Not The Halloween I’m Used To

New fear for trick-or-treaters

It has to be the second most celebrated day by children next to Christmas.  Every year on October 31, millions of children around the country and the world go out at night to various houses dressed as ghost, goblins, ghouls, or anything that would get a rise out of people.  Their goal, to obtain candy and other goodies.  Naturally you’re not going to find too many children who dread the coming of Halloween.  But in recent years there has been a new and genuine reason to give children fright.  It’s the ever growing threat of paroled registered sexual offenders that lurk nearly every American city.

Years ago, prior to the 1990s, trick-or-treating on Halloween was harmless and any and everyone was free have their house visited by dozens of children.  Of course there were the viable threats of poisoned candy, candy treated with razors, and bully’s taking candy.  The threat of bad people out there in the night looking to grab children was real, but it was real every other day too.  In recent years the American public began to realize that there were people actively out to get children.  These people are sexual predators and we didn’t realize how big of a problem they were until just a few years ago.  According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, prior to 1994 few states required convicted sex offenders to register their addresses with local law enforcement.  Recognition of the severity of the problem grew and the laws became more prominent.  So now when there is the potential for more children to be out at night, there a higher risk, and more of a reason to be vigilant. 

Sex offenders are facing bans from Halloween activities in areas around the nation.  In Anderson, South Carolina they are gathering them all in one location until to be released later in the evening.  California agents will be going door to door to sex offenders to make sure they’re lock up inside in dark houses with no decorations just so they cannot incite any contact with trick o’ treaters.  Not to mention the 5pm to 5am curfew.  Texas offenders will be given citations and perhaps get their probation revoked if rules are violated.  Sex Offenders in Maryland need “no candy” signs.  These are just a few things activities law enforcement agencies are doing to make sure children are safe from sex offenders.

Not for nothin’, but it’s better safe than sorry.  Even though there’s little to no cases of sex offenders attacking children while trick-or-treating, you’d never want there to be either.  It’s unfortunate that there are these types of predators out there, but it’s fortunate that law enforcement have measures in place that will help keep their behavior at bay during a risky time for children and them.

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Phillies Win The World Series

Phillies Win World Series

The Phillies are World Series champions again, for the first time since 1980.  They were able to pull out a 4-3 victory of the Tampa Bay Rays in game five.  The Rays played a terrific season, but did could not manage to go further against the Phillies in the seven game series.  This is the fifth straight that the World Series failed to reach a game six.

It was somewhat of a wild finished as the end of this last game was played a couple of days after it began.  A rain delay on Monday caused play to stop in the sixth inning and the weather in Philadelphia wouldn’t allow them to start again until Wednesday night.  So in typical Philadelphia fashion, the fans booed to make sure Commissioner Bud Selig knew just how they felt after he called the game due to weather Monday night.

It’s been 28 years since the Philadelphia Phillies won a title and it’s been 25 years since the city of Philadelphia won a title or championship of any kind all together.  In fact their last title the city was able to celebrate was the last time Rocky was champion.  But now they can throw a Phillies cap on top of the statue that sits near the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. 

Not for nothin’, but let’s give a little credit to their competitors.  The Tampa Bay Rays were one of the worse teams in baseball one year ago.  But today they find themselves just a few games away from the very best.  They spent the last ten years of their existence as a bottom feeder Major League Baseball, but showing what they accomplished this year, and to take account for the youth of their team, I doubt we’ve seen the last of the Tampa Bay Rays going far into the playoffs.

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The 600 Million Dollar Man

Obama Campaign Financing

Barack Obama has indeed broke new ground when it comes to political campaigning.  When it comes to campaign financing, Sen. Barack Obama has far exceeded his opponent Sen. John McCain.  Since the beginning of September, Barack Obama has raised $186 million to bring his total to over $600 million.  Some, including John McCain are saying that the democratic nominee lied or went back on his word when it comes to campaign financing.  Last year, Sen. Obama did say that he was going to take public financing, effectively putting a cap on the amount of money he’ll be able to raise during the campaign.  It’s been quite obvious that Obama has since turned down the $84 million of government funding and is free to raise and spend as much as he wants.

