Palin on Obama; “he is Disqualified to be commander-in-chief”
The John McCain campaign seems to have made the decision that they must go after Barack Obama hard in order to save McCain’s struggling campaign. But John McCain is unwilling to do it so Sarah Palin has taken off the gloves and is going full throttle at him. This is what Sarah Palin had to say about Obama recently; “Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may in my world disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief. Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly– just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That’s reckless. So I wanted to talk about things like that. So I guess I have to apologize about being a little annoyed, but that is also an indication of being outside that Washington elite and being outside the media elite also and just wanting to talk and just wanting to talk to Americans without the filter and let them know what we stand for.”
I find Barack Obama’s comment about how the military is just air raiding villages and killing civilians extremely offensive and it is about time that he got called to the carpet by the McCain campaign. Someone who could so callously and recklessly make such a claim about the military does not deserve to lead them.
California Looks for $7 Billion Federal Bailout
Now that the president has signed the Wall Street bailout into law the liberal Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has his hand out looking for a federal bailout.
If I am not mistaken Governor Gray Davis was recalled by California voters because of California’s budget crisis leading to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. But now Arnold can’t control spending and he is unable to balance the budget so he is turning to the federal government to bail his ass out also.
It is time for Arnold to do what he was elected to do and that is to control spending and bring the deficit under control. Arnold is a RINO and just hasn’t been able to stop himself from spending more money than his state brings in and now he wants us to pay for his out of control spending.
The bailout has opened the door and everyone is now going to walk in and ask for a little help. The cost of this bailout is not yet understood and it is just going to keep growing. If Arnold is able to grab federal funds for his ineptitude at controlling spending how many states will follow?
Californians recalled Gray Davis for this problem, now they should recall Arnold. Until California realizes that they have to limit their spending to how much money that thake in than nothing will change. Why should we pay for their transgressions? We shouldn’t have to but the door is open.
President Bush Signs the Bailout Bill
It’s official, Wall Street officially got the bailout bill that they so desperately wanted. What was their reaction to the bill that was going to save their asses? The Dow fell over 300 points after the congress approved the bill. The Dow was up 200 when the announcement came, and finished over 100 points lower.
It’s also official that the United States has moved even further into the realm of socialism. And it is only the beginning, just wait until after Obama is elected. I have written about it before and I don’t have the energy or the will to write about this anymore so you can read this article to see what I mean about the United States moving towards socialism.
My Thoughts on the Vice Presidential Debate
My thoughts on the debate just after it’s conclusion, this could change after I have had more thought on it.
I thought that for the most part neither candidate made a major mistake, but Sarah Palin made the biggest one which I will get into later. In my opinion she made two mistakes, one might be considered minor but one more important. Biden had one point that I have a major problem with and I will also get to that later.
For the most part Sarah Palin came off as an everyday person, she speaks as though she is one of us and that is refreshing. Joe Biden also seemed more down to earth than Obama does.
I thought that there was no runaway winner here,(which means Palin performed well considering her opponents experience debating), neither candidate did anything to take votes away from the other. Considering that Palin is new on the national scene I thought that she performed as well as can be expected, and she may have appealed to undecided voters. Joe Biden’s tactic was to not put his foot in his mouth and to promote Barack Obama while bashing Bush. He succeeded at both.
Joe Biden did call one of John McCain’s policies the real bridge to nowhere. I forget which issue it was, I apologise, I think it was on the economy. The issue drew laughter from the crowd and seemed well received.
Sarah Palin did nail Biden on his comment that paying taxes was patriotic as well as his comment that he would be honored to be John McCain’s running mate. She also brought up Biden’s comment that Barack Obama wasn’t qualified to be president, this must have struck a nerve as Biden came back to that comment in his closing statement.
She called Barack Obama’s plan for Iraq a “white flag of surrender”, a great line. She also brought up Obama’scomment about American troops air raiding villages and killing civilians in Afghanistan. But on foreign policy is where I thought her minor slip up came. While talking about the Iraq war she mentioned that General Petraeus and “the leader of al qaeda” both agreed that Iraq is the central front on the war on terror. The reason I thought this was a mistake is because it appeared as though she didn’t know the name of the leader who made that comment. In fact both Bin Laden and Aymen al Zawahiri made that comment. It seemed that she stumbled just a little here.
Biden also made two mistakes in my opinion. The first was probably minor. He admitted that when it came to the oil companies he wanted to do what Sarah Palin had actually accomplished in Alaska. An admission that Joe Biden talks, but Palin walks. The other slip up that he had, and I think it is major but you probably won’t even read this anywhere else was while talking about the Iraq war. He was talking about the “Bush doctrine” and he said that instead of preemptive action against a hostile nation he was in favor of cooperation. In favor of cooperating with an enemy? This was a gaffe in my opinion and it would be an issue but won’t be mentioned.
