Fed up with politics - my dads attempt at a blog/organization

[Surf314]

My dad started up this web page to try and get the middle organized to lean on politicians to start getting stuff done for the average american and stop making everything political.  Anyways I'm trying to support him although it is his first time dealing with the internet so who knows what's going to happen.

If you get a chance can you rate his youtube video and leave a comment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQJVQ0AjAa8

Also the site is www.fuppie.com and if you have any suggestions can you leave them here and I will give it to him.  The ultimate goal is to have a non-partisan site dedicated to discussing ideas and trying to organize a voting block to punish politicians that push party politics and self-interest over the good of the people.  He's actually done some work in politics to overhaul the organ donor program in Florida and knows some politicians.  He was telling me that politicians tend to avoid their voters like the plague until election season.  It would be nice to make them change that habit.

[Vongore]

fuppie's a cute name.


But seriously, i will show this website @ compared politic class today, tell your dad his crusade is a good one :3

[rumsfald]

Also the site is www.fuppie.com and if you have any suggestions can you leave them here and I will give it to him.  The ultimate goal is to have a non-partisan site dedicated to discussing ideas and trying to organize a voting block to punish politicians that push party politics and self-interest over the good of the people.  He's actually done some work in politics to overhaul the organ donor program in Florida and knows some politicians.  He was telling me that politicians tend to avoid their voters like the plague until election season.  It would be nice to make them change that habit.

Smited for picking on Sen. Dodd in the opening seconds while stating the above. Hard to find a better guy, and representative of the people, in the senate than Chris Dodd (especially on finance issues).

2nd smite @ 1:20 for criticizing the explosion of bureaucracy in washington (agreed) but trying to blame that on the democrats. Of the 6 politicians who's pictures are shown 4/6 are dems (the others are Booosh and Paulson). You can't blame the largest increase in the size of the government on Frank, Pelosi, Dodd, and Reid. Try Boosh (one correct), Frist, Delay, Hastert, McConnell, McCain, Dole, Bohner, etc.

To be honest, he seems like a long-time republican that is reading the tea-leaves and seeing that the typical republican platform is DOA for the next 6-8 years,.  So he is trying to cloak himself in the language of progressive movement (which is popular now and rising).  I don't buy that he is "post-partisan" in the slightest.

*Rummy was always a registered independent until he moved to a state that doesn't allow independents to vote in primaries. Rummy still is a fierce independent.

Also, needs to read from the teleprompter less.

Also, based on the first youtube comment, Surf's new name is AstroSurf.

[CaffeinePowered]

Too bad non-partisan-ism is dead in America, Neo-con right managed to bury it real deep. If you aren't with them you're anti-american and a terrorist. On the other hand, if you have any conservative views you're a facist/nazi/orwellian.

[Tragic Hero]

Too bad non-partisan-ism is dead in America, Neo-con right managed to bury it real deep. If you aren't with them you're anti-american and a terrorist. On the other hand, if you have any conservative views you're a facist/nazi/orwellian.

I want to sign up for the orwellian party.  It would be better than being  a "prole"

[Benito Mussolini]

If you aren't with them you're anti-american and a terrorist.

You forgot communist

[Surf314]

My dad leans right and the guy helping him make the video was obviously in the McCain camp when I talked to him.  I saw him tape but haven't seen it edited.  My dad is pretty good at keeping it non-partisan so I think some stuff snuck in in editing.  I will have to forward him your post rummy.

[Benito Mussolini]

*Rummy was always a registered independent until he moved to a state that doesn't allow independents to vote in primaries. Rummy still is a fierce independent.

I think an all-independent democracy would be the best.

[Greatbacon]

[quote author=CaffeinePowered link=topic=1619.msg45178#msg45178 date=1224544436]
Too bad non-partisan-ism is dead in America, Neo-con right managed to bury it real deep. If you aren't with them you're anti-american and a terrorist. On the other hand, if you have any conservative views you're a facist/nazi/orwellian.

I want to sign up for the orwellian party.  It would be better than being  a "prole"
[/quote]You could always look for a job in the British government...

