Elections

Well the Yanks have started voting and we can only hope that they vote sensibly this time. What I find hard to understand is how the polls say Obama is only a few points ahead. He should have a 30- 40% lead at the very least because of the failed policies of the Republicans.

From an article in the Guardian(UK) that probably sums it up -

" How did it happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama was a Muslim and a terrorist?"

I cannot understand that one of the leading countries in the world can almost worship stupidity. A woman on the news the other day said she liked Sarah Palin, because she was just like her - her being dumb.

So what is the educational background of the candidates:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester. North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism.

Education isn't everything, but .............

What if........................ what if things were switched around?

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama not only became addicted to pain killers but also stole them through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes - and was never given a command position.

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

And so on.

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the poll numbers would be as close as they are?

Recount: On a plane in South America one of the films was 'Recount' - an account of the Florida 2000 Presidential Election starring Kevin Spacey. Unfortunately the film was interrupted half way through by the end of the flight!!

Anyway upon my return I saw it was on TV so I recorded it and have now watched it. What an eye opener. They are not a Democracy , in fact I think they are really called a Federal Republic. The vote totals varied every time they were counted and they did not have to balance them. What a farce.

At least it is goodbye to what is the worst President they have ever had.

Is this the worlds most frightening thought?

Locally - An item from the Dom-Post said that a man had been charged with robbing a pharmacy with an imitation gun - it was his 135th offence. Why is he still out??

Almost Halloween

Yes it is tomorrow. We have some lollies for any that come knocking as this American habit takes hold.

Below are some more pictures from South America.

This is the religious festival at Cuzco.

This is the Chivas Express - a bus-train that we went on. I wrapped up in a poncho and travelled on top.
A beautiful mountain photo.

Up at about 3800 metres at a dissused train station.

Me at a food market.

Christine after her deep water snorkelling experience.

Some lizards at the Galapogas Islands.

Nothing much happening except we came back to the financial meltdown (the Credit Crunch) and a pile of paper that I am slowly working through. The Government guaranteeing the deposits of the Banks I agree with, but extending it to the Finance Companies has had a distorting effect.

As they saw the flight of funds from the Banks to the higher interest rate paying, but much weaker Finance Companies, they then had to amend the rules. Even so they have now had the side effect of weakening the Morgage Companies (AXA, Tower, ING) who have had to freeze their funds. I also read that they are agreeing to gurantee the interest. Crazy.

The guarantee should only apply to the Banks and they should strengthen the oversight and rules around Finance Companies.

On the computer front Telecom phoned and said they would give me a new, improved modem - for free - as long as we stayed with them for the next 2 years. As usual, I was concerned that it would cause more problems - but assured no - I agreed. As usual it did.

The CD wouldn't load up so after a couple of hours phoned them and told as I was on Broadband I shouldn't put the CD in. Then told, again contrary to the instructions, to install the Modem next. To cut a long story short they couldn't get a link between the Laptop and the Desktop. Having a person at the other end who didn't speak NZ English didn't help. So it has been returned.

Had to go to a SeniorNet meeting last night so couldn't attend the Quiz but they won the Bonus Question ($100). Damn!!.

The election is degenerating into sleaze with Labour trying to get at Key but I think it is backfiring. I answered an online quiz at Pundit.co.nz which supposedly gave me who I should be voting for.

I came out Labour (69%), Progressives then NZ First. I also answered the USA one and came out for Obama at 89%. That doesn't surprise me but the NZ result must be skewed. The USA quiz was much more in depth.

The debate between the minor parties was much better as Mark Sainsbury didn't just let them talk over the top of each other. They were all pretty even but I thought Winston was slightly ahead.

We now look forward to the real thing in both countries - US and NZ.

Getting Close

Labour Day today but really not much different when one is retired. Have been working at Angela's place helping to get it ready for her to sell. She is buying Sarah's rental property - Sarah and Joe are selling theirs to a friend and buying another. Musical roundabouts.

The elections are getting closer. Both of them.

Funny enough I would rather vote in the US one as it is probably more important and I can only hope that the polls are right for Obama. A friend who is a dual NZ-American citizen is able to vote both here and there.

Ours is Tweedledum and Tweedledee - the differences are not much now Key has moved National into the centre. As per usual, the MMP question comes up again. Just watched the minor parties on TVNZ - Jim Anderton summed it up for MMP (or a Proportional System) saying that, when he was President of the Labour Party, twice they got more votes but National got more seats. Simply not democratic.



Just did a BBC online test of my personality type as did John Key. He was a Go Getter. I was a Supervisor as was Sarah. Helen Clarke refused - what a surprise!!

Supervisors are:

Bring order to their home and work life
Like to act on clear, achievable goals
Think of themselves as stable, practical and sociable
May be irritated when people don't follow procedures

Supervisors like to make plans, organise people and get things done efficiently. They are natural administrators who dislike chaos and strive to bring order to every aspect of their lives. Supervisors like jobs where the goals are clearly defined and there are proven work methods in place.

Supervisors are most likely to say they prefer a job which involves a series of separate projects, according to a UK survey.

