SodaHead - getalife's Blog

THE TRUMAN SHOW: HOW MCCAIN COULD PULL OFF A FINAL WEEK UPSET

2008-10-27T22:03:24Z

+4 raves

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN Published in The New York Post on October 26, 2008 The most reliable surveys put McCain five to seven points behind Obama as we enter the last week of this interminable campaign. But in a race that will be famous for years afterwards for its volatility, it is not too late for the Republican to pull out a victory. For Harry Truman in 1948, the presidential race shifted dramatically in the final week, and it's happened three more times in the past 30 years. In 1980, Reagan came from eight points behind to a solid victory by winning his sole debate with Carter in the last week of October. In 1992, Clinton, who had fallen behind in the polls because of the pounding he was taking over his liberalism and propensity to raise taxes, surged ahead of Bush when Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh announced that he was indicting Defense Secretary Casper (Cap) Weinberger, an indication of Bush's possible complicity in the Iran-Contra scandal. And in 2000, Bush's three-to-four point lead in the polls was erased over the final weekend when reports surfaced that he had been cited for DWI 20 years before and had not revealed the fact to the public. Bush still won the election, of course, but Gore won the popular vote by half a point. What does McCain have to do to pull off a similar shift this time? 1. Use the stock market crash to highlight the tax issue. With the Dow Jones dropping each day by hundreds of points, this election is being held against a backdrop of economic fear unlike any since the Depression. Almost every reputable economist agrees that it would be catastrophic to add to the economy's woes by raising the capital gains tax. But Obama is on record as favoring an increase from 15% to 20% and suggested during the primaries that he would consider hitting 28%. McCain should jump on the issue and challenge Obama to agree to a two-year moratorium on increases in the capital gains tax. If Obama agrees, McCain will score points for leadership. If Obama refuses, or ignores the challenge, McCain can attribute much of the drop in the market to the fear of increased capital gains taxation once Obama takes over. After all, its pretty obvious that if you keep 85% of your capital profits right now but stand only to keep 80% or 72% once Obama takes over, it's prudent to unload now. This pressure to sell is exactly what the markets do not need, and McCain can hammer the point home. McCain can say that Obama's refusal to join in supporting a moratorium on capital gains taxation increases shows his commitment to class warfare - and that big government exceeds any concern he might have for stock market stability or the value of 401Ks or retirement pension funds. McCain has already scored mightily with his invocation of Joe the Plumber and, polls show, he won the third debate by using the issue of taxes and small businesses. By early this coming week, his advertising will have achieved sufficient levels of frequency to have an impact on the polling. 2. Bring back Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For reasons that are beyond me, John McCain has vowed not to make an issue out of Rev. Wright's extreme anti-American statements. But that should not stop independent expenditure and 527 groups from raising the issue. A good advertisement would alternate footage of Wright saying "God damn America" and 9/11 was just the "chickens coming home to roost" with an announcer explaining the relationship between the two men. The narrator might remind voters that it was Rev. Wright who married Barack and Michelle Obama and that Obama himself sat in the pews at Wright's church for 20 years as sermons like these were being given. It should point out that Obama only distanced himself from Wright a month after his remarks scandalized all Americans and cost him his momentum in the polls. McCain is likely fearful that the establishment media would condemn him for running the ads. Their very effectiveness would ensure that the liberal media would fall all over themselves to denounce the tactic. But independent groups who want to prevent a leftist takeover of the government should not let liberal organs dictate their campaign tactics or their message. (One such independent expenditure group that is willing to go where McCain fears to tread is NationalRepublicanTrust.com. They have created a hard-hitting 30 second commercial linking Reverend Wright to Obama. They are running the ad and soliciting contributions at http://nationalrepublicantrust.com/ so they can run it all over America this week.) 3. Warn voters of impending socialism in America. The recent bailout legislation puts the United States government inside the ownership, management and direction of many of our major companies and financial institutions. The bureaucrats have entered as firefighters, trying to extinguish the blazes that threaten to consume these companies. But once the flames are put out, will the firefighters go home or will they set up shop and give the United States a socialist economy akin to that of Western European nations? Will the bureaucrats relinquish the power they are being given in a time of crisis? McCain needs to point out that bureaucrats never let go of power unless they have to. He should say that with an Obama Administration and a highly Democratic Congress, we could face a long and perhaps permanent period during which entrepreneurial, private-sector capitalism disappears and loan applicants must win government approval for their financing. Many people have become concerned with the growing power of foreign sovereign wealth funds in major American businesses. Will these funds use their influence and power to alter the financial policies and lending practices of America's leading banks and investment houses? But now the danger comes not just from abroad but from government intervention at home. The sovereign wealth fund that might be most influential in distorting our private capitalist system is the United States Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board. Under conservative, pro-capitalist Republican management, we can, presumably, trust these institutions to exercise their power benignly and to turn control over to the private sector as soon as possible. We can count on their taking a hands-off policy toward the investment of the banks and financial firms in which they acquire an equity position. Except to control abuses like subprime mortgages and making marginal loans, we can expect that these federal institutions will act in our interest. But if Obama's appointments take over the Treasury and the Fed, can we be as sure? McCain needs to point out that it was political meddling by liberals that led Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage subprime mortgage loans in the first place. Were it not for the pressure in the Clinton Administration to expand home ownership to poor people and minorities, Freddie and Fannie would not have relaxed their down payment policies and would not have been willing to guarantee mortgages without proof that the borrowers had sufficient income to repay the debts. McCain needs to point out that it is precisely this sort of liberal pressure which led to the disaster and to warn that the power the bailout legislation gives the next president is so potent that it could destroy our concept of a private economy. If the Dow continues to terrify investors and distract voters from the election, it will continue to bolster Obama's candidacy and his lead. But if there is some stability in the final week before the election, there is every chance that voters will take another look at Obama and decide that he is too risky. By stressing the tax issue and the potential of an Obama regime to subvert our free enterprise system, McCain can harness the crisis and warn voters of the impact of a decision to elect the most radical candidate for president in our nation's history.

