Had to post message about fantastic event I hosted with Moveon.org and THCC last evening at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, TN, I have recently returned to work with OFA from a family emergency, I asked for a task with leadership, an opportunity to be visual and mingle with our supporters. I was given the mission of the Health Care Reform Vigil " Let's Stand Together" to be coordinated with my cosponsors.
I was fortunate to work with these groups as their experience and knowledge not only supported me in this effort but helped me grow as a volunteeer. We had an awesome turnout especially in Red Chattanooga, TN. We are usually lucky if we have 15-20 at our events.
I came up with the angle of using my students as host and hosteses per a lesson on citizenship I had recently taught, and my partners came up with using that as a media angle. The hook worked, we had tv coverage, not for just a few minutes but for 45 min of our hour vigil. We also had 2 people from the press, I and my cosponsors were interviewed by them and they interviewed and photographed my middle school students. I can't wait to see the Chattanooga Times Free Press today because I hope there is a photo my students We were on Channel 3 11pm news last night.
Oh, did I mention we had a crowd of 75+ people, many who stayed afterwards to chat with me and the other sponsors and registered to volunteer. As soon as I got home there was a wonderful email from a 16 year old who attended the event, he thankied me for hosting and told me how much he enjoyed. What a wonderful feedback for our event! I saw several people taking photos and of course the press will have some. Hopefully I can get those uploaded on this site. But Health Care Reform supporters in Tennessee, listen up , Chattanooga, Tennessee made their voices heard last night!!!!!
Linda Edwards Russell
The New York Times editorial board has endorsed SenatorBarack Obama as the 44th president of the United States,stating: "We believe he has the will and the ability to forgethe broad political consensus that is essential to findingsolutions to this nation's problems."
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na October 24, 2008EditorialBarack Obama for President Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation's future truly hangs in the balance.The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush's failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane's floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.•Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation's problems.In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain's campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound. Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans' bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government's role and responsibilities. In his convention speech in Denver, Mr. Obama said, "Government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology."Since the financial crisis, he has correctly identified the abject failure of government regulation that has brought the markets to the brink of collapse.The EconomyThe American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" — is still a believer. Mr. Obama sees that far-reaching reforms will be needed to protect Americans and American business.Mr. McCain talks about reform a lot, but his vision is pinched. His answer to any economic question is to eliminate pork-barrel spending — about $18 billion in a $3 trillion budget — cut taxes and wait for unfettered markets to solve the problem. Mr. Obama is clear that the nation's tax structure must be changed to make it fairer. That means the well-off Americans who have benefited disproportionately from Mr. Bush's tax cuts will have to pay some more. Working Americans, who have seen their standard of living fall and their children's options narrow, will benefit. Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation, restore a climate in which workers are able to organize unions if they wish and expand educational opportunities.Mr. McCain, who once opposed President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy as fiscally irresponsible, now wants to make them permanent. And while he talks about keeping taxes low for everyone, his proposed cuts would overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent of Americans while digging the country into a deeper fiscal hole.National SecurityThe American military — its people and equipment — is dangerously overstretched. Mr. Bush has neglected the necessary war in Afghanistan, which now threatens to spiral into defeat. The unnecessary and staggeringly costly war in Iraq must be ended as quickly and responsibly as possible.While Iraq's leaders insist on a swift drawdown of American troops and a deadline for the end of the occupation, Mr. McCain is still taking about some ill-defined "victory." As a result, he has offered no real plan for extracting American troops and limiting any further damage to Iraq and its neighbors. Mr. Obama was an early and thoughtful opponent of the war in Iraq, and he has presented a military and diplomatic plan for withdrawing American forces. Mr. Obama also has correctly warned that until the Pentagon starts pulling troops out of Iraq, there will not be enough troops to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, has only belatedly focused on Afghanistan's dangerous unraveling and the threat that neighboring Pakistan may quickly follow.Mr. Obama would have a learning curve on foreign affairs, but he has already showed sounder judgment than his opponent on these critical issues. His choice of Senator Joseph Biden — who has deep foreign-policy expertise — as his running mate is another sign of that sound judgment. Mr. McCain's long interest in foreign policy and the many dangers this country now faces make his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska more irresponsible.Both presidential candidates talk about strengthening alliances in Europe and Asia, including NATO, and strongly support Israel. Both candidates talk about repairing America's image in the world. But it seems clear to us that Mr. Obama is far more likely to do that — and not just because the first black president would present a new American face to the world.Mr. Obama wants to reform the United Nations, while Mr. McCain wants to create a new entity, the League of Democracies — a move that would incite even fiercer anti-American furies around the world. Unfortunately, Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, sees the world as divided into friends (like Georgia) and adversaries (like Russia). He proposed kicking Russia out of the Group of 8 industrialized nations even before the invasion of Georgia. We have no sympathy for Moscow's bullying, but we also have no desire to replay the cold war. The United States must find a way to constrain the Russians' worst impulses, while preserving the ability to work with them on arms control and other vital initiatives.Both candidates talk tough on terrorism, and neither has ruled out military action to end Iran's nuclear weapons program. But Mr. Obama has called for a serious effort to try to wean Tehran from its nuclear ambitions with more credible diplomatic overtures and tougher sanctions. Mr. McCain's willingness to joke about bombing Iran was frightening. The Constitution and the Rule of LawUnder Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the justice system and the separation of powers have come under relentless attack. Mr. Bush chose to exploit the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, the moment in which he looked like the president of a unified nation, to try to place himself above the law. Mr. Bush has arrogated the power to imprison men without charges and browbeat Congress into granting an unfettered authority to spy on Americans. He has created untold numbers of "black" programs, including secret prisons and outsourced torture. The president has issued hundreds, if not thousands, of secret orders. We fear it will take years of forensic research to discover how many basic rights have been violated.Both candidates have renounced torture and are committed to closing the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.But Mr. Obama has gone beyond that, promising to identify and correct Mr. Bush's attacks on the democratic system. Mr. McCain has been silent on the subject.Mr. McCain improved protections for detainees. But then he helped the White House push through the appalling Military Commissions Act of 2006, which denied detainees the right to a hearing in a real court and put Washington in conflict with the Geneva Conventions, greatly increasing the risk to American troops. The next president will have the chance to appoint one or more justices to a Supreme Court that is on the brink of being dominated by a radical right wing. Mr. Obama may appoint less liberal judges than some of his followers might like, but Mr. McCain is certain to pick rigid ideologues. He has said he would never appoint a judge who believes in women's reproductive rights.The Candidates It will be an enormous challenge just to get the nation back to where it was before Mr. Bush, to begin to mend its image in the world and to restore its self-confidence and its self-respect. Doing all of that, and leading America forward, will require strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand.Mr. Obama has those qualities in abundance. Watching him being tested in the campaign has long since erased the reservations that led us to endorse Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries. He has drawn in legions of new voters with powerful messages of hope and possibility and calls for shared sacrifice and social responsibility. Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing. His righteous fury at being driven out of the 2000 primaries on a racist tide aimed at his adopted daughter has been replaced by a zealous embrace of those same win-at-all-costs tactics and tacticians.He surrendered his standing as an independent thinker in his rush to embrace Mr. Bush's misbegotten tax policies and to abandon his leadership position on climate change and immigration reform.Mr. McCain could have seized the high ground on energy and the environment. Earlier in his career, he offered the first plausible bill to control America's emissions of greenhouse gases. Now his positions are a caricature of that record: think Ms. Palin leading chants of "drill, baby, drill."Mr. Obama has endorsed some offshore drilling, but as part of a comprehensive strategy including big investments in new, clean technologies. •Mr. Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted against a candidate. He's been called un-American and accused of hiding a secret Islamic faith. The Republicans have linked him to domestic terrorists and questioned his wife's love of her country. Ms. Palin has also questioned millions of Americans' patriotism, calling Republican-leaning states "pro-America."This politics of fear, division and character assassination helped Mr. Bush drive Mr. McCain from the 2000 Republican primaries and defeat Senator John Kerry in 2004. It has been the dominant theme of his failed presidency. The nation's problems are simply too grave to be reduced to slashing "robo-calls" and negative ads. This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities.
