My dad had posted this on facebook and it’s a really good question:

Interesting morning..When responding to an email question from a citizen during an interview with George Stephwhateveropolis regarding gas over $4/gal and rising, Mr. Obama in essence said that he understands the pain, not to worry, you’re getting tax cuts to offset the price. I’m getting gas TODAY, what tax cut do I use?

here’s my response:

You should ask the republicans who are in the pockets of the oil industry why our gas is so high. and democrats for that matter. Any time an alternative energy bill or idea is brought up the oil industry and their paid puppets (in any branch of the govt) shoot it down as saying it’s too costly or we don’t need it yet every year the oil industry gets more and more money. Then they trickle that money down to stimulate… the price of gas.

So what’s everyone’s thoughts on this? Should we focus on renewable energy and try and get the USA to be a self sufficient country that runs on solar, wind and hydro electricity and hybrid or electric cars? Yes it will take a while and money to get things rolling but think of the long term. Imagine what the US could do if the citizens were no longer paying an average of $3.791 per gallon of gas as of 4/11/11, $4.161 in California, which is up 0.933 from last year. They would be spending that money on other things like food, medical insurance or just to better their way of life.

It’s only a matter of time before it happens.

To me, there’s something wrong with this picture. Especially since everyone is making such a big deal over these little lapel pins.

It’s all bullshit. Why do you think both Bush and McCain are pushing for this to happen? Could it be that Bush is getting money from the oil guys to help put even more money in their pockets yet still have us pay more for a gallon of gas? Why not invest the same amount of money into alternative fuel sources that will start helping us get away from our dependence on foreign oil at same time bettering our air quality and helping ease our taxing of the environment. Sure drilling off the coast could help out in the future, say 10 or 15 years from now, but how do we know prices won’t already be lower? And what if solar power is far less expensive than oil and in widespread use? Do we really want to see a bunch of tankers off the coast of California destroying our amazing views?? Didn’t think so.

With more and more people on in the world it means more and more oil being used. What happens when the oil is gone?? Remember the Mad Max films?? You really want to enter the Thunderdome?? TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES!!!

Not sure if you’ve heard about this yet or not, but Dunkin Donuts pulled an ad featuring Rachael Ray because the American people thought she looked Arabian. At first they we’re going to leave the ad running but they got too much pressure about it they felt it best to pull it. I’m sorry but, I think Americans have lost touch with reality and truly are living in a state of paranoia. The Bush Administration has done a brilliant job of playing on the fears of Americans so much that an ad has to be pulled cause a scarf makes you feel threatened? A DAMN SCARF!?!?!?!? Next we’re going to cower in fear when we see a hat in a movie that will reminds us of the old U.S.S.R. even though that’s no longer around. You can read all about this bullshit all over the net. It’s just getting ridiculous that something someone is wearing in a donut ad brings out our worst fears.

Did our Grandfathers, and all military personal for that matter, give their lives for us to live in fear? How do you think they would feel if they got to see us now? It’s quite sad that in 8 years we went from being the most powerful nation to being a bunch of weak minded citizens. I can’t wait till we have someone in the White House to right the wrong of the past 8 years.

Yes, I feel every vote should be counted, but when you make a NO PARTICIPATING AND NO CAMPAIGNING PLEDGE, you stand by your word. Our president should not make a decision only to change it when it benefits them. By doing so you mislead the people and get us into such things as war or depression which we are all to familiar with right now. We’ve had 8 yeas of this practice in the White House already, let’s not go for another 4 years. I have no problem with Clinton staying in the race till the end, just stop putting lies into the heads of the people. Run a true campaign, one that ALL Americans can believe in not just the uninformed ones.

Read this to see what I’m talking about.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/22/0226/35614/632/520082

Last night was the first of two “home coming” solo shows for Eddie Vedder in San Diego. He played the beautiful Speckels Theater which holds close to no one. At the start of the show he informed the crowd that he was a bit “sick” and by that he meant really hung over which also meant he didn’t get much sleep the night before. He assured us that he wasn’t one of those “angry drunks” but that he gets angry and mad when he’s hung over so he might get a bit angry as the night went on. We all know Eddie to be quite political one many different issues so this was sure to be a good night since I tend to agree with most of his political views. First thing on the agenda was how he was woken up early by a protest on Broadway about Educational Funding here in California. He said something to point of, “At first i was really pissed off at these people making noise outside and for waking me up early until I saw what they were protesting and then my anger quickly moved directly towards Arnold Schwarzenegger. How can you cut funding on education? It’s like a page from the Republican play book. Dumb down the people so they will continue to believe everything you say and will continue to vote for you.”

Talking politics weren’t the only thing he was here to do and what a great night it was. He played songs from the Pearl Jam catalog as well as songs from the “Into The Wild” soundtrack. The songs i was most surprised to hear were I’m Open and Driftin’. Driftin is a song that was only released as a Christmas Single the band sends out ever year to their Fan Club. Never figured I’d hear that song live. Eddie played many different guitars during the night and at one point picked up a mandolin to play Rise and a fan yelled out “DIRTY FRANK”. He stops, looks out at the guy and says, “Dirty Frank?” and starts to play the into of the song. Everyone just starts busting up laughing due to the fact Dirty Frank is a “funk” song written in response to the Red Hot Chili Peppers when they said Pearl Jam couldn’t play funk. After playing the intro he stops and says with a big smile on his face, “Dirty Frank on a mandolin? Now that’s just a stupid request… I told you I’m gonna be a little angry tonight.” There was a lot of interacting with the crowd and it made for an amazing night. At one point he told this story about how Pearl Jam’s old tour manager had just moved to San Diego and that’s who he was drinking with the night before. At one point they were talking about authors and his buddy suggests one guy and gives him a book he thinks he should read. Eddie opens it up and on the first page it says “Dear Mr. Vedder”. A fan threw the book on stage a long time ago and it never got to Eddie until now. He felt really bad cause the person who threw it on the stage might have though Eddie was a complete asshole for never calling her since she had her phone number in the book. So at 2:30 in the morning PST they thought, let’s call her and tell her sorry for not calling sooner. Now the girl who they were calling lived in Colorado so when you think about it, it was probably like 4:30 in the morning where she lived and Eddie was calling her all loaded. She didn’t pick up though. Bummer. They looked again and her brother’s number was in the book as well so they called him. He didn’t pick up either. So he was going to wait until later that night to call em again. HAHAH. Could you imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the phone ringing and you don’t get out of bed cause it’s 4:30 in the morning. When you do get up you check to see who called so damn early only to find a message on your answering machine from Eddie Vedder. How pissed would you be?

