The Real Kato Online

Let me say this about John McCain. He's an honorable and decent guy. I appreciate it when he says he has respect for Obama and the Democratic campaign. I appreciate it when he admits that Republicans and Congress "lost the trust of the American people... when we valued our power over our principles". He has more class and humility than the rest of his party, who can seem to do nothing but criticize Obama for being charismatic.

It's really the Republican party that has lost its way. The party has embraced the ideals of its most far-right fringe elements. In the official party platform this year: abortion should be illegal even when a mother's health or life is at risk; there should be no path towards residency for illegal immigrants; gay marriage should be outlawed. These are all positions that McCain personally opposed in the past, but he since has capitulated to the Republican party (flip-flopped?) in order to win conservative support. A maverick? Maybe he was, once. But somehow, a good man has been dragged down by a party that is bent on a reactionary agenda.

It's an important thing to remember here: you're not just voting for a person when you vote for president, you're voting for a party and an administration, an executive branch with hundreds of federal appointees who represent their party interests. Sure, the character, charisma, and intelligence of the president himself are important. But you can't ignore the issues and the principles of the political parties when you cast your ballot.

Election day is Tuesday, November 4th.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Republican National Convention Part II

Wednesday, 2008 September 3 - 9:58 pm

Okay... did they really start a "drill, baby, drill" chant during Giuliani's speech? Really? Really?

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Posted by Ken in: politics

McCain's Voicemail to Sarah Palin

Wednesday, 2008 September 3 - 3:49 pm

This is brilliant.

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, politics

Republican National Convention Part I

Tuesday, 2008 September 2 - 10:08 pm

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the Republican convention.

First, it irks me that the crowd chants "U.S.A." so much. They might as well be chanting, "We're More Patriotic".

Second, I'm confused by the message. Is John McCain is a maverick that bucks is own party, or is he a standard-bearer for Republican values? Is Sarah Palin a "breath of fresh air", or is experience the most important issue in this election? Do we need to "shake up Washington", or are we supposed to rely on McCain's decades of Washington experience? Are we supposed to vote based on primarily on personal traits (i.e. vote for McCain because he's an honorable guy), or ignore them (i.e. don't vote for Obama just because of his intelligence)?

Third, the Republican view of world relations is staggering. Not only do they don't think it's important that the world has respect for us and our President, they actually see that as a negative quality. It's as if to say, "if the Germans like Obama, he can't be good for our country."

Don't get me wrong. I found many of the Democratic speeches to be equally irritating for the amount of pandering. But with the Republicans, it's hard to believe that anyone actually falls for it.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Football Season Starts Boo

Sunday, 2008 August 31 - 3:04 pm

Michigan 23, Utah 25

This game was not as close as the score indicated. Utah utterly dominated Michigan, and if not for a couple of turnovers and a flood of timely Utah penalties, Michigan would probably have lost by three touchdowns.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

McCain selects Governor Palin as VP Nominee

Friday, 2008 August 29 - 10:39 am

Today, John McCain announced that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, will be his running mate. Verrrrry interesting.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Football Season Starts Whoo

Thursday, 2008 August 28 - 10:05 pm

Hooray football season hooray.

N.C. State gets off to its typically dismal start. South Carolina leads 27-0 in the fourth quarter right now, and State's starting quarterback went off the field on a stretcher. Ugh.

Michigan plays Utah this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. I'd like to put out a full preview, but I don't have the time (and sites like MGoBlog do that sort of thing much better). My prediction: 19-17 Michigan. Utah will keep it very close; Michigan will prevail on defense and special teams.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Democratic National Convention, Again

Thursday, 2008 August 28 - 10:00 pm

Whew. Great speech by Barack Obama. He did what I'd hoped he'd do: he undercut what he expected the Republicans to throw at him next week. Very, very strong.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Democratic National Convention

Tuesday, 2008 August 26 - 9:43 pm

Should I be live blogging the Democratic National Convention? Naah... I just don't have the energy to comment about every B-list politician and "ordinary person" who doesn't have any public speaking skills.

And anyway, many of the same comments apply this year as in years past:

speakers think they have to shout into the microphone to be heard
political delegates have absolutely no rhythm (and no shame)
everyone jumps at the chance to chant something

That being said, so far there have been a couple of highlights. Michelle Obama gave a great speech; the Obama kids were adorable; and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer just gave a pretty entertaining speech.

