Thanks Hillary

Since Hillary is doing the Republican’s job for them, has still lost the popular vote and most of the states and lags behind in delegates, she has pretty much assured the Democratic party a loss in November.

To satisfy her own ambition and thirst for power and notoriety, she has thrown, not only the Democratic Party under the bus, but has rolled the bus right over the American people.

Thanks to Hillary Clinton and Slick Willy, we may very well be doomed to 100 years in Iraq and 4 more years of failed Bush policies under McCain.

I want to personally thank all of you Hillary Clinton supporters who are completely incapable of understanding just what is at stake here and what Senator Obama can do for this country.

No one who gets into the presidency, at this point in time, will be able to wave a magic wand and make 20+ years of Clinton’s and Bushes’ bad economic policies go away. We will enter a depression as that is inevitable.

The cause of our current economic problem can be traced to Clinton when Rubin repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 allowing this unholy alliance between the investment bankers and the national banks along with the subsequent deregulation of the banking industry, safeguards that had been put in place after the Great Depression to ensure this would NEVER happen again.

The good times under Clinton were a direct result of that deregulation, and the bad times under Bush are the long term result and was exacerbated by Greenspan who could have put safeguards in place from the Federal Reserve side but chose not to.

Now this clueless candidate Clinton wants the very people who brought us this mess to sit on a panel and tell us how to fix it.

No.

What you people fail to understand is that the indifference of the American electorate is what perpetuated this problem. We didn’t pay attention to Washington. We didn’t question what they were doing. We didn’t hold our elected officials to account. We didn’t vote out those that voted against our will. WE DIDN’T EVEN VOTE!!!

What Senator Obama brings to this race, is motivation. Motivating people who never even registered to get involved and vote. He motivated young people as did Bobby Kennedy. He understands that this country will never again become what it once was unless the PEOPLE care, and participate.

Senator Obama laid the blame on US, and he is absolutely right. And he has challenged US to take back our ownership of the country, hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and ACTIVELY demand results.

No one running for president can walk in and put in place all of their plans and strategies and if they think they can they are delusional.

No president can do ANYTHING without the support of Congress and if we truly want pay-to-play politics to end, the willingness of the American people to get involved, write our legislators, have meetings, hold rallies and basically MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD SO LOUD NO ONE IN WASHINGTON CAN IGNORE US if they EVER want to get re-elected, is the only way.

Clinton says she’ll take care of us, as if we are small children. Well we aren’t. We’re adults. And it’s about time act like it by taking personal responsibility for the mess we’re in which is a direct result of our indifference to what’s going on around us.

We need to change the atmosphere and dynamics of the interactions of the electorate and our elected officials. That is what Senator Obama is hoping to achieve and it is the ONLY thing that will save this republic.

Libya, now our friend, urges Arab world to help Palestinians

Reuters reported today that Libya’s foreign ministry issued a statement on the latest incursion of the Israelis into Gaza. Basically, instead of tiptoeing around the issue, they called a spade a spade:

“What Israel is doing in Gaza confirms that the so-called peace process in the Middle East is a deliberate ploy to cover up a continuing campaign to wipe out the Palestinian people,” Libya’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This bloody Israeli campaign had laid bare the reality of the aims of the Zionists and their disdain of the so-called peace initiatives,” the statement, carried by the official news agency Jana, added.

“Libya calls on Arabs to take an urgent position to stop the Zionist machine of mass killing and muster political and material support to rescue the sons of the Palestinian people from this Zionist shoah,” the Libyan ministry said.

“Libya also calls on the international community to shoulder their responsibility to halt this mass killing.”

And that’s about as direct as you can get.

Matn Vilnai promises shoah for Palestinians - the word also describes the Nazi Holocaust

The BBC reported the following comments coming from Israel’s Defense Minister. Even Abbas has denounced them. Have our presidential candidates read this as they vow to back Israel and guarantee their safety and security? What about the safety and security of the people of Gaza? Who stands up for them?

