The Bailout

Since I am not an economist, all this talk about bailing out companies that screw the American people on a daily basis is very confusing to me. For some reason I just can't comprehend how giving money to companies that have overcharged us for years and are now suffering from their greed is going to help "fix" the economy. I'm talking about the oil companies, the utility companies, the American auto makers, the insurance industry, and the banks and finance companies just to name a few. I really take offense to the government officials and the media blaming the American citizens for the cause of this problem when these companies have been taking advantage of us with the government's blessings for years.

Most people don't know they are being taken advantage of because if they can afford to pay higher prices, they don't worry about the value they are getting for their money. They also either don't care or realize that they are making it more difficult for those trying to make a living on incomes below $50,000 a year. Think of it like this: if I had a million dollars, $50,000 is the equivalent of a nickle to a dollar. Now keep this figure in mind as we explore this problem. Let's apply this figure to the auto industry. With the growing number of millionaires through sports, music, and other means, it is nothing for them to walk into a car dealership and drop $50,000 on a new car. I walked into a dealership earlier this year and told the salesman I was looking for a "used" car that I could make payments of no more than $200 a month. He said we don't sell bicycles here. In other words, car dealerships could afford to laugh at the person making an average income because they knew they would catch the rich suckers and overcharge them and make a huge profit off of a couple of sales a day. Now they want the public to bail them out so they can continue taking advantage of the rich.

The insurance industry piggybacks off the auto industry because the law says you have to have insurance, therefore they can charge you what they want or you risk fines and jail time for not having it. Let your payment be late, you will be charged reinstatement fees and a higher rate for discontinued service. They will also cancel you for no reason in order to raise your rates. Some companies are allowed to raise your rates even if you haven't had any accidents or tickets since they have been covering you. How can you raise someones insurance if they haven't had any incidents and the value of their vehicle is steadily decreasing? Well it's because the government allows it. The gasoline companies took advantage of having oil men in office that allowed them to do whatever they felt like with gas prices. Create false shortages based on natural disasters and raise prices. It's holiday or summer vacation time, let's raise prices.

Banks and finance companies have been charging high interest rates for years based on what the government sets as the prime lending rate. I can remember when the interest on your savings account was higher than the interest rate on your loan. We even earned interest on checking accounts, just slightly lower than the rate on our savings. These institutions have found ways to punish you for having credit. It is almost impossible to keep your credit rating intact these days. Just watch the infomercial on "Debt Cures They Don't Want You To Know." Although I don't recommend the book for curing any debt problems, it gives a detailed message as to how the financial institutions work together to bring own your credit score. Why? Because the lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate they can charge you. Most of you know that every time you apply for credit, your score is lowered, but how many of you knew that every time you cancel a credit card, even if there is no balance due, you take a hit? There are all types of little hits designed into the system to bring your credit score down even if you've never missed a payment. For example, if you have a $1000 credit limit and you have charged $750 worth of merchandise and you make the minimum payment every month, your score is going to take hits for having a high balance and for slow pay, even though you are paying the minimum amount each month.

These are just a few examples of how these companies have been taking advantage of the American public for years because the government allows it. But all of this ripping off the poor has finally caught up with them. In the afore mentioned book, it tells how charging over 20% in interest rates is akin to loan sharking, yet credit companies regularly charge between 20-25% if you miss a payment, or they hold back your payment in order to accrue late charges and raise your interest rate. You may sign up for a 6% rate but be a day late and watch that rate jump to over 20%. People cannot afford to pay their bills due to all of these hidden increaes raising their payments from the original agreement. Now your credit score can affect your ability to obtain work. Can you believe that? If you have a low credit score, you may not be hired by a lot of companies. So you can't even get work to pay your bills, you can't even get work so you can be garnisheed! So they have created a situation where they can't get paid back because they were trying so hard to make it hard for you to pay in the first place.

The government wants to bail out the companies that have been ripping us off and still leave us in debt. As we have seen, when AIG got their money the executives went to a luxury resort within a few days. When the auto makers appeared in front of congress asking for money, they flew in on private jets, and when asked if they were willing to fly back on commercial airlines, no one responded with a yes. They want us to give them more money so they can continue to rip us off, and the government thinks this is a good idea. Well I've got a better idea.

Let's take that $700 billion and divide it by $25,000. That comes out to 28 million families that can use that money to get out of debt. The economy will be stabilized and everyone will be happy. Quit giving us these little ass teaser checks that wont even pay a months rent. Remember I said families, not people, should get the $25,000. They can pay off their debt and still have money to make new purchases. These families cannot make more than $100,000 a year, therefore their debt shouldn't be over the $25,000 level, excluding what is owed on a car and house. The average person in the lower income range doesn't have that much debt because they can't get that much credit, so let's bail them out and let them bail their creditors out that way. You would have to apply for the relief money the same way you would apply for a loan, by providing proof of your debt. If you think 28 million families is a lot, consider the fact that about 125 million people voted in the presidential election, not families, people. If necessary, just add more money to the bailout, if you can do it for companies and war, you can do it for the American people. What's a trillion dollars anyway?

More Gas Gouging

Is there any doubt that the current administration has been in cahoots with the oil companies to gouge as much money out of us as it could before leaving office? Gas prices per barrel are almost where they were when George Bush took office in 2001. But we are still paying a dollar more a gallon than when he took office. George Bush and Dick Cheney have destroyed the economy with their greed. He is now in the process of trying to cover up his mess before Barack Obama takes over. I'm sure he was looking forward to John McCain taking over and continuing this farce with our economy. Remember, McCain's wife's family made their fortune from beer, so I'm sure he felt comfortable with someone already rich taking over and keeping the rest of us poor. Now that we have someone who is like most Americans, honest and caring, Bush has to pull a Nixon and hide certain details of his corrupt administration's dealing with the oil companies.

With the constant dropping of oil prices, is there really any urgent need to start offshore drilling and drilling in Alaska's protected lands as Sarah Palin wants us to do? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Here in Georgia we suffered for a month through a fake gas shortage supposedly created by Hurricane Ike, while the area it hit was not affected at all. We were told there was a surplus of crude oil but the refineries were shut down and couldn't produce gasoline. We were also told that Georgia uses a special blend of pollution reducing gasoline that the rest of the country doesn't use, therefore we couldn't get the gasoline we needed. But I wrote in an earlier article how the gas prices fluctuated with the poll numbers for the election.

When McCain had started slipping in the polls, prices per barrel started going down. When Palin was announced as his VP choice and poll numbers started rising right after Hurricane Ike, gas prices hit record highs. But as the public got to know Sarah Palin and the poll numbers started going down, so did oil prices per barrel. Now that Obama has been elected, prices are swiftly returning to where they should be. George Bush has a lot of cleaning up to do before he leaves office, but it won't be enough. One thing I remember that Barack Obama said is if he took office he would review everything Bush had done and if he found any wrong doing, he would bring Bush up on charges. Don't forget, both Obamas are Harvard graduated lawyers, with Barack being a specialist in Constitutional law.

Keep in mind, Obama is against unnecessary drilling that can further endanger the environment. There is no shortage of oil in the world, it was reported last week there is a surplus. No need to make more oil people richer. I think this economy will turn around a lot quicker than most people think now that we have the corrupt administration out of office. The Republicans are mad because Obama has threatened to raise taxes on the rich, which most Republicans are. He has also said he will increase spending in certain areas by taking away wasted money in others. Once again, this man has outsmarted Hilary Clinton and John McCain when it came to financially running his campaign, coming through both with surplus money. Why should we expect anything different with him handling the country's economy?