It’s shown in the way that he has been reported in spending his money.  Outspending John McCain by wide margins.  In many battleground states he has at the very least doubled, usually tripled the amount spent for television ads.  But one specific ad comes to mind when talking about television.  On Wednesday night Barack Obama has bought airtime on five different networks, to run a half-hour television advertisement.  Major networks will air the “infomercial” in its entirety.  Of course the McCain campaign put up a fight, but ultimately the cannot stop television stations from putting what they want on air.  So when Fox said they wanted to delay the World Series to play the ad, it did not sit well with the republican party.

But being the first candidate to not take public financing in the general election since the program started back in the 1970s, naturally would come with some commentary.  Its almost like the chicken and the egg argument.  Was Obama campaign so phenomenal in fundraising that it was able to gain so much money because he’s not taking public financing?  Or is this public financing system a handicap on political fundraisng?  If McCain didn’t take public financing, would he have been able to raise as much?

Well the McCain campaign doesn’t like it and they don’t have to.  Barack Obama has more than enough money to spend it in any way that’ll ensure him to get elected.  He has enough money to put millions of eyes in a television primetime slot (when most people watch television) on him a week before the election.  Some of those millions may be the undecided, and this move may put them over the top.

Not for nothin’, I don’t know who is in charge of the fundraising in the Obama campaign, but I doubt they’ll have a problem finding a job ever again.  And as far as McCain’s problems with Obama’s fundraising or changing his mind on public financing, why shouldn’t he?  If he saw that he could get more money the other way, then there shouldn’t be a problem with it.  It’s like Steve Spurrier philosophy on running up the score in college football.  If you don’t like it stop him, or score more.

Did She Cross The Line?

It’s been called unprofessional, biased, partisan, embarrassing, and a host of other comments, but no other interview in Barbara West’s over 20 years as a journalist garnered so much attention than her interview with vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden.  Of course being in a presidential campaign, many interviews would get their due amount of attention.  From a local angle, getting a one-on-one interview with a vice-presidential candidate would get many views locally, but the way Barbara West conducted her interview with Biden did not sit well with many, specifically the democratic party. 

Getting much play from national media networks like Fox News and CNN and even more from the You Tube version that has been playing over the past couple of days this story has taken a controversial turn.  Still sticking to the line that she was seeking to get answers that people on the street want to know, much focus, of several pointed and perhaps controversial questions, was put on the line of questioning about Obama wanting comment of “spreading the wealth around.”

In the interview, West quoted Karl Marx and asked Biden, “How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”  Naturally being suprised and taken aback, Biden responded, “Is this a joke?”  Other questions in that fashion had Biden questioning who was writing her questions.  The result of the interview had gotten future one-on-one interviews for the station pulled by the Obama campaign. 

Other facts that lead people to believe negative intent by West are that her husband was a republican strategist and contributed money to campaigns in the past and that Barbara West herself is a registered republican.  WFTV, the station she works for, is by far Central Florida’s leading television news station, partly due to longtime viewership over several years by the local public.  Feedback to her and the station has generally been positive, but feedback through other media outlets have not been as forgiving.

Not for nothin’, but it seems kind of suspect that a second interview with Sen. McCain after the Biden interview was called.  It was like a “do over” interview, a second chance for her to appear as hard hitting and unbias as she say she is.  She effectively linked anyone with a liberal belief on taxes to Karl Marx.  May or may not have been her intention, but it’s starting to come across that way.  Maybe she should be the focus of as hard hitting questions about where she stands, but her integrity and bias is already called into question. 

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The President That Never Was

Josiah Bartlett at the top of the list?

Which fictional president from your favorite movie or television show would you vote for?  We’re about a week left until the nation chooses either a African-American as president or a female as vice-president for the first time in history.  That’s something we’re actually accustomed to seeing on screen.  So in honor of our historic moment, here’s a nice tongue and cheek way of looking at the so called “leader of the free world.”  Who is your favorite?

Several actors, some to include some of the best actors (and actresses) have graced performances of playing the President of the United States.  Dozens of movies have had a part of a fictional president nearly since the start of the film era.  Many times directors, producers, etc look to cast the best actor to play president, specifically when its in a lead role.  But many other times they look to cast someone who would be able to look presidential and fill the mold.  To decide which one of them did the best job, that might depend on the type of genre you pick. 

