Ed Campaigning for Barack Obama Options

[jaybb]

Ed is on the campaign trail with will.i.am, campaigning for Barack Obama at his various campaign stops:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3SPfOHqXSEI (will.i.am and EK playing "Where is the Love"; starts about 2 mins in; Ed sounds really good)

http://www.mynews2u.com/video.php?vid=133 (Ed solo, singing Imagine)

From Newsweek blog:

Mr. Obama's sole Clinton references were aimed to etch a contrast between her as an exemplar of old-fashioned politics and himself as a harbinger of change. That strategy was on display in two stops on opposite ends of the state yesterday, as he rallied supporters at an invitation-only "town hall" meeting at the Penn State Behrend Campus in Erie, then in a mass open-air rally at Independence Mall in this city, where hip-hop artist Will.i.am and Ed Kowalczyk of the York, Pa., alternative rock band Live were his opening acts in front of a crowd of just over 40,000 people.

To answer your first, and most important, question: no, a thin, foot-long braided rat tail no longer dangles from the back of Kowalczyk's otherwise bald head; he's fully shaved now. And as for your second, the answer is yes: Kowalczyk did indeed play "Lightning Crashes," the brooding ballad that spent much of 1995 in heavy rotation on Discmen nationwide and is now the only Live song that anyone actually remembers.

The problem was, he played something else as well.

Don't get me wrong. I'm teasing Kowalczyk, but I don't actually think there's anything wrong with celebrities, new or old, getting involved in politics (although having to Google them to figure out who they are kind of defeats the purpose). And earnest, unbridled idealism is fine. But I'll tell you what's not: covering John Lennon's "Imagine"--a song that's pretty much unimprovable in the first place--and proceeding to add your own, Obama-inspired lyrics. Introducing "Imagine: The Kowalczyk Remix":

Imagine change in Washington
It isn't hard to do
Everybody working together
Listening to me and to you
Imagine all the people believing in 'Yes, we can'


This post has been edited by jaybb: Apr 20 2008, 10:50 pm

[Existentialist]

**edit: don't have time to fix the quote thing, sorry. No more debating for me, either. It's a waste of time and time is something I don't have right now. Back in a week!

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176'] I already told you why Democratic Economics work this time around.

1) If you take the fact that the rich invest outside the country or aren't investing in high risk ventures as frequently you could see how little of an effect they have.[/quote]

The rich invest where the market is good. If that means they are investing outside the U.S. right now, which I still would love to see data on, then the problem is not with the rich but with our horrible market. Our market is currently failing due to Democratic policies set in the late 70s and revised under Clinton that made it too easy for people to get loans they couldn't afford. My argument was not that the rich have some sort of "effect," but rather that they deserve to keep the same percentage of the money they earn as everyone else.

[quote] 2) If you could see how high the average poor person invests in things from Wal mart you could see why it's good to give them money. [/quote]

I really think you need to turn your brain on if you think poor people shopping at Walmart, buying rims or buying rap albums is the answer to our economic problems. This is why the recent economic stimulus plan, where every rim-buying poor person was handed a $600 check, did absolutely nothing to avert further economic downturn. Capitalism is, believe it or not, NOT based on buying loads of shit. It's about SAVING, and thus building CAPITAL. The answer to our economic problems is largely to reverse this trend of buying rims and other useless things that have no utility, and start spending our money wisely. Poor people buying rims and shopping at Walmart only perpetuates our problems.

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176']3) There is a widening gap between rich and poor. We must maintain a middle class! [/quote]

Cool, I'm all for middle class. How do we maintain one? Do we cut their taxes by an insignificant amount and load up on small business and corporate taxes? Sure, that sounds good. The middle class will save money and oh wait, shit, all their employers now are getting hammered and have much less incentive to employ them. The way to maintain a middle class is to recreate middle class JOBS, so the middle class can earn their money and not just save a little on taxes. I fail to see how raising taxes on just about every business imaginable, as is Obama's plan, will help create more middle class jobs in America.

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176']4) Republican economics have had 8 years to work... they have gotten us bigger debt and less social programs to show for it. [/quote]

You're right, McCain is absolutely just like Bush because they're both Republicans. They are totally identical, just the way Obama will be COMPLETELY identical to every other Democrat in the history of the U.S. The only reason we're in more debt is because of the war, period. The war is essentially over, it's time to regroup and balance the budget for once, and that's McCain's plan.

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176']5) The average Ceo makes at least 85 times more than the worker citation [/quote]

Picking on CEOs is really grasping at straws. Sure they make too much money, but how many people in this country are CEOs of major corporations? Is it really a huge problem?

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176']6) The federal reserve cannot continue to deflate our dollar by constantly giving tax breaks to the poor. It gives us less credibility on the global scale and has attributed to the current failures. We should have no tax breaks across the board. [/quote]

Not even going to touch this one. If you think tax breaks for the poor are deflating our dollar, I won't even argue.

[quote name='Badman' date='Oct 2 2008, 10:11 am' post='42176']7) We have one of the lowest tax systems in the western world for all brackets. The rest of the world has caught on to social programs and progressive taxation. Whether you like it or not, we still have a progressive tax system Republican or not. [/quote]

The bottom line is that years and years of bad policy in America are catching up with us big time. It mainly is attributable to our lack of industry and high expectations for living. We need a president who will create jobs and also keep the jobs we have. Obama's very clear about raising taxes on all businesses, and no matter what else he says that is sure to doom any chance we have of improving the situation. We also need a president who has the balls to say that not everyone is entitled to the same things. If someone can't afford a house, there shouldn't be government policies in place to make sure they get the house. Let the free market take over and let people get only what they can afford. If we'd simply done this, guess what, no housing and mortgage crisis. Obama is pretty clear that he's going to increase government control of markets and use the government to try to equalize these markets. Big mistake.

Electing someone like Obama is like climbing into the back of a van because the nice looking man in the driver's seat promises you candy once you're inside. You'll probably get that candy and you'll be happy for it, but it's not really doing you any good to let that guy control the situation. Pretty much without fail, every time the government has gotten involved in a market it has completely fucked it up. Everybody thought it was a great idea to create social security and let the government cover our retirement that way, and look where that got us. One on the verge of bankruptcy cocksucking mess and still tons of poor elderly people. Everybody thought it was a great idea to let the government cover our health care for us, and loved the idea of Medicaid and Medicare. Look where it got us -- two on the verge of bankruptcy cocksucking messes and still tons of poor people without health care. Everybody thought it was a great idea to create Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and just let the government guarantee absurd bank loans, and look where it got us -- much more than two on the verge of, or in, bankruptcy cocksucking messes and even more people in poverty and without housing. Seeing a pattern? You don't want the government involved, even though it might seem tempting. Our core problems in America go way beyond Bush and are primarily rooted in government involvement in markets, which is exactly what Obama supports. I'm still willing to bet my entire earnings during Obama's term on his hurting our economy further, if there are any takers.

This post has been edited by Existentialist: Oct 2 2008, 1:57 pm