Election Day should be a national holiday. There is absolutely no reason why people should be receiving days off to celebrate the lives of people they know nothing about — or don’t believe in — when a very public and founding principle is not equally respected. An active citizenry is vital to any democracy, and celebrating the life of a raping, pillaging, culture-eradicating scumbag certainly seems archaic.

Impose a two or three-term limit on ALL public offices. Career politicians are the backbone of our corrupt system that borders on aristocracy. When politicians are simply doing a job, they will ultimately find the loopholes in their own system. Politicians campaign on ideals and a vision for the country, only to enter office and scratch the backs of those who scratched theirs. This all happens at the expense of progress, the American people and — in a very real sense — the American dream.

Eliminate the winner-take-all system in the electoral college for 48 states (Maine and Nebraska already distribute electors by district). Federalism relies on local and state level representation being strong and representative of that population, rather than simply taking cues to homogenize from the Federal government. There’s no reason anyone should ever feel their vote won’t matter simply because they live in a ‘red state’ or ‘blue state’.

The William U’Ren system of initiative, referendum and recall at a national level, and in all states would enhance the actual representation of average Americans in government. I am fortunate to live in a state where the people can propose ballot initiatives, referendums and initiate recalls of officials who betray the public trust. It works great for this state, helps us hold up our end of the federalism bargain and should certainly be made national. With a national initiative, we could have proposed our own bailout package, rather than relying on corrupt career politicians to actually speak for our interests.

I’ve been reading a lot of tax attorneys’ analyses of Sarah Palin’s tax returns, as I have with the other candidates. This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to post anything, mostly because I still wonder how this is even possible. Tax evasion is serious business, or so I have been led to believe. Apparently it’s all copacetic when you are a former beauty queen running for Vice President. When a billion scenarios would lead to this woman becoming the leader of the free world, somehow she can still get away with not paying taxes?

John McCain was partly responsible for the last national financial crisis.  I’ve already linked a photo of McCain with Keating, and now the Obama campaign has created a video to expose the economic “principles” of John Sidney McCain III.

The 400 wealthiest Americans have increased their net worth by $670 billion over the last 8 years, according to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. This is staggering. When you hear Sarah Palin’s new buzz phrase, redistribution of wealth, this is what they are trying to hide. The redistribution has already begun. It’s the few taking from the many. As they try to smear Obama as a socialist, they are selling fascism.

Publicly subsidized, privately profitable! -Propagandhi

• Our economy has lost jobs for 9 straight months.
• Last week, the Dow dropped 777 points in a single day. That is $1.2 trillion being pulled from the market at once.
• This week, nothing has changed in the markets.

Bill Ayers is an interesting name to be thrown around. I think it makes a great comparison to names like Thomas Muthee, or the Alaskan Independence Party. If there were an episode of VH1’s ‘Where Are They Now?’, then the entire argument of Bill Ayers is quickly engulfed in the wave of shock that comes from understanding where Muthee, the AIP and the Palin family stand now.

• Ayers, who committed his crimes in the 1960s is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Senator Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, and Obama has denounced Ayers’ actions.
• Palin, on the other hand, has given a speech to the Alaskan Independence Party as recently as 2008 and her husband was a card-carrying member of the secessionist group. Their website boasts the motto: Alaska First - Alaska Always. AIP founder Joe Vogler says “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I have no use for America or her damned institutions.” He’s also stated “the fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred of the US government. And I won’t be buried under their damn flag….when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.” That is the founder of the group Palin addressed this year.
• Pastor Muthee, who has blessed Sarah Palin’s campaign began as a witch hunter in Kenya. She’s also gushed about how he prayed for God to “make a way” for her campaign. He prayed for God to bring finances to the campaign, in front of a congregation. How does that qualify for a tax exemption?

While we’re discussing radicals, how about those who bomb abortion clinics? Clearly this is one terrorist group that has Senator McCain’s sympathies.

John McCain is as mentally fit as Grandpa Simpson and Sarah Palin is as intellectually curious as George W. Bush — at best. All of these ridiculous spurious links brought up by the Palin-McCain campaign are to distract us from some of the worst economy ever seen by “Joe Six-Pack” as Palin likes to describe us.

Are you better off today than you were 8 years ago?

