What? A Person with Intelligent Reasons for Voting for Obama!?!

Many mornings I listen to the MJ Morning Show on the radio and for the past couple of days, MJ has had random callers give reasons for why they were voting for the candidate they supported. What shocked me was every Obama supporter that called in did not have a single valid and intelligent reason for voting the way they did. Let me summarize some of the reasons I heard for why Obama was the right choice:

• “I’m tired of the way this country is run and I’m ready for a change. Obama is that change.”
• “I didn’t even look at the candidates, I just voted straight democrat down the ticket.”
• “Now that Obama has been elected, I won’t have to worry about being able to afford gas at the pumps or my groceries.” (Apparently, Obama’s vision of helping those in need means free hand outs for everyone).
• “Bush screwed things up so Obama is going to change this country for the better.”
• Something about how… “Obama represents a change in mindset and how that mindset is going to change the country for the better.”

Through 2 hours of callers, not one had anything more specific to say other than Obama is change (as far as Obama supporters anyway). It sounded as if Obama supporters understood nothing but the catchy campaign slogans pasted everywhere and never once cited a single policy or issue as a reason.

In contrast, far more McCain supporters had solid reasons for voting. The reasons mainly revolved around McCain’s policies towards Iraq and the War on Terror, his ideas concerning the role of the U.S. in foreign affairs, strong opposition to the financial plan Obama presented to “fix” the economy, and strong opposition to the healthcare reform Obama proposed. You can argue whether or not those are important enough reasons, but what you can’t argue is that based on their beliefs, they were reasonably grounded in issues regarding policy and had a decent understanding of how the two candidates differed on those issues. There were some exceptions, some racists, and one crazy woman spouting on about Obama being the anti-christ, but the majority still seemed to know more about the issues than the Obama supporters.

Personally, I found the choice this year tough. First off, I do tend to lean democratic in my views and I definitely have never liked President Bush. I have strongly disagreed with the vast majority of Bush’s policies, but McCain is not a President Bush. As far as republicans are concerned, he’s much more radical and veers away in a lot of respects to what the rest of the party agrees with. I actually liked McCain, as well as Palin, and respected their approach and delivery of their issues. Politics aside, if I were to put my trust in either McCain or Obama as a person, I would trust McCain long before Obama. I don’t really like Obama and I don’t like Biden at all. Due to their associations and political history, I find it hard to trust them. There are a couple issues they seem to flip flop on without holding a solid stance. Furthermore, the financial and healthcare reforms proposed by BOTH candidates worry me. So, why did I vote for Obama if I don’t trust him, don’t really like him, and don’t like his ideas for financial and healthcare reform?

While pulling troops out of Iraq by a time-table may not be the wisest choice, McCain’s views suggesting that the US will always need to have troops in countries to fend off insurgents is too radical and oppressive for me. I believe we should not feed the fires of hate against our country by proving to radical extremists that we are a big country that can do what we want and put our nose in places we don’t belong. We should never have gone to war in Iraq and Obama also believed this. I stand with democrats on pro-choice abortion rights. I strongly oppose the Patriot Act, which McCain fully supports, and agree with Obama’s concern to protect civil liberty without sacrificing the tools for law enforcement to keep us safe. While I would like to see Obama’s policies towards energy strive more towards alternative energies than they do, McCain’s nuclear alternative seems to be a poorer choice long term. I like Obama’s approach to education better as well. But really the main deciding factors were:

• I disagreed with McCain’s approach to foreign affairs and the current conflicts the U.S. is involved in.
• I think Obama has a stronger ability to rally international support and help keep our noses a little cleaner from sticking it in countries where we don’t belong.
• His proposed reforms in education have clearer goals and solid proponents to affect improvement.
• With a democratic majority, Obama has a better chance of getting support from Congress to pass his reforms.
• I find McCain’s willingness to forgo liberty and the ideal of “innocent until proven guilty” in order to find terrorists, as evident in his fervent support of the Patriot Act and comments regarding it, scary and wrong. I could gladly give an entire discussion on the Patriot Act and issues related to it, but that divulges from the topic at hand.

All in all, these strengths were selling points for me and my disagreements with McCain’s policies were simply too important to me. Let’s just hope Obama succeeds in fulfilling his supporter’s high expectations.

