Pointing Out the Obvious in Drugs

We hear that our illustrious politicians are battling over whether or not we should be able to "re-import" American made drugs sold for less to other countries. They say it will save millions or billions. The drug companies are upset.

Are our politicians really that clueless? Is it possible that we need to do something about what the drug companies are charging their own countrymen in the first place?

Inflating the price of something the people need is price gouging. It's illegal. Our politician's refusal to deal with base level issues indicate which of us has the louder voice in Washington. The voters or the lobbyists.

We need National Health Care with prescriptions, dental and vision incorporated into it. If the big drug companies don't wish to be a part of it, we need to start working with smaller companies that would like to be part of the program. I would remove drug company subsidies from the profit mongers. No doubt they would move out of the country, as many already have. That's fine.
Just remember the rule: Make it there. Sell it there.
The American market is not their personal oyster.

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

To All Left Wing Nuts, Right Wing Whackos and Tea-Baggers:

RE: Health Care Reform: Let's Get Real.

Never has it been more important for Americans to put aside their differences and think straight. I’m not going to waste time trying to change anyone’s mind from whatever position they have taken.

             Stop researching, listening and reading, but before you do, just do this.

             Find out what would happen if you had a heart attack tomorrow. For specifics, let's say that two of your heart valves were blocked and your heart was moderately damaged during the attack.

             Where would you go? What would you do? What would it cost you? Who would pay for it and how?

             What would happen if you had another two years from now?

Let me know how you do.

The Political Stray

                                               November 20, 2009

Okay, For You Detail People

Here's the New Senate Bill

It is said that they will debate it on Saturday November 21, 2009

http://www.democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf

                                                                                    11/19/2009

What We’re Hearing About the New Senate Bill

I saw a  Senator from Rhode Island on the Olbermann show. He thinks that at least a third of the states will “opt out” if the health care reform bill has the “opt out” option left in it. (I didn’t catch his source)

 That puts the people in those states back to square one?

Personally, I was appalled when I heard about that option. After all of this time and trouble? Are you kidding me?

In this legislation, a lot of us won’t qualify for the “public option”. This won’t kick in for FOUR YEARS. That gives insurance companies four years to dilute the bill and work on your state politicians.

Why are our legislators creating a health insurance system when we need a health care system?

How much of this garbage that they are claiming as legislation are we to tolerate?

Are you angry yet?

                    As of now, The Political Stray officially recommends a single payer system. Yes, just like England, Canada and other civilized countries.

Volume Buying and Elimination of the Middleman.

The public option, believe it or not, will cover about one percent of us and

will cost more than commercial policies do now.

Illegal aliens will not be allowed to buy insurance even with their own money. This ignores the fact that many illegals are here to work and support a family. So, are we going to start stepping over the bodies?

Can you see how basic common sense is thrown to the winds in favor of the insurance companies that have been robbing and killing Americans for years?

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

Do You Count?

            Never let anything happen to other people that you wouldn’t want to happen to you. It’s good rule to live by, particularly in a country the size of the

            My mother died on 9-11. She was nowhere near

. She was, however, a rather timid individual when it came to external events. Women’s heart attacks are more often triggered by emotional distress as opposed to men’s which are more likely to be triggered by physical stress. I strongly suspect that the cries of “We are under attack” were the catalyst for her demise.

            Is she a victim of the 9-11 terrorists? As far as I’m concerned she is. She was an uncounted victim.

The reason I bring this up is that my brain automatically applies the facts to other circumstances. I suppose it’s how the pack instinct in me expresses itself.

            I’m asking myself how many uncounted victims are there of our “free enterprise” legislation that allowed the home mortgage fiasco, artificially escalated gas prices and the entry of the “business oriented” into our health care that gave us HMO’s and obscene insurance rates.

            For those of you that have been on vacation, the “free enterprise” I’m speaking of is the removal of legislation that protects the public thereby allowing the greedy and manipulative amongst us run amok.

            Note that those hired to keep profits high for medical suppliers, health insurers and big pharma will shout to the rooftops that they were “just doing their job”. Where have I heard that before?

            Is anyone counting the victims? Is anyone counting the less obvious victims? How telling is it that the insurance providers want legislative protection from prosecution and litigation?

            How many people are dying because they refuse to endure the humiliation of the “Do you have insurance” experience at the doctors or the hospital? We Americans are a proud bunch. There will be many deaths no one sees but the people that pick up the bodies.

            Even after we have access to health care, it’s going to take years to recover from this period. People will continue to die as our legislators fight their partisan battles. People will continue to die as we wait for changes to take effect. People will die as we try to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

            As our legislators plunge us into a health INSURANCE system instead of a health

system, you’ll have plenty of time to ask yourself the following questions:

            Look at your pay stub. Considering how much the government is taking out of it, are you getting your money’s worth?

Is it time to get legislators that don’t need to be reminded that government’s first and most important duty is to protect it’s citizens?

How much difference would it make if we ran the lobbyists out of

?

How much difference would it make if we had public election campaigns with broadcast time and each politician being required to keep a web site that included their voting records and campaign speeches?

Government belongs to those who show up. How much does it take to make you angry enough to show up?

The Fort Hood Killings

            Basically, I trust justice will be served in this case without any opposition from anyone, least of all me. My heart goes out to those that lost family members or are in pain because of the horrific actions of this self-deluded nut case.

            If I had any qualms, it would be how our justice system has gotten so bass-ackwards that it’s become impossible to get a true “insanity” defense without having to fear the eventual release of a dangerous criminal. I believe true mental disease exists and that people afflicted with such should be in an appropriate environment. Our prisons shouldn’t double as insane asylums. It’s not fair for the patients, the prisoners or the prison workers.

            I don’t know how insanity is defined in today’s world. What I do know is that anyone capable of doing what this man did in Fort Hood couldn’t be any less than criminally insane and needs to be locked up for good. At least.

            As far as our dissatisfaction with those that knew this man was a problem, well, they knew --- that was good. However, I understand perfectly why they were afraid to act upon what they knew. They were hog-tied by the mental health laws. That may be necessary to keep those of us that are only a little crazy out of rubber rooms.

            What I don’t feel good about is their concern with what we, the citizenry think. They had to fear outrage over the perceived persecution of a Muslim? Do I believe that? Yes because that was one, only one, of the reasons I abandoned my previous political party. They forgot what “United We Stand” meant when it was important to remember.

            We need to make up our minds about what we think is important. We are a nation at war. If someone starts promoting the interests of the enemy, the people we give the job of protecting us should be allowed to pursue it properly.

Additionally, considering how many people we have in this country, it might not be a bad idea to check out Americans that are inclined to join our enemy to pursue some paranoid agenda either. That used to be called treason. Be prepared to prove it well in court, but by all means pursue it.

            When it comes to national defense, it’s imperative to let go of political nest-building and deal with hard, cold reality..

Still Think These "Tea-Baggers" Are Just Plain Ol' Folks?

Watch and Confirm what we'd all suspected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Jat8qOaws

That's what we call

"flat, cold busted"

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

Protect Our Pets

               Have you ever noticed that you don't see much about legislation that affects our pets? There's a reason for that. Big labs and cleaning product companies donate well to keep that buried under agriculture.

              Here's a bill you need to encourage your reps to support. It's a bill that requires the suppliers of animals to labs to use "legitimate" sources rather than purchase from just anybody. Some of these suppliers are shelters, others respond to "free to good home ads", still others steal pets out of their yards and cars.

               Many Labs prefer pets because they're easier to handle because they trust people. Not all labs are trying to cure cancer in kids. Many of these are cleaning product makers that are required to feed an animal their product until it dies. They say they need this for poison control. Like you wouldn't know that whatever the product was, it shouldn't be fed to children. Nearly all of these products have competitors that keep this information on file with the government.

               If this makes you as angry as it makes me:

            Support the Pet Safety and Protection Act!

To take action on this issue, click on the link below:

                                         
https://secure2.convio.net/aspca/site/Advocacy?s_oo=TBZYZdFXO80wpAEW3RRW
jw..&id=2611

If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple
lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

   It's a start.

  The Political Stray

                                                               October 26, 2009

Opt Out?

                   Let's get this straight, all the time that has been spent on this bill and now they want to add a "you don't have to play if you don't want to" clause for the states? Considering how many of the states are run, the lack of transparency in their government, the state of their already disasterous budgets...

                       I believe I underestimated just how low those that are paid by you will go.

                         My opinion: Volume buying and elimination of the middle man is a no-brainer here. Opt out is a cop out I'm betting the lobbyists had a lot to do with. Watch your reps. If they ignore the obvious, that is, taking care of you...opt them out.

                        You think for yourself. Don't let the media or the politicians think for you, too many of them have ulterior motives. Don't even let me tell you what to do. Think about it and act accordingly. This one is obvious. If the media blah-blah is tempting to you, check and see who sponsors them. (their commercials) Today's media is not the well-intended, socially responsible newspaper of the old days.

  TPS

(shaking head in amazement and disgust)

The Whitehouse Versus Fox News

            My faith in the intelligence of the American people almost keeps me from bothering to comment on this situation. Almost.

            For those of you that don’t know, the Whitehouse has come out and declared Fox less than a standard news organization. I guess they made similar comments about the US Chamber of Commerce.

            Huh. Was anyone shocked by these statements?

           Fox is howling at the moon over it. I used to be a Fox Fan. These days I just watch long enough to see what they are telling you.

            Seeing so many people struggling to keep a non-health-care system that is killing so many of us make me feel ill.  Watching the politicians screeching out in favor of the insurance companies --- well, that makes my skin crawl.

          The people that are jumping into this dust-up are forgetting that you and I have been here all along.

            We know Fox is no longer giving us the news, but just the big-bucks-boys twisted version of it. This isn’t news to us.

            We know that the US Chamber of Commerce is a big-bucks-boys club that promotes their own interests over the public good. We also know it’s the same for the Heritage Foundation.

            We know that Rasmussen Polls are done in such a convoluted manner that to say the results are skewed would be a gross understatement. We also know that Gallup polls aren’t what they used to be either.

           Polls are more or less taken with a grain of salt.

            We can also see that CNN gets a little more like Fox all the time. Money talks.

            Fortunately, we eventually get straight stories either by reading a multitude of foreign and small newspapers, selectively reading the better blogs and any other way we can reach out to each other. Of course, we know we have to mentally edit a lot of material out as the water muddying folks will do their best to confuse us. In most cases, eventually someone that actually knows what their talking about starts talking.

            It’s sad. It makes it harder to run this country. We’ve also been dealing with it for a long time. 

            Someone call the journalism professors. Surely among them there must be an honest one or two. Maybe our news agencies are ready for the truth?

            Well, if someone would play that Jack Nicholson clip….

            “You can’t handle the truth!”

            I respect the Obama administration for their courage in pointing out the obvious.

            I struggle for a scrap of optimism in believing that maybe this will induce some kind of positive change for our media.

            I’m not throwing in the towel, but I’m not holding my breath either.

Keep the Faith and Check your sources,

TPS

             Alert**********Alert***********Alert***********Alert**********

Financial Reform:

The wool is being pulled over your eyes-can you feel it yet?

Okay gang. This is serious.

In process, as we speak is so-called “Financial Reform”. That means our illustrious Congress is working on changing the law so that we don’t have another crash…

According to those that know, the Senate Finance Committee is yanking out the real teeth of the bill written.

 You remember the Senate Finance Committee? That’s the one I said had some of our very worst “vote-in-favor-of-the-big-bucks-boys” politicians. Luckily, you can sort some of them out by reading about some of their health care reform machinations. Most of the republicans are those wattled, double-dipped in polymer types, but be not predjudiced by me. I've shown you how to check on them. For you babes, at least check out their votes on the Washington Post Congress Votes page.

Here’s a link to the committee: http://finance.senate.gov/

Are any of these guys yours?

If you don’t like some of these bonuses for wall street and the greedy morons that have put cracks in our daily lives, if you don’t like “too big to fail, if you didn’t want the “bailout”  --- it’s up to you to do something – make it clear what’s important—watch the votes --- watch the amendments…Get these guys out of here.

There comes a time when you must find someone new. One day you’ll look back and wonder why you “took it” so long.

     TPS

  Correction: This bill is now in the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee - Here's a link to what you need to know, including a link to the bill. Sorry about that. I'll leave the above up for now as I suspect the bill or one similar to it will have to make it's way through the Senate.

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

The Political Stray re: Obamian Nobel

Global optimism put the President in an awkward position and he handled it beautifully.
What we need to remember is that it is a GLOBAL prize and we are on the home team. Perhaps a little grace and quiet loyalty is in order.
UNITED States of America, right?

