The State of the United States of America

We The People

2010-11-03T13:10:00.002-04:00

We the people

It should be all about, "We The People." SHOULDN'T IT!!!!

We the people, as part of this great nation, should have the same health care as Senators, Congressmen, and Presidents. Shouldn't we? And, we the people should pay for it, just like we do education, fire and police departments and many more things. Some say NO MORE TAXES, well if we weren't in Iraq and Afghanistan we could easily pay for health care for EVERYONE. Why should someone have to suffer through an illness just to die because they can't afford their meds or health insurance? Aren't we better than that? We are in the ME times, as no one seems to care about anyone but their own asses. Is that sad? We expect the police to keep us safe in our homes, yet we suffer in our homes because we don't have health insurance. WHY is that? Do we care so little about our brethren?

It amazes me that we vote people into office that only care about corporations and their bottom line, not we the people. The same party that put us were we are today was elected back into power in congress to do it to us all over again. Is that what we're become? They want to repeal the health care that was put into place. WHY? In my opinion it didn't do enough, as stated before I believe we should have the same coverage as Senators, Congressmen and Presidents! Doesn't that speak to Amendment 8, Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

I am so disappointed in our leaders and our citizenry for where we are. And, it is going to get a lot worse. As was stated in an article that I read today, our mess can't be cleaned up by 2012 and so both parties will run around blaming the other. How sad is that? And, that we will be gridlocked for some time to come. With congress not doing any more stimulus and several million will go off of unemployment. Obviously causing crime to rise even higher. How will people eat? There are NO jobs! And, the thought that one of these tea baggers could actually shut down the government altogether and cause a global financial crisis and collapse. I'm sure they'll be happy of their accomplishments then! We as a nation are very much as a whole in the center and the extremes on both sides has it's faults. W was even given a chance to finish what he started. However freakin horrible that was. Not now!

GOD HELP US ALL.... WE THE PEOPLE!!!!!

Obama's Report Card

2010-11-02T16:23:00.004-04:00

Obama's Report Card

I haven't posted to this blog in over a year. I am today, before results are announced this evening of the mid term elections. The following is my opinion of the current administration. Keep this in mind as you read, I am disappointed in being a Democrat right now and wish there was another option. There isn't. Tea Party, REALLY, GIVE ME A BREAK.... Republican? lmao......... No new ideas, NOTHING.... Same old story......

I read something today that made so much sense. Of course this country doesn't do anything that makes sense. If it's not on Dancing with the Stars or American Idol, then it doesn't matter. But the article talked about how we are going to be in worse shape if as predicted the Republicans take the House of Representatives back. They haven't worked with the President the last two years and if in power will definitely not work with him. There will be nothing but gridlock. Which will be the worst thing in the world for our economic recovery. There will be no stimulus, and millions that are on unemployment will be cut off, which would drive the crime statistic up higher than they are. Obama has had two years and in my opinion he should have done what he promised. But, he has tried to be everything to everyone. Bad move if you ask me.

Let's look at a few areas:
1). Economy: Grade B. Why? In my opinion, he has done a reasonably good job, because he was given an economy on the brink of annihilation. W, was one of if not the worst president in the history of our young nation. Obama should have put people in place to go after the crimes he and his administration committed. PERIOD! He should be held accountable for what he did! Instead President Obama turned the other cheek. He instead choose to attack the economy like coming out of the great depression, roads, hospitals, and infrastructure. Now all of this will stop. Which could put us back into a tail spin. Down here in South Florida we are still feeling the effects of people not spending their money. I give him a B because this could haven been a whole lot worse.
2). Over Sight Grade B. Why? His laws helping to protect the people against banks and credit card companies was put in place and this will be in jeopardy as well, since the republicans are the political party that takes care of corporations over "we the people" and will try and roll back legislation protecting us.
3). Don't Ask Don't Tell Grade F. Why? Because he promised to over turn what is bigoted law. He has gone back and forth instead of coming out and putting a foot down and doing what he said he would.
4). ObamaCare Grade C- Why? Because he promised sweeping health care reform. He got something. As the richest nation (supposedly) on earth, every American deserves the same health care that Congressmen and women and the President get. We all put our pants on the same way, one leg at a time and should have the same access as the people we elect, when it comes to health care. I don't want to hear the stupid socialism arguments. If you believe that crap, then don't call the socialist fire department when your house catches on fire, or the socialist police department when someone breaks into your house. The ONLY people complaining should be the rich doctors, that are making WAY TO FREAKIN MUCH.....
5). Bush Tax Cuts for the RICH... Grade C.. Why? Because it could be much higher grade or a much lower one. He still has time to take are of this. The rich should be happy to pay more in down times. AND, they should. These cuts should be discontinued and given to the people that spend all of their pay checks on a week to week bases. That would assist in stimulating the economy.
6). The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Grade D... Why? Because we should be out of there by now. We've done ENOUGH, I personally see no difference in the handling of the military between w and Obama's strategies? UNACCEPTABLE....
7). Securing our boarders Grade F Why? Nothing has been done yet.
Just to name a few...........

I firmly believe he was the right person for the times. He isn't finished! However, he hasn't a fighting chance because he has tried to be every American's president. He was given a no-win situation when he took over, and in my opinion should have gone full force on all the issues he promised us he would do. Just do it, as you'll be judged one way or another. Now however, once the republicans take back over power of congress or at least partially, he has no chance of them working with him. I also FIRMLY believe that he was the right choice, i can't imagine where we'd be today if granpa had won the election!

I just wish there was a new party of bright ideas that mixed the good of both parties. A party closer to the middle and could unite a country. This in my opinion will never happen, because Americans are lazy. People fought and died for the right to be heard and allowed to vote, yet only 6-7% of young people will vote today and even in Ca. where legalizing marijuana is on the ballot only 12% of the young will vote! why? It is their future we are dealing with! If this was the Vietnam war time people were in the streets.... Now, we only see old white people at tea party events... omg, we as a nation really don't have a freakin clue......... nor do we care, unless of course it's the finals of American Idol..........

PEACE ON EARTH......

As long as we observe love for others and respect for their rights and
dignity in our daily lives, then whether we are learned or unlearned,
whether we believe in the Buddha or God, follow some religion or none
at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves
with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we
will be happy.
Dalai Lama

A FB comment to a Cuz

2009-07-15T13:10:00.001-04:00

OMG.... wow cuz, i didn't mean to stir up the issues. u can ready my blog
http://nuszpolitics.blogspot.com/ I haven't written anything since Feb. But, wrote almost daily prior to the election, to do all i personally could to elect Barack Obama. To address a few things. First, I am liberal by chose. I am middle of the road on some issues and right on one or two. However, that is what i believe a good democrat should be. I am personally pro life, but FIRMLY believe that a woman's health choices are between her and her doctor. The government has no place in that room. I think that the repubs only show that they care about the fetus and not after the child is born. Overturning Roe v Wade would not stop abortion. My opinion.
In relation to Acorn, my belief is that whether you are W, Tricky Dick, Martha Stewart, you or me. If you choose to break the law you should pay the price. If Acorn is guilty of anything, prove it and charge them. You and I both know that our great nation is not the fair one it was always supposed to be. Evidence, a pro football player kills a man with his car, is charged, convicted, and spend 28 days in jail. If it was me they'd throw away the key.
I don't read People, nor do I follow the propaganda machines from either side. I feel that I study the issues, and FIRMLY feel that the repub leadership over the last eight years has caused all of the financial irresponsibility that occur these days and I do not believe we will ever recover from their irresponsibility and lack of oversight. Back to the abortion issue for a sec. how can you or anyone preach about saving the fetuses yet don't have a problem with the millions of lives lost in an illegal war. Assuming you have no problem with wars.
Again, for the record, I am pro life, anti war, pro democracy, and a business owner struggling to keep my proverbial head above water. I also am not naive in the fact that many of the issues do not mix. I wouldn't be a democrat, if there was an alternative to being republican. Because being Independent is NOT a viable option at this point in our country. So, I hope that I have not pissed you off as this is not my intention. I FIRMLY believe that as Americans we do not debate, discuss, agree to disagree, or compromise. We can't continue to HATE, those that disagree with us. This has caused way too much strife in the world. I hope that you at least now believe that I know enough about the issues to debate fairly, and not just believe what I read, whether it be People or elsewhere!
Peace on Earth..

A letter to Mitch McConnell, Sent to his office 2/14/09

2009-02-14T08:31:00.001-05:00

After the Nov. vote all across our land and the vote count that almost cost you your seat I am shocked that you and the Republicans are still trying the same old thing. Instead of giving your support in trying to get our economy going again, you choose to stand pat. I worked for you a long time ago when I was a student at UL, during government reorganization in Louisville and am now so disappointed that you have chosen to lead in such a fashion.
Godspeed,
John Nusz

Number of homeless students in South Florida soars

2009-02-12T09:48:00.001-05:00

The number of children living in shelters and on the streets of South Florida continues to increase. For many of those kids, homelessness has rattled their worlds.
Shelter helps homeless teens in Fort Lauderdale Covenant House in Fort Lauderdale is one of the only shelters to provide for older teens and young adults.
Homeless student struggles to move ahead

Corey is eighteen and homeless. He is trying to turn his life around as he studies for a GED and learns to cut hair. Rescuing teens from Miami streets
StandupForKids is a group helping homeless and runaway teens lost in Miami's streets.

BY TRENTON DANIEL
tdaniel@MiamiHerald.com

In downtown Miami, dozens of elementary school children spill out of Overtown's largest homeless shelter for a ride to and from school.

In Homestead, a high school student hides her head beneath a hooded sweat shirt every time she walks into her temporary home -- mortified at having to live in a shelter -- while in a Pompano Beach shelter, an 8-year-old boy tries to adjust to his new surroundings.

And in Northwest Miami-Dade, a 12-year-old girl who lives in a wall-less outdoor fruit stand -- and bathes herself by spigot -- does her homework in a nearby flea market food court.

These are among the increasing number of South Florida homeless students -- children living in shelters, motels, cars, relatives' homes and on the streets because their parents lost their homes to foreclosures or evictions.

Miami-Dade leads the state in the number of homeless students at 2,382 -- more than enough to fill an entire school, according to state figures. That's an 8 percent jump in the number of homeless students from the 2006-2007 school year.

Broward experienced a slight drop in the number of homeless students with 1,642 identified last school year, compared to more than 1,200 students so far this year. But officials expect the number will be much higher.

''We're going to see around 3,000 students this year, I think, or certainly 2,500,'' said Dianne Sepielli, coordinator for Broward's homeless student program.

The increasing trend is mirrored statewide.

Records show the state has seen a sharp rise in recent years in the number of students identified by their districts as homeless, jumping to 34,375 last school year from 16,430 in 2003-2004. The student homeless figure for 2006-2007 was 30,878, compared to 29,545 in 2005-2006 and 28,805 in 2004-2005.

Administrators say the numbers could be much higher because not all students report they're homeless.

For many of these students, homelessness has rattled their worlds.

The shelter kids say they appreciate the roof above them. But they also concede they must contend with an alien environment rife with strict rules, tinderbox tempers and petty theft. Then there's the stigma of being without a home of one's own -- and, teenagers say, the fear of being outed and picked on.

''I don't want my friends to find out,'' said a 14-year-old who moved into an Overtown shelter last month after his father lost his truck driving job and then their Little Havana apartment. The eighth-grader at Jose de Diego Middle in Wynwood declined to give his name.

'If they knew, they'd laugh at me, like, `Ha ha, you live in a shelter' and, 'You don't have your own room,' 'You've got to share your own stuff.' Stuff like that.''

As for parents, they juggle the duties of clothing their children, getting them to school on time and meeting other basic needs. Some have managed to hang on to their jobs, but others must seek work in an economic climate that shows few signs of immediate relief.

''Depression just gets me everyday,'' said Wilson Santiago, 50, an unemployed truck driver living in a Pompano Beach homeless shelter with his 8-year-old. 'My son asks me what's wrong, and I don't answer. I tell him, `You're not an adult.' ''

One recent Friday afternoon, Santiago stood outside the front gate at the homeless shelter, waiting for his second-grader to return from Charles Drew Elementary. When the bus rumbled up, four children tumbled through the doors, followed by Mathew.

''For an 8-year-old guy, he copes with it very well,'' said Santiago, who bounced around from Economy Lodge to Hollywood shelter before landing in the Pompano center in early January. ``As long as he's got a roof over his head, he's fine.''

Like some two dozen children at the shelter, Mathew receives after-school tutoring in course work and FCAT preparation through several Broward teachers.

Mathew views his new accommodations with mixed feelings: He likes his bunk bed but the proximity of a log-sawing roommate wakes him at night.

''It's not a good place for me to try to sleep,'' Mathew said, flipping open and closed a Game Boy lid. ''He'' -- elbowing his father -- ``snores loud.''

The Pompano center has converted an unused storage building into a family dorm that holds up to six occupants, refurbished a courtyard playground and introduced parenting classes since last spring.

''That's when we started hearing about an influx of families,'' said James Whitworth, the Pompano Center director.

At one of Miami-Dade's largest shelters, the Community Partnership for Homeless in Overtown, elementary school children trickle in midafternoon, their thumbs hooked into their turtleshell-like backpacks as they pass through a metal detector. A security officer guards the entrance.

Madeleine Paige and her two children moved into Community Partnership for Homeless -- more commonly known as ''the HAC,'' an acronym for homeless assistance center -- after she lost her job as a crossing guard. Her rent got behind and the eviction notice came. She doubled up with her mother in Little Haiti -- until the landlord told her to leave lest her mom get the boot.

Then she and two of her children, 11 and 9, slept in their car one night and two nights at a motel.

''We had absolutely nowhere to go,'' Paige, 36, said.

One day she broke down.

