Conservatives are Stupid

The other day I may have offended a few people by saying anyone that forwarded the Obama email was short on braincells. Tonight I am going to offend a few more people by explaining why Conservatives are stupid. It would actually be troubling to say such a thing about so many people, but I am sure most of them can not read.

I am not talking about Republicans as a whole and not even Conservatives in the traditional sense. I am referring to the Rush listening, Ann Coulter reading, Bill O'Reilly watching, Dennis and Callahan listening (Boston reference), conservative.

I have often wondered about some Conservative principles. They believe in the sanctity of life, but want to kill people that have committed crimes. They believe in smaller government, but want the government to regulate decency on tv and radio. They believe in the free market to decide, but do not trust women to decide. But those are policy issues. The real thing that made me think conservatives are nuts is that I listened to John Gibson on Fox Talk on Sirius radio. Caller after caller called to the host to describe how much they couldn't stand John McCain. The venom towards John McCain was unbelievable. Most of them said they would vote for Hillary rather than see McCain win.

The reasons have all been well documented by now. They ranged from campaign finance reform to opposing Bush's tax cuts, but the single biggest cause of this anger was because McCain partnered with Ted Kennedy on immigration. While I understand the passion on the immigration issue, the amazing thing was the callers that were raising the concerns. The callers complaining while I was listening were from South Dakota, New Hampshire and Wyoming. If you can think of three states with less of an immigration problem than these states, let me know. What I think is that more likely is that these people were whipped into a frenzy of hate by the aforementioned trio (Limbaugh. Coulter, O'Reilly) led by Rush Limbaugh.

McCain is a conservative, has one of the more conservative records in the Senate. What amazes me is that for basically three or four issues, he is the pariah to a good portion of the party. I don't get it. Most of these people are going to vote for Romney (who has hired immigrants to work on his house) because of McCain's stance on immigration.

Immigration is a serious issues, and saying you are going to deport 12 million people in 90 days is an irresponsible lie (not that Romney is above pandering and lying). Rush and his mindless minions are not helping the issue by creating an environment that is so hot that it is political suicide to address it seriously. Thus, it will not get addressed at all.

If you are a conservative capable of thinking for yourself, I don't see how you can have so much anger towards McCain.

Here's Rush Limbaugh spinning the McCain win in Florida. Get over it Rush, move on. Or is it maybe President Hillary Clinton would be good for his career?

iHappy

Recently my wife gave me an Iphone for my 40th birthday. It was to replace my recently lost, dropped, dropped in a toilet and lost for good previous phone. My wife was taking a chance getting me this phone because I do not have a good track record with phones (or American Express cards).

This IPhone is the coolest gadget ever invented. I had resisted getting a Crackberry for many reasons, but an iphone is the Crackberry's cool cousin. I am not a slave to my Iphone like I would be a crackberry, I hardly use the mail to stay in touch with work. Thankfully my company does not support Iphones with mail so I can only access work mail through the web browser.

There are many great features that I love on the Iphone, but one of my favorite features is that I have found out how to stream Sirius through it. When I go for a walk or to the gym, I can listen to some of my favorite stations on Sirius (springsteen channel, howard Stern, sirius left, NFL network, etc). Also, through the same process, I can access music on my home PC or any other multimedia files on my home pc.

The phone features are extremely intuitive and easy to navigate. The keyboard is even easy for someone with fat fingers like myself. The safari browser is pretty good. you can view webpages and zoom in with the touch screen.

I'm sure the Iphone apps on the way are only going to get better. There is already and AIM app so you can instant message from your phone to AOL accounts.

I should in the interest of full disclosure admit to dropping the phone and had the touch screen stop working. I brought it to Apple and they replaced it. Unfortunately, cool technology in my hands of stone is not a great combination.

Quick Links

Every few weeks there is another tease about Al Gore running for President. Usually after I resign myself to it not happening. Now with speculation running rampant him winning the Nobel Peace Prize and using that as a springboard to run for President.

