Torturing a Teenager
Here’s a frightening story.
A video released today shows a young man, 16 years old, being tortured by Canadian officials. Omar Khadr was held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the video is from 2003 (the young man is 21 now).
From the New York Times:
The mood of the detainee, Omar Khadr, just 16 years old at the time of the interrogations, in February 2003, swings between calm and indifference to rage and grief in the recordings, which were released by his lawyers.
Both McCain and Obama have stood up against Americans using torture. (However, McCain’s stance on this issue remains a little gray)
NB: The video is not linked directly from MrOsman.com due to it’s graphic nature.
Cell Phones, Polling and President Truman
Why Obama Could Be Winning by a Lot More Than You Think
Not everyone will agree, but for a number of reasons, this election seems like its Barack Obama’s to lose. He’s been routinely giving speeches to enthusiastic crowds of 50,000 or more, he’s been raising money faster than any other candidate in American history, and perhaps most importantly, he is a youthful, exciting, energetic candidate that represents a change in a change election.
John McCain on the other hand has struggled not only to keep pace financially, but also to inspire the same kind of enthusiasm in the electorate that Obama has demonstrated. With the faltering economy, an increasingly unpopular war, and close ties to an incumbent president with some of the lowest approval ratings in recorded history, it certainly seems like McCain would have his work cut out for him. In fact, all conventional wisdom says this should be a slam dunk win for Obama…
However, today’s Gallup tracking poll has Barack Obama listed with a mere three-point advantage over John McCain, 43% – 46%. Three points – that’s all? Can that be right? With everything that’s going on, how can it be that Obama’s only up 3 points in the polls?
In fact, most of the major tracking polls – Rasmussen, Newsweek, CNN, McLaughlin, – have the race at only a 1% – 5% point lead for Barack Obama; most are basically within the margin of error. How can it be that this seemingly lopsided race is so close? One shudders to think – but is it possible that all these polls are just plain wrong?
Maybe.
In 1948, President Harry Truman defeated Republican challenger Thomas A. Dewey by, what was at that time, the slimmest margin in the history of American politics. This narrow and frankly unexpected victory by Truman was forever immortalized by the photograph of Truman holding up the early edition of the November 3rd Chicago Tribune, bearing now-famous headline – “Dewey Defeats Truman”
How did the Chicago Tribune get it so wrong?
Wrestlers, Comedians, and Politicians: Oh My!!!
The race for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat may get really interesting tonight!
Already in the race we have incumbent Norm Coleman – Republican, and comedian/political commentator Al Franken – Democrat. Fraken is already trying to prove to voters that he’s a funny guy on the side, but he’s serious about being Minnesota’s next Senator. Currently, Franken-D is polling about 10 points behind Coleman-R. It usually pretty tough to overcome 10 point deficits (especially when you’re running against an incumbent).
Now Minnesota has elected stranger characters to public office before. In 1998 Minnesota elected former wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura as Governor. He served only one four year term – but managed to cause a lot of controversy while he was in office!
Tonight, things will get interesting. Ventura plans to announce whether he’ll run for Senate (as an independent) or not on Larry King Live. No one goes on a major talk show to announce they’re NOT running for office. He’ll announce tonight.
So we’ll have a former wrestler, a former comedian, and a politician.
Unfortunately for Al Franken, this is a death blow for his chances for election.
Fortunately for us non-Minnesotans, this will provide interesting political fodder!
Update: Jesse Ventura didn’t announce on Larry King. Those professional wrestlers sure are sneaky! Looks like the race won’t be quite as interesting as I thought.
Update: Rasmussen’s July 14th poll has Franken leading Coleman 44% to 42%
Site Update 7-14-08
It’s been a few days since MrOsman.com launched and I’d like to catalog most of the changes and updates that have been made.
- Most importantly, I now have a favicon in the url bar! (Top left of the url, it’s an O)
- A Contact form/page (with captcha capabilities)
- The ability to individually print each post (this will be very useful with hw assignments)
- The ability to individually e-mail each post (this may not work)
- Social networking links set up to encourage discussion outside of the classroom
- A ‘News’ page set up with several RSS feeds. This page could use some work, but it’s a start.
- Users have the capability to sign-in (so they can post) through a specifically designed Registration Portal
- MrOsman.com is accessible via PDA and iPhone!
- Spam protection software is installed
- The ability to comment on posts will expire after 150 days. This will prevent some spam, but also prevent any unmoderated commenting.
- Establishing a way to contact all users via e-mail at once.
- User polls are available in widget format and embedded in posts/pages.
- Consolidated all Links pages into one ‘Links’ page, while the three subject pages are hidden
- I think I have decided to finalize this theme. I’ll keep beta testing it though to figure out if there’s anything wrong with it!
A few things that I would still like to add in the next couple of days are:
- Figuring out what to do about the ‘Notes’ section ((I think I’ll use DocuWiki and the dw2wp plugin to install it all on the WordPress platform)
- Upload PowerPoints in .ppt and .pdf format
- Tweaking the ‘News’ page?
- Events calendar?
- Avatars?
- Quotes widget?
- A better favicon?
Are We ‘Whiners’ or Just ‘Bitter’?
Phil Gramm, former Senator from the great state of Texas, told the Washington Times that country was filled with “whiners” and the United States is merely in a “mental recession.” Senator Gramm is one of John McCain’s economic advisers.
If Senator Gramm’s comment on the economy is correct or not isn’t the point. Remember, politics is about perception.
This is quite difficult news for the millions of people across the country who are struggling with high gas prices and an increasingly difficult mortgage crisis.
However, on the other side, in April Senator Obama said many people in small-town America are “bitter” and “cling to guns or religion … as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Which also is a quite difficult comment for people to hear. Since April, this comment has created a perception by some on the right that Obama is a elitist snob, as seen in this mock-poster on the right. (More on this subject to come later)
Both comments make the average American feel looked down upon, naive, and a little stupid.
However, forget about what you think about each of these comments. What really matters in the long run is:
Which comment hurts the respective campaign’s chances at election more?