John McCain is an economic disaster

The Bush Crime Family And Their Destruction Of America

Summary Of The Bush Crime Family History

For any civilized endeavor to maintain its civility, there must be enforceable laws and/or rules; without which, there is anarchy. So, before we find ourselves struggling to regain our lost freedoms, like those tragic heros in Burma/Myanmar, perhaps we should take a strategic review of how we arrived at this alarming state, honestly apprise our current status, and as we approach another major election, cast about for viable options for now as well as the foreseeable future.

Any objective observer with the barest awareness of contemporary history should be able to readily trace the rise of this powerful movement that has taken control of the reins of power in the United States. The most blatant initial historical record is when Grandpa Prescott Bush and some of his cronies tried to entice General Smedley Butler to muster enough World War I veterans to take over the Presidency of The United States in 1933. Then again, in 1942 (a year after the U.S. joined World War II), Prescott Bush and this same cabal -- in their drive toward fascism -- were finally forced by the "Trading With the Enemy Act" to terminate their extensive business dealings with Hitler.

After WWII, this American branch of the Nazis didn't lose the war, they just transformed the battleground. They expanded their "connections" with Hitler's intelligence networks from The War into the formation of our own CIA. It is also this same group that President Eisenhower opaquely identified as the "Military Industrial Complex," in his dark farewell speech to us. Later, it was Poppy George H.W. Bush who sat on a boat (named Barbara) off-shore and directed the Cuban Bay Of Pigs fiasco. As a direct consequence of that largely unsolicited action, John Kennedy banished him and his CIA brothers from his administration, albeit only temporarily, as George H.W. Bush, then an active CIA agent, was later photographed in Dealey Plaza that sunny November day in 1963.

From FDR to today, the Bush Crime Family and their fixated core of corporate fascists have, using unbridled corporate power, been tightening their grip on the throats of the American political, legal, economic and media systems -- as the following excerpt from the Democratic Underground so well outlines:

"A Pocket History of the Bush Organized Crime Family Crime Line

Hitler's "Angel" -- Prescott Bush and his Wall Street cronies helped finance and arm the Third Reich.* Some continued trading with the enemy even after Germany declared war on America.

Bay of Pigs -- Bush the Oilman and his Cuban and Mafia friends raise hell in Miami, New Orleans and Houston. Nice fellahs. LBJ called their organization "A regular Murder Inc in the Caribbean."

22 November 1963, Dallas* -- George DeMohrenschildt the "White Russian geologist" is friends with both Lee Harvey Oswald and George Herbert Walker Bush. Small world, as the coincidences get bigger. Almost 40 years later, FBI memos surface that detail how George Herbert Walker Bush fingered a young conservative the day of the assassination and "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" cleared the anti-Castro Cubans in Miami days later.

Vietnam -- OK for poor kids to fight an illegal war started over the phony Gulf of Tonkin Incident, just as long as "W," the drunken coke-whore dim son, "destined" to become preznit some day, or the rest of his rich frat brothers don't have to go. Meanwhile Poppy's rich friends became very, very, very rich.

Watergate -- Nixon was willing to throw anyone and everyone to the wolves -- except George Herbert Walker Bush and "The Texans" because "They'll do anything for our side." Gee. Would "murder" qualify as "anything." Think so, especially seeing how Nixon got the ziggy and Bush ended up in the clear.

October Surprise -- Carter probably would've beat Reagan, but Bush and his buddies in INTEL and the military-industrial complex cut a deal with the Ayatollah to hold the hostages clear through the election. On inauguration day, they got to leave Tehran. A couple of weeks later, Israel starts sending US-supplied weapons. It proves so "profitable," that Ollie North cuts out the Israelis and decides to sell them US-direct.

Reagan survives assassination attempt --Just a couple of months after Reagan is sworn in, Reagan is ALMOST taken out and Bush stood ready to take charge. His son Neil was ready to have dinner that night with John Hinckley's brother, Scott. Odd how these "One Degree of Separation" coincidences always happen to Poppy.

INSLAW/Promis -- The turd Ed Meese and cronies stole software that enabled the Justice Department to track criminal prosecutions, had their INTEL buddies add a trap door, and then sold it around the world, making it possible to track what every BFEE-connected dictator or friend from Saddam to d'Aubission is up to -- in Freedomª's name.

Iraq-gate / Banca Nazionale del Lavoro arms -- Just how do you think Iraq managed to run its war against Iran for all those years? Saddam had to be getting juice from somebody, so they found a low-level banker in Miami to take the fall. US taxpayers floated Saddam $5 billion in loans. Meanwhile the Iran-Iraq war is prolonged by years and several hundreds of thousands of lives are lost.

BCCI International Money Laundering for Terrorists & Intelligence Community -- The terrorists' favorite bank, used by among others Abu Nidhal, Osama bin Laden, Ollie North, CIA, SIS and KGB. The Reagan and Bush administrations and friends on both sides of the aisle in Congress did all they could to keep it open. John Kerry got it shut down.

Savings & Loan Scandal -- Legalized robbery in the form of "loans" made to the politically connected, Mafia and INTEL-huggers. Odd how even Neil Bush, who made millions while Silverado, the S&L he helped direct, lost billions in bad loans to Bush cronies, never spent a day in jail. Kid from Detroit steals a pair of shoes from the mall and it's OK to shoot him dead. Meanwhile, after the bailout "fixes" everything, Poppy's very, very, very rich friends become ultra-rich.

Iran-Contra -- Neo-con Michael Ledeen, Munacher Ghorbanifar and Adnan Khashoggi bend over backward to sell arms the Ayatollah and use the profits to arm the terrorist Contras. Most of the players should be in prison, but, thanks to Poppy's pardon, remain free to roam the streets, let alone corridors of power, and continue the terror.

Arbusto, HARKEN, Spectrum-7, Aloha -- Every company the crazy monkey's ever touched, he's run into the ground. Yet Poppy's family and friends, including James R Bath, the bin Mahfouz and bin Ladens, always help him out. No wonder the dim bulb went off thinking of ENRON, Kenny Boy and all the possibilities.

Gulf War I -- Poppy Bush gives April Glaspie the signal to greenlight Saddam's "border dispute" and push into Kuwait. No wonder Saddam felt betrayed when Cheney ordered the extermination of tens of thousands of fleeing Iraqi conscripts heading north on the "Highway of Death." Meanwhile, Poppy's ultra-rich friends become ultra-ultra-ultra rich.

Selection 2000 Shreds US Constitution -- After fixing things up so that 70,000 likely Democratic votes and voters are turned away or disenfranchised, the 2000 Florida Presidential "election" results in a "tie." Associate Justice Antonin Scalia gets the idea that maybe the GOP-packed Supreme Court should grant petitioner George W Bush's request for taking the Oval Office, anyway. Someone on DU wrote: "You don't steal elections to do good things." Prophetic words, those.

ENRON Energy Policy -- Sneering Dick Cheney meets with Kenny Boy Lay to discuss ways of helping ENRON rip-off California and the rest of America. There were others there, like Chevron and EXXON, because they need oil, too. Besides, the ultra-, ultra-, ultra-rich can never have enough.

