Deserter McCain McBails on Debate

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

McCain is the defacto leader of the Republican party - they should come to him! I'm sure that, even if he's not comfortable with email, that he knows how to use a phone. He is not on any committees relevant to the Bailout for Billionaires. McCain is not considered by his peers or the public as an expert in finance and the economy. Why is his presence needed desparately in Washington?

Washington doesn't need McCain right now, but McCain needs to change the focus of the presidential campaign from the issues. His poll numbers have slipped below where they were before the conventions. The economy is considered the number one issue by most voters and they consider him the weak alternative on the economy. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis's ties to Freddie Mac are making news, gluing McCain to the number one issue.

The campaign suspension and debate desertion is pure Steve Schmidt, though. There will be one dirty trick after another, misdirection followed by misdirection, improbably hail mary pass following improbably hail mary pass. These people have no floor, no limit on how low they will stoop to get their candidate elected.

John McCain didn't work as a 2008 presidential candidate, as John McCain, so he was made over as a circus pony in maverick's clothes, and his campaign took off toward the nomination.

His choice of Vice Presidential candidate didn't fit the mold (or his second choice, or his third) so he chose Gov. Palin to excite the far right wing of the Republican party. This worked for about two weeks, as actual issues reared their heads again and people looked away. Palin has to be veiled from the press, she has to have cram courses in things that should be already deeply understood by any VP candidate...her star has faded. Talk has been heard of putting the first presidential debate on the night the one and only Vice Presidential debate is scheduled to happen - wouldn't cancelling her only debate be perfect for an under-skilled under-prepared VP candidate like Palin?

The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is reportedly upon us, and the plans of the Party in Power are being derided by most Americans and the world, while Wall Street seems to continue to function. Even this conjured calamity isn't giving the raving Republicans a boost for their candidate.

What's next from the Party in Power? What October Surprise is being prepped? War with Iran - don't be surprised if bombs start flying before November 4th. These people will stoop to nothing.

Barack Obama made the first move to issue a joint statement supporting a solution to the finacial crisis, and moments later John McCain lit that on fire and threw out in the yard. While both are reportedly at a White House meeting today, Obama is rightly insisting that the debate scheduled for tomorrow night proceed.

This postponment is pure politics, make no mistake about that. A leader can lead from anywhere these days. A leader must multitask - a two-hour debate with an opponent over national security issues while also considering solutions to economic problems is not too much to ask. If McCain is a coward or if McCain is just too tired to do both, a potential McCain presidency should scare each and every one of us.

The Trillion Dollar Treason

McCainBush - all the way back to Reagan - should be in jail, executed, or discredited for their sellout of our grandchildrens' security.

Supply Side economics and fascistic corporate governance of America has got to stop!

Obama: "We cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. We must also help Main Street"

"John McCain and I can continue to argue about our different economic agendas for next year, but we should come together now to work on what this country urgently needs this year," he said.

"It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand."

Don't Bailout the Bank Billionaires!

Help the homeowners:

Point the legislative gun to the bankers' heads - make them renegotiate loans that are in trouble.

Give the Billionaire Bailout money to the homeowners, to save or squander. It was theirs to start with - the Billionaires paid a small fraction of their disposable income as taxes compared to the homeowners.

Done.

Ready! Fire! Aim! - Which Billionaire gets Bailed Out Next?

OK oh wise Bush one - who's next?

Moral Failure! Impeach Bush, Take Reagan off the Pedestal, and for God's Sake, Don't Elect McCain!

25 Years of supply side economics, after worshiping at the crumbling alters of Norquist and Laffer, should make it clear to all of us that we've been had.

Congress today is making plans to nationalize our banking industry. This socialist program of desperate welfare for the wealthy will make the misdeeds of the last 25 years look like a picnic compared to what we are leaving for our grandchildren.

No, we are not doing fine - the majority of us are working longer hours for less. Wealth is consciously being redistributed upward, while the morally weak supply siders warn about welfare mothers driving Cadillacs, brown-skinned people in emergency rooms, and helping homeowners keep their exploitative mortgages would void them of their personal responsibility.

