Everyone in America needs to see this video. The police in Baton Rouge trample on American’s free speech rights at the direction of Acorn. Is this the change people were expecting when they voted for Obama?
Since when is it illegal for the two opposing sides of HEALTH CARE to talk? One other point I am not certain who the biggest thugs are, the Baton Rouge Police or the ACORN thugs! The Baton Rouge police need to go back to school and relearn the US Constitution and stop trampling First Amendment Rights!
Obamacare should be renamed Obamadeathcare because it really is. Not only will I have to get counseling every five years to instruct me on ways to end my life, people with special needs may not be enrolled in health care. I assert that this government run death care will not only end the life of the elderly, the disabled and now special needs people like children of veterans who have spina bifida. It is right in the House Death Care bill;
Family Security Matters has summarized a good portion of the 1000 page death care package.
Take a look at what actually is in the Health Care bill. Obama makes disingenuous comments like “You’ll still keep your doctor” or “You’ll keep your existing health care.” He is either lying to us or he has no idea what is in it. Take a peek at the full report, or look at some of the highlights here:
Pg 22 of the HC Bill mandates the Government will audit books of all employers that self insure. Can you imagine what that will do to small businesses? Every one will abandon “self insurance” and go on Government insurance. So when Obama says that there will still be private health care, it’s simply a lie: this mandate will force employers to abandon their private plans.
Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – a Government committee (good luck with that!) will decide what treatments/benefits a person may receive.
Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE WILL BE RATIONED! (We all knew this, because health care is rationed in Canada and Britain, but Obama kept saying it would not be).
Pg 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you. You will have no choice!
PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill – HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.
Pg 58 HC Bill – Government will have real-time access to individual’s finances and a National ID Healthcard will be issued!
Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your bank accts for election funds transfer
PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community organizations (read: ACORN).
Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government will create an HC Exchange to bring private HC plans under Government control.
PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill – Government mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the Exchange.
PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Government will ration your Healthcare!
PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Government mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example – Translation for illegal aliens.
Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Government will use groups, i.e. ACORN & Americorps, to sign up individuals for Government HC plan.
PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans. AARP members – your Health care WILL be rationed.
-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.
pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Government on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Government Monopoly.
pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ AMA – The Government will tell YOU what you can earn.
Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE.
Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.
Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer with payroll $400k & above who does not provide public option pays 8% tax on all payroll.
pg 150 Lines 9-13 Businesses with payroll between $251k & $400k who don’t provide public option pay 2-6% tax on all payroll.
Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC according to Government will be taxed 2.5% of income.
Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)
Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (the GOVERNMENT) will have access to ALL Americans’ finances and personal records.
PG 203 Line 14-15 HC – “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that.
Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.
Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors – doesn’t matter what specialty – will all be paid the same.
PG 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of Doctor’s time, professional judgment, etc. Literally, value of humans.
PG 265 Sec 1131Government mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.
PG 268 Sec 1141 Federal Government regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.
PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!
Page 280 Sec 1151 The Government will penalize hospitals for what Government deems preventable readmissions.
Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Doctors who treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission – Government will penalize you.
Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own.
Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion – Government will mandate hospitals cannot expand.
pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!
Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 – Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures which of course forces health care rationing.
Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc., forcing people into Government plan.
Pg 354 Sec 1177 – Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!
Pg 379 Sec 1191 Government creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory Committee. HC by phone.
PG 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consultations. Think Senior Citizens end of life prodding.
Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!
PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in how to die.
PG 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends.
Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “advanced care planning consultant” will be used frequently as patients’ health deteriorates.
PG 429 Lines 10-12 “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from the Government to end a life!
Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The Government will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.
PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.
Pg 469 – Community Based Home Medical Services/Non profit orgs. (ACORN Medical Services here?)
Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION. 1 monthly payment to a community-based organization. (Like ACORN?)
PG 489 Sec 1308 The Government will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Government into our marriages.
Pg 494-498 Government will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services. You’d better speak up now before you are on the “advanced care consultation” list.
This death care bill gives the government the right to decide when your life begins (they are trying to make provisions for abortion coverage) and mandate when and how your life will end. Better start saying goodbye to your folks, grandparents and even young (not even 50) people like me.
While most Americans remain comfortably ensconced on their sofas in front of their wall mounted flat screen televisions, there are some American Patriots who are hitting the streets. Their actions are stopping ACORN and Obama’s Organize for America:
The Conservative & Libertarian groups as well as Gathering of Eagle members were there to protest against healthcare reform. They pushed back and took “direct action” against ACORN affiliates: Organize For America, ACT-Now, & USA-CAN who were pushing blank petitions upon shoppers at a mall with no explanation.
One of the participants reported on the “direct action” in Long Island:
ACORN and their new front group Act Now were pwned by Tea Party Patriots again on Long Island!
When they couldn’t win their arguments with facts, the ACORN employees tried to intimidate the Tea Party folks. No way that could work with dedicated Patriots! So ACORN cut and run when the going got tough, and repeated that sorry performance twice in one day.
[...]
I’m no reporter so bear with me. Today I felt the same pride inside me matching the feeling I get whenever I read of our Founding Fathers’ activism. It might sound over exaggerated, but it doesn’t change how I feel. Today we scored a victory some may see as trivial, I see as momentous. Either way as a patriot it is overwhelming. Today I witnessed and participated in seeing ‘grass-roots folk’ come together in an instant and square off with, as of yesterday, an unchallenged foe in our cause-ACORN. We arrived at King Kullen this morning in Commack and as planned found ACORN petitioners signing up unaware patrons of the shopping center coming and going. They were asking people to sign a petition favoring Obama’s Health Care plan. We were there to give the other side and people listened.
ACORN produced four ‘workers’ we amassed 40 patriots complete with signs, banners, flyers, stickers, posters and a few loud voices.
ACORN 4 – Patriots 40.
I was told they were ‘workers’ for the organization We-Can(?) We were the people on the street giving up a beautiful warm Saturday morning to be heard.
I once read that 1 man defending his home is worth 20 paid mercenaries sent to destroy it. Believe it.
ACORN being outnumbered, out voiced and literally out debated left the area in a hurry. We followed.
After receiving communication that they fled to Stop and Shop in Bohemia 40+ patriots showed up and overwhelmed them there too. What a sight. Again ACORN took flight. They didn’t know how to react other then demanding we leave. We demanded an equal moment of time to discuss the meat and potatoes of the Obama health Care plan, they refused and retreated. I witnessed many passersby refusing to sign their petition; one even scratched their name off the list after we spoke to them. Almost every person I encountered was interested and I was relieved as almost all agreed with us. There was a little drama when a passerby vehemently argued for the plan, it was contentious but that’s liberty and democracy at work.
The only news agency seen was a local group from Alternative News based here on LI. The police were on scene, but remained out of the way as we did our own policing and respecting of the peace.
Score this a huge victory. I hope this inspires everyone to get up and get off the side-lines. You want change, than be silent no more! Silence is another form of consent, don’t be silent-don’t consent.
Known organizations present and represented: Campaign for Liberty, CSA, 9/12 Glenn Beck group, and resistnet.com by me. Others were ordinary people who heard last night and dropped their plans and showed up. What a moment.
Obamadeathcare is no better than assisted suicide! Get off your couches, turn off the televisions—GETUP! ACT UP! SPEAK UP! Stop this obamination of a death care bill. Stop Congress from trampling on your health care or _______ finish the sentence yourself!
Check out Gateway Pundit there are some great comments at his site.
I have completed reading the 88 page House of Representatives’ ACORN report. There is one paragraph that stands out from all other parts of the report. Here is that paragraph (and what I uncovered in August, 2008):
More factually, former Oklahoma Congresswoman Cleta Mitchell was concerned about ACORN violating the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971:
A not-for-profit corporation is treated no differently from a for-profit corporation for purposes of the federal campaign finance laws, which absolutely prohibit corporate contributions to campaigns of federal candidates and / or corporate expenditures to support or oppose a federal candidate. The FECA further prohibit expenditures by non-profit corporations such as ACORN and Project Vote which are made in coordination with, at the request, behest, suggestion or with the material involvement of a federal campaign (such as the Obama presidential campaign). The solicitation of funds by an organization for purposes of engaging in partisan campaign activities or to support or assist a federal campaign and/or candidate convert the organization into a Section 527 political organization and further [instantiate] a federal political committee required to register with the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”). Contributions to such an organization are limited to $5,000 per calendar year and may not be received / accepted from corporations. Further, expenditures made by an organization in coordination with a candidate or political committee are considered contributions to that committee and are subject to the $5,000 per election limit.
If I am analyzing this part of the FECA laws correctly not only did ACORN violate laws so did Obama for America. This means that President Obama knows he violated the law but started the whole Professor Gates/Cambridge Police “race riot” during Wednesday nights “Death Care” press conference to hide the truth hidden in the Congressional report.
Many of us have known for a very long time that nothing, and I mean NOTHING is done by accident with this administration. Y’all have realized by now that every single event surrounding this “residency” is planned, orchestrated, rehearsed, and every possible contingency is taken into account before the event is allowed to happen. You know this, right?
At least five times today I stated that the ‘the police acted stupidly’ comment made by Bambi on Wednesday night was so over the top that it had to be an actual planned event with the distinct possibility that it was a distract and deflect measure. That may not be the only reason, but it is the usual one with the Bambi think tank inside the WH. He knew exactly what he was going to say if he had to walk it back, and he gets an “F” for his apology. He never meant to apologize. Put this whole situation into perspective; how long did it take Barack Obama to make mention of the killing of Private William Long by the islamic jihadist?
Wake up people! It is time that the media and Americans stop watching what Obama is doing in front of the cameras, always check out what is going on in the background. Have you heard any real coverage of this report except on Fox, which they gave all of five minutes.
Rush Limbaugh agrees that Obama is all about subterfuge…distract and deflect at all costs even if it means insulting the Cambridge Police.
Obama’s apology was no apology just more subterfuge so even Fox News dropped the story on the House of Representatives’ Congressional ACORN report like a “hot potato.”
I know the the title is shocking but it is true. According to the House Health Care bill as a Medicare recipient I will have to undergo mandatory counseling every five years to discuss the end of life. That counseling is okay but not when the government mandates it.
The counseling has one very disturbing aspect to it. I will be counseled on how to end my life. I am not even 50 years old yet. But the government is going to ration my health care on two fronts now through Medicare and through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Betsy McCaughey is a private citizen who has actually read the House Health Care bill. The things it contains are not just an assault on the elderly but anyone else who is currently on Medicare.
The assault against seniors began with the stimulus package in February. Slipped into the bill was substantial funding for comparative effectiveness research, which is generally code for limiting care based on the patient’s age. Economists are familiar with the formula, where the cost of a treatment is divided by the number of years (called QALYs, or quality-adjusted life years) that the patient is likely to benefit. In Britain, the formula leads to denying treatments for older patients who have fewer years to benefit from care than younger patients.
When comparative effectiveness research appeared in the stimulus bill, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., (R., La.) a heart surgeon, warned that it would lead to “denying seniors and the disabled lifesaving care.” He and Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) proposed amendments to no avail that would have barred the federal government from using the research to eliminate treatments for the elderly or deny care based on age.
In a letter this week to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House budget chief Peter Orszag urged Congress to delegate its authority over Medicare to a newly created body within the executive branch. This measure is designed to circumvent the democratic process and avoid accountability to the public for cuts in benefits.
[...]
While the House bill being pushed by the president reduces access to such cures and specialists, it ensures that seniors are counseled on end-of-life options (Author’s Note: This means I will be counseled every five years on “how to kill myself.” I can tell this is unacceptable to me and my family. Why you might ask? Because in 2000 I tried to commit suicide because of ineffective care at a Vet Center, part of the VA system.), including refusing nutrition where state law allows it (pp. 425-446). In Oregon, some cancer patients are being denied care by the state that could extend their lives and instead are afforded the benefit of physician-assisted suicide instead.
What is costly is when seniors become disabled. In a 2007 Health Affairs article, researchers reported that surgeries to unclog arteries and replace worn out hips and knees have had a major impact on steadily reducing disability rates. And nondisabled seniors use only one-seventh as much health care as disabled seniors. As a result, the annual increase in per capita health spending on the elderly is less than for the rest of the population.
Nevertheless, Medicare is running out of money. The problem is the number of seniors compared with the smaller number of workers supporting the system with payroll taxes. To remedy the problem, the Congressional Budget Office has suggested inching up the eligibility age one month per year until it reaches age 70 in 2043, or asking wealthy seniors to pay more.
These are reasonable solutions—reducing access to treatments and counseling seniors about cutting life short are not. Medicare has made living to a ripe old age a good value. ObamaCare will undo that.
If you think I am the only fairly young person who will be affected you are wrong. There are other veterans who are disabled and receive services under Medicare and receive Social Security payments that are facing an assault. Not only is Obamacare wrong for Seniors but it is wrong for many veterans. This is a total assault on all Americans.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ted Nugent, it is a sad day for you then. Nugent is more than just a rocker, he is an American Patriot. He took time out of his busy schedule on 4/15/09 to attend the Alamo Tea Party.
It seems that Ted Nugent has some things to say about Barry O. In Ted’s own words:
Do not forget, Barry O is supposed to single-handedly repair America’s international image. Write this down: by the time we toss him out of the office he was hopelessly ill-equipped to fill, Barry O will have damaged our international image far worse than what the peanut head from Plains, Georgia had done. And we must not forget that President Carter has never met a terrorist regime he did not admire.
Imagine for a moment if you were the president of a country that is a strong ally of America. Ask yourself this question: With Barry O as president of the United States, can I really trust America to be there if I need them? Case closed. Never trust a president who, as Charles Krauthammer recently wrote, finds himself on the side of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and the Castro twins as Barry O has done in support of the ousted socialist Honduran President Zelaya. My dear old US Army drill sergeant dad told me repeatedly, “tell me who you go with and I’ll tell you what you are.” Now I get it.
[...]
Barry O gave an anti-American speech to a bunch of Christian-hating Muslims in Cairo where he was given a lukewarm reception even though he did not utter the very appropriate word “terrorist.” What a pathetic joke to not have the moxie to even say the word. Instead, Barry O has the audacity of ignorance or hate of all things American because he apologizes for America at every opportunity, which, in my opinion, is the ultimate sin against America.
You will note that Barry O has yet to give a rousing, pro-America, pro-freedom, pro-free market speech to our closest allies or even to America. Reason: Barry O does not believe that individual freedom, capitalism, and American prominence are something to be exalted and admired.(read on my friends)
Make certain that you read all of Ted Nugent’s excellent opinion piece.
One complaint that is talked about in the hallways of the Veterans Administration by veterans in the language barrier between doctors and veterans. It becomes a very emotional issue for many veterans who served in the first Gulf War. It can at times make a visit to the VA like a day on the battlefield.
Now the military is tapping these same foreign nationals to meet shortages of doctors and other health care professionals. It may meet the needs of the military but it may not meet the needs of those on the battlefields in Iraq and other places. Is this the answer to filling the military’s needs? In my opinion, it isn’t.
Yahoo News has the story via AP. And I truly believe this story somehow went mainly unnoticed by the remainder of the media. It must be highlighted because it is time we start asking questions. From the story:
The Pentagon plans to recruit more foreigners in a fresh effort to make up for chronic shortages of doctors, nurses and linguists available for wartime duty.
The Defense Department already draws from aliens living in the United States on green cards and seeking permanent residency. But under a trial program, it will now look to also recruit from pools of foreigners who’ve been living in the states on student and work visas, with refugee or political asylum status and other temporary visas.
Who is responsible? Gates, the man who doesn’t cause waves or change policies. Hmmm… not quite true. More from the article:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to recruit certain legal residents whose critical medical and language skills are “vital to the national interest,” officials said, using for the first time a law passed three years ago.
Gates’ action enables the services to start a one-year pilot program to find up to 1,000 foreigners who have lived in the states legally for at least two years. The new recruits into the armed forces would get accelerated treatment in the process toward becoming U.S. citizens in return for military service in the United States or abroad.
“The services are doing a tremendous job of recruiting quality personnel to meet our various missions,” sometimes with bonus pay and tuition for medical school, said Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy. But they haven’t been able to fill their need for 24,000 doctors, dentists and nurses in the Defense Department.
The Pentagon’s doctor and nurse corps remain 1,000 short of the numbers needed to treat all the military’s patients, and Carr said he hoped the program would fill the gaps.
The military’s most pressing need is for neurosurgeons and dermatologists to treat troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain and burn injuries.
The force also lacks nurses with a broad range of specialties, Carr said.
I am certain the reason they can’t recruit the needed numbers because of the pay differential between the civilian wolrd and the military. This still doesn’t excuse the military expanding by fast tracking foreign nationals for citizenship. What kind of vetting does the military do to ensure these aren’t sleeper terrorists?
More:
At the same time, the U.S. Special Operations Command needs more people with special language and cultural skills for a war on terrorism that has taken the armed forces to more remote places across the globe.
Though the military has been looking for more Arabic speakers and others to help with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new program looks to recruit those proficient in some three dozen languages, including Albanian, Korean, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish, Burmese, Chinese, Czech, Malay and Swahili
There are now 29,000 non-citizens in uniform today, Carr said, with about 8,000 more enlisting every year.
He expects that among those who will be interested in the new effort are doctors with work visas who are employed at hospitals around the country, a program aimed at tackling shortages among U.S. medical professionals.
I am very uncomfortable with this “new policy”. I guess I am uncomfortable with this trend because these foreign nationals may not have the same loyalty to our country and fellow military members. How do we measure their loyalty toward our country? I don’t have the answer but remain uncomfortable with Gates policy changes.
We The People Foundation just unveiled their full page ad that includes the text of an open letter to The One. Here is more on that ad that will be featured in the Chicago Tribune next week:
Our full-page Open Letter to Mr. Obama will be published in the Chicago Tribune on both Monday, December 1, 2008 and Wednesday, December 3, 2008. It will appear in the main news section. Click here to view a copy of the final ad.
Chicago is Mr. Obama’s hometown. His transition team is operating out of the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago. He is known to be a regular reader of the Tribune, Chicago’s principal newspaper, with a daily circulation of over a half-million readers.
The Open Letter to Mr. Obama is a formal Petition for a Redress (Remedy) for the alleged violation of the “natural born citizen” clause of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Mr. Obama is respectfully requested to direct the Hawaiian officials to provide access to his original birth certificate on December 5-7 by our team of forensic scientists, and to provide additional documentary evidence establishing his citizenship status prior to our Washington, D.C. press conference on December 8.
A First Amendment Petition to any official of the Government for Redress of a violation of the Constitution is substantially different from the garden-variety political petitions frequently received by government officials. This Petition demands it be given the highest priority for an expedited review and official Response by Mr. Obama.
As a formal “Notice of a Constitutional Violation,” the Petition naturally includes the People’s inherent Right to an official Response. As a time-sensitive, election related Petition involving the Office of the President, failure to Respond as requested would constitute an egregious breach of the public trust and confirm the certainty of a Constitutional crisis.
For the D.C. press conference the WTP Foundation has reserved the Edward R. Murrow Room at the National Press Club from 1-4 pm on Monday, December 8, 2008. We are hopeful that C-SPAN may cover what could be a pivotal, historic event.
The Petition for Redress/Open Letter to Mr. Obama is also expected to have a significant impact on the deliberations of the Electoral College as it proceeds toward selection of the U.S. President as provided for by the Constitution.
Many, many thanks to the many individuals who donated the money needed to cover the costs of publishing the Open Letter and conducting the Washington press conference.
We are now in the process of selecting the forensic scientists who would travel to Hawaii to examine Mr. Obama’s original birth certificate (assuming he responds to the Petition for Redress by directing the Hawaiian officials to provide access to the birth certificate). The budget for this task is currently estimated at $20,000. We need to raise the money quickly. Unfortunately, we are starting from zero and we have but one week before the scientists would need to be in Hawaii.
Okay folks. I know you have heard this before…give, give, give…go sofa diving (they are always good for change), break open your piggy banks and check the stash in your cookie jar (if you have one), send it to We The People Foundation so they may send scientists to examine The One’s birth certificate providing he answers the petition (personally I think he believes in that wretched narcissistic mind of his, he is above releasing any and all information about himself. The only information he wants us to read is the largely fictional “autobiography” or “autobiographies” he “wrote” and were subsequently published).
Here is the final copy of the ad:
An Open Letter
to Barack Obama:
Are you a Natural Born
Citizen of the U.S.?
Are you legally eligible to
hold the Office of President?
We The People Foundation
For Constitutional Education, Inc.
www.WeThePeopleFoundation.org
2458 Ridge Road Queensbury, NY 12804
info@GiveMeLiberty.org
December 1, 2008
Mr. Barack Obama
Barack Obama Transition Office
Kluczynski Federal Building
230 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Dear Mr. Obama:
Representing thousands of responsible American citizens who have also
taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America,
I am duty bound to call on you to remedy an apparent violation of the
Constitution.
Compelling evidence supports the claim that you are barred from holding
the Office of President by the “natural born citizen” clause of the U.S.
Constitution.
For instance:
• You have posted on the Internet an unsigned, forged and thoroughly
discredited, computer-generated birth form created in 2007, a form
that lacks vital information found on any original, hand signed
Certificate of Live Birth, such as hospital address, signature of
attending physician and age of mother.
• Hawaii Dept of Health will not confirm your assertion that you were born
in Hawaii.
• Legal affidavits state you were born in Kenya.
• Your grandmother is recorded on tape saying she attended your birth
in Kenya.
• U.S. Law in effect in 1961 denied U.S. citizenship to any child born
in Kenya if the father was Kenyan and the mother was not yet 19
years of age.
• In 1965, your mother legally relinquished whatever Kenyan or U.S.
citizenship she and you had by marrying an Indonesian and becoming
a naturalized Indonesian citizen.
You have repeatedly refused to provide evidence of your eligibility when
challenged to do so in a number of recent lawsuits. Instead, you have
been successful in having judges declare that they are powerless to order
you to prove your eligibility to assume the Office of President.
Incredibly, the judge in Hawaii actually said it would be an invasion of
your privacy for him to order access to your original birth certificate in
order to prove your eligibility to hold the Office of President.
Before you can legitimately exercise any of the powers of the President
you must meet all the criteria for eligibility established by the Constitution.
You are under a moral, legal, and fiduciary duty to proffer such evidence.
Should you assume the office as anyone but a bona fide natural born
citizen of the United States who has not relinquished that citizenship, you
would be inviting a national crisis that would undermine the domestic
peace and stability of the Nation. For example:
• You would always be viewed by many Americans as a
poseur – a usurper .
• As a usurper , you would be unable to take the required “Oath or
Affirmation” on January 20 without committing the crime of perjury or
false swearing, for being ineligible you cannot faithfully execute the
Office of the President of the United States.
• You would be entitled to no allegiance, obedience or support from
the People.
• The Armed Forces would be under no legal obligation to remain
obedient to you.
• No civilian in the Executive Branch would be required to obey any of
your proclamations, Executive Orders or directives, as such orders
would be legally void.
• Your appointments of Judges to the Supreme Court would be void.
• Congress would not be able to pass any needed legislation because
it would not be able to acquire the signature of a bona fide President.
• Congress would be unable to remove you, a usurper , from the Office
of the President on Impeachment, inviting certain political chaos
including a potential for armed conflicts within the General
Government or among the States and the People to effect the
removal of such a usurper .
In consideration of the escalating constitutional crisis brought on by the
total lack of evidence needed to conclusively establish your eligibility,
I am compelled to serve you with this First Amendment Petition for a
Redress of this violation of the Constitution.
With all due respect, I ask that you immediately direct the appropriate
Hawaiian officials to allow access to the vault copy of your birth
certificate by our forensic scientists on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
December 5, 6 and 7, 2008.
In addition, I ask that you deliver the following documentary evidence to
the National Press Club in Washington DC by 10 am on December 8, 2008,
marked for my attention:
• A certified copy of your original, signed “vault” birth certificate.
• Certified copies of your reissued and sealed birth certificates in the
names Barack Hussein Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, Barack
Dunham and Barry Dunham.
• A certified copy of your Certification of Citizenship.
• A certified copy of your Oath of Allegiance taken upon age of maturity.
• Certified copies of your admission forms for Occidental College,
Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
• Certified copies of any legal documents changing your name.
Each member of the Electoral College, who is committed to casting a vote
on December 15, 2008, has a constitutional duty to make certain you are
a natural-born citizen. As of today, there is no evidence in the public
record (nor have you provided any) that defeats the claim that you are
barred by law from assuming the Office of President because you fail the
Constitution’s eligibility requirements.
All state Electors are now on Notice that unless you provide documentary
evidence before December 15, that conclusively establishes your eligibility,
they cannot cast a vote for you without committing treason to the Constitution.
“In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled
if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent,
the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people
by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a
lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become
a law unto himself; it invites anarchy .” Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Schulz
Chairman
Here!Here! I certainly hope the one responds before he takes the oath of office, for he will certainly be viewed as a poseur. While we are at it, let’s send The One a dictionary so he can learn the true meaning of transparency, a word heard oft repeated throughout the election. Mr Obama here is the definition for your perusal:
Transparency, as used in the humanities (government as well, my emphasis), when used in a social context, implies openness, communication, and accountability. It is a metaphorical extension of the meaning a “transparent” object is one that can be seen through. Transparent procedures include open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audits, etc.
I was reading a story about Gates from a blogger who has followed his long career. His perceptions of Gates are off. Here is an example of Mike Ruppert’s insights:
From the federal bench to the FBI to CIA. He’s a manager and an order executor, a very good one. He is not a policy architect and has no aspirations in that arena. He was a judge. His life is following rules, written and unwritten. Under him, I would know that the Chain of Command was functioning effectively to all parts of the military.
“He is not a policy architect and has no aspirations in that arena.”, is patently wrong. It is quite black and white with no thought to the following information:
Integrating active duty forces with reserve forces will require policy changes not seen in the military in recent times, if ever. The change will require major overhaul and could cost jobs. More from the article:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates took a giant step Monday toward more tightly blending the active-duty military and reserve components into an “integrated total force,” calling for wide-ranging personnel policy changes, codifying the reserves’ homeland defense role and adequately funding oft-overlooked reserve equipment requirements.
I see only one and only one bright spot, that is the increased funding of reserve equipment. Personnel policy changes unless done correctly could cost positions as well as chaos. I have worries about the reserves’ role in homeland security. It is very important that we get answers to that role. It leaves questions. Can martial law be invoked? Will the reserves be able to hold citizens without due process?
Will they be allowed to carry guns within the borders?
What policy needs to be changed by Gates to extend the reserves role in homeland security?
The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.
Is this one of the policies Gates is changing? He can’t change it without complicity from our Congress. They will have to vote to change the law.
More from on Gates actions:
(Author’s Note: The citizens of the United States must demand answers from Congress and the Department of Defense. We need to know if the Posse Comitatus Act is or has been changed. I can’t emphasize this enough.)
In a Monday memo sent to every senior uniformed and civilian Pentagon leader and copied to three other cabinet secretaries, Gates directed the development of a new Total Force Integration Policy that recognizes the “cultural divide that exists” between the active and reserve components. “All vestiges of the cultural prejudice” that remain in law “should be removed” by Congress, he wrote.
Gates also called upon Congress to “mandate that the National Guard and Reserves have the lead role in and form the backbone of DoD operations in the homeland.”
I am repeating myself by choice. We need an accounting for these changes. We need to thoroughly research any vote concerning the Posse Comitatus Act. The president though he is the Commander In Chief can not simply change the role of the military at will. The role must be changed by Congress. Does this mean Congress has already voted on changes to the above named act?
Am I concerned? You bet I am. I spent thirteen years in the Navy, I understand the military echelon. Do I think it is a good idea to keep Gates? I can’t answer that. I am only left with questions about the status of the military and homeland defense.
In a barely noticed development, a US Army unit is now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. An initial news report in the Army Times newspaper last month noted that in addition to emergency response the force “may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control.” The military has since claimed the force will not be used for civil unrest, but questions remain.
Read about the unit, United States Northern Command here.
Here are a few excerpts:
U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, have signed a Civil Assistance Plan that allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency.
“This document is a unique, bilateral military plan to align our respective national military plans to respond quickly to the other nation’s requests for military support of civil authorities,” Renuart said. “Unity of effort during bilateral support for civil support operations such as floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and effects of a terrorist attack, in order to save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate damage to property, is of the highest importance, and we need to be able to have forces that are flexible and adaptive to support rapid decision-making in a collaborative environment.”
“The signing of this plan is an important symbol of the already strong working relationship between Canada Command and U.S. Northern Command,” Dumais said. “Our commands were created by our respective governments to respond to the defense and security challenges of the twenty-first century, and we both realize that these and other challenges are best met through cooperation between friends.”
The plan recognizes the role of each nation’s lead federal agency for emergency preparedness, which in the United States is the Department of Homeland Security and in Canada is Public Safety Canada. The plan facilitates the military-to-military support of civil authorities once government authorities have agreed on an appropriate response.
Assistance to civil authorities such as law enforcement is expressly forbidden by the Posse Comitatus Act. This leaves one question, what is their actual role during civil unrest?
One issue we voters have forgotten about already is it was okay to cheat in the elections of 2008 in any way possible. The faux president elect, The One, The Obamessiah did it all. He cheated through thuggery, outright intimidation, and name calling throughout 2008. He was aided by the likes of the various state Democratic Parties, the Reid, Pelosi and Democratic congressional cabal and of course ACORN.
Speaking of ACORN, what has happened to all the “investigations? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The embezzlement case hasn’t even gone very, remaining embroiled in a bitter fight in court.
The midterm elections are in two years. We will start seeing campaign activities in the next year and they will be brutal. Why? Because the politicians running for these seats know that it is okay to cheat.
They know it is okay to cheat in elections because the president-elect, The One “leads” by example.
If you think that elections will get better from here on out, you are delusional. There will be no change, only chaos in future elections. There will be rampant cheating beating the record in the 2008 elections because The One says it is “okay”, I did and now I am living in government housing, Our White House!
So “we the voters” need to be reminded that election reform including primary and caucus reform. Caucuses must go away. It only encourages cheating as The One showed us in so many states. Some of his infractions include busing illegal voters to other states like Iowa, busing illegal voters to different precincts within states and allowing underage high school students to “sign” up to vote even though would not be “18″ by November.
There should no longer be one state favored over another when it comes to who votes first. But much of this reform will require reform within the Democratic Party because they set these arbitrary dates and give amnesty for setting the primary early to different states on a whim.
Here is a video clip of the cheating in the primaries so we remember and never forget. We must unite as one under the name Jeffersonian Coalition and take back out rights as voters and citizens of the United States.
Recently I received notice of a new PUMA video titled, “Transparency: An Open Letter To Barack Obama” produced by Annie Sweetie Oakley. While I haven’t covered much PUMA news lately I do believe this video is worthy of spreading around. It does discuss many of the things that Obama has never released such as a “valid” long form birth certificate, his Harvard grades, and other things he simply refuses to show the American people. Obama is definitely far from transparent despite the many months of telling us he is….
Transparency and Accountability in government? Trust? From Obama hardly!
I truly am a Ms Placed Democrat. I am an original Bostonian and now a Kansan. I must give credit where credit is due. My daughter thought up the name. And it does fit my situation well. I was on the ground in four states for Hillary Clinton, Texas, Indiana, South Dakota and Montana. I ran the Veterans for Hillary tour through 16 cities and towns in Montana.
Where am I now? I am home after an exciting but somewhat demoralizing trip to Denver in August where I had the opportunity to meet so many fellow bloggers. I met Heidi Li of Heidi’sPotpourri, Riverdaughter, Bud White of NoQuarter, TexasHillCountry, LadyBoomer of NYC, BJ of Free Me Now and just so many others. Too numerous to list. The demoralizing part was watching the “undemocratic” and “unrealistic” roll call vote for the Democratic nomination.
I am truly misplaced because now I am crossing party lines and voting a straight Republican ticket. I am doing it less for the Republicans and more as revenger for the sexism, misogyny, and cheating in the Democratic Party. A few words of warning to the Democratic Party. Becareful for what you wish for. You are going to have to win with “The Campaign of Change”,”the new name for the Democratic Party. The leadership told the “old base” we don’t need you to win. And a good portion of the old base is doing exactly what I am doing!
Good luck with the “new base”. As Ollie North said (and I am paraphrasing here), college kids are reliably unreliable.
Stanley Kurtz visits Fox and Friends. Watch and Listen to the following video:
Once you have watched and listened to this video, go and tell five friends and have them tell five more. And fight to keep Obama and his friends out of the White House!
As a preface to Nancy’s article it might be helpful to offer a refresher for new NoQuarter readers on the deep and long-term relationship between Barak Obama and ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
ACORN Housing provides mortgage loan counseling, first-time homebuyer classes, and helps clients obtain affordable mortgages through unique lending partnerships. They even set up their own lending institution as a non-profit mortgage brokerage with CitiMortgage, Bank of America, First American Title Insurance Company, and Fannie Mae to help low- and moderate-income families find safe, affordable mortgages.
This is one of the community organizing groups into which the Democrats tried to funnel billions of dollars in the first draft designed to capture the 700 billion pound gorilla. Read this and understand why that little treat was considered nearly criminal by even the casual observers.
First. Obama claimed he has no ties to “a group he did some legal work for” back in 1995. Let’s look into that claim.
In 1995, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar balked at implementing the federal motor voter law out of concern that letting people register via postcard and blocking the state from pruning voter rolls might invite vote fraud. A young lawyer named Barak Obama, a community organizer himself, sued on behalf of ACORN and won. ACORN later invited Obama to train its staff on voter registration drives.
In 1996 Obama ran for Illinois State Senate and ACORN became his precinct organization, identifying and turning out the vote.
When Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund for Chicago, the Fund frequently gave ACORN grants to fund its agenda and voter registration activities.
In 2004 ACORN operates as Obama’s precinct organization in his run for the U.S. Senate.
In 2007 ACORN’s national political arm endorsed Obama for president, and its “nonpartisan” voter registration affiliate starts registering hundreds of thousands of voters for Obama.
Obama claims he has no ties to “a group he once did some legal work for.”
In July 2008 the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, along with NoQuarter researchers, exposes the lie by uncovering $832,598.29 that the Obama campaign funneled through a front company called Citizens Services, Inc.
ACORN, which receives partial taxpayer funding, used those funds to conduct solicitations for contributions to and raised over $800,000 for Obama in Philadelphia alone.
Where does ACORN, the political group get this money? In 2006 Project Vote hired ACORN and CSI as its highest paid contractors, paying ACORN $4,649,037 and CSI $779,016. It has also been well documented that money flows to them from various sources including from the federally chartered non-profit ACORN Housing Corporation, as you will see below.
Now, on to the article.
——————————————————————————–
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), with a smattering of Obama and ACORN thrown in to the mix assisted in the creation of the subprime housing saga. The saga led to the governmental take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Obama tries to omit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, confuses them and turns grey while discussing the bailout. Obama “obviously” has no idea who Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are but I digress.
Mr. James Terry recently appeared on Fox News discussing the fact that ACORN will benefit from the current bailout bill. ACORN did not respond to calls from Fox News. Mr. James Terry:
From their report:
This report focuses on the troubling record of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and its tax-exempt offshoot, the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC). The ACORN/AHC version of consumer advocacy has consisted of a three-decade assault on free enterprise and a history of extracting resources from financial lenders seeking abatement of ACORN’s public relations assaults. Specifically, this report examines ACORN’s impact on the housing problem. Documents provided by internal whistleblowers, cross-checked with public records and recorded events, expose hypocritical lending recommendations tied to ACORN Housing Corporation’s agreements with major banks—agreements that end up harming consumers. Media reports, combined with information provided by former ACORN employees, show that:
• ACORN leveraged the Community Reinvestment Act in order to
attack lenders’ reputations and secure financial resources for itself;
it has also endorsed loans offered by companies that fund ACORN
operations
• ACORN’s decades of lobbying and publicity seeking have contributed
to the current housing crisis by lowering lending standards
• Despite raking in a troubling 40 percent of its revenue from taxpayers
over the last three years, ACORN Housing Corporation’s actions
range from controversial to borderline illegal (This summer when Bush signed the current housing bill into law, he effectively gave ACORN and ACORN Housing Corporation a portion of upwards of $600 million dollars. There is no firewall between ACORN and AHC so the money for housing also supports the the political arm….Project Vote. Read more on that here from the Wall Street Journal.)
• AHC has worked to obtain mortgages for undocumented
workers
• AHC relies on undocumented income, “under the table” money
that may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service
• ACORN’s “financial justice” operations attack lenders for “exotic”
loans, but AHC has recommended ten-year interest-only
loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and reverse mortgages
(which can be detrimental to senior citizens)
• AHC may have violated federal law by failing to maintain a
proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and
the aggressive political activities of ACORN
More About ACORN and ACORN Housing Corporation from CRL’s report:
To understand the current subprime credit mess is to glimpse a world in which a politically active organization with a non-profit housing arm reaps millions of dollars through “rent seeking” or manipulation of favorable laws. ACORN and its non-profit housing arm have taken in millions of taxpayer and corporate dollars by abusing a three-decade-old law intended to help the poor obtain housing. For decades, the activist organization known as ACORN has grabbed headlines—and cash—by attacking mortgage lenders in the name of citizens’ rights. Considerably less attention has been paid to the amount of taxpayer money that funds ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) and to the financial rewards ACORN has amassed
The troubling thing about ACORN,
it does not claim federal tax exemption, therefore it is free to engage in politics and is not required to disclose details of its vast and varied financial operations. Their membership includes more than 350,000 families, in more than half dozen countries.
According to CRL’s report, ACORN has a business model that is repeated over and over again, each time targeting a different company or financial institution. Here is that model:
Issues—–>Target—–>Direct Actions—–>Victory——>Partnership—–>$$$$ For Organizing
This information is provided by Former ACORN Organizer and University of Georgia Professor Fred Brooks.
CRL really did their homework and was able to retrieve information on the funding ACORN receives from financial institutions through whistleblowers (former employees) and public records. Some of the whistleblowers provided CRL with internal e-mails. Here are some of those figures:
In addition to the millions of taxpayer dollars AHC has taken in, one of
the organization’s tax returns shows private donations of more than $4 million
from major banks.6 Whistleblower documents covering AHC’s revenue
sources from July 1, 2004 through June 31, 2005 included:
• ACORN (Citibank Partnership)………………………….$127,500
• ACORN (Citibank Partnership)………………………….$240,000
• ACORN (Freddie Mac)……………………………………….$35,000
• Ameriquest Mortgage…………………………………………$130,000
• Fannie Mae (for Broadband)…………………………………$20,000
• Fannie Mae FYE 2005–2006………………………………$100,000
• JP Morgan Chase 2005–2006…………………………..$1,000,000
• Bank of America 2005–2006……………………………$1,390,000
• Washington Mutual…………………………………………..$175,000
• M & T Bank…………………………………………………….$150,000
• United Way (American Dream)……………………………..$15,000
Why should banks pay without a fight? Banks according to CRL, “look at it as a cost of doing business, according to Sol Stern in “ACORN’s Nutty Regime for Cities” in the City Journal.” It seems that ACORN forces banks to see it as doing business….according to an internal statement that CRL retrieved.
ACORN does have a historical place in the current home crisis. Here is more on that, ACORN:
…has become both a leading beneficiary and an important advocate of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Three decades ago politicians, spurred by activist groups, found that banks were engaging in “redlining” refusing loans in areas with high concentrations of individuals with low credit scores. Legislators passed a bill that gave community groups significant sway over bank mergers based on the banks’ record of lending to minorities and the poor. The fact that poor credit put such borrowers at higher risk for default was deemed irrelevant. ACORN and AHC have taken advantage of that 1977 bill and have aggressively argued— since at least 1991—for its continuation. Given ACORN’s reliance on AHC to funnel federal funds for “mortgage counseling,” such support is hardly surprising.
Don’t let these innocent looking people fool you, they are members of Obama’s ACORN. They are working with him in Ohio, where the Secretary of State is bamboozling you and fraudulently using the law to “Steal The Election” for one week.. The Secretary of State in Ohio is in collusion with The Campaign for Change (formerly the Democratic Party) and Obama to steal the election in swing states. The most outrageous and flagrant larceny was uncovered by a small college network, Polesta.com. Ohio allowed one week of “stealing the election”. John Gibson discusses this in a Fox News special report:
In my opinion these special volunteers are not non-partisan. They are more than likely members of ACORN. MoveOn.org and even Grassroots Campaign, Inc are assisting Obama and The Campaign for Change (formerly The Democratic Party) in stealing the election in November.
The Democratic Party is definitely not the Democratic Party anymore. I received a phone call from The Campaign for Change (formerly The Democratic Party) asking me to phone bank and help on Election Day (the election that Obama is attempting to steal from unde the America electorates nose) and I informed them no. I am voting a straight Republican Ticket.
Make A Sign….Anyone But Obama….Put it in Your Yard….Let Your Neighbors Know…Then tell five people about Obama’s underhanded tactics in places like Ohio, ask them to tell 5 people….and start a movement. We have very little time….we must share our knowledge now. Talk, talk about voter fraud. Show people this video! Talk, talk about Obama’s dangerous pals! Most important, share all you know with undecided voters and those not connected via the Internet. Just talk……and tell the story of Obama and his illegal shenanigans! The Obamas have dangerous plans for this country, your children and your grandchildren. Do not allow them near our White House.
This just in from JustSayNoDeal.
An immediate press release (and I completely agree with this action!)
For_Immediate_Release:
United States of America (Press Release) October 6, 2008 —
The Just Say No Deal Coalition vehemently
condemns the Democratic Party for forcing the
American People to fund the criminal activities
of ACORN.
With the general election less than 30 days
away, this is a national emergency. Our
government is sponsoring fraudulent and
criminal practices that implement mob-style
tactics disguised as social justice strategies.
We say, ‘enough!’ Any other private company,
not-for-profit or public entity would be shut
down immediately in light of such violations.
Voters’ rights are a cornerstone of our
Democracy. We will no longer tolerate the
hijacking of our voting system like we
witnessed the raping of America’s financial
markets by Fannie Mae (another funding
channel of ACORN).
Visit www.justsaynodeal.com/acorn.html for more information on ACORN’s ties to corruption and the current financial market meltdown.
In April, 2007, bankrate.com published an article, titled “The Subprime Mortgage Meltdown” by Holden Lewis. Here is his opening paragraph:
There’s no doubt that subprime lending opened up the possibility of homeownership to a bunch of people, and most of them are going to stay homeowners. That’s a good thing for them as individuals and for society as a whole.
He has more to say, it was a dire warning not heeded by many. Read on:
But there are going to be many people — perhaps millions — who will lose their homes as a result of wink-wink lending to gullible or fraudulent buyers, with harsh individual and national economic consequences. It’s something that many saw coming, but no one — not the industry, not the secondary market, not the regulators, or the media — did anything to prevent it.
Remember the last line of that paragraph. And listen to Obama say “Subprime Mortgages Were A Good Idea After The Meltdown Began”.
Obama was aware that these subprime mortgages were not good, or did he? He knew his “dangerous pals”, ACORN were encouraging them while protesting “predatory lending” practices. Why didn’t he use his power as a US Senator to do more to stop the practice of subprime mortgages? Could it be Raines and Johnson are financial advisers to his campaign?
See this McCain ad:
And here is another McCain ad, this time discussing Jim Johnson, another disgraced Fannie Mae official.
“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week. I do not believe that you should risk those assets in the stock market right now.”
While the animated Cramer is known for telling investors the best prospects for earning money on the stock market, he’s now saying retreat is the best position in the face of some of the worst financial news in decades. The bank lending default crisis that put financial firms around the country on the brink of collapse could bring “as much as a 20 percent decrease in the stock market,” Cramer predicted.
And now we are beginning to see the global effects of the meltdown.
Cramer on the global markets:
He noted that the world’s markets are nosing downward in the face of the U.S. fiscal trauma.
“One thing is certain — they are, in Europe, behind us,” Cramer told Curry. “We’ve experienced more pain than they have, we are surprised at their pain, we didn’t know how bad off they were.”
And where did this all begin, the money grabbing and grubbing CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Remember these are Obama’s advisers.
Make A Sign. It Should Say: Anybody But Obama! Then tell five friends that Obama’s advisers are disgraced money grabbing CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the original cause of the subprime mortgage meltdown. And tell them Obama’s friend and endorsee. ACORN helped as well. Tell them what Cramer said above. More than 62% of middle class America are investors and losing thier 401ks as I write.
There is little left to say. This is the best video I have seen on Obama and ACORN
We absolutely must stop this man from getting anywhere near our White House. Obama is attempting to steal the election just as he stole it in Chicago. Obama knows no other way to win accept through illegal means! Stop Obama!
who vows to change Washington by trimming wasteful spending and disclosing special-interest requests, wrote the Bush administration last year to seek a multimillion-dollar federal grant for a Chicago housing project that is behind schedule and whose development team includes a longtime political supporter.
More from The Times:
Mr. Obama’s letter, however, was never disclosed publicly. In fact, the letter was ghostwritten for him by a consultant for the Chicago Housing Authority, which wanted the money – a practice ethics watchdogs have frequently criticized.
Obama, the agent of change apparently appears to be anything but the agent of change. If he gets to the White House, it is my opinion that it will be Washington DC games as usual. And The Times agrees as do watchdog groups.
The Bush administration obliged Mr. Obama’s request, awarding a $20 million competitive grant last month from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It called the project a “shining example” of urban revitalization. The Washington Times learned of the letter from Republican operatives.
As Mr. Obama campaigns for president as an agent of change who promises to clean up Washington’s money game, his role in the Stateway project raises questions about the appearance of a conflict of interest and whether he has been participating in the very system he criticizes, watchdogs say.
Obama says it is a good project because it will replace public housing that is being razed. And why is it being razed? Because Obama sat in Chicago helping Rezko get contracts to rehab and manage public housing. Let’s see what that public housing looks like:
And another video, Obama’s Former Chicago District In Ruins:
Even more disturbing the undisclosed letter is connected to Allison S. Davis, Obama’s old boss. Read more:
But complicating the picture, one of developers for the Stateway Project is a firm headed by Allison S. Davis, one of Mr. Obama’s early mentors and a longtime political supporter. A founding partner at the firm where Mr. Obama practiced law, Mr. Davis and his family have given the senator from Illinois tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions over the years.
What is Obama’s explanation? “i didn’t know Davis was involved. The Times:
Aides to Mr. Obama said he did not know of Mr. Davis’ involvement in the Stateway project when he sent the letter. They noted that none of the HUD money will flow to Mr. Davis or his business. They also said other lawmakers – including fellow Illinois Democrats Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley – sent similar letters to HUD.
None of the letters were written by the elected officials but it still gives an air of a conflict of interest. In Obama’s case the conflict of interest appears very evident.. The watchdog groups have quite a bit to say about this subject:
Though Mr. Obama’s office said he didn’t know of Mr. Davis’ role, ethics watchdogs said he left himself open to creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, a situation senators are encouraged to avoid in their code of ethics.
Whenever a politician seeks help for a project in which supporters are involved, it can “spawn all kinds of traps and minefields,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for the nonpartisan Citizens Against Government Waste, an advocacy group.
“The appearance of a conflict of interest is almost as bad as a conflict of interest,” she said.
How exactly does HUD decide who gets money for housing projects? Apparently with these positive letters….
James Brooks, the consultant who drafted Mr. Obama’s letter, said such letters of support are seen as a “positive sign” by HUD when it doles out grants, though he added that the letters are not in themselves deciding factors.
“This isn’t a political process,” he said. “I might add that I wrote those letters myself. They didn’t originate from the mayor’s office or either of the senators’ offices,” Mr. Brooks said in an e-mail. “The final signed letters that are included in the application were changed very little from the drafts that I wrote.”
It appears as though it is a political process to me. If it wasn’t, why all the positive letters from politicians, especially Obama?
And what does the Chicago Housing Authority say about the practice of using political influence? It is “commonplace”! The Times had this to say in its article:
The Chicago Housing Authority’s managing director of development, William Little, called the practice “commonplace.”
“When we or other city agencies request the support of any member of our congressional or state delegation, the mayor or an alderman, we speak with them or their staff about the nature of and reasons for the request,” he said.
“If they agree that the request serves a compelling public purpose and are supportive we then prepare and submit the support letter for their and their staff’s review and approval. … The official and their staff are of course free to edit the letter as they wish.”
There remains a question for Obama….How much did he know about who was part of Stateway Associates LLC?
“I’m not sure he or his staff would need to review any particular funding application in any detail to understand what we were trying to accomplish with the [grant] application,” Mr. Little said.
“In this instance, Senator Obama and Senator Durbin demonstrated their support of the Chicago Housing Authority´s mission and effort to provide badly needed, safe, sanitary, affordable housing by supporting our request for funding,” he said.
If Mr. Obama or his staff had learned more about the project, it’s likely they would also have known of Mr. Davis’ involvement, since Mr. Davis’ company, the Davis Group, is one of four in the Stateway Associates LLC development partnership, according to the city housing authority’s Web site.
If it isn’t bad enough Obama’s old boss, Davis is involved so is Valerie Jarrett, Obama Campaign aide, with connections to Michelle Obama as well. Read more:
In his letter, Mr. Obama said the first phase of construction at the Stateway site “has proven successful thus far in contributing to the revitalization of the surrounding community.” He also cited nearby businesses, such as a Starbucks and a FedEx Kinkos.
According to a Tribune report on the Stateway project last year, those businesses sit on property tied to Mr. Davis and his family.
Obama aides said Mr. Obama created no conflict of interest in sending the letter. They said, and city housing authorities confirmed, that HUD grant money won’t go to Mr. Davis or his company.
“The request was made with the consultation of city officials, not the developers, and since the overall budget remains the same, the developers will not gain any financial benefit from the grant,” Mr. LaBolt said.
Obama campaign aide Valerie Jarrett also has ties to the project. She is chief executive of the Habitat Co., the federally court-appointed receiver in charge of overseeing several housing authority redevelopment efforts in Chicago, including Stateway. She is not a developer in the project.
Neither Mr. Davis nor Miss Jarrett returned e-mail or phone messages. An assistant for Miss Jarrett said she was unavailable for comment, but added, “She never spoke with Barack about this matter.”
Draw your own conclusion, but for me it brings into question whether there is a conflict of interest. I believe there is a conflict of interest. So much for Sen Hopey-Changey Obama. If he gets in our White House it will be business as usual in Washington, DC with no checks or balances.
“More Bogus Obama Donors” Surface according to CBS News. Read more about that report here. This is on the heels of the bogus donors reported yesterday in the , “RNC to File FEC Complaint on Obama Fundraising Practices”. That article can be accessed at this Washington Post link. Obama has more “bogus” donors. More from CBS:
CBS News has learned that two donors to the Obama campaign that gave a total of $7,722 appear to have made their contributions under fake names that look like they were written by a mouse running across a keyboard: Dahsudhu Hdusahfd of Df, Hawaii with the following employer CZXVC/ZXVZXV and Uadhshgu Hduadh listed as living in Dhff, Florida listed their employer as DASADA/SAFASF.
More of Obama’s transparency. I am led to ask this question, what is Obama trying to hide with bogus names, residences and employers on his donor list? More from “Bogus Obama Donors”:
CBS News did not find any records of these last names, towns or employers anywhere else. Newsweek reported two questionable Obama donors over the weekend named “Doodad Pro” and “Good Will”. ( This was added by authir to enable readers to do more research on Obama and his bogus donors. Read more on Doodad Pro and Goodwill from Ken Timmerman at Newsmax.
Contributions from the two donors Hdusahfd and Hduadh were made on the same day starting on July 16, 2008. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show the campaign began refunding the donations as early as August 6, 2008.
Despite numerous refunds from the Obama campaign, Hdusahfd still has a record of giving a total of $7500 to Obama which is well over the legal limit for the primary and general election of $4600.the primary and general election of $4600. Hduadh gave $14,200 but the Obama campaign returned all but $222.00.
And what is Obama saying?
The Obama campaign says “out of an abundance of caution” all of these donations are in the process of being returned.
Where have we heard that before? …. The Gaza Strip Brothers, Good Will and Doodad Pro. Read more »
This is Hannity’s finest hour ever. I have never been a fan of Hannity though I liked Colmes. The odd thing is I now have much more respect for Hannity and truly dislike Colmes.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Obama is so aligned with questionable characters that we have to question who Obama really is. I am certain that Obama is dangerous. And I know we have no idea who he really is.
I am going to reprint McCain’s words from Albuquerque, NM courtesy of Real Clear Politics. McCain’s speech contains some information in it that we all must pay close attention to. When we know it we must do direct voter contact….contact friends, neighbors and even family. Here is McCain’s speech:
October 06, 2008
McCain Attacks Obama in Albuquerque Speech
John McCain
Albuquerque, New Mexico
As Prepared for Delivery
In less than a month, the American people will make a choice on where they want this country to go, and who they trust to lead us in a time of war and economic crisis. The time for debating and electioneering is drawing to a close. Soon it will be the time for choosing.
Today we have seen a reminder of the importance of that choice. The action Congress took last week to address our financial crisis was a tourniquet, but not a permanent solution. Today we are seeing the stock market fall, and the credit crisis spread to other parts of the world. Our economy is still hurting – working families are worried about the price of groceries, the price of gas, keeping their jobs and paying their mortgage – further action is needed. We need to restore confidence in our economy and in our government.
Washington is still on the wrong track and we still need change. The status quo is not on the ballot. We are going to see change in Washington. The question is: in what direction will we go? Will our country be a better place under the leadership of the next president – a more secure, prosperous, and just society? Will you be better off, in the jobs you hold now and in the opportunities you hope for? Will your sons and daughters grow up in the kind of country you wish for them, rising in the world and finding in their own lives the best of America? And which candidate’s experience – in government and in life – makes him a more reliable leader for our country and commander in chief for our troops? Who is ready to lead? In a time of trouble and danger for our country, who will put our country first?
I set out on my own campaign for president many months ago. I promised at the beginning to be straight with the American people, knowing that even those who don’t agree with me on everything would expect at least that much. I didn’t just show up out of nowhere, after all – America knows me. You know my strengths and my faults. You know my story and my convictions. And though familiarity in politics can be both helpful to a candidate, or not so helpful, it does at least fill out the picture and answer the essential questions. You need to know who you’re putting in the White House – where the candidate came from and what he or she believes. And you need to know now, before it is time to choose.
In 21 months, during hundreds of speeches, town halls and debates, I have kept my promise to level with you about my plans to reform Washington and get this country moving again. As a senator, I’ve seen the corrupt ways of Washington in wasteful spending and other abuses of power, and as president I’m going to end them – whatever it takes. I will propose and sign into law reforms to bring tax relief to the middle class and help to businesses so they can create jobs. I will get the rising cost of food and gas under control. I will help families keep their home, and help students struggling to pay for college. I will make health care more accessible and affordable. I will impose a spending freeze on all but the most vital functions of government. I will review every agency of the federal government, improve those that need to be improved and eliminate those that aren’t working for the American people. I will confront th e ten trillion-dollar debt that the federal government has run up, and balance the federal budget by the end of my term in office. Read more »
For sometime now every time I have heard Obama say he will cut taxes for the middle class I have been flashing back to President Bill Clinton’s eight years in the White House. We didn’t exactly get a tax cut during his tenure. Now someone else is remembering. In the Wall Street Journal today, as listed on Memorandum, William Mc Gurn remembers too. His article “About That Middle-Class Tax Cut . . .
Remember the last time a charismatic Democrat made such a promise?” discusses just that subject. (This article is listed at Memeorandum.)
More from McGurn:
“It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
Read on and remember those days Obama wanted us to forget during the primaries. And I believe this why Obama wanted us to forget. He constantly says there will be no tax increase for the middle class, Clinton promised the same thing. Yet we ended up with just that.
McGurn on Clinton’s “middle class tax cuts”:
The Clinton years hold some good lessons on both these scores. Back when Mr. Clinton was campaigning for president in 1992, he made a pretty direct pitch: Raise taxes on people making more than $200,000, and use those revenues to fund tax relief for the “forgotten middle class.”
John McCain needs to remind the American people about the cost of an Obama presidency with no checks and balances, ie: a Democratic Congress with a lousy approval rating. Read the author’s thoughts:
As John McCain heads into the second round of presidential debates tonight, Yogi Berra’s words come to mind. Mr. McCain could do worse than remind the middle class what happened to them the last time a charismatic Democratic candidate promised them a tax cut. While he’s at it, he might also remind them how much more expensive it will be to send Barack Obama to the White House at a time when his fellow Democrats will have a majority in both houses of Congress.
McGurn reminds us it took no time at all for Clinton to start backtracking on his promises.
In an October presidential debate, then-Gov. Clinton laid out the marginal-rate increase he wanted and some of his plans for the revenue that would be brought in. He followed with a pledge:
“Now, I’ll tell you this,” he said. “I will not raise taxes on the middle class to pay for these programs. If the money does not come in there to pay for these programs, we will cut other government spending, or we will slow down the phase-in of the programs.”
Mr. Clinton, of course, won that election. And as the inauguration approached, he began backtracking from his promise. At a Jan. 14, 1993, press conference in New Hampshire, he claimed that it was the media that had played up a middle-class tax cut, not him. A month later, he announced his actual plan before a joint session of Congress.
Just in from Fox News, “ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation”. It is about time. I had a second sense about ACORN in July. My feeling about this group was spot on. And the best thing is because of my expose at NoQuarter, “ACORN IV: Obama, ACORN, Citizen’s Services Inc: False FEC Filings”, we all know Obama has been paying them this year. I exposed these filings prior to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
More from Fox News on the ACORN raid:
Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud.
Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state’s office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about “erroneous” registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.
And this is more from that raid and Fox News:
The group was submitting the information through a voter sign-up drive known as Project Vote.
“Some of them used nonexistent names, some of them used false addresses and some of them were duplicates of previously filed applications,” Walsh said, describing the complaints, which largely came from the registrar in Clark County, Nev. He said some registrations used the names of Dallas Cowboys football players.
Walsh said agents from both the secretary of state’s office and Nevada attorney general’s office conducted the raid, and “took a bunch of stuff.”
I was just over visiting NoQuarter. According to Larry, Matthew has a “breaking story” about a “socialist party” you have to sign a pledge with. The pledge states you are required to use them in your campaign. I have known about this pledge and party since July. I uncovered the tie in Obama’s ACORN.
I am aware of one socialist party with two different names but one of which was assimilated by ACORN and the other established by ACORN. The first of these two parties is “New Party” and the second of the parties is “Working Families Party”.
The first socialist party is centered in Chicago and the second in New York State.
In Chicago, The New Party placed at least one candidate onto the Board of Aldermen. I exposed this in my first article, Obama’s ACORN. The goal of this party is to place members on city councils and even the presidency to destroy the country/system as we know it from within. Make no mistake Obama knows who and what this party is about. Read about Obama and New Party here at Red State. An excerpt from Red State in their piece titled, “Obama Sought Endorsement of Marxist Third Party in 1996″:
The New Party’s modus operandi included the political strategy of “electoral fusion,” where it would nominate, for various political offices, candidates from other parties (usually Democrats), thereby enabling each of those candidates to occupy more than one ballot line in the voting booth. By so doing, the New Party often was able to influence candidates’ platforms. (Fusion of this type is permitted in seven states — Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont — but is common only in New York.) Read more about The New Party here from their own website:
Though Illinois was not one of the states that permitted electoral fusion, in 1995 Barack Obama nonetheless sought the New Party’s endorsement for his 1996 state senate run. He was successful in obtaining that endorsement, and he used a number of New Party volunteers as campaign workers.
In 1996, three of the four candidates endorsed by the New Party won their electoral primaries. The three victors included Barack Obama (in the 13th State Senate District), Danny Davis (in the 7th Congressional District), and Patricia Martin, who won the race for Judge in the 7th Subcircuit Court. All four candidates attended an April 11, 1996 New Party membership meeting to express their gratitude for the party’s support.
From The Real Barack Obama in its article, “Carl Davidson Doth Protest Too Much” highlights a relationship between Carl Davidson and Obama. Davidson is the former president of the SDS, (this is important later in the article). Read on:
Katz and former Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) president Carl Davidson, “two perennially engaged ’60s veterans and ex-SDS members”, Jeff Epton wrote December 15, 2003, in In These Times, were “key organizers” of the October 2, 2002, anti-war demonstration. Originating as Chicagoans Against War with Iraq (CAWI), by December 2003 CAWI had morphed into Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. Davidson explained, “as the war transformed from invasion to occupation, CAWI activists managed to avoid splits over sectarian and strategic differences, and committed to stay together and move from ‘protest to politics’.”
In 2005, Katz and Davidson co-authored Stopping War, Seeking Justice. Davidson is “now a figure in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, an offshoot of the old Moscow-controlled CPUSA,” Cliff Kincaid wrote February 18, 2008, for Accuracy in Media.
Davidson is also an Obama supporter, now heading up a group called Progressives for Obama. On his personal blog Keep On Keepin’ On, Davidson recently defended Sen. Obama’s comments about small town people being bitter.
And why is this important? Davidson and Bernadine Dohrn were both members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). From Wikipedia, an excerpt of the SDS history:
In the spring of 1968, National SDS activists led an effort on the campuses called “Ten Days of Resistance” and local chapters cooperated with the Student Mobilization Committee in rallies, marches, sit-ins and teach-ins, which culminated in a one-day strike on April 26. About a million students stayed away from classes that day, the largest student strike in the history of the United States. It was largely ignored by the New York City-based national media, which were intensely focused on the student shutdown of Columbia University in New York, led by an inter-racial alliance of Columbia SDS chapter activists and Student Afro Society activists. As a result of the mass media publicity given to Columbia SDS activists such as Columbia SDS chairperson Mark Rudd during the Columbia Student Revolt, the organization was put on the map politically and “SDS” became a household name in the United States for a few years. Membership in SDS chapters around the United States increased dramatically during the 1968-69 academic year.
SDS members from Austin, Texas participated in a mass demonstration in San Antonio, Texas in April 1969 at the “Kings River Parade”. San Antonio SNCC members called the demonstration to protest the killing of Bobby Joe Phillips by San Antonio Police Officers.
In the summer of 1969, the ninth SDS national convention was held at the Chicago Coliseum with some 2000 people attending. Many factions of the movement were actually present, and set up their literature tables all around the edges of the cavernous hall. The Young Socialist Alliance, Wobblies, Spartacists, Marxists and Maoists of various sorts, all together with various law-enforcement spies and informers contributed to the air of impending expectations.
Each of the delegates were given the convention issue of New Left Notes, which contained a manifesto, “You don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” This manifesto had been first presented at the Spring, 1969, SDS National Council Meeting in Austin, Texas. The document had been written by an eleven-member committee that included Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn and John Jacobs, and represented the position of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) wing of SDS, most of which subsequently turned into the Weather Underground Organization. The New Left Notes issue distributed at the convention was full of the language of the Old Left of the thirties; and was thus impenetrable and irrelevant to the majority of SDSers.
The convention quickly fell into disarray as the PL Worker Student Alliance faction, which was about evenly divided with the Revolutionary Youth Movement forces at the convention, moved to exert its power over SDS as a whole. When the Black Panther representatives attacked PL but at the same time proved itself inclined towards sexism by advocating “pussy power,” the entire convention fell into something approaching chaos, or, worse, farce.
The RYM and the National Office faction, led by Bernardine Dohrn, voted by about 500 to 100 to expel the PL, and then walked out of the conference hall with that 500. By the next day there were two SDS organizations, neither of them recognizable to an older SDSer, nor to the bulk of the members back on the campuses. In the Fall of 1969 many of the SDS chapters also split up or disintegrated. The Weatherman faction evolved into a small underground organization that first took to street confrontations and then to a bombing campaign. There were no more national conventions. SDS was fully defunct by 1972. On June 26, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a unanimous opinion, in the case Healy v. James, stating that members of the SDS had been unconstitutionally deprived of their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly when a group was denied permission to form on the campus of Central Connecticut State College in New Britain, Connecticut.
University of Tennessee student, David C. Kernell, son of Tennessee Democratic lawmaker Mike Kernell has been indicted by a federal grand jury. KnoxNews.com has more on that indictment:
David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Palin, the governor of Alaska and Sen. John McCain’s running mate, according to U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick.
Kernell is facing arraignment this morning in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley. He is being charged with a single- count indictment. More:
The single-count indictment, returned Tuesday and unsealed today, alleges that on approximately Sept. 16, 2008, Kernell, obtained unauthorized access to Palin’s personal e-mail account by allegedly resetting the account password.
More on the indictment:
According to the indictment, after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell allegedly read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information.
According to the indictment, Kernell posted screenshots of the e-mail and other personal information to a public Web site. Kernell also allegedly posted the new e-mail account password, thus providing access to the account by others.
He faces some stiff penalties. Read about them:
. If convicted, Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised releasel date has not been set.
This kid nearly got away with hacking Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account when the first federal grand jury in ended on September 23 rd. What was that first grand jury thinking? Well thank heavens this econd jury actually did its job and indicted this young man. Invasion of someone’s privacy is morally wrong as well as wrong under the law. I hope his punishment is stiff, as it should be.
What did I find in my debate roundup find this morning? The same old rhetoric! At the risk of sounding ancient, the article titles look like a broken record:
And you have to love this one from CNN (the news station that has bet its reputation on Obama):
CNN Poll: Obama won the night
Those were all a let down so I visited more fair and balanced sites, not Fox News, they gave nothing to McCain last night in their post-debate, debate. I thought it was time to look at one credible person this morning…and that is Ed Morrissey at HotAir.
Ed Morrissey in his article, “Did soft bias again affect the debate?” over at Hot Air said this:
Last night, I wrote that Tom Brokaw did a credible job as moderator and showed no obvious bias during the debate. Indeed, the one time when Brokaw enforced the no-response rule came when he shut down Barack Obama, much to Obama’s obvious frustration. But as with Gwen Ifill, complaints about a more subtle bias in the debate have arisen in the choice of questions Brokaw offered.
More from Ed Morrissey (note: I agree with him.):
In fact, there are two complaints being heard about Brokaw’s performance. The less-substantive gripe is that Brokaw asked too many of his own questions, supposedly making a mockery of the town-hall format. That format died when everyone agreed to have Brokaw and his team vet the questions and decide which would be asked. A real town hall forum uses spontaneity for its energy. All we got last night were Brokaw’s chosen questions, delivered by his selected writers. Brokaw just outsourced his writing staff. The union should file a complaint of its own.
That is exactly what I noticed. There was no spontaneity like in other town hall formats, a format I prefer myself. In REAL townhall formats the whole candidate is seen because they are not rehearsed. Last night looked like a dress rehearsal for 15 round boxing match where no one lands a jab. A literal draw, though McCain’s mortgage bailout was that one time that he shone. Once again the questions seemed elicit stump speech answers.
Morrissey wants to know where the following issues fall into the debate since it seems they are missing from the question roles:
The question of questions is a stronger accusation. Like Ifill, Brokaw managed to avoid the following topics:
Abortion
Gun control
Judicial nominations
Immigration
I don’t think Brokaw managed to avoid these issues, he deliberately avoided these issues. Well maybe that assertion is a little strong but that is what I believe. More from Hot Air:
With the current financial crisis, an emphasis on economics was expected. Brokaw did ask about entitlement reform, which hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention. However, the topics above have driven presidential politics for decades and have single-issue constituencies that matter in elections. For the second straight debate, Americans didn’t hear candidate views on any of them.
Does that oversight help Barack Obama? On the first topic, most definitely. It would have provided an opportunity for McCain to hammer Obama for his opposition to the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and explain to a national audience how Obama acted to protect infanticide. Gun control would have allowed McCain to challenge the Con Law expert on why he couldn’t take a stand on the Second Amendment before Heller. Judicial nominations would have spoken to the base in both parties, and on immigration, little daylight exists between the two candidates.
I’d call the latter two topics a draw, but McCain got hurt by not getting a question on the first two. Brokaw made the decision on questions, and he has to take responsibility for his choices. The lack of queries on these perennially hot topics should raise a few eyebrows. Will the American public get a chance to hear the candidates answer on them in the third and final debate?
Ditto, Ed. Will we get substantative questions on those issues in the next debate? I would love to hear Obama say “that’s above my paygrade” again and John McCain say “life begins at conception”.
I thought I would give a hand to Purple People Vote, and keep reminding the voters out there that “Obama was Ayers Money Man”. From Purple:
Some may wonder why bring up William Ayers now? Hasn’t this already been addressed? No, it hasn’t. Last week Stanley Kurtz of the National Review wrote an article entitled Obama’s Challenge that details Senator Obama’s connection to William Ayers as much more than a passing aquaintance. Obama was essentially William Ayer’s money man on his foundation Chicago Annenberg Foundation. The full article is definitely worth a read, and below are excerpts:
The partnership between Ayers and Obama is about much more than the number of occasions on which the two were recorded together in the same room. As CAC board chair, Obama was essentially authorizing the funding of Ayers’s own educational projects, and the projects of Ayers’s radical allies. And especially in CAC’s first year, Ayers was largely in charge of the process. One of CAC’s own evaluations notes that during 1995, CAC was a “Founder-Led Foundation.” That is, Ayers was not merely an ex officio board member that year, but as the key founder and guiding spirit of CAC, he was effectively running the show…
…So when CAC’s own evaluators call 1995 the period of the “Founder-Led Foundation,” they are essentially saying that, in 1995, Ayers was the most powerful individual at CAC. The Obama campaign treats that suggestion as “absurd,” yet it is effectively made by CAC’s own evaluators. This needs to be kept in mind when considering the Obama campaign’s minimization of the Ayers-Obama connection that year…
……While the appearance of self-dealing receded after CAC’s first year, the reality may still have been in place. Evaluators, both internal and external, have criticized CAC for over-committing its funds in 1995, and also for doing far too little to demand accountability from grant recipients, very much including the initial batch. Many of the initial grantees continued to receive funds for years. Evaluators consistently note the lack of flexibility in grants, and complain that the huge 1995 commitments, with relatively few changes in follow-on years, significantly undercut CAC’s impact and effectiveness…
…The Chicago Annenberg Challenge stands as Barack Obama’s most important executive experience to date. By its own account, CAC was a largely a failure. And a series of critical evaluations point to reasons for that failure, including a poor strategy, to which the foundation over-committed in 1995, and over-reliance on community organizers with insufficient education expertise. The failure of CAC thus raises entirely legitimate questions, both about Obama’s competence, his alliances with radical community organizers, and about Ayers’s continuing influence over CAC and its board, headed by Obama. Above all, by continuing to fund Ayers’s personal projects, and those of his political-educational allies, Obama was lending moral and material support to Ayers’s profoundly radical efforts. Ayers’s terrorist history aside, that makes the Ayers-Obama relationship a perfectly legitimate issue in this campaign.
You’ll want to double-check the logo at the bottom left corner during this report. It really is CNN and Anderson Cooper fact-checking Barack Obama’s claims to have barely known William Ayers — and calling it dishonest. Stanley Kurtz even gets to make an appearance on a network other than Fox for this report (via Dirty Harry’s Place)
:
More from Hot Air:
Drew Griffin runs down most of the salient points raised by people like Kurtz, David Freddoso, Jerome Corsi, and others. Obama’s admission in a debate that he briefly served on “a board” with Ayers with little contact gets shot down. CNN followed up on Kurtz’ work with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and debunks that notion. They also — amazingly — report on the nature of the grants made by the CAC while Obama ran it to Ayers’ favored schools with radical agendas.
Griffin also tells a somewhat nonplussed Cooper that Obama has lied about his “coming out party” at the home of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in 1995. Obama has said that Alice Palmer arranged the fundraiser and the venue, but Griffin spoke to two people who attended the event, who claim Obama lied. Palmer had nothing to do with that event outside of being invited to it. Obama and Ayers planned the event themselves.
Obama lies again and again about his connections to William Ayers. He spent years working with and for Ayers. He supported Ayer’s causes. I know it is unbelievable, but even someone at CNN isn’t buying his lies any longer. Obama can no longer hide behind his mask of lies, the blogs and MSM are slowly chipping away at it.
This video absolutely is devastating. It is one of the best I have seen to date. This video is more complete than any others I have watched since July. Listen to this video from the ACORN National Convention:
And listen to these ACORN workers saying they are going to beat down Senator John McCain:
The ACORN people can say they will beat McCain down but DNC Reform brings him up. The DNC Reform endorses McCain. Watch this video:
As for me, I endorsed him a long time ago. I am a member of Citizens for McCain. Veterans for McCain and Women for McCain. In my opinion the McCain/Palin ticket is the only one reaching out to all Americans. John McCain embraced Hillary’s idea for an HOLC last night in that debate and today Obama says it will never work. Why won’t it work Obama? the backbone of it is written into the bailout bill and McCain for one knows this.
Read about the mortgage plan McCain knows is in place here at Gina Cobb. She has the best explanation yet.
Here is an excerpt:
But McCain and others have a better idea. The feds could go to the homeowner and offer to discharge their current mortgage completely, clear it off. The homeowner could then get a new mortgage with a higher interest rate, but a smaller principal. The idea is to make the monthly payments more affordable to the homeowner. The feds can actually give homeowners a pretty good deal, because they bought the mortgage at a deep discount.
The new mortgage will cost the homeowner less per month, and it will be fully secured by the house. The homeowner will be able to make the payments, and they will want to stay in the house because the can’t get cheaper housing elsewhere.
Now the feds own a fully performing mortgage that they can sell to any investor, because it’s a fully-secured, well-performing mortgage. They could get 80 to 100 cents on the a dollar for that mortgage! Everyone wins.
Well McCain can stop the bleeding with this plan plus make money for everyone. Obama doesn’t want to save anyone’s home.
Well Senator Claire McCaskill should be quite proud. ACORN is alive and registering voters fraudulently in Missouri again. The first case of voter fraud in Missouri occurred in 2006 and was a larger part of McCaskill’s run for the Senate. Now there are more reports of voter fraud in Missouri from YahooNews.
What makes this case worse? The fraudulent registration cards were dropped on Missouri officials on the last day to register to vote in the State of Missouri. There is more from Missouri officials in the story.
Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.
Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.
“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or Social Security numbers that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.”
ACORN has a new explanation. We didn”t do it. We haven’t been registering anyone in Kansas City since whenever:
Jess Ordower, Midwest director of ACORN, said his group hasn’t done any registrations in Kansas City since late August. He said he was told three weeks ago by election officials that there were only about 135 questionable cards — 85 of them duplicates.
“They keep telling different people different things,” he said. “They gave us a list of 130, then told someone else it was 1,000.”
ACORN has little or no reliability at this point with anyone. And they shouldn’t have with any election officials. Read more:
FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency has been in contact with elections officials about potential voter fraud and plans to investigate.
“It’s a matter we take very seriously,” Patton said. “It is against the law to register someone to vote who does not fall within the parameters to vote, or to put someone on there falsely.”
TheBlog at the Weekly Standard covered ACORN in the following story, Obama GOTV Group and Voter Fraud. This time it involves Cuyahoga County in Ohio, where ACORN is suspected of voter fraud. This is what they have to say:
Jim Geraghty points to a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the voter-registration group ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It seems that in the process of soliciting, collecting, reviewing and turning in registration applications, it really can’t do much about fraud:
A national voter-registration group admitted to Cuyahoga County election officials Tuesday that it cannot eliminate fraud from its operation.
The group blamed inefficiency and lack of resources for problems such as being unable to spot duplicate voter-registration cards or cards that may have been filled out by workers to make quotas.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has turned in at least 65,000 cards to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in the last year. The board has investigated potentially fraudulent cards since August.
The group has faced similar inquiries in other large Ohio counties. And Nevada state authorities recently raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters searching for evidence of fraud, according to the Associated Press.
…Cuyahoga election workers flagged about 50 names on suspicious cards. The cards were to register the same names, raising the possibility that canvassers shared information when trying to make quotas.
…Kris Harsh, ACORN’s head Cleveland organizer, blamed the elections board for not scrutinizing ACORN’s suspicious cards. He said the group can’t be expected to catch everything.
“None of us have ever achieved perfection,” Harsh said.
Read the rest of the story about Obama and ACORN at The Weekly Standard here.
I get it ACORN isn’t perfect but why do they give the appearance of purposefully committing fraud? There are accusations of fraud against ACORN in the following states: Nevada, North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia and Connecticut. I suspect they are operating in Kansas as well under the idea of encouraging FELONS to register to vote…..they are not allowed to register to vote unless they complete probation or parole. If they sign the form in Kansas it can tack another 17 months onto their sentence. No one is prosecuting though. That makes a total of 9 possibly 10 states. ACORN must be knee capped and investigated by the Department of Justice, NOW, not after November 4th when it is too late.
USA Today published a piece on the Nevada ACORN inquiry yesterday. It outlined the fact that the inquiry is headed by two Democrats.”
the Nevada authorities spearheading the investigation, (Secretary of State Ross) Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, are both Democrats.”
As ACORN appears to be anything but non-partisan since it endorsed Obama for president, I have to question the impartiality of the two politicians overseeing the investigation. I hope they will fulfill the positions they were elected to do, but still there is a remaining fear that they will be anythig but non-partisan. In recent days we have seen the Democratic Secretary of State in Ohio appear anything but non-partisan.
Apparently the Democrats don’t need to be non-partisan this year. It is the norm to cheat (as they did in the caucus states), use an organization like ACORN to commit voter fraud, and of course there is the rampant lies told by “The One”. More on the lies and the Obama cover-up by Stanley Kurtz here. Is it any wonder I am a Ms Placed Democrat?
I digress though. I really need to get back to the point in hand. Will the investigation into ACORN by two Democrats in Nevada be fruitful? In my opinion given the lies and deceit we have uncovered this year in the blogs by the Democrats like the part some of them played in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government take-over, I highly doubt it. It is my mistrust of any Democratic politicians this year that truly makes me sad. Many tears have been shed, but the one thing I have learned is this, I will hold my federal legislators to their promises.
And I will never be afraid again to uncover or expose fraud like I did when I found Obama’s illegal FEC filings. The Democrats are corrupt and being led by the most corrupt of them all, Obama.
Election Fraud: A radical group Barack Obama used to work for is committing voter-registration fraud in several states, ahead of the election. What does Obama know about this scam?
I am going to let IBD tell the story themselves. Here it is posted in its entirety:
It’s a legitimate question to raise now that the FBI has raided the offices of the nonprofit Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now in Nevada and North Carolina, two states where Obama and John McCain are running neck-and-neck. ACORN has registered bogus voters in both states.
The group’s voter-registration fraud is rampant, and authorities plan a nationwide sweep of ACORN offices to collect records.
In Nevada, state officials say the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, including quarterback Tony Romo.
“Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada,” Secretary of State Ross Miller said, “and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won’t be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4.”
While those names will be flagged on Election Day, felonious voters may have better luck using other cutouts. Nevada, along with several other key battleground states, requires no ID to vote.
In North Carolina, where Obama has been running nonstop ads, ACORN has registered a record number of new voters, many of them suspicious. Statewide, Democrats are doing better than the GOP in new converts — even in traditionally Republican counties.
There have been 218,749 newly registered Democrats in North Carolina since January — more than five times the 38,337 new Republicans, state records show.
The numbers show a startlingly close political battle even in Republican-dominated Union County, with 4,233 new voters registering as Democrats and 4,362 as Republicans. In previous election years, new Republicans have outnumbered Democrats 2-to-1 in the fast-growing Charlotte-area county.
In Missouri, one ACORN registrant named Monica Rays showed up on no less than eight forms, all bearing the same signature.
Suspicious election officials sent letters to some 5,000 ACORN registrants in St. Louis, asking the letter recipients to contact them.
Fewer than 40 reponded.
In Kansas City, 15,000 registrations have been questioned, and last year four ACORN employees were indicted for fraud.
In addition, ACORN officials have also been indicted in Wisconsin and Colorado. Investigations against others are active in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.Read more »
FRAUD ALERT – Indianapolis… More People Registered To Vote Than Over 18yo.
Posted on October 9, 2008 by Texas Hill Country (Added by MsPlacedDemocrat: More about the Indianapolis voter totals can be read here.)
In recent weeks there have been multiple reports of massive voter registration fraud on the part of Democratic operatives all across the country.
Well the voter registration fraud is beginning to show up in some very real ways… especially in Indiana.
Indiana is one of the Republican states that Obama would really like to have and one that they intially said they could flip blue. Indianapolis is the key to Obama’s success in Indiana.
Obama cannot win Indiana unless there is an OBSCENELY high turnout Indianapolis… and they are trying… hard.
Apparently so hard that they now have 105% of eligible voters registered… and that number is expected to grow.
Here are the numbers for Marion (Indianapolis) county…
…677,401 voters were registered as of Monday evening; that number was expected to continue growing as last-minute registrations are entered into the system.
That means that Indianapolis has not only registered every single person over the age of 18 in the county, which is an impossible feat… they have registered even more than every single person in the county.
Voter registration fraud is happening on a scale never seen before. This makes 2000 look like a joke, and even the famous JFK/LBJ Texas and Illinois shadiness look amateurish.
Oh, and where has the media been on this?
That’s right… no where..
(Note: i did read an article on this subject somewhere but I lost the url and was unable to find it with a google search when I sat down to write this article, so I went back and did the research again… if anyone can find out where the basis for the info contained above, I would love to link them. They deserve credit for a job well done.)
This was cross posted from TexasHillCountry with permission.
OH Secretary of State Brunner is violating federal law by not giving county elections boards the chance to determine whether new voter registrations are fraudulent, a federal judge ruled tonight according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The Dispatch has a statement from the judge who heard the case:
It is hard to imagine a public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of the election of the president of the United States,” said Judge George C. Smith of U.S. District Court in Columbus, in upholding the Ohio Republican Party’s request for a court order.
Smith, appointed by President Reagan, said the Help America Vote Act requires states not only to verify the identity of newly registered voters with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal Social Security Administration, but to provide counties with the names of new voters whose records did not match.
More from the judge:
Smith cited the “millions of qualified electors across the state of Ohio whose confidence in the electoral process will be undermined if new voter registrations are not verified in accordance with HAVA, and if unqualified individuals are permitted to cast votes. This would demean the voting process and unlawfully dilute the votes of qualified voters.”
Smith said speed is necessary because next Thursday is the deadline to challenge absentee voters; on Oct. 25 elections workers can remove ballots from envelopes that contain the only identifying information about who cast them…
He specifically cited questionable activity of one group that registered thousands of new Ohio voters: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine said the ruling spoke volumes about Brunner, a Democrat.
“Her refusal to comply with federal law raises serious concerns about her ability to objectively oversee this election. It’s especially troubling in light of her (Brunner) connection to ACORN and that group’s stunning confession this week of fraudulent registration activity happening right here in Ohio,” he said.
Brunner’s response:
Brunner’s office said she is filing an immediate appeal with the 6th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals.
“My office will do everything within its power to ensure that the state’s 88 county boards of elections can continue to allow early voting to proceed uninterrupted and to assist them with their preparation to ensure a smooth election for the voters of Ohio,” she said in a statement.
(It doesn’t look like that to me. She appears to be stalling for time.)