Hillary is coming on right now. Should be interesting.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Obama Selects Biden as running mate

Saturday, 2008 August 23 - 10:21 am

Barack Obama selected Senator Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate this morning. This is pretty much in line with what I had thought the pick would be: male, older, whiter, with more foreign policy experience. However, I did think that Obama would lean towards someone more conservative. Texas congressman Chet Edwards was mentioned frequently in the last few days. Maybe Obama just didn't want the name "Edwards" anywhere near his campaign.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: politics

New Zealand Anti-Drinking Ad 3

Monday, 2008 August 18 - 8:57 am

And, one more.

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Posted by Ken in: interesting, television

New Zealand Anti-Drinking Ad 2

Monday, 2008 August 18 - 8:56 am

Here's another one.

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Posted by Ken in: interesting, television

New Zealand Anti-Drinking Ad

Monday, 2008 August 18 - 8:52 am

I found the anti-drinking advertisement on YouTube. I had a few details wrong, but I had the gist of it. Here it is.

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Posted by Ken in: interesting, television

New Zealand Part III

Thursday, 2008 August 14 - 11:41 pm

On our final day in New Zealand, we went to the Antarctic Centre, and to the Orana Wildlife Park. The wildlife park was definitely a highlight of the trip. Pictures and videos after the jump.

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

New Zealand Part II

Thursday, 2008 August 14 - 10:42 pm

Amy and I took one day to drive out and see some of the countryside, heading up to the harbor at Akaroa.

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

New Zealand Part I

Thursday, 2008 August 14 - 10:18 pm

A couple of weeks ago, I went to New Zealand on a business trip. Amy came along for fun. I think we've mostly recovered from the jet-lag. Mostly.

New Zealand is a beautiful, beautiful country, even in winter. (Apparently, summer is winter in New Zealand. Also, left is right. For the first day or so, I even got up and down confused.) The locals tell us we got lucky when it came to the weather; it was mostly clear (or "fine", as they call it) with temperatures in the 50s (er, 10s).

It's just getting there that's the horrible part. Our trip there spanned thirty hours and four different flights... each way. The flight from San Francisco to Auckland (the third leg of the flight out) was nearly fifteen hours long. And the flight was completely full... full of about 300 Catholic teenagers headed for World Catholic Youth Day in Australia. (At least they weren't rowdy.)

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Posted by Ken in: life

Coining phrases

Thursday, 2008 August 14 - 7:47 pm

It's occurred to me that whenever I have a high-effort blog post to write (like, say, a recap of a trip to New Zealand), I put off writing it until I have a bunch of free time. (Which is practically never.) But I also avoid writing about anything else, figuring that I should be making the big post the highest priority item. So what happens is nothing ends up getting written. I'm trying to think of a word that properly sums up this blogging gridlock phenomenon: blogridlock? intestinal bloggage? Suggestions are welcome.

It's also occurred to me that I should probably create a way to micro-blog on this site. I want something sort of like Twitter, but I want it more of a place to put up a quick link or interesting story that I've found, rather than a place to let the world know that I'm about to go take a dump or something. I'd make the feed into a daily digest of these items, so it doesn't clog up RSS feeds with a bunch of tiny items. I need a name for this too, like "ittybittyblog". (I've already registered the domain name, natch.) Maybe I'll make it a service that others can use, hmm.

Anyway... I'll get started on my New Zealand post. It won't be perfect, but I need to get it out of the way.

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Posted by Ken in: bloggers, site-business

Happy July Fourth

Tuesday, 2008 August 5 - 10:41 pm

Er, August. Fifth.

Geez, I'm officially a month behind on blog posting. Now, granted, I spent a good deal of July out of town. But I feel like I should have at least micro-blogged or something. (The kids, they're all twittering these days.) So much has been happening, and letting it all just pile up has made it seem that much more overwhelming.

Anyway, I'll try to catch up.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Back from the Future

Tuesday, 2008 July 22 - 10:26 am

Well, hello everyone. I've just returned from the future! Specifically, I just got back from New Zealand, where they are sixteen hours ahead of us. In the future, people talk with a different accent, they drive on the other side of the road, and they love rugby.

I'll have a full report, including pictures, shortly, once I've lifted the fog of travel and jet-lag.

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Hiatus

Wednesday, 2008 July 9 - 9:45 pm

I'm long overdue for a post, I know. Please bear with me... I've got lots going on right now.

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Posted by Ken in: site-business

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