Palin's ties to 'everyday Americans' aren't an argument for her candidacy. But let's treat her ability to inspire the public for what it is: an asset, not a liability.
With respect, Jon misses the principal arguments for Sarah Palin. She is the governor of a state with an $11 billion operating budget, a $1.7 billion capital budget and nearly 29,000 employees; she's got more executive experience than any candidate for president or vice president this year. In Alaska she took on the state political establishment, the incumbent Republican governor and the oil companies. She's a rising star who accentuates John McCain's maverick strengths and a "hockey mom" who has developed a powerful tie to ordinary voters.
That link isn't itself an argument for Palin. But being able to connect with, and inspire, the public is an asset —not a liability. As for Jon's argument against "everyday Americans" as political leaders, many great presidents have been more average than elitist. Ronald Reagan, from Eureka College, was a far better leader than Woodrow Wilson, a former president of Princeton. Wilson would have given you 100 Supreme Court opinions he disagreed with, whether you wanted to listen or not.
Barack Obama has also introduced Joe Biden as a Joe Six-Pack, saying, "His family didn't have much money … sometimes moving in with the in-laws or working weekends to make ends meet." Biden himself rarely misses a chance to say, "I was an Irish Catholic kid from Scranton with a father who, like many of yours in tough economic times, fell on hard times." Both veep candidates are trying to portray themselves as ordinary folks.
On experience, I'm all for it. But judgment is at least as important. Biden has 35 years in the Senate, yet his record on national-security issues during that span has been atrocious. He might be able to name Germany's chancellor, but he was wrong in his fierce opposition to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and to the surge in 2007. Even Democrats don't see Biden as president. He got 0.9 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Forced out of the 1988 White House race for plagiarizing, he is that blend of longevity and long-windedness that Washington accepts as statesmanship.
McCain and Palin face an uphill struggle. Economic woes, war and the natural desire of Americans to give the other side a chance (after eight years with one party in the White House) should mean a big edge for Obama and Biden. But the race is tight, no candidate can get above 50 percent for more than a day or two, and it is likely to stay close right to the end.
The reason is, people have persistent doubts about whether Obama is qualified. NEWSWEEK's poll last month found that 47 percent felt Obama "has enough experience in politics and government to be a good president" but 46 percent said he didn't. In the recent ABC/Washington Post poll, 45 percent said Obama doesn't have "the needed experience," the same as last March. Even the late-September CBS News/New York Times poll found that while 46 percent feel "Obama has prepared himself well enough for the job of president," 45 percent do not. For good reason: Barack Obama has less than half a term in the Senate, where he's proposed little, accomplished less and spent virtually every day campaigning—as if being on the trail is a principal qualification for president.
McCain-Palin must deepen those doubts by pounding away on questions about Obama's character, judgment and values. Drawing on Obama's own record and statements, they need to paint him as a big spender, class warrior and cultural elitist; they need to say he's never worked across party lines or gotten his hands dirty solving big issues. But the duo must also give voters reasons to support them. They must crystallize a positive, forward-looking vision so people who see Obama as unqualified have something to hang on to. It can't be a laundry list of positions. McCain-Palin must offer a narrative about what they will do to help America see better days, especially on kitchen-table concerns.
McCain must launch these themes in the two remaining debates. Knockouts are welcome but unlikely and unnecessary. Introducing a theme and sticking to it day after day worked this past July, when McCain successfully depicted Obama as a celebrity taken with his own press notices. The GOP nominee did it right in the first debate when his assaults were formal and indirect ("Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record …") while Obama was personal and direct ("John, 10 days ago you said …").
McCain and Palin should also respond to key misstatements by Obama-Biden, but only to flip the discussion back to Obama's own deficits. They should not chase rabbits: that would only occupy time better devoted to who can fix the big stuff broken in Washington and reach across the aisle to work for the American people by putting country first.
The election still favors Obama. But Sarah Palin's debate performance, and the passage of the economic-rescue plan, may bookend a bad couple of weeks for McCain. He has a month to turn things around. It's doable; but it won't be easy.
Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President Bush, is a NEWSWEEK Contributor.
Obama Presidency Will Galvanize 30 Million American Idealists and Reformers, and A Personal Memory of Paul Newman---new article by Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/obama-presidency-will-galvanize-30-million-american-idealists-and-reformers-and-personal-memory-paul-newman
PBS is doing one of those instant online polls to ask America if they think Sarah Palin is fit to be Vice President. Apparently the GOP has launched a successful all out blitz to get Republicans to go on the site and click 'Yes'. As a result right now it looks like 62% of ' America ' thinks Palin is qualified.
The Republicans are going to be milking this for all its worth in their press efforts. We need to drive more Democrats and those opposed to Palin to the site to click 'NO'. Let's not give the GOP another easy weapon to put in their PR arsenal! Here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
You don't have to enter your email addres or anything, just click 'NO' if you do not believe she is qualified. And PLEASE, send this to your friends!! Surely, even if you're not a Dem you can't really believe that she's qualified.
September 23, 2008
At the Biltmore, Obama talks about economy After arriving at the Belleview Biltmore for his three-night stay, Barack Obama held a brief news conference with reporters, announcing a plan to protect taxpayers and homeowners from the financial bailout being hashed out in D.C. "Now that the American people are being called upon to finance this solution, the American people have the right to certain protections and assurances from Washington. "First, the plan must include protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to further reward the bad behavior of irresponsible CEOs on Wall Street. ... "Second, the power to spend $700-billion of taxpayer money cannot be left to the discretion of one man, no matter who he is or which party he is from. ... We should set up an independent board that includes some of the most respected figures in our country, chosen by Democrats and Republicans, to provide oversight and accountability at every step of the way. ... "Third, if taxpayers are being asked to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars to solve this crisis, they must be treated like investors. ... "Fourth, the final plan must provide help to families who are struggling to stay in their homes."
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/barack_obama/index.html
[first, a little note about the Mooseburger Caribou Killing Machine Aerial Wolf Hunter/Madame from Alaska, Via National Enquirer and the Grand Old Party]
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's coming out party on the world stage kicks off tomorrow with a series of meetings with the types of foreign leaders she would regularly interact with as vice president, ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala reports. Palin sits down with foreign leaders (and one rock star) in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly.
On Palin's Tuesday
schedule: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, as well as former US Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger. Delawala reports that on Wednesday Palin will meet with Iraq President Jalal Talabani and Pakistan's newly-elected President Asif Ali Zardari.
More from Delawala: "Palin has not met any foreign heads of state in her capacity as governor of Alaska, and has been criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience. She first received a passport two years ago, before visiting American troops in Kuwait and Germany in 2007. Palin will be joined by Sen. John McCain for joint meetings on Wednesday with the presidents of Georgia and the Ukraine, as well as with the prime minister of India. The Republican running mates will also meet Wednesday with U2 lead singer Bono, who has been active in international humanitarian issues." ]
______________________________________________________________________
Daniel Bruno Sanz [see his website: www.WhytheDemocratswillwinin2008.com]
Perhaps the reader will think it presumptuous of me to proclaim Obama the winner before the first vote has been cast and arrogant of me to contradict our financial high priests Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the successor to Alan Greenspan. They have declared that we are on the edge of the abyss and their prescriptions must be followed to avoid certain economic collapse. Democrats Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank tell the press that there was no alternative to granting Paulson and President Bush astonishing powers over government deficits, spending, taxation, the budget and with them the national agenda for the next eight years and more.
Let us assume that deteriorating economic indicators boost the opposition party at election time. Even before last week's market meltdown, McCain's prospects were already dim. Here's why: Joblessness is on the rise in all 12 battleground states with Michigan leading the way at 8.9%.
In Florida unemployment has surged by over 50% to 6.5% since August, 2007. Nationwide, unemployment has hit a 5 year high of 6.1% and rose in no less than 44 states overall. The Labor Department has reported that out of a dozen swing states, 11 had a "significant" increase in joblessness over the last 12 months. In the key swing states of Florida, Virginia, North Carolina (6.9%) , Colorado and Nevada unemployment is up by over 40%. Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania have also seen heavy increases. These 12 states account for 157 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House. In Missouri, which has voted for every presidential winner except one since 1900, unemployment is up to 6.6% from 5.2% last August. Nationwide unemployment claims now exceed 3.45 million, a 25 year high.
