And They Said This Was Only Going To Be $700 Billion

Here's an interesting article I came across. The origin is noteworthy. Recently, I came across a Web site called The Daily Beast, I think because political satire extraordinaire Christopher Buckley writes there.

Anyway, they put together this section called The Cheat Sheet, which is a collection of the day's top news articles. I go there and to Buzzfeed for my news first when I sign online.

As for my two cents on the following article, it's like that episode of South Park. If you give the loch ness monster $3.50, he's going to keep coming back. Except instead of a giant cretaceous from the paleolithic era, we're talking about the government. Ain't life a bitch?

Here's a link to the story on latimes.com. Below I pasted the entire thing because I think the information is that important.

Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion
Heavy spending to battle the financial crisis is unlikely to abate soon. Analysts say next year's deficit could top $1 trillion.

By Jim Puzzanghera
November 30, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- With its decision last week to pump an additional $1 trillion into the financial crisis, the government eliminated any doubt that the nation is on a wartime footing in the battle to shore up the economy. The strategy now -- and in the coming Obama administration -- is essentially the win-at-any-cost approach previously adopted only to wage a major war.

And that means no hesitation in pledging to spend previously almost unimaginable sums of money and running up federal budget deficits on a scale not seen since World War II.

Indeed, analysts warn that the nation's next financial crisis could come from the staggering cost of battling the current one.

Just last week, new initiatives added $600 billion to lower mortgage rates, $200 billion to stimulate consumer loans and nearly $300 billion to steady Citigroup, the banking conglomerate. That pushed the potential long-term cost of the government's varied economic rescue initiatives, including direct loans and loan guarantees, to an estimated total of $8.5 trillion -- half of the entire economic output of the U.S. this year.

Nor has the cash register stopped ringing. President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are expected to enact a stimulus package of $500 billion to $700 billion soon after he takes office in January.

The spending already has had a dramatic effect on the federal budget deficit, which soared to a record $455 billion last year and began the 2009 fiscal year with an amazing $237-billion deficit for October alone. Analysts say next year's budget deficit could easily bust the $1-trillion barrier.

"I didn't think we'd see that for a long time," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "There's a huge risk of another economic crisis, a debt crisis, once we get on the other side of this one."

But the Bush administration and the economic team that Obama is rapidly assembling like a war Cabinet are vowing to spend whatever it takes to avoid a depression; they'll worry about the effect later.

"I don't think that there's any way of denying the fact that my first priority and my first job is to get us on the path of economic recovery, to create 2.5 million jobs, to provide relief to middle-class families," Obama told reporters last week.

"But as soon as the recovery is well underway, then we've got to set up a long-term plan to reduce the structural deficit and make sure that we're not leaving a mountain of debt for the next generation."

The mountain is already there, and rising faster than at any time since the 1940s, when the United States was fighting a global war.

Analysts say the current flood of red ink calls into question Obama's ability to launch programs such as middle-class tax cuts and a healthcare overhaul. In 1993, a deficit only a third the size of next year's projected $1 trillion prompted President Clinton to abandoned his campaign pledges of tax cuts.

Once the financial crisis eases, higher interest rates and soaring inflation will be risks. If they materialize, they could dramatically increase the government's borrowing costs to meet its annual debt payments. For consumers, borrowing could become more expensive even as the price of everyday items rise, holding back economic growth.

"We could have a super sub-prime crisis associated with the meltdown of the federal government," warned David Walker, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former head of the Government Accountability Office.

But even deficit hawks such as Walker acknowledge that the immediate crisis is priority No. 1. Just as with World War II, the government can worry about paying the bills once the enemy is defeated.

"You just throw everything you have at the problem to try to fix it as quickly as you can," said David Stowell, a finance professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "We're mortgaging our future to a certain extent, but we're trying to do things that give us a future."

Washington could wind up spending substantially less than the sum of the commitments. Though the total estimated cost of the government's efforts adds up to $8.5 trillion, only about $3.2 trillion has been tapped, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

And not all the money committed is direct spending. About $5.5 trillion in loan guarantees and other financial backing by the Federal Reserve is included in the total.

"The only way those commitments would become obligations would be if the economy completely collapsed, in which case it's a whole new ballgame anyway," said John Steele Gordon, a business and economic historian.

The government even stands to make money on some expenditures, such as the $330 billion it has used to buy equity in banks and other financial institutions through the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In the $1.2-billion bailout of Chrysler in 1980, the government ended up gaining $311 million when it sold stock options back to the company three years later.

But the federal efforts to forestall a depression are still historic in scope.

A $1-trillion deficit next year would represent about 7% of the nation's total economic output, or gross domestic product. That would top the 5.9% reached during the height of the Great Depression in 1934 but would fall well short of the deficits of World War II. In 1943, the high point, the deficit amounted to 30% of GDP.

The national debt is soaring too. In September, the National Debt Clock in New York City ran out of digits as the figure ticked over $10 trillion. The debt is now larger than the 45% of GDP it reached at the end of the Great Depression, but less than in 1946, when war spending had pushed the debt to 129% of GDP, said Gordon, author of "Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt."

There's a potentially crucial difference, however, between the spending then and the commitments now:

Much of the Depression-World War II spending was on industrial production -- building new factories and converting existing plants to produce tanks, planes and ships. Huge sums also went into developing new technologies.

Those investments, combined with pent-up consumer demand and savings from the lean war years, quickly led to budget surpluses and sharp economic growth in the late 1940s as the baby boom began.

Analysts warn not to expect that to happen again. This time the government spending is largely ethereal, with the Federal Reserve printing more money to inject liquidity into the financial system and keep banks and other institutions afloat. And savings rates are low.

"Too many Americans have overextended themselves with regard to credit and debt, and too many have been following the bad example of the government," Walker said. "It is imperative that we recognize that this country has been living beyond its means and that we face large and growing structural deficits even after we turn the economy around."