A New Beginning

Now that the election is over and Barack Obama is the President-Elect, the world seems to think this is a new beginning for America. Barack represents hope for millions of people worldwide who believe he will bring respect and dignity back to the perception of how America should be when dealing with the rest of the world. Also Black Americans are proud of White America for doing the right thing by electing the man most qualified for the job. It will be good to have someone running the country who brings intelligence and dignity to the office of President again. The first thing Obama has done is to begin surrounding himself with others who think also. Let me give George Bush credit for one thing right now, and that was passing a law allowing for the transition to the presidency to begin immediately after the election instead of after he takes office in January. This has allowed Obama to recognize the flaws in the current administration and begin putting the right people in the right places.

The one major difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is their views on how the country should be run. The Republicans always want to keep America at war as a show of might, while the Democrats are always working to keep the American economy strong at home. In my lifetime, the Democrats have always inherited a war started by a Republican president. Yes, John F. Kennedy entered the Viet Nam war, but America's involvement was set up by Richard Nixon while he was Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower. He was so sure he was going to win that election that everything had been put in motion for the U.S. to take over the role that the French already knew was hopeless. It took him eight years to get into office and he still couldn't finish what he had started. The situation was so bad that Lyndon Johnson refused to run for re-election in 1968, something unheard of for a sitting president, because no president has lost a chance at re-election while the country was still at war. This is why it has taken George Bush so long to end a war against a country without an army, when his daddy put Saddam Hussein in check in little over a month. Remember that? His daddy lost his chance at re-election because the country was not at war and the economy was in shambles after four years. Little George would not have been re-elected either in 2004 if he had not extended this senseless war.

Which brings us back to Obama, who inherits the same type of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He already had a plan for what he wanted to do with the war, but after briefings with George Bush, and learning more of the misguided strategy they had, he has begun to make definite decisions on what he wants to do to end this atrocity. The Bush Administration has gotten rich off the blood of our children by perpetrating fear of Saddam Hussein when he was no longer a threat thanks to his dad. The mission at hand was to find Osama Bin Laden for the destruction he was accused of creating on September 11, 2001. The talk all this year against Iran has been exactly the same language we heard to justify going into Iraq. Although you may not like the religious views of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his views of Israel, the man does have a point when it comes to dealing with him and any other of our designated enemies. Talk to him, not at him. That is why he is looking forward to dealing with Obama as president. At least he knows he can engage in dialogue with him, unlike George Bush who called him, Saddam Hussein, and Kim Jong Il the leaders of an Axis of Evil when he first took office.

George Bush never used diplomacy when dealing with his enemies and we could not expect John McCain to either. Hell, he couldn't handle Barack Obama in the debates and fortunately for us, white America was able to see this also. It has also become quite interesting to hear how Sarah Palin is responding to claims from the McCain camp about her lack of knowledge by calling them jerks. It is so easy for this woman to call people out of their names who don't agree with her. Not a real sign of class or leadership, which was another thing that is appealing about Obama. Through all the name calling he endured during his primary and presidential campaigns, not once did he disrespect his opponents by calling them out of their names. So you can expect him to treat the other leaders of the world the same way, no matter how they are viewed by past leaders. Remember it was Nixon who broke down the barriers with China, and Reagan with Russia. Expect President-Elect Barack Obama to do the same with some of our current enemies.

Military Votes Not Counted

In this year of the most important election of our time, CNN has just reported that in the past election only 30% of overseas military votes were counted and they are expecting the same this year. This is the worst example of voter fraud in the world. How can George Bush and John McCain justify having our troops overseas fighting for freedom and democracy, and then have their votes not be counted due to circumstances beyond their control? They cite things like improper registration in their hometowns and delays in the mail taking them past deadlines to be counted. If I remember correctly, the first time Bush stole the election, military votes were thrown out because they came in late. It was just explained that once the votes are cast overseas, they have to be sent to the soldier or sailor's home state, then verified that they are registered properly. In my opinion, if you are serving in the military for this country, you are automatically registered, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

The fact that these votes have to be separated and sent to a home state shows the major flaw of the election process. The United States likes to travel all over the world spreading democracy, teaching other countries about holding fair elections, and we have one of the most corrupt systems of voting there is when it comes to electing our leader. What the hell is the electoral college for? In every other election in this country, be it for political office or issues, the majority wins. But for President of The United States of America, we have a "special system" that allows the election to be manipulated state by state. It has been a long time since we had an election where the electoral college had any meaning, until the year 2000, when Al Gore had more votes than George Bush, but Bush was declared the president. Who can forget that election night when the news channels had declared Al Gore the president, and George Bush called them to say, he hasn't won my brother's state of Florida, I'm going to win that one. The rest is tainted history. Then we saw it repeated in 2004 when the head of the Republican Party in Ohio, Ken Blackwell, guaranteed George Bush he would win that state before the voting began. We have since learned this was due to voting machines that were manufactured by an Ohio company named Diebold, could be rigged to change votes and the outcome of the election. These machines were used in several states, and some of those states got rid if those machines and no longer use machines manufactured by Diebold. But guess what, states like Ohio and West Virginia still use them, and we already have had reports of machines changing votes in West Virginia!

In the HBO documentary, they showed how these machines can be fixed to produce any result they want, no matter how you vote. The results can be predetermined before the election takes place, even when you have a paper record showing how you voted. There are many ways to program a computer to produce the results you want, especially when every state or groups of states are using different machines. People think that voting machines can't work for this reason. But every year we hold The Kentucky Derby in May and The Breeders' Cup Championships in October. There are millions of dollars bet on these races WORLDWIDE without a single glitch in the system. Not a penny misplaced. And this system is used everyday at racetracks around the world. Let me relate an experience I had with this system.

One afternoon I placed a bet using a self-service machine, won a substantial amount of money, and instead of going to a teller to collect my winnings, I made another bet using the self-service machine again. Instead of collecting all of my winnings, I got the rest back in what is called a betting voucher. But the voucher did not drop into the slot smoothly, so I actually walked away without my winnings, only the tickets for the next race. That meant the next person that used that machine got a nice bonus when my voucher dropped down. I contacted the track officials and told them what had happened, not knowing if someone had used that machine or not. The official opened the machine and verified that the voucher was gone. He told me that they could run a trace and see if the ticket had been cashed already and if not, they could void that ticket and get my money back. He took the machine number and went upstairs to the computer room and verified the information I had given him as to the amount on the voucher. To my surprise, he came back about 15 minutes later with my money on a new voucher. I asked him how he was able to get my money back. He told me it's all about the bar codes. The machine I placed the bet on produced the voucher with enough information to give them the time, amount, and machine number where it was issued. When the person who found it took it to the teller to cash it, they were able to trace it to that teller. Fortunately for me, it had been such a short period that the teller remembered who cashed it, and that person hadn't left, so they were able to get my money back, despite that person's claim that they had won that money. Even if that person had went to a self-service machine himself, they would have had a record of the ticket being cashed, they just might not have been able to recover my money.

So what I am saying is, if they want the voting machine system to work, it will work. But that just goes to counting votes. Why is it we have a system in place that the candidate with the most votes can lose? I'm sick of hearing that Ohio determines who the president is. If that's the case, why is the rest of the country voting? If it were just whoever has the most votes wins, military personnel overseas would have their votes counted as a whole instead of being separated by state. They wouldn't have to be mailed back to the mainland from various points around the world, they could be counted at their duty station or even aboard ship. Imagine a soldier voting today and losing his life tomorrow not having his vote count because his vote was delayed by the mail, or he is no longer eligible because he gave his life for his country. Their votes should count above and beyond any other U.S. citizen, not last or not at all. After all, they are the ones whose lives depend on who is in charge.

