Disillusionment

Among the first posts on this blog of mine was a brief review of the Republican candidates for president. In that aformentioned review, I mentioned that despite the fact that I supported Ron Paul, I would have little trouble backing Rudy Giuliani or John McCain should they emerge with the nomination.

I come to you tonight to retract those statements. Rudy is out of the race, and any support I once held for McCain has evaporated thanks to the most recent GOP debate. So, without further ado, I would like to present my UPDATED review of the Republican candidates.

Mike Huckabee: A genuinely funny man who, in spite of myself, I keep finding myself thinking Well, this guy's not too bad...as long as he avoids the topic of faith and its accompanying issues. (anti-gay legislation, school prayer, etc) Invariably, however, he mentions his religion and says things like 'We should change the Constitution in order to bring it more in line with the Bible.' At that point, my disdain for his political/religious views return with a vengeance. As I mentioned in my previous post, at the moment he's gunning for the Vice President slot and, as long as he doesn't get anywhere near my Constitution, that's fine with me.

Mitt Romney: A sickeningly rich neocon who always treats his opponents with an infuriating air of smugness. He gives off the same air of fake sincerity as Hillary Clinton, and has succeeded in pissing me off to no end.

John McCain: Ah, how the mighty have fallen. (in my mental standings) Eighteen months ago, this was my candidate for 2008. He was a war hero as well as a moderate Republican with fierce opposition to earmarks and heavy spending. I still have a lot of respect for him as a combat pilot and a prisoner of war, but in terms of politics I have been completely disillusioned. He's running the same kind of dirty campaign that Hillary and Romney have been engaged in for a year, and thus has taken himself down to their level. The problem is that once you're there, it's difficult to get back out again.

Ron Paul: In my opinion, the only candidate worth voting for. Unlike all three of his opponents, Dr. Paul believes in truly limited government that drastically cuts spending, reduces bureaucracy, and thus allows for vast cuts in taxes. Dr. Paul supports individual rights above all, including privacy rights that are currently under siege from the PATRIOT Act and House Resolution 1955 (look it up; the potential for abuse is staggering. Sedition Act, anybody?) He rejects the concept of a preventive war and advocates the return of American troops from Iraq to save both lives and the trillions of dollars being pumped into the war. He supports strict adherence to the Constitution by the federal government.


To the Republican Party: Please, ditch the neocons. They're nothing but a bunch of bible-thumping, gay-bashing, big government theocrats whose spending habits make Bill Clinton look thrifty by comparison. Take the party back to what it is genuinely supposed to be. Read The Federalist Papers. If Ronald Reagan were here, I believe he'd take a baseball bat to 90% of the party. This is out of hand, and precisely why I stopped being a Republican around 2004. (yes, I know I wasn't old enough to vote then. Not the point.)

Has Anybody Noticed?

Anybody notice that Mike Huckabee doesn't mess with John McCain? I mean, every other candidate out there snipes at each other in the debates and through various press releases and speeches. If they don't mention each other by name, they infer it in such a way as to leave no doubt as to whom they are referring. However, Huckabee NEVER goes after McCain...even if they disagree, Mike prefaces his response or statement with a two-minute tangent about how much he respects McCain and the like. He's defended Mac from Mitt Romney on several occasions as well. So I guess what I'm thinking is this...

Mike Huckabee is angling for the Vice President slot if McCain gets nominated.

Think about it. Huckabee had a big win in Iowa but ever since then it's been slow. After his defeat in South Carolina...a state that he was supposed to win big due to its large evangelical population...I'm thinking that he's basically come to grips with the fact that if he couldn't win there, he's not going to win anywhere else important. His campaign is running out of steam, and he's hoping that by not pissing McCain off in the same way that Mitt Romney and Rudy Guiliani have, he'll be able to take the VP slot at the convention.

Clever move, Mike. Clever move.