Supervisors use logic to solve problems and believe in being open and direct in their communications with others. They prefer to work and socialise with like-minded people.
In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Supervisors may reject the opinions of others and insist they are right. Under extreme stress, Supervisors may feel cut off from the people around them and lose confidence in their own ability to cope.
Because they like to take charge and organise activities, others may find Supervisors too bossy.



Some find Supervisors too bossy??!!!


Have been reading a blog written by John Ansell who did the clever and funny National adverts 3 years ago. He asked a Trivia Question - Kiri Te Kanawa sang at Charles wedding, Elton sang at Diana's funeral - who sang at the Queens Coronation?

Answer - Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones - he was a choirboy.

The candidates meeting and some more musings

Went to a candidates meeting yesterday organised by Grey Power. It was a split attendance between those standing for our electorate and a nearby one. The Labour, NZ First and United candidates were on top of it, but the National, ACT and Greens were not very good. However, attending the meetings and the leaders debates I don't think really changes ones mind.

At least unlike the Leaders Debate it wasn't a shouting match.

Ron Mark of NZ First was the standout and it is a pity he is not standing in our Electorate. A very impressive man who exudes common sense.

Have almost made up my mind now for the Party Vote. It is frustrating that each of the major parties has moments of stupidity. National now wanting to tell the Super Fund where to invest (they are supposed to be the "Free Enterprise Party") and Labour stuffing up the Government Guarantees to the finance sector.

On to something more important - the weekly quiz, We returned from our trip to find a new quiz master and system, with the music section dropped out. We always thought this was unfair as it was a double round - a point each for the song and the artist - and the music was always very modern, so any oldies didn't have a clue. Now it is out the groups who previously always won are not.

And they do not seem happy as they question some of the answers. But we have come third two weeks running so we are happy. Plus we believe, it is fairer as it is now biased towards good general knowledge. Last night we got zero from one round but still picked up enough points from the other sections to come 3rd and we also split with two other teams the Jackpot Question.

Final Presidential Debate today. We need to adopt the American system for our debates with some tweaking so that some followup is allowed.

We are also in election mode

Apart from the US and Canada we also are going to have an election. Yes really - 8th of November will be the big day.

The Polls have all shown a massive National lead and like most I thought they would close up, but not a quickly as the latest seems to show. Whether this closing of the gap is continued in the next poll remains to be seen.

Interestingly, it came around the time of the announcement of National tax cuts. As one who, whilst realising Governments waste money, does not believe in tax cuts per se, as I had concerns about the future economic horizon (which has arrived) and the effect they could have on our services - hospitals, etc. However, I thought the tax bands should be moved as many who are on what are reasonable wages are now caught by the higher tax rates.

As for National taking away the tax benefits of Research and Development - are they mad.!!!

Meantime in the States I saw an article about the same thing -

In the VP debate Gov. Palin said to Biden “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

The answer to her should have been:

“Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armour that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans? That is not putting America first. That is selling America first."

No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”

My view of Palin is that she is probably even worse than Bush. Unfortunately it also shows McCain, who is generally of Presidential timbre, as showing poor judgement.

The end of the world.

Maybe. No money, stock markets down, banks going broke, huge NZ deficit (but tax cuts??), war, Palin is liked by a large percentage of Americans, Obama may not win (then again with the problems who would want to), disasters, price rises, electricity up and worse.

Typical - decided to withdraw the funds from the BNZ Managed Funds but said I would look at it upon our return and everything turns to custard. As for the poor ex-head of Lehmanns - only been paid half a billion dollars and says he is now suffering the pain of the decisions he made. Probably in Argentina they could put him out of his pain.

Will be watching Obama/McCain debate today (the second) while the other day I tried to watch Palin and Biden. Had to give up after about 15-20 minutes as she was so bad (and was allowed to get away with it). How anybody with even half a brain could select this incompetent twerp is beyond me.

Just two examples - she said she wanted the Government out of peoples lives then complains because they were not supervising the Financial Markets. She then got her Generals mixed - giving a Civil War Generals name instead of the correct one.

She never really answered a question - and said at the start that she wouldn't !!! She is Bush in drag. Sadly most US leaders seem to lack ability.

An interesting story I read that in 1988 a woman was flying to Norway and her bags were overweight, but she didn't have the $103 to pay for them. The chap in the queue behind her offered to pay and she later sent him a cheque in reimbursement. His name Barack Obama.

Some South American Pictures

At peak altitude 4,335 metres. The air was so clear we had no problems here but then again we had just got out of the bus and were not engaged in any strenous walking or climbing. Below is myself with fellow Rotarian Maurico Torres at his great agri-tourist farm in Ecuador .
Bollywood filming at Macchu Picchu.

At the Charles Darwin Centre in the Galapogas.

The intrepid traveller somewhere in South America.
Macchu Picchu. Probably our best shot which gives some indication of the beauty and magnificence of the site. It is much better enlarged so just click on the picture.
Pictures from the religious festival that we saw in Cuzco, Peru. It was two hours of brilliant dancing and music from approximately 30 groups.

So my highlights were:

1. Cuzco Festival

2. Macchu Picchu

3. Iguazu ((Iguassu) Falls