The election season often clouds over important issues as politicians must spend considerable time and money attacking one another. The vast majority of this empty rhetoric is unfortunately tied to dollars received through contribution and not necessarily sound policy and forward thinking for our country. Therefore, it has now become our responsibility as voters to make this distinction for our politicians and vote accordingly.

It is my belief that there is no more an important issue for Americans in this election than the growth of the economy. The stymied growth of the U.S. economy has become a catalyst for a number of other problems we face such as health care coverage, education reform, social security, and housing. We are currently in a position where the lack of savings coupled with overspending have created an accelerating problem evidenced by both the housing and credit crisis. Governments, presidents, agencies, companies, politicians, lobbyists, Democrats, Republicans, and Americans; we are all to blame. The question now becomes what do we do? Do we sit passive as politicians harp on the foreshadowed obvious? Or instead should we shift our attention to what needs to be accomplished?

The answer I believe is growth without bust. Every economic boom of late appears to hit a growth constraint and falls apart. The Internet boom at the turn of the century while occasionally speculative also hit such a constraint. There were many great business plans such as downloading movies to your home computer, but poor infrastructure and connectivity speeds did not warrant the money needed to bring such companies to fruition. But why was the infrastructure behind the Internet so poor? Oil prices. The global ingredients that make up a computer not only depend on oil for distribution but also in producing many of the plastics and metals for wires and circuitry. If it is too costly for enough computer companies to compete with one another or even enter the market, then technological advances will slow down and sustainable growth will not occur.

The price of oil appears to stunt growth not only in the U.S but all around the globe. Even in a city like Dubai, where growth over the last decade exploded with their ability to pay less for oil, has hit an unexpected barrier as oil dependant companies around the world can’t supply them enough cranes for building development. One could even argue that high oil prices assisted in the recent housing crash in the United States. It is true some unwisely bought into mortgages they could not afford, but as the economy suffered through multiple boom and bust cycles Americans desperately had to rely more on the equity in their homes to pay for health care, automobiles, education, and bills.

The solution for sustainable growth would be an alternative energy boom that will not only create jobs but will act as an accelerant and not a deterrent for the other previously stunted sectors in our economy. Alternative energy reform has begun in the U.S. but there is still a lot to be done before we are completely energy independent. Both government policy and public attitude must align to make this goal possible. Similar to Dubai, we too suffer a similar irony where the development of energy independence is slowed by the oil related costs to produce electric cars, wind farms, and solar panels.

So which candidate will make this happen? Both Barack Obama and John McCain call for energy solutions, but like most politicians there is actual support and the appearance of support. Barack Obama’s energy policies are “goal oriented” whereas John McCain’s policies are merely “hole oriented”. And by “hole oriented” I mean McCain is simply throwing a lot of empty solutions to our oil dependence. For example, McCain calls for a $300 million prize to improve battery technology for plug-in hybrid and fully electric automobiles. However, there is already great incentive for U.S. companies to develop better batteries, not to mention that $300 million is really not that much money. Obama on the other hand calls for 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015. McCain doesn’t share this clear cut of a goal because he understands that he would actually be expected to fulfill it.

The rest of Obama’s goals are to create 5 million new clean energy jobs through a $150 billion investment in the private sector, save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela in 10 years, and ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2015 and 25% by 2025. In my opinion these are all “real” goals that will move us away from oil dependence.

The rest of McCain’s energy solutions actually appear to continue our dependence on oil. McCain wants to expand domestic oil exploration, but the expansion of drilling won’t produce new oil until 2017, not to mention that gas prices would never go down as a result. It is a fools plan to give the appearance that something will be done in the near term, while simultaneously prolonging oil dependence. Another example of this is McCain’s $5,000 tax credit for Americans who purchase a zero emissions car. It sounds great at first, but what if I told you I would pay you $5,000 today if you bought a flying car? It may sound like I support flying cars (which I do), but it avoids putting money towards the actual technology that produces them. And I think that is the most important thing to understand with McCain and his energy policies. He “supports” energy independence but wants to prolong it as much as possible.

It is my belief that Barack Obama will move the United States away from oil dependence. With cheap and renewable energy, the U.S. will see unprecedented growth in both jobs and the overall economy. It will take many years to correct the damage we have caused over the last few decades, but there is no better time to begin than now. I vote Barack Obama for President.

Our brotha of Iowa found this gem of video.  There really isn’t much to explain, other than the McCain girls are chumps compared to the Obama Girls.  If the election were decided on YouTube videos, McCain has lost every election for the next 100 years.

Why you so crazy?

According to The Local, a 75-year-old woman in Sweden has an Internet speed that is easily 1000 times faster than the average residential user.  Her name is Sigbritt Löthberg and she is the mother of Internet legend Peter Löthberg.  Sigbritt has the ability to download at 40 gigabytes per second, which means she can download a full length high definition DVD in 2 seconds.  She says the room that stores her computer is so hot she can actually dry her laundry. 

The project was designed to demonstrate how a low price, high capacity fibre line could be built over long distances.  Its speed is derived from a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.  We don’t exactly know what that means, but it sure sounds fast. 

To put this speed into perspective we did a little math.  As of January 9th, 2008 over 4 billion songs were sold on iTunes (starting in 2003 when it launched).  On average, 1 song is 3 megabytes and there are 1024 megabytes in 1 gigabyte.  That means that around 11.7 million gigabytes worth of songs have been downloaded on all of Earth.  Divide that by 40 gigabytes per second and it would take roughly 3 and half days for Sigbritt to do the same.  Good God that’s fast.

