October 9, 2008

Coming Soon!

(within a week) 

We hesitated but decided to post a vote recommendation page. It's not complete as it takes time to look all of this up. Still, it's worth a glance. It's based on information about how politicians voted.  All of that information is somewhere on this web site, most of it on "Politician Watch".

The Political Stray takes the Gloves Off and Puts the Heels On

McCain

            The republican's would elect Satan himself if he were the only republican available.

            Democrat. Republican. Each party has it's priorities, but in the last few years, it's become so difficult to tell those priorities apart, it stopped mattering to me which one wins.

            I was a lifelong Democrat until the Democratic party sunk it's overly-sharp teeth into the current administration and refused to let go. Normally that would just irritate me, but since we were at war, the placing of political favor over the welfare of the country made me change my party to independent. The relentless picking at policy and the focus on suspected internal blemishes in front of God and the entire world left me slack jawed with disbelief.

            Scooter Libby, an admittedly important part of the administration,  in trouble for lying to the FBI, when at the same time, the public couldn't tell up from down by what came from the mouths of our politicians? As well as from a press whose primary priority seemed to be tabloid-like headlines.

            What made it more difficult to swallow was the feigned concern over the exposure of an agent that would drive up and park in front of the security agency she worked for each day, one that somehow managed to wrangle a job for her husband with dubious motives that had he been intelligent enough, might have become a lead weight around the neck of the administration – fortunately his manner of speaking gave him away as easily as Ms. Exposed's actions gave her away.

           Just between you and I, I secretly wished she would run away from home and take her sleazy husband with her.

          However you felt about him, the shotgun accusations made against Tom Delay that would lead to him stepping down, added to a burden that had already made me angry. To this day, I don't believe anyone has been able to produce any proof that this man did anything wrong that the rest of our illustrious senate didn't do as well. The rabid taking down of this man in spite of the fact that he was a fiery motivator to the Senate that kept it's to-do list down to manageable proportions again demonstrated just where Democratic priorities were.

           I not only resigned from the party, I had to spit as I did so just to try and get the bad taste out of my mouth.

            I'm telling you that so that you understand that political party really doesn't matter to me. For the most part, they both irritate me.

            I want that to be clear before I come out and tell you that last night's debate finally nailed down for me what it was about John McCain that got under my skin, but  I wasn't able to name.

            It might have qualified as a last straw had I not made my decision some time ago.

             He's abrupt, childishly stubborn and remarkably unprofessional. His maverick title is largely a product of his campaign's imagination, as voted with his party 81% of the time. Watching a special about his life story confirmed what I'd suspected. He's got a spoiled boy syndrome  - he believes too much of what his mother tells him about himself. Is a "maverick" just another word for those that think rules apply only to others?

            He shows up in the Senate when he feels the issue is important enough to merit his presence. Where does this put the Senators that do show up for work most days? Where's this put his constituents and the rest of us relying on the votes of a concerned congress? Does he hole himself up and write out complicated bills to help take care of the public?  Just exactly what have we been paying him for?

            Yes, he does work without earmarks and chews at the rest of congress for not doing the same. THAT I give him full credit for. His efforts at a desperately needed campaign reform were great, if sabotaged by his colleagues.

            Unfortunately, whatever work he's done that's impressed me, has been seriously outweighed by the nightmarish, hodge-podge of past bills that they called a comprehensive immigration bill. To cite just a couple of it's flaws, it didn't come clean on the fact that our border is far too large to make impenetrable and that border patrol needs to be less line and more roving. A true maverick would have howled for the "fence" money to be used more wisely. My first thought was wondering which of Congress's "lil buddies" would be chosen to erect this money sponge that gets torn up nearly as quickly as it is erected.

              But far worse was that it stated there would be a twenty-four hour security check on incoming immigrants. When was the last time the federal government checked anything in twenty-four hours? I'm not saying they should be able to. I'm just making the point that it was less than realistic. Security not based on reality is nearly worse than nothing.

            At a time when M5-whatever gang members are infiltrating the Hispanic population and doing enormous damage to our communities, this struck me as irresponsible, idealistic and just plain stupid.

