September 2008 Archives

If I was an interviewer and had five questions for both McCain and Palin, then here are my questions:

FOR MCCAIN:

1) You and your party have consistently (including your recent Republican Presidential Convention) had a platform for deregulation of our economics systems including banking and stock markets. Today, with the turmoil in our economy caused by de-regulations, are you now saying that you and your party were wrong? And why the sudden change of your policy? Is it politically motivated?

2) Knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussien's Iraq, and he was not an immediate threat, do you think that it was a mistake for us to enter a war against Iraq? If not why?

3) Today with the realization that our addiction for oil has affected our economy as well as security and the need to go to alternatives, why did you consistently vote against alternative energy sources? And why do you feel that oil companies though have record profits should continue to receive tax breaks?

4) Why did you not select Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge to be your V.P. running mate?

5) Since you in your words acknowledge that you voted with President George Bush for over 90% of the time and still want to maintain the same taxes along with Bush's previous economic policies, what makes you different in detail from Bush?

FOR PALIN:

1) You claim that you are against earmarks, but as mayor and governor you championed in receiving federal earmarks for both your state and town. Though you were previously for the "Bridge to No Where" and you now claim that you are against it then why haven't you returned the money?

2) You claim that you are reformer and that you want to remove the lobby influence in government, but you in the past significantly utilized lobbyists to get federal funding for State and Township, then why the sudden change in your policy? Is it politically motivated? If not, why do McCain and you still maintain a campaign staff comprised of lobbyists?

3) As mayor of your town, why did you make it a policy to charge women who have been raped for the rape kits?

4) McCain refers that you are an expert on energy; do you believe that drilling for more oil would immediately drop oil prices? And do believe we should move to alternative energy systems? If so how do you feel that John McCain voted consistently against bills that would have place alternative energy as paramount?

5) With the dynamics of Iraq with the religious and ethnic division (Shi'te, Sunni and Kurds) how would you make in detail change in the status quo? And finally knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussien's Iraq, and he was not an immediate threat, do you think that it was a mistake for us to enter a war against Iraq? If not why?

BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE | September 28, 2008
HuffingtonPost

WASILLA, Alaska -- Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception _ and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

She also stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings. She asked the City Council to add a friend to the list of speakers at a 2002 meeting _ and then the friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.

That year, records show, she tried to help a neighbor and political contributor fighting City Hall over his small lakeside development. Palin wanted the city to refund some of the man's fees, but the city attorney told the mayor she didn't have the authority.

Palin claims she has more executive experience than her opponent and the two presidential candidates, but most of those years were spent running a city with a population of less than 7,000.

Some of her first actions after being elected mayor in 1996 raised possible ethical red flags: She cast the tie-breaking vote to propose a tax exemption on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one, and backed the city's repeal of all taxes a year later on planes, snow machines and other personal property. She also asked the council to consider looser rules for snow machine races. Palin and her husband, Todd, a champion racer, co-owned a snow machine store at the time.

Nearly eight out of 10 Americans -- 78% -- say Congress should approve a historic bailout of the nation's financial markets, but most want lawmakers to significantly modify the Bush administration's $700 billion plan, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

Only 11% in the poll taken Wednesday night say Congress should take no action to ease the current credit crisis, which Bush has said could lead to a panic. Fifty-six percent of respondents say Congress should pass a plan that's different from the administration's proposal, while 22% want lawmakers to approve a plan similar to Bush's proposal to allow the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed assets from financial institutions.

POLL RESULTS: 43% following situation very closely

The one-night poll of 1,019 adults came on the night President Bush delivered a prime-time TV speech in which he argued the rescue plan is critical to averting a financial disaster. Results from the one-third of those who responded after the speech mirrored the earlier group.

Work continued late Thursday as members of Congress and the administration sought a compromise. Earlier in the day, lawmakers said they had reached a preliminary agreement among themselves, but it appeared to fray as the day wore on.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: George W. Bush | Congress | Wall Street | United States Treasury Department

The plan as proposed would allow the Treasury Department to buy troubled mortgage-backed securities and other loans held by financial institutions. The government could later resell the assets, presumably after they've recovered much of their value. The plan is designed to restore market confidence and allow bank capital and credit to flow again, unlocking critical gears of the economy.

