BUSINESS

Ok, You Two, What Would You Do to Solve This Mess?

Obama and McCain have taken different tacks to handling the meltdown. It's not by accident. How their economic gurus shape their views.

By Michael Hirsh | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 11, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Oct 20, 2008

« Return to Article

 
Discuss
 
Member Comments
  • Posted By: Oplis @ 11/02/2008 12:00:14 PM

    Comment: If Dems do, ...McCain will lose!
    There are more Dems registered than Republicans this time, and if the undecided Democrats vote along party lines, Obama will win. This is why it is so important to get out the vote on the Dem side, we have to get this republican policy out , and get a different policy in place. Whether you believe Obama will be as affective as he says or not, McCain , will not be affective in change policy at all, he will be a Bush clone,....no?....he wants to stay in Iraq, " stay the course",..he wants to keep tax breaks for Corp.s in place including oil companies, plus add additional cuts for the oil industry, he wants to keep the tax rates for wealthy Americans, at present rate, he has no health plan, no education plan, and no solution to the economic crisis. Obama , is just the opposite, he knows that if you broaden your tax base with new jobs , in the form of green jobs, and high tech jobs, because of new training, and put the wealthy back in the tax rate they had under Clinton, and bring the troops home , saving 150 billion per year, all of this combined will improve the economy in the long run, and in the short run, a tax break for the middle class, and the troops out of Iraq.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/27/2008 8:41:19 AM

    Comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

    2001 Chicago Public Citizen Radio Interview criticizing the Warren Court as not radical enough for not pursuing redistribution of wealth.

    Says that community organizing is for the purpose of assembling the political power to force redistribution of wealth.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/26/2008 9:36:14 PM

    Comment: The Kennedy tax cut.

    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1765.cfm

    About half way through the article.

    "President Kennedy proposed massive tax-rate reductions, which were passed by Congress and became law after he was assassinated. The 1964 tax cut reduced the top marginal personal income tax rate from 91 percent to 70 percent by 1965. The cut reduced lower-bracket rates as well. In the four years prior to the 1965 tax-rate cuts, federal government income tax revenue--adjusted for inflation--increased at an average annual rate of 2.1 percent, while total government income tax revenue (federal plus state and local) increased by 2.6 percent per year . In the four years following the tax cut, federal government income tax revenue increased by 8.6 percent annually and total government income tax revenue increased by 9.0 percent annually. Government income tax revenue not only increased in the years following the tax cut, it increased at a much faster rate.
    The Kennedy tax cut set the example that President Ronald Reagan would follow some 17 years later. By increasing incentives to work, produce, and invest, real GDP growth increased in the years following the tax cuts: More people worked, and the tax base expanded. Additionally, the expenditure side of the budget benefited as well because the unemployment rate was significantly reduced.
    Using the Congressional Budget Office's revenue forecasts (made with the full knowledge of the future tax cuts), revenues came in much higher than had been anticipated, even after the "cost""of the tax cut had been taken into account. Additionally, in 1965--one year following the tax cut--personal income tax revenue data exceeded expectations by the greatest amounts in the highest income classes.
    Testifying before Congress in 1977, Walter Heller, President Kenned''s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, summarized:
    What happened to the tax cut in 1965 is difficult to pin down, but insofar as we are able to isolate it, it did seem to have a tremendously stimulative effect, a multiplied effect on the economy. It was the major factor that led to our running a $3 billion surplus by the middle of 1965 before escalation in Vietnam struck us. It was a $12 billion tax cut, which would be about $33 or $34 billion in today's terms, and within one year the revenues into the Federal Treasury were already above what they had been before the tax cut.
    Did the tax cut pay for itself in increased revenues? I think the evidence is very strong that it did."

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/22/2008 7:13:57 PM

    Comment: See: http://www.newsweek.com/id/164972
    Stating that Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act wasn't what caused the meltdown, and noting that "economists on both sides of the political spectrum have suggested that the act has probably made the crisis less severe than it might otherwise have been." And also:
    http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
    Look and listen for yourself. Hear Obama in his own words discusses his links to both ACORN and the mortgage meltdown, and praises bundling and securitizing mortgages by banks as a means to float loans to the poor and spread the risk world wide. Never mind the link commentators point of view, just listen to what Obama says in his own words. A picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe more in the case of Obama comments in the last half of the first youtube link.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU

    See also:
    http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=808692&boardsparam=Page%3d2

    Below is a link to C-SPAN video clips of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix Fannie and Freddie. See for yourself who said what.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
    See also
    http://www.newsweek.com/id/164732 from this web site. (oops!) stating that Freddie Mac was spending tax payer money to target Republicans in 2005 who were trying to regulate Fannie and Freddies fraud. Democrats were not targeted, as the were all in the tank with Fannie and Freddie to kill the regulations. Hear that, the article admits that Republicans were trying to regulate, and Democrats were trying to stop it from happening as a means to facilitate the Community Reinvestment Act.

    The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

    http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

    And the link below describes how some Democrats in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See: Wall Street Journal

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/22/2008 7:13:47 PM

    Comment:

    Who "Joe the plumber" may be is not the issue, though it's easy to see why the Dems want it to be. That's because the real issue is what Obama's comments to him revealed about Obama. In the exchange with "Joe the plumber" we find out that Obama really is as radical as his early political acquaintances, Davis, Ayers, Wright, etc., and that he is into the failed economic policy of wealth redistribution. Obama's tax and spending plans alone would be bad enough, but add Reid and Pelosi to the mix, with the three of them controlling both houses of Congress and the executive branch without any effective restraint, and you have something that should causes concern even among moderate Democrats.
    See Wall Street Journal: A Liberal Supermajority:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420205889842989.html

    And whether McCain won or lost the third debate is also not relevant. He succeeded in the first half hour to plant the seeds of a Reagan style wipeout. Reputable historians and economists overwhelmingly agree that the taxation imposed by Hoover and FDR, and the "stimulus" spending and public works programs of FDR, actually deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. It was the production demands of WWII that got the economy going again. And when the war was over, the economy promptly went into recession.

    See e.g. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/03/opinion/main4499465.shtml
    And
    http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx

    Point is, Obama's programs require him to tax, and his health care plan is a hidden tax on all business, large an small. In reality, it does not really matter who he taxes, those taxes are going to be passed through the economy. He has to tax, because it is they only way he can pay for his massive social engineering experiments. Any first year economics student knows that taxation is a tool used to contract an economy experiencing inflation, because it reduces demand by reducing the amount of money individuals and businesses have to spend. It is contractionary, which is exactly what you do not want to do when the problem is that the economy is contracting already into recession. Like Hoover and FDR, Obama's plans will only make it worse for longer.

  • Posted By: krohn2 @ 10/22/2008 4:49:48 PM

    Comment: FactCheck.Org is owned by the Annenberg group of Chicago! Talk about a conflict of interest! And Obama has been telling people on the trail to check out the site to verify his opponents claims. Funny, every time that he endorsed something, it turns out to be a part of his spin machine! Like he raised objections in the primaries when Indiana required photo I.D. to vote. He Protested that It took away people's right to vote! I
    knew then and there that he was up to no good! America, wake up from the MASS HYPNOSIS!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWTs1YyhFRg&feature=related

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/21/2008 10:17:26 PM

    Comment: See: http://www.newsweek.com/id/164972

    Stating that Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act wasn't what caused the meltdown, and noting that "economists on both sides of the political spectrum have suggested that the act has probably made the crisis less severe than it might otherwise have been."

