To Be Clear...

... and fair. I'm probably not going to vote for the president again. This isn't because he's a Kenyan-born socialist Muslim or any of the other nonsense that the right promotes because they really can't find anything wrong with the guy. I'm not going to vote for him because he's NOT more socialist. The guy ran on a platform of CHANGE but so far what he's been demonstrating is MORE OF THE SAME. One of his early moves that really impressed me, stopping the Bush-era busting of pot clinics in California, where they're legal, has been reversed. He's started using federal agents to override the state's legalization and decriminalization of pot. I'm not a pot smoker, by the way, but see no reason why, if cigarettes and alcohol are legal that pot shouldn't be. I'll probably vote for the libertarian candidate, whose name escapes me at the moment. But, to be fair, i want to take a look at some of the crap that the right is attacking him on.

THE FAKE OUTRAGE OVER THE PRICE OF GAS

First off, this makes me mad because this is the same right-wing who says that the government should have no control over a corporation's ability to make a profit. One of their presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich, even proposed overturning child labor laws! And yet the government should control this one industry? Make up your minds, guys. And it's a myth that we produce enough oil in America to be self-sufficient, by the way. At peak, we're producing about half of the oil in a day that we consume, according to the USGS. The only way that we can be self-sufficient is if we severely restrict our use of oil and gas. Use up and throw away less plastic. Stop using oil in fertilizers. Use less electricity at home. Drive less and in a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Another reason that i think that this is fake is because of gas prices themselves. In 2000, when Bush was elected, gas was between $1 and $2 per gallon, typically around $1.50. In 2004, at reelection time, it was about the same. More like $1.80 per gallon, but still up there. In 2005 and 2006, though, gas rose over $2 per gallon and in 2007 most people were paying more than $3 per gallon. In 2008, the middle of the country was paying over $3 per gallon and the coasts were paying more than $4 per gallon. So during the Bush era, gas more than doubled in price. So where was the outrage from the right at that? Nowhere. For the last four years, gas has pretty much stayed between $3 and $4 per gallon. So what's the problem?

UNEMPLOYMENT

In 2000, the unemployment rate was at 4.4%. This was down from over 7% in 1992 when Clinton took office. This is a drop of almost 4 million unemployed people during the Clinton era. In Bush's first term, unemployment went up to 5.5% and we added about 3 million people to the unemployment rolls. During Bush's second term, unemployment rose steadily until 2009 (the year Obama took office before any of his policies went into place), unemployment rose to 9.3% with over 14 million people unemployed, almost triple what it was in 2004. Between then and now, unemployment has dropped to around 8% and a million people were removed from the rolls. So what's the problem?

STOCK MARKET

In 2000, when Bush took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was around 11000. By 2004, it had dropped to under 11000. By April 2009 (two months after Obama took office, before any of his policies had come into play) it had dropped to under 7000. Between now and then it has steadily risen, breaking 12000 several times. At Friday's closing, the DJIA was over 13000. So what's the problem?

All that i'm saying is that, if you're going to vote against the guy, make sure that you know WHY you're voting against him, and not just buying into the right-wing noise machine.

Peace.

Randal