JustinSpeak

So the fat cat CEOs of Ford, GM and Chrysler are back on Capital Hill begging for our money to help them fix their fuck ups. This time, a couple of them drove hybrids to make up for their gaffe of flying their private jets to the last meeting. However, now they are asking for more money! What’s even better is that the UAW is now willing to make “concessions” for this to happen. By “concessions” I hope they mean realistic health care and occasionally working through their breaks to get something done. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a die hard liberal, but when it comes to labor unions I’m redder than Ann Coulter’s tampons.

This calls for a top five list.

Top Five Reasons an Auto Industry Bailout Sucks.

1. Same reason I didn’t like bailing out the banks. I don’t like paying for other people’s fuck ups.

2. As Ashton Kutcher said, the people who should have to pay to fix the car companies are the oil companies. They’re the ones who profited so gleefully the last couple years off the gas guzzling SUVs that nobody buys anymore. Make them return the favor.

3. If we bailout the financial sector for fucking up, then bailout the auto industry for poor management, what’s next? How about we pay to plug the holes in Lockheed Martin or Boeing? How about we fix Circuit City? Where does it stop?

4. Free market capitalism should be given an opportunity to fix itself. Let poorly run companies fail, let people lose their jobs, and let the companies come back with a sharper focus and a new direction.

5. We spend more money on military spending than any other country in the world, billions of dollars in bailout for poorly run busnesses, and give rich people tax cuts, but we can’t fix roads and build schools. This bailout, and the one before it and the ones after it, is just an other example of the infruriating way the United States government spends money.

I think Peter Schiff is an idiot, but not because of his economic views. He is way more qualified to an advanced opinion of our current economic woes than I am. However, he is doing more harm than good with his constant negativity and crankiness. People need optimism to move forward and get things done. Going out on countless radio shows and trumpeting your prediction of the economic meltdown and constantly saying the worst is yet to come is simply irresponsible. Yes, he has been pretty accurate with a lot of what he says, but that doesn’t give him the green light to fear monger.

Peter Schiff’s Agenda

Watch some of his videos on youtube. The guy never has anything positive to stay! All he wants to do is scare people into buying into his firm, buying his books, and making commissions. If John McCain won the election, then he’d be barking up his tree too. If he was really interested in helping people out, he’d be proactive and positive, not scaring people to death.

Treat what he says with a grain of salt. He is no doubt a highly intelligent man and has some very interesting things to say about the current state of the world economy. However, his negativity does more damage than his economic advice can help. He’s riding high in the middle of his fifteen minutes. Ron Paul liked him, so the Digg community likes him. He made a spot on prediction of the housing collapse, so he’s got more attention there too. He’s a perfect guest for cable news shows since he’s so doom and gloom, so he’s got even more attention. Peter, use this new found opportunity to say something positive.

Okay, we’re going to tackle a pretty hefty little topic here. I’m going to do it in one paragraph each. When you go vote Tuesday, and you better fucking vote, try to keep these little tidbits in mind.

Wedge Issue Number One: Abortion

Lots of people will base their entire decision on who to vote for on this one issue. This is unfortunate for many reasons, but it does happen quite often. Here is my advice. Abortion cannot be made illegal. Roe v Wade cannot be overturned. If we don’t have the options in place, desperate people will do desperate things. You don’t want young, poor, single mothers going to back alley clinics to get these things done. People die all the time blowing up their apartments cooking meth because they are so distraught that they stomach the risks of blowing themselves to kingdom come in order to make ends meet. Desperation is a bitch people. I do not, nor will I ever, condone abortion as a method of birth control. However, it needs to stay a viable option for those that are so inclined. If you want less abortions, then we need more solid sex education. The problem is that certain people freak out if you teach anything besides abstinence. Unfortunately for them, people do not abstain. Let’s end this antiquated line of thinking. While we’re at it, let’s do everything we can to make health care more affordable and available to the poorest in the US. The populations with the highest rate of abortions are Black and Hispanic, which are also among the poorest. Maybe if they could afford the monthly birth control pill that a lot of women take they wouldn’t find themselves in this mess in the first place. Start teaching kids to use birth control, make health care for the lower class more affordable so they can afford the pill, and keep a healthy option open for the desperate and we’ll not have to worry about the number of abortions increasing. Of the two mainstream candidates, Barack Obama is ahead of McCain in making these things happen. You even get a bonus perk here in that more safe sex will result in less STDs. Less STDs means less health care expenses which means… cheaper health care for all.

Wedge Issue Number Two: Gay Marriage

Unfortunately, both mainstream candidates oppose gay marriage. I never understood why people give the slightest bit of a shit with what people do in their private lives. Who the fuck cares if you’re gay and want to get married? Does it make one iota of difference to the Christian Conservative in rural Missouri if a same sex couple in New York want to get married? No it doesn’t. However, I’m not an idiot and I realize this is one of those issues we’re going to have to take baby steps towards getting fixed. To that end, we need to vote for the candidate who will get us at least somewhat closer to a society that fully accepts all people. That candidate, based off his vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment, is Barack Obama. It really bothers me that he opposes gay marriage, but he has a hell of a lot better chance of getting elected than Cynthia McKinney.

I can count on two fingers how many times presidential candidates actually answer a question in these debates.  Okay, that’s a lie, I can’t count any examples at all. They are so skilled at taking a question, answering it for a split second, and then launching into the benefits of their platform.  Wouldn’t it be great if something like this happened?

Moderator: Who would you pick for your Secretary of Defense?

Candidate 1: Well, you have to pick someone who blah blah blah blah blah.

Candidate 2: General Wesley Clark

Moderator: What would you do about the Israel and Palestine fight?

Candidate 1: I would reach out to the International community to bring our allies together blah blah blah blah.

Candidate 2: I would press Israel to give them the land they want, respect their border, and get on with it.

Unfortunately for all of us, we’ll just get bullshitted over and over again. That being said, some politicians are better than others.  What you have to do, besides registering to vote and casting a ballot, is pick the person who is closest to your views.  You won’t find anyone perfect.  However, you will find someone who is the “least incompatible” with you.

Also, know that nothing in our political system will change overnight.  Everything has to be incremental. The radical candidates from Ross Perot to Ron Paul to Ralph Nader have brilliant ideas, but they are too much at once for our pea-brained country.  One step at a time.