When Mavericks Fight!

Judgment again!

John McCain and Sarah Palin are feuding over which one of them is causing the ticket to slump…the most!

Now he's blaming HER! John McCain is blaming Sarah Palin! For HIS poor judgment! Now THAT'S poor judgment!

Come on John McCain!

Sarah Plain is NOT my kind of gal. The one and only time I laced on ice skates, I was clinging as perilously to the side of the rink...as Palin is now clinging to her reputation! But still, DO NOT BLAME PALIN ENTIRELY for your campaign’s derailment, Senator McCain. You're implying that YOU did everything right, while SHE did everything wrong!

Now I’ve heard rumors about McCain’s misogyny; how he reportedly tore into his wife (with others present) and called her a c_ _ _! But I saw on T-V, during the Primaries, how McCain sneered, AND DID NOT REBUKE someone standing with him on the SAME stage who questioned, in reference to Hillary Clinton: how republicans plan to deal with the b _ _ _ _?

So now why am I NOT surprised that he’s blaming Plain…for his own camp’s disarray?

Here’s a man who, when faced with choosing a vice-presidential running mate, had all of America at his disposal! That’s 300 million people! After narrowing it down, he could have ended up with at least 5 thousand. (Say roughly about 100 prospective candidates per state! ) Whittle it down some more, and you get about two dozen good, solid candidates. Now, at that point, McCain has to seriously hunker down and really narrow it to a few top candidates.

 He could have chosen: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney;
 Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty;
 Former: Pennsylvania governor, member - U.S. House of Representatives and Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge;
 Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindall;
 Florida Governor, Charlie Crist;
 Texas Senator (female) Kay Bailey Hutchinson;
 U.S Secretary of State, (female) Condoleezza Rice;
 Connecticut Democrat turned “independent” now looking verry republican; Senator Joseph Lieberman,
 Former Hewlett-Packard ( HP) CEO, (female) Carly Fiorina
 And Alaska Governor, (female) SARAH PALIN.

Here's how I think HE did it:

(MCCAIN SPEAKING/THINKING...)

Now let’s weed out the elitists…like:

• Romney. He went to Harvard. Ivy League
• Ridge…went to Harvard, also! Ivy league
• Jindall…went to Brown University. So Ivy League

(According to Wikipedia: The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern U.S... The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group. The term also has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and a reputation for social elitism.)

• Tim Pawlenty.
University of Minnesota. He's good! Studied law? Brains there...? We'll get back to him!

• Charlie Crist.
Florida State University. Florida, eh? Hey, wait a minute! He studied LAW, too!? One's enough! He’s out

• Kay Bailey Hutchinson
Texas, yes! LAW too? What’s with all these smart people? Too many opinions. She can actually TALK to the press, WITHOUT A PREPARED SCRIPT! She's out. OUT!

• Condoleezza Rice
(Flies into a rage) WHO PUT HER IN THERE? WAY TOO SMART. SHE TALKS TO MORE FOREIGN LEADERS IN ONE WEEK, THAN I DO IN A YEAR! CONDI IS ELITISTA! MUCH TOO CLOSE TO PRESIDENT BUSH! WHO'S MORE ELITIST THAT THE BUSHES...ANYWAY, (WHEN I'M NOT HUGGING THEM, THAT IS!)?

• Carly Farina
Ultra super elitist blabbermouth! Why didn’t she stay home and have babies, anyway? Next!

• Joe Lieberman
Boy, would I like to rub Joe (Another Joe!) and keep rubbing Joe into the faces of those damn conservative "elitists" who HATE me! Why do they hate me, anyway? Yes, I’m against pork. But so what? If my fellow republican lawmakers feel constrained in bringing home the bacon, it's not because of me!

Our (non-elitist) women know how to make do with nothing. Just ask my poor wife, Cindy! The other day we ran out of Champagne at one of my 7 houses, so she called France, and we actually HAD to use of our 13 vehicles to go and pick it at the airport! Yes, I love Joe Lieberman. I love him, I tell you, but he went to Yale! He's Elitist!!! He's my friend. But elitists can't hide. I know where elitists live!

Who’s left?

Sarah Palin.
Now here’s a pretty one. If she can perk up old geezers like me, imagine what SHE’ll do for the younger crowd! Did we find anyone who can pass as non-elitist among the batch? Pawlenty? Hey guys? We have Pawlenty (holds up a photo of the Minnesota governor. Gets little reaction) and Palin (he holds up her photo (from Miss Alaska/swimsuit! Place erupts). We’ve made a decision. It’s Sarah Palin!

Now he is blaming HER!

So even though I don’t like Sarah Palin, by Golly, McCain, I won’t let you blame it all on her! Yes, she’s a drag on the ticket, She wasn’t the best qualified. Whatever! But LEAVE PALIN ALONE.

To blame her – now, IN PUBLIC! His campaign is calling her a “diva who likes her own way.” (We already knew that? 150-thousand-dollars on clothes!) She immediately gave spouses, moms and others everywhere grave cause for concern, when they saw their loved ones, (who were contentedly watching T-V, when news of Palin's mega shopping spree broke) abruptly get up, take their credit card, and announce they're going shopping...also!!

Well, Ms. Palin...you now have someplace convenient? close to home? to plant your stilettos…don’t cha?

And doggone it, you should!

Demand a sticker campaign! (Just to prove that you really are a diva, who knows exactly what she's talking about!)

I bet she’d get more votes than YOU -- John McCain!

Absolute Control: GOP Only? Absolutely!

I cannot be hearing republicans like Newt Gingrich clearly.

Are they/is he really saying that Americans would not, could not, SHOULD not...NOT...let Democrats control The House, Senate and White House? I’m sure that isn't what Newt is preaching. Because I checked some election results for the House and Senate:

1992
SENATE: REPUBLICANS -- 44; DEMOCRATS -- 56
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS -- 176; DEMOCRATS -- 258
WHITE HOUSE: REPUBLICAN: GEORGE H. W. BUSH

• 1994
SENATE: REPUBLICANS – 52: Democrats -- 48
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS -- 230 (LED BY NEWT GINGRICH); Democrats -- 204
WHITE HOUSE: DEMOCRAT: BILL CLINTON


• 1996
SENATE: REPUBLICANS -- 55, DEMOCRATS -- 45
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS -- 228 (LED BY NEWT GINGRICH); Democrats -- 206
WHITE HOUSE: DEMOCRAT: BILL CLINTON

• 1998
SENATE: REPUBLICANS -- 55; DEMOCRATS -- 45 seats.
(Jeffords Independent New Hampshire, sides with Democrats).
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS -- 223 (LED BY NEWT GINGRICH), DEMOCRATS -- 211
WHITE HOUSE: DEMOCRAT: BILL CLINTON

2000
SENATE: TIE. REPUBLICANS/DEMOCRATS: 50/50. (In mid-2001, New Hampshire Senator Jim Jeffords chose to caucus with the Democrats as an independent.)
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS -- 221, Democrats -- 212
WHITE HOUSE: REPUBLICAN – GEORGE H. W. BUSH.

