Just My Opinion A Bad Day . . . Just My Opinion | A Bad Day . . . Just My Opinion |
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| Ron Walton | |
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And a bad day was had by all. The news on Monday could not have been much worse as it provided an exclamation point for a tough weekend:
o Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas coast and its trail of destruction was cause for at least 27 deaths. o In Iraq, 3 separate bombings overshadowed a change in command of American Forces as General David Petraeus gave way to General Ray Odierno. Two car bombs went off in Baghdad killing 12 and in Balad Ruz, a female suicide bomber killed 22. A car bomb on Friday in Dujail killed at least 30 people. The U.S. Military is blaming al Qaeda for three of the bombings. o Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy following Bank of America and Barclays pulling out of a possible acquisition of the firm. o Hewlett Packard announced it will be laying off more than 24,000 workers in the next 3 years. o Even though oil prices dropped to $95.71 a barrel and news reports stated that Hurricane Ike did less damage than originally thought to the oil rigs and refineries, gasoline prices continue to surge and many locations are reporting they are out of gasoline and not sure when they will have more. o Wall Street tanked on Monday, with the Dow losing more than 504 points, the worst loss since 9/11. o The Republicans and Democrats used all of these events to hype their cause. Politics. I am on many of the email lists for both the Republican and Democratic parties. If you aren't, consider yourself lucky. My email box was full today of the Obama and McCain campaigns firing shots at the other with regard to the economy. McCain made a tremendous mistake when he announced the 'backbone' of the U.S. economy was 'fundamentally sound.' The comment and responses from the Obama campaign made most of the network news and is on blogs everywhere. While McCain attempted to explain his comments later in the day, very few were listening. Great damage was done to the McCain campaign and with people becoming more worried about the economy than they are about national security, Iraq, etc. - it should give Obama a bit of a 'spike' in the polls. The simple fact is that unless McCain can get the upper hand with regard to the economy or the economy miraculously cures itself before the election or the new generation of young voters forgets to vote, Bill Clinton will be right. Obama will win handily. I am a liberal and a Democrat, but Obama is too liberal for me and still has a lot of questions he has not answered to my satisfaction. But, that is where it ends for me with regard to the candidate. I find myself completely taken aback at the posts I have seen on many national and local websites. Sites that supposedly have 'family values' and are a large part of the conservative movements have negative posts about Obama that are not only racist, but downright menacing. One local site I recently went to had a post from an individual who actually tied Obama to the anti-Christ. Reading things like this make me understand why Michelle Obama said this is a 'mean country.' I consider myself to be a spiritual person who believes in God and tries to wake up everyday thinking the best of people and the environment around me. But, I have to tell you - I am at my wit's end at these so called Christians who talk the talk with fear and anger. I'm tired of Christians who believe that just because I am a Democrat, I am an anti God. And I am tired of the 'Christian movement' saying I have to walk and talk the Republican platform . . . I don't walk either platform 100%. We have big issues in this country and this sort of 'hate' and 'racism' will not heal nor will it solve the problems we are facing. So, what are the real issues? Actually, all of the issues are connected like 'connect the dots' - the economy. McCain was wrong - fundamentally, we are in trouble. Not so much in the system, but the things that are putting a drag on the system. Bad home loans, a broken health care system, the energy crisis, the war in Iraq along with the other demands around the world that tug on our military and a global economy where we are losing to countries such as China. Each of these issues has a bundle of sub-issues and frankly, neither Obama nor McCain can solve the problem. It's going to take cooperation with Congress and a 'buy-in' from the American people. I don't care that Sarah Palin has 5 children and hunts Moose, I want to know what she is SPECIFICALLY going to support to solve the energy crisis. And I don't want to hear 'drill more,' especially from someone from a state that stands to profit greatly from more drilling. I want to know how we are going to diversify to natural gas and other forms of energy, and I want to know SPECIFICALLY how we can cut back our energy needs. That is what I want to know. I don't care that Obama went to Harvard or if he even graduated from a college. I want to know SPECIFICALLY how he intends to solve the health care crisis. 