Yay Sports, Yay Report (Part III)

After spending one of the more boring weekends of my life in Greensboro, North Carolina, I come back to find that I only hit .500 on my predictions for last weekend. No matter, now we come to...

Super Bowl XLII
Let's look at what everybody knows. The New England Patriots have yet to lose a game this season. Tom Brady and Randy Moss have both set touchdown records at their respective positions, and as a whole, the Patriots have scored more points by far this season than any team in history. They can win on defense, they can win by running the ball, and they have the most fearsome passing offense ever brought to play outside of the University of Hawaii. The Giants were a wild-card team that started the season slow, and almost fell victim to the late-season collapse that has doomed several of their past runs at a playoff spot. Seems like an easy pick, right?

Hold on. Don't forget that it was the Giants, in the last regular-season game, that gave the Patriots the biggest scare they've had all year. Eli Manning has yet to turn the ball over in three playoff games, and has shown the kind of efficiency that one would expect from his brother, and former Steeler Plaxico Burress beat Al Harris, one of the better corners in the league, like a red-headed stepchild. However, better offensive teams than the Giants have fallen to the Patriots this season.

Ah, but the defense. As fearsome as Tom Brady is behind that All-World offensive line, it has come to light that when teams bring the rush against him, he's mediocre. San Diego proved that in the AFC Championship; they blitzed him throughout most of the game and forced him to throw three interceptions. I can think of three or four quarterbacks off the top of my head that are actually better than Tom Brady against the pass rush. And there are few teams better at bringing heat on a quarterback than the New York Giants. They lead the league in sacks. On the other side of the ball, the Patriots' aging defense has shown signs of vulnerability.

Everything here points to a New England victory: the hype, the history, the track records, the Vegas line, the statistics. Something about this game just says 'trap' to me. I'm going to call the biggest upset since Broadway Joe and the Jets took down the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Let it be known here and now that I'm picking the Giants.

New York Giants over New England Patriots

Yay Sports, Yay Report (Part II)

Right, so looking back at last week, I didn't do all that badly with my predictions. I called three out of the four of the games correctly, including the Giants' upset of the Cowboys, so I'm pretty satisfied. Now, for the Conference Championship games.

Green Bay over New York
Lambeau Field in January is not the easiest place to play under the best of circumstances, and despite another efficient performance in a road win against the Cowboys, Eli Manning will have trouble without an effective running game. Favre, running back Ryan Grant, and the Packers' defense will pull off the win, but Eli will fight to the end. Favre goes back to the Super Bowl.

New England over San Diego
I sincerely hope I am wrong about this one, but I cannot see there being an Upset Special in this game. The Chargers would have a rough time beating the Patriots if they were completely healthy; with LaDainian Tomlinson, Phillip Rivers, and Antonio Gates all either out or playing hurt, they don't have a chance. New England wins big to move on to the Super Bowl. (Editor's note: boo.)

Yay Sports, Yay Report (Part I)

Alright, that's enough of politics for a moment. Now, on to sports. It's Divisional Playoff time this weekend, and here are my predictions:

New England over Jacksonville
If there is any game I might be wrong about, this is it. Jacksonville has all the pieces in place that, on paper, could drop the Patriots: a strong, two-headed running attack, a defense that bends but doesn't break, and a quarterback who can move out of the pocket and make plays. I think everybody in the country (except New England fans) is hoping for the legitimate Jaguars to pull off the upset over the annoyingly good Patriots...but with the way Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and that defense is playing, I just don't see it happening.

Indianapolis over San Diego
Last year, the entire conversation centered around Peyton Manning and his lack of a Super Bowl ring. He had an immense amount of pressure surrounding him and it showed in the Colts' first two playoff games, where he had mediocre games. This year, however, the pressure is on New England. Manning, a notorious perfectionist, will bring the Colts back to the AFC Championship.

