Starting out

So, I figured I would give Blogging a try. We will see how it goes. I am going to try to post atleast once a week.

I watched the Democratic Debate on CNN tonight and I was struck by the difference between this years crop of candidates vs. 2004's candidates. These people are farther to the left and they are talking about important issues like health care, education, the war, corporate-power, and poverty. I like Kucinich best, he takes bold, principled stands on the issues, and I agree with most of his policies. If only the media was giving him more attention.
Obama comes in a close second. His policies aren't as good as Kucinich's, but he is smart and has not lived a sheltered life. I would vote for either with a pretty clear conscience.
Edwards has some good policies with poverty and unions, which is pretty good, but I don't trust him as much as I would trust Kucinich or Obama. And I am not a fan of Hilary. I think her policies won't be particularly effective. She is too much of an establishment candidate too. The others talk about corporate power, but I haven't heard that rhetoric from her.

I do think that whoever gets elected in 2008 will be a democrat, I don't think the republicans have a chance if they pick anyone other than Ron Paul. I do not think a pro-war candidate is viable. So, I think there is going to be a period of change after the 2008 election. I do think that we will have healthcare reform, environmental reform, energy policy reform, and education reform. But I think it probably won't be enough. A step in the right direction, sure, but not enough. Which is why we need to try to push the public discourse in this country toward better solutions and push the government toward these solutions too.

I have found it particularly interesting to see how each candidate tailor their statements to appeal to certain groups of people. They use terms that are popular on the left, like movement, progress, and social justice. Edwards has been using the corporate power rhetoric and Obama has been using rhetoric of change.

In other news... My move to San Francisco has been going pretty well. I have a second round interview with the PIRGs for an organizing job. I have found alot of good apartments on craigslist, so now I just have to start contacting the posters and deciding where it would be best to live. Unfortunately, this depends on how often I have to go into San Francisco. If I have to go every day than transportation costs would make it cheaper to live in the city. If I need to move around the Bay Area more often than transportation costs would make it cheaper to stay in the east bay. So much planning to do.