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Showing posts with label 政治. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 政治. Show all posts

Friday, March 20, 2009

President Obama on Jay Leno

President Obama made history again by being the first sitting President appearing on a talk show and Jay Leno was part of that history, beating all other Californian talk show hosts.


FULL VIDEO OF THE INTERVIEW HERE:


What impresses me is how down-to-earth President Obama is (he actually used the word "man" at the end of the sentence as if he is talking to his close friends) . He does not talk like any other politicians. He speaks with his hearts when he talks about the challenging issues facing the US, he also has a great sense of humour. When Jay asked the President if the other guys throw the game during basketball game (i.e. let the President wins, etc), Obama replied "no" ....except when the secret service people are holding their guns. I thought that was funny.


He appears relaxed but still thinks before he speaks, i.e. speaks with his brain unlike his Vice President. It is understandable, any screw-ups on the most popular talk show can cost him  the political capital he is enjoying in his first 59 days in office.


What impresses me the most is when he said the US should INVEST IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, instead of having young people working for the finance institutes like most nowadays, they should be studying engineering and science, they should be working as engineers , scientists, teachers and doctors. Obama said that we should REWARD PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTING TO MAKING THINGS AND MAKING LIFE BETTER FOR OTHERS, this will put our  financial system on a solid footing.  I have long been an advocate of this axiom but I am glad that there is actually a politician who mentioned this publically.


He understands that what drives the society forward is real contributions to the society such as engineering and science, not finance.


He also pointed out that what got their financial system into trouble are all legal and this is why the financial system and culture have to be changed. He emphasizes on ethics in Wallstreet. This is what I like about him, as a Democrat, he still carries a sense of duty and ethics, unlike the fake ethics promoted by the Republicans and so called Conservatives.


I have also watched his Q&A sessions at the town hall meetings . Although his answers are still lacking substances , they do boost people's spirit and inspire the audience, this is somethings that a leader needs to do in this unusual difficult time. It is humble for him to say " I am your employee............... I am running for president to solve your problems" (Employee to the people who elected him). I can't recall any president in recent history who is grateful enough to say that. Many CEOs  should learn from Obama on how to be a better leader.


Obama did make one mistake during this interview in my opinion. Obama was describing how he has been improving in his bowling (he is not a good bowler) and he has scored 129, Jay was sarcastically indicating that "that was impressive." . In response with a humour , Obama said:"...it is like the special Olympics......." ; that implies that people are having lower expectation for "physically challenged" athletes in Special Olympics.  I think he will get some reactions from the Special Olympics committee.


It seems to me that this government has simulataneously taken on quite a mountain of challenges, I do not know how many of the problems will be overcome by the end of his first term, but I wish him and his administration the best.


 


Tuesday, November 4, 2008

McCain VS Obama US election 2008

November the 4th is a special and exciting day for the Americans - their election day for their President. After 8 year of George W Bush, would the Americans choose John McCain or Barack Obama?? If John McCain wins, he would be the second graduate from US Naval College to be the President and there will be the first female Vice President; if Obama wins, of course, he would be the first Black elected to be the President. It is also the first time in recent history that a large number of registered voters come out and vote. Many feel that this election is much more important than other previous ones after 8 years of George W.

Many hate to admit it, but most people want to vote because of the reason depicted as follows:



Race is a concern to some, especially in some more conservative white majority states. A white guy actually said on TV that the last black guy he met was holding a baseball bat (suggesting the black guy would use it to hit someone) . Some are really afraid of a black guy being in charge of the country and should be run by a white guy. Seriously, would Obama hit someone with a baseball bat when he has the secret service as his disposal if he is the President!? On the other side of the arena, many Blacks are voting for Obama simply because he is Black though a few Blacks won't be voting for Obama because he is Black.


John McCain - Republican



Barack Obama - Democrat



Which one of the above will get his picture printed on the TIME magazine??


I have read the "promises" each of the candidates made in their energising speeches but my question is how many of them they can fullfill. There is never much details of the actual implementations of whatever they said they would do, it is likely that the voters will be disappointed again just like many other previous elections after all the voting excitment is gone.


Many polls have suggested that Obama has a double digit (10 percentage points) lead ahead of McCain, but are the pollers being honest of who they would vote on election day??


