Universal health care,etc. Solid points most of which have been drilled into our head over the past year during the primary elections.

They also made McCain look like a Bush clone "Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend. He has served our country with honour and courage. But we don't need four more years of the last eight years." said by Hillary Clinton

Honestly I'm still torn between the Two and I refuse to make my decision based on this. Her speech was more or less a great attempt to get the democratic party to unite under Obama, unfortunately you can't say Obama is not experienced enough to lead as your platform and then go around and tell everyone nope, nope he's the man for the job.

Confidence in Congress.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26377338/page/3/

""I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels." Natural gas = fossil fuel. Don't worry though, it isn't like the speaker of the House needs to understand energy issues"

Fark.com

USSR?

Russia has signed a formal document recognizing the the Independence of the two break Georgian Providence, despite strong condemning from western nations. Russia claims that it was justified in it's actions claiming that Georgia was committing genocide on separatists. Interestingly enough Russia compared these two rogue states to that of Kosovo a country in a similar position earlier in this year which was recognized by the west but not Russia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have essentially been under self rule since the 90's and are indebted to Russia for their help.

Almost immediately after the signing by Russia recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia independence international outcry started. "This decision is inconsistent with numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia has voted for in the past, and is also inconsistent with the French-brokered six-point ceasefire agreement which President Medvedev signed," President Bush said in a Statement.

At this point in time we can see Russia is trying to become a more prominent world power. People are claiming that Russia is trying to rewrite European borders and rebuild it's empire, Ideally that's what Russia might be intending but who knows what will happen. Russia doesn't have to many cards to play besides it's oil supply and nuclear weapons. Russia has also pulled most of it's troops out but is currently controlling the Black Sea port of Poti where it is regularly inspecting cargo. In response America said that it will send warships with aid to Russia which means American and Russian troops will meet face to face.

Russia Georgian conflict.

The Georgian Russian conflict is in my opinion is sort of a reenactment of the United States invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that though is not completely accurate. The United States invasion or if you want to call it our dedication to became more prominent in Middle Eastern affairs.

Both were active military invasions of smaller oil rich nations with the pretense of coming to defend the rights of the people of the smaller nation. In the American invasion it was to pursue Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan unrelated though both countries were rich with oil. Information now tells the American people that they were lied to as to create public support for a reasonless invasion and occupation. Although the we were lied to I personally support our occupation, I believe that if we wanted to remain prominence as a world power we not only need to change our leader but we need to remain in control of what drives globalization which currently is energy.

Russia is the America of this war in Georgia, during the 80's Russia invaded Iraq. Keep in mind the Cold War was still happening. Because of this America would not stand idlely by and watch Russia take control of a heavily oil rich nation. America though did not want to start an open war so they opted for the next best thing and decided to fund and arm the local militants and guerrilla fighters including Osama Bin Laden, who America promised would help after the conflict. America gave birth 30 years ago to the problem that plagues the world now terrorists and militants that fight with false religious pretenses to fight the western devil through any means necessary. Georgia isn't funding religious militants but funding guerrilla fighters from Georgias break away Territories which may pave the way for problems in the future, because it would seem evident history does repeat itself.

At this point in time it is clear with out a shadow of a doubt that Georgia was soundly defeated by Russia and all that's left is for the 2 break away nations Independence to be recognized internationally, but who knows when that will happen because currently only Russia has. Interestingly enough Russia is doing a ethnic cleansing of the break away territories by removing all Georgians from them (roughly 30% of those populations are Georgians) and obviously enough Russia is reluctant to call it that. Internationally the tension between the West and Russia could be cut with a Knife due to the west funding the the Georgian offensive against Russia.

Russia did agree to pull out troops from Georgia though only the amount which is in accord with it's military plan, in other words Georgia may become another Iraq. Many ask why the international community is reluctant to intervene more directly or at least do more. The answer is oil, Russia appears to be using strong arm tactics to make people afraid that it may constrict the oil it exports.

In short it's the just another Iraq, and Afghanistan, and it will be interesting how this plays out at the end and what effects it will have ultimately with the Russians international relations. As well what will ultimately happen to the newly independant providences.