He was so gracious as to show his face in Washington, despite having only voted on one issue in the last six months to settle the issue that most said was on track to be worked out overnight. Yesterday, Senator McCain announced his campaign would be suspended today. Today, his campaign is active as any other day on the campaign trail.

He said he would not debate if there was not a deal worked out, despite the fact that he isn’t on any relevant committee to do any of the “working out”. This really leads most people to wonder if this isn’t just a response to his tanking poll numbers. It also omits the major point about his effectiveness with “reform” when it is actually necessary, that he has not sponsored a single banking bill in the 111th Congress.

After arriving in DC this morning Senator McCain met with House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio to communicate how important it is that a deal be reached. Or did he? When we heard from Rep. Boehner after the meeting, he said that no such deal had been reached. This either leads us to believe John McCain is not capable of convincing his own party to compromise, or that he is secretly trying to prolong this issue through the weekend to interfere with the debate schedule.

Many in the media have pointed out the tight schedule and the possibility of simply cancelling one of the debates. The Vice-Presidenial debate would be the first to go if the McCain campaign had their way. Sarah Palin can’t handle Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric, so a debate seems like such a stretch.

This looks like the same political grandstanding surrounding the controversial immigration bill last year. After failing to show his face in Washington for 55 days, he went ahead and brought his media circus in for the vote. Immigration is also one of those areas where Senator McCain will claim to have bucked his own party. What he (and his campaign) will fail to point out is that he got promptly put back in his place by the Republican party on the issue. Simply looking at who John McCain would be beholden to for winning the election should make any rational person shudder.

As an added not, here are some video highlights (lowlights) of Gov. Palin’s recent interview with Katie Couric. I can hardly comment on these things, only to say that this level of incompetence and lack of awareness of the world makes President Bush look like a scholar. This isn’t the VP you could have a beer with, it’s the kind of VP you could bring on a witch hunt.

I’ve had a few friends express their inability to understand the current economic crisis and thought a post was probably due. There are a few things I’d say to set the stage. The situation is intentionally complicated and hard for the layman to understand. People like Senator Phil Gramm, lobbyists Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt, Charles Keating and cohort have, over time, chipped away at the protections for investors and borrowers in favor of lenders and brokers. 

Now for two definitions — for people from my neck of the woods — to better understand this Wall Street/Washington doublespeak. Naked shorts – the practice of selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or ensuring that the shares can be borrowed as is done in a conventional short sale (Wikipedia) — or selling someone else’s stuff. What might happen if you sold your neighbor’s car and had them pick it up from the neighbor? Should you be bailed out?

Sub-prime lending is basically risky lending. They call it sub-prime when banks do this. Before banks got into loansharking, lenders would wreck their kneecaps — not the economy — if borrowers were unable to pay up. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be allowed to buy a home, I’m just saying I shouldn’t be getting offers to buy a home. People in my financial situation shouldn’t need to (at best) throw millions of pounds of paperwork away each year or (at worst) open the ‘loanshark on bank letterhead’ offer to buy a home with no proof of creditworthiness.

The Secretary of the Treasury is the principal economic advisor to the President and plays a critical role in policy-making by bringing an economic and government financial policy perspective to issues facing the government. The Secretary is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies that have general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The Secretary oversees the activities of the Department in carrying out its major law enforcement responsibilities; in serving as the financial agent for the United States Government; and in manufacturing coins and currency. US Department of the Treasury

We’ve got Henry Paulson. If you watched his testimony this morning, you saw a mirror image of President Bush. He wants all $700 billion now, with oversight to be determined later. He estimates they will spend approximately $50 billion per month, and he has already stated he’ll not stay in office after President Bush leaves in January. Senator Chuck Schumer from New York asked the ultimate question from a taxpayer’s perspective today, asking if the Treasury could deal with an authorization of $150 billion now with a review in January. The response, no, Paulson needs all of it now. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be able to ignore the fact that the person asking for complete and total control over $700 billion of taxpayer money plans to quit in the next four months.

