MCCAIN-OBAMA DEBATE: MY TAKE ON IT

First, McCain blew away any good opinion I might have started to have of him when he said: 'I'm happy to say I have a good partner, who is a maverick, now.' How can I have any respect for a man who would have Sarah Palin as President should he be unable to fulfill his term? Even a Republican, woman commentator was quoted by Olbermann as making a most moving request for Sarah Palin to resign from the campaign 'for the good of the party and the good of the country'.

The pundits were saying McCain won the debate. Since I believe none of them are unbiased, I just tried to maintain control of my heaving stomach. To me, Obama was articulate and had ideas. McCain just kept saying he could do whatever it was they were discussing but never mentioning how or why he hadn't voted against Bush in all those years more than 10% of the time.

Obama was clear on what he would do as President, while McCain kept repeating what he has believed (though no proof of his acting on successfully) over the years. He tried to make Obama seem inexperienced, but in my opinion only succeeded in showing Obama as more intelligent, better prepared, or having better judgment. Linda Douglass, (senior policy adviser on MSNBC), who believed, as I that Obama had won, gave a concise and detailed explanation of why he did win. Andrea Mitchell showed her Republican leanings by being critical of the same things.

McCain seemed to think that Obama would be ready if he had visited everywhere in the world, though he accepts that Palin is ready to be president though she has only been out of the country once. This talk out of both sides of his head makes me think of Voldemort inhabiting the body of the teacher in the Harry Potter series. McCain still shows the damage to the side of his face that seems to have affected not only his jaw but his left eye as well. The lump seems to be growing.

The media decided that the winner of the debate would be the one with the best soundbites and the fewest gaffs. Intellectuals, such as this, should be collecting garbage in trucks, not in news media. Obama spoke decisivley of changes he planned to make as well as his priorities, while McCain talked about furthering all the things he has believed in for many years, with no evidence that much will change in the economy, international relations, taxes, medical insurance or any of the other things the middle and poor class desperately need.

I find I am actually looking forward to the Biden/Palin debate on Thursday. I need the entertainment since I am convinced there will be no value in it otherwise.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE BEING EXPRESSED?

Watching people around me all reacting to the terrible economic times with despondency and hopelessness, was dragging me down until someone sent this You Tube to me. Instead of people being angry at the Republicans (who have failed the American people for eight years by bringing us to this current state of crisis, they are angry at each other.

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.There is considerable research today that shows clearly that 'liberals ' are more open to new experience; 'conservatives' stick pretty much to the familiar, safe and dependable. This video is not short but is very interesting for those of you who will take the time to watch it. Haidt discusses being trapped in the 'moral matrix'. He concludes with the evolutionary biology theory that these polarized views exist to keep the society balanced by their competition and opposing views.

So we get caught up enraged at the 'other' party, at the stupidity of those who do not agree with us! Is it because we have seen the ineffectiveness of being angry at the Administration, individuals with whom our rage should be more accurately aimed. It was their lies, greed, and poor judgment that has led this great country to the brink of disaster. Rather than putting that rage and energy towards energy to vote them out of office, we (the majority, it would seem) allow ourselves to be duped by fear, confusion, and Rovian campaigning tactics. Will the voters prevail this election or will evil continue to triumph until there is bankruptcy and nothing left of the USA.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE NIGERIAN EMAIL SCAM

Credit should go to the person who thought this up. I'm not sure who that is but know where he/she/they posted this. This blog site was emailed to me. It seemed more than worthy of being shared.

"Steve, a friend in San Diego, forwarded me this email. It’s doing the rounds and sooner or later you are bound to read it. So you may as well read it here.

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury
Henry Paulson"

The more I read, the more it sounded like many letters I have received that now automatically get put into my spam folder. Shouldn't Congress do the same with this one...or, at least, the similar one they are now debating?

THE PREDICTED DEMISE OF THE US

"From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere."

-- Dr. Seuss

Since 9/11, I have been quoting Osama bin Laden who said he will break the American economy. The Bush administration ignored him and he has won. McCain can keep thinking the war is on the battlefield, in the Iraqi streets, and in Afghanistan, but the 'real' war has already been lost. Whether Ahmadinejad is accurate or not as he puts it is irrelevant. He predicts that the US empire is nearing an end. What the Bush administration has done to saddle the citizens of this country with debt in so many areas for the next generations is really amazing. Greed has blinded the administration to the realities, or they really don't care what happens to the country now that their pockets have been lined. We may never know the answer to what they really think in this lifetime, since every effort is being made to seal documents for the next 50 years that would shed light as to just how this catastrophe was allowed to happen. We can talk about deregulation and lowering taxes for the rich but it does not show the iceberg under the surface.

It just gets worse and worse. The bullies will have done the damage and run off to fat retirement, paid for by American hard working citizens (at least those with jobs). The CEOs who acted out the problem will do the same. They will all live in their comfortable lifestyle and have money to hire the rest of us to do their chores everywhere.

UNDERSCORING REPUBLICAN PRIDE

To be a Republican must make one very proud to hear two obviously thoughtful intellectuals discuss Palin more deeply than most of the rest of us, who have failed to recognize how much she brings to the campaign.

