The Washington Post updated their Presidential candidates list after a hand full have dropped out in the past week. I took a gander cause the minimalist in me enjoys seeing all the slough and fat cut off a crowded stage.

In my meander, something strange caught my eye:

Which hometown is not like the other?

It’s an interesting addition not only because it isn’t Obama’s hometown (he lived there from the ages of 6-10) but also because The Washington Post decided to give it precedence over his true birthplace and hometown, Hawaii. It stands out a little, don’t you think?

EDIT 10:52 PM

Strangely enough, the link to the Washington Post Presidential Candidates website (which I took the above screen shot from at approximately 11:30 AM this morning) is now providing this error, “This page is temporarily unavailable due to some technical changes we’re making behind the scenes.” hmmm…

EDIT 2/1/08 at 6:53 AM

The site’s back up with no apparent changes.

EDIT 2/1/08 at 9:29 PM

I’m pondering what is exactly a “hometown”.  It’s not always the place of our births.  Often it’s the place we think of fondly and have a majority of our childhood memories.  It’s the place of our roots.  The one place in whole world we will have an intimate tie with.

Doesn’t that make the Jakarta, Indonesia listing seem all the more perplexing?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and with that in mind, on behalf of the U.S., I’ve drafted a little note to our somewhat jilted lover… Afghanistan.  Who really seems like she needs our attention right now. 

Hey Afghanistan, look… you know, we’re sorry that after 9-11 we gung-hoed our way into you with guns blazing and rhetoric flying, and then, well shucks, sorta seemed to forget you once it was decided that Iraq had “WMDs” and Saddam was more important than finding bin Laden and finishing one task before starting another.

And we’re sorry that as the war raged on along two fronts, that your front recieved so little publicity and was at times almost completely washed from the collective public mind.

But look Afghanistan, it doesn’t mean we love you as a conflict riddled nation any less, we just love you in a totally different way.  We love you, we’re just not in love with you.  Ok?  So please, really now, calm the f*** down before things wind up getting too ugly for the both of us to handle… because it looks like our friends are getting really sick of hearing about how destructive our relationship as warzone and foreign power trying to fight for you in your best interests happens to be.

I mean, Canada just said that unless NATO gets behind us continuing to give it a chance to work out, that they’re just going to wash their hands of us!  Can you believe that?  I mean, I know Canada’s lost 79 people since 2002… but, still… Canada, we need you!  We need as much of you as you’re willing to give- we’re kinda caught halfway between this one, and Iraq, and we’re just one nation!  We’ve got two hands- but they’re not always all that well coordinated, and we seem to keep losing fingers every now and again…

(can you show this to Canada for us… we uh… might owe them money… we’re not really sure anymore…)

I mean, Canada, you’re a big part in this cluster fu… I mean orgy of war-fighting!  You’re totally in there working the Kandahar, and as anyone can tell you- that’s a really important erogenous zone.

So Afghanistan, look, we’re really trying to fulfill your needs as best we can, if it’s not working for you… did you ever think maybe it’s got something to do with you?  Don’t freak out, nevermind, forget I said that…  Us, and NATO, and Canada… you know, we’re really trying to make this work, we don’t want you to be a “failed state“.

Xs and Os- heart you always (well, you know, you and Iraq- but we spread the love where we can)

–The United States of America

Popularity: 4% [?]

Two more Presidential Candidates are expected to make official their withdrawls from the running today.

One- John Edwards has been consistently overshadowed by his peers, Obama and Hillary- as a result not winning any state primaries thus far. Who will he endorse? Who will gain the most from his exit? These answers remain to be seen, but one thing is for sure (as if it wasn’t already) it’s coming down to Obama and Hillary for Dem. Presidential Candidate.

The other- Rudy Giuliani. Who at one time was considered a clear front runner for the Rep. ticket, but as soon as the primaries really got under way- he almost became a footnote- barely even running. He’s expected to endorse John McCain.

For those keeping track, that means the Dem. Candidates are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the Rep. Candidates are John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul. And that’s all, at least for today… Could be less tomorrow.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Before President Bill Clinton enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell“, the government had a military wide ban against homosexuals serving in its ranks. Part of his Presidential campaign highlighted his desire to reverse this ban if he took office. But by the time he claimed the White House in 1993, he had compromised. Instead of allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military, he decided it was best that everyone just kept quiet about it.

I suppose at the time it was better than seeing veterans stripped of honors and unceremoniously discharged because of their bed mates. And Bill was only trying to do what he thought was right while also appeasing the GOP.

He meant well, I suppose.

Fifteen years later, our military is still functioning within these obtuse boundaries. Some feel safe within its boundaries and some, who find their honesty falling into the wrong hands, are still getting discharged.

Notable examples are the dozens of Arabic speaking soldiers who have been discharged for homosexuality. (Cause who needs to know what the Iraqi’s and Afghan’s are saying anyway.)

Since the laws enactment, approximately 12,000 soldiers have been given the axe. But the strain of fighting a two front war have caused recruitment and retention to relax “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. It’s become arbitrary.

All signs are pointing towards the next President reconsidering its value in todays military. After 15 years of this nonsense, I couldn’t agree more.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It’s been some time (September 29th to be exact) since we’ve gone ahead and done this- but as we draw nearer to Super Tuesday, it seems like now might be a good time to Google our Presidential hopefuls.  So here’s the run down from highest to lowest…

• “Hillary Clinton” gains you about 11,100,000 hits
•  John McCain” sits at about 6,170,000 hits
• “John Edwards” chimes in with about 4,920,000 hits
• “Barack Obama” gets about 4,730,000 hits
• “Ron Paul” in the search bar will get you about 2,400,000 hits
• “Rudy Giuliani” gets about 1,720,000 hits
• “Mitt Romney” typed in will get you about 1,590,000 hits
• “Mike Huckabee” sits around about 779,000 hits.

So… what does this mean?  Well, there’s more people talking about Hillary and John McCain than any other candidate in their respective parties for sure, there’s also a large amount of net traffic for Ron Paul, but that’s about all he’s getting.  Does this mean anything for their runs in the future- no, not really.  In fact, with a lot of the mentions gaining Google hits surely being negative- the person with the most hits might just be at a disadvantage, and the person mentioned least might be… well no… the only thing worse than bad press is no press.

Here’s some other stats to get you thinking…

• “Heath Ledger” gets about 14,100,000 hits after his untimely death
• “Britney Spears” still gets about 81,900,000 hits, because people love train wrecks
• “George W. Bush” gets about 10,200,000 hits
• “Skitz M. Jones” is quite thrilled to be getting about 252 hits
• and former Prez, and current pain in Obama’s hind-end “Bill Clinton” is up with about 18,300,000 hits.

So there you go.

Popularity: 5% [?]