It's time for the electorate to wake up and realize that Washington and each of the state legislatures are not working for you - they are working for the already wealthy and powerful.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should resign over the current national banking scandal, or be impeached - no matter what your political view, we are a representative democracy, and our representatives in each of the tripartate federal government are fundamentally changing our government unconstitutionally, without our consent. High crimes and misdemeanors, clearly.

The current state of government goes back to Nixon, and there are a lot of angles, but was crystallized with the election of Reagan - hailed as a taxcutter, who instead raised taxes more than he lowered them, hailed as a man who single-handedly stared-down the Soviet bear and tore down the wall, who instead negotiated with the terrorists...he was not what you thought he was. His administration should be viewed as one of the worst in history.

McCain - simply more of the same, evidenced by the reversal of virtually everything he claimed to stand for in his pathetic attempt to be elected a one-term president to continue the crimes of the elite administration. Don't let him fool you. Vote for anyone but McCain.

Desparate McCainBush/Palin Ticket Sinks

The president can't fire the SEC chairman.

Spain is in Europe, not South America.

A subpoena is a subpoena, and the VP candidate's spouse has no particular immunity.

Yesterday the economy was fundamentally strong, and today it's horrible.

McCain invented the Blackberry.

McCain isn't qualified to run a major corporation.

This ticket is seriously a close contender for the White House?

McCainBush - Leave No Billionaire Behind

...would probably still put your Social Security money in the stock market...if they could.

Leave no billionaire behind.

McCain/Bush Yemen Embassy attacked by Terrorists

The McCain/Bush administration's claims of quelling terrorist attacks on the US have been attributed to their so-called war on terror.

Today, the US Embassy in Yemen was attacked by terrorists.

The McCain/Bush war on terror is an abject failure, and we can't afford four more years of a McCain/Bush administration.

Obama - I Don't Need a Commission to Know How to Fix the Economy

``We need to set up a 9/11 Commission in order to get to the bottom of this and get it fixed and act to clean up this corruption,'' McCain said on CBS's ``Early Show.''

The Elite Bush/McCain administration ignored the advice of the 9/11 commission.

Why should we believe that McCain will adopt good advice?

Fiorina Fallout

Carly Fiorina in her days at Hewlett Packard led the company in a bold expansion, using mergers and acquisitions as her main strategy. During her tenure, the market halved HP’s value and the company incurred heavy job losses.

Today, the effects of Hurricane Carly remain.

HP is announcing the layoff of nearly 25,000 workers, mostly due to the post-Fiorina acquisition of EDS.

Serving as chief financial consultant to Presidential candidate John McCain, Fiorina paints a rosy picture of the economy, and probably works daily to bring John McCain up to snuff on economic issues. McCain has publicly stated “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”

Nearly every economic expert, of all political stripe, agree that we are in the most challenging economic time since the Great Depression.

Surely the influence of Fiorina and Phil Gramm will influence John McCain in a way that could lead to catastrophic results for our Country. With McCain and Barack Obama essentially tied in the race for the presidency, we need to look carefully at the state of the economy now, consider what eight years of Bush economics have done to most of us (and 25 years of Reaganomics), and vote appropriately.

Elite McCain Protects Child Molesters

While an Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama voted for a voluntary program (parents are given the choice to opt out) in Illinois to teach kindergardeners to report adults who touch them inappropriately.

In the new McCain spot, an announcer says "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read?"

This is a great notion, and one that, if it is not in place, protects teachers who molest their students. Without this specific, age-appropriate education, students often do not feel empowered to report those in authority for even unspeakable acts. Without this knowledge, the students' future can be impaired.

Elite McCain, in wrongfully characterizing this bill and Obama's involvement with it, shows just how out of touch he is, and how corrupt his campaign is.

Even Karl Rove says that McCain is a liar.

Obama's Plan to catch Bin Laden Adopted by Bush

Pakistan Raid Start Of Concerted Bid To Hit Al-Qaida

the raid by helicopter-borne U.S. Special Operations forces in Pakistan last week was not an isolated incident but part of a three-phase plan, approved by President Bush, to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida leadership.

The plan calls for a much more aggressive military campaign, said one source, familiar with the presidential order, which gives the green light for the military to take part in the operations. The plan represents an 11th-hour effort by the Bush administration to hammer al-Qaida before the November election

The October surprise will be the American people understanding that Obama has been right all along on Iraq.

