The Josh Journal

the most trying time in my life

2010-06-22T13:50:00.002-04:00

Kenneisha has been in france since June 11, 2010. Ive been here taking care of the boys and working, this has been one of the most trying times of my life.

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Ben Bernanke Time Person of the Year

2009-12-16T19:40:00.002-05:00

Great Summary:

Click Here for Article

"...But Bernanke also knows the economy would be much, much worse if the Fed had not taken such extreme measures to stop the panic. There's a vast difference between 10% and 25% unemployment, between anemic and negative growth. He wishes Americans understood that he helped save the irresponsible giants of Wall Street only to protect ordinary folks on Main Street. He knows better than anyone how financial crises spiral into global disasters, how the grass gets crushed when elephants fall. "We came very, very close to a depression ... The markets were in anaphylactic shock," he told TIME during one of three extended interviews. "I'm not happy with where we are, but it's a lot better than where we could be."

Think about it people, things are much improved from where they were under Dubya, we are in a time of transition, but without the leadership of Ben Bernanke and President Obama, this nation could be far worse off than where it is today. I for one am grateful we have leadership at the top that doesn't listen to the partisan bickering and gets creative with their response to trouble.

Kamren Michael Linke

2009-11-30T14:49:00.003-05:00

My second son was born on November 25th, 2009 at 11:55AM. He was 8 lbs 7 Oz, and 20 inches long. Here are some pictures:

Seahawks Injury Woes Continue

2009-10-30T12:48:00.005-04:00

Current Injury Report:

OT Walter Jones (IR) Possibly Career Ending Chronic Knee Pain
LB Lofa Tatupu (IR) Season Ending Pectoral Surgery
QB Matt Hasselbeck (Probable) Ribs Still Healing, Mora Claims Full Strength
DE Patrick Kerney (Questionable) Groin still sore, full participant at practice
CB Marcus Trufant (Probable) Will start first game of season on Sunday (Back Spasms)
RB Julius Jones (Probable) Personal Reasons, whatever that means...
LB LeRoy Hill (Starter) First game back since Week 1

Others Who have missed time this season:

WR Deion Branch
C Chris Spencer
OG Rob Sims
OT Ray Willis
DE Lawrence Jackson

Is that not a Pro Bowl Team? Seriously, this is ridiculous...

2009-10-23T17:41:00.001-04:00

Another one bites the dust

2009-10-19T13:40:00.000-04:00

To me this is a blessing as it clears an additional 8 million off the books for the next two years.

SEATTLE -- Catcher Kenji Johjima has opted out of the final two years of his contract with the Seattle Mariners with the intent of continuing his playing career in Japan.

The team had signed the 33-year-old catcher to a $24 million, three-year extension that began last year. The Mariners said the contract included a clause that allowed Johjima to opt out of the final two years of his deal.

"After lots of very deep thought and deliberation, I have decided to return home to resume my career in Japan," Johjima said in a statement. "I have had a wonderful experience competing at the Major League level. The last four years have been extraordinary, with great teammates and great coaches. I will always be indebted to the Mariners organization for giving me the opportunity to follow my dream. This was a very difficult decision, both professionally and personally. I feel now is the time to go home, while I still can perform at a very high level."

When he wasn't injured during the 2009 season, Johjima lost playing time to rookie Rob Johnson. The Mariners favored Johnson's handling of the pitching staff over Johjima's offense.

The Mariners are also high on young catcher Adam Moore, who got some playing time in September after being called up from the minors.

Seattle signed Johjima in 2005 after he'd played 11 seasons with Fukuoka in the Japanese Pacific League. He was the first Japanese-born catcher to play in the major leagues.

Johjima hit .268 in his four seasons with Seattle, including 84 doubles, 48 home runs and 198 RBIs in 462 games. Johjima holds the American League record for hits by a rookie catcher (147 in 2006). His 18 homers in his first season tied the Mariners club mark for homers by a catcher.

But he struggled at the plate following his first season. Johjima slumped to .227 as part of Seattle's 101-loss collapse in 2008, and hit just .247 in 71 games in 2009.

"We respect his decision to return home. Joh has been a terrific teammate and a great competitor," general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "His work ethic, production and desire to win made him a positive role model."

Bye, Bye, Griffey?

2009-10-12T17:54:00.002-04:00

Ken Griffey Jr. began his career with the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club in 1989. He went on to have one of the greatest careers of any Power Hitter in Major League History. On October 4th, 2009...Ken Griffey Jr. walked off the field with his Mariners Teammates for what may be the last time. I get teary eyed just thinking about all the memories and all the glory Griffey brought with him to Seattle.

Always the iconic Mariner, even with his 9 years of exile in Cincinnati and Chicago, Griffey came back and remade almost singlehandedly this Ball Club. His emotional presence helped lift away the facade of failure and frustration. His Leadership helped team the young Mariners about what it means to be a professional Baseball Player. Ken Griffey Jr. truly is an American Hero.

One of the last of his kind, a pure Power hitter free of the Roids that have ravaged this league like a virus over the last several years. He is my Hero, someone i have looked up to since i was a little boy. I remember his infectious smile, his Pearly White teeth always gleaming in Center Field, his ever Smooth swing sending line drives and long bombs over the outfield wall with precision like a laser guided Missile. The announcers sound of "Ken!...Griffey!...Jr.!" will forever fill my ears as i reminisce about those loud nights in the Kingdome.

I have one last plea to make, Please come back Griffey, come back one more year. Make one last full throttle run at Willie Mays, Try to move into 3rd place all time on the home run list(Barry Bonds does not count). You owe it to yourself to see if you can have one last Season for the ages in the tank, Go Get em Griffey!

Propaganda is not just for Socialists

2009-10-07T14:10:00.001-04:00

During World War II we had just as much propaganda as any other nation, check out these War Time Posters.

Where have you been Justin Forsett?

2009-09-21T15:41:00.003-04:00

I know its not sexy. All 5-8 and 194 pounds of Jitterbug Justin Forsett, but i cant stop from thinking what would it be like if the Seahawks had a running game? You say Julius Jones? HA! i think not, that man is second rate at best, Justin Forsett is where its at. Darren Sproles North? Yes! Finally a weapon to be used out of the backfield.

His line from Sunday:

5 Carries 35 Yards, 6 Catches 57 Yards. This is a small sample of the dual threat Forsett really is.

Great Book: Republican Gomorrah

2009-09-10T17:54:00.002-04:00

I strongly recommend Republican Gomorrah, Stop believing in the false "Christian Right" movement, its time for the Conservatives of our Nation to open their Eyes. Here is an interview with Max Blumenthal the author of Republican Gomorrah.

And the Transcript:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Fifty years ago, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower issued a warning against the rise of extremist movements within his own party. During his presidency, Eisenhower had endured attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the radical right John Birch Society and others. In a 1959 letter to a World War II veteran, Eisenhower wrote, quote, “Many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resorting to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.”

Half a century later, in a summer of town hall disruptions and birth certificate controversies, what Eisenhower had warned against has come true: that the Republican Party has been captured by its extremist wing. At least that’s what award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal argues in his new book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party.

The book examines the transformation of the GOP from the party of Dwight Eisenhower to the party of Sarah Palin and how this sets the stage for the future of American politics. Max Blumenthal is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute. He joins us today for his first extended interview about his book, Republican Gomorrah.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Thanks for having me on.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, you had an op-ed piece in the Times this week citing that Eisenhower quote. Can you talk about that warning of Eisenhower and your sense of how true it rings today?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah. I actually discovered that Eisenhower letter while doing some research for my book, Republican Gomorrah. You know, for the past six years I’ve covered the radical right. I’ve gone to their conventions. I’ve interviewed their leaders. I’ve gone to their houses of worship. And I’ve gotten a sense of what conservatism has become, how radical it’s become, and the extent to which the Christian right has taken over the Republican Party. So when I found this letter by Eisenhower to a military veteran who was dying at the time—and he didn’t really have to respond to his letter—I was really riveted by it, by this prophecy, and I found it even a little bit eerie. I think that his warning about the rise of extremist movements should be as memorable in history as his warning about the military-industrial complex, because he saw what was happening to his Republican Party.

Eisenhower really believed in the big tent philosophy of the Republican Party, that in order to be a national party, you had to have a broad constituency. Today, the Republican Party is a one-ring circus, and it’s controlled by people like Sarah Palin, who are warning of death panels, that Barack Obama’s healthcare plan will decide who lives and who dies. It’s controlled by people like Representative Paul Broun, this born-again Christian who was recently elected, who’s comparing Barack Obama simultaneously to Hitler and Stalin. It’s controlled by—it actually has no leadership. It’s controlled by the movement that I say shattered the party, which is substantially the Christian right.

And the conservatism that defines it is not an ideology or a set of ideas; it’s really a sensibility. It’s a social psychology that I think is best summarized by a quote by Newt Gingrich, who’s also supported Sarah Palin’s claim about death panels. Newt Gingrich said, “I think you can write a psychological profile of me that says I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to.”

And so, in Eisenhower’s letter, he actually recommended a really fascinating book by Eric Hoffer, who was a self-educated dockworker, to this military veteran. And the central thesis of Hoffer’s book, The True Believer, is that faith in a holy cause is really a substitute for lost faith in ourselves. And that’s sort of the thesis of my book and how—and what I’ve discovered from the true believer of the Republican Party that I’ve been around for the past six years.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, what I found riveting in your book was the—most people associate the rise of the modern radical right in the Republican Party with Barry Goldwater and the elections of 1964. But you actually trace it much further back to a bunch of people that few Americans have ever heard of: Francis Schaeffer or R.J. Rushdoony, R.H. Ahmanson. Could you talk about these individuals and their enormous impact on the current crop of radical right leaders?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah, and I don’t want to go too far back in the past; I want to try to keep it present.

But I talk about R.J. Rushdoony, because this theologian, who’s almost unheard of, influenced the Christian right and provided them with their blueprint for what they saw as the promised land, which is a actually theocratic dystopia. He advocated substituting theocracy for the Constitution, wrote, you know, thousand-word tomes explaining how this would work out during the 1960s, during the battles for desegregation, and influenced people like Jerry Falwell. And, you know, under Rushdoony’s plan, disobedient children, witches, blasphemers, adulterers, abortion doctors would all be executed, according to, you know, Leviticus case law. As extreme as it sounds, it had an enormous impact on the right-wing evangelical movement as it moved from the pews into the political realm, because it gave them something to campaign for, even if what they were going to get was going to be more along the lines of a Republican Gomorrah than what they saw as, you know, a theocratic Canaan.

Francis Schaeffer is the guy who really gave them the tactics to make this happen. During the ’70s, people like Jerry Falwell were still preoccupied with segregation. They were still upset that their Christian schools had to accept African American children. And Francis Schaeffer told them, “No, we have to campaign on abortion. Abortion is the issue.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yeah, but who was Schaeffer? What was—

MAX BLUMENTHAL: And Schaeffer is a really fascinating and tragic character. He was an iconoclastic theologian who set up a hippy—Christian hippy commune in the Swiss Alps. And I write about, you know, how this commune—in my book, Republican Gomorrah, I write about how this commune accepted lesbians and African Americans and all kinds of people, as long as they, you know, believed in Christ. Timothy Leary visited this commune. Jimmy Page, the guitarist for Led Zeppelin, carried in his back pocket one of Francis Schaeffer’s books. So he was sort of a tolerant character.

But when Roe v. Wade happened, something snapped inside Francis Schaeffer, and he became concerned that the United States government would eventually legalize infanticide and inspired this evangelical movement to take up the cause of abortion, when they were preoccupied with segregation, and eventually helped create the moral majority with Jerry Falwell. He helped convince Jack Kemp and Gerald Ford that abortion was an important issue. And, you know, from the Swiss Alps to Washington, he became an evangelist in the truest sense of the word.

The tragic part is that Francis Schaeffer despised so many of the evangelical, you know, Southern Baptists who had converged around him. He thought Pat Robertson was a pathological lunatic after Pat Robertson told him at dinner, as I write in my book, that he burned a Modigliani painting in his fireplace. He thought Jerry Falwell was a charlatan. He thought James Dobson, who was studying him very closely, was power mad. But at the same time, Francis Schaeffer was giving—creating tactics and urging evangelicals to get out in the streets and fight even a violent war to stop abortion. And he wound up inspiring the group Operation Rescue, that’s responsible for the assassination of several abortion doctors, including Dr. Tiller recently in Kansas.

And, you know, what’s sad is Francis Schaeffer died, you know, prematurely, and the movement went on beyond him. And his son is out there, and his son Frank Schaeffer has been on your show. And his son says, you know, “My father would have been so upset to see what the Christian right and the Republican Party has become today. He despised the homophobia of the movement.”

And what Frank Schaeffer told me, which is most interesting, is that “This movement, we were like oncologists. We needed a crisis to keep occurring in American society in order for us to stay in business.” And that’s what we’re seeing with the healthcare debate, too. I mean, we’re seeing a movement that’s terrified that the government will start to be able to solve people’s crises, because they survive and thrive on manipulating people’s personal crises.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We’re talking with Max Blumenthal. The book is Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. And I’d like to continue with some of these lesser-known figures—

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —that have been so influential. R.H. Ahmanson, he, as you point out in the book, is the angel of much of the conservative causes, a financial angel. Talk about his influence.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, I was the first journalist in fifteen years to get an interview with Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. And, you know, your listeners and viewers in California might recognize the name Ahmanson, because of so many philanthropic entities that have been donated by his father, who was the great man of California.

Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. has Tourette syndrome and largely speaks through his wife, shuns the media, and for some reason decided to speak to me in 2004. He was the man behind Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage. Proposition 22 in California, before that, the intelligent design movement, he’s donated $2.8 million to that. Countless right-wing Christian right causes across the country that have been successful have been funded by Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr.

And the reason that I was interested in him is because he embodies the sensibility of the movement that I’m writing about in my book, Republican Gomorrah, that controls the Republican Party. At age eighteen, Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. inherited $300 million from his father, who had just dropped dead. His mother died soon after. And he basically went crazy. He literally went crazy and wound up in a mental institution. When he came out of the mental institution, he found, as so many people do who have had a personal crisis and are seeking some kind of means of transcending it, evangelical religion.

And he found R.J. Rushdoony, who I talked about earlier. He became Rushdoony’s financial angel, and Rushdoony became his surrogate father. And he helped—and he declared, Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., in 1985, that “My goal for this country is the literal application of biblical law and its integration into our daily lives,” which was the goal of Rushdoony. And he’s doing this through mainstream mechanisms through the Christian right. He’s able to still succeed, even with the Democrats in power, through ballot measures in California. And what it really is about is about creating this, what they see as this theocratic utopia, which is actually becoming a Republican Gomorrah.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You have a whole chapter on James Dobson, and calling him perhaps the most influential and respected member of the radical Christian right in America today. Talk about Dobson’s influence, his—how he was shaped by some of these other figures you’ve talked about, and his relationship to Sarah Palin.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Right. And Dobson was, you know, a key acolyte of Francis Schaeffer. But Dobson’s a central figure in my book. And, you know, a lot of commentators now—Frank Rich, for example—say that Dobson’s influence is on the wane. But I credit Dobson, who has the third largest radio show in America, whose organization Focus on the Family has $150 million in its coffers and thirty-six policy councils in the States and is widely credited for electing George W. Bush and the Republican Congress in 2004, with cultivating the sensibility of the movement that I’m writing about in my book, Republican Gomorrah, that controls the Republican Party.

Dobson is a fascinating figure, because although he’s leading what is widely considered a religious movement, he’s not a religious leader. He has no theological credentials. He’s not a preacher. What is he? He’s a child psychologist. And the way that he’s won so many followers is by, you know, doing radio shows about common, mundane problems, like bedwetting, for example, or dealing with a child that has, you know, issues with their sexuality, something like that. And he has a correspondence department in Focus on the Family that’s so large it occupies an entire zip code in Colorado Springs. People write in with their personal problems. He sends them—his workers send them Dobson-approved advice. After they get into the database that Dobson maintains, he bombards them with political mailings and slowly cultivates them into Republican shock troops. So Dobson has, you know, turned personal crisis into political resentment.

