Worlds Apart

Looks as if McCain can't get his campaign straight he is apt to lose this race. The debate showed more than the fundamental idealogies of the two candidates. It showed two men of distinct characterizations. Obama, a calm, collected figure who withstood constant dismissal by McCain, a distant, backward looking candidate who seemed very uncomfortable in the setting (almost constipated). This should have been a runaway for McCain, being the topic was foreign policy, his supposed expertise. The debate outcome, about even in content (McCain edge), but more importantly, the perception of being Presedential, without a doubt goes to Obama, who made McCain look like the inexperienced one.

With less than two months before the election, Republicans and Democrats are driving it home: This is the election of the century.

And they're right: There is a lot at stake this year. This could be the year we change the lives of million Americans by providing them with decent health care and millions more with a living wage. It could be the year that we listen to the many Americans and Iraqis and withdraw occupying forces. It could be the year that we cut the near-trillion dollar defense budget, repeal NAFTA, revoke the Patriot Act and the illegal wiretapping FISA bill, build a green energy infrastructure, discipline runaway corporations and reign in the manic speculation driving the current food and housing crises.

That is Ralph Nader's plan, anyway-to offer Americans what the polls show they want.

So, while John McCain sings about bombing Iran and Barack Obama uses rhetoric about "smart" and "dumb" wars to stay in dumb wars and start new "smart" ones, Nader stands for strongly negotiated peace in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. While Obama dismisses his earlier commitments to fair trade as "overheated," Nader would replace NAFTA with uniform environmental and labor standards. And while McCain chants "drill, baby, drill," and Obama prepares to replace Big Oil with Big Corn or Big Nukes, Nader calls for a renewable infrastructure.

But the Democrats tell us that we cannot vote for Nader because there is too much at stake this year. After eight years of George W. Bush, the argument goes, we cannot afford another Republican. We must rally behind the change party. And for the most part, students are buying it. Emphatically anybody-but-Bush and unfamiliar with the Democrats' duplicity, these students mistakenly believe that ousting the current administration will exorcise the demons of war, jingoism and economic imperialism they represent.

http://www.dailycal.org/article/102803/considering_the_third_option

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2008/09/22/nader-open-the-debates-for-third-party-candidates-like-bob-barr-cynthia-mckinney-and-me.html

www.votenader.org

pearsoncrz

As I said before, but it disappeared, McCain's bill lost its legs because his lobbyist didn't like it and certains lines in the bill did not sit well with the republicans. With a republican president, senate and house majority there is no excuse why the bill didn't pass immediately, unless the republicans themselves didn't want it. By the time the democrats took over in NOVEMBER 2006, McCain's bill was all but dead.

From:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/anger-entitlement-and-contempt.html

Saturday, September 27, 2008
What A Debate Reveals: Anger, Entitlement and Contempt

What I found shocking reflecting on last night's debate was how angry and entitled McCain was, in a very open way.

McCain's manner was one of that who believed he should not even be on the same stage with this person. This indicates a person of extreme rights and extreme wrongs, not a statesmanlike persona, but an angry and impulsive one.

McCain carries strong ideas of what a liberal is, ideas that very little from his cherished ideas of who betrayed the nation during the Vietnam war. A stock character, driven and created by his own rage, carried, as it has been since the '70s, with a virtual ideological blindness--blinded by a contemptuous rage--that there are others who cannot understand the world the way he can. This is not judgment, but angry certainty. This is not readiness, but a just-contained rage that he should be confronted by such ideas.

You can see it in his constricted "can you believe it" rage at one who disagrees with him. This kind of contemptuous, angry dismissal of others ideas leads easily into the impulsive decisions of the last few months--generated with barely contained contemptuous rejection of those who would reject his ideas--only the most recent forms of those essential constructs--a contemptible media, easily fed with false notions and panaceas, as he believes they were earlier in his life; intellectuals, whose reason and deliberation is contrasted with the sharp, impulsive action that for his life has constituted a certain knowledge, and an angry, certain need to sweep away those who would stand in the path of righteous certainty.

