Political Frenzy

This is a side by side comparison of the two presidential candidates tax plans that was posted on WashingtonPost.com. Here is the link.

To enlarge it you can click on the image.

On the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks we should all take a moment to remember those killed that day.

Politics is no longer the same with today’s technology. People are being held accountable for their words. I hate to show a clip from The Daily Show but I’m going to. This video is a prime example of how we change the meaning of things in our minds to justify our beliefs. We all do this, these people just happened to be saying it out loud and recorded.

Most people have made up their minds as to who they want to be president and they will use their own justification to justify anything about that candidate to themselves and others. Keep in mind this kind of clip could go both ways. Enjoy…

Well the RNC has finally concluded and the general election campaign has ‘begun.’

I noticed a few things from the convention.

1. More handmade signs from the crowd
2. I was more bored than when watching the DNC
3. Former rivals of John McCain were saying good things about him! I say this in a sarcastic tone because after Obama picked Biden as his VP nominee McCain made commercials with Biden saying bad things about Obama. I do believe Mitt Romney had some choice words for McCain during their debates. But he was singing like a canary in the Twin Cities. (I’m mocking this because it is something that happens in EVERY political race, but McCain seemed to want us to think only Biden said bad things of Obama.
4. Sarah Palin established herself as an attacker. I found it odd that a women who has less than two years of political experience attacking a US Senator, and former State Senator, but who am I to judge? I say things about candidates and I am not an elected official.

Honestly I was annoyed by Palin’s speech because instead of introducing herself to us (which is what a candidate should do when NOBODY KNOWS HER), she chose to spend her time not just attacking Obama, but mocking him. It was tasteless. I wanted to hear more about what she has done and what her plans for the country are. I don’t want to hear cheap shots at a proven and tested candidate from a woman who most people think shouldn’t have been anywhere near this race. Palin can say what she wants about Obama, but he has been chosen by millions of voters to be there candidate. One man choose her, and it is time to prove to everybody why. It is tasteless for someone who is still trying to get our respect to mock someone like Barack Obama, who has earned it. Because if that is all she is going to do she will just be a flash in the pan.

It was also interesting how the Republicans have starting using the word REFORM all the time now. They might have caught on that we don’t like what is going on in our government! Imagine that!

If they can reform Washington, it’s about time they told us how they will do it. I’m listening!

From what I saw before I fell asleep McCain’s speech was good. He needs to take some risky moves by saying the word reform, which will rattle his base but it will also get him more votes. And the hecklers, or whatever they were trying to do in the middle of his speech to get attention, come on! What are you thinking, let the man speak!

I liked the video about McCain. The man is a hero. But do we really need his wife telling us about adopting a child from Mother Teresa’s arms then tell us about it again 5 minutes later in a video?

I feel asleep during a lot of it, were President Bush or Vice President Cheney there? Because if I supported someone’s decisions 90% of the time that would mean that person is a great politician and I would want him to come and tell everybody how great I would be as his job.

(Matt Sullivan/Reuters)

The choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP candidate seems to be confusing everyone, and I’m no exception.

Last Saturday when Obama choose Biden as his VP candidate a McCain spokesman said that it was “a concession” by Obama admitting that his lack of experience means he is not ready to be our president. Then McCain chooses someone with ZERO foreign policy experience? I want to know what that particular spokesman has to say about this.

One of McCain’s main arguments is that he is ready to “Lead on Day 1.” Is Palin?

We can argue about which experience is better, executive (like being a Governor) or legislative (being a Senator) until we are blue in the face. But one thing is clear, having no foreign policy experience is a huge problem. Having no executive experience is tolerable I think. No wars are going to be started because a part of the budget is labeled incorrectly.

It is argued, although not much longer, that Obama has ‘no experience.’ But I can promise you that he is competent in the issues that face America today, and that foreign leaders know and respect him.

