Blowin' Smoke

When it comes to describing Herman Cain, a lot of words come to my mind: unconventional, conservative, and for some reason the number nine. However, when it comes to describing his advertisements, I am at a total loss of words.

His latest viral video is an advertisement featuring his chief of staff, Mark Block, talking about his candidate in front of a building. What would be a lackluster campaign ad borders on bizarre thanks to shotty camera angles, an awkward smile at the end, and the piece de resistance: Block lighting up and smoking a cigarette.

The last factor has been the subject of many news stories this week. CBS's Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer claimed that Cain's ad, "sends a signal that smoking is cool." Herman Cain refuted this claim stating that Block smoked during the commercial because, "Mark Block smokes. That's all the ad says. We weren't trying to say it's cool to smoke."

Whether or not you agree with what Cain said or how Block acted, there's no denying the amount of coverage the advertisement has gained. It has gained over a million views on Youtube alone and has had the whole informed internet world buzzing about it for a week now not to mention Cain is now leading in the polls over Mitt Romney. In its essence, as Mark McKinnon producer of McCain and Bush advertisements says that Herman Cain is different. "And that's kind of the whole Herman Cain message: Why not something different? Why not Herman Cain?" I can agree that we do need change in Washington, but I'm still not sure if Herman Cain is the type of "different" we want.

Nein Nein Nein!

As the "Occupy" protestors and rallyers all over the country and world demonstrate, it's safe to say that many Americans don't find our current economic situation as the best it could be. With the complexity and problematic nature of the federal tax system in it's current state, many groups feel it's time for the government to change its taxation system. Enter Herman Cain and his ""9-9-9" Plan.

As stated on his campaign site, the "9-9-9" Plan is a plan of, "...bold action [in order ] to truly stimulate the economy and renew America back to its greatness." It is actually the first phase of a two phase plan to get the economy back quickly, which involves the implementation of a single 9% Business and Individual Flat Tax as well a 9% National Sales Tax. This, according to Former Reagan Treasury official, Gary Robbins, will "...expand GDP by $2 Trillion," and, "create 6 million jobs..." This is funny seeing as another Reagan Administration official, Bruce Bartlett, claimed that, "At a minimum, the Cain Plan is a distributional monstrosity. The poor would pay more taxes while the rich would have their taxes cut..."

The simplicity of the plan and its potential benefits has excited many voters eager to cast away the tangled system of the past, but others still are skeptical of the plan that candidate Cain has proposed. "While on paper Cain is promising a tax cut, in reality tens of millions of lower-income Americans would face tax increases," Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post wrote discerning that most of the promised tax cuts would actually go to higher wage earners.

His fellow candidates were also very quick to dismiss the plan. "When you take the '9-9-9' Plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil's in the details," said Michelle Bachmann during the New Hampshire debate. Former Utah Governor, Jon Huntsman, also found the name humorous remarking that he, "...thought it was the price of a pizza when [he] first heard about it."

Still, the biggest "critics" of the plan come from the gaming community. Many fans of Maxis' SimCity4 know that the default tax settings for a new city are almost identical to the tax system devised by Cain 8 years after the game's release. Coincidence? Highly likely, but if Cain's clean the streets initiative turns out to involve Godzilla demolishing half the city, then I'll start to get suspicious.

No matter what amount of flack Cain is receiving for his plan, it is good to see that the candidates are stepping up to the plate and providing the public with specific courses of action if they were to be elected. It demonstrates how serious they are for the position. It also in turn allowed Cain to propel himself to a frontrunner status these past two weeks which has put all the other candidates on edge. Although I may not agree with the plan Herman Cain has proposed, I still applaud him for his effort to create change to help our current financial situation. Maybe with support and cooperation on both ends and initiative like Cain's, we can finally move forward away from this economic state.

Visit CAIN'S SITE in order to read more on his plan

CLICK HERE to read Glenn Kessler's analysis of the plan

WATCH CAIN defend "9-9-9" on NBC

Two L.A Times Articles concerning CAIN'S, PLAN

Maxis' Humorous response video to the PARALLELS

Presidential Progress Report

Hello New Contact,

Attached is a progress report for Barack Obama in U.S Presidency (First Term).

Thank you for your attention.

Regards,

Nicholas Lytle

War on Terror 101 (A-): Obama is able to plan and execute tasks exceptionally well. Both his plans to assassinate Osama Bin Laden and to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq have gone according to his plan. However, with the continuing War on Terror and military presence of various countries overseas, Obama still has a hefty workload.

AP Economic Downturn (2/4 stars): Obama has difficulties working well with other students. Although he encourages bipartisanship, many of his resolutions for the economic condition, such as his recent Job's Bill, has been met with stark opposition by his conservative critics.

Health Care Honors(Pass): Pass as in he was able to Pass his Health Care Reform Bill almost two years ago, yet still people are fighting over it and debating on whether it should continue and there are excellent arguments for either side.

Recommendation for U.S Presidency (Second Term)?: If one were to average all of Obama's scores together, it wouldn't really make any sense since all of the scoring conventions are different. Still, despite what critics may say, Obama was able to accomplish many feats in his first term as President, and I HOPE that our current President can CHANGE our current situation and problems in the same way he resolved our other crisises.