I used to like Rudy a lot. However, the more I see him these days the more he reminds me of GWB. This Slate article shows that he has a little aversion to the truth that sounds way too familiar. The fact that Joe Biden slammed him at a recent debate, saying he is "the most uninformed person on American foreign policy now running for president" only further confirms the comparison.

Sometimes people never learn. USFL, XFL, WLAF, etc have all failed. Yet for some reason two new leagues are begining with some potentially deep pocketed owners (Mark Cuban). The best part of the article shows Tim Crouch trying out. That will be good news for those that own Tim Crouch jerseys (there is an inside joke in this last comment).

One of the gazillion political newsletters I received this week contains an interesting study on what would happen if the Electoral College were changed from a winner take all to a District by District plan. Unfortunately, Al Gore still loses (and Nixon beats Kennedy in 1960).

For those of us with satellite radio, the merger in waiting of Xm and Sirius is confounding. Mobil and Exxon merged with no issues but two little satellite companies are taking months. Interesting status of the merger noting that Sirius has spent $1mil in copying alone for the 6 mil pages of legal documents submitted. (sounds like they are getting ripped off)

Siriusly Entertaining

This weekend I heard that E Street Radio was returning to Sirius, I was thrilled. Last time Bruce had a station on Sirius was in early 2006 and it was fantastic. Most of the stuff they played I had never heard before. Much of it was obscure concert recordings that could not be heard any place else. The station returns on September 27th through March 8th to coincide with the new tour (which incidentally I got tickets for today). It is one more reason to have a Sirius radio.

Somewhere around January 2006, I purchased a Sirius satellite receiver mostly to coincide with Howard Stern starting on Sirius. (Ok, it was solely to listen to Howard, but that is besides the point.) 2 stations devoted 24 hours a day to Howard Stern is great for the millions of Howard fans. Where else can you get Andy Dick's Shit Show or Jackie's Jokehunt? Want to listen to an hour broadcast of John the Stutterer talking Politics? It's right here. If not, there is always Howard 100 which plays his morning show 24 hours a day so you can always pick up pieces you missed on your morning commute. I love listening to Stern, it is like hanging out with friends on my morning commute, but when Howard retires in a few years Sirius will still be collecting subscription money from me.

Have you ever tried to listen to Air America? Don't bother answering that. Well in Boston, it no longer exists on terrestrial radio. On Sirius you have Sirius Left 146 which broadcasts the immortal Ed Schultz show. Big Ed is the best of the progressive talk shows.

Ever try listening to the Celtics on the radio? Up until this year who cares, but now you don't have to find the obscure station of the moment, just plug in the Celtics as your favorite team and your Sportster will remind you when to turn to Cornbread.

NFL, besides carrying every game (usually in both cities feed), the update show that runs on Sunday is better than listening to any one game.

Tonight on the ride home, I was listening to Barbara Walters weekly one hour show. She promoted the show last week on Stern and I've listened to it the past couple of weeks. There really is something for everyone.

Then there are the music stations. Radio Disney and Starz Hits one for the kids. All Elvis and country for my wife, and Little Steven's Underground Garage, Classic Rewind and now E Street for me. If that doesn't work for you there is always the 24 hour Frank Sinatra or Rolling Stone stations. Many, many, many more choices.

There are 2 limitations that I find on Sirius. One is that if I want to listen to the Red Sox, I have to remember what station carries it. Since I have not listened to terrestrial radio once in 18 months, I just don't know what station carries the Sox. If the merger with XM goes through, I should be able to buy a baseball package. The other thing Sirius should do is devote 10 stations to local sports in the 10 biggest markets. Think of how many Sox fans in Florida or California would love to listen to a Boston sports station on the way to work.

Maybe my favorite thing about Sirius is I haven't had the misfortune of listening to Dennis and Callahan once in the last 18 months. Are those two morons still on?