davidsmeaton.com

john mccain has conceded the american election, meaning that barack obama becomes america’s 44th president and the first non-white american president.

at the time of this post, obama had 333 points (needing 270 to win) to mccain’s 156 points. the democrats won 56 senate seats (needing 51 for control of the senate) and 235 house of representatives seats (needing 218 seats). this represents a landslide victory for obama and the democrats.

congratulations to barack obama on his amazing and historic win.

i think this is kind of appropriate, and funny!

btw, i don’t really like referring to obama as the first african american president. i think this type of language creates binaries and opposites, kind of us and them. while white and non-white are also opposites, i think it’s a lot less divisive.

here’s hoping that he puts america back on the path of being a truly great, free and democratic country … not the country of warfare and cronyism that it has been for the last eight years.

had a bit of fun today. i went to work and realised that the new company president was walking around doing a meet ‘n greet with the common folk.

he showed up not long after and everyone stood up while he walked around the office. he shook hands with my boss, passing all of my coworkers. it was then that he noticed me, the lone foreigner standing at the end of the room. he walked over, shook my hand and said hi. he asked a few questions, where am i from, stuff like that. i gave a few answers that made him smile. then he commented that all teams need a foreign consultant. he shook my hand again and left.

my boss was quite pleased, as were my coworkers. our team had left a good impression on the ceo and he’ll certainly remember us. i’ve been working at that office for 2 years and he’s the 3rd ceo during that time. however, he’s the first one i’ve met … i have to admit, it was kinda fun to shake hands had exchange a few words with the ceo of a global fortune 500 company.

george w bush:

‘I am driven with a mission from God’. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East’. And, by God, I’m gonna do it.

what kind of nutbag president would say shit like this? and what’s scarier still is that he got into power … twice!

there are rumours abound that bush is upping the tempo to try and get into iran before he’s booted out of the white house. there’s nothing scarier than a man who no longer has anything to lose.

i’m not anti-american … not by a long shot. even though i’m quite vocal about my opinions of the war in iraq. americans, however, slap the anti-american tag on any form of criticism … it’s a self defense mechanism. i think bush is a shockingly bad president and the only negative thing i would say about american people is that too many people support him unconditionally … you don’t have an obligation to follow your president, you have an obligation to hold him accountable for every piece of paper he rubber stamps.

a recent survey of 1200 australians confirmed what i think is obvious and what john howard should have known is obvious: australians have no confidence in the usa and our relationship with america is suffering as a result.

howard’s response:

“This inevitably happens if a military commitment goes on for a long period of time - even if, thankfully, to date our casualties have been minimal - people after a time grow weary of it and think because it’s not quickly concluded it must be wrong,” the Prime Minister told Southern Cross Broadcasting

“I understand why people feel that way but it really does present our society with a huge challenge because that is exactly what the terrorists calculate.

“(They see) that we are used as a society to instant success and when that doesn’t come we begin to think the commitment is wrong.”

no … no … no! this is wrong. australians are unhappy because our incompetent prime minister is lumping us with a war that should never have started. the ‘coalition of the willing’ was countries willing to defy the united nations and invade iraq under america’s banner. australians are unhappy that we’ve been lied to by our own prime minister in support of this war. australians are unhappy that our citizens are over there fighting and we’re spending our tax dollars to do it.

australia is a very big country and we’ve always had problems with defense. our military, though good, is small. we can’t afford to send the military overseas to defend oil wells.

john howard is the worst prime minister australia has ever had.

i’m going to say that again because it’s important: john howard is the worst prime minister australia has ever had.

after he was elected the first time, i vowed that i’d leave australia if he got re-elected. he got re-elected … i left australia and i haven’t been back. it’s just embarrassing what that man is doing in our name. not only is he incompetent, he introduced the gst, he’s selling off australia’s government controlled assets, he supports illegal wars, and he lies about his position (even to his own party members) … he’s a terrible leader.

australians need a swift kick up the arse. we need to elect a prime minister that is responsible and is going to turn our nation around. we used to have the world’s best health care and welfare system. john howard dismantled it, sold it off, and now it’s a disgrace.

of course australians are losing confidence in america … both of our leaders are idiots who deserve to be shot in the head.