I am no election official, just a citizen journalist trying to educate voters, but it appears as though Brunner may be trying to affect the November election herself. She seems to be acting in a partisan manner. Brunner needs to be held to account for her behavior. Ohio is a state Republicans need to win the White House. Her procrastination may mean that McCain/Palin do not win in November. McCain/Palin must not ignore this law breaking Secretary of State….Brunner…they must challenge all election results in November especially if it is close.
The New York Post had an article today about ACORN. If you are like me you will really like the title……NUTS! HOW ACORN GOT ME INTO VOTE SCAM. It is an interesting tale of three Cleveland Ohio citizens, one a Domino’s pizza worker, Christopher Barkley, Lateala Goins, 21, and the third, Freddie Johnson, 19. All three were subpoenaed by…
the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections as part of a wider inquiry into possible voter fraud by ACORN.
Brunner tells Fox News that all cases are mere conjecture, that there is no evidence….View Brunner on Fox News. She said she should know she used to be a judge in Franklin County. If this is true, then why were three people subpoenaed before the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections?
Here is what those three people had to say about their experience with ACORN and registering to vote:
Barkley:
…claimed yesterday that they were hounded by the community-activist group ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they’d already signed up.
Barkley estimated he’d registered to vote “10 to 15″ times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others.
Goins:
“You can tell them you’re registered as many times as you want – they do not care,”
“They will follow you to the buses, they will follow you home, it does not matter,” she told The Post. She added that she never put down an address on any of the registration forms, just her name.
And the third man….
Freddie Johnson, 19, filled out registration cards 72 times over 18 months, officials said.
A Board Member said this:
“It feeds the public perception that there could be [fraud], and that makes the pillars fall down,” said local Board of Elections President Jeff Hastings.
Ohioans wake up! Don’t let Brunner steal the elections.
During a Waukesha, Wisconsin McCain/Palin rally one brave man had a request for McCain. He asked that McCain take it to Obama in the next debate. He mentioned ACORN, Ayers, Wright and Pfleger…Obama sure does surround himself with a cast of dangerous pals! Listen:
I really love this guy. He makes me want to battle on for McCain/Palin. I am doing just that on Saturday here in Kansas. I bet it is the first time a Democrat will be marching for a Republican in the history of Kansas. I certainly hope Governor Sebelius is reading this. I am a former Hillary supporter and I am voting for McCain/Palin. I will freely admit I am supporting McCain through small donations as well as membership in Citizens for McCain, Veterans for McCain and Women for McCain.
Audacity Of Deception & Hypocrisy has written a post highlighting the missing ACORN papers from Tony Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN Leader. The papers are called…..Case Study: Chicago- The Barack Obama Campaign and originally published in Social Justice.
Audacity of Deception & Hypocrisy had this to say:
While Barack Obama’s connection with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has not gone entirely unreported, it has not been fully explained. Most media background pieces simply note Obama’s involvement in a 1995 lawsuit on behalf of ACORN. Obama’s own website, as well as most major media, fail to reveal the full depth and extent of his relationship with the organization.
Obama’s campaign website states:
Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
Is that really a FACT, or just another lie?
Here are some excerpts from the “Case Study…”:
“Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won. Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them).
Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office.Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for STate Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends.“
More from Audacity…
Not only does Foulkes boast of Obama’s ACORN leadership training, but also makes it clear that Obama’s post-law school organizing of “Project VOTE” in 1992 was undertaken in direct partnership with ACORN. The tie between Project VOTE and ACORN is also something that Obama and others have attempted to disprove in recent weeks as ACORN has come under fire for allegations of voter registration fraud.
As recently as March 2008, the Los Angeles Times also made reference to Barack Obama’s involvement with ACORN:
“At the time, Talbot worked at the social action group ACORN and initially considered Obama a competitor. But she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff.” (LA Times, March 2, 2008)
Audacity of Deception & Hypocrisy also said this:
Nevertheless, Barack Obama’s campaign website continues to lie and deny the truth about his involvement and association with ACORN. No matter how many times you say it, it does not make it true. The facts do not lie, Senator Obama. It’s time to come clean and tell the truth, and it’s time for the American people to demand it.
I really have nothing more to add except to say DITTO.
I never thought I would see the day I have more respect for the Republicans. I always thought the Democrats were the “people’s party”. As I watched the cheating and lies put forth by Obama and the DNC in and after the primaries, I realized they no longer had my respect.
Today I have a deeper and more abiding respect for House Minority Leader John Boehner. He truly should be given an award or something for calling a halt to all monies or funding for ACORN. He took it a step further asking that all federal candidates back away from anything that would make them appear to support ACORN in any way.
Here is more on that from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:
Congressional Republicans have finally demanded an end to federal funding for ACORN after more than a dozen states have opened investigations into fraud in their voter-registration efforts. House Minority Leader John Boehner has not only called to end that funding for ACORN but also for all federal candidates to stop contracting with ACORN while investigations continue into their business practices.
The latest allegations of voter registration fraud by ACORN are further evidence that this group cannot be trusted with another dollar of the taxpayers’ money.
“Election cycle after election cycle, this organization has been at the forefront of breaking the law in order to promote their left-wing agenda. All the while, they have been the recipients of millions of dollars of federal funding through various federal programs and third-party groups. House Republicans took at stand recently to cut off funding to an ACORN slush fund created by their allies in the House Majority, but now more must be done.
“All federal funding to ACORN must be stopped. The ACORN slush fund must be disbanded. Sources of federal funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development or any other agency must be stopped. Contracting for services between candidates for federal office and ACORN, as Senator Obama has done, must end. Now that the taxpayers own Fannie Mae, any funding from Fannie Mae’s nonprofit foundation to ACORN must stop.
“ACORN spent decades promoting the housing policies that brought America’s economy to the brink, and similarly over the years has committed fraud on our system of elections, making American voters question the fairness and accuracy of the exercise of their most fundamental right under the Constitution. Now it is time to cut off ACORN before it grows even more destructive.”
The federal government was remiss in funding ACORN with any taxpayer funds when they are definitely not non-partisan. The very fact that Obama paid them more than $800,000 this election year may be a conflict of interest at best, but certainly lends credence to his lack of character and judgment.
It is time to end the reign of terror by ACORN and other groups like it. It is past time to cut-off their tax-payer funding as was done in the $700 billion dollar bailout bill. It may be too little too late.
I will echo a strange foreboding chorus I keep reading across the blogs….RICO ACT. The Department of Justice must raid all ACORN offices. It is time that ACORN is dismantled…..and left as nothing but a smashed acorn upon the ground and Obama should join them.
This video attempts to find the origins of the current subprime mortgage meltdown. Ed Morrissey from Hot Air brought it to the attention of his readers. I am replaying the video and Morrissey’s words here:
Another lengthy video attempts to highlight the beginnings of the subprime loan disaster, and it’s well worth watching. Andrew Cuomo, then Bill Clinton’s HUD Secretary, held a press conference on April 6, 1998, explaining a settlement reached with a major bank on a lending discrimination case based presumably on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Cuomo brags about how “this administration will enforce the law”, but he also makes a very telling admission about the $2.1 billion in subprime loans that the bank would offer as a result of the settlement:
After viewing this video it is obvious these ALT-A, loans, NINJA loans and all other types of subprime loans would never have been made if it weren’t for Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action set forth by our government…. Read more »
This piece is cross posted from Pagan Power. Thank you Pagan for bringing this to our attention.
Over 1/4 ACORN Registrations in PA Fraudulent
October 10, 2008
This is really starting to get out of hand. A retired Supreme Court Justice in Pennsylvania doesn’t believe it will even be possible to have a fair election in her state.
Stealing Pennsylvania: “Massive Fraud”
A retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice says that she is “not confident we can get a fair election” in the state come November.
Justice Sandra Newman, accompanied by Dauphin County District Attorney Edward Marsico and Pennsylvania Republican State Chairman Robert Gleason, expressed her concerns at a Harrisburg press conference this morning. A thick document replete with photo copies of phony registrations and aerial shots of vacant lots used as “addresses” for “voters” was handed out to journalists.
Gleason breaks it down with the facts. And they are very troubling.
“Between March 23rd and October 1st, various groups, including ACORN, submitted over 252,595 registrations to the Philadelphia County Election Board” with 57, 435 rejected for faulty information. “Most of these registrations were submitted by ACORN, and rejected due to fake social security numbers, incorrect dates of birth, clearly fraudulent signatures, addresses that do not exist, and duplicate registrations. In one case, a man was registered to vote more than 15 times since the Primary election.”
And who is behind this? None other than ACORN, the community organizing front group for Barack Obama’s blatant attempt to steal this election. So much so that he gave them over $800,000 to do just that. Read more »
This morning the Israpundit brought an interesting trend to our attention…Obama’s followers are now questioning his veracity on ACORN at mybarackobama.com. Here are some of those comments from Israpundit:
Obama’s FORMER supporters at My.BarackObama.com say “Obama let us down” by Bill Levinson
We have little doubt that the people who posted these entries will soon have their My.BarackObama.com accounts disabled by Obama’s moderators (and at least one did), in which case we are delighted to welcome them to PUMA or the GOP, whichever they prefer. Since their pages will doubtlessly be taken down as well, we will include the Google caches for reference. What we are looking at is what organizational science calls “loss of commitment,” and its result is total organizational disaster. The original “Say it ain’t so” is, incidentally, from the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” scandal.
This ACORN stuff is really really bad. As a voter, I really need to know that Obama wasn’t funding an organization that willingly engaged in voter fraud.
This could be a game changer for me.
Obama Lies About Acorn (cache)
This one was deleted by Obama’s moderators, but not before Google cached it. The user’s account was disabled as well
CURIOUS By K from Portland, OR
…We now have the problem of questioning 1) voter registration and actual voting in these states; 2) Obama’s responses to criticism. And if we have to question all of that, then how can we take at face value anything this ticket says?
For my part, I feel very let down. I feel a total lack of trust in this team, and in what has been voiced in the various sound bites and rhetoric.
…This is a campaign of change? From what? to What? This sounds like Chicago politics as usual.
OBAMA LIES ABOUT ACORN
By MYOHIO – Oct 9th, 2008 at 1:12 pm EDT
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This is what Obama said to ACORN, at a November, 2007 speech, according to Newsmax:
“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”
By Mark from Pittsburg, KS Yesterday at 1:44 am EDT (Updated Yesterday at 1:44 am EDT)
I have been a devoted supporter of Barack Obama since I saw him speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention, for which I was a delegate, but I am very disappointed by the campaign’s response thus far. If Barack does not strongly denounce some of the tactics of ACORN, and call for an IMMEDIATE investigation, I fear that voters (many of whom are already angry at all politicians) will lose faith in Barack. Given that such faith in Senator Obama is crucial to his “brand,” this could represent a serious threat to our campaign. I must confess that this episode represents the first time my faith in Barack has been tested. Such faith of Americans in Barack is not only crucial to the campaign, but also in any hopes we have for his successful presidency.
Sincerely,
Mark Peterson
By First Name from Avondale, AZ Yesterday at 9:53 pm EDT (Updated Yesterday at 9:53 pm EDT)
His ties to the pastor who said those awful things about America, his connection to a terrorist who bombed the Pentagon, now Acorn is registering people to vote who don’t exist. Does this sound like a president to you? I’m really worried about America’s future.
By Jennifer from Chicago, IL – Oct 10th, 2008 at 2:50 pm EDT
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Obama campaign – you have a real situation on your hands w/ this Acorn dilema. Who cares about Wright and Ayers, but FRAUD, this is huge. Your entire campaign has centered around trust and change and this could completely tarnish your reputation. You, Obama, need to get on TV RIGHT NOW and explain the situation. This cannot linger in hopes of it dying down and it needs to be addressed before the McCain camp attacks. I would suggest you telling the American people, that you are appalled and don’t condone this activity and that you will put up you own money (personal or campaign) to ensure that no this situation is fixed. You must explain what is going on and separate yourself from this activity……NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jennifer, let us introduce you to the underside of Obama’s bus, where your MyBO account will soon go–but don’t worry, you will find plenty of good company
I’m still undecided. I am very concerned about all the news about Ayers, Wright, Farakan, Rezko, ACORN, etc. Please convince me i have nothing to worry about.
In other words, “Say it ain’t so, Barry.”
Obama’s action and words are beginning to eat in to his koolaid swilling supporters brains. They are beginning to realize that Obama has not answered the calls to explain his connections to ACORN. I however believe that there is no way he can denounce ACORN because he paid them to work for him this year.
I will offer this, I have confirmed this rumor on other blogs, but have not confirmed via the mainstream media. I am willing to put the idea out there risking my reputation. I live in Kansas. According to our Secretary of State’s election office there is no “fraud” here. I have to question their assertion because there are people standing at 21st and Oliver in Wichita, KS attempting to register FELONS. Those of you living in some of those battle field states, ask questions of your state officials.
Hillary supporters, upset about Chicago fraud politics invading their party are breaking ranks and working with republicans to provide evidence for RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) cases being filed against ACORN and Obama campaign in Chicago and across the country. Interestingly enough in the same article, Clinton supporters divulge that McCain is leading in their internal polling of battleground states, contrary to the cooked polls advertised by national polling outfits.
Republicans and centrist Democrats are joined together on this effort to get the truth out about Obama before the November election. We firmly believe in McCain’s victory and do not believe it hinges on any developments with RICO. The polls, in our opinon, are wrong, and the internal numbers we see coming out of NC, VA, PA, OH, IN and FL show McCain wins in all of those states (there is no mathematical possibility for Obama to win without taking PA, OH, or FL). We believe after McCain’s win there will be a continued prosecution of Obama and members of the Democratic party for voter fraud under RICO statutes in the months and years ahead. ACORN and leftist Democrats have gone too far this time — for years ACORN has engineered deliberate election fraud using taxpayer dollars funneled to it by Democrats. This time, with both Democrats and Republicans joined against them, ACORN Is going down…and we believe it will ultimately take Obama, Axelrod, and most of today’s Democratic leadership down with it.
There IS a RICO investigation of ACORN and the Obama campaign underway – this has now been established by the mainstream media. Right now it’s rumored here in Chicago that Patrick Fitzgerald is heading it (confirmation on that has not come yet). There is a lot of activity in Chicago right now, with a lot of IRS agents looking into the finances coming in and out of this city, and across state lines (this was established on Monday when the GOP issued emergency press releases that much of Obama’s campaign contributions could very well be illegal foreign contributions – what appears to be deliberately poor record keeping designed to hide the true identities and monetary sources of online donors is at issue here). We see in 15 states now that ACORN is being busted for attempted voter fraud, and for fraudulent, illegal voter registratons in the hundreds of thousands, if not a million. The article below states, and we have confirmed this with people who know for sure, that the people who gathered evidence of Obama’s fraud and voter intimidation techniques during the primaries against Hillary Clinton are sharing everything they have with the Republican Party and the federal government.
What’s happening here is something we have never seen before: centrist Clinton Democrats and Republicans are working together to expose the DNC and Obama campaign’s illegal activities and orchestrated, coordinated fraud. Both parties are working with federal agents to investigate ACORN, which has been funded with upwards of $800,000 in questionable donations from the Obama campaign (in what appears to be the expressed and explicit direction to engineer voter fraud in the general election). The tactics being employed now in the 15 states currently under investigation are the VERY SAME TACTICS we saw on the ground in Iowa, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Indiana, and other states working for Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
The New York Post has another ACORN story, 1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS
‘ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS’ and it is true. This is true voter fraud. ACORN must be stopped. At the very least the Department of Justice needs to see if their activities cane be investigated and tried under the RICO laws.
More from the post:
A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.
“Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they’ll give me a dollar to sign up,” said Freddie Johnson, 19, who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
ACORN is now paying people with cash and cigarettes. There have been reports in the past from Alabama about votes for cocaine. More on paying voters to register:
“The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell them I am already registered. The girl said, ‘You are?’ I say, ‘Yup,’ and then they say, ‘Can you just sign up again?’ ” he said.
Johnson used the same information on all of his registration cards, and officials say they usually catch and toss out duplicate registrations. But the practice sparks fear that some multiple registrants could provide different information and vote more than once by absentee ballot.
The frightening thing is ACORN is now under investigation in so many states, I sincerely doubt the fraud will be able to be stopped. Read about the investigations:
ACORN is under investigation in Ohio and at least eight other states – including Missouri, where the FBI said it’s planning to look into potential voter fraud – for over-the-top efforts to get as many names as possible on the voter rolls regardless of whether a person is registered or eligible.
It’s even under investigation in Bridgeport, Conn., for allegedly registering a 7-year-old girl to vote, according to the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
More from the Post:
ACORN’s political wing has endorsed Barack Obama for president, but Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign in Ohio, said ACORN has no role in its get-out-the-vote drive.
During the primary season, however, the Obama camp paid another group, Citizen Service Inc., $832,598 for various political services, according to Federal Elections Commission filings. That group and ACORN share the same board of directors.
In Wisconsin yesterday, John McCain blasted ACORN.
“No one should be corrupting the most precious right we have, that is the right to vote,” he said.
The political arm of ACORN has endorsed Obama. It really looks like the is a conflict of interest on the part of Democrats, Obama and ACORN. Once more I am going to ask this, when is the Department of Justice really going to investigate ACORN and Obama?
I have been thinking about McCain and campaign finance reform for some time now. He is the most transparent candidate in history. A small $5 dollar donation got me on his list of donors, not $200, $500 and certainly not $2300…this is true transparency.
Here is the letter that Senator John McCain wrote to Obama concerning campaign finance reform:
February 6, 2006
Washington D.C. – Today, Senator McCain sent the following letter to Senator Obama regarding ongoing Congressional efforts towards bipartisan lobbying reform. The following is the text from that letter:
February 6, 2006
The Honorable Barack Obama
United States Senate
SH-713
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Obama:
I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again.
As you know, the Majority Leader has asked Chairman Collins to hold hearings and mark up a bill for floor consideration in early March. I fully support such timely action and I am confident that, together with Senator Lieberman, the Committee on Governmental Affairs will report out a meaningful, bipartisan bill.
You commented in your letter about my “interest in creating a task force to further study” this issue, as if to suggest I support delaying the consideration of much-needed reforms rather than allowing the committees of jurisdiction to hold hearings on the matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. The timely findings of a bipartisan working group could be very helpful to the committee in formulating legislation that will be reported to the full Senate. Since you are new to the Senate, you may not be aware of the fact that I have always supported fully the regular committee and legislative process in the Senate, and routinely urge Committee Chairmen to hold hearings on important issues. In fact, I urged Senator Collins to schedule a hearing upon the Senate’s return in January.
Furthermore, I have consistently maintained that any lobbying reform proposal be bipartisan. The bill Senators Joe Lieberman and Bill Nelson and I have introduced is evidence of that commitment as is my insistence that members of both parties be included in meetings to develop the legislation that will ultimately be considered on the Senate floor. As I explained in a recent letter to Senator Reid, and have publicly said many times, the American people do not see this as just a Republican problem or just a Democratic problem. They see it as yet another run-of-the-mill Washington scandal, and they expect it will generate just another round of partisan gamesmanship and posturing. Senator Lieberman and I, and many other members of this body, hope to exceed the public’s low expectations. We view this as an opportunity to bring transparency and accountability to the Congress, and, most importantly, to show the public that both parties will work together to address our failings.
As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party’s effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn’t always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.
Obama promised all community organizers including ACORN that he will meet with them within the first 100 days of his presidency. Obama goes another step further and promises they will be part of his transition team. He promises these community organizers like ACORN will shape his agenda……
It will not be the middle class or any class that will shape his agenda, it will be groups like ACORN that shapes his agenda. We absolutely must go to the polls and vote McCain/Palin. We simply can’t allow an Obama presidency with no checks and balances. Remember it is Country Before Party!
The American Thinker had some thoughts on the birth certificate in This could be the game changer. Here is what they had to say:
It makes accessible to the general public some of the serious questions about Obama’s citizenship status that have been vetted almost exclusively in the conservative web world. You can’t get most voters to focus on print media in order to entertain a series of hard questions on what seems like a far-fetched notion. Especially those voters who rely on the Big Media. They figure that if this were true, they would have heard about it from the old familiar faces.
A far-fetched notion. I still harbor doubts not about the birth certificate but about the whole legal case. I am no lawyer and won’t pretend to understand much except I understood discovery and I understood the US Constitution.
More from the Thinker:
A lifelong Democrat who has held political office and been a committeeman, Philip Berg, has brought suit over the real questions raised by the absence of a valid Obama birth certificate. His narrative of the various questions Obama has refused to answer is devastating. Graphics and sound are well-deployed to avoid tedium as factual data is conveyed in a way that allows viewers to absorb it. When he contrasts Obama’s behavior when challenged (use perfectly valid legal technicalities to delay) with John McCain’s full disclosure of all documentary evidence under a similar challenge (remember the flap over his birth in the Panama Canal Zone? — who raised those questions, anyway?), there is no doubt in a viewer’s mind that there is something seriously wrong here.
And The Thinker asks a very pertinent question:
We are talking about the Presidency and this guy stonewalls?
Stonewalling or outright lying is Obama’s “modus operandi” Does he find it beyond his “paygrade” to produce documents or be honest about his associations or something as simple as a birth certificate. What is he hiding?
And read more:
The only way Obama can satisfactorily respond is to release his suposed Hawaiian birth certificate. If he has it, why hasn’t he released it? If he does release it, game over. So why drag this out on technical grounds? It doesn’t make sense.
If this video gets widely viewed and discussed, Obama’s support will crumble in the face of continued stonewalling.
I am grateful for the efforts of the people who put this op together. It is brilliantly timed. I do know that there are one or more smart Democrats who haven’t forgiven Obama and who don’t want to see him elected. They know how to design and implement really effective plans to get things done.
They might even want to get Obama thrown off the ballot and replaced by the second place finisher before Election Day. Or, if the Democratic Party stonewalls and the court delays, pick up the pieces.
Phillip Berg tells the story. I don’t know what the truth is about Obama. Do you? Nobody really does. Please listen to Berg as he talks:
Obama was a “constitutional law lecturer” at the University of Chicago, what part of the Constitution doesn’t he understand? And why does Obama refuse to be honest about ACORN, Ayers, Rezko and even something simple like birth certificate?
This is a fantastic McCain advertisement. President Bill Clinton admits Democrats resisted the efforts the Republicans made in Congress to REIN in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Listen:
President Clinton is right. Obama was part of the cabal of Democrats who refused to pass legislation that would have put regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And now we have a $700 billion dollar bailout package.
I must thank my dear friend Shtuey for seeing the bigger picture for all of us. And I must say thank you for helping me recover some of my memories of Denver. Shtuey you are my hero!
From Shtuey, my guest for the day:
At the outset I must thank Ms Placed Democrat’s Renaissancelady 48 and Eastan McNeal at No Quarter for their exhaustive research, love of country, and wise council.
How did we get here? How is it that “subprime mortgages” have brought us to the brink of economic collapse? Most people believe it is due to the predatory lending practices of financial institutions. That is the lie you have been sold. The truth is far more insidious. We are in fact on the brink of economic disaster because of the people who have sent Barack Obama.
In order to understand how this happened we must begin with Saul Alinsky , the radical socialist who, after spending a great deal of time with the Al Capone crime family in Chicago, realized that the same shakedown tactics used by the mob to extort business, and control politicians, could be used by activists to shakedown banks and political institutions to advance a socialist agenda. These were tactics utilized by groups like ACORN, in an effort to lobby the government to pass laws that forced lending institutions to issue mortgages to low income/”at risk” borrowers who often had no way of paying the money back.
But ACORN members probably did not lobby for these laws to bring down our economy, at least not knowingly. I believe that, apart from the leaders at the top, rank and file ACORN members legitimately believed they were fighting for low-income housing. But ACORN’s backers were simply using Alinsky’s method (never reveal your real agenda) to serve their own purposes. Who are these people? You know the names of two of them: Bill Ayers and Barack Obama. I suspect that they are more front men than anything else, though who knows who Ayers was with while he was in hiding?
Where did ACORN get the funds to engage in the widespread lobbying (read extortion) that allowed them to shakedown lenders and politicians? From the money diverted to them by Bill Ayers and Barack Obama, via the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and the Woods Fund, as well as with your tax dollars allocated by Congressional Democrats; the same Congressional Democrats that have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Freddie and Fannie in the form of campaign contributions; the same Congressional Democrats that ignored Republican calls for the regulating and reform of Freddie and Fannie–the institutions that took subprime mortgages, bundled them, and infected financial institutions worldwide…all in the name of granting minorities and low income families access to housing (always the trouble begins with the most honorable of intentions, or at least it is made to seem so), but with the Leftists’ hidden purpose of initiating a worldwide economic collapse. All of it accomplished with ACORN as the muscle.
“compels banks to make loans to low-income borrowers and in what the supporters of the Act call “communities of color” that they might not otherwise make based on purely economic criteria.”
DiLorenzo goes on to explain:
The original lobbyists for the CRA were the hardcore leftists who supported the Carter administration and were often rewarded for their support with government grants and programs like the CRA that they benefited from. These included various “neighborhood organizations,” as they like to call themselves, such as “ACORN” (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). These organizations claim that over $1 trillion in CRA loans have been made, although no one seems to know the magnitude with much certainty. A U.S. Senate Banking Committee staffer told me about ten years ago that at least $100 billion in such loans had been made in the first twenty years of the Act.
So-called “community groups” like ACORN benefit themselves from the CRA through a process that sounds like legalized extortion. The CRA is enforced by four federal government bureaucracies: the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The law is set up so that any bank merger, branch expansion, or new branch creation can be postponed or prohibited by any of these four bureaucracies if a CRA “protest” is issued by a “community group.” This can cost banks great sums of money, and the “community groups” understand this perfectly well. It is their leverage. They use this leverage to get the banks to give them millions of dollars as well as promising to make a certain amount of bad loans in their communities.
A man named Bruce Marks became quite notorious during the last decade for pressuring banks to earmark literally billions of dollars to his organization, the “Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.” He once boasted to the New York Times that he had “won” loan commitments totaling $3.8 billion from Bank of America, First Union Corporation, and the Fleet Financial Group. And that is just one “community group” operating in one city – Boston.
Banks have been placed in a Catch 22 situation by the CRA: If they comply, they know they will have to suffer from more loan defaults. If they don’t comply, they face financial penalties and, worse yet, their business plans for mergers, branch expansions, etc. can be blocked by CRA protesters, which can cost a large corporation like Bank of America billions of dollars. Like most businesses, they have largely buckled under and have surrendered to their bureaucratic masters.
Consequently, banks in every community in America have been forced to hold a portfolio of bad loans, euphemistically referred to as “subprime” loans. In order to compensate themselves for the added risk of extending these loans, many lenders have increased the lending fees associated with mortgage loans. This is simply an indirect way of doing what banks always do – and what they must do to remain solvent: charging effectively higher rates of interest on riskier loans.
But this is discriminatory!, complained the “community organizations.” Thus, if one browses the ACORN web site, one can read of their boasts of having “predatory lending laws” passed in numerous states which outlaw such fees, prohibiting banks from protecting themselves from the added risk involved in making forced loans to “subprime” borrowers.
I have been concerned about tightening credit too but was rewarded recently with a car loan from a local bank in Kansas. My husband and I were forced to by a new car since we lost mine in a freak accident. We went to a little town in Kansas called Cheney. We picked out our new car. We were originally approved for a loan with USBank, which they withdrew two days later, no need to worry a community bank filled the bill.
He has some questions and some sage advice. He even evokes memories of the 1980s when they started calling in farm loans. These bankers are wise, sometimes very smart money men. And we should take their advice;
Here is Mr. Wyckoff from the article:
Here in the heart of Kansas, the sky isn’t falling and Chicken Little isn’t running around without a head. Community banks like mine are still making loans and serving the needs of customers.
… I used to worry about competing in the world of mega “too-big-to-fail” banks. But now I know community banks offer something the monsters can never offer — real personal service.
… but they usually don’t list personal numbers in the phone book and probably aren’t driving the volunteer fire truck.
And finally from his personal observations:
… My father always told me that character repaid many more debts than collateral ever would. Community banks form long-term relationships with customers.
He shares the lessons of the 80s here in Kansas when agricultural loans were called by the mega banks. The community banks did some very unusual things to keep some of these farms and ranches in business.
During the farm crisis of the 1980s the over-line credits we had placed with the city correspondent banks were called. A community bank used to rely on participating loans with large metro banks. For example, if my bank had a regulatory loan limit of a million dollars and I made a two million dollar loan, I would “sell” the over-line to a large bank. These large banks suddenly suspended and called all rural credits. This is probably similar to what is happening to borrowers who use super-large banks in today’s panic environment. There was nothing wrong with these loans but every small bank suffered from this irrational wrath.
A group of fellow bankers formed an ad hoc loan-pooling arrangement and we traded loans. Not a dime was lost, no borrowers were sold out and we didn’t need a government bailout. It did instill a fierce sense of independence and self reliance.
Wyckoff has a few questions for Congress. Please read his comments:
Today we are reacting to a crisis that absolutely everyone knew was going to happen. Can you tell me that the entire congressional delegation from California didn’t read a newspaper or watch any TV when unregulated brokers were offering 100% loans and allowing borrowers to make up their income?
Appraisal rules were established after the savings-and-loan debacle. The brokers and packagers weren’t regulated so some appraisers really had a field day being creative. And now the government thinks we need new rules? They didn’t enforce the existing ones.
The irony of it all. The new rules were needed three years when McCain stood up and spoke on the impending meltdown, Obama wrote a letter…Who was the most prescient?
There is more from Wyckoff:
All of the media pressure about this terrible crisis has really worried people. We community bankers must spend time reassuring folks that everything will be fine. The best way I have found to do that is to make more loans this September than we made a year ago, offer new products, and serve a fantastic group of customers with home loans at our bank where all is well and none are facing foreclosure.
If the government really wanted to help banks stimulate this economy, all that would be needed is a bonfire eliminating redundant red tape. While starter homes may cost a half-million dollars in some parts of this country, they are one-tenth of that here. So why does the borrower sign but three pieces of paper to process a $50,000 auto loan but needs two dozen-plus documents (which are never read) for a home purchase of the same amount? All that extra paperwork sure didn’t protect anyone in this crisis.
Can anyone tell me why my small bank headquartered in a town of 1,100 is subject to the onerous rules of CRA, HMDA, CIP, FACTA, Red Flag and others? We have no red-lined areas or stop lights and everyone is making a low or moderate income. We were probably at the hospital when the borrower was born.
I am really concerned about my grandchildren’s future being mortgaged by a $1 trillion porked-up bailout. But our small bank, along with many others, is alive and well and still making loans. To paraphrase the late great Kansas newspaperman William Allen White: What’s right with Kansas are the more than 300 local banks taking care of Main Street.
We not only made our car loan through a local community bank but our house loan was made through another local community bank. We did all of this just since August. And we plan to move all our deposits to one of those community banks. And no I won’t worry the banker, I won’t need to buy a safe and everything will be all right with our community bank here in Kansas.
An interesting story at The Corner on Saturday intrigued me, “What kind of education reform did Ayers & Obama have in mind?”. It talks more about Ayers “education reform”. As a former educator, I decided to read it. My opinion Ayers thoughts on education are much too radical. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t allow him to educate anyone let alone the young impressionable minds that step in to the world of our universities today as a freshman. It may have been thirty years ago I arrived at UMass/Amherst, but I remember being struck by the enormity of that decision, not to mention it is a huge school.
Here are excerpts from the article:
But for a clear statement of Ayers’s frightening vision, I submit that his November 2006 speech at the World Education Forum should be required reading.
As Cornerites know, I’ve been arguing that our emphasis on Ayers’s prior terrorism, while highly relevant, is not the essential point. The real issue is Ayers’s revolutionary leftism (at around the time Ayers and Obama began working on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, by the way, Ayers described himself as “a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist”).
Andy McCarthy is correct. It is Ayer’s revolutionary leftism that we need to pay attention to. More from the article:
Obama is clearly lying when he claims ignorance about Ayers’s terrorism, but even if you wanted to pretend otherwise, it is impossible that he was in the dark about Ayers’s revolutionary leftism: Ayers has never made a secret of it and can’t seem to help himself from mentioning it about every 30 seconds. Obama not only knew about Ayers’s views in this regard; he obviously subscribed to them: was a member of the Chicago New Party begun by the Democratic Socialists of America; he worked closely with Ayers on “education reform” for years, he approved of Ayers’s similarly fringe-Left views of the criminal justice system’s treatment of juvenile crime, and, we are learning; and he was tightly aligned with ACORN, which he and Ayers funded and whose practices fit comfortably with the Ayers view of “participatory democracy”).
Let’s look at excerpts from Ayers’s 2006 speech before Hugo Chavez and other assembled “comrades”:
President Hugo Chavez, … invited guests, comrades. I’m honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout Northamerica [sic]! Welcome to the World Education Forum. Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana! …
[M]y comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice … has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution [i.e., Chavez's movement] and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle—I look forward to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane…. [For more information on the Venezuelan socialist Luis Bonilla-Montoya, see here.]
I began teaching when I was 20 yeas old in a small freedom school affiliated with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The year was 1965, and I’d been arrested in a demonstration. Jailed for ten days, I met several activists who were finding ways to link teaching and education with deep and fundamental social change. They were following Dewey and DuBois, King and Helen Keller who wrote: “We can’t have education without revolution. We have tried peace education for 1,900 years and it has failed. Let us try revolution and see what it will do now.”
I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position—and from that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher, but I’ve also understood teaching as a project intimately connected with social justice. After all, the fundamental message of the teacher is this: you can change your life—whoever you are, wherever you’ve been, whatever you’ve done, another world is possible. As students and teachers begin to see themselves as linked to one another, as tied to history and capable of collective action, the fundamental message of teaching shifts slightly, and becomes broader, more generous: we must change ourselves as we come together to change the world. Teaching invites transformations, it urges revolutions small and large. La educacion es revolucion! Read more »
I really don’t care for Newsmax but sometimes it is necessary to go to fringe elements to get interesting stories. We have been listening about ACORN and their voter drives, well it seems Liberty University is seeking to register their 4,000 students to vote in the Virginia November 4 th Elections. Why do you ask? Of course to make sure McCain is elected in November. (An aside here: My friend’s son is a student at Liberty University.)
Read and see what the university is doing:
Liberty University, the Virginia school founded by the late evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, has launched a drive to register its mostly conservative students in hopes of swinging the state to John McCain in November.
Virginia has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. But recent polls show McCain only slightly ahead of Barack Obama, and Democrats won the last two statewide races, for governor and U.S. senator.
So Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of the university, is promoting a drive to register all 10,500 eligible students, including those from out of state, at the fundamentalist Baptist school in Lynchburg.
“Liberty students [from out of state] have never been permitted to register locally in the past,” Falwell said in an e-mail to faculty and staff.
“The recent change in election law is giving Liberty University the chance to make history. Liberty University’s students and 4,000 faculty and staff could cause Liberty to become known as the university that elected a president!”
Falwell told National Public Radio: “We never told them how to vote. We never even talked about the issues. We just talked about the fact that Virginia was right on the fence and could go either way.”
One student, Jonathan Woods, a junior at Liberty, said: “The majority of Liberty students want McCain to win. If you have a few thousand people voting for one candidate who weren’t [initially] voting in Virginia, it could possibly make a difference.”
Falwell also announced that classes will be canceled on Election Day, and buses will be available to take students to the polls, Shea Connelly of the University of Virginia’s Cavalier Daily reported.
The school’s curfew will be lifted so students can watch the election results on a giant-screen TV.
College Democrats of American President Katie Naranjo said she is not concerned about the voter registration drive. “I feel very comfortable that young people will sway the vote in Virginia,” she told Connelly, “and it will be a victory for Senator Obama.”
But when asked by NPR if there were any Democrats at Liberty, student Danielle Fierro said: “I knew one, but he transferred.”
The last sentence in the article just tickled my funny bone. Thank heavens there is at least one university devoid of the Obama-supporting, koolaid swilling, nasty, and ill mannered college students. Just ask me I did a visibility event at Purdue in Indiana!
It’s bad enough that American taxpayers have to bail out the privately owned, tax-exempt Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But it’s truly outrageous that tax dollars will also go to support activist groups involved in voter fraud and illegal immigration.
Their careful evaluation of the housing bill wasn’t finished. They had more to say:
According to House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the small print in the $42 billion bailout bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush requires these two government-sponsored mortgage giants to deposit 4.2 percent of all new mortgages they underwrite into the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that will be $531 million in fiscal 2009 alone.
Here’s the catch. Bachmann warns that the trust fund — the largest expansion of federal housing assistance since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society — is required to make grants to organizations that have “demonstrated the experience and the capacity to carry out the proposed Trust Fund activity.” Which means that money can easily be siphoned off to groups such as the National Council of La Raza and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The latter has been heavily funded by George Soros, the mega-wealthy mogul behind many liberal causes.
La Raza, which opposes efforts to stop illegal immigration, and ACORN, members of which have been convicted of voter registration fraud in numerous states, are each eligible for $230 million under Section 134: Grants for Housing Counseling Assistance. And because the trust fund is “off budget,” the grants won’t show up on any congressional balance sheets. The Fannie Mae Foundation has already contributed more than $800,000 to the ACORN Housing Corp., which was also actively involved in the sub-prime mortgage disaster. La Raza testified before the Financial Services Committee in favor of the housing trust fund on numerous occasions. Little wonder. It’s a perfect way to hide payoffs to activist groups that in turn support political candidates who promise to keep their funding spigot on full blast.
The best part of this article was in the summary paragraph:
These morsels are just a taste of what’s to come if Barack Obama wins the White House and Democrats gain veto-proof majorities in the Senate and House. As an opening bid in his $6 billion anti-poverty program, Obama seeks a Social Investment Fund Network with a White House office to disburse funds to “social entrepreneurs and leading non-profits” that are inspiring “change in their communities.” Translated: Obama will give billions more tax dollars to radical non-profits like Soros’ ACORN and LaRaza. Soros – who is also a long-time Obama donor – must want a return on his investment.
This story hit the printed media in August. It is now October and the rest of the media is now coming onboard. They are coming onboard not because of the original housing bill but because of the massive bailout and stock market major fluctuations. The mark has been missed by most….now it is time to let everyone know why the markets keep erupting.
In my opinion markets are erupting because it is what George Soros wants. He is poised to put “his candidate” in the highest office of this country, The White House. It must be the last thing the American people do. Please stop Obama and Soros, or the USA will be destroyed. Your way of life will disappear. FISA will allow regular people to be “watched” for dissenting behavior. Wealth will be redistributed but not the way “low income” people think it will.
Be afraid folks, Soros has been trying this since 2000….first Gore, then Dean and now Obama….Think on November 4th, your future is at stake.
This is a rather disturbing pattern. Why haven’t these ineligible voters been purged from the voter rolls? Wasn’t this an issue in previous presidential elections? I am not trying to digress but the Elections Board in the Kansas Secretary of States office asked this question last week, where is there proof that felons vote Democratic? Here is the proof!
More from the Sentinel:
More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found.
Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections.
Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they’re still in prison.
Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.
Here is a statement from Florida’s Secretary of State:
Florida’s elections chief, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, acknowledged his staff has failed to remove thousands of ineligible felons because of a shortage of workers and a crush of new registrations in this critical swing state.
Browning said he was not surprised by the newspaper’s findings.“I’m kind of shocked that the number is as low as it is,” he said.
Asked how many ineligible felons may be on Florida’s rolls, Browning said, “We don’t know.”
The Division of Elections has a backlog of more than 108,000 possible felons who have registered to vote since January 2006 that it hasn’t had the time or staff to verify. Browning estimated that about 10 percent, once checked, would be ineligible.
What has the Secretary of State in Florida been doing with his time? Is he going to appoint more people to clean up the rolls or allow wholesale voter fraud in November?
The law pre-dates the Civil War as seen in the following excerpt from the Sentinel:
Florida’s felon ban originated before the Civil War, and today the state remains one of 10 that restrict some felons from voting even after they’ve served their time. The law requires state and county elections officials to remove felons from voter rolls after conviction and add them only when they’ve won clemency to restore their voting rights.
In 2007, the state eased the restrictions by granting automatic clemency to most nonviolent offenders who have completed their sentences. Others, including people convicted of federal offenses, multiple felonies or crimes such as drug trafficking, murder and sex charges, must still apply for clemency and have their cases reviewed.
The Sentinel unearthed names of some more famous felons who remain on the voter rolls:
The felons the Sun Sentinel identified never received clemency, but their names remain on Florida’s voter rolls. Some are well-known: ex-Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne and ex-Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti, for instance, both convicted last year of public corruption.
Browning said the state painstakingly checks all voters before removing them to avoid inadvertently taking off eligible voters as happened in two previous large-scale purge attempts.
“The policy of this department, this state, is that we will err on the side of the voter,” he said.
Err on the side of the voter. The Florida is clear, take the felons off the rolls. Read more »
Another excellent post from Texas Hill Country……and everything he says is so true! Thank you Tex for your excellent words!
Posted on October 12, 2008 by Texas Hill Country
Fiction.
It is what Barack Obama is best at.
His life story… fiction. His record… fiction. And donors and voter registrations… fiction.
Obama’s father was not just a “goat farmer.” Obama Sr’s father was a major landowner in Kenya, incredibly wealthy and very powerful. Grandpa Hussein Obama’s (from whom Obama Jr gets his middle name) wealth and power is why Obama Sr. was awarded the scholarship to an American University. Sr eventually became a Harvard educated economist who became a part of the Kenyatta regime in Kenya, one of the most brutal governments in modern history.
Obama did not grow up poor. His grand parents were upper middle class, Obama Sr was very well off, Lolo Sotero was VERY wealthy and Obama attended the best Prep School in Hawaii, followed by the crown jewels of the American university system.
Michelle did not grow up poor. She grew up in a middle class neighborhood and while it was on the Southern end of Chicago, it was most certainly not the projects. She had a very nice home in a middle class working neighborhood.
Obama was not born as a result of Selma or the Kennedy Airlift. The Kennedy Airlift that Obama claimed brought his father to the United States started a year after his father arrived in Hawaii. Selma happened years after Obama was born.
Obama has never published anything except for 1 unsigned and heavily edited note in the Harvard Law review and 2 autobiographies… a nearly impossible feat for anyone who claims to have been in Academia and a “constitutional law professor.”
Obama’s status as having graduated “Magna Cum Laude” is not that stupendous… Unlike most schools, where MCL’s comprise the top 10% of graduates, at Harvard… it’s the top 20%. That means that with an average graduating class of 600 or so out of Harvard, he could have been #120. And hell, you get Cum Laude at Harvard if you are in the top 50%.
Obama was not the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review… there were two others before him. There are also many many editors of the Harvard Law Review each year, not to mention the fact that at the time, you did not become an editor at the Harvard Law Review because of grades or accomplishments. He was given the title “editor” of the HLR because he won a writing contest.
No one knows what Obama’s grades were like. He has not released his school records. He has had nothing published. Classmates at Columbia don’t even remember him and he didn’t even appear in the yearbook.
During his years as a “community organizer” he accomplished basically nothing. He had 2 accomplishments in total. He got people sign a petition to open up a summer jobs office for teens on the Southside of Chicago as a supplement to the on that was located downtown, and he had people sign another petition to have the city remove asbestos from a building. In both instances, the city gave in immediately. Other than that, Obama taught “get out the vote” classes to ACORN volunteers. Yes… that ACORN.
Obama pretends that he was a one man legislating machine while in the Illinois Senate. Obama did not pass one bill for his first 5 years in office. He only started passing legislation when the head of the legislature took him under his wing and literally put Obama’s name on bills the day of the vote. Read more »
Interesting breaking news from Israpundit: “Prosecutor Fitzgerald Could Send Obama To Jail”. It seems that Rezko is really singing like a jailed bird but not just about Governor Blagojevich, but about “the Giannoulias family and its longtime “business dealings” in Chicago”.
I always believed that Rezko would sing like a bird if he was found guilty. Israpundit disagrees but that is okay. Disagreement can really make the world turn. Rezko didn’t disappoint me, not like so many others have this year. Is this a good thing? I don’t know because at this time it is difficult to tell whether Rezko knows enough to unhinge Obama’s presidential aspirations.
More from Israpundit:
The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later. It looks as though Rezko is about to turn on Alexi Giannoulias, the 30-year old State Treasurer of Illinois (who was elected only because Obama backed him).
Here’s where all the clues are…and then we’ll walk you through the local Chicago politics on how today’s hint by the Sun Times has us convinced, for the first time ever, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could indeed send Barack Obama to jail.
We need to repeat that: we never believed, until now, that Obama would go to jail for anything related to Rezko. Today, this breaking news about what Rezko is singing to the Feds about makes us reconsider all of that.
Barack Obama will serve a prison sentence in the next few years — because knowing Fitzgerald, there is no reason he would be going through all of this if that was not the targeted goal in the long term.
(1) Michael Sneed in her Sun Times column 10/10/08 had the following tidbit:
Sneed hears rumbles political fund-raiser/fixer Tony Rezko, who is now singing sweetly to the feds from his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, has been talking about his “dealings” with a Chicago bank, which has political connections.
(2) We just spoke with someone well-connected in Chicago politics who told us that the bank Sneed is talking about has to be Broadway Bank, which is owned by the politically-connected Giannoulias family. We were told that Sneed’s column confirms rumblings people we know heard independently that Tony Rezko is giving up the Giannoulias family to Patrick Fitzgerald — Rezko and the Giannoulias family are as close and tied together as anyone in Chicago could be. If Rezko is turning on them, then Rezko is going to give up Governor Rod Blagojevich and Obama too.
We don’t want to end up in cement shoes for implying anything here, but if you live in Chicago for any length of time, you hear rumors about Broadway Bank, the Giannoulias family, and insert Tony Soprano references here. Kapeech?
(3) So, Rezko is singing about the Giannoulias family and its longtime “business dealings” in Chicago, which would interest someone like Fitzgerald and the Justice Department, who have had a long ambition to crack Soprano-style business dealings in Chicago (the city known for Al Capone hasn’t changed much, really). The next plate to drop in this will be Fitzgerald then leaning on the Giannoulias family to give up someone bigger than them, who Fitzgerald once discussed in terms of hoping “he has the morals to do the right thing”, to paraphrase. We now believe that person Fitz was talking about is Barack Obama.
(4) The Giannoulias family was involved with Obama as far back as his first state senate campaign in 1996. It has been long rumored here in Chicago that Obama obtained a sweetheart deal on his first town home here in Chicago — which he could not have afforded otherwise — and guess who the financing came from for that house? We’ve been told it was Broadway Bank, the Giannoulias bank. Now, this sets up a scenario where the Giannoulias family helps Obama with his campaign finances and gets him deeper in their pocket with his sweetheart mortgage deal (for the first home he owned that he could not afford) – all in exchange for quid pro quo to be determined later.
(5) One favor political Chicago claims Obama did for the Giannoulias family was in 2006 when, out of the blue, 29 year old Alexi Giannoulias, with no experience, and without ever having voted before, decides to run for State Treasurer of Illinois. Also out of the blue, Barack Obama endorses Alexi Giannoulias for State Treasurer. This was a SHOCK to everyone in Chicago — and Giannoulias would have never become State Treasurer without Obama’s help. In political circles here, it has always been believed that this endorsement was bought years ago with that sweetheart mortgage deal Broadway Bank arranged for Obama to buy his town house.
(6) So, the Tony Rezko sweetheart deal was not the first magic home loan Obama ever received to buy a house he could not afford.
All I have to say if Rezko is singing about a certain Chicago bank, how sweet it is. There is nothing I wanted more than Rezko telling his stories to Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. This man is a pit bull. I mean that in the nicest terms. Read more »
Apparently Auers isn’t just an unrepentant terrorist, he wears a ring made from a downed American fighter jet from Vietnam. I read about this in an article from Pat Dollard, Young American’s Documentary and it made me angry. I am angry because many of my friends are Vietnam veterans and because I am a veteran…
Read on:
What if a member of Al Qaeda presented you with a very special ring made from the metal of a United States Marine Corps Humvee that was destroyed by an IED he made and detonated?
What would you think of an American citizen who would be so honored by such a gesture that he wept, and wore the ring with pride, thinking to himself that his country, America, was evil?
Or what would you think of an American who admired, worked with, and shared information with an Iraqi Translator who worked in Baghdad and was passing U.S. Military secrets and information to members of the Mahdi Army?
Would you feel this person was a patriotic American? Would you feel comfortable sending your children to a class he taught in an American University? How about a friend of his who wants to be President of the United States, and launches the first steps of his political career from his living room?
I can answer all those questions. Without a doubt my reactionon the surface would be the hurt and pain in my heart. Why? Because a man, Obama, has these kind of despicable friends. These are his buddies. Ayers and Dohrn are worse that I could possibly imagine. Read more »
More reports of massive voter fraud in Indiana of all places. I believe it was last week when there was a report of 105% voter registration in Indianapolis.
Here is an excerpt from Outside the Beltway in their article, “Indianapolis Voter Registration at 105%”:
Voter registration is at record levels and new registrations are coming at a torrid pace. Indeed, Paul Ogden does the math and figures that voter registration in Indianapolis and Marion County has exceeded 105 percent of the over-eighteen population, which is quite a feat!
The New York Post had an interesting story yesterday about the fear an Obama presidency puts in the heart of the markets. It s title, “AN OBAMA PANIC? MARKETS FEAR HIS POLICIES” by CHARLES GASPARINO.
Here is the opening statement. It isn’t really favorable to McCain, but it does highlight the fear Obama is causing.
Barack Obama has remained cool and confident amid the financial melt down, even as John McCain at times has been embarrassing, lurching from one proposal to the next. But while the polls are reflecting Obama’s steady hand, the markets haven’t. In fact, they’re getting worse by the day as Obama’s lead widens.
The stability of the markets depends on the next president and his policies. McCain needs to come up with one quick before Obama wins this election….21 days to go. More from the post:
Of course, the market turmoil is first a reflection of grim reality – the bursting of the housing bubble and the billions upon billions in writedowns and losses that have forced upon the hugely leveraged financial firms companies that had cranked big profits during the bubble years.
The resulting credit crunch is hitting Main Street harder than ever before. The country is headed for recession; the only question is: Just how low can the markets and economy go?
It could be a lot lower – it all depends on the policies of the next president.
I am certainly scared. Although our investments are small, Obama’s capital gains tax and dividend tax increases will kill us. We are the middle class and represent a good portion of the American citizens who invest. Many of those investments are 401ks. Read more »
According to James Terry in an e-mail to me directly, four ACORN whistleblowers have come forward with testimony of misuse of taxpayer money. His e-mail verified an earlier e-mail I received as well as the Newsmax story. The story is in Newsmax, “More ACORN Fraud Exposed: ACORN Whistleblowers”.
Here is an excerpt from the Newsmax article:
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) bills itself as a non-partisan group, supported by tax-exempt contributions from individuals and corporations.
The ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC), an ACORN affiliate, receives more than 40 percent of its funding from government sources, ostensibly to promote affordable housing to low- and middle-income families.
But according to CRL, internal documents obtained from whistleblowers suggest that ACORN has failed to maintain the proper distinction between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive political activities.
“ACORN and its offshoots take in millions of dollars in government grants under the guise of ‘consumer advocacy’ to line their own pockets,” said Jim Terry, CRL’s chief public advocate.
The new testimony, from four former ACORN and AHC employees, provides “hard confirmation” that ACORN and its affiliate are in fact one in the same, Terry told Newsmax.
“Here are people who have been in the room, testifying to the criminal intent of the people involved” in shuffling ACORN resources from tax-exempt purposes to political activities, he said.
“Everything they do and say, with the exception of filing their government reports, treats this family of organizations as one cohesive unit. They operated as one organization, controlled from the top down,” Terry said.
One former employee, who was with ACORN for six years, including in a management position, testified that she has “knowledge that AHC has subsidized and believe that AHC continues to subsidize ACORN activities,” in apparent violation of the law.
“AHC subsidies to ACORN include office telephone service, fax, supplies and rental space paid for by AHC funds,” she added.
In addition, AHC management routinely treated federal grants as money that could be shared with ACORN, Terry told Newsmax.
“Between 2004 through 2006, AHC transferred $4.6 million to ACORN in grants and fees, according to their tax returns. This is inherently wrong.”
Since 40 percent of AHC funds came from government grants, that means that U.S. taxpayers were in effect paying for ACORN’s partisan political activities, he added.
AHC required employees to “solicit funds and cash from clients and real estate professionals to pay for AHC operations,” one of the whistleblowers said, detailing what amounted to a “shakedown” operation.
Another former AHC employee said he would testify in court to the fact that “AHC and ACORN have operated as one entity,” and quoted internal e-mails detailing how federal grants were shared between the organizations.
The whistleblowers also stated that:
# AHC employees were instructed to hide documents from federal auditors with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
# AHC employees were instructed on “steering” loans to partner banks, including Chase (for loans in the New Orleans area) and Bank of America for other areas around the country.
# AHC National Field Director Lee Trujillo stated in the presence of several of these witnesses that “AHC and ACORN would be funded out of the same account.”
# AHC and ACORN have also shared “voter initiative money.”
# Internal AHC e-mails and other documents “clearly show that AHC is paying for lease space occupied by ACORN.”
All of these are potential violations of the laws governing non-profit organizations.
I am going to do two things in this article, cover Obama’s retirement plan and an overview on 401k loans because I listened to Obama on retirement savings, realizing he doesn’t have a clue. Here is Obama’s plan from The New York Times:
He said he would seek to allow Americans of all ages to borrow from retirement savings without a tax penalty.
Allowing loans within a 401k plan is allowed by law, but an employer is not required to do so. Many small business just can’t afford the high cost of adding this feature to their plan. Even so, loans are a feature of most 401k plans. If offered, an employer must adhere to some very strict and detailed guidelines on making and administering them.
The statutes governing plan loans place no specific restrictions on what the need or use will be for loans, except that the loans must be reasonably available to all participants. But an employer can restrict the reasons for loans. Many only allow them for the following reasons: (1) to pay education expenses for yourself, spouse, or child; (2) to prevent eviction from your home; (3) to pay un-reimbursed medical expenses; or (4) to buy a first-time residence. The loan must be paid back over five years, although this can be extended for a home purchase. (Note from author: In some 401ks, the maximum payback length is 5 years but can be as little as 1 year.)
If a participant has had no other plan loan in the 12 month period ending on the day before you apply for a loan, they are usually allowed to borrow up to 50% of their vested account balance to a maximum of $50,000. If the participant had another plan loan in the last 12 month period, they will be limited to 50% of their vested account balance, or $50,000, minus the outstanding loan balance in the preceding 12-month period, whichever is less.
Because of the cost, many plans will also set a minimum amount (often $1,000) and restrict the number of loans any participant may have outstanding at any one time. (Some 401ks allow a maximum of 2 loans at one time.)
Loan payments are generally be deducted from payroll checks and, if the participant is married, they may need their spouse to consent to the loan.
While interest rates vary by plan, the rate most often used is what is termed the “prime rate” plus one percent. The current “prime rate” can be found in the business section of your local newspaper or the Wall Street Journal.
Funds obtains from a loan are not subject to income tax or the 10% early withdrawal penalty (unless the loan defaults). If the participant should terminate employment, often any unpaid loan will be distributed to them as income. The amount will then be subject to income tax and may also be subject to 10% withdrawal penalty. A loan can’t be rolled over to an IRA.
Just because you can obtain a loan from your plan doesn’t mean it is always the best idea. So before sticking your hand in the cookie jar, you should consider the “pros and cons,” some of which may surprise you. And remember, the purpose of a 401k plan is to fund your retirement, so don’t shortchange your golden years by treating it as a checking account.
From the overview:
One more time.
Funds obtains from a loan are not subject to income tax or the 10% early withdrawal penalty (unless the loan defaults). If the participant should terminate employment, often any unpaid loan will be distributed to them as income. The amount will then be subject to income tax and may also be subject to 10% withdrawal penalty.
And what is Obama’s plan?
He said he would seek to allow Americans of all ages to borrow from retirement savings without a tax penalty.
Americans of all ages can already borrow from retirement savings (401ks) without a tax penalty. The only penalty occurs when unpaid loans remain upon termination of employment.
Obama’s retirement loan plan offers nothing new to Americans because it is already exists in the laws surrounding 401ks.
Update:
There are plans and discussions underway in Congress to find a way to tax your 401ks and IRAs because they view these accounts as wasted because they are not taxed. And Obama supports this as another means of wealth redistribution. Take the retirement accounts away from hard working Americans and give it in the form of tax welfare….not tax cuts!
A wide range of sweeping changes to the 401(k) system were proposed Tuesday at a hearing on how the market crisis has devastated retirement savings plans.
Chief among them was eliminating $80 billion in tax savings for higher-income people enrolled in 401(k) retirement savings plans.
This was suggested by the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
“With respect to the 401(k), it appears to be a plan that is not really well-devised for the changes in the market,” Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said.
“We’ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity,” he said, referring to tax breaks allowed for 401(k) contributions and savings.
With savings rates going down, “what do we have to start to think about in Congress of whether or not we want to continue and invest that $80 billion for a policy that is not generating what we … say it should?” Mr. Miller said.
Congress should let workers trade their 401(k) assets for guaranteed retirement accounts made up of government bonds, suggested Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research in New York.
When workers collected Social Security, the guaranteed retirement account would pay an inflation-adjusted annuity under her plan.
“The way the government now encourages 401(k) plans is to spend $80 billion in tax breaks,” which goes to the highest-income earners, Ms. Ghilarducci said.
That simply results in transferring money from taxed savings accounts to untaxed accounts, she said.
“If we implement automatic [individual retirement accounts] or if we expand the 401(k) system, all we’re doing is adding to this inefficiency,” Ms. Ghilarducci said.
Pay attention! Anyone who has a 401k will lose it to taxation! Now Obama and his cabal of Democrats in Congress are trying to take away our retirement accounts! And another thing I don’t want the government telling me what I can buy (government bonds) for my retirement.
Fellow freepers, can someone get this to the McCain dudes. If Obozo wins, we are going to lose our 401k’s. They will be taxed away and or used to shore-up social security. These thieves will say it is the ‘fair’ thing to do…
I am including an update on this piece I wrote because I have another reference piece for you to read. The piece and quote come from Investment News.
“If the tax deferral goes away, the employers have no reason to do the matches, which primarily help people in the lower income brackets,” Mr. Belluardo said.
“This is a battle between liberalism and conservatism,” said Christopher Van Slyke, a partner in the La Jolla, Calif., advisory firm Trovena LLC, which manages $400 million. “People are afraid because their accounts are seeing some volatility, so Democrats will seize on the opportunity to attack a program where investors control their own destiny,” he said.
The Profit Sharing/ 401(k) Council of America in Chicago, which represents employers that sponsor defined contribution plans, is “staunchly committed to keeping the employee benefit system in American voluntary,” said Ed Ferrigno, vice president in the Washington office.
“Some of the tenor [of the hearing last week] that the entire system should be based on the activities of the markets in the last 90 days is not the way to judge the system,” he said.
No legislative proposals have been introduced and Congress is out of session until next year.
However, most political observers believe that Democrats are poised to gain seats in both the House and the Senate, so comments made by the mostly Democratic members who attended the hearing could be a harbinger of things to come.
The most important part of the quote is the first line. Any of these proposed changes in my opinion would certainly halt employer matches to employees savings. In short chances are an employee would stop saving too!
I will say this agin, I do not and you should not want the government to have any part of your retirement savings. The Democratic Party (Socialist Party) leadership in Congress wants the following:
Under Ms. Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5% of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3% a year, adjusted for inflation.
The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.
“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ms. Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”
This plan means bigger government. Stop the Democratic Party leadership in Congress. Don’t allow them to get a stranglehold on our retirement accounts. Vote McCain…he isn’t willing to bet our retirement dollars on a larger government.
I am wholly disappointed in the Department of Justice for sure! It turns out it isn’t our ahem! esteemed DOJ filing charges. These charges are coming from a think tank…I never even considered it would be The Buckeye Institutefor Public Policy Solutions of Columbus, OH. This information has just been released today by the institute. Here is more on those charges:
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank, today filed a state RICO action against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) on behalf of two Warren County voters. The action filed in Warren County Court of Common Pleas alleges ACORN has engaged in a pattern of corrupt activity that amounts to organized crime. It seeks ACORN’s dissolution as a legal entity, the revocation of any licenses in Ohio, and an injunction against fraudulent voter registration and other illegal activities.
It still distresses me that it is a state action not a federal action. Where is the US Department of Justice on ACORN? As far as I can tell missing-in-action.
More from the Institute:
Plaintiffs Jennifer Miller of Mason, Ohio and Kimberly Grant of Loveland, allege that ACORN’s actions deprive them of the right to participate in an honest and effective elections process. They allege fraudulent voter registrations submitted by ACORN dilute the votes of legally registered voters.
“The right to cast a vote that is not diluted by fraudulent votes is a fundamental individual right,” Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said.
“ACORN appears to be recklessly disregarding Ohio laws and adding thousands of fraudulent voters to the state’s roles in the process,” Maurice Thompson, Director of the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law said. “Such voter fraud erodes the value of legally cast votes,” he added.
In the complaint, Thompson cites an accumulation of evidence showing numerous instances of admitted fraud by ACORN employees, as well as individuals solicited by ACORN.
“In light of its hiring, training and compensation practices, ACORN should have known its conduct would cause fraud,” Thompson said. “It also should know that its conduct will cause fraud in the future.”
In addition, the complaint cites conduct by ACORN in Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
A full copy of the complaint is available online at Buckeye Institute here
Buckeye does have a mission and is completeing it in Ohio.
The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, together with its 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, is a nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility and limited government in Ohio.
All I can say is I am glad someone is doing something to knee-cap ACORN. Good one for The Buckeye Institute. Where is the Department of Justice? Are you out there somewhere? Are you doing your job? Where are the federal RICO charges?
A fundraiser with Gov Sarah Palin was noted by The New York Times in their article, “Clinton Supporters Aid Palin”, it was a Who’s Who of Hillraisers. In attendance were the following Clinton fundraisers, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former telecommunications entrepreneur and “Hillraiser”, Calvin Fayard, also a former Hillraiser and longtime Democratic donor from Louisiana, Miguel Lausell, a former senior political adviser to the Clinton campaign from Puerto Rico and John Coale, a former Hillraiser, Washington lawyer and husband of Fox News television host Greta Van Susteren.
More from the Times on an extended evening of fundraising for the McCain/Palin ticket:
The reception, which organizers said brought in more than $500,000, was part of an extended evening of fund-raising for Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign at the Grand Hyatt in New York that officials estimated raised more than $8 million.
Ms. Palin, along with her husband, Todd, mingled and posed for pictures with the group of about 20, before appearing at the larger finance event, which McCain campaign officials said was the last time Mr. McCain would personally appear at a fund-raiser before the election. It was also the first time the pair had appeared together for donors.
Good on them I say. It was time for Sarah to meet Hillraisers who are now supporting their ticket. Her and Senator McCain are very fortunate, their stars are attached to former Hillary supporters who were disillusioned by the “Democratic Party”.
More from the article:
While Mrs. Clinton has implored her former supporters to back Senator Barack Obama, some still harbor ill will towards him, organizers said.
“These people want to give their vote of disapproval,” said Mr. Lausell. “This is a way they’re doing it.”
I agree Mr. Lausell as do many other former Hillary supporters.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses itself. In a vote by the full panel vote (en banc) they reinstated the temporary restraining order against Ohio Secretary of State Brunner. This is a win for the good side. Here is the information courtesy of Darke Blog:
Here are some highlights:
“So far as this record is concerned, the Secretary has given no tenable exlanation why her current interpretation of the statute, as opposed to the office’s prior implementation of the law, remotely furthers the anti-fraud objective of the law.”
The Ohio Republican Party’s position is “not only sensible but it is also fair – and it also furthers both objectives of HAVA …”
The court mocks Brunner’s defense as “[t]he bureaucrats’ lament – that this will be difficult to do.”
Here are the three updates to the story also available from Darke Blog:
UPDATE: In looking at the decision, it appears the full court voted 9-6 to hear the case en banc (which means all of them). I’d say the 9-6 vote is a good sign, but doesn’t necessarily mean the case will end that way. Tonight’s decision has been described as the opportunity to “live and fight another day.” But in the world of temporary restraining orders, if you have it, that’s all that matters for the time being. And the time being is what is crucial right now.
Second point – the initial district court decision got some press because the judge found that Brunner was actually violating the law. That dialogue was snuffed out by the subsequent reversal. But now it’s back. When you run into Jennifer Brunner on the street, you can ask her why she’s violating federal election laws.
UPDATE 3: Laura did a pdf link which you bloggers can use to cut-and-paste.
Cincinnati.com also addressed this issue. Here are some excerpts from their article, “Court casts doubt on Ohio voter rolls”:
Republican John McCain’s campaign on Tuesday said Obama should rein in ACORN’s mass registration efforts to fight voter fraud. The campaign accuses Obama of having close ties to the group.
Late in the day – in a victory for Republicans – the full Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decision made last week by three of its members. The result: Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must create computer programs to cross check all new voter registrations so that county boards of elections can double check new registrants.
The Secretary of State will now have to verify new registrations by comparing information on them with data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration. (They do that here in Kansas plus check Department of Justice rolls and Department of Corrections rolls. It is a felony for felons still on parole to register to vote in Kansas.)
“As far as we can tell, the problem with the current system (of cross-checking) is not that it is insufficiently user-friendly, but that it is effectively useless,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton, writing for the majority.
The court split 9-6 along mostly partisan lines. The only appeal would be to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it wasn’t clear Tuesday night if that would happen.
A great friend of mine BJ is my guest for the day. This post is cross posted from her blog Free-Me-Now.
What’s this I hear; Obama supporters are complaining that McCain supporters are getting a little testy with them? Well it’s about time! Just like their illustrious leader they are bullies- when you stand up to a bully they go running home crying because somebody stood up to them! All I can say is – they ought not to have started something they were not tough enough to finish.
There are angry and ready to rumble Mc Cain supporters out there and I could easily become one of them. I am being driven toward it – propelled daily by the hate mongering Obama supporters who have for 2 years antagonized, bashed, battered and harassed us. They have laughed in our faces believing they have this in the bag, thinking their party can not possibly lose. They have this ace – errrr – race card up their sleeve and it seems to trump all other cards. And up to now it seems to have worked.
They have called us racists, have intimidated us and now are trying to steal this election and our very democracy from us. Just today on the street I was accused of being a racist simply for having a sign that read “Democrat for McCain” and my friend was called a racist, her sign read “Women for McCain and Palin”
Do they take us for fools? Do they think we have short memories? Do they think our women are that short sighted, that they have no dignity or pride? Do they think our men have no dignity and or pride in their wives, mothers or daughters?
Yes there are hate mongering supporters, but it is not something that John McCain started this week as the main stream media and the Obama camp would have you believe. No No No – this angry angst that you are witnessing from McCain supporters is the result of frustration these American citizens feel as they watch their democracy slip through their fingers while the media blindly reports racism where none exists and allows blatant sexism to rage on unchecked.
Every time Obama is questioned – about anything – it’s a lynching according to the Obamabots, the pundits and bought and paid for media stooges. This has been going on since Obama entered his name into the race. No one has been able to ask him anything about anything. First Hillary and now Sarah have been treated in the most despicable way imaginable. How can we go out into this world preaching against sexism, women’s rights and human rights when we are the worst offenders? Any country that allows their women to be humiliated in this fashion has absolutely no standing to preach to any other country regarding women’s rights.
Congressman Lewis claims McCain and Palin are sewing the seeds of hate in their supporters? Has he seen and heard Obama supporters? In Philly the people on the streets wore derogatory shirts and yelled ’stone’ her! I believe that amounts to a threat on her life! At a hockey game televised worldwide she was booed – how classy! Obama supporters have been very effective at crashing Hillary meetings over the past 18 months causing disruptions. I’ve been assaulted therein myself and now they do the same to Sarah. Congressman, your bias is showing.
Mr. Lewis if you missed that, are you aware of the Obama Celebs- they are notorious. Jay Z; Ludacris; Madonna, Sandra Bernhard: Obama Supporter Threatens Sarah Palin With Gang Rape is that acceptable to you? Read about that here and I expect your comments on these supporters forthcoming sir.
In a country where racism is not tolerated we apparently not only tolerate sexism we make it into a thriving business! Congressman Lewis before you start accusing McCain and Palin of anything at this late stage maybe you should have spoken up about 2 years ago when Obama, his campaign or the party or the media or anyone for that matter did not stop his supporters from what they did to Hillary and are now doing to Sarah. Where is your outrage about this you damned hypocrite? Or don’t white girls’ have civil rights that matter to you?
Let’s hear from you Congressman Lewis. Let’s hear from you Al Sharpton, Let’s hear from the rest of you screaming civil rights leaders. Women’s Rights are Human Rights aren’t they? Human Rights are Civil Rights aren’t they? Damned Hypocrites!
Tell me folks- what pictures, signs and shirt on the streets have you seen that cry racism? Have you actually seen anything or is it just race baiting instead. Let me show you what blatant looks like so you can recognize PURE damned SEXISM – not innuendo- not maybe- not my imagination – not my hysteria- not coincidence. Damn it -let me show you just a hint- not a lot just a hint of what I have seen on the streets for nearly two years that clearly cries Sexism.
Let’s look at yet another form of blatant sexism. Think about how they are trotting Hillary out all over the country not to pay down her own campaign debt but to raise money for Obama- yes Obama – her abuser and the highest money raiser in history . Sounds like they really want to stick it to us doesn’t it? Go out and raise money for the man and the party that abused you – beat you and cheated on you and do it with a smile honey!
Still feel like a Democrat? Still want to leave that Top of the ticket empty rather than vote against our beloved party do we? Sure go right ahead – help the Dems! They are really more on your side then Sarah Palin aren’t they? She’s gonna set you further back than that? Keep dreaming ladies – by my account ain’t nobody going set us further back than that. I will do everything in my power to stop the party and the man that did this to Her and to every woman who ever marched so that we could have the right to vote against the Democratic party on November 4th in protest for the way they treat women in America 160 years after our ancestors first stood up against these dirty bastards so that we would have a leg to stand upon now.
Grow up- take your place as a woman and finish the job our mothers and their mothers before them started- damn it!
Two Missourians say they were surprised to receive credit card statements indicating they had donated to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Sandy Pogones of Camdenton and Steve Larman of North Kansas City each found a $2,300 charge on their credit card bills recently for the Obama for America campaign. Both say they do not support Obama and would not contribute to his campaign.
Both say they contacted their credit card companies, which dropped the charges.
Pogones says she also contacted the Missouri attorney general’s office and the FBI.
Larman says he just wants to know if another organization is funneling money to Obama, or if someone is using the Obama name to steal from people.
Which ever it is this just adds more questions to Obama’s “campaign financing” sources!
Obama shields ACORN from “Criminal Prosecution in the Economic Crisis” is a highlighted story with Canada Free Press, buyer beware, another law to protect ACORN from criminal prosecution. The only reason ACORN itself has only been prosecuted in Washington State isbecause the throw their employees under the bus when they are charged with fraud.
Here are highlights from that article:
Not only did Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign pay more than U.S. $800,000 to a front of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, Now, ACORN, currently under investigation in a dozen States for voter registration fraud and bribery schemes, for “get-out-the-vote-efforts”; Obama co-sponsored legislation called the “Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act of 2007”– that was supported by ACORN and protects them.
And don’t think he is the only Democrat who did. The list of co-sponsors is a who who of Democrats.
Helping Families Save their Homes in Bankruptcy Act, S.2136, was introduced in the Senate by Illinois Senator Richard Durbin over a year ago, on October 3, 2007. It was co-sponsored, by Obama and 12 other Democrats, including Vice Presidential hopeful, Joe Biden, and Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Christopher Dodd.
Give me a break. More Democrats protecting ACORN and other groups. There is more in this story, it tells how the bill protects them. And it involves The Truth In Lending Act (TILA)….the forms you receive when you buy a home.
More from CFP:
According to a Senate transcript, Durbin stated: “It is true that some families knowingly stretched a bit to buy more house than they should have. But many families were sold mortgages they couldn’t afford by unscrupulous brokers… This bill is supported by the AARP, ACORN, AFL-CIO and SEIU, the Center for Responsible Lending, the Consumer Federation of America, NAACP and La Raza, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition…”
Why would groups like ACORN, who according to Stanley Kurtz’s “O Dangerous Pals” undermined “the US economy by pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans…. by forcing banks to make hundreds of millions of dollars in “subprime” loans to often un-creditworthy poor and minority customers…” support this legislation? Perhaps because it provides Chapter 13 Bankruptcy protections to homeowners who didn’t have the means to buy homes, and it protects people who put those borrowers into these high-risk mortgages.
The numbers in Ohio are far worse than originally expected according to Yahoo News. Roughly 200,000 of the newly registered 600,000 voters have discrepancies in their social security numbers and/or driver’s license numbers. They will end up on end up on court-ordered lists being sent to county election boards…and need I remind you that Brunner didn’t want to check any registrations.
It is incumbent upon McCain to challenge all votes in November. More from Yahoo News:
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner estimated that an initial review found that about 200,000 newly registered voters reported information that did not match motor-vehicle or Social Security records, Brunner spokesman Kevin Kidder said. Some discrepancies could be as simple as a misspelling, while others could be more significant.
“Things already are in motion to comply,” Kidder said. “We’re working to establish these processes on how we can make this work. The computer work actually began last week.”
Here is the exchange between Joe and Obama from ABC News and it is telling. He would bankrupt Joe before he could expand his “new” business, the one he is about to purchase. Here is the transcript:
(Note: All comments in italics are the opinions of the author.)
Outside Toledo, Ohio, on Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was approached by plumber Joe Wurzelbacher, a big, bald man with a goatee who asked Obama if he believes in the American dream.
“I’m getting ready to buy a company that makes 250 to 280 thousand dollars a year,” Wurzelbacher said. “Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn’t it?”
Obama said, “First off, you would get a 50% tax credit so you’d get a tax cut for your healthcare costs….. if your revenue is above 250 – then from 250 down, your taxes are going to stay the same. It is true that from 250 up – from 250 – 300 or so, so for that additional amount, you’d go from 36 to 39%, which is what it was under Bill Clinton. And the reason why we’re doing that is because 95% of small businesses make less than 250. So what I want to do is give them a tax cut. I want to give all these folks who are bus drivers, teachers, auto workers who make less, I want to give them a tax cut. And so what we’re doing is, we are saying that folks who make more than 250 that that marginal amount above 250 – they’re gonna be taxed at a 39 instead of a 36% rate.” (Tax increases do nothing to help the economy.)
Responded Wurzelbacher, “the reason I ask you about the American dream, I mean I’ve worked hard. I’m a plumber. I work 10-12 hours a day and I’m buying this company and I’m going to continue working that way. I’m getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American dream.”
“Well,” said Obama, “here’s a way of thinking about it. How long have been a plumber?”
Wurzelbacher said 15 years.
Obama says, “Over the last 15 years, when you weren’t making 250, you would have been given a tax cut from me, so you’d actually have more money, which means you would have saved more, which means you would have gotten to the point where you could build your small business quicker than under the current tax code. So there are two ways of looking at it – I mean one way of looking at it is, now that you’ve become more successful through hard work – you don’t want to be taxed as much.”
“Exactly,” Wurzelbacher said.
Obama continued, “But another way of looking at it is 95% of folks who are making less than 250, they may be working hard too, but they’re being taxed at a higher rate than they would be under mine. So what I’m doing is, put yourself back 10 years ago when you were only making whatever, 60 or 70. Under my tax plan you would be keeping more of your paycheck, you’d be paying lower taxes, which means you would have saved…Now look, nobody likes high taxes.” (What does that mean?)
“No,” said Wurzelbacher.
“Of course not,” said Obama. “But what’s happened is that we end up – we’ve cut taxes a lot for folks like me who make a lot more than 250. We haven’t given a break to folks who make less, and as a consequence, the average wage and income for ordinary folks, the vast majority of Americans, has actually gone down over the last eight years. So all I want to do is – I’ve got a tax cut. The only thing that changes, is I’m gonna cut taxes a little bit more for the folks who are most in need and for the 5% of the folks who are doing very well – even though they’ve been working hard and I appreciate that – I just want to make sure they’re paying a little bit more in order to pay for those other tax cuts. Now, I respect the disagreement. I just want you to be clear – it’s not that I want to punish your success – I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you – that they’ve got a chance at success too.” (Spreading the wealth reeks of socialism,)
Wurzelbacher said it seemed as though Obama might support a flat tax. (Obama doesn’t favor a flat tax because then everyone would have to pay taxes. He would no longer be able to award WELFARE through tax credits to people who have no tax liability.)
Obama says, “you know, I would be open to it except here’s the problem with a flat tax is that if you actually put a flat tax together, in order for it to work and replace all the revenue that we’ve got, you’d probably end up having to make it like about a 40% sales tax. I mean that’s the value added, making it up. Now some people say 23 or 25, but in truth when you add up all the revenue that would need to be raised, you’d have to slap on a whole bunch of sales taxes on. And I do believe for folks like me who have worked hard, but frankly also been lucky, I don’t mind paying just a little bit more than the waitress that I just met over there who’s things are slow and she can barely make the rent.” (I have no idea what he means here either. Some of that nuanced rhetoric again.)
Obama said, “My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off if you’re gonna be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” (Socialism again.)
That’s the key moment McCain is jumping out…”when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”
“But listen,” Obama said, shaking Wurzelbacher’s hand, “I respect what you do and I respect your question, and even if I don’t get your vote, I’m still gonna be working hard on your behalf, because small businesses are what creates jobs in this country and I want to encourage it.”
“Guys I gotta get out of here and go prepare for the debate,” Obama said, “but that was pretty good practice right there.”
McCain has a plan to renegotiate interest rates on mortgages to save middle class homes, Obama thinks it is a give away. It isn’t a give away, McCain’s plan will save homes and not dump more foreclosures on an already “in the tank” housing market. This isn’t a present to banks, it is a present to the homeowner. An article on this subject is found at Yahoo News. More from the article:
John McCain said he’s disappointed that federal policy makers aren’t moving to adopt his $300 billion proposal to buy bad mortgages, a plan that Barack Obama said might end up being a “giveaway” to lenders.
“We’ve got to put the homeowners first,” McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, said during his third and final debate with Obama. “I am disappointed that Secretary Paulson and others have not made that their first priority.”
Obama, the Democratic nominee, said he agrees that homeowners need help, yet opposes the way McCain does it. “It could be a giveaway to banks,”Obama said tonight during the forum at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
I said it before, Obama does not want to save your home. He sees it as a give away to banks. Renegotiating an interest rate on a mortgage will save the homeowner money with the banks making less in interest earnings. What part of that is a give away to banks? Obama hasn’t answered that question. In my opinion (and I am no economist) the homeowner wins and the banks wins, all go on to live for another day. Seems like a win-win situation to me.
It was brought to my attention yesterday that Obama voted “present” on mortgage reform….
Here is that story from The Wall Street Journal:
If Sen. Obama were truly looking for a kind of deregulation that might be responsible for the current financial crisis, he need only look back to 1998, when the Clinton administration ruled that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could satisfy their affordable housing obligations by purchasing subprime mortgages. This ultimately made it possible for Fannie and Freddie to add a trillion dollars in junk loans to their balance sheets. This led to their own collapse, and to the development of a market in these mortgages that is the source of the financial crisis we are wrestling with today.
Finally, on the matter of deregulation and the financial crisis, Sen. Obama should consider his own complicity in the failure of Congress to adopt legislation that might have prevented the subprime meltdown.
In the summer of 2005, a bill emerged from the Senate Banking Committee that considerably tightened regulations on Fannie and Freddie, including controls over their capital and their ability to hold portfolios of mortgages or mortgage-backed securities. All the Republicans voted for the bill in committee; all the Democrats voted against it. To get the bill to a vote in the Senate, a few Democratic votes were necessary to limit debate. This was a time for the leadership Sen. Obama says he can offer, but neither he nor any other Democrat stepped forward.
Instead, by his own account, Mr. Obama wrote a letter to the Treasury Secretary, allegedly putting himself on record that subprime loans were dangerous and had to be dealt with. This is revealing; if true, it indicates Sen. Obama knew there was a problem with subprime lending — but was unwilling to confront his own party by pressing for legislation to control it. As a demonstration of character and leadership capacity, it bears a strong resemblance to something else in Sen. Obama’s past: voting present.
Now there should be no doubt he doesn’t want to save your house. When he the chance to stop the downward spiral of subprime mortgages and the increase in foreclosures, he wrote a letter. He didn’t even show leadership when he had a chance to support a bill that would have stopped this crisis. Obama is not the person we want in charge if there is another crisis of any kind.
Obama is not bi-partisan. Guess who spills the beans? None other than Governor David Patterson, New York state on MSNBC. Guess who asks the question? None other than Chris “Tweety” Matthews.
Listen to this video:
Governor Patterson couldn’t think of a single instance when Obama deliberately stepped across the aisle. Obama is indeed the most liberal senator in Congress.
According to Michelle Malkin, Palestra.net uncovered actual voter fraud in the State of Ohio by out of state Obama activists. WTF?
Here are excerpts from Malkin’s column and a link to the video Palestra.net made. Malkin on this fraud:
Something smells at 2885 Brownlee Avenue in Columbus, Ohio.
Here’s the stench: An entire houseful of young, non-Ohioan Democrat activists have used the Brownlee Avenue address to register themselves to vote in the Buckeye State and secure absentee ballots under extremely shady circumstances — all while mobilizing a large effort to register thousands of others for absentee and early voting. The activists are leaders of a group called “Vote From Home ‘08.” The group is self-identified as having “extensive experience with political organizing, election administration, and Democratic politics.” They were hailed as the “Justice League” by a Daily Kos blogger. Their Facebook page brags: “Want to turn the Presidential election blue in a key swing state? Vote from Home is a political organization that was founded by a team of young people for the purpose of assisting, aiding, and tracking voters to elect progressive candidates to the White House. Encouraged by the excitement of the 2008 elections and the movement around the Democratic candidates, Vote From Home will be in Ohio seeking to deliver 10,000 votes to Democratic candidates statewide.”
Palestra.net who has been doing am excellent job at tracking voter fraud in Ohio uncovered this fraud which breaks Ohio residency requirement laws. You can not register to vote under Ohio law if you are a temporary resident in that state. More from Malkin:
My friends at Palestra.net, a network of young reporters who have been doing the voter and registration fraud reporting that the MSM has been slow to do, have a breaking investigative report on how several members of the Democrat Vote From Home team — all Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, and Truman Scholars studying abroad — are turning up on Franklin County voter rolls despite having no bona fide residence in Ohio and admittedly having little to no knowledge about the state before descending on it in August to sign up other new voters in a rush to put 10,000 Obama supporters on the rolls.
These are supposed to be bright students. Apparently they aren’t because they all broke the law in the state of Ohio. Do you think they will be prosecuted? Do you think their ballots will be disallowed?
Not if the Ohio Secretaryof State Jennifer Brunner has anything to do with it!
Here’s the page listing the Vote From Home team. Take a good look at these three, for starters:
Here’s the Franklin County, Ohio registered voter search page.
Here’s just one of several Vote From Home activists, Daniel Hemel, who registered to vote with the Brownlee Ave. address listed as his “home:”
The Franklin County, Ohio site shows that Hemel was mailed an absentee ballot on October 1.
