Vincent Sneed's Blog

America Wins!

Vincent — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:10:44 EST

Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we begin the journey of hard work that will bring about the change we need.

Yes We Did!

A Beautiful Sight

Vincent — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:42:33 EST

On this election morning, I arose at 5 a.m. to get to the polls before they opened because of a doctor's appointment, and being scheduled to do some poll watching and electioneering for Barack and Joe, but, when I arrived at my voting precint at 6 a.m., there were two lines that stretched around the school. People of many diverse races, religions, age, and gender were laughing and just having a good time as if it was a family reunion. The atmosphere was filled with hope of a new day springing forth the change we desperately need. It was beautiful. Amazingly, I made it to all of my appointments with time to spare. The election board in Maryland appears to be very prepared and efficient in its' performance and expectation of a high voter turnout. It's astonishing when I consider the fact that I had my hand in history. May God shine on us all with an Obama/Biden victory.

McCain's "Smart" Choice

Vincent — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:23:36 EST

Sarah Palin... well....she did not know she was being pranked, and she exhibited, again, her lack of foreign policy knowledge. Here's the link of the Canadians pranking her. It's pitiful:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6162962

Creating New Wealth?

Vincent — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:54:22 EST

Who are they kidding? Will America buy the trickle down theory a 3rd time? In Ohio, Palin actually said that Alaska had more oil than Saudi Arabia. Unbelievable. And, of course, she thinks "Joe" is a licensed plumber trying to buy a business. And now, here is McCain, spewing untruths and fear in Florida, while the crowd is trying to chant negatives, stopping only at the prodding of those standing behind McCain on the stage, in the same key of deceit that he's been condusting for some time. The McCain/Palin campaign in one of negative fear and relentless smear.Tomorrow, let us take from them every smurk of deception, and give them nothing to celebrate their divisive electioneering.

Obama/Biden 08

BARACK THE VOTE!

I Endorse This Statement

Vincent — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:49:13 EST

While John McCain is staggering around and making untrue statements on CNN.com, I've decided to forward this email message because it speaks common sense.

Friends,

Tomorrow.

All of us.

You, me, and everyone we know.

Eight years is enough. Eight weeks was enough.

We have a chance to redeem this country, to prove we're better than this, that which Bush has made of us.

McCain is right about one thing: Barack Obama is the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. More liberal than Ted Kennedy. When was the last time you had a chance to send the MOST liberal senator to the White House? Trust me, it won't happen again in our lifetime.

Every vote is critical -- even in hard red states like Texas and Alabama; and true blue ones like New York, California and Michigan. Tomorrow, we need to create a massive popular vote that will give Obama a stunning mandate to return this country to we, the people. Let's write one for the history books and rocket Obama into the White House.

Expect trouble tomorrow. Stand your ground. Don't let some clerk turn you away. Make noise. Call the media if they won't let you vote. Let the Obama camp know. Check out his Voter Protection Center. Know where your polling place is. Be careful inside the voting booth. The ballot still reads like a Sudoku puzzle. Be prepared for long lines. That's ok, you know how to bring the party with you! Make new friends. Plot your local revolution. The 28-year rule of Republicans (and Democrats who act like Republicans) is over. The Reagan Era dies tomorrow night. My God, I truly thought it would never end.

There are over a million of you on my list. Each of you know 5 or 10 people who may not vote. Offer to drive them to the polls. If they live across the country, call them and tell them how much it means to you that they go vote for Obama. Take your co-workers to lunch -- and to vote. Be creative. Come up with ways to convince the undecided to get their decided on and go vote. Make it fun. Lead the horse to water.

60 seats in the Senate!

30-seat increase in the House!

President Obama!

It's in your hands. The Promised Land.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT THIS TRASH

Vincent — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:48:29 EST

I'll just let you read it and hope the media report on it.

Some Voters Hit With Dirty TricksBy DEBORAH HASTINGS

APposted: 3 HOURS 29 MINUTES AGOcomments: 619filed under: Election NewsPrint ShareText SizeAA A(Nov. 2) - In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks — confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections — one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats.In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens."He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter," said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. "He totally, totally scared the heck out of her."In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4," said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake."Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen "an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities."The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic.Activist groups say it is this fresh crop of ballot-minded citizens that makes some Republicans very nervous. And they say they expect the dirty tricks to get dirtier in final hours before Tuesday."Oh, there's plenty of time for things to get ugly," said Zachary Stalberg, president of The Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based government watchdog group that is nonpartisan.Other reports of intimidation efforts in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania include leaflets taped to picnic benches at Drexel University, warning students that police would be at the polls on Tuesday to arrest would-be voters with prior criminal offenses.In his Jewish neighborhood, Stalberg said, fliers were recently left claiming Obama was more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, and showed a photograph of him speaking in Germany."It shows up between the screen door and the front door in the middle of the night," Stalberg said. "Why couldn't someone knock on the door and hand that to me in the middle of the day? In a sense, it's very smartly done. The message gets through. It's done carefully enough that people might read it."Such tactics are common, and are often impossible to trace. Robo-calls, in which automated, bogus phone messages are sent over and over, are very hard to trace to their source, say voting advocates. E-mails fall into the same category.In Nevada, for example, Latino voters said they had received calls from people describing themselves as Obama volunteers, urging them to cast their ballot over the phone.The calls were reported to Election Protection, a nonprofit advocacy group that runs a hot line for election troubles. The organization does not know who orchestrated them."The Voting Rights Act makes it a crime to misled and intimidate voters," said McDonald. "If you can find out who's doing it, those people should be prosecuted. But sometimes it's just difficult to know who's doing what. Some of it's just anonymous."Trying to mislead voters is nothing new."We see this every year," said Jonah Goldman of the advocacy group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "It all happens around this time when there's too much other stuff going on in the campaigns, and it doesn't get investigated."In 2006, automated phone calls in the final days leading to the federal election wrongly warned voters they would not be allowed to vote without a photo ID. In Colorado and Virginia, people reported receiving calls that told them their registrations had expired and they would be arrested if they showed up to vote.The White House contest of 2004 was marked by similar deceptions. In Milwaukee, fliers went up advising people "if you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election." In Pennsylvania, a letter bearing what appeared to be the McCandless Township seal falsely proclaimed that in order to cut long voting lines, Republicans would cast ballots on Nov. 2 and Democrats would vote on Nov. 3.E-mail assaults have become increasingly popular this year, keeping pace with the proliferation of blogging and Obama's massive online campaign efforts, according to voting activists."It is newer and more furious than it ever has been before," Goldman said.And Republicans are not exempt. "Part of it is that election campaigns are more online than ever before," said Goldman. "During the primaries, a lot of Web sites went up that seemed to be for (GOP candidate Rudy) Giuliani, but actually were attack sites."New York City's former mayor and his high-profile colleagues Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney were also targeted in fake Internet sites that featured "quotes" from the candidates espousing support for extreme positions they never endorsed.Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 2008-11-02 14:55:12

Wow! But, We're Not There Yet.

Vincent — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:23:40 EDT

Daily Tracking Poll: Barack Obama Leads John McCain in Tone; Economy's His Main BoostObama Leads McCain 53-44 in Latest ABC News/Washington Post PollANALYSIS by GARY LANGER
Oct. 31, 2008
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The 2008 campaign enters its final weekend with an advantage for Barack Obama in tone as well as substance: Likely voters are twice as apt to say John McCain has gone too far in criticizing Obama as to say Obama's crossed the line in taking on McCain.

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are locked in a tight battle for the White House. ABC News and the Washington Post partner in a daily tracking poll, examining the 2008 presidential campaign from now through Election Day.

It might be worth it for McCain if his criticisms were gaining traction -- but the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll suggests otherwise.

Slightly more likely voters see a bigger risk that McCain would create too few government regulations than that Obama would create too many -- one of McCain's lines of argument. And 54 percent see Obama as a "safe" choice for president, deflecting another McCain thrust.

Click here for PDF with charts and questionnaire.

On issues, Obama continues to lead in trust to handle the economy and taxes -- the latter especially unusual for a Democrat -- and they run about evenly, 49-46 percent, in trust to handle a crisis, another area in which McCain has struggled to gain greater leverage.

Economic concerns are boosting Obama in some usually more-Republican groups; in vote preference he runs evenly with McCain, for example, among white men who cite the economy as the single most important issue in their choice.

As a result Obama trails among white men overall by 9 points -- a group John Kerry lost by 25.

Even with these advantages for Obama the two are running closely in some customary swing voter groups: among independents, 50-46 percent Obama-McCain; among white Catholics, 48-49 percent; among married women, 48-49 percent.

And movable voters, the small group -- now just 8 percent -- who haven't made up their minds for sure, split 31-34 percent, with the rest fully undecided.

Obama gains his overall advantage, 53-44 percent among likely voters, with help from the fact that more Democrats than Republicans are likely voters. Democrats account for 37 percent of likely voters in this ABC/Post poll, about their usual level in exit polls. Republicans account for 28 percent, well under their norm.

That differential is greater than in previous presidential elections since 1984, in which voters have been anywhere from evenly divided between the two parties to +4 points Democratic.

And political party identification was just +2 points Democratic in the latest midterm election in 2006.

What Do You Think Of This?

Vincent — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:29:24 EDT

AP poll shows Obama backers gleeful, McCain's glumBy ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — That smiling guy walking down the street? Odds are he's a Barack Obama backer. The grouchy looking one? Don't ask, and don't necessarily count on him to vote on Tuesday, either.

More John McCain supporters feel glum about the presidential campaign while more of Obama's are charged up over it, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll released Saturday.

The survey shows McCain backers have become increasingly upset in recent weeks, a period that has seen Obama take a firm lead in many polls. One expert says the contrasting moods could affect how likely the two candidates' supporters are to vote on Election Day, possibly dampening McCain's turnout while boosting Obama's.

While 43 percent of the Democrat Obama's backers said they are excited over the campaign, just 13 percent of McCain's said so, according to the survey of adults, conducted by Knowledge Networks. Six in 10 Obama supporters said the race interests them, compared to four in 10 backing McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona.

On the flip side, 52 percent of McCain supporters said the campaign has left them frustrated, compared to 30 percent of Obama's. A quarter of McCain backers say they feel helpless, double the rate of those preferring Obama, the Illinois senator.

More McCain supporters also feel angry and bored, while Obama's are likelier to say they are proud and hopeful.

All of this is a bad sign for McCain, according to George E. Marcus, a political scientist from Williams College who has studied the role emotion plays in politics. Negative feelings about a campaign can discourage voters by making them less likely to go through what can be a painful process: Voting for someone who will lose.

"If I'm getting my head handed to me by a tennis player, my brain is saying, 'Do I want a second match? No,'" Marcus said. "Why do something that's going to lead to failure?"

Marcus said such emotions can be overcome by outside events, such as a campaign or neighbor urging a person to vote. There's also the danger exuberant Obama backers might decide not to vote because of overconfidence. The Obama and McCain organizations have combined to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for those very reasons.

Obama leads McCain among likely voters in the AP-Yahoo News poll, 51 percent to 43 percent.

Supporters of McCain cite a dislike for Obama, dissatisfaction with the campaign's tone and frustration with how news organizations have treated their candidate.

"Flat disgusted, how's that," said Billie Hart, 80, a Houston Republican backing McCain. "Because that's the way I feel about it. I don't like the individual."

Many Democrats say they're energized by a candidate they perceive as different from most politicians and who can make a real difference.

"Elections have always been so ho-hum,"said Kathleen Rockwell, 61, an Obama supporter from Redmond, Wash. This time, "I feel connected. And that feels good."

The AP-Yahoo! News poll, which has followed the same group of 2,000 people since last November, underscores how individuals have reacted to the campaign's currents. For many McCain supporters, it's not been a happy period.

Three in 10 McCain backers who report being frustrated now said in September they weren't. That is quadruple the number who became less frustrated.

At the same time, one in five McCain supporters are not interested in the campaign now who said they were in September. Half that number gained interest. By similar margins, McCain backers report becoming more angry, bored, overwhelmed and helpless and have become less excited, proud and hopeful.

"I'm real interested in having it over," said Michele Roos, 64, a McCain supporter from Newport News, Va.

Enthusiasm by Obama backers has largely stayed steady since September, though slightly more of them — 31 percent — now say the campaign makes them feel proud.

"I didn't like the candidates before," said Angelique Sims, 38, an Obama supporter from Shawnee, Okla. "I like his character. I like the things he represents. He represents my views."

A closer look at the numbers show how that emotions are playing out to Obama's advantage in several pivotal groups of voters.

Forty-eight percent of those under age 30 who support Obama say they are excited over the race, compared to just 21 percent of those young voters who back McCain. That age group has been a reservoir of strong support for the Democrat.

Just 44 percent of whites supporting the Republican say the campaign interests them, compared to 58 percent of whites and 72 percent of blacks supporting Obama.

At the same time, half of McCain supporters age 65 and up say they're frustrated, compared to three in 10 of Obama's older voters. Also saying they're frustrated are 53 percent of whites backing McCain — compared to 40 percent of whites and 12 percent of blacks behind Obama.

The AP-Yahoo! News poll of 1,753 adults was conducted Oct. 17-27 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 803 Obama supporters and 703 McCain supporters, with error margins of plus or minus 3.5 and 3.7 points respectively.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

———

AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and AP writer Christine Simmons contributed to this report.

This Is Why We Work Hard For Barack

Vincent — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:01:12 EDT

It is sad that the elders who are in their 60's exhibit such a lack of wisdom. I really understand why the youth are slow to give them respect when they are at the Palin rallies starting chants of racial slurs about Barack that are false in their inference. The old, not the young, are harbors of America's rotten history, inwhich they carry it like an heirloom of honor. Read this from the NY times:

November 1, 2008, 10:31 am

‘Hussein’ Chant at Palin RallyBy Julie Bosman

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – “John McCain! Not Hussein!”

So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida.

Gov. Sarah Palin at a rally in New Port Richey, Fla., on Saturday. (Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times)

Ms. Palin was midway through her stump speech when a group of supporters began shouting it in unison, drowned out a few seconds later as Ms. Palin talked over them.

A similar chant, “Vote McCain, not Hussein,” was heard at a campaign event for Ms. Palin in Williamsport, Pa., earlier this week.

Senator Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein, a fact that some of his opponents say proves that he is a Muslim. Mr. Obama is, in fact, a Christian.

After the rally in Florida ended, two of the people leading the chant explained why they did so.

“Because it rhymes,” said Shirley Mitten, 64, a volunteer at a pregnancy center and a resident of Brooksville, Fla.

She said she does not know if Mr. Obama is a Muslim. “He says he’s not, but we have no way of knowing,” Ms. Mitten said.

Her husband, John A. Mitten, 64, took credit for starting the chant. “I was trying to get it going!” he said. “I just do not want Obama to be elected.”

Mr. Mitten said he could not trust Mr. Obama because of his past association with William Ayers, the 1960’s radical, and because of his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. He also pointed out that Mr. Obama’s father was a Muslim.

The middle name Hussein, he said, added to the suspicion. “I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein,” he said.

A Story Of Hope

Vincent — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:07:14 EDT

I found this wonderful article on Politico.com:

The Jimmy Smits interview

By JEFFREY RESSNER | 11/1/08 8:38 AM EDT

It’s an urban legend that actor Blair Underwood based his “L.A. Law” role of a hotshot black attorney on Barack Obama during the late 1980s. Underwood had been playing the part for years before he even met Obama, who was president of the Harvard Law Review at the time. But it is true that Jimmy Smits’ charismatic candidate character Matt Santos on “The West Wing” was inspired directly by the politician. Indeed, writer-producer Eli Attie even spoke to Obama adviser David Axelrod to pick up back story and other details for use in his scripts.

The many parallels between “The West Wing’s” final season and the current presidential race have been widely noted. Like Obama, Santos is a former community organizer with a wife and two kids who enjoys grass-roots support, excels in soaring rhetoric about “hope,” yet lacks real congressional experience. His far older Republican rival, Arnie Vinick (Alan Alda), had a chilly relationship with conservatives in his own party and often engaged the press with “straight talk.” Indeed, “The West Wing” also predicted an October surprise of sorts, only it was a nuclear reactor meltdown instead of one on Wall Street that altered the race.

Though the “West Wing” finale was more than two years ago and Smits moved on to a role as an assistant D.A. on the quirky cable drama “Dexter,” thoughts of Santos and his eerily prescient presidential quest still weigh on his mind. Less than a hundred hours before the election, Politico spoke with the actor, who had just returned from introducing Obama at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., rally that capped off the candidate’s groundbreaking half-hour infomercial. “I’m not a policy wonk — I’m somewhere between being undecided and a surrogate,” he says with a laugh when asked about his role in the real-life campaign.

