A 16-year-old boy says why it’s important to vote for Barack Obama:

Well, the most important reason for me is health care. I’m an only child and my mom’s a breast cancer survivor. With Obamacare we can get insurance. And so if Mom gets sick again, she can see a doctor. But did you know that Mitt Romney wants to take it away from us? If he wins, my mom won’t be able to get insurance. And if she gets sick, there’s nothing she can do.

This is our future president.

Paul Krugman on “Death by Ideology“:

So let’s be brutally honest here. The Romney-Ryan position on health care is that many millions of Americans must be denied health insurance, and millions more deprived of the security Medicare now provides, in order to save money. At the same time, of course, Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are proposing trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. So a literal description of their plan is that they want to expose many Americans to financial insecurity, and let some of them die, so that a handful of already wealthy people can have a higher after-tax income.

Dan and I were waiting outside of Thanh Son’s tofu while Dung and Dao went in to by some sweet treats. I witnessed once again the lady (in her 40s) who sells banh it scamming people. The victims where two young teenagers. The guy was carrying a flower pot and waking with a girl. The lady pulled the girl over and asked her to buy so banh it. The two teenagers appeared to speak very little Vietnamese. Out of sympathy, the girl asked how much for a buddle of banh it. The lady said $8, but sell for $5. The girl agreed to get $5 worth of banh it, but the lady demanded that the girl give her $20. The girl pulled $20 out of her purse. The lady took two more bundles of banh it and gave it to the girl without giving back her change. The girl said in Vietnamese, “The whole $20?” She replied yes and tried to change the conversation about the flower pot. Then the two kids walked away. I shook my head in disbelief.

The lady pulled this exact scam on me before. At first I was intending to help her out because the weather was cold and she was standing there all alone on a Wednesday evening. She caught me after I bought some hot, fried tofu from Thanh Son. Unlike the kids, I took my money back and walked away. Now she leaves me alone every time I go to Thanh Son.

Still I was upset that she tricked the two kids. Fortunately the kids brought back their aunts and mom and demanded the refund. The lady gave back everything. She could have made a $5 sell instead of scamming people and got nothing at the end. If you go to Eden Center, don’t fall for this scam. There are people who sells other things like hot peppers, vegetables and herbs. They are pretty decent. You can negotiate the price, but they don’t scam you like that one lady.

I kind of missed the lady who sells goodies outside of Hai Ky Mi Gia. Her goodies and prices were decent. She always played with Cu Dao when he was around one or so. She isn’t there any more.

We went to mexican grill yesterday. Dao took his first bite of the nachos and said quite loud, “It’s terrible.” Both my wife and I were shocked. We glad that the place was not too crowed and the employees didn’t hear us. Then later on he liked the corns and wanted more. I took him to the register and he spoke to the lady, “More corns, please.”

Yesterday he came and sat next to me. Then he asked him mom, “Mommy, do you want to sit next to me?” His mom said yes and he told me, “Daddy, you need to get out.” Though the was inappropriate, the way he said it kind of hilarious. That’s my troublesome Dao.

He always loves visiting his cousins Eric and Sammy. He and Eric could run around the house playing hide and seek all day. Sammy has been playing and teaching him stuff on the iPad, which he really likes.

As for Dan, his appetite has been increasing. He drinks more milk and eats much more. Feeding him is a joy because he could finish a bowl of whatever in five minutes. If I don’t feed him fast enough he would be fuzzy. He continues to use the word “đi” (go) and always wants to go somewhere. he could not sit still for even one second. He still likes to lick things, but he could tell when we disapproved his action. When he’s about to but a toy car into his mouth, I said, “hey hey hey…” and he stopped. If he’s crawling and I come after him, he would crawl quicker or climb up the steps much quicker. I call him “Dan Lật Đật”.

Why “Obama best for middle class”:

Obama can be trusted to preserve the safety net that would be dismantled under some of the remedies proposed for America’s deficit problem. That safety net is vital in times of need, as all Nebraskans should acknowledge while federally subsidized crop insurance bails out farmers in the Drought of 2012.

Why “Obama is best choice for president”:

Obama is not always as gregarious as many Americans might like him to be, but he is committed to his country and candid with it — to the point of releasing far more of his tax returns than Romney. While Obama commits the occasional gaffe, we can’t imagine him ever dismissing 47 percent of his fellow Americans — as Romney did, and later apologized for doing.

Why Romney-Ryan ticket is scary:

The scariest part of a Romney victory is the potential that he and Paul Ryan would attempt to shape the U.S. Supreme Court to match their religious and political beliefs, including opposition to abortion. As Ryan made clear in the debate Thursday, “Our faith informs us in everything we do.” That could mean Romney would appoint justices who oppose abortion and gay marriage, even though Republicans normally pledge to “get government out of people’s lives.”

Hendrik Hertzberg on “Biden, Literally Uniliterally“:

I’m sure that plenty of people were put off by the Vice-President’s facial antics—the patronizing grins, the mock exasperation, the silent giggles. I was a little put off myself, at first. But as he went along, he managed to earn a right to be what you might call cheerfully contemptuous.

Bây giờ chữ thường xuyên của Cu Đán là “đi”. Sáng mở mắt ra là đòi đi cho đến lúc đi ngủ. Hôm nay đi chơi cả ngày mệt quá nên đang ngủ sai sưa.

Cuối tuần này đi thăm bà nội. Cả gia đình đi ăn sáng ở diner rồi đi chợ nông dân mua trái cây và râu. Rồi đi thăm người bạn của bà nội mới ở bệnh viện về. Bà bị mổ vì bị ba cái xương cá trông ruộc. Nếu đưa đi nhà thương chậm trể thì chắc là bà đã không kịp thời cứu chửa. Thấy bà ốm đi rất nhiều sau khi mổ. Bà lại cảm xúc khi thấy cả gia đình của má đến thăm. Thật cảm động.

Matt Taibbi on the Vice Presidential Debate:

The proper way to report such a tactic is to bring to your coverage exactly the feeling that Biden brought to the debate last night: contempt and amazement. We in the press should be offended by what Romney and Ryan are doing – we should take professional offense that any politician would try to whisk such a gigantic lie past us to our audiences, and we should take patriotic offense that anyone is trying to seize the White House using such transparently childish and dishonest tactics.