9-11 -- After ignoring the warnings of outgoing President Bill Clinton, former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, anti-Terror Chief Richard Clarke, and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, George W Bush ignores a report titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." A month later, 3,000 innocent people are murdered. Two ways of looking at this one: 1.) Criminal Negligence, at best; 2.) Treason, most likely.

Gulf War II -- George W Bush, Sneer, and most of "the bureaucracy" make a case for going to war in Iraq, stating there are clear-cut connections between 9-11* and Saddam Hussein, who planned to use his arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on America. (So far, the only bioweapon used on America was Anthrax that came from a US Army lab grown from a batch of the University of Iowa Strain.) Anwyay, it's not really odd to see how attacking Iraq was the Administration's number 1 priority, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and anti-Terror Chief Richard Clarke, from January 2001. The reason? There's money to be made there and power to be gained at home."(end of excerpt)
* links added to text by T.F.

--

So much for a historical perspective; where do we currently stand? Well, our political, legal, governmental, military and medical systems as well as our unions have all been thoroughly compromised. Financially, since we are deeply in debt (mostly to Japan and China) "they" are selling off our corporate and country assets, our tax system and the Federal Reserve Banking system are beyond any controls, the demoralized and frightened middle class is being rapidly dissolved, our worldwide reputation is sullied more than at any time in our history and the value of the dollar continues to fall. Our infrastructure and environment are deteriorating while corporate and political corruption are rampant, bigotry and racism abound, our traditional news sources have become cheering profit centers for the administration and our voting processes are, at best, unreliable. Not the healthy picture of progress and hope that used to be the norm, prior to the sixties -- before someone started killing off the Kennedy brothers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

--

This may sound like a broken record, but the next election is truly going to be critical to the survival of our democratic way of life -- and thus the world. Perhaps we should begin to think of these individuals that support this administration as bloated, self-absorbed and out-of-control addicts, in need of intervention. Now, in an intervention, the first thing that has to happen is that the addict must be subjected to the facts of reality until their wall of denial is first exposed and then accepted. The initial indication that that has occurred is when the addict admits that there is a problem and then becomes actively motivated to do something about it. It appears that the 2006 midterm elections demonstrated that a growing majority of Americans think things are broken and want a change. Now, is the time to educate and motivate our fellow citizens to seek out and regain their lost sense of morality.

The next step -- and this is at the heart of the matter -- is what can/should be done to correct our dire situation. It is going to take some very strong, passionate, wise, emotional and motivating leadership. Emphasis here should be on "motivating," because our next leader(s) must circumvent the biased media outlets and bring to the voting polls enough voters to overwhelm whatever roadblocks are preventing the large population of apathetic voters from active participation, while also drawing on the new voting power of those who have been mislead and want to help change our current course. Consider what occurred in the 2006 elections, in that the various bag of "election tricks" that Karl Rove cooked up for that election were simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the voter turnout. All that he and his crew of crooks could salvage were enough Senators to block any meaningful political efforts to right our ship of state from the many storms it has been (and is being) subjected to.

When considering new Democratic leadership, the primary consideration MUST be electability -- because if not elected, all other issues are moot! In this regard, all indications are that in a head-to-head face-off with McCain, Obama will win this extremely critical race. Attention must also be paid to the various congressional races, as well. For if we don't provide a new president with a congress that will support him, then gridlock will again prevail.

Elaborating on a phrase from the beginning of this statement, "... there must be enforceable laws and/or rules ..." ESPECIALLY in our electoral systems. Even though Rove and his ilk may seem to have left Washington, we mustn't let our guard down. They are still practicing their nefarious deeds, somewhere. Keep in mind that the thing about laws and rules is that they are usually created, modified and put into effect AFTER the fact. Since we don't know what booby traps await our votes in 2008 and since the only demonstrated method of assuring any success through the electoral process is by shear volume of votes (a la 2006) -- our best option is to turn out to vote in massive numbers -- even so, this will be dubious.

Finally, should we work our way out of this madness, one of our first imperatives, as we repair the damage done, should be to prosecute ALL of the criminal acts that this ruthless group of international thugs has committed. This statement is not made with a sense of vengeance, but with an eye toward setting such a strong example with these individuals that they, and their minions, will forever give up on any future attempts to corrupt this, our enlightened struggle for universal, renewable, human freedom.

Tarry Faster

First posted in October 2006 & last updated in September of 2008;

Comments? terry@cloudbyte.com

The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Monday, September 29th, 2008
The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

Bush lied again on Wall Street Bailout !!

Bush lied again on Wall Street Bailout !!


Bush lied again in his speech asking for Wall Street Bailout. If you compare with his speech on 2002 asking for the Invasion of Iraq due to WMD's and imminent nuclear attack from Iraq. That are all lies that the American people should not tolerate anymore.
These lies are all about payoff to the big corporations in America.

1- There was no imminent threat from Iraq, as we knew by then and know now.
What Bush did was a payout for his friends from the big corporations like Dick Cheney's Halliburton, Bush's daddy Carlyle group and others.

2- Bush made sure the pharmaceutic industries got money from Medicaid, Medicare by not allowing them to negotiate for cheap drugs from overseas.

3- Bush payoff to the big oil companies: gas at $4 - $5/gallon
also Bush did not support any alternative energy plan.

4- Bush payoff to the credit card banks: He made Bankrupt less accessible

5- Bush payoff to Wall Street: $700 Billion with American taxpayers money.

If another republican like John McInsane is elected Social Security, Medicare, Madicaid and the American Middle Class are all in danger to become extinct. During Bush regime the richest got richer and the middle class got poorer, with his insane tax cuts for the top 1% american.

GOP is a party for the rich and corporations.

John McInsane = John McSame : is Bush on steroids !!!

Vote for Obama !!!!

March Against Paulson's Plunder

Gmail - THURS: March Against Paulson's Plunder -

Democrats.com, the Aggressive Progressives - 500,000 strong and growing!

TODAY: March Against Paulson's Plunder

On Wednesday, George Bush went on TV to sweet-talk Americans into letting him steal $700 billion of our tax dollars - $2,333 for every man, woman, and child - to bail out his greedy rich friends on Wall Street.

Today (Thursday) Bush will meet with Democratic and Republican leaders to finalize a deal that gives Bush nearly everything he wants, but nothing America needs:

* The people who caused the problem or profited most should pay for it
* Re-regulate to prevent this from happening again
* Include Main Street in the bailout and invest in a new productive economy

Worst of all, it's another massive fraud. Bush lied to our faces when he promised to buy toxic securities "at their current low prices... and we expect that much, if not all, of the tax dollars we invest will be paid back."

Bull. This is the same administration that promised the invasion of Iraq would pay for itself through lower oil prices. The cost of that disaster is now $3 trillion and climbing, not to mention millions dead, maimed, or exiled.