Many Americans agree the financial meltdown is dire. Forty percent of poll respondents said it's the biggest crisis in their lifetime; 24% agree it's a crisis but say it's not the worst. However, 80% say they're following news about the Wall Street turmoil at least somewhat closely.

But many Americans also agree with Democrats who are pushing for significant new provisions. Sixty-three percent of respondents say it's "very important" to limit the pay of executives whose firms benefit from the plan. And nearly half of those polled say it's very important to help homeowners who can't pay their mortgages.

MCCAIN PROCLAIMED THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBAMA AND HIMSELF IS THAT HE WANTS NO REGULATION WHILE OBAMA WANTS MORE REGULATION....

MITT ROMENY SAID IN THE RNC SAY THAT REPUBLICANS WITH MCCAIN WILL TAKE A WEED-WACKER TO REGULATION....

OH THE LIES.... THE LIES THAT MCCAIN AND PALIN AND THE REST OF THE REPUBLICANS SPIN.... OH HOW THE WEB OF LIES SEEMS TO HAVE CAUGHT THOSE WHO SPUN THEIR OWN WEB...

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REMEMBER....

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE KNOW THE LIES OF MCCAIN AND PALIN....

AND ONLY THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE....

VOTE FOR OBAMA!

VOTE FOR OBAMA / BIDEN!!!!

Seth Grahame-Smith
Posted September 24, 2008 | 03:54 PM (EST)
HuffingtonPost

(UPDATE: So now we know that it was Obama who first called McCain and suggested a joint statement on the crisis this morning, which McCain agreed to, before pulling a fast one and going on TV with his "suspend" surprise. What a cynical, political, desperate man he's become. I can only pray that the rest of America sees this for the gimmick it is.)

So now John McCain wants to suspend his campaign and postpone Friday's debate so he can go to Washington and work on the financial crisis -- as if his vast economic expertise is what's missing in all of this.

After years of being a champion of deregulation, and an admitted economic lightweight, John McCain suddenly wants to pretend he's our knight in shining armor? But wait -- wasn't it McCain's own party and policies that created this crisis? Wasn't it his own economic advisor, Phil Gramm, who called Americans "whiners" in a "mental recession?" Didn't McCain recently praise the strength of our economy and call himself a "fundamentally a deregulator?"

Come to think of it, the last thing America needs is for John McCain to go back to Washington. Because that's exactly where he and his cronies created this financial mess.

Clearly, Steve Schmidt thinks he's being clever. You can just picture the staff meeting: "We'll look like heroes! We'll put Obama in a corner, and force him into looking like he doesn't care about the crisis! We're geniuses!"

Just one problem, Steve-O...you're going after independents. And independents are smarter than you think they are. I'm guessing that most of them will see this for what it is: a stunt. A distraction from the fact that John McCain's core beliefs and record are at the very heart of this crisis.

And as for postponing the debate? Real leaders don't have the luxury of taking time outs, Senator McCain. They're supposed to be able to deal with a wide array of problems, all at once. Especially when they're President. That's why it's called "the hardest job in the world."

Lincoln ran for office during the Civil War. Reagan ran at the height of the Cold War. Bush ran with two wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq. But McCain can't run during a crisis on Wall Street?

Kind've makes you wonder what his multitasking threshold is, and what else he'd "suspend" or "postpone" when the going got tough.

Maybe he'd just hand it all over to Sarah Palin.

By Naomi Wolf, Huffington Post
Posted on September 24, 2008, Printed on September 24, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/100069/

Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand "Palin Power." A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections -- but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you don't have freedom.

I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites ("the heart of America is on display") and realized Bush's speechwriters were writing her -- not McCain's -- speeches. I heard her tell George Bush's lies -- not McCain's -- to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners -- this is Rove-Cheney's enthusiastic S and M, not McCain's, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit -- but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain.

Then I saw and heard more. Palin is embracing lawlessness in defying Alaskan Legislature subpoenas -- this is what Rove-Cheney, and not McCain, believe in doing. She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women's shelters -- Rove's style, not McCain's. I realized what I was seeing.

Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is "dialed in" to the McCain campaign. Rove's protege Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain's vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.

What's the plan? It is this. McCain doesn't matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future -- for a decade perhaps -- a puppet "president" for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.

How, you may ask, can I assert this? How can I argue, as I now do, that there is actually a war being ramped up against US citizens and our democracy and that Sarah Palin is the figurehead and muse for that war?

Look at the RNC. This is supposed to be McCain's America. But you see the unmistakable theatre of Rove's S and M imagery -- and you see stages eight, nine and ten of the steps to a dictatorship as I outlined them in The End of America. Preemptive arrest? Abusive arrest? "Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for nothing."

Journalists were arrested -- for reporting. Amy Goodman and ABC producers were arrested. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and others were forced to lie face down as armed agents tied their hands behind their backs. The riot police wore the black S&M gear of the Rovian fantasy life and carried the four foot batons cops carry in North Korea. All this is not John McCain's imagery or strategy: it is Karl Rove's.

In McCain-Palin's America, citizens who are protesting are being charged as terrorists. This means that a violent war had been declared on American citizens. A well known reporter leaked to me on background that St Paul police had dressed as protesters and, dressed in Black -- shades of the Blackshirts of 1920 -- infiltrated protest groups. There were also phalanxes of men in black wearing balaclavas, linking arms and behaving menacingly -- alleged "anarchists." Let me tell you, I have been on the left for thirty years and you can't get three lefties to wear the same t-shirt to a rally, let alone link arms and wear identical face masks: these are not our guys. Agent Provocateurs framing protesters and calling protest "terrorism" constitutes step ten of a police state:

"In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism... [they] 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty."

"Paid, confidential informants... infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provocateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence."

Under the Palin-Rove police state, you will see escalating infringements on your access to a free internet:

"Sarah Palin was baptized at Wasilla Assembly of God...Last Sunday our research team released a video, a ten-minute mini-documentary, focusing on the Wasilla Assemblies of God and the video seemed on the verge of a massive "viral" breakthrough when YouTube pulled it down, citing 'inappropriate content'. At the point the video was censored by YouTube it had been viewed by almost 160,000 people. The short of it is that YouTube has censored a video documentary that appeared to be close to having an effect on a hard fought and contentious American presidential election..."

Under the coming Palin-Rove police state, you will witness the plans now underway to bring Iraqi troops to patrol the streets of our nation. This is not McCain's fantasy: it is Rove's and Cheney's.

Under the Palin-Rove police state, there will be no further true elections. Mark Crispin Miller has done sensational and under-reported investigating t o establish that -- as I warned -- indeed the GOP staffers on the US Senate Judiciary Committee have been .

The evidence is also buried on the Website of the Majority House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe. >From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications witho ut a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

-- "Senate panel's GOP staff spied on Democrats" By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | January 22, 2004

Do you think that spying like this will ever end under a Palin-Rove regime? Dream on. If she and McCain are elected, then every single strategy memo and speech and debate prep note from every opposition candidate from now and on into forever will be read by the regime in power while it is still in the computers of the challengers.

Under the Palin-Rove police state, citizens will be targeted with state cyberterrorism. Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda, a former Reagan official, warned me three years ago that the Bush team went after a Republican who had crossed them through cyberstalking: they messed with his email, messed with his phones and I believe messed with his bank account -- he became a cyber-pariah, unemployable and haunted. With modern technology, there really is less place to hide from the state than there was in East Germany in the Cold War era. I remember feeling a chill: of course. That is the wave of the future once we breach the protections around citizens of FISA and the fourth amendment. That way lies the abyss for us all.

Am I trying to scare you? I am. I am trying to scare you to death and ask you to scare your Republican and independent friends most of all. How do you know when it is war on citizens? When there are mass arrests, journalists are jailed, the opposition is infiltrated, rights are stripped and leaders start to ignore the rule of law.

Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That's not all: people's bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says "That's impossible." Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens' report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived. Try explaining that to a smart thirteen year old. Try explaining it in a way that still makes her feel secure and comfortable.