Presidents in a comedic role are always fun.  Their easy to like primarily because the movie they’re portrayed in are funny and light-hearted.  President James Dale (Jack Nicholson) from Mars Attacks and President Harris (Leslie Nielsen) in the Scary Movie series had great roles in their movies.  But as for the funniest fictional president, just a notch above Lloyd Bridges’ Tug Benson in Hot Shots! Part Deux I’m going to have to go with President Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock) in Head of State.  It’s a movie written specifically for Rock as president meant to be funny, which all adds up to the top of the heap.

The action-packed presidency role hands down has to go with President James Marshall from Air Force One.  Bill Pullman did a good job as well as the alien fighting Thomas Whitmore in Independence Day, but there’s something about a president that takes fighting terrorist in his own hands, literally.

There’s a hail of presidents that have been in dramatic roles.  One of my personal favorites is President William Mitchell from Dave.  There’s also John Travolta of Primary Colors, Ronny Cox in both Murder at 1600 and Captain America, Mark Harmon in Chasing Liberty, William Hurt in Vantage Point, and Billy Bob Thorton in Love Actually.  Other actors include Sam Waterson, Jeff Bridges, Gene Hackman, and many others make it hard to pick just one.  Generally considered to be at the top of the list by many are President Andrew Shephard (Michael Douglas) from The American President and the West Wing’s Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen).  Douglas had an excellent performance, but some say he took advantage of a good script.  Meanwhile Josiah Bartlett, made famous by seven years on television, was extremely popular with the public being fair, balanced, and well liked.  Hard to find fault. 

Maybe President Palmer?

On a side note, since this is a historic election we have on our hands, lets take a look at which presidents have already set their own historic president.  A number of people have played either an African-American president or a female president, one of those options we could be looking at soon.  Gina Davis’ Mackenzie Allen from Commander in Chief  was a big hit among many in the television realm with ABC, but Fox on the other hand has seemingly been making it a point to feature female presidents, and two of their hit shows Prison Break and 24 are both seeing females in the highest position in the country.  But speaking of Fox, they may have the best candidate of any genre, race, or gender.  Black presidents are not unheard of, we’ve been seeing them for years in fictional work with people like James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, and even Sammy Davis Jr, but one black president stands above them all.  President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) from 24 has created an excitement among many fans and followers.  There been a few articles making comparisons between him and perhaps our very own first African-American president Barack Obama.  But the widely popular President Palmer is still being told how much he was loved and how he should run for president himself.

Not for nothin’, but there is one actor that stands out above all others, simply because he’s played the presidential role several times throughout his career.  Whether coincidental or not, James Cromwell has been cast in the role five different times, more than anyone else.  Even if its hard to believe he could be the best in that position, someone must have thought differently.  That doesn’t mean he’ll get my vote, but the filmmakers who have voted, already voted him in.

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TV Anchor Beaten To Death

Anne Pressley

11.27.08 UPDATE: SUSPECT HAS BEEN ARRESTED

In the most recent of our nations most horrific unsolved mysteries, a Little Rock, Arkansas television news anchor was savagely beaten and stabbed earlier this week.  The 26-year-old woman, Anne Pressley, succumb to her injuries and passed away Saturday in a local hospital.

Pressley’s mother, visiting from South Carolina, found her in her room a half-hour before she was to appear on her station’s morning program.  She was found lying on her bed bleeding profusely from her wounds.  The attacker primarily focused on Pressley’s upper body and facial area.  Almost every bone in her face was broken and she also sustained massive brain swelling.  Pressley with her family at her side.

Motive of the attack is not known, but it could have been a robbery as her purse is missing, but police have not found any signs of forced entry to her home.  Police are also questioning friends, neighbors and co-workers.  

Pressley was a reporter and morning anchor at KATV in Little Rock.  She has a brief resume as an actress as well, appearing as a sorority girl in soap opera As The World Turns.  Her latest on-screen feature was in Oliver Stone’s political film, W.  Pressley played republican commentator Ann Coulter.  The film’s release came just two days before she was attacked.  

Not for nothin’, but all deaths are usually senseless and tragic, but this one stands out if for anything the celebrity status attained by Pressley.  It’s hard to rely on the intent of robbery being the motive, because robbery normally implies the threat of violence and victims are robberies do not usually become murder victims.  We can only hope that an investigation reveals unusual activity in her daily routine.  If there’s evidence to suggest that she was stalked, then there’s a good chance that she knew the perpetrator.