47 million Americans do not have health insurance. But, this figure is somewhat misleading as health insurance has become a parallel to our welfare issues of the past. Frankly, we are paying for the health costs of people who could have a job that provided health insurance, but they are unwilling to take responsibility. For example, I know of a building contractor who was tossed off of a job and could have taken employment that offered some form of health insurance. But he didn't. He goes to the free clinic, and his wife sits at home complaining that Carilion would have the 'gall' to go after people who don't pay their bills. Doctors and other organizations preach eating right, don't smoke, exercise, etc. But, we don't listen. I smoked for over 25 years, the last few years smoking up to 5 packs a day. I am paying the price of not listening - I am having a heart procedure this week. I'll be on a surgery table for 5+ hours in a room filled with a ton of people who cost a lot of money, just because I led a pretty wide open lifestyle for a lot of years. But I will brag a bit . . . at the height of my smoking (5 packs a day) I quit in one day with no aids whatsoever. Proof of what one good minister and a prayer can do - and it even worked on a Democrat. I don't care that McCain was a prisoner of war for 5 years - it does show me that he is a person of great character and has given a lot to this country. However, I want to know SPECIFICALLY what he is going to do to keep the war in Iraq from being a continual drag on our economy. It goes beyond whether we should be there or not. It is a simple "how do we keep affording it" that I want to know. We all agree we cannot keep 'going it alone' all over the world in the effort to promote democracy to every corner of the world. I want 'SPECIFICS' and we are not getting them - from either candidate. Why? Because the American people don't want the truth, we all want to know that our cause will be heard and acted on. We are not ready to hear that we all need to make some adjustments in our life, even the righteous conservatives. I don't want to hear that I don't really need a big diesel F-350 truck. I don't want to hear that I need to rethink keeping a big house at a comfortable 70 degrees all day and night. We don't want to hear these things, so the candidates don't tell us and they don't act when we elect them. We've seen the real issue and the issue is us. That is the issue the candidates and this nation needs to start from. The Hokies. Hey, they won! How about some of you folks coming down from the everyday complaints of the play calling. Simple fact - your receiving corps is catching touchdowns for the Broncos now. The game plans right now cannot count on a high performance from the receivers. Not yet. However, you do have a right to complain a little as to what happened to the recruiting to leave the team with this huge gap in talent at the receiver position. We Need Another Sports Radio Station. Not. We now have 3. The recent change of 101.7FM to all sports and the addition of 94.1FM to the 1430AM ESPN Radio affiliate now gives us three sports stations. I don't think New York has 3 sports stations. Simple fact is this: 101.7FM made the move to FM first, other than Mike and Mike they have the better programming such as Rick Watson, and their signal doesn't suck. It's like making a golf bet where you are beat before you get to the 1st tee . . . the match is done. Adding the FM (a low power translator) to the local ESPN affiliate is not going to help. Stick a fork in them. We need another local sports website. Not. I can't count that high. There is nrvsports.com who made their mark covering local High School and Rec sports, there's a new deal called 'gamedaynrv.com,' there are new sites coming (from 101.7FM we hear) and dozens covering Hokie sports. Who wins?? . . . nrvsports.com will get it right and focus on local sports leaving Hokie sports to the other 10,000 websites that cover the Hokies, and do a good job of covering the Hokies. But what do I know, we're out of the sports business. Oh . . . . . . and let's pray for a better week. Since God doesn't listen to us Democrats, we're counting on the Republicans for that.
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Comments (4)
  written by a sports guy, September 17, 2008
You can never have too many sports shows... How about that? Hey we have little Timmy here with us... Hey heres a little boy... how old are you son and whats your name? Timmy: "I'm Timmy... I'm 8." hey Timmy, are the Hokies going to win today? Timmy: "yes". OK how big are they going to win? Timmy: "120 to 3." Wow. How about that?
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 written by Tony Allevato, September 17, 2008
Oops, I think I forgot the WaPo link in my last post. Here it is: http://voices.washingtonpost.c...omy_i.html
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written by Tony Allevato, September 17, 2008
Good piece, Ron. A lot more thought out than a lot of the other political "discourse" out there.
I would both agree and disagree on the part about not getting specifics from the candidates, though. If anyone is playing a negative role in that, it's the so-called "mainstream media" who don't have an attention span longer than 15 seconds, so when the candidates *do* campaign at local events and talk about issues, it doesn't get any real airtime because they're too busy debating phony outrage over lipstick and pigs. When candidates like Obama talk in higher-level rhetoric, people praise the passion but ask "where are the specifics?" When Obama made a more policy-laden speech a couple days ago, Chris Matthews whined "terrible, where's the passion?" Fantastic. This piece from WaPo shows exactly what the two campaigns think about the American people and the situation we're in economically. The transcripts tell it all -- Obama's ad is 2 minutes and lays down a handful of specific ideas for what he plans to do; McCain's is 30 seconds and essentially says "Hey American workers, you guys are great, but my opponent sucks, so believe me I'm gonna fix things." Sadly McCain's ad will probably be a hit because it strokes the average American's fragile ego, throws out the "tax and spend" cliche, and is short enough for them to be able to keep paying attention. report abuse
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 written by Opinion Fan, September 16, 2008
Comphehensive info, with just a touch of personal ideas...all good, especially about Presidential candidates: what's their real plans (for health care, for instance). No one has the 'perfect' answer, but a good proposal is essential. Enough rhetoric from them. Thanks
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