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MOTHERFUCKED AMERICA
Well, thats what id view of the world if i woke up one morning just to find that the republicans
are still in charge of actually giveing a fuck.
when i took a look at this URL i thought to myself " hey are you going to except all religions in to your prayer in to energy plan? You know, too keep things squar-zys?"
Because praying is for a moment with which praying comes first to imediate action!
and as americans we al love action so lets snap in to some with real change! not with," oh look your vice president could still be a women! see! see! change is upon the christian republic!"
..;. but oh well...
theres nothing wrong with religion at all. but no civilazation in the world wants to be at war , i bet that even the most kill thirsty backwards ass hillbilly going on a shooting spree, for the sole perpose of domination and control, would still rather be chillen on his own turn doing what ever is legal in his land. except america, weve had to much of that but are still pissed becouse we dont have legalized victimless drugs. so we go about are days trying to make a difference around the world like we know something.
but oh well.....
love peace equality and all Well, thats what id view of the world if i woke up one morning just to find that the republicans ... more -
Marty Kaplan: Why the Debates Won't Matter (Hint: It's a Felony)
my fear is that the Electoral College results will hang on the swing state voting systems' vulnerability to sabotage.
It's already happening.
In El Paso County, Colorado, the county clerk -- a delegate to the Republican National Convention -- told out-of-state undergraduates at Colorado College, falsely, that they couldn't vote in Colorado if their parents claim them as dependents on their taxes.
In Montgomery County, Virginia, the county registrar issued a press release warning out-of-state college students, falsely, that if they register to vote in Virginia, they won't be eligible for coverage under their parents' health and car insurance, and that "if you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding."
In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, Democratic voters received a mailing containing tear-out requests for absentee ballots addressed to the clerk in Caledonia -- the wrong location. In Middleton, Wisconsin, Democratic voters received absentee ballot requests addressed to the clerk in Madison -- the wrong address. Both mailers were sent by the McCain campaign.
Florida, Michigan and Ohio have some of the country's highest foreclosure rates. "Because many homeowners in foreclosure are black or poor," says the New York Times, "and are considered probable Democratic voters in many areas, the issue has begun to have political ramifications." If you're one of the million Americans who lost a home through foreclosure, and if you didn't file a change of address with your election board, you're a sitting duck for an Election Day challenge by a partisan poll watcher holding a public list of foreclosed homes. In states like New Mexico and Iowa, the number of foreclosures is greater than the number of votes by which George W. Bush carried the state in 2004.
In the 2006 election, according to the nonpartisan Fair Elections Legal Network, black voters in Virginia got computer-generated phone calls from a bogus "Virginia Election Commission" telling them that they could be arrested if they went to the wrong polling place; in Maryland, out-of-state leafleters gave phony Democratic sample ballots to black voters with the names of Republican candidates checked in red; in New Mexico, Democratic voters got personal phone calls from out of state that directed them to the wrong polling place. Does anyone think this won't be tried again in 2008? my fear is that the Electoral College results will hang on the swing state voting systems' vulnerability to sabotage. ... more -
Document this election!
In a room full of TEN (yes thats 10) people last night here in little Santa Fe, NM we listened to Richard talk about the multiple ways that past two election were rigged. We can count on this happening again. What we can do about it right NOW is document, photograph, and video everything that looks a bit off when you vote. If you are not voting this is still a way you can participate in getting back your country and exposing these criminal acts. Keep track (time, location,etc,) of when something odd happens and names of people if you can. Document this election as best you can.
His book comes with a DVD of photographs of thousand s of rigged, faked and altered ballots and ledger books)
Phillips and a team of volunteers examined and photographed thousands of ballots, poll books and voter logs. He claims they found pre-punched ballots, rigged voting machines and evidence of VOTE SWITCHING (these events shock me the most as I am aware of the machine issues).
He says the country needs to change the voting system. He recommends a return to hand-counted paper ballots.
"This is a crime and people need to be held accountable, because if there is motive, means and opportunity, and no penalty for cheating, this is never going to stop."
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says ---
"Richard Hayes Phillips worked day and night for three
years compiling irrefutable evidence of how the
Republicans stole the 2004 presidential race in Ohio.
This landmark investigation is a testament to what
private citizens can accomplish when government
officials fail to protect our right to vote and to
count those votes as cast. Every American -
Republican and Democrat - should read this book, and
join the fight for democracy's most fundamental right." In a room full of TEN (yes thats 10) people last night here in little Santa Fe, NM we listened to Richard talk about the multiple ways... more -
Now Is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein
23/09/08 "Huffington Post" -- - I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).