This information is from Opensecrets.org. Read it. Then go check your reps there. Then give them some money. They and the Sunlight Foundation do some very important work.

Lawmakers Get One-Two Punch of Money From Health Industry Special Interests

Published by Michael Beckel on

October 1, 2009 at Opensecret.org

A new collaborative investigation by the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics has found that many of the major players in the health insurance reform debate have hit members of Congress with a one-two punch of campaign contributions from at least 10 of their hired, outside lobbyists on top of donations from their employees or political action committees.

Since January 2007, more than 500 individual lobbyists who fit these criteria donated roughly $2.8 million to 61 members of Congress who also received about $1.9 million from the companies' PACs or employees. These lobbyists represented 25 major health care and health insurance organizations.

Here is a table of the top Senate recipients of these contributions. (Read more about the methodology here.)

Recipient          From Clients     From Lobbyists            Overall Total

John McCain (R-Ariz.) $427,530         $473,400         $900,930

Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)        $276,050         $237,722         $513,772

Max Baucus (D-Mont.)            $252,750         $200,899         $453,649

Arlen Specter (D-Penn.)           $116,750         $108,778         $225,528

Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) $56,950           $130,808         $187,758

Mark Udall (D-Colo.)  $76,025           $79,150           $155,175

Mark Warner (D-Va.)  $46,650           $84,450           $131,100

Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)   $47,200           $83,420           $130,620

Mary Landrieu (D-La.) $35,800           $67,000           $102,800

Patty Murray (D-Wa.)  $32,800           $59,500           $92,300

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)         $22,500           $55,950           $78,450

Susan Collins (R-Maine)           $28,300           $40,916           $69,216

Among the 61 recipients of these joint contributions are 11 senators who sit on the 23-member Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Baucus ranked as the third highest recipients of such contributions, accepting about $201,000 from 109 lobbyists representing 11 health-related organizations, plus an additional $252,750 from the lobbying clients' employees or PACs.

                                                                                          September 29, 2009

Americans, Get United Again.

That line between us and them is fake.

If you recall, the Political Stray has been ranting about the damage to our country (and world) being done by BOTH Republicans and Democrats. The “battle” over health care is an excellent chance for you all to see what I mean.

            Note that some “moderate” Democrats are as reluctant to pass real health care reform as some of the nastiest Republicans. I’ve been telling you for ages that it’s not the party, it’s the Senator or Congressperson.

            Here are your “hot” names for today.

            Rockefeller: Fighting like a wild cat for the public option. Schumer too. Hmm. Schumer is one of those that are a little hard to define as either a bad guy or a good guy. It looks like he may be wearing a white hat in the health care battle.

             Baucus: Voted against the public option with the usual political double talk. He says he won’t vote for something that won’t pass..oh please. Where’s your backbone Senator? Did you check it at the door or has someone purchased it?

Other Dems abandoning ship:

 Tom Carper (Del. ), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark. ) and

 Bill Nelson (Fla.).

Hm. Bill Nelson had a heavy hand in the big Florida – Michigan

mess during the Presidential election. Boy. Floridians have a lot of patience, don’t they?

Okay folks. You know what to do. At least check out how these guys have been voting when it comes to issues that are hurting YOU.

            Allow me to remind you all that this legislation is a struggle to figure out how to pay someone else to pay for a five hundred dollar hammer. The Political Stray thinks it makes more sense to tackle why the damn hammer costs five hundred dollars in the first place!!

              We don’t need insurance. We need health care.  If these people can’t get it for us, let’s replace them with people that will.

I’ll try and keep this as updated as possible. Yeah. I guess I’m getting over Mitch McConnell being voted back in.

Sort of ...As long as I don’t think about it too much.

  The Political Stray

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

You know what? If we pass a bill that forbids insurance companies from not covering the sick or seting caps on care costs, they're either going to go broke or their going to be on the medical providers costs like angry wasps.

Hmmmm.....

Any thoughts?

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

RED ALERT!

Guys:

You know how I've been harping about the people and doctors uniting against the insurance and drug companies? Well, let's check out these "mad as hell" doctors I'm hearing about.

Do I hear the beginnings of the earth moving?

Check 'em out and Get Behind 'em..

We don't need anymore of us dying to make a point, do we?

Mad As Hell Doctors

More to Come

Healthcare. Are you mad yet?

Here let me help.

           Is it okay with you that Americans are dying for the lack of health care? That's a big part of this issue even though so many are choosing not to acknowlege it. If you get in an accident that's your fault and someone dies, would you be held responsible? Ask yourselves why these people allowed to get away with it. When you get an answer, let me know. We'll print it.

              Think. How much of your paycheck goes to someone "just in case something happens"? Do you understand that that money is paying someone else to do absolutely nothing for you. Think about it.

      Let use some common sense here.

                   We've all seen the 35.00 aspirin on our hospital bills.

                    85.00 for gauze during surgery? What? Spun gold?

                Hm. Is it the medical supply and insurance people that are taking the vacations we see advertised that we can never afford?

               Why are we struggling to keep the middleman that is of little or no use to us instead of tackling the source of the problem, original costs and profit margins of that which doctors need to make us better?

           We want to give the power of medicine back to the doctors where it belongs. While we're all working on it, doctors need think of some way of governing themselves. If they had eliminated  bad doctors themselves, tort reform might not even be needed today. Put doctors on fixing this and figuring out how to care for those injured by medical errors.

               Get real. Middlemen and lawyers cost a fortune and add nothing to actual care. Then there are the investors-always cited as legit reasons for unethical conduct. By the way, you may be among them through your retirement or other savings plan. Part of the reason it will get worse is that many of those jumping the home mortgage ship jumped onto the health care ship.

The boomers are getting old. They have money. Let's get that money. It's there for the taking.

            A lot of that went during the home mortgage debacle. Did you notice? Yes. Who is looking after you?

             Did you know that if you get Medicaid, that they will put a lien on your property? If you die, your family has to pay that lien off. If they can't, guess who gets the property? Uh huh. At the rate of health care charges today, can you imagine the size of these liens? That's federal law by the way.

             Did you know that some "health care professionals" are charging 3,000-5,000 dollars for a single injection when treating for cancer? Our loving drug companies again. How much do they get in tax breaks? Are they still developing the ideas from the universities that WE underwrite?

              If everyone is going to be cared for, we have to get at the root of the problem, the costs themselves, not pander to these greedy insurance companies.

              This new proposal eliminates the "public option". There's a big surprise. This is all more of the same rape that started in about 1985. Don't stand for it. If they can't come up with a realistic way to care for us, dump them and find someone that will.

             Don't ask if this is acceptable. Ask how on earth it got this far. Then look in the mirror. We let these people get away with this. How much do you know about how your reps vote?

              Senator Baucus wrote the new health care proposal.

               Baucus, who does not support the bill requiring Senators having to file their campaign statements in a timely fashion. He voted for open trade with

China , which of course has flooded the US with substandard goods that undercut home manufacturers. However, Baucus has voted in favor of the public before. He voted against the changes that allowed the home mortgage mess to happen, he voted for controlling the forces that keep driving gas prices up.

Could be better. Could be worse.

                  By the way, am I the only one who's noticed that the Senate Finance Committee has the Senators most likely to vote against the public interest on it? Strike you as odd? Or just predictable? Who are these people working for?My guess is that if insurance companies cannot discriminate, there are going to be more holes in our "new healthcare" than in swiss cheese. The only way these people are going to "get it" is if we remove their health care and let them get exactly what Joe RealPerson gets. 

                   Public healthcare is a huge project and must be accomplished in step. Make sure those steps don't forget who pays the bills. Don't forget how powerful we are together and what a lucrative market we are. Use that power.There's bound to be those out there that would be willing to provide us with health CARE at a reasonable profit.    

People:

            Think. Think. Think!

              We don't need health insurance. We need HEALTH CARE.

Election Day Cometh!

Get mad. Get Real. Get real mad!

Check out the people you vote for! See the links page for ways to do that.

Link for Today:

The Sunlight Foundation

It's Ten O'Clock-Do You Know How Your Congressional Rep is Voting? 

One thing I've noticed in my prowling around our lawmakers doings is that the ones that keep the laws bent so that you nearly lose your house, can't afford to put gas in the car and can't afford medical care --  are the same twenty or thirty people (depending on the issue).

 These same people vote in favor of big business (not always American businesses either) every time.

They voted to not charge extra for foriegn importers with lower production costs.

Then they voted against helping those put out of business by the undercutting!

 And what happens on election day? You vote 'em in again. You better take a good long look at how YOUR reps are voting.

Your warning words:

"We're not going to stand for government takeover!"

The laws once protected us. They "liberated" us. Do you feel liberated?

For those of you that don't like to research, pay attention to who is coming out against health care.

Americans are dying from lack of proper care. None of us should be okay with that, but for the people who are supposed to be caring for us, it's outrageous.

Wise up People. We all have footprints on our faces.

   The PS

 I was just thinking...

         Did you ever notice that a healthy percentage of the news show's one-size-fits-all "Experts"  are a bunch of cheeseburgers you wouldn't allow in your house, let alone engage in conversation? 

                                                              March 31, 2009

Media Pile-Ons

            Have you noticed how the media rarely mention those in Congress that did the old "wrote and vote" that allowed both the inflated oil prices and the mortgage crisis, neither of which would have happened had Congress just left protective laws in place, yet they attack people like the so-called "Octomom" and Madonna, both of whom seem to relish motherhood and act accordingly.

            Don't miss my point by inserting an opinion on these two women. Get the point that the media is more gossip and less public watchdog than ever before. How good is this for America?

Our President

            We vote for the President and once someone wins, they are our leader. It's one thing to question questionable policy, but the constant picking, criticizing and blaming of the man and his policies is irritating. Make a rule with yourself. Listen to criticism only when it's accompanied by a better idea.

                                                Your Power-Flex It!

            The time to vote for Congress is approaching. The people in the House and Senate are more responsible for our current economic mess more than AIG and Goldman-Sachs put together. How do your reps vote? Not surprisingly, around twenty of them vote in the favor of other people's money rather than the American people. You got rid of some of them. Now get rid of some more.

            You'll feel so much better if you only check out how your people vote and act accordingly. Never, ever assume they vote the way they say. I found out that one the hard way. You can change this country for the better by just researching those two people in your life. Your Congressman and Your Senator. Seriously. Register to Vote now.

            See the links page for websites that help you. Sit down first. Buy yourself a rich dessert for after you're done. You'll deserve it.

  Supporting the Home Team: the American people,

  The Political Stray

March 11, 2009                 

   Dear President Obama,

             Heard your speech this morning about exports and taking care of other countries because of the economic crisis and their interactions with us. Right. Sounds like you're going to keep favoring the same select groups over the general population. How about favoring those that move their businesses back to this country? The American market belongs to Americans. 

             Heard about the State Department giving away money like always. I remind you that Washington has no or little money. That's money that belongs to Americans, American's in dire straights right now. Many of whom didn't participate in this "party" everyone keeps saying is over. Are you actually giving their money to groups of American haters? Look, if you haven't bought their approval by now, you're probably not going to. Are you trying to compete with God? That's who they seem to think they're with.

               Because the suffering in America takes place behind closed doors, do you think it doesn't exist? Do you think the senior that is undernourished because of their drug costs doesn't exist or matter? The terror of losing the roof over your head and your retirement - How do these people become real to those that were supposed to care for them?

                 There's some real bad karma building for the negligent and criminal law makers. I agree they are a minority, but they are clearly there. Might wanna stand away from them in case the karmic pendulum makes no noise before it hits.  

               Stop making those silly statements about earmarks and make Congress start weaning themselves. If the budgeting/requisitioning process doesn't work. Fix it.

               Don't get lost in the weeds   You were hired to care for us. All of us. You tend the home fires and let the rest of the world grow up and care for itself.  

              My heart doesn't bleed for the greedy now facing the consequences of their own actions and that includes the rest of the world. My heart does bleed for my countrymen that are suffering from the greed of others.

               Have your girls remind you about what a knight in shining armor does. We're all behind you. If Congress keeps harassing you, we'll vote 'em out. Fair enough?

The Political Stray

P.S. Could you forward a list of Congresspeople and Senators you believe are destructive to America so we can vote them out?

(chuckle)

To my readers:

    We have our own list. See "Politician Watch" or you can just watch Fox news and see which of these fools keep coming out and working against us.

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

The question of the day:

           Why does the American Attorney General always seem to be a "wet tea bag". That means just what it sounds like. Weak. Not useful to us. Is this intentional?