I am not telling you this because it's about my life. I am telling you this because it is about your life -- whoever you are, Conservative or Liberal, independent or evangelical. Your politics will not protect you in a police state. History shows that nothing protects you in a police state. This is not about my fear and anxiety: it is about what awaits you and everyone you love unless you see this for what it is:

Scharansky divided nations into "fear societies" and "free societies." Make no mistake: Sarah "Evita" Palin is Rove and Cheney's cosmetic rebranding of their fascist push: she will help to establish a true and irreversible "fear society" in this once free once proud nation. For God's sake, do not let her; do not let them.

BETH FOUHY | September 24, 2008 04:40 PM EST | AP

NEW YORK -- Republican presidential nominee John McCain challenged rival Barack Obama on Wednesday to suspend their heated campaign, postpone Friday's debate and work together to deal with the nation's financial troubles. Obama did not immediately respond to his rival's surprising political move, but campaign officials said the senator is inclined to move ahead with the debate.

The dueling statements came after the two senators spoke privately, each trying to portray himself as the bipartisan leader at a time of crisis.

But McCain beat Obama to the punch with the first public statement, saying the Bush administration's Wall Street bailout plan seemed headed for defeat and a bipartisan solution was urgently needed. If not, McCain said ominously, credit will dry up, people will no longer be able to buy homes, life savings will be at stake and businesses will not have enough money to pay workers.

The move was an effort by the Republican to claim leadership on an issue that has been troublesome for him at a time when his rival is moving ahead in the polls.

McCain said he would put politics aside and return to Washington Thursday to focus on the nation's financial problems after addressing former President Clinton's Global Initiative session in New York. He also canceled his planned appearance Wednesday on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" program.

McCain said he had spoken to President Bush and asked him to convene a leadership meeting in Washington that would include him and Obama.

"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the administration's proposal," McCain said. "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time."

McCain said he has spoken to Obama about his plans and asked the Democratic presidential nominee to join him.

WITH THE POLLS DROPPING FASTER THAN THE SEPTEMBER 15TH'S PLUNGE FOR JOHN MCCAIN AND HIS AWARENESS THAT HE'S GOING TO GET AN OLD FASHION BUTT KICK'N BY BARACK OBAMA IN THE DEBATES, IT IS NO WONDER THAT JOHN MCCAIN DOESN'T WANT TO DEBATE AND FACE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

ALSO JOHN MCCAIN EVEN ACCORDING TO GEORGE WILL, A LEADING CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR, SAYS THAT JOHN MCCAIN DOESN'T HAVE THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL CAPABILITY TO BE PRESIDENT, BUT BARACK OBAMA DOES!

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO JOHN MCCAIN THAT YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE CHEW GUM AND TALK AT THE SAME TIME IN ORDER TO BE PRESIDENT...

MCCAIN... I'LL SAY THIS REAL SLOW FOR YOU... ITS CALLED MULTI-TASKING...

BUT I GUESS IN YOUR CASE, JOHN MCCAIN I UNDERSTAND WHY FEELING CHICK:

By George F. Will
Tuesday, September 23, 2008; Page A21
Washington Post

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

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

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

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To read the Journal's details about the depths of McCain's shallowness on the subject of Cox's chairmanship, see "McCain's Scapegoat" (Sept. 19, Page A22). Then consider McCain's characteristic accusation that Cox "has betrayed the public's trust."

Perhaps an old antagonism is involved in McCain's fact-free slander. His most conspicuous economic adviser is Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who previously headed the Congressional Budget Office. There he was an impediment to conservatives, including then-Rep. Cox, who, as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, persistently tried and generally failed to enlist CBO support for "dynamic scoring" that would estimate the economic growth effects of proposed tax cuts.

In any case, McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people. McCain's Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law's restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending. (For details, see The Post of Sept. 17, Page A4; and the New York Times of Sept. 20, Page One.)

By a Gresham's Law of political discourse, McCain's Queen of Hearts intervention in the opaque financial crisis overshadowed a solid conservative complaint from the Republican Study Committee, chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the RSC decried the improvised torrent of bailouts as a "dangerous and unmistakable precedent for the federal government both to be looked to and indeed relied upon to save private sector companies from the consequences of their poor economic decisions." This letter, listing just $650 billion of the perhaps more than $1 trillion in new federal exposures to risk, was sent while McCain's campaign, characteristically substituting vehemence for coherence, was airing an ad warning that Obama favors "massive government, billions in spending increases."