One of the highlights for everyone in the place was when Eddie told us about these samplers or voice looping machines he has and how when you get them they are pre loaded with samples and such. He said “98% of the stuff pre loaded is complete shit, but that some of the stuff you just have to keep. This one sample he’s been wanting to use at a show and tonight might just be the night. He lights up a cigarette and asks his lighting guy to give him some mood lighting. Kicks on the sampler and this really cheesy R&B song starts. Think Barry White smooth R&B. The entire place bursts into laughter and then Eddie starts singing, “Awwww baby. You look soooo good tonight.” It was so damn funny. I wish you all could of been there to witness that. After his first set was finished off with the song Porch he left the stage. His crew came out to re-tune the guitars and set up for the first encore where Eddie had the nights opener Liam Finn come out and play a few songs with em. He ends the first encore with the song Arc which he takes multiple loops and layers of his voice and makes a really cool song out of it. The first time he played that song live was at the San Diego Sports Arena and that song is a tribute to the fans that lost their lives at the Roskilde Festival during the bands set.

The second encore started off with the song No More which is about an injured soldier from the Iraq war. After the song he said that some people think he has too strong an opinion on the war and the way in which our current government is running this country. He said he pays his taxes and is allowed to have these views cause that’s the way the United States is set up. Also he personally knows many people who have and are fighting in Iraq, reads tons of fan email from folks over there. One family he knows learned their son had dies in Iraq only to hear the next day that the government declared that there were in fact no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He then went into the son I Am A Patriot. He then got up and switched guitars and a fan yelled out, “Who are you voting for Ed?” He sits back down and says, “I heard my name but not the first part. what did you say?” the guy yells again, “Who are you voting for Ed?” He smirks and says, “I’ve learned that it’s in my best interests to not state my political beliefs.” Again everyone just busted up laughing and then from the side of the stage a HUGE banner gets walked across the stage behind him that says “OBAMA ’08″ and the place goes nuts. I always knew there was a reason i liked Eddie so much.

Here’s the entire set list:
Main Set: Walking The Cow, Around The Bend, I Am Mine, Dead Man Walking, I’m Open, Man Of The Hour, No Ceiling, Guaranteed, Millworker, Far Behind, Rise (/Dirty Frank tease), Soon Forget, Broken Hearted, You’re True, Driftin’, You´ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Picture in a Frame, Masters of War, Trouble, I Won’t Back Down, Porch
Encore 1: Society, Throw Your Arms Around Me, Lukin, Arc
Encore 2: No More, I Am A Patriot, So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star, Hard Sun

All in all it was a pretty amazing evening. I wish i was going tonight to see him again, but i guess I’ll have to wait till Pearl Jam comes back to town.

I’ll leave you with the video of Eddie’s song No More:

First off i have to say I’m very pleased too see Barack Obama doing so well along the campaign trail. On top of that I like seeing so many people get behind him and show their support. World renown artist Sheperd Fairey has done 2 different posters for the Obama campaign, both of which have sold out in no time at all. I traded an older Obey Giant print that I had for one of the new Obama prints for Jordan. Today on Obama’s website they are selling a 3rd print that is limited to 5000 and I’m sure they will be gone in no time. I already picked mine up and i think if you agree with what Obama is saying and want to help support him you should go get one as well.

I just feel that Obama is looking to fix all that has gone wrong over the last 8 years and also keep the American people safe from the unknown in the future. He’s setting things up now to better the future for the younger generations. He’s getting people to think and to get involved in the world around us. We rely on our government to protect us and at the same time respect the rights that are slowly being taken away from us. He’s already stated he’s going to go through one by one all of the legislations Bush has passed over the last 8 years and reverse all of them that are unconstitutional. Our founding fathers set up this fine country to allow each and ever citizen the right to succeed in what ever they do. They didn’t set it up for massive corporations to run everything we do and tell us what we want and what to like.

Obama is a change from the government that we’ve had for far too long. To me it feels that his point of view is everyone, no matter what class they are in, is just as important to the country as the next person. I’m tired of having crusty old dudes running our country while they take money from big corporations to look the other way while they pass bills making it easier for the said corporations to make even more money they don’t need. So far he’s not been attacking his opponents as Clinton does every time she looses a primary. Every point he makes against her is backed up with proof of her previous mistakes or misjudgments. He doesn’t say one thing and do the opposite. On top of it all, I’ve never wanted to meet a political figure or even more so looked up to one… until now.

So Barack Obama, you have my vote come this November.

Of course these are just my opinions on the current presidential race that is going on. I encourage you all to do as much homework you can on things going on in America. See who you truly think is the best for the country as a whole. As we all learned the hard way, your vote and opinion does matter. We need to turn this great country of ours around.