CALL FOR AN END TO DIRTY POLITICS!

Just a few quick notes on our political scene.

The Detroit Free Press in a bold editorial today called the Michigan Catholic Church’s campaign against Proposal 2 (Stem Cell Research) “FULL OF SHAMEFULL DISTORTIONS”.

The Michigan Catholic Conference that has poured millions into this campaign (without acknowledging it like most people who say “I approve this message”) has indicated to me that they are as dirty and underhanded in politics as the worst offenders. They have no ethics or morals and will lie like a dog any time it suites their purpose.

They may defend themselves by saying that the end justifies the means and I just say SHAME ON YOU!

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Just heard that McCain will distribute a 90 minute DVD trashing Obama with lies and innuendoes right before Election Day. The DVD will be included with all Sunday papers in the so called battleground states.

This is the very bottom of the sewer. I realize McCain is desperate and the Republicans have played this type of dirty politics in the past and have won. It is becoming an accepted practice and what does that say about us and our country; you don’t see the Democrats using the same tactics.

The American people need to show these political pigs that we, as a nation, will not stand for this type of behavior; and they call themselves family value Christians. They are pigs and above all, hypocrites and should be treated as such.

The internet is filled with anti-Obama diatribes trying to camouflage their RACISM with appeals to the more basic interests of the so called “red necks” among us. They are succeeding but let’s hope on a very limited basis and that the new generations among us will not be susceptible to such ignorant racist pseudo-logic.

CATHOLIC CHURCH: Do you approve this message?

Today I voted by absentee ballot; the only way to vote!

I talked to the lunch crowd at work as to what they thought of Proposal 2; the Stem Cell Research Proposal. They mentioned that it was very confusing and they feared that they would somehow be taxed if this proposal went through – indicating that they probably would vote against it.

I explained all the facts about the proposal and how it would help people and no taxes were even mentioned in the proposal. Interestingly enough, what stuck in these people’s minds was the “we will be taxed” suggestion of the opposition ads. The proponent’s ads mentioned that all Detroit media was for the proposal, all doctor and nurse organizations were for the proposals and all medical charities were for the proposal – that did not stick at all.

I mentioned before that the Detroit / Michigan Catholic Church is behind the opposition ads and has donated millions to it but they never, as in most political ads today, identify themselves by saying “I approve this ad” because it speaks for me and my views.

I said that to our resident super Catholic and he said that he opposes the stem cell proposal because of his Catholic views and why can’t the Catholic Church just say that it is against their belief system and that is why they are running these ads?

It appears that the Catholic Church in our state is not above playing dirty political games where they mislead people by outright lying and/or fabricating the truth.

I think the Church should be called out on this but I doubt there is any media type or organization that has enough balls to do that. I guess I will have to be the lone voice in the wilderness of our society that keeps sounding the warning bell against a Church that has a history of deception but depends on their lemmings to keep them in power.

SAME OLD BLACK CULTURE IN DETROIT OR NOT?

Today, our former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick went to jail for 120 days; I will not burden you with the whys’ – see previous blogs.

The man stood before the judge UNREPENTANT and actually ARROGANT TO THE END. He did not apologize to the city or its inhabitants for stealing their money and living large off their hard earned tax dollars. He did not apologize for lying his ass off UNDER OATH. He did not apologize for using the city as his personal playground and he did not apologize for using the citizens of Detroit as his dumb ass puppets.

He was scolded by a white judge for all the above but I wished a black judge would have done that but the last black judge that had anything to do with this case, tried to free him.

When he was handcuffed and led to prison, his supporters cheered and his wife offered her support even though he cheated on her numerous, now public times.

I did not see any Detroit blacks protesting outside with signs saying that he deserved more jail time for what he did to the city and as I have stated before, this is a black culture problem that needs addressed or there NEVER will be a time when Detroit residents are considered just plain citizens of Detroit and Michigan with the welfare of both as their primary concern.

My wife, who is big in the Detroit MLK Annual March Organization, assures me that there are MANY black Detroiters that are mad as hell about what Kilpatrick did to the city but I do not see much proof of that on TV or in the papers.

Kwame’s father was on TV saying his son was railroaded and that he will return ; his father is also under investigation by the FBI for corruption, etc. while a city employee. It seems his whole family was on the take, using their blackness to its full extent.

