October 12, 2008 at 6:08 am · Filed under Personal
After nine years talking over the internet, John (or Mr Dolphin as my kids call him) is finally in the US for a first visit face to face.
After a grueling 20+ hours of traveling, we (Chris, Laura, and Heather) took him to New York City! Maybe not the best thing to do, being so tired, but he was a good sport.
On Broadway, we saw some street acts…
John at Times Square
Of course we me up with Elmo, and the girls posed with him
Here, John captures his four female traveling companions (the man has patience!) having a bite to eat at Abitino’s
October 10, 2008 at 7:40 am · Filed under News Items
You’ve likely already seen the video where young children are gathered to sing praises to Obama, the one who is ‘going to change the world.’
I already said in a comment, even if you replaced Obama’s name with someone I actually LIKED, it still would be creepy and weird. Who sings songs to Politicians? I mean, besides the Hitler video I posted on another post?
Well that’s where it’s different. Obama seems to be more than a politician. Even John from Australia said to me, “He’s an evangelist.”
Well he meant, that is his style.
But there is a new Video out. In it, Farrakhan claims Obama as the Messiah.
He says:
“You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. That’s a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.”
If some spiritual leader made the same remark about McCain or Palin, you’d have riots to contend with.
The things being said about him, and the things he is getting away with are astounding.
Maybe he is indeed the anointed one, question is, for what?
In Vegas: State authorities on Tuesday raided an organization that registers low-income people to vote, alleging that its canvassers falsified forms with bogus names, fake addresses or famous personalities.
The secretary of state’s office launched an investigation after noticing that names did not match addresses and that most members of the Dallas Cowboys appeared to be registering in Nevada to vote in November’s general election.
“Some of these (forms) were facially fraudulent; we basically had the starting lineup for the Dallas Cowboys,” Secretary of State Ross Miller said. “Tony Romo is not registered to vote in Nevada. Anyone trying to pose as Terrell Owens won’t be able to cast a ballot.”
Agents with the secretary of state and state attorney general offices served a search warrant on the headquarters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, at 953 E. Sahara Ave. shortly after 9 a.m. They seized voter registration forms and computer databases to determine how many fake forms were submitted and identify employees who were responsible. More…
In Missouri: Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.
Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.
“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.”
The nonpartisan group works to recruit low-income voters, who tend to lean Democratic. More…
In Ohio: Two Ohio voters, including Domino’s pizza worker Christopher Barkley , claimed yesterday that they were hounded by the community-activist group ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they’d already signed up.
Barkley estimated he’d registered to vote “10 to 15″ times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others. More…
Wisconsin: At least six voter registration workers could face criminal investigations after turning in 200 to 300 fraudulent registration cards, according to the Milwaukee Election Commission and the activist group that employed them.
In one case, “one woman called us to complain because her husband has been dead for 10 years and a voter registration was submitted,” said Sue Edman, the commission’s executive director.
In other cases, deputy registrars working for ACORN were “making people up or registering people that were still in prison,” said Carolyn Castore, ACORN’s state political director. More…
“If the America people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
And guess who made billions of dollars while Americans went into a horrible depression? The powerful international banking families who own the central bank we know as the Federal Reserve System. They bought up, usually through surrogates, failed banks for pennies on the dollar, centralizing and consolidating their control over more of the U.S. banking system. They did the same thing with many of the best industries and assets of the country.
Now I believe we are seeing the 21st century model of the same thing, only with a little different strategy.
The drama began to publicly unfold when the chiefs of the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, went to the president and the U.S. Congress and laid out an “apocalyptic scenario” of utter economic disaster for the country. They presented what they said was the only way to avert a national and international economic meltdown.
Paulson asked for a $700 billion bailout package immediately, with no strings attached. Such “strings” as no oversight, no accountability and no authorization required as to whom and how the money would be spent. And he gave a deadline of less than a week for this “ransom” to be paid, or it would be too late to avert utter disaster. Now I call that “blackmail” on a heretofore-unprecedented scale.
This caused me to look up the connections of this duo that were asking such a colossal thing with a straight face.
Just before Paulson became the secretary of treasury, he was the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. These are believed be two of the banking families who are part of the original owners of the Federal Reserve. Though just who the private owners of the Federal Reserve are is a closely guarded secret, it has been widely accepted that Goldman, Sachs, along with such names as Rothschild, Warburg Lehman, Kuhn, Loeb and Seif are private owners. For a normal American, there would be an immediate assumption of “conflict of interest,” wouldn’t you say?
