Who's a "do nothing Senator"?

A few things strike me. I still hear Obama referred to as a "do-nothing-senator". You'd think people would look this information up before making a complete fool of themselves and try to bolster support for McCain by comparing Senate records.. Lets look at this, shall we?

I was looking at John McCain's Committee membership and see he is a member of only the Committee and subcommittees on Armed Services, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and he's a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs.

If John McCain is running for president...

Why isn't he a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs??

That's a pretty important Committee. Barack Obama is a member.

Why isn't McCain a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs?? Obama is.
(ed: I'm not making this up, I was TOTALLY blown away to see the disregard in John McCain's judgement in deciding it wasn't worth his time or efforts to join any of these committees during his TWENTY SIX years in senate...)

Why isn't McCain a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, or the subcommittees on either European Affairs, African Affairs, East Asian Affairs or Pacific Affairs?

Guess who is?
Yep, Barack Obama.

(ed: Yes!! I too, feel the need to vomit out of my nose for even having to say any of this. I was STUNNED to find this out while comparing the two candidates... but it does not end there...)

*
McCain has sponsored 537 bills since 1993, a rate of 35.8 bills a year.
Obama has sponsored 136 bills since 2005, a rate of 45.3 bills a year.

McCain has co-sponsored 1232 bills since 1993, a rate of 82.13 bills a year.
Obama has co-sponsored 659 bills since 2005, a rate of 219 bills a year.

Barack Obama missed 301 of 1282 roll call votes (23%) since Jan 6, 2005
John McCain missed 733 of 4099 roll call votes (18%) since Feb 4, 1993

Both of these percentages are quite high, but a look at the missed votes by month for both candidates (McCain, Obama) clearly indicates that their presidential campaign has driven them both to miss more than a majority of votes since 2007. It is staggering to note that when you add up McCain's missed votes since Obama took a seat in the US Senate, McCain has missed 39.7% of roll call votes.

And with that in mind,
John McCain has sponsored 38 pieces of legislation this term.
Barack Obama has sponsored 129 pieces of legislation this term.

Call Obama a do-nothing Senator one more time, McCain. I love watching you try to keep a straight face while you try to detract the country from how you fall short miserably.

*my source for this data is www.govtrack.us and a calculator.

Presidential Forum: caterpillar wings and war stories too!

Just finished watching Obama and McCain share their thoughts in the forum lead by Rev Rick Warren.

I really wish I could find a transcript of the forum, as it was quite interesting. They claim McCain was in a "cone of silence", while Obama went on first. Barack seemed to me to treat every question seriously, looking at tough questions with tough intellectual answers. He was asked some questions that were harder than others "does evil exsist?" to the paradoxaly phrased question "at what point does a baby have human rights?"... to which I would have answered "when does a caterpillar grow wings??"

Obama said a few things I'm sure he'll get grilled for, only due to the honesty and humbleness in his treatment of the forum, and willingness to answer complex questions with complex answers. My fear is the same I had from 2004. We're expecting the majority of our country to be able to look at complex situations and see that there are not always black or white answers to every question. Unfortunately in America we want a quick fix, a quick short answer is easier to sell than a long detailed analysis that complex issues actually demand. Anybody who works in some sort of customer service is familiar with this. Well.. I hope a lot of people have worked in customer service since 2004, which is unlikely seeing that our unemployment rate is at a four year high of 5.7%.

Then came the maverick, John McCain. Oh by the way, I don't think I've told you yet, you see, John McCain and I are friends. he calls me his friend all the time!! It's so reassuring of his trustworthiness!! Let me tell you a story. Back in Nam, him and I played tic tac toe in the sand with a stick. It all started when our captors drew a cross in the sand. I think he was trying to tell us that was going to be our grave, but we used it as an opportunity to convert him to Christianity and then the birds started singing and I cried. Let's go defeat evil, don't worry we wont have to start any more wars. Wars are free anyway. We can make everybody rich, but not spend a dime doing it, and I'm giving everybody $7,000 checks for free, my friend.

Are we going to get back to my being a POW? My friend, Can I tell you another story??

Uhm. Yeah, John McCain is out of his mind.

Is Russia/S. Ossetia to Georgia as US/Kuwait was to Iraq in 91??

This whole ordeal is quite frightening.. What's most frightening is the war of propaganda.. As I see it, Putin/Medvedev have been totally demonized, yet what Russia did this week was not much different from what Bush SR did in Iraq back in 1991 after Sadam invaded Kuwait. Kuwait surely would have fought back if they had a military anywhere close to what the Russians have today!!

I suppose a more precise analogy would be "Is Russia to South Ossetia what US was to Kuwait"

The US is calling Russia the aggressors, yet indeed Georgia INVADED South Ossetia, which prompted Russia to remind the world that they do not play nicely when taunted, and came to the rescue of the South Ossetians.

This however is not discussed. it is a non-topic in American main-stream news broadcast. Our media has become freaking ADDICTED to the manipulation of facts and sculpting propaganda. What will we have as a result?? Cold War II looks like it is only beginning.

Update:
I Love Jack Cafferty's piece on invading sovereign nations... Even in his "tough talk" statements about invading countries, McCain misses the fact that Georgia invaded South Ossetia last Thurs. It is parallel to McCain condemning the United States for invading Iraq in 91 and ignoring the fact that Hussein invaded Kuwait first. This just goes further to proove how innept McCain really is and what an oh so firm grasp he has on reality. (yes that's sarcasm) Regardless.. I'm thankful to see someone in the media at least acknowledging the obvious delusions of McCain.

McCain: "How to kill Iranians"

It's not whether you were serious or not that has people concerned, John.. It's the fact that your mind is twisted enough to even think this way in the first place...

...and you're running for _president_?

I wonder how red Joe Lieberman's face turned when he heard you spill this one out?

Playin: Firewater-"Already Gone" from the highly recommended album "The Golden Hour"

Bush asks Congress to clear way for offshore oil drilling

the story is here.

"The White House estimates that there are 18 billion barrels of oil offshore that have not been exploited because of state bans, 10 billion to 12 billion in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Basin."

Consider the fact that the Ban on offshore drilling went into effect as a result of a massive leak that formed in the earths crust due from drilling off the shore of Santa Barbara, CA in 1969, which leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

Consider the estimates from the white house which are showing that the Green River Basin has 45 times as many barrels than the offshore sites.

Why not stick to drilling on land, not the earths crust under the ocean!? Take the money earned (as crude is now about $150 a barrel) and invest in alternative energy.

I realize that math is hard, President George W. Bush, but seriously.

Gas cost us $1.36 when you took office. And what industry does your family work and thrive in? Oh YEAH.. the oil industry.