[Surf314]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=1619.msg45122#msg45122 date=1224512288]
Also the site is www.fuppie.com and if you have any suggestions can you leave them here and I will give it to him.  The ultimate goal is to have a non-partisan site dedicated to discussing ideas and trying to organize a voting block to punish politicians that push party politics and self-interest over the good of the people.  He's actually done some work in politics to overhaul the organ donor program in Florida and knows some politicians.  He was telling me that politicians tend to avoid their voters like the plague until election season.  It would be nice to make them change that habit.

Smited for picking on Sen. Dodd in the opening seconds while stating the above. Hard to find a better guy, and representative of the people, in the senate than Chris Dodd (especially on finance issues).

2nd smite @ 1:20 for criticizing the explosion of bureaucracy in washington (agreed) but trying to blame that on the democrats. Of the 6 politicians who's pictures are shown 4/6 are dems (the others are Booosh and Paulson). You can't blame the largest increase in the size of the government on Frank, Pelosi, Dodd, and Reid. Try Boosh (one correct), Frist, Delay, Hastert, McConnell, McCain, Dole, Bohner, etc.

To be honest, he seems like a long-time republican that is reading the tea-leaves and seeing that the typical republican platform is DOA for the next 6-8 years,.  So he is trying to cloak himself in the language of progressive movement (which is popular now and rising).  I don't buy that he is "post-partisan" in the slightest.

*Rummy was always a registered independent until he moved to a state that doesn't allow independents to vote in primaries. Rummy still is a fierce independent.

Also, needs to read from the teleprompter less.

Also, based on the first youtube comment, Surf's new name is AstroSurf.
[/quote]

This comment overall makes me sad.  My dad and me have talked politics a lot.  He's been unbearable lately because he believes some of the crap they have been spreading but earlier in the campaign he was for obama and even told me he thought he was an amazing person but was concerned about his experience (valid).  True I am helping him but it's because I respect him and know he is trying to do something positive.  

I've been with him through his lifegiver campaign where he pushed some legislation through to modernize the organ donor system.  He was pretty sickened with it after my brother needed a liver and didn't want others to go through the system.  Basically a lot of organ's were being wasted because of archaic information systems.  He picked up a lot of cynicism for politics then.  Ironically it was mostly dealing with the Republican party but I'm sure he's of the opinion the democratic party is the same (it probably is).  You'd be surprised how much trouble he had to go through to get a seemingly no-brainer piece of legislation through.

He also has been a member of the library board for a while and helped stop the neo-cons in my home town from almost having a book burning.  One of the people going for re-election decided to rile up the large amount of religious conservatives by bringing up controversial books and saying they need to be banned.  He gave a great speech against it that I wish I had on tape, that would have made a far better youtube video.

So yes I am trying to help pimp his stuff, and I may not always agree with him politically.  But overall it's because I know when he gets like this its because he wants to try to change something for the positive.  And I am pretty nervous because I am afraid he's going to make some mistake and get some first hand experience of internet trolls.

But I respect your opinion Rummy and will make sure he knows that the video seems slanted right in a sneaky way.  Maybe he can fix it.

[Squishy3]

I stick with Stephen Colbert for president.

[Surf314]

Hey Rummy I passed along what you said and he told me he thought that it was a legitimate criticism.  He said he thinks the editing seems to slant republican.  He said he was specifically putting Dodd in though because of his role in loosening the regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or something.  I was driving.  Anyways he is re-editing the video to shorten it and trying to make it more neutral.  He was looking for a good Republican example to balance it out and I suggested Stevens, but if you are quick you can make one that I can get him to put in.

[rumsfald]

I'm glad he appreciated it, Surf. When you asked for feedback I tried to be honest, unvarnished, and blunt, but you never know how someone is going to take it.

As for Dodd on Freddie/Fannie, not sure what specifically Popa Surf is talking about...



....but Dodd has hardly been reckless with Freddie/Fannie.