Paige nixed her 11-year-old son James' after-school FCAT tutoring at his school,Orchard Villa Elementary in Model City. The reasons: the cost of gas and the inability to make car repairs.

''I had to cry this morning,'' said Paige, who recently put in for a temporary job with the U.S. Census Bureau. 'I had to tell him, `We are not in our own home.' That's the hardest it's ever been for me.''

For older students, homelessness comes with a burdensome secret that's best to hide.

''At first I was ashamed,'' said Nicole Ayala, 16, who spent four months living in a Homestead shelter last year. ``I didn't want to be there.''

Nicole covered her head with a sweat shirt hood when entering the shelter -- a place she resisted because of its rules, curfews and connotations.

Nicole is now pursuing her GED and staying with her parents in a Naranja apartment provided by Carrfour Supportive Housing, a nonprofit that specializes in getting those living on the streets into stable homes.

While some homeless students neglect their grades, others shine in the classroom.

At the Overtown shelter, where an after-school program helps keep students on track, 40 out of about 100 children who live there made honor rolls last spring semester, according to the center's marketing director.

Elsewhere, homeless students battle greater challenges.

Take a 12-year-old who sleeps at night with her mother on a thin mattress in an open fruit stand next to the indoor USA Flea Market on Northwest 79th Street and 27th Avenue. They store their clothes and shoes in cardboard boxes and use a spigot, soap and a towel to bathe.

Last semester the sixth-grader at Madison Middle in Northwest Miami-Dade received two As, three Bs and two Cs and has a 2.57 GPA, said Laura Peña, the homeless student liaison. Total number of absences: Three.

The 12-year-old, whose mother did not want her name published, doesn't fit the homeless stereotype in other ways. Dressed in a yellow Polo-style shirt, khaki pants and white bangle bracelets on a recent Friday, she carried herself with a maturity beyond her age. Her homelessness doesn't seem to bother her, but she doesn't exactly want to broadcast it, either.

''I wouldn't go to school if they found out,'' said the 12-year-old.

Her mother boasts the duo live a conventional life, sans four walls and sophisticated plumbing.

``We're living like normal people but without a home.''

When a family loses its home, school administrators try their best to keep students in their school of origin. Sending the child to a new school isolates the student from established friends and teachers, and it's important to maintain the school as a stable environment, they stress.

In Broward, most homeless students manage to stay in the same school.

Meanwhile, school administrators are working to accommodate students' needs. Peña has already handed out all her school supplies and book bags -- items that usually last until March. She also just transferred two tutors from a Salvation Army shelter to the Overtown shelter because of the abundance of children. And she's increased the number of parenting classes from once every three months to once a month.

Peña believes work is unlikely to slow down.

''It's probably going to get worse before it gets better,'' Peña said. ``I'm probably going to be busy for awhile.''

What are the Repubs doing now?

2009-02-10T10:44:00.002-05:00

I wonder. 500,000 jobs lost in November, 500,000 in December, 600,000 in January. And the republicans want to continue doing the same thing they have been doing for the last eight years. Tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts. I love a tax cut as much as the next. However, this approach is the reasoning we are where we are. You can't continue to spend more than you take in. So to take in more we need the wealthiest to pay more. They are the ones screwing us in the first place. Big business bonuses for institutions that we are bailing out. HELLO....... We need to move on the spending bill to get the middle class back on track and able to spend. This is going to be a long road. But the ones in power the last eight years are the cause of this. Yes, Clinton and Reagan have some eggs in the basket. You CAN NOT take away regulators and expect rich power hungry men to play by the rules. Deregulation has been a disaster. Maybe the stimulus package isn't the end all be all, HOWEVER, by continuing to fight over tax cuts isn't the answer. President Obama is trying to bring us together. Appointed three republicans to his cabinet, gone to republican caucuses five times in his first two weeks on the job. HELLO..... WE MUST TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT, NOW..... Otherwise, a depression will not be like the one in the twenty's. They didn't have the number of people or guns in society that are on the streets today. It will get crazy and wild. Something none of us want to see. So, call your senators, and congressional representative, TODAY. Tell them to get off their asses and quit being freakin stupid. Pass the stimulus NOW....
Peace on Earth............

''I hope he fails.'' -- Limbaugh

2009-01-26T08:28:00.002-05:00

Please read the article below, as shown in the Miami Herald on Sunday. Then help shut up this fake American by turning him off is you might be one of the ones that listen to his BS. The time has come to shut down his hatred. The only way to do this is turn him off. Read below..... Thanks John Nusz

LEONARD PITTS JR. | COLUMNIST
Far-right Obama critics get a reply
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
LPITTS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
''I hope he fails.'' -- Limbaugh

It is, of course, a calculated outrage.

Meaning, it was spewed by a clown in the media circus to kick a familiar sequence into motion: angry denunciation by bloggers, pundits and supporters of President Barack Obama (the ''he'' whose failure is hoped), followed by Rush Limbaugh refusing to retract a word, a courageous truth teller who will not be moved. And, trailing behind, like the folks with brooms trail the elephants in the circus parade, Limbaugh's devotees, complaining that their hero has been misquoted, misunderstood or otherwise mistreated. ``What Rush meant was . . . yadda yadda yadda.''

A calculated outrage.

And knowing this, knowing how frequently and adroitly media are manipulated by self-promoting media clowns who defame conservatism by calling themselves conservative, one is tempted to let the statement pass, to make its way unimpeded to the dustbin like so many other manufactured controversies. But occasionally, it's necessary to intercept one of them and hold it up to the light.

This is one of those times. Not because what Limbaugh said on his radio program a few days before the inauguration was an outrage -- outrage is the point, remember? -- but rather, because of what the thing he said says about him and his fellow clowns.

``I hope he fails.''

Do you ever say that about your president if you are an American who loves your country? Would you say it about George W. Bush, who was disastrous; about Bill Clinton, who was slimy; about Jimmy Carter, who was inept; about Richard Nixon, who was crooked? You may think he's going to fail, yes. You may warn he's going to fail, yes.

But do you ever hope he fails? Knowing his failure is the country's failure? Isn't that, well . . . disloyal?

The irony is that Limbaugh and the other clowns would have you believe they are bedrock defenders of this country, that they love it more than the rest of us, more than anything.

That's a lie. Limbaugh just told us so, emphatically.

It's not the country they love. It's the attention. The ideology, their perversion of conservatism, is but a means toward that end.

Yes, an observer might point out that it's counterproductive to give them attention while decrying their love of attention. But, as already noted, occasionally the clowns spew something that cannot, and ought not, be ignored.

Ideological division is nothing new to politics. But has ideology ever taken quite the seat of prominence it now enjoys? Have people ever been quite so prone to regard their ideological identity as more important than their national identity? The last 30 years are rare in that regard, if not unique.

``I hope he fails?!''

So that, what? The defamation of conservatism Limbaugh represents will stand vindicated? The Republicans will pick up a few seats in the midterm election? Limbaugh's ''side'' -- his word -- will score points?

A sense of mission

Is this only a game, then? No lives at stake, no future on the line, no planet in the balance? Just a game?

I hope he bricks this free throw.

I hope he fumbles that pass.

I hope he fails.

And to hell with the country.

The country doesn't matter. The ''side'' does. And Limbaugh's side seems angry in power and angry out. It's as if anger is all they really have.

Barack Obama was elected in large part on a promise to carry the nation past anger, past the notion that either party has a monopoly on wisdom, past the belief that ideology is identity. He was elected because people want a sense of mission that makes them feel like Americans again.

If he is successful, Limbaugh and the other clowns will face tough sledding in a radically different world. Small wonder he is so eager to strangle this presidency in its infancy. And need it even be said?

I hope he fails.

Jan. 20th 2009 A Very Special Day

2009-01-20T07:58:00.003-05:00

What does this day mean to me personally? Well, to begin I must look back eight years. Eight years ago we watched a man take over the White House in the most criminal way possible. Unfortunately it all went down hill after that. Today, eight years later we say good bye to the worst President in history. Some I guess will debate that! And, it amazes me that still 22% of the country feel the guy has done some good. Amazing, in and of itself. I'm not sure what planet their living on. Anyhow, history will judge this man. I just pray that the new president will appoint someone to investigate his actions. Why is this important you say? Because if we are a nation of and by the people and if we are a nation of laws, then NO ONE is above the law. Both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have admitted to torturing. A senior republican has admitted to torture. This is not who we are. We are the ones who prosecute the torturers. We are the greatest country in the world because of our standards and beliefs. This man took our constitution and spit on it, thinking that he can do anything he wanted under the name of protecting you and me. When in reality, if he was doing his job the worst assault on American land would have never occurred. So, today, before looking ahead I had to look back. Look back at several things. The last of which I'll mention here is the economy. Some say the president doesn't have that much control over the economy. To that I'll bring up a couple of points. First, republicans hate the tax and spend mentality. WELL, W. was just a spender. How can you just spend all month long and have no income at your house? Well, the same goes here. He just spent and spent and had no income. You can't spend so much money without raising taxes. They have to go hand in hand or you loose. So creating illegal wars that spent trillions of dollars and no way of paying for it just shows the lack of concern for your countrymen. Now, when you put that with the laws that were passed under W to deregulate the banking industry, you have a nightmare just starting. Lastly, you put all of this with what Regan started in the eighties with trickle down economics, and you have the disaster that we are now in. When you give the richest people and the richest companies all the money and power and then hope it trickles down to all the rest of us you are creating a third world mentality. Where all the power is held by the rich. Once this happens there ceases to be a middle class. Without a middle class you DO NOT HAVE DEMOCRACY. So, here we are, eight years later in two wars with no end in site, an economy in ruins and collapsing in front of our eyes, a president leaving office as a war criminal at the very least.
So why would anyone want to have to clean up this mess?
This brings us to today. A day for the times. A man taking office with an 83% approval rating. The first time in our great history that a man of color will live in the White House. This is truly a day of HOPE. And, ALL of us had better pray and pray really hard and long that this man is half the man some think he is. I am one who believes that this man is special. Maybe he isn't, but for all our sakes we had better HOPE that he is. He is facing so much at one time. Maybe I feel the pressure of our economy more than most. In Florida we are the third worse state in this horrible economy. And, as a business owner, we are suffering to maintain our business. I have two college educated children that are living at home, going back to college for their masters, as there is no jobs out there. I am thankful that so far we have the resources available to help them. As I've said to my children, this too shall pass. It may be a month or a year or ten, but when economic stability returns, the most educated will have the best opportunities. So, I look at today as a new beginning. I HOPE and pray that Barack Obama will be the leader some wished W was. I think it is going to be a long road ahead, and it won't be easy. The only thing I know though, is that if we don't have HOPE right now, we have nothing. So, as I watch today I beg everyone to HOPE and pray with me, as we watch history today and wish Barack nothing but Godspeed and wisdom. And, as always, wish for PEACE ON EARTH. Today is the beginning of the rest of our lives. May we all enjoy a peace of history today.
John Nusz 1/20/2009

Do We Bailout or Not?

2008-12-05T16:43:00.003-05:00

Well, well, here we go again. Do we bail out the auto industry? Can we add my business to the list to bail out? Come on, why not me too? I wasn't for the financial bailout that cost tax payers over $7B, and there is no over sight on that, so who knows how much will be missing or just mismanaged! Now the auto industry wants a bailout. Why? Didn't they cause all of this? Mismanagement, poor unions, management stealing or paying itself billions more than they are worth. I'm sure all are at fault in one way or another. I hear an estimate of 3 million America jobs will b lost if we don't bail them out. With reports that the unemployment rate is up to almost 7%, and with the true unemployment rate (counting the unemployed that are no longer getting unemployment checks)at almost 15%, where will we be with an additional three million unemployed if they aren't bailed out? The answer is close to the great depression unemployment rate of 30's.
So, how will that effect all of us? My guess isn't good. Crime will rise, violent crimes, crimes against women as family finances out of hand will rise and much much more.
I guess we should look at it like we do sometimes when we want something and there is no other way to get it but credit cards. We'll worry about it later. And, I must ask, what is the difference in bailing out white collar jobs but not blue collar jobs? Ya, Wall Street vs. Main Street, I guess you could say. So, I SAY BAIL THEM OUT TOO. I don't like it but, I don't think we have a choice. And, each tax payer gets a free car as a way of saying thanks. I mean hell, I'd give someone a tuxedo for bailing me out. Seams fair, no? In all seriousness, I do feel there is no other way out. I know we said that then had to bail out Citi, but hey, there too important to let fail. Yet, the auto industry is? I'm not a economist (what a surprise I know, SORRY) but my common sense (Ya, another surprise) tells me we have no other choice. It all must be regulated and oversight given and a plan so that we know what success looks like.
I'd like your opinion. Hit comment and let me know what you think.
Peace on Earth!

No need anymore to try to look Canadian

2008-11-26T11:13:00.000-05:00

Sitting on top of the world
Garrison Keillor
November 12, 2008

Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning. He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning.. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool. Chicago !!!

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor—he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos, and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back. He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law. I just can't imagine anybody cooler.

It feels good to be cool, and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see " United States of America"
and look up and grin. Even if you worship in the church of Fox , everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama, and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.

Who is this man Barack and where did he come from A picture is worth a thousand words!

2008-11-24T16:01:00.000-05:00

Obama Photo Gallery

WHERE DID HE COME FROM?

FATHER and MOTHER

MOTHER and SON

FATHER and SON
Barack Obama Sr. poses with his son in the Honolulu airport
during Obama Sr.'s only visit to see his son while he was
growing up in Hawaii . Young Barack was in the 5th grade
when the photo was taken

Barack Obama Sr., a native of Kenya , met his future wife while they were students at the University of Hawaii . In 1963, he essentially abandoned his family to continue his studies at Harvard.

Grandparents and Mom

THE DUNHAMS: precocious, self-assured
Stanley Ann (left); her impetuous father,
who named his only child after himself;
her mother, Madelyn, the quiet, firm
influence in the home.

