Thursday, December 29, 2011
"Dear Friend" - Mix in progress
Thursday, November 3, 2011
"New Zealand Coastline"
"New Zealand Coastline" came to me in a dream. It doesn't happen very often, but once in a great while I will have a song playing in a dream, and once in a greater while I will be dreaming lucidly enough to realize that I am dreaming about a song, and once in an even greater while I will be able to make myself wake up and play enough of it on a keyboard so I will remember it. Even then, only a very few of those middle-of-the-night doodles have eventually developed into what I felt was a good song. Of those, this is my favorite.
In the dream, the song was not specifically about New Zealand, but I think there was a general implication that this is where I was at the time it appeared. I was not playing the song in the dream, nor was it even my song. It sounded sort of like something Enya would do, and it was just kind of the "soundtrack" to what was going on at the time. Once I realized that I was dreaming, and was able to wake up while still retaining the song in my head, I knew that the song didn't belong to anyone so I figured it was a case of "finders keepers."
Once I began to properly work on the song, a New Zealand coastal theme started to properly take shape. I kept in mind a picture that was in a family album from a trip we took in the late 1980s, using that as a basis for the texture of the piece as it continued to take shape. I eventually obtained a copy of that photo and included it in the booklet for the CD along with the track listing for the song.
"New Zealand Coastline" was initially created without any PC software. I recorded each of the tracks internally with the ENSONIQ MR-61's built-in sequencer, using MIDI to control one patch on the ENSONIQ SD-1. There is a patch on that synth which has a huge, multi-leveled feel which was perfect for this song. You can clearly hear the single patch from the SD-1 once you know what to listen for. It is where the high notes come from at about the :40 second mark and is the sound that carries out with a long sustain at the end of the song. Everything else is the MR-61. Because the whole thing was done on board the MR-61, to get this ready for the CD I simply pushed "record" on the computer and "play" on the keyboard. Unfortunately, the multi-voice chorus effect used for that patch on the SD-1 has a glitch, where random click noises somehow get into the audio chain - and are replicated by the chorus - so they have a watery-echoey sound to them. I used that same patch in "A New Beginning" on my first CD and a few of those clicks inadvertently made it into the final recording. I didn't want to repeat that error here, so I painstakingly edited every click and its multiples from the recording using some software prior to mastering. Other than that, this song is a good representation of how these keyboards sound "live." ENSONIQ made some cool gear and I still use both of these synths on a regular basis.
The coastal scenes used in this video were shot in 2008 and include the Moeraki Boulders, Queen Charlotte Sound, Punakaiki, Waipapa Bay, Akaroa and Hokitika.
You can get a CD, including the booklet with New Zealand Coastline picture here.
The coastal scenes used in this video were shot in 2008 and include the Moeraki Boulders, Queen Charlotte Sound, Punakaiki, Waipapa Bay, Akaroa and Hokitika.
You can get a CD, including the booklet with New Zealand Coastline picture here.
"Secrets"
This song was written late one night in 2001. It was one of those moments where everything seemed to be aligned just right, the magic was in the air, or whatever happens when creativity peaks happens. "Secrets" went from inspiration to completion in about 30 minutes, and the decision to make it the opening track on the next CD also came rather quickly.
Now that I am finally moving forward on preparing that CD, I revisited this song to see if it needed anything before being committed to the album. Although the timing is a little sloppy in a couple of places and there is some unintended variation in the left-hand arpeggios, I decided to do absolutely no quantization or other "fixing," because a more intimate, human or perhaps "imperfect" condition is more true to the spirit of the song. I had originally planned to extend the piece with a bridge leading into something as yet undetermined, but after listening to the initial draft I felt that this particular composition was certainly a case where one could easily break the spell by overdoing it. The instrumentation is nothing fancy; little more than piano backed by strings, and so it seemed as though the basic structure of the song was appropriate as well.
I only made two significant changes (other than re-recording each track into the DAW at a higher sample rate). First, I updated the piano sample from one on the ENSONIQ MR-61 to one from the KORG Triton. I didn't yet own the KORG at the time this song was composed, and for most purposes I find its piano samples to be more lifelike. Changing that patch did necessitate some level adjustments and effects processing in Reaper in order for it to properly fit into the mix. After that, the only other change was a very small addition to the strings at about the 2-minute mark. For some reason, every time I listened to this song I would hear - in my head - a specific note in the strings at that precise moment... that actually wasn't there. So I put it there.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Some songs are never done
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| The new Reaper mix of "Dear Friend" is currently at 23 tracks |
Quite a few of the songs I create sit in a state of partial completion for months or even years before I will go back and finish them. "Dear Friend" is an exception as it was brought out to its full length only a few days after the first note was written, and has been sitting on the shelf for the last eight years.