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

             Pete King would be a good choice for that New York seat. He's got a good head on his shoulders. Just my personal opinion. I don't get campaign money either.

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

                           To see what the stimulus plan offers for homeowners

Financial Stimulus

As usual, you need an adobe reader to see this. If you don't have one, go to your favorite search engine and type in "Adobe Acrobat Reader". It should be free to download.

You can leave comments about it there too.

Come on you guys. You need to check it out first. Let's be fair. It's in our own best interests.

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So..how did YOUR Senator vote?

Did you notice that among those that voted against the bill are our usual suspects noted on the "Poltician Watch" page? The Senators that vote for big bucks interest and against bills to help you?

For example, they'll fund foreign car dealers in their state, then vote against unemployment insurance and retraining for the people the foreign advantage puts out of work. They vote in favor of the credit card companies, against affordable education...etc.

If your Senator voted against it, at least go check their voting records on other issues. The Washington Post has a page called "Congress Votes'. Check them out there. Then check them at Project Votesmart. (there are links to these on the links page)

Click here to see how your Congressperson voted

Come on folks, you have the power. Feel it. Use it. USE IT WISELY!

You'll feel so much better.. Election day cometh again. Be ready.

Power to you all,

The Political Stray 

 For my political purists, fact junkies and the responsible journalists (both of them) -  here is the link to every factoid about the stimulus bill. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. What a country huh? Yes. I'm serious. Not many country's governments would post the fine details of legislation that could put them out of work.

Baby purists: you might want to start with the Senate Reports.

DETAILS

Mum on the Stimulus?

Yep. I promised not to talk unless I knew what I was talking about. I haven't seen the latest version. Did you know that most Senators and Congresspeople haven't read it either? I guess they vote on the "What have you done for ME lately" principle.

Besides, I can't talk when I'm slack-jawed in astonishment.

Don't worry. I'll post it when it's ready.

Then we'll take it from there.

At ease. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

     Power to the people,

     The Political Stray 

Your Assignment

Go to Youtube and type in "Mayor Bernero". (or click here) Listen to this guy. I couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, I couldn't say it as well.  

Everybody say: "Yeah!"

Glad you're on our side Mayor. Thanks!

*The Political Stray nod of respect*

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Check to see where your reps fall on the auto industry. If they think the unions need to give more up and we ought to tell the automakers to take a leap...then you need to check your reps records at votesmart (see link page) before the next election. Check their records anywhere! You may be helping this country stay under the thumb of the corporate-purchased politicians.

How does turning the auto industry over to foreign makers make sense for Americans?

Know the truth. Check out the trade deals the automakers are working under.

Paying some of these polticians (a smaller percentage of them than you think) is like the world's oldest profession. You pay to get s...... well, you know.

I'll repeat it 'till you take YOUR power back:

CHECK ON YOUR REPS. TALK IS CHEAP.

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The Supremely Arrogant Lending Industry

            Am I the only one astonished at the arrogance of the financial industry? Are they really threatening to give TARP money back because a limit of 100,000.00 over what our President makes is being set for their executive compensation?

            Fine. Give it back.

            One of the smartest people I've known taught me to rely on common sense, hard work and common decency when it comes to running things.

            The lending industry has become a monolithic, bloated arrogant pig with a strongly overblown sense of entitlement. They have brought the world economy to it's knees and not only are they not apologizing and getting arrested, but they are trying to call the shots on their bailout.

            Send these karmically cursed "me-firsters" to where they belong. Let's start from scratch. Open new banks with our money. Banks with good rates and no "bad" loans yet.

Start a network for lenders with mortgages that are going into foreclosure. Purchase some properties that would be appropriate rentals all over the country. Get those that can't afford a home moved in, using their equity for rent. Take their homes and add them to the  network. Get people traded down into homes and loans they can afford. Keep it simple. Trade titles – hand to hand – tell folks to cut their losses and move on. I'm sure a lot of people would welcome a change by now.

            We need to unlock this mess and then come down on the lenders like pterodactyls with PMS. That includes the student loans, credit cards as well as the mortgage people. For the ones that pulled the nonsense that caused all of this? Arrest them and seize their assets to help pay for this mess.

            Done. 

            Well, at least it would be a start.

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address

Toyota spent over three million dollars lobbying Congress last year. One of their issues? Evening out the currency imbalances. 

Toyota pays about 25 dollars an hour. GM pays 26 to 28. The seventy something figure you keep hearing is including benefits and caring for retirees. (about 200 per month)

The Senators standing in the way all have import plants or proposed import plants in their states. 

Working in the best interest of import car manufacturers. Fighting American unions, even being deceptive to do so. Does it sound like these people have our best interests in mind?

Check the auto industry bailout page for the list of the Senators most active in this. Be sure to visit our Politician Watch page to see if YOUR Senator or Congressman is on it too.

You CAN do something about political corruption.

I remind you that we pay our politicians at the minimum, $160,000 a year. 

Check the auto industry bailout page for facts and links. 

Learn more about the halo-wearing auto importers.

There are over a million people employed in the auto industry. There are over six million if you count the associated industries. 

United means something. Stand behind them.     

December 4, 2008

                     Am I the only one annoyed with the attitude of Congress towards the automakers? We send billions (yes, billions) overseas to help other countries, we handed the finance industry billions without even making them sign a contract that they would LEND out the money -  yet now, to LOAN money to an industry that employs thousands of Americans, they are acting high-handed and condescending.       

                   Maybe I'm just irritable today?

                  Nah.

 Just Sharing That Thought,

 The Political Stray        

December 2, 2008

Fronting A Loan to Our Automakers

            It's going to be hard to fix some of America's problems without accurate information. "Garbage in, garbage out," as they say.

            A favored position today is to take pot shots at the automakers because it's so easy. Not so fast.

            All of you suspend your opinions for a moment.

            There are factors we aren't hearing that have an effect on this.

            We need to figure out how we want to stand on labor. Yes, it seems to me that the autoworkers are paid pretty well, but I don't know what the going wage was for that work. That's not the point. That's a seperate issue. Don't confuse your opinion about unions with what we need to do right now.

            Imported car makers don't have a lot of the expenses our automakers have. Many of them don't pay as well, have no unions or the currency exchange gives them an unfair advantage when it comes to pricing.

            We need to find out just how much of an advantage foreign car makers are being and have been getting over our domestic manufacturers. More importantly, we need to find out WHY so many foreign companies have been favored. Who made it possible for our countrymen to be in matches where they couldn't win?

            What about the cars they make? How come they just keep turning out gas guzzlers?  Hm. That one's easy. Because we keep buying them. So do people in other countries. Go anywhere in the world and you'll find American cars there. Besides, here, Americans like big cars. Don't tell me you didn't notice that even Grandma drives an SUV now?

            The prohibitive gas costs? There's another part of this that you're being given a line on. The reason gas has been costing so much is that congress removed the restrictions that protected oil and other commodities from big investors from using them to make money as if they were just simple stocks. (If you need more info on this, it's all on this under gas prices.)

            Yes, it seems to me that some of the importers put more into their cars, even the economical ones. The question is, do we have all the information we need to help the situation and help keep it from happening again?

            Listening to our politicians and their questionable "outrage" makes me suspicious. How many of them voted to loosen the laws that kept competition fair? Who was funding them at the time?

            Use caution with the financial help on TV. In the situations where I was current and informed, I found that their advice often leaned toward helping the finance industry more than it was meant to help the common man.

            Now, considering the information I've just run past you, let me ask you:

            How are we supposed to make good decisions when we don't have good information?

            We can't.

            Someone needs to provide us with an accurate source of information that includes alerting us when changes are being made that will directly affect us.

            We used to call that a newspaper.

            If we should find another source, we need to give them our support. Let's keep our eyes peeled for it. Let me know if you find a potential or if you notice one of our regular media trying to turn over a new leaf, we'll start listing them.

            In the meantime, lets try and figure out what's really going on with our automakers. If I might interject a personal opinion on the subject: I'm beginning to get annoyed at the attitude of the people that think we should "let 'em fry". You mean we can send billions to help other countries, but when it comes to loaning the auto industry money and keeping a lot of people employed, we balk? That couldn't be right.

Until later,

The Political Stray

October 16, 2008

Mum on Dodd and the Senate Hearings?

Here's a copy of a note I sent Fox News and I do watch Fox.

               When you tell people about the Senate Hearing and Dodd, do you even get a twinge of guilt? Your lack of candor is a disgrace to your profession. This is little more than aiding and abetting.

end

              PS readers already know that Dodd was one of the biggest players in the mortgage mess. A solid percentage of our Congress was. See our "Politician Watch" and "Attempts to Help Us" pages.
                                              

               To have the Senate doing this investigation is one of the most ridiculous stunts that I've seen in a while. Where is the Attorney General and the FBI? The Constitutional Lawyers? Pursuing the guilty in all of this could rewrite important laws about corruption in one of the largest tax payer rip-offs in history.

               Have American law enforcement high-ups been purchased as well? If we have no protection, we should save the money we spend on it, level it and start again.

Stop settling,

The Political Stray

 McCain Keeping the Record Straight

              As part of our determined effort to be fair, we have to point out John McCain's effort to set a member of his audience at a rally straight today. She mistakenly quoted old rumors about Obama and McCain immediately corrected her, saying that Obama was a decent, family man.

              Credit to Senator McCain for trying to return his campaign to decent standards.

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

Did'ja See This? I Didn't Know- Did You?

             Read Gretchen Morgenson's blockbuster story on the front page of the Sunday New York Times about how when government officials decided to bail out the insurance giant AIG they had one private citizen in the room, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, which is owed about $20 billion by AIG.

  -------------------------------

                                      What Do You Think of the Media Coverage of The Bailout?

             Anyone that's spent any time on this web site knows that The Political Stray has sunk it's teeth into the media's behind and is not letting go. Realizing that there's nothing new about that, we hasten to add that it is not simply destructive behavior.

             For all of the fury we direct at them, no one believes more in their capacity to lift themselves back up to their crucial role in our society. These are, for the most part, very sharp people. Once the Political Stray sinks it's teeth into them, it proceeds to try and drag them in the right direction.

       With that in mind, we have to ask them:

                   "What on earth are you thinking??"

      Does it even register with you that your carping and harping about the economy only makes it worse? If there ever was "media malpractice" that is, media performance that damages our society, this would be it.

         Instead, why are you not pursuing the question as to whether this "crisis" is self inflicted and manipulative on the part of the lenders?

         Why don't you pursue our politicians ulterior motives in the push for this bailout?

          Here's an interesting piece for the media people (and anyone else) that are interested.

 http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/28/bailout_part_1_what_crisis/

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/28/do_bailouts_of_banks_work/

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/28/bailout_part_3_the_legislation/

 Growling and Muttering,

 The Political Stray                                             

October 7, 2008

      The Second Presidential Debate 

My debate analysis is brief because as long as you're listening, you think fine for yourselves. I'm here to help you with the sneaky stuff that goes on behind your back and hurts you.

                 Did you watch? So did I. It was better than the first one. Both candidates did pretty well, considering the circumstances -- War and an economy in turmoil. McCain did better than I thought he'd do. He's so 'old politician', meaning that he talks to us like we are uninformed children, his campaign has been lame on good days, irritating on the bad days.

               Obama is beginning to get that haunted look all good leaders get. That's good. He's realized he may end up running the place with some pretty ugly handicaps.

                 Did McCain say what he meant on that "buying up mortgages and refinancing"? That sounded a little unlikely. Did he mean in addition to the 750 billion? Let's wait and see on that one. It just didn't make sense to me.

                 I'm wondering if I should disqualify myself from this evaluation because of what I wanted to hear.

                 I wanted to hear our future president upset about this economic mess. I wanted to hear of prosecutions and efforts to recover our money. From a future president determined to go after ill-gotten gains and to set up a way to help the people all of this has hurt. One that's as fed up with fat cats as I am.

                  I wanted to hear about lobbyists that become part of the unemployment stats and how we can start structuring election decisions into our daily lives the year before the elections.

                 I wanted to hear about us putting the world on hold while we care for our own first. I wanted to hear about trade deals that are good for America. I wanted to hear about the restoration of America's manufacturing base making products for our market without unfair intrusions from foreigners arranged by a government with the wrong priorities.

                I wanted to hear about getting big business out of our health care so we can afford to stay healthy without government run medicine.

                    I wanted to hear from a president as angry and determined as I am.

  Keep the Faith,

   The Political Stray

              Transcript:  Second Presidential Debate

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

Listen up guys. This is important.