The moment a man accepts the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, he becomes responsible to carry out the will and interests of the non-elected, mostly foreign owners of the Fed, not the U.S. government. So Benjamin Bernanke is in that role at this moment, and as such, has a conflict of interest in this bailout, too.
So with these two men asking for what in effect is illegal for the U.S. government to do, i.e., to bailout private banking and loan institutions from debts they incurred as a result of reckless and irresponsible loans, should be suspicious in the very extreme.
Did you read what he said. Those who own the Federal Reserve is a secret? For that matter do we know who actually owns the banks we have our money in? And if banking families made billions back then, how much are they making now?
October 8, 2008 at 10:43 am · Filed under News Items
Wasn’t last night debates BORING? I was excited about it as I learned it was a town hall forum. Then I heard the “big newsman” got to filter all the questions. Then I knew, it was lost.
First of all to say, I love blogging. I know that I had to be pushed into it, but once I got into it, I really started to love it.
I was aware that when I started that there would be a certain element of posting stories the mainstream media wouldn’t. I don’t like politics and I don’t like politicians, but if the newspapers and news would just do their JOB, us in the blogsphere could relax a bit. Never did I realize the blantant slants and the overall inability to see that the truth got out than these morons in the press. Shame on them.
Fortunately, and should I say, so far, we aren’t living in China, and we are able to be citizen journalists without fear of arrest. So I will take this as a job that should be done, and just do it.
Apparently I am doing my job well enough that people are beginning to send me news stories I might be interested in sharing. such as this one about ACORN and voter fraud:
In July last year, seven ACORN workers were charged with felonies in the largest voter fraud case ever in Washington state. Their enthusiasm for registering Democratic voters led them to submit more than 1,800 fraudulent voter registration forms, filled out from the telephone book. Five pled guilty. ACORN paid a fine.
âThis was an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls of King County,â said Dan Satterberg, King County prosecuting attorney.
After the smoke cleared in the 2004 Ohio presidential election, election officials reported that ACORN made a repeated practice of submitting large stacks of voter registration documents at the last minute, filled out months prior but held so late that any verification was impossible.
The Wall Street Journal wrote in that same 2004 Ohio election, an ACORN worker âwas given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey.â
The history of ACORN fraud and intimidation makes a long list. While Cynthia Tucker makes readers mad at mean Republicans trying to intimidate voters by asking them to show ID that proves who they are, ACORN is just one example that proves the need, for those of you who need proof.
Iâm among all the rest who know instinctively that showing ID to prove who you are when you vote is not only the simplest form of common sense, itâs common courtesy to your fellow voters. If you need an ID, and if you arenât so blinded by your rights that you canât see your responsibilities, getting one before the election is pretty simple common sense, too.
What about Obama? His involvement with ACORN began in the early 1990s in training staff and providing legal representation. ACORNâs political action committee has endorsed him and is now working to support his campaign.
Is anyone really trying to see that we have fair and honest elections? I don’t think so.
Oh, and here is a story getting little airplay except on FOX via an ad by George McGovern on a different kind of voting scam.
In the ad McGovern says: âIâm concerned about a bill in Congress that would effectively eliminate an employeeâs right to a private vote when deciding whether to join a union.
$30 million campaign to oppose Democratic-backed âcard checkâ legislation that would eliminate the secret ballot process required to unionize workplaces.
The Employee Freedom Action Committee, will premiere its first major ad during the second presidential debate Tuesday evening to criticize the Democratic Party for supporting the legislation, titled âThe Employee Free Choice Act.â It features Democratic heavyweight McGovern, who lectures his fellow party members for pushing the hurtful bill.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has promised to sign the legislation if he is elected president. He is a co-sponsor of the Senate âcard checkâ bill that was narrowly defeated the bill in the summer of 2007, but if the Democrats gain more seats in November the bill’s chances of passing increases.
Why do I fear Obama? I fear if elected, freedoms and liberties go right down the toilet along with yours and mine tax dollars. I pray I’m wrong, if not, IÂ will be the first to say, I told you so and THEY [journalist] didn’t.
Every house where love abides And friendship is a guest, Is surely home, and home, sweet home For there the heart can rest.
Henry van Dyke (1852 - 1933)
Not all, but most know that this autumn into winter is filling up fast at our home. We are very excited here and have been ocupied with preparations. I have already called most of my clients to let them know I will be very busy.
We have John coming in from Australia this weekend to stay two weeks! I find myself in a confused state of wanting him to feel like an honored guest but at home at the same time. How does one do that?
