I Love You. Shhhh...

The Kids Are Alright, But Leave them out of it

By the headline, I mean not just in reference to the earlier media frenzy over Bristol Palin's pregnancy, that somehow was a reflection on whether Palin was qualified to be Vice-President. Regardless of how you feel about Palin's credentials, I think everyone can agree that her daughter getting knocked up really doesn't move the needle one way or the other.

Some political ads, web videos, and issues will use children, perhaps unavoidably (education issues, etc.), but not only do I find this highly inappropriate, but it genuinely creeps me out. For the record, it would creep me out if it was a batch of McCain-supporting minors singing his praises as well. That kind of shit is too North Korea/Hitler youth for my tastes.


There's no evidence that the Obama campaign was involved in the planning of this, but still. Who are these kids' parents (who I'm willing to bet are really the driving force behind this)? These kids won't even be old enough to vote for Obama's re-election....

Anyone else find this disturbing?

Not the idea of a nude painting of YCP's favorite Vice-Presidential Moose-hunter hanging over a bar in Chicago, but the commentary of the artist.

"Bruce Elliott, whose wife owns the Old Town Ale House, painted this nude portrait of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He said his daughter, who does a good impression of the Alaska governor, served as model."

Wow, pumpkin, that's a really good impersonation....now get naked! Daddy's gotta paint!

I'm sure there's no issues whatsoever in that family. They're probably like the Cleavers.

Sad But True

China Completes First Spacewalk

The internet is abuzz and accordingly so are we.

I think I speak for everyone here at YCP in expressing not only our congratulations, but also in welcoming China to 1965.

So, Wait...Who Won The Debate?

One of my favorite things about Presidential and Vice Presidential debates are the inevitable discussions that take place on every website, cable news show and newspaper column about "who won." It's a lot like ESPN's NFL Pregame show on Sunday mornings, because people try to draw wild conclusions from a really limited amount of evidence.

In tonight's case, as in most of them, there isn't a clear winner in the debate. There, I said it. No matter what CNN, Fox News, Drudge, Huffington Post or whomever tells you, nobody won and nobody lost this debate. I will say that I thought it was one of the more informative debates that I've seen in a while and I was impressed with each candidate's willingness to openly go after the other. Good stuff, but nobody won or lost the election tonight.

Campaign Ads For 6 Year Olds

These are from Cracked's weekly photoshop contest entitled, "Campaign Ads If 6 Year Olds Were Allowed to Vote." They're all pretty funny, but these struck me as particularly entertaining.

Also, this last one is hilarious no matter what side of the aisle you sit on:

McCain's Onside Kick

As probably YCP's token John McCain supporter, I only have this to say this morning.

Either the man is sheer fucking brilliant or he is batshit crazy. McCain has suspended his campaign in order to return to Washington to work on the mortgage bailout bill...a bill that largely seems doomed. McCain has asked Obama (and presumably Biden) to join him and postpone Friday's Presidential debate.

On a political level, if picking Sarah Palin was a Hail Mary, this is probably the political equivalent of an onside kick. Call me cynical, but in a Democrat-controlled Congress, I can't imagine too many people in an election year willing to do anything to help McCain. So essentially, we are looking at a new bill that will most likely take through the weekend, rendering tomorrow's debate unlikely.

This naturally opens McCain up to somewhat specious charges of "being afraid of Obama," which I don't think is the case. I believe McCain has an honest desire to do his job as a Senator and get this thing done and if some political gamesmanship comes about as a side-effect, it's a bonus.

I personally hope to see a good bill passed AND tomorrow's debate go off as planned, That being said, a decently-sized slice of the electorate votes for President on stupid bullshit like "Who they'd rather have a beer with" or "Who's cuter." Perhaps the fewer number of times that McCain can look like a face-melting Richard Nixon next to Obama's JFK-like youth can only be a good thing.

Literally the only way this can work out for McCain is if SOMEHOW he manages to help broker a deal to get a bill through by Friday around 9AM, then can fly to Mississippi to prepare for the debate the rest of the day. McCain reinforces his "Country First" campaign slogan, shows he can work across the aisle to get things done in contrast to Obama's 96% party line vote, and constantly voting "present" on big issues during his time in what is probably one of the most ineffective state legislatures in the country.