Palin, at the moment is not known by foreign leaders. Sure, if McCain tells them that Palin is going to visit and that she is a great women then they will respect her. But wouldn’t they respect anyone if they are told to? McCain can tell a foreign leader that a blogger named Ryan is coming and that I am a great man. But that doesn’t mean I am ready to lead the country (not yet at least!).

I am looking forward to the Vice Presidential debate. Joe Biden has been involved in foreign policy issues for decades, he it going to blow her out of the water.

If something were to happen to President Obama, Vice President Biden could step in and deal with a foreign policy emergency without hesitation. If something were to happen to President McCain, would Vice President Palin be ready?

I’m sure she is a great Governor for Alaska, and it looks like she is a reformer which is what Washington needs. But a vice president needs to know what is going on in the world, not just in Juneau.

I just hate how McCain is showing that he thinks that people who voted for Hillary will vote for Palin just because she is a woman. This is an unfortunate political stunt.

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/vice-president-sarah-palin/

Sarah Palin

This morning at an event in the swing state of Ohio, with the music from ‘Rudy’ playing in the background, John McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his VP nominee.

Who?

I am very proud of McCain showing that he can think outside the box. Is it risky to pick a female Governor who not many people are familiar with? YES! Which is exactly what the McCain campaign needed. His campaign has suffered a lack of enthusiasm from the start, picking an unknown woman does give it that little bit extra doesn’t it? It doesn’t hurt that she is also a former beauty queen.

Who is Sarah Palin? She got her degree in Journalism from the University of Idaho on a scholarship from being the runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, she served two terms on the Wasilla City Council, in 1996 she was elected mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470), she unsuccessfully ran for Lieutanant Governor of Alaska in 2002, she was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006. (source: Wikipedia, it’s correct I promise!).

This is a huge risk for McCain, but not as risky if he chose who he really wanted to choose, Joe Lieberman. His party would not allow that, it must be tough to stand up to your party.

I find it odd that McCain choose someone who has so little experience because for months he has been attacking Obama’s lack of experience. This officially takes the issue of experience off the table. I wonder how McCain will attack Obama now.

Palin is known for her record of reform. Another word for reform is CHANGE! Sound familiar? This shows that the McCain campaigns acknowledges that change is needed in Washington. They don’t want the election to be change v. the old ways, and now it won’t be.

Part of me wonders if the pick is to try to grab Hillary voters strickly because Palin is a woman, the other part wonders why McCain had to throw a hail mary.

One person who has to be happy is Tina Fey, she will be busy over the next few months!

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/mccain-logic/

Today the geniuses over at McCain headquarters decided to try a new strategy. They are now trying to get the Hillary supporters to turn on Obama.

Real Smart

The new TV ad has a clip of Hillary Clinton saying (and no this is not a joke), “Senator Obama’s campaign has become increasingly negative.”

HOW CAN A NEGATIVE AD ABOUT OBAMA FROM MCCAIN SAY THAT NEGATIVE ADS ARE BAD!!!!!!!?????

That’s like McCain having an ad in which he says ‘guns are bad,’ while cleaning a glock.

After the Faith Forum I thought Senator McCain had made some real headway. But unfortunately the people who he has hired to run his campaign are just plain idiots. Trying to get Hillary Clinton supporters to turn on Obama is not going to happen. It just shows how stupid the McCain campaign thinks voters are. The policy differences between Obama and McCain are huge, for his campaign to think that they can convince voters that they are better off with McCain policies than having Hillary not on the ticket is ridiculous.

Having every single ad that McCain puts out be a negative ad about Obama will not work.

Jumping on every little thing that Obama says will not work. Yesterday when Obama was introducing Biden he said, “let me introduce you to the next president…the next vice president….” McCain actually released a statement about this!!! Calling it a “Freudian slip” that shows he is not ready to lead. Really? Is your campaign that unsure about your issues that you are going to attack a misstatement in a speech? If you want to do that the Obama campaign could have a field day with your speeches, (who are the Sunni’s again Mr. McCain??) but fortunately the Obama campaign can actually focus on the issues.