Reaping What You Sow

Recently John McCain and Sarah Palin have been crying foul about the way the media has treated them, claiming they have been unfair. Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be the fact that they were denied access to Gov. Palin when she first accepted the nomination for Vice President at the Republican convention nearly two months ago? Could it be that she refused to grant interviews to the regular media, picking and choosing who she would talk to over the last month? Could it be that she attacked the media even before she granted her first interview while campaigning for John McCain? Or could it be that the McCain campaign tried to put stipulations on the media when Sarah Palin met with some of the world leaders in New York just prior to her debate, saying they could take pictures but couldn't ask questions? Whatever the reason, the one thing you don't want to do is get on the wrong side of the media.

By refusing to talk to the media, you pretty much put yourself at their mercy, as they control what information is digested to the American public. The main thing Barack Obama has done over the past two years is use the media to help the people learn who he is. Even when the publicity was unfavorable, such as the associations with Tony Resko, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Bill Ayers, Barack Obama stood up to the media and addressed the allegations. Even John McCain has addressed his associations with Charles Keating and G. Gordon Liddy, which basically the press has given him a free pass on. But Sarah Palin was an unknown when she was tabbed as McCain's running mate, and at the time had high favorability with the American public following her convention speech. Why then would John McCain and the Republican Party shield her from the media? She had just breathed new life into his campaign and had even pulled him ahead of Obama in some polls. This was the time to take advantage of her popularity, not scorn the media by hiding her. Then she went so far as to attack the media because they didn't know who she was.

As the media began to dig into her record in Alaska, things started popping up that looked a little shady. They wanted to question her about comments she had made in her convention speech that just didn't add up. But it seemed like every Republican in the party spoke in her defense while she just kept on smiling and refused to defend herself. Then came the interview with Katie Couric, a somewhat friendly, non-confrontational interview that showed just how unprepared Sarah Palin is to hold the position of Vice President. Recently she has begun to open up more to the media, still picking and choosing though, and even appearing with McCain by her side to deflect any questions he feels she cannot handle. She has recently been criticized by the party for trying to get her own message out, as if she was the one running for president. Hell can you blame her? She outdraws McCain in rallies by ten to one. The Republicans allegedly just gave her $150,000 of campaign funds to spend on her and her family's wardrobe. She denies the claim, but McCain says the clothing will be donated to charity.

So naturally Sarah Palin, as Governor of Alaska, has never faced the media scrutiny she is facing now. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. It has a lot to do with the fact that Americans know nothing about and have cared very little about what goes on in Alaska, until now. John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Republican Party have created this atmosphere of disdain from the media by disdaining them when they have needed to know who you are. The American people needed to know who you are. Most of the people that were on the bandwagon just because you were a woman, a maverick, a pit bull with lipstick, have jumped off because most of all, you are still a mystery. Even I was impressed with your personality and charisma at the Republican convention and considered you a serious threat to the Obama campaign. So it's too late in the race to blame the media for your treatment, they were there for you, you were not there for them.

McCain Tested Under Fire

At a recent engagement, Joe Biden made a statement that Barack Obama would be tested in his first six months with a crisis, much the way previous presidents had been when they first took office. John McCain immediately responded saying he had already been tested. He referred to the fact that he sat in a plane on an aircraft carrier during the Cuban missile crisis prepared to drop bombs if called to duty. I respect anyone who risks their life flying combat war planes, that takes great courage and skill. Flying any kind of plane does. Even flying as a passenger takes a certain amount of courage in my eyes, as I personally hate flying. But let's get serious. This was no test of judgment on his part

As a pilot, all he did was follow orders from his superior officer as to whether he would be needed or not. Had he taken off, then he would have had to make some decisions on his own concerning his own fate. Yes, he was in a stressful situation not knowing if he would be called to duty, but it would have been his first mission. This is all according to what he wrote in his book and he admitted he was nervous, if not scared, at the prospect of going to war. He had already crashed one plane while in training in Corpus Christi, Texas. According to McCain, the crash was due to engine failure, but official Navy reports blame him for pilot error, meaning a lack of judgment. He went on to crash at least four more times in his career, including the one linked to his capture during the Viet Nam war. That incident is detailed as him being shot down by a surface-to-air missile during a bombing run. McCain says all of the crashes were due to engine failure. He crashed the first plane in water, as he states he was able to swim to the surface after the crash. In the Viet Nam crash, he states he was able to eject after being hit.

Once again, I do not question his bravery. But I do question the fact that all of those planes had engine trouble. One thing I learned while in the military is that when your daddy is a respected military veteran, or a high ranking government official, they will cover up his son's screw ups. One has to look no further than little George Bush as an example. Even during his capture, the Vietnamese were willing to let John McCain go because of his daddy. But McCain is said to have denied early release before prisoners who had been there before him. This is what can truly be called an act of heroism. But still it has been proven he lied about the first plane crash in which he claimed it was engine trouble, so how can you believe all the planes had engine failure. When an idea hits me, I usually do searches to verify the facts to back up my opinion, so remember, this is my opinion. But check out this clip of someone who has a similar opinion about John McCain's flying record as it goes into a little more detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kLde8DBM-I&feature=related

So judging from his record, it was probably a good thing that the man Barack Obama has so often been compared to, John F. Kennedy, was able to stare down Nikita Khruschev and avoid war with Russia for John McCain's sake. I think it's safe to say that if he was still using poor judgment as a pilot in 1967, he may not have fared well on his first mission.

What If

These are not my words, instead they were sent to me in an email, thought I'd share it with you.

Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around? Think about it. Would the country's collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three-month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant, teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama had finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?

What if Barack Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980's and early 1990's)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama was the one who couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who's military experience included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes, including one that led to his capture as a POW?

What if Obama was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their fortune from beer distribution?

Tell me this, if John McCain had Barack Obama's credentials, would this election be close?
If Barack Obama had John McCain's integrity. would this election be close?
Do you not think race matters in this election?
Let's look at their educational credentials.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University-B.A. in Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard-Juris Doctor(J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joe Biden:
University of Delaware-B.A. in History, B.A. in Political Science
Syracuse University College of Law-Juris Doctor (J.D.)

VS.

John McCain:
U.S. Naval Academy-Graduated 894 of 899 in his class

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University-1 semester
North Idaho College-2 semesters-general study
University of Idaho-2 semesters-journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College-1 semester
University of Idaho-3 semesters-B.A. in Journalism

Ok America, there it is in Black and White. Do John McCain and Sarah Palin have any right to question Barack Obama's integrity? You decide on November 4,2008.

The Debate (Round 3)

After watching this debate which was supposed to be more suited to John McCain's liking, all the polls show that Barack Obama won by a landslide. Once again McCain appeared very impersonal and disdainful toward Obama by refusing to look at him, even when Obama was talking directly to him. There was very little electricity or confrontation, but there were a few telling moments that worked against McCain. One instance occurred when McCain accused Obama of wanting to bomb Pakistan, and Obama hit McCain with the fact that he wanted to bomb Iraq, North Korea, and Baghdad, which left McCain speechless. Another telling moment was when McCain referred to Obama as "that one" when talking about how the two of them had voted differently on an issue. This was very disrespectful, no not racial, but not a term I had ever heard one candidate use before when describing his opponent.

