Taxpayers With Pitchforks

Lipstick On A Pig...

Someone sent me this...I just couldn't resist...

Wall Street, The Big Bad Wolf!

McCain To Suspend Campaign, Skip Debate

John McCain today announced he would suspend his campaign and postpone the first scheduled Presidential debate which had been scheduled for this Friday.
This is in response to the financial meltdown and the proposed remedy from the Bush administration.
McCain said he would instead return to Washington so he could pay full attention to the growing financial crisis.
This is a gimmick of course and so far there is no word that the Obama camp wants to go along.
To some it seems McCain is more than eager to dump the debate. Not surprising when it has been McCain among those who have long fought against the very kind of financial market regulation and oversight which now seems to be needed.

Sarah At The U.N.

Next Bubble To Burst?

McCain/Palin; Campaign Without Honor Latest To Prove Correct Dr. Johnson’s Maxim!

Senator John McCain and Alaska governor Sarah Palin are conducting a campaign utterly without honor. Forget truth or candor. They have shown themselves willing to grovel in the muck for the sake of a few votes which, they hope, will put them over the top in what so far appears to be an extremely close election.
McCain never misses an opportunity to remind that he spent “five years in a box” as a prisoner of war of the North Vietnamese. He is proud that he conducted himself by the code of honor of the U.S. military officer’s corps. He should be a recipient of a nation’s gratitude and admiration. Of that there is no doubt.
But now he holds that the same honor and courage he so courageously displayed at that time still guides his path today in these important and troubled times. Sadly that is not the case. John McCain and his Republican supporters have instead chosen a low road of lies, deception and outright distortion of Barack Obama’s life and political record. Indeed, they have blamed every calamity since WWII on Obama! Imagine McCain attempting to place blame on Obama for the Wall Street crash when he, McCain, has been in Congress for 25 years and has followed the standard Republican line of de-regulation of business and markets which have directly led to the Wall Street disaster. Not to mention being smack in the middle of the savings and loan scandal of the eighties. McCain wasn’t found guilty of a crime as a result of a Congressional investigation but he received a Congressional reprimand. McCain was one of the Keating Five who accepted large contributions from Charles Keating. Keating went to prison as a result of the scandal.
McCain’s reaction to the Wall Street crisis should concern every voter. He railed against greed in Wall Street! Imagine, McCain is now suddenly aware there is greed in the financial markets! This is something like the police inspector in Casablanca declaring “Shocked! I’m shocked to learn there is gambling going on at Rick’s Place!" Yeah, right…He wants to fire fellow Republican Christopher Cox and Sarah Palin says that she and John McCain will “grab hold of Wall Street and shake things up.”
These people are not credible or realistic and are more than willing to scare people, distort and pander their way to the White House.
McCain has said that Obama would rather lose a war than an election. That statement has now morphed into a new slogan, “Service First” which insinuates Obama is more interested in getting elected than serving his country, a despicable statement.
Sarah Palin recently raised the specter of a nuclear Iran in terms very similar to the fear mongering indulged by G.W. Bush to push the U.S. and its allies into the war in Iraq.
And there is much more of which to blame the McCain/Palin campaign but, in the interest of brevity, likely anyone reading this will be very familiar of the conduct and tenor of the campaign, there is no need to list these miss-statements and distortions.
The McCain/Palin campaign is following a Rovian script which even Karl Rove has criticized for dishonesty!
For a man who has based so much of his biography on honor John McCain has shown himself to be willing to run a dishonorable campaign.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the pre-eminent and oft quoted men of English letters, said, in 1775, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel!” John McCain seems hell bent on proving the truth of Dr. Johnson’s maxim!

G.W. In The Headlights!

Financial Markets Create Mess, Public Bears The Burden!

Wall Street Bail Out

Carly Fiorina Says Neither McCain Or Palin could Run A Big Corporation!

Carly Fiorina has been appearing regularly on news TV shows as one of the McCain campaign's surrogates and one of his "brilliant" economic advisers. Remeber Phil Gramm? Another brilliant choice.
Fiorna deviated a bit from the talking points this week when she told NBC's Andrea MItchell about a recent radio interview when she said that neither Barack Obama or Joe Biden was "capable of running a large corporation." When pressed she also said the same was true of John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin.
You may recall that Fiorina made big news a while back when she was made CEO of Hewlett-Packard. This was touted as news because of her sex. However it seems Fiorna wasn't too successful herself at running a big corporation as she was unceremoniously fired after a disastrous run at the top of the company which saw it's profits drop and the loss of 25,000 jobs.
The implications of her statement are stunning and her conclusions are just plain stupid!
Below is an excerpt from Andy Ostroy's blog today which sums it up well I think.

