Obama-Biden Tax Policy

I wish I could take credit for this, but I received this as an email forward, and I got such a laugh out of it, I wanted to post it for your enjoyment:

This is a great explanation of the tax rebate program recently enacted by Congress. If you don’t understand how it  will work maybe this explanation will help:

50,000 people went to a baseball game, but the game was rained out.  A refund was then due to the ticket holders.

The team was about to mail refunds when a group of Congressional Democrats stopped them and suggested that they send out the ticket refunds based on the Democrat National Committee’s interpretation of fairness.

Originally the refunds were to be paid based on the price each person had paid for the tickets. Unfortunately that meant most of the refund money would be going to the ticket holders that had purchased the most expensive tickets. This, according to the DNC, is considered totally unfair. A decision was then made to pay out the refunds in this manner:

People in the $10 seats will get back $15. After all, they have less money to spend on tickets to begin with. Call it an ‘Earned Income Ticket Credit.’ Persons ‘earn’ it by having few skills, poor work habits, and low ambition, thus keeping them at entry-level wages.

People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because it ’seems fair.’

People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they already make a lot of money and don’t need a refund. After all, if they can afford a $50 ticket, they must not be paying enough taxes.

People in the $75 luxury box seats will each have to pay an additional $25 because it’s the ‘right thing to do’.

People walking past the stadium that couldn’t afford to buy a ticket for the game each will get a $10 refund, even though they didn’t pay anything for the tickets. They need the most help. They are either lazy or think that society owes them for just being born. Sometimes this is known as Affirmative Action.

Now do you understand?

Housing meltdown: whose to blame?

Economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute Tom Sowell wrote an enlightening article about who is really to blame for the market meltdown, and how clear facts are being ignored by politicians (especially the Obama campaign) and by the mainstream media.

Read it here: Do Facts Matter?

Revealing Leftist Paranoia

Naomi Wolf (honestly, I don’t know how she is considered an intellectual, by any definition), the vacuous former advisor to the Gore Campaign (her claim to fame is her advice to Gore: ‘wear more earth-tones’), offers a not-so-convincing conspiracy theory that Palin is the new puppet behind the evil Rove-Cheney machine.  She uses the words ‘cabal’ and ‘S & M’ way too much.   It’s hard for me to take her seriously.  How insane her paranoid claims!  Karl Rove is not even an advisor to the McCain campaign.  Neither is Dick Cheney.  In order to digest this drivel, check out this scathing review of her article.

I think Sarah Palin embodies REAL change, and she has the political Left running for the hills, thus proving her qualifications for the job.  She is a real woman, who got to where she is by her own hard work, rather than riding the coat-tails of her husband.  She embodies the true ideals of feminism without being an agry leftist, which drives those on the left nuts (see the above article).  I think it’s great!

McCain Bites Back on Current Economic Issues

On the campaign trail today, Senator McCain fought back against Democratic accusations that the recent problems on Wall Street have been caused by Republicans.   This is coming from Obama, who is supposedly for change, spouting the age-old cliche where Democrats accuse Republicans of causing all of the problems in the world.  I found McCain’s speech to be compelling and true.

Here is a segment from McCain’s speech today:

“We need reform in Washington and on Wall Street.  The financial markets are in crisis.  Times are tough.  Enormous strain is being put on working families and individuals in America.  I know that the events unfolding can be difficult to understand for many Americans.  The dominos that we have seen fall this week began with the corruption and manipulation of our home loan system.  The reason this crisis started was the abuses that took place within our home loan agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and within our home loan system.

Two years ago I warned this Administration and Congress that regulations for our home loan agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, needed to be fixed…

But nothing was done.

Senator Obama talks a tough game on the financial markets but the facts tell a different story.  He took more money from Fannie and Freddie than any Senator but the Democratic chairman of the committee that regulates them.  He put Fannie Mae’s CEO who helped create this disaster in charge of finding his Vice President. Fannie’s former General Counsel is a senior advisor to his campaign.  Whose side do you think he is on?  When I pushed legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Senator Obama was silent.  He didn’t lift a hand to avert this crisis.  While the leaders of Fannie and Freddie were lining the pockets of his campaign, they were sowing the seeds of the financial crisis we see today and enriching themselves with millions of dollars in payments.  That’s not change, that’s what’s broken in Washington.

There was no transparency into the books of Wall Street banks.   Banks and brokers took on huge amounts of debt and they hid the riskiest investments.   Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch.

The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino.  They allowed naked short selling — which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it.   They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years.  Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground.

The Chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the President and has betrayed the public’s trust.    If I were President today, I would fire him.

We cannot wait any longer for more failures in our financial system.  Structures like the resolution trust corporation that dealt with the failed savings and loan industry were designed to clean up the system and worked.  Today we need a plan that doesn’t wait until the system fails.  I am calling for the creation of the mortgage and financial institutions trust – the MFI.  The priorities of this trust will be to work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and take remedies to strengthen them before they become insolvent.  For troubled institutions this will provide an orderly process through which to identify bad loans and eventually sell them.

This will get the treasury and other financial regulatory authorities in a proactive position instead of reacting in a crisis mode to one situation after the other.  The MFI will enhance investor and market confidence, benefit sound financial institutions, assist troubled institutions and protect our financial system, while minimizing taxpayer exposure.  Tomorrow I will be talking in greater detail about the crisis facing our markets and what I will do as President to fix this crisis and get our economy moving again.

Senator Obama has never made the kind tough reform we need today.  His idea of reform is what his party leaders in Congress order him to do.  We tried for bipartisan ethics reform and he walked away from it because his bosses didn’t want real change.  I know how to make the change that Senator Obama and this Congress is afraid of.  I’ve fought both parties to shake up up Washington and I’m going to do it as President.

Those same Congressional leaders who give Senator Obama his marching orders are now saying that this mess isn’t their fault and they aren’t going to take any action on this crisis until after the election.  Senator Obama’s own advisers are saying that crisis will benefit him politically.  My friends, that is the kind of me-first, country-second politics that are broken in Washington.  My opponent sees an economic crisis as a political opportunity instead of a time to lead.  Senator Obama isn’t change, he’s part of the problem with Washington.

When AIG was bailed out, I didn’t like it, but I understood it needed to be done to protect hard working Americans with insurance policies and annuities.  Senator Obama didn’t take a position.  On the biggest issue of the day, he didn’t know what to think.  He may not realize it, but you don’t get to vote present as President of the United States.

While Senator Obama and Congressional leaders don’t know what to think about the current crisis, we know what their plans are for the economy.  Today Senator Obama’s running mate said that raising taxes is patriotic.  Raising taxes in a tough economy isn’t patriotic.  It’s not a badge of honor. It’s just dumb policy.  The billions in tax increases that Senator Obama is proposing would kill even more jobs during tough economic times.  I’m not going to let that happen.

I have seen tough times before.   I know how to shake-up Wall Street and Washington.   I will get this economy moving.   I will lead us through this crisis by fighting for you, and when I am President we will be stronger than ever before.”

Obama’s crutch

This isn’t particularly new. If you have ever heard Senator Obama speak, you know that his eloquent orations are a reflection of his skills at reading a teleprompter. Obama doesn’t hide this fact, but I think it is an embarrassing crutch for someone hailed with such great speaking abilities.  Even today Obama brought his teleprompter to two different events in Colorado.

To me, there really isn’t anything wrong with using a teleprompter to deliver a speech per se, but what makes this case so remarkable is the absolute night-and-day difference in Obama when he’s on/off prompter.  When he’s not using the teleprompter, he’s a bumbling, slow, and often erratic speaker.

It will be quite interesting to see how the Presidential debates go, since there will not be a prepared teleprompted speech for Obama to recite.

Why I will not vote for Senator Obama

This article, published today by Ken Blackwell at townhall.com, sums it up very well. Enjoy.

Words Obama Will Regret

Hurricane Obama

After both major party conventions, it appears that the McCain/ Palin ticket has taken a commanding lead in the polls.  Zogby poll said McCain over Obama 49%-45% and Gallup reported McCain 48%-45%.   I’m certain that the RNC speeches gave the GOP a bump in the polls, and there will still be ups and downs until November, but I think we are witnessing the end of the miraculous Obama.   The unstoppable force that was Barack Obama is a lot like Hurricane Gustav. The media hyped it up. We all thought it was going to be the big one; the one nobody could stop, yet as Gus approached the land, it turned out there wasn’t much to him; just a lot of wind. At the end, we all wondered why all the networks were giving Gustav so much press.

