If you are looking at this, you're smiling right now
The Premise is simple, a Marty McFly of 2015 goes on a crazy adventure that sends him back to a mysterious and quirky era, of 1985.
Image it, in the opening scenes where Marty is Segwaying across town, there are billboards advertising Avengers 2 and Modern Family, only to come across ads for Beverly Hills Cop and the Cosby Show once they find themselves stumbling through Hill Valley in 1985. He records the first experiment of a time traveling Volt with his iPhone 7. This movie would write itself.
When at his mom's house in the past, the family can pull the television into the kitchen and gather round to watch a classic episode of Family Ties, allowing the film to make a subtle nod to Micheal J. Fox.
The Modern Family of 1985
What could be more fun then poking fun of the 80's? You could drop lines like "This is just like that show, 'I Love the 80's'" You can make fun of Wham! Or a scene where Madonna appears on a poster, the main character goes "Who's that?" someone answers "That's some one hit wonder, Madonna." "That's Madonna!?!?" I could go on and on.
And of course, the fact that Back to the Future is coming up on 30 years since it's historic debut at theaters, the idea of a kid from modern times getting slammed into his parents era, 30 years prior, is a timeless concept that I feel would resonate with audiences. How many times have you read a Facebook post talking about how great the era of Atari and Transformers was, and how kids today just don't understand how good they have it.
Way to Go, a new Team Slogan?
And of course, there is the sequel. Where, in the original, Marty shoots into the future with a flying car, intense holographic advertising and CRT monitor based wait staffs that still serve coke in glass bottles. I can do without hover technology and Jaws sequels as long as the Cubs win the World Series.
Doc spoils Marty with $3500 shoes
The Back to the Future Movies are timeless and classic at the same time. Their influence on pop culture still resonating today from highly public and welcomed cast reunions to Nike's release of the shoe of the future, but the opportunities to rehash this series at the 30 year mark is just too tempting. Mark my words, there will be a loud calling for this in the years to come.
The Los Angeles Times did a piece about how President Obama is employing roughly twice as many paid staffers for his campaign then Gov. Mitt Romney, for about the same amount of money. Here is a litany of legitimate reasons for this;
Half of Obama's Staff is paid with unemployment checks.
The other half of Romney's staff is on strike, Obama has no comment.
Why don't the poor just buy some more money?
Hopefully that clears up some confusions. As with most things this election cycle, just doing a little bit of investigative journalism will bring all these things to light. What's that? You don't believe that I spent tedious painstaking hours putting these 'facts' together. Well, what good are facts, when you have THE TRUTH on your side!
I figured that since President Obama's time taken to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman took presidence over meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and addressing the riots that appear to be directed at us in a dozen different Middle Eastern countries that he must of had something pretty important to say. After a crack about seeing David naked (that made me think of a hilarious pun involving the President missing his security briefs) they began to talk about the Republican National Convention. The key part came when David asked President Obama what this who Debt Deal was about. He was responding to the National Debt Clock that was a prominent feature of the Republican National Convention last month in Tampa.
Obama, "We had a surplus when Bill Clinton was President"
Letterman, "That means extra money."
Obama - "Extra money, that was projected to continue to be a surplus. We decided to launch two wars on a credit card. We cut taxes twice without finding offsetting costs for it, or ways to pay for it. A Perscription drug plan, and then we had a massive recession. So when I walked into office we had a trillion dollar deficit. Debt had mounted, and we had to take Emergency Measures, saved the Auto Industry, making sure that the financial system got back on track. So now, what we have to do it pair down that deficit, get that debt under control. The only way we've been able to do that, effectively, is when you do it a balanced way, so, you cut out spending you don;t need, programs that doesn't work, and like I tell my Democratic friends all the time, if you're going to be in favor of helping the American people you can;t just assume that every government program is working the way it should, it can work better. But, what is also true, is that we are going to need to ask folks like you and me to do a little bit more and if you and I are paying the same tax rates we did under Bill Clinton then that helps to close the deficit. If we do those two things then we can manage very effectively and get our books in order."
Letterman - "Now do you remember what that number was? Was is.. $10 Trillion?"
