Bail out of the Bailout

Republicans have long maintained that games go better without referees. The problem with the financial markets, republicans argue, is that the referees demand that we be honest and play fair and take care of other people's money and that just won't work. Republicans claim that taking away their whistles wasn't enough...What needs to happen is for the referees need to go away. And then I guess they'll start trying to get rid of the statisticians who keep score.

America should be relieved that when Nancy Pelosi hurt the Republican's feelings so badly by pointing out that their deregulation of financial markets brought American financial markets to the brink of ruin. Republicans are so sensitive that they voted against the bailout bill. As it turns out, that may have been a good thing for all the wrong reasons.

As expected, anytime you let lobbyists into the room, they try to steal something. Buried in the bailout bill were the seeds of the final destruction of America's banking regulatory system.

"The original Relief Act of 2006 called for a date of October 1, 2011 to allow banks zero reserves, if the Federal Reserve Board thought it fit. This bill would have moved that up to tomorrow!

Tomorrow people! Do you hear me! Tomorrow we could have all woken up to the possibility of zero holdings in our banks and it being legally allowed!

And you dare cheerlead for this bill?"

Daily Kos

This may seem complicated but it isn't. You learned wwhat the reserve holdings in banks were for back in middle school civics...Is civics still taught in school? It is the amount of money a bank has to keep on deposit, in reserve, that it cannot loan out. This is what caused 30% of all the banks in America to fail back in the early part of the 20th Century. It's why we have a Federal Reserve, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and a U.S. Dollar. Henry Paulson was going to kill all of this yesterday.

Even worse, he was going to place a time bomb into legislation and leave town, much like McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm did with his deregulatory bill in 1999. Gramm baked the cake and hid the file so that Bush and his people could saw through the bars on the bank windows.

That would have meant that your hometown bank could simply tell you that they were out of money when you went to withdraw your life's savings and it would be completely legal.

Listen to me...Throw out the Paulson Bill and start over.

This bill has no guarantees, no protections, and no requirements that anything be fixed. The actual wording is, "The President shall propose..." That would be George W. Bush, at this point, known, loved, and trusted?

I don't think so.

It's just throwing money, America's credit card actually, at the losses of monster financial institutions and speculators, in the hopes that things will work themselves out...It also props up the high price of oil by 40% by propping up Oil specultors. How about that one?

"If speculators were forced to liquidate their positions, oil would easily be $65 to $75 per barrel by the time the liquidation was complete," said Michael Masters, the founder of Atlanta-based hedge fund Masters Capital Management. Tuesday, oil was trading at $108.74 in midday trading in New York

I am beginning to believe that we should take our medicine and let some really big boys get killed by the market. If I could be guaranteed that a sound regulatory system would emerge from the ashes, I would let these people burn.

As it is now, I give you a quote from Republican Minority Leader Boehner, "What we have here is a flawed proposal that may work."

Later he blamed Democrats for the failure of the vote. I want to thank them. Now get the lobbyists out of the room, call in the economists, and give us a rational proposal that is less flawed and far more likely to work.

Peace,

Steve

Smartest People in the World Endorse Obama

The smartest people on Earth endorse Barack Obama for President and urge us to support him. In their letter, they especially mention the comments of Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, and her support for anti-science ideas, such as creationism, being forcefully taught in our public schools...

During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country’s scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government’s scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.

We have watched Senator Obama’s approach to these issues with admiration. We especially applaud his emphasis during the campaign on the power of science and technology to enhance our nation’s competitiveness

Let's see...Who else is endorsing Obama? How about the fact that our Military personnel are giving SIX times as much money to Obama as they are to McCain? That's huge!

Sarah Palin has now gotten reverse endorsements from several big name conservatives. They are asking her to resign for the good of her party.

And since we haven't heard a peep out of her, it appears that Sarah is being kept in the "Witless Protection Program"!

Sarah Palin has been sequestered from the questioning public for six straight days now. She's cramming for her debate. Frankly, that fact all by itself is tacit admission that she is unqualified for the Vice Presidency. (This is particularly ominous, given that John McCain has been treated for melanoma cancer 5 times now and won't release his medical records.)

...Ok, I stole the Sarah Palin "Witless Protection Program" thing.

The debate bar is extremely low for Palin. She doesn't actually have to do very much to exceed expectations except remember the litle things, like the fact that Bono is not the President of Ireland.

The financial bailout has entered the strangest stage in its development. I would feel better about it if lobbyists had been excluded from the deliberations and if they had thrown out the Paulson plan altogether. Calls to Congress are still overwhelmingly opposed for several reasons.

I personally remain opposed to this particular plan, although I understand that something must be done. I would tie any bailout to repeal of McCain advisor Phill Gramm's bill deregulating the mortgage industry which allowed this to happen in the first place. So far I see nothing in any of this that acts to prevent a recurrence of a similar failure of the the financial industry.

I also think we should heed the words of Senator Bernie Sanders and act to limit the size of any financial institution...

"If it is too big to fail...It's too big to exist."

Duh!

Peace,

Steve

The Week Simplified

I realize that someone has to boil everything that happened this week down to the grits and serve it up for general consumption. Well, as always, I figure to give it a shot. There was way too much going on so I’ll try to keep it to the really important stuff.

The McCain campaign, fresh from their most recent pr disaster of the non-suspended campaign suspension in order to screw up the financial negotiations, have decided that their next big ploy will be tomarry off Sarah Palin’s storked teenaged daughter, Bristol, with all the networks and cable news guys invited, which will definitively prove once and for all that John McCain can still run a country.

