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.

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM IS SOUND; OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT!

Recently, looking over some of my left-leaning, socialist wife’s reading material, I happened on a call to arms flyer from the Workers World Party. The flyer had these bullet points: “Karl Marx was right” and “Why Capitalism is Doomed to Fail”.

Larry Holmes, leader of the Workers World Party will speak about factors behind the worldwide capitalist economic collapse, why capitalism cannot solve its basic contradictions and about the growing demand to bail out workers and not Wall Street. Mr. Holmes will explain why socialism, an economic system run by workers, plans production to meet human needs and not profits for the rich, can provide jobs, housing, health care, education and a comfortable life for everyone free from racism, sexism and oppression.

For one that loves and studies history on a continuing basis, this is just a fabulous time where I get to see history in the making but also history as part of a recurring cycle.

We obviously have heard all this before. Communism made some grand promises, quite similar to the above mentioned flyer. We all know what happened in countries espousing the Communist Economic Theory and yet here we go again? All those years of unrivaled prosperity making us the richest nation among nations ever and here we have a bump in the road and people want to toss the system?

Our capitalist system of laissez faire (minimal government interference) and open markets has hit a snag lately, a really big snag and knowing the reasons why will help get us moving again.

I am a capitalist who believes in the system and the system has proven itself time after time but have we tinkered with the system to the point where its principals have been compromised? Well, I think so.

My wife thinks capitalism is such a cold, uncaring system where risk taking is rewarded with monetary success without regard for the welfare of the greater society. I will admit to that but in the long run, it is the success of the risk takers that benefits society as whole the most and socialism, in the end, rewards only the slackers in our society that are taken care of no matter what they contribute to society.

I submit that it is our socialist tendencies (among other factors to be mentioned later) that contributed to the economic problems we face now. Our misguided good intentions are to blame and not the capitalist system.

Everyone now knows that it is the housing / mortgage market boom that was the iceberg that our economy ran into. We wanted all Americans to share in the joys of home ownership and so our government encouraged lax mortgage lending practices. They formed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, quasi governmental agencies to buy up these mortgages, basically creating a market for mortgages. Since Freddie and Fannie were ostensibly backed by the wealth of the US Government, they could borrow money to buy up those mortgages at rates that were not available to regular business entities.

Builders and developers saw the demand for homes skyrocket since now, everyone could be a home owner; the building and buying boom started.
The huge bubble created by the housing boom was not sustainable and burst when those borrowers that should never have been allowed to borrow, defaulted on their loans. The homes lost to foreclosure were then sold at auction at pennies on the dollar which in turn created a surplus of available properties at lower and lower prices bringing the value of all homes down.

This would never have come to pass if the capitalist system was allowed to work on its own.

Our government created the housing bubble when it allowed and encouraged subprime lending. Under normal circumstances, only those borrowers that were deemed capable of paying off loans would be allowed to obtain mortgages. Some may say this is a cold process but we, as a society, must believe that some people will never be home owners and only renters, as a fact of life.

Also, our government created Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, uncontrolled financial institutions that could never exist and should never exist under a capitalist system. These institutions did not play by normal rules; they were accountable to no one and grew into monsters.

I guess what I am saying is that our government is ultimately to blame for our current situation. It interfered with a system that calls for minimal to no government interference and in so doing, corrupted the very principals our economy is based on.

When I say “our government”, I suppose I need to break it down to specific parties or individuals. Actually both parties are to blame but the Democrats probably a little more.

Democrats are socialist by nature and loved the fact that poor people were being allowed to be home owners. Republicans by nature defend capitalism but turned their heads away and let the Democrats inject their socialism into our non-socialist system.

In fact, Senator Chuck Hagel (Republican) had a bill pending that would rein in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae but, if you can believe this, Fannie and Freddie hired high power lobbyists to sway the Republican vote against the Hagel bill. That lobbyist is now working for John McCain.

NEED TO KNOW ROOT CAUSE OF OUR DILEMMA!

Well, as predicted, this morning the stock market is up some 600 points (largest intra-day gain in history) because after the scaredy-cats bailed out of their holdings, the bargain hunters came rushing in. But let’s not forget, the stock market is not our problem the economy is and we should discuss what is causing this turmoil.