Obama - "I don't remember what the number was preciously."
Letterman, "Now if this is me and I got the credit card guy calling me everyday, I start to get scared. AS Americans, should we be scared that we owe that kind of money, who do we owe that money to?"
Obama - "Well, a lot of it we owe to ourselves, because if you invest in a treasury bill or something like that then you are essentially loaning the government money. In fact, the majority is owed by folks who live here. But, we don;t have to worry about it short term, right now interest rates are low because people still consider the united states the safest, greatest country on earth, rightfully so. But, it is a problem long term."
The National Debt is an astounding $16 trillion, a number that I have trouble grappling. It also exceeds the size of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services. Even if the government doubled it's revenue with higher taxes and fees, and even if it didn't bring the economy to a grinding halt as a result, it would take over two decades to pay this thing off.
Obama’s answer was a masterpiece of prevarication. He described how the debt originated, and claimed, falsely, that he inherited a $1 trillion deficit. In fact, this country had never run a deficit anywhere near $1 trillion until FY 2009, the first year of the Obama administration.
Even in his stump speeches he proves a lack of having a handle of the deficit. The speech I attended in Cedar Rapids included the line, "We fought two wars on a credit card..." and five minutes later "So I want to take about half the money we’re no longer spending on a war and let’s use it to put people back to work.". Huh? so we still don't have any money, but since we aren't spending this money we don't have on war, lets spend it on job creation, what about the half a trillion plus we spent in 09' and '10 that was supposed to spur our economy? There is no plan to reduce spending, just to funnel it into his own picks and agenda.
In a development directly related to the federal debt and the deficit, the Washington Examiner is reporting that the number of able-bodied Americans on food stamps has doubled after the Obama administration suspended certain work requirements for welfare programs.
Although the president apparently is thus far too busy to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the Iranian nuclear threat, his trip to New York also included a campaign fundraiser with Jay-Z and Beyonce. Barely giving the slaying of our ambassador a second thought before flying off to Las Vegas.
Watch President Barack Obama below say he doesn’t remember what the National Debt is precisely (about the six-and-a-half-minute mark):
How frustrated do I become when I see the President so obviously duck a question? Even though millions of people see him do it, nobody seems to care. He's just too cool, he's too charismatic, he has done NOTHING to improve this countries situation on one hand, and in the other, he can do no wrong.Meanwhile, a businessman with one of the greatest track records for turning companies and even the Olympics around gets nothing but blame for only paying $2 million in taxes when he should have been paying $4 million. Well, now it seems that he only had to pay $1.5 million, because of all the money he was donating to charity... yet some people will never know, and will continue to think of him as nothing but an a-hole.
I had to log several hours of piecing this together,
but here is a timeline of the events, hopefully this can be referenced for
conversations pertaining to timing of events and making a bit of sense of what
happened.
Benghazi Aftermath
5:11 a.m. CDT, 9/11/12. A statement is published online from the U.S. Embassy
in Cairo, Egypt. The header reads; "US Embassy condemns religious
incitement" The post since appears to have taken down from here. The statement has
since been re-posted in
about a zillion sites.
Late Morning, CDT 9/11/12. Or around 5 p.m. local time in Cairo, demonstrators
began to assemble outside of the U.S. Embassy. Reasoning behind this gathering
appear to be the subject of some investigations, still, a Salafist leader
and president of Egypt's Hekma television channel, Wesam Abdel-Wareth, was one
such voice that called for Muslim's to protest the very low budget movie
'Muhammad's Trial', a US-made film which, critics say, insults the Islamist
Prophet Mohammed.
3:47 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. The Cairo Embassy, via twitter, states: "As
Spokesperson Nuland said, protesters breached our wall and took down flag.
Thanks for your concern and kind wishes." There is little indication of
outright violence, but a crowd with estimations of roughly 2,000 demonstrators
are loud and angry at this time.
Ambassador Christopher Stevens
5:00 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Additional tweets from the Embssy in
Cairo "Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.", "Of course we
condemn breaches of our compound, we're the ones actually living through
this.", "Sorry, but neither breaches of our compound or angry messages
will dissuade us from defending freedom of speech AND criticizing
bigotry."
