Political Venting - Before I Go Crazy

I've said before, I was no big fan of the bailout which was forced on us by the incompetence of the Bush Administration.

But now, incompetence is the least of our problems.

Instead of incompetence, we've gotten childish behavior on a grand scale. The House voted down the bill, with Republicans voting 2 to 1 against.

After the vote was completed, the minority leader of the House, John Boehner, came out and said that about a dozen Republican congressmen would have voted for it except that Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to the House and wasn't nice enough.

So basically, they picked up the country's economy and tossed it in the garbage because their feelings were hurt.

So, the Democrats taunted the Republicans (a poor sportsmanlike action on the front-end) and the Republicans went wee, wee, wee all the way home.

A pox on both their houses. I cannot see any better reason to completely change the atmosphere in Washington.

"Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers." - from wikipedia.com

These last 36 hours or so has become a very strange, American version of a kabuki theatre performance. All with the backdrop of a complete financial-market meltdown.

I must now express my dislike for bailing out Wall Street, but given the alternative of doing nothing, I see no real choice. The credit markets are freezing up. It is impossible to avoid that fact.

If Warren Buffett says this is the way to go, I'm going to believe him. He hasn't been wrong yet, as far as I can tell.

During all of this yesterday, it appears that John McCain decided to hang Barack Obama out to dry when Barack tried to have them come together and make a statement about this issue.

Here's the basics of the timeline from yesterday, according to multiple press reports:

8:30am - Obama calls McCain saying that he thinks they have common ideas as to what is needed for this problem and maybe they should put out a joint statement on the subject. McCain was in a "meeting" and unable to take the call. His campaign says that Obama didn't say the reason for his call.

Yup, Obama was calling just to see how McCain was feeling that day. That makes sense.

2:30pm - McCain calls Obama and tells him that he thinks both should suspend their campaigns, postpone the debate on Friday, and go to Washington and work on this crisis. Obama, who was just finishing a campaign rally, tells McCain he needs to talk to his folks about it and would get back to him.

3:05pm - McCain goes before the press and states that he is "suspending" his campaign and will be going back to D.C. to get a bill together to save us all. By the way, he's not going to debate Barack Obama at Ole Miss unless there is an agreement by Friday.

Barack Obama walks into his hotel room to see this. No chance given to talk to his campaign staff and consider what would be best.

McCain, who's fitness for office George Will this week questioned, decided to offer a bi-partisan approach to this crisis. Then, before the person who was supposed to be his partner on this deal had a chance to decide (sorry, 30 minutes in a car does not really count as time to fairly consider the range of options), he goes off unilaterally to blaze a trail to almost nowhere.

Now you tell me, if you had a person who did this to you, would you trust him any further on any other issue. Of course not, because he cares not about your actual feelings or actions.

Given that Barack Obama has tried (and pretty much succeeded) to be a steady hand in this complete mess, this seems to be John McCain's attempt to make Obama look bad.

But what is it really doing. As of this moment, it seems to have completely gummed up the works of an agreement which seems to have been struck between the White House, the Democrats in both Houses, and the Republican Leadership in at least the Senate. Good move, Mr. McCain.

But it continues to be the abject cynicism which surrounds the McCain campaign that I think is silly and sad. His campaign is all make-up and movement, but no real substance. He has yet to make a coherent statement on economics or the economy.

Heck, the "suspension" of his campaign is not a suspension at all. All of his surrogates were out taking pot shots at Obama and Democrats, although they seem to be the only ones with actual proposals and ideas.

There is said to be a proposal coming from the intransigent House Republican's, but for all we know that could be increased prayer. We, the American public, have actually not been told anything about this other proposal, so we have no idea whether its a good idea or not.

For all I know, this is just one big show to help make John McCain look relevant. But the silence of what they are proposing is deafening.

Now, this is not to say that Barack Obama has been perfect throughout this crisis. I would have liked him to come out with a stronger plan for solving this problem, but then again, maybe he was listening to his friend, Warren Buffett. Like I said, Mr. Buffett says it, I consider it golden.

And Mr. Obama has played a role in this play also, although the make-up on him seems much thinner. Not that there's a ton of answers (who has all the answers to this complete screw-up), but at least he has tried to be a steady leader in the midst of this crisis. I'll take that over jumping about like a madman, moving quickly from one set of ideas to the next without any connection between them.