            About the current financial goings on…

            First and foremost, calm down. This isn't a depression. In fact, it's not even close.

            Remember, this is a month from an election. The press never had such easy headlines.

            Do you think they might be "jazzying it up" a little?

            Yes. Of course.

            The the Dow? What is the second most hysterical group in the country? Yes, the stock market crowd. The slightest blip and they're all over the map. They're almost always "blowing in the wind".

            This is bad enough. Yes.

            Can they make it a lot worse by fanning the flames in order to get their party elected or get people to tune in?

            Absolutely.

            Haven't I been yelling and screaming about some of this since this page started?

            Yes.

            Then why would I start lying to you now?

            That's exactly right. I wouldn't.

            If you must wail and scream, by all mean, do so. Go bury your head in your pillow and scream until you can't anymore – then cry -  and by all means, take at least a half hour to worry. Then meet us back here. We'll wait..

            …waiting….  murmuring in crowd…smoke 'em if you got em…

             go grab a snack….bring it back tho…

            Welcome back. All better?

            Good.

            Did it help? A little. Okay.

            Did it change anything?

Your face is swollen?

            (chuckle) Aw. It'll go back down later.

            At least you confirmed what you already knew. All the fits in the world don't change it one iota.

            Now. Let's get to work. Right now, here's what you gotta do:

            First, check on all your whiners. Oh hush. We all have 'em. Calm 'em down and have them stay put. Nobody takes their money from anywhere. No hysteria either.

             Right now, we have a problem. The media is busily fanning the flames of our current financial problems. The first thing to do is ask what the media's responsibility to it's country is.

             I'm seeing media exaggerating a situation that's already bad enough. To sell? Out of habit? Who knows?

              As usual, now that the horse is gone, the media is sounding fire alarms about the barn door being open.

               So the next thing you need to do is when you see the media fanning the flames needlessly, immediately email, phone or write and tell 'em to knock it off. Remind them of their social responsibilities. Also let them know that now would be a good time for them to turn over a new leaf. It's never too late to start. Support free speech, not irresponsible speech.

            Hysteria never helps, but in finances, it will bring down the house.

            Outside of the market, what to do is pretty obvious. We don't draw out our money while it's in it's "smallest form". Hang tight and wait for these institutions to stop reeling. All of us rushing to the bank and taking out our money would cause problems that aren't there now. Plus, you know there'd be punks hanging out and waiting for people to do something that stupid. Presto. Instant robbery victims.

            Besides, Americans don't get hysterical. The media gets hysterical. Not us. Right after 9-11, it was the media that was scared. I didn't seen any scared people. I saw mad people.

              I know that some lenders are still lending. I'd like to know who they are. Reputable banks should be acknowleged so we know who to stick with in the future? We'll see.

               It seems that many of our illustrious lenders are holding their assets. Hm. These people know better. First they screw it up, now their jeopardizing all of our finances to try and protect their own sorry butts.

            I'd say that if these guys don't stop sweating their own, we'll demand their names and make certain their doors don't open again. "the people" have spies in every company. If they push it, someone will toss out the names. There's more good guys than bad in this world.

            Didn't they (government and media) say we need to stop getting so much on credit? Well, that sounds like good advice to start taking now. Let's get it loosened up but unless we really need it, let's not extend ourselves to the extremes. I apologize if you have already. I know how annoying what I just said must have been.

            Look. There are babies not even born yet that will be very rich someday. You may be behind, but you're still way ahead of them. So, just take it easy.

            I think those that lend think it will be harder on us than it actually will. They underestimate the hard times we've all been through.

Put these damn loan sharks on hold for a while even after things are loosened up.

            I vote for running 'em down and taking it out of their hides!

Just kidding. I just had to say that. Their hides aren't worth anywhere near what we need anyway.

            Remember, there's not enough money in the world to get me to lie to you or lead you astray. I have a retirement account. I'm not touching it. As a matter of fact, I'm just tossing the envelopes in a pile out of the way for a while.

            Yes. I'm angry. If you look through these pages, you'll notice I've been jumping up and down and screaming for some time now. Yes, headhunting will be a way of life for awhile. But not right this second. Make popcorn and watch the debates. Maybe you can make some fake bricks out of foam rubber to throw at the TV.

Rock steady…. Keep cool and keep your people cool.

Everything is going to be okay.

Sincerely,

The Political Stray

   Here's a thought to chew on for those of you that want to think. What kind of support, special support? will our Department of Justice need to go after the big lever-pullers  in this mortgage crisis? The laws are structured to protect those in high positions.

   Additionally, what kind of tools will our government need to recapture some of the money taken under false pretenses? Can it be done? A thought: don't we need to establish a perimeter to keep that money from leaving this country?         

   Money People - Sometimes Even Those You Respect, Get Off Track

               Steve Forbes was just doling out his financial wisdom on Fox this morning and towards the end of the segment, casually tossed out his opinion on Calfornia's financial distress.

              He said (laughing as he did)  that if California needs money it should allow offshore drilling.

             Setting aside (grudgingly) the effects of this idiotic sub-prime greed fest on such a large state, the constant attack on illegal immigrants without allowing for migrant farm workers, the big business mess made of health care and the casual regard for technological piracy by the U.S.'s so-called trading partners.

              I find Forbes's comment more than annoying. It speaks of the questionable priorities largely responsible for our economic difficulties today. It also is a chilling confirmation of what I suspect and fear is a determination to maintain the status quo by the business community and our financially questionable politicians.

             First, it ignores the financial value of the tourist industry. A lucrative business that allows for preservation of nature while at the same time, contributing to the economy. Would the big oil companies compensate the state for the loss? I doubt it.

             It also shows the all too typical disregard for not just our generation, but the generations that follow. The current crop of "Big Business" moguls determination to pave over America without a thought to ecological balance that isn't optional, but as real and neccesary as oxygen to the survival of the species - reflects the fallibility of this particular genus of business people. The results of their priorities are  now showing themselves in living color.

            America is not business naive. She was built on healthy thriving businesses that did not rely on silly and "creative" tricks that defied simple common sense.    

           A fine product at a fair mark up and the protection of our market as the valuable resource it is are the sweetly simple basics of  what to build a strong economic foundation of. Bricks and concrete are not pretty, but are beautiful to those that prefer a less volatile way of life.

           A protection of our market means just that. Don't tolerate invasion, undercutting, pricing greed or the use of as some kind of leverage tool by any branch of government.

            The Political Stray strongly urges today's businesses to reconsider their priorities and return to their roles as a vital part of a thriving economy. It's going to take all of us to get this country's economy, not just "off the ground", but to take it once again, to the stars.         

  Never Say Die,

  The Political Stray

                                    Was This Financial Crisis Predictable?        

                    The Political Stray is a firm believer in life having a "cyclical" nature to it. You could say that there's strong evidence that while changes certainly do occur, God may have left a lot of things on autopilot.  It just makes sense. An intelligent being wouldn't want to be constantly fussing with details.

                    Whether you agree with that or not is irrelevant. The point is, I started wondering if what is happening here had happened before. So I went hunting. The fact is, it has. As a matter of fact, Sweden and Finland experienced a similar crisis in the early nineties. They also developed a solution that would prove to be more effective than others attempted - including those similar to our bailout.

                     I'll post the basics of it once I do a little more reading. What troubles me is that Former Senator Gramm had such a heavy hand in the writing of the law that allowed the damage -- then he went to work for a swiss bank when he "retired' from the Senate.

                      Just thought I'd give you something to chew on while you waited.

                    That is in no way an attempt to blame all of this on one man. There is much blame to go around. Nonetheless, there are going to be figures that pulled important levers and that needs to be addressed. (unless we are as foolish as our press and advertisers consistently portray us)

  Till A Wee Bit Later,

   The Political Stray

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

                       The Government (non-Library of Congress) Link to the Bill

                                                                 Here

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

The House Passed the Bill 

                   I'm now so angry that I'm in danger of throwing the laptop through the television screen. I will come back later and give you your stats on how your reps voted.

Signing Off.

 #$$%&*!!*@,

 The Political Stray

                                      Masters of Fact Twisting and Distortion

            As I write this, last night's V.P. debate and the "Big Bailout" are all over the moring news.

            To be honest with you, what I'm hearing and seeing reminds me of what I heard and saw during the Michigan-Florida fiasco.

            For those of you that are tired , I'll put it in a nutshell:

            The blatant attempts of the media to manipulate how we feel about the bailout and the results of the debate are nothing short of nauseating.

             However, compared with the behavior of our Congress, it's pretty tame. Think of it. The house voted. The big bailout didn't pass. The Senate voted. They passed the bailout with a comfortable margin. End of story, right? Wrong. Now we hear that the house will vote again and that the house won't even bring it to a vote unless they've got enough votes to pass it.

            Let me get this straight. They get keep asking until they get the answer they want? And how we feel is irrelevant?

            Great. The day the house didn't pass the bill, the Dow dropped. Yes. By the highest margin ever – however, percentage-wise, it didn't even hit the top ten.

            Show us the money. Meaning, tell us which lenders aren't lending. From what I hear, many lenders are lending, they have just returned to previous standards. They are lending money to those that can pay it back.

            If this whole thing does cause "a run on banks", it will be more because our media and politicians have been screaming that the house is on fire. Is there anyone out there that doesn't know that this can cause the Dow to crash?

             If this bill was such a good idea, those promoting it wouldn't hesitate to give us the details of why or to legally ensnare solid positive results. 

   Ask them HOW MUCH they capped the exec salaries at.

   Ask them if the Senate added "sweetners" that were already up for vote that no one objected to or if there were unfunded "tax breaks" added to 'convince' them.

   Ask them if it will bail out foreign banks.

   Ask them if we will take unsecured loans like school loans and auto loans? How do they plan to get that money?

    Ask if there is any direct help to the people who's homes are being foreclosed on?

   Ask them if this will put our government in the business of foreclosure?

   Ask them how they plan to pay for this groundbreaking mental health amendment.

   Ask how much it will cost to administer it. They've already said "a few billion a year". Their words, not mine.

    Their idea of oversite is that Congress gets a report now and then?

                 Shockingly irresponsible. Infuriatingly irresponsible.

          Trust me. There won't be any investigation. Congress is responsible, but also in charge of any such investigation. Brilliant, hm?

            Yesterday, we heard over and over that there are people in the house and senate "twisting arms" to get votes for the bailout.  I ask you, what makes you think Americans are running this country?

            If as many of you feel the way I do, some photographers should be at both the Senate and the House to document the day(s) so many of them ended their careers.

            I remind you that the public sent messages about how they felt to Congress. They got over 82,000 votes. Those votes ran 91% to 9% AGAINST.

            For those of you that feel your reps are ignoring you, your complaints are now justified.

            Congress counts on you forgetting all of this by the time an election comes around. If you do, then at least you'll be reminded of why you are ignored.

            I want to remind all of you that the lenders, the people that have been ripping us off like no one else are demanding this money. The lobbyists are setting the terms. It's 750 BILLION dollars. As this has been going on, while you weren't looking, the Feds have already been pouring billions into the "global economy" without so much as batting an eyelash in your direction. No. That's in addition to the bailouts you already knew about.

            May I remind you that these lenders have set the terms and made no promises. Our legislature has also, thus far, left the laws wide open for this to continue as well. Repeat: we've been given no details and no promises. Don't lenders usually sign hard line contracts? How much are these lenders charging our kids for student loans? Maybe that same rate would be appropriate.

            If you're feeling as angry and helpless as I am right now, then I suggest you do exactly as I plan to do. Remember it at voting time. If your reps were active and promoting this, I'd suggest a power move. Impeach them.

            If we don't slap down the people we are paying over $160,000 (plus health care and retirement) a year right now, then maybe we deserve anything we get.

Is the House on Fire?

You decide,

The Political Stray   

     Vice-Presidential Debate     

                           Well, what did you think? I'm going to reserve some of my opinion because I need to read the transcript. I can't operate on all eight cylinders, meaning filtering the politician double-talk for that long. Nonetheless, I think Senator Biden took it by a longshot. He's really comfortable in his own skin, hm? 

                      Governor Palin did better than I thought she might though. I find myself feeling sorry for her. No, not for her competence. I think she's competent enough, but she's working under a serious handicap having to parrot McCain's gig. I'd like to see her sometime on her own. I think she'll be a serious candidate for a serious position in our government someday.  I'd consider supporting her. At least I'd hear her out. She's only going to improve with time and experience as long as she stay true to herself.

               I'll check back if I find anything interesting. In the meantime, the transcript of the debate has it's own page.

Watching and Listening,

The Political Stray

Did'ja see Charlie Rose last night?