But there's more bad news: Florida, Nevada and California have the highest foreclosure rates nationwide. California, the electoral prize of prizes, already leans Democratic and Florida has 27 electoral college votes, more than any other swing state. The Wells Fargo Home Refinance Index is in deep recession territory.
So what does any of this have to do with Obama becoming president in a "close" election? Isn't the real issue his skin color and whether angry female Hillaryites will seek revenge by voting for McCain/Palin? Isn't the burning issue lipstick on a pig? For an answer to this question, please examine "Why Obama Will Win in 2008 & 2012" at www.WhytheDemocratswillwinin2008.com
What we have seen this past week is a paradigm shift in the economy of the United States that will have a frightening impact on our future. Fannie, Freddie and AIG have been nationalized and with them two thousand thousand million dollars in debt of unknowable value transferred to the government's balance sheet. On September 19 the government promised to transfer another 700 thousand million dollars in toxic debt ( debt instruments worth far less than par that nobody wants) from both domestic and foreign bank ledgers to its own liabilities, causing bank stocks to soar while Lehman Brothers, now extinct, was removed from the DOW average. This is why the DOW rallied 700 points this past Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile on September 17, Americans, in a panic, pulled 89 thousand million dollars of their savings out of money market funds in what may be the beginning of a run on the banks. In response, Treasury has promised 400 thousand million dollars to support the money markets.
The government (taxpayer) infusion of massive financial waste into its portfolio is the socialization (spreading out) of risk and loss while profit and reward remain in private hands. Its Adam Smith's invisible hand when stocks are up and the heavy hand of Socialism when losses threaten to wreck the system. Deregulation, Milton Freedman and his Chicago School, Reaganomics, George W. Bush and John McCain are in the ash heap. Without getting too technical with a lot of dismal economic theories and graphs, let me cut to the chase. Here are the consequences of this past week :
The bank bailout will be (rightly) seen as grossly unfair by voters who will vent their anger at the incumbent party ( Republican), which is also the party most identified with high finance and therefore the most culpable. This puts John McCain at yet further disadvantage on November 4.
In early 2009 president Obama and the Congress will pass sweeping new regulation of the financial industry, bring Glass-Steagall back and otherwise please the voters but it will be too little too late.
The US dollar will now be the world's first currency backed by junk bonds, i.e. Mortgage Backed Securities, Credit Default Swaps and shaky car loans. Devaluation must follow unless Bernanke is a magician.
Waves of Adjustable Rate Mortgages and Option Arms are due to reset higher through 2010, adding fuel to the foreclosure fire. Housing prices must deflate further. The irony is that homelessness will increase.
This month's closed door, weekend meetings between Paulson, Bernanke and other un-elected personalities have effectively set America's fiscal policies for the next eight years and more. A 2009 tax increase of 44% and a spending cut of 20% will be required with no visible benefit to the taxpayer. Universal healthcare will be shelved while the unfounded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare go unresolved, creating an unmanageable fiscal crisis that could require the suspension of four thousand thousand million dollars ( that's 4 trillion) in benefits to78 million baby boomers set to retire over the next ten years, forcing many into poverty. Any reform agenda Obama and the Democrats had will become a distant dream as they attempt to contain the crisis they inherited. ( The Democrats' hands in creating the mess are not clean either.)
US sovereign debt may be downgraded, something unthinkable until now. The US dollar, already down by nearly 50% on George Bush's watch, will resemble the Mexican peso. Foreign central banks will continue to diversify ( that's banker's lingo for dump) out of the dollar as it becomes clear that the United States government is unable to pay its debts. Digital dollars created out of thin air will no longer be wanted. That's when the United States ceases to be a super power and becomes a second rate nation in hock to the banks of Japan, China and others. Its military superiority can no longer be financed. Asian creditors get left holding the big bag of devalued American paper. They are not amused.
Long term US interest rates will skyrocket and double digit inflation not seen since the 70s will return. Real wages will fall, the union movement will be invigorated and Americans' living standard will plummet, causing a political crisis that will be laid at Obama's feet.
I have not even touched upon the unsustainable current account deficit, another kind of cancer altogether.
Finally, this panic has not run its course. Markets will plunge again in the next few hours, days and weeks leading into October, 2008. There will be yet another recovery before election day as the Arab oil sheiks use all their financial might to support US stocks and the US dollar while depressing oil prices to help McCain claim victory. But it wont work.
What is President Obama to do?
I don't presume to be smarter than Ben Bernanke, the renowned Princeton scholar on the Great Depression. But I do think that political choices are now being made to best serve the elites who most benefited during the bubble years. Speculators are bailed out while homeowners are left underwater with their mortgages. Their debt is not forgiven and their payments will not decrease. Paulson, whose Goldman Sach's stock was worth 500 million dollars when he cashed out and become Treasury Secretary, tells us we must save the banks at any cost.
I say country first, banks second.
Here, at first blush, is my solution: Publicly go along with Paulson's plan for now. Do everything possible to reassure the banks their money is safe.
Quietly create a new banking institution free of toxic debt. Avoid counterparty transactions with banks that hold ( held) such debt. Prohibit trading of derivatives of Mortgage Backed Securities.
Repeal the bailout in 2009. Shift bad debt off the government balance sheet back to the banks it came from and let the chips fall where they may. Banks will be ruined and fortunes lost. The stock market will crash.
Slowly write down the mortgage principal on the ruined banks' balance sheets. Apply mortgage payments to principal first, interest and fees last. Homeowners keep their homes and build equity quickly. Housing deflation is checked. The dollar is saved. Economic recovery follows.
Of course, I have not considered all the ramifications. But the bottom line is that the current bailout will bring about the ruin of the United States and does not keep people in their homes. As Commander in Chief, Barack Obama can not allow this to happen.
Daniel Bruno Sanz is a currencies trader and the author of "Why Obama Will Win in 2008 & 2012."
"Of those 177 lobbyists, according to a Mother Jones review of Senate and House records, at least 83 have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks," David Corn writes.
"These are high-paid influence-peddlers who have been working the corridors of the nation's capital to win favors and special treatment for investment banks, securities firms, hedge funds, accounting outfits, and insurance companies.
Their clients have included AIG, the newest symbol of corporate excess; Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday sending the stock market into a tailspin; Merrill Lynch, which was bought out by Bank of America this week; and Washington Mutual, the banking giant that could be the next to fall. "Among these 83 lobbyists are McCain's chief political adviser, Charlie Black (JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America); McCain's national finance co-chairman, Wayne Berman (AIG, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac); the campaign's congressional liaison, John Green (Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Icahn Associates, Fannie Mae); McCain's veep vetter, Arthur Culvahouse (Fannie Mae); and McCain's transition planning chief, William Timmons Sr. (Citigroup, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group)."
McCain team includes 83 Wall Street lobbyists
John Byrne
Published: Wednesday September 17, 2008
As Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) rails against Wall Street while concurrently benefiting from its largesse, some journalists are getting tired.
David Corn -- an investigative reporter formerly with The Nation and currently reporting for Mother Jones -- has printed a list of 83 Wall Street lobbyists he says are working for or have bundled contributions for McCain. Corn notes that former Sen. Phil Gramm, the Arizona senator's onetime campaign chairman and economic adviser, slipped into law a provision that kept credit default swaps unregulated, dramatically kindling to the current financial fires.
Obama's anti-lobbyist rhetoric, meanwhile, has irked other reporters, among them Newsweek's Michael Isikoff.
Isikoff noted that Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, worked for a firm that hoodwinked Illinois consumers by convincing them a California-style crises would befall them unless they increased electric rates. Axelrod adamantly denied the charge. "I've never lobbied anybody in my life," he said. "I've never talked to any public official on behalf of a corporate client."
Obama also put James Johnson, the former CEO of Fannie Mae, on his vice presidential search committee team. Johnson resigned in June.
