One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics and Biden is losing Obama their votes.

Joe Biden has really put his foot in it with the Catholics


Joe Biden loses Barack Obama the Catholic vote
Gerald Warner
Sep 19, 2008
Telegraph

More, as promised, on Senator Joe Biden (why should Sarah Palin get all the coverage?). Remember, you read it here first: on September 11 this blog reported a mounting backlash from Catholic bishops against Biden, Barack Obama's "Catholic" pro-abortion running mate. At that time I estimated eight bishops had come out to denounce Biden; the total is now 55. Beyond that, Biden is being trashed across every state of the Union by Catholic newspapers, TV and radio stations, and blogs. It is a tsunami of rejection.

The story has now hit the secular media. Last Saturday Time magazine asked: "Does Biden Have a Catholic Problem?" By Wednesday the issue had moved onto the front page of the New York Times. Joe the Jinx has blown it, big time. Biden has only himself to blame: he started this war, with his notoriously undisciplined mouth. He knew the dangers. Last August, Archbishop Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St Louis and now Prefect of the Apostolic Segnatura in Rome, said communion should be denied to pro-abortion politicians "until they have reformed their lives".

Archbishop Chaput of Denver had already announced Biden should not receive communion because of his pro-abortion views. Defiantly, Biden took communion in his home parish in Delaware in late August. On September 2 the Bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania (a crucial swing state) banned him from communion in his diocese. That is effective excommunication. Then came the crucial provocation. On NBC's Meet the Press programme on September 7 Biden grossly misrepresented the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion and audaciously cited St Thomas Aquinas in his own cause.

That did it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had already done the same thing on the same programme, in her instance citing St Augustine. Even the torpid US bishops could not have false doctrine glibly broadcast by public figures, misleading their flock. So the counterattack described here last week began, culminating in a statement from the US Bishops' Conference. The bishops of Kansas City have also issued a pastoral letter on the subject. It is open season on Biden.

There are 47 million Catholic voters in the United States. One quarter of all registered voters are Catholics. At every presidential election in the past 30 years the Catholic vote has gone to the winning candidate, except for Al Gore in 2000. This year 41 per cent of Catholics are independents - up from 30 per cent in 2004. Psephologists claim practising Catholics were the decisive factor in the crucial swing states in 2004: in Ohio 65 per cent of Catholics voted for Bush, in Florida 66 per cent. They were drifting away in disillusionment from the Republicans and split 50-50, until Joe Biden worked his magic. This is electoral suicide by the Democrats.

Gorbachev Receives Liberty Medal in Philadelphia. Interesting.

Gorbachev Honored For Liberty
By: John P. Connolly, The Bulletin
09/19/2008

Philadelphia - The last leader of the Soviet Union was honored by the National Constitution Center last night, and the air was charged with political issues and specters of the Cold War.

After becoming the youngest full member of the Soviet Politburo in 1980, Mr. Gorbachev was named General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, ready to make long overdue reforms in the Soviet system.

For six years, he pressed for democratization by promoting glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). These policies created the environment that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later.

Mr. Gorbachev became the 20th recipient of the Liberty Medal, an honor presented by the Constitution Center to honor world leaders who have labored to secure liberty for people throughout the world. Joseph M. Torsella, president and CEO of the Constitution Center, delivered a speech filled with praise for Mr. Gorbachev's commitment to liberty.

"He grew up under the brutal rule of Stalin, a dictator who introduced the words 'purge' and 'gulag' into the beautiful language of Pushkin and Chekhov," said Mr. Torsella. "But when he came to occupy the same office that Stalin held, 63 years later ... he introduced very different words. 'Glasnost,' openness. And 'perestroika,' change."

Renowned pianist Van Cliburn performed at the ceremony, along with singers Judy Collins and Bruce Hornsby. Also in attendance were Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor Michael Nutter. Former President George H. W. Bush presented the award.