Since July 10, 2006 Henry Paulson has had the opportunity to take measures to prevent this situation. He has offered no warning and done nothing. Now he wants a blank check to try “various market-based approaches” to fix his own mess. As the ‘principal economic advisor to the President’ it’s clear that failure in this administration touches all aspects of the government. (See Alberto Gonzales, Michael Chertoff, Michael Brown, Donald Rumsfeld)

Paulson also oversees the “major law enforcement responsibilities”, and therefore was the ‘Sheriff’ when Wall Street got out of control. He let the party get out of control, we cannot give him more money than he expects to lose. Here’s a question for parents: when your child throws a party while you’re away, do you double the money you leave him next time you’re out of town?

Let’s rewind this situation a bit, to the past year when Americans constantly questioned Washington about a solution to the crisis so they could avoid losing their homes. Washington ignored these calls, and the President went into recluse mode. The Hurricane season has shown us just how much President Bush has learned about the office he holds and the responsibilities it bears. He’s learned that he must make more effort to appear to care, or his party will suffer. He has not learned how to truly look out for the interests ofall Americans, not just his millionaire friends.

Today, Senator Obama spoke in Florida about four key points of the rescue effort. Although he was certainly reading notes, he no doubt sought guidance on these issues and is probably better to get everything right than to attempt to turn economics into prose. The four points, however, were clear and sounded like exactly what Americans (as a lending institution) need in order to hand over that much of the taxpayers’ money. (looking for the full video)

Remember this really damning picture of McCain celebrating his birthday with Charles Keating, the villain of the last big taxpayer bailout of unrestrained Republican greed? Here’s the article where bmaz got that photo (pdf from The Phoenix Sun Gazette, September 12, 1993).

Everyone should see this picture and know this story. It should be a cautionary tale. Obama needs to point this out and the media needs to get the message across to the American people that the last time we had a crisis even close to this it was at the hands of Charles Keating and the “Keating Five” — including John McCain. His current posse is no better, and his recent buffoonery only validates that he has no real idea what he’s doing with the economy.

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“John McCain is the only one who has truly fought for you.”  She loves this line.  She loves saying he doesn’t say it himself — although Lord knows he’s got it as an excuse if you ask how many houses he owns.  But I certainly doubt she’d even consider saying it in Chicago.  I’d love to see that reaction, unless the McCain campaign cherry picked the crowd — something they are notorious for doing.

The truth is, there are all kinds of ways to fight for people.  Like fighting for Charles Keating.  Fighting for Sean Parnell.  Or maybe it’s fighting for average people who have been hit hard by Republican tax cuts for the companies that sent their jobs overseas.  John McCain certainly fought for us, as did Senator Obama.  To think someone putting off Law School to help people restore jobs to a community can be scoffed at makes me wonder if anyone in the Religious Right actually paid attention to the words of Jesus, every indicator tells me they stopped after reading the Old Testament.

I keep hearing bullet points from the campaign surrogates and media about what each of the candidates plans on doing with taxes.  In the last few days, I’ve actually gotten the 3rd grade synopsis — as opposed to the preschooler treatment — that Senator McCain is a “top down” guy, while Barack Obama prefers “bottom up” measures.  Although the media is beginning to realize adults watch their programs, the going is slow.  

First we bailed out Bear Stearns and JP Morgan-Chase, then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Next came the failure of Lehman Brothers and the emergency buyout of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.  Then a government loan was needed to maintain AIG and at this point I stop worrying about the details.  It’s clear the government is in the bailout business, even with the holdout to Lehman Brothers.  It’s interesting to compare with how little was done for millions of American homeowners facing foreclosure.

This brings me back to the “top down” vs. “bottom up” argument.  Bailing out the banks is an example of the new “top down” philosophy.  If we stepped in to ensure that working families stay in their homes, that would be a good example of a “bottom up” philosophy.  But really, that simplification I’m seeing in the media misses the point completely.

Why would we cut taxes?  

If you think about the goal of tax cuts — besides the obvious point that officials who cut taxes end up being liked and returned to office 90% of the time — it is to stimulate the economy.  How exactly?  By people spending that money.  I know President Bush gets ridiculed for saying we needed to go out and buy things after 9/11, but he wasn’t all that far off.  He missed some key points that rendered his plan counterproductive, which is evidenced by what you see today.

