David Corn

DC,

Another old saying that is appropriate:

"You can’t back up to where you have never been and you can’t teach what you don’t know."

I expected a pivot from the McCain camp but they are all over the map on nearly every issue.

The debates will be interesting.

Thanks!

Republican Controlled Government Says:

“We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Social Security
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Medicare
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to provide health care to ALL Americans
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to help out Americans losing their homes
We don’t have ENOUGH MONEY to help all our veterans returning from war

BUT

We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Bears Stearns
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out AIG
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to pay for an unnecessary TRILLION DOLLAR war

When the LITTLE GUY needs help, they scornfully say, “GET A JOB!”
But when of their BIG GUY CRONIES need a bailout, what do they say?

LET ME GET THE CHECK BOOK!”

"The Real Scoop On Palin’s Staged Town Hall Meeting — Another Pretend Moment!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

So, what was the catch? Unlike most town-hall events, which are open to the public, include diverse crowds, and no one needs an advance invitation, this event was for ticket-holders only. And the only way to get a ticket was through the local Republican Party, after an advance RSVP. No wonder Palin was prepared to play "stump the candidate" — it was a very friendly crowd that had no interest in testing her.
It doesn’t exactly sound like a vote of confidence in the candidates’ ability to answer tough questions, does it?"

How long will the GOP continue to get away with lying, cheating and deceiving the American people? McCain and Palin are frauds.

McCain Wants to Gamble With Social Security!
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Jeez, on MONDAY McCain said regulation was bad, and the solution to the current Wall St. crisis was MORE deregulation, so they'd have more flexibility to react to economic shifts. I guess someone shoved a poll at him on Tuesday or something.

WaPo:

McCain was almost upstaged at the rally here by Palin, who drew rapturous applause from the crowd with her bubbly declaration -- twice -- that she and McCain were "going to Washington, D.C., to shake things up!''

McCain recited a speech he had given earlier in the day about the need to reform Wall Street. A slow but steady trickle of supporters began to file out after Palin's speech introducing McCain.

NYT:

After Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, his running-mate, riveted the overflow crowd at an airplane hanger here for 16 minutes, it was McCain's turn, and people in his audience began murmuring and drifting away midway through a 14-minute speech that was flat and cheerless. When McCain made his first appearance without Palin, on Monday morning in Jacksonville, he faced an arena that was one-quarter full.

The lies of Hiroshima are the lies of today

In the New York Times on July 18, the Israeli historian Benny Morris, once considered a liberal and now a consultant to his country's political and military establishment, threatened "an Iran turned into a nuclear wasteland". This would be mass murder. For a Jew, the irony cries out.

The question begs: are the rest of us to be mere bystanders, claiming, as good Germans did, that "we did not know"?

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=499

Biden caught in MORE LIEs !!! -

"Biden proved once again that it doesn't take outright falsehoods to create a skewed impression of one's opponent. We found in a Sept. 15 speech that:

Biden used partial quotes to support his charge that McCain wouldn't help "small borrowers" suffering in the mortgage crisis but would "fight for those that lost their ... real estate investments." In fact, McCain's full quote said he would also fight for those who "lost their jobs" and "savings," and he has proposed assistance for homeowners."

Change - no they can't !

McCain does not care about poor people - or the middle class. He will go to war with Iran, he will satifsy his base with court appointees who will push through right wing agendas through their decisions, he will continue to play nice with lobbyists and big business. The poor and the middle class will get the squeeze because after all of that, there will be no money left for any type of social programs.

Biden Rips McCain/Palin for Not Facing the Press

ABC News' Matt Jaffe Reports: Joe Biden, in his speech today at the Laborers’ International Union of North America's Local 894 in Akron, Ohio, criticized the McCain/Palin ticket for not facing the press.

"I got asked a question by the press this morning, er, yesterday," Biden said, referencing Kate Snow's pre-taped interview for today's "Good Morning America."

"I’ve done a lot of press, I’ve done, I don’t know, I was told I did 68, 70 press conferences, and the person says, "What do you think about Sarah Palin?" I said, “When she does three, I’ll let you know." I don’t know! I don’t have any idea! I don’t know! I don’t know!" Biden said as the crowd rose to their feet.

"You know, I mean, look, and it’s not, look guys, it’s not just Sarah Palin," he continued. "When’s the last time John, when’s the last time John’s had a press conference? I’m serious.”

Biden then turned to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who introduced him.

"Ted, you and I know, when an elected official stops having press conferences, it ain’t because he’s found a way to communicate," Biden said. "It’s because he doesn’t want to communicate. Look folks, I mean, I, I, it’s just, if I sound angry it’s because I am angry. I mean, it’s like I don’t get it, I don’t get it!”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/

Palin's Nonsensical Answer On Domestic Energy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvUsdmqGYV8

*****

McCain thinks she knows more about "energy" than any other person in the USA?

It IS all about judgment.

Terrorist's Daughter is new Israeli Prime Minister!

Tzipi Livni Israels new Prime Minister is the Daughter of a Terrorist who brought wide scale slaughter to the British in the 1940's and 1950's. Also a formaer Mossad agent, can this REALLY be good for World Peace?

Palin disinvited from Iran rally

The organizers of an anti-Iran rally Monday rescinded their invitation to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin after Democrats protested that her presence would turn the event into a political rally, McCain campaign and Jewish community sources said.

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations created a political tempest by inviting Palin to speak without clearing her invitation with another speaker, Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton promptly dropped out of the event, saying it would be seen as unduly political. The McCain campaign then pressed Senator Barack Obama to join Palin on the stage in a show of unity against Iran.

The Obama campaign in turn offered to send Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida -- who had harshly attacked Palin for slender ties to Pat Buchanan-- to the event.

But the appearance that the non-partisan group was aligning with the Republican ticket put the group and its president, Malcolm Hoenlein, under heavy pressure from Jewish Democrats, including members of the conference, members of Congress, and the liberal group J Street, not to give Palin a platform, sources said. Hoenlein told the McCain campaign that he would have to rescind Palin's invitation or cancel the rally.

http://tinyurl.com/4w4a8n

Lieberman S1959 First Amendment Violations!!