However, as I began working on the next album, I decided to re-record as many of my already completed songs as I could at a higher sample rate and, if possible, update some of the sounds and recreate the mix in Reaper instead of SAWPro.
When I tackled this song I found that I had all of the original MIDI tracks, but I was unable to exactly duplicate the mix for the ending that I had made for the original version in SAWPro, so I had to come up with a new ending. In the years since I originally finished the song, I had made a lighter piano-based version for use in massage therapy. Just for kicks, I inserted the opening to that version as a new ending for this version, and found that it actually worked very well. In the process of doing that, I came up with a few new ideas, and those ideas spawned other ideas, and now I have ended up nearly completely redoing the mix. The picture here shows the mix as it is now in Reaper - 23 tracks at the moment.
You can hear the original mix of "Dear Friend" on my MySpace page. The new mix will be on the next album.
You can hear the original mix of "Dear Friend" on my MySpace page. The new mix will be on the next album.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Welcome to Doomsday... again
Just remember that any day could be your last, so live each one to the fullest.
Monday, October 6, 2008
My VP debate BS meter
In this blog I will attempt to rate the depth of the BS delivered by each of the VP candidates during last Thursday's debate. I will use a scale where 1 represents just a mild distortion of the truth and 3 is a full load of crap. A running total will provide a gauge of who stunk the most by the end.
PALIN: Obama voted to increase taxes on families making $42,000 per year
BIDEN – McCain's tax plan would give oil companies a $4 billion tax cut.
BIDEN: – Iraq has an $80 billion surplus
PALIN: Iraq troop levels are back to pre-surge numbers.
TRUTH – Although the numbers are going down, there are currently 10,000 more troops in Iraq then there were when the surge began. If the current withdrawal rate continues, troop numbers will not be back to pre-surge levels until some time next year.
RATING: 1 – this is not true, but it is close, and she did say "That's where we can be" immediately after, but I think this still stands as an exaggeration of the truth.
BIDEN – McCain voted the same way as Obama on a troop funding bill.
TRUTH – McCain voted the opposite way from Obama on the bill in question. McCain supported a funding bill that did not include a timeline, while Obama supported a funding bill that included a timeline.
RATING: 2 – While this would otherwise get a 3 for being the complete opposite of the truth, the point Biden was trying (rather poorly) to make was that the disagreement was over the timeline, not the funding. Obama accurately pointed this out during his first debate with McCain, and unlike Biden, he managed to do it without telling a lie of his own.
RUNNING TOTAL:
BIDEN 2
PALIN 1
PALIN: Obama voted to increase taxes on families making $42,000 per year
TRUTH – Obama voted to increase taxes on individuals making $42,000 per year, not families.
RATING – 2 – While it's a somewhat minor distortion of the truth, the misleading impression it gives makes it a 2
BIDEN: McCain voted the same way as Obama on the bill to raise taxes on individuals making $42,000 per year.
TRUTH – McCain did not vote on this bill.
RATING – 2 – Biden may want us to think that a non vote is the same as a no vote, but if that's the case he'd better be careful due to the number of "present" votes given by his running mate.
RUNNING TOTAL:BIDEN 4
PALIN 3
PALIN – Obama voted 94 times to increase taxes.
TRUTH – That number includes some bills that raised taxes on some groups while lowing it for others.
RATING – 1 – it is a minor distortion of the truth.
BIDEN – McCain refused to meet with the government of Spain
TRUTH – McCain made no commitment one way or the other.
RATING – 2 – just as in the previous Biden lie, no position is not the same as a "no" position.
RUNNING TOTAL:
BIDEN 6
PALIN 4
BIDEN: McCain wanted to deregulate the healthcare industry just as had been done for the banking industry.
TRUTH – McCain does not propose deregulation, only increased competition across state lines. He also supported reforming of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
RATING – 2 – Increased competition does not equal total deregulation
PALIN – McCain's healthcare plan would be budget-neutral
TRUTH – While it would cost less than Obama's plan, McCain's healthcare plan would still cost the government billions of dollars.