Cutting taxes to stimulate the economy is based on the circular flow of money, or the paper flow if you’re in KC, Mo.  The idea relies on spending because if I spend my tax cut to buy a new MacBook, the demand for MacBooks goes up (not because of me, but because I’m not alone in a nation of 300 million) as does demand for work in Apple Stores and Best Buy.  This is the “creating jobs” part of tax cuts.  We also could assess that manufacturing jobs could be created, but that assumes we’re manufacturing the product in the United States.  We’re not an industrial economy anymore, we’re a service-based economy.  So we don’t get the full job-creating effect of tax cuts in most cases.  

Maybe it’s not a computer, but think about what you might buy with a $2000 tax cut. Is it manufactured here in the US?  Would you just pay down existing bills? That’s breaking even with the tax cut; few new jobs, sparse flow of money. The problem with President Bush telling us to go spend money, was that we weren’t really getting the bulk of the tax cuts and banks were so deregulated that credit was dispensed recklessly giving the illusion that we had money. Excessive debtors are as culpable, but the point of deregulation was to trap more people.  Loans handed out at 50% or greater is a crime against humanity and de facto slavery to many Americans. The Internets Celebrities have a great video on how slimy the financial industry acts in America’s poorest neighborhoods.

Continuing on with the flow of money, when we drive up business in places they open more jobs giving more people opportunities to work and make money — where they would become a part (or a bigger part) of the circular flow.  An industry that would really be nice for Americans to flock to after a tax cut would be the Green energy industry.  How about spreading some solar panels?  Free energy, and possibly an income source.  It would be like living in Alaska without having to rape the land!

Who should get the tax cuts?

The “top down” crowd (Bush, McCain) likes to say that tax cuts going to corporations and wealthy Americans will stimulate business through investment, creating jobs and opportunities.  This is what is known as the “trickle-down effect”.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m looking to open floodgates, I don’t aim for a trickle.  

People like Barack Obama propose to cut taxes for the middle class, not corporations or the ultra-wealthy. When you cut taxes on people who don’t have large excess, chances are they will spend/invest/save it. This may not have all of the effect immediately, but even if I decide to pay down my balances, I’m going to be more able in the future to make purchases. When tax cuts go to corporations, however, there is no guarantee they will do anything viable for average Americans with the money.  Take a look at Big Oil, for example.  Record profits, the rich get richer and the middle-class shrinks.  

By cutting taxes on the middle-class, they are more enabled consumers.  They can then make the decisions for themselves about how the economy is stimulated.  Kind of like a democracy for the economy.  If you cut taxes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, that’s basically an aristocracy for our economy.  And really, an aristocracy for our country.  Think about it:  90% of the wealth lies in the hands of less than 10% of Americans.

This is why we must vote for the people, vote against the aristocracy and return to the glory years of the 90s, when taxes were just right to keep everyone moving up. The tide was rising, so everyone benefitted. Over the last 8 years we’ve seen the tide so low that many Americans are finding out just how small the middle class really is today. If you woke up one morning and found yourself evicted from the middle class, foreclosed upon, you can thank President Bush, Senator McCain, Phil Gramm and the theory to which they subscribe. Stop expecting trickle down, make them beg for you to beam it up.

If we show up, we win. In every sense of the word. Based on what we saw in 2004, the Democrats would simply need to hold and pick up Ohio. It’s very important to pick up Ohio, and for workers in the rust belt the decision should be easy. That’s why we hear about things like a “resurgent culture war” and other non-issue distractions.  The McCain campaign (led by Karl Rove’s protégé Steve Schmidt) knows this election cannot be about what is best for the American people.  

If you’ve gotten discouraged by some of the events of the last few weeks, think about a few things:  

• Have you ever been called for a poll?
• Do you know anyone who has ever responded to these tracking polls? Why not? 
• Do you have a land-line?
• Do you respond well to calls sounding like solicitations?
• If you’re working three jobs just to keep your home, do you have any chance to be polled?

Then there are the admissions from pollsters that they used methodologies that leaned toward McCain. People who know what must be done this November are patiently waiting until January 20th, 2009 at 12:00 pm eastern time to breathe a sigh of relief that the assault on the middle class is over. The polls are not going to matter this year, and the results of this election could shock everyone. I have a good feeling about both New Mexico and Colorado going to Obama, and the Republicans may actually find they’ve lost a lot of support in Florida, Nevada and Iowa (of all places). There are a lot of states that ended up very close in 2004, when the Democrats put up a weak candidate in Senator John Kerry. The only way we can lose this election is if the talking heads convince us it doesn’t matter, yet again.