Economists point the finger at DEBT as the cause of the meltdown. At fault are the debtors who took easy credit without a thought about re-payment and the companies that offered the easy credit without a thought to that person’s ability to re-pay. Even our government pushed Fannie May and Freddie Mac to make riskier and riskier mortgage loans just so every American could be a home owner without a thought to whether they could pay these loans back or not.

It’s as if the whole country got drunk and did things only a drunk would do and apparently, we didn’t sober up until now!

I was aware that the “loan” business was booming. Many people quit their regular jobs so they could make more money signing people up for mortgages; I just never though anything about that at the time.

Now in retrospect, I assign the first blame for our dilemma to our government which restructured lending regulations to allow non-banks to make mortgage loans. Every Tom, Dick and Harry was offering mortgages. Remember the commercials for Giant Mortgage or something like that, saying if you call before 5pm, zero down payment!

These so called mortgage originators like Rock Financial, Quicken Loans, etc. made their money when they sold the loans to financial institutions. Why didn’t those financial institutions ask about risk? Probably drunk like everybody else.

Why did our government loosen lending rules so much? I would say socialism (Republicans didn’t complain) which wants everyone, even those at the lowest levels of society, to enjoy the good life (home ownership).

Some are saying people should have known better and I agree but if someone in a suit and tie is telling you that of course you can afford this house; maybe he knows better than I what I can afford or not.

I do remember walking through my neighborhood and seeing these young families with all those young children in these up-scale homes and thinking to myself that when I was their age, I couldn’t afford shit; maybe they all hold high executive positions or something. But what really had me puzzled is that nearly all households with all those children had a stay-at-home Mom (not working) so single wage earner – wow!

Now we know the score. If lending rules remained as firm as they originally were, we would not be in this position right now. But also, our economy would not have shot up as it did with new home building and buying at a record pace and this feverish pace continued for a good long while, to the point that many thought it would never end - until it all came to a screeching halt.

PS: I just looked at the DOW and it is close to 1,000 points up for the day; another one for the history books.

DON'T BUY "TOXIC" SECURITIES!

I will be talking about the current economic crisis at some length because it is historic and because it will, eventually, touch us all.

I was against the Paulsen bailout plan because it seemed to me to be a knee-jerk reaction without enough non-political discussion by economists. Remember, this is “unprecedented” so there are no guidelines available.

The Paulsen plan proposed to buy “toxic” securities from financial institutions and thus allowing those institutions to have a clean slate and money to hopefully lend and thus restore stability to the financial markets.

This is a flawed plan because there is no right or correct way to value these sub-prime securities. The government would then, after buying these securities, would have to form a huge, expensive bureaucracy to unravel these securities and then try to renegotiate individual mortgages so they can be re-sold as stable (not sub-prime) mortgages or whatever is decided to do with them to get back the taxpayer dollars used to buy them. Sounds like a mess to me.

Since the bailout plan was passed by Congress, some are suggesting that the governmentl use the $700 Billion to buy “preferred shares” in troubled banks. In this way we give the bank funds to use in their operations, the taxpayer has real assets for their money and when the crisis is over, the assets are sold for a profit - sounds like a good idea to me.

Realize this is “nationalizing” banks, a socialist thing to do but hey, I didn’t vote for the plan. Use the ownership position in these banks to clean them up; fire management and put in people that are competent and while your at it, set up corporate policy that will prevent stupid practices that got the bank into trouble in the first place.

This plan is better than the original plan but may also not be enough to get the banks out of trouble but give it a try.

Write your Congressman to demand the Treasury Department “invests” in banks and does NOT purchase toxic securities.

Yes, I know I am bouncing between capitalism and socialism; I will try to explain later...

A HISTORIC WEEK FOR SURE!

Well, last week will be in the history books. Wall Street had its worst week in the 112 years that it has been in existence. Must admit I have been reading and watching excitedly not wanting to miss anything as history was being made right in front of me.

Obviously these are not the best of times so as I relish the historical implications of the times, I am also trying to understand and decipher what is going on so I can make intelligent decisions concerning personal finance and business in general.