Tomorrow we shall continue to see the dance. There will be thrilling highs and mighty lows. Expect the stock market to fall around 500 points until there is some agreement, if there is one. All of it will signify little, as the plan which ends up being passed will probably be much like the one agreed upon earlier today. Everyone will pat themselves on the back, take deep bows, and say their candidate for president is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Will we, as a country, be any better off for their delays and dancing about? Only G_d knows.

But doesn't this stupidity speak greatly to the need to change the environment in Washington. This theatre, for all it's drama and comedy, is tiresome and gets in the way of our business, the people's business.

When are we, as a people, going to stop rewarding this kind of behavior? It insults us all.

The make-up must come off, the dance must stop.

I am the father of boys. Of this, I am quite happy. The only girl I've really had consistently in my life is my wonderful wife, Tracey.

Well, I had another, until today.

On Rosh Hashannah, 1992, Tracey found our little cat Sipsey. She was a black cat, stumpy, loud and a lovings-slut. I loved her. She was sweet, she was demanding, she was playful in her own way and she had almost no grace.

She was a part of our lives from that day in 1992 until today. She had grown sick over the last few days, and today we let her go. It was unfair for her to have to life any longer as she struggled to eat and move. I just didn't want to let her go, but we did. Sadly.

Sipsey was sweet. As sweet as a little girl gets.

I will miss this girl, the only one who has been a constant for me for so many years. We will all miss her in this house.

I have a degree in Economics. This means that I have very little idea about what's going on in the economy, but I really like graphs. It also means that I get to make as little sense as almost everyone else, including economists, about the economy.

I have watched very closely over the last few days as the financial markets have convulsed again and again. Today's tight wire act over AIG and tonight's rescue by the government shocks the hell out of me. We, as taxpayers, are forced to pay $85 BILLION for the joy of now OWNING the largest insurance company in the world.

I'm amazed by this. I'm amazed at what it is now costing us to fix 8 years of Bush Administration incompetence.

The U.S. government has now taken over, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, backed up the bad assets of Bear Stearns. My only question is why the hell they didn't buy Lehman Brothers. Why not? What makes them any different from the rest?

How the hell can any Republican look the American public in the eye and say they are for smaller government? That is one of the biggest lies EVER!!!!! It ranks right up there with "the check is in the mail."

Oooh, but the check is in the mail. It is our checks, coming out of our paychecks on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, that is funding the lack of regulatory oversight. It is our money which is rescuing companies which were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do by the Bush Administration. It is our money which is not being used to make us safer, or educate our children, or give us better health care, but is being used to socialize an insurance giant.

And let's face it, John McCain is nothing but a continuation of these same horrible policies. He is Bush III.

I'm just angry. Angry at how we are being jerked around by this President.

This is what incompetence looks like. From Katrina to Ike to Wall Street to Iraq, this administration has been one train-wreck after the other.

Sad, sad, sad.

There are 7 weeks and 3 days left before the election. John McCain and Sarah Palin have MO, and all of us who support Barack Obama are understandably nervous. Why? Because many of us have been down this road before (i.e. Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004).

The campaign has become us defending lies thrown at us from the McCain Smear Machine. So what can we do to turn the tide?

Well, I have a belief. I think that Americans are tired of being lied to. That's all that has happened the last 8 years; lie upon lie upon lie upon lie. So let's be honest with America. And let's not be afraid to call a lie a lie, and a liar a liar.

The way to make sure America knows they are being lied to is to tell them when a lie is a lie. And every time a lie is said, keep count and tell the American public that it is.

First, Obama and Biden need to get together and be honest with America. Tell them the real truth about where we sit as a country. Our financial institutions are falling apart quickly. The home mortgage crisis is not getting any better. Our government is so deep in debt that no one can realistically see a way out.

And the McCain campaign wants to talk about lipstick on a pig. They lie in just about every one of their ads to the American public. They refuse to be honest, about how they plan on continuing the Bush years because they are offering no other solutions. They lie, and then they lie some more.

McCain was once a maverick, but that mantle is gone. So he lies to the American people, every single day.

Everyday between now and the end of the campaign, we need to tell the American people the truth, and will be glad to help them in seeing McCain's lies by putting out how many lies he has stated or advertised that day. Just so the American people can see more easily how much the McCain campaign and their surrogates are disrespecting the American people and lying to them about everything that is important to this country.

