COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Why is McCain Not Using His Air Time?

John McCain has announced that he has suspended his air time and media buys until a settlement is reached on the banking system restructure. This makes no sense to me. It would be better that he uses the time to explain the importance of the plan and how he sees a solution. Why is he leaving a vacuum to be filled by Obama?

68 comments:

  1. McCain certainly does appear to have both feet now firmly stuck in his mouth and he's swallowing hard. He's got instincts just like dubya.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good question. Maybe he wants to be perceived as being above the hurly burly, or, not knowing how things are going to go, wants to be cautious on what he puts out.

    While Obama's foot is too big even for his mouth, so, he called for a commission to study the matter.

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  3. Since all this crap basically came from people with Obama type minds, maybe Obama is hoping it will all just blow away, without exposing his own precious self too much in the process.

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  4. maybe mccain is conserving his cash...

    maybe he's letting obama burn his cash when we all know the last 10 days before the election will be the days that will turn the undecided...

    the attention span of america is that of a 5 year old

    this crisis will be OLD news in 3 weeks..

    do you remember the Russian swallowing of georgia?

    do you remember the chinese crushing tibet?

    do you remember anything from 4 weeks ago?

    keep the powder dry for just a little longer

    then hit obama with everything 10 days out....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Responding to the post's question, i will repeat what I heard Newt say a couple of nights ago. McCain is gun-instinct decision maker and he needs to be part of the discussion, talking directly to those he knows he trusts and knows he doesn't trust, for his instincts to operate effectively.

    That makes some sense to me, because when I'm working a complex issue (and this would be the mother of all complex issues), my instincts sharpen as my understanding of it increases.

    There's also a competing plan, which I think I like better and can maybe even trust, being pushed by Eric Cantor (R-VA).

    Dick Morris said on H&C that McCain has knocked it out of the park with this move, because he knew that Paulson's plan wasn't going to get Republican support, and that by coming back to support a better Congressional Republican (versus Executive Republican) plan, McCain's going to be credited with a decisive win (while Obama, to humorously quote Hannity, sings Diana Ross's lyrics "if you need me, call me" otherwise known as "Aint No Mountain High Enough").

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  6. A better plan would require the profits pay down debt, not grow Govt.
    ...but I repeat myself.
    ---
    Treasury Secretary down on one knee before Pelosi...

    Both McCain and his Democrat rival, Sen. Barack Obama, left without any joint endorsement. A beleaguered President Bush had to struggle to maintain order and reassert himself. And when Democrats left after the meeting to caucus in the Roosevelt Room, Paulson pursued them, begging that they not “blow up” the legislation.

    The former Goldman Sachs CEO even went down on one knee as if genuflecting, to which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) is said to have joked, “I didn’t know you were Catholic.”

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  7. John Paulson outlines what appears to be a better plan in the WSJ.

    I almost remarked last night that it was surprising that there were no alternatives being floated. In reality, there were, they just 1) could not get any visibility due to the media focus on Bush/Paulson plan ($700B gets lots of viewer attention!) and 2) because the originator of alternative plans were busy seeking support for those plans (and modifying them as necessary to do so).

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  8. Via The Corner comes this account of today's White House meeting. Sounds like exactly the script that Newt & Dick Morris outlined on H&C tonight.

    I am reliably told that John Boehner discussed the Republican Study Committee’s “Rescue Principles” at the White House meeting, and McCain backed up his assertion that House Republicans can’t just be ignored, especially if they have ideas that could improve the package, though he did not explicitly endorse the RSC ideas. McCain’s spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker is telling reporters that McCain is not pushing a particular proposal at the moment but is working to broker an agreement that could address the problems and include the broadest possible bipartisan coalition.

    The McCain campaign put out a short statement that reads: “We're optimistic that Sen. McCain will bring House Republicans on board without driving other parties away, resulting in a successful deal for the American taxpayer.”