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain's party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism. Does McCain have qualms about this, or only quarrels?

On "60 Minutes" Sunday evening, McCain, saying "this may sound a little unusual," said that he would like to replace Cox with Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic attorney general of New York who is the son of former governor Mario Cuomo. McCain explained that Cuomo has "respect" and "prestige" and could "lend some bipartisanship." Conservatives have been warned.

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests that by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans blame Republicans over Democrats for the financial crisis that has swept across the country the past few weeks. That may be a contributing factor to an apparent increase in support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain in the race for the White House.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying Democrats are more responsible. One in five of those polled blame both parties equally, and 8 percent say neither party is to blame.

The poll also indicates that more Americans think Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Forty-nine percent of those questioned say Obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than McCain.

And Obama has a 10-point lead over McCain when it comes to who would better handle the economy overall.

These numbers seem to be affecting the battle for the presidency. Fifty-one percent of registered voters are backing Obama, 5 points ahead of McCain, at 46 percent. McCain and Obama were tied at 48 percent apiece in the previous CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey. Obama's advantage, while growing, is still within the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

THE "R" MEANS BACKWARDS.

AND THE "D" MEANS FORWARD!!!

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AREN'T STUPID,
AND THEY WANT REAL CHANGE

VOTE FOR REAL CHANGE!!!!

by Brent Budowsky | September 19, 2008
www.SmirkingChimp.com

Now we see the result of John McCain's Republican economic policies for three decades in the Senate, where he proudly, loudly and aggressively proclaimed his contempt for government protecting average Americans. Now, with Republican government on the brink of a trillion dollars of deficits and bailouts, which is socialism for the rich and laissez-unfair Darwinism that punishes the middle and the poor, we know this: McCain can run, McCain can deceive, McCain can pretend, but McCain can't hide.

Barack Obama is back in the lead. The bounce is gone. The truth will out. The people who pay the price of economic Republicanism will not be fooled by a candidate who runs on the platform of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, pit bulls with lipstick and bearing false witness against Obama. The Republicans, until 2006, were brilliant at this: They could persuade working-class voters to vote for Republicans against their economic interests, like the chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. No more.

The current crisis is too severe. Too real. Too hard for many Americans. The lies and distractions won't work. Not this time. Not now.

For eight long years of Republican rule in the presidency, America has been punished by a decadent and failed philosophy that deep down believes that the wealthy are wealthy because they are better. During these long, hard eight years, John McCain was there for Bush, time and again, because he shares Bush's economic philosophy. He bragged, at Republican fundraiser after Republican fundraiser, how much he stood by Bush. Now he pretends. Now he deceives. It won't work. Not this time.

For eight long years of the Republicans in the White House, the Republicans in Congress stood with Bush, time and again, year after year. McCain boasted about his great admiration for Bush when times were good, and supported him quietly, while he pretended otherwise when times were bad and ambition required the latest newest John McCain. It won't work. Not this time. Not now.

Elections matter. There is a planetary difference between Republican and Democratic economic policies and beliefs. That is why the economy was so much stronger under Clinton and so weak under Bush. That is why Democratic presidents are almost always better for workers and the national economy and even the stock market (the data proves this) than Republicans.

If John Kerry or Obama were president four years ago, this financial Katrina would not have happened. Democrats would never tolerate the corruptions in banking, in loaning, or in the markets as the Republicans have, as a matter of their political and economic ideology and religion.

Now: There must be major economic stimulus with 100 percent aimed to help the middle class and the poor. There must aggressive limits of salaries and stock options for ALL executives in the companies benefiting from the bailout and companies that have failed their workers and average shareholders.

Now: There should be a coordinated global interest rate cut from the U.S., European and Asian central banks to help working people and try to prevent the very severe recession that could be imminent.

Now: There should be criminal investigation, prosecution, conviction and incarceration of any white-collar wrongdoing either in the companies abusing their customers or in the market from those who use illegal tactics to accumulate great wealth.