His guests were:

Mark Halperin - Time Magazine

Coki Roberts

Katty Kay BBC News America

Doris Kearns Goodwin - Presidential Historian

Connie Schultz - Cleveland Plain Dealer

                All of his guests were going on about the negligence of our House of Reps for not approving this bailout none of us want. I wonder what they think the Representatives in "House of Representatives" are supposed to be representing.

               If, there is something difficult to do, Americans don't need the "right presentation". We aren't idiots. We need facts. That something no one has offered us yet. Nor have we been given any other acknowledgement or respect. We are ignored by the media and the politicians.

               No doubt, on some "poll" in the future, when they hear that the public hates them and our current crop of politicians - they'll scratch their heads in puzzlement.

               Americans don't want this "hurry and fix it" after everyone just sat back and watched for years --- not saying a mumbling word.

               Their smugness in making these statements without telling us what they base their opinions on -- smacked of the kind of arrogance typical of Washington elites.

               Watching the show was like being stuck at a party with people you don't like -- the smugly overpaid that forgot where they came from.

               For the future Charley, how about some people that would have the facts about who's lending and who's not -- maybe even who might benefit from all of this money these people seem to think they have a right to. What companies didn't participate in this sub-prime rip-off and deserve our future business?

               I don't mean someone already invested in the mess either.

                Information, not Washington gossip.

               And by the way, when I  listen to this kind of criticism about American politicians, I don't want to hear it from someone with an accent.

               If I remember my history, isn't it generally considered irresponsible to shout "economic collapse" lest that create one?

               Then why are our media and politicians doing just that?

               I'll bet all of this really makes the middle east crave democracy, hm?

Shutting off the TV a little too late,

The Political Stray

                                                   Resisting the Bailout

              Obama needs to go deep on this bailout. It could make the Presidency his. The taxpayers are about to be raped again.

             Where are the reputable lenders and respectable wealthy on this? Why haven't they stepped up to the plate to help capitalism keep it's reputation? Do all of the wealthier business people want to be equated to those that profitted the most in this mortgage crisis and commodities market's mismanagement? Eventually, facts are peeled down to the truth. The guilty will be standing naked in a rainstorm. Would they be associated with them?

   Looking Around,

    The Political Stray           

Angry? I Passed Angry A Long Time Ago.

            For years our politicians have been ignoring us -- both in areas of how we feel and what we need to be safe. The briefest look through the legislation shows us that we've been paying  them to legislate against us. We really needn't even look through their legislation. Seeing what is happening to other Americans, courtesy of deregulation promoted by lobbyists that help them write our laws should be enough to tell us something is very, very wrong.

            We cannot get health care without insurance. When we have insurance, the price of it is ridiculously high. Many Americans have been thrown so deep into debt by medical expenses that they lose everything they have.

            Homes that have been in families for generations are being lost because a family member needed Medicaid before they died.

            The old and disabled are routinely killed by withdrawal of food and hydration as if they were no more than outdated machines without value.

            We are told the system we paid into all of our lives is going broke and that which is left is snidely referred to as "entitlements".

            Seniors are being forcibly removed from their homes and institutionalized. Their homes taken to pay for "the cost of their care". Their rights to make medical decisions or even get mail removed from them and given to strangers required only to take a class or two to qualify as a "guardian".

            Homebuyers are shocked when their house payments double or triple overnight and before they can blink, their homes are foreclosed on and they are left penniless after a lifetime of working hard.

            Pending decisions regarding issues that have tremendous effect on us are either being fed through the courts or decided by lobbyist-money-laden politicians that have suddenly gone deaf when it comes to our feelings about them.

            There appear to be separate laws for the wealthy and us. Loan sharking, murder by negligence, stealing assets from the public, spending the savings of the population, getting loans for people not born yet, destroying nature for profit, lying and misrepresenting the truth is critical situations, hiding crucial information, defaulting on business agreements are all ignored by the nations highest ranking law enforcement.

            Don't you wonder why the people responsible for our so-called mortgage crisis or our ever rising gas prices haven't been pursued, let alone prosecuted?

            Although the solutions have been made more than clear by experts, legislators have not fixed these serious problems yet. Yet the public wanders along, oblivious to the fact that bills are written to placate them that never see the light of day, let alone the President's desk.

            Now, as if to intentionally add insult to injury, we are being asked to bailout major lenders, no doubt many of them will be the very ones whose greed caused our mortgage crisis. Of course we don't know which ones will be aided yet. For a mere 750 Billion dollars. They couldn't afford to take care of our health, but they think we can afford this bailout? After all of this talk about "reigning in spending"?!

            We are not being asked to help these people. We are being TOLD we're helping these people. Those negotiating for "our side" have gotten the high salaries of executives "capped" at the equivalent of our President's salary.

            At first they asked that the people losing their homes get their loans looked at by bankruptcy judges, but we are now being told they agreed to drop this "demand".

            Boy, it's a good thing these people don't do all our deals for us, huh? Wait a minute. They do. That explains a lot, doesn't it?

First they say we're overextended and need to stop buying things on credit, now we'll fall apart if we don't get a lot more?

            This gargantuan, but stupid monster called "free market" or big business is killing thousands of us and has effectively "greeded" itself half to death. Now they want us to fix them? Politicians promise to have sex with big business, then bend us over.

            Let them both burn in the same hell they've put us in.

            Consider all of this when you vote or impeach. Then demand to know why they and the authors of legislation that has hurt us aren't being investigated. Immunity has to have it's limits. Until those responsible for all of this are jailed, we're not open for negotiation. Not enough jails? We'll make a special allowance to build some. Or maybe we can just release some pot smokers/pushers to make room for these people that are a whole lot more dangerous to us all.

 Simmering, but with 20-20 vision,

  The Political Stray            

              Who Voted How on the "Big Bailout"   votes

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

          Private Message to "Not Fooled":

           No. I don't have any houses in foreclosure. I don't have to be affected to care about other people that are, you miserable self-centered little rat.

            Do you?

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

        Hold Onto Your Hats Folks, The Big Bucks Folks are Going to Crank Down

                                        on Pushing a Bailout                        

             Stand your ground. Keep on Top of Your Reps and

                                  Take Notes on Who You Can Trust in the Media.

           The Whitehouse is going to search for other "creative" ways to get our money to these people. We pay them, Right? They work for us. Right. Hmmm...

             Take names folks. Just keep writing them down. Who's lyin' to you? Send 'em and if need be, we'll post them.

Power to the People

The Political Stray

                                                   Correction

                    The Political Stray apologizes to you and to Senator Dodd. We said earlier that he wrote one of the Phil Gramm-like bills that opened us up for the mortgage crisis. That was incorrect. He wrote one of the bills that opened up our Commodities Market and had a major impact on our escalated gas prices.

                     Sorry Senator.

 House Rejects Bailout 228 to 206

      A sluggish response to voters 91% to 9% against the bill. (82,000 messages to Congress -- number from Congress.org) But let's keep a watchful eye here. Whether it passed or not, you can still figure out something about your reps by how they voted.

        I'll find thevote and post it for you on the bailout page and politician watch.

  Until later,

   The Political Stray

                                               Keep Your Eye on the Ball

                 Did I just see that some folks are having to stand in line for gas? What's up with that? I'll go hunting for that answer.

    Ta,

      TPS

From Congress.org

SHOULD CONGRESS BAILOUT WALL STREET TO HELP MAIN STREET?

 The Bush Administration proposes a $700 billion bailout to restore confidence in the economic system so banks start lending again. Without that, many other banks and businesses (and the jobs and mortgages) will fail they say. Critics say we shouldn't reward their bad decisions. Democrats say the plan needs oversight, homeowner protections and caps on executives' salaries. What do you think? Act quickly as the Administration wants a vote within days. Consider a hand delivered letter with Extra Impact. Start by picking your view in our Action Poll. (86,134 messages thus far) 

9% say I Support the $700 Billion Mortgage Bailout
91% say I Oppose the $700 Billion Mortgage Bailout
 

 -------------------------------

List of Lenders

             Has our illustrious Congress bothered to get a list of lenders that stopped lending and a list of those that did NOT stop lending? Can we assume that somewhere there is a list of lenders that participated in the destructive behavior?

             I know that some lenders avoided the whole thing like it was a live scorpion salad. Ditto for investment houses. So I hear anyway. Do we have any figures on this or is Congress doing it's usual singing, dancing and bad business practice?

 (sigh)

  Am I being unreasonable again?

  The Political Stray

The Cost of Impeachment?

September 28, 2008

Check this out-got it from CBS's news site:

At the insistence of House Republicans, some of the program's $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.

             Is it my imagination or would this effectively guarantee that this would be a purely negative cash flow for us? It filters the loans even more in order to make sure we cover only the absolute worst?

         Are they still contemplating picking up the auto and school loans too? In other words, non-secured? And the foreign bank loans? Including no doubt, Phil Gramm's employer.

         It's not difficult to tell that the people arranging this are also those that favor "free trade" deals that rape the American workforce and pocketbook.

          We might be better off importing our leaders from Russia or Iran. Maybe North Korea or China. At least then it wouldn't be so shocking.

           Does anyone have a list of congress people that are NOT coming up for election?

             Would impeachment cost us less than this bill? I suspect creating helpful androids from the ground up would cost us less than this bill.

            In all of history, has a complete clearing out of both the House and Senate ever happened? 

 Nothing surprises us anymore?

 The Political Stray

To You Knowlege Gathering Folks:

        I keep hearing about a "Community Reinvestment Act" that some are blaming for the mortgage crisis. I can't find it. I find lots of bills with that name, but nothing that made it to the President to be signed. Is there anyone out there that know the bill number of this one?

        A bill, in and of itself cannot change the order of things. All too often, bills are written knowing they will never pass, in order to placate voters.

       As far as I know, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act S.900  (the law that gutted the Glass-Stegall law) is the culprit. That's why I've placed it and it's signators on the mortgage legislation page.

        In all fairness though, many bills were written in an attempt to protect the public from the negative effects of this law. You may be shocked by how many were just thrown to a committee, never to be seen again. Remember, I said, not all of our congress is bad.

Check the "attempts to help" page or go to the Library of Congress and do a search on things like "predatory lending" and "mortgage".

Let me know if you know,

The Political Stray

Are You As Curious As I Am?

             I find myself wondering if the next President is going to tackle the root causes of these financial problems. That would fly in the face of the "masters" of a significant percentage of our congress, the heavy hitters in political campaign contributors and a fat slice of this country's wealthy.

Something to watch anyway. Considering McCain's history, if it's him, probably not. Obama? Well, he's got backbone. I guess it depends on how sincerely he wants to change America for the better.

              I wonder if Vegas is taking bets on this.

Musing again,

(You can only stay mad for so long)

The Political Stray

Did you watch the Debate?

Me too.

I don't know about you but I don't feel particularly comforted by either man's presence. Too much of it was just repetition of material we've all heard over and over.

What I found troubling was the post-debate analysis. Just like the previous debates, it left you wondering if they saw the same people you did. Sometimes the promotion of agendas is enough to make you gag.

Did you search for performance that confirmed what you wanted to see? Yeah. I think I did too:

John McCain kept going off on tangents. He always seems surrounded by a block of foam rubber. Some people are fogged in. He seems more "foam rubbered" in.

See?

I won't "analyze" the debate for you. You have eyes and ears. Not to mention a lot of other people willing to do it for you.

I don't know how you'd get around this, but the questions seemed to evoke the same tired stories and responses. It left me feeling like I do when I'm really hungry and I go into a health food store.

            This just isn't going to make it.

Maybe theoretical situation questions? Perhaps asking about particularly poor votes in the Senate? I don't know. There must be a way.

            We don't need word games. We need a sense of what these men are about.

            They say that John McCain has a better sense of foreign policy than Obama. I think they both suck there. My idea of the perfect foreign policy is the one that pulls up America's bridges and applies pressure to her bleeding. To hell with what others think of us and above all, the unfair to Americans trade deals stop immediately. Iraq gets served notice on paying their own way, and the multitude of countries we send so much money too are just going to have to rely on their own self-sufficient natures. Perhaps over due revolutions will finally get under way.

            American corporations located in other countries get a five year notice that a "make it there, sell it there" policy will be starting.

Let's rebuild America. Think of the investment opportunities.

            The American market is an enormous resource. It's our resource. Not that of those we pay to work for us. Maybe it's time to sit down with the unions and big companies and tell them to stop shooting themselves and each other in the foot. They both have to be realistic because what's happening now isn't working. It's a matter of priorities. If we wanted to get average people into housing, maybe working with the construction people and land owners would have been a better start then deregulation.