I can never understand the US electoral system. Some states have larger electoral votes than others. I can understand that this would work during the infant age of the country, but is it a fair representation for each state in this modern age. Whoever got the required 270 electoral votes would get the White House. The number of electoral votes get from each state is shown here:


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/


E.g. CA - 55 - if most people in California voted for Obama, then 55 electoral votes goto Obama. The elected President must get 270 electoral votes in total.


Blue - certain that Obama will win;  Purple - leaning towards Obama


Red - certain that McCain will win ; Pink - leaning towards McCain


You can get the latest result here:


http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/map/polling/index.html


http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/


(Just don't learn English from CNN!! )


Why do others around the world should care about the US election? Unfortunately, US has the biggest influence around the world (as they insist), so whoever is elected to be the US President, his/her US policy (especially the foreign policy) and the US economy will have a ripple effect around the globe even if you don't invest in the stock market.


I think McCain has made the mistake of choosing Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential running mate. She has some experience in being a Governor of Alaska and a Mayor of Wasilla. but probably not a good candidate for  the vice president whose job is to act as the President should anything happen to the President. I personally don't think she is ready if she couldn't tell a faked (North American) French accent  of a Montreal radio show host from  the accent of  the real President of France . For those don't know what happened: Palin had a 6 minutes conversation with a radio talk-show host who faked as the President of France making an official call to Palin. Palin thought the call was genuine.


Even today (the election day), both candidates are making speeches and political ads are still running on various TV networks. This is rare even in US politics.


Whoever elected to be the President would have a handful of things to do. I don't think any voters should expect the President to be able to solve the problems him(her)self but the voters should expect the President to be surrounded by people who can. I think George W Bush really wants to solve the problems (even though  he created most of them) but he is just surrounded by incapable people and has been ill-adviced. Unfortunately, the current US electoral system doesn't allow the voters to keep these people away from the White House.


I am predicting an Obama win but with a smaller margin between Obama and McCain than is projected by various polling sources. I certainly hope there won't be another "vote recount " scenario which will take the election to another few months and prevent me from watching other better TV programmes.


McCain VS Obama US election 2008

November the 4th is a special and exciting day for the Americans - their election day for their President. After 8 year of George W Bush, would the Americans choose John McCain or Barack Obama?? If John McCain wins, he would be the second graduate from US Naval College to be the President and there will be the first female Vice President; if Obama wins, of course, he would be the first Black elected to be the President. It is also the first time in recent history that a large number of registered voters come out and vote. Many feel that this election is much more important than other previous ones after 8 years of George W.

Many hate to admit it, but most people want to vote because of the reason depicted as follows:



Race is a concern to some, especially in some more conservative white majority states. A white guy actually said on TV that the last black guy he met was holding a baseball bat (suggesting the black guy would use it to hit someone) . Some are really afraid of a black guy being in charge of the country and should be run by a white guy. Seriously, would Obama hit someone with a baseball bat when he has the secret service as his disposal if he is the President!? On the other side of the arena, many Blacks are voting for Obama simply because he is Black though a few Blacks won't be voting for Obama because he is Black.


John McCain - Republican



Barack Obama - Democrat



Which one of the above will get his picture printed on the TIME magazine??


I have read the "promises" each of the candidates made in their energising speeches but my question is how many of them they can fullfill. There is never much details of the actual implementations of whatever they said they would do, it is likely that the voters will be disappointed again just like many other previous elections after all the voting excitment is gone.


Many polls have suggested that Obama has a double digit (10 percentage points) lead ahead of McCain, but are the pollers being honest of who they would vote on election day??


I can never understand the US electoral system. Some states have larger electoral votes than others. I can understand that this would work during the infant age of the country, but is it a fair representation for each state in this modern age. Whoever got the required 270 electoral votes would get the White House. The number of electoral votes get from each state is shown here:


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/


E.g. CA - 55 - if most people in California voted for Obama, then 55 electoral votes goto Obama. The elected President must get 270 electoral votes in total.