Now: There must be major, historic reforms of the banking and financial systems that throw out, once and for all, the discredited, failed and dying Republican ideologies and end the damage they have done to America throughout the Bush-McCain years.

In the coming days I will repost some columns and relevant Pundits Blogs here, as well as some new ideas. It is time to discuss and enact programs for real change, lasting reform and government that serves all of the people, all of the time.

PRESIDENT HOOVER SAID THE SAME EXACT THING...

About two hours after Palin's speech Saturday, hundreds of people protesting the policies of Palin lined a busy Anchorage street, waving signs and chanting "Obama!"

In addition to Obama supporters, the protesters included those who don't agree with Palin's positions against abortion, her support for the Iraq war and other issues. One woman held a sign that read, "I'm Bail'in on Palin!" Another said, "Pro Woman, Anti-Palin." Another read, "What About Healthcare?"

"We're not alone. A lot of people are worried about the nomination of Sarah Palin," said rally organizer Angie Doroff, 46, as cars drove by honking their horns in support.

Questions surface about Palin's Iraq visit claim

Associated Press - September 13, 2008

WASHINGTON - The question of whether Sarah Palin has ever been to Iraq pushed Obama aides Saturday to accuse the McCain campaign of outright lies, distortions and distractions to the American people.

Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped the Alaska governor to be his running mate on Aug. 29, questions about her experience have been fueled by her relatively brief tenure in office, as well as a dearth of foreign travel.

Palin made a well-documented trip to Kuwait and Germany last year to visit U.S. troops, and over time, the governor and her staff have revealed she also visited Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, her aides clarified that a purported visit to Ireland was little more than a refueling stop during her trip to the Middle East.

On Saturday, a Palin aide told The Associated Press the governor also set foot in Iraq during her July 2007 trip to see members of the Alaska National Guard, although the campaign has not emphasized it since the visit was brief. The aide, who demanded anonymity before answering the question, said Palin visited a "military outpost" on the Iraq side of the Kuwait/Iraq border.

Answer contradicts newspaper report
That answer appears to contradict one provided to The Boston Globe, which reported Saturday that McCain-Palin aides had twice revised their description of Palin's visit to Iraq.

The newspaper said unnamed aides initially explained that Palin had visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The Globe said campaign aides and members of the Alaska National Guard subsequently explained that she did not venture beyond the Iraq/Kuwait border when she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing on July 25, 2007.

Lt. Col. Dave Osborn, commander of the 3d Battalion, 207th Infantry of the Alaska National Guard, who was in charge of the 570 local troops serving in Kuwait and Iraq, said Palin did not cross in Iraq.

"You have to have permission to go into a lot of areas, and (the crossing) is where her permissions were," Osborn told the newspaper during a telephone interview Friday.

That discrepancy prompted a blistering memorandum to campaign reporters by aides to Democratic nominee Barack Obama. The Illinois senator and his staff have been criticized in some party circles lately for not responding forcefully enough to McCain and Palin since her surprise addition to the Republican ticket.

"Since naming Gov. Palin as their vice presidential nominee, the McCain campaign has distorted, distracted and outright lied to the American people about her record in a desperate attempt to hide the fact that a McCain/Palin administration would be nothing more than a continuation of the failed Bush policies of the last eight years," the memo read.

Bloomberg | September 12, 2008

By Scott Lanman

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the country can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without corresponding spending reductions.

Greenspan, a lifelong Republican and longtime friend of McCain, said today on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt'' that ``I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money.''

McCain has said he would balance the cost of most of his tax cuts with budget reductions, while providing few details beyond eliminating earmarks and other pork-barrel spending, which have totaled about $171 billion since 2001. Democratic nominee Barack Obama is proposing fewer tax cuts and more ambitious spending programs.

Greenspan said he has ``mixed feelings'' about a second government economic-stimulus bill after the U.S. provided a $168 billion package in February. While such an action may increase the budget deficit at a time when spending on retirees' medical benefits is about to cause ``big'' financial problems, it may also boost economic growth, he said.

Greenspan has said there's at least a 50 percent chance the U.S. economy will slide into a recession.