Former Air Force fighter pilot and balls to the wall patriot Guy Razer tells Liebermans office what he thinks of Traitor Joe's preemptive strike against freedom of speech.

http://tinyurl.com/48c4vm

Vote Dem, and THIS is what you get !!!! -

"Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic-controlled Congress, acknowledging that it isn't equipped to lead the way to a solution for the financial crisis and can't agree on a path to follow, is likely to just get out of the way.

One reason, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do'' at the moment. "

Vote Obama/Biden 8 - "No one knows what to do"

hahahahaha!!!!

This board is getting a little off topic. Control yourselves folks.

As far as McCain's shifting positions on regulation, he's acting like a merry-go-round. Whoever he's talking to gets the message of the day. His populism is phony. His staff are a bunch of lobbyists. Phil "Deregulate the investment banks" Gramm is his economic advisor, even if he's currently being hidden in a cellar like the aberration he is.

McCain's been representing the most special of interests and deregulation for 26 years, and now that he knows his own policies are a failure and he's tied to Bush's, he's wearing a mask of the Democrat's main message. Give me a break, he's lying worse than Bush about the impending threat from Iraq.

There goes the straight talk express. You true believers out there -- come on -- when are you going to smell the coffee? Let's all take a big step forward, and yes, take a little risk, and go for the big rewards that the Democrats are teasing us with. Who knows... maybe they can help the situation. They sure can't do much worse. And McCain's credibility is shot. And notice, I didn't even have to mention what's her name, the moose hunter.

And wouldn't it be a nice little dividend, if electing Obama gives the country a bit better race relations and moves us closer to the views of our allies.

Biden "cherry picks" Catholic doctrine -

"Catholic social doctrine as I was taught it is, you take care of people who need the help the most,” he said. “Now it’d be different if you could make the case to me that by giving this tax cut to the very wealthy, everybody else was going to be better off. We saw what happened the last eight years when we gave that tax cut.”

Catholic social doctrine, as I was taught it, prohibits abortion. Why do the Dems exclude the unborn from the "people who need the help the most" category?
Those that cannot defend themselves are EXCLUDED by the Obama/Biden team.

And that tax philosophy is PURE MARXISM, or as Barack Hussein Obama would refer to it, PURE ALINSKY-ism !!!

Palin e-mail hacker has ties to Tennessee Democrats for Obama group -

"If it turns out that Mike Kernell is indeed the Father of the Hacker Rubico, his direct connections to Tennessee Democrats for Obama will no doubt be of great interest to top news sources in the coming hours"

Obama/Biden '08 - A Campaign of Corruption !!!

This from 2003 -

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt — is broken.

A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates."

This again, from 2003 -

”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

And then this, from 2008 -

"But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street’s most revered institutions.

Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties.

The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership.

And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but “predatory.”

So, DC ... er, I mean Hunter Gatherer, are these the "big rewards that the Democrats are teasing us with"? If so, we can't afford this teasing!!!!

Can you say HYPOCTITES ????

Change - no they won't.

Lots of " quotes,"
... without attribution...
Worthless.

The stuff I scraped off my shoe, today, has more verifiable merit AND smells better!

...and Jill's coming home tomorrow!

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild Calls Barack Obama an Elitist, Supports Multi-Millionaire McCain Instead.

Lady de Rothschild vs. the "Rednecks"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti60li-FwdQ

The Dead Core of McCain's Republican Party

The current economic meltdown, along with the energy, health care and transportation nightmares in the US, are not so much an indictment of a capitalist society, as they are of Republicans' duplicity in advocating for free markets when their main purpose is precisely the opposite: to ensure that economic power remains in the hands of a few, preferably their friends. This in turn should guarantee Republicans' own political power thanks to bountiful donations, and their personal financial future with the promise of highly profitable "jobs" and "consulting" careers.

Now that it has thoroughly discredited the market economy it was ostensibly pushing, the Republican Party is left with no clear, logical economic agenda. Once the party of smaller government, greater choice and enterprise, John McCain's GOP has been reduced to the party that wants more government intervention (see constitutional amendments forbidding gay marriage) and less choice for women (see outlawing abortion in all cases), and stifles scientific research (see stem cells).

The greatest failing of Republican management has been to pretend that the government does not exist (except to send the country to war), until it is too late and the heretofore non-existent government has to come to the rescue of assorted investment banks, mortgage companies, insurance giants, etc, providing massively inefficient subsidies to those least in need of them, simply to prevent further disaster.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-jenkins/the-dead-core-of-mccains_b_127109.html

I read two of the e-mails that were copied from PALIN's e-mail account. If these two are any indication of what the other ones will belike, it seems that all converstations relvolve around god and praying and LIFE issues.

From her own words, speaking of a political opponent of a friend of hers who is running for Congress...""he's said it all only really matters on matters of LIFE (her emphasis), honesty, ability, etc...all those things you are (as opposted to attributes of your opponents)? He knows you fit all of his, and concersvatives, and Alaskans's criteria. His fighting you reveals some evil stuff going on with him. Does he want someone OPPOSED to the life isseu in Congress? NOT capable of working with both parties? NOT experiences and capable and standing strong on all the right issues?" (all caps were PALIN's not mine)

Seems to me that all she cares about is LIFE and religious issues. It's clear that if McCain gets elected she'll push for anti-choice policies and court appointees, And of course if you disagree with her and the religious conservatives veiws - something evil must be going on with you.....wooooh (scary music)

This woman is DANGEROUS to women's health and reproductive rights issues. She is dangerous to this country by trying to make this a Christian Right controlled government. I say Christian Right because not all of the Christian community does not all agree with these right wing zealots!

Yes, be afraid, be very afraid of this woman if McCain were to be elected. This needs to be shouted on the rooftops.

Here's the link to the article that displayed the e-mails...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/17/palins-email-account-hack_n_127184.html

Memo to Republicans: CRA Has Nothing To Do With the Current Problems

There's a meme going around the right wing blogs. Deregulation has nothing to do with the current problems in the market. The real culprit is the Community Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Carter in 1977. Nothing could be further from the truth as a reading of the facts of the matter reveal."