The full McCain list is printed below.
Phil Anderson: American Council of Life Insurers, Aetna, AIG, New York Life, MassMutual, VISA
Rebecca Anderson: Aegon, American Council of Life Insurers, Cigna, Barclays, Credit Suisse First Boston, HSBC
Stanton Anderson: The Debt Exchange
David Beightol: Allstate, Amerigroup, Charles Schwab, HSBC Rhonda Bentz: VISA
Wayne Berman: American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Americhoice, Shinsei Bank, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Broidy Capital Management, Credit Suisse Securities, Highstar Capital, VISA, Ameriquest Mortgage, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fitch Ratings
Charlie Black: JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National Association of Mortgage Brokers
Judy Black: Colorado Credit Union League, Genworth Financial, Bay Harbour Management, Merrill Lynch
Kirk Blalock: Credit Union National Association, Financial Executives International, American Insurance Association, Mutual of Omaha, Zurich Financial Service Group, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
Carlos Bonilla: Financial Services Roundtable, Freddie Mac Christine Burgeson: Citigroup
Mark Buse: Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, Manufacturers Life Insurance Company
Nicholas Calio: Citigroup, Managed Fund Association, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, The Investment Company Institute, TIAA-CRE, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
Ben Nighthorse Campbell: Amscot Financial Corporation, Community Financial Services Association, Fidelity National Financial Andrew Cantor: American Insurance Association, Merrill Lynch
Alberto Cardenas: Fannie Mae
James Courter: Goldman Sachs, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Investment Company Institute, Merrill Lynch
David Crane: Financial Services Roundtable, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, Association of Corporate Credit Unions, Freddie Mac
Dan Crippen: Merrill Lynch, National Multi-Housing Council
Arthur Culvahouse: Fannie Mae
Bryan Cunningham: Arch Capital Group Alfonse D'Amato: AIG, Freddie Mac
Doug Davenport: Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Goldman Sachs, VISA
Ashley Davis: Prudential Financial, American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters, Great American Insurance Company
Mimi Dawson: MassMutual Melissa Edwards: Freddie Mac, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Access to Capital Coalition
Chris Fidler: American Bankers Association, Milcom Venture Partners, National Association Real Estate Investment Trusts
Samuel Geduldig: American Bankers Association, American Institute of CPAs, America Gains, Berkshire Hathaway, Consumer Bankers Association, Ernst & Young, Financial Services Roundtable, Investment Company Institute, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Prudential Financial, Sovereign Investment Council, Fidelity Investments, FMR Corp.
Benjamin Ginsberg: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, AIG Technical Services
David Girard-Dicarlo: American Financial Group, American Premier Underwriters
Juleanna Glover Weiss: RJI Capital, American Institute of CPAs, BNP Paribas, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Slade Gorton: Allstate Insurance, Hannan Armstrong Capital
Phil Gramm: UBS Americas John Green: Laredo National Bank, Alternative Investment Management Association, AIG, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Fannie Mae, Icahn Associates, FMR Corp., AFLAC, VISA
Janet Grissom: American Institute of CPAs, NYSE, Merrill Lynch Kristen Gullott: San Diego Credit Union
Kent Hance: Stanford Financial Group, Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc.
Vicki Hart: American Financial Services Association, Citigroup, Investment Company Institute, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, New York Stock Exchange, VISA, Carlyle Group, Credit Suisse, Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Goldman Sachs, National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, Stanford Group, Lloyd's of London, National City Corp.
Richard Hohlt: Capmark Financial Group, Fannie Mae, JP Morgan Chase and Co., Student Loan Marketing Association, Washington Mutual, Guaranty Bank & Trust, Peachtree Settlement Funding, Dime Savings Bank of New York
Gaylord Hughey: Heartland Security Insurance Group
Kate Hull: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Zurich Financial Services, American Insurance Association, Financial Executives International
James Hyland: American Insurance Association, Seattle Home Loan Bank, Self Help Credit Union, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Merrill Lynch, Mortgage Investors Corp., Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Freddie Mac, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, VISA
Aleix Jarvis: Credit Union National Association, Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, Financial Executives International, Mutual of Omaha, American Insurance Association, Zurich Financial Services Greg Jenner: American Council of Life Insurers, JG Wentworth, UBS, VISA, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Frank Keating: American Council of Life Insurers
Steven Kuykendall: California Bankers Association William Lesher: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Commerce Ventures, Rabobank International
Thomas Loeffler: Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Investment Company Institute, World Savings and Loan Association, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
Kelly Lugar: RJI Capital Strategies Peter Madigan: Arthur Andersen, Bank of New York, Broadridge Securities Processing, Charles Schwab, Deloitte and Touche, Goldman Sachs, International Employee Stock Option Coalition, Mastercard, NYSE, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, PNC Bank
Mary Mann: MassMutual Paul Martino: Morgan Stanley, Baker Tilly
Jana McKeag: Venture Catalyst
Alison McSlarrow: Fannie Mae, Hartford
Mike Meece: Georgetown Partners David Metzner: Ernst & Young, Harbinger Capital Investments, Prudential, Public Financial Management, Western Union
Susan Molinari: Freddie Mac, American Land Title Association, Association of Consumer Credit Unions, Beacon Capital Partners, College Loan Corp, Coventry First, E-Trade, Financial Services Roundtable, Rent-A-Center
John Moran: Cerberus Capital Management, American Council of Life Insurers, Accenture
John Napier: Freddie Mac
Susan Nelson: AIG, San Antonio Credit Union
Paul Otellini: Ernst & Young, Financial Services Forum
Steve Perry: Charles Schwab, Hoover Partners, HSBC, National Stock Exchange
Nancy Pfotenhauer: American Land Title Association, Mortgage Bankers Association
Elise Pickering-Finley: Credit Suisse, DE Shaw, Hartford Financial Services, Research In Motion, Retail Industry Lenders Association, URL Mutual
James Pitts: Advanced Association for Life Underwriting, AETNA, American Council of Life Insurers, AIG, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Debt Advisory International, Financial Services Coordinating Council, GE Financial Assurance, Hartford Life, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Kenwood Investments, MassMutual, Mutual of Omaha, New York Life, UNUM Provident, VISA, PMI Group
Tim Powers: AP Capital, Genworth Financial, Retail Industry Lenders Association, E-LOAN, General Electric Mortgage Insurance
Walter Price: Wachovia
Sloan Rappoport: Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (FBR), Trafelet Delta Funds Hans Rickhoff: Capital One, Investment Company Institute, United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
Kathleen Shanahan: New York Stock Exchange
Andrew Shore: Accenture, Retail Industry Lenders Association, Barclays, Bond Market Association, Credit Suisse, TPG Capital
Katie Stahl: Alliance for Investment Transparency, Ares Management, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Uhlmann Financial Group
Milly Stanges: TIAA-CREF
Aquiles Suarez: Fannie Mae Don Sundquist: Freddie Mac, The Hartford Peter Terpeluk: JP Morgan Chase, Ernst & Young, Prudential
Fred Thompson: Equitas
Jeri Thompson: American Insurance Association
John Timmons: National Association of Federal Credit Unions
William Timmons Sr.: American Council of Life Insurers, Citigroup, Dun & Bradstreet, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group
Vin Weber: Agstar Financial Services, AKT Investment Corp., American Institute of CPAs, Ernst & Young, Freddie Mac, Louis Dreyfus Corp, PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Jeffery Weiss: JP Morgan
Tony Williams: Russell Investment Group, American Life Inc., Northwestern Mutual
[please also see immediately prior post from me, with Letter to Sonny Perdue and links to Amnesty International on this urgent matter
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenfox/gG5Xll ]
________________________________
From: Anthony D. Romero, ACLU
To: tompaine1917@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 6:35 PM
Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of murder based solely on the testimony of witnesses. There was no other evidence against him. And, since his trial, seven of those witnesses have recanted -- changing the story they told in court.
Act now to demand justice and stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Dear ACLU Supporter,
On Friday, the Georgia Department of Pardons and Paroles is going to meet and decide if Troy Anthony Davis should be executed THEY DENIED ANY CHANGE IN THE STATUS].