The Focus Of Florida

The Focus of Florida

In a matter of ten days one specific area of our country has seen more presidential campaigning than any other.  In the past few days and over the next few, we’re seeing both presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, both vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, both Clinton’s Hillary and Bill, surrogates Cindy McCain, Joe Lieberman, Rudy Guiliani, various other politicians and celebrities all have campaigning for their candidate of choice in the area of Central Florida.  Florida is one of the more important swing states in this years election and central Florida is the most important battleground area of the battleground state.

The term “War on I-4″ is usually held off for the arena football game that’s played between the Orlando and Tampa teams, but as for the past few weeks it’s been taking on a whole new meeting.  Both presidential campaigns are running massive ground operations in that area.  As for the rest of the state it’s almost all but decided.  Obama is leading in the more highly populated areas of southeast Florida with areas of Miami and Fort Lauderdale because of a high population of Jewish, black and Hispanic voters.  McCain is up big in the more rural areas of northern Florida and and the southwestern part of the state with retirees, affluent voters and old-school Southern Democrats.  But the area along Interstate 4 is so populated and diverse that it could be that area to decide the state. 

But it’s the state’s decision that has captured the country and helped decided the last two elections.  We all remember what happened in 2000 with the election between Gore and Bush.  If 537 Floridians voted a different way, there would have been a different result.  But the way it looks, it’ll go down to the last day until we’ll finally know which way Florida will go. 

Some statistics that we look at for help can be misleading.  Registered democrats outnumber registered republicans by hundreds of thousands.  But like much of the rest of the south, you still see many conservative leaning Southern Democrats.  The could be part of the reason why Florida has voted republican for six of the last seven elections, but this time around we see Obama is running slightly ahead in statewide polls with likely voters.  More statistics show 5.7 percent of the U.S. population lives in Florida.  One of every four voters in Florida are 35 years or younger.  Florida’s population is about 20 percent Hispanic and 16 percent black.  And 2.2 million voters in Florida do not belong to a party.  Just looking at those stats you can see how important of a battleground state Florida is and why it could go either way.

Not for nothin’, but It’s a state that John McCain must win in order to just stay competitive.  If Obama were to carry Florida then there’s no way McCain will be able to catch up.  In fact Obama already has a victory in the sense that he’s making the McCain campaign put so much time, focus and money in a state that’s traditionally red.

She Made It Up. Surprised?

Campaign volunteer made story up

After reporting that she was attacked in a politically motivated and vicious way, a McCain campaign volunteer admitted she made up the story of being robbed, pinned down and having a “B” scratched on her face.  The story of the 20-year-old student Ashley Todd being attacked first appeared in headlines Thursday morning.

Todd, a white female, told police that she was attacked by a 6-foot-4 black man Wednesday night when she was attempting to use the ATM when he approached her from behind, put a knife to her throat and demanded money.  She said she gave the man $60 and he walked away.  The attacker then came back to her after noticing a McCain sticker on her car.  Angry because of which, he hit her knocking her to the ground telling her, “you are going to be a Barack supporter,” pinned her down and carved a reverse “B” into her cheek and continued to punch and kick her to teach her a lesson.

Pittsburgh Police say that there were certain “inconsistencies” in the story told by Todd.  They say that photos from the ATM camera and bank card information from the ATM where she claimed she was robbed do not show her using the machine.  Todd cannot exlain why she invented the story.  She also says that she beleives she cut the “B” onto her fce, but she didn’t explain how or why.  That was part of the reason why police suspected that she might not be telling the truth because the “B” was backward.

Not for nothin’, but this whole “the black man did it” is getting kind of old.  We all remember the infamous Susan Smith story when she accused a black man of killing her children.  The sad thing is, that wasn’t the first time the arbitrary black man was falsely blamed and this latest incident will not be the last.  But I don’t know if I’m more appalled that she figured she could blame a black man because it’ll be more believable or that she said it was politically motivated.  Now we move on to what would cause someone to make up something like this?  She’s trying to protect someone?  Well if the reasoning why she accused the random black person doesn’t bring up enough thought, then why did she want to make it politically motivated?  Was her intention to convince that black people do things like this or just people who support Barack Obama, or maybe black people who support Barack Obama?  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but maybe I’m not.