Matan Vilnai said Palestinians risked a “shoah”, the Hebrew word for a big disaster - and for the Nazi Holocaust.

Mr Vilnai made the comments after rockets hit the city of Ashkelon, 10km (six miles) from Gaza. His colleagues insisted he had not meant “genocide”.

Well if he didn’t mean “genocide” then what did he mean? And just what do the Israelis expect of the Gazans? They have no control over their environment, trade, businesses, livelihoods, education, or housing. Their homes can be demolished without hearings, their lives can be snuffed out because their neighbor down the street is a suspect, tried and convicted with no chance to defend themselves.

Yes, Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens, but after 60 years of this, they don’t seem any safer, they seem more vulnerable to attack.

Though the call for shoah comes from some segments of Israel, the article goes on to note that it is not a unanimous view:

The BBC’s Katya Adler in Jerusalem says many of Mr Vilnai’s colleagues have quickly distanced themselves from his comments and also tried to downplay, them saying he did not mean genocide.

A recent opinion poll has indicated a majority of Israelis favour a truce with Hamas.

It appears that the United States is not the only country that isn’t too particularly interested in the citizen’s opinions of where and how their money is squandered. But then again, world leaders tend to be whisked out of harm’s way when the chips are down and the battles move to the home front, so their decisions are based purely on ideology and not necessarily commonsense, a critical look at historical patterns or more basically, self-preservation.

In the case of Israel and Palestine one would not need a long critical look to see that their security policies are failing their people, just a cursory glance at the last several years should tell them they’ve failed miserably.

Hamas, of course, repeats the same message we have been hearing since their election by the people, but that the Israelis have not heeded.

The Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza in June, has said it will cease fire if Israel stops its military operations in Palestinian areas and ends the blockade of the territory which has cut essential supplies to its 1.5m inhabitants.

It looks like the United States is not the only place where it is time for a change.

Is there an Obama in the Israeli house?

UPDATE: Reuters has reported over 46 Palestinians were killed Saturday which brings the total to 81 since Israel launched its latest offensive in Gaza on Wednesday. For the math challenged, that’s an average of 20 people per day. Here’s the Reuters video:

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=77231&newsChannel=newsOne

Our three Top candidates all back Israel - is this an American value?

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4jfmf_gazamassacrefeb2008_news

Since it looks like McCain and Obama may be our two choices, write to Obama at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy.

The intro to this feedback page says the following:

The best, most comprehensive plan for change in our country will include your ideas and your feedback. America needs a president with a mandate from the people, and everyone deserves a voice in shaping our next president’s agenda.

Take a moment to share your ideas. Over the coming months the best ideas will be featured and incorporated into the campaign’s policy proposals. Be as broad or specific as you want.

He’s asking for our input. I suggest we give it to him, and the more people who write, the more likely they are to listen. After all, it’s our money they will be spending. Since we don’t have a box on our taxes that allows us to designate where our money goes, let’s take him at his word, or rather - call his bluff.

It’s time the country reflected the values of ordinary Americans. Though I think Hamas is making a mistake, or in our terms, a huge public relations blunder, by using better rockets and injuring more people, I also understand the need to let Israel know they’re “mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.”

It’s like the Hatfield’s and McCoys if Hamas continues to return fire. It will never end and at this point, Israel has the upper hand in the public perception arena since the American government managed to characterize the entire Muslim world as terrorists, which is the main reason Hamas should slow down on the rocket fire.

It’s hard to gain sympathy from the international community, when you are killing innocent people too.

Bush and the economy - a way to solve the problem

Bush, yesterday announced we aren’t heading for a recession, we are in an economic slowdown. This announcement defies the belief of most economists, who are careful to say they haven’t proved we are in a recession but believe we “could” be or “probably” are. It gives one cause to wonder if he thinks his just saying it will make us all feel better that Uncle Sam is looking out for us, and we can go into our homes where the heat is turned down to save money on gas bills, and we’re wrapped in blankets to stay warm.

Good thing the White House isn’t in Minnesota. I can’t imagine how much it would cost to heat that place.