Walker said he understands the need to attack the financial crisis. But the spending only adds to the looming problems of unfunded Social Security and Medicare commitments as baby boomers begin to retire.

He noted that the Moody's bond-rating firm fired a shot across the government's bow in January with a warning that spending on entitlement programs poses a long-term threat to the triple-A rating for government bonds. And that was before the financial crisis.

Interest rates remain low because of the crisis. But they will rise, particularly when the U.S. government starts borrowing more money to cover its growing debt, analysts predict. That could cause inflation to increase as well.

"We could easily enter into a highly inflationary situation because of all the stimulus we have and all the borrowing we have once it works its way through the economy," MacGuineas said. "The single most important priority right now is to stabilize the economy . . . but it really means that there is a huge risk on the other side."

Puzzanghera is a Times staff writer.

jim.puzzanghera@ latimes.com

If They Take My Cheap Beer Away, I'm Leaving

Have I had you sitting on pins and needles this past 10 days, waiting for that next post?

Don't fret, I have been allowing my professor to grade this as a project and waiting for the opportune topic to address.

So we have the reemergence of the Detroit Bailout (here's an interesting look about how the steel industry may provide as an example for automotive), the ongoing assemblage of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet, the gay marriage issue and the Citigroup bailout all as possible discussion topics.

Luckily, all my readers are way to informed to care about listening to me go on a rant about how there is one simple solution to all of the three topics that are fixable (Obama's cabinet being a news story while the other issues being problems). The government should butt out of people's lifes!

Rather than focus on that junk, I'm going to go off the beaten pat with this post and address something that may be off your radar. Heck, this little nugget was off the epic New York Times Sunday edition.

England is considering a ban on happy hour! Forget the threat of bears, with all of this government intervention these days, is it not possible that the U.S. could follow the footsteps of those crazy Brits!

You want to spark a revolution Mr. Governement, take my happy hour and I will rain fire and brimstone all over your ass! It's right up there with football, apple pie, Internet porn and SUVs with America's past times.

Be sure to check out updates on this story because I sure as hell won't let those bastards get away of they try and pull this stunt in my U.S.A.

God Bless America!

Election Wrap-Up One Week Later

I am sorry blog, I neglected you too long.

But can you blame me? I haven't felt that burned out since I watched a 24-hour marathon of Dawson's Creek.

There are a few things I want to respond to and post in here, so this will be sort of a mix bag of blog goodies. Oh, and I may have to neglect this blog for another week or so because the official class project ends today and I think my professor needs to grade this as is.

Don't worry, though, I will post during winter break and up until someone pays me lots of money for my brilliant insights. That's right. I will sell out and never look back.

First things first, last time I posted was early morning after the election concluded. I ferociously tapped at the keyboard trying to get my election story into the Athens News so I could sleep. Here is a link to that story.

And now I will respond to my story

Things got a little weird after Barack Obama won the election. Everyone I encountered seemed happy, they just didn't know how to react.

The two reactions to transpire were tears of joy and run wild and scream like you have a banana in your pants and a monkey chasing you.

As I wrote in that last post, an Obama victory was one for the youth because so many felt a sense of duty for his victory.

My article states that even students who did not volunteer for the campaign still felt that Obama is the president elect because of their vote.

But the turnout numbers were not as overwhelming as I would have hoped. Even though the youth numbers went up for the third election in a row, 52 percent just doesn't cut it.

According to that Rock the Vote Blog, the 18-29 demographic accounted for 23 million votes. But, there are 44 million in that demographic.

What the fuck dudes?

Who didn't pull their weight? If the number doesn't continue to go at least expand from their in coming elections (and I don't just mean in 2012), then nothing is going to change.

It doesn't matter that the high voter turnout predictions for everyone didn't happen.

The point of this blog is and always will be to push a political agenda for the millennials. But that can't be done without votes.

I will now climb down my soap box and address two other things. But first, check out these cool maps of how the election would have turned out if only a certain demographic had voted. And check out this Racist Belt Theory.

Now onto Rob's insanely long, but totally appreciated comment

If you scroll down to the very bottom of this page, there's a list for followers. Rob would be my only one (this is when I nudge you on the arm and give you a little wink).

And as a loyal follower, Rob did two things. First, HE COMMENTED! Second, he completely disagreed with the man he was following.

Let me make one thing clear. I voted for John McCain knowing there were two flawed candidates. Because I lean right on economic policy (though the Republican party now leans not so right these days), I chose the most conservative candidate in hopes that he would choose the right people to solve the economic crisis.

Rob wrote that he is happy to have an intellectual in the White House, one of the reasons he voted for Obama. I don't know how much smarter Obama is than anyother politician because most seem to have that Ivy League pedigree, but Obama does sound smart and look smart.

I think Presdient George W. Bush has taken a lot of unwarranted criticism (though he did earn his fair share). But it would be difficult to argue that President Bush has come off as the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

So I will agree with Rob there. The other area where I agree with Rob is his fourth point where he states "I think the Republicans need their ass kicked."

McCain was maybe the worst candidate out of the primary pool. My explanation for the low voter turnouts, specificaly the low Republican turnout like in Ohio, is a result of a bad candidate.

Even though the numbers did not meet my expectiations, a lot of sources are writing about how the youth helped Obama get elected. So maybe with that ass kicking, the Republicans will have to get a youth friendly candidate who's not Sarah Palin.

Caution, this next link jumps into the Delorian to talk about 2012. Do not click here if you aren't ready. Although I haven't read enough on him yet, I think I like the idea of Gov. Bobby Jindal running with my only concern being a pro-life agenda (For the record, I am pro-choice because I think the issue is too religious for the government to be meddling with. If put in a position for a personal decision on abortion, I would never do it. And that's all I have to say about that).

Okay, and now to end the epic wrap-up post.

An email from Ohio University College Republican President Mellissa Short answering my pre-election question, what if Obama becomes president?