As it stands, there is not much I can decide about or offer advice on; its too late. My investments are already way down so moving stock mutual funds into cash is dumb because I will be selling at the bottom and probably would not be able to recoup the losses for many years. On the other hand, staying in the market and actually buying more shares at the bottom seems to be the most prudent thing to do at this point and something that may pay off big in the near future.

Obviously, staying the coarse may not be something retirees can do. Their investments are what they live on and financial advisors have been preaching that you must be invested in some stocks even if you are retired because many people live much longer and need the historically better growth potential of stocks to bonds to finance their long retirement years.

I guess it all depends on how low will the market go and how long will it stay there before things start going up.

The first thing to remember is that the stock market is not the same as our economy. Just like the crash of 1929 did not cause the Great Depression, the current downward spiral of the stock market is a side show to what is happening to our economy.

We know that the stock market is unpredictable and moves sometimes on rumor or whims. Fear is a big factor in the investment world and I think a huge factor in what is happening right now. This became quite clear on Thursday when the market plunged in the last hour of trading. Why? Investors watching the market all day decided to get out of their investments so all the large mutual funds now had to sell shares at fire sale prices just to pay all the investors cashing out all at once.

I believe that the people that panicked and cashed out of their investments are done; cashing out at pennies on the dollar next week will be insane so I believe the market will stabilize around people that for all intents and purposes, have to stay the course. It may also be a time for bargain hunters who will get the best stock prices they have ever seen.

More on this history in the making later…

MCCAIN SUPPORTERS SHOW TRUE COLOR

The behavior of people attending recent John McCain rallies tells us something about this country and something about John McCain.

Videos of McCain rallies in Minnesota show very angry white people, some downright out of control, demanding McCain start getting tough with Obama because they do not want to see that MUSLIM ARAB TERRORIST become president.

To McCain’s credit, he took away the microphone from a woman making those statements and said that Obama would make a good president and is a good man, implying that he is not a Muslim Arab Terrorist, at which the CROWD BOOED MCCAIN – can you believe it!

Here is the irony; McCain’s campaign managers are putting out ads that accuse Obama of befriending a terrorist and like I mentioned before, the terrorist moniker carries in today’s America, the additional, some say automatic, intimation that the terrorist is also an Arab and a Muslim.

So, on the one hand McCain does not want to be seen in the company of white, bigoted morons lest people may think that is the crowd he is reaching out to, but on the other hand he wants the American voter to see Obama in just those terms.

Obama has acknowledged McCain’s defense of him in front of such crowds but went on to challenge McCain on issues such as the economy; like honorable politicians should do.

Like I mentioned before, it is unfortunate that Americans are still hung up over race, nationality and religion (my family included) that making a choice for the office of president is not just based on who the better candidate is. It is naïve to think people will think and behave in rational ways. Obviously, the McCain campaign is counting on it and thus trying to throw more wood on the burning fire of bigotry.

ANOTHER DESPERATE McCAIN PROPOSAL!

Another desperation move by McCain.

During the second Presidential debate, McCain said he would instruct the Treasury (when he becomes president) to immediately buy up mortgages of people in foreclosure.

The Treasury Department would then issue a new mortgage to the home owner in foreclosure BUT base it on the new, greatly depressed market value of the home.

Let’s look at this closely. Taxpayers would pay off the mortgage of a home owner in foreclosure; let’s say $300,000 that he owes the bank. The taxpayers would then turn around and give the same home owner another mortgage at a low interest rate for let’s say $100,000; the current value of the home.

The guy that sold him the original sub-prime mortgage makes out like a bandit and so does the homeowner who bought a $300,000 home that he will pay $100,000 for and re-sell it at $300,000 when the home market picks up again.

All of us who pay our mortgages on time and would never have gotten into a sub-prime mortgage situation because we have a few brain cells; we are the taxpayers who would bail out these twits who through greed and/or stupidity got themselves into the untenable situation.

Does this in any way make fiscal sense or is this a desperate cry for votes without giving the matter any serious thought.

McCain is unstable, his handlers are unstable and even Palin is probably wondering what the hell did she get herself into.

DEMOCRATS; Quit being so cocky!

