Hubby locked the ice pick away, so I sat myself in front of the debate tonight. I was armed with my handy Debate Bingo Card and a 72 oz bag of chocolate chips. That'll get me through just about anything. :)
I didn't get to listen to everything in it's entirety, due to, you know, being a mother and all, but a few things toward the end got me a little riled up, and I figured to vent them here.
In the "Education" section, a few things caught my ear. The candidates were presented with the fact that America has among the highest spending for education, and yet the system lacks results in a big way. Obama's plan? Reform and more spending. He also referred to "an army of teachers" and a plan to offer credit (paid tuition? loan forgiveness?) for "community service, like military, peace corps.." These things might not be red flags, but I've been reading Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, and Obama's words ring a bell to the chapters about Woodrow Wilson and FDR, both of whom had scary policies to curl the hair of any patriot. "Armies" of teachers? And civilian 'armies' of various things... Community organizing, perhaps? *shudder*
Another glaring hypocrisy is his plan for making college affordable. I read somewhere that in the past few years, university education tuition has risen some 400 or 500%! Now, when gasoline and oil start going up in price (albeit not that much), oil executives are called in to Congress and given the third degree. I don't recall Obama or other democrats railing at the 'obscene compensation packages' of university presidents or professors, have you? I mean, those evil big wigs in higher education are just taking absolute advantage of students - and we know students are the lifeblood of this country - we need stronger regulatory oversight! I'm outraged!
Good grief.
Another annoyance is McCain's thoughts on Head Start. He talked about how the program seems to have problems, that by third grade the Head Start kids aren't any better off than the non-head start kids. He started out on the right track with that, but instead of realizing this is true for all early childhood education, he decided the problem is that Head Start needs reforming. *sigh* In *my* Perfect World, the Left's re-defining of 'healthy families' gets reformed and children get to be raised by two parents (two married parents, of opposite gender), and their mama gets to be with them longer than a couple hours a day. But then again, I'm an evil, conservative hatemonger.
What I would like to see in debates is less lying. I know, call me crazy. But wouldn't it be great to have a panel of well-researched people who have dug into both candidate's pasts, and when one says, "that's absolutely not true" and the other says, "facts are facts" we can pause and have the appropriate person stand up and read from whatever relevant history applies? I'm sure the candidate would just spin it with "out of context" and "wasn't aware at the time," but it's a nice fantasy to add to My Perfect World, anyway.
7 comments:
Yeah, what she said.
While we were watching the debate I just kept seeing Obama throwing money at every problem, but also promising tax cuts to us middle-class Americans... which didn't add up to me. Then Hubby pointed out that he was going to make the rich folks pay for all of it. Ah. Well, that sounds ok to us Middle Class folks at first, but then we realize that those rich people own our businesses and such, and when they suffer we all suffer (lay-offs, higher product prices, etc.). I'm sure I don't have the whole picture so forgive me if I'm wrong, but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
...don't even get me started on abortion.
Rachel, I agree. Obama refutes the idea of 'trickle-down economics' - which to my limited understanding is the idea of the 'higher ups' - business owners, etc - getting breaks, resulting in more business investment, growth, ...jobs... Seems right to me. He talks about building the economy "from the bottom up," which is basically like that economic stimulus package early this summer. They wanted to 'build the economy' but didn't think it right to 'refund' to the higher payers. Well, it worked - for a month or two - but most people bought tvs made in china, which doesn't promote a lot of job growth here at home. I wonder if the businesses were given a break if it would have been a bigger stimulus. Not to villify the business owners, but you KNOW if they have to cut back they're starting with their employees or the benefit packages - they're not going to start buying corn dogs in bulk and cut out every vacation so they can keep everyone else working.
And I haven't seen it touted much (so it might be incorrect), but I saw a claim that part of his tax-reform includes removing the capital gains exemption for homeowners. This would mean that if you or I sell our homes, we would immediately owe 28% of the 'gain' on the house - God help you if you refinanced in the meantime and SPENT that gain somewhere already! Yikes!
I watched the debate but all I can say is that it was completely DEPRESSING. So, instead of discussing that, I'd really like to ask you what AIO diapers are. :-)
You know what's funny about the "building from the bottom up" with the stimulus package? I didn't get a stimulus package... because I didn't make enough money. Um...
Haha Sariah; AIO means "All In One." Technically, AIOs are cloth diapers that are identical to disposables in use - you just don't throw them away. They are one piece - absorbent, waterproof outer layer, etc. Mine will probably be 'pocket diapers' actually, since it would probably take a year and a day to dry AIOs. 'Pockets' are ALMOST like AIOs, but the absorbent part is removable for easier washing/drying.
Now, since you don't have any kids in diapers, you must REALLY have not liked the debate... :)
I didn't watch the debate (again), but I did catch a snippet of it. Of course, the bit I saw was Obama's twisting of the infant born alive act.....He said something like the law he voted for made provisions to overturn Roe v. Wade and there was already a law to protect alive infants, or something. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't it been shown again and again how the proposed Illinois act made no reference to Roe v. Wade and was the exact same act that passed through Congress, which Obama said he would have voted in favor of? After I heard that, I turned it off.
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