  • Posted By: krohn2 @ 10/21/2008 12:10:49 AM

    Comment: This is so true about how the election is already bought and paid for:
    http://www.againstobama.com/2008/10/what-is-it-that-barack-obama-knows-that-the-rest-of-us-don%E2%80%99t/#comment-1929

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/20/2008 9:17:41 PM

    Comment: Nims: Funny how fast Newsweek took that article : AP IMPACT: Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign, http://www.newsweek.com/id/164732 , came off the general table of contents for this site once they figured out that, instead of being a bit on those evil lobbiest, it in fact admitted that the Republicans were trying to regulate Freddie and Fannie in 2005 and were targeted by Freddie, and the no Democrats were targeted because they were all in the tank with Freddie and Fannie not to regulate them as a means of promoting the Community Reinvestment Act. I don???t think that article stayed up 24 hrs before they took it off the main screen.

  • Posted By: krohn2 @ 10/20/2008 8:39:20 PM

    Comment: Obama, the excuses are wearing thin. what excuse do you have for this one?:
    http://www.againstobama.com/2008/10/obama-praised-searing-and-timely-book-by-ayers/

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/20/2008 3:42:36 PM

    Comment: Who "Joe the plumber" may be is not the issue, though it's easy to see why the Dems want it to be. That's because the real issue is what Obama's comments to him revealed about Obama. In the exchange with "Joe the plumber" we find out that Obama really is as radical as his early political acquaintances, Davis, Ayers, Wright, etc., and that he is into the failed economic policy of wealth redistribution. Obama's tax and spending plans alone would be bad enough, but add Reid and Pelosi to the mix, with the three of them controlling both houses of Congress and the executive branch without any effective restraint, and you have something that should causes concern even among moderate Democrats.
    See Wall Street Journal: A Liberal Supermajority:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420205889842989.html

    And whether McCain won or lost the third debate is also not relevant. He succeeded in the first half hour to plant the seeds of a Reagan style wipeout. Reputable historians and economists overwhelmingly agree that the taxation imposed by Hoover and FDR, and the "stimulus" spending and public works programs of FDR, actually deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. It was the production demands of WWII that got the economy going again. And when the war was over, the economy promptly went into recession.

    See e.g. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/03/opinion/main4499465.shtml
    And
    http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx

    Point is, Obama's programs are tax, and it does not really matter who he taxes, those taxes are going to be passed through the economy. He has to tax, because it is they only way he can pay for his massive social engineering experiments. Any first year economics student knows that taxation is a tool used to contract an economy experiencing inflation, because it reduces demand by reducing the amount of money individuals and businesses have to spend. It is contractionary, which is exactly what you do not want to do when the problem is that the economy is contracting already into recession. Like Hoover and FDR, Obama's plans will only make it worse for longer.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/20/2008 3:42:26 PM

    Comment:

    Look and listen for yourself. Hear Obama in his own words discusses his links to both ACORN and the mortgage meltdown, and praises bundling and securitizing mortgages by banks as a means to float loans to the poor. Never mind the link commentators point of view, just listen to what Obama says in his own words. A picture is worth a thousand words. Maybe more in the case of the last half of the second link.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJcVgJhNaU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr1M1T2Y314&feature=related

    See also:
    http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=808692&boardsparam=Page%3d2

    This is a link to C-SPAN video clips of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCains attempt at S.190. to fix Fannie and Freddie. See for yourself who said what.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

    The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

    http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

    And the link below describes how some Democrats in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN, a group Obama has a long association with. See:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

  • Posted By: angelbelle725 @ 10/18/2008 11:58:07 AM

    Comment: It's kind of scary to read some of these comments.

    First, "Change" is not a campaign slogan. Neither is "Hope". And while being a maverick doesn't insure that you will be a good president or earn the votes that McCain will undoubtedly need, Obama seems to have built his campaign on the fact that he isn't Bush. And that scares me. I've heard a lot about how we don't need four more years of Bush, but I haven't heard much about how this much-vaunted "change" is supposed to occur.

    As for Clinton being a good president- need I remind anyone here about the 1860 election? Buchanan got Americans into the bloodiest war in history, and Lincoln was blamed for it. Likewise, some of Clinton's economic policies got us where we are now. He insisted that everyone had to have a house- and the economy eventually collapsed in on itself, as it always does. I'm not saying that Bush did- or is doing- a fantastic job. But it seems to me that everyone is blaming him for things that started long before he ever came into office. We forget quickly- after 9/11, Bush had one of the highest approval ratings in HISTORY. While some of the McCain camps' statements scare the h*** of me, I think it's a bit naive to think that Obama will become president and all will become sweetness, light, puppies and rainbows. I want the war in Iraq to end. But it won't be worth it, to me, if the sacrifice that the families, vets and those who will always be left behind is in vain. Why do we keep electing men (and yes, I'm including Bush here) as commander-in-chiefs who have never served a day in uniform? As far as I can tell, Obama just kind of appeared out of nowhere and now he's suddenly the best thing since sliced bread. He's going to get us out of Iraq, he's going to improve our economy, he's going to do all of these things- how? How did he suddenly become the best thing on earth? How did that happen?

    You can't get something for nothing- and I'm afraid that's just what we'll be buying into with Obama. At least McCain, for all his faults (and there are many) is straightforward about how he'll vote. Obama's made a lot of promises- but I'm not sure I want someone in office who has never had to go against a foreign power as the person who makes the choices for this country.

  • Posted By: haynessemperfi @ 10/18/2008 1:54:22 AM

    Comment: PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE TO BE HELD SUNDAY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

    The Free and Equal Elections Coalition (FREE) and the Columbia Political Union are pleased to announce that a Presidential debate will be held this coming Sunday, October 19th, 2008, on the campus of Columbia University.

    ALL SIX of the Presidential candidates who appear on enough state ballots to acquire the 270 Electoral Votes needed to become President are invited. They are as follows (listed in alphabetical order by affiliation):

    Constitution Party Candidate: Chuck Baldwin
    Democratic Party Candidate: Barack Obama
    Green Party Candidate: Cynthia McKinney
    Independent Candidate: Ralph Nader
    Libertarian Party Candidate: Bob Barr
    Republican Party Can John McCain

    The Columbia Political Union will present the debate from 8:00pm to 10:00pm in the Altschul Auditorium, located at 417 International Affairs Building. The debate will be moderated by Pacifica Radio's Amy Goodman, the host of "Democracy Now!". CSPAN will cover the debate, and live radio broadcasts are expected.

    "The Columbia Political Union is committed to energizing political discourse on Columbia's campus," said Allon Brann, Columbia Political Union Publisher. "As a non-partisan organization, we work to provide students with opportunities to encounter and engage with political ideas across a wide ideological spectrum, and on a wide range of issues."

    "It is with these goals in mind that we have organized this Presidential Debate: to give all candidates-- either within or outside of the political "mainstream"-- the opportunity to speak directly to students about their goals on the issues they deem critical for this country."