RATING – 3 – Any government-funded healthcare program is going to be very expensive, so Palin's claim here is simply complete BS.
RUNNING TOTAL:
BIDEN 8
PALIN 7
PALIN – Millions of small businesses would see increased taxes under Obama's plan
TRUTH – Hundreds of thousands of small businesses would see increased taxes under Obama's plan, but certainly not millions.
RATING – 1 – Her number is an exaggeration, but her point that a great many small businesses would see increased taxes is valid.
BIDEN – McCain's tax plan would give oil companies a $4 billion tax cut.
TRUTH – McCain's tax plan would change the corporate tax rate from %35 to %25. There is no special treatment for oil companies, and the $4 billion figure is the total of one particular (liberal-biased) organization's estimated value of this change to the five largest oil companies combined.
RATING – 2 – It could possibly become true, but probably not, and the way Biden presented it as special treatment for just oil companies was grossly misleading.
RUNNING TOTAL:
BIDEN 10
PALIN 8
BIDEN: – Iraq has an $80 billion surplus
TRUTH – Iraq has $29 billion- total - in the bank
RATING – 1 – It is an exaggeration of the truth.
PALIN - We're circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign countries for oil
TRUTH – The actual number is about $493 billion.
RATING – 1 – Another exaggeration
RUNNING TOTAL
BIDEN 11
PALIN 9
PALIN – Obama voted for the 2005 energy bill, which is what gave oil companies big tax breaks.
TRUTH – There were some big tax breaks and other big tax increases, but the net result was actually a slight tax increase.
RATING – 3 – Complete opposite of the truth
BIDEN – McCain voted 20 times against alternative energy
TRUTH – McCain voted 11 times against alternative energy. Many of McCain's votes were not against alternative energy, but rather the MANDATORY use of alternative energy.
RATING – 2 – An exaggeration... and a very misleading one
RUNNING TOTAL.
BIDEN 13
PALIN 12
BIDEN: Obama never said he would have an unconditional meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
TRUTH – During the primary debates, Obama replied to a YouTube submitted question by saying that he would have unconditional meetings with leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea.
RATING – 3 – The Obama Campaign is trying to make it seem that Obama was talking about Iran leadership other than Ahmadinejad, but the video that accompanied the question showed a picture of Ahmadinejad when Iran was mentioned, and everyone at the debate knew that the question to referred to him.
PALIN – called US commander in Afghanistan, David McKiernan "McClellan."
RATING – 0 – Although she said it more than once, this is probably nothing more than an unintentional slip.
RUNNING TOTAL
BIDEN 16
PALIN 12
PALIN - General McKiernan supports "surge principles" in Afghanistan
BIDEN - General McKiernan does not support "surge principles" in Afghanistan
RESULT – INCONCLUSIVE - Who was lying depends on what they were talking about when referring to "surge principles." While General McKiernan said he would not use the word "surge," he did suggest that Afghanistan would need an infusion of US troops quickly.
RUNNING TOTAL
BIDEN 16
PALIN 12
BIDEN - "...all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."
TRUTH – Katie's Restaurant closed in the 1980s, so its closing had nothing to do with the Bush administration.
RATING – 2 - This was an obvious, phony attempt to make himself appear as "Average Joe" Biden, when the truth is that it shows he is out of touch.
PALIN - "Barack Obama had said that all we're doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians"
TRUTH – The full quote from Obama: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there." At the time Obama said this (August 2007), US troops were killing more civilians than insurgents. Although if you take Obama's words literally he did say that this is all we were doing, it is pretty safe to say that Obama was exaggerating to get his point across at the time.
RATING – 2 – A gross misrepresentation of the original statement
RUNNING TOTAL
BIDEN 18
PALIN 14
PALIN - "...it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures..."
TRUTH – While it could be said that Republicans including McCain were in favor of reform while Democrats were against it (see this video), saying that McCain stands out as pushing hard is an exaggeration.
RATING – 1 – A mild distortion
BIDEN - "When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.' Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel." (video clip including this statement)
RATING – 9 – A complete, utter, pulled-it-out-of-an-unseen-orifice fabrication. This event never occurred on planet Earth. Biden was making up a total fairytale... and he is supposed to be the foreign policy expert? Such a bald-face lie is inexcusable, and if Sarah Palin had said something so outrageous the McCain campaign would probably be finished. This massive lie is worth three complete loads of BS at least.
