theburglife's Blog

  Cincinnati.Com » Peter Bronson

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has a reputation as the most partisan state official in Ohio. And she works hard to earn it. The Democrat's latest stunt rejected absentee ballots for thousands of Republicans.

But it's not her first rodeo. Almost as soon as Brunner was elected in 2006, she tried to remove several Republican county elections officials, including Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett. They accused her of "storm trooper tactics" to silence critics.

Then Brunner spread an alarm that Ohio's electronic voting machines were vulnerable to tampering - a favorite claim of the paranoid left. Elections officials who participated in Brunner's study called her conclusions over-hyped "leaps in logic" and said, "The report itself could be viewed as an attack on the elections system ... (that) planted seeds in the mind of the public to mistrust those who oversee elections."

Brunner also demanded an overhaul of voting methods just before the March primaries, causing meltdowns in some precincts.

And now she's hassling Republicans who want to vote for John McCain.

Two Hamilton County voters have sued, accusing her of "the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters."

The John McCain campaign sent out more than 1 million applications for absentee ballots to Republicans. Each had a line at the top next to a box: "I am a qualified elector."

Brunner sent a memo telling county election officials to reject those applications for absentee ballots if the box was not checked. "Failure to check the box leaves both the applicant and the board of elections without verification that the applicant is a 'qualified elector'," she wrote.

But that's contrary to state law and Brunner doesn't have the authority, according to the lawsuit and an opinion from Hamilton County's Republican Prosecutor Joe Deters.

Ohio law allows voters to request an absentee ballot on the back of a grocery sack if they want to, as long as they include their name, address, date of birth, signature and either a driver's license number, last four Social Security numbers or a valid picture I.D.

There is nothing in the law about checking a box to verify a qualified voter. The voter's signature is enough, because that's what is checked to send ballots, said Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann, who ran against Brunner in 2006 and is now county chairman for the McCain-Palin campaign. "It's just bald partisanship," he said. "She's trying to disqualify likely McCain voters."

The Deters opinion said "it is equally reasonable that the squares are intended simply as bullet points in an inartfully designed application."

Brunner said, "While state law does not require a check box, the McCain-Palin campaign designed its form to require that voters check a box to affirmatively state they are qualified electors."

Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester didn't buy it. "This is not a time to give people the appearance that voters are being suppressed," he said.

Majority Floor Leader Sen. Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said, "Take the politics out and you'd think the state's chief elections official would err on the side of allowing people to vote."

State law requires local officials to notify voters if their applications are rejected. That will cause confusion, especially for elderly absentee voters, Hartmann said. It's also costly and time consuming in an election year.

Since the Florida debacle in 2000, most states have made voting easier. Ohio now lets anyone get an absentee ballot. This year, Ohio could again decide a close election - and Brunner is inviting the kind of lawsuits and suspicions that destroy public trust.

She said Hamilton County "may face other lawsuits or even challenges to the rights of those whose applications they would process" if her memo is ignored.

Brunner's web site says she "wants to ensure that Ohio elections are free, fair, open and honest; and to encourage the highest level of participation in our democracy." So why reject 1,500 voters in Hamilton County and thousands more in Ohio?

An honest mistake? With Brunner's partisan record, not likely.

Laying litigation landmines to lawyer the outcome if Democrats don't win? That fits like a tinfoil hat with her irresponsible attack on Ohio's voting machines.

Raw partisanship? Ring the jackpot bell.

"Well, I tell you what, it helps in Ohio that we've got Democrats in charge of the machines," Barack Obama said on Sept. 3.

I think he was talking about Brunner - the partisan secretary of state who is doing her best to bring Chicago elections to Ohio.

I know I'm beating my head against a brick wall, but here is more proof that Democrats are behind this mortgage meltdown, and this is them, IN THEIR OWN WORDS, covering up for the Fannie/Freddie mess and keeping the Republicans from doing the right thing to institute regulations that would have stopped the madness and prevented the economic disaster we are in right now!

 

from Townhall

On MSNBC this week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter tried to connect John McCain to the current financial disaster, saying: "If you remember the Keating Five scandal that (McCain) was a part of. ... He's really getting a free ride on the fact that he was in the middle of the last great financial scandal in our country."