You pose an interesting question. Having worked personally on the McCain
campaign no doubt I will feel let down and a sense of disappointment after
working hard for a candidate that didn't win. Realistically the only option I'll
have is to express my views and concerns to my Congressman and hope they can
represent my views in Washington. Here on campus I'll undoubtedly have to deal
with a gloating population of Obama supporters, a handful of them being my
friends. But I think it will be interesting to see what happens when things
aren't magically fixed when Obama gets into office and his own supporters turn
on him, if that were to happen that is. Personally I don't see a Republican or
Democrat solution to the problems our country is facing today, I just see a
solution that will be even slower to present itself once all levels of the
Federal government are left leaning. I hope I answered your question, feel free
to edit and paraphrase any of my above comments. I'm looking forward to the
response of an Obama supporter will be.

I was glad that I didn't get a fearful response as some Republicans gave prior to last Tuesday. But the main point I want to drive home pulled from Mellisa's response is this.

Whether you voted for Obama or oppose him, we as citizens (and me as a journalist) need to hold politicians responsible for their actions. As voters, if an Obama administration screws things up, then don't vote for him when that time comes around. If he invokes the kind of change he promised, then give him another four years.

That applies to all elected officials. That will be the roll of this blogs in weeks and months to come, so stay tuned.

Obama Wins One For Youth Voters

I voted for John McCain, and I was not wrong in doing so.

Yes, earlier I posted that I wouldn't share my selection. But now it doesn't matter. The votes are in and I doubt you would have been influenced by me.

I voted McCain because I agree with a conservative ideology (though considering McCain a conservative may be a stretch) more than that of President-Elect Barack Obama and the Democrats. This article really influenced my decision.

But when I was uptown and in Baker Center tonight, watching the Obama supporters react to their candidate's victory, it legitimized him as a candidate for the young voters.

Now, I do not know if his policies are ideal for our generation. But he enfranchised us and that's why a President Obama is the best choice for our generation.

Obama made a significant amount of our generation care about voting. And because our voice was so essential in getting him elected, future elections will be forced to focus on us. That has always been the goal of this blog.

Here are some photos I took tonight and captions to explain each photo's significance. I'll post a link to my Athens News story in this post after it's published on Thursday.

Here is freshman Whitney Barksdale waiting in line to get free food. She told me that voting in her first election made her feel like her opinion was heard. It meant a lot to her to be apart of history in voting for the first African American for president. She said she believes in the change Obama can bring.

This is Skippers, the spot where the College Democrats and local Obama campaign volunteers congregated to watch the election coverage. Do you see the girl in the blue sweater with the arm on her shoulder? That's Liz Clark, the president for OU Students for Obama. I met her when researching for this article last year. She has worked for over a year in helping to get Obama elected.

Tuesday night, she glowed as tears of joy dripped down her cheek. I talked to her early in the night, before Obama captured the presidency. But when I came back to ask her about her final reaction, I couldn't interrupt the moment. During Obama's acceptance speech, he called his victory a victory for those who supported him and Liz has to be one of the people he was referring to.

Sure, these students were in line to get free food. But students are offered free food all the time and don't show up with these numbers. I talked to a few people in line and they all were interested in the election, the kind of enthusiasm that should carry over to future elections with our generation gaining political power.

Here is one of the Court Street mobs that took to screaming and running up and down the street. To be honest, this portion of the night got a little weird as Obama supporters took to skipping and yelling with one guy climbing a street light. I swear some people drove in circles just to honk their horns and yell "Obama" out their windows as much as possible.

The other mob started singing "We Are The Champions" outside of the Scripps Journalism building. When they were finished, they ran and skipped towards me like the herbivore dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Where To Get The Best Election Coverage

I'm guessing if you're reading this now, near the peak of election coverage, you are sitting at home, with your laptop on your lap, watching some coverage.

If you just settled in and went straight to this blog, then you are in luck my friend. Between myself and this random graduate student I met at the Donkey cafe, I think I know where you need to go to get the best information.

I think election coverage begins and ends with CNN at this point. My assignment for the Athens News is to cover the election on campus, which has led me to at least peak into four different locations where people are congregated and watching election coverage.

All are tuned into CNN.

Tonya Woodbridge, a graduate student at Ohio University studying education, is parked inside of Donkey armed with a laptop and continuing supply of coffee.

Although Tonya is an absolute Obama supporter, sporting her white t-shirt with the Obama campaign symbol, she is the kind of cynical thinker that I could talk to .

Tonya will not rest until they call the necessary 270 electoral votes and she is positive they are correct.

"I already was tricked once," she told me referring to the 2000 Presidential Campaign. "I went to bed then thinking one guy was going to be president and woke up to find out it was the other guy. I'm not going to let that happen again."

Tonya said she will wait until California's results come in, which probably won't happen for another three hours because the polls there will not close until 11 p.m.

Okay, I'll get back on topic now. From what I have been watching and hearing about the coverage, MSNBC seems to be the most trigger happy. They called Ohio (in favor of Obama) at least fifteen minutes before CNN.

So CNN is probably the best choice for watching TV, unless you are like me and would rather watch Indecision 2008 on Comedy Central. Check out comedian Patton Oswald's live blog from the Indecision 2008 Web site. It's complete bull shit that Comedy Central isn't streaming the coverage over the Web, giving us library patrons a chance to watch.

MSNBC has the best interactive map, in both mine and Tonya's opinions. Here's a look at it:



The wild card in all of this election coverage, in terms of Web production, would have to be Fox News. With an extreme Obama lead from the other two networks (CNN and MSNBC), Fox is taking the ultra conservative, gun shy approach when calling states.

Now their interactive map isn't working for me, but when it was, it may have been the most interesting of the three stations' interactive maps because it is the most different. As I type this, Fox News is calling Ohio for Obama, a mere 40 minutes behind CNN.

So this looks to be in the books, if everyone has reported results accurately. It interests me that the popular vote is so close, 51-48 Obama, but I'm sure that'll change by the end of the night if the stations have been accurately calling state victories. I'll post later tonight with a wrap up of the winner and some photos.