Maybe in an ideal world McCain thought that Obama would be out of his league. By suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to do the nitty-gritty work of a Senator, Obama would have to do that for more or less the first time in his short Senate career. I was fortunate enough to meet Obama in the Spring of 2005 in Washington, shortly after he'd been sworn in, and I will tell you, the man was running for President THEN. McCain would be able to trumpet his leadership and Obama's absence (or indecisiveness/partisanship, etc...whatever happened) all the way to November.

However, even that unlikely situation is far from ideal. First off, the bill McCain was referring to is likely DOA. Second, even if the bill passes and doesn't meet with the approval of the electorate, McCain's time in Washington will have been for naught, and at the very worst look like political grandstanding.

So once again, watching this campaign, I'm sitting back and thinking "I hope you know what you're doing...."

The VP Candidate I Can Actually Relate To

First off, I'm certainly not talking about Mrs. October on the next NRA Swimsuit Calender. No, I am referring to Joe "Amusingly Placing Foot in Mouth" Biden. Yes, Mr. Biden has a penchant for making the occasionally awkward, if not well meaning comment (sound familiar to my friends). However, I think he actually works hard at his craft and has earned his spot on a presidential ticket. Maybe Biden picked the wrong Iraq War to back (not a bad idea to back it in 1991, a horrendously awful idea in 2003 and I said that back before it started). However, he was one of the Senators who actually believed it was a good idea to leave that bumbling idiot Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court. Also, unlike Mrs. Palin, who probably struggles to identify the Middle East on the map, Biden has spent many years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has an idea on how to communicate with foreign leaders (asking them questions other than their recommendations of favorite flavor at Cold Stone Creamery). So, even though there will assuredly be a few more instances when my man Barack Obama will want to take Biden in the back and slap some sense into him, I'd much rather have him a heartbeat away from the presidency than Mrs. Small Time Mayor whose too ignorant to realize Obama's deeds as a community organizer will far outweigh anything she has or likely ever will accomplish.

Irony, or Barely Interesting Coincidence?

This article (from a 'Channel 4,' though I don't know where although I know it's probably Europe or Canada thanks to clues like them using the word 'favourite') is a pretty interesting read. It's about the favorite (or, favourite) movies of former and current Presidents of the United States.

Obama picked the Robert Redford classic The Candidate (side note: cheesey pick, Barry) and McCain mentioned both the revolutionist biopic Viva Zapata and the family classic Bambi. I would assume, however, that Sen. McCain and Governor Palin don't quite see eye to eye on the message of the Disney classic. Unless there's a newly-released version from the Disney vault where the hunter proceeds to skin Bambi's mother and ride off with the carcass on his snow machine to a rousing climactic musical number composed by Phil Collins. In that case, I'm sure Ms. Palin is all for it.

Also - I found this interesting because I've always felt that you can get a pretty good idea about someone by their taste in movies and actors. Can you appreciate Dumb & Dumber while also enjoying classics like The Searchers and On The Waterfront? Then we're cool. Are you a fan of Renee Zellwegger and Ashton Kutcher that generally refuses to watch movies made before 1985? If so, let's never hang out or speak to one another.

As both a movie junkie and a dick, this theory also provides me with the means with which to judge people of whom I think poorly and to improve my own terrible self-esteem. Case in point: two of my favorite movies are Heat and Terminator 2, and accordingly, I fucking rule. For proof of this street being definitively two way, consider this:

George W. Bush has said in the past that his favorite actor is Chuck Norris and one of his favorite movies is Austin Powers. That's all the explanation you need to understand what's happened to this country in the last eight years.

Welcome, Motherfuckers

Welcome to Yellow Chair Politics. If you're reading this, you've either A: stumbled upon this blog randomly from a poorly worded Google search or B: been referred here from the mothership, Yellow Chair Sports.

I created this because I wanted to post some random thoughts about the election and politics in general, but didn't want to do it on our sports blog. The two shouldn't be mixed, in my opinion, since we already have a penchant for quibbling like children as it is on one blog.

I've invited some of the guys from YCS to join me here, and you'll get viewpoints from the left (me and Zuch), from the middle (Vinnie) and from the far, far, far, and hilariously ill-informed right (Mike). Just kidding, Mike.

For now, I've left the comments private, not because I don't care what you, the reader thinks (although I don't), but because I'm trying to avoid as many random flame wars as possible. If the other guys want to open them up, I'm cool with that too.

I can't really tell you how much I expect anyone to post on here, but I figured what the hell, let's give this a try.

Yellow Chair Politics: Keeping You Ill-Informed Since 2008