 2002
SENATE: REPUBLICANS-- 51, DEMOCRATS -- 48
HOUSE REPUBLICANS – 229, DEMOCRATS -- 204
WHITE HOUSE: REPUBLICAN – GEORGE W.BUSH


2004
SENATE: REPUBLICANS -- 55; DEMOCRATS – 44
HOUSE: REPUBLICANS – 232; DEMOCRATS -- 202
WHITE HOUSE: REPUBLICAN; GEORGE W. BUSH

• 2006
SENATE: TIE: 49/49. (Two independents caucus with Democrats – (1) Bernie Sanders replaces Jeffords in New Hampshire and (2) Joe Lieberman in Connecticut.)
HOUSE: DEMOCRATS – 233; REPUBLICANS – 202
WHITE HOUSE: REPUBLICAN; GEORGE W. BUSH

Somebody needs to remind Newt Gingrich of his party's history...

When Newt comes up for air, please take him back in time, gently, and reassure him that we need NOT go back millions of years, to when giant lizards actually ruled the Earth...or the Ark, or whatever! 2002 will do!

Republicans controlled THE WHITE HOUSE, THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES not once, but twice IN A ROW! In 2002 and 2004, back when G.W. was brimming with Social Capital...and banks actually HAD capital!

Did you hear Newt decrying, back then, how lamentable that was? Not him! But today! Here he is bombarding us with "elitist" thinking. (By their own definition!) The thinking that HE/THEY/REPUBLICANS can; and you, them, DEMOCRATS...can’t? Thinking they’re better than us? Elitist to their very core!

So of course Newt has to go around moaning that it would really be just too, too unbearable a burden...unthinkable, preposterous even! that Democrats could end up controlling the White House and both houses of Congress!

Gingrich spent nearly 6-years as House Speaker. Republicans controlled BOTH houses of Congress, but a Democratic President, Bill Clinton, managed to get things done. Clinton left a surplus…NOT a financial meltdown!

However, today, Gingrich now wants us to believe that Americans, armed with nothing but ballot papers, are going to singlehandedly destroy the republic!

Back then, (2002) as The New York Times put it:

Republicans Regain the Senate and Increase House Majority…

The Republicans last night seized full control of Congress by retaking the Senate...the Republicans now have control of the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives.

The outcome is a break with historic patterns, in which the party that controls the White House almost invariably loses seats in midterm Congressional elections.

Bush mounted a very aggressive campaign in the final days, traveling to 15 states since Thursday, and raising by one count $142 million for his party since the campaign season began.

ANOTHER HEADLINE:

“Republicans swept to victory in the United States Senate last night, assuring Republican control of the White House and Congress for the next two years, and thrusting President Bush into a commanding position for his legislative agenda.

The Republican Party also maintained -- and possibly solidified -- its hold on the House, in an election that amounted to a major drubbing for the Democratic Party.

The results mean that a single party, the Republicans, will once again control both houses of Congress and the White House".

According to the N. Y. Times, Democrats: “held periodic news conferences…complaining about episodes of voting irregularities".

Lies, Phone Calls...No Videotape!

John McCain was apparently born under a sign that says: “Trouble Shall Follow Me at Crucial Periods in My Life!”

It’s beginning to look like Sarah Palin is NOT the only person around McCain, who (for republican’s sake) apparently needs to zip it!

Joe McCain… (Yet another Joe!?) told the Boston Globe in September, he worries that he might say something that will cause his brother a problem, and he doesn't want to violate his mantra: "Do no harm." According to the paper, as voters seek to learn more about John McCain, 71, few people can provide a better perspective than his 65-year-old brother…Joe!

Let’s look at Joe. For some perspective!

Fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, it’s said. (In defense of Joe…he did tell The Globe that he watched a televised speech by Obama and couldn’t turn it off. "I was mesmerized by the guy's speech…”)

Anyway, Joe "The Brother McCain":

• ...fired off an angry e-mail to his brother’s campaign mid-October, blasting them for controlling his brother’s campaign too tightly…and denying media access. (Better judgment than your brother, Joe!)

• On Tuesday (October 21) Joe Plumber, sorry, I mean Joe McCain…was speaking at an event in support of his brother. He referred to Arlington and Alexandria...two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia "...as: Communist Country." He later apologized. A McCain campaign spokeswoman called potential presidential first brother Joe’s remark: "An unsuccessful attempt at humor." You betcha!

• Earlier this week, Joe McCain called 9-1-1…the police emergency line, because he was angry he was stuck in traffic! (Temper tantrums seem to run in the McCain family!)

The 9-1-1 call went to emergency operations in the city of Alexandria, Virginia, on October 21. (Was Joe McCain heading to/from the event where he called those two Virginia suburbs “Communists”? Think for a moment you are Joe McCain. You begin to feel that you are surrounded by communists…the area starts looking like China’s Tiananmen Square! Wouldn’t you want to get out of traffic, too?)

Operator : 9-1-1 -- state your emergency

Caller: It's not an emergency, but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes… emergency operations and yet traffic's coming the other way?

Operator : Sir, are you calling 9-1-1 to complain about traffic? (Pause)

Caller: "F_ _ _ you." (Caller hangs up)

The complaint call about traffic on the Wilson Bridge forced the 9-1-1 dispatcher to call back. The voice mail on the other end appears to belong to Joe McCain:

"Hi this is Joe McCain. I can't take this message now because I'm involved in a very (inaudible) important political project. I hope on November 4th we have elected John."

According to the news report…JOE MCCAIN CALLED 9-1-1 BACK, TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM NOT GETTING IT!

Caller : Somebody gave me this riot act about the violation of police.

Operator : Did you just call 9-1-1 in reference to this?

Caller : Yeah.

Operator : 9-1-1 is to be used for emergencies only, not just because you're sitting in traffic.

These police operators are so elitist! When Joe McCain and his big brother get into the White House, he can just tweak the report...make it say whatever suits HIM. Need help? Ask Palin how she re-did the expense report detailing her kids’ travel expenses!

Which takes us to a definitely…non-elitist sort! John McCain’s new Poster Girl! Ashley “The Campaign Worker” Todd, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She claimed SHE was mugged by a tall, black male (an “Obama supporter”) who used a knife to carve a “B” on her face. NOT TRUE.

And what does the "B" stand for? Beautiful? Blase? Brash? Bellicose? Belligerent? Bombastic? Need I go on?

McCain, of course, in the words of an old saying: rushed in “Where Angels Fear to Tred”. (I described him in an earlier article as: Shoot from the Hip McCain – Bombs First, Weapons of Mass Destruction, later!) So HE unleashes Palin, SHE sympathizes with “The Campaign Worker.” The love is flowing; I’m feeling bad for supporting a thug like Obama. Obama is feeling bad for being Obama! His decree: find that Rapper/Pimp/Hip-Hop/Gansta and bring him to me!

But voila, before the expected riot could materialize, Pittsburgh’s elitist police saved Obama’s hide! There was NO black guy – tall or short! No mutilation/carving on her face - not backward, perfectly…or forward, imperfectly! No McCain bumper sticker (which supposedly enraged the alleged attacker) on Ashley, “The Campaign Worker’s” car! No videotape of her even using that ATM…where the manufactured “assault” took place!

In short, NO CREDIBILITY – just more bad judgment...linked to Senator McCain.