So make no mistake: every penny we give Bush now will be used to greatly overpay for securities that will lose most of their value. We will pay the price for decades, which is why dozens of economists oppose Bush's fraud.

Democrats.com members have sent nearly 100,000 emails to our Senators and Representatives opposing Paulson's Plunder. But Congress is moving fast, so we must too.

Today (Thursday) there will be emergency afternoon street protests across the country. Please find the nearest protest and bring a sign and a friend:
http://tinyurl.com/3sh2cb

And call your Senators and Representative right now to say "No $700 Billion Bailout for Wall Street" - dial the Capitol switchboard at 800-473-6711 or 202-224-3121 or dial direct using the instant phone lookup on the right side of http://usalone.com

And if you have not emailed your Senators and Representative, please do it now:
http://www.democrats.com/stop-paulsons-plunder

Thanks for all you do!
________________

Be a "Pollworker for Democracy"

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That's why CREDO Action is proud to sponsor the "Pollworkers for Democracy" project - a nonpartisan effort to get more people involved in protecting our elections - in order to support our democracy. We'll provide you with information to supplement your pollworker training, and also a system to report and track any problems on and before Election Day.

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Bush's October surprise = $700 Bi dollars bailout of Wall Street with taxpayers money !!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Bush's October surprise = 700 Bi dollars bailout of Wall Street

Bush unveilled the expected October surprise: $ 700 Billion - $ 1 Trillion


Bush and Co planned this shock and awe surprise for months (This is part of the shock doctrine, see Naomi Klein)


Bush's seretary Paulsen was one of top officers from Goldman $ Sachs, having collected bonus over 30 million dollars and own $620+ million dollars in stock from Goldman.


Bush's administration does not deserve any bailout with american tax payers

I suggest everybody to contact their senators and congress people to vote against this bailout

and vote for Obama to save US from John McInsane and Sarah Palin

Posted by Impeach Bush at 9:58 AM 0 comments

McLobbyist

The McCain Seven John McCain has had at least 177 lobbyists running his

campaign and raising money for him. The McCain Seven—all lobbyists

—control the campaign filling roles from senior foreign policy advisor and

finance co-chair all the way up to head of command, campaign manager.

The McCain Seven make sure special interests come first.Rick Davis Rick

Davis Campaign Manager, Fmr. Telecom Lobbyist Davis has lobbied for

Airborne Express and DHL on their controversial merger deal, as well as

telecom companies Bell South, SBC, and Verizon.Charlie Black Charlie

Black Senior Campaign Advisor, Fmr. Mortgage Lender LobbyistBlack has

lobbied for 109 clients including Yukos Oil and Freddie Mac.Randy

Scheunemann Randy ScheunemannSenior Foreign Policy Advisor, Fmr. Big

Oil Lobbyist Scheunemann has had lobbying clients that include BPAmoco

and the NRA.Nancy PfotenhauerNancy PfotenhauerSenior Policy Advisor,

Fmr. Energy LobbyistPfothenhauer is a former energy lobbyist for Koch

Industries.Phil GrammPhil GrammSenior Economic Advisor, Fmr. Mortgage

Giant, UBS, Lobbyist Gramm is a former lobbyist for mortgage giant

UBS.  John GreenJohn Green Campaign Congressional Liaison, Fmr.

Mortgage Lender LobbyistGreen has lobbied for 168 clients, including 

insurance industry trade groups, CheveronTexaco, Fannie Mae, Freddie   

Mac, and others.Wayne BermanWayne BermanCampaign Vice-Chair and

Finance Co-Chair, Fmr. Insurance Company LobbyistBerman has lobbied   

for almost 100 clients, including Ameriquest, Fannie Mae, the National

Rifle Association and American Health Insurance Plans.Mortgage

Meltdown McCain’s 26 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac LobbyistsTop News *

New York Times, September 22, 2008 Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser

Nearly $2 Million * Talking Points Memo, September 12, 2008 Two

High-Ranking McCain Campaign Officials Lobbied For Companies At Center

of Sex-For-Oil Scandal * TIME, September 12, 2008 McCain Taps Lobbyist

for Transition * Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2008 McCain Adviser Had

Russian Ties * Washington Post, May 22, 2008 McCain Adviser’s Work As

Lobbyist Criticized * New York Times, May 20, 2008 McCain Finds a

Thorny Path in Ethics Effort * Wallstreet Journal, May 19, 2008 Top McCain

Adviser Defends His Lobbyist Past Sarah Palin's Lobbyists Sarah Palin is

just more of the same. Like her running mate, Palin has her fare share of

lobbyist connections.Read more about them here The McCain Gamble John

McCain’s Washington is just more of the same. It is a rigged roulette

wheel. No matter how you spin it, George Bush and lobbyists always

win.

Donate Don’t settle for just more of the same.

Be the change we need.donate now

McLobbyist

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Screw Paulson - Make Nader Wall Street Czar. +Poll

Screw Paulson - Make Nader Wall Street Czar. +Pollby CheeseMooseMon Sep 22, 2008 at 05:35:56 PM PDTOk, you may not want to vote for him for president. You may still hold a grudge against him for running in 2008 (although blaming him for Gore's 2000 loss is like blaming Steve Barton for the Cubs' collapse in '03). But who's been righter about Wall Street all these years than Ralph Nader? He certainly makes more sense than Hank Paulson. Why let one of the main designers of the Titanic be in charge of the rescue? Nader's been warning about just this event for at least the last 10 years, if not more.I know people on this site will greet this proposal with scorn. But the fact is, if Nader had been president, this whole fiasco could have been avoided.And even if you're a dyed-in-the-wool anti-Naderite, you've got to admit that the thought of Wall Street CEO's having to go see Ralph hat-in-hand to bail them out of this mess is nothing short of delicious.Nader's prescription after the jump. * CheeseMoose's diary :: ::* No bailouts without conditions and reciprocity in the form of stock warrants. No more lobbying for any company that is bailed out. No golden parachutes or get-out-of-jail-free cards for guilty executives. No bailouts without public hearings. Reduce the moral hazard in U.S. mortgage markets by introducing covered bonds for the majority of mortgage products, as is done in Western Europe. That gives institutions that finance mortgages an incentive to be prudent, because they cannot just unload them and wipe their hands clean of the liability, but are instead on the hook if the homeowner defaults. Maintain neighborhood stability and housing security by passing a law with a sunset clause allowing below-median-value homeowners facing foreclosure the right to “rent to own” their homes at fair market value rates. Avoid future housing bubbles by removing implicit government guarantees for new mortgages that exceed thresholds of greater than 15 to 20 times the annual fair market rent value of the home. Make the Federal Reserve a Cabinet position, so it is accountable to Congress, as well as make sure all Federal Reserve Bank presidents are appointed by the president and answerable to Congress. Reduce conflicts of interest by taking away power for auditor and rating agency selection from companies and placing it in the hands of the SEC to be administered on random assignment. Implement a securities speculation tax, starting with derivatives, to deter casino-style capitalism.Now that sounds a little more like it.Whaddya say? How about Ralph Nader for Wall Street Czar?PollWho'd make the best Wall Street Czar? Ralph Nader39% 51 votes Dennis Kucinich6% 8 votes Hank Paulson0% 0 votes Alan Greenspan0% 0 votes Jim Cramer1% 1 votes Warren Buffet22% 28 votes Michael Bloomberg4% 5 votes Hillary Clinton2% 2 votes Robert Rubin4% 5 votes Paul Krugman11% 14 votes Ross Perot4% 5 votes Other8% 11 votes| 130 votes | Vote | ResultsTags: Ralph Nader, Wall Street Bailout, Hank Paulson (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Daily Kos: Screw Paulson - Make Nader Wall Street Czar. +Poll

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Not a dime! Stop the bailout

Not a Dime! Stop the bailout

There is currently a horrifying proposal being fast tracked through congress by the President and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many members of congress have openly admitted they don't understand the situation and they aren't sure what to do.