Politico: What went on behind the scenes in Fort Lauderdale?

Smits: It was an important night for them. Shock and awe in a way. They had the half-hour thing and the live show and earlier a get-out-the-vote rally. The senator was in conversation with President Clinton in the staging area, and I was just impressed with how ... calm everything was. That’s always my big perception about him — the steadiness there. Sure, there’s the magic of luck and the timing of things, but it’s how he keeps his head above the fray that makes me feel he can really be a transformative figure.

The Economy, Not A Real Challenge?

Vincent — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:30:18 EDT

Palin has lost what little mind she had. This confirms what Barack said about the McCain/Palin strategy, when America looks at the economy, they will loose. They are actually trying to pull a magic trick inwhich voters will not see their similarities to Bush's policies. Here, take a look:

October 30, 2008, 6:28 pm

Palin Changes the SubjectBy Julie BosmanGov. Sarah Palin in Erie, Pa. (Photo: Keith Srakocic/Associated Press)

ERIE, Pa. – Gov. Sarah Palin tried to change the subject from the economy to national security on Thursday, warning an audience of 7,000 not to vote based on economic concerns alone.

“In times of economic worry and hardship, the crisis that we’re in right now, sometimes it’s tempting to put those concerns aside on Election Day, national security issue, but we don’t have that luxury,” Ms. Palin said, adding that Senator Barack Obama intends to “soften the focus” in the closing days before the election.

“He’s hoping your mind won’t wander to the real challenges – national security – challenges that he is incapable of meeting. But in a time of choosing, we have to decide which man has proven that he can protect us from Osama bin Laden and from Al Qaeda.”

Ms. Palin spent the day burnishing her own national security credentials, meeting with a group of national security advisers that included former Gov. Tom Ridge; James Woolsey, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency; Rear Admiral Marsha Evans; Lieutenant General Carol Mutter; John Lehman, the 17th Secretary of the Navy; and Ambassador Rich Williamson, the special envoy to Sudan.

The meeting was closed to the press, but Ms. Palin spoke to a small group of students, alumni and reporters afterward, flanked by the advisers and four large American flags.

“It may be hard to spend much time worrying about great troubles in far-off places when you fear for your own job and the possible life insurance threats that we have, maybe losing that life insurance plan, health benefits, by losing a job, those things that you perhaps are worried about today,” she said. “It may be hard to spare much thought even for the most urgent matters of national security.”

Mr. Ridge, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, appeared to dutifully be back on message after saying last week that Senator John McCain might have been on the verge of winning Pennsylvania if he had chosen Mr. Ridge – not Ms. Palin – as his running mate.

This time, he noted his “three decades long” friendship with Mr. McCain and introduced Ms. Palin by asking the crowd to give a “very warm, northwest Pennsylvania welcome to the next vice president of the United States!”

It was the third time in a week that Ms. Palin has strayed from her standard stump speech and focused on a single policy issue. Last Friday, she spoke about special-needs children, and on Wednesday, she delivered a speech on energy security.

America Is Interested In Barack

Vincent — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:46:26 EDT

This is a truth that the GOP wants to keep silent. What are they affraid of?

October 30, 2008, 12:06 pm

Solid Ratings for Obama-mercialBy Brian Stelter

More than 20 percent of American households watched Barack Obama’s 30-minute campaign commercial on Wednesday night, according to preliminary ratings.

In the top 56 local TV markets, the household rating for Mr. Obama’s message was 21.7, Nielsen said. The rating indicates the percentage of homes that watched the program. While it will be impossible to judge how many undecided voters the infomercial reached, Mr. Obama’s message clearly reverberated across the country, drawing more viewers than most prime time programs.

The commercial was particularly high-rated in several battleground states. According to Nielsen, 29 percent of households in the Philadelphia media market, 28 percent of households in the West Palm Beach/Ft. Pierce, Fl. media market, and 27.2 percent of households in the Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem, N.C. media market viewed the ad.

The ad was “big, glossy and almost unavoidable,” Jim Rutenberg observed Wednesday. The commercial was shown on four broadcast networks (Fox, NBC, CBS, and Univision) and four cable channels (MSNBC, BET, TV One, and NY1). BET and TV One were not included in Nielsen’s estimate.

“If Barack Obama fails to win the election, perhaps the networks should hire him to entertain viewers on Wednesday nights,” The Hollywood Reporter suggests. The household ratings for the ad “outperformed the usual programming in the time period.” ABC, the only one of the big four broadcasters that did not run the ad, wound up in fourth place among 18- to 49-year-old viewers.

When Ross Perot broadcast an Election Day message in 1996, the program was viewed by 16.8 percent of households, according to Nielsen.

More thorough viewership numbers will be released by Nielsen on Thursday afternoon.

The Bar Has Been Raised

Vincent — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:19:30 EDT

Well, the typical has happened as it pertains to the powerful informercial by Barack Obama. The republicans said it was so so, but had to admit it was effective. The Dems and those of any integrity and itelligence found it moving, innovative, skillful, and the best run presidential campaign of the modern era. Here are a few of the sensible comments from politico.com:

Stephen Hess, Scholar of media and government:

The Obama half-hour production last night, regardless of the election’s outcome, reflects the best run presidential campaign of the modern era. Mark Hanna must be smiling down (or up) on the money-raising skill, ground operation, and ability to stay on message of the Obama

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Harvard:

I found it surprisingly effective. As I argued in The Powers to Lead, the key soft power skills are emotional intelligence, vision, and communication. The program, including its live ending, showed Obama as presidential on all those dimensions -- echos of FDR and Ronald Reagan. Of course people perceive such ads through their pre-existing mental filters. I doubt it swayed many Republicans, but it may have affected some independents as well as energized Democrats.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor, Harvard Business School:

The medium was the message: a diversity of people and families, including Obama’s family, explaining their problems and hearing solutions from a leader who looked presidential. Bill Richardson said toward the end that Obama brings people together, and we saw that on screen. A great mix of concern and hope, ideas and endorsements that covered every campaign message and wrapped them all in one inspiring and coherent package.

Eric Liu, Author and former Clinton White House adviser, WA:

Here's the simplest measure of how this piece was effective: it reminded us what it's like to look forward to hearing from our President. What Obama has reinvented here is not the campaign ad but the fireside chat.

Lanny Davis, Attorney and Democratic strategist:

The Obama 30-minute program/ ad may be the finest political advertisement in modern American political history - and regardless of the outcome of the election, will be used as a textbook model for humanized, effective political messaging for years to come.

Adam Bonin, Attorney and Chairman, Netroots Nation:

Obama raised the bar for discourse in this past week -- a totally positive, solutions-oriented half hour. Didn't criticize his opponent, didn't even mention him. How can McCain/Palin still continue with their petty, nasty attacks at everyone who's ever lived in Hyde Park? Is that how he wants his last campaign's week to be remembered?

The little things I noticed: explicit references to major American corporations Wal-Mart, Ford and Google; the upper half of Oprah Winfrey's head; Bibles; amber waves of grain; the parade of Vice Presidential runners-up Claire McCaskill, Bearded Bill Richardson and Tim "The People's Eyebrow" Kaine; and, for once, a candidate referring to his website in a context that had nothing to do with money, but in connecting voters with information.

Norman J. Ornstein, Resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute:

Was it effective? You bet! It was a great piece of television, flawlessly produced and paced beautifully. It reinforced every theme Obama wants to hit. Followed by a late-night rally in Florida, it makes it a very good day and night for Obama. Even if it does not get a huge cumulative audience for the money spent, it serves another big purpose. At this stage of a campaign, control of the message for each day is critical. Today and tomorrow, Obama controls the message.For McCain, the bad news is this: If you are behind with six days to go, you can't afford to lose two of them.

Deborah Tannen, Author and professor of linguistics:

It was brilliant to end the half hour magazine-show style presentation by moving to a live closing. Realizing the show was suddenly live sent a jolt of electricity through the room in which I was watching; everyone sat up and gasped.

The live ending reflected back on the prior half hour: here was Obama, looking and sounding exactly as he did in the produced segment, and this was real, so what came before must haven been real, too. It also sent a very eloquent metamessage: that Obama could time the closing of his talk to tens of thousands of people so perfectly and seamlessly, gave the impression of control, discipline, and breathtaking competence that are exactly what is needed in a leader, especially now.

Fred Barbash, Moderator:

My son, 13, left his video games to watch it. If Obama achieves nothing else, I thank him for that. In fact, I hear that lots of people watched it with their families or with friends. More importantly, I hear they went out of their way to watch it with their families and friends, as opposed to stumbling across it while waiting for the World Series. Whatever side you're on, when you remind yourself that this was just a long ad, you must admit that this is beyond remarkable.

We're Not Buying It

Vincent — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:50:20 EDT

Here are some comments from CNN.com about the dishonest and hypocritical filth spewed by McCain and Palin:

js October 29th, 2008 3:36 pm ET

Will someone please put a muzzle on Sarah Palin? Or better yet, suggest that she spend this upcoming weekend on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney!

soccer mom October 29th, 2008 3:31 pm ET

Why are we not hearing anything in the news about Palin, her husband, and the Alaskan Independance Party? Why is that not being investigated along with other allegations? If she is so willing to fling out accusations as though they are truths, where is the truth about her? Anything she says about Obama can be answered because he has been vetted. She has not. Not in the least. We know nothing about her. She has not had time to be vetted properly. Out of everything that we have heard about we know answers only to troopergate. So the one thing we do know is that she abused her power and was unethical in her behavior. That is all I need to know. After the last eight years how can anyone think that she is acceptable? HOW?

Steve October 29th, 2008 3:28 pm ET

HERE WE GO AGAIN…

IDIOT..I CRING EVERYTIME SHE OPENS HER MOUTH…

Lewania Chapman October 29th, 2008 3:28 pm ET

The McCain campaign and his rogue companion are pathetic. I know why he voted with Bush 90% of the time, he is every bit as dumb as Bush. What in the heck is a "redistributionist", sounds like something Bush would have said. The Rogue candidate' s political career is over she looks just like Joe Lieberman.

Billy October 29th, 2008 3:28 pm ET

WHERE ARE PALIN'S PROMISED MEDICAL RECORDS? THEY PROMISED EARLY THIS WEEK. MORE LIES AND COVER UPS FROM THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN.

John October 29th, 2008 3:26 pm ET

I am so disappointed to see this Man (McCain) stoop to such levels as to question the very freedom we have to disagree with people and still be able to work with and know them with out being implied as un-American. I see hints of racism in both McCain and Palin.

They are in my opinion displaying “Jim Crowish” behavior and they both disgust me to the depths of my soul.

I already voted for Obama

CHERYL IN FLORIDA October 29th, 2008 3:26 pm ET

Someone needs to stuff a sock in this twits mouth!
She is the one being investigated!
What nerve.
Hypocrite!
I cannot wait to be rid of the republicans come November 4.

Mia and Mike October 29th, 2008 3:24 pm ET

Canadian POV, your post sums it up beautifully! I just thought it deserved to be viewed once again:

Obaman has relationships with internationally respected scholars and the uneducated, unintelligent VP candidate tries to use that against him? What about her own affiliation with AIP? What about her abuse of power and the continuing (and expanding) investigation into her actions?

So, having Joe the fraudulent plumber by her side is supposed to give her legitimacy over a Harvard educated candidate.

She is so vile and relies only on divisive antics to fuel her blind ambition. The world doesn't need another Rovian Puppet.

Lansdale PA voter October 29th, 2008 3:24 pm ET

I would have considered voting for…, but … Sorry this time…Mr. McCain - you just lost my vote because your pooooooooooor judgement — you picked the worst VP!!!

The Intelligent Speak

Vincent — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:30:47 EDT

This is a wonderful story from CNN.com:

Battling for votes: Students weigh economics, ethics

(CNN) -- Even before the current economic crisis, voters listed the economy as the top issue in the presidential election.

In a CNN.com special report, Battleground Voters, we talked to voters in five battleground states -- Colorado, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio -- to find out how the economy would influence their choice for president.

In the second of four parts, we talked to students, who say that while they're worried about making ends meet in college and jobs when they graduate, social issues matter, too.

BOULDER, Colorado: 'Fearful to go into our future'

Katie Ulrich says her college savings have run out and she's looking for new ways to pay for her education.

Katie Ulrich, a junior at the University of Colorado, is worried about paying for the next two years at college -- and the effect the economic downturn is having on her chances of getting a job after college.

While the 20-year-old native of Huntington Beach, California, has survived on savings her parents established for her at birth, the money has run out -- and that has her looking for new ways to get by financially.

"I've had enough to cover my first two years of college, but this year I have been having to apply for financial aid and loans and the same thing next year," she said.

She said it's hard getting a job because restaurants in Boulder -- and jobs on campus -- are cutting back on employees. Ulrich, who registered to vote in Colorado this year, voted in her first presidential election on October 21. Watch Daughtry perform for first-time voters »

While at first she wouldn't say who got her vote, Ulrich later said: "I hope Obama wins."

Don't Miss

Slideshow: Students weigh issues, economy
Small business weigh choices

"The person who I voted for has a better plan of getting us out of this [economic] crisis that we're in, and so I took a lot of time to research... both the presidential candidates," she said.

She added: "I really hope we can get the economy turned around. I think it's hard right now as a student because it's fearful to go into our futures without the hope that our economy will be better. We all want job opportunities. We all want the chance to get to have a great future, and with this crisis it doesn't look good. Hopefully, we can get it turned around."

-- CNN's Ed Hornick

McCain's Judgement In Perspective

Vincent — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:34:25 EDT

This was posted on 9/04/2008 by Joseph Romm and I thought it was worth revisiting because it shows the judgement and character of the McCain/Palin ticket.

Palin Repeats GOP's Big Energy Lie -- Plus Four Other Energy Lies, Too

Sarah Palin sounds authentic while lying through her teeth, seems decent while saying indecent things. And that, of course, is why the GOP faithful love her. But the most revealing lies in her big convention speech were on energy:

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines...build more nuclear plants...create jobs with clean coal...and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers."

LIE #1 shows chutzpah, I'll give her that much. Just two months ago, Palin said "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem." Perhaps someone told the would-be energy expert that even billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens knows her July claim was absurd (see "Pork queen Palin is an earmark expert, NOT energy expert").

LIE #2 is that her "opponents" want to do "nothing at all." Aside from the fact that Obama is willing to compromise on offshore drilling (see "Since offshore oil is de minimis, why shouldn't Obama and the Dems make a deal? Part 1"), his energy plan is by far the most comprehensive one ever put forth by a candidate from a major party (see "A real energy plan for America: Efficiency now, 10% renewables by 2012, and one million plug-in hybrids by 2015").

LIE #3 is that "a McCain-Palin administration" would "move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources." Sorry, she and McCain are soulmate Luddites. She thinks "Alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop." McCain thinks "The truly clean technologies don't work",which is why he has consistently voted against renewables, even though, like Palin, he claims to support them (see "Why McCain hates renewables but pretends he loves them" and "Anti-wind McCain delivers climate remarks at foreign wind company").

LIE #4 -- perhaps the most revealing of all -- came when Palin said

To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of the world's energy supplies....

Not even close. Yes, if you live in a world where the only energy source is oil, then the Persian Gulf countries do produce 20% of the total world supply -- although it would be next to impossible for Iran to cut it all off. And kind of stupid, since they'd lose tens of billions of dollars in revenues themselves.

This is a strong case for the change we need in the Obama/Biden ticket.

BARACK THE VOTE!

stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust mixx.com

Mavericks Gone Mad

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:55:44 EDT

GOP 'mavericks' have concerns with McCain

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 10/27/08 3:27 PM EDT

While John McCain’s often-touted maverick tendencies have frequently gotten him into trouble with conservatives in his party, in the waning weeks of the election it’s becoming clear that he’s also got a problem with another Republican constituency: his fellow GOP mavericks.

In the past week alone, a handful of liberal, moderate and independent-leaning Republican officials have publicly announced they are supporting Barack Obama. Few of them are still important party figures —and at least one is no longer a member of the Republican Party—but even so, their public repudiation of McCain is a dispiriting blow since his record of breaking with party orthodoxy in many ways resembles their own.

Over the summer, former Iowa Congressman and House Banking Committee Chairman James A. Leach, a liberal Republican who also lost his office in 2006, announced his support for Obama and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

And in September, Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, a moderate who was defeated in the Republican primary in his bid for reelection this year, told a Baltimore radio station he was backing the Obama-Biden presidential campaign.

“I think they are prudent, they are knowledgeable,” Gilchrest explained. “We just can’t use four more years of the same kind of policy that’s somewhat hazardous which leads to recklessness.”