Palestra reporters Shelby Holliday and Tiffany Wilson visited the Vote From Home “home” in search of Hemel and were told that the Scarsdale, NY native and Harvard grad had returned to school — he’s a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University in England studying for an M.Phil in International Relations — and had no plans to return to Ohio.
You’ll recognize another of the names and faces from the Vote From Home team. This is Marc Gustafson, a driving force behind the effort and in front of the cameras:
He is also registered to vote in Franklin County, Ohio at the same Brownlee address and was mailed an absentee ballot on September 30:
He’s also the same activist Palestra reporter Shelby Holliday interviewed in her “Thug Thizzle” report. Gustafson’s the one who bragged about the free shuttle program for the homeless Ohioans for Obama:
“It’s a perfect opportunity for them to come in, register at a temporary address like a homeless shelter or a YMCA or something like that. They can register at that address because they don’t know where they’re going to be tomorrow or next week.”
Where’s Gustafson? Not in Ohio. He’s a Marshall Scholar at the Oxford University in England who worked as a field coordinator for the Howard Dean Campaign in Rhode Island, Iowa and New Hampshire. According to campaign contribution reports, he lists New York as his residence.
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s page, you must be “a resident of Ohio for at least 30 days immediately before the election in which you want to vote.” The guidelines also state:
Generally, a person’s residence is the place where the person’s habitation is fixed (i.e., where the person lives on a permanent basis) and the place where the person intends to return
whenever the person is absent.
…a person’s temporary presence in Ohio, such as during a vacation or working in
Ohio on a temporary basis, does not make the person eligible to register and to vote in Ohio.
Gustafson’s friend and business partner, Heather Halstead, is another Vote From Home activist who shows up in Franklin County, Ohio voter rolls:
She is based in New York, went to Dartmouth for college, and lists New York as her residence in campaign contribution reports. No connection to Ohio other than the brief period she spent signing up others — and herself — to vote in the swing state.
Halstead was mailed an absentee ballot on September 30.
Vote From Home team member Jennifer Kyle, whose bio states that she works for ShoreBank International in the Washington, DC area, is also registered to vote in Franklin County, OH using the Brownlee address:
Kyle was mailed an absentee ballot on October 4.
Vote From Home team member Greg Nolan also used the Brownlee address to register to vote in Franklin County, OH:
He is based in Florida, where he attended college and was “active in Democratic politics,” and is headed to Stanford for graduate school. No ties to Ohio other than his brief stint working with Vote for Change.
And on and on it goes. Shelby at Palestra tells me that some 12 activists associated with Vote From Home may have fraudulently registered and that some have voted already. If they were this breathtakingly careless or brazenly reckless with their own registrations, imagine what damage they might have done in their voter registration drive — and what damage they may yet do in following through on absentee ballots with those voters.
Will the rest of the MSM pick up on the invaluable investigative reporting of Palestra’s intrepid young reporters? Or will they look the other way? Will out-of-town punks — all using 2885 Brownlee Ave. in Columbus as their ballot drop house — help turn Ohio blue? Will the Democrat Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, bury her head in the sand?
The ball is in the Ohio GOP’s court. Don’t drop it!
Michelle, Brunner is burying her head in the sand. She has now filed an emergency brief to the US Supreme Court trying to overturn the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals. A court who felt so compelled by the blatant fraud and Brunner’s actions they met “en banc” (all members were present for the second vote) to force her to do her job. This is by far the most ludicrous election cycle I have ever seen. It has by far beat 2000 and we haven’t even voted yet! And it seems Former Senator John Danforth agrees with me.
href=”http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93RNJOG2&show_article=1″>Breitbart says that the FBI has finally decided it is time to investigate ACORN. You have got to be kidding me. I think this investigation needed to start months ago. I forgot no one was paying attention until the MSM started screaming. And they had to wait until McCain mentioned them in a Presidential Debate. Wow! what has the USA come to?
Read more:
The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.
A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election.
This is appears to be an investigation without legs…..How about RICO? How about misuse of taxpayer money? How about money laundering?
More from Breitbart:
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, says it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters—most of whom tend to be Democrats.
Republican accusations about the group were raised during Wednesday’s presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and GOP candidate John McCain.
Some ACORN employees have been accused of submitting false voter registration forms—including some signed `Mickey Mouse’ or other fictitious characters.
Those voter registration cards have become the focus of fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri and at least five other states. Election officials in Ohio and North Carolina also recently questioned the group’s voter forms.
And of course we have ACORN all but lying through their collective teeth. They have hired felons this year who have been charged with such things as identity fraud and let’s not forget indecent acts with a minor…..
ACORN has said the “vast majority” of its workers are conscientious, but some might have turned in duplicate applications or provided fake information to pad their pay. Workers caught submitting false information have been fired, ACORN officials say.
ACORN says laws in a number of states require it to submit all registration cards it collects even dubious ones, so its workers segregate applications with missing, suspicious or false information and flag them so state election officials can quickly check them further.
Right on dudes! We don’t believe you because county election boards in many states say your “dubious” cards cause them to spend more money and take time out of their other duties.
Aaron Klein at World Net Daily has this exclusive story about Obama’s lie and ACORN. In his story he highlights Obama lie in the presidential debate. Read more from Aaron Klein:
In the third and final presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama lied last night about the extent of his relationship with a radical leftist organization that has admitted to major financial improprieties and has been convicted in numerous, massive voter fraud scandals.
It was the second time in a week the presidential candidate or his campaign misled the public regarding his ties to ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
“The only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs,” Obama declared at last night’s debate in response to a statement from Sen. John McCain.
I know for a fact he lied. I wrote about Obama and ACORN in a story, Obama’s ACORN for the first time in July. I was the first person to break the story about Obama’s False FEC Filings in August. All stories after that including David Brown’s with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review were subsequent to mine.
“Now, with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they’ve done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn’t really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names,” Obama said.
“It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved,” he declared.
BS! I decided to look for payments to ACORN within Obama’s FEC filings, seeing none, I searched for odd payments. Those odd payments added up to $832,000 to Citizen’s Services Inc… an associated ACORN company… I choose to call it a front company.
Lets read more from Klein:
“We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. The same front outfit organization that your campaign gave $832,000 for ‘lighting and site selection.’ So all of these things need to be examined, of course.”
McCain referenced a payment originally reported by WND in August when it was first revealed that Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc., a nonprofit organization that is an offshoot of ACORN.
Obama’s claim is quite laughable at best.
Read on:
Obama’s claim last night that his only involvement with Acorn was his representation of the organization in a lawsuit is inaccurate. The 1995 suit on behalf of ACORN, in which the state of Illinois was compelled to implement the federal “motor-voter” bill, was just a sampling of Obama’s association.
ACORN/Chicago is one of the largest ACORN chapters. It is well known in Chicago. Many of ACORN’s early “direct actions” happened in Chicago. We know that Obama was a leadership trainer, represented them in a lawsuit against Citigroup and they worked on his US Senate campaign…
Klein adds this:
ACORN is very active in Obama’s native Chicago, where in 1997, some 200 members attempted to storm a City Hall meeting, resulting in six members being arrested, including Madeleine Talbot, ACORN’s Chicago director.
In the early 1990s, Talbot invited Obama to help train ACORN activists.
While Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago nonprofit, it channeled millions of dollars to ACORN and affiliated groups.
Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund’s website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.
He served on the Fund alongside William C. Ayers, an unrepentant member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.
Obama actively sought and received the endorsement by ACORN for his local campaigns.
In the Social Policy Journal, Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader, documents what he terms Obama’s “long service” with ACORN, which he said led many of the organization’s members to help in voter campaigns for Obama’s early Chicago campaigns.
Foulkes said Obama and ACORN were “old friends.”
In 1992, Obama was director of Project Vote in Chicago, which helped register 150,000 voters on the city’s South Side. Obama’s successful work was credited in multiple media reports with helping to elect Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.
Obama’s campaign last week falsely claimed ACORN was “not part of” Project Vote, but the organization’s incorporation papers, obtained by WND, show Project Vote is a trademark name whose parent company is registered at the same New Orleans address in which ACORN and multiple ACORN affiliates are housed.
Obama himself previously connected Project Vote to ACORN.
“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work,” Obama was quoted on his own campaign website as saying at an ACORN meeting, according to a post by official Obama website blogger Sam Graham-Felsen.
Clarifying the role of ACORN in Project Vote, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told the New York Times last weekend Project Vote and ACORN were not as intertwined in 1992 as they are today, as a significant part of Project Vote’s revenues flow to ACORN and various affiliates as payment for services.
But LaBolt’s statement, which admits Project Vote and ACORN were intertwined on some level while Obama was director, directly contradicts the Obama campaign’s “Fact Check” claim that ACORN was “not part” of Project Vote.
In a misleading statement, Obama’s campaign website claims “ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee,” but it fails to mention Obama was an unpaid ACORN trainer, as WND first reported in August.
Lewis Goldberg, a spokesman for ACORN, confirmed Obama conducted two hour-long leadership training sessions for his organization in the late 1990s and said Obama was not paid for the work.
Obama actively sought and received the endorsement by ACORN for his local campaigns.
And there are more details:
In the Social Policy Journal, Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader, documents what he terms Obama’s “long service” with ACORN, which he said led many of the organization’s members to help in voter campaigns for Obama’s early Chicago campaigns.
Foulkes said Obama and ACORN were “old friends.”
As a state senator, Obama touted many of ACORN’s lines.
National Review Online writer Stanley Kurtz, who conducted a thorough review of ACORN, wrote, “Sure enough, a bit of digging into Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate indicates strong concern with Acorn’s signature issues, as well as meetings with Acorn and the introduction by Obama of Acorn-friendly legislation on the living wage and banking practices.”
ACORN endorsed Obama’s presidential campaign, which is touted on Obama’s official website.
“What it came down to was that Senator Obama is the candidate who best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about like stopping foreclosures, enacting fair and comprehensive immigration reform, and building stronger and safer communities across America,” said ACORN’s Maude Hurd of the group’s Obama endorsement.
And there is more, not a surprise though:
WND reported in August Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc., or CSI, which, as McCain mentioned last night, is a nonprofit offshoot of ACORN.
According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Obama campaign paid CSI $832,598.29 from Feb. 25 to May 17, including $564,342.21 for “stage, lighting and sound.” The payments stood out since CSI does not offer services for stage, lighting or sound.
The Obama campaign amended the FEC reports in August and September to claim the payments to CSI were for get-out-the-vote efforts.
McCain spokesman Rick Davis last week charged the original FEC filing was an effort to “hide the fact” money was paid to ACORN, while FEC officials told media amended filings are common in major campaigns, including for large sums of money.
I have been saying Obama was hiding the fact that he paid ACORN when I couldn’t find any payments to ACORN. I was very suspicious which led me to CSI.
It doesn’t stop there. As it turns out ACORN has been Obama’s most ardent supporter and perhaps the most questionable association in his short political career … a rotten nut at best…..
Here is the rest of the story:
Election integrity in doubt
Last Friday former state Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman, a Republican, said at a news conference she had no confidence in the integrity of the electoral process in Pennsylvania as a result of what she termed the extensive voter registration effort by ACORN.
“[There is] potential of massive voter fraud. … I am not confident we can get a fair election” on Nov. 4, said Newman, who retired from the court in 2006.
ACORN and other groups reportedly submitted 252,595 voter registrations in Philadelphia, of which 57,435 were rejected, most of them submitted by ACORN. Officials said the registrations had faulty Social Security numbers, incorrect dates of birth, “clearly fraudulent” signatures, addresses that did not exist and duplicate registrations.
Other key areas in PA had similar problems, Newman said.
A CBS news investigation showed similar problems across the nation.
The news organization said it talked to nearly two dozen ACORN workers who all said they were pressured to increase their number of registration cards to the point of copying names out of phone books, signing up inmates and registering the dead.
“Whether simple error or outright fraud, the charges surrounding ACORN are already raising doubts about the integrity of the upcoming election in key parts of the country,” the CBS investigation concluded.
History of fraud
Last July, ACORN settled what was described by the Washington secretary of state as the “largest case of voter fraud in the state’s history.” Government prosecutors had filed felony charges against seven ACORN workers, who ended up receiving jail time.
Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Hobbs said in the case the workers had admitted filling out registration forms with names they found in phone books. The ACORN canvassers filled out the forms while sitting around a table at the downtown Seattle Public Library, Hobbs said.
ACORN was also investigated in 2006 for submitting false voter registrations in St. Louis. Nearly 1,500 fraudulent voter registrations were identified in the case, which was tied to at least one campaign, that of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Four ACORN workers were indicted in the case.
Also in 2006, four part-time ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City, Mo., for voter-registration fraud after being caught, fired and turned in by ACORN.
In January 2005, two Colorado ACORN workers were sentenced to community service for submitting false voter registrations.
In Ohio in 2004, four ACORN employees were indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter-registration forms.
ACORN has been accused in a number of other voter fraud cases in other states. Some investigations are still pending.
Financial improprieties
The New York Times last month quoted ACORN officials admitting Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000. A small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement, the Times reported.
ACORN is organized into more than 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S., as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico and Peru. The organization was born out of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s.
ACORN strongly lobbies for gun control, leftist education policies and the regulation of banks, targeting the lending practices of major financial institutions it sees as “predatory.” It has a strong anti-capitalism agenda.
National Review Online writer Kurtz wrote the organization’s primary goals are “municipal ‘living wage’ laws targeting ‘big-box’ stores like Wal-Mart, rolling back welfare reform and regulating banks – efforts styled as combating ‘predatory lending.’”
Sol Stern of the City Journal, who also wrote an extensive piece on ACORN, stated the group’s “radical agenda” occasionally broke through to “undisguised authoritarian socialism.”
He wrote ACORN works to drive big businesses out of cities and force companies that want to move to obtain “exit visas.”
Intrusive, radical tactics
ACORN protests have turned violent, at times as soon as the rallies began. Some protests disrupted Federal Reserve hearings and busted into closed city council meetings.
Stern noted that in 2003, Baltimore ACORN underlings piled garbage in front of City Hall to protest lack of services in poor neighborhoods, wielded huge inflated rubber sharks to disrupt a bankers’ dinner and even staged a profanity-laced protest in front of the home of the city’s mayor, Martin O’Malley.
“They unloaded a busload of people shouting pretty ugly things and scared the daylights out of my wife and kids,” O’Malley told the Baltimore Sun. “I thought it was a pretty cruddy thing to do.”
Obama not only paid ACORN through a front company, Citizens Services Inc this year, hiding payments to ACORN in the end, his association with the group goes back more than a decade. Klein did miss one other problem with ACORN, taxpayer money is funneled from ACORN Housing Corporation to ACORN, the political arm of the group. As of today the amount being touted in a report it is at least $31 million dollars they have received since 1998.
Obama’s association with ACORN is long and very close.
Is this the person we want as our next president? I think not.
For me, It is McCain/Palin, they put country first and talk straight!
This is delicious….ACORN calls Obama a liar. Of course if you don’t know by now that Obama lied about his “friendship” with ACORN, then you didn’t watch the debate. He lied in the debate too. ACORN now comes out to correct Obama’s fallacies….
Carla Marinucci reports in today’s San Francisco Chronicle “In last night’s debate, Sen. John McCain suggested that ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was responsible for massive voter fraud that could destroy ”the fabric of democracy.” Now the leaders of the community organizing group have emerged with an aggressive effort to push back.
“In a conference call …
ACORN organizers this morning [told reporters] that Sen. Barack Obama, as a local elected official in Chicago, participated in two training sessions for 50 volunteer leaders.
In addition, he and his law firm represented a group of plantiffs, including ACORN, regarding motor votor registration issues. They said his campaign has also provided about $80,000 in funding to an independent consulting group, which in turn provided some funding to ACORN to get out the vote.
[...]
And the GOP fires back with this:
But GOP strategist Patrick Dorinson responds that the organization is “fighting back hard because they’re afraid. The fact that they’re so vigorously pushing back tells me that there’s more there than is being revealed. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Of course there is fire. Here is The Real Barack Obama’s update:
FBI investigates ACORN, Fox News:
It is about time. ACORN has been doing this for at least 5 election cycles. Interesting the GOP lawyer in this video says the Justice Department is full of careerists that came out of the ACORN era. Will there be a fair investigation and subsequent prosecution that will finally bring this group to justice? You decide. Go to the voting booth on November 4th and vote NoBama and it will be a vote for democracy. It will be a vote for our country first, Obama’s Socialistic agenda second.
First I must say I thought Sen John McCain was brilliantly funny. The man who says “Hi you jerks”. This is the McCain I remember from the past. This is the McCain I want to see on the campaign trail for the next 2 weeks or so. His sense of humor and self-deprecation were remarkable last night. Let’s listen in for a moment:
McCain had me in tears I was laughing so hard … It was wonderful moment during a momentous night. And the work done by this foundation is great. McCain really gets snarky with the media especially MSNBC. Watch more:
He brought down the house last night! This the real John McCain.
Many of the people who visit this blog have no idea who the real Ms Placed Democrat is. I am going to introduce myself to you. I am a 100% disabled Navy veteran who served on the USS Yellowstone (AD-41), some 23 years ago. In 1985 I deployed to the Mediterranean for a sixth month tour. Six months later we returned to Norfolk, VA to much fanfare. As we cruised up the Yorktown River, the song God Bless The USA was playing everywhere.
Today I finally saw the video of Lee Greenwood and Sarah Palin and once more that song was playing. For just a moment in time I returned to that day 22 years ago when I stood at attention on the deck of that ship, peering through the crowd for my family, but most especially my children. And I found them in the throngs of crowds. A mother’s heart was once again whole. Today I am shedding tears not because I am sad but because Sarah and Lee Greenwood brought back me to those wonderful memories of yesterday that often get lost in the busy-ness of today.
I hope you enjoy Sarah and Lee Greenwood together as much as I did. This election is truly about the wonderful country I served for more than 13 years, sadly my career was cut short but I never forget the people I served during those years, nor people like Lee Greenwood who gave so much to those of us who served.
Remember this election is about Country First! And thank a veteran the next time you meet one. And if you are a veteran, shake their hand and say “Welcome Home”.
The Democratic Party and Obama beat democracy to death by cheating in the caucus states this year, state after state. And now the Supreme Court beats a dead horse again. Democracy died again today at Scotus’ hand. Enough beating a dead horse, please.
The New York Times had the story today. Here is their take on it:
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court’s order requiring state officials in Ohio to supply information that would have made it easier to challenge prospective voters. The decision was a setback for Ohio Republicans, who had sued to force the Ohio secretary of state, a Democrat, to provide information about database mismatches to county officials.
The decision has the potential to affect as many as 200,000 of the 660,000 new voters who have been registered in Ohio since Jan. 1, according Social Security Administration and state election officials.
The Supreme Court, in a brief, unsigned decision, said lower federal courts in Ohio should not have ordered the secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, to turn over the information. The court acted just before a deadline requiring Ms. Brunner to act set by a federal judge in Columbus.
I am not a lawyer but I have to ask a question, did SCOTUS just allow fraudulent registrations and votes in Ohio? You decide!
Read more:
A 2002 federal law, the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, requires states to check voter registration applications against government databases like those for driver’s license records. Names that do not match are flagged. Ohio Republicans sought to require Ms. Brunner to provide information about mismatches to local officials.
Those officials could use information to require voters to cast provisional ballots rather than regular ones. They could also allow partisan poll workers to challenge people on the lists. Given Democratic success in registering new voters this year, those actions would probably affect that party’s supporters disproportionately.
The remainder of the SCOTUS decision is what disturbs me most. (By the way if there is a lawyer out there leave me a comment and explain all of this to all the non-lawyers out there.)
The court said it expressed “no opinion on the question whether HAVA is being properly implemented.” But it said that Congress probably had not intended to allow private litigants like political parties to sue to enforce the part of the law concerning databases.
And of course Brunner who appears to be encouraging voter fraud is happy. This discussion does not protect all voters, it takes away from the voter who votes legally unlike the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, etc…students who are voting illegally according to Ohio law.
Ms. Brunner welcomed Friday’s ruling from the Supreme Court.
“Our nation’s highest court has protected the voting rights of all Ohioans, allowing our bipartisan elections officials to continue preparing for a successful November election,” Ms. Brunner said. “We filed this appeal to protect all Ohio voters from illegal challenges and barriers that unfairly silence the votes of some to the advantage of others.”
Ms. Brunner had also argued that requiring so many voters to cast provisional ballots would raise tensions at the polls and worsen lines and confusion on Election Day in a year when she is expecting unprecedented turnout.
OMG! The poll workers might have to do earn their money for a change. Too bad Brunner, you are still subrogating the law! And ensuring there is no transparency. The Republicans have a good arguement in my opinion:
Republicans rejected those arguments.
“It remains our belief that American citizens should be guaranteed that their legitimate votes are not wiped away by illegally cast ballots,” said Rick Davis, the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign manager. “What is no longer in question is the partisan nature of Jennifer Brunner’s efforts to minimize the level of fairness and transparency in this election.”
Officials in the Ohio Republican party echoed the sentiment and said they are still deciding whether to take the matter to the state Supreme Court.
Party officials had said they wanted the list so that local election officials could clear up any discrepancies before Election Day and in cases where that was not possible, those voters should vote using a provision ballot. Provisional ballots in Ohio are held for 10 days before being counted while workers check eligibility, and they are often subject to partisan wrangling and legal fights.
Friday’s decision also means that the Ohio Republican Party will not be able to make public information requests to get the data so that poll workers can raise voter challenges at the polls.
A good friend recently told me my blood doesn’t run red, instead it runs red, white and blue. It is my sincere hope this is true of most Americans today. With that in mind listen to the latest ad from Our Country Deserves Better Pac:
The saddest thing is that Obama’s thugs are trying to shut this television ad down. Once again Obama is trying to squelch our freedom of speech. Speak up America. Vote Country First on November 4th….
CHICAGO , Oct 15, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ –
The following is the text of an open letter to the nation’s hunters and sportsmen issued today by Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson:
And it is a very strong indictment of Obama and his stance on gun issues and the Second Amendment:
Fellow Sportsman,
Hello, my name is Rich Pearson and I have been active in the firearm rights movement for over 40 years. For the past 15 years, I have served in the Illinois state capitol as the chief lobbyist for the Illinois State Rifle Association.
I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama’s attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than does Barack Obama.
Although Obama claims to be an advocate for the 2nd Amendment, his voting record in the Illinois Senate paints a very different picture. While a state senator, Obama voted for a bill that would ban nearly every hunting rifle, shotgun and target rifle owned by Illinois citizens. That same bill would authorize the state police to raid homes of gun owners to forcibly confiscate banned guns. Obama supported a bill that would shut down law-abiding firearm manufacturers including Springfield Armory, Armalite, Rock River Arms and Les Baer. Obama also voted for a bill that would prohibit law-abiding citizens from purchasing more than one gun per month.
Without a doubt, Barack Obama has proven himself to be an enemy of the law abiding firearm owner. At the same time, Obama has proven himself to be a friend to the hardened criminal. While a state senator, Obama voted 4 times against legislation that would allow a homeowner to use a firearm in defense of home and family.
Does Barack Obama still sound to you like a “friend” of the law-abiding gun owner?
And speaking of friends, you can always tell a person by the company they keep. Obama counts among his friends the Rev. Michael Pfleger – a renegade Chicago priest who has openly called for the murder of gun shop owners and pro-gun legislators. Then there is his buddy Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago who has declared that if it were up to him, nobody would be allowed to own a gun. And let’s not forget Obama’s pal George Soros – the guy who has pumped millions of dollars into the UN’s international effort to disarm law-abiding citizens.
Obama has shown that he is more than willing to use other people’s money to fund his campaign to take your guns away from you. While a board member of the leftist Joyce Foundation, Barack Obama wrote checks for tens of millions of dollars to extremist gun control organizations such as the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and the Violence Policy Center .
Does Barack Obama still sound to you like a “friend” of the law-abiding gun owner?
By now, I’m sure that many of you have received mailings from an organization called “American Hunters and Shooters Association(AHSA)” talking about what a swell fellow Obama is and how he honors the 2nd Amendment and how you will never have to worry about Obama coming to take your guns. Let me make it perfectly clear – everything the AHSA says about Obama is pure hogwash. The AHSA is headed by a group of left-wing elitists who subscribe to the British view of hunting and shooting. That is, a state of affairs where hunting and shooting are reserved for the wealthy upper-crust who can afford guided hunts on exclusive private reserves. The AHSA is not your friend, never will be.
In closing, I’d like to remind you that I’m a guy who has actually gone nose to nose with Obama on gun rights issues. The Obama I know cannot even begin to identify with this nation’s outdoor traditions. The Obama I know sees you, the law abiding gun owner, as nothing but a low-class lummox who is easily swayed by the flash of a smile and a ration of rosy rhetoric. The Obama I know is a stony-faced liar who has honed his skill at getting what he wants – so long as people are willing to give it to him.
That’s the Barack Obama I know.
The ISRA is the state’s leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. Founded in 1903, the ISRA has represented the interests
of millions of law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.
WEB SITE: http://www.isra.org
SOURCE Illinois State Rifle Association
I am a bitter white gun clinging, Bible clinging United States Navy disabled veteran and I stand in allegiance of this group pf sportsmen. Thank you Richard Pearson for setting the record straight … now we understand Obama’s comments about gun owners.
My dear friend Shtuey has written one of the most moving pieces I have read to date, “The Tree of Peace”. Please read his post. Let me know what you think!
For over two centuries Americans have prided themselves over the document that serves as the basis of our nation’s republic; the Constitution of the United States of America. Conceived in wake of the initiation of the greatest social contract in the history of Western society, America’s founding principle is that each of us (certainly it has taken a while to fully define the “us,” but that’s another post) possesses the unalienable human right to liberty; the freedom to live one’s life as they see fit, provided that the individual does not trod upon the liberty and rights of another individual. It was, and is like nothing ever conceived…by Western society. Here in North America there exists the longest standing participatory democracy on earth, but it is not the United States. It is the Six Nation Confederacy of the Haudenesaunee (you know it as the Iroquois Confederacy).
At least 200 years before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed, this confederacy was created for the mutual defense and peace of its members. The Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk, and Cayuga comprised the original confederacy founded sometime in the 1570′s (by the estimates of European calendars), with the Tuscarora migrating to what is now New York State in the 1700′s. The final Tuscarora migration ended in 1803.
It was the Great Peacemaker, Deganawida, who brought the nations together under the Gayanashagowa, the Great Law of Peace, the Haudenesaunee constitution symbolized by the White Tree of Peace. Many legends are told, but it is commonly held that his first disciple was Hiawatha. His vision that peace would come through a uniting of the nations drove him to bring the confederacy together. Essentially the premise of the Confederacy’s structure is that each nation remained autonomous in its own local affairs, with a great council holding sway over the affairs pertaining to the Confederacy as a whole; to put it in familiar terms to, “…establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare…” I would argue that in many ways the Haudenesaunee Confederacy is more closely related to the Articles of Confederation in that the Articles clearly held up the states as totally autonomous entities, but there is no doubt that the Confederacy structure played a part in the creation of the Articles, as well as the Constitution. It also seems that they have formed a more perfect union. I believe there are two central reasons for this. Firstly, it is a participatory democracy, whereas ours is a representative democracy. Secondly, from the outset the governing structure of the Confederacy was egaliarian. Read more »
Senator Obama supports licenses for illegal immigrants. This should worry all Americans. Why? Because 13 of the 19 terrorists that infiltrated our country and took down the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon killing so many had driver’s licenses. Obama’s plan leaves us open to more infiltration. Listen to the follwoing video, it is an ad from The National Trust PAC (NRTPac):
Now be honest with yourself, do we want this radical Obama, in our White House? I don’t. And there really should be no question in your mind after viewing the video. Obama’s blood does not appear to run RED, WHITE and BLUE. Does yours?
On October 16th, ACORN reported an apparent break in at their Fields Corner office in Dorchester, MA. The story, “ACORN office in Fields Corner burglarized, ransacked, was covered” by a neighborhood newspaper, Dorchester Reporter. Here some quotes from that story:
ACORN Massachusetts’ head organizer Noemi “Mimi” Ramos arrived at the organization’s offices in Fields Corner Thursday morning, Oct. 16, to find the front door unlocked, three desktop computers missing, internet and phone lines ripped out of the walls and general disarray.
Ten minutes after she was scheduled to start for the day at 10 a.m., she was calling the police instead. Detectives collected photos and fingerprints and discovered a small basement window open in the rear of the building at 196 Adams Street, with no sign of forced entry. The building’s burglar alarm was also torn out of the wall, and a vending machine was damaged, the change inside stolen.
I am absolutely shocked. I spent part of my youth in those neighborhoods. My grandparents lived right down the street from Fields Corner…. I digress… I am astounded that their computers were stolen practically on the eve the FBI announced a nationwide investigation into their activities. This break-in leaves me very suspicious and with some questions.
What has ACORN got to hide from the FBI? Was this an inside job? Why has it been rumored that ACORN offices are being shut down across the country?
ACORN needs to come clean. And by the way Obama calling for an special prosecutor to investigate ACORN is political pandering. On this there is no doubt. Look who Obama wants to investigate ACORN … the very same special prosecutor who is investigating the U.S. attorney firing scandal, Special Prosecutor Nora Dannehy.
This move by Obama is pure Chicago politics; when confronted with accusations of wrong doing, throw up as much smoke as possible in order to deflect attention.
This “I am shocked – shocked I tell you! Please investigate this horrible situation…” has been used successfully in the past by Mayor Daley. And Obama is also using this situation to go on the attack – another classic move right out of the Chicago political handbook: “When caught red handed, blame your opponent.”
“Fraud AND suppression?” Turning a defense against a political attack into an attack on your opponent is very clever but I doubt if too many people besides the conspiratorial loons who make up the Democratic party base actually believe that GOP election monitors “supress” any votes except perhaps from those who try to vote illegally. In the universe of the liberal Democrats, the law doesn’t matter – especially if the person trying to break the law was going to vote for them. It’s why they oppose voters having to show any identification at all in order to vote. Why shouldn’t felons, illegal aliens, and people coming from out of state be able to vote in perfect confidence that no one will ever challenge their criminal activity?
Obama is hoping that no such move is made to engage the special prosecutor in this matter. He knows the odds of it are extremely long. Perhaps McCain and Bush should call his bluff and agree. Then where will the Messiah be?
Sweating out an investigation that already shows a lot of dots that could be connected that lead from ACORN right to his campaign.
I am left with one last question? Is Dannehy a Democrat? Is this more of Obama’s partisan politics?
According to a story at NoQuarter by Larry Johnson, ACORN owes the federal government $547,312…. My immediate question is why? Why do they owe the federal government back taxes when they have received more than $31 million dollars in funding from the feds since 1998? This money has been funneled from ACORN Housing Corporation to its political arm, ACORN and Project Vote…….
More from his report:
INITIAL AMOUNT: $547,312
INITIAL DOCKET #: 424212708
AMOUNT: $547,312
FILING DATE: 03/10/2008
INITIAL DATE: 03/10/2008
UPDATE DATE: 05/07/2008
Name SSN/EIN Address
IRS
PLAINTIFF
ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW
DEBTOR
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117
Of course, this raises some even more interesting questions.
Did Barrack’s $832,000 payment to Citizen Services, Inc., a subsidiary of ACORN, earlier this year have anything to do with helping ACORN pay off its debt? If the goddamn media is going to subject one lone American, who has the audacity to ask the Golden Child a sincere question, to the equivalent of a forensic audit, is it too much to ask that they do the same for organizations implicated in voter fraud and other criminal activity? Just a thought.
I once owned a small business myself and wondered the same thing Sam did. What will Obama’s tax plan cost a small business owner? I know it will cost enough that a friend who is a small business owner is no longer voting for Obama. I think that speaks volumes.
The Washington Times carried this story, “Complaint hits Rezko land deal” because a fired official says appraisal was replaced in the Rezko file.
A former Illinois bank official, now claiming whistleblower status, says bank officials replaced a loan reappraisal that he prepared for a Chicago property that was purchased by the wife of now-convicted felon Tony Rezko, part of which was later sold to next-door neighbor Barack Obama.
Now this is has got to be making people ask questions about the Obama mortgage/Rezko land deal. I know I am.
More from the story:
In a complaint filed Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Kenneth J. Connor said that his reappraisal of Rita Rezko’s property was replaced with a higher one and that he was fired when he questioned the document.
Mr. Connor, a real estate and commercial credit analyst at the Mutual Bank Corp. in Chicago, also noted in the complaint that the bank received a grand jury subpoena in October 2006 requiring it to produce information concerning Mrs. Rezko’s purchase, including the bank’s files on the property.
The complaint also said that the grand jury wanted information on Mrs. Rezko’s checking account and loan file and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) had audited the Rezko file – although Mr. Connor’s lower reappraisal had been replaced with a higher amount.
“Connor’s internal whistle-blowing activity at Mutual Bank implicates Mutual Bank and the potentially guilty officers thereof to prosecution under federal and Illinois statutes,” said the complaint, filed by attorney Glenn R. Gaffney.
The complaint said Mutual Bank officials could be guilty of making false statements, willfully overvaluing property, bank fraud, witness retaliation, willful violation of a lawful subpoena, FDIC violations, and state banking regulations.
According to KRQE – Alberquerque, New Mexican Republicans found 28 suspect ballots in one district in the state during the primaries in that state.
From the story:
The New Mexico Republican Party said that they believe 28 people voted fraudulently in an Albuquerque state House district in the June Democratic primary.
The Republican Party found the problems in a review of 92 newly registered voters in House District 13.
State Rep. Justine Fox-Young, an Albuquerque Republican, says a number of the suspected fraudulent voters voted by absentee ballot.
Republicans released details for 10 of those votes. The registration cards that were filled out had no social security numbers, drivers license numbers or birthdates for the voters.
Pat Rogers, an attorney who advises the state GOP, says they plan to turn the suspect ballots over to the state attorney general’s office and the Bernalillo County district attorney.
I have to admit I am worried about how deep this cheating in the primaries and now before the general election goes. Where does it begin and where does it end?
More from Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com:
The liberals defending ACORN’s fraudulent voter registration efforts have said again and again voter registration fraud doesn’t lead to voter fraud.
Well, we didn’t have to wait till Election Day to find out they’re wrong.
The Associated Press reported Friday that the New Mexico GOP found 28 people who voted fraudulently in Albuquerque during the June Democratic primary by absentee ballot. One of the ballots was cast from someone named “Duran-Duran”.
More proof of fraudulent voting. First we have two young college women identifying fraudulent voting in Ohio, now this.
More from Carpenter:
Conservatives are calling on Congress to defund ACORN of their federal funding. With increasing evidence ACORN is involved in voter registration fraud and voter fraud, as shown in Albuquerque, it become more important ACORN be stripped of their federal assistance.
The ACORN office in Albuquerque has been a beneficiary of generous federal tax dollars. Information from House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office shows that Albuquerque’s ACORN branch has received $349,253 in federal tax dollars since 1998.
ACORN fraud will cost taxpayers countless more dollars, in Albuquerque and elsewhere, as local election officials are forced to spend hundreds of hours investigating the thousands of fraudulent voter applications ACORN has submitted across the nation.
The FBI launched a nationwide investigation against ACORN Wednesday.
Not only should ACORN be stripped of federal assistance, they should be prosecuted for their activities. The Democrats including Obama who have helped aupport this group ACORN should be voted out of Congress. It is time for real reform in DC, the only candidates willing to take on that challeneg are McCain/Palin. For those of you who think I am a Republican, I am not. I am a former Hillary Clinton supporter who allows no man to tell me to get in line, especially Obama who appears to hate women and support sexism and misogyny…….
In an exclusive interview tonight, a senior Hamas official heaped praise on Sen. Joe Biden, calling him a “very nice” person and a “great man” whose record “speaks volumes” and who can be counted on by the terror group to engage in the “right policy” toward the Middle East.
During the interview with WND’s Aaron Klein and WABC Radio’s John Batchelor, the Hamas figure also expressed hope regarding Sen. Barack Obama’s “vision for change,” announcing Hamas will send Obama a letter of congratulation “the moment he will win the election.“
Don’t you just love it, even Hamas thinks Obama is going to win. That is the slewed perception our MSM has given terrorists. Klein has more from Hamas:
Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in the Gaza Strip, called Biden a “very prominent figure when it comes to the politics of the region.”
“I do believe Mr. Biden, he is well known, he is familiar with the situation here in Palestine. I think he is a very nice person. … Yes, he is well aware of the political situation here in Palestine, and I do believe he might do something to change the bad image about America and enhance that image,” Yousef said during the interview.
“His record speaks volumes. I do believe Mr. Biden is a great man. And we do count on him also as a good partner with Mr. Obama to put the right policy regarding how to handle the problems in the region.”
Speaking about Obama, Yousef commented that it’s “good for America to have a new administration with someone like Mr. Obama and his vision for a change.”
“I do believe actually with this administration, with the Bush administration we don’t have luck (ending Hamas’ isolation). …We as Palestinians are thinking that we might have better luck with a new administration, maybe, if Obama wins the election. I do believe he will change the American foreign policy … in the way they are handling the Middle East,” Yousef said.
This feeling of euphoria with an Obama win makes one wonder, how safe will Israel and the unity of Jerusalem be? What did Obama promise the Hamas when he visited with them?
Read on:
Asked by Klein if he thinks Obama will be victorious next month, Yousef replied, “Yeah, I do. I am like the rest of the people. I am look (sic) for what really these folks are talking about, and after this financial crisis I do believe that Obama’s chances [are] better than Mr. McCain. That’s why we count on this change in the American foreign policy to be more fair and impartial regarding the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict, the way they look at the conflict and the way a new proposal or initiative may help solving the problem.”
Fair and Impartial? Obama and Biden? I hardly think so. I believe Obama wants to divide Jerusalem and return it to past times. A war was fought and won to reunite Jerusalem. Read more »
Reuters in an article says “Obama’s lead slips to 3 points”. This is excellent news for McCain. And good news for the USA. From Reuters:
Democrat Barack Obama’s lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race has dropped to 3 points, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Sunday.
Obama leads McCain by 48 to 45 percent among likely U.S. voters, down 1 percentage point from Saturday. The four-day tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points.
Pollster John Zogby said the numbers were good news for McCain, and probably reflected a bump following his appearance in the third and final presidential debate on Wednesday.
“For the first time in the polling McCain is up above 45 percent. There is no question something has happened,” Zogby said.
He said the Arizona senator appeared to have solidified his support with the Republican base — where 9 out of 10 voters now back him — and was also gaining ground among the independents who may play a decisive role in the November 4 election.
The best numbers come from the independent voters.
Obama’s lead among independent voters dropped to 8 points on Sunday from 16 points a day earlier.
I believe this shows a real turn around. And lucky for us. Obama is not the answer to our problems both financially and militarily. More from that story:
Obama, 47, who would be the first black president, enjoys strong support among black, Hispanic, Catholic and Jewish voters while the 72-year-old McCain holds a narrower lead among male and white voters.
Women, who are expected to be an important factor in the election, still favor Obama by a 6-point margin, although this has been declining in recent days.
Independent Ralph Nader drew 2 percent support in the poll, conducted Saturday through Tuesday, while Libertarian Bob Barr registered 1 percent, both little changed.
I am glad to see Obama’s numbers slipping among women. Obama supports sexism and misogynism in every facet of his campaign even among his own female campaign workers.
This is how they determined the percentages:
The rolling tracking poll surveyed 1,210 likely voters in the presidential election. In a tracking poll, the most recent day’s results are added while the oldest day’s results are dropped in an effort to track changing momentum.
This is a very positive trend for McCain. It is welcome news. Obama still can’t close the deal just like during the primaries against Hillary Clinton.
The poll done by the Army Times shows an interesting trend among the troops. It shows the troops strongly supporting McCain in the following article, “Military Times poll: Troops backing McCain”.
Sen. John McCain enjoys overwhelming support from the military’s professional core, a Military Times survey of nearly 4,300 readers, indicates, though career-oriented black service members strongly favored the Democratic Party candidate.
McCain, R-Ariz., handily defeated Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., 68 percent to 23 percent in a voluntary survey of 4,293 active-duty, National Guard and reserve subscribers and former subscribers to Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times and Air Force Times.
The results of the Military Times 2008 Election Poll are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole. The group surveyed is older, more senior in rank and less ethnically diverse than the overall armed services.
But as a snapshot of careerists, the results suggest Democrats have gained little ground in their attempts to significantly chip away at a traditionally Republican voting bloc in campaign messages and legislative initiatives, such as the recent expansion of GI Bill benefits, experts said. You can view the chart here.
Here are how the numbers breakdown:
McCain Obama
Overall 68 23
Army 68 23
Navy 69 24
Air Force 67 24
Marines 75 18
Retirees 72 20
White Non-Hispanic 76 17
Hispanic 63 27
Black/African-American 12 79
Enlisted 67 24
Officers 70 22
These are excellent numbers for McCain. I have been pretty sure this is how the numbers would breakdown. It may suggest that the military has more faith in McCain’s ability to lead as Commander in Chief. (Author’s Note: When Bill Clinton was running for president I had the same feeling about him. I was correct. He ended my military career 7 years too early. The Democrats favor a smaller military, I don’t see the same proclivity with the McCain/Palin ticket. The last thing we need right now is another drawdown of the military with jobs leaving the civilian market.) Read more »
The Associated Press (AP) has this analysis of campaign finance, “Analysis: Obama money dooms current public finance”, while McCain over at Politico has this to say, “McCain: Obama cash will lead to scandal”. Given the rash of questionable donations under fictitious name, employers and residences, I believe Obama’s finances have already led to scandal that is being ignored by the media and the FEC. And so does someone else. Read about that here.
I believe Obama’s cash has highlighted that current campaign finance reform falls short of the mark. If it doesn’t fall short of the mark then the FEC needs overhauling. It has begun to appear that they haven’t been investigating Obama’s finances at all. They have allowed him passes every time he gets caught with illegal filings. Why is the FEC failing to do its job? Is this all part of Obama killing the current system? And what kind of overhaul needs to be done now. May I suggest one … stop letting candidates change their filings … this is a consistent and significant problem in all cases.
From the AP:
When the Democratic presidential candidate reneged on his pledge to take public financing for the general election, campaign watchdog groups and newspaper editorialists pounced. They all hoped he would help salvage a broken campaign finance system.
Instead, he created a whole new one, and he destined the current system of public financing to the trash heap.
On Sunday, Obama’s campaign announced he had raised more than $150 million in September alone, a previously unimaginable fundraising rate of $5 million a day. Republican rival John McCain, who chose to participate in the public system, has been limited by law to spending only $84 million in September and October.
At Obama’s clip, his fundraising will easily surpass the $650 million total spent by President Bush and Democrat John Kerry combined in 2004. Indeed, by using sophisticated new social networking tools to reach legions of small donors, Obama has already exceeded the forecasts of some campaign finance seers who two years ago were predicting the two parties’ nominees would each spend about $500 million.
The extraordinary sum vindicated Obama’s decision. It also made a public finance system born after the excesses of the Watergate era look decidedly quaint.
Obama never had any intention of salvaging a broken campaign finance system. He intended to use it to his advantage. Obama was hoping no one ever noticed the fictitious names and over the limit donations. He refuses to be open and honest about where his money comes from despite requests from many watchdog groups. And his excesses are disgusting. There are people right here in the USA losing their jobs and livelihood and he collects nearly $650 million…..this is beyond pale. Given to excesses just like Obama himself.
More from the AP and probably most telling:
And finding the key to unleash a torrent of small donors is only part of a successful political equation. Howard Dean surged as a candidate with his unprecedented Internet fundraising in advance of the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. He lost.
McCain:
… suggested that his Democratic rival Barack Obama’s record-shattering fundraising haul will lead to scandal in their presidential race and future races, and he hinted that there may already be funny business going on with Obama’s legions of small donors.
… “completely breaking whatever idea we had after Watergate to keep the cost and spending on campaigns under control. First time, first time since the Watergate scandal. And I can tell you this: that has unleashed now in presidential campaigns a new flood of spending that will then cause a scandal and then we will fix it again. But Sen. Obama has broken it.”
… was referring both to Obama’s reversal on a pledge to participate a system that gave McCain’s campaign $84 million in taxpayer money but limited his spending to that amount, and also to recent news reports highlighting over-the-limit contributions to Obama given in under-$200 installments from previously undisclosed small donors. Some were fictitious and had listed names such as “Doodad Pro” and “Good Will.”
… “We know that when you have unlimited amounts of money — in this case $200 million unreported — and there’s already been stories of people who have made small contributions multiple times and all that. I’m saying it’s laying a predicate for the future that can be very dangerous.”
… “There’s $200 million of those campaign contributions — there’s no record. You can report online now. Two hundred million that we don’t know where it came from. Lot of strange things going on in this campaign. The American people should know where every penny came from,” McCain said. “They know where every penny of my campaign contributions came from.”
McCain’s promise to take public funding in the amount of $84 million dollars speaks volumes to his honesty. Making his full donor list available to the public highlights his integrity. It shows his commitment to campaign reform, something Obama can’t seem to commit to.
So now along with his scary allegiances we have to be concerned about Obama’s money. And we need to ask ourselves some important questions. Are there any more “Good Wills” and “DooDads” that have donated under the radar? Are there more illegal donations the American people don’t know about?
So little is still known about Obama while McCain seems to be the most transparent candidate in my memory.
John McCain appeared in Woodbridge, VA and was met by a crowd of Joe the Plumbers, but the loudest had to be Tito Munoz….a shining example of the America Dream… The ironic thing about Tito is he is originally from Columbia and now an American citizen complete with a US Passport. Tito cheered a lot but more interesting than that is the fact that there were others too. Rose the Teacher and Phil the Bricklayer.
They had one thing in common they were angry, not at Obama but at the audacity of the media and Obama to attack Joe the Plumber… Munoz asked why the media wasn’t reporting about Obama’s relationship with Ayers…
After McCain left, as the crowd filed out, Munoz made his way to an area near some loudspeakers. He attracted a few reporters when he started talking loudly, in heavily-accented English, about media mistreatment of Wurzelbacher. (It was clear that Spanish was Munoz’s native language, and he later told me he was born in Colombia.) When I first made my way over to him, Munoz thought I was there to give him the third degree.
“Are you going to check my license, too?” he asked me. “Are you going to check my immigration status? I’m ready, I have everything here. Whatever you want, I have it. I have my green card, I have my passport — “
Tito was ready to open his life to scrutiny because his perception is that the media has not done its job vetting Obama and felt they would vet him to if he spoke up. More from Tito:
“Yeah, I have my papers right here,” he said. “I’m an American citizen. Right here, right here.” With that, he produced a U.S. passport, turned it to the page with his picture on it, and thrust it about an inch from my nose. “Right here,” he said. “In your face.”
Munoz said he owned a small construction business. “I have a license, if you guys want to check,” he said.
And then there was his castigation of the press, noticeably absent Fox News. More from Tito:
Someone asked why Munoz had come to the rally. “I support McCain, but I’ve come to face you guys because I’m disgusted with you guys,” he said. “Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber? Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. . . . I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A.”
The scene turned into a mini-fracas when David Corn, of Mother Jones, defended press coverage. Munoz was having none of it. Why, he asked, would the press whack Joe the Plumber when it didn’t want to report on Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber? “How come that’s not in the news all the time?” Munoz said. “How come Joe the Plumber is every second? I’m talking about NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN.”
Tito didn’t let a bunch of self-righteous liberal media members stop him…here is his indictment of Obama….and he was not alone:
A black woman with a strong Caribbean accent jumped in the fray. “Tell me,” she said to Corn, “why is it you can go and find out about Joe the Plumber’s tax lien and when he divorced his wife and you can’t tell me when Barack Obama met with William Ayers? Why? Why could you not tell us that? Joe the Plumber is me!”
“I am Joe the Plumber!” Munoz chimed in. “You’re attacking me.”
“Wait a second,” Corn said. “Do you pay your taxes?”
“Yes, I pay my taxes,” the woman said.
“Then you’re better than Joe the Plumber,” Corn said.
That set off a general free-for-all. “I’m going to tell you something,” Munoz yelled at Corn. “I’m better than Obama. Why? Because I’m not associated with terrorists!”
Munoz had a lesson for all of us. One we need to take heart. It was lesson about the Constitution.
Meanwhile, the great debate was continuing, with Tito the Construction Worker and David the Journalist trading points. Much of it wasn’t terribly informative, but there was one lovely moment when a shouting match turned into a lesson on the fundamental meaning of American constitutional rights — and the immigrant was the teacher.
Watch the Mother Jones video of McCain supporters arguing with David Corn about media bias, taxes, and more here.
“Let me talk,” Munoz said to Corn. “I know the Constitution, and I know my First Amendment — ”
“I’m not the state,” Corn said. “I can’t take that right away from you.”
“No, no,” Munoz shot back. “Even the state, the state cannot take that right away.”
“Right, right,” Corn quickly agreed.
“Nobody can take that away,” Munoz said.
And indeed they can’t.
Unfortunately Obama’s campaign has tried to take people’s First Amendment rights away. You can read about that here.
Tito Munoz spoke out loud about media and its complete lack of integrity. Obama has still not been vetted by the liberal media. They too have been drinking the koolaid. They are complicit in pushing a man with little experience on the American electorate. A man who spends time with unrepentany terrorists. His words resonated with the thoughts of many middle class and hard working American citizens. Joe the Plumber is you and me. He is Tito Munoz.
And that is the real lesson we need to take away from Tito’s story……
Sunday night Hannity shared the second installment of Obama’s radicalism with all of America on Fox News. If you missed the first part of Hannity’s special is can be seen here. Here is Obama’s Radical America:
As of Sunday I think Biden is McCain’s secret weapon. Biden opens mouth and inserts foot once again but tells the sobering truth about an Obama presidency. He asserts that an Obama presidency would put the USA in danger. Grave danger. And apparently I am not the only one who feels this way. Read this report from Fox News.
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”
Not only will the next administration have to deal with foreign affairs issues, Biden warned, but also with the current economic crisis.
“Gird your loins,” Biden told the crowd. “We’re gonna win with your help, God willing, we’re gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It’s like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy.”
WTF? Biden is an idiot. He is telling us that he will tutor Obama on foreign policy. We don’t need a president who needs tutoring, we need a president that understands foreign policy and needs no tutor. Obama is a danger to our national security. Mark my words.
From Fox News:
Joe Biden may have handed Camp McCain a lifeline today by telling donors in recent days that Barack Obama will likely face a major international crisis during his first six months in office.
“Joe the Biden said a couple days ago that within the first six months, Barack Obama would be tested as president. Let me tell you, in his entire life, John McCain has passed every test given to him,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said during his introduction of McCain today at a rally outside St. Louis today.
The remarks by Graham began a day-long effort by the McCain campaign to use the remarks to make the experience argument against Obama.
Here are some excerpts from the McCain campaign:
“Just last night, Senator Biden guaranteed that if Senator Obama is elected, we will have an international crisis to test America’s new President. We don’t want a President who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars.
What is more troubling is that Senator Biden told their campaign donors that when that crisis hits, they would have to stand with them because it wouldn’t be apparent Senator Obama would have the right response. (Exactly. Obama will not have the correct response because he is not very well read or knowledgeable on foreign policies.)
Forget apparent. Senator Obama won’t have the right response, and we know that because we’ve seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign. He opposed the surge strategy that is bringing us victory in Iraq and will bring us victory in Afghanistan. He said he would sit down unconditionally with the world’s worst dictators. When Russia invaded Georgia, Sen. Obama said the invaded country should show restraint.”
Since McCain is alluding to Obama’s comments about the Russian invasion of Georgia, it is important to remember Obama’s first comments.
Here is Obama’s response to the 3 am moment (it took him a day or two to change his reaction but not until he listened to McCain’s response to the 3 am moment.):
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
Show restraint? What kind of a response is that to a bully in a schoolyard? It is no response. It is scary at best. And makes me think there will be tests for an Obama presidency, none that will end positively for the USA. It will test our national security….not one I am willing to take. And neither should you.
There are more worries about Obama’s campaign finances since his announcement that he raised $150 million dollars in September and far more questions about donors. Newsmax wrote about these discrepancies in the following story, “Obama’s Secret Campaign Cash: Has $63 Million Flowed from Foreign Sources?” and raised some issues:
A Newsmax canvass of disclosed Obama campaign donors shows worrisome anomalies, including outright violations of federal election laws.
For example, Obama has numerous donors who have contributed well over the $4,600 federal election limit.
Many of these donors have never been contacted by the Obama campaign to refund the excess amounts to them.
And more than 37,000 Obama donations appear to be conversions of foreign currency.
According to a Newsmax analysis of the Obama campaign data before the latest figures were released, potential foreign currency donations could range anywhere from $12.8 million to a stunning $63 million in all. With the addition of $150 million raised in September, this amount could be much more.
When asked by Newsmax about excess contributions, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said that contributions already identified as excess had been returned and that those the campaign was just learning about — either through news accounts or from the Federal Election Commission — “will be returned.”
“Every campaign faces the challenge of screening and reviewing its contributions,” LaBolt said. “And we have been aggressive about taking every available step to make sure our contributions are appropriate, updating our systems when necessary.”
And there is more. Look at what some of the donors had to say about their “over the limit” donations:
But many of the donors Newsmax canvassed said they had “never” been contacted by the Obama campaign or seen any refunds, even though their contributions went over the limit months ago.
In all, Newsmax found more than 2,000 donors who had contributed in excess of the $4,600 limit for individuals per election cycle.
Such donations, if not returned within 60 days, are a clear violation of federal campaign finance laws.
Lisa Handley, a stay-at-home mom from Portland, Ore., recalled giving $4,600 to the Obama campaign by credit card, contributions she made because “I love Obama,” she said.
According to FEC records, however, she gave an additional $2,300 to the campaign, putting her over the limit.
The Obama campaign reported that it had “redesignated” the excess money, which could mean that it had contributed it to a separate party committee or a joint fundraising committee, which have higher limits.
But if that happened, it’s news to Handley. “No one ever contacted me to return any of the money or told me they were redesignating some of the money,” she said.
Ronald J. Sharpe Jr., a retired teacher from Rockledge, Fla., appears in the Obama campaign reports as having given a whopping $13,800.
The campaign reported that it returned $4,600 to him, making his net contribution of $9,200 still way over the legal limit.
But there’s one problem with the Obama data: Sharpe doesn’t remember giving that much money to the Obama campaign in the first place, nor does he recall anyone from the campaign ever contacting him to return money.
“At the end, I was making monthly payments,” he told Newsmax. The Obama campaign records do not show any such payments.
According to Steven M. Warshawsky an attorney in New York City at American Thinker in his article, “Polls: Obama or McCain Is Winning”, polls should viewed with skepticism. Here are the three reasons for that:
First, there is the well-known problem of bias that results from how polls are worded. Second, the raw data for the polls almost always is “adjusted” by the pollsters to give more weight to the Democratic responses. And third, the results of the polls almost always are within the reported “margin of error.” The first two issues would require a detailed analysis that is beyond the scope of this article. But the third issue clearly proves my point that Obama is not “winning” the race.
Who is really winning? Warshawsky asks us to look at three national polls answer this question. The three national polls come from the Real Clear Politics (RCP) site: the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from October 4-5; the Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll from October 7; and the Rasmussen poll from October 8,
According to the NBC/WSJ poll, Obama is leading McCain among registered voters nationwide by a margin of 49% to 43% (these figures combine those who said they supported and were leaning towards the respective candidates). So Obama is winning, right? Not so fast. The reported margin of error for the poll is +/- 3.8 points. The “margin of error” is simply the amount of potential error in a poll’s results. This means that the results of the poll actually could be McCain 46.8% and Obama 45.2%. Very close, but with McCain ahead. The poll also includes 8% of respondents who said they were undecided. These undecided voters might decide to vote for McCain. Certainly there is no reason to assume they will vote for Obama. In short, this poll does not show that Obama is winning. At most it shows that Obama might be winning. On the other hand, it also shows that McCain might be winning.
Similarly, the Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll shows Obama leading McCain among likely voters nationwide by a margin on 47.7% to 45.3%, with 7% undecided. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 2.8 points. Based on the data from this poll, therefore, McCain could be leading Obama by a margin of 48.1% to 44.9%. If the undecided voters decide to support McCain, the eventual margin of victory could be even larger. Again, this poll does not necessarily show that Obama is winning. Indeed, the pollsters correctly noted that “[t]he race for President of the United States remains far too close to call.”
Lastly, the Rasmussen poll shows that Obama is leading McCain among likely voters nationwide by a margin of 51% to 45%, with 4% undecided. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 2 points. A-ha! Obama definitely is winning according to this poll (that is, assuming the undecided voters do not “break” for McCain). But there is something curious about this poll, which relates to the second issue I raised above about polls. This poll “weighted” its responses to reflect a predicted voting population of 39.3% Democrats, 33.3% Republicans, and 27.4% unaffiliated. However, in the last presidential election, just four years ago, the party affiliation of actual voters (according to the CNN exit poll) was 37% Democrat and 37% Republican. Perhaps Democrats are going to “out vote” Republicans by 6 points this year, but I think this is a very dubious assumption. In any event, there is no reason to accept the results of the Rasmussen poll over those of the other two polls (or over the results of many other polls I could have examined).
Before Warshawsky concludes his post, he looks at one more poll.
Before concluding, let’s look at a typical poll of the races in two important “battleground” states. This poll was done by CNN/Time on October 7 (also taken from RCP). According to this poll, Obama is leading McCain in Ohio, 50% to 47%, and in Wisconsin, 51% to 46%. The headline for the poll: “New Obama gains in battleground states.” Yet the margin of error for the poll was +/- 3.5 points. This means that, based on the results of the CNN/Time poll itself, McCain could be leading in Ohio by a margin of 50.5% to 46.5% and in Wisconsin by a margin of 49.5% to 47.5%.
The point is that polls can be skewed just in the way they are reported. And right now they are reported in a way that favors Obama. If you add in the margin of error McCain will appear to be winning.
Warshawsky has some more questions for the American electorate to anser. What will you decide is the truth?
Of course, in the past several weeks there have been polls showing McCain leading the race nationally and in the battleground states. Are the results of such polls simply to be disregarded? On what grounds? Why should the polls that show Obama in the lead be given more weight than the polls that show McCain in the lead? Such reporting reflects the bias of the mainstream media, not the “truth” about how the American people are going to vote this November. Moreover, the idea – implicit in the daily fluctuations of the polls – that large numbers of American voters are regularly switching back and forth between McCain and Obama makes no sense. Who knows any real people who are going through such mental and political gymnastics?
In short, the polls do not show that Obama is “winning” the race, anymore than they show that McCain is “winning” the race. What they show is that the contest is very close, and will not be decided until election day — when the American people actually go to the polls and cast their votes.
In my opinion Mr. Warshawsky is correct. We will know the winner on November 4th and no sooner.
Here is a partial list of the candidates plans side by side courtesy of US Budget Watch. Available here:
TAXES
McCain
Will make permanent most of the Bush tax cuts, eliminate the AMT, reform the estate tax, cut corporate income taxes, create a new, permanent R&E tax credit, raise the dependent child exemption, close corporate tax loopholes, and create an alternative tax system with fewer rates and deductions.
Obama
Will renew the Bush tax cuts for those making under $250,000, offer new tax credits for workers and homeowners, eliminate income taxes for many seniors, make permanent the R&E tax credit, expand the EITC and saver’s credit, and close corporate tax loopholes.
HEALTHCARE
McCain
Will replace the current employer healthcare exclusion with a flat refundable tax credit for those who purchase insurance, while implementing measures to reduce healthcare costs such as prescription drug reimportation, tort reform, better Health IT, and more consumer driven medicine.
Obama
Will move toward universal health coverage through mandates for employers and children as well as large public subsidies while enacting measures to reduce healthcare costs such as prescription drug reimportation, better Health IT, and incentives to increase efficiency.
SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain
Will reform Social Security in a bi-partisan manner, or by submitting a comprehensive proposal for an up or down vote if necessary; opposes increasing taxes and supports private accounts to complement, rather than replace, Social Security.
Obama
Will raise additional Social Security revenue by applying new taxes to income above $250,000 and will reform Social Security in a bi-partisan manner; has ruled out privatization and opposes raising the retirement age or cutting benefits. (Author’s Note: Here is one disturbing thing that affects seniors and those like myself receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, Obama’s Budget Plan Calls For Higher Health Care Premiums of Senior Citizens on Fixed Incomes.)
It is very important to know the candidates and their policy proposals if you are a voter. We know from experience many Obama supporters like him not for his policy proposals but for his “pretty rhetoric”. (Please go and listen to this actual radio interview from Harlem…it proves that Obama supporters have no idea what he stands for…) McCain is a “doer’, not given to pretty rhetoric, with a solid economic plan to get the USA out of this economic “crisis”. McCain is ready for this 3 am moment, Obama not.
This the most despicable thing any Obama supporter has done, beating up an old woman. And now Joseph Cannon of Cannonfire says he is considering becoming a Republican. He talks about this truly criminal behavior in “I am THIS close to registering Republican”. Cannon is finally waking up….
My god, what has Barack Obama done to the Democratic party? I used to say that all Obots are monsters. Perhaps the time has come to say that all DEMOCRATS are monsters.
What other conclusion should I reach, when every day I wake up to see my comments filled with hate messages accusing me of being a racist and a fascist, simply because I will not vote for a Democratic candidate who stole the nomination?
The Dems are now guilty of every sin they have ever ascribed to the Republicans. The Dems bleat about a mythical call to violence at a Palin rally, yet they themselves are guilty of both verbal and physical violence — as in this instance when Democrat fanatics assault a woman who won’t vote as they wish
.
It took physical violence for you to finally wake up. Here are some of the other things Obam thugs have done…slashed my friends tires twice, called my friend and I racist bitches on our way to hear Hillary speak in Denver, stole a person’s I-Phone and lied about it, then there is the Obama thug I met in Indiana who lied more than once to me (he said he lived in Savannah, GA…having lived there myself and married to a Savannah native, I asked him some questions about familiar landmarks…he couldn’t answer one…) and sent the Secret Service to visit a woman in Texas because someone volunteering in his campaign lied.
From the complaint filed in the criminal court of NYC:
“Defendant grabbed the sign [informant] was holding, broke the wood stick that was attached to it, and then struck informant in informant’s face thereby causing informant to sustain redness, swelling, and bruising to informant’s face and further causing informant to sustain substantial pain.”
The overly formal document doesn’t mention this important detail: the victim was a small, quiet, middle-aged woman wearing glasses, and the attacker was a loud, angry man who went into orbit at the mere sight of McCain campaign signs.
On a Monday afternoon, September 15, 2008, three McCain volunteers were holding campaign signs and distributing leaflets on a busy corner of 51st Street and Lexington Avenue. As they were peacefully talking to each other, they were approached by a man who, in the words of the victim, provided the impression of “a rather benign, doughy-looking guy — not a person I would have expected to assault me.”
More from Cannon:
Photographs show that young men were also carrying McCain signs on that occasion. The brave, brave Obot went after the small, older woman.
This is how the victim describes it:
I said, “What are you doing? You can’t do that!” And he was red in the face screaming, “You people are ridiculous!” And I said, “Yeah, whatever, but you can’t do that.”
So I reached for the sign that he ripped up, and he grabbed another sign, broke it, and ripped it to shreds. And when I said, “You can’t do that,” he took the stick from the sign and started beating me on the head with it. He broke the skin on my head, he scratched my wrist, and almost broke my glasses, and then he left.
I followed him down the stairs to the subway until I could get the police and I said, “You’re not going to get away with it.” And as soon as he saw the police he immediately went calm. He still had the stick in his hand, and you could see the injury on my face, and he admitted it. He was arrested. He actually said, “I don’t know why I did this. It’s just those signs, and this election, it has me so upset.”
Good God, what is the matter with this man? This is his excuse for beating up an old lady. I don’t know what got into me. Lock the man up and throw away the key.
Of course, the disgusting Keith Olbermann will NEVER mention this incident, even though he gave extensive coverage to the non-existent threat at the Palin rally.
The bottom photo depicts the assailant, so far known only by his initials, BF. When I can, I will print his full name and picture. HE IS THE NEW FACE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
(Author’s Note: I will hold you to this promise. I want to see if you are as good as your word.)
I have been a lifelong liberal, as was my father before me. But I am repulsed by a political movement that encourages such behavior. And yes, I do blame Obama and Dean directly. Throughout this year, the Obots have indulged relentlessly in the language of violence. They repeatedly called Hillary Clinton a cunt and a bitch. Time and again, they have threatened violence against anyone who commits the sin of not voting in the Obot-approved fashion. It was inevitable that their violent language would one day transform into violent deeds.
Not once have Obama or Dean condemned this disgusting behavior. McCain was civilized enough to speak against his own followers who stepped over the line; Obama has never done so, even though the Obots have behaved far more atrociously.
Silence equals acquiescence; acquiescence equals encouragement. Obviously, Obama and Dean intended to transform the Democrats into a band of barbarians. They saw what the Republican propagandists had accomplished in earlier years, and they became both envious and mimetic.
Good governance can never result from mob action. I will return to the Democratic party when the Democratic party returns to civilization.
Obama did teach ACORN direct action techniques. And now he allows his sycophants to do what ever they want. Obama’s excuse, I can’t control my supporters.
Obama’s Tax Plans Are BS! according to BestPoliticalVideos! At least that is what Penn and Teller think….well I am not so sure they actually helped make the video but their words make this video very funny. And as one of my friends penned…The patients are officially in charge of the asylum! Enjoy folks!
That’s your funny for the day. When you get down today think of this video and let out a great big guffaw! Then on November 4th vote for your Country First.
Obama has been known to call the National Anthem a warmongering song. He (a Constitutional law lecturer) wasn’t aware it is a permanent law to place your hand over your heart during the playing of the National Anthem.
And now Obama cancels the playing of the National Anthem at a rally. Where do Obama’s allegiance really lie? I know where mine does….and I know without a doubt my blood runs red, white and blue….I served my country for 13 years in the USN…..and still help my fellow veterans today! I support the troops as I always have….
Now listen to the story of Team Obama….dashing the hopes of the young man who was asked to sing:
The next time you attend a sporting event please place your hand over your heart. And tell five other people to do the same. The brave young men and women serving our country today do so to keep our country free. And they serve so we can live another to sing the National Anthem. On November 4th and before, please put your Country First. Vote McCain/Palin.
Thanks to Atlas Shrugs reader Craig may have finally uncovered how Obama is facilitating the donation fraud. It is an interesting story and makes sense how it is done. Here are excerpts from Pamela Geller’s article:
There is enormous amount of money being secreted into the Obama campaign from foreign sources. It is fairly safe to say these countries will be richly rewarded – Kenya, Indonesia but most of all – Obama will drop a load on the UN. Fosho.
The crooked, corrupt international one world global warmers have the largest stake in this election.
Back on August 14th, I wrote that Julia Gorin told me a funny story. About four months ago. Her husband’s co-worker wanted to see what would happen if he tried giving a contribution to the Obama campaign via a credit card. He used his Macy’s card. The system accepted it. He tried the same with McCain’s campaign, and the transaction wouldn’t go through.
The best is yet to come folks. First is from Craig the reader. Here’s Craig:
Atlas reader Craig submits to me the following,
I may have just uncovered how the Obama campaign is facilitating massive donation fraud.
I’ve read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering; how is this possible?
I run a small internet business and when I process credit cards I’m required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchasers address must match that of the cardholders. If these don’t match, then the payment isn’t approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:
Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999
Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn’t ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and… “Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift.”
This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it’s donors. Also, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn’t allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchasers name.
Not unless Obama’s campaign is warehousing donations (held back) and any that fail or are rejected by the credit card companies or for any other reason are covered by illegal donations.
In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.
Yes, and then cover them with illegal funds.
Sincerely,
Craig
PS I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn’t allow the transaction.
Pss I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went thru using the same credit card. I saved screen shots of the transactions if you want them.
And from another reader I assume:
She found the following information at Free Republic:
Somebody, high up, has access to millions of credit card, and possibly debit card accounts. This is how it works: An apparent charge appears on your account, then through the correction process, it disappears. An unauthorized charge delivers the funds to control of an intermediary, and the intermediary then reimburses the original draft on the account. The intermediary is a wealthy consortium of manipulators, who take the small contribution (always less than $200, so as to avoid the reporting requirements of name and occupation of the original source), thus providing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of “contributors”, and allowing ineligible contributors to cover up their participation. It would take the research of literally thousands of these accounts to uncover the pattern of “mistaken” charges, and if these accounts are held outside the US, there would be no overview of these transaction by any of the authorities that govern these transfers in this country. The only check on this is to review your own account, and those who had their accounts used in this manner. If individuals or corporate entities are already supporting Obama, or the Democrat National party, or any of the 527s that are anti-Republican, THEY are not going to say anything.
The above information fits in with the following rumor I heard from an unnamed source. The rumor repeated to me was this, that Obama was giving the homeless “ATM” cards worth roughly $50, they donated $40 to the campaign and were allowed to keep $10. Two unnamed sources witnessed this happen twice in Indiana in two different cities.
McCain’s site does not allow the same illegal contribution scam. Another site that has an even more secure safeguard in place is The National Republican Trust. They refused my donation because I don’t have an employer any longer. I am now totally disabled.
Here is another update from Cathy:
UPDATE: Cathy caught this in comment section:
Having worked for companies that process credit cards online, it is necessary to go through and manually disable the safeguards that they put in place to verify a person’s address and zip code with the cardholder’s bank. But international banks don’t currently have the same safeguards that banks in the US have, which also works in the One’s favor.
So most likely they’ve disabled the necessary safeguards for US cards which their merchant bank would be angry about if they found out since it exposes them to risk, as well as international cards which is an even greater risk because there’s no way to verify the information electronically for most countries, so they could just say they’re in the US with phony info and the card will still process online. The One could then just claim that they said they were from America.
Senator Clinton’s website worked with a reputable company that had the same safeguards in place for her online donations, seems like someone just doesn’t like to play by the rules that credit card companies have put in place.
Posted by: someone who knows at October 22, 2008 08:34 PM (54lqZ)
Will the FEC or someone in the Department of Justice ever investigate Obama properly? I doubt. I think the FEC and DOJ are cowards. I think they just won’t do their jobs because they are really non-partisan either. Come on down guys. I know for a fact at least one or two citizen complaints have been filed with the FEC and crossed file with the Attorney General of the United States….why aren’t you doing your job? Enough is enough……
This one will piss you off. This is the most blatant case of voter fraud to date I believe. So here we go from Tennessee:
Friday, 10/17/08, 9:30 PM: A few hours ago, Nashville’s syndicated radio talk show host Phil Valentine took a phone call from Lynn Greer, one of the two Republican members of the five-member Davidson County Election Commission. Mr. Greer was so angry he could barely control himself. (For the benefit of readers who aren’t familiar with Middle Tennessee, Nashville/Davidson County is a Metro area, in which the city and county governments are combined.)
He informed Phil and his listeners that earlier today, someone was bringing in vanloads of non-English-speaking Mexicans with no identification to one of the Nashville early voting locations. Along with the non-English speaking individuals came a bilingual woman to act as their interpreter. She informed the election personnel that she would accompany the voters into the booth, read the ballot for them, and insure that their vote was cast for the candidates of their choice.
The Davidson County Election Commission, including its Democrat members, decided that the individuals would not be allowed to vote on the grounds that since they were unable to speak, understand, or read English, they could not possibly be citizens, and therefore were not qualified to vote. In addition, Mr. Greer mentioned that these people were unable even to request the assistance of a translator themselves. Accordingly, Ray Barrett, Davidson County Administrator of Elections, instructed his employees to refuse to allow any of these individuals to vote.
And it only gets better from there:
However, someone prevailed upon Mr. Barrett to call the state in order to verify the Commission’s decision. Brook Thompson, the Tennessee State Election Coordinator, then ordered Mr. Barrett and the Davidson County Election Commission to allow these non-English-speaking individuals to vote through their bilingual interpreter despite their lack of any sort of identification and total unfamiliarity with the English language.
Phil and Mr. Greer briefly discussed what could be done. They agreed that the only possible remedy would be for the Tennessee Republican Party to file suit in a Federal court. He told Phil that while he intended to urge the state GOP to make the effort, in view of the recent refusal of a Federal court to grant relief to State Sen. Rosalyn Kurita (whose legitimate Democrat primary win was overturned by the big shots of her party in revenge for her vote in favor of a Republican Lt. Governor), he held out little hope that it would be successful. He also noted that even if a court should decide that the votes of these people were illegal, there is no mechanism for withdrawing them. These are not provisional ballots. Once cast, they are inviolate.
This is a long read but worth your time. I encourage all Tennessee citizens that are angry following this episode band together and file a federal suit. The suit in Ohio was overturned because the Ohio Republican Party brought suit. It is highly unlikely any court would refuse to hear a suit on this if it was brought by a group of concerned citizens.
Got to finish the story:
First, Brook Thompson himself called up. He told Phil that Federal law requires that these people be allowed to vote with the help of an interpreter if they wish. He pointed out that in some jurisdictions with a higher percentage of non-English-speaking individuals, the Feds require that ballots and registration materials be printed in four or five languages. Therefore, he insisted that he had no choice but to allow these people to vote.
Phil asked him about the requirement that prospective voters must be able to produce valid identification, and Thompson admitted that this is correct. However, he shifted the burden for enforcement back to the Davidson County Election Commission. When Phil asked him if he intended to send someone down to investigate why the ID requirement was not being enforced, Thompson began to stammer and splutter a bit, and finally gave a noncommittal answer to the effect that he’d look into it.
The next phone call was from a woman identified only as Barbara, who is apparently an officer in the Republican Women’s organization. She informed Phil that aside from the identification requirement, Brook Thompson is ignoring another legal mandate of which he is definitely aware. She insisted that the law requires that a prospective voter who desires the assistance of an interpreter must personally request such assistance. In other words, the interpreter is not permitted to go up to the election officials and inform them that she intends to go into the booth and help the voter. She explained that the law includes that provision as protection for the voter against coercion and other forms of voter fraud. Unquestionably, Barbara was accusing Brook Thompson of deliberately ignoring that provision of the law, and thus allowing illegals to vote.
Within a few minutes, a man called up who informed Phil that he had been involved in Tennessee elections for 20 years, and was intimately familiar with the applicable laws. He agreed with Barbara, and added that Brook Thompson is not an attorney, and is not an authority on election law, but is a political appointee – appointed by Democrats. This gentleman disputed Thompson’s assertion that Federal law mandates that voters be permitted to use an interpreter. According to him, elections are governed by state law, which plainly requires that any voter who wishes to use an interpreter must personally request permission to do so from the election personnel. He vehemently disagreed with Thompson’s decision allowing these non-English-speaking people with no valid identification to vote in a Tennessee election.
The caller also informed Phil and his listeners that any voter has the right to challenge any other voter’s qualifications. He advised all of us not to depend solely upon the election personnel, but to take the initiative and inform them of any questionable or suspicious activity which we observe at a polling place.
That’s where the matter ended for today. Since it’s now Friday evening, it is unlikely that there will be any new developments until Monday, 10/20.
And yet more from Tennessee:
Wednesday, 10/22/08, 5:00 AM:
As of yesterday afternoon, there have been no further developments. Phil Valentine reported that he has spoken to various law enforcement authorities, and none have been willing to look into this egregious violation of election laws.
During yesterday’s program, Phil spoke by phone with Quin Hillyer, Associate Editorial Page Editor of the Washington Examiner. Quin’s paper just published his column Quin-essential cases: No Righting Voting Wrongs in Ohio covering similar voting irregularities in Ohio.
When Phil informed Quin of these recent occurrences in Nashville, his first reaction was a gasp of surprise. He then remarked, “This election is being stolen right from under our noses.”
Phil is now trying to formulate a plan for some sort of direct action designed to force the relevant authorities to do their jobs. He’s been successful in such efforts in the past. For instance, he was responsible for the famous 2001 horn-blowing mass demonstration at the Tennessee State Capitol which resulted in the defeat of then-Gov. Don Sundquist’s proposed income tax. Whether he’ll be able to devise a successful strategy this time remains to be seen, but if I were a betting man, I’d be putting my money on Phil.
Notice a pattern here…the Democrats again. They are so knee deep in this fraud it is totally sickening. To think I am still a registered Democrat…..actually I just wanted to vote a straight Republican ticket while still a registered Democrat! My own form of torture and fun!
Good luck to Phil. And go get ‘em Phil, you have my support…
I honestly have no idea who provided this following analysis but it is supported by others like Dale Vaslow in his article, “Obama health care plan, voters beware” found in the Missourian…
Voter’s Beware:
Obama likes to say that if you already have health care provided through your employer and you want to retain that coverage, then you don’t have to do anything. You can keep your current insurance coverage.
What he does not tell you is, “Will your employer retain that coverage?”
Obama’s health plan says employers must either “pay or play”. The employer can provide significant coverage or pay a federal tax. It is proposed that an employer would be exempt from the $2,000 per employee tax if they pay at least 75% of the health insurance cost.
For example, assume you work for a large company that paid over $744 million in health care benefits for its 95,000 employees in 2006. That would average $7,800 per employee.
The incentive through Obama’s health care plan is to transfer a tremendous financial burden from the employer to the public sector. Assuming management and the Board of Directors do the math, the company could convert all employees to Obama’s National Health Care System and drive $554 million to the bottom line immediately!
The company could increase profits every year by over 1/2 billion dollars by simply dropping its health care plan and paying the per employee tax to the federal government!*
Now, what do you think the board will do?
Congratulations! Under Obama’s proposal, you are now covered under the national public health care plan.
But what if you have a family???
Oops! You will now have to purchase a public or private plan for your spouse and children.
To give you an example of what that costs, reference the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan and look up monthly premiums for a Fee For Service Plan. This is the coverage Obama kept referencing in the debates. The 2009 premiums run $1,120 per month or $13,445 per year!
But do not fear….Obama plans to subsidize those high premiums. If you are a lower income family, it is proposed that your annual premiums would be capped at 5% of your annual GROSS income. If you are a higher income family, the cap will be 10%!!! In other words, if your family’s gross income is $120,000 per year, you only have to pay $12,000 per year for family health coverage. If your family’s AGI is $134,450, you will have to pay the full premium. Read more »
This is a tale of two videos and two candidates. One about Senator Obama, the other about Senator McCain. Each describes one of the candidates during a significant life changing period of their lives. Please view these videos before making up your mind about who should be the next President of the US.
Obama’s Video:
McCain’s Video:
Who do you trust with our future? As for me I trust McCain because he has been tested in a way that none of us can understand. We look on and feel empathy for McCain but know he can take it. We know he will be tough on the Castros, Ahminejad and all the other tyrants…..we will face in the years to come.
I got this cute little joke in an e-mail the other day. The person in the joke is retired just as I am. I realize the advice in the joke is advice worth taking. Have a good chuckle.
JUST FOR FUN…
The other day, I went downtown to run a few errands. I went into the local coffee shop for a snack. I was only there for about 5 minutes, and when I came out, there was this cop writing out a parking ticket. I said to him, ‘Come on, man, how about giving a retired person a break?’ He ignored me and continued writing the ticket His insensitivity annoyed me, so I called him a ‘Nazi.’ He glared at me and then wrote out another ticket for having worn tires. So, I proceeded to call him a ‘doughnut-eating Gestapo.’ He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then, he wrote a third ticket when I called him a moron in blue.
This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I talked back to him the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn’t really care. I came downtown on the bus, and the car that he was putting the tickets on had one of those bumper stickers that said, ‘Obama in ’08.’ I try to have a little fun each day now that I’m retired. The doctor tells me that it’s important to my health.
And now another funny one:
Here is a creative approach to redistribution of wealth as offered in a local newspaper…
Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read “Vote Obama, I need the money.” I laughed.
Once in the restaurant my server had on a “Obama 08″ tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference–just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need–the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.
I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.
The next is a true story not so funny, but a good perspective on wealth redistribution. It was found in the comment section of the McCain/Palin blog:
An Open Letter to Senator Obama,
I am Joe the retiree. Yes Joe is my real name and I am really retired. I own my home, am debt free and enjoy a solidly middle income retirement. I got to this stage of my life by working for over 47 years. At first for other people, and later as the owner/operator of a small business. As the owner of a small business I achieved the American dream of being in the top five percent of income earners. To get there I often put in sixteen hour days sometimes thousands of miles from home.
My question to you is why the hell should I encourage my grandkids to work hard, take risks and sacrifice to be in the top five percent? If you are going to “redistribute income to people who don’t work hard, take risks or sacrifice to do what I did, what is the point?
I usually worked five to six months a year just to pay my taxes (federal, state, county, city, and all the other imbedded taxes the American people pay). Now you want to take from the “rich” to give to the poor. Why don’t you also just redistribute land and property? I think the Russians tried that about one hundred years ago and we all know how well that went.
You are killing the American dream by your so called redistribution of wealth. If you want to create a socialist government, have the guts to say that in your speeches.
Joe the Retiree
That is the fun for the day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed posting it. Although I enjoyed it twice as much because I got to read it again after I posted it! Have a great evening….
This week here in Kansas, my friend had three unbent nails driven into the sidewall of her tire because she has a McCain sign in her front yard.. This is not the first attack on her, all four tires were slashed while her car sported a Hillary Clinton sticker. And now a college volunteer for the McCain/Palin ticket has been punched and kicked. Not only that he held her up at knife point taking $60 from her and using that same knife to scratch a “B” in her cheek. This is bullshit and criminal….and makes me sick to my stomach.
I am sick and tired of the thuggish behavior by the Obots. This country has fallen to new lows. And it is being done by Obots. This has been confirmed by police here in Kansas.
Criminal behavior seems to be accepted by the Obama campaign. I have never heard him tell any of his supporters to stop their thuggish behavior. I have never heard him rebuke them, not once. So his believers seem to think this is an unspoken okay to perform these disgusting acts.
None of these words are portraying my anger. I am bullshit….and pissed off. This assault on female supporters of the McCain/Palin ticket must stop and stop now.
Obama better speak up before someone is GD killed. Earlier this week it was a senior woman supporting McCain/Palin who was beaten! Where the f$ck is Obama’s outrage? Here is the outrage:
The Obama-Biden campaign released a statement, commenting on the attack. The statement said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”
WTF? No outrage! And no rebuke towards his believers….now we really know what Obama’s ACORN “direct action” is all about and how the man himself is a co-dependent for these thugs! There is something fucking wrong and mentally unbalanced with Obama’s believers. Obama simply can’t be allowed to take over our country or our fucking freedom of speech…..and that is what happened today in a very violent way!
The Pittsburgh Police say the whole story was made up according to Fox News. But they offered no other information on the story. Who do we believe? Well we believe the police according to KDKA-TV as listed on Memeorandum. Why did she do it? We don’t know but it has little to do with the McCain/Palin ticket….
She does need to apologize in a very public way to McCain/Palin and the wonderful college Republican volunteers I met in Denver!
