State of the Union 2008

Tonight I listened to the State of the Union address. Below are a couple quotations from it and my remarks.

Every member in this chamber knows that spending on entitlement programs -- like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- is growing faster than we can afford.

And since the Medicare Prescription Drug bill was passed it is growing even faster.

One year ago, our enemies were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos, so we reviewed our strategy and changed course. We launched a surge of American forces into Iraq.

And that surge has been somewhat successful. However, we are spending our way to national bankruptcy even faster than before; and that is exactly what our enemies are hoping for.

Looks like Bush has been scoring points for the wrong team.

Vote Against War

When it comes to choosing a President I am pretty much a single issue voter. I vote against war and I do this in a non-partisan way. For example, after listening to the Bush-Gore debates I voted for Bush because it was clear to me that Gore would get us into a war. What wasn’t clear to me was that Bush was just plain lying when he said:

“If we don’t stop extending our troops around the world in nation-building missions, we’re going to have serious problems coming down the road. I’m going to prevent that.”

According to Paul O’Neil Bush planned to attack Iraq even before 911. Even now the Bush Administration is busy trying to force us into yet another war with Iran before the next election. I may have voted for the guy who will be the one most responsible for starting World War III. Yikes!!!

In the last Presidential election there was no choice. Bush was going to fight the war and Kerry was going to fight it smarter. I didn’t want to “throw away" my vote so I voted for Kerry as the lesser-of-two-evils.

Right now it looks like it will be McCain versus Clinton in the presidential election; or possibly McCain versus Obama. If it comes down to McCain versus Clinton, Clinton becomes the lesser-of-two-evils choice because McCain is determined to fight the war and Clinton claims that she will get us out of it. I doubt she will though. While Bill was President the US was busy selling weapons to 165 out of 183 existing countries and attacking the Iraqi water supply. This attack may have been responsible for even more deaths than the current war in Iraq. Now I know this is guilt by association but I also feel that Hillary represents big business which has benefited from the war. Also the Democrats could end the war by cutting off funding but they won’t (more guilt by association). As a result, I don’t believe Hillary will get us out of Iraq.

So if it comes down to McCain versus Clinton I am going to have to write in Ron Paul (assuming he doesn’t run independently) because I don’t want to throw away my vote on the lesser-of-two-evils again. I know Ron Paul would get us out of the war. If it is McCain versus Obama I will have to think about it. If I decide that Obama will get us out of the war like he says he will, I’ll vote for him.

Before You Quit Your Job

For Christmas I bought myself one of Robert Kiyosaki's books on tape: Before You Quit Your Job. I have to say I enjoyed reading his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Even though it was mostly hype I did learn some things and I found the book easy to read and entertaining. However, Before You Quit Your Job sucks. Don’t waste your money. Most of the book is dedicated to not so subtlety marketing his board game Cashflow. What you can actually learn from the book can be condensed into a few pages of information.

Though somewhat unrealistic, I think Cashflow 101 is fun and worth the money as an educational tool. Cashflow 202 sucks and basically teaches unwise investment strategies.