Just a quick thought. In one way I’m sorry there’s only going to be one VP debate. It should be very entertaining to say the least.

On one side you have Joe Biden, the democratic VP nominee.

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and lived there for ten years prior to moving to Delaware. He became an attorney in 1969 and was elected to a county council in 1970. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, and became the fifth-youngest senator in U.S. history. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, and 2002, and has served for the sixth-longest period among current senators.

Biden is a long-time member and current chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. His strong advocacy helped bring about U.S. military assistance and intervention during the Bosnian War. He initially supported the Iraq War, but later proposed resolutions to alter U.S. strategy there. He has served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dealing with issues related to drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties, and led creation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and Violence Against Women Act. He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

Long time Senator. Knows foreign affairs like the back of his hand. Loads of experience in Washington. Has had tremendous exposure internationally. Has a tendency to speak his mind, even when it’s political suicide. He just doesn’t have the restraint some other politicians have when it comes to saying what he wants. I personally applaud him for it. And it’s fun to watch too. 

On the other side you have Sarah Palin, the republican VP nominee. 

Palin attended Wasilla High School in Wasilla, located 29 miles (47 km) north of the city of Anchorage.^[9] She was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the school and the point guard and captain of the school’s girls’ basketball team. She helped the team win the Alaska small-school basketball championship in 1982, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds of the game, despite having an ankle stress fracture. She earned the nickname “Sarah Barracuda” because of her intense play.^[10]

Palin attended several colleges and universities. In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. She transferred toNorth Idaho community college, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From there, she transferred to the University of Idahofor two semesters.^[11][12] During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant beauty contest,^[13][14] then finished third (second runner-up) in theMiss Alaska pageant,^[15][16] at which she won a college scholarship and the “Miss Congeniality” award.^[17] She then left the University of Idaho and attended Matanuska-Susitna community college in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.^[11][12]

Started her political career in 1992 on the city council. Was elected Mayor of Wasilla in 1996, Lieutenant Governor 2002, Governor 2006. Got the nicname “Sarah Barracuda” because of her intense play as point guard for her high schools girls basketball team. Won the Ms. Wasilla Beauty Pageant. 

Personally I think Joe Biden is unfairly going to be in a no win situation. First of all the bar is set so low for Sarah Palin. It’s of her own doing.  Because of the VERY few open interviews she’s done since being presented at the RNC and totally bombing in each of them. I think the country has gotten tired of her smart assed one liners. Those are cute but get old real fast especially when you keep repeating them. Let’s forget the VP should have some political knowledge and substance, which we have yet to see from her. She’s good at attacking, making cute little sound bites and easy on the eyes, but at the end of the day she still needs to prove she’s up for the second highest office in the country. I personally doubt it very much. Secondly Joe can’t go after her without people saying he’s sexist. He can’t push the issue that he’s more experienced than her because then he’s talking down to her. Total crap in my opinion. She has stepped into the big leagues and it’s time for her to take the shots for herself. Hold her own. People say she can. They say she has done it before when she won the Governor position in Alaska. Maybe she does have “it” in terms of toughness. Maybe it did show in Alaska. But she knew Alaska very well. So far she hasn’t shown she knows anything outside of Alaska and that can be a big problem when going up against Joe Biden. I don’t want to see the “Pitbull with Lipstick.” That’s NOT what we need representing our country. I want to see a person who can step into the Oval Office if needed and run our country like an intelligent, worldly person. 

What do you think?

Like so many Americans I was really looking forward to the first Presidential debate this past Friday September 26, 2008. I set the DVR to record in case I missed something. Of course I set it wrong and missed half the debate but that’s not my fault… really. Anyway, I’m watching Jim Lehrer speak and describe the set up for the evening. “I made up all the questions and no one has seen or heard them until tonight.” Great! Both Obama and McCain would have to answer blind questions. We get to see how they react, answer and deal with things when they can’t see it coming. No prepared answers, no TelePrompTers. I like that. Looks like it’s going to be a great political evening with the both candidates showing their true self. Now we’re going to see who has the mustard and who doesn’t. 