"By failing to move to the center, he alienated a huge portion of Republicans who are disenchanted from the last eight years," said former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who left the Republican Party after losing reelection in 2006 and endorsed Obama in February.

In the past week, the pace of the cross-party endorsements has picked up, with former and Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsing Obama on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on October 19 and former two-term Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson backing him on October 23.

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, an unorthodox politician who campaigned for Mitt Romney in last year’s Republican primaries, endorsed Obama Friday, praising him as a “once-in-a-lifetime candidate” and criticizing the GOP for “playing on an increasingly small field in the last couple of elections.”

Two days later, former South Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler, who like McCain once served as a Senate Commerce Committee chairman, also endorsed Obama.

“The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone,” he said, explaining that he preferred Obama’s economic plan.

Given the cast of political characters, it is hardly surprising that some of these figures endorsed a Democrat for president. All have broken with the Republican Party in the past on key votes or in public statements. Weld went so far as to resign his office as governor to accept a Clinton administration appointment, though his nomination foundered in the Senate.

Joe Is Pulling No Punches

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:31:49 EDT

I've been listening to Joe Biden and he is a force to be reckoned with. I especially loved it when he said, and I'm paraphrasing, " Let me remind you of a little history. When Thomas Jefferson wanted to exact change, his opponents said he wasn't a Christian. Does this sound familiar?". This dumps cold water on the hypocritical conservatives of today. Good one, Joe!

Copy Cat Section

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:30:39 EDT

I listened to a portion of McCain's speech, that was all I could take because the lies started giving me headaches, and now, he's taking a portion of Obama's advice about the hatchet verses the scapple. A portion of what he said was he would cut what was not working. That sounds familiar. Then, he went back to his negative words, scare tactics, and incoherent policies, trying to fool the public into believing that prosperity will trickle down to them if they just give the big companies a tax break and relief to the oil companies. I had to turn it off when he said that he's going to move the country in a new direction. What a joke. He may start making sense by Nov. 4, 2008, but, I'm going to vote for change, Obama/Biden, NOT McSame/Ailin.

BARACK THE VOTE!

Hope Is Just Around The Corner

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:04:17 EDT

I've been listening to Barack speaking in Ohio and he is in true form. Every word was an investment of hope with a volley of solutions that make sense. This man is a President in waiting. He is the definition of a great and honest leader with a character that all Americans can be proud of, a pride that could very well be mistaken for arrogance, but it will be just plain old-fashion American pride. This is what we need in these turbulent times.

LET'S BARACK THE VOTE!

Change Is Coming

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:33:34 EDT

October 27, 2008, 1:00 pm Religious Group Puts Up Radio Ads for ObamaBy Katharine Q. Seelye

The Matthew 25 Network, a relatively new political action group aimed at Christian voters, is beginning to air two new radio commercials today on behalf of Senator Barack Obama.

The spots are to run on Christian music stations in several battleground states, including Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina.

One, called “Source of Hope,” replays Mr. Obama’s words as he describes his faith as a source of hope. He refers to “kneeling beneath a cross” and embracing “Christ,” an implicit declaration of his Christianity at a time when false rumors persist in suggesting he is Muslim.

The other, called “Pro-Life, Pro-Obama,” features Doug Kmiec, a Catholic legal scholar and one-time legal counsel to former President Reagan, who makes his appeal to those who oppose abortion rights. He says that Mr. Obama, who supports abortion rights, also supports prenatal care, maternity leave and adoption, which would reduce the number of abortions.

The spots are designed to appeal to Christian voters who have not been inspired by Senator John McCain. Polling by the Barna Group, a Christian research firm, says that Mr. McCain is not doing as well among evangelical voters as President Bush did four years ago and that Mr. Obama has made inroads among those who describe themselves as born-again.

FOX has lost it

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:26:26 EDT

FOX dug up a radio tape from 7 years ago, when Barack was talking about civil rights and whether the courts were radical enough in repairing the ills of segregation, i.e., "Jim Crow". They [fox] have the audacity to equate human rights with socialism, as it pertains to reparations. This is given as "opinion" from a law professor, inwhich FOX calls it a "bomb shell". If there were any doubts about the intentions of this right wing news organization, ...well...there should be none at this point. There views are, at best, tainted by some demented need to twist intelligent truth. Check it out for yourself and see if there's a problem with the discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

Obama/Biden 08---get use to it!

Obama Is Far Better Suited For The Job

Vincent — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:58:21 EDT

This is a portion of endorsements from Politico.com:

Ross Baker, Political scientist, Rutgers:

At the risk of sacrificing my laboriously compiled record of non-partisanship, I endorse Obama, an awesomely intelligent man. Perhaps I am influenced in this endorsement by the fact that I'm in Stockholm where he is adored.

Michael B. Coleman, Democratic mayor of Columbus, Ohio:

I endorsed Barack Obama for president in October of 2007 when he was down about 20 points in Democratic primary polls. At the time I said he is a generational leader, the first time in a long time this country has seen such a transformational figure. I said he brings the hope and ideas that we need in America and the right experience to bring about change that matters from the White House to Ohio's Statehouse to the neighborhoods of Columbus. I said Obama's message crosses racial, social and political lines, telling the nation what we need to hear even when it is not what the people want to hear. Since then, a lot of people have come to agree with me.

Adam Bonin, Attorney and Chairman, Netroots Nation:

First off, let me be clear; I'm only speaking on my personal behalf, and not on behalf of any organization in which I'm involved.

But this endorsement has never been a question for me: in 1996 and 1997, Barack Obama was my professor for voting rights and election law, and again for a seminar on race and the law. He is today the same man who I saw in small rooms with 15-20 students back then -- a brilliant, thoughtful, charismatic man utterly committed to listening to all points of view and treating them with respect. He was a professor who prepared well and who encouraged his students to move beyond theoretical debates to pragmatic concerns, and certainly influenced me strongly in that regard in my own writing on the racial gerrymandering debate. The only thing that's different right now about him is that his dry sense of humor has, understandably, been kept under wraps after the "you're likeable enough" incident.

There's nothing I can say at this point to illuminate the policy disagreements between the candidates. So to the extent that I can, I want to just reassure folks -- as Prof. Sunstein has as well today -- that the Barack Obama you're seeing now is not an act and not a pose. The decency, the intelligence and the respect for difference you see from him now are the same things we saw from him when the whole world wasn't watching. This is a good man, and he will do his best to defend our country, defend the Constitution, and lead our nation through whatever challenges lie ahead.

Shibley Telhami, Professor for Peace and Development, Maryland:

I have supported Barack Obama from the outset and endorse him for President with the sort of enthusiasm that I have never felt toward any political candidate running for any office. As Governor Bill Richardson put it, Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of candidate, and the nation is going through a once-in-a-century kind of crisis that calls for transformational leadership. More...

Let me put this in some perspective. I am a Democrat who thinks highly of Senator Hillary Clinton, knows her personally, and always felt she would make a good President. I generally support the Democratic positions on social issues, and certainly Obama’s, especially a woman’s right to choose, health care, and tax policies. But I have always been a centrist on foreign policy, worked for the Administration of Bush 41 and seriously considered voting for him in 1992 based on what I saw as effective foreign policy, but ultimately voted for Bill Clinton based on social policy, even though I was uncertain about his foreign policy. Early in 2001 I cooperated with the Bush Administration when my counsel was sought, provided advice to then national security Condoleezza Rice, and worked closely with the office of the Assistant Secretary of State throughout the first two years of the Administration. My break was over the Iraq war, which I opposed from the outset, wrote a book before the war warning about its consequences and felt so strongly about it that I helped organize an ad in the New York Times by a group of some of the most respected scholars of international security all of whom opposed the war. In the war, I saw not only a bad foreign policy decision, but serious flawed decision-making that could ultimately lead to disaster.

While Obama got everyone’s interest through his Democratic convention speech in 2004, as a Presidential candidate he captured my attention in one of his early campaign statements when he challenged not only the decision to wage the Iraq war without UN support but also the “mindset” that took us there. This to me was far more revealing about his intellect, his comprehension of the big picture—and why I still think that his insistence on a clear pullout plan remains the right strategy; I fully understand the possible risks of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, but in the big picture of our regional and global position, these risks pale in comparison to the consequences of maintaining our presence in pursuit of undefined “victory.”

Our economic crisis is certainly one central reason many Americans have supported Barack Obama, especially given McCain’s association with the unpopular President Bush, his own statement about the economy not being his strength, and a sense that Governor Palin is over her head on this issue. To me, as in Iraq, the economic crisis itself is symptomatic of a bigger problem that was accentuated by the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Obama is the anti-Bush we need at home and abroad. In ordinary times, even a President with modest intellect and background can have leadership assets to keep the nation moving forward, as our system remains highly institutional and the areas where the President’s role is crucial are limited. But as we have witnessed after 9/11, a President’s role becomes crucial in crises, as the nation rallies behind him. We saw President Bush’s popularity almost double overnight, simply because he was the commander in chief when the nation desperately needed leadership. Advisors cannot suffice as a President will still need the intellect, knowledge, wisdom, and judgment to differentiate good advice from bad advice. In times of crisis like this, we need not just a smart President, but a really smart President, one who is well-informed, broadly educated, with a deep sense of the international, and with a demonstrated ability to deliberate carefully while still being poised and decisive.

Much is said about Obama’s charisma and his obvious ability to motivate and mobilize the public. These are indeed great assets that will be needed as the next President faces the reality of enormous national and international challenges and will need to rally support for his vision of our national interests and our top priorities. But these are assets that have generated enthusiasm even among those less taken by charisma for Obama displayed more basic requirements that his charisma only accentuated: visible intellectual power, deep interest in issues, detailed knowledge, good basic judgment, a sense of the big and the small pictures, poise under fire.

Much is also said about the role of race. It is important in one revealing sense: If one considers the enormous barriers to the success of a Barack Obama in our politics (or for any minority candidate, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Hindu, etc., or for women candidates), one has to assume that his assets are even greater than they look, for that’s what it takes to overcome the barriers. If one also considers that the office of Presidency instantly elevates its holder and magnifies his assets, we can only imagine the possible power of an Obama Presidency; John F. Kennedy, who overcame odds to become President never achieved what Obama has prior to becoming President.

Obama is also the anti-Bush internationally. The problem is not that Bush is not popular around the world—he certainly is that. The bigger problem is that many around the world no longer differentiate between American administrations, American policy, and what America stands for, particularly after the reelection of Bush in 2004. One used to hear “I don’t like American foreign policy, but I still like the United States.” This difference has disappeared in the minds of many. Even in relation to our current campaign with people in almost every country supporting Obama over McCain, the blurring of the difference between President and Country is visible: In a public opinion poll I conducted with Zogby International in six Arab countries just before the end of the primaries in April 2008, 18% preferred Obama, 12% preferred Clinton, and only 4% preferred McCain. But the worrisome part was that one third said it will not make a difference. That trend must be reversed.

No one really underestimates the challenges the next President will face at home and abroad, and few have the illusion that all will be fixed if Obama wins. Some of the good will that may come if Obama wins will last but a few months before the hard judgments begin. But there is a global opportunity even in America’s troubled moment: the world has come to remember through the global economic crisis why a strong America that’s not unilateral and threatening is also good for the world, that the interdependent global economic system still needs a strong anchor. The key is to assure that the fear of heavy handed American unilateralism does not outweigh the hope for the anchoring American power.

Here, McCain’s campaign rhetoric has failed. The serious threat posed by Al-Qaeda cannot be sold as “Islamic terrorism” if one wants most Muslims to hope that we defeat Bin-Laden’s terror. And we cannot pretend as though our power is unlimited in challenging the world’s other powers—even as we are struggling to keep up with two difficult wars. We are not “all Georgian” today, even as we should support Georgia, any more than we are all French, German, or Japanese. It is that “mind set” that needs to change and Obama is far better suited for the job.

GOP Builds House On Sand

Vincent — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:02:32 EDT

Ther are some hard right wing conservative hypocrites who still say and believe the trash about "Joe the plumber" being authentic, forgetting about the fact that he's not licensed in the trade, nor does he owns a business. Also, he owes back taxes, in fact, the Obama tax plan would've cut his, giving him a big break and possibly a refund. And now, they are making statements that contradict the facts. Take a look at this:

National Polls Not Tightening Despite Reports

10/25/08

All of the Republican punditocracy is on the side that the race is tightening.

They offer up a couple of reason they believe the race is tighter.

That may be true. But what about the fact that CBS has Obama ahead by 13%? Or that Obama is extending his lead in Zogby's tracking poll? Zogby shows Obama's lead has gone from 4% lead to 10% in the past week.

And the average of all polls still has Obama considerably ahead -- almost 8%.

Newsweek: Obama 53, McCain 41.
Rasmussen: Obama 52, McCain 45.
Gallup: Obama 51, McCain 44.
Zogby: Obama 51, McCain 41.
ABC: Obama 53, McCain 44.
Battleground: Obama 49, McCain 46.
TIPP: Obama 46, McCain 42.
CBS: Obama 52, McCain 39.
FOX: Obama 49, McCain 40.
AP: Obama 44, McCain 43.

AVERAGE: Obama 50.0, McCain 42.5 (Obama +7.5%).

So despite the fact that the punditocracy can drum up three reasons to say the race is tightening, we can drum up even more reasons to say either the race is steady or that Obama is gaining.

Right Wing Conservative Nuts

Vincent — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:42:04 EDT

This is what I pulled from USA Election Polls web site:

The Republican Party is Destroying Themselves

10/23/08

StatePollsterDate7-Day AVGObamaMcCainCAPPIC10/12-19O+23% 56%33%TXRass10/21M+10% 44%54%FLQpac10/16-21TIE 49%44%ILBig1010/19-22O+27% 61%32%PAQpac10/16-21O+11% 53%40%PABig1010/19-22O+11% 52%41%OHQpac10/16-21O+7% 52%38%OHBig1010/19-22O+7% 53%41%MIBig1010/19-22O+22% 58%36%INBig1010/19-22O+6% 51%41%TNRass10/16M+12% 42%54%MNBig1010/19-22O+12% 57%38%WIBig1010/19-22O+11% 53%40%IABig1010/19-22O+13% 52%39%Subscribe: Poll Summaries To Your Inbox

The Big10 and Quinnipiac University polls confirm what we have been reporting the past couple of days. John McCain is over. (LINK)

So the Republican surrogates, in defense of a losing campaign, are shooting themselves in the foot.

Bacchman, a congresswoman from Minnesota called Obama an anti-American. Her opponent for congress just raised $2 million dollars and just might possibly oust her from her seat. Bonehead.

She says she walked into a trap. You decide for yourself.

Laura Ingraham's advice to John McCain is that he should "make sure people understand that a unified Democratic government... will be absolutely leftist run amuck. They will not have checks on them, social spending will go through the roof, we will not have the same forward looking muscular foreign policy... I believe all of America will see this."

Scare tactics. It is no doubt that our economy will continue to falter over the next couple of years regardless of who the president is. So the Republicans need to plant seeds out there saying the economy will get worse if Obama is elected... Even though it is already pretty likely that it will happen. This is all in the name of 2012. Sounds like the Republicans plan on blaming Obama for the economic mess that may or may not exist in 2012.

John McCain has not done a very good job running his campaign and many true Conservatives will decide to stay home -- since they did not like him to begin with. But that will not teach Mccain a lesson. That will not teach the Republican party a lesson. A better alternative would be to vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate.

The Republicans will lose the presidency and forfeit even more control in the House and Senate to the Democrats anyways. You might as well send a sign to the Republican party that they should be the party of limited government.

Permalink.

John McCain Sees an Uptick... Why Don't We See It?

10/23/08

StatePollsterDate7-Day AVGObamaMcCainFoxFOX10/20-21Nat'l Polls 49%40%FLMason10/20-21M+1% 45%46%OHCNN10/19-21O+3% 50%46%NCCNN10/19-21O+3% 51%47%NCWSOC10/20-21O+3% 48%46%VACNN10/19-21O+7% 54%44%VAMason10/20-21O+7% 47%45%TNRass10/16M+12% 42%54%WIWPR10/9-17O+10% 51%38%WIR200010/20-21O+10% 52%41%KYRass10/21M+8% 44%52%NVCNN10/19-21O+3% 51%46%WVCNN10/19-21M+4% 53%44%MEPAS10/13-16O+15% 51%39%AKIvan10/17-19M+11% 42%53%Subscribe: Poll Summaries To Your Inbox

National Polls

FOX: Obama +9
Rasmussen: Obama +6
Zogby: Obama +10
Gallup: Obama +5
Hotline: Obama +5
ABC: Obama +11
IBD: Obama +4
AP: Obama +1
Battleground: Obama +2
F&M: Obama +5

Average: Obama +5.8%

In an interview with Brian Williams, John McCain says he sees an uptick in the polls since the debates ... and says he's got another 3% more to go. There are only 3 out of 10 national polls released today that fit in the range that he prescribes. He's actually still 6% behind -- the same as after the debates. Don't want to be critical of McCain because it is common for candidates that are behind to cite polls that are beneficial to them... Clinton did it. John Edwards did it. Mitt Romney did it. Blah blah.