I voted this morning at 9 a.m, did not wait in any line and voted in about five minutes. Some of you may be wondering after all these posts and all the cynicism who I did I give my vote to?

I'm not going to share.

Although I cannot deny my admiration of the passion the Sen. Barack Obama supporters have displayed these past two weeks, I can't take them anymore. I don't care who you voted for, and you shouldn't care who I voted for.

If you want to debate me on something, challenge my cynicism towards both candidates. Tell me why I am wrong when I write that both candidates suck.

All I care about is that you go vote because a vote from a 18-25 year old, no matter who the vote is, should contribute to getting a more quality candidate in 2012. I'm going to make at least two posts tonight, so be ready for that.

Note: I'm well aware that face makes me look like I have a tickle in my anus. It's supposed to be kind of a dazed look I suppose, with elephants and donkeys humping through my head. The graphic is meant to show that I have been battling complete disdain for this election.

I Support Small Government, But McCain May Be Senile And I Ain't Down With That

Finding a Republican on the Ohio University campus is like finding someone who supports the HIV virus.

Okay, that may have been an exaggeration. I'm sure the Republican students are out there, but they aren't exactly coming out to support their candidate. And who can blame them.

Sen. John McCain is old, out-of-touch, computer illiterate, and has been a little erratic (Oh, God, I used the "e" word). Trinity Bracey, my favorite Sen. Barack Obama supporting freshman, told me that McCain makes her fall asleep.

While wearing that Obama/Biden pin or t-shirt has become as trendy as Northface fleeces and Ugg, a McCain/Palin sticker is more like wearing a beret.

Here's a photo from the former Burger King space on Court Street. As far as I can tell, this place is filled with Republican posters and nothing else. In the month or so it's been there, I have seen zero people enter. Is this why nothing has replaced Burger King here?


Okay, I'm not going to ramble onto a long-winded post here. My main concern with McCain is his age (72) and his inconsistency.

McCain has ran an awful campaign. check out this article for some campaign analysis. It was awful because he didn't run as himself, a bi-partisan moderate Republican. Instead, he tossed around the idea of being a Maverick, whatever the hell that means, but really just came off as a confused old man.

As a moderate Republican, he could have distanced himself from President George Bush and not lost the Republican vote because the GOP would see him as the better of two evils in comparison to the very left Sen. Barack Obama.

I know the statistic, that McCain voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, but this is Washington we're talking about. Just because you vote with someone, in the end, doesn't mean you didn't put up a fight. Here' s a quote from a Times Online article:

From then on he became the most reliably anti-Bush figure in the whole Republican Party. He clashed with the President over tax cuts, judicial appointments, the conduct of the war in Iraq, the treatment of detainees in the War on Terror and on campaign finance reform.

When he sought his party's nomination in the primary this year, he was attacked by almost all the other candidates for being insufficiently supportive of President Bush's policies and core conservative principles.

But with winning the nomination, McCain took on a responsibility to be as much like the rest of his party as possible. which led to a connection to Bush.

My second concern is really that McCain could die in office because he has lived such a full life. It would be awful to lose a president in office and even more awful without a strong contingency plan.

There is nothing presidential about Sarah Palin.

In my opinion, McCain would have had a real legit shot at winning tomorrow if he would have done one thing. Stood up against Bush and the rest of Congress when it came to this Wall Street bailout.

I have a big decision tomorrow and I don't know what I'm going to do. Either a) vote McCain because I don't think government should get any bigger and hopefully he would find a way to do so, b)vote for Obama because things are messed up right now and with a favorable Congress he can at least invoke change while McCain would have difficult; or c) vote for Libertarian candidate George Phillies or write in Ron Paul (my favorite candidate in the primaries) because they may see things more my way.

The idea is this. I'm skeptical about both candidates and do not see either as ideal. All I want out of this election is for the 18-25 voter demographic to go out there and put up a big turnout number so maybe that won't be the case in 2012.

I'll be posting tomorrow with my final decision first after I go vote at 9.

Bullwinkle In The White House? Ain't Nothing Wrong With That

I know what all of you sitting on either side of the fence are thinking. If (insert either John McCain or Barack Obama) gets elected utter chaos will ensue in the United States.

We're talking real Old Testament stuff. Real wrath of God. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.

And I don't even know what could happen if Barack Obama really is a closet Muslim! Would we see the wrath of the Biblical God or the God of the Qur'ran?

Once your head stops spinning, take a deep breath. Relax. Despite all the fear both campaigns have used in an attempt to get your vote, real chaos is unlikely.

And after watching the video below, I am 100 percent convinced Obama is not a Muslim:



So what can voters expect if (insert McCain or Obama) wins Tuesday's election? Here are the two scenarios, one for each candidate with a positive spin.

Bad Scenario One: McCain Wins Only To Die From A Heart Attack After He Mistakes A Visit From Charlie (Sheen) With The Vietcong

There is a lot on the Web about this scenario. But a Palin presidency may not be so bad. With a Democrat majority in Congress what could she possibly accomplish with her limited experience as Alaska's Governor?

She could put Bullwinkle in the oval office.

Once those God hating Democrats veto her first suggestion of Vice President Jesus Christ, she'll be sure to fire back with the same kind of VP pick that landed her in the oval office.

A fun loving character who just makes you laugh. Who better than Bullwinkle J. Moose?

The Democrats will be okay with it because they think they can make America hate VP Moose just like they hate VP Dick Cheney.

I know the two have clashed in the past, but Bullwinkle will let bygones be bygones to be vice president. He'll have such a great opportunity to fight for animal rights and isn't it time those animals had a voice in Washington?

The idea isn't that far-fetched of a Palin-Moose administration. Someone already beat me to the two as a dynamic duo:



There was one more perspective I found online of what could happen with a President Palin:



Personally, I like mine better.

