ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Tyler, are you baiting me?

If you've forgotten how many houses you own, then yes.

The real question should be: How many buildings has Bill Ayers blown up? Obama is making a big deal out of how many houses McCain and his wife owns, where's the criticism of John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi or Howard Dean and the amount of money that they have? The properties are investment properties anyway and owned by his wife. He was probably embarrassed to talk about it because his wife has all the money.

I'm actually more bothered by the fact that the man can't use a computer.

You can rationalize it all you want, Brian, but the narrative is out there:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-21-mccain-homes_N.htm
McCain, who has portrayed Obama as an elitist, is the son and grandson of admirals. The Associated Press estimates his wife, a beer heiress, is worth $100 million. Obama was raised by a single mother who relied at times on food stamps, and went to top schools on scholarships and loans. His income has increased from book sales since he spoke at the 2004 Democratic convention.

Did anyone see the I.O.U.S.A. documentary at the Century 16 on Thursday? I must be completely out of the loop and living in a cave, because I didn't even know this was coming.

Here's the link to the article in The Star:
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/23/iousa_premier/

(I read in one of the comments at The Star that the Cato Institute was involved. Not a high-five for credibility as far as I'm concerned.)

There is no correlation between personal wealth (or the lack of it) and public virtue.

I'm with you Tanya. The man is looking to be the leader of the free world in 2008 and he doesn't know how to use a computer “I am an illiterate who has to rely on my wife for all the assistance I can get.” That scares the crap out of me.

Yeh, if Obama gets into trouble he can just google "crisis with Russia"

Yeah, and if McCain gets into trouble he can ask his wife how to use "the google."

Dear Jeff -

But there is a correlation between being out of touch (10-odd houses, $260,000 annual household staff budget, and beliefs that anything below $5 million a year is middle class, economic problems are "psychological") and understanding the problems that Americans are facing.

McCain has repeatedly demonstrated his disconnect from the situation on the ground, while Obama is delivering an increasingly populist message supported by middle class tax breaks, energy rebates and in general, a strong understanding of the struggle many Americans find themselves in.

From a political standpoint, McCain completely undermined his entire campaign's message of attempting to portray Obama as elitist, when the converse is the reality.

So many families pulling their kids out at Ojai Valley School. Looks like the secret that it's a big con game run by unqualified "teachers"and janitors who get their kids a free education has leaked out. Parents beware.

Looks like the secret that it's a big con game run by unqualified "teachers"and janitors who get their kids a free education has leaked out.

You're the same person who's ranting about body bags, the Queen of England, concentration camps, and fluoride over at the OVN blog, aren't you?

oh, david stop sounding like a pantie-waste! you're better than that!!

Obama's version of America is a redistribution of wealth, with windmills and solar panels that are suppose to cover our energy needs, and a womb to the tomb nanny state that cares for our every need.

Brian, I would bet that beer that Obama's tax plan works out better for you than McCain's...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html

And "womb to the tomb nanny state"? You think that really resonates with anyone but the Hannity/O'Reilly wing of the GOP? Go ahead, make privatization of social security your key issue.
http://www.google.com/search?q=womb+to+the+tomb+nanny+state&ie=UTF-8

CNN is reporting as a confirmed fact that Biden is Obama's pick for VP.

Hey man, I signed up for the Obama text message announcement and now I'm hearing that they're reporting that Biden is the VP pick, what a rip off !! I spent a $100.00 for nothing?

You are right, Brian, it is interesting how this got leaked ahead of time.... a story in its own right...

after all that talk of Obama's campaign being so tight-lipped and leak-proof!

Obama/Biden looks pretty good right now and may be just the ticket to get Barack over the top. But the day will come, maybe a couple years down the road, when he may live to regret this choice. Something will come up in foreign affairs that Obama wants to handle one way and Biden in another, and Biden just won't be able to contain himself and will stray way off the reservation.

On the other hand, for the next couple of months, Biden will slice and dice McCain/Romney and eat their livers for lunch, so maybe it will all be worth it.

