Bushed!

As I listen to the President, not Obama, but that guy that quacks a lot, he just said the increase in the job losses is a result of the credit and housing issue. Question, could it have anything to do with Bush economic policies? Nah, he won't take any responsibility for his actions on his way out, just like he has avoided any responsibility for any of the mess he created in the last eight years.

When I watch Bush, I realize how much I can't wait for someone else to be President!

Your Blowing It Obama

Why! Why! Why! Bill Richardson as Commerce Sec.? Maybe he will be good at it, but why put someone as Sec of State who disagrees with you on the most important foreign policy issue of our time, and then put someone with Richardson's experience in foreign policy and energy as Commerce Sec? Oh, and Richardson wasn't for the invasion of Iraq either. So very disappointed.

Why Detroit Should NOT Get Bailed Out

I am not saying that something shouldn't be done, but when I see a commercial on TV, this very morning, for the new Hummer H3T(which uses a V8 instead of the inline 5 of the H3)I have to say, the what now? Yeah, I know the Volt is coming and it is the savior for GM, but if they are gonna keep selling and producing vehicles that won't sell, is that the fault of a poor economy? Or is it more poor planning from Detroit that you and I will have to pay for?

Since the only stupid idea, is the idea not said, how about a merger or two in the American motor sector, or if nothing else, a little consolidation of the brands? Maybe instead of having a street full of Chevy, Buick, GMC, Hummer, Saturn, Pontiac and Cadillac dealers, you have a GM dealer that has all the brands?

How about stopping the duplicate car making. For years, GM has made a car or truck, which they change a few exterior details, and called one a Chevy and one a Pontiac. Did we need the Cavalier and the Sunbird? Did the Camaro and Trans Am battle for the same buyer? Does every GM brand have to make an SUV that looks the same except for the brand logo on the hood or grill? Is there really a difference between Chevy trucks and GMC trucks? Basically I am saying, it should be a GM Impala or a GM Vue or a GM G6. And of course, they can always just make better vehicles and stop making cars with the philosophy that defects can be fixed under warranty.

When I was turning 16, I wanted a Camaro. Not because I wanted to buy US, but because it was a Chevy Camaro. If I was 16 now, the last place I would go to would be Chevy. GM, Ford and Chrysler need to find their way again, and maybe the Volt will do that GM, but something tells me not as much as people hope.

al Qaida #2 Just More Blah Blah Blah

This election must have been tough for the brain trust of al Qaida to spin. But, they have put their collective heads together and come out with one. They are really stretching here.

Al-Zawahiri can be heard saying, "In you and in Colin Powell, [Condoleezza] Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning 'house Negroes' are confirmed."

You know your message is in trouble when you resort to "house negro".

I'd Like To Be Bailed Out Too!

Dear Government,

I am writing you to ask that you bail me out like you have the financial institutions and maybe Detroit. I, like those businesses, have been foolish with my money and spent unwisely. I lived in the moment and did not plan for the future or develop the strategy to adapt to changing times and demands.

Sure, I could could probably fix it myself, but that would take too long. And in order for me to stay competitive in the human race, I ask for your help. And unlike some companies, I won't hold any, let alone two lavish "sales" meetings, while holding out my hand for billions in assistance. In fact, I am not looking for billions, $100,000 should get me on the road to recovery. But I would like to reserve the right to ask for more in case I am foolish again.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Debates Better Than Tylenol PM

I have been having trouble falling asleep the last few months, but not when the debates are on. I haven't finished one of these debates yet. Someone wake me when they are talking about the issues.

Power by Example, Not Example by Power

While most of the talking heads are talking about other parts of President Clinton's speech, to me the most important line was we have to get back to power by example, not example by power. It isn't what our President or our military does over the next 10 years that will be the example, it will be what we as Americans do as a country. And it starts this November by picking a President that does not continue decades of policies and ideologies not of or for the people!

irREVerent Jackson

You know it is bad when your own son throws you under the bus.

(NBC) Jackson even took heat from his own son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., for writing a column last year questioning the commitment of Obama and other Democratic presidential candidates to the needs of black voters. Jackson Jr. wrote a response in The Chicago Sun-Times with the headline, "You're wrong on Obama, Dad."

He has also released his own statement regarding the elder Jackson's comments on Sunday.

"I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Rev. Jackson's reckless statements about Sen. Barack Obama," said the younger Jackson.

I saw this animation on The Hotline, and like they say, timely.