According to The Palmetto Scoop, Obama supporters have attacked a McCain supporters home in Maryland. In the news story filed Monday, October 20, 2008, this is not the first time. Just last weekend the GOP headquarters in York County was defaced. Signs have been stolen before but vandalism has never really spread to people’s home until this election and it appears to be spreading. See the picture below:
DEMOCRAT DISPLAYING GOP CANDIDATE SIGN WAKES UP TO FIND HOME, RV, TRUCK COVERED WITH “VOTE OBAMA” GRAFFITI
More from that story:
The wave of vandalism targeting supporters of presidential candidate John McCain isn’t just limited to South Carolina, as we experienced last weekend when thugs sprayed graffiti all over the York County GOP headquarters, nor is it limited to Republicans.
At some point during the wee hours of the morning, supporters of opponent Barack Obama attacked a private home in Prince George’s County, Md., defacing the house, an RV, a truck cover, and a two foot by eight foot yard sign. Apparently, the home owner was a registered Democrat and the local Obama fans were none to pleased with his decision to back McCain.
“I understand that in every election there are incidents where campaign signs on both sides are removed, torn down and defaced,” said Mykel Harris, Republican Central Committee Chair for Prince George’s County in a statement to the media. “But rarely do the perpetrators proceed to deface your home and personal property in your yard.”
More from Harris:
Harris called on elected officials, law enforcement, and appointed election officials take matters like these seriously and demanded that “persons found violating the civil rights of others via sign vandalism, voter registration fraud, or political intimidation pay a terrible price.”
Authorities apparently have no leads as to who who committed the crime, although the motive seems quite apparent.
“It appears that the current climate is moving us towards a new level of political intolerance,” Harris said, but promised, “The darkness will never prevail so long as someone leaves the light on.”
the Prince George’s County GOP will keep everyone up to speed on developments.
This shit has to stop. Has Obama rebuked any of his believers? Of course not. If anything his silence speaks volumes….and encourages the behavior!
The Ace of Spade has a very discouraging article on voter suppression….and you will never guess who is being disenfranchised….the US Military… Here is the article, “Military Ballots Being Tossed in Fairfax County, VA” and now it begins. From that article:
Military ballots are being tossed in Fairfax Co, VA because of a “technicality.” Not a lot of them compared to the size of the electorate, but more than a few.
The registrar of voters in a Democrat. He thinks it “stinks,” but the law is the law.
Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling – requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.
The McCain campaign said there’s not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn’t changed.
Democrats insist they’re biased towards access… so will they try to intervene on behalf of these voters?
Um, no.
Incidentally, a quickie law could fix this.
But they won’t do it.
Are Virginia Registrars Hard-Assed on Every Point? Answer: NO.
And who pressured them to do this? Well, the Obama campaign, among others.
Think he’ll make a call regarding our soldiers based overseas?
This is morally wrong. It is voter disenfranchisement in the truest sense of the word. I get it. It is okay for the military to die in Iraq but not vote if they don’t support Obama. I forgot the military supports McCain 3-1 and this disgusts Obama. The best way for him to make their votes mean nothing is to get the Democratic election officials to throw their ballots away.
Think he’ll make a call regarding our soldiers based overseas?
No because the military supports McCain 3-1!
More from Ace of Spades:
More: As usual, it gets worse. This in from Fairfax Phantom.
Fairfax county’s just enforcing the law in this election, eh?
Their boss, Fairfax County supervisor Gerry Connolly is RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AS A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT!!!!!!!
And then he came out for maintaining Fairfax County’s sanctuary county policy toward illegal aliens and called those who disagree with him racist.
And now his employees JUST HAPPEN to rule against military voters while Connolly is running for Congress?
It Gets Worse: The drive to sign up convicts to vote?
That was this guy too. He sent his henchmen right into the fucking prisons to get convicts to vote.
Convicts and out of state college kids can vote. Heroes can’t.
Local6.com has this story out of Longwood, FL…”Republican HQ Manager’s Home Shot Up Over McCain Signs” and the manager says the Obama (Democrats) believers are “far more aggressive in Seminole County”. See the picture below:
Are you beginning to see a pattern? I am. And yet there is no outrage from Obama. There is no comment at all. I will repeat myself, his silence speaks volumes and his believers know it. They are reacting to his silence with their wholesale thuggery.
From the article:
The home of a Central Florida Republican headquarters manager was shot up and damaged over his support of Sen. John McCain, the man told police.
Rog Coverely said several pellets pierced his Longwood home. Coverely showed several spiderwebbed-holes in the front windows of his home.
The Republican manager said he is convinced he was targeted because of new McCain signs he added around his home.
“All I can tell you is this, I have a very good relationship with my neighbors,” Coverely said. “I mow my lawn. The only thing that has changed is I have two McCain signs in my front yard.”
And this only the beginning of things in Seminole County….add trespassing, theft and vandalism to the thuggery:
Coverely said he has taken about 300 calls concerning stolen or vandalized McCain signs in the area.
“It says this campaign is getting vicious,” Coverely said.
Coverely said it appears Democrats are becoming more aggressive in the county.
“I wouldn’t say slipping, but I would say the Democrats have become far more aggressive in Seminole County because it is such a heavy Republican area,” Coverely said.
Again I never thought that Democrats could sink so low as to commit criminal acts. And the One is leading them to do it!
Naked Emperor News has provided us with a new and provocative Obama interview. The interview on the following video not only contains race baiting but compares Los Angeles to Bosnia. Watch:
I will leave you to ponder his thoughts. I think he is destroying Martin Luther King Jr’s dream. MLK’s dream was that all people get along together. Obama just wants to divide the country and has done just that!
Obama talks redistribution and salvation- bashes whitey:
Obama admits his Redistribution of Wealth is to SAVE the African American community SO HE CAN ENSURE HIS OWN SALVATION! (and Our Countries Salvation) He compares the plight of African Americas to the ethic genocide’s of Bosnia and Africa. He blames all of African American problems on “ONE GROUP” who suppresses them.
And, He says WHITE people don’t want their taxes to help black children.
Obviously, Obama’s plans to redistribute wealth is not something he just thought up.
Palin the fighter is the main reason I like her,although the list gets longer everyday. Sarah Palin is me she is you, she is every woman, no matter who you are. She gets hit in the jaw constantly by the liberal, elitist, leftist media and she gets right back up. Her motives are pure. She is a true reformer. Now we can thank OurCountryPAC for reminding us. Here is Sarah the Fighter:
Get over yourself… you so called “feminists”. You aren’t even in the same league as Sarah Palin. Let your pettiness dissolve and vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. She energizes crowds. She brings Republicans and Democrats alike together. Palin and McCain will give us a safer country, a successful war on terror and reform in Washington, DC.
Obama disses the Michigan State Police as well as other police departments “protecting”. This is not the first time he has dissed the police. He dissed the police in Oregon as well as slain officers by placing port-a-potties on a Police Memorial in that state. Obama violated a very important memorial to me (and many other friends and family, among them my brother-in-law, another friend, Woody, the bike cops I met in Denver, the Denver Mint cops and so many others too numerous to mention) and that story is available at PoliceLink:The Nation’s Law Enforcement Community.
Here is an open letter from a Michigan State Policeman:
Jason Kern, Michigan State Police
I have read all of the emails from not only some of the MTOA board
members, but from other Law Enforcement & Military personnel about
Barack Obama’s rudeness and what seems to be disgust for basically
anyone in uniform. Well, it’s my turn to add to the list of emailers
and here it is:
So members of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, Michigan State
Police, (me included) and other local agencies inside Calhoun County
are working with Secret Service in the security of Mr. Obama. Mr.
Obama’s bus arrives in Battle Creek and pulls into the stadium area.
Before Mr. Obama exits the bus, he has the Secret Service get off and
tell all Law Enforcement personnel in uniform that they now have to
stand behind the bus so Mr. Obama is not seen with anyone in a Law
Enforcement uniform before he gets off or while in the public view.
So, everyone from Michigan State Police, Sheriff’s Deptments and
other agencies look at each other for a brief second, go and stand
behind the bus out of sight so Mr. Obama does not have to see, or
been seen with, what to him is `undesirables’ since he refuses to
been seen or even acknowledge Military or Law Enforcement personnel
in uniform. And he wants to be our commander-in- chief!
At a time of war and terrorism in our world, this presidental
candidate who is being protected by various branches of the military
& law enforcement at the tax payers expense, refuses to acknowledge,
be seen with, have in his photographed background, any type of
Military or Law Enforcement in uniform.
But this is not in the headlines or in the news or on TV. The TV news
doesn’t show us marching around behind the bus. In the future, look
and see if you can see a single soldier or police officer in uniform
when you see Obama. Why? I wonder what the story or media frenzy
would be if it was Muslims, blacks, whites, Jews, or any other race,
gender, religon, and/or occupation, that Mr. Obama refused to be seen
with or have around him.
Why would I make this up? Everyone in Law Enforcement knows we have
traditionally had more funding under Democrats.
Just food for thought leading up to November 4th.
Jason Kern
Michigan Tactical Officer’s Association
Michigan State Police
Executive Board Member
Why won’t Obama be seen with the police who are responsible for his safety? Why would Obama defile a police memorial? Is he showing his disdain for police departments all over this country? Yes he is. I have no idea what his motives are, but Obama’s actions are disgusting. I hope the police departments countrywide stand up and vote against Obama. He is not your friend. He believes the police and law enforcement of any kind are guilty of racial profiling. See the example of an Obama exam he gave while a law lecturer at Sweetness & Light.
Racial profiling: Obama’s campaign literature states that he will call for a ban on racial profiling, even though Bush issued a directive that banned racial profiling in 2001. In his order, Bush said to the attorney general: “I hereby direct you to review the use by federal law enforcement authorities of race as a factor in conducting stops, searches and other investigative procedures. … I further direct that you report back to me with your findings and recommendations for the improvement of the just and equal administration of our nation’s laws.”
Just like I said Obama believes all law enforcement are guilty of racial profiling. With an edict from an Obama presidency all law enforcement will no longer be able to freely able to do their job for fear they will be accused of racial profiling. In my opinion law abiding citizens will be left in an unsafe country because the criminals will own it! They will own it because law enforcement will be crippled.
Here is a list of Obama’s mentors and their affiliations. When you look at them as a whole Obama becomes very scary.
Here is that list:
The following is a list (in alphabetical order) of the people who have most influenced Barack Obama and/or supported his political career:
Saul Alinsky – author, radical leftist, inventor of “community organizers”
Joseph Aramanda – corrupt Chicago businessman
Bill Ayers – terrorist, extreme leftist, anti-American
James Baldwin – author, radical leftist, black racist
Rod Blagojevich – corrupt Chicago machine politician
Iva Carruthers – radical leftist, Chicago black racist
James H. Cone – author, black racist, Communist, inventor of “black liberation theology”
Allison Davis – corrupt Chicago businessman
Frank Marshall Davis – author, Communist, black racist, anti-American
Bernadine Dohrn – terrorist, extreme leftist, anti-American
W.E.B. DuBois – author, Communist, black racist
Ralph Ellison – author, radical leftist, black racist
Louis Farrakhan – black racist, anti-American
Gregory Galluzzo – leftist, Chicago “community organizer”
Jesse Jackson Jr. – Chicago machine politician, black racist
Emil Jones – corrupt Chicago machine politician
Jerry Kellman – leftist, Chicago “community organizer”
James Meeks – black racist, radical leftist, anti-American
Michael Pfleger – extreme leftist, anti-American
Tony Rezko – corrupt Chicago machine politician, indicted criminal
Michelle Robinson – black supremacist, anti-American
John Stroger – corrupt Chicago machine politician
Jeremiah Wright – black racist, radical leftist, anti-American
Richard Wright – author, radical leftist, black racist
The three that had the greatest influence on Barack Obama were Frank Marshall Davis (his mentor during his teenage years), Jeremiah Wright (his pastor for most of his adult life), and Michelle Robinson (his wife).
Barack himself said in one of his books that the authors that he read who influenced him the most were James Baldwin, W.E.B. DuBois, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright.
All of the ” Chicago people” on the list are people that he worked for or that worked for him in furthering his career in the corrupt world of Chicago politics.
When one sees all of these people listed together, it’s a bit scary – yes?
Now look at the following video and let me know what you think:
Listen to Ben Stein. What he states is true. I am certain you recognized one name….Harvard University. Obama is a scary dude. On November 4th it is imperative you vote McCain/Palin and Country First…..
The Campaign Spot at National Review Online (NRO) has filed a story about death threats. This time they are leveled at a pollster who dared to publish anti-Obama polls. Here are excerpts from “Death Threats Sent to Pollster”:
After releasing this morning’s numbers showing McCain ahead in Ohio and Florida, the Strategic Vision polling company received several death threats through the contact e-mail on the company’s web site.
David Johnson, the CEO of Strategic Vision, shared the messages with National Review Online.
Here are the messages:
My goodness, your polls stinks. There are 3 polls that have Obama by double digits and only yours has Obama down. WOW!. How come your poll is the only one giving Palin high favor ratings? I think you nee dto be careful tonight when you get in your car and might want to check underneath your car. SCRAP YOUR IDIOTIC POLLS OR ELSE!
A poll that gave Sarah Palin and Barack Obama the same favorability rating is wrong off the bat. Be careful going outside tonight because you might not see tomorrow.
Why would your presidential election poll results be so drastically different from every other reputable poll taken over the same time period? Are they that dumb or are you guys that smart? Smart guys wind up dead.
Strategic Vision has contacted the appropriate authorities.
The company has contacted the FBI and appropriate authorities, Johnson said. There was, thankfully, nothing in the messages that indicated that the sender had actually sought out the location of the company or its employees. Johnson noted that while the messages came from different addresses, they all came within a short period of time, and that it was possible they were from the same person.
Johnson said he’s not fearful, but taking appropriate measures.
“It’s probably just a bunch of nut cases, but this is first time we’ve ever experienced something like this,” Johnson said. “It’s highly, highly unusual. We get messages in the vein of ‘your numbers are wrong, the other guy’s numbers are right’ all the time. But this has never happened before.”
This supports my assertion that Obama believers are thugs. They are into intimidation, physically, violent threats, assault and vandalism. We need McCain/Palin if for no other reason than the destruction of this criminal behavior. Obama is soft on crime, his believers know it so they keep right on performing criminal actions.
Enough is enough! I hope for the sake of Dave Johnson and Strategic Vision that the Obama thug is caught and prosecuted.
Read the letter and share it with others. The man has done a great deal of research reaching back to the debates during the primaries. It is a long read but well worth the time.
This Virginian is very well researched and obviously enraged!
Worth the read!!
To Barack Hussein Obama,
The New York Times carried a story on Saturday, October 4, 2008 that
proved you had a significantly closer relationship with Bill Ayers than
what you previously admitted. While the issue of your relationship is of
concern, the greater concern is that *you lied to America about it.
The Chicago Sun reported on May 8, 2008 that FBI records showed that you
had a significantly closer relationship with Tony Rezko than what you
previously admitted. In the interview, you said that you only saw Mr.
Rezko a couple of times a year. The FBI files showed that you saw him
weekly. While the issue of your relationship is of concern, the greater
concern *is that you lied to America about it.
Your speech in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008 about ‘race’ contradicted
your statement to Anderson Cooper on March 14 when you said that you
never heard Reverend Wright make his negative statements about white
America. While your attendance at Trinity Church for 20 years is of
concern, the greater concern is *that you lied to America on March 14.
In your 1st debate with John McCain, you said that you never said that
you would meet with the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and North
Korea without ‘preparations’ at lower levels … Joe Biden repeated your
words in his debate with Sarah Palin … while the video tape from your
debate last February clearly shows that you answered ‘I would’ to the
question of meeting with those leaders within 12 months without ‘any’
preconditions. While your judgment about meeting with enemies of the USA
without pre-conditions is of concern, the greater concern is that you
lied to America in the debate with McCain.
On July 14, 2008, you said that you always knew that the surge would
work while the video tapes of you from more than a year ago show that
you stated that the surge would not work. While your judgment about
military strategy as a potential commander in chief is of concern, the
greater concern is that you lied to America on July 14.
You now claim that your reason for voting against funding for the troops
was because the bill did not include a time line for withdrawal while
the video tapes of you from more than a year ago show that you voted
against additional funding because you wanted our troops to be removed
immediately … not in 16 months after the 2008 election as you now
claim. While your judgment about removing our troops unilaterally in
2007 is of concern, the greater concern is that you lied to America
about your previous position.
You claim to have a record of working with Republicans while the record
shows that the only bill that you sponsored with a Republican was with
Chuck Lugar … and it failed. The record shows that you vote 97% in
concert with the Democrat party and that you have the most liberal
voting record in the Senate. You joined Republicans only 13% of the time
in your votes and those 13% were only after agreement from the Democrat
party. While it is of concern that you fail to include conservatives in
your actions and that you are such a liberal, the greater concern is that you distorted the truth.
In the primary debates of last February, 2008, you claimed to have
talked with a ‘Captain’ of a platoon in Afghanistan ‘the other day’ when
in fact you had a discussion in 2003 with a Lieutenant who had just been
deployed to Afghanistan . You lied in that debate.
In your debates last spring, you claimed to have been a ‘professor of
Constitutional law’ when in fact you have never been a professor of
Constitutional law. In this last debate, you were careful to say that
you ‘taught a law class’ and never mentioned being a ‘professor of
Constitutional law.’ You lied last spring.
You and Joe Biden both claimed that John McCain voted against additional
funding for our troops when the actual records show the opposite. You
distorted the truth.
You and Joe Biden claim that John McCain voted against funding for
alternate energy sources 20 times when the record shows that John McCain
specifically voted against funding for bio fuels, especially corn …
and he was right … corn is too expensive at producing ethanol, and
using corn to make ethanol increased the price of corn from $2 a bushel
to $6 a bushel for food. You distorted the truth.
You and Joe Biden claim that John McCain voted like both of you for a
tax increase on those making as little as $42,000 per year while the
voting record clearly shows that John McCain did not vote as you and Joe
Biden. You lied to America.
You and Joe Biden claim that John McCain voted with George W. Bush 90%
of the time when you know that Democrats also vote 90% of the time with
the President (including Joe Biden) because the vast majority of the
votes are procedural. You are one of the few who has not voted 90% of
the time with the president because you have been missing from the
Senate since the day you got elected. While your absence from your job
in the Senate is of concern, the greater concern is that you spin the
facts.
You did not take an active roll in the rescue plan. You claimed that
the Senate did not need you while the real reason that you abstained was
because of your close relationships with the executives of Fannie Mae,
Freddie Mac, Countrywide, and Acorn … who all helped cause the
financial problems of today … and they all made major contributions to
your campaign. While your relationship with these executives and your
protection of them for your brief 3 years in the Senate (along with
Barney Frank, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, and Chris Dodd) is of
concern, the greater concern is that you are being deceitful.
*You forgot to mention that you personally represented Tony Rezko and
Acorn. Tony Rezko, an Arab and close friend to you, was convicted of
fraud in Chicago real estate transactions that bilked millions of tax
dollars from the Illinois government for renovation projects that you
sponsored as a state senator … and Acorn has been convicted of voter
fraud, real estate sub prime loan intimidation, and illegal campaign
contributions. Tony Rezko has contributed hundreds of thousands of
dollars to your political campaigns. You personally used your political
positions to steer money to both Tony Rezko and Acorn and you used Acorn
to register thousands of phony voters for Democrats and you. While your
relationships with Rezko and Acorn are of concern, the greater concern
is that you omitted important facts about your relationships with them
to America .
During your campaign, you said: ‘typical white person.’ ‘they cling to
their guns and religion.’ ‘they will say that I am black.’ You played
the race card. You tried to label any criticism about you as racist. You divide America .
You claim that you will reduce taxes for 95% of America , but you forgot
to tell America that those reductions are after you remove the Bush tax
reductions. You have requested close to $1 Billion in earmarks and
several million for Acorn. Your social programs will cost America $1
Trillion per year and you claim that a reduction in military spending
($100 billion for Iraq ) can pay for it. While your economic plan of
adding 30% to the size of our federal government is of concern, the
greater concern is that you are deceiving America .
The drain to America ‘s economy by foreign supplied oil is $700 Billion
per year (5% of GDP) while the war in Iraq is $100 Billion (less than 1%
of GDP). You voted against any increases to oil exploration for the last
3 years and any expansion of nuclear facilities. Yet today, you say that
you have always been for more oil and more nuclear. You are lying to
America.
Mr. Obama, you claimed that you ‘changed’ your mind about public
financing for your campaign because of the money spent by Republican
PACs in 2004. The truth is that the Democrat PACs in 2004, 2006, and
2008 spent twice as much as the Republican PACs (especially George Soros
and MoveOn.org). You are lying to America.
Mr. Obama, you have done nothing to stop the actions of the teachers
union and college professors in the USA . They eliminated religion from
our history. They teach pro gay agendas and discuss sex with students as
young as first grade. They bring their personal politics into the
classrooms. They disparage conservatives. They brainwash our children.
They are in it for themselves … not America . Are you reluctant to
condemn their actions because teachers/professors and the NEA contribute
25% of all money donated to Democrats and none to Republicans? You are
deceiving America.
Oh Mr. Obama, Teddy Roosevelt said about a hundred years ago that we
Americans should first look at the character of our leaders before
anything else.
Your character looks horrible. While you make good speeches, motivating
speeches, your character does not match your rhetoric. You talk the talk
but do not walk the walk.
1. You lied to America . You lied many times. You distorted facts. You
parsed your answers like a lawyer.
2. You distorted the record of John McCain in your words and in your
advertisements.
3. You had associations with some very bad people for your personal
political gains and then lied about those associations.
4. You divide America about race and about class.
Now let me compare your record of lies, distortions, race bating, and
associations to John McCain: War hero. Annapolis graduate with ‘Country
First.’ Operational leadership experience like all 43 previously elected
presidents of the USA as a Navy Officer for 22 years. 26 years in the
Senate. Straight talk. Maverick. 54% of the time participated on bills
with Democrats. Never asked for an earmark. The only blemish on his
record is his part in the Keating 5 debacle about 25 years ago.
Mr. Obama, at Harvard Law School , you learned that the end does not
justify the means. You learned that perjury, false witness, dishonesty,
distortion of truth are never tolerated. Yet, your dishonesty is
overwhelming. Your dishonesty is tremendously greater than the
dishonesty that caused the impeachment and disbarment of Bill Clinton.
Yoeeur dishonesty is tremendously greater than the dishonesty of Scooter
Libby. You should be ashamed.
Mr. Obama, it is time for us Americans to put aside our differences on
political issues and vote against you because of your dishonest
character. It is time for all of us Americans to put aside our political
issues and vote for America first. It is time for America to vote for
honesty.
Any people who vote for you after understanding that you are dishonest
should be ashamed of themselves for making their personal political
issues more important than character. Would these same people vote for
the anti-Christ if the anti-Christ promised them riches? Would they make
a golden calf while Moses was up the mountain? Would they hire someone
for a job if that someone lied in an interview? … of course not. So
why do some of these people justify their votes for you even though they
know you are dishonest? Why do they excuse your dishonesty? Because some
of these people are frightened about the future, the economy, and their
financial security … and you are preying on their fears with empty
promises … and because some (especially our young people) are consumed
by your wonderful style and promises for ‘change’ like the Germans who
voted for Adolf Hitler in 1932. The greed/envy by Germans in 1932 kept
them from recognizing Hitler for who he was. They loved his style. Greed
and envy are keeping many Americans from recognizing you … your style
has camouflaged your dishonesty … but many of us see you for who you
really are … and we will not stop exposing who you are every day,
forever if it is necessary.
Mr. Obama, you are dishonest. Anyone who votes for you is enabling
dishonesty.
Mr. Obama, America cannot trust that you will put America first in your
decisions about the future.
Mr. Obama, you are not the ‘change’ that America deserves. We cannot
trust you.
Mr. Obama, You are not ready and not fit to be commander in chief.
Mr. Obama, John McCain does not have as much money as your campaign to
refute all of your false statements. And for whatever reasons, the
mainstream media will not give adequate coverage or research about your
lies, distortions, word parsing, bad associations, race bating, lack of
operational leadership experience, and general dishonest character.
The media is diverting our attention to your relationships and ignoring
the fact that you lied about those relationships. The fact that you lied
is much more important than the relationships themselves … just like
with Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon … Monica Lewinski and Watergate
were not nearly as bad as the fact that those gentlemen lied about the
events … false witness … perjury … your relationships and bad
judgments are bad on their own … but your lies are even worse.
Therefore, by copy of this memo, all who read this memo are asked to
send it to everyone else in America before it is too late. We need to do
the job that the media will not do. We need to expose your dishonesty so
that every person in America understands who you really are before
election day.
Mr. Obama, in a democracy, we get what we deserve. And God help America
if we deserve you.
Michael Master
McLean, Virginia
(Blog Owner’s Note: Michael makes some comments about Hitler and the anti-Christ that I absolutely do not agree with placing in an open letter. It was Michael’s choice to include these in his letter. And I did promise to share this letter with others.)
Obama staffers pulled their bogus Ohio ballots yesterday. The New York Post has the following story, “BAM STAFFERS PULL THEIR BOGUS OHIO BALLOTS”…it wasn’t one or two workers, it was 13 workers! How many other Obama workers have done the same thing?
More from the article:
Thirteen campaign workers for Barack Obama yesterday yanked their voter registrations and ballots in Ohio after being warned by a prosecutor that temporary residents can’t vote in the battleground state.
A dozen staffers – including Obama Ohio spokeswoman Olivia Alair and James Cadogan, who recently joined Team Obama – signed a form letter asking the Franklin County elections board to pull their names from the rolls.
The letter – a copy of which was obtained by palestra.net, a Fox News affiliate – came a day after prosecutor Ron O’Brien publicly urged out-of-state campaign workers for both Obama and John McCain to “examine your conscience” before the elections board beings begins opening absentee ballots today. (By the way I really don’t think McCain’s team would willingly commit fraud and face felony charges.)
Get this Ron O’Brien cut a deal with the Obama workers. You have to wonder where his loyalties lie. Once again Obama gets a pass!
Earlier in the week, O’Brien spoke with lawyers for both camps and urged them to make sure their staffs met permanent-residency rules, or face possible felony charges.
Also pulling his ballot yesterday was Hofstra University grad Jake Smith, an Obama volunteer who had voted in Knox County, Ohio.
On Thursday, O’Brien cut a deal with 13 out-of-staters, including four from New York, who tossed out their already-cast ballots and admitted they didn’t meet residency requirements.
This is disgusting. If it had been a McCain worker the media would be all over it. Have any other newspapers covered this voter fraud? Voter fraud….and Obama believers get a pass! What did they just learn? They learned it is okay to commit a felony because they will get away with it. No lesson learned, criminal behavior encouraged.
Here is an action item we can all do. It is time ACORN and its misuse of taxpayer dollars (they are intermingled between ACORN Housing Coporation and ACORN, the political arm) is investigated. We can’t allow Obama to stall this investigation. It is time we make the government answer the American people. Elections be damned, it is time for Mukassey and the Department of Justice do their job.
I found the following information in the comments at America Thinker and felt compelled to share this action with my visitors. The article that contained this comment asserts McCain will win and the reasoning is compelling…”Signs Pointing To A McCain Victory”……
People, there is something WE MUST ALL DO IMMEDIATELY! We CANNOT put it off for a moment!
Please read the following message carefully, and PLEASE DO WHAT IT SAYS! It is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things we can DO right now—IMMEDIATELY. Please Read:
Last night, Id, one of my favorite AT commentors, wrote this as part of one of her comments:
“I have a constitutional right to free and fair elections.”
I was thinking the very same thing! We ALL have that right!
But in his over-weaning arrogance, Barack Hussein Obamas is not only perpetrating voter fraud on a vast scale, he and his campaign are now trying to pressure the Department of Justice from investigating voter fraud prior to the election!
WE MUST ALL TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION by doing the following, and we MUST get the following message out to ALL Conservative sites we can, AND to EVERYONE on our email lists!
1) Send an email to US Attorney General Mukasey like this one I wrote and sent yesterday. You can copy and paste this one if that is convenient for you:
Dear Attorney General Mukasey,
It takes my breath away that Senator Barack Obama is trying to pressure you and the United States Department of Justice into waiting until the 2008 Presidential election is over before you investigate allegations of widespread voter fraud. It’s believed that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of voters have been illegally registered all across the country. As a citizen of the United States of America, I am outraged that one of the candidates in this election is attempting to interfere with the carrying out of correct and proper justic prior to the election on November 4th. To investigate voter fraud after the election is over would be stupid and pointless. My civil rights as a US citizen are being violated—my guarantee to being able to vote in a FAIR and TRUTHFUL election—and I expect YOU, Attorney General Mukasey, to carry out YOUR sworn obligation to protect and to defend MY civil rights, and to MAKE SURE the 2008 Presidential election is FAIR and ABOVE BOARD.
I am appalled and disgusted that Barack Obama has the audacity and the gaul to try to stall an investigation by the highest law enforcement agency in the land! I EXPECT you to ignore him and to CARRY OUT your sworn DUTY IMMEDIATELY—BEFORE, NOT AFTER, the November 4th, 2008 election is over!
Yours sincerely,
___________
_____________
Send your emails to: Attorney General Mukasey at AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
THEN on Monday, TELEPHONE the Attorney General at this phone number, and tell him the same message: 202-353-1555
THEN, demand that the McCain campaign and the RNC make the DOJ investigate voter fraud NOW at:
akmccaincomments@yahoo.com
ideas@mccain08hq.com and at 907-575-7257.
WE MUST DO THIS, PEOPLE!! WE MUST STORM the DOJ and the Republican Party with angry requests that the DOJ investigate, finish and report on their investigation into ACORN voter fraud NOW, BEFORE the election, NOT after it’s over!
Join me on Monday. Let’s swamp the AGs office and show support to the Rep Boehner, House Minority Leader. Boehner has requested that Bush stop all funding to ACORN provided by the housing bill passed in July. Signed into law by Bush.
If you call Rep Boehner, please ask him to visit the following website www.consumersrightsleague.org/. This organization is in possession of 4 affidavits from former ACORN employees spelling out the commingling of funds between ACORN Housing Corporation and ACORN/Project Vote (the political arm of ACORN). It is imperative Rep Boehner gets the information.
It is time to stop the worrying, paying attention to the polls and counting down the days. Get active….do this simple action item. It will take a few keystrokes on your keyboard or dialing a few numbers on your cell phone. Let’s do this for America, for Country First.
According to Barbara West in the Orlando Sentinel, she had four minutes to complete her interview with Biden the other day, so she asked some very pointed questions. OopsI I forgot reporters aren’t allowed to ask tough questions of Team Obama. Ms West broke the Golden Rule. They have to do fluff pieces. Ms West wanted answers to questions that are swirling around right now including ACORN Team Obama is once again stifling free speech. This time it involves a reporter doing her job!
ABC’s Jake Tapper at Political Punch highlights some of the questions Ms West asked. Biden’s response was rude. Here it is: “Are you joking? Is this is a joke? Or is that a real question?”
Here is what Team Obama and his bots insinuated:
The Barack Obama campaign called Barbara West’s interview with Sen. Joe Biden unprofessional and combative.
Barbara West, KFTV
Here is what Barbara said:
The veteran WFTV-Channel 9 anchor-reporter says she asked pointed questions and respects Sen. Biden, who is Sen. Obama’s running mate.
In a call to me Friday evening, West (pictured) said of Biden: “I have a great deal of respect for him. I have a great deal of respect for Sen. Obama. We are given four minutes of a satellite window for these interviews. Four precious minutes. I got right down to it and, yes, I think I asked him some pointed questions. These are questions that are rolling about right now and questions that need to be asked. I don’t think I was rude or inconsiderate to him. I think I was probing and maybe tough. I can’t believe that in all of his years in politics, and all of his campaigning and such, that he hasn’t run into some tough questions before. He’s certainly up to it in giving good answers.”
Below is the video of the best Biden interview to date. Ms West was not rude nor was she combative. Judge for yourself.
Biden is lying about ACORN. I know Obama paid Citizens Services Inc/ACORN. I was the one at NoQuarter-NancyA who uncovered the payments, “ACORN IV: Obama, ACORN, Citizen’s Services Inc: False FEC Filings”. Other articles dated after mine I was the source for. Biden is lying about the middle class tax breaks. I know for a fact our taxes have gone down because I do our taxes every year myself. My husband and I have been getting money back from the federal government for several years running under Bush. Biden- the Obama Gaffomatic is now an inveterate liar right along with Obama…..
Do the right thing. Vote McCain/Palin. Vote Country First.
Get this video to all Democrats and Undecideds you know. This video highlights some of Obama’s very questionable ties. It is scaryand it is meant to scare you into voting Country First. Forget the Democratic Party, they are now the Undemocratic Party….
I decided months ago I wouldn’t ride the “Unity Jackass”. I decided months ago I would never let a man or even Hillary Clinton tell me to get in line. My loyalty is to our country first not to any candidate and especially not to any party. I am independent and quite capable of independent thought.
Now on with The Native Americans Against Obama video, my friends:
Please pass this video on. We have so few days left. Make them count. Vote McCain/Palin. Vote Country First.
Note: Update is at the end of the article. It is important that you read the update. Two people have been located that accessed Joe’s information illegally, but only one has been charged!
Samuel J. Wurtzelbacher was smeared purposely. But that is only the beginning of the story, it appears the information accessed about Joe was done illegally. The Columbus Dispatch says “investigators are trying to determine whether access was illegal”.
Here is more from the article:
“State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about “Joe the Plumber.”
(In my opinion there is no question access was illegal. Who paid for it? And who did it? are just two of the questions uppermost in my mind.)
If a state or local employee did this for monetary gain, they need to be brought up on whatever charges are available within Ohio.
More from the story:
Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.
Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.
It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver’s license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.
Obviously this access was politically motivated. Whoever did this, their purpose was to diminish any positive affect “Joe The Plumber” would have in the polls and the electionn. I have no proof and it is my theory, but I believe someone in the MSM paid off someone in the Ohio government to access Joe’s information. I certainly hope they got enough money because I am certain the person(s) responsible will be caught and hopefully prosecuted.
More from the story:
The attorney general’s office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher’s BMV information through the office’s Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.
“We’re trying to pinpoint where it came from,” she said. The investigation could become “criminal in nature,” she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.
Records show it was a “test account” assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general’s office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.
Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher’s information was not accessed within the attorney general’s office. She declined to provide details. The office’s test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.
On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.
Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher’s information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.
The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.
The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.
Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.
This is serious stuff folks. It better leave you asking questions. Was Team Obama involved? Was it a rogue employee paid by MSM? The is the basest thing I have heard so far this General Election cycle or any election in my 49 years. Can it get worse? I hope not!!!
Vote McCain/Palin to keep your personal information safe. Vote Country First so we don’t get “TESTED” again like we did on 9/11.
UPDATE
I just got this from Michell Malkin’s blog. And it is “hot. As it stands right now one state employee in Ohio is being charged for illegally accessing Joe the Plumber’s personal information. More from her blog:
Just in: The Toledo Police Department confirms that one of its records clerks has been charged with performing an unlawful search of Joe The Plumber’s records.
That makes two Ohio government employees identified in the snooping case. (Obama donor Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, approved a separate search. More are being investigated.)
This is not looking good for the state of Ohio. But this is what Democratic Governor Ted Strickland said today,
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.
“Based on what we know to this point, we don’t have any reason to believe the information was improperly accessed or disclosed by a state employee,” said Keith Dailey, Strickland’s press secretary.
What kind of a line is Strickland trying to ram down the throats of Ohio citizens. For that matter what kind of BS is he trying to feed the whole country. Governor Strickland might want to retract his statement because on the surface it is just smmoke and mirrors. His line of crap is no better than Brunner saying there is no voter fraud in Ohio! Can you actually believe anything coming out of the governor’s mouth? What a disgrace!
More from Malkin’s blog:
WNOW has this:
Toledo Police have confirmed that a TPD records clerk is accused of performing an illegal search of information related to ‘Joe the Plumber.’
Julie McConnell, has been charged with Gross Misconduct for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
Wurzelbacher came under the spotlight after being spoken about during the final presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
The inquiry into Wurzelbacher’s record is a violation of department and state policy governing the use of the Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The clerk is under fire for making the inquiry for a non-law enforcement purpose.
McConnell was hired by the Toledo Police Department in April 1995 and assigned to the Investigative Services Bureau.
I have one question for Governor Strickland, when are you going to charge Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services with non-enforcement purposes? It is clear she is a partisan participant in this Illegal Access-Gate
Maggie Thurber wants to know one thing. Who did McConnell access the information for?
No word on WHO she ran the records for…but we know it was for a member of the media.
John McCain hit the campaign trail on Saturday and came out roaring like a tiger. The Swamp and McCain had me at “‘I’m gonna test them”. With that one quote McCain established his position as a “warrior”. A warrior who will test the radical foreign powers rather than allow them to test him.
Here is more from The Swamp:
“I’m gonna test them,” Republican John McCain said at a campaign rally in New Mexico this morning. “They’re not gonna test me.”
The comment followed McCain’s warning that Democratic rival Barack Obama’s campaign has “guaranteed” people that the nation will face a test from enemies within months of Obama’s election as president — something that running mate Joe Biden asserted last weekend, Biden following that line with a remark that Obama has a “spine of steel” for that test.
Obama doesn’t have a spine of steel. He has promised to sit down with the likes of Ahminejad, The Castro Brothers, Hugo Chavez and others without “PRECONDITIONS”.
The McCain campaign has taken Biden’s words, and put them in an ominous campaign TV ad warning that the younger, relatively inexperienced candidate for president will be tested by the nation’s adversaries if he is elected. It doesn’t have to happen, the McCain ad says.
Here is the McCain ad:
I know I am biased but the ominous sounding ad struck a chord with me. It did frighten me. I don’t scare easy. I believe we won’t like the Obama/Biden response. I believ the two of them are this nation’s nightmare. I also believe they are a threat to our nation’s very sanctity and sovereignty, as well as our national security.
McCain took it one step further as he concluded his speech and raised a new question. From The Swamp once more:
The Republican Party is portraying Obama as “untested” — as it calls him in a new ad airing today. McCain is portraying himself as the “tested” one.
But today, McCain raised a new question that could escalate that sound-bite campaign war: Who is he “gonna test” if elected president? And how?
“I have been tested,” McCain said, with a certain gritted-teeth look at the state fairgrounds in New Mexico. “I’m gonna test them. They’re not gonna test me.”
Who is going to be tested? A Naval hero, McCain or Obama who doesn’t understand the role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff…. for me there is only one answer and only one man I trust….
This piece I am posting is uplifting, it is meant to erase the word and feeling of discouragement from our every fiber. I encourage you to go to the following website, www.wam08.org and get involved. We need people calling several different states and reaching the independent voter. All the materials you need to phonebank are right on that website. WAM is non-partisan so don’t be afraid to join in with them. Here are some of the states WAM needs help calling: Colorado, Virginia, Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, New Mexico and New Hampshire.
Now onto a history lesson, I will preface this little bit of history with the following rules:
Replace:
Truman = McCain
Dewey = Obama
Republican Controlled Congress = Democrat Controlled Congress
Republican = Democrat and vice versa
Here is the Truman vs. Dewey Race:
Given Truman’s sinking popularity and the seemingly fatal three-split in the Democratic Party, Dewey appeared unbeatable. Top Republicans believed that all their candidate had to do to win was to avoid major mistakes; in keeping with this advice, Dewey carefully avoided risks. He spoke in platitudes, avoided controversial issues, and was vague on what he planned to do as President. Speech after speech was filled with non-political, optimistic assertions of the obvious, including the now infamous quote “You know that your future is still ahead of you.” An editorial in The (Louisville) Courier-Journal summed it up best: “No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.” Truman, trailing in the polls, decided to adopt a slashing, no-holds-barred campaign. He ridiculed Dewey by name, criticized Dewey’s refusal to address specific issues, and scornfully targeted the Republican-controlled 80th Congress with a wave of relentless, and blistering, partisan assaults. He nicknamed the Republican-controlled Congress as the “do-nothing” Congress, a remark which brought strong criticism from GOP Congressional leaders (such as Senator Taft), but no comment from Dewey. In fact, Dewey rarely mentioned Truman’s name during the campaign, which fit into his strategy of appearing to be above petty partisan politics.
————
Truman simply ignored the fact that Dewey’s policies were considerably more liberal than most of his fellow Republicans, and instead he concentrated his fire against the conservative, obstructionist tendencies of the unpopular 80th Congress. For his part, Dewey remained aloof. Following the advice of his campaign staff, he did not respond directly to Truman’s attacks. This would prove to be a major mistake.
——————————
Truman toured — and transfixed — much of the nation with his fiery rhetoric, playing to large, enthusiastic crowds. “Give ‘em hell, Harry,” was a popular slogan shouted out at stop after stop along the tour. However, the polls and the pundits all held that Dewey’s lead was insurmountable, and that Truman’s efforts were for naught. Indeed, Truman’s own staff considered the campaign a last hurrah. The only person who appears to have considered Truman’s campaign to be winnable was the President himself, who confidently predicted victory to anyone and everyone who would listen to him. However, even Truman’s own wife had private doubts that her husband could win.
——————————-
In the final weeks of the campaign, American movie theatres agreed to play two short newsreel-like campaign films in support of the two major-party candidates; each film had been created by its respective campaign organization. The Dewey film, shot professionally on an impressive budget, featured very high production values, but somehow reinforced an image of the New York governor as cautious and distant. The Truman film, hastily assembled on virtually no budget by the perpetually cash-short Truman campaign, relied heavily on public-domain and newsreel footage of the President taking part in major world events and signing important legislation. Perhaps unintentionally, the Truman film visually reinforced an image of the President as engaged and decisive.
————————————–
On election night – November 2 – Dewey, his family, and campaign staff confidently gathered in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City to await the returns. Truman, aided by the Secret Service, sneaked away from reporters covering him in Kansas City and made his way to nearby Excelsior Springs, Missouri, a small resort town. There he took a room in the local hotel, had a Turkish bath, and went to sleep. As the returns came in Truman took an early lead which he never lost. However, the leading radio commentators, such as H. V. Kaltenborn of NBC, confidently predicted that once the “late returns” came in Dewey would overcome Truman’s lead and win. At midnight, Truman awoke and turned on the radio in his room; he heard Kaltenborn announce that, while Truman was still ahead in the popular vote, he couldn’t possibly win. Around 4 a.m. Truman awoke again, heard on the radio that his lead was nearly two million votes, and decided to ride back to Kansas City. For the rest of his life Truman would gleefully mimic Kaltenborn’s voice predicting his defeat throughout that election night. Dewey, meanwhile, realized that he was in trouble when early returns from New York and New England showed him running well behind his expected vote total. He stayed up throughout the night examining the votes as they came in. By 10:30 the next morning he was convinced that he had lost; he then sent a gracious telegram of concession to Truman.
Watch the following video. Bill Sammons discusses ACORN partisanship. He discusses Obama and ACORNs connection. Out of the 1.3 million voters ACORN claimed only 450,000 are legitimate. At least 400,000 of them are fraudulent. ACORN/Team Obama overstate the number of Democrats they actually registered.
ACORN is trying to skew the numbers so the Republican base and Independent voter doesn’t get out to vote. Here is the video:
Pass this video along to all those Independent voters who haven’t made their decision. Pass this along to the Democrats who don’t want to vote because of the corrupt Democratic Party, ask them to support Country First, McCain/Palin on November 4th if not before! And tell the Republican base to get out and vote…. this election is not over by a far stretch….
The American Thinker carried an interesting but uplifting post over the weekend, “Signs Pointing To A McCain Victory”, by Steve Warshawsky, a New York Attorney. Even though I covered one of his other recent articles I had my doubts about his opinion until I received the following e-mail from a friend. Here is that e-mail:
Interesting tidbit on polls
Posted on October 24, 2008 by Riley
From VV contributor Ignatius:
I was having dinner a night ago with a friend of mine who is a
statistician for a well-regarded private polling company. They do some
work for Republicans in California, but most of the work they do is
for Democrats or Democrat-leaning operations (Unions, etc.). Anyway,
her shop was retained to do a few Presidential polls for targetted
states on behalf of a union so the union could decide where to spend
their ad dollars for the last week. They did Ohio, Florida, North
Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada
and Missouri. After mocking the hell out of the voter id spreads used
by Rassmussen, Zogby, etc. (and this is coming from a committed Dem
who will be voting for Barry O) she said the results of their polling
lead her to believe that McCain will definitely win FL, OH, NC, MO and
NV. She says Obama definitely wins New Mexico. She said that Colorado
and New Hampshire were absolute dead heats. She said she thinks there
is a 55% chance Obama holds on in Pennsylvania and a 75% chance McCain
wins Virginia. She absolutely laughed at the public polls showing
Obama leading Virginia–and pointed out that all of those polls rely on
Dem turnout being +4 and as much as +7, when in 2006, Republicans
actually had the advantage by +3. She also pointed out that the
numbers for Obama in SWVA look absolutely awful and that McCain is
running 10 points better then Allen did in NoVa.
Anyway, her companies conclusion is that the election will come
down to Colorado, New Hampshire and the Republican leaning district in
Maine, which in her opinion might very well decide the Presidency
(apparently the district in Nebraska that Obama thought he might be
able to get is now off the table). She said she has very little doubt
that the public polling is part of a “concerted voter suppression
effort” by the MSM. She said IBD/TIPP was the only outfit doing public
polling that was “worth a bucket of warm piss”.
It is extremely important though to listen to Mr. Warshawsky’s opinion because he mentions a group that up until this weekend has been ignored and dismissed since the Democratic National Convention. Warshawsky dared to utter the name PUMA (Part Unity My A$$). More from his opinion piece:
Despite there being an entire cottage industry devoted to exposing the liberal bias of the mainstream media, Republicans and conservatives continue to allow themselves to be unduly influenced, and even demoralized, by what they read and hear in the big city newspapers and on network television.
What are they reading and hearing? That Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. It’s inevitable. It’s his election to lose. What proof does the media offer? Public opinion polls that supposedly show Obama “winning” the race. (But see here and here.) The thousands of devoted supporters who attend Obama’s rallies. The legions of blacks and young people who are more “inspired” than ever to vote for a candidate who understands their needs and interests. Etc. We all know the story by heart by now.
This is only the beginning. Remember the MSM is trying to demoralize us and make us stay home. I am reminded of something Ollie North said about young people on Fox News one night, “young people are reliably unreliable” about voting. That is not to say I dismiss the young vote but I don’t think the numbers will be what is expected by Team Obama.
Keep in mind the media forced the ONE down our throats as they continually harassed Hillary Clinton to concede and get out of the primary race.
More from Warshawsky:
Well, there is another story out there that the MSM refuses to address. A huge story. One that could, and I think will, significantly affect the outcome of this race. I’m referring to the widespread phenomenon of registered Democrats openly supporting John McCain. There are numerous “Democrats for McCain” type organizations. There are numerous websites and blogs written by Democrats touting McCain’s candidacy. There are pro-McCain grassroots efforts being led by Democrats. And we all know friends or relatives who are Democrats, who voted for John Kerry in 2004, and who are no fans of President Bush – but who are going to vote for John McCain this year.
Yet, surprise surprise, the mainstream media is not talking about these voters, not talking about the real rift that is occurring within the ranks of the Democratic Party. Needless to say, if a similar rift were occurring in the Republican Party, it would be treated as the major story that it is. (Indeed, as such stories about the political fault lines in the Republican Party have been treated in the recent past.)
Who are these pro-McCain Democratic voters? They overwhelmingly tend to be former Hillary supporters. Perhaps the most well-known of these voters are the “PUMAs” – which stands for Party Unity My Ass. These are Hillary supporters who are adamantly opposed to Obama. Let’s not forget that during the Democratic primaries – real elections, not polls – Hillary crushed Obama among white working-class and middle-class voters in such key states as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. If a meaningful number of these voters end up voting for McCain, as I predict they will, then Obama’s smooth road to the White House is going to run smack into a brick wall.
The media is ignoring us. We were fodder for their news stories until after the convention, then we disappeared from the news stories. We haven’t gone away, we are in our homes writing blogs, sending out post cards, phone banking and hitting the roads in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. The media likes to pretend we have returned to the un-Democratic Party but we haven’t for the most part. Trust me on this there are more PUMAs that aren’t connected to technology quite the way most PUMAs are. We may be your neighbor right next door as I discovered in my state.
And Warshawsky has more on this:
Earlier this week, I attended a John McCain campaign event in New York City. There were several Democrats in attendance. Not only people who are registered Democrats, but party leaders and workers who had been actively involved in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Indeed, the gentlemen who “keynoted” the event was a former publisher of the left-wing Village Voice magazine and a veteran of the Robert Kennedy, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter campaigns. Hardly a right-wing conservative. He gave one of the best stump speeches I have heard why Barack Obama should not be elected president. (It comes down to not trusting Obama to keep the United States safe and strong in a dangerous world and rejecting Obama’s “government knows best” attitude when it comes to domestic issues.) Another person I met at the event was a sprightly elderly woman who manned telephones for Hillary for five months, and now is supporting McCain.
Many PUMAs phone banked for Hillary for months. Some of us even traveled to far away states as I did. I worked four states for Hillary, Texas, Indiana, South Dakota and Montana. I traveled 16 cities and made numerous stops in the Veterans for Hillary Tour in Montana. I donated to Hillary’s campaign despite the fact I am a disabled Navy veteran. I traveled to Texas and Indiana at my own expense. South Dakota and Montana were made possible through blogger donations. The donation point was Heidi Li’s Potpourri. Many thanks to the people who made the donations and especially to Heidi. The PUMAs haven’t returned to the un-Democratic Party many of us have embraced McCain.
More from Warshawsky:
The point is simple: Don’t believe the Obama hype coming out of the mainstream media. If the media were truly objective and unbiased, they would be covering the race much differently. Instead of trying to browbeat the country into voting for Obama, they would be analyzing the issues and factors that favor and disfavor both candidates. Instead of focusing on college students and intellectuals, they would be focusing on working-class and middle-class voters, especially “Hillary Democrats.” These voters may very well determine the election. Yet this huge story is being ignored by the MSM.
Furthermore, the media would not so consistently confuse intensity of support for breadth of support. Granted, Barack Obama’s supporters tend to be more enthusiastic about their candidate than John McCain’s supporters are about him. Leftists are always looking for their earthly messiah. But this does not mean that Obama’s supporters, come election day, will outnumber McCain’s. Whether in support of McCain or in opposition to Obama, I predict these voters will go to the polls. Contrary to the wishful thinking of Democratic pundits, they are not staying home. These voters may be unexcited, but they are not apathetic. And 51% of “unexcited” voters will defeat 49% of even the most “inspired” voters. Every time.
Of course, we all know what the mainstream media’s “narrative” will be if (I believe, when) John McCain wins the election: The American people refused to vote for Obama because of the color of his skin (and not because of the content of his politics). The “right-wing attack machine” scared voters into voting for McCain, even against their own social and economic self-interest. Black and poor voters were intimidated by Republican thugs and prevented from voting. We know this story by heart as well.
So be prepared. In a few more weeks, the political environment in this country is likely to become a heckuva lot nastier. For there are real signs pointing to a McCain victory this year, whether or not the mainstream media wants to acknowledge them.
I now believe that the polls are simply wrong. I believe all media including Fox News are simply trying to push Obama down our throats. I will never count the PUMAs out. They do make up a very large chunk of the un-Democratic Party. And we haven’t fallen in line just because Hillary told us too or because Obama thought he could just get Hillary voters.
As for me, I just can’t ride that “UNITY JACKASS” into oblivion. I am supporting McCain as I have done from the moment Hillary suspended her campaign which I saw as a capitulation not a suspension.
Ignore the media hype, get into that voting booth and do the right thing. It is no longer about party, it is about COUNTRY FIRST. It is about McCain. Remember his words from New Mexico, I will challenge them (Ahminejad, the Castro brothers, etc…), they will not challenge me. Once again McCain had me with those few simple words.
I wrote earlier about Obama’s redistribution of wealth and his socialistic tendencies. This morning a seven year old interview of Obama expands upon his ideas concerning socialism.
If people thought Joe the Plumber was some kind of stumble for Barack Obama, a rediscovered interview from 2001 should dispel any doubts about Barack Obama’s redistributionism. Seven years ago, Obama told Chicago Public Radio that the Warren Court was too conservative and missed its opportunity to redistribute wealth on a much grander scale. In fact, Obama wanted them to break the Constitution and reorder American society far outside of what the founders intended.
Here is the audio of that interview:
I am enclosing the transcript of the interview. StopTheACLU transcribed the interview for all the bloggers covering this interview. (Hat tip to them):
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society.
To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
Then a caller had a question for Obama:
A caller, “Karen,” asked if it’s “too late for that kind of reparative work economically?” And she asked if that work should be done through the courts or through legislation.
“Maybe I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law professor,” Obama said. “I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. The institution just isn’t structured that way.”
(Author’s note: Obama was not a professor, he was a lecturer.)
It seems that Joe the Plumber really hit a nerve with Obama. I guess Obama was hoping the Joe the Plumber question would never help uncover this interview. I am disturbed by the fact Obama wants the courts to legislate issues. This exposes the real meaning of “I want to appoint judges who use their emotions and etc.” to legislate from the bench. How can Obama dismiss the Constitution so easily?
More from Hot Air:
People have assumed that Obama merely offered a rhetorical stumble, and Obama and Joe Biden have strenuously attacked anyone that claimed he intended to bring about radical socialist change. This sounds very much like socialism and radical change, and there is no mistaking the context of this statement. While Obama recognizes in this passage that the judiciary doesn’t have the “structure” to make radical changes to the Constitution, he doesn’t sound at all happy about it.
Instead, Obama sees community organizing as the essential path to move from a Constitution of personal liberties to a Constitution of federal mandates. He wants a new governing document that essentially forces both the federal and state governments to redistribute wealth, and he sees that as the natural outcome of the civil rights movement. That certainly smells of socialism on a far grander scale than ever attempted in the US, with the New Deal and Great Societies looking like pale imitations of Obama’s vision.
Obama basically wants to scrap the Constitution and write something different because of the Civil Rights movement. I don’t think that was the vision MLK or even LBJ had when they fought for and passed all the Civil Rights laws. Hot Air agrees with me in their first update:
One more clarifying thought is in order. Barack Obama complains that the Constitution is a “charter of negative liberties”. That’s because the Constitution was intended as a limiting document, to curtail the power of the federal government vis-a-vis the states and the individual. The founders intended at the time to limit the reach of the federal government, and built the Constitution accordingly.
Barack Obama wants to reverse that entirely. And that’s radical change you’d better believe in, or else.
And yet there is still more on Obama’s socialism.
In fact, as Jeff Goldstein notes, that’s almost classic Marxism, and it would leave America somewhere to the left of 1970s France:
In Obama’s America, we’ll finally be able to break free of the “constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution” — and in so doing, achieve “social justice” through “redistributive change.”
Well, then. Fine .
But this is not the America I knew…
More from Morrissey:
The government does not exist to determine the acceptable level of wealth of its individual citizens. For government to assume that role, it would have to end private property rights and assume all property belonged to the State. That is classic Marxism, and as Barbara West of WFTV noted, it runs in Marx’s classic philosophy of “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”. That economic direction has been an abject failure everywhere it has been tried, and in many cases resulted in famines that killed millions of people.
The RNC and the McCain campaign has to get these quotes out to the American public in the final week of this election.
I agree McCain must talk about the fact Obama wants to trash the Constitution…the same revered document we have lived with for 226 years.
If you want to stop Obama dead in his tracks then go to the polls and vote for McCain. McCain is a federalist and believes in the integrity of the Constitution.
Team Obama responds in an update via Jake Tapper at ABC and you won’t believe it either:
“In this interview back in 2001, Obama was talking about the civil rights movement – and the kind of work that has to be done on the ground to make sure that everyone can live out the promise of equality,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton says. “Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with Obama’s economic plan or his plan to give the middle class a tax cut. It’s just another distraction from an increasingly desperate McCain campaign.”
Burton continues: “In the interview, Obama went into extensive detail to explain why the courts should not get into that business of ‘redistributing’ wealth. Obama’s point – and what he called a tragedy – was that legal victories in the Civil Rights led too many people to rely on the courts to change society for the better. That view is shared by conservative judges and legal scholars across the country.
“As Obama has said before and written about, he believes that change comes from the bottom up – not from the corridors of Washington,” Burton says. “He worked in struggling communities to improve the economic situation of people on the South Side of Chicago, who lost their jobs when the steel plants closed. And he’s worked as a legislator to provide tax relief and health care to middle-class families. And so Obama’s point was simply that if we want to improve economic conditions for people in this country, we should do so by bringing people together at the community level and getting everyone involved in our democratic process.”
I’d say that the first hint that the initial analysis was correct was in Obama’s estimation of the Warren Court — one of the most activist in history — as somehow not radical in its nature. Second, in the quote itself, Obama calls the failure to “bring about redistributive change” a tragedy. That doesn’t sound like someone who hails the court’s limitation on redistributionism — or, to use Obama’s analogy, liked the fact that the court allowed him to eat at the lunch counter but didn’t pick up the tab for him as well.
The point about the courts is really secondary. In this passage, Obama identifies himself as a redistributionist, even if he’s saying that the courts are not going to be a successful venue for it. Despite Burton’s little bit of misdirection, it’s very clear that Obama is highly sympathetic to “redistributive change” — and with an Obama administration coupled with a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress, the courts won’t be necessary to effect that redistributive change anyway.
Team Obama is trying to squelch freedom of speech by reporters. Team Obama proves they can’t handle the tough questions. They want to get fluff questions and be handled with kid gloves. Proof of my assertions can be found in the following video:
(Author’s Note: I thought Biden was a local Pennsylvania boy! Hey Biden if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.)
I know that most of MSM has been in the tank for Obama all these months. CBS-3 was as brave as Barbara West when they questioned Biden. Now Team Obama is offended because they are finally being brought to task! WTG! CBS-3. Keep up the good work.
This is just a sampling of what is to come if we allow Obama/Biden near our White House.
If you want to keep your freedoms, Vote Country First … Vote McCain/Palin before or/on November 4th.
McCain/Palin have been busing people from South California to Nevada to canvass homes. I am sharing that e-mail with my blog readers so you can see the McCain/Palin support around the country.
Here is that e-mail:
This past Sat. and Sun. I had the most rewarding experience by participating in the
McCain/Palin ‘Calif. Cavalry Program.’ A group of us from So. Cal. were bussed into
Henderson, Nevada and walked precints for McCain/Palin. There were approximately 60 of
us from So. Cal.
Once in Nevada, we joined groups who were from a variety of western States. All in all –
we were told through our efforts alone 10,000 doors were ‘knocked on’ in the state of
Nevada on Saturday (people from Northern California were bussed into the Reno area).
And, Sunday the number of homes visited was predicted to be higher.
On a really upbeat note: There was a Hillary delegate who was phone banking for McCain
at the Henderson campaign location and she seemed pretty confident the Obama
campaign (along w/the DNC) has grossly underestimated the number of former Hillary
supporters who are not willing to stand aside and let an unqualified individual cheat his
way into becoming POTUS. According to her, we are mobilized and the DNC are not
prepared for what’s about to hit them voting-wise.
Also, Dennis Miller was there phonebanking for McCain and said a few words of
encouragement to us before he departed. And, a Japanese news crew (NHK) (who were
filming a short documentary about a 20 yr old Marine in our group) was there as well.
I have never walked a precint before this election. I’ve always voted and taken my civic
duty very serious and in a responsible manner. Yet, after knocking on doors and coming
face-to-face w/people who are truly ‘undecided,’ an added sense of civic accomplishment
was achieved.
There were a few former Hillary supporters in our group. And, there was a lot of
satisfaction when we were able to inform various undecided voters (as we walked the
precints) our experience during the Dem. primary and how Speaker Pelosi, Howard Dean et
al. did not carry out a fair primary election process. This coming after the exposure of
ACORN resonated with them. However — the mere fact we were Sen. Clinton supporters
who were now canvassing for votes (and in the hot, desert sun) for Sen. McCain spoke
volumes with more than a few undecided voters.
We made sure to not be emotional and only laid out the facts: caucus fraud (see Gigi
Gaston’s ‘We Will Not Be Silenced’), a need for a balanced Congress and Executive office
and the EXTREME misogyny carrried out by the MSM and the surrogates and supporters of
Obama initiated upon Sen. Clinton’s campaign and accelerated since Gov. Palin’s entrance
into the race. And, finally, it was very uplifting to be canvassing on Sen. Clinton’s
birthday. Even though she has stated she does not intend to seek the POTUS office in 2012
– a McCain victory would greatly improve her option to change her mind (we hope).
Overall we were received positively. Yet, of course, there were a few fringe people who
were Obama supporters and I will not go into their disrespectful conduct toward us. No
one was physically harmed though.
In conclusion, I wanted to give a brief description of my experience in order to encourage
others to do the same if they have the opportunity. Not all are in a position to donate
money so, volunteering one’s time is just as good if not more effective. This election is
fastly coming to a close — yet the momentum does feel like its in McCain’s favor.
As for the specifics: The campaign provided both transportation and lodging and fed us
quite nicely. If anyone in Calif. is interested in participating next weekend please sign up
at california@johnmcca in.com or call: 310-791-3305 by Wed, Oct. 29th. Buses are
scheduled to depart from Sacramento, Burbank, Torrance, Newport Beach and San Diego
Nov. 1st early Sat. a.m. (I believe). I am not sure if other states are undertaking the same
effort but it would be worth it to find out.
Get Out The Vote next weekend in Nevada with the McCain/Palin Team. And have fun!
I received an e-mail via a friend concerning an former Obama supporter’s confession. She is a former Obama believer but realizes if he is elected president, the government will control everything and she can’t bear it. Although I can’t speak to the confessor’s veracity some of it does ring true. Here is the e-mail:
Comment by DAVE FROM NAWLINS
October 27th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I copied this off of teamsarah.org tonight.
They are making a big impact and are growing very fast.
Hi Greta,
A confession from an Obama supporter
sarah p Says:
October 27, 2008 at 5:04 am
Okay, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow Clinton supporters out. I work for a campaign and can’t wait for this week to be over. I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC.
The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.
We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a Clinton or McCain supporter who just switched our support for Obama”.
We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence. We did this the whole primary and it worked.
Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.
This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.
Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support. People make posts to the affect that the world has “gone mad”. That’s the intention. To make you feel stressed and crazy and feel like the world is ending.
We have also had quite a hand in skewing many many polls, some we couldn’t control as much as we would have liked. But many we have spoiled over. Just enough to make Real Clear Politics look scary to a McCain supporter. Its worked, although the goal was to appear 13-15 points ahead.
see, the results have been working.
People tend to support a winner, go with the flow, become “sheeple”. The polls are roughly 3-5 points in favor of Barack. Thats due to our inflation of the polls and pulling in the sheeple.
Our donors, are the same people who finance the MSM. Their interests are tied, Barack then tends to come across as teflon. Nothing sticks. And trust, there were meetings with Fox news. The goal was to blunt them as much as possible. Watch Bill O’Reilly he has become much more diplomatic and “fair and balanced” and soft. Its because he wants to retain the #1 spot on cable news and to do that he has to have access to the Obama campaign and we worked hard at stringing him a long and keeping him soft for an interview swap. It worked and now he is anticipating more access. So he is playing it still soft.
This is why nothing sticks.
The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.
There is no true inauguration draft or true Grant Park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.
Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.
There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.
The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
I am saying this because I know HRC was better for the country, and now realize this. I was too late by the time I connected to her.
To me Barack was just a cool young dude that seemed like a star. I didn’t know him or his policies, but now I understand more than I care to and I realize his interests are more for him, and the DNC and all working like puppets with Dean. I always thought a president wanted the better good for the country. The end result I see is everyone dependent on the government, this means more and more people voting for the DNC.
This means the future is forever altered. I don’t see this as America, so I am now supporting John Mccain.
Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool. This is a big conspiracy and I am so shocked that its not realized.
We released a little blurb the other day that the Obama campaign was already working on reelection and now putting our efforts towards 2012. This was to make it seem like it was above us to continue caring about 2008. Trust me, its a lie. David is very smart, but its a sticky ugly not very truthful kind of intelligence.
Its not over yet, but I think the machine is working. And its a hill to climb.
I will be quitting my post on Nov 5th and my vote will be for John Mccain. Fortunately, my position has been a marketing position and I don’t feel I had any part of anything I would feel guilty for. But I look forward to getting out of this as the negativity and environment upsets me.
I wish you all well, and goodluck.
PS my name is not really sarah. but I am a female and I understand your plight.
I absolutely have no idea who this former Obama supporter is but some of things she has written ring so true. I have had no faith in the polls. I haven’t believed their truthfulness for more than three weeks now. It even occurred to me that Scott Rasmussen was in the tank for Obama in the primaries, he never said one thing favorable towards Hillary. That is the explanation for his polls. I’m not certain about Gallup but those polls have been bizarre as well. I have been fairly certain that they are overpolling Democrats supportive of Obama. I have no idea how they are doing it, but they are.
I was listening to Bill O’Reilly tonight when it dawned on me that he was really in the tank for Obama. He has been for quite some time now. My friends and I have been discussing this for several weeks. As for Fox News, they have been particularly nasty towards the McCain/Palin ticket lately. Their polls have been skewed as well. And I must say I wondered who paid Fox off to be “less balanced”.
I said it in an earlier post…ignore the polls. I have some good news on them I will post soon. Just get out and vote. Talk Talk Talk. Reach out to the undecideds. When you do speak to indies and undecideds, speak up for McCain. Palin has her supporters and the star quality. It is time to give John McCain a hand up. Get excited about him.
Recently we bombed Syria. Iran and Syria had strong words for our actions. They even accused us of bombing a “factory” or something. McCain needs to be running this country. He will not be tested. He will know exactly what to do if we need to respond to these two countries.
Vote Country First. We are on the precipice of dangerous times with Syria and Iran. McCain is the only answer.
I know there are some Miami Dolphin fans in my readership and probably more football fans. I will admit I only watch the Superbowl when the New England Patriots are playing. This one is for all you diehard football fans out there. And for the mothers and fathers who sit under those “Friday Night Lights” in your hometowns as your kids take to the field. In my little town in Kansas, the hometown team is undefeated for the second year running. And this story is for Wayne Huizenga current owner of the Miami Dolphins, who like many others worry about the Capital Gains Taxes….
Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Sunday no date has been set for selling up to 45 percent more of the team to Stephen Ross, but the presidential election is among the issues weighing on his decision.
That’s because a Barack Obama administration is expected to mean higher capital-gains taxes.
“He wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it,” Huizenga said. “I’d rather give it to charity than to him.”
Interesting that worry about increased capital gains taxes has hit a popular pasttime in the US. He speaks for all of us whether we are a small investor or a large investor. It isn’t the amount of stock we sell, it is the cost of selling that stock that matters. And those increases will affect 80% of Americans because that is the estimated number of households that invest in some way or other.
More from Huizenga:
“If you do it this year or you do it next year, the difference is humongous because of the taxes,” Huizenga said.
Huizenga agrees with me. More taxes less investing.
And of course the Obama campaign is forced to change their tune. How do you say backtrack on earlier statements that Obama would increase capital gains taxes to 28%?
Here is their response:
But the Obama campaign disputed Huizenga’s figures on Monday, saying the candidate’s plans are to raise the capital gains tax maximum from 15 percent to 20 percent — a 33 percent increase, not double. And the top rate would be for families earning more than $250,000 or individuals earning more than $200,000.
“Mr. Huizenga is wrong about Senator Obama’s tax plan, which calls for a maximum capital-gains rate of 20 percent — a third lower than the rate that President Reagan set in 1986,” said Bobby Gravitz, Obama campaign South Florida spokesman. “Furthermore, Senator Obama’s tax cut for 95 percent of working families will mean a whole lot of Dolfans will be better able to afford those ever-rising ticket prices.”
It doesn’t matter because Mr. Huizenga is in the top earners category. Not only will he get hit with the inflated capital gains tax but he will get hit on his personal income. Either way Mr. Huizenga is screwed.
My recommendation for a good winning team, one that will be fair to all Americans, McCain/Palin. Why are they my pick? Because they see Country First. And they don’t play the class warfare game.
If you want to save your 401ks and your other investments do the right thing and vote McCain/Palin on November 4th.
Apparently Michelle Obama doesn’t like to see cops or even the Secret Service assigned to her entourage. I wonder why! Debbie Schlussel had a story about her mistreatment of cops in Michigan. Debbie removed the name of the cop from the story to protect his job…sure wouldn’t want to see him smeared like Joe the Plumber.
More from Ms. Schlussel:
Some Michigan cop friends of mine sent me this, about how Michelle Obama has treated them throughout Michigan, ie., like the plague. She can’t be seen by the “little people” who protect us and keep us safe everyday, risking their lives to do it.
I’ve left out the name of the police officer to protect the officer’s identity and, frankly, job. You know how the Obama mob gets.
… you’ll loooove First lady Michelle Hussein Obama, who makes Hillary’s (and Bill’s) treatment of the Arkansas State Troopers sound like a day at the beach:
I remember all the stories about the mistreatment of the Arkansas State troopers and the Clintons. I honestly didn’t think it could get much worse but it has. And the reason why, the Obamas…
To the heart of the story:
First Hand from a Clinton Township Police Lieutenant
[Debbie Schlussel: Clinton Township is a Detroit suburb.]
For those of you who know me, I rarely talk politics.
Those are private matters for the most part, but I just have to vent a little.
I would call myself a conservative as 99% of Policeman are, and almost always vote Republican, but I also know that they are all Politicians.
We are stuck in a quagmire of a two party system, and the non-politician independent has no chance to change this country or run this country.
I am not trying at all to dissuade your vote, but Obama has really
cheesed me off. . . . I have heard these stories of Obama making the Police and Secret Service (who protect his dumb butt) stay out of his eyesight.
Well, I learned it well Thursday, October 9th. Michelle Obama was in Clinton Twp., Michigan Thursday for a rally at our biggest High School. My department had a small role in protecting her. About 8 Officers were detailed to the School for HER security. I was offered the overtime but turned it down.
One of my Sergeants, and best buddies was assigned there. He came back infuriated. The rumors are true!!!
My Sergeant was providing security in a hallway as Mrs. Obama was moving from room to room for different reasons. He was told by the SS [DS: Secret Service] that when she came down his hall, he had to duck behind the corner and not allow her to see him. He questioned this several times to be sure he heard it right, and the SS agent (embarrassed of course) had to hide from her view, too.
It is outrageous that the persons running for the President of our
country on the Democratic side, has so much disdain for men and woman in uniform, they demand that they are kept from their view!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets be clear. This was not in the public. This was not an Honor Guard detail standing behind her on stage in front of thousands. This was in a hallway, out of the public eye, and the Obamas refuse to even see an Officer or Soldier in their view. The Police have to hide!!!!!!!
WHY???????????? That’s the scary question! What else is going on here?
No wonder he refuses to wear the flag on his suit or salute the flag.
It will be a terrible day if Obama is elected to run our country I love so much.
It is so sad that these people are the few who we have to choose from
for the most powerful position in the world!!!!!!!!!
It’s almost unbelievable!! Thanks for letting me vent!!!!!!!!
I already heard about this straight from the mouths of the Michigan State Police that are on their Motor Unit. They were told to “hide” behind the bus when Obama exited it so that he couldn’t see them. Our (the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office) Motor Unit, along with the State Police, escorted McCain when he was in town, and we were right out front, where we could proudly be seen. I don’t know how you think, but the only people I have known in my career that don’t want to be seen near cops are criminals….thats scary!
Yes it is! In my opinion and this is only my opinion, The Obamas think all cops are guilty of racial profiling. Obama has even stated that he will ban racial profiling in all law enforcement nationwide by offering monetary incentives (Author’s Note: In my opinion that is basically bribery! and shows his distrust of law enforcement.). My warning to cops everywhere, Obama is dangerous and will hamper your ability to do your job which involves more than escorting their butts around town.
French President Sarkozy finally gets it, Obama’s view of Iran is “utterly immature”. Absolutely incredible. The MSM has us believing that all heads of state worldwide look at Obama favorably. Well it just isn’t true. And I have long suspected that some world leaders have long held the view that Obama’s stance on meeting with Ahminedjad, the Castro brothers and others without preconditions was scary. I believed that they would view it as dangerous to the world as a whole.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama’s positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel’s government.
Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate’s stance on Iran as “utterly immature” and comprised of “formulations empty of all content.”
I love that phrase “empty of all content”. It definitely fits with the description of Obama that still plays in certain circles … “an empty suit“.
Read on:
Until now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have tried to maintain a united front on Iran. But according to the senior Israeli source, Sarkozy fears that Obama might “arrogantly” ignore the other members of this front and open a direct dialogue with Iran without preconditions.
Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama’s positions on Iran, concluding that they were “not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open,” the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama’s advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment.
Disappointed is mild. Why don’t they say what they really think? Obama is an empty suit on foreign policy. And Biden on the ticket has done nothing to allay the fears of the 5 permanent members of the
UN Security Council.
Read on:
But Sarkozy’s pessimism does not stem only from Obama’s stance; it also stems from the overall behavior of the international community toward Iran’s nuclear program, and particularly its inability to agree on a fourth round of Security Council sanctions against the Islamic Republic. This foot-dragging will make it impossible to effect a change in Iran’s nuclear policy, Sarkozy believes.
I am no foreign policy wonk but if I were Sarkozy I would be worried about an Obama administration. Remember his response to the Georgia-Russia conflict. Here is that response:
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
Can anyone blame him? Europe does not want direct presidential-level negotiations with Iran — they want the mullahcracy isolated. They need American strength behind that position in order to wring concessions from the ruling Guardian Council. With the price of oil plummeting over the past two months, the economic sanctions on Iran finally have a chance to bite the mullahs hard. Obama’s stated policy would undo everything just at the moment that it has a chance of producing real change.
In fact, Sarkozy believes that Obama would wind up being more unilateral than George Bush in his foreign policy. When a French politician uses the word “arrogant” as an accusation, that means something. Apparently, their brief meeting during the Obama World Tour did not set Sarkozy’s mind at ease. He saw something that makes him extremely uneasy with Obama in charge of American diplomacy.
Thanks Ed. I think if most people would stop worrying about the financial crisis for a minute and think about Obama diplomacy, they would vote for McCain when they hit the voting booth.
Our military is spread thin. We are involved in two wars as well as our peacekeeping duties. An Obama diplomacy would put us right smack in the bulls eye of all tyrannical and terroristic governments in this world. It would leave us vulnerable. And we certainly don’t need a “Red Dawn” or a WWIII.
Apparently Team Obama is trying to intimidate the college journalists at palestra.net. Their intimidation tactics now involve legal staff for Obama. Shame on them!And I don’t think there is anything covert about this like Greta does at Gretawire. I think this is very overt … and not very legal coming from a lawyer! (Author’s Note: Perhaps these e-mails containing these “veiled threats” need to be turned over to the FBI and even the Ohio Bar Association. Or is the Ohio Bar Association in the tank for Obama too?)
Read the following e-mail these students received:
(Greta) So what is the students’ reward for exposing crime??? An intimidating letter from the Senator Obama campaign lawyer to one of the students?? See below and then you tell me…
From: Rosenberg, Thomas
Date: Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 2:32 PM
Subject: At least in today’s blog you spelled my last name right
To: tiffany
In other words, I am going to read what you write and watch what you say. Hopefully you will be fair and impartial as you told me you would be.
Thomas L. Rosenberg
Roetzel & Andress, LPA
Columbus, OH 43215
trosenberg@ralaw.com
And here is another:
Subject: Attn: Tiffany Wilson
To:
Hello,
I’ve been looking into temporary residents registering to vote in
Ohio, and came across a _______ in _____ where four
voters are registered, one of whom Tiffany Wilson, your reporter, who
has returned an absentee ballot in Columbus. Is she a permanent
resident of Columbus?
Joe Knapp
Columbus
Greta had the following comments:
If you have been watching ON THE RECORD at 10pm eastern, you know about Palestra.net — the college news network. But here is the BIG NEWS: the student journalists Tiffany Wilson and Shelby Holliday (not professionals) are AGGRESSIVE in pursuing voter fraud in Ohio and have uncovered ACTUAL voter fraud. They are also not afraid.
As a result of their journalism, votes already cast for President have had to be withdrawn.
(Greta) UPDATE: 1:10pm — I was told the lawyer apologized to the Palestra journalist..and said he did not mean it to be an intimidation.
All this lawyer offered was an apology. Shouldn’t he receive some sort of disciplinary action. This man isn’t a lawyer. He seems to be wholly bought and owned by Team Obama. If there are any lawyers reading this blog, tell me if this appropriate action for a “law professional” to take….
I hope this man is entirely exposed for the not-so law professional he is. Mr. Rosenberg, you should retire your shingle. And you should be ashamed of yourself.
This video was made from portions of a Letter to The Editor in the Richmond Times in July of this year. This is that person’s personal view of an Obama presidency and its comparison to Cuba under Castro.
Please watch:
I must say I was struck by the letter and the subsequent video. We need to listen to this Cuban American because I believe he is right on!
I thought I might be finished with the voter fraud stories but they keep on cropping up. Who is behind this fraud? I hesitate to think it ACORN did this alone. Who was helping them? We know Obama paid ACORN up until June of this year.
Mississippi’s voter situation is hard to believe. Places like Madison County have over 123% more registered voters than people over the age of 18.
Sue Sautermeister, First District Election Commissioner in Madison County, tried to purge the rolls, but ran into trouble when it was discovered it takes a vote of three of the five election commissioners and the purge cannot take place within 90 days of a federal election.
I wonder why she couldn’t find enough people to purge the rolls. Why are there more than 100% voters registered. This seems to be the trend during this election season. And I find it wholly disgusting. I want an answer as should all voters…what is my question? Why are the voter numbers so skewed? Who has caused this? And why does it appear as though the election is being stolen?
More:
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is the first to admit the situation with voter registration in this state is terrible.
“It is terrible,” he says. “Combined with the fact that we don’t have voter ID in Mississippi, anybody can show up at any poll that happens to know the people who have left town or died — and go vote for them.”
“Whenever we have a third party determined by payment, for example, as they did in Benton County — ‘walking-around’ money — and they determine what that vote is going to be, they’ve taken your vote, whether they may have voted like you would have or not, they’ve still thwarted the process and they’ve still have taken your vote away from you,” added Hosemann.
Sue Sautermeister is working hard in the First District of Madison County to start a purging of the voter rolls as soon after the election as possible. She has file drawers full of names of people who haven’t voted in years and are known to be dead.
“We have people who registered in 1965 who have never voted,” she says. “We have 486 people (registered who are) over 105.”
Hosemann says 190,000 new voters have registered for this election and he believes the turnout will be historic.
The saddest thing is every illegal vote takes away a legal vote. And that is stealing the vote from me, you and your neighbor!
You absolutely must watch this video. Here is the first true example of the Socialism Experiment. It is brought to us by the Native Americans Against Obama. The video is moving and heart breaking at the same time. Please join with me and experience the Native Americans heart break:
The Andrew Jackson experiment failed. We stole so much from the Native Americans and they are still fighting for their rights back. These are the only people we owe so much to because we took so much from them. We even committed wholesale slaughter of Native Americans at times.
It isn’t time for another experiment in an Obama administration. Please vote our Country First. Vote McCain/Palin.
I do believe that the McCain/Palin ticket will win this election. I do believe that pollsters like the Gallup are over inflating Obama’s numbers to suppress voting. With that said here are the seven reasons McCain/Palin are a lock to win.
From Red State:
There are seven serious, historic, demographic and other wise culturally compelling reasons Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin will win the election on November 4, 2008 – a date of defeat that will sear itself into the Democratic Party’s collective consciousness.
The first and foremost reason McCain-Palin will win is the absolute arrogance, elitism, condescending, patronizing and in-your-face voter suppression campaign – don’t vote for McCain, he can not win — being conducted by the national media on Senator Obama’s behalf.
Americans do not like to be told what to do. But the national media has become a feminized, electronic vote-for-Obama nagging machine. There is plenty of precedent for the average American telling those telling them what to do, to go pound sand, especially to those who tell them over, and over, and over again. Just ask the HMOs. Their you-can’t-do-this or you-must-do-only-this business strategy ended with the average American saying NO to joining HMOs.
Essentially, the media have been frolicking in the streets in an orgy of Obama adulation and McCain bashing. Now, they will wonder why anyone would be disgusted by their behavior, or want to knock them back in their place? This is a symptom of their chronic and insular world condition.
The media’s blindness is fueling the anti-media web-networks with oceans of gasoline. This is why the proliferation of lawsuits challenging Obama’s claim of natural born citizenship (the original filed by a life long Democrat who is a former Deputy Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania) and the beating up of the LA Times about its refusal to release the video of Obama speaking at a pro-Palestinian dinner, are just the tip of the anti-media iceberg the media themselves has created.
In short, the media cannot be fair. The media will not ever, not ever admit they had anything to do with the November 4th backlash. They listen to these criticisms just like an alcoholic listens to concerns, but who insists they can still have a drink. The media have hatred and contempt in their hard hearts for any views that do not meet their pro-Obama criteria. Stand by, national media, for the big smack down.
Here are the other six reason McCain/Palin will win:
1. The Gallup poll after Labor Day has historically been a predictor of the winner of the Presidential election. The person leading in that poll wins the Presidency. The Republican convention, pushed onto Labor Day by the Summer Olympics muddied the waters on this historic fact, but the Gallup poll a week later showed McCain ahead of Obama, predicting the McCain victory.
2. There are six states that since 1972 have voted for the winning Presidential candidate. These are predictor states. They pick winners every time. McCain will win every one of the following six states: Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee.
3. Elderly and some other Jewish voters were already uncomfortable about voting for Obama, but the recent comments by Farrakhan that when Obama speaks, the Messiah is speaking, or that Obama’s victory will do great things for the Nation of Islam, or the statement by Jesse Jackson that there will be “fundamental change” in America’s foreign policy, especially with regard to Israel – is causing a hemorrhaging of Jewish support.
4. Women who feel Senator Clinton was treated unfairly by the Democratic Party, by the media and by Senator Obama — who did not even vet Senator Clinton to be his running mate – will remember. This voting block, you will recall, lay in the weeds in the pre-New Hampshire primary polling. The win by Senator Clinton was a shock, undetected by the polling. And these were Democratic Party voters who were undetected – not the other voters Obama will face November 4th. Obama’s youth vote will not post to the polls, they never do. The young think: the media says Obama will win, so why should I vote? But the 40 and 50 and 60 something women voters who voted for Senator Clinton have three alternative plans to make sure they get to the polls, regardless of a hiccup in their work or child care responsibilities. They will vote, and they will vote against Senator Obama.
5. Today’s unstable world does not bode well for Senator Obama. The instability in the stock market and related job and mortgage fears do not equate with voting for the ING (Inexperienced New Guy.) In an affirmation of Mark Penn’s observation that the strong leader almost always wins the Presidential election, a mid-west hairdresser with no party affiliation told me the country has very serious problems, and that is why she is voting for the strongest leader.
6. Finally, the reason that the world and the media incorrectly will tag as the reason for McCain’s victory (despite the foregoing six other reasons) will be the Wilder or Bradley effect. Simply put, Asians, Whites and Hispanics have and will lie to pollsters about their intention to vote for Senator Obama. According to the Associated Press, this will cost Obama six points at the polls. The AP estimate could be low. In the case of Bradley and Wilder, the spread between a “lead” in the polls and actual votes cast was in the low double digits.