WARNING TO DEMOCRATS – YOU ARE WAY TOO COCKY AT THIS POINT!

I have noticed lately that whenever I flip the TV on, I see Democratic analysts, spokespeople and the like assuming an air of certain victory and that is not only very stupid but dangerous.

At the same time, I hear Republican counterparts admitting that McCain is behind and probably not going to win in November. Even McCain himself is saying that he definitely is an underdog in this race.

This is a tried and true maneuver that has worked countless of times in countless races; Americans favor the underdog. They favor humility instead of bravado and they will vote accordingly.

McCain is definitely in desperation mode but that is when he is most dangerous and the Democratic premature celebration of victory may doom them – so cut the shit out – I really thought they were smarter than this!

McCain's reveals true character - anything goes!

We are in an economic free fall. We are experiencing an economic crisis that is of monumental and historic proportions and all McCain and his stooge, Palin can address is the fact that Obama knows a 1960’s radical who belonged to the notorious “Weathermen” group.

This guy named Bill Ayers is a respected professor at the University of Chicago, named citizen of the year by Chicago for his community work and a board member of several Chicago charities was a bit radical in the 1960s. But he is not in jail or sought by the police for criminal prosecution so what the hell is the problem here.

The problem is that McCain is in trouble and he is being told to attack. In the last few days I have heard nothing but this crap about Obama palling around with a terrorist. Using the word “terrorist” implies a connection with “Arab Terrorists” and not “U.S. Radicals” as Ayers, et. al. were called in the 60s, so people with limited intelligence will quickly associate Obama with Arab terrorists and imagine what – that Obama is a Muslim undercover terrorist?

Guilt by association is a slippery slope and McCain better watch out. McCain has a long history in Congress and had time to do a lot of questionable things. One that comes to mind is his association with this guy Charles Keating that was a star in the Savings & Loan scandal of 1990s. McCain supported him to the hilt and then he was convicted and sent to jail for stealing millions from ordinary folk. Why don’t we explore that friendship and believe me there is way more public evidence of misconduct on McCain’s part then the casual association Obama had with Ayers – two can play at this game.

Actually the McCain thing is quite timely since the public is madder than hell about the greedy Wall Street fat cats that are getting away with millions while the country collapses. That is exactly who Keating was and McCain was his boy in Congress helping him steal millions.

On ABC News with Charles Gibson, Obama was asked about his relations with Ayers and he answered them straightforward. McCain was asked why in this economic turmoil is he talking about Obama’s relations with Ayers, he hemmed and hawed and said that Hillary Clinton asked about this relation also BUT what the fuck does it have to do with our crumbling economy – no answer.

This is plain Karl Rove politics that McCain knows very well because he was a victim of Rove when he ran against Bush. He knows how these made-up lies can actually turn the tide in elections because people don’t take the time to think that they are being played; they just react as predicted.

I hope that in these historic days of world turmoil, voters with brains and sound reason prevail. Remember what got the U.S. out of the Great Depression – WWII.

McCain, in desperation mode, gets dirty!

John McCain has pulled out of Michigan. He will concentrate on only the states that he feels he has a chance of winning. His numbers are down all of a sudden and he has to pull out all the stops if he is to win the presidency.

Why are his numbers down? I think the recent economic debacle has something to do with his numbers taking a dive. Republicans have always been on the side of business and voters want the party that has always stood for the middle class; the working class that is getting its economic ass kicked.

The fact that the economy tanked on Bush’s watch also is a factor. McCain voted with Bush nearly 90% of the time and voters don’t want another Bush in the White House.

So what does John McCain do? He starts hitting below the belt like the Republicans did to Kerry. He must feel this is the only way to win; after all it worked for Bush.

Palin is now dredging up Obama’s relations with his crazy pastor and saying that he pals around with a terrorist. I have covered this nonsense in past blogs when I discovered members of my own family were buying into those lies.

Palin and McCain are now attacking Obama’s character as unsuitable for the presidency and even possibly dangerous to the nation if he should be elected. They have given up on issues; its all about character and maybe even the color of his skin.