While most pundits were surprised that McCain didn't bring up the relationship between Obama and Bill Ayers, I think he played it smart by avoiding that issue. His association with Charles Keating was much more damning and it was definitely a subject he didn't want to touch when the main topic of the day is bailout. Although Town Hall formats are supposed to be McCain's strength, there was a different feel without the crowd bias he was used to. While he tried to crack jokes, because of the rules where the audience was to remain silent and unbiased, McCain lost his comfort zone, and it showed. The main thing that has made these debates boring is the fact that they have time limits on their responses. At the beginning it seemed like they wanted to go at each other, but moderator Tom Brokaw kept reminding them of the rules they had set up which actually limited their responses. Look, Presidential elections are extremely important. Get rid of these time limits, forget what's coming on TV in the next time slot, and let these candidates talk !!! Hell, programming is pushed back for sporting events, why not these debates? It doesn't make sense.

At the end of the debate, everyone noticed that McCain and his wife left after a short session of thanking people and mingling with the crowd while Obama and his wife stayed a considerable amount of time longer, talking to the crowd. I also noticed the post debate handshakes. At the very end, both candidates stood together for Brokaw's closing comments, but had to split apart so he could read the teleprompter, and they started on opposite ends of the crowd shaking hands. When they came back together, I saw John McCain shake Michelle Obama's hand, I did not see Cindy McCain or Michelle greet each other, and I saw Barack Obama offer his hand to John McCain who directed it to his wife Cindy. She shook his hand, while McCain turned away.

Afterwards, all the polls showed that once again, Obama had won the debate, mostly because he answered more of the questions that were asked. It seems that is what these debates are based on, who answers the most questions, because all four candidates have a way of avoiding certain issues. The two biggest revelations from the debate was first, the announcement by McCain about his plan for buying out mortgages, which most people thought was already included in the $700 billion bailout bill. The second was the announcement by Obama that AIG officials had used $400,000 of their bailout money to go on vacation, and his call for them to be fired and return that money. But the most ironic thing about the evening was that Michelle Obama was wearing red and Cindy McCain was wearing blue!!!

The Pitbull Attacks, Obama Bites Back

After her successful appearance in Thursday's debate, depending on your definition of successful, the"Pitbull With Lipstick" better known as Sarah Palin decided to launch a personal attack on Barack Obama's character. My definition of successful was based on the fact that she was able to digest a huge amount of information in a short period of time, despite the lack of substance and accuracy, and present it in an intelligent matter in a short period of time to millions of people in the television viewing audience, much like George Bush does when he delivers speeches. In fact, the performance reminded me of Bush's appearances in the debates of 2004 with John Kerry, filled with winks, smiles, and lies, used to deceive the American public into thinking that they are just "plain old folk like you and me." She even used some of the same terminology that Bush used in his first debate series with Al Gore, claiming to be a Washington outsider and he was going to change Washington.

While some people think smiling and winking at the camera was cute and a way of connecting with the audience, it came across as an act designed to win your trust for the pile of garbage, to put it nicely, that she was trying to sell you. Each smile was immediately followed by a sharp stab in the back of Barack Obama or Joe Biden. Since the debate it has gotten worse. She just unleashed an attack that criticized Obama for working on the same committee with an American terrorist from the Weatherman named Bill Ayers. The organization that they served in Chicago is called The Woods Foundation and you can decide for yourself what his association with the organization is about.

According to the Washington Post Fact Checker, Bill Ayers who was never convicted in any of the bombings, contributed $200 to Obama's re-election campaign to the Illinois Senate. Meanwhile, the person who brought up Bill Ayers during the primary, Hillary Clinton, was married to the man who commuted the sentences of two Weatherman members before he left office. Also, Bill Ayers was an aide to Chicago mayor Richard M.Daley before he was a member of The Woods Foundation.

But even John McCain can't deny the fact that he took money from what has been called the greatest Savings & Loan scandal of our time. The Keating Five was the derisive name given McCain and four Democratic senators, including then-Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, who were defendants in a congressional ethics investigation of their connections to Charles Keating Jr. McCain is the only one still in the Senate. They were accused of trying to intimidate regulators on behalf of Keating, a real estate developer in Arizona and owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan based in Irvine, Calif. McCain was known for accepting contributions from Charles Keating Jr., flying to the banker's home in the Bahamas on company planes and taking up Keating's cause with U.S. financial regulators as they investigated him. His campaign took $112,000 from Keating.

As I said, today Barack bit back by releasing a video at the website below detailing McCain's involvement with Keating, and this was just a little nip, as harsher videos can be found at other locations on the net. Even though McCain was absolved of any wrongdoing, it shows that anyone can be associated with people that have shady intentions. What's worse is the Keating scandal cost taxpayers a $500 billion bailout, similar to what we just experienced last week.

Finally, let's look at another comment made by The Pitbull during her debate with Joe Biden. She said with a smile, she was obviously a Washington outsider and just not used to the way Washington politics worked by criticizing him for voting for the war and now being against it. "You're one who says as so many politicians do, you were for it and now you are against it. The people just want straight talk." Well Sarah, weren't you the one who was for the "Bridge to Nowhere" and then claimed you told Congress, "Thanks but no thanks?" We know you used taxpayer money to build a road that leads to where that bridge was supposed to be built until Congress denied you the funding for the rest of that project before you had a chance to say "No thanks." But we can't get you to do an interview so we can get the straight talk about why you had that road built if you were against the bridge. Sounds to me by your definition, you have Washington politics down pat!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/keatingvideo

The Debate (Round 2)

Well I just got through watching the VP debate and I must say I was impressed. It is quite clear that Gov. Sarah Palin is no dummy. She was able to digest all of the information she has been fed over the past few weeks and present it in a very intelligent manner. Not once did she stumble on any of the issues that were discussed. She even artfully dodged questions at the beginning of the debate by diverting them to a subject she was more familiar with. Although none of the topics which she had trouble with during the Katie Couric interview came into play, she displayed a lot of poise and composure while answering questions on subjects such as energy and foreign affairs. She seemed to give the impression that she had been cramming for an oral exam over the past few weeks, and tonight she passed the test.

Joe Biden also impressed me. He was also very composed, even when Gov. Palin misstated the facts about his, Barack Obama's, and John McCain's voting records while in the Senate. Yes, she did a lot of this, but as I said, she was only repeating what she had been fed. On the other hand, Biden was speaking from experience and his recollection of facts, because everything that was discussed, in some way he had been a part of it. Despite the many gaffs he had made over the past few weeks himself, he too presented himself as very knowledgeable also, and his knowledge was all first hand. In that respect, I earned new respect for Joe Biden, because frankly, before tonight, I knew less about him than I did Palin.

In my previous blog I listed my expectations. First was the relevance of the questions as to their ability to lead. This question was asked by moderator Gwen Ifill and Joe Biden was more direct and convincing with his answer. At one point Palin referred to the fact that she had only been involved with the campaign for five weeks and she couldn't think of any promises John McCain had made that she would change due to the recent economy crisis. This specifically struck me as an admission that she was not fully aware of everything that McCain had promised. After all, he had just said the economy was fine a week before the big crisis, so there had to be something he would change since he changed his mind about the economy being bad. Second was how did they respond to the pressure. They both did well in this area, and again Biden excelled and appeared more believable. Third was who was more in control and knowledgeable.Well I've alluded to the fact that Biden's knowledge was from experience and Palin's had been learned over the past few weeks.

