Crushed by the Elephant

What a nice article.

Has anyone noticed that Obama seems to be catching up in Arizona? And he is doing better than expected in Texas. McCain may loose his home state.

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

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

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

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

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

John McCain is a progressive Republican in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. He might well have appealed to moderate Republicans and Independents by pursuing that course. Certainly he would have helped himself in that direction by selecting Mike Huckabee as his running mate, who seemed to give political voice to the more progressive form of evangelicalism of Rick Warren and others. There may have been a victory for him in this, as well as a way forward for a party whose revolution under Reagan has lost its ability generate new ideas, its affability, and its respect for its own conservative political and intellectual tradition.

MR. OBAMA HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO SPREAD THE WEALTH. Well these were the headlines I was expecting. But no, the headlines are Joe the plumber does not have a license and owes some back taxes. Well folks lets spread the word. Let us SHARE THE WEALTH. How about it Oprah, Mr. Soros, Rev. Jackson, how do you feel about this. Yes Hollywood share your wealth. How about it teachers union, lets share the wealth and let our children attending failing schools share the wealth of private education. How about Teamsters, lets share the pension fund just handed over to you. What a novel concept for America. SHARE THE WEALTH. Will it be Castro style, Chavez style, Putin style, Mao style? Who cares? Today $250,000, tomorrow how much will it be? Please President BO tell us how it is going to work? Our news media is dying to know. Get busy bloggers, spread the word.

I WAS ARGUING WITH A POSTER ABOUT MCCAIN AND PALIN PRO LIFE POSITION WHEN MCCAIN-THIS DUMB HEARTLESS SOB-AIR QUOTES WOMEN'S HEALTH?!
ARE YOU F'N SERIOUS???!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HE WOULD SAY THE LEFT USES WOMEN'S HEALTH FOR PRO-ABORTION STANCES( NO ONE IS PRO ABORTION). THAT TOTALLY MAKES MY POINT. THESE 2 HAVE NO BUSSINESS RECEIVING ONE DAMN WOMAN'S VOTE!! YOU THINK ROE V. WADE CANNOT BE OVERTURNED EVEN IF MCCAIN AND PALIN WOULD IN THE WHITE HOUSE? 1 QUESTION......................DID YOU EVER THINK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WOULD EVER LIE ITSELF INTO A WAR? PALIN WANTS MORE POWER THAN CHENEY. THERE IS NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS THAN A AIRHEAD WITH TOO MUCH POWER (SEE: GEORGE BUSH) MCCAIN HAS SUCH A LOW VIEW OF WOMEN. NO WOMAN "WANTS' AN ABORTION AND A WOMAN'S HEALTH COMES INTO QUESTION BY HER DAMN DOCTOR............................................WHAT SELF RESPECTING WOMAN WOULD VOTE FOR THESE TWO?

Lest you labor under the mistaken belief that all black people favor Obama....



http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/ndnr09-03-08.html

Any way I will vote for McCain, ... you paid speaker...

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.

If Joe the Plumber thinks he can't afford to buy the business under Obama's tax plan then he really needs to consult a good accountant. Obama's plan lowers taxes on the first $250,000 Joe makes. On the money over $250,000, Joe would pay 39% under Obama, instead of the 36% he now pays. That's 3% more taxes, not exactly a break-the-bank if you have already made $250,000 at a low rate. Plus, Obama will give him a tax credit for every job he creates, and tax credits for every employee that he provides health insurance for. Under Obama's plan, Joe's business will pay LESS TAX than it does now.

McCain's plan will tax the first $250,000 at a higher rate, then drop the taxes on anything over $250,000 by an unspecified amount. McCain's plan does not give him a tax credit for every job he creates. If he provides health care for his employees he will now have to deduct yet another tax from their paychecks, adding administrative burden to his company. Not to mention that Joe will have to pay this tax himself on his personal income, which amounts to an extra $4,200 a year he pays in taxes (35% of the $12,000 a typical policy costs). And if his company does not provide health care, he and his employees will pay out of pocket for their health care (average cost $12,000 per year), get a $5,000 tax credit under McCain, but be out of pocket at least $7,000 per year for their policy.

My impression is that Joe really should stick to plumbing and leave tax policy to Obama.