    "We have invited all eligible candidates, and it is our sincere hope that all will participate, to ensure the substance and rigor of the dialogue which we believe is crucial at this time."

    Certified letters officially inviting each candidate have been sent to the respective campaigns.

    The Free and Equal Elections Coalition and the Columbia Political Union await the response from the candidates. All candidates' supporters are encouraged to contact the Presidential campaigns and urge them to attend.

    The Columbia Political Union seeks to enhance involvement in the political process, domestic and international, and draw every member of the campus community into an ongoing discussion of political ideas.

    FREE is a coalition of political parties, independent citizens and civic organizations formed to promote free and equal elections in the United States.

    http://www.freeandequal.org/events.php?id=7

  • Posted By: haynessemperfi @ 10/18/2008 1:32:15 AM

    Comment: Comment: by Ralph Nader
    October 10. 2008
    Rolling the Dice on Derivatives - The Nader Page

    The derivatives markets of today have become a high stakes casino of unimaginable magnitude. Wall Street???s bets have gone bad, and now the whole financial system is in peril. In a best-case scenario, it appears, the taxpayers will be required to rescue the system from itself. This is why Warren Buffett labeled derivatives ???weapons of financial mass destruction.???

    Amazingly, there seems to be some lingering sense that current-day derivatives properly perform an insurance function.

    Case in point: Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman. Greenspan says the world is facing ???the type of wrenching financial crisis that comes along only once in a century,??? but, reports the New York Times, ???his faith in derivatives remains unshaken.??? Greenspan believes that the problem is not with derivatives, but that the people using them got greedy, according to the Times.

    This is quite a view. Is it a surprise to Alan Greenspan that the people on Wall Street ??? said to be ruled only by the opposing instincts of greed and fear ??? ???got greedy????


    http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/rolling-the-dice-on-derivatives-by-ralph-nader/

    www.votenader.org


  • Posted By: TruthForward @ 10/17/2008 8:04:21 PM

    Comment: McCain is connected to Nazi supporters and Central American death squads.. so says
    FoxNews and Washington Post (two Republican news publishers)

    http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/attention-ayers-renew-focus-mccains-iran-contra-connection/

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100700025.html

    The old guy has a long infamous past.

  • Posted By: ADELFAPINEDA @ 10/17/2008 5:50:19 PM

    Comment: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30122043&l=0510b&id=1130236838

    EL GRAN OBAMA PRESIDENTE 2008-14 El GOBIERNO DE LA DIPLOMACIA INTERNACIONAL. con (Cuba, Venezuela, Nuevo País patria Libre Independiente, y países del Medio Oriente), serán incluidos en la integración diplomática y respeto como nació. Después del debate, en donde fue definitivo, quedo claro, el perfil, visionario y las características de OBAMA PRESIDENTE 2008-14, que sacara de la crisis económica a los EE.UU y la región. OBAMA PRESIDENTE 2008-14 aplicara políticas de gobierno organizado, los mercados y la competencia, serán métodos que se enmarque en modelos económicos, dirigidos por los economistas (analistas y especialistas), y los métodos administrativos serán de expertos, de manera que el modelo conlleve una forma efectiva de llevar a la región al desarrollo económico, social, y cultural, en donde: prime el respeto y el equilibrio estado-el mercado, Que converja en beneficio de la sociedad y encamine todos los esfuerzos sincronizados de manera que se pueda erradicar la pobreza, erradicar la cultura de violencia, guerra y corrupción, 1ADELFA PINEDA TRANSPARENCIA Y ÉTICA: Por el Desarrollo del País; Dignidad Publica,:. 1

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/17/2008 4:26:45 PM

    Comment: Maybe I'm being too much of an alarmist, but I'm worried for the first time in my life that the election of a presidential candidate could lead to a fundamental change in our system of government. Just listen to the comments of post-debate focus group members expressing a knowing willingness to accept Obama's socialism, such is their angst at the sub-prime mortgage mess.
    Already some 38 percent of Americans do not pay income taxes, and Barack Obama wants to increase that percentage dramatically. How ironic that he and other Democrats pretend to be targeting their message to "working-class" people when many of their constituents aren't working. But such is class warfare that the upper-middle class and wealthy are demonized as not earning an honest living.
    Do you suppose it has registered with class warfare-receptive Obama voters that Obama is deliberately turning the American dream on its head? Could it be any clearer that his message to the middle class is: Don't aspire to achievement, success and wealth because a) it is immoral to have more than others, b) the government will take your wealth away from you and give it to others, and c) why bother to bust your rear end to make more when you can vote yourselves money from the public trough?

    It's one thing to say that higher income earners should pay a higher percentage for government services. But Obama makes no pretense of stopping there. He told Joe the plumber that he wants to use the tax code to confiscate money from higher income earners and give it to others. But he hasn't been so open about that in the presentation of his fraudulent tax plan.
    When Obama says he will cut income taxes for 95 percent of Americans, he is dissembling. If 38 percent are already not paying, his tax credits to them amount to transfer payments from higher income earners, which are actually spending increases, not tax cuts, as the Wall Street Journal editors have noted.
    Liberals, such as Obama, might deny human nature, but they can't change it. And human nature happens to dictate that people will not produce as much when you confiscate more of what they produce and give it to others. The working wealthy, especially Christians and conservatives, are some of the most generous people in the world, but we're talking about voluntary charitable contributions, not unconstitutionally coerced redistributions.
    How many times must history repeat itself before we learn that socialism and communism cannot work? Liberals love to mock the trickledown theory, but they simply cannot refute the axiom that people produce less when they aren't allowed to keep as much of what they produce. When do-gooder social planners try to control how much we keep, they guarantee that everyone gets less in the end because they shrink the GDP pie.

  • Posted By: Nins @ 10/17/2008 12:24:22 PM

    Comment: Jim Johnson, no matter how many times people tell you that Obama is against socialism, you keep posting these blogs that accuse Obama of socialism and communism. It is not true and you know it. You are just trying to smear Obama and make people afraid.

    In his book Audacity of Hope, Obama writes at length about the FAILURE of SOCIALISM and the failure of communism. He enthusiastically states that American democracy is the greatest political system on earth. Obama is not a socialist, and he does not admire socialism.

    To you, Jim, and to all of the conservatives out there who think that Obama is a flaming liberal, I would like to remind you of what he did when he was elected President of the Harvard Law Review. The Law Review President gets to name ten individuals to write articles for the Review, and these ten people also get to control the content of the publication. All of the minorities and the liberals thought they finally had it made, that Obama would appoint ten left wing editors. Instead, Obama appointed three conservatives, three liberals and four moderates. That year the Law Review was critically acclaimed as the best run and best written Harvard publication in decades.

    So when he wins in November, conservatives don't have to freak out. Obama is a centrist and will appoint a balanced cabinet full of active people who will really get things done. Kind of like the way our multi-cultural society is supposed to be. And exactly what we need in this time of economic crisis.

    • Posted By: neocon @ 10/17/2008 4:28:37 PM

      Comment: The mainstream media thought that the membership of Todd Palin, who is not a candidate for any office, in the Alaska Independence Party important enough to report in such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, and the New York Times, among others. So now that Barack Obama's membership in the far left New Party has been unearthed, will they report his membership in that Socialist organization?