    McCain was apparently a very active participant in the White House discussion, while Obama expressed his support for the general frame of the draft put together by the House and Senate Banking Committees but did not go beyond that. The Democrats did not expect to be presented with additional ideas beyond that draft, and left the meeting decidedly unhappy.

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  9. It quite something to see Barney Franks and Chris Dodd right in the middle, in there trying to look like solving the problem they, of course, had nothing to do with creating.

    Maybe $700 billion isn't enough. Maybe a couple trillion is needed.

    So far, Main St. seems to be saying no. Hasn't hit Main St. ...yet---

    Bob--I do have a potential for 20 acres. It is a nice project. I don’t know what the current status of the lending is going to do to stop any developing for awhile, but so far the lenders are asking for perfect credit and 40-50% down payments for commercial loans.

    e-mail from a realtor here today

    When I did my 800 ft of street a few years ago, I didn't put a dime down.

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  10. A Republican revolt stalled urgent efforts to lash together a national economic rescue plan Thursday, a chaotic turnaround on a day that had seemed headed for a success that President Bush, both political parties and their presidential candidates could celebrate at an extraordinary White House meeting.

    ...

    The plan emerged after it became clear that House Republicans in large numbers weren't coming around to the approach favored by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, which is to have the government buy up the troubled securities, hold them and eventually sell them off.

    ...

    Obama told CNN he still thought a deal could be reached, though he acknowledged that ``I still think there's still some work that needs to be done.''


    Derailing Bailout

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  11. Mark to market--

    If 5 families on the block all have 500k homes, and one guy's got to sell out at 300k, and everybody else just sits, mark to market says they got to value the other four at 300k on the books. May not be that simple but that's the gist, according to the guy in the business on KGO.

    If you didn't live through the great depression you don't know what you are talking about, and if you did, you'll say 'make a deal.'

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  12. I still think there's still some work...

    Damned teleprompter..

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  13. However there were few bright spots in today's declaration: Gross margin on home sales, excluding valuation adjustments, rose to 18% from 14% due to lower inventory, product repositioning and reduced construction costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses declined 49% on layoffs and other cost-cutting.

    The company has been particularly hit hard by what is seen as the worst US housing slump in decades. US home prices have continued to dropped and have been finding lesser buyers, ever since Subprime mortgage crisis came into the picture.

    Moreover, the current financial crisis, which has caused credit markets to freeze, is further threatening to send home prices crashing. In August, housing starts fell 6.2% to an annual rate of 895,000--the lowest since January 1991 and 33.1% lower than last year for the largest year-over-year drop since March.


    Revenue Drops

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  14. LaBob,

    So in CA, with 47% foreclosure sales, some of 'Rat's Math was WAY Off.
    ...I can't even do the math, so I'm safe.

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  15. WaMu had the biggest Party Ever @ the Wailea Marriot last year.
    Now they don't exist!

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  16. RE: damned telepromter

    McCain's "move" to DC seems to have succeeded in again throwing Obama off script and therefore, off track. Kind of like a fighter pilot toying with a Cessna. Showing Obama to truly be a rookie. When has "he who votes present" ever had to impact or lead a meeting like that one today?

    No telepromter, no can do.

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  17. Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate for president. His advisers in foreign policy are generally Democrats.

    ...

    But it does give us a framework for considering persistent patterns of Democratic foreign policy. When we look at the conflicts, four things become apparent.

    First, in all three conflicts, Democrats postponed the initiation of direct combat as long as possible. In only one, World War I, did Wilson decide to join the war without prior direct attack.

    ...

    Second, all three wars were built around coalitions. The foundation of the three wars was that other nations were at risk and that the United States used a predisposition to resist (Germany in the first two wars, the Soviet Union in the last) as a framework for involvement.

    ...

    Third, each of these wars ended with a Democratic president attempting to create a system of international institutions designed to limit the recurrence of war without directly transferring sovereignty to those institutions. Wilson championed the League of Nations.

    ...