At their home in Jakarta , Ann Dunham poses in this undated photo with her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, their daughter, Maya, and Barack Obama.

Mom, Sister and Barack

WHAT ARE GRANDPARENTS?

Barack Obama with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham during a 1982 visit to New York , where Obama was attending Columbia . (Courtesy of The Obama Family

Barack Obama walks with his grandmother Sarah Hussein Obama at his father's house in Nyongoma Kogelo village, western Kenya , in Aug. 2006. (AP file)

Barack Obama with his grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, in Africa (Courtesy)

In this Obama Family photo ares: (bottom row, from left) half-sister Auma, her mother Kezia Obama, Obama's step-grandmother Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama and unknown; (top row, from left) unknown, Barack Obama, half-brother Abongo (Roy) Obama, and three unknowns. (Courtesy of the Obama Family)

FATHER

Barack Obama as a toddler.

(Courtesy of Barack Obama)
(

Barack Obama as a child. (Courtesy of Barack Obama)

Barack walks along Waikiki Beach shortly before he and his mother moved from Hawaii to Indonesia to live with her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, in 1967.

Barack poses with his mother, Ann, half
sister, Maya, and maternal grandfather
Stanley Dunham in Hawaii in the early
1970s after the family returned from I
ndonesia. Neighbors remember the
close relationship between young
Barack and his grandfather.

A page from Barack Obama's senior yearbook features his personalized message to family, friends and teammates. (Photo from The Oahuan yearbook / March 23, 2007)

Barack Obama hugs his younger half sister Maya at his high school graduation

Barack Obama shakes hands during his graduation ceremony from Punahou School in 1979. While in his early teens, Obama chose to stay at the school and live with his grandparents after his mother decided to move back to Jakarta , Ind onesia.

At his high school graduation, Barack Obama gets a hug from his grandmother Madelyn as his grandfather Stanley beams. His maternal grandparents raised Obama in Hawaii while his mother was living in Indonesia .

Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barack Obama's half sister, teaches her Education in American Society class at the University of Hawaii .

The wedding day of Barack Obama Jr. and Michelle LaVaughn Robinson...... (Courtesy of the Obama Family)

Barack and first born

THE FAMILY

Quotations
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.'

Barack and Michelle

Be sure to share!

OBAMA '08

No communion for Obama supporters

2008-11-14T11:44:00.001-05:00

By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press Writer Meg Kinnard, Associated Press Writer – Thu Nov 13, 6:33 pm ET

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.

But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers — and voters — should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.

According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County — traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas — went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.

"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."

Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.

"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."

A man who has attended St. Mary's for 18 years said he welcomed Newman's message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.

"I don't understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who's a pro-abortion candidate," said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. "You're talking about the murder of innocent beings."

___

On the Net:

St. Mary's Catholic Church: http://www.stmarysgvl.org/

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/

Oh Say Can You See

2008-11-10T09:23:00.001-05:00

PROUD

2008-11-05T08:21:00.004-05:00

I am so proud of what Americans did last night. And, whether you voted for President Obama or not, you had to be moved by his acceptance speech and have HOPE again as Americans. Either of these men would have been facing huge obstacles. Now if we can support this man's agenda and give him the support maybe, just maybe he will be the true uniter. I appreciate each of your patience in reading my blog, agreeing with me or not. John McCain, made many mistakes in my opinion in running his campaign, last night was not one of them. He was a true hero at the end. If he wore that face and spoke in that tune throughout the campaign this would have been a much tougher race. Godspeed and the best of luck to President Barack Hussein Obama.

What I Believe

2008-11-03T10:13:00.007-05:00

These are the reasons that I have cast my ballot for Sen. Barack Obama:
* I believe in the need to build our economy similar to the way Pres. Roosevelt did after the great depression, by improving our infrastructure. Building and improving our roads, bridges and hospitals. This is Barack's position. As well as, investing in our economy by exploring the building of energy via, wind, solar etc. And, I take Sen. McCain at his word when he said then proved that he knows very little about the economy. And, when he has voted Bush policy 100% of the time over the last 18 months and 95% over the last couple of years and over 90% during Pres Bushes term it shows. And, frankly, it's true, we can't stand four more years of this behavior. Past performance predicts future performance.
* I believe that it is a right of ALL Americans to have the best health care available in the world. I DO NOT believe that we should be taxed on health care, nor do I believe a $5,000 tax credit will help me. See, I'm like Sen. McCain, in that I have had malignant melanoma (skin cancer). And, I have had two back fusion surgeries. So, see I wouldn't be able to get insurance at any price due to pre-existing conditions.
* I believe that one issue voters should stay home on election day, because they do more harm than good. This is the main reason we are in the condition in this country that we are now. I am Pro-life, however, I firmly believe in a woman's right to choose. Her decision's should be between her and her doctor.
* I believe that the church has no place in politics and politics has no place in the church.
* I believe in a foreign policy that says, sit down and discuss our differences, adjust, compensate, and sometimes agree to disagree. But, war should only be a last resort. And, we MUST bring our allies back to us and encourage our friendship to grow, so that when we do have to go to war, we aren't going it alone, financially or militarily.
* I believe in protecting our environment, so that our children and our children's children will have a beautiful place to live and grow and prosper.
* I believe that no one in this country should live in poverty. By raising the middle class you ensure democracy. You do that similarly to the way Bill Clinton did. By creating jobs and getting people off of welfare, the way he did.
* I believe that a woman has the right to earn the same amount of money for the same job as a man.
* I believe that a veteran should be taken care. John McCain has voted year after year against veteran's benefits. This from a veteran. Go figure!
* I believe that the rich should be happy to pay more taxes. Trickle down economics has gotten us to where we are today. Giving the richest people and companies the most tax breaks in hopes that it trickles down to all the rest of us, is CRAZY. Rolling back the Bush tax cuts and getting us out of Iraq will allow us to spend money on AMERICANS. HELLO!!!

These are all the reasons why I cast my ballot for Sen. Barack Obama. If you feel the same way I do, do not be afraid to vote for him. DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE FEAR TACTICS of the McCain campaign. After all by definition, terrorism is causing one to be fearful, and cause terror.

Please VOTE!!!!!!
John Nusz

Racism still part of Ky. UNFORTUNATELY

2008-10-30T12:09:00.001-04:00

Obama effigy found on UK's campus

University of Kentucky police are investigating who hung an effigy of Democrat Sen. Barack Obama from a tree on the Lexington campus Wednesday morning.

UK President Lee Todd said that UK police have notified federal authorities of the incident. Todd said a professor saw the effigy on the tree near the Rose Street parking garage across from the Mining and Mineral Resources building this morning and called police. The professor then sent Todd an email notifying him of the incident.

UK police took down the effigy and have it as evidence, Todd said. He called the act "deplorable" and says that type of behavior is not tolerated on UK's campus.

The effigy had a mask of Obama on it and there was a noose around the effigy's neck, Todd said.

"We've done many, many things to increase diversity," Todd said. "I know this is not a reflection of this institution."

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John Nusz

Why you should vote for Obama

2008-10-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

McCain Camp Calls Palin a WHACK Job DIVA.. What a SHAME

2008-10-30T09:00:00.002-04:00

McCain camp trying to scapegoat Palin

Roger Simon Roger Simon – Thu Oct 30, 5:43 am ET

Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain listens as he is introduced Reuters – Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain listens as he is introduced at a campaign rally in …

John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)

McCain didn’t seem to care that much. McCain admitted recently on national TV that he “didn’t know her well at all” before he chose Palin.

But why not? Why didn’t he get to know her better before he made his choice?

It’s not like he was rushed. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in early March. He didn’t announce his choice for a running mate until late August.

Wasn’t that enough time for McCain to get to know Palin? Wasn’t that enough time for his crackerjack “vetters” to investigate Palin’s strengths and weaknesses, check through records and published accounts, talk to a few people, and learn that she was not only a diva but a whack job diva?

But McCain picked her anyway. He wanted to close the “enthusiasm gap” between himself and Barack Obama. He wanted to inject a little adrenaline into the Republican National Convention. He wanted to goose up the Republican base.

And so he chose Palin. Is she really a diva and a whack job? Could be. There are quite a few in politics. (And a few in journalism, too, though in journalism they are called “columnists.”)

As proof that she is, McCain aides now say Palin is “going rogue” and straying from their script. Wow. What a condemnation. McCain sticks to the script. How well is he doing?

In truth, Palin’s real problem is not her personality or whether she takes orders well. Her real problem is that neither she nor McCain can make a credible case that Palin is ready to assume the presidency should she need to.

And that undercuts McCain’s entire campaign.

This was the deal McCain made with the devil. In exchange for energizing his base by picking Palin, he surrendered his chief selling point: that he was better prepared to run the nation in time of crisis, whether it be economic, an attack by terrorists or, as he has been talking about in recent days, fending off a nuclear war.

“The next president won’t have time to get used to the office,” McCain told a crowd in Miami on Wednesday. “I’ve been tested, my friends, I’ve been tested.”

But has Sarah Palin?

I don’t believe running mates win or lose elections, though some believe they can be a drag on the ticket. Lee Atwater, who was George H.W. Bush’s campaign manager in 1988, told me that Dan Quayle cost the ticket 2 to 3 percentage points. But Bush won the election by 7.8 percentage points.

So, in Atwater’s opinion, Bush survived his bad choice by winning the election on his own.

McCain could do the same thing. But his campaign’s bad decisions have not stopped with Sarah Palin. It has made a series of questionable calls, including making Joe the Plumber the embodiment of the campaign.

Are voters really expected to warmly embrace an (unlicensed) plumber who owes back taxes and complains about the possibility of making a quarter million dollars a year?

And did McCain’s aides really believe so little in John McCain’s own likability that they thought Joe the Plumber would be more likable?

Apparently so. Which is sad.

We in the press make too much of running mates and staff and talking points and all the rest of the hubbub that accompanies a campaign.

In the end, it comes down to two candidates slugging it out.

Either McCain pulls off a victory in the last round or he doesn’t.

And if he doesn’t, he has nobody to blame but himself.

AWESOME, Thanks Chelsea

2008-10-28T16:20:00.000-04:00

Some political Humor as Barack and John do a break dance off

2008-10-28T16:11:00.000-04:00

Bush pushes more socialist agenda by Bailing out Auto Industry. How Many More?

2008-10-28T14:38:00.002-04:00

Bailout money could be driven toward automakers
The Bush administration is looking at ways to aid automakers, including helping GM merge with Chrysler.
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS AND BILL VLASIC
New York Times Service

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is examining options for providing emergency financial help to spur a merger between General Motors and Chrysler, according to government officials.

People familiar with the discussions said the administration wanted to provide financial assistance to the deeply troubled Big Three Detroit automakers, possibly by using the Treasury Department's wide-ranging authority under the $700 billion bailout program that Congress approved this month.

Another option under consideration is to tap a $25 billion loan program that Congress just created to help the auto companies modernize their plants. A third option would involve going back to Congress, after the Nov. 4 election, for authority to spend money designated specifically for the auto industry. But officials have not yet decided how much assistance to provide or how to structure any aid program.

GM and Chrysler's parent company, Cerberus Capital Management, are in talks to possibly merge the two companies, which are losing sales and hemorrhaging cash. Any financial help from the government could help provide a level of confidence to investors in such a deal, and possibly cover some of the revamping costs of a merger, which would be substantial.

The government's bailout program was originally created to rescue banks and other financial institutions, but the Treasury Department decided last week to allow some insurance companies to participate as well.

The automobile industry and lawmakers from Michigan are now arguing that the car companies should be included, because their financing subsidiaries, which have been starved for credit, represent an important channel for consumers to get loans to buy cars.

Any federal help for the financing units could be used to provide car loans, which is seen as crucial to increasing sales. Many dealers have had trouble closing sales because of tighter lending standards.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/744703.html

John Nusz

See what this kind of hatred starts?

2008-10-28T09:00:00.002-04:00

We live in a cynical world. At McCain and Palin rallies they encourage the kind of behavior that supports and encourages hatred. It is a shame! Have you seen McCain say how sad it is that one of his volunteers did what the woman in Ohio did? Could he have prevented this, probably not. However, by encouraging the kind of remarks that have marked his and Palin's rallies, he shouldn't have been surprised. And, if he is the man of honor that he says he is he would immediately make a statement saying this kind of behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. YET, HE DOES NOTHING! Absolutely unacceptable. But, what do you expect from a candidate so desperate that they have to bring out Rev. Wright? Sad! UNACCEPTABLE! UNPRESIDENTIAL! Thankfully we only have 7 more days of listening to a man so desperate that he'll say or do anything. I can't see how anyone could support this kind of behavior by someone once called a hero. And just think only 9% of Americans think this country is heading in the right direction. Yet, 40% or so will still vote to continue this kind of government. If somehow they steal another one, GOD HELP US ALL.
Peace on Earth,
John Nusz

Skinhead plot news sweeps suspect's Tenn. hometown

2008-10-28T08:57:00.002-04:00

By WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer

BELLS, Tenn. – In a rural Tennessee county where you can't buy alcohol or even find a Wal-Mart, residents of tiny Bells stopped each other to ask if anyone knew the pale-skinned young local accused of plotting to kill dozens of black people, including Barack Obama.

It was a jolt to find out on Monday that a 20-year-old who grew up among them was one of two white supremacists accused of plotting a national killing spree that would ultimately target Obama, the Democratic candidate for president.

The town surrounded by fertile cotton fields is safe and certainly not known for breeding neo-Nazis, they agreed.

"If we had any skinheads in this county I wasn't aware of it. We hardly know what they are," said Sam Lewis, who lives across the street from the mother of suspect Daniel Cowart. Cowart, he said, grew up in the comfortable, well maintained neighborhood and wasn't known as a troublemaker.

