Saturday, July 4, 2009
Monday, October 29, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Why George W. Bush should serve a third term
“Penguins are a threat to our national security.” -George W. Bush
You may be wondering why I’m writing an essay on why George W. Bush should serve a third term. After all, essays are not very fun to write and George W. Bush (known as GUB from now on) is constitutionally prohibited from making another bid at the White House. There is also a very deep field of candidates running for President (there is also a very deep field of candidates not running for President). However, none of these candidates have ever served in the White House and most of them have high cholesterol or scoliosis.
America is facing serious problems and GUB is the only man and woman qualified to be President. I will list his qualifications later on in my essay, but first I will provide some historical context for the essay reader.
There have been no Presidents in the history of the United States to ever serve more than 2 terms. Many historians have argued that FDR had been elected to 4 terms, but they are horribly mistaken. FDR served his four terms as half a man (since he was handicapped); therefore, he served only 2 terms (4 divided by 2). Also, FDR was constitutionally prohibited from serving more than 2 terms, since constitutional amendments are retroactive.
Now, that I have laid down the historical basis for GUB’s bid for a third term, I will now enumerate his qualifications.
In conclusion, I think Herm Edwards said it best when he said, “You play to win the game.” And that is why George W. Bush should run for a third term.
References:
“My Life” by Bill Clinton
“Playing to win a game” by Herm Edwards
“Monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys: a children’s book” by Laura Bush
“Why Al Gore should run for President” by Rajesh Atluri
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” - a movie
You may be wondering why I’m writing an essay on why George W. Bush should serve a third term. After all, essays are not very fun to write and George W. Bush (known as GUB from now on) is constitutionally prohibited from making another bid at the White House. There is also a very deep field of candidates running for President (there is also a very deep field of candidates not running for President). However, none of these candidates have ever served in the White House and most of them have high cholesterol or scoliosis.
America is facing serious problems and GUB is the only man and woman qualified to be President. I will list his qualifications later on in my essay, but first I will provide some historical context for the essay reader.
There have been no Presidents in the history of the United States to ever serve more than 2 terms. Many historians have argued that FDR had been elected to 4 terms, but they are horribly mistaken. FDR served his four terms as half a man (since he was handicapped); therefore, he served only 2 terms (4 divided by 2). Also, FDR was constitutionally prohibited from serving more than 2 terms, since constitutional amendments are retroactive.
Now, that I have laid down the historical basis for GUB’s bid for a third term, I will now enumerate his qualifications.
- GUB can read.
- GUB is the first President to have an MBA.
- GUB has owned a baseball team that has scored the most runs in a game.
- GUB drives an American car in his spare time.
- GUB is in the running club with Forrest Gump.
- GUB killed the hydra, captured Cerberus, and cleaned the Augean stables.
- GUB has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prize for physics, and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
- GUB has time traveled.
- GUB holds 37 world records.
- GUB has dressed up as Batman for Halloween.
- GUB has acted like a monkey on several occasions, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, but not Halloween.
- GUB ate 17 bananas in a day.
- GUB has made a documentary entitled, “An Inconvenient Monkey.”
In conclusion, I think Herm Edwards said it best when he said, “You play to win the game.” And that is why George W. Bush should run for a third term.
References:
“My Life” by Bill Clinton
“Playing to win a game” by Herm Edwards
“Monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys: a children’s book” by Laura Bush
“Why Al Gore should run for President” by Rajesh Atluri
“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” - a movie
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Why Al Gore should run for President
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” – John Quincy Adams
Go to: http://www.draftgore.com/
You might be wondering why I would write an essay supporting Al Gore running for President in 2008 at this time. There already are a lot of candidates on both sides of the aisle. Why do we need another one?
The short answer has to do with the Nobel committee announcing the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize this Friday. Gore is considered one of the most likely to win obviously for his efforts to make people aware of climate change. One sign that points to Gore winning is the United Nations’ IPCC report, which came out earlier this year, that concludes global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is “very likely” the cause of most of the rise in temperatures since 1950 (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/science/earth/03climate.html ).
