Short Retort

When I first heard about the hoopla surrounding Sarah Palin’s $150,000 wardrobe I started to hear voices in my mind. Who was I hearing? First I heard the voice of Ricky Ricardo yelling “Lucy” then Dick van Dyke saying “Oh Laura” followed by Tim the tool man berating his wife and even Homer yelling at Marge. Since the start of time men believe that their wives are always buying expensive outfits that the hardworking husbands couldn’t afford. Oh those silly little ladies!

The Question

It is one week before the election and I want to scream in frustration because a Democrat friend, after discussing the latest about Obama, then asked me “Why didn’t we learn about this earlier?”

What provoked The Question was a conversation about the latest news. My friend was unaware that in addition to Obama’s “spread the wealth” response to Joe the Plumber, there is now a newly discovered tape on this subject from 2001. In this interview, Obama not only talks about redistributing the wealth, he says it was a “tragedy” that the civil unrest of the 60’s didn’t address this issue. Based on this it is hard not to wonder if Obama is a socialist.

We weren’t the only ones with questions and I filled my friend in on the latest news about this. He knew about Barbara West, a local anchorwoman, who in an interview with Biden dared to ask if Obama was a Marxist. But my friend hadn’t heard that Biden also didn’t answer a local station in Philly where he was later interviewed and asked a similar question.

Based on this information, we discussed how Obama’s actions are becoming more and more disconcerting. First Obama supporters tried to thoroughly discredit and trash Joe the Plumber. It was bad enough when they went after Palin, but at least she is a public figure. But Joe was a citizen who simply asked a question. Yet his life may never be the same after the horrible treatment by the press and Obama supporters. As for the two TV stations which dared to openly question if Obama is a socialist? Both stations have been banned from further contact with Obama until at least the election.

The fact that Obama has expressed his true socialistic ideology in the past combined with the silencing the journalists who dared to question Obama or Biden about this caused my Democrat friend to ask The Question. “Why didn’t we know about this earlier?”

Of course it was hard not to be angry and frustrated by The Question. I couldn’t help but get a little heated when I answered him by saying “We didn’t know this earlier because no one was looking! The media has been so enamored of Obama that they never investigated him. Why did the NY Times dig through Facebook to locate friends of the McCain’s daughter in order to find dirt on Cindy McCain when she was addicted to prescription drugs years ago? And yet no one has dared to interview any of Obama’s high school or college friends to ask about Obama doing coke as a teenager.” My friend simply replied “Valid point,” For what else is there to say?

History has shown that almost every government take over begins with silencing the media. Up until recently, this wasn’t a problem because the media never asked any tough questions. In fact it was the mainstream media who attacked anyone who didn’t like Obama. But now the true side of Obama is showing. And it is very scary. And yet how many TV stations, radio channels or newspapers will Obama ban before journalists finally wake up? And when they do, will it be too late?

The Astonishing Biden Interview

Have you thought that it is too late for anyone in the media to ask some tough questions? Or that no one would ever confront the Obama campaign about Obama’s true beliefs? Well, guess what. It actually happened. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the person with the “balls” to do this is actually a woman but what did surprise me was to find out that she was from a TV station in my own hometown!

Barbara West, a long time anchorwoman with WFTV in Orlando, had the opportunity to interview Joe Biden last week. She only asked Senator Biden a few questions but oh what questions they were! I will include the link to the interview at the bottom but sometimes there is a greater impact to words when you see them written in black and white. Here were the questions asked to Joe Biden:

“..Aren’t you embarrassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barrack Obama has been tied to in the past?”

“..Senator Obama now famously told Joe the Plumber he wanted to spread his wealth around. A Gallup poll showed 84% of Americans preferred government focus on improving economic conditions and creating more jobs in the US as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth. Isn’t Senator Obama’s comment a potentially crushing political blunder?”

“You may recognize this famous quote ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”

Wow. The first question wasn’t too bad although Ms. West followed it up with a tougher question on Obama’s affiliation with ACORN. The second question was shocking as no one has ever accused Obama of any mistakes much less a “potentially crushing blunder”. When you watch the interview, keep an eye on Biden’s face during this question. Biden smiles broadly at the mention of Joe the Plumber but as Ms. West continues with her question his smile slowly deflates until it is a near grimace by the time she gets to “blunder”. In fact I don’t think he really smiles again for the rest of the interview.

It is the last question, though, which is priceless. I almost wonder if this is a question from a viewer as it is more like the questions real people are asking each other and not questions a journalist would ask. Biden’s reaction is funny for he keeps asking if this question is a joke. No joke, Joe. Wake up and realize that in the real world this is what people are wondering about your leader.

As for Obama’s reaction to this interview? Simple. He is now banning this TV station from his campaign for the foreseeable future. And that may have been his biggest mistake. If he had ignored it and treated it as a small town problem not worthy of his attention it might have blown over. Instead, he has given it greater importance and credence by blackballing the station. Then again, the fact that somebody actually asked these questions is just too good, too juicy to be ignored. Now go see it for yourself and enjoy …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbCf4l1dtDc&feature=related.