"His mother is a real sweet, nice girl, and this comes as a shock and a surprise," Lewis said.

Cowart is charged along with Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., with planning a killing spree to shoot and decapitate black people and top it all off by attacking Obama. The charges were made public Monday.

Cowart and Schlesselman are charged by federal authorities with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer and threatening a candidate for president. They were being held without bond.

Authorities describe the two as neo-Nazi skinheads, and an affidavit from a federal agent says they devised a plot to kill 88 people — beheading 14 of them. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The killing spree was initially to target a predominantly black school, which was not identified in court documents. It was to end, authorities said, with the two suspects — dressed in white tuxedos and top hats — blasting guns from the windows of a speeding vehicle aimed at Obama.

The young men said they expected to die in the attack, the affidavit said.

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Written by a man in Jacksonville

2008-10-28T08:56:00.000-04:00

I'm a middle-class white guy living in Jacksonville, Florida. I've
got a wife and two kids. Because the kids had no school today, I
took a vacation day from work, and took the kids downtown to vote
early. Fifty-nine minutes later, two smiling children and I proudly
sported "I Voted" stickers.

But I didn't vote for Obama.

I voted for my ancestors, who believed in the promise of this
country and came with nothing as immigrants.

I voted for my parents, who taught in the public schools for decades.

I voted for Steve, an acquaintance of mine from Kentucky (Killed by
an IED two years ago in Iraq).

I voted for Shawn, another who's been to Iraq twice, and Afghanistan
once, and who'll be going back to Afghanistan again soon -- and whose
family earned eleven bucks a month too much to qualify for food
stamps when the war started.

I voted for April, the only African-American girl in my high school --
it was years before it occurred to me how different her experience
in our school must have been.

I voted for my college friends who are Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and
yes -- Muslim.

I voted for my grandfathers, who worked hard in factories and died
too young.

I voted for the plumber who worked on my house, because I want him to
get a REAL tax break.

I voted for four little angels from Birmingham.

I voted for a bunch of dead white men who, although personally
flawed, were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred
honor, and used a time of great crisis to expand freedom rather than
suspend it.

I voted for all those people and more, and I voted for all of you,
too. But mostly, I voted selfishly. I vote for two little kids, one
who has ballet in an hour, and one who has baseball practice at the
same time. I voted for a world where they can be confident that their
government will represent the best that is in this country, and that
will in turn demand the best of them. I voted for a government that
will be respected in the world. I voted for an economy that will
reward work above guile. I voted for everything I believe in.

Sure, I filled in the circle next to the name Obama, but it wasn't
him I was voting for -- it was every single one of us, and those I
love most of all. Who else is there to vote for?

Rolling Stone Magazine Article

2008-10-24T14:39:00.002-04:00

Block the Vote
Will the GOP's campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST

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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote

Posted by: John Nusz

Hunters and Shooters for Obama

2008-10-23T13:17:00.001-04:00

Check out their website. They say the NRA is WRONG..... Obama will not take away MY gun.
http://www.huntersandshooters.com/

A New Era of Taxpayer Slavery?

2008-10-23T08:58:00.000-04:00

by Ron Paul

In the midst of highly unpopular bailouts of Wall Street, many justifications have been given about why Washington feels the need to act. Some claim that capitalism and the free market are to blame, but we have not had capitalism. If you compare our financial capital to our aggregate debt, this would be obvious. In the same way, we have not had a truly free market. The monetary manipulations of the Federal Reserve, a complex tax code, the many “oversight” agencies and their mountains of regulations show that we are far removed from a free market economy.

Another unsatisfying argument is that certain entities have to be bailed out because of their economic importance. Supposedly, some entities can be so big, so important, that no matter what they do, citizens must perpetually sustain them.

Even limited government has a basic duty to defend against force and fraud. Some argue that force is somehow permissible just because the entity engaging in it is “economically significant.” But one could use this reasoning to prop up slavery. It could be deemed unfortunate but economically beneficial, and indeed these arguments have been used historically to deprive people of their liberty. But slavery should never be tolerated regardless of any economic benefit, just as systemic fraud should not be tolerated.

Some banks on Wall Street should fail. Fannie and Freddie should fail. They are perpetrating fraud against the people. Yet, government insists on rewarding behavior which should instead be investigated, prosecuted, and punished.

There has been much evidence of fraud at Fannie and Freddie, but when one man, Franklin Raines, defrauded the organization out of millions of dollars through illegal accounting tricks, and ends up agreeing to pay back just a fraction, one could argue that it was well worth it to him. Fannie went on to only get more deeply involved in subprime mortgages after this investigation.

Several organizations are suffering right now precisely because the free market is trying to work and punish mismanagement, if only the government would get out of the way and let it. Perhaps banks are not lending to each other because they know that complicated accounting standards, created in part to defend against confiscatory tax policy, enables false fiscal pictures to be presented, which erodes trust.

But this is not a time for the government to step in with more burdensome and complicated regulations, or more foolish liquidity injections. This is a time for some banks to fail, and remaining banks to deal honestly and transparently once again. More regulations will only result in more lies.

Just as economies that turned away from slave labor had a transition period, our economy would transition as well, but in the end, if we turned to honest, sound money and a truly free market, we would end up with a more just society, founded on truthfulness and decency, not subject to the violence of force or the whims of fraudulent institutions.

Unfortunately, it seems we are headed into a new era of slavery, however, where all taxpayers will be forced to render to the Fed and big banking interests the bulk of the fruits of their labor, possibly through higher taxes but definitely through the eroding force of inflation.

Is This the Physically Responsible Conservative Party?

2008-10-23T08:47:00.002-04:00

I don't think this is what they mean by being a conservative. Where the party has to buy clothes for the running mate. Where the potential first lady shows up at events wearing $300,000 outfits. Maybe I'm wrong and this is the crowd they want to vote for them. And, they probably will. WOW... That has to be a huge minority. Talking about elitism.
John Nusz

GOP donors critical of Palin's pricey threads

2008-10-23T08:45:00.002-04:00

Jeanne Cummings Jeanne Cummings

The Republican National Committee’s $150,000 investment in Sarah Palin’s wardrobe has prompted some teeth gnashing among the party’s big donors about its political sensibility and a feisty debate among campaign finance specialists about its legality.

“As a Republican Eagle and a maxed-out contributor to McCain’s general campaign, I’d like my money back – he can still have my vote,” complained one irate donor on Tuesday.

“I’m not one who says a candidate shouldn’t wear fine clothes,” he added. “I’d just like to think they were successful enough in the private sector to have afforded their wardrobe with their own money, not the party’s or the campaign’s, which is really our money as contributors.”

Another big donor was sympathetic to the effort, but critical of the execution.

The Alaska governor was tapped by Arizona Sen. John McCain to become his vice presidential running mate just days before the Republican National Convention in Minnesota, the donor noted.

Given the short notice and the Palins’ relatively modest means, “she could probably not go into her closet at home in Alaska to come up with a wardrobe appropriate for her status as a vice presidential candidate," he said.

“Having said that, $150K is big money,” he added. “It kind of makes it worth running. Even if you lose, you’ve got a whole new closet.”

Other donors, in other e-mails and interviews, said the costs were worth the investment.

Palin has proven to be a major draw at campaign rallies, and her strong performances and appearance provides a polished and professional image on television, one donor noted.

In addition, he suggested, the bad press only means the GOP base will unite even further behind the McCain-Palin ticket.

As Republican donors absorbed the news, the consensus among several prominent Washington-based attorneys was that the purchases were legal, albeit in a fuzzy area of the law.

Campaign finance laws prohibit candidates from spending donor cash to their authorized personal campaign committee on costs “that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign,” including clothing, vacations and gym memberships.

But the law does not prohibit such expenditures by party committees, and Congress has killed legislation to expand the personal use ban to those and other types of political committees.

The fuzzy part in the Palin case is that the RNC used money from an account designated for “coordinated,” or shared, expenditures with the McCain-Palin candidate account.

The Federal Election Commission, which interprets federal campaign finance laws, has never been asked to address this issue. And legal experts say the key question is: From which side of the joint account was the money drawn?

Noting that the expenses were reported by the RNC and not the McCain-Obama campaign, Ken Gross, a law partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who advises corporations on campaign finance laws, concluded: “The bottom line is that this is party committee money. These are not campaign funds.”

Wiley Rein lawyer Jan Baran, an adviser to several Republican candidates and committees, agreed with Gross, but added that the Palins may still be forced to comply with tax laws.

“The receipt of goods and services by the taxpayer usually constitutes reportable ‘income’,” Baran said. Consequently, Palin may have to declare the value of the fashion gifts as income and pay taxes on it.

“She might be able to offset some of the taxes by donating the items to charity after the campaign, Baran said, “although she will only be able to deduct the fair market value at that time.”

The campaign said Monday that Palin intends to donate the clothes to charity after the election.

Want to know more about Making Money Out of Thin Air? Watch the Movie

2008-10-23T08:41:00.000-04:00

How Money is Really Made Out of Thin Air

2008-10-23T08:39:00.003-04:00

Jeremy Hsu
LiveScience Staff Writer

Making money in 2008 looks like a grim proposition, but not because U.S. government printing presses can't create enough dollar bills.

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (whose web site name perhaps says it all: moneyfactory.gov) churns out about 38 million bills of varying denominations daily, all worth $750 million in face value. Facilities in Forth Worth, Texas and Washington D.C. use 18 tons of ink per day to keep up.

Yet 95 percent of fresh notes simply replace those already in circulation. Common $1 bills last about 21 months, while a $100 bill can go for roughly 7.4 years before requiring replacement. Taken all together, these physical bills represent just a drop in the bucket of global money.

The real trick to funding the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry: Make more money. However, most of that money never actually gets printed at all. Rather, it's infused into the economy by the ultimate ATM: the federal government. And it grows and grows by a rather mystical process that works only when everyone plays the lending game.

Virtual cash

Most money lives not in our wallets but in something like a banking Matrix - a virtual world of electronic numbers running between bank accounts. People typically look at their money as a figure in a bank statement, and trust that number is real. The economy runs on that faith as workers deposit their checks in banks.

Banks then get down to the business of creating money by lending it out. Assume that you put $100 in your bank account. The government requires banks to hold a certain amount in reserve, say 10 percent, so the bank may just take $90 and lend it out to someone else. That person can then buy something with the $90. The store deposits the $90 in another bank, and the lending process continues to inflate the original $100.

"The original $100 that came in gets blown up by the banking system into something much bigger - essentially $1,000 [assuming a 10 percent reserve]," said Menzie Chinn, an economist and public policy expert at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

This system may sound a bit magical, yet it works as long as banks and other lenders believe that debtors will pay them back. And if the loans go toward spending or investments that make even more money, everyone gets paid and the money-creation cycle continues.

The problem

People typically deposit their money with commercial banks such as Citibank or Wells Fargo. Corporations and large groups deposit their money with bigger investment banks such as Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley.

However, this lending-as-creating process imploded this year after seemingly everyone had bet their borrowed money on the idea that housing prices would keep going up. When housing prices began to fall, many debtors lost that gamble and ended up failing to pay back their loans. Investment banks also found themselves in serious trouble after they had bet on the housing market, and either filed for bankruptcy, ended up on the auction block, or needed a federal hand.

Remaining banks have become scared of lending out money when there is no guarantee they will get any of it back. That reluctance to lend out money "short circuits the money expansion process," Chinn told LiveScience.

This is a problem because the global economy depends heavily on borrowing and loans. Individuals and corporations may need to borrow heavily during bad times, and the lack of available loans can further plunge the economy into a downward spiral of recession.

The collapse of confidence in the lending system also destroyed any grand illusions of greater wealth created by the long chain of loans and ever-rising housing prices that weren't supposed to come down. The money-creation cycle screeched to a halt.

"But at the bottom of it, there was some reality of greater wealth," Chinn said. "Just not as much as we thought."

Solutions

The U.S. government's central bank, the Federal Reserve, normally has several tactics to tweak the money-creation process. The Fed can change the amount of money that banks are required to hold in reserve, which either frees up more for loans or reduces the amount available for loans. It can also deal with banks to buy or sell Treasury securities, again to increase or decrease the amount of money available for loans.

That's how it normally works. But as Chinn and other economists point out, these are strange times. The government is now taking "extraordinary means" to try and unlock the freeze on loans, and may even consider more extreme measures such as guaranteeing all bank deposits in case a bank fails.

"They're trying to make it so banks and other financial institutions trust each other," Chinn noted.

The $700 billion bailout bill for Wall Street is another attempt to save faltering banks and financial institutions, but the government has to get all that money somehow.

One option involves issuing more U.S. Treasury bonds so that U.S. and foreign investors or governments can buy them up - basically borrowing more money from the rest of the world. That would tend to drive the interest rate up, so that the U.S. government would ultimately have to pay back more money to its lenders.

The Fed could also buy up some of the Treasury bonds itself and reduce the interest rate on its bonds. That action essentially represents "printing money," Chinn said. Creating money out of thin air may help in the short term, but in the long run reduces the value of U.S. dollars.

"Or the U.S. government can raise taxes," Chinn added.

When will the mud slinging stop? 13 more days!