Sarah Palin’s big mistake in my opinion was when she was asked about the role of the vice president. To me she stumbled through this issue when she said the constitution provided flexibility in the role of the vice president. Joe Biden perfectly laid out the role of vice president as the president of the congress to cast the deciding vote in event of a tie. I don’t think that the media is going to pick up on the mistakes that I thought both candidates made, so no harm, no foul.
All in all I thought that Sarah Palin did very well over all, and I thought that Joe Biden performed well also. Because of Palin’s being thrust into this role and not having any experience debating a career politician I am going to give the victory to Palin. She was unfazed and appeared comfortable. I believe that she connected well with the Average American and seemed more like an everyday person. This debate was much better than the McCain/Obama snooze fest of last week.
I am writing this post as I read my notes from the debate while listening to post debate coverage so I apologise if this post comes off as disjointed and not so free flowing.
The house Republicans are busy crafting an alternative Wall Street bailout bill even as the senate looks to revive the one trillion dollar bailout. A bill that would not require taxpayers to carry the burden of the Wall Street crowd, and the failures of “equal opportunity” lenders who were forced to give out loans to all too willing recipients who everyone knew couldn’t afford them.
This bill would require higher premiums on risky mortgages in order to pay for insurance against the loans. The higher the risk the higher the premium, the lower the risk the lower the premium. At least this bill wouldn’t be a government takeover of the economic system balanced on the back of the taxpayers. This bill is better than a taxpayer funded trillion dollar bailout. And it keeps the economy more free market than the presidents proposal.
President Bush does not support the idea of the house Republicans free market friendly bailout proposal.
the White House rejected considering a more free market alternative proposed by House Republicans
He prefers the senates government takeover bailout bill. He supports you and I paying for the irresponsible, whimsical behavior of Wall Street and “equal opportunity” lenders and borrowers.
“I know the RSC wants only the insurance option and not the purchase option. We disagree with that and believe that the purchase program needs to be part of the solution here,” Fratto said.
President Bush will not be happy unless the bill that comes to his desk includes the government taking over the free market institutions that this country was based on. If you agree with the president on this issue just remember who the other two prominent politicians are who also support the senate proposal and not the free market house bill; John McCain and Barack Obama.
President Bush, John McCain, and Barack Obama all agree on this issue, that should be enough to scare the hell out of you.
The bill being negotiated by house Republicans may not be perfect, hell I think no action by the government would be perfect, it may not be the be all end all, but it is a hell of allot better that a one trillion dollar taxpayer funded bailout and something that I would much rather support. My feeling is that as long as we are going to get screwed in this deal it should be as painless as possible. I think the house Republican’s proposal is much less painless.
Nancy Pelosi is Paying her Husband with PAC Funds
Mizz Speaker
During the election of 2006 Democrats used the “culture of corruption” in the Republican party to wrestle control from them in both the house and senate. They promised a more open and honest leadership. The poster boy for the “culture of corruption” was Jack Abramoff and all those who were associated with him (except for the Democrats).
Democrats used Jack Abramoff and Republicans who put their wives on their campaign payrolls to show that there was too much corruption and only Democrats could be trusted.
Lawmakers’ frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.
Last year Nancy Pelosi was in favor of a bill that would have banned this practice but the bill never came to a vote in the senate. If Nancy Pelosi was truly in favor of this bill it would have made it to the senate and would have at least been voted on. So there must be a reason this bill never got past the senate committee, but what could it be?
Could it be the fact that Nancy Pelosi placed her husband on her campaign committee and payed him using PAC money? The very practice that was one of the issues that Democrats used against Republicans in the 2006 election.
I think that might be a possibility, don’t you. Mr. Pelosi’s firm received $100,000 over the last ten years but the payments have quadrupled since Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the house. These payment are legal but that isn’t the point here. The point is that this is the type of activity that Democrats used against the Republicans in the “culture of corruption” angle that was effective in the elections. For anyone to think that Democrats were above the same type of behavior is plain naive, yet Democrats pulled it off and now we now that the speaker herself engaged in some of the activities that she condemned. The hypocrisy of the left on full display once again.
This is not surprising, and it is not the first time that Mizz Speaker has had clandestine dealings in the congress that benefited her husband or his company. She sponsored a bill that would directly benefit Mr. Pelosi’s company. Nothing was made of that issue and nothing will be made in the hypocrisy of the speaker on this issue either.
Senate Tries to Revive Bailout Bill
Today the senate is making modifications to the bailout bill that the house killed on Monday. A vote is scheduled for tonight. By modifications I mean earmarks to make everyone happy. The bill has swelled to over 400 pages from it’s original length of three pages and we are to believe that all of these senators and congressmen are going to have enough of a grasp on everything that is in the bill by the time they vote?