ACORN CREEPs Into The News

I had a flashback this morning as I listened to more news regarding ACORN and their potentially illegal practices in voter registration. There are now reports of counties with more registered voters than population, plus tapes of this non profit organization’s obvious, yet illegal, support of a political candidate (Obama). Out of nowhere CREEP popped into my mind. Now that is a blast from the past.

For anyone under 50, CREEP was the Committee to ReElect the President and in this case the President was Nixon. Everyone is familiar with Watergate, the hotel where the burglaries took place, but few remember that it was at the direction of CREEP. So why does ACORN remind me of CREEP, other than the fact they both have memorable acronyms?

Richard Nixon would have clearly won his second term without the machinations of McCord, Dean, Mitchell etc. breaking into and wiretapping the offices of the Democrat Party. Assuming Obama wins in two weeks, I would think he still would have won even without ACORN’s help. Yes, it might be a lot closer race without the millions of voters registered legally and illegally by ACORN but he probably might still be the next president.

Yet thanks to the illegalities of ACORN all the votes cast for Obama in areas in which ACORN was active will be questionable. Additionally, the millions raised by ACORN will now be thoroughly investigated to see if any money was diverted to Obama’s campaign. Even the NY Times, which had previously refused to write about ACORN, is now investigating this organization because of the growing accusations.

Just as in the case with CREEP, I think the overriding problem is hubris combined with stupidity. For how arrogant and dumb can you be for an ACORN executive to give a speech at an ACORN event in which they openly and forcefully support Obama while they were being taped? Did they not know it was illegal for a non profit organization to support a candidate? Or did they think that no one would dare to take them to task because Obama is the chosen one who must be elected? Additionally can’t anyone count in this organization? It is one thing to knowingly register false names but to end up with more supposedly registered voters than there is a voting population is absurd. (Yes a few areas might be attributable to college campuses but this doesn’t explain all of them.)

Whatever the reasons, ACORN is now beginning to tarnish Obama’s campaign. Unfortunately, by now ACORN and Obama are clearly tied together in the public’s mind such that any illegalities by ACORN will reflect on to Obama. Even if Obama wins, I believe that the investigations into ACORN will continue. Unlike CREEP which eventually brought down Nixon’s presidency I sincerely doubt if ACORN’s activities could do the same to Obama. An obvious difference is that Obama will have a sympathetic Congress and media who will do all that they can to shield Obama from any criminal activities by ACORN.

I have no idea how all of this will play out. It is also important to remember that it wasn’t CREEP’s activities as much as it was the cover up afterwards that caused Nixon’s downfall. It will be interesting to watch how both ACORN and Obama react to these newest charges.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS – I wanted to add a short follow up to my blog about the first day of early voting in Florida. I had said that two of my friends had given up due to the long lines but that I expected they would try again. They did. Yesterday, on the second day of early voting, my friend returned to the downtown Orlando polling place where once again the parking lot was full and there was a long line. This time she was prepared for this and thinking that it might never get much better she spent the 90 minutes needed to park, stand in line and then vote. My second friend, who lived in an upper income suburb, also returned to his polling spot. This time there were plenty of parking spaces and no lines, and he was in and out in about 5 minutes. Considering the demographic trend of downtown urban voters vs. suburban upper income voters, this does not bode well for McCain….

Turning Out the Vote in Florida

Senator Obama held a rally in Orlando yesterday to coincide with the first day of early voting in Florida. Although there were 50,000 people at the rally, Obama’s supporters were also out at the voting booths, too. Mid afternoon I received an email from a friend who lives in Orlando and had decided to vote early. She assumed that mid day, when people are at work, would be a good time to vote as there wouldn’t be any lines or waiting. Wrong. She couldn’t even find a parking space in the large strip parking lot. There was also a long line snaking out of the front door, down a block and around the corner. She drove up to those near the back of the line and asked how long the wait was. To her amazement they said an hour and a half at which point she went back home.

A few hours later I was on the phone with another friend who was driving to his home in an affluent suburban area north of Orlando. He, too, planned to stop off and vote that afternoon. Just as I was relaying what happened to my other friend he interrupted me. Turns out, that even in this higher income suburb, people were out early to vote. The library parking lot was full, people were parking all over the place and there was even a policeman helping direct all the traffic. Needless to say, this friend also gave up on voting yesterday.

In her email, my first friend observed that in the downtown voting area the long line was made up of primarily African Americans and Hispanics. I can only imagine that for them, voting for the first African American for President must be a joyous and exciting occasion. Actually I can’t really imagine how it must feel. To know that you or your father or grandfather had been subjected to degrading and sometimes violent racism and now you are voting to elect a black man as the next president. Wow. Whites were always told that anything is possible in America. Blacks are now finding out that the same is really true for them, too.