2008-10-22T15:08:00.003-04:00

All John McCain has left is mud slinging. Like the guy who loses the girl to the more hansom man, he cusses and spits and calls him all kinds of names. This is what politics has come to in America from the republican party. They should be ashamed! From the hate mongers that spew ungodly names, to the campaign calling Obama a Socialist. The Liberal word isn't working this election so they choose to go further and further with the name calling. It is absolutely shameful! And, this is done in the name of honor and decency? Come on, Mr McCain, you were supposed to be better than this. To try and do the same thing W did to you in 2000 when you called it shameful, is pitiful.
Socialism? Ya, what people fail to realize is that we already have socialistic programs. They are called the fire department and the police department and most recently when W decided to buy into banking with the taxpayers money, our banking system is now socialistic. Does this mean that, because most of the poor are democrats that this means we believe in and support socialism? HELL NO! Nor does Mr. Barack Obama! His voting record does lean to the liberal side? Yes! And, I for one am proud of this. A proud liberal! Liberalism isn't Socialism! For those that know not!
Barack Hussein Obama is the real deal and ready to lead this great nation back to respectability as Gen. and former Sec of State Colin Powell (a Republican who served under Presidents Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43) so eloquently stated last Sunday when he endorsed Sen. Barack Obama. And this is why my wife and I stood in a line for three hours yesterday to cast our ballots for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama for the next president of the United States of America.
PLEASE LET THE MUD SLINGING STOP AND RETURN TO RESPECTABILITY NOW!!!!
Peace on Earth.
John Nusz

Pics form Chelsea of Obama in Miami 10.21.08

2008-10-22T15:03:00.004-04:00

Conservatives Blame McCain

2008-10-20T17:59:00.001-04:00

West Virginia voting machines flipping Obama votes to McCain

2008-10-20T16:37:00.001-04:00

Reported by Chrish - October 19, 2008

Now will we hear about this and other incidents for days or weeks on end on FOX and Friends? My guess is no way, because as the article says, "In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated." The FOX double standard applies.

The West Virginia Gazette reports

"Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

As noted above, the elections clerks dismissed the problems, and

"also blamed voters for not being more careful.

"People make mistakes more than machines," said Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright.

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way."

A Nation on the Verge of Bankruptcy

2008-10-20T08:25:00.000-04:00

by Ron Paul

It has been long understood that our federal government is going deeper into debt, consistently raising the debt ceiling and demonstrating no fiscal restraint. In recent years, debt ceiling increases have been placed in “must pass” legislation as a means to guarantee that Republicans as well as Democrats would vote for them when Congress was under Republican control.

We also know our nation’s “negative savings rate” reflects the habits of private citizens, showing those habits to be not tremendously different than the habits of the public sector. Yet, the signs of decline are becoming ever more apparent. So apparent, in fact, that it seems unlikely that bailouts or other gimmicks will have even short term success. More inflation, and creating moral hazard by bailing out egregious offenders, is a recipe for disaster. These activities can seem to provide some short term relief, but it seems we are now at a significant crisis point, where monetary policy gimmicks don’t provide the band-aids they did in the past.

Not only is our nation on the verge of bankruptcy, but so are its people and private institutions. We are now repeatedly hearing about businesses “needing to access the credit market to make payroll.” This is an unmistakable sign of more dire consequences ahead for the economy. If businesses must borrow just to make payroll, this is evidence of a severe undercapitalization that cannot be sustained, even for the short run.

Couple these facts with items such as the explosion of the “pay day loan” industry and the unmasking of the false sense of economic well-being is nearly complete. These pay day loan companies use preferred access to easy credit to inject cash into the hands of the working poor. They are nearly always set up in lower-income neighborhoods. These people, who are struggling to buy food and pay rent, get addicted to the credit drug. Their standard of living is only further depressed by the interest payments on these loans that make them profitable to their providers. Thus, the recipients are left even less capable of paying for items such as food and housing in the long run, without using this credit again and again.

These people are often the very ones being paid by businesses who “borrow to make payroll.” This is the dark underbelly of the fiat money, borrow and spend economy this nation has been building. As the government takes over more and more functions of the economy many see the rise of socialism as an antidote to this failure of “capitalism”. However, the fact remains that our economy has been increasingly running on debt, not capital. Capitalism does not exist without capital and debt is not, has never been and will never be a form of capital. Only now are we seeing the more dire implications of an economy without capital.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

2008-10-20T08:11:00.000-04:00

BUSH Equals Socialism

2008-10-15T16:58:00.007-04:00

As I watched the market crash YET AGAIN, I wonder where all of this is heading? With W buying into American banks and a $700B bailout not doing anything yet, except getting the government involved in banking, where does it stop? Isn't that the same as Socialism? Where the government runs everything? Well, maybe it isn't yet there, but isn't this the start of Socialism? I believe that W and his cronies are trying to make it through the next 20 days in the hopes of keeping the number of senate seats and not widening the gap in congress. It's political! It shouldn't be! It is about our future as a United country. In the last couple of days, McCain and Obama have both laid out plans for the economy. After reading both recaps, it appears to me that Obama's plan points directly at getting people to work through tax incentives for small businesses to get more people to work. Where McCain's plan does more of the same thing he has been doing and that's supporting big business with trickle down economics. No matter who wins or steals this election, there will be a mess no one is suited to fix quickly. But with W borrowing money from China, to give to banks that have screwed up and still on the honor system, is crazy to me. We'll be paying China back forever and the tax payer is stuck with no way to realization that this is a bottomless pit. And, being in bed with the Chinese is a very dangerous thing. This all the while banks and wall streets big wigs continue to live large. Why is that? I don't know, but my feeling is that this country is very close to exploding, and maybe deservingly so. God help us all.
John Nusz

Stupid People

2008-10-13T14:10:00.005-04:00

I was just driving down the street in Miami, FL. USA. And, in the back window was this print out accross the top of the back window that said, "Obama the Fidel Castro of the USA." WHERE THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE COMING FROM? Why can't we talk about the issues and talk about how we got to were we are. NOOOOO.... Instead we have to deal with idoits and stupid people, like the two people shown in the below videos. The first guy doesn't seem to understand that the President only suggests the Supreme Court Justice. Congress either approves them or not. The second lady is obviously a RACIST, and an IDIOT. Come on America, we can do better than this. We are better than this. STUPID PEOPLE PLEASE SHUT UP. Let's discuss the issues.

Ron Paul Predicted Economic Collapse

2008-10-10T11:59:00.000-04:00

ACORN and Others. Voter FRAUD

2008-10-10T08:54:00.002-04:00

My opinion is that whomever breaks the law should be punished. This goes for every American. If W and Dick do the same thing that Marta Stewart does they should pay the same fiddler. If someone allows the government to listen in on private phone calls they should fry just before the leader who authorizes this action. If ACORN or any other person or entity that breaks the law should pay the pied piper. Why else do we have laws when they are only applied to the peons? There are many steps in recent times that scare me, because our democracy is fleeting too quickly. So quickly that the tide is so strong that it might not be able to be stopped. This has been my point on the thefts of the elections in 2000 and 2004. GORE v BUSH. The documentary movie "Uncounted" proves both. What happens when, "We the People," matters NOT? What do we become? Does anyone care? If all this had happened in the 60's or early 70's, people would be in the streets. WHY AREN'T we NOW?
John Nusz

Lessons From the Bailout & John's Reply

2008-10-10T08:52:00.001-04:00

In the article, it says, both democrats and republicans. Yet, they only reference democratic names of legislators. This to me doesn’t bode well. I agree with the article. However, it is much deeper than that. I believe there is a lot of blame to go around. I had heard after or during the writing of the $700B bill that the FBI was doing something like 42 bank investigations. Haven’t heard anything since. Anyone, dem or repub who is found guilty, should have their asses fried in a televised show. I heard a tape of w during the summer of 2002 say that there was only x number of minority homeowners and that this number would be x million more by the end of his term. And, that Freddie and Fannie already had the programs and were on the march across the country to get more minority homeowners. What does this mean? Who the hell knows, but once they started just looking at credit score to determine ability to be a homeowner, shit was sooner or later going to hit the fan. Everybody wants to lay blame, and I’m sure a closer look will lead to names of people on both sides of the aisle will be embarrassed on their voting records. B/C to me the issue was the deregulation. Once the rules went out the door, predators took over. I strongly recommend the movie zeitgeist addendum b/c this show a lot about the money and the why’s of why we’re here. It’s really not a political movie but quite interesting on how and why things are the way they are. We have a very broken system and may implode before we can come out of it on the other side. If this happens, God help us all. b/c no one knows what this will look like.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm
peace on earth,
nusz

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2008, AND THEREAFTER

Lessons From the Bailout

In my more cynical moments, I think that we Americans deserve what we get from our politicians, many of whom can be generally described as nothing less than loathsome. You say, "Williams, that's a pretty heavy putdown." My question to you is how else would you describe these congressmen who are now blaming the financial mess on the failure of the free market? Starting with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, that was given more teeth during the Clinton administration, Congress started intimidating banks and other financial institutions into making loans, so-called subprime loans, to high-risk homebuyers and businesses. The carrot offered was that these high-risk loans would be purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have known that this was a prescription for disaster but there was a congressional chorus of denial.
Five years ago, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) vouched for the "soundness" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and said, "I do not see any possibility of serious financial losses to the treasury." In 2004 congressional hearings, where the Bush administration sought greater oversight over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, "We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly at Fannie Mae," adding that "the GSEs have exceeded their housing goals." Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said, "There's nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." In these hearings Barney Frank said that he doesn't see "anything in the reports that raises safety and soundness problems." Earlier this year, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for "riding to the rescue" to help people get home mortgage loans, adding that they "need to do more" to help high-risk borrowers get better loans.
The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not a failure of the free market because lending institutions in a free market would not have taken on the high-risk loans. They were forced to by the heavy hand of government. The solution is not a taxpayer-financed bailout. The solution is to let them fail and allow the people who invested in them, as well as the people who purchased homes they couldn't afford, suffer the losses. Of course that takes a level of political courage that is in short supply. There are other measures that should be taken as part of a second-best solution.
In 2002, when the Enron and WorldCom scandal broke, the Congress held hearings and some chief executives were jailed. Who did what was the big story in the major news media almost every night. Congress rushed to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. The act placed unnecessary, onerous and costly accounting standards on American businesses. The Enron and WorldCom debacle is a drop in the bucket compared to the financial mess that Congress has created through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the name of "affordable" housing. Have you heard Congress calling for hearings? They haven't called for hearings because many of them, both Democrats and Republicans, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, were in cahoots with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Americans are going to be on the hook to bail out these government-sponsored enterprises, at the minimum congressional hearings ought to be held to find out who did what and when.
Corporations employ accounting practices promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that established Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government agencies have accounting practices that don't come close to, and never did, the honesty of private accounting practices. Accounting fraud and deception are the dominant features of government agencies. If a private business kept and cooked the books, like government agencies do, the top executives would go to jail. Shouldn't the accounting standards businesses have to meet be applied to Washington? My answer is yes and if a congressman says no, I'd like for him to tell us why.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Where's McSain's HEAD? Nuerologist around?

2008-10-09T15:13:00.000-04:00

Rednecks for Obama' want to bridge yawning culture gap

2008-10-09T14:38:00.001-04:00

SAINT LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) — When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama."

In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election.

"I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate.

"We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri.

The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner.

"He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled.

It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said.

Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.

"I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner.

"When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes."

A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication".

Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election.

"We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican."

To an important degree, however, race is still the elephant in the polling booth, experts say, and according to a recent Stanford University poll, Obama could lose six points on election day due to his color.

Racism "has softened up some, but it's still there," Viessman acknowledged from Belmont University, site of Tuesday's McCain-Obama debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

Despite representing the heartland state of Illinois, and having a more working-class upbringing than his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has struggled to shoot down the impression that he is an arugula-eating elitist.

Surely he alienated many rural voters earlier this year when the Harvard-educated senator told a fundraiser that some blue-collar voters "cling to guns or religion".

But Viessman, who says he owns a dozen guns, said Obama "ain't gonna take your guns away."

The South traditionally votes Republican -- victories for southerners Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were exceptions -- but with less than a month to election day, four states in or bordering the South are considered toss-ups: Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

Viessman says he'd like to think his grassroots movement could sway enough people in small-town America to make a difference.

"There's lots of other rednecks for Obama too," he said. "And the ones that's not, we're trying our best to convince them."

Zeitgeist Addendum.... WATCH IF YOU DARE.

2008-10-07T18:23:00.000-04:00

What is a terrorist? It's truly a sad day.

2008-10-07T12:46:00.002-04:00

What is a terrorist? From Wikipedia: "Most common definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear (terror)." I am saddened that the right and John McCain has chosen to engage in terrorism. (by above definition) At a rally earlier when John McCain asked who the real Obama was and someone yelled out a terrorist, and John didn't say anything to stop it or curtail that kind of behavior. Then at a rally in Florida yesterday Sarah Palin asked the same type of question and someone yelled out "Kill Him!" She as well didn't do anything to stop that type of behavior.WOW...... What are we doing as a society? Is this what it's come to? WHOEVER supports these types of outbursts and encourage it, are NOT Americans. THEY ARE TERRORIST too. What happened to a fair election? My guess is that it went out the door when W sent the goons who worked for his campaign to Miami to stop the recount. How dare us to want the votes counted. If something happens to Senator Obama, I wonder if John McCain would feel any responsibility to it, via guilt by association and encouragement. Would he then be seen as a HERO? He has obviously lost his mind and all principles that used to guide him. Much less the fact that he has no policy to return our economy back to prosperity.
John Nusz

McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra case

2008-10-07T10:38:00.000-04:00

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 7, 5:58 AM ET

WASHINGTON - GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.
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McCain's ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

"McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. "I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn't left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

"I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," Singlaub said.

The renewed attention over McCain's association with Singlaub's group comes as McCain's campaign steps up criticism of Obama's dealings with William Ayers, a college professor who co-founded the Weather Underground and years later worked on education reform in Chicago alongside Obama. Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home when Obama first ran for public office in the mid-1990s.

Obama was roughly 8 years old when Ayers, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was working with the Weather Underground, which took responsibility for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, has said that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

In McCain's case, Singlaub knew McCain's father, a Navy admiral who had sought Singlaub's counsel when McCain, a Navy pilot, became a prisoner of war and spent 5 1/2 years in North Vietnamese hands.

