SWB: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Coach - ECoaching - Email Coaching

Snippet Saturday - McCain, Huckabee, California, and Venezuela

I was kind to McCain in yesterday's post because it's not smart to piss off crazy people when I said that it was okay that he didn't know the answer to Ron Paul's question.  His "expertise" is in the area of war and so people can't expect him to know about all the economic tools available to the President.

Looking into it more, I found out that prior to Ron Paul's question being asked, McCain was touting his economic experience.  Politically, I guess he has to because that's the number one concern right now.

So, now my take on it is, if you're gonna lie, I can't feel bad for you when you get caught.

Speaking of lying.  I reported some time back that the tax rate for the Fair Tax that Huckabee keeps putting forth was 23%.  It's actually 30%. 

He's selling it as 23% so it doesn't sound so bad.  In order to try to conceal the deception, they use a little play on numbers.  If you bought something and the total price with tax came to $100, $23 dollars of that would go to taxes.  That's where the 23% comes from.

The truth is that if you bought something for $77, a sales tax amount of $23 would be added to the purchase, which is of course a 30% tax.

Huckabee's tricky and he had me going for a couple weeks.

California farmers, especially rice and tomato producers, are going to let much of their crops die this year.  The government gives them subsidized water and the new plan for the farmers is to buy the water at the subsidized rate and then jack up the price 3 to 4 times and sell it to Southern California.  The water is sold as rights so the farmers won't have to actually ship or do anything.  The water will go to Southern California and the money will go to Mid-California.

The cost of rice, tomatoes, and everything grown in Southern California will probably go up.

Chavez is claiming that the United States is working with Columbia to cause problems in Venezuela and is threatening to stop exporting oil.  I don't trust Chavez but you can't dismiss his claim outright either because the United States has a long and glorious record of destroying governments that won't cooperate with them.

Chavez claims that if shuts off the spigot to America, oil prices would probably climb to $300 a barrel.

Commentary for December 9th, 2007

You may find this all hard to believe but the New York Times reported it so I'm going to pass it on to you to see what you think.  It appears that the scientific polls being done for this election might not be representing the actual consensus of the people.  It appears that these polls are done using landlines and auto dialers and as such, they are getting a very small cross-section of people that might not fully represent the people in the area of the poll.  Most of the people who answer calls by auto dialers hang up which further decreases the number of people being polled.  The belief is that people who don't have landlines probably aren't going to vote so this under-representation hasn't been much of a worry but suddenly the NYT is wondering if the polls should be more accurate.

You know, they just might be on to something.  I wonder how this kind of thing slipped the attention of everyone else.  I'm still going to say that since the scientific polls are "scientific," they are accurate.  Why else would we call them scientific?  Duh! 

Cellphones Challenge Poll Sampling

Read the rest of this post for yet another rant on MSM and something interesting about hybrid cars.

When Uncovering the Truth Becomes Too Easy

King George lied about Iran's nuclear program but still wants to invade them, "just in case."  CNN runs stories on the NAU and the NAFTA Superhighway and then picks a question to make it all sound like a conspiracy theory.  Mitt Romney fires a couple of illegal aliens that he says he didn't know were illegal but somehow Rudy knew.

It has gotten to the point where there is almost no attempt to conceal the lies being told.  We are living in a time when it's acceptable to say what you want and change your words the very next week.

I watched a video of McCain and Kerry and Kerry ends up saying, "You're arguing against yourself."  McCain denies it but there are clips from just a week prior where he is saying the opposite thing and when he quotes other people, there are clips of what those people actually said and McCain is saying the opposite of what they said, claiming it's a direct quote.

I watched one today of what Bush and Cheney thought of the Iraq 7 years ago and 3 years ago when they thought we should be involved in nation building and policing other countries.  Cheney says at a point when 130 American soldiers have died that it's too many and we shouldn't sacrifice anymore to try and get Saddam.  He says that taking Saddam out is a bad idea anyway because it will destabilize the whole area and people will fight over pieces of Iraq.  Turns out he was right and should have followed his own advice.

The question though is, do enough people care enough to call them on it?

***

Don't forget to take my presidential poll.

Commentary for November 28th, 2007

You have reached the blog of Success Warrior.  Unfortunately, I can't come to my blog at the moment.  Please leave a message.

Right now, as you read this, if you are in fact reading this on the 28th, I'm in the city enjoying myself.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is on tour and my wife and I go every year.

In the past, we have taken Trey up to my brother's house where he can play with his cousins for the night.  We go out to dinner and then arrive early at the concert where we can sit and visit.  When the concert is over, we go pick up Trey and then drive for a couple of hours to get home.

It's a long day and it's very enjoyable right up until the time we are sitting in the parking lot, waiting in line to escape the parking lot, so that we can drive north to pick up Trey and then south almost back to where the concert took place, and then west across the loneliest boringest stretch of flat desert on the planet.  By the time we get home, I'm exhausted and all thoughts of how enjoyable the night was are lost as I try to stay awake long enough to unpack the car and get to the bed. 

This year, I came up with a new plan.

Commentary for November 21st, 2007

Today's Chronicles post is about the danger that donuts exhibit.  It's story that involve me, PTE Rick, Shane, and Blaine during my teenage years and as a 14 year old driver. 

My next statement might come as a bit of shock to people.

I agree with Hillary Clinton.

There, I said.

She has said something that I totally and completely agree with.  She said that our economy is in a bad state and that the next president needs to be someone with experience in dealing with economic problems.

I concur.

That's why I'll be voting for someone from the Joint Economics Committee who knows that devaluing the dollar is going to lead to economic collapse. 

Thanks for advice, Hillary.

