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It’s not uncommon for any political candidate to loan their campaign money during any election but it is newsworthy when the supposed front runner in the Democrat race for the President campaign is broke. It was revealed today that Hillary Clinton had to loan her campaign five million bucks to keep going. Apparently, the donations have not kept up with the need for the campaign to spend during the run up for the Super Duper Tuesday election.

This just in from The Caucus over at the New York Times…

February 6, 2008, 3:25 pm
Clinton Lent Campaign $5 Million, Considers More
By Kate Phillips

Updated LOS ANGELES — Our colleague Patrick Healy tells us that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, facing big primaries against her rival Senator Barack Obama in places like Ohio and Texas, is weighing whether to lend her campaign money.

And in a quick update, her campaign has just confirmed that she’d already lent her coffers $5 million of her own money in late January. A just-issued statement from her camp:

The loan illustrates Senator Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the Web today and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.

More Updates: At her news conference this afternoon, Senator Clinton acknowledged the loan, saying: “I loaned the campaign $5 million from my money. That’s where I got the money. I did it because I believe very strongly in this campaign, and we had a great month fund-raising in January, broke all our records, but my opponent was able to raise more money and we intended to be competitive – and we were – and I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment.” - New York Times, The Caucus

If you think running for office is cheap then talk to someone who is running for a local political office in your city or town. Most political candidates pay for all of the materials needed to run a campaign out of their own pocket. Running for Dog Catcher isn’t as easy a task as it used to be. Hell, Mitt Romney must have turned his head and coughed up ten times the amount Hillary Clinton has loaned her campaign but that isn’t news because Mitt is a mega hundred millionaire and a Republican.

What the real story is behind the words in the NY Times piece is that Hillary is running for broke and pulling out all the stops to get the job done. She might pull it off but the wave of donations running into the Obama camp hit $30 million in January alone. That is the real story along with the fact that many of Obama supporters have not maxed out their contributions to the primary election or the general election campaign.

One of the problems over at the Clinton camp is that they maxed out their credit card or political supporters early in the race and you simply can not tap that well again. Which leads anyone with a political mind to wonder if the Clinton donors are of the elite in the political party and thus a pulse on who is the Clinton base. Obama on the other hand has the numbers working for him with the ten and twenty five dollar donors donating in mass over and over again.

Tim Russert did a piece on the NBC Nightly News with his magic number boards and the remaining campaign states left. Based on polling numbers today the election process between Clinton and Obama would be a tie separated by three or four delegates going into the convention. One thing he did not figure into the equation was if the Clinton campaign did not have the money to place ads on the air or pay staffers in those states.

This race is by far not over.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

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There is some confusion in many of the political blogs that we all read when it comes to the brutality that elections and primaries end up being all about. This is an election for President of the United States and no matter who you think you are as a candidate the questions need to be answered more so now during the primaries than when or if they sit behind the desk of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in our nations capitol. It is simply part of the process and I find myself guilty by a long shot of slamming some of the candidates I simply do not care for with one iota. Republican or Democrat makes no difference to me simply because I do not have an editor over my head telling me what I can or can not write. It’s called blogging. God I do love America! I could be shot for less in some countries.

Right here, right now on this site, I could call any single one of the Presidential candidates the biggest @&#^$% and that is my right as an American citizen. That would be my first amendment right under what used to be the Constitution pre Bush2 but that is another topic for another debate on the Bush Presidency.

Then again I think we tend to see to much of that kind of mentality in the past politics where division of the people is the main goal and the problem with our society during this election cycle.

Speaking with my best friend the other night she told me that she was divided as a lifetime Democrat over the vote she would cast and her mind was still not made up until the minute she voted. Our discussion regarding our votes was based in the fact that we both appreciate each of the candidates and yet we were divided on who should face the Republican’s in the general election.