So my take on the debate is they both showed a higher level of intelligence than I had previously given them credit for based on the way the media had portrayed them. Palin was more gracious and respectful to Biden than McCain had been to Obama, and Biden was just as gracious and respectful to her. But Sen. Biden's knowledge of issues and details stood far above Gov. Palin's. One other telling moment was Palin's repeated referral to the fact that she was your average mom that was just like you and me. Well I didn't know that Joe Biden was a single parent due to the loss of his wife and daughter and had two sons injured in an auto accident. In fact he had a moment where he actually choked up while talking about it. So I don't care to hear any more about how great a mom Sarah Palin is unless you talk about how great a dad Joe Biden is.

The other standout moment was when Ms. Ifill asked if they agreed with Dick Cheney's assessment of Vice Presidential duties, because Palin had previously asked what does the VP do. Biden once again set Palin straight by citing the Constitution's definition of the duty of Vice President, not the made up duties that Cheney had created for himself. It left Gov. Palin without a response because she had just agreed that she would try to be like Cheney, not realizing this was an area for which she had not done her homework. Fortunately for her, time had run out and Ms. Ifill did not pursue the issue. Gov. Palin concluded by saying she liked being able to answer questions and tell the American people what's on her mind. Well, we would like that too, and we hope that happens this weekend on any one of the tough Sunday magazines. because we still got a lot of unanswered questions for you.

The VP Debate Expectations

As I await the Vice Presidential candidates debate, it has been asked among the news agencies, "What do you expect?" To my surprise, the Republicans have spun their position to the point of don't expect Sarah Palin to show much knowledge on issues. They are claiming this is a good thing because it shows she is just like the average American. After her recent interviews with Katie Couric, in which she shows she knows absolutely nothing about what's going on in the world outside of Alaska, her Republican supporters are touting this as refreshing and honest commentary and that the media was asking trap questions to show her lack of knowledge. This is basically the same approach they used for Gov. George Bush eight years ago, saying he was an honest man with no knowledge of Washington politics and he would change the way things were run when he is elected. Boy did he ever change things!

Although Gov. Palin is not running for president, there is that strong possibility that she could assume the position at any moment considering John McCain's health issues. While trying to be funny, she joked about debating Joe Biden, a 65 year old man who's speeches she had listened to since she was a child, forgetting that the man that selected her as a running mate is 72 years old. Now it is obvious that she never listened to any of Joe Biden's speeches as a child, or John McCain's for that matter, and the more she is allowed to talk, the more the American public is learning that she doesn't know. She tried to say she has foreign policy experience because she can see Russia from Alaska. Well the truth is, you can see Russia from Alaska, and you can also see Canada. In fact, the United States and Canada share the longest international border in the world, so you can see Canada from numerous states. You can also see Mexico from several southern U.S. states, mostly from Texas, but that didn't help George Bush.

Now let's not forget about genius Joe Biden, who just this week stated during the financial crisis that President Franklin Roosevelt came on TV during the depression to explain to the American people how he was going to fix the financial crisis of that time. Now let's study this statement, as it has been suggested that Biden was completely off-base. The depression first started in 1929 with the stock market crash on Wall Street, much like we are seeing today, and lasted all the way through the 1930's until the start of World War II in 1939. Roosevelt was elected to his first term in 1932, so he did inherit the depression during his terms as president, and he was the one who helped bring the country out of the depression. Second, about watching him on television. Well Joe Biden was born in 1942, after the depression was over, so I don't think he was talking about he saw Roosevelt on television during the depression. At least Palin was alive when she claimed to hear Biden's speeches. Although television had been invented, it had just been introduced to the American public in the late 1930's, so there couldn't have been too many people that saw him on television during the depression, and I don't think many people were buying TV's. What he was probably referring to was when people would go to the movies and watch the newsreels that would play before the start of the movies. Still, Joe was too young during Roosevelts presidency to remember seeing these clips, or even here him speak on the radio.

So what am I expecting to see tonight during the debate? Well, I'm looking forward to seeing who makes the dumbest statements. The Republicans have already taken a shot at the moderator Gwen Ifill because she has written a book about Black politicians past and present that have had an effect on the American political scene, which naturally includes Barack Obama. They are crying potential bias and that she should be replaced. Even though she suffered an injury in her home earlier this week, Ms. Ifill will be the moderator for this event, as she was the moderator for the same event in 2004 between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Ms. Ifill also has her own show on PBS, "Washington Week in Review" and also is the senior correspondent on "Newshour with Jim Lehrer." She has appeared often as a regular guest panelist on such Sunday morning news magazines such as "Meet the Press", so she is definitely qualified as moderator.

The debate is still not a test of Palin's ability to be a leader though, as she will still dodges the media's hard questions and toughest interviewers. After the debate there will be many questions about the responses given by both candidates that the people of America will need clarification on. The problem so far has been everyone explains Palin's goofs for her, while the other candidates speak for themselves. No one has faced tougher questions about his past than Barack Obama, especially during the Rev. Wright controversy. But Sarah Palin has been recently linked to some very controversial religious personalities herself, including someone that some people have referred to as a witch doctor! Obama still faces people that refer to him as being Islamic, even after the Rev. Wright issue proved he had been a member of Wright's Christian church for at least twenty years.

The main issue of the debate is supposed to be who is best qualified to lead the country in the event they have to assume the office if something happens to the other candidate, but from what I've been hearing, the debate is going to be more about what their running mates policies are, in other words, attack the opposing presidential candidate. This is not what the American people want to know, the presidential candidates should handle that themselves. So my main focus tonight will be first, the substance and relevance of the questions regarding their ability to lead this country. Second, if asked these questions, how do they respond under pressure. Finally, who is most in control and most knowledgeable. Let's see what happens.

The Debate (Round 1)

Last night's debate was kind of interesting. I felt each candidate held their own without giving the other an edge. There really wasn't much of anything new said by either candidate, but I think the main difference was the way things were said While Barack Obama tried to remain cool, calm and gracious, John McCain displayed an air of disdain and lack of respect. Despite numerous attempts by moderator Jim Lehrer to get McCain to direct his comments to Obama's face, he refused to look at him the whole ninety minutes of the debate. This was very disturbing as it showed what kind of a man McCain is and will be if elected president.

There was a question asked about talking to leaders of nations with which we currently have differences. Much like George Bush, McCain subscribes to the theory that we, The United States of America, are better than you and I, as the president, am too important to talk to you personally, because if I talk to you, you become my equal. At times during the debate, this attitude showed as McCain resorted to making claims about Obama's record or policies to which Obama disagreed and tried to get a word in edgewise to clarify his position. The one thing that seems to fluster Obama is when someone misrepresents him or the facts because he has such an honest nature about himself.

Obama seems to have no problem admitting that his opponent is right on certain issues or even that they agree. This is his weak point because the man truly wants to be an honest politician and run a gracious campaign and he expects his opponent to do the same. It is actually easy to see Obama talking to world leaders comfortably without showing any signs of weakness because there will be an air of mutual respect. For example, while watching the interview with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Larry King the other night, his main beef with the United States is George Bush's air of superiority and his inability to talk to him. But McCain can't help it because the Republican Party is the party of war without diplomacy. They only know how to talk about war and republican presidents have always had this country involved in wars. Now before you call Viet Nam John F. Kennedy's war, remember that we first got involved while Dwight Eisenhower was president and Richard Nixon was his VP. Nixon was heavily favored to become president and was looking forward to running that war.