Speaking of slicing and dicing, it doesn't matter how you slice or dice it. We're going to wind up with pretty much the same kind of country no matter who wins. With a Republican president, they'll stick it to us as usual and they'll laugh and sneer at their critics and detractors. With a Democratic president, they'll stick it to us as usual, but they'll try to explain it to us in a kind and patient (and patronizing) fashion. It's going to be pretty much the same damned puppet show, no matter who's in the Oval Office. Only the puppets and the stage direction will change.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

(from The Second Coming, 1921)

As stated many times on the Post:
“experience isn’t what happens to us, but how we choose to effectualize what has happened to us...like one hand clapping litttle bumble bee..."

The worst part about McCain being in office (God/Buddha/Christ forbid) is having to look at that "pasty clued together grey face" giving a speech!...When they talk about "old glory" they ain't kiddin'! Not an ounce of light shinning through that face...

Can you imagine - a 72 year old "Cocker" (pronounce it like you see it) in office? Unthinkable!!! My Dad was sitting and watching TV before he died and saw Ronald Reagan (then president) on NBC. He called me over and said:

"Dvorah, come look at him! Yesterday, he was President...Today, he can't even find his socks!"

McCain, sorry to say, looks completely unhealthy and ready to keel over any minute...and I certainly don't think he can find his socks either...

I'm dismayed at the possibility that McCain has any supporters at all besides his family. And I will never understand the "computer stuff"...who thought he was a dunce too! I'm betwixt and bewildered that he's even in this race...Life, what a joke! Anything is possible...

dvorah, you need to run for something or into something...

Reagan - give it a rest...be happy already...

Dear Tyler,

Indulge me in reminding you of something you already know, or should know.

Politicians;

a. Are ALL, elitist.

b. By instinct, do not do what is right, but what is popular, (the two are almost always mutually exclusive in America).

c. Will say anything to get elected, (yes, including the savior of "change" BO), whose social policies pander to reflexive white guilt, and will further crash the rotting social fabric of this country.

To presume, that within our perverse and distorted culture, which is led by the least among us, and increasingly devoid of real human values, that BO is less elitist based on his rhetoric is as much of an illusion as is the notion that the "struggle" that Americans face will in anyway be relieved with BO as president. BO's selection of a running mate, who brought us such wonderful "populist" legislation as the rave act, (the heinous legislation which unleashed paramilitary style clampdowns on a very soulful dance culture movement in this country) should shed a little light on your perceptions of BO, if you do not know about the rave act please check it out, BO is not your friend, and he will change nothing.

Dear Anonymous Jeff -

Well, let's take a look at this -

Elitism (dictionary.com):
The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
1. The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
2. Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.

Obama, after graduating Columbia U., took a $13k a year job as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.

I've read a few accounts of this period, and in general he entered this period with a strong sense of idealism, wanting to connect the community and better the life of everyone in those communities living in poverty, lacking education, etc. He left this period, on his way to Harvard Law, with a much stronger sense of pragmatism in order to actually effect positive change.

Biden is certainly an example of Obama's pragmatism at work. But, I think its callous and narrow of you to completely discount Obama's entire life as rhetoric. If you watched his speech on race, it was obvious that he has thought deeply for decades about the issues that divide us as Americans.

To say he will change nothing is absurd, when viewed through the lens of where we are. If he had been running on the coattails of Bill Clinton, taking office in 2000, I might agree with you. But after the devastation wrought by eight years of Bush, I think simply taking office on January 20th will create change on a global scale.

Dear Tyler,

It is disingenuous to interpret my remark literally regarding the changes that will inevitably occur if BO takes office. Of course changes will occur if he takes office.