But didn’t Obama attack McCain for not knowing how many houses he owns? Yes Obama did have some things to say about that. But that was because McCain has been trying to paint Obama as an elitist.

I find it amazing that a man whose father and grandfather were Admirals, and whose wife is worth over $100 million could portray his opponent, who was raised by his grandparents in a two bedroom apartment, and who recently finished paying off his student loans, as an elitist. But it’s working isn’t it!?

Campaigns just don’t make much sense these days…or ever.

But we all know that campaigns are dirty, and negative ads (unfortunately) work. McCain just has to watch out what he allows his campaign to attack or he will end up seeing himself not even being competitive come November.

I am really worried about the McCain campaign. I think Senator McCain is a great man, but his campaign is falling apart at the seams trying to find out how to campaign against Obama. Every single thing they say is negative, and now they are talking about how negative is bad, in a negative ad.

He needs to take more control of his campaign.

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/mccains-dumb-response-to-the-biden-selection/

Youth and experience is bad Mr. McCain?

In response to Barack Obama’s (late night) announcement that Joe Biden will be his running mate, John McCain was quick to attack.

An ad (which had to be put together weeks ago) showed quotes from Biden during the debates earlier this year in which he criticized Obama’s experience.

A McCain spokesman went on TV saying that because Obama picked the experienced Biden it is a ‘concession speech’ by Obama because it shows that he has no experience.

Do you really want to go there McCain?

First of all whoever McCain picks there will be similar, if not more harsh, videos of this new candidate criticizing McCain during the primary. This is politics folks, you attack your opponent and when they beat you, you tell everyone how great they are…it’s weird I know.

Does everyone remember the exchanges between McCain and Romney during the debates? If you don’t you sure will see the clips (immediately) if he chooses Romney as his running mate.

Now to the ‘concession speech’ remark…McCain you need to get some smarter help! This idiot is saying that because Obama chose a man who is very experienced it means that Obama himself is not experienced. If that is so,then why did McCain support the Bush-Cheney ticket?

By McCain’s logic Obama should have picked a retarded person, because that would mean that Obama is so smart he doesn’t need advice.

Also does this mean that because McCain will be picking a younger man that he is too old?

McCain, what does it imply when you have dumb campaign staff say stupid things on TV?

The floodgates are open, nice job McCain.

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/obamas-1am-text/

The last few days the world waited for the infamous text message from Barack Obama to announce who he has chosen to be his running mate.

The email to supporters to sign up for this text message said that because ‘we’ supported Obama throughout his campaign that we, not the media, should be the first to know about his pick. Personally I thought this was a pretty good idea.

Obama announced that he was going to have a rally with his new running mate this morning in Illinois, so I thought that it would be logical that the text message would be sent out yesterday. This way the press could report on it, leaders could embrace him, and the new running mate could stop being held hostage in his house by the media.

I waited, no text….waited, no text, checked my phone…no text. Obama avoided cameras all Friday, the only time that he spoke was to answer ‘when is the text going to be sent?’ To which he responded, “wouldn’t you like to know!” The talking heads on tv all chimed in saying that it could be sent any minute. Larry King was ready, Wolf Blitzer was ready, even Bill O’Reilly was ready. No text message.

Nightfall… I’m thinking to myself wouldn’t this be the perfect time to send it? No text… Around 10pm all the news channels start reporting that it has been confirmed that Joe Biden is Obama’s pick. Wait a minute! Hey Obama, why is John King on CNN telling me who you picked???? I still didn’t believe it though, I wanted the text message to come so I could know for sure (and I was still holding out for Gore).

1:08 am, my phone beeps…text message from Obama: “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on www.BarackObama.com. Spread the word!”

Thanks for waking me up.

How cocky is Obama to think that I want to be woken up by this news?

http://www.politicalfrenzy.com/got-gas/

Photo: news.nationalgeographic.com

I have been getting several responses to my previous blog on Exxon tax payments in which I said “we do not tax their absurd profits.” I was not being clear; I am not saying that Exxon doesn’t pay their taxes, just that their unreasonable profits aren’t taxed at a higher rate. Yes it is true that Exxon paid over $9 billion in taxes last year, but it was not to only the United States but also several foreign governments.