The hacker group calling itself Anonymous, who exposed the “Church” of Scientology’s dark side last winter have hacked Governor Sarah Palin’s personal email account and released screen grabs on WikiLeaks. Some of the screen grabs are still in question, but at least one has been confirmed by Wired Magazine to be genuine. When her staffers bragged about avoiding a subpoena, they probably didn’t anticipate hackers. That’s the problem with secrecy. We cannot have another administration as secretive as the last. We need absolute government transparency — Google Government, if you will — to give every citizen access to anything their government is doing.

Palin has since deleted the Yahoo! email accounts. They include drafts to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as some peculiar references to “DPS” — Alaska Department of Public Safety — which oversees the State Troopers. If this was her attempt to circumvent the law while abusing power, then the deletion of the addresses may also be considered destroying evidence. It could easily end up nothing if the lawyer the McCain campaign sent has his way, but her incredibly shady actions lend this credence.

Maybe the McCain campaign still doesn’t know what a community organizer does. Well, let me tell them a little about the job. It’s sort of like being a small town Mayor, except when you fail people starve and families crumble.

• When your campaign staff (lobbyists) helps companies secure a tax break while simultaneously shipping jobs overseas a community organizer helps to restore the community to prominence by bringing jobs back so the parents can work and providing after-school programs for children.

• When your economic advisor Phil Gramm deregulates banks to the point where they can become loan sharks to poor people and the community is struck by massive foreclosure rates a community organizer must help families rebound in a time of upheaval.

Basically a community organizer is a good samaritan. Our last best hope. A thousand points of light. The opposite of “politics as usual”. It’s also a great testament to his character.

And she would know about not being able to run a corporation.  She would also know about the “problem” that Senator McCain clearly defined on the campaign trail today.  CEOs getting golden parachutes while average Americans lose their jobs.  During her time at Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina lost the company over 20,000 jobs and referred to outsourcing jobs as “rightsourcing”.  I hope you’re enjoying your $46 million severance, Carly.  While average Americans lose their homes your boss returns to one of his seven.  While average Americans hope to hang on to the health insurance they have, John McCain enjoys the benefit of three health insurance programs (VA, Senate, Medicare — he may even have a corporate plan from Cindy’s company).  The facts are being distorted and perverted by the McCain campaign as outright lies are spread with reckless abandon.  

Her original statement:

She’s opposed to golden parachutes?

Her defense of her own golden parachute:

It’s actually quite simple, and I believe it plays directly in to why Democrats and Barack Obama specifically support the court’s decision. Abortions will happen, regardless of what the law says. The goal of Roe v. Wade was to make clear the conditions under which abortions should be legal, to minimize the overall number of abortions and to give women a choice. Before Roe v. Wade, this was all-too-often the choice of women in America.

This detail is often omitted from the mainstream media’s coverage of the heated debate. ProChoice.org offers a history of abortion, including back-alley abortions which were the crux of the argument against making abortion illegal. Here’s a link to the original decision, provided by FindLaw. Here’s a recent article from the Boston Globe about how we achieved a culture of pro-choice in this country and how it figures to play a role in the upcoming election. CNN has also recently published a piece on the lack of a shift in public opinion over the last 15 years and how it also plays a role in many other key issues, such as women’s rights and stem cell research. 

The Roe decision did not prompt “abortion on demand,” as many opponents of the procedure predicted it would. 

Barack Obama has repeatedly stated that his goal and aims for being pro-Choice is to reduce the overall number of abortions. Only a nut like Sean Hannity could misconstrue Obama’s words on this issue.

Nobody is pro-Abortion.  The argument is not pro-Life vs. pro-Abortion, it is simply a matter of choice. Should women have control over their own bodies? Banning abortion will not stop abortion, just as making abortion legal did not create a culture of “abortion on demand”. Personally I wouldn’t choose abortion for myself, but my own choice of life is what helps me respect a woman’s right to choose.