The news made headlines nationwide, and worldwide. (Even China’s News Agency, Xinhua, picked it up!) Police seem to be suggesting that Ashley, “The Campaign Worker’s” tale could have fomented racial tension.

I'm rethinking what I said earlier that “Ashley, The Campaign Worker” is non-elitist? She IS from Texas, so she's definitely NOT from an elitist East Coast enclave. (Do you see those small houses they build in Texas?) But still, don’t you just get the feeling that she thought she was better than everybody else? She is so, so elitist. It’s just that detectives in Pittsburgh are, alas…more elitister…also!

By the way, Fox News’ executive vice president, John Moody, responding to the campaign worker's allegations, said:

"this incident could become a watershed event in the eleven days before the election. If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee. If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Which one will Moody/Fox...um…run with? on Saturday? Racism…or Race-Baiting? Watershed or Tsunami?

• Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, who stomped for Mitt Romney, is endorsing Barack Obama! The sign next to him read: “Republicans for Obama". (Darn, you mean we were that close to seeing: “Republicans for Hillary"?)

I’m sure, somewhere…deep in the heart of Red Country, there’s a sign saying “Democrats for McCain".

It reads: Those Hoping against Hope McCain Wins So We Can Get a Job in His Administration, (‘cause Democrats can’t wait to Tell Us: “Good Riddance!?”) There was just one person – Connecticut “independent” Senator Joe Lieberman, holding the sign. So it was askew - sort of screw-wy.

Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Thats all folks!

Elites, the Economy and Judgment

While writing this, Thursday, I watched the U-S Stock Market dance before my eyes!

Thursday's taglines: Wall Street Goes From Panic To Despair…Stocks Make Third Attempt At Rally…Another Day Of Wild Ups And Downs… Dow Rockets Nearly 200 In Late Surge While NASDAQ Finishes In The Red.

I’m checking it out, online! Wow! That is enough to make a person feel unsettled!

• Gold seems to be falling, too!
Gold futures fell Wednesday to its lowest point for the first time in more than a year. It sank below $710 an ounce. Isn’t Gold THE precious metal people typically see as a safe haven in rough economic times?

• More people filed jobless claims last week.
The Labor Department says new applications for state unemployment benefits rose by 15-thousand (more than expected) in the week ending October 18. Thousands more job cuts have been announced. Analysts lay most of the blame on the financial crisis: tighter credit, rising foreclosures... (also Hurricane Ike). They say the employment outlook for Americans will likely get worse!

• The Web site, which tracks foreclosed homes, has more bad economic data. It says 81-thousand homes were repossessed, last month! RealtyTrac compared foreclosure data (this quarter, with the same time last year), and found that: the number of homeowners facing foreclosure grew by more than 70-percent (July to September)...and nearly a million homes (766-thousand) got at least one foreclosure-related notice.

More than 250-thousand properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in the third quarter. RealtyTrac expects that more than a million bank-owned properties (about one in every three properties for sale in the U.S) will be repossessed properties! (Better news: Foreclosure filings slowed last month.)

• Even the White House is ‘fessing up! The guys who probably still believe that Iraq HAD (or has) Weapons of Mass Destruction, said Thursday the economy will remain gloomy through at least the end of the year!

• Alan Greenspan calls the current worsening economic crisis: “A once in a century Credit Tsunami.”

(Greenspan is the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve – the one some conservatives, and others? blast for contributing to today’s financial meltdown. They claim he kept interest rates too low, for too long...without regulatory oversight.)

Greenspan testified before congress today (October 23)…on the economic crisis. (Congress is asking past key financial players for their ideas on what caused the gravest financial crisis since the 1930’s…and how they think the government can fix it).

Greenspan says he expected lending institutions to do a good job protecting their shareholders. He’s also slamming “overeager” investors for making subprime mortgages, without worrying that what goes up, will likely come crashing down!

• Now to John McCain’s answers to what you’ve just read:

Q: Senator McCain, if you become president in January, what exactly do you plan to do about any or all of the above?

M: Well, I won’t raise your taxes, like Obama will!

Q: Taxes on what, Senator. It’s looking like I won’t even have a job?

M: Well, Senator Obama is promising to spread the wealth. I won’t! These elitists have enough...also!

Q: Senator, how do you define “elitist”?

M: Er…I defer to my capable running mate on this question…

PALIN: (That’s how SHE described “elite” to NBC’s Brian Williams: (Hasn’t she learned yet – Don’t GIVE any interviews. Nada!)

“Oh, I guess just people who think they’re better than anyone else…and, and, John McCain and I are so committed to serving every American, hard-working, middle class Americans who are so desiring of this economy getting…put back on the right track! And winning these wars and America is starting to reach her potential…and that is opportunity and hope provided everyone equally. So anyone who thinks, ah... I guess, that they are better than anyone else, that’s, that’s MY definition of elitism! (Webster: Take note.)

WILIAMS: So, so it’s not education…It's NOT income-based?

PALIN: Anyone…who thinks they’re better than anyone else!

WILLIAMS: A “State of Mind"? It’s not geography?

PALIN: Of course NOT!

WILLIAMS: (To McCain) Senator?

M: I know where some of them live?

W: Where’s that”?

M : Well, in our nation’s capital…in New York City. I’ve seen it, I’ve lived there...I know the town! I know. I know where a lot of these elitists are...the one’s who…”

For a moment I thought he was going to say: Spend thousands of dollars on clothes at upscale stores like Saks and Niemen Marcus? But he didn’t. Instead, he said:

“... (those) she never went to a cocktail party with in Georgetown. I’ve been very frank with you…those who think they can dictate what THEY believe to America, instead of letting Americans decide for themselves”.

That's making the Bush White House sound extraordinarily “elitist” to me…but what do I know?

No more questions for Senator McCain!

I'm satisfied that HE will NOT raise our taxes or spread the wealth around. He’ll also presumably banish all taxes, ‘cause that’s basically taking from Joe Plumber (when he does get around to actually paying taxes!) and giving it to people like Palin in Alaska.

(That is back when she embraced the "Bridge to Nowhere", before political expediency turned her against it!). It will be up to wealthy investors from the Middle East, China, Russia and other Sovereign Fund dollars, worldwide…to keep on supporting us. You betcha!

(P/S: The U.S dollar fell against every major currency, EXCEPT for THE SINGAPORE DOLLAR. Hear that Senator McCain? Singapore is preparing to test Senator Obama’s resolve, should HE be elected president. We’re glad you’re sounding that alarm!)

Third Grader-1; Palin-0

Governor PALIN: The Vice President of the United States of America, (the job that you are auditioning for), is NOT “in charge of the United States Senate."

She told a third grader in Denver, Colorado, Monday (October 20), that the Vice President runs the Senate and makes policy changes. Now why does she keep saying that? It must be because the Veep’s job is so complicated: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. Palin may be wondering exactly what the last part..."unless they be equally divided..." means.

Were the framers of the Constitution actually referring to Red State versus Blue State? The small towns she calls the "Real America" vs. what? The large urban areas that make up "Fake America"?

What conclusions do you draw, to know that McCain's female choices for vice President included Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison! Can you see HER bungling the role of the Vice President? Oh John McCain, what were you thinking? Even ovaries need some substance, beyond lipstick...and a 150-thousand-dollar wardrobe makeover!