FINAL SCORE:
BIDEN 28
PALIN 15
Summary: Both candidates mangled the facts, but Biden did a better job at burying us in piles of BS. As for who won the debate, I'd say Biden was more convincing, and Palin was more personable. However, this debate was all about Palin. Biden has been in the Senate since before I was born, so his record speaks for itself. However, in the week leading up to the debate Liberal talkers had started really picking apart the Katie Couric interview, so Thursday all eyes were on Palin. I think she proved her worth, but it probably won't make any difference in poll numbers.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Why I am voting for John McCain
Why I'm voting for John McCain:
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I keep wondering what changed his mind. Nothing so far has changed mine. Barring some unforeseen event, on November 4th I will vote for John McCain.
AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS BLOG IS LOOOOONG. IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING THE WHOLE THING, AT LEAST WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END (IT'S ONLY ABOUT 1 MINUTE LONG).
1 – ECONOMY AND TAXES
Both candidates will increase the national debt, but the McCain plan is centered around keeping taxes low across the board and cutting out wasteful spending, something that I believe is critical when the economy is in a slump. Unlike Obama, McCain has a strong record of voting against earmarks and other wasteful spending in Washington. McCain would keep the Bush tax cuts permanent, as well as dramatically lower the estate tax and create other high-level tax breaks. This is in line with my philosophy that allowing people who control the most money do more with it stimulates the economy far more than giving tax breaks to people who contribute very little to begin with. Obama's plan reduces taxes for the lowest income-earners and increases taxes on the upper income-earners. My problem with Obama's philosophy is that the bottom 75% of income-earners only pay 14% of the total tax as it is. Therefore, adjusting their already small contribution is not going to do much to stimulate the economy. Meanwhile, Obama would place an even greater tax burden on the people who already contribute the lion's share, placing more restrictions on the people who have the greatest impact on the economy. Another portion of Obama's economic plan that seems backwards to me is his proposed windfall tax on energy companies. This would increase the burden on the entities who are already finding it difficult to keep up with the demand, and will simply result in the increased costs being passed on to the consumers while doing nothing to address the real problem of supply vs. demand.
During his acceptance speech, Obama claimed that he would pay for "every dime" of his massive government spending proposals by "closing corporate loopholes and tax havens." However, Obama cannot possibly pay for all of his proposals without a dramatic increase in taxes. Obama continually claims that 95% of Americans would see their taxes decrease under his plan. The 95% number actually refers only to families with children. At best, the number is closer to 80% of American households, but regardless of the actual number, it doesn't tell the whole story. Obama plans to drastically increase taxes on upper-income individuals as well as increase taxes on capital gains and dividends. Therefore, chances are good that your employer will see an increased tax burden under the Obama plan, and much like the windfall energy taxes being passed down to the people at the pump, if your boss has an increased financial load it is unrealistic to expect that you will suffer no ill effects from it. Therefore, you personally may qualify for a tax cut under the Obama plan, but you will probably still be indirectly affected by Obama's other tax increases. Another example: Obama plans to tax interest as ordinary income, so even if you get a tax cut, you will still be indirectly taxed through your savings account. No matter how Obama tries to sell it, his plan would be one of the largest single-year tax increases since World War II, and history shows that dramatically increasing the tax burden during economic slowdown does not have a positive effect on the economy.
In short, Obama's plan is philosophically similar to a redistribution of wealth. While a lot of people will like his plan because they feel like they are getting something out of it, I disagree with this because it could discourage economic growth. Obama's promise for tax breaks to 95% of the people sounds good and appeals to our selfish nature, but we have to look beyond the immediate gain to the long-term impact of taking from the rich to give to the poor. Most of the wealthy people in the country are rich because they know how to make money work for them. If we continue to hinder their ability to do this and distribute their gains to people who are less inclined to chase such large financial dreams, eventually there won't be any more rich people to tax. McCain's plan is to encourage those people who already enjoy working with big budgets to continue to do just that. This philosophy trusts that people who have earned a fortune know what they are doing, and can continue to grow indefinitely provided they are given the freedom to do so. In order to continue to grow financially, they need to reinvest their money, and that process has a much deeper and longer lasting economic benefit for people across all economic classes.