And everyday, we as supporters of Barack Obama, we need to tell our friends and neighbors how they don't deserve to be lied to anymore. That we should not be so abused as to allow this to happen to us again. That we cannot afford another 4 or 8 years of lies.

So, let's be honest. Let's be honest every minute of every day, even if people are afraid of the truth.

As the Bible says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!"

Today’s bullshit controversy about Obama saying that change is not “putting lipstick on a pig” just proves how stupid the media really is. But while watching "Morning Joe" today, Joe Scarborough came up with a great idea. I shall share it with you as I expand on the idea:

Barack Obama should come out today and say -

“OK John McCain, you want to send your surrogates out to call me sexist, that’s kinda chicken. Call me a sexist yourself. Come stand right in front of me and call me a sexist. I was raised by a single mom who was successful in raising her children to be successful in life and who I loved until the day she died. I was also raised by a wonderful grandmother who gave me love and understanding about what was really important in this world. Call me a sexist in front of her, if you dare. I am married to an incredible woman who has been incredibly successful as a mother and a business woman, not even including how great she is as a wife. Call me a sexist in front of her. I say good night every night to two wonderful girls, who because of Hillary Clinton, I know they go to sleep every night with the possibility of becoming President of the United States. Call me a sexist in front of them.

I have been lucky enough to be influenced by many great women. So have you, I’m sure.

But you have your campaign go on programs and accuse me of being sexist, even though you said the EXACT same thing about Hillary Clinton earlier this year. Does that mean that you are a sexist also? I dare you, come to me and call me a sexist. You don’t support equal pay for equal work, come here and call me a sexist. You have stated you want to disband the department of Education, so important in teaching our young boys and girls. Come here and call me a sexist.”


And at the end of all that, have Hillary Clinton on every show she can possibly get on and call John McCain on the carpet for his hypocrisy.


DO IT CHICAGO! TAKE THIS JERK DOWN!!!!!

Over the past few days, I’ve listened and read a whole bunch of junk about John McCain’s choice for VP. As I am now extremely tired of the BS coming from both sides, I think we need to boil down the questions about Gov. Palin down to only a few basic questions. None of these have anything to do with her family, her religion or her ability to hunt moose (which a speaker at last night’s Republican Convention mentioned as being worthy of praise).

Here's what I think should be the thrust of any discussion of Sarah Palin at this time. Simple and straight forward.

1 - That she is a fine person, but does that mean she's ready to be President?

2 - That although she has experience in as an executive of both a town in Alaska and the state of Alaska, there has been controversies in both places about her unfairly firing those who did not do her bidding. In fact, she's under investigation in one of those incidents. If she were to be elevated to the office of President, would she use the same criteria on personnel decisions as she had previously used? Does this not follow the example of Nixon during Watergate?

3 - That although she talks about fiscal responsibility, she made sure that her town of 7,500 people was the recipient of over $21 million in earmarks. She hired a lobbying firm for this purpose. She also was not, as she had earlier stated, against the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" until it became obvious that it wasn't an idea anyone would be behind. Does this rebut her claim of fiscal responsibility?

4 - She believes that "creationism" should be taught in schools alongside "evolution", as if it were a scientifically validated theory also. Does she really believe this and to what ends would she work to make it come to pass?

5 - She is against a woman's right to choose. She is specifically against the idea of a woman being able to get an abortion in cases of rape and incest. Does her stance not seem both judgmental and (in the case of a victimized woman) cruel?

6 - She has stated that she does not feel the Vice President's job is important, and as of a few months ago was not sure of the responsibilities of the office. Does she understand the importance of the office, the responsibilities of the office, and the constitutional constraints put on the office?

7 – She has not spoken at any length about foreign policy. She has only left the northern hemisphere once in her life. What are her beliefs/opinions about the dangers she sees in the world, outside of the talking points which the McCain campaign is going to give her. What is her grasp on world history, and our relationships with other countries?

8 - That this decision is not really about Sarah Palin. This is really about John McCain's judgment. Instead of standing by his beliefs, he instead chose Gov. Palin without completely investigating her background and political beliefs. He did so because he was afraid of the extreme right-wing of his party, putting his own political future ahead of his country's needs. Does this call into question John McCain’s judgment as chief executive? How often does he make decisions without learning all the facts available to him?