As the night moves along Jim Lehrer tells both candidates to address each other. He does this many times trying to get a dialog going between the two. In short Obama did and McCain did not. Barrack Obama tried to speak directly to John McCain on many occasions. McCain on the other hand never… NEVER once even looked at Brarack Obama. John McCain ALWAYS spoke about him as if he weren’t there. I’m not sure if that was a tactic that his handlers told him to adopt or not. I always had great respect for John McCain when he WAS a maverick in the senate and even lately after he sold out his “maverick” status to get the nomination. I watched John McCain say he was going to run a respectable campaign against Barrack Obama then watched as his commercials got more and more negative and stretched the truth far and wide. Yes Barrack Obama did the same thing but he didn’t ride in on his white horse like McCain did. Then he chooses Sarah Palin as his running mate simply to satisfy his religious base. If he were STILL the maverick, he would have chosen one of the two people he wanted to, Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. But no. He sells out and goes for such an obvious political choice that even his republican friends were shaking their heads. I let all that go. It’s the way every presidential campaign has gone for a very long time. The McCain uses the economic crisis as a political tool. EVERYONE involved said they didn’t want that to happen. NO ONE wanted to insert presidential politics into the resolution process of the bail out discussions. No one except for John McCain. I guess his failing numbers in the polls changes his character. Then comes the debate and John McCain acts with such disdain and disrespect for Barrack Obama. It was pathetic. It was gross. It was shameful. He even looked like he was enjoying it. One time he actually turned his back toward Barrack to answer a question!

Listen up John McCain! As far as I’m concerned you have lost all credibility with your actions during this campaign. The debate Friday night was the absolute last straw. What ever you were thinking it would look like you were wrong! You looked like a child. You want to call Senator Obama an elitist and you act like the biggest snob on the planet! Mr McCain, you owe Barrack an apology. You owe your supporters an apology. You owe the American people an apology. Your actions and demeanor are not fitting of a man of your position. You should be better than that. I guess you’re not though are you? You keep spewing how you’re the one who can reach across the isle and work with everyone. Yet you can’t even look at the other man on the same stage as you? You are pathetic John McCain. You have shown how shallow you are and what depths you will go to to win this election. Very sad, especially coming from the John McCain I was voting for in 2000. Where did he go? Please tell us, where did THAT John McCain go?

Barrack Obama was poised, respectful, well spoken all evening. I think he did miss an opportunity that evening though. As John McCain dug a huge whole for himself by his disdainful ignoring of Barrack, Senator Obama should have said something like “John, you can ignore me here on stage, not look at me, speak like I’m not even here, BUT know one thing sir. I AM HERE and I’m not going anywhere.” That would have slammed the lid on McCain’s campaign coffin and nailed it shut. If I saw it I know Barrack saw it and probably wanted to say something. If he did and decided not to, maybe he thought he was taking the high road. Maybe he did. I can’t hold my tongue like that. Good thing I’m not running for president.

Our dependency on foreign oil for our energy needs is going to completely destroy this country. We are in the midst of the LARGEST transfer of wealth in history. We, the United States, are losing ourselves to other countries. We are dependent on countries like Saudi Arabia and the rest of the middle east including Iraq (you don’t still think we went there to get rid of the big ‘ol bag dictator do you?), Japan and China. The middle East is an easy part of the equation to see. But you may be asking why China? Well, who do you think is giving us all the money we need to live? They’re buy our treasuries (t-bills etc.). Here’s a quote from the Market Oracle:

These securities are either sold on the open market or directly to the Federal Reserve. The U.S. public debt, as of July 17, 2007 stood at $8.887 trillion. In addition to the national debt, the State and Local debt at the end of 2006 stood at just over $2 trillion.

Some consider that all government liabilities, including those that the government has contracted for but not yet paid, should also be included in the national debt . Corporations must report such liabilities in their annual financial statements under GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

These “off-balance sheet” items include future payments for federal pensions, Medicare and Social Security. Inclusion of these obligations would dramatically increase the U.S. national debt to $59.1 trillion or 403% of GDP! On a per capita basis this amounts to $516,348 for every U.S. household! By means of comparison, the average American household owes $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.