Most people who get angry with the "tax breaks for the rich" line do so purely out of envy. However, a point I often make is this: If you take more money from the rich and give it to the poor, the poor might be able to buy a little more, but the price of those goods are going to go up because it will cost more to produce them. On the other hand, when a fabulously rich person buys a ridiculously lavish yacht, he puts a whole crowd of people to work and injects a massive amount of money into the economy. The more tax breaks that go to the rich, the more money gets reinvested and the more people get jobs.
I see Obama vs. McCain on taxes as Obama wanting to level the playing field by bringing those at the top down, while McCain wants to lift them up, and my belief is that a higher water line raises all of the boats.
To be fair, Obama does have some good ideas about closing loopholes and getting rid of tax shelters and other shady practices, and it would be nice if McCain would address these issues more thoroughly. However, I strongly disagree with the ideas surrounding socialism, and Obama's plan contains too much of this for me, so my economic vote goes to McCain.
2 – FOREIGN POLICY and JUDGMENT
Lately, Obama has been trying to make himself appear somewhat more enlightened when it comes to Iraq than what I believe is actually the case. These days he portrays himself as bravely standing up against the Iraq war from the beginning and cautioning against dropping the ball in Afghanistan. The truth is that Obama was not yet in the US Senate at the time the war began, and he certainly wasn't a voice in the wilderness in his district when it came to opposing the war. Further, he made no mention of Afghanistan when he spoke against the war in 2002.
Obama tries to portray himself as possessing better judgment than McCain, which he wants us to believe is a stronger trait than McCain's real world experience. However, even if we say for the sake of argument that Obama was right about not going into Iraq in the first place (which I don't necessarily believe is true) he has shown very poor judgment on Iraq-related issues since then. Rather than support any efforts at victory once the war was underway, his proposals have all centered solely around various forms of troop withdrawal (currently a 16-month timeline for pulling out active-combat troops). He has stuck with this philosophy despite continued warnings from people such as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, who has said that setting a fixed withdrawal timeline could be "very dangerous."
Further, Obama was opposed to the "surge" strategy that has resulted in great success in Iraq, which to me also shows poor judgment on his part. In my mind, Obama's statements about meeting unconditionally with Iran also show poor judgment. He has also shown poor judgment in somewhat less serious matters. The infamous Jeremiah Wright is a prime example. Although he finally distanced himself when it became politically necessary to do so, the fact remains that he was a member of that church for 20 years and had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing and chose not to. The "lipstick on a pig" comment also shows poor judgment. While I certainly don't think that it was intended as a derogatory comment toward Sarah Palin as some McCain supporters have suggested, I certainly do think that it was a particularly bad choice of words given Palin's joke about Pit Bulls and lipstick just days before.
Back to Iraq, Obama's platform has been mostly stagnant since 2002, and he continually relies solely on his position that we shouldn't have gone there in the first place. Whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is no longer an issue. The fact is that we are there now, and I want someone in charge who has the understanding of how to appropriately handle the current situation without making things worse, not someone who keeps saying, "I told you so." McCain supported the surge while Obama kept trying to undo the past.
3 – ENERGY
While both candidates support development of new alternative energy sources, Obama proposes to accomplish this through large taxpayer-funded government programs, while McCain proposes to accomplish it through tax incentives for energy companies. Obama has promised to deliver oil independence in ten years. Even if he could somehow manage that, his plan would leave a huge economic hole where the energy industry used to be. Obama's campaign ads vaguely promise to "fast-track alternative energy" as the solution. However, when you look more closely, you see that this refers to a ten-year government fund to develop new energy technology. I think we can all agree that any viable petroleum-free energy industry is easily ten years away. To people paying high gas prices, ten years probably doesn't seem all that fast, and Obama's reluctance to pursue domestic oil drilling or nuclear power doesn't provide me any confidence that he will appropriately address the current energy problem.
On the other hand, McCain plans to provide tax incentives to energy companies who develop new energy sources. To me this makes much more sense because it will keep the energy industry viable even after oil is no longer a primary energy source. Further, McCain's plans address the short-term problem through increased emphasis on nuclear power as well as increased domestic oil drilling, which I believe is the only solution to provide any real relief while we work on long-term oil independence.