I've called my senators offices and I was asked to organize people in a calling campaign. They want to hear what we have to say.

What's happening right now in our financial markets is a major event, regardless of what the government does, I feel it's going to have a major impact on us all. However I believe the proposal being fast tracked threatens to make things much, much worse.

I ask that you read the proposal yourself. It is very short. You can also read the analysis I've posted here.

The chances of preventing this are very limited . But after reading the proposal, please call and email your senator, NOT JUST ONCE, BUT A COUPLE OF TIMES A DAY, for all of this week.

Ask them to block or filibuster any bailout legislation. Ask them to vote no. Tell them you don't want to pay for a bailout.

Here's a link to the text of the plan. Click here for contact information for the Senate.

The Foxes are in the henhouse. Prior to becoming the treasury secretary in 2006 Henry Paulson ran Goldman Sacks bringing the company to the position it is in now. Goldman Sacks stands to benefit a great deal from this bailout. Furthermore there is a tremendous conflict of interest as Paulson seeks to hire those who helped create this mess to help decide how to use the public's money.
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts; (3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
The budget is unlimited.
Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases. The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time.

700 billion is greater than the Pentagon’s budget for 2009 which was record breaking. And that’s just the amount of purchases that can be held on the balance sheet at any moment.
It doesn’t represent the tax payers. This deal is, in many respects, open ended with no safeguards for taxpayers. While the bill gives lip service to the idea of protecting tax payers it specifically avoids accountability and transparency.
Sec. 3. Considerations. In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for– (1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and (2) protecting the taxpayer.

Completely dubious. While it grants extreme powers, there is no review. (this one is really incredible)
Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
There are no stipulations for punitive actions. Instead for institutions able to move their bad debt to taxpayers, or able to buy debt at discounted rates this will be quite rewarding.
The arbitrary nature of the bailout creates greater uncertainty in the markets. Furthermore some market watchers speculate that this could result in a greater devaluation of U.S. credit as there is fear we’ll nearly bankrupt ourselves trying to take on the debts of these failed institutions. The measure calls for raising the national debt for example.
Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt. Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.
We already have an excellent solution in place Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.
In Chapter 11, companies with a solid underlying business generally swap debt for equity: the old equity holders are wiped out and the old debt claims are transformed into equity claims in the new entity which continues operating with a new capital structure. Alternatively, the debt holders can agree to cut down the face value of debt, in exchange for some warrants.
Luigi Zingales and Robert C. Mc Cormack the authors of the above quote maintain the process would have to be faster than chapter 11 normally takes. But passing a law, especially one of the magnitude normally requires much more investigation and vetting. If we can entertain passing a law of this magnitude this quickly, isn’t there a possibility that an expedited Chapter 11 program could be created.
The Mother of All Bailouts. A measure of this level is unprecedented. You may have heard that this isn’t dissimilar to the Resolution Trust Corporation founded in 1989 to help us out of the S&L Crisis. But
In 1989, there was no choice. The federal government insured the thrifts, so when they failed, the feds were left holding their loans; the RTC's job was simply to get rid of them. But in buying bad loans before banks fail, the Bush administration would be signing up for a financial war of choice. It would spend billions of dollars on the theory that preemption will avert the mass destruction of banks. There are cheaper ways to stabilize the system. (Sebastion Mallaby of the Washington Post)
And they want to bailout whatever they decide. This will likely include bailouts for foreign businesses as well.
The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a ... Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type. (Bloomberg)
It goes counter to the spirit of the American free system that maintains those that reap the rewards should bear the losses.
The basic premise of a free economy is one governed by laws and not men, where property rights are respected, where individuals are free to make contracts with each other, and where honesty and transparency exist in the marketplace.(Mish)

Please contact your senator now and ask them to prevent, block, filibuster, and vote no for any bailout.

I’d also encourage you to drop me an email or a comment if you make the call.

Thank you.

Caleb

Rove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat !!!

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Rove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat, claims of pepper spray

September 17th, 2008 1:51 amRove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat, claims of pepper sprayBy Wes Woods II / Inland Valley Daily BulletinCLAREMONT -

Karl Rove, the former Deputy Chief of Staff and senior advisor to President George W. Bush,

discussed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama and gave his take on the legacy of the current president.But hundreds of protesters greeted Rove before, during and after his speech.When Rove tried to leave the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, at least two people and possibly a third claimed they were pepper sprayed while campus officials said they were not.A bomb threat was also determined to be unfounded, campus officials added.Rove's speech took place from 6:45 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday inside the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum at 385 8th St."One of the most important resources is time," Rove said about the 2008 presidential election.Rove said Obama had not seized the narrowing election days to "advance his case."For instance, Obama linked the country's economic problems to Bush and McCain instead of showing "he's up to the job" with a specific proposal.Rove said he felt Bush was a "successful" president but they had "done a lousy job of explaining" why he was.Rove listed the million dollar AIDS relief fund for Africa, the accountability of the No Child Left Behind performance program, large amounts of money invested in alternative energy and privatizing social security.After the speech, Todd Logan, 21, of Pomona College, said he saw two people get hit by pepper spray when Rove was led out by security while other students reported three.Some students said they were hit by the vehicle Rove was drove off campus in but officials denied their claims.Henry Watkins, consultant for Claremont McKenna College, said no students were hit with pepper spray or hit by a vehicle.A bomb was reported at 7:31 p.m. inside of nearby Collins dining hall but was later found to not be true, Watkins said.Other items in this section * Latest News * In The News * The '06 Fix * Katrina Updates * Rosa Parks Day E-mails * Facts in Mike's FilmsRSS FeedRSS FeedMore of Latest NewsSeptember 18th, 2008 11:18 amSeven U.S. troops killed in Iraq helicopter crashSeptember 17th, 2008 2:45 pmMcCain has 2 faces: Washington in- and outsiderSeptember 17th, 2008 1:59 amMcCain ProtestsSeptember 17th, 2008 1:51 amRove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat, claims of pepper spraySeptember 17th, 2008 12:54 amBiden "Sick and Tired" of Republican "Garbage"September 17th, 2008 12:52 amVeterans rally for Obama at Reno protestSeptember 16th, 2008 8:23 pmPalin Tells Debunked Teleprompter TaleSeptember 16th, 2008 8:07 pmGOP lawmakers sue to stop Palin investigationSeptember 16th, 2008 6:08 pmWomen's rights groups endorse Obama for presidentSeptember 16th, 2008 5:58 pmAdviser says McCain helped create the BlackBerryMike's Latest News ArchiveSearch the siteAdvanced Search | Need Tips on Searching?Will They Ever Trust Us Again?