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FOX has really gone over the line this past month–using racism, prejudice, and fear to smear Barack Obama. Each time they apologize–then they do it again.

First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused “Obama” with “Osama” and then joked on the air about killing Obama. Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist pound by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a “terrorist fist jab.” And then, FOX called Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama”–slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man’s child.

FOX won’t stop until it becomes too painful to continue–until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried. Nearly 100,000 Americans have already expressed their outrage. Can you express yours by adding your name to his message?

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to FOX.

SIGN THE STOP THE SMEARS PETITION

We need more voices of reason and stop the downward spiral of our country due to the strangle hold the ultra conservative right has on the media and the people. Once we starting discussing and arguing what they tell us to discuss and argue about we lose. Stand up people. Now is the time!

Last night was the 2 final primaries for the Democratic party nominee for president of the United States of America. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton split the two states, Montana for Barack Obama and South Dakota for Hillary Clinton. Now the democratic primary season is over, finally, and Barack Obama is the presumtive nominee of the democratic party. After the consensus formed around the fact that Barack Obama finally put it away, all three politicians gave speeches. That is the basics of what went on in the last 24 hours. Now, if you think the drama is over for the democrats you have another think coming. 

Barack Obama’s speech was one of the best speeches I’ve heard in a very long time. He accepted his winning of the required number of delegates and becoming the presumtive democratic nominee. He also spent a fair amount of time honoring and extolling the great impact Hillary Clinton has had on the american people, the democratic party and the election process. Praising her for her strength, intelligence and tenacity. Of course he also spent time on the offensive towards John McCain. Barack Obama’s speech was a positive and uplifting speech that worked hard to show what we have in common as a nation and as a people. He sounded like a unifying voice. A voice that was speaking for the American people. His was a speech that elicited a sense of national pride. Listening to him last night I felt proud to be an American. His speech raised within people a feeling of pride that we have someone who is truly speaking for us and will honor the values of the american people and the nation. A feeling we all have been missing for the last eight years. One that believes that everyone around the world can benefit from the United States being a respected country once again. Respected for it’s virtue, honesty and strength and not just because of our military might. 

Hillary Clinton’s speech on the other hand was none of the above. Yes, she did acknowledge Barack Obama reaching the required number of delegates. But the lion’s share of her speech was political posturing. She was still promoting her resume. She was still saying how she’s the better candidate. She was still saying she received more popular votes. She was still saying how she won the swing states and how no person could win the presidency without those states. In short she was trying to leverage herself and turn the screws on Barack Obama to force him to ask her to be his VP running mate. I found it to be very unprofessional of her to speak like that last night. She had a great opportunity to start to reunite the democratic party. Instead she chose to continue to fight. Too bad for her she’s only shadow boxing right now because she’s the only one in the room. She made herself look bad last night and actually helped to show that Barack Obama is in fact the correct choice. (more…)

If you don’t think John McCain is just another 4 years of the current failure we have in office now, George W. Bush, then you’ve got some learning to do. George W. Bush has screwed up this country worse than anyone in recent history. If John McCain actually wins in November things won’t change in the least. He’s just as scary as the current fiasco we are still enduring. So if you want a little eye opener about the difference, or lack there of, between John McCain and George W. Bush then click the link below and take the challenge. I think you’ll be surprised at some of the answers.

Take the Bush McCain Challenge! 

I won’t say I told you so, BUT….. 

I read this article (quoted below with a link to the original posted website) that says the Super-delegates get campaign cash from the presidential candidates coffers. I don’t know about you but I find this point to be more than a little disconcerting. I mean they are essentially “buying” someone’s vote. Something we as a nation as SUPPOSED to be against. Don’t worry, I know it happens to a much smaller degree all the time but when you have people paying out such large sums of money to people to can change the tide of elections with a SINGLE vote… that’s a problem. Also notice this quoted section of the article:

Obama’s political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.   

