It is really truly amazing to watch the Obama campaign. It is the best case I have ever seen of “listen to my message, not my actions”. We are going towards a Socialist United States and the people are not getting it. In his Reaganesque way, Senator Obama has fooled the nation into thinking he is some kind of savior, ignoring his message, and choosing to support an agenda that is not only unattainable, but extremely dangerous. I have heard lots of things in the media over the past few weeks, so I want to say my peace:
Well, I obviously think this guy is dangerous. If he is elected I might have to remove this post. If Joe the Plumber was any indication, we will loose a lot of our freedoms in favor of “the greater good”. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. It’s called Communism. And Communism is based on Socialism.
Whatever you do, don’t give our country away. Vote for ABO (Anyone by Obama).
A mother asked this President… ‘Why did my son have to die in Iraq ?’
A mother asked this President.. ‘Why did my son have to die in Saudi Arabia ?’
A mother asked this President… ‘Why did my son have to die in Kuwait ?’
Another mother asked this President… ‘Why did my son have to die in Vietnam ?’
Another mother asked this President… ‘Why did my son have to die in Korea ?’
Another mother asked this President… ‘Why did my son have to die on Iwo Jima ?’
Another mother asked President… ‘Why did my son have to die on a battlefield in France ?’
Yet another mother asked President… ‘Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg ?’
And yet another mother asked President… ‘Why did my son have to die on a frozen field near Valley Forge ?’
Then long, long ago, a mother asked..
‘Heavenly Father . why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem ?’
The answer is always the same… ‘So that others may live and dwell in peace, happiness, and freedom.’
This was emailed to me with no author. I thought the magnitude and the simplicity were awesome.
If you are not willing to stand BEHIND our troops,
Please, please feel free to stand in front of them….
Today is the big test in our economy and the world’s economic resilience. Will the market crater today due to the large number of bad news items globally, or will it survive the turbulance?
It turns out that the credit markets will not be immediately affected by the $700 billion commitment that the government made on Friday. The Asian and European markets lost about 2.5% of value, which is about $1 trillion for us in the US if that was to happen. The German market lost 5% of value and the Russian market was SUSPENDED after loosing over 15%. The Russian market is unstable given that the cost per barrel of oil has cratered during this crisis, and the rocket behind the collosal growth in the Russian economy has dropped 25% of its value in the last three weeks.
BUT, our markets tend to be a bit more unpredictable and positive. In what has otherwise been a strong economy, the mortgage/credit/meltdown has taken its toll. The question is, now that everything is in the open, will our most visible economic barometer (the market) survive the direct hit, or will a serious economic downturn, complete with lots of lost jobs and lost value come to the forefront?
I’m betting that if the market drops greater than 3% today that we will be in a serious downturn that will last a minimum of 3 quarters to come out of. During that time, unemployment will go up at least 1.5% points up (which is huge), and the market will loose another 15% thru time. If it does not, I’m betting that the major negative growth in the economy will be mostly kept to this quarter (with a strong possibility of not even registering a recession). I think it would signal to me that Wall Street does indeed see an end to the crisis thru the bailout package and the coming reforms.
Of course, I’m not an economist, nor do I play one on TV. I’m just an observer of these cycles, and I’m hoping that the hit is not as severe and we can go back to working our buts off until June every year to pay our taxes…
I had a friend ask me yesterday why the Democrats were working so hard for the Bush-led bailout. Frankly, my younger friend has not really been involved politically until this very weird election. She supports McCain-Palin, but did not understand how President Bush, who is seen as extremely unpopular, could force a Democrat led Congress to work so hard to pass his bill.
Well, that is a very good question. The in-front answer is that he used his significant political capital to make it happen as well as recruiting leaders from both parties to make it happen. Yes, he absolutely did that, but I think there was a bit more to it than that.
The fact is, this problem started during the Clinton administration when Clinton ordered the GSE (Government sponsored entities like Fannie Mae) to open up credit to increase the home ownership opportunties for minorities and the poor. That was in 1998. Then Fannie Mae got really corrupted and ended up creating this mess. Well, that corruption was very closely aligned with the Democrats. To further the damage, 3 years ago, McCain and other Reps called for stronger oversight over the GSEs and warned of an economic meltdown. The Dems opposed it.