I honestly find the thought anybody’s hard earned money is given to those who pay no taxes. My husband is the main bread winner in our house. He works for a major aircraft company (Author’s Note: It isn’t Boeing.) in Kansas. And he works hard. I no longer work but not by choice. The VA has deemed me no longer employable. I do get Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and VA compensation every month. My social security is taxable. So under Obama’s plans I would be hit on my Social Security and my husband would be hit on his pay. And to us this is unacceptable.
Now that you have a personal view of “wealth redistribution” watch Keep The Change:
Please look at your own situation. Think about “redistributive wealth”. Think about the affect it would have on your lives. And then consider this question, do you really want to give your money away? As for me, I think it is a way to restore welfare without changing the law.
If you don’t want to give your money away, Vote Country First. Vote McCain/Palin,
The Daily Beast has a piece on its front page today from another Democratic Party insider, “So Long, Democrats” by Wendy Button. I know what you are thinking, who is Wendy Button.
Here is her story:
Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”
When I entered this campaign, it was at the 2006 Edwards staff Christmas party. My nametag read “Millie Worker.” When former Senator John Edwards read it, he laughed and said, “That makes you like my parent.” He went on to say, “Would you please come down to Chapel Hill so we can talk about what’s coming up.” I sat in John and Elizabeth’s living room for two and half hours. I left North Carolina, energized about politics for the first time in months.
Yes she was energized but left hangin by the Edwards campaign. More from Heidi:
When I finally received the official offer, it was the kind of political offer that said, “Go away.” That happens. It’s their campaign and I just assumed that I had been pushed out. The problem was that I had canceled a number of freelance writing jobs because I had assumed that when John said, “Start right away” I would.
But someone was waiting in the wings. That person was Obama. And she took his offer not knowing it would forever change her life. Wendy once more:
When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.
I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Wendy’s change of heart is like so many others change of hearts. Her eyes were opened. And she didn’t like what she was hearing in that phone. Read on:
See campaigns get complicated when you’ve written for so many Democrats. Not only had I written for Senator Edwards, but I had also been Senator Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter. Senator Joe Biden is a “good looking” man and his care after my father almost died from an aneurysm is the kind of kindness you never forget. When I saw Edwards at a traffic light in D.C. about a year after our meeting, he asked for help and I did and it was an honor to help him with his concession speech. And when the primary ended, it was a privilege to help Michelle Obama with a stump speech, be considered as a speechwriter for the V.P. nominee again, and send friends in Chicago ideas until the financial crisis hit. This is what the Democratic Party has been for me; it’s family. Now, it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin.
Her personal feelings are mirror images of so many feelings I have heard this year. Many lifelong Democrats are experiencing the same feelings even though most are not insiders. More from Wendy’s personal battle:
This drift started on a personal level with the fall of former Senator John Edwards. It got stronger during the Democratic National Convention when I counted the substantive mentions of poverty on one hand and a whole bunch of bad canned partisan lines against Senator John McCain. Some faith was lifted after Senator Hillary Clinton’s grace during a difficult hour. But that faith was dashed when I saw that someone had raided the Caligula set and planted the old columns at Invesco Field.
The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.
Interesting. We see Wendy’s decision to leave the party tied to Joe The Plumber. Why? Because the Democratic Party mocked Joe’s success and mocked his choice of a career path. The mocking tone of the Democratic Party shows their elitist attitude and an air of narcissism.
More from Button:
As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.
Yes! Wendy as sad as it is the Democratic Party has left you, me, the PUMAs and the so many nameless Democrats out there. This isn’t the party of the people, nor is it your father or mother’s party anymore.
She has some more to say:
Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?
How about a new and novel way to stop the bleeding? Raising taxes isn’t the way to do it. Cutting taxes will help. but trickle down economics hasn’t worked thus far. And probably won’t.
And this on a party bent on destroying two female candidates, Sen Hillary Clinton and now Gove Sarah Palin. (For me this is the most disgusting thing the un-Democratic Party has done! I am one of those 1970s bra burning feminists. One of those women who wore t-shirts that said, “Follow The Leader, That Is Why I AM Following Myself! and A Woman’s Place Is In The House And … Senate! And the last year or two has set the Women’s Movement back unknown years! This is the most heartbreaking thing about the un-Democratic Party!):
… it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.
But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?
Once more I am thrust back in time to May 31st. I was standing in a parking lot in East Helena, MT, listening to the worst news possible … and I never looked back. That very same day I went to McCain’s website and became a supporter. And today I look back to yesterday when I pushed that button for McCain….and feel satisfied I did the right thing! My sincere hope for Wendy is that she finds a new home somewhere…
A former ACORN staffer for ACORN/Project Vote has come forward with some startling testimony. The story is absolutely amazing and features Obama and ACORN/Project Vote and is available at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Here is that story, “Former ACORN staffer testifies” by Brad Bumsted, STATE CAPITOL REPORTER.
In July when I first started reading about ACORN I felt like they were going to be a real problem in this election. I had a sense we would see the rise of voter fraud, misuse of taxpayer money and even possible collusion with the Obama campaign. As the next couple of months passed I lamented on the fact that no one would listen to me. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review did. And here they are noting the ACORN/Project Vote abuses.
Now onto the breaking story:
A former staffer for an affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now testified today that the organization was provided a “donor list” from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in late 2007 for fundraising efforts.
Anita Moncrief, a former Washington, D.C. staffer for Project Vote, which she described as a sister organization of ACORN, said her supervisor told her the list of campaign contributors came from the Obama campaign. Moncrief said she has a copy of a “development plan” that outlines how Obama contributors who had “maxed out” under federal contribution limits would be targeted to give to Project Vote, and that it was her job to identify such contributors.
By now we have heard all the rhetoric coming from Obama and his sycophants. We have never paid ACORN. We have no connection to ACORN. The previous words spoken by Biden not more than a week ago. Well it looks like Obama has a little explaining to do. I doubt we will get any honesty…just more lies and miscues.
Watch the following video, Acting Director Bertha Lewis endorses Obama. And she asks you to vote for him on the Working Families Party (WFP) line (For more see New Party, WFP is the New Party with a “new look”. And both parties are affiliated with ACORN.).
And Obama and his cabal of liars are trying to bamboozle the American Voter….
More from the story:
Project Vote national spokesman Michael McDunnah denied that the list came from Obama’s campaign, according to The Associated Press. Donor lists for candidates are public information and can be downloaded from the Federal Election Commission’s Web site. The lists include how much individuals have given. ACORN officials have said Moncrief was fired from Project Vote and that she is not a credible witness. Moncrief testified that ACORN and Project Vote were virtually identical.
There is more substantive testimony and evidence to back up Moncrief’s testimony. It is available at Consumer Rights League (CRL). CRL is in custody of four affidavits that show there is a history of money that easily flows from ACORN Housing Corporation to ACORN and eventually other affiliates. One of those affiliates is Project Vote and they are more than that, they are a political arm of ACORN itself. There is more proof available here in a flow chart provided by CRL.
CRL also has two very well researched pieces on ACORN. One is ACORN’s Hypocritical House of Cards and the other one is $1 Million Scandal Latest To Hit ACORN. Given the level of voter registration by ACORN (although only 400,000 registrations are valid), every person should reads these two reports. They not only highlight the massive problems inside ACORN but they expose all their illegal activity. And discuss the comminglingof taxpayer monies to the political arm of ACORN, which is misuse of taxpayer money. (Author’s Note: The monies ACORN is receiving from the government can never be found on any Congressional budget sheet which is why they have been able to perform their illegal activities under the radar for so long. I dare Rep Boehner (R-OH) to find all the monies!)
More from the Review:
Moncrief, whom Project Vote fired earlier this year, testified for more than two hours during a hearing on a Pennsylvania Republican Party lawsuit aimed at curbing voter fraud in Tuesday’s general election.
Moncrief has faced many challenges prior to testifying. I am certain she was warned about her testimony. I am certain she has risked much by performing her CIVIC DUTY. More from the story:
Moncrief, 29, who now lives in Virginia, also said that she had taken a call from an Obama campaign worker inquiring whether it was the same organization Obama had worked with in the 1990′s. (Author’s Note: Is the Obama campaign running scared now? You can decide for yourself. Read the following piece, “Why Obama and ACORN fear Anita Moncrief”.)
Moncrief said she had received repeated warnings to “back off” from testifying today by people she knows at ACORN.
“I thought it was powerful testimony. She took a great personal risk,” said Heather Heidelbaugh, an attorney representing the state GOP.
On cross-examination, Moncrief admitted that she had no personal knowledge of how Pennsylvania ACORN registered voters.
Moncrief said she was fired because she put personal expenses on the organization’s credit card. She said she repaid about half of the money. “I am really sorry,” she said.
I don’t think she needed personal knowledge of how Pennsylvania ACORN workers register voters. Her testimony supports a growing trend among most ACORN workers, they are committing voter registration fraud. (Author’s Note: Signing the registration card illegally here in Kansas is a felony. It can be prosecuted. And it can lend a voter 17 months in the “big house”. Check your own state out!)
More from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:
Moncrief said she does not have a vendetta against ACORN.
“I do not think it is a bad organization,” she said. Moncrief said she came forward and contacted Heidelbaugh because she believes low-income vote canvassers were not trained and then were “thrown under the bus”– facing criminal prosecution — for frauduent registrations. She said there were quotas of voter registration forms for workers and that some were fired for not meeting them.
“The (voter) cards are tied to money. The more cards you get the more money you get,” Moncrief said.
I believe there aren’t just questions about voter fraud but about Wage & Labor issues as well. It is illegal to pay a person by the piece according to the Department of Labor. It seems ACORN’s activities are multi-jurisdictional as well as multi-level. Not only is ACORN a state problem but it is a federal problem as well. The FBI and the Pennsylvania courts are investigating their activities, why isn’t the Wage & Labor Division of the Department of Labor investigating them as well?
The most disturbing thing about this testimony is the connection between the Obama campaign and ACORN/Project Vote. Yet once again Obama’s campaign is denying any connection.
The Obama campaign said it wasn’t involved in ACORN registration drives .
“Our campaign has not coordinated with ACORN whatsoever on any voter registration activities,” said Obama spokesman Sean Smith.
Not so fast Mr. Smith, there is that little matter of $832,000 Obama paid Citizens Services Inc/ACORN. Many millions of people know about it too. And I should point out the fact the proof is in Obama’s FEC filings. Stop denying it. The more you appear defensive on the subject as Biden did, the more the American people don’t believe you.
And here is that interview just so we can remember Biden’s defensiveness:
Obama, Biden and his campaign cabal are lying, on that there is no doubt. Obama is still connected to ACORN and has never ceased being connected.
Obama is once again tied to questionable campaign funds. Am I surprised? In a word. NO! This story was revealed by the Washington Post….I know it is hard to believe….!!!
Somehow Obama’s massive fundraising is still ringing bells with me. The economy is in the tank. We have increasing unemployment numbers. So who in the United States had all this money to give? And who is using untraceable prepaid credit cards to fool the FEC?
From the story:
Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor’s identity, campaign officials confirmed.
It is my opinion that these untraceable credit cards are being used by illegal donors, the homeless, and others. More from the post:
Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.
The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations.
Let me guess Obama is using the loopholes in the FEC rules to get around tracking his donations. Not only that he has removed most security measures so it allows donors from anywhere in the world, American citizens or foreign officials.
By the way The Post agrees with me:
In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama’s accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama’s finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.
The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions.
And this is what Obama cabal had to say:
Lawyers for the Obama operation said yesterday that their “extensive back-end review” has carefully scrubbed contributions to prevent illegal money from entering the operation’s war chest. “I’m pretty sure if I took my error rate and matched it against any other campaign or comparable nonprofit, you’d find we’re doing very well,” said Robert Bauer, a lawyer for the campaign. “I have not seen the McCain compliance staff ascending to heaven on a cloud.”
The Obama team’s disclosures came in response to questions from The Washington Post about the case of Mary T. Biskup, a retired insurance manager from Manchester, Mo., who turned up on Obama’s FEC reports as having donated $174,800 to the campaign. Contributors are limited to giving $2,300 for the general election.
Biskup, who had scores of Obama contributions attributed to her, said in an interview that she never donated to the candidate. “That’s an error,” she said. Moreover, she added, her credit card was never billed for the donations, meaning someone appropriated her name and made the contributions with another card.
When asked whether the campaign takes steps to verify whether a donor’s name matches the name on the credit card used to make a payment, Obama’s campaign replied in an e-mail: “Name-matching is not a standard check conducted or made available in the credit card processing industry. We believe Visa and MasterCard do not even have the ability to do this.
I have to call BS! on the Obama campaign. Name matching can be done. And it is done to prevent “skimming”. (Author’s Note: Here is the definition of skimming: “Skimming” fraud takes many forms, but most often involves an unsuspecting cardholder handing his/her card to a retail or restaurant employee, who then swipes the card through a small, illegal card reader a “skimmer”. The skimmer then copies the data encoded on the card’s magnetic stripe. The card is “cloned” and then used for fraudulent charges.)
More from The Post:
Juan Proaño, whose technology firm handled online contributions for John Edwards’s presidential primary campaign, and for John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2004, said it is possible to require donors’ names and addresses to match those on their credit card accounts. But, he said, some campaigns are reluctant to impose that extra layer of security.
Let me see, Obama basically has erased any layers of security from their online donation site. And that is obvious. There is no way that Obama can do backdoor cheks if some cards can’t even be traced. And let’s not forget the fictitious names.
More from the story:
Campaign finance lawyers said there is a long history of debate within the FEC about how to ensure that donors use their own credit cards.
Election lawyer Brett Kappel said the FEC has never grappled with the question of cash cards. “The whole system is set up for them to accept the payment, then determine whether it is legal or not. And if it’s not, send it back. That’s what the statute requires,” he said.
The reality of it is Obama is not a new type of candidate. He is a crook. He is using all the loopholes available through the Federal Election Commission.
Two-thirds of the record-breaking haul Obama raised for the final stretch of the campaign comes from a racket set up to facilitate fake names, phony addresses and untraceable cards.
This is an infectious disease, an antibiotic-resistant acute contagion of corruption, a type of flesh-eating political bacteria that will — best case for Democrats, unless immediately disinfected starting today by their candidate himself — rob their would-be president elect of any political legitimacy even before Election Day, much less before the inauguration. In both scope and consequence, this bodes to make Watergate look like a playground fist-fight among kindergartners.
Obama is corrupt, as corrupt as the rest of Chicago politics. He is not a different candidate. Instead Obama has to be the most corrupt presidential candidate in recent history.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an opinion piece on McCain’s health care plan. The opinion piece heralds McCain’s Health Care plan and states that it will be better for almost everyone.
From the WSJ:
… what exactly does Sen. McCain have in mind? He would replace the current income tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance with a refundable tax credit — $5,000 for those who purchase family coverage and $2,500 for individual coverage. Mr. McCain would also reform insurance markets to stem the growth in health insurance premiums.
What many may not realize is that the federal government already “spends” roughly $300 billion to $400 billion through the tax code to encourage people to pay for their health care through employer-sponsored health insurance. This subsidy takes the form of the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance from both income and payroll taxes.
Still, some 45 million Americans are uninsured; and the growth in health-care spending continues to outpace the growth in incomes and the economy, which portends further increases in the number of uninsured. The employer-based system itself is eroding. Voters should be wondering whether there is a better approach than this subsidy.
I don’t think voters should wonder any longer because I am going to draw two very strong contrasts. These contrasts are going to cover health care plans in Hawaii and Massachusetts.
Now let us look at the reason why this is happening. Of course there are budget shortfalls but that isn’t the main reason. The main reason is the insurance program invited abuses by many in Hawaii.
More on that:
The Keiki (child) Care program aimed to cover every child from birth to 18 years old who didn’t already have health insurance — mostly immigrants and members of lower-income families.
It costs the state about $50,000 per month, or $25.50 per child — an amount that was more than matched by HMSA.
State health officials argued that most of the children enrolled in the universal child care program previously had private health insurance, indicating that it was helping those who didn’t need it.
The Massachusetts Health Care Plan:
Two years into the state’s pioneering healthcare experiment to insure nearly everyone, coverage is almost universal, with 97 percent of Massachusetts adults reporting they have some sort of insurance, according to the survey. Yet for some that did not translate into getting needed care.The subsidy encourages people to buy bigger policies that cover more, and leads to greater health-care spending. Moreover, lower deductibles and coverage of routine spending dulls consumers’ sensitivity to price. Reducing the tax bias should result in insurance that is more focused on catastrophic coverage and less on routine spending.
There is more to this story:
In Massachusetts, though, there’s another reason officials worry about crowd-out: if 1 percent of the 625,000 people who have employer-provided insurance but are eligible for state subsidy (those with incomes below 300 percent of the poverty level, or about $63,000) choose the public plan because it’s cheaper, that’s about 6,000 more people the state has to subsidize. “If that happens,” says Kingsdale, “I worry whether this program will be financially sustainable three or four years from now.” It’s ironic that those who favor market-based health coverage want to keep people from seeking lower-priced insurance–which is exactly what the market says they should do.
And the problem in Massachusetts is the same as Hawaii’s, insurance plan abuses. Obviously something neither state took into account when figuring their initial costs or the initial laws.
More on McCain’s plan:
By replacing the income tax exclusion with a fixed, refundable credit, the McCain proposal reduces the tax bias for large insurance policies. Because the credit is for a fixed amount, regardless of how much you spend on health care, it helps break the link between the existing tax subsidy and how much is spent on health care. This improves incentives in the health-care market by reducing the bias that has contributed to such a high level of health-care spending.
Moreover, the credit provides a powerful incentive for people to purchase insurance. The two tax provisions — the new credit and the repeal of the income tax exclusion — on net provide a substantial tax cut of $1.4 trillion over 10 years. Not only do most Americans receive a tax cut under the McCain proposal, but the tax cut is directed toward low and moderate income taxpayers.
Read on this opinion makes a great deal of sense. McCain’s plan does really reach the lower income citizens. Looks good on the surface.
More:
How large an effect does this proposal have on the number of uninsured? Based on estimates by career economists in the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis of similar proposals discussed in the Washington Beltway several years ago, the McCain health-care tax credit can be expected to increase the number of insured by 15 million and probably more. The Lewin Group, a respected private health-care research outfit, recently estimated that the McCain credit would increase the number of insured by as much as 21 million. It is true that many may no longer get their insurance through their employer, but they will be given the resources to purchase insurance on their own.
Well that will cut the uninsured by half possibly more. Of course that remains to be seen what the total cut in the number of uninsured will be. The most important point about McCain’s plan is it will help Social Security and other entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid down the road.
There is an enormous unfunded liability associated with the major entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If left unchecked, the growth in these programs will nearly double the size of the federal government by 2040, consuming roughly 40% of the nation’s output rather than the 20% today. While the growth in Social Security is largely the result of demographics, the growth in Medicare and Medicaid is also driven by the rapid growth in health-care spending. This is where a proposal like Sen. McCain’s can be so important.
The elimination of the income-tax exclusion should reduce private health-care spending; to the extent this reduces the cost of health care, it should also put downward pressure on the growth of Medicare and Medicaid costs. Thus, by removing the tax bias for more generous health coverage, the McCain health credit also has the potential to provide important dividends to the entitlement problem down the road.
In short I believe McCain’s plan is the better one after researching insurance plans in Massachusetts and Hawaii, both of which are falling or have fallen short. I want insurance for all the uninsured but there has to be a better way to do it.
So tell me Biden and Obama just what is the income level you are going to raise taxes on $42,000, $150,000, $200,000 or maybe $250,000. Which is it or must we guess?
Biden, Obama’s Gaffe-O-Matic is at it again! Only this time he isn’t quite sure he knows what income level will get higher taxes. Yes, you got it “Biden Blows Fuzzy Tax Math” and leaves all Americans guessing!
From the story:
Gaffe-prone Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth again yesterday, mistakenly excluding millions of Americans from his running mate’s tax-cut proposal.
Just read what he had to say:
“What we’re saying is, that $87 billion tax break doesn’t need to go to people making an average of $1.4 million,” Biden said.
“It should go to middle-class people, people who make $150,000 a year.”
Actually, Barack Obama has promised to cut taxes on households earning less than $200,000 a year while raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 annually.
Best thing is he did this in hometown of Scranton, PA….
Just listen to the video:
And there is more from the Wall Street Journal:
Just as Bill Clinton promised a “middle-class tax cut” in 1992 only to raise taxes on the middle class in 1993, Mr. Obama will quickly find that his tax-revenue math doesn’t add up. Add in the demands on Capitol Hill to spend more and to offset the Alternative Minimum Tax, and our bet is that even $150,000 would soon prove to be a moving tax target. Remember when the AMT was only supposed to hit 21 millionaires? Next year, without relief, it could hit 26 million taxpayers. Tax increases always hit the middle class because that’s where the money is.
Barack Obama promised he would not raise taxes on those making more than $200,000 per year instead of $250,000 per year in his 30 minute broadcast this evening.
This is a dramatic change from his previously stated tax plan.
The Obama campaign fumed when the GOP seized upon Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden’s remarks that an Obama Administration would raise taxes on those making less than $250,000. The Obama campaign said Biden misspoke, but this is coming straight from the horse’s mouth.
Obama clearly lowered that tax ceiling in tonight’s infomercial. It needs clarification, especially considering we are less than a week away from the election.
I believe the middle class will not get a tax break but end up with a tax increase just like in the Clinton Administration because the math just doesn’t add up. Remember Obama wants to redistribute wealth… And his spending bill, at least 1 trillion dollars. Now you do the math, who gets the tax increase? It looks like it will be anyone who makes over $200,000 a year now? I bet by next Tuesday it slips to $42,000 again!
Obama is once again talking about a “Civilian National Security Force” with a price tag equal to the Defense Budget which stands at $500 billion dollars. Well that adds up to a trillion dollars. Where does he intend to get the money to start his brown shirt force? What is the purpose of his brown shirt force? Will they be forced into training camps (indoctrination camps)?
And by the way his force will be as powerful and well outfitted as our military. WTF?
Well let’s take a look at his plan:
“We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle and high school students.
For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students that would be tied to that level of service.
Well I see several problems with his outline:
1. The price tag
2. Mandates for school systems. Establish service programs or else you get no federal funding. I see this as a veiled threat and a bribe. The teachers’ unions that support Obama should be ashamed of themselves…they might as well be endorsing this plan too!
3.The $4000 tax credit means little when it will result in the loss of guaranteed student loans. It will fall onto those who need loans and credits to attend college in the first place. They will have hard time working a summer job to help with school costs because their summers will be filled up doing their service. The upper crust will have no such requirements placed on them.
4. The government should not find it incumbent upon themselves to order school aged children and college aged children to “perform security services”. Giving and donating starts at home. We don’t need a bigger government or the specter of “Big Brother” hanging over our heads.
The short and long of this…I don’t need a Democrat like Obama telling my children who and what to give their time to. Obama doesn’t lead by example because he gives very little of his net worth to charity, nor is there much evidence that he or his wife do much for society.
My husband and I led by example. To this day my adult children regularly give back to their community, as do my husband and I and no one had to tell us to do it. We just do it because it is part of our integrity and our love for this country. We do it because it is the patriotic thing to do.
I was perusing Michelle Malkin’s column tonight to get her take on the Obama-mercial…I laughed so hard reading her interpretation of the horrible ad, so I thought I would put her entire post right here for all to read. It is aptly titled, “Obama TV: Dear Leader’s infomercial”.
From Michelle Malkin:
Higher purpose…blahblahblah…Change We Need…blahblahblah…Every American must play a role…Take care of one another…blahblahblah…
Just doing a little pre-liveblogging of the Obama-mercial, which begins in just a few minutes.
Barack Obama has lived one version of the American Dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story.
Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.
A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.
The US press has repeatedly rehearsed Mr Obama’s extraordinary odyssey, but the other side of the family’s American experience has only been revealed in parts. Just across town from where Mr Obama made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, some of his closest blood relatives have confronted the harshness of immigrant life in America.
More from Malkin:
8:00pm Eastern. Here we go. The ad opens up with amber waves of grain, American flags…
“Change” count: 10.
Obama is profiling Americans in economic distress.
1) Rebecca Johnson (Johnston?). She’s mad about rising mortgage payments.
Obama’s decrying the market turmoil, touting the “rescue plan” (AKA crap sandwich), and bloviating about his bogus tax cuts.
2) Now, he’s talking to a retiree about his pension. He repeats his new mantra that “government can’t solve all our problems.” He’s been saying this over and over again the past few days. His internals must show that the “Senator Government” jibe is hurting him. (See: The Democrats want your 401(k))
3) Obama moves on to a black couple without medical insurance and burdensome home payments. More sob stories.
No, don’t expect to see any sympathy for renters or couples who refrained from indulging in the subprime craze.
4) Promises, promises, promises — tax credits for fuel efficient cars, invest in clean coal, expand domestic production for oil.
Again: “Government can’t do it all.”
“Usher in a new era of responsibility.”
5) Iraq. “We are spending more in Iraq now than when we started the war.” So… he wouldn’t have spent money on the surge he opposed before he supported?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt makes an appearance. Va. Democrat Gov. Tim Kaine.
6) Another heart-wrenching tale. A woman working two jobs and taking . She feels like she’s drowning in bills.
It’s not clear what exactly she wants — and what Obama wants us to do. Pay for her educational training? What?
7) Obama is talking about his family now. Too funny: They’re playing his soundbite about turning the tv off and putting away the video games. Tell it to Malia, mister.
Hardly saw his father. Had to wake up early. Now here we go: His Education Plan will give tax credits for training. Right To Affordable Health Care.
But hey – government can’t solve all our problems!
8:18pm Eastern. Now, he’s talking about his mother. No mention of Aunt Zeituni or the brother in the Kenyan shanty.
In my lasy update on smearing Joe The Plumber, I asked why the director, Helen Jones-Kelley, hadn’t been brought up on charges. She still hasn’t been charged with anything but the Ohio Sentae is asking questions. And they want answers.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has the latest update to the director’s actions. And so far the answers lack substance. From Morrissey:
When last we heard from Helen Jones-Kelley, the director of Ohio’s Job and Family Services Division insisted that she has everyone who gets public attention checked to see if they owe family support. Now, with more details about the searches performed on Joe Wurzelbacher becoming public, Jones-Kelley acknowledges she didn’t quite tell the entire truth at first. Her department also ran checks on taxes and welfare payments to see if they could catch Joe the Plumber cheating the system:
Didn’t quite tell the truth, huh. And she still has her job? More from the update:
A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on “Joe the Plumber” were more extensive than it first acknowledged.
Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.
The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.
Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher.
Harris called the multiple records checks “questionable” and said he awaits more answers. “It’s kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket,” he said.
Harris is right it is like Big Brother peeking into private places that he shouldn’t be.
The entire episode seems rather Orwellian. Joe the Plumber has the temerity to ask a question of Barack Obama, only after Obama approached Joe. For this crime of sudden notoriety — and because Obama gave an embarrassing answer that has plagued him for weeks — Jones-Kelley ran several checks to see whether she could have him arrested. Jones-Kelley, it should be noted, has given the maximum donation to Obama for this election.
Big Brother is watching. Harris is right, and he’s not buying Jones-Kelley’s explanation even in the abstract. Do JFS employees routinely flip through newspapers and watch television all day and then run the names of all Ohioans who appear? If so, they must not have much time to get any other work done.
On the other hand, it sounds like a perfect job for a blogger — sit around all day reading the newspapers and watching TV, and then wasting the rest of the day running pointless searches through government systems just on the off chance of finding something sensational.
Where do I sign up?
The real message this sends Ohioans is one of intimidation. Don’t ask questions of public officials, Jones-Kelley’s actions say, or else watch your reputation get shredded. Be quiet. Don’t rock the boat. We know where you live, and we know what you’ve done.
I worked for a state agency in Georgia. There were rules in place that cover private information like that released on Wurtzelbacher. (I sincerely hope there are similar rules in Ohio.) Breaking those rules in such a blatant manner was grounds for dismissal.
Harris, when are you going to call for her resignation or are you going to fire her? Or will Kelley go unpunished for her crime just as ACORN is going unpunished for their crimes? Tell me does Ohio harbor and promote criminal activity?
Almost 80 years ago while Herbert Hoover was president the country fell into a “Depression”, with long bread lines, massive unemployment, and a busted stock market. A market that took more than 25 years to totally recover. Hoover’s tax increases and protectionist measures helped to create the “crisis” And almost 80 years later, we are faced with a candidate, Obama who wants to return us to the Hoover days and the very real prospect of another “Great Depression”.
While on the surface Obama’s tax cuts look like tax cuts for the middle class they are hiding other tax increases. These tax increases appear in raises in capital gains taxes, dividend taxes and even the so called death taxes. And as of last night his tax increases now start at $200,000.
Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) lays Obama’s tax plan out for us in “Investors Flee From ‘Change’ Obama Hypes”. Here is Obama’s tax plan:
Are Barack Obama’s proposed tax increases adversely affecting our financial markets? We say yes, unambiguously. The senator has done a masterful job distracting attention from his tax increases with his $500-per-worker tax credit supposedly for 95% of Americans.
Obama has also set forth more than half a dozen additional refundable income tax credits targeted to low- and moderate-income workers for child care, education, housing, welfare, retirement, health care and other social purposes.
These tax credits are devised to phase-out based on income, which will ultimately increase marginal income tax rates for middle-class workers. In other words, as you earn more, you suffer a penalty in the phase-out of these credits, which has the exact effect of a marginal tax rate increase. That harms, rather than improves, the economy.
Although Obama says the middle class will not see tax increases, the marginal taxes will increase your taxes. And not only that but the better you do financially in life, the more you will be penalized.
More from IBD:
With the bottom 40% of income earners not paying any federal income taxes, such tax credits would not reduce any tax liability for these workers. Instead, since they’re refundable, they would involve new checks from the federal government.
These are not tax cuts as Obama is promising. They are new government spending programs buried in the tax code and estimated to cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years. (Author’s Note: I see this as a “new form of welfare” disguised in the tax codes.)
Obama argues that while these workers do not pay income taxes, they do pay payroll taxes. True, but his planned credits do not involve cuts in payroll taxes. They are refundable income tax credits designed to redistribute income and “spread the wealth.”
Meantime, Obama has proposed effective tax increases of 20% or more in the two top income-tax rates, phasing out the personal exemptions and all itemized deductions for top earners, as well as raising their tax rates.
He wants a 33% increase in the tax rates on capital gains and dividends, an increase of 16% to 32% in the top payroll tax rate, reinstatement of the death tax with a 45% top rate, and a new payroll tax on employers estimated at 7% to help finance his health insurance plan. He’s also contending for higher tariffs under his protectionist policies. (Author’s Note: This tax affects approximately 80% of all American households since there are that many households who do some investing.)
Finally, he would increase corporate taxes by 25%, though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rates in the industrialized world, thus directly harming manufacturing and job creation while weakening demand for the dollar.
Obama’s plan would affect many households than he is willing to admit. Many people work for small businesses. And I know here in Kansas some of those small businesses get their work from the aircraft industry. Essentially his tax increases would have a top to bottom affect resulting in a higher unemployment rate.
More from IBD:
Obama argues disingenuously that his tax increases would only affect higher-income workers and “corporate fat cats.” But it is precisely these top marginal tax rates that control incentives for savings, investment, entrepreneurship, business expansion, jobs and economic growth. While he wants to tax the rich, the burden will fall on the poor and the middle class.
As you can see IBD’s analysis agrees with my opinion. But there is more from the article that needs covering.
In their new book, “The End of Prosperity,” Art Laffer, Steve Moore and Peter Tanous argue that the threat of this tax tsunami is already destabilizing our financial markets and causing capital flight from America…
The American economy was in shambles when Reagan entered office in 1981. Inflation had soared by 25% over the prior two years, unemployment was heading toward 10%, the prime interest rate hit 21%, poverty was on a 33% upswing and real family income had decreased by almost 10% due to the stagflation of the late 1970s.
Reagan cut the top income-tax rate from 70% to 50%, adopted an additional 25% across-the-board rate cut and sliced capital gains taxes in half. The 1986 tax reform left us with just two tax rates of 15% and 28%. Reagan slashed spending growth, lowered tariffs, reduced regulatory burdens and promoted anti-inflation monetary policies.
The result, the authors explain, was actually a 25-year, noninflationary economic boom, with only two brief, mild recessions in 1990 and 2001. “We call this period, 1982-2007, the 25-year boom — the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet,” they write. “Adjusting for inflation, more wealth was created in America in the 25-year boom than in the previous 200 years.”
IBD says we need a change but it is not Obama’s change. The tax increases will bring more investment in the global economy and less in the US economy.
By 1989, the economy had grown by almost one-third, the equivalent of adding the entire economy of West Germany to our U.S. economy. In 1984 alone, real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years. Nearly 20 million new jobs were created in the 1980s, increasing U.S. civilian employment by almost 20%. Unemployment fell to 5.3% by 1989.
Spectacularly, inflation was slashed to 3.2% by 1983. The prime rate fell to 6.25% by 1992, even though opponents had argued that Reagan’s tax cuts would increase interest rates. Family income reversed its decline, poverty reversed its rise and tax revenues actually doubled.
This is the “Change We Need” today.
Obama needs to become a student of history, something he has been loathe to do all these months. I believe that Obama has fancy rhetoric and fancy, elitist ideas but he isn’t a studier. He repeats what his handlers tell him to repeat without thought to the consequences to society as a hole. And this rings true with his massive spending bill and tax increases. And the specter of Herbert Hoover looms large.
I was approving comments on the blog when I came across this comment. Hat tip to Jim Williams. Thanks for the Thursday laugh! What a great prank. And my kudos to whoever posted this at Craigs List. Gotta’ love it.
ACORN POLITICAL PRANK
Saw this on craigslist:
Listed on craigslist with an ACORN office address with a free stuff ad.
Office closing, slow economy, everything tagged with a green, brown or white tag is free for pickup at xxxx xxxxxxx,xxxx,. After 6:00 everyday for next 2 weeks or all taken. Take all you want, so bring a truck. Door is open or key above door. Our loss is your gain. PS bring this ad with you.
Craigslist addresses
http://www.newyork.craigslist.org
Acorn addresses
http://www.acorn.org
Well maybe it will come true. We can only hope. I do. I never want to see another corrupt election season like this again. Obama has to be one of the most corrupt politicians in history. And his very presence in this election screams for overwhelming reform in Washington, DC and especially Chicago. Obama isn’t the politician of old, he is much worse.
Within the last hour, the first exit poll of 817 Americans in Israel, who attended U.S. election voting events in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening to vote by absentee ballot, has been released.
A startling 76 percent of those polled said that they had voted for John McCain. This contrasts sharply with pre-election polls of American Jews in the U.S., which indicate a strong preference for Obama.
This leaves me with one question, are the pollsters lying to us about Obama’s Jewish support?
More from the article:
The exit poll findings of American voters in Israel are all the more surprising because less than one in four were registered Republicans, and 46% of registered Democrats living in Israel said they had crossed party lines to vote McCain. By contrast, the Republican crossover to Obama was minimal – just 2%.
The numbers of Democrats crossing party lines is absolutely incredible. The numbers support another article I read today at Free Republic. Here are those numbers:
A poll was conducted back In June 2008, and it found that the number of Hillary supporters that were going to vote for Obama was 58%, with 28% going to vote for McCain. The rest were undecided.
In September, another poll was conducted, and it found that things were unchanged for Obama. This poll found that the percentages were still 58% going to vote for Obama and 28% going to vote for for McCain, with the remainder still undecided.
If the remainder ends up splitting evenly, that will give McCain 35% of Hillary supporters that will vote for him and 65% for Obama.
18 million people voted for Hillary in the Democratic primaries. 35% of those 18 million voting for McCain on Nov. 4th, 2008, will translate into about 6.4 million votes for McCain – votes that Obama will not get – and would have gotten had he chosen Hillary as his veep.
This may account for why the MSM pollsters have skewed their polls and rampantly oversampled Dems, and undersampled Repubs – along with tainting their polls with extra blacks and college students being polled.
6 million plus extra voters for McCain…
Wow.
Since early voting numbers show that few college students are turning out to vote early for Obama, even though he and his campaign have been pleading with them to do so, and with some polls showing that Obama’s turnout of black voters won’t be much better than John Kerry’s were, the Obama campaign is worried.
This election is far from over. The polls are much, much closer than many realize.
More from National Republic Online (NRO):
The votes are significant as almost half of the 42,000 registered U.S. voters living in Israel come from key swing states including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In the 2000 and 2004 elections, Israel had the third-largest group of American voters abroad, after Canada and Britain.
The exit poll was commissioned by Votefromisrael.org, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting voter registration and participation amongst American citizens living in Israel.
The MSM has forgotten and largely ignored the PUMAs and the disenfranchised Democrats because they have adopted the meme that all Democrats have come home. This is simply not true. The PUMAs are lurking around every corner. They aren’t riding the “unity jackass” into oblivion, they are walking to the polls to the tune of a different drummer.
The exit polls in Is rael are indicating something different though. The Americans abroad are concerned about foreign policy and the advisers Obama is surrounded by. They don’t trust him on the subjects of Israel and Iran.
I think that these numbers are significant. They tend to favor my opinion that the pollsters are lying or over polling certain groups. However, we still need to get to the polling locations in all states and vote Country First. Vote McCain/Palin ’08.
In Karl Rove’s opinion piece at The Wall Street Journal today, he said the following about polls, “they were wrong in 2000 and 2004″, (and in my opinion, may be wrong this year too.).
Rove has this to say about polls:
There has been an explosion of polls this presidential election. Through yesterday, there have been 728 national polls with head-to-head matchups of the candidates, 215 in October alone. In 2004, there were just 239 matchup polls, with 67 of those in October. At this rate, there may be almost as many national polls in October of 2008 as there were during the entire year in 2004.
Some polls are sponsored by reputable news organizations, others by publicity-eager universities or polling firms on the make. None have the scientific precision we imagine.
For example, academics gathered by the American Political Science Association at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington on Aug. 31, 2000, to make forecasts declared that Al Gore would be the winner. Their models told them so. Mr. Gore would receive between 53% and 60% of the two-party vote; Gov. George W. Bush would get between just 40% and 47%. Impersonal demographic and economic forces had settled the contest, they said. They were wrong.
Rove has more on the subject of polls. (Author’s Note: I wonder if Rove & Co. have the same problem with their polls as others do.) More from the article:
On Monday, there were seven nationwide polls, with the candidates as close as three points in the Investors Business Daily/TIPP poll and as far apart as 10 points in Gallup’s “expanded” model. On Tuesday, the Gallup “traditional” model poll had the candidates separated by two points and the Pew poll had them separated by 15. On Wednesday, Battleground, Rasmussen and Gallup “traditional” model polls had the candidates separated by three points while Diageo/Hotline and Gallup “expanded” model polls had the spread at seven points.
Polls can reveal underlying or emerging trends and help campaigns decide where to focus. The danger is that commentators use them to declare a race over before the votes are in. This can demoralize the underdog’s supporters, depressing turnout. I know that from experience.
Rove admits that he has largely affected polling numbers too.
Polls have proliferated this year in part because it is much easier for journalists to devote the limited space in their papers or on TV to the horse-race aspect of the election rather than its substance. And I admit, I’ve aided and abetted this process.
Wow! Rove is actually honest and truthful this year. I am just blown away. Read on:
But the question that matters is the margin. If Mr. McCain is down by 3%, his task is doable, if difficult. If he’s down by 9%, his task is essentially impossible. In truth, however, no one knows for sure what kind of polling deficit is insurmountable or even which poll is correct. All of us should act with the proper understanding that nothing is yet decided.
As for me, I’ve already cast my absentee ballot in Kerr County, Texas — joyfully, enthusiastically marking the straight Republican column. I would like to have joined the line Tuesday outside the polling place in Ingram, where I’ve been registered the past few years. But I will be in New York, part of the vast horde analyzing exit polls, dissecting returns, and pontificating on consequences. I’ll thoroughly enjoy myself that night, and probably feel guilty the next morning. But this year’s 728 national polls and the thousands of state polls made me do it.
The point of this article though it is hard to glean from Rove’s well parsed words, is don’t let the polls discourage you. If you haven’t already voted. Run. Drive. Walk. Do what ever is necessary to get to your polling place early or on November 4th and vote Our Country First. If you want to save our country from more debt at the hands of the insincere Democrats, who disenfranchised many on May 31st of this year by choosing The One, Vote McCain/Palin.
Remember. Never forget and give The One his November surprise.
And please ignore the polls. Get Out And Vote. Vote Country First!
A Newsmax investigation of Obama/Biden campaign contributors, undertaken in conjunction with a private investigative firm headed by a former CIA operations officer, has identified 118 donors who appear to lack U.S. citizenship.
Some of these “red flag” donors work for foreign governments; others have made public statements declaring that they are citizens of Cameroun, Nigeria, Pakistan, Canada, and other countries.
Red Flags. I have believed that many of Obama’s donations have been “red flags”. More on those illegal contributions:
Under federal law, only U.S. citizens or permanent residents may donate to federal political campaigns. It is illegal for the campaigns to accept money knowingly from foreign donors.
The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill of 2002 placed new restrictions on political fundraising after the scandals of 1996, when the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign was exposed for having taken millions of dollars of unregulated soft money from donors with ties to Chinese military intelligence.
But even with the new laws, it remains very difficult to identify with any precision foreign money if a campaign itself does not cooperate with the Federal Election Commission and perform its own due diligence.
Until very recently, the Obama campaign had no safeguards in its online fundraising Web site designed to weed out foreign donors. Instead, its operations appeared to be designed specifically to enhance the flow of illegal money.
Newsmax hired a team of forensics experts led by the former CIA operations officer Frederick W. Rustmann Jr. More on Rustmann and his company:
… Rustmann, a 24 year veteran field officer, operates CTC International Group Ltd., a West Palm Beach, Fla., firm that provides business intelligence services and analysis.
Using sophisticated Internet search tools, fee-based data bases, and other public records, CTC attempted to identify Social Security numbers and U.S. addresses connected to the Obama donors. Most of these donors gave obvious overseas addresses when they made their donations, but the Obama campaign had no security screen to detect them.
It looks like Obama has been bought by foreign nationals. This leads me to a question, what does he owe these foreign donors? And what will he give them in return? Obama claims they are all Americans living overseas.
There is more:
Rustmann and his investigative team expressed “high suspicions” that 118 donors flagged as “red” were not U.S. citizens.
“That’s all we can say for certain, because it’s difficult to prove citizenship with no database that lists citizens,” Rustmann said.
Typical is Victor A. of Lagos, Nigeria, who gave $500 to the campaign in May. In the FEC database, his address is listed as Ikoyi, NA. But a closer look at the actual itemized receipts filed by the campaign shows that he declared his address as 9e Awori Street Dolphin Estate, Lagos, Nigeria.
That apparently slipped by the eagle eyes of the Obama campaign’s finance team.
A survey of the Obama donor base returns 8,794 donations from individuals who gave their state as “NA.” They included donors from Bangalore, India; London; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Lagos, Nigeria; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Thousands more gave state abbreviations that, combined with the city addresses they listed, clearly referred to foreign countries. Examples include IT (Italy), FR (France), GR (Greece), NZ (New Zealand), JP (Japan), GA (Gaza).
Another 2,372 donors gave their state of residence as “ZZ,” with cities including Moscow, Barcelona, Beirut, London, Lausanne, Singapore, Hagatna, Gunma-Ken, Buelach, Shanghai, Geneva, Prague, Aichi-Gun, Kiev, Hong Kong, and others.
The Obama campaign claims that these donors with overseas addresses are Americans living abroad, but there is no way of knowing that for certain because the campaign has not systematically required proof of citizenship from overseas donors.
Once more Team Obama is not transparent. And I am fairly certain he isn’t a “new type” of candidate either. Obama uses every loophole in his armory to hide these illegal donations.
And yet there is even more:
The pace of foreign donations and other questionable fundraising practices has increased during the past few weeks, even as Obama campaign spokesmen say they have closed loopholes on their Web site and changed the credit-card authorization procedures that have allowed such donations. The Federal Election Commission had flagged 16,639 potential foreign donations as of Oct. 21 that brought in $5,249,263.96 to the campaign.
Take the case of Jo Jacquet, who gave $23,065 to Obama in 23 separate contributions last month. CTC found three people with variations of the name “Jo Anna Jacquet” who had U.S. addresses and Social Security numbers. It is not clear whether this specific Obama donor is a U.S. citizen.
“Jo Jacquet” made all of her contributions on two days, alternating between $5 and $2,300 charges to a credit card.
On all of the donations, she gave her employer as “DFDFGDFG,” and her profession as “DFGDFGDFGHFGH.” None of this attracted the suspicions of the Obama campaign or of Chase Paymentech, the company that processes the Obama campaign’s credit card donations.
The FEC requested that the Obama campaign re-attribute or re-designate all of the money from “Jo Jacquet” that went beyond the $4,600 limit but did not require that it be refunded. Under campaign finance rules, the campaign can shift this money into the “Obama Victory” account, a joint fundraising committee with much higher individual limits that it operates with the Democratic National Committee.
One apparent reason for the unusual number of foreign donors who may not hold U.S. citizenship is the fact the Obama campaign turned off the security features most merchants demand for customers when doing online transactions, such as verifying the card number against the cardholder’s name and billing address.
Another major loophole is the apparent widespread use of gift cards, which notoriously have been used for money-laundering purposes, especially in places such as Russia and Ukraine, industry security analysts tell Newsmax.
Guess what? Obama asked Chase Paymentech, to deactivate the Address Verification Service recommended by VISA USA on the Obama Web site. Now we know how these questionable contributions are making it to Obama For America.
Newsmax asked James Wester, a spokesman for Chase Paymentech, who was responsible for taking the unusual step of deactivating the Address Verification Service recommended by VISA USA on the Obama Web site. Such security features can be deactivated by the processing company, or at the request of the merchant, in this case, Obama for America.
Wester said that Paymentech was “not going to be issuing a statement at this time.”
And there is even more:
VISA USA has a series of verification tools it recommends to online merchants to prevent online credit card fraud and to guarantee the security of personal credit-card information.
“Fraudsters have been known to test credit card numbers by making online donations to charitable organizations,” a credit-card industry insider told Newsmax, on condition of anonymity.
In fact, by operating as a “high-risk merchant,” the Obama campaign could put both its donors and Chase Paymentech at risk, he said.
“A legitimate online merchant or charity would call in the Secret Service or the FBI” if it saw the high fraud rates that have appeared on the Obama campaign Web site.
“If they are not taking basic security safeguards to prevent such obvious online fraud as you have found, then how can any donor have confidence that they will protect credit card information? But if cash flow is the name of the game, it doesn’t matter as long as they get the money up-front and get the job done. They can pay the fines later,” he added.
Here is a list of names of suspicious donors with overseas addresses:
Following are a few of the individuals the Newsmax/CTC International investigation found of overseas donors. To demonstrate its compliance with FEC regulations, the Obama campaign should request proof that these individuals are, indeed, U.S. citizens;
# Nasser Z. of 187 Blvd Bineau in Paris-France, “NA,” made seven donations totaling $785. CTC found no record indicating U.S. citizenship. But on Nasser’s personal blog, he states that he is of Algerian origin and lives between Paris and Dubai. He also notes that he is not registered to vote in the United States and hints that he may be an adviser to the Obama campaign on Arab relations.
# Salem H. gave $200 to the campaign in March 2008, listing a London address. He said he worked as a salesman for “Anaka,” No information was found either on Haffar or his company indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Essomba H. made 11 donations totaling $265. Essomba gave an address in Lyon, “NA,” and said he was unemployed but working for “Association,” the French equivalent of a community organizer. CTC found that Essomba actually worked for PDT Associates Afrikespace et Oyenga, which showed him as living in Lyon, France. His personal blog states, “I’m a Cameroonian living in France” and notes that he is not registered to vote.
# Gedewon (or Gideon) G. made 32 donations totaling $1,095. Although he lists his employer as “Filtom Design Services” and his residence as Toronto, Canada, CTC could find no company with that name. Gedewon frequently posts blogs to a Web site for expatriate Eritreans, where he often promotes Obama.
# Mahamane M. gave $500 to the campaign and listed his address as Niamey, the capitol of the central African state of Niger. He listed his occupation as managing director of C.N.U.T. Niger. The Public Transport Users Council, CNUT is affiliated with the prime minister’s office. In an interview, Mahamane said he is particularly interested in developing transportation resources that will help bring Niger’s extensive uranium resources to market.
# Gilles M. lives in Zurich and claims to be “founder and senior consultant” of 4?ME (sic) Image Consulting. Gilles made three donations to the campaign for a total of $240.39. The campaign found him suspicious enough to return one of them in July, but kept the rest. Under FEC rules, that will bring Gilles back into the shadows, since his aggregate contributions now total less than $200.
# Stamen S. of Sofia, Bulgaria, lists his profession as “Mployer” and his employer as “Employer.” He has made ten donations totaling $170. CTC found no record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Francis B. . of La Creche, France, made three donations totaling $200. He is reported as being a medicine physician at Hospital-Niort and is listed. CTC found no verifiable record of U.S. citizenship.
# Pedro M.,. who said he was a salesman for Intermundo in Prague, made two donations for a total of $900. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Sandeep M., . an investment manager at Clariden Leu, Kuesnacht, in Zurich, Switzerland, gave the maximum $2,300 allowed per election. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Marissa M., . a nurse living in Guatemala City, gave eight $25 donations. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
# Somine L. . declared that she worked at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris, and donated $100. CTC found no verifiable record indicating U.S. citizenship.
And this is Rustmann’s opinion:
Although CTC had no way of accurately evaluating the real amount of foreign donations based on the survey they did for Newsmax, Rustmann said he believe that the anecdotal evidence was clear.
“In my opinion, from what I have seen here, millions of dollars came from illegal donations, because the Obama campaign did little to vet the donors,” Rustmann said.
There is a problem unless a person who is the victim of credit card fraud comes forward, these donations will go under the radar. They will never be investigated.
A veteran investigator with the Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service told Newsmax on Monday that most of the donor fraud Newsmax has identified could fly under the radar of federal investigators, unless the feds received a complaint from a victim of identify fraud.
And we are still left with a question. Why won’t the Federal Elections Commission investigate Obama for America? Why won’t the Department of Justice investigate Obama for America? The people of the USA deserve an answer. We are five days away from an election that could very well make Obama, the most corrupt presidential candidate I have seen in my 49 years, president. Apparently the federal government doesn’t think WE THE PEOPLE deserve an answer.
This video has been viewed by more than 11 million people and suddenly rocketed to the top of the charts on YouTube according to Fox News. It is by far the most heartwarming and important statement from a veteran I have ever seen. As a veteran, I am standing with this young man. As a Navy veteran I am standing with John McCain.
Please watch the video even if you have seen it once. Make sure your friends see it too.
And the next time you meet a veteran, tell him or her thank you for their service. Please tell them Welcome Home.
I received this is an e-mail from a friend, hat tip to Hoagie. This one is so cute. It just made me laugh and laugh!
‘Twas The Night Before Elections
‘Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!
I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.
When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys
They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!
He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink
He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!
‘ On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi’
He screamed at the pairs!
They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!
So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DON’T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!
Here it is the night before the elections in Kansas (Midwest) and already election day on the East Coast…with the West Coast bringing up the rear, so I thought it was time to replay this poem. Enjoy folks!
I have suspected for sometime now that Sarah Palin is a quick study and a true braniac. She doesn’t talk like an elitist Ivy League Mouth so the elite media mock and insist this woman has no brain. Sarah Palin appears by all accounts to be intelligent. I even suspect she is a quick study when given the right information. I’m not trying to blame McCain’s campaign but I suspect she wasn’t given policy books to study or she would have. Something was missing in her national political education, though I am not certain what “THAT” is.
Lafferty had a rare opportunity to spend time with Sarah Palin. The first and most important thing she learned is that Sarah is very intelligent. From Ms Lafferty:
It’s difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin’s “intelligence,” coming especially from women such as PBS’s Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker. As Fred Barnes—God help me, I’m agreeing with Fred Barnes—suggests in the Weekly Standard, these high toned and authoritative dismissals come from people who have never met or spoken with Sarah Palin. Those who know her, love her or hate her, offer no such criticism. They know what I know, and I learned it from spending just a little time traveling on the cramped campaign plane this week: Sarah Palin is very smart.
Sarah Palin has to be smart. She started out as a member of the PTA, probably never dreaming one day she would be the Governor of Alaska, let alone the vice presidential nominee. She has something going beyond her star appeal. She worked her way up the “ladder’. She was a City Council member, a Mayor and now the most popular governor in the country. And that my friends is no easy task.
More from Lafferty:
Now by “smart,” I don’t refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don’t really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I’d heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.
For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I’m just a country lawyer”…Yup, Palin is that smart.
I can see Palin’s confidence and her intelligence. She exudes it even through the flat screen television in my living room. It is the fact that she knows exactly who she is that makes other women ill at ease. Yes she makes them uneasy with their own bodies and souls. Sarah dared to have a baby she knew was going to have Downs Syndrome, yet chose to give him life. And that shows courage that many women just don’t have. Sarah Palin has cracked the old boys network in a way most women are unable to. And this draws criticism and ire from other women. They just can’t stand her self-assurance because they probably lack it in their own lives. Listen to her speech on Women’s Rights:
More from Lafferty:
So no simple task then, this speech on women’s rights. For the sin of being a Christian personally opposed to abortion, Palin is being pilloried by the inside-the-Beltway Democrat feminist establishment. (Yes, she is anti-abortion. And yes, instead of buying organic New Zealand lamb at Whole Foods, she joins other Alaskans in hunting for food. That’s it. She is not a right-wing nut, and all the rest of the Internet drivel—the book banning at the Library, the rape kits decision—is nonsense. I digress.) Palin’s role in this campaign was to energize “the Republican base,” which she has inarguably done. She also was expected to reach out to Hillary Clinton “moderates.” (Right. Only a woman would get both those jobs in either party.) Look, I am obviously personally pro-choice, and I disagree with McCain and Palin on that and a few other issues. But like many other Democrats, including Lynn Rothschild, I’m tired of the Democratic Party taking women for granted. I also happen to believe Sarah Palin supports women’s rights, deeply and passionately.
It is Sarah Palin’s deep and passionate support of women’s rights that captured my attention. Sarah does understand women’s rights, and she realizes it isn’t just about abortion rights. She knows that equal pay is another part of those rights. She acknowledges all the women who came before her. She gives credit to the pioneering spirit of women. It is that knowledge and understanding that holds me in awe of her accomplishments.
More from the article:
But here is the good news: women, citizens of America’s high and low culture, the Economist and People magazine readers, will get it. They got it with Hillary even when feminist leaders were not supporting her or doing so half-heartedly. Yes, Palin is a harder sell, she looks and sounds different, and one can rightfully oppose her based on abortion policies. If you only vote on how a person personally feels about abortion, you will never want her to darken your door. If you care about anything else, she will continue to intrigue you. As Time’s Nancy Gibbs noted a few weeks ago, quoting bioethicist Tom Murray, “Sympathy and subtlety are seasonings rarely applied to political red meat.” Will Palin’s time come next week? I don’t know. But her time will come.
It is my sincere hope that Sarah Palin’s time comes next week. Because it will signal a new move to make women’s rights civil rights. Palin will be the finest example of the “new feminist movement”, the third wave if you will. This woman wants to see that happen and I want to be part of it. And it is my sincerest wish that there are many more women out there like Sarah Palin and myself who will stand up for WOMEN’S RIGHTS. Let’s smash that glass ceiling to smithereens!
The PUMAs have been ignored since August because it is wrongly believed that we have returned to the Democratic Party. We have not even begun to think in that direction because the Democratic Party left us. We count many Republicans among our friends. We will find a way to bridge our differences and fight for Government For The People, By The People. Make no mistake the PUMAs and JustSayNoDeal coalition have not returned.
For months now there have been many jokes made about The One, That One and the Obamessiah, well apparently there is some truth those jokes. Obama’s supporters think that they will be able to quit their jobs because the One has a HALO and will pay for everything. If you think I am crazy you won’t after you hear the following video:
Here’s the video:
What does she mean? And why does she think she is going to be able to coast through life with no job?
Can you blame her? Run through Tapper’s litany of The One’s campaign pledges. Not only is there nothing he can’t do, there’s nothing he hasn’t promised to do, healing the planet included. Barry O’s spent 18 months building himself a halo, shrewdly enough to put him on the brink of the presidency but with one little catch: With expectations among his cultists this high, there’s only one direction for his approval ratings to go.
What does The One do in response to his followers adoration? Read on:
Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.
The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.
One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair”.
Well if Obama is elected his followers will fall into a deep despair when they realized they have been bamboozled. I don’t feel sorrow for his followers because it will be their own fault for drinking the koolaid. And it will be their own fault for listening to the MSM shove The One down the throat of the American electorate and not vetting The One.
Barney Frank has that same Harvard mouth as Obama but not nearly as good at the nuanced speech. This week he let the plans for Democratic tax increases. And it was caught by AOL News. Here are excerpts from the story:
The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), committed the latest in a series of blunders by Democratic officials on the waning days of the presidential campaign when he told the editorial board of the South Coast Standard Times that Democrats would “eventually” have to raise taxes after the election. Sen. Barack Obama is campaigning on a pledge to give 95% of Americans a tax cut, a claim that has come under increasing scrutiny by Sen. John McCain’s campaign and economic analysts. Frank’s comment will only serve to increase the pressure on Sen. Obama with regard to his tax proposals.
This blunder is very interesting since Biden said an Obama administration would give tax cuts tax to families making less than $150,000, then Obama says the ceiling for tax cuts would be $200,000 in his infomercial and now Richardson drops the ceiling to $120,000 for those tax cuts as you can hear in the following clip,
What Biden, Obama and now Richardson aren’t saying is that there will be tax increases for a good deal of the American electorate. Thank heavens for Barney Frank and his gaffe. We now know the real truth. More from AOL News:
Now Frank’s comment exposes the reality behind Democrats’ spending plans and Sen. Obama’s tax proposals. Obama will not be able to pay for all his programs and cut taxes as he is promising. Frank let America know which campaign promise Obama will sacrifice first.
The first thing an Obama administration would sacrifice are tax cuts, instead he will raise taxes. And the first people to suffer won’t be the wealthy, it will be the middle class just as it was in the Clinton administration. Clinton broke his promise within the first month of his presidency just as Obama will.
ACORN recently placed a video on YouTube that I find somewhat offensive. I find it offensive because I think it is a veiled form of racism. It is the same racism and race baiting that Obama has used over and over again. Watch and let me know what you think.
ACORN video:
The video is wrong on two levels. The video is wrong on its historical data. It was 1965 when the voting rights law was passed under Lyndon Baines Johnson. ACORN does not have the right to claim that anyone especially John McCain is suppressing the vote. These are the very same organization who have violated every voter registration law in this nation. These are the very same people that are responsible for taking the vote away from the America electorate by committing voter fraud. And ACORN has never truly apologized for their blatant disregard of election laws in more than 15 states.
Contrary to the perception that young people are in the bag for Obama, polls indicate that younger Jewish voters are more likely than older Jews to support Republican Sen. John McCain for president. This surprising finding most recently turned up in an October 23 analysis by Gallup polls that showed growing support for Obama among all Jews, who for a long time had been cool to the Democratic nominee.
That survey, compiled from the monthly averages of Gallup’s daily tracking polls, including interviews with more than 500 Jewish registered voters each month, found that while 74% of Jews aged 55 and over were supporting Obama, only 67% of those under 35 said they’d vote for the Democratic nominee.
This doesn’t surprise me either. Personally I am glad to see young people moving to more conservative beliefs. Young people today are given virtually everything and have barely learned that they must earn their way in life. More from the story:
Much of the evidence pointing to Republican growth among younger Jews remains anecdotal but fits with the broader demographic trends that Hanover illustrates. Orthodox Jews represent the fastest growing segment of the Jewish community. They have more children, tend to be younger and more conservative politically than less observant Jews. Moreover, the Russian Jewish community, which also trends on the young side, is also overwhelmingly more politically conservative. Voters who are more religiously observant, regardless of denomination, tend to support more conservative political candidates.
“When you add that up, the two most Republican segments of the (Jewish) population are younger,” said Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University professor who has studied the Jewish vote.
These more conservative younger Jews are frequently more free-market oriented, less tied to the big government New Deal programs such as Social Security that older generations of Jews embrace, and more hawkish when it comes to national security and Israel.
Exactly what I expected to see. These younger Jewish voters are more likely to be entrepreneurs and frequently worship regularly. I expect as the older Jewish voter numbers decrease that the Jewish vote will become increasingly more conservative.
I think the Gallup polls are quite skewed. I believe that the Jewish vote is changing. I also believe that much of the Jewish population support of Democrats is beginning to crack. There will be cross over voter for McCain amongst Jewish voters if the exit polls from Israel is any indication.
And the Joe the Plumber smear story just keeps getting more intriguing. Today it was revealed on Michelle Malkin’s blog that the hit on Joe the Plumber was ordered by Hele Jones-Kelley. And the employee who did the checking is speaking out. Here is the story, “New report: Ohio employee was ordered to snoop on Joe The Plumber”:
It keeps getting uglier. The Columbus Dispatch is reporting tonight that an Ohio state employee is contradicting her superiors; the worker says she was ordered to rummage through Joe The Plumber’s records — and she stated the blindingly obvious truth that such searches had never been done before simply because a citizen had come to public light.
Any outrage yet from the left-wing privacy champions? No, I still just hear chirping crickets. Will Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland stand by his specious claim that there’s nooooooo reason to believe the raids were political?
There is no doubt in my mind that Ted Strickland will ever take back his asinine statement that the smear was politically motivated. As a matter of fact I think he will stand mute. The only poltico doing anything so far is the president of the Ohio senate. And he wants answers.
Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn’t know she just had checked on “Joe the Plumber,” who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain’s example in a debate of an average American.
The senior manager would not learn about “Joe” for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.
The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are “thrust into the public spotlight,” amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.
Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. “I’ve never done that before, I don’t know of anybody in my office who does that and I don’t remember anyone ever doing that,” she said today.
Welcome to Obama’s world if he is elected. Remember his FISA vote. His vote was calculated. He made that vote so he could be your “Big Brother”, as he presumes to be Joe the Plumber’s “Big Brother”. Beware folks if you are anti-Obama and he takes our White House, it is lights out for our privacy.
The case gets even murkier. The Dispatch, which has done yeoman work on this story, got the public records surrounding the Wurzelbacher inquiry — but Niekamp’s e-mail wasn’t included. Nor did the records indicate any redaction or gap, as required by law. Afterwards, a spokesperson for Governor Ted Strickland acknowledged the omission, saying that Niekamp’s status as a child-welfare agent exempted them from providing her e-mail.
What’s becoming apparent is that Ohio officials have something to hide. The records-check request came from an assistant deputy director for child support. When the story went public, the deputy director “literally demanded” Niekamp write the e-mail that would get them off the hook. The agency’s leadership engaged in a cover-up — and that strongly implies that a crime got committed.
Niekamp told the Dispatch that she’s seen people get fired for unauthorized records checks, and that she herself fired one employee for the violation of public trust. This has gone beyond just a mere firing. It now looks as though Helen Jones-Kelley’s staff engaged in an attempt to obstruct justice, and Jones-Kelley’s lie about the Famous People Records Check appears to be part of it.
It was reported by the AP that Obama’s Aunt Zeituni Onyango, lives in state-subsidized public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama’s late father. Curiously enough she was told four years ago to leave the United States since she was not granted asylum. Four years later, guess what, she is still here and living on public assistance in a state run housing development in Boston, MA. More on the order to leave the country:
The Associated Press wrote that it confirmed the deportation case with two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP said it could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.
The most disturbing fact of this case is she illegally donated $260 to Obama’s campaign. This poses another problem that will go unreported and uninvestigated because of the cowards at the FEC and the Justice Department. Obama is absolutely not vetting his donors at the backdoor when funds come into Obama for America. And that is absolutely transparent. He allegedly “didn’t know his aunt was here illegally”.
The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama will refund a small number of contributions made by Obama’s aunt, who has been living in the United States illegally, according to a published report.
And Obama’s WORM response was let the law take care of it. However we know this isn’t his true belief. He supports driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. Watch the video:
It leads to the following question, what is his real stance on illegal immigration and illegal immigrants?
The Associated Press reported today that Obama’s aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya.
Obama campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show Onyango gave $265 to the campaign. Foreign nationals who do not hold Green Cards are not permitted to donate to American presidential campaigns, though legal permanent residents are allowed to do so.
“Given the information that has been brought to our attention, the contributions are being refunded,” Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, told The Washington Post this morning.
The campaign told the AP that Obama was not aware that questions had been raised about his aunt’s legal status.
“Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed,” the statement said, according to the AP.
Politico had this to add to the story of Obama’s aunt:
The Associated Press reported that Onyango had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya. Onyango is living in public housing in Boston.
Senior strategist Robert Gibbs shut down any line of questioning Thursday when news broke about Obama’s relative, telling reporters, “I’m not going to get into it.”
Reporters asked, “Why not?”
“I’m just not,” Gibbs said.
I am not questioning the timing of this information because it proves that Obama has never been fully vetted. This is what happens when a party chooses the candidate, the least experienced candidate and a candidate who is never fully vetted. Instead of fully vetting Obama the MSM and un-Democratic Party chose him based on two books that leave much of Obama’s life unexplained. A contrived life. Who really knows who this man is?
Obama’s Obama Anti-Palin ad is simply the sleaziest ad I have seen so far. I have heard through conversations in an around my own family that McCain has run the sleaziest campaign. What the heck do people think this ad is? NICE! NOT! It is disgusting and is very sexist. It debases Palin just like Obama debased Hillary when he said “you are likeable enough”. Just watch the video and see his condescending manner towards Hillary:
Now watch Obama’s anti-Palin ad. His ad is trying to portray Palin as less of a person than he is.
Here is the response from Hillary supporters as well as others throughout the United States:
“It’s a sexist example of reducing a woman to an object — a wink — and denying her a voice. Her lips are actually moving, but she’s not allowed to be heard,” says Stephanie Bressler, a Hillary Clinton supporter and women and politics professor at the University of Scranton.
Christine Toretti, co-chair of Pennsylvania Women for McCain, said, “God forbid a leader is not only competent, but beautiful and wears a skirt!”
And Judy Singleton, co-chair of Indiana Women for McCain, said: “To imply that Governor Palin doesn’t understand economics because she’s pretty and winks is ridiculous.”
Such objections are echoing throughout the country, so much so that the McCain-Palin campaign released the following statements Friday from former Clinton supporters and Women for McCain leaders reacting to the ad:
Virginia:
Judy Black, national co-chair of Women for McCain: “Enough is enough! Senator Obama has stooped to a new low in his constant attacks on Governor Palin . . . Barack Obama’s choice has been to attack, demean and ridicule women, first Senator Clinton and now Governor Palin.
“American women do not need any more of Obama’s sexist choices or attacks. John McCain made the choice to put a strong leader with a proven record forward as his running mate. As a woman, I am outraged by the over-the-top treatment of Governor Palin, and I urge all women to reject the double standard put forward by a man who was just a state senator in Illinois three years ago by voting McCain-Palin this Tuesday.”
Patty Denton, Washington County Republican chairwoman: “We, as a country, should be past the days in which women were treated as inferior. Women are the backbone of this country. It’s disappointing for Senator Obama, who has proclaimed change’ as his mantra, to disregard the monumental progress women have made in this country.
“Governor Palin is an exceptional leader and has fought on the side of all Americans, regardless of race or gender. These types of ads show that the Obama campaign is willing to do anything to score a few political cheap shots at the expense of women. On November 4th, women will go to the polls and demand respect for themselves and their daughters from the type of negative attacks perpetrated by Senator Obama.”
Missouri:
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson: “With more executive experience than Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined, Governor Sarah Palin holds her own on the national scene and embodies the values that Americans want in those who will lead our country. This ad is just one more example of the constant attacks from the Obama-Biden campaign. With each attack, they attempt to dismiss the intelligent, qualified, and experienced woman who will soon become our next vice president.”
Sharon Barnes, state chair of Women for McCain: “These attacks . . . show the desperation of the Democratic Party to try to stem the overwhelming support for the maverick Republican team of John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin — a team dedicated to bringing about the right kind of change for the people of this country.
“The voters of this great nation will not be fooled. Governor Palin is a proven leader and serious reformer with experience in economics, defense and foreign policy that the Democratic candidate for president can only wish he had.”
California:
Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women: “I am outraged by the new ad put out by Barack Obama. It is sexist and demeaning to women. These tactics started with Hillary Clinton and continue, growing even more disgusting, with Governor Palin. I was a Hillstar for Hillary and an avid supporter. Trashing two women clearly in a sexist manner in one election is an outrage and must be identified and stopped. There must be consequences. Let female Obama supporters take a good look at this and still believe their candidate supports women’s rights and women’s dignity.”
Prameela Bartholomeusz, DNC Platform Committee member: “I am once again stunned at the personal and sexist attacks by the Obama campaign against Governor Palin. This latest ad is sexist and offensive. The governor of Alaska has been managing and balancing a budget of $10 billion; I think she knows a bit about economics.
“Senator Obama never spoke up against sexism during the primary season, and is not speaking out against misogyny during this phase of the election season. He is contributing to it. I have no confidence that Senator Obama will fight for women’s issues if elected. This sets women back decades.”
Pennsylvania:
Christine J. Toretti, Pennsylvania Women for McCain co-chair and state national committeewoman: “Vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin is an experienced public servant. As governor of Alaska and as mayor of Wasilla, she proved to be an effective leader and businesswoman. Senator Obama’s baseless attack on Governor Palin is preposterous. God forbid a leader is not only competent, but beautiful and wears a skirt!”
Bernie Comfort, state chair of Pennsylvania Women for McCain: “Senator Obama’s ad simply mocks Governor Palin. The real truth is Governor Palin has experience dealing with the economy as an executive running the state of Alaska and as a business owner. She is the experienced leader we need to lead this country with John McCain.”
Stephanie Bressler, Hillary Clinton supporter and women and politics professor at the University of Scranton: “It’s a sexist example of reducing a woman to an object — a wink — and denying her a voice. Her lips are actually moving, but she’s not allowed to be heard.”
Ohio:
Barbara Rosier-Tryon, member of the Warren Republican Women’s Club: “This is yet another sexist cheap shot . . . Sarah Palin’s record of reform and experience as governor of Alaska and commander of the state’s National Guard is more distinguished than Barack Obama’s one and only term in the U.S. Senate.”
North Carolina:
Martha Jenkins, North Carolina Women for McCain state chairwoman: “Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to make up for his own lack of foreign policy expertise. He has absolutely no reason to criticize McCain’s pick of Palin. Governor Palin is infinitely more qualified than Barack Obama.
“In running this ad, Obama is acknowledging that Governor Palin is an effective and a positive part of John McCain’s candidacy. Otherwise, why focus on her at all? Barack Obama is using this ad to divert attention from the fact that the American public is realizing that Obama is just as radical as his associates, and that he lacks the experience and judgment to be President of the United States.”
Florida:
Albert Chang, regional director of Citizens for McCain, which includes Democrats and Independents: “We look forward to winning Tampa and the surrounding counties for McCain-Palin. This ad is a distracting personal attack on an experienced executive and the voters of Florida will see through it. This campaign will remain focused on issues impacting the everyday lives of Floridians and Americans.”
Mary Calderon, Tampa, former Hillary Clinton supporter: “I’m disappointed that Senator Obama has resorted to personal attacks at this point in the campaign. Would any male candidate for vice president of the United States be afforded similar treatment by the Obama campaign? I would say not.”
Indiana:
Judy Singleton, Indiana Women for McCain co-chair: “Obama seems to have a problem with strong, smart women. Ask Hillary. Running an ad like this is an affront to talented women everywhere. To imply that Governor Palin doesn’t understand economics because she’s pretty and winks is ridiculous.
“As a governor, she’s proved she understands the economy better than Barack Obama, who hasn’t completed his first term in the Senate, does. All one has to do is look at her record of leadership on economic development and then look at his.”
New York:
Amy Siskind, ambassador for Hillary: “When Senator Hillary Clinton was demeaned and degraded during the presidential primary, many of us of, myself included, vowed ‘never again.’ The treatment of Governor Palin by both the mainstream media, and now the Obama campaign, shows that the misogyny fest is alive and well in our country. There has been a complete and utter smear job of our fellow citizen, Sarah Palin, who is only trying to serve her country.”
The Obama campaign’s ad contrasts sharply with the image that the national Women for McCain organization projects of Palin on its Web site:
In contrast the Palin ad on the McCain website is respectful of Palin. Watch their video:
Not only does McCain show his respect for Palin but he shows his respect for all women. He actually pays women the same pay as men as opposed to Obama. McCain may be from that generation that wasn’t always respectful of women but he certainly is respectful of women.
Economists For McCain have their own website heralding McCain’s economic plan and why 537 economists have signed the initial statement. Here is their statement on McCain’s plan and why it is best for America:
We enthusiastically support John McCain’s economic plan. It is a comprehensive, pro-growth, reform agenda. The reform focuses on the real economic problems Americans face today and will face in the future. And it builds on the core economic principles that have made America great.
His plan would control government spending by vetoing every bill with earmarks, implementing a constitutionally valid line-item veto, pausing non-military discretionary government spending programs for one year to stop their explosive growth and place accountability on federal government agencies.
His plan would keep taxes from rising, because higher tax rates are exactly the wrong policy to restore economic growth, especially at this time.
His plan would reduce tax rates by cutting the tax that corporations pay to 25 percent in line with other countries, by completely phasing out the alternative minimum tax, by increasing the exemption for dependents, by permitting the first-year expensing of new equipment and technology, and by making permanent a reformed tax credit for R&D.
His plan would also create a new and much simpler tax system and give Americans a free choice of whether to pay taxes under that simple system or the current complex and burdensome income tax.
His plan would open new markets for American goods and services and thereby create additional jobs for Americans by supporting good free trade agreements such as the one with Colombia and working with leaders around the world to avoid isolationism and protectionism. His plan would also reform education, retraining, and other assistance programs so they better help those displaced by trade and other changes in the economy.
His plan addresses problems in the financial markets and housing markets by calling for increased transparency and accountability, by targeted assistance to deserving homeowners to refinance their mortgages, and by opposing so-called reform plans which would raise the costs of home-ownership in the future.
The above actions, as well as plans to address entitlement programs–especially Social Security, Medicare and other government health care programs–and his regulatory reforms–especially in the area of health care–constitute a broad and powerful economic agenda. Because of John McCain’s experience working with the American people in all walks of life, with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and with leaders around the world, we are optimistic that these plans will become a reality and will create jobs and restore confidence and strong economic growth.
537 economists across the nation have endorsed his plan. After reading through their statement I think it is the best plan for America.
The joke around the blogs has been how low will Obama, Biden and their surrogates actually drop the threshold for tax cuts. As I said before I have always believed it would be much lower than $250,000. According to a 2003 interview Obama thinks anyone making $70,000 per year is rich and deserve higher taxes. He actually says “tax cuts” should go no higher than $70,000 in the following 2003 interview while running for his Senate seat. The article is appropriately called “The Faces Of Barack Obama, From 2003 To 2004″.
Here he is in that interview:
Here is the transcript:
Well, you know the problem was is that they weren’t targeted at the short term stimulus of the economy. What we should have done is if we were going to initiate tax cuts, and I’m a strong supporter of tax cuts for working families like the Earned Income Tax Credit, to initiate things like cuts in the Social Security tax, and other taxes that are really burdensome on families that are making 50, 60, 70 thousand dollars a year. Those tax cuts I think would have stimulated the economy.
But the money that we’ve given up directly affects Illinois in its potential, in terms of job growth because it means that transportation dollars are not in the state of Illinois, heath care dollars are not in the state of Illinois. There are enormous needs around the state that we could be using that money for.
Ed Morrisey of Hot Air has more on Obama’s interview:
The EITC reference is interesting. That’s a refundable, rather than a tax cut. It’s basically a redistributive tool, although one with broad bipartisan support. No one ever talks about ending the EITC, or at least not seriously enough to matter. It does reflect Obama’s inclination to rely on refundables rather than actual rate cuts, which reflects on his current tax plans.
Obama’s top end for cuts certainly changed dramatically. If he thought that tax cuts should be limited to $70K in 2003, he hasn’t explained what changed in the following five years to move that to $250K–$200K–$150K– and now $120K. Obama could have simply changed his mind, but the ambiguity surrounding Democratic talking points in the past few weeks suggests that his commitment to the higher income levels is tenuous at best.
History tends to teach us that tax cuts at higher income levels is tenuous at best. Clinton promised to give tax cuts to the middle class. In less than a month the tax cuts only included those making less $20,000 per year. Would an Obama administration do the same thing? More than likely.
There are so many comments I want to make here but I will refrain. I was taught to not say anything about anyone unless it was nice or something to that affect. Here is the story:
A Walnut Hills woman is facing prostitution and drug-related charges after allegedly approaching an undercover police officer for sex.
Cincinnati police arrested Shari Bell Wednesday night, after she allegedly approached an undercover officer’s car in Evanston, and offered him sex for money. Police also say they found a crack pipe in Bell’s coat pocket.
Bell told police she worked for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a group that works for progress in low-income communities on issues like housing, education and voter registration, at the time of her arrest.
Watch the video:
And of course ACORN has deniability. Isn’t that their mantra though? We didn’t do it or this person no longer works for us. ACORN had this to say:
ACORN head organizer for Cincinnati Amy Teitelman said that Bell did work for the organization as a canvasser, going door to door for four days, but did not show up for work Wednesday, therefore she said they assumed that she had quit.
Watch this video. It gets better. This was exposed earlier.
Yeah Right! We know for a fact that ACORN does no background checks on employees and quite often hire people with criminal histories. And ACORN commits criminal acts themselves. ACORN certainly hires some high quality people don’t they…..
This afternoon a group that has been largely dismissed by MSM, just recently released from its bondage by Fox News, The PUMAs are hosting the Closing Argument for the McCain/Palin ticket.
We were ignored because MSM believes with no proof that all Hillary supporters returned their roots in the un-Democratic Party that unfolded before our eyes this year. Well folks, it simply isn’t true. Our numbers have been estimated at 6.4 million voters. Well I can’t really prove these numbers I do know there are PUMAs in every walk of life that are crossing party lines to vote McCain/Palin.
Some of us like myself joined up with McCain shortly after May 31st. The day democracy died. Others were slow to support McCain/Palin and only recently decided they would vote for that ticket. Somewhere along the line Party Unity My A$$ and Just Say No Deal coalesced into a strong cohesive force. We started looking differently upon our new found Republican friends in some places.
It made me take a good look at local candidates with the dreaded “R” behind their names. And what did I find were candidates that have some of the same values as I do. I found candidates that are for their country first.
After writing all that feely good stuff it is time to get to the meat of this post.
Just Say No Deal Presents Closing Arguments in Nationwide Conference Call Sunday, November 2, 5PM et.
Dial : (218) 486-1662
Access Code : 82114#
OR
Listen via Blog Talk Radio streaming of the LIVE CALL on the internet via this link :
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS:
Lady Lynn de Rothschild
Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida
Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City
Larry Johnson, PhD.
Lynette Long, PhD.
I hope you all can find the time to listen in on this conference call. It is a groundbreaking call. And has some of the best of the best sharing their time with us.
This video makes me feel renewed and vigorous. It is wonderful to meet these people in this interview. These men are thinking with their brains not their skin. (Hat Tip: Pagan Power)
And they speak with conviction. They believe that Obama is not experienced enough to be president. And that is what they would teach younger voters. These three men have my deepest respect.
For one day on Friday McCain polled up one point over Obama pulling within the margin of error over a three day period. Here is the long and short of it:
The Saturday Zogby daily tracking poll has been released and John McCain has taken a 1-point LEAD over Barack Obama on the final night of the poll’s three-day run. McCain led Obama 48% to 47%.
Here’s the internals of the poll courtesy of the Drudge Report:
ZOGBY SATURDAY: Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error… The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama’s lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all…
Here’s where things stand: we’ve got to build McCain’s new lead in the current tracking poll — to offset any advantage Obama enjoyed from voters who cast their ballots already in early voting.
There is more to this report. A very important comment from Rick Davis with the McCain campaign.
Quote:
To: Interested Parties
From: Rick Davis, Campaign Manager
Date: October 31, 2008
RE: The Final Push
The State of the Campaign
If your television is tuned to cable news as frequently as ours are here at campaign headquarters, you have seen the pundits say John McCain and his campaign are done. And, if you’ve followed this race since the beginning, this is clearly a song you’ve heard before. I wanted to take some time today to give you some insight on the state of the race as we see it.
An AP poll released this morning revealed a very telling fact: ONE out of every SEVEN voters is undecided. That means, if 130 million voters turn out on Tuesday, 18.5 million of them have yet to make up their mind. With that many votes on the table and the tremendous movement we’ve seen in this race, I believe we are in a very competitive campaign.
Here’s why:
All the major polls have shown a tightening in the race and a significant narrowing of the numbers. In John McCain’s typical pattern, he is closing strong and surprising the pundits. We believe this race is winnable, and if the trajectory continues, we will surpass the 270 Electoral votes needed on Election Night.
National Polls
Major polls last week showed John McCain trailing by double-digit margins – but by the middle of this week, we were within the margin of error on four national tracking surveys. In fact, the Gallup national tracking survey showed the race in a virtual tie 2 days this week.
State Polls:
Iowa
Our numbers in Iowa have seen a tremendous surge in the past 10 days. We took Obama’s lead from the double digits to a very close race. That is why you see Barack Obama visiting the state in the final days, trying to stem his losses. It is too little, too late. Like many other Midwestern states, Iowa is moving swiftly into McCain’s column.
The Southwest
It is no secret that Republican candidates in the Southwest have to focus on winning over enough Latino and Hispanic voters in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado to carry them to victory. John McCain has overcome challenges Republicans face, and has made up tremendous ground in these states with these voters. For these voters, the choice has become clear, and you have seen a big change in the numbers. John McCain is now winning enough voters to perform within the margin of error – putting these states within reach.
Colorado
Barack Obama tried to outspend our campaign in Colorado during the early weeks of October and finish off our candidate in Colorado. However, after our visit early this week, we saw a tremendous rebound in our poll position, and Colorado is back on the map.
Ohio and Pennsylvania
Everyone knows that vote rich Ohio and Pennsylvania will be key battlegrounds for this election. Between the two: 41 electoral votes and no candidate has gotten to the White House without Ohio. Senator McCain and Governor Palin have been campaigning non-stop in these key battleground states and tonight Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has pumped up our campaign at a rally in Columbus. Our position in these states is strong and undecided voters continue to have a very favorable impression of our candidate.
Obama campaign faces tremendous structural challenges in the final days of this campaign
Obama has a challenge hitting 50%
Barack Obama has not reached the 50% threshold in almost any the battleground state. He consistently is performing in the 45-48% range. When we look closely at the primary votes, we see a history of a candidate whose Election Day performance is often at or behind his final polling numbers. If this is true, our surge will leave Obama with even or under 50% of the vote on Election Day.