      In June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama was endorsed by an organization known as the Chicago "New Party". The 'New Party' was a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) to push forth the socialist principles of the DSA by focusing on winnable elections at a local level and spreading the Socialist movement upwards.

      The DSA and 'New Party' then systematically attempted to cover up any ties between Obama and the Socialist Organizations. However, it now appears that Barack Obama was indeed a certified and acknowledged member of the DSA's New Party.

      http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng47.html

      NP's '96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude. Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration.


      The NP's political strategy is to support progressive candidates in elections only if they have a concrete chance to "win". This has resulted in a winning ratio of 77 of 110 elections. Candidates must be approved via a NP political committee. Once approved, candidates must sign a contract with the NP. The contract mandates that they must have a visible and active relationship with the NP.

      http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng42.html#anchor792932

      So Obama signed a contract with the New Party? Verrrry interesting.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/16/2008 8:18:34 PM

    Comment: Baby I'll be there to take your hand,
    Baby I'll be there to share the land
    That they'll be giving away, when we all live together.

    So, in the exchange with "Joe the plumber" we find out that Obama really is as radical as his early political acquaintances, and is into the failed economic policy of wealth redistribution. Yahoo, back to the 70's we go! So now we know that an Obama presidency really would be as if it were Carter's lost second term after all.

  • Posted By: Jim Johnson @ 10/16/2008 12:39:22 PM

    Comment: Under socialism a ruling class of intellectuals, bureaucrats and social planners decide what people want or what is good for society and then use the coercive power of the State to regulate, tax, and redistribute the wealth of those who work for a living. In other words, socialism is a form of legalized theft.

    The morality of socialism can be summed-up in two words: envy and self-sacrifice. Envy is the desire to not only possess another's wealth but also the desire to see another's wealth lowered to the level of one's own. Socialism's teaching on self-sacrifice was nicely summarized by two of its greatest defenders, Hermann Goering and Bennito Mussolini. The highest principle of Nazism (National Socialism), said Goering, is: "Common good comes before private good." Fascism, said
    Mussolini, is "a life in which the individual, through the sacrifice of his own private interests??realizes that completely spiritual existence in which his value as a man lies."

    Socialism is the social system which institutionalizes envy and self-sacrifice: It is the social system which uses compulsion and the organized violence of the State to expropriate wealth from the producer class for its redistribution to the parasitical class.

    Despite the intellectuals' psychotic hatred of capitalism, it is the only moral and just social system.

    Capitalism is the only moral system because it requires human beings to deal with one another as traders--that is, as free moral agents trading and selling goods and services on the basis of mutual consent.

    Capitalism is the only just system because the sole criterion that determines the value of thing exchanged is the free, voluntary, universal judgement of the consumer. Coercion and fraud are anathema to the free-market system.

    It is both moral and just because the degree to which man rises or falls in society is determined by the degree to which he uses his mind. Capitalism is the only social system that rewards merit, ability and achievement, regardless of one's birth or station in life.

    Yes, there are winners and losers in capitalism. The winners are those who are honest, industrious, thoughtful, prudent, frugal, responsible, disciplined, and efficient. The losers are those who are shiftless, lazy, imprudent, extravagant, negligent, impractical, and inefficient. [What about the role of luck­being in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time? R. R. Pope}

    Capitalism is the only social system that rewards virtue and punishes vice. This applies to both the business executive and the carpenter, the lawyer and the factory worker.

  • Posted By: TruthForward @ 10/16/2008 9:03:38 AM

    Comment: Small businesses know that... If the customer is unemployed, they are going to have more time to research on the internet and do their own repairs. And if customers are worried about their finances, They are going to find any way possible to spend less money.

  • Posted By: TruthForward @ 10/16/2008 8:54:32 AM

    Comment: Joe the Plumber should be worried about his customer's ability to pay him. Because otherwise, half his customers will be looking up "how to" instead.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/16/2008 12:21:13 AM

    Comment: Whether McCain won or lost tonight is not relevant. He succeeded in the first half hour to plant the seeds of a Reagan style wipeout. Reputable historians and economists overwhelmingly agree that the taxation imposed by and the ???stimulus??? spending and public works programs of FDR actually deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. It was the production demands of WWII that got the economy going again. And when the war was over, the economy promptly went into recession.

    Point is, Obama's programs are tax and spend, and it does not really matter who he taxes, those taxes are going to be passed through the economy. Any first year economics student knows that taxation is a tool used to contract an economy experiencing inflation, because it reduces demand by reducing the amount of money individuals and businesses have to spend. It is contractionary, which is exactly what you do not want to do when the problem is that the economy is contracting already into recession. Like FDR, Obama's plans will only make it worse for longer.

    Obama's tax and spending plans alone would be bad enough, but add Wright and Pelosi to the mix, with the three of them controlling both houses of Congress and the executive without and effective restraint, and you have something that should be something that causes concern even among moderate Democrats. Don't think so? Watch and listen to a C-SPAN video clip of the Congressional hearings at roughly the time McCain's attempt at S.190. to fix fannie and freddie.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

  • Posted By: sharenews @ 10/15/2008 5:53:14 PM

    Comment:
    ACORN employees dancing to Michael Jackson . Very cute! ; - D

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A2moFdM1Yo

    • Posted By: Kboogie @ 10/15/2008 6:56:50 PM

      Comment: Hahahahaha!! Hilarious!!!! Even funnier are the national polls, and the squirming of McC's campaign.

      Taking all bets!!!!

      McCain faints w/in the first 30min = 10-1 odds
      Faints w/in 2nd 30min = 7-1 odds
      Faints w/in last 30min = 3-1 odds


      Now that's funny. That'll be a Youtube classic!

      What a circus!!!

  • Posted By: mccainsupporter @ 10/15/2008 3:08:53 PM

    Comment: Why Bill Ayers is important to this campaign?
    John McCain should make the argument personal and something that the American people can identify and understand. John McCain views Bill Ayers as a founder of the Weathermen and Weather Underground and also founder of the Students for Democratic Society SDS on the campus of the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan had held the first sit-in against the war. John McCain and the other 600 Vietnam POWs believe Bill Ayers was responsible for prolonging the war and causing them to receive extra beatings by the North Vietnamese for refusing to show their exuberance for the antiwar effort in the United States. The North Vietnamese fought even harder and refused to negotiate or return our POWs given the organized antiwar protests in the United States. All the North Vietnamese had to do was wait and domestic antiwar protests orchestrated by Bill Ayers would cause the United States to surrender. John McCain spent five and half years as a POW and personally received extra beatings because of Bill Ayers. Barack Obama views Bill Ayers as a reformed domestic terrorist who did despicable things in the past but should be given a second chance today. For Barack Obama there was never a need to keep a distance from Bill Ayers. Maybe if Barack Obama could have walked in John McCain???s shoes for just one day and suffered just one of the extra beatings that John McCain endured for five and a half years because of Bill Ayers and his Weathermen antiwar movement then maybe Barack Obama might appreciate a need to keep a distance from Bill Ayers. Along with the SDS Students for Democratic Society, Weathermen Underground, the Black Panther Party also actively opposed the Vietnam War. Barack Obama received the support of Southside Chicago Congressman and former Black Panther party member Bobby L. Rush during his bid for the Illinois US Senate seat. The Black Panther Party along with the Weathermen Underground prolonged John McCains captivity and caused him to receive extra beatings. It is ironic, that Bill Ayers led the antiwar protests during the Vietnam era that caused John McCain to receive extra beatings and to experience nearly six years of captivity, and today Barack Obama has been leading antiwar calls against the Iraq war. Barack Obama can not understand why John McCain is not happy that Barack Obama has not kept a distance from Bill Ayers. If Barack Obama had walked in John McCain???s or any of the other 600 American POWs shoes one day, he would have no problem understanding why he should have kept his distance from Bill Ayers. The word shunning comes to mind. If Barack Obama would have shunned Bill Ayers and members of the Black Panthers Party there would be no issue in tonights debate.