The third grader in question, 8-year-old Brandon Garcia, should be the democrats “Joe Plumber.” The student sent a question to Colorado NBC affiliate, KUSA, in Denver. Seems KUSA asks third graders from local schools to send in their questions for candidates and elected officials.

Brandon had a big foreign policy question for Palin: “What does the Vice President do?" (You're thinking that's not foreign policy? Remember, Putin is scoping out Palin's house from his dacha!)

Sarah Palin said:

“That's a great question, Brandon, and a Vice President has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the President’s agenda, they're like a team member, the teammate to that President. But also, they're in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to, they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.And it's a great job and I look forward to having that job".

Unfortunately for Palin, most Americans are NOT looking forward to having her in that job, especially since she doesn’t even know what it entails.

Imagine you, the reader, are a business owner. You are interviewing for the position of Cleaner or Human Resources Manager or Accountant. You ask the eager candidate sitting before you, what does the job entail? The person doesn’t know! Would you hire that person?

Well YOU, (Joe and Jane Six Pack) are interviewing two candidates for the job of Vice President. And if a candidate doesn’t even KNOW what the job entails…then why hire her?

• Still on Palin...

Apart from drawing the ire of prominent conservatives within her own party, the learned Alaska governor seems to be also turning off the majority of Americans. A new poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal finds 55-percent of respondents say Palin is NOT qualified to be president. 40-percent say she is.

Her negative rating is 47-percent. Her positives are 38-percent. 34-percent say Palin raises questions about McCain’s candidacy. But just 23-percent say McCain will continue President George Bush’s policies. McCain’s running mate seems to be a bigger hindrance than a polarizing and unpopular president!

• In terms of Race…

I am very gratified to see that, according to the poll, RACE IS NOT A MAJOR FACTOR IN THIS ELECTION. Only 8-percent of respondents say race is a factor. Even fewer, 4-percent, say they are less likely to vote for Obama because of race. Just 2-percent say they’re more likely to vote for him because of race.

(Some people may say the poll respondents are being disingenuous. I want to believe most people really don't care). So I say: God Bless America. Red America and Blue America: White America…and Black America…and Brown America!

And as for Obama's endorsement from former Bush Secretary of State, republican Colin Powell, 77-percent say IT DID NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE. 19-percent say it made them more inclined towards Obama; 4-percent say it made them less inclined towards Obama.

America fits into the argument I was making in my preceeding article. Issues appear to be trumping race! On Healthcare, Obama is up by 39 points; on the Economy – 21 points; on taxes – 14 points. McCain is up on Iraq, by 5 points.

However, if he lets Palin take any questions about Iraq, McCain could well see that Iraq lead down to minus five percent!

Powell, Race and Obama

Colin Powell endorsed Barak Obama because he (either/both) is/are black! That’s the argument some are using to rationalize, for themselves at least, why Powell, a republican, would endorse democrat, Barak Obama. One assumes they are using the same argument to explain why Joe Biden is backing John McCain. Because he (either/both) is/are white, I presume?

I am not inside Colin Powell’s head. He may have felt he needed to support a brother. That’s the “black” of it. He may also believe, as he said, that Obama is better able to lead the nation at this particular time, than John McCain. That is the “white” of it. Many millions of Americans believe that, too, and so does the rest of the world! It may be, even, that Powell feels a little of both. That is the “grey” of it.

I can't argue where Colin Powell is coming from. But there are some arguments that I can make, I hope.

Let us harken back to the days when most blacks lived in the South, and were largely prevented from voting at all. In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt got 71-percent of the black vote. Let me say that again. A white president, Roosevelt, got 71 percent of the black vote! Apparently blacks didn’t run away from him because HE WAS WHITE. No, they voted...and kept on voting for Roosevelt in the next two elections. That year, no whites voted for a black man. Is there somebody, historian or not, who is willing to suggest that if a black man had indeed run for president, whites would have voted for him?

Harry Truman got 77-percent of the black vote in 1948. Blacks voted for Truman. He issued an order desegregating the armed services and an executive order setting up regulations against racial bias in federal employment. Blacks didn’t say “well he did us good, but he’s white, so chile, we shouldn't vote for him, no way ”. Uh-uh. They voted for a white candidate. Again, that year, no whites voted for a black man. Nor did any blacks vote for a black man. And so it continued...

Dwight D. Eisenhower got 39 percent of the black vote in 1956. Richard Nixon lost narrowly to John F. Kennedy in 1960. But he got 32-percent of the black vote.

President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing segregation in public places) and his eventual Republican opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, opposed it. Johnson, a white candidate, got 94-percent of the black vote that year. It’s still a record for any presidential election!

As far as I know JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes were/are all white. Yes? I never once heard pollsters report that blacks in Virginia or Kentucky or New York or Florida responded that they wouldn't vote for any of these presidents, because they were not black. I have however heard this being said concerning Obama, with reference being made to the “Bradley Factor.” I have never heard of any similar factor in play, when any of the above presidents were running for office.

I’ve come to the conclusion that blacks are very sophisticated, sane and savvy political beings who have historically voted, not based on skin color, since they voted for whites for more than a hundred years, (there was nothing preventing them from staying home and refusing to vote) but in self-interest. They vote for those who they see will advance their cause. Clinton. Johnson. Roosevelt.

Therefore, I think it is disingenuously audacious for some people to dump their baggage on blacks and imply that blacks are voting for Obama because he is black. Powell is supporting Obama because he’s black! Blacks would support a KKK candidate like David Duke, if he was black. Supposing Obama was running against Condoleezza Rice. Would blacks have to vote for Rice, because she’s blacker? (According to me!)

Have you heard black republicans say they won’t vote for McCain because he is white? Please let me know..? Or are they really secretly planning on voting for Obama anyway, “because he’s black?” Then let’s commend their brotherhoodness, and channel this synergy into new directions. Rich blacks, we need you in the ghettos helping poor blacks. This Brimming Brotherhood of Blackness (or African-Americanness) should be available year round!

Blacks have also consistently voted for white senators, representatives, mayors and governors. Not a one groused (at least, not to the press!) that the reason all these politicians consistently got so many white votes were simply because they/either/all were white.

Blacks are smart enough to realize that there have been instances where whites looked at both sides and decided that they preferred the black candidate to the white candidate. And if we are confident in the ability of whites to make that judgment, then so should we be in the ability of blacks to make a similar judgment. Otherwise, we are buying into the cynicism of John McCain.

Black voters can look at many candidates and say, “that Jesse Jackson…I don’t think so. I will go with the white guy” (Dukakis/Mondale). Blacks similarly think that whites can also say “that John McCain, I don’t think so, I prefer the other guy -- black, pink, green or yellow".

So enough of these racist arguments! Otherwise, the discourse begs more questions. Did the four past Secretaries of State (whom McCain says endorsed him) only do so because he/they/either/all…are white? Could it also be that they simply like McCain's message more than they like Obama’s? Or is it a little of both?

New Scare Tactic: Taxes

John McCain is now telling Americans that democrats, especially Obama, want to take their hard-earned money (er, in some cases-NOT so hard earned, as in Pentagon contracts...Dick Cheney’s Halliburton ring a bell?) and give it to losers like the single moms who need subsidized day-care so they can work. Or the returned military vet who was traumatized in Iraq…or the student who is already laboring under debt, but must take more…or the small business people who need a tax break to stay on their feet.