Elite McCain Campaign Stumbles

Born into rank and privilege, legacy-admitted into post-secondary education, elected to national office with the largess of Corporate America, exonerated from obvious involvement in banking scandal, married into money and corporate influence - John McCain does not know, and never has know, how most of us live.

John McCain is part of the tiny minority that run this country Elite First.

In picking a person clearly unfit to lead the free world as his second-in-command, John McCain has failed in his first executive decision.

The elites of the Republican party want those in the South, the Midwest, and small towns across America to think that someone on the Republican ticket is just like us, but they have failed. We are smarter than her, and them.

Since the Dixiecrat turnaround from Democratic to Republican of the parents and grandparents of this diverse block of voters, the Republicans have misdirected the voters into voting against their self interest. Now, the Republican party rejoices at the opportunity to raise the flag of race and even a lying flag of religion against their opponent.

The Republican party and the complicit, non-challenging Conservative Media have had a good unopposed run since the naming of the Governor of Alaska to the Republican presidential ticket, but they have received all the bump they will get.

On a level playing field, intelligence, reason, and competence will win, and Barack Obama will be president.

Bush 9/11 Memorial: 7 Minutes of Silence

McCain+Palin=$10/GAL

McCain Paves way for Minerals Management Service

Drill here, drill now:

McCain's visit came a day ahead of the Minerals Management Service's lease sale in New Orleans to auction off 18 million acres of the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. The tracts could potentially yield as much as 400 million barrels of oil, but that amount would only meet the nation's oil needs for about 19 days, and it would be at least seven to 10 years until oil started flowing.

McCain Sex, Drugs, and Oil

Drill Here, Drill Now, get your buddies at the Denver Minerals Management Service laid.

According to the Friends of John McCain, McCain is knee-deep to authorize:

At least $1.4 billion over ten years - For a provision that would give the Secretary of Interior the right to expand the royalty-in-kind program to all oil and gas development. This would allow oil companies, which drill on public lands to pay for the royalties owed to taxpayers in barrels of oil instead of cash.

Obama - Right on Iraq, Right on Afghanistan

Barack Obama

A Responsible, Phased Withdrawal
Barack Obama believes we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.
Under the Obama plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. He will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.

Resurgent Al Qaeda in Afghanistan: The decision to invade Iraq diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan, making it harder for us to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and others involved in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly seven years later, the Taliban has reemerged in southern Afghanistan while Al Qaeda has used the space provided by the Iraq war to regroup, train and plan for another attack on the United States. 2007 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001. The scale of our deployments in Iraq continues to set back our ability to finish the fight in Afghanistan, producing unacceptable strategic risks.

Bush Decides to Withdraw 8,000 Troops From Iraq By February

The White House says President George Bush has decided to withdraw about 8.000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next February and that he will announce the plan in a speech Tuesday in Washington.

A transcript of that speech was released on Monday.

In the prepared remarks, Mr. Bush says the U.S. military will bring home 3,400 combat support forces from Iraq in the next few months.

He also says a Marine battalion will leave Iraq's Anbar province by November and an army combat brigade will withdraw from Iraq in February.

Mr. Bush says a Marine battalion that was due to be sent to Iraq in November will instead go to Afghanistan and an army combat brigade will follow in January.

Obama Leads after Conventions

Polls on Monday, September 8 show Barack Obama with a substantial lead in Electoral College results based on state-by-state polling, as a cumulative of major polls.

McCain's First Three Years Representing Arizona

-no significant legislation
-no opposition to the Republican party
-no independence from lobbyists, laying the groundwork for the Keating scandal
-no trips to any war zone

nothing zero zip nada

Oh, he was a P.O.W.

McCain/Bush Army Trains Georgia for war with Russia

US military trained Georgian commandos

The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia's army assault in South Ossetia in August.

The revelation, based on recruitment documents and interviews with US military trainers obtained by the Financial Times, could add fuel to accusations by Vlad-imir Putin, Russian prime minister, last month that the US had "orchestrated" the war in the Georgian enclave.

The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two military contractors. There is no evidence that the contractors or the Pentagon, which hired them, knew that the commandos they were training were likely be used in the assault on South Ossetia.

The conservative Global Security organisation in their article Georgia - Oil & Gas Politics describes how vital the Georgia section of the Caucasus oil pipeline is to the world oil supply.

