Tuesday, November 4, 2008
That's all for now...
Is this nation now under the thrall of a terroristic, America loathing, Islamic socialist, or a pragmatic left of center politician with cool charisma? Time will tell. Let's hope the red baiting neo racists can temporarily put country first and give the man a chance.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
DRILL BABY DRILL
And now for something completely different
John Cleese has penned a few lines to the fair and balanced journalist:
Ode to Sean Hannity by John Cleese
Aping urbanity
Oozing with vanity
Plump as a manatee
Faking humanity
Journalistic calamity
Intellectual inanity
Fox Noise insanity
You’re a profanity Hannity
Smears and loathing on the Internets
It doesn't matter that Joe doesn't belong to the plumber's union, have a plumbing license, earn $250,000, or would get a tax cut under Obama's proposal. Joe says Obama is a socialist.
Of course the old McCain sometimes resurfaces. A few weeks ago McCain gave his Democratic opponent a little praise when a supporter accused Obama of being an untrustworthy "Ay-Rab."
On Larry King Live last week, Senator McCain admitted Barack Obama is not a socialist. Then it was back to smear tactics as usual. In the same interview McCain claimed that Obama is associated with yet another terrorist professor, Rashid Khalidi. Liberals blogs gleefully pointed out that McCain directed nearly a half million dollars to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank.
It's the same story regarding McCain's claims of Obama supporting voter fraud by his association with ACORN. McCain was for it before he was against it. Read the story here.
Monday, October 27, 2008
And the endorsements keep coming in...
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d/ron-howards-call-to-action-from-ron-howard-and-henry-winkler
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Four years too late
"Those are just some of them," he said with a laugh, chomping into a peanut butter sandwich as a few campaign aides in his midair office joined in the laughter.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Who watches the watchmen?
...a humbled Mr. Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending.
“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Meanwhile, appearing on Bill Moyer's journal, economist James Galbraith said,
"Here in the United States the capacity to handle the crisis exists. What we need is a government that's willing to use that capacity, that believes in it... Regulation is not a burden on business. When it's done properly, it's a framework which favors the more efficient, the more progressive, the more satisfactory elements of business that are prepared to work within the guidelines set by a larger public purpose."
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Small town, pro-American fashion
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Powell Endorsement
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Joe who?
See Joe the Plumber debate Obama here:
Addendum, October 19th
Turns out Joe will probably benefit from Obama's "socialist" tax proposals.
You can see one plumber's association of Obama here.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Obamanomics
Good news for Obama, er, if you have any respect for economists. The Economist magazine did an unscientific poll of economists and found that 80% of those responding believed Obama would do better than McCain at assembling an economic team.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Latest Obama Ad
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/im46?source=sem-da-csmedia
Friday, September 26, 2008
Round 1
Correction, I just glanced at Factcheck.org
McCain said special appropriation earmarks had “tripled in the last five years,” but he was wrong, since they have decreased sharply.
Deal...or no deal?
Obama contends that a US President needs to handle several problems at once, so a debate and working on how to give away $700 Billion of borrowed money should be possible, but McCain is demonstrating he can multi-task. When asked if tonight's debate will go forward, McCain said, "I understand how important this debate is and I'm very hopeful, but I also have to put the country first." It's amazing how Senator McCain can be bipartisan, temporarily halt running for president and still question his opponent's patriotism and devotion to country.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_debate
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Does anybody ever read the platforms?
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/issues/party-platforms/index.html
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Freakonomics
"As an economist, I am supposed to have something intelligent to say about the current financial crisis. To be honest, however, I haven’t got the foggiest idea what this all means. So I did what I always do when something related to banking arises: I knocked on the doors of my colleagues Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, and asked them for the answers."
Head over to the Freakonomics blog for an explanation of what's happened with the latest econocataclysm:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/
Saturday, September 20, 2008
2 quotes
"McCain actually owns 9 homes, not 7. I've checked the property records-9 homes in 3 time zones, AND a private jet, and he says the guy who was raised by a single mother on food stamps is an elitest? That's insane!"
Leonard Nimoy on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me...
...about a year and a half ago I was at a political event and one of our current campaigners for the office of president of the United States saw me approach and he gave me the vulcan signal -and it was not John McCain.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Mission Accomplished
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Trotskyist McCain: WORKERS UNITE!
“Well it’s obviously true that the workers of America are the fundamentals of our economy, and our strength and our future. And I believe in the American worker, and someone who disagrees with that – it’s fine. We are in crisis. We all know that. The excess, the greed and the corruption of Wall Street have caused us to have a situation which is going to affect every American. We are in a total crisis.’’