Her desire to vote for both overwhelmed her mind simply because she always wanted to see a woman for President and she always wanted to see an African American for President. Finally, a strong woman, finally a strong African American? How she voted eventually she has sworn to secrecy till the results are all out. In her heart as in many others is the super ticket of either candidate in any position as President or Vice President. A ticket where hope and the political machine meld for one objective and that would be you the American people. Not a tough sell but super ego’s have their little agenda’s.

I voted for Obama and gladly did so. For the record I think Hillary Clinton has the right stuff to lead our nation as President and she might be able to cross party lines to draw Republican votes in the general election. I just don’t believe that she could draw as many Republican’s as Obama could. What she does not have is the ability to sell herself and her abilities like Obama does. In all of the recent campaign states, Obama has drawn huge crowds of the people that need his message of change where as the Clinton crowds are just not there. That in itself tells you where the people are going and that in itself tells you who can sell the needed change in our nations mentality that looks at our federal government as broken. Independent and Undeclared voters in many states will play a huge roll and that factor is not in the polls you see on the television night after night. And no, we are not lemmings running over the cliff following any form of change, we are just far smarter than the political media brainiacs give us credit for.

One of the greatest communicators to the American people was Franklin Roosevelt and in his message to the people was always hope. From the depths of the depression through World War II he managed to present hope to the people that was believable and they knew that he would not let them down.

Kennedy came along and the message of hope continued for the common man and America could once more dream of Camelot and beyond the stars. His dreams became ours with the hopes of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Dreams of a better tomorrow and a brighter future were never bigger. Change had a taste, a feel and it was once within our grasp.

That was then, this is now. America is not corrupt of heart when it comes to our vision of what hope and change is, we just forgot what it was like to see it, touch it, and feel it. Feel it again and just vote for change. If you have voted, I thank you.

Papamoka

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I know that not everyone has a chance to vote today, but if your state is holding primary elections today, I seriously urge you to go and cast a ballot. One of the most important rights we have in this country is the right to select our leaders through the vote.

Some think voting is meaningless…that nothing will change anyway. So they don’t vote. And in the process of not voting, their prediction becomes reality, thus reinforcing their faulty initial opinion. Because, of course, if you do not vote nothing will change.

But if you do vote then something COULD change, and that is how we move our government into new directions. 

Go out and Vote. It matters.

Not since the days of Ronald Reagan have you seen or heard of so many people that will cross party politics to vote for the opposing political parties candidate. Even on talk radio there are many die hard Republicans that are running for the Democrat side of the possible ticket if McCain wins the Republican nomination for President. What’s intriguing is that they would vote for Barack Obama over McCain if that was the choice they had to face at the voting booth.

Republican’s are suffering from the same malaise today that Democrat’s faced in the campaign of Jimmy Carter versus Ronald Reagan. Our entire nation was in a state of depression over the economic status in our lives and the message the Republican Party of hope, unity, and an America that could be proud once more steam rolled with Democrat voters its nominee Ronald Reagan into the White House.

Barack Obama is not stealing from the Reagan playbook for this election and does not need too. He has the message of change and a better America for all of our people that you can actually believe when he tells you that change is coming to America. That is something Hillary or the rest of the Republican’s running in the race for President of the United States that can not converse to the people. Words are easy to speak but the speaker or candidate actually has to believe that change is possible.

Over at Newsweek they have this on the flood of Republican’s for Obama…

Barack + GOP = ‘Obamacans’
Some prominent Republicans have caught Obama fever.
By Richard Wolffe Newsweek Web Exclusive
Feb 1, 2008 Updated: 7:02 p.m. ET Feb 1, 2008

Susan Eisenhower is more than just another disappointed Republican. She is also Ike’s granddaughter and a dedicated member of the party who has urged her fellow Republicans in the past to stick with the GOP. But now Eisenhower, who runs an international consulting firm, is endorsing Barack Obama. She has no plans to officially leave the Republican Party. But in Eisenhower’s view, Obama is the only candidate who can build a national consensus on the issues most important to her—energy, global warming, an aging population and America’s standing in the world.“Barack Obama will really be in a singular position to attract moderate Republicans,” she told NEWSWEEK. “I wanted to do what many people did for my grandfather in 1952. He was hugely aided in his quest for the presidency by Democrats for Eisenhower. There’s a long and fine tradition of crossover voters.”