Obama won the first Presidential debate, and even though Republican operatives posted a web ad that claimed McCain won nine hours before the debates even started and Democratic loyalists were disappointed that Obama did not eviscerate McCain in any of the several opportunities, everybody else in America does… except the 28% who still think George W. Bush is doing a good job.

Allegations by the McCain campaign that lobbyists for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae worked for Barack Obama turned out to be transparently FALSE.

Denials by McCain himself that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was being paid HALF a million bucks by Freddie Mac  also turned out to be TRUE…It was closer to a FULL million.

“Snake Eyes”  McCain has a gambling problem. He  spends so much time and money at Indian casinos that he has his own suite at Foxwood Casinos. Did I mention that McCain was a member of the Committee on Indian affairs and was “One of the founding fathers of Indian gaming”?

Sarah Palin has found out how to deal with her abuse of power and corruption investigation in the state of Alaska… Throw the subpoenas in the trash can. Karp Rove told her, “That’s what we do. They can’t put you in jail until after the election and you can get pardoned before anything serious goes down.”

Sarah Palin was seen in a bar but has yet to show up at a press conference… Dan Quayle sent her his Cliff Notes on “Running your Nation like it was Still a Super Power.” She apparently still has her old dog eared copy of “The Beauty Padgent Queen’s guide to answering Easy Questions for the Totally Clueless “.

Our Financial Sector Essentially collapsed… The lobbyists who sold us the problem are now busy working nights and weekends trying to sell us something else that will delay the actual collapse of the American sector until they are safely in Paraguay.  I would post a link but it’s changing so fast that it would be obsolete before you click it. Surprisingly, everybody in America seems to have called their Congressman.

The EPA has essentially shut down and will be renamed the PPA…The Polluter Protection 
Agency.

Ummm…Well,  so has the FDA. But at least they react after consumer groups scream at them about their dead puppies.

Saturday Night Live continues to provide the most definitive political analysis in America.

Peace,

 

Did You See the Debate?

There will be all sorts of huffing and spinning and "My guy won" stuff thrown about today in the aftermath of last night's Presidential debate. Looking at the reaction from the quick polls and focus groups, particularly the ones involving independants, Obama won in a blowout.


Joe Klein, Time Magazine:

Obama emerged as a candidate who was at least as knowledgeable, judicious and unflappable as McCain on foreign policy ... and more knowledgeable, and better suited to deal with the economic crisis and domestic problems the country faces

.

CNN:

McCain lost the debate among his base, Americans older than 50:

CNN just released some internals from their poll which showed that Obama won the debate. 48% of voters 50 and older thought Obama won, but only 40% thought McCain won. This, of course, is McCain's base. Men gave McCain a margin of only 3%, and women gave Obama a margin of about 20%. More horrible news for McCain. John King made the point that it is these people (50 and older) who are looking at their 401K's, which they spent decades building up, only to see everything now gone.

CBS:

Among Independants, Obama in a blowout!

Screenshots including the raised hands of the CBS focus group showing a landslide victory for Obama.


It is always curious to see what sticks in people's minds after one of these things. I can never predict what it will be. I guess I'm too analytical and calculating. It is why good sales people and good marketing people are good at what they do, they look at the emotional components for direction. Last night's event, which John McCain tried to prevent from ever happening, is a fine example.

I kept track of factual errors and mistakes in judgement, nearly all of which were McCain's. Obama is by far NOT the most liberal member of the Senate. Obama has a decent record on earmarks, whereas McCain's own veep choice is America's reigning queen, getting over ten times what Obama has in per capita earmark money.

But what killed McCain wasn't his obvious factual misrepresentations. It was John McCain himself.

Watching McCain get all shakey during one exchange in which Obama pointed out that McCain was "Wrong, wrong, wrong..." on Iraq and Afghanistan, I noticed two things and so did all of the commentors. I thought McCain was going to have one of those "purple rage" moments he is famous for in his inner circles. ..But he didn't. Even though he was obviously near the edge of losing it, his complexion stayed the same healthy color and I was amazed.

How could this be?

And then I remembered the $5000 makeup program. We have heard a lot about John Edwards $400 haircuts but nothing about McCain's $5000 makeup program. The woman who does John's face was hired away from American Idol for big bucks. I think she saved John McCain from horrendous derision last night.

So as everybody in America watched Jim Lehrer try to get Barack and John to talk to each other, we all saw Obama speak directly to John McCain, the audience, and Jim Lehrer. What we never saw during the debate itself was John McCain look directly at Barack Obama.



I don't think he ever did it. He couldn't, all that much, even look at Jim Lehrer, the moderator who had asked him the questions. Everybody saw that. Everybody wondered what that meant about John McCain.

In my calculating analysis, I know that it means that McCain would be a disaster for the United States in a heated international negotiation. But that's not what everybody else saw...

They saw condecention, arrogance, rudeness, even "passive-agressive outrage". Wow...I was just thinking McCain was a jerk. But several pundits saw something else...They saw John McCain's inability to look Barack Obama in the eye as deep anger toward Obama...

Anger in the inescapable realization that Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States of America.

And me? I saw something else on John McCain's face as he turned it away from Barack Obama. I saw one hell of a pancake makeup job hiding the purple rage. That $5000 was money well spent.

That makeup woman is damned good!

Peace,

A Note to Barack Obama...