(aside) I saw one of the lead authors, Michael Mann, an associate professor at Penn State and director of the university’s Earth System Science Center, speak at my college last week. He presented the data and the simulations that he and his colleagues have been studying. When I saw it with my own eyes, I was astounded. These graphs didn’t lack detail and precision like the graphs in Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” This guy Mann had standard deviation and error analysis for his figures, and it was unbelievable how the increase in greenhouse gases output by human activity has been followed by temperature increases, accelerated melting of ice caps, and more unpredictable climate changes. If you still don’t believe in global warming, check out the website Mann cofounded, http://www.realclimate.org/
Getting back to Gore… Think about what his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize means. The INTERNATIONAL community thinks he is fighting for a better world. Meanwhile, our current President considers the war in Iraq as a vehicle of peace in the Middle East and can’t even get our closest allies (i.e. Britain) to keep their troops in Iraq. Maybe the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a big deal to you. I mean, who cares what a bunch of Swedes think is noteworthy. Well, consider this: if Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize, he will receive the same honor that Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King received. Now, I’m not saying that Gore is equal to any one of those great human beings, but notice that they all had a cause they championed with all their energy. Gore has his cause too, and he has shown a steadfast dedication to it.
Al Gore is not just another candidate. In my opinion, he is the candidate that America needs now. Gore was one of the first critics of invading Iraq, and he has clearly voiced his disagreement with the Bush administration’s infringement of the Constitution. He is not just the guy who “lost” the 2000 election and wants everyone to buy hybrid cars. In case you forget (or didn’t know), Al Gore served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977-85) and the Senate (1985-93) and served as Vice President under Bill Clinton (1993-2001). He’s been in power in the federal government so long he makes the leading Democratic candidates (Clinton and Obama) look like rookies. He knows Washington inside and out. More importantly, he has tackled the underlying problems of our modern democracy in his 2007 book “The Assault on Reason.” Unlike the presidential candidates, he wrote the book, not to get elected (he’s not even running at this point), but to genuinely discuss America’s problems. If that doesn’t show how much Al Gore cares about his country, then I don’t know what does.
With all these things going for him, you might ask why he doesn’t just run. The truth is losing the 2000 election was a big blow for Al Gore (not to mention American democracy). He did everything he could to win one of the closest elections in history (even though thousands of Florida voters were disenfranchised), and in the end, the Supreme Court voted Bush into the presidency in a blatantly partisan decision that had no Constitutional justification. It hasn’t been easy for Al Gore to be a leader since then, but now he has become one of the world’s leading advocates of combating global warming. I don’t criticize Gore for delaying his decision to run in 2008 because, as a wise man (Bob Dylan) once said: “don’t criticize what you can’t understand.”
Imagine how different the world would be if Gore had won the 2000 election, if the Republican machine in Florida had not cheated the people. Imagine how different the War on Terror would have played out. We wouldn’t be in Iraq, losing thousands of American lives and wasting billions of dollars. We would not be torturing enemy combatants and violating the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. We would have responded swiftly to Katrina. We might have actually taken action on global warming.
Finally, I want to compare Gore to some of the major presidential candidates in order to show how original Gore is. Gore has not been a flip-flop and does not pretend to have values like Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani acts like he is such a hero of 9/11; just search “giuliani firefighters” on YouTube, and you’ll see what a dark prince Giuliani is. Gore values family. Gore could have run for President in 1992 (he ran in 1988) but stayed by his son’s bedside as he recovered from a 1989 car accident. In contrast, Giuliani had a mistress as Mayor of New York and thus showed little care for the children he had with his wife at the time.
Now, I don’t have anything against Barack Obama. He’s a great candidate, but he is not a statesman like Gore. Obama claims that he can change the corrupt system in Washington. But how much experience does he have to be making such bold statements? Gore has championed the issue that has become synonymous with his name for decades. Obama has been talking about important issues since he has been campaigning for public office. Lately, Obama has fallen behind Clinton in fundraising—a good indication of the limits of his support. Gore, on the other hand, has an entire grassroots movement behind him.