Where did Dobson’s fortune come from? How did he erect this empire? It came mainly from one book, which I quote from extensively in my book, Republican Gomorrah—Dare to Discipline, which is essentially a manual for corporal punishment, for beating your child. In this book, he says pain is a marvelous purifier that a child should be—that pain goes a long way with a child, that pain should be dispensed sufficiently enough to make a child cry, but then the child will crumple to your breast, and you should welcome the child with warm, open arms. This is a recipe for sadomasochism. And sadomasochism, as I discovered in—

JUAN GONZALEZ: And he saw himself originally as the antithesis to Benjamin—Dr. Benjamin Spock.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Dr. Benjamin Spock, who tells you to basically pick your child up and cradle it. And, you know, I mean, I was—you know, for whatever it’s worth, I was raised along those guidelines. When your child’s crying, you pick up the child.

By creating a belt-wielding army of millions, Dobson created the next generation of Republican shock troops, who are more radical than before. And sadomasochism—I know this sounds a little strange—is what defines the essential character, you know, that—this is what—at least what I’ve discovered—of the Republican follower of today. They’re sadistic in that they want to lash out at deviants, at people who are weaker than them, homosexuals, immigrants, foreigners, socialists. At the same time, they’re masochistic. They are followers of a higher cause, of a strong leader, a magic helper like Dobson or George W. Bush or the macho Jesus archetype that they worship. And this is what defines this movement.

So many of the people that Dobson has been able to get close to and work with in the Republican Congress and in American culture have been viciously abused as children. And he understood that by advocating violence against children, deliberate violence, he was creating this sensibility, which would produce a radical generation of political followers.

Tom DeLay, for example, who Dobson converted from Hot Tub Tommy, a dallying, philandering, no-name legislator in Texas, you know, who lived in a house that was nicknamed “Macho Manor,” Dobson converted him into this hardcore—you know, into “The Hammer,” the man who whipped the Republican Congress into shape and turned it into one of the most radical congresses in history.

Ted Bundy, who I write about extensively in my book, Republican Gomorrah, who is the most notorious serial killer in American history, Dobson helped convert Ted Bundy on death row into a born-again Christian and then got the final interview before Ted Bundy was executed and sold tapes of this interview to raise a million dollars for his political empire and to generate national renown.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And Dobson has also become sort of like the counselor of choice for politicians who fall by the wayside, in certain ways, hasn’t he?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, Newt Gingrich, for example, another person who was viciously abused as a child, Dobson led the coup against Gingrich that helped remove him as Speaker of House—as Speaker of the House when a lot of Republicans were concerned that his leadership was weakening when they were trying to impeach Clinton, because Gingrich was carrying on an affair with a woman twenty years younger than him who was on the congressional payroll at the same time. She’s his wife now.

When Gingrich decided to resurrect his political career, he decided—the Republican Party is controlled by the Christian right. He’s not a stupid man. “What do I do? I have to confess all of my sins by going on James Dobson’s radio show,” catering to the culture of personal crisis that lurks behind the right’s politics of resentment. And so, that’s exactly what he did. He basically prostrated himself before Dobson, who has, you know, no political—supposedly has no political standing. And the next thing you know, he’s back on the national stage. He’s welcomed at the Christian right gatherings. You can see him on Fox News now. So, that shows, you know, how powerful Dobson is. But it’s not just Dobson; it’s a mentality that defines conservatism.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the connection between Dobson and Sarah Palin?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, Dobson, you know, and a lot of his allies, many of his allies, had known about Sarah Palin before any of us did. And it didn’t surprise me when Sarah Palin was selected, even though many people compared her to Dan Quayle and said she was a huge liability, that she was selected, because I knew from listening to Dobson’s radio show every day that they—you know, Dobson talked about his correspondence with her and how he had been writing her letters congratulating her on not aborting her child, who had Down’s syndrome. And so, when John McCain won the nomination, he knew that he needed to bring the Christian right around. I mean, there was no way, other way, that he was going to win the Republican base, considering how loathed he was for denouncing Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as agents of intolerance. So his advisers realized that Dobson was very favorable to Sarah Palin, because whatever her qualifications were, however experienced she was, however articulate or inarticulate she was, she embodied the culture of personal crisis that I talk about in my book, Republican Gomorrah, that so many, you know, people in the Christian right identify with.

Now, she’s also—I also describe her as the archetype of the right-wing woman. You know, in 2005 I was able to meet someone named Leslee Unruh, who helped craft the Bush administration’s abstinence agenda. She was given millions in federal funding to create textbooks for public schools that warned children that you could spread AIDS through sweat and tears. Henry Waxman reviewed these textbooks and found that 80 percent of the information was inaccurate. But I started to understand, through my research, what the right-wing archetypal woman was like. This is someone who had had an abortion, who had had a personal crisis, and became one of the leading anti-abortion activists in South Dakota. And so, I started to understand this mentality. This is someone who wound up promoting Sarah Palin to the right-wing base, because she saw in Sarah Palin someone who also advocated abstinence, but at the same time her family was not practicing it.

And then that’s something that’s happening in evangelical communities across the country. In Lubbock, Texas, for example, where abstinence has been mandated, you know, I mention in my book that the rate of gonorrhea there is twice the national rate. And so, the process of, you know, crisis and confession, and what a lot of people refer to as hypocrisy, was essential to the rise of Sarah Palin, because people could identify with her who are going through these struggles themselves.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Let me ask you—obviously, the subtitle of the book is Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party.

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah.

JUAN GONZALEZ: How did it shatter the party? And how do you see, bringing it up to date right now, the healthcare debate, all these town hall meetings where we’ve seen this enormous antagonism toward the Obama administration, and Senator David Vitter, for instance, in Louisiana talking about resuscitating states’ rights—

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Yeah.

JUAN GONZALEZ: How did this movement shatter the party? And how is it involved in this enormous discontent that we’re seeing at so many of these town hall meetings?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, I mean, I just mentioned Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin’s selection as vice president, while it was necessary for the Republican Party, was also a complete disaster. She wasn’t qualified. Most Americans saw that. But the Republican base had been winnowed out and was so heavily evangelical, so Southern, that they had no other choice but to pick this person, who the patrician former Republican senator from Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, described as a “cocky wacko.” Peggy Noonan, I think, the Reagan speechwriter, you know, called her, I think, a “lunatic.” But that’s what the Republican Party had become, the party of Palin. So what happened was, John McCain won three percent more of the conservative vote than George W. Bush, who was a hardcore conservative, and lost 20 percent of the moderate votes that George W. Bush had, even though McCain was seen as a moderate. That’s because of selecting Palin, because he had to cater to what the Republican Party had become.

Out of power, the Republican Party relies on its grassroots. It has no leadership. It also has—and so—and we’re seeing that at town halls. We’re seeing the Republican Party with, you know, no brakes, completely out of control, relying on the movement that controls it. And, you know, it’s a very ugly spectacle.

The problem is, it has no capacity for bipartisanship. Everyone knows—well, it’s clear from reading my book, Republican Gomorrah, that—you know, and the picture that I provide of the Republican Party, through my, you know, research on it and my reporting on it, that they’re not going to compromise on healthcare. And so, the idea that, you know, producing a bipartisan healthcare bill is going to be a better bill is a delusion. They won’t produce a bill at all. And Barack Obama’s tendency towards bipartisanship, I think, disregards the lessons of my book and will essentially damage the Democrats and especially the progressive agenda, because the people who I describe in my book, the movement I describe, knows that any government solution to the common personal crises that are happening every day in America—and a lot of them are related to healthcare problems—will mean the death of the empire of James Dobson and his allies.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And finally, the title, Republican Gomorrah, what did you mean by that?

MAX BLUMENTHAL: Well, I talk in my book, you know, extensively about all of the bizarre scandals that have happened with Ted Haggard, with Mark Foley, with Larry Craig, which a lot of people attribute to hypocrisy and which have produced a sort of a Gomorrah-like image of a party that had once been seen as a family values party. And these scandals have damaged the party, you know, incredibly, but I wanted to get beyond the hypocrisy and try to understand the mentality and the sensibility of the movement and what defines conservatism today, because that’s what defines the Republican Party out of power. And it’s a party that I consider to be still extremely dangerous to the agenda of Barack Obama, and the progressive agenda, as well. Even though they control—they have no control over government, they can still affect the environment massively.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Max Blumenthal, thank you very much for being with us. Max is a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute. His new book, just out, Republican Gomorrah. He will be launching it on Tuesday, September 8th, in Washington, DC. Go to www.republicangomorrah.com for more details.

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

2009-08-28T16:06:00.001-04:00

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Ted Kennedy R.I.P.

2009-08-26T13:27:00.001-04:00

You will be missed very much, my prayers go out to the Kennedy Family. We have lost a great leader and an even better communicator.

8664

2009-08-24T13:51:00.004-04:00

Here in Louisville, traffic is not horrible. sometimes it can get bad when there are special events, such as Kentucky Derby, Thunder over Louisville, or the Kentucky State Fair, but overall its pretty good most days. Now there is an exception to this rule and that would be what we call "Spaghetti Junction", this is a God Forsaken junction of three major Interstate Highways, 65, 64, and 71 that merge into a twisted behemoth of steel and concrete that spans 5 square miles and causes cataracts and premature graying of the temples among most of its daily drivers.

In recent years, the City of Louisville and the State of Kentucky have been trying to secure funding for something called the Ohio River Bridges Project. This project includes the Addition of a new Downtown Bridge to add 6 more lanes to I-65 and a reworking of Spaghetti Junction to increase its total size to 23 Lanes, and finally the creation of an East End Bridge that would finally connect the I-265(Gene Snyder Expressway) Beltway. This is a logistical nightmare for more than a million reasons including the fact that this project is important to both the economies of Louisville, as well as the State of Kentucky and Indiana.

If you ask me, i don't like any of this, i think that the 8664 plan is far superior and that it would save billions of dollars and many headaches, as well as open the area West of Downtown to Billions more in Real Estate redevelopment. Louisville has a chance here to come out of this a far superior city.

That being said, i do not believe that the local Government will proceed with the 8664 plan and may well even add more nightmares to the existing project. This may be because the shear size of the project would be a boon to the local economy with all of its jobs that it would create, I say if that is the reason, lets do something even more significant, lets bury Interstate 64 ala the Boston Big Dig.

Now i don't mean the entire section of I-64, but rather under Cherokee Park, and Under the Waterfront region of Downtown Louisville, there would also be a possibility of burying Spaghetti Junction if they did this properly which would allow for the restoration of the historic Stock Yards and Butcher Town section of East Downtown Louisville. I also say, lets Take the 1-65 Bridge and rebuild it completely, demolish the old steel behemoth and make way for a modern, beautiful, new 12 lane suspension bridge to match the plans for the new East End bridge. This would be Louisville's premier new Downtown Icon. Expensive? Yes. Unnecessary? Yes. But ask yourself if the Ohio River Bridges Project falls under those classifications already, the answer more than likely is Yes. So 8664, i applaud you for giving us a cheaper alternative with a clear vision for the future development and expansion of downtown Louisville.

Here are some pictures:

Favorite Rap Songs Part II

2009-08-09T12:23:00.003-04:00

Tupac Ft. Dr. Dre California Love

Eminem Ft. Dr. Dre Guilty Conscience

Jay-Z D'Evils

Welcome to the NFL, Aaron Curry

2009-08-09T12:00:00.002-04:00

On Friday Night, the Seattle Seahawks finally came to an agreement with 3rd overall pick Aaron Curry out of Wake Forest. The contract is the richest in NFL history for a non-quarterback. The Terms appear to be 6 years, 60 million dollars, 34 Million of which are guaranteed. This is great news for a Seahawks Defense that finished in the bottom half of the league last season. Defensive Star and fellow Linebacker, Lofa Tatupu, who has been patient with the rookies holdout, said he expects Curry to acclimate himself with the Defense very quickly.

Jose Lopez, What a Tear!

2009-08-07T11:19:00.002-04:00

From July 29th Through August 5th, Jose Lopez, The second Baseman for the Seattle Mariners has had a 7 Game streak of at least 1 RBI, the longest streak in the majors this season. During this time he has been hitting .516 with 3 Homers and 13 RBI's, What a Tear!

How bout them Mariners?

2009-07-23T11:55:00.008-04:00

The Mariners are currently 50-44, and only 5.5 games back out of first place, quite an improvement over last years debacle of a season. The clubhouse chemistry and coaching have greatly improved and i would be surprised if bright days were not ahead of this squad.

Felix Hernandez or King Felix as the nickname goes has been special. He currently sits at the top of the American League in Wins with 11 and is 2nd in Earned Run Average (ERA) with 2.45. He is also 4th in Strikeouts with 137, 3rd in Innings Pitched with 139.2, and hes given up a measly 38 runs all year. Not to mention his 2 hit shutout gem that he threw on June 16th in San Diego. The King has taken his throne.

Hitting:

Russell Branyan BA: .274 HR: 24 RBI: 54 OBP: .373 SLG: .568
Has been as good a free agent pickup that the Mariners brought in the last few season with a line like this...I always knew he was capable of this production, he just needed a regular job.
Franklin Gutierrez BA: .294 HR: 12 RBI: 42 OBP: .354
Gutierrez has been a solid bat and his Glove has been even better. I expect him to be a fixture in Center Field for years to come.
Ichiro Suzuki BA: .357 Hits: 135 2B: 20 HR: 6 SB: 21 OBP: .390
Ichiro has continued his marquee great hitting, but has also upped the power this year with 6 Homers and 20 Doubles.
Jose Lopez BA: .265 HR: 12 RBI: 52 2B: 22
Some would say Lopez has not met expectations, but maybe those expectations were just a little too high, he still has had a fine season and as always plays great defense in the middle of the field.

Pitching:

David Aardsma ERA: 1.79 SV: 23 WHIP: 1.15
This Closer has been exactly that, with only 2 Blown Saves on the year, I expect this man to be the closer for a while here in Seatown.
Jarrod Washburn ERA: 2.87 W-L: 7-6 IP: 119.0 SO: 75
Washburn has been excellent this year, despite the poor run support, he has been All-Star caliber, currently #5 in ERA for the AL.
Erik Bedard ERA: 2.70 W-L: 5-2 IP: 80.0 SO: 84 WHIP: 1.16
When Healthy (which is not often) Bedard has lived up to his expectations of a reliable starter, however there is no way on Gods green earth that i would call the acquisition of Bedard a Good Idea, this trade will be listed as one of the worst in franchise history.

If anything can be learned from this season, it is that the Mariners are far more successful when they are frugal and try to find Gems in the rough. Big Marquee Free Agents only disappoint. We have a grand total of $98,904,166 in Salary this season:

High Salary Under-Achievers:
Adrian Beltre $13,400,000 (Disabled List)
Erik Bedard $7,750,000 (Frequent Disabled List)
Miguel Batista $9,500,000 (Demoted to Bullpen)
Carlos Silva $12,250,000 (Disabled List)
Kenji Johjima $7,666,666 (Frequent Disabled List)

Most Valuable Players:
Franklin Gutierrez $455,000
Russel Branyan $1,400,000
Ken Griffey Jr. $2,000,000 (Leadership)
Mike Sweeney $500,000 (Leadership)
Felix Hernandez $3,800,000
David Aardsma $419,000
Jose Lopez $2,250,000
Endy Chavez $2,050,000

High Salary Players who Preform:
Ichiro Suzuki $18,000,000
Jarrod Washburn $9,850,000

If you cut out the High Cost Under Achievers Salaries, our Payroll would be at just over 48 Million...good for #28 in Baseball. Mind Boggling. This ship is definitely sailing in a better direction.

More Baby Pics

2009-07-21T22:09:00.004-04:00

So the other day, my son started to talk. He started to Ma-Ma and Ma, he also says Ba-Ba, but he is not referring to a bottle, he just mimmicks us, im trying to get him to say Daddy or Da-Da and he said it a few times, but wont say it on command yet. Im so proud of my boy, my little buddy...In honor of this momentous occasion, here are some more pics, also he will be 9 months old on August 11th.

History Lesson

2009-07-20T16:03:00.002-04:00

IN THE 1500'S

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odor . Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting
married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the
house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other
sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the
babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone
in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath
water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it
rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and
fall off the roof. Hence the saying ... It's raining cats and dogs .