"It is a true honor for me to participate in this year's Liberty Medal ceremony to celebrate the achievements of someone whom I consider a great world leader and a dear friend," said Mr. Bush. "Regardless of the dividing lines between us, President Gorbachev opened up new possibilities for the world to come together and solve its problems in the pursuit of liberty. When Eastern Europeans were living in the dark shadow of the Cold War, he provided a beacon of light. Now, almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we are still witnessing the positive impact his efforts have had across the globe. President Gorbachev is always looking ahead at a better future and helping all of us work to get there."

In a press conference before the ceremony, Mr. Gorbachev took questions about Russia's strained relations with the U.S., and urged caution and cooperation as the solution to the situation. Mr. Gorbachev stressed that the way forward for the countries lies in rebuilding the relations between them and cooperating.

"We have to think about the future of our relations," he said. "I recall that when I became the leader of the Soviet Union, the leaders of our two nations had not met for six years. And this was at the peak of the Cold War. At that time, we concluded that we needed to reconnect, restart the relationship between America and Russia. And step by step we did that."

He said that building up relations made it possible to make progress toward ending the Cold War. Both nations have strong tools for cooperation, and future proceedings to better Russian-American relations should build on that, even though he is not content with the level of democracy in both countries. Mr. Gorbachev said that both countries need to continue an ongoing perestroika.

"This is one area of our domestic affairs where we can not ever be fully satisfied with what's happening," he said. "But there is freedom of information and there is a large amount of freedom in the media, particularly in the print media and on the radio. As for television, I am more critical, I believe there is too much government input on the television channels."

John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us

"Shoot Straight You Bastards. Don't Make a Mess of it."

Will Today be a Zippity Doo Dah Day?

Britain FTSE 100 is up 8.22%

Germany DAX is up +4.03%

France CAC 40 is up +6.29%

Note: Desert Rat makes a guest performance at 2:40.

Our Rulers and Masters

President Theodore Roosevelt on Liberty

Short the Shorts Baby!

How sweet it is. I always loved short shorts and no one deserves an ass cracking more than the current crop of short sellers. Burn baby burn.

_______________________

Global crackdown on short selling intensifies
Reuters, via The Guardian

Thursday September
By Myles Neligan

WASHINGTON/LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The UK Financial Services Authority imposed a temporary ban on short-selling financial stocks on Thursday, saying the measure was needed to prevent further instability in the financial sector.

The move came as New York began a probe into illegal short- selling of Wall Street firms and as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission toughened its short sale rules, in a crackdown on traders who bet stocks will fall.

Under the FSA ban, investors will be barred from taking new short positions or adding to existing ones in financial shares from midnight (2300 GMT) on Thursday Sept 18.
The ban will remain in force until Jan. 16, 2009 and will be reviewed after an initial period of 30 days, the FSA said.

The move, the strictest major-market clampdown on short- selling to date, comes hours after British bank Lloyds TSB Group Plc agreed to buy rival HBOS Plc in a rescue takeover following a dramatic fall in the HBOS share price earlier this week.

The measure underscores growing concerns that short-selling -- in which an investor sells borrowed stock in the anticipation the price will fall, allowing the stock to be bought back more cheaply -- has exacerbated sharp declines in UK banking stocks since the onset of the credit crunch.

The trading technique has also been cited as a cause of the recent fall in U.S. financial sector stocks.

STABILITY THREAT

FSA Chairman Callum McCarthy said short-selling posed a potential threat to banks because it could trigger confidence- sapping declines in share prices, which might in turn prompt savers to withdraw their cash.

"There is a danger in a trading system which allows financial institutions to be targeted and subject to extreme short-selling pressures, because movements in equity prices can be translated into uncertainty in the minds of those who place deposits with those institutions," he said in a speech delivered late on Thursday.
"This is a measure which reflects the present turbulence in markets. It is designed to have a calming effect -- something which the equity markets for financial firms badly need."

The outright ban on short-selling follows a requirement, introduced by the FSA in June, for all investors taking significant short positions in companies launching rights issues to declare their holdings. That restriction was imposed after persistent share price falls threatened to derail fund- raising by HBOS and fellow lender Bradford & Bingley.