McCain was "in the middle of" the Keating Five case in the sense that he was "exonerated." The lawyer for the Senate Ethics Committee wanted McCain removed from the investigation altogether, but, as The New York Times reported: "Sen. McCain was the only Republican embroiled in the affair, and Democrats on the panel would not release him."

So John McCain has been held hostage by both the Viet Cong and the Democrats.

Alter couldn't be expected to know that: As usual, he was lifting material directly from Kausfiles. What is unusual was that he was stealing a random thought sent in by Kausfiles' mother, who, the day before, had e-mailed: "It's time to bring up the Keating Five. Let McCain explain that scandal away."

The Senate Ethics Committee lawyer who investigated McCain already had explained that scandal away -- repeatedly. It was celebrated lawyer Robert Bennett, most famous for defending a certain horny hick president a few years ago.

In February this year, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," Bennett said, for the eight billionth time:

"First, I should tell your listeners I'm a registered Democrat, so I'm not on (McCain's) side of a lot of issues. But I investigated John McCain for a year and a half, at least, when I was special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee in the Keating Five. ... And if there is one thing I am absolutely confident of, it is John McCain is an honest man. I recommended to the Senate Ethics Committee that he be cut out of the case, that there was no evidence against him."

It's bad enough for Alter to be constantly ripping off Kausfiles. Now he's so devoid of his own ideas, he's ripping off the idle musings of Kausfiles' mother.

Even if McCain had been implicated in the Keating Five scandal -- and he wasn't -- that would still have absolutely nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis currently roiling the financial markets. This crisis was caused by political correctness being forced on the mortgage lending industry in the Clinton era.

Before the Democrats' affirmative action lending policies became an embarrassment, the Los Angeles Times reported that, starting in 1992, a majority-Democratic Congress "mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains."

Under Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low- to moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.

Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit-worthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named "Caylee."

Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for a mortgage. That isn't a joke -- it's a fact.

When Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches, political correctness was given a veto over sound business practices.

In 1999, liberals were bragging about extending affirmative action to the financial sector. Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein hailed the Clinton administration's affirmative action lending policies as one of the "hidden success stories" of the Clinton administration, saying that "black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded."

Meanwhile, economists were screaming from the rooftops that the Democrats were forcing mortgage lenders to issue loans that would fail the moment the housing market slowed and deadbeat borrowers couldn't get out of their loans by selling their houses.

A decade later, the housing bubble burst and, as predicted, food-stamp-backed mortgages collapsed. Democrats set an affirmative action time-bomb and now it's gone off.

In Bush's first year in office, the White House chief economist, N. Gregory Mankiw, warned that the government's "implicit subsidy" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with loans to unqualified borrowers, was creating a huge risk for the entire financial system.

Rep. Barney Frank denounced Mankiw, saying he had no "concern about housing." How dare you oppose suicidal loans to people who can't repay them! The New York Times reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "under heavy assault by the Republicans," but these entities still had "important political allies" in the Democrats.

Now, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, middle-class taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats' two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.

Political correctness had already ruined education, sports, science and entertainment. But it took a Democratic president with a Democratic congress for political correctness to wreck the financial industry.

from.....(gasp) CNN:

DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) -- Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden campaigns in Washington on Tuesday.

Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.

And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.

An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana.

But Biden andObama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country. Watch how Biden has blasted Palin »

"That is probably the most disturbing element of this and the campaigning on the Bridge to Nowhere," said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a taxpayer watchdog group. "Because, yes, they had a chance to vote specifically against the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to redirect the money to people, to bridges and infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina going in to New Orleans, and they chose not to."

The final version passed the Senate 93-1. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made his opposition to congressional "pork-barrel" spending a cornerstone of his campaign, did not vote on either the Coburn amendment or the final bill.

Palin, whom McCain chose as his running mate in August, has regaled crowds at the Republican convention and on the campaign trail with her declaration of "Thanks, but no thanks" for the bridge. But her conversion came after she became Alaska's governor in 2006 and after the bridge became a national symbol of congressional waste.

The record shows that she supported the bridge as a gubernatorial candidate, and Democrats have seized on the flip-flop, perhaps no one with as much relish as Biden.

"I got also a bridge I got to sell you here, and guess what, it's in Alaska, and it goes nowhere," Biden mocked Palin on the campaign trail last week in Maumee, Ohio. And in Canton, Ohio, he tied it to McCain.