.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/memo-to-republicans-cra-h_b_127599.html

It's important that we prevent the GOP slime machine from trying to put this on the democratic party. The GOP had control of the congress for 12 years, until 2006. For the last six of those years, they had the white house too. The arhitect of much of what is causing this is McCains former financial advisor - Phil Graham.

This is not Carter's fault...

"Seems to me that all she cares about is LIFE and religious issues. "

Yet - as all these kooks do - they support war, the death penalty and once born - all the kids are on their own.

UGH!

The CRA BS is just a way to try to hide Reagan from history.

It was Ronny not Jimmy that set this crud in motion.

Maybe I am too simple-minded but . .

If the government bailed out the homeowners there wouldn't be any "bad debt" to take the banks down?

Maybe I'm just crazy . . .

McCain was in league with Bush to move social security funds into the stock market, which could impoverish retirees in an instant with massive stock sell-offs and corporate bankruptcies like we've witnessed this week. These two incidents alone prove McCain's track record of esteeming lobbyists more than voters and putting the interests of Wall Street over Main Street.

What's a democracy to do?

How can a self-governing society defend itself against such a strategy of deliberate deceit and distortion? One approach, of course, is recourse to the courts. That is, we could rely on the law to forbid and punish such lies. In theory, government authorities could criminally prosecute the perpetrators of political lies for intentionally undermining the democratic process. But this "solution" is a non-starter in a democratic society.

This is where the free press enters the picture. One function of a free press in a self-governing society is to serve the public's interest in learning the truth. Unlike individual citizens, the media have the resources to check facts and separate truth from falsity in a professional and objective manner.

This is precisely why those who embrace a strategy of political lying make a concerted effort to denigrate the press. This is why at the Republican National Convention, speaker after speaker vehemently attacked what former Sen. Fred Thompson described as "the media big shots." If the strategy is to lie, then it is necessary to destroy the standing of the one institution with the power to exact a penalty for lying.

Moreover, two recent developments have opened the door to this strategy. First, in the 1980s, Republicans repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which for a half-century required broadcasters to be fair and balanced in their political coverage. By so doing, they ushered in the Rush Limbaughization of the media, undermining the political neutrality of the broadcast press. Second, the corporatization of the news media has left much of the mainstream press beholden to corporate interests and much more reluctant to speak truth to power.

This strategy of deliberate, concerted and systematic lying for partisan political advantage exploits these changes in the media and poses a serious challenge to the future of American democracy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-oped0918stonesep18,0,380893.story

Worth reading! I just provided the highlights.

Flan,

Good article! Well worth reading.

Thanks

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/530493.html

Todd Palin Refuses to Testify in Probe...

What are you afraid of Sarah? If you have nothing to hide, then you should welcome this investigation - in fact, you could have used it to your benefit - if, in fact, you did nothing wrong.

Obama's camp needs to pounce on this with ads...

What is Sarah hiding? She first said she welcomed an investigation and now the McCain camp is stalling the investigation. The investigation started before anyone knew (outside of Alaska) who Palin was. Palin herself initiated the investigation on herself. Now she's trying to stop it. Sounds fishy to me.

By putting the stall on this investigation, the democrats have a great opportunity to tie the "Palin/McCain" adminstration to the "Cheney/Bush" administration which has mastered the "stall" technique.

So, again, what are you afraid of Sarah?

Do we really want an administration that begins with it's VP under investigation for abuse of power? I mean, come on, haven't we had enough of that for the past 8 years? That is the ad that needs to be out there every day!

The GOP - expands the government AGAIN?

So crazy but the Democrats are the party of smaller government these days.

Bail outs? No short selling? Dumping billions upon billions of deficit spending into a depressed market?

Um, what part of the GOP "free market" forces drive this kind of BS?

I have always said Bush is not a conservative. There is nothing "conservative" going on in this WH, nothing even close.

Federal Judge Rejects Challenge to Stevens Indictment

Government prosecutors say Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, wrote letters and made calls on behalf of employees of VECO, the former Alaska-based oil services company. Stevens reportedly vowed to take steps to expedite the review and permitting process for a gas pipeline in Alaska. Former VECO employees are expected to testify against Stevens at trial.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/09/federal-judge-r.html

We know that Palin was a supporter of Stevens, before she was against him. Obama needs to continue to tie the "Palin/McCain" administration to Stevens and the bridge to know where she supported before she was against it.

Hmmm, now that I think of it, Palin touts how she signed legislation to expand the pipeline in Alaska. Were she and Stevens in cahoots on this? Did Palin know what Stevens was doing? Did she approve it? Did she know in advance what Stevens was going to do? I think she should be called on to testify on this.

Remember, while Troopergate is important because it shows how much of a power hungry, vindictive person Palin is, and does show she abused her power intrying to get the safety commissioner fired, it is more important to know why the Safety Commissioner was really fired.

It now seems that he was actually fired for having the audacity to take it upon himself to set up a trip to Washington to try and get more money to combat sexual assault and domestic violence. In Palin's own words, through e-mails that were legitimately obtained, the safefy commissioner went outside of the planned apporpriations that were coordinated by Palin and STEVENS!

The safety commissioner was fired four days after he tried to set up this trip.

Sarah Palin would rather suck up to Stevens than help Alaskan women combat domestic violence and rape! Sarah Palin does not care about women.

McCain's Scapegoat

http://tinyurl.com/48yu5y

*****

Nobody is buying what gramps is selling.

John McCain: "A Candidate Transformed"

"After Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, his running-mate, riveted the overflow crowd at an airplane hangar here for 16 minutes, it was Mr. McCain's turn, and people in his audience began murmuring and drifting away midway through a 14-minute speech that was flat and cheerless. When Mr. McCain made his first appearance without Ms. Palin, on Monday morning in Jacksonville, Fla., he faced an arena that was one-quarter full."

In that, I think, is the more conspicuous key to interpreting McCain's suddenly "flat and cheerless" demeanor, even more than the personality-quashing, depression-inducing Schmidt.

In brief, it seems reasonable to conjecture that by now McCain would be not only pathologically jealous of Ms. Palin's popularity, but deeply regretful that he ever chose her to begin with.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/189

I'm sure he is...

More from the same article...