Eisenhower is one of a small but symbolically powerful group of what Obama recently called “Obamacans”—disaffected Republicans who have drifted away from their party just as Eisenhower Democrats did and, more recently, Reagan Democrats in the 1980s. They include lifelong Republican Tricia Moseley, a former staffer for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, the one-time segregationist from South Carolina. Now a high-school teacher, Moseley says she was attracted to Obama’s positions on education and the economy.

Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, who anchors MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” says many conservative friends—including Bush officials and evangelical Christians—sent him enthusiastic e-mails after seeing Obama’s post-election speeches in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “He doesn’t attack Republicans, he doesn’t attack whites and he never seems to draw these dividing lines that Bill Clinton [does],” Scarborough told NEWSWEEK. - Newsweek

One thing is certain and that is the fact that Barack Obama does not need to attack anyone from any political party when our nation is faced with so many problems. Selling the possibility of hope and change is not easily spoken if you are just not believable. A distinct advantage Obama has over Hillary Clinton.

With supper dooper Tuesday election day coming up, the lot in life of each of the candidates in both parties is up in the air. There is no clear winner in either party but there is a sense that our nation needs a different captain at the helm. With the vote to come and any decision for any candidate we need to think not of ourselves but who can serve the nation best. Who can make the biggest difference that crosses all political party lines. Hope is not just a Democrat or Republican state of mind or thought, it is an American belief in a brighter tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton has been too locked up in the political machine of her husband and national politics that she would not recognize her own self of twenty years ago in the mirror. How she can speak of change and believe the words coming out of her own mouth is unbelievable. Her experience and politics are far too damaged by the legacy she and her husband left behind them that makes her words not worthy of even one vote. Maybe the experience she is trying to sell is something we have seen before. Former President Clinton is not a uniting force of America and the more he speaks on her behalf, the more people look to Obama as the beacon of hope. Party politics and affiliation aside.

Anyone but Hillary is the strongest message coming from the people. I’m voting Obama and for hope. You should too!

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

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Lobbyists, my heart aches for thee.

The doyens of K Street fear an industry-wide crisis akin to the subprime mortgage meltdown. With Vito McVeto promising a 50% reduction in earmark spending, K Streeters face a future devoid of 12 martini lunches, strip poker games with hookers, and doling out a lil’ sumpin’, sumpin’ to their Congressional marks. Like many other things in Washington, the cesspool is so deep even the recipients of lobbyists’ largess understand someone has to go down for their corruption.

One of the last bipartisan fronts in this country is a firm belief that earmarks are all numbered 666 - the earmark of the devil. Everyone decries them while slipping down to the Government Printing Office to add a few before the printers go to work. The administration, despite their belated call for halving the number, has a long and storied history of taking lobbyists’ essential “counsel”, usually behind closed doors and with refusals to let the sun shine in. The Democrats are no better. In fact, I can’t recall a single politician ever saying, “They gave me a $35,000 campaign contribution, so I voted as they asked.” It’s always, “The $35K didn’t influence me in the least. Hey! I hear they’re handing out golf trips to the Bahamas over at the Congressional dining room!”

I’m pretty confident most of the lobbyists shouldn’t worry. I’m sure Shrub will sign off on all the Republican earmarks and sacrifice Democrats’ pork to the giant maw of politics. That’s 50% guaranteed right there. I’m equally sure Democrats and Republicans alike will find new ways to shoehorn the rest into bills as part of the funding for specific, and probably tangential, programs. It is, after all, what they do and since lobbyists actually write many laws for the lawmakers, I’m sure they’ll find a way.