Bad Scenario Two: Obama Wins And Turns The U.S.A To The U.S.S.A.

Well, first things first, I cannot be optimistic about an Obama victory leading to us losing a Baldwin brother. But Socialism can't be that bad.

We won't have to worry about picking our doctors, saving for retirement, choosing which banks we can borrow from or what school we want to go to. It'll all be controlled by the government!

Don't you sometimes worry about how much thinking we have to do? It can't be good.

It would be great to just sit back and let the government make all of our decisions. I just hope they can pick my religion too!

All everyone talks about is China this and China that. Look at those people. They don't have to think about anything expect work. That kind of focused thinking has to the ticket to get us out of this crisis.

I know the Chinese is a communist government, but you say tomato, is say tomauto (which doesn't work in print, but you know what I mean).

Does This All Sound Like A Stretch To You?

In case you are wondering if I have gone crazy, you can relax. This is what we like to call a bit of satire. The last journalist at Ohio University used such a device, and people flipped so I thought this disclosure would be necessary.

I would also like to clarify that the video I used in the third graph under the link "Barack Obama really is a closet Muslim" is a farce. I laughed when I watched the video in it's entirety. I respect that my audience would understand that, but I figured I should put this disclaimer just in case you're coming to this blog for the first time. Seriously, if you can't find at least some humor in how ridiculous that video is then maybe this isn't the blog for you.

But I think this is an appropriate post now, five days before the election, because people actually sound scared if the election doesn't go their way.

Remember, though this election is important, there is nothing to fear. The probability of a moose in the White House is the same as the probability of the world ending because Obama or McCain becomes president.

Breath a sigh of relief and don't take all of this so seriously. I would love to hear some other ideas of what you think could happen as a result of the winner's inauguration.

I'll be posting tomorrow why I am skeptical of McCain. And I'll have one more post at least before Tuesday.

On Tuesday I will be posting all day, so forget CNN. I'll have links to everything as it happens and will be reporting stories from various election related locations around Athens.

Until then, drink a beer and have a happy Halloween.

Obama Speaks To Me, But I’m Still Skeptical

Barack Obama entered my life on February 18, 2008 while I was just trying to make a quick buck covering a speech.

Bill Clinton’s 1992 Campaign Adviser, Dave Wilhelm, came to the Ohio University Inn to talk about his recent endorsement of Sen. Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Signs of Hope and Change plastered the walls like graffiti in an ally. Young adults and academics transpired excitement. When Wilhelm took the podium, he played orchestrator to an eager choir.

“Fire it up!” Wilhelm yelled.

“Ready to go!” audience members shouted back.

During the primaries, I did a little investigating into the two Democratic campaigns and without a doubt Obama was head and shoulders above Clinton in youth appeal.

The Obama campaign headquarters, then located in a former thrift store, had a feel of youth collaboration. Volunteers painted murals on the glass that sent a message of exuberance. The inside looked like your average college students room, the kind of organized chaos that looks unkempt and incomprehensible at the first glance but you can eventually get a sense of cohesion and function for everything in the room.

Without a doubt, the Obama campaign’s vibe grabbed our generation’s vote and led him to the Democratic nomination. According to an April 2008 Harvard poll, Obama led the youth vote (18-24) 70-30 over Clinton.

Eight months after that first encounter, there is no doubt in my mind that Obama has been the best candidate of my lifetime in appealing to college voters.

Are Young Obama Voters Idealists?

If you are not convinced that Obama has become a borderline rock star, then you have not met OU freshman Trinity Bracy.

I met Trinity, a volunteer for the Obama campaign, this year through my sister, also a freshman at OU. Last month, my sister left her single dorm room and moved in with Trinity, which is why I found myself in their room.

The picture below is of Trinity’s Sen. Joe Biden autographed Obama-Biden poster.

"I feel like (Obama is) the one who can make a difference,” Trinity told me. “I think the country is not in the right direction and Barack Obama can be the change we need."

Trinity is not alone in feeling this way. Her friend Mike Desposito, another freshman, sat next to her and reiterated the same kind of unbreakable optimism.

"The way Obama speaks, you just feel like there's hope,” Mike said. “I've heard McCain speak and I've listened to Bush speak. But I just feel that when I listen to Barack there actually is some light at the end of the tunnel."

Obama supporters can be refreshing. I was in the middle of some Obama campaign activities before the Ohio primary and those volunteers gave me the same idealist vibe that Mike and Trinity spewed out seven months later.

A lot of young voters trust Obama. A lot of young voters think his inexperience is a breath of fresh air in a failed system. A lot of young voters think his main campaign slogan, the word “Change,” will happen with an Obama administration.

So why with less than a week until Election Day am I not waving the flag on the Obama bandwagon?

Here’s Why I’m Skeptical of Barack Obama

A black candidate appeals to me because it’s a huge step in the right direction, which is to put the best people in the position to lead, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief.

He’s not a Muslim, but that would not bother me in the least bit if he was.

I have to agree with something Mike said, Obama’s inexperience may actually be an advantage. Because being the presidency is a team game and experience can be obtained.

In the YouTube, sound bite world we live in today, a speaker like Obama reigns supreme because he works so well in that forum. But I do not think we have seen everything that works into who Obama is.

No, I’m not referring to William Ayers or Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I want someone to address the $603 million elephant in the room.

According to the Web site for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group aimed to inform citizens about how money in politics, $603 million is how much Obama has raised in this campaign. To put that into context, Sen. John McCain has only raised $358 million. (Here's a link to this cool image of the two candidates campaigning like they are NASCAR drivers)

Combine that $961 million to the $221 million Sen. Clinton raised and the $107 million Mitt Romney raised and you get $1.29 billion dollars.

It comes down to this, Obama has ran on this idea of Change, but it seems like he has been playing the same game as other politicians, he’s just been dominating it.

In 2004, President George Bush raised just $367 million and Sen. John Kerry collected $328 million.