SEC ACTION

On Wednesday, amid intense political pressure to curb short selling in major banks, the SEC issued rules requiring short sellers and their broker-dealers to deliver securities by the close of the business on the settlement date, three days after the sale.

The SEC is also considering requiring hedge funds and large investors to disclose short positions. Managers with more than $100 million invested in securities would be required to publicly report their daily short positions.

It was unclear whether the SEC would issue the rule on an emergency basis. Short sellers and the U.S. hedge fund community were dismayed with the potential new rule.
Well known short seller Jim Chanos said it was akin to the government suddenly requiring Coca-Cola to disclose their secret formula for free to all their competitors.
Richard Baker, president of hedge fund group the Managed Funds Association, said his members were concerned the FSA and SEC actions could hurt markets and throw them into disarray.

Baker told reporters on a call that he had relayed his concerns to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Baker said there was a possibility the disclosure rule could be issued before the close of business on Thursday, or close of business for the week.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has blamed Cox for failing to police Wall Street and said if he were president he would fire him.

Other senior lawmakers have pressed the SEC to curb short selling of Wall Street firms.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling welcomed the FSA's ban.
"I believe it is the right thing to do in the current market conditions and in the interests of financial stability," he said in a statement.

In addition to the ban on new short-selling, investors with an existing short position of more than 0.25 percent of a financial company's share capital must disclose their holdings every day from Sept. 23, the FSA said.

The proportion of HBOS stock on loan, seen as a reliable indicator of short-selling volumes, peaked at about 2.75 percent on Monday, compared with about 5 percent for Barclays Plc and 2.7 percent for HSBC Holdings Plc, according to figures from research firm Data Explorers.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai in Washington and Emily Chasan in New York; editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andre Grenon)

Are Obama's Very Black, Very Left Mentors What America Needs?

Perhaps Letting Lehman Fail Was Not Such a Hot Idea

But then, that was then and this is now. Reaction and counter-reaction and now the Central Banks are returning fire with a cool $180bn. And all of this because politicians thought everyone should own a house and when the financial bearings started to squeak they decided to let the market correct itself.

Now let me see if I understand. We can manipulate and twist, control and legislate but when we hit turbulence we take our hands off the controls and switch off the auto pilot.

I get it.

________________

Central banks release more funds

The extra funds are aimed at easing banking sector woes
BBC
Global central banks are pumping $180bn (£99bn) of extra funds into money markets in a co-ordinated move to lift the amount of credit available.

The $180bn has been released by the US Federal Reserve to five other main central banks, who in turn are issuing the funds in their own countries.

The Bank of England is making $40bn available, while the European Central Bank is to provide $55bn.

Central banks in Switzerland, Canada and Japan are also taking part.

The Swiss National Bank is releasing up to $15bn extra, while the Bank of Japan is offering $60bn, and the Bank of Canada $10bn.

'Appropriate steps'

"These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets," said the Bank of England.

"The central banks continue to work together closely and will take appropriate steps to address the ongoing pressures."

"It does help to release some of those immediate tensions that have been building up in the money market"

Ian Stannard, currency strategist, BNP Paribas

The co-ordinated move comes after four days of almost unprecedented turmoil in the global financial industry.

Firstly, US giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, while compatriot Merrill Lynch lost its independence in a rescue takeover by Bank of America.

The US government has also had to bail-out insurance giant AIG, while in the UK, thousands of jobs are predicted to go at banking group HBOS following its sale to rival Lloyds TSB.

Major problem

Analysts said the latest move by the central banks should help to ease immediate fears.
"Obviously it does not tackle the underlying root causes of the problem, but it does help to release some of those immediate tensions that have been building up in the money market," said Ian Stannard, senior currency strategist at BNP Paribas.
Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research in Tokyo, said the co-ordinated move "shows how serious the problem has become".

"I think the root cause was letting Lehman fail," he said.
"That made investors reluctant to supply funds to their counterparts, particularly to the smaller banks."

The central banks of South Korea, India, and Australia have also released extra funds independently on Thursday.