             Regardless of any sympathy I may feel for him for his war experiences, that doesn't qualify him to be President.

              If all of that is not enough, I see video clips of him in front of the NRA, (a group I still have hope for but am somewhat disappointed in) declaring he will never discriminate against a group of guns purely for cosmetic features.

              Oh. You mean the potential of the gun to be modified to a semi-automatic weapon?

             I don't know how you feel about our high school kids having those kind of weapons, but I've got a problem with it. Let them fight their battles with their fists, where it hurts even when you win.

               Senator McCain has big bursts of good intentions and intensive work, then he loses interest and that work is left to evolve into what it will. In the legislative world, this is a bad thing. A very bad thing indeed.

                I sometimes wonder if he ever researches the subjects he takes positions on.

               The Senate, to it's credit, in a search for the cause of our high gas prices, had experts in to advise them on the effects of speculation on our commodities markets. It was fascinating and should have been supremely productive. It would have been had the Senate not handily ignored the advice given to staunch American bleeding from the lacerating cost of gas.

                 Domestic drilling, to say the least, is not at the top of the list of things Congress needed to do to help us. Rather than promote restoring the proper protections to our commodities in order to prevent prices being artificially raised, John McCain choose to support the oil companies grab for the 'forbidden land' with a moronic "drill baby drill" chant.

                 Any Senator worth his salt would have called the others on their bending to greedy grabs instead of protecting our commodities markets. Which, by the way, are still wide open.

               Our deficit is mind-boggling large and there are some good reasons for that. One of them is so-called fair trade deals that virtually tear up most of America's businesses in favor of foreign importers and a few big corporations that outsource then undercut those that still conduct themselves as though they are a member of this society. John McCain has been called "Mr. Fair Trade". It is a title he has earned. 'Nuff said.

               Let me add yet one more teeny little thing. John McCain's promise to give Americans a 5,000 dollar tax credit for medical care? Can you tell that it's been a very long time since McCain's paid any medical bills? He also left out that he will take money from Medicare and tax employer health benefits to cover it.

WTF?

              If anything tells you of John McCain's compassion for Americans that should do it. But for those of you as skeptical as I am, look at his voting record. It mirrors everything I just told you.

              Arizona may be quite happy with the Senator, I don't begrudge them that, but personally, I doubt if I'd want him as my Senator, let alone my president.

   There it is. Flat Out.

    The Political Stray

--------------------------------

Are You Watching All of This Back and Forth About the Bailout and the Economy?

Here's what you need to know:

Are Republicans or Democrats at fault? BOTH.

On whom does the largest part of the blame lie?

Congress and Lenders/Wallstreet

then the media

then you and me.

I know. The only thing you've bought is the car and you paid that off, so how can you be responsible.

Because we tolerate a Congress that doesn't consider Americans their first priority and a media that covers what it feels like - the way it feels like.

Take a Short Reading Break 

Neil Cavuto on the Bailout

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432001,00.html

Neil Cavuto was named anchor and managing editor of Business News for FOX News Channel (FNC) in July 1996. He is now the senior vice president of Business News while continuing to serve as anchor and managing editor.

From Forbes: The Bailout: An Owner's Manual

The Bailout -- October 1st, 2008

Growling continues - lips peeled back threateningly,

Power to the People.

The Political Stray

Download all of Obama's and McCain's votes here 

Okay Gang. About the Bailout..

Note: I'm not trying to influence what you want as far as the "bailout". I'm not an economist and am having trouble trusting those lately.

What I AM trying to do is get you up on your feet when it comes to voting for people that will see to your interests as opposed to everyone else's, including those in the business of lending money.

I just can't help myself. I have to repeat this one more time. You do realize that Congress/Our Senate is including in this bailout bill foreign banks with investments here. That would include, I imagine, the Swiss Bank that Former Senator Gramm works for. You know, the one that wove the deregulation into our laws that allows the violation of our commodities -thus causing our gas price problem-as well as the legislation that allowed our mortgage crisis.

You know that. Right?

Yeah. You're mortgaging your kid's future (as they are so fond of saying) to help out banks who's own countries won't help. The British government flatly told them that they "had no intentions of being their fairy godmother".