    And fourth, there is a focus on Europe in the Democratic view of the world. Roosevelt regarded Germany as the primary threat instead of the Pacific theater in World War II.


    Obama's Foreign Policy Stance

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  18. Solve your internet addiction and understand the credit crisis all in one sitting--

    First Hour: Dr. Jerald Block reports on Internet addiction, then Mish Shedlock comments on the economy.
    Coast to Coast tonight

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  19. The debate commission says the debate is on, whether anyone shows up or not. So, Obama could stand there alone and pontificate for an hour and a half.

    McCain better get his ass down to Mississippi, I'd think.

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  20. I almost took a job at WaMu when I was back home in Seattle visisting in the summer of '04.

    I don't know, you'd think Mav would win the respect of the majority of people for focusing on a solution to this thing.

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  21. hmmm, I don't know, what the impact would be of Obama standing there alone. It's supposed to be about foreign policy, and McCain could clobber him on Iraq and in other ways.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fucking Commission should be disbanded and replaced.
    Liberal, lying bastards.
    (I assume)

    ReplyDelete
  23. If Obama is smart, he'll get briefed by Bubba, veteran of innumerable Foreign Affairs.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Walter Moore Qualifies for Matching Funds in LA Mayoral Race.

    ...anti Sanctuary City,
    Fiscal Conservative,
    Law and Order.
    Engineer by Trade.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anybody want to buy some of my Neo-Progressive Super Grade Enhanced High End Paradise Development Bonds?

    Oregon State upsets USC 27-21.

    ReplyDelete
  26. John McCain is the Republican candidate for president. This means he is embedded in the Republican tradition.

    ...

    More than any other person, Roosevelt introduced the United States to the idea that it had become a great power. During the Spanish-American War, in which he had enthusiastically participated, the United States took control of the remnants of the Spanish empire.

    ...

    The foundations of Republican foreign policy early in the 20th century therefore consisted of three elements:

    1. A willingness to engage in foreign policy and foreign wars when this serves U.S. interests.

    2. An unwillingness to enter into multilateral organizations or alliances, as this would deprive the United States of the right to act unilaterally and would commit it to fight on behalf of regimes it might have no interest in defending.

    3. A deep suspicion of the diplomacy of European states grounded on a sense that they were too duplicitous and unstable to trust and that treaties with them would result in burdens on — but not benefits for — the United States.


    McCain's Foreign Policy Stance

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  27. Ha!

    That's funny. That's a huge upset! I was just looking at my online betting site. USC was paying $1.03 to win. OSU was paying 7 bucks.

    Where's the development, Bob? Portland?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Moscow, Sam, up the street behind McDonald's. Nothing super high end.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Economist caller at KGO says Bank of China was biggest holder of Fannie and Freddie, I think he said. Could this be right? I think that's what he said.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Learn your A B Cs--X Y Zs

    (An alphabet song)


    A is for Ayers and ACORN, Alinsky,



    And Auchi and Axelrod,



    All of a kind;



    B is for Bernardine,



    Bomb the Police!



    and Black Liberation,

    by Bloody Professors



    like Ayers the Rad, who



    did fix education



    with Annenberg millions



    for all the poor kids



    who now know how to riot



    for real education



    they could have had freely



    in old Chicago's schools!



    C is for Chavez



    and Che



    and Code Pinko,



    All Fighting for Justice



    and Peace, Love and Joy;



    D is for Davis,



    Joe Stalin's Black poet,



    Obama's First Mentor



    on Waikiki Beach;



    E is for Emil,



    The Capo of Southside,



    He Showed O the Power,



    In Cook County style;



    F is for Fannie



    and Freddie McMoney



    All Friends of Obama's,



    Who Gave All the Dollars



    To Bama and Barney and Biden and Dodd,



    And Chuckie and Charlie and Franklin and Jim



    For Federal Dud Loans



    No Need to Pay Back!