    • Posted By: neocon @ 10/15/2008 3:58:08 PM

      Comment: Howard Kurtz of the Wall Street Journal reported the CAC archives demonstrate Obama and Ayers worked as a team to further the foundation's agenda. Obama was in charge of fiscal matters, while Ayers' position was more concerned with shaping educational policy.
      The documents show Ayers served as an ex-officio member of the board that Obama chaired through the CAC's first year. Ayers also served on the board's governance committee with Obama, and worked with him to craft CAC bylaws, according to the documents.
      Ayers made presentations to board meetings chaired by Obama. Ayers also spoke for the Chicago School Reform Collaborative before Obama's board, while Obama periodically spoke for the board at meetings of the collaborative, the CAC documents reviewed by Kurtz show.
      According to the documents, the CAC granted money to far-leftist causes, such as the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which, has done work on behalf of Obama's presidential campaign.
      ACORN is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families. It has held violent, disruptive protests, seeks to regulate banks, supports left-leaning education policies, is accused of working on urging partisan voter turnout for elections, and seems to promote driving businesses from cities.
      While Obama chaired the board of the CAC, more than $600,000 was granted to an organization founded by Ayers and run by Mike Klonsky, a former top communist activist. Klonsky was leader of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, which was effectively recognized by China as the all-but-official U.S. Maoist party.
      Confirms Kurtz: "Instead of funding schools directly, [the CAC] required schools to affiliate with 'external partners,' which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as ACRON."
      In 1995, the year Ayers founded the CAC, he gave an interview for author Ron Chepesiuk's book "Sixties Radicals" in which Ayers stated, "I'm a radical, leftist, small 'c' communist."
      Kurtz notes that in his book, "Teaching Toward Freedom," Ayers states his goal is to "teach against oppression," which Kurtz says Ayers defines as "against America's history of evil and racism, thereby forcing social transformation."
      The timing of Obama's appointment in 1995 to lead Ayers' CAC project prompts unanswered questions about when Obama first met Ayers. It is unlikely Ayers appointed an unknown to chair his group.
      Also in 1995, the first organizing meeting for Obama's state senatorial campaign reportedly was held in Ayers' apartment.

    • Posted By: edjones65 @ 10/15/2008 3:43:50 PM

      Comment: Your comments are a bit harsh but I agree with you on some points. My interest with Ayers is how Obama, supposedly the most intelligent candidate out there does not have the sense to realize that he is dealing with somebody like Ayers. Who is stiil proud of what he did back then, c'mon, "I thought he was rehablitated", he is a Harvard grad with honors,wow that was a truly brilliiant decision on his part. I mean it just seems that everyone that has helped him on the way is crooked as all hell, Rezko, Rev. Wright, his dealings with Acorn, Fannie mae and Freddie mac and etc... My point is, if you look back in McCains past, sure you will find some people that are questionable but you have to go back through the years to find some. Obama hasn't been around that long and most everyone he has associated with on his rise to power will probably end up in jail or should be in jail but we are suppose to only look at McCains faults and not Obama's. First, let me say this before you start insulting me, " I loved McCain from way back but lately he has me wondering if he could do this, due to his age and Palin makes me nervous if she has to take over. The issues are too great to leave it in the hands of somebody that still has a lot to learn and I am sorry but I see Obama the same way My big issue with Obama is his lack of support for gun owners( that NRA commercial he made about supporting gun rights looked like a skit from SNL, there is not a gun owner or hunter alive that would've believed that nonsense.

  • Posted By: XPolygamistWife @ 10/15/2008 1:50:26 PM

    Comment: Forget the polls and get the facts about McCain's TERRORISTS in Arizona.

    http://www.bankingonheaven.com/

    • Posted By: edjones65 @ 10/15/2008 3:11:50 PM

      Comment: I checked out your link and watched the video and the only thing I have to say is " how on earth did you come up with that conclusion" ? A cult that began in Utah and stretched out to Colorado, Arizona and who knows where else is somehow McCains fault. The feds(not Dems or Repubs specifically can do anything about these cults, especially after the lashing they received for "Wacco Texas", and by the way whose watch did that fall under when that incident took place ? I do not mean to be insulting but that is way out there.

  • Posted By: XPolygamistWife @ 10/15/2008 1:46:45 PM

    Comment: How can McCain accomplish anything when he can't even clean up the TALIBAN in Arizona?

    Watch the video:

    http://www.bankingonheaven.com/

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/15/2008 1:03:45 PM

    Comment: There are a lot of people out there that think the ???government??? is something that has infinite resources and it should be the big momma in the sky and make everything fair and all better. The big momma in the sky is about to go broke from trying to play this role and the Democrats are going to be left holding the bag that they have been creating.
    The Democrats are going to make all right in the world you say? How? They don???t even realize the scope of the problem. If the banks go under it doesn???t affect anyone except the banks right? I know we will just have the ???government??? send everyone a rebate check and all will be good with the world. We saw how well that worked this summer and now the Democrats want to do it again???to accomplish what? By the way WE are the ???government??? and WE are the ones that have to pay that debt. The money doesn???t just fall out of the sky. I suppose that is a shock if you have never had to work for your money.
    So for you Democrats reading this, congratulations in your efforts to win the congress and White House! With enough help from the Republicans you were able to pull this off in spite of yourself. Go Obama/Biden! Yeah team, you are about to enter the Golden Era! All will be right with the world! You can stop reading now and pat yourself on the back for a job well done!
    For the Republicans reading this, look long and hard at the situation and ask yourself if you want Republicans to be holding the bag when this finally collapses. We are going to have to put the pieces back together after it is over but we may as well let the authors of this mess get full credit since they will be in charge when the collapse happens. What if it doesn???t collapse you say? It will, the question is can it be pasted together long enough to be handed off to the Democrats???I think so???it is touch and go right now but I think it can be goosed until January.
    From reading about the Great Depression as best I can figure the economy lost about 90% of its value. While lots of stupid things were done that are blamed for causing the Depression to last as long as it did the government wasn???t broke???this time the government is broke both in the monetary sense and in leadership once President Bush leaves office. I am afraid that the economy is going to lose about 90% of its value again this time around at a minimum.
    We have been living on borrowed time. For anyone that wanted to pay attention there have been a lot of very smart people that were telling us that we only had a decade or so if things continued on the early 2007 path before the government imploded due to going broke. All this crisis is doing is accelerating what was inevitably coming anyway. All the Republicans are doing is getting out of the way while it takes place.