If I were black I would vote for Obama, even if I didn’t completely agree with his politics. Why? Because I would want my children to know that they can grow up to be President if they wanted to. I believe that the second or third time that an African American is up for election everyone will be more inclined to vote based on politics. But this first time? Blacks relate to him as family, as a man who will understand what it is like to be black in America and will speak for them. (Ironically, in the Middle East and then Hawaii, Obama rarely faced the racial problems found elsewhere in America but that doesn’t seem to matter.) In spite of what Colin Powell or anyone else says this presidential race is about race and yet I don’t think it is necessarily racist. I think it is more akin to voting for your favorite Uncle even if you didn’t completely agree with his politics. But he is family, someone more like you than any other past president so yes, you would vote for him and then believe he will help you out in return.

One can assume with nearly 100% accuracy that a black man standing in line to vote will cast his vote for Obama. Then there is the white guy standing in line amidst a sea of black faces. No wonder there have been altercations regarding wearing clothing with political slogans and names when going to vote. In many states it is illegal to campaign near a voting booth therefore wearing a t-shirt that says Obama may not be allowed. However, I don’t blame the wearer of such clothing, especially if it is a white person. If, in a line full of exuberant African Americans, I was one of the few whites then I, too, would want to wear my Obama t-shirt to proudly show I was with them. On the other hand if I were planning to vote for McCain I would probably feel somewhat intimidated, especially if I were elderly as many of McCain’s supporters are.

I worry that many Republicans will turn around and go home when faced with long lines just as my friends did. However, I am sure both of my friends will try again until they do vote (although ironically they will cancel each other out). But I wonder how many other people will become discouraged by these long lines even during this early voting period? I also imagine that there are a lot of Republicans who aren’t all that fond of McCain to begin with, who are put off by the long lines, who perhaps even feel a bit intimidated by them and who believe the polls that Obama was going to win anyway. How many of these Republicans will eventually give up and go home?

The only hope McCain has is if he has the kind of grass roots support that Obama has. For he will need supporters who will encourage and help his voters go and stay in lines, perhaps for more than an hour, in order to cast their votes for him otherwise it could be a landslide victory for Obama.

And yet, I almost worry more about the process then the results. Already there are all these problems about invalid voters, fraudulent practices and lawsuits. I truly hope that the combination of McCain supporters, Obama supporters, ACORN workers, “independent” observers and of course the media looking for a story doesn’t turn our election process into a sham and our voting precincts into battlefields.

Islamic Harmony vs. Freedoms

On September 27th the home of Martin Rynja, which is also the headquarters for Gibson Square’s publishing house, was firebombed. It didn’t make the major headlines and yet it should have for this was a terrorist attack against a company who stood up to Islamic threats. This weekend I received an email berating me for an article I had written about a radical Islamic group. Although a bit creepy, the email was not threatening and yet I mention it because the two incidents are somewhat related.

In August I wrote an article berating Random House: http://pcfugitive.blogspot.com/2008/08/islamic-blackmail-wins-again.html for submitting to Islamic blackmail. If you recall, this blog was about a new book by Sherry Jones on a wife of Mohammad called “The Jewel of Medina”. Random House was to publish it until they were told that it might be offensive to Muslims and could cause violence. I thought Random House was wrong to then back down and give in to this blackmail. I feel that we always need to stand up for our freedoms no matter the threats.

However, I was wrong when I wrote that Random House would not let any other company publish this book. They did sell the publishing rights to Gibson Square Publishers who was willing to publish “The Jewel of Medina” even knowing about the threats. But these threats were not idle for, as previously mentioned, their headquarters were bombed the end of September. Luckily it was only a small bomb which was inserted in the mail slot and no one was injured. In fact, according to the NY Times “The police were already on the scene as the result of what they described as “a preplanned intelligence-led operation,”. The London police have already arrested three men so that’s one for the good guys!

Did this terrorist attack stop the publisher, Mr. Rynja, from publishing this book? No. Although he is taking precautions and is currently in hiding he actually sped up the printing process. Instead of the October 30th date they sent the books to the US for an October 15th publishing date. I am so pleased that the book is actually published as I had been very upset with Random House when they backed down to the threat of possible violence. It just felt so wrong to me. I believed that the radical Islam’s had won and it only takes a few decisions like this for us to slowly begin to lose our freedoms. We need to stand up against bullies of all shapes and sizes and preserve our freedoms no matter the costs. Gibson Square Publishing needs to be applauded for their actions.

In the beginning of this blog I also mentioned an email I received on Saturday. After I wrote my blog about Random House I followed it with an article (http://pcfugitive.blogspot.com/2008/08/messenger-of-allah.html) on a radical Islamic group called Messenger of Allah Unites who wanted to “criminalize any act deemed to be insulting to Islam” In addition to the passing of their UN resolution denouncing defamation of religions, the scariest part is that they want to subpoena and try anyone accused of blasphemy or inciting hatred against their religion.