    G is for



    God Daaaamn



    Amer'ca!



    quoth Reverend Wright,



    for Black Liberation!



    with Standing Ovation



    from Ayers and ACORN



    Alinsky, Khalidi



    and Rezko and Auchi



    and All the Good People



    in Hyde Park salons.



    H is for Hillary,



    Yesterday's Woman



    Who Had to be Dumped



    To Make Way for Our Hope.



    'Cause Rads want The Power



    To Change All Our Money



    As Soon as Our Hero



    Gets Up On the Throne!



    I is for Israel, Iraq and Iran;





    Just get them to talking



    and soon they'll see reason



    It's easy as pie;



    J is for Jews





    who are always to blame,



    say Jay-Wright and Louey



    and Jimmy and Jesse



    and Rasheed and Waleed



    and Gyorgyi and Huey



    and Percy and ...



    ... oops! where was I?



    Oh, yes...



    K is for Khaleed,





    the Black Panther guru,



    who got O to Harvard



    to launch his career;



    Khaleed is AKA



    Old Rad "Don Warden"



    Who Now Flacks for OPEC



    As Khaleed Abdool



    Tareeq Ali Mansoor!




    L is for Lenin,



    who Posed for O's Posters,



    Facing the Future!



    Fist for the Foe!



    Forward the Vanguard!



    Workers and Women!



    Kill all the Kulaks!



    And Lynch all the Rich!






    M is for Media,



    They Skip All the News now



    They're Just Much Too Busy



    With Saving the Earth;



    For Mao man Mike Klonsky



    And Marilyn Katz;



    And Hamastan Muslim Bro's



    Abu Marzook!




    N is for Nuke bombs



    which We Must All Freeze Now



    To Stop Nuclear Winter!



    (Or maybe Nuke Summer?)



    Or is it Nuke Power?



    It's All Evil Stuff;



    Except for Old A'jad



    Who's just making missiles



    To shield all the mullahs



    from Zion's aggression



    That's one for the books!



    O is Obama,



    Our Hero,



    Our Savior,



    Our Hope,



    And Our Changer



    Who'll Make



    Us All Proud;



    P is for Diddy,



    the Hood



    from the Hood;



    When Bama's Elected



    He'll get Special Credit



    For Bringing the Gang Vote



    To Obama's Cause!




    Q is for Qaida,



    Those Poor Little Fellas



    Who Just Need More Loving



    and Much More Compassion



    --- and maybe some home loans? ---



    To Make Them Feel Better



    To Not Blow Up Truck Bombs



    with Women and Kids;



    R is for Reagan,



    For Ron Reagan, Red-fighter



    Ruined the Soviets



    For Twenty Good Years;



    Oh Golly, Now Here Comes



    A Governor Sarah



    Who Sounds Just Like



    Old Ron



    A Reagan Encore!




    S is for Slumlords s



    and Styrofoam Temples



    and Saudis and Shaheeds,



    the Saviors of Earth;



    T is Big Tony



    Our Syrian Rezko



    Who's always so eager



    to help O go far;



    U is for U.S.



    the Root of All Evil



    We Just Need a Good Prez



    To Teach Us to Lose;



    V is for Voters,



    Who Rise from the Graves



    For Chi-Town Ward Bosses



    To Check Off the Ballots



    Then Go Back to Dirt Naps



    Till Next Resurrection



    For O's Re-election



    In Two Thousand Twelve!



    W is for



    "We are the Ones We're Awaiting."



    And Women Who Vote



    For Woe-bama and Biden



    And Walker and Wallis and WaPo encore!






    X is for



    Excellent Axelrod



    Astroturf Dude;



    It's Awesome how One Guy



    can be All Grass Roots!



    Y is for



    "Y the hell



    is this man running?"



    and Z ... is ...



    ... Z End for US



    November 4!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Again from The Corner:

    Here is what Cantor, Hensarling, Ryan are working on:


    Economic Rescue Principles

    Common Sense Plan to Have Wall Street Fund the Recovery, Not Taxpayers

    * Rather than providing taxpayer funded purchases of frozen mortgage assets, we should adopt a mortgage insurance approach to solve the problem.