They will either take into account compelling evidence challenging Mr. Davis¢ guilt or choose to ignore that evidence and allow his sentence to stand. They have the power to stop this indefensible execution, and we must implore them to make the right decision.
An African-American, Davis was convicted of the murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail in 1991. No physical evidence links him to the crime, and he has steadfastly maintained his innocence.
His conviction was based solely on the testimony of witnesses. There was no other evidence against him. And, since his trial, seven of those witnesses have recanted -- changing the story they told in court. Some witnesses say they were coerced by police.
Others have even signed affidavits implicating one of the remaining two witnesses as the actual killer. But due to an increasingly restrictive appeals process, none of this new evidence has ever been heard in court.
Act now to demand justice and stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis.
The ACLU believes the death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. Our work to abolish the death penalty includes supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy, engaging in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of the death penalty¢s fundamental flaws.
The case of Troy Davis highlights all that the ACLU finds problematic with the death penalty such as the risk of innocent people being executed, inadequate counsel and racial and geographic disparities. It is an example of our criminal justice system¢s inability to ensure that only the guilty are convicted at trial and sentenced to death.
The Troy Davis case also is an example of a less obvious problem with our criminal justice system -- that the ever-increasing number of procedural hurdles erected by courts and legislators to deny death-row inmates relief and expedite their executions has seriously eroded the system¢s ability to correct its mistakes.
That's why I'm calling on ACLU supporters across the nation to add our voices to those of people who have grave concerns about this case -- including former judge, FBI Director and death penalty proponent William Sessions.
Act now to demand justice and stop the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. The Georgia Department of Pardons and Paroles will meet just three days from now.
So, we need you to act right away. Thank you for standing with us and standing up for justice.
Sincerely, Anthony D. Romero Executive Director ACLU © ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004
The Palin interview [An Untenable Role]
Posted: 12 Sep 2008 09:01 AM CDT
It is embarrassing to have to spell this out, but for the record let me explain why Gov. Palin's answer to the "Bush Doctrine" question -- the only part of the recent interview I have yet seen over here in China -- implies a disqualifying lack of preparation for the job.Not the mundane job of vice president, of course, which many people could handle. Rather the job of potential Commander in Chief and most powerful individual on earth.The spelling-out is lengthy, but I've hidden most of it below the jump.Each of us has areas we care about, and areas we don't. If we are interested in a topic, we follow its development over the years. And because we have followed its development, we're able to talk and think about it in a "rounded" way. We can say: Most people think X, but I really think Y. Or: most people used to think P, but now they think Q. Or: the point most people miss is Z. Or: the question I'd really like to hear answered is A.Here's the most obvious example in daily life: Sports Talk radio. Mention a name or theme -- Brett Favre, the Patriots under Belichick, Lance Armstrong's comeback, Venus and Serena -- and anyone who cares about sports can have a very sophisticated discussion about the ins and outs and myth and realities and arguments and rebuttals.People who don't like sports can't do that. It's not so much that they can't identify the names -- they've heard of Armstrong -- but they've never bothered to follow the flow of debate. I like sports -- and politics and tech and other topics -- so I like joining these debates. On a wide range of other topics -- fashion, antique furniture, the world of restaurants and fine dining, or (blush) opera -- I have not been interested enough to learn anything I can add to the discussion. So I embarrass myself if I have to express a view.What Sarah Palin revealed is that she has not been interested enough in world affairs to become minimally conversant with the issues. Many people in our great land might have difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" exactly. But not to recognize the name, as obviously was the case for Palin, indicates not a failure of last-minute cramming but a lack of attention to any foreign-policy discussion whatsoever in the last seven years.Two details in Charles Gibson's posing of the question were particularly telling. One was the potentially confusing way in which he first asked it. On the page, "the Bush Doctrine" looks different from "the Bush doctrine." But when hearing the question Palin might not have known whether Gibson was referring to the general sweep of Administration policy -- doctrine with small d -- or the rationale that connected 9/11 with the need to invade Iraq, the capital-D Doctrine. So initial confusion would be understandable -- as if a sports host asked about Favre's chances and you weren't sure if he meant previously with the Packers or with the Jets. Once Gibson clarified the question, a person familiar with the issue would have said, "Oh, if we're talking about the strategy that the President and Condoleezza Rice began laying out in 2002...." There was no such flash of recognition.The other was Gibson's own minor mis-statement. American foreign policy has long recognized the concept of preemptive action: if you know somebody is just about to attack you, there's no debate about the legitimacy of acting first. (This is like "shooting in self-defense.") The more controversial part of The Bush Doctrine was the idea of preventive war: acting before a threat had fully emerged, on the theory that waiting until it was fully evident would mean acting too late.
Gibson used the word "preemptively" -- but if a knowledgeable person had pushed back on that point ("Well, preemption was what John F. Kennedy had in mind in acting against the imminent threat of Soviet missiles in Cuba"), Gibson would certainly have come back to explain the novelty of the "preventive war" point. Because he knows the issue, a minor mis-choice of words wouldn't get in the way of his real intent.Sarah Palin did not know this issue, or any part of it. The view she actually expressed -- an endorsement of "preemptive" action -- was fine on its own merits. But it is not the stated doctrine of the Bush Administration, it is not the policy her running mate has endorsed, and it is not the concept under which her own son is going off to Iraq.How could she not know this? For the same reason I don't know anything about European football/soccer standings, player trades, or intrigue. I am not interested enough. And she evidently has not been interested enough even to follow the news of foreign affairs during the Bush era.A further point. The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:1) Ignorance2) Lack of curiosity3) "Decisiveness"That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.We don't know for sure about #2 for Palin yet -- she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3. Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role._______________________________________About James FallowsJames Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He has worked for the magazine for more than 25 years, based in Washington DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and now Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford. In addition to working for the Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot.Fallows has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times and has won once; he has also won the American Book Award for nonfiction. Since the creation of the New America Foundation in 1999 he has been chairman of its board. His latest book is Blind Into Baghdad (2006). His latest book is Blind Into Baghdad (2006). ‘Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China’ is forthcoming in January, 2009. He is married and has two sons.
Gibson used the word "preemptively" -- but if a knowledgeable person had pushed back on that point ("Well, preemption was what John F. Kennedy had in mind in acting against the imminent threat of Soviet missiles in Cuba"), Gibson would certainly have come back to explain the novelty of the "preventive war" point. Because he knows the issue, a minor mis-choice of words wouldn't get in the way of his real intent.Sarah Palin did not know this issue, or any part of it. The view she actually expressed -- an endorsement of "preemptive" action -- was fine on its own merits. But it is not the stated doctrine of the Bush Administration, it is not the policy her running mate has endorsed, and it is not the concept under which her own son is going off to Iraq.How could she not know this? For the same reason I don't know anything about European football/soccer standings, player trades, or intrigue. I am not interested enough. And she evidently has not been interested enough even to follow the news of foreign affairs during the Bush era.A further point. The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:1) Ignorance2) Lack of curiosity3) "Decisiveness"That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.We don't know for sure about #2 for Palin yet -- she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3. Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role.
_______________________________________
James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. He has worked for the magazine for more than 25 years, based in Washington DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and now Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford. In addition to working for the Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot.
Fallows has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times and has won once; he has also won the American Book Award for nonfiction. Since the creation of the New America Foundation in 1999 he has been chairman of its board. His latest book is Blind Into Baghdad (2006). His latest book is Blind Into Baghdad (2006). ‘Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China’ is forthcoming in January, 2009. He is married and has two sons.
Obama plans Española visit Thursday; Richardson launches new group while courting Hispanics in battleground states; BATTLEGROUND and FENCESTRADDLER STATES' ELECTORAL VOTES ARE NOT DOOMED TO BE FOR MCCAIN!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenfox/gG5qzphttp://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenfox/gG5XtP
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BREAKING NEWS; "Being the 'detective' that I am, I got the message below from the McCain camp today. I can understand why he wants people to vote for him now, by absentee ballot. He doesn't want people to be able to change their minds as they hear the upcoming debates."
