Tuesday, June 17, 2008

John McCain

I drew this yesterday in Adobe Illustrator CS2.
I posted my drawing of Barack Obama on Wed. here.

I don't know who is going to win, but between the two of them, I would choose McCain, even though McCain was not my first choice at the start (he wasn't even my second choice). None of the candidates have been ideal, IMO. It seems that quality candidates are getting harder to come by.

13 comments:

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

It seems that quality candidates are getting harder to come by.

One reason is because in modern politics in choosing leaders, charisma often comes before character, and personality before philosophy.

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Nice art.

Abbey said...

It's called choosing the lesser of the evils. :D The Democratic Convention is going to be in Denver late summer this year. My family is thinking of going on a trip that week. We really don't want to be here for it. So many people from the east - *gives the knowing look* - coming here to spoil our perfectly good cow town...bad drivers...the media...Gahh...I'm packing up and leaving for the North Pole for a while.

Jeff said...

Kingpin,

One reason is because in modern politics in choosing leaders, charisma often comes before character, and personality before philosophy.

I completely agree! It's incredible how many people can be duped by a fancy speech. People seem so near-sighted and only look on the surface.

Jeff said...

S&T,

Thanks! Someone told me that the right side of his face looks like a crumpled old sack. :) I should have lightened the colors on that side of his face more. I did increase the transparency of those colors, but I should have make them even more transparent, so they would be lighter, and not stand out so sharply. Oh, well, I'll try to remember that for the next one I do.

Jeff said...

Abbey,

Just be glad you never lived in Miami. Where I'm at now, in Central Florida (Ocala), is like paradise compared to where I used to live.

Of course, where I'm at now used to be a "perfectly good cow town," but even here things are changing rapidly. I'm told that 16 years ago, things here were very, very different. One road here used to be all farms 16 years ago, but now, it is packed solid with restaurants and car dealerships and other companies, and the traffic is extremely busy. As people from the larger cities move here more and more, everyone becomes less and less friendly, and the traffic gets worse, and people are less polite and more crazy with their driving.

And yet its still nothing compared to Miami. I'd rather drive for 45 minutes here, to get to a destination, than drive 10 minutes in Miami.

Anonymous said...

you might find this helpful

mccain on the issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/john_mccain.htm

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

John McCain versus John Mclain.

Richard Dawkins versus Richard Dawson.

Let's see you present those visually!

Jeff said...

Now there's an idea! Today I was very busy at work, but there are infrequent times when I have nothing to do. During those times, I try to practice my artwork, hopefully with something I might be able to actually use at work in the future. If I find myself with nothing to do at work, I might think about drawing those.

I just read an email from someone that said:
"Taxpayers voting for Obama is like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders!"

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Good one.

Jeff said...

Kingpin,

Hey, a new photo of you. Cool! You look like a secret agent or something in that one. Or possibly a character from The Matrix.

Abbey said...

I don't know... I kind of like my frumpy cow town. It's real nice not having to dress up for much of anything - at least compared with the east. Denver is fast becoming one of the more expensive places to live, unfortunately.

Jeff said...

"John McCain Goes Nuclear

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

June 19, 2008 4:20 PM PT

The Republican candidate pushes for a new Manhattan Project to power our economy and protect the environment. It's about time we caught up with the rest of the world and split atoms, not hairs.

Speaking Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., as much of the nation's source of ethanol — corn — was under water, John McCain pitched another source of emission-free renewable energy: nuclear power. The GOP contender called for the construction of 45 nuclear power plants by 2030 and pledged $2 billion a year in federal funds.

That date is significant because it's often touted as a target date for reducing U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions to levels slightly below those during the Civil War. We jest, but only slightly.

Fact is, nuclear power has already had a major impact on U.S. emissions. Had America's nuclear reactors not been operating, about 48 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 19 million tons of nitrogen oxides and 8.7 trillion (with a "t") tons of carbon dioxide would have been emitted since 1995, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

As we've noted before, the U.S. would already be in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol without breaking a sweat if every plant on order or planned at the time of Three Mile Island had been built.

"Every year," said McCain, "these reactors alone spare the atmosphere from the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America. Yet for all these benefits, we have not broken ground on a single nuclear plant in over 30 years."

As the Navy veteran has pointed out, U.S. sailors have sailed aboard nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers for more than five decades without ill effects or accidents. No American sailor, past or present, glows in the dark.

Since the Navy commissioned the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, in 1954, there hasn't been a single nuclear reactor accident on any of its nuclear-powered vessels. Today, there are 102 nuclear reactors aboard 80 Navy combat vessels.

There are also 434 operating nuclear reactors worldwide meeting the electrical needs of more than a billion people, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis.

China has plans for 39 nuclear plants within the next five years. Why not? A single, quarter-ounce pellet of uranium creates as much energy as 3 1/2 barrels of oil, 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas or 1,780 pounds of coal — without CO2 emissions.

The problem, critics say, is that nuclear power produces hazardous waste of its own. The answer is to treat spent fuel rods not as waste, but as a resource to be stored and reprocessed in the same way the French do.

France, which gets about 80% of its electrical power from the atom, has reprocessed spent nuclear fuel for 30 years without incident. Its facility in La Hague has safely processed over 23,000 tons of spent fuel, or enough to power the entire country for 14 years.

The Heritage Foundation says the road to nuclear power goes through the spent-fuel repository at Yucca Mountain. But it's opposed by environmentalists and Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, where the repository is located. Ironically, Heritage notes, Reid's "anti-Yucca stance virtually assures that more fossil-fuel plants will be built."

Yucca is more than a decade behind schedule. Even if given a green light tomorrow morning, it would take another decade to complete. As with oil and natural gas, Democrats delay energy development for years and then complain that it would take years to bring online, so we should do nothing.

In a speech in Aiken, S.C., on Dec. 10, 2007, McCain said: "We've let the fears of 30 years ago, and an endless political squabble over the storage of spent fuel, make it virtually impossible to build a single new plant that produces a form of energy that is safe and nonpolluting."

If the Democrats want to save the Earth and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, here's a way to do it."