4 – CHARACTER / QUALIFICATIONS
Even those who oppose him have to admit that John McCain is a genuine American hero. The horrors that he endured during the Vietnam war are thankfully unimaginable to most of us. After returning home, he took command of a large Navy training squadron and turned around what was considered a somewhat poorly performing unit and won the squadron its first-ever Meritorious Unit Commendation. He won election to the US senate in 1987. During his time in the senate he has earned a reputation as a spending hawk, becoming one of only a handful of senators who consistently rejects bills based on wasteful spending. He has also become known as a "maverick" by going against his own party when he believes they are wrong and "reaching across the isle" to work with Democrats when he believes they are right. Despite criticism from Republicans about his straying from the party, McCain's political record is strongly conservative. McCain has demonstrated how much importance he places on these values by choosing a person to run with him who has also earned a reputation for independently standing up against her own party. Additionally, Sarah Palin is the only candidate with any genuine executive experience, something which I feel is important when filling the office of both President and Vice President.
No one should deny that Barack Obama has had an impressive success story so far. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991 he worked as a civil rights attorney and community organizer before being elected to the Illinois senate in 1997, and then to the US senate in 2004. A great deal of his time since then has been spent campaigning for the office of President, which is ironic given that he himself stated in November 2004 that this would be a primary reason for him to NOT run for the office of President. Obama does not have much history in the US Senate, but despite his reputation for voting "present" instead of "yes" or "no," his voting record shows that he typically votes along the Democratic party line. Although his quick rise to fame is worthy of accolades, it does not provide much background from which we can judge his capabilities as a potential President. In choosing Joe Biden, who has been in the US senate since 1972, as his running mate, I believe Obama is trying to make up for his obvious lack of experience. Biden brings a great deal of foreign policy knowledge with him, but it seems to me that this goes somewhat against Obama's "change" motto, since Biden is one of the deepest rooted Washington insiders currently in the Senate.
There is a line attributed to former US Representative J.C. Watts about character: "Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking." While all politicians are somewhat guilty of reinventing themselves to suit the public image, I have seen more of this in Obama than McCain, and perhaps part of it is due to Obama still finding his legs as a senator. While years of experience can help someone be a better politician, they can also be a burden, especially in a year such as this when we are awaiting the departure of an unpopular President and the general mood of the public toward government is pessimistic. One of the primary reasons Obama supporters I know are behind him is they feel he will be something different and be a change from the old politics that have brought us to today. In that respect, Obama's short time in the Senate works for him, because he can claim to not have been involved in the system so long as to be corrupted by it, and that might very well be true. However, for people who are pessimistic about government, a man who plans to deliver a larger, more powerful government with more control over individuals and more of the people's money in their pockets is not delivering change for the better. If it comes to more of the same vs. a change toward socialism, I will pick more of the same.
Obama has repeatedly stated that McCain's presidency would represent more of the "failed policies of the past" and in support of that he points out that McCain has voted in agreement with Bush 90% of the time. Based on voting records, this is true, but based on Obama's voting record, he agrees with the Democratic party 97% of the time. That means that while McCain could be called 90% Bush, Obama can be called 97% Pelosi, and while Bush is currently very unpopular (his rating is currently about 27% in favor), the approval rating of congress under the control of Nancy Pelosi is currently even worse at 17%! Therefore, the change Obama wants to bring to Washington is a change from bad to worse: A change from the policies that have earned Bush his dismal approval ratings to the even less popular policies and practices of the Democrats.
Obama has also suggested that McCain is running for Bush's third term. In response, McCain says that Obama is running for Carter's second term. In many respects, McCain is right. There are several similarities, but the most striking to me is that Carter also experienced an energy crisis under his watch, and his solution was to increase taxes on the energy companies, just like Obama wants to do today. Carter's tax increases had a negative impact on our domestic oil industry and resulted in increased importing of oil... something we are still having to deal with today.
"Change" is not the same as "improvement," and I would definitely prefer the failed policies of the Bush administration over the failed policies of the Carter administration. However, John McCain is not another George Bush, and he is in fact more likely to break away from the old left vs. right politics than is Barack Obama. While certainly conservative, McCain's record clearly shows that his reputation as a maverick is well-deserved. On the other side, although Obama's record is somewhat scant, from what he has accomplished so far it appears that he is a down-the-party-line liberal. To borrow a line from his campaign, that is not the change we need.
Amongst all of this, one thing continues to pop up in my head, and that is the fact that Obama himself stated that he would not be qualified to be President in 2008:
------- Barack Obama - November 2004 ---------------------------
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I keep wondering what changed his mind. Nothing so far has changed mine. Barring some unforeseen event, on November 4th I will vote for John McCain.
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