There’ll certainly be a few sacrificial goats from carefully-chosen, and none too important lobbies. One must keep up appearances in the Kabuki of politics. Banking will go untouched. Ditto telcom. And, of course, how could we live without the oil companies’ “help”? It’s more likely those rabid advocates for public aquariums or independent booksellers will get the shaft. “No fishes for you,” says the Earmark Soup Nazi.

But as bad as the lobbyist situation is, you can’t blame it completely on them. It’s true we look askance at these shenanigans, but we also reward them with our support in return for a new Jello-wrestling complex in Minnesota or a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Its just another variation of “NIMBY” - “NIMEM”, not in my earmark. Do anything you want to that other district, but hand me that rasher of bacon.

Are you listening Senator Byrd?

We’ve allowed lobbying to run away with itself. They have a defacto monopoly on power. The courts vested them with rights equal to individual citizens and they used that base to widen their footprint. At the same time, so did the politicians. Now we have a Rube Goldberg political money machine no one actually understands or can control. The problem is we desperately need reform, but it’ll have to be paid for with money printed by the lobbyists and stuffed into pols’ pockets.

Foxes guarding the hen house are never a good thing, but what are you going to do?

Cross posted at The Omnipotent Poobah Speaks!

When you think of a political ideology like liberalism then one of the front runners in that thought process is Move On. I like to think of them as my loony friends on the left simply because I love being a moderate liberal. I’m not an extremist but I believe in my heart many of the same thoughts that Move On proposes as they seek a progressive liberal agenda. They give a sense of direction for the political junkies amongst us and in that direction millions more that are not members or affiliated with Move On tend to lean on the fence post and listen, read, and form our own opinion.

Move On is endosing Barack Obama and over at the New York Times they have this little piece on it…

February 1, 2008, 12:11 pm
MoveOn Endorses Obama
By Jeff Zeleny

LOS ANGELES – Senator Barack Obama has won the endorsement today from the membership of MoveOn.

In a vote of the group’s members, Mr. Obama outpaced Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton 70 percent to 30 percent. The political action committee of MoveOn.org has 3.2 million members across the country, including 1.7 million members who live in the 22 states with Democratic primaries or caucuses on Tuesday.

“Our members’ endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history,” said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn. He added, “The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington.” - New York Times

After watching the love fest debate of Obama and Clinton on CNN in California several differences emerged between the two candidates. Politicians are sneaky and vague for the most part but one thing I noticed was the use of two simple words. When and If. Two little words but when they are used in a political debate they can portray a great difference between the candidates talking about the issues. Those two words play to the back of your mind and depending on the topic and how they are used can have a direct effect on how you subconsciously perceive the discussion.

In the debate I found it ironic that in many of the replies that Senator Clinton gave were started with “If” which opens up the question of doubt as to her ability to achieve the high goals she has set for her platform and candidacy. So many “If’s” seem to have to happen “If” she can deliver the promises she proposes in her universal health care plan. That in itself wreaks of a true politician telling you what you would like to have happen in our nation “If” we can overcome all the hurdles she spoke of. It almost seems that she is afraid to cross the secret line of politicians in Washington? You tell me?

On the other side of the cookies and milk debate was Barack Obama using the word “When” in many of his responses. Along with that word he used the word “We” which seemed more appropriate when you are talking about the political issues that will effect 300 million plus Americans. “When” we negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for lower prescription costs and “When” we pass health coverage is just more believable. Backing it up with an insistence on CSPAN coverage of the actual debate on health care for all takes the closed doors discussion of screwing America out of the equation.

In the end the debate was not a debate in the sense where one politician calls another on the carpet on any issue. The questions were all softball lobs and played into both of the candidates best interests.

It’s all politics but I have to go with the majority of Move On members and believe that Obama is the path to a new America and the force for change in all of our lives.