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This
posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings
could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a
sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy
beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would
get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on
floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added
more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start
slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence
the saying a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much
meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot
to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew
had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme,
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine
days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They
would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around
and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the
upper crust

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking
along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the
family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they
would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the
bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these
coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the
inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they
would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the
coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would
have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to
listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was
considered a...dead ringer..

Rap

2009-07-17T18:43:00.004-04:00

Here is an assortment of some of my favorite Rap songs of all time:

KRS-One Rappaz R.N. Dainja

Jay-Z In My Lifetime

Ice Cube It was a Good Day

Common I Used to Love H.E.R.

More to come later...

Out from Under

2009-07-14T13:14:00.001-04:00

Knocked off my feet
The earth moved beneath
The edge of a dream and a nightmare

Open the door
Fell through the floor
Slipped through the cracks into nowhere

So tell me where were you
When everything fell down like thunder
I begged you to pull me through
I couldn't get out from under

I took the fall
I took it all
Last night was just an illusion

Cut me, I bleed
Feel me in need
I finally broke in the pressure

So tell me where were you
When everything fell down like thunder
I begged you to pull me through
I couldn't get out from under

Left me for dead inside my head
Couldn't you see that I was still breathing?
Screaming, I reached for you
I couldn't get out from under

-Red

RIP MJ

2009-06-27T11:38:00.002-04:00

A Piece of my childhood is gone...sadness i haven't felt in a long time has filled my soul...Enjoy this 1983 performance of Billie Jean on the Motown 25...Quite possibly the apex of Michaels career...

Jalen at 7 1/2 months

2009-06-23T21:37:00.007-04:00

Here are some pics like a promised. Heading for 8 months old already...

Life...

2009-06-22T17:38:00.003-04:00

I meant to post this a long while back, but have not had a chance to. We are having another baby. This baby will be due at the end of November 2009 and will give Jalen either a brother or sister. We are not expecting to have another baby after this, as i am probably going to get "Fixed".

*Pray for us both as we struggle with the stress of another pregnancy and more responsibility.*

On the Jalen front, things are great, he is healthy, happy and content. He keeps getting bigger and bigger everyday. I'm so proud of him and so happy to be a father. He makes my life full of joy and happiness. I cant even describe the feeling i get when i walk in the font door and we lock eyes and he starts to grin; all the stress and difficulties of the day melt away like an iceberg in the tropics. Now this is not to say that fatherhood is all smiles and fun, no its stressful at times when you want a free moment to get something done, having a baby in your arms while cooking and preparing a bottle is difficult to say the least.

I commend Kenneisha for her hard work and for being there for her and my son, if not for her, i don't know what i would do. Sometimes i think i make her feel bad for the fact that i work and leave every day and come home and complain, but i really do appreciate everything she does and respect the patience and maturity she shows everyday. I know that if we can make it through these first, rough, couple of years; If she would give me a fighting chance to prove I'm not a complete idiot, that maybe just maybe we can grow old together. I cherish her in my heart, i really do, i just struggle with the words to show her sometimes. God grant me the strength to provide for her and my children, i need every ounce i can get.

Well i promise to upload some pics soon of Jalen and us. Just keep your eyes peeled. Maybe even an Ultrasound picture...

Civil War II?

2009-04-18T13:52:00.002-04:00

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall -- one of three tea parties he was attending across the state -- that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.

This to me is downright Anti-American. And yet the right wing thinks they are more patriotic? Get a grip on reality. Its funny how when the right falls out of power they immediately start whining about how they are so unfortunate. I say Rick Perry for President in 2012, there is no way an idiot like him could win.

Sickening...

2009-02-21T09:47:00.003-05:00

Recently the New York Post printed a cartoon depicting Barack Obama as a Chimp...Not only am i outraged by the cartoon itself, but also the supposed apology they issued, and i quote,

"Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.

It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says. It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period.

But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.

However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else."

To that i say, Hogwash.

Race reemerges as issue for GOP

2008-12-30T16:16:00.004-05:00

A controversial parody raises broader questions about the Republican Party’s outreach.

By: Alexandra Marks

State GOP leaders will gather in Washington next week to begin the process of charting a new strategy for the Republican Party.

The issue of race will be central to the discussion, even if it’s not a specific item on the agenda.

That’s because, fairly or not, Republicans are being identified as the party of Southern white conservatives in an increasingly multicultural society. That was highlighted this week, when reports surfaced that a leading contender to take over the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out a racially charged parody as a holiday greeting.

Reaction within the party was mixed. Many condemned it as tone-deaf. Others called the reaction to it “hypersensitivity.”

But one thing united them: a recognition that the Republican Party has to do more to reach out to different constituencies and also shake off a legacy of using race for political advantage.

“Clearly we don’t consider ourselves an all-white, all-male party. But we do understand that 2008 clearly served as a wake-up call to people in the party and the RNC that it takes more than just your base to win elections,” says Chris Taylor, spokesman for RNC chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan. “We will use a broad range of techniques to increase the amount of outreach that we’re doing.”

Within the Republican Party there’s a dispute about how to go about that, as well as a competitive contest over who will lead the GOP next. For the first time, state party leaders have organized a forum independent of the Washington apparatus of the RNC so they can quiz the candidates themselves. It will take place next week.

The issues discussed will range from how to get beyond the Beltway mentality to whether to embrace a more moderate or conservative Republican ideology. But the issue of race will be in the subtext of the discussion – in part because of the decision of a leading candidate, Chip Saltsman of Tennessee, to send out a parody called “Barack the Magic Negro” as part of his holiday greeting.

That again raised the Republicans’ uncomfortable relationship with blacks. Currently, Congress does not have a single African-American Republican, and only a handful of the GOP’s 168 national committee members are black. Fewer than 4 percent of blacks voted Republican in the 2008 presidential election.

“Republicans have culturally and politically become a party of Southern, conservative whites, many of whom are rural, who still have issues with race, no matter how much they will complain if you suggest that they do,” says David Bositis, a senior researcher at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a leading African-African research group in Washington.

The issue of race has always played a crucial role in the Republican Party. It was founded in the 1850s to fight slavery. But starting in the late 1960s, Republicans pursued a so-called Southern strategy where they openly appealed to white voters and sometimes exploited racial tensions to secure victories. As they did, African-Americans moved into the Democratic camp.

But recognition was growing within the party that America was changing and that they needed to as well. In 2004, Ken Mehlman, then chairman of the RNC, made a concerted effort to reach out to African-Americans, and he apologized for the Southern strategy.

That didn’t sit well with some conservatives, but it did mark an opening. And as pollster John Zogby notes, an increasing number of younger African-Americans were looking for an alternative to the Democrats.

“Some felt the Democrats took African-Americans for granted. Others had issue disagreements, from school vouchers to gay marriage to abortion,” says Mr. Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International in Utica, N.Y.

Yet many in the African-American community feel that an opportunity for the GOP to expand its ranks was lost during this past election.

“What we saw at the McCain/Palin rallies – people carrying stuffed monkeys, saying this was Barack Obama, and chanting ‘kill ’em, kill ’em’ – that just ratcheted up racial hatred,” says Eric McDaniel, a political analyst at the University of Texas at Austin. “Some African-Americans may agree with [Republican] policies, but at the end of the day, they’re going to say, ‘I’m black, and you’ve made it very clear you don’t want us around.’ ”

Many people within the Republican Party would like it to move beyond its racial legacy. “I, personally, would like to see us move away from use of ‘hyphenateds’ and gender in categorizing people,” says Gary Emineth, chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party, who organized next week’s forum of potential leaders.

In fact, two of the five leading candidates to lead the RNC are African-American: former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Some Republicans believe their chances to win have been helped by the decision by one of their opponents to send out the racially charged parody. And some pundits think that having a black leader would help the GOP. “The signal that sends to everybody else is that ‘We’re trying,’ ” says Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Originally published by the christian science monitor

Fresh New Ideas

2008-12-10T17:47:00.004-05:00

The smartest and freshest ideas for fixing our economy have come from President-Elect Barack Obama. Instead of trying to just send every taxpaying American a fat check (which 80% would ultimately end up in the hands of the banks as payment for late mortgages and car notes), he is going to put the people to work with the largest public works and infrastructure investment in U.S. History, 700 Billion worth. Obama understands that with rising unemployment, we need to nip it in the butt now and get people back to work. So with Shovel ready jobs, most states will be receiving grants from the Government to Build new and improved schools, repair and rebuild roads, highways, and bridges and bring broadband and high speed internet into the rural areas of our nation.

This effectively is an investment in our future as a nation. Instead of just giving people money and telling them to be good consumers and spend, he is paying the citizens in exchange for working for a brighter future. When all is said and done, this will have been the largest improvement in national infrastructure since FDR's NEW DEAL. We will have safer bridges (God bless those souls who died in the bridge collapse in Minnesota) wider and smoother roads (imagine less flat tires, quicker travel times and improved fuel economy of a less bumpy and less traffic filled roadway) we will have more technologically advanced and efficient teaching at public schools (More better educated kids and an improved workforce in the future) and jobs to put food, health care and money in the pockets of hard working Americans who are having trouble finding Jobs. Maybe just maybe, with a little luck and some more smart investments by our government we will get through this recession and improve the lives of all Americans. Thank God we have a President coming into Office who understands Economics.

Baby Pictures

2008-11-24T12:43:00.003-05:00

Here are the long awaited Baby Pics!

IM A DADDY!

2008-11-12T15:19:00.003-05:00

Its official, Jalen Zachiah Linke was born on November 11th, 2008 at 6:18 PM. He weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces and is 21 3/4 inches long. Hes got My Hair, My Eye Color, My mouth, and My hands and feet(HUGE!). And hes got Kenneisha's Face and Nose and Eye Shape. Hes so adorable and i think hes going to be so smart(He keeps looking all around taking in everything he can).

The crazy part about it is how quick it happened. We got their at 6am and waited until about 9am before they finally gave her Potosin(Labor inducer). Around 3pm they finally broke her water(Why it took 6 hours for them to finally do that, i don't know) and then within 3 hours of labor she was pushing him out, MY GOD! So Amazing! just a wonderful experience.

She is doing a lot better now that they aren't poking and prodding her anymore. She did need some stitches, but she will be healed within a week or so and is recuperating nicely. They said today that he might have a slight case of jaundice(Neonatal jaundice is usually harmless: this condition is often seen in infants around the second day after birth, lasting until day 8 in normal births, or to around day 14 in premature births. Serum bilirubin normally drops to a low level without any intervention required: the jaundice is presumably a consequence of metabolic and physiological adjustments after birth. There are concerns that this condition has been rising in recent years due to inadequate detection and treatment of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.), although they said with a little light treatment(time spent in the sun or under UV lights) he should be fine.

All in All i am very happy and excited to be a father.

2008-11-07T17:29:00.000-05:00

Introducing President Barack Obama

2008-11-04T23:10:00.006-05:00

I sat watching, feeling nervous, excited, and just plain tired. I watched as the states started rolling in and honestly i was a little scared. I thought maybe we were living in a dream world where Confederate Racists and Bible Thumping homophobes run free through the highways and byways of this rather large and intimidating nation.

And yet, the excitement was palpable, it hung thick in the air. I sensed victory, but it seemed all too surreal. By the time that Ohio was called for Obama, I knew. It was an obvious blow to John McCain, effectively pushing him against the ropes like Ali pummeling Frazier. Hope was the first thing on my mind, McCain lost all hope and the Hope that had filled the lungs of the Obama campaign beginning on that Cold morning in Springfield, finally seemed all too infectious, like a virus ravaging the soul of the Republican party.

I watched my life change before my eyes, my still unborn sons life immediately has promise and opportunity not seen prior to this election cycle. I have witnessed one of the most historical and moving events of all time, right up there with Martin Luther King's great speech at the Washington monument. Thank You God! Thank You for blessing us with a real leader who will look out for us in these dire times. Nothing else matters as much right now, not the economic crisis, or the war in Iraq, this feeling has taken such a weight off my back, that i feel truly FREE.

For in this moment, an African-American has become president, and for once in my life i feel like we are making strides towards equality. I watched over one hundred thousand people gather in Grant Park, to welcome the Next President of the United States of America. President Barack Obama came to the stage with Wife and Kids in tow, proving to the American People how family oriented a Democrat can be. He showed his love for his country by not slandering the losing party, instead calling on ALL American people to move past partisanship and come together to meet the challenges that lay ahead. He said that despite the fact that your party may have lost, i am here to speak for you as well, i am your voice, and if you would give me a chance to speak for you, maybe just maybe this nation can heal and move forward to a new and better day.

For at least one night, America seemed like a More Perfect Union.

I VOTED!

2008-11-04T11:03:00.003-05:00

I Did It! I voted for change in 2008. I can't believe that tonight we might have a new leader who actually wants to better our nation. BARACK THE VOTE!

Polls close in these key battleground states:
(Electoral Votes)
Indiana(11) 6-7PM
Virginia(13) 7PM
Georgia(15) 7PM
South Carolina(8) 7PM
Florida(27) 7-8PM
New Hampshire(4) 7-8PM
Ohio(20) 7:30PM
North Carolina(15) 7:30PM
Pennsylvania(21) 8PM
Missouri(11) 8PM
North Dakota(3) 8-9PM
Colorado(9) 9PM
New Mexico(5) 9PM
Iowa(7) 10PM
Montana(3) 10PM

So Chances are we will know the results of this race tonight by 11PM to 12AM. Right now with those battleground states not included, i have Obama at 227 Safe, and McCain at 134 Safe...

YES WE CAN!

16 Hours to go...

2008-11-03T13:32:00.002-05:00

16 Hours to Go...The excitement is palpable, my heart is already racing and i even got the shakes. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will have a new president who wants whats best for our country, who will be there to fix this broken country. I still have hope, i still crave Change...I remember a magical night in February when the improbable happened, when a Black Senator from Illinois came from behind and won big, he gave a speech that electrified the world, he took the lead and never looked back, now were here the day before the general election and it looks like he has hit his stride, victory seems almost reachable, the red dragon seems to be about slain. The newest polling data shows Obama with a clear advantage:

According to the RCP averages, Obama is leading in Florida (+2.5), Virginia (+4.2), Ohio (+4.3), Colorado (+5.5), Nevada (+6.2), New Mexico (+7.3) and Iowa (+15.3). If Obama swipes all of these Bush states, he'll win 338-220; if he flips only the ones where he's polling above 50 percent and/or leading by more than five points, he'll win 291-247. What's more, the Illinois senator is also within striking distance in the red states of North Carolina (tie), Missouri (0.4), Indiana (-1.4), Georgia (-3), Montana (-3.8) and Arizona (-3.5), which are collectively worth another 65 electoral votes. His paths to 270 number in the dozens.

I like our chances, it seems this may be the year that the evil right wing finally gets turned away. Lets show our support and hit the polls, lets vote in a real candidate for Change, BARACK OBAMA! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

HYPOCRISY!

2008-10-30T10:43:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, The McCain campaign tried to tie Barack Obama to another radical terrorist, Rashid Khalidi. This Characterization is completely Baseless and without cause;

The Los Angeles Times described Khalidi as having spoken on the PLO's behalf in the 1970s(Meaning he was a regular used for translations ect.) and FOXNews called him "a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was a US-designated terror group."(It has since been recognized as a legitimate organization that works on the behalf of the Palestinian state) Khalidi has denied working for the PLO, and Palestinian sources told The Jerusalem Post the characterization is incorrect(Meaning he was never payed for his service of providing translation and an un-biased explanation for their actions, which have since been deemed not terrorist in nature).

Khalidi taught at the University of Chicago until 2003. Obama and his wife, Michelle, often socialized with Khalidi and his wife, Mona, and the Khalidis hosted a political fundraiser for Obama in 2000. The Woods Fund charity gave money to the Arab-American Action Network, run by Mona Khalidi, while Obama served on the charity's board. The video the Times story quotes records Obama saying that Khalidi provided him "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation - a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table [but around] this entire world."

Forget the fact that these ties are completely loose and baseless, but there is something far more hypocritical about these claims.

Yesterday the Huffington Post reported that John McCain headed the International Republican Institute when it gave grants to an organization co-chaired by Khalidi. McCain Campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb confirmed the report.

Khalidi's organization, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, conducted regular public opinion surveys in the West Bank and Gaza with financial support from various foundations and from the International Republican Institute, an organization that promoted democracy around the world. McCain was the IRI chairman when it gave $448,873 to the research group in 1998, according to IRI's tax return. Under McCain's leadership, the IRI gave at least $838,494 to Khalidi's group in 1988 and 1999, according to the IRI's tax returns.