McCain is gunning for these un-American folks…and he’s decided to use Joe Plumber to make his case. There are even rumors that Plumber will be joining McCain on the campaign trail. Which begs the judgment question: Shouldn’t McCain be running as far away from Joe Plumber as he can? This guy is not the poster boy I’d want for my campaign.

Seems Mr. Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher was plumbing, without a plumbing license. He says he's planning to buy a 300-thousand-dollar plumbing company. But he doesn’t have 12-hundred-dollars to pay a tax lien the State of Ohio slapped on him, for NOT paying his taxes! Two local Portland, Oregon radio hosts launched a campaign to raise funds to help Plumber pay his back taxes.

They also raised enough to cover the $500 Plumber needs to get his license. Now all they have to do is raise 280-thousand to help him buy that business he told Obama he was planning to buy. (Am I the only one thinking that republicans put him up to this?)

Note to McCain: (1) this guy doesn’t like paying taxes. Find somebody who actually does to be your Poster Boy. (2) Stop hooking up with people who have negative baggage.

McCain’s pet cry these days: Obama will raise your taxes, Run!!! Listen America, it doesn’t matter if you:

• Don’t have health care. You can die from an infection, but you'll go with the satisfaction of knowing that Republicans are in power…AND THEY DIDN'T RAISE YOUR TAXES!

• It doesn’t matter if the factory where you worked closed down, and shipped overseas. Now people in India, China and Mexico are doing your job. Don’t worry, be happy! Republicans are in power AND THEY WON'T BE RAISING TAXES!

• So what if we bomb Iran, huh? And Hezbollah gets mad? Who cares? Republicans are in power AND YOU BETCHA--NO MORE TAXES!

• The economy is tanking, you’ve lost your job, or house, or both...and credit card debt is squeezing you so tightly, you can’t breathe. That's O-K. Republicans are in power...THEY’RE NOT GONNA RAISE YOUR TAXES.

• The national Debt is a gazillion-trillion. Hey, hey…ho, ho…! Republicans are the way to go, ‘cause WE ARE IN POWER AND WE WON’T RAISE TAXES.

• 12-billion-dollars a month going into Iraq. That’s a lot of tax dollars going down that drain. But who cares anyway? This is old tax dollars. Republicans are in power, SO NO NEW TAXES.

• Osama bin Laden is making new tapes, Afghanistan is negotiating with the Taliban. Pakistan is a mess and Lebanon is simmering. Say what…? Republicans are in power AND NO NEW TAXES.

• Your kids are going to shitty schools…their kids are going to private school…here we go again, Republicans are in power AND THEY’RE NOT RAISING YOUR TAXES.

• Bridge fell down with you on it…same refrain… Republicans are in power AND THEY’RE NOT RAISING TAXES.

I was talking to someone who read of a book that explains why many of the poor people who buy into this kind of politics are trapped in poverty. The argument goes that the GOP feeds them this No Tax Bull election year after election year, and they buy it, never noticing that the GOP does nothing for them. No schools, no jobs, no education…Just a No Tax promise every 4 years! Duuhh!

In the meantime, republicans are giving their rich friends tax cuts and big contracts in Iraq and elsewhere. And what are you getting, Joe Six Pack? NO NEW TAXES! Take that to the bank. Whichever one is still standing…by the time you read this.

Powell: A Republican even I Can...

Hello, Colin Powell…you do know where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are buried! I love republicans! Please readers, disregard every article that I’ve ever posted in my blog...prior to this Powell-induced GOP love fest!

Did you hear what Powell said about John McCain, his friend, colleague and fellow veteran whom he’s known for 25 years? The Bush White House insider/outsider appeared on NBC’S Meet The Press, Sunday (October 19).

And he endorsed democrat Barack Obama!

“It isn't easy for me to disappoint Senator McCain…and I regret that. But I strongly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with some changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue, basically, the policies that we have been following in recent years. I think we need a transformational figure. I need, think we need, a president who is a generational change. And that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. Not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain”.

Translation: (mine) John McCain is much too similar to George Bush. We need a different direction, not a president who, although he may not be George Bush, is SO similar policy-wise, THAT HE WILL SIMPLY CONTINUE THE POLICIES OF GEORGE BUSH...and Dick Cheney!

When it comes to Obama, Powell says he’s been watching the democratic candidate over the last six of seven weeks…”as both of them have really taken a final exam with respect to this economic crisis that we are in and coming out of the conventions. And I must say that I've gotten a good measure of both.

In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin.

She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, 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.

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor.

I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well. I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower.

Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines, ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values”.

Powell was especially critical of the negative tone of McCain’s campaign. But he's also unhappy with the direction in which the Republican Party is heading. He says the GOP “has moved more to the right than I would like to see it.”

According to Powell, he has been “disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign.

But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robo-calls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they're trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that's inappropriate.

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. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administrationn.

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists’. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Powell says that point was underscored when he say a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. One was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. He says "she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old."

Powell says the headstone had a Crescent and a Star of the Islamic faith. The dead soldier, Kareem Rashid Sultan Khan, was an American, who was born in New Jersey. Powell says Khan "was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

So, when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career, we've got two individuals, either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time?

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 we 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. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world--onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama”.

Thank you, Colin Powell, Thank you! Now here’s a republican that even I, can LOVE!

Let’s Talk Voter Fraud…

The McCain/Palin ticket has a new discussion for America: "Electoral fraud”. McCain and Palin looked at the polls and saw Obama was leading. They looked at Wall Street and saw another huge drop--700 points. So they decide to attack Obama -- on questionable voter registrations. Someone should tell them that these so-called fraudulent newly registered non-voters are NOT the ones that pollsters are talking to!

So here’s Palin, in New Hampshire, blasting Obama over a community group that did questionable voter registrations...just 6 days after a republican was indicted in a voter fraud scheme in New Hampshire!

Republicans argue that a community group, involved in registering voters nationwide, apparently just registered people, without checking to see if they have the necessary credentials to vote.

So where does that leave us…? Here’s what Palin and McCain want people to believe.

Let’s say the group managed to register every unregistered person in America, and let’s just say that half of them are not…NOT…eligible to vote. What now? Well according to Palin and McCain, these people can just apparently sail up to the booth on Election Day and actually vote!

One would assume that these “questionable voters” would NOT even BE on the Voter Registration List. People have to give the last four digits of their Social Security number, and hopefully, officials are checking that these people are bona fide.

But say these “questionable voters” have NO Social Security number or that whatever number they gave came up fake. Apparently, the incompetent, pro-Obama elitists who staff electoral departments nationwide, (especially in Florida and Ohio), will through ineptitude or chicanery, add these “questionable voters” to the list. (In defense of these staffers,they did see that these “questionable voters” were registered through the very agency embroiled in the controversy, but that just made any red flags turn blue!)

So we will continue the farce by saying that these voters shall just traipse up to the polls on November 04 and without any valid ID’s, all vote for Obama, and McCain loses with honor, like Kerry and Gore before him.