Obamas Hawaii trip cost more then Palins cloths

2008-10-27T16:34:52Z

getalife

+3 raves

Obama’s Hawaii Trips Cost More Than Palin’s Clothes Sunday, October 26, 2008 3:21 PM By: Ronald Kessler Barack Obama’s trips to Hawaii on a chartered Boeing 757 each cost more than twice the price of Sarah Palin’s new clothes. Brad Blakeman, who was in charge of scheduling for President Bush, says a Boeing 757 costs about $20,000 an hour for fuel, crew, and maintenance. Since a trip to Hawaii entails 10 hours of flying time from Chicago, the total cost for each round-trip comes to about $400,000. Obama used the Boeing 757 for trips to Hawaii over the summer for a vacation and again last week to see his failing grandmother. Admirable though that visit was, “By Obama using a private jet to go on a purely personal visit to see his grandma, he’s wasting not only energy, but he’s using the money that his supporters have given him for campaign purposes,” Blakeman says. “It’s a purely personal visit paid for with campaign funds.” On the other hand, the media are highlighting the Republican National Committee’s purchase of $150,000 in clothes for Palin, even though the dresses will be donated to charities. The New York Times played the story on page one. “They’re picking on Palin, who was provided a wardrobe by the RNC strictly for political purposes, and it was always intended that these garments would be then given to charity,” Blakeman says. “So there’s a benefit that’s going to charity, not a benefit that Palin will have after the election. There was a need for it because she’s a modest person who didn’t have an extensive wardrobe to do 24/7 campaigning.” To pick on Palin without going after Obama’s plane trips is “an absolute journalistic abuse,” Blakeman says. “This is the same plane that he took to Hawaii when he went on vacation. In the summertime, when gas was soaring and Americans were having to pinch their pennies, this guy gets on his campaign plane and goes to Hawaii on vacation. He did a couple campaign stops in a state that is not a swing state and is a guaranteed win for Obama. That was clearly to cover the tracks of this vacation.” Blakeman notes that at the height of the gasoline price surge, Obama suggested that Americans check their vehicle’s tire pressure as a way of conserving fuel. “I wonder if he checked the tires on his jumbo jet before taking off for a purely personal visit?” Blakeman says. “The way he spends campaign money is a direct reflection of how he will spend ours. He could have easily flown commercial or taken a much smaller corporate aircraft that would cost a fraction of a 757.” Ironically, it was Palin as governor who saved money for Alaskans by selling the state’s jet and instead flying commercial. Kellyanne Conway, one of the most respected Republican pollsters, says the media’s attack on Palin’s clothes is an example of elitist snobbery or “classism.” Noting the media’s treatment of her, “I can’t believe her own family still approves of her, after the unprecedented, personal and relentless attacks that this woman has undergone,” Conway says. Besides attacks on Palin over her clothes, Conway cites snide remarks about “the way she speaks, her husband’s lack of a college degree, the barefoot and pregnant 17-year-old daughter, you know who hunts moose anyway? The classism is so raw and unapologetic, so unconsidered and so undisguised.”