I was appalled to think that this Jordan based group could reach out to anyone anywhere that they thought were anti Muslims or whom they simply disliked. Ironically it turns out I am one of those people. The email I received on Saturday was to tell me that someone had left a comment on this old article. The comment was:

“The most intelligent thing to do is to recognize that Prophet Mohammad is too important for Muslims and should not be degraded in the guise of ‘freedom of
speech’. You do this for anti-semetic propaganda. So, why not anti-Mohammad.”

Remember, Muslims usually don't have an issue with a scholarly criticism of Mohammad or even a non-scholarly criticism of Islam and Muslims. But, Prophet Mohammad is dear to every Muslim no matter how religious or non-religious he/she might be. And, the day people like you recognize it, you'll actually start promoting harmony instead of hatred in this world.”

In a way I sympathize with him. It isn’t easy to see a beloved and revered religious figure degraded. For decades, Christians have had to deal with blasphemous books or pictures of Jesus, Mary and other Christian symbols. It is disturbing and yet that is the price you have to pay to ensure our freedoms. And yes, it is hypocritical to be told that flying the Confederate flag or using the N word or speaking against gays is considered “hate speech” but attacks on any religion is allowed. This isn’t right but in today’s world of political correctness where some are more equal than others I doubt if it can be changed.

As for my article, I never denigrated the Muslim religion at all, I was only criticizing those who wanted to prosecute and censure anyone they deemed was anti Muslim. The commenter mentioned promoting harmony and yet the only way to obtain perfect harmony is to silence anyone who disagrees with you. This means threatening book publishers and even commenting on an obscure article written months ago by an amateur blogger. But we can’t let them silence us. For we believe in a free world with freedom of religion as well as freedom of speech. And with these freedoms come discord and the right to disagree as we all will have our own opinions. It may not be perfect but I’ll take our messy freedoms over perfect harmony any day.

Time Out for Laughs

By now you have probably heard bits and pieces from the Al Smith Dinner where both McCain and Obama spoke. In at least this comparison, McCain was clearly the winner. He was funny while also being nice whereas Obama wasn't nearly as comfortable delivering a humorous speech and at times his was sounding pompous again.

If only more people could see this side of John McCain - funny, warm, personable. To see both speeches click on the following link. This will bring up a page where on the right is a video and above it are small pictures. Click on the second small picture for McCain's speech and the third one for Obama's speech. It is well worth the time because in this tense campaign, we all could use a laugh. Enjoy... http://wcbstv.com/campaign08/al.smith.dinner.2.842562.html

This really is more sad than funny but I've been meaning to tell you about this story. I was flabbergasted by what I heard a news anchor say earlier this week. The story was bad enough but it was made worse by the fact that she reported it with a straight face as if it truly was a newsworthy item. What did she say? Well, would you believe that she said that due to the credit crunch lenders are tightening up on their loans and are now only lending money to people who can pay them back. Hold the presses! What astounding news - lenders will now only make loans to folks who can pay them back. Wow.

Back to the candidates, turns out McCain's running mate will also be debuting her funny side tomorrow night on Saturday Night Live. It might be worth setting your TeeVo to see Sarah Palin next to Tina Fey. This could either be very hilarious or very embarrassing....

Conspiracy Theory

I don’t believe in conspiracies. I think Kennedy was killed by just one man, Elvis is truly dead and the idea of little men from outer space is nothing but man’s wish that we aren’t alone. And yet…..

I can’t help but wonder if the economic crisis suddenly becomes resolved if Obama is elected next month. The housing crisis is real but the rest of it is fueled by emotions and fear. Could this mood of impending doom have been created by people who want Obama in office? How is it that all of a sudden major companies we are all familiar with are declaring bankruptcy at the same time? Why is it that the Stock Market is swinging out of control and people are losing their life savings? Is it truly coincidental to the upcoming election? Could it possibly be influenced by people who know that Democrats always do better in economic bad times and therefore they are creating this crisis to ensure Obama’s victory?

Maybe I am being paranoid but here are a few more thoughts running through my head. When the gas prices increased, everyone cried out how terrible that is and that it’s entirely the fault of big oil and Republicans. Yet the media has barely noticed that in the past week gas prices have had their biggest decline in years. In addition, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was unchanged with 6.1% in August and September. That doesn’t sound too bad to me and actually is at the same rate as five years ago but nobody was yelling recession back then.

Today everyone is saying we are in a recession and I really do believe that a lot of it is psychological. If you heard every night on the evening news that times were bad it would eventually get to you and affect your behavior. For example, people start to cut back on dinners out which in turn hurts restaurants. When a restaurant then goes bankrupt everyone will then knowingly nod and say “See it is a recession.” Americans are very nervous about their future savings and retirement and are behaving accordingly. But who made everyone this nervous?

