With a "Little help From My Friends"

Palin did alright during the debate, and she only did alright, because the bar was set so low for her after those Katie Couric interviews, everybody was just so happy she didn't outright fail!

She didn't answer a lot of the questions directly, and redirected to talk about energy, because supposedly she's an expert on that. I personally think Joe Biden won the debate, because he was the most direct, and his knowledge and experience on a lot of different subjects was shown, but I wouldn't say that either one of them shined on any level.

We have to have regulation over the mortgage-banking industry, because the deregulation caused Americans to be preyed upon, and I know this because my spouse and I were preyed upon, but we were smart enough in 2005 to buy house at a fixed rate that we could afford, we almost got caught in the whirlwind, but at least we had a lot of people giving us good advice, mainly our realtor who had 20+ experience in the field - I think we need to help these people out who got sub-prime loans, and bought houses they couldn't afford, and I know a lot people say we should not reward people's stupid behavior, but I think it's better to get the money back, and if that requires resetting everybody's interest rate to one they can afford, or lowering the principle on what they owe I think the banks should do it.

Whoever becomes president is going to inherit a huge freaking mess, and you can count on our next president-vice president probably only serving one term in office.

How true Mrs. Bell. Everybody that owns a home should get a "break" because we have paid for it. Something is better than nothing with regard to the people who have homes that pay nothing, for whatever reason. We all need a break not just the ones in trouble.

"I know a lot people say we should not reward people's stupid behavior"

Mrs. Bell,

There's a HUGE difference between "stupid behavior" and irresponsible behavior".

I'm still waiting, what, two or three weeks later, to learn from you when and where Barack Obama said that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontious Pilate was a governor.

In the meantime, I'm reading up on John McCain's associations with a man who plotted to bomb the Brookings Institution, a woman who praised anti-abortion terrorism while McCain sat mutely by, and a group that funneled money to fascist militias in Latin America.

But I'm sure these terrorist associations don't concern you for some reason. Just like Hannity and Limbaugh didn't say a peep at any point in the past eight years about Bush's associations with the terror-funding, terror-loving Saudi royalty.

I'm not really sure what anyone on your laundry list of congressional Democrats is supposed to do when Bush still has the veto pen. But why let facts get in the way of your lame attempt to shift responsibility from Paulson and Bush to the liberal boogeymen?

Speaking of Bush, I couldn't help but notice in all the comments about how big, bad affirmative action denies people with merit opportunities to advance ANY acknowledgement that the "legacy admission" that got him into Yale does the same, exact thing. No one has any objections to setting merit aside when doing so benefits the privileged, huh?

I just don't understand why people would vote themselves a pay cut/tax increase.

Vote for the World Poverty Tax. To become even more puppets of the UN.

Vote for a decrease of our rights in the Constitution. (I know, McCain is no better with the Feinstein/McCain Act and Amnesty Bill.) I'm sure this blog will go away if we are being too negative with either candidate.

You will have the right to the American way of life. Just as long as you don't go over $250,000 in income. Then you will be taxed more. (Sound like Marxism/Fascism to anybody?)

Anybody that does not pay ANY taxes at all will STILL get a tax refund. (Part of the Shared Wealth plan?)

heck, we won't even know if we will have a fair vote. There's another right flushed down the toilet thanks to Obama and ACORN. One of the very rights that this country was built on.

Yep. How about the Obama donation scam going on. False names, mailing info, work info, etc. Now add to it the Obama voter scam with Acorn! This is just the kind of guy I want in charge. Mrs. Obabma will probably go on to blame the "white man" for this one. Neither of the 2 choices is that great. They are both liars and cheats. So, which will do the least damage to America. That is the 740 billion dollar question. They both SUCK! So, now what?

The Messiah Senator Barack Hussein Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4

All bow.

Great stuff Beau!

The video was lame.

Don't strain your hand patting yourself on the back for correcting an inaccurate claim of yours three weeks later and after I had to point it out twice, "Bazooka Man."

I also said, when I first started posting here, that I support drilling in Alaska - which John McCain doesn't. And he opposed drilling off the coast up until this past summer.

I'm also not a fan of the fairness doctrine and would prefer FCC licensing fees be cut instead. One problem with the fairness doctrine is it assumes only two perspectives on any given issue exist.