MichaelMoore.com : Rove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat, claims of pepper spray

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YouTube - THE ECONOMY WILL COLLAPSE THIS SEPTEMBER 2008!!! (PART 1)

YouTube - PREPARE FOR THE COLLAPSE OF THE DOLLAR

Fellow McCain POW Suggesting He's Unfit To Be President

TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | New Ad Stars Fellow McCain POW Suggesting He's Unfit To Be President

New Ad Stars Fellow McCain POW Suggesting He's Unfit To Be President

By Greg Sargent - September 15, 2008, 11:10AM

Robert Greenwald's Brave New PAC goes up on national cable with a new 30-second spot starring fellow McCain POW Phillip Butler, who says he knows from personal experience that a POW background is not desirable in a commander-in-chief.

"John McCain is not somebody that I would like to see with his finger near the red button," Butler says in the spot.

The spot is notable because it's the first paid advertising that directly takes on McCain's war service while suggesting that McCain is temperamentally unfit to be president:

The ad is a shortened version of an earlier Brave New PAC video quoting Butler at length that didn't have any money behind it.

As for the buy itself, it's a modest one. The spot is running on national cable today (and ran yesterday, too). It's funded by Brave New Films and Democracy For America, the independent group run by Jim Dean, who's Howard Dean's brother.

The ad is really a flare -- an effort to see if this controversial line of attack catches the attention of the national media.

"If it takes off and this storyline gets some pickup, then that'll give us some incentive to go raise more money for it," Brave New PAC spokesperson Leighton Woodhouse tells me.

It seems like a media-friendly line of criticism, though presumably not one that the Obama campaign wants out there.

Read more >> Options >>

Anti-Palin rally draws hundreds in Alaska

MichaelMoore.com : Anti-Palin rally draws hundreds in Alaska

September 14th, 2008 4:17 pm
Anti-Palin rally draws hundreds in Alaska

ANCHORAGE (AP) — Hundreds of people protesting the policies of Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lined a busy street on Saturday, waving signs and chanting "Obama!"

The protest came about two hours after Palin delivered a rousing speech at Anchorage's new convention center before leaving the state to return to the campaign trail. Palin was named John McCain's running mate on Aug. 29. This was her first return since then to her home state.

The protesters, including supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama and those who don't agree with Palin's positions on abortion, polar bears, Iraq and other issues, lined one side of the street near Anchorage's main library building.

A much smaller number of mostly pro-Palin supporters were on the other side of the street, chanting "Sarah! Sarah!"

Police were at the scene, but there were no immediate reports of clashes.

Angie Doroff, 46, helped organize the rally. The wildlife biologist, yoga teacher and artist said she was pleased and surprised at how many people showed up.

"We're not alone. A lot of people are worried about the nomination of Sarah Palin," Doroff said, as cars drove by honking their horns in support.

Barbara Norton, a 56-year-old midwife, stood near a sign that read, "Alaskan Women for Choice."

"I think America does not understand how absolutely extreme her positions are — even to the right of George Bush and John McCain," Norton said. "She is frightening."

Anne Applegate-Scott, a 44-year-old attorney and stay-at-home mom, held a sign that said, "I don't vote for liars." Applegate-Scott said she actually voted for Palin for governor but won't vote for the McCain-Palin ticket. Palin, she thinks, has become a "product" of McCain handlers and won't let her talk to the media.

When she does talk, Applegate-Scott accused Palin of lying about her record.

"She lied about her position on earmarks and building the bridge," Applegate-Scott said referring to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. "She talks about her being a feminist but it is convenient feminism, it doesn't cost her anything."

One woman held a sign that read, "I'm Bail'in on Palin!" Another said, "Pro Woman, Anti-Palin." Another read, "What About Healthcare?"

One person strolled through the crowd in a polar bear suit. The bear was holding a sign that said, "Polar bear moms say No to Palin," a reference to Palin's opposition to placing the polar bear on the threatened species list because that could interfere with drilling for oil off Alaska's coast.

As more people gathered, the rally took on the look of a large family gathering with protesters hugging each other and exclaiming their surprise that so many people had gathered.

On the lawn outside the library two men held up a large banner that said, "Iraq War is Fraud. Palin is a puppet." One of the men waved an Alaskan state flag.

Some of the signs spoke out against Palin's anti-abortion position. Laura Kimmel, a 40-year-old Anchorage woman expecting her second baby in April, wore a clothes hanger with a sign attached that said, "This is not a surgical instrument. Keep abortions safe and legal."

Susan Soule, 65, a part-time health consultant, said she is old enough to remember when abortion wasn't legal and what women went through who wanted to terminate their pregnancies.

"I know the terror of unwanted pregnancy and back-room abortions. I know what that did to women," said Soule.

Hilary Seitz, 39, attended the rally with her two girls, 8-year-old Abbigale and 11-year-old Taylor. If McCain becomes president and Palin is the VP, Seitz said she fears what will happen on the Supreme Court and keeping abortion legal.

"It really scares me that if we lose that option what are women going to do," Seitz said. She said that she was at the rally for her girls and their futures.

Earlier in the day, a smaller crowd of Palin supporters gathered at the convention center. Angelina Klapperich, 14, wore her crown for winning Miss Alaska Junior Teen in 2007.

"I think she is a super role model for young people," the girl said of Palin, who won Miss Wasilla and came in second at the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, taking home the Miss Congeniality award. "She has so much integrity and she is really confident."

Also on Saturday, 14 people held signs like "Honk if You Love Gay People" during a 12-hour vigil outside the Abbott Loop Community Church in Anchorage, where a conference promising to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer was being held.

Palin's place of worship, the Wasilla Bible Church, promoted the "Love Won Out" conference, sponsored by Focus on the Family.

"Our main message is that God loves everyone the way they are," said protester Mike Mason. "People should be accepted for who they are."

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach someone at the church Saturday for comment were not successful.

The Bush Economy backfires

Paul Craig Roberts: So Much for the New Bush Economy

Turning Chinese
So Much for the New Bush Economy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The February payroll jobs figures released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a continuation of America's descent into a third world service economy.

The Bush administration cheered the creation of 229,000 private sector jobs (which still leaves Bush with a net private sector job loss during his reign). However, once we look at the details, the joy vanishes: 174,000 of the jobs, or 76% of the total, are in nontradable services.

Administrative and waste services (largely temporary help and employment services) account for 61,000 or 35% of the new service jobs. The remainder are accounted for by construction (30,000), retail trade (30,000), healthcare and social assistance (27,000), and waitresses and bar tenders (27,000).

