Wal-Mart makes a move

Wal-Mart recently held a meeting in Beijing during which they discussed plans to improve saftey at their manufacturing locations.  In addition they will insist that factories producing goods for Wal-Mart follow strict safety regulations.  The best news was that they will put into place a way for goods to be tracked back to the location where they were made.  Also, food products will be tightly regulated.  This comes at a time when Wal-Mart and other retailers, plus the Chinese factories, are worried about consumer consumption and a drop off in the global market.

$22,800 on makeup

The New York Times reported that Sarah Palin's makeup artist, Amy Strozzi, was paid $22,800 for two weeks work.  This at a time that "Joe Six-Pack" cannot meet his mortgage payments.  

This is on top of the $150,000 spent on her wardrobe.  

How many other hockey moms can make this claim.  And how can the Republican Party justify this expenditure at a time of economic crisis?

But the McCain-Palin supporters will just brush it off without realizing they are facing more of the same if these two are elected on November 4.

Heeeere's Sarah!!!

She cannot name one newspaper that she reads on a regular basis.

"All of 'em, any of 'em that have been in front of me over all these years." 

She was totally unaware of what was intended for the $700 billion bailout package.

"But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."

She believes that a woman who is raped should not be permitted an abortion.

She believes a girl who is the victim of incest should not be permitted an abortion.

"I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent’s life." 

She thinks that being close to Russia is good enough as foreign policy experience.

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border."

She promoted aerial hunting of wolves.

She offered a $150 bounty for the leg of killed wolves.

She supports drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and that it is God's will.

“God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built.”

She is suing the federal government to prevent listing the polar bear as an endangered species.

"This month, the secretary of the interior is expected to rule on whether polar bears should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. I strongly believe that adding them to the list is the wrong move at this time."

She has stated that our troops in Iraq are doing "God's work."

"Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God."

"I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'"

And yesterday she announced to the world that the Vice President of the United States controls the Senate.  And as VP and being in control of the Senate she would "get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom."  This was in response to a question asked by a third grader.  You would think that someone who was elected governor of Alaska, and is a candidate for Vice President of the United States, would have some idea of what is written in the Constitution.  I'm sure she will blame Barak Hussein Obama for her stupid answer, but just in case she wants to know...

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

"As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?"

America needs a leader

"The American people aren't looking for somebody to divide this country; the American people are looking for someone to lead this country."

Take a look at the ads on TV and the words coming from the candidates and it is not difficult to tell which one I have quoted.  The Republican candidate for president and his running mate have run a shameful campaign of lies and distortions.  Characterizing Obama as a friend of terrorists is shameful. Emphasizing his middle name as though it labels him somehow different is shameful.  Calling him dangerous and risky is shameful. In fact, many of the people I talk to about the upcoming election are voting for Obama not so much because they feel he is the stronger candidate, but because they feel McCain and Palin have been so negative.  And that this negativity would carry over to a McCain presidency.  The Republican candidate has carried on with the Bush tactic of scaring the populace.  Bush was wrong about Iraq and that has cost us dearly.  McCain asserted quite recently that the fundamentals of the economy were strong.  Excuse me?  And perhaps worst of all his choice for VP shows a lack of good judgement on his part.  He and his staff should have thought long and hard about his choice.  The man is 72 years old and in not particularly good health.  He has battled cancer among other ailments.  Does anyone in this country believe that Sarah Palin would be capable of being president?  She seems to be unable to think outside the box that the Republican neo-cons like Karl Rove have built for her. She is unable to make any intelligent remarks and her speeches are nothing more that attacks on Obama.  This does not a VP or president make. The Republican candidates claim that Obama's economic plan would be a disaster for middle class Americans.  Well, McCain, have you noticed who has been in charge for the last eight years? It's been a disaster that you have backed. Obama is calling for higher taxes on only the highest two income brackets, the second being $182,000.  That's hardly middle class.  For that alone the American people should be very careful on election day.

But more than anything else, we need a president to rally around.  I see Obama as a positive role model for the youth of America, much more so than McCain.  And if something terrible should take place, I would much rather hand over the White House keys to Joe Biden than to Sarah Palin.

Collin Powell endorses Barak Obama

Colin Powell has endorsed Barak Obama for president, emphasizing that it the endorsement was not based on race.

He stated that the McCain-Palin campaign was concentrating on the negative and personal attacks against Obama.  In response to the claim that Obama is a Muslim, which he is not, Powell stated...

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society. “I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

“I think that [Obama] has a definite way of doing business that will serve us well,” Powell said.

“I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”

Socialism in reverse

It is rather ironic that the Republican party and John McCain would label Barak Obama a socialist. What is the irony?  When the government proposes to take over an ailing industry there is a term that can be applied: government socialism in it's classic form.  Now the supposed conservative Republican administration, behind the words of doom from Hank Paulson, is preaching that the Fed take over ailing banks.  The inability of the credit markets to solve their own problems has led to state socialism because only the huge taxpayer base has the resources to solve it.  Karl Marx to the Soviet Union to Henry Paulson.  What happened to private ownership and investing in the stock market and private health care so hailed by the conservative Republican Party? Gone. Collapsed. Now the Republican administration is hot for government takeover.  So first Bush says government takeover of Lehman Brothers would be a "moral hazard." Now Bush and Paulson would have the American taxpayer take on the bad debt of Goldman Sachs, Paulson's former employer from which he extracted a severence pay of, hold on, $700 million. McCain claims that Obama's financial outlook is socialist in nature, yet the present administration has undertaken the biggest socialist investment in the history of mankind...$700 billion worth.  Of course Bush and Paulson would never invoke the word "socialism" but indeed that is exactly what it is.

This is the same president who claimed that America would not become involved in nation building.  Little did Americans know that the nation he would not build is our own.  

How much worse off is every middle class American today that they were eight long years ago?

American unemployment has gone in reverse.  The value of the dollar has gone in reverse. Home values have gone in reverse.  Our reputation abroad has gone in reverse.  Thank you to everyone who voted for Bush in 2000 and repeated the mistake in 2004.  Hoepfully you will not make a third mistake because three strikes and you are out.

This is a form of socialism in reverse.  This moves money from the middle class to the rich.  

Joe the Liar

This interesting bit of news crossed the wires today...

"Joe the Plumber" is Joe Wurzelbacher.  His father is Robert Wurzelbacher, son-in-law of Charles Keating of Keating 5 fame. Wurzelbacher was an executive of American Continental Corporation, the parent company of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings.  Lincoln Savings was the bank that cost American taxpayers $3.4 billion (see September 20 post for more on Keating-McCain).  The father pleaded guilty to misappropriation of funds and did time in prison.  Nice shout out McCain!  Or maybe it was a different Robert Wurzelbacher.  Jones, Smith, Jackson, Wurzelbacher, an easy mistake right?

Tell enough big lies and maybe you'll be the next president.  Lord knows we've gotten used to liars in the White House.  

Two other points: 1) the supposedly average Joe the Plumber is looking to buy a business for $1.25 million.  He aint' poor.  2) the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters has endorsed Barak Obama, just in case Joe the Plumber doesn't know.  "Obama will help us keep existing jobs and work to develop new, higher paying jobs here in America, reform our health care system, fix our ailing schools and make sure that the pensions of our retirees are safe," the UAPP said.

15 minutes of fame indeed?!@#$