Blue - certain that Obama will win;  Purple - leaning towards Obama


Red - certain that McCain will win ; Pink - leaning towards McCain


You can get the latest result here:


http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/map/polling/index.html


http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/


(Just don't learn English from CNN!! )


Why do others around the world should care about the US election? Unfortunately, US has the biggest influence around the world (as they insist), so whoever is elected to be the US President, his/her US policy (especially the foreign policy) and the US economy will have a ripple effect around the globe even if you don't invest in the stock market.


I think McCain has made the mistake of choosing Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential running mate. She has some experience in being a Governor of Alaska and a Mayor of Wasilla. but probably not a good candidate for  the vice president whose job is to act as the President should anything happen to the President. I personally don't think she is ready if she couldn't tell a faked (North American) French accent  of a Montreal radio show host from  the accent of  the real President of France . For those don't know what happened: Palin had a 6 minutes conversation with a radio talk-show host who faked as the President of France making an official call to Palin. Palin thought the call was genuine.


Even today (the election day), both candidates are making speeches and political ads are still running on various TV networks. This is rare even in US politics.


Whoever elected to be the President would have a handful of things to do. I don't think any voters should expect the President to be able to solve the problems him(her)self but the voters should expect the President to be surrounded by people who can. I think George W Bush really wants to solve the problems (even though  he created most of them) but he is just surrounded by incapable people and has been ill-adviced. Unfortunately, the current US electoral system doesn't allow the voters to keep these people away from the White House.


I am predicting an Obama win but with a smaller margin between Obama and McCain than is projected by various polling sources. I certainly hope there won't be another "vote recount " scenario which will take the election to another few months and prevent me from watching other better TV programmes.


Sunday, March 2, 2008

US Presidential Election and Canada Alberta's election

Not really in the mood to compose a toy list today and I thought I injected a bit of freshness into my blog. Yes, I am going to talk about politics.


Why do people even care after years of years if not centuries of failed promises or deliveries of prospects, better life, social improvements , etc whatever fancy words, politically correctness, euthemisms people are using today????


I can only think of one thing: HOPE, even a false hope.


On the US side, we have basically three candidates running for the top job. The fourth one is, in my opinion, wasting his money and time just to make a point.


The truth is that none of the candidates offers any type of real solutions. They just keep repeating what any  intelligent people would know already, they  re-iterate the problems and repackage them so that what comes out of their mouths sound like a solution. Very often, presidents are helpless without the help from various aides and so called advisors; they are really the one running the country and no one elected them. Frankly, most Americans vote on image and charisma. Unfortunately, they get influenced by TV and the media, special interest groups and the campaign managers for various candidates know it. Candidates promise to solve people's problems but these are not really new problems. Economy, health care and the wars. Wars are good for business (sorry if I sound callous), at least for the companies that manufacture weapons. Aggressive foreign policy is not going to help them avoiding wars. Will forcing democracy on other countries really work? Do the Americans have trillions of trillions of dollars hidden somewhere to sustain numerous wars for many years? By the way, democracy is not really democratic but it is certainly "more free" or in American English "free-er" than some other countries. I would like to see someone throw a cream pie at a president and get away with it........


One of the problems with their health care systems is "affordability". Obviously, the rich people have no problems, they can even buy organs if they have to (illegal or not).  Medicine is expensive and WHY is it so expensive?? The health care system problem can partly be solved by going after the pharmaceutical companies and their overly-compensated CEOs, what have these CEOs done anyway?? They are certainly not the one who invented the cures or semi-cures. Have they even used a microscope or bunsen burner?? Do most medicine come from some "blossom-only-once-in-a-thousand-year" flowers in the Amazon, that's why they are so expensive?


Efficiency of the system is another lengthy topic...........


Do you know that some pharmaceutical companies didn't want to make a cure for some diseases because only a few hundred people have those diseases in the world, therefore it is not profitable for these companies to make the cures?? Yes, that's life for you, new borns.


The other problem they have in the health care system is the lack of real , passionate doctors, the only incentive they have, attending med school is.......you guessed it......MONEY!


Also, only if people can take care of themselves by not injecting themselves with crappy junk food. The reason why the Americans need big cars is that no smaller transportations can pull their football-field sized butts off the roads. Someone pointed guns at them forcing them to take drugs,  smoke cigarettes and swallow tons of bacons?? Don't you miss those cars in the Flintstone's , definitely a healthier life style driving those cars.