    * Currently the federal government insures approximately half of all mortgage backed securities. (MBS) We can insure the rest of current outstanding MBS; however, rather than taxpayers funding insurance, the holders of these assets should pay for it. Treasury Department can design a system to charge premiums to the holders of MBS to fully finance this insurance.

    Have Private Capital Injection to the Financial Markets, Not Tax Dollars

    * Instead of injecting taxpayer capital into the market to produce liquidity, private capital can be drawn into the market by removing regulatory and tax barriers that are currently blocking private capital formation. Too much private capital is sitting on the sidelines during this crisis.

    * Temporary tax relief provisions can help companies free up capital to maintain operations, create jobs, and lend to one another. In addition, we should allow for a temporary suspension of dividend payments by financial institutions and other regulatory measures to address the problems surrounding private capital liquidity.

    Immediate Transparency, Oversight, and Market Reform

    * Increase Transparency. Require participating firms to disclose to Treasury the value of their mortgage assets on their books, the value of any private bids within the last year for such assets, and their last audit report.

    * Limit Federal Exposure for High Risk Loans: Mandate that the GSEs no longer securitize any unsound mortgages.

    * Call on the SEC to audit reports of failed companies to ensure that the financial standing of these troubled companies was accurately portrayed.

    * Wall Street Executives should not benefit from taxpayer funding.

    * Call on the SEC to review the performance of the Credit Rating Agencies and their ability to accurately reflect the risks of these failed investment securities.

    * Create a blue ribbon panel with representatives of Treasury, SEC, and the Fed to make recommendations to Congress for reforms of the financial sector by January 1, 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Shoulda let 'em go under then.

    ReplyDelete
  33. As promised, aides said McCain's campaign ads were ordered off the air yesterday, though many remained on the air as stations struggled to comply with the last-minute decision.

    "It is not a flip-the-switch kind of proposition," said Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks ad spending. "McCain is doing everything they can in their power to take these spots down.

    It's not like canceling a pizza."


    Blame Passes Back and Forth

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  34. So we've bailed out the Band of China.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Original Plan included $150 million for ACORN!

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  36. So Obama is half enslaver, by ancestry, and half slave, by choice. He is the most uniquely positioned to tell the truth, the complete truth about Islam, Africa, America and slavery.

    Baraq [Barack] was the name of the winged horse-like creature that took Mohammed to Paradise in the Night Journey. Baraq can also mean God's blessing. Obama is Swahili for Osama, who was one of Mohammed's chief warriors. Osama also means lion. Hussein reminds some Americans of Saddam Hussein, and Obama's supporters get upset if it is used. Hussein was the name of Mohammed's grandson. So Obama's entire name is based upon Islamic mythology and African conquest. Barack Hussein Obama means [Allah's blessing] [Mohammed's grandson] [One of Mohammed's finest warriors].

    Obama, Slavery and the Arab Slave Trade

    good article

    ReplyDelete
  37. I'm not sure I heard that quite right Sam, but I think that's what was said. Worth looking into.

    ReplyDelete
  38. The Obama's brother's fund is racking up thousands!
    Should make quite a Production.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Capping executive pay is piffle. What we need are a few exemplary hangings. Public hangings. On television. Pick a few failed investment firms, lead their CEOs in chains through the canyons of Manhattan and give the mob satisfaction. Better still, precede the auto-da-fe -- fire is highly telegenic -- with 24-hour reality-TV coverage of their recantations, lamentations and final visits with the soon-to-be widowed. The ratings would dwarf "American Idol," and the ad revenue alone would make the perfect down payment on the $700 billion.

    Whatever it takes to clear our heads.


    Krauthammer

    Catharsis, The Common Sense

    ReplyDelete
  40. Fuck, does Kraut take on the Dems?
    If not F... him!