Roughly 150 miles of the pipeline corridor extending from Baku, Azerbaijan to Turkey will pass through Georgia. This corridor includes the $3.9 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which began linefill in May 2005 and opened 13 July 2006, and the $1 billion South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) natural gas pipeline, completed in late 2006. Regional governments and international investors expect these pipelines to become two of the primary conduits for Caspian Sea region oil and natural gas exports over the next decade. Georgia is paid transit tariffs by the pipeline’s operators, and will be allotted a small percentage of fuel passing through the Republic

The oil barons in the White House must not be allowed to take us into another world conflagration over their insane love affair with oil dollars.

A McCain administration would almost certainly lead us here, with his blind devotion and insiders affection for Georgia - not Country First, but Oil Dollars First. We can support the autonomy of this former-Soviet nation in other ways that will be positive to the security and survival of the United States.

Gov. Palin: Obama's Best Fundraiser!

Now that the conventions have finished, Obama has raised $8-10M, and McCain has raised $1-2M.

Thanks, Sarah!

Democrats Lead in Ohio with Tax Cuts

CROSS COUNTRY

By TED STRICKLAND and LEE FISHER
September 6, 2008

Ohio is going to be a hard fought-over state in this presidential election. And consequently, the economy of this bellwether state has become highly scrutinized.

But much of this scrutiny has focused only on the admittedly tragic loss of manufacturing jobs, while overlooking major investments in tax reform, technology and higher education. Things in Ohio are not as the news coverage has made them appear.


AP
Dana Corporation's automotive parts manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio.
There's no question we face serious economic challenges, and that the national economy's decline has hit citizens hard in the wallet.

But the state has too many strengths, too many successes, and too noble a history to be portrayed as a poster child for the country's economic woes. Look under Ohio's hood. Its engine is being redesigned and retooled in ways that offer important lesson on how to make an economy more competitive in a global marketplace.

The biggest shift is in taxes. Ohio business leaders told us that our tax structure was outdated and made the state uncompetitive. So, in a bipartisan manner, we restructured our tax laws to lower the burden for business.

By 2010, Ohio will be one of only two states without a general tax on corporation profits or a property tax on business machinery, equipment and inventories. This year is the last for Ohio's business property tax; next year is the last for the corporation profits tax. And Ohio's personal income tax rates are falling by 21% across the board.

Feds grab Freddie and Fannie for Republicans!

Nationalize the Macs!

Privatize the Profits!

Socialize the losses!

Forbes.com

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that fund half the U.S. housing market, are about to become subsidiaries of the U.S. government.

The Treasury Department late Friday was putting together final details of a plan to take the two into conservatorship, effectively a government takeover, at a potential cost of tens of billions to taxpayers.

In a desperate attempt to shore up the Republican-led war on the middle class, the federal government will soon take over the two mortgage giants, using our tax dollars. The borrow and spend conservatives are hoping against hope to slow the precipitous decline in housing prices, unavailablity of loans, and skyrocketing rate of foreclosure and default.

Their hope is to lower objections to John McCain, an unfailing supporter of the Bush/Cheney administration's wealth redistribution scheme to enrich the already-rich 2% of the American population who own the largest share of American wealth.

Americans by the millions will not see relief from this, and will turn toward Barack Obama to put in place policies that will help the middle class.

Obama Ahead after Conventions

No bump for McLump

Johnny, We've Heard Ye Before

John McCain gave an overlong, middling speech, fought with technical glitches and jumbled speechwriting at last night's Republican National Convention.

We've heard it before, John, and this is probably the last time anyone outside the 31-percenters will have a chance to hear it. Your speech was swamped by Gov. Palin's speech the night before - hers full of one-liners and bright lies, yours full of the dull same-old same-old.

It's your last day in the spotlight. Now into the oven of the general election, and stick a fork in it.

Uppity Obama Wins Georgia!

GOP Rep.: Obamas part of 'uppity' class

"Honestly, I've never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama," Westmoreland said. "Just what little I've seen of her and Senator [Barack] Obama, is that they're a member of an elitist class...that thinks that they're uppity."

Obama Surges as McCain plays the POW Card

No bounce for gramps.