Economy..... just imagine those behind the scene in the trading markets manipulating the situation to their advantage, so that they can profit from it.......it is not that far-fetched. It is happening everyday. Don't be surprised that your life time saving is gone in one night.................


Wars are always bad news to the country, except for, as I mentioned previously, those that design and manufacture weapons; war means big big spending by the government, not that they won't spend it on some golden toilet seats/renting streetwalkers during peace time. One example would be, spending millions on setting up a committee just to ask baseball players if they had taken drugs. Right, those who took drugs  would really tell those on the bench pretending to have contributed to the society that they had taken performance enhancers...........AND why do people care?? Can millions dollars be spent on social programs and by the way, how are those cures for AIDS, Alzheimer's , Pakinson's coming?? Millions of dollars can help some under-previleged kids go to schools/universities, build some decent houses for people to live in, get homeless off the streets. I think baseball players should take drugs. Have you ever seen any baseball games with balls flying at 300 km/h??? Take drugs and make that happen. Not that I am promoting harmful drugs, but spending millions on some crappy committee hearing is a complete waste of money, electricity, air (those on the committe should be deprived of air, they are certainly not using the oxygen in the blood to their brains) and TV time broadcasting it.


So, back to the candidates:


Hillary: She obviously needs more delegates to be nominated and she has the signs of fatigue. My Jedi power senses no solutions from her speeches or debates. It is unlikely that Bill the ex-president can fool around in the White House again.


Obama: Wonderful, wonderful beauitful, high spirited, energising speeches....................but hello, shall we walk out from the forest in some fable story books and talk about real practical solutions? When Dr. King said "I  have a dream.........." , he didn't really mean dreaming up some solutions!


Most African Americans would just vote for Obama to put the first African American President on the pages of the American history book, even for female African Americans, instead of voting for a female or a person who can solve their problems, they will vote for Obama because of the race. Prove me wrong.......



McCain: Sorry you spent painful  time in Viet-nam (and why were the Americans in Viet-nam???) but it is mentioned so much that the name Viet-nam becomes a verb. Are you going to expand the US military???



Huckabee: hmmmm..................why are you still in the race??? I think gay people know it already when you said you didn't hate them any more, especially when it was said while you are still running for president. Doesn't "often-at-the-third place-in-the-race" tell you anything about your chances in getting the nomination?? Ok, you said the numbers were not counted properly............well, I didn't know you were the governor of FLORIDA!!



 


Canada: Hmmmm not much happening except for the Alberta's premier election. I would be surprised if it is not going to be the conservatives again. Green party and the communist party, why are you guys on the ballot, what is the point???? Not that other parties got any real chances either. Green party can withdraw from the ballot so that no paper is wasted printing your name, so it is good for the trees!!  Most Albertans are conservatives (in the name of ethics and integrity), but these are the same people who rub-albow with special interest groups/big oil businesses and being hypocratic in their personal and public lives.


I forgot to mention that there are more people from other provinces moving to Alberta to take advantage of the economy, If these newcomers are liberals (from Ontario or British Columbia, etc) and they can vote this year, they might close the gap between the Conservatives and Liberals who has been struggle to put the first liberal primier in power the past 30 or more years. Then again, the newcomers might be conservatives trying to escape the liberal majority in some other provinces.


Hong Kong: Election??? WHAT ELECTION!?  The central "Communist" government in Beijing is on holiday??? It was said that the first real democratic election for 特首 would happen in 2012. Great, according to some prophets, the world ends in the same year!!


My list of complaints continues.............


SOLUTIONS to the US election process.


After all the whining I wrote above, I propose this to the US election process. Have each of the candidate do hours of written tests on social/international issues and problems. They will answer these questions with their solutions in some details allowable by the testing time (if they are running for president, they better know something!).  Publish their answers publically and let the people decide who to vote based on their answers. This might not be the best solution but it is still a much better way to evaluate candidate than choosing candidate based on their PRE-written (by someone else - so called speech writers) speeches or endless hours of debates, or charisma or looks or colour of their teeth, hair style or fashion statements.


Instead of spending millions if not trillions on campaignes, false advertisements, the money can be spent on social programmes, medical research , etc. If one cares about their country that much and run for president, one should be able to donate their money to these causes.