    ReplyDelete
  41. The American people, left and right, (am listening to KGO) seem at one, for once, in opposing this bailout. Calls to Pelosi's office were about 1000 to 1 against, it is said. However, the lefties can't seem to get it in their heads that it might not be all George's fault.

    I'm coming around to deuce's opinion.
    After some meaningful debate, we best pass something.

    ReplyDelete
  42. We HAVE to pass something, or everything grinds to a halt.
    ...so we will.
    Just gotta stick it to the Crooks, and hopefully not grow Govt w/any profits.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Mike Gallegher sent in a thousand to Dinesh, no doubt other Conservative Hosts are too.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hannity came up with the idea, I think, helping Brother Obama.

    National Rifle Association Alert

    Obama Threatens Licenses Of Stations That Run NRA Ads

    ReplyDelete
  45. That's one PISS POOR performance by Kraut!
    No mention of Dems, Black Caucus, Raines, Johnson, Obama.
    WTF?
    And he and his fellow girly men conservative elite crap on our girl!

    Fuck em!

    ReplyDelete
  46. What we need are a few exemplary hangings. Public hangings.

    Hard to disagree with that, Doug. I'm certain Krauthammer would be including, maybe even a majority, of democrats in the nooses.

    Let's see, who would I want to see step off the plank first, hmmm, Harry Reid, Barney Franks, Grandmother Pelosi....the choices overwhelm.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Did he crap on our girl? That's a serious offence.

    Krauthammer, step forward.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Do we have to keep it to politicians and journalists, or can we go the whole hog, like the French Revolution, and include some bloggers too?

    Guy that's doing the hay for me said today fertilizer was $700/ton last year, Doug, and more now.

    We compared some memories. Figured it was around $100/ton last I was really involved, some years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  49. ThomasD said...

    I live in NE TN, the tri-cities area, and work and travel in eastern KY and SW VA. The Obama campaign is saturating regional radio stations with an ad from the ‘American Hunters and Shooters Association.’ AHSA is an astroturf outfit put together by the gun banners as a counter to the NRA.

    The ad is voiced by some NFL has-been. He starts out with an argument that Obama and McCain are effectively the same on the Second Amendment and then goes on to ramble about economic issues.

    This is clearly aimed at Virgina and West Virginia voters, the Dems know how badly their anti Second Amendment stand has cost them in the past and they are desperate to neutralize the issue.

    Allowing the NRA to show just how bad Obama really is is something they just can’t tolerate, hence the strongarm tactics.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Why did Kraut leave them out, totally, including their crimes?

    ReplyDelete
  51. Racial bigotry won't be his undoing

    I suspect that my own angst about voting for him is characteristic of many other voters who have not made up their minds. Never, in a long and happy life, have I ever, drunk or sober, voted for a Republican presidential candidate.

    Yet, I am thinking of doing so now because I believe that the nation is in such danger from Islamic extremists and from national leaders who encourage them, especially Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and also the leaders of Saudi Arabia. I want a tough leader in the Oval Office to confront them and their ilk, such as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Moreover, I want an American leader committed to the survival of Israel, our major ally in the world.

    John McCain seems the toughest of all four candidates. The Democrats and Obama leave me wondering if they have the guts to face the political monsters of the world. I suspect that McCain, even with a naïve vice president at his side, is more likely than Obama to courageously confront the great threats facing our nation. If I vote for McCain it will not be because of Obama's race but for many other reasons based upon objective analysis. That, I assure, you is not racial bigotry.
    ---
    Arnold S. Trebach, professor emeritus at American University, was a civil rights protester in the South and a federal civil rights official.

    ReplyDelete
  52. from a discussion of the images used in early Christianity, and the lack therein of images of the Crucifixtion, the Cross, or the dead body of Jesus in the first 1000 years of Christianity, when the emphasis was rather on regaining Paradise or Eden as a reality in this world---they are talking about one church they visited in Italy here...