Obama is pointing out that they are trying to divert attention from the state of the economy by attacking the man and his family. Yes it is a desperation tactic but it has worked in the past so why not go for it.

As much as I admired McCain’s integrity and honesty in 2000 when he was running against Bush, I now think he has become Bush / Rove and therefore has lost all credibility with me and I hope other voters as well.

It is a shame to see a man so enamored with the office of the presidency that he would sell his own soul to the devil for it.

WILL THE BAILOUT PLAN WORK?

Well the “bailout” passed the House today. I knew it would because no one wants to be blamed for ushering in a depression. On the other hand, this bailout may do nothing to prevent an economic calamity; we just don’t know.

Details of this plan that was voted on and signed by the president in a matter of hours are just starting to come out. To make the plan more palatable to more people, the writers of the bill attached more and more “goodies” to the original bill.

It will be interesting to read the “final” version of this “rushed” bill knowing that very little time was spent in examining the pros and cons of the provisions in the bill.


Today some details of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) were made available but even though the document is 451 pages long it does not address or list the steps that are needed to implement this program; the Treasury Department will just play it by ear. Imagine if you were given $700 Billion to use as you saw fit – wow!

Actually the money stipulated in the bill will be doled out in three (3) sections ($250/ $100/$350) with close bipartisan oversight at each step.

The Fed will contract with up to ten (10) asset management firms to operate the program and here, I already see great potential for mismanagement and possible corruption because that is what happens when our government contracts out specific jobs to the private sector. Just look at the millions if not billions of dollars that have disappeared into thin air in Iraq with nothing to show for it.

Certain provisions of TARP make sense; others are not related to the problem at hand at all.
Congressman Domenici added a mandate forcing health insurance providers to cover mental health problems as they do physical problems. Also in the bill are tax incentives for renewable energy programs, extensions of several personal and business tax cuts that were to expire together with an extension of the AMT (alternative minimum tax) relief law.

I did like the provisions to limit CEO golden parachute deals and increase FDIC insurance on bank savings accounts to $250,000 for one year.

Also, the companies that will sell their bad debt to the government will have to issue “warrants” to the Fed, in effect giving the government an equity position in the company. You can see that the lawmakers wanted desperately to have a bill that would not just be a bailout of rich, greedy people that made really bad decisions but an investment where the Fed could actually make money.

Well, I am sorry but I just don’t have any confidence in our government to make this plan really work but hey, lets give the plan a chance…

THE VP NON-DEBATE!

I watched the Biden-Palin debate last night and wondered why the call what happened last night a debate.

Palin, as expected, was programmed by experts. The questions were all very predictable so the answers were well rehearsed and sounded a lot like the standard stuff you hear in the commercials or in speeches given by each candidate; there was nothing new.

Palin was so well programmed that if a question was not to her liking, she would just answer a question she was programmed to answer even though it had nothing to do with the question asked by the moderator; quite bizarre.

Neither candidate “won” the debate but supporters of each will claim victory. Friends and family told me they would make up their minds as to who to vote for after listening to the debates. I suspect that they have made up their minds long ago but wanted to seem like they actually made their decision based on a careful examination of each candidate’s positions in the debates – hogwash.

If you really wanted to examine the debate closely you need to read the papers the next morning. I really like when they examine each answer as to its “truthfulness”. Its one thing to listen to a candidate deliver his or her answer but another to read whether it was correct, semi-correct or total bullshit.

I think each candidate needs to be compelled by the moderator to answer her specific question and not just deliver a sound bite from their rehearsed speeches. This particular moderator tried but then just gave up and that is why this debate was so worthless.

More compelling and revealing are the interviews Palin has been allowed to do especially the one with Katie Couric. Poor Katie would ask for specifics like what papers and magazines do you read on a regular basis and Palin’s answer would be “all of them”. When pressed to just name one Palin would just wave her hand and repeat “all of them”. Or her now famous non-answer, “I will have to get back to you on that one”.

I really hope more and more of the “real” Palin come out in the next few weeks so voters can see that she is just a programmed robot and not a real, thinking person.

McCain will do his best to keep her inaccessible to the media and for the very act of doing that as a political ploy or shall we just say “trick”, I cannot ever entertain voting for him.