Day: May 31, 2012

Finally, We ‘Indies’ Get Us Some Representation

Buck Banks

Trish is fond of characterizing independents like myself as wishy-washy fence-sitters she says always vote for the same party every election anyway, so we might as well get off the fence and join the Democrat Party.

Well, Trish, today I got up on a higher, more solid fence and joined the Independent Voters of America.

Here’s a video that succinctly sums up the IVA’s position:

According to Tech President:

Veteran political ad-maker Bill Hillsman — the man behind “hilarious and highly effective ads” for Paul Wellstone, Jesse Ventura, Ross Perot and others — has launched Independent Voters of America.

Said Hillsman: “We are building the largest online community of self-identified independent voters, with the goals of bringing fresh voices and more choices into our politics, acting as a counterweight to the two major political parties, and to reduce gridlock, force progress and bring a new accountability to Washington.”

My iVoter score is 533. I don’t know what that means yet, so I’ll assume it’s somewhere on the left of the political spectrum because the old white guy in the video was in the 300s and the middle-aged black guy was 675.

The Trump ‘Political Calculus’ Explained

Buck Banks

There is no more naked celebrity in America than Donald Trump. He doesn’t do subtlety. He doesn’t do ‘thought.’ To say he has a political calculus is a wild overstatement. His strategy amounts to no more than junior high school algebra. The equation is: Trump + infantile public statement x infinite repetitions on TV and Twitter = maximum publicity for flailing Trump products and insatiable Trump ego.

— Frank Rich, commenting on what he calls “Mitt’s Bleach-Bottle Bimbo” in New York magazine.

Hoekstra: Vetting POTUS is ‘Not Brain Surgery’

Buck Banks

This is not brain surgery. It should be an FBI person, maybe a CIA person. If you want to run for president, you’ve got to go with the proper documentation and get it certified that you meet the qualifications to be the President of the United States.

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R), telling the Detroit Free Press he’d like to “create a federal office in Washington that would verify that presidential candidates meet the minimum requirements to hold the office.”

Editor’s note: We suggest a name for the office — the BBI, or the Birther Bureau of Investigation. We have some creative ideas for the badge design, too, that involve the “not brain surgery” meme.