Mr. Lauer asked if there was something wrong with the fundamentals of the economy that was causing the difficulty.
“There’s nothing wrong with the workers of America,’’ he said. “I believe that they’re the fundamentals. You may not, others may not. I think that the worker of America is the reason that we’ve been the preeminent economy in the world for a long, long period of time. America is in crisis today.’’
“We need a 9/11 commission, and we need a commission to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it,’’ he said. “And I know we can do it and how to do it.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/mccain-calls-for-commission-to-study-wall-street-woes/?hp
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Big Iraq Attack
Thursday, September 11, 2008
lipstick on a pig
It's only offensive if we're talking about a conservative woman, not that harpy Hillary...
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Why we fight
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html
By ANDREW E. KRAMER and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: September 10, 2008
An Iraqi plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies, which came under sharp criticism from several United States senators this summer, has been withdrawn, participants in the negotiations said on Wednesday...
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Taxes part 3: Rich old men
Meanwhile, the AP reported that Alan Greenspan says the country can't afford tax cuts proposed by John McCain — at least not without a corresponding reduction in government spending.
Bizarro am vote Republican for change!
Doublethink: The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
The Associated Press reported tonight that Republican John McCain accused the Republican Party of indulging in a spending spree and passing on "huge IOUs and perplexing issues to future generations instead of fixing them as they had promised."
"'Change is coming, change is coming,' McCain promised..."
So don't forget to throw the bums out this November, and vote a straight Republican ticket. That'll show those Washington Fat Cats!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
ABCs
If you believe that human life begins at the moment of conception, you'll probably see the logic behind his girlfriend's reasoning. I on the other hand, see no reason to assume human life begins the moment the sperm enters the egg. Others argue that any form of birth control, including condoms, is anti-life and immoral. Who decides what's right? Possibly the Supreme Court, if McCain-Palin win this election.
We're number 42!
According to the 2008 CIA World Handbook, the United States has a rate of 6.30 per 1000. Countries with lower rates are:
41 Cuba 5.93 2008 est.
40 Isle of Man 5.62 2008 est.
39 Italy 5.61 2008 est.
38 Taiwan 5.45 2008 est.
37 San Marino 5.44 2008 est.
36 Greece 5.25 2008 est.
35 Monaco 5.18 2008 est.
34 Ireland 5.14 2008 est.
33 Canada 5.08 2008 est.
32 Jersey 5.01 2008 est.
31 New Zealand 4.99 2008 est.
30 United Kingdom 4.93 2008 est.
29 Gibraltar 4.91 2008 est.
28 Portugal 4.85 2008 est.
27 Australia 4.82 2008 est.
26 Netherlands 4.81 2008 est.
25 Luxembourg 4.62 2008 est.
24 Guernsey 4.53 2008 est.
23 Liechtenstein 4.52 2008 est.
22 Belgium 4.50 2008 est.
21 Austria 4.48 2008 est.
20 Denmark 4.40 2008 est.
19 Slovenia 4.30 2008 est.
18 Korea, South 4.29 2008 est.
17 Israel 4.28 2008 est.
16 Spain 4.26 2008 est.
15 Switzerland 4.23 2008 est.
14 Germany 4.03 2008 est.
13 Czech Republic 3.83 2008 est.
12 Malta 3.79 2008 est.
11 Andorra 3.68 2008 est.
10 Norway 3.61 2008 est.
9 Anguilla 3.54 2008 est.
8 Finland 3.50 2008 est.
7 France 3.36 2008 est.
6 Iceland 3.25 2008 est.
5 Macau 3.23 2008 est.
4 Hong Kong 2.93 2008 est.
3 Japan 2.80 2008 est.
2 Sweden 2.75 2008 est.
1 Singapore 2.30 2008 est.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
Friday, September 5, 2008
liar liar
Palin: Democrats spreading misinformation and lies
Factcheck.org summary of Palin's Speech:
Sarah Palin’s much-awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night may have shown she could play the role of attack dog, but it also showed her to be short on facts when it came to touting her own record and going after Obama’s.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html
Monday, September 1, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Taxes part 2
Author(s): Roberton Williams, Howard Gleckman
Published: August 28, 2008
Abstract
Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.9 trillion from 2009-2018. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion. Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers. In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411750
Monday, August 25, 2008
Shiite hits the fanatics
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-sons23-2008aug23,0,565841.story
Sons of Iraq under arrest, sent into hiding
The article concludes...
If disbanded, their leaders warn, the groups could revolt."In the event that the U.S. military and government don't live up to their promises, it could turn back to a violent form of resistance," said Abu Abed, a leader Adhamiya. "Every action breeds a reaction."