"So, the woman who herself in 2006 was booted out of HP--a company about to cut 26,000 jobs (7.5% of its workforce)--says neither presidential or vice presidential candidate could run it either. Apparently, HP must be one helluva difficult company to run.
Has Fiorina lost her mind? Her implication that it's harder to run a major corporation like HP than it is the United States government is absurd and delusional and, quite frankly, a tad narcissistic. She arrogantly claims that to run HP you need "a lifetime of experience" but cavalierly suggests that to be president all you really need is 1 1/2 years as Governor of Alaska and a few more in local Wasilla politics. Kooky-Carly believes it's harder to run a company with 150,000 employees than it is a freakin' country with 2.8-million on the payroll. And forget those pesky little decisions involving international diplomacy, the military, the national economy, health care, education and immigration. Who needs experience with that nonsense? Yes Carly, this, unlike the HP CEO role, is an office for which on-the-job-training is ok."

9-11 Remembered

This is a cartoon in reaction to the events of 9-11-01 I did for the small paper I was writing and drawing for at the time.

McCain's Notion Of "Change!"

John McCain has been talking a lot about "change" lately as he attempts to steal Obama's message, in his own awkward manner.
McCain has changed over the years. Once he called the late Jerry Falwell and others of his ilk as agents of divisiveness and worse. He was right. But the change came over McCain when he decided to run for President another time and he began kissing up to Falwell, Pat Robertson and others in a blatant attempt to appeal to the religious right.
That's a real "maverick" alright!

Sarah Palin May Not Be Qualifed To Be VP But...

Global Warming Disbeliever

Pitbull With Lipstick!

Palin No Stranger To Federal Earmarks!

Palin's Alaska Town Secured Big Fed $$$
Gov. Palin Hired Lobby Firm To Secure $27 Million For Town Of 6,700
By Paul Kane
© 2008 The Washington Post Company

(Washingtonpost.com) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.
There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.
In introducing Palin as his running mate on Friday, Sen. John McCain cast her as a compatriot in his battle against wasteful federal spending.
McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, hailed Palin as a politician "with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies -- someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who's stopped
government from wasting taxpayers' money."
McCain's crusade against earmarks -- federal spending sought by members of Congress to benefit specific projects -- has been a hallmark of his campaign. He has said earmarks are wasteful and are often inserted into bills with little oversight, sometimes by a single powerful lawmaker.
Palin has also railed against earmarks, touting her opposition to a $223 million bridge in the state as a prime credential for the vice presidential nomination. "As governor, I've stood up to the old
politics-as-usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good-ol'-boy network," she said Friday.
As mayor of Wasilla, however, Palin oversaw the hiring of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh, an Anchorage-based law firm with close ties toAlaska's most senior Republicans: Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, whowas indicted in July on charges of accepting illegal gifts. The Wasilla
account was handled by the former chief of staff to Stevens, Steven W. Silver, who is a partner in the firm.
Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla in 1996 on a campaign theme of "a time for change." According to a review of congressional spending by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, Wasilla did not receive any federal earmarks in the first few years of Palin's tenure.
Senate records show that Silver's firm began working for Palin in early 2000, just as federal money began flowing.
In fiscal 2000, Wasilla received a $1 million earmark, tucked into a transportation appropriations bill, for a rail and bus project in the town. And in the winter of 2000, Palin appeared before congressional appropriations committees to seek earmarks, according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News.
Palin and the Wasilla City Council increased Silver's fee from $24,000 to $36,000 a year by 2001, Senate records show.
Soon after, the city benefited from additional earmarks: $500,000 for a mental health center, $500,000 for the purchase of federal land and $450,000 to rehabilitate an agricultural processing facility. Then there was the $15 million rail project, intended to connect Wasilla with the town of Girdwood, where Stevens has a house.
The Washington trip is now an annual event for Wasilla officials.
In fiscal year 2002, Wasilla took in $6.1 million in earmarks -- about $1,000 in federal money for every resident. By contrast, Boise, Idaho -- which has more than 190,000 residents -- received $6.9 million in earmarks in fiscal 2008.
All told, Wasilla benefited from $26.9 million in earmarks in Palin's final four years in office.
"She certainly wasn't shy about putting the old-boy network to use to bring home millions of dollars," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "She's a little more savvy to the ways of Washington than she's let on."
Silver, reached by phone at his Vienna home, declined to comment. Wasilla's town offices were closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
Maria Comella, Palin's campaign spokeswoman, said Palin sought the Wasilla earmarks because she was "working in the best interests of Alaska, working within the confines of the current system."
Palin became a staunch reform advocate after her 2003 appointment to the state's Oil and Gas Commission. She accused another commissioner -- Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich -- of raising campaign contributions from industries he was regulating. "She realized that the environment around her was no longer what it once was, and elected officials were abusing their power," Comella said.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, used to secure earmarks for public nonprofits in Illinois, but he announced last year that he would no longer seek earmarks for any entity. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), Obama's running mate, co-sponsored $85.6 million in earmarks for 2008, according to one study.
The Palin earmarks came when Stevens was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Young was a senior member of the House transportation committee.
In hiring Silver, Wasilla found someone who was a member of each lawmaker's inner circle. Silver has donated at least $11,400 to Stevens's political committees and $10,000 to Young's reelection committee in the past decade, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Sliver's firm employed Stevens's son, Ben Stevens, in the late 1990s as a federal lobbyist, according to multiple media accounts. Ben Stevens was not listed on lobbying disclosure forms as having worked on Wasilla earmarks.
The firm became ensnared in the wide-ranging federal investigation of corruption by Alaska Republican officials. Federal agents reviewed records about its other municipal clients, as well as fishing companies represented by Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh that were close to Ben
Stevens.
The investigation has increasingly focused on Veco, a now-defunct energy services company whose chief executive, Bill Allen Jr., pleaded guilty in May 2007 to bribing Alaska officials.
Ted Stevens is awaiting trial on charges that he accepted more than $250,000 in unreported gifts from Allen. Ben Stevens, who has not been charged, has been identified in court documents as having accepted more than $240,000 in consulting payments in exchange for legislative favors while he served in the state Senate.
A Veco executive testified last year in a criminal trial that Allen had ordered him to arrange annual fundraisers for Young. The congressman has not been charged with any crimes.
After becoming governor, Palin became a critic of Young and the Stevenses.
She endorsed Young's opponent in a Republican primary last week that is still too close to call, and last year she demanded Ben Stevens's resignation as Alaska's member of the Republican National Committee. She has also criticized Ted Stevens.
In addition, Palin has reversed course on at least one major earmark: After initially supporting the $223 million bridge, which was to connect the town of Ketchikan with a remote island, she reversed course last year and canceled the project because of cost overruns. Critics have dubbed the project the "Bridge to Nowhere."
But her administration remains eager for many other earmarks. In February, Palin's office sent Sen. Stevens a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for Alaska.