"If you look at it John McCain's answers for the economy, and we're in such desperate shape, is the ultimate bridge to nowhere. It's nowhere," Biden said. "It takes you nowhere."

But while the applause line appealed to the Democratic faithful, it could come back to bite the Delaware senator.

This year, Delaware has requested 116 congressional earmarks through Biden, its longtime senator, at a cost to taxpayers of $342 million. In an appearance on CNN's "American Morning" with anchor John Roberts, Biden said that he had been open about those requests and that they all can be justified.

"Everyone has seen them, and we have no Lawrence Welk Museums and have no bridges to nowhere in Delaware. It's all straight up," Biden said.

Among his requests: $1 million for renovation of an opera house in Wilmington, another million for the construction of a children's museum and thousands of dollars for a water park renovation in Lewes.

"I think opera patrons generally can afford to -- you can raise money for an opera house; you can refurbish things a lot of different ways," Allison said.

"To have federal taxpaying dollars -- which is coming from people all over the country; low-income, middle-income people, as well as the wealthy -- to go to pay for the renovation of something that is really a luxury for Wilmington ... There are far more vital projects that anyone could think of that needs money. You got health care. You got education. You got all other types of things. Instead, we are redirecting money to refurbish an opera house in Wilmington or to build a children's museum."

And Biden's request includes a bridge that even the head of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce says is not crucial at this juncture.

The Indian River Inlet Bridge is a vital link between two popular beachfront towns: Dewey and Bethany. Without it, the estimated 30,000 summer visitors would have to travel an additional 35 minutes to get to the towns.

"We need a new bridge, and we are fortunate to be at a place where it is finally going to happen," said Carol Everhart, the chief of the Chamber of Commerce.

The existing bridge has some erosion problems, and if it ever collapsed, Everhart said, it would cause an economic disaster in the community. But it's safe for now.

"The bridge, as it is, is perfectly safe," she said.

Still, Biden asked for $13 million to help shore up the existing bridge and begin construction of a new one. And that's what troubles the Sunlight Foundation's Allison.

"This bridge is not in any danger of collapse, and essentially what Sen. Biden is doing is saying, 'My state bridge gets the priority dollar even though it is not a priority project,' " Allison said.

He said the Department of Transportation, rather than U.S. senators, should be deciding which bridges get priority funding in the country. That way, the bridges in the U.S. that need immediate repair would be first in line for the dollars needed to do the work.

As he embarked on his presidential bid in 2007, Obama said he would no longer ask for earmark projects. McCain, who has been a longtime critic of the process, does not seek any for his home state of Arizona.CNN asked Biden's campaign whether it could ask the senator about his earmark requests and his votes on the Bridge to Nowhere.

In response, a staffer e-mailed, "You've interviewed Gov. Palin re: her completely made up position on the Bridge to Nowhere right?"

by Michelle Malkin

Warning: If your neighbor's got an "Obama '08" bumper sticker or lawn sign, you might want to double-check your door locks at night. The One has commanded his Purveyors of Change to go forth and proselytize to the unbelievers. And they're not going to be knocking gently like Avon Ladies.

Barack Obama, you see, is done fixing souls. It's time to crack heads. Prodded by panicked Democrats to take off his white gloves, he issued a Call to Strong Arm to his legions of angry followers on Wednesday. Hope is out. Hellfire is in. Now, the same analysts who tut-tutted Sarah Palin's mild use of sarcasm at the GOP convention are heralding -- in the words of the Obama water-carriers at the Associated Press -- Obama's "feistier, more sarcastic tone" and his push for Democrat activists "to sharpen their elbows, too."

When Republicans get aggressive, it's "dirty." When Obama gets aggressive, it's "feisty." Exorteth the One: "I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face."

Team Obama is so committed to this "face-to-face" shock troop campaign that it is now busing activists from state to state ("Drive for Change!") to target undecided voters -- and offering subsidies to volunteers. In advance of Obama's rally in Nevada, California field director Mary Jane Stevenson organized a pilgrimage to boost the crowd numbers with housing incentives:

"Face-to-face contact with undecided voters is the single most effective way to grow this movement. No experience is required, and we'll help you make the trip as easily as possible with either housing in Nevada or discounted group rates at an area hotel."