Hey Barack,

I know you talk to Henry Paulson a lot and listen to what he has to say about the financial crisis and the need to bailout financial institutions...

STOP IT!

The numbers don't work...Somethings really wrong with what is going on here. This whole thing is starting to look like a set up to me... Democrats were about to work with W on a deal and McCain rides in and stopped it, thereby saving the country from the evil President Bush and the Democrats.

Look...The total number of mortgages in trouble totals $111 Billion. That's a lot but it's not $700 Billion. And frankly, Washington Mutual lost $198 Billion in value just yesterday. What's going on?

And look...John McCain hasn't suspended his campaign. He said his ads would stop running and I just watched one, so that's a lie. He's still making loud noises to the press and he said the Paulson plan was unacceptable right before he admitted that he hadn't even read the thing. I mean, hey...It's well over two pages long. I mean I read it. And frankly I agree with McCain and so does every body else on the planet including you, Barack. Even you have said the Paulson plan is dead. Of course you proposed a number of rational points to be worked out and added to what is actually Senator Dodd's plan.

Why not come right out and say you don't support the Paulson plan...You don't.

At any rate, this whole thing is fishier than Flipper. If the problem is bad housing loans we can cover those and keep those folks in their homes for a fifth of what Paulson wants, and anyway, they just made up that $700 Billion number. It's three times what they thought they would need.

Now here are some things to consider...

1. Wall Street paid out $120 Billion in bonuses in the last five years. If they have that kind of money, They can pay for their own bailout.

2. Ok, so they want us to finance their bailout. Fine...Put a transfer fee on stock transactions to pay back anything we spend on bailouts. We are the only Nation with a stock market that doesn't have this fee. London's fee is 0.25%. This would raise roughly $150 Billion a year. Paulsen doesn't want that because he says it would discourage stock trades. Bullshit.

3. If we simply helped folks make their payments, it would take care of the troubled mortgages for a fraction of the proposed money, people would keep their houses, and the government would take a secondary lien to recover some of the cost if the houses are sold.

4. I don't know that much about this stuff, but according to one Democratic Congressman calls to Congress are running about 50-50 on the bailout...50% No! And 50% HELL NO!

5. Tell John McCain that a deal has been worked out that there will be no deal, so get on the plane, fly to Mississippi, and let's debate.

Don't get sucked into this trap.

Peace,

Steve

Update: Told you so. the debate is back on even though there is absolutely no agreement.

McCain was silent during the White House meeting yesterday, mostly because he had nothing to offer. Obama essentially took over the meeting and lead a bipartisan discussion with Republicans offering points and Obama asking Paulson if they would work. McCain kept his mouth shut and offered nothing in the way of ideas or even much comment. So how does his campaign explain this?

The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama's priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners. The Democratic interests stood together in opposition to an agreement that would accommodate additional taxpayer protections.

Absolute bullshit...

McCain Ditched Letterman, Gotta Save Economy...Well, no...Gotta Appear with Katie

Oops! Busted Again

Poor John McCain...The once proud and honorable Senator McCain has degenerated into a candidate who says whatever he wants to be true, whether it is or not. When he gets busted, he calls the messenger irresponsible or "in the tank 150% for Obama".

Sunday night on TV McCain said his campaign manager did not work for Freddie Mac, the monster mortgage bank that was just this month taken over by the government in one of the early bailouts.

The New York Times, 150% in the tank for the facts, pointed out that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was getting $15,000.00 a month from Freddie Mac and that payments stopped only because the Federal Government now owns the bank.

How sincere do we think John Sydney McCain can possibly be about taking on lobbyists and Wall Street, when his campaign is run by lobbyists, and his main guy was still getting paid until a few weeks ago?

Also a curiosity is McCain's apparent ignorance of all this. He's apparently just repeating what he's told him to say.

Things that are such obvious lies that the Obama campaign has them up in ads before he finishes the sentence, like the one about Sarah Palin selling her plane on eBay for a profit. That was a twofer, since she lost money on it selling it to a campaign donor not on eBay.

Dear John Sydney McCain,

Telling the truth and sticking to the facts used to be considered a virtue in America. We just don't trust you anymore, and it's your fault for lying.

And one more thing...Why is it that every time somebody in the Press points out a factual error on your part, you call them Liberals and In the Tank for Obama?

Facts have a Liberal bias in your mind, I guess, and you must not care much for facts any more. It's like Tommy Smothers said, "Truth is what you can make somebody else believe."

That's too bad. I used to like you and think you were an honest man. I'm over you, John. I need a President who will tell America the truth.

Peace,

Steve

Update: Ever wonder why the letters to the Editor supporting McCain seem so fake?

It's because They are.


Told ya, Ernie.

You can call me Hank

I have a serious problem with what is going on in the financial market. I smell a big fat putrid rat, first name, Henry.

Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, has proposed a very scary legislative action that he says has to be passed NOW or our financial markets will crash. It says that he gets $700 Billion to do whatever he feels is needed to fix the huge financial corporations that are hurting so badly because of loans they made in complicated financial instruments that no one knows how to value, but which are now worth a great deal less than they claimed they were.

The bailout proposal also says that paulson will have no oversight and can't be taken to court for anything he does. Does that pass the smell test? Paulson threw this thing out on the table and told Congress to sign it or else. Now look what Bloomberg Financial news says about the bailout as proposed:

By Jody Shenn
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan to buy assets from financial companies while many banks see limited aid, according to Bank of America Corp.