  • Posted By: edjones65 @ 10/15/2008 11:41:48 AM

    Comment: All I have to say is this country is in a real mess right now and the rest of the world is watching how we are handling things. I realize that all this rhetoric is just part of the game and as somebody who tries to hear both sides with an open mind, I find it difficult to listen to mainsream media for any kind of biased opinions when it is a 10/1 odds in favor of Obama for putting out negative campaign adds. McCain simply does not have the funds, nor the support of the media. I watch all of the networks to hear what they have to say and it is a joke. Now McCain gets a lot of crap for every little thing he says or does and I admit , I have questioned his motives a time or two in the last few weeks as well. However question Obama in any way and people will jump down your throat it's not true, waaah and etc... Obviously he cannot take it as well as he can dish it out nor can his supporters.McCain's record speaks for itself, I trust his intentions far more than I would Obama's. Yes, there are things that you can say about McCain that might make you wonder but you have to go back through his entire career to find that kind of information and it's pretty weak at best if you do find anything. Now with Obama it is a different story, you can question his motves from the start of his career to the present. Yes it is pretty weak too, in my opinion but none the less in just two years as a senator there are a lot of questions to be asked. McCain has proven that he will put his country first, nobody can argue that and Obama has yet to prove himself, it's still too early to juge him in that way in his defense. I question McCain's age and his ability to handle the pressure but on the other hand he has endured more hardship than most of us could imagine.and that gives me hope. However, if Palin had to take over, that would make me somewhat nervous. Obama is in good health and is highly intelligent and his intentions are actually quite noble and with Biden backing him up, I do not think it is such a bad thing. Add some of the same people that helped out Clinton and I think you have a pretty decent team. So where does that leave me... it leaves me with a lot of gey hairs and a big headache. I know a salesman when I hear one and Obama is the best in the game. Otherwise he wouldn't be where he is today if he didn't know how to sell himself. McCain(sigh), doesn't seem to get it, if he did I am sure this would be a whole different game. Personally, as a gun owner, I cannot in good faith ever believe that Obama would ever support my rights to own a gun as do many others Dem and Repubs alike share this same feeling as well. Why does this matter so much to me, it's simple , all we hear is talk right now, neither one has laid out a plan that is worth a damn( according to many, many economists, it's just window dressing and they will most likely have to change their ideas around to make it work regardless of who is in office). I am hoping the debate tonight can clear th

  • Posted By: NewsWkDickG @ 10/15/2008 9:53:05 AM

    Comment: It really is simply all about honesty, about who can we trust. Looking at everything today it is literally too important to just follow old prejudices, biases and/or emotional attachments or to allow ourselves to be manipulated by subterfuge. Each of us has to be disciplined to be objective, rational and conscience driven to decide who we can trust to turn things around, to honestly change things. Even Bush???s actions indicate that he knows his policies have failed and that change is desperately needed. Each candidate says they will change everything and resolve the problems but we really can???t depend on what they say, whether it be about what they will do or how they criticize their opponent. Is it Obama-Biden or McCain-Palin who destroys their own credibility by depending on falsely slandering their opponent? Has Sarah Palin impressed that we can trust anything she says or just that she will say anything without any conscience? Has John McCain demonstrated that he is sincere and has he been consistent or does he constantly change positions and does his history of strong commitment to the Bush-Cheney/Republican policies that so greatly contributed to today???s problems just make him very questionable? Has Senator Biden been consistent in his career and does he seem to be consistent and truthful now? Throughout the primaries and the presidential campaign has Barack Obama stayed consistent and maintained a constant quality and the same level headed presentations that would encourage trust? All of the garbage that is being thrown around is distracting but the reality is that the real person we each have to be honest with is ourselves. To fail to see and act on the truth will only leave us at fault and then with more of the same or even worse.

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/15/2008 8:36:08 AM

    Comment: Barack Obama says he will give 95 percent of all American workers a tax cut but does not mention that his plan would send checks to tens of millions of tax filers who pay no personal income taxes - payments that critics say look "suspiciously like welfare."
    Mr. Obama's campaign promise, which he has repeated in his speeches and in the presidential debates, stems from his "Making Work Pay" tax cut that will give a $500 refundable tax credit to every worker or $1,000 to each working couple. But because this provision in his economic-recovery plan is "refundable," a large number of middle- to lower-income workers who have no income-tax liability after taking tax credits and deductions the that Internal Revenue Service allows, will be given the equivalent of the tax cut in the form of direct payments from the U.S. Treasury - funded by higher-income taxpayers.
    Because the IRS says that nearly 46 million tax filers - one-third of all filers - had no tax liability in 2006, there is the question of how millions of Americans can receive an income "tax cut" when they pay no taxes.
    "It's got to raise alarm bells when you claim you are going to cut taxes for 95 percent of working families when more than 40 percent of them pay no income taxes," said Phil Kerpen, policy director at Americans for Prosperity, a grass-roots free-market advocacy group.
    Asked whether the transfer of taxes from high earners to middle- and low-income earners was a way of redistributing the nation's income, Mr. Williams said, "You could certainly view it that way because both [tax] proposals are in the same tax plan. There's no question that's one way to perceive the tax plan."
    To pay for his middle-class tax cuts, Mr. Obama would raise the top marginal tax rate on Americans earning more than $250,000 to 35 percent from 30.6 percent. According to the IRS, the top 5 percent of all income earners in 2004 paid 57.13 percent of all income taxes.
    http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/13/obama-tax-cut-refunds-those-who-dont-pay/

  • Posted By: HarleyisHere @ 10/15/2008 7:14:01 AM

    Comment: RCP Electoral Count
    313 Obama, 158 McCain - Obama +155
    No Toss Up States
    364 Obama, 174 McCain - Obama +190

    RCP Average 10/07 - 10/14 -- 50.1 Obama, 42.1 McCain Obama


    OUCH! That's gotta hurt ;)

  • Posted By: Jimbo56 @ 10/15/2008 3:11:23 AM

    Comment: It is amazing hearing Obama talk about the economy and how bad things are when he can raise 100 MILLION dollars to spend on telling you just how bad things are. I just want to know where is he getting all of that money, month after month to buy votes. I think the US is in a world of hurt, with hurricanes and the morgage mess and personal credit being at an all time high. I read a report that Obama is claiming he can ot be responsible for non US citizens donating money via his web site. Just how much money have these non US citizens donated and why are they donating money to Obama. Is it because he is black and they want a US president, doubt it. Is it because he has a Muslim past and the Arab, very rich countries, want to see someone other than a Christian who sides with Israel in most conflicts, as president. That makes alot of sense. It is time for a real accounting of where Obama gets his money so we can see who really is paying for this presidence and possibly what has Obama promised in return for all their cash.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/14/2008 9:28:40 PM

    Comment: "Press Releases

    AJC Strongly Condemns Rev. Jesse Jackson's Comment on American Jews
    October 14, 2008 - New York - The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has condemned the Rev. Jesse Jackson's statement about 'Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades.'
    "Rev. Jackson's remarks, which appeared in an interview with the journalist Amir Taheri in today's New York Post, echo classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish power," said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris. 'This statement, regrettably, is not the first troubling comment by Rev. Jackson regarding Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people.'