The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to "return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms." In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow "competition" (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling.
It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right's ability to use this crisis -- created by deregulation and privatization -- to demand more of the same. Don't forget that Newt Gingrich's 527 organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is still riding the wave of success from its offshore drilling campaign, "Drill Here, Drill Now!" Just four months ago, offshore drilling was not even on the political radar and now the U.S. House of Representatives has passed supportive legislation. Gingrich is holding an event this Saturday, September 27 that will be broadcast on satellite television to shore up public support for these controversial policies.
What Gingrich's wish list tells us is that the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in "strong leaders" -- even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.
So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant. By Naomi Klein ... more -
RFK Jr and Pap: "Is Your Vote Safe?"
The media is not talking about it. How in the hell is somebody gonna find this out? It’s just incredible.
By Ring of Fire
Bobby: “There are about 30 scams the republicans are deliberately using, particularly in the swing states to get democratic voters off the rolls. These scams originate in the so-called Help America Vote Act which was passed after the Florida debacle in the year 2000. It was originally suggested by democrats and republicans but it was passed by a republican congress with a republican senate and a republican president. And instead of reforming what happened in Florida it basically institutionalized all the problems that happened in Florida. And institutionalized a series of impediments that make it very difficult for democrats to register, for democrats to vote and then for democrats to have their vote counted.
“One of these requirements under HAVA is called “the perfect match” and what that does is little known but it is devastating. A quarter of the voters in Colorado have just been removed from the rolls because of this--just this one scam. And what it does is they use a computer system to compare your registration application to all other government records of you in the state. So they’ll look at your social security records, your motor vehicle records and any time you’ve had any interaction with the government and if there is any information on your voter registration that is different than the information on another government record that they find they remove you from the voting rolls.
“For example, if I registered as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and yet my motor vehicle license said Robert Frances Kennedy Jr. I’d be removed from the rolls. If your initial is different, if you leave an initial out, if you leave a “Jr.” out, if you leave a hyphen out in your name. And what they’ve done is a study in New York that said 80% of the errors are errors that were done by state clerks who are taking down this information. And particularly immigrant communities that people tend to vote democratic, people have names…spell Muhammad with an “o” instead of a “u” (crosstalk)
Pap: “Are the democrats suing to stop this?”
Bobby: “No, the democrats are doing nothing to stop it. In New Jersey, which is a swing state, 300,000 voters in New Jersey were just sent letters saying that they are now ineligible to vote. New jersey is nice enough to actually notify them--most states will not even notify them. And New Jersey intends to send out 870,000 letters so that is three quarters of a million people off the voting rolls in a state that could decide this vote by 50,000 votes. And these are democrats that are being pushed off the rolls.
Bobby: “Let me tell you about one other of these scams people should know about. If you’re a newly registered voter--and of course the democrats have done these gigantic registration drives--12 million people on registration--if you’re a new voter you MUST include your license or some other state I.D. when you come to vote. What that means is that if you’re a college kid (and college kids now--they’re sending in absentee ballots--they’re not going to the voting place, they do everything online or they do everything remotely--they don’t dream of going to the precinct house voting on election day and waiting in a long line) so if they send in the absentee ballot and they don’t include a color copy of their license their vote is going to be thrown into a trash can. And none of these people know this because you have had to read the law in order to know it. So there is no notification for when you fill out your registration form, so all of those 12 million people that the democrats have registered: those ballots are going to be just thrown out.
. The media is not talking about it. How in the hell is somebody gonna find this out? It’s just incredible. By Ring of Fire ... more -
Paulson's former firm to be among largest beneficiaries of bailout: bank
No wonder he doesnt want any over sight. Can you believe they are having the person who led us down this road to fix it? This is more bizzare than the warmongers using fake documents and fixed facts to lead us to our FIRST war of aggression against a country which had not killed one American and were not openly threatening us. Do we have to wait for one of them to write a book later to tell us what they are doing to us today? Why wait for the book, we can see it in plain sight today.
by: John Byrne
It certainly pays to be Treasury Secretary if your former firm is a brokerage house, a new study says.
Goldman Sachs Group -- formerly run by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Morgan Stanley, stand to be among the biggest beneficiaries of a $700 billion US bailout.