Goldman Sachs is in trouble because of a financial instrument called a "Credit default instrument" that it issued from 2005 through 2007. Other financial institutions followed suit and next thing you know the big boys, think "too big to fail", were slinging debt around like hash. Now the hard assets behind those bundled instruments, think "your house", have lost value and the little folks who were sold home mortgage swampland may lose their homes and the financial guys who came up with and tafficed in this financial crack cocaine, may lose a bunch of their own money , not to mention get in serious trouble with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc. because those countries have been backing just about everything in this country.

So Henry Paulson tries to ram a fishy bailoout proposal imbedded with his own pardon down the throats of America's taxpayers and the Congress that represents them.

"Don't read it...Just sign it!" he says.

So this version of the capital crisis started with Goldman Sachs in 2005. Guess who was CEO of Goldman Sachs in 2005 through part of 2006, while this was going on?
And guess who received compensation for 2005 in the order of $27 Million dollars?

Henry Paulson.

Riiiiight!

His friends call him, "Hank".

Peace,
Steve

Sound Up

A friend writes:

It's the 40th anniversary of the wonderful instrumental "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams, the best guitar piece that's ever been written in my humble opinion. "Classical Gas" won three grammys in 1968; for - Best Instrumental Composition, Best Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental/Orchestra Arrangement. I'm sure most of you have heard of, or remember the song. What you may not know, is that Mason Williams was the head comedy writer for the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", the show that CBS snatched off tv in 1969 for being too controversial. It used to be one of my favorite shows, but I had no idea at the time that Mason Williams was the head writer.

Well, actually, I did know that Mason was one of the writers. He recorded several musical albums which tended to try to be funny, although they had a cerebral humor that did not run with the same crowd that was laughing at Bill Cosby at the time. My Brother and I were facing the draft, Vietnam, and other issues of the day in which a thoughtful person had to realize that entire governments could go mentally ill.

You know...Like say...Now, for instance. Here is Mason Williams on the Smothers Brothers with "Classical Gas"


A virtuoso guitarist who has decided to leave Australia and spend a lot of time in East Tennessee, Tommy Emanuel, does a defferent version that pays homage to Mason Williams. You won't really notice that there is no orchestra on this one. Emanuel doesn't really show off on this version, but he gets lively enough. If you've seen him in person you know what I mean.


It is somehow fitting that the Smothers Brothers Show pops up on the radar screen after Tommy Smothers was recognized at the Emmies this week. His speech should be required viewing and a subject for discussion. In so few words, Tommy Smothers challenges us to change America back into itself. (Thanks to Terri for the alert)



Peace,

Steve

HOLD ON THAR, RABBIT!

Krugman says, "Wait just a danged minute there, Paulson. You've been telling us everything was just fine for the last two years only you were lying and now you want us to trust you and pass really strange regulations right this minute? I don't think so!"

OK, I paraphrase. But keep in mind this simple fact...These people want your tax money to pay for their mistakes... And they want your house, too.



Creeps...

Just remember that John McCain and his boys are right in the middle of this mess. McCain's buddy, Phil Gramm introduced the legislation, McCain co-sponsored it and it passed through the Republican dominated Senate, with all but one Democrat voting against the bill, which essentially removed oversight and regulations and allowed big financial intitutions to buy each other out, cut staff and increase profits for a short time. Remember Paine Weber? Got bought by a Swiss bank, UBS, thanks to Phil Gramm's bill. Gramm left the Senate and went to work for...wait for it...Swiss Bank, UBS.

Yeah...Convenient, wasn't it? Made one of those CEO compensation packages we hear about so much, and now he wants you and I to save his sorry ass...

And John McCain wants to make him Treasury Secretary?



s

Evil works Nights and Weekends

The Federal Reserve said Sunday it had granted a request by the country's last two major investment banks — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — to change their status to bank holding companies.

Sunday afternoon, the Federal Reserve Board took Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley off the hook. with a snap of its collective fingers. All of this maneuvering is NOT to save your job or your house. As a matter of fact, the Wall street Lobbyists want your house for themselves...

What is emerging in all these shenanigans is that Wall Street and John McCain want you and I to take the losses and them to take the profits...And also your house.

What creeps these people are. How can anyone look themself in the mirror and even suggest such a thing? Statistically, there is about one true sociopath for every 200 normal people. do they ALL work on Wall Street?

I mean the ones who aren't elected Republicans...

Peace,

Steve

Deep DooDoo

Yes we are...And we're a long way from the bank and Lassie's gone away with Timmy and isn't coming back.

Shoulda put everything into...well, I don't know. You could say gold, but it depends on whether anybody has any currency of value to buy your gold with when you need to sell it.

The liabilities that were traded in the last year in unregulated financial instruments were roughly 70 Trillion dollars. To put that in perspective, the Gross World Product...all the money made in the entire world last year, was maybe $65 Trillion.

Some really big financial companies are bankrupt. Their creditors should lose money, like you and I would if we loaned money to a relative and they lost their job and turned to drugs or something. Wnat to know who the creditors are?

Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Japan, to name just a few of the really big ones. We're talking about bailing these Corporations out to the tune of doubling or tripling the National debt. This is a failure of conservative republican ethics, credibility, capability, morality, and philosophy in a way that the world has never ever seen before without a world war or revolution.

Now, it looks like the proposal out of the people who were in charge while the dollar burned have offered to fix it by running up your credit card and making themselves untouchable. No oversight is to be allowed.

Those Morons! It was the absence of oversight, courtesy of John McCain and Phil Gramm, that got us in this incredible situation in the first place.