Permalink.

This Is Interesting

Vincent — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:14:53 EDT

I don't know what to make of this story. Here's a portion from AOL news:

Former Bush Spokesman Backs ObamaBy DAVID BAUDER

APposted: 13 HOURS 58 MINUTES AGOcomments: 1558filed under: Election News, Barack ObamaPrint ShareText SizeAA ANEW YORK (Oct. 23) - Scott McClellan, President Bush's former press secretary who angered old colleagues with a tell-all book earlier this year, said Thursday he is backing Barack Obama for president. Susan Walsh, AP Photo

Former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, shown on Capitol Hill in June, said he is supporting Democrat Barack Obama for president.

There are some local ads of GOP sen. and con. races that appear to be giving up on McCain stating concern about a one party Gov. in D.C.

Here's Something To Think About

Vincent — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:44:35 EDT

I often wondered if the attacks on 9-11 were an attempt to collapse the American economy, because the tactics of it just didn't make sense, and to say its' only purpose was to inflict terror seriously underestimates Al Qaida's end game. Did we actually count up the cost of a war on terror in dollars, lives, time, or total resources needed to help rebuild and establish a working government in Iraq or Afghanistan? Don't forget the big budget allocated for new high-tech security equipment that was very instrumental in foiling some lame attempts after their installment, which, in turn, called for an increase in its' allotted budget, so that the public can feel safe. And, then there are the long security lines at airports coupled with rising fuel prices and failing airlines, jobs gone, wages cut, except for CEO's, and rising crime rates. It appears to be a case of the fox jumps on the rabbit and the wolf jumps on the fox. Here's a portion from the AP by David Knowles. What are your thoughts?

Al Qaida Endorses McCain?By David Knowles
Oct 22nd 2008 9:41AM

Filed Under:eEndorsements, John McCain, Breaking News, 2008 President

Via the AP:

Al Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.

The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Heshab Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Falsification By Any Other Name...

Vincent — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:02:27 EDT

Palin Falsified Expense Reports?By David Knowles
Oct 21st 2008 7:19PM

Filed Under:eRepublicans, John McCain, Breaking News, Scandal, Sarah Palin

From the AP:

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

So, she brought her kids along on trips that they weren't officially invited to attend, then later went back and amended the expense reports to make it look otherwise? Is that not the same as falsification? All told, Gov. Palin has bilked the state of Alaska for a total of $21,012 for her daughters' air travel since she was elected in 2006. That doesn't include hotel rooms, either.

We know that Palin may owe back taxes on her per diem expenses. We know that she violated state ethics laws in the "Troopergate" matter. We know that the RNC has shelled out $150,000 for Palin's wardrobe in this campaign. Is it really any wonder that she has brought the Republican ticket crashing down? In fact, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, she's even a bigger liability now for McCain than George W. Bush. And that's saying something.

Something To Share

Vincent — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:44:24 EDT

I pulled this from the New York Times political section:

The Early Word: Twelve DaysBy Michael Falcone

Twelve days to go until Election Day, with early voting in many states spawning long, long lines.

Senator Barack Obama heads to Hawaii later today to visit his gravely ill grandmother, who helped raise him. His absence from the campaign trail in the final days is quite unusual for a candidate. But this morning, in a taped interview for CBS’ “Early Show,” Mr. Obama said he believed voters would understand his need to see his grandmother.

He recalled how his mother slipped away quickly while battling cancer, and how he couldn’t get there in time to say goodbye: “We knew that she wasn’t doing well but, you know, the diagnosis was such where we thought we had a little more time and we didn’t. And so I want to make sure that I don’t–I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

As for whether stepping off the campaign trail at this juncture posed a risk, Mr. Obama said: “I think most people understand that if you’re not caring for your family, then you’re probably not the kind of
person who’s going to be caring for other people.” His wife Michelle will be filling in for him until Saturday.

How much the McCain campaign will attack Mr. Obama while he’s in Hawaii remains to be seen. Senator John McCain and his staff have struggled to design a message that resonates with voters and it has been buffeted by news reports of grim poll numbers in several key states.

The Times’s Adam Nagourney reports how one of Mr. McCain’s former top advisers, Mike Murphy, has emerged as a chief critic of his campaign: “At a moment when other former McCain advisers have been relatively silent, including John Weaver, Mr. Murphy has been extravagant in his criticisms and what Mr. McCain’s advisers describe as his second-guessing.”

In a Times magazine article, Robert Draper offers an inside look at divisions within the McCain camp itself.

While Mr. McCain remains feisty on the campaign trail, and there may be hopeful signs out there, as the Politico notes, the negative indicators loom large.

Today The Times’s Larry Rohter reports that Mr. McCain is lagging far behind his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, among Hispanic voters. Just 26 percent say they are backing the Republican senator:

In an echo of his overall slide in the polls, some of the issues that have hampered Mr. McCain’s candidacy turn out to have had an even greater impact on the Hispanic population. Latinos cite the crisis in the economy as their biggest concern, trumping immigration and the social conservatism that Republicans thought would help expand Mr. McCain’s appeal among religious, family-oriented Hispanic voters.
And if Republicans were counting on tensions between blacks and Latinos, now the nation’s largest minority, driving Hispanic voters away from Mr. Obama, that also has largely failed to materialize.

The Politico’s Jonathan Martin writes that despite G.O.P. hopes that wealthy Republicans would pour money into independent groups to bankroll a last-minute advertising blitz against Mr. Obama and the Democrats, that is unlikely to happen “thanks largely to lack of passion for McCain within the conservative base, diminished hopes that he can win and a sharp decline in the stock market that has badly pinched donors’ pockets.”

Time Magazine’s Joe Klein tells us “Why Barack Obama is Winning.” Among other things, “because of the steadiness of his temperament and the judicious quality of his decision-making. They are his best-known qualities.”

Mike and The Plumbers For Obama

Vincent — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:31:34 EDT

I recieved this interesting E-Mail from Michael Moore. I believe you'll be interested in what they have to say.

Michael Moore will be Larry's sole guest for the majority of the hour. Michael will be interviewed live on location with a group of plumbers who support Barack Obama.

Don't miss Mike with "Plumbers for Obama" on Larry King Live tonight (Thursday, October 23rd) at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT on CNN (replay at midnight ET/9:00 PM PT and 3:00 AM ET/midnight PT).

Tune in tonight and plumb the vote on November 4th.

Webmaster
MichaelMoore.com

Backfire Can Be A Nasty Event

Vincent — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:35:36 EDT

I found it interesting to see what some GOP members had to say on Politico.com about McCain's campaign. Here's a portion:

As clock ticks, hope dims for McCain savior

For the GOP, the cavalry apparently isn’t coming.

Republicans attuned to conservative third-party efforts say that with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the prospects for any 11th-hour, anti-Obama ad campaign are highly unlikely.

That group, known in the political community as “AIP,” was eyed by some in the GOP as a potential major player in taking on Obama. They spent nearly $3 million in key states in August on a tough ad tying the Illinois senator to 60s-era domestic terrorist William Ayers and promised additional spots in the fall campaign.

That never happened.

“Donors just weren’t willing to give the money,” explains LaCivita. “They were hurt badly in the market crash and they were always concerned about how McCain would react.”

The timing of the financial crisis couldn’t have been worse for Republicans. When Lehman Brothers went under on September 15, McCain was tied or in the margin of error in national polls. But when his poll numbers fell along with the stock market, wealthy conservatives saw little reason to invest their shrunken holdings on what was far from a sure thing.

“Republican donors at the end of day aren’t stupid,” said another Republican familiar with third-party activities this cycle. “They’re not going to throw good money after bad.”

And it wasn’t just the economic bad news – McCain did little to help his own cause.

Thoughts and Prayers

Vincent — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:12:57 EDT

I just want to let the Obama family know that I'm praying for the well being a health of Barack's Grandmother.

A Sweet Couple of Endorsements

Vincent — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:39:54 EDT

I'll let this one speak for itself and you make the inference.

Unlikely Newspapers Endorse ObamaWASHINGTON (Oct. 17) - Democrat Barack Obama on Friday won endorsements from two unlikely newspapers -- the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.While the Tribune is the largest daily in Obama's hometown, the publication hasn't backed a Democrat in its 161-year history. And the Times hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate since 1972, when it backed President Richard M. Nixon's re-election. This is also the first time it's endorsing a Democrat for president.In an editorial posted on its Web site, The Tribune said the country needs a president who can lead it through a "perilous time" and restore "a common sense of national purpose." Obama is the best candidate to do that, the editorial board said."We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions," the Tribune said. "He is ready."The Tribune said it liked Republican presidential nominee John McCain, but added that it's "hard to figure John McCain these days."The Times, the country's fourth-largest newspaper, said McCain's campaign had left the candidate "nearly unrecognizable." His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for running mate was "irresponsible," it said."Palin is the most unqualified vice presidential nominee of a major party in living memory," the Times said. "The decision calls into question just what kind of thinking — if that's the appropriate word — would drive the White House in a McCain presidency."The Times said the U.S. needs a president who displays grace under pressure, is not prone to volatile gestures and understands the legal foundations of American freedom."Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be," the Times said. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 2008-10-17 19:13:45

This Might Be The Last Word On Joe

Vincent — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:34:59 EDT

McCain May Stumble With Focus on `Joe the Plumber' (Update1)

By Ryan J. Donmoyer and Kristin Jensen

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain's bid to shore up his poll numbers by highlighting ``Joe the plumber'' may backfire.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, the Toledo plumber who criticized the tax proposals of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, owes back taxes, isn't licensed or registered in Ohio and would fare only slightly better under McCain's tax agenda than under Obama's even if his income soared.

McCain this week thrust Wurzelbacher into the national spotlight as a symbol of overtaxed small-business owners after Obama opened clear leads in many states. Analysts said Wurzelbacher's circumstances have muddled McCain's effort to profit politically from the tax issue, making it unlikely ``Joe the plumber'' will have any more long-term benefit for his campaign than did the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

``Joe the plumber will have the same trajectory as Sarah Palin, but it will be tracked in hours rather than weeks,'' said Thomas Mann, a scholar at Washington's Brookings Institution.

During the last presidential debate, Oct. 15, McCain said that what Obama would ``do to `Joe the plumber' and millions more like him is have their taxes increased and not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business.''

The problem for McCain, tax analysts said, is that the underlying premise that Wurzelbacher would face higher taxes under Obama is neither true nor typical of how the vast majority of small businesses would fare.

Buy a Business

Wurzelbacher told Obama Oct. 12 as the Illinois senator canvassed his neighborhood that he was about to buy a business that earns as much as $280,000 a year.

``Do you believe in the American dream?'' Wurzelbacher asked Obama, citing the Democrat's proposed tax rate increase for Americans earning more than $250,000. ``I'm being taxed more and more for fulfilling the American dream.''

Wurzelbacher hasn't paid the taxes he already owes, according to the state of Ohio, which placed a tax lien against him for $1,182.98 on Jan. 26, 2007, that is still active. A second judgment against him was filed in March 2007 by St. Charles Mercy Hospital for $1,261, records show.

The company McCain said the plumber wants to buy has annual sales of $510,000, according to an analysis by Dun & Bradstreet. That makes it unlikely that Wurzelbacher's purchase would give him a taxable income of more than $200,000 -- leaving him unaffected by Obama's proposal to roll back tax breaks for those earning more than $250,000, said Steven Bankler, a certified public accountant in San Antonio, who counts plumbers and other trade professionals as his clients.

Few Businesses Affected

Few such small businesses have enough income to be affected by Obama's tax changes, Bankler said.

One other problem in making Wurzelbacher a symbol of the overtaxed: he would pay just $773 more in taxes under Obama's plan than McCain's if he did earn an adjusted gross income of $280,000, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group that is critical of high taxes.

Earning that much would make Wurzelbacher very unusual among small businesses. According to the Internal Revenue Service, most small businesses organize in ways that allow their owners to pay taxes at personal rates rather than as corporations, which impose a second layer of taxes. Almost 95 percent of 21.5 million owners of small businesses who file as sole proprietors had receipts under $100,000 in 2007.

Another 4 million businesses organize as so-called subchapter S corporations, according to IRS data; less than 5 percent of them earn more than $200,000.

`No Joe Six-Pack'

If Wurzelbacher managed to earn $280,000, ``he's not an average Joe Six-Pack,'' said Gerald Prante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation.

``Rather than a game-changing blow for the McCain campaign, `Joe the plumber' is turning into a bad case of blowback,'' said Rogan Kersh, a public service professor at New York University.

Still, McCain is making an appeal to the white working class, a demographic ``disproportionately represented in many swing states,'' said Karlyn Bowman, an analyst at Washington's American Enterprise Institute. ``That's Joe's group.''

The tax lien was filed in January 2007, six months after the state certified a delinquency for the taxes, said Ray Ann Estep, section chief for revenue-recovery services for the Ohio attorney general.

``Unfortunately, sometimes people don't resolve their debts as quickly as we would like them to,'' she said.

No License

Wurzelbacher doesn't have a plumber's license and isn't registered as a plumber in Ohio, the Toledo Blade reported on its Web site yesterday. His employer has a state plumbing license, the newspaper said.

Before living in Ohio, Wurzelbacher was a resident of Mesa, Arizona, in McCain's home state, according to property records.

McCain gave Wurzelbacher an apology yesterday for throwing him into the spotlight.

``Joe, if you're watching, I'm sorry,'' McCain said on CBS Corp.'s ``Late Show'' hosted by David Letterman. ``But from what I've read, and I have not talked to him, but from what I've read, he's taken it pretty well.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at o rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 17, 2008 09:52 EDT

Still Not Talking About The Issues

Vincent — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:06:09 EDT

In West Chester, OH, Palin is talking about ACORN, when she should be dealing with the ethics violation she committed,i.e. TROOPERGATE. She also, get this, she said that Barack likes to talk about the past when he ties McCain to Bush , a current situation, but, she's talking about ACORN, something that was a direct involvement years ago. She and McCain are constantly using "Joe the plumber", who is clearly a plant by the GOP, with his first name and job in question and legal problems, and Todd the husband may have a Security clearance problem, and she has the NERVE to question Barack's assosiations? Or as Dave Letterman so aptly puts; " So you [McCain] thinks he [Obama] was palin around with terrorists at the age of 8? How hypocritical are coservative right wingers? I get it, it's not mean spirited, it's just campaigning tactics. Riiiiight!

Tax Logic

Vincent — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:17:57 EDT

It is evident that the Obama/Biden tax plan is better for small businesses. This is from ABC news:

"Most people like Joe aren't going to be taxed more heavily under the Obama plan," said Roberton Williams, principal research associate and economist with the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture between The Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, nonpartisan think tanks. "It's just the most successful of the small business or these professional partnerships."

There are 27.2 million small businesses in the United States, according to the Small Business Administration. Of those, only 6 million firms, or about 22 percent, had employees. The rest were sole propitiator companies, according to the government.

The vast majority of these companies earn less than $250,000 a year.

Even hard line conservatives agree on this but some of them reject the plan based on a logic such as this:Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and former director of economic research at the conservative Hudson Institute, believes that even lower-income wage earners should care.

"I'm not going to be too happy with Obama's proposal even if I don't make 250,000 bucks. Why? Because I hope to," Reynolds said. "That's what the American dream is all about."

Sources by SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
Oct. 17, 2008

This Is So...Well...You Decide

Vincent — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:38:23 EDT

I was making my rounds on all the news sources when I came across this article on FOX. Here's the first portion of it:

ELON, N.C. -- Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Thursday that God blessed the nation with oil and gas resources and other forms of energy that should be tapped to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign suppliers.

The Alaska governor told supporters at Elon University that she and GOP presidential nominee John McCain will develop new energy sources.

"God has so richly blessed this land, not just with the oil and the gas, but with wind and the hydro, the geothermal and the biomass," Palin said. "We'll tap into those."

Palin said some of the countries the U.S. relies on for energy use their resources "as a weapon." And she said the billions spent each year on oil imports should be circulated within the country "for the sake of the nation's security."

"We need to drill here and drill now," Palin said as the crowd chanted "drill baby, drill." A protester at the back of the crowd shouted "No blood for oil."