There are 18 black contenders for the office of mayor, all saying that the city needs a real mayor, one who actually cares for the welfare of the city and its citizens and maybe some of them really mean it. But I have to wonder, how many of them see another black kingship in the making.

Kilpatrick has already said that the citizens of Detroit have set him up for a triumphant return when he gets out of jail and I have to wonder if he knows something I don’t know.

WALL STREET BOYS NEED TO PAY!

Sunday, the program “60 Minutes” took a look at one of the major causes of our financial crisis: DERIVATIVES. I have talked about them a number of times but it is hard to understand and “60 Minutes” tried to explain them to the average Joe.

Basically, “Derivatives” were described as “side-bets”. They showed a football game going on and then showed the public in the stadium and explained that the spectators are not “in the game” but can bet on the game’s outcome (gambling).

Take that scene into a business situation where an individual or a hedge fund buys insurance (bets) on a deal between two other entities. Let’s say a Hedge Fund purchases / bets that a certain bank will fail or a certain company will default on a specific loan; the Hedge Fund is not involved in any of the businesses it is betting on, it is just betting that something will or will not happen.

We all know that in sports betting, if the money amount is high enough sometimes the bettor tries to influence the outcome to his advantage by maybe bribing a player to shave some points, etc. The same can happen in business, where “short-sellers” have been known to influence the way a stock moves, obviously in the direction that they bet on.

I mentioned before that this supposed financial activity is pure gambling and not a productive activity that benefits our economy. 60 Minutes said that this specific activity was illegal and deemed a crime not long ago but Wall Street somehow convinced the bozos in Washington to legalize it for them.

You may wonder how this gambling could have effected our economy so much, well all you have to know is that this gambling activity involved TRILLIONS of dollars and any activity involving those sums has got to cause quite a ripple in our economy and it has.

This type of irresponsible action on the part of our Congress and Wall Street types needs to be hung up for all to see and maybe throw rotting fruit at. New regulation banning gambling on Wall Street needs to happen immediately but I am leery about any punishment ever visiting the people that caused all this and that is disconcerting to me.

Because our Treasury Department is headed by a former Wall Street biggie; I’m pretty sure he will try to protect his buddies as best he can.

I just don’t want this financial mess to be placed on only the shoulders of Joe, the home mortgage defaulter; I want the big boys to pay too by not being rescued by our tax dollars but allowed to swing and die.

INTERNET POLITICAL MISINFORMATION

I was at a social function last night (mostly old, Polish people) and I could not resist bringing up politics even though I promised my wife I would not. As I engaged the couple sitting next to me, I was taken aback by something I have not heard about before; “Did you know Obama was not born in the U.S.”, implying that he is not qualified by birth and citizenship to be president.

I said, where did you hear about this and she promptly said, on the Internet. I said don’t you know better than to believe all that bullshit on the Internet generated by McCain supporters (I have never see like material from the Obama side – ever)? She looked at me in confusion as if to say, it was on the Internet, it has to be true.

I was surprised to read in this morning’s paper “ARE THEY U.S. CITIZENS? HERE ARE THE FACTS”. To me this means that the Internet bullshit is having its desired effect; it is placing doubt in minds that easily accept bullshit no matter how outrageous.

The column in the newspaper ended with “SOME LOGIC:” which basically asked the question, if this was suspected, wouldn’t they have raised this issue before and not with one week to go in the election – dumb ass!

You can go online to: factcheck.org if you have any doubts about any thing.

Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. Hawaii became a state in 1959. Obama is a natural born citizen.

McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. The Canal Zone was a U.S. Territory from 1903 – 1979. He was born to two U.S. citizens in a U.S. Territory therefore he is equivalent to being born in the U.S. according to the Constitution.

I think people, like the couple I talked to, grasp at these nonsensical straws because they don’t want to admit that they are racially biased and cannot vote for a black man period. As I mentioned, these people are older and I guess you cannot expect some of them to change or even become progressive with age; too bad.

A MOVIE FOR OUR TIME - SEE IT!

I saw a movie this weekend (Netflix) called IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH. It starred Tommy Lee Jones as the father, Susan Sarandon as the mother, and Charlize Theron as the detective among a stellar cast. I gave this movie five (5) stars, my best ever because it was an amazing movie that somehow touched me.

