Where They Stand

The economy is back as the top story of the election and thank God. It's about time. To put it simply, the American economy doesn't work anymore. I am going to spend the rest of the week talking about this and offering all of you what I think are the best solutions. We are going to revisit "Obamanomics" and that wonderful article in the New York Times Magazine from a few weeks ago. Read it again if you haven't yet.

To put it as simply as possible, the reason our economy is in full crisis mode is that the people who have run this country for the last eight years have been incompetent and misguided.And the board room has become filthy with greed. Both George Bush and John McCain have stated in the last few weeks that greed and corruption are what have caused our current crisis. As the President has said, "Wall Street got drunk and now they have the hangover."

What this proves is that corruption can happen anywhere and all of you free market fundamentalists are wrong about it being worse in the government. Sorry, it's something you are going to have to face. Your ideology is terribly flawed. In fact, if you look at when our major crises have occurred in this country (1929, 1987, 2001, 2007-8) they have all come during Republican rule. What does that say to you?

Now, I'll be the first to admit that over bearing government control is a bad thing. But no control at all is also equally disastrous. No regulation, which is what we have had for the better part of 30 years, is also bad. This inaction or sneaky winking from the Washington to Wall Street has put us into a crisis that shows no signs of letting up. Yesterday the market dropped 500 points with the news that Lehman Brothers is bankrupt and Merrill Lynch is being sold to Bank of America. AIG is also in danger.

This is all the result of what happens when you go off the deep end in regards to how our economy should be handled.

By the deep end, I mean people who make the claim that Barack Obama is a socialist. Barack Obama is not a socialist. Please keep your 9 year old girl hysterics out of the adult swim area. He is not going to make America a socialist state. He's not even going to go to an FDR style solution to solve our problems.

Take a look at his plan on taxes, for example:

• Make many Bush Tax Cuts Permanent
• Make "work pay" tax credit
• Index the Alternative Minimum Tax
• Reduce Estate Tax
• Automatic 401K and IRA plans, large saver's credits
• Other Tax Cuts (for college students, seniors, low income filers)
• Permanent R & D and renewable energy credits

Most of this doesn't sound much different from where conservatives want us to be, right? Now, you balance this out with the fact that we have to let the capital gains tax cuts expire in 2010 in order to increase revenue.

Before all of you righties go apeshit, my source for this is...George Bush. The Bush Administration Treasury Department examined the economic effects of extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts. Even under the Treasury’s most optimistic scenario about the economic effects of these tax cuts, the tax cuts would not generate anywhere close to enough added economic growth to pay for themselves — and would thus lose money. They estimate between 60 and 80 billion of lost revenue in other less optimistic scenarios.

So this would be an example of why we can't afford to spend another four years looking at only one side of the equation. This is what John McCain wants, sadly. If the majority of Americans aren't spending any money because the majority of wealth has been seized by a very tiny percentage of people, we will continue to see more and more of what happened yesterday.

Take a closer look at what Senator Obama is proposing. For more specifics on this plan, visit here. There are many sub sections and pdf files that go into extraordinary detail about how we can fix this mess. Look at the balance. This how America has always worked best.

It is my hope that some of you on the right will wake up and see that Senator Obama has the right amount of balance on this. It's terribly dangerous to be blinded by ideology and outright lies and that's just what's going on right now. Your pocketbook is going to begin to get hit and it is direct result of a flawed way of thinking that may ultimately be our ruin.

Ohio Bullshit Beginning Early

Well, we knew it had to happen. The Republicans would be pulling their usual bullshit in Ohio. Apparently, the McCain campaign re-wrote the absentee ballot request form it sent out to a million people by adding an extra box on it. The box, which is completely unneeded on the form due to the fact that election judges check eligibility anyway, asks you to check it if you are an eligible voter. If you don't check it, under Ohio law, you would not be able to vote.

And, of course, the box is easy to miss. Hmm..I wonder who they sent out the request forms to?