Green Bay over Seattle
I am not sold on Seattle at all. They beat Washington, but the game was closer than the score indicated; were it not for a mistake or two late in the fourth quarter, the Redskins pull it out. Green Bay, however, is for real: Brett Favre taking big gulps out of the Fountain of Youth and playing like he did back in the day, a rushing attack that is surprisingly stout, and a playmaking defense. I think Green Bay is going to win, and they're going to win big.

New York over Dallas
Yep, the Upset Special is back. Since he was drafted, Eli Manning has recieved criticism for being a choke artist, unable to perform in big games. This year, it seems like he's beginning to shake it off. He played well against New England in a losing effort with literally the entire world watching, then efficiently picked through Tampa Bay's defense in the first round of the playoffs. I think the Cowboys are going to underestimate the Giants, and pay for it with elimination.

Steelers fans have recently learned that Hines Ward played a large part of the season with injuries that probably should have sidelined him. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the guy has more heart than just about anybody in the league. Not only did he play hurt for months, in a losing effort against Jacksonville he had ten catches for 135 yards. Here's hoping Hines recovers well from his surgery and comes back doubly dangerous next year.

And this is my open letter to Steelers management: Please, please, please do everything in your power to keep Alan Faneca on the team. The man is among the top two guards in the league (next to and perhaps ahead of Vikings G Steve Hutchinson) and has anchored the Steeler line for ten years. He's blocked for everybody from Bettis to Zereoue, Fu to Willie Parker, and has done it damned well. Anybody we get to replace him, no matter how good, will fall short and that will have adverse consequences for Willie, Ben, and the team as a whole. He's been the bright spot on an otherwise shaky line, and we cannot afford NOT to resign him.

Anathema

(A brief aside: I have been listening to 'Holy Grail' by Hunters & Collectors a lot recently; I can't get it out of my head. It's a very good song by an obscure band, so check it out.)

So in the last day or two several of the major news networks have discovered 'Ron Paul Political Reports', supposedly written by the Congressman himself, which are nothing more than bigoted and racist rants. These news organizations are using this to conclusively prove that Ron Paul is nothing but a whack job. Now, I cannot say for sure whether or not these newsletters are indeed his, but it simply does not make sense that Dr. Paul wrote them. Here's why: Racism, and in fact all forms of bigotry, are collectivist ideas. The entire foundation of various prejudicial ideologies is based upon the fact that every member of a certain ethnic, religious, social, etc. group shares certain negative characteristics exclusive to that particular group. In other words, the social group one belongs to matters more than the individual itself.

Now anybody who is familiar with Dr. Paul's beliefs knows how unlikely it is that he would be the writer of a racist rant. He is a strident individualist; thus his opposition to big government and libertarian politics. Ron Paul authoring such a collectivist work would be akin to Ronald Reagan coming out with an essay advocating a tax increase and the formation of a massive and powerful federal government. It's just anathema to their real beliefs.

An Introduction to American Politics, Part Three

And now the Democrats.

Dennis Kucinich: 'Short' seems to be his major characteristic...that and his obsession with the phrase 'Impeach Dick Cheney'. The man is the definition of 'fringe'; he once claimed to have a religious-ish experience with a UFO, and has a plan to defend America against alien attacks, which he would put into effect were he to be elected. Plus, Ani DiFranco is playing a major role in his campaign; what other evidence do you need to realize this guy sucks?

John Edwards: I disagree with a lot of what he says, but you cannot deny he's a genuine populist the likes of which America has not seen in a while. Everybody claims to understand and empathize with the working man; thanks to Edwards' background and experience, he is one of the few candidates that comes across as genuine in that regard. He has little chance to capture the nomination, but would make a great vice-presidential candidate (again). He's also the second-best public speaker, behind none other than...

Barack Obama: My favorite Democrat. I probably could not disagree more with this guy, but anybody who has ever heard him speak will admit that he's one of the most passionate and genuinely idealistic people who has ever made a run for President. Even if you dislike most of his ideas, you can't help but be a little bit more inspired to do some good after hearing Obama up on a stage. He is the 21st century's answer to Bobby Kennedy. I would vote for him only if the Republican nominee totally sucks, but I can't say I'd hate seeing him as President.