Yep, a bunch of angry Obama cultists and left-wing ACORN drifters are coming to your neighborhoods to accuse you of racism, call you unpatriotic for not bowing down and forking over more taxes to keep the Mother Ship afloat, and check your tire pressure and thermostats while they're at it. Feel the power of positive change.

The in-your-face directive comes as Team Obama Chicago-fies its tactics by:

-- Stepping up sleazy ads. Tthe latest one twisted the words of radio talk giant Rush Limbaugh in a laughable attempt to paint John McCain as an immigration hardliner and stir fear among Hispanic voters;

-- Doubling down on the race card. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius shamelessly baited supporters with this line: "Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American? (Republicans) are not going to go lightly into the darkness;"

-- And suppressing dissent. Rebuffed by the Justice Department in their efforts to prosecute conservatives for running ads critical of Obama's ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, the campaign is using an army of supporters to mob radio and television stations daring to air investigations of the relationship. The foot soldiers receive their marching orders through "Obama Action Wires" and bombard critics with disruptive phone calls.

Meanwhile, the Left's Sarah Palin hatred has been encouraged by the in-your-face comments of Michelle Obama, who derided the Alaska governor's intellect ("What you learn about Barack from his choice is that he's not afraid of smart people") and looks (don't cast a vote because "she's cute") on the campaign trail. And Team Obama's goons on the Internet -- led by Gawker Media and the Huffington Post -- are reveling in the hacking of Palin's private e-mail account, the publication of private, family photos of her children stolen from her account, and the abuse of daughter Bristol's cell phone number stolen from the account. For countless friends of Obama, "in your face" is code for "anything goes."

In words and actions that would have made his mentor Saul Alinsky proud, Barack Obama is rubbing raw the sores of discontent -- and summoning his unhinged flock to do the same. All hail the community-agitator-in-chief. And remember: Lock your doors.

----------

Knock on my door at your own risk.  I have two rottweilers that will make sure you don't get "in my face."

by Mike Gallagher:

The Democrats sure have been busy this week. They have now dropped any pretense of civility or decency in this remarkable 2008 election season. Evidently, the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has turned a number of Dems into rabid attack dogs.

Gone is the appearance of unity.

The act of campaigning with any sort of honor or respect has vanished from the Democrat playbook.

This campaign went from politics to blood sport a long time ago. Now, the Democratic Party voices are nasty, shrill and vile.

Consider what has taken place in just the past few days:

Leftist hackers invaded Gov. Palin’s privacy by criminally breaking into her personal email account; voyeuristic websites posted the private correspondence all over the internet. During an Obama campaign appearance, a bland governor from Kansas made the not-so-bland assertion that the reason the current polls are so close is because “one of the candidates” is half-black. While campaigning on one of the TV networks, Democrat Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden actually suggested that it’s high time that Americans stop being so unpatriotic by not wanting to pay higher taxes. And finally, the Democrat candidate himself urged his followers to start arguments and “get in (the) faces” of Republicans and independents.

As my kids would say, these Democrats have gone and jumped ugly.

Truthfully, ugly doesn’t even begin to describe what the Democrats are doing these days. When Gov. Kathleen Sebelius injects the stale, tired old claim that racism might just keep Obama out of the White House, don’t think for a moment that isn’t done with the total blessing of the Obama campaign. If Sen. Obama was sailing along with a 10 point lead in the polls, they wouldn’t be reduced to such babble. They’d at least pretend this election is about issues, ideology and truth.

They just can’t figure out how to tear down the genuine Republican enthusiasm over the McCain/Palin ticket. Is the excitement part of a GOP revolution? A renaissance, perhaps?

Too early to tell. But if John McCain wins, you can bet the farm that’s what everyone will be saying.

The Democrats are dumbfounded. And now, they’re just being dumb.

When I first heard the audio clip from ABC’s “Good Morning America” featuring Sen. Biden claiming that “it’s time to be patriotic...time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut” by forcing Americans who make over 250 thousand a year to pay higher taxes, I couldn’t really believe my ears. I know Biden can be a loose cannon -- just ask convenience store clerks with accents or Black Americans who would be (rightfully) offended at being called clean and articulate -- but not this nuts. Surely the Democratic VP candidate wasn’t stupid enough to claim that paying higher taxes is a form of patriotism, was he?