Hillary can be very articulate in her answers to any question but she proved last night during the CNN debate that she can circle the question directly asked with the best of them and never answer the question asked. I tend to think that as things go, “If” Senator Clinton were the party nominee, and “If” she were to become President, then we could be faced with two many “If’s” and not enough “When” or “We“.

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

With the new addition of Davis from Virginia dropping out or resigning from Congress the list of Republican’s fleeing public service is alarming. In some respects I’m glad that they are jumping ship but while they are jumping off, the seats they leave vacant may just be filled with Democrats. That leads me to the thought that this just might be the greatest political set up in history if you look at the economy.

Would it not be Karl Rove and W as a personal joke on America to chuck us all the bird one last time by scuttling the economy just to say screw you for not liking them more? When it comes to trust and Karl or George, they don’t deserve the courtesy of even the simplest of it.

When you really think about it and just for giggles assume that one of the Democrat’s takes the White House in 08, the Congress and Senate are all a majority of Democrat’s, and our nations economy tanks. Who will the people blame for the next eight years? Don’t place your bets on the gentleman jumping out of politics from the red and right side of the aisle accepting any blame. Regardless of the damage they have all done in the past to the nation, the blame will rest on who is in office when the crash comes.

Last week the Federal Reserve dropped rates by three quarters of a point and one week later (Today) they dropped it again. Our economy is in serious trouble and those that will serve in the next term in Congress will face the crisis of a century. Republican’s are jumping ship because our nations future will be that ugly. The well has run dry and the game is up. They fear the future and know damn well that they screwed it up big time. Where the Republican’s saw the protectionism of a free market was the undoing of our nations economy. Free markets without gentleman rules other than who can grab the most bucks the quickest does not work. AKA home lending crisis. Who can race a company to the bankruptcy courts first but take down hundred million dollar bonuses does not work.

Not to be too depressing, only the people that look out for all of the people can get our nation through a tough recession and it is not done by huge tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires amongst us. Our nation will get through the coming recession by legislation that looks more to the interest of where the majority of the people are in the middle and lower classes. That is not a favorite group for Republican’s in any political speech. That might just be why thet are bailing public service in droves. When the economic glass is not even half full we need leaders that think in terms of hope and not what is in it for me. The millionaires and billionaires will ride this storm out but you and I will face the full storm of what a real recession is. In eight years from now the speeches of your lot in life being better now or eight years ago will rise up from the dust and they will promise the world from the seats that never felt your pain. And just like the post Great Depression days the party of change is in the Democrat’s hand and they will need to prove their steel.

It is simply ironic that John McCain has forgotten his roots and became more Liberal in politics in the original race against Bush but then became Bush for this election. Then again Hillary Clinton has become more right wing with her voting record and yet claims to be a Progressive Democrat. I don’t get where she and Bill call themselves the first Black President? Hillary isn’t Black and neither is Bill? Neither has lived or stepped in the footsteps of a black American person and saying you are black is just wrong.

Both front runners play the game but the end result is not about the people in either of their messages. It’s about the power of the Presidency for them alone. That is not what the Presidency is all about. We elect our President based on our opinions and life situation. We do not elect them on why they demand our vote.

In the days to come I believe Barack Obama is the only hope that we as a nation have in his Roosevelt and Kennedy like message of change. I find myself thinking that he is the only light in the path that we all will be forced to follow because of the past Republican sell out of America. He didn’t create the problems but he has the power to unite us all as a nation to get the American people through it.

One politician is not America but one President at the right place and time can make hope a possibility. One can not bind hope in any political message or advertisement but the only one that shines is Obama when it comes to hope. Hope is just what it means. It isn’t about fear of war, fear of terrorist attacks and it isn’t about who did what in the past in the civil rights movement. It is about our nations future. Hope is definitely not about a flag draped casket coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan. That was George W. Bush idea of hope. That isn’t working out so good these days is it?