Hillary Clinton: My hatred for this bitch runs deep and hard. Every single thing she does or says seems so calculated to garner approval; I don't actually belive she has a point of view. Her opinions are formulated and shaped by pollsters who tell her what the people want to hear. Her claims of experience are complete bullshit, and I wish somebody, ANYBODY, would call her on it. Were I unlucky enough to be Bill Clinton and thus married to her, I'd extend a big old 'fuck you' to Hillary and endorse Obama. I would literally tear out my own esophagus rather than vote for this bitch.

And now, sleep.

An Introduction to American Politics, Part Two

Now I shall unleash my opinions regarding the other major candidates from both parties, and will start with the Republicans.

Mike Huckabee: This guy is as big a theocrat as you can get without becoming an Ayatollah of some type. If he wins the Presidency, that old Sunday-school song 'Onward Christian Soldiers' will become a terrifying reality. Homosexuality will become punishable by death, and anybody who does not convert to evangelical Christianity will find themselves in some type of Inquisition-esque torture chamber. Of course, I'm exaggerating; he's a friendly, funny guy who happens to be an absolute Jesus-freak. Read the Establishment Clause, chief. No way would I vote for him.

Mitt Romney: If I were directing a movie that involved the President of the United States, I would look for somebody who looked and sounded EXACTLY like Romney. In no way does that mean that he would actually BE a good President. He's entirely too neocon-ish for my taste, and everything about him screams 'staged'. He takes a lot of shit for his religion though, which pisses me off; why should that matter? At least he's not pushy about it like Huckabee.

Rudy Giuliani: Other than that annoying New York accent, I like the guy; he's a relatively common-sense moderate who did a damned good job with a huge fucking city that was an absolute hole when he took over. Yes, everybody knows he did a good job after September 11th, but his most impressive accomplishments were long before that day. Chances are that I will support this guy if Ron Paul drops out.

John McCain: This guy has bigger balls than any of his competitors on either side of the aisle. He spent five and a half years enduring all sorts of torturous bullshit in the Hanoi Hilton after putting foot to all sorts of ass in the cockpit of an F-4. I respect this guy more than just about anybody, and he definately knows what he's talking about, but as petty as this sounds, he's 72. I think that's too old for him to assume the office of President. That being said, if he's the one to come out of the fray with the nomination, I'm behind him all the way.

Fred Thompson: I liked Law and Order, and I liked Die Hard II, but the man looks like a basset hound. Enough said.

Ron Paul: He's the candidate for people who hate politicians and love the Constitution, rather than just paying it lip service. See my previous post, and just Google him if you're curious. This guy is the man, so vote for him.

An Introduction to American Politics, Part One

Now that I've dispensed with my eerie-ness of the day, on to more pressing matters. Having spent a good three hours watching the returns from the New Hampshire primaries tonight, I have some...thoughts on each of the candidates. (WARNING: it's politics time. I tend to piss people off when I get onto this subject, so just be advised)

Many of you (assuming anybody actually reads this damned thing) know that I am a supporter of Congressman Ron Paul for the Republican nomination. Certain people (supporters of a number of different candidates), trying to exert some type of political superiority, have asked me, "Don't you know he's not going to win?" Thank you, James Carville. Yes, I know Ron Paul is not going to win. So do you. Hell, so does HE. I do not honestly believe that Ron Paul thinks that he has a legitimate chance to win the nomination. My question, though, is...does that matter? Think about this: the TWO most productive days in terms of fundraising by any candidate in the history of the American Presidential race have not been in support of Hillary Clinton or John McCain, Mike Huckabee or even Barack Obama, whos support amongst college students and younger people is almost unprecedented. No, those massive fundraisers have supported Ron Paul, a so-called 'fringe' candidate. Furthermore, over 80% of those donations were given in denominations of $100 or less. This shows that it is not big Washington PACs funding Congressman Paul's run, but rather the people. When Paul appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, all you had to do was listen to the audience's response to understand that at least half of them were Paul supporters. Every time CNN or Fox or MSNBC holds segments on the election and the various primaries and caucuses, there are Ron Paul signs floating in the background.