Enric and Miranda have also agreed to visit us, and over the Christmas holidays, Petra & Leoni will also stay at our home!
I am looking forward to a break from the normal, not thinking about this rediculous election, and to show off Maryland, Virigina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. I will try to pop in often though, even if only a short visit to show everyone what we’ve been doing and where we’ve been.
…a banker would draw a red line around certain neighborhoods that were off limits for the bankâs loan underwriters. No one in the government or the media cared that the people living in these neighborhoods were known for having bad credit. No one in the government or the media really cared anything about the borrowerâs credit history in general, or debt-to-income ratios, whether the borrower even had a job, or loan-to-value ratios, or a borrowerâs personal net worth and they certainly didnât think these factors should be considered in the mortgage process. That just wouldnât be âfair.â Owning a home in America is a right, by God! They even coined a term for itâNINJA loansâno job, no income, no assets. But these were voters, constituents, and they needed representation, regardless of what made sense. Things just escalated from there.
And guess what happened? Political correctness won out over common sense. The Feds made it crystal clear to banks and mortgage companies that if they did not bring more minorities and low-income Americans into the world of home ownership there would be a steep price to pay. Congress established programs like the CRA (Community Redevelopment Act) that helped activist groups and community organizers essentially halt a bankâs efforts to grow if that bank didnât increase the portion of its loan portfolio that consisted of these unqualified borrowers, and hence the âsubprimeâ mortgage mess. XYZ bank didnât want to loan money to Harry Homebuyer because Harry had a job history that looked like swiss cheese, owed way too much money on his 37 credit cards, and wasnât exactly known for making payments on time. Then politicians told XYZ Bank to figure out a way to make that loan or forget about opening those new branch offices across the state. The loan, and millions like it, was made under political pressure and predictably, the loan failed and now here we are. Thatâs your government at work. Attorney General Janet Reno and President Clinton promised âvigorous enforcementâ of these Acts and other programs and also promised to insure the demise of any who stood in their way.
Lenders were aware that a very high percentage of these loans would soon be worthless, but it was a price that had to be paid if the bank was to expand and grow. And to top it off, the Feds had these quasi-governmental companies called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that would buy these mortgages anyway. Certainly a government backed company could not failâŠcould it? These trash loans to unqualified borrowers were then bundled up and sold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae who held them for a time and then re-packaged them again to sell to other institutions and banks, who were understandably eager to reap the benefit of potentially rising interest rates from the adjustable rate loans. The banks and investment firms certainly thought the Fannie and Freddie loan bundles were sound since they came from governmental agencies. The expectation was that these loans would soon be paid off when rising home values led borrowers to âtapâ their equity through a re-finance or sell to move up to a nicer home. Uh-oh. Those drastic increases in real estate values didnât happen, did they? Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
The whole reason that real estate prices in many areas escalated so quickly was because there was such an incredible amount of money available, again thanks to the Federal government. Simple supply and demand economics came into play and when you have a ton of money and only a few properties, the price WILL increase. Any 18 year old Economics 101 student could tell you that.
Today this government created crisis is being peddled to the American public by one certain political party as proof that the free market and capitalism are failures. Nothing could be further from the truth. What weâre seeing is the inevitable, yet predictable result of political interference in free market economics. If the government had let well enough alone, had let bankers make smart decisions with their money, had refused to bow to the political pressure of community organizers and activists, we wouldnât be experiencing this crisis.
“Anytime government gets involved in anything other than what it was Constitutionally set up to do, the result is bureaucracy, failure, poor performance, and shoddy results that are easily outpaced by the private sector.”
Too many references to Hitler to ignore…. The first part in the following video are children singing praises to Obama, the second part, singing praises to Hitler.
October 5, 2008 at 7:17 pm · Filed under News Items
Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign blitzed bars and advocates for the homeless have lined up vans to ferry potential voters from shelters.
The prize could be thousands of traditionally elusive voters in hard-fought Ohio who would have the chance to register and vote on the same day — if the courts don’t intervene.
Grab people from homeless shelters to vote??? Do they buy them a sandwich too?
So here is what is happening today. People are showing up to register and vote. There is no affirmative evidence that these people have not registered or voted somewhere else. There is no control. Normally in an election, partisan election monitors are allowed into polling places so that they can police each other. But not in two counties, Franklin and Montgomery, in Ohio. Brunner also issued an advisory opinion to counties saying that they are not required to allow election monitors. Watch an election observer be turned away.
Seem harsh? People were polled and most felt we could have a better congress.
Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 17% would vote to keep the current legislators in office.
Last week, the House of Representatives initially rejected a financial bailout bill proposed by the Bush Administration. Later, after the Senate added a number of items that some call âporkâ and others call âsweeteners,â the measure eventually passed. While the bill survived Washington, it did so at a time when just 30% of voters favored it and 45% were opposed.
Only half (49%) believe that the current Congress is better than individuals selected at random from the phone book. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe a randomly selected group of Americans could do a better job.
Despite these reviews, more than 90% of Congress is likely to be elected this November due to an electoral system designed to benefit incumbents.
October 5, 2008 at 4:37 pm · Filed under News Items
Obama, Oprah, and the Guru: Malignant Narcissism
ByRobert Bowie Johnson, Jr.
Grandiosity, more than anything else, is what characterizes Obama’s character and campaign. Grandiosity is also, more than anything else, what characterizes narcissism, and Obama’s narcissism has become obvious to many.
Tony Blankley refers to Obama’s posturing as the “height of hubris.” Jeffrey Kuhner writes that Obama “is a self-absorbed narcissist who portrays himself as a political messiah — the anointed one.” David Limbaugh writes of the “unspeakably presumptuous extravaganzas as those [that] feted Mr. Obama at Berlin and Invesco Field.”Obama I am the Dream
In reference to Obama’s narcissism, Charles Krauthammer asks, “[H]as there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?” Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, writes that “Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist,” and offers a detailed explanation.
Obama’s entire campaign is nothing more than a demand to be recognized as superior without commensurate accomplishments. For individual instances of the undistinguished senator’s grandiosity, please see Barack Obama Audacity Watch.
“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” - Albert Einstein
Consulting Clinical Psychologistâs Reply
As youâve discovered, loving and forgiving someone doesnât protect us from who they are, how they behave, and any danger they pose to us. You have a right to protect yourself from physical, verbal, and mental abuse â no matter how the abuser is related to you. People employ different strategies in your situation. One strategy is to detach from your father and his abusive behavior, recognizing that he is still a danger to your self-esteem and that he is more invested in protecting his pride than his childrenâs emotional health.
Another strategy might be keeping him at a safe distance. Itâs like having a pet tiger â we love it but we still keep it in a cage around the house. We respect itâs ability to harm us and those around us. A safe distance is accomplished by visiting Dad only in teams or in family events, have no personal conversations with him â everything is casual, end all discussions and leave when his abusive comments surface, and make your position known to the famliy that you will no longer tolerate his behavior.
Another option is to recognize that your father has an abusive personality â always hasâŠalways will. Itâs not related to you or your sister, itâs related to his personality. Individuals like your father are often antisocial or narcissistic personality disorders who:
never accept personal responsibility for their behavior,
have an incredible sense of entitlement and demand for respectâŠthough not worthy of it, and
are nearly totally selfish in their relationships with those around them.
If your self-esteem and self-confidence are high enough, you can take this approach, much like employees who work in a prison recognize that the inmates are abusiveâŠbut they donât pay attention to it. If your self-esteem is not quite there yet, donât use this option as your father will emotionally batter you if you canât remain detached and recognize that heâs a chronic abuser.
Iâd recommend using whatever approach feels best for you. Keep in mind that others will have their own opinion. Many people have wonderful advice on situations that arenât related to themâŠitâs how they think they would handle it. In truth, you are doing what normal, healthy folks doâŠrecognizing that your father is abusive, that he poses a danger to your emotional health, and that you need to develop a strategy to deal with the situation. Youâre on the right track.
October 3, 2008 at 6:18 pm · Filed under News Items
My daughter and I made a strong point to sit down and watch the Biden and Palin debate last night.
Not long into the debate she picked up on errors and absolute lies on Joe Biden’s part. We didn’t find as many as StopTheAclu found.
1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted âthe exact same wayâ as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.
2. AHMADINEJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.
3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, âDrill we must.â But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to ârapingâ the Outer Continental Shelf.â
4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of itâs passage.
5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says heâs always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.
6. ALTERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCainâs record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.
7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on peopleâs health insurance coverage â they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false
8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska â she reformed the state tax and revenue system, itâs not a windfall profits tax.
9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATOâs International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.
10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation â he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.
11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was âdead wrong on Iraqâ, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.
12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldnât see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.
13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesnât meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of âpart of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.â
14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans wonât pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.
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After reading the list, we had to think…only 14? Seems kinda low.
In spite of the lies and partnering with Obama, truly, Biden is this year’s election’s comic relief. God Love Ya, Joe.