By the way, has anybody else noticed that there has been no coverage of Iraq at all recently? I also don’t think anybody has mentioned “terror” or “terrorist” except McCain’s campaign because you sure don’t hear it on the news lately. This is somewhat the media’s fault for not covering it but perhaps the terrorists are holding off on attacks because they want us to elect Obama.

Am I going a bit overboard in seeing conspiracies where none exist? Or am I just saying what a lot of people are thinking – that maybe, just maybe this financial crisis was caused to help elect Obama. Not to forget the idea that the Islamic radicals are waiting until Obama is in power before attacking again. And if his “supporters” around the world can do all of this then what else could they do if he gets in power as the President?

Short Retort

In a column by Arianna Huffington on the Huffington Post discussing potential "October surprises" by McCain she wrote the following sentence. Obviously Huffington included this quote to show how awful conservatives are. I think this is too good of a line and it shouldn't be buried in a blog that no right minded conservative would normally read. I think you'll agree after you read this line about McCain's current strategy:

"The latest attempt came from the chair of Virginia's Republican Party, who said Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden "both have friends that have bombed the Pentagon" -- a comment McCain refused to disavow, although his campaign already had.)"

Short Retort

What happens when a small group of Republicans dare to have a parade for John McCain in downtown Manhattan? Do you suppose that as fellow Americans they are treated with kindness, warmth and given an inclusive welcome by the New Yorkers? Yeah right.... To see what really happened watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stI

Newsworthy

I was surprised by what I saw on Friday night as I surfed the major network’s evening news and then glanced at CNN. Here are some highlights of what I heard:
· NBC – Brian Williams actually had a piece that was positive towards big business. He and a couple of MSNBC hosts discussed the economy saying “if there is no government figure with towering amounts of credibility on this…” then added that big business CEOs should step forward to help out. Imagine that. First, did they just imply that Obama doesn’t have a lot of credibility? Secondly instead of saying the economy is the fault of big businesses (i.e. Republicans) they are actually looking for a corporate CEO to save the day!

· CBS – I was very surprised to see a segment on ACORN. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/10/cbsnews_investigates/main4514429.shtml?source=search_story) They first interviewed a voter registration official who showed the top of his desk overflowing with false forms. He blamed ACORN employees for massive cheating which was encouraged by ACORN management. They followed this with a woman who is the chief organizer for ACORN. She said of the recent raid in Las Vegas “It was purely politically motivated.” She also denied that they had quotas which would force employees to sign up so many people every day. However, CBS said they interviewed dozens of employees who disagreed with her and CBS went back to the registrar who again said falsifying forms is a major problem. No surprise that the ACORN employee was an African American but to my amazement the voter registration Registrar was also black! And they ended this piece by saying this could cause questions and problems in key states in this election.

· ABC – I didn’t see much change in this network’s tone or point of view. But when interviewing supporters of the two presidential candidates, McCain’s supporters discussed his policies and plans to help the economy while Obamas’ supporters admitted they were voting for Obama but didn’t know anything about his policies. I am not use to that kind of editing which made the supporters for Obama look bad.

· Larry King – I didn’t watch him but I did see that King also did a segment Friday night on ACORN. The right wing fear that this story would be buried turns out to be misguided as the main stream media (MSM) is finally investigating ACORN.

The polls show Obama with a 7-11 point lead so it will be difficult for McCain to catch up. Yet I believe there is a slight shift in the support for Obama. I doubt if anyone from the media would actually turn against him but I think the magnitude of the economic quake that rattled the world this past week is having an unintended reaction. I could be completely wrong but here is my take on what might be happening.

I think many Liberals truly believe that they want to help the poor and disadvantaged, and protect them from big business. Not only does Obama support these causes near and dear to liberals but simply voting for a black man is a symbol of their progressive ideals. So when the Stock Market first started its downward trend, liberals were quick to blame Bush, Republicans and big business and Obama skyrocketed in the polls. Then to fix the economy they did what they always do – have government throw a lot of money at the problem. But the Stock Market continued to fall and fall and fall into unimaginable levels.

Major corporations found their stocks cut drastically, some to levels not seen in over 50 years. Democrats always viewed the corporate world as the home of Republicans and the stereotypical white, wealthy businessman. They demonized companies to the point where it was an “us vs. them” mentality. The left saw themselves as the benefactor helping the poor and less fortunate “us” against the mean Republicans and big businesses.

This week we watched corporations crumble and names you thought would always be there are now disappearing. It was one thing to mock corporations or even make sarcastic docudramas about them but to have these companies disappear completely? Sure the liberals have continuously hampered corporations with taxes and minimum wages, OSHA laws and Sarbane-Oxley legislature, yet they still expected the corporations to continue functioning. As in the past, big business was supposed to take whatever the liberals did to them and somehow keep producing their goods. They are not supposed to stop no matter what was done to them. Besides, how can you champion the downtrodden “us” if there is no longer a “them” out there anymore?