I wonder how much money John McCain stands to lose if these companies aren't bailed out? Oh wait...It's not his money, is it? It's Cindy's money. Let's see...Wasn't it Cindy's money that he was trying to protect way back when we first learned who John McCain was during the Keating Five scandal? McCain's first scandal only cost taxpayers $3.5 Billion...This one will cost us a thousand times that.

It's time for a change. McCain's deregulation has cost us our economy, our manufacturing base, our jobs, and now...the houses we live in.

Peace,

Steve

Here's a long article with tons of information about where we are and how we got here. I suggest you read it.

Update: Krugman thinks the bailout as presented is a bad idea.

The Bailout: Corrupt as the Administration that Proposes it

As our Nation's finacial markets collapse, Treasury Secretary Paulson is working over the weekend to come up with something that will save them. Excuse me, but I don't trust these people. They make vultures look like the doves of peace.

Here's Saint Paul (Krugman) on how the bill is supposed to work:

Here's another financial writer on how the bill can be used to steal a bank for next to nothing:

Here's the Text of the Bill:

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.

Have these people no shame? No scruples?

And what about the man who wants to follow in George W. Bush's footsteps? His own words hang him high. How can anybody remotely consider John McCain as a choice for the presidency? Are they nuts?

Somebody help the man get his foot out of his mouth.

This is from an article McCain wrote exactly one year ago:

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

"As HE has done to banking"

McCain is a liar and an absolute moron. Even HE has to know that.

Obama is nicer than I would have been...




Dear John...Watch this!

Could we have a little Truth here?

Dr. McCain Amputated the Wrong Leg

John McCain and the Republicans voted to make the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression happen...(And I'm giving McCain the benefit of the doubt here...Our current situation may blow away the Great Depression as simply old news.) Every Senate Democrat, except for Fritz Hollings, voted against the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in the Republican-dominated US Senate. It was John McCain and his Republican buddies who passedthis devastating legislation on the 6th of May, 1999.

When McCain says he tried to stop the financial meltdown by going against Republicans in his glorified maverickness...He's just plain lying. John McCain is as big a whore to lobbyists as anyone in politics, and voted to give banks and financial institutions a free unregulated run at your money. Now they will take even more of it in order to save their own sorry asses...And Dr. McCain, convicted of malpractice for amputating the wrong leg, wants us to trust him to do our nation's open heart surgery?

Here are the details, if you would like to identify each and every villian in this mess.

Please note that Joe Biden voted against Phil Gramm's bill, and that for once, John McCain was present, even if he did the wrong thing for America once again.


Now just so you know, Obama is back up in the composite tracking poll for President. In Tennessee, we don't necessarily see the best Obama ads that are being run in the states that Obama can and will win, so here's one you should take a look at. Send it to everyone...especially the Republicans that you are trying to bring into the light. Tell them it's time for them to become part of saving this country.




Feel better now?

Peace,

Steve

Save a Republican...Today!

Can we talk?

Look...I know you have friends who are Republicans. You probably have family members who are Republicans. All families have their skeletons in the closet, but there's hope! Cult programming can be broken, but it takes loving and dedicated friends and family to show these people the light and the way of the truth.

It is up to you, because very few people can break the cult addiction by themselves and because your loved ones are not going to see it on TV.

Whenever I hear someone call the US media "liberal" I pity them. How can you be so dense that you would believe such a statement to the point of repeating it?

If our media were truly liberal, John McCain would have been laughed out of the presidential race long ago.

You see...Liberals have this thing about telling the truth. We believe that part about "Thy shalt not bear false witness..." and we have a good relationship with facts, science, and honesty. We would never let our marketing department try to brand the campaign of a serial liar with the absurdity, "The Straight Talk Express."

John McCain is a serial liar, unworthy of the office of president. Either that, or he is so deranged from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that he's wandering around in a daze and reading a script that makes little sense to a sentient being.

But then you folks knew that already. Our task, at this point, is to demonstrate to our Republican friends that they don't want a Republican president either, and certainly not one as daft as John McCain. I want all of you to answer the call to arms, right now as soon as you receive this, by emailing this link to your Republican friends...I know you have them. Everybody has them in their family and we all live with the shame, because we know they have a choice. Let's help them, shall we?

Put your arm lovingly around your friends and loved ones and watch with them, this inspiring video.

John McCain, in his own words.

Yes...One day they will thank you for it.

Peace and Love,

Steve


Update: Washington Post columnist, Richard Cohen is a prominent example of Republicans who now see the light...

"I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.

A must read!

No they Didn't...

The McCain ads make me sick. There should be some minimum level of truth required in a political ad, but so far, it seems like the Lies of John McCain are validated by a docile press whofails to call him on them.

John McCain took on the Republicans? Yeah, right...By voting with George W. Bush 100% of the time in the last year? That'll show 'em.

Sarah Palin took on Big Oil? By supporting off shore drilling, drilling in the Arctic National Refuge, and wanting polar bears eliminated? Give me a break.

I have always, up until now, held a grudging respect for John McCain, believing that he was sort of an honest person, by Republican standards anyway. I'm over it.

McCain is running the most dishonest campaign in Presidential history. Even Karl Rove thinks McCain is lying. Yeah...Him!