"Its benefits, in its current form, will be largely limited to investment banks and other banks that have aggressively written down the value of their holdings and have already recognized the attendant capital impairment," Jeffrey Rosenberg, Bank of America's head of credit strategy research, wrote in a report obtained by Bloomberg News yesterday.
Paulson was the head of Goldman Sach's investment banking division from 1990 to 1994. He later became chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman, and left his post to join the Bush Administration.
According to the study, the bailout benefits Paulson's former firm more because banks haven't had to write down as many troubled mortage assets under accounting rules. This means that participating in the program would cause them to actually lose capital, as opposed to investment banks, which stand to gain.
Paulson $700 billion program is designed to remove "bad assets" from the US financial markets to prevent credit for businesses from drying up, which would send the economy into a further tailspin. Many businesses rely on credit to fund their daily operations.
Lawmakers are debating the plan today.
"While Goldman and Morgan Stanley, both based in New York, were yesterday granted permission to transform themselves into bank holding companies, the companies so far have operated mostly under investment-bank accounting rules, logging almost $21 billion of asset writedowns and credit losses," Bloomberg News notes.
Goldman made sizable profits in 2007 from the subprime mortgage sector. It, along with Morgan Stanley, has fared better than investment houses Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, because it has held a more conservative capital base.
Paulson has admirers: during his Goldman tenure the firm donated 680,000 acres of land in Chile, and he has personally given away $100 million of his fortune to charitable groups.
According to estimates conducted by Open Secrets, Paulson is the richest cabinet member of the Bush Administration. No wonder he doesnt want any over sight. Can you believe they are having the person who led us down this road to fix it? This is mor... more -
The Battle Plan II: Sarah "Evita" Palin, the Muse of the Coming Police S...
by: Naomi Wolf
Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah "Evita" Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.
You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand "Palin Power." A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections -- but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you have freedom.
I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites ("the heart of America is on display") and realized Bush's speechwriters were writing her -- not McCain's -- speeches. I heard her tell George Bush's lies -- not McCain's -- to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners -- this is Rove-Cheney's enthusiastic S and M, not McCain's, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit --but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain.
Then I saw and heard more. Palin is embracing lawlessness in defying Alaskan Legislature subpoenas --this is what Rove-Cheney, and not McCain, believe in doing. She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women's shelters -- Rove's style, not McCain's. I realized what I was seeing.
Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is "dialed in" to the McCain campaign. Rove's protégé Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain's vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.
What's the plan? It is this. McCain doesn't matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future -- for a decade perhaps -- a puppet "president" for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.
How, you may ask, can I assert this? How can I argue, as I now do, that there is actually a war being ramped up against US citizens and our democracy and that Sarah Palin is the figurehead and muse for that war? by: Naomi Wolf ... more -
Mushroom Cloud over Wall Street
By Mike Whitney
These are dark times. While you were sleeping the cockroaches were busy about their work, rummaging through the US Constitution, and putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over the nation's financial markets and the country's economic future. Industry representative Henry Paulson has submitted legislation to congress that will finally end the pretense that Bush controls anything more than reading the lines from a 4' by 6' teleprompter situated just inches from his lifeless pupils. Paulson is in charge now, and the coronation is set for sometime early next week. He rose to power in a stealthily-executed Bankster's Coup in which he, and his coterie of dodgy friends, declared martial law on the US economy while elevating himself to supreme leader.
"All Hail Caesar!" The days of the republic are over.
Section 8 of the proposed legislation says it all:
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Right; "non-reviewable" supremacy.
Congress, of course, is more than eager to abdicate whatever little authority they have left. They're infinitely grateful for their purely ceremonial role, the equivalent of Caligula's horse, albeit, with considerably less dignity. Has even one senator spoken out against this madness, which--according to informal internet polls--is resoundingly rejected by the voters? Does it concern the members of congress at all, that the present financial crisis was brought on by the proliferation and sale of trillions of dollars of mortgage-banked garbage which were fraudulently represented as Triple A rated bonds by the very same people who now claim to need unprecedented and dictatorial powers to fix the problem? Or are they more worried that the steady torrent of contributions which flows from Wall Street to congressional campaign coffers will be inconveniently disrupted if they fail to ratify this latest assault on democratic governance? The House of Representatives is one big steaming dungheap that should be leveled and turned into an amusement park instead of a taxpayer-funded knocking shop. What a pathetic collection of cowards and scumbags.
Bloomberg News: "
"The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets. Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world's largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.