Now, I’m not an expert on lobbyists or anything, but here is what I do know. People do not give money and expect nothing in return. Goldman Sachs, the financial firm that is supplying the brains behind how to use the bailout money, donated $874,207 to Obama. (Note: Goldman Sachs also donated money to McCain, just not as much. You click here to check out this site for him. This note comes after my original post.)

That could spell zero change with the bailout game plan under an Obama administration to me.

There are more reasons why I am skeptical of Obama, specifically on labor issues and economic ideology, but I’ll save that for another day once I get in touch with more expert sources.

In no way is this me making a decision on who I will vote for next week. I plan on posting later this week my reasons for not liking McCain either. But I think it’s necessary to have some healthy skepticism (not fear) of each candidate.

Will You Be Able To Support Yourself, Wall Street and Detroit When You Get That First Job?

There is a lot of bullshit being flung sort of behind our backs. While we are all looking at the election and feeling sorry for ourselves as we head into a recession, the government is using the bailout money to pick and choose who stays and who goes.

PNC will be using bailout money to purchase National City Corp. serving as a

precedent for how Henry Paulson wants to resolve the economic crisis.

My other big riff, which I admit stems down from my dad who constantly writes letters to the editor of local papers on the subject, is the governments continued bailout of Detroit.

Here's a Wall Street Journal blog that I felt the need to comment. Basically the article talks about how GM is going to be asking for money to purchase Crysler so two bad companies can become one ever larger bad company. Here's my comment:

no one can afford the inefficient American car anymore, especially when price is going to keep rising as more and more baby boomer union members retire.

the unions and the Big 3 should be condemned for their actions. a more efficient American auto industry will emerge, though it will not rival “the big 3 model” because that industry bit off more than it could chew. this just in, the U.S. isn’t the only country that can build cars anymore, so it’s time to start from scratch and figure out how to compete in a global market.

it’s not fair to ask me to support both myself and bad business during my first 20 years in the workforce. it’s not fair to ask any tax payer to pay for bad business. so let’s stop the this now.

we need to hold politicians liable for catering to bad business. target them, and vote them out of office.

Comment by the800lbsgorillia - October 28, 2008 at 2:11 pm

I'll be getting back to election related posts tonight, but I just wanted to throw this up because it's very relevant to those about to enter the work force (ie. anyone in college now who plans on getting a job in the next five years). After the election some time, I'll write more extensively on the subject.

College Studets Evaluate Credibilty Behind Endorsements

The silence startled me today when I walked through the center of campus without political solicitation. I must have become addicted to the noise because I find myself stomping crunchy leaves whenever I get the chance just to create some sort of background noise.

Despite the tranquility, there are still reminders that the campus has not forgotten the forthcoming election. Today at college gate, students stuck messages of why they voted for all to see.

Strangely, endorsements were not on any of the messages, unless you count the one that stated: "I voted because a corporation paid me to."

So what is the value of the endorsement?

If Chuck Norris couldn't get Mike Huckabee elected, what chance does John McCain have with Stephen Baldwin?

Surely Oprah has all the money in the world, but will she be a driving force in sending Barack Obama to the White House? You don't want to get on the bad side of Oprah's audience, just ask these mortgage bankers.

But do college students get caught up in the allure of a Luke Perry endorsement or any other celebrity hunk or skank?

"I'm ultimately going to vote for whoever I think is worth supporting," said Ohio University freshman Dominique Aaron. The Cleveland native said she is voting for Obama because she thinks he is the better candidate, a conclusion she came to in her senior year of high school.

On the other hand, McCain supporter Katey Mueller, a sophomore political science major at OU, said one Obama turned her off him as a candidate.

"If I was going to vote for Barack Obama, then I would be upset by Oprah Winfrey's endorsement," Katey told me earlier this week. "I just hate Oprah."

Granted, Katey did not straight up make her decision based on an endorsement, she does serve as an example of how people do care about endorsements to some degree. Think about it. If endorsements don't at least sway some voters, why would talk show hosts and journalists press so hard to get people to publicly throw themselves behind a candidate?

"Creditability is what matters of course," OU freshman Trinity Bracy said to me as we talked politics in her dorm. "Justin (Timberlake) is cool and all, but compared to Colin Powell, he's like an ant on the flag pole. Colin Powell is the flag. What can he say? 'I'm Justin Timberlake. I brought sexy back. Vote for Obama.'"

In one night, I went into a dorm and interviewed six students: Trinity, Katey, Dominique sophomore Katey Gelett and freshmen Mike Desposito and Kershauna Young. Three of the six declared they were going to vote (or already voted) for Obama. One said she was going with McCain. The other two remain undecided. Out of the six, only Trinity and Mike mentioned the endorsement by Colin Powell (one had no idea who Colin Powell is). Both saw it as a big deal.

"That could be the difference in getting a vote," Trinity said. "Someone could be pro Colin Powell and be unsure and that will be the difference between Barack and McCain."

In case some one is reading this and thinking who the hell is Colin Powell, he was the a general in the U.S. Army and then became the Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. He was a member of the Republican party, but he went with Obama. Check out the video from last Sunday's "Meet the Press":


So my interviews did not exactly turn up a black and white answer to the question of endorsement value. But the gray answer may be that endorsements act as a declaration of friendship.

In my opinion, I could care less if you served on an education board with a washed-up terrorist or if a Baldwin brother threatens to leave the country if you aren't elected.

As for Colin Powell, I do not think his endorsement will sway undecided millennial voters. But I wanted to bring attention to his endorsement specifically because I think his entire message is extremely important if the United States is to get where it needs to be.

"What if Barack Obama is a Muslim?" Powell asked, even though without a doubt Obama has always been a Christian.

A girl I used to work with posted this video on Facebook and brought up another good question. How did we get this far into the election, which has been filled with ignorant voters screaming their fears of a closet-Muslim president.

That message of tolerance is something worth endorsing.

--
Check out this site to see a million reasons to vote.

