For everything else, there's Mastercard

White sheet -- $4 at Walmart

Spray paint -- $3 at Walmart

Fine for compromising the structural integrity of your yuppie apartment complex -- $15


Having a top-floor apartment right across the street from an Obama/Biden rally and letting Obama know that not everyone in this hippie-infested city thinks he's "The One" -- PRICELESS

They're both losing -- moderator wins

So I've been watching the debate with a bunch of Republicans, and we've been having quite the ball. We've been trying to keep up with a list of drinking games, but there's way too many of them (everytime a candidate says "$700 billion",

At this point, I have to nix the live blogging, because we're having way too much fun, and I'm being a bore with the blogging. I'll be back tomorrow with an analysis of the debate.

ALSO look for me on CNN tomorrow. Obama is doing a rally in Greensboro, and Matt's apartment is visable from the rally site. We're getting up early and making anti-Obama signs to hang from his balcony :)

Obama and McCain on taxes and health care

Tax-rates and businesses -- John McCain is talking about how businesses don't flourish with higher tax rates, and "the worst thing we can do is raise taxes".

Obama is promising that 95% of the American people will get a tax cut. He's not mentioning the fact that we will see a price increase in products effected by the tax increase. He's accusing McCain of not giving ordinary Americans a tax break. Obama says that McCain's tax credit will actually tax benefits, even though we're getting a tax break for health insurance.

Mccain says that Obama is "walking the walk and talking the talk." He isn't voting for what he says he believes in.

Live presidential debate

I'll be live-blogging tonight's presidential debate from downtown Greensboro, NC at the CityView apartments. I'm at a debate watch party where we will be playing drinking games such as drinking everytime McCain says "My friends" or Obama says "change", so please forgive any typos.

Can I just say, first reaction, I love this moderator. Anyone that's going to make the candidates ACTUALLY answer a question, I love.

Also, Obama has GOT to stop saying "Main Street". We get it. You're for the common man. Wooo...

New drinking game, drink everytime Obama says "uhhhh". We may be dead by the end of this debate.

Obama is talking about salaries for police officers. Why is that a federal problem? McCain says that we have a long way to go, and we need to look at the regulatory agencies that weren't doing there jobs... but he has faith in the American workers... "Our best days are ahead of us"? What does that mean?

Pat McCrory comments on Sarah Palin

Pat McCrory apparently likes my pick for VP as well. He made the following statement today in regards to McCain's smart choice of Sarah Palin:

“I think Gov. Sarah Palin, a former mayor with a background of cleaning up state government, is a great choice for vice president. She is someone with a real record of changing the status quo and challenging corruption in state government. Gov. Palin stopped the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ and used her veto to actually cut spending. People are hungry for change in Washington just as they are hungry for change in state government in North Carolina. The contrast between the reformer and outsider--Palin and the consummate insider who has been a U.S. Senator for over 20 years-- Joe Biden, is just as stark as the contrast in this campaign for Governor of North Carolina. I am the candidate running to change state government, running against a lieutenant governor who has been part of the failed status quo for over 20 years. Sarah Palin proves that sometimes it takes a mayor to clean up state government.”

Can't say I didn't see a little bit of Pat McCrory's future in Sarah Palin's biography ;)

Sarah Palin -- John McCain's VP choice

I'm glad we finally have a Republican politician that listens to my advice.

Palin is a great choice. And I am a great political psychic.

Brad and Britt: McCrory for VP?

On my way to work this morning, I heard radio personalities Brad Krantz and Britt Whitmire on 101.1 WZTK endorse Pat McCrory as a smart pick for John McCain's running mate.

That's right. The morning talk duo was tossing around the idea of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's VP, and on her lack of experience, Krantz said, "He'd be better off with someone like Pat McCrory -- a 6 or 7 term mayor."

Whitmire then countered that a Governor Pawlenty pick would be just as good, to which Krantz stated, "Well, Pawlenty is just Pat McCrory on steroids."

Well, if McCain doesn't pick McCrory for his VP, there's a great new slogan for the McCrory campaign: "Pat McCrory: It's like Governor Pawlenty, without the steroids." Nothing better than an anti-drug campaign.

On a completely separate and serious note, I am going to freak out if Palin really is the VP pick, because I called her like five months ago. I will officially change my business cards to read "Melissa Westmoreland: Political Psychic".

"What will the future scholars see when they study us?" -- Mona Lisa Smile

It was like everything just hit me at once.  Last night, I was browsing through the MoveOn.org videos (and LAUGHING my ass off), then this morning I read Jon's post on Gen Y'ers and their voting habits, and then, to top it all off, I saw a commercial on a network station this morning urging young people to vote.  "When you vote, you have a voice," the tagline taunted.  Basically, voting by peer pressure.  "It's so cool to vote.  Look, these kids are doing it."

I'm pretty sure it was a non-partisan effort, but what a crock.  If some pothead drop-out punk doesn't want to vote, who cares?  If some apathetic idiot wants to sit around and gripe about how he isn't going to vote because it's all fixed anyway, LET HIM.  Truth is, even the kids that aren't like these examples don't know jack squat about politics.  They can't tell you one thing about Obama or McCain that isn't some regurgitated online talking point.  "Well, I mean, John McCain says we need to stay in Iraq for 100 years, but Obama, he's like, wanting to change everything."  I feel like Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile.  "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

They don't even require Civics classes in some high schools today.  These kids can't name the three branches of government or tell you what their duties are, but we're pushing them to go out and help choose the next leaders of the United States.

In high school, student government elections are nothing more than popularity contests.  I saw a few kids work their way up the student government ladder for three years only to have some big shot on campus run against them for Senior class president or even SGA president, because it suddenly occurred to them that they needed something to put on their college application other than how many drunk chicks they had sex with.  And the sheep in the school vote for the more popular kid not because they think he is better suited for the position, but because he's in that hot band they heard Saturday night.

This is what we're trying to do to America's election system, as if we're not already halfway there.  These commercials don't ask you to make an informed decision -- they just ask you to get your ass to a voting booth on election day.  They couldn't care less whether or not you know what you're doing.  They just want to see voter turnout go up.

You know, maybe lower voter turnout is a GOOD thing.  Maybe only the people that take the time to learn about the candidates and make an informed decision should be the ones that choose the president, not just the dumb masses.  They're looking for quantity in the vote experience, not quality.

Neal Boortz is right.  There really should be some kind of an exam to vote.  Like if you go into a computerized booth and press "Obama", a question pops up about where he stands on a certain issue.  Not only would it force people to learn about the candidates, but it would force the candidates to actually TAKE A POSITION ON AN ISSUE (which is something we don't see much anymore either).

And I'm sure some young idealist will stumble upon this blog post and be morally outraged that I could suggest such a thing, and to retaliate, they'll be sure to get to the voting booth and cancel me out.  That's awesome.  Whatever floats your boat.  Just don't fool yourself into thinking that you have any freaking clue of what you're voting for.  Yeah, I know, CHANGE.  What does that mean?

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?