McCain exhibited his true judgement on this choice.

Joe The Plumber Owes $1261 In Unpaid Taxes

Vincent — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:46:17 EDT

I knew that there was something funny about the story of Joe the plumber because he was in the right place at the right time with the right issue. Here's a portion of the story from ABC.com news:

"There is a judgment lien against him for nonpayment of income tax," Barb Losie, deputy clerk of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, told ABCNews.com. "The state files hundreds of liens a day. It means he owes that money."

Losie said Wurzelbacher owes $1,182 from January 2007, but no action has been taken against him outside of filing the lien.

"There is no judge pulled, there is no attorney assigned... There is a 99 percent chance he doesn't know about the lien, unless he did a credit report or was ready to pay his taxes," Losie said.

A second lien has been filed in the courhouse against Wurzelbacher for $1,261 that he apparently owes St. Charles Mercy Hospital. That lien was filed in March 2007.

Joe wants to get a pass on his delinquency but, what is strange is that he would get the tax credit under the Obama tax plan, and thus getting instead of owing.

Another Nail In McCain's Coffin

Vincent — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:34:30 EDT

This is a sweet portion from CNN.com about Colin Powell:

When Colin Powell turns off his TV after the final presidential debate, he will have learned everything he is going to learn about the candidates vying to succeed his former boss, George W. Bush. Powell has made it clear that he has been thinking about an endorsement for a long time but wanted to hear more from the candidates before making his choice. It now seems beyond doubt that Colin Powell will endorse Barack Obama and thereby hammer the final nail in the coffin of the Republican campaign to hold onto the White House.

The recent ugliness of the McCain-Palin rally audiences cannot be lost on Colin Powell. And Powell is not one to ignore a 14 point lead in a New York Times poll. But most important for Powell and the press will be his explicit rejection of the Bush-McCain approach to Iraq, Iran and the rest of the world.

Powell's endorsement will be perfectly timed to dominate a news cycle or two. It will give Obama the one thing he still needs more of--credibility as Commander-In-Chief. And Sarah Palin's speechwriters will be hard pressed to come up with a condescending quip about it.

CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, and FOX Agree?

Vincent — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:11:50 EDT

Barack Obama won the debate last night! No surprise here, and it seemed like it was painful for FOX to admit it. They even added the fact that Barack Obama looked more Presidential. As always McCain was untruthful on all the major issues, even when it concerned Joe Biden's position on a proposed Iraqi provinces. Here are a few facts from ABC and FOX:

Mortgage Plan Early in the debate, John McCain said that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., proposed the same kind of mortgage buy-up plan that he did. "During the depression era, we had a thing called the Homeownership Loan Corporation, and they went out and bought up these mortgages and people were able to stay in their homes and, eventually, the values of those homes went up and they actually made money. And, by the way, this was a proposal made by Sen. Clinton not too long ago," McCain said. FALSE. While Clinton has proposed directly helping homeowners by having the government buy and resell mortgages that are in danger of foreclosure, her proposal would force financial institutions to take a loss. The McCain proposal, by contrast, is more generous to financial institutions and more costly for taxpayers. The Arizona senator would have the government pay face value for home mortgages, ensuring that financial institutions avoid a loss. More background here. Ayers John McCain charged that Obama "launched his political campaign in Bill Ayers' living room." Obama flatly rejected this association between his campaign and the University of Illinois professor who was among the founders of the radical anti-war group the Weather Underground. Obama said, "that's absolutely not true." FALSE: Recollections differ about the beginnings of Obama's political career and 1996 run for State Senate in Illinois. A Chicago rabbi says he hosted the first coffee for Obama, not Ayers. And the Obama campaign says the "official kickoff" of that campaign happened at a Ramada Inn, not Ayers' living room. Joe the Plumber's Health Insurance McCain said that small businessman "Joe the Plumber" would end up paying a fine if he refused to provide his workers with health insurance under Barack Obama's health care plan.

FALSE: Under the Obama proposed health plan, small businesses are exempt from a requirement imposed on large companies that they contribute to a national health fund if they fail to make "a meaningful contribution" to their employees' health care costs.

This is the game changer:

Ellen Ratner
Bureau Chief, Talk Radio News Service/FOX News Political ContributorSenator McCain tried to make Senator Obama look like the celebrity that Senator McCain’s previous ads have cast him as. Twice he said he was “eloquent” and then went on to criticize him. Many of Senator McCain’s answers began with jabs at Senator Obama. It did not work and many of the press watching the debate at Hofstra with me in the press center shifted in their chairs and snickered each time Senator McCain brought up “Joe the Plumber.”The debate ended with an exchange on vouchers verses charter schools and Senator McCain sounded angry and jabbing. His laughter looked a bit mean. It was a poor strategy by the McCain camp.Obama won the debate.

A Millitary Perspective

Vincent — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:49:48 EDT

In Israel, a poll was taken and, according to CNNlive.com, 55% of the Israeli soldiers support Barack Obama and 35% support John McCain. This is interesting and insightful as it pertains to foreign affairs and national security.

The New Dirty Attack

Vincent — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:25:32 EDT

I was on CNN.com and found out that there are 28 million DVD's called Obsession that were placed in newspapers only in the swing states. The focus of these DVD's is to drive home an anti-muslim fear and keep terror in the forefront instead of the economy, which is seen as an advantage to the GOP candidate. They are produced by a group called Clarion which have "right wing" ties. It is more than a coincidence that the timing of their distribution is prior to tonight's debate, with 20 days left until the 08 election. The DVD's are racist and incite fear and hatred towards the innocent people of that faith by tying them to the radicals of Islam. It's time to end this divisive reign of the GOP and put Barack and Joe in their proper place - The White House. Let's clean up and fix this mess!

Obama/Biden - The Change We Need - Yes We Can

A Good Morning, Indeed

Vincent — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:40:21 EDT

It appears that even the far right wingers of politics are waking up, including the super conservative Chris Buckley. Here's a portion of the story from CNN.com :

Buckley leaves National Review after Obama endorsementPosted: 06:12 AM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Buckley has resigned his post from the National Review.

(CNN) — Christopher Buckley, the son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, said Tuesday he's resigned from the conservative National Review days after endorsing Barack Obama's White House bid, among the most powerful symbols yet of the conservative discontent expressed this election cycle.

In an online column, Buckley said he had decided to offer his resignation from the magazine his father founded after hundreds of readers and some National Review colleagues expressed outrage he was backing the Illinois senator.

"While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for," Buckley wrote.

"Eight years of 'conservative' government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case," he also wrote.

The resignation comes four days after Buckley formally endorsed Obama on the Web site The Daily Beast, writing the presidential campaign had made John McCain "inauthentic," and Obama appeared to have a "first-class temperament and first-class intellect."

In a statement posted on the publication's Web site Tuesday, National Review editor Rich Lowry noted Buckley was writing for the magazine on a trial basis, and took his offer to resign with the "warmest regards and understanding" sincerely. Lowry also took issue with Buckley's contention the magazine had been flooded with angry mail over Buckley's endorsement, saying it had received a relatively small 100 e-mails expressing disapproval.

"It's an intense election season and emotions are running high," Lowry said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Regulations, Regulations, Regulations

Vincent — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:19:24 EDT

I have the same concerns that Barack have about the new stimulus option announced by Pres. Bush. There has to be strick monitoring and regulations in place that will protect tax payers and provide a chance for us to receive any potential profit. In simple terms, this would be fair, due to the fact that it's our money.

Lobbyists Running McCain's Campaign

Vincent — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:07:28 EDT

It's from the horses mouth, Ed Rollins, who says the McCain campaign is being run by a lobbying team. Read his words as stated on CNN in his commentary. Here's a portion:

Davis and Black, who masterminded Bob Dole's unsuccessful 1996 campaign and Phil Gramm's aborted presidential effort before that, are super lobbyists, and they opened the doors to their K Street allies.

Davis was then replaced -- in reality if not in title -- by Steve Schmidt, part of Karl Rove's operation. Schmidt is a first-rate tactician but new to McCain's world, and he still shares power with Black and Davis. This campaign would have been a much different operation if Weaver and Murphy had been brought back; but that was never going to happen with Davis and Black.

In the end, it's not relevant who holds what title in the McCain operation, because it is not being run by campaign professionals, but by the Washington lobbying class.

A Glimmer Of Hope

Vincent — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:36:28 EDT

As I checked the polls for this weekend, Barack's lead is on a steady climb while McCain is using a small spoon in an attempt to put the "hate" back in the bottle. CNN reports :

Stocks score bigDow jumps over 450 points as investors bet the worst is over.EMAIL | PRINT | SHARE | RSS

Subscribe to Markets feed://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_markets.rssPaste this link into your favorite RSS desktop readerSee all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close) By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writerOctober 13, 2008: 10:59 AM ET

AMERICA'S MONEY CRISIS

Quick VoteWhen will stock markets hit a bottom?

Within a few days
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or View results Global rally More VideosSpecial Report

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rallied Monday morning as investors welcomed the global response to the credit crisis, including the Treasury's plan to buy equity stakes in banks.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 450 points or 5.5% in the early going, while the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index rose 5.6% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) added 5.7%.

Investors are hoping that the worst may be over for the financial market crisis, and that stocks will start to recover after the major gauges have tumbled to more than 5-year lows.

I would also add that it might be due to the fact that there's a chance that a better manager is on his way to the White House. Let's do it people, YES WE CAN!

A Strenge View

Vincent — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:32:51 EDT

It seems that Palin's perception is a little strange. When Alaska's legislature found that she violated ethics rules, she said that the report showed that she didn't. Wow! Oh, and by the way, McCain is on the flip-flop again in IA saying that the American people don't want to hear candidates screaming at each other, but staying focused on the issues offering solutions. I recall Barack staying on the issues while he was being attacked with dirty lies by McCain/Palin. Erratic indeed is John and Sarah.

Is It Me?

Vincent — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:15:57 EDT

It seems like everytime President Bush makes a statement about the economy to reassure investors, the market drops. Forgive me, I'm just being paranoid in showing my disdain for the current administration and the mirror effect that the McCain/Palin exhibits with its' policies on deregulation. They serioucly think we want 4 more years of that?

The Repubs Disagree With McCain's Mortgage Plan

Vincent — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:51:02 EDT

Here is a portion of an article from CNN inwhich conservatives recognize the problem of the McCain economics:

The pointed backlash from several economic conservatives -- many of whom already distrust McCain's commitment to free-market principles -- couldn't come at a worse time for the Republican presidential nominee less than four weeks before Election Day as he stares at a significant deficit in national and state polls.

But at a time when McCain can't afford to worry about a lack of support from his party's base, several conservatives are openly criticizing the plan as a flagrant reward for reckless behavior among lenders.

In a sharply worded editorial on its Web site Thursday, the editors of The National Review -- an influential bastion of conservative thought -- derided the plan as "creating a level of moral hazard that is unacceptable" and called it a "gift to lenders who abandoned any sense of prudence during the boom years."

Read the entire article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.mortgages/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

A Stranger In The House

Vincent — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:39:15 EDT

It is strange that with Obama leading in all of the national polls, someone in ACORN has presented thousands of phony registration forms. Officials said that the signatures are the same on each one. It appears that there are plants in the Indiana and Navada offices to subvert the legitimate process that the VOTE FOR CHANGE drive has initiated. I SMELL A RAT! I say this at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but, something strange is at work here. Let's keep an eye on this one.

Obama/Biden '08

Indirect Attack Of Lies

Vincent — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:52:23 EDT

The McCain/Palin ticket is now deploying the tactic of encouraging their supporters to smear the Obama/Biden tickets by asking questions that insinuate the lies and tone of hate and divisive attitude. With the potential of inserting the possible ties that McCain may have had with those of questionable histories and character as it pertains to finance, civil and human rights. In the words of my late father, "Don't start none, and there won't be one."

The Verdict Is In

Vincent — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:22:40 EDT

It is true that McCain is offering more of the same when it comes to the Bush economics plan. Top economics and housing experts said that his mortgage plan would benefit the lenders who got us in this mess and the tax payers would take a hit. source:CNN.com.

The same is true for his tax plan. -

Fact Check: Does McCain's tax plan give tax cuts to CEOs?Posted: 06:44 AM ET

The Statement: At a Tuesday, October 7, campaign stop in Indianapolis, Indiana, Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama compared his tax proposal to that of his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain. "You've heard a lot about taxes in this campaign. Well, here's the truth — John McCain and I are both offering tax cuts," Obama said. "The difference is, he wants to give the average Fortune 500 CEO a $700,000 tax cut … ."

Get the facts!

The Facts: The Obama campaign bases the $700,000 claim on a Fortune 500 survey that showed the average CEO of those companies earned a salary of $12.8 million in 2007. What the statement considers a tax cut would be renewing President Bush's current cuts, which are scheduled to expire by January 2011. McCain has said he would push to renew those cuts, while Obama wants to let the cuts run out for the wealthiest Americans and offer new ones to people who make less money.

"The $700,000 in reduced taxes for CEOs comes from McCain's extending of the lower tax rates that those CEOs benefit from that were in place under the Bush tax cuts," The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan, Washington-based tax-research group founded in 1937, wrote in an analysis of Obama's statement.

So, in effect, what Obama calls a tax cut would be keeping taxes for those wealthy CEOs the same as they are now — instead of letting them revert to what they were before Bush's cuts.

Verdict: True, but incomplete.

Here Comes The Attacks

Vincent — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:46:38 EDT

I'm listening to McCain in Bethlehem, PA start his character attacks against Obama. The problem I'm having is the fact that he's continuing the lies about the tax cuts that were proven to be a correct statement by Obama on politifact.com., in fact, a fact check reveals that Obama was truthful with the figures on Iraq slightly off at this present, but McCain has been out right false in his statements and attacks, so much that it's characterised as "pants on fire". He's not mistaking, he's straight - up lying, oops, I mean untruthful.

Hope Defeats Sarcasm

Vincent — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:34:04 EDT

In the aftermath of Barack's masterful performance on last night's debate, inwhich McCain's sarcasm suffered a great casualty at the hands of Obama's bombarding intelligence, CNN reports a 2 to 1 favorable outcome for the "smart one". Here's a portion of the article:

According to the poll, 64 percent had a favorable opinion of Obama after the debate, up four points from before the event. Fifty-one percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCain after the debate unchanged from before its start.

A majority said Obama seemed to be the stronger leader during the debate, 54 percent to 43 percent, and by a more than two to one margin -- 65 percent to 28 percent -- viewers thought Obama was more likable during the debate.

The Mac wasn't able to fool the people twice by changing the focus from the issues to personal attacks. It just won't work.

Obama/Biden 08

A Presidential View

Vincent — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:06:16 EDT

Tonight, Barack Obama was masterful in this town hall style of debate. He maintained the composure of a President and gave McCain enough rope to hang himself by way of hard counter punches that made McCain forsake his "gloves off" approach. We definitely experienced a President in Obama when he clearly laid out a plan for Russia's engagement of Georgia, cross boarder attack with Pakistan, responsible time-table in Iraq, alternative energy, and especially the economy.

McCain was his usual tone deaf self when talking about health care, but Obama was very coherent with his plans and refused to let McCain blame the middle and lower class for the massacre on WallStreet.

The choice is easy---Obama/Biden 08

More Than A Game

Vincent — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:02:58 EDT

It is evident that the problems average Americans are facing is nothing more than a game to McCain in which he wants to change subjects and play with fear and smear, creating a divisive climate that produces failure. Barack Obama wants to bring us together and present solutions by focusing on the issues with an awareness that together we stand and divided we fall. That's true patriotism. Now is the time for us to press forward towards the mark of the change we need and not be stalled in the past of wheel spinning.

Obama.Biden 08

The Sub-Text

Vincent — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:06:09 EDT

When Palin told a crowd in her speech that Barack Obama was "palling around" with terrorists and did not see America "She and her supporters" did. she was clearly making a racial reference in an attempt to conjure the 9/11/2001 fear and contempt of hatred towards those of darker skin and exotic names. This, no doubt, was done with the go- ahead of McCain because they do not have any coherent solution to the economic crisis we are facing. Why in the world do they think America will stomach this vile and putrid tactic of desperation? I am convinced now, more than ever, that we will unite and fight this smear campaign, black, white, rich, poor, male, female, left and right. The mess being spouted by the McCain/Palin camp is not change, but a diversion from the real, everyday American issues. Obama/Biden is the change we need.

Let's Not Ease-Up Now

Vincent — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:12:00 EDT

Although the polls are favoring the Obama-Biden ticket, we need to keep driving home the message of change and reminding America that McCain-Palin is more of the same. We.re in the 3rd quater and must keep scoring by voter registration drives, phone calls, and door to door outreach with detailed agendas and policies from the Obama-Biden ticket.