All during Bush'a first campaign in 2000, he talked about building up the military and preparing the country for war. The United States was at peaxe with the world, so he needed an excuse to go to war. Well now it is McCain's turn and just listen to how perturbed he gets at the thought of pulling out of Iraq, Much like Nixon did after he had laid the groundwork for invading Viet Nam, Bush and McCain are trying to convince us that Iran is a nuclear threat and that we should invade them because they are developing weapons of mass destruction. So getting back to the subject of the debate, McCain was in his comfort zone and he felt like he didn't have to acknowledge Obama's presence by looking at him. In fact, at the very beginning of the debate, when Lehrer asked Obama to look at McCain while making a point, McCain said "What you don't think I can hear him?"

Idiots At Work

There is just no way to separate these two idiots. I'm talking about George Bush and John McCain. Let's start with the current idiot in charge, excuse me, holding the office of president. It is quite obvious he has no clue about leading this country, but what's worse is it took the people who voted for him eight years to figure this out. Remember, this guy was the Governor of Texas, the second largest state in America in size (only Alaska is bigger you Sarah Palin fans) and population. His main claim to fame as governor was recording the highest number of death row executions in history, killing 152 prisoners starting from the first day he took office. But that's not the subject for today.

I'm more concerned with his plea to the American people to help bail out his rich friends who have been screwing us economically for the past eight years. Beginning with Enron, a Houston, Texas based utility company that filed for bankruptcy after being found guilty of corporate fraud in 2001. Then there was WorldCom, who filed for bankruptcy in 2002. Ir was after the failure of WorldCom that Bush decided to go to war with Iraq to distract the country from the failure and bankruptcy hearings of these two companies. Most people don't know that both of these companies are still operating. WorldCom is better known as Verizon. In May 2003, the company was given a no-bid contract by the Dept. of Defense, headed by Donald Rumsfield, to build a cellular phone network in Iraq. Could that be another reason Bush wanted to go to war with Iraq? Let's not forget about Cheney's company, Haliburton, who has the contracts to help rebuild Iraq. This is another Houston based company with offices in Dubai and get this, Anchorage Alaska. Which brings me to the second idiot.

How in the hell can you run this country if you can't handle more than one task at time. In other words, you feel you can't keep up with your campaign and help work on the economy at the same time, and you want your opponent to quit campaigning with you? You are definitely not qualified to run this country, and neither is your running mate who you sent to class at the United Nations this week to meet some of the world leaders. From what they allowed the media to show, none of them see her as anything other than a pretty face. One guy was so aroused he had to restrain himself from grabbing her and hugging her. No telling what he would have done if there had been no cameras present. But back to idiot number two.

Just about a week ago, he proclaimed that the American economy was sound. His poll numbers have been dropping ever since. As I reported previously, he sent Gov. Palin out on her own to help him campaign and after two days, he realized that he better get back with her because no one was coming to hear him talk. In fact, at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, as soon as Palin finished speaking, the crowd was seen dispensing in huge numbers, not waiting to hear what he had to say. His numbers at the polls have been dropping ever since he made that statement about the economy. They've dropped even more since it was revealed that Palin needed a course in foreign relations and would not be allowed to speak to any of the foreign dignitaries she was scheduled to meet. So now he wants to suspend his campaign so he can be briefed on the economic situation facing the country, and at the same time wants to cancel the debate with Barack Obama this Friday, as well as the debate between Palin and Joe Biden next weekend because he can't concentrate on more than one issue at a time.

This job is proving to be too much for John McCain. There is a reason we don't elect people his age to run the country, in fact, most companies force people to retire at age 65. If we were to elect someone that age into office it's because they know what they are doing, not someone that needs to be given on the job training. For the past nine months, everyone has been following Obama's lead and trying to make it their own, including George Bush. When you think about someone handling the economy, just look at how Obama has financed and run his campaign. Hillary Clinton went $20 million in debt and McCain is running out of campaign finances after having a huge lead to start with. Think about that when you decide who you want to handle the economy.

So Bush wants us to give the companies that have put most of us in debt, overcharged us for insurance, raised utility costs, hiked gas prices and denied us credit money to keep operating and continue to screw us without any compensation to us. He says we will lose any chance of obtaining credit, student loans, be able to buy cars or houses and lose our life savings if we dont bail them out. Well I say they should wipe everybody's slate clean because they have made enough money off of us already. If they should be allowed to get out of debt, then so should we, the American public. So I ask YOU George Bush, deal or no deal?

Bush Screws America Again

I have been following this so-called gas shortage and realize that once again the American public has been intentionally taken advantage of by the Bush Administration. It is clear that this gas shortage was planned in advance. They are trying to tell us this is a result of Hurricane Ike, but actually it is a well conceived plan to use the hurricane as an excuse to gouge the American public at the gas pumps. For at least a week before Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana, we were warned about the approach of Hanna and Ike right behind them. Yes, I know that hurricanes can change paths as we saw Hanna do, but even with the threat of these hurricanes coming into the gulf area, there was no planning to relieve any hardship on the oil industry that they might cause.

Instead they chose to do nothing and use this as an excuse to once again hike the gas prices by creating a false shortage. They had a minimum of two weeks to start increasing gasoline production to accomodate the huge number of people that would need to be evacuated ahead of the storms. Don't be fooled by the prospect of offshore drilling solving this problem either. It has been reported that there is no shortage of crude oil, just that the refineries located in Texas have not increased their production to meet the alleged increase in demand. Now because of the rising cost of a gallon of gas, consumption decreased over the last few months since June. People cancelled and shortened their summer vacations due to the cost of filling up the tank so I'm sure that created some surplus. But regardless of that, there is still no excuse for not increasing production ahead of the storms.

I don't know what's going on across the country, but here in the Atlanta area, gas stations started running out of gas Friday morning. That was before Ike hit land. By Saturday evening, it was impossible to find gas in certain areas, causing panic to people who were getting off from work and unable to get gas on their way home, praying they would make it. As I ventured out this Sunday morning, there are very few cars on the road and no gas stations pumping gas, only open for convenience sales. How can a city 1000 miles away from a storm be affected before the storm hits unless this was pre-planned? Can we really take another four years of this nonsense? Do we really want another Governor from an oil producing state in the White House?

Gas Gouging

Since when has it been OK to raise gas prices due to the threat of a hurricane? The cost of crude oil has gone down to almost $100 a barrel, but gas prices jumped between 50 cents and $1 a gallon due to Hurricane Ike threatening the State of George Bush! The storm hit the coast of Texas just above tropical storm intensity, yet gas prices rose. Why does this country feel the need to take advantage of people who are in desperate need of assistance? These prices rose as people were buying gas to evacuate from what was deemed a life threatening situation. The same thing happened when Gustav was headed toward New Orleans, but their price hike was moderate in comparison. Well take a look at the picture above and it may explain why. With oilmen Bush and Cheney running the country, gas has skyrocketed from $1 a gallon when Bush was elected in 2000 to over $5 a gallon in some parts of the United States.

I can remember when the first fake gas crisis hit in 1974 when Republican president Richard Nixon was in office. Gas rose from 25 cents a gallon to a whopping 75 cents a gallon, allegedly due to an "oil shortage" when Iraq and Iran went to war. OK, let's assume that was the case. Then from 1974 to 2000, when Bill Clinton left office, gas prices rose an average of 1 cent a gallon over those 26 years. What's even worse, when I relocated to Atlanta in December 2005, a year into Bush's second term, gas was only $1.29 a gallon as I traveled from Ohio to Georgia. Then it started climbing constantly until it had reached $2.49 a gallon just before the Congressional and Senate elections of 2006. The day these elections took place, gas had dropped to $1.85 a gallon as the country was in an uproar over the Republicans failure to control prices. Well as you see, the Democrats have been able to do nothing to change this trend.