"But while McCain knows well that there's never been an instance in American political history of a vice-presidential candidate carrying a ticket to victory, he's also beginning to suspect, I suspect, that this could indeed be the first instance in American political history in which a vice-presidential candidate did actual, provable, game-determining harm to a ticket.

It's not merely that Ms. Palin is even more dangerously clueless on economics than Mr. McCain -- as elections lawyer Adam Bonin wrote in the Politico yesterday, "I bet this is the first time John McCain wishes he had chosen a Mitt Romney or a Michael Bloomberg as his running mate instead, someone who could have at least helped his campaign speak credibly about the complexities of modern markets" -- or that her foreign policy Weltanschauung comes from a 3X5 index card. "

Expecting any truth from McCain is akin to expecting Iran & Saudi Arabia to convert to judaism next week as they are led in song to receive their circumcisions by Pope Benedict.

lololo - too true

The Bush/McCain/Palin contempt for subpoenas and the rule of law

But now, with the heavy involvement of the McCain campaign, Gov. Palin has embraced core GOP "principles" -- political officials can unilaterally exempt themselves from the rule of law and the people, through their elected representatives in the legislature, are powerless to learn what their political leaders have done. That, of course, has been the guiding principle of the Bush administration -- as one Bush official after the next has simply refused to comply with Congressional subpoenas as part of investigations into serious allegations of lawbreaking and other wrongdoing -- and the McCain campaign and the Palins are leaving no doubt that they are full-fledged believers in these corrupt and lawless prerogatives.

This sort of lawless arrogance doesn't merely insulate political officials from any accountability, though it does do that. It also destroys the crux of representative democracy. The ability of a legislature to investigate what the Executive Branch is doing isn't some ancillary Congressional function, but is as important -- arguably more so -- than the legislative power to enact laws. It's how the people ensure that Executive Branch officials are accountable and are required to adhere to the law. In his chapter he entitled On the Proper Function of Representative Bodies, John Stuart Mill explained why:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/19/palin/

Another good analysis of this issue.

Finally, Action! Ron Paul Introduces Bill to Defend Constitution!

There is no way to overstate how crucial this piece of legislation is. We are at a turning point, and without the restoration of the rule of law the "blueprint" for what I have called a "fascist shift" -- the closing down of democracy -- calls for scarier recriminations against citizens, greater tightening of social controls -- the ever-growing, disturbingly political TSA watch list is, alarmingly, due to go from the airlines' administration to that of the TSA itself -- and more corruptions of the electoral process. Blackwater is a truly terrifying wild card. Without the rule of law we will be powerless as each of these assaults on liberty continue to escalate. With it we can fight back.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/finally-action-ron-pau_b_69042.html

I think Obama needs to pounce on this. If he co-sponsors the Senate version of this bill, he would be showing bipartisan support for something I think all Americans will agree with.

"I Could Never Endorse Somebody Who Thinks It's Funny To Say Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran"
...Ron Paul

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOb3cC2FVIg

Ha! Good Point!
What does Sarah Palin have to hide in her Yahoo e-mails? by Glenn Greenwald

Some adolescent criminal (in mentality if not age) yesterday hacked into a Yahoo account used by Sarah Palin for both personal and business email, and various sites -- including Gawker -- posted some of the emails online. While the bottom layers of the right-wing noise machine (the kind that make you run for the shower after reading them) are moronically describing the hacker(s) as "liberals" and "left-wing," nobody actually has any idea of their identity, let alone their political leanings (if any). The available evidence strongly suggests the hacker is loosely part of an assorted band of Internet pranksters ranging from the juvenile to the psychopathic. Conventional political agendas ("Vote Obama!") don't exactly appear to be their interest. Either way, whoever did this committed a serious crime -- it's rather revolting to see screen shots of someone's inbox splattered across the Internet -- and the hacker should be apprehended and prosecuted.

Still, it's really a wondrous, and repugnant, sight to behold the Bush-following lynch mobs on the Right melodramatically defend the Virtues of Privacy and the Rule of Law. These, of course, are the same authoritarians who have cheered on every last expansion of the Lawless Surveillance State of the last eight years -- put their fists in the air with glee as the Federal Government seized the power to listen to innocent Americans' telephone calls; read our emails; obtain our banking, credit card, and library records; and create vast data bases of every call we make and receive and every prescription we fill and every instance of travel and other vast categories of information that remain largely unknown -- all without warrants or oversight of any kind and often in clear violation of the law.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/18/privacy/index.html

I wonder if the GOP will ever whine about how in 2042 Social Security will go bankrupt?

They wanted to put SS into the hands of Bear Stearns.

Of course if not for the house of cards coming down at Enron - Key Lay would have been Sec. DOE.

If Bush had his way we would be even worse off.

"Four more years!" is going to be a hard sell even for GOPhers.

McCain's Green Economy: Drill, Baby, Drill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ecA2L-VuQ

****

I wonder if he means green as in $$$$ for his 22 oil lobbyist advisers?

John McCain on sub-prime mortgages

http://tinyurl.com/5ymfrb

MCCAIN: "I want to convince you of my belief and my firm conviction that Americas economy, the fundamentals of it, are strong." [Town Hall, Chula Vista, CA, 3/24/08]

MCCAIN: "So our fundamentals, I still believe, are very strong." [Town
Hall, Round Rock, TX, 2/29/08]

MCCAIN: "But the underpinnings of our economy are strong." [Rally,
Pensacola, FL, 1/22/08]

MCCAIN: "But the fundamentals of America's economy are very strong."
[House Party, Concord, NH, 12/31/08]

MCCAIN: "I believe the fundamentals of our economy are still strong."
[Town Hall, West Palm Beach, FL, 1/24/08]

MCCAIN: "The fundamental principles, the foundation of our economy, is
strong." [Speech, Aiken, SC, 1/17/08]

MCCAIN: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." [Speech and
Roundtable, Santa Ana, CA, 3/25/08]

MCCAIN: "Our economy, I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy
are strong." [Rally, Jacksonville, FL, 9/15/08]

MCCAIN: "The fundamentals of it are strong." [Rally, Pensacola, FL,
1/22/08]

MCCAIN: "I still believe that the fundamentals of our economy are
strong." [Laura Ingraham Show, 8/20/08]

TEXT: "Things today just aren't that bad." "When it comes to the
economy, we have surely become a nation of exaggerators." McCain Advisor
Donald Luskin, September 14, 2008.