Obama's Lead: Growing, Growing. . . By David Knowles
Oct 3rd 2008 2:09PM

Filed Under:eBarack Obama, John McCain, Breaking News, Joe Biden, Polls, Sarah Palin

This race is a long way from over, but even Charles Krauthammer seems to see the writing on the wall:

You can't blame McCain. In an election in which all the fudamentals are working for the opposition, he feels he has to keep throwing long in order to keep hope alive. Nonetheless, his frenetic improvisation has perversely (for him) framed the rookie challenger favorably as calm, stead and cool...

...he's [Obama has] got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president.

Snap polls show independent voters prefered Obama over McCain, and Biden over Palin. McCain has now ceded Michigan, much to Palin's dismay (amazing what you learn when you read the newspaper).

Here's what the latest national polls say:

Gallup:

Obama 49%
McCain 42%

Rasmussen:

Obama 51%
McCain 44%

Hotline/Diageo:

Obama 48%
McCain 42%

Reasearch 2000:

Obama 51%
McCain 40%

As far as trend-lines go, here's Pollster.com's handy chart.

The McCain campaign now says that it will focus on three states to attain victory: Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. According to the RCP polling average, McCain currently leads in Minnesota by 1.7%. He trails in Wisconsin by 5.0%, and is back 7.9% in Pennsylvania. I know, I know, they're only polls.

It ain't over till it's over, so we'll have no complacency or resignation until after all is said and done.

The Winner Is...

Vincent — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:24:03 EDT

The one who answered the questions that were asked with a precise, coherent, to the point oration that can be verified by the facts, Sen. Joe Biden. Also, I was particularly proud of the way Joe maintained his cool and composure, resisting the urge to correct the "folksy" mistake of Gov. Palin in thinking and saying "Gen. McMullen" is the Afghan commander, which 1. demotes the " admiral" who's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and 2. He's not the commander in Afghanistan. That took some strength. The polls show this to be in agreement, with the only thing that Sen. Biden fell behind in was the "like" factor, but hey, I like pizza and yet, I don't want it to lead me.

Great job Joe. I'm proud of 'ya.

Can You Believe?

Vincent — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:44:08 EDT

With the Dow Industrials Average closing below 350, McCain's response to his point dropage is this:

McCain: Obama leads 'because life isn't fair'Sen. John McCain said that Sen. Barack Obama's poll numbers are rising as the economy seems to sink "because life isn't fair."McCain doesn't get it. It's time for us to get the change we need.

McCain Should Get Use To This

Vincent — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:34:16 EDT

When McCain pulled the Palin stunt after the DNC, Michigan was considered up for grabs, infact, he was a few points ahead. McCain overlooked the fact that his Bush policies created hardships in the state. Now, he has acknowledged the fact that he won't win that state and pulls his campaign.

October 2, 2008McCain cedes ground in MichiganPosted: 03:32 PM ET
From CNN Correspondent Dana Bash

John McCain and Sarah Palin held a joint campaign event in Michigan last month. (Getty Images)

(CNN) — A senior McCain adviser confirms to CNN that the campaign is "shifting resources" from Michigan to Ohio and Pennsylvania, and "opening up an offensive front” in Maine.

Michigan was always a long shot for John McCain, who lost the state to native son Mitt Romney in the Republican primary. A Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won there in two decades, since George H.W. Bush’s 1988 victory. But McCain had a surprisingly close showing in some polls, and made a significant time investment campaigning in the state this year.

The most recent CNN poll of polls in Michigan shows Obama with an 8 point lead in the state. (View more state polls)

Macomb County – home of the original Reagan Democrats — was one of the first stops for McCain and running mate Sarah Palin on their post-convention tour of battleground states; they held a town hall in Grand Rapids two weeks ago. (McCain lost Macomb County to Romney by more than 20 points)

Local republican officials told CNN they were thrilled to have Palin on the ticket, saying her accent and love for guns made her someone independents and Democrats uncomfortable with Obama could relate to.

But nowhere does the economy loom larger as an issue than in this hard-hit industrial state, suffering from a decade-long slump. The Obama campaign has tried to capitalize on the Democratic nominee’s polling advantage on the issue, running ads in the state that accuse McCain of not doing more to protect Michigan jobs. (Related: Obama stumps in Michigan Thursday)

As the campaign pulls resources from Michigan, it is ramping up its efforts in Maine, where Republican Senator Susan Collins is beating national trends in her re-election bid, holding a healthy double-digit lead, along with with a strong organization in the state.

A second McCain aide says that their polling shows that “Michigan isn’t even a long shot” — but the campaign is hoping to capture at least one of Maine’s 4 electoral votes, which are designated by congressional district. This year, "every electoral vote will count," says the aide.

My Morning Coffee

Vincent — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:54:05 EDT

When I went to bed last night I was a little concerned about the economy especially as it pertains to my children and grandchildren; I guess this is typical. Well, as I began to sip on my mornijg coffee, I opened and began to read an E-Mail from Micheal Moore and I must say that it gave me some strange comfort yet, it made sense even to the extent of being funny. Here's a portion of it:

Friends,

The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not his, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt. Why on earth would we even think of giving these robber barons any more of our money?

I would like to propose my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, are predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: There... is... no... free... lunch. And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there will be no handouts from us to you. The Senate, tonight, is going to try to rush their version of a "bailout" bill to a vote. They must be stopped. We did it on Monday with the House, and we can do it again today with the Senate.

Although this was sent yesterday, I must say it should get some serious thought.

Pure Humor

Vincent — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:00:22 EDT

This is guaranteed to make you laugh.

Depends On What the Meaning of 'Split' IsBy Christopher Weber
Sep 30th 2008 7:29PM

Filed Under:eBarack Obama, John McCain, 2008 President, Humor, Media, Viral Video

My laugh of the day comes courtesy of Fox News (imagine that). To prove what a "battleground state" Pennsylvania is, the "reporter" asks everyone in a diner to raise their hands if they're voting for McCain. Crickets, some tumbleweed. Then he says raise 'em if you're voting for Obama. Every hand in the place goes up. At which point the Fox stooge turns to the camera and with a straight face says, "See, it's split." You can hear the patrons in the background scoffing at him.

Obama Is Definitely A Leader

Vincent — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:29:15 EDT

Will McCain ever come up with an innovative, coherent idea or solution to America's turmoils? I ask this because if you take a look at the Presidential race, you'll see Obama comes up with the needed theme of "CHANGE" and then McCain suddenly starts talking about change. Now we fast-forward to Sept. 30, 2008 and Obama suggests that...well, here's what the WallStreet journal says:

...The Obama campaign raised the issue first Tuesday with an emailed statement that called for including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal in the bank rescue bill.

About four hours later, the McCain campaign released its statement, saying Sen. McCain had discussed the issue with President George W. Bush

Do you see an underlined theme or pattern here?

The Untold Story

Vincent — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:34:46 EDT

I received this in my E-Mail and it made me ask this question: Why is this story buried? This is just another testament to McCain's decision making phylosophy.

AUTOTEXTLIST s "E-mail Signature" We are Planning with Purpose, Preparing with Prayer,

Proceeding Positively in Persistent Pursuit of Our Goal!!

All we can think is PINK.

Joyce Sanders

Mary Kay Sales Director

410-466-7600

410-466-4841-fax

CHECK OUT MY WEB SITE

FOR ALL OF YOUR MARY KAY NEEDS

www.marykay.com/jsanders2

-----Original Message-----
From: Inez Armbrister [mailto:inezpa@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 12:05 AM
To: 'Joyce Sanders'
Subject: FW: Alaska Women Reject Palin

Making Your Travel Dreams A Reality,

Inez P. Armbrister
Independent Travel Agent
Global Travel International

Pin# 660-9182

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ASK ME HOW TO EARN A "FREE" CRUISE.

From: lillian revels [mailto:lrevels@si.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 11:34 AM
To: Atherline Smith; seartis201@optonline.net; Linda J. Miller; Virginia L. Mason; Glenda White; Bettie Bellamy; Bertha Lee; Darby, Helen P.; d d; Cameron J. Revels; Myrtle Jones; Eddie S. Jones; Abner West
Subject: Fw: Alaska Women Reject Palin

----- Original Message -----

From: sashu@aol.com

To: drew4395@aol.com ; granita95@yahoo.com ; carkinone@aol.com ; lam303@nyu.edu ; Masullo@exchange.tc.columbia.edu ; wleo@aol.com ; scullin@gmail.com ; MerleLB@aol.com ; Theraruth@aol.com

Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 6:28 PM

Subject: Fwd: Alaska Women Reject Palin

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Iamundo <amyi227@yahoo.com>
To: Caroline Caldwell <carolinecaldwell@nyc.rr.com>; Susan Scullin <sashu@aol.com>; Jo-Anne Elikan <jelikan@med.cornell.edu>; June Iamundo <iamundoj@pearlriver.org>; Vanessa Go <vgo@unis.org>; melwynrodrigues@hotmail.com; Maria Accetta <mariaaccetta@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 2:31 pm
Subject: Alaska Women Reject Palin

Subject: Pics of Biggest Rally in AK history... anti-Palin

Pssst...pass it on!

[The] Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was to be held outside on the lawn in front of the Loussac Library in midtown Anchorage. Home made signs were encouraged, and the idea was to make a statement that Sarah Palin does not speak for all Alaska women, or men. I had no idea what to expect.

The rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. It made me wonder what other things have started with small groups of women talking over coffee. It's probably an impressive list. These women hatched the plan, printed up flyers, posted them around town, and sent notices to local media outlets. One of those media outlets was KBYR radio, home of Eddie Burke, a long-time uber-conservative Anchorage talk show host. Turns out that Eddie Burke not only announced the rally, but called the people who planned to attend the rally "a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots," and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought. The women, of course, received some nasty, harassing and threatening messages.

I felt a bit apprehensive. I'd been disappointed before by the turnout at other rallies. Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it's a success. So, I thought to myself, if we can actually get 100 people there that aren't sent by Eddie Burke, we'll be doing good. A real statement will have been made. I confess, I still had a mental image of 15 demonstrators surrounded by hundreds of menacing "socialist baby-killing maggot" haters.

It's a good thing I wasn't tailgating when I saw the crowd in front of the library or I would have ended up in somebody's trunk. When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here.

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up. He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn't be heard. Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you've been doing the math Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin's rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery. Feel free to spread the pictures around to anyone who needs to know that Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans. The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.

A bunch of pictures of that rally:

.
.
.

Find phone numbers fast with the New AOL Yellow Pages!

The No Bailouts Act

Vincent — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:05:32 EDT

Initially, this seems like a better proposal than the first bailout plan, but, not having seen the language or actual provisions, I'm cocerned about the " golden parachutes" and the severance packages offered. This is what I pulled off CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A small group of Democratic House members put together an alternative to the $700 billion financial bailout measure that was defeated in the House on Monday.

Rep. Peter DeFazio stands before a group of Democrats who offered an alternative financial rescue plan.

1 of 2

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, said they tentatively are calling their options the "no bailouts act," which would eliminate or reduce the risks to taxpayers in bailing out financial institutions holding bad mortgage assets.

The group introduced its bill after the House on Monday rejected a $700 billion bill that would have authorized Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other assets that have been clogging credit markets worldwide.

DeFazio said he voted against Monday's bill because taxpayer protection measures were "nonexistent."

"I have very little confidence in Mr. Paulson," DeFazio said at a news conference with several other House members, who want Wall Street, not taxpayers, to bear the burden of the bailout.

DeFazio said the crisis can be resolved with market discipline and regulatory functions, which would open up lending opportunities for banks and other institutions.

After the House defeated the administration-backed bailout package 228-205, the stock market dove 778 points, which represented more than a trillion dollars in losses. See more about the bailout plan »

Administration officials, as well as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the bipartisan congressional leadership, have warned that a financial rescue package must pass quickly to head off a credit crisis that could undermine the nation's economy.

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Buffett: Bail out economy or face 'meltdown'
Senate passes $600 billion spending bill

But members of the Democratic group offering the alternative measure said they were pressured to act too quickly.

"The whole bill has been fueled by fear, and hinged on haste," Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas said at a news conference Tuesday.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, added, "I think every single member of Congress understands the urgency of this matter and we all want to resolve it, but ladies and gents, let me be clear: Just because we have an urgent situation doesn't mean we don't have to be deliberative."

The group offered its alternative act after Senate leaders pleaded for an end to the finger-pointing that erupted after the collapse of the financial rescue plan Monday.

House Democrats and Republicans immediately blamed each other for the bill's defeat.

Republicans accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being overly partisan before the vote, but Democrats said the Republican leadership failed to deliver the votes they promised, as Republican members voted by a ratio of more than 2 to 1 against the bailout.

And in fact several House Republicans, including Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, later admitted that the GOP members voted against the bill because they opposed it.

We are not babies, sucking our thumbs," Bachmann said.

But on Tuesday, both the top Democrat and the top Republican in the Senate said they were confident they could pass a rescue plan with bipartisan support despite the partisan bickering on the other side of the Capitol. Watch a debate on whether the bailout is a good idea »

"The blame game needs to end, and we need to move forward on doing what's right for our country," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said on the Senate floor.

"I am hopeful and I am confident that all sides -- House and Senate, White House -- will work together to achieve a goal that will be good for the American people," Reid said.

The Senate plans to vote on the $700 billion bank rescue plan Wednesday evening.

The bill adds provisions -- include raising the FDIC insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 -- and will be attached to an existing revenue bill, according to several Democratic leadership aides.

The vote is scheduled for after sundown, in observance of the Jewish holiday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said earlier that he thought Congress would pass a financial rescue package this week.

"This is not the time to fix the blame. This is the time to fix the problem. ... We will reassure the American people that Congress can rise to the occasion, act like grown-ups, if you will, and get the job done for all of our people," the Kentucky senator said.

On Tuesday, Reid and Pelosi sent a letter to President Bush reiterating their support for a bipartisan bailout plan.

The Democratic leaders said that the defeat of the bailout "resulted in additional severe economic impacts both on Wall Street and on Main Street" and that they were "committed to working with you and our Republican colleagues to enact a bipartisan bill without further delay."

The New Flip-Flop

Vincent — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:42:23 EDT

Yesterday, McCain blamed Obama and the Democrats, today, he says it's because the package wasn't explained well enough to the public. Here, take a look:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House's failure to pass a $700 billion bailout package Monday not only held back billions for Wall Street, but also was a major blow to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

Sen. John McCain says he is ready to work to get a financial rescue plan through Congress.

The Republican presidential nominee raised the stakes for himself last week when he suspended his campaign and returned to Washington for negotiations over a solution to the financial crisis.

"Even before the House vote, voters blamed Republicans more than Democrats for the crisis. Then McCain suspended his campaign to come back to Washington to rally support for a rescue plan," said Bill Schneider, a CNN political analyst. "He failed, so he gets blamed by both supporters and opponents of the rescue plan."

During a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, McCain appeared to distance himself from Monday's House vote, saying the congressional inaction had "every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk."

"Yesterday, the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed," he said.

But over the weekend, McCain had involved himself in the efforts to get the bailout package to the president's desk. iReport: Do you support the bailout?

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the top Republican in the House, said that McCain was actively involved in lobbying Republican House members Sunday to line up behind the bailout.

"He has been making calls to members in support of this bill ... and I'm grateful for his support," Boehner said.

Don't Miss

iReport.com: Do you support the bailout?
CNN/Money: Stocks jump on open
McCain, Obama react to bailout's failure
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But it was a majority of McCain's own Republicans in the House who voted against the bailout by a 2-1 ratio Monday afternoon, leaving the outcome of the bailout in doubt and sending the stock market diving 778 points. Despite McCain's lobbying efforts, 133 House Republicans voted against the bill. Watch the candidates' reaction to the bailout's failure »

After the vote, McCain was defensive, accusing his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, of just wanting to "phone it in" when it came to the bailout and introducing partisanship into the process.

"Senator Obama and his allies in Congress infused unnecessary partisanship into the process. Now is not the time to fix the blame. It's time to fix the problem," the Arizona Republican said after the vote. Watch politicians point fingers after the vote »

But on Tuesday morning, McCain said the bill failed "because we haven't convinced people that this is a rescue effort, not just for Wall Street, but for Main Street America, for working families, for small businesses, for the heartland of America.

"I may fail a first or second or third time, but we have to get this job done for America. And I have a plan to restore our economy," McCain added. Watch McCain say he has a plan »

Before the House vote, McCain was losing ground to Obama because of the increasingly bad economic news. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted September 19-21 found that Obama was leading McCain 51 percent to 46 percent. Earlier, after the Republican convention, the two had been tied in the polls.