A young soldier returns from Iraq and then goes missing. His many body parts are discovered in a field close to his army base. His father, a career army man (retired) wants some answers and the story begins.

The army soldiers are all young and all have seen horrific action in Iraq. I think my experiences with varied personalities in the Air Force at the age of 18 (1966-1970) made me relate to this movie in a way that others with no military experience, may not.

I guess the basis for the movie is the psychological condition of young soldiers when they get back home and the military’s inattention if not downright refusal to admit that a huge problem exists with our returning soldiers.

In Iraq, the young men have the power to kill and also to be killed. They are young, yet have this awesome power of life and death. Under constant alert and apprehension, the people of Iraq somehow become non-humans, just the enemy. Life in general becomes expendable and normal rules of human conduct are somehow suspended.

The father tries to crack the military’s wall of silence about what happened to his son and eventually one of his son’s army buddies admits to stabbing him and dismembering him and not knowing why he just snapped that way. His other friends, who were there, just accepted the irrational, violent behavior as just something that happens to soldiers returning from action in Iraq.

The army content on just sweeping the whole thing under the carpet because that is what they normally do.

In my time, most of us were drafted or joined the Air Force so as not to be drafted into the army; I guess we did not want to be canon fodder. The all volunteer army was supposed to be better; soldiers that wanted to be soldiers. I guess during the Vietnam War, the draftees were more like citizen soldiers; knowing that their place is not in the military when the war is over but does that really make a difference?

Any time a police officer is involved in a shooting, he is ordered to undergo psychological evaluation not to see if he is crazy and that’s why he was involved in a shooting but because taking someone’s life is a traumatic experience for any one and he may need help to mentally handle what just happened.

I guess our soldiers do not receive any psychological debriefing when they return from war; maybe they should. This movie makes a case for such psychological help in a most dramatic and well told movie.

It is available on DVD and I can see why it garnered some Academy Award nominations.

REMEMBER MCCAIN AND IRAQ - FOREVER!

Hate to bring up Iraq at this late date but I have to keep reminding my friends that supported the war and Bush and many still do, about how wrong they were and how stupid they look now; your voting rights should have been taken away for your blind ignorance.

The United Nations legal mandate for U.S. occupation of Iraq is coming to an end. Not that Bush gives a shit about the U.N. or even the war in Iraq (he will be gone) but it is important if you want your actions and current position in Iraq to appear at least somewhat within some type of international legal framework.

To extend their “legal” occupation mandate, the U.S. and Iraq must agree to a plan for the future. The Iraqis must agree to allow the U.S. to maintain a troop level in Iraq for a specified time. Well, the Iraqis want the Americans OUT NOW!

Why do they want us to go? As I said countless times before, the various Iraqi factions want to get on with ruling the country their way not the American way. The Shiite clergy want to take control, unite with Iran and eliminate the Sunnis and Kurds; they don’t want to share the wealth.

So, countless Americans dead and maimed, countless Iraqis dead and maimed and what the fuck do we have to show for it – nada!

I guess I will always be ticked off at the people that supported Bush and his idiocy because I don’t think it is something that can be excused. Now some family members admit that they may have been wrong; I just want to remind them every chance I get.

I think people should keep reminding McCain about his stubborn and asinine support of Bush and the war in Iraq – every day. And I think the nation should reward McCain for his arrogant, misguided views on Iraq by dumping his ass big-time in the election.

WHAT OBAMA SHOULD BE SAYING RIGHT NOW!

This is what Obama should be saying towards the end of the campaign:

This economic crisis we are in has the whole nation as well as the world, on pins and needles; people are scared as hell.

People are wondering, how in the hell did we get into this mess; how did we allow ourselves to be blind-sided this way. Don’t we have smart people in Washington looking out for our welfare? Actually, you don’t and have not had someone watching out for you for some time; the Republicans fell asleep at the switch.

John McCain is attacking me as a socialist, as a big spender, as a wealth re-distributor; name calling from someone whose economic modus operandi allowed the mess we are in right now, happen.

Senator McCain cannot be telling voters that he will change things in Washington when he has been supporting all things Washington and all things Republican for years and years; is he saying he will dismantle what he has built?