"He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said Nouriel Roubini an economist at New York University. ``He's saying, `Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy." (Bloomberg)
The banksters own this country, always have; only now they've decided to strip away the curtain and reveal the ghoulish visage of the puppet-master. It ain't pretty. By Mike Whitney ... more -
$521,000: The average pay of Goldman Sachs employees and that includes secretaries
Are we experiencing legalized extortion? We cant afford to help the poor, but we can bail out the rich. We get to pay back the money they pilfered and they arent even going to be held accountable for their excesses? They are holding our economy for ransom. We must pay for their living large life styles, or our whole economy will fail. They arent getting fired, or prosecuted, we just have to move along? More of the same. Move along, nothing to see here.
By Stephen Foley in New York
Sunday, 12 February 2006
They call it Goldmine Sachs. And well they might. Because the Wall Street giant has become the first major investment bank to see its average salary top half a million dollars.
The extraordinary figure is disclosed in the company's latest regulatory filings and comes as a record bonus season draws to a close on both sides of the Atlantic.
It is sure to be used to entice people to join the bank, which expects to boost its number of employees by up to 10 per cent in anticipation of another bumper year for trading and mergers and acquisitions activity.
Last year, Goldman Sachs paid out $11.7bn (£6.7bn) to its 22,425 employees - around 3,000 of whom are in London.
Hank Paulson, the chairman and chief executive, was paid $38m in salary, shares and options - a 21 per cent increase on 2004. An average figure per staff member of $521,000 bursts through a barrier not even breached during the dot-com boom in 1999 and 2000.
This is a 12 per cent increase on the $466,000 average disclosed for 2004. It is twice the level of average pay at rivals Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
Wall Street banks are paying out a record $21.5bn in bonuses for 2005, according to New York State figures. That dwarfs 2004's $18.6bn and tops the previous record of $19.5bn in 2000. The average bonus in 2005 was $125,500 - some $25,000 more than in 2000
Deutsche Bank last week became the latest to disclose to its staff the bonus cheques they will soon be taking home. Some top executives will receive bonuses 75 per cent higher than last year.
The average bonus is believed to have increased by a double-digit percentage, and the subtle boast is meant to signal Deutsche's return to health after several lacklustre years. Are we experiencing legalized extortion? We cant afford to help the poor, but we can bail out the rich. We get to pay back the money... more -
Paulson Plan May Spark Showdown Between Democrats, Republicans
Dare sheep rely on one wolf to save them from the other?
By Alison Fitzgerald
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats want to use the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan for U.S. financial companies to curb executive pay, spur the economy with infrastructure spending and help people avoid foreclosures, setting the stage for a possible fight with Republicans and the Bush administration.
Republicans object to adding extras to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposal, which would authorize the administration to spend an amount almost 50 percent larger than the Pentagon's annual budget to buy banks' bad mortgage debt.
``This proposal is, and should be kept, simple and clear,'' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement yesterday. ``Now is not the time for partisan plans or pet projects.''
Both sides risk getting blamed for delaying passage of the bill. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said yesterday that the U.S. could ``risk a depression'' without the measure.
``They should be feeling the fire,'' said Jennifer Duffy, of the Cook Political Report in Washington. ``If they put it off they'll be playing a game of chicken to see who blinks first.''
Democratic lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Schumer promised to act on the plan by end of next week. So far no leader has voiced objections to what Pelosi called the ``sweeping and unprecedented powers,'' such as barring courts from reviewing actions taken by the Treasury under the measure, that Paulson is asking for.
`Good Foundation'
``The package that Secretary Paulson presented was a good foundation that can stabilize our markets quickly but it does not fill in what we're going to do to protect the taxpayer and to protect the homeowner,'' Schumer said yesterday at a news conference in New York.
The Treasury yesterday asked congress for unchecked power to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from U.S. financial companies to help stabilize the financial system. In the last two weeks the government has seized three major firms, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc., while watching another, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., go bankrupt.
Lawmakers yesterday had already begun work adapting the Treasury proposal.
``What we're spending our time doing now is writing language into the Treasury proposal that will beef up taxpayer protections,'' Steve Adamske, a spokesman for House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, said in a telephone interview.
Executive Pay
The Democratic proposal will include curbs on executive pay for the companies whose assets the government will be buying, Adamske said. It also will include a plan to stem foreclosures, which may involve tapping the loan-modification abilities of the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he said.
Pelosi said Congress would ensure more accountability than in the Treasury plan by ``implementing strong oversight mechanisms, and establishing fast-track authority for the Congress to act on responsible regulatory reform.''