But once again, with the threat of the Republicans also losing the White House, we have seen a moderate decline again in gas prices. That was until Sarah Palin hit the scene and the polls started showing John McCain gaining and overtaking Barack Obama. You don't think so? The first increase started Labor Day weekend, the same weekend that Hurricane Gustav hit just outside of New Orleans. As you recall, McCain named Palin his running mate the Friday before the start of the convention, which was stalled a day due to Gustav hitting the west side of New Orleans. Gas went up 10 cents a gallon as people were ordered to evacuate and Palin became a person of interest. Now with Ike hitting Texas, gas has jumped all the way up to where it was at the end of the Democratic primaries when it was deemed that Barack Obama was declared the presumptive nominee over Hillary Clinton. As Barack gained a bigger advantage in the polls, the price of gas slowly declined, much like it did when the Democrats were about to take over the Congress and Senate.

As I stated earlier, gas rose 10 cents a gallon as Palin became a person of interest, and they rose at least 20 cents a gallon now that the Republicans have taken a lead in the polls. CNN has asked all viewers to report increases in gas prices in your neighborhood because there is no excuse for raising the price of gas. They are composing a map of the nation showing all of the price gouging going on. Can somebody tell me where this offshore drilling is supposed to take place? We know they want to drill in Alaska, and Sarah Palin is all for that of course, but didn't I hear something about the Gulf of Mexico where at least six hurricanes a year hit? We are seeing an example as to how this will help. By the way, that is an actual picture of the oil tanker above, not a fake. They removed her name after George Bush stole the first election and named Condoleeza Rice to her first position as National Security Advisor. America, it's time to end our addiction to oil.

McCain Showing Senility

Today John McCain accused Barack Obama of sexism for using a term that is commonly used by politicians to describe outlandish policies. This was in reference to policies adopted by George Bush that McCain still supports. On Tuesday, Obama criticized McCain's policies as similar to those of President Bush, saying: "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years." Well McCain wants people to think this was a personal attack on Palin because she referred to herself as a pitbull with lipstick.

According to CNN.com it wasn't the first time Obama used the line. In a phone interview with The Washington Post last September, he used it in reference to the situation in Iraq. "I think that both Gen. [David] Petraeus and Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment," Obama told the Post. "George Bush has given a mission to Gen. Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig."

It seems everyone has to defend Sarah Palin! Well if she is so qualified to lead this country, why does everyone have to jump to her defense when they think she is being attacked? The most ironic and ridiculous point of this criticism by McCain is he used the exact same words when talking about Hillary Clinton's universal health care plan. In Iowa last October, McCain drew comparisons between Hillary Clinton's current health care plan and the one she championed in 1993: "I think they put some lipstick on the pig, but it's still a pig." He used roughly the same line in May, after effectively claiming the Republican nomination.

The McCain camp is trying to say the difference between the two is he was talking specifically about issues while Obama was talking about Palin. But when you compare the two quotes, Barack Obama specifically references John McCain and his adoption of George Bush and his policies toward the Iraq war, while John McCain specifically references Hillary Clinton. So in another one of his senile moments, McCain is accusing Obama of doing what he actually did himself. Most medical professionals would call this the onset of dementia. Once again the Republicans are trying to confuse the voters by twisting the words that were actually spoken. Not one word about Palin, direct reference to Hillary Clinton. C'mon America, we are not that stupid.

Who's Running For President?

While watching the news on CNN, they recently interviewed people who were in attendance at the rapidly growing Republican political rallies where John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning. The subject of the interviews was who are you here to see. Specifically, if this was just a rally for John McCain would you be here. The overwhelming response was no, with a few maybes. Then they were asked if it was just Sarah Palin here, everyone said definitely. This has caused a serious problem for John McCain as he considers sending Palin out on the campaign trail by herself.

He has had to postpone those plans because she is so popular and he isn't, and he is afraid of losing the momentum she brings him. He is also afraid she may say something that doesn't follow the script., as she is still learning what she is and isn't suppose to say regarding his platform, because let's face it, she doesn't know anything about politics outside of Alaska. Sarah Palin has been John McCain's viagra, stimulating him to a new level of energy never seen before in his days of campaigning. While earlier ads compared Barack Obama to such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, McCain now has to deal with a rock star he created and has more popularity than himself.

Unlike Obama and Joe Biden, who have separated and begun campaigning separately, along with Hillary Clinton who has now joined the campaign trail, McCain is stuck babysitting Palin until she can walk on her own. Thus, the Democrats are covering far more territory while the Republicans are treading water. While McCain has been reveling in the glory that Palin has brought him, he must now figure out how to wean himself from her and once again stand alone so people will know who is really running for president.

Palin Not Ready

It has been determined that Sarah Palin is not ready to meet the press. As I mentioned in a previous blog, this woman has slid under the radar when it comes to dealing with the media just because she is from Alaska. But since she gave that rousing speech where she made all of those claims about her accomplishments and belittled Barack Obama, the media has been digging into her record. In an interview earlier in the week with Campbell Brown of CNN, McCain strategist Tucker Bounds was unable to answer simple questions posed by Brown about Palin's record. This led to John McCain cancelling an appearance on Larry King Live because he said they were treating her "unfairly". Having watched that interview live, and it can be seen everywhere on the web now, there was nothing wrong with the questions Brown asked, the problem was Bounds didn't have any answers.

Now everywhere you look, there are questions about everything she had claimed to have accomplished. So much so that she is the only candidate of the four that will not appear on any of the Sunday morning news magazines this weekend. In fact, she may not face the media for at least two more weeks according to Republican strategist Todd Harris. On Friday, the day after the end of the convention, while campaigning with John McCain, Palin constantly had to refer to her written notes while introducing him to the now much larger assembled crowds. Not a good sign for the potential leaders of our country.

John McCain has latched on to a woman with a dynamic personality to match that of Barack Obama, but they didn't do their research. They only looked at the upside of her resume and were dazzled by her in the face-to-face job interview, and we know McCain is a sucker for a pretty face, having met his current wife at a bar while he was still married. But Sarah Palin take note: You can run from the media, but you can't hide much longer. And the American people really want to know why if you claim to be so patriotic, what is that plan for Alaska to secede from The United States of America all about? Jeffrey Tobin said it best on the Bill Maher Show this weekend: "If John McCain and Sarah Tobin are afraid of Campbell Brown, how are they going to face Vladamir Putin and the other world leaders?"

The Palin Effect

Last night Sarah Palin delivered a beautiful speech to introduce herself to the American public. It was a rousing speech full of attack phrases aimed at the record of Barack Obama's experience. Now although it was a great speech as far as delivery goes, it was just that, a speech. Much like the rousing speeches that they accuse Obama of delivering, Gov. Palin brought new life to a republican party that was dying with every ad that John McCain launched.

But there were many flaws in the message she was sending. In fact she provided the investigative news agencies with plenty of ammunition that they previously lacked, so much so that articles are appearing on various news sites faster than I can read them. I won't comment on them because as fast as they are appearing, some are disappearing just as fast as they are being posted, which means they probably can't validate their stories. The good thing is she launched a vicious attack which in return opened her up for counter attacks, and she won't be able to use gender bias as an excuse. As Hillary said, if you dish it out, you better be able to take it, and last night she did a whole lot of mudslinging.

First of all, there is very little going on in the barren state of Alaska that merits national attention. Although it is the largest state in the union in size, it ranks 47th in population, and there are 17 U.S. cities with higher populations. In fact, Alaska only has one city with a population over 100,000 and that is Anchorage at 280,000. And when you think about the city that Gov. Palin was mayor of, Wasilla, I've gone to school in my lifetime with more people than lived in that town. So when she attacked him about community service compared to her being mayor, I can guarantee you that there were more people in the community that Obama serviced in Chicago than the city she was mayor of.