    "For the ancient Christians who worshipped in this space, these were more than illustrations of biblical texts. Images had the power to shape the life and identity of those who encountered them. Macrina taught that seeing beauty allowed the soul to mirror divinity and know itself in truth. 'The soul....should know itself accurately...and should behold the Original Beauty reflected in the mirror and in the figure of her own beauty. For truly herein consists the real assimilation to the Divine--making our own life in some degree a copy of the Supreme Being'

    Care with images was expecially important in a ritual space. In it, souls were being trained to open their senses to recognize divinity within and around them and to open their hearts to each other and the world. Images transmitted the power of that which they portrayed, and so the liturgical shaping of vulnerable souls required beauty, truth, courage, and grace to fill the space, or they might be wrongly formed. Human beings, the church understood, could resist evil only after becoming deeply attuned to divine presence around them and within them.

    We believe the abscence of images of the Crucifixtion can be understood partly in this light. Since images emitted power, a display of the Crucifixtion might have allowed the evil that killed Jesus to gain access to the congregation. Rather than opening the senses and the heart, the presence of violence usually hardens, numbs or hurts people. Conversely, the scenes of Christ teaching and healing, raising the dead, remaining steadfast through betrayal and trial, and appearing resurrected opened a channel for the power of these events to flow onto the congregation. Though this sense of the power of an image may seem today to be supernatural hocus-pocus, it is not so different from how films, photos of loved ones, and art such as the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., are experienced as possessing the power to move and to inspire."

    from "Saving Paradise"

    The authors would bemoan the multitude of images of violence, sex, despair etc in our American homes today for the same reasons.

    It's odd for us to think of a church without a cross. In my church, for instance, the first thing you see is a huge cross hanging from the ceiling in the worshop hall.

    But the early churches were not that way at all.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Interesting comments from BC--

    Lifeofthemind:


    If there was a recording made of the meeting, and if there were more then three people in the room there probably was, then it will come out. The report now is that the Democrats demanded a $100,000,000 payoff for Acorn. That is the Soros sponsored vote fraud machine that Obama did legal work for. That was just about the only real legal work he ever did.

    Now the Democrats are threatening to lift the licenses of stations that broadcast advertising from the National Rifle Association. Monday they threatened the tax exemptions of Jewish charities unless the invitation to Sarah Palin was retracted. These people know that if Obama gets in all investigations stop. They can commit murder in broad daylight but if they can drag Obama across the finish line they win. They are desperate, reckless and dangerous.


    Sep 25, 2008 - 10:33 pm

    Dave:


    The problem now is that some parties, primarily Democrats, are simply incapable
    of a straight deal. They have no idea of how to steal anything fair and square.

    Thus we have ACORN standing in line for $100 million up front and 20% of debt retirement proceeds. We have Harry Reid trying to reinstate bans on offshore drilling and shale oil production (both scheduled to expire 1 Oct.) And on and on and on.

    Underlying it all is a desire to have a total financial/economic collapse. Gotta save the planet from human prosperity, you know. Be sure the dollar is worthless so it won’t be used as a reserve currency and there can be no imperialism thereafter, just free-market utopia. Ad infinium, ad nauseum.

    All very Wagnerian if you ask me. Imbeciles have not figured out that a genuine gotterdamerung will be very painful on themselves.

    The crisis is a medical one. We have an epidemic of CRIS. (Cranial Rectal Inversion Syndrome.)


    Sep 25, 2008 - 10:40 pm

    ReplyDelete
  54. Obama's Garden Grant [Jonathan Adler]

    The Chicago Sun-Times reports the Illinois attorney general is investigating a $100K government grant tied to Obama:

    A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.

    The garden was never built. And now state records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood.

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  55. Wouldn't the attorney General be a Chicago Dem Hack?

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  56. Galaxy Flow Hints At Huge Masses Over Our Cosmic Expansion

    It could be the cosmic economy being sucked white by a universal bailout.

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