So Basically, if the McCain Campaign wants to assert that Barack Obama is friends with a Terrorist, then the McCain Campaign is guilty of directly Funding Terrorism. Which is actually a far more horrendous offense. John McCain, My Friend, you sir are a liar and a Hypocrite.

2008-10-29T15:57:00.001-04:00

Lieberman's Overlords Most Displeased

2008-10-29T09:16:00.002-04:00

EIGHT MILES BENEATH THE EARTH’S SURFACE—According to reports from deep within the secret underground lair of the Tributon IV Project, the nine executive overlords of Sen. Joseph Lieberman are most displeased with the Connecticut lawmaker's repeated insolence. “We asked the earthling Lieberman to secure the American vice presidency, and yet again he has failed us,” Overlord Xinos IV said in a statement issued telepathically from his prefrontal cortex. “Rest assured, this lowly worm shall pay dearly for his incompetence. That is all.” While the Elders of the High Council of Minerva have not yet settled on an appropriate punishment, they are reportedly considering some combination of spine extraction, laser eye-immolation, and a highly complicated process whereby the four-term senator’s pathetic earth body would be condensed into a small pellet and shot at high speeds into the planet’s molten core. Despite these reports, representatives for Sen. Lieberman said he is still scheduled to attend Saturday’s Nook Farm Harvest Festival in Hartford.

(first reported by theonion.com)

Two Southern Racists Planned to Kill Obama and Black Schoolchildren

2008-10-28T11:54:00.006-04:00

On Monday Federal Authorities arrested two men who had plotted to Assassinate Barack Obama. Both men were members of a White Supremacist group. The Men were Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Arkansas, and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee.

The two men “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows,” according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Jackson, Tenn., by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The assassination was to be the culmination of a “killing spree” that would also single out children at an unnamed, predominately black school, federal officials said. The men talked of “killing 88 people and beheading 14 African-Americans,” according to the affidavit.

They Planned to kill innocent Children, what kind of horrible monsters are these people? What makes the GOP think it is ok to spew this Hate Filled Rhetoric? I am Completely disgusted by the Republican Party for pushing this country back 40 years. The fears of many are now being realized, it is becoming more and more likely that we may see an increase in racial attacks after the completion of this election cycle. But of course most republicans think that racism no longer exists, mostly because they are the ones who propagate it in the first place. Instead they like to deflect racism onto others and claim that many are using racism as an excuse or cop out. I hope this has opened the eyes of the Far Right to just how damaging these baseless attacks are to our society.

Sarah Palin "'Palls round with Felons"

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

So last night on my way home from work, i was listening to NPR and low and behold Ted Stevens, the Great GOP senator from the State of Alaska was found guilty on all 7 counts of lying about thousands of dollars of gifts and home renovations on his financial disclosure forms. This type of conviction usually carries 5 years per count, meaning senator Stevens could be sent to jail for a maximum of 35 years.

Sarah Palin tried to distance herself from the Senator, but everyone knows that with her own corruption hearings being held, Alaskan Republican Politicians are not necessarily the most trustworthy. I don't buy her attempt to disassociate one bit.

This comes on the heals of her dissension with the McCain Camp over many of her recent gaffes on the campaign trail. The McCain Camp is growing increasingly Leary of her exploits as the election looms ever closer. Many are now saying the odds for Obama to win are growing with every day, every new campaign add, its become an almost insurmountable lead. The only hurdle that remains is just getting the voters out to the polls.

Amazon.com lists Obama Halloween mask under Terrorist

2008-10-27T09:11:00.003-04:00

Are you freakin kidding me? The GOP has infiltrated Amazon.com. Lets poison the minds of our Halloween celebrating youth with this nonsensical garbage. I blame John McCain and his lackey political idiots for this outrageous hate that has begun to enter almost every aspect of our society.

Amazon.com has since removed this from their terrorist listing, but seriously the damage has already been done.

OIL PRICES HIT 17 MONTH LOW!

2008-10-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

McCain Blasts Obama As Out Of Touch In Burma-Shave-Style Billboard Campaign

2008-10-24T11:35:00.003-04:00

RAPID CITY, SD—John McCain escalated his attacks on Obama's leadership credentials Tuesday by endorsing a series of rhyming Burma-Shave-style billboards that accuse the Democratic presidential candidate of being out of touch with the current political landscape. "Barack Is Sipping/Fine Champagne/While U.S. Jobs/Go Down The Drain/ McCain '08," read the five consecutive 2-by-5-foot bright red wooden signs erected along a 1.5-mile stretch of South Dakota highway, emulating an advertising medium first popularized by the Burma-Vita Company in 1926 to sell brushless shaving cream. As a follow-up to the scathing roadside polemic, McCain announced plans to lampoon Obama's foreign policy inexperience in a short skit alongside comedian Bert Wheeler and the vivacious Dorothy Lee, to be seen on the late-night variety program Cavalcade Of Stars on the DuMont Television Network.

(First Reported on TheOnion.com)

Palin Charged Children's Travel To State

2008-10-23T13:10:00.003-04:00

According to an investigation by the Associated Press, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska for trips her children took with her, later amending expense reports to describe their travel as official state business. So we decided to ask 3 average Middle Class Americans What they think:

Aaron McBain, Clothier
"If I act outraged, will it help the actual, obvious case for why she shouldn't be elected?"

Kyle Fitzpatrick, Metal Grinder
"I'm sure those children had a perfectly legitimate reason to be at that transportation infrastructure subcommittee meeting."

Jeri Anderson, Clerk
"Oh, leave the poor woman alone. I'd like to see you try and raise five retarded children."

(First reported by theonion.com)

McCain Advisers Freaked Out by Al Qaeda Preference for McCain

2008-10-22T19:44:00.000-04:00

By Spencer Ackerman 10/22/08 12:35 PM

I just got off a conference call held by the McCain campaign to deny that Al Qaeda, contrary to reports in the AP and the Washington Post, is rooting for their man. To describe the call as panicked would be an understatement.

Jim Woolsey, the former CIA director who publicly connected Iraq to the 9/11 attacks without any evidence in 2001, and senior foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann spent more time whining about the Washington Post’s standards of fairness than on the logic of why Al Qaeda might prefer Sen. John McCain. “An amazing piece of journalism, and I use journalism in quotation marks,” Scheunemann said, going on to list barely approving quotes of Sen. Barack Obama from Hamas, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, which he said he wasn’t going “to characterize.” Woolsey, for his part, peered into the mind of what he called “one individual Islamist blogger from one terrorist Islamist blog” and determined that he was “clearly trying to damage John McCain” and “not speaking from his heart.”

What was absent from the call, oddly enough, was any discussion about why Al Qaeda might want McCain to win. And there the case is simple enough. Al Qaeda prefers an indefinite U.S. occupation of Iraq and a bellicose U.S. all across the Muslim world to radicalize Muslims to its terrorist cause and drain the U.S. of its financial wealth — what Osama bin Laden calls his “bleed to bankruptcy” strategy. Hence, the reason why, as the CIA eventually concluded, Bin Laden tried to help George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004 by releasing a late-October tape. McCain pledges basic continuity with Bush on the Iraq war. As Scheunemann put it, “John McCain will spend what it takes to win.”

Yet the idea of Al Qaeda preferring a U.S. strategy that strengthens it confounded the McCain camp. “It is ridiculous to believe that in its heart of hearts, Al Qaeda wants John McCain to be the president,” Woolsey said. “It’s ludicrous.” But the only thing that’s ludicrous is Woolsey’s expectation that the American public will keep falling for this sort of misdirection by the same blinkered analysts who blundered the U.S. into Iraq in the first place.

Cool McCain Supporter Wears 'McCain 2000' Shirt To Campaign Speech

2008-10-22T14:01:00.001-04:00

COLUMBUS, OH—According to attendees at a rally held in Columbus' Capitol Theatre Monday, a John McCain supporter in his early 30s was envied and admired by onlookers for wearing an original navy blue "McCain 2000" T-shirt with a peeling logo, frayed neckline, and several holes in the sleeves. "When I saw his shirt, I was like, 'No way! That's totally vintage!'" said 24-year-old David Bennett, noting that it was not a pre-distressed "McCain 2000" shirt like the ones available at Urban Outfitters. "This guy's been a McCain fan since the beginning. He said the campaign kickoff speech in Nashua in '99 was fucking mind-blowing." Sources reported that the hip McCain backer knew all the words to the Arizona senator's speeches, and silently mouthed McCain's entire energy policy while waving a cigarette lighter.

Sarah Palin's economic stimulus plan?

2008-10-22T13:20:00.003-04:00

From LATimes.com

Sarah Palin, small-town hockey mom and everywoman? More like Sarah Palin, pampered princess. Jeanne Cummings at Politico reports that the RNC’s monthly financial disclosure reports reveal that the Republican National Committee has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the vice presidential candidate's wardrobe and accessories since she was nominated, including $150,000 in September alone.Rage_palin2

So it seems you can take the girl out of the beauty pageant, but you can’t take the beauty pageant out of the girl.

Palin's clothes came from retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York, and expenses included nearly $5,000 for hair and makeup. Maybe this is actually her one-woman economic stimulus plan. Lord knows the retail sector needs it.

Still, voters must find it unfathomable for Palin, who has been presented as a woman “like us,” to spend that kind of money on clothes in these difficult financial times, to see her speaking so passionately about Joe the Plumber while plumbing campaign coffers for Valentino jackets and pencil skirts. And yet, they’ve eaten it up, tittering on chat sites about Palin’s Kawasaki eyeglass frames and her Naughty Monkey red peep-toe pumps.

Palin’s spokewoman is saying this is much ado about nothing, that we should be talking about more important issues. But can you imagine the outcry if it were revealed that Hilary Clinton’s rainbow of pantsuits was paid for by campaign contributions? Or if college kids’ $50 checks to the Biden/Obama campaign were putting those men in $5,000 custom suits? (Obama’s suits are by Hart Schaffner Marx out of Chicago, and cost in the $1,500 range.)

In Palin’s defense, being a woman in the public eye has its own kind of pressures. And it’s unlikely she has been stepping off the campaign trail to join the ladies who lunch for shopping sprees at Neimans. Instead, she is probably working with a wardrobe stylist, who brings her things to try on and choose from. But the issue of clothing and hair expenses has always been a land mine for politicians (John Edwards' $400 haircuts), and someone should have been sensitive to that.

You also have to wonder how it feels, as a woman, to have everyone know that you really have been dressed up and trotted out like a beauty queen for the American public to wag their tongues at. Caribou Barbie indeed.

-- Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times Fashion Critic

2008-10-21T12:39:00.002-04:00

John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight

2008-10-21T12:33:00.002-04:00

John McCain Not Going To Ask Cindy McCain Twice

2008-10-21T12:26:00.003-04:00

WASHINGTON—While traveling on his campaign bus yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took a moment to forcefully reiterate his official position of not asking wife Cindy McCain a second time. After referring to his history as a "straight-talker" and a man who has been "to hell and back" as a POW in Vietnam, McCain explained that his simple request was both clear and reasonable and ought to be easy enough to carry out. As silent reporters looked on, McCain then stressed that he has been consistent on this issue every single day of their long, 28-year marriage, smiled, and placed his hand firmly on his wife's left knee, looking her directly in the eyes the whole time. At press time, the campaign bus was turning around to head back to the goddamn McDonald's drive-thru.

(origionally reported by theonion.com)

Obama raises record $150 Million

2008-10-20T17:30:00.004-04:00

In what seems to be the growing trend, Barack Obama has made history...again. His campaign has announced that he made $150 Million in the month of September to add the $65 Million he made in August. When all is said and done, Obama may have recorded a total of more than $300 Million raised for the general election outpacing the $85 Million that John McCain accepted in public financing.

This is allowing Obama to outspend McCain in campaign adds by a 10-1 ratio in many states and opening the already widening lead even further by competing in normally red states like Georgia, North Dakota, Missouri, and Indiana.

With this news also comes information that Obama has taken the lead in states like West Virginia, North Dakota, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, and Florida. He is also slightly trailing in Indiana and Ohio. We may see the largest Electoral victory since Ronald Reagans two election cycles.

Gen. Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

2008-10-19T10:58:00.007-04:00

In what many are calling the biggest endorsement of this election cycle, Former General Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama for President. "I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said. "He is a new generation coming ... onto the world stage and on the American stage. And for that reason, I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama." He then went on to describe the most important reasons for his endorsement, "And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

When asked about race, Powell made it clear this is not about race, but that race does make a difference in how the world perceives this country, Powell, who last year gave the Arizona senator's campaign the maximum $2,300, replied: "If I had only had that in mind, I could have done this six, eight, 10 months ago. I really have been going back and forth between somebody I have the highest respect and regard for, John McCain and somebody I was getting to know, Barack Obama. And it was only in the last couple of months that I settled on this." He then went on to describe what having an African-American President would do for the image of this country, "I can't deny that it will be a historic event when an African-American becomes president," Powell continued, speaking live in the studio. "And should that happen, all Americans should be proud — not just African-American, but all Americans — that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It would also not only electrify the country, but electrify the world."

Powell then went on to harshly criticize the GOP for their tactics and judgment, As a key reason, Powell said: "I would have difficult with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration."

Powell said that he is "troubled" by the direction of the Republican Party, and said he began to doubt Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. "Not just small towns have values," he said, responding to one of Palin's signature lines. "She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired," he said. "But at the same, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."

"They're trying to connect him to some kind of terrorist feelings, and I think that's inappropriate," Powell said. "Now I understand what politics is all about — I know how you can go after one another. And that's good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me. And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift." Powell said he has "heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion [that Obama's] a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America. I feel strongly about this particular point," Powell said. "We have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

I am blown away by this endorsement, it really sums up all that Barack has tried to accomplish. It shows that he can reach across party lines, that judgment is more important that experience and that the GOP have stepped across the line on many an occasion to attack Obama on things that this election should never have been about.

U.S. Supreme Court says 200,000 Can Vote!

2008-10-17T13:34:00.003-04:00

Today the United States Supreme Court(A mostly Conservative panel) decided that the GOP of Ohio CANNOT ban the nearly 200,000 questioned voters from the polls in this years election. How does it feel to have to walk a mile in our shoes republicans?

Its about time justice is served indirectly in the voter scandals of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

Of course many republicans will probably whine and cry that a horrible atrocity has occured, but seriously WHAAA! or in the words of Justin Timberlake, CRY ME A RIVER!

Presidential Debate: Round 3

2008-10-16T13:46:00.006-04:00

First and foremost go to palinaspresident.us to check out the funniest thing ever...

Here are the poll results for who won the third and final Presidential Debate:

CBS Obama 53% McCain 22%
CNN Obama 58% McCain 31%
AOL Obama 47% McCain 46%
MSNBC Obama 54% McCain 36%
Newsvine Obama 83.8% McCain 13%
SurveyUSA Obama 56% McCain 28%
MediaCurves Obama 60% McCain 30%

"JOE THE PLUMBER"
Joe the Plumber is not exactly a plumber and he's "not even close" to making the kind of money that would result in higher taxes from Democrat Barack Obama's proposals. Such is the whirlwind of information that has come out about Joe Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio, since Republican John McCain made him famous in last night's debate. McCain mentioned him more than 20 times to use him as a symbol of hard-working Americans who would be hurt by Obama's tax policies.

How you like them apples? Joe Sixpack don't have a sixpack, and Joe the plumber cant even plumb...

Republicans planning to assassinate Obama

2008-10-15T21:36:00.002-04:00

The GOP is at it again. The far right is about as evil and destructive as a political party can get. Recently at a McCain Campaign event, while chastising Obama, a supporter in the crowd yelled, "Kill Him!" Kill Him? Are you Freaking Serious? Who on Gods green earth would want to see either politician dead? Thats not just dirty, thats a threat and should be punishable as a crime. I would be hard pressed to find anyone, and i mean anyone who would teach their children such horrible things. Where are the conservatives in this country heading? Might as well be straight to hell!