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said any plan should ``promote home ownership.''
``The stakes could not be higher, and there is no time to waste, but I am hopeful that we will be able to achieve these important objectives,'' Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a statement. Dare sheep rely on one wolf to save them from the other? By Alison Fitzgerald ... more -
Meanwhile, the Other No. 2 Keeps On Punching
FLAT ROCK, Mich. — As the economy reels, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the Other Running Mate — has been absolutely butchering Senator John McCain across the Rust Belt this week. It is not clear who has noticed.
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Joseph R. Biden Jr., in Flat Rock, Mich., on Monday. His verbal ramblings seem to have detracted from his attack role on the trail.
“John is so out of touch, he just has no idea,” charged Mr. Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who called his “old, dear friend” someone who “just doesn’t think,” who is behaving in a repugnant manner and who is peddling “Republican garbage,” and malarkey.
The older woman who introduced him at a rally here called Mr. Biden’s Republican counterpart, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a “bucket of fluff,” and he rewarded the woman as he took the microphone with an “I love you” and a gentle kiss on the head.
“If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry,” Mr. Biden told a few hundred people gathered at a high school football field. Yes, he sounds angry, yelling through his stump speeches, flailing his arms and telling a (supportive) member of the audience to “Shush up, will you?” (“I’m kidding,” he added, but did not sound it.)
But the reality for Mr. Biden is that while running mates are second-fiddlers by definition, the phenomenon of Ms. Palin has rendered him something of a fourth or fifth fiddle. It is not like last month, when reporters swarmed Mr. Biden’s Delaware home and delegates swooned at the Democratic convention. He is now trailed by just a few national reporters, and struggling to break through in a race marked by historic firsts, political celebrities and charismatic newcomers — none named Joe Biden.
The Obama campaign was hoping to reintroduce Mr. Biden this week as running mate attack dog. But his penchant for verbal rambling ensured that much of the attention he drew was unwanted: he said wealthy Americans had a “patriotic” duty to pay more taxes, a remark the McCain campaign mocked relentlessly.
Yet Joltin’ Joe has also become a fascinating Off Broadway spectacle in his own right. He is a distinctive blend of pit bull and odd duck whose weak filters make him capable of blurting out pretty much anything — “gaffes,” out-of-nowhere comments (pivoting midspeech to say “Excuse my back!” to people seated behind him), goofy asides (tapping a reporter’s chest and telling him, “You need to work on your pecs.”)
Mr. Biden’s role is red-meat serious: to pulverize Mr. McCain, lend foreign policy heft to Senator Barack Obama and be his campaign’s main ambassador to two at-risk constituencies: former supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and blue-collar Democrats. He speaks to working-class voters in the harsh language of their economic trials, and summons easy rage at ear-splitting volumes.
“John said that the economy can have a ‘psychological effect,’ ” Mr. Biden said at a twilight rally in Media, Pa., on Tuesday. “Let me tell you about the psychological effect,” he said, describing his family’s economic struggles when he was young. Mr. Biden might seem like an afterthought on the national airwaves, but he can clearly resonate close up.
“People got to wake up, because these guys in Washington are raping this country,” said Dave McLimans, a steelworker from Coatesville, Pa., who attended the rally in Media. “Joe Biden talks in a way that can wake people up.” FLAT ROCK, Mich. — As the economy reels, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. — the Other Running Mate — has been absolutely butchering Senator... more -
A Resounding Bottom Up NO on the Bailout-- From the Entire Progressive World
by: Rob Kall
It is urgent and essential that YOU contact your legislators in congress today to demand that they reject the bailout deal Henry Paulson has proposed. Let them know approval of it will be as bad as, maybe worse than their approval of the Iraq war and you don't want to see them screw up again.
They need to hear this from MILLIONS of Americans. A handful of plutocratic corporatists created this economic disaster. The Dem leadership seems to be ready to allow Bush to turn a disaster into law and furtherance of the disaster capitalism Naomi Klein has described. It will take a massive bottom up wave of outraged demands to make it clear to the dems in congress and the purported new leader of the Democratic party, Barack Obama, that the Paulson plan has been outed as a plan to loot the American taxpayer and is totally unacceptable.
From Dailykos to Firedoglake to OpEdNews, TalkingPointsMemo to Paul Krugman (No deal) , Glen Greenwald, the Nation, MYDD, Atrios, Huffingtonpost, the voices of the left, representing millions, probably tens of millions of readers, are in agreement-- Paulson's bailout proposal is NO DEAL and the frightened Democrats in congress better not spinelessly respond to the bogus warnings of disaster this time like they did in response to warnings of Iraqi WMDs.