OR…

We could talk about Voter Fraud in New Hampshire, which Palin probably doesn’t know anything about. Here’s part of a newspaper article Former GOP official indicted on new charges in phone-jamming in a local paper, The Union Leader. It is dated October 15, 2008:

"Former national Republican Party official James Tobin of Maine has been indicted on new charges stemming from an illegal GOP phone-jamming operation in New Hampshire six years ago aimed at stopping Election Day get-out-the-vote efforts by the state Democratic Party and a firefighters union."

The article explains the background and goes on to say:

"Tobin did not have to serve any of the 10-month prison sentence he received stemming from the telephone harassment conviction. Before and during his trial, his legal bills, known to have totaled nearly $3 million, were paid by the Republican National Committee. It is unclear if the RNC continued to pay Tobin's bills during the appeal process and in connection with the new charges.

Tobin was involved in an operation initiated by former state Republican executive director Charles McGee to use hundreds of hang-up calls to jam get-out-the-vote and rides-to-the-polls telephone lines at five Democratic Party offices and a Manchester firefighters union office on the morning of Election Day, 2002.

That election featured a bitter U.S. Senate race, being replayed this year, between Republican John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.

When McGee tried to find a telemarketer to make the hang-up calls, he asked for help from Tobin, then a regional director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Tobin put McGee in touch with former consultant Allen Raymond and spoke with Raymond about McGee's request. Raymond then hired an Idaho-based telemarketer to make the calls and was paid $15,600 by the New Hampshire Republican Party.

McGee and Raymond both pled guilty in connection with the scheme and served time in federal prisons".

This is NOT rumored voter fraud…this is not unproven voter fraud…this is not democrats making unfounded voter fraud allegations…this is a U.S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT investigation. Here we have republicans sentenced to prison, for voter fraud. The paper says: "An oral argument on the appeal is scheduled for Nov. 3 -- the day before Election Day -- at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston." Each of the two counts carries a maximum penalty of up to 5 years in prison.

How about some Straight Talk about that!?

OR…

Let’s hear Palin talk about allegations of voter fraud in Florida, especially in minority neighborhoods…and in Ohio.

This article in Rolling Stone “Was the 2004 election Stolen?” by ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., states:

"A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states, was discovered shredding Democratic registrations. In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes, malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.

A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent."

Let us dismiss all these as baseless speculation. Let's go back to the indictment and guilty verdicts in the New Hampshire case and ask: IS THIS THE ONLY CASE OF REPUBLICAN VOTE TAMPERING...OR MERELY THE ONLY ONE THAT’S COME TO LIGHT? Is it, Mr. Straight Talk McCain? You're gonna betcha…right? Right!!!

Tactics, Economy and The Bible!

John McCain has been running for president for ten years. Ten years! But it’s only now, three weeks before the election that McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin seem to have finally realized what’s been preying on the minds of most Americans, lately. The Economy.

People are worried and scared about the uncertain economic outlook, high energy prices and job losses…not a college professor on a board that Obama sat on. The McCain campaign probably thought, until now, that Americans were just whining, (as McCain's top advisor, Phil Gramm, put it) and any talk of economic pain was all in people's heads!

For months, republicans have been feeding their base a steady diet of anti-Obama sentiment. He’s a terrorist, he palls around with terrorists, he’s a Muslim…he’s an Arab! They rally supporters at gatherings by referring to Obama as “Barak Hussein Obama”.

Republicans also use their talk-show surrogates to spread gossip, rumor and innuendo—then sit back and sanctimoniously and disingenuously point out that the talk show host has himself denounced the rumors. HE wasn’t the one making the claims…it was his guest! Apparently the way to distance yourself and your party from spurious claims is to give your guest a platform to spew the very claims you so solemnly denounce!

Still, McCain and Palin took their hateful anti-Obama rhetoric across America, and used it to whip up their supporters. I watched McCain on T-V having to defend Obama. It was humiliating! He had to tell the same supporters he just whipped into an anti-Obama frenzy that: “Obama is not a bad man, after all. I just disagree with him”. Huh? Who is/was lying, here?

Having made their supporters hate and distrust Obama by rumor, innuendo and calculated attacks, McCain and Palin are now trying to raise anchor and just sail on, as though their vitriolic spewing never happened. They’re now re-repositioning themselves as America’s economic saviors.

After a near two-year campaign, you’d think that McCain would have refined and honed his message by now. But he’s still running with the moment, reacting and shooting from the hip.

Do you want a trigger-happy commander fingering the nation’s nuclear codes?

Mr. President, the Russians just fired a nuclear missile at Georgia. John McCain immediately launches a nuclear bomb at Moscow. A few seconds later, information comes in—it was just a test. There’s been no attack. Oops! Too late. Shoot from the hip McCain has already started a nuclear war! And vice president Palin is calling friends to tell them the mushroom cloud can be seen from her house!

It is too late now for McCain to tell Americans that his temperament has taken a sudden shift for the better. That he’s now cool, calm and level-headed, and has shed the trademark sarcasm and irascible demeanor we’ve seen time after time on the campaign trail. This is a man that even his good friends admit has a hell of a temper, which easily bursts out of control.

I sometime wonder if republicans are out of touch with the God they claim to believe in so much. They wrap themselves up in the bible—when it suits them. That’s called hypocrisy! The one that says my vice presidential nominee’s daughter can get pregnant at 17, and that’s OK. I will embrace her, love, defend and support her. But to every other non-Palin pregnant teen out there, the republican message is: you are sluts, with no family values, and you’re going straight to hell!

Seems to me, Satan had better think about expanding.

The Bible says: Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Matthew 7:21-23.

(PS: I went to catholic school. And no, political influence is NOT a requirement for entering Heaven!)

FACTS are Inconvenient Things.

Sarah Palin now says that Democrats must stop looking backwards. She says the Obama campaign is looking back and using the past to blame republicans for their misdeeds. She said that with a straight face, too! Palin has been "looking back" to blame Obama for something that a fellow board member did some thirty years ago. Can somebody please ask Palin why it’s O-K for her to go back decades and blame democrats…but democrats cannot go back 8-years and blame republicans?

She’d probably say: “well, when republicans look back, we are not really going back, doggone it, we’re just looking at the future and seeing where Obama’s likely to go…you know…I’m a hockey mom and threatening to talk to people like Castro without preconditions, when in fact he’s been talking to Ayers without preconditions for so many years…?

This kind of plain talk is just what board members across America are waiting for, and the liberal elite media won’t go after these board members, who are consorting with past KKK members and other extremists and secessionists…but, you betcha, I’m willing to take them on, because with people like Putin and the democrats...I have just one word for them…lipstick!”

Meantime, governor Sarah Palin today insisted that she did nothing wrong when she and her husband tried desperately to get her sister’s ex-husband fired from his job as a state trooper in Alaska. Governor Palin and her husband apparently tried to force Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner to fire the trooper. The commissioner says they kept coming at him, as though it was an obsession, and when he resisted, Palin fired him!

The official BIPARTISAN report on “Trooper Gate “finds that Palin abused her power, and violated state ethics laws. But Palin INSISTS that according to the report, there was nothing “unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member.” She says the truth is that the report shows there was no unlawful or unethical activity on her part.