Health Care for America Now (HCAN) - the unprecedented coalition of large labor groups, community-based organizations, women’s groups, doctors, nurses, small businesses, think tanks, and leading netroots activists - released the following statement today in response to Senator McCain’s repeated false claims that Senator Obama’s health care plan will “force small businesses to cut jobs and reduce wages and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor”

“Senator Obama’s heath care plan offers the American people and American business a choice. His plan allows individuals to stay with the private insurance they have now, choose a new health care plan similar to the one Congress has, or opt into a new public plan so we are no longer left at the mercy of the private insurance industry. His plan includes lowering health care costs for small business and allowing employers to offer health insurance by paying for it as a percentage of their payroll rather than continue to feed into the current system where premiums are completely disconnected from what a business can afford.

Too many Americans already know the frustration of having a bureaucrat stand between them and their doctor because that is exactly how the unregulated private insurance market operates now. McCain’s health care plan, which proposes taxing your health care benefits at work and eliminating what little regulation already exists by allowing people to purchase across state lines, will raise costs and lower consumer protections.

Health Care for America Now asks Senator McCain to level with the American people and stop lying about Obama’s health care proposal.” - Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now

This organization is a large base of Americans from many walks of life. This isn’t a partisan (although it ends up with partisan conclusions) attack. It’s despicable to see the lies coming out of the McCain campaign on everything from tax proposals to health care to the meaning of rhetoric. Jason Rosenbaum has done a great job compiling some of the fact-checking that has taken place surrounding this particular lie. The facts just need to come front and center and they will be impossible to ignore: John McCain will hurt most Americans at a time when we’re already in dire straits.

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ThinkProgress has the scoop, but the analysis was done by the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan group. This is the main message that must sink in with most Americans. If you do not make over $250,000 per year (which is most of us), you will be better off with Barack Obama as President.  Maybe the most telling example of these bold-faced lies is the exposure of John McCain’s record on economic reform, which is absolutely ZERO according to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

It’s a pretty sad state of affairs for Republicans when even Megyn Kelly of Fox News is forced to call the McCain campaign out on their typical “he’ll raise your taxes” lies. Alan Greenspan even admits the country cannot afford the $3.3 trillion in tax cuts proposed by Sen. McCain without a corresponding cut in government spending. McCain claims that earmark reductions will help finance the cuts, but this is baseless at best. CNN says of McCain’s tax proposals that “high-income taxpayers would benefit more than everyone else” while Obama’s would favor “in terms of reducing their taxes as a percentage of after-tax income - are in the lowest income groups”.  Even wealthy Americans should understand that when the middle class has more to spend, they will have more potential to capitalize.

Wow!  After two long weeks of great reading and poll shifting the dust is finally starting to settle and the facts are beginning to seep into the consciousness of average Americans.  It’s been a wild ride, but the race has only begun. Here’s my two-week roundup of stories and events that caught my attention.  Certainly it isn’t everything over the last two weeks, so updates may follow.  I also will try and exclude topics I’ve already discussed at length in other posts.

There is a great post up at Mudflats right now (actually quite a few great posts) about Sarah Palin from the Alaskan politician’s perspective.  The guest poster, Les Gara, is the kind of politician I wish I could support in my own home district.  His examples are clear and his contentions are substantiated.  The post is well worth the read, as is anything from Mudflats.  Here’s my highlight:

Did I mention the personal attacks against our local public officials only started after Sen. McCain sent his flacks up to our small state on August 29?  They came with a mission to make America believe a Republican-initiated investigation, started with a unanimous committee vote of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats, was a “partisan” plot.  That’s only a tough sell if people know the facts.

You know there are problems with the economy when even Alan Greenspan says this is the worst economy he’s ever seen. What’s even more striking is that Greenspan goes further to say that America could not afford Senator McCain’s tax proposals. Unless you’re a complete atomaton, the typical argument that Democrats will “raise your taxes” while Republicans fight for lower taxes will simply not fly this year. McCain has frequently stated he can clean up the budget by cutting earmark spending, but cutting pork alone will not come close to balancing the budget. Eliminating the needless bloodshed and drain of resources that is the Iraq War would certainly be a bigger step toward getting spending under control.  