And the CNN poll found that Obama leads McCain 49 percent to 43 percent among those surveyed when asked who had showed better judgment in the economic crisis.

Terry Jeffries, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, also said McCain may have hurt himself among conservatives by losing sight of his party's free-market principles.

"I think that John McCain failed to lead," Jeffries said. "He should be right there pushing the principles, and the conservatives in the House are doing that right now."

While Obama and McCain have mostly agreed on the principles of the bailout, Obama has mostly stayed out of negotiations and has used the financial crisis to attack the economic policies of the Bush administration and tie McCain to the unpopular President Bush. Watch Obama call for calm »

"He didn't put himself in that process. He was smart enough to realize he couldn't control the House Republicans or Democrats," said Ed Rollins, another Republican strategist and CNN contributor.

But McCain's allies still said McCain made the right move when he inserted himself into the talks.

"He wanted to come back to Washington and to help with the crisis. And the fact it didn't work out, it's not on his shoulders," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist. "Frankly, it's on the Democrats' shoulders, they're the ones who run Congress."

-777.68 And The Backfire

Vincent — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:26:27 EDT

As I read Micheal Moore's E-Mail this morning, it became evident that the people have spoken and a Failed attempt by McCain to take advantage of our fears backfired on him. McCain made a statement on CNN trying to blame Obama and the Dems ( sounds like a 50's quartet) for the mess we're in, but there was a most encouraging turn-around in the comments made. I noticed that 226 coments were posted and out of all that, 225 stated that Obama is being presidential and McCain is spouting the same old Washington rhetoric that separates and impedes any solution from being achieved. Why are the Reps pushing the Dems to sign a bill inwhich they have no confidence, yet, their President wants, whom they've been supporting for eight years?

A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY

Vincent — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:38:06 EDT

Something doesn't smell right with the bailout bill. For instance, the "golden parachute" contracts prior to this mess remain in effect for bank execs and a severance package of up to $500k. The GOP says it's concerned about the tax payers footing the bill, but they're the ones who blocked the first one that would eliminate the golden parachutes and high severance pay. I think they were refering to the wealthy tax payers. You decide.

Financial rescue 101: What's in the billThe highlights of the most sweeping government rescue since the Great Depression include taxpayer protections, two oversight boards and curbs on executive pay. feed://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_news_economy.rss Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop readerSee all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close) By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writerSeptember 29, 2008: 10:40 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In the span of just 11 days, the Bush administration and lawmakers, seeing ominous warnings in the credit markets, rushed to create legislation to prevent a potential economic meltdown.

The result: A $700 billion bailout package that aims to get financial institutions lending again by letting the U.S. Treasury buy up their troubled assets, most of which are tied to the housing market crash.

After much contentious debate and the addition of several taxpayer protections to the bill, the House is scheduled to vote on the legislation Monday and the Senate will follow, likely on Wednesday.

Here's a quick breakdown of some of the bill's key provisions:

Doling the money out: The $700 billion would be disbursed in stages, with $250 billion made available immediately for the Treasury's use. Authority to use the money would expire on Dec. 31, 2009, unless Congress certifies a one-year extension.

Protecting taxpayers: The ultimate cost to the taxpayer is not expected to be near the amount the Treasury invests in the program. That's because the government would buy assets that have underlying value.

If the Treasury pays fair market value - which investors have had a hard time determining - taxpayers stand a chance to break even or even make a profit if those assets throw off income or appreciate in value by the time the government sells them. If it overpays for the assets, the government could be left with a net loss but would get something back on the open market for the assets when it eventually sells them.

If it ends up with a net loss, however, the bill says the president must propose legislation to recoup money from the financial industry if the rescue plan results in net losses to taxpayers five years after the plan is enacted.

In addition, Treasury would be allowed to take ownership stakes in participating companies.

Stemming foreclosures: The bill calls for the government, as an owner of a large number of mortgage securities, to exert influence on loan servicers to modify more troubled loans.

In cases where the government buys troubled mortgage loans directly from banks, it can adjust them more easily.

Limiting executive pay: Curbs would be placed on the compensation of executives at companies that sell mortgage assets to the Treasury. Among them, companies that participate will not be able to deduct the salary they pay to executives above $500,000.

They also will not be allowed to write new contracts that allow for "golden parachutes" for their top 5 executives if they are fired or the company goes belly up. But the executives' current contracts, which may include golden parachutes, would still stand.

Overseeing the program: The bill would establish two oversight boards.

The Financial Stability Oversight Board would be charged with ensuring the policies implemented protect taxpayers and are in the economic interests of the United States. It will include the Federal Reserve chairman, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, the Federal Home Finance Agency director, the Housing and Urban Development secretary and the Treasury secretary.

A congressional oversight panel would be charged with reviewing the state of financial markets, the regulatory system and the Treasury's use of its authority under the rescue plan. Sitting on the panel would be 5 outside experts appointed by House and Senate leaders.

Insuring against losses: Treasury must establish an insurance program - with risk-based premiums paid by the industry - to guarantee companies' troubled assets, including mortgage-backed securities, purchased before March 14, 2008.

The amount the Treasury would spend to cover losses minus company-paid premiums would come out of the $700 billion the Treasury is allowed to use for the rescue plan.

Just The Facts

Vincent — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:07:55 EDT

I enjoyed the debate last night, but, there was one thing that troubled me. It was John McCains' inability to look at Sen. Barack Obama. Then, I went on CNN.com to their fact checking page and found an article that might explain why. I've learned that when people distort the truth in a misleading manner, they can't look you in the eye. This is what I found on CNN:

McCain in the debate asserted that "Mullen suggests" Sen. Obama's "plan is dangerous for America."Obama, on his Web site, calls for the phased removal of combat troops from Iraq over a 16-month period to the summer of 2010. He said on his site that once combat troops are withdrawn, a "residual force" should stay in Iraq and the region "to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel."Obama disagreed with McCain's remark about Mullen, saying what Mullen said was "a precipitous withdrawal would be dangerous." Mullen had been quoted in a March 3 article in American Forces Press Service that a " 'precipitous' withdrawal from Iraq would leave the country in chaos."Verdict: Misleading. Mullen reacted to a question about a hypothetical military move in Iraq — a troop withdrawal timeline. He did not say such a move would imperil the United States and gave no indication that he was talking about Obama's position. At a presidential debate Friday, September 26, in Oxford, Mississippi, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama attempted to tie Republican opponent Sen. John McCain to President Bush. "John, it's been your president, who you said you agreed with 90 percent of the time, who presided over this increase in spending," he said.According to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly, McCain has voted for bills favored by President Bush 90 percent of the time. The nonpartisan publication, which has analyzed voting by members of Congress since 1953, said the report took into account all legislation that Bush had taken a clear position on. It spans from the beginning of Bush's term to Congress's recess in August.Verdict: True

It is more evident now than ever that Barack Obama is a man of integrity and intelligence.

A SHAME BUT NOT A SURPRISE

Vincent — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:45:37 EDT

It seems that the GOP is at its' "my wat or the highway" mentality again but this time it's directed at the Gospel arena. One could conclude that there is true hypocrisy with the right wing Christian conservatives as it relates to reaching acros the isle and being all - inclusive. This is what I received in my E-Mail today:

HeadlinesHome >> News >> Headlines >> 1557 Richard Smallwood Barred from White House’s Black Music Month Written by Christopher J. Anderson Gospel legend and six time Grammy nominee Richard Smallwood, a pillar within the Gospel community for such anthems as “Total Praise” and “Center of My Joy”, was recently barred from the Bush Administration’s Black Music Month Celebration. Speaking from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Smallwood was an invited performer, the artist bestows with candor both his disdain for the Bush Administration and the incident which left him without a spot on what has become a celebrated event amongst the music elite and the White House. Smallwood indicates that he received an invite from the White House in June to perform at their Black Music Month Celebration. “The White House called initially and said they were getting ready to celebrate Gospel Music in the month of September and would I be available to come and minister. I graciously said yes,” he recalls. Smallwood states he has been invited before however has turned the Administration down for what he calls the atrocities of the Administration on the lives of African Americans, especially the middle and lower class. Smallwood further states that not long after, his assistant Kelvin Leach received a call from the White house stating that because he had ministered at the retirement celebration of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright in March of this year, the White House thought it best that he not participate in the Black Music Month Celebration and the invitation was withdrawn. Smallwood says that the fact that he was black listed hurts and goes on to say, “So many of us are tired of politics as usual. The crisis that our country is in is because of this [George W. Bush] Administration. The hypocrisy, the untruths have put a blotch on the very principals this country was founded upon.” Asked if he would accept a Bush Administration invite if they were to have a change of heart, the mild mannered artist proclaims, “no way”.

The Game

Vincent — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:37:15 EDT

At 11:31 this morning, I rceived a text message that said Sen. John McCain will attend the debate scheduled for tonight at Ole Miss. As I ponder this, the question comes up; What is he up too? Did McCain think that Obama would let down his guard and not prep himself sufficiently? Was the GOP trying to aid McCain in eluding the public forum in exposing his faulty positions on every issue, by preventing an agreement that would protect the tax payers from paying for golden parachutes? Could it be that McCain finally heard the outcries of dissatisfaction from voters as indicated in recent polls and voiced on many national programs in every form of media? Maybe it's just his flip-flop nature, which is a glimpse of his future plans in governing. Either way, it took him a few days to reakize that a person seeking the most powerful position in the world should be able to perform more than one task at a time and decisions are to be quick, well thought, decisive, and accurate in an emergency and that alone is just one reason why Barack Obama is the most qualified to lead us to the change we need.

Plain And Simple

Vincent — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:10:03 EDT

The President of The United States must be able to multi-task. It is common for him to do many things at one time, that's governing the country and if it's too taxing for McCain to vote in D.C., prepare himself while on his plane to Mjssjssjppj, go to the debates, and continue his campagne while using the latest invention called the phone, he's not ready to lead the greatest country in the world, U.S.A.

The question is, what is he afraid of or what is he trying to pull? Does he think this will make him appear more patriotic or responsible or capable? For me, it shows just how limited his leadership abilities are and that will not advance America in the 21st century. There is not a pause button for emergencies that arise in such an awesome position. With McCain, we'll have nothing more than a deer caught in the headlights.

With Barack Obama, we'll have a strong economy, a healthy health care system, an ethical judicial system, a level playing field of equal opportunity, and an honest administration that all Americans will be proud of in actions and conversations.

McCain Is Not Quite Prepared

Vincent — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:26:17 EDT

Well, I've just received a text message from a breaking news source that states John McCain wants to postpone Friday's debate so he can focus on the financial crisis. It seems McCain has just realized there is a crisis in the financial sector that needs his focus or he is changing his mind about the fundamentals of the American economy. I believe that the 9 point lead Sen. Obama gained to date has forced Sen. McCain to recognize he's not ready to clean up the "lipstick" chosen for the policies he wants to present to the American public. The truth can NOT be disguised anymore.

Here's The Comic Relief

Vincent — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:31:31 EDT

As I checked the USA polls today, I found encouraging and eye - opening comedy from none other, Sen. John McCain. Take a look at this and enjoy how the McCain party has made a joke out of themselves as it relates not only to the economy, but every issue on the American agenda.

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/articles/marist-college-says-economic-crisis-helping-barack-obama-092008001.html

Paulson To The Rescue?

Vincent — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:33:05 EDT

Forgive me if I appear too cynical, but this is the same person that said Pres. Bush's policy was good for the economy when Wall Street closed at -440. Here's the headline from CNN:

Rescue cost: Hundreds of billionsWashington unveils sweeping efforts to save financial system. Bottom line will depend on what Uncle Sam pays for toxic assets.
Paulson power More Videos Short-selling ban benefits NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday didn't mince words when it came to the cost of his latest proposal to stem the credit crisis.

"We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."

Paulson, speaking at a brief press conference in Washington, offered few details on his plan to help banks offload their toxic mortgage assets. Treasury is drafting a legislative proposal for lawmakers to consider this weekend.

The speculation is that the Treasury will help banks clear their balance sheets of illiquid mortgage assets by buying them at a discount.

One way the plan could work is for the Treasury to make the purchases through a bidding process. Companies that want to offload their hard-to-sell assets from their balance sheets would bid to sell to the government at a huge discount. The company willing to sell at the lowest price wins.

The government would then be able to sell the assets back into the market when it wanted.

The idea is that the government would buy at below-market rates and sell for a gain when the housing market recovers.

"The government could make a profit, a substantial profit," said Jaret Seiberg, a financial services analyst at the Stanford Group, a policy research firm.

This optimistic scenario hinges not only on a housing recovery but on how big a discount the government gets when it buys banks' toxic mortgage assets to begin with.

The problem is that the assets have proven extremely difficult to value as the demand for them has disappeared.

"The pricing mechanism is going to be central," Seiberg said.

On Friday, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, told CNNMoney.com that the latest plan from Treasury could cost up to $500 billion. Awaiting details on the plan from Treasury, Shelby said, "I think this is too big to just accept ... without understanding who pays."

If he's right about the $500 billion, the headline figure on the government's attempts to stem the credit crisis hits $1.3 trillion. That includes all the loans, investments and new programs committed by the Federal Reserve and Treasury this year.

But that doesn't mean that taxpayers would end up paying anything near that amount, because in exchange for its commitments the government will get saleable and income-producing assets.

If these efforts result in a net cost to the taxpayer, it's a better bet than the alternative, Paulson said.

"I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative - a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion," he said.

Chew On This

Vincent — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:33:41 EDT

Today on The News Hour, with the market closing down a;most 450 points, Allen Meltzer of the Carnegie Mellon University said the bailout of AIG was a benefit to the private sector and a liability to the public. He said that the Feds should have allow AIG to be sold because there were bids on the floor and AIG refused them.

Prof. Meltzer said that this happened in 1921, just before the Great Depression.

That's a thought.

More to come...

Clear Cut Confirmation

Vincent — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:51:24 EDT

I just listened to Bob Woodward on Charlie Rose and he has a book out titled The War Within. An interesting statement he made saying when it came down to the Iraq war Pres. Bush was AWOL and did not think we were in a hurry to be victorious. There are other quotes made by the President and those in his administration that proves just how correct Sen. Obama was and is about achieving victory in the Middle East.

Also, there are financial analysis and people like Thomas L. Friedman, who said that we must end this war and move towards alternative energy in order to achieve economic stability. This is of course just a couple of steps toward doing that, but, most of all, it says that Barack Obama was and is right on the issues.

If people connect the dots....well, we will have the change we need.

An Eye Opener

Vincent — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:24:51 EDT

It seems that this administrtion is sticking to its' unwise philosophy of economic policies by saying one thing and doing another. The $85 B bailout of AIG did not boost investor confidence as expected, but, put in control the same people that got us in this mess. Talk about shooting in the dark. This is what I found on CNN.

Stocks slump on AIG, housing. Wall Street retreats as government bailout of insurer adds to bets that distress in the financial markets is far from over.

New YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tumbled Wednesday morning as the government's rescue of AIG and Barclay's purchase of some of bankrupt Lehman Brothers' operations underscored the weakness in financial markets.

Investors also focused on a report that showed construction of new homes fell to the lowest level in 17 years.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 200 points, or 1.8% roughly 30 minutes into the session. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index lost 2% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 1.8%.

Stocks rose Tuesday on bets that the Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates steady means the economic outlook has not deteriorated, despite the recent financial market crisis. Wall Street also benefited from diminishing fears about AIG's solvency amid reports that the government would step in.

Those reports were confirmed late Tuesday night, after the Federal Reserve said it was extending a two-year, $85 billion bridge loan to the troubled insurer in exchange for a stake in AIG that could reach 80%. AIG will have to pay back the loan in full by selling off some of its assets.

AIG was on the verge of collapse as it scrambled to raise cash in the aftermath of the subprime mortgage collapse and subsequent credit crunch. (Full story)

AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) shares plunged 35% Wednesday morning.

Rather than reassure investors, the deal seemed to add to the uncertainty surrounding financial markets, six months after the near-collapse and government rescue of Bear Stearns.

Barclay's and Lehman Brothers: Late Tuesday, Barclay's said it will buy Lehman's North American investment banking and capital markets businesses for $250 million in cash, and Lehman's New York headquarters and two New Jersey data centers for $1.5 billion. (Full story)

Barclay's had walked away from a deal to buy the troubled company outright over the weekend. Bank of America also walked away from a possible deal, and ended up buying Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) in a $50 billion stock deal.

What Do You Think Of This?