What I will do for the nation and for the world is I will clean-up Wall Street and make sure it never causes such financial calamity ever again.

Wall Street was allowed to run wild. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chairman, testified in Congress that he erred in thinking that Wall Street would police itself. He assumed institutions there would not engage in practices that could hurt not only their shareholders but the national economy and even the global economy. He now realizes he was wrong to make such assumptions – obviously we are seeing the results of his assumptions.

Alan Greenspan and the Republicans that supported him failed us all and that is why I am telling you today that I will not fail you. There will be a new sheriff in town that will clean and sweep Wall Street from one end to the other.

Reading the media, you would think that all this was the fault of people making wrong –headed decisions about buying homes. Let me tell you that people who took out loans they could not afford probably should have known better but for highly paid, Wall Street whiz kids that invented creative but deadly games based on those bad loans, knew what they were doing was not financially sound but their greed and desire for immediate financial gains made them close their eyes to the risks involved.

Republican Washington and that includes Senator McCain, fed the greed on Wall Street by ignoring the need for regulation; things are going so well, why disrupt the party.

I promise you, that I will use all means at my disposal, to mend our economy as soon as possible and I will also take steps to prevent a recurrence of the situation we have now.

Senator McCain criticizes my tax plan and says that his plan would mean fewer taxes for all. Let me tell you that our immediate problem is not who will pay more or less tax, our immediate problem is putting our economy back together again and I maintain that I am better prepared to do that then someone who was part of the problem in the first place.
I am the new sheriff and I will bring law and order back into our economy!

MARIJUANA USE IN MICHIGAN: YES

The other proposal on the Michigan ballot is whether to allow the growth and consumption of MARIJUANA FOR MEDICINAL REASONS. Doctors would be able to write permission slips for people that may be helped (pain) by smoking marijuana. There are a lot of legal dos’ and don’ts in this proposal so it does seem there are a lot of precautionary measures to not allow its use for recreational reasons.

I have no idea how many people that suffer excruciating pain will be helped by smoking weed; I don’t think it matters, at least to me. What does matter to me, as in the prostitution case mentioned below, is the total irrationality of banning any and all use of marijuana when, in the same state, you can legally buy booze, get drunk and then jump in your car and potentially slaughter many innocent people that just happen to be out on the roads with this drunk driver.

In view of the legality of alcohol manufacture, purchase and consumption in this state, legal marijuana use would actually be less problematic than the problems created by alcohol abuse.

I am not a marijuana user. My body seems to reject any opiates and other such substances as evidenced by my near death in a hospital that injected me with morphine to alleviate my mega strong pain due to gall bladder / pancreas inflammation; I consider myself very lucky.

No, the marijuana proposal is all about logic and principal. So far, the polls are saying this proposal may pass. Thank heavens the Catholic Church does not object to smoking weed; how else can a hard working priest ever kick back and relax after tending all day to their flock.

STEM CELL PROPOSAL VS CATHOLIC CHURCH

I have written about this proposal on the Michigan ballot but the time to vote is near and the fight has intensified.

The proposal allows owners of embryos from fertilization procedures, to legally donate them to research facilities instead of allowing them to be destroyed; it is as simple as that.

The daily ad wars have escalated to a ridiculous level and I wondered who in the hell was paying for all this media activity. This morning one of our daily newspapers identified the Catholic Church in Michigan as a major sponsor. I can only guess that the proponents are funded by research facilities who would receive the embryos and regular, intelligent and kind people that see the great potential for good this research may provide.

We are talking about millions of $$$$$$ taken from little old ladies who donate every week to their church so they can go to heaven.

The Catholic Church side does not bring up religion in any fashion in trying to defeat the proposal. This is a new strategy on the part of the Church in part, I think, because so many Catholics support this proposal and might object to the use of their money to battle something they support.

The Church here and I guess everywhere, is fanatically against abortion / Choice, throwing out all logic and reason just to stand on a principal their own members do not support.

If the embryos were to be destroyed anyway, would it not make sense to use them in a cause that may relieve so much suffering in the world? The proponents are using this one pretty cheerleader that suffered a debilitating accident when she was fourteen. She said that she will never be able to walk and function as a normal human being and she will NEVER be able to breath on her own. Stem Cell research offers her hope, even a glimmer of hope, for the future.