You also know that the perps here are continuing to keep the laws so that these violations continue?

So, let's review. Our government hasn't lifted a finger (hardly) to help those who have and are losing their homes, but they'll bail out the bastar....I mean lenders that caused it all including foreign banks.  

Did you know that you and I pay even the lowest congressman over $160,000 a year, including premium health care and a nice retirement package.

Did you know that many of our politicians are now wealthy?

Imagine that.

    Going to look for my pitchfork and torches,

     The Political Stray

Where are the reputable lenders that refrained from playing in this nasty market?

Who are America's best business people? The financial wizards - the ones that play by the rules, I mean? Any opinions?

It's odd how bad these lenders in financial trouble look now. Might as well rename yourself "Greedy and Without Ethics".

     Just wondering,

      PS

If You Are Financially Frustrated,

                                                      Read This:                                                                     

            In order to prove to you that you need to check on your political representative, regardless of your political party, I've repeatedly started to gather the names and numbers of the various bills written by various politicians in a vain attempt to try and protect us from predatory lenders and unstable gas prices. Every attempt has ended in frustration. There are too many of them.

            Surprised? You shouldn't be. We still have some decent Senators and Congress People. Unfortunately, we may lose some of the good ones because of the rising public anger at this "bailout".

            Throughout this web site, I've repeated over and over, as well as shown you how all of this could have been and should have been avoided. I've included the actual bills and the votes on those bills.

            I cannot think of any other way to say it.

            If I could, I'd reach through your computer screen and shake you until your teeth rattled to make you understand that you can no longer count on the media for important information and that too many of our politicians are now working for the big bucks boys.

            The time for each and every American to get involved is now.

            If I could, I'd give up. I'd walk away from this web site and just leave it to tell the story. Unfortunately, I can't. Not as long  as ordinary people continue to get caught in the webs spun by these selfish me-firsters that don't seem to understand how our social order works, that is, we look out for each other.

            So, just to try another way, I'm starting a new page. It will be solely for telling you about how our laws have been quietly changed so that a few benefit at the expense of the rest of us.

            Yesterday, I found an article that tells of how big investors have poured money into our commodities markets. This undermines the price on everything you and I need to survive and used to be illegal. Roosevelt called it "racketeering". When our *@#$ politicians get this bailout passed, we will be helping to bail out some of these investors that invest at our expense. Not surprisingly, some of these investors include foreign investors, investing anonymously, big pension funds, even our own government.

            Did you notice the spike in oil prices when this bailout was announced? That's because panicked investors yanked their money and poured it into oil. You'll hear talk about the CTFC considering getting involved in regulation of the investment of our commodities. The irony here is that's what they were created for and our laws were rewritten to keep them from doing so. Remember the Enron loophole? Yeah. It's still there by the way. So are most of the laws that allowed to home mortgage rape.

            The mainstream media didn't tell you that OPEC cut production too, did they?

            If you don't understand this, there's more than enough information on this site to help you. If you don't want to understand it, at least check and see how your reps voted.

            I cannot help you until you help yourselves by getting these bought and paid for politicians out of YOUR government.

            Check out these previous attempts   to fix both the oil and mortgage problems - and there's more where those came from.

With Dogged Persistence,

The Political Stray

Does Media Gray Matter Matter?

        Some time ago I posted a piece where I pointed out that the media's ability to see itself is less than what we might want it to be.

        Today I have for you a classic example. It's an article in the Washington Post online called, "Another Peek Inside the Brain of the Electorate" by Washington Post Staff Writer Libby Copeland 7/24/2008.

        It's a decent article really, it tells of a study that reveals that the American voter as far as the issues go, is less than well prepared to vote.

       Although Ms. Copeland carefully dances around saying we are all idiots, we get the picture.

        While I'm the first to admit that it's the voter's responsibility to educate himself, I'm also a realist. Most of us get our primary data (pardon the pun) from our cherished news sources.

        If the student doesn't know enough, is it the fault of the teacher or the student?

        Could go either way I guess, but it does make you wonder who the clueless in this story are.

Got up, brushed my teeth and sharpened my tongue?

'fraid so.

And what did you learn in school today?

The Political Stray 7/24/2008