Vincent — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:14:41 EDT

Today, we are facing many major problems with our economy from the fallout on Wallstreet. But, what I found most consequential is the remarks made by Sec. of Treasure, Hank Paulson, when he said he supports Pres. Bush's economic policies, playing the hand he was dealt, when bush was in office before he was appointed. Now, with people concerned about being insured with AIG and its' trouble, the Secretary says Pres. Bush has been a great boss, and Sen. McCain said that the American economy IS fundamentally strong. Let's put 2 and 2 together and we come up with a Republican candidate with policies of 4 more years of the same.

We are in desperate need of a change.

A Lecture On Honesty

Vincent — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:15:48 EDT

I am so proud of Sen. Obama's integrity and find it refreshing to support a candidate with real morales. Here is something I found on AOL this morning.

Why McCain Is Going So NegativeBy Jonathan Martin

(Sept. 13) - It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely perch for John McCain to be shamed for his increasingly hard-edged and truth-stretching campaign than the middle seat on “The View.”Yet on Friday morning, there sat the Republican nominee – a politician who has built an all but saintly reputation for “straight talk” over the years – caught in a vise between Joy Behar and Barbara Walters and getting a lecture from each on honesty.“They’re lies,” Behar said of two recent lines of attack from the McCain campaign“By the way, you yourself said the same thing about putting lipstick on a pig,” interjected Walters as a defensive McCain struggled to respond.The two daytime talk show hosts are hardly alone.McCain’s tactics are drawing the scorn of many in the media and organizations tasked with fact-checking the truthfulness of campaigns. In recent weeks, Team McCain has been described as dishonorable, disingenuous and downright cynical.A series of ads – ranging from accusations that Barack Obama backed teaching sex education to Illinois kindergartners to charges that Obama called Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig – have provoked a cascade of criticism of McCain’s tactics.The furor presents a breathtaking contrast to McCain’s image as a kind of anti-politician who plays fair, disdains politics as usual and has never forgotten how his 2000 presidential campaign was incinerated by a series of loathsome dirty tricks in the South Carolina primary.The defense from the candidate himself — heard only on “The View” because he hasn’t held a press conference in over a month — is to essentially claim he’s savaging Obama because the Illinois senator wouldn’t agree to the series of town hall meetings McCain proposed at the end of the Democratic primary season.

Answers Or More Questions?

Vincent — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:00:43 EDT

I watched and listened to the interview Charles Gibson conducted with Gov. Palin and noticed something very important. She answered those soft, tender questions with vague, well rehearsed untargeted phrases that did NOT directly and/or simply answer the question. A few times Charles Gibson said he was confused and wanted clarity of whether that was a "yes or no?".

As it pertains to the statement of "God's will", we have a general backtrack that does not admits nor denies her motive for the statement. She explained Pres. Lincoln's.

Now, when it came to the Bush doctrine, Gov. Palin had no clue it was about preemptive strikes, and would not admit it, which would have gotten my respect.

What alarmed me was Gov. Palin's responce to the question of knowledge of Russian affairs. How many of us can say with a governing absolute that we know the affairs of others around us because we can see them? Would this not require a certain amount of interaction? This is not very reassuring. These were easy questions that deserved a straight answer.

Maybe we will get the answers with part 2 tonight or part 3 on Sunday.

I'm Not Surprised

Vincent — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:16:04 EDT

I found this disturbing article in my e-mail and it may be the reason Gov. Palin won't answer any questions.

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”

September 5, 2008

by Charley James –

“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.

Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”

Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.

But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.

No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one.

Tough Getting People Who Know Her to Talk
It’s not easy getting people in the 49th state to speak critically about Palin – especially people in Wasilla, where she was mayor. For one thing, with every journalist in the world calling, phone lines into Alaska have been mostly jammed since Friday; as often as not, a recording told me that “all circuits are busy” or numbers just wouldn’t ring. I should think a state that’s been made richer than God by oil could afford telephone lines and cell towers for everyone.

On a more practical level, many people in Alaska, and particularly Wasilla, are reluctant to speak or be quoted by name because they’re afraid of her as well as the state Republican Party machine. Apparently, the power elite are as mean as the winters.

“The GOP is kind of like organized crime up here,” an insurance agent in Anchorage who knows the Palin family, explained. “It’s corrupt and arrogant. They’re all rich because they do private sweetheart deals with the oil companies, and they can destroy anyone. And they will, if they have to.”

“Once Palin became mayor,” he continued, “She became part of that inner circle.”

Like most other people interviewed, he didn’t want his name used out of fear of retribution. Maybe it’s the long winter nights where you don’t see the sun for months that makes people feel as if they’re under constant danger from “the authorities.” As I interviewed residents it began sounding as if living in Alaska controlled by the state Republican Party is like living in the old Soviet Union: See nothing that’s happening, say nothing offensive, and the political commissars leave you alone. But speak out and you get disappeared into a gulag north of the Arctic Circle for who-knows-how-long.

Alright, that’s an exaggeration brought on by my getting too little sleep and building too much anger as I worked this article. But there’s ample evidence of Palin’s vindictive willingness to destroy people she sees as opponents. Just ask the Wasilla town administrator she hired before firing him because he rebelled against the way Palin demanded he do his job, or the town librarian who refused to hold the book burning Walpurgisnach Mayor Palin demanded.

Ironically, Palin was pushed into hiring the administrator by the party poobahs who helped get her elected after she got herself into trouble over a number of precipitous firings which gave rise to a recall campaign.

“People who fought her attempt to oust the librarian are on her enemies list to this day,” states Anne Kilkenny, a Wasilla resident and one of the few Alaskans willing to speak on-the-record, for attribution, about Palin. In fact, Kilkenny actually circulated an e-mail letter about Palin that was verified and printed by The Nation.

For good measure, Palin booted the Wasilla police chief from office because, she told a local newspaper, he “intimidated” her.

Running on Extreme Fringe Evangelical Views
Sarah Palin drew early attention from state GOP apparatchiks when, during her first mayoral campaign, she ran on an anti-abortion platform. Normally, political parties do not get involved in Alaskan municipal elections because they are nonpartisan. But once word of her extreme fringe evangelical views made its way to Juneau, the state capitol, state Republicans tossed some money behind her campaign.

Once in office, Palin set out to build a machine that chewed up anyone who got in her way. The good, Godly Christian turns out to be anything but.

“She’s doesn’t like different opinions and she refuses to compromise,” Kilkenny notes. “When she was mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t hers. Worse, ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.”

Sound familiar? Palin may well be Dick Cheney’s reincarnate.

Something else has a familiar Republican ring to it: Her tax policies, and a “refund surpluses but borrow for the future” attitude.

According to Kilkenny and others in Wasilla as well as Juneau, Palin reduced progressive property taxes for businesses while mayor and increased a regressive sales tax which even hits necessities such as food. The tax cuts she promoted in her St. Paul speech actually benefited large corporate property owners far more than they benefited residents. Indeed, Kilkenny insists that many Wasilla home owners actually saw their tax bill skyrocket to make up for the shortfall. Two other Wasillian’s with whom I spoke said property taxes on their modest, three bedroom homes rose during the Palin regime.

To an outsider, it would seem hard to do, but an oil-rich town with zero debt on the day she was inaugurated mayor was left saddled with $22 million of debt by the time she moved away to become governor – especially since nothing was spent on things such as improving the city’s infrastructure or building a much-needed sewage treatment plant. So what did Mayor Palin spend the taxpayer’s money on, if not fixing streets and scrubbing sewage?

For starters, she remodelled her office. Several times over, as a matter of fact.

Then Palin spent $1 million on an unnecessary, new park that no one other than the contractors and Palin seemed to want. Next, Sarah doled out more than $15 million of taxpayer money for a sports complex that she shoved through even though the city did not own clear title to the land; now, seven years later, the matter is still in litigation and lawyer fees are said to be close to at least half of the original estimated price of the facility.

She also worked hard to get voters approval of a $5.5 million bond proposal for roads that could have been built without borrowing. Anchorage may not be the center of the financial universe but, like good Republicans everywhere, Sarah Palin knows how to please Alaskan bankers and bond dealers.

For good measure, she turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots.

Sarah Barracuda
En route to the governor’s igloo, Palin managed to land what Anne Kilkenny says is the plumb political appointment in the state: Chair of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), a $122,400 per year patronage slot with no real authority to do anything other than hold meetings. She took the job despite having no background in energy issues and, as it turned out, not liking the work.

“She hated the job,” an OGCC staff member who is not authorized to speak with the news media told me. “She hated the hours and she hated what little work there was to do. But she couldn’t figure out a way to get out of the thing without offending Gov. Murkowski” and the state Republican Party regulars, some of whom were pissed off they didn’t get appointed.

But ever the opportunist, Palin quickly concocted a way. First, she waged a campaign with the local news media claiming that the position was overpaid and should be abolished – despite the fact that she lobbied Murkowski hard to get it. Then, mounting what she saw as a white horse, Palin raised a cloud of dust by resigning from the OGCC and riding away with an undeserved reputation as a “reformer.”

But when a local reporter dared to suggest that the reformer Empress has no clothes, Palin tried to get her fired.

“She came at me like I was trying to steal her kids,” said the targeted reporter, who now works for an oil company in Anchorage. “I heard she had a wild temper and vicious mean streak but it’s nothing like you can imagine until she turns it on you.”

Not surprising since some of her high school classmates still openly call her “Sarah Barracuda,” Kilkenny insists.

Still, as a Republican Party hack Palin managed to get herself elected running under the false flag of a “reformer.”

And what did she bring to the job? No legislative experience other than a city council of a village of 5,000 people, which is smaller than some high schools in Chicago. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; after all, she needed to hire a city administrator to run Wasilla. No executive experience, except for almost being recalled as mayor. A philosophy of setting public policy based on one word: No.

And what has she done since winning the job?

According to Kilkenny, nothing. Well, nothing other than suggesting the state’s multi-multi-million dollar, oil-generated surplus be distributed to residents and finance future state needs by borrowing money. Gee, doesn’t that sound precisely what George Bush did with the surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton in 2001 and we all know in what great shape Bush’s economic policies left the nation.

It may explain why, when asked by reporters, including me, what she thought about Palin being picked to be McCain’s running mate, her mother-in-law replied with a sardonic, “What has Sarah done to qualify her to be vice president?” Of course, when the woman – said by many I spoke with to be well-respected in Wasilla – was running to succeed Palin as mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her, so that may explain the family tension.

As Governor, Palin gave the legislature no direction and budget guidelines, according to the chair of a legislative committee. But then she staged a huge grandstand play of line-item vetoing countless projects, calling them pork. “They were restored because of public outcry and legislative action,” the aide said. “She vetoed them mostly because she had no idea what they were or why they were important.”

But it was enough to get the McCain, who is mostly unobservant of the world around him anyway, to think Palin has a reputation as being “anti-pork”.

In fact, Juneau observers note that Palin kept her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork ladled out by indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be politically unwise to keep supporting it, these same insiders assert. Then, Palin fell back on her old habits and publicly humiliated him for pork-barrel politics.

As for being “ready on day one” to be commander in chief, despite the repeated public claims she’s made, the Alaska National Guard commander said that, “she has made no command decisions, other than sending some troops to help fight a few brush fires and march in parades at county fairs.”

“Sambo Beat the Bitch”
“Palin is a conniving, manipulative, a**hole,” someone who thinks these are positive traits in a governor told me, summing up Palin’s tenure in Alaska state and local politics.

“She’s a bigot, a racist, and a liar,” is the more blunt assessment of Arnold Gerstheimer who lived in Alaska until two years ago and is now a businessman in Idaho.

“Juneau is a small town; everybody knows everyone else,” he adds. “These stories about what she calls blacks and Eskimos, well, anyone not white and good looking actually, were around long before she became a glint in John McCain’s rheumy eyes. Why do I know they’re true? Because everyone who isn’t aboriginal or Indian in Alaska talks that way.”

“Sambo beat the bitch” may be everyday language up in the bush. Whether it – and the outlook, politics and worldview Palin reflects when she says such things in public – should be part of a presidential campaign is another thing altogether. The comment says as much about McCain as it does about Palin, and it says a lot of things about Americans who overlook such statements (as well as her record) and vote anyway for McCain.

by Charley James

Friends: This article has been inundated with comments. We are no longer accepting comments. Please see the followup article by reporter Charley James, “Me and Sarah Palin.” –Eds.

Charley James is an American journalist, author and essayist who lives in Toronto.

One Foot In The Mouth

Vincent — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:21:49 EDT

America will not stand for foolish rhetoric and insults. It is now evident who the Republicans work for when Gov. Palin hurled insults at community leaders in an attempt to discredit Sen. Obama's experience as a leader. This is what I pulled off of propeller.com:

A post "Community Organizers Demand Apology After Sarah Palin's Attack" from thinkprogress.org contains a number of quotes from community organizations unhappy with the nominee's statement. FTA: "The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we're trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. (Community Organizers of America)" In the Propeller discussion, member miklkit reminds us: "Please remember, Jesus was a Community Organizer and Pontius Pilate was a Governor".

The AP picked up the story and titled it "GOP criticism angers some community organizers". Says John Baumann, executive director of PICO National Network, "If people in office were doing their jobs, perhaps we wouldn't need community organizers".

The website "Stop. Think. Vote." has an article (located here on Propeller) that informs us that Candidate McCain, after Palin's remarks on 9/3, canceled a scheduled appearance at the Twin Cities Habitat For Humanity build site. Coincidence? You Tell Us!

The Nation has an article (located here), "Community Organizers Fight Back", which quotes Jacqueline del Valle, a community organizer in the Bronx, "If Mayor Giuliani and President Bush cared more about working people instead of just people who can hire high-powered lobbyists, maybe I wouldn't have so much responsibility. Maybe working people would have an easier time in America today. But that's not our reality, and they don't have to mock us while we're trying to clean up their mess."

This says it all.

I Heard That Before

Vincent — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:56:13 EDT

Well, I listened Tuesday and heard no plans for the issues we face as a nation, nor any coherent solutions with an agenda, but, plenty of personal attacks on Sen. Obama.

Then I listened to the insults made on "Comedy Central Wednesday", followed by more personal attacks and an absence of a logical platform.

Finally, I heard the rhetoric tonight of a speech that was copied and pasted together from great one-liners and realized that major issues such as health care and the environment are not on the republican agenda. But, when Sen. McCain talked about reaching across the isle, I was reminded of eight years ago when Pres. Bush made the same statement. We see how well that worhed.

I heard it all before.

Hearing The Unspoken

Vincent — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:59:03 EDT

On Tuesday, Pres. Bush gave a speech, in support of Sen. McCain, mentioning Hurricane Gustav, 09/11/01, off-shore drilling, and the troops in Iraq, but, not a word about high gas prices at the pump, the horrible foreclosures of many homes, nor the dismal performance of the stock market which all occured under his administration.

Now, let's step ahead to Wednesday when Gov. Palin gave her speech that be-littled Sen. Obama's work as a community organizer in Chicago, she also evades the issues except for off-shore drilling. Guess who will benefit from that? She also said that she and her running mate would look for other alternative energy sources while drilling, but, Sen. McCain missed a vote that would enable renewable energy projects to move forward and according to Sen. Ben Cardin (D- MD) Sen. McCain has not indicated any support of the bill that would extend investment tax credits needed to install technologies like solar panels or wind turbines.

The unspoken I'm hearing from the Republicans is more of the same of G W's policies.

IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE!

Here's Another Thought

Vincent — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:19:56 EDT

Does this sound familiar?

When it comes to taxing oil companies, Palin's selection might well be a doubled-edged knife for the McCain campaign.

Shortly after becoming governor in 2006, she pushed new oil taxes through the Alaska Legislature, saying the taxes proposed by her predecessor, Frank Murkowski, were too favorable to the oil companies. She was bucking Exxon Mobil, BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, which strongly opposed the legislation.

The new tax brought in an estimated $6 billion in the last budget year, bulging Alaska's treasury with an expected surplus of as much as $9 billion. Thst enabled Palin to push a second initiative - giving each Alaskan $1,200 to help them cope with high energy costs.

Sound familiar?

Obama has proposed taxing the windfall profits of the five biggest oil companies and giving people $1,000 to pay for high energy costs. Palin called such financial help "a tool that must be on the table" although she differs with Obama on where the money's source.

Source - H. Josef Hebert

An Insult On America's Intelligence

Vincent — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:16:19 EDT

As I ponder McCain's choice for VP, it appears his opinion of women is that they are driven by emotions instead of logical thinking. His political views, in my opinion, are as stable as water. Sen. Kerry is correct in saying McCain should finish the debate with himself before attempting to debate Obama. Here is the link from which I draw my conclusion.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/325.html