JaneAnne<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
BRILLIANT!SO HERE IS THIS AGAIN:
By Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News -
First thoughts: The Electoral Map 50 days out : from MSNBC:
Turn on the Steam in (leaning Obama) IA, MN, NM OR, PA, WA (61 votes) Toss up: CO, MI, NV, NH, OH, VA, WI (78 votes)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenfox/gG5ZBz
A lot of letters to the editor from you, and emailed all over your state might turn the tide, if they were well reasoned and hard hitting, to the point, about why Obama would be best for your state, in the long run! If you speak with the Editorial Page Editor, ask for an op/ed slot, 600-800 words, to really make your point, and don't forget that these are the very editors who are likely to be writing their endorsements in a few short weeks for President, so don't bombard them with blast emails: they won't get printed, and you will just irk the person.
Editorial page editors are listed in EDITOR AND PUBLISHER in your library, and indirectly through
usnpl.com : unitedstatesnewspaperlist
And no doubt, as Dr. Howard Dean III pointed out in Santa Fe about a month ago, nothing works better than going door to door, and personally talking at length with your neighbors, colleagues, and family, to answer any questions they might have regarding Obama's strengths and McCain's failures.
You may find the earlier articles in my blog (there are 109 of them) to be helpful as all have been filed with strategy and tactical considerations in mind, above all.
Truly,
Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun NewsFounder, New Millennium Fine Artstephen@santafefineart.com
MSNBC:
The Palin bounce has erased Obama's lead in the national polls, and it has now cut into his electoral-vote advantage, according to NBC’s latest map. Obama holds a 233-227 edge here, down from his 228-200 advantage from last week.
The biggest changes: We moved Florida -- with its 27 electoral votes -- from Toss-up to Lean McCain, and New Mexico from Toss-up to Lean Obama. We also shifted Oregon and Washington from Likely Obama to Lean Obama, as well as Alaska, Georgia, North Dakota and South Dakota from Lean McCain to Likely McCain.
The good news for McCain is that the map looks better for him than at any point so far in this race, and many of those red states that looked like opportunities for Obama (AK, GA, IN) look to be longer shots for him. The bad news for McCain is that given the wave his campaign has been riding from the Palin bounce, is this as good as it gets?
If he isn’t leading in some states now, he might not ever lead in them. Bottom line: You'll know the map is starting to move in one direction or the other if either Pennsylvania or Florida moves back into Toss-up before Election Day.
VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd discusses the Sarah Palin affect on the NBC electoral vote map.
Likely Obama: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, NJ, NY, RI, VT (172 electoral votes)
Lean Obama: IA, MN, NM OR, PA, WA (61 votes)
Toss-up: CO, MI, NV, NH, OH, VA, WI (78 votes)
Lean McCain: FL, IN, MO, MT, NC (67 votes)
Likely McCain: AL, AK, AZ, AR, GA, ID, KS, KY, LA, MS, NE, ND, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WV, WY (160 votes)
__________________________________________________________________________
Obama plans Española visit; Richardson launches new group while courting Hispanics in battleground states
Photo: Santa Fe County Commissioner Virginia Vigil screams ‘Obamanos!’ on Monday during the opening of a new Barack Obama campaign office on Santa Fe’s south side. Gov. Bill Richardson used the opening as an opportunity to launch a group called Hispanics for Obama and announce an upcoming visit by the Democratic presidential candidate to Española.More on this siteAdvertisement
Steve Terrell | The New Mexican
9/15/2008 - 9/16/08
Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday launched a group called Hispanics for Obama , and announced that the Democratic presidential candidate himself will appear Thursday in Española.
Barack Obama is relying on Richardson to help court Hispanics in battleground states including New Mexico, which narrowly went for Republican George W. Bush four years ago and where John McCain also has visited several times this year.
In informal remarks to dozens of local Democrats at the opening of a new south-side Santa Fe campaign office, Richardson began with a hearty "Buenos tardes." He laughed and made joking asides to enthusiastic audience members as he happily played the role of Obama cheerleader.
"As the Hispanic vote goes nationally, so goes the presidency," Richardson said. He got loud cheers by predicting big margins for the Illinois senator among Hispanic voters in New Mexico as well as in Colorado and Nevada.
"And we want that number to be close to 65 or 70 percent," he said of New Mexico's Hispanic vote for Obama.
It was a chance for locals to see Richardson do what he's been doing increasingly on the national level.
During the weekend, he attended several Obama events in Las Vegas, Nev. He met Saturday with Hispanic leaders there, spoke to Obama volunteers at a North Las Vegas campaign office, had a town hall at the College of Southern Nevada, attended a soccer tournament sponsored by Spanish-language television network Telemundo and spoke at a dinner for Las Vegas Democrats.
(The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that boxing fan Richardson also attended a title fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor.)
Also on Saturday, Richardson, in his role as Obama surrogate, taped an interview on MSNBC. On Sunday, he appeared on Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer, opposite Republican Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
During last month's Democratic National Convention in Denver, Richardson told The New Mexican that the Obama campaign mainly wanted him to campaign in New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, three swing states with significant Hispanic populations.
But Obama apparently isn't limiting Richardson to those Western states. The New York Times last week listed Richardson among surrogates including Sen. Hillary Clinton and Caroline Kennedy who were scheduled to appear at high-dollar fundraisers this month in New York.
A spokeswoman for the Governor's Office said Monday that travel expenses for such out-of-state trips are paid by the Obama campaign. He normally travels with a state police officer, a state Public Safety Department spokesman said. Although the officer's salary is paid by the state, the spokesman said, travel expenses are covered by the campaign.
Some at Monday's event in Santa Fe seemed to want to use Richardson to pass advice to Obama.
"Governor, tell him to toughen up those ads," one man said as Richardson left the building.
Hispanics for Obama is a statewide group, Richardson said after the event. It will hold policy forums involving Hispanic leaders around New Mexico.
Although Hispanic voters traditionally have favored Democrats, the percentages targeted by Richardson are hardly guaranteed. In 2004, President Bush attracted about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.
Richardson said the campaign's goal is to register 12,000 new Hispanic voters as part of a statewide effort to boost total voter registration by 30,000 during the next 30 days.
Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.
IF YOU GO
What: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visits Española
When: Rally starts at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Española Plaza
Tickets: Free, available starting today at two Obama campaign offices in Santa Fe, 720 St. Michael's Drive 2-N and 3494 Zafarano Drive Suite B, as well as at campaign offices in Las Vegas, Taos, Española, Los Alamos and Raton.
FROM THE TELEGRAPH, LONDON:
Barack Obama and his senior advisers are under fire for ignoring the advice of Democratic senators and governors who are concerned that they do not know how to beat John McCain.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2909844/Barack-Obama-under-fire-for-ignoring-advice-on-how-to-beat-John-McCain.html
By Tim Shipman in Washington Last Updated: 13 Sep 2008
Mr Obama has never won an electoral contest against a strong Republican candidate.
The Democratic presidential candidate's slump in the polls has sparked pointed private criticism that he is squandering a once-in-a-generation chance to win back the White House. Party elders also believe the Obama camp is in denial about warnings from Democratic pollsters that his true standing is four to six points lower than that in published polls because of hidden racism from voters - something that would put him a long way behind Mr McCain.
The Sunday Telegraph has learned that senators, governors and union leaders who have experience of winning hard-fought races in swing states have been bombarding Obamas campaign headquarters with telephone calls offering advice. But many of those calls have not been returned.
A senior Democratic strategist, who has played a prominent role in two presidential campaigns, told The Sunday Telegraph: "These guys are on the verge of blowing the greatest gimme in the history of American politics. They're the most arrogant bunch Ive ever seen. They won't accept that they are losing and they won't listen."
After leading throughout the year, Mr Obama now trails Mr McCain by two to three points in national polls. Party leaders and commentators say that the Democrat candidate spent too much of the summer enjoying his own popularity and not enough defining his positions on the economy - the number one issue for voters - or reaching out to those blue collar workers whose votes he needs if he is to beat Mr McCain.
Others concede that his trip to Europe was a distraction that enhanced his celebrity status rather than his electability on Main Street, USA.
Since Sarah Palin was unveiled as Mr McCain's running mate, the Obama camp has faced accusations that it has been pushed off message and has been limp in responding to attacks.