The approach varies, but all basically say that the Bush admin is setting up a deal that has no accountability, that is a huge gift to Bush and friends. Glen Greenwald and I brought up the spineless dem response to Iraq as an earlier example of the same cowed cooperation.
If Obama ever had a shot at showing he really is a force for change, rejecting the Paulson plan is an extraordinary opportunity to again (like he rejected the Iraq war) stand out as an independent thinker, apart from his party. Here is where Barack can play a leadership role. He IS running to be the new leader of the Democratic party. If he tells the leaders in congress they're making a huge mistake, he will be serving the middle class-- the people who Reid, Pelosi, Dodd, Schumer and friends are getting ready to saddle with such enormous debt. by: Rob Kall ... more -
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders - A Voice of Reason
The current financial crisis facing our country has been caused by the extreme right-wing economic policies pursued by the Bush administration. These policies, which include huge tax breaks for the rich, unfettered free trade and the wholesale deregulation of commerce, have resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy.
The middle class has really been under assault. Since President Bush has been in office, nearly 6 million Americans have slipped into poverty, median family income for working Americans has declined by more than $2,000, more than 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance, over 4 million have lost their pensions, foreclosures are at an all time high, total consumer debt has more than doubled, and we have a national debt of over $9.7 trillion dollars.
While the middle class collapses, the richest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top 0.1 percent now earn more money than the bottom 50 percent of Americans, and the top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. The wealthiest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion while Bush has been president. In the midst of all of this, Bush lowered taxes on the very rich so that they are paying lower income tax rates than teachers, police officers or nurses.
Now, having mismanaged the economy for eight years as well as having lied about our situation by continually insisting, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the Bush administration, six weeks before an election, wants the middle class of this country to spend many hundreds of billions on a bailout. The wealthiest people, who have benefited from Bush’s policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd. This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.
By Senator Bernie Sanders
Go to link to read what he says it will take to right the wrongs of our economy. The current financial crisis facing our country has been caused by the extreme right-wing economic policies pursued by the Bush admini... more -
Rachel Maddow: John McCain's bad week
She nailed it! Facts matter! The truth matters!
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Forget Wall Street. What about the rest of us?
The Curious Capitalist - Justin Fox
Ethan Harris, the chief U.S. economist at bankrupt Lehman Brothers, says it's been "the most tumultuous two weeks of my personal and professional life." Even on Friday, with the tumult settled somewhat by Barclays' purchase of Lehman's core business and Hank Paulson's plans to purchase the American financial system, things were still kind of weird: A Japanese TV crew was filming Harris as we talked on the phone. And next week, as Barclays takes over at Lehman, he gets to find out--or at least start to find out--if he still has a job.
For Harris and everybody else on Wall Street, the gravity of this financial near-meltdown is pretty clear. It understandably all remains something of a puzzle to a lot of other people. The New York Times reported that members of Congress were stunned into silence by the dire picture painted by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke of what would happen if they didn't create an agency to take bad debts off bank balance sheets. The picture? Financial breakdown, with banks ceasing to lend and the economy grinding to a halt.
That's clearly really bad. But what will the economy look like if Congress does approve a workable bailout plan, and the worst-case scenarios are averted?
Well, probably still pretty bad. "By the time we’re done here this is going to be equivalent to the big recessions of the past," says Harris. "Similar to the recessions of 1974 and 1982." That's a lot better than a rerun of the Great Depression. But it still means big-time job losses, and lots of painful retrenchment for consumers and business.
This is not, yet, a unanimously held opinion. There is even still some debate over whether this even is a recession. But I'm thinking that's going to fade away soon. "All my cousins already know we’re in a recession," says Bob Barbera, chief economist at ITG and, coincidentally, a former Lehman chief economist. "You need a Ph.D in economics to have a debate about it." Barbera thinks that, "in the fullness of time," it will be apparent that the recession began in autumn 2007.
Barbera also believes this recession will end early next year, which is a nice thought. But what comes afterward probably won't feel so great either. "I’d be very surprised to see a strong recovery in the economy," says Harris. "The consumer was being spurred along by two big booms, housing and the stock market, and this expansion of debt." No more. "You’ve got a much more conservative consumer in the next decade," he says.