Gee, let me think hard about this one.

Not Many Words

Usually on this day I have plenty to say. This year, I don't. I've been checking out the news and watching the memorials and quite honestly feel pretty sad.

If you know someone who lost a loved one on 9-11 or someone who is serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, give them a call or drop them a note. Let them know how much you love them and that you are there for them on the other 364 days of the year.

Six More Times

Remember that whole brouhaha we all had a while back about who supports the troops more-McCain or Obama? Check out this story from the AP. Apparently, the troops, particularly those serving overseas, support Obama more and have backed it up by giving more money to his campaign then the McCain campaign...six times more! McCain actually came in third, behind Obama and Ron Paul which, I have to say, is quite embarrassing.

I guess the troops figured out that McCain's GI bill was a load of shit and decided Obama actually had their interests in mind.

A Music Review

One of my many passions in life is music. Actually it's a passion/obsession. As Fairuza Balk says in Almost Famous, "Any time you get sad or lonely, just go to the record store and all your friends are there in the racks.

Anyhoo, I am going to be a regular contributor to IckMusic, my friend Pete's much frequented music blog. Everyone who digs music should check it out. My post is about Todd Rundgren's new album, Arena. Click here to read the review and check in with Pete on a regular basis for all the latest and greatest tunes.

They Like Her...why again?

Someone sent me this link which we have been talking about in comments over the last few days and I thought I would bring it out front. It is a letter from someone who knows Sarah Palin pretty well. Among the highlights.

• During her six years as mayor of Wasilla, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent.
• During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent.
• She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food.
• The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
• The huge increases in tax revenue during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list, though — borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt but left it with indebtedness of more than $22 million.

So, basically we have George Bush once again. Great.

In her tenure as mayor she tried to have several books banned from the public library. When the librarian refused, Governor Palin tried to have her fired. Thankfully, the rest of the town did not support Palin in this endeavor and she was unsuccessful. I haven't been able to find a list of the books she supposedly wanted banned, due to religious reasons. There is a list out there but it may not be entirely accurate. I have to say I thought of Jonah Goldberg and chuckled when I read this part of the story.

Help me out here, folks. I thought conservatives were about less spending, lower taxes, and reduced government in people's lives. How does the information above jibe with any of those tenets?

Reading further in the article, the answer becomes clear.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.

Ah, now I know why they like her:)

Friday Potpourri

Couple things today.

Take a look at the counter to the left. Obama's bounce from last week is starting to show. Let's see what the polls bring next week. Will there be a Republican bounce?

If you click on the map, you will notice that Obama is ahead in North Dakota. Bush won this state by 27 points in 2004. Granted, his lead is still in the margin of error but the interesting thing to note is that Obama has offices in North and South Dakota as well as Montana. John McCain does not. Obama plans on spending money and campaigning there. Why? Because If he takes two of those three, Iowa and Colorado, Ohio doesn't matter. And he is still leading in Ohio. I think McCain is being terribly short sighted here. He's not looking at the new voters Obama has gotten out in those states.

McCain's lead in Arizona, his home state, isn't all that big either...44 to 36 percent with 20 percent undecided. That's a lot of undecideds that could make it close in McCain's home state and you better believe that Governor Napoliatano is going to be ovaries to the wall for Obama.

I rarely agree with Charles Krauthammer but he is is absolutely right on Sarah Palin.

Obama was sagging because of missteps that reflected the fundamental weakness of his candidacy. Which suggested McCain's strategy: Make this a referendum on Obama, surely the least experienced, least qualified, least prepared presidential nominee in living memory. Palin fatally undermines this entire line of attack.

McCain picked Palin to give the base erections-literally and figuratively-and, in doing so, gave up his argument against Obama's "inexperience" which was an enormous mistake. It was the one thing he could really hammer Obama on which would make some people listen. Now they look at Palin and think, "Well, maybe McCain was disingenuous about Obama and the experience thing. He picked someone who knows nothing about foreign policy.