WHY OH WHY

I have a confession: I am a So You Think You Can Dance addict. It might be because I'm also addicted to dance. Maybe it's that I'm addicted to artistic movement, or perhaps I'm simply just addicted to music. Regardless of the rhyme or reason, the results of last Thursday's show (which, incidentally, I was finally able to watch tonight) was very disappointing. Not only that, I was utterly shocked at the way America's votes went down and I think the judges were a little shocked too.

For those of you who don't know, the show was down to the final 8 dancers (4 male, 4 female), and all the dancers at this stage of the season are excellent. However, after Wednesday's performances, there were two male dancers that clearly stood out. They had two phenomenal performances each while the other two had inconsistent performances. Will and Twitch have not only been fan favorites from the beginning, but they are amazing dancers who stepped up to the plate and delivered some highly memorable performances. Mark and Joshua (even though I've been increasingly impressed with Joshua's versatility)both had a performance that was not up to par. Based upon both popularity and performance, one would expect either Mark or Joshua to get the least number of votes and be the next male to leave the show, but this did not happen. In fact, not only did neither Mark nor Joshua get the least amount of votes, they both got the MOST votes. That left Twitch and Will as the bottom two dancers...which, completely shocked me. Will is definitely the most technically advanced and the best dancer there, but Twitch has shined time and time again with some of the best performances of the season and a personality to match.

So, before I rant on and on, I'll cut this short and say Will got cut and there's really only one explanation. Pity. So many people must have felt that Will and Twitch would surely make it that they all voted for the underdogs. Of course, this reaction on a large scale yields results opposite the true desires of the people voting. But what is more interesting here is what it implies about Americans who watch the show? Do we root so hard for the underdog that we under-write those that truly deserve the spotlight? Don't get me wrong, all four are amazing dancers that have had some amazing performances that I can't get enough of, but when all is said and done, the truth of the matter is Will has had the most consistent and highest rated run of all the males, without question. Yet, Will wasn't voted for. Even Mark himself was shocked he wasn't one of the bottom two dancers. With Will gone, I think there is going to be a hole that will be hard to fill.

I hope a lesson was learned. Vote for who you truly thinks deserves to win, not who you're afraid isn't getting enough love. I too would have been tempted to vote for Joshua (who I'm secretly rooting for...or I guess not so secretly now), but would have suppressed that urge and vote for who I think had the most amazing performance of the night. For me, that would have been Twitch, so I guess out of the two, I'm glad to see Twitch is still in the competition.

And for those of you who haven't watched any of this show and love dancing...what's wrong with you? There is some amazing dance here. Watching someone like Joshua or Twitch who came on the show with a pretty limited dance background turn around and perform dances exceptionally well in styles completely different from their own is something to marvel at. Do you think you could do the same in such a short period of time?

So You Think You Can Dance, in my opinion, is one of the best reality TV shows out there that pretty much drops the trashy drama that fills so many others. The competitors in this competition may all be competing against one another, but they all respect each other. This show I think also serves to inspire people. The contestants weren't given any special treatment and they weren't picked from some VIP list. They every day people like you and me with a soulful passion for dance. They came from all walks of life and worked hard to end up where they did. Any one of us with the same passion and work could achieve the same feat. And even if you dance for fun and have no desire to be famous, the choreography in these dances is delightful and offer seeds of inspiration for new ways to interpret and express music through dance.

So watch the show. And if you don't have the channel or a TV, download the episodes online. Be inspired.

Expedia is an Underhanded Dirty Enterprise

I've used Expedia many times before and generally it is a fast and easy way to find some of the lowest prices for airline tickets (of course these are usually the worst seats as well). I had saved my flight itinerary over night to check on my plans and came back to buy the tickets. The itinerary saved without a problem and the price was the same. I go to buy the tickets....everything is still good. I put in my billing info and credit card number and hit the purchase button and Expedia screws me. First, I'm using Microsoft passport to log in and passport just randomly gets logged out, taking me to the log in screen at Expedia. I can't remember my username password, so I log back into my hotmail account and reload the previous page. Expedia has now wonderfully jacked up the cost of my flight by $80. Stupid jerks. There's no reason for the price increase except their money scamming time sensitive cookies. Yeah, you got my money this time Expedia, but next time I take my business to Travelocity. Screw You!