Ahhhh thats why he'll go down as one of our best Presidents..

As I watched President Clinton speak (actually watched it 3x's tonight) I was reminded of what it was like back in the good old days. You know when we had a president who was a gifted orator.. not a bumbling idiot who stumbled on every other word...

What else you ask??

Lets break it down.. see if you can pick it up as I lay it down for ya.. ya' heard...

- A balanced budget... you know when our Federal government was taking it more than it was spending (or at least even).. which led to...
- A Surplus! As in the OPPOSITE of a DEFICIT!! What a novel concept.
- A military ready to protect us (not stretched thin for many reasons which will only turn my face red and make me scream HALLIBURTONNNNN)
- Decreased cost of college education
-What else do i need to point out??? Constant increase to the value of your home.. ahhh you've heard it all before what i am doing repeating this...

Clinton just blew it up! For two nights in a row a Clinton showed this country what it needed to see, what all of us enlightened thinkers (progressives) have been saying (or cursing under our breaths) for 7.789 years.

He hit every main point, and proved to the nation that the only clear choice is Barack Obama. I've put this out on my Facebook page, and have offered it to multiple people I've argued politics with in person over the past year(s), and so I will offer it again here today..

Convince me to vote for John McCain and I will do it, and I will blog about why, and I will convince people I know, and I will pay you $500 USD. Thats right (although this is worth much less after 8 Bush years in the white house, I will not be adjusting for inflation as we are in a recession.. duh.. read a newspaper).

Furthermore I will publicly apologize (in whatever medium is most acceptable to the winner) to John McCain for calling him any of the following terms which I have used to describe him since the start of his campaign: Old; crotchety; out-of-touch; senile; dangerous; lacking-intelligence; scary; pale; backward; conservative.

DNC v. RNC.. good luck McCain

First off, Clinton spoke beautifully last night. As it was put, "she hit it out of the park."

Second off, Richard Dreyfuss is on MSNBC right now commenting on the filth that calls itself the republican party.

Obama is actually going to win this. He's jumped several points since yesterday (had to figure that would happen once Hillary begun to bury the hatchet), and still hasn't made what should prove to be one of the most memorable speeches American politics has seen in 40 years. President Clinton tonight (the last successful resident of the White House) will do several things: 1) Prove to the world that Obama is very capable of leading this country; 2) Help unite the party even further; 3) Attempt to bring blue-collar whites into the Obama camp; 4) Show that even though we may be liberals we have no problem using responsible military action; 5) Attack John McCain for being Bush x 2; 6) Finally I expect him (as a gifted orator) to change his tone during the speech, showing how he personally has changed his mind over the past 16 months about Barack Obama, and that its ok to change your view, it simply means you are thinking.

But I've heard Bill give big speeches in the past, who I haven't seen much of... Biden. Joe Biden is a true Pennsylvanian. He speaks his mind, he supports the organized labor, and he fights like hell. Not to mention he is intelligent and has an excellent world-view. I believe this is the speech to watch tonight, because Biden doesn't want to get outshone by Clinton when its he who is the second seat on this ticket. Look for Biden to attack McCain on policies, on the economy, on energy, and on his inability to work with the Democrats after this election period.

Final thought. I love this convention, the coverage has been great I love seeing the protesters behind the CNN and MSNBC sets outside, shouting "9/11 was an inside job! (a view that I've held for a while, if you haven't watched Zeitgeist, you have no idea)" As well as shouting the link which this Title will take you to, www.infowars.com. Obviously you have to take this sort of writing with a grain of salt, but for the most part it makes sense. The only thing I haven't liked about this convention is the amount of money that has been spent, I know its just a sign of the times, but a more scaled-down, less ostentatious set-up would be more appropriate considering the current state of our economy.

Fight for Obama!

www.barackobama.com

Obama? McCain? Who has more to lose from the faith-based forum?

As I write this I am beginning to watch Senator McCain take questions from Pastor Rick Warren. Many of you who know me would ask "Shawn, what do you care about the faith-based community's vision of the next president?" Honestly I don't. I am not a person of faith, raised Jewish, but I am at this point, as I have been since just after my Bar Mitzvah, a self-proclaimed agnostic. However, the recent polls have indicated that Obama and McCain are essentially dead-even nationally, which makes any current debate between these two important. But as the title states who has more to lose? In one word, McCain. He leads the polls of white-evangelicals at the rate of 68% to 24%, how much worse can Obama do. Any sales-based training will indicate to you that regardless as to how good of a salesperson you may be you will be able to easily convince 25% of your market to agree with you. While I watched tonight, as Obama took questions before 6,000 people at Saddleback in California, he routinely convinced more than 25% of the audience that he was correct.

Nobody has been questioning John McCain's Christianity. Tonight Obama showed his knowledge of the Christian faith as well as his knowledge of scripture. He proved to generations of Americans that he is not Muslim, he is not the Anti-Christ, he is, in essence, our best hope for a better country. As I continue to watch the forum, I notice McCain constantly being interrupted for applause, definatively more boistrous than Obama's but still, if he makes in-roads with some people at this junction, it will quantitatively increase his polling numbers in the months to come, especially once these two begin to debate in a less civil manner, ie. presidential and vice-presidential debates. During those debates I have little fear that Obama will demolish McCain in every effort to prove a positive policy position. Think Kennedy v. Nixon, but dare I want to further the similarities between Kennedy and Obama.

