Smithtown Budget Vote '08

As an aside, SmithtownRadio.com will be covering Tuesday night's budget vote for the Smithtown Central School District live.

Juniors James Brierton and Amanda Boitano will kick-off coverage at 9 p.m. ET from the SmithtownRadio.com Election Center. Junior Dean Laurence will be reporting live from Election Headquarters at the New York Ave. school administration building. Junior Megan Russ will also be contributing. Mr. Brannigan will be acting as facility advisor to the night's coverage.

Listeners are invited to participate in our coverage by commenting here on the blog! Your responds may even be read on-air!

Can We Please Draw Attention to How Old John McCain is?

I'm not trying to discriminate against Sen. McCain because he's old, at least not in the same way that people would discriminate against Hillary because she's a woman and Obama because he's African American. I can find no discernible reason for which being a woman or being African American would negatively effect either of their abilities to be competent presidents, but there are reasons why an elderly person would be less capable: generally, elderly people have less stamina and an increased risk for fatal diseases and death, which would put more importance in the vice president, and would make McCain's running mate choice essential. In addition, McCain's age could make him less able to connect with the younger voters, and, if he were to be elected, he would have a particularly challenging time connecting with them because they are the ones that probably voted Obama, and the young people probably wouldn't be too thrilled with McCain.

John McCain is 71 years old, and if he were to be elected, he would be older than Ronald Reagan was when he took office. While some people see Reagan as one of the most successful presidents of our time, it is important to note that Reagan was fond of naps, evidence of decreased stamina. Also interesting to note is the fact that John McCain is older than both of Barack Obama's parents. Although both people are deceased, both were born after 1936, which was when McCain was born.

Also, am I the only one who finds it weird that his first child was born in 1960 and his last child was born in 1991? Her father is older than my grandmother.

Some other things that John McCain is older than are: bar codes, saran wrap, frisbees, napalm, and Disney's Pinocchio.

Just In: Edwards to Endore Obama

CNN is reporting that former Senator and former Presidential Candidate John Edwards is endorsing Sen. Obama.

Its a good thing Obama doesn't have a lot of hair - otherwise Edwards may go all $400-haircut on him!

Ques. for the Dems

CNN has been utilizing its CNN i-Reporters recently during interviews with Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton on "The Situation Room" with the Wolf-man. In hope of stirring up some discussion between our political gurus, and our readers, I've included questions that myself, and The Matador's Co-Editor-in-Chief Kevin Perry, sent into CNN. If you have an answer to these questions, or have your own question you would like the candidates to answer, send us a comment now!

Why Does Hillary Keep Yelling At Me?

After the recent primaries I have come to the decision -- I will vote for Hillary if she just promises to stop yelling. Her 'victory' speech in Indiana revealed a Hillary not only grasping at straws in her never-say-never quest for power, but a Hillary in desperate need of a lozenge.

One solution -- stop yelling so much. Hillary seems unaware that microphones will do the job they were created to do -- amplify your voice to the masses -- if you'd just let them. However, Hillary seems to want to do everything herself. No help. No advice. No nothing. She runs her own campaign ignoring all advice to drop out. She challenges Obama to debates that haven't been written by her speech writers. Rumor is she even makes her own photocopies.

It's no surprise her voice is horse -- in this presidential horse race. Unlike the Kentucky Derby, we're not going to get to put her down. (They Shoot Candidates, Don't They?) Her strident tones, and screeching vocals have rendered me polarized and weary.

In an attempt to avoid Hillary from shouting at me through the radio, television and print -- I agree that I will vote for her... if she'd just shut up. A small price to pay for a little auditory peace.

Iron Man -- Fanboy Eye Candy or Political Allegory?

As far as superhero movies go -- I have an intense love/hate relationship with them. Inevitably the casting is all wrong, the mythology has been bastardized, there's never enough of the costumed hero and the movie just drags on far too long under the weight of clunky dialogue and over zealous CGI. That having been said, I still yearn to see them in hopes the movie gets some element right. Iron Man comes closer than most recent efforts to actually firing on all rockets.

The story of weapons titan Tony Stark, played with impeccable timing and nuance by Robert Downey jr, who winds up being gravely wounded by his own invention is as straightforward in its man versus machine conflict as they come. Stark is rescued by the very Afghan terrorists who assaulted him, forced to make a weapon of mass destruction. Instead of complying Stark secretly constructs a super suit echoing the knights of the crusades and blasts his way to freedom, vowing to destroy the very weapon stockpiles he has created.

