News, Politics

Super Tuesday February 5: Candidates Comparison

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Before going to the polls on “Super Tuesday” — February 5, 2008 — you may want to know the candidates stack up on three areas: oil industry contributions, MySpace pages and music videos. Comparing the leading candidates in both the Republican and Democratic parties is one way to make a more informed decision.

If you want to compare the candidates on specific issues and policies, glassbooth.org offers one of the most unbiased tools around. You can even take a quiz to see which candidates most closely match your views.

How much money from the oil industry did each candidate take?
This question has been hard to answer until now. Contributions from the oil industry, according to some politicos is one gauge of corruption–meaning if Big Oil owns the candidate, the chances are that the people don’t.

Oil Change International has made a simple interactive tool available for free to see how much money each candidate, including those in the current presidential race, has accepted from Big Oil.

Overall, Rudy Giuliani had the greasiest campaign with $568,708. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney came second to Giuliani and accepted $345,383 from the oil industry. John McCain comes in third among Republicans with $206,935.

Among the Democrats, Hilary Clinton is the big oil money grabber with $235,350–just slightly more than McCain. Bill Richardson, who is no longer in the race came in second among the Democrats with $154,650. Barack Obama comes in a distant third with $110,412. Of the leading candidates on either side, Obama accepted the least oil money.

Catherine Brahic wrote an informative article on oily candidates in a recent edition of the New Scientist magazine.

Who has the best MySpace page?
In the world of Web 2.0, where social networks rule, not having a campaign page on the most popular social networks would be a great faux pas. More specifically, younger voters may not know who the candidates are without them. So how do the candidates compare when it comes to social network saavy? Here are my impressions:

  1. Obama – Lots of interactive features, including a link to demand he visit your hometown, which I did. Cool text messaging option. But the white suit photo is not one of his best.
  2. McCain – The fact that he’s over 70 and gets the importance of a MySpace page means that he listens to his advisors and scores some coolness kudos. The layout is clean and corporate, but it’s super easy to read and includes his favorite movie and books. Nice photo.
  3. Romney – Wow, he has a lot of kids! But how friendly that they’re on his page. And he looks hot in a ski parka.
  4. Clinton – Cute picture of Hillary, even if it does look like she has to pee. And thanks for being honest about your age.

Who has the best music video?
This is a crucial test of a presidential candidate that may be the deciding factor on Super Tuesday. Here are links to the four leading candidates’ videos ranked in my order of favorites:

  1. Clinton
  2. Obama
  3. Romney
  4. McCain (no music videos, but a lot of tv ads)

Hope this is helpful. Please let me know if it was. For more information about Hawaii’s presidential primary see my entry entitled “Do Hawaii Voters Count in the Presidential Primary” on this site.

Good luck! And remember to vote early, but not often.

Environment, National Parks, Weather

Pictures of Snow on Haleakala Maui

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A photographer with the Maui News, Matthew Thayer, had access to Haleakala National Park this past week when the road was closed. He took some amazing pictures of the January-February 2008 snowstorm on Maui.

It really snowed in Maui: View of Maalaea Bay from snow-capped Haleakala

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Thayer)

Iced-over endangered native Hawaiian plant, the silversword

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Thayer)

Haleakala Summit in Maui is over 10,000-feet above sea level and frozen this week

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Thayer)

Family, Holidays, Lifestyle, Random, Science

The Real Valentine’s Day

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Today, Friday, February 1, 2008, is the real Valentine’s Day. This is according to a dear friend and professional astrologer, Kelly Davidson, who specializes in universal timing. At 3AM PST, Venus and Jupiter met for their annual make-out session–a romantic conjunction that obscured both of them from earthly view. The afterglow of their rendez-vous makes the rest of today all about love.

Love is a mystery that some would say is neatly solved by the phrase “yes, dear” and a box of chocolates. I am not such a cynic, and quite frankly, entertain other possibilities. Serious attempts at explaining what love is have been made throughout human history by scientists, philosophers, politicians, monks, sages, prophets, poets and especially marketers. Understanding the mysteries of the universe–why things happen and when–seems fair game to all, including astrologers.

So while I don’t advocate that astrology has all the answers or is anything more than another possible explanation, I do appreciate the value of good timing and it’s positive impact on creating love. Take, for example, Susan Miller, who is a very successful astrologer and author the website astrologyzone.com. She writes monthly forecasts and offers a wealth of advice on how to use astrology to improve your love life. You can use her “Matchmaker By Sign” to figure out which signs are most and least compatible with yours. Once you have found a potential mate, you can then use her “Gift Guide by Sign” to figure out what would be the best present to give your beloved on Valentine’s Day. Apparently, not everyone loves chocolate–yet another mystery of the universe–but Susan guides us through it.

So if Valentine’s Day seems more like an annual romantic curse, celebrating on the true Valentine’s Day may change the outcome. At least for today, love is in the air. And if you find a compatible partner, shower them with gifts they’ll appreciate (for some signs, that means nothing material at all). However it works out, happy true Valentine’s Day.

An astute reader of this entry pointed out that the author of badastronomy.com, Phil Plait — scientist, writer, skeptic and friend — published about the Venus/Jupiter conjunction today on his blog . Thanks for mentioning it!