The Powell Family: September 2008

You have searched for hidden Mickeys on every ride, and found quite a few.
You would get very excited when Fantasmic was about to start, an still do, so that you can go walk on rides.
You know that the guy in the window at the end of Star Tours is George Lucas.
You actually pretend that you are being attacked on Indiana Jones.
You have ridden rides up until 11:55 and then run to another to fit one more in.
You have gone into the ice cream parlor on Main Street, only to smell. Happiness.
You have bought some kind of hat with Mickey ears.
You remember thinking that the roller coaster in Toontown was so big and fast.
No matter who you're riding with, it will always be awkward riding on the Matterhorn.
You've ever gone into Disneyland just to be there.
You know all the dialouge to Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Taurs, and Tower of Terror.
You would get very excited when in line for Autopia, thinking that was how you really drive.
You know when certain rides are at their longest que lines and when they're at their shortest
When you were little, by the time the fireworks were over you were sleeping on you dads shoulder
You remember when fastpasses came about.
You've ever eaten lunch at the Blue Bayou and then walked outside and get shocked that it's still daytime.
You know that the chest in the room with all the treasure on Pirates of the Caribbean, is really the Azteck chest from the 1st movie.
Sour Cherry balls.
You know the one ride that is always crowded: Peter Pan.
You remember before there was a parking structure. And before they built California Adventure.
You know all the words to the fireworks.
You know all the words to the parade: welcome to our family time
You have ever eaten at the Hungry Bear restaurant and fed the ducks.
You remember before they changed the Autopia ride.
You know where Club 33 is.
You remember when they closed Space Mountain to "remodel" it and five years later it was barely different.
You remember when they had tv's in line for Space Mountain, and you would watch the news from space.
You've ever gone in the animation building on a hot day, just to cool off and sit.
You remember before they would take pictures on the rides.
You've ever been in California Adventure for a few hours, and then you want to get back to Disneyland.
You remember when you would get scared on the Alice In Wonderland ride, and still do.
You've ever eated at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel.
You remember before there was Downtown Disney.
You know you're way around Disneyland better than anywhere else.

For anyone who is interested here is what I think. I welcome comments. If you do not want to be subjected to polictical arguments you can skip this post.

I love John McCain. Not in a weird I want to marry him way. But in a I think he is the best person to lead the free world sort of way.

I started following McCain when he was running for President in 2000. I found I agreed with almost all his positions, I admired his life story, and loved the fact that he seemed to be a straight talker. He, as much as politicans can do, stood on principles he believed in. He is stubborn. He will do what he thinks is right even if it means telling his fellow Republicans he thinks they are wrong and they can go to hell. He will work with Democrats if he believes in a principle they will champion. He has earned his maverick label.

In 2000 the Republican Party wanted so badly to win after President Clinton with the Monica Lewinski scandal and the failed attempt to remove him from office. Unofficailly the party got together, everyone looked at all the Republican governors, and it was decieded that then Governor George Bush would be the next President. Money poured into his campaign and he amassed over 60 million dollars to use in the primaries (back then that was a lot of money, now chump change).

The only problem with this is it appears no one told John McCain. While Bush won the Iowa Caucus he lost New Hampshire by an embarassing 14 points. This infuriated the Republican Party. They had already anointed then Governor Bush. They had given millions of dollars.

In the lead up to the South Carolina Primaries, Bush spent his 60 million dollars to smear John McCain. He was helped by conservative special interest groups. They did not attack McCain on his policies, they attacked him personally. They said his wife was a drug user (she had at one time been addicted to pain medication). They said his adopted daugher was really his from an affair he had. They said he didn't care about those going through breast cancer because he had at one time voted against legislation funding reseach into treatment (this despite the fact he had a family member who had breast cancer). They called into question whether or not he was still in his right mind because he had been tortured as a POW. He was denounced as not being "Christian" enough. Evangelical leaders stood up and denounced him (and in doing so, lost my respect).

We all know Bush won that primary and then he became President. I abhor the way the Florida recount was handled and don't understand why the state could not recount all the ballots (its not that important just the Presidency of the United States). I don't understand the Supreame Court ruling that said a recount would call into question Bush's victory. His victory was in question that is why a total recount was necessary.