A Democratic National Committee official told The Sunday Telegraph: "I really find it offensive when Democrats ask the Republicans not to be nasty to us, which is effectively what Obama keeps doing. They know thats how the game is played."
Mr Obama tried to answer that critique on Friday when he responded in kind, issuing an attack advert depicting his Republican opponent as out of touch and mocking the 72-year-old Mr McCain's confession that he does not know how to use email.
He rammed home the point during a rally in New Hampshire, pointing out Mr McCains recent admission that he was divorced from some of the challenges of ordinary Americans. Mr Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, called it the first day of the rest of the campaign. But that was the fourth time in the last nine months that Mr Obamas team have been forced to declare that the gloves are coming off.
And Mr Plouffe's dismissal of Democratic doubts as hand-wringing and bed-wetting only served to reinforce the growing doubts about what some see as a bunker mentality among Obamas inner circle - where outside advice, even from highly experienced people, is not welcomed.
The Democratic strategist told The Sunday Telegraph: "They think they know best. They don't return calls. There are governors and senators calling them up with ideas. They don't get back to them.
"These are senior people from the border states and the South who know how to beat Republicans, and they're being ignored. They ignored everyone during the primaries and they came through it, so they think they can do the same again."
Mr Obama has never won an electoral contest against a strong Republican candidate. David Axelrod, his chief strategist has been hailed as a political genius for beating the Clinton machine, but Democrats now point out that he has never run a successful campaign in the heartland states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia, which will decide the election. His expertise is in mobilising young, educated and black voters in urban areas.
Mark Cunningham of the New York Post summed up the private views of many: "If it suddenly seems like the Obama campaign doesn't have any idea what it's doing, maybe that's because it doesn't."
Party elders are also studying internal polling material which warns the Obama camp that his true standing is worse than it appears in polls because voters lie to polling companies about their reluctance to vote for a black candidate.
The phenomenon is known in the US as the Bradley effect, after Tom Bradley, a black candidate for governor of California who lost after leading comfortably in polls.
The strategist said: "I've seen memos where they've been told to factor in four to six points for the Bradley effect, but they're in denial about it. They say the polls also underestimate the enthusiasm of young voters and African Americans and they believe that balances things out. But that's a wing and a prayer stuff. There's previous evidence for the Bradley effect."
Other Democrats are openly mocking of Mr Obama's much vaunted "50-state strategy", in which he spends money campaigning throughout the US in the hope that it will force Mr McCain to divert funds to previously safe states.
Critics say a utopian belief in bringing the nation together has trumped the cold electoral calculus that is necessary to triumph in November.
Doug Schoen, a former pollster for Bill Clinton, last week declared it insanity not to concentrate resources on the swing states. The Democratic strategist said: "My Republican friends think its mad. Before Sarah Palin came along we were investing money in Alaska, for Christ's sake, that could have been spent in Ohio and Pennsylvania. "It assumes Republicans are stupid and, when it comes to winning elections, they're not."
The one thing everyone agrees the Obama camp have woken up to is the toxic effect on their chances of Mrs Palin's arrival on the national scene. Polls show that white women voters, attracted to her down home virtues, now support Mr McCain by a margin of 12 points, the same lead among white women that George W. Bush enjoyed over John Kerry in 2004. Until recently, Mr Obama led among that group of voters by six points.
A senior aide to one of the most powerful Democrats in the House of Representatives voiced the fears of many: "Palin doesn't just play to the Republican base. She has much broader appeal."
The aide said that her repeated mockery of Mr Obama's boasts about his time as a community organiser in Chicago are "the most effective criticisms of Barack Obama we have yet seen." He said: "Americans in small and medium size towns dont know what the hell a community organiser is. Real Americans graduate from high school or college and get a job that pays a wage. Campus radicals go off and organise a community."
Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter, blamed the defection of women voters from Mr Obama on the atom bomb of ritual abuse by left-wing bloggers and Democratic officials, painting Mrs Palin as a bad mother and religious weirdo.
Ms Noonan wrote: "The snobbery of it, the meanness of it, reminded the entire country, for the first time in a decade, what it is they don't like about the Left."
The Republican strategist Dan Schnur said that the effect was to repel blue collar, family-oriented voters. "They didn't like Obama in the primaries and voted for Hillary. And they still don't like him now so they're voting for Palin.
"Obama can still win these voters over, but his difficulty in establishing an emotional connection with them is probably his greatest challenge between now and election day." On Thursday Mr Obama did take advice from Bill Clinton, who is understood to have suggested ways to show those workers that he cares, an area where the former president excelled.
But it is a measure of his plight that the man who derailed the ambitions of Mrs Clinton, the most powerful woman in Democratic politics, now needs help from her husband to overcome the popularity of another alpha female who may be an even greater risk to his White House ambitions.
I have been writing some halacious (and I believe quite excellent) articles on the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR AND LONG RANGE BENEFITS FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH, FOR DR. HOWARD DEAN III, M.D., to be considered an "early" member of Obama's Cabinet, if that wouldn't be too big a step down for one of his genius level intelligence, I say as Secretary of Health, or better yet, FDA Commissioner, to take federal regulatory power out of the hands and make it begin again to actually protect consumers.....
FDA Commissioner should be a Cabinet Level position, anyway...it oversees a full 25% of the entire US Economy , the segment based on Food or Drugs).
The 6 decades-long subservience to corporate demand and corporate profits, the influence of corporate lobbyists to destroy true consumer protection legislation at all levels, the international implications, especially Economic, of a total regulatory failure in the United States Food and Drug Administration: all of this needs to come to a rapid, almost immediate end, with a very strong consumer protection-oriented FDA Commissioner who is not going to open the Revolving Door at the FDA to corporations regulated by the FDA, and not going to constantly capitulated to the whims an profits of Big Pharma and Big Junk Food, dba Grocery Manufacturers of America, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley's Gum, Ajinomoto of Japan (the world's largest manufacturer of both Aspartame and of Monosodium Glutamate, and everybody's fist choice for monster corporation: Monsanto, etc.
I see no better choice than nor anyone else I would trust more to do that job than Howard Dean!
[Here is one of my first articles on this subject: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Medical-Corner-of-the-by-Stephen-Fox-080824-149.html] (I also want to see New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of State and California Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown, as Attorney General) I frequently hear that such discussions, if they came from Obama, would be deemed "presumptuous" and "arrogant", some say by the press and others say from the Neocon Right Wingers. However, if he were to speak to that issue in the context of what he would like to achieve as President in the various key realms, Environment, Education, International, Defense, etc., and at the same time, mention some names of who the USA MIGHT see in charge of which Cabinet level positions: With some more obligatory brainstorming, THIS SEEMS LIKE A DYNAMITE CAMPAIGN TACTIC AND WAY TO SECURE FENCESITTERS AND UNDECIDED, especially in Battleground states.... Too bad if the Neocons label it "arrogant" or "presumptuous." I could care less what they think. This is not some mere campaign ploy, but a plan that would illuminate ALL Americans as to what his administration might achieve. In such a comparison with McCain, I am sure Obama would come out clearly on top.
Prediction: McCain will use the Bush 2004 Debate Tactic of Deriding Obama's Ostensible "Lack of Experience." Cheney used that as well in the VP Debates. You know McCain will hammer that, but describing Cabinet picks during the debates will blow McCain and his leaky boat right out of the tub! The Republicans will, in their fuzzy demented way, will remember how well this worked in 2004!I see clearly that if Obama would try this on a trial basis, here and there, before the first debate, ultimately he would be doing it for the right reasons, so that the American public might better comprehend his highest goals domestically and internationally, and it would open the door to perceptions of his candidacy, raising it above the National Enquirer propensities of the Republican Team in this election.
Obama should immediately ask Dwight Eisenhower's Granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, to appear at campaign major events in the Battleground states, for in the Senate Races, and in the Presidential Race. I am sure she would accept.
