personal notes are in parens. I filtered these points out. I hope you find them interesting.
![[Image: 180px-McCainInDenverMay29Of2008.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/McCainInDenverMay29Of2008.jpg/180px-McCainInDenverMay29Of2008.jpg)
John McCain
-McCain graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958
-While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain established a reputation as a political maverick for disagreeing with his party on several key issues.
-In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years. In mid-1968, McCain's father was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and McCain was offered early release. McCain turned down the offer of repatriation; he would only accept the offer if every man taken in before him was released as well. (A-Mazing.)
-Starting in 1994, he worked with Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform; their McCain-Feingold bill would attempt to put limits on "soft money". Despite sympathetic coverage in the media, initial versions of the McCain-Feingold Act were filibustered and never came to a vote. The term "maverick Republican" became a label frequently applied to McCain. (for not wanting to take money from big business? What a maverick!)
-In May 2001, McCain was one of only two Senate Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts. (sounds more maverick...y. Too bad it was shortlived. See below)
-He stated that Iraq was "a clear and present danger to the United States of America", and voted accordingly for the Iraq War Resolution in October 2002. He predicted that U.S. forces would be treated as liberators by a large number of the Iraqi people.
-Breaking from his 2001 and 2003 votes, McCain supported the Bush tax cut extension in May 2006
-On October 3, 2005, McCain introduced the McCain Detainee Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for 2005, and the Senate voted 90ÔÇô9 to support the amendment. It prohibits inhumane treatment of prisoners, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, by confining military interrogations to the techniques in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogation. (
again shortlived... apparently, torture is only bad if the army does it)
-On Iraq, McCain's goal is that by 2013 most of the servicemen and women will have returned, the Iraq War will have been won, and Iraq will be a functioning democracy
-Last month, he voted against funding Veteran's educations. (
Obama didn't understand)
![[Image: 180px-Barack_Obama_in_New_Hampshire.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Barack_Obama_in_New_Hampshire.jpg/180px-Barack_Obama_in_New_Hampshire.jpg)
Barack Obama
-He is the first African American to be the presumptive presidential nominee of any major American political party. (which we all know)
-He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School
-He served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
-He was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review
-Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq war, increasing energy independence, decreasing the influence of lobbyists, and providing universal health care as top national priorities.
-Obama taught constitutional law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
-In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures
-Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
-In 2005, he cosponsored the "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Republican John McCain of Arizona.
-In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of fencing and other security improvements along the United StatesÔÇôMexico border.
-In an effort to increase transparency in government, he cosponsored the "CoburnÔÇôObama Transparency Act" authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov (tracks where govt money goes)
-In January 2007, Obama (and Feingold) moved to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act," which was signed into law in September 2007.
-Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007," a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.
-Obama sponsored the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act"
-He has sat on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs. He is the Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.
-He defended the New Deal social welfare policies of FDR, associating Republican proposals to establish private accounts for Social Security with social Darwinism.
-He supports universal healthcare
-His tax plan would eliminate taxes for senior citizens with incomes of less than $50,000 a year, repeal income tax cuts for those making over $250,000 as well as the capital gains and dividends tax cut, close corporate tax loopholes, lift the $102,000 cap on Social Security taxes, restrict offshore tax havens, and simplify filing of income tax returns by pre-filling wage and bank information already collected by the IRS.
Anyone here who actually knows me or has hung out with me knows I curse like a sailor, so please don't question my intelligence. Shit, last night I was giving my boy's ex-gf shit at the bar (she just got into med-school) by telling her that my SAT scores were better than hers when I took them completely stoned out of my face :lol:
![[Image: woopass.JPG]](http://www.techspot.com/gallery/data/504/thumbs/woopass.JPG)