The US has apparently lost the ability to create high productivity, high value-added jobs in tradable goods and services. The ladders of upward mobility are being dismantled by offshore production for home markets and outsourcing of knowledge jobs.

The BLS reports that the number of employed US technical workers has fallen by 221,000 in six major computer and engineering job classifications during 2000-2004. The largest drops were suffered by computer programmers, followed by electrical and electronics engineers, computer scientists and systems analysts.

So much for the new economy that economists promised would take the place of the lost manufacturing economy.

America's remaining job market is domestic nontradable services. While India and China develop first world job markets, the US labor market takes on the characteristics of a third world work force. Only jobs that cannot be outsourced are growing.

The Bush economy has seen a loss of 2.8 million manufacturing jobs, a rise in the unemployment rate of 1.2 percentage points, and a stagnation in real weekly earnings.

How bad will things have to get before economists realize that outsourced jobs are not being replaced? Indeed, many American companies are ceasing to have any presence in the US except for a sales force.

Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, declared recently: "What we're trying to do is outline an entire strategy of becoming a Chinese company."

Cisco is establishing a new R&D center in Shanghai. The US corporation manufactures $5 billion of products in China where it employes 10,000 people.

That is just one company, and there are many doing the same thing. The result is abandonment of the American work force by American corporations. Little wonder the Bush administration is the first administration in 70 years to have a net loss of private sector jobs.

If one US company or a few move offshore, their profits improve and consumer prices are lower. However, when work in general moves offshore, American lose the incomes associated with the production of the goods they consume. Domestic production is turned into imports, with the result that America draws down its accumulated wealth in order to pay for the imports on which it is dependent.

The dollar's value and status as reserve currency cannot forever stand the trade and budget deficits that are now part and parcel of America's economic policy.

Unless there are major changes soon, America's economic future is a third world work force with a banana democracy's worthless currency.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: pcroberts@postmark.net

The Economic Crisis: Immoral Hazards � Roadkill Refugee

The Economic Crisis: Immoral Hazards

September 14, 2008 · No Comments

Republicans are responsible for current economic crisis: Started with Ronald Reagan !!

John McCain's economic advisor Phil Gram is one of the culprits.

Others: Thomas Friedman (globalist, free trade)

GW Bush: responsible for biggest deficit of US history!!

Obama is the solution !!!

If McCain wins US will implode !!!

Republicans are responsible for current economic crisis

The Economic Crisis: Immoral Hazards « Roadkill Refugee

The Economic Crisis: Immoral Hazards
September 14, 2008 · No Comments

John McCain = John McLobbyist

MichaelMoore.com : New Obama assault on McCain lobbyists

September 13th, 2008 7:38 pm
New Obama assault on McCain lobbyists

By Mike Allen / The Politico

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), in a new bid to strip his opponent of maverick credentials, on Saturday launched an ad, website and road show designed to highlight ties between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Washington lobbyists.

Democrats say McCain has close ties to more than 170 lobbyists, at a time when he is vowing to “shake up Washington.”

The weekend vigor reflects worry in the Obama campaign that McCain is trying to usurp the “change” mantle with just over 50 days remaining before the election.

A 65-page report from the Democratic National Committee, “No Reformer,” tallies up McCain’s lobbying connections and asserts: “McCain has his own herd of more than 170 lobbyists that are managing his campaign, speaking for him, directing his policy or fundraising. McCain’s crew of lobbyists, already ubiquitous as campaign surrogates, would only become more familiar if McCain were elected.”

The 30-second ad, titled “It’s Over,” opens with a clip of McCain saying: “It’s over. It’s over for the special interests.”

Then the narrator chimes in: “Wait a second. John McCain’s chief adviser lobbies for oil companies, even from Russia and China. His campaign manager lobbies for corporations outsourcing American jobs. The campaign chairman he picked last year … a bank lobbyist.

“If seven of McCain’s top advisers are lobbyists, who do you think will run his White House? John McCain — we just can’t afford more of the same.”

The website, McLobbyist.com, highlights seven former lobbyists who are now top McCain officials, including campaign manager Rick Davis.

The website brands the officials “The McCain Seven” and charges: “John McCain has had at least 159 lobbyists running his campaign and raising money for him. The McCain Seven — all lobbyists — control the campaign filling roles from senior foreign policy adviser and finance co-chair all the way up to head of command, campaign manager. The McCain Seven make sure special interests come first.”

The campaign also announced lobbyist-themed events in 20 states over the next three days — Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

As part of what they call an “integrated campaign” on the lobbying issue, Obama aides also posted a Web video promoting the website. “The McCain Gamble” features noisy casino machinery, with a roulette wheel and the assertion, “This Is John McCain’s Washington.”

The anti-lobbyist blitz came a day after Hunter Biden — a son of Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) — disclosed that he was giving up his federal lobbying practice with nine clients.

Alex Conant, the Republican National Committee press secretary, said in response: “Barack Obama has no record to run on, so he’s resorting to cynical hypocrisy and outlandish attacks. Obama’s campaign is riddled with former lobbyists and his running mate is a longtime fixture of the Washington establishment. While Obama has spent his political career giving speeches and seeking higher office, John McCain has actually led the fight to root out Washington corruption and limit the influence corporate money in politics.”

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

MichaelMoore.com : Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

September 14th, 2008 2:24 pm
Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

By Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell / New York Times

WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”

Ms. Palin walks the national stage as a small-town foe of “good old boy” politics and a champion of ethics reform. The charismatic 44-year-old governor draws enthusiastic audiences and high approval ratings. And as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, she points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as speechmakers who never have run anything.

But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

Still, Ms. Palin has many supporters. As a two-term mayor she paved roads and built an ice rink, and as governor she has pushed through higher taxes on the oil companies that dominate one-third of the state’s economy. She stirs deep emotions. In Wasilla, many residents display unflagging affection, cheering “our Sarah” and hissing at her critics.

“She is bright and has unfailing political instincts,” said Steve Haycox, a history professor at the University of Alaska. “She taps very directly into anxieties about the economic future.”

“But,” he added, “her governing style raises a lot of hard questions.”

Ms. Palin declined to grant an interview for this article. The McCain-Palin campaign responded to some questions on her behalf and that of her husband, while referring others to the governor’s spokespeople, who did not respond.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell said Ms. Palin had conducted an accessible and effective administration in the public’s interest. “Everything she does is for the ordinary working people of Alaska,” he said.

In Wasilla, a builder said he complained to Mayor Palin when the city attorney put a stop-work order on his housing project. She responded, he said, by engineering the attorney’s firing.

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

“Their secrecy is off the charts,” Mr. Steiner said.

State legislators are investigating accusations that Ms. Palin and her husband pressured officials to fire a state trooper who had gone through a messy divorce with her sister, charges that she denies. But interviews make clear that the Palins draw few distinctions between the personal and the political.