As for who deserves some share of the blame, I vote for Phil Graham (who happens to be McCain's financial adviser). http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/14/cu...hil-gramm/

To be honest, I'm not sure what the cutaway still shots to any of the politicians accomplish, other than to generate buzz and get an emotional reaction. From your moving description, it sounds like Papa Surf does better when he is in the details of the issue. So, maybe he'd come off better by taking a single issue and drilling down in detail and naming names of all the culprits involved, and why. Facts are stubborn things. Pick an issue, and present it inside-out (like organs, pun intended) in a way that real independents can see the truth.

Ain't nothing wrong with a right leaning slant (by that I mean, conservative slant to financial and government). I really like McCain's catch phrase about crooks who push earmarks, "I will make them famous," it would actually be nice if someone was intellectually honest about pursuing such a goal (McCain isn't).  Part of the reason Ron Paul got so much support, he was honest with how hyppocrittical the mainstream republicans became vis-a-vis "big goverment" (that is, creating a ton of new government jobs that excel at sucking, see homeland security today versus FEMA during hurricaine andrew that actually did something).


I like to pick on Ted "teh tubes" Stevens, but it depends on the issue. Sure he is bad on earmarks, but good for Alaska. Is he corrupt? well, the government botched his case so we may never know. I'd rather know how he stands on the individual issues I care about and make the choice from there.

[Surf314]

Hmm another good post.  I don't follow much politics out of frustration so most of my conversations with him revolve around policy and economics.  I personally think that the government and the banks should work together to offer existing homeowners that occupy their house a chance to go interest free for any amount of time up to 3 years.  I think this will help on many levels.  It will allow those financially troubled to immediately reduce their bills.  It will allow people to use that money to pay down high interest debt.  And from a purely economic standpoint it will free up some cash to help the economy.  I also think there should be some incentive for keeping a low amount of debt.

Obviously this would have to be done with care.  I think that this should coincide with a government sponsored financial advice program to help people make a budget and get their debt to a manageable level.  How will you fund this?  Use college students.  Education is important and in this economy it's going to be tough for people to put themselves through school without taking out massive debt (and furthering the problem).  So give government assistance to those willing to work in jobs like these that benefit the country.  You kill two birds with one stone.

Also I think that there should be a system set up to create absolute debt ceilings for people based on their annual income.  Personally since I lean libertarian I think this should be optional.  With debt you got a big prisoner's dilemma where the last person to lend gets the best deal because they can charge based on the current risk of the person (which goes up with each loan/credit card).  So let people opt in to a mandatory debt ceiling to get better interest rates over all.  That way they are less risky to the first and second lender.  And they have to compete for that persons debt allocation.

Lastly there should be more incentives for banks to work out things with people in danger of foreclosure.  It's really win/win for the banks but based on talking with my dad banks are really only interested in foreclosing for accounting reasons.  Writing down the losses frees up cash for lending or something.  But overall they lose money for themselves and the unlucky borrower by forcing sales in a bad market.  It's like how walgreen's would only lease to boost their return on asset ratios and help inflate their stocks even though they were losing a lot of money by not purchasing their stores (this creative accounting method was closed by forcing companies to put capital leases in the asset column of their balance sheets).  We need to keep companies from making boneheaded decisions for strictly accounting purposes especially when they are harming so many people in the process.

I'm going to write this up and ask my dad to host it on his site eventually.  But to be honest, I doubt they would do something so simple and beneficial to people even though it would cost them nothing as they'd just be adding the months only the interest is paid to the back of the loan and in three years if the person still can't afford it they'd be foreclosing in a hopefully better market, helping both parties (maybe the person can walk away with some money even though they lost the house).  It's the bad side of the prisoner's dilemma where no one wants to go out on a limb by themselves even if it would help everyone.

[Versus]

time to break up the seriousness:

lol, surf's dad.

[Benito Mussolini]

time to break up the seriousness:

lol, surf's dad.

that goes for you too, Rummy and Surf.

[Surf314]

time to break up the seriousness:

lol, surf's dad.

Whats wrong with having a serious thread  >

[copulatingduck]

brbu generally does not like serious things. Case in point: politics threads, alltalk plugin debate, etc etc etc

[Eschatos]

Interesting, I'll try to get around to sending one of those .pdfs.

[Versus]

my intention wasn't really to break up the seriousness, but I wanted to post that comment badly