Palin Speaks, Stocks Slide

Brutal selloff on Wall Street

Dow loses 345 points as mixed retail sales reports, weak job market news and an oil price slide add to fears about a global slowdown.

Obama and Biden will end the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

Biden tells Va. crowd he and Obama would end war

Thursday, Sep 04, 2008 - 12:27 PM

By BILL GEROUX, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

VIRGINIA BEACH Democratic vice presidential nominee and U.S. Sen., Joe Biden reached out to military families and veterans this morning, saying the Bush administration's mismanagement of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched the military to its breaking point.

"America's not at war, the military's at war," Biden told a friendly crowd of several hundred listeners at a campaign stop at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. The military "is the only thing we're asking anything of," he said. ...

Why has John McCain done nothing to rally the citizens of the US for true support for the war in Iraq?

The answer is, he and Bush do not need the majority of us to support this war, in order to continue getting elected and in order to continue to bleed the country dry to enrich the already rich. It might be true that Republicans lately have shown that they know how to get elected but they don't know how to govern, but the real issues extend much further than that.

The Republicans-in-name-only know how to govern just enough. Just enough to fool some of the people some of the time. Just enough to keep running wars for power and oil. Just enough to keep enough of us believing that just because we haven't been doing so well economically that the policies of the current administration are somehow not to blame or somehow the right thing to do even at the cost to my health, retirement, and sanity.

This is a country where nearly half of us still believe that John McCain, a nearly-30-year Washington insider, is an alternative to what we have now.

If we elect him, we will get what we ask for. More of the same. More Cheney/Bush/Rove.

It's time to support the troops, and end the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq.

Obama Support Hits 50%

Obama support hits 50 per cent

The Democratic nominee now holds an eight-point lead over Mr McCain – 50 per cent to 42 per cent – according to today’s daily tracking poll released by Gallup.

Mr Obama has bounced back from a poll low earlier this month when the two presidential candidates were tied on 44 per cent. Undecided voters have dropped from 11 per cent to 8 per cent, suggesting that those who have recently made up their minds are opting for Mr Obama.

Experience

Biden, McCain, Obama, and Palin all have the same amount of experience in the Oval Office:

Zero. None. Zilch.

This discussion is over.

McCain's Harriet Miers Moment

Thanks, John, for showing us how great is your judgement. Your choice of Sarah Palin, whether you win or lose this race, will go down as the greatest failure of a long, respected career in US political history.

Republican Palin Panic

Republicans around the country are in a panic about the pick of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate.

According to sources in the McCain campaign, asking not to be named, John McCain strongly wanted Senator Joseph Leiberman on his ticket as Vice Presidential candidate. Karl Rove and others of influence were adamant against the liberal/independent Leiberman, and McCain responded "in a fit of his own independence" by inviting Palin to Arizona for a quick interview and offer.

Those opposed to Palin, the large majority of influence, went with the presumptive presidential nominee when they all agreed that at the least she would "solidify the religious right base" and help distract the press the day after the end of the Democratic National Convention.

The Republican Party's well oiled machine kicked into gear, supplying talking points and brief Palin histories to sympathetic talking heads, message statements to the host of spurned VP possibles, and drafting quotes to supply to specially selected Republican women to project the image that the party was now united and that Palin was a brilliant pick.

Instead, revelations of Palin's original support for the "Bridge to Nowhere," securing of $27M of US taxpayer funds for her town of Wassila, investigations into her pressure to have her estranged ex-brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Plice, her membership in the anti-American AIP, her hateful preacher who stated that "If you don't vote for George Bush, you will have a hard time getting into heaven," and family issues such as her 17-year-old unwed-daughter's pregnancy have thrown the Republican base into panic.

Fundrasing has bumped for the McCain campaign since the Palin announcement, but polling shows Barack Obama 8 points higher than McCain than he was before the Palin announcement.

Her speech tonight is expected to be a make-or-break moment for Palin. She is at this moment locked in a room with veteran RNC speechwriters

“I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative.”-Faye Palin, Sarah's mother-in-law

"I was committed to voting for McCain, but the whole Sarah thing has made me consider voting for Obama. She seems to have been checked out by the Republicans too little, and my feeling is that she is not ready to be president" Amanda Muller, registered Nebraska Republican.