Last summer State Representative John Harris, the Republican speaker of the House, picked up his phone and heard Mr. Palin’s voice. The governor’s husband sounded edgy. He said he was unhappy that Mr. Harris had hired John Bitney as his chief of staff, the speaker recalled. Mr. Bitney was a high school classmate of the Palins and had worked for Ms. Palin. But she fired Mr. Bitney after learning that he had fallen in love with another longtime friend.

“I understood from the call that Todd wasn’t happy with me hiring John and he’d like to see him not there,” Mr. Harris said.

“The Palin family gets upset at personal issues,” he added. “And at our level, they want to strike back.”

Through a campaign spokesman, Mr. Palin said he “did not recall” referring to Mr. Bitney in the conversation.

Hometown Mayor

Laura Chase, the campaign manager during Ms. Palin’s first run for mayor in 1996, recalled the night the two women chatted about her ambitions.

“I said, ‘You know, Sarah, within 10 years you could be governor,’ ” Ms. Chase recalled. “She replied, ‘I want to be president.’ ”

Ms. Palin grew up in Wasilla, an old fur trader’s outpost and now a fast-growing exurb of Anchorage. The town sits in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, edged by jagged mountains and birch forests. In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration took farmers from the Dust Bowl area and resettled them here; their Democratic allegiances defined the valley for half a century.

In the past three decades, socially conservative Oklahomans and Texans have flocked north to the oil fields of Alaska. They filled evangelical churches around Wasilla and revived the Republican Party. Many of these working-class residents formed the electoral backbone for Ms. Palin, who ran for mayor on a platform of gun rights, opposition to abortion and the ouster of the “complacent” old guard.

After winning the mayoral election in 1996, Ms. Palin presided over a city rapidly outgrowing itself. Septic tanks had begun to pollute lakes, and residential lots were carved willy-nilly out of the woods. She passed road and sewer bonds, cut property taxes but raised the sales tax.

And, her supporters say, she cleaned out the municipal closet, firing veteran officials to make way for her own team. “She had an agenda for change and for doing things differently,” said Judy Patrick, a City Council member at the time.

But careers were turned upside down. The mayor quickly fired the town’s museum director, John Cooper. Later, she sent an aide to the museum to talk to the three remaining employees. “He told us they only wanted two,” recalled Esther West, one of the three, “and we had to pick who was going to be laid off.” The three quit as one.

Ms. Palin cited budget difficulties for the museum cuts. Mr. Cooper thought differently, saying the museum had become a microcosm of class and cultural conflicts in town. “It represented that the town was becoming more progressive, and they didn’t want that,” he said.

Days later, Mr. Cooper recalled, a vocal conservative, Steve Stoll, sidled up to him. Mr. Stoll had supported Ms. Palin and had a long-running feud with Mr. Cooper. “He said: ‘Gotcha, Cooper,’ ” Mr. Cooper said.

Mr. Stoll did not recall that conversation, although he said he supported Ms. Palin’s campaign and was pleased when she fired Mr. Cooper.

In 1997, Ms. Palin fired the longtime city attorney, Richard Deuser, after he issued the stop-work order on a home being built by Don Showers, another of her campaign supporters.

Your attorney, Mr. Showers told Ms. Palin, is costing me lots of money.

“She told me she’d like to see him fired,” Mr. Showers recalled. “But she couldn’t do it herself because the City Council hires the city attorney.” Ms. Palin told him to write the council members to complain.

Meanwhile, Ms. Palin pushed the issue from the inside. “She started the ball rolling,” said Ms. Patrick, who also favored the firing. Mr. Deuser was soon replaced by Ken Jacobus, then the State Republican Party’s general counsel.

“Professionals were either forced out or fired,” Mr. Deuser said.

Ms. Palin ordered city employees not to talk to the press. And she used city money to buy a white Suburban for the mayor’s use — employees sarcastically called it the mayor-mobile.

The new mayor also tended carefully to her evangelical base. She appointed a pastor to the town planning board. And she began to eye the library. For years, social conservatives had pressed the library director to remove books they considered immoral.

“People would bring books back censored,” recalled former Mayor John Stein, Ms. Palin’s predecessor. “Pages would get marked up or torn out.”

Witnesses and contemporary news accounts say Ms. Palin asked the librarian about removing books from the shelves. The McCain-Palin presidential campaign says Ms. Palin never advocated censorship.

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to Ms. Chase and Mr. Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”

“I’m still proud of Sarah,” she added, “but she scares the bejeebers out of me.”

Reform Crucible

Restless ambition defined Ms. Palin in the early years of this decade. She raised money for Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from the state; finished second in the 2002 Republican primary for lieutenant governor; and sought to fill the seat of Senator Frank H. Murkowski when he ran for governor.

Mr. Murkowski appointed his daughter to the seat, but as a consolation prize, he gave Ms. Palin the $125,000-a-year chairmanship of a state commission overseeing oil and gas drilling.

Ms. Palin discovered that the state Republican leader, Randy Ruedrich, a commission member, was conducting party business on state time and favoring regulated companies. When Mr. Murkowski failed to act on her complaints, she quit and went public.

The Republican establishment shunned her. But her break with the gentlemen’s club of oil producers and political power catapulted her into the public eye.

“She was honest and forthright,” said Jay Kerttula, a former Democratic state senator from Palmer.

Ms. Palin entered the 2006 primary for governor as a formidable candidate.

In the middle of the primary, a conservative columnist in the state, Paul Jenkins, unearthed e-mail messages showing that Ms. Palin had conducted campaign business from the mayor’s office. Ms. Palin handled the crisis with a street fighter’s guile.

“I told her it looks like she did the same thing that Randy Ruedrich did,” Mr. Jenkins recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah, what I did was wrong.’ ”

Mr. Jenkins hung up and decided to forgo writing about it. His phone rang soon after.

Mr. Jenkins said a reporter from Fairbanks, reading from a Palin news release, demanded to know why he was “smearing” her. “Now I look at her and think: ‘Man, you’re slick,’ ” he said.

Ms. Palin won the primary, and in the general election she faced Tony Knowles, the former two-term Democratic governor, and Andrew Halcro, an independent.

Not deeply versed in policy, Ms. Palin skipped some candidate forums; at others, she flipped through hand-written, color-coded index cards strategically placed behind her nameplate.

Before one forum, Mr. Halcro said he saw aides shovel reports at Ms. Palin as she crammed. Her showman’s instincts rarely failed. She put the pile of reports on the lectern. Asked what she would do about health care policy, she patted the stack and said she would find an answer in the pile of solutions.

“She was fresh, and she was tomorrow,” said Michael Carey, a former editorial page editor for The Anchorage Daily News. “She just floated along like Mary Poppins.”

Government

Half a century after Alaska became a state, Ms. Palin was inaugurated as governor in Fairbanks and took up the reformer’s sword.

As she assembled her cabinet and made other state appointments, those with insider credentials were now on the outs. But a new pattern became clear. She surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and members of her church.

Mr. Parnell, the lieutenant governor, praised Ms. Palin’s appointments. “The people she hires are competent, qualified, top-notch people,” he said.