    Arguing as a private citizen that an Obama administration could bring significant change to U.S. foreign policy, Jackson was quoted as saying that "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" would lose much of their influence should Senator Obama be elected president."


    http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=6107743

    And people are upset about raciest comments some in the crowd are allegedly saying at Palin events? Isn't this the same Democrat leader who once called New York "Hymietown"?

  • Posted By: honestpolitician1 @ 10/14/2008 9:11:03 PM

    Comment: it's quite obvious here of who will make the best contribution to the crisis....McCain and Bush has brought this country to this state with 8 years of de-regulation,corruption and poor economic planning. For months now McCain has been saying that the economy is fundamentally good. is it good? I don't think so.....Obama's plan makes sense, and hence the reason why he is ahead in the polls....

    politicaladattacks.blogspot.com

    • Posted By: neocon @ 10/15/2008 5:44:20 PM

      Comment: What's not fundamentally sound is the U.S. government. For starters, it has huge long-term liabilities. What's more, it pushed a pro-housing agenda (Fannie/Freddie, subsidies) that when combined with absurdly low interest rates earlier this decade (via the Fed) created the environment for the housing bubble and implosion and now rising unemployment. Michael Bloomberg nailed it when he said in an interview, "I do agree that fundamentally America has an economy that is strong. America's great strength is its diversity, its hard work, its good financial statements, its broad capital markets, its enormous natural resources.... I'd rather play America's hand than any other country. Without problems? No."

  • Posted By: mjm98 @ 10/14/2008 7:35:04 PM

    Comment: Obama looked right into the American people's eyes and said, I will not vote to raise taxes if elected to the senate, but as soon as he got in, he voted to raise every tax there was and against every tax break for the middle class that he says he cares about so much. Now, he is saying the same things again, are we supposed to believe him again? He left his true plan slip the other day to the plumber, by telling him about his "spread the wealth" plan, that will take money from hard working people and give it to the ones who have done nothing and the ones collecting welfare. He also lied when he said he voted for the 2nd amendment, it has
    been proven by showing his signature, that he voted against it every time. He says he is for women's right for equal pay for women, he is for the Jewish community, he is for hispanics, gun owners, and small businesses... but it has been proven that he has done nothing for any of them, even when he had a chance to do so! He lied about Wright saying he never heard him say those racist, anti American things, then proved he lied by saying he did... If he don't agree with Wright, then why days before Wright was exposed, did Obama tell us all how great his friend and mentor was? And how can such a hateful, racist person be his mentor? He lied about Ayers. He first said he just lived by him, then he said he just worked in the same co. then he said he didn't know what Ayers did, then he said he though Ayers was reformed. Reformed from what, if he didn't know what Ayers did??? Also, why did he back Ayers anti American teachings and his radical book, even after he read the book and saw the pic. of Ayers standing on the American flag in the dirt? I could go on all day, but the bottom
    line is, Obama has proven all by himself that he cannot be trusted! And anyone who does trust him, is a FOOL!

  • Posted By: Cantabrigian @ 10/14/2008 7:03:22 PM

    Comment: NObama has spent all of his challengers 3:1, which tells one thing, and only one thing about him and that is that he is BUYING THIS ELECTION.

    YOU FOOLiSh people . . .

    So, it is the economy and the American voters will trust their future with NObama - who has no executive experience, no administrative experience - and how much do you want to bet that his wife is the one who balances their home budget????

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 2:09:34 PM

    Comment: Sorry, I think I entered that twice.

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 2:07:29 PM

    Comment: Gee whiz, newswkdick - could you be one of the newsweak dicks granddaughter? This publication is certainly not "mainstream"! I'm certain that all the liberals pushed to be called. I am an independent - I vote for democrats and republicans, and to call yourselves "mainstream" really annoys me! Just say what you are, be honest for once! Gee, I guess it really cool now to have three question marks instead of an apostrophe!
    Thank God, you little nimrods are the future of this Nation! Well, maybe not. What makes you think Obama bin-Ladin will be the Saviour of the World. what an ***, you must be. No one, not Osama, McCain, Nader, et al, has anything to do with the grand scheme of things. Grow up, junior.

  • Posted By: NewsWkDickG @ 10/14/2008 1:20:02 PM

    Comment: John McCain consistently gives the impression that he is not all that bright; frequently he appears to not know what to do, he changes positions often and then everything he ever does is always for him and his political status. He has clearly demonstrated all of that over his whole career and then again so obviously when he selected Sarah Palin, who is bazaar, self-focused, dishonest, incompetent and just ridiculous. Additionally we only need to look at the last eight years under Bush-Cheney and where we are today and remember, in spite of all of their claims to be different, who strongly and even arrogantly supported all of it and ask ourselves are we now going to reward and encourage that? It is very hard to see how this presidential race can even be close and it can only be explained by people being distracted and focused on the wrong things, by their giving credit to the garbage being thrown around and neglecting to focus on the issues. If we don???t want more of the same or even worse, then we had better put our biases and prejudices aside, refusing to let our emotions be manipulated, and concentrate on the reality of things. If we don???t, the looser won???t be Barack Obama, it will be us!

  • Posted By: HolyRoller @ 10/14/2008 11:38:47 AM

    Comment: Hussein Obama HAS THE ANSWER....COMMUNISM

    Allah Akbar Comrades...

    NOBAMA!!!

    • Posted By: jjaffie @ 10/14/2008 12:17:02 PM

      Comment: The government controls half of US home mortgages through Fannie & Freddie and now they are about to have an ownership stake in major banks across the country. And you accuse the 'other guy' of Communism?

  • Posted By: NewWorlder @ 10/14/2008 10:56:27 AM

    Comment: Undoubtedly we are in a time of crisis and need to do something to correct our situation. Corporate greed, our representatives in congress and the senate need to realize and analyze what they are voting for. We are now being looked upon as a sub-superpower, and the thought of losing or freedom and being under a dictatorship scares the ---- out of me. The people of the United States need to wake up and sound off.

  • Posted By: josemarti @ 10/14/2008 10:45:51 AM

    Comment: Does anybody doubt that the people who are perpetrating voter fraud would be risking prison unless they intended the fraud to be so vast as to influence the results of the election?

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:19:24 AM

    Comment: Agreed that Osama is now a Bill & Hill clone. All of his economic advisors are from the Clinton administration. Poor fellow, a smooth talker, but hasn't a clue about what to do!
    Actually, McCain is still his own man. Biden, I'm afraid to say, is just another politcal hack, attack dog on Sarah Palin. If Joe would have been the nominee, I may have voted for him. Glad to see where his character really is.

  • Posted By: damitajo1 @ 10/14/2008 9:58:07 AM

    Comment: They are both in "copy Hillary Clinton mode." Obama has demonstrated "the Audacity of Flip Flop" yet again -- by proposing (late) at foreclosure moratorium. Problem: He bashed the heck out of Clinton when she did the same thing during the primaries. http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-proposes-90-day-moratorium-on.html

    And McCain, despite his embrace of conservatism, stole Clinton's plan for the feds to purchase mortgages held by distressed homeowners and to reissue them with more favorable terms. http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/10/out-of-left-field-mccain-wants-feds-to.html

    Perhaps, Senator Clinton would make a better president than these two guys....