And speaking of opinion columns. This one has been making me laugh all morning. It is a "text" from a conservative college student to his parents. My favorite line?

Iraq, oil prices, the economy, blah, blah, blah. Here's the thing that I like. Watching Huckabee, Guiliani, and Sara Palin rip into the Obama last night was like watching caged dogs. With our guys (and girl) being the mean dogs and Obama being, like, a Schnoodle with a soft throat.

Pretty much sums up the whole convention.

No Issue To Be Found

I have watched the Republican National Convention this week in utter astonishment. All of the speeches, the interviews with delegates and pundits, and the overall general theme of the convention point to one thing:

The media is liberal.

This is all they have?

I have tuned in several times throughout the course of the week and EVERY single time I do, I see someone on the podium whooping the crowd into a frenzy over the elite media. Everyone from Fred Thompson to Rudy Giuliani (sadly) made comments about the media. Even the much anticipated speech by VP nominee, Sarah Palin, contained the following line.

...if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

Setting aside the fact that she actually does lack experience and has some serious problems with judgment, why is that, once again, the party that preaches against a victim society plays the part of the victim so well? It's not Sarah Palin's fault...it's the media.

In addition, it strikes me as highly moronic that the Republicans, for which the media has launched an unbelievable assault in my home town of the Twin Cities, are biting the hands that feed them. As I flipped around the various news channels, all of them seemed perplexed that the Republicans would focus on them when there are so many issues that Americans want to hear about from them.

The right laments the lack of "meat" in Obama's plans and yet offers nothing of their own except more digs at the media and the ever present fear mongering (we are all dead unless we vote Republican).

And, hey, if you don't believe me...why don't we ask McCain campaign chairman, Rick Davies, what he thinks about the election.

This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.

Really?

And The Left is Naive?

I popped over to Kevin Baker's blog to see what was new and I found this little commentary, intermixed between the hyper paranoia of what a Barack Obama presidency would mean, on Barack Obama's speech last week. The first line, in blue, is from Obama's speech. The next bit, in red, is the commentary.

For over two decades, (McCain’s) subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy, give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.

No, it isn't given to them and they aren't "lucky." The vast majority of "the ones with the most" earned it through ingenuity, risk-taking, hard work and sacrifice - and they are the business owners, large and small, that employ the bulk of Americans - asshole

No. Absolutely wrong and a complete fucking myth. A myth that has been put forth by the top 1 percent through its cronies in the media (especially the right wing media). I still can't figure out this nauseating hero worship of wealthy, conservative business owners, the MAJORITY of which got their money through pathological criminal behavior. I have been told by several posters here and elsewhere that I am just jealous and should get over it. It's simply not true. Money is not all that important to me.If anything, given the adulation that is showered upon people like this by many conservatives, it is they that are the jealous ones.

Ingenuity, risk taking and sacrifice? While I am sure there are some people in the top one percent who fit this description, it certainly is not common.

Seriously, what fucking country do these people live in?

Sarah Smile

I am still trying to get my head around McCain's pick for VP. What was he thinking? I suppose she might get more of the base to turn out because she is a staunch conservative but those same people have been squirting about Obama's supposed inexperience.

Imagine if McCain, aged 72 and cancer survivor, dies. My initial reaction is....great, now we have Michelle Bachmann running the country.

A former beauty queen? Really?

For an absolutely hilarious take on what went on behind the scenes in the McCain camp when they were trying to pick a VP, click on the electoral map on the left. Andy really outdid himself with this one.

Half Time Is Over, Folks

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.

-Democratic Nominee For President, Barack Obama, 8-28-08, Denver, Co

Are We Ready?

Originally, I had planned on discussing Obamanomics this week. I thought it would be beneficial to really get into the meat of his ideas for the economic direction of our country which I think is the most important issue facing us at present. This all changed, however, when it was discovered that three men were planning to kill Senator Obama when he gives his acceptance speech tonight and Invesco Field.