``There is no infinite piggy bank here,'' Greenspan said today. It's ``far more important'' to use federal resources, if necessary, to shore up the financial system and end the credit crisis, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did in taking over mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, averting a possible run on the system, Greenspan said.

Economic Stimulus

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress have called for an additional $50 billion in economic stimulus. A request by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and their suppliers for at least $25 billion in government loans to help them shift to more fuel-efficient auto models will likely be included, Democrats said this week.

Greenspan's memoir, ``The Age of Turbulence,'' was released in a paperback version this week, a year after the first hardcover edition. In a new epilogue, the former Fed chief, who retired in 2006, cited a ``critical need'' to create procedures for bank bailouts that ensure there is no impact on the Fed's balance sheet and interest-rate policy.

The Fed and the Treasury Department are helping Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. find a buyer after investor concerns about the firm's capital prompted more than a 75 percent decline in its market value this week. Paulson is adamant that no government funds will be used in a Lehman resolution, a person close to the matter said today.

`Most Critical Question'

In the interview, Greenspan, 82, said the ``most critical question'' is where to draw the line between companies that get government-led bailouts. It's impossible to rule out such actions completely, Greenspan said, citing crises such as the current one as a ``once-in-a-half century, once-in-a-century event'' that can't be avoided.

``If you want the system to stay together, there comes a time when you basically have to substitute sovereign credit for private credit to keep the system moving,'' Greenspan said. If a bailout is necessary, it's important that ``you do it in a way which essentially does not have major long-term consequences.''

McCain's proposal, outlined April 15, would extend President George W. Bush's tax cuts, reduce the top corporate rate, repeal the alternative minimum tax and double exemptions for dependents. That would be offset by eliminating pork-barrel spending, freezing a portion of the budget and saving from Medicare spending, McCain said at the time.

Politically Careless

``I always have tied tax cuts to spending,'' Greenspan said. In 2001 testimony before Congress, Greenspan was widely interpreted to have endorsed Bush's proposal to cut taxes by $1.6 trillion over 10 years. In the book, Greenspan characterized his testimony as politically careless and said his words were misinterpreted.

Paul Volcker, Greenspan's predecessor as Fed chairman, has endorsed Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, in the presidential election, and is serving as an economic adviser to the candidate.

Greenspan said the widening income disparity among Americans is a ``very serious'' issue, and requires both raising the pay of lower-income workers and reducing higher incomes. ``The best way of doing that is to remove what is essentially protectionism for those skilled workers in the United States who are helped by keeping out their competition,'' he said, referring to the issue of ``skilled immigration.''

LET'S BE FRANK - THE REPUBLICANS, JOHN MCCAIN & SARAH PALIN DON'T ONE GIVE ONE FLYING FUCK ABOUT YOU - THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

MCCAIN AND PALIN'S MOTTO - "LET THEM EAT CAKE!!!"

THE FOLLOWING IS VIDEO THAT I'M SURE MCCAIN DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE:

It would be one thing to hunt to eat for the sake to eat, but to murder simply for the enjoyment of murder - that simply is demented and sick.

Palin you claim that you are a Christian and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, yet you make fun and put down the role of community organizers. By the way, Palin please read your Bible - Jesus was a community organizer long with Martin Luther King and so many others in churches and synagogues and other religious institutions along with more secular foundations. I bet that Plain would never support "Make a Wish Foundation," but Palin would support $400,000 to hunt and murder Bears and Wolves, RIGHT?!

The more I hear of Palin and her putrid record, the more I realize how she would make Cheney look like an angel.

SInce her speech (Of course she never mentioned the Christian thing - helping the poor, the middle class - the hard working men and women) at the RNC, she still has never mentioned a real plan let alone how she would help the middle class. But then again McCain never has either.

McCain and Palin are change like I'm a country singer....

AND THE REPUBLICANS THINK THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STUPID...

MCCAIN AND PALIN THINK THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE FOOLS...

WHY?

BECAUSE GEORGE BUSH FOOLED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN 2000 & 2004 AND OF COURSE FOR GETTING US INTO AN ILLEGAL WAR AGAINST IRAQ.

MCCAIN / PALIN = BUSH / CHENEY.

WELL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THE LIES AND DECEIT.