Interesting that during the last couple of days, while Wall Street took a major hit, Lehman Brothers crashed and burned, Merrill Lynch, and Fannie and Freddie gave us all headaches, the best the two presidential candidates could come up with was:
McCain criticized Obama for going to a $2,500 a plate Hollywood fundraiser given by Barbara Streisand. The night before McCain attended a Miami fundraiser which netted $5.1 million.
Obama blamed the crisis on the Republicans. No plan other than to be watchful of greedy Wall Street.
McCain's plan is to keep a watchful eye on greedy Wall Street.
Obama says McCain opposes government regulation.
Nice plan guys. Guys...
BTW, Al Gore invented the internet (2000 election) and John McCain is responsible for the Blackberry (2008 election). Vote for the one who lies less than the other one.
Phone calls to voters by Bush pollsters in South Carolina during the 2000 primaries asked if they would vote for John McCain if he had fathered a black child.
Phone calls to Jewish voters by McCain pollsters during the 2008 presidential asked if they would vote for Obama if he was a Muslim.
Michelle Obama's first cousin is a rabbi in Chicago. The congregation has 350 members.
Barak Obama has been criticized for his willingness to negotiate with Iran and Syria.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Republic or Democracy?
The Bush Administration has consistently declared that democracy is the best way to prevent and eliminate "ideologies of hatred."
This is a basic misunderstanding of the difference between a democracy and a republic. A democracy, in simple terms, is rule by the majority. In an ideal democracy the majority sacrifices some of its rule to the rights of the minority. But, what happens when extremists are the majority, as in the case of Hamas? Democracy and intolerance exist in tandem. Thus democracy in this case did not overcome the ideology of hatred.
In a republic, a large population, spread over a large territory, elects representatives. Ideally, this representative, owing little or nothing to any one faction, is better able to judge what is best for all of the people. This is my basic understanding of James Madison's The Federalist #10.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote extensively in the Federalist Papers that there are evils inherent in any form of representative government. As Madison stated they, "...may forget their obligation to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust."
In our republic, the rights of the minority are protected in many ways, not the least of which is the Bill of Rights. However, as Alexander Hamilton stated, even freedom loving people such as Americans may at times be willing to sacrifice their liberties as a response to "the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger." Furthermore the people may, "...have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free."
No Amendment has been under more attack since 9/11/2001 than Article IV:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
So the next time you are searched at an airport think about Madison and Hamilton and realize that when we surrender our rights the "terrorists" have won.
Thus, Madison and Hamilton foresaw America circa 2008.
This is a basic misunderstanding of the difference between a democracy and a republic. A democracy, in simple terms, is rule by the majority. In an ideal democracy the majority sacrifices some of its rule to the rights of the minority. But, what happens when extremists are the majority, as in the case of Hamas? Democracy and intolerance exist in tandem. Thus democracy in this case did not overcome the ideology of hatred.
In a republic, a large population, spread over a large territory, elects representatives. Ideally, this representative, owing little or nothing to any one faction, is better able to judge what is best for all of the people. This is my basic understanding of James Madison's The Federalist #10.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote extensively in the Federalist Papers that there are evils inherent in any form of representative government. As Madison stated they, "...may forget their obligation to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust."
In our republic, the rights of the minority are protected in many ways, not the least of which is the Bill of Rights. However, as Alexander Hamilton stated, even freedom loving people such as Americans may at times be willing to sacrifice their liberties as a response to "the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger." Furthermore the people may, "...have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free."
No Amendment has been under more attack since 9/11/2001 than Article IV:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
So the next time you are searched at an airport think about Madison and Hamilton and realize that when we surrender our rights the "terrorists" have won.
Thus, Madison and Hamilton foresaw America circa 2008.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Bully Good Show!!!
Did you know:
Theodore Roosevelt was governor of New York for less than two years when he became Vice President of the US.
He was 42 years old when he became president, the youngest person to do so.
He had five children with his second wife.
He was a Republican.
During his expedition to Africa after leaving the presidency in 1909 he did not shoot a single moose. They did, however, kill (sung to the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas): 12 topi, 11 gazelle, 10 oryx, 9 lions, 8 elephants, 7 hippopotamus, 6 buffalo, 5 zebra, 4 roan, 3 python, 2 bushbucks, 1 crocodile, and a partridge in a pear tree (and anything else that moved). BULLY GOOD SHOW!!!