I have heard from at least 50 people in Florida that they are praying and begging for former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, to come to Florida, to dispell the vicious rumors the R's have spread throughout the elderly mostly Jewish community, that Obama is some kind of secret Muslim Terrorist. I am serious about such reports coming from South Florida, and I thus encourage Obama and Biden to invite Ed Koch to spend a month in Florida on their behalf, and to ask Susan Eisenhower to appear in older Rust Belt and Bible Belt rallies, where older fence sitters and undecideds will hear her grandfather, the last Real Republican, with great benefit for the Electoral Vote Tally. Respectfully offered, Stephen Fox Founder, New Millennium Fine Art a Santa Fe Gallery since 1980 stephen@santafefineart.com
>>---------------------->>
From: Michael Fratkin [mailto:gatito@gotsky.com] September 12, 2008
To: Doctors for Obama Subject: [DoctorsforObama]
McCain' Medical Records
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
John McCain is a 72 year old man with recurrent melanoma, hyperlipidemia, degenerative joint disease, and recurrent difficulty with certain efforts at recall.
These are the limited facts the American people have had access to.
Over 1000 pages of medical records were shown to selected journalists for 3 hours with less than 48 hours of notice. The only medically trained journalist was Sanjey Gupta, MD from CNN. This is the extent to which the American people have been informed.
While I am certainly sensitive to the confidential nature of medical records, given the anxiety expressed by many of my patients regarding the risk of lost coverage or lost jobs in this current health economic climate, there are certain exceptions for disclosure regarding public safety.
As John McCain knows, a pilots records are comprehensively available for review by a certifying agency (the FAA, I believe) to insure the fitness of the pilot and the safety of passengers and the public at-large.
In the election of the President of the United States of America, that certifying body is the American electorate. A recurrence of metastatic malignant melanoma would essentially destroy John McCain's capacity as the Chief Executive and the American People have yet to receive a full accounting of the facts regarding his actuarial risk.
If he has had regional metastasis, his risk could be 30% or greater for distant metastasis to the brain, bone, and lung.
As you all know, melanoma is one of the most insidious, pernicious, and aggressive malignancies our patients must deal with and that we attempt somewhat pathetically to control with interferon, interleukins, and dismally active and terribly toxic chemotherapeutic regimens. In addition, we lack the simple data to sensibly evaluate his cardiovascular risk as we would any septuagenerian in our exam rooms.
John McCain should [MUST] be held accountable by the American people and its agents, the free press, to release without restriction the entirety of his medical records. Any hesitation to do so would clearly imply that there are significant medical concerns about his ability to fulfill the duties of the President.
Sincerely, Michael D. Fratkin, MD Internal Medicine Hospice and Palliative Medicine Eureka, California
<<----------------------<<
[from DoctorsforObama] Re: McCain' Medical Records
"David E. Kolva, MD " > wrote: This is a remarkably accurate letter. The American public must have better answers to the question of McCain's health. We have NEVER BEFORE elected anyone to this office at this age.
David Kolva, MD Family Physician SUNY Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY"
As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
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The USA Today/Gallup poll today shows McCain with a 4 point lead at 50%-46% witha a margin of error at +/- 3 points. This tells us that the post-convention bounce won't reach its full effect till probably tomorrow. We have work to do people. The RNC and McCain campaign's constant harping about media bias has been paying off in the fact that the major networks are now ignoring the questions about Sarah Palin's stands on major issues and their lack of access to her and the issue of McCain's post-2000 election fip-flopping on nearly every major issue as to match up with the base of the party. Look tonight for any stories on the network news shows about the army od lawyers the McCain has sent to Alaska to stop the "Troopergate" investigation. Keith Olbermann has been removed as the lead anchor of MSNBC's election and debate coverage after Republican complaints!
Write to the networks, email them, blog about them and call your newspapers and TV stations. The corporate power of the Republican Party is on display folks and we need to combat this. Barack told us this election is about us and we have to do are part! Here is a media list that you can use:
ABC News 77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212-456-7777
General e-mail: netaudr@abc.com Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com 20/20: 2020@abc.com
CBS News 524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-975-4321 Fax: 212-975-1893
Email forms for all CBS news programs CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com 60 Minutes II: 60minutes@cbsnews.com 48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com
CNBC 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Phone: (201) 735-2622 Fax: (201) 583-5453 Email: info@cnbc.com
CNN One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366 Phone: 404-827-1500 Fax: 404-827-1784 Email forms for all CNN news programs
Fox News Channel 1211 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 301-3000 Fax: (212) 301-4229 comments@foxnews.com List of Email addresses for all Fox News Channel programs Special Report with Brit Hume: Special@foxnews.com FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com The O'Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com Hannity & Colmes: Hannity@foxnews.com, Colmes@foxnews.com On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com
MSNBC/NBC 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112 Phone: (212) 664-4444 Fax: (212) 664-4426 List of Email addresses for all MSNBC/NBC news programs Dateline NBC: dateline@nbc.com Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com MSNBC Reports with Joe Scarborough: joe@msnbc.com NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com NBC News Today: today@nbc.com
PBS 2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington VA 22202 Phone: 703-739-5000 Fax: 703-739-8458 The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org
National Radio Programs
National Public Radio 635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001-3753 Phone: 202-513-3232 Fax: 202-513-3329
E-mail: Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org List of Email addresses for all NPR news programs
The Los Angeles Times 202 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Phone: 800-528-4637 or 213-237-5000 Fax: 213-237-4712
L.A. Times Contact Information by Department Letters to the Editor: letters@latimes.com Readers' Representative: readers.rep@latimes.com
The New York Times 620 8th Ave., New York, NY 10018 Phone: 212-556-1234 D.C. Bureau phone: 202-862-0300 Fax: 212-556-3690
Letters to the Editor (for publication): letters@nytimes.com Write to the news editors: news-tips@nytimes.com Corrections: senioreditor@nytimes.com New York Times Contact Information by Department How to Contact New York Times Reporters and Editors
USA Today 7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108 Phone: 703-854-3400 Fax: 703-854-2078 Letters to the Editor: editor@usatoday.com Give feedback to USA Today
The Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty St., New York, NY 10281 Phone: 212-416-2000 Fax: 212-416-2658
Letters to the Editor: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com Comment on News Articles: wsjcontact@dowjones.com
The Washington Post 1150 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20071 Phone: 202-334-6000 Fax: 202-334-5269
Letters to the Editor: letters@washpost.com Ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com Contact Washington Post Writers and Editors
Magazines
Newsweek 251 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-445-4000 Fax: 212-445-5068
Letters to the Editor: letters@newsweek.com
Time Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, 1271 6th Ave., New York, NY 10020 Phone: 212-522-1212 Fax: 212-522-0003
Letters to the Editor letters@time.com
U.S. News & World Report 1050 Thomas Jefferson St., Washington, DC 20007 Phone: 202-955-2000 Fax: 202-955-2049
Letters to the Editor letters@usnews.com
News Services / Wires
Associated Press 450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-621-1500 Fax: 212-621-7523
General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org Partial Contact Information for the Associated Press by Department and Bureau
Reuters Three Times Square, New York, NY 10036 Telephone: 646-223-4000 Reuters Editorial Feedback
United Press International 1133 19th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036 Telephone: 202-898-8000 FAX: 202-898-8048 Comments and Tips: tips@upi.com
As an independent yet one who votes primarily democrat and is a support er of Senator Obama, I have spent the week watching the RNC, with mixed feelings as I very much realize how I adhere to Senator Obama's talk of hope and change. I admit, though I embrace the importance of free speech, the violence of some of the protesters at the RNC here in the cities was uncalled for and deeply harmful to others. In addition, such violence takes away from those who try to peacefully protest. I too amidst my strong support for Obama have been saddened by both ultra conservatives and liberals as well as the media on the way Palin has been treated. My goodness, I am amazed how others have tried to judge the family based on the fact their 17 year old daughter is pregnant. I applaud those who stand by them, and Biden for being outspoken in support for her, and for the family. Lets focus on love, compassion, peace, and unity in this campaign and consider the issues. This idea of control, manipulation and moral dictation on areas that really are gray are sad as there are so many black and white areas of right and wrong as related to war, violence, hatred, theft, crime, manipulation, control, poverty, and inequitable opportunity.