What's the appeal of this relatively obscure Texas Congressman (originally from Green Tree, PA) that inspires such enthusiasm? For me, at least, it's his straight-talking Constitutionalism: he is a conservative in the true sense of the word. (I will hit on this point later on) And it's true: he's not going to win the Republican nomination, let alone the White House. But it doesn't matter. The Ron Paul Revolution, powered by nothing but enthusiasm and the common man, is not going to fade away anytime soon.

And So It Begins

This is my first REAL entry to this blog-thing I have opted to create, so let's get started.

First of all, this was an extremely creepy night. I decided to take a late-night/early-morning walk around my hometown of Oakmont, and it could have gone better. Let me explain. I make fun of my little town quite a bit; it's overwhelmingly populated by senior citizens, it has absolutely no worthwhile places to eat cheaply (with the exception of Veltre's Pizza), and the entire town is built on a massive hill...which, of course, I live near the top of. Therefore, to get to the 'business district' built around Allegheny River Boulevard, I have to walk down that huge hill...and therefore back up it once my journey is complete. That being said, I maintain that Oakmont is one of the nicest places to walk around, especially at night. There's just something about my town in the dead of midnight that's just peaceful and calm. It lets me catch up on my thoughts (or just walk around with my iPod at full volume) and other such necessary activities.

Right, back to the story. It has been unseasonably warm the last two days (63 and 67 degrees respectively; let's not forget that this is Western Pennsylvania, not Florida), so I decided to briefly resurrect my favorite summer tradition of a late-night walk around Oakmont. From the moment I left my door, however, it just seemed...off. Not only were the trees completely bare, but throughout my entire walk, I had that eerie feeling that I was being followed. Looking behind me several times yielded nothing, but I just couldn't shake that damned feeling. The wind was also blowing quite forcefully, contributing even further to my sense of general wierdness. (If anybody's seen the movie Twister, it was EXACTLY like that moment when the old lady is looking out her window at her wind-chime sculptures and they all start going at once, complete with eerie music - in my case, that wierd sound-experimentation beginning of ELO's Fire On High on my iPod- and you just have this awful feeling of foreboding...EXACTLY like that) I honestly stopped dead in the middle of Washington Avenue and spent a good two minutes alternating between looking around worriedly, and convincing myself to calm the fuck down and keep walking.

Genesis

So. Why have I, Zach Farmer, suddenly attempted to break into the world of blogging? A good question, and one with both no answer and several. First of all, I suppose, I am attempting to prove that I'm not as bad a writer as I have recently begun to fear. As to whether or not I am correct...that has yet to be seen, and perhaps this will enlighten me. Second, I have a rather annoying habit of mentally composing accounts of the various things that happen to me throughout the course of my day. That is, an event will occur and even as I am reacting to it and experiencing it, a little part of my brain is 'writing it up' as if I were describing it to somebody later on. This, then, is an outlet for that habit to actually manifest itself in a useful way. Third, I have many opinions about many different things, and, while I have no illusions about anybody's desire to actually hear them, it is helpful for me to write them down. If nothing else, it allows me to work through them, find flaws and faults in my arguments, and fix them. Fourth and finally, is to provide a written account of the completely new and unknown phase in my life that I'm about to begin, if for nobody else but myself.

So. What is this going to be, exactly? To be honest, I'm not precisely sure; as of now, it will be primarily an account of my term of service with Americorps. Along with that, I will be riffing on music and movies, sports, politics (especially the 2008 Presidential Election) and anything else that I feel like talking about. Really then, I think I could've summed up this paragraph by telling you that this is going to be a blog about anything and everything.

Comments and questions are more than welcome.