TR seemed to have a thing for guns. There's lots of pictures with him holding a gun. A BIG gun.
His most famous quote: "Speak softly but carry a big stick."
In 1903 TR appointed Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to take part in a dispute and settlement with Britain over the exact location of Alaska's boundary with Canada.
Lodge defeated John Fitzgerald, JFK's grandfather, for the Massachusetts senatorial seat in 1916.
Lodge's grandson, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, ran for VP with Nixon against JFK in 1960.
Lodge was US Ambassador to South Vietnam at the time when John McCain was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese.
Later Lodge's son lost to Ted Kennedy for the same senate seat in 1962. Kennedy and his niece Caroline, daughter of JFK, both support Barak Obama.
March 7, 2006 speech by Barak Obama during the opening of a Senate Ethics Committee hearing in which he refers to TR..."What no one could have expected is that soon after the election, when President William McKinley was assassinated, the greatest fears of the corrupt machine bosses and powerbrokers came true when that former governor became President of the United States and went on to bust trusts, break up monopolies, and return the government to its people."
July 13, 2008...“I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,” Mr. McCain said.
Does some of this sound vaguely familiar?
Every word of this is true. I researched every word...
Good grief, history is spooky.
Theodore Roosevelt was governor of New York for less than two years when he became Vice President of the US.
He was 42 years old when he became president, the youngest person to do so.
He had five children with his second wife.
He was a Republican.
During his expedition to Africa after leaving the presidency in 1909 he did not shoot a single moose. They did, however, kill (sung to the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas): 12 topi, 11 gazelle, 10 oryx, 9 lions, 8 elephants, 7 hippopotamus, 6 buffalo, 5 zebra, 4 roan, 3 python, 2 bushbucks, 1 crocodile, and a partridge in a pear tree (and anything else that moved). BULLY GOOD SHOW!!!
TR seemed to have a thing for guns. There's lots of pictures with him holding a gun. A BIG gun.
His most famous quote: "Speak softly but carry a big stick."
In 1903 TR appointed Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to take part in a dispute and settlement with Britain over the exact location of Alaska's boundary with Canada.
Lodge defeated John Fitzgerald, JFK's grandfather, for the Massachusetts senatorial seat in 1916.
Lodge's grandson, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr, ran for VP with Nixon against JFK in 1960.
Lodge was US Ambassador to South Vietnam at the time when John McCain was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese.
Later Lodge's son lost to Ted Kennedy for the same senate seat in 1962. Kennedy and his niece Caroline, daughter of JFK, both support Barak Obama.
March 7, 2006 speech by Barak Obama during the opening of a Senate Ethics Committee hearing in which he refers to TR..."What no one could have expected is that soon after the election, when President William McKinley was assassinated, the greatest fears of the corrupt machine bosses and powerbrokers came true when that former governor became President of the United States and went on to bust trusts, break up monopolies, and return the government to its people."
July 13, 2008...“I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,” Mr. McCain said.
Does some of this sound vaguely familiar?
Every word of this is true. I researched every word...
Good grief, history is spooky.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Glass Houses
I find all of this religion doublespeak repulsive, on both sides.
We all remember the flak about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Obama's attending his sermons.
Well, people in glass houses...
From The Atlantic Magazine website:
From a sermon attended by Sarah Palin at her church on August 17, 2008:
So it's okay for her but not for Obama. BTW, if you criticize Obama for belonging to Rev. Wright's church, how can you, at the same time, claim he is a Muslim.
We all remember the flak about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Obama's attending his sermons.
Well, people in glass houses...
From The Atlantic Magazine website:
From a sermon attended by Sarah Palin at her church on August 17, 2008:
"What we see in Israel, the conflict that has spilled out throughout the Middle East, really which is all about Jerusalem, is an ongoing reflection of the fact that there is judgment," David Brickner told an audience at Wasilla Baptist Church that included Palin. He added that when his son visited Jerusalem, “He was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment -- you can't miss it."
The judgment he speaks of is God's judgment of the Jews, the "non-believers." Jews for Jesus exist for one purpose, convert Jews to Christianity. I bet there weren't many Jews in the audience that day in Wasilla.