While Biden is the “old pro” some of the facts he gave last night were made up on the spot. The Delaware Senator blatantly lied about almost everything. Even the restaurant that he mentioned that he frequents has been closed for about 25 years. Below is a list of 22 lies that Biden made last night (courtesy of the McCain camp via Jim Geraghty).
THE CONSTITUTION: Biden: “Vice President Cheney’s been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. He has â he has â the idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the executive â he works in the executive branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.” Article I of the Constitution does not, in fact, define the role of the Vice President of the United States. It defines the role of the legislative branch, otherwise known as the branch in which Joe Biden has served for the last 36 years.
IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN SPENDING: Biden said that the U.S. spends more in Iraq in one month than it has in Afghanistan in six or seven years. That figure is off by only 2000 percent.
âKICKED HEZBOLLAH OUT OF LEBANONâ: Biden: When we kicked â along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said, and Barack said, âMove NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you donât know â if you donât, Hezbollah will control it.â Reuters thinks he meant to refer to Syria, but I still don’t think it would be accurate to say the U.S. kicked Syria out of Lebanon. The Lebanese kicked Syria out of Lebanon.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: Biden’s statement that McCain voted against the Violence Against Women Act is accurate. But as Robert Byers notes, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Morrison, the Court ruled that much of Biden’s law was an unconstitutional power grab by Congress of rights reserved to the states. Nobody voted against the WAWA because they support violence against women; they objected over constitutional concerns that a Supreme Court majority validated.
TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted âthe exact same wayâ as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.
AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.
OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, âDrill we must.â But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to ârapingâ the Outer Continental Shelf.â
TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of itâs passage.
OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says heâs always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.
ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to the liberal FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCainâs record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.
HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people’s health insurance coverage — they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false
OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska — she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it’s not a windfall profits tax.
AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.
REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation — he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie. MCCAIN MUST HIT BACK ON THIS !!
IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was âdead wrong on Iraqâ, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.
TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldnât see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.
BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesnât meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of âpart of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.â
REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won’t pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.
RESTAURANT: “Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie’s Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years.”According to this Delaware site, Katie’s Restaurant is no longer in business; locals remember it on Union Street 25 to 30 years ago.
ARMS CONTROL TREATY: Biden: “Number two, with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime. John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported.”I have no idea where Biden gets this “every Republican has supported” claim, as 49 other Republican senators voted ‘no’ with McCain. When the roll was finally called on October 13, the resolution to ratify the CTBT (including the six safeguards that Daschle had submitted as an amendment) was defeated by a 51-48 vote with one abstention. (See the voting record.) Forty-four Democrats voted for ratification as did four Republicans: John Chafee (R-RI), James Jeffords (R-VT), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). Fifty Republican senators and one independent (Robert Smith of New Hampshire) voted against ratification, and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) voted “present.” The treaty fell 19 votes short of achieving the necessary two-thirds majority necessary for ratification.
WEST BANK ELECTIONS: Biden: President Bush insisted on elections in the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, ‘Big mistake. Hamas will win. You’ll legitimize them.’”The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler notes that “Obama had been a senator for only a few days when the election took place, but if he made such statements, they did not appear in news reports or transcripts that are contained in the Nexis or Factiva databases.”
PAKISTANI WEAPONS: “Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan already has deployed nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s weapons can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean.” The distance between Israel and Pakistan is 2,085 miles, or 3355 kilometers This site indicates that the top range of Pakistani missile that can carry a nuclear warhead is 1000 miles. Biden is only off by about 1,1oo miles
October 2, 2008 at 5:54 am · Filed under News Items
“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” ~ Ronald Reagan
Congress continues to live up to its 10% approval rating and passed the Senate version of the bailout bill last night. The bill that started out as only 3 pages long (It’s now the length of a novel) has some interesting items attached to it:
New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill.
- Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)
Tax earmark âextendersâ in the bailout bill.
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia  (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)
Can someone please explain to me what the Exxon Valdez incident- that happened in 1989 - has to do with anything related to banks and Wall Street?
September 29, 2008 at 7:55 pm · Filed under General
This was forwarded to me and if it works or not, we’ll likely never know!
The Birk Economic Recovery Plan
I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college - it’ll be there
Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance - health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( ‘vote buy’ ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.
Sure it’s a crazy idea that can ‘never work.’
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
You’ve likely already seen the video where young children are gathered to sing praises to Obama, the one who is ‘going to change the world.’