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

Precedent Bush (misspelled on purpose) is going to the Congress with his State of the Union speech to tell us (Sheep) everything is okey dokey tonight and that we the people should follow the course he has lead us on as a nation. Some say that you can judge a political speech by the number of times a person blinks while giving it. More blinks is bad, less is good.

All of the crisis’s facing our nation we can beat as a people, provided he gets out of office in less than a year. I don’t think its even necessary that he fill out a change of address card with the post office simply because nobody is going to care where he ends up as long as it is not in our nations capitol. He is going to go on in his speech about issues that he and Darth Cheney can coast on out of office and leave the clean up for the next Oval Office occupant. Issues that he now cares about but worked against when he had a Republican Congress.

One of the issues that I look forward to him speaking on is Middle East peace. Bush and Middle East peace is definitely an oxymoron if ever I heard of one. This from a guy that has probably ingrained hatred of all American’s for generations to come from the people that actually live in any country in the Middle East. When he speaks of being in the region for one hundred years he isn’t kidding. Just as long as it is your children serving in our military and dying for his bravado. How can he speak of peace when he has our military troops stationed all over the area but concentrated in Iraq based on wag the dog theories? We could have hired one of those 1-900 psychic’s and had better intelligence to invade Iraq and force a policy of “Nation Building” on the Iraqi people.

When you get right down to it the state of the union is not sound and has not been for seven years. From the minute the planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings our nation has been in chaos and in that new found chaos the ability to sell fear became an immediate commodity to Bush and company. What should terrify you most is that he actually believes his own lies and misdirection. While he and the Congress of both political parties diverted the people into a corner of fear and patriotism they left the business of America at home behind. With us or against us became a catch phrase of strength and yet it shadowed and covered our own ignorance of what has been going on unchecked here at home. That same mantra is used as a weapon by people of ordinary means to pit Republican against Democrat, Liberal against Conservative. Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone out of this nation to prop up an Iraq government that behind the scenes wants our troops off of their sovereign soil. Meanwhile our bridges are collapsing, our schools are falling behind, our healthcare system is broken, our homes are being lost in record numbers and our borders are wide open if you want to come in. Just don’t try getting out if you are an actual legal American citizen.

Then again Bush has the remaining Republican candidates for his job convinced that his mission is right and we should stay the course. McCain has bought into it so much that he too will keep our troops in Iraq for one hundred years if need be. McCain can use the argument that we still have troops in Germany, Japan and Korea decades after the conflicts and war and that is true but diplomacy made that possible. There was not one iota of “My way or the highway” in the diplomacy that made that possible.

Our State of the Union is not a pep rally by any means this year. It is going to be more of who Precedent Bush wishes he could have been. What he should have done. With this being his last speech to the entire Congress I expect compassion for the poor and the sick, for the children and education, support for our military is a given. Of course he will end his speech with God bless America but in reality he is only wishing that God actually bless the top two percent of income earners. He’s compassionate that way but Joe and Joanne Six-pack do not donate huge dollars to a Presidential Library do they?

One thing I am sure of at this time in the state of our union is that Precedent Bush has destroyed the Republican Party and any candidate dreaming of the White House. God works in wonderful ways like that. Reap what you sow and stuff like that. Thank you God and President Bush!

Papamoka

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Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

One of the things that ticks me off about the one sided war in Iraq is the non-stop “No Bid” contract awards. With those awarded contracts comes a lot of corruption and waste. The waste is called double billing, triple billing or just plain outright billing without doing a damn thing. The money that pays for all of this abuse and neglect is our tax dollars. Wouldn’t you think that all of them pesky Conservative Republican’s would want to clean this mess up right away? That isn’t even close to the facts of the matter. Looking the other way is the mantra of the Bush 2 dynasty.

What it takes to clean this mess up and prosecute the bastards stealing all of our children’s future is to put people in the Congress that will aggressively go after anyone that steals from the American people. One of the most feared terms of any company that does business with any state or federal agency is called Disbarment. If any company is found guilty of thievery then they face disbarment. Over at Down With Tyranny they have this great piece on Alan Grayson that will go after war profiteers in the next Congress.