Not only did he say it once, but he has repeated the claim. He even angrily defended his comments at a union gathering later the same day.

I can just picture the next Democrat campaign billboard: “Get Taxed Through The Nose, Wave A Flag!”

And finally, there is Sen. Obama getting pretty aggressive with his rhetoric. At a rally in Ohio, Obama told thousands of cheering supporters: “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.”

I personally witnessed a number of the Democrat anarchists in St. Paul, site of the GOP Convention. The police there accurately described them as a bunch of dangerous criminals who were capable of serious vandalism, violence and even death. They sure do know the meaning of getting in one’s face.

How nice of Sen. Obama to encourage them to “get in (the) faces” of the loyal opposition. Real responsible.

If a looney Democrat beats an independent or Republican to death over the backyard picket fence, I wonder if Obama will feel bad?

It’s definitely turning ugly. And the Republican Party will be tested. Will we “jump ugly” and take the lefties on by degenerating to their level?

I truly hope not.

We’ll win this election on the strength of ideas and philosophy and moral clarity.

We’ll beat the failed Democrat policies of the past by invoking the true working class spirit of good and decent Americans who want to work hard, achieve success, and celebrate the sanctity of this, the greatest country in the world.

As painful as it is to witness the classlessness of Democrats, this is a process that has to happen. Millions of Americans are watching with their mouths agape, positively stunned that Barack Obama’s party could stoop so low.

Instead of hiding in the shadows, I’m thankful that so many Democrats are willing to expose their true sense of self.

This can only be great news for the Republican Party on November 4th.

by John Hawkins

Barack Obama's surrogates have been trying to convince the American people that his judgment is so impeccable that his lack of experience is irrelevant. However, it's hard to make that case when the candidate in question is the single biggest gaffe machine to hit American politics since Howard Dean. You think Joe Biden cranks out a lot of dumb quips? Well, Biden is a rank amateur compared to Obama. As you read these brainless comments, keep in mind that the biggest challenge I had in creating this list was limiting it to only 10 snafus.

In fact, there were so many of them that some of Obama's most famous slip-ups, like "I don't want them punished with a baby" and "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" didn't even make the list.

Well, let's get to it, shall we?

First up, here's the quotation that became the genesis of the "Obama is an elitist snob" meme.

 

10) "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula? I mean, they're charging a lot of money for this stuff."

 

When the internet is afire with false rumors that you're a Muslim, do you really want to bizarrely reference your "Muslim faith?"

 

9) "Let's not play games. I was suggesting - you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith."

 

I wonder if abortion is above Sarah Palin's pay grade? I think not.

 

8) “Rick Warren: ...Now, let's deal with abortion; 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. As a pastor, I have to deal with this all of the time, all of the pain and all of the conflicts. I know this is a very complex issue. Forty million abortions, at what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?"

 

Barack Obama: "Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."

 

This part of Obama's speech sounds like it was written for him by one of King Canute's courtiers.

 

7) "...I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment -- this was the time -- when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals."

 

Whether this "joke" was about Sarah Palin or not, it was a rather foolish line given that even his own supporters in the audience took it as a sexist jab at her expense.

 

6) "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,' it's still going to stink. After eight years, we've had enough of the same old thing. It's time to bring about real change to Washington and that's the choice you've got in this election."

 

As he tried to explain why he tossed his grandmother under the bus in a previous speech, Obama actually managed to make it worse by showing that he thinks of white people as a generic group, not as individuals.

 

5) "The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person..."

 

Dan Quayle, who was unfairly pilloried as a moron, never said anything half as dumb as this.

 

4) "Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go."

 

In his counterproductive race speech, which was mistakenly praised as genius by his supporters in the media, Obama managed to cement his association to the racist, anti-American rantings of Jeremiah Wright while simultaneously coming across as remarkably callous towards his own grandmother.

 

3) "I can no more disown (Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

 

It's no secret to people who pay attention that Barack Obama is not a patriotic man and he managed to unwittingly hammer that point home when he rather foolishly made a big deal about refusing to wear a flag pin anymore.

 

2) "You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a (flag) pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest..."

 

If you're from a small town and you're wondering what Barack Obama thinks of you, this quote tells you everything you need to know and then some.