In an attempt to honor George W. Bush and all his wonderful accomplishments as President, the newly formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco wants to rename a sewage plant in his honor.  SFist.com reports:

The local grassroots movement, helmed by “Wayne Pickering,” is proposing an ordinance initiative for the November 2008 San Francisco ballot in order to get the poop/pee/vomit plant’s title changed. Why? To honor our current leader of the free world with an “appropriate and enduring legacy, for no other president in modern American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.    

We love you San Francisco.  If you too would like to see this actually happen you can sign a petition at presidentialmemorial.org. 

There is a great website called Overheard In New York that we visit from time to time, but this week we stumbled across one of the most memorable quotes to date (below).  The website is somewhat of an open forum where people can write in all the funny/strange things they hear walking down the street.   

Angry woman to friend: I have a contention with the way people pronounce my daughter’s name. I did not name my daughter ‘Lady Nasty’! I named my baby girl ‘La Dynasty.’  

President Bush was in Russia this week to persuade President Putin to allow a Europe based missile defense system.  As usual, Bush failed in negotiations, but that didn’t stop him from getting a tour of Putin’s sweet pad. 

Tonight while watching the movie Catch Me If You Can on ABC, a subliminal-like picture flashed across the screen for half a second.  The image was none other than the logo for The Mole which aired for two seasons and ended six years ago.  Immediate excitement followed, but could it be real?  Was this some joke an employee in the broadcasting booth was playing on us?  NO!  The Mole is coming back to ABC! 

The Mole was hosted by Anderson Cooper (the CNN dude) and featured a number of contestants who competed in various competitions while living together.  Seems like your average reality show, but one of the contestants was secretly assigned to be a mole and would try their best to sabotage the competition.  Contestants would then speculate who was the mole, vote, and whoever got the most votes got kicked off.  Casting is underway…where do we sign up?

We find it interesting that all of our posts which include words like “evil”,”dummies”, “terrorists”, and “crazies” somehow cue up John McCain ads to appear on our site.  Coincidence? 

For more than a decade the world’s evil geniuses (more commonly known as physicists), have spent a whopping $8 billion constructing the Large Hadrom Collider, which if all goes to plan will recreate the conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Why? So they can hold the Earth ransom for millions billions trillions of dollars of course!

But thanks to the heroism of two men (Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho) who want to squash the doomsday plan, a lawsuit has been filed in a Hawaiian federal court. They believe that use of the giant particle accelerator could create a black hole that would ultimately eat the Earth. We kind of agree with these two. Even if the chance of something like this occurring is 1 in 50 trillion is it really worth destroying all of mankind in the process?

Their plan to bring the case in Hawaii could spell trouble for CERN physicists, whose frail and pale bodies are not used to the bright death rays of sunlight that are known to scorch the Hawaiian islands. Victory is uh…err THEIRS!

We watched 10 minutes of MTV’s The Hills tonight.  Aside from the fact our brains melted out our ears and dripped onto the coffee table, the show is eerily similar to another form of entertainment; professional wrestling.  Both are obviously fake, yet their audiences refuse to believe they could enjoy something so religiously that wasn’t real.  But it is on TV so it has to be real, right?

On March 11 a worried viewer called into Jim Cramer’s CNBC show Mad Money and asked if he should sell Bear Stearns.  Mr. Cramer responded like a preschooler on a sugar high, “Bear Stearns is not in trouble…Don’t be silly”.  Over the next week Bear Stearns stock price fell 95% after a buy-out plan from JP Morgan was announced for the troubled investment bank.  Many saw this coming, but the problem was no one in the media wanted to admit believe it.  Bear Stearns was known to have serious issues after the collapse of two of their Hedge Funds last summer due to their sub-prime mortgage backed securities.  Shows like Jim Cramer’s Mad Money and The Suze Orman Show just exacerbate the problem because they will often tell you exactly what you want to hear.  They have every intent to give you the best information possible, but viewer beware…they don’t always have the best advice.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who was appointed by Bush after the outing of Alberto Gonzales back in September 2007, told reporters on Friday afternoon that he was generally surprised by the scope of terrorist threats against the United States.  Are you scared yet?  No? Well, you’re supposed to be.  Once again the pre-election tactics of the Bush administration have resurfaced to instill fear in the minds of voters.  These types of off-handed comments always make their way to the media during election season.  But don’t be fooled, terrorist threats have only increased under this administration.

Black20.com is an internet production company with one goal: creating hilarious video content to spread across the internet. They are located in New York City which is also the backdrop for most of their videos. Check out this clip from their show “net_work” and we recommend you check out their site to see the rest.

Check out this video from “The Middle Show“…also Black20.com

The AP has written Britney Spears’ obituary just in case as reported by US Magazine.  Better to be prepared, right?

Blu-Ray DVD has officially beaten HD-DVD in the epic battle of DVD formats.  Warner Brothers plans to only release DVDs in the Blu-Ray format, which means Blu-Ray will now have a 70% share of the DVD market.  The remaining 30% (Universal and Paramount) will most likely move to Blu-Ray so as not to be left in the dark.  Paramount just signed an exclusive deal with HD-DVD, so the chances that someone high-up is getting fired are pretty high.

Now we can finally buy a new DVD player…it’s about time.

UPDATE:A new Blu-Ray DVD player will cost you $12,000.  Looks like we’ll still need to wait.  

There have been a number of conflicting reports that an employee from Merrill Lynch either shit or pissed all over his office after learning of his bonus.  The man worked in the Fixed Income research group, and was undoubtedly affected by the subprime mortgage crisis.  One report states that the man pissed on his desk, while another report states the man went into the bathroom, took a shit, stomped on it, and walked all around the office.  You just can’t make this stuff up.

Barack Obama, “Change is good”

John Edwards, “Ditto”

Hillary Clinton, “BLAHLLHLHJLALALALA*%&$&$%&*”

Bill Richardson, “Who am I?”