Also, no one Republican Candidate is promising to be a good opponent, so I'm very safe in saying that Obama has a fairly good chance at being potentially reelected maybe.

Question of the Week #2

The issue that interests me is the extension of the right of freedom of speech to certain forms of entertainment like Video Games. Although it doesn't seem like an issue, it was almost a year ago in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. The EMA in which California was trying to ban the sale of videogames deemed inappropriate by the state to minors. I'm a huge supporter of the 1st Amendment and all that it entails as well as artistic medium like video games so this issue has been a personal one of mine for the past 4 years. Hopefully in the future when I have free time, I can elaborate on this further and talk about my experiences with this issue.

Squawk, Don't Run

*Picture courtesy of the Burning Platform*

Well, it's now official. After over half a year of "Will she, won't she" spotlight coverage and a bus tour around America, the former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, declared on Wednesday through the Mark Levin Radio Show that she would not be running for president in the 2012 elections. Since this announcement, many have tried to decipher as to what implications her (in)decision will make on the Republican Primary and to the 2012 election as a whole.

Some, like Fox News writer Chris Stirewalt believe that her declaration is the beginning of, "...Round two of the GOP nomination fight," and how it is a call for the Republican nominees to become more serious in their campaign efforts. Although she has stated that she is better suited in this campaign "...to help elect other true public servants to office," at the present time, she doesn't believe there is a perfect candidate for her to support further putting stress on the Can't do Candidates to step up their game.

Others, like Donald Craig Mitchell of the LA Times believe that this announcement came as no surprise to those who were following Palin's presscapades. "She made no effort to establish campaign organizations on the ground in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina," and instead spent her time during this election season, "promoting books, making paid television appearances, giving paid speeches..." Mitchell argues believing that Palin had no plan at all to run and only used the drama to further hype her media fame.

Others still, like Sarah Palin's Twitter and Facebook followers, think that her decision is a sign of the inevitable doom that will fall upon America. "The sadest day in America next to9/11 was Sarah decision not to run," was written almost an hour ago on Palin's Facebook page by Kay Matthews whose deep grief over this issue has apparently made her unable to spell saddest correctly or use proper grammar.

Whatever your political leanings or opinions of the famous hockey mom may be, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Palin's role in the 2012 election has been a prominent one indeed. I for one am glad that the former governor's decision has been made known, because now we can finally focus our sole attention on the present candidates and see who among them can be crowned the Republican presidential nominee. However, some part of me is waiting with anticipation as to how Mrs. Palin will influence and affect the rest of the 2012 race to the White House. Will I be tuning in regularly to look for the answer to my question? You betcha.

NPR's article can be found HERE.

Stirewalt's interpretation can be read in full on FOX NEW'S SITE.

Mitchell's full analysis is on THIS ARTICLE of the LA Times.

Political Alignment

I tend to lean more with the Democratic Party side in terms of specific issues. I believe in the protection of individual rights when it comes to social issues like Gay Marriage or Abortion, I disagree with the influence of religion in schools, and I favor many government programs like Healthcare.

Tough Crowd...

You might remember the chorus of boos that soldier Stephen Hill received on September 22 during the Fox News/Google debate. You might also remember Skeeter, the lovably quirky sidekick of Doug who was the main character of the very popular 90's cartoon of the same name. Only one of these two things will be the topic of my blog post.

Although the debate happened over a week ago, developments regarding the incident have surfaced over the weekend. President Obama, during a Human Rights Campaign dinner this weekend, criticized the conduct of the candidates stating that if they want to be president, they, "can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient." Sen. John McCain also spoke out against the responses the candidates gave to the question and the fact that none of them defended the soldier.

This criticism led candidate Herman Cain to tell ABC News that he should have asked the audience to respect the soldier when the boos happened saying that action, "...would have been appropriate." Although Cain has apologized for his lack of action, most of the other candidates have made no attempt to do so.

From watching the past debates and the controversy around some of the incidents during them, I'm beginning to realize that the relationship between the audience and the candidates is an awkward one to say the least. As the audience boos an openly gay member of the armed service, cheers for the murder of 234 death row inmates, or screams to let a person without healthcare die, none of the debaters call the crowd out for their outrageous behavior. It's like watching a babysitter giving into the demands of a child just because they're afraid the kid will whine and they won't get paid. I can understand that the nominees are afraid of biting the hand that's feeding them, but in cases such as Stephen Hill's, snapping back is more than justified. I hope that in future debates these incidents caused by the audience will not happen, but judging by past events there will most likely be a fair share of crazy during the upcoming debates. What I EXPECT, however, is the candidates to speak out against these events during rather than after the debate.

If you didn't have a chance to catch the debate, please watch a clip of the incident talked about HERE.

NPR also wrote an article regarding this event and Fox News also did a piece on Cain's comments.

Also, if you were disappointed on the lack of a Mr. Doug Funny, please enjoy his Theme Song as a proper ending to this post.