Honestly, I don’t understand why the Democrats keep moving to the political and social left with their candidates. Clinton was a fairly moderate Democrat (however ineffectual, he didn’t rock the boat too much). Then they chose Gore, whom I would still classify as fairly moderate, though left of Clinton. Then Kerry, who was a true 1960’s, activist, anti-war leftist politician.  Remember how he was clearly going to win?!  Now they have selected the most left-wing member of the senate paired with the third-most liberal, and they think they are going to win over the middle-of-the-road Americans who determine the elections in this country?  Wake up, Dems, America isn’t a socialist country, so stop trying to make us Europe! We left Europe. We left behind oppressive taxation! We left centralized governments that governed from far away! We needn’t return.

Election ‘08 Polls: Tied

After last the latest round of speeches from the GOP convention, the polls on CBS show that Obama and McCain are tied at 42 percent.  We’ll see where they stand tomorrow AFTER McCain’s speech tonight.

GOP Convention 2008

After day 2 of the RNC convention: Huckabee did great. Giuliani (whom I love) absolutely nailed it, and Sarah Palin knocked it out of the park.

Some quotable highlights:

Joe Lieberman:

“Our first president, George Washington, in his farewell address, warned that the spirit of ‘party’ could be the worst enemy of democracy and enfeeble our government’s ability to do its job.”

“What, after all, is a Democrat like me, doing at a Republican convention like this? Well, I’ll tell you what: I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party!”

Mike Huckabee:

“Barak Obama’s excellent adventure to Europe took his campaign for change to hundreds of thousands of people who don’t even vote or pay taxes here. But let me hasten to say that it’s not what he took there that concerns me. It’s what he brought back: Euopean ideas that give the government the chance to grab even more of our liberty and destroy our hard-earned livelihood.”

“Now, I get a little tired of hearing how the Democrats care so much for the working guy, as if all Republicans grew up with silk stockings and silver spoons…. Let me make something clear tonight: I’m not a Republican because I grew up rich. I’m a Republican because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.”

Rudy Giuliani:

Regarding Obama’s Illanois State Senate record: “For president of the United States, it’s not good enough to be ‘present’. You have to make a decision.”

“Because change is not a destination. Just as hope is not a strategy.”

“Drill, baby, drill! This, and a lot more, is the kind of change that will create growth, jobs, and prosperity. Not what they [Democrats] want to do: tax us more, increase the size of government, increase tariffs, hurt jobs, send jobs elsewhere. We need John McCain to save our economy and make sure it grows.”

“Well, the first day,  as far as I’m concerned, the first day she [Palin] was mayor she had more experience as an executive than Obama and Biden combined. Then she became governor. She’s reduced taxes, she’s reduced government spending, she’s encouraged more energy exploration. She’s been one of the most active governors in the country, and Alaska can be proud of having one of the BEST governors in the country. She’s got an 80 percent approval rating.”

“How dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice-president! How dare they do that!  When do they ever ask a man that question? When?!”

“We’re [Republicans] at our best when we are expanding freedom.  We are the party that has expanded freedom from the very beginning: from ending slavery to making certain that people  have freedom here and abroad.”

Sarah Palin:

“Some candidates use change to promote their careers.  John McCain has used his career to promote change. ”

“The special confidence of those who have seen evil and have seen how evil is overcome…”

“You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick.”

“Now, I’ve noticed a pattern with our opponent, and maybe you have too. We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers, and there is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate.  This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word “victory” — except when he’s talking about his own campaign.”

“Harry Reid, the majority of the current do-nothing Senate. He not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.  He said, quote, “I can’t stand John McCain.” Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we’ve chosen the right man [John McCain].”

Russians Stirring Things Up

I understand that the headlines tonight are littered with responses from the Democratic Party nominee following his speech (another topic all-together). I understand it’s importance and primacy in the coverage tonight. One thing that troubles me with the media , however,  was the little attention given to the coverage of Vladimir Putin’s accusations towards the United States.  Today Putin made the charge that the United States orchestrated the conflict in South Ossetia, and blames the US for training and arming the Georgians.  Putin claimed that this was done by the United States to strengthen a political candidate.   It looks rather more like Russia was trying to make a territorial grab towards her former Soviet empire.  Russia’s allies do not recognize the sovereignty of South Ossetia and acknowledge it has part of Georgia.

Over the recent past, Russia has stressing its relationships with the West and with the NATO powers.  Russia has accused NATO powers of building up naval forces in the Black Sea (these five warships were scheduled for exercises in this region long before the Aug. 8 conflict between Russia and Georgia).    Russia has made towards Poland for agreeing to the installment of NATO missile defense systems, and also today, there is a report that Russia has just tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile.  This missile, designed to deliver nuclear payloads, was tested in response to the US plans for a missile defense shield.  Russia is still a force, and we should not take these threats lightly.