My mind just hasn't been on the economy...it's been on whether or not we, as a nation, are ready to move forward. I look at our country and see a very large group of people who are, essentially, children. They don't want to go forward...they want to stay backward. Inexplicably, they think that nothing is wrong with our country. Some of this group doesn't like Senator Obama because he is black. Some don't like him because of his name or they still believe the falsehood that he is a Muslim. Many in the group don't like him because they think both of these things but can't face the disgusting bigotry inside of themselves so it comes out in different ways....like mentioning the fact that Obama's middle name is Hussein and then feigning innocence when called on it. "What? That IS his name," they say.

I have to admit I'm pretty nervous about tonight. I don't know if I will even watch. Up until now, the masters of this large group of people I am talking about have been content in character assassination of Senator Obama. I wonder if they are content any longer. Because the hard truth is that Barack Obama is a major threat to their way of life...a way of life that depends on the ignorance and fear of their lapdogs. Some or most of that ignorance and fear would be gone in an era of Obama which means....they would be gone as well.

In many ways, I am disgusted by what our country has become in the last eight years. Many people who post here rip me for blaming Bush for everything. In the final analysis, they might be right. I look at what is being said about Senator Obama and the clear hatred of him...hatred that is clearly violent...and have realized that a very large voting bloc of this country are complete pieces of shit.

They have no fucking business deciding the direction of this country and will continue to hold us back as from becoming what we should be as long as well allow them to do so.

Only A Matter of Time

Remember all that talk like....oh....since forever on this blog about how most conservatives aren't shit kicking rednecks?

And about how yours truly is filled with bias and hate?

Oh, and how liberals are the ones that are fascist?

Take a look at these three fucks.
From left to right they are: Nathan Johnson (aka Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel), Shawn Adolph (!), and Tharin Gartrell. These three men, along with Johnson's girlfriend, were arrested today in a plot to assassinate Barack Obama on Thursday night in Denver when he gives his acceptance speech. They were found with scopes, high powered rifles, bullet proof vests, and Nazi literature. Adolph (no surprise here) jumped out of his hotel window to try to elude police. Apparently, there was some meth involved as well.

Take a look at these three faces. My first thought went to some of the anger and violent bile I read on various right wing blogs. Here are three of their regular commenters, I'm sure....unless each of them has their own blog discussing how Obama is going to destroy this country with socialism. Or was it fascism? I can never remember what idiocy is the moronic theory du jour.

Now, I know that some of you will say that these guys are just nuts and the left has their nuts too. Well, a conservative friend of mine at the gym..one who I used to have a lot of respect for....a respected doctor in Edina....came up to me today and asked me if I had heard about this plot. When I answered in the affirmative, he looked at me and said, very seriously,

"It's too bad they got caught. They could have saved our country."

That Moment

If John McCain goes on to lose the election this year, it will be because of the economy. The moment everyone will remember will be the one where he didn't know how many properties he owned.

A new site, complete with Google Earth map, shows the properties and very neatly details why this is not a "petty" issue as some on the right would have you believe. A quote from the site.

Before a president can effectively govern this diverse nation, they must first be able to understand the needs and struggles of its citizens. McCain’s astonishing wealth makes it impossible for him to relate to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the economy.

I don't think McCain really understands what is going on with the economy. By his own admission, it isn't all that important to him. That's a real problem because we need to have a leader who does understand and will make some very tough choices. Starting tomorrow, I am going to be breaking down an article from yesterday's New York Times magazine on "Obamanomics." Click here if you want a preview.

Biden

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the Biden pick. On the one hand, I like his experience on the foreign stage, his attitude (see: fuck you), and his overall belief that government can work. His ego, though, gives me pause and I wonder how much of that is going to interfere with his judgment. I think the Obama campaign has weighed the five gaffes Biden will make between now and election day and determined that more votes will be acquired by his experience.