I've outlined often enough which issues are prompting me to vote for Obama that there really is no excuse for your baseless assumptions about where I stand on issues I haven't commented on.

Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune concerning McCain's connection to G. Gordon Liddy, who was involved in a plot to bomb the Brookings Institution:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman/2008/10/mccain-has-his.html

MSNBC reported earlier this week on McCain's attendence at an Oregon Citizens Alliance dinner in 1993 where the woman introducing him praised terrorist Shelley Shannon, and his failure to rebuke her.

And here's a link to Washington Post coverage of McCain's ties to the U.S. Council for World Freedom, which channeled money to Latin American death squads.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/07/mccain_and_the_us_council_...

The media is downplaying these because the idea the media is liberally biased is blown far out of proportion - for instance, ABC was asking Obama about Ayers back in April, contrary to your insinuation that talk radio and people like autism-denier Michael Savage were the only way to learn about such stories "months ago."

The following link you may have seen on CNN. It's the Obama youth/frat whatever they are marching. Not saying that Obama endorsed this. But this video was taped in school. In school. Is anyone here reminded of the Young Pioneers or Hitler Youth or even of some the Islmaic madrasas . Why would anyone teach or approve this in this manner? Seen footage of some of the madrasas basically molding possible future terrorist? and this is just scary. This appears to be the American version complete with cammi's. WTH is going on is this country anymore. Leave the kids out of this crappy election and the brainwashing. I am so glad I had independent parents didn't endorse any political agenda, but to vote what I thought was right. How are these kids ever going to learn this doing stuff like this in school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onXd8iH3OVQ

Sarah Palin makes decisions and they have consequences. As I've said before, Wasilla had a budget surplus when she took office as mayor and was $22 million in debt when she left. That's a decision that indicates she's poor at handling public money.

She also as mayor got a zoning exemption for her home without fulfilling a board requirement for it, appointed unqualified high school friends to major state jobs as governor, allows her husband a great deal of leeway to influence or attempt to influence policy, and tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. These decisions in total are a pretty good indications she can play the good ole boys game with the best of them.

Two points on that last decision.

First, she fired the public safety commissioner. He says it was because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law. She says it wasn't, but rather it was for insubordination. When pressed to cite an example of insubordination, she said he lobbied for federal funding for anti-rape and sexual assault programs. There is also a pattern here, of Palin being soft on rapists. As mayor, Wasilla had a policy under which rape victims paid for their own medical evidence-gathering. Alaska has the highest rate of forcible rape in the country. I know she's only been governor a short time but what has she proposed to reduce it?

Second, the Palin family claims the ex-brother-in-law was a real jerk, a law-breaking state trooper protected by his crooked trooper buddies who'd only ever give him a slap on the wrist. I can believe that - I recognize the existence of police corruption. But other than try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired what did Palin do as governor about that underlying issue? What police reform did her supposedly real brush with corrupt cops prompt her to pick up? As far as I can tell, none.

But getting back to the good ole boys club, Palin bills taxpayers for her kids' airfare and hotel rooms, including a four-night stay at a luxury hotel for a five-hour event, and the Republican donors for $150,000 in clothing. Politics is crooked because there is so much motive for them to be crooked. And Juneau isn't any better than Boise, which isn't any better than Washington, D.C.

Then there is the "bridge to nowhere," which she supported when she campaigned for governor, opposed after it became unpopular, told America she said "thanks, but no thanks" but had really taken the money and spent it instead on an even worse idea, a road to where the "bridge to nowhere" would've been - if you accept Palin's description of the bridge's site, a road to nowhere.

Which was never really nowhere. It was an island with an airport already built on it. Anyone using it has to take a ferry to get across the sound. Do we federally subsidize an airport while stacking the deck against its usefulness? Are there any private investors in that airport, and now that we're holding up infrastructure improvements so John McCain can look tough on spending, they be eligible for some bailout money as that airport's potential worth evaporates?

Now that I'm on both airports and McCain - that guy you're voting for while publicly denouncing - it's still hilarious he'll fly in to rural airports built by earmarks so he can tell the voters how terrible earmarks are. That he actually believes cutting the half a percentage point all earmarks account for out of the annual budget won't make matters worse, not so funny.