Plus, liberals are now being personally affected by what is happening with businesses on Wall Street. They, too, are watching their portfolios and 401k’s take a nose dove and are also trying to reassure elderly parents who are no longer as comfortably fixed as they were just a week ago. Suddenly these wealthy liberals are becoming fearful about their future as it is their wealth which is affected when these major corporations finally buckle under the weight placed on them by the liberal laws.

On top of all this is the specter of socialism. Since the Great Depression this country has slipped more and more into socialism. Yet this movement to the left has always been cloaked as policies to help the poor and disenfranchised or even simply buried under other laws. Now, though, we are blatantly discussing government taking over businesses and even talk openly of redistribution of wealth. A line has been reached and I think people are having second thoughts. Some liberals are realizing that it is our democracy that is at stake and are beginning to move back slightly from crossing that line.

In this new economically challenged world many liberals are now taking another look at the two candidates. I think that they are beginning to question the wisdom of electing a first term 47 year old Senator with little to no experience. These journalists and other liberals might be asking themselves if they can trust America to this young man and more importantly, wondering if they can also entrust their own personal future to an inexperienced politician surrounded by radical advisors. Speaking of radicals, in the past anyone who brought up Obama’s associations with various radical groups and people were either ignored or mocked. Today, though, the main stream media is beginning to take a closer look at these relationships, starting with ACORN.

It is all probably too little too late for McCain. And there are still the far left supporters such as Chris Matthews who will never change. Yet start to watch the news for not only what is being said, but also how it is presented and of course what isn’t being said. Maybe some in the networks are belatedly trying to be fairer but I wonder if perhaps some are beginning to fear turning our damaged country over to someone so young with such little experience and yet with such questionable taste in wives, friends and pastors…

It’s not easy being pink

Red state, blue state, pink state, that sounds like a Dr. Seuss book and not a description of our presidential race. But as everyone knows, red is now the color of Republicans* and blue is for Democrats. What you may not know is what I learned at Wikipedia; “According to The Washington Post, the terms were coined by Tim Russert during his televised coverage of the 2000 presidential election.[1] This was by no means the first election in which the news media used colored maps to graphically depict voter preferences in the various states, but it was the first time a "standard" color scheme took hold.”

Yet the politicians and pundits are not content to stay with red and blue. I have seen maps using pink, purple, pale blue and even yellow to describe states where its voters are not solid for a candidate. Battleground state is another phrase that is used way too much. With a month left before we vote, you know that the candidates and media will be entirely focused on these states that are seen as being vulnerable and open to changing.

I happen to live in a pink state, one that is leaning towards McCain but Obama may have a chance to win. And not only do I live in a pink state, but some would say that I live in the battleground state – Florida. Yes, the state of hanging chads, voter unrest and supreme court decisions.

So no surprise that Floridians are inundated with campaign ads, phone calls and visits by the candidates. There is still another month until the election and I don’t know if I can take 30 more days of this. It seems as if Obama is on TV at least every hour. I initally was impressed with the ad where Obama sits and explains some of his ideas but now it is simply boring.

If I were McCain, I would be worried about winning Florida. Yes, Palin drew a crowd of 60,000 in Central Florida but I don’t know if these visits can offset the barrage of Obama TV ads. Even as I write this I just noticed there is an new ad on TV for Obama, or at least one I haven’t seen before. But I am sure that over the next few weeks I will become as inured to this ad as I am to his other ones.

Those of you living in a blue or red state should be thankful. All you will have to contend with are the bazillion ads from your local and statewide politicians. The rest of us, however, will also have to endure the ads from McCain and Obama and of course all of the ads from the groups supporting the candidates and their causes. I have already found myself hitting the fast forward button only to realize that unfortunately I was not watching a taped show but the real thing. Maybe I should just Tvo everything during the next month so I can fast forward through all these ads. Hmmmm. Sounds like a plan to me!



* For anyone over 45 it was a bit disconcerting at first to even use the term “red state”. For to us, during the cold war we used the word “red” to describe Communists. In fact, I have first hand knowledge of the fear of “red” Communists. As a red head I had to endure childhood taunts of “I would rather be dead then red in the head.” It will be interesting to see what happens to the term “red” as Putin seems determined to bring us back into another cold war filled with Communist threats. We just might have to come up with something other than “red” as a way of describing Republicans. Personally, I would be happy with the term “winner”.

Financial Crisis Rant II: Obama, ACORN and $700 billion

Congress did it again. They took a 3 page bill and turned it into a 442 page novel. This bill they passed. Will it help the economy, Stock Market and consumers? Nobody really knows but now it contains 439 pages of pork barrel spending. Typical. It was also interesting to watch the Democrat politicians repackage this bill from a "Financial Bailout" for big business to a bill that will help those with houses they really can't afford. So now voters associate a Financial Bailout with Republicans and the $700 billion bill that was passed as being due to Democrats. No surprise then that Obama is now leading in the polls.