McCain is sincerely ill equipped to deal with the challenges ahead, and Sarah Palin?...Don't make me laugh. Sarah couldn't build a hockey rink with Federal earmark money without going $20,000,000.00 over budget. She'll do a fine job of following W. His record of amassing more debt than all pervious Presidents in American history combined could well be in jeapardy is McCain somehow gets in. The American economy doesn't stand a chance with these two driving the train.

Did I mention the McCain has had 5 occurences of melanoma? Know what the odds are?

Anyway, as we watch all those big republican financial firms collapse and have to be bailed out with your money, remember that McCain's financial advisor, Phil Gramm, was the architect of the regulations that made all this possible. And also remember the McCain first rose to national prominence as the main player in the Keating banking scandal which cost us $3 Billion in bailout money. Cindy McCain's family was heavily invested in Keating, by the way. A small detail that gets left out by the liberal press,

So McCain has no capability of solving the economic mess we're in, but that won't matter, because we'll be fighting World War Three.

Lost in the weekend's news was the fact that Bolivia and Venezuela kicked out the United States Ambassadors. Venezuela supplies over 10 percent of America's oil and could supply much more. Say what you will about Hugo Chavez, he is well loved in his country, except by rich people and multinational corporations.

Bigger still, is the news that in retaliation for installing the Spy Wars missle defense system in Poland, Russia has now landed and stationed long range bombers in Venezuela.

Here's another little bit of info: Our Missle defense system doesn't work. Whatcha wanna bet Russia's bombers work very well?

The all Universe stupid level of the Bush Administration has grievously weakened America. McCain looks for all the world to be even worse than Bush in his saber rattling and belief that war is the answer to all problems. As the article noted above points out, The only one stupider than the man running screaming off the cliff...Is everyone following him off the same cliff.

That would be John McCain and everyone who votes for him.

Peace,

Steve

McCain Lies to America

Good is Dead?...(Maybe Not!)

It is with angry frustration that we have watched our Press fail in its solemn Constitutional duty America, that of Factchecker and Truth teller. With the McCAin campain caught on camera with its many hands in the cookie jar, they looked straight at reporters and editors and newscaster all across America and ernestly said, "It wasn't me!"

Somehow, someway, somebody needs to travel across America and wipe off the mirrors above the sinks at which the people who are supposse to call out liars wash their faces and look themselves in the eye.

But there is a glimmer that some in the media are coming to grips with the fact that they do not want to live in the America of John McCain and the power mad entities that he serves. In the struggle between good and evil, it appears that good may not be dead yet.


The McCAin campaign is gradually being busted for what they are...LIARS!

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

she is a fraud, and has been proven a demonstrable liar

Whatever the motivation, the McCain campaign simply has a problem telling the truth. With each passing the day, the disdain this gang shows for the democratic process becomes a little more breathtaking.

He says he’d rather lose the election than lose the war. But it seems he’d rather lose that honor he’s always going on about than lose the election.

The American people are watching her repeatedly lie to them, day after day, and watching her do so with no apparent compunction.

All of these quotes come from the mainstream media...Krugman, Kinsley, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Washington Post, Andew Sullivan...Many More...Is there a light rising in America? Will we demand that our candidates for the highest office in the land, simply tell us the truth?

Unless the referees in America blow the whistle, the cheaters will win.

Do I hear that whistle blowing?

Peace,

Steve

A Pig's Ear...mark

Of Pigs and Bridges

So now the American political process has degenerated to the level of the paint on a cheap whore.

Obama's words, "Lipstick on a pig", describing McCain's policies is the latest supposed outrage. McCain says it's a sexist remark aimed at Sarah Palin, which is funny, since McCain used the expression twice with regard to Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin herself said that it was the only difference between herself and a pitbull.

Can we talk about an issue, by any chance? Can we talk about Sarah Palin being the world champion per-capita earmark queen? Nope..Lipstick.

Can we talk about John McCain's votes against the GI Bill and against veterans? Nope...Lipstick.

Can we talk about the repeated lies McCain and Palin tell every day about her opposition to the "Bridge to Nowhere"? Nope...Lipstick!

Can we talk about McCain's embrace of the disastrous economic policies of Phil Gramm that allowed the lending industry to destroy itself requiring tax money bailouts of Trillions of dollars? Nope...Lipstick!

Can we talk about McCain's dangerous warmongering? His call for military confrontation with Russia? His call for military confrontation with Iran? His promise of more wars? Nope...Lipstick!

Can we talk about McCain's support of tax policies that place the tax burden ever more heavily on the average American and give more tax breaks to the richest of the rich? Nope...Lipstick!

Can we talk about McCain's idiotic cave in to Big Oil and now pushing for drilling off of our last remaining pristine beaches? Nope...Lipstick!

Can we talk about McCain's promise to destroy Social Security, even while he himself draws $24,000.00 a year? Nope...Lipstick!

Ok, then...If that's what you want, that's what I'll do.

John McCain's entire campaign is based on putting lipstick on a pig, and John McCain himself is nothing more than a Bridge to Nowhere!

Peace,

Steve

Give all you can...Work your Ass off

The Sarah Palin choice has resulted in a swing of 20% of the white women's vote. This is mainly because nobody knows who Sarah Palin is, but that is changing. She has an impressive resume vehemently opposing women's health issues and that's coming out, but the pettiness of Sarah Palin strikes me as incredible offensive:

There is something deeply strange about this woman. We know she lies easily and without fear of consequence, as her big fat lie on the national stage about her supposedly opposing the "Bridge to Nowhere", but she has a narcissistic bent that makes George W. Bush look positively normal.