Based on what they paid in taxes their overall effective income tax rate is 46%. But keep in mind that this is to several governments, not just ours. So to say that they pay a higher tax rate than other corporations is false.

I know that there is a media bias towards bad news and I do not want to advance that agenda. My point with the blog was to try to come to an understanding as to why we pay over $4 a gallon for gas and how a company that sells the gas is making record profits.

Saudi Arabia has said, “There is no justification for the current rise in prices,” and Congress doesn’t seem to care. They shoot down a bill that would not only end tax breaks for oil companies, but also tax their windfall profits and make a way for energy price gouging a federal crime. (Why is energy price gouging not a federal crime by the way? We will talk about this on another day.) On the same day they shoot down a bill to provide companies who develop alternative energy tax credits.

The only tax breaks oil companies should be receiving are for research into alternative energy.

We are told that the high cost of gas at the pump is because of a supply and demand problem. If there is such a supply & demand problem with oil how can a company make a record profit? If oil costs more, wouldn’t their profits stay the same? Let’s look at a simple example:

Product A costs its maker $2, the company sells it for $4, making a $2 profit.
The materials for product A shoot up and it now costs $3 to make the product. The company now must sell it for $5 to maintain their current profit.

How can the company have record profits without raising their price? (Keep in mind that energy price gouging is not a federal crime…yet)

The company must raise it’s price to make ‘record profits’ such as Exxon has done. The company starts to sell product A for $10 citing a supply and demand problem. They are now making $5 profit per item.

The whole situation with oil in our country is complicated, gee I wonder why. If it were clear the people would demand that the people who they elect to represent them would do something about it.

I just wish we could put our energies into solutions instead of labeling people as left or right.

Yesterday Senate Republicans blocked the vote of a bill that would tax the windfall profits of oil companies as well as end their tax breaks. The Republicans said that we need to focus on more sources for oil.

Does this rub anyone else the wrong way? We are paying over $4 a gallon for gas in this country, Exxon makes billions in profit PER MONTH, we do not tax their absurd profits, and we give them $17 billion in tax breaks??? The Senate proposes a bill that would tax the windfall profits of these companies and end their billion-dollar tax breaks and elected officials have the gall to say no?

The Republicans said that raising the taxes on the oil companies will not lower the price of gas at the pump. This may be true, but wouldn’t that be the first step?

The oil companies have us by our throats, and this response by the Republicans only solidifies their grip. We need to start to shake free of these oil companies, there must eventually be a first step. Whats the worst that could happen $5 a gallon? That’s probably going to happen soon anyway!

“Besides the new levies, the bill would also have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime.” Does any of this sound bad?

Taxing windfall profits of oil companies, getting rid of their tax breaks (it should be a joke that they even get tax breaks), opening the way for antitrust actions against the OPEC oil cartel, and making energy price gouging a federal crime are things that should already be the norm.

It is absolutely absurd that it costs more for a gallon of gas than some people make an hour, the companies who sell gas are making billions in profit per month, and we give them tax breaks, and the freedom to price gauge.

We have all heard our members of Congress mention the need for alternative energy, but today they blocked a bill that would give $50 billion in tax credits to renewable energy research and development.

So let me get this straight, we give Exxon tax breaks, but not the companies who create renewable energy?

I guess it does make sense; oil companies have more money to contribute to politicians than renewable energy companies do. I wonder why nothing ever gets done?

Other blogs:
http://www.radicalavenue.com/press-babble/

Today while defending her decision to stay in the presidential race Senator Clinton said,

“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

Nothing like a good ol’ Freudian slip!

The Clinton campaign immediately responded to the remark saying, “She was simply referencing her husband in 1992 and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer.”

This point of reference is simply not valid.