Eye candy for 30-something fanboys still living in their mom's basement? Plenty of it fellas -- come get. Cool flight and fight scenes, awesome technology, hot babes dancing suggestively, plus the red and gold suit with enough tricked out gear to take out years of pent up aggression on the playground bullies all here for you.

But the notion of this movie having a strong undercurrent of political allegory is as nagging as that glowing donut-sized power generator implanted in Stark's chest. Is America's over reaching quest of global democracy for all catching up with us? Liberal Hollywood notwithstanding, you can't help but feel that there's more to the stories of our troops being fired upon with the very weapons American military companies have sold and by the very people our own soldiers have trained.

Tony Stark's wounding caused a change of heart, no pun intended, yet what will it take for America to realize that political freedom doesn't have to be as costly as we make it out to be. To quote another superhero franchise 'with great power comes great responsibility.'

To that end, the responsibility to our nation's people and for the future generations to come has been shirked on an all too regular basis. From the fabricated motivations to wage war in the middle east, to the devastatingly inept recovery efforts in New Orleans, to the blind acceptance of recent genocide in the cradle of civilization our responsibility to leave this world better than how we found it has been brushed off by America's leaders.

Perhaps the moral here is that even though as a country we can suit up as Iron Man to deflect the verbal, and physical, slings and arrows of our allies and enemies -- underneath the armor beats an all too human heart which wants to do what is right despite opposition. That's what makes a true hero.

McCain and Clinton Have Gas

As I combed my RSS feeds for the latest political thriller to come out of Washington this week I came across a very interesting proposal. One that is (very surprisingly) supported by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton. While I applaud this bipartisan unity, I quickly realized that their proposed Gas Tax Holiday (suspending the 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax over the summer) is possibly the stupidest idea to come from the candidates this season. Not only is it counter productive, but it actually aids the very terrorists we are supposedly fighting.

First off, this cannot even be remotely considered an energy policy! Now, lets not forget we still need to pay for that oil in the first place. How are we gonna do that? Wait a minute! We could always borrow money from China. (heck we're already doing it to fund our nation) So we borrow money from China, ship it to the middle east, get some black gold and take a cut of it for ourselves as it gets pumped into your shiny new car. This is the gas policy the way it is now, we maximize our demand, minimize our supply and buy from the very people who want to kill us. True American ingenuity!

Lets look at the bigger picture for a minute. This gas tax funds things in our nation and without that handy 18.4 cents a gallon, where are we going to get the money to make up the loss? My main pant-suit clad woman, Hillary Clinton, suggests that we tax big oil companies. Even if we did somehow tax these big oil companies that is a horrible waste. We waste tax dollars on gassing up Hummers rather than spending it on alternative energy research.

Now both Clinton and McCain claim to be environmentally friendly, but I can't think of a worse plan than this garbage. They want to lower the cost of driving during the summer when gas is at the highest demand. This plan essentially reduces the price of producing greenhouse gasses and it's even worse economically. By reducing the price of gas it encourages more driving which increases the demand for gasoline which inevitably pushes the price back up. The American people gain nothing while OPEC and the oil companies collect the extra money.

Even with all the environmental problems this plan will probably not make a difference to anyone. This remarkable 18.4 cents is just pocket change and most economists agree that it won't do anything to help people in the short term. This savings is also banking on the fact that gas stations will cut their prices after the Tax Holiday goes into effect. I'm sure that will happen because we all know how much oil companies love not making extra money. More likely than not gas stations will just continue charging what they are charging.

This is not only about McCain and Clinton's ludicrous Gas Tax Holiday, it's about our energy policy as a whole. Now, as I understand it we usually try to make policies based around things we want to happen. One instance would be raising taxes on things we want to discourage while lowering taxes on things we want to encourage. It seems we are doing just the opposite by lowering the gas tax and providing essentially no support for alternative energy. Now I do realize that 99% of people have gas powered vehicles and that isn't going to change by this summer, but I'm thinking long term here. As of now congress has failed to renew the solar energy and wind energy tax credits which are set to expire in December. Ironically, gas and oil have kept all their tax credits. Way to go congress! Haven't our government officials seen An Inconvenient Truth or Planet In Peril? (I know sometimes it can be as fun as listening to Bea Arthur lecture about Mongol traditions for 3 hours, but c'mon congress this is serious business!!) We are raping our planet while old men squabble over pennies in Washington. I must give credit to the Democrats though, they wanted to fund solar and wind projects by taking away incentives from oil and gas. But as expected, our fearless leader George W. Bush whipped out his veto stamp. (as he usually does with plans that make sense)

Our energy policy (or lack of one) is not only hurting our environment it is also hurting our domestic economy. Alternative energy companies provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans. If we let their tax credits expire and do nothing to help them we are likely to see jobs lost and sent overseas. America used to be the alternative energy leader, now almost every other industrialized nation has far more ambitious energy programs than us causing companies to send jobs overseas.

