Documenting My Audacity

Thanks to America getting it, I am able to relax and worry about things other than politics.  Like football.

This is the first year I’ve ever played fantasy football.  My room mate, Ben, decided to do a league via pen and paper (which is a weird idea).  I decided to do it up right–brought a draft sheet, a notebook, and studied before we went over there.  The draft took 3 hours and I was pretty excited about my roster.  Right now I’m sitting at 2-1, but I full expect to be 3-1 after this week on the back of Brett Favre and his 6 TD day.  It’s been a ton of fun–I’ve already made two good trades (Jay Cutler for Joe Addai and Larry Johnson for Brett Favre).  I think I’m going to have a good year.

College Football has also been great so far.  UK has gone 4-0, which is awesome.  I think we have the potential to win 8 games this year (South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and either Vandy or Tennessee).  This team’s offense is down (our receivers cannot catch), but if we had last year’s team, I would say that we would win 10 games.  I think this team will definitely win two more to get to a bowl, but my same silly room mate who has the pen and paper Fantasy League wrote for the bleacher report that we face a “challenging path.”  Whatever.

Right so football is awesome and its on TV.   And I’m not worrying about politics.  Yay!

This is the point of the year where each post I write will be accompanied by an apology for not writing more.  Seriously, I will try harder, but it has been a crazy week.  National Politics just about exploded with insanity when John McCain decided to ’suspend’ his campaign for 2 whole days and threatened to pull out of the debate before changing his mind (seriously, does anybody think that John McCain is for real anymore?  His whole campaign is theater).  However, the thing that has occupied my mind the past few days has been campus politics.

I am a Student Government Senator this year.  If anybody wants to read about how that happened or why I ran or whatnot, it is a tab on the top of this site.  Anyway, I started the year by putting forth a resolution calling for the Student Government President (who sits on the Board of Trustees) to fully support a $6-$8 “green fee.”  The green fee has a long and storied history at UK, which Taylor Shelton much more ably described on his blog a few days ago.  At the Student Government meeting on Wednesday, most of the criticism encountered was in the form of disbursement–people wanted to know where the money would go.

I tried to explain that the money would go towards the Sustainability Committee, which is a Presidentially appointed committee working on sustainability issues.  Furthermore, all other committees/student organizations who receive student fee money are allowed to disburse it in the way they see fit.  However, the resolution still received an amendment by Sen. Mark Rouse (from the Law School), asking the money to be tied to the commitments in the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

I have absolutely nothing wrong with the PCC.  In fact, I really wish President Todd would sign the document.  However, I don’t think our fees should be tied to any commitment before being given to the Sustainability Committee.  Futhermore, Sen. Rouse’s amendment convoludes the statement in the original resolution to the point of making the resolution useless.  Finally, President Todd has already stated that he will not sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.  Therefore, if this resolution passed, it would kill the bill.  I don’t think Mark Rouse intended for that to be the case, but that is how it ended up happening.

The amendment and resolution were tabled this meeting, and will be brought back up in two weeks.  Hopefully, the Senate will reject the amendment and pass the bill as originally written.  Progress at UK is always hard, but progress is inevitable.

PS- The school media has been on top of this in an awesome fashion.  I was on the cover of the Kentucky Kernel this morning, and the article did a fine job of explaining the whole issue.

I give people too much credit, I guess.

When Sarah Palin was announced as the VP pick for John McCain, I thought she would be universally panned because of her out of touch views on things like abortion, the environment, and her record on corruption.  After I heard her speak and realized she had a pretty sizable lying problem, I thought the public would react negatively.  Once Charlie Gibson interviewed her the other and I realized she also knows pretty much nothing about foreign affairs, or national issues of any sort, I thought the public in general would reject her as a potential leader of our country.