So her speech was a success among her supporters, but now she has to face the real media and start answering questions on her own. Yesterday was her introduction. I have no problem with the fact that she didn't talk about issues because we all wanted to know who she is. She has fire and passion, but Alaska is not like the rest of the country and she still has to prove herself able to handle the real world and media. She attacked them last night for doubting her credentials, but she didn't have to respond to anyone last night. It was much like George Bush's first term as president when Ari Fleischer handled all of his press conferences while he gave prepared speeches. Sarah Palin, be prepared to "Meet the Press'' this weekend.

Obama Haters

It has become obvious that the Obama haters cannot find anything negative to say about the man himself, so they try to link him to other people who do have negative images. All of these people were drug into the primary campaign in an effort to turn voters against him. It didn't work. The media researched everything they could find and continuously harped on these associations and the only thing they could make stick was his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He was the man who had performed The Obamas' wedding ceremony and had baptized their children. He had been a member of Rev. Wright's church for twenty years, a christian church at that, but he was still perceived as being a follower of Islam, as though there was something wrong with that.

C0nsider the fact that the most radical christian faction this country has ever known is the Ku Klux Klan which is still in existence and is protected by the U. S. Government under the laws of the constitution. They are allowed to hold rallys in major cities every year, usually in my homestate of Ohio despite the protests of the citizens that ooppose these rallies, which usually turn violent. So their should be no surprise that Sen. Obama lost the state of Ohio during the primary election as well as every state that borders Ohio. Even when it had been projected that Barack had surmounted a lead thae Hillary Clinton could not overcome before the Ohio primaries, she stayed in the race wasting taxpayers money because she knew that these states had not been heard from yet.

These states have been characterized by the media as the undereducated, blue collar, working class citizens of the country, when actually this is the ecocentric center of the KKK and the heart of racism in America. It is these states that are defined as the ones that control elections. I'm sure you've heard the expression "As Ohio goes, so goes the nation". That's because the state of Ohio is one of the states that has always been on the side of the winning candidate. So much so that the head of the Ohio Republican party, Ken Blackwell, guaranteed George Bush that he would be re-elected in 2004 using a scheme which included the use of altered voting machines manufactured by the Diebold corporation, a company founded and based in Ohio just outside of Clevelasnd.

In an HBO documentary called "Hacking Democracy", the Diebold machines were exposed and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections was the center of the controversy. Election officials who were interviewed in the documentary, were later convicted and jailed. By the way, Cuyahoga is a Native American word meaning "crooked", and the heart of Cuyahoga County is Cleveland, Ohio. So when you hear that states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are key states and the ones that may decide the election, think again about the people that are associated with these states and how the media portrays them. The undereducated, white working class, and pay attention to the people from those states that they interview who blatantly admit that they would never vote for a Black man. Last but not least, remember that these people were responsible for electing Goerge Bush.

McCain's Choice for VP

If there was ever any doubt that John McCain is on the verge of senility, his choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska has confirmed that. Consider the fact that she was mayor of a town with a total population of less than 10,000 and was elected governor two years ago. Consider the fact that John McCain turned 72 years old today. That means if for any reason he becomes ill or dies, Palin is in control of the country. Now do we really want someone who has been governor of Alaska running the country? Get serious.

This was truly a political move to try to persuade the bitter Hillary Clinton supporters that were only voting for her because she is a woman to his side. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people supported Hillary because she has valid experience in political affairs as Senator of New York and the former first lady. Many will also say African Americans are voting for Barack Obama just because he is Black, but Blacks will not vote for someone if they do not feel he cannot make a difference in their lives. Hillary lost most of her Black supporters mainly because of what other people on her campaign team had said, not what she had said or done. African Americans truly love Bill and Hillary Clinton, but this was a case of guilty by association.

To many women who have supported Hillary for all the valid reasons of her experience and toughness, the pick of Sarah Palin is an insult to their intelligence. I do not know this woman, but it is obvious that she is still learning what politics are like in Alaska, a state with a population of less than 700,000. In her defense, I will say she is a fighter, from what I've read in her bio, but she is a lightweight compared to Hillary, who is a heavyweight, and how is she going to debate Joe Biden on foreign affairs? You can't go from being the Mayor of a town the size of Mayberry to the Mayor of Charlotte to the running America in two years.

If John McCain was at least ten years younger and in good health, this might be a good choice. But with McCain's age and health being a major concern, we cannot have this woman in charge of our destiny. If for some reason we were to lose Barack Obama, I'm sure most of the country would feel safe having Joe Biden in charge. Let's get real, Hillary's supporters are not stupid. Stubborn maybe, but not stupid. As I mentioned before, African Americans are not going to vote for someone just because they are Black, and Hillary Clinton supporters are not going to jump parties just because Gov. Palin is a woman.

The Six Black Presidents

As I mentioned in a previous blog, it has been stated that maybe Barack Obama will not be the first Black man elected to the presidency of the United States of America. Due to the racial standards and biases that this country has always had, these six men had to hide their heritage and family backgrounds in order to achieve that lofty office. We all know about some of these men and their families connections with owning slaves, therefore it is not inconceivable knowing how the slavemasters mixed sexually with the slave women, that children were produced through some of those relations.

We have learned just last year that Rev. Al Sharpton has been linked to the late segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, because Thurmond's ancestors at one time owned Sharpton's ancestors during slavery. Rev. Sharpton has refused to submit to DNA testing to confirm any proof that they may have been related, but when you read the synopsis about each of these presidents, it does raise a viable argument about each one's bloodline. Don't think that this is just someones farfetched theory about these men, you can do your own research, as this is just one of many articles on the subject.

But Barack Obama is different. We know his background, his father was from Kenya and his mother is from Wichita, Kansas, and he was born in Hawaii, where his parents first met. He still has a grandmother he talks to and visits in Kenya. I don't know what the actual percentage is, but I'll bet at least 90% of us claiming to be African Americans in this country have no idea where our African roots originate.

A lot of people don't like him simply because of his name. His middle name is Hussein, and his last name reminds you of Osama, but Barack was named after his father, Barack Obama Sr. long before Americans had any knowledge of Sadam Hussein ot Osama Bin Laden. In fact Barack spent part of his childhood growing up in Indonesia after his mother remarried. Much like Tiger Woods, Obama has more international credentials than most people realize and maybe this is why he had so much international appeal when he made his recent trip abroad. So before you misjudge the man based on his name, or the color of his skin, do your research on him, and these six well known and respected men listed above.

The Democratic Convention

Today Barack Obama became the first true African American (father from Kenya, mother from Kansas) to be nominated for the presidency of the United States of America. Although it has been suggested that there were six previous "Black" presidents elected to this position, Obama is the first to openly acknowledge his heritage.

Hillary Clinton officially released her delegates to Barack Obama this afternoon before a roll call vote could be held despite protests from some of her supporters in the delegation crowd. This paved the way for Obama to gain full support from the Democratic Party without the lingering "bitterness" over a hard fought primary campaign between the two candidates.

Tonight Bill Clinton put the final stamp of approval on the Obama nomination that the "family feud" was over with a rousing endorsement of the candidate. He left no doubt where the Clintons stand on this issue while Hillary and Michelle Obama proudly cheered him on. The biggest moment of his speech was his endorsement of Joe Biden as Obama's running mate. Once again, the party is united.