So it's okay for her but not for Obama. BTW, if you criticize Obama for belonging to Rev. Wright's church, how can you, at the same time, claim he is a Muslim.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Alien and Sedition and the FBI
From the Washington Post September 13, 2008:
"Under the new plan, agents pursuing national security leads could employ physical surveillance, deploy informants and engage in "pretext" interviews with their identities hidden to assess the danger posed by a subject. Such threat assessments could be initiated even without a particular fact or concrete lead that a person had engaged in wrongdoing."
Compare the above to:
The Alien Friends Act (officially An Act Concerning Aliens) authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States."
The Sedition Act (officially An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States) made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials.
The above are #2 & #4 of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. These were aimed at French immigrants living in the United States. The Acts were deemed so repulsive by many Americans that they probably resulted in the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800. He had been in opposition to the Acts based on the Bill of Rights.
Think about this in today's terms and it is not far fetched to see parallels in our attempt to sanction foreign nations deemed enemies of "Democracy" and spy on alleged terrorists merely because their neighbor calls the FBI.
Deja vu all over again.
PS The third Alien and Sedition Act, passed in 1798, is still in effect:
The Alien Enemies Act (officially An Act Respecting Alien Enemies) authorized the president to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States.
"Under the new plan, agents pursuing national security leads could employ physical surveillance, deploy informants and engage in "pretext" interviews with their identities hidden to assess the danger posed by a subject. Such threat assessments could be initiated even without a particular fact or concrete lead that a person had engaged in wrongdoing."
Compare the above to:
The Alien Friends Act (officially An Act Concerning Aliens) authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States."
The Sedition Act (officially An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States) made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials.
The above are #2 & #4 of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. These were aimed at French immigrants living in the United States. The Acts were deemed so repulsive by many Americans that they probably resulted in the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800. He had been in opposition to the Acts based on the Bill of Rights.
Think about this in today's terms and it is not far fetched to see parallels in our attempt to sanction foreign nations deemed enemies of "Democracy" and spy on alleged terrorists merely because their neighbor calls the FBI.
Deja vu all over again.
PS The third Alien and Sedition Act, passed in 1798, is still in effect:
The Alien Enemies Act (officially An Act Respecting Alien Enemies) authorized the president to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The truth shall set US free
There's the old saying, "How do you know when a politician is lying? His (or her) lips are moving!"
This seems to be more and more true as we get closer to the November election.
Why can't these people just stand up and say, "Here is my plan." It always comes back to, "Here is my plan. The other guy is an idiot, and a liar." Personally I think in this election the idiot and liar part is probably true, but to paraphrase Isaac Newton, "for every lie there is an equal and opposite lie." And who really believes anything these people say. Just take a look at the 2006 election that the Democrats claimed would be 100 days of radical change. Oh yes, been there. And Bush claiming in 2000 that he was against "nation building." Oh yes, been there.
So I don't really care that much that one says a "pig with lipstick (which the other candidate has also said and which he conveniently forgets)" and the other goes on about the "bridge to nowhere." That's all history and these are the two candidates we are stuck with.
Now what they need to tell us is not how awful the other guy is, but what they will do for all Americans. Not this, "Change" deal that they spout, but a real honest to goodness plan. Like saving the housing market, stop the leaking US dollar, reduce the horrific deficit, get us out of foreign conflicts, and on and on. But will we believe anything they say when they base their candidacy on bad mouthing the opposition and distorting their own political record and just outright "falseifitoods?"
This seems to be more and more true as we get closer to the November election.
Why can't these people just stand up and say, "Here is my plan." It always comes back to, "Here is my plan. The other guy is an idiot, and a liar." Personally I think in this election the idiot and liar part is probably true, but to paraphrase Isaac Newton, "for every lie there is an equal and opposite lie." And who really believes anything these people say. Just take a look at the 2006 election that the Democrats claimed would be 100 days of radical change. Oh yes, been there. And Bush claiming in 2000 that he was against "nation building." Oh yes, been there.
So I don't really care that much that one says a "pig with lipstick (which the other candidate has also said and which he conveniently forgets)" and the other goes on about the "bridge to nowhere." That's all history and these are the two candidates we are stuck with.
Now what they need to tell us is not how awful the other guy is, but what they will do for all Americans. Not this, "Change" deal that they spout, but a real honest to goodness plan. Like saving the housing market, stop the leaking US dollar, reduce the horrific deficit, get us out of foreign conflicts, and on and on. But will we believe anything they say when they base their candidacy on bad mouthing the opposition and distorting their own political record and just outright "falseifitoods?"
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