But none of those things have happened.  In fact, by looking at polling data, one can discern pretty quickly that she has helped McCain out a pretty substantial amount.  Many media outlets point to her nomination as the point in time when the GOP was resurrected from very the enthusiasm gap and vaulted to competitive status.  Heck, some people are even giving her credit for rescuing her party from Congressional doom.

It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  She wants us to hunt bears and wolves from planes and wants to drill literally everywhere.  She is under investigation because of a scandel involving her brother in law.  She doesn’t think abortion should be legal even if a 12 year old girl gets pregnant after being raped by her father.  In her speech at the GOP convention, she told the audience “I told the Congress ‘Thanks But No Thanks’ in the bridge to nowhere” despite this picture showing her promoting it in 2006:

Charlie Gibson interviewed her the other day and asked her for her views on the “Bush Doctrine,” and she didn’t even know what it was.

I mean, its blatently obvious that she is terribly unqualified for the job, and yet people just eat her up.  I read somewhere that it had something to do with how strongly Democratic partisans came out against her when she was announced, causing people to accept her regardless of her stances and understanding of her job.  However, I think we came out strongly because she is Super Dangerous and Cannot be our President.  I don’t know.  It’s just kind of frustrating.  I dunno what to do.

Life just seems more complicated once school begins.  Classes, clubs, obligations, homework, church, and all sorts of other demands on my time increased manifold, plus everybody is back in town and wants to hang out, so that leaves with with just about no time to relax and write.  That’s not such a big deal, I realize, since my opinion probably isn’t shaping anybody else’s, but whatever.  I still like to write in this thing so that the world will finally know how I feel.

School is hilarious.  As a Poli Sci/Econ double major, I have thought that for a while.  If you major in these two things at the University of Kentucky, you must pick a side–the Political Science division’s teaching differ about 180 degrees from the Economics department.  For instance, this quote appears on the front of my ECO 471 Syllabus:

Saying out country should be protectionist because other countries do not practice free trade is like saying that we should block up our harbors because other countries have rocky coasts.

-Claude-Frederic Bastiat

Now, three semesters ago, I took PS 212, where we read (among other books) No Logo by Naomi Klein, The Global Class War by Jeff Faux, and Children of NAFTA by David Bacon, all of which critique the current system of free trade.  In another PS class I took last semester, we read another Naomi Klein book (The Shock Doctrine), and many other books critical of corporatism, which would run counter to many of the arguments of my Economics professors.

So it’s just kind of funny.  I learn one thing in one class, and in another class I learn the exact opposite.  In my exams, I could have the same question on two tests requiring opposing answers.  I can’t forget what class I am in, or else risk failing all my tests.  If that doesn’t turn you into a post-modernist, I don’t know what will.

That’s what’s on my mind today.  I guess I’ll write a political entry sometime later, but I thought I’d share with you guys some of my school frustration.  I’ve picked a side, and so going to Econ class gets harder and harder each semester.  This semester will be the real tough one.

I guess I’ve slipped into the school year drag of posting every once in a while.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up writing pretty regularly, but I guess we will see.

So Barack Obama spoke the other day and it was literally amazing.  I watched the speech alone in my apartment (the way I like to watch speeches, if I’m in a group, I almost always make fun of the speaker).  Obama soared, diffusing every bomb McCain has lobbed at him during the whole campaign, while hurling a few of his own.  He also went through very specific policy provisions which, personally, I loved.  My biggest knock on Obama during the primary season has been that he never had specific policy provisions, so hearing him come out with several during his speech was really awesome.  I’m really glad that 38 million people watched it happen, which was considerably more than last time, because I think it will bring a lot more people to the polls, which is always good for the Democrats.

Then the next day John McCain decided to tell everybody that he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate.  I heard about this from my Macroecon professor, who discovered it through Intrade (which was kind of cool).  When I heard about her, I was a little weirded out–I knew very little about her and thought that she could be a game-changer.