This is what the aftermath of an epic credit bubble looks like. For the financial sector, never very good at retrenching in an orderly fashion, it's a time fraught with risk of collapse. But even if collapse is averted, the bubble still has to deflate. And it is deflating: Household debt, which grew at double-digit rates from 2002 through 2006, rose at just a 1.4% pace in the second quarter, according to data released Thursday by the Federal Reserve. This is, for the long-run financial health of Americans, a good thing. It just means there won't be much economic fun anytime soon.
"I think there is something fundamentally positive about the U.S. economy," Harris says. "Great technology, a great educational system, an entrepreneurial spirit. But those things don’t really matter that much over the next couple of years." The Curious Capitalist - Justin Fox ... more -
Survey: only 7% of US voters back bailouts
93% of US voters realize, they aren't bailing out ordinary Americans, they are bailing out the crooks who caused the problem. SAD! SAD! SAD! They wont be held accountable, they will be rewarded. Its an "Assault on Reason"!
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks
There is little public support for the federal bailouts of Wall Street investment and insurance firms and growing worries the U.S. is headed for another Great Depression, according to new national poll by Rasmussen Reports.
Rasmussen said only 7 percent of U.S. voters surveyed supported the federal financial bailouts with 65 percent saying they'd prefer letting the firms go under or deal with bankruptcy filings and restructuring.
The Federal Reserve is helping insurance giant American International Group with an $85 billion bailout. The federal government has taken over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and promised to assume as much as $30 billion in Bears Stearns assets earlier this year to help with JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of the investment house.
The federal government has not yet acted in regard to Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 filing or Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
Congress is also looking at massive loans for General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler to help the struggling U.S. auto industry.
Presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama have begrudgingly backed the financial bailouts and also back federal loans to car makers.
McCain likes a $25 billion plan while Obama supports a $50 billion auto industry bailout.
The Rasmuseen poll also showed 45 percent of U.S. voters say it is at least somewhat likely the economy could face another Great Depression, up from 38 percent who thought that in March. Forty-eight percent think a depression is unlikely.
Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 adults Sept. 15 and 16. 93% of US voters realize, they aren't bailing out ordinary Americans, they are bailing out the crooks who caused the problem. SA... more -
Report: voting problems in several swing states
A new Government Accountability Office report on voting system testing finds that the Election Assistance Commission has not notified election officials across the country about electronic voting machine failures.
A line of voters cast their ballots in the primary March 4 in Columbus, Ohio.
And a new study by Common Cause and the Century Foundation finds that 10 very vital swing states have significant voting problems that have not been addressed since the last election.
Those 10 states, according to Common Cause, are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
In Colorado, 20,000 left polling places without voting in 2006 because of crashed computer registration machines and long lines. And this election day, Colorado will have another new registration system.
"You know, Colorado is two years behind many states in implementing a statewide voter database. ... This is a new system, and there's just a lot of unknowns as to whether or not voters will be successful," said Jenny Flanagan of Common Cause.
The problems listed in the report range from not enough voting machines to glitches with electronic registration poll books. Read the report
"We're seeing a lot of problems where people are being kicked off the data base rolls if their name is on as Alex as opposed to Alexander or they've put a middle initial in there name and it's not there," said Susan Greenhalgh of Voter Action. "These are problems that are being created by software restrictions that are stringent or glitches in some cases where the program is incorrectly bouncing people off the rolls."
For voters with problems in registration, provisional ballots are provided.
But Tova Wang of Common Cause said there is a "very good chance, with all of the new voters that we are going to see this year, that there will be a big demand for the use of provisional ballots."
"And yet I see nothing, except in one of the 10 states, that the states are doing to ensure that there will be enough provisional ballots on hand so that they don't run out of them. Ideally, provisional ballots should be on hand for 10 percent of the voting population," she added. Watch more on the fight for swing states »
Common Cause said it's not too late to fix many of these problems. Although many states don't have the laws on the books to require some safeguards, they can act now to make sure that there are enough back up ballots at the polls, workers are properly trained and there are enough poll workers on election day.
Denver, Colorado, for example, is going back to a paper poll book registration for this election. A new Government Accountability Office report on voting system testing finds that the Election Assistance Commission has not notified ... more -
Understanding the $1,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 bail-out
In the past 24 hours, Henry Paulson effectively committed up to a trillion dollars of tax payer money to bail out bankers and investors, and locked in fiscal policies of his choosing for the next several years. To try to understand the full implications of this, I asked Max Fraad Wolff for an email interview. Max's work regularly appears in the Asia Times, The Prudent Bear and many other international outlets. His work can also been seen regularly on his site GlobalMacroScope.com. Based in NYC, he does contract research on international financial risks and opportunities while teaching in the New School University's Graduate Program in International Affairs. Max is an unorthodox economist--just the kind we need right now.