GRAMM: "We've surely become a nation of whiners." [Interview with Washington Times, 7/9/08]

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

Fundamentally Strong?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWMVW_82dQ8

Sarah Palin's dead lake

Sept. 19, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- Every morning she's at home here, Sarah Palin wakes up to a postcard view from her lakeside home. Out the windows of her two-story wood-framed house stretch the serene, birch-lined waters of Lake Lucille. Ducks go gliding by the red-and-white Piper Cub floatplane docked outside. With the snow-frosted Chugach and Talkeetna mountains looming in the distance, the scene seems to define the Alaska that Palin celebrates: rugged, majestic, unspoiled.

And, yet, the lake Sarah Palin lives on is dead.

"Lake Lucille is basically a dead lake -- it can't support a fish population," said Michelle Church, a Mat-Su Valley borough assembly member and environmentalist. "It's a runway for floatplanes."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/19/palin/?source=newsletter

Yeah, four more years of raping and pilaging this earth! That's what we want!

More from same article...

Palin recently told the New Yorker magazine that Alaskans "have such a love, a respect for our environment, for our lands, for our wildlife, for our clean water and our clean air. We know what we've got up here and we want to protect that, so we're gonna make sure that our developments up here do not adversely affect that environment at all. I don't want development if there's going to be that threat to harming our environment."

But as mayor of her hometown, say many local critics, Palin showed no such stewardship.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Palin is Bush with lipstick

Palin's legacy...from the same article about Lake Lucille...

Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodruff hears the same lament about her town all the time. "Everywhere in Alaska, you hear people say, 'We don't want to be another Wasilla.' We're not just the state's meth capital, we're the ugly box-store capital. Was Sarah a good steward of this beautiful valley? No. I think it comes from her lack of experience and awareness of other places, how other cities try to preserve what makes them attractive and livable.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, is that ``no one knows what to do'' at the moment. "

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday he supported efforts by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to shore up confidence in the financial markets and said he would hold off from presenting his own economic recovery plan."

Well, when Harry "the war is lost" Reid said ``no one knows what to do'', I guess he meant Barack Hussein Obama!!

And while Barry "holds off", how many more Middle Class Americans lose their homes?

Vote Obama/Biden '08 - Unless you need DECISIVE leadeship!!

"I have asked my economic team to refrain from presenting a more detailed blue-print of how an immediate plan might be structured until the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have had an opportunity to present their proposal," Obama said in a statement. "It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand."

Obama is just waiting until the FEDS officially annouce what they were going to do, then he would make his official announcement. Not that he didn't have a plan.

Some people dont' want to give all the facts, man.

John McCain and the Keating 5: Third Term

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxBCAaulG-k

Make a Note of This

Who would you expect to announce that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's probe into whether she abused the power of her office in Trooper-Gate?

Not Palin herself. Nor the spokesperson for the Governor's Office. Nor the lawyer the state is paying to represent her in her official capacity in the case.

Instead, that announcement was made today by a spokesperson for John McCain's presidential campaign.

Just keep that in mind as this case unfolds.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/217156.php

What's that old saying? To know someone, get to know the company he keeps -

"On December 21, 2004 Raines accepted what he called "early retirement" from his position as CEO while U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators continued to investigate alleged accounting irregularities.

He is accused by The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulating body of Fannie Mae, of abetting widespread accounting errors, which included the shifting of losses so senior executives, such as himself, could earn large bonuses.

In 2006, the OFHEO announced a suit against Raines in order to recover some or all of the $50 million in payments made to Raines based on the overstated earnings initially estimated to be $9 billion but have been announced as 6.3 billion.

Civil charges were filed against Raines and two other former executives by the OFHEO in which the OFHEO sought $110 million in penalties and $115 million in returned bonuses from the three accused.

On April 18, 2008, the government announced a settlement with Raines together with J. Timothy Howard, Fannie's former chief financial officer, and Leanne G. Spencer, Fannie's former controller. The three executives agreed to pay fines totaling about $3 million, which will be paid by Fannie's insurance policies.

Raines also agreed to donate the proceeds from the sale of $1.8 million of his Fannie stock and to give up stock options. The stock options however have no value. Raines also gave up an estimated $5.3 million of "other benefits" said to be related to his pension and forgone bonuses.

In June 2008 The Wall Street Journal reported that Franklin Raines was one of several public officials who received below market rates loans at Countrywide Financial because the corporation considered the officeholders "FOA's"--"Friends of Angelo" (Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo). He received loans for over $3 million while CEO of Fannie Mae.

On July 16, 2008, The Washington Post reported that Franklin Raines had "taken calls from Barack Obama's presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters." Also, in an editorial in August 27, 2008 titled "Tough Decision Coming", the Washington Post editorial staff claimed that "Two members of Mr. Obama's political circle, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines, are former chief executives of Fannie Mae."

From the Washington Post -

"The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." Obama spokesman Bill Burton went a little further, telling me in an e-mail that the campaign had "neither sought nor received" advice from Raines "on any matter."

"By Raines's own account, he took a couple of calls from someone on the Obama campaign, and they had some general discussions about economic issues. I have asked both Raines and the Obama people for more details on these calls, and will let you know if I receive a reply."

"Neither sought nor received" - How VERY Clinton-esque!!!

Is Palin About to be Replaced ? Cancelled Appearances in 4 States

I called this a few weeks ago that she would not make it thru Sept. on the ticket. Is something going on here??

CA fundraisers cancelled
WA fundraisers cancelled
Palin Dumped from Iran Rally
Cancels 9/18 VA Rally
Cancels Sunday Miami Rally due to weather - 30% chance of rain
Cancelled WY visit to go to UN
Tampa Visit Cancelled for second time

Now that Palin has really been vetted by someone - i.e. the press - and her poll bubble has burst more is on the horizon.

http://tinyurl.com/3n4y7b

*****

Maybe her idea of a "Palin and McCain" administration is a bit too much for the GOP?