Waterboard Obama? What are they thinking? Seriously? What the crap makes these hate mongerers and bigots think it is OK to threaten such atrocities and disgusting things upon anyone, horrible, wicked, evil people. And that is exactly why we need change so badly in this election cycle, lets get someone in office who will not support his campaign crowds yelling horrible things like John McCain did tonight in the debate. Lets vote a real candidate for president, Barack Obama.

Palin confuses supporters for protesters

2008-10-14T13:57:00.002-04:00

On Monday, Sarah Palin was addressing a crowd at the Richmond International Raceway in Virginia. Supporters at the outer edges of the audience couldn’t hear what Palin was saying, and began chanting “Louder, louder!” Palin responded, “I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest.” Finally she realized her error after Todd stepped in to let her know they were having trouble hearing her...WOW! Honestly, im not surprised, but stupidity must be epidemic.

McCain has been "Pallin 'round with Racists"

2008-10-13T13:27:00.004-04:00

There they go again, they keep trying to use racially charged rhetoric to tear down the historic campaign that Barack Obama has run...here is a racist billboard put up in Missouri:

but ask a republican and they say, oh no we are not racist, racism is dead. I say that is bull crap. Look at how they are trying as hard as they can to associate Obama, just because of his name with terrorists. I think Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. said it best this morning on American Morning; "Well, let me say this. Actually, my friend Ken Blackwell and I have a disagreement. I happen to think that the idea that the Democratic nominee has been palling around with terrorists, when Mr. Ayers was a Weatherman and Barack Obama was 8 years old. When Mr. Ayers was a Weatherman, I was 3 years old. There seems to be this emphasis here, on trying to association Barack Obama with people who have challenged America in very violent ways. And that's unfortunate.

If I chose to look back at the 8 in John McCain's life, when he was 8 or 18, or 28, or 48, 58, or 68, I could say that some of the people he served with in the United States Senate including Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond and Trent Lott, people who have a sordid past on some of these questions. Did he distance himself from them? Did he disassociate himself from them? Did he leave the Republican caucus? Did he say, I'm not going to be a senator anymore because of the remarks or things that they've made that were controversial?

And so I think we have to judge these candidates based upon their own character, based upon their own commitment, which has really been tested over the last couple of years of this campaign. If we can focus on the issues, Kiran, that matter to the American people, the American people will be all the better for it, and I think that's what Barack Obama wants."

Why is it OK for McCain to make outlandish claims about Obama, but not the other way? Well republicans like to pretend somehow that they are disadvantaged despite running this country into the ground for the last 8 years. Oh well, they can believe what they want, but i believe the truth...The truth is, republicans are racists and will try to do anything to keep a black man from being in power...

how bout some brutal honesty...

2008-10-09T12:16:00.006-04:00

If you had purchased $1,000 worth of stock 1 year ago;

Delta Airlines would be worth $49 today...

Fannie Mae would be worth $2.50 today....

AIG would be worth less than $0.34 today...

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer, then recycled the cans, you would have $214 in cash!

So, the best investment advice i can give you is to drink heavily and recycle.

How bout that for some brutal honesty...

Sarah Palin, member of Cult

2008-10-08T17:43:00.002-04:00

In a continued effort to bring the truth forward, It has come to my attention that Sarah Palin is a member of a cult of masculinity, "...she is subservient to a male hierarchy that claims to speak for God." ,writes Chris Hedges Harvard Divinity School graduate and author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” Here is the link for his article examining the effect of the Male "Christian" leaders of our society.

I myself am a christian, and i stand for moral values that some see as being conservative, like being pro-life. However unlike most conservatives, i do not contradict myself when i say i am pro-life. I am truly pro-life, in that i am anti-abortion, anti-death penalty, and anti-war. Killing of any kind to me is quite wrong. Also most conservatives find themselves in a conundrum when it comes to Gay rights. By advocating Gay Rights, they think that somehow they are condoning Homosexuality, when in fact you are just condoning the constitution of the United States of America and abiding by the laws of the Bible by not judging others. Think about it.

So like most liberals i am truly scared when i see the manipulative religious right trying to mold the minds of many Americans into thinking things that are archaic and senseless. To me James Dobson, Pat Robertson, the late Billy Graham, and Jerry Falwell are some of the worst of the "christian" leaders of America in that they think women should be slaves to men and homosexuals should be relegated to burn in hell. Let me ask you something, where in the Bible does it state that Gay people are worse sinners than Straight people? Where in the Bible does it state that anyone has the right to judge others? I can't find those concepts anywhere, no those are more modern Victorian Era Archaic ways of thought that have continued to creep into the conscience of our society, despite the truth that is right there for anyone to read in the scriptures of the bible.

Finally i want to say that anyone who thinks that George W. Bush received some sort of message from God to go to war with Iraq is just plain brainwashed. Bush wanted to go to war with Iraq because his family benefited from it. There is no such thing as a modern "Holy War" its time for the Right wing to put down their "crusade" or "christian jihad" and try to mend the broken relationships with the middle east. Jesus was all about compassion and mercy, too bad his followers completely missed his message.

I will pray for all your souls.

Presidential Debate: Round 2

2008-10-08T10:06:00.004-04:00

So with three out of four debates out of the way, we seem to be seeing a trend. That trend is Obama becoming increasingly known among independents and undecideds. This is causing an increase in the polls almost to a insurmountable lead. He now leads most opinion polls at about a 8-9 point clip and in key battleground states he continues to surge towards the finish line, states like Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Nevada are now showing Obama with a large lead. This amounts to most Americans finally having prime time TV access to the candidates and most seeing how strong Obama really is on many of his policies.

So last night, Obama showed Confidence, Poise, and for the first time a connection to the audience not seen so far, mostly due to the town hall format of the debate. Many saw this format as a good thing for McCain, but it was obvious that it favored both candidates, with McCain having a slight over the top approach to his aw, shucks town hall demeanor.

A few times during the course of the debate, McCain made comments that didn't sit very well with voters. When asked early on by a young African-American about the economy, McCain responded with "But you know, one of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I'll bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis." Insinuating that because he was young and African-American that he wouldn't know who Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac were, When he said that it almost made me throw something at the TV.

McCain also referred to Obama as, "That One" not even giving him the respect of a fellow U.S. Senator, "You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one," said McCain, gesturing towards Obama.
All in all, the debate was full of high points and low points, but the polls indicate a clear winner, as with most polls these days, leaning heavily towards Obama.

MSNBC Obama 83% McCain 13%
AOL Obama 52% McCain 41%
CNN Obama 54% McCain 30%
CBS Obama 40% McCain 26%
MediaCurves Obama 52% McCain 34%

U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We're At War With

2008-10-07T12:51:00.005-04:00

...from the onion...

WASHINGTON, DC—In a televised address to the American people Tuesday, a determined President Bush vowed that the U.S. would defeat "whoever exactly it is we're at war with here."

"America's enemy, be it Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, a multinational coalition of terrorist organizations, any of a rogue's gallery of violent Islamic fringe groups, or an entirely different, non-Islamic aggressor we've never even heard of... be warned," Bush said during an 11-minute speech from the Oval Office. "The United States is preparing to strike, directly and decisively, against you, whoever you are, just as soon as we have a rough idea of your identity and a reasonably decent estimate as to where your base is located."

Added Bush: "That is, assuming you have a base."

Bush is acting with the full support of Congress, which on Sept. 14 authorized him to use any necessary force against the undetermined attackers. According to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), the congressional move enables the president to declare war, "to the extent that war can realistically be declared on, like, maybe three or four Egyptian guys, an Algerian, and this other guy who kind of looks Lebanese but could be Syrian. Or whoever else it might have been. Because it might not have been them."

In addition to those responsible for the Sept. 11 attack, the U.S. is determined to exact revenge upon any nation found to have harbored the perpetrators.

"Should we determine that a nation has been giving refuge to this fiend—or fiends, as the case may be—we will effectively be at war with that nation," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) said. "Then again, what if we declared war on Afghanistan and they didn't send anyone to fight us? It's plausible that we could declare war on them, but they wouldn't go to war with us, since they weren't the ones who actually attacked us. Who would our soldiers even shoot?"

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), one of Congress' decorated war veterans, tried to steel the nation for the possibility of a long and confusing conflict.

"America faces a long road ahead," McCain said. "We do not yet know the nature of 21st-century warfare. We do not yet know how to fight this sort of fight. And I'll be damned if one of us has an inkling who we will be fighting against. With any luck, they've got uniforms of some sort."

"Christ," McCain continued, "what if the terrorists' base of operation turns out to be Detroit? Would we declare war on the state of Michigan? I suppose we'd have to."

Finding The Enemy: the exhaustive search for terrorists.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the war against terrorism will be different from any previous model of modern warfare.

"We were lucky enough at Pearl Harbor to be the victim of a craven sneak attack from an aggressor with the decency to attack military targets, use their own damn planes, and clearly mark those planes with their national insignia so that we knew who they were," Rumsfeld said. "Since the 21st-century breed of coward is not affording us any such luxury, we are forced to fritter away time searching hither and yon for him in the manner of a global easter-egg hunt."

"America is up to that challenge," Rumsfeld added.

On Monday, the House of Representatives voted 428-2 to form an intelligence-gathering task force dedicated to "rooting out every scrap of information that can possibly be gleaned" concerning the attackers.

"When this task force's investigation is complete, America will know this guy's mother's favorite flavor of ice cream," U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) said. "We will also know who he is."

Gramm said that the U.S. has already learned a great deal about the details of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and that a rough psychological profile of its mastermind has been constructed.

"For example, we know that the mastermind has the approximate personality of a terrorist," Gramm said. "Also, he is senseless. New data is emerging all the time."

Standing in opposition to Bush and Congress is a small but growing anti-war movement. During the president's speech Tuesday, two dozen demonstrators gathered outside the White House, chanting and waving placards bearing such slogans as "U.S. Out Of Somewhere" and "No Blood For Whatever These Murderous Animals Hope To Acquire."

Attorney General John Ashcroft urged Americans to "come together at such a difficult and unprecedented time in our nation's history."

"Make no mistake, we are facing a grave evil," Ashcroft said. "This was a horrific crime, the likes of which our nation has never seen. But this crime will not go unpunished, mark my words. To whoever did this, wherever you are, I say to you: Justice will be served, swiftly and hopefully."

Sarah Palin desperately tries to smear Obama

2008-10-06T10:26:00.004-04:00

With as big a lead as Obama has opened here in the 2008 Presidential Campaign, i knew that the McCain Camp would try to paint Obama as being a "Manchurian Candidate" for Terrorists trying to clutter the minds of voters just a little more fear. McCain and Palin continue to characterize Obama as being some kind of evil terrorist supporter, stating Obama "pals around with terrorists". Palin went on to say that it is "The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about," Palin said as she boarded her plane in Long Beach, Calif. "I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room." The Associated Press said her charge about Ayers was unsubstantiated, a point made by other news organizations, and the criticism carried a "racially tinged subtext that McCain may come to regret." In fact, Obama was questioned about Ayers during a prime-time Democratic debate against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton prior to April's Pennsylvania primary.

It's obvious that they are willing to try anything and everything to smear and demean Barack Obama as he continues to open huge leads in the polls. For everyone out there, i have included Barack's actual associations to Bill Ayers below:

Obama Connection to Bill Ayers
...excerpt from wikipedia...
Bill Ayers and Barack Obama have been linked during their time in the city of Chicago, where they lived three blocks apart and led charges for education reform in the state of Illinois. The two met "at a luncheon meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper." Obama was then named to the Chicago Annenberg Project board to oversee the distribution of grants in Chicago. Later in 1995, Ayers hosted "a coffee" for "Mr. Obama's first run for office." Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 2000 and 2002, during which time the board met twelve times. Ayers also contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001." Since 2002, there has been little linking Obama and Ayers. Obama says he has not visited Ayers during the presidential campaign. The senator said in September 2008 that he hadn't "seen him in a year-and-a-half." In February 2008, Obama spokesman Bill Burton released a talking point about the relationship between the two: "Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous." CNN's review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved.

At a rally in North Carolina, Obama countered that McCain and his campaign "are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance." The Democrat described the criticism as "Swiftboat-style attacks on me".

Karl Rove Projecting Obama Win

2008-10-05T19:07:00.003-04:00

Today on Fox News Sunday, Republican Strategist Karl Rove predicted Barack Obama will win the 2008 Election. “If the election were held today, Obama would win every state John Kerry won in 2004, while adding New Mexico, Iowa, and Colorado to his coalition." The Conservative Republicans are definitely getting more and more scared with every passing day.

In sadder news, Joe Biden will be suspending his campaign until wednesday due to the tragic passing of his Mother in-law. My thoughts and prayers are with Joe and his family in their time of need.

The Debate: VP Edition

2008-10-03T08:57:00.005-04:00

So if you, like me, watched the debate last night you know who the clear winner was: Joe Biden. However what was unexpected was a much more prepared Sarah Palin. I commend Gov. Palin for her good preparation for the debate, however i think her tactics were less than admirable. She dodged questions, mocked the media, lied about policies and her opponents, virtually doing everything she could to drum up some support. Her attempts were largely thwarted by Biden, as he did a great job relating to the the American People. He showed a depth of knowledge on many key issues like the economy, the war, and health care. He became personable with stories about the loss of his wife and daughter, and his sons disabilities. He related to the working class with his upbringing on the tough streets of Scranton and Dover. He even showed he knows what its like to Sit at the kitchen table and not know where the next bill would be payed from. The man simply is here because of and for the average working American. Don't just take my word for it, here are some of the poll results following the Debate:

AOL Biden 48% Palin 45%
MSNBC Biden 78.6% Palin 18.9%.
CNN Biden 51% Palin 36%
CBS Biden 46% Palin 21%
Fox Biden 61% Palin 39%

In the CBS poll, of uncommitted voters, 18% now say they will vote Obama/Biden, 10% now say McCain/Palin.

As you can see, Biden won overwhelmingly. I think he did an effective job of helping Obama continue his recent ascent the top of the mountain that is the presidential election.

Conservatives have a Disorder

2008-10-02T13:56:00.003-04:00

Well, its official. They have officially diagnosed most conservatives with a Psychological Disorder called, the Panglossian Disorder. It is actually an issue with their State of mind. Here is the link explaining the disorder in detail. Read at your own risk.

Quote of the Day

2008-10-01T12:43:00.004-04:00

"I have quite a few people who are giving us information about the record of Obama and Biden, and at the end of the day, though, it is — it's so clear, again, what those choices are. Either new ideas, new energy and reform of Washington, D.C., or more of the same," -Sarah Palin

Im glad she could clear that up for us, that Obama and Biden are for Change and McCain and Palin are for more of the Same. Its great that she is polite enough to help Obama Campaign for President. Thank You Sarah Palin!

Palin, McCain make numerous gaffes in Interview with Katie Couric

2008-09-30T12:26:00.004-04:00

Katie Couric did a joint interview Monday in Ohio with Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Mrs. Couric asked Palin about a statement the candidate made over the weekend that the U.S. should launch attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan to "stop the terrorists from coming any further in."(Palin virtually agreed with opponent Barack Obama on this issue that McCain attacked Obama on in last fridays debate.)"So, Gov. Palin are you two (she and McCain) on the same page?" Couric asked. "...We will do what we have to do to secure the United Sates and her allies," Palin said. "Is that something you shouldn't say out loud, Sen. McCain?" Couric asked. "Of course not," McCain said, rebuking his VP choice. "But look, I understand this day and age gotcha journalism... Grab a phrase. Gov. Palin and I agree that you don't announce that you're going to attack another country."(Despite the fact that Palin obviously does not agree) "Are you sorry you said it?" Couric asked Palin. "Wait a minute," McCain interrupted, "Before you say is she sorry she said it, this was a gotcha sound bite that...", "It wasn't a gotcha," Couric insisted. "She was talking to a voter." "No," McCain argued, "she was in a conversation with a group of people talking back and forth, and I'll let Gov. Palin speak for herself."

When Couric asked Palin what she learned "from that experience," the candidate replied, "That this is all about gotcha journalism...."(So I guess its everyones fault but your own that you have no idea what your talking about)

Couric re-focused her questioning:"Gov. Palin, since our last interview, you have gotten a lot of flak. Some Republicans have said you are not prepared, you're not ready for prime time... And I'm curious to hear your reaction."

