Political Math

Ok, I've complained about this before. It's still twigi, it still keeps being talked about, so I am going to keep calling it twigi.

When you go vote in November, how many names will be on the ballot? Two? Will you only see McCain and Obama?

NO!

There are 10 other parties with someone running, and yes, I know...not all of them are on the ballot is all of the states, but whose fault is that? The voters.

But it really gets my dander up when reporters act like the others don't exist. Nonbiased news reporting my big, fat tookas.

Steven Thomma, last week, has an article published about "two competing visions of 'change'", or, in my paper's case, "Whose vision will sway voters? They must decide between 2 competing philosophies of change."

How many visions? How many philosophies? Should be a dozen there, buddy-ro.

Everybody keeps talking about change and looking to Obama and McCain for that change. I say look elsewhere...look to ourselves for change and that means we need to look beyond Republicans and Democrats. After all, we had 8 years of Democrats. We had 8 years of Republicans. Will going back to Democrats really be change?

Up for election: two competing visions of 'change'

This shirt, showing who really has the power to change the country, is available at Attack of the Radioactive Tees.

The Law of Supply and Dumb-mand

When you heard Ike was rumbling through the Gulf of Mexico and toward Texas, what did you do? Run to the stores for bread and water? Board windows? Stockpile gas to be sure you'd be able to drive when Ike was through? Those are all things that you should have done...if you lived in Texas on the coast. Hell, you should have evacuated, but you could have done those things before leaving for your return.

So why were people flooding gas stations 900 miles from where the hurricane hit? Why were gas stations here in South Carolina running out of gas? Why did gas prices at a local gas station go up 20 cents in 3 hours?

The excuse is that the Texas coast along the Gulf of Mexico is a major source of oil. Drilling rigs in the Gulf were damaged, refineries shut down and we don't know how long it's going to take before they get them up again. I mean, they have to look for damage, get power back, etc. It's not just a matter of walking back in and hitting the on switch.

But come on!

The rush for gas here had nothing...NOTHING...to do with supply. It had to do with prices. Buy it now before the gas prices go up higher. We start thinking gas prices are going to go up, we think, "I'm getting what I can now! Screw the neighbors!"

If we just go about our normal business, gas might go up some, but we wouldn't run out. Texas gives us 1/5 of the countries oil, and most of the southeast gas comes from the Gulf, but the federal government's trying to help with the Environmental Protection Agency temporarily suspending a dozen states' fuel-blending requirements.

People can complain about gas stations gouging customers at times like this, but a large part of that is we are gouging ourselves and our neighbors when we flood the stations just so we can get cheaper gas...not because we need it. And that goes double for those of you with the red gas cans.

Stop being twigi. We're in this together. A little bit of patience and everything will return to normal...unless they think they can get away with $4.00 a gallon gas, and if they think that, it's because we're buying it.

Associated Press article on rising gas prices