Commentary for November 19th, 2007

Today's post in Chronicles is the next installment of the August 6th story.  It's about what it was like when I finally got to go home.  From the time of the incident until I got to go home seemed like forever but sleep came quickly which was a surprise.

We put our house up for sale a couple days ago.  We have been talking about it for quite a while and have had a "For Sale" sign in the house just waiting for us to quit stalling.  I grabbed the sign, walked outside, and planted it into the lawn.

From that point on, we've been trying to get the house ready to be seen.  I know it's backwards but for us, this was the only way we were going to get motivated to do it.  Our schedules are such that we always have something that we can be doing. 

Since putting the sign out, we try harder to do something, anything, every single day.  My office is a mess right now because I'm completely changing how it's organized.  I am throwing away as much stuff as I can and putting anything we don't use regularly into boxes.  Essentially, we're acting as if we are moving.  We are taking the pictures off the walls and everything.  We are going to strip the house down to the bare essentials. 

It's been kind of funny because we have changed the living room, our bedroom, and Trey's bedroom and we really like the new feel of the place.  We've been joking that we're going to get it to where we really enjoy our home environment and then someone will buy it and we'll have to move out.

Commentary for November 15th, 2007

Today's post on Chronicles is a fun presidential poll that I am doing to test a theory by Tony Robbins.  Please go to that post and take part in the poll so we can see if the theory holds true.

I just mentioned how great some of the YouTube videos have been that were created not by the campaigns, but by the supporters.  Not just the Ron Paul supporters, mind you, but all the supporters.  Ron Paul has the most YouTube subscribers but Obama gets the most YouTube views (probably because of the hot Obama girl videos).  Ron Paul is playing catch up even though he has far more subscribers.

I mention it again because Ron Paul's campaign just put out this message:

"CNN has asked the Ron Paul campaign to create a 30 second video to air during the CNN/YouTube debate scheduled for November 28th.  In keeping with the spirit of this campaign, we want YOU to create the video that will air.  Please read all of the contest details here to learn the rules and submission details."

I love it.  In keeping with the spirit of the campaign and saving Ron Paul production money, the Revolution will make the video that will be aired for the debate.  How absolutely cool is that?

Commentary for November 13th, 2007

Today's post on Chronicles is a meme about why I'll be voting for Ron Paul.  The meme had 5 reasons so I listed my biggest reasons but let me add one right here.

Donald Kerr wants to redefine Privacy as, "government and businesses properly safeguarding people's private communication and financial information."

In other words, "spying" would be removed from the dictionary and would be replaced with the word, "privacy". 

Is there anyone in America that is going to fall for this?

Ron Paul wants to get rid of the Patriot Act and get the government to quit spying privacying on us.  The government hides more and more of what they do while increasing the amount of privacying they do on us.  It's backwards and it's unacceptable.

On a much lighter note, you need to watch this video of what the TV show "24" would have been like if the events happened in 1994.  This brings back some memories and shows how far we've advanced in 13 years and what we take for granted today.

And finally (trying to shorten up these commentary posts), one thing that I have been impressed with in this election is the quality of the videos being put out.  I wish I had a clue about video editing because I think it would be a lot of fun.  I think it would be fun to do videos too where you are sitting there like a news anchor with the pictures over your shoulder.  Some of them are very well done.  I just have no clue about what that takes but I think it would be fun.

Today's video makes it because the music is Evanescence and I happen to like them.

Commentary for November 11th, 2007 - Veteran's Day

In the Chronicles blog today, I wrote about why I blog and what I get out of blogging.  One thing that is important for me when discussing writing is the fact that I think that words have meaning and that they have power.

It is possible to destroy the power of your words.  President Bush is a great example of this.  I'm not talking about being inarticulate, though that surely plays a part, but I'm talking about the deceptiveness.  Whether you liked them or not, previous presidents have been able to create powerful emotion and actions with their words.  Bush, because he is so dangerous to the safety of other countries and the civil liberties of Americans, has even lost the power of humor we once saw when we made fun of his speeches.

Hillary Clinton in recent debates has also damaged the power of her words in her inability to take a stand.  She says a lot without ever saying anything, falling into the stereotype of a politician.  Ask her a yes or no question and you get a 5 minute answer that isn't an answer.  Further clarifying questions are only met with more muddying of the issue so that in the end, everyone is confused.  Unfortunately for all politicians, it's harder to get away with in these days.  I'll cover that more later in this post.

Mitt Romney is feeling the repercussions of his words and their loss of power.  He used one set of words to get elected the first time and now he's using a different set of words to try to get the Republican nomination.  Hillary may be the prime example of not taking a stance but Mitt's flip-flopping shows that he says whatever his campaign strategists say he should say based on polls and in the end, you have no better idea of where he stands than you do of Hillary. 

To the contrary, we have seen a couple of examples where words can gain power.

Commentary for November 7th, 2007

I wrote another segment of the August 6th story on the Chronicles blog for today.  The mindset that I talk about is something that has stuck with me to this day.  How could it not, I suppose.  I think it's balanced out though because I am a much more peaceful person today.  It's hard to explain and I don't think I'm going to bother trying today.

Here's something that I will point out for new readers.  I have ADD.  Not really.  Well maybe.  Technically, I've never been diagnosed with it because I don't care.  I do have a tendency to start up new things on impulse and drop them just as quickly when distracted by something else.

"Look, something shiny!"

It's amazing that I managed to make it through school. 

It comes out very clearly in my writing.  I switch thoughts in mid post or I change the direction of my posts in general. 

I'm not complaining.  I enjoy it.

So the question that crossed my mind yesterday was, "Why is mainstream media pimpin' Hillary?"