            I think we need to make it illegal to incorrectly attribute the causes of America's big problems. There is so much deception going on that it clearly indicates that our politicians and other leaders value their own success more highly than America's. The end result is a confused public that hasn't got the accurate information needed to make good decisions.

            Even now, now that we see the results of all of the sneaky behind the scenes legislation. Even now, a month before the election, the same people are up front telling the same lies and doing absolutely nothing to help the dilemma they've created for us all. In fact, now they're asking us to fund our violators.

            Will they get away with it again? Still? That's up to us, isn't it?

            Well, I guess we got through the debate alright. We can return our attention to the fact that there are some serious problems in our country right now and we are getting set up by the very same people to be the victims again. Can't let thieves stay outta jail or they keep stealing, eh?

            The first thing you and I need to change is US. We're left out of it and we allow ourselves to be ignored. Until we start behaving like real Americans that run their own country, nothing is going to change.

            That's what we need to get a handle on.

Why don't  the real lenders come forward and we can all get some work done. It's time to let the free market system work, right? Are there any honest people still left in that business or have they all succumbed?

See you soon,

The Political Stray

September  26, 2008

 Listen Carefully. Trust No One.

                 Don't buy it when the Whitehouse rep said that we are dealing with an antiquated financial regulation system as if that was where all of these financial problems started. That's inaccurate. There were regulatory rules set in the 30's and 40's.

                    The problems stem from the REMOVAL of those rules in 1999 and 2000.

                   (The actual laws are listed under the gas price and mortgage  pages here)

Now you know.

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

 Hi Folks,

             Lot's of new stuff about the big bailout of course. Just wanted to remind you not to take your eye off the ball when it comes to energy bills. This is when congress gets sneaky. When we're distracted.

Sincerely Concerned,

The Political Stray

The Usual Suspects

           Am I the only one that's astonished that the one's that appear to be speaking for Congress and having a serious hand in this bailout are the one's most involved in the deregulation that allowed all of this to go down?

           Chris Dodd actually wrote one version of the Gramm bill that opened the door. Barney Franks has been up to his alligator in the finance industry and zealously guarding the interests of the finance and construction people since day one.

           Go to the washingtonpost.com and do a search on their votes. Do a search on your own Congressman and Senator while you're at it.

              Also, be sure and keep notes on the "advice" that's being given out by some of the so called experts. You need to know who you can trust and you need to start holding people accountable for their words.

               Apply that to our energy bill too. Keep track so you know who you're paying to lie to you and protect the already obscenely wealthy.

                Don't take my word for any of this. This site teaches you how to get this information for yourself. Use it. If you don't pursue truth and act on it, then you better not complain when you're warehoused in poverty in some "piss and pine cleaner" home for your "golden years". If you think a healthy savings will protect you, you better think twice. That just makes you a more succulent target.

With Raised Brow, 

The Political Stray 

September 24, 2008

John McCain's Rush to Washington

            Didja hear? John McCain just cancelled his campaigning to rush back to Washington to "help" work this economic thing out. He's challenging Obama to do the same.

            (laughing) Jeeze. What's do they take us for? Village idiots?

            I'm sure McCain's announcement made those that are financially uneasy feel more secure. This stunt might be easier to swallow if John McCain had the vaguest grasp of basic economics. He's not going to call in his old buddy, Phil Gramm, is he?

            For those of you that don't know, the man that McCain initially chose as an economic adviser played a huge part in the deregulation that has permitted both the mortgage crisis and gas price escalation we all struggle with today. Maybe only a Phil Gramm can figure out exactly where the weak spots were woven in, although I doubt that.

            Wanna know what I think?

            I think this may have more to do with the debates and/or John McCain's weak history in the area of distress today, Wall Street economics. Will the appearance of "caring" to an extreme make up for actions that indicate caring for big business, and disregard for the regular man? I doubt it. Americans have been here all along.

            As far as debates go, I still cringe when I think of the McCain -  Romney "debate".

Questions:

            Why did lenders stop lending? Who says they stopped lending? Did they all stop at the same time? What about the ones that didn't participate in the mortgage mess? Any chance this was some kind of mass manipulation?

             Not to be skeptical or anything, it's not like these people have shown any potential for dishonesty before...but I believe the powers that be better make it clear that anyone suspected of market manipulation or worse, swindling the American people by witholding loans--better be ready for whatever follows to make sure they are as innocent as the portray themselves.

             One way to put might be...whatever you are doing on Monday, you had better be prepared to continue doing for a long time. If you have money you aren't loaning because you're working to gain an advantage, you might wanna find another way to make a living. Once you're released, of course.

Another Question:

            Is Paulson's performance here better than his performance for America in China? Not exactly what I'd call a patriot. (Go here . Type Paulson in the search box.)

  Color me suspicious,

   The Political Stray 

Watching From Here

           What a superb example of democracy and capitalism we are setting for those countries that we are trying to convince to consider it.

            We, the people did nothing as our lawmakers opened holes through which the financially souless entered to rob the public. Now we are not even being asked as these same lawmakers saddle the next generations with enormous debt in order to help the very same thieves and loan sharks.

            Where are the prosecutors? Did all lenders participate? Where are those that did not? Do you know how much YOUR rep participated? Where are the constitutional lawyers?

              All it takes for evil to succeed is for the good people to do nothing.

              They put Martha in jail for lying. They put Scooter in jail for lying. Who puts them in jail for lying and stealing?

Is it true then? We get the government we deserve.

Feeling Jaded,

The Political Stray

Research in Progress: The Super Bailout

            We're all trying to get a handle on this "Super Bailout". Here's a place where some significant thoughts are offered by someone that might "get it".  If you see any other good links to honest sources for ordinary people, please send them in so we can post them.

            The first politician out of the gate speaking for this idea was Kyl. Why does that make me uneasy?

(see Politician Watch)

The Political Stray

At Last! 

 Just as the Political Stray promised:

Full vote records for both Presidential Candidates! Download and get the lowdown. Then next time the b.s. comes on the tube, you can change the channel!      

                                        Votes page                                                                                    

The Economy: Who Do They Think They're Kidding?

            I'm amazed by the massive amount of fairy tales we are getting from both the media and some politicians.

            The term "brass balls" must have come about when someone was dealing with a situation like what John McCain's camp is trying to pull off. John McCain has been one of the worst I've seen for blindly voting in favor of big business. I'm posting John McCain's votes. You take a look. You'll quickly see that he voted in favor of big business most of the time and voted against legislation that would help the ordinary man.

            The error here was compounded by the fact that he didn't seem to understand when some of this legislation's effects was little more than a license to steal. I'm not giving you details in the interest of brevity here. The details are throughout this site, including links to other sites just in case you don't trust me either. It doesn't matter how you research it, just research it through a non-biased/pro-public source.

            My first instinct is to just blame the republicans for this mess, but that would make me as bad as those that are telling some of the stories out there.

            Don't blame it on either party. Blame it on both. Don't just blame Bush. The serious legislation that took the rules from the finance folks was enacted during both repubican and democratic leadership. The politicians that vote against legislation that helps us and for that which allows the rip off of us all must be taken out, regardless of their parties.

            Blaming the president alone for this mess ignores the fact that legislation is the job of Congress. It was their duty to protect us. Do you feel protected?

            In a financial magazine I was skimming over the other day, I read "Morality is a Luxury". Great, huh? That's big business for you.

Well, I submit that we can no longer afford the luxury of blind loyalty to political parties or any other group.

To be frank, if it were up to me, those members of Congress that consistently voted against our best interest should have to undergo serious financial investigations.

            The key term is DEREGULATION. Remember it. It's important.

            In the depression era, many weak points were discovered and fixed in our economy. Rules were developed to protect the American people. Over the last ten or twelve years, those rules were quietly written out.

All in all, the American people are being sold a bill of goods, big time, when it comes to why things are the way they are today.

            The gas price situation is being treated as if more drilling were a key, when the reason for gas prices being so high is yet again, financial people using the commodities markets improperly.

            The deregulation of the financial industry was written into our laws and many legislators were well aware of the dangers it posed. In response, legislation was regularly submitted that would either help fix it or at least warn the people. It was voted down or got sent to the dead zone, "to committee".

            When the media does nothing to tear the paper away from the truth, does that mean they know and are part of the bull or does it just mean they don't do their homework? Either way, the results are the same. The money people have their hands in the public exposure of the truth, all the way up to their elbows.

            So where does that leave us folks?

            I'll tell you where: in big trouble.

            We cannot make decisions without adequate and accurate information. Period.

            So what do we do about it?

            My suggestion? Find out how YOUR reps voted on the important financial bills I've listed in the areas of gas prices, home mortgage and politician watch. Check them out and if they were a part of it, vote them out.

            America needs to find reps that want to straighten out this mess and legislate to care for the people. The basic fact that if we have no money, no one else can make money either --- has escaped the ones we have. Well, some of them. Too many of them.

            Business doesn't have to rape the public to succeed. America has always been about business, but this isn't business. We have been witnessing legalized stealing.

            We cannot relent. We cannot trust our leadership or our media right now.

            Make up your own mind – just do something. You'll be surprised by how much better you'll feel.

The Political Stray

                                                                                 September 13, 2008

Dear Senator McCain,

You say you're on the side of the people. Then why do you go on about drilling without so much as mentioning the effect that the lack of regulation in the Commodities Markets has had on gas prices? 

Have you been a Senator so long that the truth simply doesn't matter anymore?

Or do you think we are so stupid, we just won't understand anyway?

Change, my eye...

 Grrr...

 The Political Stray

Dear Senator Obama,

I would've liked your acceptance speech more if it were less "promising me the moon and the stars" and more being willing to run to the grocery store for me.

Rolling eyes, 

The Political Stray

DNC Transcripts

Obama's Acceptance Speech

Hillary Clinton's Speech

Michele Obama's Speech

Ted Kennedy's Speech

Joe Biden's Speech

It's Those Little Things That Get You 

Did you hear John McCain when he couldn't remember how many houses he has? (chuckle) His campaign manager must have fainted on the spot. This is so typical of those leading the country now. Whether it's politicians or judges, too many of them live in silk cocoons and it's all too easy for them to legislate against those of us that don't. That's where we get laws that make loan-sharking legal for big business and illegal for the common citizen.

Do you think it's okay for the rich and powerful to have different rules than we do? What do you think our forefathers would say about that?

Follow your political reps votes. Stay on them. We MUST get the bad ones out of there.

I still have nightmares about McCain getting elected and using ex-senator Gramm as a money manager. Can you imagine? The one person most responsible for our economic disasters in this country?! The nightmare ends when I dream that I wake up and everything is gone.

    Drinking lots of coffee to stay awake,

     The Political Stray

Did You Miss the Saddleback (Rick Warren) Q & A of the Presidential Candidates? 

Here's the transcript:

http://www.rickwarrennews.com/docs/Certified_Final_Transcript.pdf

                  It was interesting but I didn't get any significant new info from it. Maybe you will. It was more biased than I'd anticipated. For some reason, I thought Rick Warren would rise above attempting to tell us how we feel or pandering to his inhouse audience. Well, we're all human I guess. He means well.

The Political Stray is Pro-Choice. (gasp) This forum demonstrated nicely the disconnectedness of the pro-life movement (some of them) from harsh realities. It was fairly obvious that Rick Warren is pro-life, as we might expect. No problem. What seemed odd is that he is promoting an outreach for orphans. Did he even notice that the two positions could be in conflict?

Are we the only ones that have noticed that a true opposite position in the prochoice - prolife issue would be that if prolifers can tell a woman not to have an abortion, then the prochoice people should be able to tell the prolifers when they should.

"Look honey, we've all decided that you're husband is an idiot and we don't think he should be reproduced."

(laughing)

Yes, that's extreme, but it is the true opposite.

By the way, the Political Stray is against late term abortions unless the mother's life is in danger.

Here we don't buy the concept that one must hold extreme views in order to protect our basic position. That's nonsense.

We need to agree to disagree here and then ask ourselves why our politicians (with a lot of help from our media) are concentrating so much on old issues and not covering their positions/intentions on the home mortgage crisis, health care and the economy. Didn't they think we'd notice?

   Suspicious,

   The Political Stray

August 16, 2008

Obama on Energy

August 4, 2008

            Did you see Obama's speech on energy this morning? No. Of course not, you were at work. I put it up on the "Obama Rama" page.

            Media's already trying to blur it. Obama has had a good handle on what our gas price problem is for some time. I was relieved that he knew it was people buying up oil like it's some kind of new technology to make a buck off of - that's at the heart of it all.  (that's "speculation" see "How much?")