I think the reason the Dems worked so hard on this is to show the American people that they were willling to fix their screw up in case the true story of the meltdown comes to life.
As unsettling as it is, that is the truth. No wonder congress has an approval rating of 11%.
As hated by the left and disregarded by the right as he is, our fearless leader was able to ramrod a sweeping bill thru congress in less than two weeks. That’s guts. That’s power. That’s spending political capital.
Polls, which I think are led, show him with an approval rating of around 35%, yet at least in my ‘hood, he is still very much liked, respected, and loved.
I think Mr. Bush’s legacy is going to show that he had a Presidency that had the challanges only equaled by that of FDR, and that he was able to guide the nation thru that very difficult period with leadership and conviction. I think that history will show him as a strong President, like it did Mr. Reagan.
Mr. Reagan was attacked almost as constantly as Mr. Bush. He was called an idiot and a moron, and was generally disregarded by the media. Remember that Phil Collins video? Well, history now shows that he was a great President. Mr. Bush is going to be shown by history to have been a great president.
Those silly Dumbocrats think that they can fool all of the people all of the time. They introduced Joe Biden as a regular guy from Scrampton, PA who lives like the rest of us. NOT SO. Here is a great article on Mr. Biden from the NY Times (Surprise, Surprise):
An Everyman On The Trail, With Perks At Home
From The New York Times
By Mike McIntire and Serge F. Kovaleski
October 2, 2008
[M]r. Biden certainly can trace his roots to the working-class neighborhoods of Scranton, Pa., and Claymont, Del., where he was raised. But these days, his kitchen table can be found in a 6,800-square-foot custom-built colonial-style house on four lakefront acres, a property worth close to $3 million.
Although he is among the least wealthy members of the millionaires club that is the United States Senate — he and his wife, Jill, a college professor, earn about $250,000 a year — Mr. Biden maintains a lifestyle that is more comfortable than the impression he may have given on the campaign trail. A review of his finances found that when it comes to some of his largest expenses, like the purchase and upkeep of his home and his use of Amtrak trains to get around, he has benefited from resources and relationships not available to average Americans.
As a secure incumbent who has rarely faced serious competition during 35 years in the Senate, Mr. Biden has been able to dip into his campaign treasury to spend thousands of dollars on home landscaping and some of his Amtrak travel between Wilmington, Del., where he lives, and Washington. And the acquisition of his waterfront property a decade ago involved wealthy businessmen and campaign supporters, some of them bankers with an interest in legislation before the Senate, who bought his old house for top dollar, sold him four acres at cost and lent him $500,000 to build his new home. …
“He was a V.I.P., so he was treated accordingly by the bank,” said Ronald Tennant, a former loan officer who handled the mortgages Mr. Biden used to build his house. The bank did not give him a below-market interest rate, a perk that has caused embarrassment for some other members of Congress. But, Mr. Tennant said, “We paid particularly close attention to make sure everything came out right.” …
Beyond landscaping costs, one of the Biden campaign’s largest regular expenditures is for Amtrak tickets for the senator and his aides or consultants. Going back to 2001, those expenses typically ranged from $9,000 to $15,000 a year — far exceeding that of his colleagues in Delaware’s Congressional delegation, whose campaigns spent between $500 and $3,000, federal election records show. Like Mr. Biden, Delaware’s other senator, Thomas R. Carper, and Representative Michael N. Castle commute daily to Washington, their offices said. …
But Mr. Biden’s aides acknowledged he sometimes uses campaign money to pay for trips if they “involved a meeting or event related to his campaign.” They could not explain why his campaign’s Amtrak expenditures are relatively high, other than to point out that they would include travel by his staff and consultants, as do those of other politicians.
The Biden campaign’s Amtrak expenses have remained high even in years without elections, when he was not actively campaigning and his committee retained a handful of part-time staff members and almost no consultants. In 2003, for instance — after he had just easily won re-election to another six-year term — his committee spent $10,874 on Amtrak tickets; that same year, the campaigns of Senator Carper and Representative Castle spent $1,257 and $589, respectively. …
Mr. Biden previously lived for 21 years in a 10,000-square-foot former DuPont mansion in Greenville, which he bought in 1975 for $185,000 after learning it was slated for demolition.
To View The Entire Article, Please Visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/us/politics/02finances.html