On the issues Obama did not waiver, he did not falter, he didn't beat around the bush or deny his positions, he used LOGIC to show people WHY he believes the way he did, be it faith-based logic or simple LOGIC. Obama didn't attempt to lie to gain votes tonight, he showed who he was, he saved his hide, he kept is 24% and probably gained a few as well, if not, people will remember (hopefully) his ability during this forum to show his true colors, honesty, humility, intelligence, and candor.

On the flip-side, McCain (for the first time) seems somewhat intelligent, but his speaking points are not winning anyone else over. It is the same face-time I've seen time and time again from McCain, the same Bull Shit, the same Right-Wing talking points, the same Pro-Bush agenda which we have heard time and time again, and I believe, with full conviction that America will be tired of McCain before the election arrives. For such a "patriot" he sure seems to think of the US military as a chess piece more than an actual entity of young American's who give their future's in hope that they can help their country and be greatly compensated for their actions. We should be DAMN SURE that we know WHY we send them into harms-way before we send them, that we have explored all the options and use them as the last course of action and only when necessary.

As I continue to watch, I am still not impressed with McCain. I am biased though, do not think of this as a concise determination of the actual proceedings, as I have a very small notion as to what McCain can do for this country. I've said it before his logic is faulty, he is too old, he is too military-based and in the wrong way. Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran? Are you kidding? I am very disgusted by his positions, but tonight it isn't about me.

Obama tonight has everything to gain, McCain has everything to lose. From this point on, mark my words, prove me wrong if need be, you will see a constant decline in Senator McCain's national polling numbers. He has nothing new to offer and people are slowly realizing that the other 50% of this country have been correct for a LONG time.

If you called my dog a dingo... you were probably right.

I remember it as if it were yesterday.

I thought we were going to LOOK for dogs, but no, Erin had other ideas. In her mind, we were going to GET a dog. Not just any dog, but THE dog, and it had to be a puppy. Boy was it ever a puppy. She was about 4lbs, wrinkles all over, big floppy ears, big knobby paws, and tons of energy. She had fresh stitches on her undercarriage from being spade (which now pisses me off, but what can you do), a fresh tattoo, and a few worms, but other than that she was 100% tough.

Leila Jane sitting on Erin's lap the day we brought her home.

We named her Leila Jane, after the Clapton song, and figured Jane was a good middle name to use, just kind of came together. They told us she was a Chinese Sharpei, Boxer mix, and that she would get to about 35-40 lbs. At six months she was 40 lbs. She continued to grow, but she was always well-behaved, even for being confined to an urban apartment at first and now an even smaller duplex (although I must admit she loves to run the stairs, but with her long legs and muscular frame she only hits about 4 on the way up). She rarely messed inside, and if she did we knew she was sick. She played rough, but thats probably a combination of her size, my constant roughhousing with her and the fact that her best bud in Charlotte was Tanner, my buddy's Pit Bull.

She is now about 19 months old, and weighs in around 70lbs, she is still gentle, very intelligent, loving, and at times a bit weird. Weird, yeah, my dog... hunts dogs, and cats, and birds, and squirrells, and snipes (not really, I told you she was intelligent, she doesn't fall for the "snipe hunt" as quickly as a pledge). You ask, "what do you mean by 'hunt' Shawn"?" Well happy you asked, she gets down low, crouching to about half her normal height, her steps are slow and deliberately placed, eyes fixed on her prey, and just as she senses her timing is perfect, she leaps towards the prey accelerating to almost max speed within fractions of a second, and usually pulling my arm from my shoulder. A funny picture illustrating the end result of Leila's hunting prowess is below. The short of the story is that Leila got into "hunt mode" as she was exiting the house, she chased a kitten around the house behind us to our neighbors back porch. Once I caught up, this is what greeted me.Thank God for picture phones.

At this point if I were you (thank God I'm not, just kidding you seem like a great human), I'd be asking "What does this have to do with the title?" Well essentially this is all pointing to the fact that we cannot for the life of us figure out what type of dog she is. That is until the other day, I was at a friend's house up the road a spell, and his roommate's dog look just like Leila, well just like Leila plus like 30 lbs. After questioning the roommate about his dog I was told he was part American Dingo, also known as Carolina Dog. I had never heard of the breed, nor had I ever seen a Carolina Dog before, so I got home and gots to some reading.

You can click on the title of this article and Wikipedia will break it on down for you like you know they would. Essentially Carolina Dogs are thought to be the original dogs in this part of North America (what part? why the best part, the south east). Its believed that these are the ancestors of Korean dogs, who crossed the Bering land bridge with some of the first (who knows right? I wasn't here) humans to step foot on this beautiful continent, they lived here, side by side with Native Americans, as a type of Pariah dog, communal, a great hunting partner, and obviously a strong breed, as I have one of them using a pillow on my couch right now.

My research proved exciting as each and every bit of Carolina Dog filled my head. She fit EVERY single characteristic, she no longer looked like a Boxer German-Shepherd mutt, or a Sharpei mix, no, she was some sort of mutt with Carolina Dog, if not 100% Carolina Dog. Its a fascinating history these dogs have, still living wild in the lowcountry and swamps of the Carolinas and Georgia. Still living alongside humans thousands of years later, truly man's best friend.

Below I have put a couple of pictures so you can see what I mean as far as the visual similarities between Leila Jane and prime examples of American Dingos/Carolina Dogs. The personality profiles I read were also remarkably similar, and anyone knowing Leila can attest to the fact that she acts a bit unlike most other dogs.

Thanks for reading. Here's some comparison photos.Leila and Erin on the Beach.

Leila (8 mos) sitting on the couch.

Carolina Dogs. (above and below)

Check out more Carolina Dogs/American Dingos by simply performing a Google image search.