He also hadn’t heard gas was possibly going to go up to $4.00 a gallon. Maybe he should be forced to pay his own fill ups at the pump instead of doing it on our dime. He might keep a little in touch with the rest of us.

Ironically, Bush and Exxon Mobile’s mortal enemy Hugo Chavez predicted last year when gas hit $60 a barrel that it would soon hit $100 a barrel. Wonder how he knew, or could it be it was his experience working with our oil companies who were keeping over 60% of the profits from his oil before he made them redo the contracts. Every oil company agreed to the new contract terms (Venezuela gets 60% they get 40%) except Exxon Mobile who sued instead. Surprise, surprise.

Here’s how you fix the problem with high gas prices - take it off the stock market.

That’s the ONLY reason the price is so high. Our supply is the highest it’s been in 14 years. There’s no reason for the prices to be this high.

Oil didn’t trade on the stock market until 1984. I’ll let you figure out who was president then, and since. Before that, the only time we had high gas prices was during the oil embargo. Supply went down, prices went up. Now, it has nothing to do with supply and demand, just speculators and greed.

In fact, by trading oil on the stock market, it is in the oil companies’ bets interests to ensure something, somewhere, effects the oil supply. As soon as there is a blip on the supply screen, anywhere, they make more money.

Remember the beginning of the Iraq war? Every time an Iraqi pipeline got bombed, the oil prices went up. WE HAVEN’T GOTTEN OIL FROM IRAQ FOR DECADES!!

No, off the stock market. If the only way the oil companies could turn a profit was to provide us with a steady, uninterrupted, dependable stream of oil, they would have incentive to maintain their pipelines, ensure their refineries didn’t have fires of strange origin, and they would probably stop drilling in hurricane prone areas because even THEY wouldn’t be able to depend on that oil source.

They might even voluntarily invest in alternative fuels. But why do it now. If we keep demanding oil and they keep sitting on a dwindling supply, they just make more money because the price goes up the less there is.

Wake up America. The only ones who benefit from oil trading on the stock market are the people who can afford to play the stock market. And that isn’t us.

Economists living in a dream world

WBBM radio reported today that economists are increasingly convinced that the United States will fall into recession soon. One economist they quoted said he believed that we were already in a recession, that it probably started in the fourth quarter of last year, and that it will probably be over by mid-year when people start spending their rebate checks.

This guy can’t really believe these rebate checks will stop a recession can he?

The ContraCosta Times reported in December that an Associated Press  analysis of financial data from 17 of the largest credit card issuers and found

The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent from a year earlier to $17.3 billion in October.

Does this sound like something a $600 check is going to fix?

The foreclosure rate continues to grow, the dollar is worth .47 compare to what it was worth in 1984 (DOL statistics), the cost of milk alone has jumped 13% since last year.

And then there are the banks. They are borrowing billions from the Fed, which, not being a government agency but merely a conglomeration of private banks owned by the Rothschild’s, Rockefeller and JP Morgan, probably does NOT have an unlimited supply of money and will likely cut that little auction jackpot out at some point.

What happens then?

Step in the government who wants to bail people out, some of  whom made bad decisions, bought houses they couldn’t afford, and lived large on the equity which has now all but disappeared due to the drop in housing prices.

The idea of a moratorium on foreclosures is lovely, but the banks borrowed the money to loan people to begin with. Who is going to make the payments they owe, do they just borrow more from the fed?

People victimized by predatory lenders should be helped, but the predatory lenders should be on the hook. Prosecute them for their practices and fine them for each mortgage they sold. Pool that money and help these people out, but only these people.

The Wall Street jerks who brought us this mess, and received billions in bonuses for doing it,  should also be held responsible. But don’t expect that to happen if Clinton gets in because the top people, CEO’s, CFO’s of the major investment firms, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, etc., all contributed tens of thousands to her campaign  for president.  (Check out huffington.fundrace.com) Somehow I don’t think she’s looking our for us. If I’m not mistaken I heard her say she would bail out homes up to a value of $650,000.