Early Vote
The Obama campaign has promised that their early vote and absentee efforts will change the composition of the electorate. They have sold the press on a story that first time voters will turn out in droves this election cycle. Again, the facts undermine their argument. In our analysis of early voting and absentee votes to date: The composition of the electorate has not changed significantly and most folks who have voted early are high propensity voters who would have voted regardless of the high interest in this campaign.
Expanding the Field
Obama is running out of states if you follow out a traditional model. Today, he expanded his buy into North Dakota, Georgia and Arizona in an attempt to widen the playing field and find his 270 Electoral Votes. This is a very tall order and trying to expand into new states in the final hours shows he doesn’t have the votes to win.
The Final Barnstorm
On Monday, we will have a 14 state rally with our candidates crisscrossing the country trying to turn out our voters and sway the final undecided voters. Governor Palin will hit Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and Alaska in the final day of campaigning, while Senator McCain will travel from Tampa, Florida, to Virginia, then Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico, Nevada and finish the night in Prescott, Arizona. The enthusiasm and excitement we generate on Monday will be the electricity that powers our “Get Out the Vote” efforts on Tuesday.
On the Ground
Our field organization has tremendous energy and is out-performing the Bush campaign at the same time in 2004. This week our field organization crossed a huge threshold and began reaching more than one million voters per day, and by week’s end will have contacted more than 5 million voters. Our phone centers are full and our rate of voter contact is significantly out-pacing the Bush campaign in 2004. We have the resources to do the voter contact necessary to support the surge we are seeing in our polling with old fashioned grassroots outreach.
On the Airwaves
In the final days of the campaign, our television presence will be bigger and broader than the Obama campaign’s presence. The full Republican effort – the RNC’s Independent Expenditure and the McCain campaign will out-buy Barack Obama and the Democrats by just about 10 million dollars.
In short: the McCain campaign is surging in the final 72 hours. Our grassroots campaign is vibrant and communicating to voters in a very powerful way. Our television presence is strong. And, we have a secret ingredient – A candidate who will never quit and who will never stop fighting for you and for your families.
In these final hours, Senator McCain and Governor Palin are counting on you – they are counting on you to knock on doors, to make turnout calls, to contact your friends and neighbors. Get our voters to the polls and help John McCain fight for your and for our country. This is our last mission on behalf of John McCain and I have no doubt I can count on your effort and energy to carry us across the line to victory.
These are very convincing arguments and explain the reason behind the push the ticket has been making. The visits to Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio and now Iowa. I certainly hope things hold steady or improve in the next 48 hours so we can congratulate John McCain and wish him well as the new POTUS.
Team Sarah gives a wink, wink and a nod, nod to Obamessiah. Watch this video courtesy of Pagan Power. (Author’s Note: I had the privilege to meet Pagan in Denver. It was wonderful to see the face behind the blogs and computer. And it was a time to remember and never forget why we are PUMAs.)
Watch:
Team Sarah did a great job with this ad I believe. To quote Pagan Power “take that Obarfy”.
I was visiting Insight Analytical a couple of minutes ago and came across the saddest story. A very despondent desperate
man jumped off the Spaghetti Bowl in El paso, leaving a note in his car askin Obama to take care of his family.
EL PASO — A man who jumped 60 feet to his death from the Spaghetti Bowl on Thursday left a note with a message for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
A note to “Obama” was found in the man’s car, which was parked on the top ramp of the Spaghetti Bowl.
Officials offered no further explanation nor interpreted the note’s meaning.
About 7:45 a.m., police responded to a report that the 52-year-old El Paso man had jumped off the uppermost ramp of the Spaghetti Bowl. His body was found on I-10 west just before the Copia Street exit. His name was not released.
Police spokesman Darrel Petry said Crimes Against Persons investigators were investigating the death as a suicide.
Two notes on large pieces of paper were found on the dashboard and another part of the car, police said.
The investigation into the death caused traffic to back up near Hawkins Boulevard for at least an hour as the man’s body lay in the far right lane of the interstate. His white tennis shoes, which had fallen off during or after the fall, lay just a few feet from his body.
Police were also seen on Ramp F, the top ramp of the Spaghetti Bowl, next to the white four-door sedan, which was parked unattended. The ramp connects I-10 west to the Bridge of the Americas and Paisano Drive.
Police confirmed that the man left behind a note that read, “Obama take care of my family.”
(Insight said the following:) FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!!!! WE HAVE TO STOP THIS HORROR OF A CANDIDATE BEFORE HE GETS TO THE WHITE HOUSE!!
According to Palestra.net more Obama workers are registering to vote in the state they are working in. So the this illegal behavior by Obama workers has spread to a new state, New Mexico.
Several questions come to mind…Why does it take two college students to uncover this voter fraud and illegal activity? Why are Obama paid workers being encouraged to register illegally in temporary residences? And when will something stick Obama? When will a Secretary of State take these allegations serious and actually act on it? And when will they call on Obama for America to stop encouraging this behavior?
From Palestra.net:
New Mexico, We Have A Problem
Shelby Holliday reporting from New Mexico (2008-10-31 19:41:24)
New Mexico, we have a problem.
As part of our ongoing investigation into issues surrounding voter fraud, we have discovered a VERY disconcerting situation. And this time, it’s not in Ohio…
It looks like out-of-state volunteers and staffers are registering and casting ballots in the battleground state of New Mexico, too.
One example is Shayne Adamski. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, is actively involved in politics and was a California delegate at the Democratic National Convention just 2 short months ago. Adamski is also a paid employee on the Obama campaign, and he traveled to New Mexico to help get out the vote in this swing state. All of this is quite admirable.
However, according to the Bernalillo County Clerk, Adamski registered to vote as a resident of Albuquerque on October 5. That’s just 38 days after he was representing the state of California as a delegate on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. He also requested an absentee ballot. (We do not yet know if he cast a ballot, we are waiting to hear from the County Clerk.)
Tiffany Wilson and I traveled to New Mexico with photojournalist Gary Orr to check things out.
We were able to speak with Carlos Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Obama campaign, but he declined to comment on Adamski’s specific situation. Unfortunately, we were unable to speak with Adamski himself due to campaign policy.
Since we can’t talk to Adamski directly or get information about him from the campaign, we don’t know whether or not he moved to Albuquerque and/or intends to reside here, but we were curious: are out-of-state campaign workers eligible to claim residency in New Mexico and cast a ballot?
We realize that New Mexico does not abide by the Ohio Revised Code, something we have become very familiar with in the past few weeks. In Ohio, you must be a resident of the state 30 days prior to the election AND have the intention of residing there permanently. Was this the case in New Mexico?
We asked the Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver this very question. Contrary to what we have discovered in Ohio, she said that out-of-state volunteers WERE in fact able to register and to vote in New Mexico.
When we asked how this was allowed, she replied: “It’s not that it’s allowed so much as that it’s not enforced. There is really no enforcement mechanism in place to evaluate whether someone’s submitting a registration based on a temporary address.”
Concerning? Yes.
But that’s not the end of the story:
Tiffany and I made our way from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and paid a visit to the New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera, a Democrat, to pose the same question. How can it be possible for out-of-staters to just come into New Mexico and cast a vote?
The Secretary of State had a VERY different response. According to Herrera, voters MUST intend to make New Mexico their home. Much like Ohio, they can NOT come into the state for temporary purposes and claim residency in order to cast a ballot.
When we shared what we had uncovered and gave her names of some out-of-state volunteers we had come across, she seemed very concerned.
New Mexico has already begun opening and counting absentee ballots. If you check out Adamski’s Facebook profile picture above, it looks like his ballot may have already been filled out and perhaps even counted.
Adamski is not the only out-of-state voter we have encountered. In addition to others from California, we’ve done some preliminary research that indicates that Texans have been coming into New Mexico by the bus load… have they been voting here too?
I will ask the question again…When will state politicians stop playing the partisan game and actually take action? No more statements. It is time to arrest these Obama workers, try them, find them guilty, throw them in jail and throw away the key. Stop the blatant voter fraud by Team Obama.
Watch these videos. They are some of the best I have seen. And what do allof them have in common they all support McCain.
Nobama Girl:
McCain’s Rapper:
These are very courageous people. I am certain that they have been subjected to many slurs and disrespect. Today we honor these brave African Americans who are standing strong for OUR COUNTRY FIRST and the McCain/Palin ticket. My hats off to their bravery!
According to Yahoo News the Israeli Security Chief warns of a possible assassination of a top Israeli official to derail the peace process. With these kinds of warnings who do you want running this country? Israeli’s national security is our worry. It will affect our national security. And we will be obligated to respond in kind to support them. It is just this kind of possible problem that Biden’s words remind me how fragile this world is…..
“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”
“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.
What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.
I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.
(Emphasis: P.J. Gladnick, Author)
More from the interview:
That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.
The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It’s just that it will bankrupt them.
I see how Obama is going to fund his trillion dollar spending spree now. He is going to fine anyone that has a coal fired electric generating plant and make them bankrupt…
More:
Amazing that this statement by Obama about bankrupting the coal industry has been kept under wraps until this time.
UPDATE: NewsBusters’ Tom Blumer has found out that the San Francisco Chronicle story published on January 18 based upon this January 17 interview did not include any mention of Obama’s willingness to bankrupt the coal industry which you can hear on the audio. You can read the story here when you scroll down to the “In His Own Words” section. Way to cover up for The One, SF Chronicle!
Pass this video along to all those Independents and undecideds. According to Investor’s Business Daily there are still more than 8% unsure of who they will vote for. This video is shocking and make shock those undecideds to choose McCain/Palin.
The shocking video Barack Obama does not want you to see!!
Is this who we really want running our country? I think not! Vote McCain/Palin on November 4th if you want Country First!
I was introduced to a new website tonight. What is their name? The Nose on Your Face. They were recently highlighted on Huckabee’s show on Fox News. Huckabee showed one of their videos. It was a real hoot.
Watch the video:
Enjoy your Sunday night funny. I did. Remember we must save the USA. The only way to do that is vote McCain/palin on Tuesday. And by the way Mt. Rushmore doesn’t need another face!
The IBD/TIPP tracking poll has the race for the White House within 2 points. Here are highlights from the article:
The race tightened again Sunday as independents who’d been leaning to Obama shifted to McCain to leave that key group a toss-up. McCain also pulled even in the Midwest, moved back into the lead with men, padded his gains among Protestants and Catholics, and is favored for the first time by high school graduates.
Here are the numbers:
Obama 46.7% McCain 44.6% Undecided 8.7%
Here is more about the poll:
About the IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll
Since October 13th, Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) and the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (TIPP) have been conducting the IBD/TIPP Election 2008 Tracking Poll.
The table above shows results for a two-way race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama among likely voters, based on the following question:
Poll Question: If the 2008 election for U.S. president were held today and the following were candidates, for whom would you vote? Would you say Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain?
The race is still too close to call but believe McCain will win the election on Tuesday.
This story comes from Gateway Pundit’s blog site. And it is a good one. Obama has been leading by example because Wexler has removed all safety features from his online donation site too. And now he is suspected of fraud. (That makes two Democrats out of Florida with questionable behavior.) The story from Gateway Pundit:
Far Left Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Barack Obama Florida campaign chairman has allegedly filed 25 amended FEC reports in the days immediately following Bill O’Reilly busting him in front of his Maryland home on camera.
Robert Wexler’s Republican opponent Edward Lynch has a compelling argument that there is much more to this story that needs to be revealed. Wexler’s campaign allegedly submitted 25 amended FEC reports between 7/23/08 (one day after O’Reilly busted him) and 7/30/08.
According to a website set up by Lynch’s campaign, Wexler is in engaged in campaign-finance schemes that might amount to money laundering. Lynch even claims that the FBI is investigating. A spokesman for the FBI’s Miami field office told National Review Online they had “no comment.”
Ben Graber, an independent Democrat running a serious candidacy against Wexler and Lynch, has filed his own criminal complaint seeking an investigation.
Lynch’s accusations are as follows. Beginning July 23 — the day after Fox broke the news about the Democratic candidate’s questionable residency — and ending July 30, the Wexler campaign amended 25 Federal Election Commission reports going back to 2001. The amendments removed references to “Newbridge Securities” as a corporation from which the campaign had received funds, replacing Newbridge with a variety of different companies.
Several of the new companies, such as Capital Gains Consultants, Inc., were not in business at the time Wexler’s amended FEC report claims the funds were paid, according to documents Lynch provides. On July 25, in the midst of the Wexler campaign’s revisions to its old filings, Newbridge Securities and its owners were brought up on charges by the Securities and Exchange Comission for securities violations.
…Wexler’s campaign told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that accusations the campaign may be connected to securities fraud are “completely silly and downright libelous.”
There’s no proof of wrongdoing. But in the space of a week in July, Wexler was exposed as fudging details on his residency status; his campaign amended F.E.C. filings to remove references to Newbridge; two days after beginning to amend the reports, the SEC announced it was investigating Newbridge; and shortly thereafter the campaign backed out of a relatively sizable investment overseen by the brother of Newbridge’s president…
The story has yet to gain much traction or prompt further investigation. Lynch has a theory on why the major press organ in Wexler’s district, the Palm Beach Post, hasn’t aggressively pursued the story. When Lynch delivered the story about Wexler’s suspect residency to Fox News, Bill O’Reilly went after the Post and its editor, Randy Schultz, accusing them of pro-Wexler bias.
Even putting aside allegations of money laundering, the residency issues are a serious matter that has yet to be resolved. It’s likely that law enforcement will not investigate the matter in earnest until November 5, to avoid the appearance of interfering with the election. So the question is, will Democratic leaders of the “most ethical congress ever” take proactive measures to address the gathering clouds of scandal around Wexler before it’s too late?
More– I talked with sources familiar with this story and they claim this story is HUGE and there is much more that has not been revealed.
Well I guarantee Gateway Pundit that the Democrats will dismiss the looming storm clouds. What ethics? Wexler is just another crooked Democrat…and the list keeps on growing….
Whether or not Obama wins tomorrow election law loop holes have been exposed in more than 15 states. And these gaping holes have been exposed by Obama’s ACORN and their ability to hire criminals of all types to perform Get-Out-The-Vote illegal voter registration. For the most part ACORN has been allowed to commit these felonious acts for at least 5 election cycles. ACORN for the most part has suffered no repercussions from their activities.
The worst part of the scandal with Obama’s allies, ACORN, is the American taxpayer is paying for their activities. ACORN Housing Corporation funnels money to ACORN, the political arm, money they receive via HUD. Yes. The American taxpayer is paying Obama’s ACORN to steal the election from us all.
Obama, the un-Democratic Party and ACORN may successfully “steal the election” this year. And this should wake up all Americans.
We need to demand real reform in election laws in all 50 states. We must ensure that states abolish the caucus system and only approve primary elections. This will not be accomplished unless we the people, protest our election boards, our Secretaries of State, legislators and governors. And we must begin on Wednesday before 2012 is upon us.
While I would like to be the one to conclude this piece, I am going to let The New York Post do it for me…
The tragedy is that Obama would probably have done just as well – and perhaps better – if his campaign had lived up to his early claims of nice-guy nonpartisanship, instead of looking more like a dirty Chicago Machine effort. Now, if Obama wins, he’ll have to deal with a lot more resentment and suspicion. And the rest of us will have to try to push for reforms to make such abuses more difficult.
Weaknesses in the financial system that weren’t ad dressed because they benefited insiders led to the current economic crisis. It’s now clear that our political system suffers from similar weaknesses. Just as no-doc loans and dubious financial controls led to the subprime crisis – but weren’t addressed because they were making participants rich – so, too, may no-doc voting and dubious financial controls lead to a political crisis that, quite possibly, will make the financial crisis look mild. But will the political players have the backbone to address the problems before a crisis appears? So far, it looks doubtful.
The politicos won’t have the backbone to fix the broken election system under an Obama administration because he learned to play dirty in Chicago. Obama has been allowed to get away with everything he has done….from breaking the Logan Act to all those illegal donations. Nothing has stuck or derailed his candidacy.
If it had been McCain or any other Republican candidate the media would be sounding the alarm with calls of voter suppression. They would have been pilloried.
The lesson here is we the people must force the changes in the election laws. We must overwhelm the Department of Justice with requests that ACORN, Obama and his cabal be fully investigated.
Wednesday is not the day to stand down, it is the day that we stand up to the tyranny and blatant disregard for our rights as voters.
The Times did a bang up job on finding Obama’s illegal aunt. And today they are sharing the story and the investigative reporting they did on Obama’s illegal Aunt Zeituni. It isn’t a Republican secret campaign at all. It is actually Obama who told the story of Zeituni in his Dreams of My Father or what ever that “autobiographical” piece of drivel is called.
The Times used Obama’s passages in his book to start looking for Obama’s illegal Aunt Zeituni. And they eventually found her in Boston, MA living in public housing and receiving public assistance, taxpayer dollars. Here are excerpts from that story:
In fact, the story came from a book that has been read by millions, including just about everyone connected to the Obama campaign.
Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995, and the story of how Mr Obama returned to Kenya in 1988 to trace his roots has become the cornerstone of his political biography. Yet the US media appears to have overlooked the passage indicating that at least one relative of Mr Obama’s had moved to America and might still be there.
… Mr Obama’s half-sister talked about Africans who had emigrated to the West and were never heard of again, “like our Uncle Omar, in Boston . . . They’ve been lost, you see”.
“She asked if I had seen him, and I had to say no,” Mr Obama wrote. “She grunted something in Luo, then started to gather up our cups. ‘She says when you see him, you should tell him she wants nothing from him,’ Auma [Mr Obama’s half-sister] whispered. ‘Only that he should come visit his mother’.”
These brief references appeared to indicate that Omar Obama might have moved to the US in the mid1960s, at about the same time that his half-brother, Barack Hussein Obama Senior, went to Hawaii, where he met Ann Dunham, the mother of Mr Obama.
Those intriguing passages in Mr Obama’s book were first investigated by The Times during a visit to Kenya in September to interview members of the family, including “Granny Sarah”. Inquiries as to the current whereabouts of Omar elicited only vague responses – and even the suggestion, from a full brother of the missing man, that no such person existed.
In the course of searching for Uncle Omar The Times found a Zeituni Onyango, who also played a prominent part in Mr Obama’s book.
This triggered a six-week search, one that would lead eventually to Boston and to Aunt Zeituni. Public record searches found traces of O. Onyango Obama, Uncle Omar’s real name, in Boston. A friend and a former landlady said that he now uses the name Obama Onyango.
… The Times called the Zeituni Onyango in Boston three times. The first time a woman said that she “went to California”. The second time a woman said: “She died last summer.” The third time a woman said in French that she did not know her at that address.
On visiting the housing estate, however, neighbours confirmed that she was indeed the “Auntie Zeituni” in Mr Obama’s book – as she eventually confirmed herself.
… It was not until Wednesday evening that The Times obtained a formal identification of Ms Onyango by George Hussein, Mr Obama’s half-brother who had known her throughout his childhood.
Whatever the Democrat campaign may imply, there is nothing suspicious about the story or its timing. The only mystery, perhaps, is how so many people read Mr Obama’s book in the US without wondering what might have happened to the mysterious relative, lost in America.
Just as I said in the beginning it wasn’t a Republican operative that released the information. Although The Times did not address the matter of her illegal status I found an intriguing comment in below their story:
She had a “standing deportation order” against her. That IS public record.
John, Salisbury, NC, USA
My guess is that the The Times or some other mdia outlet perhaps the AP did a court records search. Since it appears that deportation records are a matter of public record, a simple search of federal court records would have fond the information.
A couple of questions to ponder….Will Obama grant his aunt asylum? Will an Obama administration erase her order of deportation? I will leave that up to you to decide.
Well Reverend Wright may have been silent these past couple of months or so but the Republican forces remind us today about the Obama and Wright relationship.
Watch the following video:
Obama say Wright is a wonderful man. It is time to remember what Reverend Wright is really like:
And here is Wright again:
Obama sat in Wright’s church for twenty years. Obama never through his pastor under the bus until Wright insulted him. As long as Wright praised The One, Obama refused to throw Wright under the bus.
Once more Obama is full of BS! He is a liar!
Remember this tomorrow when you place your vote. Vote Country First.
During the primaries Obama was giving a speech in North Carolina when he flipped her off. Yes he did. And Obama says he is a Christian. Watch this video:
Right! He is nothing more than gutter trash who uses gutteral gestures. Do you think he stopped?
Not a chance. He did it again. He flipped off McCain as you can see the link in the following story from Breitbart TV:
Obama says the following, “John McCain has served this country honorably and at the end of this long race, I want to congratulate him on the tough race that he has fought.”
And then he flipsoff McCain just the way he did Hillary. Once may be an accident, twice is a pattern, a disturbing pattern! Is this the man you want meeting with the heads of foreign state? Will he flip them off when he gives pressers so the whole American populous can see him do it? Obama is nothing more than Chicago street trash.
As Obama prepared to become the un-Democratic Party’s chosen one he said “I am my brother’s keeper”. He spoke those words never thinking they would come to haunt him as members of his extended family were found living in abject poverty. The Republican’s seized the moment to contrast his words with the living conditions of a brother living on $12 per year. Hoping he will get training to be an auto mechanic. Obama is a multi-millionaire who up to this point has done nothing to be “his brother’s keeper”.
Here is that ad:
What a hypocrit! What will Obama do to our families? Obama does nothing for his own!
Wake Up America movement is asking for MORE CALLERS TONIGHT MONDAY to pivotal electoral vote states- This added effort could literally make the difference! If you haven’t yet signed in, come to
Wake Up America then click menu for Spread the Word watch for immediate pop-up page with password-
Then download a very persuasive Phone Outreach kit with call tips, effective script and links to phone banks.
Also includes important message to leave on voice mail – even if no one is home!
HELP US CALL WI, PA & OH tonight until 9 PM ET. After that, call NMX, NV & CO until 11 PM ET.
Let’s put McCain/Palin OVER THE TOP in Electoral Votes tonight!
****** For valuable tips on How to Stop Vote Fraud – go to www.wam08.org and scroll to bottom of home page!
******
For vital urgent facts for PA & OH voters – go to the WAM Press Room & Read the Latest Release!
******
JOIN IN WAM VISION BOARD chat- after 9 PM ET tonight – to share What You Look Forward to in
this new Reform White House – and how you are helping that to happen!
(Send reply/request to wamaction@gmail.com tonight to be added to friends list at this Vision Board My Space)
The PUMAs were largely forgotten after Denver. The PUMAs stopped appearing on news shows. It was assumed that we were re-assimilated into the un-Democratic Party with its chosen Messiah. We haven’t been re-assimilated, McCain/Palin have won us over for the most part. We have hit the road in states like, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Colorado to name a few. We have mailed postcards to battleground states like North Carolina. We have been manning the phones. In short we have been donating money and time like we did when we supported Hillary’s run in the primaries. We have given McCain/Palin our 110%.
Well it seems like someone has taken the time to analyze the numbers needed for McCain/Palin to win. His blog is called marstonchronicles. He has a 45 year long political history. So yes, I believe his analysis is spot on. If you go to his site you can view his chart with the numbers of PUMAs needed in each state.
Here are some excerpts:
If you know the answer to this question, you know who our next President will be. While it is possible for McCain to win even if this factor is negligible, he would need to get virtually all of the undecided’s to break his way. That is theoretically possible but it is mostly wishful thinking on the part of McCain-Palin supporters. For every undecided voter either candidate picks up, it takes a vote out of the undecided column and adds one to that candidate’s total. However, the spread between the two candidates only goes up by one vote. That is not the case with a P.U.M.A. voter, which is by definition, a registered Democrat voting for McCain-Palin. This takes a vote away from Obama-Biden and adds one to McCain-Palin, decreasing the spread by two votes.
There is always a certain amount of voters who do not vote for their own party’s candidate in any election. This desertion rate is pretty well known and is factored into the weighting algorithms used by pollsters. What is unusual about this election is that the way Hillary was treated by the Democratic National Committee and by the Obama campaign thoroughly annoyed a lot of Democrats. Add in the fact that Obama’s positions make social conservative Democrats very nervous. Then there is the hypothetical Bradley Effect due to the presence of a black candidate. All these factors make up the P.U.M.A. coalition which is very hard to numerically pin down. That makes it difficult for the pollsters to properly allow for this factor. Given the spread between the various polls, it is obvious that some of the polls are making no allowance for the P.U.M.A. Factor at all.
… Will there be enough PUMA voters in the top six states in the table to give McCain-Palin the election? I do not know and neither does anyone else. I will say that if McCain-Palin only carries the top five states, we are going to have a complete mess on our hands because a tie throws the election into Congress to vote on a state by state basis. There is one possibility that the table does not cover and that is Congressional District 2 in Maine. If McCain-Palin could pick that one vote up, they can win without Nevada. Of course, that would take sending Sarah Palin to Bangor, Maine as I have repeatedly suggested. Instead, the McCain campaign is pinning its hopes on Pennsylvania. The problem is that the PUMA voters are not evenly distributed by state. There would seem to be a much smaller percentage of disgruntled Hillary supporters in the western states. That is why the McCain folks have leapfrogged over the three western states in favor of Pennsylvania.
Marston finally introduces himself and shares his biography with us. Again I find his view refreshing since he is not one of those pundits in the MSM. Without much ado here are excerpts from his second article:
Your first thought is that I am drunk on Kool-Aid when you see this title. I am going to show you why I am so sure about this prediction. Your next question is why should anyone pay any attention to me about such a ridiculous prediction. The answer is that in 45 years in politics, I have never been wrong about an election call even when I was called crazy. That includes get elected to office to prove I was right about winning an election. See my biography for details. I have to be very sure to risk a 45 year reputation so remember that you read it here first.
The next question is how could I possibly be so sure when the polls are predicting the exact opposite? Because I know the polls are wrong since they are not properly taking into account the P.U.M.A. Factor. I have explained previously that the mere fact that the polls violently disagree with each other is proof of something seriously amiss with the polling models. See my article on The P.U.M.A. Factor. On November 1st, I posted an article entitled How Big is the P.U.M.A. Factor?
That article pointed out that, at the time I wrote it, it required only a total of 493,636 PUMA voters in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado to produce a tie in the electoral votes. Add a mere 35,935 more in Nevada and McCain-Palin wins. At the time, I was almost ready to bet the ranch that there were 529,571 PUMA voters in those six states, but I waited another 24 hours to make sure. Now the trend is so clear that it is obvious to me that a McCain-Palin landslide is in the works. It is amazing how few people in politics never apply some fairly simple mathematics to see what is going to happen in the next election. (You must go to his website to see his table so you understand why he sees a landslide.)
… Even more important is how few PUMA voters in these eleven states are required for a McCain-Palin landslide. If you add up the PUMA’s needed column in the second table, you will see that only an extra 510,479 more PUMA’s are needed to sweep the table. That is a mere 938,161 PUMA’s needed spread across eleven states to produce a McCain-Palin landslide. Do you really want to tell me that there are not that many Hillary supporters who cannot vote for Obama-Biden in these eleven states out of 18,000,000 of them? Now who is drinking the Kool-Aid?
Do I really think that that McCain-Palin will carry all of these states? No, because I am worried that there are not enough PUMA’s in the western states, particularly New Mexico and possibly Colorado. What I will bet my 45 year reputation on is that McCain-Palin will win by at least 42 electoral votes. I will recalculate everything tomorrow and will undoubtedly up my estimate to around a 100 vote margin.
I am also worried about the PUMA factor in the West, but believe we aren’t fully aware of the numbers there. However PUMAs have been in Nevada for the last two weekends running canvassing. One week ago this past Saturday they reached more than 10,000 homes and viewing so many foreclosed home. We have a chance in Nevada.
Jerrold Nadler admits that Obama is a coward politically. Atlas Shrugs has this great video of this poltitcal admitting Obama is a coward. Obama absolutely refuses to take an aggressive stand on anything that might harm him politically. Not only Obama’s language nuanced so is his politics.
Here is the video:
Obama is a courage. Obama is the tool of the Pelosi and Reid cabal. Obama will do nothing he has promised.
HumanEvents.com, leading the conservative movement since 1944 has a very insightful article on 401k plans. Although I already covered this topic once, I thought it was time to review some facts not in my first blog piece. Here are some numbers and excerpts from Human Events:
How might your 401(k) vote for president? To find out, try the revealing calculator on the website of Americans for Tax Reform. This device considers the value of your investment plan and then estimates how your money would fare, depending on whether Barack Obama or John McCain wins tomorrow’s election. (Author’s Note: I highly recommend the calculator on the Americans for Taxpayer website.)
Here are some of the numbers:
– Take, for instance, a 401(k) with a $121,202 balance — equal to the average 401(k) at close-of-business 2006, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. Under Obama, such an account would shrink to $114, 293. But under McCain, it would grow to $177,076.
– How about a 401(k) bearing $66,650, the median value at year-end 2006? It would fall to $62,851 under Obama, but rise with McCain to $97,376.
– Lastly, AFTR’s Tax Policy Director, Ryan Ellis, reckons that a typical 401(k) absorbs a monthly deposit of $450. It would wane to $424 under Obama, but wax to $657 with McCain in command.
Why are the assets in these three scenarios predicted to sag 5.7 percent if Obama wins, but soar 46.1 percent if McCain prevails tomorrow night?
The key distinction is public policy.
Read on, the policies are elucidated in the rest of the story:
Obama hopes to hike the capital gains and dividend taxes by one third, from 15 percent today to 20. He would maintain the current corporate tax at 35 percent — Earth’s second highest overall business tax, exceeded only by Japan’s 39.5 percent commercial levy. Obama also would keep the IRS’ stultifying depreciation tables, which businesses must use to write off major capital-equipment purchases gradually across multiple years.
McCain envisions a far more business-friendly environment. He would halve the 15 percent capital gains and dividend taxes to 7.5 percent. The 35 percent corporate tax would tumble to 25 percent — a level comparable to average business taxes across Europe. A 25 percent U.S. corporate tax would be more attractive than analogous levies in France (38.4 percent), Canada (33.5), Germany (30.2), or Great Britain and Mexico (both 28). McCain’s corporate tax cuts should lure foreign capital here, like coins to a vacuum cleaner.
Finally, McCain would retire the mind-numbing depreciation tables and let companies expense their capital purchases in year one. Most enterprises subsequently would buy such items when it made business and economic sense to do so, not primarily to obey complex IRS timetables.
The truth of the matter is your 401k will blossom under McCain and wither under Obama. McCain is the right choice for your retirement….
Obama has never been a uniter. As a matter of fact he is one of the most liberal senators in history. Although he appears to be a “centrist” he is truly a leftist. His centrist leanings are just more pandering to the electorate. He is by far the greatest bamboozler ever to be shoved down our throats by an un-Democratic Party and the liberal, elitist media. And unfortunately in the last two or three weeks Fox News has been joining those same liberal, elitist MSM outlets. The article I am about to introduce is by far the fairest story I have seen on Fox lately. But I am not surprised by Fox they are elitist too.
For an example of his heavy handed tactics we just have to look at the following article from Fox News:
Is Barack Obama a uniter? Since the beginning of the Democratic primaries, unity has been one of his major themes. It proved a strong lure compared to the polarizing Hillary Clinton. That theme has also helped Obama blunt the undeniably bipartisan record of John McCain.
Obama has never been the uniter. He will never be a uniter. He has consistently lied about his record. Of course he starts out working on bi-partisanship bills and shortly thereafter disappears, only to reappear when the “hard work” is done.
More from the story:
Obama’s list of heavy-handed actions is growing:
— Last week the Obama campaign kicked reporters from the Dallas Morning News, the New York Post and the Washington Times off the campaign plane — making it difficult for their papers to cover Obama’s final campaign appearances. The reporters were replaced with writers from magazines such as Glamour. The editorial pages of all three papers had endorsed McCain.
— Democrats seemed determined to cut back on the few conservative voices in the mainstream media. Obama supports media-ownership caps, which will primarily affect News Corp, the company that owns Fox News and conservative newspapers such as the New York Post. His proposals to increase minority ownership of broadcasting are also designed to change content, no longer leaving it up to customers to decide what it is they want to listen to.
— There has been what can only be described as thuggish activity. In late August, Milt Rosenberg — a Chicago institution, broadcasting on WGN radio since 1973 — interviewed Stanley Kurtz about the extremely extensive relationship between Obama and William Ayers. Milt, a mild mannered, middle-of-the-road person, tried to have both sides represented and had invited a representative of the Obama campaign. No one from the campaign agreed to appear. Instead, the campaign organized an immediate, massive call-in campaign to force WGN to cancel Kurtz’s appearance. When that failed, the campaign organized supporters to call in to the station and simply tie up the telephone lines so that other listeners couldn’t ask questions. Others threatened Federal Communication Commission action to revoke WGN’s license. Rosenberg said that he had never seen anything similar to silence discussion during his years on radio.
— Obama has also gone to the extreme of threatening opponents and television stations with legal action for running ads. For example, when ads were run discussing Obama’s relationship to Ayers, Obama’s campaign demanded that the Department of Justice criminally investigate the group behind the ads. (What criminal charges that were justified by running an ad were never explained.) It is bad enough that a senator demands criminal charges against a political opponent, but Justice Department officials might take this seriously if the president of the United States asks them to press charges.
– Campaign finance laws will surely be rewritten in ways that make it particularly difficult for Republicans to win races. Limits on total expenditures and public financing entrench incumbents, which in this case would be Democrats.
– Or take unions, where secret ballots will be eliminated for union certification elections. What is next? Eliminating secret ballots for other elections? Presumably not, but if we care about preventing voter intimidation generally, why don’t we also care about that for workers? Don’t Democrats trust workers enough to make judgments on their own?
… Some Republicans think that this election doesn’t matter. That in two years they will come back stronger than ever. Indeed, Republicans might be quite angry and inspired to take things back. But 2012 won’t be like 1980. The Democrats plan to tilt the playing field in their favor to ensure a long-term domination in politics.
The Demothuggery Party wants full control of the government so it can control the American populace. They want to be able to stop any anti-government movement. Obama’s brown shirts will reside on street corners letting the government know where there resides dissent. The USA will become a Socialist nation modeled after nations like France. This is not the government we need. The Demothuggers will destroy our country. We will lose reputation and have very little left to be proud of.
These numbers I am about to post are via the Patriot Room. The numbers were found within a comment at another blog. Shiloh “appears” to have an insider view from the McCain headquarters. I can’t vouch for the veracity of the numbers since he is hiding behind a name on a blog. Here are the final numbers:
ORIGINAL POST:
These purport to be the final internal polls from the McCain camp. I don’t know if they are accurate, I suspect they are, but if Obama wins, the McCain camp deserves to lose, being that far off the mark in predicting the outcome. These numbers portend a blowout for McCain.
PA: MCCAIN 52%, Obama 40%, Undecided 6%
NJ: Obama 47%, McCain 45%, Undecided 7%
MI: McCain 45%, Obama 44%, Undecided 7%
VA: McCain 53%, Obama 42%, Undecided 3%
CO: McCain 50%, Obama 44%, Undecided 4%
MO: McCain 49%, Obama 42%, Undecided 7%
FL: McCain 52%, Obama 44%, Undecided 3%
Here is a comment that Bill Dupray left:
I am reprinting here a response I made to 30 Year Dem in the comments on the issue of whether to print this kind of stuff or not.
I am with you, and we can take these with a grain of salt, but I think it is better not to sit on stuff like this. I am happy to throw in caveats about the validity, and then people can make their own judgment about it. If it turns out to be true and I sat on it all day, I have done a disservice. If it turns out to be false, well, hey, I told you it could be false.
The MSM chose not to interview Ayers, Wright, and Rezko, and The L.A. Times chose to suppress the Obama/Khalidi tape. They decided for us that those issues were not newsworthy. I prefer to put it out there at let everyone else decide the value of the information.
That philosophical difference is why the MSM is hemorrhaging credibility, viewers, readers, and money and why the blogosphere is becoming more influential.
I like my way.
To be honest I don’t believe the any of the polls. And I even believe Fox News who has taken a turn for the worst in the last few weeks and are becoming less fair and balanced. If these numbers are correct then McCain wins. If not I will turn all the news stations off for the next four years.
According to Fox News in the following story, “Judge Orders Virginia Officials to Keep Late Ballots”, “late-arriving absentee ballots must be preserved” until a hearing on November 10th. More from that story:
The McCain campaign says in a lawsuit that absentee ballots weren’t mailed on time to many military members serving overseas. The complaint asks the court to order the state to count absentee ballots from overseas troops postmarked by Tuesday and received by Nov. 14.
The deadline for ballots to be received is 7 p.m. on Election Day.
U.S. District Judge Richard Williams said Tuesday that he will hear the lawsuit on Nov. 10. He ordered election officials to keep the late-arriving ballots until then.
The McCain campaign praised William’s decision.
“This will help to ensure that local election officials do not destroy or dispose of these ballots before the court has had an opportunity to rule on our complaint,” spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a written statement.
“The McCain-Palin campaign strongly believes that no military ballot should be discarded as a result of a failure on the part of several counties and independent cities to mail ballots to service members in a timely manner,” Gitcho continued.
“We believe without exception that the servicemen and women on the front lines protecting our freedoms deserve every opportunity to make sure their vote counts,” she added.
It is very important that the military ballots be counted. It would be a sad day in the United States if the men and women preserving our freedoms weren’t allowed to vote.
Watch the video and watch the lawyer (a poll watcher) take out campaign materials and show them to voters. This is illegal. It is called ELECTIONEERING.
Obama just can’t win an election legally can he. More cheating and felonious activities by Obama’s believers.
Like many others I cried real tears, I cried my heart out because last night I witnessed the utter destruction of democracy in this country. Obama is president elect, a false messiah with tendency to pathological narcissism. He must be worshiped by the masses, he has created a cult of personality. And so far has done little to change my opinion of him.
He didn’t get where he is today legally. As is the custom of all Chicago politicians he bent every rule. And his every illegal action was swept under the rug, never punished. He removed security measures from his donation site to allow foreign money into his campaign coffers. He took advantage of every loophole in the FEC laws with no consequences. He cheated his way to the presidency.
I for one will always see him as the illegitimate successor to Bush. An unvetted and inexperienced tool for Reid, Pelosi, Dean and all the other members of the un-Democratic Party. The same party that left me behind. The same party that beat democracy to death this year. Webster’s and all the other dictionaries should just erase that word because it no longer exists.
Obama’s ascendancy to the highest office in the land has exposed all the weaknesses in the election laws in all 50 states. It has also exposed the unwillingness of the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission to do anything about Obama’s crimes and there are many. The glaring reason for the inability to do anything is their partisanship. I do contend that the DOJ and FEC have a wanton disregard for the laws.
As the real anguish and grief begin to reach an absolute feverish pitch, we must vow to regain our democracy for the sake of all peoples even if they were foolish enough to be fooled by the most corrupt and illegal candidate produced since Watergate. And looking back Watergate was nothing compared to the potential Obama-gate. We must work hard to throw Democrats and Republicans out of Congress during the mid-term elections.
Here is my list of actions which will assist with working through the stages of grief.
!. Election Reform in all 50 states. The language of the law must not allow any loopholes to exist. The law will have specific language including voter id for all voters. In regards to punishment it will be awarded. Heavy fines and jail time. No excuses.
2. Eliminate the Electoral College once and for all. This reform though it would change the structure first put in place by our founding father’s does not accurately reflect the American populace today. This type of a sweeping would level the playing field as well.
3. Federal Election Commission. There must be serious reform with in the campaign finance laws. McCain/Feingold did not go far enough. It must address donations via the Internet. The language must clearly state that all security measures must remain in place for credit card donations. The FEC panel must be non-partisan. It is not at this time. Changes need to address FEC filings. The language must state that changes to FEC filings may not be made. It must also state that any changes to FEC filings is done under penalty. These penalties must include heavy fines and jail time. No exceptions.
Update:This issue has taken on a meaning of its own because the only one being audited is McCain. Where is Obama’s audit considering all the illegal activities that were written up in the media?. At least of Obama’s illegal activities had civilian complaints made against them. I know because they were mailed from Kansas.
4. The Republican Party and Democratic Party. These parties are both seriously divided and broken. They have been unable to unite in any firm manner to make this country their first priority. The Democratic Party is beyond reform especially since it is now largely an Obama run organization. The Republican Party is much like the the Democratic Party, they have done very little to advance the needs of the country and its populace. It is time for a new party. It must be non-partisan, a true Independent Party. It will take a great deal of work for us to get recognized in all 50 states but it is a priority. For the first time in my life I have to admit there is no fixing the two party system. It is damaged beyond repair.
Now that I have outlined my ideas it is time for all those who have been so devastated by the election of Obama to lead this land, we must come together. We must no longer accept the status quo. We must form that third party, a party of the people, truly non-partisan and begin to build our power base. It will be a long fight. We must do it or there will never be true reform in DC.
And four years from now we will truly wonder what happened to the awe we feel each time we see the flag waving so smartly in the wind or on the stern of a Naval vessel when they have returned home from protecting our freedom. We will wonder what happened to our country and why our reputation is tarnished once again. It will be tarnished because we the people selected a man who wants to pull troops from the current wars, once again abandoning people we said we would help. Once more we will break our promise. And for once our collective heart will break because we will no longer be that ‘”super power”, we will be lower than pond scum. History will not be revised, it will be a repeat of yesterday in far away lands and one of those lands is Afghanistan….
Update: Post-Mortem For The Democratic Party
From Cece:
My proposed idea is to hold vigils or funerals throughout the U.S. (and abroad, if JSND members are inclined) on a set day and at a specific time. We would memorialize the death of the Democratic Party, eulogize the party, etc. We could also try to secure some private land (via members) to have bonfires to burn voter registration cards marked democratic (fake that we would provide in the event that it is illegal to burn such cards) and effigies if desired. Members could video tape and record the events for press release or a compilation of the days events for distribution to media outlets.
We may well be served to have only a small number involved in a “stealth operation” to coordinate the activities before informing the public and then, the media of our activities. We may wish to coordinate this for a date close to the inauguration, such as January 17th or 18th.
In summary, we would have a concrete means by which to display our displeasure with the whole election process and the Democratic Party as a group with the opportunity to announce our plans for the future.
Please let me know your opinion. Thank you for fighting the GOOD FIGHT!
“It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate and tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” -Samuel Adams
Last night Fox News reported that there were no reports of questionable ballots being filled out. They reported no problems what so ever. Thanks to Election Journal, there is proof of illegal activities within polling places in Philadelphia. Another electioneering video:
\Not only was it electioneering it was encouraging people to vote for Obama. It has insignia on it and more than likely came from Obama for America.
The activity in this video is beyond pale. Not only is there electioneering the woman takes a picture of something that may be the poll book.
This activity took place place in a polling place during early voting in Warren County Satellite Location, Iowa. And this is only one of a number of examples of wholesale cheating by Obama for America.
Let it be said, I have no respect for him. Obama is an illegitimate president. His ” excellent ground game” consisted of cheating at all levels of voting from the caucuses to the general election. Obama’s money came from countries like Saudi Arabia, China and the Gaza Strip even from his illegal alien aunt and seems to be largely illegitimate donations. Obama’s corruption trumps the corruption of any other presidential candidate in history.
Asia Times has this story today which literally scares the pants off of me:
On the eve of the United States presidential elections, a landmark visit to Tehran by the head of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been widely regarded in the Persian Gulf region as a major diplomatic overture toward Tehran by the US-backed oil sheikdoms.
Nearly one year after President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s landmark attendance at the GCC summit in Doha in December 2007, where he proposed a “new chapter of cooperation” between Iran and the GCC states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the latter have finally set aside their various misgivings and decided to take up Ahmadinejad’s proposals on economic, political and security domains.
All the US backed countries are now banding together to form a new union. It involves economics, political and security domains. In short Israel is screwed. And the United states right along with them.
The USA is between a rock and a hard place. This new agreement is one I have feared for sometime. I even believed things were happening in the Middle East that were undermining our efforts to stop Iran and its nuclear plans.
More from Asia Times:
In the aftermath of the US’s ill-advised raid inside Syria last month, causing a serious downturn in Syria-US relations, the Arab world, including the GCC oil states, are in a new assertive mood to stand up to the US’s perceived arrogant and destabilizing moves, including with respect to Iran.
Thus, whereas previously the GCC had expressed concerns about the nature of Iran’s nuclear program, as a result of Iran’s nuclear transparency and twin diplomatic efforts, the GCC states are today fairly comfortable with Iran’s nuclear program and are no longer sold to the Washington and Tel Aviv-led “Iranophobia”.
“We support Iran’s nuclear program, which is completely peaceful,” al-Attiyah categorically stated, adding that he was “surprised” that the world had turned a blind eye to Israel’s possession of weapons of mass destruction.
So much for the George W Bush administration’s strategy of Middle East alliance politics by forging the region’s “moderates” versus the “rogue” states led by Iran and Syria, or of wresting Syria away from Iran. None of that strategy has worked and, as a result, a brand new Middle East strategy by the next US president is called for.
There may be a need for a new strategy in the Middle East but there is little chance of one coming to fruition. We now have many Middle Eastern countries aligned against us. I don’t see any kind of alliance. The US screwed up when they led an intrusive airstrike into Syria. That airstrike made the Middle Eastern countries angry leaving us fighting an uphill battle, one Obama will never be to climb over.
… the old pro-Israel hands, like veteran diplomat Dennis Ross, who is advising Obama on the Middle East and has crafted an Iran policy that is bereft of any novelty, will not preclude a real change in the US’s Middle East policy. Ross and almost all the other foreign policy advisors surrounding Obama are unanimously sold to the “grave threat” of a “nuclear-armed Iran” and, thus, it must come as a shocking surprise to them that Iran’s Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf do not share this threat perception.
We are screwed. Obama has no new advisers for the region. He is using old has beens. Same old Washington, DC, same old politician. With no new ideas on hand, the US stands on a dangerous precipice. Even with a security agreement with Iraq we will be guaranteed of nothing. I believe that when we leave Iraq, Iraq will find a new security partner and it won’t be the US. It will be the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) because it is the only way that will be able to sell oil and set prices.
With respect to the future of Iran-GCC relations, much like the earlier Tehran visit of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in August, al-Attiyah focused primarily on expanding economic cooperation with Iran, as a precondition for broader cooperation. Already Iran’s free trade with some GCC states, such as the United Arab Emirates, is thriving and the focus is now on taking this to the next level by laying the foundations for regional free trade.
Clearly, the GCC states are impressed by Iran’s other regional efforts, such as with respect to cooperating with the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which has inducted Iran as an observer, although last week Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Iran’s First Vice President Parviz Davoodi that Russia embraced the idea of Iran’s full membership, as well as with respect to the Economic Cooperation Organization. [2]
The demonstration effect of such regional stability efforts by Iran was bound to impact the GCC’s behavior toward Iran sooner or later. Now, after much ebb and flow in that behavior, the GCC states have come to a firm new conclusion about the need to forge more organic relations with their assertive Iranian neighbor, with most, if not all, the GCC leaders perhaps guardedly concurring with Putin’s statement that a “powerful Iran is beneficial to the region”.
Powerful Iran. And a weakening Israel with a large amount of the Middle Eastern countries in an ever widening cirle of friends. Be scared folks this is not the Pro-American countries that appeared to be.
More from Asia Times:
Internally, the noticeable improvement in Iran’s relations with the GCC states cited above will be considered a timely plus for Ahmadinejad and his visions and programs for Iran’s external relations, thus contributing to his likely bid for re-election next summer. Combining power and flexibility, Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy may have been too controversial or even confrontational at times, but after the taboo of direct dialogue with the US was broken by him he has done much to fill the unfortunate vacuum of Third World leadership at a critical moment in global politics.
No wonder other assertive leaders of the developing nations have embraced Ahmadinejad, and that includes Brazil’s populist leader Luda de Silva, who is due in Tehran shortly for a much-anticipated Iran-Brazil summit.
All the same, the economy remains the number one concern of Iran’s voters, as is the case with US voters today and the big question is if Ahmadinejad will be able to telescope the diplomatic breakthrough with the GCC states into meaningful economic benefits, given the US’s intention to tighten sanctions on Iran?
Fortunately for Iran, the legitimacy of sanctions on it have been much eroded due to Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the important visit of the GCC’s secretary general alone is indication of a failing sanctions regime.
It is time for the USA to tuck tail and run. It is time to “drill, baby, drill”, right here, right now. Our influence in the oil rich Middle Eastern nations has evaporated.
This is the funniest ballad I have ever heard. It comes to us from OldGrumpyGuy. I laughed so hard. And no it isn’t kind to either man. This is your fun for Thursday. After Tuesday I realized that so many need an uplifting experience. and this will be it. So enjoy!
Pass it along. Share some good cheer with your friends.
The Times Online is once again informing the America people about the dangers that are lurking in the not so far future. And it does concern all. It threatens our national security, “President Dmitri Medvedev orders missiles deployed in Europe as world hails Obama”, well I’m not hailing Obama and I am certainly upset that Russia is doing this. It is Russia’s response to the missile system we are deploying to Polnad.
From the Times:
President Medvedev ordered missiles to be stationed up against Nato’s borders yesterday to counter American plans to build a missile defence shield.
Speaking within hours of Barack Obama’s election, Mr Medvedev announced that Russia would base Iskander missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad – the former German city – next to the border with Poland.
He did not say whether the short-range missiles would carry nuclear warheads.
Taking advantage of the world’s attention on the US elections, Mr Medvedev also cancelled plans to withdraw three intercontinental ballistic missile regiments from western Russia by 2010.
In his first state-of-the-nation address, Mr Medvedev said the missiles would be deployed “to neutralise if necessary the antiballistic missile system in Europe”. He added that Russia was also ready to deploy its Navy off Kaliningrad and to install electronic jamming devices to interfere with the US shield, which relies on a radar station in the Czech Republic and ten interceptor missiles in Poland.
We have no clue if the missiles have nuclear warheads. My military experience say they more than likely have nuclear warheads. I can’t see the Russians moving missiles in response to our missile defense shield unless they loaded with nukes. Medvedev is flexing his muscle. I am not suprised because I believe he views Obama as a weak opponent. He is thumbing his nose at us.
More from the Times:
A Czech Foreign Ministry spokesman described the Kremlin’s move as unfortunate. Lithuania’s President Adamkus accused his Russian counterpart of going back on his word.
But government ministers and parliamentary deputies assembled in the Kremlin applauded Mr Medvedev.
The President failed to congratulate Mr Obama or even to mention him by name during the 85-minute address televised live across Russia.
Medvedev is flexing his muscle. I am not surprised because I believe he views Obama as a weak opponent. He is thumbing his nose at us.
Are you scared yet?
More on this story:
In a criticism directed at the US, Mr Medvedev said: “Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egotistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community.” He accused the West of seeking to encircle Russia and blamed the US for encouraging Georgia’s “barbaric aggression” in the war over South Ossetia in August. He also gave warning that Russia would “not back down in the Caucasus”.
“The August crisis only accelerated the arrival of the crucial moment of truth. We proved, including to those who had been sponsoring the current regime in Georgia, that we are strong enough to defend our citizens and that we can indeed defend our national interests,” Mr Medvedev said.
“What we’ve had to deal with in the last few years – the construction of a global missile defence system, the encirclement of Russia by military blocs, unrestrained Nato enlargement and other gifts . . . The impression is we are being tested to the limit.” The outgoing President Bush insists that the missile shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran, but the plan has infuriated Moscow, which argues that it threatens Russia’s security.
Mr Medvedev said that Russia had been forced to cancel its plans to withdraw the intercontinental ballistic missiles, which have a range of 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometres). He said: “We want to act together. But they, unfortunately, don’t want to listen to us.”
Mr Medvedev blamed the US for the global financial crisis, saying that the rest of the world had been “dragged down with it into recession”. He said that the era of American dominance after the collapse of the Soviet Union was over. “The world cannot be ruled from one capital. Those who do not want to understand this will only create new problems for themselves and others,” he said.
Medvedev is accusing the USA of not willing to compromise. And I am certain the Russian president doesn’t see any change in our policies. In my opinion there will be no change in policy because many of Obama’s advisers have been in Washington DC forever. This is the change we need, no change. And since there will be no change in basic policy, we have to hope that Obama can get Medvedev to talk to him. And frankly I don’t think it will be happen because the policy will be inflexible. Medvedev would have kiss Obama’s feet.
Obama promised “change” if he was elected president. He has managed to break his first promise and he hasn’t even taken office yet. He selected Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff. Emanuel is not only a congressman but he was part of the Clinton Administration.
The new is worse about Emanuel, known to some as Rahmbo. According to Open Secrets, Chief of Staff Tops Recipients of Wall Street Money. Not only is Rahm a typical politician and power broker but so is Obama with his choice of Emanuel.
More from the story:
A day after being elected president and acknowledging “the worst financial crisis in a century,” Barack Obama asked one of the biggest recipients of Wall Street campaign contributions to be his chief of staff. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman who was an aide in the Clinton White House, was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry–not the most popular of industries in the current economy. Since being elected to Congress in 2002, after working as an investment banker, Emanuel has received more money from individuals and PACs in the securities and investment business than any other industry.
Emanuel, who is currently the No. 4 Democrat in the House, has also collected $136,640 from the lobbying industry during his career, making K Street his 13th most generous industry. Obama, on the other hand, eschewed contributions from registered lobbyists for the presidential race. Obama also refused contributions from PACs, an easy task when only about 1 percent of presidential contributions come from these committees. PACs have given Emanuel about 29 percent of his total since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.
It is quite clear to me that Obama isn’t really going to chnage DC at least not the way he promised. If he intended to “change” DC, then his choice for Chief of Staff would not be the insider that Emanuel is. As Obama’s believer’s begin to realize that he is just a typical politician and become deeply disapponited in him, I will have no sympathy for them. I will have no sympathy for anyone who voted him in office easy. Remember the old adage, “what goes around, comes around”.
Update:
It is official Obama is a typical politician with a line of BS a mile long. Emanuel accepts Chief of Staff job according to the New York Times.
Here is a quote from the article:
Representative Rahm Emanuel, a fierce and consummate navigator of the capital’s political terrain, on Thursday accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to become his White House chief of staff.
Remember the US electorate is going to reap what it has sowed. And it is already beginning….and no sympathy here.
According to Politico, Max Cleland is in the running for Army Secretary or Veterans Affairs Secretary who once held that position in the Carter administration. Nope. Obama is still not the agent of change.
More from Poltico:
Former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) is in the running to be the new secretary of the Army, defense industry officials say.
… Nonetheless, Cleland’s name is also being circulated as a potential secretary of Veterans Affairs, a position he held in the Carter administration.
I am odds here with myself because I know things about Cleland that aren’t complementary to him. I worked in a state agency in Georgia years ago which allowed me to get to know Max Cleland. At risk of looking like I am attacking another veteran I have decided to tell what I know.
Max Cleland has been known in the past to to sexually harass women. He tends to be a little too friendly. No charges were ever filed but I would never allow myself to be in a room alone with him. It is my opinion that he is just another long line of women abusing males in politics.
I just got finished reading a story titled, “Reason 142 to Homeschool: Obama Teachers Won’t Bully Kids Who Support McCain” at BelchSpeak and this what they had to say:
This is a video of Diantha Harris, a lifelong democrat and avid Barack Obama supporter. She is also a lousy schoolteacher, as is evidenced by the mushmouthed kids in her class. And instead of concentrating on grammar and English, math and science, she abuses and ridicules any child who dares to speak up in support of John McCain. This video is part of a Finnish documentary on Obama fans, and it is shocking that you have to go to a foreign country to learn what goes on in our own classrooms.
Here is the video:
Here is part of the transcript:
See how she singles out the little white girl and mocks her for having an absent parent, who is off defending the country, and lies to her, saying her Dad would have to stay in Iraq for a hundred years? The little girl was ready to cry! Disgusting.
Diantha Harris: It’s a senseless war! [Stares at Kathy.] And by the way, Kathy, the person that you’re picking for president said [Harris shakes her head] that our troops could stay in Iraq for another hundred years if they need to! [Kathy bites her lip, looks ashamed. Other kids stare at Kathy, laugh, smirk.] So that means that your daddy could stay in the military for another hundred years!
[Kathy is on verge of tears.]
[In an interview later:]
Diantha Harris: Now I can support whomever I want to support, as long as I don’t browbeat another person for the candidate that they supported. Like I have some students that support John McCain, and when they told me that, I said ah … “that’s good’ and I just moved on. So, I think that everybody is entitled to their own personal opinion.
As many of you all know I am a Navy veteran. I was on active duty when I had my children. I spent time on two different ships. While stationed on my second ship, I made two Mediterranean cruises, each six months long. I always worried about how teachers would treat my children since I wasn’ there to oversee their education. As it turns out I never had to worry.
What this teacher did was beyond. What the hell gave her the right to lie. She lied about McCain’s comments and repeated what Obama said over and over agin on TV. She wasn’t even interested in doing her own research. What in the hell is wrong with this teacher?
What the hell gave her the right to scare the pants off that little girl, saying her dad was going to be gone for one hundred years? What unmitigated gall. What thuggery. And how impossibly disgusting.
Why is this woman still a teacher? She quite obviously was pushing her support on Obama by wearing the pin to school too!
This teacher is lower than pond scum. Just who is going to stand up for that young lady. What that teacher was nothing short of emotional abuse! This veteran and mother of two says fire that teacher! She has no right influencing such young minds!
2nd Update:
I just finished a phone conversation with a man in the Superintendent”s office of the school district, Cumberland County Schools, which includes students from Ft. Bragg…he informed me that the teacher has apologized to both parent’s of the student. As for an apology to the student or whether she had been moved to another classroom, they were not addressed because it may have to do with personnel actions taken against the teacher. (This is my belief since I have been employed in school districts before as a former educator.) Other personnel actions have been taken but can’t be released because of privacy laws.
Dr William Harrison, Superintendent, Cumberland County Schools (CCS) has issued a statement, one I believe to be very sincere:
CCS Headline News – Superintendent’ s Response to YouTube
I was shocked when I saw the clip of an interaction between a Cumberland County Schools teacher and her students as posted on YouTube. While neutral discussion of the political process is appropriate, at no time, particularly with elementary students, should a teacher infuse his/her political views into the discussion. Most disconcerting was the military slant that made its way into this discussion. We are a military community, serving over 15,000 military students and their families. We value the sacrifices, not only of the military parents but also those of their families.
We believe that military children are our children, military spouses are many of our employees, and military service men and women are our heroes. We proudly serve our military children and have received national awards for our support of military families.
I was particularly disturbed to see the uncomfortable position in which our children were placed due to the inappropriate actions of one of our teachers. Please be assured that the actions exhibited in this video are not consistent with the vision of the CCS. Moreover, the actions of one teacher do not represent the 7000 employees in our organization.
Once the video was brought to my attention, I immediately launched an investigation. Personnel laws prevent me from releasing information regarding individual employees and personnel action taken. I can assure you that upon completion of the investigation, I will take appropriate action.
Dr. William Harrison
CCS’ Superintendent
Here is the video response by Dr. William Harrison:
The man in the office and I discussed many things…and I was satisfied that CCS and Dr. Harrison did everything in their power to address the problem with the teacher. The man said that it may have been okay in a high school civics class (they still teach civics) during a debate but never the way it was done in the video. He also explained the school district educates in a center/right manner. I thanked him for his frankness with me. And assured him, that he had renewed a faith in me that they were educating correctly.
(Author’s Note: As for the language variations in the class, education must extend beyond the classroom. It is up to the parents to make that their children do homework. It is even necessary for the parents to offer extra help to make certain their children are getting a proper education.
There will be a YouTube response from the Superintendent some time today because he wanted his statement to be more personal)
4th Update:
I guess our calls to the Cumberland County Schools and the superintendent went unheard and unheeded. The “browbeating” teacher is still employed by the school district according to One News Now. Here is that story:
School officials in Fayetteville, North Carolina, have completed their investigation of a teacher following a classroom incident captured on film.
The Independent Women’s Forum says the video shows an elementary school teacher browbeating a student for her support of John McCain in the school’s mock presidential election. (See previous article)
“What do you all know about that war in Iraq? Talk to me because your daddy’s in the military; talk. It’s a senseless war,” the teacher says on the video. “And by the way, Kathy, the person that you are picking for president said that our troops could stay in Iraq for another hundred years if they need to, so that means that your daddy could stay in the military for another hundred years.”
Following outcry and media coverage of the incident, Cumberland County School Superintendent William Harrison launched an investigation. School officials refused to give OneNewsNow any details of the investigation results, citing a law that protects teachers in cases like this. But officials did say that the teacher, Diantha Harris, is still employed as a teacher in the Cumberland County School district.
According to media reports, the school district has received hundreds of phone calls about the incident, and the teacher involved has also received dozens of phone calls at home concerning the video. The Associated Press reported that Harris has said she regrets making the comments and that the student involved, along with her parents, has expressed support for the teacher.
Author’s Note: I find it difficult to believe this teacher is allowed to remain in a classroom where she created a hostile environment for the daughter of a military member. As for the student and parents showing support for the teacher according to the AP, I am not buying that either. I moved my children to different classrooms for less when I was active Navy.
The school district didn’t not do its job and neither did the superintendent in my opinion. They should both be fired for ineptitude and emotional harm to a child.
The Grumpy Old Guy has another Thursday Funny for us all. I thought it was absolutely incredibly hilarious. Let us hope he doesn’t stop doing these videos. Watch and have a good guffaw:
Gosh this guy is just so good! Thanks, Grumpy Old Guy!
Greta reacts to the Palin smears by some unnamed sources in the McCain campaign. And who was giving these rumors airtime, none other than Carl Cameron of Fox News. Greta sticks up for Governor Sarah Palin.
Watch Carl Cameron spreading the rumors. This isn’t reporting at all, this is as bad if not worse than the crap that the National Enquirer prints. Watch:
Now listen to Greta’s response:
I have had all the sexism, And I have had it with the blame game. And I am surprised? In a word. NO! I knew some unnamed source would try to blame the McCain loss on Palin. What did surprise me is that it would be Fox News who is trying to diminish Sarah Palin’s influence in the Republican Party. Since there are no named sources, I will take the report for what it is worth, pure drivel.
As for Carl cameron, why don’t you go work for National Enquirer, that is all your reporting on the McCain campaign deserves.
This is really good, Obama has unpaid campaign workers and they are quite angry. According to an Indiana news outlet, WTHR, “Obama campaign workers angry over unpaid wages”. What’s wrong with this picture? Obama can’t even spare a dime for his fellow man, especially those who worked for him.
More from the story:
Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.
The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.
“I want my money today! It’s my money. I want it right now!” yelled one former campaign worker.
A former spokesman for the Obama campaign said 375 people were hired as part of the Vote Corps program and said people signed up to work three-hour shifts at a time. Three hours of canvassing got workers a $30 pre-paid Visa card.
The workers showed up to get their cards Wednesday morning at 10:00 am.
“There was a note on the door saying 1:00 pm and then at 1:20 pm everybody was like why is nobody here. They just got here and they’re trying to get it organized,” said Heather Richards, a former campaign worker.
Wait! A $30 pre-paid credit card for three hours of work? Why a pre-paid credit card? This method of payment is curious and leaves me suspicious.
Read on:
Eventually people did start getting paid, but some said they were missing hours and told to fill in paperwork making their claim and that eventually they would get a check in the mail.
“Still that’s not right. I’m disappointed. I’m glad for the president, but I’m disappointed in this system,” said Diane Jefferson, temporary campaign worker.
“It should have been $480. It’s $230,” said Imani Sankofa.
“They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90,” said Charles Martin.
“I worked nine hours a day for 4 days and got paid half of what I should have earned,” said Randall Waldon.
Some people weren’t satisfied with filling out a claim form for money they felt was still due to them.
“They say that they gonna call you or they going to mail it to you, but I don’t know. We’ll see what happens,” said Antron Grose.
“Talking about they’ll mail it to us. I ain’t worried about that, man. They’re not going to mail nothin’,” said Martin.
I guess now that Obama is president-elect he finds it below him to share his $650 million dollars with people that worked for him. Wow! How generous! Too bad these people will probably not get the rest of the money. And it is too bad they have no paperwork to show they worked those hours or they could all place complaints with Department of Labor, Wage& Hour Division before Obama becomes president because I am certain no complaints will be settled after that. The new government seems to be tending to business and making sure they are more partisan. God help us all!
I found the following comment in a post at MSNBC covering Pelosi’s backpedaling to let the people who elected Obama as president know that policy predictions are being scaled back already including “comprehensive health care reform”. (The insurance and pharmacy companies have probably lobbied Congress enough to stop Universal Health Care again. Can’t lose those dollars now can they.) Pelosi is letting the electorate down easy. Shut up Pelosi and go away!
Just a suggestion, but I was one of those people who donated money and knocked on hundreds of doors, manned telephone banks, worked every spare minute to elect Barak Obama, and we need to curb job outsourcing. I’m a 61 year old engineers and computer programmer. My last THREE jobs were lost to Indian H1-B workers and I’m sick of it. 90% of new engineering hires are Indian H1-B workers. END THE H1-B and L-1 VISAS IMEDIATELY. Likewise, impose punative taxes on companies and their investors that have outsourced jobs and factories. Get our jobs back and you will soon end this recession. I know, this isn’t what Bill Gates wants, but did he knock on more than 1000 doors, donate 10% of his paycheck, call hundreds of voters, even plug parking meters for campaign workers? Well I did and this is what I want. This, before any bailout, even before an energy plan, is your first job. Do it!
This believer didn’t bother to read what Pelosi said. Then he sends out a fervent request to Obama, please bring our jobs back. Not a chance. As for the worker visas, they won’t end either. Obama favors all types of immigration both legal and illegal, but illegal immigration much more.
I feel some sympathy for the guy but I am not sure it is the Indian workers who are taking his jobs. I think it is ageism…and no Obama can’t and won’t fix it.
By the way the bailout will be Obama’s first act as president but it won’t help jobs. There is really very little that is going to be done about the unemployment rates. Job loss is continue to increase as the recession continues to creep through the economy.
Read more:
That’s not even counting the 200,000 jobs that economists believe employers trimmed last month, according to estimates from Briefing.com. The October jobs report will be released this Friday.
The unemployment rate is expected to climb to 6.3% from 6.1% and match the worst reading of the decade. And economists all seem to agree the worst is yet to come.
At some point next year the unemployment rate is forecast to pass 7%, a level not seen since 1993.
And monthly job losses of 200,000 or more are expected to become the norm, not the exception, as the full impact of the credit crisis is felt more keenly on Main Street.
Economists generally believe there’s little Obama can do to stop more job losses in the short-term, even if he’s able to get a new economic stimulus package passed by the lame-duck Congress and signed into law by President Bush.
“Superman couldn’t change what’s in store for the U.S. economy. It’s going to be ugly,” said Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research.
The government is broke, actually bankrupt, there is no money to create jobs especially if he intends to pay for them with government funds.
Read on:
Andrew Reina, a practice director for the staffing firm Ajilon Finance Solutions, said caution has become the watchword for companies making hiring decisions because of uncertainty about business conditions.
Even if they aren’t cutting jobs, they’re likely leaving more positions open this year and could push back hiring plans for 2009 until later in the year. Reina agrees that President-elect Obama won’t be able to change that outlook in the near term.
“It’s an uphill battle. He’s going to have a lot of work on his hands early on,” he said.
If staffing companies are saying what they have above that will put a hurt on them too. The less positions the less clients. We are already seeing job losses in the aircraft industry in our state. Who knows how many other jobs will go with the losses? More bad news, Circuit City is closing 155 stores nationwide. More jobs lost.
What is Obama to do?
The Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan think tank, issued a study Wednesday that showed 2.5 million jobs could be lost in the next year if GM, Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) and Chrysler were forced by the downturn to shutdown half of their U.S. plants.
“To permit any of the Detroit Three manufacturers to collapse would scar the U.S. economy further at a time when it can ill afford another blow,” said David Cole, CAR’s chairman. “The likelihood of one or two of the Detroit Three manufacturers ending operations is very real.”
But many of those plants could be lost even if government help is made available, especially if auto sales stay weak and credit to car buyers and dealers remain tight.
Along those lines, experts say that worries about the economy, not necessarily policy changes from Obama, will keep employers from adding staff. Even those who expect some kind of stimulus plan getting past Congress say more job losses are already certain.
“I think businesses are going to do what they’re going to do, regardless of government policy, at least over the next six months,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, who forecasts job losses between 150,000 and 200,000 a month over the next six months.
The economy will more than likely not show real recovery from the recession until 2010 at some point. Some economists think that Obama and the Democrats will not take an anti-business atmosphere. I think they are taking some good drugs. This is the one area that will suffer. Obama has to keep at least one promise since he has already started breaking them.
More:
But Vitner said there is relatively little that either Obama or the current Bush administration will be able to do to get banks and Wall Street firms lending again, despite talk about pushing financial institutions to use the $700 billion in federal help to start making loans.
“Banks will continue to tighten until we see an improvement in credit quality. That’s 18 months to two years away,” Vitner said. “The credit cycle has to play out. You can’t legislate lending.”
And that is the truth. The banks will not lend no matter what the feds tell them to do. I know the banks in my state refused to take any bailout money because they don’t need to. They are still lending money because they have made wise decisions that haven’t put them in dire straits.
It was originally expected that unemployment rates for October would be 6.3%, unfortunately they are slightly higher. The total numbers of jobs lost were higher than predicted. They predicted a net loss of 200,000 jobs when the numbers were significantly higher. The number is 240,000. I believe this is the beginning of a bad trend.
While leading economists think that jobs will only be lost a rate of 150,000 to 200,000 per month, I believe the numbers will increase to at least $250,000+ jobs each month. I firmly believe we will see unemployment rates climb to 8.5%, which is more than 2% lower than the high of 10.8% under Reagan but still a very significant number.
This story appeared at MSNBC today under the title, “Employers slashed 240,000 jobs in October” and certainly is proof we are in a recession.
More from that story:
The new snapshot, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed the crucial jobs market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.
The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the rate in March 1994.
Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen after the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.
October’s decline marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions, and government revisions showed that job losses in August and September turned out to be much deeper. Employers cut 127,000 positions in August, compared with 73,000 previously reported. A whopping 284,000 jobs were axed in September, compared with the 159,000 jobs first reported.
So far this year, a staggering 1.2 million jobs have disappeared. Over half of the decrease occurred in the past three months alone.
Apparently nothing the government has done this year has stopped the bleeding of the jobs in the US economy. The question remains will the bailout or another economic stimulus package stop this bleeding? I don’t think it will. Another economic stimulus bill which Bush has promised to veto isn’t going to have enough affect. The money will most likely be spent catching up on bills and not on retail purchases.
I didn’t think I could possibly feel anymore sadness than I have until I watched this video. America is dead. Our Freedom of Speech is gone. We are nearing a police state I am afraid to say.
Watch and let me know what you think.
Not only has democracy died but our right to show our support for someone like McCain/Palin is removed as well. Are we supposed to kiss The One’s feet now? Are we supposed to worship at his altar?
I will do neither. I remain steadfast in my fight to watch and report on the missteps and egregious behavior towards those who dare to speak out.
I was searching new blogs today when I received a comment from Thoughtbeast which made me visit the blog. I found two very interesting videos and conversations between media people. Hat tip to Thoughtbeast.
The following post is cross posted from Thoughtbeast:
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas was on PBS’s Charlie Rose show commenting about Presidential-elect Barack Obama on election night. Just listen to this clip posted on YouTube. It’s from the Rush Limbaugh radio show. Rush played the comments made by Evan Thomas and gave his own patented opinion. What was said by Mr. Thomas about Obama gives me the creeps thinking about it.
Now please tell me, why are the media types now questioning Obama? It’s too late now folks! Tom Brokaw was on the Charlie Rose show days before the election admitting he doesn’t really know who Barack Obama is and anything about the people advising him!
A little late guys. You were supposed to have vetted him two years ago. Why didn’t they do their job? Why weren’t the tough questions asked? What were the media types afraid of, being called racists? And I no longer have any respect for any newspaper, magazine or TV news outlet, even Fox News has moved over to the other side. Journalism in its purest sense died this year.
“Sen. John Kerry is actively seeking appointment as secretary of state in the Obama administration, according to Democratic Party sources who spoke to The Associated Press” was found in the following story today, “Kerry Seeking Appointment As Secretary Of State”.
Well this headline tells me one thing Kerry didn’t get any promises from Obama before he put his foolish supprt behind him. Do I feel sorry for Kerry? Absolutely not! He is now beginning to appear hallucinegic or just plain desperate.
From the article:
Sen. John Kerry is actively seeking appointment as secretary of state in the Obama administration, according to Democratic Party sources who spoke to The Associated Press.
Kerry has refused to rule out the possibility that he might give up his Senate seat for a position in the Obama administration.
After his re-election Tuesday night, he also broadened his definition of service to Massachusetts, suggesting he could provide it whether he was one of the state’s U.S. senators or held some other post under President-elect Barack Obama.
“I have no job I’m looking for in the Cabinet at this point in time,” Kerry told WCVB-TV just moments after he delivered his victory speech. “If the president talks to me, I’ll listen to him and talk to him, but there’s very little I would leave the U.S. Senate for.”
Asked specifically about secretary of state, a position mentioned because of Kerry’s interest in foreign affairs, the senator replied, “Well, I’d talk to the president if he called me and asked me about it. But I never heard anything. It’s speculation.”
He added: “What I’ve been clear about is that I’m going to fight for Massachusetts. Whatever I, you know, do, I will do with the interests of Massachusetts and our country in mind, but I will continue to serve as thoughtfully as I can.”
Kerry triggered speculation about his interest in serving as secretary of state earlier this year, when he began defending Obama on foreign policy questions, both in interviews and op-ed pieces, and invited former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a meeting at his vacation home on Nantucket.
Wah! is all I can say. Kerry should have got it in writing because The One keeps no promises. He broke his first promise by hiring Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. Kerry has been stiffed.
Hermes Diary over at Red State has a very detailed article on Emanuel and it is very telling. Emanuel has a great deal of baggage and may not be very loyal.
Here are excerpts from the diary:
Given the general mood of concern paired with optimism for the future, I felt that it would be productive – and possibly morale boosting – to start assembling our hit list for January when His Holiness, the President-Elect formally assumes office. Doing those of us on the Right a fairly big favor (not to mention every other anti-holiness voter), the President-Elect has named Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his new Chief of Staff.
… Mr. Emanuel then left the US for a time to volunteer as a non-frontline member of a foreign nation’s military, the Israel Defense Forces, during the 1991 Iraq War. Subsequently, Mr. Emanuel became President Clinton’s top fundraising man, well-known for using verbal and physical threats to extort money from donors. Indeed, the 1996 election season seemed to have shown Mr. Emanuel in full-form: shortly after President Clinton’s election, when considering a list of the President’s potential new enemies, Emanuel reportedly erupted with rage and began stabbing a knife into a table while screaming out the names of Clinton’s enemies followed by, “Dead! Dead! Dead!” (Welcome to the thugocracy.)
… Mr. Emanuel seems to enjoy the frequent political battles that he enters (note Ms. Bendavid’s use of the term “political assassin” to describe Emanuel), he does not always back the winning side, having seen defeat and some measure of disgrace over the Mark Foley and Tim Mahoney affairs. Despite this, Mr. Emanuel is a come-out-swinging kind of guy who is definitely more frothing at the mouth bite than bark. This is Obama’s choice for GOP basher-in-chief and will be our toughest opponent over the next few years.
Emanuel has his weaknesses too. Hermes discusses these. He explains that these weaknesses must be used against The One and Emanuel:
1. He is a DLC centrist and a Clintonista. He is not beloved by the Nutroots and the Far Left (Obama’s natural constituents). Forcing him, and Obama, into scuffles between centrist and left positions will weaken Emanuel considerably because he will be forced to either abandon his principles (such as they are) or take an unpopular centrist position.
2. He still lacks a solid record in national politics. Despite his experience with the DLC, the Clinton White House and the DCCC, Emanuel is still only a three/four term Congressman whose real roots are in Chicago’s Daly machine. Although he has proved very adept at political infighting, he is still not a household name and is not widely respected by most of America. We can definitely use that against him in his early months on the White House staff.
3. Mr. Emanuel has ties to investment banking and reckless Wall Street moves. Additionally, he is, essentially, a limousine liberal, only too happy to raise taxes, spend prolific amounts of money on his pet projects, and promise more and more to his constituents while sipping dry martinis at high-powered lunches. This is not a “man of the people” type of guy, but rather another Ivy League, Wall Street elitist. He should fit right in with the Obama crowd in that respect, although this image is still a weapon that can be used against him.
4. Emanuel has a LOT of enemies. He makes Tony Soprano look like a Girl Scout. This is a true, frothing at the mouth attack dog who has no care whatsoever for burning bridges. Cross him and you wind up with a dead fish in your mailbox. This character trait makes him feared, not loved. While certainly successful from a Machiavellian standpoint, even his own allies think he’s a real “toothache.” Working with those whom Mr. Emanuel has burned in the past may help to bring him down.
5. Emanuel is a temperamental guy. Or, less politely, Mr. Emanuel is a raving, bullying, dangerous psychopath who is in no way averse to using verbal and physical intimidation to get what he wants. This is not the kind of guy who will back down when confronted; his ego is too big. Played the proper way, his temper will certainly work against him. The key is to draw him into a confrontation, get him mad, then let the true “Rhambo” shine through in front of the cameras. In other words, give this lunatic enough rope in public and he will hang himself.
6. Although Mr. Emanuel has prided himself on his deep connection to his religion and culture, his behavior is at variance with that image. Although a practicing modern Orthodox Jew (like Joseph Lieberman), Mr. Emanuel’s seemingly endless stream of profanity, including the taking of the name of God in vain, violates quite a few of the mitzvots. In fact, following the Sefer Hamitzvot, Mr. Emanuel regularly violates the 6th and 7th mitzvots. Specifically, his profane use of God’s name is a Chillul Hashem, or a desecration of God. This is not only supported by biblical reference (Leviticus 22:32), but also by other Jewish sources: Maimonides, the author of the Sefer Hamitzvot, Rabbi Joseph Telushin’s Jewish Wisdom (page 316, “[It] is forbidden to use “God” to justify selfish and/or evil causes.”), and Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm’s To Be a Jew (Introduction, pages 52-55). Mr. Emanuel’s penchant for bearing grudges and taking revenge on his past opponents are also violations of halakha, mitzvots 20 and 21 under the Sefer Hamitvot and Lamm, pages 52-55. So, while none of us is as pure as the driven snow, so to speak, Mr. Emanuel’s profligate vulgarity, Mafioso tactics, and lust for revenge mark him out as somewhat less devout than the image he has projected. This is also quite at variance with the image that the President-Elect has projected.
7. Emanuel was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal.
President-elect Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot “red flags,” according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.
The One is really just as bad as any other DC insider. The Chicago Tribune has some great statement about The One:
It took only 36 hours for President-elect Barack Obama to take the off ramp from the Change We Can Believe In Highway and slam his foot on the gas in the express lanes of the Chicago Way. (Emphasis is mine.)
Because with his first official act, Obama selected a Chicago Daley machine guy for his chief of staff, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Tomczak).
So much for transcending politics as we know it, eh?
And there is more:
Among Chicago politicians, the Emanuel announcement was treated with enthusiasm. But it was enthusiasm of the political salivary gland at the prospect of federal pork and leverage.
“It’s a gain,” said Mayor Richard Daley, speculating on all the contracts he would be able to give with new federal money. “It’s a real gain, gain, gain,” he said, repeating the word as if in prayer.
Chicago may have a history of corruption, but our politicians are realists. They’re not fools. And Emanuel, though he has many critics, is no fool.
From Washington, however, you could hear that giant sucking sound as the Washington media praised Emanuel, as if the appointment was testament to change. There was so much sucking up, they may have created an El Niño effect that will plague our planet for years.
Some of the sucking up is understandable because their currency is access and, as chief of staff, Emanuel will be gatekeeper to the president. But the least they could have done was rate themselves NC-17. And they could have acknowledged what they were doing, which was praising him to their readers and viewers in hopes of maintaining or guaranteeing that access.
Yes. So much for change. There will be change but heading to Chicago, very little to the rest of the country. The corrupt politics of Chicago now owns the White House, with the two biggest criminals occupying it come January.
The One was showing his ignorance and rudeness when he performed his little act on national television. The worst part he tried to cover it up with another lame joke, “I did talk to all the living former presidents” (or something to that effect.). It wasn’t funny and neither was the following joke.
Watch:
It was not only rude, not funny but vulgar. I am sad at heart that this man is president elect (hewas vulgar by making that joke about Mrs. Reagan). My heart goes out to Former First Lady Nancy Reagan and the entire United States of America.
Another blatantly biased new outlet decides to admit they were in the tank for Obama. Yes The Washington Post admits their malfeasance.That is certainly hard to believe! Not! Do they expect that admitting their utter disregard for journalism this year is forgivable?
Here are the numbers and they stink:
The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts’ views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues.
… The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32), and Obama got the editorial board’s endorsement. The Post has several conservative columnists, but not all were gung-ho about McCain.
Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted to McCain. Post reporters, photographers and editors — like most of the national news media — found the candidacy of Obama, the first African American major-party nominee, more newsworthy and historic. Journalists love the new; McCain, 25 years older than Obama, was already well known and had more scars from his longer career in politics. (Author’s Note:Absolute bias. They may have run lots of pictures, etc. about The One but they didn’t do any real vetting of him. The Post did nothing to find out anything about who this guy is.)
… The Post’s biographical pieces, especially the first ones — McCain by Michael Leahy and Obama by David Maraniss — were compelling. Maraniss demystified Obama’s growing-up years; the piece on his mother and grandparents was a great read. Leahy’s first piece on McCain’s father and grandfather, both admirals, told me where McCain got his maverick ways as a kid — right from the two old men.
But Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama’s acknowledged drug use as a teenager.
… One gaping hole in coverage involved Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate. When Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated for vice president, reporters were booking the next flight to Alaska. Some readers thought The Post went over Palin with a fine-tooth comb and neglected Biden. They are right; it was a serious omission. However, I do not agree with those readers who thought The Post did only hatchet jobs on her. (Author’s Note: As far as I can remember I only saw hatchet jobs on Palin. I know this to be a fact because the Post is in my e-mail bov every day.)
The Post didn’t even bother to vet Biden. They admit to not looking into Obama’s background, especially his drug use. They mainly did hit jobs on Palin. The coverage of McCain was slack, when it wasn’t slack it was a hit job on him mainly for choosing Palin as his Vice Presidential Candidate.
None of this matters now because the Post didn’t do its job. I doubt it would know good journalism if it hit their front page. Of course that isn’t likely either. The Post doesn’t deserve a pass. They are as bad if not worse than the New York Times.
This is truly hard to believe some McCain staffers are actually coming to Gov. Palin’s defense. It is more than past time for that. Is their defense sincere? I’m not certain because there are staffers like Steve Schmidt who haven’t said one word. Is this acceptable? No.
Foreign policy guru Steve Biegun and spokesman Tracy Schmitt — among others — are speaking out in her defense:
That she remains a player and may be the party’s nominee in four years would make it smart politics for Republican staffers to praise her in print. But those who went on the record suggest that they were doing so out of genuine affection for Palin and a sense that the image of her coming out of the election – that of a self-absorbed conniver — was not indicative of the person they knew.