How does one reconcile, for instance, the ability to justify falsifying an expense report that charges for lodging in one's own home with charging the victims of rape for their own rape kit used to investigate this dastardly crime against women?

Couple that with extremist opposition to abortion even in cases of rape, incest, and where it threatens the life of the woman, and you have the makings of a doctoral level study in personality disorder.

But that's just my opinion...Here's another...

The best ever blog post on Sarah Palin.

At any rate, let's not fixate on Sarah Palin, except to point out that it illustrates everything wrong with Republicanism.

Republicans are completely inept at running our country, protecting our environment, or providing a safe and nurturing school system for our children. They've run up trillions of dollars on the American credit card, deregulated mortgage lending into bankruptcy, and screwed up our foreign policy beyond all recognition.

They are deeply corrupt, with everything they touch requiring a government bailout using your tax money. There is no Republican platform plank that will make for a better America. If they win this electionIt will mark, for all time and history, the end of Constitutional America.

Give all you can! Work your ass off!

Peace,

Steve

Palin for President...(I Swear!)

Quotes

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."...Barack Obama

America must now make a choice. We must decide if we want a continuation of Republican rule and the ruination it has brought, or a return to the Democratic principles our nation was founded upon. Eveyone has their pet issue. It behooves us as voters to examine the policies and plans advocated by our candidates. There's a problem with examning John McCain, though. He has flipped on most of his previous stands and hasn't defined himself much on any issue except war and drilling our beaches (one of his bigger flip flops).

Here is a nice set of quotes with links to detailed policy from
Barack Obama.

The McCain camp has nothing close to any of this, preferring instead to concentrate on trying to smear Obama instead of offering a positive choice for the Presidency.

And then there's Obama's record in the Senate:As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S. military personnel.

After announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007, Obama emphasized withdrawing American troops from Iraq, energy independence, decreasing the influence of lobbyists, and promoting universal health care as top national priorities.

But let's make sure we take a look at John McCain's record as well. Ummm...Well, it seems that Senator McCain was pretty much absent from the Senate in the last year and missed well over 400 votes, so it's somewhat difficult to compare his record with Obama's.

Actually, I have a couple of questions I would like to ask:

Dear John...

Do you still believe Saddam was behind 9-11?

Why hasn't Sarah Palin even had an FBI Background check yet?

Believe that? Hell...Even school teachers get background checks!

Frank Rich asks a few more. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/opinion/07rich.html

That should keep you guys busy for a bit.

Cheers,

Steve

What are we changing here?

I thought I had seen the nastiest lies ever in the past two presidential elections, and somehow, I though John McCain would be slightly better at sticking with the truth.

WRONG!

Want to know who is responsible for high spending and the deficit? According to McCain it is Democrats. McCain voted with the Bush republicans roughly 100% of the time and they got essentially everything they wanted in money bills. Bush did veto bills that would provide medical care for children...Too wasteful..Need money for bombs and tax cuts for Big Oil companies. Dang those Democrats!

So McCain is the change guy...And I'm Mary Poppins.

I think that of all the evils of the Bush Administration, and picking the one among many is a tough choice, the greatest of all was his turning the United States Justice Department into an enforcement arm of the Republican Party. It looks to me like McCain thinks this was a fine idea. Why do I say that? McCain's people are up in Alaska right this very minute doing everything they can to derail the investigation into Governor Sarah's interference with with due process in the attempted firing of her ex-brother-in-law. The Alaska papers have dubbed it "Troopergate" and it does seem to desereve the label.

Sarah Palin was not exactly happy with the Alaska Public Safety Director, who wanted to follow the law and due process. In an obvious abuse of power, Palin shows us that she absolutely WILL be ready on day one to follow in the footsteps of Dick Cheney.

Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged
investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner
in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce
embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the
election.

Newsweek

Sound familiar? We can't have a bipartisan investigation of the Governor because that would be politicized. The only way we can make this a fair and impartial investigation is to let it be turned over to a panel of all Republicans appointed by the Governmor, herself.

McCain is having a hard time making the case that he will change a damned thing and we still won't investigate Republicans when he gets in charge.

John McCain has sold his soul in order to try to become President. If he is elected, American will have lost its soul as well.

Peace,

Steve

Do you know the difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney?

Here it comes...

The good news is that both campaigns have said they will not run negative ads on 9-11. Some of them are funny, though.

I think it's particularly ironic when someone can use a Budweiser commercial to poke at the most successful kept husband in American history. His hundred million dollar wife made her money hauling Bud in Arizona. This is interesting in another way. I remember the local Baptist church going after a local candidate because his wife owns a liquor store, and yet, not a peep out of them regarding demon alchohol this cycle.

Here's a funny from our Union folks at http://worsethanbush.org/.

Enquiring Minds are At it Again

From the "most trusted name in news"...Hmm...That doesn't sound right?

Anyway, The National Enquirer has jumped on the Palin family scandals. There's a lot to jump on, and of course they skip over the "Bridge to Nowhere" lies Palin told and went straight to what their readers want...SEX!

Palin actively lobbied for the infamous bridge and when it got politically hot, she let it go, but guess what? She kept the earmark money anyway. Her Alaska cronies got their money and a small Alaska town didn't get the bridge to the regional airport like they'd been promised...But why am I harping on this little Palin lie when we could be talking about SEX? Or as the RWXtions's call it...Abstaining from Abstinence.

