The worst season?

No, not fall, or winter, not even baseball season; I am talking about tax season. If you are like me, and lucky (?) enough to have a job, you have likely recieved your W-2's by now and, depending on your point of view, are either:
1)Ignoring it and hoping it goes away,
2)Rapidly filling out forms in order to (hopefully) get back everything the government has stolen from you over the year, or
3)Wishing you had had more money withheld.

For me (I'm probably giving out more financial information here then my parents would like), I thought I wouldn't have to pay this year, so I had no money witheld; sadly, I was just off, and I now owe the government a whopping six dollars. Still, I do feel that I am doing my civic duty and helping reduce, by an immeasurable amount, our massive budget deficit. Speaking of civic duty, the IRS is rather optimistic about how much Americans have in them-there are, in the 1040 instructions, information on how one could make a donation to pay off the public debt. Would you?

Without giving out any overly personal information, how will taxes be for the rest of you this year?

So, what's next?

Now that all the hype over Super-Duper-Ultra-Mega-Hyper Tuesday (or something like that), people are now realizing that, with no winner yet decided in either party, there will be more primaries and caucuses to come. But because primaries after early February have rarely mattered recently, few know exactly what the calendar looks like. Without further ado, here is a preview of some of the upcoming primaries...

Democrats
2/9
Louisiana primary: 56 delegates
Nebraska caucus: 16 delegates (8 to be chosen 6/28)
Virgin Islands caucus: 6 delegates with 1/2 vote each
Washington caucus: 78 delegates
2/10
Maine caucus: 24 delegates
2/12
DC primary: 15 delegates (they have 23 unpledged superdelegates)
Maryland primary: 70 delegates
Virginia primary: 83 delegates

Republicans
2/9
Louisiana primary: 20 delegates (24 to be chosen at 2/16 caucus)
Washington caucus: 18 delegates (19 to be chosen at 2/19 primary)
Kansas caucus: 36 delegates
2/12
DC primary: 16 delegates
Maryland primary: 34 delegates
Virginia primary: 63 delegates
2/16
Guam caucus: 6 delegates
Louisiana caucus: 24 delegates (see above)

In any case, however, unless some candidate for either party sweeps nearly all of these elections, they will decide very little and it will be a long, hard race.

Last thoughts.

Will your vote be yes, or no on prop 94, 95, 96, and 97? haha I was still confused even after they advertised throughout the Superbowl today.. ironic how it has to do with gambling.   I suggest if you're voting this primary that you look up these Propositions..

And, in case you didn't know, there's a broken US spy satellite that is coming down towards earth.  It weighs as much as 10,000 lbs and is falling at a rate of 1,6400 feet a day.  As of last Tuesday, it was 173 miles away.  Chances are that we're safe; after all, 75% of Planet Earth are made of water.  And, it'll start to break up once it enters the atmosphere.  

And last note, today was a sad day for the Patriots.  I felt bad for Tom Brady. 

But then again, I won 8 bucks, so I'm not complaining :)

Explain, please?

Something's wrong with our government.

The U.S. military is not prepared to meet catastrophic threats at home, and it is suffering from an "appalling gap" in forces able to respond to chemical, biological and nuclear strikes on U.S. soil, according to a congressional commission report released yesterday.

The situation is rooted in severe readiness problems in National Guard and reserve forces, which would otherwise be well-suited to respond to domestic crises but lack sufficient personnel and training, as well as $48 billion in equipment because of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves.

Even though it's true that we haven't had any at home catastrophes, I guess this means we'd rather fight to save Democracy in Iraq than protect our citizens at home.  Bad call, Mr. President!

Berkeley Dejavu

Berkeley protesters have made history.
They are the first city in the nation to label the Marines as "unwelcome visitors"
On Shattuck street, protesters blocked the doors for 7.5 hours until the police made arrests and allowed people to enter the Marine Corps recruiting station at 2:30 pm.

Republicans have responded, drafting legislation to cut $2.1 million dollars of federal funding that goes to the school district, ferries, and nutritional education in an effort to curb the Berkeley outburst.

Freedom of speech. Is it wrong to block people from enlisting as a marine? Or should the Marine Corps just leave the liberal bubble they are in because the city encouraged their departure..

Sound like the 60's much?

More info here

Kenya

In Kenya, theres more important things besides who's going to win their next primary. They already had their election on December 27, where they were told that with democracy came safe freedom of speech. But they thought wrong.

The Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer used the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe the situation. 250,000 people have been uprooted from their homes. On January 28 a reported 64 people were killed in 4 days of fighting. Overall, in a feud between the Kikuyus and the kanenjins in Rift Valley has resulted in over 850 deaths.

Could this be the start of another Darfur? The U.S. considers Kenya an important ally in fighting terrorism in Africa, and it give Kenya $700 million a year to combat AIDS and other diseases.

This is one of those situations where, if the U.S. does intervene, it will be seen as asserting too much influence in National Affairs, but if we don't, isn't that just morally wrong? To me, this looks like the start of a problem with no answer in sight. Therefore, I think that the U.N. should be intervening, and they are.

Click here for more info.

And Then There Were Two

In case you missed it, the Democratic Debate in California was at 5 pm. The two candidates discussed a variety of things including health care, immigration, and the war on Iraq.

I thought the number of times each candidate mentioned Edwards was notable becuase both are desperately trying to claim is supporters. I was also happy that the candidates seemed civil and kind; there was no more finger pointing and husband backup-ing.

On whether or not the runner-up candidate would become a vice presidential candidate, I thought that was really, really awkward. Both candidates dodged around a concrete answer to the question which I believe is smart. Can you imagine Clinton and Obama running together? I can't - universal healthcare just doesn't seem to blend too well with any other plan.

But towards the end everything blurred together. They're both disdainful towards Bush's policies, they both want to help the uninsured, fix the immigrant problem, and a withdrawel of troops from Iraq.

And then I had an epiphany (well sort of). Fifty years ago, the Americans living in the houses that all looked alike would have probably never EVER forseen this: a black man and a woman running for president. In fact, about fifty years ago, many in the South were fighting Brown v Board of Edu, and other cases involving segregation and racism. And on the other side, women were regarded as the home makers whose function was to raise children and be homemakers.

All in all, as this was the last debate before Super Tuesdays, I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who is still undecided or even apathetic to which democratic candidate wins. All I know is that there will be CHANGE.