In addition, from a purely political standpoint, what states is he going to help Obama win? Kaine would've been the better choice from that standpoint because he would've locked up Virginia. And is Biden really an "outsider" to Washington? How does that fit in with Obama's change motif?

I guess it was experience that won the day. Overall, Biden's not a bad pick....he's just not incredibly stellar, which is something I have grown to expect from my guy.

A Bad Week for John McCain

This clip was posted on YouTube...a few days before McCain couldn't answer a reporter's question regarding how many houses he and his wife Cindy owned. It essentially makes fools out of those people who think that Barack Obama is elitist.

How out of touch is John McCain? The number one issue on people's minds is the economy and he continues to go after Obama on foreign policy experience. Couple this with the accord that is about to be signed between Iraq and the United States regarding a troop withdrawal date and....why should anyone vote for McCain again?

Gee, I'm Shocked.

The Brookings Institution released a report last week that stated that most of the economic gains that poor people made in the 1990s have been reversed over the course of the last eight years. Anyone like to take a guess why?

It's pretty obvious to me that Krugman was right when he wrote his piece on the Great Wealth Transfer. The 1990s saw more people with more of the nation's wealth. The economy was in great shape and there was a definitive shift in the direction our country was heading. People in this country were being re-trained for new jobs and there was a palatable feeling that we were heading one direction: FORWARD.

Then President Bush came into office and the more people having more money thing went out the fucking window. The people that put Bush in power want LESS people having MORE of the money. In their minds, the 1990s were a stain on America. Think of the horror. Some scumbag in a smelly T Shirt having stocks and having a say in how this country is run? It quite literally sends shivers up and down the spine.

So, over the course of the last eight years, we have seen more money go to the wealthiest people in this country and the gains that many poor communities made in the 90s are forever gone. And, according to the report, have no hope of coming back. Here is a key quote.

Such increases in concentrations of poor people in specific neighborhoods create a kind of self-perpetuating economic segregation.That's because low-income neighborhoods generally have lower-performing schools, less access to good jobs, poorer health outcomes, higher crime rates, and less economic investment.

The last three words are key: less economic investment. The people that own most of the wealth in this country...the ones that really run the show....the top 1 percent....the ones that have been President Bush's biggest supporters.....knew that in order to maintain their stranglehold on the direction of this country all they had to do was get the almost as rich to stop investing in these neighborhoods. And that's exactly what has happened.

What I find to be completely hilarious about all of this is that when you here certain people talk about poverty, their child like solution usually is something along these lines:

Buck up and pull yourself up by your boot straps!

To quote Hawkeye Pierce, I think these cretins should pull themselves up by their own jock strap.

If we really want to get these poor communities back in shape again, what we really need to do is: a) Elect a president that is not a pimp for power whores and b) Expand on an old proverb. Remember the one that goes "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day...teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." I say teach a village to fish and you create an economy. Throwing more money at these communities will help somewhat but what is really needed is an investment of time from successful business leaders around the country to educate folks in these poorer communities. People in this country need to learn how to run a community from an economic standpoint. It has to be the combination of money and time, not just money. From this investment of time comes a framework or a structure that can help solidify the economies of these communities for decades.

Now which presidential candidate has more experience building up communities?

Hmm..let me think about that one for a....millisecond.

Can John McCain Read?

The Q and A last Saturday night at Rick Warren's church brought a moment which I think very much defines John McCain. When asked about evil in the world, he pounded his fist on the table, said that Al Qaeda has made their decision to make Iraq the center of the war on terror and that, as president, he would stay there until the troops came home in victory.

This would be a fine example of why he should not be president. All of our national intelligence estimates point to Pakistan and Afghanistan as the epicenter of Al Qaeda and those who would use terror as a weapon. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor details this quite clearly. So why doesn't John McCain get it?