Furthermore, Joe the plumber says that Obama has a "very socialist view of taxes" This statement shows America how very uninformed Joe Wurzelbacher is. I would love to hear Joe define socialism and describe the tax policies of a socialist nation. He would start to sound like Sarah Palin on Katie Couric. Nor does he seem to recognize that all democracies socialize certain functions: police, fire fighting, military, roads, public schools, sewers, water. This is for the greater good and we all accept it. It does not make us socialists.

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

Joe the plumber should stick to plumbing and leave public policy decisions to people who actually know what they are talking about.

Oh, and maybe Joe and his boss should get plumbing licenses. Apparently neither of them is licensed, in violation of both state and county laws.

On October 10, the Alaska Legislative Council found Sarah Palin guilty of abusing power. Immediately Ms. Palin said "if you read the report you'll see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member." This quote by Palin is only 50% true. The Legislative Council report says it was LEGAL for her to fire Commissioner Monegan, since as Governor she has the right to hire and fire her staff at will. The report also says that her firing of Commissioner Monegan was an UNETHICAL abuse of power.

Palin tells you half of the truth, and lies outright about the other half. You know the old saying: If you tell a lie, make sure it contains some truth so it will be believable.

From the report:

Palin tried to force the Commissioner to prosecute Trooper Wooten (her former brother in law) for illegally shooting a moose. The Commissioner explained to Palin that if they charged Wooten they would also have to bring charges against Palin's sister, who was present on the hunt, had the moose permit and illegally let her husband use it. They would also have to prosecute Palin's father, who cut up the moose and stored it in his freezer, sharing the meat with the Palin family. In other words, the Palins were OK with Wooten illegally shooting the moose when it happened. They participated in the hunt and kept the meat. But a year later when Wooten was divorcing Palin's sister, suddenly the Palins turned him in for illegally killing a moose.

The Palins turned Wooten in to the State Troopers disciplinary commission about a year and a half before she became Governor. The Troopers investigated Wooten, finding that some of Palin's allegations were true and some were false. The Troopers disciplined Wooten with a few days' suspension. When Palin tried to get Monegan (the new Commissioner) to re-open the case once she was Governor, Monegan told her he couldn't do it. All the allegations had already been investigated and Palin had no new evidence. Trooper Wooten belongs to a union, and he can not be fired just because the Governor doesn't like him.

So, the Palins hired a private investigator to trail Wooten, trying to catch him doing something wrong. The investigator took photos of Wooten dropping his kids off at school, using his patrol car. The Palins file a complaint, saying it is illegal for him to ferry his kids in a patrol car. They try and get him fired for this, except it turns out that since Wooten was working a swing shift, his Commander had given him a waiver to bring his kids to school in the car.

Wooten and Palin's sister have been divorced 3 years, yet the Palins continue to persecute Wooten. Palin just can't forgive and get past this family drama.

Read the report yourself (it takes a few seconds to load):

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Politics/Election2008/branchflower
_report_to_the_legislative_council.pdf

Obama's view of the future of America - Socialism which is the next step to Communism!!


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.

Obama picking BIDEN shows the lefties and the liberals ( polite terms for Marxists) in the DNC don't fully trust Obama and are saddling him with a "minder" they can trust!
Ayres and ACORN are a radical and corrupt entity extended from the Weather Underground, which sought to import all the violence around the world to the streets of the USA under the banner of Bring The War Home!
Obama is trusted with the valuable DNC hate campaign against achievers, gun owners , Christians, police and military professionals of the USAF, and to run this multi-faceted discrimination campaign from the Oval Office as Bill Clinton did for 8 years.
But smart old lefties like Biden, Schumer, Pelosi and Feinstein all do know that Ayres is all about TAKING OVER things he works with or for at some point. And maybe the Ye Olde Lefties won't like that!
Besides, McCain as President should NOT have "control of" the things of American freedom, Alter. Only lefties see things in terms of CONTROL! Joe the plumber got the wiff of Marxism on Obamas breath. It's all about control and how THAT is great thing in all cases!
Obama is not in control.Your hope is that some day he will be. If Biden does not give him the political lethal injection if should Ye Olde Marxists decide an ACORN Presidency, and ACORN it's self, can't be controled by them!
Obama had his VP picked for him.