5:01 p.m. CDT 9/11/12. A Footnote, but this is the point where Stand
Up America Now begins a livestream of Jones' anti-Muslim presentation
online. Though I question how many people in Egypt follow this website, it has
been presented by many media outlets as a channel that added fuel to the fire
of anger.
5:30 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Cairo Embassy Tweets: "This morning's condemnation
(issued before protests began) still stands. As does condemnation of
unjustified breach of the Embassy."
6:51 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. First
reports of an American staff member of the U.S. consulate in the
Libyan city of Benghazi has died following an outbreak of
violence. Investigations
continue as to the level of protests here compared to the reports of a
small team of well equipped militants intent on doing harm.
9:09 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Romney submits
a statement to the Media. It was supposed to be held until Midnight in
respect out of keeping foreign policy discourse off of the anniversary of 9/11.
The campaign allowed it to be released within an hour of submission.
9:10 p.m. CDT 9/11/12 News breaks that the statement issued from Cairo was not
cleared by Washington and that it does not reflect the views of the
United States government.
9:38 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. An statement from the State Department, specifically
Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, stating, "I condemn in the strongest terms
the attack on our mission in Benghazi today... We have confirmed one State Dept
officer was killed in Libya. We are heartbroken by this terrible loss."
Full statement here.
10:51 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo deletes its earlier tweets,
statements eventually removed from website.
11:01 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12.: Other policical figures begin to
weigh in now that (per New York Time) the embargo on foreign affairs has ended,
led off with RNC chairman Priebus stating "Obama sympathizes with
attackers in Egypt.Sad and pathetic."
11:09 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issues a response to
Romney's statement: "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States
of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in
Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack."
8:57 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. Clinton hosts a press conference
condemning violence in Syria. (Video)
9:16 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a press
conference while in Jacksonville, FL. (Video)
9:43 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. President Barrack Obama holds a
press conference with Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden. (Video)
Now begins the narrative of if Mitt's comments
where appropriately timed or not, or it the Presidents' response was
adequate. But, you don't check in here for a simple list of facts and links,
did you? Well, ok, maybe you did, but here is my two cents;
What Mitt Romney said last night was spot on, all though I'm on
the fence as far as not waiting for 9/11 to be over before making such an
aggressive statement. I don't see an issue with challenging the
foreign policy of a President who doesn't seem to have a well established set
of principals during the election cycle. When people are storming the gates of
your embassy, you can not sit idly by with a 'wait and see' approach such as
this President seems to be doing. Then when some of the first things that are said
are just to correct and contradict what was said by someone else. Right now
there is a serious issue that no one understands one thing, what America is planning in a time like this. It was appropriate for the White House
to condemn these actions and make a call for justice against those
individuals who killed our delegates.
This is a big deal. It's a clear indication that things in
Egypt, Syria, and several other Arab Spring countries are not going as
swimmingly as perhaps we had hoped, and with the way our President appears to
prioritize both waiting until a half dozen other people from the Embassy, the
State Department, his opponent, and the media all get hours of play time before
making a pretty Mad Libs type reply. Then a couple hours later he was in the
air on his way to campaign in Colorado, only to return in time for the Hispanic
Caucus Anniversary Gala.
Are we going to withdrawl other embassy staff? Are we going
to offer military or intelligence support to hunt these murderers down? Will we
withhold our financial support for some of these young, new governments? It's a
huge difference when a country is rioting against their own government and
when those riots appear on our front door and U.S. citizens are being harmed. It
demands something of a response, be it supportive of the local government in
keeping the peace, or throwing down the gauntlet and militarizing our
embassies. My vote would be to withdraw our consulate staff and
families from these countries and suspend any payments of aide until peace is
restored. Offer any assistance for peacekeeping or in tracking down
these militants that appear to have stormed us in Benghazi. Our
President seems more interested in campaigning in swing states and getting
ready to appear on Letterman and meeting up with Beyonce.