If my memory serves me correctly, wasn’t Obama “on the fence” about running for president during that time? Now it seems like he was on the fence because he was looking to garner enough support from the super-delegates as an insurance policy against the possible close race between himself and another Democrat.  He spent an awful lot of money wooing the super-delegates long before he committed to running for president. Maybe I’m naive and this is normal practice and nothing about it is wrong. Well, it may be “normal practice” but some how it just doesn’t seem like a fair way to go about winning an election. I know that long ago the way our leaders were ‘elected’ was set in place…. the delegates and the electoral college were implemented to balance the voting between less populated states vs larger populated states as well as accounting for the “less educated” people of the interior states. Sound like a control issue to me even back then. Be that as it may, those arguments are antiquated and our systems needs to be changed to all popular voting, pure and simple. 

Superdelegates get campaign cash

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor February 14, 2008 03:54 PM

Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.”While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years,” the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.About half the 800 superdelegates — elected officials, party leaders, and others — have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention.Obama’s political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.Clinton’s political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000. 

Today I turned on CNN looking for updates on the current election standings. What’s happening between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and to see how much more ridiculous Senator McCain can sound every time he opens his mouth (I’m not a fan of his just in case it wasn’t obvious). CNN was showing a live broadcast of the Congressional hearing on the possible steroid use of Roger Clemens. Now, I completely understand that CNN needs to broadcast major events. They have a responsibility to show us what’s happening in our world and this trial is one thing that’s happening. My contention is not with CNN but with the general idea that Congress needs to have a hearing regarding possible steroid use in a baseball player. For the record I believe if Roger signed a piece of paper saying he won’t take steroids – and he took steroids – then he’s wrong and should be held accountable by the MLB Association. That’s as far as I go with that. I don’t give a rats ass if anyone takes steroids, smokes cigarette’s, drinks alcohol, does ecstasy or smokes pot. If they’re not hurting anyone else then who cares. My government is not here to protect me from myself. That’s what parents are for. Apparently MLB can not handle it’s own affairs so they look to the government.

I’m not an attorney so I’m sure I’ll get more than a few emails explaining some legal justification for Congress to hold the hearings. That’s not as important to me as the overall WHY. Is it really so damned important to the United States of America whether or not Clemens used steroids? The answer is emphatically NO! He’s a ball player… an athlete… an entertainer. Why on earth is it that this such an important issue and things like the economy, the North American Union, V-Chip, why we REALLY attacked Iraq, etc. are largely ignored? Are we as a society that apathetic to these issue? Do we really place more importance on knowing what celebrities do, who they marry, what drugs they take and whether or not they wear panties in public than we do on issues that directly influence us as a nation?

It would seem to be true… unfortunate but true. If we had more of a focus on other more important issue maybe our country wouldn’t be headed for a collapse. No I don’t think we’ll totally collapse, but we’re heading in the wrong direction. The wrong direction on so many issues. As a society we’re placing importance in the wrong areas. In doing so we’re allowing others to trample our rights, intrude on our privacy and erode our constitution. By others I mean George W. Bush and his neo-conservative benefactors.

The truth is out there. You just have to WANT to see it. Whether or not Roger Clemens is an issue that needs to be dealt with but it’s NOT a major issue. Our values need to change if we’re to really take this country in the right direction.

I don’t know how many times I need to say how totally screwed up the whole government is. How many times do I have to tell people they lied to us about a great many things INCLUDING 9/11. It was all part of a much larger plan. They know they can’t ask us or convince us to believe what they want us to believe. So they MANIPULATE the people with the most affective form of coercion… FEAR.   If the population feel the only way to progress is to allow the government to take control and do everything for us, then they get what they want. ABSOLUTE POWER! Those weak minded individuals who are too afraid to think for themselves, ask questions, demand answers and remind the government officials that they work for US are the very people they are targeting. Unfortunately these lemmings are a majority of society. These are very scary times we’re living in people. Believe it when I say if something isn’t done and done SOON, we’re headed to a place that we don’t want to be. The scariest part is that most people can’t see it. If their daily lives are made easier, they make more money, can buy better housing, buy better cars etc., they don’t care what else happens. STOP… look at the big picture people. We’re headed to a time that we’ve only read about in books or seen in movies. Maybe these creative people weren’t so far off as they were thought to be. The real question is… What are you prepared to do about it?

Tell everyone you know to read this blog and see this video. It’s THAT important!