 

1) "You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

John McCain's campaign says the Republican is picking up the support of a top Hillary Clinton fundraiser and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild has said she thinks Democratic nominee Barack Obama is arrogant and has a problem connecting with average Americans.

Rothschild is a member of the DNC's Democrats Abroad chapter and splits her time living in London and New York. She was one of Clinton's top fundraisers, bringing in more than $100,000 for her presidential campaign. She built a multimillion-dollar telecommunications company before marrying international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.

Rothschild plans to announce her support for McCain on Wednesday in Washington.

From the FoxNews site:

Barack Obama privately tried to persuade Iraqi political leaders to stall an agreement on scaling back American troops in Iraq while publicly campaigning for a speedy withdrawal, The New York Post reported Monday.

Obama’s request for a delay was a major theme of his talks with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with the Post.

Obama said that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of American troops, excluding the Bush administration in its “state of weakness and political confusion,” according to the report.

Obama also reportedly tried to persuade the U.S. commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to offer a “realistic withdrawal date.” They declined, the Post said.

The New York Post article raises doubts about Obama’s call to withdraw combat troops by 2010, especially if his request for a delayed agreement had been accepted. By the time a new Iraqi government is elected, fully operational, can form a new coalition government and comes up with a draft accord, it will already by May 2010, the Post noted. It could take another six months for the draft to be passed into law.

Click here to read the article in The New York Post.

The central feature of the U.S. economy is a reliance on private decision-making ("economic freedom") in economic decision-making. This is enhanced by relatively low levels of regulation, taxation, and government involvement,as well as a court system that generally protects property rights and enforces contracts.

In the United States, government is primarily responsible for the administration of justice, education, the road system, social statistical reporting, and national defense. In addition, government often is asked to intervene in the economy to correct situations in which the price system does not work. It regulates "natural monopolies," for example, and it uses antitrust laws to control or break up other business combinations that become so powerful that they can surmount market forces. Government also addresses issues beyond the reach of market forces. It provides welfare and unemployment benefits to people who cannot support themselves, either because they encounter problems in their personal lives or lose their jobs as a result of economic upheaval; it pays much of the cost of medical care for the aged and those who live in poverty; it regulates private industry to limit air and water pollution; it provides low-cost loans to people who suffer losses as a result of natural disasters; and it has played the leading role in the exploration of space, which is too expensive for any private enterprise to handle.

In the 21st century, the US economy has been driven by consumers going deeper in debt.  Buy now, pay later has been the cornerstone to destroying our economy.  How many people would be losing their homes if they actually qualified and could afford one in the first place?   When CEO's run their companies into the ground, all the while reaping huge rewards, when mortgage companies sell products to people who do not qualify and can't afford them, and when investors buy these junk loans hoping to resell them overseas to make a profit, well, they reap what they sow.

In short, the Federal Government is not responsible for the problems with the economy.  Greedy businesses and greedy consumers are who is to blame for the state of our economy.  It is not the role of the government to run in and save people and businesses who have made seriously unwise choices and bankrupted themselves.

It is not George Bush's fault.  It is not the Republicans fault.  It is not the Democrats' fault.  The government CAN NOT fix this.  It will HAVE to run its course and those that got greedy are going to lose their butts, but hopefully they will have learned something when its all over.

So please, stop blaming the government for everything that is wrong in your life.

After doing some research, this is the change the democrats are promising that I just cannot live with:

• Almost double the capital gain tax on stock and real estate sales.

• Windfall profits tax on oil/gas companies (which means higher gas prices).

• Increase FICA taxes by 14 points on all income over $100,000.

• Double taxes on dividends.

• Expand the inheritance tax.

• Weaken the PATRIOT Act.

• Curb anti-terror wire tapping.

• Extend health insurance benefits to illegal immigrants.

• Give children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition at state universities.

• Enlarge health insurance so drastically that it forces us to ration medical care, particularly to the elderly.

• Expand the welfare state, dividing America between makers and takers (his version of economic justice “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”). 

• Enact a Global Poverty Act, which means having us pay new “world” taxes.

I don't know why anyone who is not on welfare or here illegally would vote for this!  I will never vote to be enslaved by my own government, and that is exactly what "change" the democrats are proposing.

Can anyone show me ANYTHING that the democrats plan to do that is good for this country?