  • Posted By: billtill @ 10/14/2008 9:46:32 AM

    Comment: About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

    'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'
    'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'
    'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

    'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

    'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

    1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
    2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
    3. from courage to liberty;
    4. from liberty to abundance;
    5. from abundance to complacency;
    6. from complacency to apathy;
    7. from apathy to dependence;
    8. from dependence back into bondage'

    Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

    Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
    Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
    Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
    Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1

    Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

    If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal's and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

    If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message. If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

    WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE,
    ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 2:50:50 AM

    Comment: You are such an idiot, with no knowledge of History! Uh, when was the Great Depression?? The only reason we got out of it was World War II, nimrod.

    • Posted By: Jurr @ 10/14/2008 9:11:53 AM

      Comment: Why don't you debate his points if you disagree with his theory rather than flaunting your own ignorance by throwing around insults?

      His assertation is based on a simple relationship known as Cause and Effect:
      Cause: An ideological Republican administration that believed in reckless deregulation
      Effect: Great Depression starting 1929 which led to 20 years of Democrats holding the Presidency

      • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:59:56 AM

        Comment: No reply, nimrod! You do not know History. Just what your liberal professors tell. My God, man, aren't you old enough to seek the truth, or are you so brain-washed? I am afraid, you will just listen to whatever is told to you - I am very sorry that is happening to you. Really, I am sorry. My first vote, in 1972, when I was a freshman in college, was for George McGovern, just because, all of my high school teachers, and college professors told everyone that is what they should do!

      • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:34:10 AM

        Comment: Must you again re-write History, Jurr? When did the Great Depression end? World War Two, 1941-1945, and Harry took over, and - oh my gosh, we are in Korea from 1950-1953. Yes, those were great times!
        You are such a nimrod!

  • Posted By: BunchofChemies @ 10/14/2008 1:38:28 AM

    Comment: The last time a reckless, deregulation ideology Republican administration nearly destroyed capitalism, the Democrats held the Presidency for 20 years (1932-1952). This time, it could be even longer. Even Herbert Hoover was smart enough not to invade Iraq.

    • Posted By: RockRibbedConservative @ 10/14/2008 9:36:42 AM

      Comment: You need to compare the Panic of 1907 and the Crash of 1929. In one, the banks stepped in and averted a crash and in 1929 they did not.
      BTW what "regulations" were in place in 1929 and what was the actual train of events?

  • Posted By: allseeingi @ 10/14/2008 1:03:47 AM

    Comment: Most of the comment around dinner tables in my social group in Europe expresses amazement that Obama's campaign hasn't linked the financial crisis in some way to the liquidity being hoovered out of the US's fiscus
    by the demands of paying for a war over the past five and a half years. Surely that alone is one good reason to demand an end to it as Biden and Obama have done. McCain ain't no Maverick he's a sidekick and Palin is a sidekick's sidekick.

    • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 3:01:43 AM

      Comment: Oooh! Your dinner table social groups. I am certain your social groups are the most intelligent of them all.
      US's fiscus - what the hell does that mean, elitists? And, why should Europe have anything to do with the United States. You must be French - always so weak. Fine, I am really getting to the point, if you idiots don't care about your countries being overrun by muslims terrorists - I don't either.

      • Posted By: Jurr @ 10/14/2008 8:44:39 AM

        Comment: Wow insult after ignorance after insult after ignorance. It is embarrassing to think you are an American.

        • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:39:41 AM

          Comment: Oh no, little Jurrboy, or girl - I am proud to be an American, however these Solon women are not. You must really be a little lap doggy!

          • Posted By: jjaffie @ 10/14/2008 10:53:42 AM

            Comment: Looks like you just proved his point :-)

  • Posted By: allseeingi @ 10/14/2008 12:59:28 AM

    Comment: Most of the comment around dinner tables in my social group in Europe expresses amazement that Obama's campaign hasn't linked the financial crisis in some way to the liquidity being hoovered out of the US's fiscus
    by the demands of paying for a war over the past five and a half years. Surely that alone is one good reason to demand an end to it as Biden and Obama have done. McCain ain't no Maverick he's a sidekick and Palin is a sidekick's sidekick.

    • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 3:16:43 AM

      Comment: No reply, littile ladies?

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 12:50:06 AM

    Comment: Poor Osama has no idea what to do, until the Clintonistas tell him. Now, that is real leadership! He is just a smooth talking fraud.

    • Posted By: Jurr @ 10/14/2008 8:33:53 AM

      Comment: When the Right wants to bully you into doing something that they have no good answers for they always introduce two elements: Religion & Patriotism

      • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:43:22 AM

        Comment: Hey, little jurr - I am not religious, and I don't own a gun! Sorry, Obama bin-Ladin. Oh, I am so sorry I hurt your feelings.

  • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 12:38:13 AM

    Comment: Yes, indeed! Obama bin-Ladin is the ubiqutous political "snake in the grass".

    • Posted By: Jurr @ 10/14/2008 8:22:25 AM

      Comment: **Ubiquitous**

      • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 11:35:33 AM

        Comment: I stand corrected, Jurr - your spelling is absolutley correct!

      • Posted By: quasqueton @ 10/14/2008 10:52:29 AM

        Comment: Excuse me, little fellow, you have it wrong also! Well, of course that is how your Ivy League professors told you how to spell the word - just like everything they told you how to think, what to do. You have no mind of your own!

  • Posted By: ICYEYES800 @ 10/13/2008 10:25:39 PM

    Comment: SECOND ATTEMPT
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA....He and Michelle have a long history of associations with terrorists and the Chicago mafia...since Rezko is talking like a parrot, he'll get his....hope he gets a pretty roomie....like Larry Sinclair.....THIS DUDE BAD FROM THE GET GO!! McCain/Palin '08

  • Posted By: ICYEYES800 @ 10/13/2008 10:23:11 PM

    Comment: FIRST, arrest Jeremiah Wright, and hold him until he can be tried for heracy....using a pulpit to encourage the BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY and ANTI-AMERICA activities! Secondly, ARREST, Osama for being a traitor and attempting to overthrow the government of the UNITE

  • Posted By: BlackPower @ 10/13/2008 8:59:53 PM

    Comment: http://africanawakening.forumotion.net/forum.htm

  • Posted By: BlackPower @ 10/13/2008 8:59:33 PM

    Comment: If you agree that we don't need another devil messing up this country, please join us in discussion. http:// africanawakening. forumotion. net/forum. htm

    • Posted By: Perusing-through @ 10/13/2008 11:25:51 PM

      Comment: Dear BLACKPOWER,

      I hope you know you are not fooling anyone. You are as transparent as clear glass. You are NOT the Black Radical you would like for us to believe. The people on this commentary are a bit smarter than you give them credit. Many of us have read a writing or two of Black-Power radicals. And you are no BlackPower advocate.

      So stop the fraud, your imitation of a BlackPower radical is embarrassingly pathetic. You sound like Pee-Wee Herman trying