Oh, it wasn't just the Republican's throwing a party out East, And to counter the Elephant men's crazy guy who was arguing with a chair, the Dem's went the cute and cuddly route and marched out a 2 year old who was dying or teething or something, let's take a look at what was said in North Carolina.
*** Democratic National Convention ***
Monday - "Surprise Speaker"
Jim, The Custodian - "I hereby accept your nomination for President of the United State!"
Frank, The Arena Manager - "Get off the stage Jim, the convention doesn't start until tomorrow!"
Jim, The Custodian - "Screw you Frank, YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!"
Tuesday: "Let's Get it Started, HA! Let's Get it Started in Here!"
Deval Patrick - "Let me tell you about the state of Massachusetts Mitt Romney left behind. It is Hell! Children begging on the streets, raging fires, violent crimes on every street corner, and a Boston Red Sox team that can't even make the playoffs."
Julián Castro - "My Grandmother was a hard working American, she had to enter the fifth season of Top Chef just to pay for my mothers medical bills, not season four where that one chick won, but season five that had that one creepy guy, but I digress, My grandma was paying all my mom's bills and that's why Mitt Romney is so out of touch when he says pay for college with your parents money... waitaminute."
Michelle Obama - "I recall those days when Barrack wasn't a Senator, wasn't the President, he was just a black man in Chicago, driving around in a Caddy with 22 inch rims. Collecting donations from young fellow community organizers on the streets, and when these young female street organizers didn't have any money because times where hard in America, my future husband would just smile and say, 'Is Barrack gonna have to slap a witch?' "
Wednesday: "So Bill Clinton walks into a Martian Bar..."
Nancy Pelosi - "The American dream is on the ballot. Ladders of opportunity for our middle class are on the ballot. So this November, remember to vote for American Dream for deputy sheriff, and Ladders of Opportunity for county treasurer."
Sandra Fluke - "My fellow Americans, I have traveled back in time from the future to give you a grave warning. In the future, woman will have to pay for their birth control, and men will violate woman against their will, and the only way to prevent these events from happening is to give power to a man, a man who is very feminine, who enjoys watching Sex in the City and reading Fifty Shades of Gray, and that man is Barrack Obama!"
Bill Clinton - "Mr. Mayor, fellow Democrats. We are here to nominate a President, and I've got one in mind, it's me! Four more years! Four more years! Fore more years! <This goes on for about an hour> And that is why I should be President, you're welcome America!"
Thursday: "Who are these People?"
Jill Biden - "What does Joe know? I know what Joe know, Joe go and get low at the disco, Joe and Beau walk Bo to and fro, Joe mow around a bungalow, know you know who is Joe."
Joe Biden - "Let me tell you about a great man, Mitt Romney, no no, he's not a bad guy, but what I don't think he understands, is that saving the auto industry was a good thing, he did things the Bain way. Where a company is about making profits and being fiscally viable. But, what he doesn't understand, is that conviction, resolve, and Barrack Obama are what saved the Automobile industry. Not these petty things like sales, writing checks that don't bounce, and making cars that people actually want."
Barrack Obama - "You're the reason a young man in Colorado who never thought he'd be able to obtain his dream of earning a medical degree is about to get that chance. You made that possible instead of... what... what's that... he shot how many? In the theater? Damn, well, if you, uhhh... oh boy, this is awkward, uhhh....YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!."
Did we all spend our evenings for the last couple of weeks watching all the convention speeches? Me neither, but I did get the jist of most of them on YouTube, the volume was down but I'm pretty good at reading lips. Allow me to surmise the basics for you in what I got out of the presentations our countries leaders spent the last 2 years rehearsing. (That must have been what they've been doing, it's not like anything else has happened in that time.)
*** Republican National Convention ***
Monday - "Hungry for More"
Reince Priebus - "I hereby call this convention to order! Well, that's enough for one day, anyone know where I can get a good cheeseburger?"
Tuesday: "Republicans are Tired of being Rubbed the Wrong Way"
John Boehner - "So this guy walks into this bar, right, you know, looking for work, and the bar is full of these men, you know, those men, and some guy says 'my privates are doing fine...' wait, why are you all laughing? this is a serious speech! Anyway the point is the guy was thrown out cause he was obviously gay."