I wrote in John McCain's name that year. I did not vote for Bush. I didn't vote for Al Gore because he seemed so stiff and aligned with the Clinton's and the scandal. In 2004 I voted for Kerry. In retrospect, I guess I had voted for Gore. He seems to be a man of honor and integrity. He has won a Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award. He makes fun of himself and is lighthearted. I admire his character.

What do I think of President Bush? After 8 years in office I have come to the conclusion- WORST PRESIDENT EVER. Looking back at sound clips of him promising to restore honor and dignity to the White House. Promising to be a uniter and not a divider. I am disgusted.

What really angers me about him is the arrogence and lies. We go into Iraq based on the premsie they have weapons of mass destruction. We are told to trust him, he has the evidence, we need to go in. It appears that was wrong. What happens? He doesn't say we made a mistake. NO ONE EVEN GOT FIRED! I'm sorry, I think somebody needed to take the fall. That was kind of a big mistake. We went into a nation because we didn't like them and overthrew it. I think that is horriblly wrong and sets a bad precident. We lose our moral authority in the world. How do we tell Russia to get the hell out of Georgia when we are reshaping the Middle East.

Now one could agrue that Saddam Hussian was not a evil man and the country isn't better off with him gone. Yes, but we didn't go to war on that rational. And there are a lot of countries who have evil men running them and we are not going to go to war with all of them. I fear Presdent Bush made this personal. Wanted to get the guy who tried to kill his Dad. Wanted to finish the job his dad started with the first Gulf War. But the first President Bush had some of the highest approval ratings ever for his handling of the war. He had our troops go in, accomplish our objectives, and get out. He also had the rest of the world in agreement on what we did. Too bad the son did not learn that from his Dad.

This President likes to talk a lot about the war on terror. But any enemy captured is not subject to the rules of war. The President says these people are not subject to the Geneva Convention because we are not in a convential war. So we are free to hold people indefintly without charges or trial and we can use enhanced interigation techniques. Under the Geneva Convention these techniques would be called torture. But we don't torture people. So the President lies to us.

We are doing to others what was done to John McCain in Vietnam. I like what Joe Biden said in the Senate on this issue. I have to paraphase, "We have rules we follow so we don't have our men and women tortured when they get captured. I have a son over there and I don't want him to ever be subject to this." We have lost our moral authority.

The President doesn't believe in Global Warming. He can't be bothered with facts or science (science is the devil). Protecting the environment has not been any sort of priority for him. We are still dependent upon oil to run our gas and power our ecomomy. We could have already developed technology that would lead us to a future where we are not so dependent on gas.

The President is not evil. He has done good things. I just see the bad things as looming very large. Some of the good things I like are: We haven't had another terriost attack on our soil. We have tried to root out the terrorists wherever they are in the world. Iraq seems to be calming down. We were justified in going into Afganistan and defeating the Taliban. The President has appointed two great Supreame Court justices. (I really, really like Roberts) I believe under his watch a law outlawing partial birth abortion was passed. I'm sure there may be many other things I am forgetting.

So why do I like John McCain? He is against torture. He would close the detention facility in Cuba. He was a vocal critic of the handling of the war in Iraq and the President's administration. Without him the surge of troops would not have happened and Iraq would be in a total civil war by now. He is well aware of the dangers and opportunities and the United States faces in the world. He is fully ready to be commander in chief. He believes in protecting our environment and reversing global warming. He wants us to develop new technologies to replace our oil dependancy. (I wish he was not for off shore oil drilling, but even Barack Obama has switched his position on that so it looks like that is coming no matter what.)

What do I think of Barack Obama? I think he is an honorable man. I think he may be the greatest orator we have in our country today. He can give a speech and inspire. He is a leader. I don't know that he would have gotten the democratic nomination, however, if most of the country didn't hate President Bush and just want a change.

Earlier in the campaign his Vice President, Joe Biden, was running against him for the nomination, he said Barack Obama was not qualified to be President and that being President did not lend itself to on the job training. Hillary Clinton said that she and John McCain bring a lifetime of experience to the table, and Barak Obama brings a speech he gave in 2004. Even Barak Obama when he was first elected to the Senate in 2004 said he could not see himself running for President in four years because he would not have the qualifications for the job.
Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton now swear Obama is qualified. And Obama now believes he's qualified. I think the Democrats, and maybe a lot of people in the country feel, well, we can't do any worse then Bush. Republicans had their chance, now lets let the Democrats have a turn.