Happy Revolution!!

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Oil, Nation Building And Propaganda Are Why We Are In Iraq

So says McCain and former Bush loyalist Scott McClellan.

For 6 years, myself and others were ridiculed and called every name possible by those who were fooled by the Bush Administration(Cheney). But today, it is them that have to accept that what they were promoting were nothing more than lies and propaganda to reshape the oil rich Middle East into a more American friendly area. And by more American friendly, I mean more friendly to companies like Haliburton. I think what is clearer than ever is, that Dick Cheney has been running this country like a war for profit business over the last 7 years.

And unfortunately, revelations like this by McClellan will do nothing to quiet any theories that the WTC attack was an inside job or if nothing else, was not stopped because of what they wanted to do in Iraq and the Middle East.

And if you want to have 20/20 hindsight, take a gander at this.

Sorry Hillary, We Are In The General Election Now

When the President makes a fool of himself to bash Sen Obama in the Knesset, and Sen McCain does not even mention Sen Clinton anymore, it is time to gracefully bow out and fall inline.

And if there was any doubt that Sen Obama cold hold his own against Sen McCain in the general, round one to Obama. Not because of the video of Sen McFlippidy saying we will have to deal with Hamas, but because a sitting President on center stage, elevated you to a world leader. And let's not forget, Sen Obama is correct on this too.

And for you "appeasement" people, here is some good watching.

And if you want a comedic take on it, at about 2:30 into this video, Stephen Colbert gives his take. The first couple minutes are pretty funny too.

Ballistic Missile Cones Look Like Batteries?

Maybe it's not completely the White House's fault for military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you are making these mistakes, then what other blunders are you doing?

(Chicago Tribune)At a news conference, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said Tuesday that the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ballistic missiles. He also said it was sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by Taiwan, he said.

Either this is a big mistake, or a way to cover up the arming of Taiwan. You deicide.

More Military Failures During The Rumsfeld Era

Nothing like cutting corners on the protection of the troops. Especially when the proper equipment is said to cost more than "future" vehicles not even made yet. That's right, in a war that is already going to cost in the trillions, the military bureaucrats treated the safety of our troops

as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded.

Or maybe it was a threat to future military contracts that bureaucrats in D.C. were worried about?

The study's author also says,

"While the possibility of individual corruption remains undetermined, the existence of corrupted MRAP processes is likely, and worthy of (inspector general) investigation."

There's no business like war business!

MSNBC Once Again Folds To The Clinton "Group"

Let me first say, David Shuster's comments were foolish. Should he have apologized? Absolutely. But should he have been suspended? No way. In case you missed his comments, this is what he said in regards to Chelsea calling people, like the women on "The View", to vote for her mom.

"Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"

Let me first go back about a month, when Chris Matthews basically said that some of Hillary's rise to fame was due to Bill's infidelity. Immediately, MSNBC was flooded with emails and protests outside the studio from Clinton supporters and women's rights activists. The next day, Matthews, with his tail tucked firmly between his legs, apologized to Hillary. Yet Matthews wasn't suspended. So why is Shuster being suspended?

Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, called Shuster's remark "disgusting," "beneath contempt" and "the kind of thing that should never be said on a national news network." Wolfson appeared to suggest that Clinton is reconsidering an agreement this week to participate in an MSNBC debate Feb. 26 in Cleveland, saying: "I at this point can't envision doing another debate on that network."

Nothing like the kettle calling the pot black......I mean Jessie Jackson......I mean a fairy tale...I mean a coke dealer....I mean friend of a slum lord. This image of Hillary being so tough, yet this business of her crying, needing her husband to attack Obama and unleashing Wolfson on MSNBC suggests that she isn't as strong as they would like you to believe. Is she going to cry when she has her first major issue as President? And will she have to call Bill in to fight her battles?

So while David Shuster's comments were wrong, he is usually one of the best political reporters MSNBC has, and this suspension is ONLY for the purpose of trying to save the Feb. 26th debate. So my guess is that you won't see Shuster until the debate is secured, or possibly even Feb. 27th. Way to have a backbone MSNBC and NBC.

Clinton Infusion Of Cash Nothing More Than Media Stunt?

Gee, what a surprise. First Clinton doesn't win Super Tuesday, then Mark Penn says Obama is the establishment candidate and Clinton is the underdog and then Clinton goes on tv and says she gave $5 million of her own to her campaign.

Maybe that is why some former Clinton staffers are voting for Obama?