One thought pushes fence-sitters to the left: Palin

ST. PETERSBURG — Five weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times convened a group of Tampa Bay voters who were undecided about the presidential election. Their strong distrust of Barack Obama suggested it was a group ripe for John McCain to win over.

Not anymore. The group has swung dramatically, if unenthusiastically, toward Democrat Obama. Most of them this week cited the same reason: Sarah Palin.

"The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We've seen too many," said 80-year-old Air Force veteran Donn Spegal, a lifelong Republican from St. Petersburg, who sees McCain's new running mate as the kind of "wedge issue" social conservative that has made him disenchanted with his party.

"I'm truly offended by Palin,'' said 37-year-old Republican Philinia Lehr of Largo, a full-time mother with a nursing degree who voted for George Bush in 2004. Like Palin, she has five children and she doesn't buy that the Alaska governor can adequately balance her family and the vice presidency.

http://tinyurl.com/4ztag4

*****

I think I mentioned Palin would blow up in their faces.

Best one-liner from Barack on the subject:

"They think the economy is fundamentally strong. We know they're fundamentally wrong," Obama's ad says.

RE: "Some people dont' want to give all the facts, man"

I know, flan, I just heard the latest Obama lies - of course I needed a Spanish-speaking colleague to translate !!!

Merci beaucoup.

Here's all the facts, man -

"A stunning example of the incredible disconnect between the mainstream media and the blogosphere is this video of the interim Fannie Mae CEO, Daniel Mudd, addressing the Congressional Black Caucus, including Barack Obama, at their swearing-in ceremony in 2005.

Although this video is spreading quickly in the blogosphere, you have yet to see or hear anything about it in the MSM. As you can see in the video, Mudd talks about the problems of Fannie Mae yet that didn't keep Obama and other Democrats from taking large contributions from that organization or doing anything to try to fix it."

Since McCain Proposed Social Security Privatization In 1999, Stock Market Has Swung Wildly, Dropped 8%

While running for the Republican party’s nomination in 1999, John McCain supported a partial privatization of Social Security that would have encouraged workers to shift their Social Security contributions into the stock market.

Since then, the stock market has plunged, bubbled, and plunged again, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 8% lower yesterday than it was on January 11th, 1999 when John McCain unveiled “a program to shore up Social Security through the establishment of individual investment accounts.”

http://tinyurl.com/47xqjp

*****

McCain can run but cannot hide from his history.

Obama's Statement on the Economic Crisis & Bailouts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEvdL-GPjFk

Maddow & Sirota on McCain's Flip Flop on Regulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfKPB-AbNts

Obama responds to McCain's speech this morning, courtesy of JedReport:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2fxGAXzFAY

Another Conservative Journalist Turns Against Palin

Libertarian blogger and senior editor at Reason magazine, Radley Balko, once heralded Pailn as "a good pick."

Looks like recent events, specifically her vague answer today on her foreign policy credentials, has changed his mind. He is now writing that he was wrong to praise her.

Add Balko to the growing list. As she continues to talk and show her lack of knowledge of the issues, I am convinced that conservatives with any comprehension of the seriousness of the issues today will have to abandon their support.

http://tinyurl.com/5yy3u9

*****

This does prove some "cons" are at least a little honest, intellectually.

Who's Whining Now? Gramm Slammed By Economists

'Nation of Whiners' Comments Criticized by Finance Experts in Light of Current Crisis

Phil Gramm, John McCain's former economic adviser, left the campaign in July when he tried to counter criticism of the Republican candidate's economic policies by asserting that the country "had become a nation of whiners" in a "mental recession."

Even McCain came forward to say that he disagreed with Gramm's remarks, adding that someone who'd lost their job "isn't suffering from a mental recession."

And Barack Obama is using Gramm's comments and his support of deregulation, which prompted some of the risky lending that caused the current financial crisis, in a new TV ad that questions McCain's ability to handle the economy.

"They think the economy's fundamentally strong," intones a voice-over in the ad. "We know they're fundamentally wrong."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5835269&page=1

Where Are Sarah Palin's Tax Returns?

Vice Presidential Candidate Has Yet to Share Her Filings

[...]

"A campaign that is touting what it will do to make government more transparent can take a first step by making the candidates transparent."

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5839282&page=1

From McCain, an erratic response to crisis

As Wall Street's roller-coaster week unfolded, John McCain's views on the economy went through about as many gyrations as the Dow Jones industrial average. Brace your neck for a quick recap.

Monday: Speaking at a rally in Jacksonville, McCain declares that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Coming as the Dow plunges more than 500 points and Lehman Bros. goes belly up, this makes McCain sound somewhat out of touch.

Tuesday: McCain explains that he meant to say American workers are fundamentally sound, and the economy itself is in "crisis." But, he adds, this crisis does not warrant bailing out insurance giant American International Group, which should be allowed to fail. McCain adviser Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, unhelpfully opines that no one on either presidential ticket would be capable of running a company such as H-P.

Wednesday: After the government takes over AIG, McCain says the rescue was regrettable, but unavoidable.

Thursday: McCain, who over the years has described himself as a deregulator, recasts himself as a pro-regulation, anti-Wall Street populist. If he were president, he says, he'd fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, a former Republican congressman confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate in 2005.

Granted, McCain, who has been running more on the strength of his foreign policy credentials than on his economic expertise, is entitled to change his mind as new facts emerge. And granted, Democrat Barack Obama also has scant experience dealing with financial crises. At this point, though, it looks as if cleaning up the economic mess will be the next president's top priority. The Republican candidate's erratic performance this week was far from reassuring.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/09/from-mccain-an.html

MCCAIN APPEARS WRONG ON FANNIE PAY

From NBC's Mark Murray and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
On the campaign trail in Minnesota today, McCain incorrectly suggested that the executive pay that former Fannie Mae CEOs Frank Raines and Jim Johnson earned came from taxpayers.

"That same executive got $21 million of your money," McCain said of Johnson. "And the other CEO, another supporter of Senator Obama, Mr. Raines got $25 million of your money. Let's tell them to give it back. Let's tell them to give it back."

Lucian Bebchuk of Harvard Law School, an expert on corporate governance, confirmed to First Read that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were private companies until being recently taken over by the federal government (which came after Raines' and Johnson's tenures).

Bebchuk said that maybe McCain was referring to past Fannie shareholders in the audience when he asserted that the executive compensation was "your money." Or perhaps McCain was making the point -- very loosely -- that now the federal government has taken over Fannie, any money that Raines or Johnson received is money taxpayers no longer have. But both assertions, he said, would be stretches.

Rich Ferlauto, the director of corporate governance and pension investment at the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees -- a union which has endorsed Obama in the presidential contest -- was more blunt about Raines' and Johnson's compensation

"It was not taxpayer money," he said. "It was shareholder money."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/19/1427108.aspx

*****

A gaffe, an error, or an other outright lie? Who knows?

Keating 5, Keating 5, Keating 5!

McCain Plays the Race Card

http://tinyurl.com/3jvk7y

[...]

Obama's campaign says Raines is not an Obama adviser and that McCain's campaign knows it because Raines said so in an e-mail earlier this week to Carly Fiorina, a top McCain adviser. Obama's campaign provided The Associated Press with a copy of the e-mail.

"Carly: Is this true?" Raines asks above a forwarded note informing him that Fiorina was on television saying he was an Obama housing adviser. "I am not an adviser to the Obama campaign. Frank."

Obama's campaign says Fiorina did not respond.

http://tinyurl.com/3tf6ry

Jill's Home!

"...kinda like a mini-Katrina..."

Long night of stories on the front porch ahead.

Thank you all for your concern and encouragement.

-Jill and Tom

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/collins

A very good read. I wish anything in the piece could be done - but I doubt it.

Jill's home!

WOO HOO!

Thank her for all she does, as always

Maddow says GOP and McCain camp not coming on her show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYmlb62lqYc

*****

Maybe they are better off. They don't have to face any press. That seems to be a problem for them. Maybe people won't notice?

Palin's Favorability Ratings Tumble

Gov. Sarah Palin's favorable/unfavorable ratings have suffered a stunning 21 point collapse in just one week, according to Research 2000 polling. Last week, 52% approved and 35% disapproved of the GOP vice presidential nominee (+17 net). This week, 42% approved and 46% disapprove (-4 net).

Earlier this week, Newsweek also saw the drop in other polling. "Over the course of a single weekend... Palin went from being the most popular White House hopeful to the least."

http://tinyurl.com/54k2qo

*****

Palin was the perfect pick. No doubt about it.

First "executive decision" a candidate makes...

...too bad, Biden makes a LOUSY VPILF!

IMHeteroO, anyway!

-T

Obama Urges Bernanke, Paulson to Fight Foreclosures, Hold Homeownership Summit

Thursday, March 22, 2007

http://obama.senate.gov/press/070322-obama_urges_ber/

*****

It is about judgment and temperment.

If only someone had a plan?

(6 page PDF)

http://tinyurl.com/2s7flz

denmac is obviously a wingnut wackaloon troll from the depths of the right-wing lunatic fringe.

For anybody who supports McCain, Palin, and Bush to complain about Biden lying is like a mafia hitman complaining about the kid up the street who shoplifts apples.

Give me a break, denmac and go back to FreeRepublic or NewsMax, where they are stupid enough to enjoy your drooling raves.

The real shame of this administration is that whenever the administration talks about a federal bailout, what it is really talking about is taking dollars out of your pocket and mine in the form of our taxes and handing them over to the irresponsible, obscenely wealthy elitists who made these horrific financial decisions and to the equally obscenely wealthy investors whose CDOs and MBSs are suddenly turning into so much bad paper.

The Republican idea of the "free market" is that the financial "issuer" institutions and the wealthy corporate and institutional investors are free to be as wild and irresponsible as they want to be, completely ignore credit risk, and rake in obscene profits, but, when the market fails to "correct" their excesses and blunders and their house of cards collapses on their (and our) shoulders, the taxpayers are "free" to cough up the money to nationalize their institutions and make up their investment losses. It is a new form of capitalism more properly called Capital-Socialism.

Everybody would love to play high stakes poker if they got to keep all their winnings and knew that, when they played poorly and blew their stake, the poor, suffering working taxpayers will be forced to make up their losses for them.

Its a case of heads the rich win, and tails the rich win - and whether they are winning and paying minimal taxes on their loot, or loosing and getting bailed out by the ordinary taxpayer, the rest of us seem to exist merely to subsidize them.

Maybe as long as we are going socialist anyway, its time for a second American Revolution and an opportunity to take these sleazy con artists out, put them up against a wall, and, in true (Republi)Socialist fashion, shoot the bastards

Palin probe has parallels to 2000 recount fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — This time, there are no hanging chads.

Yet the Republicans' drive to derail an abuse of power investigation against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential candidate, reflects the same determination and many of the same methods employed in shutting down the 2000 presidential recount in Florida.

Now, as then, the playbook includes lawsuits, the exercise of power by sympathetic state officials, and appeals to the court of public opinion — all in an operation directed by out-of-state Republicans.

"Hold me accountable," Palin said when the Republican-controlled legislature launched the investigation in mid-August.

Now John McCain's running mate, she declines to cooperate. She calls the investigation tainted, her husband won't honor a subpoena to testify, and Republican lawmakers are in court with a pair of lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the probe.

http://tinyurl.com/3wgn6y

*****

Some voting age kids were just ten years old when it happened. May the GOPhers are hoping they didn't notice?

Exclusive: New Doubts Over Palin's Troopergate Claims

Internal Government Document Contradicts Sarah Palin, Campaign

An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin's most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5844710&page=1

*****

I wonder if this will turn out as well as every other lie?

No small wonder her popularity numbers are tanking - nobody likes a liar.

Privatize the profit - socialize the debt.

Expanding the deficit - corporate welfare.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

It's still the economy, stupid! Obama goes on the attack

[...]

McCain helped Obama's position with an initial response to last week's economic crisis that seemed to be delivered from a different planet. On Monday, with headlines blaring and the markets reeling, he insisted yet again - as he has several times in recent months - that the "fundamentals" of the economy were still "strong". No doubt that wasn't very reassuring to the average Ohioan or Michigander.