Until we demand a candidate who represents human values, (which I assure you from direct experience is unlikely to necessarily be a consequence of attending Harvard Law School) the changes which may occur as a result of a potential BO administration are inconsistent with the expectations the reactionary liberal position. BO is part of our problem to the extent that he causes us to settle for a candidate who cannot implement the kind of change we need, and offers us more flowery talk and empty promises on change that will not be delivered. You can ignore the outrageous and psychopathic record of his running mate (including the fact that JB voted for the war), but it does not change the fact that birds of a feather......
http://www.alternet.org/story/14259/?page=entire

The democrats have restored the voting privileges for Michigan and Florida this means that Hillary could win the nomination. I believe if she took on some of the concerns of average Americans, like the need to drill and nuclear power, that she could take the convention by storm. And with the acknowledgement that we are making real progress in Iraq she could articulate that it is absolutely irresponsible and immoral to root against real progress in Iraq.

Dear Anonymous Jeff -

You say "he will change nothing" and then say you don't mean that.

You say that "ALL" politicians are "elitist" and then say we can demand a candidate who represents human values. How is that reconciled?

You say that Obama "offers us more flowery talk and empty promises on change." Maybe you're right, maybe you aren't.

If he successfully navigates a healthcare plan through congress that takes 20 million people off the ranks of uninsured, is that empty? If he successfully draws down the war, and restores our standing in the world, is that empty? If he moves us strongly towards alternative energy and reduction on foreign oil over the next four years, is that empty?

I'm not sure why you called me out and what you're getting at. I sense you are going to hold your nose and vote for Obama. Am I wrong?

Regarding the RAVE act, I remember distinctly being disgusted at the results of that up in Utah. I hope Biden gets asked questions about it. Who would your VP choice have been?

Tyler -

I've never voted to the right. Ever. I don't plan on starting now. I will vote for Obama even if the only reasons I have are that I'm a Democrat and that Obama isn't McCain. (Not the most intelligent of reasons, I know.) However, I find myself agreeing with one thing that I think Jeff is trying to say: that as far as politics goes, it's almost always a matter of "same crap, different day". I think that the electorate changes, and I think we assume that the candidates see this and change accordingly. Well, maybe they do. It would be nice to think so. I wish I were still capable of being that idealistic, and I plan on voting as if I were still that idealistic. Nonetheless, I have become a lot more skeptical about what I perceive to be the real nature of things. I often feel as if the voters are the victims in a never-ending game of Good Cop/Bad Cop, at least where presidential candidates are concerned. Obviously, I can't prove any of this, but that's how it appears and feels to me.

I knew nothing about Bush 1 when I voted for Clinton. I voted for him because he wasn't Bush. I noticed that the Republican machine had their guns already loaded and that they started shooting at Clinton even before he was inaugurated, and they still haven't stopped shooting. That, I guess, would be a good reason to vote for a Democrat, even if I had no other. I would do anything I could legally do in order to defeat the party that resurrected in late 20th Century American politics what the Republicans did starting with, at least, their so-called "Republican Revolution". Can anyone even begin to calculate, in trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives and the almost irreplaceable loss of international good will, what the Republican party has cost the United States?

Will Obama try to repair the incredible damage caused by the REACTIONARY RIGHT WING? (In my life I have never heard of liberals referred to as reactionary, Jeff. Did you just make that up?) Maybe he will. I sincerely hope so, and I will give him the chance to prove me right or wrong. Still, I fret and probably will continue to do so even if Obama wins. It's just my nature, and I don't believe that I'm alone in feeling that way. Politics has given me a lot of reasons to feel that way, and those responsible keep coming up with new reasons every day.

You know, I certainly didn't mean to say that I knew nothing about Bush 1 when I voted for Clinton. I can't even figure out what kind of Freudian slip that might've been. What I did mean to say was that I knew nothing about Clinton when I voted for him, except that he wasn't G.H.W. Bush.

However, since I'm starting to get that shunned feeling, I'm going to assume that this clarification was unnecessary.

Can someone explain to me why Edwards is getting shunned at the convention?

Can someone explain to Brian why Foley and Craig are being shunned from the RNC?

But Bill can do it !