Gore is NOT AN OPPORTUNIST like Hillary Clinton: he has not changed positions on issues just to win more support. Gore has been a vocal supporter of the environment for a long time. While his son was recovering, he wrote “Earth in the Balance,” his book on environmental conservation. F.Y.I., “Earth in the Balance” was the first book written by a sitting Senator to make The New York Times bestseller list since J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage.” Unlike “Lobbyists-represent-real-Americans” Clinton, Al Gore has been outside of Washington for over 5 years. He has been talking to real Americans, giving his slideshow across the country. He has a personality, unlike Clinton, and can be pretty witty as seen in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Even this late in the game, Gore can compete with the top Presidential candidates. I mean, have any of them been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? He knows how to fundraise (as demonstrated in 2000) and can get tremendous support from environmental organizations and groups like MoveOn.org. There’s an entire grassroots movement in the hundreds of thousands to encourage Gore to run for President in 2008. For you pro-business voters out there, Gore has been on Apple’s Board of Directors and served as special advisor to Google (it’s kinda funny since “Gore invented the Internet”). As I suggested earlier, he is highly regarded in the international community. Although he has been out of Washington for years (which might be a good thing), he is still politically savvy and can be an effective leader of this great nation. I believe Al Gore is the one man who can get the United States back on course. If you do too, go to http://www.draftgore.com/ or join the Facebook group Gore 2008.
Go to: http://www.draftgore.com/
You might be wondering why I would write an essay supporting Al Gore running for President in 2008 at this time. There already are a lot of candidates on both sides of the aisle. Why do we need another one?
The short answer has to do with the Nobel committee announcing the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize this Friday. Gore is considered one of the most likely to win obviously for his efforts to make people aware of climate change. One sign that points to Gore winning is the United Nations’ IPCC report, which came out earlier this year, that concludes global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is “very likely” the cause of most of the rise in temperatures since 1950 (see: http://www.nytimes.com/200
(aside) I saw one of the lead authors, Michael Mann, an associate professor at Penn State and director of the university’s Earth System Science Center, speak at my college last week. He presented the data and the simulations that he and his colleagues have been studying. When I saw it with my own eyes, I was astounded. These graphs didn’t lack detail and precision like the graphs in Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” This guy Mann had standard deviation and error analysis for his figures, and it was unbelievable how the increase in greenhouse gases output by human activity has been followed by temperature increases, accelerated melting of ice caps, and more unpredictable climate changes. If you still don’t believe in global warming, check out the website Mann cofounded, http://www.realclimate.org
Getting back to Gore… Think about what his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize means. The INTERNATIONAL community thinks he is fighting for a better world. Meanwhile, our current President considers the war in Iraq as a vehicle of peace in the Middle East and can’t even get our closest allies (i.e. Britain) to keep their troops in Iraq. Maybe the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t a big deal to you. I mean, who cares what a bunch of Swedes think is noteworthy. Well, consider this: if Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize, he will receive the same honor that Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King received. Now, I’m not saying that Gore is equal to any one of those great human beings, but notice that they all had a cause they championed with all their energy. Gore has his cause too, and he has shown a steadfast dedication to it.
Al Gore is not just another candidate. In my opinion, he is the candidate that America needs now. Gore was one of the first critics of invading Iraq, and he has clearly voiced his disagreement with the Bush administration’s infringement of the Constitution. He is not just the guy who “lost” the 2000 election and wants everyone to buy hybrid cars. In case you forget (or didn’t know), Al Gore served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977-85) and the Senate (1985-93) and served as Vice President under Bill Clinton (1993-2001). He’s been in power in the federal government so long he makes the leading Democratic candidates (Clinton and Obama) look like rookies. He knows Washington inside and out. More importantly, he has tackled the underlying problems of our modern democracy in his 2007 book “The Assault on Reason.” Unlike the presidential candidates, he wrote the book, not to get elected (he’s not even running at this point), but to genuinely discuss America’s problems. If that doesn’t show how much Al Gore cares about his country, then I don’t know what does.