All of that and I didn't even get to the Alaska Independence Party, which Sarah praises and her husband belonged to. The AIP was going to send a delegate to the United Nations in 1993 to denounce the U.S., having accepted an offer of sponsorship by Iran - the same Iran Palin opposes diplomacy with - or, rather opposes U.S. diplomacy with. On Alaskan diplomacy, it seems her view is a tad more complex.

And if the McCain-Palin campaign does win, who will handle the White House transition effort? William Timmons, former lobbyist for Saddam Hussein.

Is "what you know that I don't" actually true? Just because I live on the East Coast doesn't mean I live in the ghetto or even the inner-city - closest town to me is considerably smaller than Mountain Home - and just because I'm supporting Obama doesn't mean I'm going to break any laws on election day.

Obama is not a Muslim, not that I'm endorsing disqualifying a candidate based on their religion - a practice, by the way, "the Constitution that our founders laid out" discourages.

The erosion of our rights can mostly be traced back to conservative assaults on due process, judicial warrants, freedom of religion, and the role of the judiciary in protecting civil liberties. The Conservatives have controlled the White House and both houses of Congress for four of the past seven and a half years and have had a strong position to veto from for the past year and a half.

(And I don't think saying that makes any excuse for Democrats failing to try anyways.)

But where is YOUR finger pointing now? Toward the voting booth! to vote for more of the same with no real defense of the Republican ticket's policies and record offered. Just bleak and baseless predictions things would be worse under Obama and/or liberalism.

(Of course to defend their policies they'd have to hold on to them a tad longer - McCain back to supporting the immigration package he wrote then said he wouldn't vote for without securing the border first yet? Well, I don't know how he'd secure the border first with the spending freeze he's calling for in effect.)

Now if you "STILL don't knock Obama for his religion," why do you keep bringing it up?

I've never said Clinton did well, he was one of our worst presidents, a sellout who went along with McCain and GWB (he fights for it as Pres. and supported it all as gov.) and the GOP congressional leadership(who all at least have the excuse of coming from a party that usually denigrates labor rights) with unrestricted trade. Even when he would do something right, like going along with Republicans on welfare reform, he still failed to push for the better job creation measures needed to prevent the plan from being, in part, an effort to dump more supply into the workforce so employers could stagnate wages and benefits. And Clinton threw away the last two years of chances to move the Democrats' agenda forward on defending his illegal conduct instead.

Reagan? I'll give him credit for being an effective and competent manager whose personal character didn't embarass his supporters, but his policies have been disastrous - he supported aiding both the same militants in Afghanistan who would go on to form al-Qaida, and Saddam Hussein. And if the media was nearly as liberal as you think it is, they wouldn't let Americans ever forget that.

As far as Sarah Palin, the examples of crooked behavior and poor management as mayor and governor I've already cited, and the ideology she espouses, show she'd more than likely have the management style and ethics of Clinton with the failed policies of Reagan. - Actually, I don't think I mentioned the municipal employees she fired as mayor for purely political reasons, or is that only scandalous when they work in a travel office?

Does she back our Constitution? She believes due process is a God-given right? Does she believe in warrants? Does she believe in the right of people to freely exercise the religion of their choice? She's associated with a minister who doesn't - who went to Africa to harass a woman over her right to choose a faith other than Christianity. "Respects our flag" - that's almost always code for conservatives' anti-American assaults on free speech and the First Amendment.

If America doesn't get a liberal in the White House soon, The conservatives may succeed in destroying everything in the Constitution except for the Second Amendment. They'll have finally brought down the Republic and erected a land of theocratic fiefdoms dotting the countryside.

Palin "isn't perfect" - she's just another crooked Republican, prone to cronyism and nepotism, taking handouts while telling the middle-class to suck it up. No sense of ethics, lies frequently, and bought wholly into failed ideas. And the people of Alaska will get another chance in 2010 - but hey, you still haven't explained what the mighty governor Palin is doing about Alaska leading the nation in forcible rapes, maybe the rapist vote will keep it sewed up for her.

But why answer questions when you can throw out the same tired garbage about ACORN conspiracies, get the Republican machine psyched up to go into the inner-city and suppress minority voting again.