This bill has blossomed in to much more than the original bailout bill. For example:
tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.
Maybe not a bad idea but what does this have to do with Wall Street?
And:
The rural school aid is smaller —about $3.3 billion over the next five years
Again, this is supposed to be a bailout of Wall Street, not a pork package. Instead of starting from scratch the senate has decided to keep throwing more and more pork into this bill until they have the votes to pass it. Please somebody explain to me how this makes it a better deal.
I would prefer that as long as we are going to have a bailout forced on us it might as well be the one that house Republicans are crafting. At lead that one isn’t a TOTAL government takeover.
House Republicans Offer an Alternative Bailout Plan
After taking a deep breath, and slowing down the house Republicans are working on a new alternative bailout plan that is much more free market friendly and less government takeoverish. I’m not talking about the Senate version of the bailout bill that is now being debated with a vote coming tonight ( I will have more on that in an upcoming post). This is a plan being put forth in the house.
This plan may be far more reasonable.
Instead of mandating that the U.S. Treasury purchase up to $700 billion in teetering mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, as the plan backed by the Bush administration and congressional leadership mandated, the RSC alternative would try to restore confidence in the mortgage market by insuring all such investments at 100 percent of their value.
Under the plan, mortgages that Treasury officials deemed to be risky would be insured at a higher premium than mortgages considered stable. The mortgages would be insured by the federal government, i.e., tax dollars. Thus, the plan is not pure free market but is more reasonable than an outright federal purchase of the mortgages with tax dollars, suggested Hensarling.
“In order to fundamentally deal with the crisis, some part of the full faith and credit of the government will have to be behind it [the solution],” Hensarling told CNSNews.com, and this would shore-up confidence in the mortgage and mortgage-backed securities markets. “But Wall Street ought to be paying for that, and we ought to be limiting taxpayer exposure.”
Still this is more government meddling as far as I am concerned but at least there is talk under this plan that Wall Street would being paying for it instead of the taxpayers. Risky loans would require a higher premium to pay for insurance while non risky loans would have a lower premium. That sounds okay.
“We believe that we can help Wall Street work out of this crisis, not force the taxpayers into a bailout,” said the RSC. “We believe that voluntary private capital, not involuntary taxpayer capital, will help the system recover.”
“House conservatives believe that any model that essentially has taxpayers bailing out Wall Street is fundamentally flawed,” said Hensarling at the press conference.
I am not for a bailout of any kind but if we are going to have it forced upon us I would much rather have it be this plan. If my wife decide that we buy houses in Houston TX, this bailout would change the environment in unforeseeable ways, we will wait until the dust settles.
Wake Up America Says Thank You
I don’t usually write posts like this one but as September comes to a close I felt the need to say thank you. September was by far and away the greatest month in terms of hits that I have had. This month far exceeded any previous month and while I will never reach the success of some of the “big boys” that are out there this blog has already exceeded any expectations that I had. The daily numbers have been inspiring the last several weeks.
I had gone through a rough time blogging wise earlier in the year and I was asking myself why was I doing this. I was struggling just to come up with topics to write about. But I think that there are just down times in the political news cycle and that is what I was feeling. There has been so much too write about lately that I can’t keep up, I have missed some stories because others were more important.
But back to the point, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who comes here on a regular basis for your support and I would also like to thank anyone who comes here once in a while. Whether you agree with me or disagree it has been a fun month. Who knows what will happen after November in the blogosphere, I suspect that the traffic will die down. But I am enjoying it while it lasts
Once again, thank you to everyone who stopped by this month, the stats for this month have blown me away.
I would also like to take this time to mention that regular readers here may have noticed a subtle change. It is in my header image. Where once the title in the upper left hand corner said “Wake Up America”, it now says “The Watchtower.”
I am in the slow process of changing my blog name to The Watchtower. However I am unwilling to totally leave the original name behind and that is why I have the new lighthouse image with the Wake Up America logo on my sidebar. I’m like a moderate, I can’t make up my mind.
I first toyed with the idea of changing the name over a year ago and if I had done it then it would have been much easier. I got the idea for The Watchtower when I was given the “Thinking Blogger” award by a now defunct blog who said this about Wake Up America when he gave me the award;
“I liken the author of this blog as the town watchman standing over the gates of the city and warning any who will read of the dangers that are about us.”
That is how I got the idea to put the light tower image in my original header image. By mistake I lost that original image and had to come up with a new one, which is the current one.
If you currently have me in your blogroll feel free to update your link with the new name, if you don’t that’s okay too.
Again, The Watchtower/Wake Up America says thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the support.