The story should not be about Bristol Palin, and in fact it isn't. It is about her Mom's demand that she get married and then let the cat out of the bag about her pregnancy. (Gotta be true. Enquirer says so. Hey, It was good enough for Republicans when Rush used the Enquirer to back up one of his whoppers) Only this one may not be such a whopper. Mommy has ambitions, Bristol, dear.

Remember what she said last night...

"You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?...Lipstick!"

I think that denigrates lots of people's beloved pets and isn't the correct analogy, anyway. After trying to watch the Republican Convention and cringing as they told plain old lie (Sarah Palin got more votes for Mayor than Biden did for President...from preacher Huckabee) after lie (Obama will raise taxes on the middle class...Fred Thompson...Actually McCain's plan raises middle class taxes), I decided that there was way too much hypocrisy for me to stomach at one time. I mean, all that fawning over the Constitution and our Freedoms from the political party that has done more to destroy our constitutional freedoms than any other party in the last 200 years...My personal constitution can only take so much.

This whole republican thing really isn't about whether a pit bull hockey mom who is under investigation for abuse of power is remotely qualified to be Vice President. It's about the entire Republican party being personified by the policies of George W. Bush and hiding from it. It's about incompetency on so many levels. It's about ruining the value of the American dollar. It's about letting mortgage corporations run amuck and destroy the housing market. It's about letting polluters write environmental legislation, and gun manufacturers write gun law, and Mining companies write mine safety legislation, and about giving tax breaks to an oil corporation that records the largest profit ever made by a corporation in the history of mankind...

No! The Republican convention isn't about lipstick and a pit bull...It's about putting lipstick on a Pig!

Peace,

Steve

Moose and Snow

The McCain/Palin campaign is in a death spiral of epic proportions.

I don't even think that Fred Thompson's reading from last night can save them. I thought Fred's little mythological part about John McCain refusing to give up his military secrets even though he was being tortured was touching, didn't you? I personally forgive McCain for signing all those documents against the USA while he was in a POW camp. I mean I probably would have caved just like he did, but let's be honest about it and not pretend that it didn't happen, and let's all come on out against all forms of torture while we're at it. Just because McCain has flipped and supported torture recently, he was against it before he was for it, and there's still time for him to flop. (Hmmm...Did I say that right? Guess so)

Anyway, McCain's Veep pick seems to be up to her miniskirt in the rankest form of good old boy and girl corruption and cronyism. This particular tale is all about selling icecream to eskimos...If I'm lyin' I'm Dyin'...and cheese futures to miners, and using Federal earmark money to do it. Then there's the part about Sarah firing the entire State Agriculture and Conservation Board because they wouldn't agree to funnel state money into the IceCream Scheme. The company involved was named "Mat Maid" and locals call it Sarah's Dairy Gate Scandal.

Here's the whole thing with links and references and some snark to keep the storyline moving, and yes, Moose and Snow are involved but just barely. The hook was too good to pass up.

And just so's you don't think I was lying about that miniskirt either...here you go (Thanks to Susan)

The shoes and that glass of red wine sorta top off the photo, don't you think?

John McCain needs to quit looking at this woman's ass and realize he totally screwed up.

Peace,

Steve

Teenaged Pregnancy and John McCain

Before I spiral off on my rant, I want everyone to know I agree with Barack Obama that kids should not be used for political promotion, beyond the family portrait of one form or another. Show the picture of the happy family at most, and then leave them alone.

There is a problem in drawing the line with the Sarah Palin family, however, and I can't put my pencil on the wispy line between Sarah's basking in the glow of her son who will be deployed to Eye- Rack, and the declaration that her unmarried and pregnant 17 year old daughter is out of bounds. If you want your children's lives to be a private family matter, make sure you keep them a private family matter.

...And the Palin family pregnancies were not brought to the forefront by those mean old Liberals, either. They were a matter of public discussion and speculation in Alaska for the last year. A governor who hides her pregnancy for seven months before she publicly owns up to it is bound to cause talk, but that's another story. What I think is interesting in McCain's Palin problem is the stark light it throws on republican so called family values, and the effect of conservative policies on America's children. Here are some plain old "Liberal" facts...

80% of all Teen pregnancies are "unintended".

The United States of America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world.

Compare the US rate (44 per 1000) with the United Kingdom (27 per 1000) and you see how far out in last place we really are.

The United Kingdom has the worst teen pregnancy rate in Europe.

One third of US girls get pregnant before the age of 20.

There are three quarters of a million children born to teenaged girls each year in the USA.

Abstinence programs have no effect on teen sexual activity, but more kids who have abstinence training engage in unprotected sex.

And now the biggie...The Alaska governor has the line item veto. What item did Sarah Palin personally strike from the budget last year? Funding for a state program to help unwed teen mothers find a place to live.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are on record opposing funding for pregnancy prevention programs that involve teaching information about contraception.

John McCain has made a lousy choice for his Vice Presidential running mate, not because she has a pregnant teenaged daughter, but because Sarah Palin shares McCain's Barefoot and pregnant policies toward providing information to America's children, and both of them are willing to force their own ideas on ALL of America's children even though a majority of Americans oppose McCain's policies.

Let me rephrase that...John McCain wants your children taught something most of us don't accept and in fact oppose.

Conservatism is a vile philosophy in these respects...And John McCain has sold his soul to the worst of its proponents in order to help himself win the presidency.

And the fact that John McCain has sold his soul is his real problem. The fact that he allowed his handlers to choose a completely unqualified running mate is merely a symptom of McCain's emasculation.

We must protect America's children from these people.

Peace,

Steve

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