In 1968 the nominating season was far different than today’s. On June 5, the day of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, there were primaries held in 13 states. It was their equivalent of our ‘Super Tuesday.’

Of course the candidates stayed in the race well into the summer, they had 13 primaries that day!!! By June 3rd of this year every state will have already voted.

Time has nothing to do with this debate; it’s all about numbers. We want Hillary to drop out because it is mathematically impossible for her to win, not because it’s almost June!

Not only was this an extremely insensitive thing to say, but also it is like comparing apples to oranges.

Mrs. Clinton is getting increasingly desperate and she is starting to hurt her public image. Obama is 56 delegates away from clinching the nomination. Clinton’s arguments over the votes in Michigan and Florida not counting are ridiculous and her logic about the subject hurts my brain.

Hillary…..I think it’s time.

This past Saturday I attended a voter registration drive hosted by Barack Obama’s campaign. At 10am the office was packed, with volunteers pouring out the front door. They had to announce that they had ‘too many volunteers,’ and didn’t have enough supplies or places to send everyone!

I was amazed not only by the sheer number of people willing to give up a beautiful Sacramento Saturday to register people to vote and to get out Obama’s message, but mainly by the diversity of the crowd.

Surrounding me were teenage white girls, Muslim men wearing turbans, old white men, middle aged white men, middle aged black women, young black men, old black men and women, and other white college students like myself.

I have before never seen a crowd so diverse all working towards the same goal. Senator Obama’s message is getting across to people from all walks of life, don’t let the hype from Senator Clinton fool you!

Senator McCain is going to have his hands full come November; I wonder what a gathering of McCain volunteers looks like.

Why won’t she just drop out?

There are a number of reasons why Hillary won’t just drop out of the race. Let’s explore a few of them.

First of all, and this is one nobody is talking about, Al Gore has not endorsed anyone yet. We all know that a Gore endorsement would go a long way for either of these candidates. If Al stepped out today and endorsed Hillary publicly what would be the outcome? Would it be enough to get her out of the deepening hole that she is now in?

Probably not

Al Gore is not likely to endorse a candidate who is all but sure to lose the nomination. He wants to put the weight of his name behind his party’s candidate to further boost the candidate’s visibility come general election time. Or does he? Is being friends with the Clinton’s enough to make him endorse Hillary’s sinking candidacy? (NO)

Another reason she could be waiting is to go out on top after a big win in West Virginia next Tuesday, where she has a huge lead in the polls. Clinton is actively campaigning in West Virginia, at the same time I haven’t heard of Obama making any campaign stops out there.

She will use the state of West Virginia to plead her case for the Vice Presidency. She will try to say that Obama cannot win ‘working class voters.’ Which is ludicrous…. (More about this in a future post.)

I have also heard of her campaign coming up with a deal with the Obama campaign to pay off her campaign debt of $20+ million.

The gas tax holiday proposed by opponents Senators Clinton and McCain is nothing more than a campaign gimmick.

Both candidates know that it doesn’t make fiscal sense; they also know that by proposing something like this that the American people will not look into whether or not it makes fiscal sense.

Again, this is an assault on our intelligence as voters. They think that we don’t understand that the suspension of a federal tax would cause long terms economical problems in an economy that is now in recession. The experts that have weighed in on the ‘gas tax holiday’ are even saying that it might not even lower the price of gas for consumers.

I’ll be honest when I first heard John McCain propose to cut gas prices I was happy, but then I realized that it would be a mere band-aid on a bullet wound. Suspending the gas tax for three months will only create more problems. Even if the overall price of gas was lowered by 18 cents per gallon, on a typical 13 gallon fill up that’s a whopping savings of over $2.

Big deal

McCain and Clinton also know that there is no way that the House and Senate could pass the bill in time for the ‘holiday.’ Congress just doesn’t work that fast.

Instead of taking money away from our country’s infrastructure how about we tax the oil companies (over a certain threshold of profit) who despite a ’supply problem’ still manage to make billions of dollars a month in profit ?