What is beautifully ironic is how McCain maintains this contempt even as he switches from one position to another in the opportunistic second--this is when the look of contempt and entitlement turns, for a moment, to anxiety and panic.

Soon, however, the gaze is back. No matter what the new position is--impulsively determined, desperately grasped--if only "they" knew better. If only "they" knew the truth.

This kind of ideological rigidity and certainty (note how Obama could not contain himself from smiling when McCain attempted to compare him to Bush in that regard) combined with impulsive decision making, from the "gut" of sure knowledge, is what has created the outcomes of the past 8 years.

It was--in a setting where one would not expect it to be, where one would expect McCain to contain it--glaring apparent last night.

This is an amplification of the last 8 years rather than a change.

We do not need to experience this type of decision making again.

Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/09/anger-entitlement-and-contempt.html

In 2005, for the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill, S. 190, was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets. If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. But the bill didn't become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn't even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0



In support of S 190, also known as the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, John McCain said: "For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite the contrary. OFHEO's report solidifies my view that the GSEs need to be reformed without delay."

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-s20060525-16

Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005 would have Amended the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 to establish: (1) in lieu of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an independent Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Agency which shall have authority over the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac); and (2) the Federal Housing Enterprise Board.
Most importantly with regard to the CDS situation, S. 190 set forth operating, administrative, and regulatory provisions respecting: (1) assessment authority; (2) authority to limit nonmission-related assets; (3) minimum and critical capital levels; (4) risk-based capital test; (5) capital classifications and undercapitalized enterprises; (6) enforcement actions and penalties; (7) golden parachutes; and (8) reporting. Adoption of these regulatory provisions would have undoubtably affected the way CDSs were dealt with in "private" enterprises.
The bill would have also amended the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to establish the Federal Home Loan Bank Finance Corporation., and transfered the functions of the Office of Finance of the Federal Home Loan Banks to such Corporation. If this had been in place three years ago, this whole situation might have been averted.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-190&tab=summary

Trevor Lyman is the man who organized the Ron Paul money bombs.

One Lyman money bomb raised $4 million in one day.

Another raised $6 million in one day.

Now, Lyman is at it again.

Lyman wants to hold a third party debate in New York City.

Lyman was inspired by Ron Paul's press conference a couple of weeks ago.

At that press conference, Paul called on his followers to ditch the two major parties and throw their support to one of the independent or third party candidates.

So, we all need to support Lyman's push for an alternative debate now.

If Lyman gets 10,000 pledges by October 8, he and the other sponsors will organize a debate in New York City.

All major candidates -- Nader, Barr, McKinney, Baldwin, Obama and McCain will be invited.

Already, with no publicity, Lyman has close to 1,000 pledgers.

So go to thirdpartyticket.com now.


And add your name to the pledge list.

You don't have to say how much you are pledging.

Just add your name.

The Commission on Presidential Debates won't let Ralph debate.

So, let's get behind Trevor Lyman's push now.


Let's crank it up.

And get it done.




Onward to November

The Nader Team

PS:
Third partyticket.com is being sponsored by Lyman's group breakthematrix.com, the Chicago-based Free and Equal Elections, and Open Debates.