Sarah Palin Is Handy With A Shotgun!

Who Is Sarah Palin?
It has been interesting to see all the crash courses on Sarah Palin’s bio going on. The right wing spinners have lost no time in extolling her virtues and buying into McCain’s transparent ploy.
They are quickly shaping up an image to try to sell to the voters.
The left wing spinners are just clucking their tongues and shaking their heads at the audacity of this ill conceived nomination.
No longer can the Republicans look down their noses at Obama’s admittedly thin resume when it comes to foreign policy and security issues. Palin has no real public profile. Her tenure as mayor doesn’t really count. Being mayor in a tiny town in rural Alaska really doesn’t equate to Obama’s political cradle, the rough and tough tumble of Chicago politics.
And Palin has not even completed half of her rookie term as governor of Alaska. She may develop into a political leader but to say she is there now is delusional.
Meanwhile a lot of dumb things have been said in her support, one of the worst was Cindy McCain on This Week on Sunday morning. (8-31-08)
“Palin lives in Alaska. That’s the place in America that is closest to Russia. Palin understands Russia.” Hmmm…one beauty queen talking about another.
That reminds me of G.W. Bush. When G.W. was Texas Governor, running for the Presidency, he replied to criticism concerning his lack of foreign policy experience buy pointing out that as Governor of Texas he lived right next to Mexico. Implying that he gained some intrinsic knowledge from mere proximity. Of course, G.W. Bush really knew little about Mexico and, really, he’s not that interested.
As if to emphasize the transparency of McCain’s selection she was reported to have said, speaking of Obama, “Gee, why didn’t he choose Hillary!” She said this to kiss up to the so-called “disgruntled” Hillary supporters.
We have learned some about the newcomer to the national scene.
How accurate all of this is remains to be seen but so far here are some things that have emerged.
Palin opposed teaching birth control in school, she reportedly favfored preaching abstinence. Hmmm....didn't work did it?
Palin said she is in favor of refurbishing the now languishing Trans Alaska pipeline. She said when it was built it delivered so much oil to the American market. Actually most of the gasoline refined from that oil was imported to Japan and other overseas markets.
Palin doesn’t believe global warning is being caused by human activity.
Palin favors drilling in ANWR.
Palin wants creationism taught in schools.
She is a right wing evangelical, with all the beliefs that entails.
She is a life long member of the NRA.

Here is a link to a wonderful column on Palin by Maureen Dowd in today’s N.Y. Times (8-31-08)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/opinion/31dowd.html?hp

It Was Supposed To Rain On Their Parade!

Just before the Democratic convention in Denver some conservatives were mocking Obama's stage setting for his acceptance speech. Others were proclaiming they would pray for rain on the event to be held in Denver's Mile High Stadium.
It is deliciously ironic that it seems to be the GOP that got rained on!