I really don’t understand why we’re spending another $59 billion on our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. No amount of money is going to win those wars. The government should just realize what we’ve spent already is a sunk cost that can’t be recovered rather than continuing to throw money at the problem. Why not put that $59 billion towards green energy, poverty alleviation, health care, infrastructure projects in the US, or even paying off some of our massive massive debt?

But that’s just my 2 cents

We all know the United States is beyond addicted to oil; that’s a known fact. However, who benefits the most from that addiction? BusinessPundit has an article I wanted to highlight here (The Unquenchable Thirst: Taxing America’s Oil Addiction) that says:

The government profits even more from our oil addiction than the super-rich oil companies do.

Here’s the visual:

Honestly, we need to SOMEHOW cut this addiction. The world’s oil supply won’t last forever.

…you’ll know why Obama wants to keep his blackberry so bad. And, when you are the President, you usually get what you want, so Obama will keep his Blackberry.

I’m not going to write an essay on this, though I certainly could, but I’m stoked for the Obama administration to take office tomorrow morning. The fact that the whitehouse.gov is going to get an overhaul is just one reason to be excited. Praising people across the aisle is another. Seeing a great speech in the morning is yet another. And there are at least another 10 that I won’t get into tonight….

Anyway, I’m excited to see them tackle the problems facing this country — and I am confident they will take us in the right direction.

I have no clue, but it looks like Barack Obama is going to have to figure it out as President of the United States. There’s a good article in the New York Times that gives some good background.

This is awesome. Obama is going to put the weekly radio address on YouTube once in office. I love transparency and the government needs a lot more of it — and it seems Obama will give it to us.

I could not be more thrilled that Barack Obama will be our next President — it’s great to have a President that I believe in and trust to do the right thing. And, perhaps more importantly, a leader who can — and will — inspire the people in this country to do better. There are tons of very tough choices ahead for this country (social security, economy, Iraq, medicare, etc), but I finally have confidence we have a leader in place who can get us out of this mess.

Congratulations Barack.

Social Security:

McCain said that fixing social security is easy and he knows how to do it. Really? That’s funny — why the heck hasn’t anyone done anything in the last 30 years to fix it then? And note McCain has been an active figure in Washington DC for almost 30 years and nothing has been done. Explain that to me. Or at least explain how the problem is so easy and yet no one has come up with a workable solution.

Health care:

McCain thinks health care is a responsibility and Obama thinks it is a right in America. I’m going to disagree with both of them. Not that I don’t think health care SHOULD be a right, but let’s be realistic here. Whether or not you choose to believe it, access to affordable health care is a privilege in this world. With an estimated 2 billion people living on less than a dollar a day, health care is most certainly not a right worldwide. We are working, and should continue working, towards a point when access to health care is a fundamental human right. But we’re not there yet.

Foreign Policy:

McCain doesn’t think we should talk with our enemies. Obama does. Running the United States really is just like running a business and I think most business strategies can be successfully applied to politics. Furthering relations with other countries and signing up new allies takes the same tactics as finalizing a business development deal with a new partner. It’s obvious one of the tactics to closing deals is…TALKING.

This issue is dead simple — talk to your allies as well as your enemies. What happens if you don’t?

NOTHING.

And that’s not acceptable.

You can view other Spaceship Excellent videos on their YouTube channel.

My friend sent me this today and I thought it was worth sharing.

[via The Swamp]

…is because he stands firm on issues like this.

I seriously can’t remember ever being this inspired by a political movement. Granted I’m only 26, but the fact is that an inspiring political movement has not happened in my lifetime. But it is happening now with Barack’s run for President. And it’s not just the actual politician who inspires — it’s everyone around him. Joe Biden just gave a fantastic speech that I watched on NBC after work tonight. Michelle Obama gave an awesome speech the other night in Denver that I wanted to share (for those who haven’t already seen it).

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the speech:

America should be a place where you can make it if you try.

The world as it is just won’t do.

Each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

We all know there are some people, and you know who you are, who others naturally gravitate towards and want to associate with. The cause for that desire to follow and associate with includes a number of traits. It’s intelligence. It’s passion. It’s kindness. It’s values. It’s straightforwardness. It’s honesty. It’s competence. It’s charisma. It’s the desire to change the world for the better. And it’s all of those things put together.

To me, it is obvious Barack Obama is one of those special people.

The suspense is over — Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden as his running mate for the upcoming election. I think selecting Biden is an excellent move given Biden’s foreign relations experience and willingness to speak his mind, even if doing so doesn’t always win him popularity votes. For instance, there is certainly no question where he stands on the Iraq War, which I’m sure was a part of Obama’s decision. There are some additional video highlights from Biden’s career over at The Huffington Post.

Regardless of who John McCain selects as his running mate, my prediction is that Joe Biden will be the next Vice President of the United States.

My answer is he won’t. I took at look at his transportation plan and am not impressed. His congestion relief projects all involve improving and expanding current roads. Additionally, Rossi says in this video – “that gas tax? that’s a thing of the past.”

Here’s the way I see it. He says we have some of the highest gas prices in the nation, but part of his plan is to lower those taxes. I really don’t understand how cutting gas prices is going to somehow magically improve our horrid congestion. If anything, lowering gas prices will only increase our traffic woes. What Seattle really needs is more mass transit — such as the light rail project voters rejected about a year ago.

But what do I know…

On Saturday, President Bush said this (among other things):

It’s time for members of Congress to address the pain that high gas prices are causing our citizens. Every extra dollar that American families spend because of high gas prices is one less dollar they can use to put food on the table or send a child to college. The American people deserve better.

“Addressing the pain” means removing the 27 year old ban on offshore drilling in Bush’s opinion. The fact that Bush seems to think opening up protected lands for drilling is going to help our gas prices is crazy (IMO) — I hope Congress stands firm and does something for the long-term instead of making a stupid decision that will harm our already troubled environment. Removing the ban would just be yet another bandaid that won’t solve anything in the long term.

I hope Hillary is because I’m thinking this is a tough sell.

I’ll be the 1st to say I think it’s a stupid idea for the government to give everyone $600. The US is over 9 trillion of dollars in debt, which comes out to roughly 30k per person in the US. And then we decide to add another $600 per person to that debt? This financial strategy doesn’t make sense to me — shouldn’t we be focusing on paying down our debt rather than expanding it? To me, it’s pretty damn clear that the stimulus checks are a band-aid and will not solve any long-term problems with the economy, so why do it?

Though I clearly disagree with the stimulus payments, what is done is done and I got my check in the mail this past week. That said, how am I using my $600? Sure, I could go buy some new clothes or a new iPhone. Or I could put it toward either my car loan or student loan. But what I actually did was put the money to good use and donate it all to people who really need the money — via Kiva.org. Helping others less fortunate than myself realize their dreams just seemed like the right thing to do with free money from the government.

I was absolutely thrilled tonight when I opened up CNN to find out that Barack Obama is the Democratic Nominee for the Presidential Election.

Congratulation Barack!