16 ounces of freedom and other assorted nonsense

Hello again! I am here again to bug you with some more of my thoughts on the world of politics. There is a whole host of things going on right now as we get closer to the election, here are a few things that caught my attention...

First of all in New York City as of next spring it will be illegal for business to sell soda that is larger than 16 ounces. This has spark a huge debate...the fact that this is even a debate is stupid. If people want to drink 75 ounces of soda....here is an idea BUY MORE THAN ONE....better yet, buy a 24 pack of cans, PROBLEM SOLVED! END OF DEBATE! I love that people are making this into a "Oh this is just big government trying to control our lives." I hate when people whine about the government being too big when they don't understand all the ins and outs of the way the government works today. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I have the answers, but I know enough to know that when you are talking about the way our government works, it is much more complicated than big government vs. small government. It is nothing more than a talking point for politicians. While I think that this is a ridiculous conversation, I do think that trying to pass a law like this is  kind of a waste of time, because people are going to drink what they want to drink anyways, I do understand what they are going for. They are trying to make people think twice about what they are putting in their bodies and trying to help people make healthy choices. It just amazes me that people are so up in arms about this, but yet don't seem to give a damn about everything else going on in the world...which leads me to my next thing...Foreign policy.

Most of the election coverage has been about the economy, and reasonably so with the state of the economy still being pretty touchy. But now with all of the protests in the middle east over the anti Muslim video that was posted on the Internet. The protests have spread to 17 different Muslim countries. One of the problems is that some of these people in the Muslim world see a video like this and they are under the impression that this is how our whole country feels about the Muslim world, when in reality it is just a very small segment of our population. I have not seen the video yet but from everything I have heard and read, it is vile. It is a terrible situation that an Internet video made by some narrow-minds nimrod caused the death of 4 Americans, including the US Ambassador to Libya. Of course as all of this is unfolding Mitt comes out and criticizes the president over how he is handling the situation. It makes me sick that he is trying to get political gain over the death of our own diplomats, pretty low if you ask me. I will be curious to see how this situation will shape the foreign policy discussion as we approach the debates. Only time will tell...

One more thought.... I know I am not the only one who feels this way, but I am soooo sick of all of these attack ads on both sides. I don't care who vote for, but the love of god don't listen to these commercials...do your homework on the candidates and see who really is looking out for your best interest. This is a very important election. Our country is at an important time in our history and this election will help decide which direction our future as a country will take...so whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent...VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Early morning ramblings...

I am not sure how wise it is to try to write this so early in the morning, but we shall see. One of the things that bothers me about the Romney/Ryan campaign is what they have been focusing on. I get that hitting on the economy is probably the smart thing to do given the fact that the economy really struggled during Obama's tenure, but I think it is a little troublesome that some of their other views are not being talked about. I absolutely hate the fact that Romney and Ryan spend way more time talking about why they think Obama is horrible and almost no time talking about the specifics of how they are going to make this country stronger, and not just stupid one sentence answers like "We will cut taxes!". Ok...that helps....who are you going to cut taxes for? How much? How will you pay for it? And how do you justify a tax cut when you have consistently hammered Obama for spending too much money then you turn around and do the same thing. I understand that if they are done right tax cuts can help the economy, but unless they are done right, they just end up doing too much damage to the national debt to really justify any small boost the economy may get.

I really hope the Romney campaign starts focusing more on their own policies rather than trying to pick apart Obama. I have no idea what their plan is for education, infrastructure, and foreign policy. That is an issue that I concerned about neither Romney or Ryan have any foreign policy experience. What do they stand for? Will voting for them mean we are in for more wars? I think that America deserves real answers about policy and not what you think of your opponent. We get it you don't like him or his policies...now MOVE ON! Lets talk policy! America deserves specifics, not just talking points!

60 days and counting

Hello there! For quite a while now I have been annoying my facebook friends with all sorts of political stuff on my news feed. While I am sure that many are tired of it...don't expect them to go away anytime soon with only 60 days until the election. I wanted to turn this into a political blog so I can share my views on what is going on in the world of politics and society in general, and with the election coming quickly now is as good a time as any. I dont claim to be an expert by any stretch, just an average middle class citizen making my voice heard.

Yesterday the democrats finished up their convention, and comparing the two conventions I would say that the upper hand goes to the dems. Unfortunately today the jobs report came out and only 96,000 jobs were created this month and the unemployment rate is still at 8.1%. That is certainly a setback for Obama. The way I look at it, I keep hearing Mitt ask people "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago. Well lets see here, four years ago today, we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, the stock market was in the toilet, and people were struggling to get by. Has the economy bounced back like we all would have hoped, absolutely not but the fact that it is going in the right direction with 30 straight months of job growth. That might not be great for the short term but in the long run our economy will be strong again.

We shall see how the next two months go. It should be interesting to see what American public decides who should be our next president should be and what really gets people to vote one way or another, but that is another post for another day. Bye for now...