So what’s going on here? I listened to a report today by ABC's Jake Tapper, on The New England Cable News, (NECN), and here's what I gathered. According to Tapper, the report clearly finds there was something “clearly unethical about efforts by Palin and her husband to fire her sister’s ex-husband…” But Palin is cherry picking and disregarding that part. She’s latching on the part of the report that refers to firing the commissioner. It finds there was nothing unethical about replacing a cabinet member.

But the report finds “Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating The Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, when she tried to get her ex brother-in-law fired for personal reasons”.

Yet Palin insists she did nothing wrong. She told reporters in her home state of Alaska, she’s very, very happy to be cleared of any legal wrong-doing…and any hint of any kind of unethical activity!

Tapper says the report did not clear Palin of unethical activity! The report says the Palin’s claims that the ex-brother-in-law was violent and should not be a state trooper was just a cover the Palins used to mask their real motivation: that they wanted the trooper fired for personal, family-related reasons.

This cherry picking reminds me of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and the way the Bush Administration picked the information that bolstered their case for war in Iraq, and fed it to Joe Six-Pack American Public. Republican Sarah Palin, (like the Bush Administraion), is simply latching on to the part that suits her position at the moment, and is ignoring, disregarding or discrediting the rest. Facts are inconvenient things…

All this has Joy Behar of ABC’s The View referring to Sarah Palin as: “Cheney in a skirt.” This election is definitely NOT dull!

Planned Parenthood, Palin and Sancho Panza!

Planned Parenthood is benefitting from John McCain's choice of running mate. Pro-choicers are reportedly so outraged over Sarah Palin’s anti-abortion views, (she supports abortion only if the mother’s life is in danger: would not allow her daughter to have an abortion, even if she was raped) about 50-thousand people have contributed more than a million-dollars to Planned Parenthood, in Sarah Palin’s name! The majority are first-time givers.

If donors choose, Planned Parenthood will send a thank you post card to the McCain campaign, for every donation they get. Oops! (I don’t support abortion, but I do support a woman’s right to choose, even if she ends up making what I think may be the wrong decision!)

• I watched footage of a McCain campaign stop where angry supporters demanded to know why he wasn’t clobbering Obama over the head with past associations. They didn't seem interested in McCain's solutions to deal with health insurance; the current state of the economy; a tanking housing and stock market and tepid support from allies to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals.

Their focus was not on how to end the Iraq war that's draining the already drained economy or the apparently unwinnable Afghanistan morass. (According to the British commander in Afghanistan, that war cannot be won. He says America should negotiate a settlement with the Taliban. Something the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai is already reportedly doing!?).

Nope, those McCain supporters seemed more concerned with "swift-boating" Obama.

One man grabbed the mike and professed: "I'm mad, and I'm really mad… It's not the economy. It's the socialist taking over our country…When you have an Obama, Pelosi*, and the rest of the hooligans up there gonna run this country, we've got to have our head examined…we are mad." (*House speaker, democrat Nancy Pelosi.)

Hooligans..? Running the U-S government? Hello angry peoples! You know you’re pissed off at George Bush for wrecking your party; and at yourself for picking John McCain as your nominee; and at McCain for picking Sarah Palin as his running mate; and at Palin for not being able to zealously embrace republican family values like morality, abstinence and chastity, among others. Come on, now!

• Leading columnist George Will (Washington Post) is one conservative who's calling a spade a spade...or a Sancho Panza! Will knows whom he's not happy with -- the McCain/Palin ticket! He says “It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Will refers to Palin as McCain’s female “Sancho Panza.” (Sancho Panza is a character in Spanish author Cervantes’ novel “Don Quixote.” Panza is illiterate and proud of it.) According to George Will, given the economic crisis that America is now going through, “the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama’s Chicago associations seem surreal - or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, ‘like being savaged by a dead sheep’…”. OUCH!

Politics of Palin

Sarah Palin says the “high heels” are out in full force. (It could be worse—she could have forgotten the lipstick!) Palin is going after Obama…questioning the democrat’s character and judgment. But as those of us who love watching “Loony Tunes” cartoons know quite well, that also means it is Open Hunting Season. Duck Season…No, Wabbit Season. Obama Season. Nope, Palin Season!

There’s an excellent piece in the September 29 issue of “Newsweek” magazine. It’s called: “When Atheists Attack” by Sam Harris, (samharris.org: In Defense of Elitism).

Harris says Sarah Palin could make Christian Theocracy smell like apple pie! But he says, after watching her speech at the Republican National Convention, he subsequently found that Palin’s luster “can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter.”

According to Harris, Palin's fans seem “inclined to forgive her for any indiscretion short of cannibalism.” He says however badly she stumbles; Palin’s supporters will blame it on the media…and the media’s “highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.”

Harris says Palin “comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation.”

Harris is equally tough on American voters. He says “when it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country.” He says people who say they’re voting for Palin because “she is a mom. She knows what it’s like to be a mom” are displaying an uncanny, (and especially American), detachment from reality.

Harris lists the many problems awaiting the next administration. He includes issues like nuclear proliferation, Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change, the economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, failing American schools, infrastructure and the energy crisis. And he says “Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.”

According to Harris, “what is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents--and her supporters celebrate--the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. He notes that we want ‘elite’ troops to fight our wars, ‘elite’ athletes to represent us in competitions and ‘elite’ scientists to find cures for disease.” Yet, when it comes to the presidency, Americans apparently “consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence.”

Harris concludes by saying that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, “the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk.”

I say: "Go Sarah!" We need you to click-click your high-heeled way into Iran’s parliament and threaten to use your stilettos if they don’t immediately sign a nuclear treaty. We know you won’t blink, Sarah. You can do it. You’re a mom!

Glass Houses and Stones

John McCain and Sarah Palin are throwing stones. They have conveniently forgotten the saying: Those who live in glass houses should NOT throw stones! With McCain down in the polls, he’s doing what he said HE WOULD NOT DO: throwing out dirt.

McCain is hoping voters will be so blind-sided, they won’t realize that the economy is sick. At least 50 thousand people just lost jobs in the financial mess that McCain helped create, while he winked and looked the other way; that Detroit motor sales fell by 30-percent, (compared to this time last year); that more people are still losing their homes; that more banks are likely to fail; that we are NOT winning the war on terror; that America’s reputation overseas is in tatters; that children are still being Left Behind; that health care is a mess…

• Instead of telling Americans what HE, John McCain, plans to do about Immigration, and why his plan is better than Obama’s--McCain is calling Obama names.

• Instead of telling us what HE, John McCain, plans to do to ease unemployment, and why his plan is better than Obama’s--McCain is trying to scare voters with misconceptions and name-calling.

• Instead of explaining to republicans why he, John McCain, decided to ram such an inept running mate down their throats, (given the choices he had), and explaining to them why drunken driving and teenage pregnancy are now a hip part of the Conservative Family Values Credo…McCain is sending his running mate out to throw mud for him.

• Instead of telling Americans how he, John McCain, plans to secure U.S. borders, and why his plan is better than Obama’s--look for increasingly vitriolic attacks against Obama, his wife, his mother, his sister, his teacher…his black father, everybody who donates to Obama!

• Instead of explaining how he, John McCain, will be different from George Bush, McCain is hiding behind innuendo and Palin’s high heels!