Rick Santorum - "My Grandfather had these thick, strong, long hands, and he was tough, working all day in the mines, coming home covered in dirt and sweat, he would take my papa and me into the shower sometimes to get that wonderful American coal off of him in places he couldn't reach, as I got older, I started to dream, to dream of things that made me feel that special warmth in special places, I didn't dare ask him or anyone what that meant, cause otherwise someone may think I'm gay. But, I thank America, and I, gave him more, then he had ever hoped for."
Ann Romney - "I love my boys, I love Mitt Romney, but most of all, I LOVE WOMAN!"
Chris Christie - "Putting a bureaucrat between an American and their doctor is like putting a brick wall between me and a cheeseburger, like putting a tax form between Romney and his bank account, like putting a shower between Rick Santorum and his soot covered grandfather. No American want's to see that happen!"
Wednesday: "The New Faces of the Old Administration."
John McCain - "People are hurting, dying, crying out for American Leadership, and this administration has done nothing in response. I tried to lead, I tried to become your president four years ago, but the American people refused me. So, I am left with the next best thing that I can do for this country, I am un-retiring from the navy, and going over to the Middle East to serve. I gonna make those who would oppress their own people hurt like my morning pee, USA! USA! USA!"
Condolezza Rice - "We have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well, we've never been jealous of one another or envious of each others successes. But now, we need to send a message to all of those Americans out there who are still without work, still without hope. That message is this, I've been retired for 4 years, and I'm doing great!"
Paul Ryan - "With all their attack ads, the President is just throwing away money, and he's pretty experienced at that. Just the other day our campaign caught Obama stuffing hundred dollar bills into his car tires to keep them inflated, he also threw a wade of ones into a furnace to warm up his office in July. But, the most insulting thing, was when he threw a hundred dollar bill into a change machine at a laundry mat, just so he could take all the quarters and laugh at people when they couldn't get any quarters for the machines."
Thursday: "The Crazy Man and the Chair"
Clint Eastwood - "This President is nothing more then an empty suit, and to help me make my point, I brought ny dear friend, Sherri, the Chairy. Hey Sherri, what do you think of this president, huh? What's that? Cat got your tongue? Eh, what do you know anyway, you're just an empty chair, wait, that's funny, I just got that. Where am I again?"
Marco Rubio - "As a boy, I would sit on our porch and listen to my father's stories about history, politics and baseball while we puffed on one of his three daily Padron cigars. I recall hacking up lungs, developing emphysema by age eight, and a bad case of throat cancer by age ten, and then developing a cardiac arrhythmia that made me realize, I am an American!"
Mitt Romney - "So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was, while WE believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had never done this before and we almost didn’t get off the ground. Then one night while tossing and turning in Ann and I's twin size be, my Rolex got caught on a seem, and the mattress ripped open, revealing $500,000,000 that I had tucked in there one week after my allowance. And it's been one crazy ride ever since then."
Back in July, I picked up the Sunday edition of a local newspaper, and read a guest column in the opinion section that kind of upset me, it was a piece that tried to justify the need for intervention in healthcare decisions so that families are moved toward "alleviating pain". His insinuation that Doctors and the Medical Industry was needed to be kept in check to defend patients as they faced end of life choices. I was moved to write back and share a bit of my experiences with the death of a close one. Turns out my reply was published in the following Sunday's paper, I never got a copy of the paper, but my letter was published online. I thought I'd share it here as well;
Perhaps I am missing his point, but I felt a sense of dudgeon at his insinuation that our health care system does nothing put perpetuate the misery of being elderly and sick by choosing quantity over quality. The system is not, and should never be, what makes the decisions; the care is not what makes it easier to say goodbye to a loved one.
His most accurate statement was that disease knows no politics, and the hand that feeds the payroll of a health care facility deserves no spot at the table when a family is making these tough decisions.
When my mother passed away last year, it was in the wake of several difficult discussions about quality of life. Many factors and considerations weigh on your soul when determining what is best for a loved one. She was sick, she was not going to get better, and I’m proud to say that my family had the maturity to know when the time for fighting was passed, and the time for saying our goodbyes began.