"Well, not only am I ready but willing and able to serve as vice president with Sen. McCain if Americans so bless us and privilege us with the opportunity of serving them -- ready with my executive experience as a city mayor and manager, as a governor, as a commissioner, a regulator of oil and gas, McCain then stepped in again. "This is not the first time I've seen a governor being questioned by some quote expert," he said making qotation marks with his fingers. "I remember that Ronald Reagan was a cowboy. Prseident Clinton was a governor of a very small state that had no experience either. I remember how easy it was going to be for Bush I to defeat him. I still recall, whoops, that one. But the point is that I've seen underestimation before. I'm very proud of the excitement that Gov. Palin has ignited with this party around this country."(Excitement that continues to dwindle with every passing day and interview exposing Palin as the nitwit she really is.)

This is not an issue of the "spin-masters" trying to make people think Palin is inexperienced, if that was the case, Palin would have changed after the Charlie Gibson interview. No, this is an instance where we legitimately have a Vice Presidential Candidate who is so unqualified for president that she cannot even memorize her campaigns talking points to try to pretend she knows what she is talking about. That is just plain scary, kinda makes me think of the guy we've been dealing with for the last 8 Years, Good Ole' Dubya! But hey, maybe im just drinkin the "Kool Aid" like all the conservative wackjobs like to tell me.

John McCain Possibly Dying

2008-09-29T17:56:00.000-04:00

A Letter from Michael D. Fratkin, MD
Thursday, 18 September 2008 08:59

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

John McCain is a 72 year old man with recurrent melanoma, hyperlipidemia, degenerative joint disease, and recurrent difficulty with certain efforts at recall.

These are the limited facts the American people have had access to. Over 1000 pages of medical records were shown to selected journalists for 3 hours with less than 48 hours of notice. The only medically trained journalist was Sanjey Gupta, MD from CNN.

This is the extent to which the American people have been informed. While I am certainly sensitive to the confidential nature of medical records, given the anxiety expressed by many of my patients regarding the risk of lost coverage or lost jobs in this current health economic climate, there are certain exceptions for disclosure regarding public safety.

As John McCain knows, a pilots records are comprehensively available for review by a certifying agency (the FAA, I believe) to insure the fitness of the pilot and the safety of passengers and the public at-large. In the election of the President of the United States of America, that certifying body is the American electorate.

A recurrence of metastatic malignant melanoma would essentially destroy John McCain's capacity as the Chief Executive and the American People have yet to receive a full accounting of the facts regarding his actuarial risk.

If he has had regional metastasis, his risk could be 30% or greater for distant metastasis to the brain, bone, and lung.

As you all know, melanoma is one of the most insidious, pernicious, and aggressive malignancies our patients must deal with and that we attempt somewhat pathetically to control with interferon, interleukins, and dismally active and terribly toxic chemotherapeutic regimens.

In addition, we lack the simple data to sensibly evaluate his cardiovascular risk as we would any septuagenerian in our exam rooms.

John McCain should [MUST] be held accountable by the American people and its agents, the free press, to release without restriction the entirety of his medical records.

Any hesitation to do so would clearly imply that there are significant medical concerns about his ability to fulfill the duties of the President.

Sincerely,
Michael D. Fratkin, MD Internal Medicine Hospice and Palliative Medicine Eureka, California

Obama Opening Huge Lead

2008-09-29T11:36:00.004-04:00

We're hitting the home stretch. only 36 days until the most important election in recent memory. And now more than ever, it seems the American people are ready for change. In resounding numbers Barack Obama is starting to pull out into a huge lead. Most pollsters agree that a 50% or higher polling is almost a sure win. And Obama has pulled into such a lead. Not only are the National Polls looking good, but state by state it appears that Obama is making head way in states that rarely go Democrat, showing just how versatile his Nomination really is. Here is the Breakdown:

States up for grabs(Average of last 5 Polls):
Virginia: 47.8% Obama-McCain 47%
Indiana: 45% Obama-McCain 47.2%
North Carolina: 45.2% Obama-McCain 46.6%
Ohio: 47% Obama-McCain 47.2%
Florida: 46.4% Obama-McCain 47.2%
New Hampshire: 46.8% Obama-McCain 45.7%
Nevada: 45% Obama-McCain 48%
Colorado: 48.6% Obama-McCain 45.2%
Pennsylvania: 48.7% Obama-McCain 43.8%
Iowa: 52% Obama-McCain 42%
Missouri: 44.8% Obama-McCain 48.6%
New Mexico: 49% Obama-McCain 44.6%

So as you can see its close, but even more remarkably its close in places it should not be for republicans, which means that Obama has opened the playing field.

The Debate: Reviewed

2008-09-27T21:40:00.002-04:00

By MARK HALPERIN / OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI

John McCain
Substance: His arguments were hard to follow at the beginning, but he found his voice as the debate progressed, although he never seemed fully in control of his message. He had plenty to say about the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Russia, but often bogged down his own answers when trying to unfurl quips and soundbites. Stuck with bumper sticker slogans on the economy, and while he got a bit more detailed on foreign policy, he stayed at his usual level of abstraction. If he truly knows more about the world than Obama, he didn't show it in this debate.

Grade: B-

Style: Cluttered, jumpy, and often muddled. Frequent coughing early on helped neither his arguments nor his image. Jokes about being deaf and anecdotes about Normandy and George Shultz seemed ill-advised - even his pen was old. His presentation was further hindered by his wandering discussion of the differing heights of North and South Koreans and his angry assertion about how well he knows Henry Kissinger. Fell into the classic politician's trap of inserting familiar stump speech applause lines into debate responses - which only works if done with enthusiasm and clarity (and if received by applause - a big No-No in Lehrer's auditorium, which the audience obeyed seriously and silently). Keenly aware of the grand, grave occasion, McCain wavered between respectful and domineering, and ended up awkward and edgy.

Grade: C-

Offense: Emphasized his bread and butter issues of taxes and spending, and hit Obama on his failure to visit Iraq and his expressed willingness to meet with dictators. But while mocking his opponent on a few occasions, which reflected his acute disrespect for Obama, he did so in an insufficiently sharp and detailed manner - and unevenly worked elements of his rival's record into his attacks. Still he was utterly confident about his own experience, knowledge, and policies, even when tripped by his own tongue and distracted by the strains of debate practice. The main problem: Obama's obvious preparation and sharp answers contradicted McCain's frequent claims that the Democrat was uninformed and "didn't understand" key issues.

Grade: C+

Defense: He managed to ignore most of Obama's jibes, but was eventually baited into giving an extended answer about his policy differences with President Bush, after his opponent repeatedly mentioned McCain's regular support of Bush's budgets. Was visibly riled when clashing with Obama over a variety of issues, including Iraq, sanctions, and spending. He also chose to boast about Sarah Palin (although not by name) as his maverick partner, who, after her shaky week, may no longer be his ace in the hole.

Grade: B-

Overall: McCain was McCain - evocative, intense, and at times emotional, but also vague, elliptical, and atonal. Failed to deliver his "country first versus Obama first" message cleanly, even when offered several opportunities. Surprisingly, did not talk much about "change," virtually ceding the dominant issue of the race.

Overall grade: B-

Barack Obama
Substance: Quite manifestly immersed in the past, present, and future details of policy, and eager to express his views, which have been expanded, honed, and solidified during the last 18 months of hard campaigning. Still, he did avoid the nitty-gritty details of policy positions in favor of broad principles and references to working Americans, thereby not presenting the kind of specifics that some voters are waiting to hear from him.

Grade: B+

Style: Polished, confident, focused. Fully prepared, and able to convey a real depth of knowledge on nearly every issue. He was unhurried, and rarely lost his train of thought even when the debate wended and winded - and uttered far fewer of his trademark, distracting, "ums." At times, however, Obama revealed the level of his preparation by faltering over a rehearsed answer. He seemed to deliberately focus on the moderator and the home audience, with McCain as an afterthought - except when on the attack. Chose to avoid humor, for the most part, in favor of a stern demeanor, and in the process, came off as cool as a cucumber.

Grade: A

Offense: Linking McCain to Bush in his very first answer, he kept it up as his primary line of attack. Forcefully hit McCain for his early support of the Iraq War. Though he never drew blood, he did keep McCain a bit off balance, often with clever references to McCain's recent statements.

Grade: B

Defense: Had a reasonable answer for every charge that came his way - with little anger, bluster, or anxiety. Often interrupting McCain attacks with swift explanations and comebacks, he managed to spin accusations of being liberal as evidence of his relentless opposition to George Bush (in replies that were clearly planned). Offered a rather clumsy alternative to McCain's well-known, moving story of wearing the bracelet of a soldier lost in Iraq (a gift from the soldier's mother), with a story about a bracelet of his own. Fearless, without condescension, he attempted the gracious move of agreeing with or complimenting a McCain position, occasionally to his own detriment.

Grade: A-

Overall: Went for a solid, consistent performance to introduce himself to the country. He did not seem nervous, tentative, or intimidated by the event, and avoided mistakes from his weak debate performances during nomination season (a professorial tone and long winded answers). Standing comfortably on the stage with his rival, he showed he belonged - evocative of Reagan, circa 1980. He was so confident by the end that he reminded his biggest audience yet that his father was from Kenya. Two more performances like that and he will be very tough to beat on Election Day.

Overall grade: A-

2008-09-27T21:23:00.001-04:00

McCain the show horse: Way off track

2008-09-26T17:11:00.002-04:00

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

ABOARD THE now-jettisoned "Straight Talk Express," Sen. John McCain loved to talk with reporters about go-to heroes in history, none more than Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

The two were famous multitask guys, writing books while directing battles. Neither ever ducked a debate, let alone an appearance on "Late Night With David Letterman."

"This is not the John McCain I know, by God," Letterman said after being stood up Wednesday on the ground that McCain had to hurry back to Washington, D.C. A few minutes later, he learned that McCain was at that moment in a neighboring CBS studio taping an interview with Katie Couric.

If he's really a history buff, McCain might open William Manchester's Churchill biography to the momentous days of May 1940.

As first lord of the Admiralty, Churchill was directing Britain's futile struggle against German invaders in Norway. Germany was hours away from attacking in the West.

Still, at that hour, Churchill found time and voice to lead the defense of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government in the 20th century's most famous parliamentary debate.

Nearly seven decades later, McCain was trying to duck out of a debate in Oxford, Miss.

Teddy Roosevelt would not be saying "Bully, Bully!" to McCain's claim to be "suspending" his campaign so he can return to the Senate and help "save" America's economy.

McCain has missed 412 of 643 Senate votes in the current Congress. Since April 8, he has missed 109 out of 110 votes.

Sen. Barack Obama has also been absent much of the time. But at least Obama showed up for a critical Senate vote to try to stop a Republican filibuster against a renewable energy package.

Its backers secured 59 of the needed 60 votes: McCain could have broken the filibuster, and cleared the way for the solar and wind energy development he touted in Portland and the Puget Sound area last spring.

McCain has missed all 15 "critical environmental votes" in this session, reports the League of Conservation Voters.

The "suspended" campaign has plowed ahead despite the nominee's announcement.

Gov. Sarah Palin held an airport rally in Philadelphia, where she dodged a query about whether she'll vote to re-elect Alaska's indicted Republican Sen. Ted Stevens and the "bridge to nowhere" champion, Rep. Don Young.

As McCain did interviews and met with a former Hillary Clinton supporter, campaign manager Rick Davis huddled at the 21 Club with top McCain fundraisers, including brass from private equity firms.

Davis earlier blew off a media breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. Reporters would have asked about the $345,000 that Davis' lobbying firm has received in the past two years from bailed-out mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Shaking up Washington, D.C., has been McCain's signature theme. Why couldn't Davis answer questions about whether his firm's $30,000 monthly retainer was a case of business as usual in the capital?

In early 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, Sen. Robert Kennedy broke bread with scribes at a Monitor breakfast. He talked candidly of his poisonous relations with Lyndon Johnson -- stuff far more momentous than Davis' retainer.

What good has McCain done since "suspending" his campaign? A tentative deal between congressional leaders and the White House was announced just as he was getting back to D.C. It promptly fell apart owing to opposition from the Republican right.

Late Thursday, CBS News reported that McCain had "floated an alternative plan," which includes fewer regulations and more corporate tax breaks, "kind of a private solution."

The deregulator McCain, of long Senate tenure, has apparently prevailed over the populist mogul-basher, who promised to fire Securities and Exchange Commission boss Christopher Cox.

In true bipartisanship, McCain's buddy, Sen. Joe Lieberman, has joined with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in a letter. It calls for reforming laws governing financial markets, giving teeth to regulatory agencies, and restoring transparency to Wall Street.

"We believe that the current regulatory regime governing oversight of the financial markets is inadequate and disjointed, and has been too tolerant of excessive risk-taking masked by overly complex financial instruments," wrote Lieberman, Democrat-turned independent, and Cantwell.

Such are the words of workhorses. McCain is a show horse who is running all over the track.

Back to 1940. Chamberlain's support plummeted. The House of Commons turned to the "risky" Churchill, who so ably defended the inept prime minister.

At the climactic moment, a senior Conservative, Leopold Amery, faced Chamberlain and spoke withering words to his friend of 40 years:

"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Not a bad message, not only for the failed George Bush but also for the rudderless John McCain.

Part 2: Sarah Palin Interview with Katie Couric

2008-09-26T10:29:00.002-04:00

Here is the final part of Sarah's Interview With Katie Couric:

Katie Couric: As we stand before this august building and institution, what do you see as the role of the United States in the world?

Sarah Palin: I see the United States as being a force for good in the world. And as Ronald Reagan used to talk about, America being the beacon of light and hope for those who are seeking democratic values and tolerance and freedom. I see our country being able to represent those things that can be looked to … as that leadership, that light needed across the world.

Couric: In preparing for this conversation, a lot of our viewers … and Internet users wanted to know why you did not get a passport until last year. And they wondered if that indicated a lack of interest and curiosity in the world.

Palin: I'm not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world.

No, I've worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture. The way that I have understood the world is through education, through books, through mediums that have provided me a lot of perspective on the world.

Couric: Gov. Palin, you've had a very busy week. And you're meeting with many world leaders. You met with President Karzai of Afghanistan. I know the McCain campaign has called for a surge in Afghanistan. But that country is, as you know, dramatically different than Iraq. Why do you believe additional troops, U.S. troops, will solve the problem there?

Palin: Because we can't afford to lose in Afghanistan, as we cannot afford to lose in Iraq, either, these central fronts on the war on terror. And I asked President Karzai, "Is that what you are seeking, also? That strategy that has worked in Iraq that John McCain had pushed for, more troops? A counterinsurgency strategy?" And he said, "yes." And he also showed great appreciation for what America and American troops are providing in his country.

Couric: The United States is deeply unpopular in Pakistan. Do you think the Pakistani government is protecting al Qaeda within its borders?

Palin: I don't believe that new President Zardari has that mission at all. But no, the Pakistani people also, they want freedom. They want democratic values to be allowed in their country, also. They understand the dangers of terrorists having a stronghold in regions of their country, also. And I believe that they, too, want to rid not only their country, but the world, of violent Islamic terrorists.

Couric: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

Sarah Palin: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada. It's funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don't know, you know … reporters.

Couric: Mocked?

Palin: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Couric: When President Bush ran for office, he opposed nation-building. But he has spent, as you know, much of his presidency promoting democracy around the world. What lessons have you learned from Iraq? And how specifically will you try to spread democracy throughout the world?

Palin: Specifically, we will make every effort possible to help spread democracy for those who desire freedom, independence, tolerance, respect for equality. That is the whole goal here in fighting terrorism also. It's not just to keep the people safe, but to be able to usher in democratic values and ideals around this, around the world.

Couric: You met yesterday with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is for direct diplomacy with both Iran and Syria. Do you believe the U.S. should negotiate with leaders like President Assad and Ahmadinejad?

Palin: I think, with Ahmadinejad, personally, he is not one to negotiate with. You can't just sit down with him with no preconditions being met. Barack Obama is so off-base in his proclamation that he would meet with some of these leaders around our world who would seek to destroy America and that, and without preconditions being met. That's beyond naïve. And it's beyond bad judgment.

Couric: Are you saying Henry Kissinger …

Palin: It's dangerous.

Couric: … is naïve for supporting that?