The Catholic Church ads harp on ridiculous possibilities like combining human embryos with animal embryos and similar absurdities BUT the polls say that they are winning the minds of Michigan residents with their message?

If the proposal is defeated I would have to take my hat off to the Catholic Church since they obviously know the Michigan voter better. They see the voter as a total dumb ass that will believe any sound bite thrown at him or her without due thought and therefore is completely malleable to people with the skills necessary to influence such people.

The Catholic Church is a pro at feeding people bull; they have been doing it for centuries.

TWO QUOTES TO PONDER

I have two quotes from people that I would like to share:

Peggy Noonan, a conservative Wall Street Journal writer and former speech writer for Ronald Reagan said:

“In the end, the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American Politics”.

Jeffrey Sachs, Economist extraordinaire and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University said in “The New New Deal” in Fortune Magazine:

“I presume that John McCain and Sarah Palin will lose the election. Never has a national ticket been less equipped intellectually, temperamentally and practically, to confront America’s problems than this one”.

PROSTITUTION ISSUE IN SAN FRANCISCO!

In San Francisco, there is a proposal on the ballot for de-criminalizing prostitution. I have been writing about this for ages but our society, driven by its irrational and absurd religiosity, holds the oldest profession to be a criminal enterprise.

Instead of “legalizing” prostitution, San Francisco is “de-criminalizing” prostitution. So it is technically on the books as a crime because there is a law prohibiting it; Proposition K would bar / forbid local authorities from investigating, arresting or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.

Proponents say that the proposal would save $11 million dollars that the city spends annually to arrest and fine prostitutes who immediately after paying the fine, return to their chosen trade.

As I have mentioned before, this has nothing to do with common sense in that demand for sexual services has been around from the day history began; hell, even Biblical figures availed themselves of the service.

I have always maintained that the profession can definitely be cleaned up and made safer through regulation; it’s not ever going away so why not just accept it as a legitimate social entity.

We shall see if San Francisco is as liberal as it thinks it is. Only Rhode Island permits the sale of sex behind closed doors between consenting adults, but it prohibits street prostitution and brothels? I guess prostitutes list themselves in the Yellow Pages and you just call for service.
Nevada is the only state that does allow brothels in rural counties.

SOCIALIST TAG NEEDS TO BE WASHED OFF NOW!

During one of Obama’s campaign stops, the camera caught a lady screaming SOCIALIST at Obama. McCain and Palin reiterate that charge every chance they get – socialist! He wants to redistribute the wealth! How can you vote for him? I think the charge is having an effect on Obama’s lead.

It is no secret that I am a foe of socialism and preach capitalism every chance I get. But these days, the Republicans in charge, who swore to uphold the capitalist way, are using every socialist tool they know, to get the economy back on track – huh?

So McCain’s ranting against the socialism of Obama makes a kind of a hollow sound, but let’s examine the facts more closely.

I looked at both candidates and their tax platforms. Please remember that it does not matter what each candidate says he will do tax wise, Congress still has the last say as to what becomes law or not.

Looking at the tax proposals side by side, there is not much difference between the plans (well, Obama does give more to low and middle class people) until you get up high, say to the people that make $250,000 and above or the top 5% of the wage earners in the U.S.

McCain does not raise taxes on this group but Obama does; slightly. BUT Obama uses those tax increases to give to people that pay NO taxes, a kind of a refund, say $500. Since these people pay no taxes, this is more of a welfare check since they did not earn the so called “refund”. It is here that the charge of re-distributing the wealth; taking from the rich, to give to the poor, actually sticks and as we all know, that is pure Robin Hood socialism.

Obama defends his plan by saying the “trickle down economic theory” is obviously not working; that’s why we are in the mess we are in right now so we need to try something different. His argument here is right on but why isn’t it working when it has worked before? And will John McCain’s standard capitalistic economic methods suddenly begin to work when they are the ones that got us into the historic mess we are currently in– see how confusing this can be?

We have to reach back and examine the trickle down theory (Supply side economics) as opposed to the trickle up theory or (Demand side economics).

Put simply, when you give businesses and high income individuals tax breaks, they invest more money in business, allowing business entities to expand and sell more and in so doing, hire more people who use their wages to buy more goods – you see the logic?

