A New Election - Same Old Story

Here we are with the latest presidential campaign and as always it is interesting to watch. We have the Republican National Convention winding down with the Democratic one having concluded last week. Despite the fact that we have all new candidates, we have the same twin specters of hypocrisy and idiocy.

Let us take a look at the Democratic party. We are presented with a man with an interesting personal story. A man who is a product of the American dream. A man who rose from humble beginnings to be Ivy League educated, a fine attorney, and then a senator for the state of Illinois. He is not just a gifted orator, but someone who can captivate all those around him and believe in his message of change. He will bring about change as the president. Change!

However, when he announced who is running mate would be, he revealed him to be Joe Biden. Yes, Joe Biden from Delaware who has been a prickly, self-promoting blowhard in government for over 30 years. Joe Biden, a solid member of the establishment that Obama is supposed to change. This makes absolutely no sense as it is a direct contradiction to what he is supposed to stand for as a Washington outsider.

When we look at the Republicans, we look at a candidate who also has an interesting story. He is the son of an admiral, a combat pilot, a prisoner of war, and an experienced politician. He is the opposite of his Democratic adversary in almost every detail and could be considered the epitome of his own party, that of a bunch of old, rich white men.

When he chose his running mate, the nation was quite surprised - he selected a woman. Not just any woman, but a woman who has been a mayor, governor of Alaska, mother of five, an athlete, and even a runner-up in the Miss Alaska competition. She is the most popular governor in the country and was successful in fighting and eliminating corruption in her state. She is the face of the future of the Republican party and she seems like a character that is too good to be true.

The Republicans were quite happy with McCain's decision but the Democrats apparently were not. The party that is supposed to embrace minorities(women, gays, immigrants, people of color, etc.) decided to attack her as being inexperienced, foolish for not being home raising her 4 month old child(that was quite possibly not even hers, no less!), and just a pretty face.

Despite the fact that she was a mayor of a town and then governor for the past two years, that means nothing. Nope, that useful experience she has of leading people and managing fiscal budgets certainly would not prepare her for the vice presidential position as back-up to the president, for attending all those important state funerals, and making the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. It is funny how someone could have vastly less experience as a senator, run for president, and that would be considered okay. Obama has spent the entirety of his career as a senator campaigning for the presidency. The hypocrisy is sickening.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Presidential elections seem to bring out the worst in people and watching the talking heads on television is quite entertaining. Whoever wins will lead the country for at least 4 years and provide fodder for all the cartoonists and comedians. Let us hope that it does not devolve into hanging chads and accusations of a stolen election.

Apple Craps On Early Adopters Once More

Yesterday was the much anticipated release of the new iPhone 3G, the latest incarnation of Apple's uberphone. Last year's release was spectacular as people wanted to be the first on their block to have this revolutionary pocket computer. This year has proven no different.

About a month or so after its release, Apple dropped the prices on the iPhone citing that is the norm in the tech world. Despite this being true, the nerd rage of the masses - who camped out for not mere hours but days - reached the ears of Steve Jobs. He announced that all of these early adopters would be credited the drop in price. The people who waited a month or so still laughed at them.

Here we are a little more than a year later and the new iPhone has created a very strong buzz. It looks virtually identical to the ver.1 but now has an additional color if you decide to get the 16GB version - white. The big selling features for ver. 2 of the iPhone are 3G speeds which are on average 2.8 times faster than the first version's EDGE technology and the inclusion of GPS. Apple has also released an update to the iPhones software naming it 2.0 and this has enabled users to install software applications which are available from the iTunes store.

Unlike the first version of the iPhone, activation is now required in-store. This is where Apple's most devoted fans have run into a problem - their servers are not working. That's right folks, the early adopters are shelling out the cash for this "must have" phone and the servers won't allow the phones to sync, thus rendering it useless. There were widespread occurrences of stores not even being able to ring customers up. People who had spent so much time in line were leaving after deciding to come back when everything worked. The brave souls who toughed it out and tried to activate could only stare at their expensvie, fruit emblazoned brick. The nerd rage was overwhelming.

People who spent all of that time in line to have bragging rights about owning the new phone can only make emergency calls with them. This is a rare customer relations nightmare for both Apple and AT&T(the iPhone's sole American distributor) who each tout the reliability of their products. This would be a great time for a rival company to make a "mac vs. pc" styled commercial for their cellular service.

The iPhone is a wonderful device. The world knows this and it was released today in 22 countries. Technical snafus do happen, but this is really embarrassing for Apple, especially with all of the advertising and expectations. Yet, once again, it only goes to show that being an early adopter of the iPhone really isn't worth it.

Heath Ledger Dead at 28, Nerds Frantic Over Status of New Batman Film

It was with a great sense of shock that I read that Heath Ledger had died. I had just sat down at the computer after coming home from work and that was the headline that greeted me on the CNN website. How could this possibly be?

Heath was not one of my favorite actors, although he had made quite a few good films in his brief career. I was curious to see what his version of one of my favorite villains would be like in the new Batman movie. He never really seemed to be tabloid fodder aside from one posting by Perez Hilton, where Perez wondered why Heath was no longer sexy.

In this day of celebrities caught in self destruct mode(Brittany, Lindsay, Amy, etc.), I was amazed that this rather quiet celebrity was outlived by these people. His autopsy today was inconclusive, but there were sleeping pills and supposedly other drugs found at the scene. There are rumors of drug abuse in his past, but they are still putting together his recent past together.

What was almost as shocking were the anguished cries of movie nerds. Not that this talented person had died and left behind a 2 year old daughter, but would their precious Batman be released without any problems. Imagine how awful it would be if they had to to do reshoots and the star is too dead to help them. Oh, the inconvenience!

Well, these folks can rest easy as the film is actually in post production. It remains to be seen if this will be the performance of a lifetime. I certainly hope that it is.