Mr. McCain, there is enough dirt to go around.

McCain took substantial political contributions from California banker, Charles Keating, and did not disclose them, (as mandated by law). Keating asked McCain and four other senators (Keating Five) to help keep the government from investigating his California Savings and Loan. The investigation was held back for two (2) years. John McCain and his family, including a nanny (every Joe Six-Pack has a nanny) flew several times to Keating’s lavish Bahamas estate...on Keating's private jet!

While Senators in Keating’s pocket were trying hard to block the banking investigation, that house of cards came crashing down, and thousands of elderly people lost their pensions, their investments and their livelihoods. It was just as big, back then, as the financial crisis is today. The Keating Five senators all claimed then that helping Keating was like helping one of their constituents. McCain said: "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and described the Lincoln case like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security.” Some check, that turned out to be! McCain's fellow senators ruled that he had shown “poor judgment.”

• Poor judgment, like McCain showed when he so enthusiastically supported Bush’s War in Iraq.

• Poor judgment, like McCain showed when he rushed to Washington to inject himself into the Bailout Plan, to no avail.

• Poor judgment, like McCain displayed, by passing up qualified potential running mates and picking Sarah Palin.

• Poor judgment, like McCain shows by insisting that America is winning in Iraq. Even the commander who masterminded the fragile and tenuous peace in Iraq, General Petraeus, WILL NOT USE THE TERM: WINNING! Petraeus says “winning” is NOT a word that HE would use to describe the fragile situation in Iraq.

Better: yes. More stable: looks so. Fewer bombings: definitely! Winning? Too early to tell. And WE ALL WANT A WIN. 10-billion-dollars-a-month call for more than a win! That deserves a slam-dunk. A Mission Accomplished!

Senator McCain, does the “U.S. Council for World Freedom” ring any bells? It should. It’s a very right-wing organization. AND YOU REPORTEDLY SAT ON ITS BOARD, in 1981. If you want to talk about the ultra left-wing, how about talking about the ultra-right wing! Democratic Strategist, Paul Begala (who wrote a book about the Arizona Senator) claims McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization called the U.S. Council for World Freedom.

Mr. Begala appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday (October 05) and this is what he had to say:

It (U.S. Council for World Freedom) was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. It was an ultraconservative right-wing group. The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981, when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League, the parent organization, which ADL said, “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and Anti-Semites.”

• Are you an anti-Semite John McCain? How would you explain sitting on their board?

• Are you a racist, Senator McCain? What were you were doing on that board?

• Are you an extremist, candidate McCain? Why were you on that board?

If McCain is trying to paint Obama with “guilt by association”, shouldn’t the same judgments (there’s that word again) be made about him?

Do you see now, that when you point a finger, it can come back to haunt you?
Begala says “the problem is that a lot of people know John McCain’s record better than Governor Palin, and he does not want to play guilt by association or this thing could blow up in his face”.

I’d listen if I was John McCain. Both candidates are decent men. Let’s just leave it that way, and focus on the issues. We are voting for a president. Let the Catholic Church (and I’m not catholic) decide who to canonize for sainthood.

Testy McCain Defends Palin

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is getting testy over running mate Sarah Palin’s experience…or lack thereof.

That's according to an article by the Associated Press (AP). McCain reportedly appeared irritable and at times sarcastic in an interview in which he defended his running mate.

McCain was meeting with the editorial board of The Des Moines Register, September 30. And reporters asked him why he picked the Alaska governor. McCain said he disagreed with the questioner’s “fundamental principle that she doesn't have the experience." McCain says Palin worked as a Parent Teacher's Association (PTA) member, city council member, mayor and governor. According to McCain, the American people seem to be siding with him!

So, Mr. McCain, does Palin's lack of experience worry voters?

Nope. The AP says McCain turned sarcastic over that question.

"Really? I haven't detected that in the polls, I haven't detected that among the base…If there's a Georgetown cocktail party person who, quote, calls himself a conservative who doesn't like her, good luck. I don't dismiss him." (Ouch!) .

On Tuesday, Sarah Palin characterized herself as "an everyday, working-class American"…“Joe six-pack,” (her words) who knows how it feels when the stock market takes a hit. She says their/her husband’s retirement account lost 20 thousand dollars when the market tanked.

According to the AP, the Palin's assets include: a half-million-dollar home on a lake with a float-plane at the dock, two vacation retreats, commercial-fishing rights worth an estimated 50-thousand-dollars or more and an income last year of at least 230-thousand-dollars. Still, as the AP put it, in Alaska, roads are scarce so private planes are commonplace.

I'm wondering...in rural West Virginia and Kentucky, (like Appalachia) bad roads mean what? A Hummer?

The “B” Word--Deal or No Deal?

The Senate has approved yet another version of the Bailout Plan. Except, we’re NOT supposed to call it a “Bailout” anymore! The Bush Administration came up with the term to describe its plan to “solve” the nation’s financial crisis. But the B-word is now a nasty, dirty word! (Pesky reporters still keep using it, but we'll try not to!)

Bailout, (sorry), connotes a sinking ship. One where the Coast Guard is plucking desperate, drowning people from a choppy sea, while sharks close in. From now on, it shall be referred to as a: “Rescue” plan/package. We are still using the Coast Guard, but now, the boat isn’t sinking. It just ran out of gas!

There is no arguing that the crisis will reach Main Street. It’s already hitting High Street. Companies are scaling back on expenditure and Connecticut casino Foxwoods just cut some 700 jobs. In my home state of Massachusetts, the government could not raise money! Treasurer Tim Cahill says they couldn’t sell enough bonds or get a loan! Banks told them no! Wow!

Apparently, the state anticipates it will collect X-amount in taxes, and then borrows against that hoped-for amount (Why not? Aren't we all living off credit, anyway?) But this time, the state got a shock. There was no credit! And soon the shock may be ours...

We’re now looking at budget cuts, including local aid to state retiree pensions. So while some of our representatives were on TV explaining why they voted against the bill, the state treasurer was getting a big NO from banks. See how voters like that!

So far this year, the financial-services industry has already lost 110-thousand jobs. Some experts predict another 60-thousand could be lost. Some 12-thousand people reportedly lost their jobs when banking giant Citigroup swallowed up Charlotte-based Wachovia Bank, the nation’s sixth-largest lender.

Lehman Brothers had 25-thousand employees when it filed for bankruptcy. Bank of America bought another failed investment bank, Merrill Lynch…what about Merrill’s 60-thousand employees? Analysts say Lehman and Merrill Lynch together account for 50-thousand job losses! And we haven’t even factored in Bear Sterns, AIG, Fannie and Freddy!

The auto industry also announced some 15-thousand job cuts last month…nearly a 100-thousand so far, this year. And it’s likely to get worse. Sales at Ford, Chrysler and GM are down by about a third, (compared to this time last year) and even Japanese makers like Toyota, Honda and Nissan are not immune.

New figures also show that manufacturing is contracting. We’ve apparently hit the lowest level since October 2001! The Institute for Supply Management says we are near recessionary levels!

So U.S. Congress…Rescue or Bailout? Deal or NO Deal?

Somehow that’s not exactly making for a bright Christmas.