Ronald Reagan (Reaganomics) followed this policy and made it work. Clinton, who was really a fiscal Republican, continued the program and prosperity reigned supreme.

The “demand side economic theory” also known as the “trickle up” theory says that giving the poor and middle class people more money through tax cuts, handouts, incentives etc. will prompt them to buy more products and therefore boost the manufacturing company’s sales, allowing them to hire more people who buy even more products – you see the logic here also - right?

I have always favored the supply side economic theory because it makes more sense and has been proven to work. On the other hand, giving the tax breaks or incentives to normal tax payers does not guarantee that those taxpayers will use the money in ways that will boost the economy. The last BILLION dollar incentive package to all tax payers produced no effect on our economy.

The point that I am trying to make here is that NORMAL ECONOMIC THEORIES DO NOT SEEM TO BE WORKING NORMALLY. Calling someone a socialist or a capitalist does not seem to mean what it used to and I believe the reason is that we have so corrupted our economy that normal rules cannot apply.

Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, was before Congress (poor old man) trying to explain how he screwed up because they now all blame him for our dilemma just as they were praising him in times of prosperity.

He made only one admission of guilt; that he did not regulate the “derivatives”. And here is the crux of our problem.

I posit that Wall Street has become a gambling Mecca (Hedge Funds, Short Selling….) where money is not invested to produce wealth through production, etc.; money is gambled on artificially structured financial strategies. The UNREGULATED gambling institutions play with TRILLIONS of dollars and when the economy does not perform as predicted, their goofy games collapse, bringing down legitimate financial investors that willingly or not, were caught up in this financial maelstrom.

Both presidential candidates must clean up Wall Street first. The days of Ayn Rand’s idealistic Laissez Faire economy can be achieved with success again but only after rules are applied and monitored.

BUT the socialist label still carries a negative stigma with Americans and re-distributing the wealth charges takes on an added negative as far as Obama is concerned, because it suggests “welfare” as in blacks on welfare which even poor whites react to with anger and disdain.

McCain has hit on an effective weapon against Obama because his supporters as well as most Americans don’t understand the real reasons for our financial free fall but do understand what welfare checks and food stamps stand for; freeloaders.

Obama, to reverse his potential decline in the last few weeks, needs to make Wall Street the monster that is devouring innocent people with its unrestrained and unregulated greed and name the Republicans (Greenspan & Bush & now McCain) as the keepers of Wall Street that kept feeding its greed instead of protecting the public from getting harmed by that greed.

Obama’s handlers, I am afraid, think populism / socialism will win the day; they are wrong and need to realize it quickly.

REVOKE TAX EXEMPT STATUS OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS THAT WANT TO PLAY POLITICS!

Well enough economics already, let’s get back to religion.

This Sunday, I attended a Catholic mass in memory of my father who died quite some time ago. This is an annual event that my mother really enjoys plus it gets the family to come together for awhile.

I must admit that the Catholic mass is one of the most mind numbing religious traditions I know. I was raised a Catholic and have quite a few masses under my belt but it still amazes me how dull, boring and inconsequential these things are. People attending act like robots, up, down, kneel, recite and the music – please.

Anyway, what caught my attention during the priest’s reading of announcements was his invitation and high recommendation to come hear a priest speak about how a good Catholic should vote in our upcoming national and local elections.

This brings up another interesting point which deals with a national challenge to an IRS law written in 1954 by Lyndon Johnson that tightened the language as to what a tax exempt entity really is and what it can do; specifically, that a tax exempt organization “does not participate in or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to, any candidate for political office”.

Last month, a number of religious ministers announced that they would defy the IRS law by openly preaching that parishioners should vote for John McCain and not Barack Obama. An organization that I support (Americans United for the Separation of Church & State) filed an official complaint to the IRS. There is also a bill (HR2275) making its way through Congress that would repeal the Johnson Ammendment.

The Catholic Church in Michigan is careful not to break the law by not naming candidates by name but they will urge parishioners to vote for the candidate that opposes abortion (McCain) as doing their Catholic duty. McCain used to be pro-choice but I guess principals don’t really matter when an election is at stake.

In Michigan, we are also voting to allow human embryos slated for the dumpster to instead be legally gifted to a research organization by the owners of the embryos; usually a couple that has undergone in-vitro fertilization procedures. The Catholic Church is obviously against the law and will urge its members to vote it down. It has been reported that many if not most Catholics in Michigan are for the law.