"John's father asked me for advice about what he ought to do now that his son had been shot down and captured," Singlaub recalled in one of two recent interviews. "I said, 'As long as you don't give any impression that you care more about him than you care about any of the other prisoners, he won't be treated any differently.'"

Covert arms shipments to the rebels called Contras, financed in part by secret arms sales to Iran, became known as the Iran-Contra affair. They proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council.

In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt status of Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the Contras.

Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub's council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla force in Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the Contras.

Months before the cutoff, top Reagan administration officials ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network and put National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it. The goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding.

Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation.

Secretly, Singlaub worked with North in an effort to raise millions of dollars from foreign governments.

McCain has said previously he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's letterhead.

"I didn't know whether (the group's activity) was legal or illegal, but I didn't think I wanted to be associated with them," McCain said in a newspaper interview in 1986.

Singlaub does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May 1986. Nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day activities.

"That's a surprise to me," Singlaub said. "This is the first time I've ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office communicating with our office."

"I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn't worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing," said Singlaub. "If he didn't want to be on the board that's OK. It wasn't as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us.

McCain revisiting Keating 5 banking scandal again

2008-10-07T09:03:00.000-04:00

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Nearly two decades later, John McCain is still haunted by his role in the Keating Five scandal.
ADVERTISEMENT

His role in the 1980s banking scandal is featured in a new Barack Obama attack video. McCain's presidential campaign quickly moved to limit any damage.

The Republican senator's lawyer in the case, John Dowd, told reporters in a conference call Monday that McCain had been the victim of "a political smear job" by Senate Democrats.

When a reporter noted that McCain himself has spoken contritely about his role, Dowd responded, "I'm his lawyer and I have a different view of it."

McCain said his reputation was so tarnished by the Keating case that he compared his ordeal — in some ways — to the torture he suffered as a prisoner of war.

"I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb," McCain told The Associated Press in a written statement last March. "But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much."

The Obama video was released after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, criticized Obama's association with Bill Ayers, a founder of the Vietnam-era radical group the Weather Underground.

The Keating Five were four Democratic senators, and Republican McCain, who accepted contributions from Charles Keating Jr., a real estate speculator and savings and loan owner. His institution failed and cost many investors in uninsured financial products their life savings.

Once close to Keating, McCain received $112,000 from him, his family and associates. The senator and his family also flew in Keating's plane to the Bahamas and — in the events that triggered the Senate investigation — took up his cause with financial regulators as they were investigating the businessman. Keating eventually went to prison. McCain eventually repaid $112,000 to the U.S. Treasury and reimbursed Keating for the trips.

The irony of the Keating case is that McCain received the mildest ethics committee rebuke of the five senators in 1991, and was kept as a defendant because he was the only Republican. The special counsel in the case had recommended that McCain and one of the Democrats be dropped as defendants. But Democrats, who controlled the Senate, refused to take all the heat for the scandal and all five remained in the case to the end.

McCain, in his book "Worth the Fighting For," lamented that the senators "were now a two-word shorthand for the entire savings and loan debacle and the rotten way American political campaigns are financed."

He also wrote: "My popularity in Arizona was in free fall. ... I expected a rough, and quite possibly unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1992. To the extent I was known nationally anymore, it was as one of the crooked senators who had bankrupted the thrift industry."

Dowd, in his conference call, wouldn't tolerate a hint of an apology for McCain's actions.

"John was the only senator who threw Charlie Keating out of his office," he said, reminding reporters of a well-publicized confrontation. Keating had called McCain a wimp for failing to do more to influence financial regulators on his behalf.

McCain is the only Keating Five defendant still in the Senate. The senators were accused of trying to intimidate regulators on behalf of Keating, who along with his associates, raised $1.3 million combined for the campaigns and political causes of the five.

The investigation ended in early 1991 with a rebuke that McCain "exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators." But the ethics committee also determined McCain's actions "were not improper nor attended with gross negligence."

The committee said more than one year had passed — a "decent interval" — between the last contributions Keating raised for McCain and the two 1987 meetings he attended with banking regulators.

None of the five senators was punished by the Senate.

"The appearance of wrongdoing, fair or unfair, can be potentially as injurious as actual wrongdoing," McCain told the AP in March, reflecting on what he said were his lessons from the scandal. "Also, when questions are raised about your integrity or for that matter anything involving your public career, even, for example, a controversial position on the issues, it is best not to hide from the media or public."

Keating went to prison for more than four years after a federal fraud conviction. The conviction was reversed on appeal after he argued that jurors improperly had knowledge of a prior state conviction on related charges. He was to be retried in federal court but instead pleaded guilty to four federal fraud counts. Keating admitted he siphoned nearly $1 million from his S&L's insolvent parent company. He was sentenced to time he already had served.

LITTLE JOHNNY STRIKES AGAIN

2008-10-06T15:50:00.000-04:00

Rec via email from Tim Brashear
A teacher in New York asked her 6th grade class how many of them were McCain fans. Not really knowing what a McCain fan was, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny. The teacher asked Little Johnny why he decided to be different... again. Little Johnny said, "Because I'm not a McCain fan."
The teacher said, "Why aren't you a McCain fan?"
Johnny said, "Because I'm a Democrat."
The teacher asked why he was a Democrat.
Little Johnny answered, "Well, my Mom's a Democrat and my Dad's a Democrat, so I'm a Democrat." The teacher asked, "If your Mom was a moron and your Dad was an idiot, what would that make you?"
With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, "That would make me a McCain fan."

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

2008-10-06T12:51:00.000-04:00

And you thought Clinton was bad. LMAO!!!

2008-10-04T09:01:00.000-04:00

Doesn't He WISH? LMFAO!!!

Palin another Bush, Scarry how Close, WATCH!

2008-10-04T08:41:00.001-04:00

The VP Debate, My Thoughts

2008-10-03T12:37:00.010-04:00

I had the beer and pizza ready to go. My wife, daughter, her boy friend and I in front of the TV ready to watch the comedy about to unfold. The problem? It didn't! Sarah Palin didn't give us the deer in the headlights we have become accustomed to. So sad! Did she win the debate? Well, I guess it depends on who you ask and your opinion on the word win.
Joe Biden was his typical well versed self. With his vast of experience, he debated like a champion. Whether you like him or not, he was on point and answered the questions asked of him. Did he exaggerate? Probably, most do! The problem in my opinion was that this wasn't much of a debate. Ms. Palin stayed with what was pounded into her brain and didn't answer about half of the questions. Her success was she didn't freeze. She just kept saying the same thing over and over, no matter what the question was. Is she ready to be a heart beat away from the Presidency. Well, everyone better hope not. Who wants Joe six pack in the oval office? NOT ME! Who wants a hockey mom with or without lipstick in the oval office? NOT ME! So, who won the debate? Joe Biden by a large margin. Did Ms. Palin excite the base? I'm sure she did. If she had any substance and was a little more centered, she would be dangerous. The decision to put her on the ticket will ultimately cost McCain the Presidency.
If she could have remembered a supreme court ruling (Gore v Bush - HELLO) or even remembered what she read in the mornings, (well, if she actually read anything) instead of saying she reads everything. What the hell is that?
Not to belabor the point but it's obvious at this point the wheels are coming off for Mr. McCain, pulling out of Michigan shows this. More bad news for him was that Sarah probably helped her last night while hurting him.
Peace on Earth.

A Little Political Humor from Rob

2008-10-01T16:55:00.001-04:00

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, 'What is Politics?'

Dad says, 'Well son, let me try to explain it this way:

I am the head of the family , so call me The President.

Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the
Government.

We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you
the People.

The nanny, we will consider her the
Working Class.

And your baby brother, we will call him the Future.

Now think about that and see if it makes sense.'

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him.

He finds that the baby has severely
soiled his diaper.

So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother asleep.
Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny.
He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, 'Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.'

The father says, 'Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.'

The little boy replies,
'The President is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep.
The People are being ignored and the
Future is in deep shit.

Is the Thief of the White House Already in Place AGAIN

2008-10-01T16:16:00.000-04:00

(CBS) This story was written by Investigative Producer Pia Malbran.

With Election Day rapidly approaching, a new report, obtained exclusively by CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian, raises serious questions and exposes flaws in the way states maintain their voter registration rolls.

States and counties regularly update their voter registration rolls for accuracy, removing people who have moved, died, or committed a felony. It is known as "voter purging."

But, the new report by the non-partisan public policy and law institute, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law provides troubling new insight into the process. There are no national standards and as a result, the cleaning up of voter rolls is not as precise as it should be and eligible voters are often wrongly removed.

The Brennan report calls the nationwide process "chaotic," "shrouded in secrecy", "riddled with inaccuracies", "prone to error" and "vulnerable to manipulation."

"What's wrong with the process is it's happening in secret. It's happening with no accountability," Michael Waldman, the center’s executive director, told CBS News.

Read the Brennan Center report on voter purges

"Officials are making tons of errors, and voters aren't given a chance to correct the errors," he said.

Waldman also says some voters will show up on Nov. 4 who are supposed to be registered to vote and will be told they are not listed that way. If that happens, he says, “don't take 'no' for an answer. Cast a provisional ballot and call a voter hotline.”

The numbers of purges that occurred are hard to uncover and often are not known until after an election. But, the report cites several controversial purges this year so far.

For example, in Muscogee County in Georgia, the report says, a county official purged 700 people from voter lists for criminal convictions. Many of the people who received letters informing them of the purge, however, had never even received a parking ticket. In Mississippi, a local election official recently discovered that another official had wrongly purged 10,000 voters “from her home computer.”

The reasons for wrongly purging eligible voters ranges from clerical errors to mistakes in matching names, addresses and criminal histories. Waldman says there’s a “huge potential for partisan mischief" and manipulation.

Another study, by the group U.S. PIRG, released last week, also looked at the issue of voter purging and discovered that 19 states are ignoring a federal law banning systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election. The 19 states include battleground states of Colorado, Ohio and Nevada.

As a solution, the Brennan Center recommends that in the future the government implement a nationwide universal voter-registration system.

Waldman said: "when you register once, you stay registered. The government keeps the list. You can prevent fraud. You can prevent people who aren't eligible from voting. But everybody who's eligible gets to vote.”

Doing something like this could add up to 50 million more people to the voter rolls every year.

He said: "Every eligible citizen should know that on Election Day they can show up to vote, without worrying whether their name's on the list."

By Pia Malbran © MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Palin Problem by Kathleen Parker

2008-09-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON -- If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream -- away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president -- and possibly president -- is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick -- what a difference a financial crisis makes -- and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we've seen and heard more from John McCain's running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn't know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan's president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she's had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin's narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain's running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood -- a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn't make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity "Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we'd all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she's a woman -- and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket -- we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can't repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP's unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Walk softly and carry a BIG Stick. We call it CYA....

2008-09-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

SNL Palin Interview

2008-09-30T09:06:00.001-04:00

Funny As Shit

BUSH REPORTED TO HAVE PURCHASED 99,000 ACRES IN PARAGUAY

2008-09-29T13:23:00.001-04:00

Friday, 20 October 2006, 11:05 am
Opinion: Undernews

Undernews Extract: Bush Purchases 99,000 Acres In Paraguay?

Compiled By Prorev.com Editor Sam Smith

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PAGE ONE MUST
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BUSH REPORTED TO HAVE PURCHASED 99,000 ACRES IN PARAGUAY

Why might the president and his family need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguayan government? - Wonkette
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PRENSA LATINA - The land grab project of US President George W. Bush in Chaco, Paraguay, has generated considerable discomfort both politically and environmentally. The news circulating the continent about plans to buy 98,840 acres of land in Chaco, Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay) is the talk of the town in these countries.

Although official sources have not confirmed the information that is already public, the land is reportedly located in Paso de Patria, near Bolivian gas reserves and the Guarani indigenous water region, within the Triple Border. . .

Concern increased last week with the arrival of Bush" daughter, Jenna, and a source from the Physical Planning Department saying that most of the Chaco region belongs to private companies.

Luis D'Elia, Argentina´s undersecretary for Land for Social Habitat, says the matter raises regional concern because it threatens local natural resources.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={2DA7BAE4-061B-49B6-983F-3D69A4396E37})&language=EN

*************

STEVE O - It has been reported that George W. Bush has recently purchased a 98,842 acre farm in Northern Paraguay. What on earth does the President of the United States need a 98,000+ acre farm in Northern Paraguay for?

On the surface it looks all very innocent, but let's add the very quiet trip that Jenna Bush made to the country earlier this month in which she met Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and his family at their official residence. She also met with U.S. Ambassador James Cason. Could it be that our little drunken Jenna is all grown up and playing diplomacy?

This all still seems very innocent on the surface, but now let's add the five hundred U.S. troops that arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court jurisdiction. Neighboring countries and human rights organizations are concerned the massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is potential real estate for the U.S. military.

Does Bush plan on being charged with something in the future? Does Bush foresee a collapse of the United States and feels a strong need to have a place to cut and run to, or does Bush just need a nice secret little place other than Gitmo where he can send people he doesn't like?

Open letter to Father Isern about life

2008-09-29T08:45:00.000-04:00

Rev. Fr. Fernando Isern, Pastor
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
11291 South West 142nd Avenue, Miami, Florida 33186
Sept. 29, 2008
Dear Father Isern,
Prior to yesterday’s mass I hadn’t been to church since the Sunday after the new Pope was put into place. On that Sunday, your sermon was about the liberal media. I was so upset that after that mass I told my wife that again I was disillusioned with going to church. I did not go to church to listen to your opinion on what the liberal media was or was not. I went to celebrate mass, as I had been doing since I was a child in Elizabethtown, Ky.
After such a long period of time, my wife convinced me to go to mass again. We again choose Our Lady of Lourdes. Never again! The first time we return since your pandering, what do we have to sit through? You were rambling about taking God into the voting booth to vote for life. Fine, I understand the Catholic’s view on abortion. However, in your pandering about life, I didn’t hear you talk about ending an illegal war where hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children died getting in the way of our military, all in the name of securing oil. And, more importantly taking that into the voting booth with you as one presidential candidate wants to continue war after war and one believes in diplomacy and war as a last resort. In your pandering I didn’t hear you talk about abolishing the death penalty. Because one party believes strongly in it and one doesn’t. Isn’t that a life issue as well? Who are we to play God? In your pandering about life, I didn’t hear you talk about protecting the baby after birth and taking that into the voting booth with you, because one party supports programs for babies out of wedlock and one just cares about the fetus.
Again, I went to church to pray and celebrate mass, not to listen to a political priest talk about only parts of life and pushing your pandering onto the people of your church. I did not stay to finish mass I was so upset. We left just as you finished your pandering. I will never attend mass at your church again. Maybe the Catholic Church has left me, and I need to find a church that follows my catholic upbringing beliefs. Never have I had this problem before. Maybe your church should lose its exemption. I do not go to church to hear about politics, I go to church to celebrate mass. Politics has no place in church and the church has no place in politics.
Cordially,
John Nusz

The first debate

2008-09-27T09:10:00.002-04:00

Well, as I watched the debate last night, one thing kept coming back. Nothing new was said on either front and that McCain seems to think we can just keep going to war with everybody all at once, with no diplomacy or worldly friends. He is an angry old dude. He kept to his theme and wasn't about to debate, just keep hacking away. I can't wait to see his maverick side kick try and tell the world that her experience is that her neighbor is Russia. HELLO. She believes in witchcraft. Doesn't this alarm anyone? Hold your breath this could be better than the SNL show.
John Nusz

Enough is enough!

2008-09-26T13:58:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone that has signed the petition thus far -- nearly 2,000 in just one day! We received media coverage from WMNF Community Radio in Tampa, Capitol News Service (statewide television), News Service of Florida, The St. Pete Times and prominent blogs. Please add your signature and distribute widely to your networks.
Thank you!

It's like a nightmare that won't go away: another Florida election fraught with dirty tricks and underhanded tactics.

Recently, a mailing from the Republican Party and McCain campaign was sent to registered Democrats across the state that tells them they are actually registered Republicans and provides a fake registration number. The Supervisor of Elections for Duval County, a Republican himself - called it "mail fraud" and said it was "confusing to voters.
"

Enough is enough!

Please take a moment to sign our petition to Gov.
Crist urging him to stop the Republican Party, and indeed any party or entity, from engaging in voter suppression and election day dirty tricks.
The petition may be found at http://www. ProgressFlorida. org/ProtectOurVote or by simply clicking the picture below:

With arguably the most important election in our state and nation's history fast approaching, it's critical that every vote count. The health of our democracy depends on it and our Constitution demands it. The 2000 election debacle made Florida infamous for disenfranchising voters - we can't let history repeat itself in 2008.

From the ill-conceived and 11th hour enforced "no match, no vote" law that could potentially disenfranchise thousands of voters through no fault of their own, to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections who refuses to open conveniently located early voting locations, it's not looking good for democracy in Florida this election.

Now, we have this fraudulent mailing by the McCain campaign.

Gov. Crist is the leader of the Republican Party in Florida and he can take the necessary action to stop dirty tricks and make this a fair, accurate and inclusive election.

Please take a moment to sign our petition to Gov. Crist, demanding that his party, and anyone else planning election shenanigans, cease and desist.
Then, please forward this Email to your family and friends.

http://www. ProgressFlorida. org/ProtectOurVote

Sincerely,

The Progress Florida Team

Progress Florida uses innovative, internet-based organizing and communication tactics to expand public support for progressive causes, organizations and leaders.
To learn more and take action visit www. ProgressFlorida. org.

”Progressive Solutions for Florida!”

Is John McCain a Crook?

2008-09-26T11:56:00.001-04:00

BY. Chris Suellentrop
Posted Friday, Feb. 18, 2000, at 2:35 PM ET
The controversial George W. Bush-sponsored poll in South Carolina mentioned John McCain's role in the so-called Keating Five scandal, and McCain says his involvement in the scandal "will probably be on my tombstone." What exactly did McCain do?
In early 1987, at the beginning of his first Senate term, McCain attended two meetings with federal banking regulators to discuss an investigation into Lincoln Savings and Loan, an Irvine, Calif., thrift owned by Arizona developer Charles Keating. Federal auditors were investigating Keating's banking practices, and Keating, fearful that the government would seize his S&L, sought intervention from a number of U.S. senators.
At Keating's behest, four senators--McCain and Democrats Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio--met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2. Those four senators and Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich., attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco.
Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.
In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the senators and the regulators. McCain, Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, and Riegle became known as the Keating Five.
(Keating himself was convicted in January 1993 of 73 counts of wire and bankruptcy fraud and served more than four years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Last year, he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud and was sentenced to time served.)
McCain defended his attendance at the meetings by saying Keating was a constituent and that Keating's development company, American Continental Corporation, was a major Arizona employer. McCain said he wanted to know only whether Keating was being treated fairly and that he had not tried to influence the regulators. At the second meeting, McCain told the regulators, "I wouldn't want any special favors for them," and "I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."
But Keating was more than a constituent to McCain--he was a longtime friend and associate. McCain met Keating in 1981 at a Navy League dinner in Arizona where McCain was the speaker. Keating was a former naval aviator himself, and the two men became friends. Keating raised money for McCain's two congressional campaigns in 1982 and 1984, and for McCain's 1986 Senate bid. By 1987, McCain campaigns had received $112,000 from Keating, his relatives, and his employees--the most received by any of the Keating Five. (Keating raised a total of $300,000 for the five senators.)
After McCain's election to the House in 1982, he and his family made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, three of which were to Keating's Bahamas retreat. McCain did not disclose the trips (as he was required to under House rules) until the scandal broke in 1989. At that point, he paid Keating $13,433 for the flights.
And in April 1986, one year before the meeting with the regulators, McCain's wife, Cindy, and her father invested $359,100 in a Keating strip mall.
The Senate Ethics Committee probe of the Keating Five began in November 1990, and committee Special Counsel Robert Bennett recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation. They were not. McCain believes Democrats on the committee blocked Bennett's recommendation because he was the lone Keating Five Republican.
In February 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found McCain and Glenn to be the least blameworthy of the five senators. (McCain and Glenn attended the meetings but did nothing else to influence the regulators.) McCain was guilty of nothing more than "poor judgment," the committee said, and declared his actions were not "improper nor attended with gross negligence." McCain considered the committee's judgment to be "full exoneration," and he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

McCain with his tail between his legs

2008-09-26T11:35:00.005-04:00

By. John Nusz Sept. 26, 2008
I just don't get it. John McCain took a big chance with his stance. Was it honorable, or just political. Everywhere you look, says it was political. And, I agree! He is dropping in the polls like a heavy boulder. So, he thought of doing something out of the norm. Like the first day of the republican convention. Everything he's done is to distract the fact that he has no political agenda that resonates with the main stream of this country. So, like before the convention, when all he did was run attack ad after attack ad. Why? To distract from the fact that he has no plan. It has shown time and time again in this campaign. And, now after trying to push back on the debate, it appears that he'll show up tonight. (WITH HIS TAIL BETWEEN HIS LEGS) Every decision he's made in this campaign has been wrong. From constantly calling this economy sound, to picking someone who'll excite the base instead of strengthen his candidacy. Someone with economic experience that would have helped him over the last couple of weeks. We as Americans can't take a chance on someone who is so out of touch with main street that his wife wears a $300,000 outfit at the convention, while others wondered where there next meal was coming from. He wants to do the same thing with health insurance as they did with the banking industry, by deregulating it. Now that worked out well, didn't it? And never forget the S&L crisis and his direct involvement. Look up the Keating Five. YES, John McCian was one of the five. See http://www.slate.com/id/1004633/
The real reason for him wanting to postpone the debate is that they wanted to take the spot next Thursday evening so that the VP candidates wouldn't have to debate. WOW.... Why doesn't that surprise. My comment to my neighbor when I was asked about Ms. Palin after the convention was, I would be surprised if she makes it on the ticket all the way to election day. I still am not sure if she will. Maybe that's his Oct surprise, firing Palin. Probably couldn't hurt. HOW SAD!!!
Peace on Earth,
John Nusz

Palin and Curic

2008-09-26T08:46:00.004-04:00

How long do we have to wait for Ms. Palin to get back to Ms. Curic on what John McCain has done in his 26 years as a Senator to place more regulations instead of less?

Is this what's in store for us?

2008-09-25T12:53:00.001-04:00

Sarah Palin's EXTREME religion?

OR JOHN McCains EXTREME religion?

From: MudFlats http://mudflats.wordpress.com

2008-09-25T12:20:00.001-04:00

Shhh. Those of you in the Lower 48 (+Hawaii)…be verrrry quiet…. Hear that? You may just be able to make out the sound of a whole lot of Alaskans throwing open their windows, leaning out, and yelling, “WE’RE MAD AS HELL! AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!” (Remember that movie?)

Who’s yelling? Progressive talk show hosts and Conservative talk show hosts, Democrats and Republicans, Independents and Non-Partisans, Libertarians and Librarians, Lawyers and Teachers, Politicians and Political Junkies, Hockey Moms and State employees, Legislators from both sides of the aisle, and ….pretty much anyone up here who is paying attention. Those are the kind of people that always seem to gum up the works for those who try so hard to get away with things. We’re such an annoyance, us damn attention-payers…

This contingent of strange political bedfellows have just about had it with Sarah Palin, John McCain and the shenanigans they are pulling with our state government, specifically the department of law. They’re also sick of watching the insidious influence of nasty national politics (in the form of McCain lawyer Ed O’Callaghan) turning once respected local journalists like former KTUU reporter, now Palin mouthpiece, Megan Stapleton into vicious attack wolves who seem to have no qualms about sinking their teeth into the necks of revered public servants and giving them a good shake. To quote a certain presidential candidate, “ENOUGH!”

So what’s an angry mob to do? There have been letters to the editor, opinion pieces in the Daily News, open letters from Legislators, ceaseless clacking on the keyboards of inflamed bloggers, talk show hosts that sound like they’re going to have cardiac arrest…but it just didn’t feel like enough. People kept asking, what can we DO??

Enter “Alaskans for Truth”, a grassroots organization that has come together to give Alaskans a venue to come and vent. Sometimes there’s just nothing like torches and pitchforks signs and bullhorns. A major rally is being organized that will take place on Anchorage’s Park Strip, a downtown park with plenty of grass and plenty of visibility. Guest speakers are planned.

So, if you are in Anchorage, or within driving distance of Anchorage, mark your calendar, make your sign, bring your friends, and bring some good ol’ moral outrage.

Here’s the official press release:

******************************************************************************************

Hold Palin Accountable Rally

Saturday, September 27th, Noon - 2:00 pm

Downtown Park Strip between I and L Streets, and 9th and 10th.

Main Stage at the Veterans’ Memorial, east end of the park.

Join your Alaskan neighbors in demanding that:

* Gov. Palin uphold her promise to us for an “open, honest & transparent” government.
* Gov. Palin uphold her promise to us to cooperate fully with the independent investigation as initiated by the bi-partisan Legislative Council.

We, the People of Alaska, also

* Demand the immediate resignation of Attorney General Talis Colberg.
* Demand the McCain campaign immediately remove itself and its influence from our state and local government.
* Demand the McCain Campaign ends its attorney, Ed O’Callahan’s unlawful intrusion into our Department of Law.

A letter from Ron Paul

2008-09-25T12:14:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Dear Friends,
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.
The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we're being told it's unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
• Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
In liberty,
Ron Paul

Republicans: You Can Leave Your Hat On

2008-09-24T17:06:00.002-04:00

In response to Hurricane Gustav on the opening day of the RNC convention Cindy McCain said "As John has been saying for the last several days, this is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats."

I just would like Cindy and John McCain to know many of us never take off our American hats. Our “American hats” are aware of the daily economic, health and environmental hurricanes of…

n 45 million people with no health care and 16 million under insured in America.

n According to Ted Kennedy “We have 36 million Americans that are going to bed hungry every night. 36 million Americans! And 12 million of those are children!" in America.

n In the first six months of this year, a total of 438,000 jobs have been lost, bringing unemployment to 5.5% in America.

n Melting polar ice hits 'tipping point,' nears record loss in America.

n The national average gas price is $4.09, up 33% from this time last year . Gas prices are now expected to hit “$4.25 by the fall and then stay at more than $4 a gallon until the end of 2009” in America.

n U.S. food prices rose 4 percent in 2007 making it the fastest rise in 17 years in America.

n The value of the dollar is declining: The dollar “has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency” in America.

So please Republicans – do try to keep your American hats on more often and help restore America to it’s founding phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

~Thom Hartmann

Election Day attire.

2008-09-24T14:44:00.000-04:00

Please, please, please advise everyone you know that they absolutely can
NOT go to the polls wearing any Obama (or whoever you are voting for)
shirts, pins, hats, etc. It is AGAINST THE LAW and will be grounds to have
the polling officials to turn you away. This is considered campaigning and
no one can campaign within X amount of feet of the polls. They are banking
on us being overly excited and not being aware of this long standing law
that you can bet will be ENFORCED THIS YEAR!!!!!

They are banking that if you are turned away, you will not go home and
change your clothes and return to the polls to vote. Please just don't
wear ANY gear of any sorts to the polls! Please share this information
with as many people as you can. If you are already aware of this, please
don't take it as insulting your intelligence.

Have a great day and see you at the polls on November 4th.

Economic answers.

2008-09-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

If you want to hear a very specific answer to our economic problems, spend a few minutes listening to the speech today by Sen. Barack Obama. Have an open mind and just listen. If it make sense, great! If not please tell me why.

This says it all. Thanks Matt

2008-09-14T13:40:00.001-04:00

Palin, I just don't get it!

2008-09-13T08:47:00.000-04:00

Sarah Palin scares me. Someone wrote the other day that the Dem's should be scared of the ticket. My thought was that we ALL had better be scared. With her a heart beat away from the White House and the phone that says strike with nukes. With McCain a cancer survivor of two different times, it is a higher percentage of possibility that she could be our president in the every near future. That should SCARY us all. The republican mantra of win at all costs is scary in and of itself. This selection has to be a stunt to excite the evangelical base of the party. You know them... The God, Guns and Gay crowd. Is that main street USA? I believe not! Unfortunately the conservatives DO NOT think like liberals. It is all about THEM! They are where the ME generation have come from. The selfish part of this country. Where liberals believe this is about America and what is best for it as a whole. "We the people MATTER!" NOT "We the RIGHT!" This is not about them. There is a small number of undecided now. I can't believe the polls. Because I can't believe that 10% of the people in this country change their minds on a daily bases. Polls are not calling cell phones (per John Zogby) and they are not calling VOIP homes. I pray for the betterment of this country that John McCain and Sarah Palin are beat in this election and beat bad. Why? So the republicans learn that they can not play with this country with STUNTS like Sarah Palin, won't be tried again. This is serious stuff. And, those that really research Sarah Palin and know what an extremeist she is, know that this selection is no more than a STUNT to win at all costs. Please spend 8 minutes watching Sarah Palin LIVE.
Peace on Earth!

Email to my brother

2008-09-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

Bro, shows where you are, as it is afternoon not perpetual night. Now, let’s discuss the meat instead of like the RIGHT side only wants to play hid and seek about issues. When was the last time mcsain put out an ad that wasn’t an attack? They don’t win on the issues. Someone somewhere decided it was a dirty word to be considered liberal. From a John Kennedy Speech,

A Liberal Definition by John F. Kennedy:

Acceptance Speech of the New York
Liberal Party Nomination

September 14, 1960

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

PS… by the way the social police department comes to your help and the social fire department puts your fire out and your social EMT comes to help when called. JUST FYI….

Now to Mr Obama. Fact: out of 32 pieces of legislation while being a senator, he has written or co-written 19 with republicans. one of which was written with Lugar from Indiana to secure weapons of mass destruction around the world.

Fact: Obama was the writer of policy that change legislation in the state of Illinois to have confessions video tapes to secure everyone’s right to a fair trial. Fact Obama help co write legislation with Durbin of Ill writing the patriot employer act to incentivize employers to keep jobs here.

Fact: Obama suggested a time line to have troops stop the occupation of Iraq, Iraq leaders agreed and later so had W.

I could go on and on as I vetted my candidate prior to giving him my support. I was 50-50 on Hillary or Barack after Edwards left the race. I don’t speak for the sake of it. Now you may not agree with my point of view and that is why America is great in my opinion. However, until we can sit at the table as humans and discuss our difference we’ll as a group go no-where. But to continue to have our tax payers pay as an example for Georgia reconstruction while we have our roads and bridges collapsing is lunacy. Now, when you look at mcsain and you see almost ALL of his advisors are lobbyist (fact) you wonder what kind of maverick we’ll get.

I believe I’ve covered all your questions, however, you haven’t answered any of mine. I’m proud to be a liberal, even though I align some of my beliefs with the middle and some with the right. I gave more than 3 Obama items. I think, though that even after a debate with you where you’d have to agree with me in principle because of factual evidence you would still vote for mcsain or any other repub over a dem. I have voted repub in my life and decided after W’s shipping his operatives into Miami in 2000 to have the votes stop being counted and to the hell with “we the people” THAT I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR A REPUB EVER. Because I support our constitution and our democracy. Unlike the win at all costs repubs.

However, blood is thicker than water and I truly believe that you are a lost soul, I still love you. But that’s a liberal for you.

chao

Gov. Palin a WHACKY SCARY NEO

2008-09-08T22:33:00.000-04:00

I've listen to her, read blogs and articles and here's my opinion. This is the worst decision John McCain has ever made. Past shows, future. check it out.

THERE MUST BE SEPERATION OF STATE AND CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Republicans Are Great at one thing

2008-09-04T08:08:00.000-04:00

I have to give it to the republicans for one thing. They are great at marketing. A campaign spokesperson said that this election won't be about the issues. It never is with them. And, yet the American people are gullible enough to believe them when they start their propaganda. What else can you call it? Propaganda. The democrats talked all week last week in Denver about the economy. The number one thing on most American's minds. Do you hear anything about it at the all white meeting of the republicans? NO! Why? Maybe they just don't have anything to say about it, cause John McCain already has said he don't know that much about it. Why do you not see any ads coming out of the McCain campaign about the issues, or what he'll do about anything? Because, they can not run on the issues. Sad but true. So we'll have to watch them roll ad after ad everyday just attacking instead of telling people why he should be the president. They talk about Mr. McCain at the convention as the one who will lead this country and how Mr. Obama can not. About how Obama flip flops and that he liberal. Isn't that the same argument they used on Mr. Kerry? YES! Isn't that the same thing they used against Mr. Gore? YES! However, Americans haven't learned our lesson. My belief on flip flopping is that it is B.S. A good leader must adjust his stand on any issue based on the ongoing change in the world. That is for the left, right or middle. But when you show a history of constantly doing it then it is a habit. When Ms. Palin said last night that Mr. Obama would change his words depending on who he was talking to, says he panders. This is probably true for every politician. However, when you watch these videos it talks about how Mr. McCain changes on the wind everyday. When Mr. McCain was in Florida at the beginning of the general election, he went on an air boat ride and talked about how he was an environmentalist. Then approximately two weeks later he is talking about drilling off the cost of Florida. Both don't add up. PANDERING. I do believe. Even though everyone (scientists and politicians alike) has said it won't lower gas prices for the next ten years and that they couldn't right now because they can't get rigs into the water for approximately five years because of the steel needed to make the rigs. There currently are no rigs available. Yet, do most Americans know this? NO! Do they care? DOUBTFUL! Check out Mr. Flip-flopper.

NOW WHAT DO YOU REALLY THINK.
I think that if Mr. Obama doesn't ATTACK, he'll be in trouble, because the bottom line is the right already said this won't be about the issues. How sameful. WE DO DESERVE BETTER. Please vote you best interest.

Jacqueline Nusz view on McCain Running Mate

2008-08-29T12:56:00.000-04:00

Well now look, Republicans can be diverse also. McCain chose a female VP. However....

Just for clarification purposes, I'm pretty sure pro-life means ... pro- LIFE regardless of whether it pertains to the issue of abortion or not.

So I find it slightly preposterous that McCain's new VP nominee (who is Pro-Life) said the following...

(and just because I'm so adamant about credibility, all of you can know that I got this from NBC)

"During one debate before the primary, Palin said she was in favor of capital punishment in especially heinous cases such as the murder of a child. 'My goodness, hang 'em up, yeah,' she said."

A couple FACTS I would like to share (with the references so you KNOW they are legit)

1. Since 1973, over 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. (Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, Oct. 1993, with updates from DPIC).--- What would have happened if they were found innocent AFTER the execution?

2. In 2000, Columbia University Law School released an extraordinarily comprehensive study of the death penalty in the United States. [33] Professor James Liebman studied every death penalty appeal from 1973 through 1995 and discovered disturbing patterns. Of all the thousands of cases that had completed the appeals process, an astonishing 68% were found to contain errors so serious the guilt or sentencing trials had to be done over again. Although in the early 1990s some prosecutors and legislators had tried to convince the public that the death penalty was plagued by needless and endless appeals thwarting justice, the Liebman study found that the appeals process was critical because it revealed that most trials contained serious errors. (There are way more, but i can't spend all day looking it up)

But she does have a lot of experience! In addition to her degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Idaho, she's been the governer of Alaska since 2006!! Plus she was part of her city council for a couple years...

AND.. she knows what her responsibilities would be: (again from MSNBC)

"....As for the prospect of her being vice president, Palin told Larry Kudlow (CNBC; Aug 1st) that she could not answer the question of whether she wanted the job "until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day. I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here…."

So have I inherited my father's political ranting genes yet?

Go Democrats. Go Obama. Go Biden. Go change!

How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party

2008-08-28T08:45:00.000-04:00

This is a very interesting article in the newest Rolling Stone magazine. Check out the article at
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/22665562
I remember a conversation with my brother HR a few years back when we were discussing how he felt the Democratic party had left him. I can't understand now why he wouldn't say that the Republican party had left him. Most non Neo Republicans feel the party is in trouble because the traditional values aren't there any longer. Small government? Not so with W! Conservative spending? ABSOLUTELY not there with W! His mantra is One World Order. If you don't know what that is and your a Republican, you had better check it out. As stated in the article:
A president driven by ideology. A Congress rife with corruption. A political party hellbent on a "permanent majority." A leading scholar examines the radicals who hijacked the GOP — and wrecked the longest conservative ascendancy in American history .
This country is supposed to be by and for, "We the People" Not for and by the rich only. Watch the video.
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/08/20/five-ways-bush-sunk-the-gop-video/#
So, I'd like some opinions on this. I email blog updates to about 70 people and nobody has a comment? Does that say something about the complacency of this country. Do we not care? I am a believer in fair and balanced. I believe Clinton was most successful because he had to fight as he didn't have a majority on congress. We have to keep a balance. The republicans have had for six of W's eight years a republican congress and what happened? Please get engaged, read the rolling stone magazine article and let me know what you think.

Georgia

2008-08-27T18:45:00.000-04:00

Why was Dick Chaney's top guy in Georgia the day before it blew up there? Why was the President of Georgia in another country 3 weeks prior to with Carl Rove? Why is a top political aid to John McCain still on staff after it was know that he took over $800,000 from the Georgian government as a lobbyist for their country? I don't know, Does anyone?

Past Performance Predicts Future Performance

2008-08-27T18:16:00.000-04:00

I was so inspired and proud of Michelle Obama on Monday night. She was proud, articulate and informed and very centered. I've looked at this election in many ways. I know some will never vote for a black man. Actually, half black man! As Charles Barkley said on the floor of the Democratic National Convention floor last night on CNN, it's not what a white man says, it is what he does when he goes into the voting booth. This is where reality will hit home. Will we ever get past racism in this country? My dream is yes, my heart feels yes, my mind fights to believe it. But Charles is right. If the white man does not vote for Obama then he doesn't win this election that he should win in a landslide. Why do I say this? Because this country is in the worst shape it has been in my life time, and potentially in the history of this great nation. Why would anyone vote for McCain. He's a liar, a crook, has a neurotic mind, has no new policies and voted with W over 90% of the time while in congress. Now answer me this: why exactly doesn't he run any ads saying what great things he's going to do? He has stated he doesn't know much about the economy, has stated that we may stay in Iraq for a hundred years or more (at a cost of over $10 million a month that we, the tax payers are paying) and stated that there will be many more wars. It is time for us to stop listening to the FEAR MONGERS, and start believing in ourselves again. No one can afford for this country to continue on the same path we are. EVERYONE knows this. So, tell me again what exactly has W done for the last 8 years? NOTHING... At least nothing good. So, why would we want 4 more years of the same ole SHIT? Got me. Oh, Ya, I forgot, he's a black man. Listen:

Unemployment hits 4 year high

2008-08-03T00:56:00.000-04:00

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a four-year high of 5.7% in July as companies shed 51,000 workers. The seventh straight payroll decline provides further evidence that the economy remains vulnerable to a recession in the second half.

As reported today. and this doesn't include the people that aren't recieving benefits anymore, nor does it account for the people that are working 2 or 3 jobs to now pay their bills when before 1 job would. I have recently heard estimates that a truer number is in the 12% range. Scary!

What do you think?

Where are we today?

2008-08-02T00:06:00.002-04:00

I'll invite many to join in the discussion that I personally think is vital to who we as a nation will become inthe next four to eight years. I have friends and family on both the right and the left side of the isle. I believe as a nation we are angrier than we have been in some time. I guess since Viet Nam. Even if I really don't remember that. However, I believe that we as a people MUST be able to sit down and discuss our differences. If we can't do that and continue this war between the two sides, we will be a nation at war on our own turf against each other.
I am an Obama fan. I believ he is the only choice. I firmly believe that for a democracy to exist then there MUST be a strong middle class. And since basically the Regan- Bush 1- Clinton years we have move the tax burden away from corporations and the wealthiest 3% and moved it to the middle class. To the point of it breaking the middle class. When this happens we'll be like all other 3rd world nations. A few of the elitist running all the rest of us. Since the 1950's corporate america used apr. 35% of the resources and paid apr. 35 % of the taxes. Now corporate America is paying apr. 7-8& of the taxes but still use apr. 35% of the resources. So who is absorbing the difference? The middle class. Is this right? I don't think so, personally. I would suggest reading the book, "SCREWED, The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class" Very interesting reading so far. I'm almost half way at this point. Got three books going at the same time. I will also suggest 2 movies, 1- is online and you'll have to be patient for the first 20 minutes or so, after that you'll understand why, you can go to www.zeitgeist.com. One of my employees, ( a Republican by birth I think) suggested it to me and Becky and I found it quite interesting. The other is SICKO. I know some of you hate Michael Moore, and a lot of what he does in for other means, however if you understand this and watch with this understanding, I believe you'll find an interesting movie. One which to me carries some common sense. We do have socialized policing, and socialized fire fighting and socialized schooling, and socialized old age health insurance. Why not socialize medicine? I know that when my daughter was in London and had a medical emergency, she went to a hospital got great care and didn't cost anything. we're paying billions in an illegal war, why not to pay for us to have the best health care in the world. By the way were, i think like 37th or something crazy like that.
Anyhow, until next time.
Peace on earth!
Chao,
Nusz - OUT

Where are we today?

2008-08-02T00:06:00.001-04:00