In fact, this is the area of the world that has always been the problem and our current president has largely ignored what has to be done over there, both militarily and diplomatically. I guess McCain just can't operate outside of a certain parameter, in this case the Iraq one, which is about a one centimeter box. I'm not sure he is capable of forward thinking when it comes to Al Qaeda and Barack Obama needs to take advantage of this.

Take a look at the first sentence in Obama's plan to fight the war we need to win.

The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No shit. This plan is the main reason why I am voting for him. McCain's only advantage over Obama is on defense and he is being terribly backwards in his philosophy. His position just doesn't make sense. If someone can explain it to me, I'm all ears.

The Biggest Supporters

Next time you have a conversation with your average conservative, ask them how they feel about affirmative action. Between their not-so-genuine insistence that they are not racist and their spittle from screaming at the top of their lungs about how unfair everything is right now with employment standards (i.e. I'm white and I'm all a feared of these different colored folks), try to insist that they tell you EXACTLY what they find to be faulty with current laws regarding equality in the workplace.

The most common answer they will give you is that businesses should be able to hire the most qualified person regardless of sex, race, color or creed. It's too bad that they don't stand by their words. I offer the picture below as an example.

Shouldn't a man who is supposed to be patriotic know the proper way to hold our flag?

Most conservatives don't actually want someone who is qualified for the job of presidency. This explains why many of them despise John McCain, a man who I generally disagree with on most issues, think his only direction for the path of this country is backwards and is more or less full of crap. He is, however, qualified for the job. And we can't have that, can we?

In looking at President Bush, take just a moment and think....what is the one thing that a president must do on a daily basis? The one thing he should be impressive at?

Take a moment....

Take a moment....

It's public speaking and putting an impressive image out to the world. He is a miserable failure at both. The photo above clearly demonstrates how poor he is at the latter and one need only do a simple YouTube search to see how poor he is at public speaking. I recall a conversation I had a few years ago during the 2004 election in which a person I was playing tennis with told me he was voting for President Bush because, y'know, he was in the military and that's what military people do. He went on to say, "But keep him away from a microphone. That man is a horrible public speaker!" Setting aside the fact that the Republican Party has been the worst thing to happen to the US military, umm......isn't public speaking one of the top qualifications for the FUCKING JOB OF PRESIDENT!!!!!

Sheesh...

If he were at a job interview, a conservative would look at his resume and laugh. Hmm...let's see...ran oil company into the ground...ran Texas Rangers into the ground....ran Texas into the ground....and you want to be our CEO....how exactly are you going to do that? Buh Bye.

Here's the deal, folks. Conservatives like to talk a good game about affirmative action but at the end of they day, THEY vote on their feelings and beliefs, not who is better for the job. They want someone who thinks like them, looks like them, and someone they can have over for a barbecue. Conservatives are the biggest supporters of affirmative action. And, if that person does not share their EXACT beliefs and is clearly more intelligent than them? Well, then they are elitist. They are arrogant.

They are......Barack Obama.

Wake Up, Shit Asses

Last Thursday, I went to the club where I work out. I forgot to bring a bottle of water so I went into the cafe they have there now which basically looks like a Starbuck's. As I waited in line, behind someone who was getting a half caf double decaf half caf with a lemon twist (aka a painfully long process to go through just to get a fucking cup of coffee), I looked around the counter. Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...was geared around one simple word.

Energy.

Drinks, food, pockets of powder, and a wide variety of other consumables were all guaranteeing a an increase in energy to help you in your life....which, according to many of the products, all of us are lacking. I realize that designer coffee has been a trend for awhile but the "boost" business has really gotten out of hand. Are people in this country in that dire need of a jolt?

I haven't even had a drink of caffeine since 1998. I am a pretty hyper and anxious person so I really need the opposite which is usually cured by red wine. So, I guess what I am trying to figure out is this: is the population of this country so asleep that they HAVE to have this crap in order to wake up? Why? What the fuck is the matter with everyone?