The question I charge to proponents of creating a committee, medical or not, to assess these decisions: Considering some families need to fight to the end, and some families need to know a loved one leaves us peacefully, but what kind of a system even attempts to shift that power to a third party, away from the family?
--------------------
If you do not know about the IPAB, I strongly suggest you start learning about it, in about 3 years it will be an issue that will be brought up in discussions frequently.
There is plenty of time left until November, and I can't say with 100% certainty that I am going to vote for Mitt Romney, but I am not going to vote for Gary Johnson just to show my disapproval of the two party candidates. Here are few of the top reasons why.
I voted for Bob Barr in 2008, and absolutely nothing changed. Rep. Barr was supposed to be a new type of Libertarian candidate, someone with a real resume, connections and experiences that made him a viable candidate, a break from the list of radio personalities and national political light weights that the Libertarian party had marched out the previous elections. I didn't even mind that he scared me a little bit one the few times he grabbed some airtime on cable news by waiving a copy of the constitution around and not making any real points. But the day after Bob Barr came in 4th place in my home state of Iowa after the '08 election, not one bit of discussion occurred in any mainstream stage during or after the election. Contrast this to Ron Paul running for the Republican nomination, pushing an audit of the Fed and towards financial solvency on a timetable that may actually make it happen in our lifetimes. These things are much more likely in a Romney president. Then we can progress to another set of issues held near and dear to libertarians.
Gary Johnson will not be given a voice, even if a third party candidate obtained a spot on a national stage, such as Perot in '92, it still won't have any lasting effect, and then they would probably just change the criteria to be given. Such as Perot in '96, when they started the 15% polling criteria. There was nothing but regret and resentment in the '96 election towards Perot because so many people looked at him as nothing but a spoiler. The powers that be do not want a third candidate, be it Green party or Libertarian.
We don't need a third party, change can come to a party through other ways. Remember, up until a few months ago, the Democratic President was not in favor of same sex marriages. Change will take time, and I can appreciate the sense of urgency in fiscal policy, or the disappointment that the Republican party is still in the pocket of "Moral Majority" groups that take hypocritical stands on issues like marriage, where the state knows what's best for you in choosing who you fall in love with, but can't possibly know what's better for your families health decisions.
We can't win, I understand the analogy of so what? Just don't show up? Not at all, Let Gary Johnson run, let him bring up the issues that matter and swing some peoples way of thinking, but when you have a football team of high school students and and you are trying to play against the New England Patriots and the Chicago Bears, you don't measure your success by the number of points you put on the board, you write up a plan and you execute it, even it all you accomplish is a couple of first downs you learn from it and get better for next time, maybe even let one of your kids get drafted by the Bears if he's good enough. Taking pride in shaping that team a little bit as they play their "Big boy games". Carry the football analogy with the color barrier, at one point, African Americans where few and far between in football league, do you think that forming an all colored team and then beating an all white team would have made the masses of a closed minded people say, "Well, you got us, I guess we have no choice but to accept you and fully integrate." Or, do you think they would just make up some stupid reason why they can't play with them anymore.
And the last big truth is this, even if some oddity occurred and Johnson won the white house, what would he be able to do with it? Sure, he could balance the budget, bring thousands of our troops home, legalize pot, and half a dozen other things, but what would prevent the next president from undoing everything four years later? Unless the will of a majority of people is for these things, I feel a third party vote is a wasted one. There is a competent business man who is available to vote for, who I feel can at least turn the tides on economic front, who I feel will not look at government as a tool to dictate how we live our lives. A debate on if these last sentences are true is the debate I will have now. But, I will not get dragged into another debate on how there is no difference between an (R) and a (D). The battle towards true liberty in America is not fought from September to October during an election year, at least not any more then when it needs to be fought in the 48 months following a presidential election. And I strive for the day when the Libertarian doctrine is picked up by a majority of Americans, and not just a foot note in the morning after coverage of an election.
Don't forget, Ron Paul is a Republican still, and Gary Johnson was up until December, when he was pursuing the nomination for Libertarian Candidate.