However, that was not to be the case.  I knew she had been in some trouble because of some sort of firing scandal, but had no idea she was so bad on the environment, and so good for big oil (her husband works for BP).  She’s been pretty widely panned, so I guess it’s going to be good for Obama.

It’s just kind of strange that McCain would pick her over Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.  He has a bunch more experience (Governor of a larger state, state legislator).  I thought it might be because McCain knew Palin better or something, but apparently they only met once.  So…its obviously a gimmick.

It’s not going to work.  Hopefully this will have coattails into Kentucky and help Bruce Lunsford.  I think that might actually happen.

School is crazy.  I’ve been busy trying to execute welcome week activities for a host of student organizations, as well as trying to spend some time with friends I haven’t seen in a few months.  As a result, I haven’t been able to spend much time writing for DMA, and I haven’t had the chance to watch enough of the convention.

It sucks that the convention is this week.  For me personally, I wish it had been last week or next week.  I would have had plenty of time to spend watching it then, but since its now, I can only catch the headliners each day.  I try to catch the rest at youtube.

However, the speeches I have gotten a chance to see have been awesome.  I thought Michelle Obama did fantastic, I thought Hillary did great, I thought Brian Schweitzer did a good job too.  I was underwhelmed by both Mark Warner and Joe Biden.  Biden, however, did a great job of taking the themes built on by Bill Clinton and Beau Biden (his son) and capping them off.  So, although his speech wasn’t the greatest, it did a fantastic job of doing what it needed to do.

The only speech I really am sad that I missed was John Kerry.  I heard he did a great job.  Honestly, I had really hoped that Obama would pick him to be the VP–he fills all the same roles that Biden does, but I bet he is a lot more eager to take on the machine that ripped him to shreds 4 years ago, plus he is a much more known quantity than Biden.  But whatever, its all good.  I like Biden.

I’m really looking forward to watching Barack tonight.  He’s always been known as a great orator, and I expect nothing less than greatness tonight.  Its usually a bad idea to set expectations high, but I think that Barack will deliver.  I mean, look at this guy:

I’m hyped.  You should be too.

I’m writing for the Kernel again.  My first column (about CentrePointe) ran yesterday.  If you’re curious enough to read it, you can find it here.  As usual, the Kernel gave my article a lame title and screwed the grammatic structure of the piece in editing.  Some things never change.

So, the veepstakes came to a screeching halt late last night when CNN sent my buddy a text message telling the world that Joe Biden had been confirmed as the Vice Presidential pick of Barack Obama.  Personally, I am pleased by this pick– Joe Biden has always been one of my favorite politicians when issues of international social justice have been concerned.  His stance on Darfur has always been the most progressive of any of the Presidential candidates, which garners him much respect in my eyes.  I also have always thought him to be very wise on issues of foreign policy, and his experience in Washington has made him one of the most knowledgeable politicians in the country, able to answer difficult policy questions on the fly.  This skill served him pretty well in Iowa, where he garnered a lot of recognition by holding long town hall meetings where he answered all questions.

I think Biden was selected because of Obama’s perceived lack of depth in foreign policy.  Personally, I think this frame should be fought, because it is ridiculous.  Obama showcased his wisdom in foreign policy by opposing the Iraq war from the start, something none of the other Presidential candidates did.  However, the silly media has bought into the frame, and something needed to be done to plug that gap.  Joe Biden does just that.  I am pretty excited about this, because this will put a stop to the “Not Ready to Lead” meme, and will leave McCain reaching for something with which to attack Obama.

This is also in the midst of the “houses” gaffe, where McCain forgot how many houses he owns.  This attack seems kind of petty, but I think it is kind of important to note that either McCain is so rich and out of touch that he doesn’t know how many houses he possesses, or is so forgetful that he couldn’t remember something so basic as how many homes he owns.  So, McCain shot himself in the foot, and the polls should start showing some movement towards Obama very soon.

I’m excited about Obama-Biden.