One of the surprising, yet inspiring, stories from the campaign trail was the turnout at the “Alaska Women Reject Palin” rally in Anchorage, Alaska over the weekend. The photos alone give me hope for our political process.  Many are calling this the largest protest rally in Alaska’s history.  Below is my favorite photo/sign from the rally.

Stories about Sarah Palin’s affinity toward crony hiring practices became evident over the weekend as well. Once elected to public office, she fired professionals and hired former classmates from Wasilla High School. She went a step further to trim down her own duties as Mayor, passing the buck on responsibility while accepting all the credit.  If that alone doesn’t scream of “politics as usual” and a repeat of the Bush-Cheney administration, I don’t know what would actually get that message across.  Willed ignorance seems to run rampant in this country.  

Then there was the barrage of all-out lies from the McCain campaign, beginning with “Thanks, but no thanks” and continuing through a few ads that were only on TV for a short period of time but generated a lot of buzz in the media and blogosphere.  This is not only disheartening, but also disturbing.  The Associated Press and many other trusted news sources have called shenanigans on the McCain lies and admit this is “testing voters”.  I really hope we pass this test, diligence is patriotism.

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri sets the story straight on Sarah Palin’s record with earmarks, pointing out that she asked for nearly $750 million in federal funds in her two years as Governor of Alaska.  To call Gov. Palin an earmark reformer is to call Nick Nolte a model citizen.  Here’s a link to the ThinkProgress story, and the video is below. The argument given by Carly Fiorina is also a far cry from the early arguments that she’s here to eradicate the earmark completely, now she thinks we simply “must ask for less of them.”  And just to put things into perspective in terms of expertise, here’s a reminder of Carly Fiorina’s effectiveness at Hewlett-Packard.

You’ve no doubt heard about the money Palin took from the state to live at home, if not from the news then from Weekend Update on SNL.  What you may not have heard about are the questions surrounding whether or not Gov. Palin actually paid taxes on that income.  It’s interesting to see Republicans try to pose one of the most money-hungry state officials as the leader in reform.  If that’s reform, I’m filthy rich.

Senator McCain keeps repeating how he’s enjoyed introducing Palin to the American people, and how he can’t wait to introduce her to Washington. On the campaign trail, this comment often follows his declaration of a willingness to reach across party lines. It makes me recall the recent grilling McCain faced on The View about exactly how she’ll reform Washington.  McCain said just today at a town hall meeting in Orlando “wait ’til the pork-barrelers and the earmark spenders meet her”.  This was laughable in the sense that most of Washington already knows her well, after she requested (and received) the largest per capita earmark spending in the nation over the last two years. Someone tell Senator McCain that he won’t get to introduce her, he’ll simply be the one scheduling the reunion.

One of the best things the primary season gave us was the triumphant return of Saturday Night Live to the top of the satire game.  Some of the material provided by the Democratic Primary would hold up against any former cast of SNL, which is something I never thought I’d be able to say again about the show. This Saturday’s show with Michael Phelps hosting did not disappoint and certainly got off to a hot start. This was also the highest-rated premiere of SNL in six years, according to MSNBC. Here’s the clip.

The rumor that was most swiftly debunked about the extent of Sarah Palin’s “list of books to ban”, which did not exist.  We do know now that the book which provoked the conversation with the librarian about removing books from the shelves.  The book is called Daddy’s Roommate and is geared toward helping children with homosexual parents better understand the situation.  Salon.com also has information on a Baptist pastor who was also targeted by Palin’s effort to ban books. After being encouraged to read the book for herself, Palin refused, instead favoring the removal of the book.  The story played out and the librarian ultimately kept her job, but the question itself is scary to anyone who loves the 1st Amendment.

Just as an example of how widespread the criticism is for recent false ads coming out of the McCain campaign, here are some links, and keep in mind the actual firestorm only began over the weekend.  The Turd Blossom, Karl Rove himself says the recent McCain ads have “gone too far”.  FactCheck.org (a non-partisan group) found lies about Senator Obama’s tax plans. Jon Taplin has a video and some audio clips, but Gordon brings the highlight of the post in the comments section — just take a look at the 9th commandment (the 8th if you’re Catholic). Then there’s this week’s Sunday New York Times, which was ultimately a collection of facts correcting the lies of the McCain camp.  