The unnamed McCain campaign source said "We have sent a task force to Alaska for damage control, and we agree with odds-makers that she has a 50-50 chance of being dumped before November. Some October surprise, huh."

Why the US Faces Broadband Price Hikes

The flat-rate pricing model we’re all used to only works when users consume roughly equal amounts of bandwidth, but the adoption of P2P for non-stop use by a small number of people blows it out the window.

20% of drivers on our highways make up 80% of traffic at any given time. 20% of shoppers in a grocery store buy 80% of the products. 20% of water customers use 80% of our water resources.

The dull argument that the best consumers of a product, service, utility, etc., somehow spoil it or break the system for the rest of us is, and always has been, wrong.

These best consumers built these systems. The Internet wouldn't exist without feverish downloaders. Comcast certainly wouldn't have built their system to its current bandwidth capability without its extreme users' steadily increasing needs, and Comcast wouldn't have increased their capacity if all we do is send a few text emails and post on listservers.

McDonalds is never heard complaining that a few of their customers buy too many of their Happy Meals. These more active consumers built and sustain the enterprise. Should they limit the number of Happy Meals per-customer or charge more per-Happy Meal for those who consume more? Of course not.

Comcast and other providers provide a flat rate service, and until they change to a metered service, they must not chip away at the absolute notion of unlimited. They know that the minute they change to a metered service, their growth will stop dead in its tracks, defeating its plans to use increased bandwidth to resell content.

Our society's culture, economy, security, and communication infrastructure is growing rapidly to depend on the Internet. As this need grows, like electricity and water, the market will shape the Internet as a utility, open, free, and regulated. The underlying commerce and flow of ideas will make use of this resource, but ultimately it will be up to us as a nation and a world to keep it free.

welcome chrome

Yes, Chrome is fast, very, scary fast. Chrome has loaded all websites flawlessly. Pages sometimes look a little different - not better or worse, just different.

But - no Google Toolbar (where are my bookmarks?), Flash (no YouTube G?) EDIT - got Flash...

Gmail's still in beta after all these years. Google is the perfect example of a boyfriend who just can't commit.

LA Times Letter from the Editor - Shame

Letters to the Editor

There was a time when I believed in Obama and his mantra for change. I really can't say when I started questioning my support for him. Maybe it was when he reversed key primary positions upon winning the nomination. Maybe it was when he went with a Washington insider as his vice president. Maybe it was my Republican neighbor incessantly reminding me about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and many others.

I wasn't impressed with Obama's European vacation either, but still thought I could vote for him. Not anymore. Thursday night's Denver rally was a big turnoff for many reasons. The only things missing from the rally were torchlights and Leni Riefenstahl to film it.

Ellie Levitas

Cypress

This letter - and, yes, it’s the only appropriate word – is bullshit.

Not the opinion (that’s fine, she/he is entitled) but the fact that the letter is an obvious lie. There is no Ellie Levitas who was once a magical Democrat who became an Obama opponent. Anyone who has read even a newspaper like the LA Times knows that the words and phrasing of his/her comments are straight from Townhall/Limbaugh/FOX/Rove, etc. Do a simple search (on the sources where people really get their news, not your newspaper) and anyone can find these words and phrases only coming from partisan hacks.

Please, LA Times, be more careful to separate opinion from diatribe.

Palin Pile-on

I hate to go for the easy target...

She really, really, doesn't have the experience to be president. You know it.

Her trooper scandal has legs.

She directed indicted Senator Stevens' PAC.

In a widely distributed video clip, she avows that she doesn't know what the Vice President does.

Her 17-year old daughter is pregnant, unmarried. The father of the child (OK, I'm not sure of the details of Alaska's statutory rape laws) is a rapist. (I don't believe the rumors that Palin's young baby is actully that of her then-16-year-old daughter)

Her choice by McCain seems to be a botched, compromised, choice by-committee. It really shows how poor McCain's judgement is, and how poor his leadership skills would be as president. This may, in fact, take down the candidacy.

Agreed, she has led a campaign for part-time mayorship, and governorship of one of the United States. She speaks clearly (but is too dull to know how to pronounce the word "nuclear..." do we need another president with that deficiency???). She walks the conservative walk in her personal life to all accounts.

Another Republican failure, and an American failure if ~ half of the U. S. continues to support this failing party.