With all these things going for him, you might ask why he doesn’t just run. The truth is losing the 2000 election was a big blow for Al Gore (not to mention American democracy). He did everything he could to win one of the closest elections in history (even though thousands of Florida voters were disenfranchised), and in the end, the Supreme Court voted Bush into the presidency in a blatantly partisan decision that had no Constitutional justification. It hasn’t been easy for Al Gore to be a leader since then, but now he has become one of the world’s leading advocates of combating global warming. I don’t criticize Gore for delaying his decision to run in 2008 because, as a wise man (Bob Dylan) once said: “don’t criticize what you can’t understand.”
Imagine how different the world would be if Gore had won the 2000 election, if the Republican machine in Florida had not cheated the people. Imagine how different the War on Terror would have played out. We wouldn’t be in Iraq, losing thousands of American lives and wasting billions of dollars. We would not be torturing enemy combatants and violating the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. We would have responded swiftly to Katrina. We might have actually taken action on global warming.
Finally, I want to compare Gore to some of the major presidential candidates in order to show how original Gore is. Gore has not been a flip-flop and does not pretend to have values like Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani acts like he is such a hero of 9/11; just search “giuliani firefighters” on YouTube, and you’ll see what a dark prince Giuliani is. Gore values family. Gore could have run for President in 1992 (he ran in 1988) but stayed by his son’s bedside as he recovered from a 1989 car accident. In contrast, Giuliani had a mistress as Mayor of New York and thus showed little care for the children he had with his wife at the time.
Now, I don’t have anything against Barack Obama. He’s a great candidate, but he is not a statesman like Gore. Obama claims that he can change the corrupt system in Washington. But how much experience does he have to be making such bold statements? Gore has championed the issue that has become synonymous with his name for decades. Obama has been talking about important issues since he has been campaigning for public office. Lately, Obama has fallen behind Clinton in fundraising—a good indication of the limits of his support. Gore, on the other hand, has an entire grassroots movement behind him.
Gore is NOT AN OPPORTUNIST like Hillary Clinton: he has not changed positions on issues just to win more support. Gore has been a vocal supporter of the environment for a long time. While his son was recovering, he wrote “Earth in the Balance,” his book on environmental conservation. F.Y.I., “Earth in the Balance” was the first book written by a sitting Senator to make The New York Times bestseller list since J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage.” Unlike “Lobbyists-represent-real-
Even this late in the game, Gore can compete with the top Presidential candidates. I mean, have any of them been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? He knows how to fundraise (as demonstrated in 2000) and can get tremendous support from environmental organizations and groups like MoveOn.org. There’s an entire grassroots movement in the hundreds of thousands to encourage Gore to run for President in 2008. For you pro-business voters out there, Gore has been on Apple’s Board of Directors and served as special advisor to Google (it’s kinda funny since “Gore invented the Internet”). As I suggested earlier, he is highly regarded in the international community. Although he has been out of Washington for years (which might be a good thing), he is still politically savvy and can be an effective leader of this great nation. I believe Al Gore is the one man who can get the United States back on course. If you do too, go to http://www.draftgore.com/ or join the Facebook group Gore 2008.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Quote of the Day 10/9/07
"Chien-Ming Wang is a disgrace" -Taiwan
Stat of the Day: Chien-Ming Wang in the ALDS
Games Started: 2
W-L: 0-2
IP: 5 2/3
H: 14
ER: 12
BB: 4
SO: 2
The following is a picture of the disgraced Chien-Ming Wang:
Stat of the Day: Chien-Ming Wang in the ALDS
Games Started: 2
W-L: 0-2
IP: 5 2/3
H: 14
ER: 12
BB: 4
SO: 2
The following is a picture of the disgraced Chien-Ming Wang:
Monday, October 8, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)