While I may have gone on a bit of a tangent from my original focus this is all truly interconnected. The pointless and irresponsible Gas Tax Holiday just amplifies the energy problem in our nation. Our leaders need a wake up call that if we don't take serious action now, we will forever pay for it. We are on the verge of a huge crisis not only with global warming, but also with our dwindling oil reserves and falling dollar. I only hope that one of our leaders in Washington has a transcendent moment and starts a chain reaction of cutting through the standard political B.S. in order to get things done.

On a final and somewhat unrelated note I want to address a minor point brought up in a previous post "Being Politically Aware Never Looked So Cool." I completely agree that the media in the country is horrific. Almost all important major issues are overlooked in favor of stupid and trivial pieces. While I do blame the media, they are not the sole receiver of my wrath. The American people are in part to blame. We look at TV and think there is sort of a conspiracy to dumb us all down, but that could not be farther from the truth. The TV networks are in business to give people exactly what they want, which is a far more depressing reality. A lot of people in America probably do care more about Miley Cyrus' shoulder than global warming and the oil crisis and that is truly sad. I could go on and rant about the media and the state of our society for another 4 pages, but I'll leave that for another day. I just wanted to add my schooner to the canal of ideas. (what a horrible metaphor)

As Confucius once said, "Mind Your Gas"

-Dean

Grocery Bills - Taking a BITE out of Your Wallet!

America is once again poised to stumble into another revolution. Industrial Revolution be damned. JP Morgan, Big Steel, the Conveyor Belt? Damn them too. And Damn Willy Nelson while you're at it.

We need agriculture and we need it now! Bio-fuels may be the big buzz word, but the reality is countries that export the basic necessities of our diet are hoarding the supply for their own people.

The price of wheat, rice, grains and other staples that make up the food pyramid are through the roof. Perhaps if American farmers hadn't been encouraged to plow under their fields, then our plight wouldn't be so dire. Of course Willy Nelson, Neil Young and John Melloncamp may not have had such lengthy careers singing about the travails of our nations plow-men --- but damn it, $15.00 for a pizza pie because the price of flour has gone up?!?

Short-term solution? Capitalize on the crops America grows and grows really well. And fast. Of course that would be marijuana -- which trips us into the whole legalization thing -- which leads us back to Willy Nelson. That crazed old C&W star riding around the country in his jellybean fuled tour bus, wearing hemp jeans and warbling about something sad.

One consolation is we could all relax after huffing America's produce - which would help us forget we're slowly starving to death - which would be heightened by the munchies.

Skip it. Let's just make more Chia-pets. It's a different kind of grass -- but they are cute to look at. Even the Chia-Willy Nelson one.

Being Politically Aware Never Looked So Cool!

In the wake of this whole Obama-Wright "scandal", it looks like the media is doing that clever thing where they try to distract the American people from the most pressing issues (a possible recession, a war, not being able to afford anything, the fact that the Democratic convention is a month away and the election is 6 months away and the Democratic party is still devouring itself), and I have to say that it's working. Not only has the media jumped on the anti-Wright bandwagon (perhaps rightfully so), but now the news is filled with images of Miley Cyrus's scandalously bare shoulder and other news of that nature that are mainly human interest stories instead of things that are actually significant. So I'm going to try to bring some dignity back to the media by discussing something of relevance right now: Super Delegates! Let's discuss the process.

While the name may lead you to believe that these special representatives lead normal lives by day but then reveal a spandex costume to fight crime by night, they are in fact delegates in the Democratic party with more sway than normally elected delegates. They are high-ranking Democratic officials (like governors, so Eliot "Spend Time with My Family" Spitzer used to be one) and there are around 800 of them to be won. Basically, their alignment with a candidate isn't chosen during the primaries (like pledged delegates) and they can choose whoever they want to support at the convention, making their official name "unpledged delegates". Unlike pledged delegates, they are not chosen in an approximate ratio to the percentage of votes that each candidate received in a primary or caucus.

So why is this important?

Well, it shows that current delegate counts for Obaminator and HilRod aren't completely accurate because either of them could potentially have as many as 794 more than the primary results are showing, which makes this race endlessly exciting (Who's winning? Who knows?). Also, when a government position changes hands, like from Eliot Spitzer to current NY Governor Paterson, that delegate alignment and therefore vote changes hands and that could impact the candidate chosen.

Now you are an expert at Super Delegates and can impress all your high brow friends at cocktail parties. Cheerio!