Print Email The Argument Against Idiots: ACORN And Voter

2008-10-27T00:29:09Z

getalife

+2 raves

How to win the argument de jour with logic and facts The issue: 'ACORN And Voter Registration Fraud: Part II' What the liberal whiners say: 'I see that you Republicans are up to your old tricks again, trying to suppress the vote among minorities and the poor, by attacking ACORN and others.' 'ACORN is just out there trying to help the people that you Republicans have your foot planted on their THROATS, to get out and exercise their rights as Americans. And by the way, ACORN is a non-partisan organization.' 'You are just afraid of them registering minorities and hard-working middle class voters, because you know the GOP can't win if they do!' 'Please, there's only been a couple examples of any problem with voter forms, and ACORN themselves have alerted the authorities to potential irregularities' Your winning, logical, reasoned arguments 1. Come on, even YOU can't believe Donald and Daffy Duck, Luke Skywalker and Geore Bailey of Bedford Falls, were all registered by accident? 2. Oh? I guess their endorsement of Barack Obama for President was done in a non-partisan way, then? And the pro-Obama speeches at ACORN's convention a few months ago were also non-partisan, partisan endorsements? 3. No, not if they're registering MILLIONS of dead people, cartoon characters, and people who don't exist...of COURSE the GOP's afraid of that kind of fraud. 4. Really? Two years ago in Seattle, ACORN turned in 1800 voter registration forms that election officials thought were suspect. ACORN not only DID NOT alert the election officials to any problems, they threatened to SUE them if they didn't accept the forms. Only SIX, out of 1800 were real people. During the investigation, the ACORN workers admitted they sat around at home, and the Seattle library, making up names.

Never Been There

2008-10-04T01:17:24Z

getalife

+3 raves

I do not know why. But through out my whole life, I have been having what I call false flash backs. I have never been in the air force. but I have been in all the others branches, my Dad was a pilot in the air corp at the time before they called it the air force, back at the start of Korean war, but he flew the older p38s. and wasnt into jets before he was shot down. and became disabled. well anyway, I keep having some kind of flash back of me being in a old flying fortress, and every detail about the plans insides and the guns are so familiar, I have a sence that I have been in many, to the point to where before i ever took a tour of a real flying fortress, I knew the whole lay out of it like I have lived it before.. when I took my first tour. I felt right at home in it. I knew more then I should of know about the whole inside of the plane. and when I touched one of the guns I would get images of a battle or a strange feeling running through me. I could see me sitting in the ball turret of the planes gunners seat, strapped in all by myself, and a since of being really scared, and trapped.. I would hear voices coming from an ear peace that I wasnt wearing.. and everywhere I moved in the plane. meant something to me. I could feel being really cold at times and ready hot., i have noticed that I was breathing hard and feeling a lot of anxiety, my face felt as if it was covered with something that made it hard to get a clean breath of air, at one point in the plane I felt a lot of pain running through my back and down my legs. I hear songs of like dont set under the applet tree and a few orchestra songs, coming across the planes radio. all this only happens when I am in or around that kind of plane. I have gone to many air shows and been in many bombers, and everytime I get near one I keep getting this feeling. and the more I go the more comfortable I get and the more flash backs I get. I was kinda scared at first, because I didnt understand why I was having these feelings. but now if I got I just stand around the pane talking to others about it like I was the crew. and people just look at me like if I am crazy, I often wonder if reincarnation is real. and I am just reliving a past life, I dont know, all I know is that it just feels so familiar.

Beng Blocked

2008-09-26T02:37:18Z

getalife

+11 raves

This blog really has no point ... just my thoughts. so feel free to say what ever crosses your mine. Have you ever commented and had many conversations with a sodahead and feel that you 2 were just ok with each other. While you thought everything was ok with that person. you one day answered a question of theres with a passion felt response, thinking you cant wait to see how they reply. only to fine out that there answer to your reply wasnt the one that you thought your were deserving of. What I was surprised about , was not the answer that they gave back,, but the response. I was in the process of giving another reply to there comment. and after I have sent to, to my shock It said I was not allowed any further correspondence with this person. Much to my disbelief, I looked back at all my comments to see what I might of said to offend this person. after all I have never said anything in the past to make this person so mad at me. so why the block... I want to know what it was that I said to make this person block. me but I will never know. maybe I could explain my answer to that person to easy any misunderstanding of my comment. I thought at least before they had blocked me that they could of at least explain to me that because of your answer, I will no longer be allowing you to post any further comments on my polls. I guess I will never understand people completely. and if you will do me a favor. If I have ever left a comment on your post that lead you to block me. please go back and see if I have ever left a negative remark on your polls about you, and if all the comment left were indeed negative, and required a block then fine , maybe we are to differnt to be friends, but if there was just that one comment that you didnt like let me know what it was that out of all the other comments that I had left that had made you feel that we couldn't be friends.