It is interesting, however, that Obama, who is so proud of his prior role as a Community Organizer is suddenly mum on the whole topic of affordable housing. Nor has he said anything about his close association with ACORN back in his hay days in the South Side of Chicago. Since Obama isn't talking then we need to inform the rest of the nation of exactly what this man was doing in the past 15 years, starting with Acorn....

ACORN, may sound familiar, as it was one of the reasons the first bailout bill failed. ACORN is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The first bill, which thankfully the House Republicans defeated, contained nearly $5 billion for affordable housing, financial counseling and mortgage restructuring for people and neighborhoods affected by the housing meltdown. A large portion of that would have gone to ACORN.

Gee, what a surprise to also discover that ACORN is co-managing a $15.9 million campaign with the group Project Vote to register 1.2 million low-income Hispanics and African-Americans, who are among those most likely to vote Democratic. Technically nonpartisan, the effort is one of the largest such voter-registration drives on record. (See the following for more details on this: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/dems-have-pushed-acorn-bailout-since-july.)

The New York Post recently had an interesting article on ACORN, Chicago and Barack Obama http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_dangerous_pals_131216.htm?&page=1). In this column, they introduce Madeline Talbott, the director of the Chicago ACORN. It then details her activities in the early 1990's including:

- "...Talbott announced plans to conduct demonstrations in the lobbies of area banks that refused to attend an ACORN-sponsored national bank "summit" in New York. She insisted that banks show a commitment to minority lending by lowering their standards on down payments and underwriting - for example, by overlooking bad credit histories."
- "And Talbott continued her effort to, as she put it, drag banks ‘kicking and screaming' into high-risk loans. ....
- five area financial institutions ....participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories."

The same article then ties in Obama to ACORN. Here are a few key quotes:
- "In those years, he also conducted leadership-training seminars for ACORN's up-and-coming organizers. That is, Obama was training the army of ACORN organizers who participated in Madeline Talbott's drive against Chicago's banks."
- ... Obama was funding them. As he rose to a leadership role at Chicago's Woods Fund, he became the most powerful voice on the foundation's board for supporting ACORN"
- "The Woods Fund report makes it clear Obama was fully aware of the intimidation tactics used by ACORN's Madeline Talbott in her pioneering efforts to force banks to suspend their usual credit standards. Yet he supported Talbott in every conceivable way. He trained her personal staff and other aspiring ACORN leaders, he consulted with her extensively, and he arranged a major boost in foundation funding for her efforts."

This is the man who is now favored to be our next President. His association with ACORN clearly shows his complete lack of knowledge of how to run a business. Obama and ACORN's radical action to force "affirmative action" for business practices, in this case of providing low cost housing to people who cannot afford it, has cost the taxpayer at least $700 billion. It makes me shudder to think what business they might go after next and at what cost. As for the thought of Obama running the country itself, with Pelosi and Biden at his side, all I can do is try to persuade myself that they can't do too much damage in 4 years.

Words, Action, Hope and Joy

The VP debate was similar to the first presidential debate in that there were no big winners or losers. Some might say that Sarah Palin won because she held her own and didn’t make any major mistakes. Nonetheless, if truth be told, the debates so far have been pretty boring. I think it might be a lot more interesting to compare McCain vs. Biden and Palin vs. Obama. These twosomes may never face off in a debate but I think the voters are comparing them in their own minds.

Both Biden and McCain are Senate veterans yet there is a world of difference between the two men. Joe Biden is a man of words while John McCain is a man of action. Biden literally grew up in the Senate and came to maturity as a man while learning how to parse words and write policies. McCain is the former navy jet pilot who quickly assesses a situation then takes action. Sometimes he is accused of moving too fast. Then again the Senate crawls at a snail’s pace while trying to find words that will offend the fewest. To them McCain can seem too quick to judge and even too abrasive at times whereas Biden is sometimes so verbose that he makes outrageous statements.

The two senior Senators match up as a man of action (McCain) vs. a man of words (Biden). The two newcomers, however, are both bringing hope to people. But Obama and Palin offer two widely different views of hope. Obama offers the hope of a beggar who is waiting for someone to give him a handout. Barack talks of understanding the poor and disenfranchised. How people are being downtrodden by the rich and powerful in a fight between classes where the poor are always the losers. In this terrible economy people need to hope that someone will be there for them, protecting them from the rich and providing for them and that savior is Barack Obama. This is a very appealing message which has been effectively used in the past. But it is even more powerful coming from a black man, one of the “oppressed”, never mind his Harvard education, law degree, etc. etc.

Sarah Palin, however, offers the hope of joy. Yes, she will tell you, life is hard and the economy is bad but there is still the joy found in a child’s hockey match or in being a parent. She also offers the hope and joy found in helping yourself. I believe it was on Fox, but one of the stations last night had a group of independents rating the debate. They said that one of the highest rated discussions was when Palin said something along the lines that people are angry at Washington and won’t let it get away with this any more. She then talked about how “we” can make life better together. That may not be the exact wording but the sentiment that came across was one of government getting out of your way so that you can pull yourself up out of problems and despair. This is also a powerful message.