UK will kick off the 2008-2009 year very soon, and I am right here in the midst of getting everything started.  This means I’ve been out of range of any wifi in the past week or so, and that I have been extremely busy even when in range of modem.  I haven’t gotten the chance to read or write much, but I have a few hours off tomorrow to get caught up about the world.

In the meantime, I’m recovering from moving in a whole mess of freshmen and recycling their cardboard by attending back to school parties and midnight pancakes put on by the BCM.  If anybody wants to swing by Columbia Ave at 12 tonight, I’ll be there cooking up a storm.

I have been sitting at my keyboard for the past 15 minutes, listening to the Flobots, trying to think of something worthwhile to write about.  Nothing has come to mind.  I feel like I own the blog a post since I’m going out of town (again) next week.  I’ll be in Tennessee with the Baptist Campus Ministry Leadership Council on our retreat. I hope to get a little hiking in while I’m down there, but my wifi status is uncertain.

Anyway, something that has irked me for the past few days is Olympic boxing.  The scoring seems ridiculously arbitrary, and maybe even biased.  Also, the whole tournament is a random draw, which means that two of the best boxers met in the first round in one of the weight classes (and the American went down).  Olympic boxing would be really awesome if it could somehow be done more fairer.  But I guess scoring is the downfall in contact sports.  Weird.

Michael Phelps, on the other hand, is pretty unreal.  Since he now has more gold medals than any other person, I wonder if that makes him the greatest Olympian.  Maybe.  In a sport like, say, beach volleyball–where May & Walsh have blown away the competition, a pair only has a chance to win ONE medal every 4 years.  Same for the 92/96 Dream Team in Basketball.  I don’t think that Phelps can be considered the greatest Olympian just because he has all those medals, but I think his accomplishments mean he is up there.

The Olympics have taken over my life.  I’m going to be happy when I get back to normal.

There has been a little bit of buzz about Rick Warren’s Heartland Conference, where John McCain and Barack Obama will both be speaking about issues important to ‘evangelical’ Christians.  Taegan Goodard and Political Wire bill the event thusly (via USA Today):

[A]n evangelical conference aimed at getting the presidential hopefuls’ views on issues dealing with leadership and compassion

kos from Daily Kos has a post up about the event at Warren’s church.  Apparently, the event is being protested by a group including Mike Huckabee, the Family Research Council, and The Call, who claim that Warren’s event “would be more politically correct and focus more on “what the church is for rather than what it is against.”"  Kos calls out the group protesting Warren aptly.  I was really impressed by the way that kos grasps the dichotomy in the evangelical movement, which pits those who want to push what the church opposes with those who want to push what the church supports.  It also heartens me to see that kos is even excited to see progressive evangelicals in action, and I hope the entire progressive infrastructure can follow up and see the church for the progressive things the progressive church is trying to do instead of the nasty stuff that the extremely conservative wing of the church is trying to do.

However, there still are some in the blogosphere, like Chris Bowers, who insist that the progressive church has no place in the larger progressive movement.  In a post he wrote recently on the topic of Warren’s event, he derided Warren’s use of the word “heartland” and presented the idea that the use of that word implied that Warren’s church believed that those different from them are inferior to the church’s members.  I love Bowers for a lot of work he does, but this idea which he has repeated many times, bothers me to no end.

This is all happening on the backdrop of Barack Obama actually leading among Christians by nine points.   In the study by the Barna group (who is also responsible for the research in unChristian), is it revealed that the only Christian sub-group which McCain leads in is the same ‘evangelical’ sub-group, and McCain’s lead is small.  This could be the first election in 20 years where the Christian vote goes for the Democrat.

Anyway, I am happy to see that Warren’s event is at least spurring some in the progressive community towards acceptance of the progressive church.  I hope that this continues.  And I hope that those who are excited about the progressive church get beyond the moderately-conservative Rick Warren and into the more progressive people in the progressive church, like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, and Donald Miller.  That would be really cool.