Palin: I've never heard Henry Kissinger say, "Yeah, I'll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met." Diplomacy is about doing a lot of background work first and shoring up allies and positions and figuring out what sanctions perhaps could be implemented if things weren't gonna go right. That's part of diplomacy.

Couric: You recently said three times that you would never, quote, "second guess" Israel if that country decided to attack Iran. Why not?

Palin: We shouldn't second guess Israel's security efforts because we cannot ever afford to send a message that we would allow a second Holocaust, for one. Israel has got to have the opportunity and the ability to protect itself. They are our closest ally in the Mideast. We need them. They need us. And we shouldn't second guess their efforts.

Couric: You don't think the United States is within its rights to express its position to Israel? And if that means second-guessing or discussing an option?

Palin: No, abso … we need to express our rights and our concerns and …

Couric: But you said never second guess them.

Palin: We don't have to second-guess what their efforts would be if they believe … that it is in their country and their allies, including us, all of our best interests to fight against a regime, especially Iran, who would seek to wipe them off the face of the earth. It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones who say Israel is a stinking corpse and should be wiped off the face of the earth. That's not a good guy who is saying that. Now, one who would seek to protect the good guys in this, the leaders of Israel and her friends, her allies, including the United States, in my world, those are the good guys.

WOW! Lost maybe?

Part 1: Sarah Palin Interview with Katie Couric

2008-09-26T10:26:00.003-04:00

Heres the transcript for part one:

Sarah Palin: My understanding is that Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings of the firm. I don't know how long ago, a year or two ago that he's not benefiting from that. And you know, I was - I would hope that's not the case.

Katie Couric: But he still has a stake in the company so isn't that a conflict of interest?

Palin: Again, my understanding is that he recused himself from the dealings with Freddie and Fannie, any lobbying efforts on his part there. And I would hope that's the case because, as John McCain has been saying, and as I've on a much more local level been also rallying against is the undue influence of lobbyists in public policy decisions being made.

Next, Couric asked about the $700 billion government bailout of bad debt - and whether she supports it.

Palin: I'm all about the position that America is in and that we have to look at a $700 billion bailout. And as Sen. McCain has said unless this nearly trillion dollar bailout is what it may end up to be, unless there are amendments in Paulson's proposal, really I don't believe that Americans are going to support this and we will not support this. The interesting thing in the last couple of days that I have seen is that Americans are waiting to see what John McCain will do on this proposal. They're not waiting to see what Barack Obama is going to do. Is he going to do this and see what way the political wind's blowing? They're waiting to see if John McCain will be able to see these amendments implemented in Paulson's proposal.

Couric: Why do you say that? Why are they waiting for John McCain and not Barack Obama?

Palin: He's got the track record of the leadership qualities and the pragmatism that's needed at a crisis time like this.

Couric: But polls have shown that Sen. Obama has actually gotten a boost as a result of this latest crisis, with more people feeling that he can handle the situation better than John McCain.

Palin: I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?

Couric: If this doesn't pass, do you think there's a risk of another Great Depression?

Palin: Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on. Not necessarily this, as it's been proposed, has to pass or we're going to find ourselves in another Great Depression. But, there has got to be action - bipartisan effort - Congress not pointing fingers at one another but finding the solution to this, taking action, and being serious about the reforms on Wall Street that are needed.

Couric: Would you support a moratorium on foreclosures to help average Americans keep their homes?

Palin: That's something that John McCain and I have both been discussing - whether that ... is part of the solution or not. You know, it's going to be a multi-faceted solution that has to be found here.

Couric: So you haven't decided whether you'll support it or not?

Palin: I have not.

Couric: What are the pros and cons of it do you think?

Palin: Oh, well, some decisions that have been made poorly should not be rewarded, of course.

Couric: By consumers, you're saying?

Palin: Consumers - and those who were predator lenders also. That's, you know, that has to be considered also. But again, it's got to be a comprehensive, long-term solution found ... for this problem that America is facing today. As I say, we are getting into crisis mode here.

Couric: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

Palin: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.

Couric: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

Palin: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

I will post the transcript for part two later.

Wipeout!...er...Bailout!

2008-09-25T10:08:00.004-04:00

One question...How is it that we can spend 800 Billion in Iraq since the war started, and 700 Billion on the financial Sector, and the American People get a "economic stimulus" plan of 152 billion?

Say Hello to Freddie MacCain and Fannie McMae

2008-09-24T10:47:00.004-04:00

Today i awoke to the news that Rick Davis, senior partner at Davis & Manafort, had received payments of $15,000 monthly until last month. He also received $30,000 a month for five years starting in 2000(Almost 2 Million in total payments) from both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The McCain Camps best response was from Adviser Steve Schmidt saying The New York Times was “in the tank” for Barack Obama and had “cast aside its journalistic integrity and tradition.”

John McCain put an ad online last week trying to tie Barack Obama to former Fannie Mae Executive Franklin Raines(Has no affiliation to the Obama campaign whatsoever). I have some advice for John McCain, when pointing fingers at your opponents, you might want to think first about how many fingers are pointing back at you.

The World has gone Hacking Crazy!

2008-09-23T10:04:00.003-04:00

So if you were living under a rock, you probably didn't hear that last week Mrs. Palin's personal email account at Yahoo! was hacked. The ironic part about it, is that despite the fact that she was discussing government business on her personal email account(a violation) the Government decided it more fruitful to go after the Hackers and bring them to "justice".

So for the last week and a half, good ole' Bill O' Reilly, has been going to town calling out members in the Hacker community, railing against the hacking sites Wikileaks and 4chan. "I'm not going to mention the Web site that posted this, but it's one of those despicable, slimy, scummy websites. Everybody knows where this stuff is, OK, and they know the people who run the website, so why can't they go there tonight to the guy's house who runs it, put him in cuffs and take him down and book him?," said O'Reilly on his show last week.
I don't think he was quite ready for what happened next. O'Reilly's personal site was compromised over the weekend. The list posted to Wikileaks contains at least 205 names, e-mail addresses, billing addresses and passwords of subscribers to O'Reilly, which were not protected or encrypted.

His website is hosted by a Los Angeles company called Nox Solutions. Its list of customers includes Right Wingers Lara Ingraham, Bill Bennett and talk show hosts Mike Gallagher, Jerry Doyle and Michael Medved. It also hosts the sites of of Libs Larry King and Dr. Drew Pinsky.

"The hack was a response to the pundit's recent scurrilous attacks over the Sarah Palin's e-mail story--including on Wikileaks and other members of the press," said Wikileaks in a statement on their Web site. Wikileaks said the security on O'Reilly's website was "non-existent."

Randy Abrams, director of technical education with antivirus vendor ESET Software couldn't believe that O'Reilly, who can be so vindictive in his attacks of the Internet community, would not have well secured Web site, especially with his subscriber info embedded in it."You would expect to get hacked, and ask what to do about it. Not when it happens, but before it happens. You should take the most basic precautions to protect user data." He said Wikileaks' claim that security was non-existent "is not hard to believe when they are keeping passwords in plain text."

In this case, O'Reilly may be held liable, as these customers were paying $49.95 for a year of access to a site that had no protection of their information. "The people who have their information compromised may go after him. His name was on that site, obviously he wasn't administering it but he will (have to) take responsibility," said Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist at Secure Computing's TrustedSource Labs.

All i have to say is, serves you right Mr. O' Reilly for being a hypocrite.

2008-09-22T12:25:00.002-04:00

Panel of Undecided Floridian Voters

2008-09-22T12:16:00.003-04:00

In a recent Panel of undecided Floridian Voters, many are saying that the choice of Sarah Palin is pushing them to the left. In what many view as the most One sided electorate in recent Memory, Florida Voters were leaning to John McCain in huge number. Now it appears, Florida Voters are changing sides in a mass exodus. This is a direct result of an inability of the McCain campaign to show they can change the government and then the addition of Sarah Palin. Here are some responses from the undecided panel:

"The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We've seen too many."Donn Spegal, 80, St. Petersburg, Republican Air Force veteran

"I'm truly offended by Palin. You're somebody's mom and what are you going to do, say, 'Excuse me, country, hold on?'"Philinia Lehr, 37, Largo, Republican full-time mother

"That was almost insulting. Do they think we're really stupid? ... I'm definitely leaning toward the Democratic side now. Sarah Palin scares ... me."Rhonda Laris, Temple Terrace, Democrat

"She is Dick Cheney with a dress on."Bill Chever, 56, St. Petersburg, Independent Air Force veteran

Sounds like this supposed excited electorate, is not so enthused with Mrs. Palin

Lets Play the Electoral College Game!

2008-09-22T10:14:00.007-04:00

I found this great tool at USAtoday.com that has a listing of all the election results state by state and a electoral map. It even shows past election data, all the way to 1960. Check it out here.

I'm going to run a few scenarios around. We can start with states firmly in Obama's corner and States firmly in McCain's corner.

Barack Obama:
West Coast: Washington, Oregon, California
Midwest: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan
Northeast: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine
Giving Obama a total of 248 Electoral Votes.

John McCain:
South: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, Georgia
Plains: Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
Mountain West: Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Montana
Giving McCain a total of 202 Electoral Votes.

Undecided or Too close to Call states:Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Florida

Scenario 1:
If McCain wins New Hampshire, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Iowa, and Ohio He would finish with 276 Votes and win, Obama would finish with 262.

Scenario 2(and i think the most likely):
Obama wins New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado, and Iowa; McCain Wins Nevada, Missouri, and Florida; this leaves Ohio. In this scenario it would not matter whether McCain wins Ohio or not, he would still lose. If McCain wins Ohio it would be 273-265 Obama wins, if Obama wins Ohio, it would be 293-245, Obama wins big.

You work the numbers and decide.

The Right way of thinking...

2008-09-19T17:32:00.003-04:00

...Is actually wrong. Simply Wrong. I was reading a forum recently and sifting through all the comments, some of them riddled with hatred and misleading comments about both candidates for president. One struck me as being more...whats the word for it...i guess dirty, than the others. This guy posted an article by Jack Wheeler, one of the biggest conservative "rovians" i have ever heard of. His article focuses on hate, misunderstanding, hearsay, and personal opinions, that i have to admit are way out there on the fascist end of the spectrum. see for yourself:

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.

Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd.

Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and are in no desperate need of a phony savior.

His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American.
Pass this on to every thinking American you know!

Honestly to me this is well beyond the Swiftboat Campaigns during the 04 Bush Campaign. This is someone, or a group of people taking a honest, decent man and trashing him through the muck. This isn't the first time they tried to pin Obama to the Arab world just because his name is funny. Last year they tried to say he attended a madrassa as a youth in Indonesia, when in fact he attended a non-denominational public school. They like to throw in the "Hussein" like it somehow links him to Sadaam. They like to point out his non linear affiliations to seedy people like he somehow shares in the crime. Honestly i thought, just maybe, that the McCain camp would follow the path of Early John McCain and not fall into the Rovian way of trashy politics and pathological Lying that summed up the Bush Campaigns of the last 8 years, but no dice. Oh Well, if they want to bring an AK-47 to a fight of the words, then so be it, but don't be crying when we nuke you with the atom bomb that is telling the truth about your dirty ways.

McCain Forgets where Spain is

2008-09-19T09:11:00.002-04:00

John McCain was recently interviewed by a spanish reporter who asked:

"Senator, finally, let's talk about Spain. If you're elected president, would you invite President Zapatero to meet with you in the White House?" McCain answers by talking about America's friends and America's enemies. He then talks about Mexico, and how he'd invite friendly leaders to the White House.

She then asks him again, would that invitation include President Zapatero? He says again that he'd have to review relations first. She then says again, "so you'd have to wait to see, so would you meet with him in the White House?" He again repeats his weird statement about friends and enemies. McCain also throws in a line about the importance of our relationship with Latin America. She then says to McCain:

"Okay, but I'm talking about Europe - the president of Spain, would you meet with him?"This time, there was no room for confusion. McCain then says: "I will meet with any leader who has the same principles and philosophy as us in terms of human rights, democracy, and freedom and I will stand up to those who do not." What does concern about human rights, democracy and freedom have to do with a prerequisite for meeting the president of Spain? Especially when you told the same paper 5 months ago that you'd be happy to meet with him.

Simply enough, John McCain is either Senile or he is just completely inadequate on foreign policy. Either way, i don't feel safe with him as president.

2008-09-17T23:41:00.003-04:00

McCain Camp makes numerous Gaffes Today

2008-09-16T14:40:00.002-04:00

Former HP CEO, Carly Fiorina, a co-chair of the McCain Presidential Campaign and a Chief Economic surrogate, said in a interview that Sarah Palin Doesn't have enough experience to run HP. Radio Host McGraw Milhaven asked Fiorina, "Do you think that Sarah Palin has enough experience to run Hewlett Packard?" Fiorina responded with,
"No, I don't, But you know what? That's not what she's running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things."

Well at least they know that Sarah Palin cant even run a company let alone the United States of America.

At a gathering in Washington today, McCain economic policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin was asked about his candidate's grasp of high-tech matters. Holtz-Eakin held up his Blackberry and, in a nod toward McCain's onetime tenure as head of the Senate Commerce Committee, said, "He did this." He then elaborated: "Telecommunications in the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that's what he did."

I wonder if Reseach In Motion or "RIM" feel the same way about their invention? Probably not, and i imagine that they might be a little upset about someone claiming credit for their invention.

2008-09-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

Sarah Palin Never actually visited Ireland, Iraq during supposed National Security Trip

2008-09-13T19:55:00.003-04:00

In July of Last year, Sarah Palin made her great exodus to Germany, Kuwait, Iraq, and Ireland to see the Alaskan troops. Only one catch, well two, She didnt actually go to Iraq and her trip to Ireland was actually a stopover on the plane to refuel...Hmmm, i guess Sarah "The Liar" Palin just keeps coming up with more and more crap to throw at the American people, the double-talk express must be proud!

Sarah Palin Interview

2008-09-12T11:14:00.002-04:00

So last night, Sarah Palin sat down with Charlie Gibson to give her first real interview since her introduction as the Vice Presidential Nominee of the Republican Party. I think its about time, the lady has been all over the map with her commentary and really no one still had any idea where she officially stands on the issues. So Mr. Gibson went on to give a great interview, asking tough questions to get real answers.

All the right wing cronies decided that somehow the tough questions that an unbiased Charlie Gibson asked were a direct attack on Christianity. Newt "The Fool" Gingrich said, this is "a sad commentary on the growing anti-religious hostility of the news media." McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told radio host Hugh Hewitt that the media's coverage of Palin amounts to an "attack on Christianity" itself. So I guess they have determined that Sarah Palin somehow is now the second coming of Christ on earth...I don't see the logic, but whatever they want to believe, that is their usage of freedom of speech.

You decide for yourself, here are the transcripts for the interview:

Sarah Palin on God:

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said -- first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.

That's what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It's an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.

Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln's words, but you went on and said, "There is a plan and it is God's plan."

PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That, in my world view, is a grand -- the grand plan.

GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?

PALIN: I don't know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.

Sarah Palin on National Security:

GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security situations.

PALIN: Sure.

GIBSON: Let's start, because we are near Russia, let's start with Russia and Georgia.

The administration has said we've got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

PALIN: First off, we're going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain's running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals.That's why we have to keep an eye on Russia.

And, Charlie, you're in Alaska. We have that very narrow maritime border between the United States, and the 49th state, Alaska, and Russia. They are our next door neighbors.We need to have a good relationship with them. They're very, very important to us and they are our next door neighbor.

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they're doing in Georgia?

PALIN: Well, I'm giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Sarah Palin on Russia:

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We've learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

GIBSON: Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO?

PALIN: Ukraine, definitely, yes. Yes, and Georgia.

GIBSON: Because Putin has said he would not tolerate NATO incursion into the Caucasus.

PALIN: Well, you know, the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, I believe, deserve to be in NATO.

Putin thinks otherwise. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but...

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.

But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to -- especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.

We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.

GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.

PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.

And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.

It doesn't have to lead to war and it doesn't have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.

His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that's a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.

Sarah Palin on Iran and Israel:

GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?

PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.

GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who's right?

PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we're talking about Israel, we're talking about Ahmadinejad's comment about Israel being the "stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth," that's atrocious. That's unacceptable.

GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?

PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.

GIBSON: But, Governor, we've threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn't done any good. It hasn't stemmed their nuclear program.

PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they're going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.

GIBSON: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?

PALIN: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.

GIBSON: So if we wouldn't second guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.

PALIN: I don't think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.

PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.

Sarah Palin on 'the Bush Doctrine':

GIBSON: We talk on the anniversary of 9/11. Why do you think those hijackers attacked? Why did they want to hurt us?

PALIN: You know, there is a very small percentage of Islamic believers who are extreme and they are violent and they do not believe in American ideals, and they attacked us and now we are at a point here seven years later, on the anniversary, in this post-9/11 world, where we're able to commit to never again. They see that the only option for them is to become a suicide bomber, to get caught up in this evil, in this terror. They need to be provided the hope that all Americans have instilled in us, because we're a democratic, we are a free, and we are a free-thinking society.

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you -- what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view.

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership, and that's the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?

PALIN: I agree that a president's job, when they swear in their oath to uphold our Constitution, their top priority is to defend the United States of America.

I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.

GIBSON: Do we have a right to anticipatory self-defense? Do we have a right to make a preemptive strike again another country if we feel that country might strike us?

PALIN: Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend.

GIBSON: Do we have the right to be making cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan, with or without the approval of the Pakistani government?

PALIN: Now, as for our right to invade, we're going to work with these countries, building new relationships, working with existing allies, but forging new, also, in order to, Charlie, get to a point in this world where war is not going to be a first option. In fact, war has got to be, a military strike, a last option.

GIBSON: But, Governor, I'm asking you: We have the right, in your mind, to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government.

PALIN: In order to stop Islamic extremists, those terrorists who would seek to destroy America and our allies, we must do whatever it takes and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.

GIBSON: And let me finish with this. I got lost in a blizzard of words there. Is that a yes? That you think we have the right to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to go after terrorists who are in the Waziristan area?

PALIN: I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We have got to have all options out there on the table.

All i have to say is WOW! Sarah Palin proved without a doubt that she is far more "green" on National Security than Barack Obama, and any attacks by the Republican Party on that issue against Mr. Obama are baseless and without a doubt completely erroneous.

Sarah Palin...Vetting Article

2008-09-11T09:56:00.003-04:00

Here is the vetting article from the Alaskan Democratic Party for her run at Governor in 2006. It is a total of 63 pages long, Read at your own risk. I dont know about you, but 63 pages of controversy is not reform.

9/11...7 Years Later...

2008-09-11T09:22:00.005-04:00

Here we are, in a post 9-11 world. The threat of terrorism still makes the air thick with anticipation each and every year on this date. At 8:46 am on September 11th 2001 a massive airliner crashed into the financial symbol of the United States of America...things would never be the same. I remember. The lump in my throat still drops to the pit of my stomach as i remember that fateful morning 7 years ago.

If only we could have had leaders who would have protected us in the pre-9/11 world. Maybe today things wouldn't look so bleak. I pray for the souls lost on that cool sobering morning. I pray for the souls still alive that caused so much destruction. I pray that we can finally move forward instead of being forced to re-live the single most terrible moment of our lives over and over again. This is the time for us to reflect and then make plans to reform. YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

Its up to us now, lets not be afraid anymore! NO MORE FEAR! NO MORE FEAR!

2008-09-10T14:29:00.003-04:00

If they are going to cry fowl and try to mold the clay like minds of conservative americans, then we might as well claim double jeopardy and go all out and attack Palin for being a pig...

Lipstick on a Pig? or a Pitbull with Lipstick?

2008-09-10T10:08:00.008-04:00

Ok. So John McCain now thinks he can cry sexism at the drop of a dime. I guess McCain himself is now wearing a brazier and woman's underwear.

Yesterday, Barack Obama made a comment about John McCain's inability to actually change washington and somewhere along the line it was taken as sexism by the McCain camp, heres Obamas direct Quote:

“John McCain says he’s about change too, and so I guess his whole angle is, ‘Watch out, George Bush – except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove-style politics – we’re really gonna shake things up in Washington. That’s not change,” Obama said. “That’s just calling the same thing something different. You know you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

John McCain's campaign then scrambled to try to paint Obama a sexist, tying Obama's comment to Sarah Palin's just a few days ago, “You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” They then released an official comment from another prominent republican female politician, “Ultimately, I think the American people will realize that calling a very prominent female governor of one of our states a pig is not exactly what we want to see when we supposedly are going to have this great debate that is the politics of hope,” former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift said.

Today, the Republicans have rolled out a new web ad that presents Palin’s “lipstick and pit bull” phrase followed by Barack Obama’s “lipstick and pig” phrase followed by Katie Couric. Katie Couric? It’s a a snippet of video from this past June when Couric was talking about media coverage of Hillary Clinton. Couric says, “One of the great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of sexism in American life.”

The funniest part about this is that John McCains own base cannot back him up on this one(“It’s an old expression, and I’m going to have to cut Obama some slack on that one,” Mike Huckabee told Fox News.), and he himself used that same phrase in reference to Hillary Clinton's Healthcare plan just last year("I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," McCain said of the plan last October as Clinton was running for the Democratic nomination)...Gotta Love the Hypocrisy!

Sarah "The Liar" Palin

2008-09-09T14:08:00.004-04:00

One word can be used to sum up Sarah Palins big entrance onto the national political radar: Liar. Gov. Palin has made an astounding amount of claims about her political career that have turned out to be completely false. Just to put it out there, here is a running list of False and Hypocritical comments that have been made by Gov. Palin:

Gov. Palin has repeatedly claimed that she has been against the wasteful spending of the bridge to nowhere, “I said thanks but no thanks on that Bridge to Nowhere.” In actuality she has been all for it, heres a pic of her holding a t-shirt supporting the Bridge during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

More to come soon!

2008-09-08T15:04:00.001-04:00

McBush

2008-09-08T14:50:00.008-04:00

Current Events

2008-09-08T09:58:00.006-04:00

In February of 2000, John McCain was in the middle of a heated race for the Republican Nomination with George Bush. Senator McCain had built momentum by Winning The previous Primary in New Hampshire by a large Margin. George Bush, being the favorite and having a large financial backing, went to work to slow down McCain's momentum by using all means necessary to ruin McCain in South Carolina. Bush Subsequently attacked McCain on his inability to support vets on issues ranging from POW/MIA to Agent Orange(Even today he still does not support vets on issues like the GI Bill), He also effectively stole McCain's message of Reform.

During the middle of February, a smear campaign launched against McCain, delivered by push polls, faxes, e-mails, flyers, and audience plants. The smears claimed that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock (the McCain's' dark-skinned daughter was adopted from Bangladesh), that his wife Cindy was a drug addict, that he was a homosexual, and that he was a "Manchurian Candidate" who was either a traitor or mentally unstable from his North Vietnam POW days. The Bush campaign strongly denied any involvement with the attacks.

McCain would say of the rumor spreaders, "I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those." According to one report, the South Carolina experience left McCain in a "very dark place".

This is quite interesting considering McCain himself has run these very same tactics against Barack Obama. The republican party has attacked Barack as Unpatriotic, a Muslim, a terrorist, a bigot, a racist, and a hate mongerer. They have tried to attach Barack to the likes of Bill Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and Kwame Kilpatrick. But i guess when your desperate and need any sort of boost you can get, then you will resort to the same tactics that you cried out against 8 years earlier.

Also Sarah Palin, WOW! what a piece of work. She keep making assertions that Barack Obama's only experience is that of a recent Grad from Law School who is a Community Organizer. Let me again Show everyone Barack Obama's resume for president so you can see just how big a lie she is throwing at him:

(June 1985- May 1988) Director of Developing Communities Project (DCP)

(1988-1991)Harvard Law School Graduated Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude(Served as first African American president of the Harvard Law Revue)

(April 1992- October 1992) Illinois Project Vote (Led largest Voting Drive in Illinois State History

(1992-2004) University of Chicago Law School Professor

(1993-2004) Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland (civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development)

(1993-2002) Woods Fund of Chicago Board Member

(1994-2002) The Joyce Foundation Board Member

(1995-2002) Chicago Annenberg Challenge Board Member(Chairman from 1995-1999)

(1997-2004) Illinois State Legislator

(2005-Present) U.S. Senator

Seems like his resume is a little more extensive than Mrs. PTA(Sarah Palin) would like to let on to the American People. So Instead of Lying repeatedly about other candidates, why don't you explain all of the questions about yourself and your campaign as there are a lot of holes to fill.

2008-09-06T00:33:00.000-04:00

Party in Power, Running as if it Weren't

2008-09-05T18:17:00.003-04:00

I was reading The New York Times, and i stumbled across this article which says it best:

"After watching two political conclaves the last two weeks, it would be easy to be confused about which was really the gathering of the opposition. As Senator John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he and his supporters sounded the call of insurgents seeking to topple the establishment, even though their party heads the establishment."

Ironic isn't it?

Here's the Link.

Negativity

2008-09-04T17:02:00.005-04:00

O.k., So I'm sitting at work on lunch break and watching Barack Obama give a Press Conference after he was done with his Bill O' Reilly interview. And i watch as he calls out Sarah Palin, John McCain's VP pick, for being negative towards him and not providing any real solutions to any real problems that this country is facing. Then i come back to my desk and read an article about how John McCain just spent some 20 Million dollars over the last week advertising exclusively negatively in battleground states. And somewhere along the way i realize something, Republican Politicians are communist dictators.

Now i know a lot of people would say that's a little harsh, and i agree. I am speaking in generalized terms that are not meant to be offensive, but rather revolutionary. Let me dissect the true meaning of a Communist Dictator. Communism is actually a good thing in concept. It makes sense, let everyone be equal, no "haves" and "have nots", just pure equality in wealth, social class, employment, ect. The problem with communism is that it doesn't work in real life situations. It doesn't work because the leaders of the country get greedy, the dictators take more than they should and give less to the people. In most situations the vast majority of the country becomes poverty stricken and have to go without many goods and services. Economically speaking, everything breaks down.

Another aspect of Communism is the propaganda factor. While the Dictators steal from the many poor and give to the rich few, they have to constantly manufacture slogans and advertisements that tell the people that things are better than ever and to continue to fight the good fight because the government has their back. Over a long period of time these false statements begin to be believed either by constant brainwashing or by violent force. Those who don't believe have hide their true feelings because they would be put into prisons or even worse killed.

Now you may be wondering how this compares to republicans. Well, one very useful tactic of a Communist Administration using propaganda is Fear. Fear that you would be brutally murdered in your sleep, or that your children would be taken away, or maybe that you would have your entire livelihood taken away and be sent to a cold prison in the middle of the Gobi Desert or the frozen tundra of Siberia. To put this in context, Fear that terrorists will come to America and murder us all, fear that Iran will nuke us into oblivion, Fear that the leaders of the middle east will take away all our oil and drive prices into the 50$ a gallon range.

Many Republicans will tell you that democrats are the ones who want to take us into communism, and in some ways they are right. Democrats want Universal Health care, an end to taxation of the poor and benefits to the rich, an end to wars and discrimination. An end to Genocide and Human rights violations. Those would be considered very communist and "Utopian" concepts. But when it comes to the true communist applications of the last century, a Republican regime is much more close to becoming communist: The end of Privacy, Use of Propaganda in the form of fear, giving to the rich and taking from the poor, ect.

Barack Obama is right, John McCain and his cohorts want to continue partisan politics, wasteful spending, intrusive acts of wiretapping, unnecessary wars, heavy taxation of the poor and middle class, tax cuts for the rich. Republicans will continue to lie and say that they are the ones for the people, but how are they for the people? Where do they prove this? Have the last 8 years not been enough? Have we not seen the true ways of a Republican America?

The difference between a Obama-Biden ticket and a McCain-Palin ticket is Negativity. Yes Obama has used negativity, but if he didn't then he would suffer the same fate of Michael Dukakis in 1988. He would be overtaken by a political machine driven by the fuel of fear. So when he gives his speeches, he makes sure to include the reply to the negative attacks of the republicans and explains his position in clear words so that the American people can make educated decisions instead of decisions fueled by fear alone.

Sarah Palin delivered a speach on September 3rd of 2008 that did nothing to explain her ideas or her ways to fix the broken system of the last 8 years. Instead she bore into Barack Obama speading false truths and making inaccurate claims about his experience and judgment. Somewhere along the line, her vision got blurry and she lost her train of thought and spoke about how Barack is a College Kid who just got done being a political organizer and now wants to be the President of the United States. Really? Are you Serious? Barack Obama is 47, he is ex-teacher, Community Organizer, State Legislator, and Now a US Senator, Who are you going to believe? If that's how she wants to play it, then she is a Young Mother who ran the PTA and now wants to be the Vice President of the United States, isn't that a little of the Pot calling the Kettle Black? Maybe I'm naive.

When it comes to voting on our next president, i want to make an informed educated decision. I want someone who will fight for the Middle Class and Poor and try to balance the budget and get this Economy Back on track. I want someone who wants to get us off the Habit of Foreign Oil and Get us out of a useless war. If you want someone who is going to use Fear tactics to make you do what they want you to do, then Vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin to be a third straight term of destructive Politics in America.

* EDIT *

I was speaking with a Friend of Mine and he pointed out that i was erroneous in comparing Republican Politicians to Communist Dictators, they are in fact Fascist Dictators...Heres why...

"republicans/communists...not a good comparison. Facist dictators they have much more in common with and...historically...the threat to liberty has almost always come from the right. Facism is the extreme right. Communism is the extreme left. Here's a fun quote by everyone's favorite Nazi, Hermann Goering...

""Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.""

Barack Accepts Democratic Nomination!

2008-08-29T14:50:00.002-04:00

Transcript of Acceptance Speech:

To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest – a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia – I love you so much, and I’m so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart – that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: “Eight is enough.”
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we’ll also hear about those occasions when he’s broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives – on health care and education and the economy – Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors – the man who wrote his economic plan – was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a “mental recession,” and that we’ve become, and I quote, “a nation of whiners.
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.
For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.
Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President – when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job – an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great – a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton’s Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman. She’s the one who taught me about hard work. She’s the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she’s watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It’s a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It’s a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.
That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.
That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy – wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don’t, you’ll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I’ve laid out how I’ll pay for every dime – by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don’t help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less – because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America’s promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our “intellectual and moral strength.” Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can’t replace parents; that government can’t turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility – that’s the essence of America’s promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America’s promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just “muddle through” in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we’re wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That’s not the judgment we need. That won’t keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
You don’t defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don’t protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can’t truly stand up for Georgia when you’ve strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice – but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country. Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans – have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm’s way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America – they have served the United States of America.
So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can’t just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose – our sense of higher purpose. And that’s what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that’s to be expected. Because if you don’t have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what – it’s worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn’t work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it’s best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us – that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it – because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I’ve seen it. Because I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work. I’ve seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I’ve seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they’d pick up a Democratic ballot, but did. I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead – people of every creed and color, from every walk of life – is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
“We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.

OBAMA-BIDEN 08!

2008-08-29T14:44:00.002-04:00

AMAZING!

What an excellent choice for VP. Biden is the perfect 2nd hand man to Obama!

Jimmy Carter Vs. Ronald Reagan

2008-07-23T20:12:00.002-04:00

Jimmy Carter

I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977. To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel.
I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000. These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source. To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this Nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it. I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford (Via Tax Cuts). To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. Our nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.

Ronald Reagan

[President Carter] has blamed the people for inflation, OPEC, he has blamed the Federal Reserve system, he has blamed the lack of productivity of the American people, he has then accused the people of living too well and that we must share in scarcity, we must sacrifice and get used to doing with less.
I'm not so sure that it means steadily higher fuel costs, but I do believe that this nation has been portrayed for too long a time to the people as being energy-poor when it is energy-rich. I just happen to believe that free enterprise can do a better job of producing the things that people need than government can.

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
- Ronald Reagan, 1981.

Who sounds more sane? Who sounds more Logical? Carter was fighting in the late 70s for something that today has become one of the biggest issues in our nations history, imagine if instead of listening to the right wing rich americans be greedy and say we dont need to conserve, if we did and today we would not be in this mess. Offshore Drilling only increases the production of oil, something that we need to steadily move away from, Long term we need to cut our ties with Black Gold and move on to energy projects that far out pace even the richest oil fiels ie. Nuclear Fusion or Hydrogen Fuel Cells...