Sounds like idiots who bought property with Wall Street bonuses to me.

No, it’s time to stop listening to the economists and just look around us with a critical eye. There is no way we can avoid a recession and I would be amazed if we didn’t avoid a depression.

My guess is as soon as the election is over and the new president in is in place, the fed policy will abruptly change, the discount window will be slammed shut, the auction will be over and the banks will be on their own, probably to fail.

At least that way Bush won’t have to add a depression to the long list of dismal failures his two terms will already be remembered for.

The Next Debate

Campaigning in Ohio, a supporter brought to Hillary Clinton’s attention, two Barack Obama mailers that criticize her health care plan and challenge her position on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement which is widely accepted to have caused much of the job losses in Ohio since its passage. Clinton angrily called Obama on the carpet and challenged him to discuss his tactics at the debate that is to take place on MSNBC, Tuesday at 8pm Central.

Clinton, who is trailing Obama in delegates and whose campaign is in serious trouble, is right to call attention to the mailers one which points out that her plan would make purchasing private health insurance mandatory for every American and would financially penalize those who don’t, and the other noting that in her book, she championed NAFTA as a victory of her husband’s administration.

In a state such as Ohio, with a high unemployment rate and a lack of jobs, such information could certainly be damaging to her failing bid for the White House.

Though the mailers are factually correct, at this point in the race, damage control is certainly in order, and today Clinton called on Obama to debate his tactics in Ohio.

Sorry Hillary, the nationally televised debate on Tuesday is not the place for a discussion of campaign strategy and political tactics.

In the last debate, an inordinate amount of time was spent asking Clinton if she truly believes Obama is all talk and no action and if she thinks he is ready to be commander-in-chief, not that the American people need either candidate’s assessment of the other in order to choose their president.
Unfortunately, not discussed in the debate were issues such as how high the cost of food has gotten, just what do the candidates consider to be an “affordable” cost for health insurance, where will they get the money for the green infrastructure they both want to build to create jobs, and how they plan to take unemployed factory workers and retrain them so they can once again have jobs that will enable them to provide a decent living for their families. And who and what will pay for all of that?

Also not discussed were issues such as Iran, our lack of a standing army, the Middle East peace process, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey’s incursion into Iraq and the United States’ obsession with spreading democracy around the world. Is that what caused the burning of our embassy in Belgrade, because that is certainly what everyone over there is saying. You’d think we would have learned about democracy spreading after the Shah of Iran, El Salvadore and Nicaragua, all dismal failures which we continue to pay for today.

Nor did we get to hear what they plan to do about lead paint in China, though Obama alluded to it. They want to rethink the free trade agreements, but no details as to what is being rethought. Hillary said we have to look at NAFTA again, though nothing specific as to what we are looking for. And Obama, though greeted with silence, mentioned that future agreements must have better wages and environmental controls built in so we can lift these countries up.

The silence should have been a clue to him that the failure to lift other countries up is not what is bothering the American people about free trade agreements.

Obama also said that companies that export jobs should be taxed and those that keep jobs here should be rewarded. He got applause for that one. Hello……..is anybody home? That is on the right track.

But Hillary wants instead, to debate Obama about his campaign tactics, something that is so irrelevant to those trying to decide who to choose for president when we live in a country that has banks borrowing billions, foreclosures in the millions, unemployment in the hundreds of thousands and heads of families working two and three minimum wage jobs because the last few presidents, including Bill Clinton, thought it would be just grand to make the United States’ most plentiful employment opportunities, low paying service jobs, and were satisfied with intellectual property being our biggest export.

No, this is neither the time nor the place to debate a couple of mailers. If your campaign is hinging on two pieces of paper that accurately describe your health care plan and quote your book, perhaps you should bow out now in the interests of party loyalty and spend the rest of the primary season helping Obama build enough momentum so that in November, we don’t find ourselves with John McCain as president committing our children, grand children and great grand children to spending the next hundred years in Iraq.