I think our country would be blessed to have John McCain as our President. I think he is honorable and has immense character. Even Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Joe Leiberman say McCain is there friend. Two of those guys have a funny way of showing it. Come on, if I ran for President you guys would vote for me, right?

McCain is not perfect. There are legitimate reasons to not vote for him. But the Democrats seem to want to say don't vote for him because he's just like Bush. Anybody who paid attention to the 2000 campagin knows McCain is not like President Bush. McCain has gone against his party time and time again. He works extensivly with Democrats. He is a Maverick and a Reformer. He has an immpressive personal story. He's a hero. Bush meanwhile is the son of a war hero and went AWOL in the National Guard.

The best way to attack McCain is to say; since running for President for the past two years McCain has sought to win the base of the Republican Party. This would be hard for him because the base hates him. When McCain lost in 2000 he endoresed President Bush, he did so because he knew he would want to run again. Just like Hillary endorsed Obama. Do we really think Hillary loves Obama now, please. McCain has re packaged some of his positions and not talked about other positions he has in order to try to rally the conservative base of the Republican Party. He has taken great pains to make up with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson after calling them agents of intolerence. He talks more about his Christian faith. He doesn't talk about the fact that he likes to work with Democrates and seeks reform and even goes after corruption in his own party because it doesn't play well among the people at the Republican convention.

So for the last two years he has sought to win the conservatives trust and vote. He came out and said he is against any new taxes increase. He now wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. He won't talk about stem cell research or immigration or torture or closing the detention facility in Cuba or global warming. I believe he still holds strong positions on those matters, but he has to run as a Republican.

What the Democrats did successfully at their convention was to rally their base. Hillary and Bill Clinton gave very strong speaches essentially blessing Barack Obama. They attacked McCain, but only trying to tie him to Bush.

Things did look very bad for McCain, he didn't have the charisma of Obama and couldn't win over the conservatives in his party who still hated him despite trying to for over two years. Then he picks Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidental pick. Suddeningly the conservatives are falling over themselves to praise McCain. Even James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh have had a change of heart.

McCain did just what Obama did. He united his party. But he went one step further. He made the bold VP choice. Obama spurned Hilliary Clinton and went for the safe choice. McCain made a game changing pick. Palin electrified the Republican party with the same energy Barack Obama gave to the Democratic Party. Now all that is left is to fight over independents and a handful of states that will deciede the election.

I have to say something. I have always watched CNN. That was the place I got my political news. When people told me that there was a liberal bias at CNN, I always defended their coverage. I thought they were pretty balanced. However, the week that John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate have caused me to switch my position. CNN has a dramatic liberal bias. There where no smart Republican Anaylsts, except for Bill Bennent who was there for only the first hour (I think he is super smart). I can not listen to certain people talk because I want to pick up my TV and throw it accross the room. Now, I also hate it when my news has conservatives who just trash the Democrats. I hate when news people are angry and are just out to smear the other guy. Right or Left-I don't want to hear how a Democrat hated the Republican convention or vice versa. Give me real Analysis. Compliment the other guy, that way, when you critize an issue you have with them, you have validity.

I think the media has launched a smear campaign against Palin. How exactly is she not qualified to be President and Barack Obama is? Please, someone help me out. About her foreign policy credentials, how does one get foreign policy experience, hey, being a vice president is probably a good way. But what if John McCain dies on day two of being in office? Yeah, what if Joe Biden died on day two of being the Vice President, who would Obama go to in order to know what foreign policy decision to make?

Relgion and Politics could be the topic for a whole other blog, but briefly (?) I just want to say. As a Christian I don't believe it should matter to us if we have a Christian President or not. I don't think it should matter if Prayer is in the schools or if Roe v. Wade is overturned. These things should not matter as much because the church should be the church regardless of government.

If tomorrow our right to assemble and be Christians was taken away, would that stop us from praying and meeting? Would we be unable to love? Would we be unable to follow our Lord Jesus Christ? Would we all have to leave the country and find someone else where we could elect our President and write our Christian laws.

Christianity is not a policitical kingdom, is a spiritual one. Before we are American's we are bought with a price by the blood of Jesus and we are his. If we are all about politics, we may turn off many people with our message. But if we are about love, some may still be offended, but we will be above reproach.