Socialism!!!! Wait a Second, Didn't We Just Nationalize the Banks?

Oh, you haven't heard? There are a bunch of crazy socialists running a muck on Capital Hill! We must stop them!

Wait a second, didn't 263 members of the House of Representatives vote to nationalize the banking system! That's a lot of witches to start a witch hunt.

That included Sen. John McCain. Check these videos out:



Here's Jon Stewart hitting the nail on the head


Let he without sin cast the first stone! $700 billion is a lot of dough. This is why it's okay to be an undecided voter with only 13 days until the election.

Thank you Mr. David Sedaris for pointing this out! I'll end this post with a quote from his piece in the New Yorker:

I wonder if, in the end, the undecideds aren’t the biggest pessimists of all. Here they could order the airline chicken, but, then again, hmm. “Isn’t that adding an extra step?” they ask themselves. “If it’s all going to be chewed up and swallowed, why not cut to the chase, and go with the platter of shit?”

It feels good to think I am not the only voter who thinks this way.

I Don't Know If You Know This, But This Economic Crisis Is Kind of a Big Deal

I know how this works. Most college students will say the economy is the number one issue for this election because caring about the economy sounds good.

But chances are you have zero clue what's wrong with the economy.

That's okay. This is so complicated that an Ohio University professor who consults Congress on economic issues said he doesn't think either presidential candidate understands the crisis and that there are "smart people in Washington who don't know what to do," today at a discussion with students.

I like a challenge, so I am going to try and explain things for you with a simple analogy. I have gotten my information by extensively reading a variety of newspapers and Web sites for the past month (this one's one of my favorites, though the least informative), talking to my dad who is one of the most informed persons I know and my attendance at a lecture today with Dr. Richard Vedder, who is testifying before Congress next week on economic issues, and Mark Tatge.

Essentially, the shit hit the fan. That's right, greedy financial institutions grew more and more constipated and let out a gargantuan dookie. Think about that for a second. What happens when a piece of shit hits a ceiling fan?

That's right, it shoots out and makes a big, smelly mess that scares everyone out of the room.

Banks and lending companies got rich making risky loans. The government backed off and let the financial institutions loan out money like it was going out of style. The banks would just buy insurance or securities on these loans, covering their backs.

So if you can limit your risk for giving a loan because you have purchased insurance, then it's like eating P.F. Changs without consequence.

People got mortgages that exceeded the value of their homes. A mortgage is a loan that is placed against your house, so if a house is worth less than the amount loaned, the loaner will get screwed if the loan recipient cannot make the loan payments.

Housing prices were booming because getting these loans was so easy. People who could not afford houses were buying houses. When people want something (aka demand) price will increase. These companies giving mortgages were going by the market value. If a lot of people want to buy houses and can buy houses, then a house is worth a lot of money because there is a high demand.

This all lead to a giant housing inflation gas bubble.

So people could get be lent more money to purchase houses because the demand inflated value. This caused some people to engage in house flipping.

Because eventually these huge mortgages and subsequent mortgage payments caught up to people, the banks had to go to the insurance companies to make up for the defaulted loans and the insurance companies could not pay off all the securities.

We're talking about the biggest corporations in the country, Tatge said today. One institution made equal to 1/13 of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (the country's total profit). Take into account how there were multiple giant financial institutes on the verge of or in bankruptcy and you get the makings of a global crisis.

That's the shit hitting the fan. What comes next? Everyone tries to get out of the room, which was starting to happen in the last few weeks when the market dropped like fecal matter hitting the porcelean pond.

Fear drives the market more than anything. That's what started the Great Depression, everyone got scared about their investments and savings they all went to remove it at the same time, leaving banks unable to give everyone their money. Vedder said this past three weeks was the closest we have been to that level of panic, which is why you hear or read comparisons to the Depression and today even though the national unemployment rate is 20 percent less today.

Links for Further Reader/Listening
So my poop analogy did not do it for you? Well, you can make that argument, but you cannot argue that poop isn't funny. Anyways, here are some links to some news packages, stories and blogs that may explain things better:

My friend and co-worker Alex Hazlett wrote this breakdown of the crisis in the Athens News. She recommends listening to this NPR cast

I thought this Harvard professor's blog would be boring in explaining the economic crisis, but it actually is entertaining. I recommend giving this video a peak.

Everything else seems to be pretty similar, but if you're still having trouble, try the NYTimes.com for updated news. If you want to learn as much information as possible, try this Wall Street Journal blog.

What can the presidential candidates do?
Neither candidate really understands the crisis, Vedder and Tatge both said. Vedder said he has been on phone conferences with the White House and he got a sense of complete panic.

What it's going to come down to is who each candidate has advising them on the economy now, who more than likely will be advising them if they are elected. This USA Today article breaks down who the people are, or you can save yourself some time and take Vedder's recommendation. He said both candidates have smart people backing them.

But I said earlier in this post, Vedder also said smart people do not know what to do, which leaves me to this conclusion.

Fixing the economy is going to be left in fate's hands. If you agree with myself and Vedder, you do not think an economic stimulus package, such as the one Congress's Democrats are trying to pass now, will be ineffective and costly.

Other than that, we just have to try and understand as much as possible. We need to act as watch dogs on this $700 billion bailout and hold the government responsible if they lead us to depression.

Candidates Can't Buy Votes, But Can Sell T-Shirts

I left one thing out of my post from yesterday at the Sen. Joe Biden rally. Has their ever been an election with so much merchandise?

As soon as my girlfriend and I got out of the car yesterday, a group of four or five vendors bombarded us demanding that I buy my pretty lady a shirt (Why doesn't the girl ever get harassed to buy her sexy man something? I'm sick of vendors trying to make me buy an overpriced flower or unimpressive t-shirt every time they encounter me with my girl. The only justice would be if beer vendors roamed the world and they harassed the women walking with their boyfriends. That's the America I want to live in).