           He did say he would agree to more drilling, if that's what it would take to get some decent legislation out about it.

          You know how strongly PS feels about this violation of everyman to benefit the rich.  Needless to say, I'd have preferred he stood stubborn on this one, but I suppose he has to go along to some degree. 

          I don't. I say these greedy little first-born-child-sellers should be told where they can drill and with what. But that's just my opinion. I don't have to get votes.

           Some of his other ideas were certainly interesting. I wonder what the economy people wil have to say about them. Are there any non-biased economists out there?

                   I'll keep my eye out and get back to you.

  Hang tight and keep a wary eye,

  The Political Stray

 President Clinton - Nasty, Small-Minded Gossips Don't Change the Facts

          Did you see the main stream media today as it splashed about clips of Bill Clinton saying he's not a racist? Their little forked tongues flicked madly as they implied that the President was nearly a commitable racist. Get the nets....heh heh...

           He's not a racist. If there were ever a professional nonracist, it would be Bill Clinton. Give me a bloody break. He has never even been close to being a racist. He and Hillary supported the black community long before it was cool to do so.  

          He may have worded something so that it  could be misunderstood or at least easily twisted by the polymer paid-to-talk-not-think folks, but those of us that really aren't racists don't feel the need to delicately choose our words.

           Poor memories and worse loyalties do not change facts. Mm-hm. That's what I said and that's what I mean. He bent over backwards for what he percieved as a persecuted people, I don't. Mostly because being the child or grandchild of a persecuted people doesn't get you one iota of slack from me.

           The media intentionally manipulated nearly every thing he said in his attempts to support his wife for President, successfully making him appear a little unstable.

            By the way, most of what they cut was directed at their poor performance in covering the primaries.  Don't believe me? Ask them to publish all of the President's remarks in context, complete context. Dare 'em, even.

           But don't bet the farm on them doing it, hm?

His criticism, just so you know, was right on the money.

Not all of us are easily manipulated.

   Gagging on the Blatant Deception,

    The Political Stray

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

This organization will help you "see the light" about your reps - if we gave medals, we'd give one here. Memorize it. Learn. Get mad and just don't take it anymore.

http://www.opensecrets.org/ 

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

Beware of Congressional Compromises!

            A "gang" of ten is a good name for those that came up with this latest idea of energy legislation. I wonder if they have their own colors. Perhaps something in a nice black mask? Or would a single stocking to place over their heads suffice?

            Beware of Congressional compromises. They'll keep you in the poorhouse.

            What if someone knocked on your door and when you opened it, it was some guy with a wife and six kids who then proceeded to enter your house to move in --- when you called the police they told you to wait until a judge decided what would be a fair compromise ---then the judge decided, to be fair, you could have the front of your house and the new guy could have the rooms in the rear?

            Behold. You have "compromised".

            Would that be fair? Well, that's the kind of legislation we've been getting. The two side's "compromises" are giving us legislation that are anything but what is best for us.

            I don't want @#$%!! compromises. I want what is best for the American public. Period!

            We have to heighten our awareness of quiet legislation, it's there we are getting rooked like babes at a carnival. Congress passes laws behinds our backs and when we get caught in the moving blades of those laws and complain, they thunder,

            "We are a nation of laws…"

            Grrrr…

            We are a nation of PEOPLE. Voting people. They would do well to remember that.

            We are law abiding, but we demand that the laws be just. For that, we need high caliber law makers committed to us, nothing else. We need legislators that will reinstate the regulations that would have prevented both the high gas prices and the mortgage mess. Yes. It was all set at one point and our congress changed it.

            They deregulated many things with the rallying cry of "freedom from government interference". We, the public bought it hook, line and sinker. Know that many of these laws changed were insisted upon by Roosevelt, the man that helped lift us out of the depression. 

            We shouldn't have to defend ourselves from those we pay to manage things. I encourage all of you to shake your head and reject the "razzle-dazzle-baffle-them-with-bull" nonsense spewed by the double-chinned suits.

            If it were up to the political stray, we would be heating tar and searching for those that permitted it all – not the least of which is former Senator Gramm. Beyond that, we would be seizing the assets of all government lawmakers that benefited from this and other laws that kept this legislation in place too. In that the deregulation violated Congress's and the President's constitutional obligation to care for us, these laws were never valid in the first place.

            Why do we allow intentionally confusing legislation become law? The law should be simple and crystal clear. The constitution is readable. Our forefathers warned us about unclear laws.

            The law must be readable and easily understood by those that are ruled by it.

            For those of you that are new to watching our lawmakers, let me clue you to something else. Under pressure, these guys will write bills for anything. It makes for a fine show and frequently, the people, thinking the matter is nearly settled, go away. The bills more often than not, either don't make it out of "committee" or are so objectionable, they know they will be voted down.

            For example, let's say I'm a congressman and my family is mad because I'm not providing enough household money. To appease them, I will write a bill that says they will get twice my annual salary. Somewhere within that bill, I will include a little stipulation that says this will take effect after my landlord gets rid of his little dog. Now, I know my landlord loves his little dog more than he loves his wife. So, I'm in no danger of this ever being passed. Get it?

            Come election time, I'm covered because I tried, right?

            Now, many of you know that more drilling isn't going to make much if any difference in the price of gas, right? If not, check the "how much?" page.

            What do we need to help us with our energy prices? We need congress to stop the oil speculators. NOW. The exact steps to do so were given to them by experts in a four-part senate hearing. Now ask yourself (and them) why they aren't following through.

            The pro-big oil members of congress keep beating the "drill more" drum and don't stop the speculators. Let me ask you again, what is the real problem here?

            Could it be that the media and some of our congress rally in favor of big oil rather than the American public? Would it be smart to assume that this is only happening in energy?

            Check the politician watch page. I'm adding the "gang of ten" to it now.

            Are you a voter in charge of any of them? If you are, maybe it's time to do a little checking, hm?

Mad as a hornet,

The Political Stray

If I Couldn't See It With My Own Eyes, I Wouldn't Believe It!

            The primary problem with oil prices today stems from financial investors investing in our "commodities" as if they were ordinary stocks. This was clearly revealed in a four-part congressional hearing. See "How Much?!" for info and links.

            President Roosevelt said in a message to Congress on February 9, 1934,

            "It should be our national policy to restrict, as far a possible, the use of these exchanges for purely speculative operations."

            Following that, preventative measures were put in place.

            Then, on December 15, 2000 former Sen. Phil Gramm slipped "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" into other legislation that was sure to pass. It was written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar.

            This removed regulation and created what would come to be known as the "Enron Loophole".

            Former Senator Gramm was a major force behind deregulation that would allow not just our current oil prices, but that which was at the heart of legislation that would allow the subprime mortgage crisis to happen.

            The Senator is now with a Swiss Bank and advises John McCain on economics.

            WHAT?!

            Exactly.

            Senator McCain, you might wanna dump this one.

            How people like this justify themselves to themselves is beyond me. I assume that Mr. Gramm is quite certain that there will be no "judgement day".

            Do a search on Mr. Gramm. Read about him. Then take a good look at the Senate/Congress and see if you're happy with the way that they protected you from his legislating.

            I particularly draw your attention to who the investors are in oil commodites. Might be you. Might be me. Might be our government?!

            A little research will also tell you that off shore oil drilling isn't going to have much effect on oil prices for you and me. (Although, If I were a speculator in oil commodities, I'd probably dump it if and when off shore drilling is approved so it appeared that offshore drilling actually made a difference.)

Gee, It sounds like I don't trust the people in charge of all of this, doesn't it?

Peoples, I strongly recommend that you check to see what your Senators and Congressmen are doing in this crisis. It's a peach for showing you just exactly who and what they care about.

With Amazement and Affection,

The Political Stray

Tony Snow Loses His Heroic Battle With Cancer, but Not Without Damaging His Opponent

          It is with great sadness that we learn that Tony Snow has died. He was one of the journalists we liked. Tony taught us all not to give up the moment we heard the word "cancer". 

           Tony took a job as White House Press Rep and to this day, landing him remains one of the Government's better moves.  Before that of course, Tony was a long time journalist whose cheerful demeanor often made it a lot easier to swallow news that was decidedly uncheering.

            The world is a lesser place without some people in it. Tony was one of those people.

            Our hearts go out to his family and friends. Tony was a credit to the profession of journalism.

  Sincerely,

  The Political Stray 

The Huffington Post – The Political Stray Breaks It's Silence

             The citizen journalist. Who better to convey the end results of policies and decisions made in the insulated world of Washington D.C.? It is ultimately "we the people" who must live with and abide by them.

             As a living testament to the limitations of the citizen journalist, we have the Huffington Post. A place where diamonds-in-the-rough mistakenly align themselves with those that have a tendency towards a callous misalignment of facts.

             Never have the aims of the Huffington Post been more obvious than when it chose to attack Tony Snow immediately following his death. No doubt they saw themselves as brave and trail-blazing as they ignored the custom of allowing history to record both the positive and negative of a man's accomplishments.

             Instead,  Huffington Post aficionados immediately used his death as an occasion to sound off at the expense of the feelings of  Tony Snow's family, friends and not incidentally, the truth.

             In doing so, the Huffington Post revealed their true nature: a loose collection of "bitter and angry" souls who, instead of clinging to "guns and god", cling to self aggrandizement and the "fun" obtained when misinformation degrades into a group sport of inflicting cruelty.

             We encourage those with talent to abandon this conglomeration of those who do not respect the kindest of traditions and that lack the mental capacity to understand the power of their own words.

Sincerely,

The Political Stray

Congressional Approval Ratings

No Foul, No Harm?         

         I was watching one of our Senators being interviewed on a news show the other night.

        The host asked him what he thought of congress's historically low approval ratings from the public and if he thought that anyone in Congress or the Senate was afraid of losing his job.

His response was -- words to the effect:

"Congress's approval rating doesn't matter. It's who or what they have to run against that matters."

      Hm. There's a lot of truth in that. To a point.

               That point would be when the public is so angry that

         they don't care who wins as long as it isn't you.

The Political Stray

http://thepoliticalstray.com

Americans: Beware of Your "Experts":

            Demand experts that have credentials or at least something to lose by lying. The wave of inaccurate "reports" cleverly designed to confuse you about why your gas prices are so high are popping up in magazines from Slate Magazine to Newsweek.

            For an example, go to your favorite search engine and type in "Slate" and "speculator". This should take you the article "Don't Blame Oil …ya da"

            See "How Much?!" for what's actually happening, including links to take you to the real experts.

            Don't take my word for it. Demand solid information. Then use your brain.

            Boycott publications that print these deceptive articles at the expense of the public. Well, after you tell them how you feel of course.

Disgusted,

The Political Stray

     Medicare and Doctor Related

         Many of you  know that Medicare payments to doctors have been cut.

 I didn't. I do now.

 Democrats are trying to repeal that cut.

 Republicans are fighting that.

            Some politicians are snidely reminding groups representing doctors that they might have a "long memory".

            Grrrr.

           My question is who gave these politicians the right to throw our weight around? The Political Stray hates this kind of thing and as we speak, the hair on our backs rises and our feathers fluff. The restraint required to keep from using epithets here may send the Political Stray to a doctor right now.

            Don't misunderstand. Our nation's doctors are one of the primary professions in the future "Political Stray Doghouse".

            For right now though, one thing I do know is that our nation's doctors get paid so poorly through our government that some of them can't or won't even take medicare.

           It is no exaggeration to say that our physicians have been among the most victimized among us in the last two decades. Yeah, some of them jumped ship and have become pro-money anti-us people. But many of them are still on our side. A good portion of them have been beaten, scratched, kicked and driven out by those our friend and yours,  the HMOs, the Insurance people, Lawyers and Corporate Ipecac.

         If you want to see what I mean, check out what happened to Terri Schiavo's real doctors. Not those death-for-money hounds from hell that constantly spoke out against her. If you can't get that information, let the Political Stray know. We'll put it up for you. We have every scrap we could lay our paws on.

         Gee, that list of enemies sounds familiar, doesn't it?

            The Political Stray equates our relationship with doctors with a long term relationship in counseling. We love 'em but by God, the fur is going to fly for awhile. That aside, they are still our physicians and among  the most important people in our lives.

            The situation itself is reprehensible. One of the good places tax dollars go is to care for our parents and grandparents. How dare these people turn it into a political chip as they fatten whatever fund interests them!

            We all paid into these so-called "entitlement programs" for most of our lives. Now the doling out of pennies as though they were bestowing great honors? That's as obnoxious as acting as though they were giving us charity because the idiots used Social Security surplus like a slush fund.