Despite the evidence in favor of Palin (that she is hot; that she was mayor and later governor of a state with fewer people than Rhode Island) , there are some who have not as yet seen the reasons for her to quite likely become President if McCain is elected. Matt Damon is one of them and well-worth listening to a 'liberal' who doesn't see the Republican 'truths'. That she does, as someone who thinks the dinosaurs were here on earth 4000 years ago and will, as VP-later President have the nuclear codes, frighten him, oddly. Yet, admirably, as evidence of their greater security about the stability of our Administration by Republicans, it seems not to frighten any of the Republicans who, having run the country to the ground so brilliantly in the past eight years, think they continue at greater speed with Palin/McCain at the helm.

For those of you who don't know what a VPILF is, look it up on Urban Dictionary. Substitute Vice President for Mother and you will subsequently be able to feel the pride of what she adds to the Republican platform and the Republican voters find so appealing about her. It should make all of us flattered to be part of the voting public. It confirms our pride in our country for the past eight years, though the jealous world outside seems to see us quite differently. Their view is difficult to understand because we have saved them from Al Qaeda, which might have invaded Iraq and taken their oil, and we have knocked the money situation of the world to utter chaos so they, too, will have economic challenges (always a fun game). But apparently they have no sense of humor in the rest of the world as we have here in the US. At least, as those of us have who still have jobs, a roof over our heads, hope for the future of our lives and education of our children (oh dear, the numbers in that group seem to be going down so fast as I write this), medical insurance, and a local shelter we can count on occasionally so that we don't freeze to death, (saving the police having to pick up bodies in the morning), and occasionally some food, courtesy of the people who didn't want it.

Yes, we in the middle and lower class (is there a difference now?) of the US have much for which to be thankful. We should thank God for helping us for giving us the opportunity to make the rich people richer, for deregulation which allowed CEOs to earn up to 30,000 times the salary of the average worker, thus adding to our recreational pleasure so that we can stand on shore and watch their beautiful yachts sail or motor by. We can enjoy the creativity of the jewelers who make the $100,000 diamond-studded pet collars for pampered pets, while Sarah Palin continues to kill off the wild life that might endanger those little furry, diamond encrusted darlings. We can be happy that we do not have to defend ourselves against the painful jealousy shown by the rest of the world, now that we have been able to rid ourselves of anything they could envy.

Have we hit rock bottom yet?

PALIN SEEMS TO WORRY A LOT OF PEOPLE

"If ever I've seen a Trojan Horse in American politics, it's the showy but hollow package named Sarah Palin." (Joanne Draus Klein, Sun News, Cleveland Ohio) She adds: "Palin's image as a tough, modern woman vanishes in light of her outmoded beliefs. She favors teaching creationism; doubts global warming; has considered book banning; is anti-choice, -stem-cell-research and -gay-rights; and she opposes gun control. Ultimately, this lifelong NRA member keeps the incongruity of the Old Boys' Club agenda intact: Respect for life is a great notion to maximize when controlling women's reproductive rights, but should be minimized when it comes to the Iraq war (which she calls "a task that is from God") or killing animals for fun."

Biden on Palin: "So, after Joe Biden said, awesomely, that paying taxes is patriotic, Sarah Palin retorted, mendaciously, that raising taxes is "about killing jobs and hurting small businesses and making things worse." Biden's reply through Katie Couric: "How many small businessmen are making one million, four hundred thousand -- average in the top 1 percent. Give me a break. I remind my friend, John McCain, what he said -- when Bush called for war and tax cuts -- he said, it was immoral, immoral, to take a nation to war and not have anybody pay for it. I am so sick and tired of this phoniness. The truth of the matter is that we are in trouble. And the people who do not need a new tax cut should be willing, as patriotic Americans, to understand the way to get this economy back up on their feet is to give middle class taxpayers a break. We take the tax cut they're getting and we give it to the middle class." This said to Palin's ridiculing Obama in a fashion that makes one wonder just how far she can twist meaning.

Rachel Maddow looks at the numbers and finds that Palin really inspires women -- to vote for Obama. Maddow looked at some actual polls.

Based on the numbers, Maddow concluded that the "Palin effect" -- the idea that Palin's addition to the Republican ticket was a stroke of genius that would pull women, en masse, away from Democrats -- is " ... an interesting storyline ... If by interesting, you mean not at all true."

Tonight, I sat at a dinner table with a couple of staunch Republicans who think she is wonderful. I was warned by others at the table and was able to avoid that particular dialogue which I find as fruitful and productive as repeatedly bashing my head into a brick wall.

I can only hope the polls are missing the absentee ballots, the cell users, and the young independents who are always at work when the pollsters call, who are less apt to be brainwashed by the 'honest' Republicans.

SARAH PALIN INACCURACIES AREN'T HIDING

Kos leads once again with what was apparent to those of us who kept faith that the majority of the American public would be discerning enough to understand that Palin is not worthy of the position of Vice President, let alone be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Having five children, nor being a hockey Mom, is not what bothers those who are against seeing her get the job. Seeing (as banners read at protests in Alaska about her) Palin is GW Bush with a skirt on; she is Bush with lipstick does frighten. That so many are not frightened is even more frightening than Palin. I can little imagine what they are seeing for the future of America.

Markos Moulitsas, otherwise know as Kos, writes that media began to explore and view her: "She is a liar with theocratic tendencies, sports an intellect that makes Bush look like a Mensa member, and features an obvious fondness for Cheney-style abuses of power. And that's not even the worst of it."

If you would like to get daily figures on polls, go to this site. For more on the inaccuracies in McCain's campaign uttered by Palin, go to this site.

Let's all drink a toast to the end of the RNC/Palin boost. It would be comforting to see the majority of Americans think for themselves, given facts, not from biases and brainwashing.