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."