ZE: Wow. What just happened?
MFW: We just went from Free Fall to Free Lunch. It turns out free markets are the greatest system on earth, but only when they go up. Market discipline is for low income people and homeowners. Short selling must stop only when it laps up on Goldman's shores. Today, the government deploys hundreds of billions, maybe more than a thousand billion dollars to bail out banks and owners, insurers and traders of mortgage backed securities. Wave after wave of cash infusions didn't work, Thursday morning's $183 billion did not work. So here come new rules and whole lots more money. The government will insure money markets, the government will buy between $800 billion to $1.2 trillion in distressed securities to sure up balance sheets. If this had been done last week, then Lehman, AIG and Merrill would still be out there with ALL their employees. If it had been done in March, Bear Stearns would be with us. This financial run just got more expensive than Iraq. Where will the money come from? Who gains and who loses? Is this the largest economic intervention in at least several decades?
ZE: So let me make sure I understand this. Big investors made trillions in bad loans over the past couple decades. Everyone just realized it and now markets are flipping into turmoil. Treasury Secretary Paulson and other financial big wigs decided that without intervention, we'd get into a 1929 free fall. And so they stepped in and said, "Everyone can stop panicking, because we'll insure all your bad loans." Is that right?
MFW: Basically, yeah. The crash is 13 months old. The pain is real and it is really slamming into employees, home owners and the global economy. Many of us have been warning of this for years. Federal regulators have lied and done day-late, dollar-short failed interventions for 14 months. After another round of false promises, they last night gave in and finally decided to admit that the financial sector was leading us into a global recession. So we just pledged years of tax revenues upfront to buy bad mortgage-backed securities. We still don't know the all important details. At what price is the U.S. tax payer picking up the tab? We have been told "market prices" but, what does that mean? Not the market prices before this announcement. Those prices were killing firms and spreading massive losses throughout the world economy. We still don't have congressional approval either. I have no doubt those dead fish will float with the tide. Congress will back the action. Action is needed. We were sliding off the edge. It is just a question of which actions and who benefits. In the past 24 hours, Henry Paulson effectively committed up to a trillion dollars of tax payer money to bail out bankers and investor... more -
Update: MccainPedia Count the Lies
To hold John McCain accountable to his own standard, the Democratic National Committee will count and chronicle the lies here on the McCainPedia's "Count the Lies" page.
I posted this as an update on the Lie counter, Conniepae First posted this on September 15 and he was up to 51 lies, then I posted a similar story on the 16th because I missed her POD and he was at 54, Today the count sits at 61.
Click the link above to Check the Facts and The Lies. To hold John McCain accountable to his own standard, the Democratic National Committee will count and chronicle the lies here on the M... more -
Count the Lies - McCainPedia
John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a "maverick" and a "straight talker" who will tell the truth no matter the consequences, but independent, non-partisan watchdog groups aren't buying it. But, since he wrapped up his party's nomination, John McCain has offered more of the same false attacks and smears. To date, independent, nonpartisan fact checkers have published more than 50 fact checks debunking John McCain's lies and distortions.
To hold John McCain accountable to his own standard, the Democratic National Committee will count and chronicle the lies here on the McCainPedia's "Count the Lies" page.
60 Fact Checks
FactCheck.org: McCain Ad Repeats False Tax Cut Charge on Tax Cuts. "The McCain-Palin campaign has released a new ad that once again distorts Obama's tax plans. The ad claims Obama will raise taxes on electricity. He hasn't proposed any such tax. Obama does support a cap-and-trade policy that would raise the costs of electricity, but so does McCain. It falsely claims he would tax home heating oil. Actually, Obama proposed a rebate of up to $1,000 per family to defray increased heating oil costs, funded by what he calls a windfall profits tax on oil companies. The ad claims that Obama will tax 'life savings.' In fact, he would increase capital gains and dividends taxes only for couples earning more than $250,000 per year, or singles making $200,000. For the rest, taxes on investments would remain unchanged." [FactCheck.org, 9/18/08: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/there_he_goes_a... John McCain may be trying to sell himself as a "maverick" and a "straight talker" who will tell the truth no matte... more
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