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Say Anthing To Win

Joe The Plumber Tour

John McCain and the McCain campaign made their way to Florida yet again on Thursday, this time blazing a trail along Interstate 4 from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast.  The Straight Talk Express arrived in Ormond Beach about 9am Thursday morning and the senator got out and spoke to a rousing crowd in part of his “Joe The Plumber Keep Your Wealth” Tour.

In this speeches throughout the day the republican candidate spoke with a sense of urgency.  McCain recently has been criticizing the tax plan of Sen. Barack Obama.  McCain said that Obama added a work requirement to his proposal so that 10 percent could get universal mortgage credit.  That was in a response the the charge of Obama’s plan being seen as “welfare” as the McCain campaign has been putting it lately.  In the stump speech he said the American people had learned the truth about it and they didn’t like it.  McCain ended the statement saying, “It’s another example that he’ll say anything to get elected.”

Well right or wrong the strategy of “saying anything to get elected” seems to be working for Sen. Obama.  The McCain campaign is spending a lot of time and money in Florida, primarily because there’s a legitimate fear that the state could be voting for a democrat for president this year.  More and more polls are showing Obama with a slim lead in the state, a state that McCain is counting on.  So the vote rich state remains a focus to both parties, not just the republicans.  But if there is any part of the state that could be swayed back and forth, it’ll be the Central Florida region that has seen both presidential candidates in a matter of a few days. 

Not for nothin’, but if saying anything to get elected gives you a  12-point lead, than maybe McCain should start making things up.  McCain has actually been saying a lot lately, not sure if it qualifies for anything.  But there’s an argument that both candidates are saying anythingto win.  Is Obama leading because people aren’t believing anything McCain is saying?

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The Other Guys

Nadar, Barr, and McKinney

Come Tuesday November 4 we all will have a choice to make.  Most of our country will vote one way or another, whether it be democrat or republican, but there is still about 30 percent of the country that could go either way or a whole other way altogether.  So for those who can’t decided or do not want to pick the main two party candidates, Barack Obama or John McCain, that doesn’t mean you’re absolved from your voting responsibility.  There are several other candidates running for President of the United States in 2008. 

There are many candidates who are either of a third party or independent.  Although most of those candidates only appear on the ballots of one state, about a dozen of them are on the ballot in at least two states.  Excluding Barack Obama and John McCain, there are four other presidential candidates who are actually on the ballot of enough states to win a majority in U.S. Electoral College, therefore making that person president.  The four people who will probably receive the most votes next to the two main party candidates are Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Ralph Nadar running as an Independent. 

Probably the most familiar of the four, and the one who’s on the ballot of most states at 45, is Ralph Nadar.  Nadar announced his fifth campaign back in February.  He is running with California political activist Matt Gonzalez as his vice-presidential nominee. 

One former congressman also in the running is Bob Barr from the Libertarian Party.  The Libertarian Party is the fifth largest party in the United States, that tends to favor minimally regulated laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, and non-interventionism in foreign policy among other things.  Barr has recently been known to call out his self appointed “arch-nemesis” if you will, Ralph Nadar, only wanting to challenge him and only him in debate.

Aside from the Democratic and Republican Parties, the party with the most membership nationwide would be the Constitution Party.  But their candidate, Charles Baldwin is probably the least well known of the major third party candidates.  Chuck Baldwin is a pastor and radio show host from Florida.  A longtime member of the Republican Party, he broke away after feeling they were going too far left. 

A little less membership than the Constitution Party, but still widely known, is the Green Party.  Their nominee Cynthia McKinney, another former member of congress, beat out opponent Ralph Nadar in their primary.  Although controversial at times, McKinney and her runningmate Rosa Clemente are focusing on things such as racial profiling, statehood for the District of Columbia, and slavery reparations.   

Just as with the previous years many fear that the spoiler effect will come in to play, particularly with Nadar being on the ballot.  There are some out there who speculate on the effect Nadar had concerning the 2000 election.  It is believed by many democrats that Nadar took votes away from Gore allowing a Bush victory.  There’s already talk of that this year.  It’s actually possible for any of these candidates.  I’m sure there will be more talk on that and other issues.  Three (excluding Barr) of the candidates have agreed to a debate scheduled for Thursday.

Not for nothin’, if you’re going to vote for any of these third party candidates, just remember one of them likely will fit the mold of everything you want from a president, but neither of them are likely to win.

Oh yeah, and in case you’re wondering, Ron Paul isn’t running, but he has endorsed all of the above third party candidates.