Today, Carly Fiorina spoke with Andrea Mitchell and explained away the lobbyist issue by saying the McCain campaign has the most strict rules for conflicts of interest.  I wonder if those rules were applied as a top McCain adviser was plucked by the Bush Administration to oversee the (now government run) Freddie Mac? I wonder if Randy Scheunemann’s associations with Georgia have been a conflict of interest as the McCain campaign beats the Cold War 2 war drum? Has that conflict of interest been “strictly regulated” when Charlie Black pushes for a Columbian Free Trade Agreement? The same Columbia where simply wanting to unionize will cause your family to make final arrangements. Sounds like one hell of an agreement to me. Later in the same hour Andrea Mitchell called shenanigans on a McCain campaign spokesman who tried to claim the recent McCain ads are “documentedly true”. That’s the kind of think Americans need to see from our journalists, don’t be biased, but don’t be fooled. Andrea has certainly learned something from her time spent near the late great Tim Russert.

Monday morning also brought the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the buyout of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. Of course, the campaigns were both asked about the situation, and Senator McCain had to re-state that he thinks the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Chris Matthews pointed out on Hardball today that President Herbert Hoover said the same thing about the economy as we sank into the Great Depression. McCain says that a lack of regulation is to blame. He fails to point out that one of his own campaign advisers, Phil Gramm (of “we’ve become a nation of whiners” fame) helped cause much of the current turmoil in the marketplace. That lack of regulation did not exist just 8 short years ago. Senator Obama makes a great observation, saying that this situation is in year 8 of President Bush’s administration, which has taken a toll on our entire economy. 

Finally I must point out that the McCain campaign is applying pressure on Ron Paul of Texas to support the Republican ticket. Ron Paul has been responsible for much of the mobilization of libertarians and constitutionalists who are fed up with the reckless Bush Administration. It’s no wonder he refuses to support the McCain campaign, which looks to be equal to or worse than Bush-Cheney. I’ll close the post with a couple of questions I (would) have for Senator McCain.

On what specific issues have you bucked your own party, and where do you stand on these issues today?

In your first 100 days in office, what specific reforms would you push and how will they positively affect the American people?

At least that was who she seemed to focus on above all else. I’ve never seen someone so unprepared for an interview, let alone the office of the Vice President. This quote pretty much sums up her entire interview.

“We must not, Charlie, blink, Charlie, because, Charlie, as I’ve said, Charlie, before, John McCain has said, Charlie, that — and remember here, Charlie, we’re talking about John McCain, Charlie, who, Charlie, is John McCain and I won’t be blinking, Charlie.”

Maureen Dowd from the New York Times has a sharp op-ed piece on the subject. In fact, the entire Sunday NY Times this week looks to be a great read. Sarah Palin is what she is at this point. She reminds enough people of George W. Bush that I can place stock in the intelligence and learning capacity of average Americans to make a better decision in this election.

The Public Safety Commissioner who was fired by Palin is challenging her interview with Charlie Gibson, saying she lied to ABC.  What else is new?  How many times have we heard her repeat the bold lie that she said “Thanks, but no thanks” for the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’?

Here’s the equivalent of that lie in your daily life.  You have a few $1 bills in your hand and offer Sarah Palin a soda, you may say “Hey, I’m hitting up the machine, would you like a sodapop?”  Then Sarah responds “Thanks, but no thanks.”  Then she proceeds to snatch a dollar out of your hands, since you did offer a soda.  She still wants the value of your offer but will decide on her own what to do with the money.  If someone did this to you at work, how would you react?

Here’s the full transcript, which indicates where the interview was edited. I wonder when (if at all) her next interview will be?

Lobbyists running the McCain campaign:
Rick Davis
Steve Schmidt
Mark Buse
Charlie Black
Randy Scheunemann

More on the hypocrisy:
The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists
McCain’s Lobbyist Friends Rally ‘Round Their Man
FactCheck: McCain-lobbyist connections
John McCain: Campaign Lobbyist-in-Chief

I had a vision for this post having a large collection of pictures and data at some point, apparently someone has beat me to the punch. This is a great site on McCain’s lobbyists, and another.