The battle against this stem cell law has been quite strange. In years past, the Catholic leadership among other religious denominations used the tenets of their religion to oppose the stem cell law but this time – no mention of religion at all. TV ads caution of mad scientists combining human embryos with that of animals just to see what happens and other over the edge reasons to vote no. The whole thing is very bizarre but who knows maybe their crazy arguments are actually effective with the great unwashed.

Back to the IRS law banning tax exempt organizations from political participation. Don’t get me wrong, individual religious ministers and priests can support whomever they want, just not as representatives of their churches like when they are preaching from the pulpit.

Let’s get back to basics which stipulate a separation between Church and State; one not interfering with the other.

I have always thought that if an organization does not pay any taxes but still uses what taxes provide like police and fire protection, they operate under the benevolent umbrella of those that pay taxes. I assumed, since they paid no taxes they did not earn a voice (vote) in how those tax supported services (government) were run or who ran them (politicians).

The people that are challenging the IRS law (Pulpit Initiative for the Alliance Defense Fund) state that their religion demands their participation in the political process when they see their country / society / community depart from the “Right Path” of godliness.

This puts us in an interesting dilemma. The recent political campaigns pandered to the religious right like at no other time in our history. They actively sought endorsements from various religious groups and made vague promises of “faith based initiatives” if they are elected. For all intents and purposes, politics and religion are already intertwined.

I don’t see how we can ban religious organizations from participating in our political process especially when the tenets of their specific religions call for social and political activism. The only clear solution to the dilemma is to lift their tax exemption status. The only organizations with tax exempt status would be true charities and organizations with no desire to affect our political scene.

THOSE TOXIC INVESTMENTS!

Let me touch on the other aspect of our financial crisis; Wall Street.

Billions of dollars in bad loans are at the heart of our problem but our problem is now a global financial problem thanks in part to the whiz kids on Wall Street.

Those whiz kids “invented” financial instruments called “collateralized debt obligations” or more plainly, “mortgage-backed investments”.

Normally, a mortgage is a “contract” between a lender and a borrower; once the borrower pays-off the loan, the lender hands to the borrower, the deed to the home property; plain and simple.

Sometimes, a lender will sell the mortgage contract to another lender if it needs cash but the mortgage contract remains intact as a contract between a lender and a borrower.

Wall Street managed to combine hundreds if not thousands of these individual mortgage contracts into saleable securities (bonds) with practically incomprehensible rules.

The way I understand this, since 1983, investment banks created “special purpose entities” that owned “pools” of mortgages and would issue shares based on the value of the mortgages in these pools.

A $300,000 mortgage at 6.5% (30 years) would issue 300 $1,000 bonds at 6.0% or at a rate lower than the rate of the mortgage, with 0.5% or so, going to the servicing institution (where you send your payments). Buyers of these bonds would earn a good interest rate and get the principle back when the mortgages were paid off. These bonds were marketed as super safe because they were backed by U.S. mortgages, up to now, safe investments.

When people started defaulting on their loans, the bonds based on those very mortgages now became, what can I say, at risk? Not only the interest payments ceased but the principle became endangered as properties were foreclosed on and sold at auctions for cheap!

It appears that these investment vehicles were sold and re-sold globally and now, many financial institutions holding these bonds are stuck with investments that are very suspect and cannot be sold or even valued properly thus the “toxicity” of those investments.

And our government wanted to buy these from institutions? How utterly stupid !!!

This house of cards would never have collapsed if it was not for the subprime mortgages, so it still goes back to the beginning and our government and its lax lending policies.

With all the brain power on Wall Street you would think someone would have noticed the potential risk. I think they did not see the risk because they did not want to; they pocketed their commissions and bought their Bentleys and never looked back.

Capitalism does not like regulation and functions best with minimal regulation. If that is so and we want to remain a capitalist economy, then we need to allow individuals and institutions to financially perish. Let holders of these worthless bonds take the sellers to court to re-coup their money or just take the loss.

I guess we are not prepared to do that and so we will inject more socialism into our system and add a lot more regulation to the system to prevent this from happening ever again.

Is this the end of capitalism; we shall see.