Obama offers a message of despair and the hope of handouts while trusting others to help you while Palin offers a message of joy and the hope of empowering yourself to make the world a better place. Actually, this is almost the classic battle of right vs. left, of FDR’s America handouts vs. Teddy Roosevelt’s America. It is also why Sara Palin has so often been compared to Ronald Reagan. Both of them embrace a combination of Horatio Alger’s self made man with Norman Rockwell’s innocent joy in the day to day things in this world.

Right now Obama appears to be leading by a substantial margin but if McCain offers people an optimistic picture in spite of all the world’s problems then he just might have a chance. People loved Ronald Reagan and are falling in love with Sarah Palin because they make us feel good about ourselves and America. And when Reagan first ran, America was actually in worse shape back then what with the 20%+ interest rate and over 12% unemployment rate and gas shortages and hostages. Yet Reagan told us that this is a nation that can do anything if we put our minds to it because we are a great nation and McCain needs to tell us the same thing.

McCain is the only candidate who can tell us that we can still be proud to be an American and that he will help us fight to get Washington out of the way so that we can stand on our own again. If he does that, then perhaps this might be a close race again.

Financial Crisis Rant: Part I - Video’s, Code Words and Barney Franks

This whole financial crisis is really angering me. The left continues to promise to take care of “the homeowners who are losing their homes” and blaming the big bad bankers and investment firms. As I tried to explain to a liberal, let’s say bankers are greedy, it then wouldn’t make sense for the bankers to make bad loans if it would hurt profits unless they were forced to do so by the liberal Congress via the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). I wrote about the CRA in my earlier posting on Carter, Clinton and the Liberal Congress.

I am returning to this topic partly because of two emails I recently received. One of the emails was from a liberal who was sending me a power point slide show. This slide show was quite juvenile considering the topic; the financial crisis. I was more than a little disconcerted to find that it featured stick figure cartoons who frequently say f*** this and f*** that while explaining the financial problem as the fault of bankers and investment houses. And you know that businessmen and investment bankers are liberal code words for Republicans, of course!

On the other hand, I had earlier received an email with a video showing the conservative point of view on this subject. But this presentation was done as a YouTube slide show filled with facts, charts, and tables that clearly illustrates cause and effect between the CRA legislation, liberal Congress and our current financial and housing crisis. The only swear words were the ones by the viewer after seeing this documented and verified information. Comparing the two presentations, obscene stick figures vs. charts and graphs made me wonder why the liberals are supposed to be the intellectuals!

Speaking of intelligent, in a recent conversation with a liberal I was told that Barney Franks, the liberal congressman from Mass., and Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, was extremely intelligent and had an excellent handle on the financial mess. I recalled that I had seen something about Franks on the YouTube video so I watched it again.

Sure enough there was a slide in regards to a 2003 proposal by Pres. Bush to create a new department to oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as he was worried they were going broke. The following quote is from the NY Times on September 11, 2003:

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

And there we are; affordable housing. To use that word liberals like, that is “code” for minority housing. Back in 2003 we could have averted this whole mess were it not for the liberal’s “concern” over the low income population. Sure there may be some true liberals who really do want to help out the poor. But I bet it is more about votes to help the politician then it is about helping the poor.

Take Barack Obama, please… Sorry old joke. Actually, right now after thinking about the liberals, Barney Franks, insulting and vulgar videos, affordable housing etc., I think I’ve had my fill of the left. I’ll get back to Barack and ACORN in part II of this article. But before I forget, here is the link to the YouTube video. If the link doesn’t work, please let me know. The author had to change the link once before after it was illegally taken down. This just goes to show that the liberals can’t handle the truth and don’t want you to see it either. So please, inform yourself and watch the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4%20

Sarah Palin Debate

If I were asked to give advice to Sarah Palin before her big debate I would keep it short. That’s it, that’s my advice. To keep it short. To tell Sarah Palin to put a period at the end of her sentence and then not say another word until the next question.

In the few times she has spoken other than from a written speech, Gov. Palin has the tendency to go on and on and on. I don’t know if she is nervous or if she is like some people I know who have never had a silence he couldn’t fill. For whatever reason, she can’t find the period to her sentences and keeps talking until she runs out of steam. And it is when she is rambling on and on that she runs into trouble. I hope her debate coaches spend as much time helping her to know when not to talk as they do helping her with her answers.

And you know what? I would probably give the exact same advice to Sen. Biden, too! The public should be very thankful that there are time constraints on both of them or we could be there all night as the Senator and Governor answer a single question!

I could go on and on with other little criticisms but I will take my own advice. So I will keep this short since I believe that keeping it short is the best directive for me now and for Gov Palin to follow during the debate.