Of course, if you find the whole Shiite/Sunni division confusing, don't feel bad.
Tax Facts Part 1
There's also an article about McCain misrepresenting Obama's tax proposals again. And again, and again.
Claims that Obama supports raising taxes on "families" making $42,000 and would "raise taxes on middle class," are all false. In reality, Obama's plan has tax cuts for middle-income taxpayers and would increase rates on family incomes above $250,000 or with individual incomes above $200,000.
McCain's talks about"renewable energy," but his energy plan offers little to support it.
Obama's Overstatement
An Obama ad claims McCain's campaign got $2 million from "Big Oil." The total is only a mere $1.3 million.
McCain's Small-Business Bunk
He claims 23 million small-business owners would pay higher tax rates under Obama. He's wrong. The vast majority would see no change, and many would get a cut.
The $32,000 Question
The McCain campaign falsely claims that Obama voted to raise income taxes on individuals earning "as little as $32,000 per year."
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Ron Paul on the Great Republican Neo-Con
Flip Flops
A conservative friend sent me an email of Obama's Top Ten Flip Flops, including taking money from special interests, waffling on illegal immigration, decriminalizing marijuana, NAFTA, handgun control, the death penalty, campaign financing, and the Iraq war. As every political science major knows, every politician running for president(except for Reagan in 1980), addresses their base in the primaries, then moderates their rhetoric to appeal to the center and capture a majority.
Unlike Obama, McCain finds himself stuck on the right, due to his recent conversion to right wing positions on abortion, torture, immigration, right wing preachers, and the Bush tax cuts. Maybe McCain has got religion and seen the error of his moderate past, or he is so desperate to become President he's willing to give up his maverick straight talking identity.
Obama excused his apparent contradictions by telling Forbes magazine that "sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified. Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself."
Friday, August 22, 2008
What do you see when you look at Iraq?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rorschach inkblot test (pronounced IPA: [ʁoɐʃax]) is a method of psychological evaluation. Psychologists use this test to try to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of their patients... It has been employed in diagnosing underlying thought disorder and differentiating psychotic from nonpsychotic thinking in cases where the patient is reluctant to openly admit to psychotic thinking.[1]
If you listen to President Bush or Senator McCain, the SURGE has worked. Candidate McCain uses Senator Obama's opposition to both the surge and the entire Iraq war as an example of Senator Obama's poor judgement. Of course, as the US surged 30,000 more soldiers into Baghdad, the British got a new leader and got the hell out of Iraq. An un-surge. Americans forces engaged insurgents, increasing the number of Iraqi refugees to over 4 million as Iraqis fled the battles in Baghdad. As the reported violence went down in Iraq, the violence escalated in Afghanistan.
Was it President Bush's strategy of deploying more soldiers into Baghdad that lead to "progress" in Iraq, or was it something else? Other possibilities might be that Iraqis were running out of ethnic neighborhoods to cleanse. Iraq is now much more segregated along religious and ethnic lines. The definition of ethnic violence was also changed, so that someone shot in the front was no longer considered a target of the ethnic civil war and chaos, but merely a victim of crime. Then of course, there are the CLCs. The White House website described them this way :
"Concerned Local Citizens (CLCs) continue to play a key role in the decreasing trends of violence and improving stability across Iraq.
More than 130 different CLC groups are volunteering to support security in their neighborhoods, with more than 80,000 active members.
More than 10,000 Iraqis from the original Anbar Awakening were hired and now serve in the Iraqi Security Forces. "
The Congressional Research Service describes them differently, noting "the CLCs are made up of former insurgents."
The CRS noted that during the surge, U.S. commanders were turning over "informal security responsibility to 91,000 former militants called 'Concerned Local Citizens' (CLC’s) or 'Sons of Iraq' in exchange for an end to their anti-U.S. operations. "
According to Factcheck.org , the U.S. is paying about $16 million dollars a month to members of the Sons of Iraq. "General Petraeus emphasized during his testimony that the 'savings in vehicles not lost because of reduced violence — not to mention the priceless lives saved — have far outweighed the cost of their monthly contracts.'"
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_the_us_government_paying_factions_in.html
Will the paychecks convince the Iraqis to embrace a western style democracy, or will the checks mysteriously stop coming after the first week of November when Obama wins?
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- Deal...or no deal?
- Another Economics Lesson
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- 2 quotes
- Mission Accomplished
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- snl's bullseye
- Big Iraq Attack
- lipstick on a pig
- Why we fight
- Taxes part 3: Rich old men
- Bizarro am vote Republican for change!
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- We're number 42!
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About Me
- Masked Evangelist
- Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. -Margaret Mead