There’s probably no one who knows more about war profiteers in Iraq– outside of Cheney and the folks at Halliburton and KBR– than Alan Grayson, an attorney prosecuting numerous war profiteering cases. We came across him because he is running for Congress against corrupt Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller in central Florida’s 8th CD (Orlando area). Next weekend Alan will be our guest at Blue America sessions at Firedoglake and Crooks and Liars. But I called him today and asked him this tough question– the one about Republican voters. Do these Americans actually support this kind of behavior?Before we take a look at what Alan told me take a look at this CBS News clip I found on his website:

“I think that the Republicans, from top to bottom, are genuinely trying to change America into Amerika with a ‘k.’ They want America to be a place where ordinary workers cannot organize, where everybody tries to undercut everybody else in the labor market, and where the people in charge are the people who can best tap into war profiteering profits… These people want to change America and change it to make it something that Eisenhower warned us about half a century ago. They want everything in America to be under the control– and in the teeth– of the military-industrial complex.“When I talk to Republicans in general these days, they’re very unhappy about the war. The problem is, they’re unhappy about the war because they don’t like to lose– and that’s just the wrong way of looking at it. They have become willing participants in a war that at this point is approaching imperialism. If they read in newspapers everyday that we were winning the war, they would be just as happy with the war as the characters in Orwell’s 1984 are happy with their endless war against some unnamed enemy that they can never clearly understand the purpose of. Republican voters have, in effect, collaborated in this effort despite their misgivings about the war and the primary reason why they’re not happy right now isn’t because the war is wrong or unjustifiable but because we’re not not winning.” - Down With Tyranny

Over the last two terms of President Bush we have witnessed our nation being hijacked by so called leaders of the people that were stuffing their friends pockets with millions of dollars. Washington has become the city to steal money from our nations treasury and that is simply wrong. One Congressional seat in Florida may not seem big news but it is.

Alan Grayson isn’t running to bring the bacon home and fatten his own wallet. His progressive liberal thoughts are what conservatives used to be in the Barry Goldwater days. Changing our government and the practices of corruption, bribes and outright lies to the people can change from one voice on Capitol Hill and it just might start with Alan Grayson. One squeaky wheel just might get the oil special interest out of politics.

Good luck to you Mr. Grayson on your up and coming election.

Interesting reads on what Alan Grayson is all about…

Vanity Fair

Rolling Stone

CBS News

And of course Alan Grayson Campaign site…

You be the judge and the voter and decide if this guy deserves to go to Washington and kick some ass! If you care to contribute to the campaign by all means do so. Click on Act Blue to vote with your wallet.

On Friday 1/25 Crooks and Liars will have an exclusive interview with Alan Grayson so feel free to check that out when it comes on the site.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk 

Feel free to link to this post or borrow it…

While on a recent road trip Hillary Clinton is talking about the economy and now is the time to talk about the economy and how we all got into this horrible mess. The near future is not as positive as some people would like to think and a clear path through it is needed. With the latest reports coming in from all of the world stock exchanges, the “Maybe Recession” is a world wide concern when you are talking about the United States of America. World economics is the key to saving not only our own economy but the worlds.

One of the key factors to the U.S. economy is the middle class and the shear numbers of them with disposable income. The facts are simple and the middle class in America has been downsized and locked out of the “Bush” economy from benefits too salary increases. In that same time period the cost of living in America has gone through the roof. One large contributor to that lockout was the executive release of responsibility in corporate America. In the world of business it should be called a signing statement, similar to the thoughts of our current President and the Constitution. Downsizing and outsourcing of entire manufacturing plants out of the country not to be competitive but to ensure the yearly top executives bonuses are protected and of course adjusted for inflation.