McCain continued to flounder for most of the week. He employed ferociously populist anti-Wall Street rhetoric, attacking the "greed" and "recklessness" of the executives who netted, in many cases, eight-figure incomes while gambling away the mortgages of $40,000-a-year earners. But - those age-old identities again - it just wasn't persuasive coming from a multimillionaire Republican. His legislative record tilts strongly toward supporting deregulation and, over the past year, as he has kissed up to his party's rightwing, he has sought to downplay the portions of his record that did endorse regulation.

Perhaps worst of all, he also proposed a commission to study the problem - at a moment when the Dow, before rallying later in the week, was losing about 900 points, or nearly 10% of its value.

http://tinyurl.com/3so6xk

*****

Maybe he should have talked about a "blue ribbon panel?"

lololo

New ad from Obama.

http://tinyurl.com/4mexds

McCain on banking and health

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:

"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."

So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!

http://tinyurl.com/48cd2a

*****

Judgment and temperment.

In 2004 I predicted Bush would be a $20 trillion dollar president. I think he has gone a bit further.

Increased Defense Spending $ 2 trillion
Wars 1
Deficits 2
2001 Stock Loss 2.5
Replace Loss 2.5
Trade Deficits 6.5
Tax Cuts 1.5
5,000 Manufacturing Jobs Lost 2

Okay, that's 20. But......

2008 Stock Loss 2
Housing Loss 10
Wall Street Bailout 1
Increase in Oil after Iraq 3
Food and Health Care 1.5
Proposed RTC 7

That's 24.5 more, total 44.5

But the dollar is now worth 50 cents. That was gradual.

So now he is the 60 trillion dollar president. It took him 8 years. Excellent job George, for your friends. Deferred maintenance on our infrastructure and the cost of filling in the hole will double that amount. Electing John McCain, the hero of deregulation and the man with 177 lobbyists working on his campaign will change the numbers to the point where they don't matter. After all, a trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon we're all eating bugs.

Off-topic: The state of Georgia is preparing to execute a man whose guilt is very doubtful Sept. 23.

Details at http://action.aclu.org/savetroy

""a trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon we're all eating bugs""

good point geof01!

Mmmmm...bugs.

[Subject] StateDemocracy.org Equips You for the 2008 Elections

Dear Citizen:
Are you ready yet for the November 4th Elections? How about your friends, family, and neighbors?
More Americans are expected to vote this year than ever before in history, so don’t be left out! Be sure to ask everyone you know the following questions:
 Are you registered to vote? If you moved recently, have you updated your voter registration?
 Did you apply for an Absentee Ballot? Do you know your state may not require any reason?
 Can you find your local Polling Place? Do you know it may have changed from last time?
The answers to these questions -- and all your voting needs -- can be found at www.StateDemocracy.org -- the FREE 1-Stop citizen empowerment portal that Delivers Democracy to your Desktop! StateDemocracy is among the Internet’s first (since 2001) and most encompassing civic empowerment tools.
In order to boost voter participation this year, StateDemocracy.org is offering FREE widgets for all 50 states. You can simply download and embed these widgets into your own website so your visitors can register to vote, get an absentee ballot or find their local polling place.
Lobby Congress Via StateDemocracy
StateDemocracy.org also equips you to maintain an active dialog with your state and federal lawmakers once they are elected. And RIGHT NOW is an especially opportune time to contact your U.S. Senators and House Member, as Congress takes up major legislation on such issues as offshore oil drilling, another economic stimulus package and all federal appropriations bills over the next few weeks.
As you lobby your elected officials, remember that lawmakers view your constituent input as reflective of scores of other citizens who felt similarly, but didn’t have (or take) the time to share their opinions.
LobbyDelegates.com Further Empowered Grassroots Voices
Over the past 5 months, you may have visited www.LobbyDelegates.com, along with 26,000 other visitors. This latest public interest portal by the StateDemocracy Foundation remained the only online tool enabling rank-and-file Democrats to lobby all 800+ Super Delegates on which candidate to back for the party’s Presidential nomination.
StateDemocracy Foundation Website Users Unite!
Many of you have used our StateDemocracy.org and LobbyDelegates.com tools in recent times, and have hopefully found your experience uplifting and empowering. I encourage all of you to help spread the news about StateDemocracy.org to enable more of our fellow citizens to Connect! Engage! And Empower!
Sincerely,
Ken Laureys, Executive Director
StateDemocracy Foundation
Ken.Laureys@StateDemocracy.org

P.S. If you are interested in becoming more involved in our StateDemocracy Foundation -- including volunteering as an Advisory Board Member -- please contact me.

"Engage! And Empower!"

no doubt!

Jimmy Carter Calls for Clemency for Troy Davis

President Carter called today on the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to reverse its decision to deny clemency to Troy Davis.

Atlanta -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called today on the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to reverse its decision to deny clemency to Troy Anthony Davis, convicted for an alleged murder of a Savannah police officer in 1991. "This case illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this country," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. "Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice. The citizens of Georgia should demand the highest standards of proof when our legal system condemns on our behalf a man or woman to die."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/99578/

*****

The death penalty is barbaric and institutional murder is illegal and unnecessary.

Estimating the Cellphone Effect: 2.2 Points

[...]

A difference of 2 points may not be a big deal in certain survey applications such as market research, but in polling a tight presidential race it makes a big difference. If I re-run today's numbers but add 2.2 points to Obama's margin in each non-cellphone poll, his win percentage shoots up from 71.5 percent to 78.5 percent, and he goes from 303.1 electoral votes to 318.5. (The difference would be more pronounced still if Obama hadn't already moved ahead of McCain by a decent margin on our projections).

http://tinyurl.com/49xavr

******

If the numbers hold up - this is good news!

Abdication by Palin

When did the McCain campaign take over the governor's office?

Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability.

Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?

[snip]

Futile as the request may be, we encourage Gov. Palin to stand up to McCain's handlers and be personally accountable for her administration's response to Troopergate. She is the governor of Alaska, not John McCain or Ed O'Callaghan.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/531725.html

*****

Just as AIG became too big to fail - Palin has become too big to be governor - she is a VP candidate now. McCain and his GOP cronies speak for her now. She might make the mistake of accidentally telling the truth - McCain can't have that.