            SSA payments we make now don’t go into some giant account for us. They go to pay for the old folks that need it now. So the violation of our SSA did occur, it's probably just different than you might think. Good research on this is on the "To Do Scroll". The Political Stray can only do so many things at a time.

            If any of you have the info handy, send it to me and we'll get it posted. Make sure it's solid information though. Mess fixing is going to take team work.

            As someone that had a number of old folks in their family, let me assure you, SSA in no security at all anyway. It keeps old folks at poverty level. Period.

            What do you think? I think it might be a good  idea to start keeping track of the politicians that feel they have the right to threaten our doctors. If these politicians don't think our money should go to care for our old folks and to our doctors, why don't we find out just where they think our money should go.

More to Come

In the meantime, here's some wood chips for your WTF* mulcher

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/docs-risking-ire-of-gop-on-medicare-2008-07-07.html

Note: Specter is usually one of the good guys, hang tight until we know more. We'll cut him some slack since he's been pretty sick, and God knows, that'll make you cranky. He ought to see how bad it is without health care, eh?

Irritated would be an understatement,

The Political Stray

* In texter (people that send a lot of text messages) language = "What the F***"

Updates will be posted on the Medicare/Social Securitiy Page.

Can You Make a Soldier Blush?

Speaking with a friend

that told me this:

He was at the grocery store and impatiently waiting in line when the glass doors slid open and in walked four young military men in dress uniforms.

They hesitated, searching for a particular area -- as they did, they noticed that a hush had fallen over the check out lines. Puzzled, slightly suspicious looks began to appear on their faces.

A sound startled them. It was the sound of someone clapping. It was joined by another, then another. Soon, there was a grocery store standing ovation in progress. Not a word was spoken.

The young men flushed with embarrassment, choosing to quickly purchase a pack of cigarettes and make a run for it.

When they were gone, all impatience went with them. Everyone in line was smiling as "thank you's" and "have a nice day's" were exchanged.

My friend said he hadn't seen anything like it since the palpable unity in the air after September 11th. He felt it was remarkable.

 The Political Stray agrees.

Tim Russert

         The grief of the press over this man's death is almost palpable.

         Their reverent attitudes echo with the sound of journalists as they once were. How easy it was to forget how graceful good reporting could be.

         Loss leaves an empty space that gives time a will of it's own and makes the soul feel as delicate as crystal.

         If somehow Mr. Russert's colleagues can remember how this feels every time a microphone is thrust forward,

Then Mr. Russert's presence here will have truly accomplished a miracle.

_________

                                May 28, 2008

Obama's Uncle

         (sigh)  Okay. Here's what Senator Obama said:

          "I had an uncle who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps. The story in our family was that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn't leave the house for six months. 

Now, obviously something had really affected him, but at that time there just weren't the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain."

       Now- according to the history folks, this isn't possible.

        Auschwitz was liberated in January 1945 by the Russians, not by the Americans.

        Plus, the Senator doesn't have an uncle. (this one did raise my brows for a moment)

        He does, however, have a great uncle (his grandmother's brother) that was in the 89^th Infantry which liberated a sub-camp of Buchenwald in April 1945.        

        Alright. The Senator needs to pay more attention to detail.  

        You can decide for yourself how important this is. As someone that tries to see through the eyes of a hard-working American with very little free time, I'll put it over there with the Bobby Kennedy remark of Senator Clinton's.

        Who covered it and how is more of a story than the remark itself. A quick search through the reports reveal a gentle, understanding tone from the media that sharply contrasts with their treatment of Hillary's comment.

      As an example, I recommend an essay written by Libby Copeland of the Washington Post called "Hillary Clinton Raises the Specter of the Unspeakable"

          Personally,  I sincerely wish the media, the party committees and the candidate's camps would study the differences between the candidates and tell us about those.

Grrr...

The Political Stray

The FAA is Recruiting Teens?

          Is the FAA's decision to start encouraging teens to consider a career as an Air Traffic Controller a responsible one? This involves going to High Schools and outlining a path to this career.

          Well, there's no substitute for experience and in spite of the FAA's spotty history with hiring non-union workers – these were the people that Reagan "fired" for being on strike? I doubt very seriously that the people the FAA are reaching out to are meant to replace them.

          As long as no one is put in a position of responsibility before they're ready for it, what's the problem? New Air Traffic Controllers have to come from somewhere, assuming that our Air Traffic people haven't found the secret to immortality and are holding out on the rest of us.

          In fact, these video game enthusiast generations seem logical candidates. Aren't there a number of skills required for the job that are inherent in game playing, such as focus, hand-to-eye coodination, rapid information processing and reflexes?

Getting older is not a sin, but neither is being young.

Jessie Jackson's flub?

           Hmmm….(squinting at Jackson suspiciously)

            I don't think I buy it. Jessie Jackson is too experienced with media dangers. He would know better than to speak carelessly even if it the microphone were in pieces and across the room.

            I think all hell was about to break loose because Obama voted for the FISA bill. Jessie's waving the red flag at the Bull of the American public.  *snort *

(laughing) Of course, I could be wrong…

Is Obama talking down to black people?

            Not that I've noticed. Of course, there's a little air of uppity about Obama that people of all color can see. Did he pick that up at Harvard? His wife and kids seem to be free of it. Just asking…

            Obama has advised blacks to get off it and get on it. In the interest of fairness, some blacks are their own worst enemies – others embarrass the whole race, but only because no one stands up to say,

"Hey, don't put that on us, that was your mistake."

            It's the same page the terrorists use, just a different book.  The "he" is doing the bad and when he get's in trouble, he becomes outraged for the "they". Convenient, hm?

            Not many of us like to hear  about where we need work.

            Still,  that's not talking down to them -- that's trying to lift them up.

            Even if Obama a is a little snotty, his religion and brains would tell him that the "I'm richer so I'm better" theory doesn't fly, so how deep would it go?

            However serious it may be, it'll get run out of him real quick if he makes it to the oval office.

'Nuff Said.

Gettin' Hairy

        President Bush went after the tarantula with fierceness balanced with compassion for the innocent nearby. It is sheer folly to assume that the next Presidents will be feeling as charitable, particularly when the people are growing weary of the world's games.

            Today, reporters from the middle east tell us that many there are excited about the potential of Obama becoming president. We hear of enemies of America that rub their hands together and laugh excitedly.

            If I were them, I'd be careful about my assumptions.

            There are major differences between McCain and Obama that are never mentioned.

            McCain is older – not too old to be President-just old enough to think very carefully before he acts for his country. He has also seen war first hand.

            Obama is a young male in his prime. Biology is a part of what reminds him of his  responsibilities as a protector. He has never been to war.

            If you don't understand what those factors imply, ask your father or his father.

Just a thought,

The Political Stray

Political Stray Alert

           The US military over the fourth of July weekend transferred 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium from Iraq to an allied country for use in their nuclear power plants. The sale was arranged at Iraq's request, after troops discovered it after the 2003 invasion.

            If we are to believe global media, that would be 550 metric tons of nonexistant yellow cake uranium, part of the weapons of mass destruction that Sadaam didn't have.

  Still A little shocky,

  The Political Stray 

   UPDATE:

    Someone has attempted to "set the Political Stray straight" by advising them that this yellow cake was from an earlier point in time and had been under the control of the nuke reg people in Iraq.

     We think they're missing the point.

    We question the judgment of those that find comfort in this.

    People need to stop promoting "getting okay with this". See the "Iraq War" page to see why. The conflicting facts and intentional deceptions should underline the need to get a handle on this and remind us that nuclear weapons endanger the world. Period.

     The idea of them being in the hands of people that will stop at nothing to promote their own idea of "right" should make the blood run cold in any normal human.  

     What the hell kind of legacy are we    (ALL people, not just Americans)  leaving the next generations?

  Mind Unchanged,

  The Political Stray

      Saddam's Secrets

         The Political Stray strongly recommends that all citizens and leaders (especially Presidential Candidates) read the book,

"Saddam's Secrets" by Georges Sada, one of Saddam's Generals.

This book by this braver-than-me man wafts authenticity like a Rolls Royce wafts class.

   It will put any thriller you're reading to shame.

    When I get a chance, I'll put up a page with some excerpts for those of you that must spend your pennies elsewhere. I doubt if the General would object. 

 The Political Stray

And Who's America Might That Be?

            If you spend any time on this web site, it doesn't take long to figure out where the priorities are. They're right here in America with Americans. After that, it slides to people in general.

            When evaluating what goes on here, it's irrelevant whether the one who has offended or pleased claims to be pro or anti anything, that's including political party and any other label applicable.

            This is pointed out because I just watched "Hannity's America – The Greatest Nation On Earth" – Hannity's fourth of July episode.

            Geez, couldn't we have a pro-American special that doesn't reek with arrogance?

            Anyway, The Political Stray has sided with Hannity on issues before and may again. However, his summation of American Health Care in this was nothing less than nauseating. I'd call it a whitewash, but that would imply more actual structure than it deserved. That includes his estimation of our "fine" pharmaceutical companies.

            The first warning should have been when he touted Hillary's run for President as a fine example of America's diversity. It is, in a way. Nonetheless, no one fought harder against Hillary Clinton making a single notch of progress than Hannity and many of his crop of "pundits".   In light of this, he might have had the decency to keep his ever-running, over-decibeled mouth shut about it.

            Ah well. Not that surprising if we consider it carefully. Nonetheless, the Political Stray declares this particular special more "sanitized" than "hannitized".

            So?

            So, when Americans are blinded to our problems by a willfully obstinate media determined to shape our futures for us, they certainly cannot do anything to change our very real and very serious problems!

            By it's standards, the Political Stray doesn't think that thousands of people dying for lack of health CARE, (not health insurance) makes America's health care system terribly impressive.

            Crediting our pharmaceutical companies with the research and development of new drugs ignores the fact that they get their "breakthroughs" from our public universities, develop those, patent them, then charge us an arm and a leg for them. The same drug companies also fight ferociously against patent expirations so that drugs desperately needed by the public might be made affordable.

These very same companies can still afford to torture the American public with it's nonstop commercials though:

"What's an erection, daddy?"

"Go ask your mother."

"I did. She said she can't remember."

            Geez, what a system. Kinda brings a tear to yer eye, don't it?

(sigh)

The Political Stray

Oops. We jumped the gun on congratulating our politicians for their anti high gas prices legislation.

Recently PS posted a note about Congress quickly passing a law to help protect Americans from artificially elevated gas prices by curbing the speculators. This was premature. The house passed it, but the Senate sent it to committee. Thus, the note has been removed and a page covering recent and not so recent developments has been added.

 See "How Much?!"

The Political Stray apologizes and hopes this information will promote forgiveness.

Scott McClellan's Book

         "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception"
 

           A lot of opinions flying around about this book. Has anyone even read it yet?

     It comes out to the public on June 9th. I'll reserve my opinion until I read it.  If I read it.

         The title doesn't sound real promising as far as the Whitehouse goes, does it? 

           Attacking the Bush administration in a book. How novel.

  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

       Seriously, is this the same man I saw in that sad goodbye with the president?

UPDATE: 

        The Political Stray will not buy Mr. McClellan's book. After seeing him on the various talk shows, I don't believe his information meets the standards of the Political Stray.

        Mr. McClellan always struck me as not being strong enough to be Whitehouse Press Secretary. I stopped watching the briefings because watching him getting savaged by the Washington wolves was just too painful. .

        I suppose press briefings style set by Ari and Donald spoiled me.

       In his preface, Mr. McClellan implies that his editor may have had undue influence? Then what's the point?  

         Scott's position was that of a mouthpiece -- his job was to be a communication tool  - It was an honorable enough profession but it didn't make him an integral part of the whitehouse inner sanctum where important decisions were made. While the position may offer more to the right person, I don't believe Scott had the fire for that.

          One thing becomes obvious very quickly when watching this man on talk shows and that's that he resented being left out of it when things got serious.

           He unabashedly admits that some of his information was obtained by listening to conversations he was not included in. In my day, we called this "eavesdropping" and it was not socially acceptable behavior. It was certainly not appropriate for a someone in Scott's position.

           I would be negligent if I didn't  point out that perhaps his writing this book is a very good demonstration of why clear lines are drawn between power positions and those meant to help those in power.

             Now he asks us to believe that he had the best of intentions in releasing this book? If we were all that stupid, none of us would be allowed to drive.

        No. This book is not for us. 

         Besides that, the Political Stray thinks Mr. McClellan is a little rat.