“I’m appalled by it because Sarah Palin was one of nicest people I have ever had the chance to work with,” says Biegun, a former Bush NSC aide. “I’ve worked in Washington for 20 years, on the Hill, in the White House and in the private sector, and she ranks at the highest levels of decency, kindness and graciousness of anybody I’ve ever worked with.”…
“Gov. Palin was a breath of fresh air, particularly for those of us who’ve been living in the Washington bubble,” said Tracey Schmitt, the vice presidential nominee’s traveling spokeswoman and a veteran of the RNC and both Bush campaigns. “Because she is a working mom, she brought a real sense of perspective to the campaign trail, which was important.”…
Two other McCain aides who were pressed unexpectedly into Palin duty also have only positive things to say about her now
“One of the great developments of this campaign is the addition of Sarah Palin as a powerful and energetic new voice in American public life,” said Taylor Griffin, a McCain press aide who had been focusing on economic issues until he was dispatched to Alaska in late August. “She’s smart, insightful, and has an uncanny ability to ask the right questions.”
And this exactly what I expected to hear about Sarah Palin. I believe she is an extremely intelligent woman. The thing that makes react negatively to her is the way she speaks. Ok! She speaks like a westerner with a little midwest thrown, but that is what makes her so likeable. Sarah Palin is like you and me even though her stances on certain things are different then ours.
I could care less if Sarah Palin makes a grammatical error here or there because it drove me nuts when my own sister use to harass me for the same thing. It is this lack of perfection that makes her who she is. It makes her real.
Frankly I am tired of the elitist Ivy League mouthpieces. They have been so blatantly biased this election year, that I wish they would shut up. I wish they would climb back under whatever rock they crawled out from under…their Palin Derangement Syndrome is way over the top.
Then there is the latest BS about Sarah Palin. According to the Telegraph the Secret Service said Palin caused an increase in death threats against Obama. BS! I really don’t believe that the US Secret Service would ever release this kind of a statement. And if an agent did then he/she better be fired! Just more crap from the elitist written media. UGH!
The elite media types and faceless, nameless GOPers who want to bash Sarah until she can no longer hold sway in the Republican Party are uncomfortable in their own skins. (Update: Carl Cameron of Fox News was outfoxed and scammed by a hoaxer, “M. Thomas Eisenstadt”.. And there is Greta: Greta on the Palin smears: Carl Cameron told me, “I messed up on this one”. And I honestly believe that she did nothing to fix the situation either.)
Sarah knows who she is. She is self-assured but not self centered. She is compassionate and very empathetic, something the elitists know nothing about. if you ask me these types of people need to go spend sometime on the shrink’s couch.
My choice for 2012 is Palin…..I hope she fulfills her promise. Palin will shatter that glass ceiling.
Newt Gingrich makes a point about the government and its ineptness. He has a suggestion for tracking all the illegal immigrants in this country. He suggests using FedEx to find them since the government can’t. (We know where some of them they reside in sanctuary cities on the West Coast, like San Francisco.)
Contributors wanted for upcoming anthology Forever Changed: Tales from the Campaign Trail, edited by Lynette Long and Joan Lipkin.
The 2008 presidential race and resulting election of Barack Obama galvanized a nation and changed the lives of those who were involved. It is essential that our stories be told, especially since many of them were overlooked or misrepresented in the mainstream media.
Please consider submitting a piece about your experiences or perceptions. The book will most likely be organized in a time sequenced fashion -starting with Hillary’s announcement of her candidacy to the coronation of Barack Obama. To avoid replication and to help create a viable framework for the book, we propose picking one or more of the suggested topics. These suggestions are not meant to be literal titles or topics but rather used as a guide to help stimulate your creativity and thinking. Several pieces may be published under each topic. Some topics may be eliminated and additional topics may be added based on the response. The idea of the book is to present an overview of Hillary’s candidacy through the hearts and minds of the people impacted by her campaign.
Suggested topics:
* The Announcement of Hillary’s Run for the Presidency
* Hillary
* The Oprah Effect
* The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants Suit
* The Kennedy’s
* CNN and MSNBC
* Iowa Caucus
* Mainstream Media Bias
* The Great Debates
* Sexism, Racism, Ageism
* Blogs and Blogging
* What It Was Like to Be on the Campaign Trail
* Effects on Friendships Old and/or New
* New Political Alliances
* Traveling the Country
* Caucus Fraud
* We Will Not Be Silenced
* Women Count PAC
* The Rules and By Laws Committee Meeting
* Delegates and Super Delegates
* On Being a Puma
* The Rise of New Feminism
* Family Discord Regarding the Election
* Just Say No Deal
* The Why of Anonymous and Pseudonyms
* Money, Money, Money
* The Electability Watch
* Letter Writing Campaigns
* Hillary Clinton for Vice President
* The Nomination of Sarah Palin
* The Denver Group
* The 300 Delegate Project
* The Denver Convention
* Switching from Clinton to McCain
* Switching from Clinton to Obama
* Principle over Party
* The New Agenda
* Real Democrats
* The Coronation of Obama
In addition to original essays, we will look for the best of the blogosphere to add to the collection. If you have written something on a blog or seen something on a blog, that you think is exceptional, please forward us a link.
For essays, word count should be between 1000 and 4000 words. Shorter pieces, anecdotes and poems to bridge various sections will also be considered.
All contributors are required to include one paragraph which explains your involvement in this year’s historic campaign. Maybe you were a blogger, a fundraiser, an armchair observer, or someone who volunteered at the polls. It will help readers put your piece in perspective and understand you better. In addition, please submit a separate 100 word bio suitable for publication.
All submitted essays will be considered for publication but publication is not guaranteed. Remuneration will be one copy of the book. After publication, copyrights will revert back to contributors.
We’d like to get the book out as quickly as possible to capitalize on the energy related to this historic election. We are contacting publishers as we speak. Therefore, deadline for submissions are December 20, 2008. You may submit more than one essay although we are likely to only select one by each person to get the broadest view points.
Please send manuscripts to both Drlynettelong@gmail.com and JoanForeverChanged@aol.com. Include your name, email address, mailing address and phone number. In order to increase the credibility of the product, all articles must be written in the author’s own name. No blog names will be accepted. All documents should be sent as word attachments with numbered papers, in Ariel font and 12 point type.
Thank you for considering participating in this important project. The election may be over but its documentation is crucial as we go forward into a more progressive future. We look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. Open your hearts, tell us how you feel, how you have changed.
I thought I had heard it all until I read this bullshit piece from the Topeka (KS) Capitol-Journal. Yeah! That’s right, they want a national holiday for The One. I think this makes me want to throw up. It is just another reason for the koolaid swillers not work or to hold business in the Kansas capitol.
You will never believe this. Got to read it for yourself.
Plans are being made to promote a national holiday for Barack Obama, who will become the nation’s 44th president when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20.
“Yes We Can” planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald’s restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13. The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama’s honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809.
At 7:30 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Obama Cake will be served at the downtown McDonald’s, and a celebration is scheduled for 8 p.m. to midnight Jan. 20 at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center, 420 S.E. 6th.
For more information, contact Sonny Scroggins, (785) 232-3761, 845-6148 or at biasbustersofkansas@yahoo.com; Lamont Lassiter, McDonald’s general manager, 608-2739; Ava Chander-Beard, (785) 234-9138, ava.beard@sbcglobal.net; or Rhoda Carr, (785) 220-5883.
Please write and or call these people and let them know what you really think. And while you are at contact McDonald’s Corporate offices and the Ramada Hotel corporate offices. Register your complaint.
Do not allow this to happen.
Two more banks have been grabbed and closed for the time being. If you have money in either of these banks keep us informed of your experience. Here is the story on those two banks:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.
The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp. (FBTX) (FBTX), Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.
The bank’s failure is a bitter irony because it is the mortgage securitization business of which Ranieri is known as a pioneer – the repackaging of home loans as bonds that are sold to investors – that was at the heart of the mortgage and credit crises. Last spring, the audit committee of the company’s board found in an investigation certain weaknesses in accounting, disclosure and other issues relating to residential real estate loans.
Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank’s capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks’ progress.
The FDIC said all of Franklin Bank’s deposits will be assumed by Prosperity Bank of El Campo, Texas. Its 46 offices will reopen as branches of Prosperity Bank with their normal business hours, including those that open on Saturday. In addition to assuming Franklin Bank’s deposits, Prosperity Bank also will acquire about $850 million of the failed bank’s assets.
Parent company Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank’s capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks’ progress.
Meanwhile, all of Security Pacific’s deposits will be assumed by Pacific Western Bank of Los Angeles. Its four offices will reopen Monday as branches of Pacific Western, a unit of PacWest Bancorp. (PACW) (PACW) In addition, Pacific Western will purchase around $51.8 million of Security Pacific’s assets.
The FDIC will retain the remaining assets of the two banks for eventual sale.
The agency said depositors of Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank will continue to have full access to their deposits, which will continue to be insured by the FDIC.
The FDIC estimated that the resolution of Franklin Bank will cost the federal deposit insurance fund between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, while that of Security Pacific Bank will cost the fund $210 million.
Regular deposit accounts are now insured up to $250,000 as part of the new financial rescue law enacted in early October. The limit on individual retirement accounts held in banks remains at $250,000.
This brings the number of banks seized by the government to a total of 19 this year alone. This compares to only 3 banks seized in 2007. This is just a foreshadowing of things to come despite the $700 billion dollar bailout.
More from the story:
The failures this year include that of Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. in late September, the biggest bank collapse in history. It had $307 billion in assets. In July another big savings and loan, IndyMac Bank based in Pasadena, Calif., failed and was seized by regulators with about $32 billion in assets.
The FDIC estimates that through 2013 there will be about $40 billion in losses to the deposit insurance fund, including an $8.9 billion loss from the failure of IndyMac Bank. The FDIC is raising insurance premiums paid by banks and thrifts to replenish its fund, which now stands at around $45.2 billion, below the minimum target level set by Congress and the lowest level since 2003.
In addition, the FDIC may guarantee nearly $2 trillion in U.S. banks’ debt and deposit accounts in an effort to break the crippling logjam in bank-to-bank lending.
Well over half of the roughly 8,500 federally-insured banks and savings and loans are expected to tap the FDIC’s temporary guarantees. The agency will provide as much as $1.4 trillion in insurance for more than three years for loans between banks, guaranteeing the new debt in the event the issuing bank fails or its holding company files for bankruptcy.
Of the 8,500 FDIC-insured banks, 117 were considered to be in trouble in the second quarter – the highest level in about five years and up from 90 in the first quarter. The agency doesn’t disclose the banks’ names. (Author’s Notes: The Feds may not disclose the names of the banks, but I am certain we will know them soon enough!)
As I said above despite the bailout to banks, the credit pinch is being felt not just in banks but in households. Credit Limits are being reduced. Interest rates are climbing. And there seems to be no end in sight.
For more information and assistance:
Franklin Bank customers seeking more information can contact the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-591-2845. Security Pacific Bank customers can call 1-866-934-8944.
Dean stepping down is both good news and bad news. Dean made it his singular effort to oust Hillary Clinton as the legitimate Democratic Party candidate. Instead his biased vision was all too apparent. As a result we are now stuck with a Socialist leaning president elect who ran a centrist campaign which will not play out. The president elect owes too many on the left favors. For this Dean can never be forgiven.
In my mind as well as many others, Dean will remembered for the year he brought to national stage an un-Democratic Party. A party that left so many of us behind. He will be remembered as the catalyst that helped form grassroots organizations like the Party Unity My A$$ movement as well as others like Just Say No Deal, The Denver Group and Wake Up America. Dean and the Deaniacs spawned many grassroots movements who will ultimately attempt to change the un-Democratic Party.
The grassroots movements have four years to effectively change the party back to the party of the people. If this is indeed their ultimate goal in the next four years they will have to make inroads in the party itself. They will find it necessary to get their names known and membership on the party’s platform. I have no idea if they will be able to accomplish their goals because now the president elect is the titular head of the party.
Since the president elect is the titular head of the party the move to the left is almost complete moving away from the center. The move left will be complete when the president elect gets to name the new DNC chair. There are many candidates I am certain but one in particular makes me nervous, Leah Daughtry.
The only way to recover the Democratic Party is to hope some of the power brokers like Lynn de Rothschild attempt a coup. Her roots are truly those of our father’s and mother’s Democratic Party. I have no idea if she is interested in doing this but it would be a wise choice. Do I think the president elect would allow her to take up the reins of the Democratic Party? No. He seeks revenge on people who don’t agree with his vision.
I don’t really don’t think that the un-Democratic Party is fixable because the president elect is the titular head. The party is now aligned with his Chicago political gang led by Daley. It even resides in the corrupt political capitol of the USA. And this is probably the thing that makes me the saddest. As long as the un-Democratic Party resides in Chicago there is very little chance that it can be saved. I believe the president elect owes too many favors in Chicago. The way he will pay back favors is to make sure the party is loaded with the corrupt politicians in Chicago.
For me and many others there will never be a return to the un-Democratic Party. We will make it our goal to defeat the president elect in 2012. This will be our retribution for giving us an untested, inexperienced and corrupt president elect. Let us not forget the midterm elections when we will attempt to change the landscape of a very unpopular Congress. For Pelosi, Reid and so many others, what goes around comes around.
This piece is dedicated to all the men and women living or dead that served our country honorably. Their memories live on this day, November 11th. I for one have to thank all of them. Although it is generally celebrated for those who served in war, it is recognition for all veterans, in my opinion.
Some states observe the holiday on November 11 and others on the fourth Monday of October. Armistice Day, the forerunner of Veterans Day, was proclaimed in 1919 to commemorate the termination (at 11 am on Nov. 11, 1918) of World War I. On the first anniversary of the truce, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation eulogizing fallen Allied soldiers and referring to November 11 as Armistice Day. It became a holiday in the U.S., France, Great Britain and Canada.
The holiday acquired its present name and broadened significance in the U.S. in 1954. In Canada it is known as Remembrance Day, and in Great Britain, as Remembrance Sunday.
Veteran’s Day Facts:
The number of military veterans in the United States in 2007 is 23.6 million.
Female Veterans
There are 1.8 million female veterans as of 2007.
16 percent of Gulf War veterans in 2007 who were women.
Race and Hispanic Origin
The number of black veterans as of 2007 is 2.4 million. Additionally, 1.1 million veterans were Hispanic; 278,000 were Asian; 165,000 were American Indian or Alaska Native; 27,000 were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and 18.7 million were non-Hispanic white. (The numbers for blacks, Asians, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, and non-Hispanic whites cover only those reporting a single race.)
When They Served
There are 9.3 million veterans 65 and older in 2007. At the other end of the age spectrum, 1.9 million were younger than 35.
The number of Vietnam-era veterans as of 2007 is 7.9 million. Thirty-three percent of all living veterans served during this time (1964-1975). In addition, 5 million served during the Gulf War (representing service from Aug. 2, 1990, to present); 2.9 million in World War II (1941-1945); 3 million in the Korean War (1950-1953); and 6.1 million in peacetime.
As of 2007, there are 358,000 living veterans who served during both the Vietnam and Gulf War eras. Other living veterans in 2007 who served during two or more wars:
– 315,000 served during both the Korean and Vietnam wars.
– 69,000 served during three periods: World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
– 263,000 served during World War II and the Korean War.
Where They Live
There are five states with 1 million or more veterans in 2007. These states are California (2.1 million), Florida (1.7 million), Texas (1.7 million),New York (1.1 million) and Pennsylvania (1.1 million).
Education
25 percent of veterans 25 and older with at least a bachelors degree in 2007.
90 percent of veterans 25 and older with a high school diploma or higher in 2007.
Income and Poverty
The annual median income of veterans, in 2007 inflation-adjusted dollars, is $36,053.
The percentage of veterans living in poverty, as of 2007, is 5.7 percent. The corresponding rate for non-veterans was 12 percent.
On the Job
There is 10.7 million veterans 18 to 64 in the labor force in 2007.
Earnings for women veterans, higher than the $27,272 for women civilians with no military experience is $32,217.
Earnings for male veterans, higher than the $39,880 for non-veterans, is $42,128.
Women veterans were more likely to work 35 or more hours per week (84.3 percent vs. 77.6 percent), to work at least 50 weeks per year (73.1 percent vs. 71.6 percent) and to work in public administration (16 percent vs. 4.8 percent) than non-veterans.
Disabilities
There are six million veterans with a disability.
Voting
The number of veterans who voted in the 2004 presidential election was 17.4 million. Seventy-four percent of veterans cast a ballot, compared with 63 percent of non-veterans.
14 million veterans voted in the 2006 congressional election. Sixty-one percent of veterans cast a ballot, compared with 46 percent of non-veterans.
Business Owners
14.5 percent of owners of firms responding to the 2002 Survey of Business Owners who were veterans. Veteran business owners comprised an estimated 3 million of the 20.5 million owners represented by survey respondents.
68 percent of veteran owners of respondent firms who were 55 and older. This compares with 31 percent of all owners of respondent firms. Similarly, in 2002, 55 percent of veteran-owned respondent firms with employees reported that their businesses were originally established, purchased or acquired before 1990, compared with 36 percent of all employer respondent firms.
Seven percent of veteran business owners of respondent firms who were disabled as the result of injury incurred or aggravated during active military service.
Benefits
The number of veterans who received compensation for service-connected disabilities as of 2006 is 2.7 million. Their compensation totaled $28.2 billion.
The total amount of federal government spending for veterans benefits programs in fiscal year 2006 is $72.8 billion. Of this total, $34.6 billion went to compensation and pensions, $33.7 billion for medical programs and the remainder to other programs, such as vocational rehabilitation and education.
History of Veteran’s Day Parades:
In 1953, Emporia was the site of the first Veterans Day observance in the United States. At the urging of local shoe cobbler Alvin J. King, U.S. Representative Edward Rees introduced legislation in The United States Congress to rename Armistice Day as Veterans Day. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on October 8, 1954.
If you have the distinction and opportunity to meet a veteran today, thank them for their service. Then thank them for keeping our great country safe from greater harm. And thank them for protecting our flag. And always keep the men and women who are serving today in your thoughts because they are the veterans of tomorrow.
As we all know by now MSNBC is still in the tank for the president elect. Chris Matthews has made no bones about the fact he intends to make sure Obama’s presidency is going to be a success. We pretty much remember that he once said Obama gives him a tingle up his leg. And there were so many really utterly ridiculous comments, too numerous to mention.
It seems Chris Matthews has topped all his other nonsense with the following fact, he doesn’t know that Africa is a continent. Here is the story on that from News Busters:
What’s gotten into the NBC/MSNBC water? Chris Matthews’s verbal miscue on this evening’s Hardball makes a triple-header of gaffes on the family of networks today. As we’ve noted, Joe Scarborough kicked off the slip parade, unintentionally dropping an f-bomb on Morning Joe. About an hour later on Today, Meredith Vieira stumbled into asking Matt Lauer a question that invoked the uncomfortable subject of his rocky marital history. And now, discussing Sarah Palin’s political future, Matthews committed the same stumble that an unscrupulous staffer claims the vice-presidential candidate made: calling Africa a country. [H/t anonymous reader.]
Matthews made his mistake in the course of posing a question to Larry Persily, a former member of Palin’s gubernatorial staff.
Now I have heard it all. Matthews really needs re-education in journalism. He really is a total idiot in my book. MSNBC should have canned Matthews a long time ago.
There has been an overwhelming concern about the president elect’s new national service corp especially since he will exempt nobody including veterans who have given so much already. There are so many questions swirling around. Here are some of those questions: Will I have to give 100 hours just so I can get my social security check? Will I have to do time to get my veterans compensation? Will this involve reeducation in training camps? And these are just three that I have heard in the last week.
Well it seems the folks that didn’t vote for Obama aren’t the only ones asking questions. It seems one very brave man, Rep Paul Broun (R-GA) has spoken the words out loud. Here is what he had to say:
A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.
“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force,” Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”
Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.
The military is not allowed to take any direct action within the borders of the USA involving any kind of security unless it is approved by the Constitution or Congress. In most cases it is expressly forbidden under Posse Comitatus Act (PCA). More on that act:
The primary restriction on military participation in civilian law enforcement activities is the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA).10 The PCA prohibits the use of the Army and Air Force to execute the domestic laws of the United States except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The PCA has been further applied to the Navy and Marine Corps by legislative and administrative supplements. For example, 10 U.S.C. §375, directs the Secretary of Defense to promulgate regulations forbidding the direct participation “by a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity” during support activities to civilian law enforcement agencies.
With this in mind one has to ask the following question, what does Obama intend to use this security force for?
More from the AP:
… “That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”
Obama’s comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation’s foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps “to renew our diplomacy.”
“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said in July. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.
Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he’ll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.
“We can’t be lulled into complacency,” Broun said. “You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.”
I believe Broun is warning the US of things to come. He is asking us to keep our eyes open and act when needed. Don’t be complacent as he says, let your elected officials know what you really think. Rep Broun is leading by speaking out. And we should be listening.
Team Sarah is awesome. They are forthright in their support of Governor Sarah Palin. And while you are at it visit Team Sarah. Watch the video:
It is past time to stop the smears. I believe the reason these unnamed former McCain supporters are smearing her is because they don’t want her changing the landscape of the Republican Party. Without Palin the Republican Party will continue to lose.
One other question, why hasn’t McCain spoke up in her defense? I am wholly disappointed in his non-response.
Sarah is just fantastic in this post election interview. Greta is wonderful in her part as interviewer, accept she needs to leave the clothes issue alone. It was a bad issue and Greta is only making worse.
According to Yahoo News, the AP has the following story, “Citigroup to help at-risk borrowers stay in homes” and this applies to those who are current Citigroup customers as well as those who aren’t currently customers.
From AP:
Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes — making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.
Citi said late Monday it won’t initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower who seeks to stay in a home if it is the borrower’s principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citi and has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.
Citi said it is also working to expand the program to include mortgages the bank services but does not own.
This is truly excellent news for at-risk borrowers who have enough income to make payments. The best of this action it isn’t government backed. No taxpayer dollars….just a company doing the right thing.
More from the article:
Additionally, over the next six months, Citi plans to reach out to 500,000 homeowners who are not currently behind on their mortgage payments, but who are deemed as potentially needing assistance to keep current with their payments. This represents about one-third of all the mortgages that Citigroup owns, the bank said.
Citi plans to devote a team of 600 salespeople to assist the targeted borrowers by adjusting their rates, reducing principal, or increasing the term of the loan, steps known in the mortgage industry as a workout.
Of the four biggest U.S. banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. — Citi has been on the shakiest footing as a result of the mortgage crisis, reporting losses in the past four consecutive quarters while its rivals have managed to post profits. The steps announced Monday are designed to stem those losses.
I don’t see any of these other banks helping homeowners. The companies must be willing to do the right thing.
More:
Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage, said, “It is in our interest that borrowers stay in their homes and actually make the payments.”
Citi is targeting homeowners in geographic areas with higher-than-average unemployment and foreclosure rates, primarily in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, Das said. The program is expected to affect about $20 billion in mortgages.
“As the unemployment rate is starting to creep up on us, there is going to be increasing distress in the marketplace,” Das said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s not going to distinguish between what type of mortgage they have.”
“There is a huge amount of anxiety among borrowers,” he said. “We will reach out to them before they become delinquent.”
Since early last year, Citigroup has helped about 370,000 families avoid foreclosure, representing more than $35 billion in loans, the bank said.
Citi has avoided negative amortization loans, option adjustable-rate mortgages, and other types of risky mortgages, defaults on which have skyrocketed since the start of the housing bust in the middle of last year. Still, the bank has nonetheless been hurt by the relentless downturn in housing that fed the mortgage and credit crisis, and in turn, the near-breakdown of the financial system.
It is impressive that Citigroup is taking these proactive steps before the situation becomes dire for too many homeowners.
Read on:
By taking a proactive approach, Citigroup isn’t waiting until it’s too late to deal with delinquent borrowers, said Steve Curnutte, president of InsBank Mortgage in Nashville, Tenn. However, the problem is growing faster than most banks can handle, he said.
“It’s nearly an insurmountable undertaking,” said Curnutte. “The number of bad loans that they can modify using their resources is being quickly outstripped by the number of new loans that need to be modified.”
More than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage were at least one payment behind on their loans at the end of June, and 500,000 had started the foreclosure process, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
It may appear to be insurmountable but that isn’t troubling Citigroup. WTG! Citigroup for stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing.
Karen Turner the owner of the Topeka, KS McDonalds shut Scroggins down. There will be no cake at the McDonalds location. The Capitol-Journal heard the voice mail left by Karen Tyler, the owner shutting Scroggins down. I am for one proud of this woman. Here is the story in its entirety from the Capitol-Journal:
The local push for a national holiday commemorating Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency ricocheted around the Internet over the weekend, drawing criticism from notable conservative critics and nearly crashing The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Web site with an influx of traffic.
The holiday drive is the brainchild of local activist Sonny Scroggins, who had planned to hold brainstorming sessions at the downtown McDonald’s every morning and night until Obama’s inauguration. He said “America grew up” on election night.
Scroggins, who is known for his sometimes quixotic crusades against social injustice, said voting results last week were among the “most profound things that have ever happened to humankind.”
“I got Jesus, I got the Internet, and now I got Nov. 4, 2008,” he said.
Once his idea was posted on the popular conservative Web site, the Drudge Report, it bounced around to other sites and was picked up by blogs from coast to coast and from Canada to the Netherlands.
Prominent conservative columnist Michelle Malkin mocked it on her Web site: “A national holiday in honor of The One? For heaven’s sake.”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for one, was receptive if not officially behind the idea. Hilary Shelton, the national vice president of advocacy, said Obama’s election was of tremendous significance for “a community that was once enslaved.”
“Certainly this very historic moment in our history is something that should be recognized, commemorated and celebrated,” Shelton said.
The 145-word brief on The Capital-Journal’s Web site Sunday found its way to the top of the Drudge Report, causing thousands of Internet navigators to flood the Topeka site.
By midmorning Monday, 30,000 people were viewing the story each hour. An average top-viewed story receives about 5,000 views each day. The influx of traffic, largely redirected from the Drudge Report, overwhelmed the Internet server and slowed down the entire site.
“We’ve never had a single story cause the server to do this,” said Mike Napier, director of operations for The Capital-Journal.
He said the article was moved to another server to ease the burden.
The idea itself has hit a few snags.
One of the women whom Scroggins listed as a contact person for the meetings said she wasn’t affiliated with the idea. Rhoda Carr said she had helped Scroggins with past events but wasn’t aware her phone number was publicized for this.
Since Sunday afternoon, she has received more than 30 calls from radio and television reporters across the country — “from L.A. to Boston.” As she watched the Philadelphia Eagles play the New York Giants in Sunday night football, some guy from California called to talk about the election. They chatted for 40 minutes.
“He must have been lonely,” Carr said.
Scroggins hit another roadblock when the downtown McDonald’s, long his staging ground, heard about his upcoming planning sessions.
“You absolutely do not have permission to do any kind of Obama planning,” owner Karen Tyler said in a voice mail left on Scroggins’ phone and played for The Capital-Journal.
Scroggins said he has held court at the fast-food joint for years with no problems and wasn’t sure why he was being kicked out now.
Tyler couldn’t be reached for comment, but the longtime advocate wasn’t relenting. He will be at the downtown McDonald’s at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. today as planned to let those who show up know of the new plans.
Plan B calls for the first planning session to take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday in the Langston Hughes room at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 S.W. 10th.
“I’m in this for the long term,” Scroggins said.
WTG! Ms Karen Tyler. It was brave of you to stand up to Scoggins.
According to McDonalds Corporate officers partisan activities like the Obama cake are not allowed even in franchises like the one in Topeka. I am waiting on a return call from the corporate officers or Karen Tyler so I can get can get this verified in writing.
Michelle Malkin discovered a little known fact that indicates Bush actually aided Obama with his illegal auntie problem. By aiding Obama’s illegal aunt she was able to flee Boston. She is currently in Ohio with other relatives. Bush didn’t want anything to affect the election negatively.
I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous — and dangerous — favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until after the campaign season was over.
According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango. The Associated Press had reported on Nov. 1 that Onyango was a deportation evader – one of an estimated 700,000 illegal alien absconders who have ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country. The wire report mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security distributed “an unusual nationwide directive within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement requiring any deportations prior to Tuesday’s election to be approved at least at the level of ICE regional directors.”
But the politicized order was even worse than the AP reported. The deportation process wasn’t simply slowed down for public relations reasons and fear of a media backlash. The process was completely frozen.
As you can see the order was politicized. It actually affected the election results since it protected Obama. Bush can’t possibly be more transparent in his actions.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement source familiar with Western field offices told me: “The ICE fugitive operations group throughout the U.S. was told to stand down until after the election from arresting or transporting anyone out of the U.S. This was done to avoid any mistakes of deporting or arresting anyone who could have a connection to the election, i.e., anyone from Kenya who could be a relative. The decision was election-driven.”
And the reason it was election driven is beyond me. But it was done under the radar which is why the story of Obama’s illegal auntie didn’t gain more traction. Of course then there was this comment by Obama (paraphrased), all legal actions should be taken against his aunt. Of course those words belie Obama’s real beliefs about illegal immigrants.
Here is an excerpt from Obama’s Senate floor statement:
But in exchange for accepting those penalties, we must allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and step on a path toward full participation in our society. In fact, I will not support any bill that does not provide this earned path to citizenship for the undocumented population–not just for humanitarian reasons; not just because these people, having broken the law, did so for the best of motives, to try and provide a better life for their children and their grandchildren; but also because this is the only practical way we can get a handle on the population that is within our borders right now.
Bush’s bipartisanship action is just plain stupid. He made a mistake that has dangerous consequences. Those dangerous repercussions has the potential to affect national security, the security of the USA.
Another source close to ICE operations in a southern California field office confirmed that immigration officials there received the same directive: “The reason they included all offices in the US was to show that they were not targeting the district Office where Aunti lived. They don’t want to pick her up by mistake and cause a big problem.”
In other words, the Bush Department of Homeland Security determined that protecting Barack Obama from the negative publicity surrounding a potential arrest of his illegal alien aunt was more important to the general welfare of the country than tracking down untold numbers of deportation absconders who received an extra three-day pass last week. DHS refuses to comment publicly about the case. Warped homeland security priorities are bipartisan. Democrat Rep. John Conyers has called for an immediate investigation – not into the rank politicizing of our deportation policies, but into who leaked Onyango’s deportation fugitive status to the press.
San Francisco Offered This Family No Sanctuary
I just don’t get it. We need to pick up all illegal aliens and deport them. This needs to be done in light of the murder of a husband and father and his two sons in San Francisco. With one swift movement a Danielle Bologna lost her whole family, she was left motherless and a widow. And Bush just keeps on making it worse.
Question: Why shouldn’t this information be public?
As for President-elect Obama, his true views about ICE are well-known. Despite telling Katie Couric that his aunt should be required to follow the law because “We’re a nation of laws…I’m a strong believer you have to obey the law,” Obama scolded ICE agents who do their jobs for “terrorizing” communities.
Onyango arrived in the U.S. in 2000 on a temporary visa. Her asylum request was rejected in 2004. She defied the immigration court order to go back to Kenya, moved into Boston public housing, and is now hiding with relatives in Cleveland while contemplating how to extend her illegal stay.
Question: Will an Obama White House reinstate the deportation enforcement freeze in Ohio? Wouldn’t want to “terrorize” the community.
(Meanwhile, real terrorists have benefited enormously from lax enforcement of deportation orders and asylum loopholes. Ramzi Yousef, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, and Mir Aimal Kansi all exploited our catch-and-release system by invoking asylum and evading swamped authorities before plotting and executing jihadist attacks.)
Onyango’s options, like those of hundreds of thousands of deportation fugitives like her, are wide open. With the help of a seasoned immigration lawyer, she can take another bite at the judicial apple and appeal her deportation order. She can take her case all the way to the Supreme Court. She can find an illegal alien sanctuary church to give her refuge. Or she can take advantage of the longstanding congressional practice of creating “special relief” bills to help individual deportation fugitives escape punishment and acquire U.S. citizenship.
The post-9/11 Bush homeland security equation looks pretty much like the pre-9/11 one – one that will continue under Barack Obama: Cowardice plus rank opportunism times political correctness equals a lasting recipe for immigration chaos.
I honestly believe no more illegal immigrants will be deported under an Obama administration. His stance on illegal immigrants is clear, he won’t deport them, he wants to make them legal. This precedent will lead to more murders and quite possibly more jihadist attacks. An Obama administration quite frankly scares me..especially in the area of illegal immigration.
I think it is important to report on other items than just the president elect, so I am dedicating this post to Michael Crichton who touched all of our lives with his books and subsequent movies. Crichton is best known for Jurassic Park, which became a movie with a sequel.
Michael Crichton, who died in Los Angeles on November 4, 2008, was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. His most recent novel, Next, about genetics and law, was published in December 2006.
Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. Crichton’s 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, acknowledged the world was growing warmer, but challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios. He predicted future warming at 0.8 degrees C. (His conclusions have been widely misstated.)
Crichton’s interest in computer modeling went back forty years. His multiple-discriminant analysis of Egyptian crania, carried out on an IBM 7090 computer at Harvard, was published in the Papers of the Peabody Museum in 1966. His technical publications included a study of host factors in pituitary chromophobe adenoma, in Metabolism, and an essay on medical obfuscation in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Crichton’s first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a medical student. He later worked full time on film and writing. One of the most popular writers in the world, his books have been translated into thirty-six languages, and thirteen have been made into films.
He had a lifelong interest in computers. His feature film Westworld was the first to employ computer-generated special effects back in 1973. Crichton’s pioneering use of computer programs for film production earned him a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1995.
Crichton won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer’s Guild of America Award for ER. In 2002, a newly discovered ankylosaur was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini. He had a daughter, Taylor, and lived in Los Angeles. Crichton remarried in 2005.
Obituary:
CRICHTON, (John) Michael. American. Born in Chicago, Illinois, October 23, 1942. Died in Los Angeles, November 4, 2008. Educated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B. (summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa). Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow, 1964-65. Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University, England, 1965. Graduated Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1969; post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California 1969-1970. Visiting Writer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.
Here is a list of his writings:
Novels
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, Knopf, 1969
THE TERMINAL MAN, Knopf, 1972
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, Knopf, 1975
EATERS OF THE DEAD, Knopf, 1976
CONGO, Knopf, 1980
SPHERE, Knopf, 1987
JURASSIC PARK, Knopf, 1990
RISING SUN, Knopf, 1992
DISCLOSURE, Knopf, 1994
THE LOST WORLD, Knopf, 1995
AIRFRAME, Knopf, 1996
TIMELINE, Knopf, 1999
PREY, Harper Collins, 2002
STATE OF FEAR, Harper Collins, 2004
NEXT, Harper Collins, 2006
Films
PURSUIT, ABC Movie of the Week, 1972. (Director)
WESTWORLD, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1973. (Writer/Director)
COMA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1978. (Writer/Director)
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, United Artists, 1979. (Writer/Director)
LOOKER, The Ladd Company, 1981. (Writer/Director)
RUNAWAY, Tri-Star Pictures, 1984. (Writer/Director)
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, Columbia Pictures, 1989. (Director)
JURASSIC PARK, Universal, 1993 (Co-writer)
RISING SUN, Twentieth Century Fox, 1993 (Co-writer)
DISCLOSURE, Warner Brothers, 1994 (Co-producer)
TWISTER, Warner Brothers/Universal, 1996 (Co-writer, Co-producer)
SPHERE, Warner Brothers, 1998 (Co-producer)
13TH WARRIOR, Touchstone, 1999 (Co-producer)
Other Films From Crichton’s Books
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, Universal, 1971
THE CAREY TREATMENT, MGM, 1972
DEALING: OR THE BERKLEY TO BOST0N FORTY-BRICK LOST BAG BLUES, Warner Bros, 1972
THE TERMINAL MAN, Warner Bros, 1974
CONGO, Paramount, 1995
LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II, Universal, 1997
TIMELINE, Paramount, 2003
Television
ER, NBC, 1994 Creator, (co-exec. producer)
Computer Games
AMAZON, Tellarium, 1982
TIMELINE, Eidos, 2000
Michael Crichton will be sorely missed by many but especially by me. I have always read his novels with lust and enjoyment. I will miss his novels on the bookstand as I peruse the local bookstores. There is one thing that Crichton’s death reminds us of is that life moves on sometimes under the radar.
The Lakota Indian Tribe In South Dakota Needs Our Help And The Government Is No Where To Be Found! I received this is an e-mail tonight. It would mean so much to me if my visitors could give $5–$10–or what ever to help these Native Americans. To find out more about the Lakotah Tribe visit their website.
Watch this video:
It is not often I send something like this out, and am sad to have to do so.
However, anything any of you can do would be great, mention it on your radio
shows and blogs, call and help or even call the state reps. and Bureau of Indian Affairs
…Here is the email I got,,,
Where is the Red Cross? Where is FEMA? Where is the National Guard?
The Lakota Reservation in South Dakota has been struck with a huge,
early season snow storm. Elderly people are without propane, there is
a great lack of food, medicine and warm winter clothing.
According tho the president of the Reservation, the State of South
Dakota is doing almost nothing. The roads are still not plowed and
people are dieing.
They need our help in way of wood, propane, warm winter clothing,
food and assistance with plows.
If you are in the area and have the heart to help these folks, go to
the Porcupine School or call 605-867-1111.
If you can, send money, call and get details on arrangements. If you
can send materials, as this is going to be a long winter for the sick
the elderly and the children, the address is
Republic of Lakotah
P.O. Box 99
Porucupine, SD 57772
Winters are brutal in this area, and this one is worse than they can
deal with. Any and all help will be remembered by the people for
their entire lives, and lives is what this is about.
Please, with our Holidays coming, help these people NOW while we can
still help. People are dieing right now.
Feel free to contact John for more information.
John Stroebel
PO 166 Centennial Wyoming 82055
307-745-3493
I had a conversation with a Lakotah representative this evening. I wanted to share highlights from that conversation. The Lakotah Tribe is poorer than most third world countries and exists right here in the United States. It is this way because there aren’t any jobs in the area. Their housing consists of trailers, some with broken windows and old shacks. The infant mortality rate is 4x the national average and expected to rise. Currently the Lakotah Nation is experiencing a black mold plague which is hardest on infants, elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
Currently most of the reservation is without power. More than 2100 electric poles snapped in the snowstorm. The roads are beginning to clear but some are still impassable. At this point in time the greatest need is donations to the Propane Fund. More information on thier needs can be found at www.republicoflakotah.com.
Here is a view of the reservation:
I hope you can find it in your heart to assist the Lakotahs.
There is a fund raiser for the Pine Ridge this evening during the virtual cocktail hour at The Confluence at 10 pm est. Join us there.
Governor Michael Rounds of South Dakota has declared the State a disaster area. However, Indian Reservations are NOT included in the declaration.
I, Russell Means, due to the total absence of Tribal Government and its leadership, and as candidate for Tribal President and Chief Facilitator of the Republic of Lakotah, am declaring an INTERNATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY.
The reason for this declaration is two-fold: 1) The current life-threatening severe weather conditions and 2) The ongoing genocidal policies of the United States Government that still remain unaddressed:
* Unknown thousands are still stranded by high snow drifts for 3rd straight day.
* Unknown number of people without heat and/or electricity.
* Impassable road conditions preventing emergency services and propane deliveries.
* Confirmed fatality due to inability to get to dialysis treatment. Status of other dialysis patients is unknown.
* Second fatality bled to death due to no emergency services.
* Tribal President Steele and Vice President Brewer’s whereabouts unknown as reported by Officers of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (B.I.A.).
* Officers rescue mother with new born and 2-year old child from heatless home.
* Tribal Police dispatch unable to determine road conditions.
* Wide-spread telephone service interruptions.
* Hardest hit is the eastern portion of the Reservation, which includes Pass Creek, Eagle Nest and Medicine Root Districts. Also Red Shirt Table, Cuny Table, Slim Buttes,Oglala and Porcupine communities.
* Unconfirmed reports of National Guard due to arrive today.
Just in case there is any question about the Lakotah Tribe being as bad if not worse than a third world country, here are a the facts about the tribe:
Genocidal Results of the Failed American Indian Policies of the United States Government:
MORTALITY:
* Lakotah men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
* Lakotah death rate is the highest in the United States.
* The Lakotah infant mortality rate is 300% more than the U.S. Average.
* One out of every four Lakotah children born are fostered or adopted out to non-Indian homes.
* Diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, etc. are present. Cancer is now at epidemic proportions!
* Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.
POVERTY:
* Median income is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
* 97% of our Lakotah people live below the poverty line.
* Many families cannot afford heating oil, wood or propane and many residents use ovens to heat their homes.
UNEMPLOYMENT:
* Unemployment rates on our reservations are 80% or higher.
* Government funding for job creation is lost through cronyism and corruption.
HOUSING:
* Elderly die each winter from hypothermia (freezing).
* 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage while 40% lack electricity.
* 60% of Reservation families have no telephone.
* 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black molds.
* There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (may only have two to three rooms). Some homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL:
* More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease.
* Alcoholism affects 9 in 10 families.
* Two known meth-amphetamine labs allowed to continue operation. Why?
DISEASE:
* The Tuberculosis rate on Lakotah reservations is approx. 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S national average.
* The rate of diabetes is 800% higher than the U.S national average.
* Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar foods that kill Native people through diabetes and heart disease.
INCARCERATION:
* Indian children incarceration rate 40% higher than whites.
* In South Dakota, 21 percent of state prisoners are American Indians, yet they only make up 2% of the population.
* Indians have the second largest state prison incarceration rate in the nation.
* Most Indians live on federal reservations. Less than 2% of Indians live where the state has jurisdiction!
THREATENED CULTURE:
* Only 14% of the Lakotah population can speak the Lakotah language.
* The language is not being shared inter-generationally. Today, the average age of a fluent Lakotah speaker is 65 years.
* Our Lakotah language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.
* Our Lakotah language is not allowed to be taught in the U.S. Government schools.
Brava, brava, brava to the Catholic bishops. I am impressed by their resolve to de-fund ACORN. My respect and admiration for their decision has no words becaus I honestly don’t know what else to say. I do believe there decision is right and the correct thing to do.
A friend of mine felt like de-funding ACORN was too late. I pointed out to her midterm elections are in two years and we still have three senate races waiting recounts and a runoff. Ieven explained to her all the fraud ACORN has been allowed to commit this year will only embolden them in coming elections. After sometime she did agree with my assessment of the situation.
Although the bishops decided to do this it is but a small victory. ACORN will never be punished for their crimes because of the partisan politics festering in the Department of Justice cubicles, left behind by the Clinton Era. ACORN will also escape justice because the president elect is connected to ACORN and even paid them for services rendered during the primary elections. He owes ACORN and they will get their payback if their association doesn’t payoff.
While the bishops have cut funding to ACORN, President Bush has yet to act on de-funding ACORN by cutting them out of the housing bill.The presidency and the government in whole are cowards. They are afraid they will tarnish The One’s image. It is tine to tarnish his image. The One respects no one but himself.
The truly brave ones are the Catholic Bishops. If you know a bishop, thank him for being courageous. Please thank him for ending funding to the Rotten ACORN organization.
Now that I have offered my opinion perhaps I should share the story from Newsmax:
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which supports anti-poverty and social justice programs nationwide, will no longer make grants to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, said Auxiliary Bishop Robert Morin of New Orleans.
The decision was made following claims that nearly $1 million had been embezzled from ACORN by the brother of its founder.
Morin, who helps oversee the Catholic program, said forensic accountants hired by the church found that “our funds were not involved with those that had been embezzled.”
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which has an annual budget of about $10 million, had planned to grant about $1 million to local groups across the country through ACORN this fiscal year, Morin said. None of that money will be distributed.
“There will be no funding relationships with ACORN groups in the future,” Morin said, during the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
I am so glad the church will no longer fund ACORN at all considering its illegal activities including the Rathke embezzlement.
By now most of us realize that Obama surrounds himself with questionable people such as Rezko. Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers. Apparently his transition team is no different. Most of his transition team have connections to white collar crimes committed by big business. Obama’s team is really nothing more than the same old thing.
Take a good look at some of the 17 people our nation’s president-elect chose last week for his Transition Economic Advisory Board. And then try saying with a straight face that these are the leaders who should be advising him on how to navigate through the worst financial crisis in modern history.
First, there’s former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Not only was he chairman of Citigroup Inc.’s executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron Corp. cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford Motor Co., which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup- style bailout cash.
Two other Citigroup directors received spots on the Obama board: Xerox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy and Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons. Xerox and Time Warner got pinched years ago by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting frauds that occurred while Mulcahy and Parsons held lesser executive posts at their respective companies.
Mulcahy and Parsons also once were directors at Fannie Mae when that company was breaking accounting rules.
… former Commerce Secretary William Daley. He’s now a member of the executive committee at JPMorgan Chase & Co., which, like Citigroup, is among the nine large banks that just got $125 billion of Treasury’s bailout budget.
And we haven’t even begun to list these people and the companies they are or have been connected to. More from the article:
Obama’s economic crew might as well be called the Bailout Bunch. Another slot went to former White House economic adviser Laura Tyson. She’s been a director for about a decade at Morgan Stanley, which in 2004 got slapped for accounting violations by the SEC and a month ago got $10 billion from Treasury.
That’s not all. There’s Penny Pritzker, the Obama campaign’s national finance chairwoman. She was on the board of the holding company for subprime lender Superior Bank FSB. The Chicago-area thrift, in which her family held a 50 percent stake, was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2001. The thrift’s owners agreed to pay the government $460 million over 15 years to help cover the FDIC’s losses.
Even some of the brighter lights on Obama’s board, like Warren Buffett and former SEC Chairman William Donaldson, come with asterisks. Buffett was on the audit committee of Coca-Cola Co.’s board when the SEC found the soft-drink maker had misled investors about its earnings. Donaldson was on the audit committee from 1998 to 2001 at a provider of free e-mail services called Mail.com Inc. Just before he left the SEC, in 2005, the agency disciplined the company over accounting violations that had occurred on his watch.
That appears to be half of his panel with curious connections to companies that have been bailed including biggies like Franni, Freddie, and J.P. Morgan. More from Weil:
So, by my tally, almost half the people on Obama’s economic advisory board have held fiduciary positions at companies that, to one degree or another, either fried their financial statements, helped send the world into an economic tailspin, or both. Do you think any of that came up in the vetting?
Let’s say we give Buffett a pass — smart move he made, skipping the group photo-op last week in Chicago.
I don’t think anyone should give Buffett a pass. Where did he get all his money anyways? The question has to be asked. One other question is what does Obama owe all these people? And why are they determining the countrie’s financial future?
More from Weil:
The president-elect needs some new advisers — fast. We are in a crisis of confidence in American capitalism. These aren’t the right people to re-instill its sense of honor…
Does he think people like Robert Rubin or Richard Parsons will offer any helpful advice on how to stop crooked bankers or sleep-walking directors from sinking our economy? Or that they won’t mistake the nation’s needs for their own corporate interests? Or that the people who helped get us into our long financial nightmare have any clue how to get us out?
Obama has created hope that our nation can stand for all that is good in the world again. It’s not too late to change course.
Start by scrapping this board.
Weil recommends Obama scrap this board. I agree. Most of the people on this board are just short of being guilty of white collar crimes. They should be held accountable for their lack of oversight on every count. Obama will not “change course”, he will just give us more of the same. Our financial future does not look good. And I have no confidence in an Obama administration with these people overseeing the bailout.
I received one of the most interesting e-mails today. In the e-mail was a copy of a letter sent to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa from a constituent. I was asked to pass it along so here it is:
FORMS ARE GOING FAST- SIGN UP TODAY!
Becoming Illegal (Actual letter from an Iowa
resident and sent to his senator)
The Honorable Tom Harkin
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone (202) 224 3254
Washington DC, 20510
Dear Senator Harkin,
As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the
Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your
assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland
Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming
an illegal alien and they referred me to you.
My primary reason for wishing to change my
status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the
bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which
you voted. If my understanding of this bill’s provisions
is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United
States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen
is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the
last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am
anxious to get the process started before everyone figures
it out.
Simply put, those of us who have been here
legally have had to pay taxes every year so I’m excited
about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return
for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply
to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent
result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in
2004 and 2005.
Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin
using the local emergency room as my primary health care
provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical
insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000
a year.
Another benefit in gaining illegal status would
be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment
relative to her law school applications, as well as
‘in-state’ tuition rates for many colleges
throughout the United States for my son.
Lastly, I understand that illegal status would
relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver’s license
and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is
very important to me given that I still have college age
children driving my car.
If you would provide me with an outline of the
process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and
copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.
Thank you for your assistance.
Your Loyal Constituent,
Donald Ruppert
Burlington , IA
Get your Forms (NOW)!! Call your Internal
Revenue Service 1-800-289-1040.
Please pass this on to your friends so they can
save on this great offer.
It is rather sad that the only Senator showing real leadership in this time of economic despair is once again Senator Hillary Clinton. And it gives me pause to think about what could have been. As I read this release once more I felt that hole that exists in my own life because she is not our president. Please read her statement. She is as ever for the people.
This was a statement and release from the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton:
Senator Clinton Calls for New Stimulus to Boost Economy and Help Those Hardest Hit by Recession, Calls for Investments in Infrastructure, Green Jobs, Mortgage Relief, Aid to Cities and States, and Extending Unemployment Insurance.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called for a comprehensive new stimulus package to jump start the ailing economy. In a letter to President Bush and Senate leaders, Senator Clinton outlined a series of measures that would protect those Americans hit hardest by the recession and put the nation on the road to recovery.
The text of her letter to the President follows:
November 11, 2008
The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Our economy has lost more than one million jobs this year alone. The scope and scale of the economic challenges facing the American people are vast. Businesses, large and small, are struggling to secure financing to survive. Families cannot find affordable mortgages and consumer loans. The housing crisis, which has already wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in home equity and even more in investment losses, grows deeper every day, with another wave of foreclosures looming.
The State of New York is the epicenter of this crisis. New York projects that more than 160,000 New Yorkers will lose their jobs as a result of the economic downturn. A recent analysis estimates that New York City will lose almost 30,000 construction jobs by 2010, in addition to the tens of thousands of jobs already lost to turmoil on Wall Street.
We are in a recession which demands decisive action. I believe that in order to stimulate this economy, we need to get people working, earning, and building – not just spending. We have borrowed hundreds of billions that have gone to banks and financial institutions and borrowed tens of billions more to energize the economy, yet the economic downturn has continued and the financial turmoil has worsened. What is clear is that any action we take – especially as we borrow more money to do so – must pay off in the near and long term. That is what America does best: we can address this crisis while preparing for our future.
However, we do have immediate needs that cannot wait between now and when the next Congress and the next President takes office. And although your Administration has voiced skepticism about the need for a stimulus bill, I believe that the current conditions call for a coordinated response now.
The most recent jobs report, indicating another 240,000 jobs lost last month and the worst unemployment rate in 14 years, shows that steps need to be taken to shore up the safety net as millions of Americans continue the search for work. Expanding Unemployment Insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would not only provide relief to those hit hardest by our economic downturn, it would also spur economic activity as this money is immediately spent. New York alone has hundreds of thousands of people who will face the unemployment line and the loss of their food assistance during this economic downturn.
In the midst of one of the greatest fiscal crises to hit our states, an increase in the Medicaid FMAP rate would help prevent further and deeper cuts to health care and other essential services like education, child care and public safety. Rising demand for health insurance coverage through Medicaid due to increasing job loss is straining state budgets, and the federal government should act to help ease this growing burden on our states.
It is also increasingly clear that we need to take steps now that not only mitigate the fallout, but also begin putting the nation on the path towards recovery. That is why I believe the stimulus we pursue should focus on rebuilding our infrastructure and building a new, clean energy economy. Stimulus should focus on putting people back to work by investing in infrastructure and green jobs. That is how we can restore our prosperity today and ensure it in the future.
So I am proposing, among other steps, that we speed investments in infrastructure, including $410 million in New York roads, bridges, and transit systems, as well as training for new jobs in the clean energy economy, or “green collar jobs.” A federal investment in our infrastructure serves the dual purpose of modernizing our country’s deteriorating roads, bridges, and transit systems while stimulating the economy. Investing in these projects will create tens of thousands of good paying jobs. More than 40 highway, transit and rail projects are “shovel-ready” in New York alone.
I am also proposing an investment in training programs to prepare a new green workforce for the clean energy jobs of the future. I believe we can create at least five million green collar jobs – and we can speed the creation of those jobs while also training displaced workers to fill them in the very short term.
The next wave of foreclosures looms, and we should address it immediately. It is critical that we modify unworkable mortgages into clear and stable terms if we are to prevent the bottom of the housing market from falling even further. I have proposed HOME, the Home Owners Mortgage Enterprise, based on the successful program enacted during the New Deal which not only saved one million homes but also turned a profit for the Treasury. We should continue focusing on initiatives large and bold enough to meet the scale of the challenges presented by the faltering housing market.
The road to recovery will be difficult. But it is imperative that we take these urgent and important steps to kick-start the economy and hasten a return to prosperity that is shared and strengthens the middle class. I ask that you work with congressional leaders in developing a comprehensive stimulus package that the Congress can pass next week to reach your desk immediately thereafter.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
cc: Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senator Robert C. Byrd
Senator Daniel Inouye
I have been angry with Senator Clinton for campaigning for Barack Obama. But I am finally past it now that I have had a week to get over it. What is done is done. But before I start any Hillary bashing, I realize Hillary has been fighting for the Democratic Party for over 35 years. Hillary did tell us that she would go out and fight for the Democratic nominee. She kept her word and for that we do owe her some respect. She is a woman of her words.
Unfortunately Hillary had to help the nominee for anything less would have been political suicide, ending her career before she was done with her work for this country.
I will not second guess her. I am certain Hillary is out there doing her job still, but with little power in the Senate. We can thank Pelosi, Reid, Obama and the rest of the cabal for that. They tried to throw Hillary “under the bus” but she wouldn’t have any part of the bus crowd.
Maybe she will survive to fight another day. Maybe she won’t. I stop to ponder the thought “maybe she won’t” because I am not sure Pelosi and Reid will allow her to do another term in Congress. The Dean cabal above all wanted to cut Hillary off at the knees.
For now Hillary is fighting. Her letter tells us she is. She is asking that immediate action be taken, not two months from now when Obama takes office. Obama on the other hand can’t decide if the economy is priority or shutting down Gitmo is priority. And his bailout gurus are the worst of the worst because they are all connected to companies or banks that have been seized by the government or given large handouts with no oversight.
People are hurting. We are experiencing the hurt right here in The Sunflower State, Kansas. Hawker Beechcraft just announced a layoff of 500 people right before the holidays. And Cessna may be heading in that direction too. I don’t care who gets the credit, let’s get the job done. Helping the citizens of the US is not about glory, it is not about the “gold star” stuck to the top of your paper, it is about kindness and compassion, not politics. Hillary gets this.
Thanks so much Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Dean, Senator Reid, Senators Byrd, Kerry, Kennedy, McCaskill, Rockefeller, Governor Sebelius, Governor Judas Richardson and the rest of the cabal for throwing this good lady under the bus and instead, leaving us with The One with the Dopey Hopey Changey message who seems to think it’s more important he choose a hypoallergenic puppy for his daughters right now.
Just what we needed to hear that jobless claims increased, while trade deficits declined and budeget hits record deficit in October. Jobless claims increased 32,000 last week to a total of 516,000, the highest in 7 years. These numbers are much worse than originally projected. Ya’ think.
Get this though even imports are declining, showing that foreign countries are feeling the pinch too:
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said the trade deficit declined by a bigger-than-expected amount in September, falling by 4.4 percent to $56.5 billion as imports experienced a record plunge.
The import decline was led by a huge fall in imported oil as the average price for crude dropped by a record $12.41 per barrel and the volume of shipments fell to the lowest level in five years. But demand for other types of imports also fell, with imported cars and car parts dropping to the lowest level in more than five years, an indication that foreign automakers are feeling the pinch hitting U.S. consumers.
And now the leading economists and even the federal government are saying the “R” word. OMG! They are repeating now over and over again, “we are in a recession”. Of course no one is really doing anything about the job losses. Even Obama say I will make the economy the No. 1 priority. Don’t hold him to that though because closing Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo to us old Navy types) is now a priority!
On top of these disturbing numbers, the country now faces the a huge October budget deficit, to the tune of a record $237.2B. The worst thing about this number, the government is just beginning its new fiscal year.
Here are some other excerpts from the article:
The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year.
The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation’s largest banks. Those were the first payments made from the $700 billion government rescue program passed by Congress to deal with the most severe financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s.
… For the 2007 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, the deficit totaled a record $454.8 billion, reflecting the impact of the weak economy on revenues and a $168 billion stimulus program which sent stimulus payments to millions of Americans during the spring and early summer.
The Bush administration in July estimated that the deficit for the current budget year could hit $482 billion, but that projection was made before the administration got Congress to pass a $700 billion rescue program on Oct. 3.
And of course Obama said it is my first priority. Don’t hold him to that though because he has been more concerned about a hypoallergenic dog for his daughters.
Here is a new video by Old Grumpy Guy, “The most terrible danger of a personality cult” and it is quite good. It also addresses many fear I have heard voiced in the last week or so.
Watch:
Let me know what you think. And let me know your fears. Good place to air them. No judgment here!
For many months now I have listened to Michael Steele as contributor on Fox News and have come to like him. He has new ideas and will bring a strong voice to the GOP. The current chair needs to be ousted after two dismal election cycles under his belt. If you haven’t caught him on Fox News, you really need to. He announced his candidacy on The Hannity and Colmes Show last evening.
Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has decided to run for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, a move sure to shake up the evolving race for control of a party demoralized by broad losses at the ballot box earlier this month.
Steele confirmed his candidacy in an interview today with The Fix and announced it formally during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” show this evening.
“After two devastating election cycles, the party has reached a crossroads,” said Steele comparing the Republican party to someone who has “hunkered down” in a corner with no idea what to do next. “I think I may have some keys to open the door, some juice to turn on the lights,” Steele explained.
I have listened to him and watched him enough to know he will be a strong opponent for anyone else interested in running for chair. He will be a fresh voice with new ideas, but with a strong conservative message.
Read on:
Steele seems virtually certain to be one of the frontrunners for the post no matter who else joins the race given his resume and his profile. Following a stint as chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, Steele was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland in 2002. In 2006, he embarked on a Senate bid for the seat vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D). Despite massive spending on his behalf by the national party, Steele came up short to now Sen. Ben Cardin.
Since that loss, Steele has remained in the party mix as chairman of GOPAC, a national conservative organization designed to elect Republicans at the state and local level. He is also a frequent television presence as a contributor on Fox News Channel and the author of the now famous (infamous?) “Drill Baby Drill” line at the Republican National Convention.
Steele is also African American, a potentially powerful distinction in a party struggling for leaders that break out of the “old white guy” mold and badly in need of ways to broaden their coalition in future national elections.
For his part, Steele rejected the idea that the color of his skin had anything to do with his chances at becoming RNC chair. “I am a Republican who happens to be African American,” he said.
Steele added that over the past few days he has been reaching out via phone to as many of the committee members as possible to make sure they know how important they are in this process. The people he has spoken with are “appreciative” of his candidacy, Steele said; “Even for those who have already committed to someone else they have been very enthusiastic,” he noted.
In the interview Steele also made clear that in the current debate over whether the party should move to the middle or reaffirm its conservatives roots he falls clearly in the latter category.
“The core values of our party should not change,” Steele said. “We are the conservative voice in America.
On November 29th OPEC meets again, most likely to cut production which will cause the price of gas to increase once more. The Republicans have a strong friend in Michael Steele…he is the one who coined the phrase, “Drill, Baby, Drill….
We may finally have an idea where the GOP smears came from. Maybe it was right from the RGA themselves. Palin is selected to run as VP on the McCain ticket but these Republican governors thumb their nose at her. As VP pick she should have her choice of leadership positions. Her approval ratings as governor are way up there despite losing the election.
What are these governors thinking? What is motivating them? Jealousy, Greed, Politics, Envy…. What is their problem? Maybe she doesn’t talk like them, so they don’t like her. Whatever their reason for doing this, I think the Republicans have lost their collective minds.
In the wake of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this week in Miami, many GOP governors were reluctant to embrace Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the party’s leader or presidential candidate for 2012. Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions:
The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will also sit on the RGA’s executive committee. […]
Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.
I think the Republican Governors Association is trying to do some sort of character assassination on Palin. The Gop is attempting to diminish her star appeal, the same way the Democratic Party tried to destroy Hillary. Envy, baby, Envy that is what these governors are suffering from.
Oh! And by the way governors, Sarah Palin is not going away but many of you are!
Veterans of past wars have almost been forgotten. Vietnam Veterans suffered poisoning from Agent Orange but not just from service in Vietnam. Exposure to Agent Orange is linked to service in places like Thailand, Korea and Ft McClellan, AL for at least one Vietnam Era female captain. They are largely forgotten today.
Vietnam veterans are not the only ones who are forgotten since we went to Iraq and Afghanistan, the veterans of the first Gulf War have been forgotten. It is time we stop forgetting our veterans who suffer from chronic illnesses due to their service to our country.
With that in mind I wanted to share my experience with the first Gulf War veterans. In 2001, I was asked to speak to two legislative committees concerning Gulf War illness. I worked directly with the group in Kansas that was responsible for research on Gulf War illness at the request of Dan Thimesch, a former state senator. I spoke about the illnesses Gulf War veterans were experiencing. The Veterans Administration and their doctors thought the illnesses were all in the “heads” of the veterans. As a lay person I knew veterans were sick with real illnesses.
Today a report was released to the Veterans Administration about these illnesses and to no one’s surprise there is a real cause and effect between pesticides and PB pills. Here is more information from the article:
For much of the past 17 years, government officials have maintained that these veterans — more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed — are merely suffering the effects of wartime stress, even as more have come forward recently with severe ailments.
“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that ’Gulf War illness’ is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,” said the report, being released Monday by a panel of scientists and veterans.
This research proves what I always asserted after discussions with a Kansas epidemiologist, that Gulf War illness was real. It was real to the Gulf War veterans I know even today. Kevin, a real Gulf War veteran, I worked with this year lives in a wheelchair with “fibromyalgia”. His days are spent living on pain medication. It is long past time for the VA to admit they were wrong, the illnesses are real.
More from the story:
Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain. It may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes.
Two things the military provided to troops in large quantities to protect them — pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide (PB), aimed at thwarting the effects of nerve gas — are the most likely culprits, the panel found.
Here are more highlights from the story. These highlights are critical of studies and the VA and Department of Defense (DOD):
In a 2004 draft report to Congress, the panel said that many Gulf veterans were suffering from neurological damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.
The new report goes further by pinpointing known causes and it criticizes past U.S. studies, which have cost more than $340 million, as “overly simplistic and compartmentalized.”
It recommends that the Department of Veterans Affairs order a re-do of past Gulf War and Health reports, calling them “skewed” because they did not include evaluations of toxic exposure studies in lab animals, as Congress had requested.
The panel examined such tests and noted that recent ones — unethical to carry out on humans – have identified biological effects from Gulf War exposures that were previously unknown.
While it called some new VA and DOD programs promising, it noted that overall federal funding for Gulf War research has dropped sharply in recent years. Those studies that have been funded, it said, “have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War veterans, and for research on stress and psychiatric illness.”
“Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War had the distinction of serving their country in a military operation that was a tremendous success, achieved in short order. But many had the misfortune of developing lasting health consequences that were poorly understood and, for too long, denied or trivialized,” the committee’s report says.
The report also faults the Pentagon, saying it clearly recognized scientific evidence substantiating Gulf War illness in 2001 but did not acknowledge it publicly.
It is important that we recognize the contribution of these ill veterans. They did have the distinction of completing a military operation with great success, something this country hasn’t been known to do.
The panel focused its research on comparing the brain and nervous system of healthy adults with those of sick Gulf War vets, as well as analyzing changes to the neuroendocrine and immune systems.
It found that in terms of brain function, exposure to pesticides and the PB pills hurts people’s memory, attention and mood. Some people, it notes, are genetically more susceptible to exposures than others.
About half of Gulf War personnel are believed to have taken PB tablets during deployment, with the greatest use among ground troops and those in forward positions.
Here are some quotes directly from Gulf War I veterans:
“Many of us got sick from the pills,” said retired Staff Sgt. Anthony Hardie, a Wisconsin native who was with a multinational unit that crossed from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait and then Iraq.
Fly strips that smelled toxic hung “everywhere,” especially near food. “The pesticide use was far and away (more) than what you’d see in daily life,” he said.
Several soldiers interviewed said they were ordered to dunk their uniforms in the pesticide DEET and to spray pesticide routinely on exposed skin and in their boots to ward off scorpions. Others wore pet flea collars around their ankles.
Rather scary. Forced medications not even approved by the FDA…once more veterans were used as human guinea pigs. The saddest thing is the scope of illnesses in these veterans.
The federal panel added that it also could not rule out an association between Gulf War illness and the prolonged exposure to oil fires, as well as low-level exposures to nerve agents, injections of many vaccines and combinations of neurotoxic exposures.
Hardie, a panel member, is convinced that he was later exposed to the chemical warfare agent Lewisite in a freshly abandoned Iraqi bunker; he noted its signature strong geranium smell.
He said he and others in his unit who ran miles a day past burning oil wells later hacked up black chunks of mucus and what he says his doctors think were pieces of his lung tissue. He said civilian doctors have diagnosed him with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, dizziness, confusion, acid reflux disease and chronic sinusitis.
He was not among the 100,000 U.S. troops who were potentially exposed to low-levels of Sarin gas, a nerve agent, as a result of large-scale U.S. demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah, Iraq, in 1991.
Troops who were downwind from the demolitions have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other Gulf War veterans, the report stated.
A panel member, Dr. Roberta White, chair of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health, found evidence last year linking low-level exposure to nerve gas among in Persian Gulf troops with lasting brain deficits.
The extent of the deficits – less brain “white matter” and reduced cognitive function — corresponded to the extent of the exposure.
In addition, the panel said, Gulf War veterans have significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than other veterans.
I still believe the VA and DOD have absolutely no defense. It is time that they believe what the veterans are telling them. According to Title 38 which is the bible on disabilities and decisions says the “benefit is given to the veteran”, nothing is farther from the truth.
The fact that veterans repeatedly still find that their complaints are met with cynicism, she said, “upsets me as a scientist, as someone who cares about veterans.”
Hardie said the Gulf War veterans have felt profound frustration that the health community as a whole has only been treating affected veterans’ symptoms.
“If you have MS – ’here’s some Motrin.’ How long can you take nasal steroids without getting at root cause — the brain damage?” he said. “The sad thing is scientists are saying in more precise terms what veterans were saying all along: We are sick, sickened by Gulf War service, and we need health care to help us.”
Hardie is correct. The VA meets the complaints of the Gulf War 1 veterans with cynicism and disdain. I know this for a fact because I assisted Kevin mentioned in this blog with service at the Bob Dole Medical Center in Wichita, KS.
Some questions remain, why did it take 17 years to finally compile the 450 page report and release? How is it going to help veterans? Will the VA ever give veterans the “benefit of the doubt”?
I am firmly against sanctuary cities for illegal aliens for the very reason stated above. The violence and deaths at the hands of illegal aliens is over the top. It is time in my opinion to kick these people to the curb. The USA needs to send them home if they aren’t going to send them to jail. I am afraid this won’t happen in an Obama administration. Despite his words about his aunt who is here illegally, he will allow them to stay. And Obama will seek permanent citizenship for them. And this scares me and should scare you.
Here are excerpts from the latest article on the inmates that admit they’re in the U.S. illegally. Even those convicted of violent crimes are often released right back onto Houston’s streets. This is happening in other cities nationwide. From the article:
Federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals — some ordered deported decades ago — to walk away from Harris County Jail despite the inmates’ admission to local authorities that they were in the country illegally, a Houston Chronicle investigation found.
A review of thousands of criminal and immigration records shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t file the paperwork to detain roughly 75 percent of the more than 3,500 inmates who told jailers during the booking process that they were in the U.S. illegally.
Although most of the inmates released from custody were accused of minor crimes, hundreds of convicted felons — including child molesters, rapists and drug dealers — also managed to avoid deportation after serving time in Harris County’s jails, according to the Chronicle review, which was based on documents filed over a period of eight months starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration records available.
This has to stop before anymore American citizens are killed by these illegals. What the hell is wrong with our legislators? Why won’t they enact laws that will send these people back home?
More from the research:
Other key findings in the investigation include:
•In 177 cases reviewed by the Chronicle, inmates who were released from jail after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes. More than half of those charges were felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and capital murder.
•About 11 percent of the 3,500 inmates in the review had three or more prior convictions in Harris County. Many had repeatedly cycled through the system despite a history of violence and, in some cases, outstanding deportation orders.
The investigation found that the federal government’s system to identify and deport illegal immigrants in Harris County Jail is overwhelmed and understaffed. Gaps in the system have allowed some convicted criminals to avoid detection by immigration officials despite being previously deported. The problems are national in scope, fueled by a shortage of money and manpower.
In reaction to the Chronicle’s findings, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, said ICE needs more resources to target immigrants convicted of crimes.
“There’s no question about it,” Poe said. “Criminals from foreign countries who get caught after committing a crime and prosecuted should go to the top of the list of people we deport.”
Absolutely. The criminals need to go back home. They need to be identified by some sorrt of recognition system so they aren’t allowed back in our country for safety sake.
ICE officials estimated that between 300,000 and 450,000 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. are eligible for deportation each year.
Though ICE has improved screening in federal and state prisons in recent years, the agency estimates it screens inmates in only about 10 percent of the nation’s jails.
This spring, ICE officials announced a plan to identify and deport the most serious offenders in the nation’s prisons and jails, estimating it would cost between $930 million and $1 billion and take about 3 1/2 years.
Congress is pressuring ICE to move faster…
… “The highest priority for ICE should be deporting people who have proven their ability and their willingness to do us harm. Immigration is a very, very contentious issue, but this seems to be one thing almost everyone agrees is a priority.”
Yet, the Chronicle’s review found hundreds of missed opportunities to deport convicted criminals, perpetuating a cycle of crime and violence.
•Armando De La Cruz, a Mexican national, told jailers on two occasions in 2007 that he was undocumented. Both times, he was convicted of assaulting his wife and released after serving his jail time. De La Cruz is now back in Harris County Jail, charged with raping a woman at knife point behind a southeast Houston apartment complex in July, and attempting to rape another woman less than a week later. His defense attorney, Ricardo Gonzalez, did not return phone calls.
•Pedro Alvarez, a convicted sex offender from El Salvador who was first deported in 1991, racked up eight convictions in Harris County over a span of two decades and was allowed to walk free from jail multiple times — as recently as the spring of 2007. Immigration officials finally charged him with re-entry after deportation in February. Sandra Zamora Zayas, the attorney who represented Alvarez in federal court in South Texas, did not return phone messages.
“It’s just amazing how long it took them to catch up with him,” the mother of a 5-year-old girl Alvarez sexually assaulted in 1988 said in an interview with the Chronicle, after learning about Alvarez’s extended criminal history.
It isn’t amazing how long it took to catch the criminal above and the list of crimes he was responsible for. There appears to be no way to stop these criminals from re-entering the country, leaving the USA at the mercy of people like Alavarez.
Here are some examples of the crimes committed by illegals. It will disgust you. My hope by shocking you, you will take action and write your federal legislators.
Miguel Mejia Rodriguez, 36, is locked up on the fifth floor of the San Jacinto Jail downtown, accused of raping and sodomizing a second-grader.
It is the fourth time in 12 years that Rodriguez, an unemployed drifter from Zacatecas, Mexico, has landed in Harris County Jail. Over the years, Rodriguez has served time for drug possession, theft, trespassing and indecent exposure. He told jailers he was in the country illegally in December 2006, after a security guard caught him touching himself in an apartment complex parking lot, records show.
Katherine Anne Bridges, deaf and mute, was just 19 in the fall of 2004 when she told Harris County authorities that Jeremias Fuentes, her boyfriend, tried to grab their 6-month-old baby boy from her arms and kicked her in the face. He hid her emergency phone so she couldn’t call for help. Fuentes was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
Nearly three years later, in August 2007, Fuentes was arrested again, suspected of interfering with case workers trying to interview Bridges about abuse allegations. Fuentes, 36, told jailers he was an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, records show. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was released after ICE didn’t file paperwork to detain him.
On the morning of Nov. 26, 2007, a medical examiner puzzled over the writing scrawled on Bridges’ palm. It read in part: “Payback because … help me.”
The evening before, Bridges’ body had been found facedown in the bedroom closet of her southwest Houston apartment complex. She had blood in her brown hair and a dozen stab wounds on her face, neck, chest and back. A knife rested on the baby crib.
… Detectives questioned Fuentes, who admitted he stabbed Bridges, but he said it was self-defense. In December, immigration officials filed the paperwork to detain Fuentes, who declined a request for a jail interview. He is scheduled for trial in February.
The response from the ACLU is laughable at best. Basically they are saying that as long as the illegal immigrant hasn’t committed any crimes, it is okay for them to stay.
“Many people see it as a profound insult when someone who is here without permission commits a heinous crime,” said Rebecca Bernhardt, director of policy development for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “To be outraged at the individual who committed that crime is an appropriate response. But to be angry at everybody who is just here trying to work to support their family and comes from the same background as that defendant is a mistake.”
Frankly I don’t care why they are here any longer, I want the illegals gone.
”In a perfect world, I’d like to see our borders secured to where we have someone we find to be here illegally, we turn them over to ICE and have them deported,” Thomas said. ”But that’s not something that’s happening at this day and time.”
It is time our borders are secure. I don’t want to read one more report that another illegal has killed one of us. I find the lack of oversight as heinous a crime as the crimes illegals like Alvarez are committing. It is time we stand up and make our government do their job. Send the illegals home.
OMG! Wait until you watch this video. The Obama believers are truly sheeples. They can’t tell you who is in “charge” of Congress. Most don’t know who Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are! Unbelievably they do know everything about Governor Sarah Palin….
And these people voted for Obama….
And we allow these people to vote. I think it is time for all voters to take a multiple question examination about their candidate before they enter a polling site.
For more information on How Obama Got Elected visit here!
Let’s start with Zogby’s numbers from Ed Morrisey at Hot Air. The poll surveyed over 500 self-professed Obama voters and has an MOE of 4.4%, with 55% having a college degree and over 90% having a high-school diploma. It asked 12 multiple-choice questions; only 2.4% got at least 11 correct. Only .5% got all them correct.
57.4 could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
81.8 could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6 could NOT correctly say that Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1 % could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).And yet…..
Only 13.7% failed to identify Palin as the person their party spent $150,000 in clothes on
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
On the last point, though, Palin was the only candidate from Alaska. Palin did state that one could see Russia from the state as an answer to an interview question about her foreign-policy credentials. I don’t believe that the survey gave Fey as a choice, so Palin would have been the obvious answer from those provided.
(Honestly I missed the point of this video. It isn’t an indictment of voters but an indictment of MSM. It isn’t just an indictment of MSM, but an indictment of their bias for Obama.)
However, the rest of these results show the abysmal state of media coverage of Barack Obama. It’s not that the voters couldn’t absorb data provided to them by the Tanning Bed Media; these voters quite obviously learned plenty about Sarah Palin. In the video, the subjects demonstrate that by assigning every stupid thing said on the campaign trail to Palin whether she said it or not. Meanwhile, no one can figure out what Barack Obama said, how he conducted his campaign, or his political history.
Zogby confirms Ziegler’s numbers, and barks back at accusations of push-polling:
“We stand by the results our survey work on behalf of John Ziegler, as we stand by all of our work. We reject the notion that this was a push poll because it very simply wasn’t. It was a legitimate effort to test the knowledge of voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 election. Push polls are a malicious effort to sway public opinion one way or the other, while message and knowledge testing is quite another effort of public opinion research that is legitimate inquiry and has value in the public square. In this case, the respondents were given a full range of responses and were not pressured or influenced to respond in one way or another. This poll was not designed to hurt anyone, which is obvious as it was conducted after the election. The client is free to draw his own conclusions about the research, as are bloggers and other members of society. But Zogby International is a neutral party in this matter. We were hired to test public opinion on a particular subject and with no ax to grind, that’s exactly what we did. We don’t have to agree or disagree with the questions, we simply ask them and provide the client with a fair and accurate set of data reflecting public opinion.” – John Zogby
I still think voters were ill informed showing their lack of independent research, instead relying on a very biased media. Sad! because this was the case for the last two years. As a result of the media bias we are now stuck with an Obama administration.
Wow! Can you believe this? Media has undermined democracy. Their bias was intended to get Obama elected. On top of that Chris “Tweety” Matthews of MSNBC has now promised he will make it his singular job to ensure the Obama presidency is a success. And what does General Electric and MSNBC get for their media bias, a huge chunk of change in the bailout.
Watch the video:
Let me know what you think. Do you think media bias played a part in the death of democracy? Did media bias knock Hillary out in the primaries? Did media bias give us an ill prepared president elect who doesn’t know if there are 50 states or 57 states?
I recently became aware of this group, Grassfire.Org. It is a conservative force which is building a grassroots movement to counter the Obama leftist regime. I wholeheartedly support their efforts because things are already out of control in the Obama cabal. He is filling the White House with former Clintonistas, many of them with the same leftist regime in mind.
The Socialistic policies they espouse are not doing anything positive for this country. We had 50% or more than 600,000 more hungry children in 2007, with that number expected to rise dramatically by year’s end. These hungry children are not being helped by the bailout. Amd they are not likely to be helped by any policies put forth by Obama’s new policies.
I think Grassfire.org is the wave of the future. They have amassed more than 100,000 members to date. I sent out e-mails to all my contacts so they can have a part in taking back our country. Here is the e-mail I received from the movement:
+ + Obama Resistance Update
Grassfire.org
Nancy,
In the 72 hours since you’ve joined Grassfire’s “Resistance”
against Barack Obama and his leftist agenda, fantastic things
are happening!
Already, more than 147,803 freedom-filled citizens have
responded to the call, with thousands more joining the Resistance
every hour-and it couldn’t happen fast enough.
Nancy, we’ve learned that Obama has already set an
extremely aggressive agenda immediately upon taking office that
includes shutting down oil and gas exploration, advancing radical
global warming policies, and further expansion of the federal
government!
++ Personal Action Is Paramount
If we are to succeed at arresting Obama’s radical plans for our
nation, it is imperative that citizens take immediate action in
helping us build a mighty coalition of at least ONE MILLION
grassroots resistors!
Simply stated, I’m calling on you, Nancy to help me reach 100
citizens with our “Resistance” message.
That’s right. I need you to help me rally 100 citizens to our cause
by forwarding this and other critical updates to your friends,
family, co-workers, urging them to take IMMEDIATE ACTION by clicking here:
Because time is so critical, it’s simply not enough to just forward
a message or two of your friends. Nancy, we are talking about
our nation, the loss of our rights and freedoms, and a radical socialist
agenda that may take generations to recover from…
I need you to take action right now!
I need your to literally talk your friends through the petition
signing process. If you have to, stand over their shoulder until
the process is complete!
Yes, it is that important, and I’m counting on you to take full advantage
of the time remaining until Inauguration Day (Jan. 20) by leading an
additional 100 citizens or more to The Resistance!
Thank you for your commitment to our cause!
Steve Elliott, President
Grassfire.org
P.S: If you would like a more detailed breakdown of Grassfire’s
“Resistance”
strategy, please go here:
SEC Files Insider Trading Charges Against Mark Cuban
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2008-273
Washington, D.C., Nov. 17, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Dallas entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading for selling 600,000 shares of the stock of an Internet search engine company on the basis of material, non-public information concerning an impending stock offering.
Additional Materials
The Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that in June 2004, Mamma.com Inc. invited Cuban to participate in the stock offering after he agreed to keep the information confidential. The complaint further alleges that Cuban knew that the offering would be conducted at a discount to the prevailing market price and that it would be dilutive to existing shareholders.
Within hours of receiving this information, according to the complaint, Cuban called his broker and instructed him to sell Cuban’s entire position in the company. When the offering was publicly announced, Mamma.com’s stock price opened at $11.89, down $1.215 or 9.3 percent from the prior day’s closing price of $13.105. According to the complaint, Cuban avoided losses in excess of $750,000 by selling his stock prior to the public announcement of the offering.
“Insider trading cases are a high priority for the Commission. This case demonstrates yet again that the Commission will aggressively pursue illegal insider trading whenever it occurs,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
Scott W. Friestad, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said, “As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.”
The complaint alleges that Cuban violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission’s complaint seeks to permanently enjoin Cuban from future violations of the federal securities laws, disgorgement (with prejudgment interest), and a financial penalty.
This complaint leads me to ask some questions especially when I consider the penalty awarded Martha Stewart after her insider trading trial. Will Mark Cuban go to jail? Will he be awarded a fine commensurate with his losses? What does “permanently enjoin” mean and what kind of penalty does it award, if any?
It is my opinion that the Constitution is being undermined today. Why? Because Obama hasn’t addressed his birth certificate yet. He went to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother and subsequently access to Obama’s birth certificate was sealed by the Hawaiian governor, Linda Lingle.
Every time a person or persons files a law suit to make Obama present the vault copy of his birth certificate it is thrown out of court. And the courts doing this at some times are partisan judges which makes their decisions suspicious.
Very little time is left to vet Obama and make certain he is a legitimate president-elect under the Constitution. Here are the three unanswered questions for Obama:
Was Barack Obama Born in Kenya?
Is He Really a Citizen of Indonesia?
Does the Constitution still Matter?
(One more question from me: Why hasn’t Obama answered then yet?)
…less than month before the Electoral College meets. They meet on December 15th. More on this subject:
Former Deputy Attorney General Philip Berg filed a lawsuit addressing the citizenship status of Barack Obama before the Democratic National Convention and copied Democratic Chairman Howard Dean. It should have alerted them that there was a possible problem before they selected their nominee. But that problem was ignored. Other lawsuits filed before Nov. 4 were also ignored, placing us in what could be a constitutional crisis.
The good news is the real election hasn’t taken place yet. The Electoral College doesn’t meet until Dec. 15. That gives us less than a month to find the answers to the looming questions regarding whether Barack Obama meets the constitutional requirements for the office of president.
The courts don’t seem to be in any hurry to take up their responsibility as guardians of the Constitution, so now Congress must step in. You see, members of Congress are sworn to uphold the Constitution, and when they vote in January to confirm (or reject) the vote of the Electoral College, they can’t very well do that unless they know for certain that the basic constitutional requirements for office have been met.
An ad running this week in the Washington Times Weekly asks three questions America needs to know: “Was Barack Obama really born in Kenya?” “Is he really a citizen of Indonesia?” And, “Does the Constitution still matter?”