Granted, this is the most I have ever paid attention to a presidential election, but I think young people are getting into Sen. Barack Obama's bandwagon because his t-shirts.

I guess I have to give credit to Obama for taking advantage of my generation's desire to wear their emotions on their chest. McCain's t-shirts suck. Personally, here is my campaign merchandiser of choice.




Doesn't that t-shirt scream patriotism? I should have asked this guy how much he makes




That's what I want, solicitation as soon as I get out of my car. Is there no peace! But I guess this does back my claim in my last post that only decided voters go to campaign rallies. What undecided voter would wear a candidate t-shirt?

Joe Biden Visits Athens Though No Undecided Voters Noticed

I never thought I could hate Kool and the Gang so much until this morning.

Today's trip to the Athens County Fairgrounds was my last venture to a political rally. Plagued with "Celebrate Good Time." I would have chosen the water board over going to the Sen. Joe Biden rally again.

For either a job (I work at the Athens News) or out of curiosity, I have attended four rallies since last February. They have all been for Democratic candidates because they are the only ones who come to the very left Athens County. The most interesting rally, if you would call it that, was when Chelsea Clinton came and someone asked her if she thought the whole father getting an oval office bj would affect her mother's campaign.

I was a fool for thinking Biden's visit to the Fairgrounds would be interesting (though I was moderately interested in the sign language lady standing tall and signing from her podium). I was a fool for posting last night that I would be able to talk to some undecided student voters at the rally.

Those events are for the early voters, reserved for those who have watched Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic National Convention speech from 2004 on YouTube at least 200 times.

After talking it over with my girlfriend, a left leaning independent with a low political interest, I think I have come up with a few reasons why I would discourage anyone from going to a political rally unless they are either paid or bribed with free punch and pie.

One, they love to turn it into "us" versus "them." Athens Councilwoman Debbie Phillips is running for a seat in the state legislature and she is notorious for ranting about how it is our duty as voters to not let a single Republican to win a seat.

Because the Democrats clearly are the one true answer? That would be like a Catholic priest telling everyone to go out and convert everyone to Catholicism right now because that is the ultimate answer.

Second, the music at this debate was awful and annoying. It makes things worse when the main speaker never shows up on time and the opening speakers reiterate the same partisan message over and over again to the droning cheers (enter Phillips, Ohio Attorney General candidate Rich Cordrey, Strickland and Sen. Sherrod Brown).

Third, no one explains anything. Biden kept mentioning why Sen. John McCain will not work, slipping in anti-Republican, anti-McCain and anti-Sarah Palin remarks throughout his speech. These attacks were not nearly as vinegary as those from the McCain campaign, but they are still annoying.

Now to be fair, Biden at least talked to a young audience, making an anecdote to visiting OU and our beloved Court Street (I don't know if I'm buying the whole story though. He said he came because of an OU vs. his alma mata Delaware had a football game. He claimed he was arrested for being in a girl's dormitory, but only saw the first floor. A good story to tell students, especially because he's old and needs to relate to us, but I don't know if it's real).

But what was interesting to me, from listening to what my girlfriend had to say as we waited in the post-rally traffic, was how much television advertising affects her political opinions. For a future post, I am going to look into if that's a trend among young voters and see what some other college students around campus think about this year's advertisements.

Until then, I'll be watching the debate and will post about that tomorrow.

Millennials Will Be Heard

If you uncovered this blog thinking it would be the chronicles of an African biologists living with a pack of wild gorillas, then I would like to apologize now.

But you have heard the term, to watch out for the 800 lbs. gorilla in the room. You know you would be scared if a humongous gorilla stood in your proximity.

So what is this blog about and what is with the staring gorilla eyes?

First you should know what my political stance was six months ago. I felt like voting was useless, just like this freshmen at Ohio University writing in today's The Post. Tony Hennan wrote in a letter to the editor:

"Yet this is exactly what voting is: a majority of people telling the rest of the country what they’re allowed to do and how they can live. Not only is there no right over another individual, but the two presidential candidates in this election are the same; the only difference is in the magnitude of their beliefs."

There is not a whole lot there I can argue with, even today when I am pro-voting. So why do I think we, the children of the Baby Boomers, should go out and vote in record numbers?

Because if we show politicians that we will vote, then they will have to come talk to us.

According to this poll from Rock the Vote, there are 44 million potential voters between the ages of 18-and-29, more than one-fifth of the eligible voting demographic. According to the U.S. Census, 26 percent of the population was under 18 in 2000.

We are that 800 lbs. gorilla, though I do not know what would be scarier, an 800 pound gorilla, or one of those freaky, roid-raged gorillas from the movie Congo.

For years, politicians have not catered to America's youth because they think we are flaky voters. We will show up for one election, then miss the next one. Well I am mad as hell that I have to choose between two candidates I do not like. I am sick of reading about lobbyists like Michael Cantrell who make a buck because politicians are corrupt. And I am sick of mainstream media only writing about the partisan students who lean either far left or far right.

The truth is, most college age students, in my estimation, do not give a fuck about being a Republican or Democrat. That is goal no. 1 of this blog, to cater to the non-partisan or independent young voters who just want to know which candidate is going to be the best for them. I do not condemn involved students engaged in College Democrats or College Republicans, but I think the undecided college student gets neglected the most.

For the next three weeks, the time until the election and the bulk of when this blog will count for my Online Fundamentals class project, I will research the issues in the upcoming election and break down, with the help of expert sources, each candidates stance. I will convince the unconvinced why it is important to vote, and finally I will throw in a dab of entertainment because that's what we, the Colbert Report generation, respond too.

Tomorrow will be a big day for me, starting with a trip to see Sen. Joe Biden speak at the Athens Fairgrounds. There I will go talk to students, specifically looking for the undecided voters and see what their concerns are.

In case you do not get a chance to go to see Sen. Biden, feel free to leave me some comments about what you are concerned with and check out the links to the right for other blogs and places of information.