Ms. Palin chose Talis Colberg, a borough assemblyman from the Matanuska valley, as her attorney general, provoking a bewildered question from the legal community: “Who?” Mr. Colberg, who did not return calls, moved from a one-room building in the valley to one of the most powerful offices in the state, supervising some 500 people.

“I called him and asked, ‘Do you know how to supervise people?’ ” said a family friend, Kathy Wells. “He said, ‘No, but I think I’ll get some help.’ ”

The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.

To her supporters — and with an 80 percent approval rating, she has plenty — Ms. Palin has lifted Alaska out of a mire of corruption. She gained the passage of a bill that tightens the rules covering lobbyists. And she rewrote the tax code to capture a greater share of oil and gas sale proceeds.

“Does anybody doubt that she’s a tough negotiator?” said State Representative Carl Gatto, Republican of Palmer.

Yet recent controversy has marred Ms. Palin’s reform credentials. In addition to the trooper investigation, lawmakers in April accused her of improperly culling thousands of e-mail addresses from a state database for a mass mailing to rally support for a policy initiative.

While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret. Her inner circle discussed the benefit of using private e-mail addresses. An assistant told her it appeared that such e-mail messages sent to a private address on a “personal device” like a BlackBerry “would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.”

Ms. Palin and aides use their private e-mail addresses for state business. A campaign spokesman said the governor copied e-mail messages to her state account “when there was significant state business.”

On Feb. 7, Frank Bailey, a high-level aide, wrote to Ms. Palin’s state e-mail address to discuss appointments. Another aide fired back: “Frank, this is not the governor’s personal account.”

Mr. Bailey responded: “Whoops~!”

Mr. Bailey, a former midlevel manager at Alaska Airlines who worked on Ms. Palin’s campaign, has been placed on paid leave; he has emerged as a central figure in the trooper investigation.

Another confidante of Ms. Palin’s is Ms. Frye, 27. She worked as a receptionist for State Senator Lyda Green before she joined Ms. Palin’s campaign for governor. Now Ms. Frye earns $68,664 as a special assistant to the governor. Her frequent interactions with Ms. Palin’s children have prompted some lawmakers to refer to her as “the babysitter,” a title that Ms. Frye disavows.

Like Mr. Bailey, she is an effusive cheerleader for her boss.

“YOU ARE SO AWESOME!” Ms. Frye typed in an e-mail message to Ms. Palin in March.

Many lawmakers contend that Ms. Palin is overly reliant on a small inner circle that leaves her isolated. Democrats and Republicans alike describe her as often missing in action. Since taking office in 2007, Ms. Palin has spent 312 nights at her Wasilla home, some 600 miles to the north of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, records show.

During the last legislative session, some lawmakers became so frustrated with her absences that they took to wearing “Where’s Sarah?” pins.

Many politicians say they typically learn of her initiatives — and vetoes — from news releases.

Mayors across the state, from the larger cities to tiny municipalities along the southeastern fiords, are even more frustrated. Often, their letters go unanswered and their pleas ignored, records and interviews show.

Last summer, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, a Democrat, pressed Ms. Palin to meet with him because the state had failed to deliver money needed to operate city traffic lights. At one point, records show, state officials told him to just turn off a dozen of them. Ms. Palin agreed to meet with Mr. Begich when he threatened to go public with his anger, according to city officials.

At an Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau in January, mayors across the political spectrum swapped stories of the governor’s remoteness. How many of you, someone asked, have tried to meet with her? Every hand went up, recalled Mayor Fred Shields of Haines Borough. And how many met with her? Just a few hands rose. Ms. Palin soon walked in, delivered a few remarks and left for an anti-abortion rally.

The administration’s e-mail correspondence reveals a siege-like atmosphere. Top aides keep score, demean enemies and gloat over successes. Even some who helped engineer her rise have felt her wrath.

Dan Fagan, a prominent conservative radio host and longtime friend of Ms. Palin, urged his listeners to vote for her in 2006. But when he took her to task for raising taxes on oil companies, he said, he found himself branded a “hater.”

It is part of a pattern, Mr. Fagan said, in which Ms. Palin characterizes critics as “bad people who are anti-Alaska.”

As Ms. Palin’s star ascends, the McCain campaign, as often happens in national races, is controlling the words of those who know her well. Her mother-in-law, Faye Palin, has been asked not to speak to reporters, and aides sit in on interviews with old friends.

At a recent lunch gathering, an official with the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce asked its members to refer all calls from reporters to the governor’s office. Dianne Woodruff, a city councilwoman, shook her head.

“I was thinking, I don’t remember giving up my First Amendment rights,” Ms. Woodruff said. “Just because you’re not going gaga over Sarah doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind.”

Election Fraud: Why McCain is sending absentee ballots applications to Obama voters in Ohio, Florida, etc?

2008 ELECTION FRAUD: IT HAS ALREADY STARTED !


I have learned yesterday through Air America Radio that the McCain camp has sent more than one million absentee ballot applications in Ohio to Obama voters !!!

The GOP is doing this in all the so called battleground states.

So Obama people be aware of what happened in 2000/2004 Presidential Elections:

If you have received this kind of absentee ballot application contact your local city/county clerk election representative.

And you know who is behind McCain voting intimidation, caging is no other than "Karl Rove".

Everybody knows that the McCain/GOP will try to steal the 2008 Election but let's be smart this time around, Obam has to be elected. The united States will not survive another 4 years of the Bush Doctrine.

OBAMA 08 !!!!

Palin: the real scandal - Americas, World - The Independent

Palin: the real scandal - Americas, World - The Independent

Palin: the real scandal

By Leonard Doyle in Anchorage
Saturday, 6 September 2008

Getty Images

Palin has allowed big game hunters to shoot Alaska's bears and wolves from low-flying planes

'Sarah Palin a Total Disaster'

Zimbio Pilot - Barack Obama

Matt Damon: 'Sarah Palin a Total Disaster' (VIDEO)
By TheImproper.com
matt damon sarah palin

Oscar winner Matt Damon says the idea of Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin being in the Executive Office scares him. “I think there’s a really good chance Sarah Palin could be President and that’s a really scary thing,” said Damon.

Damon said the age and health of Palin’s running mate, 72-year-old Senator John McCain (who has a history of health issues) makes the likelihood of Palin becoming president a frightening probability. “There’s a 1-in-3 chance, if not more, that McCain doesn’t survive his first term and then it will be President Palin,” explained Damon.

In expressing his concern, Damon, 37, likened the scenario to a bad film. "It's a really bad Disney movie: The hockey mom--and she’s president and facing down [Russian president] Vladimir Putin,” Damon said. “It’s totally absurd and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about it.”

Damon, who attended Harvard University, also suggested McCain’s selection of Palin wasn’t based on her experience or qualifications. “I know she was the mayor of a really small town," said Damon. "She’s the Governor of Alaska for less than two years. I just don’t understand it. I think the pick was made for political purposes, but in terms of governance, it’s a disaster.

“I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were really here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that. Because she’s going to have the nuclear codes. I want to know that and I want to know if she tried to ban books. We can’t have that.”