I'm also not sure I understand why Palin winning a first term on a state-wide ballot is a measure of her qualifications when Obama did it too, beating your Alan Keyes with, what, 75 percent of the vote? After all, "neither WE nor the media is as close to him as the Illinois people are."

Speaking of Keyes, who you say you supported in the past, he was never a governor or mayor, never ran a corporation or college or military base or post, never even ran a beer distributorship or an organization that got asbestos removed from people's homes, as McCain and Obama did. When everything you say about Palin boiling down to her being a governor, and never mind how she's done at it, Why did you support a guy with NO executive experience, whose only accomplishment AT ALL is a few years representing the U.S. at a minor United Nations committee?

Did Ronald Reagan say that before or after he aided our enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq? Government is not the problem. Conservatism is.

The Fairness Doctrine - which I still oppose - is not a free speech issue, It's an FCC licensing issue. The First Amendment does not require the government to provide you with time on the airwaves. Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and your autism-denying hero Michael Savage will still have their First Amendment rights to say whatever they want, they MAY not have up to three hours on airwaves that belong to me as much as they belong to them to say it.

And if the government wants to take your guns, they don't need any more gun control legislation to do it. They just have to accuse you of being linked to terrorism, and if conservatives keep getting their way you won't get your Constitutionally-protected day in court to defend yourself and your reputation.

Now it's revealed that as Governor Palin let lobbyists for a Canadian company manage the bidding process for that natural-gas pipeline. Surprise, surprise, the contract went to that Canadian company. But keep superficially insisting all that matters is that she likes to hunt. If she ever gets into the White House the middle and working classes will end up so bankrupted they won't be able to AFFORD ammunition.

If you want grant funding, apply for it. Maybe for something your likely better qualified to get it in than for South American zoology, though. I know lots of small businesses and organizations that get grant money from the state or federal government. It helps small businesses compete with the box stores so consumers have choices, decreases energy use, and it helps keep police stations, jails, hospitals and libraries operating.

Including the $1.12 million Mike Simpson got for the Idaho State Police, the $1.22 million he got for the Idaho Department of Corrections, $1.47 for work on Interstate 84, all in earmarks - all eliminated spending if McCain keeps his anti-earmark promise.

Do you think turning the money back over to the wealthy will make anything better? We've cut taxes for investors, money managers, and the rich consistently over the past 28 years, and the money did NOT trickle down. Middle-class earnings fell behind both management pay and the rate of productivity, and our infrastructure is underinvested in.

Huckabee didn't propose a tariff system when he ran - which if it's collaborative with certain other taxes I would support - he wanted a 30 percent sales tax which would've leveled sales and sped up the drain-circling we're seeing now. And Ron Paul's not for tariffs either, he favors "free" or unrestricted trade.

The money for John Edwards' haircuts came from campaign funds, just as the $150,000 for Palin's wardrobe did. Here's a math factoid: Edwards could get one of those haircuts every week for six years and he still wouldn't have matched her bill at all those East Coast fashion boutiques.

I've stated my opinion on taxes before, I believe. I want high tariffs on foreign goods from nations where the labor standards fall short of America's, and high taxes on unearned income like stock dividends, inheritance, capital gains, lottery winnings. Our tax system should favor those who work for their money, and I think with some spending cuts and what I described above, payroll and other tax rates can be lowered and the individual income tax perhaps eliminated altogether - though if the only way to completely eliminate is to cut regulatory enforcement funding, which a lot of Republicans always seem eager to do, then I'd rather have an income tax than more Triangle factory fires or Centralias.

And you're missing the point - the government, once due process is not a certainty, doesn't need any new law or policy to bust down your door and imprison you for life - just the right kind of allegation - international terrorism - and you'll never get into a court to argue your detention is unlawful.

"Something in your own family is handed down to you------tax already paid on it long ago."

If you have a sum of money and are mulling over giving it to a family member as inheritance, or paying a contractor to install a pool and pool shed in your backyard, and opt for the pool, the contractor is still expected to pay income tax, even though taxes were "already paid" on the sum. That's how money works.

All cutting or eliminating the inheritance tax does is devalue work. Why should Paris Hilton be first in line for tax relief?