As I wrote about last week, there are many reasons to doubt whether Barack Obama meets the requirements for the office of president. First, there’s that pesky tape from Sarah Obama, Barack’s grandmother, where she says, “I was in the delivery room in (Mombosa) Kenya when he was born Aug. 4, 1961.” Secondly, there’s the matter of U.S. law. If only one parent was an American citizen, as in Obama’s case, the law at the time of Obama’s birth required one parent to have been an American citizen for at least 10 years – five of which had to have happened after the age of 14. Since Obama’s mother was only 18 at the time of Obama’s birth, he would not qualify as an American citizen if his grandmother is right about him being born abroad.
Thirdly, there’s no original birth certificate – just a “certification of live birth” posted on a website experts say is forged and altered. Fourthly, there’s the issue of Indonesian citizenship, which is a prerequisite to attending school there. Add to that the fact that Obama’s stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, is listed as his father on his Indonesian school records. If he had U.S. citizenship, according to Indonesian law, he would have lost it when he attended school there or if he was adopted by his stepfather as his records indicate. Read more »
Two years ago Peter Schiff talked about the economy and the coming recession. Nobody was listening and others thought he was quite off on the issue. It turns out Schiff was correct. Listen to the video:
Mr. Schiff was absolutely correct. Our Democratic led Congress was absent on the subject. They did nothing about the housing/subprime mess. And now today we are stuck with a very non-transparent $700 billion dollar bailout with $290 billion dollars already paid out with just $60 billion dollars left to spend. There is no oversight. And the American taxpayer has no idea where the money has been spent!
I have been exposing MSM for their absolute biased reporting since the start of the election season, now the LA Times is waking up from their koolaid-swill reporting. The MSM bias has resulted in voters who were ill-informed. According to a Zogby poll Obama supporters couldn’t even answer simple questions about the election. When Obama and Biden had said something specific and questioned about it, the voters almost unanimously gave Sarah Palin credit for it. Of course most people know Obama said that during a campaign stop in Oregon.
The most amazing thing is all the voters knew everything about Sarah Palin. Asked where they got their information, their answers included media outlets such as The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and even PBS. All these media outlets were or remain in the tank for Obama. Chris Matthews and MSNBC are one example of a media outlet that remains in the tank for Obama.
Dan Morain of the L.A. Times has just discovered that Barack Obama has a pretty thin resume prior to being elevated to the presidency. Between 1993 and ’96, Obama, the much-ballyhooed “Constitutional scholar,” had only an unusually low 3,723 billable hours of legal work accrued over a four-year stint with his law firm employer Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard. Further, he seems to have worked on but few cases and made little impact commensurate with his reputation. The question I have, of course, is why is the L.A. Times only NOW interested that Obama was “involved in relatively few cases before entering politics”? Where was this investigating before the election?
This is really bizarre in light of the fact that this information has been in the public eye for more than a year. LA Times, you should be ashamed!
Read on, there is more:
Here’s how Morain sums up Obama’s paper trail:
30: The approximate number of legal cases Obama was involved in:
4: The number of years Obama was a full-time lawyer
70%: The amount of time Obama spent on voting rights, civil rights and employment, generally as a junior associate. (The rest of his time was spent on matters related to real-estate transactions, filing incorporation papers and defending clients against minor lawsuits.)
3,723: The number of billable hours Obama accrued while working at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard.
According to Morain, some of Obama’s “big” cases were the case of a shortchanged babysitter, the case of a cold building tenant, and a lawsuit against a corporation that owned low-income housing on behalf of a guy that slipped and fell down. Additionally, Obama was involved in the enforcement of the federal Motor Voter law in Illinois — at lest that one being a higher profile case.
So, it appears Obama has less
So, it appears Obama has less billable hours during those four years than most young lawyers are expected to accrue (which is up to 2,000 hours a year according to some estimates), worked on but few cases, and only on one notable one. On top of that, he was rarely more than a “junior associate” the whole time.
This is the man that was praised for his extensive legal career? A slighted babysitter and a guy that fell down are the amazing legal challenges he faced as a young lawyer?
Of course, the biggest question is, why are we only now seeing this report in the L.A. Times? Where was this report two months ago or more?
Need I even ask?
Never mind wondering where this investigative reporting was two months ago! Where was it two years ago? And why is Obama with so few billable hours as a former lawyer, a former Senator and now president elect? Shame on the media. Go back to journalism school and learn how to do real investigative research that is truly unbiased because you have honestly forgotten that is part of your job.
To all our brothers and sisters, of the Army, Marine Corp, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guards who have stood together to protect this Great Country!
Thank you on this upcoming Thanksgiving Day!
We must send a clear message to all State and U.S. Representatives! The Veterans and the Citizens of this Nation are in CHARGE! Now monitor those that have been ELECTED! If we are to have a strong GOVERNMENT!!!
By the people and for the people!
Call in at: 1-877-213-4329 and let’s talk!
If you have a voice let it be heard tonight on Welcome to VFVC live on the air!
Let’s FIRE FOR EFFECT!
Special Guests
Russell Means And Nancy Armstrong
Oglala Sioux
Topic – Pine Ridge , South Dakota
Visit OFFE’s website here. Join our fight for mandatory finding for the the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Get a load of these high school kids. At the conclusion listen to the high notes on the trumpet, played by a high school kid! One of the fathers recorded it, added some graphic enhancements to the recording, and posted it on the web.
The song, of course, is the ‘Battle Hymn Of The Republic.’
Be prepared….It will definitely send a few shivers up your spine…
Click here to experience the most incredible rendition of the ‘Battle Hymn of The Republic’….
If this doesn’t make you want to fight for our country… then YOU are in the wrong country!!!
Obama is truly nothing more than a typical politician. He rewards crinyism with senior advisor posts. The problem with this senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, she is a Chicago slum-lord. UGH! I thought Obama was all about hopey-changey, instead he is more of the samey old politician. Not that I expected anything different from him.
Here is the story:
President-elect Barack Obama is naming his longtime friend and supporter Valerie Jarrett to be his White House senior adviser. Jarrett, who hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor’s office years ago, is one of the president-elect’s closest friends and advisers. Her name has been floated for several top administration jobs. But Obama settled on the senior adviser role, said a person close to the president-elect and willing to speak only on background because the decision has not been officially announced. (Source)
It is the rest of the story that is interesting. Here is that part of the story:
There is part of the story that the Media Forgot to cover. You see, Getting the other half of his back yard for less than market price wasn’t the only Obama Rezko real estate dealing. As a state Senator, Obama pushed through a housing development deal in his district. Tony Rezko and Six of his real estate partners were involved, they all provided tons of cash to Obama’s campaign fund. That deal turned out to be horrible for the low income families that ended up living there. They received much less than what they paid for. Guess who managed the Obama-Rezko tenement, that’s right Valerie Jarrett his new Senior Adviser. Her company managed the property as its moved from a low-income housing project to a hell-hole.
The Boston Globe broke the story of the land deal and Jarret’s involvement with it back in June. It follows below:
Grim proving ground for Obama’s housing policy
By Binyamin Appelbaum, Globe Staff
CHICAGO – The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can’t afford to live anywhere else.
But it’s not safe to live here.
About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale – a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.
Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing – an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.
As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.
Of course there is more evidence that Obama’s cronies have mismanaged many public housing unit and apartments. More on those issues:
But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies – including several hundred in Obama’s former district – deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.
Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama’s close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama’s constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.
Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama’s state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade.
“No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it,” said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.
Obama’s campaign, in a written response to Globe questions, affirmed the candidate’s support of public-private partnerships as an alternative to public housing, saying that Obama has “consistently fought to make livable, affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods available to all.”
The campaign did not respond to questions about whether Obama was aware of the problems with buildings in his district during his time as a state senator, nor did it comment on the roles played by people connected to the senator.
Who are some of these people personally known to Obama? It is quite a list of who’s who in Chicago and their crooked way of doing business:
Among those tied to Obama politically, personally, or professionally are:
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.
Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama’s US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama’s former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments.
Antoin “Tony” Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obama’s early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezko’s company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama’s district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable.
Campaign finance records show that six prominent developers – including Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko – collectively contributed more than $175,000 to Obama’s campaigns over the last decade and raised hundreds of thousands more from other donors. Rezko alone raised at least $200,000, by Obama’s own accounting.
One of those contributors, Cecil Butler, controlled Lawndale Restoration, the largest subsidized complex in Chicago, which was seized by the government in 2006 after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations.
Butler and Davis did not respond to messages. Rezko is in prison; his lawyer did not respond to inquiries.
Jarrett, a powerful figure in the Chicago development community, agreed to be interviewed but declined to answer questions about Grove Parc, citing what she called a continuing duty to Habitat’s former business partners. She did, however, defend Obama’s position that public-private partnerships are superior to public housing.
“Government is just not as good at owning and managing as the private sector because the incentives are not there,” said Jarrett, whose company manages more than 23,000 apartments. “I would argue that someone living in a poor neighborhood that isn’t 100 percent public housing is by definition better off.”
When Daley was elected in 1989, he developed a new approach to management and redevelopment of housing facilities. He chose to turn control over to private companies owned by the above mention Obama cronies. Obama agreed with Dale, saying if management and redevelopment was hanfled by private firms it would be better for the city. Of course the opposite is the truth. Read on:
Chicago chose a more dramatic approach. Under Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was elected in 1989, the city launched a massive plan to let private companies tear down the projects and build mixed-income communities on the same land.
The city also hired private companies to manage the remaining public housing. And it subsidized private companies to create and manage new affordable housing, some of which was used to accommodate tenants displaced from public housing.
Chicago’s plans drew critics from the start. They asked why the government should pay developers to perform a basic public service – one successfully performed by governments in other cities. And they noted that privately managed projects had a history of deteriorating because guaranteed government rent subsidies left companies with little incentive to spend money on maintenance.
Most of all, they alleged that Chicago was interested primarily in redeveloping projects close to the Loop, the downtown area that was seeing a surge of private development activity, shunting poor families to neighborhoods farther from the city center. Only about one in three residents was able to return to the redeveloped projects.
“They are rapidly displacing poor people, and these companies are profiting from this displacement,” said Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle of Southside Together Organizing for Power, a community group that seeks to help tenants stay in the same neighborhoods.
“The same exact people who ran these places into the ground,” the private companies paid to build and manage the city’s affordable housing, “now are profiting by redeveloping them.”
Barack Obama was among the many Chicago residents who shared Daley’s conviction that private companies would make better landlords than the Chicago Housing Authority.
This morning I was reading a Washington Times interview with Michael Steele who is currently a candidate for Republican National Committee (RNC) chair when a statement he made jumped out at me. What was that statement?
Here it is:
“The problem is that within the operations of the RNC, they don’t give a damn. It’s all about outreach … and outreach means let’s throw a cocktail party, find some black folks and Hispanics and women, wrap our arms around them – ‘See, look at us,’ ” he said.
Mr. Steele is correct. McCain’s campaign backed by the RNC held a mixer (lots of liquor and food) in Denver during the activities of the Democratic National Convention. There appeared to be a line drawn in the sand at that mixer. The Republican volunteers present didn’t embrace the PUMAs present and the PUMAs did their part in remaining aloof.
A few of the PUMAs and Democrats present at that mixer did interact with the Republicans present but that was because a handful of Democrats embraced the Republicans present. And that was the saddest part of the event.
While Michelle Obama (re-)introduced herself to America and Senator Edward M. Kennedy electrified the Pepsi Center, a mile or so away at the Paramount Cafe, a loud rock-and-roll bar in a rehabbed 1920s movie theater, college Republicans talked over chips and beer with the disaffected Democrats who call themselves PUMAs (for either Party Unity My A– or People United Means Action.)
This was the latest attempt by the GOP to call attention to, and if possible exacerbate, the divisions within the Democratic Party; earlier Monday, John McCain’s campaign released a TV ad featuring a former Clinton delegate talking about how she’d decided to vote Republican, “a first for me.”
Over the deafening music and chatter in the packed bar, the clusters of clean-cut college kids, exhausted from a long day door-knocking and sign waving, did not, in truth, do much mixing with the PUMA crowd, many of whom were old enough to be the young conservatives’ mothers.
But a few did.
We did enjoy chatting about the reality of the election year and how we would support McCain in November. Read on:
… two young women and a young man from the College Republicans stood next to a couple of middle-aged women from Wichita. The Democrats were doing most of the talking.
“I know he’s a maverick,” Nancy Armstrong, a 48-year-old retired Navy veteran, was saying to the young Republicans, who nodded politely. “I know he works across the aisle, and I particularly liked his immigration bill.”
“We may not agree on everything, But John McCain is a man of integrity, and I can’t say that about Barack Obama,” said her friend, Shannon Scholler, 53, who works for a social service referral agency.
They posed for a picture with the young Republican man, who was not allowed to give his name to the press. He gave Armstrong a warm hug.
Armstrong suggested they open a McCain office in Wichita. One of the young women checked her Blackberry to see if they needed one there.
Asked if he would vote for Hillary Clinton if his primary candidate had not won, the young man considered.
“You have to vote your conscience,” he offered.
A few seemed capable of appreciating the irony of the spectacle, considering that the GOP spent most of the 1990s villifying the Clintons and that many conservatives wanted nothing more than to run against her this fall.
Jessi Cleaver, a 35-year-old software tester and Clinton supporter from New York City, said it just shows how furious Clintonites are about how the Democrats and Obama handled the primary.
“You know what?” she said. “The one who should be throwing the party is Obama.”
I appreciated the irony of the situation even though I did not support or vote for President Bill Clinton when he was running for the presidency. Why? Frankly it was because of his policies towards the military.
The irony really rang home with me because I supported his wife for her bid for the presidency.
A year or so ago Obama said he was running to end the lobby influence in Washington, DC. He even said he was a new kind of candidate, one who would not accept the influence of that same group. Here is what he said according to CNNPolitics.com:
“I am running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won’t work in my White House.”
There is no truth to that last statement at all. Not only is Biden hiring lobbyists but so is Obama. And this is what Obama says about lobbyists now:
And the Obama folks concede that eliminating anyone in Washington who had ever lobbied Congress or who has a family member who lobbied Congress would be foolish.
And it’s true, you could argue the reality of Washington and our government is that lobbyists are often the most informed people on a given issue.
It’s okay to have lobbyists at the table now because they know more than The One does. And of course The One and Gaffe-O-Matic Biden himself needs them too! And I am not the only one who sees the conflict of interest. Just look at Biden’s Chief of Staff (and no it wasn’t Patty Solis Doyle who got the job, though that is what she was hired for by the Obama campaign or was she?), Ronald Klain.
Mr. Klain is a former lobbyist at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he lobbied for clients including the failed mortgage giant Fannie Mae; an industry group seeking help with asbestos lawsuits; a drug maker under federal investigation; the cable and media giant Time Warner; and an airline. I guess the President-elect feels that SOME lobbyists are OK.
A bit disingenuous, don’t you think? I am not the only one who is criticizing Biden and Obama’s choice of insiders but the New York Times(NYT) is quite critical as well. (Yes. Can you believe the NYT is turning on The One?)
Here are some excerpts from the NYT:
Mr. Klain, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore, is an executive at Revolution, the investment company of the AOL founder Steve Case. He worked until 2005 as a lobbyist at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he lobbied for clients including the failed mortgage giant Fannie Mae; an industry group seeking help with asbestos lawsuits; a drug maker under federal investigation; the cable and media giant Time Warner; and an airline.
Mr. Obama’s ethics rules, however, do not bar former lobbyists. The rules prohibit officials like Mr. Klain from working on any matter directly related to their employers over the previous two years, so Mr. Klain would be required to recuse himself from issues involving Mr. Case’s firm Revolution.
… The Obama transition also named Philip Schiliro as its liaison to Congress. Mr. Schiliro is a former chief of staff to Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat. Mr. Waxman is chairman of the House committee on government oversight and reform, which watches and sometimes investigates the White House.
Mr. Schiliro worked for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign and had previously worked on Capitol Hill for 25 years. His jobs there have included a stint as an aide to former Senator Tom Daschle, adding to a growing roster of former Daschle aides in the Obama administration.
And finally let’s add another crony with lobbying ties to that list, former Senator Tom Daschle who has been tapped for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources. He was employed by the law firm Alston & Bird as special policy adviser in their legislative and public policy group. Here is the NPR interview with Tom Daschle as he discusses his new position with the law firm.
Daschle has other lobbying problems. Here is a sample:
He serves on the boards of Prime BioSolutions and the Mayo Clinic, among others, and his law firm lobbies for a number of industry clients, including CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories and HealthSouth. Daschle does not lobby himself, but his law firm has a lobbying arm.
His connections to Caremark (my prescription company) and Abbott Laboratories explains why The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) have applauded the selection of Tom Daschle as HHS Secretary. President and CEO Billy Tauzin issued the following statement today on Tom Daschle’s selection as incoming HHS Secretary:
“Tom Daschle is a wise choice to guide the President-elect on shaping healthcare reform. Sen. Daschle has what it takes to do the job: Smarts, toughness and a strong understanding of the healthcare challenges that face our nation in these tough economic times.
“As our nation’s leaders look ahead and begin to shape their agendas for next year, America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies – which lead the world in discovering new cures and treatments for patients – welcome the opportunity to help address the difficult healthcare challenges facing America.
“PhRMA is committed to working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and will continue to support policies that encourage and strengthen innovation, improve patient access to medicines and expand healthcare coverage for all Americans.”
Now let’s complicate matters a bit more. Daschle’s wife, Linda Hall Daschle is currently a lobbyist too according to the Washington Post. More on Linda Daschle:
Daschle’s new position might be complicated by his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who is a registered lobbyist with the Washington firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. (Roll Call and The Post are reporting that Linda Daschle is set to leave the firm and open her own shop focusing on transportation in January. “Although she does not have health care industry clients, the company does represent numerous health interests,” The Post reports, referring to Baker, Donelson.)
Here is a list of her clients:
At her current firm, she counts American Airlines, Boeing, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Lockheed Martin and L3 Communications among her clients. She has represented pharmaceutical company Amgen Inc. and cigarette makers Lorillard Tobacco and Philip Morris Cos. in 1999.
I find it very disturbing that she is described as a “major lobbying force”.
She has been called a “major lobbying force” by associates, according to The Hill, and The New York Times said she is one of the “most influential professional lobbyists in the capital.”
Remember what Obama said:
“I am running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won’t work in my White House.”
It seems Obama may have told a big white lie! Lobbyists of all kinds are coming to the table in the Obama administration. And they will have his ear. Since Obama will lose his Blackberry and laptop, the little people will be forgotten, the people who were negligent in their duties as voters.
Daschle lost in 2004, and this information apparently turned off enough voters to “make it so.” This and that big house that’s pictured on the blog and his declaration as D.C. as his place of residence (dubbed “Mansiongate”)…and the lie about Thune’s lobbying. That latter point alone qualifies him for a job with the Obama camp….
According to OpenSecrets.org, Ms. Daschle has apparently continued her relationship with Baker, Donelson et al. If you want to see a boatload of connections, however, check out Muckety’s extensive relationship maps. (Play around with these and be sure to pass the mouse over the wheel of connections to get the full information. Click on Baker, Donelson, then at the bottom click on “47 lobby firm”). And, yes, you’ll see hospitals and health outfits galore, Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, etc. etc.–it’s so jam-packed you can’t even see all of them…until you click on individual firm names and you see even more! It’s very interesting!
This info isn’t the most up-to-date and I couldn’t find anything about Ms. Daschle’s recent activities.
But the point is, even if nothing happened with the Daschles and Senate business, there should be scrutiny. And, if there is scrutiny, there might be a bit of unpleasantness for the newly-minted “ethical” standards of the Obama crowd. Of course, Ms. Daschle is leaving her current firm to create her own public policy outfit now. Are you reassured yet? And all those contacts of Tom’s and his new post gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling!
Penny Pritzker for Commerce is a bad choice in my opinion and certainly more of Obama’s Chicago cronyism. Is this really a message of hopey-changey? It was Pritzker’s bank, Superior in Chicago that went belly up first because of the sub-prime mortgage failure. She maybe a hotel mogul and certainly Obama’s most successful campaign finance chair but it was her bank that hung more than 1400 families out to dry when the bank closed. Is this really who we want running our Commerce Department?
Here’s more from the Washington Post:
Hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, who commanded Barack Obama’s record-shattering fundraising operation, has run into business obstacles that will likely prevent her from becoming Commerce secretary, sources close to the president-elect said.
“The issue is whether she ultimately wants to do this, and it may be – and probably will be – possible that for business reasons, she probably can’t do it,” said a Democratic source familiar with Obama’s Cabinet selection process.
The early favorite for the job, Pritzker may take herself out of the running soon, sources said. Pritzker was the first campaign insider and “Friend of Barack” to surface as a possible Cabinet pick. (Author’s Note:“Friend of Obama”? Call it what it is—cronyism. Paybacks and nothing more!)
Pritzker had started a review of her vast financial holdings, weighing whether she could disentangle herself to the extent necessary to meet Obama’s strict standards for service in his administration. Assuming she could, and wanted to, Obama sources said, the job would be hers.
She was an early Obama supporter who applied exacting standards to his finance team, but as a 49-year-old billionaire, Pritzker hardly broke the “business as usual” mold, as Obama pledged during his campaign. Most Commerce secretaries in recent decades were major donors for the presidents they served. (Author’s Note:Applied exacting standards as finance chair? Does that include illegal donations and removing security programs from the online donation site for Team Obama? Who approved it?)
But Pritzker allies also were confident that Pritzker herself would quickly depart from tradition by applying to Commerce the tough oversight and bristling energy that made her the most successful finance chair in campaign history.
The Office of the Secretary is the general management arm of the Department and provides the principal support to the Secretary in formulating policy and in providing advice to the President. It provides program leadership for the Department’s functions and exercises general supervision over the operating units. It also directly carries out program functions as may be assigned by the Secretary, and provides, as determined to be more economic or efficient, administrative and other support services for designated operating units. The Office of the Secretary consists of the Secretary, certain Secretarial Officers, designated staff immediately serving those officials, and a number of “Departmental offices” which have Department-wide functions or perform special program functions directly on behalf of the Secretary.
Here is a list of the bureaus within the Commerce Department:
Bureau of Industry and Security
Economics and Statistics Administration
Bureau of the Census
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Economic Development Administration
International Trade Administration
Minority Business Development Agency
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Technical Information Service
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Patent and Trademark Office
I am certain I don’t want a person who destroyed a bank and was fined by the government for its failure running any part of our government. Here is a history of Pritzker and her bank:
One of the banks that went under after making a lot of subprime loans — leaving 1,400 of its customers without part of their savings — was Chicago’s Superior Bank.
At the helm of Superior Bank at least some of the time was Obama’s national finance chairwoman, Penny Pritzker, an heiress to the Pritzker fortune.
Obama’s campaign notes that Pritzker stepped down as chairwoman of the bank’s board in 1994, seven years before it failed. She then went on the board of the bank’s holding company.
But a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows that until the end, Pritzker appeared to be taking a leadership role in trying to revive the bank with an expanded push into subprime loans.
Pritzker wrote in May 2001 that her family was recapitalizing the bank, and she pledged to “once again restore Superior’s leadership position in subprime lending.” The bank shut down in July 2001.
What was left in the wake of the bank closing is really a financial mess not for the bank but for the 1400 people who are still owed money. More on that:
But at least some of the 1,400 victims who are still owed money seven years after the bank failed say Pritzker is the wrong person for Obama to put in charge of the campaign’s finances when part of his campaign is about reforming the banking industry.
“They still owe me $113,000,” said Fran Sweet, 63, of Downers Grove, who deposited her $480,000 retirement account at Superior a month before it collapsed. “To the Pritzkers, this is nothing. They probably think, ‘Why pay her back?’ That’s nothing. But we’re all upset that someone who made these decisions could be in that position.”
The Pritzker’s definitely have the money to pay these people back but have not even made an effort to do that. What they owe these people is a mere pittance considering they have billions of dollars. Read on:
The Pritzker family bought the former Lyons Savings and Loan with partner Alan Dworman in 1988. Lyons had failed, and federal regulators asked the Pritzkers to take it over. Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the FDIC gave the Pritzkers “cash, tax incentives and promissory notes” worth $645 million to take Lyons.
Critics, including private bank watchdogs Bert Ely of Virginia and Tim Anderson of Chicago, say it was a “sweetheart deal” for the Pritzkers in which they pledged far more money than they put up. The thrift was renamed Superior.
For just $15 million, the Pritzkers could pay back the 1,400 customers still owed money, Ely and Anderson said.
The Pritzkers put up $460 million, which federal regulators said absolved them of any further liability in the collapse.
That’s less than the $645 million the Pritzkers got to take the thrift, Ely and Anderson note.
Don’t you just love it when the federal government absolves a bank from any liability and screws the American taxpayer, voter and citizen! If Obama really intends to “reform” the banking industry then why tap Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary? I forgot he owed her for all her fund raising….more cronyism…no hope or change!
How’s that working out for ya’?
Update:Penny Pritzker turns down Commerce Secretary. Why? Here is the story from Politico:
Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, national campaign finance chairwoman for the Obama campaign, has taken herself out of the running to be secretary of Commerce, a Democratic official said.
“She fears problems with her confirmation based on past business dealings,” the official said.
Pritzker was featured in a flurry of news reports as a likely secretary of commerce. But senior officials repeatedly — and correctly — told Politico that was not true.
Pritzker is a billionaire heiress to the Hyatt hotel fortune.
Officials said she was not vetted.
She should fear being confirmed for the post because of her banking failure. Remember Obama campaigned on banking reform….I’m not buying anything he said during the campaign because it is all falsehoods and tripe. Soory folks but Washington DC is awash with banking money, so I wouldn’t expect much reform!
This issue has gone from being silly to tinfoil hat to making me arch an eyebrow and wonder about the Media Blackout of the subject. I think we officially have a smoldering fire that is ready to hit flashpoint with a little help from the American public that is finally so pissed off that they are not going to take it anymore and will stand up and fight for our Constitution and the American Way! Are you sick of corrupt politicians and biased media? I know I am!
When I first heard about the Philip Berg case against Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee, I did not write anything about it because I felt that it possibly was a tinfoil hat crusade in hopes something would finally stick to Barack Obama and bring his campaign for permanent detrimental change for America to a halt. Philip Berg’s website for this case is ObamaCrimes. If you do not know the details of the cases, it boils down to this. Philip Berg wants Barack Obama to produce a vaulted birth certificate proving that he is constitutionally eligible to run for the Office of the Presidency. There seems to be some evidence, and more coming out now, that Barack was born in Kenya.
Then I read that Barack Obama had hired a team of lawyers to throw the case out, and that his legal team has unsavory associations just like Barack himself. The details of this story are at Yid With Lid.
Currently, Donofrio’s case is up for consideration of the Supreme Court who will be holding a conference on December 5th to decide whether or not to hear it – just 10 days before the electoral college meets. It was initially denied by Justice Souter and resubmitted to Justice Thomas. According to World Net Daily: (thanks to That’s Me On The Left for the tip).
A case that challenges President-elect Barack Obama’s name on the 2008 election ballot citing questions over his citizenship has been scheduled for a “conference” at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Conferences are private meetings of the justices at which they review cases and decide which ones to accept for formal review. This case is set for a conference Dec. 5, just 10 days before the Electoral College is scheduled to meet to make formal the election of Obama as the nation’s next president.
….
Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others filed a court petition in California asking the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state’s 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office.
….
Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. There have been other allegations that Obama actually was born in Kenya during a time when his father was a British subject. (My understanding of this statement is that The One stated one hospital and Maya stated another.)
The California action was filed by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation on behalf of Keyes, the presidential candidate of the American Independent Party, along with Wiley S. Drake and Markham Robinson, both California electors.
“Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal,” the action challenges.
…
The case also raises the circumstances of Obama’s time during his youth in Indonesia, where he was listed as having Indonesian citizenship. Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, raising the possibility of Obama’s mother having given up his U.S. citizenship.
Any subsequent U.S. citizenship then, the case claims, would be “naturalized,” not “natural-born.”
These are the nuts and bolts of Phil Berg and Alan Keyes cases, and the current situation begs a question or two and a statement of what we should do as American citizens to protect our Constitution.
Why isn’t the citizenship of a Presidential Candidate important enough to be heard by Justice Souter? Is not the Supreme Court the highest authority in the land on THE CONSTITUTION? Am I wrong about that? Should not there be a process where any presidential candidate must submit certain documents to each and every state Secretary for review before being added to a ballot?
How is is possible that the President Elect has been able to REFUSE to show his vaulted birth certificate and not ONE of our leaders has had the courage to question it? I forgot….you know how it is possible….
Reread this:
“Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal,” the action challenges.
Doesn’t the Supreme Court think that this may actually be an important issue to consider? How are we as Americans going to feel when we find out that our president is Kenyan? I personally believe his paternal grandmother who has stated on tape that she was at his birth in Kenya. Why else would Jerome Corsi be detained in Kenya and then deported?
Given all that, it seems that this little smoldering fire is actually starting to catch and American citizens are getting involved with petitioning the Supreme Court and the Electors from each state. I know that most of my readers are just as pissed off about this issue as I am. Let’s see, we have to produce a birth certificate to obtain a passport or any other important document, yet The One can just say “no”? How does that work?
I want to thank LadyHawkke for this comment:
If you want to help, go here: http://www.democratic-disaster.com/index.php
Very organized website and thousands of certified letters have gone out to electors in most states. Now, people are being encouraged to seek out an elector and reach out to them personally. First call them and visit them if you most. The radius is 50 miles. The goal is to get them to join in a class action law suit to stop Obama from being inaugurated until he provides his BC.
We also have Obama Crimes; Phil Berg’s site and People’s Passions.org, (they make it easy to get involved.) If you want to join and help fight to preserve our Constitution, follow the links below, and also at Democratic Disaster. Both sites are very well organized and detailed.
Marie Cocco wrote an interesting piece yesterday, titled “The Glass Ceiling Holds Strong” and her premise correct. I was recently introduced to Christal Phillips, she had something to add to Marie’s post. Here it is:
In her op-ed, The Glass Ceiling Holds Strong, Marie Cocco of The Washington Post rightly tells women to stop kidding ourselves. The glass ceiling remains uncracked and possibly even thicker than ever before because male candidates now know that they can use misogyny to the extreme and get away with it without even a blink of an eye from the media or even feminist groups. We need to stop believing that there are “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling. I see it more as 18 million voices – many of them women and Americans within the lower income bracket – stifled and disenfranchised by the DNC and the media. It can also be said that powerful women such as Nancy Pelosi and Arianna Huffington continue to pander to male opinions without giving other women the chance to be heard.
Here is the entire text of the piece:
WASHINGTON — It is time to stop kidding ourselves. This wasn’t a breakthrough year for American women in politics. It was a brutal one.
The glass ceiling remains firmly in place — not cracked, as Hillary Clinton insisted as she tried to claim rhetorical victory after her defeat in the Democratic nominating contest. It wasn’t even scratched with the candidacy of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee — unless you consider becoming an object of national ridicule to be a symbol of advancement. As divergent as these two women are ideologically and temperamentally, as different as are their resumes, they both banged their heads — hard — against the ceiling. Both were bruised. So was the goal of advancing women in political leadership.
Even if President-elect Barack Obama chooses Clinton as secretary of state, no ground will be broken. Clinton would be the third woman to hold the post. And there is no longer anything extraordinary in a president naming women to his Cabinet. Franklin D. Roosevelt did it first, when he appointed Frances Perkins as labor secretary in 1933. Since then, every president but Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy has named women to the Cabinet or to Cabinet-level posts, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Bill Clinton holds the record: He appointed 16 women overall, and at one point about half of those serving in Clinton’s Cabinet were female.
But, we are invariably told, surely there are enough women moving through the “pipeline” of lower offices so that someday, some woman from somewhere will win the presidency or the vice presidency. Well, here is how things stand: Eight women will serve as governors in 2009, the same as this year. The proportion of women serving in statewide elective office actually has dropped since it reached a high of about 28 percent in 2000; it is now about 24 percent, according to the center.
The Senate will add one woman next year, bringing the number of female senators to 17. Ten newly elected House members are female. This means that as the class of 2008 enters the Capitol’s marble halls, it will include less than half the number of women who first won office in 1992 — the so-called “year of the woman.”
Including incumbents and newcomers, a record number of women will be serving in Congress, but still only 17 percent of its members will be female. This is where that record places us: on a par with the legislative representation women have achieved in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The United Nations, which tracks women’s global political advancement, says that at this rate, it will take women in the developing world 40 years to reach parity with men.
How long will it take us? We already are well into the fourth decade since the contemporary women’s movement of the 1970s spawned a generation that sought to claim an equal place in the halls of power.
Those who watched the media’s sexist hazing of both Clinton and Palin often rationalize this treatment as the result of these two candidates’ particular personalities and the legitimacy — or presumed illegitimacy — of their campaigns. But Barbara Lee, whose Boston-based family foundation has conducted extensive research of gubernatorial races involving women, routinely identifies the same undercurrents in state campaigns. Voters demand more experience of a woman candidate, and judge her competence separately from whether she is sufficiently “likable.” Male candidates typically must clear only the competence bar to be judged — as Obama indelicately put it during a primary debate — “likable enough.”
“We heard that over and over again — that no woman is ever right,” Lee says of her focus groups. “They like the concept of it but when it comes to a real, live, breathing candidate, they don’t.”
Lee summarizes the disparate assessment this way: “There are no female Arnold Schwarzeneggers.” That is, no woman will ever burst into politics, capture the voters’ imagination and be catapulted into high public office without a lick of experience.
Yet American women are a majority of the population and a majority of the electorate. They earn more than half the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a level of educational achievement far exceeding that of women in developing countries. There must be some reason we don’t do any better than women in impoverished, rural regions of the world where cultural norms oppress women.
Maybe it is because our culture isn’t so different after all.
Marie Cocco is correct, our culture is no different than other cultures. Women are still considered second class citizens in the USA. The sad thing it is mostly women who treat us this way. Women are their own worst enemies.
I had an interesting conversation here in Kansas with one woman who said I vote the way my husband tells me to! And this is just a small part of the problem.
Health Care reform is being marshaled by two healthcare groups. “In separate actions, the two trade groups, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, announced their support for guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions, in conjunction with an enforceable mandate for individual coverage”, according to The New York Times (NYT).
The healthcare groups have some requirements so this plan will be allowed to go anywhere. Read the following statement, you will realize it is Hillary Clinton’s plan, not Obama’s plan which only includes insuring children. Read on:
The health insurance industry said Wednesday that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage.
The healthcare insurance industry wants mandates. That means insurance for all people regardless os pre-existing conditions.
Here are excerots from Senator Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan:
The centerpiece of Clinton’s plan is the so-called “individual mandate,” requiring everyone to have health insurance – just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance.
Obama only mandates health insurance for children but not parents. If the parents have no health care and get ill, who is left to care for the “healthy children”?
More from the article:
The new position taken by the insurance industry — the industry that helped sink President Bill Clinton’s plan for universal health coverage in 1994 — could ease the way for passage of such legislation.
But the industry’s position differs from that of Mr. Obama in one significant respect. Insurers want the government to require everyone to have and maintain insurance. By contrast, Mr. Obama would, at least initially, apply the requirement only to children.
In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, that was a major point of contention between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Mrs. Clinton said that everyone should be required to have coverage. Mr. Obama said he wanted to be certain that insurance was affordable and available to all before considering such a broad requirement.
Asked on Wednesday for reaction to the insurance industry’s proposals, Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the Obama transition team, said, “We are declining comment.” Mr. Vietor cited Mr. Obama’s view that “we have only one president at a time.”
That is right absolutely no response from Obama. And that leads me to a question. Will Obama mandate health care for all or just mandate insurance for children?
More from NYT:
Donald G. Hamm Jr., president of Assurant Health, explained why the industry thought an individual mandate must be coupled with any ban on such underwriting practices.
“In the individual market, people can choose whether or not to apply for coverage,” Mr. Hamm said in an interview. “If they know they can obtain coverage at any time, many will wait until they get sick to apply for it. That increases the price for everyone.”
Insurers say that is just what happened in several states that prohibited insurers from turning down applicants on the basis of their health status.
The new policy statements are silent on two important issues: how to enforce an individual mandate and how to regulate insurance prices, or premiums.
While insurers would be required to sell insurance to any applicant, nothing would guarantee that consumers could afford it. Rate regulation promises to be a highly contentious issue, since it pits the financial interests of insurers against those of consumers.
Problems still remain with the mandates. Who enforces the mandate? How to regulate insurance prices and premiums? And the last of the problems is going to be the biggest obstacle and may be the deal breaker. What kind of premiums will the insurance industry want?
At present, insurance premiums are generally regulated by the states and often vary according to a person’s age, sex, medical history and place of residence within a state. In the individual market in most states, a person with a history of serious or chronic illness can be charged much more than a healthy person of the same age and sex.
Mr. Hamm, a member of the board of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the group might offer recommendations to define “a fair and appropriate rating structure.”
Alissa Fox, a vice president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, said the individual mandate was an indispensable corollary of any approach forbidding insurers to reject applicants because of health status.
“Insurance works best when everyone is in the pool,” Ms. Fox said. “You need healthy people in the insurance pool to help pay for sicker individuals who are much more motivated to buy coverage.”
Insurers did not say how the government should enforce an individual mandate: whether through fines, tax penalties or other means. Politicians have also been reluctant to specify details of enforcement, which could prove highly unpopular.
Neither the government nor the insurance industry have a plan or even the outline of a plan. This is in itself a very large problem. The cost of insurance premiums will have to be wrestled from the hands of the states. In Kansas the insurance rates are outrageous for people with pre-existing conditions. For a woman, aged 53, $1000/month and for a 26 year old woman $650, both with pre-existing conditions. Neither can afford those premiums and rely on so-called “free-clinics or income adjusted payments”.
The only answer I see is mandated insurance. I seriously have my doubts about the plan. Why? Because it will be left up to the federal government to track these mandates. And the feds and Congress aren’t too good at overseeing “new programs”.
What will Napolitano bring to the table as Department of Homeland Security? Michelle Malkin answers that question for us. From Malkin’s blog:
The buzz has Barack Obama tapping Arizona Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano for DHS Secretary.
On the surface, it may seem a promising pick. Napolitano made a few pro-immigration enforcement moves in her state — including declaring a border security emergency and backing some employer sanctions. She riled the open-borders lobby by signing a bill banning public funding of day labor centers.
But Napolitano’s heart lies with the shamnesty crowd. She vetoed a bill cracking down on phony matricula consular cards for illegal aliens and rejected efforts allowing more cooperation between local law enforcement and the feds. She opposes assimilationist measures on English language and ID requirements to prevent voter fraud; she supports in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens.
In short, she’s a double-talker and double-doer who will ensure the immigration chaos status quo.
My guess is she won’t be any help on cracking down on illegal immigration any time soon. And I for one want illegal immigrants gone. I don’t support any type of amnesty for them or any road to citizenship. My friends who were “legal immigrants” went as family and became citizens.
My biased opinion comes from the area of Massachusetts I grew up in. It had a very large Portuguese population and they were all legal. And that is how my family arrived in this country. All people should arrive that way.
Gerald Celente is a financial psychic who is paid to spot trends. And his predictions are generally spot on. He correctly predicted the stock market crash of 1987 and the fall of the Soviet Union. He says within four years there will be widespread food riots and tax rebellions in the US. His major message is that we are on the path to becoming the world’s biggest undeveloped nation.
He predicts that Christmas will return to non-retail Christmases. There will be more worry about putting food on the table by 2012. There will be more hand-crafted items as gifts, more family time. That is happening right here in our own house. Next spring we are starting a new “community” garden for friends and family. Good thing I know how to raise cattle and can home grown vegetables and fruits. Others will wonder how to get along but I won’t. And our 5 acres will come in very handy.
Watch the video:
Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.
Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
“We’re going to see the end of the retail Christmas….we’re going to see a fundamental shift take place….putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree,” said Celente, adding that the situation would be “worse than the great depression”.
“America’s going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for,” said Celente, noting that people’s refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.
I am prepared for this possibility. We own 5 acres as I said and the option to use another five. We intend to raise our own cattle next spring beyong the community garden. I am open to give lessons on canning your own food. I embrace the old ways but with modern conveniences such as an electronic sewing machine. I can sew and quilt. I am even an artist, often giving my paintings as gifts for Christmas. Celente’s predictions have already been discussed in our house.
The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.
… The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente’s accuracy as a trend forecaster.
“When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente.”
— CNN Headline News
“A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties.”
— The Economist
“Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right.”
— USA Today
“There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.”
– CNBC
“Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.”
— The Wall Street Journal
“Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark … he’s one of the most accurate forecasters around.”
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Mr. Celente tracks the world’s social, economic and business trends for corporate clients.”
— The New York Times
“Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority.”
— 48 Hours, CBS News
“Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing.”
— The Detroit News
“Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, ‘green marketing,’ and the boom in gourmet coffees.”
— Chicago Tribune
“The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture.”
— The Los Angeles Times
“If Nostradamus were alive today, he’d have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente.”
— New York Post
So there you have it – hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now. Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.
The scary thing is this is Gerald Celente. He is hired by large businesses to spot trends. His Trends Research Institute consults for many of the Fortune 100. Just Google him and you see for yourself. He doesn’t have a crystal ball in some gypsy tavern somewhere yet his predictions are dead on.
The thing about his interview that I find most relevant is that he points out the number of cities and states that will be raising taxes just to sustain their current level of services. One of those states and cities most in the news lately, Chicago and Illinois they both have huge deficits. Massachusetts is finding it difficult to sustain their mandatory insurance program and requesting help from the federal government to fill their shortfall. Hawaii has huge budget shortfalls requiring them to shutdown their “universal” childrens healthcare program after 7 months. It seems with dire situations like this tax increases will be the only answer to budget shortfalls nationwide.
Here in Kansas, we already know that more children went hungry in 2007 and those numbers are expected to climb. They will with the layoffs coming in the aircraft industry. Hawker Beechcraft laid off 500 people, rumors are rampant suggesting Cessna and Boeing will be the next to layoff workers. Bombardier is holsing their own as they have many programs that are in the works now.
I agree with Gerald Celente on his predictions. It was just two weeks ago my husband and I were discussing our community garden, one we know will be sorely needed. Our discussion expanded to raising our own chickens again for food and eggs. Then the we discussed leasing land from our next door neighbor that is never mowed to raise to head of cattle on to butcher for our freezer. I am happy about one thing, the three years we spent running our own farm isn’t going to waste.
Well the final report is in on the “illegal” records search on Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher and you guessed it there was no legitimate reason for the searches. The investigators were careful to note that they couldn’t find a political motivation for the searches.
“All these searches were done in the midst of a national political campaign,” the report said. “But we did not find any evidence that shows the data was accessed or information released in response to media requests in an effort to support any political activity or agenda.”
(Author’s Note: Damn right these checks were politically motivated. They were meant to demean and smear Joe….)
In most state agencies searching public information for other than professional reasons is justification for firing. And all Governor Ted Strickland does is suspend her for a month without pay. Unfortunately that certainly wasn’t punishment enough because she had already received warning for using state property for other dubious purposes.
Earlier this month, Strickland placed Jones-Kelley on paid leave over separate allegations that a state computer or e-mail account was used to assist in political fundraising for Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign.
The inspector general’s report concluded that she improperly used state e-mail to engage in political activity.
The use of state computers to fund raise for Obama should have resulted in her firing. And that strike should have been her undoing leaving her unemployed (something that happened to Joe). After realizing she used state computers to fund raise for Obama, I am quite certain Jones check was politically motivated. Shame on Jones-Kelley but more so for Governor Ted Strickland for showing his political bias as well.
Two nights ago, David Letterman, in interviewing Katie Couric, described Gov. Palin as “the first vice presidential candidate that I found myself being aroused about.”
It is ghastly that this kind of discourteous, indecent talk should pass for conversational fodder — even on late night TV.
This violates CBS’s own “Program Practices” specifically states that: “The Program Practices editors review material for excessive or gratuitous violence, sexuality, nudity and inappropriate language. They ensure that character portrayals are sensitive to current ethnic, religious, sexual and other significant social concerns.” Read about CBS’ program practices at CBS Press Express.
A violation? What do *you* think?
Well, don’t just think it! Make your voice heard.
Email the Federal Communications Commission!
Email fccinfo@fcc.gov, tell them your name, where you are from, and EXACTLY how you feel about Letterman taking indecent liberties with a dignified lady, mom, and governor on his show!
It is time for this brand of disgusting language toward all women to stop. Frankly I am tired of the “he man women haters club”. It is long past time for this group to disband. If they won’t disband themselves, then it is time for real women and feminists to stand up. Let your voices be heard by contacting the FCC with a complaint towards David Letterman.
Now I know why I have stopped watching any late night TV.
I wasn’t sure if I would write about this because her acceptance of the SOS position is abominable. I’m certain she will be a good SOS but doing Obama’s bidding, and that won’t be good. Will Hillary meet unconditionally with the Castro Brothers? Or maybe it will be Adminjehad? Or how about Medvedev and Putin? Or even Chavez? She will not be able to set her own agenda, it will be The One’s agenda. Remember Hillary’s word about The One’s thin resume.
Hillary lost me with the rumor she is taking the job. Her acceptance is nothing more than acquiescence to The One. And with that I have lost all respect for Hillary. I always thought she was her own woman. She is not. She is willing to fall in line with The One and “thumb her nose” at all her supporters.And Hillary seems all too willing to make her name internationally on the back of a man’s administration. She has left this feminist behind.
I am sorry but Hillary is proving she is nothing more than a politician who cares nothing for her supporters. Hillary’s failed presidential bid did not crack any glass ceiling I have seen lately. Everyone I have looked up at is totally intact. Her words are just that and nothing more. I even have to wonder if there was any sincerity in her words at all. I heard her words in Dallas and Billings, MT.
Hillary’s “mandated universal health care” plan is taking shape. Some of the healthcare trade companies are now discussing universal health care. Where is Hillary? Hillary is running as far away as she can … to do The One’s bidding. Could it be Hillary isn’t willing to face her last dismal try at universal healthcare? Could it be she is a coward and afraid she may fail again?
I don’t know what Hillary’s reason is for accepting the job as SOS. And frankly at this point in time I don’t care. I just know this, taking the job tells me she doesn’t really care about people, only about her own future. Those 18 million people that voted for her have now been thrown under the bus. Thanks a lot Hillary!
There is only one bright spot in this spectacle, the Obots heads are going to explode. There isn’t a Whole Foods bot that doesn’t suffer from Clinton Derangement Syndrome. Must be an epidemic or something. Sorry no cure! We non-Whole Food types can have a big chuckle at those arugula eating, latte drinking Whole Food types expense. The One is throwing them under the bus. I wonder how that’s setting with the Whole Food types.
I am not the only having a good laugh at their expense. Here is an excerpt from Liberal Rapture:
A few times in the past 4 months I’ve stated that the Obama Pods would be the first thrown under the bus by the Dear Leader.
So far. So good.
Hillary will be Secretary of State. This has the Obamamedia and the Obamablog kidz cringing.
Screw ‘em. Their hatred for the Clintons knows no bounds and has no rational underpinning anyway. The deluded have to wake up about Obama eventually. It may as well be now. Obama is reconstructing the Clinton White House – with some Bushies in tow for good measure.
Definitely a Clinton Third Term about to take over this country. While Clinton’s first two terms were good, The One hasn’t got a chance. This is a truism… Wait until the bots are done with him.
More Liberal Rapture (love the irony in this post, not to mention the sarcasm.):
See the incoming CIA chief: If Brennan emerges as the pick,…will have to oppose him strenuously in the nomination process. We will, in fact, have to go to war with Obama before he even takes office.And if Obama doubts our seriousness, I have three words for him. Yes we can.
That is a quote from the nation’s preeminent hypocrite and barebacker in waiting: Andrew Sullivan. They may have to “go to war” – My God, the inflated self importance still astounds. When the Clinton announcement is formalized by Obama everyone should grab a tarp. Micheal Moore may well explode, raining lard and invective far and wide.
Brennan is a Bushie at heart. A Clinton at State and a Bushie at the C.I.A…
ha.
ha.
ha.
Obama is setting himself up an administration of D.C. insiders. This should surprise no one. The fact that there is much gnashing of teeth in Podville is testimony to the level of delusion and self importance still rampant with Kos and rest of the “Yes We Can” twits.
So far we have Clinton at State, Brennen at the C.I.A., Richardson at Commerce, Daschle at H.U.D., and Rahm the Impaler as White House gatekeeper. Except Brennen – all are Bill Clinton bred insiders. (Brennen is a Cheney/Bush “apologist” according to Sullivan.) Conservative anti-choice Republican Chuck Hagel will show up somewhere on Obama’s roster soon. And Lieberman got the thumbs up from Obama – and therefore the Senate Democratic Caucus – so he can stay. Cue Kos teeth gnashing.
We told the kos kidz Obama was not who he seemed. Maybe Howard Dean will launch an insurgent presidential campaign from the Left in 2012 to give those idiots something to do.
The Whole Foods liberals are being left at the alter – and I am glad to be a witness.
I must agree with LR about the Whole Food Liberals but I disagree about Hillary. The worst thing she has ever done is agree to take the job as SOS. The gnashing of the teeth on both sides will be quite loud.
Leading economists say it will be at least 12 months before the economy is no longer flagging…with little chance of job creation. The net loss of jobs this year has been more than 2 million and likely to climb in the year to come. Massive layoffs have been announced across all industries but none more than the flagging financial industry. And these layoffs are not likely to stop anytime soon.
As Boeing discusses layoffs beginning in 2009, this undermines Obama’s ability to create 2.5 million jobs. There is no way he will be able to create jobs at the rate jobs are being lost. Boeing is the first of the companies that will be announcing layoffs in 2009.
What is amazing to me is Obama intends to cover the job losses with non-skilled jobs! I believe Obama will find few takers for the non-skilled jobs after all this isn’t 1929 and we are not starving yet. His job creation in the school sector will require increased millage rates increasing taxes on homeowners, which few will be able to afford. School overhauls would more than likely include passage of bond referendums to find the money to create the jobs. Few people will stand by for more bond referendums (if past referendums have not been retired) or any kind of tax increases.
What about jobs fixing roads? When states receive the transportation funding from the federal government it can take up to a year or more before the actual road is started and can take many more years before it is complete. Then of course there are states like Nevada with shortfall in highway construction funds, currently theirs is $3.8 billion dollars. Rather then increase taxes, Nevada will use money from increased room tax revenue and the possible sale of water rights. Not all states have that option.
Some questions remain. Where will the road construction fund come from? Where will states get the money to cover budget shortfalls? Where will cities get the money to overhaul schools when they should be overhauling “No Child Left Behind”? (By the way this author is certain Obama doesn’t understand “No Child Left Behind” because his kids have never attended a public school. And they will be attending a private school while ensconced in our White House.) Where will the US government find the workers to cover these “created” jobs, most non-skilled positions?
The real hope of economic recovery doesn’t rest in job creation but in recovery in one of three markets, housing, auto or labor markets stabilize. Since the auto and labor markets aren’t liable to stabilize anytime soon “the recovery rests on real estate” according to Contrarian Profits. I don’t want to be a doomsayer but I wouldn’t count on the housing market either. This recessionary economy is not likely to recover anytime soon.
Basically I think Obama is living in a world where there is a never empty well of money, I’m not certain what world that is. He shows he cares little for the mounting deficit, saying that “aiding economy trumps deficit”. Well the US taxpayer doesn’t think so. They elected The One on changes to the economy. There won’t be any changes, just more spending much in the same ilk as the current George Bush, with deficits too large for the imagination.
Quite a while back I wrote a piece on 401ks, one which has been viewed by thousands of people. It is time to talk about 401ks again and address the 401k nervousness that is appearing in the investment markets. Stop being nervous. Keep investing. (Author’s Note: I am not an economic guru. I am giving advice and opinion based on my own experience. I make the investment decisions in my husband’s 401k).
We have experienced losses this year as most have that invest in 401ks, but we continue to invest because we are looking to the future, not today. We are not only investing in our future but the future of business. Once more I will repeat myself, please keep investing. Stop being nervous. If your company has changed the amount of income they match then decrease your investment down to match that percentage until things begin to recover.
The worst thing you can do at this time is to stop investing. The next thing that is truly a bad mistake is to withdraw your 401k in its entirety because you face stiff penalties including a 10% tax hit immediately. If you must use your 401k, take a loan….loans pay you back with interest. Be wary of the loan amount because it must be paid back. The payback will be through automatic withdrawal from your paycheck. The frequency of payments depends on the frequency of your pay.
If you don’t need to take a loan but are worried about the losses in your 401k, find “a port in the storm”. What is a port in the storm you ask?
Open your 401k statement and look at the funds that are listed. See if you can find a fund or two that are not losing money and transfer your investment to that fund(s) as well as the balance of your fund. It may not earn you a lot right now, but that isn’t what you are trying to accomplish. You are trying to stop the “bleeding” from your 401k account.
In our 401k plan which is managed by Charles Schwab, I found two ports in the storm, one is the money market account and another is a real estate fund. Their earnings aren’t fantastic but they will stop the bleeding from our account. I am going to transfer all investments to those accounts as well as transfer our balance into those funds. I will leave our funds in those areas until such a time the market stops its fluctuations.
Remember your 401k is about the future. Keep looking at the light at the end of the tunnel…that will be the time your 401k will be the most helpful. Social Security is not the answer and neither is the government. If the government gets their way your pre-tax contribution will be a post-tax contribution. As an investor in your own future you must stop the government from doing this to our 401k.
I feel the only way to do this is to join a growing movement, The Jeffersonian Coalition. Go to the previous link and read about the growing movement. It is time to stop Obama and his congressional cabal dead in their footsteps. Let’s stop the government from taking our 401ks and our “wealth”, what little we have left.
Mark Halperin must think the American voter is pretty blind. Well not all of us are. We saw Halperin for what he was, just another biased “reporter”. He was definitely not an “investigative reporter”. He reported what he wanted us to hear, never what we needed to know. Halperin was as bad as the rest of them including the likes of Alan”The Crypt Keeper” Colmes, Chris “Tweety” Matthews and Keith “Blubberman” Olbermann….just to mention a few.
The only one of the four mentioned here we will finally see very little of is Alan Colmes. Yes there will be life AC for Sean Hannity. Anyone will be better then the AC.
Now if we could only wipe the news organizations clear of the other three, maybe we could have some unbiased reporting…
More on Halperin from Liberal Rapture (they cover it better than I do!):
“MORE MEDIA TYPES ADMIT TO PRO OBAMA CIRCLE JERK” (Emphasis is all mine! So are the capital letters!)
Since we knew the media’s pro Obama bias was overwhelming and since we knew the media would admit they went to far AFTER the fact…
(This is their pattern and their plan. Admitting that they went to far after the election is over, or the invasion has begun, or the impeachment has occurred, is the last part of the game – in this way they attempt to absolve themselves, and restore some credibility, while hoping we forget the pattern in time for the next propaganda push.)
…I am not sure why stuff like what is linked below makes me so furious. It’s not like I did not see this round of media confession coming. Usually, I love being proven right. But I’m sick of being one of the damn confessors for these jackasses. We are forced to watch them behave like frothy tin foil hat nuts for a season and THEN we are forced to hear their round of confession.
I, for one, DO NOT FORGIVE the media’s sins. (Emphasis is all mine again!)
Halperin even goes so far as to compare the Obama asskissing in 2008, to the pro Iraq invasion propaganda the media overwhelmed us with in 02 and 03.
Duh.
How many times will the media get away with this pattern?
A. Take up a cause.
B. Browbeat us with their “cause” while insisting they are balanced.
C. Admit after the fact that they “were out of line” during the selling/forcing of their cause.
D. Make no effort to change, learn, grow. Merely hope we forget or do not care the next time they sell us on the unsellable.
“Obama Picks Protectionist for Treasury Secretary” is the title of the latest from Dean Baker who is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He is a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Marketplace, CNN, CNBC and other news programs. He is the author of several books, including The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and The United States Since 1980. He received his Ph.D in economics from the University of Michigan.
Despite the protectionism of Geithner there is some bright news.
Assuming he is nominated Mr Geithner brings two crucial qualities. First, he represents continuity. From the first days of the crisis last year, he has worked hand in glove with Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, and Mr Paulson. He can continue to do so while awaiting confirmation. If Citigroup, for example, needs federal help, Mr Geithner will be involved. An unknown when he joined the New York Fed in 2003, he is now a familiar face to the most senior executives on Wall Street and to central bankers and finance ministers overseas.
Second, he represents competence. He has spent more time on financial crises, from Mexico and Thailand to Brazil and Argentina, than probably any other policymaker in office today. Mr Geithner understands better than almost anyone that in crises you throw out the forecast and focus on avoiding low probability events with catastrophic consequences. Such judgments are excruciating: do too little, and you undermine confidence and generate a bigger crisis that needs even bigger policy action. Do too much, and you look panicked and invite blowback from Wall Street, Congress and the press. At times during the crisis Mr Geithner would counsel Mr Bernanke on the importance of the right “ratio of drama to effectiveness”.
While competence is good, continuity smacks of more of the same. Since he is such a clost advisor to Bernanke, I see more of the same from the Federal Reserve and Treasury. Here is the problem with Geithner he is a protectionist. His economic beliefs do not bode well for the United States. What is protectionism?
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and prevent foreign take-over of local markets and companies. This policy is closely aligned with anti-globalization, and contrasts with free trade, where government barriers to trade are kept to a minimum. The term is mostly used in the context of economics, where protectionism refers to policies or doctrines which “protect” businesses and “living wages” within a country by restricting or regulating trade between foreign nations.
Obama has said he has appointed “free traders” to his economic team. This simply isn’t true. Geithner isn’t for free trade at. As you can see by the definition above he is against “free trade”, a necessity in this era of globalization.
From Dean Baker:
Both the Post and Times told readers that President Obama picked an economic team committed to “free trade.” This is not true.
The top members of President Obama’s team, and certainly his Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner, supported the use of federal funds to bail out the banks. Giving $350 billion in loans at below market rates (coupled with government guarantees for deposits) was a massive subsidy to U.S. banks that give them an enormous advantage in international competition. Such subsidies are a clear form of protectionism.
While these officials may want to call themselves “free traders,” it is not an accurate description of their approach to economic policy and the media should not use it except in a quotation.
In summary, the economic argument in support of free trade is a sophisticated argument that is based on the interpretation of results from the full collection of trade theories developed over the past two or three centuries. These theories, taken as a group, do not show that free trade is the best policy for every individual in all situations. Instead theory shows that there are valid arguments supporting both free trade and protectionism. To choose between the two requires a careful assessment of the pros and cons of each policy regime.
The argument for free trade presented here accepts the notion that free trade may not always be optimal in terms of maximizing economic efficiency. The argument also accepts that free trade may not generate the most preferred distribution of income. In theory, there are numerous cases in which selected protectionism can improve aggregate welfare or could establish a more equal distribution of income. Nevertheless, despite these theoretical possibilities, it remains unclear and perhaps unlikely that selected protectionism could achieve the intended results. In the first place, in many instances trade policy is not the best way to achieve the intended improvement in economic efficiency, nor is it likely to be the most efficient way to achieve a more satisfactory distribution of income. Instead, purely domestic tax and subsidy policies dominate. Secondly, even when trade policy is the best policy choice, the possibility of retaliations and the likelihood of informational deficiencies or distortions caused by the lobbying process are sufficiently large as to make the intended outcomes unknowable.
In addition the process of information collection, lobbying, and policy implementation is a costly economic activity. Labor and capital resources are allocated by interest groups attempting to affect policies favorable to them. The government also must also expend resources to gather information, to implement and administer policies, and to monitor the effectiveness of these policies. In the US the following agencies and groups devote at least some of their time to trade policy implementation: the US Trade Representative’s office, the International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, the Congress and the President, among others. One must wonder whether the cost of this bureaucracy, together with the cost to the private sector to influence the decisions of the government are worth it, especially when the outcomes are virtually unknowable.
Thus, the conclusion reached by many economists is that while free trade may not be “technically optimal”, it remains “pragmatically optimal”. That is, given our informational deficiencies and the other problems inherent with any system of selected protectionism, free trade remains the policy most likely to produce the highest level of economic efficiency attainable.
After much research, it is my learned opinion that protectionism is not the answer. It is important that we remain proponents of free trade. Geithner is not the man to do this. His protectionism runs counter to Bush’s promise to the G20.
Obama’s economic team has never worked in the private sector, yet he has tapped them for job creation. It appears to be a recipe for disaster. Here is a list of his economic team beginning with Geithner, a government bureaucrat. These are probably nice people, at least I assume so. But actual expertise with capital markets and creating jobs. ZERO!! Take a close look at the resumes and curriculum vitae of these so-called “Economic” brainiacs. Two government bureaucrats, one so-so academician, and one hill staffer. There are none that have even created one job. Not one. Here they are:
Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury
Timothy Geithner currently serves as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he has played a key role in formulating the nation’s monetary policy. He joined the Department of the Treasury in 1988 and has served three presidents. From 1999 to 2001, he served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Following that post he served as director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund until 2003. Geithner is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. (Typical Bureaucrat!)
Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council
Lawrence Summers is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University. Summers served as 71st Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006. Before being appointed Secretary, Summers served as Deputy and Under Secretary of the Treasury and as the World Bank’s top economist. Summers has taught economics at Harvard and MIT, and is a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the American economist under 40 judged to have made the most significant contribution to economics. Summers played a key advisory role during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Christina D. Romer, Director of the Council of Economic Advisors
Christina Romer is the Class of 1957 Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has taught and researched since 1988. Prior to joining the faculty at Berkeley, Romer was an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Romer is co-director of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has been a visiting scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Melody C. Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Melody Barnes is co-director of the Agency Review Working Group for the Obama-Biden Transition Team, and served as the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to Obama for America. Barnes previously served as Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress and as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee from December 1995 until March 2003.
Heather A. Higginbottom, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Heather Higginbottom served as Policy Director for Obama for America, overseeing all aspects of policy development. From 1999 to 2007, Higginbottom served as Senator John Kerry’s Legislative Director. She also served as the Deputy National Policy Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign for the primary and general elections. After the 2004 election, Higginbottom founded and served as Executive Director of the American Security Project, a national security think tank. She started her career as an advocate at the national non-profit organization Communities in Schools.
How do people who have never, ever worked in the private sector qualify to create 2.5 million new jobs? These are intelligent people, but the reality is that they have spent most of their lives as academics or government bureaucrats (in a cocoon so to speak, far from the everyday worker and business. Book knowledge not actual street cred.) If their job is to create more government or university positions they are certainly qualified. But as far as the rest of the economy is concerned, ah!, not so much.
Watch out middle class, bend over and be prepared to be thrown under the bus. More on this story:
Obama, trying to set realistic expectations as he prepares to take office in 57 days, warned in his prepared remarks that the “economy is trapped in a vicious cycle: the turmoil on Wall Street means a new round of belt-tightening for families and businesses on Main Street – and as folks produce less and consume less, that just deepens the problems in our financial markets.”
“There are no shortcuts or quick fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making – and the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better,” Obama said. “Full recovery won’t happen immediately. And to make the investments we need, we’ll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well – something I’ll be discussing further tomorrow.”
His remarks served as a reminder to supporters that he may not be able to grant all their wishes right away. Already, he has said that he may have to delay the full scope of some of his promises, although he has said he will make a start on all his priorities, including health care, energy and the economy.
We know that the cuts and sacrifices will come from the middle class as they did during the Clinton Administration. What will the “cuts and sacrifices entail?
More from I’m Not Your Sweetie:
Politico helps:
His remarks served as a reminder to supporters that he may not be able to grant all their wishes right away.
So, while the Bush base, the haves and the haves more has been reassured in advance that their wealth won’t be redistributed, Obama’s supporters are being told to wait. And it’s not anything new.
Will he be at odds with W besides the change of rhetoric on “sacrifices”? Not likely.
Obama made it clear he will not undo any of the Bush administration’s bailouts. “These extraordinary stresses on our financial system require extraordinary policy responses. And my Administration will honor the public commitments made by the current Administration to address this crisis,” he said.
It is interesting to note that the article about “cuts and sacrifices” ends with “I spoke with Bush this morning”.
Sarah Palin once again reminds us that she isn’t in politics for herself. She is traveling to Georgia on Sunday to campaign for Senator Saxby Chambliss. This is good news fo Chambliss. Sarah Palin will be able to reach out to people in Geirgia. They will be curious but truly enjoy that she is just one of the folks.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will make multiple campaign appearances on behalf of Sen. Saxby Chambliss next week in Georgia, serving as the political closer for the GOP senator who is battling to win a second term.
This is Palin’s first campaign appearance on behalf of another Republican candidate since losing her bid to become the nation’s first woman to serve as vice president.
Palin will attend a fundraiser on Sunday night, then appear at multiple campaign stops on Monday in an effort to rally the GOP base to turn out to vote for Chambliss. The incumbent Republican is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Jim Martin. A runoff is scheduled for next Tuesday, after neither candidate received the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win on Election Day.
Governor Sarah Palin is using her star power to attempt to keep Chambliss’ seat from the hands of Martin, a Democrat. The Georgia seat must be retained so the Democrats are stopped from a solid 60 seat lead in the US Senate:
Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, said that it made sense for Palin to help Chambliss in the days leading into the run-off because he noted that GOP governors are “still very popular in the party.”
“She is going to bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to this run-off,” said Ayers, a close Palin confidante. “She is widely popular in Georgia, and I could not envision a stronger closer for Saxby in this election.”
Palin, who drew large crowds while running for vice president with Republican presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain, will appear at four Chambliss rallies Monday, the day before the Dec. 2 senate runoff between Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.
Scheduled times and locations are 8:30 a.m. in Augusta, 11 a.m. in Savannah, 1:30 p.m. in Perry, and 4 p.m. in north metro Atlanta.
The founding fathers meant for there to be checks and balances within the three branches of the government which means Saxby retaining his seat is very important to that system. Since we now have a Democratic president elect and a strong Democratic presence in Congress we the Senate must not be allowed to be filibuster proof.
The Democrats in Congress forget one thing, it requires 60 votes to prevent a filibuster not 60 Democrats. Not all members of a party will vote their party’s way. What the Democrats who are touting there solid 60 seats forget is there is a caucus in Congress, the Blue Dog Coalition, and currently have 49 members, all fiscal conservatives.
Despite the Blue Dog Coalition, it is still important to hold down the power of the Democrats so some amount of checks and balances remain in the three branches of government. For this reason it is important that Governor Sarah Palin complete with her “star power”, lend a hand to Senator Saxby Chambliss so he retains his seat.
Allan Katz is very proud of the part he played in getting the nomination for Obama rather than Hillary Clinton. He just beams with the part he played at the “faux” Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaw Meeting in May to knock Hillary Clinton out of nomination for the presidency. Wow! Nothing else to be proud of in his whole life. Good example for his kids, grandkids or what ever he has…right!
An autographed picture with the president-elect — “Thanks for your friendship,” says the scrawl — decorates Katz’s office on the 12th floor of a downtown office tower overlooking the Florida Capitol. He downplays the significance of his two-year involvement in the campaign, but fellow Obama insiders consider Katz one of the new team’s most influential Florida contacts.
“Allan was a key, pivotal player in getting Obama the nomination,” said Jon Ausman, a fellow DNC member and 30-year veteran of state party intrigue. “He was Obama’s representative on the Rules and Bylaws Committee and he whipped the living daylights out of Harold Ickes, and that’s what decided the nomination.”
Ickes was Sen. Hillary Clinton’s point man in the long-running fight over seating Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic National Convention.
This guy must not have much of a life. Just had to make sure the meeting was anything but transparent. So much manipulation of the committee members was worked behind the scenes. The RBC meeting was nothing but smoke and mirrors.
More from this scuzzy guy:
“This was the best thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” Katz told about 100 campaign volunteers and donors at a reception Thursday night. “I’ve told my children that except for them, this is the thing I’m most proud of.”
And get a load of the rest of what he did. It was a done deal. The roll call vote was a farce too:
Although Katz jetted around the country and attended the most high-level finance and strategy meetings, even attending to such convention details as how Clinton’s name would be placed in nomination and then withdrawn to make the roll call unanimous, Katz said the campaign topsiders were disciplined but not dictatorial.
The whole stupid nomination was done with smoke and mirrors as well as the roll call vote. This guy and what he is proud of makes me want to throw up. I think I just did.
According to Armstrong MyWire business report, four new reports recently released by the federal government show an economy deep in grips of a recession. Here is the story:
The government released a quartet of reports Wednesday that paint a bleak picture of the nation’s economy: Jobless claims remain at recessionary levels, Americans cut back on their spending by the largest amount since the 2001 terrorist attacks, orders to U.S. factories plummeted and homes sales fell to the lowest level in nearly 18 years.
Unemployment:
The Labor Department reported that initial requests for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 543,000. But claims remain at recessionary levels. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 518,000, its highest level since January 1983, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession.
One minor bright spot showed the number of people continuing to claim unemployment insurance dropped unexpectedly to 3.96 million, from the previous week’s 4.02 million, which was the highest level in 25 years. The labor market has grown by about half since 1983. (The number of people claiming unemployment benefits is more than likely not a bright spot. It more than likely indicates that unemployment benefits have run out for those people. If there is any question on my analysis, there shouldn’t be. I was employed by the Department of Labor in Georgia. I am quite aware of what these change in numbers really indicate.)
Spending:
The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending plunged by 1 percent in October, even worse than the 0.9 percent decline that had been expected. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of total economic activity.
U.S. Factory Orders:
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods also plunged last month by the largest amount in two years. Orders for durable goods dropped by 6.2 percent, more than double the decline economists expected. The Commerce Department report showed widespread declines throughout manufacturing led by decreases in autos and airplanes.
(Orders of aircraft have declined to the point that Cessna Aircraft is readying for layoffs despite cutting cost by reducing independent contractors and other ways of cost cutting. Hawker-Beechcraft has already laid off 500 workers, with the possibility of more layoffs. And of course recently Boeing announced there are possible layoffs coming in 2009 because of the tanker morass. The problem with these aircraft layoffs they affect many other small businesses in Kansas as well as other states that provide parts for these companies.)
Housing Prices and Sales:
The department also reported that new home sales decreased 5.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 433,000 homes, the lowest level since January 1991, another period when the country was undergoing a steep housing downturn.
The median price of a new home sold in October fell to $218,000, down 7 percent from a year ago, and the lowest since September 2004.
This comment from an economist does not paint a bright picture. He is however more realistic in his views of the recession than most economists.
Nariman Behravesh, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said he was expecting GDP to shrink at a 4 percent rate in the current quarter, reflecting the battering consumers are taking from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. He predicted that the economy would remain in recession through the first half of next year.
“We are in the early stages of one of the worst recessions in the postwar period, even factoring in a massive stimulus program,” Behravesh.
Here is the worst news of the recessionary economy, the amount of money the government will spend to attempt to stall the bleeding economy.
To revive the economy, President-elect Barack Obama has said a top priority will be working with Congress to enact a stimulus package with the goal of creating 2.5 million new jobs over the next two years. Analysts believe such an effort will require spending between $500 billion to $700 billion, a figure that would be on top of all the money being spent to stabilize the financial system.
In the latest efforts to stabilize the financial system, the Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it will buy $200 billion in securities backed by different types of debt including credit card loans, auto loans, student loans and loans to small businesses. That market essentially froze in October. These types of loans as a result have become harder to obtain and have carried higher interest rates
The Fed also announced that it will spend $500 billion to buy mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and another $100 billion to directly purchase mortgages held by Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Home Loan Banks.
This would greatly expand an initial modest effort announced in September with the goal of creating increased demand for mortgage-related assets. The hope is that this will drive down the price of mortgages and make home loans more available.
Analysts predict the Fed program could send mortgage rates down by as much as one-half to a full percentage point in coming months, helping to spur demand in the beleaguered housing market, which is suffering its worst downturn in decades.
The latest federal moves raised U.S. commitments to contain the financial crisis to nearly $7 trillion — though no one thinks the government will actually spend anything like that figure.
In the case of the Federal Reserve, the amount covers huge loans that financial institutions will have to pay back. In the case of the Treasury rescue effort, the government will at some point sell the stock it owns back to the banks, presumably when the banking system is doing better and the stock will be worth more.
I do believe we will spend the more than $7 trillion dollars trying to provide “damage control” to the banks and big businesses that show more stress and possibility of failure. One of the latest is Citigroup.
I do believe this money would be better spent giving “grants” to all American citizens. They would provide the necessary consumer buying to “stimulate” the economy. The money they would receive maybe sizable enough that they would buy cars, houses and other consumer items.
By the way I don’t think Obama has a clue because he is all for increasing the budget deficit by continuing Bush’s spending spree by rescuing all these big businesses. He believes the deficit doesn’t matter as much as saving our economy. It is a never ending tale.
According to the AP, there is another mortgage crisis looming. That mortgage crisis involves commercial real estate including malls from Georgia to Michigan. The crisis doesn’t end there though. The meltdown is happening in hotels in Tucson, Ariz., and Hilton Head, S.C., also about to default on their mortgages.
More from the AP:
That pace is expected to quicken. The number of late payments and defaults will double, if not triple, by the end of next year, according to analysts from Fitch Ratings Ltd., which evaluates companies’ credit.
“We’re probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem,” said Scott Tross, a real estate lawyer with Herrick Feinstein in New Jersey.
That’s bad news for more than just property owners. When businesses go dark, employees lose jobs. Towns lose tax revenue. School budgets and social services feel the pinch.
More commercial foreclosures, more unemployment. With the loss of tax income cities and schools will run into deeper budget deficits. Nevada is one state who is counting on more tax revenue from the 200 more hotel rooms being built there. This information regarding commercial foreclosure doesn’t bode well for Nevada.
More from the story:
Companies have survived plenty of downturns, but economists see this one playing out like never before. In the past, when businesses hit rough patches, owners negotiated with banks or refinanced their loans.
But many banks no longer hold the loans they made. Over the past decade, banks have increasingly bundled mortgages and sold them to investors. Pension funds, insurance companies, and hedge funds bought the seemingly safe securities and are now bracing for losses that could ripple through the financial system.
“It’s a toxic drug and nobody knows how bad it’s going to be,” said Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, who was among the first to sound alarm bells in the residential market.
Unlike home mortgages, businesses don’t pay their loans over 30 years. Commercial mortgages are usually written for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end. About $20 billion will be due next year, covering everything from office and condo complexes to hotels and malls.
Other things are happening in the consumer markets. There is a downturn in consumer spending, with no guarantee this holiday season will make it any better. With unemployment increasing and those losing their unemployment benefits, more than likely spending will show a real downturn.
Retail store closings are increasing as well.
The retail outlook is particularly bad. Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things have sought bankruptcy protection. Home Depot, Sears, Ann Taylor and Foot Locker are closing stores.
Malls are losing rental income with store closings which they depend on to pay their mortgages. Now there is a question whether malls will be able to make their payments. With many commercial mortgages coming due in the next couple of years, owners may not have the money to cover these payments.
Those retailers typically were paying rent that was expected to cover mortgage payments. When those $20 billion in mortgages come due next year _ 2010 and 2011 totals are projected to be even higher _ many property owners won’t have the money.
Some will survive, but those property owners whose loans required little money up front will have less incentive to weather the storm.
Refinancing formerly was an option, but many properties are worth less than when they were purchased. And since investors no longer want to buy commercial mortgages, banks are reluctant to write new loans to refinance those facing foreclosure.
California, New York, Texas and Florida _ states with a high concentration of mortgages in the securities market, according to Fitch _ are particularly vulnerable. Texas and Florida are already seeing increased delinquencies and defaults, as are Michigan, Tennessee and Georgia.
None of this is good news. It is another indicator. It is showing the affects of the recessionary economy on commercial real estate. Here is “the worst case scenario”:
And it goes something like this:
With banks unwilling to refinance, a shopping center goes into foreclosure. Nobody can buy the mall because banks won’t write mortgages as long as investors won’t purchase them.
“Credit markets have seized up,” corporate securities lawyer Michael Gambro said. “People are not willing to take risks. They’re not buying anything.”
That drives down investments already on the books. Insurance companies are seeing their stock prices fall on fears they are too invested in commercial mortgages.
“The system has never been tested for a deep recession,” said Ken Rosen, a real estate hedge fund manager and University of California at Berkeley professor of real estate economics.
One hope was that the U.S. would use some of the $700 billion financial bailout to buy shaky investments from banks and insurance companies. That was the original plan. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has issued a stunning turnabout, saying the U.S. no longer planned to buy troubled securities. For those watching the wave of commercial defaults about to crest, the announcement was poorly received.
“He’s created havoc in the marketplace by changing the rules,” Rosen said. “It was the stupidest statement on Earth.”
It seems King Henry has really thrown a monkey wrench into the economy. And there really is only one for the bleeding to stop, and that is stabilization of the economy.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering another option that might ease the crisis, one that would change accounting rules so banks don’t have to declare huge losses whenever the market declines.
But the only surefire remedy is for the economy to stabilize, for businesses to start expanding and for investors to trust the market again. Until then, Tross said, “There’s going to be a lot of pain going forward.”
Obviously, “King” Henry Paulson has done some good but much left undone will cause more downturn in the economy. However we know that “King Henry” seems to change his mind every other day. There is no way to know what he will do next week, nor who he has given money to.
Update: Fears Were Founded
The commercial real estate meltdown didn’t just begin today, the warning came in August of this year. The New York Times covered the story in its August 21st issue. The story was titled, “Some Fear Commercial Property Loans Will Be Next Stage in Downturn”. It began with a warning that a Harlem high rise may not be able to make its payments.
Here is more from the story:
As the value of home mortgages crumbles by the day, Wall Street has hoped that commercial real estate loans would stay clear of the storm.
But bankers believe the headwinds may be shifting after a large apartment complex in Harlem warned last week that it might not be able to make good on a $225 million mortgage payment by September.
A default by the complex, the rent-regulated Riverton Apartments, a 12-building residential development constructed after World War II, would be New York’s largest in the current housing crisis. For Wall Street banks, which hold about $100 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities, the prospect has fanned new worries that a deterioration of the overall commercial property market could prompt more write-downs in the coming quarter, on top of losses already expected from their distressed mortgage securities holdings.
“The fear is the next shoe to drop may be commercial real estate,” said Jeffrey Harte, a banking analyst at Sandler O’Neil. “When consumer credit goes south, commercial will follow.”
At the end of the second quarter, Deutsche Bank held $23 billion worth of commercial mortgage backed securities. Morgan Stanley held $22.1 billion and Citigroup had $19.1 billion.
There will be no commercial refinancing with the tightening of the credit markets. Nothing “King” Henry has done to this point has thawed that freeze.
Banks are scrambling to dispose of these loans, typically made to hotels, office developers and retail strips, before problems arrive.
Broader real estate indexes are already showing signs of trouble. Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index has dropped nearly 12 percent since its peak last October. A more conservative index by the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries shows growth slowing to one-half of a percent in the second quarter, from upward of 4 percent a quarter.
Loans made for commercial real estate are typically among the safest, because a building can be used as collateral and big property developers generate income from the investment, raising the likelihood they will repay their loans.
But cracks began to emerge late last year, when Morgan Stanley reported write-downs of $400 million in commercial mortgage losses. In the first quarter, Wachovia, which had transformed itself into a leading lender in the nation’s commercial real estate market, said it would take write-downs of more than $1 billion for commercial loans for the second half of 2007. Investors had already begun balking at buying securities backed by these bonds, so banks like Wachovia were stuck with loans of diminished value.
By the way these commercial loans were bundled in much the same way as home loans, simply because of greed.
Before the credit squeeze, financial companies bundled commercial mortgages into securities in much the same way they packaged home loans and private equity debt. Riverton’s mortgage was one of the last ones to be wrapped into a commercial mortgage-backed security in the spring of 2007; it was then cut up and sold as bonds.
And we now know the outcome of companies like Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, and now Citibank. Yes, Virginia, commercial real estate is going down and it will happen a couple of months from now when mortgage payments will no longer be met since there are so many stores closing.
More from the story:
Still, many analysts say a lengthy downturn in the economy would probably lead many commercial property owners to struggle with their mortgage bills. And pricing in commercial real estate is starting to reflect a tightening in commercial lending, they said.
“The risk here in commercial real estate is, What happens when those loans mature in two, three, four, five years?” said Nick Levidy, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service. “When these loans come up for refinancing, unless the credit markets improve significantly, the terms will be quite different.”
It is important to take a look at the financial institutes who created the trust that Riverton Apartments fall under. Citigroup is now whining for a bailout.
Citigroup and Deutsche Bank created the commercial mortgage trust that included Riverton’s mortgage in March 2007. Riverton’s loan is the seventh-largest in the $6.6 billion trust, according to Fitch Ratings. After the deal closed, only three other commercial mortgage trusts of comparable size were created before the market collapsed, according to Dealogic, a financial information service.
Losses are rising in this sort of trust. Fitch reported last week that delinquencies rose at the end of July to 0.43 percent, from 0.41 percent at the start of the month, a pace of deterioration that has been steady since the winter. Since February, delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities have increased 43 percent.
At the same time, investors are also expecting further trouble in commercial real estate bonds. The top-rated part of the index that includes the Riverton Apartments, for instance, indicates that the risk of those securities has increased by 44 percent in the past month, according to Markit, a financial services company.
“The housing market’s weak, so market perception is that commercial real estate fundamentals will follow,” said Steve Gordon, managing director of MKP Capital Management, a hedge fund that manages $4 billion.
I don’t believe the people who were interviewed realized they were looking in a crystal ball. There warnings are not warnings any longer. Commercial real estate is now following the trend of the residential home mortgages.
This is a truly heartfelt story a company in Il and a family named Spungen. They promised a reward to their workers when they recently sold the company to a Swedish company for an undisclosed amount.
With $100 million in sales last year, Peer recently was acquired by a Swedish company for an undisclosed amount. Danny Spungen, whose grandfather founded the company in 1941, said it was a unanimous family decision to thank employees with the bonuses.
Laurence and Florence Spungen and their four children decided on a bonus formula a year before the sale closed to SKF Group, “a gamble that we would come out OK as well,” Danny Spungen said.
He and other family members signed, by hand, two thank-you cards to each employee, one in Spanish and one in English. Each card was printed with all the workers’ names and the years they were hired. The text expressed gratitude for “the loyalty and hard work of our employees over the years.”
It certainly is good to hear a story that warms the heart. It shows the Spungen family isn’t greedy. They shared their new found wealth since the sale of their company with its workers. This is the sort of kindness that needs to be initiated in companies particulary those that are being bailed out.
More from the article:
The new owners intend to operate Peer as a wholly owned subsidiary. Workers have been told that most will keep their jobs, and life at the company hasn’t changed much since the party in mid-September when the bonuses were distributed.
Incongruously, the bonuses coincided with the U.S. economic meltdown. While neighbors and friends faced new financial strains, the Peer employees could breathe easier.
“I know people who work for corporate America are not going to get treated like that. And most of the family owned businesses are not going to treat you like that,” Tiderman said. “This is something that just really doesn’t happen.”
This almost never happens in corporate America. The Spungen family should be held up as heroes of Corporate America. They lead by example. Wall Street and other companies should heed their example. My gratitude goes out to the Spungem family. May other company owners follow your lead.