In some circles it could be argued that NAFTA and every other acronym for free trade helped to boost the economy in America but they never really stipulated if it was South America or North of the border of America? In reality, free trade literally meant a migration of American middle class jobs out of America and that is yet just one more source of the downfall of our economy. When our government supports the rights of other nations citizens for good jobs at good wages you better look at your last days of employment because that is the first tax break for corporate America to send your job over the border. Key phrases for shutting a factory or manufacturing plant here in the states is “Stock Holder Value”. Largest benefactors to stock holder value are CEO’s and top executives with stock options.

Senator Clinton in her race for the White House spoke about where she thinks we as a nation need to be and it is hard to argue with her thoughts when you look at the numbers realistically. Over at the New York Times they have this interview with Senator Clinton…

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.In one of her most extensive interviews about how she would approach the economy, Mrs. Clinton laid out a view of economic policy that differed in some ways from that of her husband, Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton campaigned on his centrist views, and as president, he championed deficit reduction and trade agreements.

Reflecting what her aides said were very different conditions today, Mrs. Clinton put her emphasis on issues like inequality and the role of institutions like government, rather than market forces, in addressing them.

She said that economic excesses — including executive-pay packages she characterized as often “offensive” and “wrong” and a tax code that had become “so far out of whack” in favoring the wealthy — were holding down middle-class living standards.

Interviewed between campaign appearances in Los Angeles on Thursday, she said those problems were also keeping the United States economy from growing as quickly as it could.

“If you go back and look at our history, we were most successful when we had that balance between an effective, vigorous government and a dynamic, appropriately regulated market,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.”

She added: “I want to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market.” - New York Times

Senator Clinton is obviously correct in stating that the markets from housing to Wall Street’s power brokers are out of control and need government oversight more now than ever. If our nation is to survive the current recession then restraints and intervention needs to come from our government. If it does not then the Robber Barron’s of days long gone will run the economy and the nation into the ground and ride out the destruction on the billions earned prior. And you can bet your last Rockefeller shiny new dime that they will pull their investments out of the stock market long before it crashes and outsource it to safer shores.

Salaries of record for one year to think about from Too Much…

$118.9 million for Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals, who cashed out over 5 million option shares in her cosmetics company for a $117.6 million personal profit.$415.5 million for Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani. To reach this total, the Times added to Irani’s $52.1 million in pay, as calculated by Equilar, the $270.1 million Irani cleared from cashing out stock options and the $93.3 million he withdrew from his deferred stock plan. Irani still holds another $124 million in deferred pay.

$647 million for Apple CEO Steve Jobs

$127 million for UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire

$32.6 million for Todd Nelson, CEO of the Apollo Group, a profit-making collection of higher education institutions

$131 million for Robert Nardelli, the Home Depot CEO forced out in January

$97 million for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis

$1.5 billion for James Simons, Renaissance Technologies

$39.1 million for Ford CEO Alan Mulally, a sum that includes an $18.5-million bonus for leaving Boeing to join Ford. Ford had six executives in the industry’s top 15, despite record 2006 losses of $12.6 billion.

Some people would say that each one of these people earned their pay and in some cases I might not argue with you. In most cases though it is a race to the top of the heap and they never look back at all the folks they stepped on to get those annual salaries and mega stock options. That is not part of the horizon they are looking at when they cash out, sell out or move on to another corporate position to repeat the process all over again. Once there they never forget the politics that kept them there either with donations that max out. Atilla the Hun would have been very comfortable in corporate America but he would have owned it all.

Hillary Clinton is talking the talk and I would not be surprised if she became President that she would look at corporate politics with an evil eye but she will not hesitate to cash those campaign checks coming in till that day comes. She isn’t alone in the cashing of those check and that my friends scares me.

If your interested in seeing whom is giving political donations to whom and how much then I highly recommend NewsMeat. It’s a great search engine for political thoughts and seeing who is maxing out to their favorite candidates.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk…