Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Can you see the marionette strings?

Beware of Smiling Faces...

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The McCain "absentee voter" scam
by kos (from Daily Kos)
Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 10:10:24 AM PDT

Here's how it works:

1. Mail forms to hard core Democratic voters, asking them to register to vote by mail.

2. Have those forms addressed to the wrong county registrar.

3. Pray overworked registrar workers, swamped with hundreds of mis-addressed forms, forget to forward to the right county, or forward them past the registration deadline.

4. Disenfranchise thousands.

Heck says, "I spoke with the Caledonia clerk and learned if we (in Mount Pleasant) used the form and sent it to the pre-printed address they would have to forward it to the right jurisdiction (if they had the time and the people) who would then have to send out the absentee ballot. As the deadline to submit a request is Oct. 30, and the clerks have a deadline of Oct. 31, this bogus form not only gums up and overworks the process to get absentee ballots sent out, it could cause some to not even be mailed."

The election officials Heck spoke to -- Racine County and Caledonia -- said sending the absentee ballot request to the wrong clerk would not jeopardize a voter's registration, but might result in the absentee ballot not getting sent due to overworked personnel, or the possibility of missing the deadline.

For more on this stunning report click here

A conservative for Obama
Wick Allison, D MAGAZINE
Monday, September 22, 2008

The more I listen to and read about "the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate," the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. more

From a longtime conservative writer, questioning McCain's temperament:

McCain Loses His Head


By George F. Will
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around."

-- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential"… read on

Monday, September 22, 2008

Subject: Fw: Is Palin qualified?

Hurry!

> Here is a small thing you can do in two clicks – SECONDS!
> Check this out please, and fast.
>
> The Right is having people vote that Palin is qualified…
>
> PBS has a poll that asks: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be
> VP? Let's turn this around ..... You don't have to
> give your name or email address in order to vote. It's
> very simple.
>
> Here's the link:
> http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
>
> Just click & vote… NOW. And, pass it on!!!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Paul Krugman on McCain's health care plan:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/mccain-on-banking-and-health/

Friday, September 19, 2008

An Open Letter to All Republicans From a Former Religious Right Activist

by Frank Schaeffer

Dear Republicans: This election all Republicans who love America must vote for Obama. A vote for business-as-usual and a continuation of the Neoconservative/Religious Right/ party of corporate American alienation is a vote against America. As a former Republican activist, I appeal to your patriotism and honor.

Unless you haven't been paying attention to the recent history of the Republican Party you will know that today Republican ideology and energy is derived from three sources:

* The Religious Right,

* The Neoconservative Movement,

* Corporate business interests.

You also should know that when it comes to the Religious Right my late father and evangelist, Francis Schaeffer, was the intellectual voice that made it happen.

click here for the rest of article

Thursday, September 18, 2008

"Romeo and Juliet" as a Metaphor for Politics

Pardon me while a get a bit political/philosophical. The following opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone in their right mind. This being election year, it has really been dawning on me the last week or so just how strongly the story of Romeo and Juliet parallels our current political environment.

Consider the houses of Montague and Capulet as the two political parties (it doesn’t matter which is which). They are caught up in the familial (partisan) bickering and fighting because that is what they have done for as long as anyone can remember. Each believes that the master of their family (party) is better than the other, and spits insults and attacks on anyone that dares to disagree.

In reality, you have two families with a rich, strong history that each want the best for Verona (the country), but differ on what that is. The ones that get caught up and left for dead along the way are those of the younger generations that blindly follow the spiteful traditions of the family. They hate their “enemies”, but cannot tell you why to save their life. The partisan warriors fight to the death and are left to rot along the side of the road while Verona struggles on and the next group of young people steps up to fill the gap.

The Prince represents the frustrations of the people who just want the families to get along and accomplish something, while the Friar is the (somewhat misguided) voice of reason trying to find a compromise. Either through treachery or misadventure, the compromises of the play (and of our political system) always seem to fall apart at the seams and cause more damage than good. Perhaps because there is too much interest in the good of the family rather than the good of Verona. As a result, the young and eager family members become just as cynical and angry as the older generations, and we carry on with our journey around the mobius strip that our system has become.

Romeo and Juliet sought to move beyond the partisanship of their families. When Romeo expresses his love of Juliet’s cousin, it is seen as mocking and a ploy by both families. They have all become so cynical that sincerity is a foreign concept, and makes Romeo a target for attack from both sides. In the same vein, in politics it has become more fashionable to slaughter your own than to work with the other side. Just look at Joseph Leiberman and Colin Powell who have both endorsed the opposing parties’ candidates.

My frustration with both sides of the stage (aisle) is very real, and it angers me that we have so little respect for our fellow countrymen as to hack personal email accounts, belittle their records and experience, throw around false allegations about religion and family connections. I realize that we will never all agree on the issues, and that we can’t “just get along”, but I would ask that those that seek to be our leaders learn to disagree with respect. Maybe this needs to begin with respect in our homes, schools, communities, etc. Rather than a grassroots political movement… maybe we need a grassroots manners movement. Or am I just asking for too much?

~David Dunlap

Don’t let John McCain lie to you about your taxes

We should all know the differences between John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s tax plans and what your tax situation will look like under each administration. What the Republicans don’t want you to know – (when they call 95% of Americans a select few, in describing the working class, the backbone of our society -see here, 2:45-2:55 of this video) - is that for most of us Obama’s plan will be greatly beneficial.

If you find yourself wondering exactly what the candidates plans mean to you and your bottom line and what it will mean at the end of each year come tax time, then take it upon yourself to read this CNN article that breaks down the numbers between the two candidates and decide for yourself whose plan is best for you.

Please pass this on and don't let the Republicans fool you.


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

wal*street

Hello? If McCain Had His Way, That'd Be Our Social Security Money Wall Street is Losing

By John Neffinger

Posted on September 16, 2008 | 08:31 PM (EST)

...not that long ago we had a rare political moment in this country, a moment where the public sat up and took notice of economic policy -- and spoke out and made its voice heard too. When George W. Bush made it to term #2, he decided to try to privatize social security to reward his supporters on Wall Street with a new source of capital, customers, and fees. (Those would be the same people whose firms are now cratering under the weight of the bad debt they recklessly took on while Republican regulators looked the other way). But as it turned out, we Americans were not about to let our elected representatives turn over our social security taxes to Wall Street financiers to gamble with if it meant losing the guaranteed income that has allowed millions upon millions of American seniors to live out their sunset years with at least a basic measure of dignity.

But while ordinary Americans spoke out, John McCain stood with Bush (hugged him awkwardly in public, even), against the American people. In fact, just six months ago,
McCain again let slip his fondness for privatization... full story here

Reform...a few days late and a few billion dollars short. At least they're starting to listen now..

Obama pushes for Economic Reform

by John McCormick

GOLDEN, Colo. - As the most severe financial crisis in at least a generation continues to shake Main Street, Sen. Barack Obama delivered a forceful new speech today to try to seize the economic reform upper hand.

Seeking to move the presidential campaign debate to an arena that typically favors Democrats, he called for more aggressive regulation and a greater emphasis on innovation.

remainder of the story here




I was interested in the comments at the end of the article (link above), as well. Having had some experience in the residential real estate / lending industry myself, and having commented some weeks ago at JonesAlley about my unwillingness to make money and participate in the sub prime bubble using "investors" to make some quick cash, I was interested to see the following comment:

I worked in the subprime market before common sense with my career took over. Mortgages were given out to illegal immigrants, people on welfare, unverified income, poor credit, 0 down, etc. Why? It was all about the numbers. The more loans/the bigger the loans, the better for those monthly, quarterly, yearly bonuses. That's all that mattered. & when loans went bad, no one lost anything because it was always assumed the value of the home at the time of auction will be great enough to pay the loan off. That was your business model in a nutshell & all the lending regulators would do is sign-off on their reviews without batting an eye. The sub-prime lender even advertised on tv how they helped write legislation in DC (with all their republican buddies well lobbied) that helped the consumer, which was either useless of blatantly ignored. I pointed all these problems with an executive on my exit interview, & his only real response was "that's just the media talking" That was four years ago.

So go ahead & convince yourself there's nothing wrong with the economy, that McCain, the "I'm not good at economics" candidate is the right choice. It will be interesting what he has to say at the debates, once he can't hide behind his running-mate's skirt.


There were "investors" (especially lots of first-timers) and owner-occupants caught up in this mess, as well as their neighbors, who's values are now tanking because of the storm around them. Those in neighborhoods, cities, states where there are high foreclosure rates will suffer, too. The victims are more than those who lost because of poor decisions on their OWN part...the ripples in the pond go far and wide...

If you'd like to hear more about Wal-Street's handling of the sub prime boom, see this link:
FreshAir on NPR, July 8th, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Nowhere Man

Steal Back Your Vote!