I Barocked The Vote!

This will be the fifth Presidential election that I will vote in, it was however, the first time that I voted in the primary. While Obama seems the clear favorite to win the popular vote in Illinois, it's all about the delegates. The Illinois delegate breakdown is as follows,

100 delegates based on the results of the 19 congressional districts
+53 delegates based on the statewide vote
-------
153 pledged delegates
+32 super delegates (as of now, 18 to Obama, 1 Clinton and 13 undecided)
-------
185 hard delegates

If that didn't make sense, or it's easier to read a graph, click here.

W. McCain and Mitt Obama

I am listening to Sen McCain in Nashville from earlier today on CNN right now, and I swear I am listening to Bush circa 2004. Withdrawal is surrender, I'll chase OBL to the gates of hell and Democrats will ruin America. Yeah Yeah Yeah, Blah blah blah.

I am so tired of listening to him regurgitate Karl Rove's talking points. If Sen Obama wins the nomination, McCain doesn't stand a chance.

Does Gov Romney have to pay royalties to Sen Obama for his "new" rhetoric? Romney is now talking about the American people and "Change". What is this, like the fourth or fifth Gov Romeny? I believe I will refer to him as "The Chameleon" from now on. Flip flop is so 2004.

Health Care Question

If Sen Clinton says that 15 million people won't be insured under Sen Obama's plan, and it will cost taxpayers money if the uninsured go into the emergency room, then who does it cost when subsidies are given to the same people under Sen Clinton's plan? And if you are not going to fine them or punish them in a mandatory health care system, how are you going to enforce that? And how much will that enforcement cost taxpayers?

There was an episode of West Wing where Josh and Toby were talking to a guy in a bar, and the guy was telling them about his trip with his daughter to see the campus of Notre Dame(Go Irish!). He said that the cost was so expensive, he just wished it was a little easier. He made a good living and wanted to send his daughter to a good school. He said there was something honorable in putting your child through college, he just wished it was a little easier. He didn't want a handout, he just wanted it to be a little easier. I believe Americans want health insurance, they just want it to be a little easier.

NY Chapter Of NOW Blasts Kennedy For Supporting Obama

Marcia Pappas, the head of the NY chapter of NOW, has taken Sen. Kennedy to task over his endorsement of Sen. Obama. But if she really feels the way she says, then why would she want him supporting NOW anyway?

"Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him."

"We are repaid with his abandonment. He's picked the new guy over us. He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton," she added.

Hmm, I was under the impression that Sen. Obama was black? I was also under the assumptin that Sen. Obama wasn't running on race or gender. So you would think she would stop at that, but no, she didn't.

Pappas blasted a number of other people and Democratic groups, including national Democratic Chairman Howard Dean, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, and "Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women's money, say they'll do feminist and women's rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America's future or whatever."

You would hate to think that Marcia Pappas is saying that women should only support Sen. Clinton. But it does sound like a cheap attempt to guilt women into voting for Sen. Clinton instead of going with those white men.

The official NOW statement is a little less angry.

The National Organization for Women has enormous respect and admiration for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- Mass.). For decades Sen. Kennedy has been a friend of NOW, and a leader and fighter for women's civil and reproductive rights, and his record shows that.

Though the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee has proudly endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, we respect Sen. Kennedy's endorsement. We continue to encourage women everywhere to express their opinions and exercise their right to vote.

The on thing I would say to NOW is, if you haven't been getting what you want from the government, why would you support someone who is part of that problem?

Can Obama Be The Third Party Candidate That Wins?

I have been bouncing this idea around for the last couple days. With Sen. Clinton just as much of a possibility to win this nomination as Sen. Obama, if not more, should we give up if she wins? The more and more I hear people like Joe Scarborough talk about his conservative friends being moved by Sen. Obama or Andrew Sullivan posting messages from his readers and other conservatives saying they would endorse Sen. Obama in the general election, I think not.

With a chunk of Democrats and Independents along with moderate Republicans, I think Sen. Obama can win. If your choices are Sen. Clinton or Sen. McCain/Gov. Romney, I think Sen. Obama can actually win as a third party candidate. What more of a way can the American people say they want change then to elect Sen. Obama as a third party candidate.

I know this is probably a pipe dream. Being the person Sen. Obama is, he would never insult the party, or be seen as insulting the party like that. I just hope someone in the Obama campaign is at least crunching some numbers to see the viability of it, because something like an Obama/Hagel ticket would be a very formidable one.