www.votenader.org

Democratic leadership under Barack Obama wanted to cut and run in Iraq today and just before our successful surge, just as Democratic leadership wanted to cut and run in Vietnam before our 650 POWs came home in 1973. John McCain realizes he would not be here today if the Democratic leadership had their way back in 1972. Because he spent early school years in Indonesia, Barack Obama may not be the Democratic Presidential candidate today but for our efforts in Vietnam in 1972. Richard Nixon a former Navy officer who served before John McCain years in the Navy understood that North Vietnam never returned any of the captured French POWs after their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Only the week long bombings of Hanoi including Christmas day in 1972 with our B52 bombers finally convinced North Vietnam that we wanted our 650 POWs back now. The bombings also convinced the South Vietnamese that we would support them in the future under the Paris Peace Talks agreement. Although the United States lost in Vietnam are efforts there gave other countries time to develop their fragile democracies. Indonesia today is a democratic country today that is friendly to the United States and has a population of nearly two hundred million people, the fourth largest in the world. Barack Obama spent his early childhood in Indonesia attending school with his mother and step-father during the time of the Vietnam War. It has been reported that the former President of Indonesia stated that our efforts in Vietnam even though we lost, allowed Indonesia to fight off communism and develop as a democratic country. Our efforts in Vietnam bought Indonesia time. Barack Obama could have been caught up in a communist insurrection in Indonesia during his early childhood if the United States had cut and run and had not tried to slow or stop a rapid North Vietnam takeover of South Vietnam. All of Southeast Asia including Indonesia could have rapidly gone Communist if the United States did not at least make a stand to resist the rapid expansion of communism and stand by our ally South Vietnam. Ironicallly both John McCain and Barack Obama would not be the men they are today and John McCain would not be here if we had followed Democratic leadership to cut and run in Vietnam before our POWs were returned.

Senator John McCain is an avid reader and is known for rereading many works of his favorite authors. The favorite author of John McCain is Herman Wouk who has written The Winds of War and the Caine Mutiny. Wouk served as an executive Naval officer aboard a minesweeper during War War II. Victor Henry the main character in Winds of War was a naval officer who became a confidant both to FDR and Harry Truman. FDR and Harry Truman went outside the normal channels of military command and relied on Victor Henry for straight talk advice on how to approach Russia and Germany and Japan prior and during World War II. John McCain sees himself as the Victor Henry character who understood the nuances of war and foreign policy better than anyone. John McCain is more knowledgeable about foreign policy than either Joe Biden or Barack Obama combined due to his military experiences. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have no military background between them and do not even have the background to know who to connect with to get straight back channel information. Barack Obama and Joe Biden lack the knowledge to even ask the right questions even if they could line up a current day Pug Henry commander to give them the straight scoop. Herman Wouk wove history into his novels. There is saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat history. John McCain knows history and will use that knowledge to guide the United States through the tough challenges that we face in the war on terror, radical Islam, and a resurgent Russia.

While McCain and Obama display two opposing approaches to the nations'and the world's problems, those of us who have studied the history of life on this planet believe that is shows a constant trend from smaller simpler groups towards greater groups displaying greater diversity, complexityy and intelligence. Evolution moves forward through the appearance and discovery of extraordinary new blends of competition and cooperation. Individual systems symbiotically merge with other individual systems creating larger systems in which each receives something from the whole while making its own contribution to the other members. If this is true the only question is, at which point are the nations, races and religions of this world? Are we still at the point of trying to rid the world of each other? Or is there the possibility that we are ready to start making it our business to see how we can help one another? If it is the latter than we need Obama who will help us repair our economy so that we can hea our sick children, give them the best education we can so that we will have the strength and wisom to (and the wealth) to lead the world towards a synergistic, prosperous and intellingent future.
Please do not read this as a dream. It is pure hard ball science. The other choice wll be the total distruction of the human race and maybe a burned out planet to boot.

It is astonishing to see so much nonsense thrown at a presidential candidate who dares to articulate that in this modern world there are plenty more shades of gray than clear blacks and whites. When do you Americans finally get that into your heads?

I was surprised to see McCain cowering. He was utterly unable to look Obama in the eye. Oddly, he somehow managed to look both angry and ashamed. (No wonder he doesn???t want to go face to face with with an enemy. They would walk all over him, behaving as he does like a scared and embittered child.) Only one person displayed Presidential Dignity and Authority: Obama.

What McCain is not getting is that Americans, Main St, is more scared of losing their dreams, more concerned about our families, more afraid of not being able to meet our basic needs of health care, paying our bills, etc, than we are of the terrorists.

In other words, American people have a lower opinion of the people in power, corporate America who steals from the poor to give to the rich and politicians who ignores our needs than we are of the terrorists an ocean away.

At least we expect the terrorists to try to crush the American dream, but for our own representatives to do so is ten times more frightening.